"They Began to Hum Softly", Murray Smith

[mark12_30]

Originally Posted by Bêthberry

Perhaps I can also say that Aragorn's song or poem, "Gondor, Gondor", has never struck me as a national anthem, but more rather a lament. It reminds me instead of the Old English poem "The Ruin" with its longing for a greatness that has fallen away. Aragorn gives to his song a hope that the greatness shall be rebuilt, but I think it is the past tense verbs with which the song begins--blew, fell--which recall to me the ancient theme of mutability. To that mutability Aragorn brings, of course, hope. Yet the poem remains a lament for lost glory, which is not something I normally associate with national anthems.

I always wondered what that song was. It is drenched with sorrow. It feels like a song of exile. He is, at that moment, tearing himself away from a friendly hope (He and Boromir had planned to go there: "I would have begged you to come," said Frodo. "Only I thought you were going with Boromir to Minas Tirith.") After Aragorn finishes singing, he turns ("Now let us go") and pushes himself into further effort and exile.