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Orcish lullaby from Lay of Leithian
I’ll sing ye famous song, how in the days of yore, When flat was our world, when Rings have not yet been made, Our first Dark Lord defeated was by Elfin maid, Where others failed; Tinúviel was name of her.
Idea of making a lullaby from Lay of Leithian came to me after reading a Russian translation of “Beren and Luthien” book, where line “Down crumpled Orc, down Balrog proud” reminded me of “Sleep tired toys, books are asleep…”1) from a children show. But making a lullaby for Orcs required changes to be made, for example baby-orc should be afraid of Lúthien. I've also made a quick research to be sure that scary lullabies are the thing in almost every culture.
It also reflects Tolkien's belief that Evil cannot create art or life:
The Shadow that bred them can only mock, it cannot make: not real new things of its own.
(Frodo to Sam about Orcs, LOTR, ROTK)
Melkor spent his spirit in envy and hate, until at last he could make nothing save in mockery of the thought of others…
(Silmarillion)
So, most of the text was taken directly from Lay of Leithian, but with lines and words inside of them re-arranged. Out of 500 words over 300 were “stolen”. Words taken directly from corresponding line were marked with bold, and line is marked with it's number from original poem. A couple of lines have line numbers specified, but not marked with bold – this means it's inspired by original, but wording changed too much.
English text
1. Why won’t you sleep? Loud is Angband. All day and night there hammers pound. 3861 The rumour thunders in the forges 3852 built deep in Thangorodrim’s gorges. A burning wind there roaring blows 3853 foul vapours up from gaping holes, 3854 where wretched captives cry in pain 3865 amid the iron clink of chain. 3864 2. Soon, soon it will be slowly changed: 3962 the elven witch in raiment strange, 3963 batlike, will secretly here fly, 3963 bloodthirsty snobbish wood-sprites’ spy, to Morgoth’s hall, where splendid feast 3876 he holds, and drinks the blood of beast 3877 and lives of Men, she’ll boldly raid. 3878 Her eyes will blaze with flame and hate. 3879 3. She’ll let her flying raiment sweep, 4068 enmeshed with woven spells of sleep, 4069 as round the dark void she will reel, 4070 and hidden garment she’ll reveal 3968, 3965 with starlight caught in elvish veil 3969 which glimmers in Angband’s halls pale. 3968 Dim dreams and faint oblivious sleep 3970 will softly fall on dungeons deep, 3971 4. And smell of Doriath’s flowers 3972 will cloud fiery glowing towers. Then softly she’ll begin to sing 3978 a theme of sleep and slumbering. 3979 The fires of Angband will flare and die, 3984 smouldered into darkness; through the high 3985 and hollow halls there'll roll unfurled 3986 the shadows of the underworld. 3987 5. Wandering, woven with deeper spell, 3980 her voice all maws and hearts will quell. 4082 Down crumpled orcs, down hungry beasts 4080 / 4170 turned in their dreams of lavish feasts; 4171 the fires of heart and maw are still, 4082 soothed by enchanting bird-like thrill; 4083 in sleep uneasy Balrogs stir; 4172 all lulled by sorcery of her. 6. And as her song begins anew 4062 and soft comes dropping like a dew, 4063 that falls from ceiling of that dome and grows to seething silver foam of loudly rumbling rapid streams, 4066 pale falling in dark pools of dreams, 4067 a heart-enthralling dance she winds 4059, 4060 to calm the servants’ restless minds. 7. All movement stops, and sound ceases, 3988 save Orcs’ and beasts’ slumberous wheezes. 3989 All eyes were quenched, save those that glared 4086 in gloomy Morgoth’s face and stared 4087 at elvish beauty, frail and false, bewitching in the great vast halls in slowly wandering wonder round, 4088 all were in enchantment bound. 4089 8. Like stars the Silmarils glittered, 4092 from Dark Lord’s crown they down flittered, 4135 and flaring suddenly they fell, 4096 upon the floors of Iron Hell. 4097 – 4103 The dark and mighty head was bowed; like mountain-top beneath a cloud the shoulders foundered, the vast form crashed, as in overwhelming storm huge cliffs in ruin slide and fall; and prone lays Morgoth in his hall. 9. All eyes are quenched, all heads are bowed; 4081 sleeps crumpled Orc, sleeps Balrog proud; 4080 the wolves like corpses foul are strewn, 4110 no more they howling on the Moon; 4175 sleep adders, lay like twisted stone; 4109 lays Morgoth in his hall, dream-prone. 4103 (word order changed) His crown there rolls upon the ground, 4104 with Silmarils kindling; all sound 4092, 4105 died, and a silence grew as deep 4106 as were the heart of Earth asleep. 4107 10. All movement stayed, and all sound ceased, 3988 save snoring breath of Orc and beast. 3989 All eyes are quenched, all heads are bowed; 4081 sleep, child, your bed be soft as cloud.
