Forgotten Realms Songs

The following are a small selection of songs played and sung throughout the Realms. The categories of music include:

• Ballads: xxx
• Bawdy: xxx
• Drinking: xxx
• Lament: xxx
• Prophetic: xxx
• Satire: xxx
• Sonnet: xxx

Cherlrigo's Darkness

Lament • Prophetic • Sonnet
Cherlrigo's Darkness was supposedly the translation (by Cherlrigo) of a sonnet that could be found within The Leaves of One Grass, a work of prophetic yet cryptic messages penned by the Dark Diviners of Windsong Tower in Myth Drannor. This particular passage was thought to have originally been written two thousand years before the mid-fifteenth century Dale Reckoning and was heralded by many Shadovar nobles and sages, including Draygo Quick, Parise Ulfbinder and Rolan of Gloomwrought to directly relate to the power of the Shadowfell and have something to do with the Chosen.

“Enjoy the play when shadows steal the day...

All the world is half the world for those who learn to walk.
To feast on fungus soft and peel the sunlit stalk;
Tarry not in place, for in their sleep the gods do stay.
But care be known, be light of foot and soft of voice.
Dare not stir divine to hasten Sunder's day!
A loss profound but a short ways away;
The inevitable tear shall't be of, or not of, choice.
Oh, aye, again the time wandering of lonely world!
With kingdoms lost and treasures past the finger's tip,
And enemies that stink of their god's particular flavor.
Sundered and whole, across the celestial spheres are hurled,
Beyond the reach of dweomer and the wind-walker's ship;

With baubles left for the ones the gods do favor."

This passage referred to the Second Sundering but it was not clear what it meant.

Crying to My Harp

Ballads • Satire
Crying To My Harp was a collection of satirical ballads by the traveling minstrel Nymbrar Shatterslee. It began by making fun of the stereotypes of people in general but then transformed into a scathing attack on certain Waterdhavian nobility. This had generated many complaints from the nobility in question and demands that the composer be arrested and punished, but these died down after Mirt the Moneylender suggested that such requests were effectively an admission of guilt.

Dirge of Delzoun

Ballad • Dwarven • Lament
The Dirge of Delzoun was an epic dwarven ballad that told the grim tale of the shield dwarves of the North. It has never been translated from any language other than dwarvish and was only known by a handful of dwarven bards. Over the years, only a select few elves and humans had ever heard the song performed in its entirety, a feat that would would take almost thirty hours.

The Dirge of Delzoun recounted the rise of the Citadels in the Northdark, to the shield dwarves' settling of the Silver Marches. Throughout the ballad, listeners were regaled with legendary tales of Delzoun's most famous heroes, fiercest foes, and most glorious fortunes.

In the late 14th century DR, King Emerus Warcrown designated Ollyn Grimtongue as Citadel Felbarr's "dirgekeeper", the sole dwarf who was granted permission to contribute to the dirge.

Ga Nomes

Drinking • Gnomish
Ga Nomes is a gnomish drinking song apparently written by Mintiper Moonsilver as a 'thank you' to the gnomes of the High Forest who helped him to speed through the area via the Trail of Mists. The song has inspired many bar brawls since its first reported performance in 1344 DR and other gnomes have added their own verses in order to insult every audience. The original goes as follows:

"Ga ‘nomes went in, ga ‘nomes went out,

Now look at ga fields all about.
Ga men of course get all ga ‘lory,
Forgotten again, same old story!

(CHORUS)
We may be here, we may be there,
Like men of course we’re everywhere!
We may be fair, but so are elves,
Ga People, see, are just themselves!
We may be stout, but so are dwarves,
At least we’re not afraid of wharves!
We may be small, but so are hin,
At least we have hair on our chin!
We may be fierce, but so are orcs,
At least we do not taste like pork!
We may be here, we may be there,
Ga misty trail runs everywhere!

Ga ‘nomes went in, ga ‘nomes went out,
Now look at ga trees all about.
Ga elves of course get all ga ‘lory,
Forgotten again, same old story!
(CHORUS)
Ga ‘nomes went in, ga ‘nomes went out,
Now look at ga gems all about.
Ga dwarves of course get all ga ‘lory,
Forgotten again, same old story!
(CHORUS)
Ga ‘nomes went in, ga ‘nomes went out,
Now look at ga pipes all about.
Ga hin of course get half ga ‘lory,
Forgotten again, same old story!
(CHORUS)
Ga ‘nomes went in, ga ‘nomes went out,
Now look at nothing all about.
Ga orcs of course get all ga ‘ory,

Oops, not our fault, and not our story!"

I'm Quite the Red-Roof Girl

Bawdy • Drinking
"I'm Quite the Red-Roof Girl" was a bawdy song favored in the more disreputable parts of the city of Procampur in the Vast and sung by the mid–13th century DR. It described the "red-roof girls" of the city's Adventurers' District. The song began with "I'm quite the red-roof girl, in fact, all the warriors declare…". The second verse contained "Once the men lived for my sighs, but now they want a peek of…".