Antique Lyrics of Arda

[Walküre]

FAITHFUL PSALMS

Morns and eves shall ebb away.
Pride and pain linger on to stay.
Dusk will fall on troubled roads,
As fearful night wistful bodes.

Dull grow kings and folk
In tired years that forces soak.
Impious voices sound and rouse
Malicious tempers in regal house.

Afar they sneer with scorn;
Warring winds has blown the horn
Which once was hopeful sign
Of joyful plenty and damask-wine.

Tenebrous stands the altar,
When mankind chances so to falter;
Lots of preys the Demon found,
Beguiling Men to break the Bound.

May this faithful psalm meander
Through livid tides that oceans sunder.
May the loyal earn a grace
To spare the sinful mortal race.

[Walküre]

CAPTIVE AND CAPTOR

A captive they had taken
From lands lying forsaken,
Where the Dark Lord would reign
And brute hubris feign.

Kingship Evil sought to claim,
Yearning much the Crown to maim,
For vile chaining of mortal earths
In sundry modes and dreadful sorts.

As God of Men they hailed
The Foe we grossly wailed
For heinous deed in human lore,
Begetting ill on hither-shore.

The gaoled turned in captor,
His counsel given to the sceptre.
Stained by guile were his words
That mustered flags, fleets and swords.

Undying life was not to be
Wrested so across the sea,
For deathless bounds they could not
Seize with force from holy lot.

[Walküre]

BARREN KINGDOM

Ruins are left to tell
And wary stranger quell
From venturing yet further
In dreary place of murder.

Spoils of grievous shadow,
Lying about the meadow,
That bear the weight of doom
And pride themselves in gloom.

Brambles grow on knolls,
Bent by deathly tolls;
Rough they clasp the dale
Through lonely rocks and hail.

Gruesome heights tower near,
As nasty beacon of one's fear,
For phantoms loom malicious thence
And ply the unwanted with offence.

Works of might are no more.
Of splendid labours was the core
This blighted barren kingdom,
Stripped of joyous artful wisdom.

[Walküre]

REMOVED

Removed and taken from the sight
Of dying ones who err in fright,
To be one legacy of yore
And olden memory that wore.

Above the spheres of outer void
Floats the Kingdom unalloyed.
The Ancient West shines forever
In endless cycle none may sever.

Charters lost the blissful coast
Which eager Men would long the most,
Deceived in plotting monstrous war
Agin the Angels of Afore.

Now the waves shall not carry
Able prows and regal ferry
Beyond the bounds of air,
For chained to roundness flags will fare.

Past sidereal ether
Is no tree to wither.
Past forbidden ways
Gleam enchanted bays.

[Walküre]

HELL IN HOME

Ever heeds the ailing King,
On foulest wicked wing,
A phoney cunning word
Which sorrow takes aboard.

Elven-ships forsook the haven
That masons once had wholly graven
By seaside's merry rim,
Now darkened bleak and grim.

Thunder cries aloud despair;
Tempest rages through the flare.
Red are skies in growing dusk,
About such treachery to unmask.

Hell was given right to enter
Of highest Men the fateful centre.
Shackled was the pallid crown
Whom wrathful Gods thus foundered down.

Home was made a fiery seat;
Consumed were crops and radiant wheat.
Thrall of mighty worshipped fiend
Was this Isle, scourged by wind.

[Walküre]

SHORN OF RUE

Amid joy and golden bough,
In cheerful wooded shire,
Was the Lady fine to allow
Of gallant kind a squire.

They had walked through sour lands,
In wilderness decaying,
Afar from ocean-strands
On faithless dimming lane.

The Company had best,
Within the sunny kingdom,
Find a place of rest
Where time is bound in serfdom.

Stain is not to taint
The woodland ways of Wonder,
When days wear out to faint
And nights along meander.

Shorn of rue was made
This grandly lucky country
That never seems to fade,
Though vivid green gets wintry.

Ill is kept at bay
With weightless linden-bows;
Much is told in lay
For nasty scorn of foes.

There a secret lies,
With sundry murmurs laden,
About a potent wise
And so prodigious Maiden.

[Walküre]

STARRY SIGHT

Dwarves still fain recall
The lamplit cloven hall
Below the mountain cliff,
Wherein is come their grief.

By the ravine wander
Beings in no way fonder
Than hideous ones inside
The ruinous darkling hide.

Nay, despair not!
Brooks delight my lot
With sweet warming sight
Past jagged hills of fright.

Look, the lonely cheerless pillar!
Time is master, but no such killer,
For stone is left to one remind
Of ageless Dwarven-kind.

Crystal-water would refresh
Durin's tired weary flesh.
A starry pool we know lies here:
The fabled Mirror-mere!

[Walküre]

WHOM YE DARE

Ye, potent, hearken!
Heavens shall at all not darken
Ere mortal feet tread the way
Of the lush enchanted Bay.

Ye seek to seize what goes beyond
An ancient faithful bond.
In love your Isle was raised from seas,
For true and stout had been your pleas.

Men were given threefold lives
As glorious kings and fairest wives.
A Land of riches lay afar
Which thus had guise of splendent Star.

