In The Two Towers, chapter 6, the Riders of Rohan are introduced before they are seen, by Aragorn, who chants in the language of the Rohirrim words in a slow tongue unknown to the Elf and the Dwarf, a lai that Legolas senses is laden with the sadness of Mortal Men. The song is called the Lament of the Rohirrim. To achieve a resonant sense of the lost past, the now-legendary time of a peaceful alliance of the Horse-lords with the realm of Gondor, Tolkien adapted the short Ubi sunt (Where are they?) passage of the Old English poem The Wanderer.