The Lays of Beleriand (44 page)

Synopses I and II have virtually nothing here beyond the bare event (p. 270). In its emended form Synopsis III comes near to the final story of the 'wolfhame' and the parting from Huan (p. 272); and this outline continues:

Thangorodrim towers above them. There are rumblings, steam and vapours burst from fissures in the rock. Ten thousand smiths are hammering - they pass the vaults where the thrall-Gnomes are labouring without rest. The gloom sinks into their hearts.

This is remarkably close to the passage cited above from the Tale of Tinuviel.

Synopsis IV (p. 273) adds no more, for after 'They prepare to go to Angband' it continues with events in Doriath and the embassy to Thingol from Celegorm, which at this stage my father was 'going to introduce before the Angband adventure, and in this outline virtually nothing is said of that.

There remains Synopsis V, whose outline for Canto '10' has been given on p. 273 as far as 'One morning early Beren steals away on Curufin's horse and reaches the eaves of Taur-na-Fuin', and it is here that Beren's solitary departure first enters. This outline continues, still under the heading 'Canto 10':

There he looks upon Thangorodrim and sings a song of farewell to earth and light, and to Luthien. In the midst up come Luthien and Huan! With the hound's aid she has followed him; and moreover from the Wizard's Isle Huan has brought a wolf-ham and a bat-coat. [Struck throught at time of writing: Beren sets Luthien upon the horse and they ride through Taur-na-Fuin.*] Beren sets Curufin's horse to gallop free and he speeds away. Now Beren takes the shape of werewolf and Tinuviel of bat. Then Huan bids farewell. And speaks. No hound can walk with werewolf - more peril should I be than help in Morgoth's land. Yet what ye shall see at Angband's gate I perchance too shall see, though my fate doth not lead to those doors. Darkened is all hope, and dimmed my eyes, yet perchance I see thy paths leading from that place once more. Then he vanishes. They make a grievous journey. Thangorodrim looms over them,........ in its smoky foothills.

This ends the outline for 'Canto 10' in Synopsis V.

There is a notable difference in the structure of the story in the Lay from that in The Silmarillion (pp. 178 - g): in the Lay Huan is absent (gone to the Wizard's Isle for the wolfcoat and batskin) when Luthien finds Beren - she does not know where he has gone - but he comes up a little later; whereas in the prose account Huan and Luthien came together, and they were clad in 'the ghastly wolf-hame of Draugluin and the bat-fell of Thuringwethil' - an apparition that filled Beren with (* Beren must in fact have been on the northern edge of Taur-na-Fuin when Luthien and Huan came up with him, since 'he looks upon Thangorodrim'.) dismay. The story in The Silmarillion is a reversion, at least in so far as Huan and Luthien arrive together, to that of Synopsis V ('In the midst up come Luthien and Huan', p. 283).

In the Lay the bat-wings are only said to be such as bear up Thu's messengers, and are not associated with a particular or chief messenger (Thuringwethil, 'messenger of Sauron').

But the prose version in other respects follows that of the Lay closely, with as before retention of phrases ('between the desert and the wood',

'Thrice now I curse my oath', 'fingered wings... barbed at each joint's end', 'the bat wheeled and flittered above him'); and the speech of Huan is closely modelled on that in the Lay.

From Beren's words to the horse (3288 - 90)

get thee gone to Sirion's vale,

back as we came, past island pale

where Thu once reigned

it is clear that as in The Silmarillion 'he rode northward again with all speed to the Pass of Sirion, and coming to the skirts of Taur-nu-Fuin he looked out across the waste of Anfauglith'. It is not said in the Lay how Luthien and Huan came there, but in The Silmarillion 'clad in these dreadful garments' they 'ran through Taur-nu-Fuin, and all things fled before them'.

The Battle of Sudden Flame (lines 3256 ff.) has been described earlier in the Lay (lines 1678 ff.), but it has not been actually stated before that the northern plain was once green and grassy (3246 - 8), and became a desert after the 'rivers of fire... upon the plain burst forth'.

With Beren's words to Curufin's horse (3295 - 7): dream thee back in Valinor,

whence came of old thy mighty race

cf. The Silmarillion p. 119, where it is told that 'many of the sires' of the horses of the Noldor of Hithlum who rode on Ard-galen came from Valinor.

*

XII.

In that vast shadow once of yore

Fingolfin stood: his shield he bore

with field of heaven's blue and star 3540

of crystal shining pale afar.

In overmastering wrath and hate

desperate he smote upon that gate,

the Gnomish king, there standing lone,

while endless fortresses of stone 3545

engulfed the thin clear ringing keen

of silver horn on baldric green.

His hopeless challenge dauntless cried

Fingolfin there: 'Come, open wide,

dark king, your ghastly brazen doors! 3550

Come forth, whom earth and heaven abhors!

Come forth, 0 monstrous craven lord,

and fight with thine own hand and sword,

thou wielder of hosts of banded thralls,

thou tyrant leaguered with strong walls, 3555

thou foe of Gods and elvish race!

I wait thee here. Come! Show thy face! '

Then Morgoth came. For the last time

in those great wars he dared to climb

from subterranean throne profound, 3560

the rumour of his feet a sound

of rumbling earthquake underground.

Black-armoured, towering, iron-crowned

he issued forth; his mighty shield

a vast unblazoned sable field 3565

with shadow like a thundercloud;

and o'er the gleaming king it bowed,

as huge aloft like mace he hurled

that hammer of the underworld,

Grond. Clanging to ground it tumbled 3570

down like a thunder-bolt, and crumbled

the rocks beneath it; smoke up-started,

a pit yawned, and a fire darted.

