crawling movement
stirred the silence. Still and soundless
in the glades about were the green shadows.
Thus fared they on, and felt that eyes
unseen saw them, and swift footsteps
unheard hastened behind them ever,
till each shaken bush or shadowy thicket
they fled furtive in fear needless,
for thereafter was aimed no arrow winged,
and they came to a country kindly tended;
through flowery frith and fair acres
they fared, and found of folk empty
the leas and leasows and the lawns of Narog,
the teeming tilth by trees enfolded
twixt hills and river. The hoes unrecked
in the fields were flung, and fallen ladders
in the long grass lay of the lush orchards;
every tree there turned its tangled head
and eyed them secretly, and the ears listened of the nodding grasses; though noontide glowed on land and leaf, their limbs were chilled.
Never hall or homestead its high gables
in the light uplifting in that land saw they, but a pathway plain by passing feet
was broadly beaten. Thither bent their steps
Flinding go-Fuilin, whose feet remembered
that white roadway. In a while they reached
to the acres' end, that ever narrowing
twixt wall and water did wane at last
to blossomy banks by the borders of the way.
A spuming torrent, in spate tumbling
from the highest hill of the Hunters' Wold
1785
1790
1795
1800
1805
1810
1815
clove and crossed it; there of carven stone
with slim and shapely slender archway
a bridge was builded, a bow gleaming
in the froth and flashing foam of Ingwil,
that headlong hurried and hissed beneath.
Where it found the flood, far-journeyed Narog, there steeply stood the strong shoulders
of the hills, o'erhanging the hurrying water; there shrouded in trees a sheer terrace,
wide and winding, worn to smoothness,
was fashioned in the face of the falling slope.
Doors there darkly dim gigantic
were hewn in the hillside; huge their timbers, and their posts and lintels of ponderous stone.
1820
1825
1830
They were shut unshakeable. Then shrilled a trumpet as a phantom fanfare faintly winding
in the hill from hollow halls far under;
a creaking portal with clangour backward
was flung, and forth there flashed a throng,
leaping lightly, lances wielding,
and swift encircling seized bewildered
the wanderers wayworn, wordless haled them
through the gaping gateway to the glooms beyond.
Ground and grumbled on its great hinges
the door gigantic; with din ponderous
it clanged and closed like clap of thunder,
and echoes awful in empty corridors
there ran and rumbled under roofs unseen;
the light was lost. Then led them on
down long and winding lanes of darkness
their guards guiding their groping feet,
till the faint flicker of fiery torches
flared before them; fitful murmur
as of many voices in meeting thronged
they heard as they hastened. High sprang the roof.
Round a sudden turning they swung amazed,
and saw a solemn silent conclave,
where hundreds hushed in huge twilight
neath distant domes darkly vaulted
them wordless waited. There waters flowed
with washing echoes winding swiftly
1835
1840
1845
1850
855
amid the multitude, and mounting pale
for fifty fathoms a fountain sprang,
and wavering wan, with winking redness
flushed and flickering in the fiery lights,
it fell at the feet in the far shadows
of a king with crown and carven throne.
1860
A voice they heard neath the vault rolling,
and the king them called: Who come ye here
from the North unloved to Nargothrond,
a Gnome of bondage and a nameless Man?
No welcome finds here wandering outlaw;
save his wish be death he wins it not,
for those that have looked on our last refuge it boots not to beg other boon of me.'
Then Flinding go-Fuilin freely answered:
'Has the watch then waned in the woods of Narog, since Orodreth ruled this realm and folk?
Or how have the hunted thus hither wandered,
if the warders willed it not thy word obeying; or how hast not heard that thy hidden archer, who shot his
stirred the silence. Still and soundless
in the glades about were the green shadows.
Thus fared they on, and felt that eyes
unseen saw them, and swift footsteps
unheard hastened behind them ever,
till each shaken bush or shadowy thicket
they fled furtive in fear needless,
for thereafter was aimed no arrow winged,
and they came to a country kindly tended;
through flowery frith and fair acres
they fared, and found of folk empty
the leas and leasows and the lawns of Narog,
the teeming tilth by trees enfolded
twixt hills and river. The hoes unrecked
in the fields were flung, and fallen ladders
in the long grass lay of the lush orchards;
every tree there turned its tangled head
and eyed them secretly, and the ears listened of the nodding grasses; though noontide glowed on land and leaf, their limbs were chilled.
Never hall or homestead its high gables
in the light uplifting in that land saw they, but a pathway plain by passing feet
was broadly beaten. Thither bent their steps
Flinding go-Fuilin, whose feet remembered
that white roadway. In a while they reached
to the acres' end, that ever narrowing
twixt wall and water did wane at last
to blossomy banks by the borders of the way.
A spuming torrent, in spate tumbling
from the highest hill of the Hunters' Wold
1785
1790
1795
1800
1805
1810
1815
clove and crossed it; there of carven stone
with slim and shapely slender archway
a bridge was builded, a bow gleaming
in the froth and flashing foam of Ingwil,
that headlong hurried and hissed beneath.
Where it found the flood, far-journeyed Narog, there steeply stood the strong shoulders
of the hills, o'erhanging the hurrying water; there shrouded in trees a sheer terrace,
wide and winding, worn to smoothness,
was fashioned in the face of the falling slope.
Doors there darkly dim gigantic
were hewn in the hillside; huge their timbers, and their posts and lintels of ponderous stone.
1820
1825
1830
They were shut unshakeable. Then shrilled a trumpet as a phantom fanfare faintly winding
in the hill from hollow halls far under;
a creaking portal with clangour backward
was flung, and forth there flashed a throng,
leaping lightly, lances wielding,
and swift encircling seized bewildered
the wanderers wayworn, wordless haled them
through the gaping gateway to the glooms beyond.
Ground and grumbled on its great hinges
the door gigantic; with din ponderous
it clanged and closed like clap of thunder,
and echoes awful in empty corridors
there ran and rumbled under roofs unseen;
the light was lost. Then led them on
down long and winding lanes of darkness
their guards guiding their groping feet,
till the faint flicker of fiery torches
flared before them; fitful murmur
as of many voices in meeting thronged
they heard as they hastened. High sprang the roof.
Round a sudden turning they swung amazed,
and saw a solemn silent conclave,
where hundreds hushed in huge twilight
neath distant domes darkly vaulted
them wordless waited. There waters flowed
with washing echoes winding swiftly
1835
1840
1845
1850
855
amid the multitude, and mounting pale
for fifty fathoms a fountain sprang,
and wavering wan, with winking redness
flushed and flickering in the fiery lights,
it fell at the feet in the far shadows
of a king with crown and carven throne.
1860
A voice they heard neath the vault rolling,
and the king them called: Who come ye here
from the North unloved to Nargothrond,
a Gnome of bondage and a nameless Man?
No welcome finds here wandering outlaw;
save his wish be death he wins it not,
for those that have looked on our last refuge it boots not to beg other boon of me.'
Then Flinding go-Fuilin freely answered:
'Has the watch then waned in the woods of Narog, since Orodreth ruled this realm and folk?
Or how have the hunted thus hither wandered,
if the warders willed it not thy word obeying; or how hast not heard that thy hidden archer, who shot his
Similar Books
