Disclaimer: J. R. R. Tolkien owns Gandalf, Shadowfax, Gwaihir, the Ringwraiths, and the Mouth of Sauron (the last two he may keep!).
This poem is intended to be the joyful continuation of Frodo's verses lamenting Gandalf's fall in The Fellowship of the Ring, Book II, Chapter VII The Mirror of Galadriel (pp. 350-351 in the Houghton-Mifflin edition), beginning "When evening in the Shire was grey..."
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But he returned, now clothed in white,
Borne back upon the Windlord's wing;
Death shall not take him in a fight
For he returned his aid to bring.
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Against the Dark Lord's wraiths of ire
Who ride upon fell beasts and black
Comes the White Rider with white fire
Upon his silver Shadowfax.
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But ere the end they left from vying,
White to healing, Black to war;
The White did save a few from dying,
Black met death by maiden's sword.
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He afterwards his counsel gave
To kings and lords and wanderers,
Whether with so few they could save
The light, and be the conquerors.
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Before the gates of Darkest Night
The Mouth of Sauron he defied;
And through despair he brought the light
Of never-failing courage tried.
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When shadow felled and joy restored
With mirth of endless light he laughed;
He sailed West, back to his lord,
His goal accomplished, wrought his task.
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A/N: I was organizing some old papers in my room and ran across the first three stanzas of this poem. I'd written them a few years ago, and I came up with the brilliant idea of finishing them off with three more. Can you tell a difference in the two halves? I personally like the later ones better. What do you think?
One more thing: I wrote the third line of the last stanza ("back to his lord") with Manwë in mind, but when I wanted to note that and looked up what I thought was the reference in the Silmarillion, I realized it didn't actually say that Olórin was a Maia of Manwë specifically. Maybe I just got that idea from his always flying with the Great Eagles. If you know any more about this, could you tell me? Thanks!