Aaaaand we have a Beren! ...at least for now. Legate said he'll work on the recording next week.
I have translated another song (I know
) from the extra stuff the performances add on. It's the
spell song from the fanfic-based 2019 play. I like is as a stand-alone song. It's not as impressive as the Zong was in depicting Finrod, or Sil events, or even the fanfic it's based on - and I can't say it's an impressive translation either. But taken by itself it has a nice ring to it.
We now stand on the boundary, on Sauron’s border.
It’s becoming more doubtful that we walk unnoticed.
Here the nature itself follows his evil order,
And it’s nearly impossible to stay unaltered.
Unless we, like a garb, wear a guise without defect -
Take the shapes of these demons, their horrid appearance -
We’ll be stopped, we’ll be waylaid, there will be a pretext,
And this dirt and this gear will not make any difference.
(All this raggedy gear will not make any difference)
Make a circle ‘round the flames!
Let the smoke around you fold!
You won’t know me, now I’m changed:
Everything that once was gold
Now is blackened! See the leer
Of the midnight mocking moon,
And the silence spills a tear,
And your fear caresses you…
If you now allow yourself to become beastly
So to blend with the beasts of the enemy’s vile bands,
Having hidden the tracks, and believing nearly
In the chance that we might pass unseen through this land,
If the wolves miss the scent of our blood and our strained breath,
If we’re taken for Sauron’s troops at the border -
Then I have hope that we do not walk toward vain death
And that you, Mortal, will live unharmed through this horror.
(And that you, Mortal, will live unharmed through this horror)
Make a circle ‘round the flames!
Let the smoke around you fold!
You won’t know me, now I’m changed:
Everything that once was gold
Now is blackened! See the leer
Of the midnight mocking moon,
And the silence spills a tear,
And your fear caresses you…
Road, escort me through doubt, through dread
From the threshold of my homestead,
Through the gloom of tangled forests to the edge my feet convey
From which there is no returning.
Anguish, sorrow, partings, mourning -
Road, please lose them in the dust, but keep the imprints of my trail!
Of your still uncertain meaning
I knew not in the beginning.
Road, escort me to the darkened halls where night rules over day!
Show me if the light will vanish
For this song is left unfinished
Road, instruct me in the wisdom which you only can relay!
(Which you only can relay!)
(The final stanza seems to be in Elvish, and here your guess at the meaning is as good as mine and probably better. I think there's a hyarmenta in there, but otherwise have no idea what he's saying).
By the way, you were totally right that this is a horse show group. They advertise themselves as a combination of horse + theatre club thing. By the sound of it they've already worked on a couple of Tolkien productions (names like Weathertop and Mirkwood come up in their past titles), and are currently working on staging this fanfic in full. They have some cool photos which might be useful for inspiration hunting:
gallery and the
Lay adaptation, and
instagram. It seems like the play in the video is set by their "trainees", while the photos are more of the "experts". Of the trainees, my favourite look/acting is probably Celegorm (though Curufin's "whatever brother, fine, I'll roll along with it" is also very deserving).