The story goes that two Tolkien scholars, Wayne Hammond and Christina Scull, were researching a Catholic journal from the 1930s when they came across a mention of two unknown (until then) poems of Tolkien’s. Some modern-day sleuthing led them to the “Annual of Our Lady’s School,” an annual published by Our Lady’s School in Abingdon, near Oxford. It’s thought that Tolkien had become acquainted with the school during his professorship at Oxford, where he began teaching in 1925.
Since it’s discovery in 2013, the poem “Noel” has made the rounds on the internet. It’s undeniably Tolkien, replete with imagery that wouldn’t be out of place in Middle Earth. “Noel” is a poem that’s beauty is worth revisiting each year as we prepare to celebrate the King’s birth.
Noel by J.R.R. Tolkien
“Grim was the world and grey last night:
The moon and stars were fled,
The hall was dark without song or light,
The fires were fallen dead.
The wind in the trees was like to the sea,
And over the mountains’ teeth
It whistled bitter-cold and free,
As a sword leapt from its sheath.
The lord of snows upreared his head;
His mantle long and pale
Upon the bitter blast was spread
And hung o’er hill and dale.
The world was blind,
the boughs were bent,
All ways and paths were wild:
Then the veil of cloud apart was rent,
And here was born a Child.
The ancient dome of heaven sheer
Was pricked with distant light;
A star came shining white and clear
Alone above the night.
In the dale of dark in that hour of birth
One voice on a sudden sang:
Then all the bells in Heaven and Earth
Together at midnight rang.
Mary sang in this world below:
They heard her song arise
O’er mist and over mountain snow
To the walls of Paradise,
And the tongue of many bells was stirred
in Heaven’s towers to ring
When the voice of mortal maid was heard,
That was mother of Heaven’s King.
Glad is the world and fair this night
With stars about its head,
And the hall is filled with laughter and light,
And fires are burning red.
The bells of Paradise now ring
With bells of Christendom,
And Gloria, Gloria we will sing
That God on earth is come.”
P.A. Tennant – Advent, 2025
Soli Deo Gloria
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Photo: P.A. Tennant
Copyright 2025 Paul A. Tennant
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P.A. Tennant 