Song of Durin’s Awakening
Song of Durin’s Awakening Lyrics
No stain yet on the Moon was seen,
No words were laid on stream or stone,
When Durin woke and walked alone.
He named the nameless hills and dells;
He drank from yet untasted wells;
He stooped and looked in Mirrormere,
And saw a crown of stars appear,
As gems upon a silver thread,
Above the shadow of his head.
The world was fair, the mountains tall,
In Elder Days before the fall
Of mighty Kings in Nargothrond
And Gondolin, who now beyond
The Western Seas have passed away:
The world was fair in Durin's Day.
A king he was on carven throne
In many-pillared halls of stone
With golden roof and silver floor,
And runes of power upon the door.
The light of sun and star and moon
In shining lamps of crystal hewn
Undimmed by cloud or shade of night
There shone forever fair and bright.
There chisel clove, and graver wrote;
There blade was forged and bound the hilt;
The delver mined, the mason built.
There beryl, pearl, and opal pale
And metal wrought like fishes' mail,
Buckler and corslet, axe and sword,
And shining spears were laid in hoard.
Unwearied then were Durin's folk;
Beneath the mountains music woke:
The harpers harped, the minstrels sang,
And at the gates the trumpets rang.
The world is grey, the mountains old,
The forge's fire is ashen-cold;
No harp is wrung, no hammer falls:
The darkness dwells in Durin's halls;
The shadow lies upon his tomb
In Moria, in Khazad-dûm.
But still the sunken stars appear
In dark and windless Mirrormere;
There lies his crown in water deep,
Till Durin wakes again from sleep.
About
“Gimli chanted this song in Moria.
Durin was the eldest of the Seven Fathers of the Dwarves, created by Aule the Smith, and was therefore the first Dwarf.
This song recounts the building, the glory, and the fall of this Dwarf community. There were six Dwarf kings in Moria named Durin. The first was Durin the Deathless, who earned this name because of his very long life. He was the ancestor of all of Durin’s Folk and the founder of Moria. The other five Durins were so like him that they were considered to be the original Durin reincarnated. The last line of the song refers to the expected seventh reincarnation.
The downfall of Moria came, as Gandalf put it, when the Dwarves “delved too greedily and too deep, disturbed that from which they fled, Durin’s Bane.” It was a Balrog, a servant of Morgoth, that had been hiding at the roots of the mountain since the end of the First Age. It was called Durin’s Bane because it killed Durin VI and routed his people from their underground community."
Allusions to Old Norse
In Norse mythology, Durin (or Durinn) was the second created dawrf after the first and foremost dwarf Mótsognir. He is attested to have forged the magic sword Tyrfing with the help of the dwarf Dvalin.
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
- 1.Ring Poem
- 16.Song of Eärendil
- 17.Boromir’s Riddle
- 21.Song of Durin’s Awakening
- 31.Bregalad’s Song
- 37.Gandalf’s Riddle
- 39.Gollum’s Song
- 40.Oliphaunt
- 45.Éomer’s Song
- 47.Athelas
- 48.Song of Lebennin
- 52.The Eagle’s Song