*Written in Tengwar lettering, the text appears to be very old*
((The text here should be considered translated into modern Westron from an older form of Sindarin, dating back to the time of Beleriand))
The Sting of Mortality
'Twere with great glee I met the Naugrim,
Such casual yet curious creatures they were,
With hair from chin and jaw and under horn,
So small yet splayed in stature,
They worked without weariness, without wear,
Great walls and pillars, bejewelled or more,
They were the masters of stone,
I shared in welcoming words,
I listened to their histories,
I fed them,
I learned from them,
And all the while I befriended them,
Lo the time I spent with them - 'twere glorious!
But come so many-eth a winter they were gone,
I know not where nor why,
But others of their kind told me,
That their life was short lived,
That they ceased to be - like that!
I understood not and begged them,
"bring them back to me!",
But 'twas all for naught for they never returned,
Nevermore did I see them again,
I locked myself away for a length of time,
I vowed not to see them again, them stunted folk,
I could not understand their mentality,
This thing they call mortality.
Yet my aching heart did cease to ache,
And I forgot their woeful fate so cruel,
And forgot my friends I could not wake,
When next I met some dwarves anew.
I travelled with them to their halls,
I visited them in their mines,
I turned stone with them,
I sat by forges with them,
And in the last I befriended them,
But come so many-eth a summer they were gone,
I looked for them in every hall,
Till finally I found them in a tomb so cold,
They said: "Worry not, they had grown quite old",
Nay - I could not take it all!
I lingered many a day,
But it held me in sway,
This so called normality,
This thing they call mortality.
And so 'twas that every winter,
Every summer, spring or autumn,
My stunted friends were gone,
And there I remained,
How could such wondrous people waken,
And make so wondrous a things,
Then be so cruelly by life forsaken,
'Tis true that this mortality stings.
