Жүректен Жолға: «Саяхат Әндері» («The Road Goes Ever On»)

Walking songs from The Lord of the Rings

"The Road Goes Ever On" is a title that encompasses several walking songs that J. R. R. Tolkien wrote for his Middle earth legendarium. Within the stories, the original song was composed by Bilbo Baggins and recorded in The Hobbit. Different versions of it also appear in The Lord of the Rings, along with some similar walking songs. Scholars have noted that Tolkien's road is a plain enough symbol for life and its possibilities, and that Middle earth is a world of such roads, as both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings begin and end at the door of Bag End, Bilbo's home. They have observed, too, that if "the lighted inn" on the road means death, then the road is life, and both the song and the novels can be read as speaking of the process of psychological individuation. The walking song gives its name to Donald Swann's 1967 song cycle The Road Goes Ever On, where it is the first in the list. All the versions of the song have been set to music by the Tolkien Ensemble.

A musical version of some sections of this song by Glenn Yarbrough can be heard in Rankin/Bass's 1977 animated movie version of The Hobbit. A full song, Roads, was written for the film; it can be heard on the soundtrack and story LP. The same melody was used in Rankin/Bass's 1980 animated version of The Return of the King. The song can be heard in the 1981 BBC radio version, sung by Bilbo (John Le Mesurier) to a tune by Stephen Oliver. A musical version of some sections of the song can be heard in the 2001 movie The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, composed by Howard Shore. It is sung by Gandalf (Ian McKellen) in the opening scene, and also by Bilbo (Ian Holm) as he leaves Bag End. Gandalf's singing can be heard on the track "Bag End" on Complete Recordings of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and Bilbo's on "Keep It Secret, Keep It Safe". Large parts of the song were included in Billy Boyd's "The Last Goodbye" on the soundtrack and in the credits of The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. An unrelated song, composed by Shore, called "The Road Goes Ever On " ("Pt. 1" and "Pt. 2") is both the thirty fifth and thirty seventh track of the Complete Recordings. It is a version of the track "The Breaking of the Fellowship" from the 2001 The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack and features the song "In Dreams" sung by Edward Ross and James Wilson. It plays faintly during the ending credits, following "May It Be". The 2006 Lord of the Rings stage musical includes a song, "The Road Goes On", whose lyrics are loosely based on this poem.