III.
THE LAY OF LEITHIAN.
My father wrote in his diary that he began 'the poem of Tinuviel' during
the period of the summer examinations of 1925 (see p. 3), and he
abandoned it in September 193 I (see below), when he was 39. The rough
workings for the whole poem are extant (and 'rough' means very rough
indeed); from them he wrote a fair copy, which I shall call 'A'.*
On this manuscript A my father most uncharacteristically inserted
dates, the first of these being at line 557 (August 23, 1925); and he
composed the last hundred-odd lines of the third Canto (ending at line
757) while on holiday at Filey on the Yorkshire coast in September 1925.
The next date is two and a half years and 400 lines later, 27 - 28 March
1928 written against line 1161; and thereafter each day for a further nine
days, till 6 April 1928, is marked, during which time he wrote out no less
than 1768 lines, to 2929.
Since the dates refer to the copying of verses out fair in the manuscript,
not to their actual composition, it might be thought that they prove little;
but the rough workings of lines 2497 - 2504 are written on an abandoned
letter dated x April 1928, and these lines were written in the fair copy A
on 4 April - showing that lines 2505 - 2929 were actually composed
between x and 6 April. I think therefore that the dates on A can be taken
as effectively indicating the time of composition.
The date November 1929 (at line 3031) is followed by a substantial
amount of composition in the last week of September 1930, and again in
the middle of September 193 I; the last date is 17 September of that year
against line 4085 very near the point where the Lay. was abandoned.
Details of the dates are given in the Notes.
There is also a typescript text ('B') made by my father, of which the
last few hundred lines are in manuscript, and this text ends at precisely
the same point as does A. This typescript was begun quite early, since my
father mentioned in his diary for 16 August 1926 having done 'a little
typing of part of Tinuviel', and before the end of 1929 he gave it to
C. S. Lewis to read. On 7 December of that year Lewis wrote to him
about it, saying:
I sat up late last night and have read the Geste as far as to where Beren
and his gnomish allies defeat the patrol of orcs above the sources of the
(* This was written on the backs of examination-scripts, tied together and prepared as a
blank manuscript: it was large enough to last through the six years, and a few scripts at the
end of the bundle remained unused.)
Narog and disguise themselves in the reaf [Old English: 'garments,
weapons, taken from the slain']. I can quite honestly say that it is ages
since I have had an evening of such delight: and the personal interest
of reading a friend's work had very little to do with it. I should have
enjoyed it just as well as if I'd picked it up in a bookshop, by an
unknown author. The two things that come out clearly are the sense of
reality in the background and the mythical value: the essence of a myth
being that it should have no taint of allegory to the maker and yet
should suggest incipient allegories to the reader,
Lewis had thus reached in his reading about line 2017. He had evidently
received more; it may be that the typescript by this time extended to the
attack on Luthien and Beren by Celegorm and Curufin fleeing from
Nargothrond, against which (at line 303 t) is the date November 1929 in
the manuscript. Some time after this, probably early in 1930, Lewis sent
my father 14 pages of detailed criticism, as far as line 1161 (if there was
any more it has not survived). This criticism he contrived as a heavily
academic commentary on the text, pretending to treat the Lay as an
ancient and anonymous work extant in many more or less corrupt
manuscripts, overlaid by scribal perversions in antiquity and the learned
argumentation of nineteenth-century scholars; and thus entertainingly
took the sting from some sharply expressed judgements, while at the
same time in this disguise expressing strong praise for particular pas-
sages. Almost all the verses which Lewis found wanting for one reason or
another are marked for revision in the typescript B if not actually
rewritten, and in many cases his proposed emendations, or modifications
of them, are incorporated into the text. The greater part of Lewis's
commentary is given on pp. 315 ff., with the verses he criticised and the
alterations made as a result.
My father abandoned the Lay at the point where the jaws of Carcharoth
crashed together like a trap on Beren's hand and the Silmaril was
engulfed, but though he never advanced beyond that place in the narra-
tive, he did not abandon it for good. When ?he Lord of the Rings was
finished he returned to the Lay again and recast the first two Cantos and a
good part of the third, and small portions of some others.
To summarise the elements of this history:
(1). Rough workings of the whole poem, composed 1925 - 31.
(2). Manuscript A of the whole poem, written out progressively
during 1925 - 31.
(3). Typescript B of the whole poem (ending in manuscript), already
in progress in 1926.
This typescript given to C. S. Lewis towards the end of 1929,
when it extended probably to about line 3031.
(4). Recasting of the opening Cantos and parts of some others (after
the completion of The Lord of the Rings).
The manuscript A was emended, both by changes and insertions, at
different times, the majority of these alterations being incorporated in
the typescript B; while in B, as typed, there are further changes not '
found in A.
The amount of emendation made to B varies very greatly. My father
used it as a basis for the later rewritings, and in these parts the old
typescript is entirely covered with new verses; but for long stretches - by
far the greater part of the poem - the text is untouched save for very '.
minor and as it were casual modifications to individual lines here and.
there.
After much experimentation I have concluded that to make a single,
text, an amalgam derived from the latest writing throughout the poem,
would be wholly mistaken. Quite apart from the practical difficulty of
changed names in the rewritten parts that do not scan in the old lines, the
later verse in its range and technical accomplishment is too distinct; too
much time had passed, and in the small amount that my father rewrote of
the Lay of Leithian after The Lord of the Rings we have fragments of a '
new poem: from which we can gain an idea of what might have been. I
have therefore excised these parts, and give them subsequently and
separately (Chapter IV).
A further reason for doing so lies in the purpose of this book, which
includes the consideration of the Lays as important stages in the evolu-
tion of the legends. Some of the revisions to the Lay of Leithian are at
least 30 years later than the commencement of the poem. From the point
of view of the 'history', therefore, the abandonment of the poem in or
soon after September 1931 constitutes a terminal point, and I have
excluded emendations to names that are (as I believe) certainly later than
that, but included those which are earlier.* In a case like that of
Beleriand, for instance, which was Broseliand for much of the poem in
B and always later emended to Beleriand, but had become Beleriand as
first written by line 3957, I give Beleriand throughout. On the other
hand I retain Gnomes since my father still used this in The Hobbit. '
The many small changes made for metrical/stylistic reasons, however,
constitute a problem in the attempt to produce a 1931 text', since it
is often impossible to be sure to which 'phase' they belong. Some are
(* This leads to inconsistent treatment of certain names as between the two long Lays, e.g.
Finweg son of Fingo1fin in The Children of Hurin but Fingon in the Lay of Leithian.
Finweg survived into the 1930 version of 'The Silmarillion' but was early emended to
Fingon.)
demonstrably very early - e.g. candle flowers emended to flowering
candles (line 516), since C. S. Lewis-commented on the latter - while
others are demonstrably from many years later, and strictly speaking
belong with the late rewritings; but many cannot be certainly determined.
In any case, such changes - very often made to get rid of certain artifices
employed as metrical aids, most notably among these the use of emphatic
tenses with doth and did simply in order to obtain a syllable - such
changes have no repercussions beyond the improvement of the individual
line; and in such cases it seems a pity, through rigid adherence to the
textual basis, to lose such small enhancements, or at any rate to hide them
in a trail of tedious textual notes, while letting their less happy predeces-
sors stand in the text. I have thought it justifiable therefore to be frankly
inconsistent in these details, and while for example retaining Gnomes
(for Elves or other substitution) or Thu (for Gorthu or Sauron), to
introduce small changes of wording that are certainly later than these.
As in the Lay of the Children of Hurin there are no numbered notes
to the text; the annotation, related to the line-numbers of the poem, is
very largely restricted to earlier readings, and these earlier readings are
restricted to cases where there is some significant difference, as of name
or motive. Citations from the manuscript A are always citations from that
text as first written (in very many cases it was emended to the reading
found in B).
It is to be noticed that while the Lay of Leithian was in process of
composition the 'Sketch of the Mythology' was written (first in 1926) and
rewritten, leading directly into the version of 'The Silmarillion' that I
ascribe to 1930, in which many of the essentials, both in narrative and
language, of the published work were already present. In my commen-
taries on each Canto I attempt to take stock of the development in the
legends pari passu with the text of the poem, and only refer exception-
ally to the contemporary prose works.
The A-text has no title, but on the covering page of the bundle of
rough workings is written Tinuviel, and in his early references to the
poem my father called it thus, as he called the alliterative poem Turin.
The B-text bears this title:
The
GEST
of
BEREN son of BARAHIR
and
LUTHIEN the FAY
called
TINUVIEL the NIGHTINGALE
or the
LAY OF LEITHIAN
Release from Bondage
The 'Gest of Beren and Luthien' means a narrative in verse, telling of the
deeds of Beren and Luthien. The word gest is pronounced as Modern
English jest, being indeed the 'same word' in phonetic form, though now
totally changed in meaning.
My father never explained the name Leithian 'Release from Bondage',
and we are left to choose, if we will, among various applications that can
be seen in the poem. Nor did he leave any comment on the significance - if
there is a significance - of the likeness of Leithian to Leithien 'England',
In the tale of AElfwine of England the Elvish name of England is
Luthien (which was earlier the name of AElfwine himself, England
being Luthany), but at the first occurrence (only) of this name the word
Leithian was pencilled above it (II. 330, note 20). In the 'Sketch
the Mythology' England was still Luthien (and at that time Thingol
daughter was also Luthien), but this was emended to Leithien, and this
is the form in the 1930 version of 'The Silmarillion'. I cannot say (i) what
connection if any there was between the two significances of Luthien,
nor (ii) whether Leithien (once Leithian) 'England' is or was related to
Leithian 'Release from Bondage'. The only evidence of an etymological
nature that I have found is a hasty note, impossible to date, which refers
to a stem leth- 'set free', with leithia 'release', and compares Lay of
Leithian.
The GEST of BEREN and LUTHIEN.
I.
A king there was in days of old:
ere Men yet walked upon the mould
his power was reared in cavern's shade,
his hand was over glen and glade.
His shields were shining as the moon,
his lances keen of steel were hewn,
of silver grey his crown was wrought,
the starlight in his banners caught;
and silver thrilled his trumpets long
beneath the stars in challenge strong;
enchantment did his realm enfold,
where might and glory, wealth untold,
he wielded from his ivory throne
in many-pillared halls of stone.
There beryl, pearl, and opal pale, 15
and metal wrought like fishes' mail,
buckler and corslet, axe and sword,
and gleaming spears were laid in hoard -
all these he had and loved them less
than a maiden once in Elfinesse; 20
for fairer than are born to Men
a daughter had he, Luthien.
Such lissom limbs no more shall run
on the green earth beneath the sun;
so fair a maid no more shall be 25
from dawn to dusk, from sun to sea.
Her robe was blue as summer skies,
but grey as evening were her eyes;
'twas sewn with golden lilies fair,
but dark as shadow was her hair. 30
Her feet were light as bird on wing,
her laughter lighter than the spring;
the slender willow, the bowing reed,
the fragrance of a flowering mead,
the light upon the leaves of trees, 35
the voice of water, more than these
her beauty was and blissfulness,
her glory and her loveliness;
and her the king more dear did prize
than hand or heart or light of eyes. 40
They dwelt amid Beleriand,
while Elfin power yet held the land,
in the woven woods of Doriath:
few ever thither found the path;
few ever dared the forest-eaves 45
to pass, or stir the listening leaves
with tongue of hounds a-hunting fleet,
with horse, or horn, or mortal feet.
To North there lay the Land of Dread,
whence only evil pathways led 50
o'er hills of shadow bleak and cold
or Taur-na-Fuin's haunted hold,
where Deadly Nightshade lurked and lay
and never came or moon or day;
to South the wide earth unexplored; 55
to West the ancient Ocean roared,
unsailed and shoreless, wide and wild;
to East in peaks of blue were piled
in silence folded, mist-enfurled,
the mountains of the Outer World, 60
beyond the tangled woodland shade,
thorn and thicket, grove and glade,
whose brooding boughs with magic hung
were ancient when the world was young.
There Thingol in the Thousand Caves, 65
whose portals pale that river laves
Esgalduin that fairies call,
in many a tall and torchlit hall
a dark and hidden king did dwell,
lord of the forest and the fell; 70
and sharp his sword and high his helm,
the king of beech and oak and elm.
There Luthien the lissom 'maid
would dance in dell and grassy glade,
and music merrily, thin and clear, 75
went down the ways, more fair than ear
of mortal Men at feast hath heard,
and fairer than the song of bird.
When leaves were long and grass was green
then Dairon with his fingers lean, 80
as daylight melted into shade,
a wandering music sweetly made,
enchanted fluting, warbling wild,
for love of Thingol's elfin child.
There bow was bent and shaft was sped, 85
the fallow deer as phantoms fled,
and horses proud with braided mane,
with shining bit and silver rein,
went fleeting by on moonlit night,
as swallows arrow-swift in flight; 90
a blowing and a sound of bells,
a hidden hunt in hollow dells.
There songs were made and things of gold,
and silver cups and jewels untold,
and the endless years of Faery land 95
rolled over far Beleriand,
until a day beneath the sun,
when many marvels were begun.
NOTES.
The opening of the poem in B is complicated by the fact that my father
partly rewrote, and retyped, the first Canto - a rewriting entirely distinct
from the later fundamental recasting that the early part of the poem
underwent. This first rewriting of the opening Canto was done while the
original composition of the poem was still proceeding, but was fairly far
advanced. The second version was typed in exactly the same form as that
it replaced, whereas the last part of the B-text is not typed; but the name
Beleriand appears in it, as typed, and not as an emendation, whereas
elsewhere in B the form is Broseliand, always emended in ink to
Beleriand.* Moreover it was the first version of Canto I in the B-text that
C. S. Lewis read on the night of 6 December 1929, and I think it very
probable that it was Lewis's criticism that led my father to rewrite the
opening (see pp. 315 - 16). In the following notes the first version of B is
called B(1), the rewritten text given above being B(2).
I - 30 A: A king was in the dawn of days:
his golden crown did brightly blaze
with ruby red and crystal clear;
his meats were sweet, his dishes dear;
red robes of silk, an ivory throne, 5
and ancient halls of arched stone,
and wine and music lavished free,
and thirty champions and three,
all these he had and heeded not.
His daughter dear was Melilot: 10
from dawn to dusk, fron sun to sea,
no fairer maiden found could be.
Her robe was blue as summer skies,
but not so blue as were her eyes;
'twas sewn with golden lilies fair, 15
but none so golden as her hair.
An earlier draft, after line 12 found could be, has the couplet:
from England unto Eglamar
o'er folk and field and lands afar.
(* Once near the very end (line 3957), in the manuscript conclusion of the B-text, the form
as written is Beleriand, not Broseliand.)
B(1): A king there was in olden days:
&c. as A to line 6
and hoarded gold in gleaming grot,
all these he had and heeded not.
But fairer than are born to Men
a daughter had he, Luthien:
&c. as B(2)
14-18. These lines were used afterwards in Gimli's song in Moria
(The Fellowship of the Ring II. 4); see the Commentary by
C. S. Lewis, p. 3I6.
41-4. A: They dwelt in dark Broceliand
while loneliness yet held the land.
B(1): They dwelt beyond Broseliand
while loneliness yet held the land,
in the forest dark of Doriath.
Few ever thither found the path;
In B(1) Ossiriande is pencilled above Broseliand. As noted
above, B (2) has Beleriand as typed.
48. After this line A and B(1) have:
Yet came at whiles afar and dim
beneath the roots of mountains grim
a blowing and a sound of bells,
a hidden hunt in hollow dells.
The second couplet reappears at a later point in B(2), lines
9 I - 2.
49-61 A and B(1):
To North there lay the Land of Dread,
whence only evil pathways led
o'er hills of shadow bleak and cold;
to West and South the oceans rolled
unsailed and shoreless, wild and wide;
to East and East the hills did hide
beneath the tangled woodland shade,
65-6. A: There Celegorm his ageless days
doth wear amid the woven ways,
the glimmering aisles and endless naves
whose pillared feet that river laves
67. Esgalduin A, but Esgaduin in the rough workings, which is
the form in The Children of Hurin (p. 76, line 2164) before
correction.
73. A: There Melilot the lissom maid
79-84. Not in A.
85-93. A and B(1) (with one slight difference):
There bow was bent and shaft was sped
and deer as fallow phantoms fled,
and horses pale with harness bright
went jingling by on moonlit night;
there songs were made and things of gold
See note to line 48.
96. A: rolled over dark Broceliand,
B(1): rolled over far Broseliand,
In B(1) Ossiriande is pencilled against Broseliand, as at line
41.
Commentary on Canto I.
An extraordinary feature of the A-version is the name Celegorm given to
the King of the woodland Elves (Thingol); moreover in the next Canto
the role of Beren is in A played by Maglor, son of Egnor. The only
possible conclusion, strange as it is, is that my father was prepared to
abandon Thingol for Celegorm and (even more astonishing) Beren for
Maglor. Both Celegorm and Maglor as sons of Feanor have appeared in
the Tale of the Nauglafring and in the Lay of the Children of Hurin.
The name of the king's daughter in A, Melilot, is also puzzling (and is
it the English plant-name, as in Melilot Brandybuck, a guest at Bilbo
Baggins' farewell party?). Already in the second version of The Children
of Hurin Luthien has appeared as the 'true' name of Tinuviel (see p. x ig,
note to 358 - 66). It is perhaps possible that my father in fact began the
Lay of Leithian before he stopped work on The Children of Hurin, in
which case Melilot might be the first 'true' name of Tinuviel, displaced
by Luthien; but I think that this is extremely unlikely.* In view of Beren
> Maglor, I think Luthien > Melilot far more probable. In any event,
Beren and Luthien soon appear in the original drafts of the Lay of
Leithian.
It is strange also that in A the king's daughter was blue-eyed and
golden-haired, for this would not accord with the robe of darkness that
(* My father expressly stated in his diary that he began Tinuviel iel in the summer of 1925;
and it is to be noted that a reference to the Lay of Leithian appears in the alliterative
head-piece to one of the typcscripts of Light as Leaf on Lindentree - which was actually
published in June 1925 (see pp. 120-1). Thus the reference in the second version of The
Children of Hurin to the Lay of Leithian (p. 107 line 356) is not evidence that he had in
fact begun it.)
she spun from her hair: in the Tale of Tinuviel her hair was 'dark'
(II. 20).
The name Broceliand that appears in A (Broseliand B) is remark-
able, but I can cast no light on my father's choice of this name (the
famous Forest of Broceliande in Brittany of the Arthurian legends).> It
would be interesting to know how Broseliand led to Beleriand, and a
clue may perhaps be found on a page of rough working for the opening of
the Lay, where he jotted down various names that must be possibilities
that he was pondering for the name of the land. The fact that Ossiriand
occurs among them, while it is also pencilled against Broseliand at lines
41 and 96 in B(1), may suggest that these names arose during the search
for a replacement of Broseliand. The names are:
Colodhinand, Noldorinan, Geleriand, Bladorinand, Belaurien,
Arsiriand, Lassiriand, Ossiriand.
Colodhinand is incidentally interesting as showing Colodh, the later
Sindarin equivalent of Quenya Noldo (in the old Gnomish dictionary
Golda was the Gnomish equivalent of 'Elvish' Noldo, I. 262). Geleriand
I can cast no light on; but Belaurien is obviously connected with
Belaurin, the Gnomish form of Pahirien (I. 264), and Bladorinand
with Palurien's name Bladorwen 'the wide earth, Mother Earth' (ibid.).
It seems at least possible that Belaurien lies behind Beleriand (which
was afterwards explained quite differently).
Another curious feature is the word beyond in They dwelt beyond
Broseliand, the reading of B(1) at line 41, where A has in and B(2) has
amid.
Esga(l)duin, Taur-na-Fuin (for Taur Fuin of the Lost Tales), and
the Thousand Caves have all appeared in The Children of Hurin; but
in the mountains that
to East in peaks of blue were piled
in silence folded, mist-enfurled
- lines that are absent from A and B(1) - we have the first appearance of
the Blue Mountains (Ered Luin) of the later legends: fencing Beleriand,
as it seems, from the Outer World.
In all the texts of the first Canto the King of the woodland Elves is
presented as possessing great wealth. This conception appears already in
The Children of Hurin (see p. 26), in the most marked contrast to all
that is told in the Lost Tales: cf. the Tale of Turambar (II. 95) 'the folk
of Tinwelint were of the woodlands and had scant wealth', 'his riches
were small', and the Tale of the Nauglafring (II. 227) 'A golden crown
(* On the earliest 'Silmarillion' map it is said that 'all the lands watered by Sirion south of
Gondolin are called in English "Broseliand" '.)
they [the Dwarves] made for Tinwelint, who yet had worn nought but a
wreath of scarlet leaves.'
II.
Far in the North neath hills of stone
in caverns black there was a throne 100
by fires illumined underground,
that winds of ice with moaning sound
made flare and flicker in dark smoke;
the wavering bitter coils did choke
the sunless airs of dungeons deep 105
where evil things did crouch and creep.
There sat a king: no Elfin race
nor mortal blood, nor kindly grace
of earth or heaven might he own,
far older, stronger than the stone 110
the world is built of, than the fire
that burns within more fierce and dire;
and thoughts profound were in his heart:
a gloomy power that dwelt apart.
Unconquerable spears of steel 115
were at his nod. No ruth did feel
the legions of his marshalled hate,
on whom did wolf and raven wait;
and black the ravens sat and cried
upon their banners black, and wide 120
was heard their hideous chanting dread
above the reek and trampled dead.
With fire and sword his ruin red
on all that would not bow the head
like lightning fell. The Northern land 125
lay groaning neath his ghastly hand.
But still there lived in hiding cold
undaunted, Barahir the bold,
of land bereaved, of lordship shorn,
who once a prince of Men was born 130
and now an outlaw lurked and lay
in the hard heath and woodland grey,
and with him clung of faithful men
but Beren his son and other ten.
Yet small as was their hunted band 135
still fell and fearless was each hand,
and strong deeds they wrought yet oft,
and loved the woods, whose ways more soft
them seemed than thralls of that black throne
to live and languish in halls of stone. 140
King Morgoth still pursued them sore
with men and dogs, and wolf and boar
with spells of madness filled he sent
to slay them as in the woods they went;
yet nought hurt them for many years, '45
until, in brief to tell what tears
have oft bewailed in ages gone,
nor ever tears enough, was done
a deed unhappy; unaware
their feet were caught in Morgoth's snare. 150
Gorlim it was, who wearying
of toil and flight and harrying,
one night by chance did turn his feet
o'er the dark fields by stealth to meet
with hidden friend within a dale, 155
and found a homestead looming pale
against the misty stars, all dark
save one small window, whence a spark
of fitful candle strayed without.
Therein he peeped, and filled with doubt 160
he saw, as in a dreaming deep
when longing cheats the heart in sleep,
his wife beside a dying fire
lament him lost; her thin attire
and greying hair and paling cheek 165
of tears and loneliness did speak.
'A! fair and gentle Eilinel,
whom I had thought in darkling hell
long since emprisoned! Ere I fled
I deemed I saw thee slain and dead 170
upon that night of sudden fear
when all I lost that I held dear':
thus thought his heavy heart amazed
outside in darkness as he gazed.
But ere he dared to call her name, 175
or ask how she escaped and came
to this far vale beneath the hills,
he heard a cry beneath the hills!
There hooted near a hunting owl
with boding voice. He heard the howl 180
of the wild wolves that followed him
and dogged his feet through shadows dim.
Him unrelenting, well he knew,
the hunt of Morgoth did pursue.
Lest Eilinel with him they slay 185
without a word he turned away,
and like a wild thing winding led
his devious ways o'er stony bed
of stream, and over quaking fen,
until far from the homes of men 190
he lay beside his fellows few
in a secret place; and darkness grew,
and waned, and still he watched unsleeping,
and saw the dismal dawn come creeping
in dank heavens above gloomy trees. 195
A sickness held his soul for ease,
and hope, and even thraldom's chain
if he might find his wife again.
But all he thought twixt love of lord
and hatred of the king abhorred 200
and anguish for fair Eilinel
who drooped alone, what tale shall tell?
Yet at the last, when many days
of brooding did his mind amaze,
he found the servants of the king, 205
and bade them to their master bring
a rebel who forgiveness sought,
if haply forgiveness might be bought
with tidings of Barahir the bold,
and where his hidings and his hold 210
might best be found by night or day.
And thus sad Gorlim, led away
unto those dark deep-dolven halls,
before the knees of Morgoth falls,
and puts his trust in that cruel heart 215
wherein no truth had ever part.
Quoth Morgoth: 'Eilinel the fair
thou shalt most surely find, and there
where she doth dwell and wait for thee
together shall ye ever be, 220
and sundered shall ye sigh no more.
This guerdon shall he have that bore
these tidings sweet, 0 traitor dear!
For Eilinel she dwells not here,
but in the shades of death doth roam 225
widowed of husband and of home -
a wraith of that which might have been,
methinks, it is that thou hast seen!
Now shalt thou through the gates of pain
the land thou askest grimly gain; 230
thou shalt to the moonless mists of hell
descend and seek thy Eilinel.'
Thus Gorlim died a bitter death
and cursed himself with dying breath,
and Barahir was caught and slain, 235
and all good deeds were made in vain.
But Morgoth's guile for ever failed,
nor wholly o'er his foes prevailed,
and some were ever that still fought
unmaking that which malice wrought. 240
Thus men believed that Morgoth made
the fiendish phantom that betrayed
the soul of Gorlim, and so brought
the lingering hope forlorn to nought
that lived amid the lonely wood; 245
yet Beren had by fortune good
long hunted far afield that day,
and benighted in strange places lay
far from his fellows. In his sleep
he felt a dreadful darkness creep 250
upon his heart, and thought the trees
were bare and bent in mournful breeze;
no leaves they had, but ravens dark
sat thick as leaves on bough and bark,
and croaked, and as they croaked each neb 255
let fall a gout of blood; a web
unseen entwined him hand and limb,
until worn out, upon the rim
of stagnant pool he lay and shivered.
There saw he that a shadow quivered 260
far out upon the water wan,
and grew to a faint form thereon
that glided o'er the silent lake,
and coming slowly, softly spake
and sadly said: 'Lo! Gorlim here, 265
traitor betrayed, now stands! Nor fear,
but haste! For Morgoth's fingers close
upon thy father's throat. He knows
your secret tryst, your hidden lair',
and all the evil he laid bare 270
that he had done and Morgoth wrought.
Then Beren waking swiftly sought
his sword and bow, and sped like wind
that cuts with knives the branches thinned
of autumn trees. At last he came, 275
his heart afire with burning flame,
where Barahir his father lay;
he came too late. At dawn of day
he found the homes of hunted men,
a wooded island in the fen, 280
and birds rose up in sudden cloud -
no fen-fowl were they crying loud.
The raven and the carrion-crow
sat in the alders all a-row;
one croaked: 'Ha! Beren comes too late', 285
and answered all: 'Too late! Too late! '
There Beren buried his father's bones,
and piled a heap of boulder-stones,
and cursed the name of Morgoth thrice,
but wept not, for his heart was ice. 290
Then over fen and field and mountain
he followed, till beside a fountain
upgushing hot from fires below
he found the slayers and his foe,
the murderous soldiers of the king. 295
And one there laughed, and showed a ring
he took from Barahir's dead hand.
'This ring in far Beleriand,
now mark ye, mates,' he said, 'was wrought.
Its like with gold could not be bought, 300 -
for this same Barahir I slew,
this robber fool, they say, did do
a deed of service long ago
for Felagund. It may be so;
for Morgoth bade me bring it back, 305
and yet, methinks, he has no lack
of weightier treasure in his hoard.
Such greed befits not such a lord,
and I am minded to declare
the hand of Barahir was bare! ' 310
Yet as he spake an arrow sped;
with riven heart he crumpled dead.
Thus Morgoth loved that his own foe
should in his service deal the blow
that punished the breaking of his word. 315
But Morgoth laughed not when he heard
that Beren like a wolf alone
sprang madly from behind a stone
amid that camp beside the well,
and seized the ring, and ere the yell 320
of wrath and rage had left their throat
had fled his foes. His gleaming coat
was made of rings of steel no shaft
could pierce, a web of dwarvish craft;
and he was lost in rock and thorn, 325
for in charmed hour was Beren born;
their hungry hunting never learned
the way his fearless feet had turned.
As fearless Beren was renowned,
as man most hardy upon ground, 330
while Barahir yet lived and fought;
but sorrow now his soul had wrought
to dark despair, and robbed his life
of sweetness, that he longed for knife,
or shaft, or sword, to end his pain, 335
and dreaded only thraldom's chain.
Danger he sought and death pursued,
and thus escaped the fate he wooed,
and deeds of breathless wonder dared
whose whispered glory widely fared, 340
and softly songs were sung at eve
of marvels he did once achieve
alone, beleaguered, lost at night
by mist or moon, or neath the light
of the broad eye of day. The woods 345
that northward looked with bitter feuds
he filled and death for Morgoth's folk;
his comrades were the beech and oak,
who failed him not, and many things
with fur and fell and feathered wings; 350
and many spirits, that in stone
in mountains old and wastes alone,
do dwell and wander, were his friends.
Yet seldom well an outlaw ends,
and Morgoth was a king more strong 355
than all the world has since in song
recorded, and his wisdom wide
slow and surely who him defied
did hem and hedge. Thus at the last
must Beren flee the forest fast 360
and lands he loved where lay his sire
by reeds bewailed beneath the mire.
Beneath a heap of mossy stones
now crumble those once mighty bones,
but Beren flees the friendless North 365
one autumn night, and creeps him forth;
the leaguer of his watchful foes
he passes - silently he goes.
No more his hidden bowstring sings,
no more his shaven arrow wings, 370
no more his hunted head doth lie
upon the heath beneath the sky.
The moon that looked amid the mist
upon the pines, the wind that hissed
among the heather and the fern 375
found him no more. The stars that burn
about the North with silver fire
in frosty airs, the Burning Briar
that Men did name in days long gone,
were set behind his back, and shone 380
o'er land and lake and darkened hill,
forsaken fen and mountain rill.
His face was South from the Land of Dread,
whence only evil pathways led,
and only the feet of men most bold 385
might cross the Shadowy Mountains cold.
Their northern slopes were filled with woe,
with evil and with mortal foe;
their southern faces mounted sheer
in rocky pinnacle and pier, 390
whose roots were woven with deceit
and washed with waters bitter-sweet.
There magic lurked in gulf and glen,
for far away beyond the ken
of searching eyes, unless it were 395
from dizzy tower that pricked the air
where only eagles lived and cried,
might grey and gleaming be descried
Beleriand, Beleriand,
the borders of the faery land. 400
NOTES.
128. A: a lord of Men undaunted, bold
134. A: Maglor his son and other ten.
141. A: But the king Bauglir did hunt them sore
177-9. Earlier reading:
to this far vale among the hills
a haggard hungry people tills,
there hooted nigh a hunting owl
205. found: earlier reading sought
209 - 10. A: with tidings of Lord Egnor's band,
and where their hidings in the land
235. A: and Egnor was betrayed and slain
246. A: yet Maglor it was by fortune good
who hunting &c.
272. A: till Maglor waking swiftly sought
277. A: to where his father Egnor lay;
297. A: he took from Egnor's slaughtered hand:
298. Broceliand A, Broseliand B emended to Beleriand
301. A: for this same Egnor that I slew
304. Celegorm A, emended to Felagoth and then to Felagund
310. A: I found the hand of Egnor bare! '
313 - 16. These four lines were bracketed, and that at line 3 I 7 changed
to Then, before the B-text went to C. S. Lewis (my father's
numbering of the lines excludes these four, and Lewis's
line-references agree). Lewis did not concur with the ex-
clusion of 3 I 3 - 14, and I have let all four lines stand. See
pp. 318-19.
317,329. Maglor A, Beren B
326. A: and deep ghylls in the mountains torn.
331-3. A: ere Egnor in the wilderness
was slain; but now his loneliness,
grief and despair, did rob his life
360. A: proud Maglor fled the forest fast
(fast is used in the sense 'secure against attack'; cf. fastness).
365. Maglor A, Beren B
377-81. A: about the North with silver flame
in frosty airs, that men did name
Timbridhil in the days long gone,
he set behind his back, and shone
that sickle of the heavenly field
that Bridhil Queen of stars did wield
o'er land and lake and darkened hill,
The fifth and sixth lines are bracketed, with and shone in
the fourth changed to It shone.
383-4. Cf. lines 49 - 50.
399. Broceliand A, Broseliand B emended to Beleriand.
Commentary on Canto II.
In this second Canto the story of the betrayal of the outlaw band is
already in A close to its final form in essentials; but there is no trace of the
story in any form earlier than the first drafts of the Lay of Leithian,
composed in the summer of 1925 (see p. 150). In commenting on the
Tale of Tinuviel I noted (II. 52):
It seems clear that at this time the history of Beren and his father
(Egnor) was only very sketchily devised; there is in any case no hint of
the story of the outlaw band led by his father and its betrayal by
Gorlim the Unhappy before the first form of the Lay of Leithian.
There are indeed differences in the plot of the Lay from the story told
in The Silmarillion (pp. 162ff.): thus the house where Gorlim saw the
phantom of Eilinel was not in the Lay his own; his treachery was far
deeper and more deliberate, in that he sought out the servants of Morgoth
with the intention of revealing the hiding-place of the outlaws; and he
came before Morgoth himself (not Thu-Sauron). But these differences
are much outnumbered by the similarities, such as the absence of Maglor-
Beren on the fatal day, the apparition of Gorlim coming to him in dream
across the water of the lake, the carrion-birds in the alder-trees, the cairn,
the seizing of the ring, his friendship with birds and beasts.
As regards the names in the A-text: Gorlim and Eilinel were to
remain. Maglor-Beren has already been discussed (p. 159). Egnor was
still his father, as in the last Tales (the emendation to Barahir in the
second version of the Tale of Tinuviel, II. 43, was a change made
casually years later). Bauglir (which entered during the composition of
The Children of Hurin, see p. 52) is changed throughout to Morgoth,
but this seems not to have been a rejection of the name, since it appears
later in the B-text of the Lay, and survives in The Silmarillion.
