The Lays of Beleriand (25 page)

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 commentaries 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 exceptionally 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 remarkable, 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.