Welcome to The Great Hall of Poets, our regular monthly feature showcasing the talent of Middle-earth fans. Each month we will feature a small selection of the poems submitted, but we hope you will read all of the poems that we have received here in our Great Hall of Poets.
So come and join us by the hearth, and enjoy!
If you have a Tolkien/Middle-earth inspired poem you’d like to share, then send it to poetry@theonering.net One poem per person may be submitted each month. Please make sure to proofread your work before sending it in. TheOneRing.net is not responsible for poems posting with spelling or grammatical errors.
The Mirror
by: Cassie Hughes
i)
Oh dearest love how can I bear
the mirror’s tale to me this night,
a family torn and ripped apart
as darkness claims and covers light.
Celebrian! Celebrian!
I called but could not keep her safe
for claws and fangs bore her away
to torment she could not escape.
The mirror fogged then cleared again
as vengeance showed to me their face,
twin perils twisted, hearts enslaved
by lustful wrath they could not sate.
Come back to us! Come back to us!
I shouted but they did not hear
above the clash of heavy blades,
the screams and sobs of death and fear.
Another scene unfolded then,
a ranger, tall and dark he stood
beside our precious Evenstar,
and oh! their faces shone with love.
Undomiel! Undomiel!
I wept then as she turned away
to follow where I could not go,
that mortal path of slow decay.
Is this my doing and my doom?
In reparation for past deeds
when thirst for knowledge ruled my head
and power cancelled other needs.
Oh Celeborn, my Celeborn
Have I brought darkness on us all?
Our daughter held beyond despair.
Her children lost beyond recall.
ii)
Your mirror tells what yet may be
but set in stone those tales are not.
Beloved, things are still in flux
our family safe, so ease your heart.
Galadriel! Galadriel!
Read nothing yet in what you saw.
They may be passing shadows just
like pipeweed smoke and not endure.
Yet if in truth they come to pass,
our strength combined will see us through.
As over ages proud and strong
together we have learned to do.
Do not despair! Do not despair!
Though tragedy may take our kin
live for today, let go these fears,
and do not let the darkness win.
iii)
The silvered surface briefly holds
An unseen fleeting image then
a halfling holding out his palm
upon which lies a glowing ring.
Ash nazg begiles! Ash nazg deceives!
What comes to pass will surely be
as told within those crystal depths,
and writ in legend endlessly.
If you have a Tolkien/Middle-earth inspired poem you’d like to share, then send it to poetry@theonering.net. One poem per person may be submitted each month. Please make sure to proofread your work before sending it in. TheOneRing.net is not responsible for poems posting with spelling or grammatical errors.
There is no doubt that the first promotional image from LOTR on Prime is simply amazing. But what is actually going on here?
Rather than blather on with superlatives, let’s just dive on in, and take a detailed look at what it reveals.
Fair warning, though: there will be spoilers for some key elements of The Silmarillion. So, if you’ve just started reading and you have no idea what happens and avoiding story spoilers is important to you, now is the time to step away!
The Two Trees
The obvious place to begin is the trees since, as Tolkien writes in The Silmarillion, “about their fate all the tales of the Elder Days are woven”. They’re also what firmly locates this panorama in Valinor — all our conclusions derive from their presence.
The Two Trees of Valinor. Laurelin at front, with Telperion behind.
[Telperion] had leaves of dark green that beneath were as shining silver, and from each of his countless flowers a dew of silver light was ever falling, and the earth beneath was dappled with the shadow of his fluttering leaves.
[Laurelin] bore leaves of a young green like the new-opened beech; their edges were of glittering gold. Flowers swung upon her branches in clusters of yellow flame, formed each to a glowing horn that spilled a golden rain upon the ground; and from the blossom of that tree there came forth warmth and a great light.
Of the Beginning of Days, The Silmarillion.
The trees in the LOTR on Prime panorama cannot be anything else. In the hidden city of Gondolin in Beleriand, Turgon famously created his own reproductions of the Two Trees in silver and gold. However, they emitted no light and were located within the city itself, not out on the plain. No, these are the Two Trees and that means this is Valinor.
You may wonder which tree is which.