In A Varda is called Bridhil (note to lines 377 - 81), as she is also in
alliterative poem The Plight of the Noldoli (pp. 135, 139); but it is
puzzling that the constellation of the Great Bear is in the same passage
called Timbridhil, for that according to the old Gnomish dictionary is the
title of Varda herself (as one would expect: cf. Tinwetari, I. 269). The
'Sickle of the Gods' (Valacirca) is here the 'sickle of the heavenly field'
wielded by Bridhil Queen of Stars. I can cast no light at all on the name
Burning Briar that appears in B (line 378); it reappears in the 1930
version of 'The Silmarillion':
Many names have these [the Seven Stars] been called, but in the old
days of the North both Elves and Men called them the Burning Briar,
and some the Sickle of the Gods.
For the earliest myth of the Great Bear see I. I 14, 133.
Indications of geography are sparse, and not increased in the B-text.
Taur-na-Fuin has been named earlier in B (line 52), but it is not
actually said in the present Canto to be the region where the outlaws
lurked, though there is no reason to doubt that this is where my father
placed it. Coming southwards Maglor-Beren crossed 'the Shadowy
Mountains cold' (386). The Shadowy Mountains were named several
times in The Children of Hurin, where they are the mountains fencing
Hithlum, mirrored in the pools of Ivrin, as they are in The Silmarillion.
But it would obviously be impossible for Beren to cross the Shadowy
Mountains in this application of the name if he were coming out of
Taur-na-Fuin and moving south towards Doriath. In the 'Sketch of the
Mythology' Beren likewise 'crosses the Shadowy Mountains and after
grievous hardships comes to Doriath', and similarly in the 1930 version;
in this latter, however, 'Mountains of Shadow' was emended to 'Mount-
ains of Terror'. It is then clear that in the Lay of Leithian my father
was using 'Shadowy Mountains' in a different sense from that in The
Children of Hurin, and that the Shadowy Mountains of the present
Canto are the first mention of Ered Gorgoroth, the Mountains of Terror,
'the precipices in which Dorthonion [Taur-nu-Fuin] fell southward'
(The Silmarillion p. 95); but the other meaning reappears (p. 234.).
The lake where Egnor-Barahir and his band dwelt in hiding, in The
Silmarillion (p. 162) Tarn Aeluin, is not named in the Lay, where the
hiding-place was 'a wooded island in the fen' (280). That the Orc-camp
was beside a spring (also unnamed) appears in the Lay, and it is here a
hot spring (292 - 3); in The Silmarillion (p. 163) it was Rieil's Well above
the Fen of Serech.
Most notable of the features of this Canto so far as the development of
the legends is'concerned, the rescue of Felagund by Barahir in the Battle
of Sudden Flame (The Silmarillion p. 152) makes its first appearance in
the 'service' done to Celegorm by Egnor in A (lines 301 - 4, where B has
Felagund and Barahir). 'Celegorm' has already ceased its brief life as a
replacement of Thingol (see p. 159), and is now again that of one of the
sons of Feanor, as it was in The Children of Hurin. When these lines
in A were written the story was that Celegorm (and Curufin) founded
Nargothrond after the breaking of the Leaguer of Angband - a story that
seems to have arisen in the writing of The Children of Hurin, see
pp. 83 - 5;, and it was Celegorm who was rescued by Egnor-Barahir in that
battle, and who gave Egnor-Barahir his ring. In the B-text the story has
moved forward again, with the emergence of (Felagoth >) Felagund as
the one saved by Barahir and the founder of Nargothrond, thrusting
Celegorm and Curufin into a very different role.
In A Egnor and his son Maglor (Beren) are Men (e.g. Egnor was 'a lord
of Men', note to line 128). In the first version of The Children of Hurin
Beren was still an Elf, while in the second version my father seems to
have changed back and forth on this matter (see pp. 124 - 5). He had not
even now, as will appear later, finally settled the question.
III.
There once, and long and long ago,
before the sun and moon we know
were lit to sail above the world,
when first the shaggy woods unfurled,
and shadowy shapes did stare and roam 405
beneath the dark and starry dome
that hung above the dawn of Earth,
the silences with silver mirth
were shaken; the rocks were ringing,
the birds of Melian were singing, 410
the first to sing in mortal lands,
the nightingales with her own hands
she fed, that fay of garments grey;
and dark and long her tresses lay
beneath her silver girdle's seat 415
and down unto her silver feet.
She had wayward wandered on a time
from gardens of the Gods, to climb
the everlasting mountains free
that look upon the outmost sea, 420
and never wandered back, but stayed
and softly sang from glade to glade.
Her voice it was that Thingol heard,
and sudden singing of a bird,
in that old time when new-come Elves 425
had all the wide world to themselves.
Yet all his kin now marched away,
as old tales tell, to seek the bay
on the last shore of mortal lands,
where mighty ships with magic hands 430
they made, and sailed beyond the seas.
The Gods them bade to lands of ease
and gardens fair, where earth and sky
together flow, and none shall die.
But Thingol stayed, enchanted, still, 435
one moment to hearken to the thrill
of that sweet singing in the trees.
Enchanted moments such as these
from gardens of the Lord of Sleep,
where fountains play and shadows creep, 440
do come, and count as many years
in mortal lands. With many tears
his people seek him ere they sail,
while Thingol listens in the dale.
There after but an hour, him seems, 445
he finds her where she lies and dreams,
pale Melian with her dark hair
upon a bed of leaves. Beware!
There slumber and a sleep is twined!
He touched her tresses and his mind 450
was drowned in the forgetful deep,
and dark the years rolled o'er his sleep.
Thus Thingol sailed not on the seas
but dwelt amid the land of trees,
and Melian he loved, divine, 455
whose voice was potent as the wine
the Valar drink in golden halls
where flower blooms and fountain falls;
but when she sang it was a spell,
and no flower stirred nor fountain fell. 460
A king and queen thus lived they long,
and Doriath was filled with song,
and all the Elves that missed their way
and never found the western bay,
the gleaming walls of their long home 465
by the grey seas and the white foam,
who never trod the golden land
where the towers of the Valar stand,
all these were gathered in their realm
beneath the beech and oak and elm. 470
In later days when Morgoth first,
fleeing the Gods, their bondage burst,
and on the mortal lands set feet,
and in the North his mighty seat
founded and fortified, and all 475
the newborn race of Men were thrall
unto his power, and Elf and Gnome
his slaves, or wandered without home,
or scattered fastnesses walled with fear
upraised upon his borders drear, 480
and each one fell, yet reigned there still
in Doriath beyond his will
Thingol and deathless Melian,
whose magic yet no evil can
that cometh from without surpass. 485
Here still was laughter and green grass,
and leaves were lit with the white sun,
and many marvels were begun.
In sunshine and in sheen of moon,
with silken robe and silver shoon, 490
the daughter of the deathless queen
now danced on the undying green,
half elven-fair and half divine;
and when the stars began to shine
unseen but near a piping woke, 495
and in the branches of an oak,
or seated on the beech-leaves brown,
Dairon the dark with ferny crown
played with bewildering wizard's art
music for breaking of the heart. 500
Such players have there only been
thrice in all Elfinesse, I ween:
Tinfang Gelion who still the moon
enchants on summer nights of June
and kindles the pale firstling star; 505
and he who harps upon the far
forgotten beaches and dark shores
where western foam for ever roars,
Maglor whose voice is like the sea;
and Dairon, mightiest of the three. 510
Now it befell on summer night,
upon a lawn where lingering light
yet lay and faded faint and grey,
that Luthien danced while he did play.
The chestnuts on the turf had shed 515
their flowering candles, white and red;
there darkling stood a silent elm
and pale beneath its shadow-helm
there glimmered faint the umbels thick
of hemlocks like a mist, and quick 520
the moths on pallid wings of white
with tiny eyes of fiery light
were fluttering softly, and the voles
crept out to listen from their holes;
the little owls were hushed and still; 525
the moon was yet behind the hill.
Her arms like ivory were gleaming,
her long hair like a cloud was streaming,
her feet atwinkle wandered roaming
in misty mazes in the gloaming; 530
and glowworms shimmered round her feet,
and moths in moving garland fleet
above her head went wavering wan -
and this the moon now looked upon,
uprisen slow, and round, and white, 535
above the branches of the night.
Then clearly thrilled her voice and rang;
with sudden ecstasy she sang
a song of nightingales she learned
and with her elvish magic turned 540
to such bewildering delight
the moon hung moveless in the night.
And this it was that Beren heard,
and this he saw, without a word,
enchanted dumb, yet filled with fire 545
of such a wonder and desire
that all his mortal mind was dim;
her magic bound and fettered him,
and faint he leaned against a tree.
Forwandered, wayworn, gaunt was he, 550
his body sick and heart gone cold,
grey in his hair, his youth turned old;
for those that tread that lonely way
a price of woe and anguish pay.
And now his heart was healed and slain 555
with a new life and with new pain.
He gazed, and as he gazed her hair
within its cloudy web did snare
the silver moonbeams sifting white
between the leaves, and glinting bright 560
the tremulous starlight of the skies
was caught and mirrored in her eyes.
Then all his journey's lonely fare,
the hunger and the haggard care,
the awful mountains' stones he stained 565
with blood of weary feet, and gained
only a land of ghosts, and fear
in dark ravines imprisoned sheer -
there mighty spiders wove their webs,
old creatures foul with birdlike nebs 570
that span their traps in dizzy air,
and filled it with clinging black despair,
and there they lived, and the sucked bones
lay white beneath on the dank stones -
now all these horrors like a cloud 575
faded from mind. The waters loud
falling from pineclad heights no more
he heard, those waters grey and frore
that bittersweet he drank and filled
his mind with madness - all was stilled. 580
He recked not now the burning road,
the paths demented where he strode
endlessly... and ever new
horizons stretched before his view,
as each blue ridge with bleeding feet 585
was climbed, and down he went to meet
battle with creatures old and strong
and monsters in the dark, and long,
long watches in the haunted night
while evil shapes with baleful light 590
in clustered eyes did crawl and snuff
beneath his tree - not half enough
the price he deemed to come at last
to that pale moon when day had passed,
to those clear stars of Elfinesse, 595
the hearts-ease and the loveliness.
Lo! all forgetting he was drawn
unheeding toward the glimmering lawn
by love and wonder that compelled
his feet from hiding; music welled 600
within his heart, and songs unmade
on themes unthought-of moved and swayed
his soul with sweetness; out he came,
a shadow in the moon's pale flame -
and Dairon's flute as sudden stops 605
as lark before it steeply drops,
as grasshopper within the grass
listening for heavy feet to pass.
'Flee, Luthien!', and'Luthien!'
from hiding Dairon called again; 610
'A stranger walks the woods! Away! '
But Luthien would wondering stay;
fear had she never felt or known,
till fear then seized her, all alone,
seeing that shape with shagged hair 615
and shadow long that halted there.
Then sudden she vanished like a dream
in dark oblivion, a gleam
in hurrying clouds, for she had leapt
among the hemlocks tall, and crept 620
under a mighty plant with leaves
all long and dark, whose stem in sheaves
upheld an hundred umbels fair;
and her white arms and shoulders bare
her raiment pale, and in her hair 625
the wild white roses glimmering there,
all lay like spattered moonlight hoar
in gleaming pools upon the floor.
Then stared he wild in dumbness bound
at silent trees, deserted ground; 630
he blindly groped across the glade
to the dark trees' encircling shade,
and, while she watched with veiled eyes,
touched her soft arm in sweet surprise.
Like startled moth from deathlike sleep 635
in sunless nook or bushes deep
she darted swift, and to and fro
with cunning that elvish dancers know
about the trunks of trees she twined
a path fantastic. Far behind 640
enchanted, wildered and forlorn
Beren came blundering, bruised and torn:
Esgalduin the elven-stream,
in which amid tree-shadows gleam
the stars, flowed strong before his feet. 645
Some secret way she found, and fleet
passed over and was seen no more,
and left him forsaken on the shore.
'Darkly the sundering flood rolls past!
To this my long way comes at last - 650
a hunger and a loneliness,
enchanted waters pitiless.'
A summer waned, an autumn glowed,
and Beren in the woods abode,
as wild and wary as a faun 655
that sudden wakes at rustling dawn,
and flits from shade to shade, and flees
the brightness of the sun, yet sees
all stealthy movements in the wood.
The murmurous warmth in weathers good, 660
the hum of many wings, the call
of many a bird, the pattering fall
of sudden rain upon the trees,
the windy tide in leafy seas,
the creaking of the boughs, he heard; 665
but not the song of sweetest bird
brought joy or comfort to his heart,
a wanderer dumb who dwelt apart;
who sought unceasing and in vain
to hear and see those things again: 670
a song more fair than nightingale,
a wonder in the moonlight pale.
An autumn waned, a winter laid
the withered leaves in grove and glade;
the beeches bare were gaunt and grey, 675
and red their leaves beneath them lay.
From cavern pale the moist moon eyes
the white mists that from earth arise
to hide the morrow's sun and drip
all the grey day from each twig's tip. 680
By dawn and dusk he seeks her still;
by noon and night in valleys chill,
nor hears a sound but the slow beat
on sodden leaves of his own feet.
The wind of winter winds his horn; 685
the misty veil is rent and torn.
The wind dies; the starry choirs
leap in the silent sky to fires,
whose light comes bitter-cold and sheer
through domes of frozen crystal clear. 690
A sparkle through the darkling trees,
a piercing glint of light he sees,
and there she dances all alone
upon a treeless knoll of stone!
Her mantle blue with jewels white 695
caught all the rays of frosted light.
She shone with cold and wintry flame,
as dancing down the hill she came,
and passed his watchful silent gaze,
a glimmer as of stars ablaze. 700
And snowdrops sprang beneath her feet,
and one bird, sudden, late and sweet,
shrilled as she wayward passed along.
A frozen brook to bubbling song
awoke and laughed; but Beren stood 705
still bound enchanted in the wood.
Her starlight faded and the night
closed o'er the snowdrops glimmering white.
Thereafter on a hillock green
he saw far off the elven-sheen 710
of shining limb and jewel bright
often and oft on moonlit night;
and Dairon's pipe awoke once more,
and soft she sang as once before.
Then nigh he stole beneath the trees, 715
and heartache mingled with hearts-ease.
A night there was when winter died;
then all alone she sang and cried
and danced until the dawn of spring,
and chanted some wild magic thing 720
that stirred him, till it sudden broke
the bonds that held him, and he woke
to madness sweet and brave despair.
He flung his arms to the night air,
and out he danced unheeding, fleet, 725
enchanted, with enchanted feet.
He sped towards the hillock green,
the lissom limbs, the dancing sheen;
he leapt upon the grassy hill
his arms with loveliness to fill: 730
his arms were empty, and she fled;
away, away her white feet sped.
But as she went he swiftly came
and called her with the tender name
of nightingales in elvish tongue, 735
that all the woods now sudden rung:
'Tinuviel! Tinuviel!'
And clear his voice was as a bell;
its echoes wove a binding spell:
'Tinuviel! Tinuviel! ' 740
His voice such love and longing filled
one moment stood she, fear was stilled;
one moment only; like a flame
he leaped towards her as she stayed
and caught and kissed that elfin maid. 745
As love there woke in sweet surprise
the starlight trembled in her eyes.
A! Luthien! A! Luthien!
more fair than any child of Men;
0! loveliest maid of Elfinesse, 750
what madness does thee now possess!
A! lissom limbs and shadowy hair
and chaplet of white snowdrops there;
0! starry diadem and white
pale hands beneath the pale moonlight! 755
She left his arms and slipped away
just at the breaking of the day.
NOTES.
439. Original reading of B:
from gardens of the God of Sleep,
457. Original reading of B:
the Gods drink in their golden halls
467-8. Original reading of B:
who never passed the golden gate
where doorwards of the Gods do wait,
These three changes are late, and their purpose is to remove
the word Gods. The change in line 468 also gets rid of the
purely metrical do in do wait; similarly did build and fortify
> founded and fortified 475 and did raise > upraised 480
look as if they belong to the same time. On the other hand did
flutter > were fluttering 523 and did waver > ment
wavering 533 seem to belong with the early emendations (see
C. S. Lewis's commentary, pp. 320 - 1). I mention these
changes here to illustrate my remarks on this subject,
pp. 152-3.
493. elfin- B, emended to elven-. Here and subsequently this
belongs with the early changes, as does elfin to elvish at 540,
etc.
503. Tinfang Warble A, and B as typed; Gelion an early change
in B.
508. After this line A has a couplet omitted in B:
from England unto Eglamar
on rock and dune and sandy bar,
The first of these lines occurs also in an early draft for the
opening of the poem, see p. 157, note to lines I - 30.
509. Maglor A, B; in the rough draft of this passage Ivare (with
Maglor written beside it).
527-30. Marked in B with an X (i.e. in need of revision), but with no
other verses substituted.
557. This line begins a new page in the A manuscript; at the top of
the page is written the date 2318125'.
558. golden A, and B as typed (no doubt an oversight), early
emended to cloudy. See note to lines 1 - 30, and pp. 159-60.
648. After this line the bundle of examination-scripts on which the
A manuscript is written (p. 150) is interleaved with other
pages, which carry the poem to the end of Canto III. At the
bottom of the first of these pages is written Filey l925, where
my father was on holiday in September of that year.
743 The couplet lacks its second line. The passage 741 - 5 is a hasty
revision, based on a criticism of Lewis's; see his commentary,
P- 325.
Commentary on Canto III.
In this Canto there are many things that derive from the Tale of Tinuviel
(II. 10ff.): the chestnut trees, the white moths, the moon rising, the
sudden ceasing of Dairon's piping, Tinuviel's unwillingness to flee, her
hiding under the hemlocks like spattered moonlight (cf. II. x x 'like a
spatter of moonlight shimmering'), Beren's touching her arm, her dart-
ing between the tree-trunks, and afterwards the 'treeless knoll' where she
danced in the winter. But the Canto is also related to the poem Light as
Leaf on Lindentree (see pp. 108 - 10, 120 - 2), which had been published
in June 1925, while this part of the Lay of Leithian was written a little
later in the same year. Echoes of the one poem are heard in the other, and
more than an echo in the line and out he danced unheeding, fleet,
which is found in both (p. 109, line 447; p. 179, line 725).
The aberrant names in the first two Cantos of A have now disappeared
from the text. In the second Canto my father had already given back the
name Celegorm to the son of Feanor (note to line 304), and now Thingol
appears in A; Luthien replaces Melilot; and Beren replaces Maglor.
Morgoth now replaces Bauglir in A (see p. 170).
In both texts Tinuviel is now explicitly the Elvish word for 'nightin-
gale' (line 735; see p. 124); and Maglor, again in both texts, is the name
of one of the three greatest singers of Elfinesse:
he who harps upon the far
forgotten beaches and dark shores
where western foam for ever roars,
Maglor whose voice is like the sea (506-9)
In the rough draft of this passage the name of this minstrel is however
Ivare (though Maglor is written beside it), and Ivare was named in the
Tale of Tinuviel (II. 10), with Tinfang and Dairon, as one of 'the three
most magic players of the Elves', who 'plays beside the sea'. This is the
first hint of the after-history of Maglor son of Feanor, who in the Tale of
the Nauglafring (II. 241) was slain, as also was Celegorm, in the attack
on Dior. The lines in A, omitted in B (note to line 508), are interesting:
from England unto Eglamar
on rock and dune and sandy bar
The form Eglamar (Gnomish, = Eldamar) occurs in the very early
poem The Shores of Faery and its prose preface (II. 262, 272); and the
same line from England unto Eglamar is found in the rough workings
of the beginning of the Lay (note to lines 1 - 30). The mention of
England is a reminder that at this time the association of the legends
with Eriol/AElfwine was still very much alive, though there is no other
indication of it in the Lay of Leithian.
Tinfang Warble reappears from the Lost Tales at line 503, changed to
Tinfang Gelion; the meaning of Gelion is not explained.
In one respect only does the narrative content of the Canto depart in
any significant way from the common 'tradition' of the texts, but this is
sufficiently remarkable: the Elves departed over the sea to Valinor at the
end of the Great Journey in a fleet of ships!
Yet all his kin now marched away,
as old tales tell, to seek the bay
on the last shore of mortal lands,
where mighty ships with magic hands
they made, and sailed beyond the seas. (427 - 31)
This is very strange (and I am at a loss to account for it, except by the
obvious explanation of a passing shift), in that the story of the 'island-car'
(Tol Eressea), which goes back to the Lost Tales (I. 118-20), is present
in all the versions of 'The Silmarillion'. The Elves are here presented, on
the other hand, as great shipbuilders in the beginning of their days. -
With the reference in the passage just cited to the bay whence the Elves
set sail cf. The Silmarillion p. 57, where it is told that Ulmo anchored the
'island-car' in the Bay of Balar (and that the eastern horn of the island,
breaking off, was the Isle of Balar).
In the description of Beren's journey to Doriath in lines 563 ff. is the
first account of the Ered Gorgoroth, the Mountains of Terror (called 'the
Shadowy Mountains' in Canto II, see pp. 170-1), with their spiders and
their waters that drove mad those who drank from them (cf. The Silmaril-
lion p. 121; and with lines 590 - 1 evil shapes arith baleful light/in
clustered eyes cf. ibid. p. 164: 'monsters... hunting silently with many
eyes').
IV.
He lay upon the leafy mould,
his face upon earth's bosom cold,
aswoon in overwhelming bliss, 760
enchanted of an elvish kiss,
seeing within his darkened eyes
the light that for no darkness dies,
the loveliness that doth not fade,
though all in ashes cold be laid. 765
Then folded in the mists of sleep
he sank into abysses deep,
drowned in an overwhelming grief
for parting after meeting brief;
a shadow and a fragrance fair 770
lingered, and waned, and was not there.
Forsaken, barren, bare as stone,
the daylight found him cold, alone.
'Where art thou gone? The day is bare,
the sunlight dark, and cold the air! 775
Tinuviel, where went thy feet?
0 wayward star! 0 maiden sweet!
0 flower of Elfland all too fair
for mortal heart! The woods are bare!
The woods are bare! ' he rose and cried. 780
'Ere spring was born, the spring hath died!'
And wandering in path and mind
he groped as one gone sudden blind,
who seeks to grasp the hidden light
with faltering hands in more than night. 785
And thus in anguish Beren paid
for that great doom upon him laid,
the deathless love of Luthien,
too fair for love of mortal Men;
and in his doom was Luthien snared, 790
the deathless in his dying shared;
and Fate them forged a binding chain
of living love and mortal pain.
Beyond all hope her feet returned
at eve, when in the sky there burned 795
the flame of stars; and in her eyes
there trembled the starlight of the skies,
and from her hair the fragrance fell
of elvenflowers in elven-dell.
Thus Luthien, whom no pursuit, 800
no snare, no dart that hunters shoot,
might hope to win or hold, she came
at the sweet calling of her name;
and thus in his her slender hand
was linked in far Beleriand; 805
in hour enchanted long ago
her arms about his neck did go,
and gently down she drew to rest
his weary head upon her breast.
A! Luthien, Tinuviel, 810
why wentest thou to darkling dell
with shining eyes and dancing pace,
the twilight glimmering in thy face?
Each day before the end of eve
she sought her love, nor would him leave, 815
until the stars were dimmed, and day
came glimmering eastward silver-grey.
Then trembling-veiled she would appear
and dance before him, half in fear;
there flitting just before his feet 820
she gently chid with laughter sweet:
'Come! dance now, Beren, dance with me!
For fain thy dancing I would see.
Come! thou must woo with nimbler feet,
than those who walk where mountains meet 825
the bitter skies beyond this realm
of marvellous moonlit beech and elm.'
In Doriath Beren long ago
new art and lore he learned to know;
his limbs were freed; his eyes alight, 830
kindled with a new enchanted sight;
and to her dancing feet his feet
attuned went dancing free and fleet;
his laughter welled as from a spring
of music, and his voice would sing 835
as voices of those in Doriath
where paved with flowers are floor and path.
The year thus on to summer rolled,
from spring to a summertime of gold.
Thus fleeting fast their short hour flies, 840
while Dairon watches with fiery eyes,
haunting the gloom of tangled trees
all day, until at night he sees
in the fickle moon their moving feet,
two lovers linked in dancing sweet, 845
two shadows shimmering on the green
where lonely-dancing maid had been.
'Hateful art thou, 0 Land of Trees!
May fear and silence on thee seize!
My flute shall fall from idle hand 850
and mirth shall leave Beleriand;
music shall perish and voices fail
and trees stand dumb in dell and dale!'
It seemed a hush had fallen there
upon the waiting woodland air; 855
and often murmured Thingol's folk
in wonder, and to their king they spoke:
'This spell of silence who hath wrought?
What web hath Dairon's music caught?
It seems the very birds sing low; 860
murmurless Esgalduin doth flow;
the leaves scarce whisper on the trees,
and soundless beat the wings of bees! '
This Luthien heard, and there the queen
her sudden glances saw unseen. 865
But Thingol marvelled, and he sent
for Dairon the piper, ere he went
and sat upon his mounded seat -
his grassy throne by the grey feet
of the Queen of Beeches, Hirilorn, 870
upon whose triple piers were borne
the mightiest vault of leaf and bough
from world's beginning until now.
She stood above Esgalduin's shore,
where long slopes fell beside the door, 875
the guarded gates, the portals stark
of the Thousand echoing Caverns dark.
There Thingol sat and heard no sound
save far off footsteps on the ground;
no flute, no voice, no song of bird, 880
no choirs of windy leaves there stirred;
and Dairon coming no word spoke,
silent amid the woodland folk.
Then Thingol said: '0 Dairon fair,
thou master of all musics rare, 885
0 magic heart and wisdom wild,
whose ear nor eye may be beguiled,
what omen doth this silence bear?
What horn afar upon the air,
what summons do the woods await? 890
Mayhap the Lord Tavros from his gate
and tree-propped halls, the forest-god,
rides his wild stallion golden-shod
amid the trumpets' tempest loud,
amid his green-clad hunters proud, 895
leaving his deer and friths divine
and emerald forests? Some faint sign
of his great onset may have come
upon the Western winds, and dumb
the woods now listen for a chase 900
that here once more shall thundering race
beneath the shade of mortal trees.
Would it were so! The Lands of Ease
hath Tavros left not many an age,
since Morgoth evil wars did wage, 905
since ruin fell upon the North
and the Gnomes unhappy wandered forth.
But if not he, who comes or what?'
And Dairon answered: 'He cometh not!
No feet divine shall leave that shore, 910
where the Shadowy Seas' last surges roar,
till many things be come to pass,
and many evils wrought. Alas!
the guest is here. The woods are still,
but wait not; for a marvel chill 915
them holds at the strange deeds they see,
but kings see not - though queens, maybe,
may guess, and maidens, maybe, know.
Where one went lonely two now go! '
'Whither thy riddle points is plain' 920
the king in anger said, 'but deign
to make it plainer! Who is he
that earns my wrath? How walks he free
within my woods amid my folk,
a stranger to both beech and oak?' 925
But Dairon looked on Luthien
and would he had not spoken then,
and no more would he speak that day,
though Thingol's face with wrath was grey.
Then Luthien stepped lightly forth: 930
'Far in the mountain-leaguered North,
my father,' said she, 'lies the land
that groans beneath King Morgoth's hand.
Thence came one hither', bent and worn
in wars and travail, who had sworn 935
undying hatred of that king;
the last of Beor's sons, they sing,
and even hither far and deep
within thy woods the echoes creep
through the wild mountain-passes cold, 940
the last of Beor's house to hold
a sword unconquered, neck unbowed,
a heart by evil power uncowed.
No evil needst thou think or fear
of Beren son of Barahir! 945
If aught thou hast to say to him,
then swear to hurt not flesh nor limb,
and I will lead him to thy hall,
a son of kings, no mortal thrall.'
Then long King Thingol looked on her 950
while hand nor foot nor tongue did stir,
and Melian, silent, unamazed,
on Luthien and Thingol gazed.
'No blade nor chain his limbs shall mar'
the king then swore. 'He wanders far, 955
and news, mayhap, he hath for me,
and words I have for him, maybe! '
Now Thingol bade them all depart
save Dairon, whom he called: 'What art,
what wizardry of Northern mist 960
hath this illcomer brought us? List!
Tonight go thou by secret path,
who knowest all wide Doriath,
and watch that Luthien - daughter mine,
what madness doth thy heart entwine, 965
what web from Morgoth's dreadful halls
hath caught thy feet and thee enthralls! -
that she bid not this Beren flee
back whence he came. I would him see!
Take with thee woodland archers wise. 970
Let naught beguile your hearts or eyes! '
Thus Dairon heavyhearted did,
and the woods were filled with watchers hid;
yet needless, for Luthien that night
led Beren by the golden light 975
of mounting moon unto the shore
and bridge before her father's door;
and the white light silent looked within
the waiting portals yawning dim.
Downward with gentle hand she led 980
through corridors of carven dread
whose turns were lit by lanterns hung
or flames from torches that were flung
on dragons hewn in the cold stone
with jewelled eyes and teeth of bone. 985
Then sudden, deep beneath the earth
the silences with silver mirth
were shaken and the rocks were ringing,
the birds of Melian were singing;
and wide the ways of shadow spread 990
as into arched halls she led
Beren in wonder. There a light
like day immortal and like night
of stars unclouded, shone and gleamed.
A vault of topless trees it seemed, 995
whose trunks of carven stone there stood
like towers of an enchanted wood
in magic fast for ever bound,
bearing a roof whose branches wound
in endless tracery of green 1000
lit by some leaf-emprisoned sheen
of moon and sun, and wrought of gems,
and each leaf hung on golden stems.
Lo! there amid immortal flowers
the nightingales in shining bowers 1005
sang o'er the head of Melian,
while water for ever dripped and ran
from fountains in the rocky floor.
There Thingol sat. His crown he wore
of green and silver, and round his chair 1010
a host in gleaming armour fair.
Then Beren looked upon the king
and stood amazed; and swift a ring
of elvish weapons hemmed him round.
Then Beren looked upon the ground, 1015
for Melian's gaze had sought his face,
and dazed there drooped he in that place,
and when the king spake deep and slow:
'Who art thou stumblest hither? Know
that none unbidden seek this throne 1020
and ever leave these halls of stone! '
no word he answered, filled with dread.
But Luthien answered in his stead:
'Behold, my father, one who came
pursued by hatred like a flame! 1025
Lo! Beren son of Barahir!
What need hath he thy wrath to fear,
foe of our foes, without a friend,
whose knees to Morgoth do not bend?'
'Let Beren answer! ' Thingol said. 1030
'What wouldst thou here? What hither led
thy wandering feet, 0 mortal wild?
How hast thou Luthien beguiled
or darest thus to walk this wood
unasked, in secret? Reason good 1035
'twere best declare now if thou may,
or never again see light of day! '
Then Beren looked in Luthien's eyes
and saw a light of starry skies,
and thence was slowly drawn his gaze 1040
to Melian's face. As from a maze
of wonder dumb he woke; his heart
the bonds of awe there burst apart
and filled with the fearless pride of old;
in his glance now gleamed an anger cold. 1045
'My feet hath fate, 0 king,' he said,
'here over the mountains bleeding led,
and what I sought not I have found,
and love it is hath here me bound.
Thy dearest treasure I desire; 1050
nor rocks nor steel nor Morgoth's fire
nor all the power of Elfinesse
shall keep that gem I would possess.
For fairer than are born to Men
A daughter hast thou, Luthien.' 1055
Silence then fell upon the hall;
like graven stone there stood they all,
save one who cast her eyes aground,
and one who laughed with bitter sound.
Dairon the piper leant there pale 1060
against a pillar. His fingers frail
there touched a flute that whispered not;
his eyes were dark; his heart was hot.
'Death is the guerdon thou hast earned,
0 baseborn mortal, who hast learned 1065
in Morgoth's realm to spy and lurk
like Orcs that do his evil work! '
'Death! ' echoed Dairon fierce and low,
but Luthien trembling gasped in woe.
'And death,'said Thingol, 'thou shouldst taste, 1070
had I not sworn an oath in haste
that blade nor chain thy flesh should mar.
Yet captive bound by never a bar,
unchained, unfettered, shalt thou be
in lightless labyrinth endlessly 1075
that coils about my halls profound
by magic bewildered and enwound;
there wandering in hopelessness
thou shalt learn the power of Elfinesse!'
'That may not be! ' Lo! Beren spake, 1080
and through the king's words coldly brake.
'What are thy mazes but a chain
wherein the captive blind is slain?
Twist not thy oaths, 0 elvish king,
like faithless Morgoth! By this ring - 1085
the token of a lasting bond
that Felagund of Nargothrond
once swore in love to Barahir,
who sheltered him with shield and spear
and saved him from pursuing foe 1090
on Northern battlefields long ago -
death thou canst give unearned to me,
but names I will not take from thee
of baseborn, spy, or Morgoth's thrall!
Are these the ways of Thingol's hall? ' 1095
Proud are the words, and all there turned
to see the jewels green that burned
in Beren's ring. These Gnomes had set
as eyes of serpents twined that met
beneath a golden crown of flowers, 1100
that one upholds and one devours:
the badge that Finrod made of yore
and Felagund his son now bore.
His anger was chilled, but little less,
and dark thoughts Thingol did possess, 1105
though Melian the pale leant to his side
and whispered: '0 king, forgo thy pride!
Such is my counsel. Not by thee
shall Beren be slain, for far and free
from these deep halls his fate doth lead, 1110
yet wound with thine. 0 king, take heed! '
But Thingol looked on Luthien.
'Fairest of Elves! Unhappy Men,
children of little lords and kings
mortal and frail, these fading things, 1115
shall they then look with love on thee?'
his heart within him thought. 'I see
thy ring,' he said, '0 mighty man!
But to win the child of Melian
a father's deeds shall not avail, 1120
nor thy proud words at which I quail.
A treasure dear I too desire,
but rocks and steel and Morgoth's fire
from all the powers of Elfinesse
do keep the jewel I would possess. 1125
Yet bonds like these I hear thee say
affright thee not. Now go thy way!
Bring me one shining Silmaril
from Morgoth's crown, then if she will,
may Luthien set her hand in thine; 1130
then shalt thou have this jewel of mine.'
