PART THREE.
THE WANDERINGS
OF
HURIN
AND OTHER WRITINGS
NOT FORMING PART
OF THE
QUENTA SILMARILLION.
I
THE WANDERINGS OF HURIN.
In The Wanderings of Hurin ('WH') it is not convenient to use the
device of numbered paragraphs, and commentary (pp. 298 ff.) is here
related to numbered notes in the text.
The earliest account of Hurin after his release by Morgoth is found
in the Tale of Turambar (II.112 - 15, 135-6), leading to that in the
Sketch of the Mythology (IV.32) and in Q (IV.132); see also AB 1 and
AB 2 (IV.306, V.141). It is not necessary to say anything about these
here, since in none of them is there any suggestion that Hurin returned
to Hithlum (or went to Brethil) before he came to Nargothrond.
I have described (p. 103) how the manuscript of the Grey Annals
(GA) ends with strange abruptness at the foot of a page, and said that
'it always seemed to me strange that my father should have abandoned
the Grey Annals where he did, without at least writing the inscription
that was carved on the stone'. At some later time (see ibid.) he entered
roughly on the manuscript the inscription on the stone, and the words
of conclusion to the tale, derived from the last part of the Narn (NE).
The explanation of this was simple, when I discovered, misplaced
among miscellaneous papers, manuscript pages that are very obviously
the continuation of the Grey Annals (the first of these pages is indeed
numbered continuously with the last page of the main manuscript);
this continuation, it is plain, was already lost in my father's lifetime.
The original conclusion was in fact exactly as in the addition made to
GA when he presumed the original ending lost, except that the title of
the work was then Glaer nia Chin Hurin, as in NE (p. 160, $349).
Subsequently my father had added the words 'and was made by Men',
as in the conclusion added to GA (p. 103), and later again he changed
the title to Narn i Chin Hurin, as he did also in NE.
In the scarcely changing script of the main manuscript this 'lost' text
stopped here, but was then continued on the same page in a different
ink and script, with the date 500 twice written against this further
entry and each time struck out.
It is said by some that Morwen on a time came in her witless
wandering to that stone and read it, and died afterwards,
though haply she did not understand the tale that it told, and in
that was less tormented than Hurin. For all that Morgoth knew
of the working of his curse Hurin knew also; but lies and malice
were mingled with the truth, and he that sees through the eyes
of Morgoth, willing or unwilling, sees all things crooked.
[Written in the margin later: Some fate of Morwen must be
devised. Did Morwen and Hurin meet again?](1)
At this point the ink and to a slight degree the style of the script
change again. The following narrative is the first account of Hurin's
release since the Quenta of 1930.
500.
Especially Morgoth endeavoured to cast an evil light upon all
that Thingol and Melian had done (for he hated and feared
them most); and when at last he deemed the time ripe, in the
year after the death of his children, he released Hurin from
bondage and let him go whither he would. He feigned that in
this he was moved by generosity to a defeated enemy, but in
truth his purpose was that Hurin should further his malice. And
little though Hurin trusted aught that Morgoth said or did, he
went forth in grief, embittered by the lies of the Dark Lord.
Twenty-eight years Hurin was captive in Angband, and at his
release was in his sixtieth year,(2) but great strength was in him
still, in spite of the weight of his grief, for it suited the purpose ]
of Morgoth that this should be so. He was sent under guard as
far as the east-marches of Hithlum, and there he was let go free.
None that had known him [in] youth could mistake him still, .]
though he had grown grim to look on: his hair and beard were
white and long, but there was a fell light in his eyes. He walked
unbowed, and yet carried a great black staff; but he was girt
with his sword. Great wonder and dread fell on the land when it
was noised in Hithlum that the Lord Hurin had returned. The
Easterlings were dismayed, fearing that their Master would
prove faithless again and give back the land to the Westrons,
and that they would be enslaved in their turn. For watchmen
had reported that Hurin came out of Angband.
'There was a great riding,' they said, 'of the black soldiers of
Thangorodrim over the Anfauglith, and with them came this
man, as one that was held in honour.'
Therefore the chieftains of the Easterlings dared not lay hands
on Hurin, and let him walk at will. In which they were wise; for
the remnant of his own people shunned him, because of his
coming from Angband, as one in league and honour with
Morgoth; and indeed all escaped captives were held in suspicion
of spying and treachery in those days, as has been told. Thus
freedom only increased the bitterness of Hurin's heart; for even
had he so wished, he could not have roused any rebellion
against the new lords of the land. All the following that he
gathered was a small company of the homeless men and outlaws
chat lurked in the hills; but they had done no great deed against
the Incomers since the passing of Turin, some five years before.
Of Turin's deeds in Brodda's hall Hurin now learned from the '
outlaws the true tale,. and he looked on Asgon {3} and his men,
and he said: 'Men are changed here. In thraldom they have
found thrall hearts. I desire no longer any lordship among them,
nor elsewhere in Middle-earth. I will leave this land and wander
alone, unless any of you will go with me, to meet what we may.
For I have no purpose now, unless I find chance to avenge the
wrongs of my son.'
Asgorn {4} and six other desperate men were willing to go with
him; and Hurin led them to the halls of Lorgan, who still called
himself the Lord of Hithlum. Lorgan heard of their coming and
was afraid, and he gathered other chieftains and their men in his
house for defence. But Hurin coming to the gates looked on the
Eastrons {5} in scorn.
'Fear not!' he said. 'I should have needed no companions, if I
had come to fight with you. I am come only to take leave of the
lord of the land. I have no liking for it any more, since you have
defiled it. Hold it while you may, until your Master recalls you
to the slave-tasks that fit you better.'
Then Lorgan was not ill-pleased to think that he would so
soon and easily be rid of the fear of Hurin, without crossing the
will of Angband; and he came forward.
'As you will, friend,' he said. 'I have done you no ill, and have
let you be, and of this I hope you will bring a true tale, if you
come again to the Master.'
Hurin eyed him in wrath. 'Friend me not, thrall and churl!' he
said. 'And believe not the lies that I have heard: that I have ever
entered into the service of the Enemy. Of the Edain am I and so
remain, and there shall be no friendship between mine and
yours for ever.'
Then hearing that Hurin had not after all the favour of
Morgoth, or forswore it, many of Lorgan's men drew their
swords to put an end to him. But Lorgan restrained them; for he
was wary, and more cunning and wicked than the others, and
quicker therefore to guess at the purposes of the Master.
'Go then, greybeard, to evil fortune,' he said. 'For that is your
doom. Folly and violence and self-hurt are all the deeds of your
kin. Fare you ill!'
'Tol acharn!' said Hurin. 'Vengeance comes. I am not the last
of the Edain, whether I fare ill or well.' And with that he
departed, and left the land of Hithlum.
501.
Of the wanderings of Hurin there is no tale told, until he
came at last late in this year to Nargothrond. It is said that he
had then gathered to him other fugitives and masterless men in
the wild, and came south with a following of a hundred or
more. But why it was that he went to Nargothrond is uncertain,
save that so his doom and the fate of the Jewels led him. Some
have said that
At this point the 'lost continuation' of the Grey Annals stops, at
the foot of a page; but a further page is found, written in a wholly
different script (a rapid italic that my father used quite frequently in
the period after the publication of The Lord of the Rings), that clearly
joins to the abandoned sentence 'Some have said that'. Together
with the first extension of the Annals, that concerning Morwen (pp.
251-2), and then the narrative recounting Hurin's return to Hithlum,
this page is a further and final link in the series of additions that were
made at intervals whose length cannot be determined.
[Some have said that] maybe he knew not that Glaurung was
dead, and hoped in his heart distraught to take vengeance on
this evil thing - for Morgoth would conceal the death of
Glaurung, if he could, both because the loss was a grief to him
and a hurt to his pride, and because (from Hurin especially) he
would conceal all that was most valiant or successful of Turin's
deeds. Yet this can scarce be so,(6) since the death of Glaurung
was so bound up with the death of his children and revelation of
their evil case; while the rumour of the assault of Glaurung
upon Brethil went far and wide. Certainly Morgoth fenced men
in Hithlum, as he was able, and little news came to them of
events in other lands; but so soon as Hurin passed southward or
met any wanderers in the wild he would hear tidings of the
battle in the ravine of Taiglin.
More likely is it that he was drawn thither to discover news of
Turin; to Brethil he would not yet come, nor to Doriath.
He went first seeking a way into Gondolin, and the friendship
of Turgon (which indeed would have been great); but he found
it not. His doom was unwilling (for Morgoth's curse was ever
upon him still); and moreover since the Nirnaeth Turgon had
expended every art upon the hiding of his realm. It was then
that Hurin finding
Here the text stops abruptly; but on the same page and clearly at the
same time my father wrote the following:
Hurin goes to seek Gondolin. Fails. Passes by Brethil, and his
anguish is increased. They will not admit him - saying that the
Halethrim do not wish any more to become enmeshed in the
shadow of his kin. But A [?new] Lord (7) gives the dragon-
helm to Hurin. His heart is hot against Thingol. He passes it
[Doriath] by and goes on to Nargothrond. Why? To seek news,
plunder, - he had been an admirer of Felagund.
News of the fall of Nargothrond came to sons of Feanor, and
dismayed Maedros, but did not all displease Celeg[orn] and
Curufin. But when the news of the dragon's fall was heard, then
many wondered concerning its hoard and who was the master?
Some Orc-lord, men thought. But the Dwarves of [sic] How
did Mim find it? He must come of a different race.(8)
These two pieces, especially the latter, are plainly a record of
emerging ideas. In the first there is what is probably the earliest
reference to the story that Hurin sought but failed to find the entrance
to Gondolin. In the second appears a new articulation in the unwritten
history of the Dragon-helm, together with other new detail (Hurin's
admiration of Felagund, and the effect of the news of the fall of
Nargothrond on the sons of Feanor); and there is seen the first
adumbration of a story of Hurin's adventures in Brethil before he went
to Nargothrond.
Before coming to the fully achieved story of Hurin in Brethil there
remains one further text to consider. When my father was engaged on
his later work on the Narn i Chin Hurin he made several plot-synopses
arranged in annalistic form. Much of that material is not relevant here,
since it is primarily concerned with the evolving story of Turin; but
one of them, which begins with the birth of Turin, continues beyond
his death and gives some account, though very brief, of Hurin after his
release by Morgoth.
I give here the conclusion of this text (certainly somewhat later than
any of the writings given thus far in Part Three), taking it up a little
before the death of Turin, since there are many interesting details in
the annals for 490-9 bearing on the accounts given in NE and GA.
The text was written legibly but very rapidly.
490-5.
Turin becomes a great captain in Nargothrond under the
name of Iarwaeth, and is called Mormegil Black Sword .
[Altered later to read: Turin becomes a great captain in
Nargothrond. He only tells that he was lord of Cuarthol, and
gives out his name as Thuringud the Hidden Foe; but is called
Mormegil 'Black Sword'.
Gwindor reveals his true name to Finduilas, and Turin is
angry.(9)
494.
Morgoth stirs up the Eastrons to greater hatred of Elves and
Edain, and sends Orcs to aid them and impel them. Lorgan
hearing of Nienor's beauty is eager to take her by force.
Morwen and Nienor flee the land and come to Doriath. They
seek news of Turin.(10)
495.
Tuor escapes from Hithlum by Cirith Ninniach and comes to
Nivrost. He meets Gelmir and Arminas. Ulmo visits him on the
shores by Mount Taras, and sends Voronwe to him. Tuor and
Voronwe go to seek Gondolin which they reach in winter.
Winter of 495 - 6 is the Fell Winter with ice and snow from
November to March (5 months).
Gelmir and Arminas come to Nargothrond and bring warn-
ing of forces mustering in Narrow Land and under Eryd-
wethian [sic]. They are rejected by Turin.
Handir of Brethil slain in battle with the Orcs at the
Crossings of Taeglin [sic]. His son Brandir the lame is chosen
Chieftain, though many would have preferred his cousins
Hunthor or Hardang.
Turin and Orodreth defeated in Battle of Tum-halad by the
dread of Glaurung. Gwindor also slain. Glaurung ravages
Nargothrond, and cozens Turin.
Turin breaks his word to Gwindor to endeavour to save
Finduilas, who is carried off. Instead under the spell of
Glaurung he goes to Dorlomin to seek Morwen and Nienor.
Finduilas is slain by the Orcs near Crossings of Taeglin and
buried by Men of Brethil in Haudh-en-Elleth.
Tuor sees Turin near ravaged place of Eithil Ivrin but does not
know who he is.
Glaurung takes possession of Nargothrond.(11)
496.
Early in year Turin comes to Dorlomin. He slays Brodda in
his hall. Death of Sador. Turin flies with Asgon and other
outlawed Edain to the Mountains, and then leaves Dorlomin by
himself. He comes at last to Brethil and learns of the fate of
Finduilas.
Morwen and Nienor come to Nargothrond, but their escort
(under Mablung) is scattered, and Morwen is lost in the wild,
but Nienor is bewitched by Glaurung, and loses her memory,
and runs into the wild.
Nienor comes to Brethil, and is called Niniel.(12)
496-
Under the name of Turambar Turin becomes chief warrior of
Brethil, and men give no heed to Brandir. Brandir falls in love
with Niniel, but she loves Turambar.
497.
Dior Halfelven weds Lindis of Ossiriand.(13)
498.
Turin weds Niniel (autumn).(14)
499.
Glaurung assails Brethil. Turin goes against him with Hun-
thor and Dorlas. Dorlas' heart fails and he leaves them.
Hunthor is slain by a falling stone. Turin slays Glaurung.
Glaurung ere death reveals to Turin and Nienor who they are.
Turin slays Brandir. Nienor casts herself into Taeglin. [The
following are separate additions to the text:] Turin slays
Brandir and takes his own life. / Men of Brethil erect the Talbor
or St[anding] Stone to their memory. / Mim comes to Nargoth-
rond and takes possession of the treasure.(15)
500.
Elrun and Eldun twin sons of Dior are born.
Morgoth releases Hurin. Hurin goes to Hithlum.(16)
501.
Hurin leaves Hithlum and with Asgon and six men goes
down into the Narrow Land.
Hurin leaves his companions and seeks in vain an entrance to
Gondolin, but Morgoth's spies thus learn in what region it
stands.
Hurin comes to the Stone and there finds Morwen, who dies.
Hurin is put in prison by Hardang Chief of Brethil, but is aided
by Manthor his kinsman (cousin of Hardang). In uprising
Hardang and Manthor are slain and Obel Halad is burned.
Hurin finds Asgon again and gathers other men and goes
towards Nargothrond.(17)
502.
Tuor weds Idril daughter of Turgon.
