Save this song to you playlists on your favorite listening platform here! too.fm/orvbp8a Thank you so so much for listening to our LotR original! I'd love to do more like this in the future. If you'd like to support more music like this, consider dropping by my Patreon! www.patreon.com/rachelhardy
J. R. R. Tolkien was a pure genius and so are you in your own manner. With such a voice, no doubt the guy would have saved a place for you in Valinor to sing alongside the Ainur. Thanks for this piece of art.
This is stunning. Beautifully captures Galadriel's sadness, and I love the art/animation too. A lot of heart and soul went into this one, I can tell; fingers crossed that it becomes a new classic.
Really majestic and profound. I agree it so captures the sadness of the Elves of Middle-Earth. So glad you polished this up and have shared it with us all! Thanks for this and all your other gems.
Oh, Rachel, what a masterpiece. I have been a LOTR fan for 50-years, and this is the most amazing, moving piece I've heard. Thank you for sharing your great talent with us.
Wow, that makes me so happy to hear you enjoyed it as a fellow LotR fan! We had so much fun making this and I hope to do more LotR originals in the future
Welp I know exactly where I’m putting this. *Proceeds to put it into my “Lord of the Rings” playlist.* This song is really beautiful and you were spectacular. Makes me want to read the series now.
I've just been transported to Middle Earth, and I don't want to come back! Well done on such a beautiful song, you two! May the grace of the Valar always be upon you.
Emotionally encapsulating! You’ve come such a long way, Rachel! Admittedly a LotR fan but the music, voice, and lyrics really transport you. Amazing! Thank you for the journey!
This is phenomenal! I was browsing LotR movie scenes and YT decided to send your channel in my direction. I’m glad they did! I immediately subscribed. Keep them coming!
Nah, this original LOTR fan song is just perfect, I tell you! Didn't know I needed it but now I'm addicted! Timothy and you did wonderful, I might go in the vault to secure the song for when I don't have internet connection =)
This is amazing, Rachel! You really knocked this out of the park! I also always love how you use the background instrumentals really well (actually having musical themes and good orchestration instead of just a guitar strumming chords), and the upright/tubular chimes are a very nice touch! Seriously, you knocked this one out of the park!
Hi Christopher! Thank you for your kind words -- the orchestration and backtrack production on this piece was all by my friend and collaborator Timothy Shortell! He does incredible work. If you liked the instrumental on this one I would highly recommend checking out more of his work. His username is linked at the top of the description!
Amazing amazing work!! My only issues is the "r" were not rolled, but that's mostly a linguist thing. We look forward to when you do the Golden Leaves from Rings of Power season 2 in Elvish! Now that will be a joy to listen to.
Beautiful and honestly I could see this fitting in the films, amazon should ask permission to use this as a closing theme for the final rings of power season
I was watching last night and they had a different version of this poem in song-form in the show! Still so cool to hear the poem get some love, it's such a good one.
If you are ever up for it, you should totally sing a cover of Hushabye Mountain, I think you can really pull it off! Your voice is so ethereal and amazing.
Very well done!!!! Your vocals never disappoint. I'm surprise that Atom Music Audio or Amadea Music Production hasn't pick you up with some of their composers.
I would like to see a version of this where the music is less powerful and more supportive and the flow is then more of a melody. I think it would sound beautiful.
“I shall NOT be Dark. (All evil) will despair”, The elves (Galadriel especially is one of the few remaining that existed before the sun & moon. They pre-existed day & night.) How utterly, completely terrifying do you think it would be for your whole world to irrevocably change in a matter of an hour? For the thousands of years of (what you would come to know as twilight to be abruptly ended in a profundity of genuinely painful light and an infinity of colour? Of the joy, wonder and terror of distinguishing the difference between green and blue for the very first time in your whole life?) She is talking about the immediate, majestic sublimity of reality that one experiences in it's totality for the very first time. How on earth could that not be so terrifying as to threaten one's sanity? Galadriel with the ring would be exactly as beautiful and horrifying. I personally would not know whether to weep bitterly and perfectly, or claw my eyes out through the sheer, unutterable terror of her being in such a circumstance. But know this: she was showing Frodo what would happen if someone else got the ring. She wasn’t tempted at all. Gandalf tells. Galadriel shows. See the difference now. Two sides of the same coin. Both were needed. (But yes there was a more fluid beauty full of colour before the rise of the sun. Her uncle, Fingolfin, whilst in middle earth beheld the first rising of the sun and to see this wide field before him in even more definition than before while he was in Middle Earth. This was also the beginning of the dominion of men.) - • “Beautiful & Terrible as the dawn” Galadriel was quite correct to call the morning and night both “beautiful and terrible…”. In truth the physical and metaphysical natures of morning and night were both by turns beautiful and terrible. First the morning. Physically the morning is the result of the golden fruit of Laurëlin, transformed