the Song of Eärendil (multi-lingo subtitles)

the Song of Eärendil, written by Bilbo Baggins (or, depending on how you look at it, by JRR Tolkien :) ), describes the voyage of Eärendil the Mariner: the great ambassador to Valinor in the First Age who petitioned the Valar to deliver the free peoples of Earth from the tyranny of Morgoth.
Text in CC available in Quenya Elvish, English, Dutch, German, French, Spanish, Finnish, Danish, Swedish, Italian, Hungarian and Polish.
NB - since Quenya is not in the list of KZbin languages it is registered under 'Sanskrit'.
(while you're at it, dear KZbin - please add Sindarin to that list too! I'll write a poem praising the virtues of KZbin in Sindarin if you do that!)
If you know other translations pls let me know ..
Music by the Tolkien Ensemble; visit tolkienensemble.net for info about their other songs / cd's - they are GREAT!
Images by many, including myself.
The original text is as follows:
Eärendil was a mariner
that tarried in Arvernien;
he built a boat of timber felled
in Nimbrethil to journey in;
her sails he wove of silver fair,
of silver were her lanterns made,
her prow was fashioned like a swan,
and light upon her banners laid.
In panoply of ancient kings,
in chained rings he armoured him;
his shining shield was scored with runes
to ward all wounds and harm from him;
his bow was made of dragon-horn,
his arrows shorn of ebony,
of silver was his habergeon,
his scabbard of chalcedony;
his sword of steel was valiant,
of adamant his helmet tall,
an eagle-plume upon his crest,
upon his breast an emerald.
Beneath the Moon and under star
he wandered far from northern strands,
bewildered on enchanted ways
beyond the days of mortal lands.
From gnashing of the Narrow Ice
where shadow lies on frozen hills,
from nether heats and burning waste
he turned in haste, and roving still
on starless waters far astray
at last he came to Night of Naught,
and passed, and never sight he saw
of shining shore nor light he sought.
The winds of wrath came driving him,
and blindly in the foam he fled
from west to east and errandless,
unheralded he homeward sped.
There flying Elwing came to him,
and flame was in the darkness lit;
more bright than light of diamond
the fire upon her carcanet.
The Silmaril she bound on him
and crowned him with the living light
and dauntless then with burning brow
he turned his prow; and in the night
from Otherworld beyond the Sea
there strong and free a storm arose,
a wind of power in Tarmenel;
by paths that seldom mortal goes
his boat it bore with biting breath
as might of death across the grey
and long-forsaken seas distressed:
from east to west he passed away.
Through Evernight he back was borne
on black and roaring waves that ran
o'er leagues unlit and foundered shores
that drowned before the Days began,
until he heard on strands of pearl
where ends the world the music long,
where ever-foaming billows roll
the yellow gold and jewels wan.
He saw the Mountain silent rise
where twilight lies upon the knees
of Valinor, and Eldamar
beheld afar beyond the seas.
A wanderer escaped from night
to haven white he came at last,
to Elvenhome the green and fair
where keen the air, where pale as glass
beneath the Hill of Ilmarin
a-glimmer in valley sheer
the lamplit towers of Tirion
are mirrored on the Shadowmere.
He tarried there from errantry,
and melodies they taught to him,
and sages old him marvels told,
and harps of gold they brought to him.
They clothed him then in elven-white,
and seven lights before him sent,
as through the Calacirian
to hidden land forlorn he went.
He came unto the timeless halls
where shining fall the countless years,
and endless reigns the Elder King
in Ilmarin on Mountain sheer;
and words unheard were spoken then
of folk of Men and Elven-kin.
Beyond the world were visions showed
forbid to those that dwell therein.
A ship then new they built for him
of mithril and of elven-glass
with shining prow; no shaven oar
nor sail she bore on silver mast:
the Silmaril as lantern light
and banner bright with living flame
to gleam thereon by Elbereth
and laid on him undying doom,
to sail the shoreless skies and come
behind the Sun and light of Moon.
From Evereven's lofty hills
where softly silver fountains fall
his wings him bore, a wandering light,
beyond the mighty Mountain Wall.
From World's End then he turned away,
and yearned again to find afar
his home through shadows journeying,
and burning as an island star
on high above the mists he came,
a distant flame before the Sun,
a wonder ere the waking dawn
where grey the Norland waters run.
And over Middle-earth he passed
and heard at last the weeping sore
of women and of elven-maids
in Elder Days, in years of yore.
But on him mighty doom was laid,
till Moon should fade, an orbéd star
to pass, and tarry never more
on Hither Shores where mortals are;
for ever still a herald on
an errand that should never rest
to bear his shining lamp afar,
the Flammifer of Westernesse.