Hurin comes to Nargothrond and slays Mim the petty-dwarf.
He and his men carry off the treasure of Glaurung and bring it
to Doriath. Hurin is admitted in pity.(18)
Here this plot-synopsis ends, at the foot of a manuscript page. I
come now to the substantial complex of writing leading to a final text
which my father ultimately entitled The Wanderings of Hurin (earlier
Of the Fate of Hurin and Morwen). The final title seems not to be
entirely apposite to the content of the work, which is wholly
concerned with the story of Hurin in Brethil; it may have been
intended to have a larger scope, to include the further story of Hurin
told on the same scale, which was never written (see p. 310, note 57,
and also the other title given below).
There is, first, a draft manuscript and associated rough workings
(often of an extreme roughness). Many pages of the draft material are
the backs of University documents dated 1954, others are documents
from 1957. Secondly, there is a typescript made by my father on his
later typewriter (see X.300), much emended in manuscript and with
some substantial passages rejected and replaced by new material in
typescript; and lastly an amanuensis typescript of virtually no inde-
pendent value. The work can be placed with fair certainty towards the
end of the 1950s.
My father's typescript, as typed, bore no title, but he wrote in ink on
the top copy:
Of the Fate of Hurin and Morwen
Link to the Necklace of the Dwarves, 'Sigil Elu-naeth'
Necklace of the Woe of Thingol
The text opens thus:
So ended the tale of Turin the hapless; and it has ever been
held one of the worst of the deeds of Morgoth among Men in
the ancient world. It is said by some that on a time Morwen
came in her witless wandering to the graven stone, and knowing
that her children were dead, though she understood not in what
way their tale had ended, she sat beside the stone awaiting
death; and there Hurin found her at last, as is after told.
Less happy than hers was the lot of Hurin.
This passage derives, in its first sentence, from Q (IV.131), and then
from the first continuation of the Grey Annals (pp. 251-2), with the
addition that Hurin found Morwen beside the stone (cf. p. 258, annal
501). The passage was struck from the typescript and replaced by the
following, written on a document dating from 1957:
So ended the tale of Turin the Hapless, the worst of the works
of Morgoth among Men in the ancient world. But Morgoth did
not sleep nor rest from evil, and this was not the end of his
dealings with the House of Hador, against which his malice was
unsated, though Hurin was under his Eye, and Morwen
wandered distraught in the wild.
Unhappy was the lot of Hurin.
At the head of this my father subsequently wrote The Wanderings of
Hurin, and the final amanuensis typescript was given this title also (see
p. 258). The typescript continues, from 'Less happy than hers was the
lot of Hurin':
For all that Morgoth knew of the working of his malice Hurin
knew also; but lies were mingled with the truth, and aught that
was good was hidden or distorted. He that sees through the eyes
of Morgoth, willing or unwilling, sees all things crooked.
It was Morgoth's special endeavour to cast an evil light upon
all that Thingol and Melian had done, for he feared and hated
them most; and when, therefore, he deemed the time ripe, in the
year after the death of Turin he released Hurin from bondage,
bidding him go whither he would.
He feigned that in this he was moved by pity for an enemy
utterly defeated, marvelling at his endurance. 'Such steadfast-
ness,' he said, 'should have been shown in a better cause, and
would have been otherwise rewarded. But I have no longer any
use for you, Hurin, in the waning of your little life.' And he lied,
for his purpose was that Hurin should still further his malice
against Elves and Men, ere he died.
Then little though Hurin trusted aught that Morgoth said or
did, knowing that he was without pity, he took his freedom and
went forth in grief, embittered by the deceits of the Dark Lord.
Twenty-eight years Hurin was captive in Angband...
In this passage my father was following, with some expansion, the
continuation of the Grey Annals (p. 252); from this point he followed
it almost without alteration as far as 'And with that he departed, and
left the land of Hithlum' (p. 254).(19) There are thus two closely similar,
and for most of their length all but identical, texts of this short
narrative, which may be called 'Hurin in Hithlum'; but the first of
them is the continuation of the Annals, and the second is the opening
of a wholly new story of Hurin in Brethil - causing a postponement of
the story of 'Hurin in Nargothrond', which in the event was never
reached. Seeing then that the second text of 'Hurin in Hithlum' has an
entirely distinct function, there is clearly no question of regarding the
story of Hurin in Brethil as a further extension of the Annals. As will
be seen, my father was very evidently no longer writing annals of
Beleriand: that work was now abandoned - or possibly, in his
intention, left in abeyance, until the new story had been completed on
the scale that he found congenial.
I now give the further text of The Wanderings of Hurin (following
from the words 'And with that he departed, and left the land of
Hithlum'). The work is of peculiar complexity in this, that when my
father was well advanced in the story he came to a clearer understand-
ing (as he might have said) of the situation in Brethil at the time of
Hurin's advent; and these new conceptions overtook it before it was
completed in a primary form. In other words, the story grew and
changed as he wrote, but in this case he did not abandon it and start
again at the beginning: he returned to earlier parts of the story and
reconstructed them. For the most part the text as actually typed could
stand, but required continual emendation in respect of names and
other details. It is not easy to find a perfectly satisfactory and readily ]
comprehensible way of presenting this, but after much experimenta-
tion I concluded that the best method is to give as the text the final
form achieved in the typescript, but to interrupt it (pp. 265 ff.) at the
point where the new conceptions first appear and give an account of
the development. Two passages are concerned: the revised form of the
first is marked by single asterisks on pp. 262-3, and of the second by
double asterisks on pp. 264-5.
It is said that the hunters of Lorgan dogged his footsteps and
did not leave his trail until he and his companions went up into
the mountains. When Hurin stood again in the high places he
descried far away amid the clouds the peaks of the Crisaegrim,
and he remembered Turgon; and his heart desired to come again
to the Hidden Realm, if he could, for there at least he would be
remembered with honour. He had heard naught of the things
that had come to pass in Gondolin, and knew not that Turgon
now hardened his heart against wisdom and pity, and allowed
no one either to enter or to go forth for any cause whatsoever.(20)
Therefore, unaware that all ways were shut beyond hope, he
resolved to turn his steps towards the Crisaegrim; but he said
nothing of his purpose to his companions, for he was still bound
by his oath to reveal to no one that he knew even in what region
Turgon abode.
Nonetheless he had need of help; for he had never lived in the
wild, whereas the outlaws were long inured to the hard life of
hunters and gatherers, and they brought with them such food as
they could, though the Fell Winter had much diminished their
store. Therefore Hurin said to them: 'We must leave this land
now; for Lorgan will leave me in peace no longer. Let us go
down into the vales of Sirion, where Spring has come at last! '
Then Asgon (21) guided them to one of the ancient passes that
led east out of Mithrim, and they went down from the sources of
the Lithir, until they came to the falls where it raced into Sirion
at the southern end of the Narrow Land.(22) Now they went with
great wariness; for Hurin put little trust in the 'freedom' that
Morgoth had granted him. And rightly: for Morgoth had news
of all his movements, and though for a while he was hidden in
the mountains, his coming down was soon espied. Thereafter
he was followed and watched, yet with such cunning that he
seldom got wind of it. All the creatures of Morgoth avoided his
sight, and he was never waylaid or molested.(23)
They journeyed southward on the west side of Sirion, and
Hurin debated with himself how to part from his companions,
at least for so long that he could seek for an entrance to
Gondolin without betraying his word. At length they came to
the Brithiach; and there Asgon said to Hurin: 'Whither shall we
go now, lord? Beyond this ford the ways east are too perilous
for mortal men, if tales be true.'
'Then let us go to Brethil, which is nigh at hand,' said Hurin.
'I have an errand there. In that land my son died.'
So that night they took shelter in a grove of trees, first outliers
of the Forest of Brethil on its northern border only a short way
south of the Brithiach. Hurin lay a little apart from the others;
and next day before it was light he arose while they slumbered
deep in weariness, and he left them and crossed the ford and
came into Dimbar.
When the men awoke he was already gone far, and there was
a thick morning mist about the river. As time passed and he did
not return nor answer any call they began to fear that he had
been taken by some beast or prowling enemy. 'We have become
heedless of late,' said Asgon. 'The land is quiet, too quiet, but
there are eyes under leaves and ears behind stones.'
They followed his trail when the mist lifted; but it led to the
ford and there failed, and they were at a loss. 'If he has left us,
let us return to our own land,' said Ragnir.(24) He was the
youngest of the company, and remembered little of the days
before the Nirnaeth. 'The old man's wits are wild. He speaks
with strange voices to shadows in his sleep.'
'Little wonder if it were so,' said Asgon. 'But who else could
stand as straight as he, after such woe? Nay, he is our right lord,
do as he may, and I have sworn to follow him.'
'Even east over the ford?' said the others.
'Nay, there is small hope in that way,' said Asgon, 'and I do
not think that Hurin will go far upon it. All we know of his
purpose was to go soon to Brethil, and that he has an errand
there. We are on the very border. Let us seek him there.'
'By whose leave?' said Ragnir. 'Men there do not love
strangers.'
'Good men dwell there,' said Asgon, 'and the [Master >]
Lord of Brethil is kin to our old lords.'(25) Nonetheless the others
were doubtful, for no tidings had come out of Brethil for some ]
years. 'It may be ruled by Orcs for all we know,' they said.
'We shall soon find what way things go,' said Asgon. 'Orcs
are little worse than Eastrons, I guess. If outlaws we must
remain, I would rather lurk in the fair woods than in the cold
hills.'
Asgon, therefore, turned and went back towards Brethil; and
the others followed him, for he had a stout heart and men said
that he was born with good luck. Before that day ended they
had come deep into the forest, and their coming was marked;
for the Haladin were more wary than ever and kept close watch
on their borders. In the [middle of the night >] grey of the
morning, as all but one of the incomers were asleep, their camp
was surrounded, and their watchman was held and gagged as
soon as he cried out.
Then Asgon leapt up, and called to his men that they should
draw no weapon. 'See now,' he cried, 'we come in peace! Edain
we are out of [Mithrim > Hithlum >] Dorlomin.'
*'That may be so,' said the march-wardens. 'But the morn is
dim. Our captain will judge you better when light is more.'
Then being many times outnumbered Asgon and his men
were made prisoners, and their weapons were taken and their
hands bound. Thus they were brought to Ebor their captain;
and he asked their names and whence they came.
'So you are Edain of the North,' he said. 'Your speech bears
you out, and your gear. You look for friendship, maybe. But
alas! evil things have befallen us here, and we live in fear.
Manthor my lord, Master of the North-march, is not here, and I
must therefore obey the commands of the Halad, the Chieftain
of Brethil. To him you must be sent at once without further
question. There may you speed well! '
So Ebor spoke in courtesy, but he did not hope over much.
For the new Chieftain was now Hardang son of Hundad. At the
death of Brandir childless he had been made Halad, being of the
Haladin, the kin of Haleth, from which all chieftains were
chosen. He had not loved Turin, and he had no love now at all
for the House of Hador, in whose blood he had no part. Neither
had he much friendship with Manthor, who was also of the
Haladin.
To Hardang Asgon and his men were led by devious ways,
and they were blindfolded. Thus at length they came to the hall
of the Chieftains in Obel Halad;(26) and their eyes were un-
covered, and the guards led them in. Hardang sat in his great
chair, and he looked unkindly upon them.
'From Dorlomin you come, I am told,' he said. 'But why you
come I know not.* Little good has come to Brethil out of that
land; and I look for none now: it is a fief of Angband. Cold
welcome you will find here, creeping in thus to spy out our
ways! '
Asgon restrained his anger, but answered stoutly: 'We did
not come in stealth, lord. We have as great craft in woods as
your folk, and we should not so easily have been taken, if we
had known any cause for fear. We are Edain, and we do not
serve Angband but hold to the House of Hador. We believed
that the Men of Brethil were of like sort and friendly to all
faithful men.'
'To those of proved faith,' said Hardang. 'To be Edain is not
enough alone. And as for the House of Hador it is held in little
love here. Why should the folk of that House come here now?'
To that Asgon made no answer; for from the unfriendship of
the [Master >] Chieftain he thought it best not to speak yet
of Hurin.
'I see that you will not speak of all that you know,' said
Hardang. 'So be it. I must judge as I see; but I will be just. This is
my judgement. Here Turin son of Hurin dwelt for a time, and he
delivered the land from the Serpent of Angband. For this I give
you your lives. **But he scorned Brandir, right Chieftain of
Brethil, and he slew him without justice or pity. Therefore I will
not harbour you here. You shall be thrust forth, whence you
entered. Go now, and if you return it will be to death!'
'Then shall we not receive our weapons again?' said Asgon.
'Will you cast us back into the wild without bow or steel to
perish among the beasts?'
'No man of Hithlum shall ever again bear weapon in Brethil,'
said Hardang. Not by my leave. Lead them hence.
But as they were haled from the hall Asgon cried: This is the
justice of Eastrons not of Edain! We were not here with Turin,
either in good deed or evil. Hurin we serve. He lives still.
Lurking in your wood do you not remember the Nirnaeth? Will
you then dishonour him also in your spite, if he comes?'
'If Hurin comes, do you say?' said Hardang. 'When Morgoth
sleeps, maybe! '
'Nay,' said Asgon. 'He has returned. With him we came to
your borders. He has an errand here, he said. He will come!'
'Then I shall be here to meet him,' said Hardang. 'But you
will not. Now go!' He spoke as in scorn, but his face whitened
in sudden fear that some strange thing had happened boding yet
worse to come. Then a great dread of the shadow of the House
of Hador fell upon him, so that his heart grew dark. For he was
not a man of great spirit, such as were Hunthor and Manthor,
descendants of Hiril.
Asgon and his company were blindfolded again, lest they
should espy out the pathways of Brethil, and they were led back
to the North-march. Ebor was ill pleased when he heard of
what had passed in Obel Halad, and he spoke to them more
courteously.
'Alas! ' he said, 'you must needs go forth again. But see! I
return to you your gear and weapons. For so would my lord
Manthor do, at the least. I would he were here! But he is the
doughtiest man now among us; and by Hardang's command is
Captain of the guards at the Crossings of Taiglin. There we have
most fear of assault, and most fighting. Well, this much I will do
in his stead; but I beg you, do not enter Brethil again, for if you
do, we may feel constrained to obey the word of Hardang that
has now gone out to all the marches: to slay you at sight.'
Then Asgon thanked him, and Ebor led them to the eaves of
Brethil, and there wished them good speed.
'Well, thy luck has held,' said Ragnir, 'for at least we are not
slain, though we came nigh it. Now what shall we do?'
'I desire still to find my lord Hurin,' said Asgon, 'and my
heart tells me that he will come to Brethil yet.'
