Two poems written by "Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit" author JRR Tolkien were discovered in a British school magazine published in 1936. Wayne Hammond searched for the literary works at the Our Lady's School in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, where Tolkien was once a professor, BBC reported.
Hammond, an American Tolkien scholar, learned of the poems from the author's notes and contacted the school's head teacher, Stephen Oliver, to retrieve them. Unable to locate the magazine, Oliver referred Hammond to the Sisters of Mercy, the school's founder.
"Then, while preparing for an event for former pupils of the school, we uncovered our own copy and I saw the two poems Mr. Hammond had been looking for," said Oliver, according to The Guardian. "My excitement when I saw them was overwhelming. I am a great Tolkien fan and was thrilled to discover the connection with the school."
The first poem, "The Shadow Man," is believed to be an earlier version of "The Adventures of Tom Bombadil," which Tolkien published in 1962. It is about "a man who dwelt alone/ beneath the moon in shadow." The other poem, "Noel," is about Christmas that talked of "the lord of snows."
Our Lady's School is planning to showcase the poems in public.
"We intend to make the poems the centerpiece of an exhibition on the rich history of our school, which also has fascinating links with Florence Nightingale," said Oliver, according to the Catholic Herald.
