Songs for the Philologists is a collection of poems by E. V. Gordon and J. R. R. Tolkien as well as traditional songs. It is the rarest and most difficult to find Tolkien-related book.
The professors of language E.V. Gordon and J. R. R. Tolkien formed a Viking Club at Leeds University in the 1920s. It read and discussed Old Icelandic texts, and less seriously invented and sang songs on pub evenings. The Leeds philologist Alaric Hall stated in 2015 that the tradition still continued in the department.
A collection of typescripts was compiled by Gordon in 1921âÂÂ1926 for the students of the University of Leeds. In 1935 or 1936, this was given by A. H. Smith of University College London, a former student at Leeds, to a group of students to be printed privately. It was printed in 1936 with the impressum "Printed by G. Tillotson, A. H. Smith, B. Pattison and other members of the English Department, University College, London."
Since Smith had not asked permission of either Gordon or Tolkien, the printed booklets were not distributed. Most copies were destroyed in a fire started by a Second World War bomb, and only a few, perhaps around 14, survived. The book is accordingly "extremely rare", according to the University of Leeds, which has a copy.
In 2014, the estate of Gordon's eldest daughter Bridget Mackenzie sold a group of manuscripts written by Tolkien and owned by Gordon, some of which are manuscript version of texts printed in Songs for the Philologists.
Of the 30 songs in the collection, 13 were contributed by Tolkien:
1 "From One to Five", to the tune of "Three Wise Men of Gotham".
2 "Syx Mynet" (Old English: Six Pennies), to the tune of "".
3 "Ruddoc Hana" (Old English: Cock Robin), to the tune of "Who Killed Cock Robin".
4 "Ides ÃÂlfscýne" (Old English: Elf-fair Lady), to the tune of "Daddy Neptune" by Thomas John Dibdin.<br/>
5 "BagmàBlà Âma" (Gothic: Flower of the Trees), to the tune of "Lazy Sheep" (by Mantle Childe, after an old French air). The poem displays Tolkien's love of trees, and of language.<br />
6 "ÃÂadig Béo þu!" (Old English: Good Luck to You), to the tune of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star".<br />
7 "Ofer WÃÂdne Gársecg" (Old English: Across the Broad Ocean), to the tune of "The Mermaid".<br />
8 "La Húru", to the tune of "O'Reilly".
9 "I Sat upon a Bench", to the tune of "The Carrion Crow".
10 "Natura Apis: Morali Ricardi Eremite", also to the tune of "O'Reilly".
11 "The Root of the Boot", to the tune of "The Fox Went Out".<br />
12 "Frenchmen Froth", to the tune of "The Vicar of Bray".
13 "Lit' and Lang'", to the tune of "Polly Put the Kettle On". In the Department of English at the University of Oxford where Tolkien worked, teaching was divided into two streams. "Lit'" meant "English Literature", i.e. the study of works from Shakespeare to modern times, whereas "Lang'" meant "English Language", meaning the philological study of Old English texts such as Beowulf, and Middle English, such as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Tolkien and Gordon were philologists and firmly in the "Lang'" camp, but they could see that it was dying out.
The remaining 17 songs were:
1 Grace. To be sung to the tune of "The King of France".
2 . [Icelandic: To go with the Vikings]. This text is actually two unrelated stanzas of skaldic verse from Egils saga SkallagrÃÂmssonar, of which the first reads:
3 . [Icelandic] By Hannes Hafstein
4 Bring Us In Good Ale.
5 . [Icelandic] Translation of a Polish folk song by Stefán ÃÂlafsson
6 . [Icelandic: Song about rocks]
7 . [Icelandic: a man's name]. The folk song tells of a man who meets an Elvish maiden.
8 . [Latin: Let us rejoice]
9 Icelandic Song []. [Icelandic: It's so incomparable] To be sung to the tune of "O' Reilly". By Bjarni ÃÂorsteinsson
10 . [Icelandic: That Bell of Hell] To be sung to the tune of "The Bells of Hell". By E. V. Gordon
11 Gubben Noach. [Swedish: Old Man Noah], one of Fredman's Songs by Carl Michael Bellman, accompanied by Icelandic translation by EirÃÂkur Björnsson
12 . [Icelandic lullaby] By Sveinbjörn Egilsson
13 . [Icelandic] By Hannes Hafstein. To be sung to the tune of "" by Josef Haydn.
14 [Latin: Greetings!]
15 . [Old English, Scots, and Gothic: When I'm Dead]
16 . [Icelandic: Icelandic Song] By Jónas HallgrÃÂmsson
17 . [Icelandic] By ÃÂrni Pálsson, imitating Robert Burns