There’s a lady who can tell by looking at leaves what the future has in store for you
And picking off the petals of a flower that grows could tell you if your love is true
But if you hear the sound of weeping at night or the passing bell as it steels
It is omen of death, it is the Tolaeth and you’re treading on a dead man’s heels

The traveller came to the high high hill, the stars hung dazed in their flight
And the mist hung low in the valley below as he stepped on into the night
When he heard them ringing, tolling clear when no bells were there near
It was the omen of death, it was the Tolaeth sounding on the midnight air

Death I’ve heard you ringing
I have felt you near
I can hear my heartbeat racing

The sun had gone and the moon rose high as the hour was getting late
When out of the window the minister saw a funeral at the churchyard gate
"Who has come here now to bury their dead at such a late hour? I ask"
And he ran from his house to the graveside to perform the burying task

Who is it he said, who is it he cried, you have come to bury this night
But as he spoke these words the company there vanished in a flash of light
And he stood there shaking a shivering wreck with just a horse’s head in his hand
It was the omen of death, it was the Tolaeth walking on through that land

Death I’ve heard you ringing
I have felt you near
I can hear my heartbeat racing

Tolaeth before death Tolaeth before the coffin
Tolaeth before burying I hear
Tolaeth before death Tolaeth before the coffin, racing
When you appear

The lady of the house she stood in the light of the candle as it was burning
When she heard the rattle of the stable door, her husband home returning
And his face was a shade of ghostly white as he stepped on in through the door
And in his eyes she saw the fear of which she’d never seen the like before
"Tonight, dear wife, tonight I have seen a company of marching men
And they held the corpse’s candle high as they marched around" and then
As he told this tale a shadow appeared from a candle she did not light
It was the omen of death, it was the Tolaeth burning for a poor soul’s plight

Death I’ve heard you ringing
I have felt you near
I can hear my heartbeat racing

Tolaeth before death Tolaeth before the coffin
Tolaeth before burying I hear
Tolaeth before death Tolaeth before the coffin, racing
When you appear