This Wandering Day was written for the Harfoots, but it can technically apply to almost anyone in the show and books: Hobbits, Dwarves, the Stranger, Galadriel, Elendil after the fall of Númenor.

Even Beren’s story fits. His home was destroyed, he fled, he wandered, he knew not where to travel until he scried “lands far away,” as if they called to him. He found Lúthien and she began to sing, which gave him comfort. When he was in Tol-in-Gaurhoth, Lúthien sang to him and he responded.* The answer from Lúthien, when she found him, was that “not all who wonder or wander are lost.”

* Perhaps: “Oh, rise up and guide me.”
“Please promise to find me.”

Ironically, the song also applies to Sauron a little too perfectly.

Timeline

Sauron’s timeline is worth noting, first, to determine how long it has been since he was in the North.

This is theoretical, of course. I explain much of my reasoning in Sauron Rebuilt and a Twitter/X thread, but I will summarize here.

Once upon a time, Morgoth was defeated. At the head of a large company of Orcs, Sauron experimented in the North with Adar as his lieutenant. After roughly four hundred years, Adar betrayed Sauron, and Sauron’s spirit fled and hid for over two thousand years. He then reformed and wandered for another one thousand years, until he met Galadriel on the raft.

“And that’s a long time to wander. Even for a fellow with big legs” (Sadoc, 1×07).

How would Sauron sing about his wandering day?

This Wandering Day

There can be at least two interpretations, depending on how one views his conversation with Galadriel in the vision: Was he sincere or manipulative? Likely both, in that any sincerity came from the desire to heal Middle-earth, and Galadriel would make things easier for him. It was for personal gain, but for her to be convinced to join him, he had to manipulate and mislead with the truth, though he ultimately failed to sway her. Viewing This Wandering Day as if sung from Sauron’s own mouth has the same effect as that conversation. He tells the truth, but the words are masked with innocence to conceal his dark intentions.

The sun is fast falling beneath trees of stone.

“Trees of stone” can represent tall stone buildings, but it can also be a fancy way of saying “mountains.” A good example of the sun quickly setting over mountains is the first view we had of Forodwaith, Sauron’s former home:

It was there that Thondir and Galadriel drew attention to the fast-falling sun.

Thondir: “Light is closing in. How long can living flesh endure where even sunlight fears to tread?” […]

Galadriel: “We are losing the light” (1×01).

The light in the tower, no longer my home.

It’s alluded to, I think in episode 6 of season 1 that something happened, and we’re going to see this at the very beginning of season 2. And this is thousands of years before.

Sam Hazeldine

Forodwaith was Sauron’s homeland, where Galadriel found the old tower in which he resided thousands of years in the past. (This could also be a “tree of stone.”)

The name of this tower is Dúrnost, which means “House of the Dark” in Sindarin.* It is evidently no longer Sauron’s home, as we heard in the second episode when he said he was chased from it.

“The way I see it, it wasn’t Elves that chased me from my homeland. It was Orcs.”

* dûr, nost

Past eyes of pale fire, black sand for my bed,

“Black sand” is another fancy term, referring to ashes, which was how Sauron described the state of his former home.

Galadriel: “Your home. Where was it?”

Sauron: “What’s it matter? It’s ashes now” (1×02).

“Eyes of pale fire” is tricky to decipher. It most likely refers to the strange constellation of stars in Rhûn, in relation to the Harfoots, but Sauron’s case is more literal.

Charlie Vickers has often said that the gods are always watching, and Sauron fears the gods. Even Míriel suggested that “their eyes and their judgment are ever upon us.” Sauron is aware of this. For the Harfoots, the phrase “past eyes of pale fire” might mean leaving behind the stars they once knew. But for Sauron, it would mean passing under the gaze of the Valar, whose eyes are said to be burning bright, just as stars.

“Your furnaces are said to be burning as bright as the eyes of Aulë himself” (Gil-galad, 1×05).

I trade all I’ve known for the unknown ahead.

