II. POEMS EARLY ABANDONED. During his time at the University of Leeds my father embarked on five distinct poetical works concerned with the matter of the mythology; but three of these went no further than the openings. This chapter treats each of them in turn. (i) The Flight of the Noldoli. There do not seem to be any certain indications of the date of this brief poem in alliterative verse in relation to The Children of Hurin (though it is worth noticing that already in the earliest of the three texts of The Flight of the Noldoli Feanor's son Cranthir is so named, whereas this form only arose by emendation of Cranthor in the typescript text of the Lay (line 1719)). However, both from its general air and from various details it can be seen that it comes from the same time; and since it seems unlikely that (on the one hand) my father would have embarked on a new poem in alliterative verse unless he had laid the other aside, or that (on the other) he would have returned to this mode once he was fully engaged on a long poem in rhyming couplets, I think it very probable that The Flight of the Noldoli comes from the earlier part of 1925 (see PP. 3, 81). Each of the three manuscripts of the poem (A, B, and C) is differently titled: A has The Flight of the Gnomes as sung in the Halls of Thingol; B (pencilled in later) Flight of the Gnomes; C The Flight of the Noldoli from Valinor. A has emendations that are taken up in the text of B, and B has emendations taken up in C; almost all are characteris- tic metrical/verbal rearrangements, as for example in line 17: A in anguish mourning, emended to the reading of B; B and in anguish mourn, emended to the reading of C; C mourning in anguish. As generally in this book, earlier variants that have no bearing on names or story are not cited. Each text ends at the same point, but three further lines are roughly written in the margin of A (see note to line 146). I give now the text of the third version, C. THE FLIGHT OF THE NOLDOLI FROM VALINOR. A! the Trees of Light, tall and shapely, gold and silver, more glorious than the sun, than the moon more magical, o'er the meads of the Gods their fragrant frith and flowerladen gardens gleaming, once gladly shone. 5 In death they are darkened, they drop their leaves from blackened branches bled by Morgoth and Ungoliant the grim the Gloomweaver. In spider's form despair and shadow a shuddering fear and shapeless night 10 she weaves in a web of winding venom that is black and breathless. Their branches fail, the light and laughter of their leaves are quenched. Mirk goes marching, mists of blackness, through the halls of the Mighty hushed and empty, 15 the gates of the Gods are in gloom mantled. Lo! the Elves murmur mourning in anguish, but no more shall be kindled the mirth of Cor in the winding ways of their walled city, towercrowned Tun, whose twinkling lamps 20 are drowned in darkness. The dim fingers of fog come floating from the formless waste and sunless seas. The sound of horns, of horses' hooves hastening wildly in hopeless hunt, they hear afar, 25 where the Gods in wrath those guilty ones through mournful shadow, now mounting as a tide o'er the Blissful Realm, in blind dismay pursue unceasing. The city of the Elves is thickly thronged. On threadlike stairs 30 carven of crystal countless torches stare and twinkle, stain the twilight and gleaming balusters of green beryl. A vague rumour of rushing voices, as myriads mount the marble paths, 35 there fills and troubles those fair places wide ways of Tun and walls of pearl. Of the Three Kindreds to that clamorous throng are none but the Gnomes in numbers drawn. The Elves of Ing to the ancient halls 40 and starry gardens that stand and gleam upon Timbrenting towering mountain that day had climbed to the cloudy-domed mansions of Manwe for mirth and song. There Bredhil the Blessed the bluemantled, 45 the Lady of the heights as lovely as the snow in lights gleaming of the legions of the stars, the cold immortal Queen of mountains, too fair and terrible too far and high for mortal eyes, in Manwe's court 50 sat silently as they sang to her. The Foam-riders, folk of waters, Elves of the endless echoing beaches, of the bays and grottoes and the blue lagoons, of silver sands sown with moonlit, 55 starlit, sunlit, stones of crystal, paleburning gems pearls and opals, on their shining shingle, where now shadows groping clutched their laughter, quenched in mourning their mirth and wonder, in amaze wandered 60 under cliffs grown cold calling dimly, or in shrouded ships shuddering waited for the light no more should be lit for ever. But the Gnomes were numbered by name and kin, marshalled and ordered in the mighty square 65 upon the crown of Cor. There cried aloud the fierce son of Finn. Flaming torches he held and whirled in his hands aloft, those hands whose craft the hidden secret knew, that none Gnome or mortal 70 hath matched or mastered in magic or in skill. 