II.
THE EARLIEST 'SILMARILLION'.
(The 'Sketch of the Mythology').
I have earlier (III. 3) given an account of this text, but I repeat
the essentials of it here. On the envelope containing the man-
uscript my father wrote at some later time:
Original 'Silmarillion'. Form orig [inally] composed
c. 1926-30 for R. W. Reynolds to explain background of
'alliterative version' of Turin & the Dragon: then in progress
(unfinished) (begun c. 1918).
The 'Sketch' represents a new starting-point in the history of
'The Silmarillion', for while it is a quite brief synopsis, the
further written development of the prose form proceeded from
it in a direct line. It is clear from details that need not be re-
peated here that it was originally written in 1926 (after the Lay
of the Children of Hurin had been abandoned, III. 3); but it
was afterwards revised, in places very heavily, and this makes
it a difficult text to present in a way that is both accurate and
readily comprehensible. The method I have adopted is to give
the text exactly as it was first written (apart from a very few
slight alterations of expression in no way affecting the narra-
tive, which are adopted silently into the text), but to break it up
into short sections, following each with notes giving the later
changes made in that section. I must emphasize that there is no
manuscript warrant for the 19 divisions so made: it is purely a
matter of convenience of presentation. This method has certain
advantages: the later changes can be readily compared with the
original text immediately preceding; and since the following
version of 'The Silmarillion', the Quenta, has been treated in
the same way and divided into corresponding numbered sec-
tions, passages of the one can be easily related to those in the
other.
The later changes are referenced by numbers that begin with
1 in each section. The commentary follows at the end of the
complete text, and is related to the numbered sections.
Sketch of the mythology with especial reference to the
'Children of Hurin'
1.
After the despatch of the Nine Valar for the governance
of the world Morgoth (Demon of Dark) rebels against the
overlordship of Manwe, overthrows the lamps set up to il-
lumine the world, and floods the isle where the Valar (or
Gods) dwelt. He fortifies a palace of dungeons in the North.
The Valar remove to the uttermost West, bordered by the
Outer Seas and the final Wall, and eastward by the towering
Mountains of Valinor which the Gods built. In Valinor they
gather all light and beautiful things, and build their man-
sions, gardens, and city, but Manwe and his wife Bridhil
have halls upon the highest mountain (Timbrenting or
Tindbrenting in English, Tengwethil in Gnomish, Taniquetil
in Elfin) whence they can see across the world to the dark
East. Ifan Belaurin(1) plants the Two Trees in the middle of
the plain of Valinor outside the gates of the city of Valmar.
They grow under her songs, and one has dark green leaves
with shining silver beneath, and white blossoms like the
cherry from which a dew of silver light falls; the other has
golden-edged leaves of young green like the beech and yel-
low blossom like the hanging blossoms of laburnum which
give out heat and blazing light. Each bee waxes for seven'
hours to full glory and then wanes for seven; twice a day
therefore comes a time of softer light when each tree is
faint and their light is mingled.
*
1. Yavanna Palurien added in the margin.
2. At both occurrences of seven in this sentence my father first wrote six,
but changed it in the act of writing the manuscript.
2.
The Outer Lands are in darkness. The growth of things
was checked when Morgoth quenched the lamps. There are
forests of darkness, of yew and fir and ivy. There Orome
sometimes hunts, but in the North Morgoth and his de-
monic broods (Balrogs) and the Orcs (Goblins, also called
Glamhoth or people of hate) hold sway. Bridhil looks on
the darkness and is moved, and taking all the hoarded light
of Silpion (the white tree) she makes and strews the stars.
At the making of the stars the children of Earth awake -
the Eldar (or Elves). They are found by Orome dwelling by
the star-lit pool (Cuivienen, water of awakening) in the
East. He rides home to Valinor filled with their beauty and
tells the Valar, who are reminded of their duty to the Earth,
since they. came thither knowing that their office was to
govern it for the two races of Earth who should after come
each in appointed time. There follows an expedition to the
fortress of the North (Angband, Iron-hell), but this is now
too strong for them to destroy. Morgoth is nonetheless
taken captive, and consigned to the halls of Mandos who
dwelt in the North of Valinor.
The Eldalie (people of the Elves) are invited to Valinor
for fear of the evil things of Morgoth that still wandered in
the dark. A great march is made by the Eldar from the East
led by Orome on his white horse. The Eldar are divided
into three hosts, one under Ingwe (Ing) after called the
Quendi (or Elves proper, or Light-elves), one under Finwe
(Finn) after called the Noldoli (Gnomes or Deep-elves), one
under Elwe (Elu) after called the Teleri (Sea-elves, or
Solosimpi, the Shoreland Pipers or Foamriders). Many of
them are lost upon the march and wander in the woods of
the world, becoming after the various hosts of Ilkorindi
(Elves who never dwelt in Cor in Valinor). The chief of
these was Thingol, who heard Melian and her nightingales
singing and was enchanted and fell asleep for an age. Me-
lian was one of the divine maidens of the Vala Lorien who
sometimes wandered into the outer world. Melian and
Thingol became Queen and King of woodland Elves in
Doriath, living in a hall called the Thousand Caves.
The other Elves came to the ultimate shores of the West.
In the North these in those days sloped westward in the
North until only a narrow sea divided them from the land
of the Gods, and this narrow sea was filled with grinding
ice. But at the point to which the Elf-hosts came a wide
dark sea stretched west.
There were two Valar of the Sea. Ulmo (Ylmir), the
mightiest of all Valar next to Manwe, was lord of all wa-
ters, but dwelt often in Valinor, or in the 'Outer Seas'. Osse
and the lady Oin,(1) whose tresses lay through all the sea,
loved rather the seas of the world that washed the shores
beneath the Mountains of Valinor. Ylmir uprooted the half-
sunk island where the Valar had first dwelt, and embarking
on it the Noldoli and Qendi, who arrived first, bore them to
Valinor. The Teleri dwelt some time by the shores of the
sea awaiting him, and hence their love of it. While they
were being also transported by Ylmir, Osse in jealousy and
out of love for their singing chained the island to the sea-
bottom far out in the Bay of Faerie whence the Mountains
of Valinor could dimly be seen. No other land was near it,
and it was called the Lonely Isle. There the Teleri dwelt a
long age becoming different in tongue, and learning strange
music of Osse, who made the sea-birds for their delight.
The Gods gave a home in Valinor to the other Eldar. Be-
cause they longed even among the Tree-lit gardens of
Valinor for a glimpse of the stars, a gap was made in the
encircling mountains, and there in a deep valley a green
hill, Cor, was built. This was lit from the West by the
Trees, to the East it looked out onto the Bay of Faerie and
the Lonely Isle, and beyond to the Shadowy Seas. Thus
some of the blessed light of Valinor filtered into the Outer
Lands, and falling on the Lonely Isle caused its western
shores to grow green and fair.
On the top of Cor the city of the Elves was built and
called Tun. The Qendi became most beloved by Manwe
and Bridhil, the Noldoli by Aule (the Smith) and Mandos
the wise. The Noldoli invented gems and made them in
countless numbers, filling all Tun with them, and all the
halls of the Gods '
The greatest in skill and magic of the Noldoli was Finn's
second son Feanor. (His elder son Fingolfin' whose son
was Finnweg comes into the tale later.) He contrived three
jewels (Silmarils) wherein a living fire combined in the
light of the Two Trees was set, they shone of their own
light, impure hands were burned by them.
The Teleri seeing afar the light of Valinor were tom be-
tween desire to rejoin their kindred and to dwell by the sea.
Ylmir taught them craft of boat-building. Osse yielding
gave them swans, and harnessing many swans to their boats
they sailed to Valinor, and dwelt there on the shores where
they could see the light of the Trees, and go to Valmar
if they wished, but could sail and dance in the waters
touched to light by the radiance that came out past Cor. The
other Eldar gave them many gems, especially opals and di-
amonds and other pale crystals which were strewn upon the
beaches of the Bay of Faerie. They themselves invented
pearls. Their chief town was Swanhaven upon the shores
northward of the pass of Cor.
*
1. Uinen pencilled against Oin.
2. The following passage was afterwards added here:
Since the Gnomes or Noldoli afterwards came back into the &eat
Lands, and these tales deal mostly with them, it may here be said
that Lord or King of the Noldoli was Finn. His sons were Feanor,
Fingolfin, and Finrod. Of whom Feanor was the most skillful, the
deepest in lore, Fingolfin the mightiest and most valiant, Finrod the
fairest, and the most wisehearted and gentle. The seven sons of
Feanor were Maidros the tall; Maglor a musician and mighty singer
whose voice carried far over hill and sea; Curufin the crafty who in-
herited most of his father's skill; Celegorm the fair; Crantbir the
dark; and Damrod and Diriel who after were great hunters. The sons
of Fingolfin were Finweg who was after the king of the Noldoli in
the North of the world, and Turgon of Gondolin; and his daughter
was Isfin the white. The sons of Finrod were Orodreth, Felagoth,
Anrod, and Egnor.
In the last sentence Felagoth > Felagund, and Orodeth moved to
stand after Felagund.
3. Finn's second son Feanor and His elder son Fingolfin > Finn's elder
son Feanor and His second son Fingolfin (an early change, quite pos-
sibly made at the time of the writing of the manuscript).
4.
The Gods were now beguiled by Morgoth, who having
passed seven ages in the prisons of Mandos in gradually
lightened pain came before the conclave of the Gods in due
course. He looks with greed and malice upon the Eldar,
who also sit there about the knees of the Gods, and lusts es-
pecially after the jewels. He dissembles his hatred and de-
sire for revenge. He is allowed a humble dwelling in
Valinor, and after a while goes &eely about Valinor, only
Ylmir foreboding ill, while Tulcas the strong who first cap-
tured him watches him. Morgoth helps the Eldar in many
deeds, but slowly poisons their peace with lies.
He suggests that the Gods brought them to Valinor out of
jealousy, for fear their marvellous skill, and magic, and
beauty, should grow too strong for them outside in the
world. The Qendi and Teleri are little moved, but the
Noldoli, the wisest of the Elves, become affected. They be-
gin at whiles to murmur against the Gods and their kindred;
they are filled with vanity of their skill.'
Most of all does Morgoth fan the flames of the heart of
Feanor, but all the while he lusts for the immortal Silmarils,
although Feanor has cursed for ever anyone, God or Elf or
mortal that shall come hereafter, who touches them.
Morgoth lying tells Feanor that Fingolfin and his son
Finnweg am plotting to usurp the leadership of the Gnomes
from Feanor and his sons, and to gain the Silmarils. A
quarrel breaks out between the sons of Finn. Feanor is sum-
moned before the Gods, and the lies of Morgoth laid bare.
Feanor is banished from Tun, and with him goes Finn who
loves Feanor best of his sons, and many of the Gnomes.
They build a treasury Northward in Valinor in the hills near
Mandos' halls. Fingolfin rules the Gnomes that are left in
Tun. Thus Morgoth's words seem justified and the bitter-
ness he sowed goes on after his words are disproved.
Tulcas is sent to put Morgoth in chains once more, but
he escapes through the pass of Cor into the dark region be-
neath the feet of Timbrenting called Arvalin, where the
shadow is thickest in all the world. There he finds
Ungoliant, Gloomweaver, who dwells in a cleft of the
mountains, and sucks up light or shining things to spin
them out again in webs of black and choking darkness, fog,
and gloom. With her he plots revenge. Only a terrible re-
ward will bring her to dare the dangers of Valinor or the
sight of the Gods. She weaves a dense gloom about her to
protect her and swings on cords hem pinnacle to pinnacle
till she has scaled the highest peak of the mountains in the
south of Valinor (little guarded because of their height and
their distance from the old fortress of Morgoth). She makes
a ladder that Morgoth can scale. They creep into Valinor.
Morgoth stabs the Trees and Ungoliant sucks up their
juices, belching forth clouds of blackness. The Trees suc-
cumb slowly to the poisoned sword, and to the venomous
lips of Ungoliant.
The Gods are dismayed by a twilight at midday, and va-
pours of black float in about the ways of the city. They are
too late. The Trees die while they wail about them. But
Tulcas and Orome and many others hunt on horseback in
the gathering gloom for Morgoth. Wherever Morgoth goes
there the confusing darkness is greatest owing to the webs
of Ungoliant. Gnomes from the treasury of Finn come in
and report that Morgoth is assisted by a spider of darkness.
They had seen them making for the North. Morgoth had
stayed his flight at the Treasury, slain Finn and many of his
men, and carried off the Silmarils and a vast hoard of the
most splendid jewels of the Elves.
In the meanwhile Morgoth escapes by Ungoliant's aid
northward and crosses the Grinding Ice. When he has re-
gained the northern regions of the world Ungoliant sum-
mons him to pay the other half of her reward. The first half
was the sap of the Trees of Light. Now she claims one half
of the jewels. Morgoth yields them up and she devours
them. She is now become monstrous, but he will not give
hei any share in the Silmarils. She enmeshes him in a black
web, but he is rescued by the Balrogs with whips of flame,
and the hosts of the Orcs; and Ungoliant goes away into
the uttermost South.
Morgoth returns to Angband, and his power and the
numbers of his demons and Orcs becomes countless. He
forges an iron crown and sets therein the Silmarils, though
his hands are burned black by them, and he is never again
free from the pain of the burning. The crown he never
leaves off for a moment, and he never leaves the deep dun-
geons of his fortress, governing his vast armies from his
deep throne.
*
1. Added here:
which Morgoth flatters. The Gods knew also of the coming of mor-
tals or Men that was to be. They had not yet told the Elves, for the
time was not near, nor explairied what was to be the realm of each
race, and their relations. Morgoth tells of Men, and suggests that the
Gods are keeping the Elves captive, so that weaker Men shall be
controlled more easily by the Gods, and the Elves defrauded of their
kingdoms.
This was an early addition, probably not materially later than the writ-
ing of the manuscript.
5.
When it became clear that Morgoth had escaped the
Gods assemble about the dead Trees and sit in the darkness
stricken and dumb for a long while, caring about nothing.
The day which Morgoth chose for his attack was a day of
festival throughout Valinor. Upon this day it was the cus-
tom of the chief Valar and many of the Elves, especially the
people of Ing (the Quendi), to climb the long winding paths
in endless procession to Manwe's halls upon Timbrenting.
All the Quendi and some of the Noldoli (who under
Fingolfin dwelt still in Tun) had gone to Timbrenting, and
were singing upon its topmost height when the watchers
from afar descried the fading of the Trees. Most of the
Noldoli were in the plain, and the Teleri upon the shore.
The fogs and darkness drift in now off the seas through the
pass of Cor as the Trees die. Feanor summons the Gnomes
to Tun (rebelling against his banishment).'
There is a vast concourse on the square on the summit of
Cor about the tower of Ing, lit by torches. Feanor makes a
violent speech, and though his wrath is for Morgoth his
words are in part the fruit of Morgoth's lies.' He bids the
Gnomes fly in the darkness while the Gods are wrapped in
mourning, to seek freedom in the world and to seek out
Morgoth, now Valinor is no more blissful than the earth
outside.' Fingolfin and Finweg speak against him.4 The as-
sembled Gnomes vote for flight, and Fingolfin and Finweg
yield; they will not desert their people, but they retain com-
mand over a half of the people of the Noldoli.'
The flight begins.' The Teleri will not join. The Gnomes
cannot escape without boats, and do not dare to cross the
Grinding Ice. They attempt to seize the swan-ships in
Swanhaven, and a fight ensues (the first between the races
of the Earth) in which many Teleri are slain, and their ships
carried off. A curse is pronounced upon the Gnomes, that
they shall after suffer often from treachery and the fear of
treachery among their own kindred in punishment for the
blood spilled at Swanhaven.(7) They sail North along the
coast of Valinor. Mandos sends an emissary, who speaking
from a high cliff hails them as they sail by, and warns them
to return, and when they will not speaks the 'Prophecy of
Mandos' concerning the fate of after days.'
The Gnomes come to the narrowing of the seas, and pre-
pare to sail. While they are encamped upon the shore
Feanor and his sons and people sail off taking with them all
the boats, and leave Fingolfin on the far shore treacher-
ously, thus beginning the Curse of Swanhaven. They burn
the boats as soon as they land in the East of the world, and
Fingolfin's people see the light in the sky. The same light
also tells the Orcs of the landing.
Fingolfin's people wander miserably. Some under Fingolfin
return to Valinor(9) to seek the Gods' pardon. Finweg leads the
main host North, and over the Grinding Ice. Many are lost.
*
1. As originally writtten, this sentence began Finn and Feanor summon &c.
This was a mere slip, since Finn's death has already been mentioned in
the text as first written ($4), and my father later struck out Finn and. He
left the plural verb summon and their banishment; this I have changed
to his banishment, since it is not said of the Gnomes who accompanied
Feanor that they left Tun under banishment (though this is not said of
Finn either). The Quenta has his banishment in this passage (p. 114).
2. Added here hastily in pencil:
He claims the lordship as eldest son now Finn is dead, in spite of
the Gods' decree.
[Except for the later pencilled alteration given in note 5, all the changes
noted below, mostly concerned to introduce the part of Finrod in the
events, were made at the same time, in red ink. Finrod, the third son of
Finn/Finwe, appears in the interpolated passage given in $3 note 2.]
3. Added here:
Feanor and his sons take the unbreakable oath by Timbrenting and
the names of Manwe and Bridil to pursue anyone, Elf, Mortal, or
Orc, who holds the Silmarils.
4. Added here:
Finrod tries to calm their conflicting anger, but his sons Orodreth,
Anrod, and Egnor side with the sons of Feanor.
5. a half of the people of the Noldoli > a half of the Noldoli of Tun (later
pencilled change).
6. Added here but then struck out (see note 7):
Finrod does not go, but bids Felagoth (and his other sons) go and
cherish the Gnomes of his [?house].
7. Added here:
Finrod is slain at Swanhaven in trying to stay the violence.
This was also struck out (see note 6) and a third version of Finrod's
part entered:
Finrod and his sons were not at Swanhaven. They leave Tun reluc-
tantly, and more than the others carry away memories of it, and even
many fair things made there by hands.
8. Added here:
and the curse of war against one another because of Swanhaven.
9. This passage, from Fingolfin's people wander, changed to read:
Finrod and his people arrive. The people of Finrod and Fingolfin
wander miserably. Some under Finrod return to Valinor, &c.
6.
In the meanwhile Manwe summons Ifan Belaurin to the
council. Her magic will not avail to cure the Trees. But
Silpion under her spells bears one last great silver bloom,
and Laurelin one great golden fruit. The Gods fashion the
Moon and Sun from these and set them to sail appointed
courses from West to East, but afterwards they find it safer
to send them in Ylmir's care through the caverns and grot-
toes beneath the Earth, to rise in the East and come home
again high in the air over the mountains of the West, to
sink after each journey into the waters of the Outer Seas.
