845we curse thee from rising unto sleep!
Farewell!’ He swift from horse did leap, his brother lifted from the ground;
then bow of yew with gold wire bound
he strung, and shaft he shooting sent, 850as heedless hand in hand they went; a dwarvish dart and cruelly hooked.
They never turned nor backward looked.
Loud bayed Huan, and leaping caught
the speeding arrow. Quick as thought
855another followed deadly singing; but Beren had turned, and sudden springing defended Lúthien with his breast.
Deep sank the dart in flesh to rest.
He fell to earth. They rode away,
860and laughing left him as he lay; yet spurred like wind in fear and dread of Huan’s pursuing anger red.
Though Curufin with bruised mouth laughed, yet later of that dastard shaft
865was tale and rumour in the North, and Men remembered at the Marching Forth, and Morgoth’s will its hatred helped.
Thereafter never hound was whelped
would follow horn of Celegorm
870or Curufin. Though in strife and storm, though all their house in ruin red
went down, thereafter laid his head
Huan no more at that lord’s feet,
but followed Lúthien, brave and fleet.
875Now sank she weeping at the side of Beren, and sought to stem the tide
of welling blood that flowed there fast.
The raiment from his breast she cast;
from shoulder plucked the arrow keen;
880his wound with tears she washed it clean.
Then Huan came and bore a leaf,
of all the herbs of healing chief,
that evergreen in woodland glade
there grew with broad and hoary blade.
885The powers of all grasses Huan knew, who wide did forest-paths pursue.
Therewith the smart he swift allayed,
while Lúthien murmuring in the shade
the staunching song that Elvish wives
890long years had sung in those sad lives of war and weapons, wove o’er him.
The shadows fell from mountains grim.
Then sprang about the darkened North
the Sickle of the Gods, and forth
895each star there stared in stony night radiant, glistering cold and white.
But on the ground there is a glow,
a spark of red that leaps below:
under woven boughs beside a fire
900of crackling wood and sputtering briar there Beren lies in browsing deep,
walking and wandering in sleep.
Watchful bending o’er him wakes
a maiden fair; his thirst she slakes,
905his brow caresses, and softly croons a song more potent than in runes
or leeches’ lore hath since been writ.
Slowly the nightly watches flit.
The misty morning crawleth grey
910from dusk to the reluctant day.
Then Beren woke and opened eyes,
and rose and cried: ‘Neath other skies, in lands more awful and unknown,
I wandered long, methought, alone
915to the deep shadow where the dead dwell; but ever a voice that I knew well,
like bells, like viols, like harps, like birds, like music moving without words,
called me, called me through the night, 920enchanted drew me back to light!
Healed the wound, assuaged the pain!
Now are we come to morn again,
new journeys once more lead us on—
to perils whence may life be won,
925hardly for Beren; and for thee a waiting in the wood I see
beneath the trees of Doriath,
while ever follow down my path the echoes of thine elvish song,
930where hills are haggard and roads are long.’
‘Nay, now no more we have for foe
dark Morgoth only, but in woe,
in wars and feuds of Elfinesse
thy quest is bound; and death, no less, 935for thee and me, for Huan bold the end of weird of yore foretold,
all this I bode shall follow swift;
if thou go on. Thy hand shall lift
and lay on Thingol’s lap the dire
940and flaming jewel, F?anor’s fire, never, never! A why then go?
Why turn we not from fear and woe
beneath the trees to walk and roam
roofless, with all the world as home,
945over mountains, beside the seas, in the sunlight, in the breeze?’
Thus long they spoke with heavy hearts;
and yet not all her elvish arts
nor lissom arms, nor shining eyes
950as tremulous stars in rainy skies, nor tender lips, enchanted voice,
his purpose bent or swayed his choice.
Never to Doriath would he fare
save guarded fast to leave her there;
955never to Nargothrond would go with her, lest there came war and woe; and never would in the world untrod
to wander suffer her, worn, unshod
roofless and restless, whom he drew
960with love from the hidden realms she knew.
‘For Morgoth’s power is now awake;
already hill and dale doth shake,
the hunt is up, the prey is wild:
a maiden lost, an elven child.
965Now Orcs and phantoms prowl and peer from tree to tree, and fill with fear
each shade and hollow. Thee they seek!
At thought thereof my hope grows weak, my heart is chilled. I curse mine oath, 970I curse the fate that joined us both and snared thy feet in my sad doom
of flight and wandering in the gloom!
Now let us haste, and ere the day
be fallen, take our swiftest way,
975till o’er the marches of thy land beneath the beech and oak we stand,
in Doriath, fair Doriath
whither no evil finds the path,
powerless to pass the listening leaves 980that droop upon those forest-eaves.’
Then to his will she seeming bent.
Swiftly to Doriath they went,
and crossed its borders. There they stayed resting in deep and mossy glade;
985there lay they sheltered from the wind under mighty beeches silken-skinned,
and sang of love that still shall be,
though earth be foundered under sea,
and sundered here for evermore
990shall meet upon the Western Shore.
One morning as asleep she lay
upon the moss, as though the day
too bitter were for gentle flower
to open in a sunless hour,
995Beren arose and kissed her hair, and wept, and softly left her there.
‘Good Huan,’ said he, ‘guard her well!
In leafless field no asphodel,
in thorny thicket never a rose
1000forlorn, so frail and fragrant blows.
Guard her from wind and frost, and hide from hands that seize and cast aside;
keep her from wandering and woe,
for pride and fate now make me go.’
1005The horse he took and rode away, nor dared to turn; but all that day
with heart as stone he hastened forth
and took the paths toward the North.
******
Once wide and smooth a plain was spread, 1010where King Fingolfin proudly led his silver armies on the green,
his horses white, his lances keen;
his helmets tall of steel were hewn,
his shields were shining as the moon.
1015There trumpets sang both long and loud, and challenge rang unto the cloud
that lay on Morgoth’s northern tower,
while Morgoth waited for his hour.
Rivers of fire at dead of night
1020in winter lying cold and white upon the plain burst forth, and high
the red was mirrored in the sky.
From Hithlum’s walls they saw the fire, the steam and smoke in spire on spire
1025leap up, till in confusion vast the stars were choked. And so it passed, the mighty field, and turned to dust,
to drifting sand and yellow rust,
to thirsty dunes where many bones