EE~ song of the Wandering Company

...which Frodo, who seems a bit less schooled in the movie in Elvish matters, incorrectly identifies to Sam as “Wood Elves”. Also, to get across the theme of the Elves leaving in a haiku format, PJ has them travelling west, rather than wandering aimlessly (in a later book Tolkien said they were coming back from Emyn Beraidh).

In spite of the “Wood Elves” slip, I think this part of the film captures the essence of the Elves, and Tolkien, better than any other. “I don’t know why... but it makes me sad,” Sam says. The Elves glimmer into view and glide past as if they don’t belong in the world at all. It’s haunting and stately and a little eerie, as it ought to be.

Does anyone know where one can find a complete recording of the song? It’s so beautiful! But it’s not on the FOTR CD, because that doesn’t include EE material. After listening to it very carefully, I think I’ve caught what they’re singing:


[can’t hear first line]
Calad ammen i reniam                   Light for-us who wander
mi ’aladhremmin Ennorath              in tree-woven Middle-earth.
A Elbereth Gilthoniel                      O Elbereth Gilthoniel
I chîn a thûl lín [lim?,] gelair             Thy eyes and breath (are) [clear?,] bright


Here’s how it goes in the book...

’Listen! They are coming this way,’ said Frodo. ’We have only to wait.’ The singing drew nearer. One clear voice rose now above the others. It was singing in the fair elven-tongue, of which Frodo knew only a little, and the others knew nothing. Yet the sound blending with the melody seemed to shape itself in their thought into words which they only partly understood. This was the song as Frodo heard it:


Snow-white! Snow-white! O Lady clear!
Queen beyond the Western Seas!
O Light to us that wander here
Amid the world of woven trees!
Gilthoniel! O Elbereth!
Clear are thy eyes and bright thy breath!

[... two more verses...]

The hobbits sat in shadow by the wayside. Before long the Elves came down the lane towards the valley. They passed slowly, and the hobbits could see the starlight glimmering on their hair and in their eyes. They bore no lights, yet as they walked a shimmer, like the light of the moon above the rim of the hills before it rises, seemed to fall about their feet.


The first faint line in the movie could be something like A rîn athan aeair ennui (O queen beyond the seas-western), but I can’t make out the sounds. Also lim is a word whose meaning we’re not sure about, nor am I sure I’m hearing the last bit correctly.

You must have very good hearing to pick out those words, the only part I could ever make out was A Elbereth. I like that part too, it has a feeling to it that hasn’t reappeared yet in either of the movies. Mabye they’ll have more scene like that at the end of RotK. It’s a shame it’s not in the soundtrack. I think there was a limited edition of the soundtrack (both of them) but the music itself is the same, it’s just something on the cover that’s changed. I’m not sure about that though, I’ve never seen any limited edition soundtrack here.

Well, it helps that I’d attempted to translate this into Sindarin once upon a time, so when I heard A Elbereth Gilthoniel, I pricked my ears for galadhremmin Ennorath (tree-woven Middle-earth). Sure enough, there it was. Once I had those two lines, I knew for certain it was a translation of the poem in the book, and I could use that to help me with the Elvish.

Ai, I don’t usually cry in movies, but if they’d had time to leave this in, I probably would’ve bawled.

*hangs onto her Eldar masters possessively... don’t go! Don’t leave me here alone! Not yet!*

Gwathel, I’d translated this verse myself. There are lyrics on Gwaith but what they had printed could not have been correct, so I sent them what I thought it sounded like, although the last bit was really hard to tell. Derdzinski put up what I sent him, but I still wasn’t satisfied, so I emailed David Salo and asked him.

He was gracious enough to reply:

This isn’t an exact translation, but a poetic one; or rather, an attempt to create a Sindarin ’original’ poem of which Tolkien’s text might be a poetic translation.

 

Calad ammen i reniar ~ Light for us who wander
Mi ’aladhremmin ennorath ~ Amid the tree-woven middle-lands
A Elbereth Gilthoniel ~ O Elbereth Star-kindler

I chîn a thûl lín míriel ~ your eyes and breath are shining like jewels

 

From the horse’s mouth!

HA! Then... then... gasps... I got all the parts right I could hear (I was really guessing on the last 3 syllables), except that I thought the who in i reniar would have to be 1st plural because it’s referring to “we” (Latin is picky that way).

*happydance* I’m starting to get the hang of it. Finally. *hugs gwathel lots, also somewhat envious that she got an answer from The Man himself*

Now we just need to translate the rest of the poem, and I’ll sing the whole thing. But I still want the one from the movie. And he didn’t translate the first line, fooey!

*happy dance just for loving Sindarin!*

It was nice of him to reply, indeed, I’m sure he gets lots of emails.

In my guess at what I was hearing, I also thought it must surely end with gelair "bright/brilliant", but I like his reason why it’s not a literal translation. My own earlier translation of the entire verse in the book is, of course, a literal one *grins at gwathelen* but if I were wanting to sing it:

A Fanuilos, Brennil gelair ~ O Everwhite! Lady clear!
Athan Aear Annui, Bereth ~ Beyond the Western Seas, Queen
Calad ammen i reniar ~ Light for us who wander
Mi ’aladhremmin ennorath ~ Amid the world of woven trees!
A Elbereth Gilthoniel ~ O Elbereth, Starkindler
I chîn a thûl lín míriel ~ Thine eyes and breath shining like a jewel
A Fanuilos! Linnam allen ~ O Everwhite! We sing to thee
Athan Aear min ndôr chae hen ~ Beyond [the] Sea in this far land

We’ll have to work on the rest of it, Tinw, but that part just slides right into place! Meter and rhyme falling into place? It’s bizarre!

Wow, you guys are good!  And persistent.  I did hear enough of that Elvish song to hear "A Elbereth Gilthoniel" and to realize that it wasn’t quite the song in the book (for instance I didn’t hear "silvren penna miriel" but I did hear "galadhremmin ennorath.")  I didn’t pursue it beyond that.  I am indebted to you!

 

*drumroll* And now, the newly-restored version, with Tara supplying translation for the missing lines, as well as vocals!
http://www.lotrplaza.com/forum/houseroomview.asp?house=72&room=1

Is this on the EE of TTT? I thought the EE only comes out in November?

Yes! Tara and I watched the whole thing already on Galadriel’s mirror, and we’ve seen the ending of ROTK, and the cut footage of Éowyn wearing nothing but--er, ahem, this is the forum for the FOTR movie, isn’t it? *tweaks Braga’s nose, or would if I could reach that high*

If you don’t remember this scene, it was EE footage inserted after Sam and Frodo set out from Bag End and before they run into-- er, were run into by-- Merry & Pippin. It’s immediately before the "Saruman teaches Gandalf to breakdance" fight.

’A Galad ven i reniar hi ’aladhremmin ennorath.
A Elbereth Gilthoniel ithil nâ thûl, ithil lîn hen... ’

So I’ve seen this phrasing several times on the Internet.  Is it totally inaccurate or from a different part of the hymn? 

Thanks for your help, Robin, a clueless novice

   Tinw and Tara, you two really are amazing with Sindarin! I too listened to what the elves had been saying, and I’ve been wandering since what they were saying! It’s a really beautiful piece, and now you’ve translated most of it! Excellent work!