A Elbereth Gilthoniel is anElvishhymn toVarda (Sindarin:Elbereth) inJ. R. R. Tolkien'sThe Lord of the Rings. It is the longest piece ofSindarin inThe Lord of the Rings. It is not translated in the main text where it is first presented.
The poem, written iniambic tetrameters, has been likened to aRoman CatholicMarian hymn. Among the musical renderings of the poem, the earliest isDonald Swann's, published in hissong cycleThe Road Goes Ever On, whileThe Tolkien Ensemble recorded four different renditions.
There are three versions of thisiambic tetrameter hymn, the first of which is the largest portion ofSindarin inThe Lord of the Rings:[T 2][T 3][T 4][T 1]
| A Elbereth Gilthoniel | O Elbereth Starkindler, |
| silivren penna míriel | white-glittering, slanting falls, sparkling like jewels, |
| o menel aglar elenath! | from the firmament the glory of the starry host! |
| Na-chaered palan-díriel | Having gazed afar into remote distance |
| o galadhremmin ennorath, | from the tree-tangled Middle-lands, |
| Fanuilos, le linnathon | Everwhite, to thee I will chant |
| nef aear, sí nef aearon! | on this side of the ocean, here on this side of the Great Ocean! |
| A Elbereth Gilthoniel | O Elbereth Starkindler, |
| o menel palan-díriel, | from heaven gazing afar, |
| le nallon sí di'nguruthos! | to thee I cry here beneath the shadow of death! |
| A tiro nin, Fanuilos! | O look towards me, Everwhite! |
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InTolkien's legendarium,Varda (Sindarin:Elbereth) is one of the godlikeValar and the highest of the "guardians".Peter Kreeft sees her as one of the clearestreflections of Roman Catholic devotionto the Virgin Mary in Tolkien's work.[1]
InA Elbereth Gilthoniel, scholars such asMarjorie Burns andStratford Caldecott see an echo ofJohn Lingard'sMarian hymn,Hail Queen of Heaven, the Ocean Star.[2] Caldecott commented that "Tolkien would have been familiar with one of the most popular Catholic hymns from his childhood, the tone and mood of which are markedly close to those of Tolkien's song to Elbereth."[3]
The hymn is not translated inThe Lord of the Rings, though it is described: "the sweet syllables of the elvish song fell like clear jewels of blended word and melody. 'It is a song toElbereth', said Bilbo", and at the very end of the chapter there is a hint as to its meaning: "Good night! I'll take a walk, I think, and look at the stars of Elbereth in the garden. Sleep well!"[T 3] A translation appeared much later, in the song-cycleThe Road Goes Ever On, and it indeed concerns Elbereth and the stars.[T 1] Readers, then, were not expected to know the song's literal meaning, but they were meant to make something of it: as the Tolkien scholarTom Shippey says, it is clearly something from an unfamiliar language, and it announces that "there is more toMiddle-earth than can immediately be communicated".[4] In addition, Tolkien believed, contrary to most of his contemporaries, that thesounds of language gave a specific pleasure that the listener could perceive as beauty; he personally found the sounds ofGothic andFinnish, and to some extent also ofWelsh, immediately beautiful. In short, as Shippey writes, Tolkien "believed thatuntranslated elvish would do a job that English could not".[4] Shippey suggests that readers do take something important from a song in another language, namely the feeling or style that it conveys, even if "it escapes a cerebral focus".[4]
The philologistHelge Fauskanger provides a word-by-word analysis of the hymn. He includes a comparison withSam Gamgee's exclamation "in a language which he did not know",A Elbereth Gilthoniel o menel palan-diriel, le nallon / sí di-nguruthos! A tiro nin, Fanuilos! He notes that Tolkien translates and briefly comments on it in a letter.[T 5][5]
In 1967,Donald Swann published a musical rendition in the score of hissong cycleThe Road Goes Ever On, where it forms the second part of the setting of "I Sit beside the Fire". He and William Elvin recorded it on an LP record, which included a recording of Tolkien reading the prayer.The Road Goes Ever On was republished in 1978, 1993, and 2002,[T 1] and the recording was released as a CD in 1993, but it omitted Tolkien's reading.[6]
TheBBC's1981 radio dramatisation ofthe Lord of the Rings included a version composed byStephen Oliver which was released as the second track of soundtrack album, which itself is included in some commercial versions of the BBC's production.[7]
In 2006,The Tolkien Ensemble andChristopher Lee released a collection of previously released songs,The Lord of the Rings: Complete Songs and Poems. This included four different musical renditions of the poem. One of these, marked as number III (on their albumAt Dawn in Rivendell), is the complete poem; it is sung bySigne Asmussen, amezzo-soprano.[8]
A rendition composed byDavid Long with Plan 9[9][10] is briefly heard in the Extended Edition ofThe Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, where Sam and Frodo encounter "wood elves" who are singing the hymn while leavingMiddle-earth. The complete song ("Passing of the Elves" / "Elvish Lament") is included inThe Complete Recordings edition of the soundtrack for the film.
The Australian composerLaura Bishop composed her own rendition of the hymn. Beginning with a solo by a soprano it then repeats with anSATB choir.[11]The Norwegian classical composerMartin Romberg has set the lyrics to music in his workEldarinwë Liri for girls' choir, which also includes the four other poems Tolkien wrote in Elven languages. The work premiered in 2010 with the Norwegian Girls Choir andTrio Mediæval at the Vestfold International Festival.[12]
Published London : BBC Records, 1981.