Then Thingol's warriors loud and long
they laughed; for wide renown in song
had Feanor's gems o'er land and sea,
the peerless Silmarils; and three 1135
alone he made and kindled slow
in the land of the Valar long ago,
and there in Tun of their own light
they shone like marvellous stars at night,
in the great.Gnomish hoards of Tun, 1140
while Glingal flowered and Belthil's bloom
yet lit the land beyond the shore
where the Shadowy Seas' last surges roar,
ere Morgoth stole them and the Gnomes
seeking their glory left their homes, 1145
ere sorrows fell on Elves and Men,
ere Beren was or Luthien,
ere Feanor's sons in madness swore
their dreadful oath. But now no more
their beauty was seen, save shining clear 1150
in Morgoth's dungeons vast and drear.
His iron crown they must adorn,
and gleam above Orcs and slaves forlorn,
treasured in Hell above all wealth,
more than his eyes; and might nor stealth 1155
could touch them, or even gaze too long
upon their magic. Throng on throng
of Orcs with reddened scimitars
encircled him, and mighty bars
and everlasting gates and walls, 1160
who wore them now amidst his thralls.
Then Beren laughed more loud than they
in bitterness, and thus did say:
'For little price do elven-kings
their daughters sell - for gems and rings 1165
and things of gold! If such thy will,
thy bidding I will now fulfill.
On Beren son of Barahir
thou hast not looked the last, I fear.
Farewell, Tinuviel, starlit maiden! 1170
Ere the pale winter pass snowladen,
I will return, not thee to buy
with any jewel in Elfinesse,
but to find my love in loveliness,
a flower that grows beneath the sky.' 1175
Bowing before Melian and the king
he turned, and thrust aside the ring
of guards about him, and was gone,
and his footsteps faded one by one
in the dark corridors. 'A guileful oath 1180
thou sworest, father! Thou hast both
to blade and chain his flesh now doomed
in Morgoth's dungeons deep entombed,'
said Luthien, and welling tears
sprang in her eyes, and hideous fears 1185
clutched at her heart. All looked away,
and later remembered the sad day
whereafter Luthien no more sang.
Then clear in the silence the cold words rang
of Melian: 'Counsel cunning-wise, 1190
O king! ' she said. 'Yet if mine eyes
lose not their power, 'twere well for thee
that Beren failed his errantry.
Well for thee, but for thy child
a dark doom and a wandering wild.' 1195
'I sell not to Men those whom I love'
said Thingol, 'whom all things above
I cherish; and if hope there were
that Beren should ever living fare
to the Thousand Caves once more, I swear 1200
he should not ever have seen the air
or light of heaven's stars again.'
But Melian smiled, and there was pain
as of far knowledge in her eyes;
for such is the sorrow of the wise. 1205
NOTES.
The opening of this Canto is extant in two typescripts (to line 863), the
second version being substantially expanded; it was the first of them that
C. S. Lewis received - indeed, it is clear that the rewriting was in part
due to his criticism.
758-863. The rough drafts for this portion of the Lay (much briefer
than the later text here printed) were written on the backs of
booksellers' invoices dated 31 December 1925 and 2 February
1926.
761. In this Canto elvish rather than elfin is found already in A,
but still elfin in both texts at 1164 (emended in B to elven-).
elven- 799 occurs in a line found only in the later rewriting,
B(2).
762-73. These lines are not in A; the B(1) version, severely criticised
by C. S. Lewis, is given with his commentary, p. 326.
781-841. A: and the bare woods nor moved nor sighed.
Yet ever after when star or moon
shone clear or misty then came she soon
just after day before the eve
and found him, nor his side did leave 5
until night waned and starlight ceased
and day came pale o'er the pathless east.
And there in far Broseliand
he learned the touches of her hand;
his feet grew swift as unseen airs, 10
his laughter soft, and far his cares,
his voice like those in Doriath
that wander where there runs no path.
Thus days of golden spring did rise
while Dairon watched with fiery eyes 15
The spelling Broseliand with s has now entered the A-text.
B(1) is as A, except that between lines 7 and 8 above were
inserted ten lines that my father retained in the much longer
B(2) text, 818 - 27 (Then trembling-veiled, &c.)
805. Broseliand B (2), emended to Beleriand.
849-51. These verses are an emendation to B (2)', with Beleriand
thus written. For the B(1) version criticised by C. S. Lewis
and the B(2) version before emendation see Lewis's com-
mentary, p. 327,
89I, 904. Tavros was emended in B to Tauros, but this seems to have
been a much later change. The rough workings here had first
the name (Ormain >) Ormaid, then Tavros.
937. Original reading of B: the last of Men, as songs now sing
(with like echoes 939)
941. Original reading of B: the last of Men alone to hold
983-5. These lines are marked with an X on the B-text, and the
words on dragons underlined and marked with an X -
presumably because the creatures of Morgoth were not
carved on the walls of the Thousand Caves.
987-9. These lines are repeated from Canto III, lines 408-10.
1010. silver: original reading of B gold.
1059-63 . These lines are marked with an X on the B-text, as also are
lines 1068 - 9. It may be that my father wished to represent
Dairon as less unequivocally hostile to Beren, and also as
ashamed of his words to Thingol (909-19).
1087. A: that Celegorm of Nargothrond
with Celegorm emended first to Felagoth and then to
Felagund (as at line 304).
1098. Gnomes: in the margin of B is written Elves/smiths. This is
clearly a late change intended simply to get rid of the word
Gnomes (see I. 43 - 4).
1102 -3. A: the badge that Feanor made of yore
and Celegorm his son now bore.
Celegorm is not emended here as it is at line 1087, but the
couplet is enclosed within brackets in the manuscript.
1141. Glingal, Belthil: original readings of B Glingol, Bansil.
The same changes were made in The Children of Hurin
(pp. 80 - 1, notes to lines 2027 - 8), where I retain the earlier
forms.
1144-5. These lines are marked with an X on the B-text, perhaps
simply because of the word Gnomes which here occurs in
rhyme and cannot be easily replaced (see note to 1098); but
C. S. Lewis criticised the word their in line 1145 as obscure
in its reference (see his commentary, p. 329).
1151. A: in Morgoth Bauglir's dungeons drear. See p. 182.
1161. Here is written in the margin of the A manuscript: 'Mar. 27,
28 1928'.
1175. This line was not originally in A but was pencilled in with
queried indications to place it either after 1172 or (with
irregular rhyming) after 1174, as it is in B.
Commentary on Canto IV.
Comparison of this Canto with the Tale of Tinuviel shows that the
narrative has undergone a deepening of significance, and this is largely
brought about by the cardinal change of Beren's being no longer an Elf
but a mortal Man (see p. 171). The story told in the poem is that of
The Silmarillion (pp. 165-8); for the prose version, close to the Lay in
every feature large and small, and indeed in many actual phrases, was
based directly on the verses, and in this Canto the verses underwent no
significant later revision. There are some elements in the poem that were
not taken up into the prose version, such as the description of the
Thousand Caves (980 ff.), whose splendour and beauty now first appear
(cf. my remarks on Thingol's wealth, pp. 160-1) - but a description of
Thingol's dwelling is given earlier in The Silmarillion, p. 93. In the
original text of the Silmarillion version Daeron's part was in fact entirely
excluded, though obviously only for the sake of compression (it was
reintroduced into the published work*). The loud laughter of Thingol's
warriors at Thingol's demand that Beren fetch him a Silmaril is not in the
prose account, and was perhaps deliberately excluded. This feature
harks back rather to the scene in the Tale of Tinuviel (II. 13), where
Thingol 'burst into laughter' at the aspect of Beren as suitor for his
daughter, and where the courtiers smiled when Thingol requested a
Silmaril as the bride-price, seeing that he 'treated the matter as an
uncouth jest'. Cf. my commentary on the Tale, II. 53:
The tone is altogether lighter and less grave than it afterwards became;
in the jeering laughter of Thingol, who treats the matter as a jest and
Beren as a benighted fool, there is no hint of what is quite explicit in
the later story: 'Thus he wrought the doom of Doriath, and was
ensnared within the curse of Mandos.'
Canto III was in being by the autumn of 1925; while against Canto IV
(* On pp. 166, 172; but the passage concerning Daeron on p. 183 is original. My father
apparently intended to insert references to Daeron's betrayals of Luthien, but did not do so.)
line 1161 in A there stands the date 27 - 8 March, 1928. The rough drafts
for the opening of I V (lines 758 - 863) are written on the backs of invoices
dated December 1925 and February 1926, but this does not show very
much. In any case it seems to me most improbable that my father was
writing lines 758 - 1161 over a period of two and a half years (September
1925 to March 1928): it is far more likely that there was a long gap, and
that this fourth Canto was written pretty much at one time. Other
evidence in fact suggests that he paused. There exist three pages of notes
written on the backs of booksellers' invoices dated February, March, and
May 1926, and these pages are of great interest for the development of the
legend, for they contain a rapidly-composed plot-outline in which my
father is seen working out the narrative of the next Cantos of the Lay.
This outline I will refer to as 'Synopsis I'. I give here its content as far
as the end of Canto IV. Contractions used for names are expanded, and
passages struck out (done at the time of writing) are included.
Beren and Tinuviel dance in the woods.
Dairon reports to the king.
Beren taken captive to the king.
Dairon will have him slain.
The king will shut him in his dungeons.
Tinuviel pleads.
Melian [struck out: says that he must not be slain, and that] refuses to
advise but warns Thingol darkly that Beren must not be slain by
him, and his coming was not without fate.
Thingol sends him for the Silmaril.
Beren's speech.
Melian says [struck out: this was better than his death, but] it were
better for Thingol if Beren succeeded not.
Thingol said he would not send him if [he] were going to succeed.
Melian smiles.
Flight of Beren.
In the Tale of Tinsuviel Beren was led by Tinuviel into Thingol's caves
(II. 13), and as I noted (I I. 52-3):
The betrayal of Beren to Thingol by Daeron... has no place in the old
story - there is nothing to betray; and indeed it is not shown in the tale
that Dairon knew anything whatsoever of Beren before Tinuviel led
him into the cave, beyond having once seen his face in the moonlight.
Moreover, in the Tale Dairon was Tinuviel's brother (II. 10; see p.124).
In the Lay (lines 909 ff.) Dairon utters strong hints concerning the
strange quietness of the forest, which lead directly to a declaration by
Luthien of Beren's presence, and a demand that her father shall not harm
him; Thingol swears that he will not, but sends Dairon with archers to
prevent Beren's escape - needlessly, for Luthien brings him that same
night to Thingol's hall. This first part of Synopsis I suggests ideas that
were never given form. Thus Dairon speaks to Thingol of Beren, as in
the Lay, but Beren is actually apprehended and taken to the king as a
prisoner; moreover (while it is of course impossible to be certain of the
precise articulation of the plot from such an extremely compressed
outline) Dairon seems more actively to seek Beren's death than he does in
the poem (despite line 1068), and Tinuviel pleads against her father's
policy.
For explanation of the references in A to Celegorm (notes to lines
1087, 1102 - 3) see p. 171. According to the earlier story seen in A the ring
given to Barahir was made by Feanor, Celegorm's father. In B the later
story is present, and the badge of the entwined serpents is that of
Felagund's father Finrod (Finarfin in The Silmarillion) who now first
appears (other than in a later note to The Children of Hurin, see pp. 80,
138. Barahir now first replaces Egnor as Beren's father in A; and by later
emendation to B (lines 937, 941) Beor appears, who at this time, as is
seen from the prose texts, was Barahir's father. With exceedingly com-
plex genealogical and chronological restructuring of the houses of the,
Elf-friends in later years Beor came to be removed from Barahir by many
generations.
The name Tavros given to Orome (891, 904) has occurred long before
in the Gnomish dictionary, defined as the 'chief wood-fay, the Blue
Spirit of the Woods' (I. 267, entry Tavari). With his tree-propped halls
(892) compare the description of Orome's dwelling in Valmar in the tale
of The Coming of the Valar and the Building of Valinor, I. 75 - 6. At
line 893 is the first mention of the golden hooves of Orome's horse.
V
So days drew on from the mournful day;
the curse of silence no more lay
on Doriath, though Dairon's flute
and Luthien's singing both were mute.
The murmurs soft awake once more 1210
about the woods, the waters roar
past the great gates of Thingol's halls;
but no dancing step of Luthien falls
on turf or leaf. For she forlorn,
where stumbled once, where bruised and torn, 1215
with longing on him like a dream,
had Beren sat by the shrouded stream
Esgalduin the dark and strong,
she sat and mourned in a low song:
'Endless roll the waters past! 1220
To this my love hath come at last,
enchanted waters pitiless,
a heartache and a loneliness.'
The summer turns. In branches tall
she hears the pattering raindrops fall, 1225
the windy tide in leafy seas,
the creaking of the countless trees;
and longs unceasing and in vain
to hear one calling once again
the tender name that nightingales 1230
were called of old. Echo fails.
'Tinuviel! Tinuviel! '
the memory is like a knell,
a faint and far-off tolling bell:
'Tinuviel! Tinuviel! ' 1235
'0 mother Melian, tell to me
some part of what thy dark eyes see!
Tell of thy magic where his feet
are wandering! What foes him meet?
0 mother, tell me, lives he still 1240
treading the desert and the hill?
Do sun and moon above him shine,
do the rains fall on him, mother mine?'
'Nay, Luthien my child, I fear
he lives indeed in bondage drear. 1245
The Lord of Wolves hath prisons dark,
chains and enchantments cruel and stark,
there trapped and bound and languishing
now Beren dreams that thou dost sing.'
'Then I alone must go to him 1250
and dare the dread in dungeons dim;
for none there be that will him aid
in all the world, save elven-maid
whose only skill were joy and song,
and both have failed and left her long.' 1255
Then nought said Melian thereto,
though wild the words. She wept anew,
and ran through the woods like hunted deer
with her hair streaming and eyes of fear.
Dairon she found with ferny crown 1260
silently sitting on beech-leaves brown.
On the earth she cast her at his side.
'0 Dairon, Dairon, my tears,' she cried,
'now pity for our old days' sake!
Make me a music for heart's ache, I 265
for heart's despair, and for heart's dread,
for light gone dark and laughter dead! '
'But for music dead there is no note,'
Dairon answered, and at his throat
his fingers clutched. Yet his pipe he took, I 270
and sadly trembling the music shook;
and all things stayed while that piping went
wailing in the hollows, and there intent
they listened, their business and mirth,
their hearts' gladness and the light of earth 1275
forgotten; and bird-voices failed
while Dairon's flute in Doriath wailed.
Luthien wept not for very pain,
and when he ceased she spoke again:
'My friend, I have a need of friends, 1280
as he who a long dark journey wends,
and fears the road, yet dare not turn
and look back where the candles burn
in windows he has left. The night
in front, he doubts to find the light 1285
that far beyond the hills he seeks.'
And thus of Melian's words she speaks,
and of her doom and her desire
to climb the mountains, and the fire
and ruin of the Northern realm 1290
to dare, a maiden without helm
or sword, or strength of hardy limb,
where magic founders and grows dim.
His aid she sought to guide her forth
and find the pathways to the North, 1295
if he would not for love of her
go by her side a wanderer.
'Wherefore,' said he, 'should Dairon go
into direst peril earth doth know
for the sake of mortal who did steal 1300
his laughter and joy? No love I feel
for Beren son of Barahir,
nor weep for him in dungeons drear,
who in this wood have chains enow,
heavy and dark. But thee, I vow, 1305
I will defend from perils fell
and deadly wandering into hell.'
No more they spake that day, and she
perceived not his meaning. Sorrowfully
she thanked him, and she left him there. 1310
A tree she climbed, till the bright air
above the woods her dark hair blew,
and straining afar her eyes could view
the outline grey and faint and low
of dizzy towers where the clouds go, 1315
the southern faces mounting sheer
in rocky pinnacle and pier
of Shadowy Mountains pale and cold;
and wide the lands before them rolled.
But straightway Dairon sought the king 1320
and told him his daughter's pondering,
and how her madness might her lead
to ruin, unless the king gave heed.
Thingol was wroth, and yet amazed;
in wonder and half fear he gazed 1325
on Dairon, and said: 'True hast thou been.
Now ever shall love be us between,
while Doriath lasts; within this realm
thou art a prince of beech and elm! '
He sent for Luthien, and said: 1330
'0 maiden fair, what hath thee led
to ponder madness and despair
to wander to ruin, and to fare
from Doriath against my will,
stealing like a wild thing men would kill 1335
into the emptiness outside?'
'The wisdom, father,'she replied;
nor would she promise to forget,
nor would she vow for love or threat
her folly to forsake and meek 1340
in Doriath her father's will to seek.
This only vowed she, if go she must,
that none but herself would she now trust,
no folk of her father's would persuade
to break his will or lend her aid; '345
if go she must, she would go alone
and friendless dare the walls of stone.
In angry love and half in fear
Thingol took counsel his most dear
to guard and keep. He would not bind 1350
in caverns deep and intertwined
sweet Luthien, his lovely maid,
who robbed of air must wane and fade,
who ever must look upon the sky
and see the sun and moon go by. 1355
But close unto his mounded seat
and grassy throne there ran the feet
of Hirilorn, the beechen queen.
Upon her triple boles were seen
no break or branch, until aloft 1360
in a green glimmer, distant, soft,
the mightiest vault of leaf and bough
from world's beginning until now
was flung above Esgalduin's shores
and the long slopes to Thingol's doors. 1365
Grey was the rind of pillars tall
and silken-smooth, and far and small
to squirrels' eyes were those who went
at her grey feet upon the bent.
Now Thingol made men in the beech, 1370
in that great tree, as far as reach
their longest ladders, there to build
an airy house; and as he willed
a little dwelling of fair wood
was made, and veiled in leaves it stood 1375
above the first branches. Corners three
it had and windows faint to see,
and by three shafts of Hirilorn
in the corners standing was upborne.
There Luthien was bidden dwell, 1380
until she was wiser and the spell
of madness left her. Up she clomb
the long ladders to her new home
among the leaves, among the birds;
she sang no song, she spoke no words. 1385
White glimmering in the tree she rose,
and her little door they heard her close.
The ladders were taken and no more
her feet might tread Esgalduin's shore.
Thither at whiles they climbed and brought 1390
all things she needed or besought;
but death was his, whoso should dare
a ladder leave, or creeping there
should set one by the tree at night;
a guard was held from dusk to light 1395
about the grey feet of Hirilorn
and Luthien in prison and forlorn.
There Dairon grieving often stood
in sorrow for the captive of the wood,
and melodies made upon his flute 1400
leaning against a grey tree-root.
Luthien would from her windows stare
and see him far under piping there,
and she forgave his betraying word
for the music and the grief she heard, 1405
and only Dairon would she let
across her threshold foot to set.
Yet long the hours when she must sit
and see the sunbeams dance and flit
in beechen leaves, or watch the stars 1410
peep on clear nights between the bars
of beechen branches. And one night
just ere the changing of the light
a dream there came, from the Gods, maybe,
or Melian's magic. She dreamed that she 1415
heard Beren's voice o'er hill and fell
'Tinuviel' call, 'Tinuviel.'
And her heart answered: 'Let me be gone
to seek him no others think upon! '
She woke and saw the moonlight pale 1420
through the slim leaves. It trembled frail
upon her arms, as these she spread
and there in longing bowed her head,
and yearned for freedom and escape.
Now Luthien doth her counsel shape; 1425
and Melian's daughter of deep lore
knew many things, yea, magics more
than then or now know elven-maids
that glint and shimmer in the glades.
She pondered long, while the moon sank 1430
and faded, and the starlight shrank,
and the dawn opened. At last a smile
on her face flickered. She mused a while,
and watched the morning sunlight grow,
then called to those that walked below. 1435
And when one climbed to her she prayed
that he would in the dark pools wade
of cold Esgalduin, water clear,
the clearest water cold and sheer
to draw for her. 'At middle night,' 1440
she said, 'in bowl of'silver white
it must be drawn and brought to me
with no word spoken, silently.'
Another she begged to bring her wine
in a jar of gold where flowers twine - 1445
'and singing let him come to me
at high noon, singing merrily.'
Again she spake: 'Now go, I pray,
to Melian the queen, and say:
"thy daughter many a weary hour I450
slow passing watches in her bower;
a spinning-wheel she begs thee send."'
Then Dairon she called: 'I prithee, friend,
climb up and talk to Luthien!'
And sitting at her window then, 1455
she said: 'My Dairon, thou hast craft,
beside thy music, many a shaft
and many a tool of carven wood
to fashion with cunning. It were good,
if thou wouldst make a little loom 1460
to stand in the corner of my room.
My idle fingers would spin and weave
a pattern of colours, of morn and eve,
of sun and moon and changing light
amid the beech-leaves waving bright.' 1465
This Dairon did and asked her then:
'0 Luthien, 0 Luthien,
What wilt thou weave? What wilt thou spin? '
'A marvellous thread, and wind therein
a potent magic, and a spell 1470
I will weave within my web that hell
nor all the powers of Dread shall break.'
Then Dairon wondered, but he spake
no word to Thingol, though his heart
feared the dark purpose of her art. 1475
And Luthien now was left alone.
A magic song to Men unknown
she sang, and singing then the wine
with water mingled three times nine;
and as in golden jar they lay 1480
she sang a song of growth and day;
and as they lay in silver white
another song she sang, of night
and darkness without end, of height
uplifted to the stars, and flight 1485
and freedom. And all names of things
tallest and longest on earth she sings:
the locks of the Longbeard dwarves; the tail
of Draugluin the werewolf pale;
the body of Glomund the great snake; 1490
the vast upsoaring peaks that quake
above the fires in Angband's gloom;
the chain Angainor that ere Doom
for Morgoth shall by Gods be wrought
of steel and torment. Names she sought, 1495
and sang of Glend the sword of Nan;
of Gilim the giant of Eruman;
and last and longest named she then
the endless hair of Uinen,
the Lady of the Sea, that lies 1500
through all the waters under skies.
Then did she lave her head and sing
a theme of sleep and slumbering,
profound and fathomless and dark
as Luthien's shadowy hair was dark- 1505
each thread was more slender and more fine
than threads of twilight that entwine
in filmy web the fading grass
and closing flowers as day doth pass.
Now long and longer grew her hair, 1510
and fell to her feet, and wandered there
like pools of shadow on the ground.
Then Luthien in a slumber drowned
was laid upon her bed and slept,
till morning through the windows crept 1515
thinly and faint. And then she woke,
and the room was filled as with a smoke
and with an evening mist, and deep
she lay thereunder drowsed in sleep.
Behold! her hair from windows blew 1520
in morning airs, and darkly grew
waving about the pillars grey
of Hirilorn at break of day.
Then groping she found her little shears,
and cut the hair about her ears, 1525
and close she cropped it to her head,
enchanted tresses, thread by thread.
Thereafter grew they slow once more,
yet darker than their wont before.
And now was her labour but begun: 1530
long was she spinning, long she spun;
and though with elvish skill she wrought,
long was her weaving. If men sought
to call her, crying from below,
'Nothing I need,' she answered, 'go! 1535
I would keep my bed, and only sleep
I now desire, who waking weep.'
Then Dairon feared, and in amaze
he called from under; but three days
she answered not. Of cloudy hair 1540
she wove a web like misty air
of moonless night, and thereof made
a robe as fluttering-dark as shade
beneath great trees, a magic dress
that all was drenched with drowsiness, 1545
enchanted with a mightier spell
than Melian's raiment in that dell
wherein of yore did Thingol roam
beneath the dark and starry dome
that hung above the dawning world. 1550
And now this robe she round her furled,
and veiled her garments shimmering white;
her mantle blue with jewels bright
like crystal stars, the lilies gold,
were wrapped and hid; and down there rolled 1555
dim dreams and faint oblivious sleep
falling about her, to softly creep
through all the air. Then swift she takes
the threads unused; of these she makes
a slender rope of twisted strands 1560
yet long and stout, and with her hands
she makes it fast unto the shaft
of Hirilorn. Now, all her craft
and labour ended, looks she forth
from her little window facing North. 1565
Already the sunlight in the trees
is drooping red, and dusk she sees
come softly along the ground below,
and now she murmurs soft and slow.
Now chanting clearer down she cast 1570
her long hair, till it reached at last
from her window to the darkling ground.
Men far beneath her heard the sound;
but the slumbrous strand now swung and swayed
above her guards. Their talking stayed, 1575
they listened to her voice and fell
suddenly beneath a binding spell.
Now clad as in a cloud she hung;
now down her roped hair she swung
as light as squirrel, and away, 1580
away, she danced, and who could say
what paths she took, whose elvish feet
no impress made a-dancing fleet?
*
NOTES.
1222 - 3. At lines 651 - 2 these lines were transposed on C. S. Lewis's
suggestion (see p. 323); and heartache was emended to
hunger.
1226. Cf. line 664.
1231. Original reading of B: are called in elfland. Echo fails. The
change was probably simply to get rid of 'elfland'.
1249. now: uncertain (original reading doth Beren dream
emended to ?now Beren dreams).
1253. Throughout this Canto elven- and elvish are emendations
of elfin made on the B-text.
1260 - 1. Cf. lines 497 - 8.
1308 - 10. Marked revise on the B-text.
1312. her dark hair: so also in A. See note to line 558.
1316-17. Cf. lines 389 - 90. The Shadowy Mountains (1318) are the
Mountains of Terror (Ered Gorgoroth): see pp. 170-1.
1323. This line is marked with an X on the B-text.
1329. As line 1323.
1358. Against Hirilorn in A is written Hiradorn, and so also at
lines 1396, 1523. At line 1563 Hiradorn is the form in the
text of A.
1362-3. Cf. lines 872-3.
1370. men > them A. At 1390, where B has they, A had men >
they; at 1533, 1573 men was not changed in either text.
1414-17. Marked with a line on the B-text; in the margin some new
verses are written, but so faint and rapid as to be quite
illegible.
1488. locks B] beards A
1489. A: of Carcharas the wolf-ward pale;
In the original draft the spelling is Carcaras as in the type-
script version of the Tale of Tinuviel (manuscript version
Karkaras). In the second version of The Children of Hurin
(p. 107 line 374.) the form is Carcharoth (emended from
Carcharolch) .
1490. Glomund B] Glorund A (as in the Last Tales, but there
always without accent).
1493. Angainor A, B] Engainor in the original draft.
1496. Nan B] Nann A (but Nan in the original draft).
1549-50. Cf. lines 406- 7.
1563. Hirilorn B] Hiradorn A. See note to line 1358.
Commentary on Canto V.
The plot-outline 'Synopsis I' covering the narrative of this Canto is very
slight:
Mourning of Tinuviel.
Treachery of Dairon.
Building of the Tree House in Hirilorn.
Escape of Tinuviel.
[Added in: Repentance, wandering, and loss of Dairon.]
The wandering and loss of Dairon goes back to the Tale of Tinuviel
(II. 20 - 1) and survived into The Silmarillion (p. 183), but there is no
:- other mention of his 'repentance' (though this is perhaps implied in the
: Lay, lines 1398ff.)
In my commentary on the passage in the Tale of Tinuviel correspond-
ing to this Canto I remarked (II. 54) that
the story of her imprisonment in the house in Hirilorn and her escape
from it never underwent any significant change. The passage in The
Silmarillion (p. 172) is indeed very brief, but its lack of detail is due to
compression rather than to omission based on dissatisfaction; the Lay
of Leithian, from which the prose account in The Silmarillion directly
derives, is in this passage so close, in point of narrative detail, to the
Tale of Tinuviel as to be almost identical with it.
:, There is little to add to this here. In one respect the narrative of the Lay is
at variance with the story told in The Silmarillion. What was 'the curse of
silence' (1207)? It was due to Dairon (848 - 53). In a preliminary, soon
abandoned draft for the 'Silmarillion' version, where the story was to be
told far more amply (by following the Lay more closely) the matter is
: made more explicit:
But Dairon haunted the trees and watched them from afar; and he
cried aloud in the bitterness of his heart: 'Hateful is now become the
land that I loved, and the trees misshapen. No more shall music here
be heard. Let all voices fail in Doriath, and in every dale and upon
every hill let the trees stand silent! ' And there was a hush and a great
stillness; and Thingol's folk were filled with wonder. And they spoke
to their king, asking what was the reason of the silence.
: Dairon's 'curse' was lifted after Beren's departure, although Luthien no
:. longer sang and Dairon no longer piped. This is in contrast to ?he
Silmarillion (p. 168), where after Beren went
Luthien was silent, and from that hour she sang not again in Doriath.
A brooding silence fell upon the woods.
For the names in the 'lengthening spell' see II. 67 - 8. A new element
among the 'longest things' is introduced in the version in the Lay, the
peaks above Angband (1491 - 2); and in B the name of the great
Dragon becomes Glomund. The chain with which Morgoth was bound,
Angaino/Angainu in the Last Tales, becomes Angainor; but it is
curious that in the Lay it is only spoken of as a punishment awaiting
Morgoth in the future (ere Doom, 1493), whereas in the old story of The
Chaining of Melko (I. 104) it was the shackle with which he was taken
prisoner in the original war that led to his captivity in Valinor, and this
survived in The Silmarillion (p. 51): at the end of the Elder Days 'he was
bound with the chain Angainor which he had worn aforetime' (ibid.
P- 252).
New elements in the story that have yet to appear in the actual
narrative of the Lay are seen in Draugluin, replacing in B Carcharas of
A in the 'lengthening spell' (thus Carcharas is no longer the 'father of
wolves', see II. 68), and in Melian's reference to Beren's lying in the
dungeons of the Lord of Wolves (1246).
Luthien's dream in which she heard Beren's voice far off is still
ascribed, as it was in the Tale, to the Gods, if less positively (a dream
there came, from the Gods, maybe, /or Melian's magic, 1414-15);
see II. 19, 68. But the passage is marked in B, perhaps indicating
dissatisfaction with the idea.
There is curious detail in a marginal note to the B-text. At some
time (as I think) long afterwards someone unknown wrote against lines
133 I-6: 'Thingol is here being rather obtuse', and against this remark
my father scribbled: 'But he could not believe she loved Beren - unless
some evil spell had somehow been laid on her.'
VI.
When Morgoth in that day of doom
had slain the Trees and filled with gloom 1585
the shining land of Valinor,
there Feanor and his sons then swore
the mighty oath upon the hill
of tower-crowned Tun, that still
wrought wars and sorrow in the world. 1590
From darkling seas the fogs unfurled
their blinding shadows grey and cold
where Glingal once had bloomed with gold
and Belthil bore its silver flowers.
The mists were mantled round the towers 1595
of the Elves' white city by the sea.
There countless torches fitfully
did start and twinkle, as the Gnomes
were gathered to their fading homes,
and thronged the long and winding stair 1600
that led to the wide echoing square.
There Feanor mourned his jewels divine,
the Silmarils he made. Like wine
his wild and potent words them fill;
a great host harkens deathly still. 1605
But all he said both wild and wise,
half truth and half the fruit of lies
that Morgoth sowed in Valinor,
in other songs and other lore
recorded is. He bade them flee 1610
from lands divine, to cross the sea,
the pathless plains, the perilous shores
where ice-infested water roars;
to follow Morgoth to the unlit earth
leaving their dwellings and olden mirth; 1615
to go back to the Outer Lands
to wars and weeping. There their hands
they joined in vows, those kinsmen seven,
swearing beneath the stars of Heaven,
by Varda the Holy that them wrought 1620
and bore them each with radiance fraught
and set them in the deeps to flame.
Timbrenting's holy height they name,
whereon are built the timeless halls
of Manwe Lord of Gods. Who calls 1625
these names in witness may not break
his oath, though earth and heaven shake.
Curufin, Celegorm the fair,
Damrod and Diriel were there,
and Cranthir dark, and Maidros tall 1630
(whom after torment should befall),
and Maglor the mighty who like the sea
with deep voice sings yet mournfully.
'Be he friend or foe, or seed defiled
of Morgoth Bauglir, or mortal child 1635
that in after days on earth shall dwell,
no law, nor love, nor league of hell,
not might of Gods, not moveless fate
shall him defend from wrath and hate
of Feanor's sons, who takes or steals 1640
or finding keeps the Silmarils,
the thrice-enchanted globes of light
that shine until the final night.'
The wars and wandering of the Gnomes
this tale tells not. Far from their homes 1645
they fought and laboured in the North.
Fingon daring alone went forth
and sought for Maidros where he hung;
in torment terrible he swung,
his wrist in band of forged steel, 1650
from a sheer precipice where reel
the dizzy senses staring down
from Thangorodrim's stony crown.
The song of Fingon Elves yet sing,
captain of armies, Gnomish king, 1655
who fell at last in flame of swords
with his white banners and his lords.
They sing how Maidros free he set,
and stayed the feud that slumbered yet
between the children proud of Finn. 1660
Now joined once more they hemmed him in,
even great Morgoth, and their host
beleaguered Angband, till they boast
no Orc nor demon ever dare
their leaguer break or past them fare. 1665
Then days of solace woke on earth
beneath the new-lit Sun, and mirth
was heard in the Great Lands where Men,
a young race, spread and wandered then.
That was the time that songs do call 1670
the Siege of Angband, when like a wall
the Gnomish swords did fence the earth
from Morgoth's ruin, a time of birth,
of blossoming, of flowers, of growth;
but still there held the deathless oath, 1675
and still the Silmarils were deep
in Angband's darkly-dolven keep.
An end there came, when fortune turned,
and flames of Morgoth's vengeance burned,
and all the might which he prepared 1680
in secret in his fastness flared
and poured across the Thirsty Plain;
and armies black were in his train.
The leaguer of Angband Morgoth broke;
his enemies in fire and smoke 1685
were scattered, and the Orcs there slew
and slew, until the blood like dew
dripped from each cruel and crooked blade.
Then Barahir the bold did aid
with mighty spear, with shield and men, 1690
Felagund wounded. To the fen
escaping, there they bound their troth,
and Felagund deeply swore an oath
of friendship to his kin and seed,
of love and succour in time of need. 1695
But there of Finrod's children four
were Angrod slain and proud Egnor.
Felagund and Orodreth then
gathered the remnant of their men,
their maidens and their children fair; 1700
forsaking war they made their lair
and cavernous hold far in the south.
On Narog's towering bank its mouth
was opened; which they hid and veiled,
and mighty doors, that unassailed 1705
till Turin's day stood vast and grim,
they built by trees o'ershadowed dim.
