The Lay of Leithian, an Introduction...

In later days when Morgoth first,

fleeing the Gods, their bondage burst,

and on the mortal lands set feet,

and in the North his mighty seat

founded and fortified, and all

the newborn race of Men were thrall

unto his power, and Elf and Gnome*

his slaves, or wandered without home,

or scattered fastnesses walled with fear

upraised upon his borders drear,

and each one fell, yet reigned there still

in Doriath beyond his will

Thingol and deathless Melian,

whose magic yet no evil can

that cometh from without surpass.

Here still was laughter and green grass,

and leaves were lit with the white sun,

and many marvels were begun.

In sunshine and in sheen of moon,

with silken robe and silver shoon,

the daugther of the deathless queen

now danced on the undying green,

half elven-fair and half divine;

and when the stars began to shine

unseen but near a piping woke,

and in the branches of an oak,

or seated on the beech-leaves brown,

Dairon** the dark with ferny crown

played with bewildering wizard's art

music for breaking of the heart.

Such players have there only been

thrice in all Elfinesse, I ween:

Tinfang Gelion*** who still the moon

enchants on summer nights of June

and kindles the pale firstling star;

and he who harps upon the far

forgotten beaches and dark shores

where western foam for ever roars,

Maglor whose voice is like the sea;

and Dairon, mightiest of the three.

Now it befell on summer night,

upon a lawn where lingering light

yet lay and faded faint and grey,

that Lúthien danced while he did play.

The chestnuts on the turf had shed

their flowering candles, white and red;

there darkling stood a silent elm

and pale beneath its shadow-helm

there glimmered faint the umbels thick

of hemlocks like a mist, and quick

the moths on pallid wings of white

with tiny eyes of fiery light

were fluttering softly, and the voles

crept out to listen from their holes;

the little owls were hushed and still;

the moon was yet behind the hill.

Her arms like ivory were glimmering,

her long hair like a cloud was streaming,

her feet atwinkle wandered roaming

in misty mazes in the gloaming;

and glowworms shimmered round her feet,

and moths in moving garland fleet

above her head went wavering wan -

and this the moon now looked upon,

uprisen slow, and round, and white

above the branches of the night.

Then clearly thrilled her voice and rang;

with sudden ecstasy she sang

a song of nightingales she learned

and with her elvish magic turned

to such bewildering delight

the moon hung moveless in the night.

And this it was that Beren heard,

and this he saw, without a word,

enchanted dumb, yet filled with fire

of such a wonder and desire

that all his mortal mind was dim;

her magic bound and fettered him,

and faint he leaned against a tree.

Forwandered, wayworn, gaunt was he,

his body sick and heart gone cold,

grey in his hair, his youth turned old;

for those that tread the lonely way

a price of woe and anguish pay.

And now his heart was healed and slain

with a new life and with new pain.

He gazed, and as he gazed her hair

within its cloudy web did snare

the silver moonbeams sifting white

between the leaves, and glinting bright

the tremulous starlight of the skies

was caught and mirrored in her eyes.

Then all his journey's lonely fare,

the hunger and the haggard care,

the awful mountains' stones he stained

with blood of weary feet, and gained

only a land of ghosts, and fear

in dark ravines imprisoned sheer -

there mighty spiders wove their webs,

old creatures foul with birdlike nebs

that span their traps in dizzy air,

and filled it with clinging black despair,

and there they lived, and the sucked the bones

lay white beneath on the dank stones -

now all these horrors like a cloud

faded from mind. The waters loud

falling from pineclad heights no more

he heard, those waters grey and frore

that bittersweet he drank and filled

his mind with madness - all was stilled.

He recked not now the burning road,

the paths demented where he strode

endlessly...and ever new

horizens stretched before his view,

as each blue ridge with bleeding feet

was climbed, and down he went to meet

battle with creatures old and strong

and monsters in the dark, and long,

long watches in the haunted night

while evil shapes the baleful light

in clustered eyes did crawl and snuff

beneath his tree - not half enough

the price he deemed to come at last

to that pale moon when day had passed,

to those clear stars of Elfinesse,

the hearts-ease and the loveliness.

Lo! all forgetting he was drawn

unheeding toward the glimmering lawn

by love and wonder that compelled

his feet from hiding; music welled

within his heart, and songs unmade

on themes unthought-of moved and swayed

his soul with sweetness; out he came,

a shadow in the moon's pale flame -

and Dairon's flute as sudden stops

as lark before it steeply drops,

as grasshopper within the grass

listening for heavy feet to pass.

''Flee, Lúthien!'', and ''Lúthien!''

from hiding Dairon called again;

''A stranger walks the woods! Away!''

Before it gets too long (perhaps I am too late!), I shall stop. This is part of Canto III of The Lay of Leithian as found in The History of Middle-earth Volume III, The Lays of Beleriand - an invaluable book - and tells of the coming of Beren into Doriath and his first sight of Lúthien the Fair, dancing among the hemlocks. As you can see, the Lay is written in the staple octosyllabic couplets of romance, which must be very difficult to compose, and thus we can glimpse through another window into Tolkien's genius. It is a great honour to read Tolkien in verse, because it is how the traditions of the Elder Days were preserved by the Eldar - indeed, the Great Tales of the Elder Days would have been sung in Rivendell to the Hobbits by the minstrels of Elrond in this fashion. From the Lay comes the impoverished chapter ''Of Beren and Lúthien'' in The Silmarillion. It is much better to read it in verse. In my treatment of the synopsis of this great tale, I shall perhaps include one or two stanzas from the Lay, as I think it is important. I shall say no more than ''feast your eyes upon it!''

*Gnome was a name formerly used by Tolkien as synonymous with Noldor. Interestingly, as the the Quenya Istar is related to the English Wizard in the mind of Tolkien, so Noldor was probably philologically related to Gnome. I had not hitheto thought of this.

**Dairon was later changed to Daeron; they remained the same person, although the character was altered considerably between the Lost Tales (where he is conceived to be the brother of Lúthien) to the legends of The Silmarillion.

***Tinfang Gelion, a character resurrected from the Lost Tales. The name Gelion is not explained, although the name was used later to designate a great river in East Beleriand. Tinfang Gelion is not a character in The Silmarillion.

The above image I found in Google Images, and depicts Lúthien dancing. I had already used the Ted Nasmith one, so I thought better of using it again.