Читать книгу The Lays of Beleriand онлайн | страница 13

On manhood’s threshold he was mighty holdenin the wielding of weapons; and in weaving songhe had a minstrel’s mastery, but mirth was not in it,for he mourned the misery of the Men of Hithlum.355Yet greater his grief grew thereafter,when from Hithlum’s hills he heard no more,and no traveller told him tidings of Morwin.For those days were drawing to the Doom of the Gnomes,and the power of the Prince of the People of Hell,360of the grim Glamhoth, was grown apace,till the lands of the North were loud with their noise,and they fell on the folk with flame and ruinwho bent not to Bauglir, or the borders passedof dark Dorlómin with its dreary pines365that Hithlum unhappy is hight by Men.There Morgoth shut them, and the Shadowy Mountainsfenced them from Faërie and the folk of the wood.Even Beleg fared not so far abroadas once was his wont, and the woods were filled370with the armies of Angband and evil deeds,while murder walked on the marches of Doriath;only mighty magic of Melian the Queenyet held their havoc from the Hidden People.

Two pages from the original manuscript of The Lay of the Children of Húrin

To assuage his sorrow and to sate the rage375and hate of his heart for the hurts of his folkthen Húrin’s son took the helm of his sireand weapons weighty for the wielding of men,and went to the woods with warlike Elves;and far in the fight his feet led him,380into black battle yet a boy in years.Ere manhood’s measure he met and slewthe Orcs of Angband and evil thingsthat roamed and ravened on the realm’s borders.There hard his life, and hurts he got him,385the wounds of shaft and warfain sword,and his prowess was proven and his praise renowned,and beyond his years he was yielded honour;for by him was holden the hand of ruinfrom Thingol’s folk, and Thû feared him –390Thû who was thronéd as thane most mightyneath Morgoth Bauglir; whom that mighty one bade‘Go ravage the realm of the robber Thingol,and mar the magic of Melian the Queen.’

Only one was there in war greater,395higher in honour in the hearts of the Elves,than Túrin son of Húrin untamed in war –even the huntsman Beleg of the Hidden People,the son of the wilderness who wist no sire(to bend whose bow of the black yew-tree400had none the might), unmatched in knowledgeof the wood’s secrets and the weary hills.He was leader beloved of the light-armed bands,the scouts that scoured, scorning danger,afar o’er the fells their foemen’s lairs;405and tales and tidings timely won themof camps and councils, of comings and goings –all the movements of the might of Morgoth the Terrible.Thus Túrin, who trusted to targe and sword,who was fain of fighting with foes well seen,410and the banded troops of his brave comradeswere snared seldom and smote unlooked-for.