The light of Valinor is henceforth not much greater than
that now scattered over the Earth, save that hem the ships
of Sun and Moon come nearer to Earth, and rest for a while
close to Valinor. The Gods and Elves look forward to a fu-
ture time when the 'magic sun and moon' of the Trees may
be rekindled and the old beauty and bliss renewed. Ylmir
foretells(1) that it will only be achieved with the aid of the
second race of earth. But the Gods, even Manwe, pay little
heed to him. They are wroth and bitter because of the
slaying at Swanhaven(2) and they fortify all Valinor making
the mountains impenetrable, save at Cor which the remain-
ing Elves are commanded to guard, ceaselessly and for
ever, and let no bird or beast or Elf or Man land on the
shores. of Faery. The magic isles, filled with enchantment,
are strung across the confines of the Shadowy Seas, before
the Lonely Isle is reached sailing West, to entrap any mar-
iners and wind them in everlasting sleep and enchantment.'
The Gods sit now behind the mountains and feast, and dis-
miss the rebel and fugitive Noldoli from their hearts. Ylmir
alone remembers them, and gathers news of the outer world
through all the lakes and rivers.
At the rising of the first Sun the younger children of
earth awoke in the far East. No god came to guide them,
but the messages of Ylmir little understood came at whiles
to them. They meet Ilkorindi and learn speech and other
things of them, and become great friends of the Eldalie.
They spread through the earth, wandering West and North.
*
1. Ylmir foretells changed at the time of writing from Bridhil foretells.
2. Added here (hastily in pencil):
and the flight and ingratitude of the Gnomes.
3. Added here:
Thus the many emissaries of the Gnomes in after days never reach
Valinor.
7.
Now begins the time of the great wars of the powers of
the North (Morgoth and his hosts against Men, Ilkorins, and
the Gnomes from Valinor). Morgoth's cunning and lies,
and the curse of Swanhaven (as well as the oaths of the
sons of Feanor who swore the unbreakable oath by
Timbrenting to treat all as foes who had the Silmarils in
keeping) in these wars do the greatest injury to Men and
Elves.
These stories only tell a part of the deeds of those days,
especially such as relate to the Gnomes and the Silmarils,
and the mortals who became entangled in their fates. In the
early days Eldar and Men were of nearly equal stature and
power of body, but the Eldar were blessed with greater wit,
skill, and beauty; and those (the Gnomes) who had dwelt in
Cor (Koreldar) as much surpassed the Ilkorins as they sur-
passed mortals. Only in the realm of Doriath, whose queen
was of divine race, did the Ilkorins equal the Koreldar. The
Elves were immortal, and free from all sickness.' But they
might-be slain with weapons in those days,' and then their
spirits went back to the halls of Mandos and awaited a
thousand years, or the pleasure of the Gods, before they
were recalled to free life.' Men from the first though
slightly bigger were more &ail, more easily slain, subject to
ills, and grew old and died, if not slain. What happened to
their spirits was not known to the Eldalie. They did not go
to the halls of Mandos, and many thought their fate was not
in the hands of the Valar after death. Though many, associ-
ating with Eldar, believed that their spirits went to the west-
ern land, this was not true. Men were not born again.4
In after days when owing to the triumph of Morgoth
Men and Elves became estranged the Eldalie living in the
world faded, and Men usurped the sunlight. The Eldar wan-.
dered, such as remained in the Outer Lands, took to the
moonlight and starlight, the woods and caves.
*
1. free from all sickness > free from death by sickness (early change,
made at the same time as that given in note 4).
2. Added (rough pencilled insertion): or waste away of sorrow,
3. Added at the same time as the insertion given in note 2: and they were
reborn in their children, so that the number grows not.
4 This passage, from They did not go to the halls of Mandos, was struck
out and. replaced by the following:
They went to the halls of Mandos, but not the same as the halls of
awaiting where the Elves were sent. There they too waited, but it
was said that only Mandos knew whither they went after the time in
his halls - they were never reborn on Earth, and none ever came
back from Mandos, save only Beren son of Barahir, who thereafter
spoke not to mortal Men. Their fate after death was perchance not
in the hands of the Valar.
8
But in these days they were kindred and allies. Before
the rising of the Sun and Moon Feanor and his sons
marched into the North and sought for Morgoth. A host of
Orcs aroused by the burning ships resisted them and was
defeated in the First Battle with such loss that Morgoth pre-
tended to treat with them. Feanor refused, but he was
wounded in the fight by a Balrog chief (Gothmog), and
died. Maidros the tall, the elder son, induced the Gnomes to
meet Morgoth (with as little intent of faith on his side as on
Morgoth's). Morgoth took Maidros captive and tortured
him, and hung him from a rock by his right hand. The six
remaining sons of Feanor (Maglor, Celegorm, Curufin,
Damrod, Diriel, and Cranthir) ate encamped about the lake
Mithrim in Hisilome (Hithlum, or Dorlomin, the land of
shadows in the North-west), when they hear of the march
of Finweg and his men' who have crossed the Grinding Ice.
The Sun rises as they march, their blue and silver banners
are unfurled, flowers spring beneath the feet of their armies.
The Orcs dismayed at the light retreat to Angband. But
there is little love between the two hosts of Gnomes en-
camped now on opposite shores of Mithrim. Vast smokes
and vapours are made and sent forth from Angband, and
the smoking top of Thangorodrim (the highest of the Iron
Mountains around Morgoth's fortress) can be seen from far
away. 'The North shakes with the thunder under the earth.
Morgoth is forging armouries. Finweg resolves to heal the
feud. Alone he goes in search of Maidros. Aided by the va-
pours, which me now floating down and filling Hithlum,
and by the withdrawal of Orcs and Balrogs to Angband, he
finds him, but cannot release him.
Manwe, to whom birds bring news upon Timbrenting of
all things which his farsighted eyes do not see upon earth,
fashions the race of eagles, and sends them under their king
Thorndor to dwell in the crags of the North and watch
Morgoth. The eagles dwell out of reach of Orc and Balrog,
and are great foes of Morgoth and his people. Finweg
meets Thorndor who bears him to Maidros. There is no re-
leasing the enchanted bond upon his wrist. In his agony he
begs to be slain, but Finweg cuts off his hand, and they are
both borne away by Thorndor, and come to Mithrim. The
feud is healed by the deed of Finweg (except for the oath
of the Silmarils).
*
1. the march of Finweg and his men > the march of Fingolfin and his
sons and his men and Felagoth and the sons of Finrod (This change
belongs with those made in red ink in $5 and concerns the shift from
Fingolfin to Finrod as the Gnomish lord who returned to Valinor, see
$5 note 9.)
9.
The Gnomes march forward and beleaguer Angband.
They meet Ilkorins and Men. At that time Men already
dwelt in the woods of the North, and Ilkorins also. They
long warred with Morgoth.(1) Of Ilkorin race was Barahir
and his son Beren. Of mortal race was Hurin son of
Gumlin, whose wife was Morwen," they lived in the woods
upon the borders of Hithlum. These come after into the
tales.
Morgoth sends out his armies and breaks the leaguer of
Angband, and from that time the fortunes of his enemies
decline.' Gnomes and Ilkorins and Men are scattered, and
Morgoth's emissaries go among them with lying promises
and false suggestions of the greed and treachery of each to
each. Because of the curse of Swanhaven these often are
believed by the Gnomes.
Celegorm and Curufin found the realm of Nargothrond
on the banks of the Narog in the south of the Northern
lands.4 Many Gnomes take service with Thingol and Melian
of the Thousand Caves in Doriath. Because of the divine
magic of Melian Doriath is the safest from the raids of the
Orcs, and it is prophesied that only treachery from within
will cause the realm to fall.
*
[This section was substantially interpolated and altered (all in red ink, see
$5, except for the change given in note 2).]
1. Added here:
This is the time of Morgoth's retreat, and the growth and prosperity
of Men, a time of growth and birth and flowering known as the
'Siege of Angband'.
2. This passage, from Of Ilkorin race, was emended to read:
In later times of mortal race was Barahir and his son Beren. Of mor-
tal race also were Hurin and Huor sons of Gumlin. Hurin's wife was
Morwen, &c.
3. Here was added The men of Barahir rescue Celegorm, but this was
struck out and the following insertion made:
In the Leaguer of Angband Fingolfin's host guards the North-west
on borders of Hithlum; Felagoth [> Felagund] and the sons of
Finrod the South and the [?plains] of Sirion (or Broseliand); the sons
of Feanor the East. Fingolfin is slain when Morgoth breaks the
leaguer. Felagoth [>Felagund] is saved by Barahir the Bold a mortal
and escapes south to found Nargothrond, swearing a vow of friend-
ship to the race of Barahir. The sons of Feanor live a wild and no-
mad life in the East, warring with Dwarves and Orcs and Men.
Fingolfin's sons Finweg and Turgon still hold out in the North.
4. This sentence was changed to read:
Felagoth [> Felagund] and his brothers found the realm of
Nargothrond on the banks of Narog in the south of the Northern
lands. They are aided by Celegorm and Gurufin who long while
dwelt in Nargothrond.
10.
The power of Morgoth begins to spread once more. One
by one he overthrows Men and Elves in the North. Of these
a famous chieftain of Ilkorindi was Barahir, who had been
a friend of Celegorm of Nargothrond. Barahir is driven into
hiding, his hiding betrayed, and Barahir slain; his son Beren
after a life outlawed flees south, crosses the Shadowy
Mountains, and after grievous hardships comes to Doriath.
Of this and his other adventures are told in the Lay of
Leithian. He gains the love of Tinuviel 'the nightingale' -
his own name for Luthien - the daughter of Thingol. To
win her Thingol, in mockery, requires a Silmaril from the
crown of Morgoth. Beren sets out to achieve this, is cap-
tured, and set in dungeon in Angband, but conceals his real
identity and is given as a slave to Thu the hunter. Luthien
is imprisoned by Thingol, but escapes and goes in search of
Beren. With the aid of Huan lord of dogs she rescues
Beren, and gains entrance to Angband where Morgoth is
enchanted and finally wrapped in slumber by her dancing.
They get a Silmaril and escape, but are barred at gates of
Angband by Carcaras the Wolfward. He bites o Beren's
hand which holds the Silmaril, and goes mad with the an-
guish of its burning within him,
They escape and after many wanderings get back to
Doriath. Carcaras ravening through the woods bursts into
Doriath. There follows the Wolf-hunt of Doriath, in which
Carcaras is slain, and Huan is killed in defence of Beren.
Beren is however mortally wounded and dies in Luthien's
arms. Some songs say that Luthien went even over the
Grinding Ice, aided by the power of her divine mother, Me-
lian, to Mandos' halls and won him back; others that
Mandos hearing his tale released him. Certain it is that he
alone of mortals came back from Mandos and dwelt with
Luthien and never spoke to Men again, living in the woods
of Doriath and in the Hunters' Wold, west of Nargothrond.'
In the days of his outlawry Beren had been befriended by
Hurin of Hithlum, son of Gumlin. In the woods of Hithlum
Hurin still remains unbowed to the yoke of Morgoth.
*
1. a famous chieftain of Ilkorindi > a famous chieftain of Men (cf. $9
note 2).
2. This sentence, following Beren sets out to achieve this, was struck
through and replaced by the following (in red ink):
(Beren sets out to achieve this,) and seeks the aid of Felagoth in
Nargothrond. Felagoth warns him of the oath of the sons of Feanor,
and that even if he gets the Silmaril they will not, if they can pre-
vent it, allow him to take it to Thingol. But faithful to his own oath
he gives him aid. The kingdom is given to Orodreth, and Felagoth
and Beren march North. They are overcome in battle. Felagoth and
Beren and a small band escape, and creeping back despoil the dead.
Disguising themselves as Orcs they get as far as the house of the
Lord of Wolves. Them they are discovered, and placed in prison -
and devoured one by one.
Celegorm discovered what was the secret mission of Felagoth and
Beren. He gathers his dogs and hunters and goes a-hunting. He finds
the traces of battle. Then he finds Luthien in the woods. She flies
but is overtaken by Huan the chief of Celegorm's dogs, who is
sleepless, and she cannot enchant him. He bears her off. Celegorm
offers redress.
From the second sentence Felagoth warns him of the oath... this en-
tire passage was then struck through and See tale of Luthien written
across it; Felagoth in the surviving sentence at the beginning was
changed to Felagund; and They fall in the power of the Lord of Wolves
(Thu) was added.
3. Here was added, perhaps at the time of the writing of the manuscript:
(But Mandos in payment exacted that Luthien should become mortal
as Beren.)
11.
Maidros forms now a league against Morgoth seeing that
he will destroy them all, one by one, if they do not unite.
The scattered Ilkorins and Men are gathered together.
Curufin and Celegorm despatch a host (but not all they
could gather, thus breaking their word) from Nargothrond.
The Gnomes of Nargothrond refuse to be led by Finweg,
and go in search of the hosts of Maidros and Maglor. Men
march up from South and East and West and North.
Thingol will not send from Doriath.' Some say out of self-
ish policy, others because of the wisdom of Melian and of
fate which decreed that Doriath should become the only
refuge of the Eldar from Morgoth afterwards. Part was cer-
tainly due to the Silmaril, which Thingol now possessed,
and which Maidros had demanded with haughty words. The
Gnomes of Doriath are allowed' nonetheless to join the
league.
Finweg advances into the Plain of Thirst (Dor-na-
Fauglith) before the Iron Mountains and defeats an Orc-
army, which falls back. Pursuing he is overwhelmed by
countless hordes suddenly loosed on him from the deeps
of Angband, and there is fought the field of Unnum-
bered Tears, of which no elfin songs tell except in lamen-
tation.
The mortal armies, whose leaders had mostly been cor-
rupted or bribed by Morgoth, desert or flee away: all except
Hurin's kin. From that day Men and Elves have been es-
tranged, save the descendents of Hurin. Finweg falls, his
blue and silver banner is destroyed. The Gnomes attempt to
fall back towards the hills and Taur-na-Fuin (forest of
night). Hurin holds the rearguard, and all his men are slain,
so that not a single man escapes to bring news to Hithlum.
By Morgoth's orders Hurin, whose axe had slain a thousand
Orcs, is taken alive. By Hurin alone was Turgon (Finweg's
brother) son of Fingolfin enabled to cut his way back into
the hills with a part of his people. The remainder of the
Gnomes and Ilkorins would have been all slain or taken,
but for the arrival of Maidros, Curufin and Celegorm - too
late for the main battle.
They are beaten back and driven into the South-east,
where they long time dwelt, and did not go back to
Nargothrond. There Orodreth ruled over the remnant.'
Morgoth is utterly triumphant. His armies range all the
North, and press upon the borders of Doriath and
Nargothrond. The slain of his enemies are piled into a great
hill upon Dor-na-Fauglith, but there the grass comes and
grows green where all else is desert, and no Orc dare tread
upon that hill where the Gnomish swords rust.
Hurin is taken to Angband and defies Morgoth. He is
chained in torment. Afterward Morgoth offers him a high
captaincy in his forces, a wealth of jewels, and freedom, if
he will lead an army against Turgon. None knew whither
Turgon had departed save Hurin. Hurin refused and
Morgoth devised a torture. He set him upon the highest
peak of Thangorodrim and cursed him with never-sleeping
sight like the Gods, and he cursed his seed with a fate of
ill-hap, and bade Hurin watch the working of it.
*
1. This passage, from Curufin and Celegorm despatch a host, was altered
by hastily made changes and additioas:
Curufin and Celegorm come from their wandering; but Orodreth be-
cause of Felagund his brother will not come: Thingol also sends but
few of his folk. The Gnomes of Feanor's sons refuse to be led by
Finweg, and the battle is divided into two hosts, one under Maidros
and Maglor, and one under Finweg and Turgon. Men march up from
South and East and West and North. Thingol sends but few from
Doriath.
2. Added here: by Thingol.
3. This passage was changed to read:
They are beaten back and driven into the South-east, where they
long time dwelt. In Nargothrond Orodreth ruled still.
12.
Morwen wife of Hurin was left alone in the woods. Her
son Turin was a young boy of seven, and she was with
child. Only two old men Halog and Mailgond remained
faithful to her. The men of Hithlum were slain, and
Morgoth breaking his words had driven all men, who had
not escaped (as few did) away South, into Hithlum. Now
most of these were faithless men who had deserted the
Eldar in the battle of Unnumbered Tears. Yet he penned
them behind the Shadowy Mountains, nonetheless, and slew
such as wandered forth, desiring to keep them from fellow-
ship with Elves. But little love all the same did they show
to Hurin's wife. Wherefore it came into her heart to send
Turin to Thingol, because of Beren Hurin's friend who had
wedded Luthien. The 'Children of Hurin' tells of his fate,
and how Morgoth's curse pursued him, so that all he did
turned out unhappily against his will.
He grew up in Thingol's court, but after a while as
Morgoth's power grew no news from Hithlum came and he
heard no more of Morwen or of his sister Nienor whom he
had not seen. Taunted by Orgof, of the kin of King Thingol,
he unwitting of his growing strength killed him at the
king's table with a drinking horn. He fled the court thinking
himself an outlaw, and took to war against all, Elves, Men,
and Orcs, upon the borders of Doriath, gathering a wild
band of hunted Men and Elves about him.
One day in his absence his men captured Beleg the bow-
man, who had befriended Turin of old. Turin released him,
and is told how Thingol had forgiven his deed long ago.
Beleg brings him to abandon his war against Elves, and to
assuage his wrath upon the Orcs. The fame of the deeds
upon the marches and the prowess of Beleg the Gnome and
Turin son of Hurin against the Orcs is brought to Thingol
and to Morgoth. One only of Turin's band, Blodrin Ban's
son, hates the new life with little plunder and harder fighting.
He betrays the secret place of Turin to the Orcs. Their camp
is surprised, Turin is taken and dragged to Angband (for
Morgoth has begun to fear he will escape his curse through
his valour and the protection of Melian); Beleg is left for
dead under a heap of slain. He is found by Thingol's men
come to summon them to a feast at the Thousand Caves.
Melian heals him, and he sets out to track the Orcs. Beleg is
the most skilled in tracking of all who have lived, but the
mazes of Taur-na-Fuin bewilder him. Them in despair he
sees the lamp of Flinding son of Fuilin, a Gnome of
Nargothrond who was captured by Orcs and had long been
a thrall in the mines of Morgoth, but escaped.
