Talk:Bilbo's Last Song
From Tolkien Gateway
Just wondering what "the obvious difficulties over the last word" are. --Earendilyon 04:18, 14 April 2006 (EDT)
JRRT originally wrote the poem as "Bilbo's Last Lay", 'Lay' being an ancient term for "song". However, once first published in poster form by Allen & Unwin, the American publishers Houghton Mifflin chnaged it to "Bilbo's Last Song" due to the sexual connotations of "lay".
