The Lays of Beleriand

Read The Lays of Beleriand for Free Online Page B

Book: Read The Lays of Beleriand for Free Online
Authors: J. R. R. Tolkien
were set on high/near the king and queen (i.e. presumably on the dais, at the 'high table'). Whether it was a rejection of this idea that caused my father to bracket lines 461 -- 3 and mark them with an X I cannot say. The secret songs of the sons of Ing referred to in this passage (421) are not indeed songs of the sons of Ing of the AElfwine history (II. 301 ff.); this Ing is the Gnomish form of Ingwe, Lord of the First Kindred of the Elves (earlier Inwe Lord of the Teleri).*
    The lines concerning Orgof dead are noteworthy: his hour had come
    that his soul should seek the sad pathway
    to the deep valley of the Dead Awaiting,
    there a thousand years thrice:o ponder
    in the gloom of Gurthrond his grim jesting,
    ere he fare to Faerie to feast again.(
    544-9)
    With this compare the tale of The Coming of the Valar and the Building of Valinor (I. 76):
    There [in the hall of Ve] Mandos spake their doom, and there they waited in the darkness, dreaming of their past deeds, until such time as he appointed when they might again be born into their children, and go forth to laugh and sing again.
    The name Gurthrond (< Guthrond) occurs nowhere else; the first element is doubtless gurth 'death', as in the name of Turin's sword Gurtholfin (II. 342).
    *That Ing is the Gnomish form of Ingwe appears from the 1926 'Sketch of the Mythology' and the 1930 'Silmarillion'. Ing was replaced by Inn e in The Cottage of Lost Play, but there the Gnomish name of Inwe is Inwithiel, changed from Gim Githil (I. 16, 22).)
    There remain a few particular points concerning names. At line 366
    Hithlum is explained as the name of Dorlomin among Men: of dark Dorlomin with its dreary pines
    that Hithlum unhappy is hight by Men.
    This is curious. In the Lost Tales the name of the land among Men was Aryador; so in the Tale of Turambar (II. 70): In those days my folk dwelt in a vale of Hisilome and that land did Men name Aryador in the tongues they then used.
    In the 1930 'Silmarillion' it is specifically stated that Hithlum and Dorlomin were Gnomish names for Hisilome', and there seems every reason to suppose that this was always the case. The answer to the puzzle may however lie in the same passage of the Tale of Turambar, where it is said that
    often was the story of Turambar and the Foaloke in their [i.e. Men's]
    mouths -- but rather after the fashion of the Gnomes did they say Turumart and the Fuithlug.
    Perhaps then the meaning of line 366 is that Men called Hisilome Hithlum because they used the Gnomish name, not that it was the name in their own tongue.
    In the following lines (367 -- 8)
    the Shadowy Mountains
    fenced them from Faerie and the folk of the wood.
    This is the first occurrence of the name Shadowy Mountains, and it is used as it was afterwards (Ered Wethrin); in the Last Tales the mountains forming the southern fence of Hithlum are called the Iron Mountains or the Bitter Hills (see II. 61).
    The name Cuinlimfin of the Waters of Awakening (note to line 450) seems to have been a passing idea, soon abandoned.
    Lastly, at line 50 occurs (by emendation in B from Cor) the unique compound name Corthun, while at 430 the city of Cor was emended to the city of Tun; see II. 292.
    *
    II.
    BELEG.
    Long time alone he lived in the hills
    a hunter of beast and hater of Men,

    or Orcs, or Elves, till outcast folk
    560
    there one by one, wild and reckless
    around him rallied; and roaming far
    they were feared by both foe and friend of old.
    For hot with hate was the heart of Turin,
    nor a friend found him such folk of Thingol
    as he wandering met in the wood's fastness.
    565
    There Beleg the brave on the borders of Doriath they found and fought -- and few were with him --
    and o'erborne by numbers they bound him at last, till their captain came to their camp at eve.
    Afar from that fight his fate that day
    had taken Turin on the trail of the Orcs,
    as they hastened home to the Hills of Iron
    with the loot laden of the lands of Men.
    Then soon was him said that a

Similar Books

Apaches

Lorenzo Carcaterra

Castle Fear

Franklin W. Dixon

Deadlocked

A. R. Wise

Unexpected

Lilly Avalon

Hideaway

Rochelle Alers

Mother of Storms

John Barnes