Day 52: Of Rain and Songs

The day started out promising. All of my textbooks had finally arrived, the crisp air promised the arrival of autumn, and I enjoyed a long discussion about Middle Earth races with friends. I was in high spirits when I donned my cloak and picked up my walking stick to continue the next part of this journey. Of course, about two miles into the walk that all changed. I was halfway down one of the hiking trails on a nearby mountain when it started raining terribly hard. With an uphill climb ahead of me and the trail quickly becoming slick and treacherous, I decided I would take shelter and wait out the rain. Half an hour later the rain had yet to let up, my cloak was soaked through, and the trail was getting even more dangerous. Finally I decided to try and make it back up the mountain before the trail got too treacherous to climb.

As I was working my way up I managed to slip on a mud and moss covered rock. I went down hard, but managed to stay on the trail, avoiding the 20 foot fall off of a nearby ledge. Nothing was hurt but now I was both wet and muddy. My backpack was soaked through and my dinner was crushed and marinating in soil. Completely miserable, I did the only thing left that I could do: I started singing.

Many of the characters in Tolkien’s masterpiece often sing, Bilbo and Gandalf being two examples of such. Sam has several instances of spontaneous song recorded in The Lord of the Rings, one in particular occurring when he encounters the some stone trolls atop a hill that Bilbo had once escaped from. Many of these songs may not be the stuff of legends and may not live on past many generations, but they do have a way to boost the spirits when in a tight spot. Song and prose hold a very important place in Tolkien’s world, with many of the stories of old being told through verse and rhyme.

For me the use of singing wasn’t so much to record an event or tell a story. For me singing was a device to lift my spirit and help me through a hike that was quickly proving disastrous. I sang many things across the many genres I like (anywhere from soundtracks, the King’s Singers, traditional folk, 1950s rock ‘n roll, Queen, Tolkien inspired pieces, etc). Towards the end of my uphill hike I was running out of memorized songs and resorted to making up a story about a bird, a squirrel, and the acorn that got away. It was utterly ridiculous, completely silly, and sung badly. But by the time I had reached my car, I was laughing in spite of my muddy and miserable state. Songs full of good cheer can carry one far, and that is a lesson I won’t soon forget.

The Road Goes Ever On and On,
~ Daisy Buttons