The Lays of Beleriand (32 page)

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 typescript 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.