'Whither we cannot return,' said Ragnir, 'unless we seek a
death swifter than hunger.'
'If he comes, he will come, I guess, by the north-march,
between Sirion and [Taiglin >] Taeglin,' said Asgon. 'Let us go
down towards the Crossings of [Taiglin >] Taeglin. There it is
more likely that we may hear news.'
'Or bow-strings,' said Ragnir. Nonetheless they took Asgon's
counsel, and went away westward, keeping such watch as they
could from afar upon the dark eaves of Brethil.
But Ebor was troubled, and sent swiftly to Manthor reporting
the coming of Asgon and his strange words concerning Hurin.
But of this matter rumour now ran through all Brethil. And
Hardang sat in Obel Halad in doubt, and took counsel with his
friends.**
In the foregoing text two passages are replacements in the typescript
of shorter passages that were rejected. The first of these, marked by
asterisks at its beginning and end, runs from ' "That may be so," said
the march-wardens' on p. 262 to '"But why you come I know not"'
on p. 263. The rejected passage read as follows:
'Maybe,' answered the captain of the guards; 'but the morn is
dim. Others shall judge you in a better light.'
Then, being many times outnumbered, Asgorn and his men were
made prisoners, and their weapons were taken and their hands
bound; and in this way they were brought at last before the new
Master of the Haladin.
He was Harathor, brother of that Hunthor who perished in the
ravine of Taeglin. By the childless death of Brandir he had inherited
the lordship descending from Haldad. He had no love for the house
of Hador, and no part in their blood; and he said to Asgorn, when
the captives stood before him: 'From [Hithlum >] Dorlomin you
come, I am told, and your speech bears it out. But why you come I
know not.
For reference in the following pages I shall call this passage A 1 and its
replacement A 2.
The second replacement passage, marked by two asterisks at
beginning and end, runs from 'But he scorned Brandir' on p. 264 to
'And Hardang sat in Obel Halad in doubt, and took counsel with his
friends' on p. 265. Here the rejected passage read:
'... But he scorned Brandir, right Master of Brethil, and he slew
him without justice or pity. For this I will take your freedom. You
shall be held in bonds; and I shall not relent until good reason is
shown me.'
Then he ordered them to be taken and shut in a cave and there to
be guarded day and night. But as they were led away Asgorn cried:
'This is the justice of Eastrons not of Edain! We were not here with
Turin, either in good deed or evil. Hurin we serve, who still lives.
Maybe lurking in your little wood you do not remember the
Nirnaeth or his great deeds. Will you slay him to ease your griefs, if
he comes?'
'If Hurin comes, do you say?' said Harathor. 'When Morgoth
sleeps, maybe.'
'Nay,' said Asgorn. 'He has returned, and we came with him to
your borders. He has an errand here, he said. He will come!'
'Then we will await him. And you shall too,' said Harathor,
smiling grimly. But afterwards his heart misgave him, fearing that
Asgorn spoke the truth and that some strange thing had happened,
boding worse to follow. For he dreaded the shadow of the House of
Hador, lest it should overwhelm his lesser folk, and he was not a
man of great heart such as Hunthor his brother [later > such as the .1
descendants of Haldir and Hiril his sister].
The rejected text then moved straight on to 'Now Hurin, coming into
Dimbar' on p. 271. The passage just given I will call B 1 and its
replacement B 2.
Among the draft manuscript papers is found the following text,
which I will call 'C': in this my father reflected on the development of
the story. Written very rapidly and roughly, with many abbreviations
which I have expanded, it preceded, and was the basis for, the two
replacement passages A 2 and B 2.
The Wanderings of Hurin.
? Where is to come in the revelation that Asgorn and company are in
jail. They do not seem to fit, yet their coming to Brethil is needed
to 'cast the shadow' by arousing fear and hatred in the heart of
Harathor.
I suggest that the two jailings [i.e. that of Asgorn and his men and
that of Hurin, told later] are too repetitive; and also Harathor is too
fierce all at once. His doom is that because of the killing of Glaurung
their lives are spared; but because of the killing of Brandir they are
to be thrust out: he will have none of the House of Hador.
Asgorn says this is cruel treatment. He demands return of their
weapons, 'or how else are they to live in the wild?' But Harathor
says no man of Dorlomin shall bear a weapon in Brethil. Asgorn as
they are led off asks if he will treat Hurin in like orkish manner. 'We
will wait and see,' said Harathor.
[This paragraph was struck out as soon as written: [Manthor,
captain >] The captain / of the Taiglin-guard returns their weapons,
and bids them a fairly courteous farewell; but warns them that 'state
of war' has been declared (which gives the Master / Warden right to
issue orders to all under duty-rota) and that if they cross again into
Brethil he or any other captain or watchman will shoot them. They
go off but lurk in watch of the crossings, but miss Hurin, who
entered out of Dimbar. Hurin should not enter by Taiglin-crossing,
nor be found by Haud-en-Elleth. (This has no significance in his
case, and overworks the Haud.)]
Asgorn and company are blindfolded as they are brought to Obel
Halad and are put out by the same way as they entered (so as to
learn no more of the ways of Brethil). They therefore lurk near the
eaves in that region, and so miss Hurin who crossed the Brithiach
and went to the Crossings of Taiglin.
The region nigh Brithiach and along Sirion for some way was the
land of Manthor (brother of Hunthor who fell in the ravine). But
Manthor, as one of the chief warriors and of the kin of the Haladin,
was in command of the chief forces kept near the Crossings of
Taiglin. (Manthor was not liked by Harathor, for many had wished
to elect him Warden - it being... law to do so. And maybe Manthor
too desired the Wardenship.) The captain of the guards near
Brithiach was Enthor [> was therefore a chief henchman, called
Ebor, of Manthor's (appointed by him)] younger brother of
Hunthor and Manthor. So Manthor heard soon of what had
happened: for all this family had been supporters and admirers of
Turin, and were proud of their kinship with the House of Hador. So
Enthor [> Ebor] sent messengers to Manthor to tell him that Hurin
might come, escaping from Angband.
In the last part of the Narn (NE) the emergence of Hunthor (< Tor-
barth) can be followed, from his origin in Albarth, at first simply one
of those who volunteered to accompany Turin to the attack on
Glaurung and named only because he fell and was drowned at
Cabed-en-Aras. In the first of these rejected passages (A 1, p. 265) the
new lord of Brethil after the death of Brandir is Harathor, 'brother of
that Hunthor who perished in the ravine of Taeglin'; and it is expressly
said of him that 'he had no love for the house of Hador and no part in
their blood'. These words, repeated in the revision A 2 (p. 263), are of
great importance in the story.
An essential element in the older history of the People of Haleth was
the intermingling of the line of their lords with that of the House of
Hador which came about through the 'double marriage' of Hador's
son Galion with the daughter (unnamed) of Haleth the Hunter, and
of his daughter Glorwendil with Haleth's son Hundor (GA $171
and commentary). This double marriage was preserved in the later
transformed history of the Edain, when the genealogical place of
Haleth the Hunter had been taken by Halmir (p. 236); the resulting
relationships can be displayed thus:
Hador Halmir
Hareth = Galdor Gloredel = Haldir Hareth = Galdor
Hurin Handir Hurin
Turin Brandir Turin
But the complexity was further increased by the introduction of
another connection with the House of Beor in the marriage of Beldis to
Handir of Brethil (see the tables on pp. 231, 237):
Bregor
Bregil Bregolas
Handir = Beldis Baragund
Brandir Morwen = Hurin
Turin
Thus Turin was the second cousin of Brandir on the 'Hadorian' side,
and he was also his second cousin on the Haladin side; while in the
'Beorian' line he was Brandir's second cousin once removed - a
genealogical situation to delight the heart of Hamfast Gamgee.
Pointing out these relationships in an isolated note of this time, my
father observed that 'Turin would be more readily accepted by the
Haladin when his true name and lineage were known or guessed',
since he was akin to their lords in these ways. Harathor, on the other
hand, 'had no love for the house of Hador and no part in their blood'
(although he also was Turin's second cousin, his great-aunt Hareth
being Turin's grandmother).
The genealogical table of the Haladin (p. 237) belongs to this stage:
Harathor is shown as the seventh lord of the Haladin, succeeding
Brandir, and as the brother of Hunthor: they are the sons of Hundad,
son of Hundar who died in the Nirnaeth.
The hostility of the new lord to the House of Hador was an essential
idea in the story of Hurin in Brethil from the beginning; but in the last
paragraph of the discussion C (p. 267) we see the emergence of a
family within the larger clan who, on the contrary, took pride in their
kinship with the House of Hador, and were thus divided in spirit from
the new lord.
In C the significance of Hunthor is moved a stage further: he
becomes the dead brother of Manthor (and must therefore, as will be
seen in a moment, cease to be the brother of Harathor). Manthor had
indeed already entered the story in the original drafting of WH, but he
did not make his appearance until the discovery of Hurin beside the
Haud-en-Elleth (p. 275 in the final version), as captain of the guard in
those parts; now in C he becomes a kinsman of Hurin, and an
upholder of the values and virtues of the Edain. How his kinship with
the House of Hador was introduced is seen from the correction made
to the ending of the rejected passage B 1 (p. 266): '[Harathor] was not
a man of great heart such as Hunthor his brother' > '... such as the
descendants of Haldir and Hiril his sister'.* Hiril here enters the line of
the People of Haleth, and the family tree is extended by a fourth child
of Halmir: Haldir, Hundar, Hareth, and Hiril. In the replacement B 2
(p. 264) the phrase becomes 'he was not a man of great spirit, such as
were Hunthor and Manthor, descendants of Hiril'. (That Manthor's
mother was the daughter of Hiril is stated later in the text of WH,
p. 289.)
In C Harathor was still so named, but he must have been on the
point of receiving a new name, and must have already received a new
lineage, separating him from those with 'Hadorian' sympathies,
Hunthor and Manthor. The new name, Hardang, appears in the re-
placement text A 2 (p. 263) - and the occurrence of this name in the
plot-sequence from the Narn papers shows incidentally that that text
was written when my father's work on The Wanderings of Hurin was
far advanced, if not completed. It is said there (p. 256) that when
Brandir the Lame was chosen to be the Chieftain of Brethil 'many
would have preferred his cousins Hunthor or Hardang', and (p. 258)
that Manthor was a kinsman of Hurin and a cousin of Hardang.
This new 'family within the larger clan' was entered in roughly
made alterations to the table of the Haladin (p. 237), of which I give
the essentials in compressed form:
(* Before Hiril was introduced as a second daughter of Halmir, his daughter
Hareth was first named Hiriel (p. 235, footnote).)
Halmir
Haldir Hundar Hareth Hiril
= Gloredel = Galdor
Handir Hundad Hurin Meleth
Brandir Hardang Turin Hunthor Manthor
Hardang's birthdate is given as 470, Hunthor's as 467, and Manthor's
as 469.
It also appears from C (p. 267) that a new conception of the social
organisation of the Men of Brethil had entered, and with it a new
meaning of the name Haladin: Manthor is said to be 'one of the chief
warriors and of the kin of the Haladin', and that 'many had wished to
elect him Warden'. In this connection, an isolated note (written on the
reverse of that on the relationships of Turin referred to on p. 268)
states:
The title of the chieftains of Brethil should be not lord nor Master.
They were elected from the family of Haldad - called the Haladin,
that is 'wardens'. For hal(a) = in the old tongue of Beor's house and
Haldad's 'watch, guard'. Halad was a warden. (Haldad = watch-
dog.)
These new conceptions appear in the revision A 2 (p. 263), where
Hardang is said to have been made Halad, 'being of the Haladin, the
kin of Haleth, from which all chieftains were chosen'. It is also said,
following the discussion in C, that Hardang was no friend to Manthor,
'who was also of the Haladin'. In contrast, in the first form of the
passage (p. 265) Harathor is called 'the new Master of the Haladin',
where Haladin clearly still means the whole people.
In the last paragraph of C (p. 267) a younger brother of Hunthor
and Manthor appears, Enthor, 'captain of the guards near Brithiach'
(in the additions made to the genealogical table of the Haladin this
name Enthor was given to Hiril's husband, not otherwise named; and
Meleth's husband is apparently named Agathor). The removal of the
name Enthor in this sentence and substitution of 'a chief henchman,
called Ebor, of Manthor's (appointed by him)' suggests that my father
intended to cut out the words 'younger brother of Hunthor and
Manthor', but omitted to do so; this is supported by the fact that Ebor,
when he appears in the revision A 2 (p. 263), refers to 'Manthor
my lord, Master of the North-march', who was not there. Manthor
was not there because, as stated in C, he was 'in command
of the chief forces kept near the Crossings of Taiglin'; Asgon and
his companions entered Brethil from the north, near the Brithiach,
and they left by the same way, meeting Ebor again and retrieving their
weapons.
The only obscure point concerns the failure of Asgon's party to
encounter Hurin on his return. My father was in two minds about
this. The rejected fourth paragraph in C (p. 267) shows him (having
decided that Asgorn and his men were not imprisoned) taking the view
that they were ejected from Brethil near the Crossings: it is 'the captain
of the Taiglin-guard' who restores their weapons; and they remain
lurking in that neighbourhood. Thus they missed Hurin, 'who entered
out of Dimbar' (i.e. came into Brethil from the north after crossing
the Brithiach, as Asgorn had done). Hurin, he wrote, must not enter
Brethil at the Crossings and be found lying beside the Haud-en-Elleth
(as the story was already in the draft manuscript).
But he at once, and understandably, thought better of this, and (in
the fifth paragraph) retained the existing story that Hurin was found
by the guards near the Crossings; he said now that Asgorn and his men
were put out of Brethil in the same region as they entered, and that
they lurked 'near the eaves in that region' - hence their failure to meet
with Hurin. But in the replacement passage B 2 (p. 265) he has them
decide not to stay near the north eaves of the forest, and they go down
towards the Crossings.
I return now to the text, left at the end of the second passage of
rewriting (B 2) on p. 265. It must be borne in mind that the typescript
from this point belongs to the stage before the important alterations in
the narrative entered in the two replacement passages discussed above.
Thus for a long way 'the Master of Brethil' remains Harathor; the
term Halad was not yet devised, and his dwelling was not yet named
Obel Halad. Rather than rewrite the existing text after the new
conceptions had arisen, my father found it sufficient to correct it.
These corrections are very numerous but for the most part repetitive
and systematic (as 'Master' to 'Halad' or 'Chieftain'), and to record
each case in the text would make it unreadable. I have therefore
ignored the rejected names and titles (this applies also to the short
passage on pp. 263-4 between the two rewritten sections: here
Hardang is in fact a correction on the typescript of Harathor).