And with them dwelt a long time there
Curufin, and Celegorm the fair;
and a mighty folk grew neath their hands 1710
in Narog's secret halls and lands.
Thus Felagund in Nargothrond
still reigned, a hidden king whose bond
was sworn to Barahir the bold.
And now his son through forests cold 1715
wandered alone as in a dream.
Esgalduin's dark and shrouded stream
he followed, till its waters frore
were joined to Sirion, Sirion hoar,
pale silver water wide and free 1720
rolling in splendour to the sea.
Now Beren came unto the pools,
wide shallow meres where Sirion cools
his gathered tide beneath the stars,
ere chafed and sundered by the bars 1725
of reedy banks a mighty fen
he feeds and drenches, plunging then
into vast chasms underground,
where many miles his way is wound.
Umboth-Muilin, Twilight Meres, 1730
those great wide waters grey as tears
the Elves then named. Through driving rain
from thence across the Guarded Plain
the Hills of the Hunters Beren saw
with bare tops bitten bleak and raw 1735
by western winds; but in the mist
of streaming rains that flashed and hissed
into the meres he knew there lay
beneath those hills the cloven way
of Narog, and the watchful halls 1740
of Felagund beside the falls
of Ingwil tumbling from the wold.
An everlasting watch they hold,
the Gnomes of Nargothrond renowned,
and every hill is tower-crowned, 1745
where wardens sleepless peer and gaze
guarding the plain and all the ways
between Narog swift and Sirion pale;
and archers whose arrows never fail
there range the woods, and secret kill 1750
all who creep thither against their will.
Yet now he thrusts into that land
bearing the gleaming ring on hand
of Felagund, and oft doth cry:
'Here comes no wandering Orc or spy, 1755
but Beren son of Barahir
who once to Felagund was dear.'
So ere he reached the eastward shore
of Narog, that doth foam and roar
o'er boulders black, those archers green 1760
came round him. When the ring was seen
they bowed before him, though his plight
was poor and beggarly. Then by night
they led him northward, for no ford
nor bridge was built where Narog poured 1765
before the gates of Nargothrond,
and friend nor foe might pass beyond.
To northward, where that stream yet young
more slender flowed, below the tongue
of foam-splashed land that Ginglith pens 1770
when her brief golden torrent ends
and joins the Narog, there they wade.
Now swiftest journey thence they made
to Nargothrond's sheer terraces
and dim gigantic palaces. 1775
They came beneath a sickle moon
to doors there darkly hung and hewn
with posts and lintels of ponderous stone
and timbers huge. Now open thrown
were gaping gates, and in they strode 1780
where Felagund on throne abode.
Fair were the words of Narog's king
to Beren, and his wandering
and all his feuds and bitter wars
recounted soon. Behind closed doors 1785
they sat, while Beren told his tale
of Doriath; and words him fail
recalling Luthien dancing fair
with wild white roses in her hair,
remembering her elven voice that rung 1790
while stars in twilight round her hung.
He spake of Thingol's marvellous halls
by enchantment lit, where fountain falls
and ever the nightingale doth sing
to Melian and to her king. 1795
The quest he told that Thingol laid
in scorn on him; how for love of maid
more fair than ever was born to Men,
of Tinuviel, of Luthien,
he must essay the burning waste, 1800
and doubtless death and torment taste.
This Felagund in wonder heard,
and heavily spake at last this word:
'It seems that Thingol doth desire
thy death. The everlasting fire 1805
of those enchanted jewels all know
is cursed with an oath of endless woe,
and Feanor's sons alone by right
are lords and masters of their light.
He cannot hope within his hoard 1810
to keep this gem, nor is he lord
of all the folk of Elfinesse.
And yet thou saist for nothing less
can thy return to Doriath
be purchased? Many a dreadful path 1815
in sooth there lies before thy feet -
and after Morgoth, still a fleet
untiring hate, as I know well,
would hunt thee from heaven unto hell.
Feanor's sons would, if they could, 1820
slay thee or ever thou reached his wood
or laid in Thingol's lap that fire,
or gained at least thy sweet desire.
Lo! Celegorm and Curufin
here dwell this very realm within, 1825
and even though I, Finrod's son,
am king, a mighty power have won
and many of their own folk lead.
Friendship to me in every need
they yet have shown, but much I fear 1830
that to Beren son of Barahir
mercy or love they will not show
if once thy dreadful quest they know.'
True words he spake. For when the king
to all his people told this thing, 1835
and spake of the oath to Barahir,
and how that mortal shield and spear
had saved them from Morgoth and from woe
on Northern battlefields long ago,
then many were kindled in their hearts 1840
once more to battle. But up there starts
amid the throng, and loudly cries
for hearing, one with flaming eyes,
proud Celegorm with gleaming hair
and shining sword. Then all men stare 1845
upon his stern unyielding face,
and a great hush falls upon that place.
'Be he friend or foe, or demon wild
of Morgoth, Elf, or mortal child,
or any that here on earth may dwell, 1850
no law, nor love, nor league of hell,
no might of Gods, no binding spell,
shall him defend from hatred fell
of Feanor's sons, whoso take or steal
or finding keep a Silmaril. 1855
These we alone do claim by right,
our thrice enchanted jewels bright.'
Many wild and potent words he spoke,
and as before in Tun awoke
his father's voice their hearts to fire, 1860
so now dark fear and brooding ire
he cast on them, foreboding war
of friend with friend; and pools of gore
their minds imagined lying red
in Nargothrond about the dead, 1865
did Narog's host with Beren go;
or haply battle, ruin, and woe
in Doriath where great Thingol reigned,
if Feanor's fatal jewel he gained.
And even such as were most true 1870
to Felagund his oath did rue,
and thought with terror and despair
of seeking Morgoth in his lair
with force or guile. This Curufin
when his brother ceased did then begin 1875
more to impress upon their minds;
and such a spell he on them binds
that never again till Turin's day
would Gnome of Narog in array
of open battle go to war. 1880
With secrecy, ambush, spies, and lore
of wizardry, with silent leaguer
of wild things wary, watchful, eager,
of phantom hunters, venomed darts,
and unseen stealthy creeping arts, 1885
with padding hatred that its prey
with feet of velvet all the day
followed remorseless out of sight
and slew it unawares at night -
thus they defended Nargothrond, 1890
and forgot their kin and solemn bond
for dread of Morgoth that the art
of Curufin set within their heart.
So would they not that angry day
King Felagund their lord obey, 1895
but sullen murmured that Finrod
nor yet his son were as a god.
Then Felagund took off his crown
and at his feet he cast it down,
the silver helm of Nargothrond: 1900
'Yours ye may break, but I my bond
must keep, and kingdom here forsake.
If hearts here were that did not quake,
or that to Finrod's son were true,
then I at least should find a few 1905
to go with me, not like a poor
rejected beggar scorn endure,
turned from my gates to leave my town,
my people, and my realm and crown! '
Hearing these words there swiftly stood 1910
beside him ten tried warriors good,
men of his house who had ever fought
wherever his banners had been brought.
One stooped and lifted up his crown,
and said: '0 king, to leave this town 1915
is now our fate, but not to lose
thy rightful lordship. Thou shalt choose
one to be steward in thy stead.'
Then Felagund upon the head
of Orodreth set it: 'Brother mine, 1920
till I return this crown is thine.'
Then Celegorm no more would stay,
and Curufin smiled and turned away.
*
NOTES.
1593 - 4. Original readings of B Glingol, Bansil, as at line 1141.
1598 - 9. Couplet marked for revision, partly on account of did start,
partly on account of Gnomes. I do not record further in-
stances of this sort, which occur casually throughout.
1619. Here is written on the B-text: 'A see the Qenta.' This is the
'Silmarillion' version of 1930, and presumably refers to the
form of the Oath as it appears there.
1620. Varda the Holy is written in the margin of the B-text, which
like A has Bridhil the Blessed. Bridhil occurs.earlier in A
(note to lines 377 - 81), where B has a different reading.
1632-3. Cf. lines 506 - 9.
1647. Finweg A, and B as typed, early emended in B to Fingon.
1654. As line 1647.
1656. Cf. The Children of Hurin, first version line 1975, second
version line 19, from which the words (referring to
Finweg/Fingon) fell in flame of swords are derived; in the
second version occur also the king's white banners.
1710 - 11. A: a great people were gathered of the Gnomes
in these new-builded secret homes.
1736. Against the words by western winds is written (in such a
way as to show that this was the point reached, not the
starting-point) the date '29 Mar. 1928', the previous date
being 27 - 28 March 1928 at line 1161.
1859. Tun B] Cor A
1867. A: if Felagund should with Beren go;
1891. A: and forgot their blood and kinship's bond
1900. helm is an emendation in B for crown.
1920. An X is written against this line, probably long after when
Orodreth was moved from his place as Felagund's brother
(see p. 91).
1921. crown B] realm A
Commentary on Canto VI.
The plot-outline 'Synopsis I' continues thus:
Beren goes to Celegorm, who disguises him [struck out: and gives
him a magic knife. Beren and his Gnomish guides* are captured by
Orcs: and a few survivors taken before (Melko >) Morgoth. Beren
tells M. he is a 'trapper of the woods'.]
(* This phrase was changed to: 'Beren gets lost and separated from his Gnomish guides';
and was then struck out with the rest of the passage.)
They go and seek to break into Angband disguised as Orcs, but are
captured [struck out: and set in chains, and killed one by one. Beren
lies wondering which will be his turn.] by the Lord of Wolves, and set
in bonds, and devoured one by one.
It is interesting here to see how the relevant features of the story are
treated in the 'Sketch of the Mythology' of 1926, as originally written. In
this account Beren's father is Barahir, and he 'had been a friend of
Celegorm of Nargothrond'. After Thingol's demand that Beren get him a
Silmaril:
Beren sets out to achieve this, is captured, and set in dungeon in
Angband, but conceals his real identity, and is given as a slave to Thu
the hunter.
This passage is evidently earlier than 'Synopsis I' (at the earliest, the
end of May 1926, the date of the latest of the three invoices on which it is
written), since the 'Sketch' contains no reference to Celegorm's aid,
Beren's companions, their disguising as Orcs, and their capture by the
Lord of Wolves. On the contrary, Beren goes to Angband alone just as he
did in the Tale of Tinuviel, and - most notably - is given to 'Thu the
hunter' as a slave, just as in the Tale he was given to Tevildo Prince of
Cats as a slave. In Synopsis I we see, I think, the very point at which the
story of Beren's Gnomish companions came into being, of their disguise
as Orcs, and of their deaths one by one in the dungeons of the Lord of
Wolves. (Thu appears first in the fragment of the Lay of the Fall
of Gondolin (p. 146), and in The Children of Hurin as Morgoth's
most mighty thane: first version line 391, second version line 763).
But already at lines 296ff. in the A-text of the Lay of Leithian
(summer 1925) there is a reference to the 'deed of service' done by Egnor
Beren's father to Celegorm, and the gift of the ring: while in the 'Sketch'
Barahir 'had been a friend of Celegorm of Nargothrond'. Thus:
Lay of Leithian. Egnor Beren's father performed a service for Celegorm,
Canto II. from whom he received a ring.
(summer 1925).
Sketch of the. Barahir Beren's father was a friend of Celegorm of
Mythology. Nargothrond.
(early in 1926,
Beren sets out alone and is captured and imprisoned
see p. 3)
in Angband, but is given as a slave to Thu the hunter.
Synopsis I. Beren goes to Celegorm who aids him (story of the
(after May 1926) Gnomish companions appears).
The rather surprising conclusion must be that the association of
Egnor/Barahir with Celegorm and the gift of the ring preceded the
emergence of the story of Beren's going to Celegorm for aid.
In the rejected part of Synopsis I here we see a last survival from the
Tale of Tinuviel: Beren tells Morgoth that he is a trapper of the woods;
cf. the Tale (II. 15): Beren said therewith that he was a great trapper of
small animals and a snarer of birds' - and it was indeed this explanation
of Beren's to Melko that got him his post in Tevildo's kitchens. The
mention in this rejected passage of a magic knife given to Beren by
Celegorm was clearly a passing idea to account for the knife with which
Beren would cut the Silmaril from the Iron Crown, since the kitchen-
knife with which he did the deed in the Tale (II. 33) had been abandoned
with the kitchens.
Other loose papers in addition to Synopsis I show the further develop-
ment of the narrative. The first of these I will refer to as 'Synposis II', it
begins with the beginning of Canto VI and I cite it here as far as the end
of the Canto.
Beren comes to Felagund at Nargothrond; who receives him well, but
warns him of the oath of the sons of Feanor, and that Curufin and
Celegorm dwelling with him have great power in his realm.
Curufin and Celegorm learn of Beren's purpose, and recalling their
oath forbid the Gnomes to aid Beren to get the Silmaril for Thingol.
The Gnomes fearing war in Nargothrond, or war against Thingol, and
in [any] case despairing utterly of reaching the depths of Angband by
force or guile will not support Felagund. Felagund mindful of his own
oath hands his kingdom over to Orodreth, and with only his own faith-
ful followers of his household (ten in number) goes forth with Beren.
In the Lay of Leithian the 'Nargothrond Element' in the story had by
this time (the spring of 1928) evolved further (see p. 171).' The major
figure of (Felagoth >) Felagund, son of Finwe's third son Finrod, had
emerged (see p. 91), and by Canto VI was present also in the A-text; it
was he, not Celegorm, who was rescued in the battle that ended the Siege
of Angband and who then went south with his brother Orodreth to found
Nargothrond, and Celegorm with his brother Curufin have been shifted
by the movement of the legend into the role of Felagund's overpowerful
'guests' (it is not made explicit in the Lay why they were there, though it
could be guessed that they also had fled from 'the Northern battlefields').
In the passage from Synopsis II just given my father is seen working out
the narrative from this point and on this narrative basis, and many of the
motives that are important in the final version now appear: on account of
their oath Celegorm and Curufin are the cause of the refusal of the Elves
of Nargothrond to support Felagund in the aiding of Beren; Felagund
gives the crown to Orodreth; and only ten of Felagund's people go with
him." I think it certain that Synopsis II was written as, and did in fact
provide, the outline narrative for this and the following Cantos.
(* An intermediate stage is seen in a rewritten passage of the 1926 'Sketch of the Mythology',
to be given in Vol. IV, where Celegorm has already been displaced by Felagoth (not yet
Felagund) but where Celegorm only learns the errand of Felagoth and Beren after their
departure from Nargothrond, and they leave with a large force.)
In Canto VI we meet for the first time several central features of the
earlier history of the Gnomes in Beleriand and the North, though these
are not necessarily their first occurrences in my father's writings. Thus
the story of the rescue of Maidros by (Finweg >) Fingon from his
torment on Thangorodrim, where he was hanged by his right hand, is
almost certainly implied in The Children of Hurin, where it is said that
Maidros wielded his sword with his left (see p. 86); and it is fully told in
the 'Sketch' as first written early in 1926, some two years before the date
of the present Canto (see note to line 1736). Here also are references to
the long years of the Siege of Angband after the healing of the feud
among the Gnomish princes (the cause of which we do not yet know);
and to the bursting of Morgoth's armies black (cf. The Silmarillion
p. 151: the black armies of the Orcs') across the Thirsty Plain (for which
see p. 55). Here we meet for the first time (apart from a later note to The
Children of Hurin, p. So) Angrod and Egnor, sons of Finrod and
brothers of Felagund and Orodreth, who meet their deaths in the battle;
and here it is said that Felagund was wounded (line 1691), and that his
rescuers withdrew 'to the fen' - very probably the 'mighty fen' of Sirion
referred to at line 1726.
For Finweg > Fingon, and Finn (line 1660) = Finwe, see p. 137-8.
The genealogy of the princes of the Gnomes as it had emerged in the
1920s is now complete:
Finwe/Finn.
Feanor. Fingolfin. Finrod.
Seven. (Finweg >). Turgon. Isfin. Felagund. Angrod. Egnor. Orodreth.
sons. Fingon.
The earliest version of the Feanorian Oath is found in alliterative verse
in The Flight of the Noldoli (see pp. 135-6), and that in the Lay of
Leithian (lines 1634 - 43) follows it quite closely despite its being in
rhyming couplets, with many of the same phrases. Further variations are
introduced in Celegorm's version (lines 1848 - 57). On the name Tim-
brenting of Taniquetil (taken in witness of the Oath) see pp. 127, 139.
Most of the geographical references and names in this Canto are amply
explained by Part III 'Failivrin' of The Children of Hurin. For the Hills
of the-Hunters, the rivers Ginglith and Ingwil, and the Guarded Plain
see pp. 88-g. It is now made clear that Umboth-Muilin, the Twilight
Meres, were north of Sirion's fall and passage underground (to which
there is a reference in The Children of Hurin, line 1467), whereas in the
Lost Tales the reverse was the case (see II. 217); and also that Esgalduin
was a tributary of Sirion (lines 1717 - 20). In the verses describing
Nargothrond the Lay of Leithian looks back to and echoes The Children
of Hurin; compare
Doors there darkly dim gigantic
were hewn in the hillside; huge their timbers
and their posts and lintels of ponderous stone
(p. 68, 1828 - 30)
':- with
Nargothrond's sheer terraces
and dim gigantic palaces (1774-5)
and
doors there darkly hung and hewn
with posts and lintels of ponderous stone
and timbers huge. (1777-9)
I have mentioned earlier (pp. 88, go) the drawing and watercolour of the
entrance to Nargothrond. The drawing is inscribed 'Lyme 1928' (a
summer holiday at Lyme Regis in Dorset) and the watercolour was very
likely done at the same time: thus a few months after the writing of Canto
VI of the Lay of Leithian. In both are seen the bare Hills of the Hunters
beyond (with bare tops bitten bleak and raw, 1735), and in the
watercolour Nargothrond's sheer terraces (1774); but neither picture
suggests that the entrance was hid and veiled (1704), by trees o'er-
shadowed dim (1707) - a feature of the description that goes back to the
Tale of Turambar ('the doors of the caves... were cunningly concealed
by trees', II. 81).
I noticed in my commentary on the Tale of Turambar (II. 124 and
footnote) that 'the policy of secrecy and refusal of open war pursued by
the Elves of Nargothrond was always an essential element', but that from
The Silmarillion p. 168 'it seems that when Beren came to Nargothrond
the "secret" policy was already pursued under Felagund', whereas from
p. 170 'it seems that it came into being from the potent rhetoric of
Curufin after Beren went there'. Prom this Canto it is seen that this
contradiction, if contradiction it is, has its source in the two passages
lines 1743 - 51 and 1877-93.
In this latter passage there are again strong echoes of The Children of
Hurin; compare
a leaguer silent
unseen, stealthy, beset the stranger,
as of wild things wary that watch moveless,
then follow fleetly with feet of velvet
their heedless prey with padding hatred (p. 66, 1749 - 53)
with
with silent leaguer
of wild things wary, watchful, eager,
of phantom hunters, venomed darts,
and unseen stealthy creeping arts,
with padding hatred that its prey
with feet of velvet all the day
followed remorseless... (1882 - 8)
There remain a couple of points concerning names. The Great Lands
are still so called (1668); but at 1616 the expression 'Outer Lands' occurs.
This was used in The Cottage of Lost Play as first written in the sense of
the Great Lands, but was subsequently applied to the lands beyond the
Western Sea (see I. ax, 81 - 2). 'Outer Lands' = Middle-earth is frequent
in The Silmarillion.
The name of the river, Narog, is used, as often later, to refer to the
realm of Nargothrond: the King of Nargothrond is the King of Narog
(see lines 1782, 1866).
VII.
Thus twelve alone there ventured forth
from Nargothrond, and to the North 1925
they turned their silent secret way,
and vanished in the fading day.
No trumpet sounds, no voice there sings,
as robed in mail of cunning rings
now blackened dark with helmets grey 1930
and sombre cloaks they steal away.
Far-journeying Narog's leaping course
they followed till they found his source,
the flickering falls, whose freshets sheer
a glimmering goblet glassy-clear 1935
with crystal waters fill that shake
and quiver down from Ivrin's lake,
from Ivrin's mere that mirrors dim
the pallid faces bare and grim
of Shadowy Mountains neath the moon. 1940
Now far beyond the realm immune
from Orc and demon and the dread
of Morgoth's might their ways had led.
In woods o'ershadowed by the heights
they watched and waited many nights, 1945
till on a time when hurrying cloud
did moon and constellation shroud,
and winds of autumn's wild beginning
soughed in the boughs, and leaves went spinning
down the dark eddies rustling soft, 1950
they heard a murmur hoarsely waft
from far, a croaking laughter coming;
now louder; now they heard the drumming
of hideous stamping feet that tramp
the weary earth. Then many a lamp 1955
of sullen red they saw draw near,
swinging, and glistening on spear
and scimitar. There hidden nigh
they saw a band of Orcs go by
with goblin-faces swart and foul. I 960
Bats were about them, and the owl,
the ghostly forsaken night-bird cried
from trees above. The voices died,
the laughter like clash of stone and steel
passed and faded. At their heel 1965
the Elves and Beren crept more soft
than foxes stealing through a croft
in search of prey. Thus to the camp
lit by flickering fire and lamp
they stole, and counted sitting there 1970
full thirty Orcs in the red flare
of burning wood. Without a sound
they one by one stood silent round,
each in the shadow of a tree;
each slowly, grimly, secretly 1975
bent then his bow and drew the string.
Hark! how they sudden twang and sing,
when Felagund lets forth a cry;
and twelve Orcs sudden fall and die.
Then forth they leap casting their bows. 1980
Out their bright swords, and swift their blows!
The stricken Orcs now shriek and yell
as lost things deep in lightless hell.
Battle there is beneath the trees
bitter and swift; but no Orc flees; 1985
there left their lives that wandering band
and stained no more the sorrowing land
with rape and murder. Yet no song
of joy, or triumph over wrong,
the Elves there sang. In peril sore 1990
they were, for never alone to war
so small an Orc-band went, they knew.
Swiftly the raiment off they drew
and cast the corpses in a pit.
This desperate counsel had the wit 1995
of Felagund for them devised:
as Orcs his comrades he disguised.
The poisoned spears, the bows of horn,
the crooked swords their foes had borne
they took; and loathing each him clad 2000
in Angband's raiment foul and sad.
They smeared their hands and faces fair
with pigment dark; the matted hair
all lank and black from goblin head
they shore, and joined it thread by thread 2005
with Gnomish skill. As each one leers
at each dismayed, about his ears
he hangs it noisome, shuddering.
Then Felagund a spell did sing
of changing and of shifting shape; 2010
their ears grew hideous, and agape
their mouths did start, and like a fang
each tooth became, as slow he sang.
Their Gnomish raiment then they hid,
and one by one behind him slid, 2015
behind a foul and goblin thing
that once was elven-fair and king.
Northward they went; and Orcs they met
who passed, nor did their going let,
but hailed them in greeting; and more bold 2020
they grew as past the long miles rolled.
At length they came with weary feet
beyond Beleriand. They found the fleet
young waters, rippling, silver-pale
of Sirion hurrying through that vale 2025
where Taur-na-Fuin, Deadly Night,
the trackless forest's pine-clad height,
falls dark forbidding slowly down
upon the east, while westward frown
the northward-bending Mountains grey 2030
and bar the westering light of day.
An isled hill there stood alone
amid the valley, like a stone
rolled from the distant mountains vast
when giants in tumult hurtled past. 2035
Around its feet the river looped
a stream divided, that had scooped
the hanging edges into caves.
There briefly shuddered Sirion's waves
and ran to other shores more clean. 2040
An elven watchtower had it been,
and strong it was, and still was fair;
but now did grim with menace stare
one way to pale Beleriand,
the other to that mournful land 2045
beyond the valley's northern mouth.
Thence could be glimpsed the fields of drouth,
the dusty dunes, the desert wide;
and further far could be descried
the brooding cloud that hangs and lowers 2050
on Thangorodrim's thunderous towers.
Now in that hill was the abode
of one most evil; and the road
that from Beleriand thither came
he watched with sleepless eyes of flame. 2055
(From the North there led no other way,
save east where the Gorge of Aglon lay,
and that dark path of hurrying dread
which only in need the Orcs would tread
through Deadly Nightshade's awful gloom 2060
where Taur-na-Fuin's branches loom;
and Aglon led to Doriath,
and Feanor's sons watched o'er that path.)
Men called him Thu, and as a god
in after days beneath his rod 2065
bewildered bowed to him, and made
his ghastly temples in the shade.
Not yet by Men enthralled adored,
now was he Morgoth's mightiest lord,
Master of Wolves, whose shivering howl 2070
for ever echoed in the hills, and foul
enchantments and dark sigaldry
did weave and wield. In glamoury
that necromancer held his hosts
of phantoms and of wandering ghosts, 2075
of misbegotten or spell-wronged
monsters that about him thronged,
working his bidding dark and vile:
the werewolves of the Wizard's Isle.
From Thu their coming was not hid; 2080
and though beneath the eaves they slid
of the forest's gloomy-hanging boughs,
he saw them afar, and wolves did rouse:
'Go! fetch me those sneaking Orcs,' he said,
'that fare thus strangely, as if in dread, 2085
and do not come, as all Orcs use
and are commanded, to bring me news
of all their deeds, to me, to Thu.'
From his tower he gazed, and in him grew
suspicion and a brooding thought, 2090
waiting, leering, till they were brought.
Now ringed about with wolves they stand,
and fear their doom. Alas! the land,
the land of Narog left behind!
Foreboding evil weights their mind, 2095
as downcast, halting, they must go
and cross the stony bridge of woe
to Wizard's Isle, and to the throne
there fashioned of blood-darkened stone.
'Where have ye been? What have ye seen? ' 2100
'In Elfinesse; and tears and distress,
the fire blowing and the blood flowing,
these have we seen, there have we been.
Thirty we slew and their bodies threw
in a dark pit. The ravens sit 2105
and the owl cries where our swath lies.'
'Come, tell me true, 0 Morgoth's thralls,
what then in Elfinesse befalls?
What of Nargothrond? Who reigneth there?
Into that realm did your feet dare?' 2110
'Only its borders did we dare.
There reigns King Felagund the fair.'
'Then heard ye not that he is gone,
that Celegorm sits his throne upon?'
'That is not true! If he is gone, 2115
then Orodreth sits his throne upon.'
'Sharp are your ears, swift have they got
tidings of realms ye entered not!
What are your names, 0 spearmen bold?
Who your captain, ye have not told.' 2120
'Nereb and Dungalef and warriors ten,
so we are called, and dark our den
under the mountains. Over the waste
we march on an errand of need and haste.
Boldog the captain awaits us there 2125
where fires from under smoke and flare.'
'Boldog, I heard, was lately slain
warring on the borders of that domain
where Robber Thingol and outlaw folk
cringe and crawl beneath elm and oak 2130
in drear Doriath. Heard ye not then
of that pretty fay, of Luthien?
Her body is fair, very white and fair.
Morgoth would possess her in his lair.
Boldog he sent, but Boldog was slain: 2135
strange ye were not in Boldog's train.
Nereb looks fierce, his frown is grim.
Little Luthien! What troubles him?
Why laughs he not to think of his lord
crushing a maiden in his hoard, 2140
that foul should be what once was clean,
that dark should be where light has been?
Whom do ye serve, Light or Mirk?
Who is the maker of mightiest work?
Who is the king of earthly kings,
the greatest giver of gold and rings?
Who is the master of the wide earth?
Who despoiled them of their mirth,
the greedy Gods? Repeat your vows,
Orcs of Bauglir! Do not bend your brows! 2150
Death to light, to law, to love!
Cursed be moon and stars above!
May darkness everlasting old
that waits outside in surges cold
drown Manwe, Varda, and the sun! 2155
May all in hatred be begun,
and all in evil ended be,
in the moaning of the endless Sea! '
But no true Man nor Elf yet free
would ever speak that blasphemy, 2160
and Beren muttered: 'Who is Thu
to hinder work that is to do?
Him we serve not, nor to him owe
obeisance, and we now would go.'
Thu laughed: 'Patience! Not very long 2165
shall ye abide. But first a song
I will sing to you, to ears intent.'
Then his flaming eyes he on them bent,
and darkness black fell round them all.
Only they saw as through a pall 2170
of eddying smoke those eyes profound
in which their senses choked and drowned.
He chanted a song of wizardry,
of piercing, opening, of treachery,
revealing, uncovering, betraying. 2175
Then sudden Felagund there swaying
sang in answer a song of staying,
resisting, battling against power,
of secrets kept, strength like a tower,
and trust unbroken, freedom, escape; 2180
of changing and of shifting shape,
of snares eluded, broken traps,
the prison opening, the chain that snaps.
Backwards and forwards swayed their song.
Reeling and foundering, as ever more strong 2185
Thu's chanting swelled, Felagund fought,
and all the magic and might he brought
of Elfinesse into his words.
Softly in the gloom they heard the birds
singing afar in Nargothrond, 2190
the sighing of the sea beyond,
beyond the western world, on sand,
on sand of pearls in Elvenland.
Then the gloom gathered: darkness growing
in Valinor, the red blood flowing 2195
beside the sea, where the Gnomes slew
the Foamriders, and stealing drew
their white ships with their white sails
from lamplit havens. The wind wails.
The wolf howls. The ravens flee. 2200
The ice mutters in the mouths of the sea.
The captives sad in Angband mourn.
Thunder rumbles, the fires burn,
a vast smoke gushes out, a roar -
and Felagund swoons upon the floor. 2205
Behold! they are in their own fair shape,
fairskinned, brighteyed. No longer gape
Orclike their mouths; and now they stand
betrayed into the wizard's hand.
Thus came they unhappy into woe, 2210
to dungeons no hope nor glimmer know,
where chained in chains that eat the flesh
and woven in webs of strangling mesh
they lay forgotten, in despair.
Yet not all unavailing were 2215
the spells of Felagund; for Thu
neither their names nor purpose knew.
These much he pondered and bethought,
and in their woeful chains them sought,
and threatened all with dreadful death, 2220
if one would not with traitor's breath
reveal this knowledge. Wolves should come
and slow devour them one by one
before the others' eyes, and last
should one alone be left aghast, 2225
then in a place of horror hung
with anguish should his limbs be wrung,
in the bowels of the earth be slow
endlessly, cruelly, put to woe
and torment, till he all declared. 2230
Even as he threatened, so it fared.
From time to time in the eyeless dark
two eyes would grow, and they would hark
to frightful cries, and then a sound
of rending, a slavering on the ground, 2235
and blood flowing they would smell.
But none would yield, and none would tell.
NOTES.
1943. Against the end of this line is written the date 'March 30
1928'. The previous date was 29 March 1928 at line 1736.
2023. (and subsequently) Broseliand A, and B as typed.
2026. Deadly Night] Tangled Night A, and B as typed. Cf.
Deadly Nightshade as a name of Taur-na-Fuin in The
Children of Hurin (p. 55) and at line 2060 in the present
Canto.
2047. fields of drouth: the expression Plains of Drouth occurs in
The Children of Hurin, p. 36, line 826.
2056-63. These lines are marked with an X and a sign for deletion in
the B-text, probably not on account of anything in their
content but because my father felt them to be intrusive.
2064-6. Emended in B to:
Gnomes called him Gorthu, as a god
in after days beneath his rod
bewildered they bowed to him, and made
(Sauron was first substituted for Thu! Men is written beside
they in line 2066.) Thu > Corthu at all subsequent occur-
rences in this Canto, or the name avoided by substitution of
pronoun or article; thus 2088 of all their deeds to me,
Corthu; 2161 - 2 Doth Corthu/now hinder work; 2165
He laughed; 2186 the chanting; etc.
This change is difficult to date, hut was made when
Gnomes was still employed (2064). In Canto VIII Thu was
left unchanged, and subsequently, until 3290, which was
emended to where Corthu reigned; at the end of the poem
(3947, 3951) Thu was changed to Sauron.
2100 - 6. On the changed metre of these lines see the Commentary.
2114. After this line is written the date 'March 31st' (i.e. 1928).
The previous date was 30 March 1928 at line 1943.
2121. Nereb and Dungalef: emended in B to Wrath and Hate, at
the same time as Thu > Gorthu.
2137. Nereb looks fierce: emended in B to Fierce is your chief.
2155. Bridhil A, and B as typed; the change to Varda made at the
same time as Thu to Gorthu. Cf. note to line 1620.
2175-7. The three rhyming lines go back through A to the original
draft.
2193. Elvenland is an emendation to B Fairyland.
Commentary on Canto VII.
The plot-outline 'Synopsis I' for the narrative in this Canto has already
been given (pp. 219-20). 'Synopsis II' continues from the point reached
on p. 221.
They ambush an Orc-band, and disguising themselves in the rai-
ment and fashion of the slain, march on Northward. Between the
Shadowy Mountains and the Forest of Night, where the young Sirion
flows in the narrowing valley, they come upon the werewolves, and
the host of Thu Lord of Wolves. They are taken before Thu, andaftcr
a contest of riddling questions and answers are revealed as spies, but
Beren is taken as a Gnome, and that Felagund is King of Nargothrond
remains hidden.
They are placed in a deep dungeon. Thu desires to discover their
purpose and real names and vows death, one by one, and torment to
the last one, if they will not reveal them. From time to time a great
werewolf [struck through: Thu in disguise] comes and devours one
of the companions.
This is obviously the narrative basis for Canto VII, and the story here
reaches its final form. There may seem to be a difference between the
outline and the Lay, in that the former says that 'after a contest of
riddling questions and answers they are revealed as spies', whereas in the
latter Felagund is overcome by song of greater power. In fact, the
riddling contest is present, but seems not to have been fully developed.
In the original draft my father scribbled the following note before he
wrote the passage lines 2100 ff.:
Riddling questions. Where have you been, who have you slain? Thirty
men. Who reigns in Nargothrond? Who is captain of Orcs? Who
wrought the world? Who is king &c. They show Elfin [?bias] and too
little knowledge of Angband, too much of Elfland. Thu and Felagund
..... enchantments against one another and Thu's slowly win, till
they stand revealed as Elves.