My belief is that Laurelin — the tree of gold — is the one nearest the camera. Its shape more closely resembles that of the common beech (Fagus sylvatica). The dark trunk and boughs seem at odds with Telperion’s descritpion and the glow that emanates from it is a warm golden-yellow. And the silvery hue of the tree behind fits Tolkien’s vision of the Telperion much better.
The Two Trees: Alive? Or not?
The next key question is whether the trees are alive in this image. Is this the Years of the Trees? Or is LOTR on Prime using a clever fake-out as Professor Corey Olsen suggested may be the case on TORn Tuesday? Is the scene actually set later — long after Melkor and Ungoliant have paid their fateful visit — during the Years of the Sun, and the sun just happens to be positioned behind Laurelin?
The Two Trees closeup with level and brightness heavily adjusted.
I’ve gone back and forth between the two opinions.
One the one hand, when you adjust the levels in the image and pull the brightness down, the light out of (or through) Laurelin dominates, while the glow emanating from Telperion is muted enough that it could simply be reflected sunlight.
We do know from The Silmarillion that the trees were preserved: “their lifeless stems stand yet in Valinor, a memorial of vanished joy.”
On the other hand, the trees do not appear lifeless stems. They are not “withered” and drained of life as The Silmarillion describes it. In fact, Telperion’s trunk positively gleams.
Nor do they seem brittle. The Silmarillion also states:
Yavanna arose and stood upon Ezellohar, the Green Mound, but it was bare now and black; and she laid her hands upon the Trees, but they were dead and dark, and each branch that she touched broke and fell lifeless at her feet.
Of the Flight of the Noldor, The Silmarillion.
Moreover, something about the way Telperion would be reflecting the sun just doesn’t seem right. The sun should be so far behind the trees that any reflection should be much more muted than shown. I’m no ray-tracing expert, though! (If you are and have a better idea, let us know.)
Nevertheless, I feel the weight of evidence leans to this showing a scene from The Years of the Trees sometime near the end of the Noontide of Valinor. Perhaps even the very end.
The city of white walls and towers
Next, there’s the city on the hill. I feel comfortable in saying that this is Tirion — the city of many white towers that the Noldorin and Vanyarin elves established together after first arriving in Valinor.
Tirion upon Tuna.
Tirion stands upon the hill of Túna at the entrance to the Calacirya (a Quenya word that translates as “The Cleft of Light”). To either side, you have the Pelóri — the immense mountain chain that walls off the interior of Aman from the rest of the world. By the time the Years of the Trees draw to a close, the Calacirya is more or less the only way through from the outside.
Conforming to that description, we see to the left and to the right in the image the slopes of steeply rising mountains. The southern side is most likely the northern shoulder of Taniquetil — the impossibly tall mountain where Manwë and Varda dwell.
However, there are some textual inconsistencies if you want to pick nits (and what are we here for if not to pick nits?).
First, there’s the city’s tall tower.
The Tower of Ingwë. Note the absence of the light mentioned in the text of The Silmarillion.
This tower is the Mindon Eldaliéva. Notably, in The Silmarillion it is reported to feature a silver lamp that was said to “shine far out into the mists of the sea”. Famously, it guides the folk of Finarfin back to the city after they turn their backs on the rebellion of Fëanor. That lamp does not seem to be shining here.
…the highest of the towers of that city was the Tower of Ingwë, Mindon Eldaliéva, whose silver lamp shone far out into the mists of the sea. Few are the ships of mortal Men that have seen its slender beam.
Of Eldamar and the Princes of the Eldalië, The Silmarillion.
Additionally, despite looking closely at the city, I see nothing that could be Tirion’s own White Tree — Galathilion.
Yavanna made for [the Noldor] a tree like to a lesser image of Telperion, save that it did not give light of its own being; Galathilion it was named in the Sindarin tongue. This tree was planted in the courts beneath the Mindon and there flourished.
Of Eldamar and the Princes of the Eldalië, the Silmarillion.
Galathilion would surely have a unique appearance compared to the other flora of the city. And it would probably draw upon similar aesthetic to Peter Jackson’s depiction of the White Tree of Gondor. Admittedly, Gondor’s White Tree is quite dead when we see it in the Return of the King.
The White Tree of Gondor from Peter Jackson’s The Return of the King.
The White Tree of Tirion might also not be especially prominent. It could be, compared to the structures about it, quite small. Or its placement might be out of picture, on the far side of the hill so it receives direct light from the Two Trees.
