I.
THE LAY OF THE
CHILDREN OF HURIN.
There exists a substantial manuscript (28 pages long) entitled 'Sketch of
the Mythology with especial reference to "The Children of Hurin"', and
this 'Sketch' is the next complete narrative, in the prose tradition, after
the Lost Tales (though a few fragmentary writings are extant from the
intervening time). On the envelope containing this manuscript 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
R the Dragon: then in progress (unfinished) (begun c. 1918).
He seems to have written first '1921' before correcting this to '1918'.
R. W. Reynolds taught my father at King Edward's School, Birming-
ham (see Humphrey Carpenter, Biography, p. 47). In a passage of his
diary written in August 1926 he wrote that 'at the end of last year' he had
heard again from R. W. Reynolds, that they had corresponded subse-
quently, and that he had sent Reynolds many of his poems, including
Tinuviel and Turin ('Tinueiel meets with qualified approval, it is too
prolix, but how could I ever cut it down, and the specimen I sent of Turin
with little or none'). This would date the 'Sketch' as originally written (it
was subsequently heavily revised) definitely in 1926, probably fairly
early in the year. It must have accompanied the specimen of Turin (the
alliterative poem), the background of which it was written to explain, to
Anacapri, where Reynolds was then living in retirement.
My father took up his appointment to the Professorship of Anglo-
Saxon at Oxford in the winter term (October -- December) of 1925,
though for that term he had to continue to teach at Leeds also, since the
appointments overlapped. There can be no doubt that at any rate the
great bulk of the alliterative Children of Hurin (or Turin) was completed
at Leeds, and I think it virtually certain that he had ceased to work on it
before he moved south: in fact there seems nothing to oppose to the
natural assumption that he left 'Turin' for 'Tinuviel' (the Lay of
Leithian), which he began according to his diary in the summer of 1925
(see p. 159 and footnote).
For the date of its commencement we have only my father's later (and
perhaps hesitant) statement that it was 'begun c. 1918'. A terminus a
quo is provided by a page of the earliest manuscript of the poem, which is

written on a slip from the Oxford English Dictionary bearing the printer's
stamp May 1918. On the other hand the name Melian which occurs near
the beginning of the earliest manuscript shows it to be later than the
typescript version of the Tale of Tinuviel, where the Queen's name was
Gwenethlin and only became Melian in the course of its composition
(II. 51); and the manuscript version of that Tale which underlies the
typescript seems itself to have been one of the last completed elements in
the Lost Tales (see I. 204).
The Children of Hurin exists in two versions, which I shall refer to as
I and II, both of them found in manuscript and later typescript (IA, IB;
IIA, IIB). I do not think that the second is significantly later than the
first; it is indeed possible, and would not be in any way uncharacteristic,
that my father began work on II while he was still composing at a later
point in I. II is essentially an expansion of I, with many lines, and blocks
of lines, left virtually unchanged. Until the second version is reached it
will be sufficient to refer simply to 'A' and 'B', the manuscript and
typescript of the first version.
The manuscript A consists of two parts: first (a) a bundle of small
slips, numbered 1 -- 32. The poem is here in a very rough state with many
alternative readings, and in places at least may represent the actual
beginnings, the first words written down. This is followed by (b) a set of
large sheets of examination paper from the University of Leeds, num-
bered 33 ff., where the poem is for the most part written out in a more
finished form -- the second stage of composition; but my father wrote in
line-numbers continuously through (a) and (b) -- lines 1 -- 528 in (a), lines
528 ff. in (b). We have thus one sole text, not two, without any overlap;
and if (a), the slips, ever existed in the form of (b), the examination
sheets, that part has disappeared. In part (b) there are many later
emendations in pencil.
Based on this manuscript is the typescript B. This introduces changes
not found in A or its emendations; and it was itself emended both in ink
and pencil, doubtless involving several movements of revision. To take a
single line as exemplification: line 8 was written first in A:
Lo! Thalion in the throng of thickest battle
The line was emended, in two stages, to
Lo! Thalion Hurin in the throng of battle
and this was the form in B as typed; but B was emended, in two stages, to
Lo! Hurin Thalion in the hosts of war
It is obvious that to set this and a great many other similar cases out in a
textual apparatus would be a huge task and the result impossibly compli-
cated. The text that follows is therefore, so far as purely metrical-stylistic

changes are concerned, that of B as emended, and apart from a few
special cases there is no mention in the notes of earlier readings.
In the matter of names, however, the poem presents great difficulty;
for changes were made at quite different times and were not introduced
consistently throughout. If the latest form in any particular passage is
made the principle of choice, irrespective of any other consideration,
then the text will have Morwin at lines 105, 129, Mavwin 137 etc.,
Morwen 438, 472; Ulmo 1469, but Ylmir 1529 and subsequently;
Nirnaith Ornoth 1448, but Nirnaith Unoth 1543. If the later Nirnaith
Onroth is adopted at 1543, it seems scarcely justifiable to intrude it at
lines 13 and 218 (where the final form is Ninin Unothradin). I have
decided finally to abandon overall consistency, and to treat individual
names as seems best in the circumstances; for example, I give Ylmir
rather than Ulmo at line 1469, for consistency with all the other occur-
rences, and while changing Unoth to Ornoth at line 1543 I retain
Ornoth rather than the much later Arnediad at line 26 of the second
version -- similarly I prefer the earlier Finweg to Fingon (I975,
second version 19, 520) and Bansil, Glingol to Belthil, Glingal
(2027 -- 8) . All such points are documented in the notes.
A has no title. In B as typed the title was The Golden Dragon, but this
was emended to Turin Son of Hurin O' Glorund the Dragon. The
second version of the poem was first titled Turin, but this was changed to
The Children of Hurin, and I adopt this, the title by which my father
referred to the poem in the 1926 'Sketch', as the general title of the
work.
The poem in the first version is divided into a short prologue (Hurin
and Morgoth) without sub-title and three long sections, of which the first
two ('Turin's Fostering' and 'Beleg') were only introduced later into
the typescript; the third ('Failivrin') is marked both in A and in B as
typed.
The detail of the typescript is largely preserved in the present text, but
I have made the capitalisation rather more consistent, added in occasional
accents, and increased the number of breaks in the text. The space
between the half-lines is marked in the second part of the A-text and
begins at line 543 in B.
I have avoided the use of numbered notes to the text, and all annotation
is related to the line-numbers of the poem. This annotation (very largely
concerned with variations of names, and comparisons with names in the
Lost Tales) is.found at the end of each of the three major parts, followed
by a commentary on the matter of that part.
Throughout, the Tale refers to the Tale of Turambar and the Foaloke
(II. 69 ff.); Narn refers to the Narn i Hin Hurin, in Unfinished Tales
pp. 57 ff.




TURIN SON OF HURIN
&
GLORUND THE DRAGON.
Lo! the golden dragon of the God of Hell,
the gloom of the woods of the world now gone,
the woes of Men, and weeping of Elves
fading faintly down forest pathways,
is now to tell, and the name most tearful
of Niniel the sorrowful, and the name most sad
of Thalion's son Turin o'erthrown by fate.
5
Lo! Hurin Thalion in the hosts of war
was whelmed, what time the white-clad armies
of Elfinesse were all to ruin
by the dread hate driven of Delu-Morgoth.
That field is yet by the folk named
Ninin Unothradin, Unnumbered Tears.
There the children of Men, chieftain and warrior,
fled and fought not, but the folk of the Elves
they betrayed with treason, save that true man only,
Thalion Erithamrod and his thanes like gods.
There in host on host the hill-fiend Orcs
overbore him at last in that battle terrible,
by the bidding of Bauglir bound him living,
and pulled down the proudest of the princes of Men.
To Bauglir's halls in the hills builded,
to the Hells of Iron and the hidden caverns
they haled the hero of Hithlum's land,
Thalion Erithamrod, to their throned lord,
whose breast was burnt with a bitter hatred,
and wroth he was that the wrack of war
had not taken Turgon ten times a king,
even Finweg's heir; nor Feanor's children,
makers of the magic and immortal gems.
For Turgon towering in terrible anger
a pathway clove him with his pale sword-blade
out of that slaughter -- yea, his swath was plain
through the hosts of Hell like hay that lieth
all low on the lea where the long scythe goes.
A countless company that king did lead
through the darkened dales and drear mountains
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20
25
30
35

out of ken of his foes, and he comes not more
in the tale; but the triumph he turned to doubt
of Morgoth the evil, whom mad wrath took.
Nor spies sped him, nor spirits of evil,
nor his wealth of wisdom to win him tidings,
whither the nation of the Gnomes was gone.
Now a thought of malice, when Thalion stood,
bound, unbending, in his black dungeon,
then moved in his mind that remembered well
how Men were accounted all mightless and frail
by the Elves and their kindred; how only treason
could master the magic whose mazes wrapped
the children of Corthun, and cheated his purpose.
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45
50
'Is it dauntless Hurin,' quoth Delu-Morgoth,
'stout steel-handed, who stands before me,
a captive living as a coward might be?
Knowest thou my name, or need'st be told
what hope he has who is haled to Angband --
the bale most bitter, the Balrogs' torment?'
55
'I know and I hate. For that knowledge I fought thee
by fear unfettered, nor fear I now,'
said Thalion there, and a thane of Morgoth
on the mouth smote him; but Morgoth smiled:
'Fear when thou feelest, and the flames lick thee,
and the whips of the Balrogs thy white flesh brand.
Yet a way canst win, an thou wishest, still
to lessen thy lot of lingering woe.
Go question the captives of the accursed people
I have taken, and tell me where Turgon is hid;
how with fire and death I may find him soon,
where he lurketh lost in lands forgot.
Thou must feign thee a friend faithful in anguish,
and their inmost hearts thus open and search.
Then, if truth thou tellest, thy triple bonds
I will bid men unbind, that abroad thou fare
in my service to search the secret places
following the footsteps of these foes of the Gods.'
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70
'Build not thy hopes so high, O Bauglir --
I am no tool for thy evil treasons;
torment were sweeter than a traitor's stain.'
75

'If torment be sweet, treasure is liever.
The hoards of a hundred hundred ages,
the gems and jewels of the jealous Gods,
are mine, and a meed shall I mete thee thence,
yea, wealth to glut the Worm of Greed.'
80
'Canst not learn of thy lore when thou look'st on a foe,
O Bauglir unblest? Bray no longer
of the things thou hast thieved from the Three Kindreds. 85
In hate I hold thee, and thy hests in scorn.'
'Boldly thou bravest me. Be thy boast rewarded,'
in mirth quod Morgoth, 'to me now the deeds,
and thy aid I ask not; but anger thee nought
if little they like thee. Yea, look thereon
helpless to hinder, or thy hand to raise.'
90
Then Thalion was thrust to Thangorodrim,
that mountain that meets the misty skies
on high o'er the hills that Hithlum sees
blackly brooding on the borders of the north.
To a stool of stone on its steepest peak
they bound him in bonds, an unbreakable chain,
and the Lord of Woe there laughing stood,
then cursed him for ever and his kin and seed
with a doom of dread, of death and horror.
There the mighty man unmoved sat;
but unveiled was his vision, that he viewed afar
all earthly things with eyes enchanted
that fell on his folk -- a fiend's torment.
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 100
I.
TURIN'S FOSTERING.
Lo! the lady Morwin in the Land of Shadows
waited in the woodland for her well-beloved;
but he came never from the combat home.
No tidings told her whether taken or dead,
or lost in flight he lingered yet.
Laid waste his lands, and his lieges slain,
and men unmindful of his mighty lordship
dwelt in Dorlomin and dealt unkindly
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with his widowed wife; and she went with child,
who a son must succour now sadly orphaned,
Turin Thaliodrin of tender years.
Then in days of blackness was her daughter born,
and was named Nienor, a name of tears
that in language of eld is Lamentation.
Then her thoughts turned to Thingol the Elf-king,
and the dancer of Doriath, his daughter Tinuviel,
whom the boldest of the brave, Beren Ermabwed,
had won to wife. He once had known
firmest friendship to his fellow in arms,
Thalion Erithamrod -- so thought she now,
and said to her son, 'My sweetest child,
our friends are few, and thy father comes not.
Thou must fare afar to the folk of the wood,
where Thingol is throned in the Thousand Caves.
If he remember Morwin and thy mighty sire
he will fain foster thee, and feats of arms
he will teach thee, the trade of targe and sword,
and Thalion's son no thrall shall be --
but remember thy mother when thy manhood nears.'
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130
Heavy boded the heart of Hurin's son,
yet he weened her words were wild with grief,
and he denied her not, for no need him seemed.
Lo! henchmen had Morwin, Halog and Gumlin,
who were young of yore ere the youth of Thalion,
who alone of the lieges of that lord of Men
steadfast in service staid beside her:
now she bade them brave the black mountains,
and the woods whose ways wander to evil;
though Turin be tender and to travail unused,
they must gird them and go; but glad they were not,
and Morwin mourned when men saw not.
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145
Came a summer day when sun filtered
warm through the woodland's waving branches.
Then Morwin stood her mourning hiding
by the gate of her garth in a glade of the woods.
At the breast she mothered her babe unweaned,
and the doorpost held lest she droop for anguish.
There Gumlin guided her gallant boy,
and a heavy burden was borne by Halog;
150

but the heart of Turin was heavy as stone
uncomprehending its coming anguish.
He sought for comfort, with courage saying:
'Quickly will I come from the courts of Thingol;
long ere manhood I will lead to Morwin
great tale of treasure, and true comrades' --
for he wist not the weird woven by Bauglir,
nor the sundering sorrow that swept between.
The farewells are taken: their footsteps are turned
to the dark forest: the dwelling fadeth
in the tangled trees. Then in Turin leapt
his awakened heart, and he wept blindly,
calling 'I cannot, I cannot leave thee.
0 Morwin, my mother, why makest me go?
Hateful are the hills where hope is lost.
0 Morwin, my mother, I am meshed in tears.
Grim are the hills, and my home is gone.'
And there came his cries calling faintly
down the dark alleys of the dreary trees,
and one who wept weary on the threshold
heard how the hills said 'my home is gone.'
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The ways were weary and woven with deceit
o'er the hills of Hithlum to the hidden kingdom
deep in the darkness of Doriath's forest;
and never ere now for need or wonder
had children of Men chosen that pathway,
and few of the folk have followed it since.
There Turin and the twain knew torment of thirst,
and hunger and fear and hideous nights,
for wolfriders and wandering Orcs
and the Things of Morgoth thronged the woodland.
Magics were about them, that they missed their ways
and strayed steerless, and the stars were hid.
Thus they passed the mountains, but the mazes of Doriath
wildered and wayworn in wanhope bound them.
They had nor bread nor water, and bled of strength
their death they deemed it to die forewandered,
when they heard a horn that hooted afar,
and baying dogs. It was Beleg the hunter,
who farthest fared of his folk abroad
ahunting by hill and hollow valley,
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who cared not for concourse and commerce of men.
He was great of growth and goodly-limbed,
but lithe of girth, and lightly on the ground
his footsteps fell as he fared towards them,
all garbed in grey and green and brown --
a son of the wilderness who wist no sire.
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'Who are ye?' he asked. 'Outlaws, or maybe
hard hunted men whom hate pursueth? '
'Nay, for famine and thirst we faint,' saith Halog,
'wayworn and wildered, and wot not the road.
Or hast not heard of the hills of slain,
or the tear-drenched field where the terror and fire
of Morgoth devoured both Men and Elves?
There Thalion Erithamrod and his thanes like gods
vanished from the earth, and his valiant lady
weeps yet widowed as she waits in Hithlum.
Thou lookest on the last of the lieges of Morwin
and Thalion's son Turin, who to Thingol's court
are wending by the word of the wife of Hurin.'
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Then Beleg bade them be blithe, and said:
'The Gods have guided you to good keeping.
I have heard of the house of Hurin the Steadfast --
and who hath not heard of the hills of slain,
of Ninin Unothradin, the Unnumbered Tears?
To that war I went not, but wage a feud
with the Orcs unending, whom mine arrows bitter
oft stab unseen and strike to death.
I am the huntsman Beleg of the Hidden People.'
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Then he bade them drink, and drew from his belt
a flask of leather full filled with wine
that is bruised from the berries of the burning South--  225
and the Gnome-folk know it, and the nation of the Elves,
and by long ways lead it to the lands of the North.
There baked flesh and bread from his wallet
they had to their hearts' joy; but their heads were mazed
by the wine of Dor-Winion that went in their veins,     230
and they soundly slept on the soft needles
of the tall pine-trees that towered above.
Later they wakened and were led by ways
devious winding through the dark wood-realm

by slade and slope and swampy thicket
through lonely days and long night-times,
and but for Beleg had been baffled utterly
by the magic mazes of Melian the Queen.
To the shadowy shores he showed the way
where stilly that stream strikes 'fore the gates
of the cavernous court of the King of Doriath.
O'er the guarded bridge he gained a passage,
and thrice they thanked him, and thought in their hearts
'the Gods are good' -- had they guessed maybe
what the future enfolded they had feared to live.
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To the throne of Thingol the three were come,
and their speech sped them; for he spake them fair,
and held in honour Hurin the steadfast,
Beren Ermabwed's brother-in-arms.
Remembering Morwin, of mortals fairest,
he turned not Turin in contempt away;
said: '0 son of Hurin, here shalt sojourn
in my cavernous court for thy kindred's sake.
Nor as slave or servant, but a second king's son
thou shalt dwell in dear love, till thou deem'st it time
to remember thy mother Morwin's loneliness.
Thou wisdom shalt win unwist of Men
and weapons shalt wield as the warrior Elves,
and Thalion's son no thrall shall be.'
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There tarried the twain that had tended the child,
till their limbs were lightened and they longed to fare
through dread and danger to their dear lady.
But Gumlin was gone in greater years
than Halog, and hoped not to home again.
Then sickness took him, and he stayed by Turin,
while Halog hardened his heart to go.
An Elfin escort to his aid was given
and magics of Melian, and a meed of gold.
In his mouth a message to Morwin was set,
words of the king's will, how her wish was granted;
how Thingol called her to the Thousand Caves
to fare unfearing with his folk again,
there to sojourn in solace, till her son be grown;
for Hurin the hero was held in mind,
and no might had Morgoth where Melian dwelt.
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Of the errand of the Elves and that other Halog
the tale tells not, save in time they came
to the threshold of Morwin, and Thingol's message
was said where she sate in her solitary hall.
But she dared not do as was dearly bidden,
for Nienor her nestling was not yet weaned.
More, the pride of her people, princes of Men,
had suffered her send her son to Thingol
when despair sped her, but to spend her days
as alms-guest of others, even Elfin kings,
it liked her little; and there lived e'en now
a hope in her heart that Hurin would come,
and the dwelling was dear where he dwelt of old.
At night she would listen for a knock at the doors,
or a footstep falling that she fondly knew;
so she fared not forth, and her fate was woven.
Yet the thanes of Thingol she thanked nobly,
and her shame she showed not, how shorn of glory
to reward their wending she had wealth too scant;
but gave them in gift her golden things
that last lingered, and they led away
a helm of Hurin that was hewn in war
when he battled with Beren his brother-in-arms
against ogres and Orcs and evil foemen;
'twas o'erwritten with runes by wrights of old.
She bade Thingol receive it and think of her.
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Thus Halog her henchman came home, but the Elves,
the thanes of Thingol, thrust through the woods,
and the message of Morwin in a month's journey,
so quick their coming, to the king was said.
Then was Melian moved to ruth,
and courteously received the king her gift,
who deeply delved had dungeons filled
with Elfin armouries of ancient gear,
but he handled the helm as his hoard were scant;
said: 'High were the head that upheld this thing
with that token crowned of the towering dragon
that Thalion Erithamrod thrice-renowned
oft bore into battle with baleful foes.'
Then a thought was thrust into Thingol's heart,
and Turin he called and told when come
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that Morwin his mother a mighty thing
had sent to her son, his sire's heirloom,
a helm that hammers had hardened of old,
whose makers had mingled a magic therein
that its worth was a wonder and its wearer safe,
guarded from glaive or gleaming axe --
'Lo! Hurin's helm hoard thou till manhood
bids thee battle; then bravely don it',
and Turin touched it, but took it not,
too weak to wield that weight as yet,
and his mind mourned for Morwin's answer,
and the first of his sorrows o'erfilled his soul.
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Thus came it to pass in the court of Thingol
that Turin tarried for twelve long years
with Gumlin his guardian, who guided him thither
when but seven summers their sorrows had laid
on the son of Thalion. For the seven first
his lot was lightened, since he learnt at whiles
from faring folk what befell in Hithlum,
and tidings were told by trusty Elves,
how Morwin his mother was more at ease;
and they named Nienor that now was growing
to the sweet beauty of a slender maiden.
Thus his heart knew hope, and his hap was fairer.
There he waxed wonderly and won him praise
in all lands where Thingol as lord was held
for the strength of his body and stoutness of heart.
Much lore he learned, and loved wisdom,
but fortune followed him in few desires;
oft wrong and awry what he wrought turned;
what he loved he lost, what he longed for he won not;
and full friendship he found not easily,
nor was lightly loved for his looks were sad.
He was gloomy-hearted, and glad seldom,
for the sundering sorrow that seared his youth.
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350
On manhood's threshold he was mighty holden
in the wielding of weapons; and in weaving song
he had a minstrel's mastery, but mirth was not in it,
for he mourned the misery of the Men of Hithlum.
Yet greater his grief grew thereafter,
when from Hithlum's hills he heard no more,
355

Two pages from the original manuscript of The Lay of the Children of Hurin.)

and no traveller told him tidings of Morwin.
For those days were drawing to the Doom of the Gnomes,
and the power of the Prince of the People of Hell, 360
of the grim Glamhoth, was grown apace,
till the lands of the North were loud with their noise,
and they fell on the folk with flame and ruin
who bent not to Bauglir, or the borders passed
of dark Dorlomin with its dreary pines
that Hithlum unhappy is hight by Men.
There Morgoth shut them, and the Shadowy Mountains
fenced them from Faerie and the folk of the wood.
Even Beleg fared not so far abroad
as once was his wont, and the woods were filled
with the armies of Angband and evil deeds,
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365
while murder walked on the marches of Doriath;
only mighty magic of Melian the Queen
yet held their havoc from the Hidden People.
To assuage his sorrow and to sate the rage
and hate of his heart for the hurts of his folk
then Hurin's son took the helm of his sire
and weapons weighty for the wielding of men,
and went to the woods with warlike Elves;
and far in the fight his feet led him,
into black battle yet a boy in years.
Ere manhood's measure he met and slew
the Orcs of Angband and evil things
that roamed and ravened on the realm's borders.
There hard his life, and hurts he got him,
the wounds of shaft and warfain sword,
and his prowess was proven and his praise renowned,
and beyond his years he was yielded honour;
for by him was holden the hand of ruin
from Thingol's folk, and Thu feared him --
Thu who was throned as thane most mighty
neath Morgoth Bauglir; whom that mighty one bade
'Go ravage the realm of the robber Thingol,
and mar the magic of Melian the Queen.'
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390
Only one was there in war greater,
higher in honour in the hearts of the Elves,
than Turin son of Hurin untamed in war --
even the huntsman Beleg of the Hidden People,
395

the son of the wilderness who wist no sire
(to bend whose bow of the black yew-tree
had none the might), unmatched in knowledge
of the wood's secrets and the weary hills.
He was leader beloved of the light-armed bands,
the scouts that scoured, scorning danger,
afar o'er the fells their foemen's lairs;
and tales and tidings timely won them
of camps and councils, of comings and goings --
all the movements of the might of Morgoth the Terrible.
Thus Turin, who trusted to targe and sword,
who was fain of fighting with foes well seen,
and the banded troops of his brave comrades
were snared seldom and smote unlooked-for.
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Then the fame of the fights on the far marches
were carried to the court of the King of Doriath,
and tales of Turin were told in his halls,
and how Beleg the ageless was brother-in-arms
to the black-haired boy from the beaten people.
Then the king called them to come before him
ever and anon when the Orc-raids waned;
to rest them and revel, and to raise awhile
the secret songs of the sons of Ing.
On a time was Turin at the table of Thingol --
there was laughter long and the loud clamour
of a countless company that quaffed the mead,
amid the wine of Dor-Winion that went ungrudged
in their golden goblets; and goodly meats
there burdened the boards, neath the blazing torches
set high in.those halls that were hewn of stone.
There mirth fell on many; . there minstrels clear
did sing to them songs of the city of Tun
neath Tain-Gwethil, towering mountain,
where the great gods sit and gaze on the world
from the guarded shores of the gulf of Faerie.
Then one sang of the slaying at the Swanships' Haven
and the curse that had come on the kindreds since:
all silent sat and soundless harkened,
and waited the words save one alone --
the Man among Elves that Morwin bore.
Unheeding he heard or high feasting
415
420
425
430
435

or lay or laughter, and looked, it seemed,
to a deep distance in the dark without,
and strained for sounds in the still spaces,
for voices that vanished in the veils of night.
He was lithe and lean, and his locks were wild,
and woodland weeds he wore of brown
and grey and green, and gay jewel
or golden trinket his garb knew not.
440
445
An Elf there was -- Orgof -- of the ancient race
that was lost in the lands where the long marches
from the quiet waters of Cuivienen
were made in the mirk of the midworld's gloom,
ere light was lifted aloft o'er earth;
but blood of the Gnomes was blent in his veins.
He was close akin to the King of Doriath --
a hardy hunter and his heart was brave,
but loose his laughter and light his tongue,
and his pride outran his prowess in arms.
He was fain before all of fine raiment
and of gems and jewels, and jealous of such
as found favour before himself.
Now costly clad in colours gleaming
he sat on a seat that was set on high
near the king and queen and close to Turin.
When those twain were at table he had taunted him oft,
lightly with laughter, for his loveless ways,
his haggard raiment and hair unshorn;
but Turin untroubled neither turned his head
nor wasted words on the wit of Orgof.
But this day of the feast more deep his gloom
than of wont, and his words men won harder;
for of twelve long years the tale was full
since on Morwin his mother through a maze of tears
he looked the last, and the long shadows
of the forest had fallen on his fading home;
and he answered few, and Orgof nought.
Then the fool's mirth was filled the more,
to a keener edge was his carping whetted
at the clothes uncouth and the uncombed hair
of Turin newcome from the tangled forest.
He drew forth daintily a dear treasure,
450
455
460
465
470
475
480

a comb of gold that he kept about him,
and tendered it to Turin; but he turned not his eyes,
nor deigned to heed or harken to Orgof,
who too deep drunken that disdain should quell him:
'Nay, an thou knowest not thy need of comb,
nor its use,' quoth he, 'too young thou leftest
thy mother's ministry, and 'twere meet to go
that she teach thee tame thy tangled locks --
if the women of Hithlum be not wild and loveless,
uncouth and unkempt as their cast-off sons.'
485
490
Then a fierce fury, like a fire blazing,
was born of bitterness in his bruised heart;
his white wrath woke at the words of scorn
for the women of Hithlum washed in tears;
and a heavy horn to his hand lying,
with gold adorned for good drinking,
of his might unmindful thus moved in ire
he seized and, swinging, swiftly flung it
in the face of Orgof. 'Thou fool', he said,
'fill thy mouth therewith, and to me no further
thus witless prate by wine bemused' --
but his face was broken, and he fell backward,
and heavy his head there hit upon the stone
of the floor rock-paved mid flagons and vessels
of the o'erturned table that tumbled on him
as clutching he fell; and carped no more,
in death silent. There dumb were all
at bench and board; in blank amaze
they rose around him, as with ruth of heart
he gazed aghast on his grievous deed,
on his wine-stained hand, with wondering eyes
half-comprehending. On his heel then he turned
into the night striding, and none stayed him;
but some their swords half slipped from sheaths
-- they were Orgof's kin -- yet for awe of Thingol
they dared not draw while the dazed king
stonefaced stared on his stricken thane
and no sign showed them. But the slayer weary
his hands laved in the hidden stream
that strikes 'fore the gates, nor stayed his tears:
'Who has cast,' he cried, 'a curse upon me;
495
500
505
510
515
520

for all I do is ill, and an outlaw now,
in bitter banishment and blood-guilty,
of my fosterfather I must flee the halls,
nor look on the lady beloved again' --
yea, his heart to Hithlum had hastened him now,
but that road he dared not, lest the wrath he draw
of the Elves after him, and their anger alight
should speed the spears in despite of Morgoth
o'er the hills of Hithlum to hunt him down;
lest a doom more dire than they dreed of old
be meted his mother and the Maid of Tears.
525
530
In the furthest folds of the Forest of Doriath,
in the darkest dales on its drear borders,
in haste he hid him, lest the hunt take him;
and they found not his footsteps who fared after,
the thanes of Thingol; who thirty days
sought him sorrowing, and searched in vain
with no purpose of ill, but the pardon bearing
of Thingol throned in the Thousand Caves.
He in council constrained the kin of Orgof
to forget their grief and forgiveness show,
in that wilful bitterness had barbed the words
of Orgof the Elf; said 'his hour had come
that his soul should seek the sad pathway
to the deep valley of the Dead Awaiting,
there a thousand years thrice to ponder
in the gloom of Gurthrond his grim jesting,
ere he fare to Faerie to feast again.'
Yet of his own treasure he oped the gates,
and gifts ungrudging of gold and gems
to the sons he gave of the slain; and his folk
well deemed the deed. But that doom of the King
Turin knew not, and turned against him
the hands of the Elves he unhappy believed,
wandering the woodland woeful-hearted;
for his fate would not that the folk of the caves
should harbour longer Hurin's offspring.
535
540
545
550
555
*



NOTES.
8.
13.
17.
20.
22.
25.
29.
50.
51.
73.
(Throughout the Notes statements such as 'Delimorgoth A,
and B as typed' (line x x) imply that the reading in the printed
text (in that case Delu-Morgoth) is a later emendation made
to B).
Hurin is Urin in the Lost Tales (and still when this poem was
begun, see note to line 213), and his name Thalion 'Stead-
fast', found in The Silmarillion and the Narn, does not occur
in them (though he is called 'the Steadfast').11.
Delimorgoth A, and B as typed. Morgoth occurs once only
in the Lost Tales, in the typescript version of the Tale of
Tinuviel (II.44); see note to line 20.
Ninin Udathriol A, and B as typed; this occurs in the Tale
(II. 84; for explanation of the name see II. 346). When
changing Udathriol to Unothradin my father wrote in the
margin of B: 'or Nirnaithos Unothradin'.
Above Erithamrod is pencilled in A Urinthalion.
B as typed had Belcha, which was then changed through
Belegor, Melegor, to Bauglir. (A has a different reading
here: as a myriad rats in measureless army/might pull
down the proudest...) Belcha occurs in the typescript
version of the Tale of Tinuviel (II. 44), where Belcha
Morgoth are said to be Melko's names among the Gnomes.
Bauglir is found as a name of Morgoth in The Silmarillion
and the Narn.
Melko's A; Belcha's B as typed, then the line changed to To
the halls of Belegor (> Melegor), and finally to the reading
given. See note to.line 20.
Above Erithamrod in A is written Urin Thalion (see note to
line 17); Urin > Hurin, and a direction to read Thalion
Hurin.
Finweg's son A, and B as typed; the emendation is a later
one, and at the same time my father wrote in the margin of B
'he was Fingolfin's son', clearly a comment on the change of
son to heir. Finweg is Finwe Noleme Lord of the Noldoli,
who in the Last Tales was Turgon's father (I. 115), not as he
afterwards became his grandfather.
Kor > Cor A, Cor B as typed. When emending Cor to
Corthun my father wrote in the margin of B: 'Corthun or
Tun'.
Thalion A, and B as typed.
Delimorgoth A, and B as typed (as at line 11).
In B there is a mark of insertion between lines 72 and 73. This
probably refers to a line in A, not taken up into B: bound by
the (> my) spell of bottomless (> unbroken) might.

