(©Shirley Starke 1994)</p>

[lyrics not yet available]</p>

<b><u>Comments</b></u><br>
Artist Comment: "This was originally in Gaelic, and written in 1971. Parts of the English version (the first verse, and the first half of the third verse) are exact translations of the Gaelic, and other parts were re-written for Angel-Chief. Originally I had two melodies for it: one is used in Angel-Chief, and the other (and best) is adapted as the "Gloria" of <i>Mass of the Archangel</i>. All of them are, really, inspired by St John of the Cross. Tolkien's effect on me has been to make me a very devout Catholic - I became a Catholic in 1977, before I even realized Tolkien was so devout himself - before I read the Simarillion and found that to him, too, Olorin was an angel. He was a definite presence from the beginning, "impossible" to my way of thinking then (when I first read the books at the age of about 16) but real nonetheless. I knew such a being would have to be known in the primary world too, but it took me until 1989 to recognize him as Christ, though I figured quite early on that he was an angel. As St. John of the Cross says, the  presence of Christ comes to us in this world only through His angels - they are like windows through which his light shines. I still have not totally sorted out what is the light and what is the window, and from my perspective in this world, it may not be either possible or relevant to tell the difference."</p>