1. Beregond’s Prayer
| Greatest Being, | help us fickle men, |
| protect my son, | staying here behind |
| despite my wish | not to lose him to |
| an early death. | Yet my soldier's mind |
| could not deny him | yearning for brave deeds. |
| And secretly I | long'd for him - to stay with me. |
| Greatest Being, | help us mortal men, |
| protect my lord, | lying hewn near death, |
| who valiant fought | to gain us time till |
| rescue cometh | down from northern plains. |
| Gave a soldier's | life and being for |
| Gondor's children | to last through - perilous threat. |
| Greatest Being, | help us frailish men, |
| protect ourselves | fighting through the charge, |
| in defence of | our children’s future, |
| serving with our | bodies to uphold |
| Minas Tirith’s | ring walls devoid of |
| Orks and Evil, | fighting for - freedom to last. |
*****
A/N:
I use "frailish" instead of "frail" to maintain the rhythm.
I use "Orks" because I found in HoME 12 the essay "Of Dwarves and Men" and "The Shibboleth of Feanor" wherein Tolkien uses "Orks" instead of "Orcs". And in an illuminating note (1969 or later) at the end of the essay "Myths transformed" (HoME10) Tolkien wrote: "Also the spelling of what, in the later more organized linguistic situation, must have been a Common Speech form of a word or group of similar words should be ork. If only because of spelling difficulties in modern English: an adjective orc + ish becomes necessary, and orcish will not do [note 8: because it would be pronounced 'orsish']. In any future publication I shall use ork."
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