The Lays of Beleriand (17 page)

Yet if little they like thee, thou must look thereon helpless to hinder or thy hand to raise,

and thy lidless eyes lit with anguish

shall not shut for ever, shorn of slumber

like the Gods shall gaze there grim, tearless, on the might of Morgoth and the meed he deals to fools who refuse fealty gracious.'

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To Thangorodrim was the Thalion borne,

that mountain that meets the misty skies

on high over the hills that Hithlum sees

blackly brooding on the borders of the North.

There stretched on the stone of steepest peak in bonds unbreakable they bound him living;

there the lord of woe in laughter stood,

there cursed him for ever and his kindred all that should walk and wander in woe's shadow

to a doom of death and dreadful end.

There the mighty man unmoved sat,

but unveiled was his vision that he viewed afar with eyes enchanted all earthly things,

and the weird of woe woven darkly

that fell on his folk -- a fiend's torment.

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*

NOTES.

14. After this line IIB had the following:

how the golden dragon of the God of darkness

wrought wrack and ruin in realms now lost --

only the mighty of soul, of Men or Elves,

doom can conquer, and in death only.

These lines were struck out in I IB, and do not appear in I IC, I ID.

19. Cf. I. 1975:

where Finweg fell in flame of swords

with Finweg > Fingon a later pencilled change in IB. All the texts of II have Finweg (IIA Fingmeg), but Fingon appears in a late pencilled emendation to I ID.

26. Nirnaith Unoth IIB, IIC; Nirnaith Ornoth IID, emended in pencil to Nirnaith Arnediad. For Unoth, Ornoth in the first version see p. 79, notes to lines 1448, 1542 -- 3. I read Ornoth here, since Arnediad is a form that arose much later.

27 All the texts of II have the chosen chieftains of the children of Men, but IID is emended in pencil to the seven chieftains of the sons of Men.

49. Fingolfin's son: see p. 21, note to line 29.

Feanor's children I ID; and Feanor's children IIA, B, C.

76. 'Is it dauntless Hurin,' quoth Delu-Morgoth IIB, as in IB

(line 51).

157. as a captain among them I IB as typed. Cf line 165.

Commentary on Part I

of the second version.

This part has been expanded to two and a half times its former length, partly through the introduction of descriptions of Angband (42 -- 5, 105 -- 15) -- to be greatly enlarged some years later in the Lay of Leithian, and of Hurin's last stand (51 -- 61), but chiefly through the much extended account of Morgoth's dealings with Hurin, his attempted seduc-tion of 'the Thalion', and his great rage (not found at all in the first version) at his failure to break his will. The rewritten scene is altogether fiercer, the sense of lying, brutality, and pain (and the heroic power of Hurin's resistance) much stronger.

There are some interesting details in this opening section. Hurin's dark hair (88) has been referred to above (p. 92). The thane of Morgoth who smote him on the mouth (version I, 59) now becomes Lungorthin, Lord of Balrogs (96) -- which is probably to be interpreted as 'a Balrog lord', since Gothmog, Lord or Captain of the Balrogs in The Fall of Condolin, soon reappears in the 'Silmarillion' tradition. Notable is the passage (88 -- 94) in which Hurin, thrusting back his long hair, looked into Morgoth's eye, and his mind in a mist of dark... groped and foundered: the originator of the power of the eye of Glorund his servant, which this poem did not reach.

A line that occurs much later in the first version (1975) where Finweg [> Fingon] fell in flame of swords is introduced here (19), and there is mention also of his white banners... in blood beaten, and his blazing helm: this is ultimately the origin of the passage in?he Silmarillion (pp. 193-4): a white flame sprang up from the helm of Fingon as it was cloven...

they beat him into the dust with their maces, and his banner, blue and silver, they trod into the mire of his blood.

At line 26 is the first occurrence of Nirnaith Arnediad, but this is a hasty pencilled change to the last text (I ID) and belongs to a later phase of nomenclature.