'Lo! slain is my' sire by the sword of fiends, his death he has drunk at the doors of his hall and deep fastness, where darkly hidden the Three were guarded, the things unmatched 75 that Gnome and Elf and the Nine Valar can never remake or renew on earth, recarve or rekindle by craft or magic, not Feanor Finn's son who fashioned them of yore - the light is lost whence he lit them first, 80 the fate of Faerie hath found its hour Thus the witless wisdom its reward hath earned of the Gods' jealousy, who guard us here to serve them, sing to them in our sweet cages, to contrive them gems and jewelled trinkets, 85 their leisure to please with our loveliness, while they waste and squander work of ages, nor can Morgoth master in their mansions sitting at countless councils. Now come ye all, who have courage and hope! My call harken 90 to flight, to freedom in far places! The woods of the world whose wide mansions yet in darkness dream drowned in slumber, the pathless plains and perilous shores no moon yet shines on nor mounting dawn 95 in dew and daylight hath drenched for ever, far better were these for bold footsteps than gardens of the Gods gloom-encircled with idleness filled and empty days. Yea! though the light lit them and the loveliness 100 beyond heart's desire that hath held us slaves here long and long. But that light is dead. Our gems are gone, our jewels ravished; and the Three, my Three, thrice-enchanted globes of crystal by gleam undying 105 illumined, lit by living splendour and all hues' essence, their eager flame - Morgoth has them in his monstrous hold, my Silmarils. I swear here oaths, unbreakable bonds to bind me ever, 110 by Timbrenting and the timeless halls of Bredhil the Blessed that abides thereon - may she hear and heed - to hunt endlessly unwearying unwavering through world and sea, through leaguered lands, lonely mountains, 115 over fens and forest and the fearful snows, till I find those fair ones, where the fate is hid of the folk of Elfland and their fortune locked, where alone now lies the light divine.' Then his sons beside him, the seven kinsmen, 120 crafty Curufin, Celegorm the fair, Damrod and Diriel and dark Cranthir, Maglor the mighty, and Maidros tall (the eldest, whose ardour yet more eager burnt than his father's flame, than Feanor's wrath; 125 him fate awaited with fell purpose), these leapt with laughter their lord beside, with linked hands there lightly took the oath unbreakable; blood thereafter it spilled like a sea and spent the swords 130 of endless armies, nor hath ended yet: 'Be he friend or foe or foul offspring of Morgoth Bauglir, be he mortal dark that in after days on earth shall dwell, shall no law nor love nor league of Gods, 135 no might nor mercy, not moveless fate, defend him for ever from the fierce vengeance of the sons of Feanor, whoso seize or steal or finding keep the fair enchanted globes of crystal whose glory dies not, 140 the Silmarils. We have sworn for ever! ' Then a mighty murmuring was moved abroad and the harkening host hailed them roaring: 'Let us go! yea go from the Gods for ever on Morgoth's trail o'er the mountains of the world 145 to vengeance and victory! Your vows are ours! The poem ends here (but see note to line 146). * NOTES. 41. starry gardens C, starlit domes A, B. 42. Tengwethil's A (with Timbrenting written in margin), Tim- brenting's B, Timbrenting C (with Taingwethil written in margin). See note to The Children of Hurin (second version) line 812. 45. Bridhil A, B, C, emended in C to Bredhil; so also at line 112. 107. and all hues' essence: this half-line (in the form all hue's essence) occurs also in the second version of The Children of Hurin, line 381, where it is said of the Silmaril of Beren. 111. Tengwethil A, Timbrenting B, C. 134. that in after days on earth shall dwell: this line bracketed later in pencil in C. 146. There are three roughly-written lines in the margin of the last page of A which were not taken up in B and C, but which presumably follow on line 146: But Finweg cried Fingolfin's son when his father found that fair counsel, that wit and wisdom were of worth no more: 'Fools Commentary on The Flight of the Noldoli. Sad as it is that this poem was abandoned so soon - when in full mastery of the alliterative line my father might have gone on to recount the Kinslaying of Alqualonde, the Prophecy of the North, the crossing of the Helcaraxe, and the burning of the ships, there is nonetheless in its few lines much of interest for the study of the development of the legend. Most