The Hier of the Morgemil

by Elairen

InuYasha LOTR Silmarillian cross over It is race against time for Alcarin the Numenorian, Sess., InuYasha, and co., to defeat Naraku before he merges with the maia Saruman who's form he resserected and will no longer have any need for the Sacred Jewel.

6. Of Huan the Hound of Valinor

The following contains text from the Lay of Leithan by JRR Tolkien

"That is a long tale, that goes back into the elder days. To tell the full take would take two seasons of the world. So I will tell you the shorter version." Alcarin answered. Then she lifted up her voice, half chanting, half in song, and as the song began it seemed the world stood silent to harken to her song.

Hounds there were in Valinor
with silver collars. Hart and boar;
the fox and hare and nimble roe
there in the forests green did go.
Orome was the lord divine
of all those woods. The potent wine
went in his halls and haunting song.
The Gnomes anew have named him long
Tavros, the God whose horns did blow
over the mountains long ago;
who alone of Gods have loved the world
before the banners were unfurled
of Moon and Sun; and shod with gold
were his great horses. Hounds untold
baying in woods beyond the West
of race immortal he possessed:
grey and limber, black and strong,
white with silken coats and long,
brown and brindled, swift and true
as arrow from a bow of yew;
their voices like the deeptoned bells
that ring in Valinor's citadels,
their eyes like living jewels, their teeth
like nel-bone. As sword from sheath
they flashed and flew from leash to scent
for Tavros' joy and merriment.
In Tavros' friths and pastures green
had Huan once a young whelp been. He grew the swiftest of the swift,
and Orome gave him as a gift
to Celegorm, who loved to follow
the great God's horn o'er hill and hollow.
Alone of hounds of the Land of Light,
when song os Feanor took to flight
and came into the North, he stayed
beside his master. Every raid
and every foray wild he shared,
and into mortal battle dared. Often he saved his Gnomish lord from Orc and wolf and leaping sword.
A wolf-hound, tireless, grey and fierce he grew; his gleaming eyes would pierce
all shadows and all mist, the scentmoons old he found through fen and bent, through rustling leaves and dusty sand;
all paths of wide Beleriand
he knew. But wolves, he loved them best;
he loved to find their throats and wrest
their snarling lives and evil breath.
The packs of Th him feared as Death.
No wizardry, nor spell, nor dart,
no fang, nor venom devil's art
could brew had harmed him; for his weird
was woven. Yet he little feared
that fate decreed and known to all:
before the mightiest he should fall,
before the mightiest wolf alone
that ever was whelped in cave of stone. Hark! Afar in Nargothrond,
far over Sirion and beyond,
there are dim cries and horns blowing,
and barking hounds throught threes going.
The hunt is up, the woods are stirred
Who rides to-day? Ye have not heard
that Celegorm and Curufin
have loosed their dogs? With merry din
they mounted ere the sun arose,
and took their spears and took their bows.
The wolves of Th of late have dared
both far and wide. Their eyes have glared
by night across the roaring stream
of Narog. Doth their master dearm,
perchance, of plots and counsels deep,
of secrets that the Elfplords keep,
of movement in the Gnomish realm
and errands under beech and elm?

Curufin spake: 'Good brother mine,
I like it not. What dark design
doth this poertend? These evil things,
we swift must end their wanderings!
And more, 'twould please my heart full well
to hunt a while and wolves to fell.'
And then he leaned and whispered low
that Orodreth was a dullard slow;
long time it was since the king had gone,
and rumour or tiding came there none. 'At least thy profit it would be
to know whether dead he is or free; to gather thy men and thy array. "I go to hunt" then thou wilt say,
and men will think that Narog's good ever thou heedest. But in the wood
things may be learned; and if by grace,by some blind fortune he retrace
his footsteps mad, and if he bear
a Silmaril I need declare
no more in words; but one by right
is thine (and ours, the jewel of light;
another may be wona throne.
The eldest blood our house doth own.' Celegorm listened. Nought he said,
but forth a mighty host he led;
and Huan leaped at the glad sounds,
the chief and captain of his hounds.
Three days they ride by holt and hill
the wolves of Thu to hunt and kill,
and many a head and fell of grey
they take, and many drive away,
till nigh to the borders in the West
of Doriath a while they rest.
There were dim cries and horns blowing,
and barking dogs through the woods going.
The hunt was up. The woods were stirred, and one there fled like startled bird,
and fear was in her dancing feet.
She knew not who the woods did beat.
Far from her home, forwandered, pale,
she flitted ghostlike through the vale;
ever her heart bade her up and on,
but her limbs were worn, her eyes were wan.
The eyes of Huan saw a shade
wavering, darting down a glade
like a mist of evening snared by day
and hasting fearfully away.
He bayed, and sprang with sinewy limb
to chase the shy thing strange and dim.
On terror's wings, like a butterfly
pursued by a sweeping bird on high,
she fluttered hither, darted there,
now poised, now flying through the air
in vain. At last against a tree
she leaned and panted. Up leaped he.
No word of magic gasped with woe,no elvish mystery she did know
or had entwined in raiment dark availed against that hunter stark,
whose old immortal race and kind
no spells could ever turn or bind.
Huan alone that she ever met
she never in enchantment set
nor bound with spells. But loveliness and gentle voice and pale distress and eyes like starlight dimmed with tears
tamed him that death nor monster fears.
Lightly he lifted her, light he bore
his trembling burden. Never before
had Celegorm beheld such prey:
'What hast thou brought, good Huan say!
Dark-elvish maid, or wraith, or fay?
Not such to hunt we came today.'
' 'Tis Luthien of Doriath,'
the maiden spake. ' A wandering path
far from the Wood-Elves' sunny glades
she sadly winds, where courage fades
and hope grows faint.' And as she spoke
down she let slip her shadowy cloak,
and there she stood in silver and white.
Her starry jewels twinkled bright
in the risen sun like morning dew;
the lilies gold on mantle blue
gleamed and glistened. Who could gaze
on that fair face without amaze?
Long did Curufin look and stare.
The perfume of her flower-twined hair,
her lissom limbs, her elvish face,
smote to his heart, and in that place
enchained he stood. 'O maiden royal,
O lady fair, wherefore in toil
and lonely journey dost thou go?
What tidings dread of war and woe
In Doriath have betid? Come tell!
for fourtune thee hath guided well;
friends thou hast found,' said Celegorm,
and gazed upon her elvish form.

In his heart him thought her tale unsaid
he knew in part, but nought she read
of guile upon his smiling face.
'Who are ye then, the lordly chase that follow in this perilous wood?'
she asked; and answer seeming-good
they gave. 'Thy servants, lady sweet,
lords of Nargothrond thee greet,
and beg that thou wouldst with them go
back to their hills, forgetting woe
a season, seeking hope and rest.
And now to hear thy tale were best.'
So Luthien tells of Beren's deeds
in northern lands, how fate him leadsto Doriath, of Thingol's ire, the dreadful errand that her sire decreed for Beren. Sign now word
the brothers gave that aught they heard
that touched them near. Of her escape
and the marvellous mantle she did shape
she lightly tells, but words her fail
recalling sunlight in the vale,
moonlight, starlight in Doriath,
ere Beren took the perilous path.
'Need, too, my lords, there is of haste!
No time in ease and rest to waste.
For days are gone now since the queen,
Melian whose heart hath vision keen,
looking afar me said in fear
that Beren lived in bondage drear.
The Lord of Wolves hath prisons dark,
chains and enchantments cruel and stark,
and there entrapped and languishing
doth Beren lieif direr thing
hath not brought death or wish for death;'
then gasping woe bereft her breath.

