NOËL - A J.R.R. Tolkien Poem

 

Christmastide greetings! A few days before Christmas, the YouTube algorithm gave me a gift that that was most welcomed, which is not what we might normally say. But in my feed it showed me a video of a "lost Tolkien Poem" being sung by a sacred music group. I was so intrigued, and I'll admit, a little skeptical. I had to investigate. How could a Tolkien poem be lost, first of all? 

Indeed, I discovered that this poem was in an annual magazine published by an Oxfordshire Catholic High School in 1936 and not seen again by public eyes to be published until 2015 when it was "found". What an amazing discovery - that Tolkien wrote a stunningly beautiful poem for an annual school magazine. Granted, Tolkien was not a poet in the literary world sense, he was a professor of Anglo Saxon at Oxford, but this poem is a treasure. It sounds like something from Anglo Saxon and his sub-created world of Middle-earth. The language and rhymes flow so beautifully. I do think Tolkien was a masterful poet as he was a master of language, even if poetry is not what he was known for.

The sacred music group, Floriani, who composed this poem to music, is immensely talented and I cannot stop listening to this song with its beautiful, wistful storytelling and invoking ancient words. The way Tolkien personifies nature with the winter cold is stunning as is their arrangement of the music with harmonies and melody. I copied the poem here, and the video so you can enjoy it along with me. I recommend you watch and read along the poem as it opens up the story Tolkien is revealing - the ancient tale of Christ coming being told deep in the misty world swathed in the mystery of faith. May you continue to have a blessed Christmas season and start to 2026.

NOËL

by J.R.R. Tolkien

Grim was the world and grey last night:

The moon and stars were fled,

The hall was dark without song or light,

The fires were fallen dead.

The wind in the trees was like to the sea,

And over the mountains' teeth

It whistled bitter-cold and free,

As a sword leapt from its sheath.

The lord of snows upreared his head;

His mantle long and pale

Upon the bitter blast was spread

And hung o'er hill and dale.

The world was blind, the boughs were bent,

All ways and paths were wild:

Then the veil of cloud apart was rent,

And here was born a Child.

The ancient dome of heaven sheer

Was pricked with distant light;

A star came shining white and clear

Alone above the night.

In the dale of dark in that hour of birth

One voice on a sudden sang:

Then all the bells in Heaven and Earth

Together at midnight rang.

Mary sang in this world below:

They heard her song arise

O'er mist and over mountain snow

To the walls of Paradise,

And the tongue of many bells was stirred

in Heaven's towers to ring

When the voice of mortal maid was heard,

That was mother of Heaven's King.

Glad is the world and fair this night

With stars about its head,

And the hall is filled with laughter and light,

And fires are burning red.

The bells of Paradise now ring

With bells of Christendom,

And Gloria, Gloria we will sing

That God on earth is come.