He chanted a song of wizardry,
Of piercing, opening, of treachery,
Revealing, uncovering, betraying.
Then sudden Felagund there swaying
Sang in answer a song of staying,
Resisting, battling against power,
Of secrets kept, strength like a tower,
And trust unbroken, freedom, escape;
Of changing and of shifting shape
Of snares eluded, broken traps,
The prison opening, the chain that snaps.
Backwards and forwards swayed their song.
Reeling and foundering, as ever more strong
The chanting swelled, Felagund fought,
And all the magic and might he brought
Of Elvenesse into his words.
Softly in the gloom they heard the birds
Singing afar in Nargothrond,
The sighing of the Sea beyond,
Beyond the western world, on sand,
On sand of pearls in Elvenland.
Then the gloom gathered; darkness growing
In Valinor, the red blood flowing
Beside the Sea, where the Noldor slew
The Foamriders, and stealing drew
Their white ships with their white sails
From lamplit havens. The wind wails,
The wolf howls. The ravens flee.
The ice mutters in the mouths of the Sea.
The captives sad in Angband mourn.
Thunder rumbles, the fires burn —-
And Finrod fell before the throne.
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From guest Lincoln (contact)
Though the poem is not of great significance to the whole of the Silmarillion, it invokes the kind of image that modern fantasy lovers fawn over. The evil villain, swathed in black (not described in the poem, but easily imaginable), the noble prince, a remnant of the might of the Valar, and the battle between the two. Tolkien's poetry invokes the same kind of sense that the old sagas (Beowulf, the Ring of the Nibelung, the other Germanic myths) do: a longing for the days when tribes gathered round the village storyteller at night, to lose themselves in rhyme and verse. At least, that's what I think... -
excellent writer, excellent poem, excellent rythm, excellent everything. Positively beautiful
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I LOVE this. Its so awesome! I have yet to read the entirety of the Silmarillion, but hey, ITS GREAT!
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Yes: first comment!
I feel so important...of course, I just read one of Tolkien's pieces so, in truth, I could not even begin to describe my unimportance.
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