Further into Hell...

We saw in the last post how Beren and Lúthien penetrated the fastness of Angband, that ''most grievous of all abodes'' as the Tale of Turambar and the Foalókë puts it (The Book of Lost Tales, Part II, Chapter II). And here, they both put all the might and pride of the Princes of the Gnomes to shame...

Lo! through the grinning portals dread

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,

amid the smokes and mounting screams.

And 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

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,

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

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.

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,

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,

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 shrill, thin sound

piercing those silences profound:

''A lawful errand here me brought;

from Thû's [Sauron's] dark mansions have I sought,

from Taur-na-Fuin's [Taur-nu-Fuin's] shade I fare

to stand before thy mighty chair!''

''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 I am, who cast

a shadow o'er the face aghast

of the sallow moon in the doomed land

of shivering Beleriand.''

''Liar art thou, who shalt not weave

deceit before mine eyes. Now leave

thy form and raiment false, and stand

revealed, and delivered to my hand!''

Then, she was stripped of her guise by the will of Morgoth, and stood revealed and powerless before the hosts of Hell...