The Lays of Beleriand (42 page)

Synopsis II continues from the point reached on p. 257 as follows: Luthien tends Beren in the wood. Huan brings news to Nargothrond.

The Gnomes drive forth Curufin and Celegorm, grieving for Felagund, and send the cloak back to Luthien. Luthien takes her cloak again and led by Huan they go to Angband. By his guidance and her magic they escape capture. Huan dare not come any further. Beren is disguised as a werewolf. They enter Angband.

The sentences 'and send the cloak back to Luthien. Luthien takes her cloak again' were changed at the time of writing to read: 'and send to succour Beren and Luthien. Huan brings Luthien back her cloak again.'

(This outline was written of course before my father reached Canto VIII, at the end of which Huan brought Luthien her cloak before she escaped from Nargothrond.)

Here Synopsis 11 ends. At the bottom of the page is written very roughly:

Celegorm's embassy to Thingol so that Thingol knows or thinks he knows Beren dead and Luthien in Nargothrond.

Why Celegorm and Curufin hated by Thingol ..

The loss of Dairon.

While the expulsion of Celegorm and Curufin from Nargothrond is now first mentioned, it is clear that the story of their attack on Beren and Luthien did not exist. Huan brings the news of the destruction of the Wizard's Tower, but it seems that he does not leave Nargothrond with Celegorm and brings back the cloak to Luthien independently.

Synopsis III has been given on p. 257 to the point where Luthien and Huan find Beren 'sitting beside Felagund'. I give the next portion of this outline as it was first written:

They hallow the isle and bury Felagund on its top, and no wolf or evil creature will ever come there again. Beren is led into the woods.

[The following sentence was bracketed with a marginal direction that it should come later: Morgoth hearing of the breaking of the Wizard's Tower sends out an army of Orcs; finding the wolves are slain with...... throats he thinks it is Huan and fashions a vast wolf -

Carcharas - mightiest of all wolves to guard his door.]

They hide in Taur-na-Fuin careful not to lose sight of light at edge.

Luthien bids Beren desist. He cannot, he says, return to Doriath.

Then, she says, she will live in the woods with Beren and Huan. But he has spoken his word; he has vowed not to fear Morgoth... hell. Then she says [that she] fears that their lives will all be forfeit. But life perchance lies after death. Where Beren goes she goes. This gives him pause. They ask Huan. He speaks for second and last time. 'No more may Huan go with you - what you see at the gate, he will see later - his fate does not lead to Angband. Perchance, though his eyes are dim,

[?thy] paths lead out of it again.' He goes to Nargothrond. They will not return to Nargothrond with him.

Luthien and Beren leave Taur-na-Fuin and wander about together a while. Longing to look on Doriath seizes her and Beren thinks of the quest unaccomplished. Beren offers to lead her to the borders of Doriath, but they cannot bear to part.

They go to the Wizard's Isle and take a 'wolf-ham' and a bat-robe.

Thus they trembling inwardly set forth. The journey to Angband over Dor-na-Fauglith and into the dark ravines of the hills.

Here first appears the burial of Felagund on the summit of the isle, and its hallowing. This outline makes no mention of the events in Nargothrond, and concentrates exclusively on Beren and Luthien. They are in Taur-na-Fuin, and Huan is with them; and we have the first version of Huan's counsel to them, and his foreseeing that what they meet at the Gate of Angband he will himself see later. Since the attack by Celegorm and Curufin had still not been devised, the story is briefer than it was to become; thus Huan speaks to them in Taur-na-Fuin soon after the destruction of the Wizard's Tower, and then departs to Nargothrond, while they after a while go to the Isle and take the 'wolf-ham' ('wolf-hame'

in The Silmarillion p. 178, Old English hama) and 'bat-robe', which now first appear (though the 'wolf-hame' derives from the catskin of Oikeroi in the Tale). From the words 'They will not return to Nargothrond with him' and from the fact that as the outline was written he is not mentioned again, it is clear that Huan was now out of the story (until his reappearance in a later episode). His speech is here called 'the second and last time' that he spoke with words. Afterwards the story was changed in this point, for he spoke to Beren a third time at his death (see note to line 2551).

