Songs for the Road

Today I got some camp songs stuck in my head, and I realized that I've been wanting to learn the "Road goes on and on" that they sing in The Fellowship of the Ring. So I went in search of it, and found many versions along the way. Apparently "The Road Goes Ever On and On" is a poem that Tolkien wrote, but didn't include in LOTR. It's been turned into a very sad, dramatic song for LOTR the musical, but I still like it the way Bilbo sings it in the movie, joyfully and like a real walking song. @elisezoot, we have a song to arrange and learn so we never get bored along or around or under the rocky road to Dublin.

Skip to the last 30 seconds of this to hear Bilbo sing it!

Words taken from The Hobbit, and different parts of LOTR

 

Roads go ever ever on,

Over rock and under tree,

By caves where never sun has shone,

By streams that never find the sea;

Over snow by winter sown,

And through the merry flowers of June,

Over grass and over stone,

And under mountains in the moon.

Roads go ever ever on

Under cloud and under star,

Yet feet that wandering have gone

Turn at last to home afar.

Eyes that fire and sword have seen

And horror in the halls of stone

Look at last on meadows green

And trees and hills they long have known.

 

The Road goes ever on and on

Down from the door where it began.

Now far ahead the Road has gone,

And I must follow, if I can,

Pursuing it with eager feet,

Until it joins some larger way

Where many paths and errands meet.

And whither then? I cannot say.

 

The Road goes ever on and on

Out from the door where it began.

Now far ahead the Road has gone,

Let others follow it who can!

Let them a journey new begin,

But I at last with weary feet

Will turn towards the lighted inn,

My evening-rest and sleep to meet.