notably, there here appears the earliest version of the actual words of the Feanorian Oath. The Oath was first referred to in the outlines for Gilfanon's Tale (I. 238, 240): The Seven Sons of Feanor swore their terrible oath of hatred for ever against all, Gods or Elves or Men, who should hold the Silmarils but it was there sworn after the coming of the Elves from Valinor, and after the death of Feanor. In the present poem is the first appearance of the. story that the Oath was taken in Valinor before the departure of the Gnomes. It has also been referred to in The Children of Hurin, lines 631 ff. of the first version, where it is implied that the mountain of Tain-Gwethil was taken in witness - as it was in The Silmarillion (p. 83): here (line i x x) Feanor himself swears by Timbrenting that he will never cease to hunt for the Silmarils. I cannot explain why line 134 that in after days on earth shall dwell was bracketed (always a mark of exclusion or at least of doubtful reten- tion) in the C-text. The line reappears in identical form in the Lay of Leithian (Canto VI, 1636); cf. The Silmarillion 'Vala, Demon, Elf or Man as yet unborn'. The fixed epithets of certain of the Sons of Feanor are changed from those in The Children of Hurin (see p. 86): Celegorm is now 'the fair' and Maidros 'the tall', as thev remained; Maglor is 'the mighty' (in The Silmarillion 'the mighty singer'). The line concerning Maidros him fate awaited with fell purpose (126) may show that a form of the story of his end was already in being (in the Tale of the Nauglafring he survived the attack on Dior the Fair but nothing more is told of him), but I think it much more likely that it refers to his capture and maiming by Morgoth. In Feanor's speech occur two interesting references: to the Nine Valar, and to his father Finn. The number of the Valar is nowhere stated in the Lost Tales (where in any case the name includes lesser divine beings; cf. e.g. I. 65 - 6 'With them came many of those lesser Vali... the Manir and the Suruli, the sylphs of the airs and of the winds'); but 'the Nine Valar' are referred to in the 'Sketch of the Mythology' (1926) and named in the 1930 'Silmarillion'. Manwe, Ulmo, Osse, Aule, Mandos, Lorien, Tulkas, Orome, and Melko. Feanor's father has not been named since the tale of The Theft of Melko and the Darkening of Valinor (I. 145 ff.), where he was called Bruithwir, slain by Melko. In ?he Children of Hurin there is no indication that Feanor was akin to other princes of the Gnomes - though there can be no doubt that by that time he in fact was so. But the essential features of the Noldorin royal house as it had now emerged and as it was to remain for many years can now be deduced. In the first version of The Children of Hurin (line 29 and note) Turgon was the son of Finwe (actually spelt Finweg), as he had been in the Lost Tales (I. 115), but this was changed to Finwe's heir, with the note 'he was Fingolfin's son'; and in the second version Turgon the mighty, IFingolfin's son is found in the text as written (48 - 9). We thus have: Finwe (Finweg) | Fingolfin Turgon Further, Finweg appears in The Children of Hurin (first version 1975, second version 19, 520) as the King of the Gnomes who died in the Battle of Unnumbered Tears; in two of these cases the name was later changed to Fingon. In the lines added at the end of the A-text of The Flight of the Noldoli (note to line 146) Finweg is Fingolfin's son. We can there- fore add: Finwe (Finweg) I Fin lhn Finweg Turgon (> Fingon) Now in The Flight of the Noldoli Feanor is called Finn's son; and in the 'Sketch of the Mythology' Finn is given as an alternative to Finwe: The Eldar are divided into three hosts, one under Ingwe (Ing)..., one under Finwe (Finn) after called the Noldoli...* Thus Feanor has become Fingolfin's brother: Finwe (Finweg, Finn) | Feanor Seven sons Finweg Turgon (> Fingon) (Only in a later note to lines 1713 - 20 of The Children of Hurin has Finwe's third son Finrod appeared, father of Felagund, Angrod, Egnor, and Orodreth.) Feanor's speech also contains a curious foreknowledge of the making of the Sun and Moon (92 - 6): The woods of the world whose wide mansions yet in darkness dream drowned in slumber, the pathless plains and perilous shores no moon yet shines on nor mounting dawn in dew and daylight hath drenched for ever Very notable are Feanor's concluding words (117 - 18): till I find those fair ones, where the fate is hid of the folk of Elfland and their fortune locked Cf. The Silmarillion, p. 67: 'Mandos foretold that the fates of Arda lay locked within them', and Thingol's words to Beren (ibid. p. 167): 'though the fate of Arda lie within the Silmarils, yet you shall hold me generous'. It is clear that the Silmarils