the story of beren and lúthien ~ finished by geoff zeiger
XIII
Into the vast and echoing gloom,
more dread than many-tunneled tomb
in labyrinthine pyramid
where everlasting death is hid,
down awful corridors that wind 3915
down to a menace dark enshrined;
down to the mountain's roots profound,
devoured, tormented, bored and ground
by seething vermin spawned of stone;
down to the depths they went alone. 3920
The arch behind of twilit shade
they saw recede and dwindling fade;
the thunderous forges' rumour grew,
a burning wind there roaring blew
foul vapours up from gaping holes. 3925
Huge shapes there stood like carven trolls
enormous hewn of blasted rock
to forms that mortal likeness mock;
monstrous and menacing, entombed,
at every turn they silent loomed 3930
in fitful glares that leaped and died.
There hammers clanged, and tongues there cried
with sound like smitten stone; there wailed
faint from far under, called and failed
amid the iron clink of chain 3935
voices of captives put to pain.
Loud rose a din of laughter hoarse,
self-loathing yet without remorse;
loud came a singing harsh and fierce
like swords of terror souls to pierce. 3940
Red was the glare through open doors
of firelight mirrored on brazen floors,
and up the arches towering clomb
to glooms unguessed, to vaulted dome
swathed in wavering smokes and steams 3945
stabbed with flickering lightning-gleams.
To Morgoth's hall, where dreadful feast
he held, and drank the blood of beast
and lives of Men, they stumbling came:
their eyes were dazed with smoke and flame. 3950
The pillars, reared like monstrous shores
to bear earth's overwhelming floors,
were devil-carven, shaped with skill
such as unholy dreams doth fill;
they towered like trees into the air, 3955
whose trunks are rooted in despair,
whose shade is death, whose fruit is bane,
whose boughs like serpents writhe in pain.
Beneath them ranged with spear and sword
stood Morgoth's sable-armoured horde: 3960
the fire on blade and boss of shield
was red as blood on stricken field.
Beneath a monstrous column loomed
the throne of Morgoth, and the doomed
and dying gasped upon the floor: 3965
his hideous footstool, rape of war.
About him sat his awful thanes,
the Balrog-lords with fiery manes,
redhanded, mouthed with fangs of steel;
devouring wolves were crouched at heel. 3970
And o'er the host of hell there shone
with a cold radiance, clear and wan,
the Silmarils, the gems of fate,
emprisoned in the crown of hate.
Lo! through the grinning portals dread 3975
sudden a shadow swooped and fled;
and Beren gasped – he lay alone,
with crawling belly on the stone:
a form bat-wingéd, silent, flew
where the huge pillared branches grew, 3980
amid the smokes and mounting steams.
As on the margin of dark dreams
a dim-felt shadow unseen grows
to cloud of vast unease, and woes
foreboded, nameless, roll like doom 3985
upon the soul, so in that gloom
the voices fell, and laughter died
slow to silence many-eyed.
A nameless doubt, a shapeless fear,
had entered in their caverns drear, 3990
and grew, and towered above them cowed,
hearing in heart the trumpets loud
of Gods forgotten. Morgoth spoke,
and thunderous the silence broke:
"Shadow, descend! And do not think 3995
to cheat mine eyes! In vain to shrink
from thy Lord's gaze, or seek to hide.
My will by none may be defied.
Hope nor escape doth here await
those that unbidden pass my gate. 4000
Descend! ere anger blast thy wing,
thou foolish, frail, bat-shapen thing,
and yet not bat within! Come down!"
Slow-wheeling o'er his iron crown,
reluctantly, shivering and small, 4005
Beren there saw the shadow fall,
and droop before the hideous throne,
a weak and trembling thing, alone.
And as thereon great Morgoth bent
his darkling gaze, he shuddering went, 4010
belly to earth, the cold sweat dank
upon his fell, and crawling shrank
beneath the darkness of that seat,
beneath the shadow of those feet.
Tinúviel spake, a thin, shrill sound 4015
piercing those silences profound:
"A lawful errand here me brought;
from Thû's dark mansions have I sought,
from Taur-na-Fuin's shade I fare
to stand before thy mighty chair!" 4020
"Thy name, thou shrieking waif, thy name!
