The world was young, the mountains green, more commonly known as the Song of Durin,[source?] was a poem sung by Gimli when the Fellowship of the Ring traveled through Moria. Gimli stood up and sang this song when recalling the splendour of Dwarrowdelf. Sam Gamgee liked the song so much he wanted to learn it.[1]
The poem
The world was young, the mountains green,
No stain yet on the Moon was seen,
No words were laid on stream or stone
When Durin woke and walked alone.
He named the nameless hills and dells;
He drank from yet untasted wells;
He stooped and looked in Mirrormere,
And saw a crown of stars appear,
As gems upon a silver thread,
Above the shadow of his head.
The world was fair, the mountains tall,
In Elder Days before the fall
Of mighty kings in Nargothrond
And Gondolin, who now beyond
The Western Seas have passed away:
The world was fair in Durin's Day.
A king he was on carven throne
In many-pillared halls of stone
With golden roof and silver floor,
And runes of power upon the door.
The light of sun and star and moon
In shining lamps of crystal hewn
Undimmed by cloud or shade of night
There shone for ever fair and bright.
There hammer on the anvil smote,
There chisel clove, and graver wrote;
There forged was blade, and bound was hilt;
The delver mined, the mason built.
There beryl, pearl, and opal pale,
And metal wrought like fishes' mail,
Buckler and corslet, axe and sword,
And shining spears were laid in hoard.
Unwearied then were Durin's folk;
Beneath the mountains music woke:
The harpers harped, the minstrels sang,
And at the gates the trumpets rang.
The world is grey, the mountains old,
The forge's fire is ashen-cold;
No harp is wrung, no hammer falls:
The darkness dwells in Durin's halls;
The shadow lies upon his tomb
In Moria, in Khazad-dûm.
But still the sunken stars appear
In dark and windless Mirrormere;
There lies his crown in water deep,
Till Durin wakes again from sleep.
Other versions of the legendarium
An earlier draft, presented in The Treason of Isengard, has a different version of the poem
The world was young, the mountains green,
No mark upon the moon was seen,
When Durin came and gave their name
To lands where none before had been.
nameless lands had been.
The world was fair, the mountains tall,
With gold and silver gleamed his hall,
When Durin's throne of carven stone
Yet stood behind the guarded wall.
The world is dark, the mountains old,
In shadow lies the heaped gold;
In Durin's halls no hammer falls,
The forges' fires are grey and cold
Among other half-formed lines or couplets are:
When Durin woke and gave to gold
its first and secret name of old
When Durin came to Azanûl
and found and named the nameless pool
Portrayal in adaptations
1981: The Lord of the Rings (1981 radio series):
- Gimli performs an abbreviated version of he song, omitting the first verse and portions of the second.
2001-2003: Pán prsteňov (2001-2003 Slovak radio series):
- Gimli (portrayed by Vladimír Hajdu) sings the Song of Durin during the Fellowship's journey through Moria, as in the novel. The lyrics of the song are not entirely identical with the original English lyrics (especially when it comes to references to First Age events and locations), but follows the structure and ideas of the original lyrics closely. Gimli presents the poem in a half-reciting, half-singing manner. Its slow and melancholy tune is accompanied by flute (the main melody), a subtle sound of a hammer clanging against an anvil in the distance (indicating the rhythm) and occasional string instrument additions (for emphasizing mood).
2014: Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor:
- In the Big Game quest, Torvin sings the first stanza, except for "As gems upon a silver thread", which he hums.
See also
External links
- Rendition by J.R.R. Tolkien
- Rendition by Douglas Livingstone (1981 BBC Radio production)
- Rendition by Lonely Mountain Band
- Rendition by Clamavi De Profundis
- Rendition by Geoff Castellucci
- Rendition by Franco Ezequiel Páez
- Rendition by Colin Rudd
- Rendition by Adele McCallister
- Rendition by John Rhys-Davies (and with added music)
- Rendition by Vladimír Hajdu (Gimli portrayer in 2000s Slovak radio series)
- Rendition by Eurielle