Lines 2100 - 6 are in a changed metre, especially suitable to a riddle
contest, and their content (the reply to Thu's question 'Where have ye
been? What have ye seen?') is riddling ('misleading accuracy'). But after
this the verse returns to the common metre, and the riddling element
disappears (except in dark our den/under the mountains). The name
Dungalef (2121), though it sounds Orcish enough, was an oddly trans-
parent device, since Felagund had just been mentioned; but it succeeded
(2217). No doubt Thu's ponderings on the matter were too subtle.
This is the first full portrait of Thu, who emerges as a being of great
power, far advanced in sorcery, and is indeed here called 'necromancer'
(2074). Here also is the first suggestion that his history would extend far
beyond the tale of Beren and Luthien, when 'in after days' Men would
worship him, and build 'his ghastly temples in the shade'.
It is in this Canto, also, that the island in the river Sirion (not actually
mentioned in Synopsis II) makes its first appearance, together with a
mention of the origin of the fortress:
An elven watchtower had it been,
and strong it was, and still was fair. (2041-2)
My father's drawing (Pictures by J. R. R. Tolkien, no. 36) was made at
Lyme Regis in Dorset in July 1928, less than four months after these
lines were written; and in the drawing the caves scooped by the waters in
the edges of the island (lines 2037-8) can be seen.
The Shadowy Mountains referred to in Synopsis II and in the poem
are no longer the Mountains of Terror (Ered Gorgoroth), as they were at
lines 386, 1318 (see pp. 170 - z). In Synopsis II it is said that the young
Sirion flows in the narrowing valley between the Shadowy Mountains
and the Forest of Night (Taur-na-Fuin), and in the poem Ivrin's lake
mirrors
the pallid faces bare and grim
of Shadowy Mountains neath the moon (1939 - 40)
as in The Children of Hurin (p. 62, lines 1581-z). Thus the term now
reverts to its meaning in the alliterative poem, a meaning that it would
henceforward retain. It is also to be noted that this mountain-range is
'northward-bending' (2030).
The lines concerning Ivrin in The Children of Hurin (1594 - 7):
newborn Narog, nineteen fathoms
o'er a flickering force falls in wonder,
and a glimmering goblet with glass-lucent
fountains fills he by his freshets carven
are echoed in The Lay of Leithian (1934 - 6):
the flickering falls, whose freshets sheer
a glimmering goblet glassy-clear
with crystal waters fill...
A new feature of the northern lands appears in this Canto: the Gorge
of Aglon (2057), already placed (as other evidence shows) at the eastern
end of Taur-na-Fuin; and line 2063 gives the first indication that this
region was the territory of the Feanorians.
The raid of the Orc-captain Boldog into Doriath, seeking to capture
Luthien for Morgoth, was an important element in the history of this
time, though later it disappeared and there is no trace of it in The
Silmarillion. Discussion of it is postponed till later in the Lay of Leithian,
but it may be noticed here that an early reference to it is found in The
Children of Hurin (p. 16 lines 392 - 4, p. 117 lines 764-6). There it was
Thu himself who was bidden by Morgoth go ravage the realm of the
robber Thingol.
The term Foamriders, used of the Third Kindred of the Elves in line
2197, is found earlier in the alliterative Flight of the Noldoli (see
p.140).
VIII.
Hounds there were in Valinor
with silver collars. Hart and boar,
the fox and hare and nimble roe 2240
there in the forests green did go.
Orome was the lord divine
of all those woods. The potent wine
went in his halls and hunting song.
The Gnomes anew have named him long 2245
Tavros, the God whose horns did blow
over the mountains long ago;
who alone of Gods had loved the world
before the banners were unfurled
of Moon and Sun; and shod with gold 2250
were his great horses. Hounds untold
baying in woods beyond the West
of race immortal he possessed:
grey and limber, black and strong,
white with silken coats and long, 2255
brown and brindled, swift and true
as arrow from a bow of yew;
their voices like the deeptoned bells
that ring in Valmar's citadels,
their eyes like living jewels, their teeth 2260
like ruel-bone. As sword from sheath
they flashed and fled from leash to scent
for Tavros' joy and merriment.
In Tavros' friths and pastures green
had Huan once a young whelp been. 2265
He grew the swiftest of the swift,
and Orome gave him as a gift
to Celegorm, who loved to follow
the great God's horn o'er hill and hollow.
Alone of hounds of the Land of Light, 2270
when sons of Feanor took to flight
and came into the North, he stayed
beside his master. Every raid
and every foray wild he shared,
and into mortal battle dared. 2275
Often he saved his Gnomish lord
from Orc and wolf and leaping sword.
A wolf-hound, tireless, grey and fierce
he grew; his gleaming eyes would pierce
all shadows and all mist, the scent 2280
moons old he found through fen and bent,
through rustling leaves and dusty sand;
all paths of wide Beleriand
he knew. But wolves, he loved them best;
he loved to find their throats and wrest 2285
their snarling lives and evil breath.
The packs of Thu him feared as Death.
No wizardry, nor spell, nor dart,
no fang, nor venom devil's art
could brew had harmed him; for his weird 2290
was woven. Yet he little feared
that fate decreed and known to all:
before the mightiest he should fall,
before the mightiest wolf alone
that ever was whelped in cave of stone. 2295
Hark! afar in Nargothrond,
far over Sirion and beyond,
there are dim cries and horns blowing,
and barking hounds through the trees going.
The hunt is up, the woods are stirred. 2300
Who rides to-day? Ye have not heard
that Celegorm and Curufin
have loosed their dogs? With merry din
they mounted ere the sun arose,
and took their spears and took their bows. 2305
The wolves of Thu of late have dared
both far and wide. Their eyes have glared
by night across the roaring stream
of Narog. Doth their master dream,
perchance, of plots and counsels deep, 2310
of secrets that the Elf-lords keep,
of movements in the Gnomish realm
and errands under beech and elm?
Curufin spake: 'Good brother mine,
I like it not. What dark design 2315
doth this portend? These evil things,
we swift must end their wanderings!
And more, 'twould please my heart full well
to hunt a while and wolves to fell.'
And then he leaned and whispered low 2320
that Orodreth was a dullard slow;
long time it was since the king had gone,
and rumour or tidings came there none.
'At least thy profit it would be
to know whether dead he is or free; 2325
to gather thy men and thy array.
"I go to hunt" then thou wilt say,
and men will think that Narog's good
ever thou heedest. But in the wood
things may be learned; and if by grace, 2330
by some blind fortune he retrace
his footsteps mad, and if he bear
a Silmaril - I need declare
no more in words; but one by right
is thine (and ours), the jewel of light; 2335
another may be won - a throne.
The eldest blood our house doth own.'
Celegorm listened. Nought he said,
but forth a mighty host he led;
and Huan leaped at the glad sounds, 2340
the chief and captain of his hounds.
Three days they ride by holt and hill
the wolves of Thu to hunt and kill,
and many a head and fell of grey
they take, and many drive away, 2345
till nigh to the borders in the West
of Doriath a while they rest.
There were dim cries and horns blowing,
and barking dogs through the woods going.
The hunt was up. The woods were stirred, 2350
and one there fled like startled bird,
and fear was in her dancing feet.
She knew not who the woods did beat.
Far from her home, forwandered, pale,
she flitted ghostlike through the vale; 2355
ever her heart bade her up and on,
but her limbs were worn, her eyes were wan.
The eyes of Huan saw a shade
wavering, darting down a glade
like a mist of evening snared by day 2360
and hasting fearfully away.
He bayed, and sprang with sinewy limb
to chase the shy thing strange and dim.
On terror's wings, like a butterfly
pursued by a sweeping bird on high, 2365
she fluttered hither, darted there,
now poised, now flying through the air -
in vain. At last against a tree
she leaned and panted. Up leaped he.
No word of magic gasped with woe, 2370
no elvish mystery she did know
or had entwined in raiment dark
availed against that hunter stark,
whose old immortal race and kind
no spells could ever turn or bind. 2375
Huan alone that she ever met
she never in enchantment set
nor bound with spells. But loveliness
and gentle voice and pale distress
and eyes like starlight dimmed with tears 2380
tamed him that death nor monster fears.
Lightly he lifted her, light he bore
his trembling burden. Never before
had Celegorm beheld such prey:
'What hast thou brought, good Huan say! 2385
Dark-elvish maid, or wraith, or fay?
Not such to hunt we came today.'
"Tis Luthien of Doriath,'
the maiden spake. 'A wandering path
far from the Wood-'Elves' sunny glades 2390
she sadly winds, where courage fades
and hope grows faint.' And as she spoke
down she let slip her shadowy cloak,
and there she stood in silver and white.
Her starry jewels twinkled bright 2395
in the risen sun like morning dew;
the lilies gold on mantle blue
gleamed and glistened. Who could gaze
on that fair face without amaze?
Long did Curufin look and stare. 2400
The perfume of her flower-twined hair,
her lissom limbs, her elvish face,
smote to his heart, and in that place
enchained he stood. '0 maiden royal,
0 lady fair, wherefore in toil 2405
and lonely journey dost thou go?
What tidings dread of war and woe
In Doriath have betid? Come tell!
For fortune thee hath guided well;
friends thou hast found,' said Celegorm, 2410
and gazed upon her elvish form.
In his heart him thought her tale unsaid
he knew in part, but nought she read
of guile upon his smiling face.
'Who are ye then, the lordly chase 2415
that follow in this perilous wood?'
she asked; and answer seeming-good
they gave. 'Thy servants, lady sweet,
lords of Nargothrond thee greet,
and beg that thou wouldst with them go 2420
back to their hills, forgetting woe
a season, seeking hope and rest.
And now to hear thy tale were best.'
So Luthien tells of Beren's deeds
in northern lands, how fate him leads 2425
to Doriath, of Thingol's ire,
the dreadful errand that her sire
decreed for Beren.. Sign nor word
the brothers gave that aught they heard
that touched them near. Of her escape 2430
and the marvellous mantle she did shape
she lightly tells, but words her fail
recalling sunlight in the vale,
moonlight, starlight in Doriath,
ere Beren took the perilous path. 2435
'Need, too, my lords, there is of haste!
No time in ease and rest to waste.
For days are gone now since the queen,
Melian whose heart hath vision keen,
looking afar me said in fear 2440
that Beren lived in bondage drear.
The Lord of Wolves hath prisons dark,
chains and enchantments cruel and stark,
and there entrapped and languishing
doth Beren lie - if direr thing 2445
hath not brought death or wish for death':
than gasping woe bereft her breath.
To Celegorm said Curufin
apart and low: 'Now news we win
of Felagund, and now we know 2450
wherefore Thu's creatures prowling go',
and other whispered counsels spake,
and showed him what answer he should make.
'Lady,' said Celegorm, 'thou seest
we go a-hunting roaming beast, 2455
and though our host is great and bold,
'tis ill prepared the wizard's hold
and island fortress to assault.
Deem not our hearts or wills at fault.
Lo I here our chase we now forsake 2460
and home our swiftest road we take,
counsel and aid there to devise
for Beren that in anguish lies.'
To Nargothrond they with them bore
Luthien, whose heart misgave her sore. 2465
Delay she feared; each moment pressed
upon her spirit, yet she guessed
they rode not as swiftly as they might.
Ahead leaped Huan day and night,
and ever looking back his thought 2470
was troubled. What his master sought,
and why he rode not like the fire,
why Curufin looked with hot desire
on Luthien, he pondered deep,
and felt some evil shadow creep 2475
of ancient curse o'er Elfinesse.
His heart was torn for the distress
of Beren bold, and Luthien dear,
and Felagund who knew no fear.
In Nargothrond the torches flared 2480
and feast and music were prepared.
Luthien feasted not but wept.
Her ways were trammelled; closely kept
she might not fly. Her magic cloak
was hidden, and no prayer she spoke 2485
was heeded, nor did answer find
her eager questions. Out of mind,
it seemed, were those afar that pined
in anguish and in dungeons blind
in prison and in misery. 2490
Too late she knew their treachery.
It was not hid in Nargothrond
that Feanor's sons her held in bond,
who Beren heeded not, and who
had little cause to wrest from Thu 2495
the king they loved not and whose quest
old vows of hatred in their breast
had roused from sleep. Orodreth knew
the purpose dark they would pursue:
King Felagund to leave to die, 2500
and with King Thingol's blood ally
the house of Feanor by force
or treaty. But to stay their course
he had no power, for all his folk
the brothers had yet beneath their yoke, 2505
and all yet listened to their word.
Orodreth's counsel no man heard;
their shame they crushed, and would not heed
the tale of Felagund's dire need.
At Luthien's feet there day by day 2510
and at night beside her couch would stay
Huan the hound of Nargothrond;
and words she spoke to him soft and fond:
'0 Huan, Huan, swiftest hound
that ever ran on mortal ground, 2515
what evil doth thy lords possess
to heed no tears nor my distress?
Once Barahir all men above
good hounds did cherish and did love;
once Beren in the friendless North, 2520
when outlaw wild he wandered forth,
had friends unfailing among things
with fur and fell and feathered wings,
and among the spirits that in stone
in mountains old and wastes alone 2525
still dwell. But now nor Elf nor Man,
none save the child of Melian,
remembers him who Morgoth fought
and never to thraldom base was brought.'
Nought said Huan; but Curufin 2530
thereafter never near might win
to Luthien, nor touch that maid,
but shrank from Huan's fangs afraid.
Then on a night when autumn damp
was swathed about the glimmering lamp 2535
of the wan moon, and fitful stars
were flying seen between the bars
of racing cloud, when winter's horn
already wound in trees forlorn,
lo! Huan was gone. Then Luthien lay 2540
fearing new wrong, till just ere day,
when all is dead and breathless still
and shapeless fears the sleepless fill,
a shadow came along the wall.
Then something let there softly fall 2545
her magic cloak beside her couch.
Trembling she saw the great hound crouch
beside her, heard a deep voice swell
as from a tower a far slow bell.
Thus Huan spake, who never before 2550
had uttered words, and but twice more
did speak in elven tongue again:
'Lady beloved, whom all Men,
whom Elfinesse, and whom all things
with fur and fell and feathered wings 2555
should serve and love - arise! away!
Put on thy cloak! Before the day
comes over Nargothrond we fly
to Northern perils, thou and 1.'
And ere he ceased he counsel wrought 2560
for achievement of the thing they sought.
There Luthien listened in amaze,
and softly on Huan did she gaze.
Her arms about his neck she cast -
in friendship that to death should last. 2565
NOTES
2246. Tavros not emended, nor at lines 2263 - 4 (see p. 195, note to
lines 891, 904) -
2248. of Cods had loved B] of Valar loved A
2283. Beleriand] Broseliand A, and B as typed.
2385. After this line is written the date 'April 2nd'. The previous
date was 31 March 1928 at line 2114.
2423. After this line is written the date 'April 3rd'. The previous
date was 2 April 1928 at line 2385.
2442-4. Cf. lines 1246 - 8.
2484-5. The reference to the hiding of Luthien's cloak is not in A.
2522-6. Cf. lines 349 - 53. Line 2523 is repeated at 2555.
2551. Bat twice more emendation in B; nor ever more A, but
once more B as typed.
elven: elfin B, but since elfin is changed at almost every .
occurrence I have done so here.
Commentary on Canto VIII.
The development of the narrative of this Canto from the Tale of Tinuviel
to The Silmarillion can be followed step by step. The first stage is seen in
the very brief words of the 'Sketch', following on the passage given on
p. 220.
Luthien is imprisoned by Thingol, but escapes and goes in search of
Beren. With the aid of Huan lord of dogs she rescues Beren [i.e. from
'Thu the hunter'], and gains entrance to Angband...
This is too compressed to reveal what ideas underlay it; but at least it is
clear that Huan was still independent of any master. In the earliest map
Huan is assigned a territory (south and east of Ivrin), and this clearly
belongs with the old conception.
Synopsis I, a little later than the 'Sketch' (see p. 220), continues from
the point reached on pp. 219-20:
Tinuviel flies in her magic robe, she meets Celegorm out hunting, and
is pursued by him and captured by Huan his dog and hurt. [Struck
out: In redress he offers to help] He offers redress - but cannot help;
he lent his Gnomes to Beren and all perished, and so must Beren.
Huan goes with her.
A little later in the outline it is said:
It was written in the fate of Huan that he could only be slain by a wolf.
At this stage, where Celegorm was the ruler of Nargothrond to whom
Beren went in his trouble, Celegorm 'lent his Gnomes' to Beren;*
Luthien fleeing from Doriath was pursued by Celegorm while out hunt-
ing and was hurt by Huan, who now first appears as Celegorm's hound.
Here there is no suggestion of evil behaviour towards her (and no
mention of Curufin); Celegorm is unable to assist her, further than he
has already assisted Beren, but Huan goes with her on her quest: was this
the 'redress' for her hurt that Celegorm offered her? It is not said. It is
clear that the position of the ruler of Nargothrond as a son of Feanor,
(* If the previous passage of Synopsis I (p. 219) is strictly interpreted Celegorm went with
Beren from Nargothrond, but this is obviously not meant: my father must have struck out
more than he intended to. It is now clear that in this form of the story Celegorm disguised
Beren and gave him guides.)
bound by the Oath, must have developed quite differently if this form of
the story had been retained, since he was also sworn to aid the kin of
Barahir (see below, p. 247).
In Synopsis II, given on p. 233 to the point equivalent to the end of
Canto VII, the plot reaches almost to its development in the present
Canto of the Lay; but this was achieved in stages, and the original text of
the outline was so much changed and extended by later alterations that it
would be extremely difficult to follow if set out as hitherto. I give it
therefore in two forms. As first written it read:
Curufin and Celegorm go hunting with all their hounds. Huan the
sleepless is the chief. He is proof against magic sleep or death - it is his
fate to be slain only by the 'greatest wolf'. They espy Luthien who
flees, but is caught by Huan whom she cannot enchant. The hound
bears her to Celegorm, who learns her purpose. Hearing who she is,
and falling in love with her he takes away her magic cloak, and holds
her captive.
At last he yields to her tears to let her free and give her back her
cloak, but he will not aid her because of his oath. Nor does he desire to
rescue Felagund, since he is now all-powerful in Nargothrond. She
departs from Celegorm. But Huan has become devoted to her, and
goes with her.
At this stage, the hunting evidently had no significance in itself: it was
the device by which Huan (already in Synopsis I the hound of Celegorm,
and with a peculiar fate) was to be brought to accompany Luthien, an
essential feature going back to the Tale of Tinuviel. There is no mention
of her being hurt by Huan, as there is in Synopsis I (and so no question of
'redress'); and here Celegorm falls in love with her and therefore holds
her captive. But this is only for a time; he yields to her prayer and gives
her back her cloak, though because of his oath he will not aid her; and the
evil motive of his desiring to let Felagund perish so that he may retain
power in Nargothrond appears. Luthien leaves Celegorm; Huan goes
with her, as in Synopsis I, but the motive is now explicitly the hound's
love for her.
After emendation the outline read as follows:
Because of the disguise of Felagund Thu is suspicious and his
wolves fare far abroad. Celegorm seizes pretext for a wolfhunt.
Curufin and Celegorm go wolf-hunting guilefully (really to inter-
cept Felagund*) with all their hounds. Huan the sleepless is the chief.
(Huan came with him [i.e. Celegorm] from Tavros' halls.) He is proof
against magic sleep or death - it is his fate to be slain only by the
(* i.e., if he should return to Nargothrond; see lines 2330ff.)
'greatest wolf'. They espy Luthien who flees, but is caught by Huan
whom she cannot enchant. The hound bears her to Celegorm, who
learns her purpose. Hearing who she is, and falling in love with her,
Curufin takes away her magic cloak, and holds her captive. Although
she tells him Melian's words and that Felagund and Beren are in Thu's
power he won't attempt a rescue even of Felagund. (Marginal note:
It is Curufin who put evil into Celegorm's heart.)
In spite of her tears to let her free and give her back her cloak he will
not aid her because of his oath and love. Nor does he desire to rescue
Felagund, since he is now all-powerful in Nargothrond. But Huan has
become devoted to her, and aids her to escape without her cloak.
The hunting of Celegorm and Curufin is now given a sinister import,
and is related to the wolves of Thu who 'fare far abroad'. Huan's
Valinorean ancestry appears; and Curufin becomes the evil genius of the
brothers, and also the lover of Luthien. Luthien is now held prisoner in
Nargothrond until she escapes by the aid of Huan - but she does not get
back her cloak.
Which of the brothers is referred to in the latter part of the emended
outline is not clear: as originally written it was Celegorm throughout, but
by the change of 'falling in love with her he takes away her magic cloak' to
'failling in love with her Curufin takes away her magic cloak' Curufin
becomes the antecedent to all that follows. Whether my father really
intended this is hard to say.
When he came to write Canto VIII, on the basis of this emended
outline, some further change took place - notably, the return to Luthien
by Huan of her cloak before they left Nargothrond; and the element
added to the outline 'It is Curufin who put evil into Celegorm's heart' is
expanded. It is now Curufin who suggests the wolfhunt, with its secret
intention, and line 2453 shows him as the subtler and more longheaded
schemer, standing behind his brother and prompting him - it is clear
from lines 2324ff. that Celegorm has some authority - or is felt by .
Curufin to have some authority - that Curufin lacks.
Curufin expresses his contempt for Orodreth ('a dullard slow', 2321),
and this is the first hint of that weakening of Orodreth's character to
which I referred earlier (p. 91). Of course the emergence of Felagund
pushed him in any case into a subordinate role, as the younger brother of
the founder of Nargothrond, and the concomitant development whereby
Celegorm and Curufin remained in Nargothrond as powerful interlopers
weakened his position still further. It may be that the position imposed
on him by the movements in the legend led to the conclusion that he
cannot have been made of very stern stuff.
These subtleties in the relationship between Celegorm and Curufin
are passed over in the prose version (The Silmarillion pp. 172 - 3), and
there is no suggestion that Curufin was the more sinister of the pair, and
the prime mover in their machinations. Celegorm recovers his earlier
role as the one who was enamoured of Luthien. In the Lay appears the
motive, not mentioned in Synopsis II, of the intention of Celegorm and
Curufin to ally themselves with 'King Thingol's blood' by the forced
marriage of Luthien (lines 2498 - 2503); and this reappears in The
Silmarillion, where it is to Celegorm that Thingol is to be compelled to
give her.
The process whereby the legends of Beren and Luthien on the one
hand and of Nargothrond on the other became entwined is now (to this
point in the story) almost complete, and this is a convenient point to
recapitulate the main shifts in its evolution.
In the Lost Tales Orodreth was lord of the Rodothlim, a people of the
Gnomes, in the caves that were to become Nargothrond, but Beren had
no connection with the Rodothlim (and Huan had no master). Then
Celegorm appeared as the Gnomish prince rescued by Beren's father
(Egnor > Barahir) in the battle that afterwards became the Battle of
Sudden Flame, to whom he swore an oath of abiding friendship and aid;
and Celegorm and Curufin became the founders of Nargothrond after
the battle (p. 84). It was to Celegorm that Beren therefore came
seeking aid; and Celegorm plays the later role of Felagund in Synopsis I
to the extent that he gives him Gnomish guides. Luthien fleeing from
Doriath is caught by Huan, now the hound of Celegorm, and hurt, but
this has no outcome beyond the departure of Luthien in Huan's company
(Synopsis I).
The most major change came with the emergence of Felagund and his
taking over Celegorm's part both as founder of Nargothrond and as the
one rescued by Barahir. Orodreth became his younger brother, the only
other son of Finrod to survive the battle in which the Siege of Angband
ended. But Celegorm's association with Nargothrond was not aban-
doned; and his powerful presence there together with that of his brother
Curufin - again as a result of the battle - introduces the motive of conflict
between the Feanorians and the King, each held by their own oaths. This
conflict had been present in the earlier plot, but there it was a conflict
within Celegorm's mind alone, since he had sworn both oaths; there is
however no real evidence as to how my father would have treated this,
unless we assume from his giving Gnomish guides to Beren in Synopsis I
that he gave precedence to his oath to Barahir.
When Luthien is captured by Huan and taken to Nargothrond she is
caught up in the ambitions of Celegorm and Curufin, and indeed her
capture itself is made to come about from their evil intentions towards
Felagund and determination to prevent his return.
Of Huan it is told in the Lay that he was the only hound of Valinor to
come east over the sea (2270). His fate that he should meet death only
when 'he encountered the mightiest wolf that would ever walk the world'
(The Silmarillion p. 173) appears (already referred to in Synopsis II,
pp. 245-6), but it is not said as it is in The Silmarillion that this was
because as the hound of Celegorm he came under the Doom of the
Noldor. In the A-text of the Lay (note to line 2551) he spoke only once in
his life, in the B-text twice; but this was emended to three times, as still in
The Silmarillion.
The statement in lines 2248 - 50 that Orome
alone of Gods had loved the world
before the banners were unfurled
of Moon and Sun
seems to forget Yavanna: see the tale of The Chaining of Melko
(I. 98 - 9) and The Silmarillion pp. 40 - 1.
The dim cries and horns blewing, land barking hounds through
the trees going (lines 2298- 9, repeated with variations in lines 2348 - 9)
derive from the Middle English Lay of Sir Orfeo:
With dim cri & bloweing
& houndes also wip him berking.*
IX.
In Wizard's Isle still lay forgot,
enmeshed and tortured in that grot
cold, evil, doorless, without light,
and blank-eyed stared at endless night
two comrades. Now alone they were. 2570
The others lived no more, but bare
their broken bones would lie and tell
how ten had served their master well.
To Felagund then Beren said:
"Twere little loss if I were dead, 2575
and I am minded all to tell,
and thus, perchance, from this dark hell
thy life to loose. I set thee free
(* Auchinleck manuscript lines 285-6 (ed. A. J. Bliss, Oxford 1954, p. 26); cf. my father's
translation (Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, and Sir Orfeo, 1975):
with blowing far and crying dim
and barking hounds that were with him.)
from thine old oath, for more for me
hast thou endured than e'er was earned.' 2580
'A! Beren, Beren hast not learned
that promises of Morgoth's folk
are frail as breath. From this dark yoke
of pain shall neither ever go,
whether he learn our names or no, 2585
with Thu's consent. Nay more, I think
yet deeper of torment we should drink,
knew he that son of Barahir
and Felagund were captive here,
and even worse if he should know 2590
the dreadful errand we did go.'
A devil's laugh they ringing heard
within their pit. 'True, true the word
I hear you speak,' a voice then said.
"Twere little loss if he were dead, 2595
the outlaw mortal. But the king,
the Elf undying, many a thing
no man could suffer may endure.
Perchance, when what these walls immure
of dreadful anguish thy folk learn, 2600
their king to ransom they will yearn
with gold and gem and high hearts cowed;
or maybe Celegorm the proud
will deem a rival's prison cheap,
and crown and gold himself will keep. 2605
Perchance, the errand I shall know,
ere all is done, that ye did go.
The wolf is hungry, the hour is nigh;
no more need Beren wait to die.'
The slow time passed. Then in the gloom 2610
two eyes there glowed. He saw his doom,
Beren, silent, as his bonds he strained
beyond his mortal might enchained.
Lo! sudden there was rending sound
of chains that parted and unwound, 2615
of meshes broken. Forth there leaped
upon the wolvish thing that crept
in shadow faithful Felagund,
careless of fang or venomed wound.
There in the dark they wrestled slow, 2620
remorseless, snarling, to and fro,
teeth in flesh, gripe on throat,
fingers locked in shaggy coat,
spurning Beren who there lying
heard the werewolf gasping, dying. 2625
Then a voice he heard: 'Farewell!
On earth I need no longer dwell,
friend and comrade, Beren bold.
My heart is burst, my limbs are cold.
Here all my power I have spent 2630
to break my bonds, and dreadful rent
of poisoned teeth is in my breast.
I now must go to my long rest
neath Timbrenting in timeless halls
where drink the Gods, where the light falls 2635
upon the shining sea.' Thus died the king,
as elvish singers yet do sing.
There Beren lies. His grief no tear,
his despair no horror has nor fear,
waiting for footsteps, a voice, for doom. 2640
Silences profounder than the tomb
of long-forgotten kings, neath years
and sands uncounted laid on biers
and buried everlasting-deep,
slow and unbroken round him creep. 2645
The silences were sudden shivered
to silver fragments. Faint there quivered
a voice in song that walls of rock,
enchanted hill, and bar and lock,
and powers of darkness pierced with light. 2650
He felt about him the soft night
of many stars, and in the air
were rustlings and a perfume rare;
the nightingales were in the trees,
slim fingers flute and viol seize 2655
beneath the moon, and one more fair
than all there be or ever were
upon a lonely knoll of stone
in shimmering raiment danced alone.
Then in his dream it seemed he sang, 2660
and loud and fierce his chanting rang,
old songs of battle in the North,
of breathless deeds, of marching forth
to dare uncounted odds and break
great powers, and towers, and strong walls shake; 2665
and over all the silver fire
that once Men named the Burning Briar,
the Seven Stars that Varda set
about the North, were burning yet,
a light in darkness, hope in woe, 2670
the emblem vast of Morgoth's foe.
'Huan, Huan! I hear a song
far under welling, far but strong;
a song that Beren bore aloft.
I hear his voice, I have heard if oft 2675
in dream and wandering.' Whispering low
thus Luthien spake. On the bridge of woe
in mantle wrapped at dead of night
she sat and sang, and to its height
and to its depth the Wizard*s Isle, 2680
rock upon rock and pile on pile,
trembling echoed. The werewolves howled,
and Huan hidden lay and growled
watchful listening in the dark,
waiting for battle cruel and stark. 2685
Thu heard that voice, and sudden stood
wrapped in his cloak and sable hood
in his high tower. He listened long,
and smiled, and knew that elvish song.
'A! little Luthien! What brought 2690
the foolish fly to web unsought?
Morgoth! a great and rich reward
to me thou wilt owe when to thy hoard
this jewel is added.' Down he went,
and forth his messengers he sent. 2695
Still Luthien sang. A creeping shape
with bloodred tongue and jaws agape
stole on the bridge; but she sang on
with trembling limbs and wide eyes wan.
The creeping shape leaped to her side, 2700
and gasped, and sudden fell and died.
And still they came, still one by one,
and each was seized, and there were none
returned with padding feet to tell
that a shadow lurketh fierce and fell 2705
at the bridge's end, and that below
the shuddering waters loathing flow
o'er the grey corpses Huan killed.
A mightier shadow slowly filled
the narrow bridge, a slavering hate, 2710
an awful werewolf fierce and great:
pale Draugluin, the old grey lord
of wolves and beasts of blood abhorred,
that fed on flesh of Man and Elf
beneath the chair of Thu himself. 2715
No more in silence did they fight.
Howling and baying smote the night,
till back by the chair where he had fed
to die the werewolf yammering fled.
'Huan is there' he gasped and died, 2720
and Thu was filled with wrath and pride.
'Before the mightiest he shall fall,
before the mightiest wolf of all',
so thought he now, and thought he knew
how fate long spoken should come true. 2725
Now there came slowly forth and glared
into the night a shape long-haired,
dank with poison, with awful eyes
wolvish, ravenous; but there lies
a light therein more cruel and dread 2730
than ever wolvish eyes had fed.
More huge were its limbs, its jaws more wide,
its fangs more gleaming-sharp, and dyed
with venom, torment, and with death.
The deadly vapour of its breath 2735
swept on before it. Swooning dies
the song of Luthien, and her eyes
are dimmed and darkened with a fear,
cold and poisonous and drear.
Thus came Thu, as wolf more great 2740
than e'er was seen from Angband's gate
to the burning south, than ever lurked
in mortal lands or murder worked.
Sudden he sprang, and Huan leaped
aside in shadow. On he swept 2745
to Luthien lying swooning faint.
To her drowning senses came the taint
of his foul breathing, and she stirred;
dizzily she spake a whispered word,
her mantle brushed across his face. 2750
He stumbled staggering in his pace.
Out leaped Huan. Back he sprang.
Beneath the stars there shuddering rang
the cry of hunting wolves at bay,
the tongue of hounds that fearless slay. 2755
Backward and forth they leaped and ran
feinting to flee, and round they span,
and bit and grappled, and fell and rose.
Then suddenly Huan holds and throws
his ghastly foe; his throat he rends, 2760
choking his life. Not so it ends.
From shape to shape, from wolf to worm,
from monster to his own demon form,
Thu changes, but that desperate grip
he cannot shake, nor from it slip. 2765
No wizardry, nor spell, nor dart,
no fang, nor venom, nor devil's art
could harm that hound that hart and boar
had hunted once in Valinor.
Nigh the foul spirit Morgoth made 2770
and bred of evil shuddering strayed
from its dark house, when Luthien rose
and shivering looked upon his throes.
'0 demon dark, 0 phantom vile
of foulness wrought, of lies and guile, 2775
here shalt thou die, thy spirit roam
quaking back to thy master's home
his scorn and fury to endure;
thee he will in the bowels immure
of groaning earth, and in a hole 2780
everlastingly thy naked soul
shall wail and gibber - this shall be,
unless the keys thou render me
of thy black fortress, and the spell
that bindeth stone to stone thou tell, 2785
and speak the words of opening.'
With gasping breath and shuddering
he spake, and yielded as he must,
and vanquished betrayed his master's trust.
Lo! by the bridge a gleam of light, 2790
like stars descended from the night
to burn and tremble here below.
There wide her arms did Luthien throw,
and called aloud with voice as clear
as still at whiles may mortal hear 2795
long elvish trumpets o'er the hill
echo, when all the world is still.
The dawn peered over mountains wan,
their grey heads silent looked thereon.
The hill trembled; the citadel 2800
crumbled, and all its towers fell;
the rocks yawned and the bridge broke,
and Sirion spumed in sudden smoke.
Like ghosts the owls were flying seen
hooting in the dawn, and bats unclean 2805
went skimming dark through the cold airs
shrieking thinly to find new lairs
in Deadly Nightshade's branches dread.
The wolves whimpering and yammering fled
like dusky shadows. Out there creep 2810
pale forms and ragged as from sleep,
crawling, and shielding blinded eyes:
the captives in fear and in surprise
from dolour long in clinging night
beyond all hope set free to light. 2815
A vampire shape with pinions vast
screeching leaped from the ground, and passed,
its dark blood dripping on the trees;
and Huan neath him lifeless sees
a wolvish corpse - for Thu had flown 2820
to Taur-na-Fuin, a new throne
and darker stronghold there to build.
