Poems by Tolkien

[EruantSerondrych]

Roads Go Ever Ever On

The Hobbit, "The Last Stage". Recited by Bilbo on his arrival back in the Shire.

Roads go ever ever on,
Over rock and under tree,
By caves where never sun has shone,
By streams that never find the sea;
Over snow by winter sown,
And through the merry flowers of June,
Over grass and over stone,
And under mountains in the moon.

Roads go ever ever on
Under cloud and under star,
Yet feet that wandering have gone
Turn at last to home afar.
Eyes that fire and sword have seen
And horror in the halls of stone
Look at last on meadows green
And trees and hills they long have known.

[EruantSerondrych]

[glow=green,2,300]The Ent and the Ent-wife [/glow]

The Two Towers, "Treebeard". Sung by Treebeard to Merry and Pippin about the Ents and Entwives.

ENT: When Spring unfolds the beechen leaf, and sap is in the bough;
When light is on the wild-wood stream, and wind is on the brow;
When stride is long, and breath is deep, and keen the mountain-air,
Come back to me! Come back to me, and say my land is fair!

ENTWIFE: When Spring is come to garth and field, and corn is in the blade;
When blossom like a shining snow is on the orchard laid;
When shower and Sun upon the Earth with fragrance fill the air,
I’ll linger here, and will not come, because my land is fair.

ENT: When Summer lies upon the world, and in a noon of gold
Beneath the roof of sleeping leaves the dreams of trees unfold:
When woodland halls are green and cool, and wind is in the West,
Come back to me! Come back to me, and say my land is best!

ENTWIFE: When Summer warms the hanging fruits and burns the berry brown;
When straw is gold, and ear is white, and harvest comes to town:
When honey spills, and apple swells, though wind be in the West,
I'll linger here beneath the Sun, because my land is best!

ENT: When Winter comes, the winter wild that hill and wood shall slay
When trees shall fall and starless night devour the sunless day;
When wind is in the deadly East, then in the bitter rain
I’ll look for thee, and call to thee; I'll come to thee again!

ENTWIFE: When Winter comes, and singing ends; when darkness falls at last;
When broken is the barren bough, and light and labour past;
I’ll look for thee, and wait for thee, until we meet again;
Together we will take the road beneath the bitter rain!

BOTH: Together we will take the road that leads into the West,
And far away will find a land where both our hearts may rest.

( This is one of my personal Favourites!)

[EruantSerondrych]

The Long List of the Ents

The Two Towers, "Treebeard". It is an old list of a living things that ents learned when they were young. Treebeard recited this when he met Merry and Pippin, trying to figure out where hobbits were in the list. When he bid goodbye to them at the fall of Isengard, he had added them in.

Learn now the lore of Living Creatures!
First name the four, the free peoples:
Elders of all, the elf-children;
Dwarf the delver, dark are his houses;
Ents the earthborn, old as mountains;
Man the mortal, master of horses:

Beaver the builder, buck the leaper,
Bear bee-hunter, boar the fighter;
Hound is hungry, hare is fearful…

Eagle in eyrie, ox in pasture,
Hart horn-crowned; hawk is swiftest,
Swan the whitest, serpent coldest…

Ents the earthborn, old as mountains,
The wide-walkers, water drinking;
And hungry as hunters, the Hobbit children,
The laughing-folk, the little people.

[EruantSerondrych]

Bilbo's Song

Sung by Bilbo in Rivendell, The Fellowship of the Ring.

I sit beside the fire and think
of all that I have seen,
of meadow-flowers and butterflies
in summers that have been;

Of yellow leaves and gossamer
in autumns that there were,
with morning mist and silver sun
and wind upon my hair.

I sit beside the fire and think
of how the world will be
when winter comes without a spring
that I shall ever see.

For still there are so many things
that I have never seen:
in every wood and every spring
there is a different green.

I sit beside the fire and think
of people long ago,
and people who will see a world
that I shall never know.

But all the while I sit and think
of times there were before,
I listen for returning feet
and voices at the door.

[EruantSerondrych]

Legolas' Song of the Sea

Return of the King, "The Field of Cormallen". Legolas sang it to Gimli, Gandalf and the Hobbits one night in Ithilien.

To the Sea, to the Sea! The white gulls are crying,
The wind is blowing, and the white foam is flying.
West, west away, the round sun is falling.
Grey ship, grey ship, do you hear them calling,
The voices of my people that have gone before me?
I will leave, I will leave the woods that bore me;
For our days are ending and our years failing.
I will pass the wide waters lonely sailing.
Long are the waves on the Last Shore falling.
Sweet are the voices in the Lost Isle calling,
In Eressëa, in Elvenhome that no man can discover,
Where the leaves fall not: land of my people for ever!

( THis is another Favourite of mine. The words are reminiscent of ' Into the West' aren't they?)

[EruantSerondrych]

Ho! Tom Bombadil, Tom Bombadillo!

The Fellowship of the Ring, "In The House of Tom Bombadil". Tom taught the Hobbits a rhyme to sing if they should by ill-luck fall into any danger or difficulty the next day.

Ho! Tom Bombadil, Tom Bombadillo!
By water, wood and hill, by reed and willow,
By fire, sun and moon, harken now and hear us!
Come, Tom Bombadil, for our need is near us!

