Part 12 (2/2)

He heard at times the flying sound Of feet as light as linden leaves, Or music welling underground In the hidden halls of Doriath.

But withered were the hemlock sheaves, And one by one with sighing sound Whispering fell the beechen leaves In the wintry woods of Doriath.

He sought her ever, wandering far Where leaves of years mere thickly strewn, By light of moon and ray of star In frosty heavens s.h.i.+vering.

Her mantle glistened in the moon, As on a hill-top high and far She danced, and at her feet was strewn A mist of silver quivering.

When minter pa.s.sed she came again, And her song released the sudden spring, Like rising lark, and falling rain, And melting water bubbling.

There high and clear he heard her sing, And from him fell the minter's chain; No more he feared by her to spring Upon the gra.s.s untroubling.

Again she fled, but clear he called: Tinuviel, Tinuviel.

She halted by his voice enthralled And stood before him s.h.i.+mmering.

Her doom at last there on her fell, As in the hills the echoes called; Tinuviel, Tinuviel, In the arms of Beren glimmering.

As Beren looked into her eyes Within the shadows of her hair The trembling starlight of the skies He saw there mirrored s.h.i.+mmering.

Tinuviel! O elven-fair!

Immortal maiden elven-wise, About him cast her shadowy hair And white her arms were glimmering.

Long was the way that fate them bore O'er stony mountains cold and grey, Through halls of iron and darkling door And woods of night-shade morrowless.

The Sundering Seas between them lay And yet at last they met once more, And long ago they pa.s.sed away In the forest singing sorrowless.

He paused before he spoke again. 'That is a song,' he said, 'that tells of the meeting of Beren the mortal and Luthien Tinuviel, which is but the beginning of the tale.

'Luthien was the daughter of the elven-king Thingol of Doriath in the West of the Middle-world, when the earth was young. Her mother was Melian, who was not of the Elf-race but came out of the Far West from the land of the G.o.ds and the Blessed Realm of Valinor. It is said that the daughter of Thingol and Melian was the most fair maiden that ever was or shall be among all the children of the world. No limbs so fair shall again run upon the green earth, no face so beautiful shall look upon the sky, till all things are changed.

The pa.s.sage in praise of Luthien that follows is almost word for word the same as that in the Quenta Silmarillion (1937), largely retained in the published work (p. 165, 'Blue was her raiment...').

'But Beren was son of Barahir the Bold. In those days the fathers of the fathers of Men came out of the East; and some there were that journeyed even to the West of Middle-earth, and there they met the Elves, and were taught by them, and became wise, but they were mortal and shortlived, for such is their fate. Yet many of them aided the Elves in their wars. For in that time the Elves besieged the Enemy in his dreadful fortress in the North. Angband it was called, the Halls of Iron beneath the thunderous towers of the black mountain Thangorodrim.

'But he broke the siege, and drove Elves and Men ever southward; and Barahir was slain. Ruin came upon the West-lands, but Doriath long endured because of the power and enchantment of Melian the Queen that fenced it about so that no evil could come within. In the song it is told (7) how Beren flying southward through many perils came at last into the hidden kingdom and beheld Luthien. Tinuviel he called her, which is Nightingale, for he did not yet know her name.

'But Thingol the Elven-king was wroth, despising him as a mortal, and a fugitive; and he sent Beren upon a hopeless quest were he could win Luthien. For he commanded him to bring him one of the three jewels from the crown of the King of Angband, out of the deeps of the Iron Halls. These were the Silmarils renowned in' song, filled with power and a holy light, for they had been made by the Elves in the Blessed Realm, but the Enemy had stolen them, and guarded them with all his strength. Yet Beren achieved that Quest, for Luthien fled from her father's realm and followed after him; and with the aid of Huan hound of the G.o.ds, who came out of Valinor, she found him once again; and together thereafter they pa.s.sed through peril and darkness; and they came even to Angband and beguiled the Enemy, and overthrew him, and took a Silmaril and fled.

'But the wolf-warden of the dark gate of Angband bit off the hand of Beren that held the Silmaril, and he came near to death. Yet it is told that at length Luthien and Beren escaped and returned to Doriath, and the king and all his people marvelled. But Thingol reminded Beren that he had vowed not to return save with a Silmaril in his hand.

'”It is in my hand even now,” he answered.

'”Show it to me!” said the king.

