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APPENDIX
REVISIONS TO
THE LAY OF LEITHIAN
Among the first, perhaps even the very first, of the literary tasks that attracted my father after
the completion of The Lord of the Rings was a return to The Lay of Leithian: not (needless
to say) to continue the narrative from the point reached in 1931 (the attack on Beren by
Carcharoth at the gates of Angband), but from the beginning of the poem. The textual history
of the writing is very complex, and no more need be said of it here beyond remarking that
whereas at first my father seems to have embarked on a radical rewriting of the Lay as a
whole, the impulse soon died away, or was overtaken, and was reduced to short and
scattered passages. I give here, however, as a substantial example of the new verse after the
lapse of a quarter of a century, the passage of the Lay concerning the treachery of Gorlim the
Unhappy that led to the slaying of Barahir, the father of Beren, and all his companions, save
Beren alone. This is by far the longest of the new passages; and—conveniently—it may be
compared with the original text that has been given on pp. 94–102. It will be seen that
Sauron (Thû), ridden here from ‘Gaurhoth Isle’, has replaced Morgoth; and that in the quality
of the verse this is a new poem.
I begin the new text with a short passage entitled Of Tarn Aeluin the Blessed which has no
counterpart in the original version: these verses are numbered 1–26.
Such deeds of daring there they wrought
that soon the hunters that them sought
at rumour of their coming fled.
Though price was set upon each head
to match the weregild of a king,
no soldier could to Morgoth bring
news even of their hidden lair;
for where the highland brown and bare
above the darkling pines arose
of steep Dorthonion to the snows
and barren mountain-winds, there lay
a tarn of water, blue by day,
by night a mirror of dark glass
for stars of Elbereth that pass
above the world into the West.
Once hallowed, still that place was blest:
no shadow of Morgoth, and no evil thing
yet thither came; a whispering ring
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