Tolkien’s use of songs are an integral part of his writings. I am not musically talented myself, nor am I a scholar of song structure, but I appreciate how he uses them for plot exposition and character development. The medium of song briefly gives us a window to glimpse the enormity of Middle Earth. They give us a sense of the vast history of the realm with all its associated culture and heritage, stretching back over millennia.

Norse and Anglo-Saxon Mythology were immensely important and influential on Tolkien. Thus many of his songs are in the idiom of Norse poetry. He often uses literary devices such as the pitch of repeating vowel sounds (assonance) as well as the resonance of repeating consonant sounds (both in alliteration and in consonance). Tolkien himself sanctioned composer Donald Swann (of Flanders and Swann fame) to set some of his work to music and it met with his approval. Yet there are no definitive musical versions. This leaves a great deal of scope for artists from all musical disciplines to interpret his work.