75.
84.
 105.
117.
120.
121.
137.
160.
213.
218.
226.
230.
306.
Belcha A, and B as typed; the same chain of emendations in
B as at lines 20 and 22.
Bauglir: as at line 75.
Mavwin A, and B as typed; in B then emended to Mailwin,
and back to Mavwin; Morwin written later in the margin of
B. Exactly the same at 129, and at 137 though here without
Morwin in the margin; at 145 Mavwin unemended, but
Morwin in the margin. Thereafter Mavwin stands un-
emended and without marginal note, as far as 438 (see note).
For consistency I read Morwin throughout the first version
of the poem. -- Mavwin is the form in the Tale; Mailwin does
not occur elsewhere.
On the variation Nienori/Nienor in the Tale see II. 118 -- 19.
Tinuviel A, Tinwiel B unemended but with Tinuviel in the
margin. Tinwiel does not occur elsewhere.
Ermabwed 'One-handed' is Beren's title or nickname in the
Lost Tales.
Gumlin is named in the Tale (II. 74, etc.); the younger of the
two guardians of Turin on his journey to Doriath (here called
Halog) is not.
Belcha A, and B as typed, emended to Bauglir. Cf. notes to
lines 20, 22, 75.
Urin > Hurin A; but Hurin A in line 216.
Ninin Udathriol A, and B as typed; cf. line 13.
The distinction between 'Gnomes' and 'Elves' is still made;
see I. 43 -- 4.
Dorwinion A.
For Mavwin was Melian moved to ruth A, and B as
typed, with Then was Melian moved written in the margin.
The second half-line has only three syllables unless moved is
read moved, which is not satisfactory. The second version of
the poem has here For Morwen Melian was moved to 
ruth. Cf. lines 494, 519.
333.
Turin Thaliodrin A (cf. line 115), emended to the son of 
361.
364.
392.
408.
430.
431.
Thalion.
Glamhoth appears in The Fall of Gondolin (II. 160), with is
the translation 'folk of dreadful hate'.
Belcha A, and B as typed; then > Melegor > Bauglir in B.
Bauglir: as at line 364.
Morgoth Belcha A, and B as typed.
Kor > Cor A, Cor B as typed. Cf. line 50.
Tengwethil A, and B as typed. In the early Gnomish dic- 
tionary and in the Name-list to The Fall of Condolin the 
Gnomish name of Taniquetil is Danigwethil (I. 266,
II. 337).
438.
Mavwin A, and B as typed, but Mavwin > Morwen a later 

450.
 461-3.
471.
472.
494
514-16.
517.
519.
emendation in 8. I read Morwin throughout the first version
of the poem (see note to line 105).
Cuinlimfin A, and B as typed; Cuivienen a later emendation
in B. The form in the Lost Tales is Koivie-Neni; Cuinlimfin
occurs nowhere else.
These lines bracketed and marked with an X in B.
This line marked with an X in B.
Mavwin > Morwen B; see line 438.
all mashed in tears A, washed in tears B (half-line of three
syllables), with an X in the margin and an illegible word
written in pencil before washed. Cf. lines 306, 519. The
second version of the poem does not reach this point.
Against these lines my father wrote in the margin of B: 'Make
Orgof's kin set on him and T. fight his way out.'
stonefaced stared: the accent on stonefaced was put in
later and the line marked with an X. -- In his essay On
Translating Beowulf (1940; The Monsters and the Critics
and Other Essays (1983) p. 67) my father gave stared
stonyfaced as an example of an Old English metrical type.
his hands laved: the line is marked with an X in B. Cf. lines
528.
529.
548.
306, 494.
With the half-line and their anger alight the second, more
finished, part of the manuscript A begins; see p. 4.
Belcha A, Morgoth B as typed.
Guthrond A, and B as typed.
Commentary on the Prologue
and Part I 'Turin's Fostering'.
The opening section or 'Prologue' of the poem derives from the opening
of the Tale (II. 70 -- 1) and in strictly narrative terms there has been little
development. In lines 18 -- z t (and especially in the rejected line in A, as a
myriad rats in measureless army lmighf pull down the proudest)
is clearly foreshadowed the story in The Silmarillion (p. 195):
... they took him at last alive, by the command of Morgoth, for the
Orcs grappled him with their hands, which clung to him though he
hewed off their arms; and ever their numbers were renewed, until at
last he fell buried beneath them.
On the other hand the motive in the later story for capturing him alive
(Morgoth knew that Hurin had been to Gondolin) is necessarily not
present, since Gondolin in the older phases of the legends was not
discovered till Turgon retreated down Sirion after the Battle of Un-
numbered Tears (II. 120, 208). That he was taken alive by Morgoth's

command is however already stated in the poem (line 20), though it is not
explained why. In the Tale Morgoth's interest in Hurin as a tool for the 
discovery of Turgon arose from his knowledge that
the Elves of Kor thought little of Men, holding them in scant fear or 
suspicion for their blindness and lack of skill
-- an idea that is repeated in the poem (46 -- 8); but this idea seems only to
have arisen in Morgoth's mind when he came to Hurin in his dungeon
(44ff.).
The place of Hurin's torment (in the Tale 'a lofty place of the moun-
tains') is now defined as a stool of stone on the steepest peak of,
Thangorodrim; and this is the first occurrence of that name.
In the change of son to heir in line 29 is seen the first hint of a
development in the kingly house of the Noldoli, with the appearance of a
second generation between Finwe (Finweg) and Turgon; but by the
time that my father pencilled this change on the text (and noted 'He was
Fingolfin's son') the later genealogical structure was already in being,
and this is as it were a casual indication of it.
In 'Turin's Fostering' there is a close relationship between the Tale ]
and the poem, extending to many close similarities of wording -- especially
abundant in the scene in Thingol's hall leading to the death of Orgof; and
some phrases had a long life, surviving from the Tale, through the poem,
and into the.Narn i Hin Hurin, as
rather would she dwell poor among Men than live sweetly as an
almsguest among the woodland Elves(II. 73)
but to spend her days
as alms-guest of others, even Elfin kings,
it liked her little
(284 -- 6)
she would not yet humble her pride to be an alms-guest, not even of a
king(Narn p. 70)
-- though in the Narn the 'alms-guest' passage occurs at a different point,
before Turin left Hithlum (Morwen's hope that Hurin would come back
is in the Narn her reason for not journeying to Doriath with her son, not
for refusing the 1ater invitation to her to go).
Of Morwen's situation in Dor-lomin after the Battle of Unnumbered
Tears there are a few things to say. In the poem (111--13)
men unmindful of his mighty lordship
dwelt in Dorlomin and dealt unkindly
with his widowed wife

-- echoing the Tale: 'the strange men who dwelt nigh knew not the dignity
of the Lady Mavwin', but there is still no indication of who these men
were or where they came from (see II. 126). As so often, the narrative

situation was prepared but its explanation had not emerged. The un-
clarity of the Tale as to where Urin dwelt before the great Battle (see
II.120) is no longer present: the dwelling was dear where he
dwelt of old (288). Nienor was born before Turin left (on the contradic-
tion in the Tale on this point see II. 131); and the chronology of Turin's
childhood is still that of the Tale (see II. 142): seven years old when he
left Hithlum (332), seven years in Doriath while tidings still came from
Morwen (333), twelve years since he came to Doriath when he slew
Orgof (471). In the later story the last figure remained unchanged, which
suggests that the X (mark of dissatisfaction) placed against line 471 had
some other reason.
There are several references in the poem to Hurin and Beren having
been friends and fellows-in-arms (122 -- 4., 248 -- 9, 298). In the Tale it was
said originally (when Beren was a Man) that Egnor Beren's father was
akin to Mavwin; this was replaced by a different passage (when Beren
had become a Gnome) according to which Egnor was a friend of Urin
('and Beren Ermabwed son of Egnor he knew'); see I I. 71 -- 2, 139. In the
later version of the Tale of Tinuviel (II.44) Urin is named as the 'brother
in arms' of Egnor; this was emended to make Urin's relationship with
Beren himself -- as in the poem. In The Silmarillion (p. 198) Morwen
thought to send Turin to Thingol 'for Beren son of Barahir was her
father's kinsman, and he had been moreover a friend of Hurin, ere evil
befell'. There is no mention of the fact in the Narn (p. 63): Morwen
merely says: 'Am I not now kin of the king [Thingol]? For Beren son
of Barahir was grandson of Bregor, as was my father also.'
That Beren was still an Elf, not a Man, (deducible on other grounds) is
apparent from lines 178 -- 9:
and never ere now for need or wonder
had children of Men chosen that pathway
-- cf. the Tale (II. 72): 'and Turin son of Urin was the first of Men to
tread that way', changed from the earlier reading 'and Beren Ermabwed
was the first of Men...'
In the parting of Turin from his mother comparison with the Tale will
show some subtle differences which need not be spelled out here. The
younger of Turin's guardians is now named, Halog (and it is said that
Gumlin and Halog were the only 'henchmen' left to Morwen).
Some very curious things are said of Beleg in the poem. He is twice
(200, 399) called 'a (the) son of the wilderness who wist no sire', and at
line 416 he is 'Beleg the ageless'. There seems to be a mystery about him,
an otherness that sets him apart (as he set himself apart, 195) from the
Elves of Thingol's lordship (see further p. 127). It may be that there is
still a trace of this in the 1930 'Silmarillion', where it is said that none
went from Doriath to the Battle of Unnumbered Tears save Mablung,


and Beleg 'who obeyed no man' (in the later text this becomes 'nor any
out of Doriath save Mablung and Beleg, who were unwilling to have no
part in these great deeds. To them Thingol gave leave to go...', The
Silmarillion p. 189). In the poem (219) Beleg says expressly that he did
not go to the great Battle. -- His great bow of black yew-wood (so in The
Silmarillion, p. 208, where it is named Belthronding) now appears
(400): in the Tale he is not particularly marked out as a bowman
(II. 123).
Beleg's The gods have guided you (215) and Turin's guardians'
thought the gods are good (244) accord with references in the Lost
Tales to the influence of the Valar on Men and Elves in the Great Lands:
see II. 141.
The potent wine that Beleg carried and gave to the travellers from his
flask (223 ff.) is notable -- brought from the burning South and by long
mays carried to the lands of the North -- as is the name of the land from
which it came: Dor-Winion (230, 425). The only other places in my
father's writings where this name occurs (so far as I know) are in The
Hobbit, Chapter IX Barrels out of Bond: 'the heady vintage of the
great gardens of Dorwinion', and 'the wine of Dorwinion brings deep and
pleasant dreams'.* See further p. 127.
The curious element in Thingol's message to Morwen in the Tale,
explaining why he did not go with his people to the Battle of Un-
numbered Tears (II. 73), has now been rejected; but with Morwen's
response to the messengers out of Doriath there enters the legend the
Dragon-helm of Dor-lomin (297 ff.). As yet little is told of it (though
more is said in the second version of the poem, see p. 126): Hurin often
bore it in battle (in the Narn it is denied that he used it, p. 76); it
magically protected its wearer (as still in the Narn, p. 75); and it
was arith that token crowned of the towering dragon, and o'er-
written with runes by wrights of old (cf. the Narn: 'on it were
graven runes of victory'). But nothing is here said of how Hurin came by
it, beyond the fact that it was his heirloom. Very notable is the passage
(307 ff.) in which is described Thingol's handling of the helm as his
hoard were scant, despite his possession of dungeons filled/with
Elfin armouries of ancient gear. I have commented previously (see
II. 128 -- 9, 245 -- 6) on the early emphasis on the poverty of Tinwelint
(Thingol): here we have the first appearance of the idea of his wealth
(present also at the beginning of the Lay of Leithian). Also notable is the
close echoing of the lines of the poem in the words of the Narn, p. 76:
*Doncinion is marked on the decorated map by Pauline Bayncs, as a region on the
North-western shores of the Sea of Rhun. It must bc presumed that this, like other names
on that map, was communicated to her by my father (see Unfinished Tales p. 261,
footnote), but its placing seems surprising.)

Yet Thingol handled the Helm of Hador as though his hoard were
scanty, and he spoke courteous words, saying: 'Proud were the head
that bore this helm, which the sires of Hurin bore.'
There is also a clear echo of lines 315-18
Then a thought was thrust into Thingol's heart,
and Turin he called and told when come
that Morwin his mother a mighty thing
had sent to her son, his sire's heirloom
in the prose of the Narn:
Then a thought came to him, and he summoned Turin, and told him
that Morwen had sent to her son a mighty thing, the heirloom of his
fathers.
Compare also the passages that follow in both works, concerning Turin's
being too young to lift the Helm, and being in any case too unhappy to
heed it on account of his mother's refusal to leave Hithlum. This was the
first of his sorrows (328); in the Narn (p. 75) the second.
The account of Turin's character in boyhood (341 ff.) is very close to
that in the Tale (II. 74), which as I have noted before (II. 121) survived
into the Narn (p. 77): the latter account indeed echoes the poem
('he learned much lore', 'neither did he win friendship easily'). In the
poem it is now added that in cueaving song/he had a minstrel's
mastery, but mirth was not in it.
An important new element in the narrative enters with the companion-
ship of Beleg and Turin (wearing the Dragon-helm, 377) in warfare on
the marches of Doriath:
how Beleg the ageless was brother-in-arms
to the black-haired boy from the beaten people. (416 -- 17)
Of this there is no mention in the Tale at all (II. 74). Cf. my Com-
mentary, II. 122:
Turin's prowess against the Orcs during his sojourn in Artanor is given
a more central or indeed unique importance in the tale ('he held the
wrath of Melko from them for many years'), especially as Beleg, his
companion-in-arms in the later versions, is not here mentioned.
In the poem the importance to Doriath of Turin's warfare is not dimin-
ished, however:
for by him was holden the hand of ruin
from Thingol's folk, and Thu feared him (389 -- 90)
We meet here for the first time Thu, thane most mighty/neath

Morgoth Bauglir. It is interesting to learn that Thu knew of Turin and
feared him, also that Morgoth ordered Thu to assault Doriath: this story
will reappear in the Lay of Leithian.
In the story of Turin and Orgof the verses are very clearly following
the prose of the Tale, and there are many close likenesses of wording, as
already noted. The relation of this scene to the later story has been
discussed previously (II. 121 -- 2). Orgof still has Gnome-blood, which
may imply the continuance of the story that there were Gnomes among
Thingol's people (see II. 43). The occasion of Turin's return from the
forest to the Thousand Caves (a name that first occurs in the poem)
becomes, as it seems, a great feast, with songs of Valinor -- quite unlike
the later story, where the occasion is in no way marked out and Thingol
and Melian were not in Menegroth (Narn p. 79); and Turin and Orgof
were set on high/near the king and queen (i.e. presumably on the
dais, at the 'high table'). Whether it was a rejection of this idea that
caused my father to bracket lines 461 -- 3 and mark them with an X I
cannot say. The secret songs of the sons of Ing referred to in this
passage (421) are not indeed songs of the sons of Ing of the AElfwine
history (II. 301 ff.); this Ing is the Gnomish form of Ingwe, Lord of the
First Kindred of the Elves (earlier Inwe Lord of the Teleri).*
The lines concerning Orgof dead are noteworthy:
his hour had come
that his soul should seek the sad pathway
to the deep valley of the Dead Awaiting,
there a thousand years thrice:o ponder
in the gloom of Gurthrond his grim jesting,
ere he fare to Faerie to feast again.(
544-9)
With this compare the tale of The Coming of the Valar and the
Building of Valinor (I. 76):
There [in the hall of Ve] 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.
The name Gurthrond (< Guthrond) occurs nowhere else; the first
element is doubtless gurth 'death', as in the name of Turin's sword
Gurtholfin (II. 342).
*That Ing is the Gnomish form of Ingwe appears from the 1926 'Sketch of the
Mythology' and the 1930 'Silmarillion'. Ing was replaced by Inn e in The Cottage of Lost
Play, but there the Gnomish name of Inwe is Inwithiel, changed from Gim Githil (I. 16,
22).)

There remain a few particular points concerning names. At line 366
Hithlum is explained as the name of Dorlomin among Men:
of dark Dorlomin with its dreary pines
that Hithlum unhappy is hight by Men.
This is curious. In the Lost Tales the name of the land among Men was
Aryador; so in the Tale of Turambar (II. 70):
In those days my folk dwelt in a vale of Hisilome and that land did Men
name Aryador in the tongues they then used.
In the 1930 'Silmarillion' it is specifically stated that Hithlum and
Dorlomin were Gnomish names for Hisilome', and there seems every
reason to suppose that this was always the case. The answer to the puzzle
may however lie in the same passage of the Tale of Turambar, where it is
said that
often was the story of Turambar and the Foaloke in their [i.e. Men's]
mouths -- but rather after the fashion of the Gnomes did they say
Turumart and the Fuithlug.
Perhaps then the meaning of line 366 is that Men called Hisilome
Hithlum because they used the Gnomish name, not that it was the name
in their own tongue.
In the following lines (367 -- 8)
the Shadowy Mountains
fenced them from Faerie and the folk of the wood.
This is the first occurrence of the name Shadowy Mountains, and it is
used as it was afterwards (Ered Wethrin); in the Last Tales the moun-
tains forming the southern fence of Hithlum are called the Iron Moun-
tains or the Bitter Hills (see II. 61).
The name Cuinlimfin of the Waters of Awakening (note to line 450)
seems to have been a passing idea, soon abandoned.
Lastly, at line 50 occurs (by emendation in B from Cor) the unique
compound name Corthun, while at 430 the city of Cor was emended to
the city of Tun; see II. 292.
*
II.
BELEG.
Long time alone he lived in the hills
a hunter of beast and hater of Men,
or Orcs, or Elves, till outcast folk
560

there one by one, wild and reckless
around him rallied; and roaming far
they were feared by both foe and friend of old.
For hot with hate was the heart of Turin,
nor a friend found him such folk of Thingol
as he wandering met in the wood's fastness.
565
There Beleg the brave on the borders of Doriath
they found and fought -- and few were with him --
and o'erborne by numbers they bound him at last,
till their captain came to their camp at eve.
Afar from that fight his fate that day
had taken Turin on the trail of the Orcs,
as they hastened home to the Hills of Iron
with the loot laden of the lands of Men.
Then soon was him said that a servant of Thingol
they had tied to a tree -- and Turin coming
stared astonied on the stern visage
of Beleg the brave his brother in arms,
of whom he learned the lore of leaping blades,
and of bended bow and barbed shaft,
and the wild woodland's wisdom secret,
when they blent in battle the blood of their wounds.
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Then Turin's heart was turned from hate,
and he bade unbind Beleg the huntsman.
'Now fare thou free! But, of friendship aught
if thy heart yet holds for Hurin's son,
never tell thou tale that Turin thou sawst
an outlaw unloved from Elves and Men,
whom Thingol's thanes yet thirst to slay.
Betray not my trust or thy troth of yore! '
Then Beleg of the bow embraced him there --
he had not fared to the feast or the fall of Orgof --
there kissed him kindly comfort speaking:
'Lo! nought know I of the news thou tellest;
but outlawed or honoured thou ever shalt be
the brother of Beleg, come bliss come woe!
Yet little me likes that thy leaping sword
the life should drink of the leaguered Elves.
Are the grim Glamhoth then grown so few,
or the foes of Faerie feeble-hearted,
that warlike Men have no work to do?
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Shall the foes of Faerie be friends of Men?
Betrayest thou thy troth whom we trusted of yore? '
'Nor of armed Orc, nor [of] Elf of the wood,
nor of any on earth have I honour or love,
0 Beleg the bowman. This band alone
I count as comrades, my kindred in woe
and friendless fate -- our foes the world.'
605
'Let the bow of Beleg to your band be joined;
and swearing death to the sons of darkness
let us suage our sorrow and the smart of fate!
Our valour is not vanquished, nor vain the glory
that once we did win in the woods of old.'
610
Thus hope in the heart of Hurin's offspring
awoke at those words; and them well liked
of that band the boldest, save Blodrin only --
Blodrin Bor's son, who for blood and for gold
alone lusted, and little he recked
whom he robbed of riches or reft of life,
were it Elf or Orc; but he opened not
the thoughts of his heart. There throbbed the harp,
where the fires flickered, and the flaming brands
of pine were piled in the place of their camp;
where glad men gathered in good friendship
as dusk fell down on the drear woodland.
Then a song on a sudden soaring loudly --
and the trees up-looming towering harkened --
was raised of the Wrack of the Realm of the Gods;
of the need of the Gnomes on the Narrow Crossing;
of the fight at Fangros, and Feanor's sons'
oath unbreakable. Then up sprang Beleg:
'That our vaunt and our vows be not vain for ever,
even such as they swore, those seven chieftains,
an oath let us swear that is unchanging
as Tain-Gwethil's towering mountain! '
Their blades were bared, as blood shining
in the flame of the fires while they flashed and touched.
As with one man's voice the words were spoken,
and the oath uttered that must unrecalled
abide for ever, a bond of truth
and friendship in arms, and faith in peril.
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Thus war was waked in the woods once more
for the foes of Faerie, and its fame widely,
and the fear of that fellowship, now fared abroad;
when the horn was heard of the hunting Elves
that shook the shaws and the sheer valleys.
Blades were naked and bows twanging,
and shafts from the shadows shooting winged,
and the sons of darkness slain and conquered;
even in Angband the Orcs trembled.
Then the word wandered down the ways of the forest
that Turin Thalion was returned to war;
and Thingol heard it, and his thanes were sped
to lead the lost one in love to his halls --
but his fate was fashioned that they found him not.
Little gold they got in that grim warfare,
but weary watches and wounds for guerdon;
nor on robber-raids now rode they ever,
who fended from Faerie the fiends of Hell.
But Blodrin Bor's son for booty lusted,
for the loud laughter of the lawless days,
and meats unmeasured, and mead-goblets
refilled and filled, and the flagons of wine
that went as water in their wild revels.
Now tales have told that trapped as a child
he was dragged by the Dwarves to their deep mansions,
and in Nogrod nurtured, and in nought was like,
spite blood and birth, to the blissful Elves.
His heart hated Hurin's offspring
and the bowman Beleg; so biding his while
he fled their fellowship and forest hidings
to the merciless Orcs, whose moon-pallid
cruel-curved blades to kill spare not;
than whose greed for gold none greater burns
save in hungry hearts of the hell-dragons.
He betrayed his troth; traitor made him
and the forest fastness of his fellows in arms
he opened to the Orcs, nor his oath heeded.
There they fought and fell by foes outnumbered,
by treachery trapped at a time of night
when their fires faded and few were waking --
some wakened never, not for wild noises,
nor cries nor curses, nor clashing steel,
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swept as they slumbered to the slades of death.
But Turin they took, though towering mighty
at the Huntsman's hand he hewed his foemen,
as a bear at bay mid bellowing hounds,
unheeding his hurts; at the hest of Morgoth
yet living they lapped him, his limbs entwining,
with hairy hands and hideous arms.
Then Beleg was buried in the bodies of the fallen,
as sorely wounded he swooned away;
and all was over, and the Orcs triumphed.
The dawn over Doriath dimly kindled
saw Blodrin Bor's son by a beech standing
with throat thirled by a thrusting arrow,
whose shaven shaft, shod with poison,
and feather-winged, was fast in the tree.
He bargained the blood of his brothers for gold:
thus his meed was meted -- in the mirk at random
by an orc-arrow his oath came home.
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From the magic mazes of Melian the Queen
they haled unhappy Hurin's offspring,
lest he flee his fate; but they fared slowly
and the leagues were long of their laboured way
over hill and hollow to the high places,
where the peaks and pinnacles of pitiless stone
looming up lofty are lapped in cloud,
and veiled in vapours vast and sable;
where Eiglir Engrin, the Iron Hills, lie
o'er the hopeless halls of Hell upreared
wrought at the roots of the roaring cliffs
of Thangorodrim's thunderous mountain.
Thither led they laden with loot and evil;
but Beleg yet breathed in blood drenched
aswoon, till the sun to the South hastened,
and the eye of day was opened wide.
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725
Then he woke and wondered, and weeping took him,
and to Turin Thalion his thoughts were turned,
that o'erborne in battle and bound he had seen.
Then he crawled from the corpses that had covered him over,
weary, wounded, too weak to stand.
So Thingol's thanes athirst and bleeding
in the forest found him: his fate willed not

