On a day when Fall’s first leaves were flying
And the wind was howling and geese were crying
And clouds were black and the sun was hiding,
Word first came, on dark wings riding.
……………..“Tolkien is dead,”
……………..Was all they said,
……………..And left us crying.
He heard by light of star and moon
The Elven songs and learned their tunes.
He had long walks with them, and talks,
Beneath the swaying trees in June.
Dwarf-mines deeply delved he saw
Where Mithril glittered on the walls
And mighty kings wrought wondrous things
And reigned in hollow, torch-lit halls.
To forests wild and deep he went
And many lives of men he spent
Where leaves of years fall soft like tears,
Listening to the speech of Ents.
In lofty halls of men he sat
Or rustic rooms of bar-man fat;
In hobbit holes, heard stories told
By an old man in a wizard’s hat.
With magic words of dark and light
And days of doom and coming night
And magic rings and hoped for spring,
He wrought the record of his sight . . .
In Beowulf’s bold fleet he sailed,
With Gawain the Green Knight beheld;
By Beortnoth’s side he stood and cried
And hordes of pagan Danes he felled,
“Will shall be sterner, heart the bolder,
Spirit the greater as our strength fails!’
On a day when Fall’s first leaves were flying
And the wind was howling and geese were crying
And clouds were black and the sun was hiding,
Word first came, on dark wings riding.
……………..“Tolkien is dead,”
……………..Was all they said,
……………..And left us crying.
Note: This poem is excerpted from Dr. Williams’s new book Stars through the Clouds: The Collected Poetry of
Donald T. Williams (Lantern Hollow Press, 2020) and is used here by permission.

Donald T. Williams is Professor Emeritus of Toccoa Falls College and a past president of the International Society of Christian Apologetics. A border dweller, he stays permanently camped out on the borders between serious scholarship and pastoral ministry, theology and literature, Narnia and Middle-Earth. He is the author of fourteen books, including
the forthcoming Answers from Aslan: The Winsome Apologetics of C. S. Lewis (Tampa: DeWard, 2023).
Citation Information
Donald T. Williams, “To J.R.R. Tolkien,” An Unexpected Journal 3, no. 1. (Spring 2020), 209-211.
Direct Link: https://anunexpectedjournal.com/to-j-r-r-tolkien/