It is said that Turgon guided seven kindreds (67) out of the battle; in the tale of TheFall of Condolin there were twelve kindreds of the Gondothlim.

Hurin is named the Prince of Mithrim (37), and his men the Men of Mithrim (59). This may suggest that the meaning of Mithrim, hitherto the name of the lake only, was being extended to the region in which the lake lay; on the earliest 'Silmarillion' map, however, this is not suggested.

The land of Mithrim occurs at line 248, but the phrase was changed.

The passage in the first version (46 -- 50) saying that Morgoth remembered well

how Men were accounted all mightless and frail by the Elves and their kindred; how only treason could master the magic whose mazes wrapped

the children of Corthun

is changed in the second (118 -- 24) to

Lo! Morgoth remembered the mighty doom,

the weird of old, that the Elves in woe,

in ruin and wrack by the reckless hearts

of mortal Men should be meshed at last;

that treason alone of trusted friend

should master the magic whose mazes wrapped

the children of Cor

There has been no reference in the Lost Tales to any such ancient 'doom'

or 'weird'. It is possible that the reference to 'treason' is to the 'Prophecy of the North', spoken by Mandos or his messenger as the host of the Noldor moved northward up the coast of Valinor after the Kinslaying (The Silmarillion pp. 87 -- 8); in the earliest version of this, in the tale of The Flight of the Noldoli (I. 167), there is no trace of the idea, but it is already explicit in the 1930 Silmarillion' that the Gnomes should pay for the deeds at Swanhaven in 'treachery and the fear of treachery among their,own kindred'. On the other hand, to the mighty doom, the weird of old is ascribed also the ultimate ruin of the Elves which is to come to pass through Men; and this is not found in any version of the Prophecy of the North. This passage in the revised version of the poem is echoed in the same scene in the 1930 Silmarillion'.

Afterward Morgoth remembering that treachery or the fear of it, and especially the treachery of Men, alone would work the ruin of the Gnomes, came to Hurin...

TURIN'S FOSTERING

Lo! the lady Morwen in the land of shadow

waited in the woodland for her well-beloved,

but he came never to clasp her nigh

from that black battle. She abode in vain;

no tidings told her whether taken or dead

or lost in flight he lingered yet.

Laid waste his lands and his lieges slain,

and men unmindful of that mighty lord

in Dorlomin dwelling dealt unkindly

with his wife in widowhood; she went with child, and a son must succour sadly orphaned,

Turin Thalion of tender years.

In days of blackness was her daughter born,

and named Nienor, a name of tears

that in language of eld is Lamentation.

Then her thoughts were turned to Thingol the Elf, and Luthien the lissom with limbs shining,

his daughter dear, by Dairon loved,

who Tinuviel was named both near and far,

the Star-mantled, still remembered,

who light as leaf on linden tree

had danced in Doriath in days agone,

on the lawns had lilted in the long moonshine, 250

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while deftly was drawn Dairon's music

with fingers fleet from flutes of silver.

The boldest of the brave, Beren Ermabwed,

to wife had won her, who once of old

had vowed fellowship and friendly love

with Hurin of Hithlum, hero dauntless

by the marge of Mithrim's misty waters.

Thus to her son she said: 'My sweetest child, our friends are few; thy father is gone.

Thou must fare afar to the folk of the wood,

where Thingol is throned in the Thousand Caves.

If he remember Morwen and thy mighty sire

he will foster thee fairly, and feats of arms, the trade he will teach thee of targe and sword, that no slave in Hithlum shall be son of Hurin.

A! return my Turin when time passeth;

remember thy mother when thy manhood cometh

or when sorrows snare thee.' Then silence took her, for fears troubled her trembling voice.

Heavy boded the heart of Hurin's son,

who unwitting of her woe wondered vaguely,

yet weened her words were wild with grief

and denied her not; no need him seemed.

