by Stanley Anderson » February 24th, 2009, 5:07 am
This isn't actually a new item for me. I ran across this in an old file. It was actually an effort that I did in an earlier version of these forums in a creative writing thread where each week three "random" words were proposed and then people would write (something like) 500 or less word stories that used all three words. In this example I decided to do "Fellowship of the Ring" as a series of sonnets. Unfortunately, I can't remember what the three words were that were supposed to be used. In any case, combining that book with the sonnet form seems like a bit of a "chimeric" exercise (if I push the definition some:-), so here is that effort from several years ago:
The Fellowship of the Ring as Three Sonnets
When Bilbo gave his riddle-woven ring
Away, the fate of Middle-Earth was left
In Frodo’s hand. Then Gandalf warned him: Bring
It safe to Rivendell where elves bereft
Of Valinor still dwell in green vale there.
Past Willow, Bombadil, and Barrow Wight
He fled with Merry, Pip, and Sam to share
A terror clad in black. But from its sight
Them Strider hid, till, fell on Weathertop,
A knife was drawn, and stealth abandoned. Now
Athelas e’en could not the fading stop.
But Glorfindel rode forth. To not allow
The wraiths to cross, a raging equine froth
Was conjured. Drowned they were by Grey of cloth.
In fair Imladris gathered now the race
Of Elf and Man and Dwarf and Halfling long
Foretold in Gondor. Boromir would trace
Isildur’s Bane, yet Elrond’s counsel wrong
He thought. Legolas, Gimli, Aragorn,
With Frodo, Pippin, Merry, Mithrandir
And Sam, he joined to find -- his silver horn
Announced -- Mount Doom within the Land of Fear.
Caradhras barred their passage over snow.
Instead the wizard led them down to moon-
Lit gate through darkened Dwarvish caverns so
Immense and deep, that Bridge of Khazad-Dum
Held no release from Morgoth’s beast of Hell.
The others fled, but there Olorin fell.
Past Mirrormere and over Nimrodel
They came at last to gold Lothlorien.
And at the fountain of Galadriel,
Her virtue by the ring was tested then.
A box of earth; of star Eärendil,
Its light enclosed -- the Lady gifts bestowed
Before the company departed. Still
A fellowship, the Anduin they rowed.
At Rauros Falls the bearer of the ring
Must make a hard decision. Gondor’s son,
Seduced by power, tried to take this thing
From Frodo suddenly, the break begun.
The halfling chose on top of Amon Hen
To leave alone. And Sam went with him then.
…on a night of rain Frodo smelled a sweet fragrance on the air and heard the sound of singing that came over the water. And then it seemed to him that as in his dream in the house of Bombadil, the grey rain-curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a fair green country under a swift sunrise.