Finally, there’s the shape and position of Túna.
The Silmarillion states that after the Valar created a gap in the Pelóri, in the “deep valley that ran down to the sea the Eldar raised a high green hill: Túna it was called.”
Should Túna be more centrally located, rather than to one side of the Calacirya? Certainly, this is how Karen Wynn Fonstad envisages it — and her sketches in The Atlas of Tolkien’s Middle-earth were made with the backing of Harper Collins and the assistance of resources like the Boedlian Library.
Karen Wynn Fonstad’s map of Valinor shows Tirion raised upon a distinctly circular mound.
Nevertheless, the location feels more or less correct, and Wynn Fonstad’s cartography is not — as far as I know — explicitly textually supported. So the LOTR on Prime team probably can get away with playing it a little fast and loose even though they are certainly drawing on her maps.
The small river and the swan-prowed boats
Wynn Fonstad also documents one other geographical feature that is not revealed in the text of the Silmarillion — a stream or river that winds its way up the Calacirya toward Tirion. This probably explains the small river we see in the image. The question is whether it reaches all the way into the far distance. It’s hard to tell, but probably.
Are these the ocean-going White Ships of the Teleri? Or rivercraft made in their likeness?
I feel that is less important than the opportunity to reveal several swan-prowed boats that we see upon the river. The question is whether these boats could be the famous White Ships of the Teleri — or smaller, but similar, pleasure craft.
The Silmarillion speaks of Alqualondë:
…the Haven of the Swans, lit with many lamps. For that was their city, and the haven of their ships; and those were made in the likeness of swans, with beaks of gold and eyes of gold and jet.
Of Eldamar and the Princes of the Eldalië, the Silmarillion.
Fëanor, of course, had those White Ships burnt after taking them by force from the Teleri in order to transport his folk to Beleriand during the Flight of the Noldor. If these are those White Ships, then this is another piece of evidence to place the image firmly within the Years of the Trees, before the destruction of Laurelin and Telperion.
The lone figure in white
Finally, we have the mysterious, lone figure in white in the foreground.
The figure in white has light-coloured hair, and carries a sword at the left hip.
This person is blond (or blonde), has short hair (or long hair in some sort of up-do), and is attired in what is typically regarded as elvish fashion. The pose also strongly suggests that the figure is carrying a sword at the left hip.
The presence of the sword is useful, as that would definitively place the action after the release of Melkor from bondage. As The Silmarillion records, it was Melkor who “spoke to [the Noldor] concerning weapons; and in that time the Noldor began the smithying of swords and axes and spears.”
If we accept there is a sword (likely, I think), and that the Two Trees are still alive (also likely, I think) we can narrow the time period for this image.
Melkor is released from captivity in Year of the Trees (YT) 1400 according to the Annals of Aman. By YT 1450 he’s been in the ear of the Noldor sowing dissension to the point where they start making weapons — swords, axes, and shields featuring personal insignia.
But, none of the Noldor carry their weapons abroad openly for a long time after that. Not until Fëanor recklessly and publicly puts a sword at the chest of his half-brother. That might allow us to place this image to sometime after the exile of Fëanor from Tirion, but before the destruction of the trees in YT 1495.
It’s worth noting here that, according to this same timeline, Galadriel is born in YT 1362. Galadriel would be a full-grown adult. It could be her.
Might Galadriel have carried a sword in her youth? I think she might have. During the rebellion of the Noldor, The Silmarillion records that:
…Galadriel, the only woman of the Noldor to stand that day tall and valiant among the contending princes, was eager to be gone. No oaths she swore, but the words of Fëanor concerning Middle-earth had kindled in her heart, for she yearned to see the wide unguarded lands and to rule there a realm at her own will.
Of the Flight of the Noldor, The Silmarillion.
A late essay of J.R.R. Tolkien’s that Christopher Tolkien recounts in Unfinished Tales reinforces this:
She was proud, strong, and selfwilled, as were all the descendants of Finwë save Finarfin; and like her brother Finrod, of all her kin the nearest to her heart, she had dreams of far lands and dominions that might be her own to order as she would without tutelage.
The History of Galadriel and Celeborn, Unfinished Tales of Middle-earth.
