Cold Be Hand and Heart and Bone

Cold Be Hand and Heart and Bone, is an incantation, sung by a barrow-wight in the Fog on the Barrow-downs chapter of The Fellowship of the Ring.

Text

Cold be hand and heart and bone,
and cold be sleep under stone:
never more to wake on stony bed,
never, till the Sun fails and the Moon is dead.
In the black wind the stars shall die,
and still on gold here let them lie,
till the dark lord lifts up his hand
over dead sea and withered land.

Portrayal in adaptations

2002: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Gollum recites a few lines from the poem with some altered lyrics; they go as follows:

Cold be heart and hand and bone,
Cold be travelers far from home,
They do not see what lies ahead
when sun has failed and moon is dead.

See also

• Poems in The Lord of the Rings