Pages from the Archives of Cîr Imladris by Lferion

Cîr.Im-247r-v | On the Lay of Leithian, V7-Rhúnedain/Kinn-Lai.A

Originally written for the SWG Rejects Challenge, April 2023, Prompt: How about Barahir and Beren are elves (“Sketch of the Mythology”)

Posted on AO3 Here

Not counting headers -- Recto: Drabble poem and single drabble text, Verso: Double drabble text, Archivist's Note: Double drabble, Additional Notes: Single drabble.

Text of Cîr.Im-247r-v | On the Lay of Leithian, V7-Rhúnedain/Kinn-Lai.A

Recto:

No red-eared hound is this unleashed, or watching, ember-eyed,
Nor would such quarry choose: as Beren brash and loving doth --
Would he take a different path, as an Elf & so denied?
Or is this doom? A fate foretold as flame to willing moth?
An arrow loosed from bowstring twined of hair & shadows plied
& Mark found in the heart that mortal proved: for Elf-king, wroth
Set price impossible: a silmaril that woe betide
& Any outcome dooming all or some in Menegroth
Oh wolves await, & wailing, death in darkness, nameless hide
Yet, without this striving would see no hope, no starry troth.

This is the single legible and complete stanza from a long poem from one of the nomadic Mannish peoples of the far eastern plains. The poem as a whole retells the Leithian material with interpolations of elements from Hadorian tales. The writer/composer appears to have confused or conflated Beren with Beleg, or at any rate, that Barahir and Beren are Eldar, not Edain. One would wish that more of the poem survived to be read. The parts that can be read are fascinating. One thing that is certain about this is that Maglor had no direct hand in it.

Verso:

Closer analysis of the extant material of the original lay (Anglithiel has managed wonders with filtered sunlight and innovative use of the single blue-light Feanorian lamp remaining to us, allowing for much more of the poem to be read, though still not all of it, alas) reveals that this particular stanza is commentary, not narrative, and may not belong properly to the original Mannish piece at all, even though the form is indeed the same. In the song, Beren (and Barahir his father) are Northern Sindar, and Beren is twin to Beleg (explaining some, but by no means all, of the confusion between them -- their epessi are Cu-Chamion and Cu-Thalion, and whoever scribed the song was not careful in differentiating them), and red-eared Huan (Rîncaralhaw) his companion from youth. (Celegorm and Curufin are not apparently mentioned, though the Nargothrond stanzas are very fragmented and hard to make out, even with Anglithiel's efforts, but Huan is at Beren's side well before that point in the narrative.) In the subject of this stanza, The Tol Sirion (Tol Amon in the text) event, the verses have Beren and Beleg (and, remarkably, Finrod, who then vanishes from the tale) rescued by Luthien and Huan.

Archivist's Note

Single leaf of good Dwarf-made paper, the poem & notes recto in carbon-black ink, additional notes verso, oak-gall ink. The pen-nib used is metal, slightly larger than typical for Lindon before the founding of Eregion, and may be Dwarf-work like the paper. The hand and the pen are the same throughout. The poem is a careful copy, the commentary on recto and verso appears to have been composed as written, judging by the slight irregularities of spacing and ink-flow.

This intriguing page is especially noteworthy for having both the ten lines of poetry, interesting on their own, but also contemporaneous -- or near contemporaneous -- commentary. The Eastern "Mannish" piece referred to may be "Beren Strongbow and the Princess of Night" a version of which has recently (TA 74) come to the Archive by way of a group of very far-traveled Kinn-Lai, though there is no way to be certain of that. The copy referenced in the text has not yet come to light, though hopefully it will. The referenced illumination technique is certainly Luinaur-celia, developed in Eregion, now verified to have been developed by Anglithiel Mel-Narin notably before the Mirdain re-discovered how to make Feanorian Lamps shine in colors other than white.

Additional Notes:

See: Cîr.Im-2831v2-c-g | Lay of Leithian, V29-Rhúnedain/Kinn-Lai.B for the text of "Beren Strongbow and the Princess of Night"

Rîncaralhaw: Red-eared chaser/chase-hound. Rŷn (chaser, chase-hound) cara (red) lhaw (ears, specific pair of ears).
Properly, this should be spelled y-circumflex (rŷn), not i-circumflex (rîn). Most likely the original the writer is working from used that spelling, especially as the word is spelled properly in the commentary, the "rîn" variant only in the poem. Additionally, neither "remembrance" nor "crowned" make sense in this context.

Cu-Chamion: Bow-Hand/Handy; Cu-Thalion: Bow-Strong or Strongbow. "Erchamion" is Beren's usual epesse.

Luinaur-celia: Blue-sunlight illumination. Also called Archive-light.