Pi… Read Full Bio ↴Featuring Liv Tyler; Music by Howard Shore; Lyrics by Fran Walsh.
Pippin searches through the battle’s debris and finds a cloak adorned with an Elvish brooch—Merry’s cloak. Éomer discovers Éowyn, badly wounded, collapsed upon the figure of her perished uncle. Aragorn and Gandalf survey the carnage. Now is the time for healing.
Under Aragorn’s care, Éowyn recovers in the Houses of Healing. “Arwen’s Song” acts here as an Elvish blessing—an ethereal prayer for the suffering. Arwen, too, is somewhere in Middle-earth, just as lovelorn. “And the trees are now turning from green to gold/And the sun is now fading…” And yet, there is still hope. Faramir has also recovered in the Houses of Healing. He smiles at Éowyn. “Arwen’s Song” continues, “I wish I could hold you closer.”
The whistle continues in the same tender vein. Late at night, Pippin has found Merry on the quiet battlefield. Stepwise passages recall the Shire theme, but more mature and worldly.
TEXTS
ARWEN’S SONG
Text by Fran Walsh
FIRST HEARD: DISC THREE | TRACK ELEVEN
With a sigh you turn away
With a deepening heart no more words to say
You will find that the world has changed forever
And the trees are now turning from green to gold
And the sun is now fading
I wish i could hold you closer
(c) The Annotated Score (The Music of The Lord of the Rings Films)
The Houses of Healing
Howard Shore Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
With a deepening heart,
No more words to say
You will find that the world has changed forever.
And the trees are now
Turning from green to gold
And the sun is now fading
The first stanza of Howard Shore's song 'The Houses of Healing' speaks of a deep sense of loss and despair. The singer seems to have given up on trying to find the right words to express his feelings as he watches something or someone that he deeply cared about slip away. The use of language in this stanza expertly conveys the singer's mental and emotional state. The repetition of "you turn away" and "no more words to say" highlights the sense of finality and resignation of the singer. Moreover, the use of "the world has changed forever" contextualizes the sense of loss as something that cannot be undone.
The second stanza of the song shifts slightly to a more visual imagery. The singer observes the world turning from green to gold as the sun sets, indicating that something is coming to a close. The use of the verb 'fading' to describe the sun's departure puts emphasis on the transience of time, and how everything eventually comes to an end. The final line "I wish I could hold you closer" ties both stanzas together, revealing that the sense of loss felt by the singer is rooted in a personal relationship that ended, which the singer wishes he could be able to salvage.
Line by Line Meaning
With a sigh, you turn away
You resign yourself with a heavy heart and leave the situation.
With a deepening heart
Your emotions are getting stronger and more intense.
No more words to say
There is nothing left to communicate, everything that needed to be said has been said.
You will find that the world has changed forever.
The world will never be the same as it once was.
And the trees are now
The leaves of trees are no longer green.
Turning from green to gold
The leaves of trees are turning from green to gold color.
And the sun is now fading
The sun is slowly disappearing from view.
I wish I could hold you closer.
I desire to be close to you physically.
Contributed by Mason V. Suggest a correction in the comments below.