Continuing with the Lay...

It's been a while now since I posted about the wonderful Lay of Leithian, but one thing drives out another as Barliman Butterbur would say. We have reached the stage now where Beren has declared his purposes before the King:

Silence then fell upon the hall;

like graven stone there stood they all,

save one who cast her eyes aground,

and one who laughed with bitter sound.

Dairon the piper leant there pale

against a pillar. His fingers frail

there touched a flute that whispered not;

his eyes were dark; his heart was hot.

''Death is the guerdon thou hast earned,

O baseborn mortal, who hast learned

in Morgoth's realm to spy and lurk

like Orcs that do his evil work!''

''Death!'' echoed Dairon fierce and low,

but Lúthien trembling gasped in woe.

''And death,'' said Thingol, ''thou shouldst taste,

had I not sworn an oath in haste

that blade nor chain thy flesh should mar.

Yet captive bound by never a bar,

unchained, unfettered, shalt thou be

in lightless labyrinth endlessly

that coils about my halls profound

by magic bewildered and enwound;

there wandering in hopelessness

thou shalt learn the power of Elfinesse!''

''That may not be!'' Lo! Beren spake,

and through the king's words coldly brake.

''What are thy mazes but a chain

wherein the captive blind is slain?

Twist not thy oaths, O elvish king,

like faithless Morgoth! By this ring -

the token of a lasting bond

that Felagund of Nargothrond

once swore in love to Barahir,

who sheltered him with shield and spear

and saved him from pursuing foe

on Northern battlefields long ago -

death thou canst give unearned to me,

but names I will not take of thee

of baseborn, spy, or Morgoth's thrall!

Are these the ways of Thingol's hall?''

Proud are the words, and all there turned

to see the jewels green that burned

in Beren's ring. These Gnomes had set

as eyes of serpents twined that met

beneath a golden crown of flowers,

that one upholds and one devours:

the badge that Finrod made of yore

and Felagund his son now bore.

His anger was chilled, but little less,

and dark thoughts Thingol did possess,

though Melian the pale leant to his side

and whispered: ''O king, forgo thy pride!

Such is my counsel. Not by thee

shall Beren be slain, for far and free

from these deep halls his fate doth lead,

yet wound with thine. O king, take heed!''

But Thingol looked on Lúthien.

''Fairest of Elves! Unhappy Men,

children of little lords and kings

mortal and frail, these fading things,

shall they then look with love on thee?''

his heart within him thought. ''I see

thy ring,'' he said, ''O mighty man!

But to win the child of Melian

a father's deeds shall not avail,

nor thy proud words at which I quail.

A treasure dear I too desire,

but rocks and steel and Morgoth's fire

from all the powers of Elfinesse

do keep the jewel I would possess.

Yet bonds like these I hear thee say

affright thee not. Now go thy way!

Bring me one shining Silmaril

from Morgoth's crown, then if she will,

may Lúthien set her hand in thine;

then shalt thou have this jewel of mine.''

(The History of Middle-earth, Volume III, The Lays of Beleriand, The Lay of Leithian, Canto IV, Lines 1055-1131).

J.R.R Tolkien wrote the Lay of Leithian between the Summer of 1925 and abandoned it sometime in 1931; as such, much of what appears in the Lay is incongruous with some of the later work. Therefore, I set readers a nice challenge! Can anyone spot a discrepancy between the canto I have just posted and the published Silmarillion? Unfortunately, there is no reward, unless (perhaps) you know me personally...I spotted three...