had already gained greatly in significance since the earliest period of the mythology (see I. 156, 169 note z; II. 259). In no other version is Feanor seen on this occasion holding flaming torches in his hands and whirling them aloft. The lines (38 - g) Of the Three Kindreds to that clamorous throng are none but the Gnomes in numbers drawn go back to the tale of The Flight of the Noldoli (I. 162): 'Now when... (* In the 1930 'Silmarillion' it is expressly stated that Ing and Finn are the Gnomish forms of Ingwe and Finwe.) Feanor sees that far the most of the company is of the kin of the Noldor', on which I noted (I. 169) 'It is to be remembered that in the old story the Teleri (i.e. the later Vanyar) had not departed from Kor.' Later evidence shows that the old story had not been changed; but the fact that in the present poem the Elves of Ing (Ingwe) were on Timbrenting (Taniquetil) in the mansions of Manwe and Varda shows the entry of the later narrative (found in the 'Sketch') of the destruction of the Trees. In the old tale of The Theft of Melko and the Darkening of Valinor (I. 143 ff. and commentary I. 157) the great festival was the occasion of Melko's attack on the place of the Gnomes' banishment northward in Valinor, the slaying of Feanor's father, and the theft of the Silmarils; and the destruction of the Trees followed some time afterwards. Now how- ever the festival is the occasion of the attack on the Trees; the First Kindred are on Taniquetil but most of the Gnomes are not. The name by which Varda is here called, Bridhil the Blessed (changed in C to Bredhil), is found in the old Gnomish dictionary, and also Timbridhil (I. 269, 273, entries Tinwetari, Varda). On Timbrenting see p. 127, where the form Tindbrenting occurring in The Children of Hurin (in a note to second version line 812) is discussed. Both forms are found in the 'Sketch': Timbrenting or Tindbrenting in English, Tengwethil in Gnomish, Taniquetil in Elfin. The form with -m- is therefore evidently due to a change of pronunciation in English, ndb > mb. In line 41 the earlier reading starlit domes, changed to starry gardens, is probably to be related to the account in the tale of The Coming of the Valar and the Building of Valinor of Manwe's abode on Taniquetil (I. 73): That house was builded of marbles white and blue and stood amid the fields of snow, and its roofs were made of a web of that blue air called ilwe that is above the white and grey. This web did Aule and his wife contrive, but Varda spangled it with stars, and Manwe dwelt there- under. This idea of a roof lit with stars was never lost and appears in a changed form long after, though it is not mentioned in The Silmarillion. The lines (21 - 3) The dim fingers of fog came floating from the formless waste and sunless seas find an echo in The Silmarillion (p.76): it blew chill from the East in that hour, and the vast shadows of the sea were rolled against the walls of the shore. The lines at the end of the A-text (note to line 146) show that Fingolfin has taken Finwe Noleme's place as the voice of reason and moderation amid the revolutionary enthusiasm of the Noldoli in the great square of Kor (see I. 162, 171). Lastly may be noticed the term 'Foam-riders' used (line 52) of the Third Kindred (the Solosimpi of the Lost Tales, later the Teleri); this has been used once before, in AElfwine of England (II. 3I4), where it is said of AElfwine's mother Eadgifu that when he was born the Foamriders, the Elves of the Sea-marge, whom she had known of: old in Lionesse, sent messengers to his birth. Analysis of the metre of the poem. At the end of the second text (B) of The Flight of the Noldoli my father made an analysis of the metrical forms of the first 20 and certain subse- quent lines. For his analysis and explanation of the Old English metre see On Translating Beowulf, in The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays, 1983, pp. 61 ff. The letters A, + A, B, C, D, E on the left-hand side of the table refer to the 'types' of Old English half-line; the letters beneath the analyses of 'lifts' and 'dips' are the alliterations employed in each line, with 0 used for any vowel (since all vowels 'alliterate' with each other) and X for a consonant beginning a lift but not forming part of the alliterative scheme of the line; the words 'full', 'simple', etc. refer to the nature of the alliterative pattern in each case. It may be noticed that the scansion of the first half of line 8 (with the first lift -goli-) shows that the primary stress fell on the second syllable of Ungoliant; and that sp can only alliterate with sp (lines 9, 130), as in Old English (the same is of course true of sh, which is a separate consonant). (ii) Fragment of an alliterative