that he should drink the draught of death from foes.
Thus they bore him back in bitter torment
his tidings to tell in the torchlit halls
of Thingol the king; in the Thousand Caves
to be healed whole by the hands enchanted
of Melian Mablui, the moonlit queen.
730
Ere a week was outworn his wounds were cured,
but his heart's heaviness those hands of snow
nor soothed nor softened, and sorrow-laden
he fared to the forest. No fellows sought he
in his hopeless hazard, but in haste alone
he followed the feet of the foes of Elfland,
the dread daring, and the dire anguish,
that held the hearts of Hithlum's men
and Doriath's doughtiest in a dream of fear.
Unmatched among Men, or magic-wielding
Elves, or hunters of the Orc-kindred,
or beasts of prey for blood pining,
was his craft and cunning, that cold and dead
an unseen slot could scent o'er stone,
foot-prints could find on forest pathways
that lightly on the leaves were laid in moons
long waned, and washed by windy rains.
The grim Glamhoth's goblin armies
go cunning-footed, but his craft failed not
to tread their trail, till the lands were darkened,
and the light was lost in lands unknown.
Never-dawning night was netted clinging
in the black branches of the beetling trees;
oppressed by pungent pinewood's odours,
and drowsed with dreams as the darkness thickened,
he strayed steerless. The stars were hid,
and the moon mantled. There magic foundered
in the gathering glooms, there goblins even
(whose deep eyes drill the darkest shadows)
bewildered wandered, who the way forsook
to grope in the glades, there greyly loomed
of girth unguessed in growth of ages
the topless trunks of trees enchanted.
That fathomless fold by folk of Elfland
is Taur-na-Fuin, the Trackless Forest
of Deadly Nightshade, dreadly named.
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Abandoned, beaten, there Beleg lying
to the wind harkened winding, moaning
in bending boughs; to branches creaking
up high over head, where huge pinions
of the plumed pine-trees complained darkly
in black foreboding. There bowed hopeless,
in wit wildered, and wooing death,
he saw on a sudden a slender sheen
shine a-shimmering in the shades afar,
like a glow-worm's lamp a-gleaming dim.
He marvelled what it might be as he moved softly;
for he knew not the Gnomes of need delving
in the deep dungeons of dark Morgoth.
Unmatched their magic in metal-working,
who jewels and gems that rejoiced the Gods
aforetime fashioned, when they freedom held,
now swinking slaves of ceaseless labour
in Angband's smithies, nor ever were suffered
to wander away, warded always.
But little lanterns of lucent crystal
and silver cold with subtlest cunning
they strangely fashioned, and steadfast a flame
burnt unblinking there blue and pale,
unquenched for ever. The craft that lit them
was the jewel-makers' most jealous secret.
Not Morgoth's might, nor meed nor torment
them vowed, availed to reveal that lore;
yet lights and lamps of living radiance,
many and magical, they made for him.
No dark could dim them the deeps wandering;
whose lode they lit was lost seldom
in groundless grot, or gulfs far under.
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'Twas a Gnome he beheld on the heaped needles
of a pine-tree pillowed, when peering wary
he crept closer. The covering pelt
was loosed from the lamp of living radiance
by his side shining. Slumber-shrouded
his fear-worn face was fallen in shade.
Lest in webs woven of unwaking sleep,
spun round by spells in those spaces dark,
he lie forlorn and lost for ever,
the Hunter hailed him in the hushed forest --
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to the drowsy deeps of his dream profound
fear ever-following came falling loud;
as the lancing lightning he leapt to his feet
full deeming that dread and death were upon him,
Flinding go-Fuilin fleeing in anguish
from the mines of Morgoth. Marvelling he heard
the ancient tongue of the Elves of Tun;
and Beleg the Bowman embraced him there,
and learnt his lineage and luckless fate,
how thrust to thraldom in a throng of captives,
from the kindred carried and the cavernous halls
of the Gnomes renowned of Nargothrond,
long years he laboured under lashes and flails
of the baleful Balrogs, abiding his time.
A tale he unfolded of terrible flight
o'er flaming fell and fuming hollow,
o'er the parched dunes of the Plains of Drouth,
till his heart took hope and his heed was less.
'Then Taur-na-Fuin entangled my feet
in its mazes enmeshed; and madness took me
that I wandered witless, unwary stumbling
and beating the boles of the brooding pines
in idle anger -- and the Orcs heard me.
They were camped in a clearing, that close at hand
by mercy I missed. Their marching road
is beaten broad through the black shadows
by wizardry warded from wandering Elves;
but dread they know of the Deadly Nightshade,
and in haste only do they hie that way.
Now cruel cries and clamorous voices
awoke in the wood, and winged arrows
from horny bows hummed about me;
and following feet, fleet and stealthy,
were padding and pattering on the pine-needles;
and hairy hands and hungry fingers
in the glooms groping, as I grovelled fainting
till they cowering found me. Fast they clutched me
beaten and bleeding, and broken in spirit
they laughing led me, my lagging footsteps
with their spears speeding. Their spoils were piled,
and countless captives in that camp were chained,
and Elfin maids their anguish mourning.
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put one they watched, warded sleepless,
was stern-visaged, strong, and in stature tall
as are Hithlum's men of the misty hills.
Full length he lay and lashed to pickets
in baleful bonds, yet bold-hearted
his mouth no mercy of Morgoth sued,
but defied his foes. Foully they smote him.
Then he called, as clear as cry of hunter
that hails his hounds in hollow places,
on the name renowned of that noblest king --
but men unmindful remember him little --
Hurin Thalion, who Erithamrod hight,
the Unbending, for Orc and Balrog
and Morgoth's might on the mountain yet
he defies fearless, on a fanged peak
of thunder-riven Thangorodrim.'
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In eager anger then up sprang Beleg,
crying and calling, careless of Flinding:
'0 Turin, Turin, my troth-brother,
to the brazen bonds shall I abandon thee,
and the darkling doors of the Deeps of Hell?'
870
'Thou wilt join his journey to the jaws of sorrow,
0 bowman crazed, if thy bellowing cry
to the Orcs should come; their ears than cats'
:are keener whetted, and though the camp from here
be a day distant where those deeds I saw,
who knows if the Gnome they now pursue
that crept from their clutches, as a crawling worm
on belly cowering, whom they bleeding cast
in deathly swoon on the dung and slough
of their loathsome lair. 0 Light of Valinor!
and ye glorious Gods! How gleam their eyes,
and their tongues are red! ' 'Yet I Turin will wrest
from their hungry hands, or to Hell be dragged,
or sleep with the slain in the slades of Death.
Thy lamp shall lead us, and my lore rekindle
and wise wood-craft! ' '0 witless hunter,
thy words are wild -- wolves unsleeping
and wizardry ward their woeful captives;
unerring their arrows; the icy steel
of their curved blades cleaves unblunted
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the meshes of mail; the mirk to pierce
those eyes are able; their awful laughter
the flesh freezes! I fare not thither,
for fear fetters me in the Forest of Night:
better die in the dark dazed, forwandered,
than wilfully woo that woe and anguish!
I know not the way.' 'Are the knees then weak
of Flinding go-Fuilin? Shall free-born Gnome
thus show himself a shrinking slave,
who twice entrapped has twice escaped?
Remember the might and the mirth of yore,
the renown of the Gnomes of Nargothrond! '
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Thus Beleg the bowman quoth bold-hearted,
but Flinding fought the fear of his heart,
and loosed the light of his lamp of blue,
now brighter burning. In the black mazes
enwound they wandered, weary searching;
by the tall tree-boles towering silent
oft barred and baffled; blindly stumbling
over rock-fast roots writhing coiled;
and drowsed with dreams by the dark odours,
till hope was hidden. 'Hark thee, Flinding;
viewless voices vague and distant,
a muffled murmur of marching feet
that are shod with stealth shakes the stillness.'
905
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915
'No noise I hear', the Gnome answered,
'thy hope cheats thee.' 'I hear the chains
clinking, creaking, the cords straining,
and wolves padding on worn pathways.
I smell the blood that is smeared on blades
that are cruel and crooked; the croaking laughter --
now, listen! louder and louder comes,'
the hunter said. 'I hear no sound',
quoth Flinding fearful. 'Then follow after! '
with bended bow then Beleg answered,
'my cunning rekindles, my craft needs not
thy lamp's leading.' Leaping swiftly
he shrank in the shadows; with shrouded lantern
Flinding followed him, and the forest-darkness
and drowsy dimness drifted slowly
unfolding from them in fleeing shadows,
920
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and its magic was minished, till they marvelling saw
they were brought to its borders. There black-gaping
an archway opened. By ancient trunks
it was framed darkly, that in far-off days
the lightning felled, now leaning gaunt
their lichen-leprous limbs uprooted.
There shadowy bats that shrilled thinly
flew in and flew out the air brushing
as they swerved soundless. A swooning light
faint filtered in, for facing North
they looked o'er the leagues of the lands of mourning,
o'er the bleak boulders, o'er the blistered dunes
and dusty drouth of Dor-na-Fauglith;
o'er that Thirsty Plain, to the threatening peaks,
now glimpsed grey through the grim archway,
of the marching might of the Mountains of Iron,
and faint and far in the flickering dusk
the thunderous towers of Thangorodrim.
But backward broad through the black shadows
from that darkling door dimly wandered
the ancient Orc-road; and even as they gazed
the silence suddenly with sounds of dread
was shaken behind them, and shivering echoes
from afar came fleeting. Feet were tramping;
trappings tinkling; and the troublous murmur
of viewless voices in the vaulted gloom
came near and nearer. 'Ah! now I hear',
said Flinding fearful; 'flee we swiftly
from hate and horror and hideous faces,
from fiery eyes and feet relentless!
Ah! woe that I wandered thus witless hither!'
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945
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960
Then beat in his breast, foreboding evil,
with dread unwonted the dauntless heart
of Beleg the brave. With blanched cheeks
in faded fern and the feathery leaves
-- of brown bracken they buried them deep,
where dank and dark a ditch was cloven
on the wood's borders by waters oozing,
dripping down to die in the drouth below.
Yet hardly were they hid when a host to view
round a dark turning in the dusky shadows
965
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came swinging sudden with a swift thudding
of feet after feet on fallen leaves.
In rank on rank of ruthless spears
that war-host went; weary stumbling
countless captives, cruelly laden
with bloodstained booty, in bonds of iron
they haled behind them, and held in ward
by the wolf-riders and the wolves of Hell.
Their road of ruin was a-reek with tears:
many a hall and homestead, many a hidden refuge
of Gnomish lords by night beleaguered
their o'ermastering might of mirth bereft,
and fair things fouled, and fields curdled
with the bravest blood of the beaten people.
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To an army of war was the Orc-band waxen
that Blodrin Bor's son to his bane guided
to the wood-marches, by the welded hosts
homeward hurrying to the halls of mourning
swiftly swollen to a sweeping plague.
Like a throbbing thunder in the threatening deeps
of cavernous clouds o'ercast with gloom
now swelled on a sudden a song most dire,
and their hellward hymn their home greeted;
flung from the foremost of the fierce spearmen,
who viewed mid vapours vast and sable
the threefold peaks of Thangorodrim,
it rolled rearward, rumbling darkly,
like drums in distant dungeons empty.
Then a werewolf howled; a word was shouted
like steel on stone; and stiffly raised
their spears and swords sprang up thickly
as the wild wheatfields of the wargod's realm
with points that palely pricked the twilight.
As by wind wafted then waved they all,
and bowed, as the bands with beating measured
moved on mirthless from the mirky woods,
from the topless trunks of Taur-na-Fuin,
neath the leprous limbs of the leaning gate.
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Then Beleg the bowman in bracken cowering,
on the loathly legions through the leaves peering,
saw Turin the tall as he tottered forward
1015

neath the whips of the Orcs as they whistled o'er him;
and rage arose in his wrathful heart,
and piercing pity outpoured his tears.
The hymn was hushed; the host vanished
down the hellward slopes of the hill beyond;
and silence sank slow and gloomy
round the trunks of the trees of Taur-na-Fuin,
and nethermost night drew near outside.
 1020
 'Follow me, Flinding, from the forest cursed!
Let us haste to his help, to Hell if need be
or to death by the darts of the dread Glamhoth!':
and Beleg bounded from the bracken madly,
like a deer driven by dogs baying
from his hiding in the hills and hollow places;
and Flinding followed fearful after him
neath the yawning gate, þ through yew-thickets,
through bogs and bents and bushes shrunken,
till they reached the rocks and the riven moorlands
and friendless fells falling darkly
to the dusty dunes of Dor-na-Fauglith.
In a cup outcarven on the cold hillside,
whose broken brink was bleakly fringed
with bended bushes bowed in anguish
from the North-wind's knife, beneath them far
the feasting camp of their foes was laid;
the fiery flare of fuming torches,
and black bodies in the blaze they saw
crossing countlessly, and cries they heard
 and the hollow howling of hungry wolves.
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1030
1035
1040
Then a moon mounted o'er the mists riding,
and the keen radiance of the cold moonshine
 the shadows sharpened in the sheer hollows,
 and slashed the slopes with slanting blackness;
 in wreaths uprising the reek of fires
was touched to tremulous trails of silver.
Then the fires faded, and their foemen slumbered
in a sleep of surfeit. No sentinel watched,
 nor guards them girdled -- what good were it
 to watch wakeful in those withered regions
 neath Eiglir Engrin, whence the eyes of Bauglir
 gazed unclosing from the gates of Hell?
1045
1050
1055

Did not werewolves' eyes unwinking gleam
in the wan moonlight -- the wolves that sleep not,
that sit in circles with slavering tongues
round camp or clearing of the cruel Glamhoth?
Then was Beleg a-shudder, and the unblinking eyes
nigh chilled his marrow and chained his flesh
in fear unfathomed, as' flat to earth
by a boulder he lay. Lo! black cloud-drifts
surged up like smoke from the sable North,
and the sheen was shrouded of the shivering moon;
the wind came wailing from the woeful mountains,
and the heath unhappy hissed and whispered;
and the moans came faint of men in torment
in the camp accursed. His quiver rattled
as he found his feet and felt his bow,
hard horn-pointed, by hands of cunning
of black yew wrought; with bears' sinews
it was stoutly strung; strength to bend it
had nor Man nor Elf save the magic helped him
that Beleg the bowman now bore alone.
No arrows of the Orcs so unerring winged
as his shaven shafts that could shoot to a mark
that was seen but in glance ere gloom seized it.
Then Dailir he drew, his dart beloved;
howso far fared it, or fell unnoted,
unsought he found it with sound feathers
and barbs unbroken (till it broke at last);
and fleet bade he fly that feather-pinioned
snaketongued shaft, as he snicked the string
in the notch nimbly, and with naked arm
to his ear drew it. The air whistled,
and the tingling string twanged behind it,
soundless a sentinel sank before it --
there was one of the wolves that awaked no more.
Now arrows after he aimed swiftly
that missed not their mark and meted silent
death in the darkness dreadly stinging,
till three of the wolves with throats pierced,
and four had fallen with fleet-winged
arrows a-quivering in their quenched eyes.
Then great was the gap in the guard opened,
and Beleg his bow unbent, and said:
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Wilt come to the camp, comrade Flinding,
or await me watchful? If woe betide
thou might win with word through the woods homeward
to Thingol the king how throve my quest,
how Turin the tall was trapped by fate,
how Beleg the bowman to his bane hasted.'
-: Then Flinding fiercely, though fear shook him:
-'- 'I have followed thee far, 0 forest-walker,
nor will leave thee now our league denying! '
' Then both bow and sword Beleg left there
: with his belt unbound in the bushes tangled
of a dark thicket in a dell nigh them,
-' and Flinding there laid his flickering lamp
= and his nailed shoes, and his knife only
. he kept, that uncumbered he might creep silent.
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Thus those brave in dread down the bare hillside
wards the camp clambered creeping wary,
', and dared that deed in days long past
whose glory has gone through the gates of earth,
and songs have sung unceasing ringig
." wherever the Elves in ancient places
':,: bad light or laughter in the later world.
With breath bated on the brink of the dale
:. they stood and stared through stealthy shadows,
' till they saw where the circle of sleepless eyes
e broken; with hearts beating dully
' they passed the places where pierced and bleeding
: the wolves weltered by winged death
unseen smitten; as smoke noiseless
they slipped silent through the slumbering throngs
as shadowy wraiths shifting vaguely
from gloom to gloom, till the Gods brought them
and the craft and cunning of the keen huntsman
to Turin the tall where he tumbled lay
with face downward in the filthy mire,
and his feet were fettered, and fast in bonds
anguish enchained his arms behind him.
ere he slept or swooned, as sunk in oblivion
drugs of darkness deadly blended;
he heard not their whispers; no hope stirred him
nor the deep despair of his dreams fathomed;
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1125
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to awake his wit no words availed.
No blade would bite on the bonds he wore,
though Flinding felt for the forged knife
of dwarfen steel, his dagger prized,
that at waist he wore awake or sleeping,
whose edge would eat through iron noiseless
as a clod of clay is cleft by the share.
It was wrought by wrights in the realms of the East,
in black Belegost, by the bearded Dwarves
of troth unmindful; it betrayed him now
from its sheath slipping as o'er shaggy slades
and roughhewn rocks their road they wended.
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'We must bear him back as best we may,'
said Beleg, bending his broad shoulders.
Then the head he lifted of Hurin's offspring,
and Flinding go-Fuilin the feet clasped;
and doughty that deed, for in days long gone
though Men were of mould less mighty builded
ere the earth's goodness from the Elves they drew,
though the Elfin kindreds ere old was the sun
were of might unminished, nor the moon haunted
faintly fading as formed of shadows
in places unpeopled, yet peers they were not
in bone and flesh and body's fashioning,
and Turin was tallest of the ten races
that in Hithlum's hills their homes builded.
Like a log they lifted his limbs mighty,
and straining staggered with stealth and fear,
with bodies bending and bones aching,
from the cruel dreaming of the camp of dread,
where spearmen drowsed sprawling drunken
by their moon-blades keen with murder whetted
mid their shaven shafts in sheaves piled.
1155
1160
1165
I 170
Now Beleg the brave backward led them,
but his foot fumbled and he fell thudding
with Turin atop of him, and trembling stumbled
Flinding forward; there frozen lying
long while they listened for alarm stirring,
for hue and cry, and their hearts cowered;
but unbroken the breathing of the bands sleeping,
as darkness deepened to dead midnight,
1175
1180


d the lifeless hour when the loosened soulo
ft sheds the shackles of the shivering flesh.
Then dared their dread to draw its breath,
and they found their feet in the fouled earth,
and bent they both their backs once more
to their task of toil, for Turin woke not.
There the huntsman's hand was hurt deeply,
as he groped on the ground, by a gleaming point --
'twas Dailir his dart dearly prized
he had found by his foot in fragments twain,
and with barbs bended: it broke at last
neath his body falling. It boded ill.
1185
1190
As in dim dreaming, and dazed with horror,
they won their way with weary slowness,
foot by footstep, till fate them granted
the leaguer at last of those lairs to pass,
and their burden laid they, breathless gasping,
on bare-bosmed earth, and abode a while,
ere by winding ways they won their path
up the slanting slopes with silent labour,
with spended strength sprawling to cast them
in the darkling dell neath the deep thicket.
Then sought his sword, and songs of magic
o'er its eager edge with Elfin voice
there Beleg murmured, while bluely glimmered
the lamp of Flinding neath the laced thorns.
There wondrous wove he words of sharpness,
and the names of knives and Gnomish blades
he uttered o'er it: even Ogbar's spear
and the glaive of Gaurin whose gleaming stroke
did rive the rocks of Rodrim's hall;
the sword of Saithnar, and the silver blades
of the enchanted children of chains forged
in their deep dungeon; the dirk of Nargil,
the knife of the North in Nogrod smithied;
the sweeping sickle of the slashing tempest,
the lambent lightning's leaping falchion
even Celeg Aithorn that shall cleave the world.
1195
1200
1205
1210
1215
Then whistling whirled he the whetted sword-blade
and three times three it threshed the gloom,
till flame was kindled flickering strangely
1220

like licking firelight in the lamp's glimmer
blue and baleful at the blade's edges.
Lo! a leering laugh lone and dreadful
by the wind wafted wavered nigh them;
their limbs were loosened in listening horror;
they fancied the feet of foes approaching,
for the horns hearkening of the hunt afoot
in the rustling murmur of roving breezes.
Then quickly curtained with its covering pelt
was the lantern's light, and leaping Beleg
with his sword severed the searing bonds
on wrist and arm like ropes of hemp
so strong that whetting; in stupor lying
entangled still lay Turin moveless.
For the feet's fetters then feeling in the dark
Beleg blundering with his blade's keenness
unwary wounded the weary flesh
of wayworn foot, and welling blood
bedewed his hand -- too dark his magic:
that sleep profound was sudden fathomed;
in fear woke Turin, and a form he guessed
o'er his body bending with blade naked.
His death or torment he deemed was come,
for oft had the Orcs for evil pastime
him goaded gleeful and gashed with knives
that they cast with cunning, with cruel spears.
Lo! the bonds were burst that had bound his hands:
his cry of battle calling hoarsely
he flung him fiercely on the foe he dreamed,
and Beleg falling breathless earthward
was crushed beneath him. Crazed with anguish
then seized that sword the son of Hurin,
to his hand lying by the help of doom;
at the throat he thrust; through he pierced it,
that the blood was buried in the blood-wet mould;
ere Flinding knew what fared that night,
all was over. With oath and curse
he bade the goblins now guard them well,
or sup on his sword: 'Lo! the son of Hurin
is freed from his fetters.' His fancy wandered
in the camps and clearings of the cruel Glamhoth.
Flight he sought not at Flinding leaping
1225
1230
1235
1240
1245
1250
1255
1260

with his last laughter, his life to sell
gmid foes imagined; but Fuilin's son
there stricken with amaze, starting backward,
cried: 'Magic of Morgoth! A! madness damned!
with friends thou fightest! ' -- then falling suddenly
the lamp o'erturned in the leaves shrouded
that its light released illumined pale
with its flickering flame the face of Beleg.
Then the boles of the trees more breathless rooted
stone-faced he stood staring frozen
on that dreadful death, and his deed knowing
wildeyed he gazed with waking horror,
as in endless anguish an image carven.
So fearful his face that Flinding crouched
and watched him, wondering what webs of doom
dark, remorseless, dreadly meshed him
by the might of Morgoth; and he mourned for him,
and for Beleg, who bow should bend no more,
his black yew-wood in battle twanging --
his life had winged to its long waiting
in the halls of the Moon o'er the hills of the sea.
1265
1270
1275
1280
Hark! he heard the horns hooting loudly,
no ghostly laughter of grim phantom,
no wraithlike feet rustling dimly --
the Orcs were up; their ears had hearkened
the cries of Turin; their camp was tumult,
their lust was alight ere the last shadows
of night were lifted. Then numb with fear
in hoarse whisper to unhearing ears
he told his terror; for Turin now
with limbs loosened leaden-eyed was bent
crouching crumpled by the corse moveless;
nor sight nor sound his senses knew,
and wavering words he witless murmured,
'A! Beleg,' he whispered, 'my brother-in-arms.'
Though Flinding shook him, he felt it not:
had he comprehended he had cared little.
Then winds were wakened in wild dungeons
where thrumming thunders throbbed and rumbled;
storm came striding with streaming banners
from the four corners of the fainting world;
1285
I 290
1295
1300

then the clouds were cloven with a crash of lightning,
and slung like stones from slings uncounted
the hurtling hail came hissing earthward,
with a deluge dark of driving rain.
Now wafted high, now wavering far,
the cries of the Glamhoth called and hooted,
and the howl of wolves in the heavens' roaring
was mingled mournful: they missed their paths,
for swollen swept there swirling torrents
down the blackening slopes, and the slot was blind,
so that blundering back up the beaten road
to the gates of gloom many goblins wildered
were drowned or drawn in Deadly Nightshade
to die in the dark; while dawn came not,
while the storm-riders strove and thundered
all the sunless day, and soaked and drenched
Flinding go-Fuilin with fear speechless
there crouched aquake; cold and lifeless
lay Beleg the bowman; brooding dumbly
Turin Thalion neath the tangled thorns
sat unseeing without sound or movement.
1305
1310
1315
1320:
1325
The dusty dunes of Dor-na-Fauglith
hissed and spouted. Huge rose the spires
of smoking vapour swathed and reeking,
thick-billowing clouds from thirst unquenched,
and dawn was kindled dimly lurid
when a day and night had dragged away.
The Orcs had gone, their anger baffled,
o'er the weltering ways weary faring
to their hopeless halls in Hell's kingdom;
no thrall took they Turin Thalion --
a burden bore he than their bonds heavier,
in despair fettered with spirit empty
in mourning hopeless he remained behind.
1330
'335
*
NOTES.
617. Blodrin: Bauglir A, and B as typed. See line 618.
618. Bauglir Ban's son A, and B as typed (Bauglir > Blodrin

631.
636.
653.
661, 696.
711.
carefully-made early change, Ban > Bor hasty and later).
See lines 661, 696, 990.
Fangair A, Fangros B as typed.
Tengwethiel [sic] A, Tain-Gwethil B as typed. Cf. line 431.
Turin Thaliodrin A, and B as typed. Cf. lines I 15, 333, 720.
As at line 618.
Aiglir-angrin A, Aiglir Angrin B as typed, emended
roughly in pencil to Eiglir Engrin; cf. line 1055. In the Tale
of Turambar occurs Angorodin (the Iron Mountains),
II.77.
711-14.
These lines read in A (and as typed in B, with of Hell is
reared for of the Hells of Iron):
where Aiglir-angrin the Iron Hills lie
and Thangorodrim's thunderous mountain
o'er the hopeless halls of the Hells of iron
wrought at the roots of the ruthless hills.
718.
720.
780.
816.
818 -- 20.
826.
834.
0.
1055.
1098.
1137.
1147.
1198.
1214.
1324.
335. 
Cf. Bilbo's second riddle to Gollum.
As at line 653.
Delimorgoth A, Delu-Morgoth B as typed, dark Mor-
goth a late pencilled emendation. At lines 11 and 51 Delu-
Morgoth is an emendation of Delimorgoth in B.
Tun also in A; see lines 50, 430.
Against these lines my father wrote in the margin of B:
'Captured in battle at gates of Angband.'
o'er the black boulders of the Blasted Plain A (marked
with query).
mercy: magic A, and B as typed; mercy in pencil and not
quite certain.
Daideloth A emended at time of writing to Dor-na-
Maiglos, Dor-na-Fauglith B as typed. In margin of A is
written: 'a plateau from Dai "high", Deloth "plain"'; con-
trast II. 337, entry Dor-na-Dhaideloth.99
 Blodrin Ban's son A, and B as typed; Ban's > Bor's later
in B. At lines 617 -- 18, 661, 696 A, and B as typed, had
Bauglir, changed to Blodrin in B.
Aiglir Angrin A, and B as typed; see line 711.
Bauglir A and B.
This line is emended in B, but the reading is uncertain:
apparently Then his bow unbending Beleg asked him:
In the margin of B is written r?, i.e. dreadly for deadly.
East: South A, and B as typed.
bosmed (bosomed) written thus in both A and B.
Nargil: Loruin A, with Nargil added as an alternative.
Turin Thaliodrin A, and B as typed; see lines 653, 720.1
Thalion-Turin A, and B as typed.


Commentary on Part Il 'Beleg'.
In this part of the poem there are some narrative developments of much
interest. The poem follows the Tale (II. 76) in making Beleg become one
of Turin's band on the marches of Doriath not long after Turin's depar-
ture from the Thousand Caves, and with no intervening event -- in The
Silmarillion (p. 200) Beleg came to Menegroth, and after speaking to
Thingol set out to seek Turin, while in the Narn (pp. 82 -- 5) there is the
'trial of Turin', and the intervention of Beleg bringing Nellas as witness,
before he set out on Turin's trail. In the poem it is explicit that Beleg was
not searching for him, and indeed knew nothing whatever of what had
passed in the Thousand Caves (595). But Turin's band are no longer the
'wild spirits' of the Tale; they are hostile to all comers, whether Orcs or
Men or Elves, including the Elves of Doriath (560 -- 1, 566), as in The
Silmarillion, and in far greater detail in the Narn, where the band is
called Gaurwaith, the Wolf-men, 'to be feared as wolves'.
The element of Beleg's capture and maltreatment by the band now
appears, and also that of Turin's absence from the camp at the time.
Several features of the story in the Nant are indeed already present in the
poem, though absent from the more condensed account in The Silmaril-
lion: as Beleg's being tied to a tree by the outlaws (577, Narn pp. 92 -- 3),
and the occasion of Turin's absence -- he was
on the trail of the Orcs,
as they hastened home to the Hills of Iron
with the loot laden of the lands of Men
just as in the Narn (pp. 91 -- 2), where however the story is part of a
complex set of movements among the Woodmen of Brethil, Beleg, the
Gaurwaith, and the Orcs.
Whereas in the Tale it was only now that Beleg and Turin became
companions-in-arms, we have already seen that the poem has the later
story whereby they had fought together on the marches of Doriath before
Turin's flight from the Thousand Caves (p.27); and we now have also
the development that Turin's altered mood at the sight of Beleg tied to
the tree (Then Turin's heart was tumed from hate, 584), and-Beleg's
own reproaches (Shall the foes of Faerie be friends of Men? 603),
led to the band's turning their arms henceforth only against the foes of
Faerie (644). Of the great oath sworn by the members of the band,,
explicitly echoing that of the Sons of Feanor (634) -- and showing
incidentally that in that oath the holy mountain of Taniquetil (Tain-
Gwethil) was taken in witness (636), there is no trace in The Silmarillion
or the Narn: in the latter, indeed, the outlaws are not conceived in such a
way as to make such an oath-taking at all probable.
Lines 643 ff., describing the prowess of the fellowship in the forest, are
the ultimate origin of the never finally achieved story of the Land of
Dor-Cuarthol (The Silmarillion p. 205, Narn pp. 152-4); lines 651-4

even in Angband the Orcs trembled.
Then the word wandered down the ways of the forest
that Turin Thalion was returned to war;
and Thingol heard it...
lead in the end to
In Menegroth, and in the deep halls of Nargothrond, and even in the
hidden realm of Gondolin, the fame of the deeds of the Two Captains
was heard; and in Angband also they were known.
But in the later story Turin was hidden under the name Gorthol, the
read Helm, and it was his wearing of the Dragon-helm that revealed
him to Morgoth. There is no suggestion of this in the earlier phase of the
legend; the Dragon-helm makes no further appearance here in the poem.
A table may serve to clarify the development:

Tale.
Turin's prowess on the
marches of Doriath
(Beleg not mentioned).
Death of Orgof.
Turin leaves Doriath;
a band forms round him
which includes Beleg.
Great prowess of the
band.

Lay.
Turin and Beleg
companions-in-arms on
the marches of Doriath;
Turin wears the
Dragon-helm.
Death of Orgof.
Turin leaves Doriath;
a band of outlaws forms
round him which attacks
all comers.


The band captures Beleg
(who knows nothing of
Turin's leaving Doriath)
and ties him to a tree.



Turin has him set free;
suffers a change of heart;
Beleg joins the band; all
swear an oath.



Great prowess of the band 
against the Orcs.


Silmarillion and Narn
As in the poem.
Death of Saeros.
Turin leaves Doriath
and joins a band of
desperate outlaws.
The band captures Beleg
(whe is searching for
Turin bearing Thingol's
pardon) (and ties him to a
tree, Narn).
Turin has him set free;
suffers a change of heart;
but Beleg will not join the
band and departs. (No
mention of oath.)
(Later Beleg returns and
joins the band:)
Land of Dor-Cuarthol.