Of Flinding he learns news of the Orc-band that captured
Turin. They hide and watch the host go by laden with spoil
along the Orc-road through the heart of the forest, which
the Orcs use when in need of haste. They dread the forest
beyond the road as much as Elf or Man. Turin is seen
dragged along and whipped. The Orcs leave the forest and
descend the slopes toward Dor-na-Fauglith, and encamp in
a dale in sight of Thangorodrim. Beleg shoots the wolf-
sentinels and steals with Flinding into the camp. With the
greatest difficulty and direst peril they carry the senseless
Turin away and lay him in a dell of thick thorn-trees. In
striking off his bonds Beleg pricks Turin's foot; he is
roused, and demented thinks the Orcs are tormenting him,
he leaps on Beleg and kills him with his own sword. The
covering of Flinding's lamp falls off and seeing Beleg*s
face he is turned to stone. The Orcs roused by his cries as
he leaped upon Beleg discover his escape but are driven far
and wide by a dreadful storm of thunder and deluge. In the
morning Flinding sees them marching over the steaming
waste of Dor-na-Fauglith. Beleg is buried with his bow in
the dell.
Flinding leads the dazed unwitting Turin towards safety.
His wits return by Ivrin's lake where are the sources of
Narog, and he weeps a great while, and makes a song for
Beleg, the 'Bowman's Friendship', which afterwards be-
came a battle-song of the enemies of Morgoth.
13.
Flinding leads Turin to Nargothrond. There Turin gains
the love and loves against his will Finduilas daughter of
Orodreth, who had been betrothed before his captivity to
Flinding. He fights against his love out of loyalty to
Flinding, but Flinding seeing that Finduilas loves Turin be-
comes embittered.
Turin leads the Gnomes of Nargothrond to forsake their
secrecy and hidden warfare, and fights the Orcs more
openly.' He has Beleg's sword forged anew, into a black
blade with shining edges, and he is from this given the
name of 'Mormakil' or black-sword. The fame of Morma-
kil reaches even to Thingol. Turin adopts the name instead
of 'Turin'. For a long while Turin and the Gnomes of Na-
rog are victorious and their realm reaches to the sources of
Narog, and from the western sea to the confines of Doriath.
There is a stay in the might of Morgoth.
Morwen and Nienor are able to journey to Thingol leav-
ing their goods in the care of Brodda who had wedded a
kinswoman of Morwen. They learn at Thingol's court of
the loss of Turin. News comes to them of the fall of
Nargothrond. Morgoth had suddenly loosed a great army on
them, and with them one of the first and mightiest' of those
Dragons that bred in his deep places and for a long while
troubled the Northern lands of Men and Elves.'
The host of Narog is overwhelmed. Flinding wounded
refuses Turin's succour and dies reproaching him. Turin
hastes back to Nargothrond but the Dragon and Orcs come
thither before he can put it in defence, and all the fair halls
beneath the earth are plundered, and all the women and
maidens of Narog herded as slaves in captivity. Turin seeks
to slay the Dragon, but is held immovable by the spell of
his eyes, while the Dragon Glorung(4) taunts him. Glorung
then offers him freedom either to follow seeking to rescue
his 'stolen love' Finduilas, or to do his duty and go to the
rescue of his mother and sister who are living (as he lying
says) in great misery in Hithlum. Turin forsakes Finduilas
against his heart (which if he had obeyed his uttermost fate
would not have befallen him) and believing the serpent
goes to seek Hithlum. Glorung lies in the caves of Narog
and gathers beneath him all the gold and silver and gems
there hoarded.
Turin after long wandering goes to Hithlum. But
Morwen and Nienor are in Thingol's court, when survivors
tell of the fall of Nargothrond, and of Turin, and some say
Turin escaped alive, and some say he was turned to stone
by the eyes of the serpent and lived still in bondage in
Nargothrond. Morwen and Nienor at last get Thingol to
give them men to go against Glorung, or to spy out his lair
at least.
Turin slays Brodda in his hall, in his anger when he finds
Morwen's hall and lands empty and despoiled. Repenting
his deed he flies from Hithlum again, and seeks no more
after his kin. Desiring to forget his past he takes the name
of Turambar (Turmarth) 'Conqueror of Fate', and gathers a
new people, 'Men of the Woods', east of Narog, whom he
rules, and lives in peace.
The expedition of Thingol, with whom ride Morwen and
Nienor, views Narog from a hill-top. The Elves ride down
towards the lair,(5) but Glorung coming out lies into the
stream and a huge hissing and great vapour goes up, so that
their horses turn and fly. Morwen's horse and Nienor's are
also panic-stricken and gallop wildly in the mist. When the
mist clears Nienor finds herself face to face with the
Dragon, whose eye holds her, and a spell of darkness and
utter forgetfulness comes upon her. She wanders witless in
the woods. At last her senses return but she remembers lit-
tle.' Orcs see her and chase her, but are driven off by a
band of 'Woodmen' under Turambar, who lead her to their
pleasant homes.
As they pass the falls of Silver Bowl a shivering touches
her. She lives amid the woodfolk and is loved by Tamar the
Lame, but at last weds Turambar, who calls her Niniel 'the
Tearful' since he first found her weeping.
Glorung begins to raid across Narog, md Orcs gather to
him. The woodmen slay many of them, and Glorung hear-
ing of their dwelling comes crawling and filled with fire
over Narog and through the woods against them. He leaves
a blasted track behind him. Turambar ponders how the hor-
ror can be warded from his land. He marches with his men,
and Niniel foreboding evil rides with him,' till they can see
the burning track of Glorung, and the smoking place where
he lies. Between them runs a stream in a deep-cloven ra-
vine after falling over the high falls of Silver Bowl.
Turambar asks for volunteers and obtains six only to lie in
the ravine over which the Dragon must pass. The seven de-
part. They climb the far side of the ravine at evening and
cling near its edge in the trees. The next morning all have
slunk away and Turambar is alone.
Glorung creeps over. Turambar transfixes him with
Gurtholfin(8) 'Wand of Death', his black sword. Glorung
coils back in anguish and lies dying. Turambar comes forth
to retrieve his sword, and places his foot upon Glorung and
exults. But the venom of Glorung gushes out as he tugs out
his sword, and he falls in a swoon. The watchers see that
Glorung is slain, but Turin does not return. Niniel goes in
search of him and finds him lying beside Glorung. As she
is tending him, Glorung opens his eyes and speaks, and
tells her who Turambar is, and lifts his spell from off her.
Then she knows who she is, and knows his tale true from
things Turambar has told her. Filled with horror and an-
guish she flies and casts herself over Silver Bowl and none
ever found her body again. Tamar followed her and heard
her lament.
Turin comes back in triumph. He asks for Niniel, but
none dare tell him. Then Tamar comes and tells him. Turin
slays him, and taking Gurtholfin bids it slay him. The
sword answers that his blood is sweet as any other's, and
pierces him to the heart. Turin is buried beside Silver Bowl,
and his name carved in characters of Nargothrond upon a
rock. Beneath is written Niniel.
Some say Morwen released from spell by Glorung's
death came that way and read the stone.
*
1. Added here: At his advice Narog is bridged (cf. note 5).
2. one of the first and mightiest > that first and mightiest.
3. Added here: even Glomund, who was at the Battle of Tears (see
note 4).
4. Glorung > Glomund here and subsequently, except at the last occur-
rence.
5. towards the lair > towards the bridge leading to the lair (cf. note 1).
6. she remembers little > she remembers not even her name.
7. Added here: though she is with child,
8. Gurtholfin > Gurtholfir at both occurrences.
14.
Hurin was released by Morgoth after the end of Turin
and Nienor, for Morgoth thought still to use him. He ac-
cused Thingol's faint heart and ungentleness of Turin's un-
happiness, and Hurin wandering bowed with grief pondered
his words and was embittered by them.
Hurin and outlaws come to Nargothrond, whom none
dare plunder for dread of the spirit of Glorung' or even of
his memory. They slay Mim the Dwarf who had taken pos-
session and enchanted all the gold. Hurin casts the gold at
Thingol's feet with reproaches. Thingol will not have it,
and bears with Hurin, until goaded too far he bids him be-
gone. Hurin wanders away and seeks Morwen, and many
for ages after related that they met them together in the
woods lamenting their children.
The enchanted gold lays its spell on Thingol. He sum-
mons the Dwarves of Nogrod and Belegost to come and
fashion it into beautiful things, and to make a necklace of
great wonder whereon the Silmaril shall hang. The Dwarves
plot treachery, and Thingol bitter with the curse of the gold
denies them their reward. After their smithying they are
driven away without payment. The Dwarves come back;
aided by treachery of some Gnomes who also were bitten
by the lust of the gold, they surprise Thingol on a hunt, slay
him, and surprise the Thousand Caves and plunder them.
Melian they cannot touch. She goes away to seek Beren
and Luthien.
The Dwarves are ambushed at a ford by Beren and the
brown and green Elves of the wood, and their king slain,
from whose neck Beren takes the 'Nauglafring'(2) or neck-
lace of the Dwarves, with its Silmaril. It is said that Luthien
wearing that jewel is the most beautiful thing that eyes
have ever seen outside Valinor. But Melian warned Beren
of the curse of the gold and of the Silmaril. The rest of the
gold is drowned in the river.
But the 'Nauglafring'(3) remains hoarded secretly in
Beren's keeping. When Mandos let Beren return with
Luthien, it was only at the price that Luthien should be-
come as shortlived as Beren the mortal. Luthien now fades,
even as the Elves in later days faded as Men yew strong
and took the goodness of earth (for the Elves needed the
light of the Trees). At last she vanished, and Beren was
lost, looking in vain for her, and his son Dior ruled after
him. Dior re-established Doriath and grew proud, and wore
the 'Nauglafring', and the fame of the Silmaril went
abroad. After vain bargaining the sons of Feanor made war
on him (the second slaying of Elf by Elf) and destroyed
him, and took the 'Nauglafring'. They quarrelled over it,
owing to the curse of the gold, until only Maglor was left.
But Elwing daughter of Dior was saved and carried away
to the mouth of the river Sirion.4
*
1. The name Glorung is not here emended, as in $13, to Glomund, but a
d is written over the g, sc. Glorund (the earliest form of the name of
the Dragon).
2. At the first occurrence only of Nauglafring, th is pencilled above, i.e.
Nauglathring or Nauglathfring.
3. Above Nauglafring here my father wrote Dweorgmene [Old English,
'Dwarf-necklace']; this was struck out, and Glingna Nauglir substi-
tuted.
4 The conclusion of this section was changed very soon after it was writ-
ten, since in $17 already as first written the Nauglafring is with Elwing
at the mouth of Sirion:
After vain bargaining the sons of Feanor made war on him (the sec-
ond slaying of Elf by Elf) and destroyed him. But Elwing daughter
of Dior, Beren's son, escaped, and was carried away by faithful ser-
vants to the mouth of the river Sirion. With her went the
Nauglafring.
15.
The great river Sirion flowed through the lands South-
west; at its mouth was a great delta, and its lower course
ran through wide green and fertile lands, little peopled save
by birds and beasts because of the Orc-raids; but they were
not inhabited by Orcs, who preferred the northern woods,
and feared the power of Ylmir - for Sirion's mouth was in
the Western Seas.
Turgon Fingolfin's son had a sister Isfin. She was lost in
Taurna-Fuin after the Battle of Unnumbered Tears. There
she was trapped by the Dark Elf Eol. Their son was
Meglin. The people of Turgon escaping aided by the prow-
ess of Hurin were lost from the knowledge of Morgoth, and
indeed of all in the world save Ylmir. In a secret place in
the hills their scouts climbing to the tops discovered a
broad valley entirely encircled by the hills in rings ever
lower as they came towards the centre. Amid this ring was
a wide land without hills, except for one rocky hill that
stuck up from the plain, not right at the centre, but nearest
to that part of the outer wall which marched close to the
edge of Sirion.'
Ylmir's messages come up Sirion bidding them take ref-
uge in this valley, and teaching them spells of enchantment
to place upon all the hills about, to keep off foes and spies.
He foretells that their fortress shall stand longest of all the
refuges of the Elves against Morgoth, and like Doriath
never be overthrown - save by treachery from within. The
spells are strongest near to Sirion, although here the encir-
cling mountains are lowest. Here the Gnomes dig a mighty
winding tunnel under the roots of the mountains, that issues
at last in the Guarded Plain. Its outer entrance is guarded by
the spells of Ylmir; its inner is watched unceasingly by the
Gnomes. It is set there in case those within ever need to es-
cape, and as a way of more rapid exit from the valley for
scouts, wanderers, and messages, and also as an entrance
for fugitives escaping from Morgoth.
Thorndor King of Eagles removes his eyries to the
Northern heights of the encircling mountains and guards
them against Orc-spies.' On the rocky hill, Amon Gwareth,
the hill of watching, whose sides they polish to the smooth-
ness of glass, and whose top they level, the great city of
Gondolin with gates of steel is built. The plain all about is
levelled as flat and smooth as a lawn of clipped grass to the
feet of the hills, so that nothing can creep over it unawares.
The people of Gondolin grows mighty, and their armouries
are filled with weapons. But Turgon does not march to the
aid of Nargothrond, or Doriath, and after the slaying of
Dior he has no more to do with the son of Feanor
(Maglor).' Finally he closes the vale to all fugitives, and
forbids the folk of Gondolin to leave the valley. Gondolin
is the only stronghold of the Elves left. Morgoth has not
forgotten Turgon, but his search is in vain. Nargothrond is
destroyed; Doriath desolate; Hurin's children dead; and
only scattered and fugitive Elves, Gnomes and Ilkorins, left,
except such as work in the smithies and mines in great
numbers. His triumph is nearly complete.
*
1. Added here roughly in pencil: The hill nearest to Angband was
guarded by Fingolfin's cairn (cf. note 2).
2. Added here at the same time as the addition given in note 1: sitting
upon Fingolfin's cairn.
3. the son of Feanor (Maglor) > the sons of Feanor (this goes with the
change at the end of $14, note 4).
16.
Meglin son of Eol and Isfin sister of Turgon was sent by
his mother to Gondolin, and there received,' although half
of Ilkorin blood, and treated as a prince.
Hurin of Hithlum had a brother Huor. The son of Huor
was Tuor, younger than Turin' son of Hurin. Rian, Huor's
wife, sought her husband's body among the slain on the
field of Unnumbered Tears, and died there. Her son remain-
ing in Hithlum fell into the hands of the faithless men
whom Morgoth drove into Hithlum after that battle, and he
was made a thrall. Growing wild and rough he fled into the
woods, and became an outlaw, and a solitary, living alone
and communing with none save rarely with wandering and
hidden Elves. On a time Ylmir contrived that he should be
led to a subterranean river-course leading out of Mithrim
into a chasmed river that flowed at last into the Western
Sea. In this way his going was unmarked by Man, Orc, or
spy, and unknown of Morgoth. After long wanderings down
the western shores he came to the mouths of Sirion, and
there fell in with the Gnome Bronweg, who had once been
in Gondolin. They journey secretly up Sirion together. Tuor
lingers long in the sweet land Nan Tathrin 'Valley of Wil-
lows', but there Ylmir himself comes up the river to visit
him, and tells him of his mission. He is to bid Turgon pre-
pare for battle against Morgoth; for Ylmir will turn the
hearts of the Valar to forgive the Gnomes and send them
succour. If Turgon will do this, the battle will be terrible,
but the race of Orcs will perish and will not in after ages
trouble Elves and Men. If not, the people of Gondolin are
to prepare for flight to Sirion's mouth, where Ylmir will aid
them to build a fleet and guide them back to Valinor. If
Turgon does Ylmir's will Tuor is to abide a while in
Gondolin and then go back to Hithlum with a force of
Gnomes and draw Men once more into alliance with the
Elves, for 'without Men the Elves shall not prevail against
the Orcs and Balrogs'. This Ylmir does because he knows
that ere seven' full years are passed the doom of Gondolin
will come through Meglin.(4)
Tuor and Bronweg reach the secret way,(5) and come out
upon the guarded plain. Taken captive by the watch they
are led before Turgon. Turgon is grown old' and very
mighty and proud, and Gondolin so fair and beautiful, and
its people so proud of it and confident in its secret and im-
pregnable strength, that the king and most of the people do
not wish to trouble about the Gnomes and Elves without, or
care for Men, nor do they long any more for Valinor.
Meglin approving, the king rejects Tuor's message in spite
of the words of Idril the far-sighted (also called Idril
Silverfoot, because she loved to walk barefoot) his daugh-
ter, and the wiser of his counsellors. Tuor lives on in
Gondolin, and becomes a great chieftain. After three years
he weds Idril - Tuor and Beren alone of all mortals ever
wedded Elves, and since Elwing daughter of Dior Beren's
son wedded Earendel son of Tuor and Idril of them alone
has come the strain of Elfinesse into mortal blood.
Not long after this Meglin going far afield over the
mountains is taken by Orcs, and purchases his life when
taken to Angband by revealing Gondolin and its secrets.
Morgoth promises him the lordship of Gondolin, and pos-
session of Idril. Lust for Idril led him the easier to his
treachery, and added to his hatred of Tuor.
Morgoth sends him back to Gondolin. Earendel is born,
having the beauty and light and wisdom of Elfinesse, the
hardihood and strength of Men, and the longing for the sea
which captured Tuor and held him for ever when Ylmir
spoke to him in the Land of Willows.
At last Morgoth is ready, and the attack is made on
Gondolin with dragons, Balrogs, and Orcs. After a dreadful
fight about the walls the city is stormed, and Turgon per-
ishes with many of the most noble in the last fight in the
great square. Tuor rescues Idril and Earendel from Meglin,
and hurls him from the battlements. He then leads the rem-
nant of the people of Gondolin down a secret tunnel previ-
ously made by Idril's advice which comes out far in the
North of the plain. Those who would not come with him
but fled to the old way of escape are caught by the dragon
sent by Morgoth to watch that exit.
In the fume of the burning Tuor leads his company into
the mountains into the cold pass of Cristhorn (Eagles'
Cleft). There they are ambushed, but saved by the valour of
Glorfindel (chief of the house of the Golden Flower of
Gondolin, who dies in a duel with a Balrog upon a pinna-
cle) and the intervention of Thorndor. The remnant reaches
Sirion and journeys to the land at its mouth - the Waters of
Sirion. Morgoth's triumph is now complete.
*
[All the changes in this section except that given in note 3 were late alter-
ations made roughly. and hastily.]
1 Added against this sentence: last of the fugitives from without
2 younger than Turin > cousin of Turin
3 seven early changed to twelve.
4 Added here: if they sit still in their halls.
5 Added here: which they find by the grace of Ylmir.
6 The word old circled for removal.
17.
To Sirion's mouth Elwing daughter of Dior comes, and is
received by the survivors of Gondolin.' These become a
seafaring folk, building many boats and living far out on
the delta, whither the Orcs dare not come.
Ylmir reproaches the Valar, and bids them rescue the
remnants of the Noldoli and the Silmarils in which alone
now lives the light of the old days of bliss when the Trees
were shining.
The sons of the Valar led by Fionwe Tulcas' son lead
forth a host, in which all the Qendi march, but remember-
ing Swanhaven few of the Teleri go with them. Cor is de-
serted.
