#song of the Mounds of Mundburg

[from-the-coffee-shop-in-edoras]

So the 1990s movie Independence Day was everywhere last week (for obvious reasons), and I was reminded of a particular pet peeve of mine in media: the big disaster epic where thousands or even millions of people die, but that’s not meaningfully acknowledged because we’re so focused on the eventual triumph of Our Heroes.

On one level, I get it. It’s hard to make an exciting, crowd pleasing movie if you stop the momentum at some point to mourn the catastrophic loss of life that goes along with your big action set piece. But honestly, that’s all I’m thinking about anyway when a major population center gets blown up or wave after wave of soldiers get mowed down or whatever. Who were those people? How did the loss of each one change the world in some way? How do you pick up the next day without them all? And that’s something I’ve always thought Tolkien, by contrast, did very well!

No, he doesn’t spend page after page giving us the backstory on every rank and file soldier to die at the Pelennor Fields, for example, but he does acknowledge that the victory was every bit as tragic as it was triumphant. He takes the time to give us the names of both captains and nobodies who died before we ever got to know them. He shows us there was a real human impact, and by giving us those names, he invites us to think more about them. Who were they really? What were their lives like? Who loved them back home and will miss them when they don’t return? Tolkien engages with that and even sometimes for the enemies, such as the Southron who dies at Sam’s feet in Ithilien.

I’m not necessarily on the same page with the broader culture on this point because a lot of people don’t seem to have this particular hang-up about their media and would (perhaps rightly) view too much of a focus on that kind of thing as extremely depressing, which is not what everyone is looking for in their pop culture diet! But I love and appreciate Tolkien for it anyway. And it’s probably no coincidence that a lot of those Name Only — or very close to it— dead guys are the ones I gravitate to the most easily in my own thoughts and fan fiction.

[whats-in-a-sentence]

We heard of the horns in the hills ringing,

the swords shining in the South-kingdom.

Steeds went striding to the Stoningland

as wind in the morning. War was kindled.

There Théoden fell, Thengling mighty,

to his golden halls and green pastures

in the Northern fields never returning,

high lord of the host. Harding and Guthláf,

Dúnhere and Déorwine, doughty Grimbold,

Herefara and Herubrand, Horn and Fastred,

fought and fell there in a far country:

in the Mounds of Mundburg under mould they lie

with their league-fellows, lords of Gondor.

Neither Hirluin the Fair to the hills by the sea,

nor Forlong the old to the flowering vales

ever, to Arnach, to his own country

returned in triumph; nor the tall bowmen,

Derufin and Duilin, to their dark waters,

meres of Morthond under mountain-shadows.

Death in the morning and at day's ending

lords took and lowly. Long now they sleep

under grass in Gondor by the Great River.

Grey now as tears, gleaming silver,

red then it rolled, roaring water:

foam dyed with blood flamed at sunset;

as beacons mountains burned at evening;

red fell the dew in Rammas Echor.

"The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" - J.R.R. Tolkien

[landrysg]

Tolkien reads "Song of the Mounds of Mundburg"

From the album "Tolkien Reads and Sings His 'The Lord of the Rings'"

I had this on vinyl at one time ...

[rangers-are-cool-moved]

When you're writing a reply and Song of the Mounds of Mundburg - Clamavi De Profundis Ft. Eurielle comes on. Fitting lol

[cat-in-a-frogsuit]

The Clamavi de Profundis version of the song sang by the Rohirrim to remember those who fell on the Pellenor fields.

[lotr-calligraphy]

Aragorn and Éomer and Imrahil rode back towards the Gate of the City, and they were now weary beyond joy or sorrow. These three were unscathed, for such was their fortune and the skill and might of their arms, and few indeed had dared to abide them or look on their faces in the hour of their wrath. But many others were hurt or maimed or dead upon the field. The axes hewed Forlong as he fought alone and unhorsed; and both Duilin of Morthond and his brother were trampled to death when they assailed the mûmakil, leading their bowmen close to shoot at the eyes of the monsters. Neither Hirluin the fair would return to Pinnath Gelin, nor Grimbold to Grimslade, nor Halbarad to the Northlands, dour-handed Ranger. No few had fallen, renowned or nameless, captain or soldier; for it was a great battle and the full count of it no tale has told. So long afterward a maker in Rohan said in his song of the Mounds of Mundburg:

Poems in the Lord of the Rings [70/82]

[sweetearthandnorthernsky]

Okay, i think I’ve given myself enough time to deal with the actual battle part of pelennor, I think it’s time to start working on the post-battle stuff.