[@cekspree]

Tolkien GASSED tf outta this one... BARS from another dimension, with the double-internals every other line, and ill vocab. The best Battle rapper today couldn't fade JRR

[@kadorakasu]

Hey, great comment! I laughed so hard at Tolkien woulda gassed the f out of today's rappers LOL. I have to say, did you mean ill vocab as is bad vocabulary? Just wondering, because I honestly dont want to correct you, I understand your comment, but for one he didn't write the music just the words, so they kinda sung them to this particular song. This song is beautiful, but I actually think they are best when read very slowly, and this song had very fast tempo at parts. Also, as a poet and songwriter myself, I just like to point out that Tolkien was very educated on things such as ALL vocabulary, even linguistics, MUCH more than 90% of today's writers of books poems and songs. He actually attended university unlike alot of em, me offence to them. So, the whole point, is that just like today's artists he breaks rules to convey the FEELING, like the Troll poem that Sam sings had of course Sam's kinda uneducated grammer. The point is that the difference is he knew exactly whenever he broke a rule, and knew the correct alternatives, and chose it carefully, and it showed in his finished products which were his lifes work. I am sorry if I misunderstood your use of the phrase "vocab" and confused it with insulting Tolkiens bad grammar, but I just love Tolkien so much and have studied his life w bit, and j enjoy any chance to talk about it, so thank you for your comment which inspired me to write this other comment. Thanks

[@4llg00dth1ng5]

@@kadorakasu the term "ill" in regards to appraising one's street cred is used similarly as "sick" as to say that it is "tubular", or in layman's terms, very good. The qualification "Vocab" is used when purporting the merits or flaws present in a rapper's rhymes and flow. It is understood by most connoisseurs of such that rappers are the modern equivalent of poets. As such, praising the composition of said flow, rhythm, and rhyme are meant to evoke a more modernist version of such phrases as "Sharp of Wit" or "Deeply knowledgeable of language". I may be 3 years too late, and writing this with a twinge of sarcasm/irony, but I hope this clears things up.

[@finnkedinn]

it's those songs and other world-building that make me understand why Tolkien spent over 20 years to write LOTR

[@vibecheck3572]

He started in 1937 and was mostly done by the early 1950s of I recall

[@constantdoodle32]

lol I just got to this part in the book and figured I’d look it up to see if anyone had made it into a song instead of just reading it. This is pretty cool

[@miguelangelquinteroocampo2145]

Me too! 🙉

[@hardlysuitable]

Haha me too just now !

[@GoblinBlaster3000]

Right there with y'all

[@markmartin2204]

Might do this every time from now

[@yuraqespinoza]

Me too

[@FadiAntwan]

I like to imagine that it’s Bilbo singing this in Rivendell. :)

[@PleaseNThankYou]

I just found this song while thumbing through others! Yes, this is Bilbo to me too like he has a group of children sitting about his feet, engrossed every one of them! Except that kid in the back whose digging in the dirt for worms. There's always that kid.

[@kamo124]

silmarillion is something ancestral and epic

[@earendiltuorsson5394]

I've have heard this song sung much better. Regardless, it warms my heart to see that the second-comers still remember me. It was worth setting up wifi on The Vingilot.

[@feanorcurufinwe9308]

My dear Eärendil, can I please have my Silmaril back?

[@vaahtobileet]

@@feanorcurufinwe9308 Of course Fëanor is subscribed to Pewdiepie

[@sohambanerjee6343]

This inspired me to write poems of my own.

[@robertburrows]

Seraphinus Sunstrider please give us links to your poems !!

[@JediHobbit89]

How I love the Tolkien Ensemble! I hope to memorize all the tunes they use so if I end of having children, I can sing all the songs when I read The Lord of the Rings to them.

[@RyuNoSilvar]

this one is just getting more beautiful every time I hear it

[@Kaspar502]

This is the most beautiful piece of Music I have ever heard.

[@poptropicano31]

Kaspar502 What exactly do you listen to otherwise...?

[@MrCmon113]

@joseport123456789 No they are two completely different characters. Earendil is a remote ancestor of Elendil. "Earendil" signifies friend of the sea and "Elendil" friend of the stars (-> friend of the elves for the Dunedain)

[@Name-mm7bn]

I like to think that this version is a version of an elf that was is with his friends in a forest and started to sing and the version of Clammavi De Profundis is a version sang for a great celebration in a city like Imladris, I think is the best way to look at this two fantastic ways of interpretation of the same song.

