Extracts from The Lay of Leithian

			CONTENTS

1. 'Far in the North neath hills of stone'
2. Beren's flight from Dorthonion
3. Winter in Doriath
4. The Oath of Feanor
5. Beren and Felagund come to Sauron disguised as orcs
6. Sauron demands a vow of fealty
7. Contest of Sauron and Felagund
8. Beren's farewell song
9. Descent into Angband
10. The Land of the Lost

			CHAPTER 1
Far in the North neath hills of stone
in caverns black there was a throne
by fires illumined underground,
that winds of ice with moaning sound
made flare and flicker in dark smoke;
the wavering bitter coils did choke
the sunless airs of dungeons deep
where evil things did crouch and creep.
There sat a king: no Elfin race
nor mortal blood, nor kindly grace
of earth or heaven might he own,
far older, stronger than the stone
the world is built of, than the fire
that burns within more fierce and dire;
and thoughts profound were in his heart:
a gloomy power that dwelt apart.

			CHAPTER 2
Hunted by the creatures of Morgoth, Beren is finally forced to leave
Dorthonion where he lived for many years as an outlaw.

In winter's night the houseless North
he left behind, and stealing forth
the leaguer of his watchful foe
he passed - a shadow on the snow,
a swirl of wind, and he was gone,
the ruin of Dorthonion,
Tarn Aeluin and its water wan,
never again to look upon.
No more shall hidden bowstring sing,
no more his shaven arrows wing,
no more his hunted head shall lie
upon the heath beneath the sky.
The Northern stars, whose silver fire
of old Men named the Burning Briar,
were set behind his back, and shone
o'er land forsaken: he was gone.
	Southward he turned, and south away
his long and lonely journey lay,
while ever loomed before his path
the dreadful peaks of Gorgorath.
Never had foot of man most bold
yet trod those mountains steep and cold,
nor climbed upon their sudden brink,
whence, sickened, eyes must turn and shrink
to see their southward cliffs fall sheer
in rocky pinnacle and pier
down into shadows that were laid
before the sun and moon were made.
In valleys woven with deceit
and washed with waters bitter-sweet
dark magic lurked in gulf and glen;
but out away beyond the ken
of mortal sight the eagle's eye
from dizzy towers that pierced the sky
might grey and gleaming see afar,
as sheen on water under star,
Beleriand, Beleriand,
the borders of the Elven-land.

			CHAPTER 3
Winter comes to Doriath, and Beren watches Luthien dance upon a hill.

	An autumn waned, a winter laid
the withered leaves in grove and glade;
the beeches bare were gaunt and grey,
and red their leaves beneath them lay.
From cavern pale the moist moon eyes
the white mists that from earth arise
to hide the morrow's sun and drip
all the grey day from each twig's tip.
By dawn and dusk he seeks her still;
by noon and night in valleys chill,
nor hears a sound but the slow beat
on sodden leaves of his own feet.
	The wind of winter winds his horn;
the misty veil is rent and torn.
The wind dies; the starry choirs
leap in the silent sky to fires,
whose light comes bitter-cold and sheer
through domes of frozen crystal clear.
	A sparkle through the darkling trees,
a piercing glint of light he sees,
and there she dances all alone
upon a treeless knoll of stone!
Her mantle blue with jewels white
caught all the rays of frosted light.
She shone with cold and wintry flame,
as dancing down the hill she came,
and passed his watchful silent gaze,
a glimmer as of stars ablaze.
And snowdrops sprang beneath her feet,
and one bird, sudden, late and sweet,
shrilled as she wayward passed along.
A frozen brook to bubbling song
awoke and laughed; but Beren stood
still bound enchanted in the wood.
Her starlight faded and the night
closed o'er the snowdrops glimmering white.

			CHAPTER 4
After Morgoth had destroyed the trees that gave light to the land of Valinor
and stolen from Feanor the greatest work of his craft, the Silmarils,
in which the radiance of the Trees still shone, Feanor and his sons
swore an oath that could not be broken, vowing to pursue to the ends
of the world any creature that should hold or take or keep a Silmaril
from their possession.

  When Morgoth in that day of doom
had slain the Trees and filled with gloom
the shining land of Valinor,
there Feanor and his sons swore
the mighty oath upon the hill
of tower-crowned Tun, that still
wrought wars and sorrow in the world.
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
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
that led to the wide echoing square.
...Curufin, Celegorm the fair,
Damrod and Diriel were there,
and Cranthir dark, and Maidros tall
(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
that in after days on earth shall dwell.
no law, no 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
or finding keeps the Silmarils,
the thrice-enchanted globes of light
that shine until the final night.'

