The Grey Havens

Partially just for pure enjoyment, and partially because it makes a better compliment to programming (my job) and social World of Warcraft playing (my hobby), I've been listening to more and more instrumental music of late. This is good in a lot of ways because it's insanely easy to find, especially for someone like me who enjoys old hymns. There aren't as many artists nowadays making good instrumental music, although I was fortunate to find, by accident during some browsing on iTunes, one who does.

As a consequence, I've spent the last several days listening to David Arkenstone's Music Inspired by Middle Earth. For those who enjoy the style, I highly recommend this album. The entire album is masterfully done; the pieces spring up exactly the emotions that they should based on the subject material that the title suggest they're supposed to cover. :)

My favorite track (for today, anyway) is the last one: The Grey Havens. OK, so let me lay it out on the table now: I always cry when reading or watching The Return of the King...usually in three places and without fail...ever...in two. The latter of these two places is when Frodo, Bilbo, Elrond and Gandalf are departing to the Grey Havens...in particular Frodo's farewell to his friends.

This track compliments that scene perfectly. Granted, when listening to instrumental music, there's a good deal of inference going on, but (to me) this song conveys two primary concepts: completion and rest. I feel like those two concepts weave together and permeate the entire track. And, as a person who longs for completion and often feels mentally exhausted, these are two concepts that naturally resonate with me.

Completion is a wonderful theme for this scene and song...Frodo (along with his friends) has been through two and a half books of trial and half a book of dénouement...he's done everything he can possibly do. Conclusion fits this scene because of everything that has come before...the sense of what has been done and that the other concept, rest, has been earned.

Rest is a wonderful theme for this scene because of its contrast to everything that has come before. Rest is what awaits after conclusion; it's what finally comes when everything set in front of Frodo has been completed. In his request to Elrond to be allowed to go with the elves to the Grey Havens, Frodo describes himself as having become "weary beyond his years" because of what he has done...an appropriate description.

And so Frodo departs with the elves to the Grey Havens, perhaps as a symbolic promise to the ring-bearers of life that rest awaits them at its conclusion.