[EruantSerondrych]

Song of Gondor

The Two Towers, "The Riders of Rohan". Sung by Aragorn when he saw the green plains of Rohan and the far off White Mountains, as he, Legolas, and Gimli pursued the Orcs that had captured the hobbits.

Gondor! Gondor, beween the Mountains and the Sea!
West Wind blew there; the light upon the Silver Tree
Fell like bright rain in gardens of the Kings of old.
O proud walls! White towers! O wingéd crown and throne of gold!
O Gondor, Gondor! Shall Men behold the Silver Tree,
Or West Wind blow again between the Mountains and the Sea?

[EruantSerondrych]

The Hoard

From 'The Adventures of Tom Bombadil'

When the moon was new and the sun young
of silver and gold the gods sung:
in the green grass they silver spilled,
and the white waters they with gold filled.
Ere the pit was dug or Hell yawned,
ere dwarf was bred of dragon spawned,
there were Elves of old, and strong spells
under green hills in hollow dells
they sang as they wrought many fair things,
and the bright crowns of the Elf-kings.
But their doom fell, and their song waned,
by iron hewn and by steel chained.
Greed that sang not, nor with mouth smiled,
in dark holes their wealth piled,
graven silver and carven gold:
over Elvenhome the shadow rolled.

There was an old dwarf in a dark cave,
to silver and gold his fingers clave;
with hammer and tongs and anvil-stone
he worked his hands to the hard bone,
and coins he made, and strings of rings,
and thought to buy the power of kings.
But his eyes grew dim and his ears dull
and the skin yellow on his old skull;
through his bony claw with a pale sheen
the stony jewels slipped unseen.
No feet he heard, though the earth quaked,
when the young dragon his thirst slaked,
and the stream smoked at his dark door,
The flames hissed on the dank floor,
And he died alone in the red fire;
his bones were ashes in the hot mire.

There was an old dragon under grey stone;
his red eyes blinked as he lay alone.
His joy was dead and his youth spent,
he was knobbed and wrinkled, and his limbs bent
in the long years to his gold chained;
in his heart’s furnace the fire waned.
To his belly’s slime gems stuck thick,
silver and gold he would snuff and lick:
he knew the place of the least ring
beneath the shadow of his black wing.
Of thieves he thought on his hard bed,
and dreamed that on their flesh he fed,
their bones crushed, and their blood drank:
his ears drooped and his breath sank.
Mail-rings rang. He heard them not.
A voice echoed in his deep grot:
a young warrior with a bright sword
called him forth to defend his hoard.
His teeth were knives, and of horn his hide,
but iron tore him, and his flame died.

There was an old king on a high throne:
his white beard lay on knees of bone;
his mouth savoured neither meat nor drink,
nor his ears song; he could only think
of his huge chest with carven lid
where pale gems and gold lay hid
in secret treasury in the dark ground;
its strong doors were iron-bound.

The swords of his thanes were dull with rust,
his glory fallen, his rule unjust,
his halls hollow, and his bowers cold,
but king he was of elvish gold.
He heard not the horns in the mountain-pass,
he smelt not the blood on the trodden grass,
but his halls were burned, his kingdom lost;
in a cold pit his bones were tossed.

There is an old hoard in a dark rock,
forgotten behind doors none can unlock;
that grim gate no man can pass.
On the mound grows the green grass;
there sheep feed and the larks soar,
and the wind blows from the sea-shore.
The old hoard the Night shall keep,
while earth waits and the Elves sleep.

( I like this aswell! It tells a tale of an Elvish treasure, that cursed all those who possesed it.)

[EruantSerondrych]

Wight's Chant

The Fellowship of the Ring, "Fog on the Barrow--Downs". An incantation sung by a Barrow-wight when the hobbits were trapped in the downs.

Cold be hand and heart and bone,
and cold be sleep under stone:
never more to wake on stony bed,
never, till the Sun fails and the Moon is dead.
in the black wind the stars shall die,
and still on gold here let them lie,
till the dark lord lifts his hand
over dead sea and withered land.

( Chanted by Gollum in The Two Towers movie, as he and The hobbits Frodo and Sam are resting in the dead Marshes.)

[EruantSerondrych]

Lament of the Rohirrim (Eorl's Hymn)

As recited by Aragorn in The Two Towers

Where now the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing?
Where is the helm and the hauberk, and the bright hair flowing?
Where is the hand on the harpstring, and the red fire glowing?
Where is the sping and the harvest and the tall corn growing?
They have passed like rain on the mountain, like a wind in the meadow;
The days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow.
Who shall gather the smoke of the dead wood burning,
Or behold the flowing years from the Sea returning?


( Partly sung by Theoden in The Two Towers movie, as he prepares for battle at Helms Deep.)

[EruantSerondrych]

The Riddle of Strider

From The Fellowship of the Ring, it is in a letter from Gandalf to Frodo at the Prancing Pony. Also, Bilbo (who wrote it) recites it at the Council of Elrond.

All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.

(This is also in the "The Return of the King" movie, quoted by Arwen, when she is trying to get her father to reforge the Sword of the Kings. )

[EruantSerondrych]

[glow=red,2,300]Verse of the Rings [/glow]

Three Rings for the Elven-Kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the land of Mordor where shadows lie.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
On Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the Land of Mordor where Shadows lie.

Verse of the Rings (Black Speech version)

Ash nazg durbatuluk,
Ash nazg gimbatul,
Ash nazg thrakatuluk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul.

One Ring to rule them all,
One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.