New words
Words that already had synonyms were not listed here.
| English | Nûrlâm | Etymology |
|---|---|---|
| adder | fâm | Gnomish “fem” (venom of snakes) + MERP “farmak” (venom, poison) |
| anew | nokhar | lit. “once more” |
| beauty | fânurm | Quenya “vanya”, “vanima”, Sindarin “bain” < Etym. “BAN” |
| ceiling | pulz | MERP “pulaz”; added to differentiate from “dîlg” (dome) |
| crumpled | kunaga | past passive participle “bent” |
| Doriath | thurkuzg | translation of Sindarin name “Land of the Fence” |
| enchant | lûf- | from early abandoned translations of PN “Lúthien” (Enchantress) < Ilkorin & Noldorin < Noldorin “lhûtha” (to enchant), Middle-Quenya “luhta”; also HG “ful-” (to charm) written reversed; also used to translate “bewitching” |
| enmeshed | thuromaga | “thu-” (over) + “rom” (mesh, net) + past passive participle suffix “-aga” |
| false | prakhûrz | LL “prakh-” (to lure, deceive) |
| founder | dhund- | HG “dhu” (downward) |
| frail | dîb | merging Etym. “NIN-DI” (fragile, thin) and early Primitive Elvish roots “(N)DIP”, “(N)DUP”, “(N)DUB” (drooping, bending) |
| gape | hâgh | Quenya “hac-” (to yawn), “hácala” (yawning) |
| glitter | thir- | Valarin “ithîr” (light) |
| howl | sogl- | HG “sokl-” < MERP “sokalî” (shriek) |
| lavish | malgûrz | adjective from “malg” (abundance) |
| maw | korl | MERP “korlash” (jaw, mouth); compare with Sindarin “carch” (fang) < Etym. “KARAK” |
| oblivious | ribholûgz | from “ribhol-” (to rorget) < “bhol-” (to remember) and active adjective suffix “-ûgz” |
| quench | nanstak- | “nan-” (un-, dis-, prefix of cancelling) + “stak-” (ignite, kindle) |
| proud | mîb | MERP “mîburr” (pride) < Albanian “mburrem” |
| restless | nanborzûrz | “nan-” (un-, dis-, prefix of cancelling) + “borz” (calm, peace, n.) + adjective suffix “-ûrz” |
| roar | robh- | Quenya “rávë”, “rávëa” < Etym. “RAW”; compare with Sindarin waterfall name “Rauros” |
| round | kurn | was already in dictionary under entry “around” |
| ruin | ladh | merging “lata” (under), “latr” (bottom) with “dhu” (down), “dhund-” (to collapse) |
| save | rihikug | prefix “ri-” (interruption) + present participle from “hik” (part) |
| ap nar | lit. “but not” | |
| seethe | ghûlsh- | merging ZA “ghûsh-” (to boil) with Gnomish “gwel-” (to boil, bubble) |
| Silmaril | Silbrulz | lit. “Crystal glitter”, dervied from the same Etym. roots “SIL”, “RIL” as original name |
| Shilbrîdh | lit. “Moon-Pearl”, calque from early Qenya translation of “Silmaril” | |
| slumbering | dhûlaut | LOS “dhûl” (sleep) < HG |
| snobbish | ardaukûrz | NL “ard” (noble) + deragatory agental suffix “-auk” + adjective suffix “-ûrz” |
| snore | pûz | Qenya “pusu” (to puff, snort) |
| soothe | bort- | HG “borz” (calm, peace) |
| spell | dosh | merging Gnomish “thoth” (evil spell) with TK BS “dush” (dark sorcery, necromancy) |
| still | rubh | Qenya “rua”, “rúva” (steady, still, tranquil) |
| theme | lîth | Qenya “lin”, “lind” < early Primitive Elvish root “LIÐI” (to sing) |
| thrill | glirsh | merging “girth-” (to quiver, tremble) with “linsh” (music) and with Primitive Elvish root “LIR” (to sing, warble) |
| unfurled | nanfraghaga | “nan-” (un-, dis-, prefix of cancelling) + “fragh-” (to wrap, enfold) + “-aga” (suffix of past passive participle) |
Nûrlâm translation
It's hard to keep the meter of the original (with every second syllable stressed), as the stress falls on the first syllable in Black Speech, which together with it's agglutinative nature makes it even more complicated. So it's supposed that some even syllables are unstressed. In the translation the syllables with primary stress are marked with bold font, and with secondary stress with italic; the rest should be read as monotonously as possible. Most of stanzes became larger by 2 lines2). While repetitive agglutinative suffixes make keeping the stress harder, they make alliteration easier instead; also some internal rhymes appeared due to this feature. During the translation a couple of lines became closer to original poem, however many lost some details.