Lay of Earendel. There exists one other piece of alliterative verse concerned with the matter of the Lost Tales, the opening of a poem that has no title and does not extend far enough to make clear what its subject was to be. The fall of Gondolin, the escape of the fugitives down the secret tunnel, the fight at Cristhorn, and the long wandering in the wilds thereafter, are passed over rapidly in what were to be the introductory lines, and the subject seems about to appear at the end of the fragment: all this have others in ancient stories and songs unfolded, but say I further... and the concluding lines refer to the sojourn of the fugitives in the Land of Willows. But at the end of the text my father wrote several times in different scripts 'Earendel', 'Earendel son of Fengel', 'Earendel Fengelsson'; and I think it extremely likely, even almost certain, that this poem was to be a Lay of Earendel. (On Fengel see the next section.) The text is in the first stage of composition and is exceedingly rough, but it contains one line of the utmost interest for the history of Earendel. It is written on examination paper from the University of Leeds and clearly belongs in time with The Lay of the Children of Hurin and The Flight of the Noldoli: more than that seems impossible to say. Lo! the flame of fire and fierce hatred engulfed Gondolin and its glory fell, its tapering towers and its tall rooftops were laid all low, and its leaping fountains made no music more on the mount of Gwareth, 5 and its whitehewn walls were whispering ash. But Wade of the Helsings wearyhearted ) Tur the earthborn was tried in battle from the wrack and ruin a remnant led women and children and wailing maidens and wounded men of the withered folk 10 down the path unproven that pierced the hillside, neath Tumladin he led them to the leaguer of hills that rose up rugged as ranged pinnacles to the north of the vale. There the narrow way of Cristhorn was cloven, the Cleft of Eagles, IS through the midmost mountains. And more is told in lays and in legend and lore of others of that weary way of the wandering folk; how the waifs of Gondolin outwitted Melko, vanished o'er the vale and vanquished the hills, 20 how Glorfindel the golden in the gap of the Eagles battled with the Balrog and both were slain: one like flash of fire from fanged rock, one like bolted thunder black was smitten to the dreadful deep digged by Thornsir. 25 Of the thirst and hunger of the thirty moons when they sought for Sirion and were sore bestead by plague and peril; of the Pools of Twilight and Land of Willows; when their lamentation was heard in the halls where the high Gods sate 30 veiled in Valinor .. the Vanished Isles; all this have others in ancient stories and songs unfolded, but say I further how their lot was lightened, how they laid them down in long grasses of the Land of Willows. 35 There sun was softer, ... the sweet breezes and whispering winds, there wells of slumber and the dew enchanted * NOTES. The next lines are where stony-voiced that stream of Eagles runs o'er the rocky but the second of these is struck out and the first left without continuation. 31. The second half-line was written in the Vanished Isles, but in was struck out and replaced by a word that I cannot interpret. 36. The second half-line was written and the sweet breezes, but and was struck out and replaced by some other word, possibly then. Commentary. For the form Tur see I I. 148, 260. In the tale of The Fall of Gondolin Cristhorn, the Eagles' Cleft, was in the Encircling Mountains south of Gondolin, and the secret tunnel led southwards from the city (II. 167 - 8 etc.); but from line 14 of this fragment it is seen that the change to the north had already entered the legend. Lines 26 - 7 (the thirty moons when they sought for Sirion) go back to the Fall of Gondolin, where it is said that the fugitives wandered 'a year and more' in the wastes (see II. 195, 214). The reading of line 7 as first written (it was not struck out, but Tur the earthborn was tried in battle was added in the margins): But Wade of the Helsings wearyhearted is remarkable. It is taken directly from the very early Old English poem Widsith, where occurs the line Wada Haelsingum, sc. Wada [weold] Haelsingum, 'Wada ruled the Haelsingas'. One may well wonder why the mysterious figure of Wade should appear here in Tuor's place, and indeed I cannot explain it: but whatever the reason, the association of Wade with Tuor is not casual. Of the original story of Wade almost nothing is known; but he survived in popular recollection through the Middle Ages and later - he is mentioned by Malory as a mighty being, and Chaucer refers to 'Wade's boat' in The Merchant's Tale; in Troilus and Crisyede Pandare