A Sense of History: Straight Road
The next in a series of articles about ships passing to and from the West, Simon uses "The Fall of Númenor" to attempt to arrive at Tolkien's reading of the exordium to "Beowulf."
Alay, alas, alack!
Oh woe, woe and thrice woe.
Woe is me for I am undone,
I must explain to Morgoth how I lost tol Sirion.
He never was inclined to listen to excuses,
He invariably follows them up with Mairin-rights abuses.
I do not want to tell him I was bested by a dog,
I would rather hide in Taur-nu-fuin as a fungus-covered log.
I do not want to find myself before his throne in shame,
at being misled by an illusion and a slightly mangled name.
I do not want to let him know that in three months I learned nought more,
of Finrod than that he was the most frustrating elf I've ever had to store.
But I cannot hide forever and logs are rather boring,
I will return in hope he will only make me listen to his snoring.
A/N: with apologies to William Shakespeare as well as JRR Tolkien for mangling their ideas and verse, and additional apologies to Lindir for attributing these to him.