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Tolkien's saddest poems?
http://arwen-undomiel.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=8952		 Page 3 of 4
Author:  Eä [ March 3rd, 2007, 6:19 am ]
Post subject: 
She might be referring to the song Aragorn sings of Beren and Lúthien:

The leaves were long, the grass was green,
The hemlock-umbels tall and fair,
And in the glade a light was seen
Of stars in shadow shimmering.
Tinúviel was dancing there
To music of a pipe unseen,
And light of stars was in her hair,
And in her raiment glimmering.

There Beren came from mountains cold,
And lost he wandered under leaves,
And where the Elven-river rolled
He walked alone and sorrowing.
He peered between the hemlock-leaves
And saw in wonder flowers of gold
Upon her mantle and her sleeves,
And her hair like shadow following.

Enchantment healed his weary feet
That over hills were doomed to roam;
And forth he hastened, strong and fleet,
And grasped at moonbeams glistening.
Through woven woods in Elvenhome
She lightly fled on dancing feet,
And left him lonely still to roam
In the silent forest listening

He heard there oft the flying sound
Of feet as light as linden-leaves,
Or music welling underground,
In hidden hollows quavering.
Now withered lay the hemlock-sheaves,
And one by one with sighing sound
Whispering fell the beachen leaves
In the wintry woodland wavering.

He sought her ever, wandering far
Where leaves of years were thickly strewn,
By light of moon and ray of star
In frosty heavens shivering
Her mantle glinted in the moon,
As on a hill-top high and far
She danced, and at her feet was strewn
A mist of silver quivering.
When winter passed, she came again,
And her song released the sudden spring,
Like rising lark, and falling rain,
And melting water bubbling.
He saw the elven-flowers spring
About her feet, and healed again
He longed by her to dance and sing
Upon the grass untroubling.

Again she fled, but swift he came.
Tinúviel! Tinúviel!
He called her by her elvish name;
And there she halted listening.
One moment stood she, and a spell
His voice laid on her: Beren came,
And doom fell on Tinúviel
That in his arms lay glistening.

As Beren looked into her eyes
Within the shadows of her hair,
The trembling starlight of the skies
He saw there mirrored shimmering.
Tinúviel the elven-fair,
Immortal maiden elven-wise,
About him cast her shadowy hair
And arms like silver glimmering.

Long was the way that fate them bore,
O'er stony mountains cold and grey,
Through halls of ireon and darkling door,
And woods of nightshade morrowless.
The Sundering Seas between them lay,
And yet at last they met once more,
And long ago they passed away
In the forest singing sorrowless.
Author:  Aerandir [ March 3rd, 2007, 10:32 am ]
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I think the saddest one is the Lament for Boromir. That one always makes me moody. :)
Author:  Aredhel Ar-Feiniel [ March 11th, 2007, 11:12 pm ]
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Nauriel Rochnur wrote:
One of the saddest poems. Every time I read it I get shivers

Lament for the Rohirrim
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 spring 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?

Aye, same here Nauriel.... that one had a really big impact on me.
Author:  Aerandir [ March 12th, 2007, 2:34 am ]
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That one had an impact on me, like all of Tolkien's poems, but it didn't seem as impacting as the others. I never thought that it applied only to the Shadow--I've always thought that it also could be applied to time, which is a depressing thought, but not an uncommon one.
Author:  Ashwise [ March 13th, 2007, 8:58 pm ]
Post subject: 
The last poem in the Adventures of Tom Bombadil.
Author:  Aerandir [ March 14th, 2007, 2:22 am ]
Post subject: 
Would you post that here, please? I don't remember where my copy of it is, and I don't remember the last poem, either.
Author:  Sinbearer [ May 30th, 2007, 11:13 am ]
Post subject:  Sing?
I was just reading in RotK and had to stop because I couldn't read anymore through my tears. It was Sam who spoke to true hope beyond the despair in Middle Earth more than any other. And to think that in the darkness at what he perceived to be the very end, he would sing! Sing?

What sort of a man was Tolkien? I would very much like to have met him!

Journey's End

In western lands beneath the Sun
The flowers may rise in Spring,
The trees may bud, the waters run,
The merry finches sing.
Or there maybe 'tis cloudless night,
And swaying branches bear
The Elven-stars as jewels white
Amid their branching hair.

Though here at journey's end I lie
In darkness buried deep,
Beyond all towers strong and high,
Beyond all mountains steep,
Above all shadows rides the Sun
And Stars for ever dwell:
I will not say the Day is done,
Nor bid the Stars farewell.
Author:  Sinbearer [ May 30th, 2007, 3:23 pm ]
Post subject: 
I was looking at the poem you put up on page 2 Aerlinn. It reminds me of another of Sam's experiences:

"Frodo, Mr. Frodo!" he called. "Don't leave me here alone! It's your Sam calling. Don't go where I can't follow! Wake up, mr. Frodo! O wake up, Frodo, me dear, me dear. Wake up!"