[middle-earth-mythopoeia]

J.R.R. Tolkien reads from The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, 1952

This is J.R.R. Tolkien reading—and singing!—excerpts from The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and it is exactly as amazing as it sounds. George Sayer, a friend of Tolkien’s, helped make the recordings while Tolkien was visiting him in August 1952, two years before The Lord of the Rings was published. (It doesn’t have that information under the youtube videos, but I was able to find out the context from Tolkien Gateway and the Tolkien Library.) These are so wonderful and I’m so glad they exist! It’s absolutely delightful to hear the Professor reading his own stories. You have not lived until you have heard Tolkien’s Gollum impression, or his Treebeard voice, or him speaking in Elvish...not to mention reading The Ride of the Rohirrim! Yes, he actually recorded that and it is literally the best thing ever. It’s amazing to listen to him reciting the Song of Beren and Lúthien (just like Strider told it to the hobbits!), and everything else, and I’m so, so, so glad that these recordings were made. This is a treasure trove! I want more people to know about this! 

Excerpt from Riddles in the Dark  The Road Goes Ever On Upon the Hearth the Fire is Red  Snow-white! Snow-white! O Lady Clear! The Bath Song Farewell We Call to Hearth and Hall! Hey dol! merry dol! ring a dong dillo! The Man in the Moon Stayed Up Too Late The Fall of Gil-galad The Song Of Beren And Lúthien The Stone Troll A Elbereth Gilthoniel The Song of Durin The Song of Nimrodel When evening in the Shire was grey Gandalf's Song of Lórien Lament for Boromir The Long List of the Ents Treebeard’s Song The Ent and the Entwife Bregalad’s Song The Ents’ Marching Song Where now the horse and the rider? Gollum’s fish song Oliphaunt Excerpt from Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit Lament for Théoden Excerpt from The Ride of the Rohirrim Song of the Mounds of Mundburg Excerpt from Mount Doom Sing now, ye people of the Tower of Anor Namárië

Finally, this is George Sayer’s note on the recordings, which I transcribed from this radio broadcast because I thought others would like to read it. 

George Sayer writes: “This record is based on a tape recording that Tolkien made when he was staying in my house in northern Worcestershire. It was in August 1952. For the whole of that summer he had been depressed because The Lord of the Rings, the book on which he had worked for fourteen years, had been refused by publishers, so that he had almost given up hope of ever seeing it in print. But the fact that they had returned it made it possible for my wife Moira and I to borrow the only complete typescript and become, with our friend C.S. Lewis, about the first of passionately enthusiastic Tolkien fans. There arose the question of how to return it to its author. Since it could not, of course, be trusted to the post, I wrote to ask when he would be at home in Oxford for me to deliver it. His reply indicated that he would be quite on his own in the second half of August, and perhaps even rather lonely, and we therefore invited him to come to more than to pick up the typescript, and to stay for a few days. “It was easy to entertain him by day. He and I tramped the Malvern Hills, which he had often seen during his boyhood in Birmingham, or from his brother’s house on the other side of the Seven River Valley. He lived the book as we walked, sometimes comparing parts of the hills with, for instance, the White Mountains of Gondor. We drove to the Black Mountains on the borders of Wales, picked billberries, and climbed through the heather there. We picnicked on bread and cheese and apples, and washed them down with perry, beer or cider. When we saw signs of industrial pollution, he talked of orcs and orcery. At home, he helped me to garden. Characteristically, what he liked most was to cultivate a very small area—say a square yard—extremely well. “To entertain him in the evening I produced a tape recorder, a solid early Ferrograph that is still going strong. He had never seen one before, and said whimsically that he ought to cast out any devil that might be in it by recording a prayer, the Lord’s Prayer, in Gothic—one of the extinct languages of which he was a master. He was delighted when I played it back to him, and asked if he might record some of the poems in The Lord of the Rings to find out how they sounded to other people. The more he recorded, the more he enjoyed recording, and the more his literary self-confidence grew. When he had finished the poems, one of us said, ‘Record for us the riddle scene from The Hobbit!’ and we sat spellbound for almost half an hour while he did. I then asked him to record what he thought one of the best pieces of prose in The Lord of the Rings, and he recorded part of The Ride of the Rohirrim. 