This illustrates Sauron’s opportunism. He did not plan for Adar to kill him, but things went sideways and he had to adapt.

I always like a villain that has a plan, but a villain that can adapt and move on their feet. And I think that’s the case with Sauron.

Charlie Vickers

Adar spoke of a hidden piece of dark knowledge (the “unknown ahead”) which Sauron set out to find after abandoning his home, or all that he knew. “He’s leaving his past behind,” as Charlie described Halbrand.

Now we must ask the question: To whom or what is Sauron singing? For the first verse, the answer is the same person he deceived in the first season: Galadriel. She is the one who discovered the information contained in the first verse. Sauron wanted her to find him, and the whole stanza seems like a guide. The first line is a push to beat the setting sun or to make haste; the second and third tell her that Dúrnost is no longer his home, and she must move along; for, as the fourth line suggests, he abandoned everything there for something unknown.

Call to me! Call to me, lands far away,
For I must now wander this wandering day.
Away I must wander this wandering day.

In the first chorus, the “lands far away” may not represent anything but literal far-away lands, all of which Sauron desired to heal. Disa can sing to the stones of Khazad-dûm, and Sauron has the mastery of songs of power, as we read in The Silmarillion.

“Thus befell the contest of Sauron and Felagund which is renowned. For Felagund strove with Sauron in songs of power, and the power of the King was very great; but Sauron had the mastery, as is told in the Lay of Leithian.”

Of Beren and Lúthien

He could probably use them to speak to the earth as Disa does, and thus it is possible that he literally sings, “Call to me!” to far-away lands. And in the one thousand years he wandered, Eriador, the Southlands, Rhûn, and even Númenor (or its colonies on Middle-earth) were places he could have visited.

Of drink I have little, and food I have less.
My strength tells me, “No,” but the path demands, “Yes.”

In the second verse, Sauron returns to singing to Galadriel, again reading in the same tone as his pitch in the vision. (But as you will see in the second chorus, everything up to the last stanza is sung before they meet.)

The first line is fairly straight-forward, seeing that he had little to drink and very little to eat on the raft.

Concerning his strength, we have drawn parallels before between Sauron of the Second Age and Third Age. Gandalf said:

“‘The Enemy still lacks one thing to give him strength and knowledge to beat down all resistance.’”

The Lord of the Rings: The Shadow of the Past

In the Third Age, he needed the One Ring. In Sauron Rebuilt, we theorized what he needed in the Second Age, but the point here is that he lacked a certain amount of strength; his strength told him, “No,” in the beginning. The path, or what he perceived to be his destiny, demanded, “Yes.” Galadriel reenforced that pressure when she unknowingly pushed Sauron to fulfill that destiny, which is something he wanted her to do.

Sauron might say to Galadriel: “Look, I was ready to walk away. You pulled me into this.” But if you look at the chain of events, he’s been greasing the wheels. He’s been encouraging her. […] How many times does he say, “When are you going to get that army?”

Patrick McKay

…there’s also a good case to be made that every step of the way, he sees her as his ticket back to power, and he’s playing hard-to-get to get her to dig in; to get her to do what he needs her to do.

Patrick McKay

My legs are so short and the way is so long.
I’ve no rest nor comfort, no comfort but song.

It is ironic for him to say that his legs are short, since he is “a fellow with big legs.” But all things considered, he used to be very tall. His Halbrand form is comparatively quite squatty.

In all seriousness, if we interpret it as metaphorical, short legs are a reference to having scanty means of accomplishing a purpose. Before he met Galadriel, Sauron was alone with no means of accomplishing anything, let alone his boundless aspirations.

His lack of rest may be connected to Galadriel saying that evil does not sleep. He would not have to sleep to rest; according to our theoretical timeline, he rested, or “waited,” for two thousand years.

“‘Always after a defeat and a respite, the Shadow takes another shape and grows again.”

