The Adventures of Tom Bombadil

3 ERRANTRY



There was a merry passenger,



a messenger, a mariner:



he built a gilded gondola



to wander in, and had in her



a load of yellow oranges



and porridge for his provender;



he perfumed her with marjoram



and cardamom and lavender.



He called the winds of argosies



with cargoes in to carry him



across the rivers seventeen



that lay between to tarry him.



He landed all in loneliness



where stonily the pebbles on



the running river Derrilyn



goes merrily for ever on.



He journeyed then through meadow-lands



to Shadow-land that dreary lay,



and under hill and over hill



went roving still a weary way.



He sat and sang a melody,



his errantry a-tarrying;



he begged a pretty butterfly



that fluttered by to marry him.



She scorned him and she scoffed at him,



she laughed at him unpitying;



so long he studied wizardry



and sigaldry and smithying.



He wove a tissue airy-thin



to snare her in; to follow her



he made him beetle-leather wing



and feather wing of swallow-hair



He caught her in bewilderment



with filament of spider-thread;



he made her soft pavilions



of lilies, and a bridal bed



of flowers and of thistle-down



to nestle down and rest her in;



and silken webs of filmy white



and silver light he dressed her in.



He threaded gems in necklaces,



but recklessly she squandered them



and fell to bitter quarrelling;



then sorrowing he wandered on,



and there he left her withering,



as shivering he fled away;



with windy weather following



on swallow-wing he sped away.



He passed the archipelagoes



where yellow grows the marigold,



where countless silver fountains are,



and mountains are of fairy-gold.



He took to war and foraying,



a-harrying beyond the sea,



and roaming over Belmarie



and Thellamie and Fantasie.



He made a shield and morion



of coral and of ivory,



a sword he made of emerald,



and terrible his rivalry



with elven-knights of Aerie



and Faerie, with paladins



that golden-haired and shining-eyed



came riding by and challenged him.



Of crystal was his habergeon,



his scabbard of chalcedony;



with silver tipped at plenilune



his spear was hewn of ebony.



His javelins were of malachite



and stalactite - he brandished them,



and went and fought the dragon-flies



of Paradise, and vanquished them.



He battled with the Dumbledors,



the Hummerhorns, and Honeybees,



and won the Golden Honeycomb;



and running home on sunny seas



in ship of leaves and gossamer



with blossom for a canopy,



he sat and sang, and furbished up



and burnished up his panoply.



He tarried for a little while



in little isles that lonely lay,



and found there naught but blowing grass;



and so at last the only way



he took, and turned, and coming home



with honeycomb, to memory



his message came, and errand too!



In derring-do and glamoury



he had forgot them, journeying



and tourneying, a wanderer.



So now he must depart again



and start again bis gondola,



for ever still a messenger,



a passenger, a tarrier,



a-roving as a feather does,



a weather-driven mariner.