The Lays of Beleriand (45 page)

is filled, and boding thoughts him seize. 3735

'What grievous terror, what dread guard

hath Morgoth set to wait, and barred

his doors against all entering feet?

Long ways we have come at last to meet

the very maw of death that opes 3740

between us and our quest! Yet hopes

we never had. No turning back! '

Thus Beren speaks, as in his track

he halts and sees with werewolf eyes

afar the horror that there lies. 3745

Then onward desperate he passed,

skirting the black pits yawning vast,

where King Fingolfin ruinous fell

alone before the gates of hell.

Before those gates alone they stood, 3750

while Carcharoth in doubtful mood

glowered upon them, and snarling spoke,

and echoes in the arches woke:

'Hail! Draugluin, my kindred's lord!

'Tis very long since hitherward 3755

thou camest. Yea, 'tis passing strange

to see thee now: a grievous change

is on thee, lord, who once so dire,

so daunt1ess, and as fleet as fire,

ran over wild and waste, but now 3760

with weariness must bend and bow!

'Tis hard to find the struggling breath

when Huan's teeth as sharp as death

have rent the throat? What fortune rare

brings thee back living here to fare - 3765

if Draugluin thou art? Come near!

I would know more, and see thee clear.'

'Who art thou, hungry upstart whelp,

to bar my ways whom thou shouldst help?

I fare with hasty tidings new 3770

to Morgoth from forest-haunting Thu.

Aside! for I must in; or go

and swift my coming tell below! '

Then up that doorward slowly stood,

eyes shining grim with evil mood, 3775

uneasy growling: 'Draugluin,

if such thou be, now enter in!

But what is this that crawls beside,

slinking as if 'twould neath thee hide?

Though winged creatures to and fro 3780

unnumbered pass here, all I know.

I know not this. Stay, vampire, stay!

I like not thy kin nor thee. Come, say

what sneaking errand thee doth bring,

thou winged vermin, to the king! 3785

Small matter, I doubt not, if thou stay

or enter, or if in my play

I crush thee like a fly on wall,

or bite thy wings and let thee crawl.'

Huge-stalking, noisome, close he came. 3790

In Beren's eyes there gleamed a flame;

the hair upon his neck uprose.

Nought may the fragrance fair enclose,

the odour of immortal flowers

in everlasting spring neath showers 3795

that glitter silver in the grass

in Valinor. Where'er did pass

Tinuviel, such air there went.

From that foul devil-sharpened scent

its sudden sweetness no disguise 3800

enchanted dark to cheat the eyes

could keep, if near those nostrils drew

snuffling in doubt. This Beren knew

upon the brink of hell prepared

for battle and death. There threatening stared 3805

those dreadful shapes, in hatred both,

false Draugluin and Carcharoth

when, lo! a marvel to behold:

some power, descended from of old,

from race divine beyond the West, 3810

sudden Tinuviel possessed

like inner fire. The vampire dark

she flung aside, and like a lark

cleaving through night to dawn she sprang,

while sheer, heart-piercing silver, rang 3815

her voice, as those long trumpets keen

thrilling, unbearable, unseen

in the cold aisles of morn. Her cloak

by white hands woven, like a smoke,

like all-bewildering, all-enthralling, 3820

all-enfolding evening, falling

from lifted arms, as forth she stepped,

across those awful eyes she swept,

a shadow and a mist of dreams

wherein entangled starlight gleams. 3825

'Sleep, 0 unhappy, tortured thrall!

Thou woebegotten, fail and fall

down, down from anguish, hatred, pain,

from lust, from hunger, bond and chain,

to that oblivion, dark and deep, 3830

the well, the lightless pit of sleep!

For one brief hour escape the net,

the dreadful doom of life forget! '

His eyes were quenched, his limbs were loosed; he fell like running steer that noosed 3835

and tripped goes crashing to the ground.