Now Hurin, coming into Dimbar, summoned his strength
and went on alone towards the dark feet of the Echoriad.(27) All
the land was cold and desolate; and when at last it rose steeply
before him and he could see no way to go further, he halted and
looked about him in little hope. He stood now at the foot of a
great fall of stones beneath a sheer rock-wall, and he did not
know that this was all that was now left to see of the old Way of
Escape: the Dry River was blocked and the arched gate was
buried.(28)
Then Hurin looked up to the grey sky, thinking that by
fortune he might once more descry the Eagles, as he had done
long ago in his youth.(29) But he saw only the shadows blown
from the East, and clouds swirling about the inaccessible peaks;
and wind hissed over the stones. But the watch of the Great
Eagles was now redoubled, and they marked Hurin well, far
below, forlorn in the failing light. And straightaway Sorontar
himself, since the tidings seemed great, brought word to
Turgon.
But Turgon said: 'Nay! This is past belief! Unless Morgoth
sleeps. Ye were mistaken.'
'Nay, not so,' answered Sorontar. 'If the Eagles of Manwe
were wont to err thus, Lord, your hiding would have been in
vain.'
'Then your words bode ill,' said Turgon; 'for they can mean
only that even Hurin Thalion hath surrendered to the will of
Morgoth. My heart is shut.' But when he had dismissed
Sorontar, Turgon sat long in thought, and he was troubled,
remembering the deeds of Hurin. And he opened his heart, and
he sent to the Eagles to seek for Hurin, and to bring him, if they
could, to Gondolin. But it was too late, and they saw him never
again in light or in shadow.
For Hurin stood at last in despair before the stern silence of
the Echoriad, and the westering sun, piercing the clouds, stained
his white hair with red. Then he cried aloud in the wilderness,
heedless of any ears, and he cursed the pitiless land: 'hard as the
hearts of Elves and Men'. And he stood at last upon a great
stone, and spreading wide his arms, looking towards Gondolin,
he called in a great voice: 'Turgon, Turgon! Remember the Fen
of Serech!' And again: 'Turgon! Hurin calls you. O Turgon, will
you not hear in your hidden halls?'
But there was no answer, and all that he heard was wind in
the dry grasses. 'Even so they hissed in Serech at the sunset,' he
said. And as he spoke the sun went behind the Mountains of
Shadow, and a darkness fell about him, and the wind ceased,
and there was silence in the waste.
Yet there were ears that had heard the words that Hurin
spoke, and eyes that marked well his gestures; and report of all
came soon to the Dark Throne in the North. Then Morgoth
smiled, and knew now clearly in what region Turgon dwelt,
though because of the Eagles no spy of his could yet come
within sight of the land behind the encircling mountains. This
was the first evil that the freedom of Hurin achieved.{30}
As darkness fell Hurin stumbled from the stone, and fell, as
one aswoon, into a deep sleep of grief. But in his sleep he heard
the voice of Morwen lamenting, and often she spoke his name;
and it seemed to him that her voice came out of Brethil.
Therefore, when he awoke with the coming of day, he arose and
returned; and he came back to the ford, and as one led by an
unseen hand [he passed along the river Taeglin, until ere evening
of the third day he reached the place >] he went along the eaves
of Brethil, until he came in four days' journey to the Taeglin,
and all his scanty food was then spent, and he was famished.
But he went on like the shadow of a man driven by a dark wind,
and he came to the Crossings by night, and there he passed over
into Brethil.
The night-sentinels saw him, but they were filled with dread,
so that they did not dare to move or cry out; for they thought
that they saw a ghost out of some old battle-mound that walked
with darkness about it. And for many days after men feared to
be near the Crossings at night, save in great company and with
fire kindled.
But Hurin passed on, and at evening of the sixth day he came
at last to the place I of the burning of Glaurung, and saw the tall
stone standing near the brink of Cabed Naeramarth.
But Hurin did not look at the stone, for he knew what was
written there, and his eyes had seen that he was not alone.
Sitting in the shadow of the stone there was a figure bent over its
knees. Some homeless wanderer broken with age it seemed, too
wayworn to heed his coming; but its rags were the remnants of
a woman's garb. At length as Hurin stood there silent she cast
back her tattered hood and lifted up her face slowly, haggard
and hungry as a long-hunted wolf. Grey she was, sharp-nosed
with broken teeth, and with a lean hand she clawed at the cloak
upon her breast. But suddenly her eyes looked into his, and then
Hurin knew her; for though they were wild now and full of fear,
a light still gleamed in them hard to endure: the elven-light that
long ago had earned her her name, Edelwen, proudest of mortal
women in the days of old.
'Edelwen! Edelwen!' Hurin cried; and she rose and stumbled
forward, and he caught her in his arms.
'You come at last,' she said. 'I have waited too long.'
'It was a dark road. I have come as I could,' he answered.
'But you are late,' she said, 'too late. They are lost.'
'I know,' he said. 'But thou art not.'
'Almost,' she said. 'I am spent utterly. I shall go with the sun.
They are lost.' She clutched at his cloak. 'Little time is left,' she
said. 'If you know, tell me! How did she find him?'
But Hurin did not answer, and he sat beside the stone with
Morwen in his arms; and they did not speak again. The sun
went down, and Morwen sighed and clasped his hand and was
still; and Hurin knew that she had died.
So passed Morwen the proud and fair; and Hurin looked
down at her in the twilight, and it seemed that the lines of grief
and cruel hardship were smoothed away. Cold and pale and
stern was her face. 'She was not conquered,' he said; and he
closed her eyes, and sat on unmoving beside her as night drew
down. The waters of Cabed Naeramarth roared on, but he
heard no sound and saw nothing, and he felt nothing, for his
heart was stone within him, and he thought that he would sit
there until he too died.
Then there came a chill wind and drove sharp rain in his face;
and suddenly he was roused, and out of a black deep anger rose
in him like a smoke, mastering reason, so that all his desire was
to seek vengeance for his wrongs, and for the wrongs of his kin,
accusing in his anguish all those who ever had had dealings with
them.
He arose and lifted Morwen up; and suddenly he knew that it
was beyond his strength to bear her. He was hungry and old,
and weary as winter. Slowly he laid her down again beside the
standing stone. 'Lie there a little longer, Edelwen,' he said, 'until
I return. Not even a wolf would do you more hurt. But the folk
of this hard land shall rue the day that you died here!'
Then Hurin stumbled away, and he came back towards the
ford of Taeglin; and there he fell beside the Haud-en-Elleth, and
a darkness overcame him, and he lay as one drowned in sleep.
In the morning, before the light had recalled him to full waking,
he was found by the guards that Hardang had commanded to
keep special watch in that place.
It was a man named Sagroth who first saw him, and he
looked at him in wonder and was afraid, for he thought he
knew who this old man was. 'Come!' he cried to others that
followed. 'Look here! It must be Hurin. The incomers spoke
truly. He has come!'
'Trust you to find trouble, as ever, Sagroth!' said Forhend.
'The Halad will not be pleased with such findings. What is to be
done? Maybe Hardang would be better pleased to hear that we
had stopped the trouble at his borders and thrust it out.'
'Thrust it out?' said Avranc. He was Dorlas' son,{31} a young
man short and dark, but strong, well-liked by Hardang, as his
father had been. 'Thrust it out? Of what good would that be? It
would come again! It can walk - all the way from Angband, if it
is what you guess. See! He looks grim and has a sword, but he
sleeps deep. Need he wake to more woe? [Added:] If you would
please the Chieftain, Forhend, he would end here.'
Such was the shadow that now fell upon the hearts of men, as
the power of Morgoth spread, and fear walked far and wide;
but not all hearts were yet darkened. 'Shame upon you!' cried
Manthor the captain, who coming behind had heard what they
said. 'And upon you most, Avranc, young though you are! At
least you have heard of the deeds of Hurin of Hithlum, or did
you hold them only fireside fables? What is to be done, indeed!
So, slay him in his sleep is your counsel. Out of hell comes the
thought! '
'And so does he,' answered Avranc. 'If indeed he is Hurin.
Who knows? '
'It can soon be known,' said Manthor; and coming to Hurin
as he lay he knelt and raised his hand and kissed it. 'Awake!' he
cried. 'Help is near. And if you are Hurin, there is no help that I
would think enough.'
'And no help that he will not repay with evil,' said Avranc.
'He comes from Angband, I say.'
'What he may do is unknown,' said Manthor. 'What he has
done we know, and our debt is unpaid.' Then he called again in
a loud voice: 'Hail Hurin Thalion! Hail, Captain of Men!'
Thereupon Hurin opened his eyes, remembering evil words
that he had heard in the drowse before waking, and he saw men
about him with weapons in hand. He stood up stiffly, fumbling
at his sword; and he glared upon them in anger and scorn.
'Curs!' he cried. 'Would you slay an old man sleeping? You look
like Men, but you are Orcs under the skin, I guess. Come then!
Slay me awake, if you dare. But it will not please your black
Master, I think. I am Hurin Galdor's son, a name that Orcs at
least will remember.'
'Nay, nay,' said Manthor. 'Dream not. We are Men. But these are
evil days of doubt, and we are hard pressed. It is perilous here. Will
you not come with us? At least we can find you food and rest.'
'Rest?' said Hurin. 'You cannot find me that. But food I will
take in my need.'
Then Manthor gave him a little bread and meat and water;
but they seemed to choke him, and he spat them forth. 'How far
is it to the house of your lord?' he asked. 'Until I have seen him
the food that you denied to my beloved will not go down my
throat.'
'He raves and he scorns us,' muttered Avranc. 'What did I
say?' But Manthor looked on him with pity, though he did not
understand his words. 'It is a long road for the weary, lord,'
he said; 'and the house of Hardang Halad is hidden from
strangers.'
'Then lead me thither!' said Hurin. 'I will go as I can. I have
an errand to that house.'
Soon they set forth. Of his strong company Manthor left most
to their duty; but he himself went with Hurin, and with him
he took Forhend. Hurin walked as he could, but after a time he
began to stumble and fall; and yet he always rose again and
struggled on, and he would not allow them to support him. In
this way at last with many halts they came to the hall of
Hardang in Obel Halad deep in the forest; and he knew of their
coming, for Avranc, unbidden, had run ahead and brought the
tidings before them; and he did not fail to report the wild words
of Hurin at his waking and his spitting forth of their food.
So it was that they found the hall well guarded, with many
men in the [fenced courtyard >] outer garth, and men at the
doors. At the gate of the [court >] garth the captain of the
guards stayed them. 'Deliver the prisoner to me! ' he said.
'Prisoner!' said Manthor. 'I have no prisoner, but a man you
should honour.'
'The Halad's words, not mine,' said the captain. 'But you may
come too. He has words for you also.'
Then they led Hurin before the Chieftain; and Hardang did
not greet him, but sat in his great chair and eyed Hurin up and
down. But Hurin returned his gaze, and held himself as stiffly as
he could, though he leaned on his staff. So he stood a while in
silence, until at last he sank to the ground. 'Lo!' he said. 'I see
that there are so few chairs in Brethil that a guest must sit on the
floor.'
'Guest?' said Hardang. 'Not one bidden by me. But bring the old
carl a stool. If he will not disdain it, though he spits on our food.'
Manthor was grieved at the discourtesy; and hearing one
laugh in the shadow behind the great chair he looked and saw
that it was Avranc, and his face darkened in wrath.
'Your pardon, lord,' he said to Hurin. 'There is misunder-
standing here.' Then turning to Hardang he drew himself up.
'Has my company a new captain then, my Halad?' he said. 'For
otherwise I do not understand how one who has left his duty
and broken my command should stand here unrebuked. He has
brought news before me, I see; but it seems he forgot the name
of the guest, or Hurin Thalion would not have been left to
stand.'
'The name was told to me,' answered Hardang, 'and his fell
words also which bear it out. Such are the House of Hador. But
it is the part of a stranger to name himself first in my house, and
I waited to hear him. Also to hear his errand hither - since he
says that he has one. But as for your duty, such matters are not
dealt with before strangers.'
Then he turned towards Hurin, who sat meanwhile bent on
the low stool; his eyes were closed, and he seemed to take no
heed of what was said. 'Well, Hurin of Hithlum,' said Hardang,
'what of your errand? Is it a matter of haste? Or will you not
perhaps take thought and rest and speak of it later more at your
ease? Meanwhile we may find you some food less distasteful.'
Hardang's tone was now more gentle, and he rose as he spoke;
for he was a wary man, and [struck out: in his heart not over
sure of his seat in the Master's chair; and] he had marked the
displeasure on the faces of others beside Manthor.
Then suddenly Hurin rose to his feet. 'Well, Master Reed of
the Bog,' he said. 'So you bend with each breath, do you?
Beware lest mine blow you flat. Go take thought to stiffen you,
ere I call on you again! Scorner of grey hairs, food-niggard,
starver of wanderers. This stool fits you better.' With that he
cast the stool at Hardang, so that it smote him on the forehead;
and then he turned to walk from the hall.
Some of the men gave way, whether in pity or in fear of his
wrath; but Avranc ran before him. 'Not so swift, carl Hurin!' he
cried. 'At least I no longer doubt your name. You bring your
manners from Angband. But we do not love orc-deeds in hall.
You have assaulted the Chieftain in his chair, and a prisoner you
now shall be, whatever your name.'
'I thank you, Captain Avranc,' said Hardang, who sat still in
his chair, while some staunched the blood that flowed from his
brow. 'Now let the old madman be put in bonds and kept close.
I will judge him later.'
Then they put thongs about Hurin's arms, and a halter about
his neck, and led him away; and he made no more resistance,
for the wrath had run off him, and he walked as one in a dream
with eyes closed. But Manthor, though Avranc scowled at him,
put his arm about the old man's shoulder and steered him so
that he should not stumble.
But when Hurin was shut in a cave [struck out: nigh to the
one in which Asgorn and his men were still imprisoned] and
Manthor could do no more to help him, he returned to the hall.
There he found Avranc in speech with Hardang, and though
they fell silent at his coming, he caught the last words that
Avranc spoke, and it seemed to him that Avranc urged that
Hurin should be put to death straightway.
'So, Captain Avranc,' he said, 'things go well for you today! I
have seen you at like sports before: goading an old badger and
having him killed when he bites. Not so swift, Captain Avranc!
Nor you, Hardang Halad. This is no matter for lordly dealing
out of hand. The coming of Hurin, and his welcome here,
concerns all the folk, and they shall hear all that is said, before
any judgement is given.'
'You have leave to go,' said Hardang. 'Return to your duty on
the marches, until Captain Avranc comes to take command.'