told a 'tale of Wade'. R. W. Chambers (Widsith, Cambridge 1912, p. 95) said that Wade was perhaps 'originally a sea- giant, dreaded and honoured by the coast tribes of the North Sea and the Baltic'; and the tribe of the Haelsingas over which he is said to have ruled in Widsith is supposed to have left its name in Helsingor (Elsinore) in Denmark and in Helsingfors in Finland. Chambers summed up what few generalities he thought might be made from the scattered references in English and German as follows: We find these common characteristics, which we may assume be- longed to their ancient prototype, Wada of the Haelsingas: (1) Power over the sea. (2) Extraordinary strength - often typified by superhuman stature. (3) The use of these powers to help those whom Wade favours. ... Probably he grew out of the figure, not of a historic chief, but of a - supernatural power, who had no story all his own, and who interested mortal men only when he interfered in their concerns. Hence he is essentially a helper in time of need; and we may be fairly confident that already in the oldest lays he possessed this character. Most interesting, however, is the fact that in Speght's annotations to Chaucer (1598) he said: Concerning Wade and his bote Guingelot, as also his strange exploits in the same, because the matter is long and fabulous, I passe it over. The likeness of Guingelot to Wingelot is sufficiently striking; but when we place together the facts that Wingelot was Earendel's ship,* that Earendel was Tuor's son, that Tuor was peculiarly associated with the sea, and that here 'Wade of the Helsings' stands in the place of Tuor, coincidence is ruled out. Wingelot was derived from Wade's boat, Guingelot as certainly, I think, as was Earendel from the Old English figure (this latter being a fact expressly stated by my father, II. 309). Why my father should have intruded 'Wade of the Helsings' into the, verses at this point is another question. It may conceivably have been unintentional - the words Wada Haelsingum were running in his mind (though in that case one might expect that he would have struck the line out and not merely written another line against it as an alternative): but at any rate the reason why they were running in his mind is clear, and this possibility in no way diminishes the demonstrative value of the line that Wingelot was derived from Guingelot, and that there was a connection of greater significance than the mere taking over of a name- just as in the case of Earendel. * (iii) The Lay of the Fall of Condolin. This was the title that late in his life my father wrote on the bundle of papers constituting the abandoned beginning of this poem; but it seems that it was not conceived on a large scale, since the narrative had reached In which he undertook 'fabulous exploits'. It is conceivable that there was some connection between Earendel's great world-girdling voyage and the travels of Wade as described by the twelfth-century English writer Walter Map, who tells how Gado (sc. Wade) journeyed in his boat to the furthest Indies. the dragon-fire arising over the northern heights already within 130 lines. That he composed it while at the University of Leeds is certain, but I strongly suspect that it was the first versification of matter from the Lost Tales undertaken, before he turned to the alliterative line. The story, so far as it goes, has undergone virtually no development from the prose tale of The Fall of Condolin, and the closeness of the Lay to the Tale can be seen from this comparison (though the passage is exceptional): (Tale, II. 158) Rejoice that ye have found it, for behold before you the City of Seven Names where all who war with Melko may find hope.' Then said Tuor: 'What be those names?' And the chief of the Guard made answer: "Tis said and 'tis sung: "Gondobar am I called and Gondothlimbar, City of Stone and City of the Dwellers in Stone, &c. (Lay) Rejoice that ye have found it and rest from endless war, For the seven-named city 'tis that stands upon the hill, Where all who strive with Morgoth find hope and valour still.' 'What be those names,' said Tuor, 'for I come from long afar?' "Tis said and 'tis sung,' one answered, '"My name is Gondobar And Gondothlimbar also, the City hewn of Stone, The fortress of the Gnome-folk who dwell in Halls of Stone, &c. I do not give this poem in extenso here, since it does not, so far as the main narrative is concerned, add anything to the Tale; and my father found, as I think, the metrical form unsuitable to the purpose. There are, : however, several passages of interest for the study of the larger develop- ment of the legends. In the Tale, Tuor was the son of Peleg (who was the son of Indor, II. 160), but here he is the son of Fengel; while on a scrap of paper giving rough workings of the passage cited above* Tuor himself is called Fengel - cf. 