Tuor growing old' cannot forbear the call of the sea, and
builds Earame and sails West with Idril and is heard of no
more. Earendel weds Elwing. The call of the sea is born
also in him. He builds Wingelot and wishes to sail in search
of his father. Ylmir bids him to sail to Valinor.' Here follow
the marvellous adventures of Wingelot in the seas and isles,
and of how Earendel slew Ungoliant in the South. He re-
turned home and found the Waters of Sirion desolate. The
sons of Feanor learning of the dwelling of Elwing and the
Nauglafring had come down on the people of Gondolin. In
a battle all the sons of Feanor save Maidros(4) were slain, but
the last folk of Gondolin destroyed or forced to go away
and join the people of Maidros.' Elwing cast the Nauglaf-
ring into the sea and leapt after it,' but was changed into a
white sea-bird by Ylmir, and flew to seek Earendel, seeking
about all the shores of the world.
Their son (Elrond) who is half-mortal and half-elfin,' a
child, was saved however by Maidros. When later the Elves
return to the West, bound by his mortal half he elects to
stay on earth. Through him the blood of Hurin' (his great-
uncle) and of the Elves is yet among Men, and is seen yet
in valour and in beauty and in poetry.
Earendel learning of these things from Bronweg, who
dwelt in a hut, a solitary, at the mouth of Sirion, is over-
come with sorrow. With Bronweg he sets sail in Wingelot
once more in search of Elwing and of Valinor.
He comes to the magic isles, and to the Lonely Isle, and
at last to the Bay of Faerie. He climbs the hill of Cor, and
walks in the deserted ways of Tun, and his raiment be-
comes encrusted with the dust of diamonds and of jewels.
He dares not go further into Valinor. He builds a tower on
an isle in the northern seas, to which all the seabirds of the
world repair. He sails by the aid of their wings even over
the airs in search of Elwing, but is scorched by the Sun,
and hunted from the sky by the Moon, and for a long while
he wanders the sky as a fugitive star.(9)
*
[In this section again most of the changes (not those in notes 2 and 4)
were hastily made in pencil.]
1. This sentence was changed to read:
At Sirion's mouth Elwing daughter of Dior dwelt, and received the
survivors of Gondolin.
2. growing old struck out.
3. Ylmir bids him to sail to Valinor struck out.
4. Maidros > Maidros and Maglor.
5. Written in the margin: Maglor sat and sang by the sea in repentance.
6. My father first wrote Elwing cast herself into the sea with the
Nauglafring, but changed it to Elwing cast the Nauglafring into the sea
and leapt after it in the act of writing.
7. This sentence was changed to read:
Their son (Elrond) who is part mortal and part elfin and part of the
race of Valar,
8 Hurin struck out, and Huor and of Beren written above, together with
some illegible words. One might expect Through him the blood of
Huor and of Beren his great-grandfathers, but the illegible words do
not seem to be these. (Hurin was in fact Elrond's great-great-uncle.)
9 The last sentence (He sails by the aid of their wings...) is an addi-
tion, but I think an addition made at the time of writing.
18.
The march of Fionwe into the North is then told, and of
the Terrible or Last Battle. The Balrogs are all destroyed,
and the Orcs destroyed or scattered. Morgoth himself
makes a last sally with all his dragons; but they are de-
stroyed, all save two which escape, by the sons of the
Valar, and Morgoth is overthrown and bound' and his iron
crown is made into a collar for his neck. The two Silmarils
are rescued. The Northern and Western parts of the world
are rent and broken in the struggle.'
The Gods and Elves release Men from Hithlum, and
march through the lands summoning the remnants of the
Gnomes and Ilkorins to join them. All do so except the
people of Maidros. Maidros aided by many men' prepares
to perform his oath, though now at last weighed down by
sorrow because of it. He sends to Fionwe reminding him of
the oath and begging for the Silmarils. Fionwe replies that
he has lost his right to them because of the evil deeds of
Feanor, and of the slaying of Dior, and of the plundering of
Sirion. He must submit, and come back to Valinor; in
Valinor only and at the judgement of the Gods shall they be
handed over.
Maidros and Maglor' submit. The Elves set sail from
Luthien (Britain or England) for Valinor.' Thence they ever
still from time [to time] set sail leaving the world ere they
fade.
On the last march Maglor says to Maidros that there are
two sons of Feanor now left, and two Silmarils; one is his.
He steals it, and flies, but it burns him so that he knows he
no longer has a right to it. He wanders in pain over the
earth, and casts himself into a pit.' One Silmaril is now in
the sea, and one in the earth.'
The Gnomes and many of the Ilkorins and Teleri and
Qendi repeople the Lonely Isle. Some go back to live upon
the shores of Faery and in Valinor, but Cor and Tur remain
desolate.
*
1. Added here: by the chain Angainor
2. Added here: and the fashion of their lands altered (late pencilled ad-
dition).
3. aided by many men struck out.
4. and Maglor circled in pencil.
5. This sentence was changed to read:
The Elves march to the Western shore, and begin to set sail from
Leithien (Britain or England) for Valinor.
6. casts himself into a pit > casts it into a fiery pit.
7. Added here: Maglor sings now ever in sorrow by the sea.
19.
The judgement of the Gods takes place. The earth is to
be for Men, and the Elves who do not set sail for the
Lonely Isle or Valinor shall slowly fade and fail. For a
while the last dragons and Orcs shall grieve the earth, but
in the end all shall perish by the valour of Men.
Morgoth is thrust through the Door of Night into the
outer dark beyond the Walls of the World, and a guard set
for ever on that Door. The lies that he sowed in the hearts
of Men and Elves do not die and cannot all be slain by the
Gods, but live on and bring much evil even to this day.
Some say also that secretly Morgoth or his black shadow
and spirit in spite of the Valar creeps back over the Walls
of the World in the North and East and visits the world,
others that this is Thu his great chief who escaped the Last
Battle and dwells still in dark places, and perverts Men to
his dreadful worship. When the world is much older, and
the Gods weary, Morgoth will come back through the Door,
and the last battle of all will be fought. Fionwe will fight
Morgoth on the plain of Valinor, and the spirit of Turin
shall be beside him; it shall be Turin who with his black
sword will slay Morgoth, and thus the children of Hurin
shall be avenged.
In those days the Silmarils shall be recovered from sea
and earth and air, and Maidros shall break them and
Belaurin(1) with their fire rekindle the Two Trees, and the
great light shall come forth again, and the Mountains of
Valinor shall be levelled so that it goes out over the world,
and Gods and Elves and Men' shall grow young again, and
all their dead awake.'
And thus it was that the last Silmaril came into the air.
The Gods adjudged the last Silmaril to Earendel - 'until
many things shall come to pass' - because of the deeds of
the sons of Feanor. Maidros is sent to Earendel and with the
aid of the Silmaril Elwing is found and restored. Earendel's
boat is drawn over Valinor to the Outer Seas, and Earendel
launches it into the outer darkness high above Sun and
Moon. There he sails with the Silmaril upon his brow and
Elwing at his side, the brightest of all stars, keeping watch
upon Morgoth.4 So he shall sail until he sees the last battle
gathering upon the plains of Valinor. Then he will descend.
And this is the last end of the tales of the days before the
days, in the Northern regions of the Western World. These
tales are some of those remembered and sung by the fading
Elves, and most by the vanished Elves of the Lonely Isle.
They have been told by Elves to Men of the race of
Earendel, and most to Eriol who alone of mortals of later
days sailed to the Lonely Isle, and yet came back to
Luthien,' and remembered things he had heard in Cortirion,
the town of the Elves in Tol Eressea.
*
1 Against Belaurin was written Palurien (cf. $1 note 1).
2 and Men struck out.
3 Added here:
But of Men in that last Day the prophecy speaks not, save of Turin
only.
4 Added here: and the Door of Night (late pencilled addition).
5 Luthien > Leithien (cf. $18 note 5).
Commentary on
the 'Sketch of the Mythology'.
While the 'Sketch' is a good and clear manuscript, as it had
to be (since it was to be read by R. W. Reynolds), it will be
apparent that my father composed it extremely rapidly: I think
it quite possible and even probable that he wrote it without
consulting the earlier prose tales.
Very great advances have been made towards the form of
the story as it appears in the published work; but there is no
trace of a prose narrative even in fragmentary or note form that
bridges the gap between the Lost Tales and this synopsis in the
'Valinorean' part of the mythology (i.e. to the flight of the
Noldoli and the making of the Sun and Moon). This is not to
say, of course, that none such ever existed, though the fact that
my father did undoubtedly preserve a very high proportion of
all that he ever wrote leads me to doubt it. I think it far more
likely that while working on other things (during his time at
Leeds) he had developed his ideas, especially on the
'Valinorean' part, without setting them to paper; and since the
prose Tales had been set aside a good many years before, it
may be that certain narrative shifts found in the 'Sketch' were
less fully intended, less conscious, than such shifts in the later
development of 'The Silmarillion', where he always worked on
the basis of existing writings.
It is in any case often extremely difficult, or impossible, to
judge whether features in the Tales that are not present in the
'Sketch' were omitted simply for the sake of compression, or
whether they had been definitively abandoned. Thus while
Eriol - not AElfwine, see II. 300 - is mentioned at the end, and
his coming to Kortirion in Tol Eressea, there is no trace of
the Cottage of Lost Play: the entire narrative framework of the
Lost Tales has disappeared. But this does not by any means
demonstrate that my father had actually rejected it at this time.
The Commentary that follows is divided according to the
19 sections into which I have divided the narrative.
The 'Sketch of the Mythology' is referred to throughout
the rest of this book by the abbreviation 'S'.
S (the 'Sketch'), which makes no reference to the Creation
and the Music of the Ainur, begins with the coming of the
Nine Valar 'for the governance of the world': the Nine Valar
have been referred to in the alliterative poem The Flight of the
Noldoli (see III. 133, 137). There now appears the isle (later
called Almaren) on which the Gods dwelt after the making of
the Lamps, the origin of which is probably to be seen in the
tale of The Coming of the Valar I. 69 - 70, where it is said that
when the Lamps fell the Valar were gathered on the Twilit
Isles, and that 'that island whereon stood the Valar' was
dragged westward by Osse. It might seem that the story of
Melko's making the pillars of the Lamps out of ice that melted
had been abandoned, but it reappears again later, in the
Ambarkanta (p. 292).
The use of the word 'plant' of the Two Trees is curious, and
might be dismissed simply as a hasty expression if it did not
appear in the following version of 'The Silmarillion', the
Quenta (p. 80). In the old tale, as in the published work, the
Trees rose from the ground under the chanted spells of
Yavanna. The silver undersides of the leaves of the White Tree
now appear, and its flowers are likened to those of a cherry:
Silpion is translated 'Cherry-moon' in the Name-list to The
Fall of Gondolin (II. 215). The mention of the White Tree first
may imply that it had now become the Elder Tree, as it is ex-
plicitly in the Quenta.
As S was first written the Trees had periods of twelve hours,
as in the Lost Tales (see 1. 88 and footnote), but with emenda-
tion from 'six' to 'seven' (allowing for the time of 'mingled
light') the period becomes fourteen hours. This was a move-
ment towards the formulation in The Silmarillion (p. 38),
where each Tree 'waxed to full and waned again to naught' in
seven hours; but in The Silmarillion 'each day of the Valar in
Aman contained twelve hours', whereas in S each day was
double that length.
The Gnomish name of Varda, Bridhil, occurs in the allitera-
tive Flight of the Noldoli (changed to Bredhil), the Lay of
Leithian, and the early Gnomish dictionary (I. 273, entry
Varda). On Timbrenting, Tindbrenting see III. 127, 139;
Tengwethil (varying with Taingwethil) is found in the Lay of
the Children of Hurin. For Ifan Belaurin see I. 273, entry
Yavanna; in the Gnomish dictionary the Gnomish form is Ifon,
Ivon.
2.
The description in S of the 'Outer Lands' (now used of the
Great Lands, see III. 224), where growth was checked at the
downfall of the Lamps, but where there are forests of dark
trees in which Orome goes hunting at times, moves the narra-
tive at this point in one step to its structure in The Silmarillion;
of the very different account in the Lost Tales I noticed in my
commentary on The Chaining of Melko (I. 111): 'In this earli-
est narrative there is no mention of the beginning of growth
during the time when the Lamps shone, and the first trees and
low plants appeared under Yavanna's spells in the twilight after
their overthrow.'
Whereas in the Lost Tales the star-making of Varda took
place after the awakening of the Elves (I. 113), here they
awake 'at the making of the stars.'
In commenting on the Lost Tales I noticed g. 111, 131) that
the Gods sought out Melko on account of his renewed cosmic
violence, before the awakening of the Elves and without re-
spect to them in any way; and that the release of Melko from
Mandos took place before the coming of the Eldar to Valinor,
so that he played a part in the debate concerning their sum-
mons. In S the later story (that the discovery of the Elves led
directly to the assault of the Valar on the fortress of Morgoth)
is already present, and moreover a motive is ascribed to the in-
tervention of the Valar that is not found in The Silmarillion:
they are 'reminded of their duty to the Earth, since they came
thither knowing that their office was to govern it for the two
races of Earth who should after come each in appointed time'.
It seems clear also that the old story of the coming of the Elves
being known to Manwe independently of their discovery by
Orome (see L 131) had been abandoned.
In the Lost Tales Melko's first fortress was Utumna, and
though it was not wholly destroyed to its foundations g. 104)
after his escape back into the Great Lands he was 'busy mak-
ing himself new dwellings', as Sorontur told Manwe, for
'never more will Utumna open unto him' g. 176). This second
fortress was Angband (Angamandi). In S, on the other hand,
the first fortress is Angband, and after his escape Morgoth is
able to return to it ($4), for it was too strong for the Gods to
destroy ($2). The name Utumna (Utumno) has thus disap-
peared.
In the passage describing the three hosts of the Elves on the
great march from Cuivienen (which occurs, by emendation, in
the Lay of the Children of Hurin, III. 18, 23) there appears the
later use of Teleri for the third kindred (who however still re-
tain the old name Solosimpi, the Shoreland Pipers), while the
first kindred (the Teleri of the Lost Tales) now acquire the
name Quendi (subsequently spelt in S both Quendi and Qendi).
Thus:
Lost Tales. 'Sketch'. The Silmarillion.
Teleri. Q(u)endi. Vanyar.
Noldoli. Noldoli. Noldor.
Solosimpi. Teleri, Solosimpi. Teleri.
The formulation at the time of the Lost Tales was that Qendi
was the original name of all the Elves, and Eldar the name
given by the Gods and adopted by the Elves of Valinor; those
who remained in the Great Lands (Ilkorins) preserved the old
name, Qendi. There also appear now the terms 'Light-elves',
'Deep-elves', and 'Sea-elves' (as in The Hobbit, chapter 8); the
meaning of 'the Elves proper', applied to the first kindred, is
clear from the Quenta (p. 102): 'the Quendi... who some-
times are alone called Elves.'
Inwe of the Lost Tales now becomes Ingwe, with the Gnom-
ish equivalent Ing which appears in the alliterative poems, as
does Gnomish Finn (in The Flight of the Noldoli). Elwe (Elu)
is in the role of the later Olwe, leader of the third kindred after
the loss of Thingol. In the Tale of Tinuviel Tinwelint (Thingol)
was indeed originally called Tinto Ellu or Ellu, but in the tales
of The Coming of the Elves and The Theft of Melko, by later
changes, Ellu becomes the name of the second lord of the
Solosimpi chosen in Tinwelint's place.
Notably absent from the account in S are the initial coming
of the three Elvish ambassadors to Valinor, and the Elves who
did not leave the Waters of Awakening, referred to in
Gilfanon's Tale g. 231): the Ilkorins are here defined as those
who were lost on the great march into the West. On these
omissions see the commentary on $2 in the Quenta, p. 201.
Other omissions in S are the two starmakings of Varda (see
p. 201) and the chain Angainor with which Morgoth was
bound (see S $18 note 1).
3.
In the tale of The Coming of the Elves the island on which
the Gods were drawn to the western lands at the time of the
fall of the Lamps was the island on which the Elves were af-
terwards ferried, becoming Tol Eressea (see I. 118, 134); now,
the isle on which the Gods dwelt (see the commentary on $1)
is again the isle of the Elves' ferrying. But in The Silmarillion
there is no connection between the Isle of Almaren and Tol
Eressea.
In the story of the ferrying features of the final narrative
emerge in S: the first two kindreds to arrive at the shores of
the sea are ferried together on this island, not separately as in
the tale; and the love of the sea among the Teleri (Solosimpi)
began during their waiting for Ulmo's return. On the other
hand the old story of Osse s rebellious anchoring of Tol
Eressea still survives (see I. 134); but the position of the island
after its anchoring has now shifted westwards, to the Bay of
Faerie, 'whence the Mountains of Valinor could dimly be
seen': contrast the account in the tale, where Ulmo had tra-
versed 'less than half the distance' across the Great Sea when
Osse waylaid it, and where 'no land may be seen for man
leagues' sail from its cliffs' (see I. 120 - 1, and my discussion
of this change, I. 134). In the tale, Osse seized and anchored
Tol Eressea before its journey was done because he 'deemed
himself slighted that his aid was not sought in the ferrying of
the Elves, but his own island taken unasked' g. 119); in S his
jealousy is indeed mentioned, but also his love of the singing
of the Teleri, which was afterwards a prominent motive. Osse's
making of the seabirds for the Teleri (Solosimpi) was retained,
though afterwards lost.
In the tale the gap in the Mountains of Valinor was not
made by the Valor for the sake of the Elves, nor was the hill
of Kor raised for them: they had existed since distant days,
when 'in the trouble of the ancient seas a shadowy arm of wa-
ter had groped in toward Valinor' g. 122). In the passage in S
can be seen the origin of that in The Silmarillion (p. 59). Here
in S Cor is the hill and Tun is the city built upon it (though
in $2 there is a reference to Elves dwelling 'in Cor'); see
III. 93.
On the 'invention' of gems by the Noldoli see I. 138. The
especial love of Mandos 'the wise' for the Noldoli is found
neither in the Lost Tales nor in The Silmarillion, and may seem
an improbable attribute of that Vala: cf. The Coming of the
Elves, I. 117: Mandos and Fui were cold to the Eldar as to all
else.'
The passage concerning the Noldorin princes, added to the
text of S (though probably after no great interval), is the origin
of the passage in The Silmarillion (p. 60) which begins in the
same way: 'The Noldor afterwards came back to Middle-earth,
and this tale tells mostly of their deeds...' For the details of
names and relations in this passage see the Note at the end of
this section of the commentary.