'”That I cannot do,” said Beren, ”for my hand is not here,” and he held up his maimed arm. And from that hour he was named Beren Erhamion the Onehanded.

'Then the tale of the Quest was told in the king's hall and his mood was softened, and Luthien laid her hand in Beren's before the throne of her father.

'But soon fear came upon Doriath. For the dread wolf-warden of Angband, being maddened by the fire of the Silmaril that consumed his evil flesh within, roamed through the world, wild and terrible. And by fate and the power of the jewel he pa.s.sed the guarded borders and came ravening even into Doriath; and all things fled before him. Thus befell the Wolf-hunt of Doriath, and to that hunt went King Thingol, and Beren Erhamion, and Beleg the Bowman and Mablung the heavy-handed, and Huan the hound.

'And the great wolf leaped upon Beren and felled him and grievously wounded him; and Huan slew the wolf but himself was slain. And Mablung cut the Silmaril from the belly of the wolf, and gave it to Beren, and Beren gave it to Thingol. Then they bore Beren back with Huan at his side to the king's hall. And Luthien bade him farewell before the gates, bidding him await her beyond the Great Seas; and he died in her arms.

'But the spirit of Luthien fell down into darkness, for such was the doom upon the elven-maid for her love of a mortal man; and she faded slowly, as the Elves do under the burden of a grief unbearable. Her fair body lay like a flower that is suddenly cut off and lies for a while unwithered on the gra.s.s;(8) but her spirit journeyed over the Great Seas. And it is said that she sang before the G.o.ds, and her song was made of the sorrows of the two kindreds, of Elves and Men. So fair was she and so moving was her song that they were moved to pity. But they had not the power long to withhold within the confines of the world the spirits of mortal men that died; nor to change the sundered fate of the two kindreds.

'Therefore they gave this choice to Luthien. Because of her sorrow and of the Silmaril that was regained from the Enemy, and because her mother Melian came from Valinor, she should be released from the Halls of Waiting, and return not to the woes of Middle-earth, but go to the Blessed Realm and dwell with the G.o.ds until the world's end, forgetting all sadness that her life had known. Thither Beren could not come. The other choice was this. She might return to earth, and take with her Beren for a while, there to dwell with him again, but without cert.i.tude of life or joy. Then she would become mortal even as he; and ere long she should leave the world for ever, and her beauty become only a memory of song, until that too faded. This doom she chose, forsaking the Blessed Realm, and thus they met again, Beren and Tinuviel, beyond the Great Seas, as she had said; and their paths led together, and pa.s.sed long ago beyond the confines of the world. So it was that Luthien alone of all the Elven-kin has died indeed. But by her choice the Two Kindreds were joined, and she is the fore-mother of many in whom the Elves see yet, though the world changeth, the likeness of Luthien the beloved whom they have lost.'(9) As Trotter was speaking, the darkness closed in; night fell on the world. They could see his queer eager face dimly lit in the glow of the red wood-fire. Above him was a black starry sky. Suddenly a pale light appeared behind the crown of Weathertop behind him. The moon, now nearly half-full, was climbing slowly above the hill that overshadowed them. The stars above its top grew pale. The story ended. The hobbits moved and stretched. 'Look!' said Merry. 'The moon is rising. It must be getting late.' The others looked up. Even as they did so they saw something small and dark on the hill-top against the glimmer of the moonlight. It was perhaps only a large stone or jutting rock shown up by the pale light.

At that moment Odo, who had been on guard (being less reluctant than the others to miss Trotter's tale-telling) came hurrying down to the fire. 'I don't know what it is,' he said, 'but I feel that something is creeping up the hill. And I thought (I couldn't be sure) that away there, westwards, where the moonlight is falling, there were two or three black shapes. They seemed to be moving this way.'

'Keep close beside the fire, with your faces outwards! ' said Trotter. 'Get some of these pine-wood sticks ready in your hands! ' For a long while they sat there silent and alert with their backs turned to the little fire, which was thus almost.entirely screened. Nothing happened. There was no sound or movement. Bingo was just about to whisper a question to Trotter, who sat next to him, when Frodo gasped: 'What's that?' 'Sh,' said Trotter.

It was just as Odo had said: over the lip of the hollow, on the side away from the hill, they felt a shadow rise, one shadow or more than one. They strained their eyes, and the shadows seemed to grow. Soon there could be no doubt: three or four tall black figures were standing there, on the slope above them. Bingo fancied that he heard faintly a sound like breath being drawn in with a hiss. Then the shapes advanced slowly.

