490revealing, 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,
500and 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.
505Reeling and foundering, as ever more strong Th?’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 510singing 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
515in 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.
520The 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—
525and Felagund swoons upon the floor.
Behold! they are in their own fair shape,
fairskinned, brighteyed. No longer gape
Orclike their mouths; and now they stand betrayed into the wizard’s hand.
530Thus came they unhappy into woe, to dungeons no hope nor glimmer know,
where chained in chains that eat the flesh and woven in webs of strangling mesh
they lay forgotten, in despair.
535Yet not all unavailing were the spells of Felagund; for Th?
neither their names nor purpose knew.
These much he pondered and bethought,
and in their woeful chains them sought,
540and threatened all with dreadful death, if one would not with traitor’s breath
reveal this knowledge. Wolves should come and slow devour them one by one
before the others’ eyes, and last
545should one alone be left aghast, then in a place of horror hung
with anguish should his limbs be wrung,
in the bowels of the earth be slow
endlessly, cruelly, put to woe
550and torment, till he all declared.
Even as he threatened, so it fared.
From time to time in the eyeless dark
two eyes would grow, and they would hark to frightful cries, and then a sound
555of rending, a slavering on the ground, and blood flowing they would smell.
But none would yield, and none would tell.
Here Canto VII ends. I return now to the Quenta, and take it up from the words ‘Long were they tortured in the dungeons of Th?, but none betrayed the other’ with which the previous extract ends (p. 110); and as previously I follow the Quenta account with the vastly different passage in the Lay.
A FURTHER EXTRACT FROM THE QUENTA
In the meanwhile Lúthien, learning by the far sight of Melian that Beren had fallen into the power of Th?, sought in her despair to fly from Doriath. This became known to Thingol, who imprisoned her in a house in the tallest of his mighty beeches far above the ground. How she escaped and came into the woods, and was found there by Celegorm as they hunted on the borders of Doriath, is told in The Lay of Leithian. They took her treacherously to Nargothrond, and Curufin the crafty became enamoured of her beauty. From her tale they learned that Felagund was in the hands of Th?; and they purposed to let him perish there, and keep Lúthien with them, and force Thingol to wed Lúthien to Curufin, and so build up their power and usurp Nargothrond and become the mightiest of the princes of the Gnomes. They did not think to go in search of the Silmarils, or suffer any others to do so, until they had all the power of the Elves beneath themselves and obedient to them. But their designs came to nought save estrangement and bitterness between the kingdoms of the Elves.
Huan was the name of the chief of the hounds of Celegorm. He was of immortal race from the hunting-lands of Orom?. Orom? gave him to Celegorm long before in Valinor, when Celegorm often rode in the train of the God and followed his horn. He came into the Great Lands with his master, and dart nor weapon, spell nor poison, could harm him, so that he went into battle with his lord and saved him many times from death. His fate had decreed that he should not meet death save at the hands of the mightiest wolf that should ever walk the world.
Huan was true of heart, and he loved Lúthien from the hour that he first found her in the woods and brought her to Celegorm. His heart was grieved by his master’s treachery, and he set Lúthien free and went with her to the North.
There Th? slew his captives one by one, till only Felagund and Beren were left. When the hour for Beren’s death came Felagund put forth all his power, and burst his bonds, and wrestled with the werewolf that came to slay Beren; and he killed the wolf, but was himself slain in the dark. There Beren mourned in despair, and waited for death. But Lúthien came and sang outside the dungeons. Thus she beguiled Th? to come forth, for the fame of the loveliness of Lúthien had gone through all lands and the wonder of her song. Even Morgoth desired her, and had promised the greatest reward to any who could capture her. Each wolf that Th? sent Huan slew silently, till Draugluin the greatest of his wolves came. Then there was fierce battle, and Th? knew that Lúthien was not alone. But he remembered the fate of Huan, and he made himself the greatest wolf that had yet walked the world, and came forth. But Huan overthrew him, and won from him the keys and the spells that held together his enchanted walls and towers. So the stronghold was broken and the towers thrown down and the dungeons opened. Many captives were released, but Th? flew in bat’s form to Taur-na-Fuin. There Lúthien found Beren mourning beside Felagund. She healed his sorrow and the wasting of his imprisonment, but Felagund they buried on the top of his own island hill, and Th? came there no more.
Then Huan returned to his master, and less was the love between them after. Beren and Lúthien wandered careless in happiness until they came nigh to the borders of Doriath once more. There Beren remembered his vow, and bade Lúthien farewell, but she would not be sundered from him. In Nargothrond there was tumult. For Huan and many of the captives of Th? brought back the tidings of the deeds of Lúthien, and the death of Felagund, and the treachery of Celegorm and Curufin was laid bare. It is said they had sent a secret embassy to Thingol ere Lúthien escaped, but Thingol in wrath had sent their letters back by his own servants to Orodreth. Wherefore now the hearts of the people of Narog turned back to the house of Finrod, and they mourned their king Felagund whom they had forsaken, and they did the bidding of Orodreth.