Perhaps the hardest thing I had to bear in all my wanderings was the sight of Amroth’s own fear.  It was unmistakable.  His spirit seemed prepared for it, perfectly courageous and sincere as it was; but there was a shuddering awe upon him, for all that, which infected me with an extremity of terror.  Was it that he thought me unequal to the experience?  I could not tell.  But we walked as men dragging themselves into some fiery and dreadful martyrdom.

Again I could not bear it, and I cried out suddenly: 

“But, Amroth, He is Love; and we can enter without fear into the presence of Love!”

“Have you not yet guessed,” said Amroth sternly, “how terrible Love can be?  It is the most terrible thing in the world, because it is the strongest.  If Death is dreadful, what must that be which is stronger than Death?  Come, let us be silent, for we are near the place, and this is no time for words;” and then he added with a look of the deepest compassion and tenderness, “I wish I could speak differently, brother, at this hour; but I am myself afraid.”

And at that we gave up all speech, and only our thoughts sprang together and intertwined, like two children that clasp each other close in a burning house, when the smoke comes volleying from the door.

We were coming now to what looked like a ridge of rocks ahead of us; and I saw here a wonderful thing, a great light of incredible pureness and whiteness, which struck upwards from the farther side.  This began to light up our own pale faces, and to throw our backs into a dark shadow, even though the radiance of the heavenly day was all about us.  And at last we came to the place.

It was the edge of a precipice so vast, so stupendous, that no word can even dimly describe its depth; it was all illuminated with incredible clearness by the light which struck upwards from below.  It was absolutely sheer, great pale cliffs of white stone running downwards into the depth.  To left and right the precipice ran, with an irregular outline, so that one could see the cliff-fronts gleam how many millions of leagues below!  There seemed no end to it.  But at a certain point far down in the abyss the light seemed stronger and purer.  I was at first so amazed by the sight that I gazed in silence.  Then a dreadful dizziness came over me, and I felt Amroth’s hand put round me to sustain me.  Then in a faint whisper, that was almost inaudible, Amroth, pointing with his finger downwards, said: 

“Watch that place where the light seems clearest.”

I did so.  Suddenly there came, as from the face of the cliff, a thing like a cloudy jet of golden steam.  It passed out into the clear air, shaping itself in strange and intricate curves; then it grew darker in colour, hung for an instant like a cloud of smoke, and then faded into the sky.

“What is that?” I said, surprised out of my terror.