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the last debate 1145
are obedient to his will,’’ I thought. ‘‘They may serve his
needs yet!’’
‘One day of light we rode, and then came the day without
dawn, and still we rode on, and Ciril and Ringló we crossed;
and on the third day we came to Linhir above the mouth of
Gilrain. And there men of Lamedon contested the fords with
fell folk of Umbar and Harad who had sailed up the river.
But defenders and foes alike gave up the battle and fled when
we came, crying out that the King of the Dead was upon
them. Only Angbor, Lord of Lamedon, had the heart to abide
us; and Aragorn bade him gather his folk and come behind,
if they dared, when the Grey Host had passed.
‘ ‘‘At Pelargir the Heir of Isildur will have need of you,’’
he said.
‘Thus we crossed over Gilrain, driving the allies of Mordor
in rout before us; and then we rested a while. But soon
Aragorn arose, saying: ‘‘Lo! already Minas Tirith is assailed.
I fear that it will fall ere we come to its aid.’’ So we mounted
again before night had passed and went on with all the speed
that our horses could endure over the plains of Lebennin.’
Legolas paused and sighed, and turning his eyes southward
softly he sang:
Silver flow the streams from Celos to Erui
In the green fields of Lebennin!
Tall grows the grass there. In the wind from the Sea
The white lilies sway,
And the golden bells are shaken of mallos and alfirin
In the green fields of Lebennin,
In the wind from the Sea!
‘Green are those fields in the songs of my people; but they
were dark then, grey wastes in the blackness before us. And
over the wide land, trampling unheeded the grass and the
flowers, we hunted our foes through a day and a night, until
we came at the bitter end to the Great River at last.
‘Then I thought in my heart that we drew near to the