'Nay, lord,' said Manthor, 'I have no duty. I am out of your
service from today. I left Sagroth (32) in charge, a woodsman
somewhat older and wiser than one you name. In due time I will
return to my own marches.*(33) But now I will summon the folk.
As he went to the door Avranc seized his bow to shoot
Manthor down, but Hardang restrained him. 'Not yet,' he said.
But Manthor was unaware of this (though some in the hall had
marked it), and he went out, and sent all he could find that were
' For Manthor was a descendant of Haldad, and he had a little land
of his own on the east march of Brethil beside Sirion where it runs
through Dimbar. But all the folk of Brethil were freemen, holding their
homesteads and more or less land about them of their right. Their
Master was chosen from the descendants of Haldad, out of reverence
for the deeds of Haleth and Haldar; and though as yet the mastership
had been given, as if it were a lordship or kingdom, to the eldest of the
eldest line, the folk had the right to set anyone aside or to remove him,
for grave cause. And some knew well enough that Harathor had tried
to have Brandir the Lame passed over in his own favour.
willing to go as messengers to bring together all the masters of
homesteads and any others that could be spared. [Struck out: It
was the custom of the Haladin {34} that in all matters other than
war the wives were also summoned to counsel and had equal
voices with the husbands.]
Now rumour ran wild through the woods, and the tales grew
in the telling; and some said this, and some that, and the most
spoke in praise of the Halad and set forth Hurin in the likeness
of some fell Orc-chieftain; for Avranc was also busy with
messengers. Soon there was a great concourse of folk, and the
small town {35} about the Hall of the Chieftains was swelled with
tents and booths.{36} But all the men bore arms, for fear lest a
sudden alarm should come from the marches.
When he had sent out his messengers Manthor went to
Hurin's prison, and the guards would not let him enter. 'Come!'
said Manthor. 'You know well that it is our good custom that
any prisoner should have a friend that may come to him and see
how he fares and give him counsel.'
'The friend is chosen by the prisoner,' the guards answered;
'but this wild man has no friends.'
'He has one,' said Manthor, 'and I ask leave to offer myself to
his choice.'
'The Halad forbids us to admit any save the guards,' they
said. But Manthor who was wise in the laws and customs of his
people replied: 'No doubt. But in this he has no right. Why is
the incomer in bondage? We do not bind old men and
wanderers because they speak ill words when distraught. This
one is imprisoned because of his assault upon Hardang, and
Hardang cannot judge his own cause, but must bring his
grievance to the judgement of the Folk [struck out: and some
other must sit in the chair at the hearing]. Meanwhile he cannot
deny to the prisoner all counsel and help. If he were wise he
would see that he does not in this way advance his own cause.
But maybe another mouth spoke for him?'
'True,' they said. 'Avranc brought the order.'
'Then forget it,' said Manthor. 'For Avranc was under other
orders, to remain on his duty on the marches. Choose then
between a young runagate, and the laws of the Folk.'
Then the guards let him in to the cave; for Manthor was well
esteemed in Brethil, and men did not like the [masters >]
chieftains who tried to overrule the folk. Manthor found Hurin
sitting on a bench. There were fetters on his ankles, but his
hands were unbound; and there was some food before him
untasted. He did not look up.
'Hail, lord! ' said Manthor. 'Things have not gone as they
should, nor as I would have ordered them. But now you have
need of a friend.'
'I have no friend, and wish for none in this land,' said Hurin.
'One stands before you,' answered Manthor. 'Do not scorn
me. For now, alas! the matter between you and Hardang Halad
must be brought to the judgement of the Folk, and it would be
well, as our law allows, to have a friend to counsel you and
plead your case.'
'I will not plead, and I need no counsel,' said Hurin.
'You need this counsel at least,' said Manthor. 'Master your
wrath for the time, and take some food, so that you may have
strength before your enemies. I do not know what is your
errand here, but it will speed better, if you are not starved. Do
not slay yourself while there is hope! '
'Slay myself?' cried Hurin, and he staggered up and leant
against the wall, and his eyes were red. 'Shall I be dragged
before a rabble of wood-men with fetters upon me to hear what
death they will give me? I will slay myself first, if my hands are
left free.' Then suddenly, swift as an old trapped beast, he sprang
forward, and before Manthor could avoid him he snatched a
knife from his belt. Then he sank down on the bench.
'You could have had the knife as a gift,' said Manthor,
'though we do not deem self-slaughter a noble deed in those
who have not lost their reason. Hide the knife and keep it for
some better use! But have a care, for it is a fell blade, from a
forge of the Dwarves. Now, lord, will you not take me for your
friend? Say no word; but if you will now eat with me, I will take
that for yea.'
Then Hurin looked at him and the wrath left his eyes; and
together they drank and ate in silence. And when all was
finished, Hurin said: 'By your voice you have overcome me.
Never since the Day of Dread have I heard any man's voice so
fair. Alas! alas! it calls to my mind the voices in my father's
house, long ago when the shadow seemed far away.'
'That may well be,' said Manthor. 'Hiril my foremother was
sister of thy mother, Hareth.'
'Then thou art both kin and friend,' said Hurin.
'But not I alone,' said Manthor. 'We are few and have little
wealth, but we too are Edain, and bound by many ties to your
people. Your name has long been held in honour here; but no
news of your deeds would have reached us, if Haldir and
Hundar had not marched to the Nirnaeth. There they fell, but
[seven o] three of their company returned, for they were suc-
coured by Mablung of Doriath and healed of their wounds.(37)
The days have gone dark since then, and many hearts are
overshadowed, but not all.'
'Yet the voice of your Chieftain comes from the shadows,'
'said Hurin, 'and your Folk obey him, even in deeds of dis-
honour and cruelty.'
'Grief darkens your eyes, lord, dare I say it. But lest this
should prove true, let us take counsel together. For I see peril of
evil ahead, both to thee and to my folk, though maybe wisdom
may avert it. Of one thing I must warn thee, though it may not
please thee. Hardang is a lesser man than his fathers, but I saw
no evil in him till he heard of thy coming. Thou bringest a
shadow with thee, Hurin Thalion, in which lesser shadows
grow darker.'
'Dark words from a friend!' said Hurin. 'Long I lived in the
Shadow, but I endured it and did not yield. If there is any
darkness upon me, it is only that grief beyond grief has robbed
me of light. But in the Shadow I have no part.'
'Nevertheless, I say to thee,' said Manthor, 'that it follows
behind thee. I know not how thou hast won freedom; but the
thought of Morgoth has not forgotten thee. Beware.'
'Do not dote, dotard, you would say,' answered Hurin. 'I will
take this much from you, for your fair voice and our kinship,
but no more! Let us speak of other things, or cease.'
Then Manthor was patient, and stayed long with Hurin, until
the evening brought darkness into the cave; and they ate once
more together. Then Manthor commanded that a light should
be brought to Hurin; and he took his leave until the morrow,
and went to his booth with a heavy heart.
The next day it was proclaimed that the Folkmoot for Judge-
ment should be held on the morning following, for already five
hundred of the headmen had come in, and that was by custom
deemed the least number which might count as a full meeting of
the Folk. Manthor went early to find Hurin; but the guards had
been changed. Three men of Hardang's own household now
stood at the door, and they were unfriendly.
'The prisoner is asleep,' their leader said. 'And that is well; it
may settle his wits.'
'But I am his appointed friend, as was declared yesterday,'
said Manthor.
'A friend would leave him in peace, while he may have it. To
what good would you wake him?'
'Why should my coming wake him, more easily than the feet
of a jailer?' said Manthor. 'I wish to see how he sleeps.'
'Do you think all men lie but yourself?'
'Nay, nay; but I think that some would fain forget our laws
when they do not suit their purpose,' answered Manthor.
Nonetheless it seemed to him that he would do little good to
Hurin's case if he debated further, and he went away. So it was
that many things remained unspoken between them until too
late. For when he returned day was waning. No hindrance was
now offered to his entry, and he found Hurin lying on a pallet;
[added:] and he noted with anger that he now had fetters also
upon his wrists with a short chain between them.
'A friend delayed is hope denied,' said Hurin. 'I have waited
long for thee, but now I am heavy with sleep and my eyes are
dimmed.'
'I came at mid-morning,' said Manthor, 'but they said that
thou wert sleeping then.'
'Drowsing, drowsing in wanhope,' said Hurin; 'but thy voice
might have recalled me. I have been so since I broke my fast.
That counsel of thine at least I have taken, my friend; but food
doth me ill rather than good. Now I must sleep. But come in the
morning! '
Manthor wondered darkly at this. He could not see Hurin's
face, for there was little light left, but bending down he listened
to his breathing. Then with a grim face he stood up and took up
under his cloak such food as remained, and went out.
'Well, how did you find the wild man?' said the chief guard.
'Bemused with sleep,' answered Manthor. 'He must be wake-
ful tomorrow. Rouse him early. Bring food for two, for I will
come and break fast with him.'(38)
The next day, long before the set time at mid-morn, the Moot
began to assemble. Almost a thousand had now come, for
the most part the older men [struck out: and women],(39) since
the watch on the marches must still be maintained. Soon all the
Moot-ring was filled. This was shaped as a great crescent, with
seven tiers of turf-banks rising up from a smooth floor delved
back into the hillside. A high fence was set all about it, and the
only entry was by a heavy gate in the stockade that closed the
open end of the crescent. In the middle of the lowest tier of seats
was set [added:] the Angbor or Doom-rock, I a great flat stone
upon which the Halad (40) would sit. Those who were brought to
judgement stood before the stone and faced the assembly.
There was a great babel of voices; but at a horn-call silence
fell, and the Halad entered, and he had many men of his
household with him. The gate was closed behind him, and he
paced slowly to the Stone. Then he stood facing the assembly
and hallowed the Moot according to custom. First he named
Manwe and Mandos, after the manner which the Edain had
learned from the Eldar, and then, speaking the old tongue of the
Folk which was now out of daily use, he declared that the Moot
was duly set, being the three hundred and first Moot of Brethil,
called to give judgement in a grave matter.
When as custom was all the assembly cried in the same
tongue 'We are ready', he took his seat upon the [stone >]
Angbor, and called in the speech of Beleriand (41) to men that
stood by: 'Sound the horn! Let the prisoner be brought before
us!'(42)
The horn sounded twice, but for some time no one entered,
and the sound of angry voices could be heard outside the fence.
At length the gate was thrust open, and six men came in bearing
Hurin between them.
'I am brought by violence and misuse,' he cried. 'I will not
walk slave-fettered to any Moot upon earth, not though Elven-
kings should sit there. And while I am bound thus I deny all
authority and justice to your dooms.' But the men set him on the
ground before the Stone and held him there by force.
Now it was the custom of the Moot that, when any man was
brought before it, the Halad should be the accuser, and should
first in brief recite the misdeed with which he was charged.
Whereupon it was his right, by himself or by the mouth of his
friend, to deny the charge, or to offer a defence for what he had
done. And when these things had been said, if any point was in
doubt or was denied by either side, then witnesses were sum-
moned.
Hardang,(43) therefore, now stood up and turning to the
assembly he began to recite the charge. 'This prisoner,' he said,
'whom you see before you, names himself Hurin Galdor's son,
once of Dorlomin, but long in Angband whence he came hither.
Be that as it may.'(44)
But hereupon Manthor arose and came before the Stone. 'By
your leave, my lord Halad and Folk!' he cried. 'As friend to the
prisoner I claim the right to ask: Is the charge against him any
matter that touches the Halad in person? Or has the Halad any
grievance against him?'
'Grievance?' cried Hardang, and anger clouded his wits so
that he did not see Manthor's trend. 'Grievance indeed! This is
not a new fashion in headgear for the Moot. I come here with
wounds new-dressed.'
'Alas!' said Manthor. 'But if that is so, I claim that the matter
cannot be dealt with in this way. In our law no man may recite
an offence against himself; nor may he sit in the seat of
judgement while that charge is heard. Is not this the law?'
'It is the law,' the assembly answered.
'Then,' said Manthor, 'before this charge is heard some other
than Hardang son of Hundad must be appointed to the Stone.'
Thereupon many names were cried, but most voices and the
loudest called upon Manthor. 'Nay,' said he, 'I am engaged to
one part and cannot be judge. Moreover it is the Halad's right in
such a case to name the one who should take his place, as
doubtless he knows well.'
'I thank you,' said Hardang, 'though I need no self-chosen
lawman to teach me.' Then he looked about him, as if con-
sidering whom he should name. But he was in a black anger and
all wisdom failed him. If he had named any of the headmen
there present, things might have gone otherwise. But in an evil
moment he chose, and to all men's wonder he cried: 'Avranc
Dorlas' son! It seems that the Halad needs a friend also today,
when lawmen are so pert. I summon you to the Stone.'
Silence fell. But when Hardang stepped down and Avranc
came to the Stone there was a loud murmuring like the rumour
of a coming storm. Avranc was a young man, not long wedded,
and his youth was taken ill by all the elder headmen that sat
there. [For he was not loved for himself. >] And he was not
loved for himself; for though he was bold, he was scornful, as
was Dorlas his father before him. / And dark tales were [struck
out: still] whispered concerning Dorlas [struck out: his father,
who had been Hardang's close friend];(45) for though naught was
known for certain, he was found slain far from the battle with
Glaurung, and the reddened sword that lay by him had been the
sword of Brandir.(46)
But Avranc took no heed of the murmur, and bore himself
airily, as if it were a light matter soon to be dealt with.
'Well,' he said, 'if that is settled, let us waste no more time!
The matter is clear enough.' Then standing up he continued the
recital. 'This prisoner, this wild man,' he said, 'comes from
Angband, as you have heard. He was found within our borders.
Not by chance, for as he himself declared, he has an errand here.
What that may be he has not revealed, but it cannot be one of
good will. He hates this folk. As soon as he saw us he reviled us.
We gave him food and he spat on it. I have seen Orcs do so, if
any were fools enough to show them mercy. From Angband he
comes, it is clear, whatever his name be. But worse followed
after. By his own asking he was brought before the Halad of
Brethil - by this man who now calls himself his friend; but when
he came into hall he would not name himself. And when the
Halad asked him what was his errand and bade him rest first
and speak of it later, if it pleased him, he began to rave, reviling
the Halad, and suddenly he cast a stool in his face and did him
great hurt. It is well for all that he had nothing more deadly to
hand, or the Halad would have been slain. As was plainly the
prisoner's intent, and it lessens his guilt very little that the worst
did not happen, for which the penalty is death. But even so, the
Halad sat in the great chair in his hall: to revile him there was an
evil deed, and to assault him an outrage.
