[The Only Real Estel]

Well as usual I’m Estel and, since I am not as well versed in ballads as Anguirel , I had very few to choose from.

So I went with one of Valesse's examples: "The Highwayman" by Alfred Noyes. This is a play on that one entitled "The Bolsterman" (yes, the same bolsterman that Nob fashioned as a sacrifice for Frodo in the Prancing Pony ), sung in the voice of Aragorn, because he knew all the songs didn't he?


PART ONE
I (I)

The wind was a stormy gale among the gusty trees,
The moon was a ghostly white, unchanged by the forceful breeze,,
The inn was as quite as a mouse, with hardly even a snore,,
And the bolsterman was lying—
Lying—lying—
The bolsterman was lying, as they came up to the old inn door.

II (II)

He'd a woolen brown mat for his "head," a bunch of blanket at his "chin,"
A comforter of the greatest comfort, and a bit bunched up at the end;
In the sky was nary a twinkle: it seemed a good night to die.
He lay without causing a wrinkle,
The stars still held back their twinkle,
As the wraiths began to slink(le?)*, under the veiled sky.

III (III)

Over the cobbles they cautiously crept in the dark inn-yard,
And they tapped with their fists on the windows, but all was locked and barred;
They glared darkly at the window, and what should happen then
But a single blow to the window,
Just a single blow to the window,
A stealthy blow to the window and then, the window was now forced in.

IV (V)

"All right, my fellow servants. We're after a prize tonight,,
But we shall be back with the yellow gold before the morning light;
Yet, if they press us sharply, and harry us, causing a fray,
Then look for It by moonlight,
Watch for It by moonlight,
We'll come to It by moonlight, though hell should bar the way."

PART TWO

I (II)


They said no word to the landlord, they just climbed in instead,
But they saw the helpless hobbit - looking fast asleep in his bed;
Two of them knelt at the casement, with drawn swords at their side!
There was death at every window;
And hell at one dark window;
For the bolsterman could see, that now turning was the tide.

II (III)

They had circled the bed with intention, with many a sniggering jest;
They had found a jacket beside the bed, with a 'Baggins' sewed on the breast!
"Now, keep it secret!" they hissed to him.
He heard the dead men say—
Look for It by moonlight;
Watch for It by moonlight;
We'll come to It by moonlight, though hell should bar the way!

III (VII)

Clink-clink, in the frosty silence! Clink-clink, in the echoing night!
Nearer they crept and nearer! Their swords were a pale light!
His eyes grew wide for a moment; he drew one last deep breath,
Then the figures moved in the moonlight,
Their sword thrusts shattered the moonlight,
Shattered the bolster in the moonlight and slashed him—intending death.

IV (VIII)

They turned; they looked upon the bed; they knew it was not Baggins who lay
Still, with his "head" upon the pillow, slashed with their own dark swords!
Not till the light shown in, their faces turned on his form
And saw the bolsterman they'd "slaughtered,"
The bolsterman they'd thought they'd slaughtered,
He'd taken Baggin's place in the moonlight, and "died" in the darkness there.

IX

Now, they screeched like madmen, shrieking a curse to the sky,
With the bolsterman lying before them, and moonlight to see him by!
They climbed from the room in the waning night; denied their chance to gloat,
And they shot down the lane on their way,
Down like lightening on the lane,
And he lay in his bed in the inn, with tatters of blanket at his throat.

* * * * * *

X

And still of a winter's night, they say, when the wind is in the trees,
When the moon is a ghostly white, unchanged by the forceful breeze,
When the inn is quite as a mouse, with hardly even a snore,
A bolsterman is lying—
Lying—lying—
A bolsterman is lying, playing his role evermore.

XI

Over the cobbles they may cautiously creep, in the dark inn-yard,
They tap with their fists on the windows, but all is locked and barred;
A dark glare at the window, and what should happen then
But a single blow to the window,
Just a single blow to the window,
A stealthy blow to the window and then, the window is forced in.

And the bolsterman lies within.

*Yes, I am aware that there is no such word as "slinkle."