Old Tom Was There - Tom Bombadil

I was singing before your maps were drawn

Before crowns were lost, before wars were won

Boots in the river, mud on my coat

Laughing at the weight of a golden note

They came to me tired, afraid, and small

Carrying a shadow that would swallow them all

The Ring, it whispered, it begged, it lied

But it slipped on my finger and found nowhere to hide

No fire burned, no bells were rung

No spell could bind my laughing tongue

I tossed it high, I closed my hand

Power means nothing when you understand...

Old Tom was there when the road turned right

When hope stayed breathing in the longest night

I didn't march and I didn't rule

Didn't crave the crown or the tyrant's tool

You don't know my name, you don't know my song

They cut me out, but I carried them on

Sing it soft, sing it fair

You broke the Ring... but Old Tom was there

Goldberry dancing in the evening rain

Barrel-white, screaming, bound in chains

I walked where fear learned how to run

Singing dead kings back into the sun

Elrond asked if I'd keep the prize

Lock it away from the world's red eyes

But I told him plain, I told him true

"I'd lose it tomorrow—that's what power do"

For I am the master of wood and stream

Not by force, nor by right, nor by fevered dream

The Ring wants hands that cling and close

I opened mine, and off it goes...

Old Tom was there when the road turned right

When hope stayed breathing in the longest night

I didn't march and I didn't rule

Didn't crave the crown or the tyrant's tool

You don't know my name, you don't know my song

They cut me out, but I carried them on

Sing it soft, sing it fair

You broke the Ring... but Old Tom was there

Now they tell the tale with thunder and flame

Heroes remembered and forgotten names

They wanted war, they wanted kings

Not a laughing man beyond their rings