Tidings enough from Thû there came
but short while since. What would he now?
Why send such messenger as thou?"
Thuringwethil am I, who cast 4025
a shadow o'er the face aghast
of the sallow moon in the dooméd land
of shivering Beleriand."
"Liar art thou, who shalt not weave
deceit before mine eyes. Now leave 4030
thy form and raiment false, and stand
revealed, delivered to my hand!"
There came a slow and shuddering change:
the batlike raiment dark and strange
was loosed, and slowly shrank and fell 4035
quivering. She stood revealed in hell.
About her slender shoulders hung
her shadowy hair, and round her clung
her garment dark, where glimmered pale
the starlight caught in magic veil. 4040
Dim dreams and faint oblivious sleep
fell softly thence; in dungeons deep
an odor stole of elven-flowers
from elven-dells where silver showers
drip softly through the evening air; 4045
and round there crawled with greedy stare
dark shapes of snuffling hunger dread.
With arms upraised and drooping head
then softly she began to sing
a theme of sleep and slumbering, 4050
wandering, woven with deeper spell
than songs wherewith in ancient dell
Melian did once the twilight fill,
profound, and fathomless, and still.
The fires of Angband flared and died, 4055
smouldered to darkness; through the wide
and hollow halls there rolled unfurled
the shadows of the underworld.
All movement stayed, and all sound ceased,
save vaporous breath of Orc and beast. 4060
One fire in darkness still abode:
the lidless eye of Morgoth glowed;
one sound the breathing silence broke:
the mirthless voice of Morgoth spoke.
"So Lúthien, so Lúthien, 4065
a liar like all Elves and Men!
Yet welcome, welcome, to my hall!
I have a use for every thrall.
What news of Thingol in his hole
shy lurking like a timid vole? 4070
What folly fresh is in his mind
who cannot keep his offspring blind
from straying thus? or can devise
no better counsel for his spies?"
She wavered, and she stayed her song. 4075
"The road," she said, "was wild and long,
but Thingol sent me not, nor knows
what way his rebellious daughter goes.
Yet every road and path will lead
Northward at last, and here of need 4080
I trembling come with humble brow,
and here before thy throne I bow;
for Lúthien hath many arts
for solace sweet of kingly hearts."
"And here of need thou shalt remain 4085
now, Lúthien, in joy or pain –
or pain, the fitting doom for all,
for rebel, thief, and upstart thrall.
Why should ye not in our fate share
of woe and travail? Or should I spare 4090
to slender limb and body frail
breaking torment? Of what avail
here dost thou deem thy babbling song
and foolish laughter? Minstrels strong
are at my call. Yet I will give 4095
a respite brief, a while to live,
a little while, though purchased dear,
to Lúthien the fair and clear,
a pretty toy for idle hour.
In slothful gardens many a flower 4100
like thee the amorous gods are used
honey-sweet to kiss, and cast then bruised,
their fragrance loosing, under feet.
But here we seldom find such sweet
amid our labours long and hard, 4105
from godlike idleness debarred.
And who would not taste honey-sweet
lying to lips, or crush with feet
the soft cool tissue of pale flowers,
easing like gods the dragging hours? 4110
A! curse the Gods! O hunger dire,
O blinding thirst's unending fire!
One moment shall ye cease, and slake
your sting with morsel here I take!"
In his eyes the fire to flame was fanned, 4115
and forth he stretched his brazen hand.
Lúthien as shadow shrank aside.
"Not thus, O king, Not thus!" she cried,
"do great lords hark to humble boon!
For every minstrel hath his tune; 4120
and some are strong and some are soft,
and each would bear his song aloft,
and each a little while be heard,
though rude the note, and light the word.
But Lúthien hath cunning arts 4125
for solace sweet of kingly hearts.
Now hearken!" And her wings she caught
then deftly up, and swift as thought
slipped from his grasp, and wheeling round,
fluttering before his eyes, she wound 4130
a mazy-wingéd dance, and sped
about his iron-crownéd head.