[@rogerlackman4712]

They are! However I see this as the original, less polished but more charming, version that Bilbo himself sung in Chapter One of book 2!

[@joseport123456789]

Buried dreams... Memories of old ages, resting and forever drifting within our minds. They sometimes arise, for better or for worse, when we are confronted with things such as.. this. This song. This beautiful and mind-compelling tune, which makes us remember how grand is this world and how lost we are in it, in this Universe, in the Cosmos, in Ëa. We are but a parenthesis between immensity and eternity. We long to return. We wish to seek this unity with the old times.

[@eimhinduffy5736]

Tolkien's longest and in my opnion best song

[@saminatariq561]

Alpha Omega the lay of luthien is ten times longer

[@eimhinduffy5736]

If you mean the Lay of Leithian no one in their right mind would call that a song. Its 4200 lines long

[@nathandessonville]

This is my favorite poem of Tolkien's. Earendil was the greatest mariner - from my favorite book: The silmarillion

[@kadorakasu]

As I understand it, the person who put this together is a genius and thank you for doing Tolkien justice. I say "put together" because the music you found (which wasnt written by Tolkien if course) is perfect and skillfully played, and the singer, the editing of the word structures to fit sentences and blend with music is masterful. If you, and Clavundi Di Profundis got together, THAT would have meant decent music for the movies. As it was... How ever much money they paid music writers of the Hobbit series, and the big 3, THEY SUCKED... and failed their ancestors, Tolkien, me, and humanity. I never would have believed a movie of The Silmarillion Book would be possible, but THIS AMAZING SONG makes me believe that one day a group of skilled artists who actually read the books and care about something other than movie sales and money, will get together and remake all the movies, and make the Silmarillion, and Broadway plays, because Tolkien really deserves no less, and so many young people only watch movies not read the books. I'm 21 btw. I'm an exception. Thank you for this video! =)

[@AinuLaire]

I can totally see Bilbo singing this!

[@pudgimelon]

Just got to this part of the story with my daughter. Thanks for the song so she could hear it done properly

[@joseport123456789]

Thank you very much Lúthien. I have recently watched this video once again. It has been some time now since I didn't hear this. I felt something I didn't in a long time. Thanks again

[@clairenunavut]

purely beautiful, magic, so moving! thank you!

[@operator21990]

wunderbarm herrlich unglaublich danke für die Mühe

[@markmartin2204]

This just hits different after reading the Silmarillion

[@Wolf18Lover]

Earendil was a half his mother was Tuor son of Huor and his mother was Idril daughter of king Turgon of Gondlin. He went to Valinor with a silmaril on his brow. He is also the Father of Elrond of Rivendell

[@adriancder]

Reading it to my 7 year old twins, thank you for posting this, I’m sure my kids prefer that I play the song off of KZbin instead of tying to sing them myself!!

It’s lovely to read your comment, thanks! Go figure, this is one of the first videos I ever posted on KZbin, it must be 14 years ago … Still I’m sure that your kids will remember it more fondly if you sing it yourself to them as well! I was also introduced to Tolkien as a little girl by my father who read it to us, and that tradition of oral recounting is something special that we shouldn’t lose.

[@krakaneti]

@RookhKshatriya Actually Earendil was a half elf - his father was Tuor of the House of Hador, and his mother was Idril of Gondolin, daughter of king Turgon. After sailing to Valinor with his wife Elwing, daughter of Beren and Luthien, the Valar gave them and their descendants the right to choose between the fate of Men and Elves.Earendil let his wife choose for both of them, and she picked the fate of Elves.THAT is how he became immortal.

[@watto05]

Hammersong, und geiles Video mit Übersetzung!

[@richardcarew4708]

Thank you brother... absolutely perfect... the tale is retold... as it should be... Peace

Thanks, but I’m not a brother ;)

[@FlashGORDONXVFFR]

absolutely stunning

[@kadorakasu]

Best possible rendition

[@Toxin___InterHalfer]

Melkor disliked this

[@Patiszonka]

Thank you for the Hungarian subtitle! You are very nice to make it :)

köszönöm a kedves szavakat!

[@plasticyarn2747]

I got a 300 minute loop of the “Catchy Song” and I plan to watch every second of it.

[@DanielLopez-zt4ig]

Thank you for the german subtitles.

[@laezamassa]

Thank for this song. It's wonderfull...

[@Tithenannis]

There're mistakes in the Hungarian sub, at 0:28. It's "érje", not "érja". At 4:04 it's "gyöngysávján" not "gyöngysávlíán". At 6:25 the correct is "és látomásos volt a lég -". I thought, I can help. :) But it's still beautiful, and when I realize, there's hunsub, it almost made me cry! :.) Thank you for this miracle!