The captives came and wept and shrilled
their piteous cries of thanks and praise.
But Luthien anxious-gazing stays. 2825
Beren comes not. At length she said:
'Huan, Huan, among the dead
must we then find him whom we sought,
for love of whom we toiled and fought?'
Then side by side from stone to stone 2830
o'er Sirion they climbed. Alone
unmoving they him found, who mourned
by Felagund, and never turned
to see what feet drew halting nigh.
'A! Beren, Beren!'came her cry, 2835
'almost too late have I thee found?
Alas! that here upon the ground
the noblest of the noble race
in vain thy anguish doth embrace!
Alas! in tears that we should meet 2840
who once found meeting passing sweet! '
Her voice such love and longing filled
he raised his eyes, his mourning stilled,
and felt his heart new-turned to flame
for her that through peril to him came. 2845
'O Luthien, O Luthien,
more fair than any child of Men,
O loveliest maid of Elfinesse,
what might of love did thee possess
to bring thee here to terror's lair! 2850
O lissom limbs and shadowy hair,
O flower-entwined brows so white,
O slender hands in this new light! '
She found his arms and swooned away
just at the rising of the day. 2855
*
NOTES.
2637. elfin B, not here emended, but it is clear that the intention
was to change elfin to elvish (elven) in all cases.
2666-7. Cf. lines 377 - 9 and note. In the present passage A's reading
is as B.
2699. Line marked with an X on the B-text.
2712 - 13. These lines (referring to Draugluin) not in A.
2722-3. Cf. lines 2293 - 4.
2755. Line marked with an X on the B-text.
2766-7. Cf. lines 2288-9.
2769. After this line is written the date 'April 4th'. The previous
date was 3 April 1928 at line 2423.
2842. Cf. line 741.
2854-5. Cf. the ending of Canto III, lines 756 - 7.
Commentary on Canto IX.
Synopsis I continues from the point reached on p. 244:
Huan goes with her. She goes to the castle of the Lord of Wolves and
sings for him. The captives in the dungeons hear her.
It was written in the fate of Huan that he could only be slain by a
wolf.
She tells (by arrangement) of the sickness of Huan and so induces
the Lord of Wolves to go werewolf and seek him. The wolf-battle
of the glade. The 'words of opening' wrung from the Lord of Wolves
and the castle broken. Rescue of Beren.
Synopsis II is here less affected by later changes and can be given in a
single text (taking it up from the point reached on p. 246).
But Huan has become devoted to her, and aids her to escape without
her cloak. [Bracketed: He trails Beren and Felagund to the House of
Thu.]
At last only Felagund and Beren remain. It is Beren's turn to be
devoured. But Felagund bursts his bonds and wrestles with the were-
wolf and slays him, but is killed. Beren is reserved for torment.
Luthien sings outside the house [added: on the bridge of woe] of
Thu and Beren hears her voice, and his answering song comes up from
underground to Huan's ears.
Thu takes her inside. She tells him a twisted tale - by the desire of
Huan, and because without her cloak she cannot enchant him. She
tells of her bondage to Celegorm and her capture by Huan of whom she
feigns hatred. Of all things in the world Thu hates Huan most. His
weird to be slain only by the 'greatest wolf' is known. Luthien says
Huan is lying sick in the woods. Thu disguises himself as a mighty
werewolf and is led by her to where Huan is lying in ambush. [Added:
But he purposes to make her a thrall.]
There follows the battle of the werewolf. Huan slays Thu's com-
panions and with his teeth in Thu's throat wrests in return for life 'the
words of opening' from him. The house of Thu is broken, and the
captives set free. Beren is found [struck out: and borne back to
Nargothrond.]
There is also to be considered now another outline, 'Synopsis III',
very hastily written and not entirely legible. This outline begins here and
I follow it to the end of the narrative in this Canto.
Thu lies choking under Huan. Luthien arouses. She says 'thou phan-
tom made of foulness by Morgoth, thou shalt die and thy spirit go back
in fear to Angband to meet thy master's scorn and languish in the dark
bosom of the world, if the "spoken keys" of thy fortress are not
yielded.'
With his gasping breath he says them. Luthien standing on the
bridge with her arms spread calls them aloud. The dawn comes pale
over the mountains. The hill quivers and gapes, the towers fall, the
bridge falls and block[s] Sirion on one side, the dungeons gape.
The owls flee away like phantoms in the first light, great bats are seen
skimming away to Taur-na-Fuin shrieking thinly. [Added: and one
as large as an eagle leads them. The spirit of Thu. His body has
a ............ a wolf.] The wolves flee whimpering and
yammering. Pale captives blinking in the light creep and crawl into the
light. [Struck out: Beren comes forth.] No Beren. They seek for him
and find him sitting beside Felagund.
These outlines are of great interest, since they show very clearly an
intermediate stage in the evolution of the legend, between the original
story of Tevildo Prince of Cats in the Tale of Tinuviel and the story of
Thu in the Lay of Leithian. Still present is Luthien's untrue tale that
Huan is lying sick in the woods (see II. 26), and in Synopsis II Thu
retains the (originally feline) Tevildo-trait of hating Huan more than any
other creature in the world (II. 21). The old element of Tinuviel's
entering the castle alone in order to inveigle Tevildo out of it, so that he
may be attacked by Huan, was not yet abandoned - but in Synopsis II
she does not have her cloak, and so cannot enchant Thu, whereas in the
Tale the drowsiness which came upon the doorkeeper cat Umuiyan, and
afterwards on Tevildo himself, is ascribed to her 'robe of sable mist'
( II. 24 - 5). In the Lay, as in the account in The Silmarillion based on the
Lay, Luthien's sleep-bearing cloak has come back into the story at this
juncture, since Huan retrieved it before they left Nargothrond, and she
used it against Thu in the battle on the bridge.
A new element enters in Synopsis I with the singing of Luthien before
Thu, and the captives in the dungeons hearing her; in the old Tale
Tinuviel merely spoke very loudly so that Beren might hear her in the
kitchen where he toiled. In Synopsis II this element is developed to the
final form, with Luthien singing on the bridge leading to the Wizard's
Isle; but she still enters the castle by herself, before 'the battle of
the werewolf'.
The sentence added in Synopsis I I saying that Thu 'purposes to make
her a thrall' goes back to the Tale (II. 26), and survived into the Lay and
The Silmarillion ('he thought to make her captive and hand her over to
the power of Morgoth, for his reward would be great').
The statement in II that 'Huan slays Thu's companions' doubtless
proceeds from the story in the Tale, where when Tevildo set out to find
Huan he was accompanied by two of his 'thanes', though in the Tale only
Oikeroi was slain by Huan, and the other (unnamed) cat fled up a tree, as
also did Tevildo himself (II. 28). In II, and in more detail in III, Thu is
at Huan's mercy on the ground. In neither I nor II (III only takes up
after this point) is there any suggestion of the wolves coming out from the
castle and being slain by Huan one by one and silently, until at last
Draugluin came forth; but as I noted in my commentary on the Tale
(II. 54 - 5) 'the killing of the cat Oikeroi is the germ of Huan's fight with
Draugluin - the skin of Huan's dead opponent is put to the same use in
either case'. This element of the procession of wolves before Thu comes
only enters with the poem. The verses naming Draugluin as the last and
greatest of them (2712 - 13) are not in A, but in Luthien's 'lengthening
spell' Draugluin the werewolf pale is named in B (1489), where A has
Carcharas.
Most interesting of all the features of this part of the story is that of
the 'words of opening' or 'spoken keys', which goes back to the Tale
(II. 28 - g). I have discussed there (II. 55) the implications of this
element in the enlarged context (the fortress of Thu had been an Elvish
watchtower): the consequent 'displacement' of the spell that held the
stones together.
In Synopsis III appear other features of the final story: the flight of
Thu as a great bat; the finding of Beren sitting beside the body
of Felagund. The pale captives who creep blinking into the light go
back ultimately to the host of cats, reduced by the breaking of Tevildo's
spell to puny size, who came forth from the castle in the Tale
(II. 29, 55).
In Canto IX the story reaches its final form, and the passage in The
Silmarillion derives from it closely, with only minor differences - the
chief being the omission of all mention of Thu's voice in the dungeon,
which is only found in the poem (lines 2592 - 2609). The old element still
present in Synopsis II of Luthien entering the castle alone has at last
disappeared.
There remain a few matters of interest apart from the development of
the story. Felagund's dying words (2633 - 6):
I now must go to my long rest
neath Timbrenting in timeless halls
where drink the Gods, where the light falls
upon the shining sea
are closely similar to Turin's words of parting to Beleg dead (p. 58,
1408-11):
Now fare well, Beleg, to feasting long
neath Tengwethil in the timeless halls
where drink the Gods, neath domes golden
o'er the sea shining.
As I have said (p. 94), Turin foresees for Beleg an afterlife in Valinor, in
the halls of the Gods, and does not speak, as does Beleg himself in
- Turin's dream, of a time of 'waiting':
my life has winged to the long waiting
in the halls of the Moon o'er the hills of the sea.
(P. 55, 1696 - 7)
Very notable are the words about Thu: 'the foul spirit Morgoth made'
(line 2770).
In the passage (2666 - 71) referring to the constellation of the Great
Bear is the first suggestion of the idea that Varda set the Seven Stars in
-, the sky as an emblem of hope against Morgoth. Cf. The Silmarillion
(P. 174):
[Beren] sang a song of challenge that he had made in praise of the
Seven Stars, the Sickle of the Valar that Varda hung above the North
as a sign for the fall of Morgoth.
X.
Songs have recalled the Elves have sung
in old forgotten elven tongue-
how Luthien and Beren strayed
by the banks of Sirion. Many a glade
they filled with joy, and there their feet 2860
passed by lightly, and days were sweet.
Though winter hunted through the wood,
still flowers lingered where she stood.
Tinuviel! Tinuviel!
the birds are unafraid to dwell 2865
and sing beneath the peaks of snow
where Beren and where Luthien go.
The isle in Sirion they left behind;
but there on hill-top might one find
a green grave, and a stone set, 2870
and there there lie the white bones yet
of Felagund, of Finrod's son -
unless that land is changed and gone,
or foundered in unfathomed seas,
while Felagund laughs beneath the trees 2875
in Valinor, and comes no more
to this grey world of tears and war.
To Nargothrond no more he came;
but thither swiftly ran the fame
of their king dead, of Thu o'erthrown, 2880
of the breaking of the towers of stone.
For many now came home at last,
who long ago to shadow passed;
and like a shadow had returned
Huan the hound, and scant had earned 2885
or praise or thanks of master wroth;
yet loyal he was, though he was loath.
The halls of Narog clamours fill
that vainly Celegorm would still.
There men bewailed their fallen king, 2890
crying that a maiden dared that thing
which sons of Feanor would not do.
'Let us slay these faithless lords untrue!'
the flickle folk now loudly cried
with Felagund who would not ride. 2895
Orodreth spake: 'The kingdom now
is mine alone. I will allow
no spilling of kindred blood by kin.
But bread nor rest shall find herein
these brothers who have set at nought 2900
the house of Finrod.' They were brought.
Scornful, unbowed, and unashamed
stood Celegorm. In his eye there flamed
a light of menace. Curufin
smiled with his crafty mouth and thin. 2905
'Be gone for ever - ere the day
shall fall into the sea. Your way
shall never lead you hither more,
nor any son of Feanor;
nor ever after shall be bond 2910
of love twixt yours and Nargothrond.'
'We will remember it,' they said,
and turned upon their heels, and sped,
and took their horses and such folk
as still them followed. Nought they spoke 29 I 5
but sounded horns, and rode like fire,
and went away in anger dire.
Towards Doriath the wanderers now
were drawing nigh. Though bare the bough,
though cold the wind, and grey the grasses 2920
through which the hiss of winter passes,
they sang beneath the frosty sky
uplifted o'er them pale and high.
They came to Mindeb's narrow stream
that from the hills doth leap and gleam 2925
by western borders where begin
the spells of Melian to fence in
King Thingol's land, and stranger steps
to wind bewildered in their webs.
There sudden sad grew Beren's heart: 2930
'Alas, Tinuviel, here we part
and our brief song together ends,
and sundered ways each lonely wends!'
'Why part we here? What dost thou say,
just at the dawn of brighter day? ' 2935
'For safe thou'rt come to borderlands
o'er which in the keeping of the hands
of Melian thou wilt walk at ease
and find thy home and well-loved trees.'
'My heart is glad when the fair trees 2940
far off uprising grey it sees
of Doriath inviolate.
Yet Doriath my heart did hate,
and Doriath my feet forsook,
my home, my kin. I would not look 2945
on grass nor leaf there evermore
without thee by me. Dark the shore
of Esgalduin the deep and strong!
Why there alone forsaking song
by endless waters rolling past 2950
must I then hopeless sit at last,
and gaze at waters pitiless
in heartache and in loneliness?'
'For never more to Doriath
can Beren find the winding path, 2955
though Thingol willed it or allowed;
for to thy father there I vowed
to come not back save to fulfill
the quest of the shining Silmaril,
and win by valour my desire. 2960
"Not rock nor steel nor Morgoth's fire
nor all the power of Elfinesse,
shall keep the gem I would possess":
thus swore I once of Luthien
more fair than any child of Men. 2965
My word, alas! I must achieve,
though sorrow pierce and parting grieve.'
'Then Luthien will not go home,
but weeping in the woods will roam,
nor peril heed, nor laughter know. 2970
And if she may not by thee go
against thy will thy desperate feet
she will pursue, until they meet,
Beren and Luthien, love once more
on earth or on the shadowy shore.' 2975
'Nay, Luthien, most brave of heart,
thou makest it more hard to part.
Thy love me drew from bondage drear,
but never to that outer fear,
that darkest mansion of all dread, 2980
shall thy most blissful light be led.'
'Never, never! ' he shuddering said.
But even as in his arms she pled,
a sound came like a hurrying storm.
There Curufin and Celegorm 2985
in sudden tumult like the wind
rode up. The hooves of horses dinned
loud on the earth. In rage and haste
madly northward they now raced
the path twixt Doriath to find 2990
and the shadows dreadly dark entwined
of Taur-na-Fuin. That was their road
most swift to where their kin abode
in the east, where Himling's watchful hill
o'er Aglon's gorge hung tall and still. 2995
They saw the wanderers. With a shout
straight on them swung their hurrying rout,
as if neath maddened hooves to rend
the lovers and their love to end.
But as they came the horses swerved 3000
with nostrils wide and proud necks curved;
Curufin, stooping, to saddlebow
with mighty arm did Luthien throw,
and laughed. Too soon; for there a spring
fiercer than tawny lion-king 3005
maddened with arrows barbed smart,
greater than any horned hart
that hounded to a gulf leaps o'er,
there Beren gave, and with a roar
leaped on Curufin; round his neck 3010
his arms entwined, and all to wreck
both horse and rider fell to ground;
and there they fought without a sound.
Dazed in the grass did Luthien lie
beneath bare branches and the sky; 3015
the Gnome felt Beren's fingers grim
close on his throat and strangle him,
and out his eyes did start, and tongue
gasping from his mouth there hung.
Up rode Celegorm with his spear, 3020
and bitter death was Beren near.
With elvish steel he nigh was slain
whom Luthien won from hopeless chain,
but baying Huan sudden sprang
before his master's face with fang 3025
white-gleaming, and with bristling hair,
as if he on boar or wolf did stare.
The horse in terror leaped aside,
and Celegorm in anger cried:
'Curse thee, thou base born dog, to dare 3030
against thy master teeth to bare! '
But dog nor horse nor rider bold
would venture near the anger cold
of mighty Huan fierce at bay.
Red were his jaws. They shrank away, 3035
and fearful eyed him from afar:
nor sword nor knife, nor scimitar,
no dart of bow, nor cast of spear,
master nor man did Huan fear.
There Curufin had left his life, 3040
had Luthien not stayed that strife.
Waking she rose and softly cried
standing distressed at Beren's side:
'Forbear thy anger now, my lord!
nor do the work of Orcs abhorred; 3045
for foes there be of Elfinesse
unnumbered, and they grow not less,
while here we war by ancient curse
distraught, and all the world to worse
decays and crumbles. Make thy peace! ' 3050
Then Beren did Curufin release;
but took his horse and coat of mail,
and took his knife there gleaming pale,
hanging sheathless, wrought of steel.
No flesh could leeches ever heal 3055
that point had pierced; for long ago
the dwarves had made it, singing slow
enchantments, where their hammers fell
in Nogrod ringing like a bell.
Iron as tender wood it cleft, 3060
and sundered mail like woollen weft.
But other hands its haft now held;
its master lay by mortal felled.
Beren uplifting him, far him flung,
and cried 'Begone! ', with stinging tongue; 3065
'Begone! thou renegade and fool,
and let thy lust in exile cool!
Arise and go, and no more work
like Morgoth's slaves or cursed Orc;
and deal, proud son of Feanor, 3070
in deeds more proud than heretofore! '
Then Beren led Luthien away,
while Huan still there stood at bay.
'Farewell,' cried Celegorm the fair.
'Far get you gone! And better were 3075
to die forhungered in the waste
than wrath of Feanor's sons to taste,
that yet may reach o'er dale and hill.
No gem, nor maid, nor Silmaril
shall ever long in thy grasp lie! 3080
We curse thee under cloud and sky,
we curse thee from rising unto sleep!
Farewell! ' He swift from horse did leap,
his brother lifted from the ground;
then bow of yew with gold wire bound 3085
he strung, and shaft he shooting sent,
as heedless hand in hand they went;
a dwarvish dart and cruelly hooked.
They never turned nor backward looked.
Loud bayed Huan, and leaping caught 3090
the speeding arrow. Quick as thought
another followed deadly singing;
but Beren had turned, and sudden springing
defended Luthien with his breast.
Deep sank the dart in flesh to rest. 3095
He fell to earth. They rode away,
and laughing left him as he lay;
yet spurred like wind in fear and dread
of 'Huan's pursuing anger red.
Though Curufin with bruised mouth laughed, 3100
yet later of that dastard shaft
was tale and rumour in the North,
and Men remembered at the Marching Forth,
and Morgoth's will its hatred helped.
Thereafter never hound was whelped 3105
would follow horn of Celegorm
or Curufin. Though in strife and storm,
though all their house in ruin red
went down, thereafter laid his head
Huan no more at that lord's feet, 3110
but followed Luthien, brave and fleet.
Now sank she weeping at the side
of Beren, and sought to stem the tide
of welling blood that flowed there fast.
The raiment from his breast she cast; 3115
from shoulder plucked the arrow keen;
his wound with tears she washed it clean.
Then Huan came and bore a leaf,
of all the herbs of healing chief,
that evergreen in woodland glade 3120
there grew with broad and hoary blade.
The powers of all grasses Huan knew,
who wide did forest-paths pursue.
Therewith the smart he swift allayed,
while Luthien murmuring in the shade 3125
the staunching song, that Elvish wives
long years had sung in those sad lives
of war and weapons, wove o'er him.
The shadows fell from mountains grim.
Then sprang about the darkened North 3130
the Sickle of the Gods, and forth
each star there stared in stony night
radiant, glistering cold and white.
But on the ground there is a glow,
a spark of red that leaps below: 3135
under woven boughs beside a fire
of crackling wood and sputtering briar
there Beren lies in drowsing deep,
walking and wandering in sleep.
Watchful bending o'er him wakes 3140
a maiden fair; his thirst she slakes,
his brow caresses, and softly croons
a song more potent than in runes
or leeches' lore hath since been writ.
Slowly the nightly watches flit. 3145
The misty morning crawleth grey
from dusk to the reluctant day.
Then Beren woke and opened eyes,
and rose and cried: 'Neath other skies,
in lands more awful and unknown, 3150
I wandered long, methought, alone
to the deep shadow where the dead dwell;
but ever a voice that I knew well,
like bells, like viols, like harps, like birds,
like music moving without words, 3155
called me, called me through the night,
enchanted drew me back to light!
Healed the wound, assuaged the pain!
Now are we come to morn again,
new journeys once more lead us on - 3160
to perils whence may life be won,
hardly for Beren; and for thee
a waiting in the wood I see,
beneath the trees of Doriath,
while ever follow down my path 3165
the echoes of thine elvish song,
where hills are haggard and roads are long.'
'Nay, now no more we have for foe
dark Morgoth only, but in woe,
in wars and feuds of Elfinesse 3170
thy quest is bound; and death, no less,
for thee and me, for Huan bold
the end of weird of yore foretold,
all this I bode shall follow swift,
if thou go on. Thy hand shall lift 3175
and lay in Thingol's lap the dire
and flaming jewel, Feanor's fire,
never, never! A why then go?
Why turn we not from fear and woe
beneath the trees to walk and roam 3180
roofless, with all the world as home,
over mountains, beside the seas,
in the sunlight, in the breeze?'
Thus long they spoke with heavy hearts;
and yet not all her elvish arts, 3185
nor lissom arms, nor shining eyes
as tremulous stars in rainy skies,
nor tender lips, enchanted voice,
his purpose bent or swayed his choice.
Never to Doriath would he fare 3190
save guarded fast to leave her there;
never to Nargothrond would go
with her, lest there came war and woe;
and never would in the world untrod
to wander suffer her, worn, unshod, 3195
roofless and restless, whom he drew
with love from the hidden realms she knew.
'For Morgoth's power is now awake;
already hill and dale doth shake,
the hunt is up, the prey is wild: 3200
a maiden lost, an elven child.
Now Orcs and phantoms prowl and peer
from tree to tree, and fill with fear
each shade and hollow. Thee they seek!
At thought thereof my hope grows weak, 3205
my heart is chilled. I curse mine oath,
I curse the fate that joined us both
and snared thy feet in my sad doom
of flight and wandering in the gloom!
Now let us haste, and ere the day 3210
be fallen, take our swiftest way,
till o'er the marches of thy land
beneath the beech and oak we stand
in Doriath, fair Doriath
whither no evil finds the path, 3215
powerless to pass the listening leaves
that droop upon those forest-eaves.'
Then to his will she seeming bent.
Swiftly to Doriath they went,
and crossed its borders. There they stayed 3220
resting in deep and mossy glade;
there lay they sheltered from the wind
under mighty beeches silken-skinned,
and sang of love that still shall be,
though earth be foundered under sea, 3225
and sundered here for evermore
shall meet upon the Western Shore.
One morning as asleep she lay
upon the moss, as though the day
too bitter were for gentle flower 3230
to open in a sunless hour,
Beren arose and kissed her hair,
and wept, and softly left her there.
'Good Huan,' said he, 'guard her well!
In leafless field no asphodel, 3235
in thorny thicket never a rose
forlorn, so frail and fragrant blows.
Guard her from wind and frost, and hide
from hands that seize and cast aside;
keep her from wandering and woe, 3240
for pride and fate now make me go.'
The horse he took and rode away,
nor dared to turn; but all that day
with heart as stone he hastened forth
and took the paths toward the North. 3245
NOTES.
2877. Against this line is written the date 'April 5th'. The previous
date was 4 April 1928 at line 2769.
2929. At the end of this line is written the date 'April 6th'.
2980-3. Cf. lines 649 - 52, 1220 - 3.
2998. Against this line is written the date 'April 27th 1928'.
3031. Before this line is written the date 'Nov. 1929'. This date may
refer forward or backward; but both it and the text that
follows is written with a slightly finer nib than that used for
the preceding portion of the poem. The previous date was 27
April 1928 at line 2998.
3076-84. Against these seven lines, as first written in the margin of the
manuscript A, is the date 'Sept. 1930'.
3119. Against this line my father wrote in the margin of the B-text
the word athelas. In The Fellowship of the Ring (I. 12)
Aragorn said that it was brought to Middle-earth by the
Numenoreans.
3220. After the word borders is written the date '25 September
1930'.
3242-5. These last four lines of the Canto are only found in A, but I
suspect that they were omitted inadvertently.
Commentary on Canto X.
The development of the story in this Canto can again be followed step by
step in the outlines. In the Tale of Tinuviel (II. 3o - x) Beren and
Tinuviel wandered away with Huan after the defeat of Tevildo, and it
was her desire to return to Artanor but unwillingness to part from Beren
that led to their resolve to try to gain a Silmaril. The catskin of Oikeroi,
thane of Tevildo, was carried by Huan as a trophy, and they begged it
from him; it was in the guise of a cat that Beren went to Angband.
Synopsis I says no more of this part of the narrative than 'Tinuviel and
Beren disguised as a werewolf go to Angband', and apart from the fact
that the skin was that of a werewolf and not of a cat there had probably
been no development from the Tale.
Synopsis II continues from the point reached on p. 257 as follows:
Luthien tends Beren in the wood. Huan brings news to Nargothrond.
The Gnomes drive forth Curufin and Celegorm, grieving for Felagund,
and send the cloak back to Luthien. Luthien takes her cloak again and
led by Huan they go to Angband. By his guidance and her magic they
escape capture. Huan dare not come any further. Beren is disguised as
a werewolf. They enter Angband.
The sentences 'and send the cloak back to Luthien. Luthien takes her
cloak again' were changed at the time of writing to read: 'and send to
succour Beren and Luthien. Huan brings Luthien back her cloak again.'
(This outline was written of course before my father reached Canto
VIII, at the end of which Huan brought Luthien her cloak before she
escaped from Nargothrond.)
Here Synopsis 11 ends. At the bottom of the page is written very
roughly:
Celegorm's embassy to Thingol so that Thingol knows or thinks he
knows Beren dead and Luthien in Nargothrond.
Why Celegorm and Curufin hated by Thingol ..
The loss of Dairon.
While the expulsion of Celegorm and Curufin from Nargothrond is
now first mentioned, it is clear that the story of their attack on Beren and
Luthien did not exist. Huan brings the news of the destruction of the
Wizard's Tower, but it seems that he does not leave Nargothrond with
Celegorm and brings back the cloak to Luthien independently.
Synopsis III has been given on p. 257 to the point where Luthien and
Huan find Beren 'sitting beside Felagund'. I give the next portion of this
outline as it was first written:
They hallow the isle and bury Felagund on its top, and no wolf or
evil creature will ever come there again. Beren is led into the woods.
[The following sentence was bracketed with a marginal direc-
tion that it should come later: Morgoth hearing of the breaking of
the Wizard's Tower sends out an army of Orcs; finding the wolves are
slain with...... throats he thinks it is Huan and fashions a vast wolf -
Carcharas - mightiest of all wolves to guard his door.]
They hide in Taur-na-Fuin careful not to lose sight of light at edge.
Luthien bids Beren desist. He cannot, he says, return to Doriath.
Then, she says, she will live in the woods with Beren and Huan. But he
has spoken his word; he has vowed not to fear Morgoth... hell. Then
she says [that she] fears that their lives will all be forfeit. But life
perchance lies after death. Where Beren goes she goes. This gives him
pause. They ask Huan. He speaks for second and last time. 'No more
may Huan go with you - what you see at the gate, he will see later - his
fate does not lead to Angband. Perchance, though his eyes are dim,
[?thy] paths lead out of it again.' He goes to Nargothrond. They will
not return to Nargothrond with him.
Luthien and Beren leave Taur-na-Fuin and wander about together a
while. Longing to look on Doriath seizes her and Beren thinks of the
quest unaccomplished. Beren offers to lead her to the borders of
Doriath, but they cannot bear to part.
They go to the Wizard's Isle and take a 'wolf-ham' and a bat-robe.
Thus they trembling inwardly set forth. The journey to Angband over
Dor-na-Fauglith and into the dark ravines of the hills.
Here first appears the burial of Felagund on the summit of the isle, and
its hallowing. This outline makes no mention of the events in Nargo-
thrond, and concentrates exclusively on Beren and Luthien. They are in
Taur-na-Fuin, and Huan is with them; and we have the first version of
Huan's counsel to them, and his foreseeing that what they meet at the
Gate of Angband he will himself see later. Since the attack by Celegorm
and Curufin had still not been devised, the story is briefer than it was to
become; thus Huan speaks to them in Taur-na-Fuin soon after the
destruction of the Wizard's Tower, and then departs to Nargothrond,
while they after a while go to the Isle and take the 'wolf-ham' ('wolf-hame'
in The Silmarillion p. 178, Old English hama) and 'bat-robe', which
now first appear (though the 'wolf-hame' derives from the catskin of
Oikeroi in the Tale). From the words 'They will not return to Nargo-
thrond with him' and from the fact that as the outline was written he is
not mentioned again, it is clear that Huan was now out of the story (until
his reappearance in a later episode). His speech is here called 'the second
and last time' that he spoke with words. Afterwards the story was
changed in this point, for he spoke to Beren a third time at his death (see
note to line 2551).
Pencilled changes were made to this passage of Synopsis III, and these
move the narrative a long way to the final version:
They hallow the isle and bury Felagund on its top, and no wolf or
evil creature will ever come there again.
Luthien and Beren leave Taur-na-Fuin and wander about together a
while. Longing to look on Doriath seizes her and Beren thinks of the
quest unaccomplished. Beren offers to lead her to the borders of
Doriath, but they cannot bear to part.
News by captives and Huan is brought to Nargothrond. Celegorm
and Curufin in a revulsion of feeling the Nargothronders wish to slay
them. Orodreth will not. They are exiled and all Feanorians from
Nargothrond for ever. They ride off. Assault of Celegorm and Curufin
in wood on Beren and Luthien. Rescue by Huan. Beren wrestles with
Curufin and gets his magic knife - [eight further words illegible]
Huan brings them a wolf-ham. Thus they trembling inwardly set
forth. Huan speaks for last time and says farewell. He will not come.
The journey to Angband, &c.
Here more is told of the expulsion of Celegorm and Curufin from
Nargothrond, and Orodreth's refusal to allow them to be slain, and here
at last is mention - probably written here at the very time of its devising -
of the attack on Beren and Luthien as the Feanorians rode from
Nargothrond. The desertion of Celegorm by Huan is implied; Beren
gets Curufin's knife, which is to replace the knife from Tevildo's kitchens
as the implement with which Beren cut the Silmaril from the Iron
Crown; and it is Huan who gets the wolfskin, and then utters his parting
speech.
An extremely difficult page in pencil ('Synopsis IV') shows these new
elements being developed further:
Beren's heart grows sad. He says he has led Tinuviel back to the border
of her land where she is safe. Alas for their second parting. She says
but from this land she herself escaped and fled only to be with him - yet
she admits that her heart longs for Doriath and Melian too, but not
Doriath without him. He quotes his own words to Thingol: 'Not
Morgoth's fire &c.' - and says he cannot (even if Thingol would allow)
return emptyhanded..... she will not go back. She will wander in the
woods - and if he will not take her with him she will follow his feet
against his will. He protests - at this moment Celegorm and Curufin
ride up seeking the way North [struck out at time of writing: round
Doriath by the Gorgoroth] between Doriath and Taur-na-Fuin to the
Gorge of Aglon and their own kin.
They ride straight on and seek to ride Beren down. Curufin stoops
and lifts Luthien to his saddle. Beren leaps aside and leaps at Curufin's
neck [?hurling] him down. Celegorm with his spear rides up to slay
Beren. Huan intervenes scattering the [?brothers'] folk and dogs and
holds Celegorm at bay while Beren wrestles with Curufin and chokes
him senseless. Beren takes his weapons - especially his magic knife,
and bids him get on horse and be gone. They ride off. Huan stays with
Beren and Luthien and forsakes his master [?for ever]. Celegorm
suddenly turns and shoots an arrow at Huan which of course falls
harmless from him, but Curufin shoots at Beren (and Luthien)
[changed to: shoots at Luthien] and wounds Beren.
Luthien heals Beren. They tell Huan of their doubts and debate and
he goes off and brings the wolfham and batskin from the Wizard's Isle.
Then he speaks for the last time.
They prepare to go to Angband.
This was certainly prepared as an outline for Canto 10 of the Lay, for the
section of the synopsis that follows is headed '11'.
There is here the further development that Beren and Luthien have
come to the borders of Doriath; but the solitary departure of Beren after
his healing, leaving Luthien with Huan, has still not emerged. There are
a few differences in the account of the fight with Celegorm and Curufin
from the final form, but for the most part the detail of the events was
never changed from its first writing down (as I believe it to be) on this
page. There is here no mention of Beren's taking Curufin's horse, on
which he was later to ride north by himself to Anfauglith; and the detail
of the shooting is different - in the synopsis Celegorm aimed at Huan,
and Curufin (who seems to have retained his bow, though Beren took all
his weapons) at (Beren and) Luthien. There is also mention of 'folk'
accompanying the brothers on their journey from Nargothrond.
In this outline is the first occurrence of the name Gorgoroth.
There is one further outline ('Synopsis V'), consisting of four pages
that are the concluding part of a text of which the beginning has dis-
appeared: it begins with a heading '10 continued', which is certainly a
Canto number, though the content extends much beyond the end of
Canto X in the Lays.* The text takes up with the healing of Beren's
wound.
Huan brings a herb of healing, and Luthien and the hound tend Beren
in the forest, building a hut of boughs. Beren mending will still go on
his quest. But Luthien foretells that all their lives will be forfeit if they
pursue. Beren will not go back to Doriath otherwise. Nor will he or
Huan go to Nargothrond, or keep Luthien in Thingol's despite, for
war would certainly arise twixt Elf and Elf, [?even] if Orodreth
harboured them. 'Then why shall we not dwell here in the wood?' saith
Luthien. Because of danger outside Doriath, and the Orcs, and the
knowledge Morgoth must now possess of Luthien's wandering.
One morning early Beren steals away on Curufin's horse and reaches
the eaves of Taur-na-Fuin.
Here at last is the element of Beren's solitary departure.
(* It is also possible that '10 continued' means only that my father began Synopsis V at this
point, i.e. he had already reached about line 3117 in the actual composition of the Lay when
be began the outline.)