The story of the coming of the Teleri (Solosimpi) to Valinor
from Tol Eressea comes in S, in essentials, almost to the form
in The Silmarillion (p. 61); for the very different account in the
tale see I. 124-6. In S, however, it was Ylmir (Ulmo) not Osse
who taught them the craft of shipbuilding, and this of course
reflects the difference still underlying: for here Ylmir was still,
as in the tale, eager for the coming of the Third Kindred to
Valinor, whereas in The Silmarillion he had himself bidden
Osse make fast the island to the sea-bottom, and afterwards
only 'submitted to the will of the Valar'. - The name Ylmir -
almost certainly the Gnomish form - appears in the Lay of the
Children of Hurin, see III. 93; but the form Oin for Uinen is
not found elsewhere.
Note on the Noldorin princes.
Fingolfin as the son of Finwe (Finn) and father of Turgon
emerges first in the Lay of the Fall of Gondolin (II. 146-7),
and is present in the second version of the Lay of the Children
of Hurin (only by emendation in the first) (III. 137). That
Feanor was Fingolfin's brother is deducible from the allitera-
tive Flight of the Noldoli (ibid.), but from S, as originally writ-
ten in this section, it is seen that Feanor was at first the second,
not the elder son. Here in S Finwe's third son Finrod first
emerges: the mention of him, and his sons, in a note to the Lay
of the Children of Hurin (III. 80) is certainly later, as is his
first appearance in the Lay of Leithian (III. 191, 195).
The seven sons of Feanor with the same name-forms as here
in S have appeared in the Lay of the Children of Hurin (III. 65,
86); the naming of Damrod and Diriel together in S suggests
that they were already twin brothers.
Of the sons of Fingolfin Turgon of course goes back to the
Lost Tales, where he was the son, not the grandson, of Finwe
the other son Finweg appears in the Lay of the Children
Hurin, where the emendation to Fingon (see III. 5, 80) is later
than S - and the Quenta, where he was still Finweg in the text
as first written.
The sons of Finrod first emerge here, and as the inserted
passage in S was first written Orodreth was apparently the el-
dest son; Angrod was Anrod; and Felagund was Felagoth.
Felagoth occurs as an intervening stage between Celegorm an
Felagund in the A-text of the Lay of Leithian (III. 169, 195).
4.
In this section again S moves at a step close to the essential
structure of the narrative in The Silmarillion, though these are
important features not yet present. I have discussed previously
g. 156-8) the radical differences between the tale of The Theft
of Melko and the story in The Silmarillion, and it will be seen
that it was with S that almost all these differences entered:
there is thus no need to repeat the comparison again here. But
various more minor matters may be noticed.
The quarrel of the Noldorin princes has as yet none of the
complexity and subtlety that entered into it afterwards with the
history of Miriel, the first wife of Finwe and mother of Feanor,
the quarrel is in any case treated with great brevity.
It is said here that 'Feanor has cursed for ever anyone, God
or Elf or mortal that shall come hereafter, who touches [the
Silmarils]'. In $5, by a later interpolation, the oath is taken by
Feanor and his sons at the time of the torchlit concourse in
Tun, but the statement in $4 my father allowed to stand,
clearly because he overlooked it. In the alliterative fragment
The Flight of the NoLdoli, however, which on general grounds
I assume to belong to the earlier part of 1925 (III. 131), the
oath is sworn by Feanor and his sons as in the interpolation in
S $5, 'in the mighty square upon the crown of Cor' (see
III. 136). I incline to think that the statement here in $4 was
a slip of memory.
The events immediately following the council of the Gods
in which Morgoth's lies were disclosed and Feanor banished
from Tun (in S the banishment is not said to be limited to a
term of years) are not yet given the form they have in The
Silmarillion. The entire story of Morgoth's going to Formenos
(not yet so named) and his speech with Feanor before the
doors (The Silmarillion pp. 71 - 2) has yet to appear. Morgoth's
northward movement up the coast in feint is also absent; rather
he comes at once to Arvalin 'where the shadow is thickest in
all the world', as is said in The Silmarillion (p. 73) of Avathar.
In the story of Morgoth's encounter with Ungoliant and the
destruction of the Trees details of the final version appear, as
Ungoliant's ascent of the great mountain (later ' named
Hyarmentir) 'from pinnacle to pinnacle', and the ladder made
for Morgoth to climb. There is no mention of the great festival,
but it appears in 55: it looks as if my father omitted to include
it earlier and brought it in a bit further on as an afterthought.
In the tale of The Theft of Melko Ungoliant fled south
at once after the destruction of the Trees (I. 154), and of
Melko's subsequent movements after his crossing of the Ice
it is only told (by Sorontur to Manwe, I. 176) that he was
busy building himself a new dwelling-place in the region of
the Iron Mountains. But in S the story of 'the Thieves' Quar-
rel' and Morgoth's rescue by the Balrogs emerges suddenly
fully-formed.
5.
From the account of the great festival (see commentary on
54) is absent both the original occasion for holding it (com-
memoration of the coming of the Eldar to Valinor, I. 143) and
that given in The Silmarillion (the autumn feast: pp. 74-5).
The later feature that the Teleri were not present appears (see
I 157); but there is no suggestion of the important elements of
Feanor coming alone to the festival from Formenos, the formal
reconciliation with Fingolfin, and Feanor's refusal to surrender
the Silmarils before he heard the news of his father's death and
the theft of the jewels (The Silmarillion pp. 75, 78 - 9).
In the later emendations of the text of S we see the growth
of the story of the divided counsels of the Gnomes, with the
introduction of the attempt of Finrod (later Finarfin) to calm
the conflicting factions - though this element was present in
the tale of The Flight of the Noldoli, where Finwe No1eme
plays the part of the appeaser g. 162). After a good deal of
further shifting in this passage in later texts, and the introduc-
tion of Galadriel, the alignment, and the motives, of the princes
as they appear in The Silmarillion are more complex (pp.
83-4); but the element is already present that only one of
Finrod's sons sided with him (here Felagund, in The
Silmarillion Orodreth).
The emendation making Fingolfin and Finweg (Fingon) rule
over 'a half of the Noldoli of Tun' must be incorrect; my fa-
ther probably intended the revised text to read 'over the
Noldoli of Tun'.
The rapid shifting in the part of Finrod (Finarfin) in these
events can be observed in the successive interpolations made
in S. It seems that in the original text he did not appear at all
(the first mention of him is in the interpolated passage in $3,
pp. 15 - 16). He is said not to have left Tun; then he is said to
have been slain at Swanhaven; and finally it is told that he and
his sons were not at Swanhaven, but left Tun reluctantly, carry-
ing with them many things of their making. Finrod was then
introduced as only arriving with his people in the far North af-
ter the burning of the ships by the Feanorians on the other side
of the strait. As S was originally written Fingolfin, deserted
and shipless, returned to Valinor, and it was his son Finweg
(Fingon) who led the main host over the Grinding Ice; but with
the introduction of Finrod he becomes the one who returned.
(Finweg as the leader of the host was not then changed to
Fingolfin, but this was obviously an oversight.)
In the account of the northward journey of the Noldoli after
the battle of Swanhaven it seems that all the host was em-
barked in the ships of the Teleri, since Mandos' emissary hails
them from a high cliff 'as they sail by', but this may be merely
due to compression, since in the Tale g. 166) some marched
along the shore while 'the fleet coasted beside them not far out
to sea', and the same is told in The Silmarillion ('some by ship
and some by land', p. 87). -The storm raised by Uinen is not
mentioned.
It is curious that the curse upon the Gnomes, that they
should suffer from treachery and the fear of treachery among
their own kindred, is separated from the Prophecy of Mandos;
but it is not said by whom this curse was pronounced. Nothing
is told in S as originally written of the content of the Prophecy
of Mandos, save that it concerned 'the fate of after days', but
my father subsequently added that it told of 'the curse of war
against one another because of Swanhaven', thus bringing the
'curse' into the content of the 'Prophecy', as in The
Silmarillion. There is no trace of the old prophecies concerning
Turgon and Gondolin g. 167, 172), but nor is there any sug-
gestion of the nature of the doom of the Noldor as it is stated
in The Silmarillion.
For the original story of the crossing of the Grinding Ice by
the Gnomes, where there is no element of treachery (though
the blaming of Feanor was already present), see I. 167 - 9.
6
The making of the Sun and Moon is here compressed into
a couple of phrases. Virtually all of the extremely elaborate ac-
count in the old Tale of the Sun and Moon has disappeared: the
tears of Vana leading to the last fruit of Laurelin, the breaking
of the 'Fruit of Noon', the Bath of the Setting Sun where the
Sun-maiden and her ship were drawn on coming out of the
East, the song of Lorien leading to the last flower of Silpion,
the fall of the 'Rose of Silpion' which caused the markings
on the Moon, the refusal to allow Silmo to steer the ship of
the Moon and the task given instead to Ilinsor, a spirit of the
Suruli, Lake Irtinsa where the ship of the Moon was refreshed,
and much else. But while it is impossible to say how much of
all this my father had 'privately' rejected at this time (see my
remarks, I. 200), some elements at least were suppressed for
the purposes of this 'Sketch', which is after all only an outline,
for they will reappear.
The change in the celestial plan now takes place because the
Gods 'find it safer to send [the Sun and Moon] in Ylmir's care
through the caverns and grottoes beneath the Earth'. This is
wholly different from the old story (I. 215), in which the orig-
inal plan of the Gods was that the Sun and Moon should be
drawn beneath the earth; this plan was changed when they
found that the Sun-ship 'might not safely come beneath the
world' - the very reverse of what is said in S. Though the
Moon continued to pass beneath the earth, the Gods now made
the Door of Night in the West and the Gates of Morn in the
East, through which the Sun passed thenceforward, going into
and returning from the Outer Dark g. 216). The astronomical
aspect of the mythology has thus undergone a profound shift,
an entire re-making.
The reference to the rekindling of the 'Magic Sun' (here
with extension to the Moon, not found in the earliest writings)
is a noteworthy survival; and the meaning is explicitly the re-
birth of the Trees (see II. 286). Very remarkable is Ulmo's
foretelling to the Valar that the rekindling of the Two Trees and
the return of 'the bliss and glory of old' would only come to
pass by the aid of Men. It is possible that this is a reference to
his own deep designs laid through Turgon, Tuor, and Earendel;
but it is nowhere suggested that these designs issued or were
intended to issue in such a way. Perhaps we should see here
rather the continued existence in some form of the old proph-
ecy given in II. 285:
The Elves' prophecy is that one day they will fare forth
from Tol Eressea and on arriving in the world will gather all
their fading kindred who still live in the world and march
towards Valinor... This they will only do with the help of
Men. If Men aid them, the fairies will take Men to
Valinor - those that wish to go - fight a great battle with
Melko in Erumani and open Valinor. Laurelin and Silpion
will be rekindled, and the mountain wall being destroyed
then soft radiance will spread over all the world, and the
Sun and Moon will be recalled.
In the account of the Hiding of Valinor we move in S from
the Lost Tales to The Silmarillion: I have observed (I. 223) the
total absence in the latter of the bitter divisions among the
Valar, of Manwe's disgusted withdrawal, of Ulmo's vain plead-
ing for pity on the Noldor - and of my father's explicit view in
the tale of The Hiding of Valinor that the actions of the Valar
at this time, and their failure to make war upon Morgoth, were
a profound error arising from indolence and fear. The fear of
Morgoth does indeed remain, and is the only motive offered in
The Silmarillion for the Hiding of Valinor, but the author
makes no comment on it. In S however the element of divine
anger against the Noldoli is still present (though neither here
nor later is there any reference to the peculiar anger of Aule
against them (see I. 176), save that in the Annals of Valinor
(p. 317) when Finrod and others returned to Valinor after hear-
ing the Doom of Mandos 'Aule their ancient friend smiled on
them no more').
There are differences and omissions in the later versions of
the story of the Hiding of Valinor in relation to that in the tale
which have been sufficiently discussed already g. 223 - 4); but
it may be noticed that in S no reason is given for keeping open
the pass of Kor, neither that in the tale nor that in The
Silmarillion.
It is very clear that with the 'Sketch' the structure of the
Valinorean part of the mythology, though not of course the de-
tail, had quite largely reached the stage of development of the
published version; and it can be understood why my father
wrote on the envelope containing S the words Original
'Silmarillion'. It is here that 'The Silmarillion' begins.
7.
It will be seen that in this passage S has already the struc-
ture and some even of the phrases of the last three paragraphs
of chapter 12 ('Of Men') in The Silmarillion.
The Feanorian oath (ascribed here to the sons only) is em-
bodied in the text as written, which probably shows that the in-
terpolated passage, introducing the oath, in $5 (p. 20) was
inserted while S was still in process of composition.
The words of S, 'in the early days Eldar and Men were of
nearly equal stature and power of body', are echoed in The
Silmarillion: 'Elves and Men were of like stature and strength
of body', for statements on this matter in earlier writings see
II. 326.
The 'higher culture' that my father came to ascribe to the
Elves of Doriath (or more widely to the Grey-elves of
Beleriand) is now established ('Only in the realm of Doriath
... did the Ilkorins equal the Koreldar'); contrast the descrip-
tion of the Ilkorins of Tinwelint's following in the old Tale of
Tinuviel ('eerie they were and strange beings, knowing little of
light or loveliness or of musics...'), concerning which I noted
that Tinwelint's people are there described in terms applicable
rather to the wild Avari of The Silmarillion (see H. 9, 64). It
is however said in this passage of the tale that 'Different in-
deed did they become when the Sun arose.*
The ideas expressed here concerning the nature of the im-
mortality of the Elves go back largely to the Lost Tales; cf. the
description of the hall of Mandos in The Coming of the Valar
(I. 76):
Thither in after days fared the Elves of all the clans who
were by illhap slain with weapons or did die of grief for
those that were slain - and only so might the Eldar die, and
then it was only for a while. Them Mandos spake their
doom, and there they waited in the darkness, dreaming of
their past deeds, until such time as he appointed when they
might again be born into their children, and go forth to
laugh and sing again.
Similarly in The Music of the Ainur g. 59) it is said that 'the
Eldar dwell till the Great End unless they be slain or waste in
grief (for to both of these deaths are they subject)', and 'dying
they are reborn in their children, so that their number minishes
not, nor grows'. But in the early texts death by sickness is not
mentioned, and this appears for the first time in S: where by
emendation there is a modification of the idea, from freedom
from all sickness to freedom from death by sickness. Moreover
in the early texts rebirth in their own children seems to be rep-
resented as the universal fate of the Eldar who die; whereas in
S they are said to return from Mandos 'to free life'. Rebirth is
mentioned in S very briefly and only in a later interpolation.
In S my father's conception of the fate of Men after death
is seen evolving (for the extremely puzzling account in the
Lost Tales see I. 77, 90-3). As he first wrote S, there was an
explicit assertion that Men did not go to Mandos, did not pass
to the western land: this was an idea derived from contact with
the Eldar. But he changed this, and wrote instead that Men do
indeed go to their own halls in Mandos, for a time; none know
whither they go after, save Mandos himself.
On the 'fading' of the Elves who remained 'in the world'
see II. 326.
8.
Neither the brief outlines for what was to have been
Gilfanon's tale of The Travail of the Noldoli (I. 237-41) nor
the subsequent abandoned narrative given on pp. 5 - 7 bear
much relation to what came after. Enduring features were the
camp by Asgon-Mithrim, the death of Feanor, the first affray
with the Orcs, the capture and maiming of Maidros; but these
elements had different motivations and concomitants in the ear-
liest writing, already discussed g. 242 - 3). With the 'Sketch',
however, most of the essentials of the later story appear fully-
formed, and the distance travelled from the Lost Tales is here
even more striking than hitherto.
The first battle of the Gnomes with the forces of Morgoth is
not clearly placed in S (cf. Gilfanon's Tale, I. 238, 240, where
the battle was fought 'in the foothills of the Iron Mountains' or
in 'the pass of the Bitter Hills') - but the idea is already pres-
ent that the Orcs were aroused by the burning of the ships (cf.
55: 'The same light also tells the Orcs of the landing'.)
There now emerge the death of Feanor at the hand of
Gothmog the Balrog, the parley with the enemy and the faith-
less intentions on both sides, the arrival of the second host, un-
furling their blue and silver banners (see p. 8) under the first
Sunrise, and the dismay of the Orcs at the new light, the hos-
tile armies of the Gnomes encamped on opposite sides of Lake
Mithrim, the 'vast smokes and vapours' rising from Angband.
The only important structural element in the narrative that has
yet to appear is that of Fingolfin's march to Angband immedi-
ately on arrival in Middle-earth and his beating on the doors.
The earlier existence of the story of the rescue of Maidros
by Finweg (Fingon) is implied by a reference in the Lay of the
Children of Hurin (see III. 65, 86) - that in the Lay of Leithian
is some two years later than S (HI. 222). A curious point arises
in the account in S: it seems that it was only at this juncture
that Manwe brought into being the race of Eagles. In the tale
of The Theft of Melko Sorontur (the 'Elvish' form of Gnomish
Thorndor) had already played a part in the story before the de-
parture of the Noldoli from Valinor. he was the emissary of the
Valar to Melko before the destruction of the Trees, and because
Melko tried to slay the Eagle
between that evil one and Sorontur has there ever since been
hate and war, and that was most bitter when Sorontur and
his folk fared to the Iron Mountains and there abode, watch-
ing all that' Melko did g. 149).
It may be noted that Lake Mithrim is placed in Hisilome/
Hithlum/Dorlomin; see III. 103.
9.
For this section of the narrative the earliest materials are so
scanty that we may almost say that the 'Sketch' is the starting-
point. In an outline for Gilfanon's Tale g. 238) there is mention
of a meeting between Gnomes and Ilkorins, and it was with the
guidance of these Ilkorins that Maidros led an army to
Angamandi, whence they were driven back with slaughter
leaving Maidros a captive; and this was followed by Melko's
southward advance and the Battle of Unnumbered Tears. As I
have noted (I. 242):
The entire later history of the long years of the Siege of
Angband, ending with the Battle of Sudden Flame (Dagor
Bragollach), of the passage of Men over the Mountains into
Beleriand and their taking service with the Noldorin Kings,
had yet to emerge; indeed these outlines give the effect of
only a brief time elapsing between the coming of the
Noldoli from Kor and their great defeat.
In another outline (I. 240) there is a slight suggestion of a
longer period, in the reference to the Noldoli 'practising many
arts'. In this outline the meeting of Gnomes and Ilkorins takes
place at 'the Feast of Reunion' (where Men were also present).