Before leaving this part of the story, it may be suggested that lines
605 ff., in which Turin declares to Beleg that This band alone /I count

as comrades, contain the germ of Turin's words to him in the Xarn,
p.94:
The grace of Thingol will not stretch to receive these companions of
my fall, I think; but I will not part with them now, if they do not wish
to part with me, &c.
The traitor, who betrayed the band to the Orcs, now first appears. At
first he is called Bauglir both in A and in B as originally typed; and it
might be thought that the name had much too obviously an evil signific-
ance. The explanation is quite clearly, however, that Bauglir became
Blodrin at the same time as Bauglir replaced Belcha as a name of:
Morgoth. (By the time my father reached line 990 Blodrin is the name as
first written in both A and B; while similarly at line 1055 Bauglir is
Morgoth's name, not Belcha, both in A and B as first written.) The
change of Ban (father of Blodrin) to Bor was passing; he is Ban in
the 1926 'Sketch of the Mythology', and so remained until, much later,
he disappeared.
Blodrin's origin is interesting:
trapped as a child
he was dragged by the Dwarves to their deep mansions,
and in Nogrod nurtured, and in nought was like,
spite blood and birth, to the blissful Elves. (666 -- g)
Thus Blodrin's evil nature is explicitly ascribed to the influence of the
bearded Dwarves / of troth unmindful (1148-9); and Blodrin follows
Ufedhin of the Tale of the Nauglafring as an example of the sinister .
effect of Elvish association with Dwarves -- not altogether absent in the
tale of Eol and Maeglin as it appears in The Silmarillion. Though the
nature -- and name -- of the traitor in Turin's band went through Protean
mutations afterwards, it is not inconceivable that recollection of the
Dwarvish element in Blodrin's history played some part in the emergence
of Mim in this role. On the early hostile view of the Dwarves see II. 247.
The words of the poem just cited arise from the 'betrayal' of Flinding by
his dwarvish knife, which slipped from its sheath; so later, in the Lay of
Leithian, when Beren attempted to cut a second Silmaril from the Iron
Crown (lines 4160-2)
The dwarvish steel of cunning blade
by treacherous smiths of Nogrod made
snapped...
The idea expressed in the Tale (II. 76) that Turin was taken alive by
Morgoth's command 'lest he cheat the doom that was devised for him'
reappears in the poem: lest he flee his fate (705).
The rest of the story as told in the poem differs only in detail from that


in the Tale. The survival of Beleg in the attack by Orcs and his swift
recovery from his grievous wounds (II. 77), present in much changed
circumstances in The Silmarillion (p. 206), is here made perhaps more
comprehensible, in that Elves from Doriath, who were searching for
Turin (654 -- 5), found Beleg and took him back to be healed by Melian in
the Thousand Caves (727 -- 3I). In the account of Beleg's meeting with
Flinding in Taur-na-Fuin, led to him by his blue lamp, the poem is
following the Tale very closely.* My father's painting of the scene (Pict-
ures by J. R. R. Tolkien no. 37) was almost certainly made a few years
later, when the Elf lying under the tree was still called Flinding son of
Fuilin (in the Tale bo-Dhuilin, earlier go-Dhuilin, son of Duilin; the
. patronymic prefix has in the poem (814, 900) reverted to the earlier form
go-, see II. 119).
In the Tale it is only said (II. 81 ) that Flinding was of the people of the
- Rodothlim 'before the Orcs captured him'-, from the poem (819 -- 21) it
; seems that he was carried off, with many others, from Nargothrond, but
this can scarcely be the meaning, since nought yet knew they [the
Orcs] of Nargothrond (1578). The marginal note in B against these
lines 'Captured in battle at gates of Angband' refers to the later story, first
' appearing in the 1930 'Silmarillion'.
The poem follows the Tale in the detail of Flinding's story to Beleg,
except that in the poem he was recaptured by the Orcs in Taur-na-Fuin
(846ff.) and escaped again (crept from their clutches as a crawling
worm, 879), whereas in the Tale he was not recaptured but 'fled heed-
lessly'(II. 79). The notable point in the Tale that Flinding 'was overjoyed
to have speech with a free Noldo' reappears in the poem: Marvelling he
heard/the ancient tongue of the Elves of Tun. The detail of their
encountering of the Orc-host is slightly different: in the Tale the Orcs
had changed their path, in the poem it seems that Beleg and Flinding
merely came more quickly than did the Orcs to the point where the
Orc-road emerged from the edge of the forest. In the Tale it seems indeed
that the Orcs had not left the forest when they encamped for the night:
the eyes of the wolves 'shone like points of red light among the trees', and
'Beleg and Flinding laid Turin down after his rescue 'in the woods at no
:great distance from the camp'. The cup outcarven on the cold hill-
of the poem (1036), where the Orcs made their bivouac, is the 'bare
;dell' of The Silmarillion.
In contrast to the Tale (see p. 26) Beleg is now frequently called
:Beleg the bowman, his great bow (not yet named) is fully described,
."and his unmatched skill as an archer (1071 ff.). There is also in the poem
the feature of the arrow Dailir, unfailingly found and always unharmed
(1080 ff.), until it broke when Beleg fell upon it while carrying Turin
:,(1189 -- 92): of this there is never a mention later. The element of Beleg's
The element of the blue lamp is lacking from the account in The Silmarillion; see
Unfinished Tales p. 51 note 2.)



archery either arose from, or itself caused, the change in the story of the
entry of Beleg and Flinding into the Orc-camp that now appears: in the
Tale they merely 'crept between the wolves at a point where there was a
great gap between them', whereas in the poem Beleg performed the feat
of shooting seven wolves in the darkness, and only so was 'a great gap
opened' (1097). But the words of the Tale, 'as the luck of the Valar had it
Turin was lying nigh', are echoed in
till the Gods brought them
and the craft and cunning of the keen huntsman
to Turin the tall where he tumbled lay(I 130 -- 2):
The lifting and carrying of Turin by the two Elves, referred to in the
Tale as 'a great feat', 'seeing that he was a Man and of greater stature than
they' (II. So), is expanded in the poem (1156 ff.) into a comment on the
stature of Men and Elves in the ancient time, which agrees with earlier
statements on this topic (see I. 235, II. 142, 220). The notable lines
though Men were of mould less mighty builded
ere the earth's goodness from the Elves they drew (1157 -- 8)
are to be related to the statements cited in II. 326: 'As Men's stature
grows [the Elves'] diminishes', and 'ever as Men wax more powerful and
numerous so the fairies fade and grow small and tenuous, filmy and
transparent, but Men larger and more dense and gross'. The mention
here (1164) of the ten races of Hithlum occurs nowhere else, and it is
not clear whether it refers to all the peoples of Men and Elves who in one
place or another in the Lost Tales are set in Hithlum, which as I have
remarked 'seems to have been in danger of having too many inhabitants'
(see II. 249 251).
The Tale has it that it was Beleg's knife that had slipped from him as he
crept into the camp; in the poem it is Flinding's (1142 ff.). In the Tale
Beleg returned to fetch his sword from the place where he had left it,
since they could carry Turin no further; in the poem they carried Turin
all the way up to the dark thicket in a dell whence they had set out
(1110, 1202). The 'whetting spell' of Beleg over his (still unnamed)
sword is an entirely new element (and without trace later); it arises in
association with line 1141, No blade mould bite on the bonds he
more. In style it is reminiscent of Luthien's 'lengthening spell' in Canto
V of the Lay of Leithian; but of the names in the spell, of Ogbar,
Caurin, Rodrim, Saithnar, Nargil, Celeg Aithorn, there seems to be
now no other trace.
There now occurs in the poem the mysterious leering laugh (1224),
to which it seems that the ghostly laughter of grim phantom in line
1286 refers, and which is mentioned again in the next part of the poem
(1488 -- 90). The narrative purpose of this is evidently to cause the
covering of the lamp and to cause Beleg to work too quickly in the
darkness at the cutting of the bonds. It may be also that the wounding of



leg's hand when he put it on the point of Dailir his arrow (1187)acc
ounts for his clumsiness; for every aspect of this powerful scene hadbee
n pondered and refined.
In the poem the great storm is introduced: first presaged in lines1064
ff., when Beleg and Flinding were at the edge of the dell (as it is inThe
Silmarillion):
Lo! black cloud-drifts
surged up like smoke from the sable North,
and the sheen was shrouded of the shivering moon;
the wind came wailing from the woeful mountains,
and the heath unhappy hissed and whispered
and bursting at last after Beleg's death (1301 ff.), to last all through the
following day, during which Turin and Flinding crouched on the hillside
(1320, 1330 -- r). On account of the storm the Orcs were unable to find
Turin, and departed, as in The Silmarillion; in the Tale Flinding roused
Turin to flee as soon as the shouts of discovery were heard from theOrc
-camp, and nothing more is said of the matter. But in the poem it is
still, as in the Tale, the sudden uncovering of Flinding's lamp as he fellbac
k from Turin's assault that illumined Beleg's face; in the last accounttha
t my father wrote of this episode he was undecided whether it was the
cover falling off the lamp or a great flash of lightning that gave the light,
and in the published work I chose the latter.
There remain a few isolated points, mostly concerning names. In thispart
of the poem we meet for the first time:
Nargothrond 821, 904;
 Taur-ma-Fuin (for Taur Fuin of the Lost Tales) 766, 828; called alsoDe
adly Nightshade 767, 837, 13I7, and Forest of Night 896;
 Dor-na-Fauglith 946, 1035, 1326, called also the Plains of Drouth826,
the Thirsty Plain 947 (and in A, note to 826, the Blasted Plain).
The name Dor-na-Fauglith arose during the composition of the poem(see
note to 946). By this time the story of the blasting of the great
northern plain, so that it became a dusty desert, in the battle that endedthe
Siege of Angband, must have been conceived, though it does not
appear in writing for several years.
  Here also is the first reference to the triple peaks of Thangorodrim(1000
), called the thunderous towers (951), though in the 'Prologue'to
the poem it is said that Hurin was set on its steepest peak (96); and
from lines 713- 14 (as rewritten in the B-text) we learn that Angband waswro
ught at the roots of the great mountain.
The name Fangros (631; Fangair A) occurs once elsewhere, in a veryobs
cure note, where it is apparently connected with the burning of the
ships of the Noldoli.
Melian's name Mablui -- by the hands enchanted of Melian


Mablui, 731 -- clearly contains mab 'hand', as in Mablung, Ermabwed
(see II. 339).
That the Dwarves were said in A and originally in B to dwell in the
South (1147, emended in B to East) is perhaps to be related to the
statement in the Tale of the Nauglafring that Nogrod lay 'a very long
journey southwoard beyond the wide forest on the borders of those great
heaths nigh Umboth-muilin the Pools of Twilight' (II. 225).
I cannot explain the reference in line 1006 to the wild wheatfields of
the wargod's realm; nor that in the lines concerning Beleg's fate after
death to the long waiting of the dead in the halls of the Moon (1284).
III.
FAILIVRIN.
Flinding go-Fuilin faithful-hearted
the brand of Beleg with blood stained
lifted.with loathing from the leafy mould,
and hid it in the hollow of a huge thorn-tree;
then he turned to Turin yet tranced brooding,
and softly said he: 'O son of Hurin,
unhappy-hearted, what helpeth it
to sit thus in sorrow's silent torment
without hope or counsel?' But Hurin's son,
by those words wakened, wildly answered:
'I abide by Beleg; nor bid me leave him,
thou voice unfaithful. Vain are all things.
0 Death dark-handed, draw thou near me;
if remorse may move thee, from mourning loosed
crush me conquered to his cold bosom! '
Flinding answered, and fear left him
for wrath and pity: 'Arouse thy pride!
Not thus unthinking on Thangorodrim's
heights enchained did Hurin speak.'
'Curse thy comfort! Less cold were steel.
If Death comes not to the death-craving,
I will seek him by the sword. The sword -- where lies it?
0 cold and cruel, where cowerest now,
murderer of thy master? Amends shalt work,
md slay me swift, O sleep-giver.'
Look not, luckless, thy life to steal,
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nor sully anew his sword unhappy
in the flesh of the friend whose freedom seeking
he fell by fate, by foes unwounded.
 Yea, think that amends are thine to make,h
is wronged blade with wrath appeasing,
its thirst cooling in the thrice-abhorred
blood of Bauglir's baleful legions.
Is the feud achieved thy father's chains
on thee laid, or lessened by this last evil?
Dream not that Morgoth will mourn thy death,
or thy dirges chant the dread Glamhoth --
less would like them thy living hatredan
d vows of vengeance; nor vain is courage,
hough victory seldom be valour's ending.'
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Then fiercely Turin to his feet leapingc
ried new-crazed: 'Ye coward Orcs,
why turn ye tail? Why tarry ye now,w
hen the son of Hurin and the sword of Beleg
in wrath await you? For wrong and woe
here is vengeance ready. If ye venture it not,
I will follow your feet to the four corners
f the angry earth. Have after you! '
Sainting Flinding there fought with him,
and words of wisdom to his witless ears
he breathless spake: 'Abide, 0 Turin,
for need hast thou now to nurse thy hurt,
and strength to gather and strong counsel.
Who flees to fight wears not fear's token,
and vengeance delayed its vow achieves.'
The madness passed; amazed pondering
neath the tangled trees sat Turin wordless
brooding blackly on bitter vengeance,
till the dusk deepened on his day of waking,
and the early stars were opened pale.
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Then Beleg's burial in those bleak regions
did Flinding fashion; where he fell sadly
he left him lying, and lightly o'er him
with long labour the leaves he poured.
But Turin tearless turning suddenly
on the corse cast him, and kissed the mouth
cold and open, and closed the eyes.
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His bow laid he black beside him,
and words of parting wove about him:
'Now fare well, Beleg, to feasting long
neath Tengwethil in the timeless halls
where drink the Gods, neath domes golden
o'er the sea shining.' His song was shaken,
but the tears were dried in his tortured eyes
by the flames of anguish that filled his soul.
His mind once more was meshed in darkness
as heaped they high o'er the head beloved
a mound of mould and mingled leaves.
Light lay the earth on the lonely dead;
heavy lay the woe on the heart that lived.
That grief was graven with grim token
on his face and form, nor faded ever:
and this was the third of the throes of Turin.
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Thence he wandered witless without wish or purpose;
but for Flinding the faithful he had fared to death,
or been lost in the lands of lurking evil.
Renewed in that Gnome of Nargothrond
was heart and valour by hatred wakened,
that he guarded and guided his grim comrade;
with the light of his lamp he lit their ways,
and they hid by day to hasten by night,
by darkness shrouded or dim vapours.
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The tale tells not of their trave) weary,
how roamed their road by the rim of the forest,
whose beetling branches, black o'erhanging,
did greedy grope with gloomy malice
to ensnare their souls in silent darkness.
Yet west they wandered, by ways of thirst
and haggard hunger, hunted often,
and hiding in holes and hollow caverns,
by their fate defended. At the furthest end
of Dor-na-Fauglith's dusty spaces
to a mighty mound in the moon looming
they came at midnight: it was crowned with mist,
bedewed as by drops of drooping tears.
'A! green that hill with grass fadeless,
where sleep the swords of seven kindreds,
where the folk of Faerie once fell uncounted.
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There was fought the field by folk named
Nirnaith Ornoth, Unnumbered Tears.
'Twas built with the blood of the beaten people;
neath moon nor sun is it mounted ever
by Man nor Elf; not Morgoth's host
ever dare for dread to delve therein.'
Thus Flinding faltered, faintly stirring
Turin's heaviness, that he turned his hand
toward Thangorodrim, and thrice he cursed
the maker of mourning, Morgoth Bauglir.
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Thence later led them their lagging footsteps
o'er the slender stream of Sirion's youth;
not long had he leapt a lace of silver
from his shining well in those shrouded hills,
the Shadowy Mountains whose sheer summits
there bend humbled towards the brooding heights
in mist mantled, the mountains of the North.
Here the Orcs might pass him; they else dared not
o'er Sirion swim, whose swelling water
through moor and marsh, mead and woodland,
through caverns carven in the cold bosom
of Earth far under, through empty lands
and leagues untrodden, beloved of Ylmir,
fleeting floweth, with fame undying
in the songs of the Gnomes, to the sea at last.
Thus reached they the roots and the ruinous feet
of those hoary hills that Hithlum girdle,
the shaggy pinewoods of the Shadowy Mountains.
There the twain enfolded phantom twilight
and dim mazes dark, unholy,
in Nan Dungorthin where nameless gods
have shrouded shrines in shadows secret,
more old than Morgoth or the ancient lords
the golden Gods of the guarded West.
But the ghostly dwellers of that grey valley
hindered nor hurt them, and they held their course
with creeping flesh and quaking limb.
Yet laughter at whiles with lingering echo,
as distant mockery of demon voices1
there harsh and hollow in the hushed twilight
Flinding fancied, fell, unwholesome
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as that leering laughter lost and dreadful
that rang in the rocks in the ruthless hour
of Beleg's slaughter. "Tis Bauglir's voice
that dogs us darkly with deadly scorn'
he shuddering thought; but the shreds of fear
and black foreboding were banished utterly
when they clomb the cliffs and crumbling rocks
that walled that vale of watchful evil,
and southward saw the slopes of Hithlum
more warm and friendly. That way they fared
during the daylight o'er dale and ghyll,
o'er mountain pasture, moor and boulder,
over fell and fall of flashing waters
that slipped down to Sirion, to swell his tide
in his eastward basin onward sweeping
to the South, to the sea, to his sandy delta.
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After seven journeys lo! sleep took them
on a night of stars when they nigh had stridden
to those lands beloved that long had known
Flinding aforetime. At first morning
the white arrows of the wheeling sun
gazed down gladly on green hollows
and smiling slopes that swept before them.
There builded boles of beeches ancient
marched in majesty in myriad leaves
of golden russet greyly rooted,
in leaves translucent lightly robed;
their boughs up-bending blown at morning
by the wings of winds that wandered down
o'er blossomy bent breathing odours
to the wavering water's winking margin.
There rush and reed their rustling plumes
and leaves like lances louted trembling
peen with sunlight. Then glad the soul
of Flinding the fugitive; in his face the morning
here glimmered golden, his gleaming hair
was washed with sunlight. 'Awake from sadness,
Turion Thalion, and troublous thoughts!
On Ivrin's lake is endless laughter.
o! cool and clear by crystal fountains
he is fed unfailing, from defilement warded
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by Ylmir the old, who in ancient days,
wielder of waters, here worked her beauty.
From outmost Ocean yet often comes
his message hither his magic bearing,
the healing of hearts and hope and valour
for foes of Bauglir. Friend is Ylmir
who alone remembers in the Lands of Mirth
the need of the Gnomes. Here Narog's waters
(that in tongue of the Gnomes is 'torrent' named)
are born, and blithely boulders leaping
o'er the bents bounding with broken foam
swirl down southward to the secret halls
of Nargothrond by the Gnomes builded
that death and thraldom in the dreadful throes
of Nirnaith Ornoth, a number scanty,
escaped unscathed. Thence skirting wild
the Hills of the Hunters, the home of Beren
and the Dancer of Doriath daughter of Thingol,
it winds and wanders ere the willowy meads,
Nan- Tathrin's land, for nineteen leagues
it journeys joyful to join its flood
with Sirion in the South. To the salt marshes
where snipe and seamew and the sea-breezes
first pipe and play they press together
sweeping soundless to the seats of Ylmir,
where the waters of Sirion and the waves of the sea
murmurous mingle. A marge of sand
there lies, all lit by the long sunshine;
there all day rustles wrinkled Ocean,
and the sea-birds call in solemn conclave,
whitewinged hosts whistling sadly,
uncounted voices crying endlessly.
There a shining shingle on that shore lieth,
whose pebbles as pearl or pale marble
by spray and spindrift splashed at evening
in the moon do gleam, or moan and grind
when the Dweller in the Deep drives in fury
the waters white to the walls of the land;
when the long-haired riders on their lathered horses
with bit and bridle of blowing foam,
in wrack wreathed and ropes of seaweed,
to the thunder gallop of the thudding of the surf.'
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Thus Flinding spake the spell feeling
of Ylmir the old and unforgetful,
which hale and holy haunted Ivrin
and foaming Narog, so that fared there never
Orc of Morgoth, and that eager stream
no plunderer passed. If their purpose held
to reach the realms that roamed beyond
(nought yet knew they of Nargothrond)
they harried o'er Hithlum the heights scaling
that lay behind the lake's hollow,
the Shadowy Mountains in the sheen mirrored
of the pools of Ivrin. Pale and eager
Turin hearkened to the tale of Flinding:
the washing of waters in his words sounded,
an echo as of Ylmir's awful conches
in the abyss blowing. There born anew
was hope in his heart as they hastened down
to the lake of laughter. A long and narrow
arm it reaches that ancient rocks
o'ergrown with green girdle strongly,
at whose outer end there open sudden
a gap, a gateway in the grey boulders;
whence thrusteth thin in threadlike jets
newborn Narog, nineteen fathoms
o'er a flickering force falls in wonder,
and a glimmering goblet with glass-lucent
fountains fills he by his freshets carven
in the cool bosom of the crystal stones.
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There deeply drank ere day was fallen
Turin the toilworn and his true comrade;
hurt's ease found he, heart's refreshment,
from the meshes of misery his mind was loosed,
as they sat on the sward by the sound of water,
and watched in wonder the westering sun
o'er the wall wading of the wild mountains,
whose peaks empurpled pricked the evening.
Then it dropped to the dark and deep shadows
up the cliffs creeping quenched in twilight
the last beacons leashed with crimson.
To the stars upstanding stony-mantled
the mountains waited till the moon arose
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o'er the endless East, and Ivrin's pools
dreaming deeply dim reflected
their pallid faces. In pondering fast
woven, wordless, they waked no sound,
till cold breezes keenly breathing
clear and fragrant curled about them;
then sought they for sleep a sand-paved
cove outcarven; there kindled fire,
that brightly blossomed the beechen faggots
in flowers of flame; floated upward
a slender smoke, when sudden Turin
on the firelit face of Flinding gazed,
and wondering words he wavering spake:
'0 Gnome, I know not thy name or purpose
or father's blood -- what fate binds thee
to a witless wayworn wanderer's footsteps,
the bane of Beleg, his brother-in-arms?'
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Then Flinding fearful lest fresh madness
should seize for sorrow on the soul of Turin,
retold the tale of his toil and wandering;
how the trackless folds of Taur-na-Fuin,
Deadly Nightshade, dreadly meshed him;
of Beleg the bowman bold, undaunted,
and that deed they dared on the dim hillside,
that song has since unceasing wakened;
of the fate that fell, he faltering spake,
in the tangled thicket neath the twining thorns
when Morgoth's might was moved abroad.
Then his voice vanished veiled in mourning,
and lo! tears trickled on Turin's face
till loosed at last were the leashed torrents
of his whelming woe. Long while he wept
soundless, shaken, the sand clutching
with griping fingers in grief unfathomed.1
But Flinding the faithful feared no longer;
no comfort cold he kindly found,
for sleep swept him into slumber dead.
There a singing voice sweetly vexed him
and he woke and wondered: the watchfire faded;
the night was aging, nought was moving
but a song upsoaring in the soundless dark
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went strong and stern to the starlit heaven.
'Twas Turin that towering on the tarn's margin,
up high o'er the head of the hushed water
now falling faintly, let flare and echo
a song of sorrow and sad splendour,
the dirge of Beleg's deathless glory.
There wondrous wove he words enchanted,
that woods and water waked and answered,
the rocks were wrung with ruth for Beleg.
That song he sang is since remembered,
by Gnomes renewed in Nargothrond
it widely has wakened warfain armies
to battle with Bauglir -- 'The Bowman's Friendship'.
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'Tis told that Turin then turned him back
and fared to Flinding, and flung him down
to sleep soundless till the sun mounted
to the high heavens and hasted westward.
A vision he viewed in the vast spaces
of slumber roving: it seemed he roamed
up the bleak boulders of a bare hillside
to a cup outcarven in a cruel hollow,
whose broken brink bushes limb-wracked
by the North-wind's knife in knotted anguish
did fringe forbidding. There black unfriendly
was a dark thicket, a dell of thorn-trees
with yews mingled that the years had fretted.
The leafless limbs they lifted hopeless
were blotched and blackened, barkless, naked,
a lifeless remnant of the levin's flame,
charred chill fingers changeless pointing
to the cold twilight.. There called he longing:
'0 Beleg, my brother, 0 Beleg, tell me
where is buried thy body in these bitter regions? ' --
and the echoes always him answered 'Beleg';
yet a veiled voice vague and distant
he caught that called like a cry at night
o'er the sea's silence: 'Seek no longer.
My bow is rotten in the barrow ruinous;
my grove is burned by grim lightning;
here dread dwelleth, none dare profane
this angry earth, Orc nor goblin;
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none gain the gate of the gloomy forest
by this perilous path; pass they may not,
yet my life has winged to the long waiting
in the halls of the Moon o'er the hills of the sea.
Courage be thy comfort, comrade lonely! '
1695
Then he woke in wonder; his wit was healed,
courage him comforted, and he called aloud
Flinding go-Fuilin, to his feet striding.
There the sun slanted its silver arrows
through the wild tresses of the waters tumbling
roofed with a radiant rainbow trembling.
'Whither, 0 Flinding, our feet now turn we,
or dwell we for ever by the dancing water,
by the lake of laughter, alone, untroubled?'
'To Nargothrond of the Gnomes, methinks,'
said Flinding, 'my feet would fain wander,
that Celegorm and Curufin, the crafty sons
f Feanor founded when they fled southward;
there built a bulwark against Bauglir's hate,
who live now lurking in league secret
with those five others in the forests of the East,
fell unflnching foes of Morgoth.
Maidros whom Morgoth maimed and tortured
is lord and leader, his left wieldeth
his sweeping sword; there is swift Maglor,
there Damrod and Diriel and dark Cranthir,
the seven seekers of their sire's treasure.
ow Orodreth rules the realms and caverns,
the numbered hosts of Nargothrond.
'There to woman's stature will be waxen full
frail Finduilas the fleet maiden
his daughter dear, in his darkling halls
a light, a laughter, that I loved of yore,
and yet love in longing, and love calls me.'
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1725
Where Narog's torrent gnashed and spouted
down his stream bestrewn with stone and boulder,
swiftly southward they sought their paths,
and summer smiling smoothed their journey
through day on day, down dale and wood
where birds blithely with brimming music
thrilled and trembled in thronging trees.
1730


No eyes them watched onward wending
till they gained the gorge where Ginglith turns
all glad and golden to greet the Narog.
There her gentler torrent joins his tumult,
and they glide together on the guarded plain
to the Hunters' Hills that high to southward
uprear their rocks robed in verdure.
There watchful waited the Wards of Narog,
lest the need of the Gnomes from the North should come,
for the sea in the South them safe guarded,
and eager Narog the East defended.
Their treegirt towers on the tall hilltops
no light betrayed in the trees lurking,
no horns hooted in the hills ringing
in loud alarm; a leaguer silent
unseen, stealthy, beset the stranger,
as of wild things wary that watch moveless,
then follow fleetly with feet of velvet
their heedless prey with padding hatred.
In this fashion fought they, phantom hunters
that wandering Orc and wild foeman
unheard harried, hemmed in ambush.
The slain are silent, and silent were the shafts
of the nimble Gnomes of Nargothrond,
who word or whisper warded sleepless
from their homes deep-hidden, that hearsay never
was to Bauglir brought. Bright hope knew they,
and east over Narog to open battle
no cause or counsel had called them yet,
though of shield and shaft and sheathed swords,
of warriors wieldy now waxed their host
to power and prowess, and paths afar
their scouts and woodmen scoured in hunting.
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Thus the twain were tracked till the trees thickened
and the river went rushing neath a rising bank,
in foam hastened o'er the feet of the hills.
In a gloom of green there they groped forward;
there his fate defended from flying death
Turin Thalion -- a twisted thong
of writhing roots enwrapped his foot;
as he fell there flashed, fleet, whitewinged,
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a shrill-shafted arrow that shore his hair,
and trembled sudden in a tree behind.
Then Flinding o'er the fallen fiercely shouted:
'Who shoots unsure his shafts at friends?
Flinding go-Fuilin of the folk of Narog
and the son of Hurin his sworn comrade
here flee to freedom from the foes of the North.'
1780
His words in the woods awoke no echo;
no leaf there lisped, nor loosened twig
there cracked, no creak of crawling movement
stirred the silence. Still and soundless
in the glades about were the green shadows.
Thus fared they on, and felt that eyes
unseen saw them, and swift footsteps
unheard hastened behind them ever,
till each shaken bush or shadowy thicket
they fled furtive in fear needless,
for thereafter was aimed no arrow winged,
and they came to a country kindly tended;
through flowery frith and fair acres
they fared, and found of folk empty
the leas and leasows and the lawns of Narog,
the teeming tilth by trees enfolded
twixt hills and river. The hoes unrecked
in the fields were flung, and fallen ladders
in the long grass lay of the lush orchards;
every tree there turned its tangled head
and eyed them secretly, and the ears listened
of the nodding grasses; though noontide glowed
on land and leaf, their limbs were chilled.
Never hall or homestead its high gables
in the light uplifting in that land saw they,
but a pathway plain by passing feet
was broadly beaten. Thither bent their steps
Flinding go-Fuilin, whose feet remembered
that white roadway. In a while they reached
to the acres' end, that ever narrowing
twixt wall and water did wane at last
to blossomy banks by the borders of the way.
A spuming torrent, in spate tumbling
from the highest hill of the Hunters' Wold
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clove and crossed it; there of carven stone
with slim and shapely slender archway
a bridge was builded, a bow gleaming
in the froth and flashing foam of Ingwil,
that headlong hurried and hissed beneath.
Where it found the flood, far-journeyed Narog,
there steeply stood the strong shoulders
of the hills, o'erhanging the hurrying water;
there shrouded in trees a sheer terrace,
wide and winding, worn to smoothness,
was fashioned in the face of the falling slope.
Doors there darkly dim gigantic
were hewn in the hillside; huge their timbers,
and their posts and lintels of ponderous stone.
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They were shut unshakeable. Then shrilled a trumpet
as a phantom fanfare faintly winding
in the hill from hollow halls far under;
a creaking portal with clangour backward
was flung, and forth there flashed a throng,
leaping lightly, lances wielding,
and swift encircling seized bewildered
the wanderers wayworn, wordless haled them
through the gaping gateway to the glooms beyond.
Ground and grumbled on its great hinges
the door gigantic; with din ponderous
it clanged and closed like clap of thunder,
and echoes awful in empty corridors
there ran and rumbled under roofs unseen;
the light was lost. Then led them on
down long and winding lanes of darkness
their guards guiding their groping feet,
till the faint flicker of fiery torches
flared before them; fitful murmur
as of many voices in meeting thronged
they heard as they hastened. High sprang the roof.
Round a sudden turning they swung amazed,
and saw a solemn silent conclave,
where hundreds hushed in huge twilight
neath distant domes darkly vaulted
them wordless waited. There waters flowed
with washing echoes winding swiftly
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amid the multitude, and mounting pale
for fifty fathoms a fountain sprang,
and wavering wan, with winking redness
flushed and flickering in the fiery lights,
it fell at the feet in the far shadows
of a king with crown and carven throne.
1860
A voice they heard neath the vault rolling,
and the king them called: Who come ye here
from the North unloved to Nargothrond,
a Gnome of bondage and a nameless Man?
No welcome finds here wandering outlaw;
save his wish be death he wins it not,
for those that have looked on our last refuge
it boots not to beg other boon of me.'
Then Flinding go-Fuilin freely answered:
'Has the watch then waned in the woods of Narog,
since Orodreth ruled this realm and folk?
Or how have the hunted thus hither wandered,
if the warders willed it not thy word obeying;
or how hast not heard that thy hidden archer,
who shot his shaft in the shades of the forest,
there learned our lineage, 0 Lord of Narog,
and knowing our names his notched arrows,
loosed no longer?' Then low and hushed
a murmur moved in the multitude,
and some were who said: "Tis the same in truth:
the long looked-for, the lost is found,
the narrow path he knew to Nargothrond
who was born and bred here from babe to youth';
and some were who said: 'The son of Fuilin
was lost and looked for long years agone.
What sign or token that the same returns
have we heard or seen? Is this haggard fugitive
with back bended the bold leader,
the scout who scoured, scorning danger,
most far afield of the folk of Narog?'
'That tale was told us,' returned answer
the Lord Orodreth, 'but belief were rash.
That alone of the lost, whom leagues afar
the Orcs of Angband in evil bonds
have dragged to the deeps, thou darest home,
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by grace or valour, from grim thraldom,
what proof dost thou proffer? What plea dost show
that a Man, a mortal, on our mansions hidden
should look and live, our league sharing?'
1900
Thus the curse on the kindred for the cruel slaughter
at the Swans' Haven there swayed his heart,
but Flinding go-Fuilin fiercely answered:
'Is the son of Hurin, who sits on high
in a deathless doom dreadly chained,
unknown, nameless, in need of plea
to fend from him the fate of foe and spy?
Flinding the faithful, the far wanderer,
though form and face fires of anguish
and bitter bondage, Balrogs' torment,
have seared and twisted, for a song of welcome
had hoped in his heart at that home-coming
that he dreamed of long in dark labour.
Are these deep places to dungeons turned,
a lesser Angband in the land of the Gnomes?'
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Thereat was wrath aroused in Orodreth's heart,
and the muttering waxed to many voices,
and this and that the throng shouted;
when sweet and sudden a song awoke,
a voice of music o'er that vast murmur
mounted in melody to the misty domes;
with clear echoes the caverned arches
it filled, and trembled frail and slender,
those words weaving of welcome home
that the wayweary had wooed from care
since the Gnomes first knew need and wandering.
Then hushed was the host; no head was turned,
for long known and loved was that lifted voice,
and Flinding knew it at the feet of the king
like stone graven standing silent
with heart laden; but Hurin's son
was waked to wonder and to wistful thought,
and searching the shadows that the seat shrouded,
the kingly throne, there caught he thrice
a gleam, a glimmer, as of garments white.
'Twas frail Finduilas, fleet and slender,
to woman's stature, wondrous beauty,
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now grown in glory, that glad welcome
there raised in ruth, and wrath was stilled.
Locked fast the love had lain in her heart
that in laughter grew long years agone
when in the meads merrily a maiden played
with fleet-footed Fuilin's youngling.
No searing scars of sundering years
could blind those eyes bright with welcome,
and wet with tears wistful trembling
at the grief there graven in grim furrows
on the face of Flinding. 'Father, ' said she,
'what dream of doubt dreadly binds thee?
'Tis Flinding go-Fuilin, whose faith of yore
none dared to doubt. This dark, lonely,
mournful-fated Man beside him
if his oath avows the very offspring
of Hurin Thalion, what heart in this throng
shall lack belief or love refuse?
But are none yet nigh us that knew of yore
that mighty of Men, mark of kinship
to seek and see in these sorrow-laden
form and features? The friends of Morgoth
not thus, methinks, through thirst and hunger
come without comrades, nor have countenance
thus grave and guileless, glance unflinching.'
1940
1945
1950
1955
1960
Then did Turin's heart tremble wondering
at the sweet pity soft and gentle
of that tender voice touched with wisdom
that years of yearning had yielded slow;
and Orodreth, whose heart knew ruth seldom,
yet loved deeply that lady dear,
gave ear and answer to her eager words,
and his doubt and dread of dire treachery,
and his quick anger, he quelled within him.
No few were there found who had fought of old
where Finweg fell in flame of swords,
and Hurin Thalion had hewn the throngs,
the dark Glamhoth's demon legions,
and who called there looked and cried aloud:
"Tis the face of the father new found on earth,
and his strong stature and stalwart arms;
1965
1970
1975
1980

