A Different Green by Quente  

To Uncle Bilbo, Some Verses Upon the Occasion of Your 131st Birthday,

By Frodo Baggins

I met you once in Rivendell,
You sang a song to me.
I held it close along the paths
We Hobbits should not see.

You sang of trees and Sun in Spring,
And how the world will change,
Of how your path must reach its end,
Though paths that end feel strange.

For even now I glance behind
Our ship’s great swan-tailed stern,
And seek a final glimpse of those
Who keep their watch in turn.

I sit beside you once again
As waters part before
Our ship that rides towards the sun
Beyond our western shore.

And here we are again, my friend,
The road before us still!
We sail the path of Laurelin,
By light of Eärendil.

Our weariness is fading now,
The closer our ship flies
Toward the land where hope fails not,
To light that never dies.

To my companion on this path,
Our thoughts were bent as one:
We bore the Ring unto the end,
Together, find the sun.

Together we will find our fate,
Adventures we unfold—
And eagerly we meet each dawn
That turns the sky to gold.

For still there are so many things
that we have never seen:
in every wood in every spring
there is a different green.

Chapter End Notes

This poem elaborates upon the theme of aromantic relationships, and as inspiration, drew from Bilbo’s “I sit beside the fire and think” for scansion and an extension of the theme—the last stanza, in italics, is from JRRT himself. Bilbo spoke this poem to Frodo in Rivendell before Frodo set out upon the Ring quest, and I gave myself the task of reframing these verses from Frodo’s point of view. Many thanks to bunn, as ever, for editing, and to Shadow for an excellent theoretical piece.

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