But beyond this there is really nothing of the later story to be
found in these projections. Nor indeed had S (as originally
written) made any very remarkable advances. Men 'already
dwelt in the woods of the North', which is sufficiently strange,
since according to S Men awoke at the first rising of the Sun
($6), when also Fingolfin marched into Middle-earth ($8), and
far too little time had elapsed, one would think, for Men to
have journeyed out of 'the far East' ($6) and become estab-
lished in 'the woods of the North'. Moreover there is no sug-
gestion (even allowing for the brief and concentrated nature of
the 'Sketch') that the Leaguer of Angband lasted any great
length of time, nor is the breaking of the Leaguer particularly
characterised: Morgoth 'sends out his armies', and 'Gnomes
and Ilkorins and Men are scattered', that is all. But the break-
ing of the Leaguer was already seen as a turning-point in the
history of the Elves of Beleriand. It is perfectly possible that
much of the new material that appears at this place in the
Quenta (see pp. 125 ff.) was already in my father's mind when
he wrote S (i.e., S was a precis, but a precis of an unwritten
story); for instance, the blasting of the great grassy northern
plain in the battle that ended the siege (not even mentioned
in S) was already present when the Lay of She Children of
Hurin was written (III. 55).
With the later interpolations in S enters the idea of the Siege
of Angband as an epoch, 'a time of growth and birth and flow-
ering', and also the disposition of the Gnomish princes, with
the essentials of the later history already present - Fingolfin in
Hithlum, the Feanorians in the East (where they afterwards
warred with Dwarves, Orcs, and Men), and Felagund guarding
the entry into the lands of Sirion. (The reference to Broseliand
in this passage is noteworthy: the form of the name spelt with
-s- first appears in the A-text of Canto IV of the Lay of
Leithian - probably early 1928; III. 195, 197). 'Fingolfin is
slain when Morgoth breaks the leaguer' may or may not imply
the story of his duel with Morgoth before Angband.
Gumlin father of Hurin has appeared in the second version
of the Lay of the Children of Hurin (III. 115, 126); but Huor,
named as Hurin's brother in the rewriting of S, here makes his
first appearance in the legends.
The complexities of the history of Barahir and Beren and the
founding of Nargothrond are best discussed together with what
is said in 510; see the commentary on the next section.
10.
In $9 as first written Barahir already appears as the father of
Beren, replacing Egnor; and they are here Ilkorin Elves, not
Men, though this was changed when the passage was revised.
In the first version of the Lay of the Children of Hurin Beren
was still an Elf, while in the second version my father shifted
back and forth between Man and Elf (III. 124-5); in the open-
ing cantos of the A-text of the Lay of Leithian (in being by the
autumn of 1925) Egnor and his son were Men (III. 171); now
here in S (early 1926) they are again Elves, though Egnor has
become Barahir. Perplexingly, in $10 as first written, while
Barahir is 'a famous chieftain of Ilkorindi', on the same page
of the manuscript and quite certainly written at the same time
Beren 'alone of mortals came back from Mandos'. It may well
be that the statements in S that Barahir and Beren were
Ilkorins were an inadvertent return to the former idea, after the
decision that they were Men (seen in the A-text of the Lay of
Leithian) had been made. (Later in the original text of S, $14,
Beren is a mortal.)
The reference in $9 to the founding of Nargothrond by
Celegorm and Curufin and in $10 to Barahir having been 'a
friend of Celegorm of Nargothrond' belong to the phase of the
swiftly-evolving legend represented by alterations to the text of
the Lay of the Children of Hurin (see III. 83-5), when it was
Celegorm and Curufin who founded Nargothrond after the
breaking of the Leaguer of Angband and Felagund had not yet
emerged; similarly in the A-text of the Lay of Leithian (III. 171),
The alterations to S in these sections move the story on to
the form found in the B-text of the Lay of Leithian, with
Felagund as the one saved by Barahir and the founder of
Nargothrond - though here it is said specifically that Felagund
and his brothers founded the realm, with the aid of Celegorm
and Curufin; it seems therefore that the deaths of Angrod and
Egnor in the battle that ended the Leaguer had not yet arisen
(see III. 221, 247).
The very early form of the story of Beren (the first stage of
development from the Tale of Tinuviel) in S $10 as first written
has been discussed in III. 219 - 20, 244. There remains an inter-
esting point to mention in the end of this version: the sentence
'Some songs say that Luthien went even over the Grinding Ice,
aided by the power of her divine mother, Melian, to Mandos'
halls and won him back.' There is no suggestion hem that
Luthien herself died at the time of Beren's death; and the same
idea seems likely to underlie the lines of the second version of
the Lay of the Children of Hurin (III. 107):
ere he winged afar
to the long awaiting; thence Luthien won him,
the Elf-maiden, and the arts of Melian...
In the Tale of Tinuviel, on the other hand, it is said (II. 40) that
Tinuviel crushed with sorrow and finding no comfort or
light in all the world followed him swiftly down those dark
ways that all must tread alone
- and this seems quite clear in its meaning.
Beren and Luthien are here said to have lived, after Beren's
return, 'in the woods of Doriath and in the Hunters' Wold,
west of Nargothrond'. The Land of the Dead that Live was
placed in the Hunters' Wold (Hills of the Hunters) in the Lay
of the Children of Hurin; see III. 89, where the previous his-
tory of its placing is given.
That Beren and Hurin were friends and fellows-in-arms is
stated in the Lay of the Children of Hurin, and earlier (see
III. 25), but it has not been said before that this relationship
arose during the time of Beren's outlawry.
For the use of 'Shadowy Mountains' to mean the Mountains
of Terror see III. 170-1.
In the rewritten passage (p. 28) the story is seen at an earlier
stage than that in the 'Synopsis II' for Cantos VI and VII of
the Lay of Leithian (1928), the text of which is given in
III. 221, 233. Celegorm has been displaced by Felagoth (not
yet Felagund); but Celegorm 'discovered what was the secret
mission of Felagoth and Beren' after their departure from
Nargothrond, and thus the element of the intervention of
Celegorm and Curufin, turning the Elves of Nargothrond
against their king, was not yet present. Moreover in the north-
ward journey of Beren and his companions from Nargothrond
there is a battle with Orcs, from which only a small band of
the Elves escapes, afterwards returning to the battlefield to de-
spoil the dead and disguise themselves as Orcs. These two el-
ements are clearly interconnected: Celegorm (and Curufin) do
not know why Beren and Felagoth are setting out, and thus
there is no reason why the king should not set out with a
strong force. When my father wrote 'Synopsis II' he had
brought in the element of the intervention of the Feanorian
brothers against Felagund and Beren, and with it the small
band that was all they had as companions from their first de-
parture from Nargothrond.
The sequence is thus clearly: S - Synopsis I - interpolation
in S - Synopsis II; and in the revision of S here we have an in-
teresting stage in which Felagund (Felagoth) has emerged as
the lord of Nargothrond, but the 'Feanorian intervention' has
not, and Celegorm still 'offers redress' to Luthien, as he did in
Synopsis I (III. 244) - for his dog Huan had hurt her.
The earliest form of this part of the story (apart from that
which relates to Hurin) is extant only in the compressed out-
lines for Gilfanon's Tale. In my comparison of those early out-
lines with the narrative of The Silmarillion I noted g. 242) as
essential features of the story that were to survive:
- A mighty battle called the Battle of Unnumbered Tears is
fought between Elves and Men and the hosts of Melko;
- Treachery of Men, corrupted by Melko, at that battle;
- But the people of Urin (Hurin) are faithful, and do not sur-
vive it;
- The leader of the Gnomes is isolated and slain;
- Turgon and his host cut their way out, and go to Gondolin;
- Melko is wrathful because he cannot discover where Turgon
has gone;
- The Feanorians come late to the battle;
- A great cairn is piled.
There is no evidence for any narrative of the Battle of Unnum-
bered Tears in its own right between the outlines for Gilfanon's
Tale and the 'Sketch', thus $11 in S shows at a step a very
great advance. This is not however to be regarded as a direct
evolution from the outlines, for many elements - such as the
stories of Beren and Tinuviel, and of Nargothrond - had been
developed 'collaterally' in the meantime. As S was originally
written in $11, the old 'pre-Felagund' story was present
('Curufin and Celegorm despatch a host from Nargothrond',
see commentary on $10), and although the failure of the Union
of Maidros to gather together all the Elves of Beleriand into a
united force already appears, the alignments were for this rea-
son quite different: the Gnomes of Nargothrond (ruled by
Celegorm and Curufin) will not serve under Finweg (Fingon).
But with the rewriting of S, made after the emergence of the
Felagund-story, an essential element of the later narrative
comes into being: Orodreth will not join the league on account
of Felagund his brother (cf. The Silmarillion p. 188: 'Orodreth
would not march forth at the word of any son of Feanor, be-
cause of the deeds of Celegorm and Curufin.') That Thingol
sent few (emended from none) out of Doriath is a very old el-
ement, appearing already in the Tale of Turambar (II. 73),
where Tinwelint said to Mavwin, in words echoed in the pres-
ent passage of S:
not for love nor for fear of Melko but of the wisdom of my
heart and the fate of the Valar did I not go with my folk to
the Battle of Unnumbered Tears, who am now become a
safety and a refuge...
A new factor in Thingol's policy now appears, however, in that
he resented the 'haughty words' addressed to him by Maidros,
demanding the return of the Silmaril - those 'haughty words'
and their effect on the Union of Maidros survived into The
Silmarillion (p. 189). That Thingol here allows 'the Gnomes of
Doriath' to join the league is to be related to the statement in
S 59: 'Many Gnomes take service with Thingol and Melian'
(after the breaking of the Siege of Angband). (In the Tale of
Tinuviel there were Noldoli in Tinwelint's service: it was they
indeed who built the bridge before his doors. H. 9, 43.)
As S was rewritten, the division of the opponents of
Morgoth into two hosts was due to the refusal of the
Feanorians to be led by Finweg (Fingon), whereas in The
Silmarillion account there was good agreement between
Himring and Eithel Sirion, and the assault from East and West
of the Feanorians and the Noldor of Hithlum a matter of strat-
egy ('they thought to take the might of Morgoth as between
anvil and hammer, and break it to pieces').
The Battle of Unnumbered Tears is still in S in a simple
form, but the advance of the Elves of Hithlum into Dor-na-
Fauglith in pursuit of a defeated Orc-army, so that they fall
prey to much greater hosts loosed from Angband, moves
towards the plan of the later narrative; the late arrival of the
Feanorians goes back to an outline for Gilfanon's Tale (see
above). No detail is given in S concerning the treachery of
Men at the battle, nor is any reason suggested for the late com-
ing of the Eastern Noldor.
Finweg (Fingon) had taken the place of Finwe (Noleme) as
the Gnomish king slain in the battle already in the Lay of the
Children of Hurin (III. 86), and so the story of the Scarlet
Heart, emblem of Turgon (I. 241, H. 172), had disappeared; in
the second version of the Lay there is mention of his white
banners... in blood beaten (III. 96). In S Turgon is a leader,
with his brother Finweg (Fingon), of the Western Noldor from
the outset, and was clearly conceived to be dwelling at this
time in Hithlum (cf. the interpolation in $9: 'Fingolfin's sons
Finweg and Turgon still hold out in the North', i.e. after the
ending of the Siege of Angband); and the discovery of the se-
cret valley and the founding of Gondolin follows from the re-
treat from the disaster of the Battle of Unnumbered Tears. The
'sacrifice of Mablon the Ilkorin' (I. 239, 241) has disappeared.
The great mound of the slain on Dor-na-Fauglith, the first
trace of which appears in an outline for Gilfanon's Tale (I. 241,
243), had been described in the Lay of the Children of Hurin
(III. 58-9), where Flinding said to Turin as they passed by it
in the moonlight:
A! green that hill with grass fadeless
where sleep the swords of seven kindreds...
neath moon nor sun is it mounted ever
by Man nor Elf; not Morgoth's host
ever dare for dread to delve therein.
The story of Hurin at the Battle of Unnumbered Tears - his
holding of the rearguard with his men while Turgon escaped
southwards, his capture, defiance of Morgoth, and torture - had
already been told in the Tale of Turambar (II. 70-1) and in the
Lay of the Children of Hurin (see III. 23-4, 102). In all these
sources Morgoth's concern with Hurin, his attempts to seduce
him, and his great rage when defied, arise from his desire to
find Turgon; but the element is still of course lacking in S that
Hurin had previously visited Gondolin, which at this stage in
the development of the legend did not exist as a Noldorin fast-
ness until after the Battle. As the story evolved, this fact,
known to Morgoth, gave still more ugency to his wish to take
Hurin alive, and to use him against Turgon.
12.
It is immediately obvious that S was based on the second
version of the Lay of the Children of Hurin, so far as it goes -
which in relation to the whole narrative is not far: no further
than the feast at which Turin slew Orgof. This is already evi-
dent from the preceding portion of S, describing Morgoth's
treatment of Hurin in Angband; while in the present section the
guardians of Turin on the journey to Doriath bear the later
names Halog and Mailgond (emended in the Lay to Mailrond,
III. 119), not Halog and Gumlin.
It is not to be expected that the synopsis of the story in S
should show any substantial alteration of that in the first ver-
sion of the Lay; there is some development nonetheless. It is
now explicit that the Men who in the Lay dwelt in Dorlomin
and dealt unkindly with Hurin's wife, and of whom I noted
(III. 24) that 'there is still no indication of who these men were
or where they came from', are now explicitly 'faithless men
who had deserted the Eldar in the Battle of Unnumbered
Tears', penned in Hithlum because Morgoth 'desired to keep
them from fellowship with Elves'. The question of whether
Nienor was born before Turin left Hithlum is now resolved: he
had never seen her. For the uncertainty on this point in the Tale
of Turambar see H. 131; in the Lay she was born before Turin
left (III. 9).
Whereas in the Lay Beleg, who was not searching for Turin
when he was captured by the outlaw band, knew nothing of
what had happened in the Thousand Caves (see HI. 50), in S
'Turin released Beleg, and is told how Thingol had forgiven
his deed long ago'. Blodrin is now again the son of Ban, not
of Bor (see III. 52).
There is an interesting note in S that Turin was taken alive
to Angband 'for Morgoth has begun to fear that he will escape
his curse through his valour and the protection of Melian'.
This idea is seen in the words of the Lay (III. 33) they haled
unhappy Hurin's offspring/lest he flee his fate, and goes back
to the Tale of Turambar (H. 76):
Turin was overborne and bound, for such was the will of
Melko that he be brought to him alive; for behold, dwelling
in the halls of Linwe [i.e. Tinwelint] about which had that
fay Gwedheling the Queen woven 'much magic and
mystery ... Turin had been lost out of his sight, and he
feared lest he cheat the doom that was devised for him.
There is little else to note in this section beyond the new de-
tail that the Orcs feared Taur-na-Fuin no less than Elves or
Men, and only went that way when in haste, and the ancestor
of the phrase 'Gwindor saw them marching away over the
steaming sands of Anfauglith' (The Silmarillion p. 208) in
'Flinding sees them marching over the steaming waste of Dor-
na-Fauglith' (cf. the Lay, III. 48: The dusty dunes of Dor-na-
Fauglith/hissed and spouted). A very great deal is of course
omitted in the synopsis.
13.
With the second paragraph of this section, 'Turin leads the
Gnomes of Nargothrond to forsake their secrecy and hidden
warfare', S reaches the point where the Lay of the Children of
Hurin stops, and certain advances made on the Tale of
Turambar (II. 83 ff.) can be observed. The re-forging of
Beleg's sword for Turin in Nargothrond now appears. In the
Lay Flinding put the sword in the hollow of a tree after
Beleg's death (III. 56); as I noted (III. 86): 'if the poem had
gone further Turin would have received his black sword in
Nargothrond in gift from Orodreth, as happens in the Tale'. S
thus shows a development from the plot implicit in the Lay.
The bridging of Narog by Turin's counsel enters the story only
as a pencilled marginal note. The extent of the victories and re-
conquest of territory by the Gnomes of Nargothrond at this
time is made explicit, and the realm is much as described in
The Silmarillion (p. 211):
The servants of Angband were driven out of all the land be-
tween Narog and Sirion eastward, and westward to the
Nenning and the desolate Falas
(where however its northern border along the southern feet of
the Shadowy Mountains is not mentioned; in S 'their realm
reaches to the sources of Narog').
The later addition to the text of S, 'even Glomund, who was
at the Battle of Tears', is to be related to the absence of any
mention of the Dragon in S's account of the battle ($11). As S
was first written, the Dragon was named Glorung, a change
from Glorund of the Lost Tales; the series was thus Glorund >
Glorung > Glomund > Glaurung. In the Lay of Leithian
Glomund replaces Glorund (III. 208 - 9).
The sentence 'Flinding wounded refuses Turin's succour and
dies reproaching him' shows the later form of the story, as in
The Silmarillion pp. 212 - 13; for discussion of the substantial
change from the Tale see II. 124. It is said in S that Turin for-
sook Finduilas 'against his heart (which if he had obeyed his
uttermost fate would not have befallen him)', and this is no
doubt to be related to the passage in the Tale (II. 87):
And truly is it said: 'Forsake not for anything thy friends -
nor believe those who counsel thee to do so' - for of his
abandoning of Failivrin in danger that he himself could see
came the very direst evil upon him and all he loved.
For discussion of this see II. 125.
Of Turin's return to Hithlum there is little to note, for the
synopsis is here very compressed; and I have earlier discussed
fully the relationship between the Tale and the later story
(II. 126-7). The Woodmen with whom Turin lives after his
flight from Hithlum are now given a more definite location
'east of Narog' (see II. 140-1). In S it is made clear that Turin
did not join himself to a people already existing, but 'gathered
a new people'. This is in contradiction, strangely enough, both
to the Tale (II. 91, 102), where they had a leader (Bethos)
when Turin joined them, and to the later story. Turin now takes
the name Turambar at this point in the narrative, not as in the
Tale before the Dragon outside the caves of the Rodothlim
(II. 86, 125).
Turning now to the expedition from Doriath to Nargothrond,
the only important structural difference from the Tale that
emerges in the brief account in S is that Morwen (Mavwin)
was evidently no longer present at the conversation between
Nienor and the Dragon (II. 98-9, 129); on the other hand, it is
said at the end of this section that 'Some say Morwen released
from spell by Glorung's death came that way and read the
stone.'
When Nienor-Niniel came to the falls of the Silver Bowl a
fit of shivering came on her, as in the later narrative, whereas
in the Tale it is only said that she was filled with dread
(II. 101, 130). Very notably, the statement that Niniel was with
child by Turambar was added to S later, just as it was in the
Tale (see II. 117 note 25, 135).
In the foregoing I have only picked out points that seem to
show quite clearly a different conception of the events in S
from that in the Tale. I have not mentioned the many slight dif-
ferences (including the very many omissions) that are probably
or certainly due to compression.
14.
