The Road Goes Ever On
July 4th, 2008
Rummaging around my local public library (it’s over a hundred years old) I ran across a copy of a book called “The Road Goes Ever On”. It is a Song Cycle book written by J.R.R. Tolkien and it is set to music by Donald Swann. The book itself is quite beautiful. The pages are a dark cream color and along the top and bottom run lines in elvish. Looks like this:
But the thing that struck me, or should I say awestruck me was the sheer genius of it. How can a man create such a remarkable and all encompassing world? Complete with well you know how complete it is. He even created new languages for this world. The Road Goes Ever on book even has some of the songs completely written in elvish. Of course, for us common folk, there are translations into English at the back of the book.
I just think it is astoundingly remarkable that a man could create such a thing. And we live in a mysterious and remarkable universe. It leads me to think that somewhere Middle Earth really does exist. Maybe Tolkien created it or maybe he didn’t - he just told us about what he saw.
The Road goes ever on and on,
Down from door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, If I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say. - Tolkien
There is a youtube video of Tolkien himself reading this verse here
The book can also be had through amazon.com
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