Tinfang Warble (poem)

This article is about the poem. For the half-fay in the early legendarium, see Tinfang Warble.

Tinfang Warble is a poem written by J.R.R. Tolkien in 1914 and can be found in The Book of Lost Tales: Part One. The original version was written at Oxford in 1914 and it was rewritten at Leeds in 1920-23. In 1927 it was published in a further altered form which can be seen below.

Poem

O the hoot! O the hoot!
How he trillups on his flute!
O the hoot of Tinfang Warble!
Dancing all alone,
Hopping on a stone,
Flitting like a fawn,
In the twilight on the lawn,
And his name is Tinfang Warble!
The first star has shown
And its lamp is blown
to a flame of flickering blue.
He pipes not to me,
He pipes not to thee,
He whistles for none of you.
His music is his own,
The tunes of Tinfang Warble!

In the earliest version, Tinfang is called a 'leprawn', and in the Gnomish speech he is a 'fay'.

See also

• Poems by J.R.R. Tolkien
• Over Old Hills and Far Away