The Lays of Beleriand (33 page)

1496. Nan B] Nann A (but Nan in the original draft).

1549-50. Cf. lines 406- 7.

1563. Hirilorn B] Hiradorn A. See note to line 1358.

Commentary on Canto V.

The plot-outline 'Synopsis I' covering the narrative of this Canto is very slight:

Mourning of Tinuviel.

Treachery of Dairon.

Building of the Tree House in Hirilorn.

Escape of Tinuviel.

[Added in: Repentance, wandering, and loss of Dairon.]

The wandering and loss of Dairon goes back to the Tale of Tinuviel (II. 20 - 1) and survived into The Silmarillion (p. 183), but there is no

:- other mention of his 'repentance' (though this is perhaps implied in the

: Lay, lines 1398ff.)

In my commentary on the passage in the Tale of Tinuviel corresponding to this Canto I remarked (II. 54) that

the story of her imprisonment in the house in Hirilorn and her escape from it never underwent any significant change. The passage in The Silmarillion (p. 172) is indeed very brief, but its lack of detail is due to compression rather than to omission based on dissatisfaction; the Lay of Leithian, from which the prose account in The Silmarillion directly derives, is in this passage so close, in point of narrative detail, to the Tale of Tinuviel as to be almost identical with it.

:, There is little to add to this here. In one respect the narrative of the Lay is at variance with the story told in The Silmarillion. What was 'the curse of silence' (1207)? It was due to Dairon (848 - 53). In a preliminary, soon abandoned draft for the 'Silmarillion' version, where the story was to be told far more amply (by following the Lay more closely) the matter is

: made more explicit:

But Dairon haunted the trees and watched them from afar; and he cried aloud in the bitterness of his heart: 'Hateful is now become the land that I loved, and the trees misshapen. No more shall music here be heard. Let all voices fail in Doriath, and in every dale and upon every hill let the trees stand silent! ' And there was a hush and a great stillness; and Thingol's folk were filled with wonder. And they spoke to their king, asking what was the reason of the silence.

: Dairon's 'curse' was lifted after Beren's departure, although Luthien no

:. longer sang and Dairon no longer piped. This is in contrast to ?he Silmarillion (p. 168), where after Beren went Luthien was silent, and from that hour she sang not again in Doriath.

A brooding silence fell upon the woods.

For the names in the 'lengthening spell' see II. 67 - 8. A new element among the 'longest things' is introduced in the version in the Lay, the peaks above Angband (1491 - 2); and in B the name of the great Dragon becomes Glomund. The chain with which Morgoth was bound, Angaino/Angainu in the Last Tales, becomes Angainor; but it is curious that in the Lay it is only spoken of as a punishment awaiting Morgoth in the future (ere Doom, 1493), whereas in the old story of The Chaining of Melko (I. 104) it was the shackle with which he was taken prisoner in the original war that led to his captivity in Valinor, and this survived in The Silmarillion (p. 51): at the end of the Elder Days 'he was bound with the chain Angainor which he had worn aforetime' (ibid.

P- 252).

New elements in the story that have yet to appear in the actual narrative of the Lay are seen in Draugluin, replacing in B Carcharas of A in the 'lengthening spell' (thus Carcharas is no longer the 'father of wolves', see II. 68), and in Melian's reference to Beren's lying in the dungeons of the Lord of Wolves (1246).

Luthien's dream in which she heard Beren's voice far off is still ascribed, as it was in the Tale, to the Gods, if less positively (a dream there came, from the Gods, maybe, /or Melian's magic, 1414-15); see II. 19, 68. But the passage is marked in B, perhaps indicating dissatisfaction with the idea.

There is curious detail in a marginal note to the B-text. At some time (as I think) long afterwards someone unknown wrote against lines 133 I-6: 'Thingol is here being rather obtuse', and against this remark my father scribbled: 'But he could not believe she loved Beren - unless some evil spell had somehow been laid on her.'

VI.

When Morgoth in that day of doom

had slain the Trees and filled with gloom 1585

the shining land of Valinor,

there Feanor and his sons then swore

the mighty oath upon the hill

of tower-crowned Tun, that still

wrought wars and sorrow in the world. 1590

From darkling seas the fogs unfurled

their blinding shadows grey and cold

where Glingal once had bloomed with gold

and Belthil bore its silver flowers.

The mists were mantled round the towers 1595

of the Elves' white city by the sea.

There countless torches fitfully

did start and twinkle, as the Gnomes

were gathered to their fading homes,

and thronged the long and winding stair 1600

that led to the wide echoing square.

There Feanor mourned his jewels divine,

the Silmarils he made. Like wine

his wild and potent words them fill;

a great host harkens deathly still. 1605

But all he said both wild and wise,

half truth and half the fruit of lies

that Morgoth sowed in Valinor,

in other songs and other lore

recorded is. He bade them flee 1610

from lands divine, to cross the sea,

the pathless plains, the perilous shores

where ice-infested water roars;

to follow Morgoth to the unlit earth

leaving their dwellings and olden mirth; 1615

to go back to the Outer Lands

to wars and weeping. There their hands

they joined in vows, those kinsmen seven,

swearing beneath the stars of Heaven,

by Varda the Holy that them wrought 1620

and bore them each with radiance fraught

and set them in the deeps to flame.

Timbrenting's holy height they name,

whereon are built the timeless halls

of Manwe Lord of Gods. Who calls 1625

these names in witness may not break

his oath, though earth and heaven shake.

Curufin, Celegorm the fair,

Damrod and Diriel were there,

and Cranthir dark, and Maidros tall 1630

(whom after torment should befall),

and Maglor the mighty who like the sea

with deep voice sings yet mournfully.

