Lay of Leithian Canto VII

Lay of Leithian cantos
Canto I Canto II Canto III Canto IV Canto V Canto VI Canto VII Canto VIII Canto IX Canto X Canto XI Canto XII Canto XIII Canto XIV

This Canto tells how Beren, Finrod Felagund, and ten companions disguised themselves as orcs, Nereb and Dugalef, and their company. Thû from Wizard's Isle spotted them, and brought them in, where he questioned them, suspecting a trick. Then comes one of the most descriptive paragraphs, of how Thû "chanted a song of wizardry", and how Felagund responded with "a song of staying". They fought back and forth a battle of minds, until at last Felagund's power fell, and they returned to their own human forms. Then how Thû placed them in his dungeons, and every now and then sent down a werewolf to devour one of them, hoping another would name the errand they were on. But "none would yield, and none would tell".

The Canto

Thus twelve alone there ventured forth

from Nargothrond, and to the North

they turned their silent secret way,

and vanished in the fading day.

No trumpet sounds, no voice there sings,

as robed in mail of cunning rings

now blackened dark with helmets grey

and sombre cloaks they steal away.

Far-journeying Narog's leaping course

they followed till they found his source,

the flickering falls, whose freshets sheer

a glimmering goblet glassy-clear

with crystal waters fill that shake

and quiver down from Ivrin's lake,

from Ivrin's mere that mirrors dim

the pallid faces bare and grim

of Shadowy Mountains neath the moon.

Now far beyond the realm immune

from Orc and demon and the dread

of Morgoth's might their ways had led.

In woods o'ershadowed by the heights

they watched and waited many nights,

till on a time when hurrying cloud

did moon and constellation shroud,

and winds of autumn's wild beginning

soughed in the boughs, and leaves went spinning

down the dark eddies rustling soft,

they heard a murmur hoarsely waft

from far, and croaking laughter coming;

now louder; now they heard the drumming

of hideous stamping feet that tramp

the weary earth. Then many a lamp

of sullen red they saw draw near,

swinging, and glistening on spear

and scimitar. There hidden nigh

they saw a band of Orcs go by

with goblin-faces swart and foul.

Bats were about them, and the owl,

the ghostly forsaken night-bird cried

from trees above. The voices died,

the laughed like clash of stone and steel

passed and faded. At their heel

the Elves and Beren crept more soft

than foxes stealing through a croft

in search of prey. Thus to the camp

lit by flickering fire and lamp

they stole, and counted sitting there

full thirty Orcs in the red flare

of burning wood. Without a sound

they one by one stood silent round,

each in the shadow of a tree;

each slowly, grimly, secretly

bent then his bow and drew the string.

Hark! how they sudden twang and sing,

when Felagund lets forth a cry;

and twelve Orcs sudden fall and die.

Then forth they leap casting their bows.

Out their bright swords, and swift their blows!

The stricken Orcs now shriek and yell

as lost things deep in lightless hell.

Battle there is beneath the trees

bitter and swift: but no Orc flees;

there left their lives that wandering band

and stained no more the sorrowing land

with rape and murder. Yet no song

of joy, or triumph over wrong,

the Elves there sang. In peril sore

they were, for never alone to war

so small an Orc-band went, they knew.

Swiftly the raiment off they drew

and cast the corpses in a pit.

This desperate counsel had the wit

of Felagund for them devised:

as Orcs his comrades he disguised.