I think I remember reading FotU when it was only one chapter... fun times.

BUT.

I have just had a horrifying thought.

'Tra-la-la-lally' is sung by Elves in Rivendell, of course. But despite the fact that we're told Elves like to sing, in the space of the books only a few named characters actually do so. And of those, only one is both prone to making up her own songs on the fly, and (according to the Hobbit movie) actually in Rivendell when the Dwarves arrived.

You know where I'm going with this.

Yep - Tra-la-la-lally is clearly the work of Lady Galadriel of Lorien.

hS

I'm only partway through the first chapter, but it's pretty funny!

Most of the time Rivendell elves would be singing in Sindarin, of course, but a) they sometimes sing hymns in High Elven, b) Sindarin has a smaller vocabulary and less developed grammar, making it more difficult to work with, and c) I just don't like it as much.

The verse being translated is the one Dawn posted, but has had to be slightly tweaked to make use of the vocab

O! What are you doing,
To where are you going?
Your horses are weary!
The river is flowing!
O! Tra-la-la-lally!
In the hidden(ey) valley!

As with the original, 'Pel-el-elesse' is nonsense that just rhymes with the next line. However, since -esse is the locative suffix (that is, 'in'), and 'pel-' is halfway to being peler, 'fenced field', it can also be read as a slurred 'Between-een the fences!'. Which seems moderately appropriate.

hS

And that's definitely the first verse--I recognize a number of words, among them the word for 'horses'.

And while I'm writing--hS, never stop taking up these ideas. And AW, never stop providing them.

That is all :)

~DF

O! What are you doing,
And where are you going?
Your ponies need shoeing!
The river is flowing!
O! tra-la-la-lally
here down in the valley!

Ooh, hey, it took the formatting, too!

That definitely seems to be Quenya, unless I'm horribly mistaken, and it's the first verse (at least, I'm assuming it's the first) of the song the Elves sing when Thorin's company enters Rivendell in The Hobbit. The rest of the song is here: http://www.serendipityrancher.com/tt-pshobbit.htm if you're curious; just scroll down a ways, it's the third one.

~DF