Appendix F: The Mewlips

Poem 9 in The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, J.R.R. Tolkien, is alluded to throughout A Long and Weary Way. Some of the references are very plain, as in the name of the tale itself and the titles of a number of its chapters. Others are more subtle: the ceilings drip in the cavern beneath the Ephel Dúath, and the gorcrows croak their terrible song in Aragorn’s nightmare in Imladris. What are some of the “Mewlips” references that you noticed?   

I owe a great deal to the Professor for this poem, both for my inspiration and for the delicious chill I felt when first I read it. I feel it fitting to include it here, in gratitude.

The Mewlips

by J.R.R. Tolkien

The shadows where the Mewlips dwell
Are dark and wet as ink,
And slow and softly rings their bell,
As in the slime you sink.

You sink into the slime, who dare
To knock upon their door,
While down the grinning gargoyles stare
And noisome waters pour.

Beside the rotting river-strand
The drooping willows weep,
And gloomily the gorcrows stand
Croaking in their sleep.

Over the Merlock Mountains a long and weary way,
In a mouldy valley where the trees are grey,
By a dark pool's borders without wind or tide,
Moonless and sunless, the Mewlips hide.

The cellars where the Mewlips sit
Are deep and dank and cold
With single sickly candle lit;
And there they count their gold.

Their walls are wet, their ceilings drip;
Their feet upon the floor
Go softly with a squish-flap-flip,
As they sidle to the door.

They peep out slyly; through a crack
Their feeling fingers creep,
And when they've finished, in a sack
Your bones they take to keep.

Beyond the Merlock Mountains, a long and lonely road,
Through the spider-shadows and the marsh of Tode,
And through the wood of hanging trees and gallows-weed,
You go to find the Mewlips - and the Mewlips feed.