Some of the birds in Ceruill's flute are singing songs...different ones, sometimes clashing and disonant. At first, their singing is quiet, but then they join together to make a melody....
Wait, the sparrow disagrees with the thrush...what song will it be? The wind blows again, this time faster...
The trees rustle loudly with the clicking of the keys and then....then the birds and their singing and the wind all coalesce into a song...one song. It is old and memorable, a song from the First Age of Beren and Luthien, the star-crossed lovers of old, the heroes of the Silmaril. Though there are no words, only a flute, the story unfolds for all who have heard the song and know the tale.
As the song begins in earnest, it is soft and sweet, with little trills ... Beren is meeting Luthien, the fairest maiden known to those who dwelled in the dying lands. The tune is lagatto and rich as the two fall in love and share their first kiss.
But now there is disonance, the notes turn ugly as King Thingol sends the love of his beloved daughter away...away to find the Silmaril.
The music becomes tense...Beren has been captured by the enemy on his impossible quest. All hope is lost; the two young lovers will never meet again. Dark tones come from the flute--ugly and angry music--as Beren languishes in prison on the isle of Tol-in-Gaurhoth.
But then the melody changes to a solitary, high, delicious note hovering
on the breeze. At first it is barely audible, in danger of being drown
out--by people breathing, Ceruill's clothes rustling--but then it grows
stout and steady. Soon it has become a triumphant melody, and those
familiar with the tale can almost see, in the distance, Huan, the hound
of the Valar and Luthien, running with the wind to Tol-in-Gaurhoth.
The way is fraught with peril! Huan and Luthien stand opposed on the bridge to Tol-in-Gaurhoth. The music is the music of battle, with the notes played leaping about.
Ceruill breathes heavily into the flute to produce skreeches and shrills. Huan and Luthien stand before the mighty werewolf Draugluin. Draugluin who has struck terror into the hearts of armies! The battle is joined. The melody leaps and trills as Huan bounds onto the bridge and the two great hounds fight.
High! Low! The flute cries out with each lash of the claw! And then....all is quiet...The listener stands with Luthien looking out on the bridge...unsure of the victor. And now we hear Huan's theme as he rises up and smites Draugluin! Huan, though wounded, is triumphant!
Now the listener is engulfed in the cavernous depths of Angband. Huan and Luthien have freed Beren and the two young lovers now creep about the stygian caverns of the Enemy.
Ceruill plays an eerie tune...breathy, light and stacatto. One can hear the notes echoing in the cavernous halls of Angband, as Beren and Luthien come upon the Enemy of the First Age--Morgoth!
Ceruill has now reached the first of two sections of the traditional song that give the Linde his or her greatest challenge....
Luthien charming the Enemy. This is made difficult because the Linde must endeavor to imitate the song Luthien sang to charm the blackest heart in the history of making. He plays an ethereal tune, long sweeping melodies that make one or two listeners yawn.
Of course, the effect is hardly that of the original song sung by Luthien and it is here that Ceruill's only-now-maturing skills falter. However, he makes it through. The music now leaps and becomes all aflutter as Beren cuts a Silmiril from the Iron Crown of the charmed Enemy. The tune rushes along as the two flee from Angband.
But wait! Now there comes a horrible shriek from the flute! High! High! High! he plays as the terrible Wolf of Angband leaps from the shadow and bites off the hand of Beren--taking the recovered gem with it!
The tune continues....the lovers escape Angband, but without the sought after prize. Huan and Beren recover from their wounds and then set off on their famous hunt for the Wolf of Angband. The music becomes a grim hunting tune as the two march across plains and valleys that are no longer. Their search takes them across Middle-Earth to places long since destroyed in the final confrontation with Morgoth.
And then, the tune sets the scene....it is a winter's morn. A single bird chirps in the distance....and now a low fretful noise comes from the flute as the dread Wolf appears over a rise. He is spied by the two heroes! A mad chase ensues as the music picks up and swirls and dances! At last, the Wolf is cornered. Huan and Beren strike at the foul beast, killing it---but only after the Wolf deals Beren a deadly blow.
Ceruill begins to play a slow dirge....Beren has cut the Silmaril from the Wolf's belly and he and Huan begin their slow trek to Thingol's palace. Beren comes closer to death's embrace with each step. For a moment, the music turns triumphant and clear as Beren stands before Thingol...the Silmaril in his hand.
A great swelling theme comes from the flute for just a moment as Beren hands the much saught after jewel to his true love's father. And then a sound of terror and pathos rises out, as if the music itself is groaning, as Beren collapses--dead--before Hir Thingol.