though such care and sorrow never claimed his sire,
whose laughing eyes were lighted clear
at board or battle, in bliss or in woe.'
Nor could lack belief for long the words
and faith of Flinding when friend and kin
and his father hastening that face beheld.
Lo! sire and son did sweet embrace
neath trees entwining tangled branches
at the dark doorways of those deep mansions
that Fuilin's folk afar builded,
and dwelt in the deep of the dark woodland
to the West on the slopes of the Wold of Hunters.
Of the four kindreds that followed the king,
the watchtowers' lords, the wold's keepers
and the guards of the bridge, the gleaming bow
that was flung o'er the foaming froth of Ingwil,
from Fuilin's children were first chosen,
most noble of name, renowed in valour.
1985
1990
1995
In those halls in the hills at that homecoming
mirth was mingled with melting tears
for the unyielding years whose yoke of pain
the form and face of Fuilin's son
had changed and burdened, chilled the laughter
that leapt once lightly to his lips and eyes.
Now in kindly love was care lessened,
with song assuaged sadness of hearts;
the lights were lit and lamps kindled
o'er the burdened board; there bade they feast
Turin Thalion with his true comrade
at the long tables' laden plenty,
where dish and goblet on the dark-gleaming
wood well-waxed, where the wine-flagons
engraven glistened gold and silver.
Then Fuilin filled with flowing mead,
dear-hoarded drink dark and potent
a carven cup with curious brim,
by ancient art of olden smiths
fairly fashioned, filled with marvels;
there gleamed and lived in grey silver
the folk of Faerie in the first noontide
of the Blissful Realms; with their brows wreathed
2000
2005
2010
2015
2020



in garlands golden with their gleaming hair
in the wind flying and their wayward feet
fitful flickering, on unfading lawns
the ancient Elves there everlasting
danced undying in the deep pasture
of the gardens of the Gods; there Glingol shone
and Bansil bloomed with beams shimmering,
mothwhite moonlight from its misty flowers;
the hilltops of Tun there high and green
were crowned by Cor, climbing, winding,
town white-walled where the tower of Ing
with pale pinnacle pierced the twilight,
and its crystal lamp illumined clear
with slender shaft the Shadowy Seas.
Through wrack and ruin, the wrath of the Gods,
through weary wandering, waste and exile,
had come that cup, carved in gladness,
in woe hoarded, in waning hope
when little was left of the lore of old.
Now Fuilin at feast filled it seldom
save in pledge of love to proven friend;
blithely bade he of that beaker drink
for the sake of his son that sate nigh him
Turin Thalion in token sure
of a league of love long enduring.
'0 Hurin's child chief of Hithlum,
with mourning marred, may the mead of the Elves
thy heart uplift with hope lightened;
nor fare thou from us the feast ended,
here deign to dwell; if this deep mansion
thus dark-dolven dimly vaulted
displease thee not, a place awaits thee.'
There deeply drank a draught of sweetness
Turin Thalion and returned his thanks
in eager earnest, while all the folk
with loud laughter and long feasting,
with mournful lay or music wild
of magic minstrels that mighty songs
did weave with wonder, there wooed their hearts
from black foreboding; there bed's repose
their guest was granted, when in gloom silent
the light and laughter and the living voices
2025
2030
2035
2040
2045
2050
2055
2060

were quenched in slumber. Now cold and slim
the sickle of the Moon was silver tilted
o'er the wan waters that washed unsleeping,
nightshadowed Narog, the Gnome-river.
In tall treetops of the tangled wood
there hooted hollow the hunting owls.
Thus fate it fashioned that in Fuilin's house
the dark destiny now dwelt awhile
of Turin the tall. There he toiled and fought
with the folk of Fuilin for Flinding's love;
lore long forgotten learned among them,
for light yet lingered in those leaguered places,
and wisdom yet lived in that wild people,
whose minds yet remembered the Mountains of the West
and the faces of the Gods, yet filled with glory
more clear and keen than kindreds of the dark
or Men unwitting of the mirth of old.
Thus Fuilin and Flinding friendship showed him,
and their halls were his home, while high summer
waned to autumn and the western gales
the leaves loosened from the labouring boughs;
the feet of the forest in fading gold
and burnished brown were buried deeply;
a restless rustle down the roofless aisles
sighed and whispered. Lo! the Silver Wherry,
the sailing Moon with slender mast,
was filled with fires as of furnace golden
whose hold had hoarded the heats of summer,
whose shrouds were shaped of shining flame
uprising ruddy o'er the rim of Evening
by the misty wharves on the margin of the world.
Thus the months fleeted and mightily he fared
in the forest with Flinding, and his fate waited
slumbering a season, while he sought for joy
the lore learning and the league sharing
of the Gnomes renowned of Nargothrond.
2065
2070
2075
2080
2085
2090
2095
The ways of the woods
and the land's secrets
by winter unhindered
whether snow or sleet
he wandered far,
he learned swiftly
to weathers hardened,
or slanting rain
2100

from glowering heavens grey and sunless
cold and cruel was cast to earth,
till the floods were loosed and the fallow waters
of sweeping Narog, swollen, angry,
were filled with flotsam and foaming turbid
passed in tumult; or twinkling pale
ice-hung evening was opened wide,
a dome of crystal o'er the deep silence
of the windless wastes and the woods standing
like frozen phantoms under flickering stars.
By day or night danger needless
he dared and sought for, his dread vengeance
ever seeking unsated on the sons of Angband;
yet as winter waxed wild and pathless,
and biting blizzards the bare faces
lashed and tortured of the lonely tors
and haggard hilltops, in the halls more often
: was he found in fellowship with the folk of Narog,
and cunning there added in the crafts of hand,
and in subtle mastery of song and music
and peerless poesy, to his proven lore
and wise woodcraft; there wondrous tales
were told to Turin in tongues of gold
in those mansions deep, there many a day
to the hearth and halls of the haughty king
did those friends now fare to feast and game,
for frail Finduilas her father urged
to his board and favour to bid those twain,
and it grudging her granted that grimhearted
king deep-counselled -- cold his anger,
his ruth unready, his wrath enduring;
yet fierce and fell by the fires of hate
his breast was burned for the broods of Hell
(his son had they slain, the swift-footed
Halmir the hunter of hart and boar),
and kinship therein the king ere long
in his heart discovered for Hurin's son,
dark and silent, as in dreams walking
of anguish and regret and evergrowing
feud unsated. Thus favour soon
by the king accorded of the company of his board
he was member made, and in many a deed
2105
2110
2115
2120
2125
2130
2135
2140
2145


and wild venture to West and North
he achieved renown among the chosen warriors
and fearless bowmen; in far battles
in secret ambush and sudden onslaught,
where fell-tongued flew the flying serpents,
their shafts envenomed, in valleys shrouded
he played his part, but it pleased him little,
who trusted to targe and tempered sword,
whose hand was hungry for the hilts it missed
2150
2155
but dared never a blade since the doom of Beleg
to draw or handle. Dear-holden was he,
though he wished nor willed it, and his works were praised.
When tales were told of times gone by,
of valour they had known, of vanished triumph,
glory half-forgot, grief remembered,
then they bade and begged him be blithe and sing
of deeds in Doriath in the dark forest
by the shadowy shores that shunned the light
where Esgalduin the Elf-river
by root-fenced pools roofed with silence,
by deep eddies darkly gurgling,
Rowed fleetly on past the frowning portals
of the Thousand Caves. Thus his thought recalled
the woodland ways where once of yore
Beleg the bowman had a boy guided
by slade and slope and swampy thicket
neath trees enchanted; then his tongue faltered
and his tale was stilled.
2160
2165
2170
At Turin's sorrow
one marvelled and was moved, a maiden fair
the frail Finduilas that Failivrin,
the glimmering sheen on the glassy pools
of Ivrin's lake the Elves in love
had named anew. By night she pondered
and by day wondered what depth of woe
lay locked in his heart his life marring;
for the doom of dread and death that had fallen
on Beleg the bowman in unbroken silence
Turin warded, nor might tale be won
of Flinding the faithful of their fare and deeds
in the waste together. Now waned her love
2175
2180
2185

for the form and face furrowed with anguish,
for the bended back and broken strength,
the wistful eyes and the withered laughter
of Flinding the faithful, though filled was her heart
with deepwelling pity and dear friendship.
Grown old betimes and grey-frosted,
he was wise and kindly with wit and counsel,
with sight and foresight, but slow to wrath
nor fiercely valiant, yet if fight he must
his share he shirked not, though the shreds of fear
in his heart yet hung; he hated no man,
but he seldom smiled, save suddenly a light
in his grave face glimmered and his glance was fired:
Finduilas maybe faring lightly
on the sward he saw or swinging pale,
a sheen of silver down some shadowy hall.*
Yet to Turin was turned her troublous heart
against will and wisdom and waking thought:
in dreams she sought him, his dark sorrow
with love lightening, so that laughter shone
in eyes new-kindled, and her Elfin name
he eager spake, as in endless spring
they fared free-hearted through flowers enchanted
with hand in hand o'er the happy pastures
of that land that is lit by no light of Earth,
by no moon nor sun, down mazy ways
to the black abysmal brink of waking.
2190
2195
2200
2205
2210
From woe unhealed the wounded heart
of Turin the tall was turned to her.
Amazed and moved, his mind's secret
half-guessed, half-guarded, in gloomy hour
of night's watches, when down narrow winding
paths of pondering he paced wearily,
he would lonely unlock, then loyal-hearted
shut fast and shun, or shroud his grief
in dreamless sleep, deep oblivion
where no echo entered of the endless war
of waking worlds, woe nor friendship,
Bower nor firelight nor the foam of seas,
2215
2220
Here the B-typescript ends, and the remainder of the text is manuscript. See the Note
on the Texts, p. 81.)

a land illumined by no light at all.
2225
'0! hands unholy, 0! heart of sorrow,
0! outlaw whose evil is yet unatoned,
wilt thou, troth-breaker, a treason new
to thy burden bind; thy brother-in-arms,
Flinding go-Fuilin thus foully betray,
who thy madness tended in mortal perils,
to thy waters of healing thy wandering feet
did lead at the last to lands of peace,
where his life is rooted and his love dwelleth?
O! stained hands his hope steal not! '
2230
2235
Thus love was fettered in loyal fastness
and coldly clad in courteous word;
yet he would look and long for her loveliness,
in her gentle words his joy finding,
her face watching when he feared no eye
might mark his mood. One marked it all --
Failivrin's face, the fleeting gleams,
like sun through clouds sailing hurriedly
over faded fields, that flickered and went out
as Turin passed; the tremulous smiles,
his grave glances out of guarded shade,
his sighs in secret -- one saw them all,
Flinding go-Fuilin, who had found his home
and lost his love to the lying years,
he watched and wondered, no word speaking,
and his heart grew dark 'twixt hate and pity,
bewildered, weary, in the webs of fate.
Then Finduilas, more frail and wan
twixt olden love now overthrown
and new refused, did nightly weep;
and folk wondered at the fair pallor
of the hands upon her harp, her hair of gold
on slender shoulders slipped in tumult,
the glory of her eyes that gleamed with fires
of secret thought in silent deeps.
2240
2245
2250
2255
2260
Many bosoms burdened with foreboding vague
their glooms disowned neath glad laughter.
In song and silence, snow and tempest,
winter wore away; to the world there came


a year once more in youth unstained,
r were leaves less green, light less golden,
the flowers less fair, though in faded hearts
no spring was born, though speeding nigh
danger and dread and doom's footsteps
to their halls hasted. Of the host of iron
came tale and tidings ever treading nearer;
Orcs unnumbered to the East of Narog
roamed and ravened on the realm's borders,
the might of Morgoth was moved abroad.
No ambush stayed them; the archers yielded
each vale by vale, though venomed arrows
2265no
2270
2275
ere both A and B end abruptly, and I think it is certain that no more of
the poem was ever written.
NOTES.
1409.
  1417-18.
448.
469.
1525.  
1529. 
1537.
1542-3.
1558.
1673-6.
Tengwethil B, Taingwethil A. This is the reverse of the
previous occurrences; see lines 43 I, 636.
These lines are bracketed in B, and line 1418 struck through;
in the margin is a mark of deletion, but with a query
beside it.1
Nirnaith Unoth A, and B as typed; emended in pencil in
B to Nirnaith Ornoth. Earlier in the poem (lines 13, 218)
the forms were Ninin Udathriol emended in B to Ninin
Unothradin (also Nimaithos Unothradin at line 13). Cf.
line 1543.1
Ulmo A, and B as typed; in B Ulmo struck through in pencil
and replaced by Ylmir, but this also struck through. I read
Ylmir; see note to line 1529.
Turin Thalion A, and B as typed (not Turin Thaliodrin, see
note to line 1324).
Ylmir: so already in A and B as typed; so also at lines 1534,
1553, 1572, 1585. See note to.line 1469.
This line was struck through in pencil in B.
These lines were bracketed in pencil in B, and Not so written
in margin. Though Unoth was not here emended I read
Ornoth (see note to line 1448).
the sea-birds call in solemn conclave: cf. the tale of The
Coming of the Elves and the Making of Kor, I. 124.
Cf. lines 1036 -- 9.


1696 -- 7.
1710 -- 11.
Cf. lines 1283 -- 4.
Line 1710 is wholly and 1711 partly crossed out in B, wit
marginal additions to make 1711 read:
[by) Felagund founded flying southward
1713 -- 20
Also written in the margin is, before Nirnaith Unoth . At
line 1711 A has found for founded, but as the manuscript
was written very rapidly this may not be significant.
These lines are bracketed in B, as if needing revision, and two
lines are written in the margin for insertion after 1715:
that home came never to their halls of old
since the field of tears was fought and lost.
I have not included these lines (written, it seems, at the same
time as the other marginal comments in this passage) in the
text in view of the complexity of the 'historical background' at
this point; see the Commentary, pp. 84 -- 5.
Against this passage is written in the margin:
but Nargothrond was founded by Felagund Finrod's son
(whose brothers were Angrod Egnor & Orodreth). Curufin
and Celegorm dwelt at Nargothrond.
1719.
1724
Cranthor A, Cranthir B as typed.
Finduilas: Failivrin A, and B as typed; Finduilas written in
pencil in the margin of B; so also at line 1938. See lines 2130,
2175, 2199.
1938.
1945.
1974-5.
1975.
,993-8
Finduilas: as at line 1724.
The word youngling is struck out in B and Flinding written
against it, but the resulting Fuilin's Flinding (with alliter-
ation in the second half-line) cannot possibly have been
intended. Subsequently another word was written in the
margin, but this is illegible.
Not so written in the margin of B.
Finmeg A, and B as typed; late emendation to Fingon in B.
I retain Firnweg since that is still the name in the 1930
'Silmarillion'.
In A and in B as typed these lines were differently ordered:
Of the four kindreds that followed the king,
most noble of name, renowned in valour,
the watchtowers' lords, the wold's keepers
from Fuilin's children were first chosen,
and the guards of the bridge, the gleaming bow
that was flung o'er the foaming froth of Ingwil.
2027
Glingol A, and B as typed; late emendation to Glingal in B. I
retain Glingol, the form in the Lost Tales and still in the 1930

'Silmarillion', in the published work Glingal is the name of
the golden tree of Gondolin.
2028. Bansil A, and B as typed; late emendation to Belthil in B. I
retain Bansil for the same reason as Glingol in line 2027.
2030. there high and green the hill of Tun A, and B as typed;
emended in pencil in B to the reading given; was 2031 not
corrected to mere, but that hilltops (plural) was intended is
shown by the text C, see p. 82.
2130. I give Finduilas, though Failivrin was not so emended here
in B, as it was at lines 1724, 1938. See notes to lines 2175.
2199.
2164. Esgaduin A, and B as typed; emended in pencil to Esgalduin
in B.
2175. the frail Finduilas that Failivrin as typed B; the frail
Failivrin changed at the time of writing in A to Findoriel (sc.
the frail Findoriel that Failivrin &c.).
2199. Finduilas A and B; Failivrin written in the margin of A. At
the subsequent occurrences (Failivrin 2242, Finduilas 2253)
the names both in A and in B are as in the printed text.
Note on the texts of the section 'Failivrin '.
B comes to an end as a typescript at line 2201, but continues as a
well-written manuscript for a further 75 lines. This last part is written onthe
paper of good quality that my father used for many years in all his
writing (University lectures, The Silmarillion, The Lord of the Rings,
etc.) in ink or pencil (i.e. when not typing): this plain paper was supplied
to him by the Examination Schools at Oxford University, being the
used pages of the booklets of paper provided for examination candi-
dates. The change in paper does not show however that he had moved
from Leeds to Oxford (cf. p. 3), since he acted as an external examiner
at Oxford in 1924 and 1925; but it does suggest that the final work on the
Lay (before Leithian was begun) dates from the latter part of the one
year or the earlier part of the next. The conclusion of A is also written on
paper.
There is a further short text to be considered here, a well-written
manuscript that extends from line 2005 to line 2225, which I will call 'C'.
Textual details show clearly that C followed B -- not, I think, at any longin
terval. Some emendations made to B were made to C also. I give here alist
of the more important differences of C from B (small changes of
punctuation and sentence-connection are not noticed).
 C bears the title Turin in the House of Fuilin and his son Flinding.
It is not clear whether this was to be the title of a fourth section of the
poem, but it seems unlikely, if the third section was to remain Failivrin .
2005 Now was care lessened in kindly love C
2020 noontide] summer pencil emendation in C

2027-8.
2029.
2030-- 2. 
Clingol > Clingal and Bansil > Belthil pencil emend-
ations in C as in B
The original reading of B and C was like magic moon-
light from its mothwhite flowers; this was differ-
ently emended in C, to like moths of pearl in moon-
lit flowers.
C as written was exactly as the text of B after emendation
(with were for was 2031); these lines were then crossed
out and the following substituted:
there high and green that hill by the sea
was crowned by Tun, climbing, winding
in tall walls of white, where the tower of Ing
2036-53.
2069.
2083.
2090.
2114 -- 16.
2123 -8.
are omitted in C (with Thence for There 2054).
After hunting owls C has lines of omission dots, and the
text takes up again at line 2081.
maned to autumn] waned lowards winter pencil
emendations in C
as of furnace golden] as a furnace of gold C
are omitted in C.
C omits 2124, 2125b -- 7, and reads:
and in subtle mastery of song and music
to his wise woodcraft and wielding of arms.
To the hearth and halls of the haughty king
2135-8.
C omits these lines (referring to Orodreth's son Halmir,
slain by Orcs) and reads:
his ruth unready, his wrath enduring.
But kinship of mood the king ere long
2142b -- 2143a. C omits these lines, and reads:
of anguish and regret. Thus was honour granted
by the king to Turin; of the company of his board
2158. were told] men told emendation in C.
2164. Esgalduin C as written; see note to this line above.
Commentary on Part III 'Failivrin'.
In this very remarkable section of the poem a great development has
taken place in the story since the Tale of Turambar (if there was an
intervening stage there is now no trace of it); while concurrently the
history of the exiled Noldoli was being deepened and extended from its
representation in the outlines for Gilfanon's Tale --. a factor that compli-

  cates the presentation of the poems, since statements about that history
were often superseded during the long process of composition.
Most notable of all in this part of the poem is the description of
Nargothrond, unique in the Lay. In all the later rewritings and restruc-
turings of the Turin saga this part was never touched, apart from the
development of the relations between Turin, Gwindor, and Finduilas
which I have given in Unfinished Tales, pp. 155 -- 9. In this there is a
parallel to Gondolin, very fully described in the tale of The Fall of
Gondolin, but never again. As I said in the introduction to Unfinished
Tales (p. 5):
It is thus the remarkable fact that the only full account that my father
ever wrote of the story of Tuor's sojourn in Gondolin, his union with
Idril Celebrindal, the birth of Earendil, the treachery of Maeglin, the
sack of the city, and the escape of the fugitives -- a story that was a
central element in his imagination of the First Age -- was the narrative
composed in his youth.
Gondolin and Nargothrond were each made once, and not remade. They
remained powerful sources and images -- the more powerful, perhaps,
because never remade, and never remade, perhaps, because so powerful.
Both Tuor and Turin were indeed to receive written form outside the
condensed Silmarillion as long prose narratives, and what my father
 achieved of this intention I have given in the first two sections of
Unfinished Tales; but though he set out to remake Gondolin he never
reached the city again: after climbing the endless slope of the Orfalch
Echor and passing through the long line of heraldic gates he paused with
Tuor at the vision of Gondolin amid the plain, and never recrossed
Tumladen. The remaking of Turin went much further, but here too he
skirted the imaginative focus of Nargothrond.
The founding of Nargothrond.
I shall discuss first the 'background' history, which centres on the
complex question of the founding of Nargothrond. In the Tale (I I. 81 -- 2)
Nargothrond is not named, and is represented by the Caves of the
Rodothlim; as in the poem, Orodreth was the chief of these Gnomes, but
he was then an isolated figure, and not yet associated in kinship with
other princes. Nothing is said there of the origin of the redoubt, but that
it was imagined to have arisen (like Gondolin) after the Battle of Un-
numbered Tears is, I think, certain, since in the earliest phase of the
legends, as I remarked in commenting on Cilfanon's Tale (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 the Battle of:
Unnumbered Tears].
In the poem, this idea is still clearly present in lines 1542-- 4:
the secret halls
of Nargothrond by the Gnomes builded
that death and thraldom in the dreadful throes
of Nirnaith Ornoth, a number scanty,
escaped unscathed.
Against this passage my father wrote ' Not so', and this comment obviously
means 'Nargothrond was not founded after the Battle of Unnumbered
Tears', as is further shown by his note to lines 1710 -- 11:
(to Nargothrond)
that Celegorm and Curufin, the crafty sons
of Feanor founded when they fled southward
against which he wrote: 'before Nirnaith Unoth'. When, then, was it
founded? The 'Sketch of the Mythology', certainly later than the poem
(the background of which it was written to explain), already in its earliest
form knows of the Leaguer of Angband and of Morgoth's breaking of the:
Leaguer -- though described in the barest possible way, without any
reference to the battle that ended it; and it is said there that at that time
'Gnomes and Ilkorins and Men are scattered... Celegorm and Curufin
found the realm of Nargothrond on the banks of Narog in the south of the
Northern lands.' The 'Sketch' (again, in its earliest, unrevised, form)
also states that Celegorm and Curufin despatched a host from Nargo-
thrond to the Battle of Unnumbered Tears, that this host joined with
that of Maidros and Maglor, but 'arrived 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
the remnant.'
The problem is to explain how it comes about in the earlier story, as
found in the poem (Nargothrond founded by Celegorm and Curufin
after the Battle of Unnumbered Tears), that Celegorm and Curufin are
no longer there when Turin comes, and Orodreth is king. Why do they
live now lurking... in the forests of the East with their five brothers
(1713-14)?
The only explanation that I can put forward is as follows. When my
father wrote lines 1542--4 his view was that Nargothrond was founded
after the Battle of Unnumbered Tears (this is quite explicit). But when
he wrote lines 1710 -- 15
(to Nargothrond)
that Celegorm and Curufin, the crafty sons
of Feanor founded when they fled southward;
there built a bulwark against Bauglir's hate,
1710



who live now lurking in league secret
with those five others in the forests of the East
fell unflinching foes of Morgoth1715
the later story was already present. (There would be nothing uncharac-
teristic about this; in the Lay of Leithian the story changes from one
Canto to the next.) Thus when they fled southward refers to the flight
of Celegorm and Curufin from the battle that ended the Leaguer of
Angband; they live now lurking... in the forests of the East refers to
the period after the Battle of Unnumbered Tears, when 'they did not go
back to Nargothrond' and 'Orodreth ruled the remnant', as stated in the
'Sketch'.* On this view, my father's note against lines 1710 -- 11('before
Nirnaith Unoth') was mistaken -- he took the lines to refer to the old story
(as 1542 -- 4 certainly do), whereas in fact they refer to the later. This
explanation may seem far-fetched, but it is less so than the demonstrably
correct solutions to other puzzles in the history of 'The Silmarillion', and
I see no other way out of the difficulty. -- The two additional lines to
follow 1715:
that home came never to their halls of old
since the field of tears was fought and lost
refer (I think) to Celegorm and Curufin, and reinforce the reference to
the later story (i.e. that after the Battle of Unnumbered Tears they did
not return to Nargothrond).
The change of lines 1710 -- 11 to make the passage read
(to Nargothrond)
by Felagund founded flying southward
and the marginal note against 1713 -- 20 'but Nargothrond was founded by
Felagund Finrod's son' etc., reflect of course a further stage, though a
stage that came in soon after the 'Sketch' was first written. The essential
shifts in the history of Nargothrond to this point are certainly thus:
(1) Orodreth ruled the Rodothlim in their caves, first inhabited after
the Battle of Unnumbered Tears.
(2) Celegorm and Curufin founded Nargothrond after the Battle of
Unnumbered Tears.
Celegorm and Curufin founded Nargothrond after the breaking of
the Leaguer of Angband; they went with a host to the Battle of
Unnumbered Tears and did not return, but remained in the East;
Orodreth ruled the remnant of the Gnomes of Nargothrond.
Felagund son of Finrod and his brothers Angrod, Egnor, and
(* Cf. lines 1873 -- 4:
Has the watch then waned in the woods of Narog
since Orodreth ruled this realm and folk? )

Orodreth founded Nargothrond after the breaking of the Leaguer
of Angband; Celegorm and Curufin dwelt there.
Another sign of development in the history and genealogy of the
Gnomish princes is the mention of Finweg, later emended in the B-text
to Fingon, who fell in flame of swords at the Battle of Unnumbered
Tears (1975). Finweg has appeared early in the poem (line 29), but
there as a spelling or form of Finwe (Noleme), founder of the line; this
Finweg appears in the 'Sketch', as originally written, as the son of
Fingolfin.
The Sons of Feanor have previously all been named only in the Tale of
the Nauglafring (II. 241); now (1716 ff.), with Cranthir (emended
from Cranthor in B), and Diriel for earlier Dinithel (?Durithel), they
reach the forms they long retained. Characteristic epithets appear:
Maglor is 'swift', Cranthir 'dark', and Curufin's 'craftiness', already
appearing in the Tale of the Nauglafring, extends here to Celegorm.
Maidros' wielding his sword with his left hand is mentioned, which
clearly implies that the story that Morgorth had him hung from a cliff by
his right hand, and that Finweg (> Fingon) rescued him, was already
present, as it is in the 'Sketch'. His torment and maiming was mentioned
in the outlines for Gilfanon's Tale (I. 238, 240), but not described.
To turn now to the foreground narrative of this part of the poem. The
poem advances on the Tale by mentioning the disposal of Beleg's sword,
not mentioned in the Tale; but here Flinding hides it in the hollow of a
tree (1342), and it plays no further part in the story. If the poem had gone
further Turin would have received his black sword in Nargothrond in
gift from Orodreth, as happens in the Tale (II. 83). In the Tale it is said
that Turin 'had not wielded a sword since the slaying of Beleg, but rather
had he been contented with a mighty club', in the poem this reappears
with the implication made explicit (2155 -- 6):
dared never a blade since the doom of Beleg
to draw or handle.
The burial of Beleg now appears, with his great bow beside him
(1399 ff.), and Turin's kiss survives from the Tale; that the mark of his
grief over the death of Beleg (called the third of his sorrows, 1421) never
left his face was an enduring feature of the legend.
Geography.
In the Tale (II. 80 -- 1) very little is made of the journey of Flinding and
Turin from the place of Beleg's death to Nargothrond: by the light of
Flinding's lamp they 'fared by night and hid by day and were lost in the
hills, and the Orcs found them not'. In the poem, on the other hand, the
journey is quite fully described, and contains some noteworthy features;
moreover there is nothing in the description that contradicts the earliest

