Lay of Leithian Canto III: Difference between revisions

From Tolkien Gateway
No edit summary
(Removed original text)
Line 2: Line 2:
{{lolcantos}}
{{lolcantos}}
This [[Cantos of the Lay of Leithian|Canto]] starts out with the tale of [[Thingol]] and [[Melian]].  Then it gives a description of [[Lúthien]] their daughter, and tells how [[Beren Erchamion|Beren]] watched in amazement. [[Dairon]] warns Lúthien, and she hides, but Beren touches her arm by accident. Again Beren searches, and months later catches her again, naming her Tinúviel. Below is recounted the second meeting.
This [[Cantos of the Lay of Leithian|Canto]] starts out with the tale of [[Thingol]] and [[Melian]].  Then it gives a description of [[Lúthien]] their daughter, and tells how [[Beren Erchamion|Beren]] watched in amazement. [[Dairon]] warns Lúthien, and she hides, but Beren touches her arm by accident. Again Beren searches, and months later catches her again, naming her Tinúviel. Below is recounted the second meeting.
== The Canto ==
:There once, and long and long ago
:before the [[sun]] and [[moon]] we know
:were lit to sail above the world
:when first the shaggy woods unfurled
:and shadowy shapes did stare and roam
:beneath the dark and starry dome
:that hung above the dawn of [[Earth]]
:the silences with silver mirth
:were shaken; the rocks were ringing
:the birds of Melian were singing
:the first to sing in mortal lands
:the [[nightingales]] with her own hands
:she fed, that fay of garments gray;
:and dark and long her tresses lay
:beneath her silver girdle’s seat
:and down unto her silver feet.
:She had wayward wandered on a time
:from gardens of the [[Valar]], to climb
:the everlasting mountains free
:that look upon the [[Belegaer|outmost sea]]
:and never wandered back, but stayed
:and softly sang from glade to glade.
:Her voice it was that Thingol heard
:and sudden singing of a bird
:in that old time when new-come Elves
:had all the wide world to themselves.
:Yet all his kin now marched away
:as old tales tell, to seek the bay
:on the last shore of mortal lands
:where mighty ships with magic hands
:they made, and sailed beyond the sea.
:The Valar them bade to lands of ease
:and gardens fair, where earth and sky
:together flow, and none shall die.
:But Thingol stayed, enchanted, still
:one moment to hearken to the thrill
:of that sweet singing in the trees.
:enchanted moments such as these
:from gardens of the Lord of Sleep
:where fountains play and shadows creep
:do come, and count as many years
:in mortal lands.  With many tears
:his people seek him ere they sail
:while Thingol listens in the dale.
:There after but an hour, him seems,
:he finds her where she lies and dreams
:pale Melian with her dark hair
:upon a bed of leaves.  Beware!
:there slumber and a sleep is twined!
:he touched her tresses and his mind
:was drowned in the forgetful deep
:and dark the years rolled o’er his sleep.
:Thus Thingol sailed not on the seas
:but dwelt amid the land of trees
:and Melian he loved, divine
:whose voice was potent as the wine
:the Valar drink in golden halls
:where flower blooms and fountain falls;
:but when she sang it was a spell
:and no flower stirred nor fountain fell.
:A king and queen thus lived they long
:and [[Doriath]] was filed with song
:and all the [[Elves]] that missed their way
:and never found the western bay
:the gleaming walls of their long home
:by the gray seas and the white foam
:who never trod the [[Aman|golden land]]
:where the towers of the Valar stand
:all these were gathered in their realm
:beneath the beech and oak and elm.
:In later days when [[Morgoth]] first
:fleeing the Valar, their bondage bust
:and on the mortal lands set feet
:and in the North his [[Angband|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 daughter 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 [[Doriath|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 gray
: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 gleaming
: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 hear gone cold
:gray his hair, his youth turned old;
:for those that tread that 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 [[Ered Gorgoroth|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 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 gray 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
:horizons 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 with 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 pompelled
: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 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 walked the woods!  Away!’
:But Lúthien would wondering stay;
:fear had she never felt or known
:till fear then seized her, all alone
:seeing that shape with shagged hair
:and shadow long that halted there.
:Then suddenly she vanished like a dream
:in dark oblivion, a gleam
:in hurrying clouds, for she had leapt
:among the hemlocks tall, and crept
:under a mighty plant with leaves
:all long and dark, whose stem in sheaves
:upheld an hundred umbels fair;
:and her white arms and shoulders bare
:her raiment pale, and in her hair
:the wild white roses glimmering there
:all lay like spattered moonlight hour
:in gleaming pools upon the floor.
:Then stared he wild in dumbness bound
:at silent trees, deserted ground;
:he blindly groped across the glade
:so the dark trees’ encircling shade
:and, while she watched with veiled eyes
:touched her soft arm in sweet surprise.
:Like startled moth from deathlike sleep
:in sunless nook or bushes deep
:she darted swift, and to and fro
:with cunning that elvish dancers know
:about the trunks of trees she twined
:a path fantastic.  Far behind
:enchanted, wildered and forlorn
:Beren came blundering, bruised and torn;
:[[Esgalduin]] the elven-stream
:in which amid tree-shadows gleam
:the stars, flowed strong before his feet.
:Some secret way she found, and fleet
:passed over and was seen no more
:and left him forsaken on the shore.
:‘Darkly the sundering flood falls past!
:To this my long way comes at last–
:a hunger and a loneliness
:enchanted waters pitiless.’
:A summer waned, and autumn glowed
:and Beren in the woods abode
:as wild and wary as a faun
:that sudden wakes at rustling dawn
:and flits from shade to shade, and flees
:the brightness of the sun, yet sees
:all stealthy movements in the wood.
:The murmurous warmth in weathers good
:the hum of many wings, the call
:of many a bird, the pattering fall
:of sudden rain upon the trees
:the windy tide in leafy seas
:the creaking of the boughs, he heard;
:but not the song of sweetest bird
:brought joy of comfort to his heart
:a wanderer dumb who dwelt apart;
:who sought unceasing and in vain
:to hear and see those things again:
:a song more fair than nightingale
:a wonder in the moonlight pale.
:An autumn waned, a winter laid
:the withered leaves in grove and glade;
:the beeches bare were gaunt and gray
:and red their leaves beneath them lay.
:From cavern pale the moist moon eyes
:the white mists that from earth arise
:to hide the morrow’s sun and drip
:all the gray day from each twig’s tip.
:By dawn and dusk he seeks her still;
:by noon and night in valleys chill
:nor hears a sound but the slow beat
:on sodden leaves of his own feet.
:The wind of winter winds his horn;
:the misty veil is rent and torn.
:The wind dies; the starry choirs
:leap in the silent sky to fires
:whose light comes bitter-cold and sheer
:through domes of frozen crystal clear.
:A sparkle through the darkling trees
:a piercing glint of light he sees
:and there she dances all alone
:upon a treeless knoll of stone!
:Her mantle blue with jewels white
:caught all the rays of frosted light.
:She shone with cold and wintry flame
:as dancing down the hill she came
:and passed his watchful silent gaze
:a glimmer as of stars ablaze.
:And snowdrops sprang beneath her feet
:and one bird, sudden, late and sweet
:shrilled as she wayward passed along.
:A frozen brook to bubbling song
:awoke and laughed; but Beren stood
:still bound enchanted in the wood.
:Her starlight faded and the night
:closed o’er the snowdrops glimmering white.
:Thereafter on a hillock green
:he saw far off the elven-sheen
:of shining limb and jewel bright
:often and oft on moonlit night;
:and Dairon’s pipe awoke once more
:and soft she sang as once before.
:Then nigh he stole beneath the trees
:and heartache mingled with hearts-ease.
:A night there was when winter died;
:then all alone she sand and cried
:and danced until the dawn of spring
:and chanted some wild magic thing
:that stirred him, till it sudden broke
:the bonds that held him, and he woke
:to madness sweet and brave despair.
:He flung his arms to the night air
:and out he danced unheeding fleet
:enchanted , with enchanted feet.
:He sped towards the hillock green
:the lissom limbs, the dancing sheen;
:he leapt upon the grassy hill
:his  arms with loveliness to fill:
:his arms were empty, and she fled;
:away, away her white feet sped.
:But as she went he swiftly came
:and called her with the tender name
:of nightingales in elvish tongue
:that all the woods now sudden rung:
:‘Tinúviel!  Tinúviel!’
:And clear his voice was as a bell;
:its echoes wove a binding spell:
:‘Tinúviel!  Tinúviel!’
:His voice such love and longing filled
:one moment stood she, fear was stilled;
:one moment only; like a flame
:he leaped towards her as she stayed
:and caught and kissed that elfin maid.
:As love there woke in sweet surprise
:the starlight trembled in her eyes.
:A!  Lúthien!  A!  Lúthien!
:more fair than any child of Men;
:O! loveliest maid of Elfinesse
:what madness does thee now possess!
:A! lissom limbs and shadowy hair
:and chaplet of white snowdrops there;
:O! starry diadem and white
:pale hands beneath the pale moonlight!
:She left his arms and slipped away
:just at the breaking of the day.