To Celegorm said Curufin
apart and low: 'Now news we win
of Felagund, and now we know
wherefore Th's creatures prowling go'.
and other whispered counsels spake,
and showed him what answer he should make.
'Lady,' said Celegorm, 'thou seest
we go a-hunting roaming beast,
and though our host is great and bold,
'tis ill prepared the wizard's hold
and island fortress to assault. Deem not our hearts or wills at fault.
Lo! Here our chase we now forsake
and home our swiftest road we take,
counsel and aid there to devise
for Beren that in anguish lies.'
To Nargothrond they with them bore
Luthien, whose heart misgave her sore.
Delay she feared; each moment pressed
upon her spirit, yet she guessed
they rode not as swiftly as they might. Ahead leaped Huan day and night,
and ever looking back his thought
was troubled. What his master sought
and why he rode not like the fire,
why Curufin looked with hot desire on Luthien, he pondered deep, and felt some evil shado creep
of ancient curse o'er Elfinesse. His heart was torn for the distress of Beren bold, and Lthien dear,
and Felagund who knew no fear.

In Nargothrond the torches flared
and feast and music were prepared.
Lthien feasted not but wept.
Her ways were trammelled; closely kept
she might not fly. Her magic cloak
was hidden, and no prayer she spoke
was heeded, nor did answer find
her eager questions. Out of mind,
it seemed, were those afar that pined
in anguish and in dungeons blind
in prison and in misery.
Too late she knew their treachery.
It was not hid in Nargothrond
that Feanor's sons her held in bond,
who Beren heeded not, and who
had little cause to wrest from Th
the king they loved not and whose quest
old vows of hatred in their breast
had roused from sleep. Orodreth knew
the purpose dark they would pursue:
King Felagund to leave to die,
and with King Thingol's blood ally
the house of Fanor by force or treaty. But to stay their course
he had no power, for all his folk
the brothers had yet beneath their yoke,
and all yet listened to their word.
Orodreth's counsel no man heard;
their shame they crushed, and would not heed
the tale of Felagund's dire need.

At Luthien's feet there day by day
and at night beside her couch would stay
Huan the hound of Nargothrond;
and words she spoke to him soft and fond: 'O Huan, Huan, swiftest hound
that ever ran on mortal ground, what evil doth thy lords possess
to heed no tears nor my distress?
One Barahir all men above
good hounds did cherish and did love;
one Beren in the friendless North,when outlaw wild he wandered forth,
had friends unfailing among things with fur and fell and feathered wings,
and among the spirits that in stone
in mountains old and wastes alonestill dwell. But now nor Elf nor Man,
none save the child of Melian, remembers him who Morgoth fought
and never to thraldom base was brought.'

Nought said Huan; but Curufin
therafter never near might win
to Luthien, nor touch that maid,
but shrank from Huan's fangs afraid.
Then on a night when autumn damp
was swathed about the glimmering lamp
of the wan moon, and fitful stars
were flying seen between the bars
of racing cloud, when winter's horn
already wound in trees forlorn,
lo! Huan was gone. Then Luthien layfearing new wrong, till just ere day,
when all is dead and breathless still
and shapeless fears the sleepless fill,
a shadow came along the wall.
Then something let there softly fall her magic cloak beside her couch.
Trembling she saw the gread hound crouch
beside her, heard a deep voice swell as from a tower a far slow bell.

Thus Huan spake, who never before
had uttered words, but twice more
did speak in elven tongue again:
'Lady beloved, whom all Men,
whom elfinesse, and whom all things
with fur and fell and feathered wings
should serve and love--arise! away!
Put on thy cloak! Before the day
comes over Nargothrond we fly
to Northern perils, thou and I.'
And ere he ceased he counsel wrought
for achievement of the thing they sought. There Luthien listened in amaze,
and softly on Huan did she gaze.
Her arms about his neck she cast--
in friendship that to death should last.
In Wizard's Isle still lay forgot,
enmeshed and tortured in that grot
cold, evil, doorless, without light, and blank-eyed stared at endless night
two comrades. Now alone they were.
The others lived no more, but bare their broken bones would lie and tell
how ten had served their master well.

To Felagund then Beren said: 'Twere little loss if I were dead,
and I am minded all to tell,
and thus, perchance, from this dark hell thy life to loose. I set thee free
from thine old oath, for more for me
hast thou endured than e'er was earned.'

'A! Beren, Beren hast not learned
that promises of Morgoth's folk
are frail as breath. From this dark yoke
of pain shall neither ever go,
whether he learn our names or no,
with Th's consent. Nay more, I think
yet deeper of torment we should drink,
knew he that son of Barahir
and Felagund were captive here,
and even worse if he should knowthe dreadful errand we did go.'

A devil's laugh they ringing heard
within their pit. 'True, true the ord
I hear you speak,' a voice then said.
' 'Twere little loss if he were dead,
the outlaw mortal. But the king,
the Elf undying, many a thing
no man could suffer may endure.
Perchance, when what these walls immure
of dreadful anguish thy folk learn,
their king to ransom they will yearn
with gold and gem and high hearts cowed;
or maybe celegorm the proud
will deem a rival's prison cheap,
and crown and gold himself will keep. Perchance, the errand I shall know,
ere is done, that ye did go.
The wolf is hungry, the hour is nigh;
no more need Beren wait to die.'

The slow time passed. Then in the gloom
two eyes there glowed. He saw his doom,
Beren, silent, as his bonds he strained beyond his mortal might enchained.
Lo! sudden there was rending sound
of chains that parted and unwound,
of meshes broken. Forth there leaped upon the wolvish thing that crept
in shadow faithful Felagund,
careless of fang or venomed wound.
There in the dark they wrestled slow,
remorseless, snarling, to and fro, teeth in flesh, gripe on throat,
fingers locked in shaggy coat,
spurring Beren who there lying
heard the werewolf gasping, dying.Then a voice he heard: 'Farewell!
On earth I need no longer dwell,
friend and comrade, Beren bold.
My heart is burst, my limbs are cold.
Here all my power I have spent
to break my bonds, and dreadful rent
of poisoned teeth isin my breast.
I now must go to my long rest neath Timbrenting in timeless halls
where drinks the Valar, where the light falls
upon the shinig sea.' Thus died the king,
as elvish singers yet do sing.

There Beren lies. His grief no tear,
his despair no horror has nor fear,
waiting for footsteps, a voice, for doom.
Silences profounder than the tomb
of long-forgotten kings, neath years
and sands uncounted laid on biers
and buried everlasting-deep,
slow and unbroken round him creep.

