The Lays of Beleriand (40 page)

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 werewolf 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 companions 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 phantom 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.