Sudden her song began anew;
and soft came dripping like a dew
down from on high in that doméd hall 4135
her voice bewildering, magical,
and grew to silver-murmuring streams
pale falling in dark pools in dreams.
She let her flying raiment sweep,
enmeshed with woven spells of sleep, 4140
as through the void she ranged and reeled.
From wall to wall she turned and wheeled
in dance such as never Elf nor fay
before devised, nor since that day;
than swallow swifter, than flittermouse 4145
in dying light round darkened house
more silken-soft, more strange and fair
than sylphine maidens of the Air
whose wings in Varda's heavenly hall
in rhythmic movement beat and fall. 4150
Down crumpled Orc, and Balrog proud;
all eyes were quenched, all heads were bowed;
the fires of heart and maw were stilled,
and ever like a bird she thrilled
above a lightless world forlorn 4155
in ecstasy enchanted born.
All eyes were quenched, save those that glared
in Morgoth's lowering brows, and stared
in slowly wandering wonder round,
and slow were in enchantment bound. 4160
Their will wavered, and their fire failed,
and as beneath his brows they paled,
the Silmarils like stars were kindled
that in the reek of earth had dwindled
escaping upwards clear to shine, 4165
glistening marvelous in heaven's mine.
Then flaring suddenly they fell,
down, down upon the floors of hell.
The dark and mighty head was bowed;
like mountain-top beneath a cloud 4170
the shoulders foundered, the vast form
crashed, as in overwhelming storm
huge cliffs in ruin slide and fall;
and prone lay Morgoth in his hall.
His crown there rolled upon the ground, 4175
a wheel of thunder, then all sound
died, and a silence grew as deep
as were the heart of earth asleep.
Beneath the vast and empty throne
the adders lay like twisted stone, 4180
the wolves like corpses foul were strewn;
and there lay Beren deep in swoon:
no thought, no dream nor shadow blind
moved in the darkness of his mind.
"Come forth, come forth! The hour hath knelled, 4185
and Angband's mighty lord is felled!
Awake, awake! For we two meet
alone before the aweful seat."
This voice came down into the deep
where he lay drowned in wells of sleep; 4190
a hand flower-soft and flower-cool
passed o'er his face, and the still pool
of slumber quivered. Up then leaped
his mind to waking; forth he crept.
The wolvish fell he flung aside 4195
and sprang unto his feet, and wide
staring amid the soundless gloom
he gasped as one living shut in tomb.
There to his side he felt her shrink,
felt Lúthien now shivering sink, 4200
her strength and magic dimmed and spent,
and swift his arms about her went.
Before his feet he saw amazed
the gems of Fëanor, that blazed
with white fire glistening in the crown 4205
of Morgoth's might now fallen down.
To move that helm of iron vast
no strength he found, and thence aghast
he strove with fingers mad to wrest
the guerdon of their hopeless quest, 4210
till in his heart there fell the thought
of that cold morn whereon he fought
with Curufin; then from his belt
the sheathless knife he drew, and knelt,
and tried its hard edge, bitter-cold, 4215
o'er which in Nogrod songs had rolled
of dwarvish armourers singing slow
to hammer-music long ago.
Iron as tender wood it clove
and mail as woof of loom it rove. 4220
The claws of iron that held that gem,
it bit through and sundered them;
a Silmaril he clasped and held,
and the pure radiance slowly welled
red glowing through the clenching flesh. 4225
Again he stooped and strove afresh
one more of the holy jewels three
that Fëanor wrought of old to free.
But round those fires was woven fate:
not yet to leave the halls of hate. 4230
The dwarvish steel of cunning blade
by treacherous smiths in Nogrod made
snapped; then ringing sharp and clear
in twain it sprang, and like a spear
or errant shaft the brow it grazed 4235
of Morgoth's sleeping head, and dazed
their hearts with fear. For Morgoth groaned
with voice entombed, like wind that moaned
in hollow caverns penned and bound.
There came a breath; a gasping sound 4240
moved through the halls, as Orc and beast
turned in their dreams of hideous feast;
in sleep uneasy Balrogs stirred,
and far above was faintly heard
an echo that in tunnels rolled, 4245
a wolvish howling long and cold.