Post by geoffrey on Jun 10, 2016 21:59:23 GMT -6
...a little light afar among the trees steady and pale as it were of a glowworm very bright...these Elves had little lanterns of strange fashion, and they were of silver and of crystal and a flame of a pale blue burnt forever within...
he saw on a sudden a slender sheen
shine a-shimmering in the shades afar,
like a glow-worm's lamp a-gleaming dim...
But little lanterns of lucent crystal
and silver cold with subtlest cunning
they strangely fashioned, and steadfast a flame
burnt unblinking there blue and pale,
unquenched for ever.
shine a-shimmering in the shades afar,
like a glow-worm's lamp a-gleaming dim...
But little lanterns of lucent crystal
and silver cold with subtlest cunning
they strangely fashioned, and steadfast a flame
burnt unblinking there blue and pale,
unquenched for ever.
("The Lay of the Children of Hurin", lines 775-777, 787-791 in The Lays of Beleriand)
Ever since I read those lines of poetry in 1985, the image of that blue light, pure and pale, has haunted my imagination. Today I found this image of glow-worms that has the precise blue that for over 30 years I have imagined to glow within the lanterns of the Gnomes.
link: www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3150002/Photographer-s-mesmerising-shots-glow-worms-turn-dark-New-Zealand-caves-magical-alien-like-passages.html
