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The Road Goes Ever On

From the One Wiki to Rule Them All, the Lord of the Rings Encyclopedia.

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"The Road Goes Ever On" is a walking song by Bilbo Baggins; verses of it are sung at various places in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

Sections of the poem are sung in the 1977 animated movie version of The Hobbit.

The song can be heard in the 1981 BBC radio version, sung by Bilbo (John Le Mesurier) to a tune by Stephen Oliver.

Parts of it are also sung in the movie The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring by Gandalf in the opening scene, and also by Bilbo as he leaves Bag End.

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 weary feet,
Until it joins some larger way,
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.

The Road Goes Ever On, taking its name from the above, is a collection of sheet music by Donald Swann for poetry presented by Tolkien in his Middle-earth literature. It was first published in 1967.

Although the book can at first sight seem mostly useful by musicians (particularly piano and guitar players), it has been found to have a wider use than this, allowing readers to understand the cultures of the various mythological beings presented in Middle-earth better, and helping linguists analyse Tolkien's poetry. For example, it contains one of the longest samples of the language Quenya.

The second edition of The Road Goes Ever On, published in 1978, included the poem Bilbo's Last Song.

The third edition, published in 1993 and likely the last, comes with additional poetry and also a CD with recordings for the entire song cycle.

[edit] External links


J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium

Works published during his lifetime
The Hobbit | The Lord of the Rings | The Adventures of Tom Bombadil | The Road Goes Ever On

Posthumous publications
The Silmarillion | Unfinished Tales | The History of Middle-earth (12 volumes) | Bilbo's Last Song | The Children of Húrin

Lists of LOTR Wiki articles about Middle-earth
by category | by name | writings | characters | peoples | rivers | realms | ages

This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at The Road Goes Ever On. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with this wiki, the content of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.

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