Terror seized Odo and Frodo, and they threw themselves flat on the ground. Merry shrank to Bingo's side. Bingo was no less afraid; he was quaking as if he was bitter cold. But his fear was swallowed up in a sudden temptation to put on the Ring. It seized him, and he could think of nothing else. He did not forget the Barrow, nor the message of Gandalf, but he felt a desperate desire to disregard all warnings. Something seemed to be compelling him; he longed to yield. Not with the hope of escaping, or of doing anything, good or bad. He simply felt that he must take the Ring, and put it on his finger. He could not speak. He struggled for a while, but resistance became unbearable; and at last he slowly drew out the chain, unfastened the Ring, and put it on the forefinger of his left hand.

Immediately - though everything else remained as before, dim and dark - the shapes became terribly clear. He seemed able to see beneath their black wrapping. There were three tall figures: in their white faces burned keen and merciless eyes; under their black mantles were long grey robes, upon their grey hair were helms of silver;(10) in their haggard hands were swords of steel. Their eyes fell upon him and pierced him, as they rushed towards him. Desperate, he drew his own sword; and it seemed to him that it flickered redly as if it was a fire-brand. Two of the figures halted. But the third was taller than the others. His hair was long and gleaming, and on it was a crown. The hand that held the long sword glowed with a pale light. He sprang forward and bore down upon Bingo.

At that moment Bingo threw himself forward onto the ground, and he heard himself crying aloud (though he did not know why): Elbereth! Gilthoniel! Gurth i Morthu.(11) At the same time he struck at the feet of his enemy. A shrill cry rang out in the night; and he felt a pain like a dart of poisoned ice touch his [added: left] shoulder. Even as he swooned Bingo caught a glimpse of Trotter leaping out of the darkness with a flaming fire-brand in each hand. With a last effort he slipped the Ring from his finger, and closed his hand on it.

NOTES.

1. This pa.s.sage, from 'Better still, under the fuel they found a wooden case', is an insertion on a slip, certainly written at the same time as the main text, replacing the (ink) text as first written: Gandalf, it would seem, had taken thought for them. It was the presence of fuel that decided them to go no further that day, and to make their camp in the dell.

With the pa.s.sage here about cram, not found in FR, cf. The Hobbit, Chapter XIII 'Not at Home': If you want to know what cram is, I can only say that I don't know the recipe, but it is biscuitish, keeps good indefinitely, is supposed to be sustaining, and is certainly not entertaining, being in fact very uninteresting except as a chewing exercise. It was made by the Lake-men for long journeys.

In the Etymologies (V.365) cram, defined as 'cake of compressed flour or meal (often containing honey and milk) used on long journeys', appears as a Noldorin word (stem KRAB- 'press'). - In FR the fire-wood, alone of the stores found on Weathertop, survived, but it had been left by Rangers, not by Gandalf.

2. Strider gives a much more elaborate and informed account of the perceptions of the Ring-wraiths in FR (p. 202). See p. 173, note 7.

3. See p. 169 and note 25.

4. Beren's name Camlost or Gamlost ('Empty-handed') occurs in the Quenta Silmarillion (interrupted at the end of 1937); for the variation in the initial consonant see V.298, 301.

5. For the text and textual history of Light as Leaf on Lindentree see III.108 - 10, 120 - 3.

6. To the silver flute of Ilverin: in Light as Leaf on Lindentree (III. 108) Dairon is named here. The name Ilverin occurs in The Book of Lost Tales as one of the many names of Littleheart, the 'Gong-warden' of Mar Vanwa Tyalieva (I.46, 255), but there seems no basis to seek any kind of connection. In the margin my father at some point pencilled other names: Neldorin, Elberin, Diarin. See note g, at end.

7. Trotter has mentioned no song, but it is of course the Lay of Leithian that is meant.

8. Struck out at the time of writing: But her spirit came to the Halls of Waiting, where are the places appointed for the Elven-kin beyond the Blessed Realms in the West, on the confines of the world. And she knelt before the Lord [of the Halls of Waiting]

9. This concluding paragraph of Trotter's tale is very close to the account of the Choices of Luthien that my father had written while the Quenta Silmarillion was with the publishers at the end of 1937, and which appears in the published Silmarillion on p. 187; see V.293, 303-4.

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