Gandalf, The Lord of the Rings: The Shadow of the Past

Once he took another shape in the Second Age, he would allow himself no rest at all, nor would he ever have comfort; but why would he need comfort?

“Look, Elf. You didn’t cause my suffering and you can’t fix it, no matter how strong your will or your pride. So, let it lie” (Sauron, 1×02).

What or who caused his endless suffering? —First Morgoth, then Adar, and now he is ceaselessly tormented by the Valar. He fears them and is not yet deluding himself into thinking that he can single-handedly face them, for he has witnessed their wrath many times, such as in the Battle of the Powers…

“Melkor met the onset of the Valar in the North-west of Middle-earth, and all that region was much broken. […] In that time the shape of Middle-earth was changed, and the Great Sea that sundered it from Aman grew wide and deep; and it broke in upon the coasts and made a deep gulf to the southward. […]
Nonetheless the Valar did not discover all the mighty vaults and caverns hidden with deceit far under the fortresses of Angband and Utumno. […] and Sauron they did not find.”

Of the Coming of the Elves and the Captivity of Melkor

…and in the War of Wrath.

“And some hold that this was not at first falsely done, but that Sauron in truth repented, if only out of fear, being dismayed by the fall of Morgoth and the great wrath of the Lords of the West.”

Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age

He knows that what he aspires to do* is grounds for the Valar to destroy him. And it’s scary. So, in his attempt to sway Galadriel, he said:

“And I knew, if ever I was to be forgiven, that I had to heal everything that I had helped ruin. […] You bind me to the light, and I bind you to power” (1×08).

* The most effective way to heal Middle-earth is to dominate, rule, control, enslave the minds and wills of all its creatures so they don’t mess things up.

His solution is a loophole. He is unwilling to face the judgment of the Valar for his evil deeds, so as far as he is concerned, he must become powerful enough to rival the gods and avoid destruction.

“I never believed I could be [free of it] until today. […] If I could just hold onto that feeling, keep it with me always, bind it to my very being, then I…” (1×06).

If he could only bind himself to the light, he could be free of whatever evil he had done. The gods could not destroy him. He would be safe.

Of course, he would never tell Galadriel as much. In the meantime, he had no comfort from his fear but “song.” We see that the whole stanza, again concealing his true dark intentions, is an attempt to garner sympathy. The first three lines explain that he has no means of accomplishing his goal to heal the world, but it must be done, as great a task as it may be. The path demands it. The last line suggests, “Only you can help me.”

That is where the “lands far away” begin to represent Galadriel.

Sing to me! Sing to me, lands far away!
Oh, rise up and guide me this wandering day.
Please promise to find me this wandering day.

Those familiar with this blog are well-aware of my theory that Sauron called Galadriel to him, which is the entire purpose of the existence of Sauron: The Perfect Inverse of Beren, most specifically page 15. Essentially, their meeting parallels that of Beren and Lúthien when Lúthien began to sing and Beren called to her. Since Galadriel (or her song) in the end was essentially the “comfort” or “loophole” that Sauron found as an escape from his fear of the Valar, he would call, “Sing to me!” even from afar. And she did guide him in his wandering day.

He wanted her with him even before they met because, as Charlie Vickers said, “she can open doors” and “get him in the right rooms.”

“You believed in me. You saw strength* in me. You pushed me to heights that no one else could have. I will never forget that” (Sauron, 1×08).

* Connects to: “My strength tells me, ‘No,’ but the path demands, ‘Yes.’”

His superpower is: he sees you. So, he sees Galadriel and knows that what she needs more than anything else is to find the evil that has plagued her for so long and save Middle-earth. So, he self-styles himself as the person that she will trust, and part of him is doing that sincerely, but part of him is also knowing that by doing this, he’s pushing her closer to something that will get him what he wants.

J.D. Payne

Galadriel only saw what Sauron wanted her to see, in the moment he wanted her to see it (hence his strangely open behavior in all of episode 8; he was ready for her to discover who he was). In the beginning, Galadriel was obsessed with finding Sauron because he wanted her to find him. She vowed to seek him out when she took Finrod’s dagger.