Dalashub gizûr laushum imb, amarz shi il rodh hoirumob, amil kuzâ gok thard dakob, agh Nazgum narkrampâkuzâ, ash niz golughaib faikuzâ âshûrz dakob imbûrz goth mor, amin isk sauguzû naumor; naîstâkuzâ zash Lûthnind.
1. Narlor mûr? Lugonk rûrz kulâ ûk ârsh agh fugh drang-sudautsha. Za zurm zurgâ za ânghambor za Sangrodgai-grikob nûrmor, ash ghâshug zûl thûthâ robhug tîg usk glob ghu hozah hâghug, amin glûr blordû hrizgirzi poinaga onk-gai-nôlautri. 2. Za bhadâkubâtuth fûrzarz: zinu skoirubâtuth dhûrarz za golugkûrzhniz râz fathor, za nûsh, hîstaga sogat ghor ardaukûrz tauhûbûr, tithsi nalîzdub forarz shambishi Morgothob amin birtor klor amash tafîth za thaikûrz ghor borkob agh kîb tarkob tashog. Hontnab ghâzhubû sha hûr mog. 3. Fathnab dabhâkubâ narzi skoirut agh bhigut ash gilbsi. Fathnab kulâ thuromaga sha za dosh lorob gudhaga. Kusn bûrz shadum kurn nanazhub agh fauthaga fath natraumub sha ilz-ghâzh golugûrz gaunor amash tindâ Lugonk-shambor. Doz ribholûgz lor agh taur bûrz lûmpubû mûlkarz yathir nûz, 4. Agh nuzdum lûthob Thurkuzgob shustubâ ghâzhaut hûr lugob. Lârz mûlkarz na îsub ash lash lorob agh dhûlautob. Za ghâsh Lugonkânghambob purdubû agh burzumishi narkubû yulbaga; za yan, târ agh bha shambirzi tuk nanfraghaga dâd thardhunumob nazhubû, gûkugul fûrzarz zîginu. 5. Gudhaga sha dosh dhun gabug, omog nab pûgshubâ korlûk agh tishûk. Uruk-hai dhutû kunaga, bork harbûrz dhutû, nazhug tauror malgûrz birtob; za ghîr hûr korlob agh tishob kulû rubh; Balrogum khirgâ khagarz lortabor; bortaga lûfug glirshautirzi aigsi, ûk lûrzhaga dushnabirzi. 6. Agh kusn laushnab nokhar îsâ agh mîzd-lîmpsi mûlkarz skâtâ, lûmpug dîlgumbo za shambob, findarz ronkbûrzishi taurob, kusn taghalb ibirûrz ghûlshug shaishi hulzob hîs rûrz rumbug, nagudh ash lîd humbûrz norgug bortat furm snagab nanpuztug. 7. Mrûnurmûk agh khlurm puzgû, tug pûzû dhûlarz bork agh uruk. Ghâshûk hontob nanstakâkû, rihikug zîg zamash purdû duf Morgoth-thakir agh tirnû sha ghîrurm hûr golugnizu, dîb, sharzasharz agh prakharz fân, lûfug za shambor bha agh yan, gabug fûrzarz kurnarz ilmor. Ashûgh krimpâkû doshumor. 8. Za Silbrulz ilz-si thiruzû agh purdug trosharz lûmpuzû lârz tâlu ufdhunob onkûrz latru rainumbo mâgzob bûrz. Kunâkuzâ bolg agh bûrz kaz, oth rod-talm lata ash shust hath, za plan amd dhunduzû, znam bha zurguzâ, oth bha fip rumbsha tâtâ agh barshâtîm raumor; agh Morgoth kâtâ tab shambor. 9. Hontûk nanstakûtîm, kazûk kunûtîm; kunaga uruk agh Balrog mîb pûzug lorû; fâm lorû, gundsi raik, kâtû; glob loiksi bûsnûtîm za harg, shilumu taksogl narmakar; yal Morgoth kâtâ shambor tab taur-nudh; nâzhâ tâlir rain tab za Silbrulz-sha stakug; ûk khlurm matuzûtûk, agh ash ghilurm ghalbuzâ zash nûz zash lorurm dushûrz faikulg yal thard-tishum. 10. Mrûnurmûk agh khlurm puzgû, tug uruk agh bork sûmû puzug. Hontûk kulû nanstakaga agh kazûk kulû kunaga za laushdushirzi; lor, khind, shuz, gâkh khaufib kul zash mûlk zash shust.
Glossing and translation back