into a vessel by Aulë’s craftsmen, hallowed by Varda and piloted by the fiery Maiarin spirit Arien. The sun was so terrifyingly powerful that its radiance instilled fear even into Melkor’s heart and defied the assault of his minions. She literally gave up her physical form to take her original form and enveloped the sun; becoming its flames we see today. Physically the sun is a beautiful golden orb yet it is simultaneously terrifying in its intensity and cannot be observed directly for more than an instant without pain. Metaphysically the morning is beautiful because it diminishes the evil power of those creatures who haunt the night, gives strength to the righteous and because it illuminates the serene loveliness of Valinor and Middle-earth. Metaphysically the morning is terrible because it obscures the light of the stars and sheds light on the ugly reality of Arda Marred, whose very substance is corrupted by the power of Melkor. Last the night. The night is the Void surrounding the globe of Arda, which existed even before the creation of the Ainur at the beginning of time itself. Physically the beauty of the night lies in the fact . Physically the terror of the night is that it conceals the beauty of Arda and limits the senses of the elves and gives strength to the creatures of evil such as orcs, trolls and the Ringwraiths. Metaphysically the night is beautiful because it is during the hours of darkness that the stars of Varda, the most beloved creations for the elves, shine most brightly. Metaphysically the terror of the night for elves, who are irretrievably bound to the world of Arda, is that the Void represents the interstellar coldness which is the prison of Morgoth. Terrible in its more original archaic form didn’t always mean “bad” (the sun stuff was to move it into a place where Melkor couldn’t go by virtue of how the Valar and Maiar are bound to the world until it’s ending; (which isn’t the true end either. It’s deep stuff. There ends up another song of creation which all kindreds take part in and working with the powers of that long ago past of our world to rebuild everything. Even the Mountains too, healing it after Dagor Dagorath, Also known as the final battle, the worlds ending. Becoming the greater version of the original form before Melkor’s discord into the first music and so forth which dictated eventually what all ended up ensuing when they entered the world the first time which also was interesting because when they entered it after seeing the complete version it hadn’t been done yet so that was millions of years of work which lead to Middle Earth and the other lands being the remnants of it. Including Valinor being the only remnant of an even older world. At that time of building and tending to the world when the world was young.)
“I shall NOT be dark, all EVIL will despair” part 2 - All creatures whose flesh are nourished by the matter of Arda have a tendency towards Melkor AKA Morgoth, for greater or lesser. Since Melkor poured his evil power into the very existence and essence of the world(Morgoth’s Ring” book explains a lot including how and when he put a portion of his remaining power into the earth itself. Sure, Galadriel was born in the Undying Lands where there was supposed to be no evil (souls of the Elves are greatly less subject to making faulty decisions), but Galadriel & the rest of her father's kin were directly targeted by the Evil Lord himself. Melkor corrupted a decent portion of the Noldor, basically telling them things along the lines of “My Valarin kin are cooping you all up in Valinor.”, which wasn’t their ancestral homeland to begin with, like Middle Earth was, Some were affected little, most were affected to greater degrees, and Galadriel was the least affected woman by the lies of Melkor, which were “sweet but poisoned honey" as she’d call his words. Her natural pious tendency towards goodness & kindness as shown by her ability to read the hearts of everyone and all living beings around her which aids her to provide what anyone truly needs. Due to the magic bleeding from the world as the ages went on; thanks to Morgoth’s Ring poisoning the earth long ago; lead to a what if scenario in her mind as she’d be the only living creature left with the skills & power to even use the ring. She didn’t need her ring at all to block him out of her realm telepathically as well as read his mind from afar without him knowing. But there is a difference between good people who are a bit morally challenged and the evil people. The evil folk act upon their impulses and unlawful desires, while the good folk overcome such flaws within themselves (and for some not always they can masterfully do this). Galadriel WOULD NEVER listen to Melkor and tread the path of toxic pride and ambition. Galadriel has a Fëa spirit that’s only grown larger as the ages passed on and on. Enough to channel into an effect that threw down fortress walls, without tiring her at all. And with that much Fëa, she is capable of holding her own against Maiar for a good long while, much like her brother Finrod did against Sauron, or her uncle Fëanor did against Balrogs. Fëanor effectively lost all claim to the crown when he rebelled and dragged his entire house to Middle Earth. Where he promptly died a heroic death after slaying several Balrogs at the Dagor-nuin-Giliath; The Elves first encountered Lord Of Balrogs named Gothmog in the Dagor-nuin-Giliath; (meaning “the battle fought under stars”) before the first rising of the Moon. In that battle, Fëanor's fury had caused him to draw forward of the main force of the Noldor, and so he came upon Gothmog with only a small guard left around him that rushed so deep into enemy territory. Fëanor slayed 2 or 3 balrogs at once & Gothmog