“Please, promise to find me,” he said. And she quite literally did.

At last comes their answer through cold and through frost,

Here, Sauron no longer sings to Galadriel, but to himself about Galadriel. The song ends not at the vision, nor in the moment they met, but at the conversation on the log. Her answer after traveling “through cold and through frost” (Forodwaith) was:

That not all who wonder or wander are lost,
No matter the sorrow, no matter the cost.

“Whatever it was he did to you, and whatever it was you did, be free of it” (Galadriel, 1×06).

That not all who wonder or wander are lost.

Sauron later held Galadriel’s answer against her:

Galadriel: “No penance could ever erase the evil you have done.”

Sauron: “That is not what you believe. […] Because you knew that our past meant nothing, weighed against our future” (1×08).

“That not all who wonder or wander are lost,” was the answer Sauron wanted Galadriel to give, and he finally got it. The last verse is what he would say to himself right after their conversation on the log.

Waldreg described Sauron as “he who was lost, but shall return,” which sounds like a version of the Promised King prophecy, fulfilled when Halbrand was hailed the King of the Southlands.

Nevertheless! Sung from Sauron’s own mouth, This Wandering Day has the same effect as Galadriel’s vision in episode 8, because it is backed by just as much sincerity and just as much manipulation. This makes Gollum’s Song all the more painful—not just for him, but for Galadriel.

Gollum’s Song

Galadriel refused Sauron. He responded by giving her the impression that she had no choice but to join him, or else remain an outcast and alone. If This Wandering Day was designed to manipulate her into giving him the answer he wanted, Gollum’s Song is a guilt trip and torment.

Where once was light, now darkness falls.

First, the line says the same thing as the first two lines of This Wandering Day.

The sun is fast falling beneath trees of stone.
The light in the tower, no longer my home.

But this time, rather than painting the situation in an innocent light, it is said with gloomy undertones. Sauron no longer has any need to hide.

It directly hearkens back to Galadriel’s answer in This Wandering Day (that not all who wonder or wander are lost). She told Sauron in her own words:

“Sometimes to find the light, we must first touch the darkness” (1×05).

Sauron would now respond: “Where once was light, now darkness falls.”

Where once was love, love is no more.

Nothing is evil in the beginning, as they both know, but it is too late for Sauron. He had love in the very beginning of existence, but his situation is as Morgoth’s after his release from the Halls of Mandos.

“…and [Manwë] saw not to the depths of Melkor’s heart, and did not perceive that all love had departed from him for ever.“

Of Fëanor and the Unchaining of Melkor

Don’t say goodbye.
Don’t say I didn’t try.

Why would Sauron not wish to say goodbye? It could align with what Charlie says about him thinking Galadriel could be persuaded to join him in the future. Meanwhile, he had already long-succumbed to the darkness, yet he says, “Don’t say I didn’t try.”

“You’re asking me to go to the one place that I swore never to return” (Sauron, 1×05).

“And some say that this was not at first falsely done, but that Sauron in truth repented, if only out of fear.”

Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age

“I told you I would not be dark if you joined me,” he would say to Galadriel. “This is your fault.”

These tears we cry are falling rain
For all the lies you told us, the hurt, the blame.
And we will weep to be so alone.

The first time Sauron actually cried in season 1 was in episode 5, in the forge. Those tears he cried after she accused him of being responsible for Finrod’s death…

Galadriel: “[Finrod] was killed in a place of darkness and despair by servants of Sauron. Is that enough for you?”

Sauron: “Oh, so this is about vengeance!”

,,,and for her lies: That not all who wonder or wander are lost.

“Sometimes to find the light, we must first touch the darkness. […] There is no peace to be found for you here, and nor for me. No lasting peace in any path, but that which lies across the sea. I have fought for centuries, seeking to earn mine. This is how you earn yours” (1×05).

She blamed him again in the end, and he retaliated:

Galadriel: “My brother is dead because of you.”

