"The days have gone down in the West ..."

Author: * Harald Egilsson - 2 Posts on this thread out of 216 Posts sitewide.
Date: Jan 11, 2004 - 14:05

I find it interesting that great poems can live through several incarnations and still retain the same intense feeling. Such is what has happened with the elegiac and reflective Anglo-Saxon poem The Wanderer. In the film of the Two Towers, some of Tolkien's poetry is spoken by Theoden against a dramatic backlight, as the ageing king contemplates the destruction of his kingdom and his people by the oncoming army of orcs:

Where is the horse and the rider?
Where is the horn that was blowing?
They have passed like rain on the mountains.
Like wind in the meadow.
The days have gone down in the West,
Behind the hills into shadow.

This is edited down from the poem in the book, where it is Aragorn who translates a Rohirrim poem into the Common Tongue for his companions:

Where now the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing?
Where is the helm and the hauberk, and the bright hair flowing?
Where is the hand on the harpstring, and the red fire glowing?
Where is the spring and the harvest and the tall corn growing?
They have passed like rain on the mountain, like a wind in the meadow;
The days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow.
Who shall gather the smoke of the dead wood burning,
Or behold the flowing years from the Sea returning?

This is a version of a passage from the great Anglo-Saxon poem The Wanderer, shortened and changed somewhat. This passage describes the desolation of the earth in a starkly haunting fashion:

Where has the horse gone? Where has the man gone? Where have the treasure-givers gone?
Where has the place of banquets gone? Where are the joys of hall?
Alas the gleaming cup! Alas the armoured warrior!
Alas the prince's glory! How the time has passed away,
Grown dark under the helm of the night, as if it never were.
There stands now in the track of the dear retainer
A wall, wondrously high, adorned with serpent-patterns.
The might of ash-spears snatched away noble man,
Weapons greedy for carnage, notorious fate,
And storms beat the stone-heaps,
Falling snowstorm binds the earth,
Winter's chaos, then the darkness comes,
Night-shadows spread gloom, sending from the north
Fierce hailstorms to the terror of men.
All is hardship in the earthly kingdom;
The operation of fate changes the world under the heavens.
Here, wealth is transitory; here a kinsman is transitory.
All this earth's foundation will become empty.

That was from the translation by Elaine Treharne, Old and Middle English c890-c1400 - An Anthology, Blackwell, 2000. Here is the same passage in the original:

Hwær cwom mearg? Hwær cwom mago?       Hwær cwom maþþumgyfa?
Hwær cwom symbla gesetu?       Hwær sindon seledreamas?
Eala beorht bune!       Eala byrnwiga!
Eala þeodnes þrym!       Hu seo þrag gewat,
Genap under nihthelm       swa heo no wære.
Stondeð nu on laste       leofte guguþe
Weal wundrum heah,      wyrmlicum fah.
Eorlas fornoman       asca þryþe,
Wæpen wælgifru,       wyrd seo mære,
Ond þas stanhleoþu       stormas cnyssað,
Hrið hreosende       hrusan bindeð
Wintres woma,       þonne won cymeð,
Nipeð nihtscua,       norþan onsendeð
Hreo hæglfare       hæleþum on andan.
Eall is earfoðlic       eorþan rice;
Onwendeð wyrda gesceaft       weoruld under heofonum.
Her bið feoh læne;       her bið freond læne;
Her bið mon læne;       her bið mæg læne.
Eal þis eorþan gesteal       idel weorþeð.

The whole poem, I think, reflects Tolkien's own views about the Anglo-Saxon world and also of his own invented world. Another section of the poem talks about the decline of middle earth (middangeard), which mirrors the feeling of melancholy throughout much of The Lord of the Rings. The elves in particular feel that time is moving on and that the world is changing, their time is over and their role in Middle Earth has ended.

And so this great poem has made its way, in much shortened form and by a circuitous route, into film - and retained the spirit that makes it such a haunting and beautiful piece of work.