The Lays of Beleriand (43 page)

upon the plain burst forth, and high

the red was mirrored in the sky.

From Hithlum's walls they saw the fire, 3260

the steam and smoke in spire on spire

leap up, till in confusion vast

the stars were choked. And so it passed,

the mighty field, and turned to dust,

to drifting sand and yellow rust, 3265

to thirsty dunes where many bones

lay broken among barren stones.

Dor-na-Fauglith, Land of Thirst,

they after named it, waste accurst,

the raven-haunted roofless grave 3270

of many fair and many brave.

Thereon the stony slopes look forth

from Deadly Nightshade falling north,

from sombre pines with pinions vast,

black-plumed and drear, as many a mast 3275

of sable-shrouded ships of death

slow wafted on a ghostly breath.

Thence Beren grim now gazes out

across the dunes and shifting drought,

and sees afar the frowning towers 3280

where thunderous Thangorodrim lowers.

The hungry horse there drooping stood,

proud Gnomish steed; it feared the wood;

upon the haunted ghastly plain

no horse would ever stride again. 3285

'Good steed of master ill,' he said,

'farewell now here! Lift up thy head,

and get thee gone to Sirion's vale,

back as we came, past island pale

where Thu once reigned, to waters sweet 3290

and grasses long about thy feet.

And if Curufin no more thou find,

grieve not! but free with hart and hind

go wander, leaving work and war,

and dream thee back in Valinor, 3295

whence came of old thy mighty race

from Tavros' mountain-fenced chase.'

There still sat Beren, and he sang,

and loud his lonely singing rang.

Though Orc should hear, or wolf a-prowl, 3300

or any of the creatures foul

within the shade that slunk and stared

of Taur-na-Fuin, nought he cared,

who now took leave of light and day,

grim-hearted, bitter, fierce and fey. 3305

'Farewell now here, ye leaves of trees,

your music in the morning-breeze!

Farewell now blade and bloom and grass

that see the changing seasons pass;

ye waters murmuring over stone, 3310

and meres that silent stand alone!

Farewell now mountain, vale, and plain!

Farewell now wind and frost and rain,

and mist and cloud, and heaven's air;

ye star and moon so blinding-fair 3315

that still shall look down from the sky

on the wide earth, though Beren die -

though Beren die not, and yet deep,

deep, whence comes of those that weep

no dreadful echo, lie and choke 3320

in everlasting dark and smoke.

'Farewell sweet earth and northern sky,

for ever blest, since here did lie,

and here with lissom limbs did run,

beneath the moon, beneath the sun, 3325

Luthien Tinuviel

more fair than mortal tongue can tell.

Though all to ruin fell the world,

and were dissolved and backward hurled

unmade into the old abyss, 3330

yet were its making good, for this -

the dawn, the dusk, the earth, the sea -

that Luthien on a time should be! '

His blade he lifted high in hand,

and challenging alone did stand 3335

before the threat of Morgoth's power;

and dauntless cursed him, hall and tower,

o'ershadowing hand and grinding foot,

beginning, end, and crown and root;

then turned to stride forth down the slope 3340

abandoning fear, forsaking hope.

'A, Beren, Beren! ' came a sound,

'almost too late have I thee found!

0 proud and fearless hand and heart,

not yet farewell, not yet we part! 3345

Not thus do those of elven race

forsake the love that they embrace.

A love is mine, as great a power

as thine, to shake the gate and tower

of death with challenge weak and frail 3350

that yet endures, and will not fail

nor yield, unvanquished were it hurled

beneath the foundations of the world.

Beloved fool! escape to seek

from such pursuit; in might so weak 3355

to trust not, thinking it well to save

from love thy loved, who welcomes grave

and torment sooner than in guard

of kind intent to languish, barred,

wingless and helpless him to aid 3360

for whose support her love was made!'

Thus back to him came Luthien:

they met beyond the ways of Men;

upon the brink of terror stood

between the desert and the wood. 3365

He looked on her, her lifted face

beneath his lips in sweet embrace:

'Thrice now mine oath I curse,' he said,

'that under shadow thee hath led!

But where is Huan, where the hound 3370

to whom I trusted, whom I bound

by love of thee to keep thee well

from deadly wandering unto hell? '

'I know not! But good Huan's heart

is wiser, kinder than thou art, 3375

grim lord, more open unto prayer!

Yet long and long I pleaded there,

until he brought me, as I would,

upon thy trail - a palfrey good

would Huan make, of flowing pace: 3380

thou wouldst have laughed to see us race,

as Orc on werewolf ride like fire

night after night through fen and mire,

through waste and wood! But when I heard

thy singing clear - (yea, every word 3385

of Luthien one rashly cried,

and listening evil fierce defied) -,

he set me down, and sped away;

but what he would I cannot say.'

Ere long they knew, for Huan came, 339

his great breath panting, eyes like flame,

in fear lest her whom he forsook

to aid some hunting evil took

ere he was nigh. Now there he laid

before their feet, as dark as shade, 3395

two grisly shapes that he had won

from that tall isle in Sirion:

a wolfhame huge - its savage fell

was long and matted, dark the spell

that drenched the dreadful coat and skin, 3400

the werewolf cloak of Draugluin;

the other was a batlike garb

with mighty fingered wings, a barb

like iron nail at each joint's end -

such wings as their dark cloud extend 3405

against the moon, when in the sky

from Deadly Nightshade screeching fly

Thu's messengers.

'What hast thou brought,

good Huan? What thy hidden thought?