Sauron: “Galadriel. Why would you say that? Why would you say such a thing? […] I told you that I had done evil, and you did not care!” (1×08).

Again, he guilt trips and tries to gain sympathy. The last line reveals the exception to the rule that not all who wonder or wander are lost.

We are lost. We can never go home.

Sauron is lost, and he can never go home. In the first season, he acted in a way that would lead Galadriel to tell him that he could be free of whatever he had done, but she refused him upon discovering his identity. Now, he says she lied to him, blamed him, left him alone, and because of that he is lost.

It is her fault.

So in the end, I’ll be what I will be.
No loyal friend was ever there for me.
Now we say goodbye.
We say you didn’t try.

Sauron assured Galadriel that he would not be dark if she was at his side, but since she refused, he says, “I’ll be what I will be.” She and Adar, Sauron’s supposed “friends,” were never there for him. From the time he sided with Morgoth, he never had a loyal friend. Now, he says goodbye.

“He is gone, and I doubt he will return” (Galadriel, 1×08).

Sure, Galadriel helped him along, but then she abandoned him when he needed her most. Now he says she didn’t try.

These tears you cry have come too late.
Take back the lies, the hurt, the blame,
And you will weep when you face the end alone.

“A sea that you were on because the Elves cast you out! They cast you out for deigning to beg them for a few petty soldiers. What will they do when you tell them that you were my ally?” (Sauron, 1×08).

This is the torment, where Sauron suggests that the Elves and her closest friends will abandon her when they find out he lives because of her. And even on the off chance that she returned to him—even if she “takes back the lies, the hurt, the blame”—he will do what she did to him; he will still leave her destitute of friendship. “And you will weep when you face the end alone.”

You are lost. You can never go home.

Galadriel herself said:

“And until we are certain every trace of our enemy is vanquished, I can never return [home]” (1×01).

Sauron knows that Galadriel believes this, but he does not believe that he can be defeated (especially after he forges the One Ring). As far as he is concerned, Galadriel is lost and can never go home. To add agony to agony, when she wears Nenya, the pain of her desire to return home will increase.

“…its power upon her was great also and unforeseen, for it increased her latent desire for the Sea and for return into the West, so that her joy in Middle-earth was diminished.”

Unfinished Tales: The History of Galadriel and Celeborn

Sauron sings the last verse to make her feel trapped and hopeless.

Side-by-Side

Finally, if but one key line (“We are lost. We can never go home.”) is shifted to the end of the poem, we see that Gollum’s Song and This Wandering Day perfectly align. Now, you can analyze it for yourself and come to your own conclusions.

THIS WANDERING DAY

The sun is fast falling beneath trees of stone.
The light in the tower, no longer my home.
Past eyes of pale fire, black sand for my bed,
I trade all I've known for the unknown ahead.

Call to me! Call to me, lands far away,
For I must now wander this wandering day.
Away I must wander this wandering day.

Of drink I have little, and food I have less.
My strength tells me, "No," but the path demands, "Yes."
My legs are so short and the way is so long.
I've no rest nor comfort, no comfort but song.

Sing to me! Sing to me, lands far away!
Oh, rise up and guide me this wandering day!
Please promise to find me this wandering day!

At last comes their answer through cold and through frost,
That not all who wonder or wander are lost,
No matter the sorrow, no matter the cost.
That not all who wonder or wander are lost.

GOLLUM'S SONG

Where once was light, now darkness falls.
Where once was love, love is no more.
Don't say goodbye.
Don't say I didn't try.

These tears we cry are falling rain
For all the lies you told us, the hurt the blame.
And we will weep to be so alone.

So in the end, I'll be what I will be.
No loyal friend was ever there for me.
Now we say goodbye.
We say you didn't try.

These tears you cry have come too late.
Take back the lies, the hurt, the blame,
And you will weep when you face the end alone.

We are lost.
We can never go home.
You are lost.
You can never go home.

THE END