The same essay also underscores Tolkien’s vision of her exceptional physique and athleticism and how she “grew to be … strong of body, mind, and will, a match for both the loremasters and the athletes of the Eldar in the days of their youth.” Plus a letter from 1973 describes the youthful Galadriel in similar fashion (while also, potentially, explaining the seemingly short-cropped hair):
[Galadriel] was [in her youth] of Amazon disposition and bound up her hair as a crown when taking part in athletic feats.
Letter #348, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien.
A Galadriel who in her early years of life is much more oriented to martial activities in not utterly out of Tolkien’s thinking.
Finally, there’s a treatise of Tolkien’s published in Morgoth’s Ring that outlines that while gender traditions — and individual occupational inclinations — exist among elves, these are by no means rigid, or absolute: “there are … no matters which among the Eldar only a [male elf] can think or do, or others with which only a [female elf] is concerned.”
Further, it concludes with the statement that “all … matters of labour and play, or of deeper knowledge concerning being and the life of the World, may at different times be pursued by any among the Noldor.”
If you don’t think this is possible for Galadriel, how else how do you explain Elrond’s trajectory from commander of Gil-galad’s expeditionary force to Eregion in the Second Age (and Herald of Gil-galad during the War of the Last Alliance) to renowned master of healing of the Third Age?
Other options for the figure in white
But, let’s say it’s not Galadriel. Who else might it be?
Hair colour immediately rules out most key Noldor of the time such as Finwë, Fëanor, Finrod, and Fingolfin. They are all dark-haired (as are the vast majority of Noldor). However, Galadriel’s father, Finarfin, or her grandmother, Indis, are options.
She was golden-haired, and tall, and exceedingly swift of foot. She laboured not with her hands, but sang and made music, and there was ever light and mirth about her while the bliss of Aman endured … and she walked often alone in the fields and friths of the Valar, filling them with music.
The Later Quenta Silmarillion II, The History of Middle-earth: Morgoth’s Ring.
Still, I don’t really see Indis as the sword-carrying sort. I might be wrong, but it doesn’t match my perception of her personality and her ambitions. Finarfin would, but some costumers have suggested that the outfit the figure wears is more reminiscent of Galadriel’s attire in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings.
Galadriel in Peter Jackson’s Fellowship of the Ring.
As an aside, I also like the concept of elves with short-cropped hair because it challenges an aesthetic that is ambiguously supported in canon. Would LOTR on Prime be brave enough to do that, though?
After that, we’re down to edge cases.
The radical options: Melkor or Sauron
We know that the Valar had no bodies but could assume shapes more or less at will. Morgoth’s Ring reveals that “after the coming of the Eldar they most often used shapes of ‘human’ form, though taller (not gigantic) and more magnificent”.
We don’t know Melkor’s precise form during those years before the destruction of the Two Trees. One revision (The Later Quenta Silmarillion (II)) probably made during the 1950s describes the countenance he presented to the elves as “most fair of all”. It was only after the trees had been destroyed that Melkor-as-Morgoth became fixed in the classical form we know from the Quenta Silmarillion that Chris Tolkien published in 1977 — the tall and terrifying figure clad in black armour who ever-so-reluctantly comes forth to duel Fingolfin.
However, The Silmarillion records that Melkor carried a black spear to the destruction of the Two Trees. Moreover, without any sign of his spider-shaped partner in crime, Ungoliant, there’s nothing conclusive to suggest this scene is a direct prelude to that event.
A similar shapeshifting argument applies to Sauron, who most famously assumes the fair form “Annatar” in order to win over the elven-smiths of Eregion. Sauron, of course, remained at-large in Middle-earth during the Years of the Trees, presumably busily refortifying the fortress of Angband while awaiting the return of his master.
It’s not out of the question that Sauron might have ducked across the great ocean for a bit of a peek at what was going on in Valinor with his master. Against that, such a journey is never mentioned. Still, keep in mind that Tom Shippey mentioned in an interview that LOTR on Prime has creative wiggle room as long as it doesn’t directly contradict what Tolkien himself wrote.
Why Sauron? Well, Sauron is, ultimately, the chief antagonist of this series. Alongside Galadriel, he is one of the very few consistent presences throughout Middle-earth’s history. An opening (or prologue) that directly involves Sauron may be another way for LOTR on Prime to establish the foundations of a series that is going to span a very long period of time.