The silences were sudden shivered
to silver fragments. Faint there quivered
a voice in song that walls of rock,
enchanted hill, and bar and lock, and powers of darkness pierced with light.
He felt about him the soft night
of many stars, and in the air
were rustlings and a perfume rare'
the nightingales were in the trees,
slim fingers flute and viol seize
beneath the moon, and one more fair
than all there be or ever were
upon a lonely knoll of stone in shimmering raiment danced alone.
Then in his dream it seemed he sang,
and loud and fierce his chanting rang,
old songs of battle in the North,
of breathless deeds, of marching forth to dare uncounted odds and break
great powers, and towers, and strong walls shake;
and over all the silver fire
that once Men named the Burning Briar,
the Seven Stars that Varda set
about the North, were burning yet, a light in darkness, hope in woe,
the emblem vast of Morgoth's foe.

'Huan, Huan! I hear a song
far under welling, far but strong; a song that Beren bore aloft.
I hear his voice, I have heard it oftin dream and wandering.' Whispering low
thus Lthien spake. On the bridge of woe
in mantle wrapped at dead of night
she sat and sang, and to its height
and to its depth the Wizard's Isle,
rock upon rock and pile and pile,
trembling echoed. The werewolves howled,
and Huan hidden lay and growled
watchful listening in the dark,
waiting for battle cruel and stark.

Th heard that voice, and sudden stood
warpped in his cloak and sable hood
in his high tower. He listened long,
and smiled, and knew that elvish song.
'A! little Luthien! What brought
the foolish fly to web unsought?
Morgoth! a great and rich reward
to me thou wilt owe when to thy hoard
this jewel is added.' Down he went, and forth his messengers he sent.
Still Luthien sang. A creeping shape
with bloodred tongue and jaws agape
stole on the bridge; but she sang on
with trembling limbs and wide eyes wan.
The creeping shape leaped to her side,
and gasped, and suden fell and died.

And still they came, still one by one,
and each was seized, and there were none returned with padding feet to tell
that a shadow lurketh fierce and fell
at the bridge's end, and that below
the shuddering waters loathing flow
o'er the grey corpses Huan killed.
A mightier shadow slowly filled
the narrow bridge, a slavering hate,
an awful werewolf fierce and great:
pale Draugluin, the old grey lord
of wolves and beasts of blood abhorred,
that fed on flesh of Man and Elf
beneath the chair of Th himself.
No more in silence did they fight. Howling and baying smote the night,
till back by the chair where he had fed
to die the werewolf yammering fled.
'Huan is there' he gasped and died,
and Th was filled with wrath and pride. 'Before the mightiest he shall fall,
before the mightiest wolf of all',
so thought he now, and thought he knew
how fate long spoken should come true.

Now there came slowly forth and glared
into the night a shape long-haired,
dank with poison, with awful eyes
wolvish, ravenous; but there lies
a light therein more cruel and dread
than ever wolvish eyes had fed.
More huge were its limbs, its jaws more wide,
its fangs more gleaming-sharp, and dyed
with venom, torment, and with death.
The deadly vapour of its breath
swept on before it. Swooning dies
the song of Luthien, and her eyes are dimmed and darkened with a fear,
cold and poisonous and drear.

Thus came Th, as wolf more great
than e'er was seen from Angband's gate
to the burning south, than ever lurked
in mortal lands or murder worked.
Sudden he sprang, and Huan leaped
aside in shadow. On he swept
to Lthien lying swooning faint.
To her drowning senses came the laint of his foul breathing, and she stirred;
dizzily she spake a whispered word,
her mantle brushed across his face.
He stumbled staggering in his pace.
Out leaped Huan. Back he sprang.
Beneath the stars there shuddering rang
the cry of hunting wolves at bay, the tongue of hounds that fearless slay.Backward and forth they leaped and ran
feinting to flee, and round they span,
and bit and grappled, and fell and rose.

Then suddenly Huan holds and throws his ghastly foe; his throat he rends,
choking his life. Not so it ends.
From shape to shage, from wolf to worm, from monster to his own demon form,
Th changes, but that desperate grip
he cannot shake, nor form it slip.
No wizardry, nor spell, nor dart,
no fang, nor venom, nor devil's art
could harm that hound that hart and boar
had hunted once in Valinor.
Nigh the foul spirit Morgoth made and bred of evil shuddering strayed
from its dark house, when Lthien rose
and shivering looked upon his throes.

'O demon dark, O phantom vile
of foulness wrought, of lies and guile,
here shalt thou die, thy spirit roam
quaking back to thy master's home
his scorn and fury to endure;
thee he will in the bowels immure
of groaning earth, and in a hole
everlasting thy naked soul
shall wail and gibber--this shall be, unless the keys thou render me
of thy black fortress, and the spell
that bindeth stone to stone thou tell,
and speak the words of opening.'

With gasping breath and shuddering
he spake, and yielded as he must,
and vanquished betrayed his master's trust.

Lo! by the bridge a gleam of light,like stars descended from the night
to burn and tremble here below.
There wide her arms did Lthien throw, and called aloud with voice as clear
as still at whiles may mortal hear
long elvish trumpets o'er the hill
echo, when all the world is still.

The dawn peered over mountains wan,
their grey heads silent looked thereon.
The hill trembled; the citadelcrumbled, and all its towers fell; the rocks yawned and the bridge broke,
and Sirion spumed in sudden smoke.

Like ghosts the owls were flying seen
hooting in the dawn, and bats unclean
went skimming dark through the cold airs
shrieking thinly to find new lairs in Deadly Nightshade's branches dread.
the wolves whimpering and yammering fled
like dusky shadows. Out there creep
pale forms and ragged as from sleep,
crawling, and shielding blinded eyes:
the captives in fear and in surprise
from dolour long in clinging night
beyond all hope set free to light.
A vampire shape with pinions vast
screeching leaped from the ground, and passed,
its dark blood dripping on the trees;
and Huan neath him lifeless sees
a wolvish corpse--for Th had flown
to Taur-na-Fuin, a new throne
and darker stronghold there to build.

The captives came and dwept and shrilled
their piteous cries of thanks and praise. But Lthien anxious-gazing stays.
Beren comes not. At length she said:
'Huan, Huna, among the dead
must we then find him whom we sought,
for love of whom we toiled and fought?

Then side by side from stone to stone
o'er Sirion they climbed. Alone
unmoving they him found, who mourned
by Felagund, and never turned
to see what feet drew halting nigh.
'A! Beren, Beren!' came her cry,
'almost too late have I thee found? Alas! that here upon the ground
the noblest of the noble race
in vain thy anguish doth embrace!
Alas! in tears that we should meet
who once found meeting passing sweet!'
Her voice such love and longing filled
he raised his eyes, his mourning stilled,
and felt his heart new-turned to flame
for her that through peril to him came.
'O Luthien, O Luthien,
more fair than any child of Men,
O loveliest maid of Elfinesse,
what might of love did thee possess
to bring thee here to terror's lair!
O lissom limbs and shadowy hair,
O flower-entwined brows so white, O slender hands int his new light!'