'This then is the charge against the prisoner: that he came
here with evil intent against us, and against the Halad of Brethil
in special (at the bidding of Angband one may guess); that
gaining the presence of the Halad he reviled him, and then
sought to slay him in his chair. The penalty is under the doom of
the Moot, but it could justly be death.'
Then it seemed to some that Avranc spoke justly, and to all
that he had spoken with skill. For a while no one raised a voice
upon either side. Then Avranc, not hiding his smile, rose again
and said: 'The prisoner may now answer the charge if he will,
but let him be brief and not rave!'
But Hurin did not speak, though he strained against those
that held him. 'Prisoner, will you not speak?' said Avranc, and
still Hurin gave no answer. 'So be it,' said Avranc. 'If he will not
speak, not even to deny the charge, then there is no more to do.
The charge is made good, and the one that is appointed to the
Stone must propound to the Moot a penalty that seems just.'
But now Manthor stood up and said: First he should at least
be asked why he will not speak. And to that question reply may
be made by his friend.'
'The question is put,' said Avranc with a shrug. 'If you know
the answer give it.'
'Because he is fettered [added: hand and foot],'(47) said
Manthor. 'Never before have we dragged to the Moot in fetters
a man yet uncondemned. Still less one of the Edain whose name
deserves honour, whatsoever may have happened since. Yes,
"uncondemned" I say; for the accuser has left much unsaid that
this Moot must hear before judgement is given.'
'But this is foolishness,' said Avranc. 'Adan or no, and what-
ever his name, the prisoner is ungovernable and malicious. The
bonds are a needed precaution. Those who come near him must
be protected from his violence.'
'If you wish to beget violence,' answered Manthor, 'what
surer way than openly to dishonour a proud man, old in years
of great grief. And here is one now weakened by hunger and
long journeying, unarmed among a host. I would ask the folk
here assembled: do you deem such caution worthy of the free
men of Brethil, or would you rather that we used the courtesy of
old?'
'The fetters were put on the prisoner by the order of the
Halad,' said Avranc. 'In this he used his right for the restraint of
violence in his hall. Therefore this order cannot be gainsaid save
by the full assembly.'
Then there went up a great shout 'Release him, release him!
Hurin Thalion! Release Hurin Thalion!' Not all joined in this
cry, yet there were no voices heard on the other side.
'Nay, nay! ' said Avranc. 'Shouting will not avail. In such a
case there must be a vote in due form.'
Now by custom in matters grave or doubtful the votes of the
Moot were cast with pebbles, and all who entered bore with
them each two pebbles, a black and a white for nay and for yea.
But the gathering and counting would take much time, and
meanwhile Manthor saw that with each moment the mood of
Hurin grew worse.
'There is another way more simple,' he said. 'There is no
danger here to justify the bonds, and so think all who have used
their voice. The Halad is in the Moot-ring, and he can remit his
own order, if he will.'
'He will,' said Hardang, for it seemed to him that the mood of
the assembly was restive, and he hoped by this stroke to regain
its favour. 'Let the prisoner be released, and stand up before
you!'
Then the fetters were struck off Hurin's hands and feet.
Straightway he stood up, and turning away from Avranc he
faced the assembly. 'I am here,' he said. 'I will answer my name.
I am Hurin Thalion son of Galdor Orchal,(48) Lord of Dorlomin
and once a high-captain in the host of Fingon King of the
North-realm. Let no man dare to deny it! That should be
enough. I will not plead before you. Do as you will! Neither will
I bandy words with the upstart whom you permit to sit in the
high seat. Let him lie as he will! [Struck out: But if my friend
wishes to speak and to set forth the truth of what has chanced,
let him do so. Listen who will!]
'In the name of the Lords of the West, what manner of folk
are you, or to what have you become? While the ruin of
Darkness is all about you will you sit here in patience and hear
this runagate guard ask for a doom of death upon me - because
I broke the head of an insolent young man, whether in a chair or
out of it? He should have learned how to treat his elders before
you made him your Chieftain forsooth.
'Death? 'Fore Manwe, if I had not endured torment for
twenty years and eight, if I were as at the Nirnaeth, you would
not dare to sit here to face me. But I am not dangerous any
longer, I hear. So you are brave. I can stand up unbound to be
baited. I am broken in war and made tame. Tame! Be not too
sure!' He lifted up his arms and knotted his hands.
But here Manthor laid a restraining hand on his shoulder, and
spoke earnestly in his ear. 'My lord, you mistake them. Most are
your friends, or would be. But there are proud freemen here too.
Let me now speak to them! '
Hardang and Avranc said naught, but smiled one to another,
for Hurin's speech, they thought, did his part no good. But
Manthor cried: 'Let the Lord Hurin be given a seat while I
speak. His wrath you will understand better, and maybe forgive,
when you have heard me.
'Hear me now, Folk of Brethil. My friend does not deny the
main charge, but he claims that he was misused and provoked
beyond bearing. My masters [struck out: and good wives],(49)I
was captain of the march-wardens that found this man asleep
by the Haud-en-Elleth. Or asleep he seemed, but he lay rather in
weariness on the brink of awaking, and as he lay he heard, as I
fear, words that were spoken.
'There was a man called Avranc Dorlas' son, I remember, as
one of my company, and he should be there still, for such were
my orders. As I came behind I heard this Avranc give counsel to
the man who had first found Hurin and guessed at his name.
Folk of Brethil, I heard him speak thus. "It would be better to
slay the old man asleep and prevent further trouble. And so the
Halad would be pleased," said he.
'Now maybe you will wonder less that when I called him to
full waking and he found men with weapons all about him, he
spoke bitter words to us. One at least of us deserved them. Yet
as for despising our food: he took it from my hands, and he did
not spit upon it. He spat it forth, for it choked him. Have you
never, my masters, seen a man half-starved who could not
swallow food in haste though he needed it? And this man was in
great grief also and full of anger.
'Nay, he did not disdain our food. Though well he might, if he
had known the devices to which some who dwell here have
fallen! Hear me now and believe me, if you may, for witness can
be brought. In his prison the Lord Hurin ate with me, for I used
him with courtesy. That was two days ago. But yesterday he was
drowsed and could not speak clearly, nor take counsel with me
against the trial today.' ]
'Little wonder in that!' cried Hardang.
Manthor paused and looked at Hardang. 'Little wonder
indeed, my lord Halad,' he said; 'for his food had been
drugged.'
Then Hardang in wrath cried out: 'Must the drowsy dreams
of this dotard be recited to our weariness?'
'I speak of no dreams,' answered Manthor. 'Witness will
will answer now. I took away from the prison food of which
Hurin had eaten some. Before witnesses I gave it to a hound,
and he lies still asleep as if dead. Maybe the Halad of Brethil did
not contrive this himself, but one who is eager to please him.
But with what lawful purpose? To restrain him from violence,
forsooth, when he was already fettered and in prison? There is
malice abroad among us, Folk of Brethil, and I look to the
assembly to amend it!'
At this there was great stir and murmur in the Moot-ring; and
when Avranc stood up calling for silence, the clamour grew
greater. At last when the assembly had quieted a little Manthor
said: 'May I now continue, for there is more to be said?'
'Proceed!' said Avranc. 'But let your wind be shortened. And I
must warn you all, my masters, to hear this man warily. His
good faith cannot be trusted. The prisoner and he are close
akin.'
These words were unwise, for Manthor answered at once: 'It
is so indeed. The mother of Hurin was Hareth daughter of
Halmir, once Halad of Brethil, and Hiril her sister was the
mother of my mother. But this lineage does not prove me a liar.
More, if Hurin of Dorlomin be akin to me, he is kinsman of all
the House of Haleth. Yea, and of all this Folk. Yet he is treated
as an outlaw, a robber, a wild man without honour!
'Let us proceed then to the chief charge, which the accuser has
said may bear the penalty of death. You see before you the
broken head, though it seems to sit firm on its shoulders and can
use its tongue. It was hurt by the cast of a small wooden stool. A
wicked deed, you will say. And far worse when done to the
Halad of Brethil in his great chair.
'But my masters, ill deeds may be provoked. Let any one
of you in thought set himself in the place of Hardang son of
Hundad. Well, here comes Hurin, Lord of Dorlomin, your kins-
man, before you: head of a great House, a man whose deeds are
sung by Elves and Men. But he is now grown old, dispossessed,
grief-laden, travel-worn. He asks to see you. There you sit at
ease in your chair. You do not rise. You do not speak to him. But
you eye him up and down as he stands, until he sinks to the
floor. Then of your pity and courtesy you cry: "Bring the old
carl a stool!"
'O shame and wonder! He flings it at your head. 0 shame and
wonder rather I say that you so dishonour your chair, that you
so dishonour your hall, that you so dishonour the Folk of
Brethil!
'My masters, I freely admit that it would have been better, if
the Lord Hurin had shown patience, marvellous patience. Why
did he not wait to see what further slights he must endure? Yet
as I stood in hall and saw all this I wondered, and I still wonder
and I ask you to tell me: How do you like such manners in this
man that we have made Halad of Brethil?'
Great uproar arose at this question, until Manthor held up
his hand, and suddenly all was still again. But under cover of the
noise Hardang had drawn near to Avranc to speak with him,
and surprised by the silence they spoke too loud, so that
Manthor and others also heard Hardang say: 'I would I had not
hindered thy shooting!'(50) And Avranc answered, I will seek a
time yet.'
But Manthor proceeded. 'I am answered. Such manners do
not please you, I see. Then what would you have done with the
caster of the stool? Bound him, put a halter on his neck, shut
him in a cave, fettered him, drugged his food, and at last dragged
him hither and called for his death? Or would you set him free?
Or would you, maybe, ask pardon, or command this Halad to
do so?'
Thereupon there was even greater uproar, and men stood up
on the turfbanks, clashing their arms, and crying: 'Free! Free!
Set him free!' And many voices were heard also shouting: 'Away
with this Halad! Put him in the caves! '
Many of the older men who sat in the lowest tier ran forward
and knelt before Hurin to ask his pardon; and one offered him a
staff, and another gave him a fair cloak and a great belt of silver.
And when Hurin was so clad, and had a staff in hand, he went
to the [added: Angbor] Stone and stood up on it, in no wise as
a suppliant, but in mien as a king; and facing the assembly
he cried in a great voice: 'I thank you, Masters of Brethil here
present, who have released me from dishonour. There is then
justice still in your land, though it has slept and been slow to
awake. But now I have a charge to bring in my turn.
'What is my errand here, it is asked? What think you? Did not
Turin my son, and Nienor my daughter, die in this land? Alas!
from afar I have learned much of the griefs that have here come
to pass. Is it then a wonder that a father should seek the graves
of his children? More wonder it is, meseems, that none here
have yet ever spoken their names to me.
'Are ye ashamed that ye let Turin my son die for you? That
two only dared go with him to face the terror of the Worm?
That none dared go down to succour him when the battle was
over, though the worst evils might thus have been stayed?
'Ashamed ye may be. But this is not my charge. I do not ask
that any in this land should match the son of Hurin in valour.
But if I forgive those griefs, shall I forgive this? Hear me, Men of
Brethil! There lies by the Standing Stone that you raised an old
beggar-woman. Long she sat in your land, without fire, without
food, without pity. Now she is dead. Dead. She was Morwen
my wife. Morwen Edelwen, the lady elven-fair who bore Turin
the slayer of Glaurung. She is dead.
'If ye, who have some ruth, cry to me that you are guiltless,
then I ask who bears the guilt? By whose command was she
thrust out to starve at your doors like an outcast dog?
'Did your Chieftain contrive this? So I believe. For would he
not have dealt with me in like manner, if he could? Such are his
gifts: dishonour, starvation, poison. Have you no part in this?
Will you not work all his will? Then how long, Masters of
Brethil, will you endure him? How long will you suffer this man
called Hardang to sit in your chair?'
Now Hardang was aghast at this turn, and his face went
white with fear and amazement. But before he could speak,
Hurin pointed a long hand at him. 'See! ' he cried. 'There he
stands with a sneer on his mouth! Does he deem himself safe?
For I am robbed of my sword; and I am old and weary, he
thinks. Nay, too often has he called me a wild man. He shall see
one! Only hands, hands, are needed to wring his throat full of
lies.'
With that Hurin left the Stone and strode towards Hardang;
but he gave back before him, calling his household-men about
him; and they drew off towards the gate. Thus it appeared to
many that Hardang admitted his guilt, and they drew their
weapons, and came down from the banks, crying out upon
him.(51)
Now there was peril of battle within the hallowed Ring. For
others joined themselves to Hardang, some without love for him
or his deeds, who nonetheless held to their loyalty and would at
least defend him from violence, until he could answer before the
Moot.
Manthor stood between the two parties and cried to them to
hold their hands and shed no blood in the Moot-ring; but the
spark that he had himself kindled now burst to flame beyond
his quenching, and a press of men thrust him aside. 'Away with
this Halad!' they shouted. 'Away with Hardang, take him to the
caves! Down with Hardang! Up Manthor! We will have
Manthor!' And they fell upon the men that barred the way to
the gate, so that Hardang might have time to escape.
But Manthor went back to Hurin, who now stood alone by
the Stone. 'Alas, lord,' he said, 'I feared that this day held great
peril for us all. There is little I can do, but still I must try to avert
the worst evil. They will soon break out, and I must follow. Will
you come with me?'
Many fell at the gate on either side ere it was taken. There
Avranc fought bravely, and was the last to retreat. Then as he
turned to flee suddenly he drew his bow and shot at Manthor as
he stood by the Stone. But the arrow missed in his haste and hit
on the Stone, striking fire beside Manthor as it broke. 'Next
time nearer!' cried Avranc as he fled after Hardang.
Then the rebels burst out of the Ring and hotly pursued
Hardang's men to the Obel Halad, some half mile away. But
before they could come there Hardang had gained the hall and
shut it against them; and there he was now besieged. The Hall
of the Chieftains stood in a garth with a round earthwall all
about it rising from a dry outer dyke. In the wall there was only
one gate, from which a stone-path led to the great doors. The
assailants drove through the gate and swiftly surrounded all the
hall; and all was quiet for a while.
But Manthor and Hurin came to the gate; and Manthor
would have a parley, but men said: 'Of what use are words?
Rats will not come out while dogs are abroad.' And some cried:
'Our kin have been slain, and we will avenge them! '
'Well then,' said Manthor, 'allow me at least to do what I
can!'
'Do so!' they said. 'But go not too near, or you may receive a
sharp answer.'
Therefore Manthor stood by the gate and lifted up his great
voice, crying out to both sides that they should cease from this
kin-slaying. And to those within he promised that all should go
free who came forth without weapons, even Hardang, if he
would give his word to stand before the Moot the next day.
'And no man shall bring any weapon thither,' he said.
