Baran's Lament

Lyrics

I was born where the sun leans west on the hills,
Where the wind wears the scent of the straw and the steel.

I dreamed as a boy of the kings of the Mark,
Of horns in the morning and fire in the dark.

I rode as a man at the westernmost bounds,
My blade held the line where no others were found.

The Lords called me Captain, the bold and the young—
And love found me then, when the songs had begun.

But the fire came down in the Gap by the stone,
Orcs with white hands, and I fought them alone.

My steed crushed my leg in the black and the flame,
But I held to the line my body searing and lame.

I returned with no cheer from the one I had won—
She left me alone with the scars and the sun.

So I fled from the light, and the honor turned shame,
And I wandered with none but one brother in name.

This theft was the last, we had planned it that way—
To settle our debts, and walk into day.

But you found us instead in the still of the wood—
And we give you our truth, if you'll make it do good.

Lament told to council by the Hobbit, Studs Terkel, in Bree at the occasion of the trial of baran.