He chanted a song of wizardry,
Of piercing, opening, of treachery,
Revealing, uncovering, betraying.
Then sudden Felagund there
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
Of snares eluded, broken traps,
The prison opening, the chain that snaps. Backwards and forwards swayed their song.
Reeling and foundering, as ever more
The chanting swelled,
Felagund fought,
And all the magic and might he
Of Elvenesse into his words.
Softly in the gloom they heard the
Singing afar in Nargothrond,
The sighing of the Sea beyond,
Beyond the western world, on sand,
On sand of pearls in Elvenland. Then the gloom gathered; darkness
In Valinor, the red blood
Beside the Sea, where the Noldor
The Foamriders, and stealing
Their white ships with their white
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.
