Welcome to the Lord of the Rings lore and down the labyrinthine stairs,

and together wrought the greatest deed that has been dared among elves or men.

For they came to the seat of Morgov in his nethermost hall that was upheld by horror.

Lit by fire and filled with weapons of death and torment.

There barons slunk in wolf's form beneath his throne, but Luthian was stripped of her disguise by the will of Morgoth,

and he bent his gaze upon her.

She was not daunted by his eyes,

and she named her own name, and offering her service

to sing before him after the manner of a minstrel.

Then Morgoth, looking upon her beauty, conceived in his thought, an evil lust, and a design more dark than any that had yet come into his heart

since he fled from Valimore.

Thus he was beguiled by his own malice, for he watched her, leaving her free for a while,

and taking secret pleasure in his thought.

Then, suddenly, she eluded his sight, and out of the shadows began a song of such surpassing loveliness

and of such blinding power that he listened perforce. And a blindness came upon him, and his eyes roamed, to and fro, seeking her.

All his court were cast down in slumber, and all the fires faded and were quenched.

But the cimurals in the crown of Morgoth's head blazed forth suddenly with a radiance of white flame.

And the burden of that crown and of the jewels bowed his head as though the world were set upon it.

Laid him with a weight of care and fear and of desire

that even the will of Morgoth

could not support.

The There's a lot to unpack here in this beginning section of our episode today.

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