Deathlike, moveless, without a sound

outstretched he lay, as lightning stroke

had felled a huge o'ershadowing oak.

NOTES.

3554. banded A, B; > branded B, but I think that the r was written in by somebody else.

3589. Thorndor emended to Thorondor in B, but I think that this was a late correction.

3606. pinned it to earth A, B; about the heel apparently a late emendation to B.

3615. Thorndor later emended to Thorondor in B, see 3589.

3623. after > secret B, a late emendation when Gondolin's foundation had been made much earlier.

3638-9. A: nor ever again to war came forth until the last battle of the North,

but builded slow his mighty thought

of pride and lust unfathomed wrought.

3650. Against this line is written the date 'Sep. 28'. The previous date was 27 Sept. 1930 against line 3478.

3658. Finweg A, B, emended to Fingon B, as at lines 1647, 1654.

3712 - 13. This couplet not in A, as originally written.

3714. A (as originally written):

Him Carcharos, the Knife-fang, name

Carcharos then > Carcharas, and then > Carcharoth (see notes to lines 3751, 3807). In the margin of A is written Red Natu, and Caras with another, illegible, word beginning Car-; also Gargaroth; and Fearphantom Draugluin is his name. This may mean that my father was thinking of using the name Draugluin for the Wolf of Angband, though Draugluin had by now appeared in the A-text (3401) for the great wolf of the Wizard's Isle.

3751. Carcharas A, not emended to Carcharoth (see note to 3714).

3790. Against this line is written the date 'Sep. 30 1930. The previous date was 28 Sept. 1930 against line 3650.

3807. Carcharoth A (rhyming with both); see notes to 3714, 3751.

Commentary on Canto XII.

The greater part of this Canto is retrospective: beginning with the death of Fingolfin in combat with Morgoth, it passes to Morgoth's doubts and fears and his rearing of Carcharoth. By this time (September 1930) a large part, at any rate, of the prose 'Silmarillion' developed out of the

'. 'Sketch of the Mythology' had been written, as I hope to demonstrate

, later, and it seems certain that the story of Fingolfin's duel with Morgoth

', as it appears in this Canto followed the prose version, though we meet it

: here for the first time (together with the names Grond, the Hammer of the Underworld, and Ringil, Fingolfin's sword). The text in The Silmarillion (pp. 153 - 4) was largely based on the Lay, which it follows in

,- the structure of the account and from which derive many phrases;* but

: independent traces of the 'prose tradition' are also present. The account in the poem gives no indication of when the duel took place, or of what led Fingolfin to challenge Morgoth. For the much earlier mention of Fingolfin's death (now very obscure, but certainly quite differently Conceived) see pp. 146-7.

The further mention in this Canto of Boldog's raid (lines 3665-75)

: will be discussed at the end of the poem (pp. 3IO - 13).

Turning to the 'foreground' narrative, a passage in Synopsis III

' already given (pp. 270-1) bears on the content of Canto XII: it was bracketed and marked '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.

Synopsis III continues from the point reached on p. 283: The hideous gates of Angband. There lay Carcharoth knifefang.

He gets slowly to his feet and bars the gate. 'Growl not 0 Wolf for I go to seek Morgoth with news of Thu.' He approached to snuff the air of (* For example: 'the rumour of his feet' (cf. line 3561); Morgoth 'like a tower, iron-crowned'(cf. 3563); he Grond down like a bolt of thunder' (cf 3571); smoke and fire darted' (cf. 3572 - 3); 'the blood gushed forth black and smoking' (cf. 3606 - 7); &c.) her, for faint suspicion moved in his wicked heart, and he fell into slumber.

The interpretation of the wolf's name as 'Knife-fang' goes back to the Tale of Tinuviel and survived into the A-text of the Lay (see note to line 3714), but was replaced in B by the translation 'Red Maw'. The words

'red maw' are used of Karkaras in the Tale, but not as his name (II. 34).

