The successful works of fiction by British writer J.R.R. Tolkien have inspired a multitude of musical themes for many years.<\/p>\n
In the 1960s, various rock bands released songs related to episodes and characters from \"The Hobbit,\" \"The Lord of the Rings,\" and \"The Silmarillion.\"<\/strong> These themes were recurrent in progressive rock and heavy metal bands. The epic scope of Tolkien's work inspired many of these songs<\/strong>, but some also approached them from a lyrical and intimate perspective.<\/p>\n On February 5, 1971, the British progressive rock band Barclay James Harvest released the album \"Once Again.\"<\/strong> This work included four tracks. At the end of side one (when music was still released on cassette tapes), the fourth track was titled \"Galadriel,\"<\/strong> the name of one of the most famous characters created by Tolkien: the Noldor queen of Lothl\u00f3tien (also called L\u00f3rien), a realm made up primarily of Wood Elves (the Nandor), a branch of the Eldar who never reached the Undying Lands after the call of the Valar. If all this sounds like gibberish to you, I recommend reading \"The Silmarillion,\"<\/strong> in which this story appears.<\/p>\n The original version of the song had an orchestral accompaniment.<\/strong> It was composed by John Lees and performed using John Lennon's Epiphone Casino. The song was a simple and beautiful love song<\/strong> that made no reference to any specific event in Tolkien's work:<\/p>\n
\n