Via Rod Dreher at The American Conservative, who posits that if the elves took the train to the Grey Havens, this is how they would have been sent off:
Icelandic group Arstidir performing medieval Icelandic hymn Heyr himna smidur at a German train station.
It is our express wish that oceans of just such public, impromptu harmonies — of every provenance — sweep over commuters everywhere. In my ideal city society, this kind of singing would be commonplace. Seriously, I have often daydreamed about being present for exactly this kind of experience; sadly, choral singing requires practice, and though I have racked my brain for a way to make practicing music a popular American pastime, I’m coming up dry so far.
It is also interesting to consider (as Dreher clearly has) how non-fictional Tolkein’s notion of “elvish” language and culture really is. This mythology is really just a reconstruction of the historical birthright that the Christian and pagan civilizations of the West have actually handed down to us. No matter how I think of this, I can’t seem to cast it in a way that seems somehow non-wonderful.
