Finrods Song

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.