She found his arms and swooned away
just at the rising of the day.Towards doriath the wanderes now
were drawing nigh. Though bare the bough,
though cold the wind, and grey the grasses
through which the hiss of winter passes,
they sang beneath the frosty sky
uplifted oer them pale and high. They came to Mindebs narrow stream
that from the hills doth leap and gleam
by western borders where begin
the spells of Melian to fence in
King thingols land, and stranger steps
to wind bewildered in their webs.
There sudden sad grew Berens heart:
Alas, Tinviel, here we part
and our brief song together ends,
and sundered ways each lonely wends!

Why part we here? What dost thou say,
just at the dawn of brighter day?

for safe thourt come to borderlands
oer which in the keeping of the hands
of Melian thou wilt walk at ease
and find thy home and well-loved trees.

My heart is glad when the fair trees far off uprising grey it sees
of Doriath inviolate.
Yet Doriath my heart did hate, and Doriath my feet forsook,
my home, my kin. I would not look
on grass nor leaf there evermore
without thee by me. Dark the shore
of Esgalduin the deep and strong!
Why there alone forsaking song
by endless waters rolling past
must I then hopeless sit at last, and gaze at waters pitiless
in heartache and in loneliness?

For never more to Doriath
can Beren find the winding path,
though Thingol willed it or allowed;
for to thy father there I vowed
to come not back save to fulfill
the quest of the shining silmaril, and win by valour my desire.
Not rock nor steel nor Morgoths fire
nor all the power of elfinesse,
shall keep the gem I would possess:
thus swore I once of Lthien
more fair than any child of Men.
My word, alas! I must achieve,
though sorrow pierce and parting grieve.

Then Luthien will not go home, but weeping in the woods will roam,
nor peril heed, nor laughter know.
And if she may not by thee go against thy will thy desperate feet
she will pursue, until they meet,
Beren and Luthien, love once more
on earth or on the shadowy shore.

Nay, Luthien, most brave of heart,
thou makest it more hard to part.
Thy love me drew from bondage drear,
but never to that outer fear,
that darkest mansion of all dread,
shall thy most blissful light be led.

Never, never! he shuddering said.
But even as in his arms she pled,
a sound came like a hurrying storm. there Curufin and Celegorm in sudden tumult like the wind
rode up. The hooves of horses dinned
loud on the earth. In rage and haste
madly northward they now raced
the path twixt Doriath to find
and the shadows dreadly dark entwined
of Taur-na-Fuin. That was their road
most swift to where their kin abode
in the east, where Himlings watchful hill
oer Aglons gorge hung tall and still.
They saw the wanderers. With a shout
straight on them swung their hurrying rout,
as if neath maddened hooves to rend
the lovers and their love to end.
but as they came the horses swerved
with nostrils wide and proud necks curved;
Curufin, stooping, to saddlebow
with mighty arm did Lthien throw,
and laughed. Too soon; for there a spring
fiercer than tawny lion-king maddened with arrows barbd smart,
greater than any hornd hart
that hounded to a gulp leaps oer,
there Beren gave, and with a roar
leaped on Curufin; round his neck
his arms entwined, and all to wreck
both horse and rider fell to ground;
and there they fought without a sound.
Dazed in the grass did Luthien lie
beneath bare branches and the sky; the Gnome felt berens fingers grim
close on his throat and strangle him, and out his eyes did start, and tongue
gasping from his mouth there hung.
Up rode Celegorm with his spear,
and bitter death was Beren near.
With elvish steel he nigh was slain
whom Lthien won from hopeless chain,
buy baying Huan sudden sprang
before his masters face with fang
white-gleaming, and with bristling hair,
as if he on boar or wolf did stare.
The horse in terror leaped aside, and Celegorm in anger cried:
Curse thee, thou baseborn dog, to dare
against thy master teeth to bare!
But dog nor horse nor rider bold would venture near the anger cold
of mighty Huan fierce at bay.
Red were his jaws. They shrank away,
and fearful eyed him from afar:
nor sword nor knife, nor scimitar,
no dart of bow, nor cast of spear,
master nor man did Huan fear.

There Curufin had left his life,
had Luthien not stayed that strife.
Waking she rose and softly cried
standing distressed at Berens side: Forbear thy anger now, my lord!
nor do the work of Orcs abhorred;
for foes there be of Elfinesse
unnumbered, and they grow not less,
while here we war by ancient curse
distraught, and all the world to worse
decays and crumbles. Make thy peace!

Then Beren did curufin release;
but took his horse and coat of mail,
and took his knife there gleaming pale, hanging sheathless, wrought of steel.
No flesh could leeches ever heal
that point had pierced; for long ago
the dwarves had made it, singing slow
enchantments, where their hammers fell
in Nogrod ringing like a bell.
Iron as tender wood it cleft, and sundered mail like woollen weft.
But other hands its haft now held;
its master lay by mortal felled.
Beren uplifting him, far him flung,
and cried Begone, with stinging tongue;
Begone! thou renegade and fool, and let thy lust in exile cool!
Arise and go, and no more work
like Morgoths slaves or cursd Orc;
and deal, proud son of Feanor,
in deeds more proud than heretofore! Then Beren led Lthien away,
while Huan still there stood at bay.

Farewell, cried Celegorm the far.
Far get you gone! And better were
to die forhungered in the waste
than wrath of Fanors sons to taste, that yet may reach oer dale and hill.
No gem, nor maid, nor Silmaril
shall ever long in thy grasp lie!
We curse thee under cloud and sky,
we curse thee from rising unto sleep!
Farewell! He swift from horse did leap,
his brother lifted from the ground;
then bow of yew with gold wire bound
he strung, and shaft he shooting sent,
as heedless hand in hand thy went;
a dwarvish dart and cruelly hooked.
They never turned nor backward looked.
Loud bayed Huan, and leaping caught the speeding arrow. Quick as thought
another followed deadly singing;
but Beren had turned, and sudden springing
defended Lthien with his breast.
Deep sank the dart in flesh to rest.
He fell to earth. They rode away,
and laughing left him as he lay;
yet spurred like wind in fear and dread
of Huans pursuing anger red.
Though Curufin with bruised mouth laughed,
yet later of that dastard shaft
was tale and rumour in the North, and Men remembered at the Marching Forth,
and Morgoths will its hatred helped.

Thereafter never hound was whelpedwould follow horn of Celegorm
or Curufin. Though in strife and storm,
though all their house in ruin red
went down, thereafter laid his head
Huan no more at that lords feet,
but followed Lthien, brave and fleet.
Now sank she weeping at the side
of Beren, and sought to stem the tide
of welling blood that flowed there fast. The raiment from his breast she cast;
from shoulder plucked the arrow keen; his wound with tears she washed it clean.
then Huan came and bore a leaf,
of all the herbs of healing chief,
that evergreen in woodland glade
there grew with broad and hoary blade.
The powers of all grases Huan knew,
who wide did forest-paths pursue.
therewith the smart he swift allayed, while Lthien murmuring in the shade
the staunching song, that elvish wives
long years had sung in those sad lives
of war and weapons, wove oer him.

