Helm’s Deep

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,

Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.

They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,

They fell with their faces to the foe.

From ‘For The Fallen’

Laurence Binyon

1869 - 1943

The night before the battle was full of deep, dark shadows, made yet darker by our despair – for what hope had we of ever seeing another sunrise?  I looked at our ragtag army – old men and boys, farmers and farriers – and knew that only a miracle could save us now.

And then, out of the night, they came.  Elves.   Barely a hundred of them, but still they came.  They came with horns and songs, with arrows and bows,  to honour the old alliances.  With them came hope – and the thought that perhaps we might yet live to see the dawn.

Author Notes:  In remembrance of the very many for whom there was no miracle, and no sunrise.    The verse quoted is from one of the most well-known war poems, though most people know only this verse:

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning,

We will remember them.