The Grey Bridge of Tavrobel
1917 poem by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Grey Bridge of Tavrobel is "a six-stanza ballad" written by J.R.R. Tolkien echoing his "reunion with his wife after months of separation" and "his return to Great Haywood".
First stanza
Background
Between August and September of 1917, Tolkien wrote a short "emotionally charged" poem set on Tram Nybol, the bridge of Tavrobel.
Tolkien would later inscribe "Brooklands Red + [Cross] hosp[ital] Cottingham Road, Hull Sept[ember] or Aug[ust] 1917?" on the manuscript of the poem. Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull explain that this inscription suggests that Tolkien wrote the poem during the "six weeks" in which he was admitted to a hospital for officers on Cottingham Road.
Tolkien later revised the poem and made two identical typescripts in probably early 1927. The poem was published on page 82 in the Inter-University Magazine sometime between ?1925 and ?1927.
The Tolkien scholar John Garth considered the poem to be "sight yet haunting" and "a dialogue of love and longing" with the last stanza lamenting lost sunlit days.
In 2024, the poem was reprinted along with an earlier version in September as entry 56 in The Collected Poems of J.R.R. Tolkien.
Referencias
1. Esta ficha se ha importado inicialmente de TolkienGateway.net el día 30/05/2026.