But while he spoke there came a shot from a window, and
an arrow went by the ear of Manthor and stood deep in the
gate-post. Then the voice of Avranc was heard crying: 'Third
time shall thrive best!'
Now the anger of those without burst forth again, and many
rushed to the great doors and tried to break them down; but
there was a sortie, and many were slain or hurt, and others also
in the garth were wounded by shots from the windows. So the
assailants being now in mad wrath brought kindlings and great
store of wood and set it by the gate; and they shouted to those
within: 'See! the sun is setting. We give you till nightfall. If you
do not come forth ere then, we will burn the hall and you in it!'
Then they all withdrew from the garth out of bowshot, but they
made a ring of men all round the outer dyke.
The sun set, and none came from the hall. And when it was
dark the assailants came back into the garth bearing the wood,
and they piled it against the walls of the hall. Then some bearing
flaming pine-torches ran across the garth to put fire in the
faggots. One was shot to his death, but others reached the piles
and soon they began to blaze.
Manthor stood aghast at the ruin of the hall and the wicked
deed of the burning of men. 'Out of the dark days of our past it
comes,' he said, 'before we turned our faces west. A shadow is
upon us.' And he felt one lay a hand on his shoulder, and he
turned and saw Hurin who stood behind him, with a grim face
watching the kindling of the fires; and Hurin laughed.
'A strange folk are ye,' he said. 'Now cold, now hot. First
wrath, then ruth. Under your chieftain's feet or at his throat.
Down with Hardang! Up with Manthor! Wilt thou go up?'
'The Folk must choose,' said Manthor. 'And Hardang still
lives.'
'Not for long, I hope,' said Hurin.
Now the fires grew hot and soon the Hall of the Haladin was
aflame in many places. The men within threw out upon the
faggots earth and water, such as they had, and great smoke went
up. Then some sought to escape under its cover, but few got
through the ring of men; most were taken, or slain if they
fought.
There was a small door at the rear of the hall with a jutting
porch that came nearer to the garth-wall than the great doors in
front; and the wall at the back was lower, because the hall was
built on a slope of the hillside. At last when the roof-beams were
on fire, Hardang and Avranc crept out of the rear-door, and they
reached the top of the wall and stole down into the dyke, and
they were not marked until they tried to climb out. But then
with shouts men ran upon them, though they did not know who
they were. Avranc flung himself at the feet of one that would
seize him, so that he was thrown to the ground, and Avranc
sprang up and away and escaped in the mirk. But another cast a
spear at Hardang's back as he ran, and he fell with a great
wound.
When it was seen who he was, men lifted him up and laid him
before Manthor. 'Set him not before me,' said Manthor, 'but
before the one he misused. I have no grudge against him.'
'Have you not?' said Hardang. 'Then you must be sure of my
death. I think that you have always begrudged that the Folk
chose me to the chair and not you.'
'Think what you will!' said Manthor and he turned away.
Then Hardang was aware of Hurin who was behind. And
Hurin stood looking down on Hardang, a dark form in the
gloom, but the light of the fire was on his face, and there
Hardang saw no pity.
'You are a mightier man than I, Hurin of Hithlum,' he said. 'I
had such fear of your shadow that all wisdom and largesse
forsook me. But now I do not think that any wisdom or mercy
would have saved me from you, for you have none. You came to
destroy me, and you at least have not denied it. But your last lie
against me I cast back upon you ere I die. Never' - but with
that blood gushed from his mouth, and he fell back, and said no
more.
Then Manthor said: 'Alas! He should not have died thus.
Such evil as he wrought did not merit this end.'
'Why not?' said Hurin. 'He spoke hate from a foul mouth to
the last. What lie have I spoken against him?'
Manthor sighed. 'No lie wittingly maybe,' he said. 'But the
last charge that you brought was false, I deem; and he had no
chance to deny it. I would that you had spoken to me of it
before the Moot!'
Hurin clenched his hands. 'It is not false!' he cried. 'She lies
where I said. Morwen! She is dead! '
'Alas! lord, where she died I do not doubt. But of this I judge
that Hardang knew no more than I till you spoke. Tell me, lord:
did she ever walk further in this land?'
'I know not. I found her as I said. She is dead.'
'But, lord, if she came no further, but finding the Stone there
sat in grief and despair by the grave of her son, as I can believe,
then...'
'What then?' said Hurin.
'Then, Hurin Hadorion, out of the darkness of your woe
know this! My lord, so great a grief, and so great a horror of the
things that there came to pass is upon us that no man and no
woman since the setting up of the Stone has ever again gone
nigh to that place. Nay! the Lord Orome himself might sit by
that stone with all his hunt about him, and we should not know.
Not unless he blew his great horn, and even that summons we
should refuse!'
'But if Mandos the Just spake, would you not hear him?' said
Hurin. 'Now some shall go thither, if you have any ruth! Or
would you let her lie there till her bones are white? Will that
cleanse your land?'
'Nay, nay!' said Manthor. 'I will find some men of great heart
and some women of mercy, and you shall lead us thither, and we
will do as you bid. But it is a long road to wend, and this day is
now old in evil. A new day is needed.'
The next day, when the news that Hardang was dead went
abroad, a great throng of people sought for Manthor, crying
that he must be Chieftain. But he said: 'Nay, this must be laid
before the full Moot. That cannot be yet; for the Ring is
unhallowed, and there are other things more pressing to do.
First I have an errand. I must go to the Field of the Worm and
the Stone of the Hapless, where Morwen their mother lies un-
tended. Will any come with me?'
Then ruth smote the hearts of those that heard him; and
though some drew back in fear, many were willing to go, but
among these there were more women than men.
Therefore at length they set off in silence on the path that
led down along the falling torrent of Celebros. Wellnigh eight
leagues was that road, and darkness fell ere they came to Nen
Girith,(52) and there they passed the night as they could. And the
next morning they went on down the steep way to the Field of
Burning, and they found the body of Morwen at the foot of the
Standing Stone. Then they looked upon her in pity and wonder;
for it seemed to them that they beheld a great queen whose
dignity neither age nor beggary nor all the woe of the world had
taken from her.
Then they desired to do her honour in death; and some said:
'This is a dark place. Let us lift her up, and bring the Lady
Morwen to the Garth of the Graves and lay her among the
House of Haleth with whom she had kinship.'
But Hurin said: 'Nay, Nienor is not here, but it is fitter that
she should lie here near her son than with any strangers. So she
would have chosen.' Therefore they made a grave for Morwen
above Cabed Naeramarth on the west side of the Stone; and
when the earth was laid upon her they carved on the Stone:
Here lies also Morwen Edelwen, while some sang in the old
tongue the laments that long ago had been made for those of
their people who had fallen on the March far beyond the
Mountains.
And while they sang there came a grey rain and all that
desolate place was heavy with grief, and the roaring of the river
was like the mourning of many voices. And when all was ended
they turned away, and Hurin went bowed on his staff. But it is
said that after that day fear left that place, though sorrow
remained, and it was ever leafless and bare. But until the end of
Beleriand women of Brethil would come with flowers in spring
and berries in autumn and sing there a while of the Grey Lady
who sought in vain for her son. And a seer and harp-player of
Brethil, Glirhuin, made a song saying the Stone of the Hapless
should not be defiled by Morgoth nor ever thrown down, not
though the Sea should drown all the land. As after indeed befell,
and still the Tol Morwen stands alone in the water beyond the
new coasts that were made in the days of the wrath of the Valar.
But Hurin does not lie there, for his doom drove him on, and
the Shadow still followed him.
Now when the company had come back to Nen Girith they
halted; and Hurin looked back, out across Taeglin towards the
westering sun that came through the clouds; and he was loth to
return into the Forest. But Manthor looked eastward and was
troubled, for there was a red glow in the sky there also.(53)
'Lord,' he said, 'tarry here if you will, and any others who are
weary. But I am the last of the Haladin and I fear that the fire
which we kindled is not yet quenched. I must go back swiftly,
lest the madness of men bring all Brethil to ruin.'
But even as he said this an arrow came from the trees, and he
stumbled and sank to the ground. Then men ran to seek for the
bowman; and they saw a man running like a deer up the path
towards the Obel, and they could not overtake him; but they
saw that it was Avranc.
Now Manthor sat gasping with his back to a tree. 'It is a poor
archer that will miss his mark at the third aim,' he said.
Hurin leaned on his staff and looked down at Manthor. 'But
thou hast missed thy mark, kinsman,' he said. 'Thou hast been a
valiant friend, and yet I think thou wert so hot in the cause for
thyself also. Manthor would have sat more worthily in the chair
of the Chieftains.'
'Thou hast a hard eye, Hurin, to pierce all hearts but thine
own,' said Manthor. 'Yea, thy darkness touched me also. Now
alas! the Haladin are ended; for this wound is to the death. Was
not this your true errand, Man of the North: to bring ruin upon
us to weigh against thine own? The House of Hador has
conquered us, and four now have fallen under its shadow:
Brandir, and Hunthor, and Hardang, and Manthor. Is that not
enough? Wilt thou not go and leave this land ere it dies?'
'I will,' said Hurin. 'But if the well of my tears were not
utterly dried up, I would weep for thee, Manthor; for thou hast
saved me from dishonour, and thou hadst love for my son.'
'Then, lord, use in peace the little more life that I have won
for thee,' said Manthor. 'Do not bring your shadow upon
others!'
'Why, must I not still walk in the world?' said Hurin. 'I will
go on till the shadow overtakes me. Farewell!'
Thus Hurin parted from Manthor. When men came to tend
his wound they found that it was grave, for the arrow had gone
deep into his side; and they wished to bear Manthor back as
swiftly as they could to the Obel to have the care of skilled
leeches. 'Too late,' said Manthor, and he plucked out the arrow,
and gave a great cry, and was still. Thus ended the House of
Haleth, and lesser men ruled in Brethil in the time that was left.
But Hurin stood silent, and when the company departed,
bearing away the body of Manthor, he did not turn. He looked
ever west till the sun fell into dark cloud and the light failed; and
then he went down alone towards the Haud-en-Elleth.
Both my father's typescript and the amanuensis typescript end here,
and this is clearly the designed conclusion of 'Hurin in Brethil'; but in
draft manuscript material there are some suggestions (very slight) as to
the course of the narrative immediately beyond this point.(54) There are
also a few other brief writings and notes of interest.(55)
My father never returned to follow the further wanderings of
Hurin.(56) We come here to the furthest point in the narrative of the
Elder Days that he reached in his work on The Silmarillion (in the
widest sense) after the Second War and the completion of The Lord of
the Rings. There are bits of information about the succeeding parts -
not much - but no further new or revised narrative; and the promise
held out in his words (p. 258) 'Link to the Necklace of the Dwarves,
Sigil Elu-naeth, Necklace of the Woe of Thingol' was never fulfilled. It
is as if we come to the brink of a great cliff, and look down from
highlands raised in some later age onto an ancient plain far below. For
the story of the Nauglamir and the destruction of Doriath, the fall of
Gondolin, the attack on the Havens, we must return through more
than a quarter of a century to the Quenta Noldorinwa (Q), or beyond.
The huge abruptness of the divide is still more emphasised by the
nature of this last story of the Elder Days, the Shadow that fell upon
Brethil.(57) In its portrayal of the life of Brethil into which Hurin came
for its ruin, the intricacies of law and lineage, the history of ambition
and conflicting sentiment within the ruling clan, it stands apart. In the
published Silmarillion I excluded it, apart from using Hurin's vain
attempt to reach Gondolin and his finding of Morwen dying beside the
Standing Stone. Morwen's grave is made by Hurin alone; and having
made it, 'he passed southwards down the ancient road that led to
Nargothrond'.
To have included it, as it seemed to me, would have entailed a huge
reduction, indeed an entire re-telling of a kind that I did not wish to
undertake; and since the story is intricate I was afraid that this would
produce a dense tangle of narrative statement with all the subtlety
gone, and above all that it would diminish the fearful figure of the
old man, the great hero, Thalion the Steadfast, furthering still the
purposes of Morgoth, as he was doomed to do. But it seems to me
now, many years later, to have been an excessive tampering with my
father's actual thought and intention: thus raising the question,
whether the attempt to make a 'unified' Silmarillion should have been
embarked on.
NOTES.
1. With the beginning of this passage cf. Q (IV.131): 'Some have
said that Morwen, wandering woefully from Thingol's halls,
when she found Nienor not there on her return, came on a time to
that stone and read it, and there died.' - For the abandoned idea
that it was Turin who met Morwen in her wandering see
pp. 161-2.
2. Hurin was born in 441 (GA $141). - At this point the first side of
the 'lost manuscript' ends. The text on the reverse was struck
through and replaced by a new text on a new sheet, all but
identical in content but finely written - suggestive of confidence
in this further extension of the Grey Annals.
3. Asgon reappears here, without introduction, from NE (Unfinished
Tales p. 109), one of the men who fled with Turin from Brodda's
hall; in the condensed account in GA ($297) he was not named.
4. The spellings Asgorn here, but Asgon in the preceding paragraph
(see note 3), are clear. See note 21.
5. The term Eastron has not been used before.
6. 'Yet this can scarce be so': i.e., ignorance of Glaurung's death can
scarcely be the reason for Hurin's going to Nargothrond.
7. The space marked by a caret evidently awaited the name of the
new Lord of Brethil.
8. 'He must come of a different race': is this the first reference to the
Petty-dwarves?
9. (Annal 490-5) The name Iarwaeth has appeared in GA $268 (see
also p. 142, commentary on $277, at end), but Thuringud 'the
Hidden Foe' is found nowhere else: cf. Finduilas' name for Turin,
Thurin 'the Secret', Unfinished Tales pp. 157, 159).
10. (Annal 494) The statements that Morgoth stirred up the Eastrons
(see note 5) to greater hatred of the Elves and Edain, and that
Lorgan sought to take Nienor by force, are entirely new. In GA
($274) it is clear that Morwen and Nienor left Dor-lomin because
the lands had become more safe.
11. (Annal 495) Cirith Ninniach, the final name of the Rainbow
Cleft, is found in the later Tale of Tuor (Unfinished Tales p. 23),
where also the meeting of Tuor with Gelmir and Arminas is re-
counted (pp. 21 - 2); the name was added to the map (p. 182,
square c 4). On the story of their coming to Nargothrond and its
relation to the Grey Annals see pp. 141 - 2, commentary on $277.
It may be mentioned here that in another 'plot-synopsis' concern-
ing Turin my father referred to the two Elves by the names
Faramir and Arminas, adding in a note: 'Faramir and Arminas
were later Earendil's companions on voyage'.
