Ashen Shores/Ships

This is an elven lullaby that harks back almost two thousand years. Although the melody is softly cheerful, the lyrics are about a mournful longing for a home they’ve lost. Due to it being spoken in the elven tongue, translations are spotty, lacking any semblance to the original's rhythm and rhyme.

Summary

The lullaby starts by suggesting the listener is weary and that, given the coming night, they should rest. The singer goes on to implore the listener to remember those they’d left behind in their dreams and whether they can hear them calling from the ashen shores of their distant homeland.
They speak of calling sea birds and the shimmer of the ocean, asking the listener “Can you not hear them?” before speaking of white shores turning into glass. How the sky was eclipsed by soot, the ground heaved and the only light guiding them was a white glow to ashen ships.
The singer will then beseech the listener not to weep for those they have lost. They agree that night-time makes things look hopeless and laments how every soul they know will indeed pass on day, but also reminds them that dreaming is how memories can be kept alive.
They promise the rocking is not of a ship, but of them lying safely in the singer’s arms. They speak again of a white glow, now claiming it is only the rising moon and how they’ll meet again once the listener has awoken from their slumber.

Many Udynean renditions stop here, but nomad versions reveal there is a final verse that speaks of a grey ship turning to the north and how the listener will, very soon, have no further reason to fear as the ship will come to carry them home.

Historical Basis

The song speaks of the guilt many who lived through the Great Upheaval felt in not only surviving the brutal death their kin suffered, but also in how the disaster forced them from their homeland.

Date of First Recording

2 AES

Date of Setting

1 HC