The shadows fell from mountains grim.
Then sprang about the darkened North
the Sickle of the gods, and forth
each star there stared in stony night
radiant, glistering cold and white.
But on the ground there is a glow,
a spark of red that leaps below:
under woven boughs beside a fire
of crackling wood and sputtering briar there Beren lies in drowsing deep,
walking and wandering in sleep.
Watchful bending oer him wakes
a maiden fair; his thirst she slakes,
his brow caresses, and softly croons
a song more potent than in runes
or leeches lore hath since been writ.
Slowly the nightly watches flit.
The misty morning crawleth grey
from dusk to the reluctant day.

Then Beren woke and opened eyes,
and rose and cried: Neath other skies, in lands more awful and unknown,I wandered long, methought, alone
to the deep shadow where the dead dwell;
but ever a voice that I knew well,
like bells, like viols, like harps, like birds,
like music moving without words,
called me, called me through the night,
enchanted drew me back to light! Healed the wound, assuaged the pain!
Now are we come to morn again,
new journeys once more lead us on
to perils whence may life be won,
hardly for Beren; and for thee
a waiting in the wood I see,
beneath the trees of Doriath, while ever follow down my path the echoes of thine elvish song,
where hills are haggard and roads are long.

Nay, now no more we have for foe
dark Morgoth only, but in woe,
in wars and feuds of Elfinessethy quest is bound; and death, no less,
for thee and me, for Huan bold
the end of weird of yore foretold,
all this I bode shall follow swift,
if thou go on. Thy hand shall lift
and lay in Thingols lap the dire
and flaming jewel, Fanors fire,
never, never! A why then go?
why turn we not from fear and woe
beneath the trees to walk and roam
roofless, with all the world as home,
over mountains, beside the seas,
in the sunlight, in the breeze?

Thus long they spoke with heavy hearts; and yet not all her elvish arts,
nor lissom arms, nor shining eyes
as tremulous stars in rainy skies,
nor tender lips, enchanted voice,
his purpose bent or swayed his choice.
Never to Doriath would he fare
save guarded fast to leave her there;
never to Nargothrond would go
with her, lest there came war and woe;
and never would in the world untrod
to wander suffer her, worn, unshod,
roofless and restless, whom he drew with love from the hidden realms she knew.
For Morgoths power is now awake;
already hill and dale doth shake, the hunt is up, the prey is wild:
a maiden lost, an elven child. Now Orcs and phantoms prowl and peer
from tree to tree, and fill with fear
each shade and hollow. Thee they seek!
At thought thereof my hope grows weak,
my heart is chilled. I curse mine oath,
I curse the fate that joined us both
and snared thy feet in my sad doom
of flight and wandering in the gloom!
Now let us haste, and ere the day
be fallen, take our swiftest way,
till oer the marches of thy land
beneath the beech and oak we stand
in Doriath, fair Doriath whither no evil finds the path,
powerless to pass the listening leaves
that droop upon these forest-eaves.
Then to his will she seeming bent.
Swiftly to Doriath they went,
and crossed its borders. There they stayed
resting in deep and mossy glade;
there lay they sheltered from the wind
under mighty beeches silken-skinned,
and sang of love that still shall be,
though earth be foundered under sea,
and sundered here for evermore
shall meet upon the Western Shore.

One morning as asleep she lay
upon the moss, as though the day
too bitter were for gentle flower
to open in a sunless hour, Beren arose and kissed her hair,
and wept, and softly left her there.
Good Huan, said he, guard her well!
In leafless field no asphodel,
in thorny thicket never a rose
forlorn, so frail and fragrant blows.
Guard her from wind and frost, and hide
from hands that seize and cast aside;
keep her from wandering and woe,
for pride and fate now make me go.
The horse he took and rode away,
nor dared to turn; but all that day with heart as stone he hastened forth
and took the paths toward the North. In that vast shadow once of yore
Fingolfin stood: his shield he bore
with field of heaven's blue and star of crystal shining pale afar.
In overmastering wrath and hate
desperate he smote upon that gate,
the Gnomish king, there standing lone,
while endless fortresses of stone
engulfed the thin clear ringing keen
of silver horn on baldric green.
His hopeless challenge dauntless cried
Fingolfin there: 'Come, open wide
dark king, our ghastly brazen doors!
Come forth, whom earth and heaven abhors!
Come forth, O monstrous craven lord,
and fight with thine own hand and sword,
thou wielder of hosts of banded thralls,
thou tyrant leaguered with strong walls, thou foe of Gods and elvish race! I wait thee here. Come! Show thy face!'

Then Morgoth came. For the last time
in those great wars he dared to climb
from subterranean throne profound,
the rumour of his feet a sound
of rumbling earthquake underground.
Black-armoured, towering, iron-crowned
he issued forth; his mighty shield
a vast unblazoned sable field
with shadow like a thundercloud;
and o'er the gleaming king it bowed,
as huge aloft like mace he hurled
that hammer of the underworld,
Grond. Clanging to ground it tumbled
down like a thunder-bolt, and crumbled the rocks beneath it; smoke up-started,
a pit yawned, and a fire darted.

Fingolfin like a shooting light
beneath a cloud, a stab of white,
sprang then aside, and Ringil drew
like ice that gleameth cold and blue,
his sword devised of elvish skill
to pierce the flesh with deadly chill. With seven wounds it rent his foe, and seven mighty cries of woe
rang in the mountains, and the earth quook,
and Angband's trembling armies shook.
Yet Orcs would after laughing tell
of the duel at the gates of hell;
though elvish song thereof was made
ere this but onewhen sad was laid the mighty king in barrow high,
and Thorndor, Eagle of the sky,
the dreadful tidings brought and told
to mourning Elfinesse of old.
Thrice was Fingolfin with great blows
to his knees beaten, thrice he rose
still leaping up beneath the cloud
aloft to hold star-shining, proud,
his stricken shield, his sundered helm,
the dark nor might could overwhelm
till all the earth was burst and rent
in pits about him. He was spent.
His feet stumbled. He fell to wreck
upon the ground, and on his neck a foot like rooted hills was set,
and he was crushednot conquered yet;
one last despairing stroke he gave: the mighty foot pale Ringil clave
about the heel, and black the blood
gushed as from smoking fount in flood.
Halt goes for ever from that stroke
great Morgoth; but the king he broke,
and would have hewn and mangled thrown
to wolves devouring. Lo! From throne
that Manw bade him build on high,
on peak unscaled beneath the sky,
Morgoth to watch, now down there swooped
Thorndor the King of Eagles, stooped,
and rending beak of gold he smote
in Bauglir's face, then up did float
on pinions thirty fathoms wide bearing away, though loud they cried,
the mighty corse, the Elven-king;
and where the mountains make a ring
far to the south about that plain
where after Gondolin did reign,
embattled city, at great height
upon a dizzy snowcap whitein mounded cairn the mighty dead
he laid upon the mountain's head. Never Orc nor demon after dared
that pass to climb, o'er which there stared
Fingolfin's high and holy tomb,
till Gondolin's appointed doom.