Of this section of the narrative there exists in earlier writing
only the conclusion of the Tale of Turambar (II. 112 - 16) and
the Tale of the Nauglafring (II. 221ff.) in which the story is
continued. The opening passage of S follows the end of the
Tale of Turambar in Melko's accusation against Thingol of
faintheartedness, Hurin's embitterment from the pondering of
Melko's words, the gathering to him of a band of outlaws, the
fear of the spirit of the dead Dragon that prevented any from
plundering Nargothrond, the presence there of Mim, Hurin's
reproaches and the casting of the gold at Thingol's feet, and
Hurin's departure. The words of S concerning the fate of Hurin
derive from the Tale, where however he died in Hithlum and
it was his 'shade' that 'fared into the woods seeking Mavwin,
and long those twain haunted the woods about the fall of Silver
Bowl bewailing their children'.
From this point the source for S (or perhaps more accu-
rately, the previous written form of the narrative) is the Tale of
the Nauglafring. It is here impossible to say for certain how
much of the complex story in the Tale had by this time been
abandoned.
It is not made clear whether Mim's presence in Nargothrond
goes back to the time of the Dragon (see II. 137), nor whether
the outlaws of Hurin's band were Men or Elves (in the Tale the
text was emended to convert them from Men to Elves); and
there is no indication of how the gold was brought to Doriath.
The outlaws disappear in S after the slaying of Mim, and there
is no suggestion of the fighting in the Thousand Caves that in
the Tale led to the mound made over the slain, Cum an-
Idrisaith, the Mound of Avarice.
The next part of the Tale (Ufedhin the renegade Gnome and
the complex dealings of Thingol with him and with the
Dwarves of Nogrod, II. 223 - 9) is reduced to a few lines in S,
which could possibly stand as an extremely abbreviated ac-
count of the old story, even though Ufedhin is here not even
mentioned. The making of the Necklace was not in the Tale, as
it is in S, part of the king's request: the idea of it was indeed
hatched by Ufedhin during his captivity as a lure 'for the
greater ensnaring of the king' (II. 226); but this also could be
set down to compression. I think it is more probable, however,
that my father had in fact decided to reduce and simplify the
narrative, and that Ufedhin had been abandoned.
The problem of the entry of the Dwarvish army into
Doriath, defended by the Girdle of Melian, is still solved by
the device - the too simple device, see II. 250 - of 'some
treacherous Gnomes' (in the Tale there was only one traitor);
the slaying of Thingol while hunting remains, and as in the
Tale Melian, inviolable, left the Thousand Caves seeking Beren
and Luthien. Though it is not so stated, it seems likely that in
this version it was Melian who brought the news and the warn-
ing to Beren (this is the story in the Quenta, p. 160). In the
Tale it was Huan who brought word to Beren and Luthien of
the assault on Artanor and the death of Tinwelint, and it was
Ufedhin, fleeing from the Dwarf-host (after his abortive at-
tempt to slay Naugladur and steal the Nauglafring, and his kill-
ing of Bodruith lord of Belegost), who revealed the course that
the Dwarves were taking and made possible the ambush at the
Stony Ford; but Huan has in S been slain in the Wolf-hunt
($10), and Ufedhin has (as I think) been eliminated.
The ambush at the ford is made by 'Beren and the brown and
green Elves of the wood', which goes back to 'the brown Elves
and the green', the 'elfin folk all clad in green and brown' ruled
by Beren and afterwards by Dior in Hithlum, in the Tale of the
Nauglafring. But of the vigorous account of the battle at the ford
in the Tale - the laughter of the Elves at the misshapen Dwarves
running with their long white beards torn by the wind, the duel
of Beren and Naugladur, whose forge-hammer blows would
have overcome Beren had not Naugladur stumbled and Beren
swung him off his feet by catching hold of the Nauglafring -
there is nothing in S: though equally, nothing to contradict the
old story. There is however no mention of the two Dwarf-lords,
Naugladur of Nogrod and Bodruith of Belegost, and though both
Dwarf-cities are named the Dwarves are treated as an undivided
force, with, as it seems, one king (slain at the ford): Thingol
summoned those of Belegost as well as those of Nogrod to
Doriath for the fashioning of the gold, whereas in the Tale
(II. 230) the former only enter the story after the humiliating ex-
pulsion of the Dwarves of Nogrod, in order to aid them in their
revenge. Of the old story of the death of Bodruith and the feud
and slaughter among the two kindreds (brought about by
Ufedhin) there is no trace.
The drowning of the treasure in the river goes back to the
Tale; but there however the suggestion is not that the treasure
was deliberately sunk: rather it fell into the river with the bod-
ies of the Dwarves who bore it:
those that waded in the ford cast their golden burdens in the
waters and sought affrighted to either bank, but many were
stricken with those pitiless darts and fell with their gold into
the currents (II. 237).
It is not said in the Tale that any of the gold was drowned by
the Elves. There, Gwendelin came to Beren and Tinuviel after
the battle of the Stony Ford, and found Tinuviel already wear-
ing the Nauglafring; there is mention of the greatness of her
beauty when she wore it. Gwendelin's warning is only against
the Silmaril (the rest of the treasure being drowned), and in-
deed her horror at seeing the Necklace of the Dwarves on
Tinuviel was so great that Tinuviel put it off. This was to
Beren's displeasure, and he kept it (II. 239-40). In S the
drowning seems to be carried out in response to Melian's
warning of the curse upon it, and the story seems to be thus:
Melian comes to Beren and Luthien and warns them of the ap-
proach of the Dwarf-host returning out of Doriath; after the
battle Luthien wears the Nauglafring and becomes immeasur-
ably beautiful; but Melian warns them of the curse on the gold
and on the Silmaril and they drown the treasure, though Beren
keeps the Necklace secretly.
The fading of Luthien follows immediately on the statement
that the Necklace was kept, but no connection is made. In the
Tale such a connection is explicit: the doom of mortality that
Mandos had spoken fell swiftly -
and in this perhaps did the curse of Mim have [?potency] in
that it came more soon upon them (II. 240).
Moreover in a synopsis for a projected revision of the Lost
Tales it is said that the Nauglafring 'brought sickness to
Tinuviel' (II. 246).
The reference to the fading of Luthien in S retains the words
of the Tale: Tinuviel slowly faded 'even as the Elves of later
days have done', and, again as in the Tale, Luthien 'vanished'.
In the Tale Beren was an Elf, and it is said of him that after
searching all Hithlum and Artanor for Tinuviel in terrible lone-
liness 'he too faded from life'. In my discussion of this I said
(II. 250):
Since this fading is here quite explicitly the mode in which
'that doom of mortality that Mandos had spoken' came upon
them, it is very notable that it is likened to, and even it
seems identified with, the fading of 'the Elves of later days
throughout the world' - as though in the original idea Elvish
fading was a form of mortality.
The passage in S, retaining this idea in respect of Luthien, but
now with the later conception that Beren was a mortal Man,
not an Elf, is changed in that Beren is no longer said to have
faded: he 'was lost', looking in vain for Luthien. It is also said
here that the price of Beren's return from Mandos was 'that
Luthien should become as shortlived as Beren the mortal', and
in $10, where the story of Beren and Luthien is briefly told, it
is not in fact said that Luthien died when Beren died in
Doriath (see the commentary on that section, p. 65). There is
also a sentence added to the MS in 510: 'But Mandos in pay-
ment exacted that Luthien should become mortal as Beren.'
It is possible to conclude from this that, in the conception as
it was when S was written, Beren died, as a mortal dies;
Luthien went to Valinor as a living being; and Mandos allowed
Beren to return to a second mortal span, but Luthien now be-
came subject to the same shortness of span as he. In this sense
she became 'mortal', but being an Elf she 'faded' - this was
the manner of her death: as it was also the manner of the death
of the fading Elves of later ages. Part of the difficulty in all
this undoubtedly lies in the ambiguous nature of the words
'mortal' and 'immortal' applied to the Elves: they are 'immor-
tal', both in the sense that they need not die, it is not in their
essential nature to die, 'in the world', and also in the sense
that, if they did, they did not 'leave the world', did not go to
'a fate beyond the world', and they are 'mortal' in that they
might nonetheless die 'in the world' (by wounds or by grief,
but not from sickness or age). Luthien became 'mortal' in that,
although an Elf, she must die - she must fade.
It may be noted that the words 'as Men grew strong and
took the goodness of earth' derive from the Lay of the Chil-
dren of Hurin (III. 44, 54):
for in days long gone
... Men were of mould less mighty builded
ere the earth's goodness from the Elves they drew.
Cf. The Silmarillion, p. 105: 'In after days, when because of
the triumph of Morgoth Elves and Men became estranged, as
he most wished, those of the Elven-race that lived still in
Middle-earth waned and faded, and Men usurped the sunlight.'
Lastly, in the story of Dior and the ruin of Doriath as told
in S, there are various developments. The son of Dior,
Auredhir (II. 240) has disappeared. The 'vain bargaining' be-
tween Dior and the Sons of Feanor perhaps refers to the pas-
sage in the Tale (II. 241) where Dior asserts that to return
the Silmaril the Nauglafring must be broken, and Curufin (the
messenger of the Feanorians) retorts that in that case the
Nauglafring must be given to them unbroken. In the Tale
Maglor, Diriel, Celegorm, and Cranthir (or the earlier equiva-
lents of their names) were killed in the battle (which there took
place in Hithlum, where Dior ruled after his father); but in S,
as first written, the story takes a very strange turn, in that the
Feanorians did get their hands on the Nauglafring, but then so
quarrelled over it that in the end 'only Maglor was left'. How
the story would have gone in this case is impossible to discern.
15 and 16.
The two sections describing Gondolin and its fall are dis-
cussed together in the following commentary.
At the beginning of $15 the brief reference to the story of
Isfin and Eol shows development from what was said in the
Lay of the Fall of Gondolin (III. 146): for in the poem Isfin
was seeking, together with her mother, for her father Fingolfin
when she was entrapped by Eol in the dark forest. The larger
history has evolved since then, and now Isfin 'was lost in Taur-
na-Fuin after the Battle of Unnumbered Tears'. We can only
surmise how she came to be there. Either she left Gondolin
soon after its settlement bent on some purpose unrecorded, or
else she was lost in the retreat from the battle. (It is, inciden-
tally, a curious aspect of the earlier conception of Gondolin's
foundation that there were women and children to people it as
well as warriors; for one would suppose that Turgon had left
the old men, the women, and the childhen of his people in
Hithlum - why should he do otherwise? But in the outlines for
Gilfanon's Tale them are references to Turgon's having 'res-
cued a part of the women and children', and having 'gathered
women and children from the camps' as he fled south down
Sirion g. 239, 241).) Meglin is still, as in the poem, 'sent by
his mother to Gondolin', while she remained with her captor.
In the account of Gondolin and its history S is fairly close
to the tale of The Fall of Gondolin, but there are some devel-
opments, if mostly of a minor kind. There is first a notable
statement that 'Ylmir's messages come up Sirion bidding them
[i.e. the host of Turgon retreating from the battle] take refuge
in this valley', this is unlike the Tale, where Tuor speaking the
words of Ulmo in Gondolin says: 'There have come to the ears
of Ulmo whispers of your dwelling and your hill of vigilance
against the evil of Melko, and he is glad' (II. 161, 208). Here
in S we have the first appearance of the idea that the founda-
tion of Gondolin was a part of Ulmo's design. But Tuor's jour-
ney is as in the old story, and the visitation of Ulmo is in Nan
Tathrin, not at Vinyamar. The bidding of Ulmo offers Turgon
similar choices, to prepare for war, or, if he will not, then to
send people of Gondolin down Sirion to the sea, to seek for
Valinor. Here, however, there are differences. In the Tale, Ulmo
offers scarcely more than a slender hope that such sailors from
Gondolin would reach Valinor, and if they did, that they would
persuade the Valar to act:
[The Gods) hide their land and weave about it inaccessible
magic that no evil come to its shores. Yet still might thy
messengers win there and turn their hearts that they rise in
wrath and smite Melko ... (II. 161 - 2).
In S, on the other hand, the people of Gondolin, if they will
not go to war against Morgoth, are to desert their city ('the
people of Gondolin are to prepare for flight') - cf. The
Silmarillion p. 240: '[Ulmo) bade him depart, and abandon
the fair and mighty city that he had built, and go down Sirion
to the sea' - and at the mouths of Sirion Ylmir will not only
aid them in the building of a fleet but will himself guide them
over the ocean. But if Turgon will accept Ylmir's counsel, and
prepare for war, then Tuor is to go to Hithlum with Gnomes
from Gondolin and 'draw Men once more into alliance with
the Elves, for "without Men the Elves shall not prevail against
the Orcs and Balrogs".' Of this strange bidding there is no
trace in the Tale; nor is it said there that Ulmo knew of
Meglin, and knew that this treachery would bring about the
end of Gondolin at no distant time. These features are absent
also from The Silmarillion; Ulmo does indeed foresee the ruin
of the city, but his foreseeing is not represented as being so
precise: 'Thus it may come to pass that the curse of the Noldor
shall find thee too ere the end, and treason awake within thy
walls. Then they shall be in peril of fire' (p. 126).
The description of the Vale of Gondolin in S is essentially
as in the Tale, with a few added details. As in the Tale, the
rocky height of Amon Gwareth was not in the centre of the
plain but nearest to Sirion - that is, nearest to the Way of Es-
cape (II. 158, 177). In S, the level top of the hill is said to have
been achieved by the people of Gondolin themselves, who also
'polished its sides to the smoothness of glass'. The Way of Es-
cape is still, as in the Tale (II. 163), a tunnel made by the
Gnomes - the Dry River and the Orfalch Echor have not yet
been conceived; and the meaning of the name 'Way of Escape'
is made very clear. both a way of escape from Gondolin, if the
need should ever arise, and a way of escape from the outer
world and from Morgoth. In the Tale (ibid.) it is said only that
there had been divided counsels concerning its delving, 'yet
pity for the enthralled Noldoli had prevailed in the end to its
making'. The 'Guarded Plain' into which the Way of Escape
issued is the Vale of Gondolin. An additional detail in S is that
the hills were lower in the region of the Way of Escape, and
the spells of Ylmir there strongest (because nearest to Sirion).
The cairn of Fingolfin, added in pencil in S, is an element
that entered the legends in the Quenta (p. 129) and the Lay o
Leithian (III. 286 - 7); the duel of Fingolfin with Morgoth does
not appear in S (p. 63). - Here in S it is said that Thorndor
'removed his eyries to the Northern heights of the encircling
mountains'. In the Tale the eyries in Cristhorn, the Eagles'
Cleft, were in the mountains south of Gondolin, but in S
Cristhorn is in the northern heights: this is already the case in
the Fragment of an alliterative Lay of Earendel (III. 143).
Thorndor had come there from Thangorodrim (stated in the
Quenta, p. 164); cf. the 'later Tuor' in Unfinished Tales (p. 43
and note 25): 'the folk of Thorondor, who dwelt once even on
Thangorodrim ere Morgoth grew so mighty, and dwell now in
the Mountains of Turgon since the fall of Fingolfin.' This goes
back to the tale of The Theft of Melko, where there is a refer-
ence g. 149) to the time 'when Sorontur and his folk fared to
the Iron Mountains and there abode, watching all that Melko
did'.
Some other points concerning the story of Gondolin may be
noticed. The escort of Noldoli, promised to Tuor by Ulmo in
the Land of Willows, of whom Voronwe (in S given the
Gnomish form of the name, Bronweg) was the only one who
did not desert him (II. 155-6), has disappeared; and 'Bronweg
had once been in Gondolin', which is not the case in the Tale
(II. 156-7). - In the Tale Tuor wedded Idril when he 'had
dwelt among the Gondothlim many years' (II. 164); in S this
took place three years after his coming to the hidden city, in
The Silmarillion seven years after (p. 241). - In the Tale there
is no mention of Meglin's support of Turgon's rejection o
Ulmo's bidding (cf. The Silmarillion p. 240: 'Maeglin spoke
ever against Tuor in the councils of the King'), nor of the op-
position of Idril to her father (this is not in The Silmarillion).
- The closing of Gondolin to all fugitives and the forbidding
of the people to leave the valley is mentioned in S but not ex-
plained.
The sentence 'Meglin... purchases his life when taken to
Angband by revealing Gondolin and its secrets' shows almost
certainly, I think, that an important structural change in the
story of the fall of the city had now entered. In the Tale Melko
had discovered Gondolin before Meglin was captured, and his
treachery lay in his giving an exact account of the structure of
the city and the preparations made for its defence (see
H. 210-11); but the words 'by revealing Gondolin' strongly
suggest the later story, in which Morgoth did not know where
it lay.
Lastly, there is a development in the early history of Tuor:
that he became a slave of 'the faithless men' in Hithlum after
the Battle of Unnumbered Tears. Moreover Tuor's parentage is
now finally established. Huor has been mentioned in a rewrit-
ten passage of S ($9), but not named as father of Tuor; and this
is the first occurrence of his mother Rian, and so of the story
that she died seeking Huor's body on the battlefield. It cannot
be said whether the story of Tuor's birth in the wild and his
fostering by Elves had yet arisen.
17
In commenting on the conclusion of the mythology in S,
here comprised in the three sections 17 - 19, I point to features
that derive from or contradict those outlines and notes from an
earlier period that are collected in Vol. II chapter V and the
earlier part of Chapter VI. S is here an extremely abbreviated
outline, composed very rapidly - my father was indeed chang-
ing his conceptions as he wrote.
For the narrative of $17 the primary extant early sources are
the 'schemes' or plot-outlines which I have called 'B' and 'C',
in the passages given in H. 253 and 254-5 respectively.
At the beginning of this section, before emendation, the sur-
vivors of Gondolin were already at the Mouths of Sirion when
Elwing came there; and this goes back to 8 and C ('Elwing
... flees to them [i.e. Tuor and Idril] with the Nauglafring',
II. 254). But earlier in S ($15) the destruction of Dior took
place before the fall of Gondolin; hence the revision here, to
make Elwing 'receive the survivors of Gondolin'. (In the Tale
of the Nauglafring, H. 242, the fall of Gondolin and the attack
on Dior took place on the same day.)
Following this, there is a major development in S. In the
early outlines there is the story, only glimpsed, of the March of
the Elves of Valinor into the Great Lands; and in B (only)
there is a reference to 'the sorrow and wrath of the Gods', of
which I said in my discussion of these outlines (II. 25 I): 'the
meaning can surely only be that the March of the Elves from
Valinor was undertaken in direct opposition to the will of the
Valar, that the Valar were bitterly opposed to the intervention
of the Elves of Valinor in the affairs of the Great Lands.' On
the other hand, the bare hints of what happened when the as-
sault on Melko took place show that greater powers than the
Eldar alone were present: Noldorin (the Vala Salmar, who en-
tered the world with Ulmo, and loved the Noldoli), and Tulkas
himself, who overthrew Melko in the Battle of the Silent Pools
(outline C, H. 278). The only hint in the outlines of Ulmo's in-
tervention is his saving of Earendel from shipwreck, bidding
him sail to Kor with the words 'for this hast thou been brought
out of the Wrack of Gondolin' (B, similarly in C). The March
of the Eldar from Valinor was brought about by the coming of
the birds from Gondolin.
