#trumpets are used in reference to war in Tolkien!

[voxiiferous]

@melpomaen | Everyone else excuse the break from our regularly scheduled programming for some Tolkien nerdiness.

I Wanna Be In The Calvary Noldor edition (as sung prior to the Burning of the Ships)

I wanna be in the cavalry if they send me off to war I wanna good steed under me like my forefathers before I wanna good mount when the trumpet sounds and I hear the dragon's roar I wanna be in the cavalry if they send me off to war

I wanna horse in the volunteer force that's riding forth at dawn Please save for me some gallantry that will echo when I'm gone I beg of you sir let me lead the charge when the battle lines are drawn Lemme at least leave a good hoof beat they'll remember loud and long

I'd not a good foot soldier make, I'd be sour and slow at march And I'd be sick on a swan ship, and the Belegaer'd leave me parched But I'll be first in line if they'll let me ride, by god, you'll see my starch Lope back o'er the heath with the laurel wreath underneath that vict'ry arch

Let me earn my fleurs in the battle's blur where the day is lost or won I'll wield my lance as the ponies dance and the blackguards hit their drums A sabre keen, and a bow notched and an army at my back Where the minstrels lead with the cold, cold steel let me be a cav'lryman

Let 'em play their flutes and lace-up my boots and place them back to front For I won't be back on the Helcaraxë until I'm finished in my hunt I wanna be in the cavalry if I must go off to war I wanna be in the cavalry, but I won't ride home no more

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I Wanna Be In The Cavalry: Reprise (Written sometimes in the late first age)

I wanna be in the cavalry if they send me off to war I wanna good steed under me like my forefathers before

Courageous at first we took their worst, our positions we held stout We clung to belief and we hung on the speech from our trusted leaders' mouths Overwhelming odds and a hopeless cause and our cities overrun There were them that said we was badly led and that were we outmanned

I lost count of the worthy mounts that from under me were cut My favourite mare with her head in the air took poisoned arrows in her gut In the first two weeks on the Ard-Galen my brother lost his arm Was only sixty years till all we prayed was get us home unharmed

O for the day that we changed our names and the well that we were wished The men's congrats and the pats on the backs and the ladies that we missed The band that played and the grande parade and the patriotic shouts All faded fast, didn't even last till the uniforms wore out

And there were none to replace nor to help us face the winters cold and bleak That chilled to the bone the pneumonia prone and froze our bootless feet Then the red-clad came with oath-bound fits, blood and stolen gem That proved in the end to have killed more men than the vilest enemy

We were finally forced to feed on horse and carcass we could scrounge When the wagons stopped and we'd burnt their crops to charred and barren ground With morale in doubt and our pride run out no honour did I see All I seen were a thousand dreams piled dead in front of me

I wanna be in the cavalry if the send me off to war I wanna be in the cavalry but I won't ride home no more