'Silmarillion' map (to be given in the next volume), which dates from this
period and may have been made originally in association with this poem.
The wanderers pass at midnight by the Mound of Slain, looming up
under the moon at the furthest end/of Dor-na-Fauglith's dusty
spaces (1439 -- 40); this feature does not recur again in the story of Turin.
The only previous reference to the great burial-mound is in the outlines
for Cilfanon's Tale, where it is called the Hill of Death, and was raised
by the Sons of Feanor (I. 241). It is said in the poem that Turin despite
his heavy listlessness turned his hand/ toward Thangorodrim at
Flinding's words concerning the Mound, and cursed Morgoth thrice -- as
did Feanor in the hour of his death after the Battle-under-Stars (The
Silmarillion p. 107); the one was doubtless the precursor of the other.
The inviolability of the Mound now appears (1450 -- 2).
Turin and Flinding now crossed Sirion not far from his source in the
Shadowy Mountains, where the river was fordable (1457 ff.); this is the
first reference to Sirion's Well. Sirion's great journey to the Sea is
described, with references to his passage underground (1467; cf. II. 195,
217) and through lands beloved of Ylmir (Ulmo). The travellers then
find themselves in Nan Dungorthin, which was mentioned in the Tale of
Tinuviel (see II. 35, 62 -- 3): Huan found Beren and Tinuviel after their
escape from Angband in 'that northward region of Artanor that was
called afterward Nan Dumgorthin, the land of the dark idols', 'even then
a dark land and gloomy and foreboding, and dread wandered beneath its
lowering trees'. My father hesitated long about the placing of this land: in
the Gnomish dictionary it was east of Artanor (II. 62), in the Tale of
Tinuviel a 'northward region of Artanor', while here it is west of Sirion,
in a valley of the southern slopes of the Shadowy Mountains. In the
earliest 'Silmarillion' map Nan Dungorthin was first likewise placed west
of Sirion (west of the Isle of Werewolves), before being returned once
more to the region north of Doriath, where it remained.
It is said that when Turin and Flinding climbed out of the vale of
Nan Dungorthin they southward sam the slopes of Hithlum/more
warm and friendly (1496 -- 7). At first sight this seems difficult to
understand, but I think that the meaning is: they were indeed on
the slopes of Hithlum at the time (i.e. below the southern faces of
the Shadowy Mountains that fenced Hithlum), but looking southward
(actually southwestward) they saw more agreeable regions further along
the foothills, towards Ivrin. This is the first appearance of Ivrin, source
of the Narog, and it is seen very clearly. The line (1537) giving the
meaning of Narog (Gnomish, 'torrent') was struck out, but this (I think)
was because my father felt that it was intrusive, not that the etymology
was rejected. In this connection it may be mentioned that in a list of Old
English equivalents of Elvish names, composed some years after the time
of the present poem and associated with AElfwine's translations of Elvish
texts into his own language, occur Narog: Hlyda and Nargothrond:
Hlydingaburg. Hlyda was the name in Old English of March ('the noisy

month of wind', cf. the Quenya name Sulime' and the Sindarin name .
Greaeron); related words are hlud (Modern English loud), hlyd
'sound', hlydan 'make a sound'. The meaning is here undoubtedly 'the
loud one'; it lies behind the English stream-name Lydbrook.
Following the course of the Narog southward from Ivrin, the travellers
gained the gorge where Ginglith turns
all glad and golden to greet the Narog.
There her gentler torrent joins his tumult,
and they glide together on the guarded plain
to the Hunters' Hills that high to southward
uprear their rocks robed in verdure.(1736 -- 41)
A little earlier Flinding has described to Turin how Narog, passing
Nargothrond, 'thence skirted wild the Hills of the Hunters, the home of
Beren and the Dancer of Doriath' (1544-- 6). In these verses are the first
appearances of the river Ginglith, the Guarded Plain, and the Hills of the
Hunters (all shown on the earliest map), though the hills themselves are
described without being named in the Tale, II. 96. On the map Nargo-
thrond is shown near the northern extremity of the Hills of the Hunters,
which extend far to the southward, falling down to the coast of the Sea
west of Sirion's mouths. Various things are said of these hills. In the
Tale they are 'high and tree-grown', in the poem they uprear their
rocks robed in verdure; in The Silmarillion (p. 122), where they are
called Taur-en-Faroth or the High Faroth, they are 'great wooded
highlands', in the Narn (p. 116) they are 'brown and bare'. In the poem
they are also called the Hunters' Wold (1816), the Wold of Hunters
(1992), where the word is probably used in the old sense of 'forest, 
wooded uplands'. If we judge by my father's unfinished watercolour of
the Doors of Nargothrond, painted in all probability in 1928 (see Pic-
tures by J. R. R. Tolkien no. 33), he saw the hills as great rocky heights
standing up from thick forest on their lower slopes. At line 1746 the
Wards of Narog look out from their treegirt towers on the tall
hilltops; these watchtowers were in the north of the Hills of the Hunters
and looking northwards (1743-5), and it may not be casual therefore that
on the earliest map the northern end (only) of the hills are shown as
heavily forested.
As Turin and Flinding came south down the west bank of Narog the 
river hastened o'er the feet of the hills (1770), and the fields and
orchards through which they passed
ever narrowing
twixt wall and water did wane at last
to blossomy banks by the borders of the way (1812 -- 14)
The map likewise shows the Narog drawing steadily closer to the
northeastern edge of the Hills of the Hunters. Here the travellers crossed
the foaming Ingwil, falling down from the hills, by a slender bridge; this



is the first appearance of this stream (cf. The Silmarillion p. 122: 'the
short and foaming stream Ringwil tumbled headlong into Narog from
the High Faroth'), and the bridge over it is mentioned nowhere else.
The Land of the Dead that Live (Beren and Tinuviel after their
return) is now placed in the Hills of the Hunters (1545 -- 6), where it was
originally placed also on the map. This land was moved even more often
than was Nan Dungorthin. In the Tale of the Nauglafring it was in
Hisilome (but with a note on the manuscript saying that it must be placed
in 'Doriath beyond Sirion', II. 249); in the Tale of Tinuviel Beren and
Tinuviel 'became mighty fairies in the lands about the north of Sirion'
 (II. 41). From the Hills of the Hunters it would subsequently be movedse
veral times more.
Before leaving the Narog, we meet here for the first time in narrative
writing the name Nan-Tathrin (1548), in the Lost Tales always called by
its name in Eldarissa, Tasarinan (but Nantathrin occurs in the
Gnomish dictionary, I. 265, entry Sirion and Dor-tathrin in the Name-
list to The Fall of Gondolin, II. 346).
Far fuller than in any later account is the story in the poem of the
sojourn of Turin and his companion at Ivrin, and much that lies behind
the passage in The Silmarillion (p. 209) is here revealed. In The Sil-
marillion Turin drank from the water of Ivrin and was at last able to
weep, and his madness passed; then he made a song for Beleg (Laer Cu
Beleg, the Song of the Great Bow), 'singing it aloud heedless of peril';
and then he asked Gwindor who he was. In the Lay all these features of
the story are present, somewhat differently ordered. Flinding describes
to Turin the courses of Narog and Sirion and the protection of Ulmo,
and Turin feels some return of hope (1586 -- 7); they hasten down to
the lake and drink (1599 -- 1600); and from the meshes of misery his
mind was loosed (1602). In the early night, as they sat beside their fire
by the pools of Ivrin, Turin asked Flinding his name and fate, and it was
Flinding's reply that led Turin at last to weep. Flinding fell asleep, but
woke towards the end of the night to hear Turin singing the dirge of
Beleg by the edge of the lake (and here the song is called 'the Bowman's
Friendship'). Turin then himself fell asleep, and in his sleep he returned
tothe terrible place on the edge of Taur-na-Fuin where he slew Beleg,
seeking the place of his burial and the lightning-blackened trees, and
heard the voice of Beleg far off telling him to seek no longer but to take
comfort in courage.
Then he woke in wonder; his wit was healed,
courage him comforted, and he called aloud
Flinding go-Fuilin, to his feet striding. (1699 -- 1701)
The structure of the episode in the Lay is firm and clear, the images
strong and enduring. I said in the introduction to Unfinished Tales that
it was grievous that my father went no further, in the later Tale of Tuor,

than the coming of Tuor and Voronwe to the last gate and Tuor's sightof
Gondolin across the plain. It is no less grievous that he never retold, in
his later prose, the story of Turin and Gwindor at the Lake of Ivrin. The
passage in The Silmarillion is no substitute; and it is only from this poem
that we can fully grasp the extremity of the disaster for Turin, that he had
killed his friend.
The description in the poem of the stealth and secrecy of the defenders
of Nargothrond is derived, in concept, from the Tale (II. 81). In the Tale
the spies and watchers of the Rodothlim... gave warning of their
approach, and the folk withdrew before them, such as were abroad
from their dwelling. Then they closed their doors and hoped that the
strangers might not discover their caves...
When Flinding and Turin came to the mouths of the caves,
the Rodothlim sallied and made them prisoners and drew them within
their rocky halls, and they were led before the chief, Orodreth.
All this is taken up into the poem and greatly elaborated; there is also the
incident of Turin's stumbling on a root and thus being missed by the
arrow aimed at him, and Flinding's cry of reproach to the unseen archers,
after which they were not further molested. It is perhaps not so clear in
the poem as in the Tale that the farmlands and orchards of Nargothrond
were deserted lest the travellers should find the entrance to the caves,
especially since a pathway plain by passing feet/was broadly
beaten (1808 -- 9) -- though it is said that the throng in the great hallof
Nargothrond was waiting for them (1856). Moreover, in the Tale they
were not attacked. As the story is told in the poem, one might wonder
why the hidden archers in the woods, if they believed Flinding's cry
sufficiently to withhold their arrows, did not emerge at that point and
conduct them as prisoners to the caves. The new element of the arrow
shot in the woods has not, I think, been altogether assimilated to the old
account of the timorous withdrawal of the Rodothlim in the hope that
Turin and Flinding would not find the entrance. But the passage describ-
ing the 'home-fields' of Nargothrond is of great interest in itself, for
rarely are there references to the agriculture of the peoples of Middlle-
earth in the Elder Days.
The great Doors of Nargothrond are here first described -- the triple
doors of timber as my father imagined them are seen in his drawing of the
entrance made in Dorset in the summer of 1928, and (in a different
conception) their posts and lintels of ponderous stone (1830)in
the watercolour of the same period referred to above (Pictures nos 33
34).
In the Tale the fear and suspicion among the Rodothlim of Noldoli
who had been slaves is attributed to 'the evil deeds of the Gnomes atC
opas Alqalunten', and this element reappears in the poem (1903 -- 4).

Nevertheless, there is no suggestion in the Tale of any serious question-
ing of the identity and goodwill of Flinding, greatly changed in aspect
though he was, so that 'few knew him again'. In the poem, on the other
hand, Orodreth emerges as hostile and formidable, and his character is
carefully outlined: he is quick to anger (1973) but his wrath is cold and
long-enduring (2133 -- 4), he is seldom moved to pity (1969, 2134),
grim-hearted and deep-counselled (2132 -- 3), but capable of deep love
(1970) as also of fierce hate (2135). Afterwards, as the legends devel-
oped, Orodreth underwent a steady decline into weakness and insignifi-
cance, which is very curious. Many years later, when meditating the
development of the Turin saga, my father noted that Orodreth was
'rather a weak character'; cf. the Narn, p. 160: 'he turned as he ever did
to Turin for counsel'. Ultimately he was to be displaced as the second
King of Nargothrond (Unfinished Tales p. 255, note 20). But all this is a
far cry from the hard and grim king in his underground hall depicted in
the poem; Felagund had not yet emerged, nor the rebellious power of
Celegorm and Curufin in Nargothrond (see further p. 246).
The killing of Orodreth's son Halmir the hunter by Orcs (2137 -- 8;
omitted in the C-text, p. 82) is a new element, which will reappear,
though not found in The Silmarillion, where the name Halmir is borne
by a ruler of the People of Haleth.
In the Tale, as I noticed in my commentary (II. 124),
Failivrin is already present, and her unrequited love for Turin, but the
complication of her former relation with Gwindor is quite absent, and
she is not the daughter of Orodreth the King but of one Galweg (who
was to disappear utterly).
In the poem Galweg has already disappeared, and Failivrin has become
Orodreth's daughter, loved by Flinding and returning his love before his
captivity; and it is her plea to her father before the assembled multitude
that sways the king and leads to the admission of Flinding and Turin to
Nargothrond. Of this intervention there is probably a trace in the very
condensed account in The Silmarillion (p. 209):
At first his own people did not know Gwindor, who went out young
and strong, and returned now seeming as one of the aged among
mortal Men, because of his torments and his labours; but Finduilas
daughter of Orodreth the King knew him and welcomed him, for she
had loved him before the Nirnaeth, and so greatly did Gwindor love
her beauty that he named her Faelivrin, which is the gleam of the sun
on the pools of Ivrin.
In the poem she is called Failivrin in A and B as written, emended or
not in B to Finduilas (1724, 1938, 2130), but the name Finduilas
emerges towards the end in the texts as first written (2175, 2199), and
Failivrin (the glimmering sheen on the glassy pools/of Ivrin's
lake) is the name by which the Elves renamed Finduilas.

In the Lay as in the Tale there is no hiding of Turin's identity, as there
is in The Silmarillion, where he checked Gwindor, when Gwindor
would declare his name, saying that he was Agarwaen, the Bloodstained,
son of Umarth, Ill-fate (p. 210). Finduilas (Failivrin) asks:
But are none yet nigh us that knew of yore
that mighty of Men [Hurin], mark of kinship
to seek and see in these sorrow-laden
form and features?
(1958 -- 61 )
and then
No few were there found who had fought of old
where Finweg fell in flame of swords
and Hurin Thalion had hewn the throngs,
the dark Glamhoth's demon legions (1974 -- 7)
and they declared that Turin's face was the face of the father new
found on earth. Against the second of these passages my father wrote in
the margin: 'Not so.' This is a comment on the idea that there were many
Gnomes in Nargothrond who had fought in the Battle of Unnumbered
Tears (see pp. 84 -- 5); according to the later story scarcely any went from
Nargothrond, and of the small company that did none came back, save
Flinding/Gwindor himself. -- In The Silmarillion (p. 210) Turin is not
said to be the image of his father; on the contrary,
he was in truth the son of Morwen Eledhwen to look upon: dark-haired
and pale-skinned, with grey eyes.
Cf. also the Narn, p. 161, where Turin said to Arminas:
But if my head be dark and not golden, of that I am not ashamed. For I
am not the first of sons in the likeness of his mother.
Hurin himself was
shorter in stature than other men of his kin; in this he took after his
mother's people, but in all else he was like Hador his grandfather, fair
of face and golden-haired, strong in body and fiery of mood (Nant
P 57)-
But Turin was already conceived to be dark-haired in the Lay:
the black-haired boy from the beaten people (417)
and in the second version of the poem Hurin also has dark tresses (p. 97,
line 88).
At the feast of welcome in the house of Fuilin Flinding's father, deep in
the woods on the slopes of the Hunters' Wold (1989 -- 92), Fuilin filled
with mead a great ancient silver cup that had come from Valinor:



carved in gladness,
in woe hoarded, in waning hope
when little was left of the lore of old. (2038 -- 40)
It was of such things as that cup, carved with images of the folk of
Faerie in the first noontide/of the Blissful Realms, of the Two
Trees, and of the tower of Ing on the hill of Cor, that my father was
thinking when he wrote of the treasures that Finrod Felagund brought
put of Tirion (The Silmarillion p. 114); 'a solace and a burden on the
road' (ibid. p. 85). -- This is the first reference to the tower of Ing
(Ingwe, see p. 28) in the Elvish city, whose
pale pinnacle pierced the twilight,
and its crystal lamp illumined clear
with slender shaft the Shadowy Seas
(2033-5)
as afterwards the silver lamp of.the Mindon Eldalieva 'shone far out into
the mists of the sea' (The Silmarillion p. 59).
According to the readings of the A and B texts at lines 2030 -- 2 the hill
on which the Elvish city was built, figured on Fuilin's cup, is Tun,
þ crowned by the white-walled city of Cor; and this is anomalous, since the
name Tun certainly arose as the name of the city (see II. 292), and in the
'Sketch of the Mythology' and the 1930 'Silmarillion' Kor is the hill and
Tun the city. In the C-text of the poem, however, these lines were
changed, and the city is named Tun (p. 82).
The elaboration at the end of the relationship of Turin and Finduilas is
an indication of the large scale on which this work was planned: seeing
how much in bare narrative terms is yet to come (the fall of Nargothrond,
the Dragon, the loss of Finduilas, Turin's journey to Dor-lomin,
Morwen and Nienor in Doriath and the journey to Nargothrond, the
enspelling of Nienor, Turin and Nienor among the Woodmen, the
coming and death of the Dragon, and the deaths of Nienor and Turin) it
must have run to many more thousands of lines.
There remain a few isolated matters. The name, Esgalduin now first
appears, but the form in A and B as typed (2164), Esgaduin, is the
original name. The C-text has Esgalduin (p. 82).
The Moon is seen in lines 2088 -- 94 as a ship, the Silver Wherry, with
mast, hold, and shrouds, sailing from wharves on the margin of the
world; but the imagery has no real point of contact with the Ship of the
Moon in the Tale of the Sun and Moon (I. 192 -- 3).
Ulmo is now called Ylmir (first appearing by emendation in B at line
1469, but thereafter in both A and B as first written); in the 'Sketch' he
first appears as Ulmo (Ylmir), thereafter as Ylmir, suggesting that at this
time Ylmir was the Gnomish form of his name (in the Gnomish dictionary
it was Gulma, I. 270). He is also called the Dweller in the Deep at line

1565, as he is in the later Tuor (Unfinished Tales pp. 22, 28). Flinding
mentions messages from Ulmo that are heard at Ivrin, and says that
Ulmo alone remembers in the Lands of Mirth / the need of the
Gnomes (153 I ff.); cf. the Tale, II. 77.
Lastly may be noticed Turin's words of parting to Beleg at his burial
(1408 -- 11), in which he foresees for him an afterlife in Valinor, in the
halls of the Gods, and does not speak of a time of 'waiting'; cf. lines
1283 -- 4, 1696-7.
THE SECOND VERSION
OF
THE CHILDREN OF HURIN.
This version of the poem (II) is extant in a bundle of very rough
manuscript notes (IIA), which do not constitute a complete text, and a
typescript (IIB) -- the twia of the typescript (IB) of the first version, done
with the same distinctive purple ribbon -- based on I I A. That II is a later
work than I is obvious from a casual scrutiny -- to give a single example,
the name Morwen appears thus both in IIA and I IB. As I have said
(p. 4), I do not think that II is significantly later than I, and may indeed
have been composed before my father ceased work on I.* Towards the
end of II the amount of expansion and change from I becomes very much
less, but it seems best to give II in full.
The text of the opening of the second version is complicated by the
existence of two further texts, both extending from lines II. x -- 94. The
earlier of these is another typescript (IIC), which takes up emendations
made to I IB and is itself emended: the second is a manuscript (I ID)
written on 'Oxford' paper (see p. 81 ), which takes up the changes made to
IIC and introduces yet further changes. At the beginning of the poem,
therefore, we have lines that exhibit a continuous development through
six different texts, as for example line 18 in the first version, which is line
34 in the second:
IA. Yet in host upon host the hillfiends, the orcs emended in the
manuscript to:
Yet in host upon host the hillfiend orcs
IB. There in host on host the hill-fiend Orcs
(* The only external evidence for date (other than the physical nature of the texts, whicb
were clearly made at Leeds, not at Oxford) is the fact that a page of IIA is written on the
back of a formal letter from The Microcosm (a Leeds literary quarterly, in which my father
published the poem The City of the Gods in the Spring 1923 issue, see I. 136) acknowledg-
ing receipt of a subscription for 1922; the letter was evidently written in 1923.)

IIA. but in host on host from the hills of darkness (with from the
hills swarming as an alternative).
IIB. but in host on host from the hills swarming.
IIC.as IIB but emended on the typescript to:
and in host on host from the hills swarming.
IID. In host upon host from the hills swarming.
The majority of the changes throughout the successive texts of the poem
were made for metrical reasons -- in the later revisions, especially for the
removal of 'little words', to achieve an effect nearer to that of Old English
lines, and to get rid of metrical aids such as ed pronounced as a separate
syllable; and as I have said, the provision of a full apparatus would be
exceedingly lengthy and complex (and in places scarcely possible, for the
actual texts are often more obscure than appears in print). For the second
version of the poem, therefore, I give the text of I ID (the last one) to its
end at line 94 (since the changes from IIB though pervasive are extremely
minor), and continue thereafter with IIB (the major typescript of the
second version); and as before purely verbal/metrical alterations that
have no bearing on the story or on names are not cited in the notes.
IIA has no title; in IIB it was TURIN, then THE CHILDREN OF
HURIN, which is also the title in IIC and I ID.
The 'Prologue', greatly expanded in the second version, is still given
no subheading, except that in IIC it is marked 'I'; in IIB Turin's
Fostering is a section-heading, to which my father afterwards added 'II'.
THE CHILDREN OF HURIN.
Ye Gods who girt your guarded realms
with moveless pinnacles, mountains pathless,
o'er shrouded shores sheer uprising
of the Bay of Faery on the borders of the World!
Ye Men unmindful of the mirth of yore,
wars and weeping in the worlds of old,
of Morgoth's might remembering nought!
Lo! hear what Elves with ancient harps,
lingering forlorn in lands untrodden,
fading faintly down forest pathways,
in shadowy isles on the Shadowy Seas,
5
10


sing still in sorrow of the son of Hurin,
how his webs of doom were woven dark
with Niniel's sorrow: names most mournful.
A! Hurin Thalion in the hosts of battle
was whelmed in war, when the white banners
of the ruined king were rent with spears,
in blood beaten; when the blazing helm
of Finweg fell in flame of swords,
and his gleaming armies' gold and silver
shields were shaken, shining emblems
in darkling tide of dire hatred,
the cruel Glamhoth's countless legions,
were lost and foundered -- their light was quenched!
That field yet now the folk name it
Nirnaith Ornoth, Unnumbered Tears:
the seven chieftains of the sons of Men
fled there and fought not, the folk of the Elves
betrayed with treason. Their troth alone
unmoved remembered in the mouths of Hell
Thalion Erithamrod and his thanes renowned.
Torn and trampled the triple standard
of the house of Hithlum was heaped with slain.
In host upon host from the hills swarming
with hideous arms the hungry Orcs
enmeshed his might, and marred with wounds
pulled down the proud Prince of Mithrim.
At Bauglir's bidding they bound him living;
to the halls of Hell neath the hills builded,
to the Mountains of Iron, mournful, gloomy,
they led the lord of the Lands of Mist,
Hurin Thalion, to the throne of hate
in halls upheld with huge pillars
of black basalt. There bats wandered,
worms and serpents enwound the columns;
there Bauglir's breast was burned within
with blazing rage, baulked of purpose:
from his trap had broken Turgon the mighty,
Fingolfin's son; Feanor's children,
the makers of the magic and immortal gems.
For Hurin standing storm unheeding,
unbent in battle, with bitter laughter
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50

his axe wielded -- as eagle's wings
the sound of its sweep, swinging deadly;
as livid lightning it leaped and fell,
as toppling trunks of trees riven
his foes had fallen. Thus fought he on,
where blades were blunted and in blood foundered
the Men of Mithrim; thus a moment stemmed
with sad remnant the raging surge
of ruthless Orcs, and the rear guarded,
that Turgon the terrible towering in anger
a pathway clove with pale falchion
from swirling slaughter. Yea! his swath was plain
through the hosts of Hell, as hay that is laid
on the lea in lines, where long and keen
goes sweeping scythe. Thus seven kindreds,
a countless company, that king guided
through darkened dales and drear mountains
out of ken of his foes -- he comes no more
in the tale of Turin. Triumph of Morgoth
thus to doubt was turned, dreams of vengeance,
thus his mind was moved with malice fathomless,
thoughts of darkness, when the Thalion stood
bound, unbending, in his black dungeon.
55
60
65
70
75
Said the dread Lord of Hell: 'Dauntless Hurin,
stout steel-handed, stands before me
yet quick a captive, as a coward might be!
Then knows he my name, or needs be told
what hope he has in the halls of iron?
The bale most bitter, Balrogs' torment! '
80
Then Hurin answered, Hithlum's chieftain --
his shining eyes with sheen of fire
in wrath were reddened: '0 ruinous one,
by fear unfettered I have fought thee long,
nor dread thee now, nor thy demon slaves,
fiends and phantoms, thou foe of Gods! '
His dark tresses, drenched and tangled,
that fell o'er his face he flung backward,
in the eye he looked of the evil Lord --
since that day of dread to dare his glance
has no mortal Man had might of soul.
There the mind of Hurin in a mist of dark
85
90

neath gaze unfathomed groped and foundered,*
yet his heart yielded not nor his haughty pride.
But Lungorthin Lord of Balrogs
on the mouth smote him, and Morgoth smiled:
'Nay, fear when thou feelest, when the flames lick thee
and the whistling whips thy white body
and wilting flesh weal and torture! '
Then hung they helpless Hurin dauntless
in chains by fell enchantments forged
that with fiery anguish his flesh devoured,
yet loosed not lips locked in silence
to pray for pity. Thus prisoned saw he
on the sable walls the sultry glare
of far-off fires fiercely burning
down deep corridors and dark archways
in the blind abysses of those bottomless halls;
there with mourning mingled mighty tumult
the throb and thunder of the thudding forges'
brazen clangour; belched and spouted
flaming furnaces; there faces sad
through the glooms glided as the gloating Orcs
their captives herded under cruel lashes.
Many a hopeless glance on Hurin fell,
for his tearless torment many tears were spilled.
95
100
105
110
115
Lo! Morgoth remembered the mighty doom,
the weird of old, that the Elves in woe,
in ruin and wrack by the reckless hearts
of mortal Men should be meshed at last;
that treason alone of trusted friend
should master the magic whose mazes wrapped
the children of Cor, cheating his purpose,
from defeat fending Fingolfin's son,
Turgon the terrible, and the troth-brethren
the sons of Feanor, and secret, far,
homes hid darkly in the hoar forest
where Thingol was throned in the Thousand Caves.
120
125
Then the Lord of Hell lying-hearted
to where Hurin hung hastened swiftly,
130
* Here the latest text IID ends, and I IB is followed from this point; sec p. 95.)

and the Balrogs about him brazen-handed
with flails of flame and forged iron
there laughed as they looked on his lonely woe;
but Bauglir said: '0 bravest of Men,
'tis fate unfitting for thus fellhanded
warrior warfain that to worthless friends
his sword he should sell, who seek no more
to free him from fetters or his fall avenge.
While shrinking in the shadows they shake fearful
in the hungry hills hiding outcast
their league belying, lurking faithless,
he by evil lot in everlasting
dungeons droopeth doomed to torment
and anguish endless. That thy arms unchained
I had fainer far should a falchion keen
or axe with edge eager flaming
wield in warfare where the wind bloweth
the banners of battle -- such a brand as might
in my sounding smithies on the smitten anvil
of glowing steel to glad thy soul
be forged and fashioned, yea, and fair harness
and mail unmatched -- than that marred with flails
my mercy waiving thou shouldst moan enchained
neath the brazen Balrogs' burning scourges:
who art worthy to win reward and honour
as a captain of arms when cloven is mail
and shields are shorn, when they shake the hosts
of their foes like fire in fell onset.
Lo! receive my service; forswear hatred,
ancient enmity thus ill-counselled --
I am a mild master who remembers well
his servants' deeds. A sword of terror
thy hand should hold, and a high lordship
as Bauglir's champion, chief of Balrogs,
to lead o'er the lands my loud armies,
whose royal array I already furnish;
on Turgon the troll (who turned to flight
and left thee alone, now leaguered fast
in waterless wastes and weary mountains)
my wrath to wreak, and on redhanded
robber-Gnomes, rebels, and roaming Elves,
that forlorn witless the Lord of the World
135
140
145
I SO
155
160
165
170

defy in their folly -- they shall feel my might.
I will bid men unbind thee, and thy body comfort!
Go follow their footsteps with fire and steel,
with thy sword go search their secret dwellings;
when in triumph victorious thou returnest hither,
I have hoards unthought-of' -- but Hurin Thalion
suffered no longer silent wordless;
through clenched teeth in clinging pain,
'0 accursed king', cried unwavering,
'thy hopes build not so high, Bauglir;
no tool am I for thy treasons vile,
who tryst nor troth ever true holdest--
seek traitors elsewhere.'
175
180
185
Then returned answer
Morgoth amazed his mood hiding:
'Nay, madness holds thee; thy mind wanders;
my measureless hoards are mountains high
in places secret piled uncounted
agelong unopened; Elfin silver
and gold in the gloom there glister pale;
the gems and jewels once jealous-warded
in the mansions of the Gods, who mourn them yet,
are mine, and a meed I will mete thee thence
of wealth to glut the Worm of Greed.'
190:
195
Then Hurin, hanging, in hate answered:
'Canst not learn of thy lore when thou look'st on a foe,
0 Bauglir unblest? Bray no longer
205
of the things thou hast thieved from the Three Kindreds! 200
In hate I hold thee. Thou art humbled indeed
and thy might is minished if thy murderous hope
and cruel counsels on a captive sad
must wait, on a weak and weary man.'
To the hosts of Hell his head then he turned:
'Let thy foul banners go forth to battle,
ye Balrogs and Orcs; let your black legions
go seek the sweeping sword of Turgon.
Through the dismal dales you shall be driven wailing
like startled starlings from the stooks of wheat.         210
Minions miserable of master base,
your doom dread ye, dire disaster!