Ceruill begins to play upon his flute, and from it comes the sound of wind in the trees on a summer day. You can almost hear birds chirping and the leaves rustling. The wind picks up and a sparrow trills high and beautiful on a summer's eve.
And now that the Silmaril is recovered at the cost of Beren's life, Hir Thingol realizes his terrible error. For he had hoped to give Beren such a daunting task that no mere mortal would bother--even for the love of his daughter.
And now he has realized the lesson that Beren and Luthien always knew: love conquers all! Ceruill plays the famous theme of Thingol's Remorse as Thingol walks through his palace, never before so alone, to tell his beloved daughter that her Beren is dead.
It is here that the Linde begins his most difficult task. The music turns soft and mournful--it sounds as if the flute itself is weeping. Not only must the Linde reflect Luthien's pain, but soon he must endeavor to play the song with which Luthien will charm Mandos, lord of the dead.
Undaunted, Ceruill continues. The melody is one of tragedy...the sounds of water dripping from a willow as Luthien wastes away from grief. In comes a brief, yet angry theme--Thingol is arguing with his daughter. The listener can almost hear their words. Perhaps Ceruill is breathing them into the flute, for they come softly in the air with the music. "Would you die for a mere man?" Thingol demands--though he knows he is in the wrong.
Now the music turns soft and plaintive as Luthien says with her dying breath. "I die for no mere man. I die for Beren, for without him I have no heart. Without Beren, I have no soul--no breath, or mind, or will, or joy. I will die, for without my Love, there is no life for me." With that, the flute goes silent--for Luthien, fairest maiden under the stars, has died. Ceruill plays nothing for a moment, for no music can do justice the terrible loss the world suffered that day. The silence is unbearable, and then Ceruill lifts up his flute once more.
The flute lets loose with a strange howl, a sort of musical swirling and tossing. The listener stands in the halls of the dead, where Mandos sits in judgement of the world's weary souls. Luthien arrives and spirits flock to her, her radiant beauty is to them what the sun must be to a blind man--a long forgotten blessing.
She walks alone to the throne of the King of the Dead, the music marking out her steps. The dead who have come to see her form a path, parting as she comes near. And then, from the crowd...yes, one can hear it faintly in the music...it is Beren's theme! He strides out of the throng to embrace Luthien. Never before and never again have the halls of Mandos seen such a display of rapture.
Now the music picks up. Instead of marking Luthien's lone steps, it now plays for four feet walking briskly to Mandos' throne. Lord Mandos looks down at the new arrivals with his dread gaze....the music is deep and resounding--as deep and resounding as the flute can be--as Mandos speaks to the young lovers. He is surprised to see an Elf in his home not killed by violence. One can almost hear the question in the music, "How can this be?"
Without pause, Ceruill begins Luthien's Lament, the Linde's greatest challenge for he must imitate the song with which Luthien moved the Lord of the Dead. The Lament, in the hands of the Lindeturs of old, was a devastating onslaught of Pathos. With it, the great musicians could move even the hardest hearted Adan to weep openly. Ceruill begins with a sweet anthem to love. The music that springs forth and fills the room trembles and thrills, like a first kiss.
When Ceruill plays loudly, the melody soars and swells. When he plays softly, it embraces the listener in the gentlest and most affectionate of touches. Suddenly, he breaks into this beautiful ode with a terrible skreech. His face turns red as he blows hard into the flute producing wrenching, awful sounds that seem as if they will sunder the flute upon which he plays.
Where a moment ago the room was filled with the sounds of love, now it is smothered in the sounds of torment and pain. Louder, shriller, faster he plays, the flautist's own face looking horrified by the sounds of agony he is producing. Abrubtly, the 'music' that has been shredding and tearing at the ear grows quiet, a low hum. Arising from this hum is a single, low, wavering note. The note sobs, and it is evident that Mandos weeps from his throne for the ill-fated lovers. The weeping continues for a moment and then..........Silence. Vast and rich nothingness.
And now, out of the silence comes the wind again....the wind in the trees on a summer's day. The leaves rustle...in the distance thrush and sparrow perform their dueling song. And now comes a soft cry from the flute. It is something familiar....a lost melody from earlier in the song....the listener strains to hear, for Ceruill plays it breathilly. Thrush and sparrow hear the melody and begin chirping, in unison, with great excitement. There! The listener can hear now! Bold and full, it is the theme of the young lovers! Lord Mandos has granted them life once more, and they have awoken, next to us, in the glade where we began the song. The music swells and pitches. Beren and Luthien live once more! Love conquers all!
As the song finishes, thrush and sparrow sing to each other, and the wind picks up in the trees. The day is fading into night, and all is well beneath the stars.
Copyright © 1996 Aaron
John Loeb
All Rights Reserved.