Long years have passed, and some things that should not have been forgotten were lost from my memory - like the content of The Wanderer. But today I pulled a book called The Word Exchange: Anglo-Saxon Poems in Translation off my shelves and read The Wanderer, translated by Greg Delanty. In the middle of the poem is the following bit of verse:
Where is the horse gone? The young bucks? The kind king?
Where is the banquet assembly gone? The merrymaking?
O the glittering glass. O the uniformed man.
O the general's glory. How that time has passed.
Night shrouds all as if nothing ever was.
Anyone who's seen Peter Jackson's The Two Towers will recognize the similarity of this poem to King Theoden's words before the battle of Helm's Deep:
Where is the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing?
They have passed like rain on the mountains, like wind in the meadow.
The days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow.
This film quote is in turn an abbreviation of a poem by Tolkien in the book (which is actually recited/translated by Aragorn, and not on the eve of battle):
Where now the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing?
Where is the helm and the hauberk, and the bright hair flowing?
Where is the hand on the harpstring, and the red fire glowing?
Where is the spring and the harvest and the tall corn growing?
They have passed like rain on the mountain, like a wind in the meadow;
The days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow.
Who shall gather the smoke of the dead wood burning,
Or behold the flowing years from the Sea returning?
I love this. I imagine Tolkien reading The Wanderer and being struck by that portion of the poem, and choosing to create his own poem in its image. Then the movies came and the creators were struck by Tolkein's poem, and decided to include it, also with some changes, in their screenplay.
I have done similarly: I've written poems inspired by songs and hymns, and when I read The Song of Hildebrand in my Old High German class, I immediately had a similar impulse. (Being in the midst of term paper-writing, however, I had neither the time nor the brain cells to act on it. Must get back to that...).
If you love Tolkien, you really ought to check out some medieval literature. You'll be amazed how often you'll recognize its influence in his writings.
It's delightful. :)