Silmarillion Poems
Sauron’s Song of Power
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 elude, 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 on the gloom they heard the birds
Singing afar in Nargothrond,
The singing 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
The 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. Top
Beren Sings of Luthien
Farewell sweet earth and northern sky,
For ever blest, since here did lie
And here with lissome limbs did run
Beneath the Moon, beneath the Sun,
Luthien Tinuviel
More fair than mortal tongue can tell.
Though all to ruin fell the world
And were dissolved and backward hurled,
Unmade into the old abyss,
Yet were its making good, for this –
The dusk, the dawn, the earth, the sea –
That Luthien for a time should be. Top