Fingolfin like a shooting light

beneath a cloud, a stab of white, 3575

sprang then aside, and Ringil drew

like ice that gleameth cold and blue,

his sword devised of elvish skill

to pierce the flesh with deadly chill.

With seven wounds it rent his foe, 3580

and seven mighty cries of woe

rang in the mountains, and the earth quook,

and Angband's trembling armies shook.

Yet Orcs would after laughing tell

of the duel at the gates of hell; 3585

though elvish song thereof was made

ere this but one - when sad was laid

the mighty king in barrow high,

and Thorndor, Eagle of the sky,

the dreadful tidings brought and told 3590

to mourning Elfinesse of old.

Thrice was Fingolfin with great blows

to his knees beaten, thrice he rose

still leaping up beneath the cloud

aloft to hold star-shining, proud, 3595

his stricken shield, his sundered helm,

that dark nor might could overwhelm

till all the earth.was burst and rent

in pits about him. He was spent.

His feet stumbled. He fell to wreck 3600

upon the ground, and on his neck

a foot like rooted hills was set,

and he was crushed - not conquered yet;

one last despairing stroke he gave:

the mighty foot pale Ringil clave 3605

about the heel, and black the blood

gushed as from smoking fount in flood.

Halt goes for ever from that stroke

great Morgoth; but the king he broke,

and would have hewn and mangled thrown 3610

to wolves devouring. Lo! from throne

that Manwe bade him build on high,

on peak unscaled beneath the sky,

Morgoth to watch, now down there swooped

Thorndor the King of Eagles, stooped, 3615

and rending beak of gold he smote

in Bauglir's face, then up did float

on pinions thirty fathoms wide

bearing away, though loud they cried,

the mighty corse, the Elven-king; 3620

and where the mountains make a ring

far to the south about that plain

where after Gondolin did reign,

embattled city, at great height

upon a dizzy snowcap white 3625

in mounded cairn the mighty dead

he laid upon the mountain's head.

Never Orc nor demon after dared

that pass to climb, o'er which there stared

Fingolfin's high and holy tomb, 3630

till Gondolin's appointed doom.

Thus Bauglir earned the furrowed scar

that his dark countenance doth mar,

and thus his limping gait he gained;

but afterward profound he reigned 3635

darkling upon his hidden throne;

and thunderous paced his halls of stone,

slow building there his vast design

the world in thraldom to confine.

Wielder of armies, lord of woe, 3640

no rest now gave he slave or foe;

his watch and ward he thrice increased,

his spies were sent from West to East

and tidings brought from all the North,

who fought, who fell; who ventured forth, 3645

who wrought in secret; who had hoard;

if maid were fair or proud were lord;

well nigh all things he knew, all hearts

well nigh enmeshed in evil arts.

Doriath only, beyond the veil 3650

woven by Melian, no assail

could hurt or enter; only rumour dim

of things there passing came to him.

A rumour loud and tidings clear

of other movements far and near 3655

among his foes, and threat of war

from the seven sons of Feanor,

from Nargothrond, from Fingon still

gathering his armies under hill

and under tree in Hithlum's shade, 3660

these daily came. He grew afraid

amidst his power once more; renown

of Beren vexed his ears, and down

the aisled forests there was heard

great Huan baying.

Then came word 3665

most passing strange of Luthien

wild-wandering by wood and glen,

and Thingol's purpose long he weighed,

and wondered, thinking of that maid

so fair, so frail. A captain dire, 3670

Boldog, he sent with sword and fire

to Doriath's march; but battle fell

sudden upon him: news to tell

never one returned of Boldog's host,

and Thingol humbled Morgoth's boast. 3675

Then his heart with doubt and wrath was burned: new tidings of dismay he learned,

how Thu was o'erthrown and his strong isle

broken and plundered, how with guile

his foes now guile beset; and spies 3680

he feared, till each Orc to his eyes

was half suspect. Still ever down

the aisled forests came renown

of Huan baying, hound of war

that Gods unleashed in Valinor. 3685

Then Morgoth of Huan's fate bethought

long-rumoured, and in dark he wrought.

Fierce hunger-haunted packs he had

that in wolvish form and flesh were clad,

but demon spirits dire did hold; 3690

and ever wild their voices rolled

in cave and mountain where they housed

and endless snarling echoes roused.

From these a whelp he chose and fed

with his own hand on bodies dead, 3695

on fairest flesh of Elves and Men,

till huge he grew and in his den

no more could creep, but by the chair

of Morgoth's self would lie and glare,

nor suffer Balrog, Orc, nor beast 3700

to touch him. Many a ghastly feast

he held beneath that awful throne,

rending flesh and gnawing bone.

There deep enchantment on him fell,

the anguish and the power of hell; 3705

more great and terrible he became

with fire-red eyes and jaws aflame,

with breath like vapours of the grave,

than any beast of wood or cave,

than any beast of earth or hell 3710

that ever in any time befell,

surpassing all his race and kin,

the ghastly tribe of Draugluin.

Him Carcharoth, the Red Maw, name

the songs of Elves. Not yet he came 3715

disastrous, ravening, from the gates

of Angband. There he sleepless waits;

where those great portals threatening loom

his red eyes smoulder in the gloom,

his teeth are bare, his jaws are wide; 3720

and none may walk, nor creep, nor glide,

nor thrust with power his menace past

to enter Morgoth's dungeon vast.

Now, lo! before his watchful eyes

a slinking shape he far descries 3725

that crawls into the frowning plain

and halts at gaze, then on again

comes stalking near, a wolvish shape

haggard, wayworn, with jaws agape;

and o'er it batlike in wide rings 3730

a reeling shadow slowly wings.

Such shapes there oft were seen to roam,

this land their native haunt and home;

and yet his mood with strange unease