Firiel's Realm

The Elvish Appetite for Music

Another link with a strange title. This one is devoted to the songs and poetry from the Lord of the Rings books, and maybe later I'll add some of the lyrics to a few of the Fellowship of the Ring Movie songs. For starters, here's the beginning of the Lay of Nimrodel, the only one I know by heart yet.

An elven maid there was of old
A shining star by day
Her mantle white was hemmed with gold
Her shoes of silver grey (NOT GRAY!)

A star was bound upon her brows
A light was on her hair
As sun upon the golden boughs
In Lorien the fair

Her hair was long, her limbs were white
And fair she was and free
And in the wind she went as light
As leaf of linden tree

Beside the falls of Nimrodel
By water clear and cool
Her voice as falling silver fell
Into the shining pool

Where now she wanders none can tell
In sunlight or in shade
For lost of yore was Nimrodel
And in the mountains strayed

The elven ship in haven grey
Beneath the mountain-lee
Awaited her for many a day
Beside the roaring sea

A wind by night in Northern lands
Arose and loud it cried
And drove the ship from elven strands
Across the streaming tide

When dawn came dim the land was lost
The mountains sinking grey
Beneath the heaving waves that tossed
Their plumes of blinding spray

Amroth beheld the fading shore
Now low beyond the swell
And cursed the faithless ship that bore
Him far from Nimrodel

Amroth was an elven-king
A lord of tree and glen
When golden were the boughs in spring
In fair Lothlorien

From helm to sea they saw him leap
As arrow from the string
And dive into the water deep
As mew upon the wing

But from the West has come no word
And on the hither shore
No tidings elven folk have heard
Of Amroth ever more

Earendil

Earendil was a mariner
Who tarried in Arvernien
He built a boat of timber felled
In Nimbrethil to journey in
Her sails he wove of silver fair
Of silver were her lanterns made
Her prow was fashioned like a swan
And light upon her banners laid

In panolpy of ancient kings
In chained rings he armoured him
His shining shield was scored with runes
To ward all wounds and harm from him
His bow was made of dragon-horn
His arrows shorn of ebony
Of silver was his habergeon
His scabbard of chalcedony
His sword of steel was valiant
Of adamant his helmet tall
An eagle plume was on his crest
Upon his breast an emerald

Beneath the Moon and under star
He wandered far from northern strands
Bewildered on enchanted ways
Beyond the days of mortal lands
From gnashing of the Narrow Ice
Where shadow lies on frozen hills
From nether heats and burning waste
He turned in haste, and roving still
On starless waters far astray
At last he came to Night of Naught
And passed, and never sight he saw
Of shining shore nor light he sought
The winds of wrath came driving him
And blindly in the foam he fled
From west to east and errandless
Unheralded he homeward sped

There flying Elwing came to him
And flame was in the darknness lit
More bright than light of diamond
The fire upon her carcanet
The Silmaril she bound on him
And crowned him with the living light
And dauntless then with burning brow
He turned his prow; and in the night
From Otherworld beyond the Sea
There strong and free a storm arose
A wind of power in Tarmenel
By paths that seldom mortal goes
His boat it bore with biting breath
As might of death across the grey
And long-forsaken seas distressed
From east to west he passed away

Through Evernight he back was borne
On black and roaring waves that ran
O'er leagues unlit and foundered shores
That drowned before the Days began
Until he heard on strands of pearl
Where ends the world the music long
Where ever-foaming billows roll
The yellow gold and jewels wan

He saw the Mountain silent rise
Where twilight lies upon the knees
Of Valinor, and Eldamar
Beheld afar beyond the seas
A wanderer escaped from night
To haven white he came at last
To Elvenhome the green and fair
Where keen the air, where pale as glass
Beneath the Hill of Ilmarin
A-glimmer in a valley sheer
The lamplit towers of Tirion
Are mirrored in the Shadowmere

He tarried there from errantry
And melodies they taught to him
And sages old him marvels told
And harps of gold they brought to him
They clothed him then in elven-white
And seven lights before him sent
As through the Calacirian
To hidden land he forlorn went
He came unto the timeless halls
Where shining fall the countless years
And endless reigns the Elder King
In Ilmarin on Mountain sheer
And words unheard were spoken then
Of folk of Men and Elven-kin
Beyond the world were visions showed
Forbid to those that dwell therein

A ship then new they built for him
Of mithril and of elven-glass
With shining prow; no shaven oar
Nor sail she bore on silver mast
The Silmaril as lantern light
And banner bright with living flame
To gleam thereon by Elbereth
Herself was set, who thither came
Amd wings immortal made for him
And laid on him undying doom
To sail the shoreless skies and come
Behind the Sun and light of Moon

From Evereven's lofty hills
Where softly silver fountains fall
His wings him bore, a wandering light
Beyond the mighty Mountain Wall
From World's End then he turned away
And yearned again to find afar
HIs home through shadows journeying
And burning as an island star
On high above the mists he came
A distant flame before the Sun
A wonder ere the waking dawn
Where grey the Norland waters run

And over Middle-earth he passed
And heard at last the weeping sore
Of women and of elven-maids
In Elder Days, in years of yore
But on him mighty doom was laid
Till Moon should fade, an orbed star
To pass, and never tarry more
On Hither Shores where mortals are
For ever still a herald on
An errand that should never rest
To bear his shining lamp afar
The Flammifer of Westernesse.

A Elbereth Gilthoniel, this poem makes me want to cry! It reminds me of how much I love the ocean and visiting Cape Cod over the summers... I would be delighted to "sail the shoreless skies." And that line about how Earendil was "errandless" is so sad. This may not be the way Tolkien meant it to come off, but it sounds so bleak, like the sailor was just sailing the seas with no place to go. And then the last lines are about his "errand that should never rest!" I'm so glad I posted this. I would never have had the patience to read the whole thing otherwise, and then I would have "missed a lot, seemingly." (-Samwise Gamgee, The Return of the King)

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