but weeping in the woods will roam,
nor peril heed, nor laughter know.
And if she may not by thee go
735against thy will thy desperate feet
she will pursue, until they meet,
Beren and Lúthien, love once more
on earth or on the shadowy shore.’
‘Nay, Lúthien, most brave of heart,
740thou makest it more hard to part.
Thy love me drew from bondage drear,
but never to that outer fear,
that darkest mansion of all dread,
shall thy most blissful light be led.’
745‘Never, never!’ he shuddering said.
But even as in his arms she pled,
a sound came like a hurrying storm.
There Curufin and Celegorm
in sudden tumult like the wind
750rode up. The hooves of horses dinned
loud on the earth. In rage and haste
madly northward they now raced
the path twixt Doriath to find
and the shadows dreadly dark entwined
755of Taur-na-fuin. That was their road
most swift to where their kin abode
in the east, where Himling’s watchful hill
o’er Aglon’s gorge hung tall and still.
They saw the wanderers. With a shout
760straight on them swung their hurrying rout
as if neath maddened hooves to rend
the lovers and their love to end.
But as they came their horses swerved
with nostrils wide and proud necks curved;
765Curufin, stooping, to saddlebow
with mighty arm did Lúthien throw,
and laughed. Too soon; for there a spring
fiercer than tawny lion-king
maddened with arrows barbéd smart,
770greater than any hornéd hart
that hounded to a gulf leaps o’er,
there Beren gave, and with a roar
leaped on Curufin; round his neck
his arms entwined, and all to wreck
775both horse and rider fell to ground;
and there they fought without a sound.
Dazed in the grass did Lúthien lie
beneath bare branches and the sky;
the Gnome felt Beren’s fingers grim
780close on his throat and strangle him,
and out his eyes did start, and tongue
gasping from his mouth there hung.
Up rode Celegorm with his spear,
and bitter death was Beren near.
785With elvish steel he nigh was slain
whom Lúthien won from hopeless chain,
but baying Huan sudden sprang
before his master’s face with fang
white-gleaming, and with bristling hair,
790as if he on boar or wolf did stare.
The horse in terror leaped aside,
and Celegorm in anger cried:
‘Curse thee, thou baseborn dog, to dare
against thy master teeth to bare!’
795But dog nor horse nor rider bold
would venture near the anger cold
of mighty Huan fierce at bay.
Red were his jaws. They shrank away,
and fearful eyed him from afar:
800nor sword nor knife, nor scimitar,
no dart of bow, nor cast of spear,
master nor man did Huan fear.
There Curufin had left his life,
had Lúthien not stayed that strife.
805Waking she rose and softly cried
standing distressed at Beren’s side:
‘Forbear thy anger now, my lord!
nor do the work of Orcs abhorred;
for foes there be of Elfinesse,
810unnumbered, and they grow not less,
while here we war by ancient curse
distraught, and all the world to worse
decays and crumbles. Make thy peace!’
Then Beren did Curufin release;
815but took his horse and coat of mail
and took his knife there gleaming pale,
hanging sheathless, wrought of steel.
No flesh could leeches ever heal
that point had pierced; for long ago
820the dwarves had made it, singing slow
enchantments, where their hammers fell
in Nogrod ringing like a bell.
Iron as tender wood it cleft,
and sundered mail like woollen weft.
825But other hands its haft now held;
its master lay by mortal felled.
Beren uplifting him, far him flung,
and cried ‘Begone!’, with stinging tongue;
‘Begone! thou renegade and fool,
830and let thy lust in exile cool!
Arise and go, and no more work
like Morgoth’s slaves or curséd Orc;
and deal, proud son of Fëanor,
in deeds more proud than heretofore!’
835Then Beren led Lúthien away,
while Huan still there stood at bay.
‘Farewell,’ cried Celegorm the fair.
‘Far get you gone! And better were
to die forhungered in the waste
840than wrath of Fëanor’s sons to taste,
that yet may reach o’er dale and hill.
No gem, nor maid, nor Silmaril
shall ever long in thy grasp lie!
We curse thee under cloud and sky,
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 abou
t 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, Fëanor’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.
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
1030lay broken among barren stones.
Dor-na-Fauglith, Land of Thirst,
they after named it, waste accurst,
the raven-haunted roofless grave
of many fair and many brave.
1035Thereon the stony slopes look forth
from Deadly Nightshade falling north,
from sombre pines with pinions vast,
black-plumed and drear, as many a mast
of sable-shrouded ships of death
1040slow wafted on a ghostly breath.
Thence Beren grim now gazes out
across the dunes and shifting drought,
and sees afar the frowning towers
where thunderous Thangorodrim lowers.
1045The hungry horse there drooping stood,
proud Gnomish steed; it feared the wood;
upon the haunted ghastly plain
no horse would ever stride again.
‘Good steed of master ill,’ he said,
1050‘farewell now here! Lift up thy head,
and get thee gone to Sirion’s vale
back as we came, past island pale
where Thû once reigned, to waters sweet
and grasses long about thy feet.
1055And if Curufin no more thou find,
&n
bsp; grieve not! but free with hart and hind
go wander, leaving work and war,
and dream thee back in Valinor,
whence came of old thy mighty race
1060from Tavros’ mountain-fencéd chase.’
There still sat Beren, and he sang
and loud his lonely singing rang.
Though Orcs should hear, or wolf a-prowl,
or any of the creatures foul
1065within the shade that slunk and stared
of Taur-na-Fuin, nought he cared
who now took leave of light and day,
grim-hearted, bitter, fierce and fey.
‘Farewell now here, ye leaves of trees,
1070your 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!
1075Farewell 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
1080on 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.
1085‘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,
Lúthien Tinúviel
1090more 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—
1095the dawn, the dusk, the earth, the sea—
that Lúthien on a time should be!’
His blade he lifted high in hand,
and challenging alone did stand
before the threat of Morgoth’s power;
1100and dauntless cursed him, hall and tower,
o’ershadowing hand and grinding foot,
beginning, end, and crown and root;
then turned to strike forth down the slope
abandoning fear, forsaking hope.
1105‘A, Beren, Beren!’ came a sound,
‘almost too late have I thee found!
O proud and fearless hand and heart,
not yet farewell, not yet we part!
Not thus do those of elven race
1110forsake the love that they embrace.
A love is mine, as great a power
as thine, to shake the gate and tower
of death with challenge weak and frail
that yet endures, and will not fail
1115nor yield, unvanquished were it hurled
beneath the foundations of the world.
Beloved fool! escape to seek
from such pursuit; in might so weak