'Earendel son of Fengel' at the end of the fragment of an Earendel Lay, p. 141. Long afterwards Fengel was the name of the fifteenth King of Rohan in the Third Age, grandfather of Theoden, and there it is the , 'Old English noun fengel 'king, prince'. There are some puzzling statements made concerning Fingolfin, whose appearance here, I feel certain, is earlier than those in the alliterative poems; and the passage in which he appears introduces also the story of Isfin and Eol. (* This is the page referred to in Unfinished Tales p. 4: some lines of verse in which appear the Seven Names of Gondolin are scribbled on the back of a piece of paper setting out "the chain of responsibility in a battalion".' Not knowing at that time where this isolated scrap came from I took this as an indication of very carly date, but this is certainly mistaken: the paper must have survived and been used years later for rough writing.) Lo, that prince of Gondobar [Meglin] dark Eol's son whom Isfin, in a mountain dale afar in the gloom of Doriath's forest, the white-limbed maiden bare, the daughter of Fingolfin, Gelmir's mighty heir. 'Twas the bent blades of the Glamhoth that drank Fingolfin's life as he stood alone by Feanor; but his maiden and his wife were wildered as they sought him in the forests of the night, in the pathless woods of Doriath, so dark that as a light of palely mirrored moonsheen were their slender elfin limbs straying among the black holes where only the dim bat skims from Thu's dark-delved caverns. There Eol saw that sheen and he caught the white-limbed Isfin, that she ever since hath been his mate in Doriath's forest, where she weepeth in the gloam; for the Dark Elves were his kindred that wander without home. Meglin she sent to Gondolin, and his honour there was high as the latest seed of Fingolfin, whose glory shall not die; a lordship he won of the Gnome-folk who quarry deep in the earth, seeking their ancient jewels; but little was his mirth, and dark he was and secret and his hair as the strands of night that are tangled in Taur Fuin* the forest without light. In the Lost Tales Finwe Noleme, first Lord of the Noldoli, was the ' father of Turgon (and so of Isfin, who was Turgon's sister), I. 115; ' Finwe Noleme was slain in the Battle of Unnumbered Tears and his -' heart cut out by Orcs, but Turgon rescued the body and heart of his father, and the Scarlet Heart became his grim emblem (I. 241, II. 172). Finwe Noleme is also called Fingolma (I. 238 - 9, II. 220). In the alliterative poems Fingolfin is the son of Finwe (Finweg) and the father of Turgon, and also of Finweg (> Fingon), as he was to remain, (see p. 137). Thus: Lost Tales. Finwe Noleme (Fingolma) (slain in the Battle of Unnumbered Tean). Turgon. Isfin. Alliterative Poems. Finwe. Fingolfin. Turgon. Finweg (> Fingon): (slain in the Battle of Unnumbered Tears). But whereas in the Lay of the Fall of Condolin Fingolfin has (* Taur Fuin is the form in the Lost Tales; it was here emended later to Taur-na-Fuin, which is the form from the first in The Children of IIurin.) emerged and stepped into Finwe's place as the father of Turgon and Isfin, he is not here the son of Finwe but of one Gelmir: Gelmir. Turgon Isfin. In an early prose text - one of the very few scraps (to be given in the next volume) that bridge the gap in the prose history between the Lost Tales and the 'Sketch of the Mythology' - Gelmir appears as the King of the Noldoli at the time of the flight from Valinor, and one of his sons is there named Golfin. There is too little evidence extant (if there ever was any more written down) to penetrate with certainty the earliest evolution of the Noldorin kings. The simplest explanation is that this Gelmir, father of Golfin/ Fingolfin = Fingolma/Finwe Noleme, father of Fingolfin. But it is also said in this passage that Fingolfin was slain by the Glamhoth 'as he stood alone by Feanor', and whatever story lies behind this is now vanished (for the earliest, very obscure, references to the death of Feanor see I. 238 - 9). This passage from the Lay of the Fall of Gondolin contains the first account of the story of Eol the Dark Elf, Isfin sister of Turgon, and their son Meglin (for a very primitive form of the legend see II. 220). In the prose tale of The Fall of Gondolin the story is dismissed in the words 'that tale of Isfin and Eol may not here be told', II. 165. In the Lay, Fingolfin's wife and daughter (Isfin) were seeking for him when Isfin was taken by Eol. Since in the 'Sketch' Isfin was lost in Taur-na-Fuin after the Battle of Unnumbered Tears and there trapped by Eol, it is possible that at