[@warrax89]

beauty!bellissima!*_*

[@joseport123456789]

Nostalgia is indeed different from feeling lost, but it goes, at least it seems to me, in the same direction: you long for something that is not here, not now; you wish to find again that simple pleasure of reading the epic story. An illusion, a feeling that belongs to the past: in the end, it's actually nothing you're looking for, since it doesn't exist anymore. One that searches for nothing is lost.

[@Pantoflingos]

first time i hear smthng so worthy of being told Elvish. Bards live! i fell in love with it..

[@joseport123456789]

Oh, thanks for the info. Forgot to mention the sound quality, which is very good. Are those images all related to Eärendil? Can I find in the Silmarillion something about this mariner, or is he only referred in Bilbo's song?

[@kaltrum]

Terrific!

[@EarendilTheBright]

Awesome in every way.

[@RyuNoSilvar]

....holy Vala...so beautiful...

[@nurtenyilmaz3]

This is my new favorite song *-*

[@GonzoZero]

Masterpiece

[@Usmcspartan420]

"Hail Earendil,of mariners most renowned, the looked for that cometh at unawares, the longed for that cometh behond hope!Hail Earendil, bearer of light before the sun and the moon!Splendour of the children of Earth,star in the darkness,jewel in the sunset,radiant in the morning!...""...And Earendil went into Valinor and to the halls of Valmar, and never set foot upon the lands of men."

[@Ruca77]

What a amazing, beautiful and relax song that takes us to Middle Earth! =) Hail Bilbo! There and Back Again, a Hobbit Tale by Bilbo Baggins =)

[@Prosperno]

Woah, I'd really like to know how to play the guitar for this song.

[@operator21990]

in my opinion the two best pictures are the one of the Lord of Dol Amroth at 0:53 and the one of Valimar at 4:48 Thank You very very much!!

[@jonathandean9213]

operator21990 At 0:53, the image is Ted Nasmith's "Tuor at Vinyamar", illustrating Tuor gazing out at Ulmo. I love that image, too!

[@peregrintuks]

beatifull

[@slendersail]

The one at 8:47, is it a picture of the herald of Manwë? Lovely!

[@neroribeiro]

Silmarillion é uma obra de arte.

[@mariopinot9884]

Nice.

[@emergencyCALL911]

aww, I was hoping you'd learned it. :) Then we could have had a nice quetië (conversation - loosely translated :D) I'll learn Sindarin one of these days, and we can have an athrabeth about which language is better. :) Pedin uilaim nar vain!

[@Quinceps]

@Lúthien Merilin, around two verses from the lyrics are missing in your version around here: "and banner bright with living flame to gleam thereon by Elbereth ... and laid on him undying doom" I'm not too confident about my English, so please :)

[@Stellarheim]

Good version.

[@AlexandrePorto]

Why do you hurt my heart by posting this video, that brings alive my burried dreams...

[@ImdBookworm]

So I'm not seeing any CC that isn't an Earthly language. I'm not even seeing the Sanskrit that you mentioned...did youtube mess up again?

[@newtdevaychet]

He’s spitting bars!

[@emergencyCALL911]

What program did you use to make this video? I want to make a video like this where the pictures move around and shrink and stuff but I can't figure out how to do it with the programs I have.

[@joseport123456789]

Right now, my mind is failing me, and I don't know what else to say. Maybe I should shut up, and listen quietly to the song, one more time.

[@GonzoZero]

Until the end

[@PleaseNThankYou]

Where are the missing lyrics? At 7:17 there are two lines missing. Or I should clarify, they are missing in the text in show notes, but present in the singing.

[@Wolf18Lover]

@LuthienAthariel i meant half-elven but made typo

[@warrax89]

hahahaha I am the same person in the video of luthien! my name is tovon!^_^

I'm sorry, but I don't know that. A friend who helped me find translations came up with it but forgot where she found it.

[@emergencyCALL911]

Did you translate it into Quenya yourself or did you find it somewhere?

[@joseport123456789]

I'm most certainly wrong since I'm not having any sleep lately, but I found your remarks interesting and I wanted to discuss them with you. If in my attempt, I'm completely straying from your point, forgive me.

