Shakespeare Reference in The Silmarillion

Even though Shakespeare references pop up in nearly every book I read, I am still sometimes surprised. Such was the case with J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Silmarillion. I was not expecting any references to Shakespeare to be included in this fantasy realm. But there is one reference, and it makes some sense that it is to A Midsummer Night’s Dream. J.R.R. Tolkien writes, “And those that sailed furthest set but a girdle about the Earth and returned weary at last to the place of their beginning” (p. 348). In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Puck tells Oberon, “I’ll put a girdle round about the Earth/In forty minutes.” The Silmarillion was published in 1977. The first Ballantine Books Edition was published in March 1979.