THREE RINGS for the ELVEN KINGS

Sally Oldfield’s Nenya

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In 1978, on her debut solo album Water Bearer, singer-songwriter Sally Oldfield released a song called Nenya, perhaps better known as Three Rings for the Elven Kings after its refrain. Nenya is the Ring of Water, and since this was in the possession of Galadriel, this allows us to identify her as the unnamed subject of the song. It describes her return to the Undying Lands after more than seven thousand years of exile, and her emotions as she finally approaches her true home, an apparently lost and unattainable world. There is indeed a land that awaits us, a land free from worldly decay, if only we would follow the path of the ancient ones – the Elves. A careful reading of the lyrics will reveal some very interesting information about this, which Tolkien himself chose not to disclose.

 

 

Sally:
Three rings for the elven kings!
Three rings for the elven kings!
Three rings for the elven kings!
Three rings for the elven kings!

 

Three rings for the elven kings!
Three rings for the elven kings!
Three rings for the elven kings!
Three rings for the elven kings!

 

Brian Burrows:
Three rings for the elven kings!
Three rings for the elven kings!
Three rings for the elven kings!

 

Sally:
They come from the darkness!
Brian Burrows:
Moriquendi!
Sally:
They come from the green lands!
Brian Burrows:
Laiquendi!
Sally:
They come from the clear light!
Brian Burrows:
Calaquendi!
They are the makers!
They are the makers!
Of the earth and the wind and the light!

 

Sally:
Three rings for the elven kings under the sky!
Three rings for the elven kings under the sky!
Three rings for the elven kings under the sky!
Wrought of star-fire!

 

Makers of all things fair under the sky!
Bearers of the silver flame that never dies!
Mirrors of all things true wherever they lie!
Wrought of star-fire!

 

The strange light of the elven night shines on their faces
A charmed breeze from the elven trees rustles the grasses
Three rings for the elven kings under the sky!
Wrought of star-fire!

 

The light of the lady is on the land
Fear the starlight hand!

 

They are strangers from afar seen by the holy!
They bring secrets of the stars to the lost and the lowly!
Three rings for the elven kings under the sky!
Wrought of star-fire!

 

I’ve seen them in the darkest night
They are the makers of the light
Through wind and rain and storm they call me home.

 

Ella kom ye la! I cried unto these ones
I’ve wandered through the dark so long!
I’ve waited through the night for the rising sun!

 

They cried “We who of the earth are born
Will lead you through the healing storm,
It’s time to follow the path of the ancient ones!”

 

It’s sunrise and high tide!
In the blue endless space my eyes open wide
There’s a land I can see!
There’s a land I can see!
There’s a land I can see!

 

Nenya (otherwise known as Three Rings for the Elven Kings, one of the Songs of the Quendi) appears on Sally Oldfield’s Water Bearer album (1978). The music and lyrics are her own, and the other singing voice on the track is that of Brian Burrows. The song is © 1978 Betterbron Music Ltd.

 

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© Three Rings for the Elven Kings

 

We who of the earth are born

Will lead you through the healing storm,

It’s time to follow the path of the ancient ones!