The tide shall turn; your triumph brief

and victory shall vanish. I view afar
the wrath of the Gods roused in anger.'
215
Then tumult awoke, a tempest wild
in rage roaring that rocked the walls;
consuming madness seized on Morgoth,
yet with lowered voice and leering mouth
thus Thalion Erithamrod he threatened darkly:
'Thou hast said it! See how my swift purpose
shall march to its mark unmarred of thee,
nor thy aid be asked, overweening
mortal mightless. I command thee gaze
on my deeds of power dreadly proven.
Yet if little they like thee, thou must look thereon
helpless to hinder or thy hand to raise,
and thy lidless eyes lit with anguish
shall not shut for ever, shorn of slumber
like the Gods shall gaze there grim, tearless,
on the might of Morgoth and the meed he deals
to fools who refuse fealty gracious.'
220
225
230
To Thangorodrim was the Thalion borne,
that mountain that meets the misty skies
on high over the hills that Hithlum sees
blackly brooding on the borders of the North.
There stretched on the stone of steepest peak
in bonds unbreakable they bound him living;
there the lord of woe in laughter stood,
there cursed him for ever and his kindred all
that should walk and wander in woe's shadow
to a doom of death and dreadful end.
There the mighty man unmoved sat,
but unveiled was his vision that he viewed afar
with eyes enchanted all earthly things,
and the weird of woe woven darkly
that fell on his folk -- a fiend's torment.
235
240
245
*


NOTES.
14. After this line IIB had the following:
how the golden dragon of the God of darkness
wrought wrack and ruin in realms now lost --
only the mighty of soul, of Men or Elves,
doom can conquer, and in death only.
These lines were struck out in I IB, and do not appear in I IC, I ID.
19. Cf. I. 1975:
where Finweg fell in flame of swords
with Finweg > Fingon a later pencilled change in IB. All the
texts of II have Finweg (IIA Fingmeg), but Fingon appears in a
late pencilled emendation to I ID.
26. Nirnaith Unoth IIB, IIC; Nirnaith Ornoth IID, emended in
pencil to Nirnaith Arnediad. For Unoth, Ornoth in the first version
see p. 79, notes to lines 1448, 1542 -- 3. I read Ornoth here, since
Arnediad is a form that arose much later.
27 All the texts of II have the chosen chieftains of the children
of Men, but IID is emended in pencil to the seven chieftains of
the sons of Men.
49. Fingolfin's son: see p. 21, note to line 29.
Feanor's children I ID; and Feanor's children IIA, B, C.
76. 'Is it dauntless Hurin,' quoth Delu-Morgoth IIB, as in IB
(line 51).
157. as a captain among them I IB as typed. Cf line 165.
Commentary on Part I
of the second version.
This part has been expanded to two and a half times its former length,
partly through the introduction of descriptions of Angband (42 -- 5,
105 -- 15) -- to be greatly enlarged some years later in the Lay of Leithian,
and of Hurin's last stand (51 -- 61), but chiefly through the much ex-
tended account of Morgoth's dealings with Hurin, his attempted seduc-
tion of 'the Thalion', and his great rage (not found at all in the first
version) at his failure to break his will. The rewritten scene is altogether
fiercer, the sense of lying, brutality, and pain (and the heroic power of
Hurin's resistance) much stronger.
There are some interesting details in this opening section. Hurin's
dark hair (88) has been referred to above (p. 92). The thane of Mor-
goth who smote him on the mouth (version I, 59) now becomes Lun-
gorthin, Lord of Balrogs (96) -- which is probably to be interpreted as 'a


Balrog lord', since Gothmog, Lord or Captain of the Balrogs in The Fall
of Condolin, soon reappears in the 'Silmarillion' tradition. Notable is
the passage (88 -- 94) in which Hurin, thrusting back his long hair, looked
into Morgoth's eye, and his mind in a mist of dark... groped and
foundered: the originator of the power of the eye of Glorund his
servant, which this poem did not reach.
A line that occurs much later in the first version (1975)
where Finweg [> Fingon] fell in flame of swords
is introduced here (19), and there is mention also of his white ban-
ners... in blood beaten, and his blazing helm: this is ultimately the
origin of the passage in?he Silmarillion (pp. 193-4):
a white flame sprang up from the helm of Fingon as it was cloven...
they beat him into the dust with their maces, and his banner, blue and
silver, they trod into the mire of his blood.
At line 26 is the first occurrence of Nirnaith Arnediad, but this is a
hasty pencilled change to the last text (I ID) and belongs to a later phase
of nomenclature.
It is said that Turgon guided seven kindreds (67) out of the battle; in
the tale of TheFall of Condolin there were twelve kindreds of the
Gondothlim.
Hurin is named the Prince of Mithrim (37), and his men the Men of
Mithrim (59). This may suggest that the meaning of Mithrim, hitherto
the name of the lake only, was being extended to the region in which the
lake lay; on the earliest 'Silmarillion' map, however, this is not suggested.
The land of Mithrim occurs at line 248, but the phrase was changed.
The passage in the first version (46 -- 50) saying that Morgoth
remembered well
how Men were accounted all mightless and frail
by the Elves and their kindred; how only treason
could master the magic whose mazes wrapped
the children of Corthun
is changed in the second (118 -- 24) to
Lo! Morgoth remembered the mighty doom,
the weird of old, that the Elves in woe,
in ruin and wrack by the reckless hearts
of mortal Men should be meshed at last;
that treason alone of trusted friend
should master the magic whose mazes wrapped
the children of Cor
There has been no reference in the Lost Tales to any such ancient 'doom'
or 'weird'. It is possible that the reference to 'treason' is to the 'Prophecy
of the North', spoken by Mandos or his messenger as the host of the

Noldor moved northward up the coast of Valinor after the Kinslaying
(The Silmarillion pp. 87 -- 8); in the earliest version of this, in the tale of
The Flight of the Noldoli (I. 167), there is no trace of the idea, but it is
already explicit in the 1930 Silmarillion' that the Gnomes should pay for
the deeds at Swanhaven in 'treachery and the fear of treachery among
their,own kindred'. On the other hand, to the mighty doom, the weird
of old is ascribed also the ultimate ruin of the Elves which is to come to
pass through Men; and this is not found in any version of the Prophecy of
the North. This passage in the revised version of the poem is echoed in
the same scene in the 1930 Silmarillion'.
Afterward Morgoth remembering that treachery or the fear of it, and
especially the treachery of Men, alone would work the ruin of the
Gnomes, came to Hurin...
TURIN'S FOSTERING
Lo! the lady Morwen in the land of shadow
waited in the woodland for her well-beloved,
but he came never to clasp her nigh
from that black battle. She abode in vain;
no tidings told her whether taken or dead
or lost in flight he lingered yet.
Laid waste his lands and his lieges slain,
and men unmindful of that mighty lord
in Dorlomin dwelling dealt unkindly
with his wife in widowhood; she went with child,
and a son must succour sadly orphaned,
Turin Thalion of tender years.
In days of blackness was her daughter born,
and named Nienor, a name of tears
that in language of eld is Lamentation.
Then her thoughts were turned to Thingol the Elf,
and Luthien the lissom with limbs shining,
his daughter dear, by Dairon loved,
who Tinuviel was named both near and far,
the Star-mantled, still remembered,
who light as leaf on linden tree
had danced in Doriath in days agone,
on the lawns had lilted in the long moonshine,
250
255
260
265
270



while deftly was drawn Dairon's music
with fingers fleet from flutes of silver.
The boldest of the brave, Beren Ermabwed,
to wife had won her, who once of old
had vowed fellowship and friendly love
with Hurin of Hithlum, hero dauntless
by the marge of Mithrim's misty waters.
Thus to her son she said: 'My sweetest child,
our friends are few; thy father is gone.
Thou must fare afar to the folk of the wood,
where Thingol is throned in the Thousand Caves.
If he remember Morwen and thy mighty sire
he will foster thee fairly, and feats of arms,
the trade he will teach thee of targe and sword,
that no slave in Hithlum shall be son of Hurin.
A! return my Turin when time passeth;
remember thy mother when thy manhood cometh
or when sorrows snare thee.' Then silence took her,
for fears troubled her trembling voice.
Heavy boded the heart of Hurin's son,
who unwitting of her woe wondered vaguely,
yet weened her words were wild with grief
and denied her not; no need him seemed.
275
280
285
290
Lo! Mailrond and Halog, Morwen's henchmen,
were young of yore ere the youth of Hurin,
and alone of the lieges of that lord of Men
now steadfast in service stayed beside her:
now she bade them brave the black mountains
and the woods whose ways wander to evil;
though Turin be tender, to travail unused,
they must gird them and go. Glad they were not,
but to doubt the wisdom dared not openly
of Morwen who mourned when men saw not.
295
300
Came a day of summer when the dark silence
of the towering trees trembled dimly
to murmurs moving in the milder airs
far and faintly; flecked with dancing
sheen of silver and shadow-filtered
sudden sunbeams were the secret glades
where winds came wayward wavering softly
warm through the woodland's woven branches.
305
310

Then Morwen stood, her mourning hidden,
by the gate of her garth in a glade of Hithlum;
at her breast bore she her babe unweaned,
crooning lowly to its careless ears
a song of sweet and sad cadence,
lest she droop for anguish. Then the doors opened,
and Halog hastened neath a heavy burden,
and Mailrond the old to his mistress led
her gallant Turin, grave and tearless,
with heart heavy as stone hard and lifeless,
uncomprehending his coming torment.
There he cried with courage, comfort seeking:
'Lo! quickly will I come from the court's afar,
I will long ere manhood lead to Morwen
great tale of treasure and true comrades.'
He wist not the weird woven of Morgoth,
nor the sundering sorrow that them swept between,
as farewells they took with faltering lips.
The last kisses and lingering words
are over and ended; and empty is the glen
in the dark forest, where the dwelling faded
in trees entangled, Then in Turin woke
to woe's knowledge his bewildered heart,
that he wept blindly awakening echoes
sad resounding in sombre hollows,
as he called: 'I cannot, I cannot leave thee.
0! Morwen my mother, why makest me go?
The hills are hateful, where hope is lost;
0! Morwen my mother, I am meshed in tears,
for grim are the hills and my home is gone.'
And there came his cries calling faintly
down the dark alleys of the dreary trees,
that one there weeping weary on the threshold
heard how the hills said 'my home is gone.'
315
320
325
330
335
340
345
***
The ways were weary and woven with deceit
o'er the hills of Hithlum to the hidden kingdom
deep in the darkness of Doriath's forest,
and never ere now for need or wonder
had children of Men chosen that pathway,
save Beren the brave who bounds knew not
350

to his wandering feet nor feared the woods
or fells or forest or frozen mountain,
and few had followed his feet after.
There was told to Turin that tale by Halog
that in the Lay of Leithian, Release from Bonds,
in linked words has long been woven,
of Beren Ermabwed, the boldhearted;
how Luthien the lissom he loved of yore
in the enchanted forest chained with wonder --
Tinuviel he named her, than nightingale
more sweet her voice, as veiled in soft
and wavering wisps of woven dusk
shot with starlight, with shining eyes
she danced like dreams of drifting sheen,
pale-twinkling pearls in pools of darkness;
how for love of Luthien he left the woods
on that quest perilous men quail to tell,
thrust by Thingol o'er the thirst and terror
of the Lands of Mourning; of Luthien's tresses,
and Melian's magic, and the marvellous deeds
that after happened in Angband's halls,
and the flight o'er fell and forest pathless
when Carcharoth the cruel-fanged,
the wolf-warden of the Woeful Gates,
whose vitals fire devoured in torment
them hunted howling (the hand of Beren
he had bitten from the wrist where that brave one held
the nameless wonder, the Gnome-crystal
where light living was locked enchanted,
all hue's essence. His heart was eaten,
and the woods were filled with wild madness
in his dreadful torment, and Doriath's trees
did shudder darkly in the shrieking glens);
how the hound of Hithlum, Huan wolf-bane,
to the hunt hasted to the help of Thingol,
and as dawn came dimly in Doriath's woods
was the slayer slain, but silent lay
there Beren bleeding nigh brought to death,
till the lips of Luthien . in love's despair
awoke him to words, ere he winged afar
to the long awaiting; thence Luthien won him,
the Elf-maiden, and the arts of Melian,
355
360
365
370
375
380
385
390

her mother Mablui of the moonlit hand,
that they dwell for ever in days ageless
and the grass greys not in the green forest
where East or West they ever wander.
Then a song he made them for sorrow's lightening,
a sudden sweetness in the silent wood,
that is 'Light as Leaf on Linden' called,
whose music of mirth and mourning blended
yet in hearts does echo. This did Halog sing them:*
395
400 '
The grass was very long and thin,
The leaves of many years lay thick,
The old tree-roots wound out and in,
And the early moon was glimmering.
There went her white feet lilting quick,
And Dairon's flute did bubble thin,
As neath the hemlock umbels thick
Tinuviel danced a-shimmering.
405
410
The pale moths lumbered noiselessly,
And daylight died among the leaves,
As Beren from the wild country
Came thither wayworn sorrowing.
He peered between the hemlock sheaves,
And watched in wonder noiselessly
Her dancing through the moonlit leaves
And the ghostly moths a-following.
415
There magic took his weary feet,
And he forgot his loneliness,
And out he danced, unheeding, fleet,
Where the moonbeams were a-glistening.
Through the tangled woods of Elfinesse
They fled on nimble fairy feet,
And left him to his loneliness
In the silent forest listening,
420
425
Still hearkening for the imagined sound
Of lissom feet upon the leaves,
 For the textual history of this poem's insertion into the Lay sec the Note on pp.120-2.)

For music welling underground
In the dim-lit caves of Doriath.
But withered are the hemlock sheaves,
And one by one with mournful sound
Whispering fall the beechen leaves
In the dying woods of Doriath.
430
 He sought her wandering near and far
Where the leaves of one more year were strewn,
By winter moon and frosty star
With shaken light a-shivering.
He found her neath a misty moon,
A silver wraith that danced afar,
And the mists beneath her feet were strewn
In moonlight palely quivering.
435
440
She danced upon a hillock green
Whose grass unfading kissed her feet,
While Dairon's fingers played unseen
O'er his magic flute a-flickering;
And out he danced, unheeding, fleet,
In the moonlight to the hillock green:
No impress found he of her feet
That fled him swiftly flickering.
445
450
And longing filled his voice that called
'Tinuviel, Tinuviel,'
 And longing sped his feet enthralled
Behind her wayward shimmering.
She heard as echo of a spell
His lonely voice that longing called
'Tinuviel, Tinuviel':
One moment paused she glimmering.
455
And Beren caught that elfin maid
And kissed her trembling starlit eyes,
 Tinuviel whom love delayed
In the woods of evening morrowless.
 Till moonlight and till music dies
Shall Beren by the elfin maid
 Dance in the starlight of her eyes
In the forest singing sorrowless.
460
465

Wherever grass is long and thin,
And the leaves of countless years lie thick,
And ancient roots wind out and in,
As once they did in Doriath,
Shall go their white feet lilting quick,
But never Dairon's music thin
Be heard beneath the hemlocks thick
Since Beren came to Doriath.
470
This for hearts' uplifting did Halog sing them
as the frowning fortress of the forest clasped them
and nethermost night in its net caught them.
There Turin and the twain knew torture of thirst
and hunger and fear, and hideous flight
from wolfriders and wandering Orcs
and the things of Morgoth that thronged the woods.
There numbed and wetted they had nights of waking
cold and clinging, when the creaking winds
summer had vanquished and in silent valleys
a dismal dripping in the distant shadows
ever splashed and spilt over spaces endless
from rainy leaves, till arose the light
greyly, grudgingly, gleaming thinly
at drenching dawn. They were drawn as flies
in the magic mazes; they missed their ways
and strayed steerless, and the stars were hid
and the sun sickened. Sombre and weary
had the mountains been; the marches of Doriath
bewildered and wayworn wound them helpless
in despair and error, and their spirits foundered.
Without bread or water with bleeding feet
and fainting strength in the forest straying
their death they deemed it to die forwandered,
when they heard a horn that hooted afar
and dogs baying. Lo! the dreary bents
and hushed hollows to the hunt wakened,
and echoes answered to eager tongues,
for Beleg the bowman was blowing gaily,
who furthest fared of his folk abroad
by hill and by hollow ahunting far,
careless of comrades or crowded halls,
as light as a leaf, as the lusty airs
475
480
485
490
495
500 
505

as free and fearless in friendless places.
He was great of growth with goodly limbs
and lithe of girth, and lightly on the ground
' his footsteps fell as he fared towards them
all garbed in grey and green and brown.
510
'Who are ye?' he asked. 'Outlaws, maybe,
: hiding, hunted, by hatred dogged?'
'Nay, for famine and thirst we faint,' said Halog,
'wayworn and wildered, and wot not the road.
Or hast not heard of the hills of slain,
field tear-drenched where in flame and terror
þ Morgoth devoured the might and valour
of the hosts of Finweg and Hithlum's lord?
The Thalion Erithamrod and his thanes dauntless
,there vanished from the earth, whose valiant lady
yet weeps in widowhood as she waits in Hithlum.
Thou lookest on the last of the lieges of Morwen,
'and the Thalion's child who to Thingol's court
now wend at the word of the wife of Hurin.'
515
520
525
Then Beleg bade them be blithe, saying:
'The Gods have guided you to good keeping;
I have heard of the house of Hurin undaunted,
. and who hath not heard of the hills of slain,
: of Nirnaith Ornoth, Unnumbered Tears!
To that war I went not, yet wage a feud
: with the Orcs unending, whom mine arrows fleeting
' smite oft unseen swift and deadly.
1 am the hunter Beleg of the hidden people;
the forest is my father and the fells my home.'
Then he bade them drink from his belt drawing
a flask of leather full-filled with wine
that is bruised from the berries of the burning South --
the Gnome-folk know it, from Nogrod the Dwarves
by long ways lead it to the lands of the North
: for the Elves in exile who by evil fate
the vine-clad valleys now view no more
in the land of Gods. There was lit gladly
a fire, with flames that flared and spluttered,
of wind-fallen wood that his wizard's cunning
rotten, rain-sodden, to roaring life
530
535
540
545

there coaxed and kindled by craft or magic;
there baked they flesh in the brands' embers;
white wheaten bread to hearts' delight
he haled from his wallet till hunger waned
and hope mounted, but their heads were mazed
by that wine of Dor-Winion that went in their veins,
and they soundly slept on the soft needles
of the tall pinetrees that towered above.
Then they waked and wondered, for the woods were light,
and merry was the morn and the mists rolling
from the radiant sun. They soon were ready
long leagues to cover. Now led by ways
devious winding through the dark woodland,
by slade and slope and swampy thicket,
through lonely days, long-dragging nights,
they fared unfaltering, and their friend they blessed,
who but for Beleg had been baffled utterly
by the magic mazes of Melian the Queen.
To those shadowy shores he showed the way
where stilly the stream strikes before the gates
of the cavernous court of the King of Doriath.
Over the guarded bridge he gained them passage,
and thrice they thanked him, and thought in their hearts
'the Gods are good' -- had they guessed, maybe,
what the future enfolded, they had feared to live.
550
555
560
565
570
To the throne of Thingol were the three now come;
there their speech well sped, and he spake them fair,
for Hurin of Hithlum he held in honour,
whom Beren Ermabwed as a brother had loved
and remembering Morwen, of mortals fairest,
.he turned not Turin in contempt away.
There clasped him kindly the King of Doriath,
for Melian moved him with murmured counsel,
and he said: 'Lo, O son of the swifthanded,
the light in laughter, the loyal in need,
Hurin of Hithlum, thy home is with me,
and here shalt sojourn and be held my son.
In these cavernous courts for thy kindred's sake
thou shalt dwell in dear love, till thou deemest it time
to remember thy mother Morwen's loneliness;
thou shalt wisdom win beyond wit of mortals,
575
580
585

 and weapons shalt wield as the warrior-Elves,                
 nor slave in Hithlum shall be son of Hurin.'             590
                                                             
 There the twain tarried that had tended the child,           
 till their limbs were lightened and they longed to fare      
 through dread and danger to their dear lady,               
 so firm their faith. Yet frore and grey                      
 eld sat more heavy on the aged head                      595
 of Mailrond the old, and his mistress' love                  
 his might matched not, more marred by years                  
 than Halog he hoped not to home again.                       
 Then sickness assailed him and his sight darkened:           
 'To Turin I must turn my troth and fealty,'              600
 he said and he sighed, 'to my sweet youngling',              
 but Halog hardened his heart to go.                          
 An Elfin escort to his aid was given,                        
 and magics of Melian, and a meed of gold,                    
 and a message to Morwen for his mouth to bear,         605
 words of gladness that her wish was granted,                 
 and Turin taken to the tender care                           
 of the King of Doriath; of his kindly will                   
 now Thingol called her to the Thousand Caves                 
 to fare unfearing with his folk again,                   610
 there to sojourn in solace till her son be grown;            
 for Hurin of Hithlum was holden in mind                      
 and no might had Morgoth where Melian dwelt.                 
                                                             
 Of the errand of the Elves and of eager Halog                
 the tale tells not, save in time they came               615
 to Morwen's threshold. There Thingol's message               
 was said where she sat in her solitary hall,                 
 but she dared not do as was dearly bidden,                   
 who Nienor her nursling yet newly weaned                     
 would not leave nor be led on the long marches           620
 adventure her frailty in the vast forest;                    
 the pride of her people, princes ancient,                      
 had suffered her send a son to Thingol                       
 when despair urged her, but to spend her days               
 an almsguest of others, even Elfin kings,                625
 it little liked her; and lived there yet                     
 a hope in her heart that Hurin would come,                  
 and the dwelling was dear where he dwelt of old;               
 at night she would listen for a knock at the doors            
 or a footstep falling that she fondly knew.          630
 Thus she fared not forth; thus her fate was woven.
 Yet the thanes of Thingol she thanked nobly,          
 nor her shame showed she, how shorn of glory          
 to reward their wending she had wealth too scant,     
 but gave them in gift those golden things            635
 that last lingered, and led they thence               
 a helm of Hurin once hewn in wars                     
 when he battled with Beren as brother and comrade     
 against ogres and Orcs and evil foes.                 
 Grey-gleaming steel, with gold adorned               640
 wrights had wrought it, with runes graven             
 of might and victory, that a magic sat there          
 and its wearer warded from wound or death,            
 whoso bore to battle brightly shining                 
 dire dragon-headed its dreadful crest.               645
 This Thingol she bade and her thanks receive.         
                                                      
 Thus Halog her henchman to Hithlum came,              
 but Thingol's thanes thanked her lowly                
 and girt them to go, though grey winter               
 enmeshed the mountains and the moaning woods,        650
 for the hills hindered not the hidden people.         
 Lo! Morwen's message in a month's journey,            
 so speedy fared they, was spoken in Doriath.          
 For Morwen Melian was moved to ruth,                  
 but courteously the king that casque received,       655
 her golden gift, with gracious words,                 
 who deeply delved had dungeons filled                 
 with elvish armouries of ancient gear,                
 yet he handled that helm as his hoard were scant:     
 'That head were high that upheld this thing          660
 with the token crowned, the towering crest            
 to Dorlomin dear, the dragon of the North,            
 that Thalion Erithamrod the thrice renowned           
 oft bore into battle with baleful foes.               
 Would that he had worn it to ward his head           665
 on that direst day from death's handstroke! '         
 Then a thought was thrust into Thingol's heart,       
 and Turin was called and told kindly '                
 that his mother Morwen a mighty thing                 
 had sent to her son, his sire's heirloom,            670

 o'er-written with runes by wrights of yore             
 in dark dwarfland in the deeps of time,                
 ere Men to Mithrim and misty Hithlum                  
 o'er the world wandered; it was worn aforetime         
 by the father of the fathers of the folk of Hurin,   675
 whose sire Gumlin to his son gave it                   
 ere his soul severed from his sundered heart -          
 'Tis Telchar's work of worth untold,                  
 its wearer warded from wound or magic,                  
 from glaive guarded or gleaming axe.                 680
 Now Hurin's helm hoard till manhood                    
 to battle bids thee, then bravely don it,                
 go wear it well!' Woeful-hearted                         
 did Turin touch it but take it not,                    
 too weak to wield that mighty gear,                    685
 and his mind in mourning for Morwen's answer            
 was mazed and darkened.                                
                                                      
                       Thus many a day                
 came to pass in the courts of Thingol                 
 for twelve years long that Turin lived.              
 But seven winters their sorrows had laid            690
 on the son of Hurin when that summer to the world        
 came glad and golden with grievous parting;           
 nine years followed of his forest-nurture,             
 and his lot was lightened, for he learned at whiles     
 from faring folk what befell in Hithlum,           695
 and tidings were told by trusty Elves                   
 how Morwen his mother knew milder days              
 and easement of evil, and with eager voice            
 all Nienor named the Northern flower,                  
 the slender maiden in sweet beauty                   700
 now graceful growing. The gladder was he then        
 and hope yet haunted his heart at whiles.             
 He waxed and grew and won renown                     
 in all lands where Thingol as lord was held          
 for his stoutness of heart and his strong body.   705
 Much lore he learned and loved wisdom,                 
 but fortune followed him in few desires;              
 oft wrong and awry what he wrought turned,           
 what he loved he lost, what he longed for failed,     
 and full friendship he found not with ease,        710

 nor was lightly loved, for his looks were sad;                
 he was gloomy-hearted and glad seldom                         
 for the sundering sorrow that seared his youth.               
                                                              
 On manhood's threshold he was mighty-thewed                   
 in the wielding of weapons; in weaving song               715
 he had a minstrel's mastery, but mirth was not in it,         
 for he mourned the misery of the Men of Hithlum.              
 Yet greater his grief grew thereafter                         
 when from Hithlum's hills he heard no more                    
 and no traveller told him tidings of Morwen.              720
 For those days were drawing to the doom of the Gnomes         
 and the power of the Prince of the pitiless kingdom,          
 of the grim Glamhoth, was grown apace,                        
 till the lands of the North were loud with their noise,       
 and they fell on the folk with fire and slaughter         725
 who bent not to Bauglir or the borders passed                 
 of dark Dorlomin with its dreary pines                        
 that Hithlum was called by the unhappy people.                
 There Morgoth shut them in the Shadowy Mountains,             
 fenced them from Faerie and the folk of the wood.         730
 Even Beleg fared not so far abroad                            
 as once was his wont, for the woods were filled               
 with the armies of Angband and with evil deeds,               
 and murder walked on the marches of Doriath;                  
 only the mighty magic of Melian the Queen                 735
 yet held their havoc from the hidden people.                  
                                                              
 To assuage his sorrow and to sate his rage,                   
 for his heart was hot with the hurts of his folk,             
 then Hurin's son took the helm of his sire                    
 and weapons weighty for the wielding of men,              740
 and he went to the woods with warrior-Elves,                  
 and far in the forest his feet led him                        
 into black battle yet a boy in years.                         
 Ere manhood's measure he met and he slew                      
 Orcs of Angband and evil things                           745
 that roamed and ravened on the realm's borders.               
 There hard his life, and hurts he lacked not,                 
 the wounds of shaft and the wavering sheen                    
 of the sickle scimitars, the swords of Hell,                  
 the bloodfain blades on black anvils                      750
 in Angband smithied, yet ever he smote                        

                                                               
                                                               
 unfey, fearless, and his fate kept him.                        
 Thus his prowess was proven and his praise was noised          
 and beyond his years he was yielded honour,                    
 for by him was holden the hand of ruin                    755
 from Thingol's folk, and Thu feared him,                     
 and wide wandered the word of Turin:                           
 'Lo! we deemed as dead the dragon of the North,                
 but high o'er the host its head uprises,                       
 its wings are spread! Who has waked this spirit             760
 and the flame kindled of its fiery jaws?                       
 Or is Hurin of Hithlum from Hell broken? '                     
 And Thu who was throned as thane mightiest                     
 neath Morgoth Bauglir, whom that master bade                   
 'go ravage the realm of the robber Thingol                  765
 and mar the magic of Melian the Queen',                        
 even Thu feared him, and his thanes trembled.                
                                                               
  One only was there in war greater,                            
 more high in honour in the hearts of the Elves                 
 than Turin son of Hurin, tower of Hithlum,                  770
 even the hunter Beleg of the hidden people,                  
 whose father was the forest and the fells his home;            
 to bend whose bow, Balthronding named,                         
 that the black yewtree once bore of yore,                    
 had none the might; unmatched in knowledge                  775
 of the woods' secrets and the weary hills.                     
 He was leader beloved of the light companies                   
 all garbed in grey and green and brown,                        
 the archers arrowfleet with eyes piercing,                     
 the scouts that scoured scorning danger                     780
 afar o'er the fells their foemen's lair,                       
 and tales and tidings timely won them                        
 of camps and councils, of comings and goings,                  
 all the movements of the might of Morgoth Bauglir.             
 Thus Turin, who trusted to targe and sword,                 785
 who was fain of fighting with foes well seen,                
 where shining swords made sheen of fire,                       
 and his corslet-clad comrades-in-arms                          
 were snared seldom and smote unlooked-for.                     
                                                               
 Then the fame of the fights on the far marches              790
 was carried to the courts of the king of Doriath,              
 and tales of Turin were told in his halls,                     

 of the bond and brotherhood of Beleg the ageless                             
 with the blackhaired boy from the beaten people.                             
 Then the king called them to come before him                         795
 did Orc-raids lessen in the outer lands                                      
 ever and often unasked to hasten,                                            
 to rest them and revel and to raise awhile                                   
 in songs and lays and sweet music                                            
                                                                             
 the memory of the mirth ere the moon was old,                        800                           
 when the mountains were young in the morning of the world.                   
                                                                             
 On a time was Turin at his table seated,                                     
 and Thingol thanked him for his thriving deeds;                              
 there was laughter long and the loud clamour                                 
 of a countless company that quaffed the mead                         805     
 and the wine of Dor-Winion that went ungrudged                               
 in their golden goblets; and goodly meats                                    
 there burdened the boards neath blazing torches                              
 in those high halls set that were hewn of stone.                             
 There mirth fell on many; there minstrels clear                      810
 did sing them songs of the city of Cor                                       
 that Taingwethil towering mountain                                           
 o'ershadowed sheerly, of the shining halls                                   
 where the great gods sit and gaze on the world                               
 from the guarded shores of the gulf of Faerie.                       815     
 One sang of the slaying at the Swans' Haven                                  
 and the curse that had come on the kindreds since                            
                                                                             
 Here the typescript IIB ends abruptly, in the middle of a page; the          
 manuscript IIA has already ended at line 767.                               
                                                                             
                                   NOTES.                                     
                                                                             
 The first page of the typescript of this section of the poem, covering lines
 248-95, is duplicated, the one  version (b)  taking up  changes made  to the
 other (a) and itself receiving  further changes.  There is  no corresponding
 text of IIA until line 283.                                                  
                                                                             
      248. in  the  land  of Mithrim  (a), and  (b) as  typed. The  emendation 
      in  (b)  reverts  to  the  reading  of  the first  version (105),  in the
      Land of Shadows.                                                        

    265.   Dairon's sister (a), and (b) as typed.                            
 266 - 8.  These  three  lines  were  inserted  in (b),  with change  of who
           had  danced  269  to  had   danced.  See   below,  Note   on  the
           poem 'Light as Leaf on Lindentrre'.                               
    273.   Etmabweth  (a),  and  (b)  as  typed. The  emendation in  (b) to
           Ermabwed  reverts  to  the  form of  the name  in the  Lost Tales
           and in the first version of the poem (121).                     
  274-8.   As  typed,  (a) was  virtually identical  with the  first version
           lines 122 - 5. This was then changed to read:                    
                                                                           
                    did win her to wife, who once of old                    
                    fellowship had vowed and friendly love                  
                    Elf with mortal, even Egnor's son                       
                    with Hurin of Hithlum, hunting often                    
                    by the marge of Mithrim's misty waters.                 
                    Thus said she to her son...                             
                                                                           
           This  passage  was  then  typed  in (b),  with change  of hunting
           often  to  hero  dauntless.  Subsequently  the  line   Elf  with
           mortal,  even  Egnor's  son  was  struck  out,  and  other  minor
           changes made to give the text printed.                           
    294.   Mailrond:  Mailgond  IIA,  IIB;   I  read   Mailrond  in   view  of
           the emendations at lines 319, 596.                               
    319.   Mailrond:   Mailgond   IIA,   and   IIB   as  typed,   emended  in
           pencil to Mailrond; similarly at line 596.                       
    356.   Release  from  Bondage  IIB  as  typed  (the  change  to  Release
           from  Bonds  was  made  for  metrical  reasons).   The  reference
           to  the Lay  of Leithian  is not  in IIA,  but the  manuscript is
           here so scrappy and disjointed as to be of no service.           
 358-66.   These nine lines are typed on a slip pasted into IIB, replacing
           the following which were struck out:                             
                                                                           
                 how Luthien the lissom he loved of yore                    
                 in the enchanted forest chained with wonder                
                 as she danced like dreams of drifting whiteness            
                 of shadows shimmering shot with moonlight;                 
                                                                           
           In the first line (358) of the inserted  slip the  boldhearted is
           an   emendation   of   brave   undaunted;   and   above  Ermabwed
           is written (later, in pencil) Er(h)amion.                        
    374.   Carcharoth: Carcharolch IIA, and IIB as typed.                   
 398-402.  These five lines are typed on a slip pasted into I IB at the same
           time as that giving lines 358 - 66,  but in  this case  there was
           nothing replaced in the  original typescript.  Line 400  as typed
           read:                                                            
                                                                           
                        that 'Light as Leaf on Lind' is called              
           emended to the reading given.                                    