slayed him after one bound him suddenly with its primordial flame whip when he was supposed to have an uninterrupted “one on one” duel with Gothmog but one wasn’t wanting to play fair. But he was fatally wounded and so his sons and host moved him away to a safe place where his body burned up from the fires of his own spirit. Even with a lesser ring like Nenya, Galadriel had enough of a boost in her Fëa(spirit) , that she could sustain an unassailable magical realm against Maiar and virtually anything on Middle-Earth. Only problem was when Sauron wore the one ring, she had to take off Nenya, and had to lose that Maia level Fëa spirit from the modernly termed “boosted power up” With the one ring, Galadriel would have such a boost in her Fëa spirit, that she’d literally become stronger than the foundations of the Earth. She never once is called queen or desires to be called such a thing, she and her husband Celeborn became the wiseman and wisewoman of that realm; after the previous elven lord Amroth died, (how he died is shown in a wonderful song by Tolkien that was brought to life by Brociliande) and his wife Nimrodel disappeared ontop of the fact Amroth’s Successor later died as well in the “Last Alliance” where Amdir died, (same battle shown in the prologue to Fellowship Of The Ring), All Evil Despairs at her presence let alone hearing her name on the wind. (They even founded Eregion together. she gracefully left after Annatar>Sauron sowed seeds of rebellion against anyone that had any level of lineage connected to the Noldor.) The Nazgûl themselves avoid her realm every chance they get to the point of choosing to go the long way around for over 100 miles just to avoid her. (So she’s definitely scary to foul entities that have turned away from Eru Îlluvatar the one AllFather.) She’s a totally good character. Aragorn even says to the Fellowship as they enter Lothlórien, “There is in her and this land no evil, unless a man bring it hither himself. Then let him beware!” If you’re going by her portrayal in the movies, you might think she has an evil element to her character, but that came from Peter Jackson’s portrayal of the addictive, coercive power of the Ring. When Frodo offered her the Ring, it presented her with visions of herself as the all-powerful Goddess of Middle-Earth. Luckily, she was smart & intuitive enough to realize that the Ring was totally evil, and despite the best of intentions, it would have turned her evil in the end-but she still would have appeared to be beautiful and good. I don’t agree with Jackson’s “drowned Galadriel” portrayal of her being tempted by the Ring-I think she’d have appeared as a supernatural being of divine beauty, and her regular appearance was close to that already, but how do you show that in a movie? Apparently, in her youth in Valinor, she was somewhat of a rebel, but that’s not necessarily evil. She certainly could have fallen into the same trap as her uncle Fëanor did, of thinking that everyone was entitled to her opinion-but she kept her ego in check. (If you’re not sure what I’m referring to there; please read The Silmarillion and “Unfinished Tales”.) No matter how noble her reason was to use the ring as a last resort, especially if said fellowship fell off the “edge of the knife” as she called it. she had a change of heart which happened in the middle of talking to Frodo. Galadriel left Valinor(The Undying Lands) for a reason - and it was different from most of the other elves. She wasn’t with her uncle Fëanor, who wished to make war against Morgoth and retrieve the Silmarils - she was not wishing to go to war, and had no interest in the Silmarils in which Melkor stole from Fëanor which was the surviving light of the two trees of Valinor within them that the only Fëanor; the master of all elven smiths could have accomplished but it could not be done a second time as is any pure creation of one’s heart, especially in regards to the elves and Valar alike. Though she traveled with her other uncle, Fingolfin, her goals were not aligned completely with his either despite her full support of her noble and regal uncle Fingolfin in general. - They both wished to keep an eye on Fëanor and make sure the Noldor were in good hands - Galadriel wasn’t interested in Fëanor and wanted her own realm. After spending some time in Doriath, Galadriel and her husband Celeborn passed to the east out of Beleriand and passed eastward through Eriador and over the Misty Mountains; to where she founded her own realm in what became renamed as Lothlórien. Her motivation and goal was to preserve her realm, possibly at any means necessary. With Sauron’s return in the Third Age, Galadriel was forced to ask herself how far she would go to preserve her realm. If Frodo failed, she must forsake her own ring & her realm. If he succeeds, her ring will lose power and her realm will fade. Would she seize the ring, taking Sauron’s power for her own, to save her realm? She decided she would not. She had decided to “test” the Fellowship, to find some flaw that would allow her to justify seizing the ring, and she did find a flaw - in herself. She stated to Frodo, that by telling her that he would offer her the ring if she asked, that she had come to test his heart, but found that he was testing hers. She had a change of heart, she would pass into the West, and remain Galadriel. Which one is better? Being born completely good and living your whole life without any evil inside, or having a character growth ?
Yearning to go back home, but believing you cannot go. So you stay in a land you know will very soon wilt away. Its beautifully poetic that the destruction of the One destroyed the beauty of the elf-lands. But the destruction of the One allowed Galadriel to go home.