The human options: Eärendil or Ar-Pharazôn the Golden
While Eärendil‘s hair colour is up for debate, he is the son of two golden-haired parents. Most art depicts him as a blonde.
But what truly interested me was the circumstances in which Eärendil arrives at Tirion: alone.
And he went up alone into the land, and came into the Calacirya, and it seemed to him empty and silent; for even as Morgoth and Ungoliant came in ages past, so now Eärendil had come at a time of festival, and wellnigh all the Elvenfolk were gone to Valimar, or were gathered in the halls of Manwë upon Taniquetil, and few were left to keep watch upon the walls of Tirion.
Of the Voyage of Eärendil and the War of Wrath, The Silmarillion.
I’ve always liked Ted Nasmith‘s illustration of this scene, and there’s something about the LOTR on Prime panorama that evokes that passage, too. The only thing that’s missing is anything that looks like the glow of a Silmaril for there those were “who saw him from afar, and the great light that he bore”. Like the Phial of Galadriel, the Silmarils emit their own light.
Still, as Eärendil’s arrival in Middle-earth is the beginning of the closing act of the First Age, and leads more-or-less directly to the founding of Númenor, could something like this offer a tighter link to the major story that LOTR on Prime wants to tell?
Finally — more for the sake of elimination — there’s the last king of Númenor, Ar-Pharazôn the Golden.
For Ar-Pharazôn wavered at the end, and almost he turned back. His heart misgave him when he looked upon the soundless shores and saw Taniquetil shining, whiter than snow, colder than death, silent, immutable, terrible as the shadow of the light of Ilúvatar. But pride was now his master, and at last he left his ship and strode upon the shore, claiming the land for his own, if none should do battle for it. And a host of the Númenóreans encamped in might about Túna, whence all the Eldar had fled.
AKALLABÊTH, The Silmarillion.
But. The apparel on our lone figure isn’t really ideal for battle and war. Certainly not in the fashion reminiscent of our closest visual parallel to Númenór — the Arnorian and Gondorian warriors of the War of the Last Alliance. And the figures on river do not appear alarmed in the slightest — which they would if there was a vast, approaching army of Númenóreans behind the camera.
Finally, a curveball idea: what if it actually was Galadriel finally returning home at the very end of the Third Age? To start at the very end of the story, rather than the beginning.
In conclusion
After all that, what can we conclude? We’re looking at Valinor and the Two Trees. Definitively. And, despite a few topological and architectural quirks, we’re looking west from Tirion. I’m very confident of that, too.
But are those trees alive, or dead? I just can’t tell for sure. And it’s impossible to say for certain that the figure in white is Galadriel, even though it feels the most likely option.
But, since we are here to nail our colours to the mast, I will venture the following theory: the trees are alive, the figure is Galadriel, and this is somewhere near the end of the Noontide of Valinor.
Why? Primarily because in addition to the weight of evidence it simply makes the most sense to the story for the lone figure to be Galadriel. And — regardless of which Galadriel origin story you prefer — Galadriel left Valinor before the creation of the sun and the moon. Thus the trees must be alive.
I think. 🙂
Acknowledgements and thanks
This piece is not necessarily representative of the opinion of TORn staff. However, in assembling this, I have drawn on thoughts, theories and evidence that other staffers have been sharing over the last couple weeks. It would not have been nearly as good without their input. So, in no particular order, I’d like to thank JPB and Tookish for the long conversations, Mithril for the excellent find with Letter #343, Elessar, Josh, Kelvarhin, Garfeimao, Greendragon, Earl, and our TORn Tuesday team of Quickbeam and Justin.
Of course, any errors and oversights are my own.
If you have a Tolkien/Middle-earth inspired poem you’d like to share, then send it to poetry@theonering.net. One poem per person may be submitted each month. Please make sure to proofread your work before sending it in. TheOneRing.net is not responsible for poems posting with spelling or grammatical errors.
I’ve been thinking a lot about that picture this week. A lot. Have you? You have? Well, that’s a good little Tolkien fan!
While we bask in the glow of the first APME (Amazon Prime Middle-earth) image, what’s going through your mind? You may have read some of our thoughts here, elsewhere, and certainly had your own. A few days later, where are we now?
Waiting. And waiting. And speculating. And lighting up the interwebs with lots of buzz.