[@TillyChMo]

You should put somewhere in the description that it is Nick Keir providing the vocals :-)

[@Usmcspartan420]

I am henceforth greatly enamored as of one smitten by the first sight of blazing mithril :*)*

[@joseport123456789]

Do notice that when I said "lost" in my comment, I was in fact admitting that we are little and fragile compared to our world; we are nothing to our Universe, let alone the Cosmos. By "lost", I mean we have no actual standpoint in the world, our mortality betrays us, our vulnerability reminds us we have a body, a form which we must not wholly trust because of its frailty. Our small time of life forces us to confront ourselves with the deep truth, that the moments we spend here are...hm are what?

[@megacracker455]

Earandil you know you didn't hear Bilbo sing that in Rivendell :P

[@joseport123456789]

Nice song. Tolkien Ensemble is really great. Now there's a thing I don't quite get: is Earendil the same person as Elendil?

[@loutowers6529]

No. Eärendil was half-elven and immortal. Elendil was a mortal man. "Elendil (also known as Elendil the Tall or Elendil the Fair, and Ælfwine "Elf-friend) was the father of Isildur and Anárion, and the first High King of Gondor and Arnor and first King of all the Dúnedain. He was killed by Sauron during the War of the Last Alliance." lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Elendil

[@ICYFRANCIUM]

vedui' essa Serah lle ier sii' mellon sut ier lle

[@Quettandilli]

And who did the translation to Quenya? =)

[@viktor85698512]

Daeron the bard

[@joseport123456789]

And if faith in God doesn't make you feel lost, then I envy you. But, I wonder, how can it be? How can having faith in Him comforts you and relieves you? Is it because you feel accompanied all the time? Because you feel you have a purpose? What is it that in having faith in God doesn't make you feel lost in the Universe?

[@emergencyCALL911]

yo tambien! or is it 'me tambien'...

[@magshine4487]

amk 5 yıldır arıyordum sonunda buldummmm

[@Mangotropolis]

Where in the books is his story told most?

[@jamesb.8940]

The entire Lay of Earendil can be found in Book 2 Chapter 1, "Many Meetings", of The Fellowship of the Rings. It is a versification of chapter 24 of the Silmarillion, "Of Earendil and the War of Wrath". There is a bit more about Earendil in the Akallabeth, which follows chapter 24 of the Silmarillion. Chapter 2 of Book 2 of FOTR also has a few lines about him.

[@darokun]

The poem Errantry in The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and other verses from The Red Book is also an earlier version of the Song of Eärendil.

[@emergencyCALL911]

Haha it took me forever to figure out why he was saying Collaserian. I thought it was some strange English word.

[@hieratics]

And yet it was said wrong. It should be something like Kalakirya

[@emergencyCALL911]

He sings it a little too fast, but apart from that it's cool. I like the harp part (at least I think it's a harp)

[@warrax89]

a little!^_^

[@warrax89]

sun peth!

[@warrax89]

Man i eneth lín? ^_^

[@FortinbrasProudfootEsq]

This video is so good. Like the song as well. I have posted a poem about Luthien which I wrote. Maybe you would like to check it out.

[@douglasjenkins2770]

PROUDFOOTS! Proudfeet!

[@bildcj]

.

[@RookhKshatriya]

*about earendil- one of the greatest elves of the first age of middle earth it is the character the phial of galadriel is named after* Earendil was not an elf but a man, although he became immortal by grace of the Valar.

[@loutowers6529]

Nope. Eärindil was Half-elven and immortal because he let his wife, Elwing, choose thier fate and she chose the fate of the elves. The ability to chose their fate was granted to them by Manwë.

[@AlexandrePorto]

I don´t feel lost in the universe, because i have faith in God, but I feel strong nostalgia of the times when i used to read LotR all day long...

[@marktresztian4467]

Alexandre Porto which one?

[@propow8268]

Alexandre Porto Im right there with you man

[@berserk6984]

you are lost cose you belive in god :D

[@RookhKshatriya]

Don't the half-Elvish reduce to mortal status, albeit long-lived? Of course, maybe in the First Age before Valinor was withdrawn things must have been different.

[@loutowers6529]

The Half-elven were granted the ability to choose their fate by Manwë.

[@AlexandrePorto]

You should have more faith in God, then you will see, we humans are the most powerful beings of the universe...

[@felipevasconcelos6736]

Let's say I accept your suggestion. Now, which god? There are a few thousands to pick, if you don't count unnamed gods or possible gods no one has ever believed we're real. I could believe in the Flying Spaghetti Monster, there is nothing that makes it less valid than believing in the Christian-Muslim-Jew God, and it's much less depressing, since the FSM isn't a contradictory liar and a threatener genocide misogynistic control freak manipulative sadistic homophobic racist bigot, while the same can't be said by the abrahamic god.

[@michaelplummer7749]

get fucking rekt

Who are you addressing?