Many of us have had loved ones go where we can't follow them, physically and emotionally. And you are so right. What a horribly sad and frustrating experience that is. To have loved ones or things in our lives that are so beautiful to us fade away....perhaps to be lost to us forever....it is hard to bear.
Author:  Velcayelde Elentiriel [ May 30th, 2007, 4:06 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Sing?
Sinbearer wrote:
Journey's End

In western lands beneath the Sun
The flowers may rise in Spring,
The trees may bud, the waters run,
The merry finches sing.
Or there maybe 'tis cloudless night,
And swaying branches bear
The Elven-stars as jewels white
Amid their branching hair.

Though here at journey's end I lie
In darkness buried deep,
Beyond all towers strong and high,
Beyond all mountains steep,
Above all shadows rides the Sun
And Stars for ever dwell:
I will not say the Day is done,
Nor bid the Stars farewell.

I love this one! It is indeed amazing that Sam could sing something so hopeful in Mordor, but then, he had found out that Frodo wasn't dead.
This really is a song, not just a poem – I always want to sing it when I read it. I have kind of a half-formed tune for it in my head, but I've never tried to write it out... :)
Author:  Sinbearer [ May 31st, 2007, 1:34 pm ]
Post subject: 
You should write it out Velcayelde Elentiriel. Things like that shouldn't stay in your head.
Author:  Miriel [ July 16th, 2007, 10:38 pm ]
Post subject: 
I adore all of the sad poems! I do not have a favorite. But I did memorize Sam's "In Western Lands". Though when I first read rotk I pretty much skimmed absent mindedly throught it, something about Sam really clicked in with my emotions and I just couldn't help feeling it when he was desperately trying to find Frodo, and then just all of a sudden singing! That's a hobbit for you...yet there is no hobbit like Sam. (smiles fondly)
Author:  Lolindir Alcarin [ July 19th, 2007, 11:31 am ]
Post subject: 
As Beren looked into her eyes
Within the shadows of her hair,
The trembling starlight of the skies
He saw there mirrored shimmering.
Tinúviel the elven-fair,
Immortal maiden elven-wise,
About him cast her shadowy hair
And arms like silver glimmering.

Long was the way that fate them bore,
O'er stony mountains cold and grey,
Through halls of ireon and darkling door,
And woods of nightshade morrowless.
The Sundering Seas between them lay,
And yet at last they met once more,
And long ago they passed away
In the forest singing sorrowless.
:(
Author:  Sinbearer [ October 22nd, 2007, 10:41 pm ]
Post subject:  Last parting....
As I read that peom Lolindir Alcarin I couldn't help but reremember the heartbreaking yet somehow encouraging words of JRR Tolkien that are among the last letters in the book that holds many of his letters:

"For if as seems probable I shall never write any ordered biography--it is against my nature, which expresses itself about things deepest felt in tales and myths--someone close in heart to me should know something about things that records do not record: the dreadful sufferings of our childhoods, from which we rescued one another, but could not wholly heal the wounds that later often proved disabling; the sufferings that we endured after our love began--all of which (over and above our personal weaknesses) might help to make pardonable, or understandable, the lapses and darknesses which at times marred our lives--and to explain how these never touched our depths nor dimmed our memories of our youthful love. For ever (especially when alone) we still met in the woodland glade, and went hand in hand many times to escape the shadow of imminent death before our last parting."

Tolkien paints in his stories and poems the sad struggle that happens to all of us as we walk through this world. He had tasted it many times through his life but when he wrote that poem you can see in it the thread of his hope that he and his beloved would someday sing sorrowless beyond their last parting and departure from the circles of the world .
Author:  Iritarimel Noramírë [ October 27th, 2007, 11:43 pm ]
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All of Tolkien's poems are so amazing! The Lay of Luthien is so pretty and sad. And the Journey's End one, I didn't remember it, but I really like it!!!!
Author:  Aerandir [ October 29th, 2007, 2:00 am ]
Post subject: 
Thanks, Sinbearer, for posting that quote of Tolkien's--I haven't read The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien yet, so it was new to me, and interesting. Thanks.

Your explanation or narrative or whatnot right after the quote is, as always, extremely interesting, true, and more eloquent than how I would have been able to say it. It was decidedly good.

Hmm...I had forgotten Sam's song from Cirith Ungol. That one, too, is very stirring. Tolkien wrote great poetry.
Author:  Onnedhiel [ January 12th, 2008, 9:59 pm ]
Post subject: 
I think the the Lament of the Rohirrim is one of the saddest poems in the book.
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