Lay of Leithian Fans Unite!

[Gwaimir Windgem]

Are you a lover of Tolkien's literature? Are you are a lover of his poetry? Do you think the Lay of Leithian is ****ing awesome? Then this is the thread for you! All Leithianers, come together and spread the word! Bring the true Light, the beauty of this most sacred Lay to the heathen non-Tolkienites, to the "I've only read the Lord of the Rings" folk, and especially to the blasphemous "The Lord of the Rings was based on a book?" heretics.

Unite, Leithianers, and Proselytise!

(Also, discuss your favourite parts, and the singular beauty of this text among yourselves.)

[littleadanel]

*raises hand*

I am! I am! I do!

But, it's late in the night here... I'll come back tomorrow with a fresher and probably functioning brain, I promise...

...wandering music, warbling wild,
for love of Thingol's elfin child....

[Gwaimir Windgem]

Thu 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,
of trust unbroken, of 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
Thu's chanting swelled, Felagund fought,
and all the magic and and might he brought
of Elfinesse 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.


...
...and black the ravens sat and cried
upon their banners black, and wide
was heard their hideous chanting dread
above the reek and trampled dead.

[Rosie Gamgee]

*raises hand* Oh, me! I love the poem! I have tons of favourite parts, but I don't own the book so I cannot quote them here. I like the beginning, where it is describing Luthien--very evocative and pretty.

[Gwaimir Windgem]

My favourite section is the first one I cited. I have it (and a few lines after) more or less memorised. I had to look up "singing afar in Nargothrond," though.

[Count Comfect]

Ooh! Ooh! I love that poem! I recited the first 2 cantos for my English class in 12th grade. We had to memorize a poem at least 8 lines long twice each semester. The record was something like 370 lines, so I went the whole hog and hit both cantos. It took 16 minutes to recite, and I was going fast... I think most of the class fell asleep. But DAMN that was fun.

A king there was in days of old
Ere men yet walked upon the mold
His power was reared in cavern's shade
His hand was over glen and glade
His shields were shining as the moon
His lances keen of steel were hewn
Enchantment did his realm enfold
Where might and glory, wealth untold
He wielded from his ivory throne
In many pillared halls of stone.
There beryl, pearl and opal pale
And metal wrought like fishes' mail
Buckler and corset, axe and sword
And shining spears were laid in hoard.
All these he had, and loved them less
Than a maid once in Elfinesse
For fairer than are born to men
A daughter had he, Luthien.

That might not be word-perfect, but it WAS 3 years ago... (and no, that's not all I remember, but it goes to a break).

[Gwaimir Windgem]

I can imagine; I envy you!

*wants to memorise the whole thing now*

[Rían]

I love that work!!!

Some of my fav. parts are Fingolfin's challenge, and the bit where Beren jumps in front of Luthien to save her from the wolf, with no weapons but his hands - but no time to quote it now ... GTG!

[littleadanel]

Wow, Count!

The longest Tolkien I memorized was the Eärendil-poem from LOTR, but now I tend to mix it up...

And Gwaimir, I love the song-duel part too

And this one:

Farewell, Tinúviel, starlit maiden!
Ere the pale winter pass snowladen,
I will return, not thee to buy
with any jewel of Elfinesse,
but to find my love in loveliness,
a flower that grows beneath the sky.

(might not be 100% accurate...)

Have you thought of that how enormous work it would be to translate this? Poetry is the hardest to translate, IMO, and such poetry?... I've been pondering this because, apparently, here they stopped translating & publishing the HoME after Lost Tales I-II... Probably looked at HoME#3 and gave up... So, the parts in the Silmarillion are the only ones ever translated, as far as I know. The song-duel, and Beren's farewell when he is leaving Lúthien. I treasure every line.

[Lefty Scaevola]

Its is the very soul of JRRT's ME works.

[Lizra]

Anduril and I wrote our own Lay......the Lay of Lizra (and Bop)......

[Lady Marion Magdalena]

Favorite piece of Tolkien's work ever...! Especially love the very end of Beren's farewell speech/song.

Though all to ruin fell the world
and were destroyed and backward hurled
unmade into the old abyss
yet were its making good for this:
The earth, the sun, the sky, the sea,
that Luthien for a time should be!

I wish I had my copy here with me... but it's at home, all the way cross the country. *WAIL*

[BeardofPants]

It is beautiful, but I like Narn i Chîn Húrin more, sorry!

Originally Posted by Lizra

Anduril and I wrote our own Lay......the Lay of Lizra (and Bop)......

*lol*

[Gwaimir Windgem]

Originally Posted by Lizra

Anduril and I wrote our own Lay......the Lay of Lizra (and Bop)......

Sounds scandalous...

Whazza matter, Beardy? Poetry not good enough for ya?

[*Lúthien]

Thanks for starting this thread. This is the most beautiful story I have ever read and it takes place in the most beautiful world that has ever come to be. I love that Luthien comes to rescue Beren. And that it wouldn't have been possible without her loyal hound. If only there were more Berens in our world.

[jammi567]

If you haven't got the poem with you, then there's this website, with the (almost) full poem on it:
http://hem.passagen.se/cirdan/leithian.html

And my faverate bit is:

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, you ghatsly brazen doors!
Come forth, whom earth and heaven abhors!
Come forth, O monstruous 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 one - when 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,
that 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 crushed - not 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 Manwë 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 white
in 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 they stared
Fingolfin's high and holy tomb,
till Gondolin's appointed doom.

Read it all the way through because you'll find (if you read the sil), that this is mush better then is in the book.

[jammi567]

if anyone can find the full poem tolken wrote, on the internet, then that would be brill.

[Rían]

Originally Posted by jammi567

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. ...

Ah, the fall of Fingolfin - really beautiful ...

[durinsbane2244]

Originally Posted by Gwaimir Windgem

Bring the true Light, the beauty of this most sacred Lay to the heathen non-Tolkienites, to the "I've only read the Lord of the Rings" folk, and especially to the blasphemous "The Lord of the Rings was based on a book?" heretics.

an awesome lay, a fan myself, but isn't talk like that what started some of those conflicts mentioned in hector's memoirs? [bum bum buuum] careful!

[Gwaimir Windgem]

Originally Posted by jammi567

if anyone can find the full poem tolken wrote, on the internet, then that would be brill.

I imagine it's still copy-righted.