In S, on the other hand, it is Ulmo (Ylmir) who directly
brings about the intervention from the West by his reproaches
to the Valar, bidding them rescue the remnants of the Noldoli
and the Silmarils; and the host is led by 'the sons of the Valar',
commanded by Fionwe - who is here the son of Tulkas!
Fionwe is frequently named in the Lost Tales as the son of
Manwe, while the son of Tulkas was Telimektar (who became
the constellation Orion). The naming Fionwe son of Tulkas
may have been a simple slip, though the same is said in the
Quenta as first written (p. 178); subsequently Fionwe again be-
comes the son of Manwe (p. 185).
'Remembering Swanhaven few of the Teleri go with them':
in the outline B the presence of the Solosimpi on the March is
referred to without comment, while in C they only agreed to
accompany the expedition on condition that they remained by
the sea (see II. 258), and this was in some way associated with
their remembrance of the Kinslaying.
The desertion of Kor at this time is referred to in the out-
lines, but only in connection with Earendel's coming there and
finding it empty; I noted (II. 257) that 'it seems at least
strongly implied that Kor was empty because the Elves of
Valinor had departed into the Great Lands', and this is now
seen to be certain.
The narrative in S now turns to Tuor. The statement that he
grew old at Sirion's mouths - a statement that was struck
out - goes back to the old schemes. His ship is now Earame,
unusnslated; previously it was Alqarame 'Swanwing', while
Earame was Earendel's earlier ship, translated 'Eaglepinion',
which foundered. In The Silmarillion Tuor's ship is Earrame,
as in S, with the meaning 'Sea-Wing'.
In S, Idril departs in company with Tuor. This is different
from the original schemes, where Tuor leaves alone, and Idril
'sees him too late', 'laments', and afterwards 'vanishes'. But in
the outline C it seems that she found him, for 'Tuor and Idril
some say sail now in Swanwing and may be seen going swift
down the wind at dawn and dusk'.
In S, the earlier history of Earendel's ship-building and ship-
wrecks in the Fiord of the Mermaid and at Falasquil has, ap-
parently, been abandoned entirely, and Wingelot is his first and
only ship; but there remains the motive that Earendel wishes to
seek for his father, whereas Ylmir bids him sail to Valinor (this
last being afterwards struck out). His adventures in Wingelot
are referred to in S but not otherwise indicated, save for the
slaying of Ungoliant 'in the South', there is no mention of the
Sleeper in the Tower of Pearl. In C the long voyage of
Earendel, accompanied by Voronwe, that finally took them to
Kor, included an encounter with Ungweliante, though this was
after his southern voyage: 'Driven west. Ungweliante. Magic
Isles. Twilit Isle. Littleheart's gong awakes the Sleeper in the
Tower of Pearl.' In another outline Earendel encounters
Wirilome (Gloomweaver) in the South (II. 260). In the account
in S he does not on this great voyage come to Kor, though
from it, as in B and C, he returns to 'the Waters of Sirion' (the
delta) and finds the dwellings there desolate. Now however en-
ters the motive of the last desperate attempt of the Feanorians
to regain the Silmaril of Beren and Luthien, their descent on
the Havens of Sirion, and their destruction. Thus the raid
on the Havens has remained, but it is no longer the work of
Melko (see II. 258) and is brought into the story of the Oath
of Feanor. As S was first written only Maidros survived; but
Maglor was added. (In $14, as written, all the Sons of Feanor
save Maglor were slain at the time of the attack on Dior,
though this passage was afterwards struck out. In The
Silmarillion Celegorm, Curufin, and Caranthir were slain at
that time, and Amrod and Amras (later names of Damrod and
Diriel) were slain in the attack on the Havens of Sirion, so that
only Maidros and Maglor were left.)
In the old outlines Elwing was taken captive (as is to be de-
duced, by Melko); there is no mention of her release from cap-
tivity, and she next appears in references to the sinking of her
ship (on the way to Tol Eressea) and the loss of the
Nauglafring; after which she becomes a seabird to seek
Earendel. Earendel returning from his long voyage and finding
the dwellings at Sirion's mouth sacked, goes with Voronwe to
the ruins of Gondolin, and in an isolated note (II. 264, XV) he
'goes even to the empty Halls of Iron seeking Elwing'.
All this has disappeared in S, with the new story of Elwing
casting herself and the Nauglafring into the sea, except that she
still becomes a seabird (thus changed by Ulmo) and flies to
seek Earendel about all the shores of the world. The early out-
lines are then at variance: in C it is said that Earendel dwelt on
the Isle of Seabirds and hoped that Elwing would come to him,
'but she is seeking him wailing along all the shores' - yet 'he
will find Elwing at the Faring Forth', while in the short outline
E (II. 260) she came to him as a seamew on the Isle of
Seabirds. But in S Elwing is further mentioned only as being
sought by Earendel when he sets sail again, until she reappears
at the end ($19) and is restored to Earendel.
The introduction of Elrond in S is of great interest. He has
no brother as yet; and he is saved by Maidros (in The
Silmarillion, p. 247, Elrond and Elros were saved by Maglor).
When the Elves return into the West he elects to stay 'on
earth', being 'bound by his mortal half'. It is most remarkable
that although the idea of a choice of fate for the Half-elven is
already present, it takes a curiously different form from that
which it was to take afterwards, and which became of great
importance in The Lard of the Rings; for afterwards, Elrond,
unlike his brother Elros Tar-Minyatur, elected to remain an
Elf - yet his later choice derives in part from the earlier con-
ception, for he elected also not to go into the West. In S, to
choose his 'elfin half' seems to have meant to choose the
West; afterwards, it meant to choose Elvish immortality.
Earendel learnt what had happened at the Mouths of Sirion
from Bronweg (earlier it was Littleheart son of Bronweg who
survived the sack of the havens, H. 276 note 5), and with
Bronweg he sails again in Wingelot and comes to Kor, which
he finds deserted, and his raiment becomes encrusted with
the dust of diamonds; not daring to go further into Valinor he
builds a tower on an isle in the northern seas, 'to which all the
sea-birds of the world repair'. Bronweg is not further men-
tioned. Almost all of this, other than the statement that
Earendel did not dare venture further into Valinor, goes back to
the outline C. The tower on the Isle of Seabirds, which sur-
vives the The SilmarilLion (p. 250), is mentioned in an isolated
note on the Earendel story (II. 264, xvii).
In the early outlines Earendel now set out on his last voy-
age. In B, which is here very brief, his sailing to the Isle of
Seabirds is followed by 'his voyage to the firmament'. In C he
sails with Voronwe to the halls of Mandos seeking for tidings
of Tuor, Idril, and Elwing; he 'reaches the bar at the margin of
the world and sets sail on the oceans of the firmament in order
to gaze over the Earth. The Moon mariner chases him for his
brightness and he dives through the Door of Night.' In the out-
line E (II. 260) 'Elwing as a seamew comes to him. He sets
sail over the margent of the world.' In the early note associated
with the poem 'The Bidding of the Minstrel' (II. 261) he 'sails
west again to the lip of the world, just as the Sun is diving into
the sea', and 'sets sail upon the sky', and in the preface to
'The Shores of Faery' (II. 262) he
sat long while in his old age upon the Isle of Seabirds in the
Northern Waters ere he set forth upon a last voyage. He
passed Taniquetil and even Valinor, and drew his bark over
the bar at the margin of the world, and launched it on the
Oceans of the Firmament. Of his ventures there no man has
told, save that hunted by the orbed Moon he fled back to
Valinor, and mounting the towers of Kor upon the rocks of
Eglamar he gazed back upon the Oceans of the World.
The passage in S is different from all of these, in that here
Earendel's voyage into the sky is achieved with the aid of the
wings of seabirds, and it introduces the idea of his being
scorched by the Sun as well as hunted by the Moon. I sug-
gested (II. 259) that Earendel originally sailed into the sky in
continuing search for Elwing, and this is now corroborated
18 and 19.
The story in S now leaves Earendel, wandering the sky 'as
a fugitive star', and comes to the march of Fionwe and the
Last Battle (a term that is used in S both of the Last Battle in
the mythological record, in which the hosts of Valinor over-
threw Morgoth, and of the Last Battle of the world, declared in
prophecy, when Morgoth will come back through the Door and
Fionwe will fight him on the plains of Valinor). Almost all of
this now enters the mythology for the first time; and almost all
of what very little survives from the earliest period on the sub-
ject of the March of the Elves of Valinor (II. 278-80) has dis-
appeared. There is no mention of Tulkas, of his battle with
Melko, of Noldorin, of the hostility of Men; virtually the only
point in common is that after the overthrow of Morgoth Elves
depart into the West. In the old story the Silmarils play no part
at the end (cf. the jotting 'What became of the Silmarils after
the capture of Melko?' II. 259); but now in S there appear the
lineaments of a story concerning their fate. Now also we have
the first mention anywhere of the breaking of the Northwestern
world in the struggle to overthrow Morgoth; and (in an addi-
tion to the text) the chain Angainor appears from the Lost
Tales. (Angainor is not named in the earlier passage in S ($2)
concerning the binding of Morgoth. It appears (later) in the
Lay of Leithian, in a puzzling reference to 'the chain Angainor
that ere Doom/for Morgoth shall by Gods be wrought'; see
III. 205, 209-10.)
In the story of the fate of the Silmarils, Maglor says to
Maidros that there are two sons of Feanor now left, and two
Silmarils. Does this imply that the Silmaril of Beren was lost
when Elwing cast herself into the sea with the Nauglafring
(unlike the later story)? The answer is certainly yes; the story
in S is not comprehensible otherwise. Thus when Maglor casts
himself (changed to casts the jewel) into the fiery pit, having
stolen one of the Silmarils of the Iron Crown from Fionwe,
'one Silmaril is now in the sea, and one in the earth'. The third
was the Silmaril that remained in Fionwe's keeping; and it was
that one that was bound to Earendel's brow. We thus have a re-
markable stage of transition, in which the Silmarils have at last
achieved primary importance, but where the fate of each has
not arrived at the final form; and the conclusion, seen to be in-
evitable once reached, that it was the Silmaril regained by
Beren and Luthien that became the Evening Star, has not been
achieved. In S, Earendel becomes a star before receiving the
Silmaril; but originally, as I have said (II. 265), 'there is no
suggestion that the Valar hallowed his ship and set him in the
sky, nor that his light was that of the Silmaril'. In this respect
also S is transitional, for at the end the later story appears.
The Elves of the Outer Lands (Great Lands), after the con-
quest of Morgoth, set sail from Luthien (later emended to
Leithien), explained as 'Britain or England'. For the forms
Luthany, Luthien, Leithian, Leithien and the texts in which they
occur see III. 154. It is remarkable that as S was originally
written Luthien is both the name of Thingol's daughter and the
name of England.
It is further said in S that the Elves 'ever still from time to
time set sail [from Luthien] leaving the world ere they fade'.
'The Gnomes and many of the Ilkorins and Teleri and Qendi
repeople the Lonely Isle. Some go back to live upon the shores
of Faery and in Valinor, but Cor and Tun remain desolate.'
Some of this can be brought into relation with the old outlines
(see II. 308 - 9), but how much more was retained in mind, be-
yond 'The Elves retreated to Luthany' and 'Many of the Elves
of Luthany sought back west over the sea and settled in Tol
Eressea', cannot be determined. That even this much was re-
tained is however very instructive. The peculiar relation of the
Elves to England keeps a foothold, as it were, in the actual ar-
ticulation of the narrative; as also the idea that if they remained
in 'the world' they would fade (see II. 326).
It is not made clear why 'Cor and Tin' remained desolate,
since some of the Elves 'go back to live upon the shores of
Faery and in Valinor'. In the original conception (as I have ar-
gued its nature, II. 280) the Eldar of Valinor, when they re-
turned from the Great Lands where they had gone against the
will of the Valar, were forbidden to re-enter Valinor and there-
fore settled in Tol Eressea, as 'the Exiles of Kor (although
some did return in the end to Valinor, since Ingil son of Inwe,
according to Meril-i-Turinqi g. 129), 'went back long ago to
Valinor and is with Manwe'). But in the story as told in S the
idea that the March of the Eldar was against the will of the
Valar, and aroused them to wrath, has been abandoned, and
'the sons of the Valar' now lead the hosts out of the West;
why then should the Elves of Tun not return there? And we
have the statement in S that Tol Eressea was repeopled not
only by Gnomes (and nothing at all is said of their pardon) and
Ilkorins, but also by Qendi (= the later Vanyar) and Teleri,
Elves who came from Valinor for the assault on Morgoth. I
cannot explain this; and must conclude that my father was only
noting down the chief points of his developing conceptions,
leaving much unwritten.
There now appears the idea that the Gods thrust Morgoth
through the Door of Night 'into the outer dark beyond the
Walls of the World',* and there is the first reference to the es-
cape of Thu (Sauron) in the Last Battle. There is also a proph-
ecy concerning the ultimate battle, when the world is old and
the Gods weary, and Morgoth will come back through the
Door of Night; then Fionwe with Turin beside him shall fight
Morgoth on the plain of Valinor, and Turin shall slay him with
his black sword. The Silmarils shall be recovered, and their
light released, the Trees rekindled, the Mountains of Valinor
(*See the commentary on the Ambarkanta, p. 296.)
levelled so that the light goes out over all the world, and Gods
and Elves shall grow young again. Into this final resolution of
the evil in the world it would prove unprofitable, I think, to en-
quire too closely. References to it have appeared in print in
Unfinished Tales, pp. 395 - 6, in the remarks on Gandalf:
'Manwe will not descend from the Mountain until the Dagor
Dagorath, and the coming of the End, when Melkor returns',
and in the alliterative poem accompanying this, 'until Dagor
Dagorath and the Doom cometh'. The earliest references are
probably in the outline C (II. 282), where (when the Pine of
Belaurin is cut down) 'Melko is thus now out of the world -
but one day he will find a way back, and the last great uproars
will begin before the Great End'. In the Lost Tales there are
many references to the Great End, most of which do not con-
cern us here; but at the end of the tale of The Hiding of Valinor
is told (I. 219) of 'that great foreboding that was spoken
among the Gods when first the Door of Night was opened':
For 'tis said that ere the Great End come Melko shall in
some wise contrive a quarrel between Moon and Sun, and
Ilinsor shall seek to follow Urwendi through the Gates, and
when they are gone the Gates of both East and West will be
destroyed, and Urwendi and Ilinsor shall be lost. So shall it
be that Fionwe Urion, son of Manwe, of love for Urwendi
shall in the end be Melko's bane, and shall destroy the
world to destroy his foe, and so shall all things then be
rolled away.
(Cf. the outline C, II. 281: 'Fionwe's rage and grief [at the
death of Urwendi]. In the end he will slay Melko.') Whether
any of this prophecy underlies the idea of the ultimate return
of Morgoth through the Door of Night I cannot say. At the
end of the Tale of Turambar, after the account of the 'deifica-
tion' of Turin and Nienor, there is a prophecy (II. 116) that
Turambar indeed shall stand beside Fionwe in the Great
Wrack, and Melko and his drakes shall curse the sword of
Mormakil.
But there is no indication in S of how 'the spirit of Turin' will
survive to slay Morgoth in the ultimate battle on the plain of
Valinor.
That the Mountains of Valinor shall be levelled, so that the
light of the rekindled Trees goes out over all the world, is also
found in the earliest texts; cf. the isolated passage in C
(II. 285) where is told the Elves' prophecy of the (second) Far-
ing Forth:
Laurelin and Silpion will be rekindled, and the mountain
wall being destroyed then soft radiance will be spread over
all the world, and the Sun and Moon will be recalled.
But this prophecy is associated with other conceptions that had
clearly been abandoned.
At the end, with the aid of the Silmaril Elwing is found and
restored, but there is no indication of how the Silmaril was
used to this purpose. Elwing in this account sails with
Earendel, who bears the third Silmaril, and so he shall sail un-
til he sees 'the last battle gathering upon the plains of Valinor'.
On the reappearance of the name Eriol at the very end of S
see II. 300.
I do not intend here to relate this version to that in the pub-
lished work, but will conclude this long discussion of the con-
cluding sections 17 - 19 with a brief summary. As I have said,
S is here extremely condensed, and it is here even harder than
elsewhere to know or guess what of the old material my father
had suppressed and what was still 'potentially' present. But in
any case nothing of the old layer that is not present in S was
ever to reappear.
In the present version, Earendel has still not come to his su-
preme function as the Messenger who spoke before the Powers
on behalf of the Two Kindreds, though the birds of Gondolin
have been abandoned as the bringers of tidings to Valinor, and
Ulmo becomes the sole agent of the final assault on Morgoth
out of the West. The voyages of Earendel have been simpli-
fied: he now has the one great voyage - without Voronwe - in
Wingelot, in which he slew Ungoliant, and the second voyage,
with Voronwe, which takes him to Kor - and the desertion of
Kor (Tun) still depends on the March of the Eldar, which has
already taken place when he comes there. His voyage into the
sky is now achieved by the wings of birds; and the Silmaril
still plays no part in his becoming a star, for the Silmaril of
Beren and Luthien was drowned with the Nauglafring at the
Mouths of Sirion. But the Silmarils at last become central to
the final acts of the mythological drama, and - unlike the later
story - only one of the two Silmarils that remained in the Iron
Crown is made away with by a son of Feanor (Maglor); the
second is given to Earendel by the Gods, and the later story is
visible at the end of S, where his boat 'is drawn over Valinor
to the Outer Seas' and launched into the Outer Dark, where he
sails with the Silmaril on his brow, keeping watch on Morgoth.
The destruction of the people of Sirion's Mouths now be-
comes the final evil of the Oath of Feanor. Elrond appears,
with a remarkable reference to the choice given to him as half-
elven. The coming of the hosts of the West to the overthrow
of Morgoth is now an act of the Valar, and the hosts are led by
the Sons of the Valar. England, as Luthien (Leithien), remains
as the land from which the Elves of the &eat Lands set sail
at the end for Tol Eressea; but I suspect that virtually all the
highly complex narrative which I attempted to reconstruct
(II. 308 - 9) had gone - Earendel and Ing(we) and the hostility
of Osse, the Ingwaiwar, the seven invasions of Luthany.
The original ideas of the conclusion of the Eldar Days
(Melko's climbing of the Pine of Belaurin, the cutting down of
the Pine, the warding of the sky by Telimektar and Ingil (Orion
and Sirius), II. 281 - 2) have disappeared; in S, Morgoth is
thrust through the Door of Night, and Earendel becomes its
guardian and guarantee against Morgoth's return, until the End.
And lastly, and most pregnant for the future, Thu escapes the
Last Battle when Morgoth was overcome, 'and dwells still in
dark places'.
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