There are three versions of this iambic tetrameter hymn, the first of which is the largest portion of Sindarin found in the novel:
Musical settings
In 1967 Donald Swann published a musical rendition in the musical score of the song cycleThe Road Goes Ever On. He and William Elvin also recorded this song cycle on an LP record. The LP also included a recording of Tolkien reading this prayer. The Road Goes Ever On was republished in 1978 and 1993, and the recording was released as a CD in 1993. The CD contained only the song cycle, but not Tolkien's reading of the prayer. The BBC's 1981 radio dramatization of the Lord of the Rings included a version composed by Stephen Oliver which was released as the second track of soundtrack album, which itself is included in some commercial versions of the BBC's production. In Peter Jackson's films ' and ', the first few lines of the poem can be heard in the movie soundtrack when Frodo Baggins, or Bilbo Baggins', respectively, enter Rivendell. In "", the hymn is sung mockingly by Sauron when Aragorn confronts him with the palantír. In 2006, The Tolkien Ensemble and Christopher Lee released a collection of previously released songs, Complete Songs & Poems, which included four different musical renditions of the poem, one of which marked as number III, is the complete poem sung by Signe Asmussen, a soprano. A rendition composed by David Long with Plan 9 is briefly heard in the Extended Edition of , where Sam and Frodo encounter "wood elves" who are singing the hymn while leaving Middle-earth. The complete song is included in The Complete Recordings edition of the soundtrack for the film. Australian composer Laura Bishop composed her own rendition of this elven hymn. Beginning with a solo by a soprano it then repeats with an SATB choir. The Norwegian classical composerMartin Romberg has set the lyrics to music in his work "Eldarinwë Liri" for girls' choir, which also includes the four other poems Tolkien wrote in Elven languages. The work premiered in 2010 with the Norwegian Girls Choir and Trio Mediæval at the Vestfold International Festival. The ending of the song "Zjawy i ludzie" by the Polish band Armia features the phrase "O Elbereth! O Gilthoniel!" The Michigan State University Tolkien Fellowship placed the poem to "Lovely Joan", trad. and using "Gilthoniel A Elbereth" as the fourth line.