Pencilled changes were made to this passage of Synopsis III, and these move the narrative a long way to the final version: They hallow the isle and bury Felagund on its top, and no wolf or evil creature will ever come there again.

Luthien and Beren leave Taur-na-Fuin and wander about together a while. Longing to look on Doriath seizes her and Beren thinks of the quest unaccomplished. Beren offers to lead her to the borders of Doriath, but they cannot bear to part.

News by captives and Huan is brought to Nargothrond. Celegorm and Curufin in a revulsion of feeling the Nargothronders wish to slay them. Orodreth will not. They are exiled and all Feanorians from Nargothrond for ever. They ride off. Assault of Celegorm and Curufin in wood on Beren and Luthien. Rescue by Huan. Beren wrestles with Curufin and gets his magic knife - [eight further words illegible]

Huan brings them a wolf-ham. Thus they trembling inwardly set forth. Huan speaks for last time and says farewell. He will not come.

The journey to Angband, &c.

Here more is told of the expulsion of Celegorm and Curufin from Nargothrond, and Orodreth's refusal to allow them to be slain, and here at last is mention - probably written here at the very time of its devising -

of the attack on Beren and Luthien as the Feanorians rode from Nargothrond. The desertion of Celegorm by Huan is implied; Beren gets Curufin's knife, which is to replace the knife from Tevildo's kitchens as the implement with which Beren cut the Silmaril from the Iron Crown; and it is Huan who gets the wolfskin, and then utters his parting speech.

An extremely difficult page in pencil ('Synopsis IV') shows these new elements being developed further:

Beren's heart grows sad. He says he has led Tinuviel back to the border of her land where she is safe. Alas for their second parting. She says but from this land she herself escaped and fled only to be with him - yet she admits that her heart longs for Doriath and Melian too, but not Doriath without him. He quotes his own words to Thingol: 'Not Morgoth's fire &c.' - and says he cannot (even if Thingol would allow) return emptyhanded..... she will not go back. She will wander in the woods - and if he will not take her with him she will follow his feet against his will. He protests - at this moment Celegorm and Curufin ride up seeking the way North [struck out at time of writing: round Doriath by the Gorgoroth] between Doriath and Taur-na-Fuin to the Gorge of Aglon and their own kin.

They ride straight on and seek to ride Beren down. Curufin stoops and lifts Luthien to his saddle. Beren leaps aside and leaps at Curufin's neck [?hurling] him down. Celegorm with his spear rides up to slay Beren. Huan intervenes scattering the [?brothers'] folk and dogs and holds Celegorm at bay while Beren wrestles with Curufin and chokes him senseless. Beren takes his weapons - especially his magic knife, and bids him get on horse and be gone. They ride off. Huan stays with Beren and Luthien and forsakes his master [?for ever]. Celegorm suddenly turns and shoots an arrow at Huan which of course falls harmless from him, but Curufin shoots at Beren (and Luthien)

[changed to: shoots at Luthien] and wounds Beren.

Luthien heals Beren. They tell Huan of their doubts and debate and he goes off and brings the wolfham and batskin from the Wizard's Isle.

Then he speaks for the last time.

They prepare to go to Angband.

This was certainly prepared as an outline for Canto 10 of the Lay, for the section of the synopsis that follows is headed '11'.

There is here the further development that Beren and Luthien have come to the borders of Doriath; but the solitary departure of Beren after his healing, leaving Luthien with Huan, has still not emerged. There are a few differences in the account of the fight with Celegorm and Curufin from the final form, but for the most part the detail of the events was never changed from its first writing down (as I believe it to be) on this page. There is here no mention of Beren's taking Curufin's horse, on which he was later to ride north by himself to Anfauglith; and the detail of the shooting is different - in the synopsis Celegorm aimed at Huan, and Curufin (who seems to have retained his bow, though Beren took all his weapons) at (Beren and) Luthien. There is also mention of 'folk'

accompanying the brothers on their journey from Nargothrond.

