Different cultures across Middle-earth maintained their ancient traditions with Rhymes of Lore, collections of poetry that recorded tales of ancient days. Though the wording of these Rhymes of Lore could sometimes be obscure, they provided a vital window into history. Notably, the Wizard Gandalf considered various such Rhymes when he sought to understand the nature of the Orthanc-stone, and recalled a Rhyme that told of Elendil and his companions bringing seven Stones to Middle-earth after they escaped from the Downfall of Númenor. The Orthanc-stone was indeed one of these seven Seeing-stones.
The Rhymes of Lore known to the Wizards concerned high matters such as the coming of the Exiles of Númenor, but these were not the only such Rhymes to be found in the world. For example, when Gandalf suggested that the Hobbits had forgotten the Rhymes of Lore, Pippin Took corrected him, responding that they in fact had a store of such lore of their own. He provided no examples at the time, but perhaps Sam Gamgee's recollection of the story of the Oliphaunt - a creature entirely unknown in the Shire - provides a glimpse into the nature of the Rhymes of Lore preserved by the Shire-hobbits.1
Notes
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Sam's rhyme of the Oliphaunt is actually a reduced version of a poem written by Tolkien long beforehand. The same poem appears in the collection The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, along with various other works referring to strange and outlandish creatures of Hobbit legend (such as the Mewlips, or Fastitocalon). Indeed, we might take the entire collection of poems as representing a part of the Rhymes of Lore of the Hobbits.
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- Updated 4 October 2024
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