A Fading Crown

Soaking up the beginnings of autumn on a walk recently, I could not help but think of Galadriel's song in Tolkien's bittersweet chapter, "Farewell to Lorien".  Indeed, I could not help singing it, as the leaves spun slowly to the ground around me, and the crows called coarsely to one another.  Long  ago I set her words to music, and the song has been a comfort and a companion every fall, as the glorious crown of autumn fades into winter.

If you are unfamiliar with the mythology of Middle Earth, you can still appreciate the archetypal images and mournful meter of her song.  The fellowship are departing, their fate unknown.  Whether they succeed or not, Galadriel's power will fail.  It is already failing.  Her woodland realm - created as a fair haven for her people - is fading into an autumn and a winter that will never see spring.

As we must all say goodbye to people and places we have long cherished and worked for, we might be encouraged by Galadriel's song, which is one of reflection and sorrow, but not of despair.

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From The Fellowship of the Rings, by J. R. R. Tolkien:


"I sang of leaves, of leaves of gold, and leaves of gold there grew:
Of wind I sang, a wind there came and in the branches blew.

Beyond the Sun, beyond the Moon, the foam was on the Sea,
And by the strand of Ilmarin there grew a golden Tree.

Beneath the stars of Ever-eve in Eldamar it shone,

In Eldamar beside the walls of Elven Tirion.

There long the golden leaves have grown upon the branching years,

While here beyond the Sundering Seas now fall the Elven-tears.

O Lorien!  The Winter comes, the bare and leafless Day;

The leaves are falling in the stream, the River flows away.

O Lorien!  Too long I have dwelt upon this Hither Shore

And in a fading crown have twined the golden elanor.

But if of ships I now should sing, what ship would come to me,

What ship would bear me ever back across so wide a Sea?"