The world was young, the mountains green No stain yet on the Moon was seen No words were laid on stream or stone When Durin woke and walked alone He named the nameless hills and dells He drank from yet untasted wells He stooped and looked in Mirrormere And saw a crown of stars appear As gems upon a silver thread Above the shadow of his head
The world was fair, the mountains tall In Elder Days before the fall Of mighty Kings in Nargothrond And Gondolin, who now beyond The Western Seas have passed away The world was fair in Durin's Day
A king he was on carven throne In many-pillared halls of stone With golden roof and silver floor And runes of power upon the door The light of sun and star and moon In shining lamps of crystal hewn Undimmed by cloud or shade of night There shown forever far and bright
There hammer on the anvil smote There chisel clove, and graver wrote There forged was bladed and bound was hilt The delver mined the mason built There beryl, pearl, and opal pale And metel wrought like fishes' mail Buckler and corslet, axe and sword And shining spears were laid in horde
Unwearied then were Durin's folk Beneath the mountains music woke The harpers harped, the minstrels sang And at the gates the trumpets rang
The world is grey, the mountains old The forge's fire is ashen-cold No harp is wrung, no hammer falls The darkness dwells in Durin's halls The shadow lies upon his tomb In Moria, in Khazad-dûm But still the sunken stars appear In dark and windless Mirrormere There lies his crown in water deep Till Durin wakes again from sleep