The casting out of Celegorm and Curufin from Nargothrond in the
Lay is very closely followed in The Silmarillion (even to phrases, as
'neither bread nor rest'); in the Lay, however, there are some who will go
with them (lines 29 I 4 - 15), a detail found in Synopsis IV, whereas in The
Silmarillion it is explicit that they went alone.*
The debate between Beren and Luthien which was interrupted by the
coming of Celegorm and Curufin (lines 2930 - 82) is clearly based on the
scheme of it given in Synopsis IV (p. 272); in The Silmarillion it
reappears, though much reduced and changed. The fight with Celegorm
and Curufin is likewise derived from Synopsis IV, and is followed in the
prose of The Silmarillion - with such detail as the cursing of Beren
'under cloud and sky', and Curufin's knife that would cut iron as if it were
green wood, hanging sheathless by his side. In the Lay the knife becomes
a dwarf-made weapon from Nogrod, though neither it nor its maker is yet
named. In the Lay the shooter of the treacherous shafts is Celegorm; in
The Silmarillion it is Curufin, using Celegorm's bow, and the vile act is
settled on the wickeder (as he was certainly also the cleverer) of the
brothers - in this Canto he is given the proper visage of a cunning villain: .
'with his crafty mouth and thin' (2905). The reference of line 3103 'and
Men remembered at the Marching Forth' is to the Union of Maidros
before the Battle of Unnumbered Tears.
The second debate between Beren and Luthien after his recovery from
the wound is derived from Synopsis V; it is not present at all in The
Silmarillion, though it is not without its importance in its representation
of Beren's utter determination in the face of Luthien's persuasions to
abandon the quest.
Two new elements in the geography appear in this Canto: the Hill of
Himling (later Himring) rising to the east of the Gorge of Aglon (2994),
and the river Mindeb: lines 2924 - 5 (and the rewritten verses given on
p. 360) seem to be the only description of it anywhere.
The curious element of Morgoth's particular interest in Luthien (so
that he sent the Orc-captain Boldog to Doriath to capture her, lines
2127 - 36) reappears in this Canto (3I98 - 3201).
At the beginning of the Canto the burial of Felagund leads to a further
reference to his fate after death without mention of Mandos (see p. 259):
while Felagund laughs beneath the trees
in Valinor, and comes no more
to this grey world of tears and war.
*
(* The reference in The Silmarillion to Celebrimbor son of Curufin remaining in Nargo-
thrond at this time and renouncing his father was a much later development.)
XI.
Once wide and smooth a plain was spread,
where King Fingolfin proudly led
his silver armies on the green,
his horses white, his lances keen;
his helmets tall of steel were hewn, 3250
his shields were shining as the moon.
There trumpets sang both long and loud,
and challenge rang unto the cloud
that lay on Morgoth's northern tower,
while Morgoth waited for his hour. 3255
Rivers of fire at dead of night
in winter lying cold and white
upon the plain burst forth, and high
the red was mirrored in the sky.
From Hithlum's walls they saw the fire, 3260
the steam and smoke in spire on spire
leap up, till in confusion vast
the stars were choked. And so it passed,
the mighty field, and turned to dust,
to drifting sand and yellow rust, 3265
to thirsty dunes where many bones
lay broken among barren stones.
Dor-na-Fauglith, Land of Thirst,
they after named it, waste accurst,
the raven-haunted roofless grave 3270
of many fair and many brave.
Thereon the stony slopes look forth
from Deadly Nightshade falling north,
from sombre pines with pinions vast,
black-plumed and drear, as many a mast 3275
of sable-shrouded ships of death
slow wafted on a ghostly breath.
Thence Beren grim now gazes out
across the dunes and shifting drought,
and sees afar the frowning towers 3280
where thunderous Thangorodrim lowers.
The hungry horse there drooping stood,
proud Gnomish steed; it feared the wood;
upon the haunted ghastly plain
no horse would ever stride again. 3285
'Good steed of master ill,' he said,
'farewell now here! Lift up thy head,
and get thee gone to Sirion's vale,
back as we came, past island pale
where Thu once reigned, to waters sweet 3290
and grasses long about thy feet.
And if Curufin no more thou find,
grieve not! but free with hart and hind
go wander, leaving work and war,
and dream thee back in Valinor, 3295
whence came of old thy mighty race
from Tavros' mountain-fenced chase.'
There still sat Beren, and he sang,
and loud his lonely singing rang.
Though Orc should hear, or wolf a-prowl, 3300
or any of the creatures foul
within the shade that slunk and stared
of Taur-na-Fuin, nought he cared,
who now took leave of light and day,
grim-hearted, bitter, fierce and fey. 3305
'Farewell now here, ye leaves of trees,
your music in the morning-breeze!
Farewell now blade and bloom and grass
that see the changing seasons pass;
ye waters murmuring over stone, 3310
and meres that silent stand alone!
Farewell now mountain, vale, and plain!
Farewell now wind and frost and rain,
and mist and cloud, and heaven's air;
ye star and moon so blinding-fair 3315
that still shall look down from the sky
on the wide earth, though Beren die -
though Beren die not, and yet deep,
deep, whence comes of those that weep
no dreadful echo, lie and choke 3320
in everlasting dark and smoke.
'Farewell sweet earth and northern sky,
for ever blest, since here did lie,
and here with lissom limbs did run,
beneath the moon, beneath the sun, 3325
Luthien Tinuviel
more fair than mortal tongue can tell.
Though all to ruin fell the world,
and were dissolved and backward hurled
unmade into the old abyss, 3330
yet were its making good, for this -
the dawn, the dusk, the earth, the sea -
that Luthien on a time should be! '
His blade he lifted high in hand,
and challenging alone did stand 3335
before the threat of Morgoth's power;
and dauntless cursed him, hall and tower,
o'ershadowing hand and grinding foot,
beginning, end, and crown and root;
then turned to stride forth down the slope 3340
abandoning fear, forsaking hope.
'A, Beren, Beren! ' came a sound,
'almost too late have I thee found!
0 proud and fearless hand and heart,
not yet farewell, not yet we part! 3345
Not thus do those of elven race
forsake the love that they embrace.
A love is mine, as great a power
as thine, to shake the gate and tower
of death with challenge weak and frail 3350
that yet endures, and will not fail
nor yield, unvanquished were it hurled
beneath the foundations of the world.
Beloved fool! escape to seek
from such pursuit; in might so weak 3355
to trust not, thinking it well to save
from love thy loved, who welcomes grave
and torment sooner than in guard
of kind intent to languish, barred,
wingless and helpless him to aid 3360
for whose support her love was made!'
Thus back to him came Luthien:
they met beyond the ways of Men;
upon the brink of terror stood
between the desert and the wood. 3365
He looked on her, her lifted face
beneath his lips in sweet embrace:
'Thrice now mine oath I curse,' he said,
'that under shadow thee hath led!
But where is Huan, where the hound 3370
to whom I trusted, whom I bound
by love of thee to keep thee well
from deadly wandering unto hell? '
'I know not! But good Huan's heart
is wiser, kinder than thou art, 3375
grim lord, more open unto prayer!
Yet long and long I pleaded there,
until he brought me, as I would,
upon thy trail - a palfrey good
would Huan make, of flowing pace: 3380
thou wouldst have laughed to see us race,
as Orc on werewolf ride like fire
night after night through fen and mire,
through waste and wood! But when I heard
thy singing clear - (yea, every word 3385
of Luthien one rashly cried,
and listening evil fierce defied) -,
he set me down, and sped away;
but what he would I cannot say.'
Ere long they knew, for Huan came, 339
his great breath panting, eyes like flame,
in fear lest her whom he forsook
to aid some hunting evil took
ere he was nigh. Now there he laid
before their feet, as dark as shade, 3395
two grisly shapes that he had won
from that tall isle in Sirion:
a wolfhame huge - its savage fell
was long and matted, dark the spell
that drenched the dreadful coat and skin, 3400
the werewolf cloak of Draugluin;
the other was a batlike garb
with mighty fingered wings, a barb
like iron nail at each joint's end -
such wings as their dark cloud extend 3405
against the moon, when in the sky
from Deadly Nightshade screeching fly
Thu's messengers.
'What hast thou brought,
good Huan? What thy hidden thought?
Of trophy of prowess and strong deed, 3410
when Thu thou vanquishedst, what need
here in the waste?' Thus Beren spoke,
and once more words in Huan woke:
his voice was like the deeptoned bells
that ring in Valmar's citadels: 3415
'Of one fair gem thou must be thief,
Morgoth's or Thingol's, loath or lief;
thou must here choose twixt love and oath!
If vow to break is still thee loath,
then Luthien must either die 3420
alone, or death with thee defie
beside thee, marching on your fate
that hidden before you lies in wait.
Hopeless the quest, but not yet mad,
unless thou, Beren, run thus clad 3425
in mortal raiment, mortal hue,
witless and redeless, death to woo.
'Lo! good was Felagund's device,
but may be bettered, if advice
of Huan ye will dare to take, 3430
and swift a hideous change will make
to forms most cursed, foul and vile,
of werewolf of the Wizard's Isle,
of monstrous bat's envermined fell
with ghostly clawlike wings of hell. 3435
'To such dark straits, alas! now brought
are ye I love, for whom I fought.
Nor further with you can I go -
whoever did a great hound know
in friendship at a werewolf's side 3440
to Angband's grinning portals stride?
Yet my heart tells that at the gate
what there ye find, 'twill be my fate
myself to see, though to that door
my feet shall bear me nevermore. 3445
Darkened is hope and dimmed my eyes,
I see not clear what further lies;
yet maybe backwards leads your path
beyond all hope to Doriath,
and thither, perchance, we three shall wend, 3450
and meet again before the end.'
They stood and marvelled thus to hear
his mighty tongue so deep and clear;
then sudden he vanished from their sight
even at the onset of the night. 3455
His dreadful counsel then they took,
and their own gracious forms forsook;
in werewolf fell and batlike wing
prepared to robe them, shuddering.
With elvish magic Luthien wrought,
lest raiment foul with evil fraught
to dreadful madness drive their hearts;
and there she wrought with elvish arts
a strong defence, a binding power,
singing until the midnight hour. 3465
Swift as the wolvish coat he wore,
Beren lay slavering on the floor,
redtongued and hungry; but there lies
a pain and longing in his eyes,
a look of horror as he sees 3470
a batlike form crawl to its knees
and drag its creased and creaking wings.
Then howling undermoon he springs
fourfooted, swift, from stone to stone,
from hill to plain - but not alone: 3475
a dark shape down the slope doth skim,
and wheeling Hitters over him.
Ashes and dust and thirsty dune
withered and dry beneath the moon,
under the cold and shifting air 3480
sifting and sighing, bleak and bare;
of blistered stones and gasping sand,
of splintered bones was built that land,
o'er which now slinks with powdered fell
and hanging tongue a shape of hell. 3485
Many parching leagues lay still before
when sickly day crept back once more;
many choking miles yet stretched ahead
when shivering night once more was spread
with doubtful shadow and ghostly sound 3490
that hissed and passed o'er dune and mound.
A second morning in cloud and reek
struggled, when stumbling, blind and weak,
a wolvish shape came staggering forth
and reached the foothills of the North; 3495
upon its back there folded lay
a crumpled thing that blinked at day.
The rocks were reared like bony teeth,
and claws that grasped from opened sheath,
on either side the mournful road 3500
that onward led to that abode
far up within the Mountain dark
with tunnels drear and portals stark.
They crept within a scowling shade,
and cowering darkly down them laid. 3505
Long lurked they there beside the path,
and shivered, dreaming of Doriath,
of laughter and music and clean air,
in fluttered leaves birds singing fair.
They woke, and felt the trembling sound, 3510
the beating echo far underground
shake beneath them, the rumour vast
of Morgoth's forges; and aghast
they heard the tramp of stony feet
that shod with iron went down that street: 3515
the Orcs went forth to rape and war,
and Balrog captains marched before.
They stirred, and under cloud and shade
at eve stepped forth, and no more stayed;
as dart things on dark errand bent 3520
up the long slopes in haste they went.
Ever the sheer cliffs rose beside,
where birds of carrion sat and cried;
and chasms black and smoking yawned,
whence writhing serpent-shapes were spawned; 3525
until at last in that huge gloom,
heavy as overhanging doom,
that weighs on Thangorodrim's foot
like thunder at the mountain's root,
they came, as to a sombre court 3530
walled with great towers, fort on fort
of cliffs embattled, to that last plain
that opens, abysmal and inane,
before the final topless wall
of Bauglir's immeasurable hall, 3535
whereunder looming awful waits
the gigantic shadow of his gates.
NOTES.
3249-53. Cf. the opening of the Lay, lines 5 - 10.
3267. Against this line is written the date 'Sep. 26 1930'. The
previous date was 25 Sept. 1930 at line 3220.
3297. Tavros > Tauros B: see notes to lines 891, 904; 2246.
3303. Taur-na-Fuin > Taur-nu-Fuin B (a late change).
3401. Draugluin appears here in the A-text (see p. 258).
3414-15. Cf. lines 2258 - 9.
3419-23. The shift from thee to your and you is intentional, and
indicates that Huan now refers to both Beren and Luthien.
3478. Against this line is written the date 'Sep. 27 1930'.
Commentary on Canto XI.
The earliest version of the narrative of this Canto describes Tinuviel's
sewing of Beren into the catskin of Oikeroi and teaching him some
aspects of feline behaviour; she herself was not disguised. Very little is
made of the journey to Angamandi, but the approach to the gates is
described:
At length however they drew near to Angamandi, as indeed the
rumblings and deep noises, and the sound of mighty hammerings of
ten thousand smiths labouring unceasingly, declared to them. Nigh
were the sad chambers where the thrall-Noldoli laboured bitterly
under the Orcs and goblins of the hills, and here the gloom and
darkness was great so that their hearts fell... (II. 31).
Synopses I and II have virtually nothing here beyond the bare event
(p. 270). In its emended form Synopsis III comes near to the final
story of the 'wolfhame' and the parting from Huan (p. 272); and this
outline continues:
Thangorodrim towers above them. There are rumblings, steam and
vapours burst from fissures in the rock. Ten thousand smiths are
hammering - they pass the vaults where the thrall-Gnomes are labour-
ing without rest. The gloom sinks into their hearts.
This is remarkably close to the passage cited above from the Tale of
Tinuviel.
Synopsis IV (p. 273) adds no more, for after 'They prepare to go to
Angband' it continues with events in Doriath and the embassy to Thingol
from Celegorm, which at this stage my father was 'going to introduce
before the Angband adventure, and in this outline virtually nothing is
said of that.
There remains Synopsis V, whose outline for Canto '10' has been
given on p. 273 as far as 'One morning early Beren steals away on
Curufin's horse and reaches the eaves of Taur-na-Fuin', and it is here
that Beren's solitary departure first enters. This outline continues, still
under the heading 'Canto 10':
There he looks upon Thangorodrim and sings a song of farewell to
earth and light, and to Luthien. In the midst up come Luthien and
Huan! With the hound's aid she has followed him; and moreover from
the Wizard's Isle Huan has brought a wolf-ham and a bat-coat. [Struck
throught at time of writing: Beren sets Luthien upon the horse and
they ride through Taur-na-Fuin.*] Beren sets Curufin's horse to gallop
free and he speeds away. Now Beren takes the shape of werewolf and
Tinuviel of bat. Then Huan bids farewell. And speaks. No hound can
walk with werewolf - more peril should I be than help in Morgoth's
land. Yet what ye shall see at Angband's gate I perchance too shall see,
though my fate doth not lead to those doors. Darkened is all hope, and
dimmed my eyes, yet perchance I see thy paths leading from that place
once more. Then he vanishes. They make a grievous journey. Than-
gorodrim looms over them,........ in its smoky foothills.
This ends the outline for 'Canto 10' in Synopsis V.
There is a notable difference in the structure of the story in the Lay
from that in The Silmarillion (pp. 178 - g): in the Lay Huan is absent
(gone to the Wizard's Isle for the wolfcoat and batskin) when Luthien
finds Beren - she does not know where he has gone - but he comes up a
little later; whereas in the prose account Huan and Luthien came to-
gether, and they were clad in 'the ghastly wolf-hame of Draugluin and
the bat-fell of Thuringwethil' - an apparition that filled Beren with
(* Beren must in fact have been on the northern edge of Taur-na-Fuin when Luthien and
Huan came up with him, since 'he looks upon Thangorodrim'.)
dismay. The story in The Silmarillion is a reversion, at least in so far as
Huan and Luthien arrive together, to that of Synopsis V ('In the midst
up come Luthien and Huan', p. 283).
In the Lay the bat-wings are only said to be such as bear up Thu's
messengers, and are not associated with a particular or chief messenger
(Thuringwethil, 'messenger of Sauron').
But the prose version in other respects follows that of the Lay closely,
with as before retention of phrases ('between the desert and the wood',
'Thrice now I curse my oath', 'fingered wings... barbed at each joint's
end', 'the bat wheeled and flittered above him'); and the speech of Huan
is closely modelled on that in the Lay.
From Beren's words to the horse (3288 - 90)
get thee gone to Sirion's vale,
back as we came, past island pale
where Thu once reigned
it is clear that as in The Silmarillion 'he rode northward again with all
speed to the Pass of Sirion, and coming to the skirts of Taur-nu-Fuin he
looked out across the waste of Anfauglith'. It is not said in the Lay how
Luthien and Huan came there, but in The Silmarillion 'clad in these
dreadful garments' they 'ran through Taur-nu-Fuin, and all things fled
before them'.
The Battle of Sudden Flame (lines 3256 ff.) has been described earlier
in the Lay (lines 1678 ff.), but it has not been actually stated before that
the northern plain was once green and grassy (3246 - 8), and became a
desert after the 'rivers of fire... upon the plain burst forth'.
With Beren's words to Curufin's horse (3295 - 7):
dream thee back in Valinor,
whence came of old thy mighty race
cf. The Silmarillion p. 119, where it is told that 'many of the sires' of the
horses of the Noldor of Hithlum who rode on Ard-galen came from
Valinor.
*
XII.
In that vast shadow once of yore
Fingolfin stood: his shield he bore
with field of heaven's blue and star 3540
of crystal shining pale afar.
In overmastering wrath and hate
desperate he smote upon that gate,
the Gnomish king, there standing lone,
while endless fortresses of stone 3545
engulfed the thin clear ringing keen
of silver horn on baldric green.
His hopeless challenge dauntless cried
Fingolfin there: 'Come, open wide,
dark king, your ghastly brazen doors! 3550
Come forth, whom earth and heaven abhors!
Come forth, 0 monstrous craven lord,
and fight with thine own hand and sword,
thou wielder of hosts of banded thralls,
thou tyrant leaguered with strong walls, 3555
thou foe of Gods and elvish race!
I wait thee here. Come! Show thy face! '
Then Morgoth came. For the last time
in those great wars he dared to climb
from subterranean throne profound, 3560
the rumour of his feet a sound
of rumbling earthquake underground.
Black-armoured, towering, iron-crowned
he issued forth; his mighty shield
a vast unblazoned sable field 3565
with shadow like a thundercloud;
and o'er the gleaming king it bowed,
as huge aloft like mace he hurled
that hammer of the underworld,
Grond. Clanging to ground it tumbled 3570
down like a thunder-bolt, and crumbled
the rocks beneath it; smoke up-started,
a pit yawned, and a fire darted.
Fingolfin like a shooting light
beneath a cloud, a stab of white, 3575
sprang then aside, and Ringil drew
like ice that gleameth cold and blue,
his sword devised of elvish skill
to pierce the flesh with deadly chill.
With seven wounds it rent his foe, 3580
and seven mighty cries of woe
rang in the mountains, and the earth quook,
and Angband's trembling armies shook.
Yet Orcs would after laughing tell
of the duel at the gates of hell; 3585
though elvish song thereof was made
ere this but one - when sad was laid
the mighty king in barrow high,
and Thorndor, Eagle of the sky,
the dreadful tidings brought and told 3590
to mourning Elfinesse of old.
Thrice was Fingolfin with great blows
to his knees beaten, thrice he rose
still leaping up beneath the cloud
aloft to hold star-shining, proud, 3595
his stricken shield, his sundered helm,
that dark nor might could overwhelm
till all the earth.was burst and rent
in pits about him. He was spent.
His feet stumbled. He fell to wreck 3600
upon the ground, and on his neck
a foot like rooted hills was set,
and he was crushed - not conquered yet;
one last despairing stroke he gave:
the mighty foot pale Ringil clave 3605
about the heel, and black the blood
gushed as from smoking fount in flood.
Halt goes for ever from that stroke
great Morgoth; but the king he broke,
and would have hewn and mangled thrown 3610
to wolves devouring. Lo! from throne
that Manwe bade him build on high,
on peak unscaled beneath the sky,
Morgoth to watch, now down there swooped
Thorndor the King of Eagles, stooped, 3615
and rending beak of gold he smote
in Bauglir's face, then up did float
on pinions thirty fathoms wide
bearing away, though loud they cried,
the mighty corse, the Elven-king; 3620
and where the mountains make a ring
far to the south about that plain
where after Gondolin did reign,
embattled city, at great height
upon a dizzy snowcap white 3625
in mounded cairn the mighty dead
he laid upon the mountain's head.
Never Orc nor demon after dared
that pass to climb, o'er which there stared
Fingolfin's high and holy tomb, 3630
till Gondolin's appointed doom.
Thus Bauglir earned the furrowed scar
that his dark countenance doth mar,
and thus his limping gait he gained;
but afterward profound he reigned 3635
darkling upon his hidden throne;
and thunderous paced his halls of stone,
slow building there his vast design
the world in thraldom to confine.
Wielder of armies, lord of woe, 3640
no rest now gave he slave or foe;
his watch and ward he thrice increased,
his spies were sent from West to East
and tidings brought from all the North,
who fought, who fell; who ventured forth, 3645
who wrought in secret; who had hoard;
if maid were fair or proud were lord;
well nigh all things he knew, all hearts
well nigh enmeshed in evil arts.
Doriath only, beyond the veil 3650
woven by Melian, no assail
could hurt or enter; only rumour dim
of things there passing came to him.
A rumour loud and tidings clear
of other movements far and near 3655
among his foes, and threat of war
from the seven sons of Feanor,
from Nargothrond, from Fingon still
gathering his armies under hill
and under tree in Hithlum's shade, 3660
these daily came. He grew afraid
amidst his power once more; renown
of Beren vexed his ears, and down
the aisled forests there was heard
great Huan baying.
Then came word 3665
most passing strange of Luthien
wild-wandering by wood and glen,
and Thingol's purpose long he weighed,
and wondered, thinking of that maid
so fair, so frail. A captain dire, 3670
Boldog, he sent with sword and fire
to Doriath's march; but battle fell
sudden upon him: news to tell
never one returned of Boldog's host,
and Thingol humbled Morgoth's boast. 3675
Then his heart with doubt and wrath was burned:
new tidings of dismay he learned,
how Thu was o'erthrown and his strong isle
broken and plundered, how with guile
his foes now guile beset; and spies 3680
he feared, till each Orc to his eyes
was half suspect. Still ever down
the aisled forests came renown
of Huan baying, hound of war
that Gods unleashed in Valinor. 3685
Then Morgoth of Huan's fate bethought
long-rumoured, and in dark he wrought.
Fierce hunger-haunted packs he had
that in wolvish form and flesh were clad,
but demon spirits dire did hold; 3690
and ever wild their voices rolled
in cave and mountain where they housed
and endless snarling echoes roused.
From these a whelp he chose and fed
with his own hand on bodies dead, 3695
on fairest flesh of Elves and Men,
till huge he grew and in his den
no more could creep, but by the chair
of Morgoth's self would lie and glare,
nor suffer Balrog, Orc, nor beast 3700
to touch him. Many a ghastly feast
he held beneath that awful throne,
rending flesh and gnawing bone.
There deep enchantment on him fell,
the anguish and the power of hell; 3705
more great and terrible he became
with fire-red eyes and jaws aflame,
with breath like vapours of the grave,
than any beast of wood or cave,
than any beast of earth or hell 3710
that ever in any time befell,
surpassing all his race and kin,
the ghastly tribe of Draugluin.
Him Carcharoth, the Red Maw, name
the songs of Elves. Not yet he came 3715
disastrous, ravening, from the gates
of Angband. There he sleepless waits;
where those great portals threatening loom
his red eyes smoulder in the gloom,
his teeth are bare, his jaws are wide; 3720
and none may walk, nor creep, nor glide,
nor thrust with power his menace past
to enter Morgoth's dungeon vast.
Now, lo! before his watchful eyes
a slinking shape he far descries 3725
that crawls into the frowning plain
and halts at gaze, then on again
comes stalking near, a wolvish shape
haggard, wayworn, with jaws agape;
and o'er it batlike in wide rings 3730
a reeling shadow slowly wings.
Such shapes there oft were seen to roam,
this land their native haunt and home;
and yet his mood with strange unease
is filled, and boding thoughts him seize. 3735
'What grievous terror, what dread guard
hath Morgoth set to wait, and barred
his doors against all entering feet?
Long ways we have come at last to meet
the very maw of death that opes 3740
between us and our quest! Yet hopes
we never had. No turning back! '
Thus Beren speaks, as in his track
he halts and sees with werewolf eyes
afar the horror that there lies. 3745
Then onward desperate he passed,
skirting the black pits yawning vast,
where King Fingolfin ruinous fell
alone before the gates of hell.
Before those gates alone they stood, 3750
while Carcharoth in doubtful mood
glowered upon them, and snarling spoke,
and echoes in the arches woke:
'Hail! Draugluin, my kindred's lord!
'Tis very long since hitherward 3755
thou camest. Yea, 'tis passing strange
to see thee now: a grievous change
is on thee, lord, who once so dire,
so daunt1ess, and as fleet as fire,
ran over wild and waste, but now 3760
with weariness must bend and bow!
'Tis hard to find the struggling breath
when Huan's teeth as sharp as death
have rent the throat? What fortune rare
brings thee back living here to fare - 3765
if Draugluin thou art? Come near!
I would know more, and see thee clear.'
'Who art thou, hungry upstart whelp,
to bar my ways whom thou shouldst help?
I fare with hasty tidings new 3770
to Morgoth from forest-haunting Thu.
Aside! for I must in; or go
and swift my coming tell below! '
Then up that doorward slowly stood,
eyes shining grim with evil mood, 3775
uneasy growling: 'Draugluin,
if such thou be, now enter in!
But what is this that crawls beside,
slinking as if 'twould neath thee hide?
Though winged creatures to and fro 3780
unnumbered pass here, all I know.
I know not this. Stay, vampire, stay!
I like not thy kin nor thee. Come, say
what sneaking errand thee doth bring,
thou winged vermin, to the king! 3785
Small matter, I doubt not, if thou stay
or enter, or if in my play
I crush thee like a fly on wall,
or bite thy wings and let thee crawl.'
Huge-stalking, noisome, close he came. 3790
In Beren's eyes there gleamed a flame;
the hair upon his neck uprose.
Nought may the fragrance fair enclose,
the odour of immortal flowers
in everlasting spring neath showers 3795
that glitter silver in the grass
in Valinor. Where'er did pass
Tinuviel, such air there went.
From that foul devil-sharpened scent
its sudden sweetness no disguise 3800
enchanted dark to cheat the eyes
could keep, if near those nostrils drew
snuffling in doubt. This Beren knew
upon the brink of hell prepared
for battle and death. There threatening stared 3805
those dreadful shapes, in hatred both,
false Draugluin and Carcharoth
when, lo! a marvel to behold:
some power, descended from of old,
from race divine beyond the West, 3810
sudden Tinuviel possessed
like inner fire. The vampire dark
she flung aside, and like a lark
cleaving through night to dawn she sprang,
while sheer, heart-piercing silver, rang 3815
her voice, as those long trumpets keen
thrilling, unbearable, unseen
in the cold aisles of morn. Her cloak
by white hands woven, like a smoke,
like all-bewildering, all-enthralling, 3820
all-enfolding evening, falling
from lifted arms, as forth she stepped,
across those awful eyes she swept,
a shadow and a mist of dreams
wherein entangled starlight gleams. 3825
'Sleep, 0 unhappy, tortured thrall!
Thou woebegotten, fail and fall
down, down from anguish, hatred, pain,
from lust, from hunger, bond and chain,
to that oblivion, dark and deep, 3830
the well, the lightless pit of sleep!
For one brief hour escape the net,
the dreadful doom of life forget! '
His eyes were quenched, his limbs were loosed;
he fell like running steer that noosed 3835
and tripped goes crashing to the ground.
Deathlike, moveless, without a sound
outstretched he lay, as lightning stroke
had felled a huge o'ershadowing oak.
NOTES.
3554. banded A, B; > branded B, but I think that the r was
written in by somebody else.
3589. Thorndor emended to Thorondor in B, but I think that this
was a late correction.
3606. pinned it to earth A, B; about the heel apparently a late
emendation to B.
3615. Thorndor later emended to Thorondor in B, see 3589.
3623. after > secret B, a late emendation when Gondolin's found-
ation had been made much earlier.
3638-9. A: nor ever again to war came forth
until the last battle of the North,
but builded slow his mighty thought
of pride and lust unfathomed wrought.
3650. Against this line is written the date 'Sep. 28'. The previous
date was 27 Sept. 1930 against line 3478.
3658. Finweg A, B, emended to Fingon B, as at lines 1647, 1654.
3712 - 13. This couplet not in A, as originally written.
3714. A (as originally written):
Him Carcharos, the Knife-fang, name
Carcharos then > Carcharas, and then > Carcharoth (see
notes to lines 3751, 3807). In the margin of A is written Red
Natu, and Caras with another, illegible, word beginning
Car-; also Gargaroth; and Fearphantom Draugluin is his
name. This may mean that my father was thinking of using
the name Draugluin for the Wolf of Angband, though
Draugluin had by now appeared in the A-text (3401) for the
great wolf of the Wizard's Isle.
3751. Carcharas A, not emended to Carcharoth (see note to 3714).
3790. Against this line is written the date 'Sep. 30 1930. The
previous date was 28 Sept. 1930 against line 3650.
3807. Carcharoth A (rhyming with both); see notes to 3714,
3751.
Commentary on Canto XII.
The greater part of this Canto is retrospective: beginning with the death
of Fingolfin in combat with Morgoth, it passes to Morgoth's doubts and
fears and his rearing of Carcharoth. By this time (September 1930) a
large part, at any rate, of the prose 'Silmarillion' developed out of the
'. 'Sketch of the Mythology' had been written, as I hope to demonstrate
, later, and it seems certain that the story of Fingolfin's duel with Morgoth
', as it appears in this Canto followed the prose version, though we meet it
: here for the first time (together with the names Grond, the Hammer of
the Underworld, and Ringil, Fingolfin's sword). The text in The Sil-
marillion (pp. 153 - 4) was largely based on the Lay, which it follows in
,- the structure of the account and from which derive many phrases;* but
: independent traces of the 'prose tradition' are also present. The account
in the poem gives no indication of when the duel took place, or of what
led Fingolfin to challenge Morgoth. For the much earlier mention of
Fingolfin's death (now very obscure, but certainly quite differently
Conceived) see pp. 146-7.
The further mention in this Canto of Boldog's raid (lines 3665-75)
: will be discussed at the end of the poem (pp. 3IO - 13).
Turning to the 'foreground' narrative, a passage in Synopsis III
' already given (pp. 270-1) bears on the content of Canto XII: it was
bracketed and marked 'Later'.
Morgoth hearing of the breaking of the Wizard's Tower sends out an
army of Orcs; finding the wolves are slain with...... throats he
thinks it is Huan and fashions a vast wolf - Carcharas - mightiest of all
wolves to guard his door.
Synopsis III continues from the point reached on p. 283:
The hideous gates of Angband. There lay Carcharoth knifefang.
He gets slowly to his feet and bars the gate. 'Growl not 0 Wolf for I go
to seek Morgoth with news of Thu.' He approached to snuff the air of
(* For example: 'the rumour of his feet' (cf. line 3561); Morgoth 'like a tower, iron-
crowned'(cf. 3563); he Grond down like a bolt of thunder' (cf 3571); smoke and
fire darted' (cf. 3572 - 3); 'the blood gushed forth black and smoking' (cf. 3606 - 7); &c.)
her, for faint suspicion moved in his wicked heart, and he fell into
slumber.
The interpretation of the wolf's name as 'Knife-fang' goes back to the
Tale of Tinuviel and survived into the A-text of the Lay (see note to line
3714), but was replaced in B by the translation 'Red Maw'. The words
'red maw' are used of Karkaras in the Tale, but not as his name (II. 34).
The idea of Carcharoth's approaching Luthien 'to snuff the air of her'
is also derived, in these same words, from the Tale (I I. 31).
Synopsis IV does not here concern us (see p. 283); Synopsis V, after
the point reached on p. 283, now has a heading 'x x', and is clearly the
basis for the story in Canto XII of the Lay:
[Added in pencil: Battle of Morgoth and Fingolfin.]
Morgoth hears of the ruin of Thu's castle. His mind is filled with
misgiving and anger. The gates of Angband strengthened; because of
the rumour of Huan he [struck out at time of writing: fashions the
greatest] chooses the fiercest wolf from all the whelps of his packs, and
feeds him on flesh of Men and Elves, and enchants him so that he
becomes the most great and terrible of all beasts that ever have been -
Carcharos.
Beren and Luthien approach. [Added in pencil: the pitted plain of
Fingolfin's fight.] The enchanting of Carcharos.
XIII.
Into the vast and echoing gloom, 3840
more dread than many-tunnelled tomb
in labyrinthine pyramid
where everlasting death is hid,
down awful corridors that wind
down to a menace dark enshrined; 3845
down to the mountain's roots profound,
devoured, tormented, bored and ground
by seething vermin spawned of stone;
down to the depths they went alone.
The arch behind of twilit shade 3850
they saw recede and dwindling fade;
the thunderous forges' rumour grew,
a burning wind there roaring blew
foul vapours up from gaping holes.
Huge shapes there stood like carven trolls 3855
enormous hewn of blasted rock
to forms that mortal likeness mock;
monstrous and menacing, entombed,
at every turn they silent loomed
in fitful glares that leaped and died. 3860
There hammers clanged, and tongues there cried
with sound like smitten stone; there wailed
faint from far under, called and failed
amid the iron clink of chain
voices of captives put to pain. 3865
Loud rose a din of laughter hoarse,
self-loathing yet without remorse;
loud came a singing harsh and fierce
like swords of terror souls to pierce.
