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ears, for they twitch already.’
But Tinúviel said: ‘There is a great beast, rude and violent, and his name is Huan’—and at that
name, Tevildo’s back curved, and his hair bristled and crackled, and the light of his eyes was red
—‘and’, she went on, ‘it seems to me a shame that such a brute be suffered to infect the woods so nigh
even to the abode of the powerful Prince of Cats, my lord Tevildo’; but Tevildo said: ‘Nor is he
suffered, and cometh never there save it be by stealth.’
‘Howso that may be,’ said Tinúviel, ‘there he is now, yet methinks that at last may his life be
brought utterly to an end; for lo, as I was going through the woods I saw where a great animal lay
upon the ground moaning as in sickness—and behold, it was Huan, and some evil spell or malady has
him in its grip, and still he lies helpless in a dale not a mile westward in the woods from this hall.
Now with this perhaps I would not have troubled your ears, had not the brute when I approached to
succour him snarled upon me and essayed to bite me, and meseems that such a creature deserves
whatever come to him.’
Now all this that Tinúviel spake was a great lie in whose devising Huan had guided her, and
maidens of the Eldar are not wont to fashion lies; yet have I never heard that any of the Eldar blamed
her therein nor Beren afterward, and neither do I, for Tevildo was an evil cat and Melko the
wickedest of all beings, and Tinúviel was in dire peril at their hands. Tevildo however, himself a
great and skilled liar, was so deeply versed in the lies and subtleties of all the beasts and creatures
that he seldom knew whether to believe what was said to him or not, and was wont to disbelieve all
things save those he wished to believe true, and so was he often deceived by the more honest. Now
the story of Huan and his helplessness so pleased him that he was fain to believe it true, and
determined at least to test it; yet at first he feigned indifference, saying this was a small matter for
such secrecy and might have been spoken outside without further ado. But Tinúviel said she had not
thought that Tevildo Prince of Cats needed to learn that the ears of Huan heard the slightest sounds a
league away, and the voice of a cat further than any sound else.
Now therefore Tevildo sought to discover from Tinúviel under pretence of mistrusting her tale
where exactly Huan might be found, but she made only vague answers, seeing in this her only hope of
escaping from the castle, and at length Tevildo, overcome by curiosity and threatening evil things if
she should prove false, summoned two of his thanes to him, and one was Oikeroi, a fierce and
warlike cat. Then did the three set out with Tinúviel from that place, but Tinúviel took off her magical
garment of black and folded it, so that for all its size and density it appeared no more than the smallest
kerchief (for so was she able), and thus was she borne down the terraces upon the back of Oikeroi
without mishap, and no drowziness assailed her bearer. Now crept they through the woods in the
direction she had named, and soon does Tevildo smell dog and bristles and lashes his great tail, but
after he climbs a lofty tree and looks down from thence into that dale that Tinúviel had shown to them.
There he does indeed see the great form of Huan lying prostrate groaning and moaning, and he comes
down in much glee and haste, and indeed in his eagerness he forgets Tinúviel, who now in great fear
for Huan lies hidden in a bank of fern. The design of Tevildo and his two companions was to enter
that dale silently from different quarters and so come all suddenly upon Huan unawares and slay him,
or if he were too stricken to make fight to make sport of him and torment him. This did they now, but
even as they leapt out upon him Huan sprang up into the air with a mighty baying, and his jaws closed
in the back close to the neck of that cat Oikeroi, and Oikeroi died; but the other thane fled howling up
a great tree, and so was Tevildo left alone face to face with Huan, and such an encounter was not
much to his mind, yet was Huan upon him too swiftly for flight, and they fought fiercely in that glade,
and the noise that Tevildo made was very hideous; but at length Huan had him by the throat, and that