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Lo! Mailrond and Halog, Morwen's henchmen,

were young of yore ere the youth of Hurin,

and alone of the lieges of that lord of Men

now steadfast in service stayed beside her:

now she bade them brave the black mountains

and the woods whose ways wander to evil;

though Turin be tender, to travail unused,

they must gird them and go. Glad they were not, but to doubt the wisdom dared not openly

of Morwen who mourned when men saw not.

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Came a day of summer when the dark silence

of the towering trees trembled dimly

to murmurs moving in the milder airs

far and faintly; flecked with dancing

sheen of silver and shadow-filtered

sudden sunbeams were the secret glades

where winds came wayward wavering softly

warm through the woodland's woven branches.

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Then Morwen stood, her mourning hidden,

by the gate of her garth in a glade of Hithlum; at her breast bore she her babe unweaned,

crooning lowly to its careless ears

a song of sweet and sad cadence,

lest she droop for anguish. Then the doors opened, and Halog hastened neath a heavy burden,

and Mailrond the old to his mistress led

her gallant Turin, grave and tearless,

with heart heavy as stone hard and lifeless,

uncomprehending his coming torment.

There he cried with courage, comfort seeking:

'Lo! quickly will I come from the court's afar, I will long ere manhood lead to Morwen

great tale of treasure and true comrades.'

He wist not the weird woven of Morgoth,

nor the sundering sorrow that them swept between, as farewells they took with faltering lips.

The last kisses and lingering words

are over and ended; and empty is the glen

in the dark forest, where the dwelling faded

in trees entangled, Then in Turin woke

to woe's knowledge his bewildered heart,

that he wept blindly awakening echoes

sad resounding in sombre hollows,

as he called: 'I cannot, I cannot leave thee.

0! Morwen my mother, why makest me go?

The hills are hateful, where hope is lost;

0! Morwen my mother, I am meshed in tears,

for grim are the hills and my home is gone.'

And there came his cries calling faintly

down the dark alleys of the dreary trees,

that one there weeping weary on the threshold heard how the hills said 'my home is gone.'

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***

o'er the hills of Hithlum to the hidden kingdom deep in the darkness of Doriath's forest,

and never ere now for need or wonder

had children of Men chosen that pathway,

save Beren the brave who bounds knew not

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to his wandering feet nor feared the woods

or fells or forest or frozen mountain,

and few had followed his feet after.

There was told to Turin that tale by Halog

that in the Lay of Leithian, Release from Bonds, in linked words has long been woven,

of Beren Ermabwed, the boldhearted;

how Luthien the lissom he loved of yore

in the enchanted forest chained with wonder --

Tinuviel he named her, than nightingale

more sweet her voice, as veiled in soft

and wavering wisps of woven dusk

shot with starlight, with shining eyes

she danced like dreams of drifting sheen,

pale-twinkling pearls in pools of darkness;

how for love of Luthien he left the woods

on that quest perilous men quail to tell,

thrust by Thingol o'er the thirst and terror

of the Lands of Mourning; of Luthien's tresses, and Melian's magic, and the marvellous deeds

that after happened in Angband's halls,

and the flight o'er fell and forest pathless

when Carcharoth the cruel-fanged,

the wolf-warden of the Woeful Gates,

whose vitals fire devoured in torment

them hunted howling (the hand of Beren

he had bitten from the wrist where that brave one held the nameless wonder, the Gnome-crystal

where light living was locked enchanted,

all hue's essence. His heart was eaten,

and the woods were filled with wild madness

in his dreadful torment, and Doriath's trees

did shudder darkly in the shrieking glens);

how the hound of Hithlum, Huan wolf-bane,

to the hunt hasted to the help of Thingol,

and as dawn came dimly in Doriath's woods

was the slayer slain, but silent lay

there Beren bleeding nigh brought to death,

till the lips of Luthien . in love's despair

awoke him to words, ere he winged afar

to the long awaiting; thence Luthien won him, the Elf-maiden, and the arts of Melian,

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her mother Mablui of the moonlit hand,

that they dwell for ever in days ageless

and the grass greys not in the green forest

where East or West they ever wander.