'Be he friend or foe, or seed defiled

of Morgoth Bauglir, or mortal child 1635

that in after days on earth shall dwell,

no law, nor love, nor league of hell,

not might of Gods, not moveless fate

shall him defend from wrath and hate

of Feanor's sons, who takes or steals 1640

or finding keeps the Silmarils,

the thrice-enchanted globes of light

that shine until the final night.'

The wars and wandering of the Gnomes

this tale tells not. Far from their homes 1645

they fought and laboured in the North.

Fingon daring alone went forth

and sought for Maidros where he hung;

in torment terrible he swung,

his wrist in band of forged steel, 1650

from a sheer precipice where reel

the dizzy senses staring down

from Thangorodrim's stony crown.

The song of Fingon Elves yet sing,

captain of armies, Gnomish king, 1655

who fell at last in flame of swords

with his white banners and his lords.

They sing how Maidros free he set,

and stayed the feud that slumbered yet

between the children proud of Finn. 1660

Now joined once more they hemmed him in,

even great Morgoth, and their host

beleaguered Angband, till they boast

no Orc nor demon ever dare

their leaguer break or past them fare. 1665

Then days of solace woke on earth

beneath the new-lit Sun, and mirth

was heard in the Great Lands where Men,

a young race, spread and wandered then.

That was the time that songs do call 1670

the Siege of Angband, when like a wall

the Gnomish swords did fence the earth

from Morgoth's ruin, a time of birth,

of blossoming, of flowers, of growth;

but still there held the deathless oath, 1675

and still the Silmarils were deep

in Angband's darkly-dolven keep.

An end there came, when fortune turned,

and flames of Morgoth's vengeance burned,

and all the might which he prepared 1680

in secret in his fastness flared

and poured across the Thirsty Plain;

and armies black were in his train.

The leaguer of Angband Morgoth broke;

his enemies in fire and smoke 1685

were scattered, and the Orcs there slew

and slew, until the blood like dew

dripped from each cruel and crooked blade.

Then Barahir the bold did aid

with mighty spear, with shield and men, 1690

Felagund wounded. To the fen

escaping, there they bound their troth,

and Felagund deeply swore an oath

of friendship to his kin and seed,

of love and succour in time of need. 1695

But there of Finrod's children four

were Angrod slain and proud Egnor.

Felagund and Orodreth then

gathered the remnant of their men,

their maidens and their children fair; 1700

forsaking war they made their lair

and cavernous hold far in the south.

On Narog's towering bank its mouth

was opened; which they hid and veiled,

and mighty doors, that unassailed 1705

till Turin's day stood vast and grim,

they built by trees o'ershadowed dim.

And with them dwelt a long time there

Curufin, and Celegorm the fair;

and a mighty folk grew neath their hands 1710

in Narog's secret halls and lands.

Thus Felagund in Nargothrond

still reigned, a hidden king whose bond

was sworn to Barahir the bold.

And now his son through forests cold 1715

wandered alone as in a dream.

Esgalduin's dark and shrouded stream

he followed, till its waters frore

were joined to Sirion, Sirion hoar,

pale silver water wide and free 1720

rolling in splendour to the sea.

Now Beren came unto the pools,

wide shallow meres where Sirion cools

his gathered tide beneath the stars,

ere chafed and sundered by the bars 1725

of reedy banks a mighty fen

he feeds and drenches, plunging then

into vast chasms underground,

where many miles his way is wound.

Umboth-Muilin, Twilight Meres, 1730

those great wide waters grey as tears

the Elves then named. Through driving rain

from thence across the Guarded Plain

the Hills of the Hunters Beren saw

with bare tops bitten bleak and raw 1735

by western winds; but in the mist

of streaming rains that flashed and hissed

into the meres he knew there lay

beneath those hills the cloven way

of Narog, and the watchful halls 1740

of Felagund beside the falls

of Ingwil tumbling from the wold.

An everlasting watch they hold,

the Gnomes of Nargothrond renowned,

and every hill is tower-crowned, 1745

where wardens sleepless peer and gaze

guarding the plain and all the ways

between Narog swift and Sirion pale;

and archers whose arrows never fail

there range the woods, and secret kill 1750

all who creep thither against their will.

Yet now he thrusts into that land

bearing the gleaming ring on hand

of Felagund, and oft doth cry:

'Here comes no wandering Orc or spy, 1755

but Beren son of Barahir

who once to Felagund was dear.'

So ere he reached the eastward shore

of Narog, that doth foam and roar

o'er boulders black, those archers green 1760

came round him. When the ring was seen

they bowed before him, though his plight

was poor and beggarly. Then by night

they led him northward, for no ford

nor bridge was built where Narog poured 1765

before the gates of Nargothrond,

and friend nor foe might pass beyond.

To northward, where that stream yet young

more slender flowed, below the tongue

of foam-splashed land that Ginglith pens 1770

when her brief golden torrent ends

and joins the Narog, there they wade.

Now swiftest journey thence they made

to Nargothrond's sheer terraces

and dim gigantic palaces. 1775

They came beneath a sickle moon

to doors there darkly hung and hewn

with posts and lintels of ponderous stone

and timbers huge. Now open thrown

were gaping gates, and in they strode 1780

where Felagund on throne abode.

Fair were the words of Narog's king

to Beren, and his wandering

and all his feuds and bitter wars

recounted soon. Behind closed doors 1785

they sat, while Beren told his tale

of Doriath; and words him fail

recalling Luthien dancing fair