"The Road Goes Ever On" is a title that encompasses several walking songs that J. R. R. Tolkien wrote for his Middle-earth legendarium. Within the stories, the original song was composed by Bilbo Baggins and recorded in The Hobbit. Different versions of it also appear in The Lord of the Rings, along with some similar walking songs.
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The original version of the song is recited by Bilbo in chapter 19 of The Hobbit, at the end of his journey back to the Shire. Coming to the top of a rise he sees his home in the distance, and stops and says the following:
There are three versions of "The Road Goes Ever On" in the novel The Lord of the Rings.
The first is in The Fellowship of the Ring, Book I, Chapter 1. The song is sung by Bilbo when he leaves the Shire. He has given up the One Ring, leaving it for Frodo to deal with, and is setting off to visit Rivendell, so that he may finish writing his book.
The second version appears in Book One, Chapter 3. It is identical except for changing the word "eager" to "weary" in the fifth line. It is spoken aloud, slowly, by Frodo, as he and his companions pause at the borders of the Shire.
The third version appears in The Return of the King, Book VI, Chapter 6. It is spoken by Bilbo in Rivendell after the hobbits have returned from their journey. Bilbo is now an old, sleepy hobbit, who murmurs the verse and then falls asleep.
Earlier, when leaving the Shire, Frodo tells the other hobbits Bilbo's thoughts on 'The Road': "He used often to say there was only one Road; that it was like a great river: its springs were at every doorstep, and every path was its tributary. 'It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door,' he used to say. 'You step onto the Road, and if you don't keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to.'".
This song is heard multiple times in The Lord of the Rings films. The first time it is heard, the song is sung and hummed by Gandalf as he approaches Frodo and is just barely distinguishable. The later occurrences of this song are based on those in the books.
Similar changes in mood and words are seen in two versions of another walking song that uses the same metre and is also found in The Lord of the Rings.
The first version, in the chapter 'Three is Company', is sung by the hobbits when they are walking through The Shire, just before they meet a company of elves. Three stanzas are given in the text, with the first stanza starting "Upon the hearth the fire is red...". The following extract is from the second stanza of the song.
It is this part of the song that is reprised with different words later in the book. This new version is sung softly by Frodo as he and Sam walk in the Shire a few years after they have returned, and as Frodo prepares to meet Elrond and others and journey to the Grey Havens to take ship into the West.
The final line of the verse is a variant on the phrase "East of the Sun and West of the Moon", which is used in fairy-stories and similar tales to refer to another world that is fantastically difficult to reach — in this case Aman, which can only be reached by the Straight Road. An example of the use of this phrase is East of the Sun and West of the Moon, a fairy-story found in The Blue Fairy Book, a collection compiled by Andrew Lang.
The words of these songs have been set to music several times:
Each of these settings is unrelated to the other musically.
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