In other words, we are right where Amazon wants us to be. Awoken, alert, attentive, and responding like puppies to treats. Personally, I’m okay with that, for now. It was truly inspiring to explore that tantalizing image of Valinor and let our Middle-earth wanderlust venture into the guesswork of what’s happening behind the curtains.
Yet, after the euphoria of that first taste dissipates, I find myself sobering up. This launch has returned to earth.
Friends, it’s way to early to get comfortable or overly excited about what’s coming from Amazon. I personally might be on guard until after the “Season 8” finale is complete for this first series. Nobody wants to be burned by another bad ending.
We are certainly impressed with the artistic chops, vision, and potential scope of storytelling demonstrated in this image. Yet, no matter how sumptuous the visual experience will be, what will mater the most about this series is the writing.
TORn staffer Justin asks, “Is it (the image) true to Tolkien?” Well, so far, it looks like it just might be. Funny thing about us old Tolkien fans, though: razzle and dazzle us, but don’t color too far out of the lines.
Waiting. Waiting. Waiting. It’s gonna be awhile.
If you have a Tolkien/Middle-earth inspired poem you’d like to share, then send it to poetry@theonering.net. One poem per person may be submitted each month. Please make sure to proofread your work before sending it in. TheOneRing.net is not responsible for poems posting with spelling or grammatical errors.
Anyone who tells you that they expected the first promotional image for the LOTR on Prime series to reveal an iconic panorama of Valinor — the land of angelic beings of Middle-earth — is either a liar or is inside the production.
Because I’m certain that there was nothing in previously teased material and maps that even hints at Valinor.
What’s more, this single image is as much of a statement as a certain someone recently flying to the very edge of space.
At first, you think: “Well, it’s another Middle-earth city. But, hey, it’s pretty cool.” You’re expecting, perhaps, Armenelos or Rómenna on the island of Númenór. After all, we know the series is supposed to encompass the rise and fall of the island kingdom and there does seem to be a glittering body of water even if it’s a bit small to be a bay, much less the ocean.
Then your eye is drawn inexorably to the background glow and it dawns that what you thought was merely the sun nearly (and neatly) conceals a pair of colossal trees.
And in an instant your whole worldview of the series just … changes.
Because, you know — if you’ve tried your hand at reading The Silmarillion or have delved into the pre-history of The Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit — that these aren’t just any pair of trees.
The tree of silver and the tree of gold that are the source of all light in Valinor. That provide the light for Fëanor’s Silmarils, and ultimately for the Phial of Galadriel. And whose destruction triggers a cascade of events that stretches all the way to the end of the Third Age.
If anything can be, this is the heart of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth mythmaking.
LOTR on Prime has enormous ambitions and it’s not afraid to declare as much.
It’s declaring that it’s here to challenge the Peter Jackson movies as the definitive visual depiction of Tolkien’s Middle-earth.
It’s declaring that it has the talent, technology and resources, and access to the necessary source material.
I think, above all, LOTR on Prime is declaring to Tolkien fans that it doesn’t want to be underestimated.
It’s declaring that it’s not simply making a Game of Thrones clone for the mass market.
And it’s declaring that they’re going to take us, the readers of Tolkien’s work, to places that we never thought would be possible in a film or a TV series.
Sure, we already knew some of that — intellectually. We knew we were promised 50-odd hours of telly over five seasons. And, we knew that the rights and production investment runs into hundreds of millions of dollars. But you just can’t /feel/ a series of numbers.
This, on the other hand… this is real. Real, tangible proof that we’re on a journey to somewhere special.
Strap in, kids, we’re about to blast off into space.
If you have a Tolkien/Middle-earth inspired poem you’d like to share, then send it to poetry@theonering.net. One poem per person may be submitted each month. Please make sure to proofread your work before sending it in. TheOneRing.net is not responsible for poems posting with spelling or grammatical errors.
Welcome to The Great Hall of Poets, our regular monthly feature showcasing the talent of Middle-earth fans. Each month we will feature a small selection of the poems submitted, but we hope you will read all of the poems that we have received here in our Great Hall of Poets.
So come and join us by the hearth, and enjoy!
If you have a Tolkien/Middle-earth inspired poem you’d like to share, then send it to poetry@theonering.net One poem per person may be submitted each month. Please make sure to proofread your work before sending it in. TheOneRing.net is not responsible for poems posting with spelling or grammatical errors.
