tolkiens legendarium - Did Sauron and Finrod Felagund really get into a singing fight?

In The Silmarillion, in the chapter "Of Beren and Lúthien", we read of what can only be called a singing fight, at least if we take the account at face value.

I won't repeat it in its entirety, but here is a small sample of the text:

[Sauron] chanted a song of wizardry,
Of piercing, opening, of treachery,
Revealing, uncovering, betraying.
Then sudden Felagund there swaying
Sang in answer a song of staying,
Resisting, battling against power,
Of secrets kept, strength like a tower...

I don't want this to become a rant, but suffice it to say that this is a very strange way of doing battle. I am wondering if the word "singing" is used metaphorically, and Sauron and Finrod Felagund were actually just casting spells on one another; however, that seems rather unlikely, considering how consistent Tolkien is in using words like "song" and "singing" throughout the passage.

Do we have any way of knowing whether the respective combatants were literally singing to each other? If so, why does it seem that this was the only "singing fight" in Tolkien's works?

Answer

I can find no prose version of this story; it didn't change very much across revisions, so it doesn't get a lot of treatment in History of Middle-earth (aside from the longer version of the Lay in The Lays of Beleriand, which is where the poetry excerpt in the published Silmarillion is taken from).

The nearest to prose I can find is the line immediately preceding the poetry, which reads:

Thus befell the contest of Sauron and Felagund which is renowned. For Felagund strove with Sauron in songs of power, and the power of the King was very great; but Sauron had the mastery, as is told in the Lay of Leithian

^{_{The Silmarillion III Quenta Silmarillion Chapter 19: "Of Beren and Lúthien"}}

So that's something, but I have more. I would suggest that they probably are literally singing; Tolkien consistently writes a link between magic and song. There are an abundance of examples:

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  Yavanna. Yavanna sang to create the Two Trees:

  
  

  
  

  In that time the Valar were gathered together to hear the song of Yavanna, and they sat silent upon their thrones of council in the Máhanaxar, the Ring of Doom near to the golden gates of Valmar, and Yavanna Kementári sang before them and they watched.

  
  

  And as they watched, upon the mound there came forth two slender shoots; and silence was over all the world in that hour, nor was there any other sound save the chanting of Yavanna. Under her song the saplings grew and became fair and tail, and came to flower; and thus there awoke in the world the Two Trees of Valinor.

  
  

  ^{_{The Silmarillion III Quenta Silmarillion Chapter 1: "Of the Beginning of Days"}}

  
  

  
  

  And later on, after the Trees are destroyed, Yavanna's song coaxes a single flower from each of them, which would become the sun and the moon:

  
  

  
  
  

  Then Manwë bade Yavanna and Nienna to put forth all their powers of growth and healing; and they put forth all their powers upon the Trees. But the tears of Nienna availed not to heal their mortal wounds; and for a long while Yavanna sang alone in the shadows. Yet even as hope failed and her song faltered, Telperion bore at last upon a leafless bough one great flower of silver, and Laurelin a single trait of gold.

  
  

  ^{_{The Silmarillion III Quenta Silmarillion Chapter 11: "Of the Sun and Moon and the Hiding of Valinor"}}

  
  

  
  


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  Lúthien. I've expressed the opinion before on this site that Lúthien probably displays more magical power than any other character in the Legendarium - certainly the most of any Elf. Nearly every time we see her doing magic, it's explicitly through song.

  
  
  
  
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    In her introduction (emphasis mine):

    
    

    
    
    

    There came a time near dawn on the eve of spring, and Lúthien danced upon a green hill; and suddenly she began to sing. Keen, heart-piercing was her song as the song of the lark that rises from the gates of night and pours its voice among the dying stars, seeing the sun behind the walls of the world; and the song of Lúthien released the bonds of winter, and the frozen waters spoke, and flowers sprang from the cold earth where her feet had passed.

    
    

    ^{_{The Silmarillion III Quenta Silmarillion Chapter 19: "Of Beren and Lúthien"}}

    
    

    
    
  
  
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    She sings at Sauron's tower (emphasis mine):

    
    

    
    

    In that hour Lúthien came, and standing upon the bridge that led to Sauron's isle she sang a song that no walls of stone could hinder. Beren heard, and he thought that he dreamed; for the stars shone above him, and in the trees nightingales were singing. And in answer he sang a song of challenge that he had made in praise of the Seven Stars, the Sickle of the Valar that Varda hung above the North as a sign for the fall of Morgoth. Then all strength left him and he fell down into darkness.

    
    

    But Lúthien heard his answering voice, and she sang then a song of greater power. The wolves howled, and the isle trembled. Sauron stood in the high tower, wrapped in his black thought; but he smiled hearing her voice, for he knew that it was the daughter of Melian.

    
    

    ^{_{The Silmarillion III Quenta Silmarillion Chapter 19: "Of Beren and Lúthien"}}

    
    
    

    
    

    She goes on to destroy the tower with her magic, and though the book is non-specific as to how (so's the Lay, sadly) I would suggest it's probably also through song

    
    
  
  
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    And of course she does a lot of damage in Angband (emphasis mine):

    
    

    
    

    She was not daunted by his eyes; and she named her own name, and offered 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 Valinor. Thus he was beguiled by his own malice, for he watched her, leaving her free for awhile, 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, as 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 Silmarils in the crown on Morgoth's head blazed forth suddenly with a radiance of white flame; and the burden of that crown and of the jewels bowed down his head, as though the world were set upon it, laden with a weight of care, of fear, and of desire, that even the will of Morgoth could not support. Then Lúthien catching up her winged robe sprang into the air, and her voice came dropping down like rain into pools, profound and dark. She cast her cloak before his eyes, and set upon him a dream, dark as the outer Void where once he walked alone.

    
    

    ^{_{The Silmarillion III Quenta Silmarillion Chapter 19: "Of Beren and Lúthien"}}

    
    

    
    
    
  
  
  
  


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  Gandalf. Although it doesn't count as a battle, on at least one occasion we also see Gandalf use a spell that takes the form of a rhyming couplet, while attempting to open the Doors of Durin:

  
  

  
  

  'I once knew every spell in all the tongues of Elves or Men or Orcs that was ever used for such a purpose. I can still remember ten score of them without searching in my mind. But only a few trials, I think, will be needed; and I shall not have to call on Gimli for words of the secret dwarf-tongue that they teach to none. The opening words were Elvish, like the writing on the arch: that seems certain.'

  
  

  He stepped up to the rock again, and lightly touched with his staff the silver star in the middle beneath the sign of the anvil.

  
  

  
  

  Annon edhellen, edro hi ammen!
  
  Fennas nogothrim, lasto beth lammen!¹

  
  

  
  

  he said in a commanding voice. The silver lines faded, but the blank grey stone did not stir.

  
  

  Many times he repeated these words in different order, or varied them. Then he tried other spells, one after another, speaking now faster and louder, now soft and slow.

  
  

  ^{Fellowship of the Ring Book 2 Chapter 4: "A Journey in the Dark"}

  
  

  
  

  I included that last paragraph to point out that even with Gandalf's other spells, although we don't hear the words, Tolkien felt it necessary to point out that he was varying the rhythm and intensity, which is a very musical idea.

  
  

Music has a great deal of significance in Tolkien's mythology; there's a reason the creation myth is referred to as the Music of the Ainur.

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¹ According to SFF.SE's own BennyMcBenBen:

Gate of the Elves, open now for me!
Doorway of the Dwarf-folk, listen to the word of my tongue!