Of trophy of prowess and strong deed, 3410

when Thu thou vanquishedst, what need

here in the waste?' Thus Beren spoke,

and once more words in Huan woke:

his voice was like the deeptoned bells

that ring in Valmar's citadels: 3415

'Of one fair gem thou must be thief,

Morgoth's or Thingol's, loath or lief;

thou must here choose twixt love and oath!

If vow to break is still thee loath,

then Luthien must either die 3420

alone, or death with thee defie

beside thee, marching on your fate

that hidden before you lies in wait.

Hopeless the quest, but not yet mad,

unless thou, Beren, run thus clad 3425

in mortal raiment, mortal hue,

witless and redeless, death to woo.

'Lo! good was Felagund's device,

but may be bettered, if advice

of Huan ye will dare to take, 3430

and swift a hideous change will make

to forms most cursed, foul and vile,

of werewolf of the Wizard's Isle,

of monstrous bat's envermined fell

with ghostly clawlike wings of hell. 3435

'To such dark straits, alas! now brought

are ye I love, for whom I fought.

Nor further with you can I go -

whoever did a great hound know

in friendship at a werewolf's side 3440

to Angband's grinning portals stride?

Yet my heart tells that at the gate

what there ye find, 'twill be my fate

myself to see, though to that door

my feet shall bear me nevermore. 3445

Darkened is hope and dimmed my eyes,

I see not clear what further lies;

yet maybe backwards leads your path

beyond all hope to Doriath,

and thither, perchance, we three shall wend, 3450

and meet again before the end.'

They stood and marvelled thus to hear

his mighty tongue so deep and clear;

then sudden he vanished from their sight

even at the onset of the night. 3455

His dreadful counsel then they took,

and their own gracious forms forsook;

in werewolf fell and batlike wing

prepared to robe them, shuddering.

With elvish magic Luthien wrought,

lest raiment foul with evil fraught

to dreadful madness drive their hearts;

and there she wrought with elvish arts

a strong defence, a binding power,

singing until the midnight hour. 3465

Swift as the wolvish coat he wore,

Beren lay slavering on the floor,

redtongued and hungry; but there lies

a pain and longing in his eyes,

a look of horror as he sees 3470

a batlike form crawl to its knees

and drag its creased and creaking wings.

Then howling undermoon he springs

fourfooted, swift, from stone to stone,

from hill to plain - but not alone: 3475

a dark shape down the slope doth skim,

and wheeling Hitters over him.

Ashes and dust and thirsty dune

withered and dry beneath the moon,

under the cold and shifting air 3480

sifting and sighing, bleak and bare;

of blistered stones and gasping sand,

of splintered bones was built that land,

o'er which now slinks with powdered fell

and hanging tongue a shape of hell. 3485

Many parching leagues lay still before

when sickly day crept back once more;

many choking miles yet stretched ahead

when shivering night once more was spread

with doubtful shadow and ghostly sound 3490

that hissed and passed o'er dune and mound.

A second morning in cloud and reek

struggled, when stumbling, blind and weak,

a wolvish shape came staggering forth

and reached the foothills of the North; 3495

upon its back there folded lay

a crumpled thing that blinked at day.

The rocks were reared like bony teeth,

and claws that grasped from opened sheath,

on either side the mournful road 3500

that onward led to that abode

far up within the Mountain dark

with tunnels drear and portals stark.

They crept within a scowling shade,

and cowering darkly down them laid. 3505

Long lurked they there beside the path,

and shivered, dreaming of Doriath,

of laughter and music and clean air,

in fluttered leaves birds singing fair.

They woke, and felt the trembling sound, 3510

the beating echo far underground

shake beneath them, the rumour vast

of Morgoth's forges; and aghast

they heard the tramp of stony feet

that shod with iron went down that street: 3515

the Orcs went forth to rape and war,

and Balrog captains marched before.

They stirred, and under cloud and shade

at eve stepped forth, and no more stayed;

as dart things on dark errand bent 3520

up the long slopes in haste they went.

Ever the sheer cliffs rose beside,

where birds of carrion sat and cried;

and chasms black and smoking yawned,

whence writhing serpent-shapes were spawned; 3525

until at last in that huge gloom,

heavy as overhanging doom,

that weighs on Thangorodrim's foot

like thunder at the mountain's root,

they came, as to a sombre court 3530

walled with great towers, fort on fort

of cliffs embattled, to that last plain

that opens, abysmal and inane,

before the final topless wall

of Bauglir's immeasurable hall, 3535

whereunder looming awful waits

the gigantic shadow of his gates.

NOTES.

3249-53. Cf. the opening of the Lay, lines 5 - 10.

3267. Against this line is written the date 'Sep. 26 1930'. The previous date was 25 Sept. 1930 at line 3220.

3297. Tavros > Tauros B: see notes to lines 891, 904; 2246.

3303. Taur-na-Fuin > Taur-nu-Fuin B (a late change).

3401. Draugluin appears here in the A-text (see p. 258).

3414-15. Cf. lines 2258 - 9.

3419-23. The shift from thee to your and you is intentional, and indicates that Huan now refers to both Beren and Luthien.

3478. Against this line is written the date 'Sep. 27 1930'.

Commentary on Canto XI.

The earliest version of the narrative of this Canto describes Tinuviel's sewing of Beren into the catskin of Oikeroi and teaching him some aspects of feline behaviour; she herself was not disguised. Very little is made of the journey to Angamandi, but the approach to the gates is described:

At length however they drew near to Angamandi, as indeed the rumblings and deep noises, and the sound of mighty hammerings of ten thousand smiths labouring unceasingly, declared to them. Nigh were the sad chambers where the thrall-Noldoli laboured bitterly under the Orcs and goblins of the hills, and here the gloom and darkness was great so that their hearts fell... (II. 31).