Eruman beneath the Stars

This article is about the poem. For the titular region, see Eruman.

Eruman beneath the Stars, also known as Þā Ȝebletsode Feldá under þām Steorrum, is a poem that was written by J.R.R. Tolkien concerning the region of Eruman and the fate of Men after Death in the early version of the legendarium.

First stanza

‘Now Eruman is that region where one draws nigh to the places that are not of men. There is the air very sweet and the sky very great by reason of the broadness of the Earth — ’

In Eruman beneath the Stars,
Where all roads end however long,
There is a sound of faint guitars
And distant echoes of a song;
For there men gather into rings
Round their red fires, while one voice sings —
And all about is night.

Background

Tolkien first wrote the poem in June 1916 at Étaples, France based on his time at Brocton Camp, Staffordshire in December 1915. The first two versions of the poem were entitled Habbanan beneath the Stars before Tolkien lightly emended Habbanan to Eruman in pencil. In the first version of the poem, Tolkien inscribed Þā Ȝebletsode Feldá under þām Steorrum ("The Blessed Fields under the Stars") or paā gebletsode felda under paām steorrum in Old English. In 1924, Tolkien made a typescript of the poem which he named Eruman beneath the Stars. All three versions contain a short prose introduction that offers a glimpse into the early conception of the afterlife, where Eruman would be the Purgatory.

The first version of the poem was published by Christopher Tolkien in The Book of Lost Tales Part One. In 2024, the other versions of the poem were first published in September as entry 45 in The Collected Poems of J.R.R. Tolkien.