RootsOfGraceAndBeauty

Written by Belman Wallace, otherwise known as WillShipley, in response to his glimpse of the Dark Elven caverns. The project was later joined by a wildly enthusiastic StephGrush, and aided (and abetted) by DM NickJohnson. A FilkSong.

---

 In the paths beneath the mountain
 Gentle sun dissolves to night;
 One wrong turn in the cold
 And you're lost 'till you're old
 In that blindness far from sight . . .
 Then one corner more, a sudden gleam
 Breaks across your weary eyes!
 For your path runs a fall
 Through a towering hall
 Where enchanted spires arise
 As you hazard a glance at that shining expanse
 Every glimmer greets your mind
 With the glories that you'll find . . .

CHORUS:

Oh, the light its never dimming in those caverns far below,

For the air is charged with wonder, every surface sings a-glow

How I long to reach that earth beneath the earth that once they roamed,

With the roots of grace and beauty banished to their halls of stone.

 As you walk that sparkling city
 Every path delights in turn,
 From the stonework that sails
 To the halls full of tales
 More than ever you could learn
 And its children call in fluid speech
 That can move the heart to sigh,
 For each land far above
 Has a place in their love
 When their trust's returned in kind.
 All their triumphs are shown as the light fills the stones
 To invoke the jeweled sun
 In a day that's never done.

CHORUS

 But it's darkness still they wander 
 Too long exiled from our sight   
 Turned away by their kin
 For an unpardoned sin
 Driven down to stone and night
 With a memory of two thousand years
 That they struggle to contain
 Come the hidden above
 And the banished below 
 Won't you raise a new refrain?
 Yet the time soon will come when they'll walk in the sun
 The united kin ascend
 And the sundered tree will mend...

FINAL CHORUS:

Oh, the light it's ever brimming from the caverns far below

And the air is charged with wonder, every surface sings aglow

For one day we'll see triumphant three as together they shall roam,

And the roots of grace and beauty will at last be welcomed home . . .

---

Completed in a week, with MUCH welcome assistance and corroboration. The tune's still a bit iffy: I have NO idea what pitch with which I should begin the song, so I may have impetus to learn that crazy little thing called musical notation. All in all, though, this turned out QUITE well. --WillShipley