Things of Middle-earth
Type: Songs & Stories
There was a man who dwelt alone,The Tolkien Reader, "The Adventures of Tom Bombadil", "Shadow-Bride".
as day and night went past
he sat as still as carven stone,
and yet no shadow cast.
The white owls perched upon his head
benearth the winter moon;
they wiped their beaks and thought him dead
under the stars of June.
There came a lady clad in grey
in the twilight shining:
one moment she would stand and stay,
her hair with flowers entwining.
He woke, as had he sprung from stone,
and broke the spell that bound him;
he clasped her fast, both flesh and bone,
and wrapped her shadow round him.
There never more she walks her ways
by sun or moon or star;
she dwells below where neither days
nor any nights there are.
But once a year when caverns yawn
and hidden things awake,
they dance together then til dawn
and a single shadow make.
Contributors: Meril. 6Dec04.