In this outline is the first occurrence of the name Gorgoroth.

There is one further outline ('Synopsis V'), consisting of four pages that are the concluding part of a text of which the beginning has disappeared: it begins with a heading '10 continued', which is certainly a Canto number, though the content extends much beyond the end of Canto X in the Lays.* The text takes up with the healing of Beren's wound.

Huan brings a herb of healing, and Luthien and the hound tend Beren in the forest, building a hut of boughs. Beren mending will still go on his quest. But Luthien foretells that all their lives will be forfeit if they pursue. Beren will not go back to Doriath otherwise. Nor will he or Huan go to Nargothrond, or keep Luthien in Thingol's despite, for war would certainly arise twixt Elf and Elf, [?even] if Orodreth harboured them. 'Then why shall we not dwell here in the wood?' saith Luthien. Because of danger outside Doriath, and the Orcs, and the knowledge Morgoth must now possess of Luthien's wandering.

One morning early Beren steals away on Curufin's horse and reaches the eaves of Taur-na-Fuin.

Here at last is the element of Beren's solitary departure.

(* It is also possible that '10 continued' means only that my father began Synopsis V at this point, i.e. he had already reached about line 3117 in the actual composition of the Lay when be began the outline.)

The casting out of Celegorm and Curufin from Nargothrond in the Lay is very closely followed in The Silmarillion (even to phrases, as

'neither bread nor rest'); in the Lay, however, there are some who will go with them (lines 29 I 4 - 15), a detail found in Synopsis IV, whereas in The Silmarillion it is explicit that they went alone.*

The debate between Beren and Luthien which was interrupted by the coming of Celegorm and Curufin (lines 2930 - 82) is clearly based on the scheme of it given in Synopsis IV (p. 272); in The Silmarillion it reappears, though much reduced and changed. The fight with Celegorm and Curufin is likewise derived from Synopsis IV, and is followed in the prose of The Silmarillion - with such detail as the cursing of Beren

'under cloud and sky', and Curufin's knife that would cut iron as if it were green wood, hanging sheathless by his side. In the Lay the knife becomes a dwarf-made weapon from Nogrod, though neither it nor its maker is yet named. In the Lay the shooter of the treacherous shafts is Celegorm; in The Silmarillion it is Curufin, using Celegorm's bow, and the vile act is settled on the wickeder (as he was certainly also the cleverer) of the brothers - in this Canto he is given the proper visage of a cunning villain: .

'with his crafty mouth and thin' (2905). The reference of line 3103 'and Men remembered at the Marching Forth' is to the Union of Maidros before the Battle of Unnumbered Tears.

The second debate between Beren and Luthien after his recovery from the wound is derived from Synopsis V; it is not present at all in The Silmarillion, though it is not without its importance in its representation of Beren's utter determination in the face of Luthien's persuasions to abandon the quest.

Two new elements in the geography appear in this Canto: the Hill of Himling (later Himring) rising to the east of the Gorge of Aglon (2994), and the river Mindeb: lines 2924 - 5 (and the rewritten verses given on p. 360) seem to be the only description of it anywhere.

The curious element of Morgoth's particular interest in Luthien (so that he sent the Orc-captain Boldog to Doriath to capture her, lines 2127 - 36) reappears in this Canto (3I98 - 3201).

At the beginning of the Canto the burial of Felagund leads to a further reference to his fate after death without mention of Mandos (see p. 259): while Felagund laughs beneath the trees

in Valinor, and comes no more

to this grey world of tears and war.

*

(* The reference in The Silmarillion to Celebrimbor son of Curufin remaining in Nargothrond at this time and renouncing his father was a much later development.) XI.

Once wide and smooth a plain was spread,

where King Fingolfin proudly led

his silver armies on the green,

his horses white, his lances keen;

his helmets tall of steel were hewn, 3250

his shields were shining as the moon.

There trumpets sang both long and loud,

and challenge rang unto the cloud

that lay on Morgoth's northern tower,

while Morgoth waited for his hour. 3255

Rivers of fire at dead of night

in winter lying cold and white