Thus Bauglir earned the furrowed scar
that his dark countenance doth mar,
and thus his limping gait he gained;
but afterward profound he reigned
darkling upon his hidden throne; and thunderous paced his halls of stone,
slow building there his vast design
the world in thraldom to confine.
Wielder of armies, lord of woe,
no rest now gave he slave or foe;
his watch and ward he thrice increased,
his spies were sent from West to East
and tidings brought from all the North,
who fought, who fell; who ventured forth,
who wrought in secret; who had hoard;
if maid were fair or proud were lord;
well nigh all things he knew, all hearts well night enmeshed in evil arts.
Doriath only, behond the veil
woven by Melian, no assail
could hurt or enter; only rumour dim
of things there passing came to him.
A rumour loud and tidings clear of other movements far and near
among his foes, and threat of war
from the seven sons of Feanor,
from Nargothrond, from Fingon still
gathering his armies under hill
and under tree in Hithlum's shade, these daily came. He gre afraid
amidst his power once more; renown
of Beren vexed his ears, and down
the aisled forests there was heard
great Huan baying.
Then came word
most passing strange of Lthien wild-wandering by wood and glen,
and Thingol's purpose long he weighed,
and wondered, thinking of that maid so fair, so frail. A captain dire,
Boldog, he sent with sword and fire
to Doriath's march; but battle fell
sudden upon him: news to tell never one returned of Boldog's host,
and Thingol humbled Morgoth's boast.
Then his heart with doubt and wrath was burned:
new tidings of dismay he learned,
how Th was o'erthrown and his strong isle
broken and plundered, how with guile
his foes now guile beset; and spie she feared, till each Orc to his eyes
was half suspect. Still ever down
the aisld forests came renown
of Huan baying, hound of war
that Gods unleashed in Valinor.

Then Morgoth of Huan's fate bethought long-rumoured, and in dark he wrought.
Fierce hunger-haunted packs he had
that in wolvish form and flesh were clad,
but demon spirits dire did hold;
and ever wild their voices rolled
in cave and mountain where they housed
and endless snarling echoes roused.
From these a whelp he chose and fed
with his own hand of bodies dead,
on fairest flesh of Elves and Men, till huge he grew and in his den
no more could creep, but by the chair
of Morgoth's self would lie and glare,
nor suffer Balrog, Orc, nor beast
to touch him. Many a ghastly feast
he held beneath that awful throne,
rending flesh and gnawing bone.
There deep enchantment on him fell,
the anguish and the power of hell; more great and terrible he became
with fire-red eyes and jaws aflame,
with breath like vapours of the grave,
than any beast of wood or cave,
than any beast of earth or hell
that ever in any time befell,
surpassing all his race and kin,
the ghastly tribe of Draugluin.
Him Carcharoth, the Red Maw, name
the songs of Elves. Not yet he came disastrous, ravening, from the gates
of Angband. There he sleepless waits;
where those great portals threatening loom
his red eyes smoulder in the gloom, his teeth are bare, his jaws are wide;
and none may walk; nor creep, nor glide,
nor thrust with power his menace past
to enter Morgoth's dungeon vast.

Now, lo! Before his watchful eyes
a slinking shape he far descries
that crawls into the frowning plain
and halts at gaze, then on again
comes stalking near, a wolvish shape
haggard, wayworn, with jaws agape;
and o'er it batlike in wide rings
a reeling shadow slowly wings.
Such shapes there oft were seen to roam,
this land their native haunt and home;
and yet his mood with strange unease is filled, and boding thoughts him seize.

'What grievous terror, what dread guard
hath Morgoth set to wait, and barred
his doors against all entering feet?
Long ways we have come at last to meet
the very maw of death that opes
between us and our quest! Yet hopes we never had. No turning back!'
Thus Beren speaks, as in his track
he halts and sees with werewolf eyes
afar the horror that there lies.
Then onward desperate he passed,
skirting the black pits yawning vast,
where King Fingolfin ruinous fell
alone before the gates of hell.

Before those gates alone they stood,
while Carcharoth in doubtful mood,
glowered upon them, and snarling spoke, and echoes in the arches woke:
'Hail! Draugluin, my kindred's lord!
'Tis very long since hitherwardthou camest. Yea, 'tis passing strange
to see thee now: a grievous change
is on thee, lord, who once so dire,
so dauntless, and as fleet as fire,
ran over wild and waste, but now
with weariness must bend and bow! 'Tis hard to find the struggling breath
when Huan's teeth as sharp as death have rent the throat? What fortune rare
brings thee back living here to fare--
if Draugluin thou are? Come near!
I would know more, and see thee clear.'

'Who are thou, hungry upstart whelp,
to bar my ways whom thou shouldst help?
I fare with hasty tidings new
to Morgoth from forest-hunting Th.
Aside! For I must in; or go
and swift my coming tell below!'

Then up that doorward slowly stood,
eyes shining grim with evil mood,
uneasy growling: 'Draugluin,
if such thou be, now enter in!
But what is this that crawls beside,
linking as if 'twould neath thee hide?
Though wingd creatures to and frounnumbered pass here, all I know.
I know not this. Stay, vampire, stay!
I like not thy kin nor thee. Come, say
what sneaking errand thee doth bring,
thou wingd vermin, to the king!
Small matter, I doubt not, if thou stay or enter, or if in my play
I crush thee like a fly on wall,
or bite thy wings and let thee crawl.'

Huge-stalking, noisome, close he came.
In Beren's eyes there gleamed a flame;
the hair upon his neck uprose.
Nought may the fragrance fair enclose,
the odour of immortal flowers
in everlasting spring neath showers
that glitter silver in the grass
in Valinor. Where'er did pass Tinviel, such air there went.
From that foul devil-sharpened scent
its sudden sweetness no disguise
enchanted dark to cheat the eyes could keep, if near those nostrils drew
snuffling in doubt. This Beren knew
upon the brink of hell prepared
for battle and death. There threatening stared
those dreadful shapes, in hatred both,
false Draugluin and Carcharoth when, lo! A marvel to behold: some power, descended from of old,
from race divine beyond the West,
sudden Tinviel possessed
like inner fire. The vampire dark
she flung aside, and like a lark
cleaving through night to dawn she sprang,
while sheer, heart-piercing silver, rang
her voice, as those long trumpets keen
thrilling, unbearable, unseen
in the cold aisles of morn. Her cloak
by white hands woven, like a smoke,
like all-bewildering, all-enthralling,
all-enfolding evening, falling
from lifted arms, as forth she stepped,
across those awful eyes she swept,
a shadow and a mist of dreams
wherein entangled starlight gleams.

'Sleep, O unhappy, tortured thrall!
Thou woebegotten, fail and fall down, down from anguish, hatred, pain,
from lust, from hunger, bond and chain,
to that oblivion, dark and deep,
the well, the lightless pit of sleep!
For one brief hour escape the net, the dreadful doom of life forget!'

His eyes were quenched, his limbs were loosed;
he fell like running steer that noosed
and tripped goes crashing to the ground.
Deathlike, moveless, without a sound
outstretched he lay, as lightning stroke
had felled a huge o'ershadowing oak. Into the vast and echoing gloom,
more dread than many-tunnelled tomb in Labyrinthine pyramid
where everlasting death is hid,
down awful corridors that wind
down to a menace dark enshrined;
down to the mountain's roots profound,
devoured, tormented, bored and ground
by seething vermin spawned of stone;
down to the depths they went alone.
The arch behind of twilit shadethey saw recede and dwindling fade;
the thunderous forges' rumour grew,
a burning wind there roaring blew foul vapours up from gaping holes.
Huge shapes there stood like carven trolls
enormous hewn of blasted rock to forms that mortal likeness mock;
monstrous and menacing, entombed,
at every turn they silent loomed
in fitful glares that leaped and died.
There hammers clanged, and tongues there cried
with sound like smitten stone; there wailed
faint from far under, called and failed
amid the iron clink of chain
voices of captives put to pain.

