Noel

Poems by J.R.R. Tolkien
Noel
Poem Information
Written	Before 1936
Published	'Annual' of Our Lady's School, Abingdon, The Collected Poems of J.R.R. Tolkien
Subject(s)	Christianity, Christ

Noel is the title of a poem that was written by J.R.R. Tolkien.

First stanza

Grim was the world and grey last night;
The moon and stars were fled,
The hall was dark without song or light.
The fires were fallen dead.
The wind in the trees was like to the sea,
And over the mountains' teeth
It whistled bitter-cold and free,
As a sword leapt from its sheath.

Background

Contents page from Vol.12 of the Annual of Our Lady's School (1936)

Noel was published together with the poem The Shadow Man in the Annual of Our Lady's School in 1936. According to Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull, who discovered the poem in 2013, it is a "directly Christian poem, celebrating the birth of Christ".

In 2024, the poem was re-published in September as entry 148 of The Collected Poems of J.R.R. Tolkien, where Hammond and Scull likened the poem's mood to "an English winter" and compared it to Christina Rossetti's 'A Christmas Carol' from 1872.

Portrayal in adaptations

The poem, entitled Noël, was set to a Gregorian Chant and sung by the men's vocal ensemble Floriani on the occasion of 2024's Christmas.