| This article is about the poem. For the animal, see Mûmakil. |
Oliphaunt was a traditional piece of bestiary lore to the Shire-folk about the Mûmakil of Haradwaith.[1]
History[]
On March 5 in the year 3019 of the late Third Age, the Hobbit Samwise Gamgee recited a modified[2] version of the short comic poem to Gollum and Frodo Baggins while they rested in a dell before the Morannon.[3]
In other versions[]
Tolkien originally wrote and published the poem in The Stapeldon Magazine in June of 1927 under the name Iumbo, or ye Kinde of ye Oliphaunt, along with nine extra lines. The early version of the poem was apart of a series of four poems referred to as Adventures in Unnatural History and Medieval Metres, Being the Freaks of Fisiologus or Physiologus ("Naturalist") for short. This series also included an early version of Fastitocalon and two unpublished poems: Reginhardus, the Fox and Monoceros, the Unicorn.[4]
Excerpt of the added lines of the original Iumbo, or ye Kinde of ye Oliphaunt[]
- The Indic oliphaunt's a burly lump,
- A moving mountain, a majestic mammal
- (But those that fancy he wears a hump
- Confuse him incorrectly with the camel)
- His pendulous ears they flap about like flannel;
- He trails a supple enlongated nose
- That twixt his tusks of pearly-white enamel
- Preforms the functions of a rubber hose
- Or vacuum cleaner as his needs impose
(End of excerpt)
References[]
- ↑ The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and Other Verses from the Red Book, "Preface"
- ↑ The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and Other Verses from the Red Book, No. 10: "Oliphaunt"
- ↑ The Lord of the Rings, Vol. II: The Two Towers, Book Four, "The Black Gate is Closed"
- ↑ The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and Other Verses from the Red Book, Commentary: "Oliphaunt"