==Concerning the Canto==
==Concerning the Canto==

Revision as of 14:58, 15 July 2006

Lúthien by Ted Nasmith
Lay of Leithian cantos
  1. Canto I
  2. Canto II
  3. Canto III
  4. Canto IV
  5. Canto V
  6. Canto VI
  7. Canto VII
  8. Canto VIII
  9. Canto IX
  10. Canto X
  11. Canto XI
  12. Canto XII
  13. Canto XIII
  14. Canto XIV

This Canto starts out with the tale of Thingol and Melian. Then it gives a description of Lúthien their daughter, and tells how Beren watched in amazement. Dairon warns Lúthien, and she hides, but Beren touches her arm by accident. Again Beren searches, and months later catches her again, naming her Tinúviel. Below is recounted the second meeting.

Concerning the Canto

This canto, in contrast to the previous one, shows peace and hope, and the beauty of Doriath.

. . .the rocks were ringing
the birds of Melian were singing

It tells of the meeting and love of Thingol and Melian, mirroring in a way the future meeting and love of Beren and Lúthien; one elf to maia, the other man to elf.

There after but an hour, him seems,
he finds her where she lies and dreams'
pale Melian with her dark hair
upon a bed of leaves. Beware!
there slumber and a sleep is twined!
he touched her tresses and his mind
was drowned in the forgetful deep
and dark the years rolled o’er his sleep.

This canto also includes the short paragraph about the minstrels: Tinfang Gelion, Maglor, and Dairon, the first of which has only this place laid aside for him in all the known writings of Tolkien.

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.

Beren's mixture of sorrow and bliss and the fleeing of Lúthien is shown, and at the last when he catches her in the vivid description of her dancing it culumnates.

‘Tinúviel! Tinúviel!’
His voice such love and longing filled
one moment stood she, fear was stilled;
one moment only; like a flame
he leaped towards her as she stayed
and caught and kissed that elfin maid.

Then is a paragraph unlike the rest of the Lay, unless it were Thingol's thoughts of pity on Lúthien; a sort of cry from the poet to the one he writes about, asking her why she took her doom, and left elven immortality.

A! Lúthien! A! Lúthien!
more fair than any child of Men;
O! loveliest maid of Elfinesse
what madness does thee now possess!

On a final note, she slips away "just at the breaking of the day".