verse and then falls asleep. The scholar of humanities Brian Rosebury quotes Frodo's recollection to the other hobbits of Bilbo's thoughts on 'The Road': "He used often to say there was only one Road; that it was like a great river: its springs were at every doorstep, and every path was its tributary. 'It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door,' he used to say. 'You step into the Road, and if you don't keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to.'" Rosebury comments that the "homespun symbolism" here is plain enough, that "the Road stands for life, or rather for its possibilities, indeed probabilities, of adventure, commitment, and danger; for the fear of losing oneself, and the hope of homecoming". He observes further that Middle-earth is distinctly "a world of roads", as seen in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, both of which "begin and end at the door of Bag-End". The Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey contrasts the versions of the "Old Walking Song" sung by Bilbo and Frodo. Bilbo follows the "Road ... with eager feet", hoping to reach the peace of Rivendell, to retire and take his ease; whereas Frodo sings "with weary feet", hoping somehow to reach Mordor bearing the Ring, and to try to destroy it in the Cracks of Doom: very different destinations and errands. Shippey points out that "if 'the lighted inn' on the road means death, then 'the Road' must mean life", and the poem and the novel could be speaking of the process of psychological individuation. A different walking song Similar changes in mood and words are seen in two versions of "A Walking Song", in the same metre and similarly at the start and end of The Lord of the Rings. The first version, in the chapter "Three is Company", is sung by the hobbits when they are walking through The Shire, just before they meet a company of elves. Three stanzas are given in the text, with the first stanza starting "Upon the hearth the fire is red...". The following extract is from the second stanza of the song. It is this part of the song that is reprised with different words later in the book. This new version is sung softly by Frodo as he and Sam walk in the Shire a few years after they have returned,