The Lays of Beleriand (35 page)

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 Timbrenting 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'ershadowed 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,