this stage Fingolfin was the Elvish king who died (beside Feanor?) in the great battle. It is also possible that we see here the genesis of the idea of Isfin's wandering in the wilds, although of course with subsequent shifts, whereby Fingolfin died in duel with Morgoth after the Battle of Sudden Flame and Fingon (Isfin's brother) was the Noldorin king slain in the Battle of Unnumbered Tears, the story that she was seeking her father was abandoned. What this passage does certainly show is that the story of Isfin's sending her son to Gondolin is original, but that originally Isfin remained with her captor Eol and never escaped from him. Eol here dwells 'in a mountain dale afar in the gloom of Doriath's forest', 'in the forests of the night', 'where only the dim bat skims from Thu's dark-delved caverns'. This must be the earliest reference to Thu, and at any rate in connected writing the earliest to Doriath (Artanor of the Lost Tales). I have suggested (II. 63) that in the Tale of Tinuviel 'Artanor was conceived as a great region of forest in the heart of which was Tinwelint's cavern', and that the zone of the Queen's protection 'was originally less distinctly bordered, and less extensive, than "the Girdle of Melian" afterwards became'. Here the description of Eol's habitation in a forest without light (where Thu lives in caverns) suggests rather the forest of Taur-na-Fuin, where Never-dawning night was netted clinging in the black branches of the beetling trees and where goblins even (whose deep eyes drill the darkest shadows) bewildered wandered (The Children of Hurin, p. 34 lines 753 ff.) The passage also contains an interesting reference to the purpose of the miners of Gondolin: 'seeking their ancient jewels.' Earlier in this Lay some lines are given to the coming of Tuor to the hidden door beneath the Encircling Mountains: Thither Tuor son of Fengel came out of the dim land that the Gnomes have called Dor-Lomin, with Bronweg at his hand, who fled from the Iron Mountains and had broken Melko's chain and cast his yoke of evil, of torment and bitter pain; who alone most faithful-hearted led Tuor by long ways through empty hills and valleys by dark nights and perilous days, till his blue lamp magic-kindled, where flow the shadowy rills beneath enchanted alders, found that Gate beneath the hills, the door in dark Dungorthin that only-the Gnome-folk knew. In a draft for this passage the name here is Nan Orwen, emended to Dungorthin. In The Children of Hurin (lines 1457 ff.) Turin and Flinding came to this 'grey valley' after they had passed west over Sirion, and reached the roots of the Shadowy Mountains 'that Hithlum girdle'. For earlier references to Nan Dungorthin and different placings of it see p. 87; the present passage seems to indicate yet another, with the hidden door of Gondolin opening into it. A few other passages may be noticed. At the beginning there is a reference to old songs telling how the Gods in council gathered on the outmost rocky bars of the Lonely Island westward, and devised a land of ease beyond the great sea-shadows and the shadowy seas; how they made the deep gulf of Faerie with long and lonely shore . . . That the Gods were ferried on an island by Osse and the Oarni at the time of the fall of the Lamps is told in the tale of The Coming of the Valar (I. 70), and that this isle was afterwards that of the Elves' ferrying (becoming Tol Eressea) is told in The Coming of the Elves (I. 118). When Gondolin was built the people cried 'Cor is built anew! ' and the guard who told Tuor the seven names said: Loth, the Flower, they name me, saying 'Cor is born again, even in Loth-a-ladwen,* the Lily of the Plain.' I have noticed earlier (II. 208) that whereas it is explicit in The Silmaril- lion that Turgon devised the city to be 'a memorial of Tirion upon Tuna', and it became 'as beautiful as a memory of Elven Tirion', this is not said in The Fall of Condolin: Turgon was born in the Great Lands after the return of the Noldoli from Valinor, and had never known Kor. 'One may feel nonetheless that the tower of the King, the fountains and stairs, the white marbles of Gondolin embody a recollection of Kor as it is described in The Coming of the Elves and the Making of Kor (I. 122 - 3). There is also a reference to Earendel who passed the Gates of Dread, half-mortal and half-elfin, undying and long dead. The Gates of Dread are probably the gates of the Door of Night, through which Earendel passed (II. 255). (* This is the only point in which the Seven Names differ from their forms in the Tale (II. 158). In the Tale the name of the city as 'Lily of the Valley' is Lothengriol. For ladwen 'plain' see II. 344. In a draft of the passage in the lay the name was Loth Barodrin.)