Post by Maeglin on Sept 13, 2005 13:59:47 GMT -5
Prologue replaced!
PROLOGUE
(We see the closing stages of the Battle of Sudden Flame. The forces of good, Men and Elves, are outnumbered, and their battleline is splitting up; leaders retreat in different directions. Numberless orcs pursue them; Balrogs and maybe Glaurung are visible in the distance.)
FINROD: Back! Back! We must go south.
MOUNTED ELF: Lord King, your brothers Aegnor and Angrod are slain.
FINROD: May Mandos be kind to them; now we are concerned with saving ourselves. Back! To the Fen of Serech! (He sheds a single tear as he rides back.)
(Finrod and his much diminished army of Elves retreat onto marshy terrain, but not swiftly enough. Orcs swarm around them. There is no escape.)
EDAIN RIDERS: BARAHIR!
(A troop of human horsemen, shouting their chieftain's name, charge into the Orcs, who scatter and flee, many slain as they run.)
BARAHIR: King Felagund. It would seem I arrived not a moment too soon. Come, let's get out of this plain of death.
(Cut to Finrod and Barahir alone in Finrod's hall.)
FINROD: (formal) This day you have saved my life. I swear that if I may repay this debt in any way, I shall, with friendship unto death to you, your son and your son's sons. Take this ring in token of my oath.
(Finrod hands over the serpent ring.)
BARAHIR: King Felagund, it is nothing-nothing. My people still tell tales of the days when you came and sang at our campfires in my grandfather's time; the first among the Elves that we Men had seen...
(Flash to Felagund strumming at a harp before a fire, around which many Edain are hunched. We return to Finrod and Barahir. Both are close to tears with emotion.)
BARAHIR: You seemed a lord of wisdom; one of the Valar come out of the west. And you gave us land to settle from your own domains. You were kind, and did not laugh at us, did not call us sickly or weak, as other princes did...
(Flash to Caranthir looking at Haleth with condescension, laughing scornfully. We return to Finrod and Barahir.)
BARAHIR: You accepted us as brothers, nay, as children, and held us to your heart. It was my duty to save you, nothing more.
FINROD: (smiling) Nevertheless, take the ring; and should anything befall you, I will hold to my oath.
(Cut to Doriath, Thingol's Caves-an anteroom in Menegroth.)
THINGOL: The Battle of the Sudden Flame has stricken all Elvendom to the quick. In this I pity the Noldor, kinslayers though they be. They say the High King Fingolfin has been killed fighting Morgoth himself. Bitterly have the Noldor paid for the rape of the swan-ships. Beleg-double the guard on the marches.
BELEG: Aye, my lord.
THINGOL: Oh, and Daeron...have you seen my daughter?
DAERON: No doubt she wanders the woods. I shall seek her.
(We cut to Luthien alone in a glade, singing, as the title LAY OF LEITHIAN, or Luthien if we prefer, comes up.)
PROLOGUE
(We see the closing stages of the Battle of Sudden Flame. The forces of good, Men and Elves, are outnumbered, and their battleline is splitting up; leaders retreat in different directions. Numberless orcs pursue them; Balrogs and maybe Glaurung are visible in the distance.)
FINROD: Back! Back! We must go south.
MOUNTED ELF: Lord King, your brothers Aegnor and Angrod are slain.
FINROD: May Mandos be kind to them; now we are concerned with saving ourselves. Back! To the Fen of Serech! (He sheds a single tear as he rides back.)
(Finrod and his much diminished army of Elves retreat onto marshy terrain, but not swiftly enough. Orcs swarm around them. There is no escape.)
EDAIN RIDERS: BARAHIR!
(A troop of human horsemen, shouting their chieftain's name, charge into the Orcs, who scatter and flee, many slain as they run.)
BARAHIR: King Felagund. It would seem I arrived not a moment too soon. Come, let's get out of this plain of death.
(Cut to Finrod and Barahir alone in Finrod's hall.)
FINROD: (formal) This day you have saved my life. I swear that if I may repay this debt in any way, I shall, with friendship unto death to you, your son and your son's sons. Take this ring in token of my oath.
(Finrod hands over the serpent ring.)
BARAHIR: King Felagund, it is nothing-nothing. My people still tell tales of the days when you came and sang at our campfires in my grandfather's time; the first among the Elves that we Men had seen...
(Flash to Felagund strumming at a harp before a fire, around which many Edain are hunched. We return to Finrod and Barahir. Both are close to tears with emotion.)
BARAHIR: You seemed a lord of wisdom; one of the Valar come out of the west. And you gave us land to settle from your own domains. You were kind, and did not laugh at us, did not call us sickly or weak, as other princes did...
(Flash to Caranthir looking at Haleth with condescension, laughing scornfully. We return to Finrod and Barahir.)
BARAHIR: You accepted us as brothers, nay, as children, and held us to your heart. It was my duty to save you, nothing more.
FINROD: (smiling) Nevertheless, take the ring; and should anything befall you, I will hold to my oath.
(Cut to Doriath, Thingol's Caves-an anteroom in Menegroth.)
THINGOL: The Battle of the Sudden Flame has stricken all Elvendom to the quick. In this I pity the Noldor, kinslayers though they be. They say the High King Fingolfin has been killed fighting Morgoth himself. Bitterly have the Noldor paid for the rape of the swan-ships. Beleg-double the guard on the marches.
BELEG: Aye, my lord.
THINGOL: Oh, and Daeron...have you seen my daughter?
DAERON: No doubt she wanders the woods. I shall seek her.
(We cut to Luthien alone in a glade, singing, as the title LAY OF LEITHIAN, or Luthien if we prefer, comes up.)