"The Road Goes Ever On" is a title that encompasses several walking songs thatJ. R. R. Tolkien wrote for hisMiddle-earthlegendarium. Within the stories, the original song was composed byBilbo Baggins and recorded inThe Hobbit. Different versions of it also appear inThe Lord of the Rings, along with some similar walking songs.
Scholars have noted that Tolkien's road is a plain enough symbol for life and its possibilities, and that Middle-earth is a world of such roads, as bothThe Hobbit andThe Lord of the Rings begin and end at the door ofBag End, Bilbo's home. They have observed, too, that if "the lighted inn" on the road means death, then the road is life, and both the song and the novels can be read as speaking of the process of psychologicalindividuation. The walking song gives its name toDonald Swann's 1967 song-cycleThe Road Goes Ever On, where it is the first in the list. All the versions of the song have been set to music bythe Tolkien Ensemble.
The original version of the song is recited byBilbo in chapter 19 ofThe Hobbit, at the end of his journey back tothe Shire. Coming to the top of a rise he sees his home in the distance, and stops and says the following:[T 1]
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.
There are three versions of "The Road Goes Ever On" inThe Lord of the Rings. The first is inThe Fellowship of the Ring, Book 1, Chapter 1. The song is sung byBilbo when he leavesthe Shire. He has given up theOne Ring, leaving it forFrodo to deal with, and is setting off to visitRivendell, so that he may finish writinghis book.[T 2]
The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.
The second version appears in Book 1, Chapter 3. It is identical to the first, except for changing the word "eager" to "weary" in the fifth line. It is spoken aloud, slowly, byFrodo, as he and his companions arrive at a familiar road – the Stock Road – on their journey to leave the Shire.[T 3]
The third version appears inThe Return of the King, Book 6, Chapter 6. It is spoken by Bilbo inRivendell after the hobbits have returned from their journey. Bilbo is now an old, sleepy hobbit, who murmurs the verse and then falls asleep.[T 4]
The Road goes ever on and on
Out from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
Let others follow it who can!
Let them a journey new begin,
But I at last with weary feet
Will turn towards the lighted inn,
My evening-rest and sleep to meet.
The scholar of humanitiesBrian Rosebury quotes Frodo's recollection to the other hobbits of Bilbo's thoughts on 'The Road': "He used often to say there was only one Road; that it was like a great river: its springs were at every doorstep, and every path was its tributary. 'It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door,' he used to say. 'You step into the Road, and if you don't keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to.'" Rosebury comments that the "homespun symbolism" here is plain enough, that "the Road stands for life, or rather for its possibilities, indeed probabilities, of adventure, commitment, and danger; for the fear of losing oneself, and the hope of homecoming".[2] He observes further that Middle-earth is distinctly "a world of roads", as seen inThe Hobbit andThe Lord of the Rings, both of which "begin and end at the door ofBag-End".[2]
The Tolkien scholarTom Shippey contrasts the versions of the "Old Walking Song" sung by Bilbo and Frodo. Bilbo follows the "Road ... with eager feet", hoping to reach the peace of Rivendell, to retire and take his ease; whereas Frodo sings "with weary feet", hoping somehow to reach Mordor bearing the Ring, and to try to destroy it in theCracks of Doom: very different destinations and errands. Shippey points out that "if 'the lighted inn' on the road means death, then 'the Road' must mean life", and the poem and the novel could be speaking of the process of psychologicalindividuation.[3]
Similar changes in mood and words are seen in two versions of "A Walking Song", in the samemetre and similarly at the start and end ofThe Lord of the Rings.
The first version, in the chapter "Three is Company", is sung by the hobbits when they are walking through The Shire, just before they meet a company of elves. Three stanzas are given in the text, with the first stanza starting "Upon the hearth the fire is red...". The following extract is from the second stanza of the song.[T 3]
Still round the corner there may wait
A new road or a secret gate,
And though we pass them by today,
Tomorrow we may come this way
And take the hidden paths that run
Towards the Moon or to the Sun.
It is this part of the song that is reprised with different words later in the book. This new version is sung softly by Frodo as he and Sam walk in the Shire a few years after they have returned, and as Frodo prepares to meetElrond and others and journey to the Grey Havens to take ship into the West.
Still round the corner there may wait
A new road or a secret gate,
And though I oft have passed them by,
A day will come at last when I
Shall take the hidden paths that run
West of the Moon, East of the Sun.
The final line of the verse is a variant on the phrase "East of the Sun and West of the Moon", which is used in fairy-stories like the Norwegiantale of that name for another world that is fantastically difficult to reach – in this caseAman, which can only be reached by theStraight Road, accessible only to elves since the world was remade.[1]
.jpg)
The title song and several others were set to music byDonald Swann as part of the book and recordingThe Road Goes Ever On, named for this song.[T 5] The entire song cycle has been set to music in 1984 by the composerJohan de Meij; another setting of the cycle is by the American composerCraig Russell, in 1995.[4] All the songs have been set to music byThe Tolkien Ensemble across their four Tolkien albums, starting withAn Evening in Rivendell, as part of the now completed project of setting all poems inThe Lord of the Rings to music.[5] TheUC Berkeley Alumni Chorus commissioned the American composerGwyneth Walker to set the poem to music in 2006, which she did in several musically unrelated ways.[6]
A musical version of some sections of this song byGlenn Yarbrough can be heard inRankin/Bass's 1977animated film version ofThe Hobbit. A full song,Roads, was written for the film; it can be heard on thesoundtrack and story LP. The same melody was used in Rankin/Bass's 1980animated version ofThe Return of the King.[7] The song can be heard in the1981 BBC radio version, sung by Bilbo (John Le Mesurier) to a tune byStephen Oliver.[8]
A musical version of some sections of the song can be heard in the 2001 filmThe Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, composed byHoward Shore. It is sung byGandalf (Ian McKellen) in the opening scene, and also by Bilbo (Ian Holm) as he leavesBag End. Gandalf's singing can be heard on the track "Bag End" onComplete Recordings of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and Bilbo's on "Keep It Secret, Keep It Safe".[9]
A section of the song can also be heard in "Use Well the Days", a song composed byAnnie Lennox and Howard Shore for the end credits of the 2003 filmThe Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, though ultimately replaced by"Into the West", also composed by Lennox and Shore.[10]
Large parts of the song were included inBilly Boyd's "The Last Goodbye" onthe soundtrack and in the credits ofThe Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.[11][12]
An unrelated song, composed by Shore, called "The Road Goes Ever On..." ("Pt. 1"[13] and "Pt. 2"[14]) is both the thirty-fifth and thirty-seventh track of theComplete Recordings. It is a version of the track "The Breaking of the Fellowship[15]" from the 2001The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack and features the song "In Dreams" sung by Edward Ross and James Wilson. It plays faintly during the ending credits, following "May It Be".
The 2006Lord of the Rings stage musical includes a song, "The Road Goes On", whose lyrics are loosely based on this poem.[16]
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)