The Beacon Men of Gondor SAM

Phil Allcock

The Beacon Men of Gondor

Copyright ©2005 Phil Allcock
All Rights Reserved - Used by Permission

Oh, when you're walking in Anórien
Far from villages and towns
When you're seven leagues from nowhere, and it's bleak.
On a dark deserted hilltop, or some summit of the downs,
You may yet espy a lonely crest or peak.
And you'll always find a damn great pile of firewood at the top
There's one on every hillock, tor, or bairn .
Don't think it's there by accident; it's us you have to thank:
The Society of Gondor Beacon Men

Oh the bonfire on Eilenach and the flames on Amon Dín
Are part of Gondor's warning chain, the part we're sworn to tend.
Every mountain range and glacier has a beauty all can share,
But not unless it's got a damn great pile of firewood there.

So we gather up the lumber, as much as we can get.
We'd nick some railway sleepers had they been invented yet!
We drag them up the hillsides when the moon is in the sky
And wish they'd choose some mountaintops a little bit less high.

The league of Gondor Beacon Men is limping through the night,
A desperate and desiccated crew.
But no matter how precarious or remote each Beacon site
That precious load of firewood must get through.

The society for putting heaps of lumber onto peaks
Has another solemn purpose to fulfil
For said damn great pile of firewood wouldn't be much use at all
If there weren't somebody there to light it still.
So you'll always find some lonely watchman from that hilltop stares
For years he's hoped that signal he will catch.
Not that he wants invasion, but by now he only cares
For the day that bloody beacon meets its match...

Oh the bonfire on Eilenach and the flames on Amon Dín
Are part of Gondor's warning chain, the part we're sworn to tend.
Every mountain range and glacier has a beauty all can share,
Provided there's some wood...
Provided there's some wood...
Provided there's a heap of wood,
Some kindling, a couple of flasks of oil, a lantern
A 500 year forecast for clear weather over the mountains
And a Beacon Man up there!

For anyone who wonders why they don't bother to keep the wood drier, the answer is that they found it burns just as well if it's WETA.