   Beneath the five typed lines my father wrote: 'Here follow    
 verses "Light as leaf on linden-tree".'                         
                                                                
 Note on the poem 'Light as Leaf on Lindentree'                  
 Lines 266 - 8 (see note above) were clearly added to the        
 typescript at the same time as the two pasted-in slips (giving
 lines 358 - 66 and 398 - 402), in view of line 268 who light as
 leaf on linden tree.                                            
                                                                
 This  poem,  here  to  be  inset  into  the  Lay  of   the  Children
 of  Hurin,  is  found  in  three  typescripts,  here  referred to as
 (a),  (b),  and  (c),  together  with  a  small  manuscript  page
 giving  reworkings  of  the  penultimate  stanza.   These  type-
 scripts  were  made  with  the  same purple  ribbon used  for the
 texts IB and IIB of  the Lay  and obviously  belong to  the same
 period.                                                          
 (a), earliest  of the  three, had  no title  as typed:  the title
 Light  as leaf  on lind  was written  in in  ink, and  before the
 poem begins there is written also in ink:                       
                                                                
            'Light was Tinuviel as leaf on lind                  
            light as a feather in the laughing wind.'            
                       Tinuviel! Tinuviel!                       
                                                                
 On  this  typescript  my father  wrote some  notes on  the poem's
 dating: 'first beginnings Oxford  1919 -  20 Alfred  St.', 'Leeds
 1923, retouched 1924'. (a) is  the 1923  version; it  differs from
 the later (1924)  only in  the penultimate  stanza, on  which see
 note       to       lines       459       -       66       below.
 (b)  again  has  no  title  as typed,  but As  light as  Leaf on:
 Lindentree  was  written  in ink.  This begins  with 15  lines of
 alliterative verse:                                             
                                                                
   In the Lay of Leithian, Release from Bondage                  
   in linked words has long been wrought                         
   of Beren Ermabwed, brave, undaunted;                          
   how Luthien the lissom he loved of yore                       
   in the enchanted forest chained in wonder.                 5
   Tinuviel he named her, than nightingale                       
   more sweet her voice, as veiled in soft                       
   and wavering wisps of woven dusk                              
   shot with starlight, with shining eyes                        
   she danced like dreams of drifting sheen,                 10
   pale-twinkling pearls in pools of darkness.                   
   And songs were raised for sorrow's lightening,                
   a sudden sweetness in a silent hour,                          
   that 'Light as Leaf on Linden-tree'                           
   were called - here caught a cadent echo.                  15

  (c)  has  the  typed  title  As  Light  as Leaf  on  Lind,  the last
  word  emended  to  Linden-tree.  This  has  only  the  text  of  the
  poem,  without  the  alliterative  introduction;  and  the  text  is
  identical to that of (b).                                           
                                                                     
    It will be seen that of the alliterative verses in (b) lines 1 - 2
  are very close to  lines 356  - 7  of the  Lay (which  were original
  lines in the typescript, not inserted later):                       
                                                                     
    (There was told to Turin that tale by Halog)                      
    that in the Lay of Leithian, Release from Bonds                   
                                                       [< Bondage],
    in linked words has long been woven                               
                                                                     
  while lines 3 - 11 are identical with those on the  first pasted-in
  slip,  358  -  66  (as  typed:  the  boldhearted in  line 358  is an
  emendation   from  brave   undaunted).  Further,   lines  12   -  15
  are close to those on the second pasted-in slip, 398 - 402:         
                                                                     
    Then a song he made them for sorrow's lightening,                 
    a sudden sweetness in a silent hour,                              
    that is 'Light as Leaf on Linden' called,                         
    whose music of mirth and mourning blended                         
    yet in hearts does echo. This did Halog sing them:                
                                                                     
    The  order  of  events  is  very difficult  to determine,  but the
  key is probably  to be  found in  the fact  that lines  356 -  7 are
  found  in  IIB  as  originally  typed, not  in the  pasted-in inser-
  tion.  I  think  (or  perhaps  rather  guess)  that  my  father com-
  posed  an  alliterative  continuation  of  13  lines  (beginning of
  Beren    Erma&wed,    brave    undaunted)    as    an   introduction
  to  the  poem  Light  as  Leaf  on  Lindentree;  and  then,  at  the
  same  time as  he typed  text (b)  of this  poem, with  the alliter-
  ative  head-piece,  he  added  them  to  the  typescript of  the Lay
  already in existence.                                               
    Light   as  Leaf   on   Lindentree    was   published    in   The
  Gryphon   (Leeds   University),   New  Series,   Vol.  VI,   no.  6,
  June  1925,  p.  217.  It  is  here  preceded   by  nine   lines  of
  alliterative verse, beginning                                       
                                                                     
    'Tis of Beren Ermabwed brokenhearted                              
                                                                     
  and  continuing exactly  as in  (b) above  (and in  the text  of the
  Lay) as far as  in pools  of darkness;  the last  four lines  do not
  appear.  In  his  cutting  from  The  Gryphon  my   father  changed
  broken-hearted   (which   is  obviously   a  mere   printer's  error)
  to  the  boldhearted  (as  in the  Lay, 358);  changed the  title to
  As   Light   as   Leaf   on   Lindentree;   and    wrote   Erchamion
  above Ennabwed (see note to lines 358 - 66).                        

    The  text  of  the  inserted  poem  given  in  the  body   of  the Lay
  is  that  published,  which  is  identical to  that of  the typescripts
  (b)   and   (c).  My   father  made   a  very   few  changes   to  (c)
  afterwards  (i.e.  after  the   poem  had   been  printed)   and  these
  are  given in  the notes  that follow,  as also  are the  earlier forms
  of the penultimate verse.                                          
    It  may  finally  be  observed  that  if  my  deductions  are correct
  the  introduction  in  the  Lay   of  the   reference  to   the  Lay of
  Leithian  and  the  outline  of  the  story  told  by  Halog  preceded
  the   publication   of   Light   as   Leaf   on  Lindentree   in  June
  1925.                                                              
                                                                    
 419. magic > wonder, later emendation made to the typescript         
  (c) of Light as Leaf on Lindentree after the poem                  
  published.                                                         
 424. fairy > elvish, see note to 419.                                   
 459, 464. elfin > elvish, see note to 419.                           
 459- 66. In the typescript (a) this penultimate stanza reads as follows:
                                                                    
             And Beren caught the elfin maid                         
                 And kissed her trembling starlit eyes:              
             The elfin maid that love delayed                        
                      In the days beyond our memory.                 
        Till moon and star, till music dies,                         
                   Shall Beren and the elfin maid                    
                Dance to the starlight of her eyes                   
                   And fill the woods with glamoury.                 
                                                                    
  The single manuscript page (bearing the address 'T                 
  University, Leeds') has two versions of the stanza inter           
  mediate between that in (a) and the final form. The first          
  these reads:                                                       
                                                                    
              Ere Beren caught the elfin maid                        
                 And kissed her trembling starlit eyes               
             Tinuviel, whom love delayed                             
                 In the woven woods of Nemorie                       
                 In  the  tangled  trees  of Tramorie.               
                Till music and till moonlight dies                   
                  Shall Beren by the elfin maid                      
                Dance in the starlight of her eyes                   
                 And fill the woods with glamoury.                   

        Other variants are suggested for lines 4 and 8:                
                                                                      
                    In the woven woods of Glamoury                     
                                                                      
                    O'er the silver glades of Amoury                   
        and                                                            
                    Ere the birth of mortal memory                     
                                                                      
                    And fill the woods with glamoury.                  
                                                                      
        I can cast no light on these names.                            
           The second version advances towards the final form, with
        for lines 4 and 8 of the stanza:                               
                                                                      
                    In the land of laughter sorrowless                 
                > In spells enchanted sorrowless                       
                                                                      
                           In eve unending morrowless                  
                                                                      
        The lines finally achieved are also written here.  This rewrit-
        ing  of  the  penultimate  stanza  is  unquestionably  the 1924
        'retouching' referred  to in  the note  on typescript  (a) (see
        p. 120).                                                      
  475.  did  Halog  sing  them:  did  Halog  recall  IIB as  typed. The
        emendation  was  made  at  the  same time  as the  insertion of
        Light  as Leaf on  Lindentree; as  originally written  the line
        followed on 397, at the end of Halog's story.                  
  520.  Finweg IIB  unemended; see  note to  second version  line 19.
  531.  Nirnaith  Unoth  IIA,  and  IIB  as typed.  See note  to second
        version line 26.                                               
  550.  haled  underlined  in  IIB and  an illegible  word substituted,
        perhaps had.                                                   
  576.  Ermabweth IIA, and IIB as typed. Cf. line 273.                 
  596.  Mailrond: see note to line 3 I 9.                               
  658.  elfin IIA, elvish IIB as typed.                                
  767.  The manuscript IIA ends here.                                  
  811.  Cor emended  in pencil  to Tun,  but Tun  later struck  out. In
        the first version (IB, line 430) the same, but there the emend-
        ation Tun not struck out.                                      
  812.  Taingwethil:  Tengwethil  as  typed.  In  the first  version IB
        introduces Tain- for Ten- at lines 431, 636,  but at  line 1409
        IB has Ten- for IA Tain-.                                      
           A  later  pencilled note  here says:  'English Tindbrenting'
        (see Commentary, p. 127).                                      

                                     Commentary on Part II                                     
                                     of the second version                                      
                                      'Turin's Fostering'.                                      
                                                                                               
                        (i) References to the story of Beren and Luthien                        
                                                                                               
 In this second part of the second version the major innovation is  of course                   
 the introduction of the story of  Beren and  Luthien, told  to Turin  by his                   
 guardian Halog when they were  lost in  the forest,  at once  reminiscent of                   
 Aragorn's  telling  of  the  same  story  to  his  companions  on Weathertop                   
 before  the  attack  of  the  Ringwraiths  (The  Fellowship  of   the  Ring                   
 I. 11);  and with  the further  introduction of  the poem  Light as  Leaf on                   
 Lindentree,  the  original form  of the  very song  that Aragorn  chanted on                   
 Weathertop, we realise that the one scene is actually  the precursor  of the                   
 other.                                                                                         
  At line 264(an original, not an interpolated line) is the first appearance                   
 of  the  name  Luthien  for  Thingol's  daughter,  so that  Tinuviel becomes                   
 her  acquired name  (given to  her by  Beren, line  361). The  suggestion of                   
 the interpolated lines 266 - 7 is that  Tinuviel meant  'Starmantled', which                   
 seems  likely  enough  (see   I. 269,  entry   Tinwe  Linto;   the  Gnomish                   
 dictionary,  contemporary  with  the Lost  Tales, rather  surprisingly gives                   
 no  indication  of  the  meaning  of Tinuviel).  On the  other hand,  in the                   
 interpolated  line  361  the  suggestion  is  equally  clear  that  it meant                   
 'Nightingale'. It is difficult to explain this.*                                               
  The original reading at line 265, Dairon 's sister, goes  back to  the Tale                   
 of Tinuviel, where Dairon was the son of Tinwelint (II. 10).                                   
  I noted earlier (p. 25) that lines 178-9 in the first version                                
                                                                                               
          and never ere now for need or wonder                                                  
          had children of Men chosen that pathway                                               
                                                                                               
 show  that  Beren  was still  an Elf,  not a  Man; but  while these  lines are                 
 retained without change  in the  second version  (349 -  50) their  meaning is                 
 reversed  by  the  new  line  that  immediately  follows  -  save   Beren  the                 
 brave,  which  shows equally  clearly that  Beren was  a Man,  not an  Elf. At                 
 this time my father  was apparently  in two  minds on  this subject.  At lines                 
 273 ff. of the  second version  (referring to  Beren's friendship  with Hurin)                 
 he originally repeated lines 122 -  5 of  the first,  which make  no statement                 
 on the matter; but in the first revision of this passage (given in the note to                 
 lines 274-8) he explicitly wrote that Beren was an Elf:                                        
                                                                                               
 (* A possible if rather finespun explanation is that lines 266-8 werc  not in  fact written  in to
 the text at the same time as the two pasted-in slips (giving lines 358-66 and 398 - 402),  as I
 have supposed (p. 120), but were  earlier. O&his view,  when 266-8  were written  Tiniviel
 was  not  yet  Beren's  name  for  Luthien,  but  was  her common  soubriquet, known  both near
 and  far  (266), and  meant 'Star-mantled'.  Later, when  358 -  66 were  added, it  had become
 the name given to her by Beren (361 ), and meant 'Nightingale'. If this were so, it could also
 supposed that line 268,  who light  as leaf  on linden  tree, gave  risc to  the title  of the
 poem.)                                                                                     

                    (Beren) who once of old                                     
          fellowship had vowed and friendly love                                
          Elf with mortal, even Egnor's son                                     
          with Hurin of Hithlum...                                              
                                                                               
 Since  this  is  a rewriting  of the  original text  of IIB  it is  presumably a
 withdrawal  from  the  idea  (that  Beren   was  a   Man)  expressed   in  lines
 349 - 50; while the further rewriting of this passage, getting rid of  the line
 Elf   with   mortal,  even   Egnor's  son,   presumably  represents   a  return
 to it.                                                                         
  In  Halog's  recounting  of  the  story  of  Beren and  Luthien there  are some
 apparent  differences  from  that  told  in  the  Tale  of  the  Nauglafring and
 the  Lay  of  Leithian.  The  reference  to  Melian's  magic  in  line   371  is
 presumably  to  Melian's  knowledge  of  where  Beren  was;  cf.  the   Tale  of
 Tinuviel  II.  17:  '"0 Gwendeling,  my mother,"  said she,  "tell me  of thy
 magic,  if  thou  canst,  how  doth  Beren  fare..."'  A   probable  explanation
 of  the  mention  later  in  this  passage  of  the  arts  of  Melian  (393), in
 association  with  Luthien's  winning  Beren  back  from  death,  will  be given
 later.  But  in  no  other version  of the  story is  there any  suggestion that
 Carcharoth   'hunted'   Beren   and   Luthien  (377)   after  he   had  devoured
 Beren's  hand  holding  the Silmaril  - indeed,  the reverse:  from the  Tale of
 Tinuviel  (II.  34)  'Then  did  Tinuviel  and  Beren  flee  like the  wind from
 the   gates,  yet   was  Karkaras   far  before   them'  to   The  Silmarillion
 (p.  181)  'Howling  he  fled  before  them'.  (The  form  Carcharoth  now  first
 appears,  by  emendation  of   Carcharolch,  which   occurs  nowhere   else;  in
 the  Tale  of  Tinuviel  the  forms  are  Karkaras and  (in the  second version)
 Carcaras.)                                                                     
  More important, lines 395-7                                                   
                                                                               
         that they dwell for ever in days ageless                               
         and the grass greys not in the green forest                            
         where East or West they ever wander                                    
                                                                               
 seems  to  represent  a  conception  of the  second lives  of Beren  and Luthien
 notably  different  from  that  in  the  Tale  of  the  Nauglafring  (II.  240),
 where  the  doom  of  mortality  that  Mandos  had  spoken  fell   swiftly  upon
 them (as also in The Silmarillion, p. 236):                                    
                                                                               
  nor  this  time  did  those  twain  fare the  road together,  but when  yet was
  the child of those  twain, Dior  the Fair,  a little  one, did  Tinuviel slowly
  fade...   and   she  vanished   in  the   woods,  and   none  have   seen  her
  dancing  ever  there  again.  But  Beren  searched  all  the  lands  of Hithlum
  and  Artanor  ranging  after  her;  and  never has  any of  the Elves  had more
  loneliness than his, or ever he too faded from life...                        
                                                                               
 However this  matter is  to be  interpreted, the  lines in  the Lay  are clearly
 to be associated with the end of Light as Leaf on Lindentree:                  

                    Till moonlight and till music dies                            
                      Shall Beren by the elfin maid                               
                    Dance in the starlight of her eyes                            
               In the forest singing sorrowless.                                  
                                                                                 
 Compare the end of the song that Aragorn sang on Weathertop:                     
                                                                                 
           The ring Seas between them lay,                                        
                  And yet at last they met once more,                             
           And long ago they passed away                                          
               In the forest singing sorrowless.                                  
                                                                                 
                    (ii) The Dragon-helm and Hurin's ancestors                    
                                                                                 
 The  elder  of  Turin's  guardians,  still Gumlin  in the  first version,  is now
 named   (Mailgond    >)   Mailrond;    and   Gumlin    becomes   the    name   of
 Hurin's  father,  who  has  not  been  even  mentioned  before  (other   than  in
 the  reference  in   the  first   version  to   the  Dragon-helm   being  Hurin's
 heirloom, 318). In the second version the Dragon-helm                            
                                                                                 
                                      was worn aforetime                          
       by the father of the fathers of the folk of Hurin,                         
       whose sire Gumlin to his son gave it                                       
       ere his soul severed from his sundered heart.                     (674.- 7)
                                                                                 
 The last  line suggests  that a  story of  Hurin's father  had already  come into
 existence; and  line 675  suggests a  long line  of ancestors  behind Hurin  - as
 also  does  line  622,  the  pride  of  her   people,  princes   ancient,  behind
 Morwen.  It  is  hard  to  know  how  my  father  at  this  time   conceived  the
 earlier generations of Men; and the question must be postponed.                  
  The Dragon-helm itself now begins to gather a history: it was made              
                                                                                 
        in dark dwarfland in the deeps of time,                                   
        ere Men to Mithrim and misty Hithlum                                      
        o'er the world wandered  (672 - 4)                                        
                                                                                 
 and  was  the  work  of  Telchar  (678),  now  named  for  the  first  time.  But
 there is still no indication of the significance attaching to the dragon-crest.
  Lines  758   -  62   (Lo!  me   deemed  as   dead  the   dragon  of   the  North
 ...   Or  is   Hurin  of   Hithlum  from   Hell  broken?),   to  which   there  is
 nothing   corresponding   in   the   first   version,  clearly   foreshadows  the
 Narn, p. 79:                                                                    
                                                                                 
  and word ran through the woods, and was heard far  beyond Doriath,              
  that  the  Dragon-helm  of  Dor-lomin  was  seen  again.  Then many              
  wondered, saying: 'Can the spirit of Hador or  of Galdor  the Tall              
  return from death; or has Hurin of Hithlum escaped indeed from the              
  pits of Angband?'                                                               

                 (iii) Miscellaneous Matters.                               
                                                                             
 The curious references to Beleg in the first version  ('son of  the wilderness
 who wist no sire', see p. 25) reappear in the second, but  in a  changed form,
 and at one of the occurrences put  into Beleg's  own mouth:  the forest  is my
 father  536, cf.  772. Beleg  the ageless  is retained  in the  second version
 (793), and at lines 544 ff. he shows a  Gandalf-like quality  of being  able to
 make fire in wet wood, with his wizard's cunning (cf.  The Fellowship  of the
 Ring II. 3).                                                                 
  The  great  bow  of  Beleg  is  now  at   last  named:   Balthronding  (773;
 later Belthronding).                                                          
  We  learn  now  that  the  strong  wine  of  Dor-Winion  that  Beleg  gave to
 the  travellers  and  which was  drunk at  the fateful  feast in  the Thousand
 Caves   was   brought   to  the   Northern  lands   from  Nogrod   by  Dwarves
 (540 - 1); and also that there was viticulture  in Valinor  (543 -  4), though
 after the accounts of life in the halls  of Tulkas  and Orome  in the  tale of
 The  Coming of  the Valar  (1. 75)  this causes  no surprise  - indeed  it is
 said that Nessa wife of  Tulkas bore  'goblets o(  the goodliest  wine', while
 Measse  went  among  the  warriors  in  her  house  and 'revived  the fainting
 with strong wine' (I. 78).                                                  
  An  interesting  detail  in  the  second  account  of  Turin's  reception  in
 Doriath,  not  found  again,  is  that  Melian  played  a  part in  the king's
 graciousness:                                                                 
 for     Melian     moved     him     with     murmured      counsel.     (580)
 From  the  feast  at  which  Turin  slew  Orgof  the  songs  of  the  sons  of
 Ing of the first version (line 421) have now disappeared.                    
  The  chronology  of  Turin's  youth  is  slightly   changed  in   the  second
 version. In the first, as in the Tale (see p. 25), Turin spent seven  years in
 Doriath  while  tidings  still  came   from  Morwen   (line  333);   this  now
 becomes nine years (line 693), as in The Silmarillion (p. 199).              
  Lastly,  at  line  812  a  pencilled  note   against  the   name  Taingwethil
 (Taniquetil)  says  'English  Tindbrenting'.  This  name  is  found  in  notes
 on  the  Old  English  forms  of  Elvish  names (see  p. 87),  Tindbrenting pe
 pa   Brega   Taniquetil   nemnad   ('Tindbrenting   which   the   Valar  name
 Taniquetil'; Old  English bregu  'king, lord,  ruler' =  'Vala'). The  name is
 perhaps  to  be  derived  from  Old  English  tind 'projecting  spike' (Modern
 English  tine)  and  brenting (a  derivative of  brant 'steep,  lofty'), here
 used  in  an  unrecorded  sense  (brenting  occurs only  once in  recorded Old
 English, in Beowulf, where it means 'ship').                                 
                                                                             
                                       *                                      
                                                                             
                  Verses associated with The Children of Hurin.               
                                                                             
 There  is  a  poem  found  in three  manuscripts, all  on 'Oxford'  paper (see
 p.  81),  in  which  my  father  developed  elements  in  the   passage  lines

 2082 - 2113 in The Children of Hurin to a short independent work. The      
 first text has no title, and reads:                                          
                                                                             
                                The high summer                               
             waned to autumn, and western gales                               
             the leaves loosened from labouring boughs.                       
             The feet of the forest in fading gold                            
             and burnished brown were buried deeply;                      5
             a restless rustle down the roofless aisles                       
             sighed and whispered. The Silver Wherry,                         
             the sailing moon with slender mast                               
             was filled with fires as of furnace hot;                         
             its hold hoarded the heats of summer,                        10
             its shrouds were shaped of shining flame                         
             uprising ruddy o'er the rim of Evening                           
             by the misty wharves on the margin of the world.                 
             Then winter hastened and weathers hardened,                      
             and sleet and snow and slanting rain                         15
             from glowering heaven, grey and sunless,                         
             whistling whiplash whirled by tempest,                           
             the lands forlorn lashed and tortured:                           
             floods were loosened, the fallow waters                          
             sweeping seaward, swollen, angry,                            20
             filled with flotsam, foaming, turbid                             
             passed in tumult. The tempest failed:                            
             frost descended from the far mountains,                          
             steel-cold and still. Stony-glinting                             
             icehung evening was opened wide,                             25
             a dome of crystal over deep silence,                             
             the windless wastes, the woods standing                          
             frozen phantoms under flickering stars.                          
                                                                             
 Against deeply in  line 5  is given  thickly as  an alternative  reading, and
 against Wherry in line 7 is given vessel.                                    
   The first 13 lines of this are almost identical to  2082 -  94 in  the Lay,
 with  only  a  few  slight  changes  (mostly  for  the  common purpose  in my
 father's revisions of his alliterative verse of making the lines  more taut).
 Then follow in lines 14 - 16 adaptations of 2102 - 4;  17 is  a new  line; 18
 contains a part of 2119; 19 - 22a are based on 2106 - 9a; 22b) - 24 are new;
 and 25 - 8 are almost the same as 2110 - 13.                                
                                                                             
 The  second  version of  the poem  bears the  title Storm  over Narog, and is
 much  developed. This  version as  written retained  lines 14  - 15  from the
 first,  but they  were changed  and expanded  to three;  and the  third text,
 entitled  Winter  comes  to  Nargothrond,  is  a  copy  of  the  second  with
 this alteration and one or two other very  slight changes.  I give  the third
 text here.                                                                   

      Winter comes to Nargothrond.                                        
                                                                         
    The summer slowly in the sad forest                                   
    waned and faded. In the west arose                                    
    winds that wandered over warring seas.                                
    Leaves were loosened from labouring boughs:                           
    fallow-gold they fell, and the feet buried                         5
    of trees standing tall and naked,                                     
    rustling restlessly down roofless aisles,                             
    shifting and drifting.                                                
                               The shining vessel                         
    of the sailing moon with slender mast,                                
    with shrouds shapen of shimmering flame,                          10
    uprose ruddy on the rim of Evening                                    
    by the misty wharves on the margin of the world.                      
    With winding horns winter hunted                                      
    in the weeping woods, wild and ruthless;                              
    sleet came slashing, and slanting hail                            15
    from glowering heaven grey and sunless,                               
    whistling whiplash whirled by tempest.                                
    The floods were freed and fallow waters                               
    sweeping seaward, swollen, angry,                                     
    filled with flotsam, foaming, turbid,                             20
    passed in tumult. The tempest died.                                   
    Frost descended from far mountains                                    
    steel-cold and still. Stony-glinting                                  
    icehung evening was opened wide,                                      
    a dome of crystal over deep silence,                              25
    over windless wastes and woods standing                               
    as frozen phantoms under flickering stars.                            
                                                                         
 On  the  back  of  Winter  comes  to Nargothrond are written  the follow-
 ing verses, which arose from lines 1554 - 70 of the Lay. The poem  has no
 title.                                                                   
                                                                         
    With the seething sea Sirion's waters,                                
    green streams gliding into grey furrows,                              
    murmurous mingle. There mews gather,                                  
    seabirds assemble in solemn council,                                  
    whitewinged hosts whining sadly                                      5
    with countless voices in a country of sand:                           
    plains and mountains of pale yellow                                   
    sifting softly in salt breezes,                                       
    sere and sunbleached. At the sea's margin                             

    a shingle lies, long and shining                                 10
    with pebbles like pearl or pale marble:                             
    when the foam of waves down the wind flieth                         
    in spray they sparkle; splashed at evening                          
    in the moon they glitter; moaning, grinding,                        
    in the dark they tumble; drawing and rolling,                    15
    when strongbreasted storm the streams driveth                       
    in a war of waters to the walls of land.                            
    When the Lord of Ocean his loud trumpets                            
    in the abyss bloweth to battle sounding,                            
    longhaired legions on lathered horses                            20
    with backs like whales, bridles spuming,                           
    charge there snorting, champing seaweed;                            
    hurled with thunder of a hundred drums                              
    they leap the bulwarks, burst the leaguer,                          
    through the sandmountains sweeping madly                         25
    up the river roaring roll in fury.                                  
                                                                       
 The last three lines were later placed within brackets.                
                                                                       
 It may be mentioned here that there exists a  poem in  rhyming couplets
 entitled The  Children of  Hurin. This  extends only  to 170  lines and
 breaks off abruptly, after a short prologue based on the opening of the
 later version of the alliterative Lay and an incomplete  second section
 titled  'The  Battle  of  Unnumbered Tears  and Morgoth's  Curse'. This
 poem comes however from a rather later period - approximately  the time
 of the abandonment of the Lay  of Leithian  in the  same metre,  in the
 early 1930s, and I do not give it here.