Loud rose a din of laughter hoarse,
self-loathing yet without remorse;
loud came a singing harsh and fierce
like swords of terror souls to pierce.
Red was the glare through open doors
of firelight mirrored on brazen floors,
and up the arches towering clomb
to glooms unguessed, to vaulted dome
swathed in wavering smokes and steams
stabbed with flickering lightning-gleams.
To Morgoth's hall, where dreadful feast he held, and drank the blood of beast
and lives of Men, they stumbling came:
their eyes were dazed with smoke and flame. The pillars, reared like monstrous shores
to bear earth's overwhelming floors,
were devil-carven, shaped with skill
such as unholy dreams doth fill:
they towered like trees into the air,
whose trunks are rooted in despair,whose shade is death, whose fruit is bane,
whose boughs like serpents writhe in pain.
Beneath them ranged with spear and sword
stood Morgoth's sable-armoured horde:
the fire on blade and boss of shield
was red as blood on stricken field.
Beneath a monstrous column loomed
the throne of Morgoth, and the doomed
and dying gasped upon the floor:
his hideous footstool, rape of war.
About him sat his awful thanes,
the Balrog-lords with fiery manes,
redhanded, mouthed with fangs of steel;
devouring wolves were crouched at heel. And o'er the host of hell there shone
with a cold radiance, clear and wan, the Silmarils, the gems of fate,
emprisoned in the crown of hate.
Lo! Through the grinning portals dread
sudden a shadow swooped and fled;
and Beren gaspedhe lay alone,
with crawling belly on the stone:
a form bat-wingd, silent, flew
where the huge pillared branches grew,
amid the smokes and mounting steams.
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 shrinkfrom 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.
Tinviel spake, a shrill, thin, sound
piercing those silences profound
'A lawful errand here me brought;
from Th's dark mansions have I sought,
from Taur-na-Fuin's shade I fare to stand before thy mighty chair!'
'Thy name, thou shrieking waif, thy name!
Tidings enough from Th 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!'

There came a slow and shuddering change:
the batlike raiment dark and strange
was loosed, and slowly shrank and fell
quivering. She stood revealed in hell.
About her slender shoulders hung
her shadowy hair, and round her clung
her garment dark, where glimmered pale the starlight caught in magic veil. Dim dreams and faint oblivious sleepfell softly thence, in dungeons deep
and odour stole of elven-flowers
from elven-dells where silver showers
drip softly through the evening air;
and round there crawled with greedy stare
dark shapes of snuffling hunger dread.
With arms upraised and drooping head
then softly she began to sing
a theme of sleep and slumbering,
wandering, woven with deeper spell
than songs wherewith in ancient dell
Melian did once the twilight fill,
profound, and fathomless, and still.

The fires of Angband flared and died,
smouldered into darkness; through the wideand hollow halls there rolled unfurled
the shadows of the underworld.
All movement stayed, and all sound ceased,
save vaporous breath of Orc and beast.
One fire in darkness still abode:
the lidless eyes of Morgoth glowed;
one sound the breathing silence broke:
the mirthless voice of Morgoth spoke. 'So Lthien, so Lthien,
a liar like all Elves and Men!
Yet welcome, welcome, to my hall!
I have a use for every thrall.
What news of Thingol in his hole
shy lurking like a timid vole?
What folly fresh is in his mind,
who cannot keep his offspring blind
from straying thus? Or can devise
no better counsel for his spies?'

She wavered, and she stayed her song.
'The road,' she said, 'was wild and long,
but Thingol sent me not, nor knows
what way his rebellious daughter goes.
Yet every road and path will lead
Northward at last, and here of need
I trembling come with humble brow,and here before thy throne I bow;
for Lthien hath many arts
for solace sweet of kingly hearts.'
'And here of need thou shalt remain
now, Lthien, in joy or pain--
or pain, the fitting doom for all, for rebel, thief, and upstart thrall.
Why should ye not in our fate share
of woe and travail? Or should I spare
to slender limb and body frail
breaking torment? Of what avail
here dost thou deem thy babbling song
and foolish laughter? Minstrels strong
are at my call. Yet I will give
a respite brief, a while to live,
a little while, though purchased dear,
to Lthien the fair and clear,
a pretty toy for idle hour.
In slothful gardens many a flower like thee the amorous gods are used
honey-sweet to kiss, and cast then bruised,
their fragrance loosing, under feet.
But here we seldom find such sweet
amid our labours long and hard,
from godlike idleness debarred.
And who would not taste the honey-sweet
lying to lips, or crush with feet
the soft cool tissue of pale flowers,
easing like gods the dragging hours?A! curse the Gods! O hunger dire,
O blinding thirst's unending fire!
One moment shall ye cease, and slake your sting with morsel I here take!'

In his eyes the fire to flame was fanned,
and forth he stretched his brazen hand.
Lthien as shadow shrank aside.
'Not thus, O king! Not thus!' she cried,
'do great lords hark to humble boon!
For ever minstrel hath his tune;
and some are strong and some are soft,
and each would bear his song aloft,
and each a little while be heard,
though rude the note, and light the word. But Lthien hath cunning arts
for solace sweet of kingly hearts.
Now hearken!' And her wings she caught
then deftly up, and swift as thought
slipped from his grasp, and wheeling round,
fluttering, before his eyes, she wound
a mazy-wingd dance, and spedabout his iron-crownd head.
Suddenly her song began anew;
and soft came dropping like a dew
down from on high in that domed hall
her voice bewildering, magical, and grew to silver-murmuring streams
pale falling in dark pools in dreams.

She let her flying raiment sweep,
enmeshed with woven spells of sleep,
as round the dark void she ranged and reeled.
From wall to wall she turned and wheeled
in dance such as never Elf nor fay
before devised, nor since that day;
than swallow swifter, than flittermouse in dying light round darkened house
more silken-soft, more strange and fair
than slyphine maidens of the Air
whose wings in Varda's heavenly hall
in rhythmic movement heat and fall.
Down crumpled Orc, and Balrog proud;
all eyes were quenched, all heads were bowed;
the fires of heart and maw were stilled,
and ever like a bird she thrilled
above a lightless world forlorn
in ecstasy enchanted borne.
All eyes were quenched, save those that glared in Morgoth's lowering brows, and stared
in slowly wandering wonder round,
and slow were in enchantment bound.
Their will wavered, and their fire failed,
and as beneath his brows they paled the Silmarils like stars were kindled
that in the reek of Earth had dwindled
escaping upwards clear to shine,
glistening marvellous in heaven's mine.

