The Endorvision Song Contest

[Elmo]

What's everybody's favourite poem or song in Tolkien's Work? My three has to be the Beren and Luthien

"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.
Tinuviel was dancing there
To music of a pipe unseen,
And light of stars was in her hair,
And in her rainment glimmering.

Enough said, absolutely brilliant.

I also like the Fall of Gil-Galad mainly because of the line 'The countless stars of Heaven's field, were mirrored on his silver shield'

My third is quite obscure, it's 'Shadow Bride' in the Adventures of Tom Bombadil

There came a lady clad in grey
in the twilight shining:
one moment she would stand and stay,
her hair with flowers entwining

[Elfchick7]

Mine is the poem that Bilbo wrote for Aragorn:

"All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken:
The crownless again shall be king."

[Thinlómien]

I must say I'm in love with Rohanian poetry... It's just plain amazing. It's very lyric, sad, beautiful, yet somehow strong. Just have a look at this example:

Out of doubt, out of dark to the day's rising,
I came singing in the sun, sword unsheathing,
to hope's end I rode, and to heart's breaking,
now for wrath, now for ruin, and for red nightfall!
(That was not necessarily right since I don't have the book with me right now.)

I also love the Where now the horse and the rider? -poem.

[Eomer of the Rohirrim]

Thinlo, I have both of those poems on my wall.

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Hmm, hard to choose. The most I like probably that part of Lay of Leithian when Finrod battles with Sauron. It's just beautiful. I am not speaking of my feelings about the original, though, but from the translation. I couldn't judge the beauty of it in English, I even haven't read it that many times.

Pěl zrádnou, černokněžnou píseň,
jak odhalovat, budit tíseň,
zrazovat, páčit tajemství.
Felagund se však postaví
a zpívá píseň vytrvalých
a vzdorujících, nezoufalých,
o nezrazených tajemstvích,
věrnosti čisté jako sníh,
o putování na zapřenou,
jak minout léčku nastraženou,
jak zlomit zámky vězení
a nepodlehnout mámení.
Dvě písně spolu zápolily.
Zpěv hučí, bouří, stále sílí,
a Felagund se nepoddává,
třebaže se mu točí hlava,
a všechna kouzla, všechnu moc
Elfie vkládá do svých slov.
Zaslechli ve tmách zdaleka
nargothrondského slavíka
a Moře, které věčně vzdychá
na písku z perel, snů a ticha,
kde Západ nesmrtelný je,
kde prostírá se Elfie.
Tma zhoustla; chmurně zazněl zpěv:
Ve Valinoru teče krev
u Moře, kde se vraždí rodní,
kde Noldor vzali Plavcům lodi
s bílými plachtami z přístavů bílých
ve světle luceren. A vítr kvílí,
vlk vyje, letí krkavec.
Led skřípá v mořské úžině.
V Angbandu mučí zajaté,
hrom hřímá, ohněm plane zem -
a Finrod klesl před trůnem.

Just for you to know what the poem I love looks like

Oh, okay, I looked at the original poem now and generally I think it is not as good Except this part is wonderfully beautiful:

Softly in the gloom they heard the birds
Singing afar in Nargothrond,
The sighting of the Sea beyond,
Beyond the western world, on sand,
On sand of pearls on Elvenland.

And the wolf&raven thing. Which is also the best even in the translation.

The other one I would nominate is the Sea-Bell. I don't know it that much in detail, and it's horribly long but it's beautiful, especially the end.