and echoes of them reverberate throughout Tolkien's corpus. Just a few
points:
"Under night-shadow when news is brought"
Cf Faramir's proverb: "Night oft brings news to near kindred."
Then, in his aborted time-travel novel ("The Lost Road" & "The Notion Club
Papers") Tolkien decided that the best medium for such travel was not a
Wellsian time-machine, but rather the dream. Alboin in The Lost Road has
dreams (in languages he only gradually learns to interpret) of an unknown
civilisation (it's Númenor) just before its downfall; in the Notion Club Papers
Arundell Lowdham learns Adunaic in his dreams -- and a story is transmitted to
him of the downfall of Númenor. Alboin and Lowdham (and others) travel
through time and space to Númenor *in their dreams*.
Now, in light of this, note how the lines go on to suggest this plot device:
"...when news is brought
From lands forgotten and lost ages
Over seas of years..."
Finally, we have Tolkien's own dream of a great wave -- a
dream which he in the end gave to Faramir.
Also, the half-line "the long roads are lost" echoes the
title which Tolkien gave to his first attempt at a time-travel story, "The Lost
Road."
__________________________________
All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.
