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Note from Joe: The following is from the book A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeleine L’Engle.
It is the third book in her A Wrinkle in Time tetrology. Although she wrote this
powerful prayer, she based it on several ancient Celtic prayers of mixed Christian and pagan
origin. Unfortunately, almost nobody credits her when quoting it. My eternal thanks go to her
for her delightful and thought-provoking novels which gave me no end of pleasure as a child.
I still hear the Old Music in my heart today, and hope to sing it forever. Tara, also
known as Hill of Tara, is a village in northern Ireland, northwest of Dublin. It was the
traditional residence of the ancient Irish kings. It is said that Saint Patrick spoke
a similar prayer there. If you’d like to use it as a prayer in time of great distress, replace “At Tara”
with either your location (“In Moria in this fateful hour...”) or with the name of the person
who needs help (“With Frodo in this fateful hour...”). If you say it with conviction and faith,
the Echthroi will flee, and the Balrog shall not pass.
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