The Road Goes Ever On (song)

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Aman, the desired other world.[1]

"The Road Goes Ever On" is a title that encompasses several walking songs that

legendarium. Within the stories, the original song was composed by Bilbo Baggins and recorded in The Hobbit. Different versions of it also appear in The 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 both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings begin and end at the door of Bag 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 psychological individuation. The walking song gives its name to Donald Swann's 1967 song-cycle The Road Goes Ever On, where it is the first in the list. All the versions of the song have been set to music by the Tolkien Ensemble.

Tolkien's versions

In The Hobbit

The original version of the song is recited by

the 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.

In The Lord of the Rings

Further information: Poetry in The Lord of the Rings
Hobbiton
(as filmed in New Zealand)

There are three versions of "The Road Goes Ever On" in

the Shire. He has given up the One Ring, leaving it for Frodo to deal with, and is setting off to visit Rivendell, so that he may finish writing his 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 One, 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, by Frodo, 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 in The Return of the King, Book VI, Chapter 6. It is spoken by Bilbo in Rivendell 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 humanities

Brian 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 in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, both of which "begin and end at the door of Bag-End".[2]

The Tolkien scholar

Cracks 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 psychological individuation.[3]

A different walking song

Main article: A Walking Song
Since the Downfall of Númenor and the Changing of the World, "the hidden paths that run / West of the Moon, East of the Sun" have been the only way to reach Elvenhome, Valinor.[1]

Similar changes in mood and words are seen in two versions of "

metre and similarly at the start and end of The 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 meet Elrond 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 Norwegian

Straight Road.[1]

Musical arrangements

Classical music

Tolkien Ensemble
has set all the versions of "The Road Goes Ever On" to music.

The title song and several others were set to music by

Gwyneth Walker to set the poem to music in 2006, which she did in several musically unrelated ways.[6]

Film, radio, and musical theatre

Further information: Music of The Lord of the Rings film series

A musical version of some sections of this song by

animated version of The Return of the King.[7] The song can be heard in the 1981 BBC radio version, sung by Bilbo (John Le Mesurier) to a tune by Stephen Oliver.[8]

A musical version of some sections of the song can be heard in the 2001 movie The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, composed by Howard Shore. It is sung by Gandalf (Ian McKellen) in the opening scene, and also by Bilbo (Ian Holm) as he leaves Bag End. Gandalf's singing can be heard on the track "Bag End" on Complete Recordings of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and Bilbo's on "Keep It Secret, Keep It Safe".[9]

Large parts of the song were included in

the soundtrack and in the credits of The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.[10][11]

An unrelated song, composed by Shore, called "The Road Goes Ever On..." ("Pt. 1"[12] and "Pt. 2"[13]) is both the thirty-fifth and thirty-seventh track of the Complete Recordings. It is a version of the track "The Breaking of the Fellowship[14]" from the 2001 The 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 2006 Lord of the Rings stage musical includes a song, "The Road Goes On", whose lyrics are loosely based on this poem.[15]

References

Primary

  1. ^ Tolkien 1937, ch. 19 "The Last Stage"
  2. ^ Tolkien 1954a, book 1, ch. 1 "A Long-expected Party"
  3. ^ a b Tolkien 1954a, book 1, ch. 3 "Three is Company"
  4. ^ Tolkien 1955, book 6, ch. 6 "Many Partings"
  5. ^ Tolkien & Swann 2002

Secondary

  1. ^ a b c Shippey 2005, pp. 324–328.
  2. ^
    OCLC 1083467593
    .
  3. ^ Shippey 2005, pp. 210–211.
  4. ^ Buja, Maureen (16 January 2019). "The Inspiration of Imagination – Frodo & Bilbo". Interlude. Archived from the original on 13 January 2020.
  5. ^ The Tolkien Ensemble (1997). An Evening in Rivendell (CD). Classico.
  6. ^ Walker, Gwyneth (2006). "The Road Goes Ever On". Gwyneth Walker. Archived from the original on 12 February 2018.
  7. OCLC 1045630002
    .
  8. ^ Oliver, Stephen (composer), Clarke, Oz; James, David; Vine, Jeremy (vocals) (1981). Music From The BBC Radio Dramatisation Of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord Of The Rings (Vinyl). London: BBC Records. REH 415.
  9. ^ McKellen, Ian; Holm, Ian (vocals), Shore, Howard (music) (2005). The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring: The Complete Recordings (CD). Reprise.
  10. ^ The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies - The Last Goodbye - Billy Boyd (Official Music Video), retrieved 26 December 2022
  11. ^ "Our final trip to Middle-earth to finish with 'The Last Goodbye' sung by Billy Boyd". 20 October 2014. Retrieved 26 December 2022.
  12. ^ The Road Goes Ever On... , Pt. 1, retrieved 26 December 2022
  13. ^ The Road Goes Ever On... , Pt. 2 / "In Dreams" (feat. Edward Ross), retrieved 26 December 2022
  14. ^ The Breaking of the Fellowship (feat. "In Dreams"), retrieved 26 December 2022
  15. ^ "The Road Goes On Lyrics - Lord of the Rings musical". www.allmusicals.com. Retrieved 26 December 2022.

Sources

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