Red was the glare through open doors 3870
of firelight mirrored on brazen floors,
and up the arches towering clomb
to glooms unguessed, to vaulted dome
swathed in wavering smokes and steams
stabbed with flickering lightning-gleams. 3875
To Morgoth's hall, where dreadful feast
he held, and drank the blood of beast
and lives of Men, they stumbling came:
their eyes were dazed with smoke and flame.
The pillars, reared like monstrous shores 3880
to bear earth's overwhelming floors,
were devil-carven, shaped with skill
such as unholy dreams doth fill:
they towered like trees into the air,
whose trunks are rooted in despair, 3885
whose shade is death, whose fruit is bane,
whose boughs like serpents writhe in pain.
Beneath them ranged with spear and sword
stood Morgoth's sable-armoured horde:
the fire on blade and boss of shield 3890
was red as blood on stricken field.
Beneath a monstrous column loomed
the throne of Morgoth, and the doomed
and dying gasped upon the floor:
his hideous footstool, rape of war. 3895
About him sat his awful thanes,
the Balrog-lords with fiery manes,
redhanded, mouthed with fangs of steel;
devouring wolves were crouched at heel.
And o'er the host of hell there shone 3900
with a cold radiance, clear and wan,
the Silmarils, the gems of fate,
emprisoned in the crown of hate.
Lo! through the grinning portals dread
sudden a shadow swooped and fled; 3905
and Beren gasped - he lay alone,
with crawling belly on the stone:
a form bat-winged, silent, flew
where the huge pillared branches grew,
amid the smokes and mounting steams. 3910
And as on the margin of dark dreams
a dim-felt shadow unseen grows
to cloud of vast unease, and woes
foreboded, nameless, roll like doom
upon the soul, so in that gloom 3915
the voices fell, and laughter died
slow to silence many-eyed.
A nameless doubt, a shapeless fear,
had entered in their caverns drear,
and.grew, and towered above them cowed, 3920
hearing in heart the trumpets loud
of gods forgotten. Morgoth spoke,
and thunderous the silence broke:
'Shadow, descend! And do not think
to cheat mine eyes! In vain to shrink 3925
from thy Lord's gaze, or seek to hide.
My will by none may be defied.
Hope nor escape doth here await
those that unbidden pass my gate.
Descend! ere anger blast thy wing, 3930
thou foolish, frail, bat-shapen thing,
and yet not bat within! Come down! '
Slow-wheeling o'er his iron crown,
reluctantly, shivering and small,
Beren there saw the shadow fall, 3935
and droop before the hideous throne,
a weak and trembling thing, alone.
And as thereon great Morgoth bent
his darkling gaze, he shuddering went,
belly to earth, the cold sweat dank 3940
upon his fell, and crawling shrank
beneath the darkness of that seat,
beneath the shadow of those feet.
Tinuviel spake, a shrill, thin, sound
piercing those silences profound: 3945
'A lawful errand here me brought;
from Thu's dark mansions have I sought,
from Taur-na-Fuin's shade I fare
to stand before thy mighty chair! '
'Thy name, thou shrieking waif, thy name! 3950
Tidings enough from Thu there came
but short while since. What would he now?
Why send such messenger as thou? '
'Thuringwethil I am, who cast
a shadow o'er the face aghast 3955
of the sallow moon in the doomed land
of shivering Beleriand.'
'Liar art thou, who shalt not weave
deceit before mine eyes. Now leave
thy form and raiment false, and stand 3960
revealed, and delivered to my hand! '
There came a slow and shuddering change:
the batlike raiment dark and strange
was loosed, and slowly shrank and fell
quivering. She stood revealed in hell. 3965
About her slender shoulders hung
her shadowy hair, and round her clung
her garment dark, where glimmered pale
the starlight caught in magic veil.
Dim dreams and faint oblivious sleep 3970
fell softly thence, in dungeons deep
an odour stole of elven-flowers
from elven-dells where silver showers
drip softly through the evening air;
and round there crawled with greedy stare 3975
dark shapes of snuffling hunger dread.
With arms upraised and drooping head
then softly she began to sing
a theme of sleep and slumbering,
wandering, woven with deeper spell 3980
than songs wherewith in ancient dell
Melian did once the twilight fill,
profound, and fathomless, and still.
The fires of Angband flared and died,
smouldered into darkness; through the wide 3985
and hollow halls there rolled unfurled
the shadows of the underworld.
All movement stayed, and all sound ceased,
save vaporous breath of Orc and beast.
One fire in darkness still abode: 3990
the lidless eyes of Morgoth glowed;
one sound the breathing silence broke:
the mirthless voice of Morgoth spoke.
'So Luthien, so Luthien,
a liar like all Elves and Men! 3995
Yet welcome, welcome, to my hall!
I have a use for every thrall.
What news of Thingol in his hole
shy lurking like a timid vole?
What folly fresh is in his mind, 4.000
who cannot keep his offspring blind
from straying thus? or can devise
no better counsel for his spies? '
She wavered, and she stayed her song.
'The road,' she said, 'was wild and long, 4005
but Thingol sent me not, nor knows
what way his rebellious daughter goes.
Yet every road and path will lead
Northward at last, and here of need
I trembling come with humble brow, 4010
and here before thy throne I bow;
for Luthien hath many arts
for solace sweet of kingly hearts.'
'And here of need thou shalt remain
now, Luthien, in joy or pain - 4015
or pain, the fitting doom for all,
for rebel, thief, and upstart thrall.
Why should ye not in our fate share
of woe and travail? Or should I spare
to slender limb and body frail 4020
breaking torment? Of what avail
here dost thou deem thy babbling song
and foolish laughter? Minstrels strong
are at my call. Yet I will give
a respite brief, a while to live, 4025
a little while, though purchased dear,
to Luthien the fair and clear,
a pretty toy for idle hour.
In slothful gardens many a flower
like thee the amorous gods are used 4030
honey-sweet to kiss, and cast then bruised,
their fragrance loosing, under feet.
But here we seldom find such sweet
amid our labours long and hard,
from godlike idleness debarred. 4035
And who would not taste the honey-sweet
lying to lips, or crush with feet
the soft cool tissue of pale flowers,
easing like gods the dragging hours?
A! curse the Gods! 0 hunger dire, 4040
0 blinding thirst's unending fire!
One moment shall ye cease, and slake
your sting with morsel I here take! '
In his eyes the fire to flame was fanned,
and forth he stretched his brazen hand. 4045
Luthien as shadow shrank aside.
'Not thus, 0 king! Not thus! ' she cried,
'do great lords hark to humble boon!
For every minstrel hath his tune;
and some are strong and some are soft, 4050
and each would bear his song aloft,
and each a little while be heard,
though rude the note, and light the word.
But Luthien hath cunning arts
for solace sweet of kingly hearts. 4055
Now hearken! ' And her wings she caught
then deftly up, and swift as thought
slipped from his grasp, and wheeling round,
fluttering before his eyes, she wound
a mazy-winged dance, and sped 4060
about his iron-crowned head.
Suddenly her song began anew;
and soft came dropping like a dew
down from on high in that domed hall
her voice bewildering, magical, 4065
and grew to silver-murmuring streams
pale falling in dark pools in dreams.
She let her flying raiment sweep,
enmeshed with woven spells of sleep,
as round the dark void she ranged and reeled. 4070
From wall to wall she turned and wheeled
in dance such as never Elf nor fay
before devised, nor since that day;
than swallow swifter, than flittermouse
in dying light round darkened house 4075
more silken-soft, more strange and fair
than sylphine maidens of the Air
whose wings in Varda's heavenly hall
in rhythmic movement beat and fall.
Down crumpled Orc, and Balrog proud; 4080
all eyes were quenched, all heads were bowed;
the fires of heart and maw were stilled,
and ever like a bird she thrilled
above a lightless world forlorn
in ecstasy enchanted borne. 4085
All eyes were quenched, save those that glared
in Morgoth's lowering brows, and stared
in slowly wandering wonder round,
and slow were in enchantment bound.
Their will wavered, and their fire failed, 4090
and as beneath his brows they paled,
the Silmarils like stars were kindled
that in the reek of Earth had dwindled
escaping upwards clear to shine,
glistening marvellous in heaven's mine. 4095
Then flaring suddenly they fell,
down, down upon the floors of hell.
The dark and mighty head was bowed;
like mountain-top beneath a cloud
the shoulders foundered, the vast form 410O
crashed, as in overwhelming storm
huge cliffs in ruin slide and fall;
and prone lay Morgoth in his hall.
His crown there rolled upon the ground,
a wheel of thunder; then all sound 4105
died, and a silence grew as deep
as were the heart of Earth asleep.
Beneath the vast and empty throne
the adders lay like twisted stone,
the wolves like corpses foul were strewn; 4110
and there lay Beren deep in swoon:
no thought, no dream nor shadow blind
moved in the darkness of his mind.
'Come forth, come forth! The hour hath knelled,
and Angband's mighty lord is felled! 4115
Awake, awake! For we two meet
alone before the aweful seat.'
This voice came down into the deep
where he lay drowned in wells of sleep;
a hand flower-soft and flower-cool 4120
passed o'er his face, and the still pool
of slumber quivered. Up then leaped
his mind to waking; forth he crept.
The wolvish fell he flung aside
and sprang unto his feet, and wide 4125
staring amid the soundless gloom
he gasped as one living shut in tomb.
There to his side he felt her shrink,
felt Luthien now shivering sink,
her strength and magic dimmed and spent, 4130
and swift his arms about her went.
Before his feet he saw amazed
the gems of Feanor, that blazed
with white fire glistening in the crown
of Morgoth's might now fallen down. 4135
To move that helm of iron vast
no strength he found, and thence aghast
he strove with fingers mad to wrest
the guerdon of their hopeless quest,
till in his heart there fell the thought 4140
of that cold morn whereon he fought
with Curufin; then from his belt
the sheathless knife he drew, and knelt,
and tried its hard edge, bitter-cold,
o'er which in Nogrod songs had rolled 4145
of dwarvish armourers singing slow
to hammer-music long ago.
Iron as tender wood it clove
and mail as woof of loom it rove.
The claws of iron that held the gem, 4150
it bit them through and sundered them;
a Silmaril he clasped and held,
and the pure radiance slowly welled
red glowing through the clenching flesh.
Again he stooped and strove afresh 4155
one more of the holy jewels three
that Feanor wrought of yore to free.
But round those fires was woven fate:
not yet should they leave the halls of hate.
The dwarvish steel of cunning blade 4160
by treacherous smiths of Nogrod made
snapped; then ringing sharp and clear
in twain it sprang, and like a spear
or errant shaft the brow it grazed
of Morgoth's sleeping head, and dazed 4165
their hearts with fear. For Morgoth groaned
with voice entombed, like wind that moaned
in hollow caverns penned and bound.
There came a breath; a gasping sound
moved through the halls, as Orc and beast 4I70
turned in their dreams of hideous feast;
in sleep uneasy Balrogs stirred,
and far above was faintly heard
an echo that in tunnels rolled,
a wolvish howling long and cold. 4175
*
NOTES.
3840. At the beginning of the Canto is written the date 'Oct. I 1930'.
The previous date was 30 Sept. 1930 at line 3790.
3860. With this line the B typescript comes to an end, and the text
continues to the end in fine manuscript.
3881. This line is dated 'Sept. 14 193 I . The previous date was x Oct.
I930 at line 3840.
3887. This line is dated 'Sept. 15' (1931).
3947. Late change in B: from Sauron's mansions hare I sought.See
p. 232, note to lines 2064 - 6.
3951. Late change in B: Tidings enough from Sauron came.
3954. In the margin of B is written against Thuringwethil, at the
time of the writing out of the text, 'sc. she of hidden shadow'.
3957. Beleriand A and B (i.e. not Broseliand emended).
3962. This line is dated 'Sep. 16 1931'.
magic > elvish in B, but this is doubtless a late change, when
my father no longer used this once favourite word.
4029. Against this line is written the date 'Sep. 14', duplicating that
given to line 3881.
4045. Against this line is written the date 'Sep. 16', duplicating that
given to line 3962.
4085. After this line is written the last date in the A manuscript,
'Sept. 17 1931'.
4092-3. These lines were written in the margin of B, but the original
lines:
the Silmarils were lit like stars
that fume of Earth upreeking mars
were not struck out.
4163-6. A: in twain it sprang; and quaking fear
fell on their hearts, for Morgoth groaned
Commentary on Canto XIII.
There is not much to be learnt from the Synopses concerning this part of
the narrative, but the Angband scene was never greatly changed from its
original form in the Tale of Tinuviel (II. 31 ff.). Synopsis I is at the end
reduced to mere headings, II has given out, and IV does not deal with the
entry into Angband. III, given on pp. 293 - 4 as far as the enchantment of
Carcharoth, continues:
After endless wanderings in corridors they stumble into the pres-
ence of Morgoth. Morgoth speaks. 'Who art thou that flittest about my
halls as a bat, but art not a bat? Thou dost not belong here, nor wert
thou summoned. Who has ever come here unsummoned? None! "But
I was summoned. I am Luthien daughter of Thingol.' Then Morgoth
laughed, but he was moved with suspicion, and said that her accursed
race would get no soft words or favour in Angband. What could she do
to give him pleasure, and save herself from the lowest dungeons? He
reached out his mighty brazen hand but she shrank away. He is angry
but she offers to dance.
[The remainder of the outline is in pencil and in places in-
decipherable:] She lets fall her bat-garb. Her hair falls about. The
lights of Angband die. Impenetrable dark falls: only the eyes of
Morgoth and the faint glimmer of Tinuviel.............. Her
fragrance causes all to draw near greedily. Tinuviel flies [? in at] door
leaving Beren struck with horror.............
Here this outline ends. Morgoth's words 'Who art thou that flittest about
my halls as a bat' occur also in the Tale of Tinuviel (II. 32) - this outline
several times adopts directly the wording of the Tale, see pp. 283, 294.
This is a curious point, for in the Tale Tinuviel was not attired in a
bat-skin, whereas in Synopsis III she was. It is conceivable that Melko's
words actually gave rise to this element in the story.
In the Tale Tinuviel lied to Melko, saying that Tinwelint her father
had driven her out, and in reply he said that she need not hope for 'soft
words'- this too is a phrase that recurs in Synopsis I I I. But the remainder
of this outline does not relate closely to the Tale.
Synopsis V is here very brief. After 'the enchanting of Carcharos'
(p. 294) it has only (still under the heading 'r r '):
The cozening of Morgoth and the rape of the Silmaril.
The dwarvish knife of Curufin breaks.
It is clear that the concluding passage of Synopsis III, given above,
was a direct precursor of Canto XIII; but some elements - and actual
wording - in the scene go back to the Tale without being mentioned in
the Synopsis. Luthien's words 'his rebellious daughter' (4007) seem to
echo 'he is an overbearing Elf and I give not my love at his command'
(II. 32); there is a clear relation between the words of the Tale (ibid.).
Then did Tinuviel begin such a dance as neither she nor other sprite or
fay or elf danced ever before or has done since
and lines 4072 - 3
in dance such as never Elf nor fay
before devised, nor since that day;
and with 'the adders lay like twisted stone' (4109) cf. 'Beneath his chair
the adders lay like stones.' It is interesting to see the idea of the shard of
the knife-blade striking Morgoth's brow (in?he Silmarillion his cheek)
emerging in the composition of this Canto; as first written (see note to
lines 4163 - 6) it seems to have been the sound of the knife snapping that
disturbed the sleepers, as it was expressly in the Tale (II. 33). With the
'treacherous smiths of Nogrod' (4161) who made Curufin's knife cf. the
passage in The Children of Hurin concerning the bearded Dwarves of
troth unmindful who made the knife of Flinding that slipped from its
sheath (p.44, lines 1142 ff.): that was made by the Dwarves of Belegost,
and like Curufin's
[its] edge would eat through iron noiseless
as a clod of clay is cleft by the share.
The account in The Silmarillion (pp. 180 - x) is clearly based on Canto
XIII, from which it derives many features, though it is reduced, notably
by compressing the two episodes of Luthien singing (3977ff., 4062ff.)
into one; and the prose here owes less to the verses than in other places.
Luthien's naming herself Thuringwethil to Morgoth (line 3954) is
notable. In The Silmarillion (p. 178) the bat-fell which Huan brought
from Tol-in-Gaurhoth was that of Thuringwethil. "she was the messenger
of Sauron, and was wont to fly in vampire's form to Angband', whereas in
the Lay (lines 3402 ff.), as I have noticed (p. 284), 'the bat-wings are only
said to be such as bear up Thu's messengers, and are not associated with a
particular or chief messenger'. It seems possible that in the Lay Luthien
devised this name ('she of hidden shadow') as a riddling description of
herself, and that this led to the conception of the bat-messenger from the
Wizard's Isle to Angband named Thuringwethil; but there is no proof of
this.
With the
sylphine maidens of the Air
whose wings in Varda's heavenly hall
in rhythmic movement beat and fall (4077 9)
cf. the tale of The Coming of the Valar and the Building of Valinor
(I. 65 - 6), where it is said that with Manwe and Varda there entered the
world 'many of those lesser Vali who loved them and had played nigh
them and attuned their music to theirs, and these are the Manir and the
Suruli, the sylphs of the airs and of the winds'.
*
XIV.
Up through the dark and echoing gloom
as ghosts from many-tunnelled tomb,
up from the mountains' roots profound
and the vast menace underground,
their limbs aquake with deadly fear, 4180
terror in eyes, and dread in ear,
together Red they, by the beat
affrighted of their flying feet.
At last before them far away
they saw the glimmering wraith of day, 4185
the mighty archway of the gate -
and there a horror new did wait.
Upon the threshold, watchful, dire,
his eyes new-kindled with dull fire,
towered Carcharoth, a biding doom: 4190
his jaws were gaping like a tomb,
his teeth were bare, his tongue aflame;
aroused he watched that no one came,
no flitting shade nor hunted shape,
seeking from Angband to escape. 4195
Now past that guard what guile or might
could thrust from death into the light?
He heard afar their hurrying feet,
he snuffed an odour strange and sweet;
he smelled their coming long before 4200
they marked the waiting threat at door.
His limbs he stretched and shook off sleep,
then stood at gaze. With sudden leap
upon them as they sped he sprang,
and his howling in the arches rang. 4205
Too swift for thought his onset came,
too swift for any spell to tame;
and Beren desperate then aside
thrust Luthien, and forth did stride
unarmed, defenceless to defend 4210
Tinuviel until the end.
With left he caught at hairy throat,
with right hand at the eyes he smote -
his right, from which the radiance welled
of the holy Silmaril he held. 4215
As gleam of swords in fire there flashed
the fangs of Carcharoth, and crashed
together like a trap, that tore
the hand about the wrist, and shore
through brittle bone and sinew nesh, 4220
devouring the frail mortal flesh;
and in that cruel mouth unclean
engulfed the jewel's holy sheen.
The Unwritten Cantos.
There was virtually no change in the narrative from the Tale to the Lay in
the opening passage of Canto XIV, but the account in The Silmarillion '
differs, in that there Beren did not strike at the eyes of the wolf with his
right hand holding the Silmaril, but held the jewel up before Carcharoth
to daunt him. My father intended to alter the Lay here, as is seen from a
marginal direction to introduce the element of 'daunting'.
The Lay of Leithian ends here, in both the A and B texts, and also in
the pages of rough draft, but an isolated sheet found elsewhere gives a
few further lines, together with variants, in the first stage of composition:
Against the wall then Beren reeled
but still with his left he sought to shield
fair Luthien, who cried aloud
to see his pain, and down she bowed
in anguish sinking to the ground.
There is also a short passage, found on a separate sheet at the end of the
B-text, which is headed 'a piece from the end of the poem'.
Where the forest-stream went through the wood,
and silent all the stems there stood
of tall trees, moveless, hanging dark
with mottled shadows on their bark
above the green and gleaming river, 5
there came through leaves a sudden shiver,
a windy whisper through the still
cool silences; and down the hill,
as faint as a deep sleeper's breath,
an echo came as cold as death: 10
'Long are the paths, of shadow made
where no foot's print is ever laid,
over the hills, across the seas!
Far, far away are the Lands of Ease,
but the Land of the Lost is further yet, 15
where the Dead wait, while ye forget.
No moon is there, no voice, no sound
of beating heart; a sigh profound
once in each age as each age dies
alone is heard. Far, far it lies, 20
the Land of Waiting where the Dead sit,
in their thought's shadow, by no moon lit.
With the last lines compare the passage at the end of the tale of Beren and
Luthien in The Silmarillion (p. 186):
But Luthien came to the halls of Mandos, which are the appointed
places of the Eldalie, beyond the mansions of the West upon the
confines of the world. There those that wait sit in the shadow of their
thought.
There is nothing else, and I do not think that there ever was anything
else. All my father's later work on the poem was devoted to the revision of
what was already in existence; and the Lay of Leithian ends here.
*
Of the five synopses that have been given in sections in previous pages,
only the fifth bears on the escape of Beren and Luthien from Angband.
This outline was last quoted on p. 305 ('the dwarvish knife of Curufin
breaks'). It continues:
Beren and Luthien flee in fear. Arousing of Carcharos. Beren's hand is
bitten off in which he holds the Silmaril. Madness of Carcharos.
Angband awakes. Flight of Beren and Luthien towards the waters of
Sirion. Canto [i.e. Canto x x, see p. 305] ends as they hear the pursuing
wolves behind. Wrapped in Luthien's cloak they flit beneath the stars.
Thus the rescue of Beren and Luthien by Thorondor and his vassals was
not yet present, and the story was still in this respect unchanged from the
Tale of Tinuviel (II. 34); cf. especially:
Tinuviel wrapped part of-her dark mantle about Beren, and so for a
while flitting by dusk and dark amid the hills they were seen by none.
The first record of the changed story of the escape from Angband is
found on an isolated slip, written hastily in pencil and very difficult to
decipher:
Carcharoth goes mad and drives all [? orcs] before him like a wind. The
sound of his awful howling causes rocks to split and fall. There is an
earthquake underground. Morgoth's wrath on waking. The gateway
[?falls] in and hell is blocked, and great fires and smokes burst from
Thangorodrim. Thunder and lightning. Beren lies dying before the
gate. Tinuviel's song as she kisses his hand and prepares to die.
Thorondor comes down and bears them amid the lightning that
[?stabs] at them like spears and a hail of arrows from the battlements.
They pass above Gondolin and Luthien sees the white city far below,
[?gleaming] like a lily in the valley. Thorondor sets her down in
Brethil.
This is very close in narrative structure to the story in The Silmarillion
(p. 182), with the earthquake, fire and smoke from Thangorodrim,
Beren's lying near death at the Gate, Luthien's kissing his hand (staunch-
ing the wound), the descent of Thorondor, and the passage of the
eagle(s) over Gondolin. This last shows that this brief outline is rela-
tively late, since Gondolin was already in existence before the Battle of '
Unnumbered Tears (II.208). But in this text they are set down in
Brethil (a name that does not appear in the works until several years
later); in The Silmarillion they are set down 'upon the borders of
Doriath', in 'that same dell whence Beren had stolen in despair and left
Luthien asleep'. - On the reference to Gondolin as 'a lily in the valley' see
I. 172.
Synopsis V has more to tell subsequently of the wanderings of Beren
and Luthien before they returned to Doriath, but I now set out the
remaining materials in their entirety before commenting on them. First
it is convenient to cite the end of Synopsis II, which has been given
already (p. 270):
Celegorm's embassy to Thingol so that Thingol knows or thinks he
knows Beren dead and Luthien in Nargothrond.
Why Celegorm and Curufin hated by Thingol as p. 270 ..
The loss of Dairon.
Synopsis I V has been given (p. 273) only as far as 'They prepare to go to
Angband', since the outline then turns away from the story of Beren and
Luthien themselves, according to my father's projection at that time for
the further course of the Lay, and continues as follows:
11.
Doriath. The hunt for Luthien and the loss of Dairon. War on the
borders. Boldog slain. So Thingol knows Luthien not yet dead is
caught, but fears that Boldog's raid means that Morgoth has got wind
of her wandering. Actually it means no more than the legend of her
beauty.
An embassy comes from Celegorm. Thingol learns that Beren is
dead, and Luthien at Nargothrond. He is roused to wrath by the hints
of the letter that Celegorm will leave Felagund to die, and will usurp
the throne of Nargothrond. And so Thingol had better let Luthien
stay where she is.
Thingol prepares an army to go against Nargothrond, but learns
that Luthien has left, and Celegorm and Curufin have fled to Aglon.
He sends an embassy to Aglon. It is routed and put to flight by the
sudden onslaught of Carcharas. Mablung escapes to tell the tale. The
devastation of Doriath by Carcharas.
12.
The rape of the Silmaril and the home-coming of Beren and Luthien.
13.
The wolf-hunt and death of Huan and Beren.
I4.
The recall of Beren and Huan.
Synopsis V continues as a more substantial preparation for the end of
the poem never to be written, which my father at this stage conceived in
three further Cantos.
12.
Sorrow in Doriath at flight of Luthien. Thingol's heart hardened
against Beren, despite words of Melian. A mighty hunt is made
throughout the realm, but many of the folk strayed north and west and
south of Doriath beyond the magic of Melian and were lost. Dairon
became separated from his comrades and wandered away into the East
of the world, where some say he pipes yet seeking Luthien in vain.
The embassy of Celegorm tells Thingol that Beren and Felagund
are dead, that Celegorm will make himself king of Narog, and while
telling him that Luthien is safe in Nargothrond and treating for her
hand, hints that she will not return: it also warns him to trouble not the
matter of the Silmarils. Thingol is wroth - and is moved to think better
of Beren, while yet blaming [him] for the woes that followed his
coming to Doriath, and most for loss of Dairon.
Thingol arms for war against Celegorm. Melian says she would
forbid this evil war of Elf with Elf, but that never shall Thingol cross
blade with Celegorm. Thingol's army meets with the host of Boldog on
the borders of Doriath. Morgoth has heard of the beauty of Luthien,
and the rumour of her wandering. He has ordered Thu and the Orcs to
capture her. A battle is fought and Thingol is victorious. The Orcs are
driven into Taur-na-Fuin or slain Thingol himself slays Boldog.
Mablung Heavyhand was Thingol's chief warrior and fought at his
side; Beleg was the chief of his scouts. Though victorious Thingol is
filled with still more disquiet at Morgoth's hunt for Luthien. Beleg
goes forth from the camp on Doriath's borders and journeys, unseen
by the archers, to Narog. He brings tidings of the flight of Luthien, the
rescue of Beren, and the exile of Celegorm and Curufin. He [read
Thingol] goes home and sends an embassy to Aglon to demand
recompense, and aid in the rescue of Luthien. He renews his vow to
imprison Beren for ever if he does not return with a Silmaril, though
Melian warns him that he knows not what he says.
The embassy meets the onslaught of Carcharos who by fate or the
power of the Silmaril bursts into Doriath. All perish save Mablung
who brings the news. Devastation of the woods. The wood-elves flee to
the caves.
13.
Beren and Luthien escape to the Shadowy Mountains, but become
lost and bewildered in the dreads of Nan Dungorthin, and are hunted
by phantoms, and snared at last by the great spiders. Huan rescues
them, and guides them down Sirion, and so they reach Doriath from
the south, and find the woods silent and empty till they come to the
guarded bridge.
Huan, Beren, and Luthien come before Thingol. They tell their
tale; yet Thingol will not relent. The brave words of Beren, revealing
the mystery of Carcharos. Thingol relents. The wolf-hunt is prepared.
Huan, Thingol, Beren, and Mablung depart. Luthien abides with
Melian in foreboding. Carcharos is slain, but slew Huan who defended
Beren. Yet Beren is mortally hurt, though he lived to place the Silmaril
on Thingol's hand which Mablung cut from the wolf's belly.
The meeting and farewell of Beren and Tinuviel beneath Hirilorn.
Burial of Huan and Beren.
14.
Fading of Luthien. Her journey to Mandos. The song of Luthien in
Mandos' halls, and the release of Beren. They dwelt long in Broseliand,
but spake never more to mortal Men, and Luthien became mortal.
This concludes all the material in the outlines. For the references to
Boldog's raid, and Morgoth's interest in Luthien, in the Lay itself see
lines 2127 - 36, 2686 - 94, 3198 - 3201, and 3665 - 75.
In Synopsis IV (p. 310) Boldog's raid takes place earlier in the story,
before the coming of Celegorm's embassy to Thingol, but its narrative
value is obscure. It is not clear why the raid must inform Thingol that
'Luthien not yet dead is caught', nor why he should conclude that
'Morgoth has got wind of her wandering'. Moreover the statement that
'actually it means no more than the legend of her beauty' can only mean
(if Morgoth had not heard of her wandering forth from Doriath) that he
sent out Boldog's warband with the express intention of seizing her from
the fastness of the Thousand Caves.
In Synopsis V the raid was moved to a later point, and the host out of
Doriath that destroyed Boldog was actually moving against Nargothrond-
In?he Silmarillion the embassy from Celegorm survived, but of Boldog's
raid there is no hint, and Thingol does no more than 'think to make war'
on Nargothrond:
But Thingol learned that Luthien had journeyed far from Doriath, for
messages came secretly from Celegorm,... saying that Felagund was
dead, and Beren was dead, but Luthien was in Nargothrond, and that
Celegorm would wed her. Then Thingol was wrathful, and he sent
forth spies, thinking to make war upon Nargothrond; and thus he
learned that Luthien was again fled, and that Celegorm and Curufin
were driven from Nargothrond. Then his counsel was in doubt, for he
had not the strength to assail the seven sons of Feanor; but he sent
messengers to Himring to summon their aid in seeking for Luthien,
since Celegorm had not sent her to the house of her father, nor had he
kept her safely (pp. 183 - 4).
The 'spies' of this passage were derived from Beleg's secret mission to
Nargothrond in Synopsis V (p. 311). It seems probable that my father
actually discarded Boldog's raid; and with it went all suggestion that
Luthien's wandering had been reported to Morgoth (cf. lines 3665 ff.)
and that Thu was given orders to capture her (Synopsis V). The passage
in Canto IX of the Lay (2686 - 94) where Thu recognised Luthien's voice
- or, at least, knew that it must be she who was singing - does not,
indeed, at all suggest that Thu was actively seeking her. These lines were
the source for the passage in The Silmarillion, where Sauron standing
in the tower of Tol-in-Gaurhoth
smiled hearing her voice, for he knew that it was the daughter of
Melian. The fame of the beauty of Luthien, and the wonder of her
song had long gone forth from Doriath; and he thought to make her
captive and hand her' over to the power of Morgoth, for his reward
would be great.
But the idea that the beauty and singing of Luthien had come to the ears
of Sauron survives from the stage when Morgoth's interest in her was an
important motive.
As noticed earlier (p. 209), the wandering and loss of Dairon goes back
to the Tale of Tinuviel (11. 20 - 1) and survived into The Silmarillion
(p. 183), where it is said that Daeron passed over the Blue Mountains
'into the East of Middle-earth, where for many ages he made lament
beside dark waters for Luthien'. Less is made in the later story of the
great hunt for Luthien, and nothing is said of the changing moods and
intentions of Thingol towards Beren referred to in Synopsis V. The
'political' element of the ambitions of Celegorm and Curufin and the
attempted browbeating and blackmail of Thingol is of course a new
element that first appears in the Synopses (other than the earlier refer-
ence in the Lay, 2501-3 to the brothers' intentions in this regard), since
the 'Nargothrond Element' is wholly absent from the Tale of Tinuviel;
and similarly the interception of the embassy from Thingol to Aglon by
Carcharoth, from which Mablung alone survived. This also remains in
The Silmarillion.
In Synopsis V, where the bearing away of Beren and Luthien from
Angband by Thorondor is not yet present, they flee from Angband
'towards the waters of Sirion' (p. 309), and (p. 312) 'escape to the
Shadowy Mountains, but become lost and bewildered in the dreads of,
Nan Dungorthin, and are hunted by phantoms, and snared at last by the
great spiders. Huan rescues them, and guides them down Sirion...' .
In the Tale likewise (II. 34 - 5), Huan rescued them from 'Nan
Dumgorthin'. This is a point of geography and shifting nomenclature of
great perplexity. I have shown (pp. 170-I, 234) that the meaning of
'Shadowy Mountains' changes in the course of the Lay of Leithian:
whereas at first (lines 386, 1318) the reference is to the Mountains
of Terror (Ered Gorgoroth), subsequently (line 1940) it is to Ered
Wethrin, the range fencing Hithlum. The Mountains of Terror, with the ?
great spiders, are described in lines 563 ff.
In the present passage of Synopsis V the statements that Beren and
Luthien escaping from Angband fled towards Sirion, and that Huan
rescuing them from Nan Dungorthin guided them down Sirion, very
strongly suggests that the Shadowy Mountains are here again, as might
be expected, Ered Wethrin. Nan Dungorthin must then be placed as in
The Children of Hurin, west of Sirion, in a valley of the southern slopes
of the Shadowy Mountains. But this means that the great spiders are
found in both places.
It is difficult to suggest a satisfactory explanation of this. A possibility
is that when Beren crossed the Mountains of Terror and encountered the
spiders (lines 569 - 74) 'Nan Dungorthin' was placed in that region,
though it is not named; in Synopsis V however it is again placed, with its
spiders, west of Sirion.
In the later story the eagles set Beren and Luthien down on the borders
of Doriath, and Huan came to them there.
In the conclusion of Synopsis V there is very little that is at variance
with the story of the wolf-hunt and the death of Beren in The Silmaril-
lion, so far as can be seen from the very compressed outline; but Beleg
was not present at the hunt in the Synopsis, as he was not in the Tale
(II. 38).
The sentence that concludes Synopsis IV is curious: 'The recall of
Beren and Huan' (p. 311). 'Recall' obviously refers to the return from
Mandos (the last heading of Synopsis I is 'Tinuviel goes to Mandos and
recalls Beren'); in which case my father must have intended to have
Huan return from the dead with Beren and Luthien. In the Tale of
Tinuviel Huan was not slain (II. 39), and there was no prophecy con-
cerning his fate to fall before the mightiest wolf that should ever walk the
world; but he became the companion of Mablung (II. 41), and in the
Tale of the Nauglafring he returned to Beren and Luthien in the land of
i-Guilwarthon after the death of Thingol and the sack of the Thousand
Caves.
*
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