The idea of Carcharoth's approaching Luthien 'to snuff the air of her'

is also derived, in these same words, from the Tale (I I. 31).

Synopsis IV does not here concern us (see p. 283); Synopsis V, after the point reached on p. 283, now has a heading 'x x', and is clearly the basis for the story in Canto XII of the Lay:

[Added in pencil: Battle of Morgoth and Fingolfin.]

Morgoth hears of the ruin of Thu's castle. His mind is filled with misgiving and anger. The gates of Angband strengthened; because of the rumour of Huan he [struck out at time of writing: fashions the greatest] chooses the fiercest wolf from all the whelps of his packs, and feeds him on flesh of Men and Elves, and enchants him so that he becomes the most great and terrible of all beasts that ever have been -

Carcharos.

Beren and Luthien approach. [Added in pencil: the pitted plain of Fingolfin's fight.] The enchanting of Carcharos.

XIII.

Into the vast and echoing gloom, 3840

more dread than many-tunnelled tomb

in labyrinthine pyramid

where everlasting death is hid,

down awful corridors that wind

down to a menace dark enshrined; 3845

down to the mountain's roots profound,

devoured, tormented, bored and ground

by seething vermin spawned of stone;

down to the depths they went alone.

The arch behind of twilit shade 3850

they saw recede and dwindling fade;

the thunderous forges' rumour grew,

a burning wind there roaring blew

foul vapours up from gaping holes.

Huge shapes there stood like carven trolls 3855

enormous hewn of blasted rock

to forms that mortal likeness mock;

monstrous and menacing, entombed,

at every turn they silent loomed

in fitful glares that leaped and died. 3860

There hammers clanged, and tongues there cried with sound like smitten stone; there wailed

faint from far under, called and failed

amid the iron clink of chain

voices of captives put to pain. 3865

Loud rose a din of laughter hoarse,

self-loathing yet without remorse;

loud came a singing harsh and fierce

like swords of terror souls to pierce.

Red was the glare through open doors 3870

of firelight mirrored on brazen floors,

and up the arches towering clomb

to glooms unguessed, to vaulted dome

swathed in wavering smokes and steams

stabbed with flickering lightning-gleams. 3875

To Morgoth's hall, where dreadful feast

he held, and drank the blood of beast

and lives of Men, they stumbling came:

their eyes were dazed with smoke and flame.

The pillars, reared like monstrous shores 3880

to bear earth's overwhelming floors,

were devil-carven, shaped with skill

such as unholy dreams doth fill:

they towered like trees into the air,

whose trunks are rooted in despair, 3885

whose shade is death, whose fruit is bane,

whose boughs like serpents writhe in pain.

Beneath them ranged with spear and sword

stood Morgoth's sable-armoured horde:

the fire on blade and boss of shield 3890

was red as blood on stricken field.

Beneath a monstrous column loomed

the throne of Morgoth, and the doomed

and dying gasped upon the floor:

his hideous footstool, rape of war. 3895

About him sat his awful thanes,

the Balrog-lords with fiery manes,

redhanded, mouthed with fangs of steel;

devouring wolves were crouched at heel.

And o'er the host of hell there shone 3900

with a cold radiance, clear and wan,

the Silmarils, the gems of fate,

emprisoned in the crown of hate.

Lo! through the grinning portals dread

sudden a shadow swooped and fled; 3905

and Beren gasped - he lay alone,

with crawling belly on the stone:

a form bat-winged, silent, flew

where the huge pillared branches grew,

amid the smokes and mounting steams. 3910

And as on the margin of dark dreams

a dim-felt shadow unseen grows

to cloud of vast unease, and woes

foreboded, nameless, roll like doom

upon the soul, so in that gloom 3915

the voices fell, and laughter died

slow to silence many-eyed.

A nameless doubt, a shapeless fear,

had entered in their caverns drear,

and.grew, and towered above them cowed, 3920