So grand a rule amidst the blue.
So soon your bliss would turn to rue,
If crowns were chained and used as pawn,
Westward due at doom's last dawn.

Whom do ye will to dare?
I say that deeps shall be laid bare
Before one marches unto ends
That suffer not your late amends.

[Walküre]

THE LADY TARRIES FINE

The way is shut ahead.
Folks aghast begin to dread
That loveless days are drawing near,
Ever telling tales of queer.

The North is all a chant of war;
Aflame was set the mines' door,
For shadows now command therein,
Amid the intruder's spreading sin.

The South is prey of other wills
Around the worldly bitter chills,
As fumes rise high above the keep,
Whilst haunting kings in restless sleep.

The White Lady tarries fine
Inside her merry timeless shrine
Which every foe had longed to burn
Along the time to present worn.

Her gazing melts the hardest stone
And searches thoughts that life has sown,
Striking minds about to perish,
Without some virtue else to cherish.

[Walküre]

ELVISH GRACE

What prodigy abides there
I cannot say in ken nor swear;
Elvish grace is light and gentle
As slender linen-mantle.

Happy houses in the Dale
Pass intact the wicked gale
Which far across unleashes
Ghoulish force against good wishes.

Splendid boughs resist the winter
That stony cliffs shall badly splinter,
And further hence the chill defy
Beneath the starlit dreadless sky.

A secret calm pervades the shire
Which more than bows defends from fire,
And time bedevils not the Golden Wood:
Over glad recalling is my grieving soul to brood.

Anguish conquers not this fortress.
Home of mighty charming victress
Was the sylvan kingdom made,
Wrought in grace to never fade.

[Walküre]

LONG AFFRAY

Entangled thence in long affray
Was Elvish prince who lives in lay.
Kings and kings have minstrels wept;
Behind the frost was Evil kept.

Engraved in ice lay his fort
For utter doom of royal court
Which thither had so arduous gone,
Willing coats and mail to don.

Strenuous war betided soon.
Lost were Trees and endless Noon.
High and nether ill was done,
Neath the ardent ancient Sun.

Blades they brandished proud and fierce;
Armours forged were hard to pierce;
Immortal craft shone of prime
In so elder grim a time.

Valiant ones joys forsook
Amid such flame, void and spook.
Wraiths would tread that grievous path
And lords were eager pawn of wrath.

[Walküre]

GRAND LABOURS

Grand labours commenced of old
In mirthful days as such was told.
To mend, to ease, to cure:
To vanquish toil and long endure.

Immortals loved the earth beyond
All they dearly deemed much fond.
Ensuing troubles they had not seen,
As Elven-sight was made less keen.

Wonders bade the eerie Astute
With offer none could well refute,
Save a few potent wise,
Not beguiled by phoney guise.

Works of praise were turned for ill;
Worthy guest was vicious will
That tied his victim to ruination,
Partaking wont in vile creation.

Dark has since grown the world;
Chilled have wan seas to great cold.
Laid bare were bygone kingdoms:
Once great pride of Firstborn-earldoms.

[Walküre]

AN ELVISH QUEEN GOVERNS TREES

Sigh! Woe! My!
Gold are leaves therein
Neath the sunny sky,
Might abides within.

Alas! Grievous dreary times
Loom above the wood;
Elven hope are rhymes,
Sung in rue as voices could.

Voice is swoon and waning swift
Into clouds of sullen days.
Was the white ship thrust adrift
By the tides of bloody lays.

Still Light lingers bright
Far away from outer ills,
Wherein stars bless the night,
Renewing ghost and ailing wills.

An Elvish Queen governs trees,
Whose very name folks recount:
Her joyous land none may seize
Betwixt waterway and mount.

[Walküre]

DREAMY PORT

Across, past the western End
Finds itself a port,
Which mortal eyes commend
As holy Power's fort.

The Lonely Isle they then mistake
For godly saint-abode,
There where Angels wonders make
In ever-changing mode.

Descry we may a silver haven
Beyond the rage of frantic waves:
On it the craft of Elves was graven
By cleaving stones from deathless caves.

On sea-green heights we gaze afar
At merry distant shores,
Whither wester Moon and Star;
Whence came to us no wars.

Fogs rise and fall
By the naval bound.
Sailors seem to enthral
Uncanny spells around.

[Walküre]

CHAMPION OF VILLAINY

How couldst thou? How dark a foe!
Born as King, devoid of woe.
Songs thou sangest, opposed to Him;
So vile an act. So wrong to deem.

Tunes and music for undoing,
Willed afore to sow much ruin.
Agin thee and thine unright
Hath warred thy kindred in the Night.

Night was then before the Light,
Wrought of old by virtuous Might.
Great Lamps were lit to order
The Elder World and its disorder.

Powers fled from grave unrest
To the sinless Utter-West;
Thither have they fared to store
What of Bliss was left in lore.

Alas! Lo! Thou wast to crave
Fouler deed inside thy Cave.
Scheming evil of such felony;
Melkor the Marred, Champion of Villainy.