In these days of doubt and fear, after the [Battle of Sudden Flame], many dreadful things befell of which but few are here told. It is told that B?or was slain and Barahir yielded not to Morgoth, but all his land was won from him and his people scattered, enslaved or slain, and he himself went in outlawry with his son Beren and ten faithful men. Long they hid and did secret and valiant deeds of war against the Orcs. But in the end, as is told in the beginning of the lay of Lúthien and Beren, the hiding place of Barahir was betrayed, and he was slain and his comrades, all save Beren who by fortune was that day hunting afar. Thereafter Beren lived an outlaw alone, save for the help he had from birds and beasts which he loved; and seeking for death in desperate deeds found it not, but glory and renown in the secret songs of fugitives and hidden enemies of Morgoth, so that the tale of his deeds came even to Beleriand, and was rumoured in Doriath. At length Beren fled south from the ever-closing circle of those that hunted him, and crossed the dreadful Mountains of Shadow, and came at last worn and haggard into Doriath. There in secret he won the love of Lúthien daughter of Thingol, and he named her Tinúviel, the nightingale, because of the beauty of her singing in the twilight beneath the trees; for she was the daughter of Melian.
But Thingol was wroth and he dismissed him in scorn, but did not slay him because he had sworn an oath to his daughter. But he desired nonetheless to send him to his death. And he thought in his heart of a quest that could not be achieved, and he said: If thou bring me a Silmaril from the crown of Morgoth, I will let Lúthien wed thee, if she will. And Beren vowed to achieve this, and went from Doriath to Nargothrond bearing the ring of Barahir. The quest of the Silmaril there aroused the oath from sleep that the sons of F?anor had sworn, and evil began to grow from it. Felagund, though he knew the quest to be beyond his power, was willing to lend all his aid to Beren, because of his own oath to Barahir. But Celegorm and Curufin dissuaded his people and roused up rebellion against him. And evil thoughts awoke in their hearts, and they thought to usurp the throne of Nargothrond, because they were sons of the eldest line. Rather than a Silmaril should be won and given to Thingol, they would ruin the power of Doriath and Nargothrond.
So Felagund gave his crown to Orodreth and departed from his people with Beren and ten faithful men of his own board. They waylaid an Orc-band and slew them, and disguised themselves by the aid of Felagund’s magic as Orcs. But they were seen by Th? from his watchtower, which once had been Felagund’s own, and were questioned by him, and their magic was overthrown in a contest between Th? and Felagund. Thus they were revealed as Elves, but the spells of Felagund concealed their names and quest. Long were they tortured in the dungeons of Th?, but none betrayed the other.
The oath referred to at the end of this passage was sworn by F?anor and his seven sons, in the words of the Quenta, ‘to pursue with hate and vengeance to the ends of the world Vala, Demon, Elf, or Man, or Orc who hold or take or keep a Silmaril against their will.’ See pp. 117–18, lines 171–80.
A SECOND EXTRACT FROM THE LAY OF LEITHIAN
I give now a further passage of The Lay of Leithian (see pp. 91, 93) telling the story that has just been given in its very compressed form in the Quenta. I take up the poem where the Siege of Angband was ended in what was later called the Battle of Sudden Flame. According to the dates that my father wrote on the manuscript the whole passage was composed in March–April 1928. At line 246 Canto VI of the Lay ends and Canto VII begins.
An end there came, when fortune turned
and flames of Morgoth’s vengeance burned, and all the might which he prepared
in secret in his fastness flared
5and poured across the Thirsty Plain; and armies black were in his train.
The leaguer of Angband Morgoth broke;
his enemies in fire and smoke
were scattered, and the Orcs there slew, 10and 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,
Felagund wounded. To the fen
15escaping, 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.
But there of Finrod’s children four
20were Angrod slain and proud Egnor.
Felagund and Orodreth then
gathered the remnant of their men,
their maidens and their children fair;
forsaking war they made their lair
25and 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
till Túrin’s day stood vast and grim,
30they 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 in Narog’s secret halls and lands.
35Thus Felagund in Nargothrond still reigned, a hidden king whose bond
was sworn to Barahir the bold.
And now his son through forests cold
wandered alone as in a dream.
40Esgalduin’s dark and shrouded stream he followed, till its waters frore
were joined to Sirion, Sirion hoar,
pale silver water wide and free
rolling in splendour to the sea.
45Now Beren came unto the pools, wide shallow meres where Sirion cools
his gathered tide beneath the stars,
ere chafed and sundered by the bars
of reedy banks a mighty fen
50he feeds and drenches, plunging then into vast chasms underground,
where many miles his way is wound.
Umboth-Muilin, Twilight Meres,
those great wide waters grey as tears
55the 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
by western winds, but in the mist
60of 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
of Felagund beside the falls
65of Ingwil tumbling from the wold.
An everlasting watch they hold,
the Gnomes of Nargothrond renowned,
and every hill is tower-crowned,
where wardens sleepless peer and gaze
70guarding 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
all who creep thither against their will.
75Yet 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,
but Beren son of Barahir
80who 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 came round him. When the ring was seen
85they 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
before the gates of Nargothrond,
90and 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 when her brief golden torrent ends
95and joins the Narog, there they wade.
Now swiftest journey thence they made
to Nargothrond’s sheer terraces
and dim gigantic palaces.
They came beneath a sickle moon
100to 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
where Felagund on throne abode.
105Fair were the words of Narog’s king to Beren, and his wandering
and all his feuds and bitter wars
recounted soon. Behind closed doors
they sat, while Beren told his tale
110of Doriath; and words him fail recalling Lúthien dancing fair
with wild white roses in her hair,
remembering her elven voice that rung
while stars in twilight round her hung.
115He spake of Thingol’s marvellous halls by enchantment lit, where fountain falls and ever the nightingale doth sing
to Melian and to her king.
The quest he told that Thingol laid
120in scorn on him; how for love of maid more fair than ever was born to Men,
of Tinúviel, of Lúthien,