“‘Surely you know that’s really good?’ I asked, after playing it back. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘It’s good. This machine has made me believe in it again. But how am I to get it published?’ I thought of what I myself might do in the same difficulty. ‘Haven’t you an old pupil in publishing who might like it for its own sake, and therefore be willing to take the risk?’ ‘There’s only Rayner Unwin,’ he replied, after a pause. ‘Then send it to Rayner Unwin personally!’ And he did. And the result was that even during his lifetime, over 3 million copies were sold. When he got back to Oxford, Tolkien wrote to thank us for having him—a letter in Elvish that is one of my most valued posessions.”

[a-funeral-pyre]

Some more music recommandations

See? I’m not dead yet. This is mostly going to be about Tolkien.

Tolkien:

-A Elbereth Giltoniel, Martin Romberg

-Songs of the mounds of Mundburg, The Tolkien Ensemble

-Tom Bombadil’s song, The Tolkien Ensemble

-The burial song of Théoden, The Tolkien Ensemble

-Elven hymn to Elbereth Giltoniel, The Tolkien Ensemble

-Farewell song of Merry and Pippin, The Tolkien Ensemble

-Galadriel’s lament, Broceliande

-Lament for Boromir, Broceliande

-The lay of Nimrodel, Broceliande

-Lament for the Rohirrim, The Lonely Mountain Band

-The prophecy, Yolanda Mott

-The barrel song, Beth Ortolano

-Bilbo’s last song, Malcolm Martineau

-There and back again, Ainur

-Where hope and daylight die, Summoning

-The border of Eldamar, Eldamar

Swan lake:

-Swan lake, Dark Moor

Arthurian legends:

-Avalon, Vexillum

[tolkien-feels]

personally I think the fact that Forlong the Fat died on the Pelennor was very bearphobic of Tolkien

No, no, but you're thinking about this very negatively! Forlong dies in glorious battle at a ripe old age and his name will forever be remembered in the Song of the Mounds of Mundburg! That's a great life to have! I'm sure Forlong is very proud of his life!!!

[from-the-coffee-shop-in-edoras]

Dream fanfic idea for my niche little area of interest – a Mounds of Mundburg Collection. That would be a grouping of fics, not necessarily tied to one another narratively, but that each star or heavily feature one of the obscure, doomed men whose deaths are commemorated in the Mounds of Mundburg song that ends The Battle of the Pelennor Fields chapter of ROTK.

The fact that these guys all died in that battle is literally all we know about some of them; for others, we might also have just one or two small details, like the town they came from or the weapon they favored. But they’re essentially blank slates, with nearly infinite room to build your own backstories and fill out their worlds with people who love them or hate them, great things they’ve succeeded or failed at doing, aspirations and hopes that they had planned to pursue after the war, ways that they intersect or don’t with major canon events, etc.

The men in question are Harding, Guthláf (♥️), Dúnhere, Déorwine, Grimbold, Herefara, Herubrand, Horn, Fastred, Hirluin, Forlong, Derufin, and Duilin. I’ve already written quite a bit about Guthláf, both in ficlet and multi-chapter narrative form, and I have Dúnhere and Grimbold in my WIPs, but that still leaves a half dozen Rohirrim and all 4 Gondorians. So I don’t know if it’s something I’d ever get to and finish on my own, or if it would be a fun shared effort to build the collection over time with someone else who happens to love one or more of these little NPCs of Middle Earth. But I like the idea.

[tolkienillustrations]

We heard of the horns in the hills ringing, the swords shining in the South-kingdom, Steeds went striding to the Stoningland as wind in the morning. War was kindled. There Théoden fell, Thengling mighty, to his golden halls and green pastures in the Northern fields never returning, high lord of the host. Harding and Guthláf, Dúnhere and Déorwine, doughty Grimbold, Herefara and Herubrand, Horn and Fastred, fought and fell there in a far country: in the Mounds of Mundburg under mould they lie with their league-fellows, lords of Gondor. Neither Hirluin the Fair to the hills by the sea, nor Forlong the old to the flowering vales ever, to Arnach, to his own country returned in triumph; nor the tall bowmen, Derufin and Duilin, to their dark waters, meres of Morthond under mountain-shadows. Death in the morning and at day’s ending lords took and lowly. Long now they sleep under grass in Gondor by the Great River. Grey now as tears, gleaming silver, red then it rolled, roaring water: foam dyed with blood flamed at sunset; as beacons mountains burned at evening; red fell the dew in Rammas Echor.