			CHAPTER 5
Disguised as orcs, Beren and Felagund are brought before Sauron who is
suspicious about their party because they did not stop to report to him.
Sauron questions them, attempting to find out what they are.


'Where have ye been? What have ye seen?'

	'In Elfinesse; and tears and distress,
the fire blowing and the blood flowing,
these have we seen, there have we been.
Thirty we slew and their bodies threw
in a dark pit. The ravens sit
and the owl cries where our swath lies.'

	'Come, tell me true, O Morgoth's thralls,
what then in Elfinesse befalls?
What of Nargothrond? Who reigneth there?
Into that realm did your feet dare?'

	'Only its borders did we dare.
There reigns King Felagund the fair.'

	'Then heard ye not that he is gone,
that Celegorm sits his throne upon?'

	'That is not true!  If he is gone,
then Orodreth sits his throne upon.'

	'Sharp are your ears, swift have they got
tidings of realms ye entered not!
What are your names, O spearmen bold?
Who is your captain, ye have not told.'

	'Nereb and Dungalef and warriors ten,
so we are called, and dark our den
under the mountains. Over the waste
we march on an errand of need and haste.
Boldog our captain awaits us there
where fires from under smoke and flare.'

			CHAPTER 6
Beren's and Felagund's words and behaviour gives them away in spite of the
disguise, and as a last test Sauron asks them to repeat the orcs' vows,
knowing that no free Man or Elf would speak these words.

	'Whom do ye serve, Light or Mirk?
Who is the maker of mightiest work?
Who is the king of earthly kings,
the greatest giver of gold and rings?
Who is the master of the wide earth?
Who despoiled them of their mirth,
the greedy Gods? Repeat your vows,
Orcs of Bauglir! Do not bend your brows!
Death to light, to law, to love!
Cursed be moon and stars above!
May darkness everlasting old
that waits outside in surges cold
drown Manwe, Varda and the sun!
May all in hatred be begun,
and all in evil ended be,
in the moaning of the endless Sea!'

			CHAPTER 7
Sauron sings a song of power with which he wants to bind his prisoners.
Felagund strives with him, singing another song.

	He chanted a song of wizardry,
of piercing, opening, of treachery,
revealing, uncovering, betraying.
Then sudden Felagund there swaying
sang in answer a song of staying,
resisting, battling against power,
of secrets kept, strength like a tower,
and trust unbroken, freedom, escape;
of changing and of shifting shape,
of snares eluded, broken traps,
the prison opening, the chain that snaps.
	Backwards and forwards swayed their song,
Reeling and foundering, as ever most strong
Thu's chanting swelled, Felagund fought,
and all the magic and might he brought
of Elfinesse into his words.
Softly in the gloom they heard the birds
singing afar in Nargothrond,
the sighing of the sea beyond,
beyond the western world, on sand,
on sand of pearls in Elvenland.
	Then the gloom gathered: darkness growing
in Valinor, the red blood flowing
beside the sea, where the Gnomes slew
the Foamriders, and stealing drew
their white ships with their white sails
from lamplit havens. The wind wails.
The wolf howls. The ravens flee.
The ice mutters in the mouths of the sea.
The captives sad in Angband mourn.
Thunder rumbles, the fires burn,
a vast smoke gushes out, a roar -
and Felagund swoons upon the floor.

			CHAPTER 8
Having resolved to go to Angband, on the quest for a Silmaril, alone,
Beren says farewell to the light of day.

	'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,
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
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
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,
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,
yet were its making good, for this -
the dawn, the dusk, the earth, the sea -
that Luthien on a time should be!'

			CHAPTER 9
Beren and Luthien descend into Angband.

Into the vast and echoing gloom,
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;
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
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
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.
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.

			CHAPTER 10
Beren dies and departs for the dwellings of the dead. Luthien prepares
to follow him.

Where the forest-stream went through the wood,
and silent all the stems there stood
of tall trees, moveless, standing dark
with mottled shadows on their bark
above the green and gleaming river,
there came through leaves a sudden shiver,
a windy whisper through the still
cool silences; and down the hill,
as faint as a deep sleeper's breath,
an echo came as cold as death:
'Long are the paths, of shadow made
where no foot's print is ever laid,
over the hills, across the seas!
Far, far away are the Lands of Ease,
but the Land of the Lost is further yet,
where the Dead wait, while ye forget.
No moon is there, no voice, no sound
of beating heart; a sigh profound
once in each age as each age dies
alone is heard. Far, far it lies,
the Land of Waiting where the Dead sit,
in their thought's shadow, by no moon lit.'


Quoted by:
J.R.R. Tolkien, 'The Lays of Beleriand', edited by Christopher Tolkien.
Ballantine Books, New York.