In a time where the world is burdened with chaos and full of darkness,
even the slightest shine from the Star of Eärendil wouldn't stop it.
Creatures roam unmindful of the evil around them,
focused only on temporary love, possessions and never on HIM.
Rejection can feel cold but murderous to one's mind,
inner thoughts are like battling Balrog
Hoping one day the world will go eastward of Gondor,
to be with JESUS, my precious!
Although many already bear this ring,
it is our job as its bearer to plant its seed.
~ * ~
If you have a Tolkien/Middle-earth inspired poem you’d like to share, then send it to poetry@theonering.net. One poem per person may be submitted each month. Please make sure to proofread your work before sending it in. TheOneRing.net is not responsible for poems posting with spelling or grammatical errors.
Welcome to The Great Hall of Poets, our regular monthly feature showcasing the talent of Middle-earth fans. Each month we will feature a small selection of the poems submitted, but we hope you will read all of the poems that we have received here in our Great Hall of Poets.
So come and join us by the hearth, and enjoy!
If you have a Tolkien/Middle-earth inspired poem you’d like to share, then send it to poetry@theonering.net One poem per person may be submitted each month. Please make sure to proofread your work before sending it in. TheOneRing.net is not responsible for poems posting with spelling or grammatical errors.
Ode to Elanor
By D.McGlinchey
Elanor, my star flower, my beautiful golden sun.
From lonely isles did your namesake travel to bring beauty and joy from afar.
Elf Child, though of Halfling kin, fair beauty of the Shire.
Your grace and wisdom outshines them all and your laughter a Dragon would halt.
Blessed with the grace of the Valar you glow.
Though hard was the road that led to your being,I never faltered nor forsook the dreams I made.
I traveled there and back again to make true those distant dreams.
And I did.
With you Elanor.
My star flower.
My beautiful golden sun.
~ * ~
A poem of “Riddles in the Dark”
by MA Corkery
Riddles in darkness, hobbit and ring
What object is this? Have I found some new bling?
It’s shiny, and gold and I think very old
But there is something more to it that can’t quite be told
Will it bring power, joy, or wealth?
Can it save me from this dark goblin house?
These questions, they run in my mind as I ask,
“What have I got in my pocket?”
Riddles in darkness, hobbit and ring
What is this creature, this non-goblin thing?
Is it tasty, will it be a good snack?
My precious let’s see and then swiftly attack
Now it is riddles: teeth, daisies, and time
We’ll answer his questions and then he’ll be mine
But wait, where have you gone? Did I lose you somehow?
My precious where are you, I cry out aloud
I look at this morsel, this non-goblin thing
Just maybe, perhaps, he has taken my ring
Riddles in darkness, hobbit, and ring
I am one step closer to my dark lord and king
The darkness is coming, he’ll find me I know
And in the darkness binding he’ll grow and he’ll grow
Riddles in darkness, hobbit and ring
Remember with winter there is always a spring
No matter the darkness, no matter the might
There will always be hope and good fighting the fight
~ * ~
Keep The Faith
by Michael Amos
Though bird in shire and toad in hollow share their daily cries
Dark forces incessantly wallow chanting so he flies
It’s never good to lose your sight of things that truly matter
For there’s a fight tween wrong and right the falling swords a-clatter.
The day is new and offers all the chance to make a choice
The very things that fill us up and cause us to rejoice!
So why are we so very willing at the least resistance
To tattle, harp and creak our spilling complaints every instant?
It’s ours to mourn the loss of power swelling loves true ranks
When all our whinging melancholy has us walking planks.
The remedy is simple dear, and never once you doubt it
You’re the one who moves your eyes and never should you floutt it.
Here the birds and all the frogs who’s siren song declares
The sun is coming! Build your life and share with us your wares
The evil waits for you to fake your focus on a whim
So, always know it’s on your watch you give a chance to him.
Remember love, and luck and joy and fight with all you’ve got
To grow, and know, and pluck your vision from the twisted knot
Of everything that blocks your way and dance aside so lightly
You’re a living song of ever loving will so mighty
The shire is true, The sky is blue
The stakes are oh, so high
Let’s herald one more chance
To make the best of life, it’s nigh.
~ * ~
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