shot back as they went; and the arrow was aimed at L?thien. Huan leaping caught it in his mouth; but Curufin shot again, and Beren sprang before L?thien, and the dart smote him in the breast.
It is told that Huan pursued the sons of F?anor, and they fled in fear; and returning he brought to L?thien a herb out of the forest. With that leaf he staunched Beren's wound, and by her arts and by her love she healed him; and thus at last they returned to Doriath. There Beren, being torn between his oath and his love, and knowing L?thien to be now safe, arose one morning before the sun, and committed her to the care of Huan; then in great anguish he departed while she yet slept upon the grass.
He rode northward again with all speed to the Pass of Sirion, and coming to the skirts of Taur-nu-Fuin he looked out across the waste of Anfauglith and saw afar the peaks of Thangorodrim. There he dismissed the horse of Curufin, and bade it leave now dread and servitude and run free upon the green grass in the lands of Sirion. Then being now alone and upon the threshold of the final peril he made the Song of Parting, in praise of L?thien and the lights of heaven; for he believed that he must now say farewell to both love and light. Of that song these words were part:
Farewell sweet earth and northern sky,
for ever blest, since here did lie
and here with lissom limbs did run
beneath the Moon, beneath the Sun,
L?thien Tin?viel
more fair than mortal tongue can tell.
Though all to ruin fell the world
and were dissolved and backward hurled
unmade into the old abyss,
yet were its making good, for this-
the dusk, the dawn, the earth, the sea-
that L?thien for a time should be.
And he sang aloud, caring not what ear should overhear him, for he was desperate and looked for no escape.
But L?thien heard his song, and she sang in answer, as she came through the woods unlooked for. For Huan, consenting once more to be her steed, had borne her swiftly hard upon Beren's trail. Long he had pondered in his heart what counsel he could devise for the lightning of the peril of these two whom he loved. He turned aside therefore at Sauron's isle, as they ran northward again, and he took thence the ghastly wolf-hame of Draugluin, and the bat-fell of? ThurIngw?thil. She was the messenger of Sauron, and was wont to fly in vampire's form to Angband; and her greatfingered wings were barbed at each joint's end with and iron claw. Clad in these dreadful garments Huan and L?thien ran through Taur-nu-Fuin, and all things fled before them.
Beren seeing their approach was dismayed; and he wondered, for he had heard the voice of Tin?viel, and he thought it now a phantom for his ensnaring. But they halted and cast aside their disguise, and L?thien ran towards him. Thus Beren and L?thien met again between the desert and the wood. For a while he was silent and was glad; but after a space he strove once more to dissuade L?thien from her journey.
'Thrice now I curse my oath to Thingol,' he said, 'and I would that he had slain me in Menegroth, rather than I should bring you under the shadow of Morgoth.'
Then for the second time Huan spoke with words; and he counselled Beren, saying: 'From the shadow of death you can no longer save L?thien, for by her love she is now subject to it. You can turn from your fate and lead her into exile, seeking peace in vain while your life lasts. But if you will not deny your doom, then either L?thien, being forsaken, must assuredly die alone, or she must with you challenge the fate that lies before you--hopeless, yet not certain. Further counsel I cannot give, nor may I go further on your road. But my heart forebodes that what you find at the Gate I shall myself see. All else is dark to me; yet it may be that our three paths lead back to Doriath, and we may meet before the end.'
Then Beren perceived that L?thien could not be divided from the doom that lay upon them both, and he sought no longer to dissuade her. By the counsel of Huan and the arts of L?thien he was arrayed now in the hame of Draugluin, and she in the winged fell of ThurIngw?thil. Beren became in all