Song of the Mounds of Mundburg

[arofili]

men of middle-earth ❅ northmen ❅ headcanon disclaimer

          The Riders of Rohan were the horse-mounted warriors of the Rohirrim, divided into several éoryd led by the Marshals of the Riddermark. At the time of the War of the Ring, many riders did noble deeds and many others perished in battle.           Among the éored of Éomer who overran the Uruk-hai of Uglúk were his squire Éothain, who doubted the tale of holbytlan captured by orcs, and the warriors Gárulf, Adwig, and Ethelred, who lost their lives in the fight. The Three Hunters were given horses by Éomer, Aragorn riding Hasufel, once the steed of Gárulf, while Legolas and Gimli together rode Arod, once the steed of Adwig. Ethelred’s horse, Brego, fled the battle and ran wild, until eventually he was recovered and returned to Edoras, where Aragorn soothed him into a steed worthy of riding into battle once more.            Two valiant captains of the Riders were Grimbold of Grimslade, descendant of Grim, and Gamling the Old. Grimbold served under Théodred, Second Marshal of the Mark, and took command of the Fords of Isen after his prince fell, holding it until reinforcements arrived. Gamling, known in his youth as Baldwig, was an old man at the Battle of the Hornburg, but he was still a commanding presence and was the first to realize that orcs had penetrated the Deep through its culvert, and led the counter-attack himself.           Dúnhere, Lord of Harrowdale and nephew of Erkenbrand, served under Grimbold in the Battle of the Fords of Isen, and later rode the muster of the Rohirrim at his homeland of Harrowdale, answering the call of the King for soldiers to fight in the War. Many riders answered and all were welcomed, including Wídfara of the Wold, Herubrand and his son Herefara, the ceorl Fastwine who had served as a messenger and won the King’s favor, and many others. Wídfara joined the éored of Elfhelm, while Herubrand, Herefara, and Fastwine were invited to Théoden’s personal éored, the King’s Riders, to replace three soldiers who had fallen at Helm’s Deep.           The only warrior whose service was refused was the Lady Éowyn, the King’s sister-son, who was commanded to remain in Rohan to lead in his stead. But Éowyn would not be denied, and she disguised herself as the warrior Dernhelm and rode with the Riders to Gondor against her uncle’s orders. On the journey, she befriended Meriadoc Brandybuck, who was likewise defying Théoden’s word, and together they rode the horse Windfola into battle. In the end, the combined attack of Dernhelm and Merry were enough to slay the unkillable Witch-king of Angmar, though not in time to save the life of Théoden King.           Many men fell in the Battle of Pelennor Fields, including six of the King’s Riders: Harding and Horn, valiant men both; Herefara and his father Herubrand; the ceorl Fastred, akin to Fastwine, and Guthláf the banner-bearer. So also fell Dúnhere and Déorwine and Grimbold, mighty commanders. All were remembered in the Song of the Mounds of Mundburg, a grand poem honoring those who gave their lives fighting against the Shadow, their names going down in history alongside those of Gondor’s Captains of the Outlands who also perished on that fateful day.

[berdaswintha]

But many others were hurt or maimed or dead upon the field. The axes hewed Forlong as he fought alone and unhorsed; and both Duilin of Morthond and his brother were trampled to death when they assailed the mûmakil, leading their bowmen close to shoot at the eyes of the monsters. Neither Hirluin the fair would return to Pinnath Gelin, nor Grimbold to Grimslade, nor Halbarad to the Northlands, dour-handed Ranger. No few had fallen, renowned or nameless, captain or soldier; for it was a great battle and the full count of it no tale has told. So long afterward a maker in Rohan said in his song of the Mounds of Mundburg...

The Return of the King

[starspray]

Northern Lights; O Captain, my Captain; Understanding

Northern Lights  Tell usabout some real life magic. 

Last week I had to run to the grocery store, and while I was getting the like, eight thousand mangoes my mom wanted my sister texted me asking me to get a bag of our dog’s favorite treats--so I duly trotted over to the pet aisle and grabbed a bag, and continued with the rest of my shopping. And then I got to the self-checkout and was doing the checkout thing and I looked down and just sitting in the cart was this coupon for like $3 off the dog treats. It was not there when I grabbed the cart, and I didn’t take any coupons to the store with me, and as far as I remember I didn’t leave the cart unattended at any time. But it was still good, so I used it, and saved $3 on Pupperoni.