Then flaring suddenly they fell, down, down upon the floors of hell.
The dark and mighty head was bowed;
like mountain-top beneath a cloud
the shoulders foundered, the vast form
crashed, as in overwhelming storm
huge cliffs in ruin slide and fall;
and prone lay Morgoth in his hall.
His crown there rolled upon the ground,
a wheel of thunder; then all sound
died, and a silence grew as deep as were the heart of Earth asleep.

Beneath the vast and empty throne
the adders lay like twisted stone,
the wolves like corpses foul were strewn;
and there lay Beren deep in swoon:
no thought, no dream nor shadow blind moved in the darkness of his mind.
'Come forth, come forth! The hour hath knelled,
and Angband's mighty lord is felled!
Awake, awake! For we two meet
alone before the aweful seat.'
This voice came down into the deep
where he lay drowned in wells of sleep; a hand flower-soft and flower-cool
passed o'er his face, and the still pool
of slumber quivered. Up then leaped
his mind to waking; forth he crept.
The wolvish fell he flung aside
and sprang unto his feet, and wide
staring amid the soundless gloom
he gasped as one living shut in tomb.
There to his side felt her shrink,
felt Lthien now shivering sink,
her strength and magic dimmed and spent,
and swift his arms about her went.

Before his feet he saw amazed the gems of Fanor, that blazed
with white fire glistening in the crown
of Morgoth's might now fallen down.
To move that helm of iron vast
no strength he found, and thence aghast
he strove with fingers mad to wrest
guerdon of their hopeless quest, till in his heart there fell the thoughtof that cold morn whereon he fought
with Curufin; then from his belt
the sheathless knife he drew, and knelt,
and tried its hard edge, bitter-cold,
o'er which in Nogrod songs had rolled
of dwarvish armourers singing slow
to hammer-music long ago.
Iron as tender wood it clove
and mail as woof of loom it rove.
The claws of iron that held the gem,
it bit them through and sundered them;
a Silmaril he clasped and held, and the pure radiance slowly welled
red glowing through the clenching flesh.
Again he stooped and strove afresh
one more of the holy jewels three
that Fanor wrought of yore to free.
but round those fires was woven fate;
not yet should they leave the halls of hate.
The dwarvish steel of cunning blade
by treacherous smiths of Nogrod made snapped; then ringing sharp and clear
in twain it sprang, and like a spear
or errant shaft the brow it grazed
of Morgoth's sleeping head, and dazed their hearts with fear. For Morgoth groaned
with voice entombed, like wind that moaned
in hollow caverns penned and bound.
There came a breath; a gasping sound
moved through the halls, as Orc and beast
turned in their dreams of hideous feast;
in sleep uneasy Balrogs stirred,
and far above was faintly heard
an echo that in tunnels rolled,
a wolvish howling long and cold.

Up through the dark and echoing gloom
as ghosts from many-tunnelled tomb,
up from the mountains' roots profound and the vast menace underground,
their limbs aquake with deadly fear,
terror in eyes, and dread in ear, together fled they, by the beat
affrighted of their flying feet.

At last before them far away
they saw the glimmering wraith of day,
the mighty archway of the gate
and there a horror new did wait. Upon the threshold, watchful, dire,
his eyes new-kindled with dull fire,
towered Carcharoth, a biding doom:
his jaws were gaping like a tomb,
his teeth were bare, his tongue aflame;
aroused he watched that no one came,
no flitting shade nor hunted shape,
seeking from Angband to escape.
Now past that guard what guile or might could thrust from death into the light?

He heard afar their hurrying feet,
he snuffed an odour strange and sweet;
he smelled their coming long before
they marked the waiting threat at door.
His limbs he stretched and shook off sleep,
then stood at gaze. With sudden leap
upon them as they sped he sprang,
and his howling in the arches rang.
Too swift for thought his onset came, too swift for any spell to tame; and Beren desperate then aside
thrust Lthien, and forth did stride
unarmed, defenceless to defend
Tinviel until the end.
With left he caught at hairy throat,
with right hand at the eyes he smote
his right, from which the radiance welled
of the holy Silmaril he held.
As gleam of swords in fire there flashed
the fangs of Carcharoth, and crashed
together like a trap, that tore
the hand about the wrist, and shore
through brittle home and sinew nesh,
devouring the frail mortal flesh;
and in that cruel mouth unclean
engulfed the jewel's holy sheen.

Thats the short version, for it is a long tale, that would last into next winter in the telling", she finished, the sun setting in the east as night began to find its way.

"When Morgoth was thrust into the Void, all those who fought and suffered with the Valar against him were rewarded for thier deeds.
Earendils sons, Elrond and Elros were given the choice rather to be Eldar, or to be men and rule over the westren most of mortal lands, Numenor, that was rewarded to the Men who helped and were faithful to the Eldar. Elros chose to be mortal, and it is he from whom I have elven and maian blood untainted, and yet also my mortality.

So, to honor the deeds of Huan, Manwe sought council with Illuvatar (the One), on how best to do this. After seeking council, Manwe, king of the Valar, thus decreed that if the children of Huan should so choose, they would take unto themselves, shape, immortality, beauty, might and power and wisdom like to even the Eldar. But, they would remain half hound, and would sniff the ground and air. They could not remain in Valinor, nor ever return there.

The Westren Lands of middle-earth are closed to them. They would be removed to the farthest East, set as guardians. Man would fear them, and they would hold no love towards Man. Three sons of Huorn with thier spouses (given to them from Manwe and they also becoming like thier husbands) chose this;

Kulunor Sarithil and Airelen (foremother and forefather of Kouga); Gilithil Eruana and the fairest of all the hounds of Valionor, Silasse Telperion (foremother and forefather of InuYasha and Sesshoumaru); then Morimir Andavela and Nyenna Lome, the Ever-Night (foremother and forefather of Naraku) . Two only of middle-earth knew of this, Elrond, and the greatest of all the Eldar in middle-earth Lady Galadriel of the house of Finrod, of the Noldor. Galadriel use to tell me of Huan and his three sons when I was yet a child. I believed it only a fairy tale, till I saw you, that night, in the light of the moon at the falls, when you found me." she said.

As she finished, it was now evening. The moon and the stars shown in the night sky. Silently, she found, Sesshoumaru had led you back towards the castle, and she was shocked to find she now stood before it. "Now you must change back into armour, for your elven gown makes you a beautiful target" said Sesshoumaru. She saw Ren and Jaken getting ready for the journey a two-headed dragon. She found her pack before the castle and took it inside. She put upon her mithril armour once more, this time putting over it a leather long sleaved jerkin. She gurted herself with Gurthang, then put on her weather and travel worn boots.

She clapsed her grey, blended elven cloak close about her. She removed her Valinoren gem from her brow, and pulled her hair back in a tight long single braid. She went outside and put her pack on her back. Ren and Jaken upon the two-headed dragon, and Sesshoumaru before her, she set out for the journey. As the sight of the castle fell behind she began a song that King Elessar use to sing often before he began a journey.

Writen by the halfling, Bilbo. The moon was above her, the gentle night breeze carrying her voice to the stars.

The Road goes ever on and on
Down the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone, and I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger wayWhere many paths and errands meet.
And wither then? I cannot say.