Steadily the Gray Company lapped up the leagues between Erech and Pelargir, abandoned by living men. The long road bent southeast and came down out of the hills, angling towards the mouths of Anduin, the great river which flowed south past Minas Tirith and Pelargir on its way to the sea. Come nightfall, the journey grew darker and more perilous. It would have been easier for Gimli and Aragorn to walk through Mirkwood blindfolded. The Elves, however, whose forebears had arisen long ago in the cold world before sun and moon, needed no more than starlight to see. That luxury they did not have, but the red fires of Orodruin lit up the eastern sky, and that sufficed.

The company began to pass settlements more often. Thankfully, these showed no further signs of war, save that most of the people had left for Minas Tirith or the great stronghold of Dol Amroth on the southern coast. The few inhabitants who had refused to abandon their homes waited stoically behind barricaded doors with lights shuttered or extinguished. As the shadow host drew near, vague horror crept over their hearts, and they cowered in the darkness, bereft of reason and hope. But when the elves swept past their doors, many heard enchanting music that would come to them in dreams for the rest of their lives.

The elves were singing in the moonless night.

A! Tollen gûr na Balannor
Nu goll dhúath e nathron dhonn
Onethelais panna i nôr
Gelaidh gelaid go linnod an
Nestad. Ai nae ú-amdir dâr.

O! Come is death to Valinor
Under shadowy cloak of the dark weaver.
Yavanna fills the place
of the Trees of Light with a chant
Of healing. Ah alas, no hope remains.

Harnannin athan nestad bân
Telperion a Laurelin.
Edhil ennas awarthar Dhûn
Farol i viriath coren
E galad vedui o Aman.

Wounded beyond all healing
Are Telperion and Laurelin.
Elves there depart the west
Seeking the jewels that held
The last light of Aman.

I aear dholl. Saer tîn vanadh.
Aphadar lîn e-fast i chîn
Finarfin. Athradar athrad
Chelegnen. Sí falas thrúnen.
I ithil eria. Romru cân.

The sea is dark. Bitter is their fate.
They follow the gleam of the hair of the children
Of Finarfin. They cross the icy
Passage. Here is the eastern shore.
The moon rises. Trumpets ring out.