O Captain, My Captain  Isthere any scene in a movie or book bursting of such grandness youcould cry? 

The charge of the Rohirrim onto Pelennor Fields--both in the book and in the movie. I just love it so much, it is the best.

(There’s also this video on youtube somewhere where someone took the movie charge and put the Tolkien Ensemble’s rendition of the “Song of the Mounds of Mundburg” over it and that is also really cool.)

Understanding  Name a funfact, but only of the positive and happy kind.

The oldest, longest-running bookstore in America (and possibly the world) is located in my state, up in Bethlehem, and according to this Mental Floss article it is also haunted--but the ghost seems rather friendly.

(I have not visited this store but I really really want to)

[lotr-calligraphy]

Everything I’ve made

     ~The Fellowship of the Ring~

Ring poem

The road goes ever on and on

Home is behind

Snow-white! Snow-white! O lady clear

Ho! ho! ho! To the bottle I go

Bath song

Farewell we call to hearth and hall!

O! wanderers in the shadowed land

Hey dol! merry dol! ring a dong dillo!

Hey! Come merry dol! Derry dol! My darling!

Hop along, my little friends

Hey! Come derry dol! Hop along, my hearties!

Now let the song begin

O slender as a willow-wand

Old Tom Bombadil is a merry fellow

I had an errand there

Ho! Tom Bombadil, Tom Bombadillo!

Cold be hand and heart and bone

Old Tom Bombadil is a merry fellow 2

Get out, you old wight

Wake now, my merry lads

Hey! now! Come hoy now! Whither do you wander?

Tom’s country ends here

There is an inn...

All that is gold does not glitter

Gil-Galad was an Elven-king

Song of Beren and Luthien

Troll sat alone on his seat of stone

Eärendil was a mariner

A Elbereth Gilthoniel

Seek for the sword that was broken

All that is gold does not glitter 2

Ring inscription

When winter first begins to bite

I sit beside the fire and think

Annon edhellen, edro hi ammen

Song of Durin - 37.5:  Balin’s tomb

Song of Nimrodel

Gandalf is dead and it is sad - The Song

Galadriel’s song of Eldamar

Ai! laurië lantar lassi súrinen ~The Two Towers~

Boromir is dead and it is sad - The Song

Gondor! Gondor!

The lore of living creatures

Taurelilómëa...

Treebeard’s song

Ents and entwives

O Orofarne

To Isengard

Message to Aragorn

Message to Legolas - 51.5: Message to Gimli

Where now the horse and the rider

In Dwimordene, in Lórien

Forth Eorlingas

Ere Iron...

Though Isengard...

Hobbits in the Long List

Tall ships and tall kings

One Ring

Gollum’s song

Oliphaunt rhyme from the Shire

Seek for the Sword that was Broken reprise

Gilthoniel A Elbereth/A Elbereth Gilthoniel ~The Return of the King~

Thing about the Paths of the Dead

From dark Dunharrow

Arise, arise, Riders of Théoden!

Mourn not overmuch...

Snowmane’s grave

Out of doubt...

song of the Mounds of Mundburg (gold shine)

When the black breath blows

Silver flow the streams

In Western lands

Long live the Halflings

To the Sea

Sing now

Et Eärello

Out of doubt

The Road goes ever on and on

Awake!

Still round the corner

A! Elbereth Gilthoniel

Quotes from the books

Ai ai wailed Legolas

Well if that isn’t a plague and a nuisance

True, said Aragorn

Do not be afraid

The birds again

Warm up 1

Warm up 2

Warm up 3

Last paragraph of Two Towers

Gift version of Gollum’s song

Bilbo comes back to Bag End in the Hobbit

Quotes from the movies

Sam’s speech

They’re taking the hobbits to Isengard

I am no man

You shall not pass

Keep it secret. Keep it safe

Quotes from other people on this site

Jolene Gil-Galad

Eärendil limerick

That’s a-Moria

Paintings

Bookmarks

A hobbit

Gandalf

Not lotr

A sunset bloom (Star Trek)

Stopping by woods on a snowy evening

Will you go to hell if you have a drop of spirit (Terry Pratchett)

If you trust in yourself... (Terry Pratchett)