The Lays of Beleriand. Christopher Tolkien

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ he heard or high feastingor lay or laughter, and looked, it seemed,440to a deep distance in the dark without,and strained for sounds in the still spaces,for voices that vanished in the veils of night.He was lithe and lean, and his locks were wild,and woodland weeds he wore of brown445and grey and green, and gay jewelor golden trinket his garb knew not.

An Elf there was – Orgof – of the ancient race
that was lost in the lands where the long marches
from the quiet waters of Cuiviénen	450
were made in the mirk of the midworld’s gloom,
ere light was lifted aloft o’er earth;
but blood of the Gnomes was blent in his veins.
He was close akin to the King of Doriath –
a hardy hunter and his heart was brave,	455
but loose his laughter and light his tongue,
and his pride outran his prowess in arms.
He was fain before all of fine raiment
and of gems and jewels, and jealous of such
as found favour before himself.	460
Now costly clad in colours gleaming
he sat on a seat that was set on high
near the king and queen and close to Túrin.
When those twain were at table he had taunted him oft,
lightly with laughter, for his loveless ways,	465
his haggard raiment and hair unshorn;
but Túrin untroubled neither turned his head
nor wasted words on the wit of Orgof.
But this day of the feast more deep his gloom
than of wont, and his words men won harder;	470
for of twelve long years the tale was full
since on Morwin his mother through a maze of tears
he looked the last, and the long shadows
of the forest had fallen on his fading home;
and he answered few, and Orgof nought.	475
Then the fool’s mirth was filled the more,
to a keener edge was his carping whetted
at the clothes uncouth and the uncombéd hair
of Túrin newcome from the tangled forest.
He drew forth daintily a dear treasure,	480
a comb of gold that he kept about him,
and tendered it to Túrin; but he turned not his eyes,
nor deigned to heed or harken to Orgof,
who too deep drunken that disdain should quell him:
‘Nay, an thou knowest not thy need of comb,	485
nor its use,’ quoth he, ‘too young thou leftest
thy mother’s ministry, and ’twere meet to go
that she teach thee tame thy tangled locks –
if the women of Hithlum be not wild and loveless,
uncouth and unkempt as their cast-off sons.’	490

Then a fierce fury, like a fire blazing,
was born of bitterness in his bruiséd heart;
his white wrath woke at the words of scorn
for the women of Hithlum washed in tears;
and a heavy horn to his hand lying,	495
with gold adorned for good drinking,
of his might unmindful thus moved in ire
he seized and, swinging, swiftly flung it
in the face of Orgof. ‘Thou fool’, he said,
‘fill thy mouth therewith, and to me no further	500
thus witless prate by wine bemused’ –
but his face was broken, and he fell backward,
and heavy his head there hit upon the stone
of the floor rock-paved mid flagons and vessels
of the o’erturned table that tumbled on him	505
as clutching he fell; and carped no more,
in death silent. There dumb were all
at bench and board; in blank amaze
they rose around him, as with ruth of heart
he gazed aghast on his grievous deed,	510
on his wine-stained hand, with wondering eyes
half-comprehending. On his heel then he turned
into the night striding, and none stayed him;
but some their swords half slipped from sheaths
– they were Orgof’s kin – yet for awe of Thingol	515
they dared not draw while the dazéd king
stonefacéd stared on his stricken thane
and no sign showed them. But the slayer weary
his hands laved in the hidden stream
that strikes ’fore the gates, nor stayed his tears:	520
‘Who has cast,’ he cried, ‘a curse upon me;
for all I do is ill, and an outlaw now,
in bitter banishment and blood-guilty,
of my fosterfather I must flee the halls,
nor look on the lady beloved again’ –	525
yea, his heart to Hithlum had hastened him now,
but that road he dared not, lest the wrath he draw
of the Elves after him, and their anger alight
should speed the spears in despite of Morgoth
o’er the hills of Hithlum to hunt him down;	530
lest a doom more dire than they dreed of old
be meted his mother and the Maid of Tears.

In the furthest folds of the Forest of Doriath,
in the darkest dales on its drear borders,
in haste he hid him, lest the hunt take him;	535
and they found not his footsteps who fared after,
the thanes of Thingol; who thirty days
sought him sorrowing, and searched in vain
with no purpose of ill, but the pardon bearing
of Thingol throned in the Thousand Caves.	540
He in council constrained the kin of Orgof
to forget their grief and forgiveness show,
in that wilful bitterness had barbed the words
of Orgof the Elf; said ‘his hour had come
that his soul should seek the sad pathway	545
to the deep valley of the Dead Awaiting,
there a thousand years thrice to ponder
in the gloom of Gurthrond his grim jesting,
ere he fare to Faërie to feast again.’
Yet of his own treasure he oped the gates,	550
and gifts ungrudging of gold and gems
to the sons he gave of the slain; and his folk
well deemed the deed. But that doom of the King
Túrin knew not, and turned against him
the hands of the Elves he unhappy believed,	555
wandering the woodland woeful-hearted;
for his fate would not that the folk of the caves
should harbour longer Húrin’s offspring.

      NOTES

	(Throughout the Notes statements such as ‘Delimorgoth A, and B as typed’ (line 11) imply that the reading in the printed text (in that case Delu-Morgoth) is a later emendation made to B).
8	Húrin is Úrin in the Lost Tales (and still when this poem was begun, see note to line 213), and his name Thalion ‘Steadfast’, found in The Silmarillion and the Narn, does not occur in them (though he is called ‘the Steadfast’).
11	Delimorgoth A, and B as typed. Morgoth occurs once only in the Lost Tales, in the typescript version of the Tale of Tinúviel (II. 44); see note to line 20.
13	Nínin Udathriol A, and B as typed; this occurs in the Tale (II. 84; for explanation of the name see II. 346). When changing Udathriol to Unothradin my father wrote in the margin of B: ‘or Nirnaithos Unothradin’.
17	Above Erithámrod is pencilled in A Urinthalion.
20	B as typed had Belcha, which was then changed through Belegor, Melegor, to Bauglir. (A has a different reading here: as a myriad rats in measureless army / might pull down the proudest …) Belcha occurs in the typescript version of the Tale of Tinúviel (II. 44), where Belcha Morgoth are said СКАЧАТЬ В начало < 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 > В конец