The 'Narrow Land' is the Pass of Sirion. The form Eryd-
wethian occurs in the typescript text of 'Gelmir and Arminas'
(p. 142).
'[Handir's] son Brandir the lame is chosen Chieftain, though
many would have preferred his cousins Hunthor or Hardang':
there has been no previous suggestion of a disagreement over the
succession to Brandir; judging by the outspokenness of the people
of Brethil as recorded in NE, they would surely have used it
against Brandir if they had known of it. - The name Hunthor
replaced Torbarth as that of the 'kinsman of Brandir', who died
at Cabed-en-Aras, in NE (this change was not made in GA: see
p. 156). He appears in the genealogical table of the Haladin
(p. 237), but his descent had by this time been changed: for this,
and for Hardang, another cousin, see pp. 268-70.
The defeat of Tum-halad has not previously been attributed to
'the dread of Glaurung', nor has it been said that Turin gave his
word to Gwindor that he would endeavour to save Finduilas.
On the form Haudh-en-Elleth see p. 148, $301.
The story that Tuor and Voronwe saw Turin journeying
northward at Eithil Ivrin has appeared in an inserted annal entry
in GA ($299), but no more was said there than that 'they saw
Turin pass, but spoke not with him'. For the fullest account see
the later Tale of Tuor, Unfinished Tales pp. 37-8.
12. (Annal 496) The death of Sador in the fighting in Brodda's hall
is told in NE (Unfinished Tales p. 108), where also Asgon of
Dor-lomin first appears (p. 109).
13. (Annal 497) Lindis of Ossiriand: no mention has been made
before of the wife of Dior Thingol's heir. See further The Tale of
Years, pp. 349-51.
14. (Annal 498) In GA ($319) Turin and Niniel were married 'at the
mid-summer' of 498, and she conceived in the spring of 499.
15. (Annal 499) Of course Glaurung did not reveal to Turin 'who he
was': he did not need to. But this is without significance: it was a
short-hand when writing very fast (in the same annal my father
wrote 'Nargothrond' for 'Brethil' and 'Tuor' for 'Turin'), and
means that it was through the words of Glaurung that Turin and
Nienor came to know that they were brother and sister.
The name Talbor of the memorial stone raised at Cabed-en-
Aras has not been given before.
For previous mentions of Mim and the treasure of Nargoth-
rond, and his death at the hand of Hurin, see the Tale of
Turambar, II.113 - 14; the Sketch of the Mythology, IV.32; the
Annals of Beleriand (AB 1 and AB 2), IV.306 and V.141; and Q,
IV.132 and commentary IV.187 - 8.
16. (Annal 500) The names Elrun and Eldun of the sons of Dior
appear in emendations made to Q (IV.135) and AB 2 (V.142 and
note 42), replacing Elboron and Elbereth. It has not been said
that they were twin brothers (in the Genealogies associated with
- AB 1, of which some extracts were given in V.403, their birth-
dates were three years apart, 192 and 195, - later 492, 495: these
latter are found in the genealogical table of the House of Beor,
p. 231).
In AB 2 (following AB 1) Hurin was released by Morgoth in the
year 499 (IV.306, V.141), and 'he departed and sought for Mor-
wen'; in the continuation of GA (p. 252) the year was 500, as here.
17. (Annal 501) In AB 2 (following AB 1) Hurin and his companions
(described simply as 'men'; in Q, IV.132, as 'a few outlaws of the
woods') came to Nargothrond in 500 (see note 16), whereas in
this text, after his visit to Brethil, he sets out for Nargothrond in
501 and comes there in 502. The earlier sources do not say that
he found Morwen (cf. the note written against the first continu-
ation of GA, p. 252: 'Some fate of Morwen must be devised. Did
Morwen and Hurin meet again?'), nor do they know of his
attempting to return to Gondolin (see the end of the continuation
of GA, pp. 254-5, where this is first referred to, though without
mention of the discovery by Morgoth's spies of the region where
Gondolin lay).
The story of Hurin in Brethil was now in existence and
probably in its final form (see p. 269). - A first mention of Obel
Halad, replacing Ephel Brandir, is found in a note pencilled on
the typescript of NE (p. 148, $302).
18. (Annal 502) In AB 2 Tuor wedded Idri1 in 499 (V. 141); the date in
The Tale of Years is (with some hesitation) 502 (pp. 346 ff.). On
the bringing of the treasure of Nargothrond to Doriath see
IV.188.
19. Only the following points in the WH version need be noted. After
the words (p. 252) 'it suited the purpose of Morgoth that this
should be so' my father added to the typescript later: 'and the
needs of his body had been well served to this end'; and 'unless I
find chance to avenge the wrongs of my children' (where GA has
'the wrongs of my son', p. 253) was changed to 'unless I find
chance to hear more news of my kin, or to avenge their wrongs, if
I may.' Where the GA continuation has Asgon and then Asgorn
(note 4), WH has Asgorn, corrected to Asgon, and further on in
the narrative Asgon as typed (see note 21). Eastrons of GA is here
Easterlings. On the amanuensis typescript Hurin's words Tol
acharn were corrected to Tul acharn.
20. The passage recounting Hurin's ignorance of what had happened
in Gondolin to his crossing the Brithiach into Dimbar was a good
deal changed at the time of typing, though for the most part this
was a matter of rearrangement. Here the text as first typed read:
He knew not the things that had come to pass there, since Tuor
brought thither the message of Ulmo, as is yet to be told; and
now Turgon, refusing the counsel of the Lord of Waters,
allowed none to enter or to go forth for any cause whatsoever,
hardening his heart against pity and wisdom.
Tuor had reached Gondolin in 495 (GA $299).
21. Asgon was an emendation of the name as typed, Asgorn. This
was a regular change, until the form Asgon appears in the text as
typed: I print Asgon throughout, except in passages that were
rejected before the name was changed.
22. Here the text as first typed read:
Hurin came down from the sources of the Lithir, which fell
tumbling into Sirion and was held to be the south bounds of
the Narrow Land. There Sirion was already too wide and deep
to cross, and too perilous for any but the young and hardiest to
swim; so Hurin and his men journeyed on, seeking the fords of
the Brithiach.
The name Lithir was written against a river already shown on the
original form of the second map: p. 182, squares C 6 to D 7.
23. At this point there followed in the draft manuscript and in the
typescript as first typed: 'and though this seemed to him to bode
evil rather than good, after a time he grew less heedful.'
24. The name Ragnir is found also as that of a blind servant of
Morwen's in Dor-lomin (Unfinished Tales p. 71). In a rejected
phrase in the draft manuscript this companion of Asgon's is
called 'Ragnir the tracker'.
25. Asgon supposed that the Lord of Brethil was still Brandir the
Lame. Cf. what is said of Brandir's successor Hardang a little
further on: 'he had no love now at all for the House of Hador, in
whose blood he had no part.'
26. On Obel Halad see note 17.
27. Echoriad: the Encircling Mountains about Gondolin. The form
Echoriath in the published Silmarillion derives from the later Tale
of Tuor; but Echoriad here is much later.
28. The old story in the tale of The Fall of Gondolin (II.189) that
those of the fugitives from the sack of Gondolin who fled to the
Way of Escape were destroyed by a dragon lying in wait at its
outer issue, a story that survived into Q (IV.144), had been
abandoned, and was excluded from The Silmarillion on the basis
of the present passage: see II.213, second footnote, and IV.194.
29. Cf. GA $161 (p. 57), of the escape of Hurin and Huor into
Dimbar forty-three years before this time: they 'wandered in the
hills beneath the sheer walls of the Crisaegrim. There Thorondor
espied them, and sent two Eagles that took them and bore them
up...'
30. At this point in the draft manuscript my father wrote:
Later when captured and Maeglin wished to buy his release
with treachery, Morgoth must answer laughing, saying: Stale
news will buy nothing. I know this already, I am not easily
blinded! So Maeglin was obliged to offer more - to undermine
resistance in Gondolin.
Almost exactly the same note is found on the slip giving in-
formation about the new meaning of the name Haladin (p. 270);
but here, after the words 'undermine resistance in Gondolin', my
father continued: 'and to compass the death of Tuor and Earendel
if he could. If he did he would be allowed to retain Idril (said
Morgoth).'
Thus the story in Q was changed (IV.143):
[Meglin] purchased his life and freedom by revealing unto
Morgoth the place of Gondolin and the ways whereby it might
be found and assailed. Great indeed was the joy of Morgoth...
Both the present passage in WH (telling that Morgoth learned
from Hurin's wandering 'in what region Turgon dwelt') and that
from Q were used in the published Silmarillion (pp. 228, 242),
'the very place of Gondolin' for 'the place of Gondolin' being an
editorial addition.
31. There was a series of alterations to the names of the men of
Manthor's company near the Crossings of Taeglin (and some
speeches were reassigned among the speakers). In the draft
manuscript the names were Sagroth; Forhend son of Dorlas; and
his friend Farang. In the typescript as typed they were Sagroth;
Forhend; and his friend Farang son of Dorlas. The son of Dorlas
is the one who, plays an important part in the story. By
emendation to the typescript the statement that Farang was the
friend of Forhend was removed, and - further on in the narrative
- the name Farang became Faranc; then, near the end of WH, it
became Avranc, and this name was substituted throughout the
text from his first appearance. I print throughout the final
formulation only.
32. Sagroth was here emended to Galhir, but later Sagroth was
reinstated. Galhir was perhaps intended to be another member of
Manthor's company, rather than a replacement of the name
Sagroth.
33. The footnote at this point was typed at the same time as the text.
The statement concerning Manthor's domain in the east of
Brethil preceded that in the text C (p. 267): 'The region nigh
Brithiach and along Sirion for some way was the land of
Manthor'. Haldar was the son of Haldad, founder of the line,
and twin brother of the Lady Haleth (p. 221, $25). With the last
sentence cf. the plot-synopsis, p. 256: 'Brandir the lame is chosen
Chieftain, though many would have preferred his cousins Hun-
thor or Hardang.' The whole footnote was struck through
(before the emendation of Harathor to Hardang).
34. The term Haladin is used here, in a sentence that was rejected
rather than corrected, in the original sense of the whole 'People of
Haleth'.
35. With the use of the word town cf. p. 148, $302.
36. The word booth is used in the old sense of 'a temporary dwelling
covered with boughs of trees or other slight materials' (O.E.D.).
My father may well have had in mind the Norse word bud, used
in the Sagas especially of the temporary dwellings at the Icelandic
parliament, and regularly rendered 'booth' in translations.
37. It is said also in the Narn plot-synopsis, of which a part is given
on pp. 256 - 8, but at an earlier point (the year 472), that Haldir
and Hundar were slain in the Nirnaeth, and that 'three only of
their men were left alive, but Mablung of Doriath healed their
wounds and brought them back.' See further pp. 236-7.
38. The draft manuscript has here:
'He must be wakeful tomorrow. It may be that better food is
needed. Take care, or maybe the guards will have to stand
before the Folk also.'
'What do you mean by that?' said the leader.
'Unriddle it as you will,' said Manthor.
39. 'and women' derives from the draft manuscript. Cf. the passage
struck out on p. 279, concerning the summoning of wives to
counsel according to the customs of Brethil.
40. Here and often subsequently Halad is an emendation of Warden;
see the statement cited on p. 270, where Halad, plural Haladin, is
translated 'warden(s)'. I give Halad in all these cases and do not
record the changes.
41. There seems not to have been any specific reference previously to
the passing out of common use of the old speech of the People of
Haleth (where the draft manuscript has 'the old tongue of the
Haladin', and also 'Moot of the Haladin'), and its replacement by
'the speech of Beleriand'.
42. The draft manuscript has here a passage depending on the story,
still in being, of the captivity of Asgorn (Asgon) and his men (cf.
the rejected sentence in the typescript, p. 278: Hurin was shut in a
cave 'nigh to the one in which Asgorn and his men were still
imprisoned'):
'Let the first prisoners be brought before us! ' Then Asgorn
and his companions were led in, with their hands bound
behind them.
At that there was much murmuring; and [an old man >]
Manthor stood up. 'By your leave, Master and Folk,' he said. 'I
would ask: why are these men in bonds?'
There is then a note: 'Harathor should conceal the fact that
Asgorn &c. are still in durance, and Manthor should reveal why.'
Here the text stops, and begins on a new page with a draft for the
changed story as found in the typescript text.
43. At this point the name Hardang, for Harathor, appears in the text
as typed.
44. The draft manuscript has 'Be that as it may - ', i.e. Hardang's
sentence was interrupted by Manthor.
45. An addition to the draft manuscript says: 'He [Dorlas] had also
been Harathor's friend, and a scorner of Brandir while Harathor
desired to oust him.' That Dorlas had been a friend of Hardang
(Harathor) has been mentioned earlier, at the first appearance of
Dorlas' son Avranc (p. 275): 'well-liked by Hardang, as his father
had been.'
46. In the story of Dorlas' death in the last part of the Narn (NE) as
told in the manuscript, Brandir retained his sword. It is said
subsequently in that text that 'Brandir, seeing his death in Turin's
face, drew his small sword and stood in defence'; and Turin
'lifted up Gurthang and struck down Brandir's sword, and smote
him to death.' By changes made to the much later amanuensis
typescript of NE the story was altered to that given in Unfinished
Tales: Brandir cast down his sword after the slaying of Dorlas
(p. 139), facing Turin 'he stood still and did not quail, though he
had no weapon but his crutch', and the words 'struck down
Brandir's sword' were removed (p. 143). It seems to me unlikely
that my father would have made these changes, whereby Turin's
murder of Brandir becomes even worse, in order to make Dorlas'
reputation seem more murky in the rumours current in Brethil: I
believe that he made them precisely because he wished so to
represent Turin in his encounter with Brandir - in which case, of
course, the changes to the NE typescript had already been made
when the present passage was written. Subsequently it was
bracketed, from 'And dark tales were whispered concerning
Dorlas', presumably implying doubt about its inclusion; and the
matter is not referred to again.
47. 'hand and foot': an addition had been made earlier (p. 282)
concerning the further fettering of Hurin on his wrists.
48. Galdor Orchal: 'Galdor the Tall'. The 'title' has not previously
appeared in Elvish form.
49. With the rejected words 'and good wives' cf. note 39.
50. 'I would I had not hindered thy shooting': see p. 278.
51. The story of the events in the Moot-ring was told in the draft
manuscript (written in ink over a pencilled text) in fairly close
accord with the final form to the point where Hurin cries out on
Harathor (as is still the name): 'Only hands, hands, are needed to
wring such a throat full of lies'. Then follows:
With that, in a fury, Hurin sprang off the Stone and made for
Harathor. But Harathor fled before him, calling on his house-
hold men to gather round him; and at the gate he turned,
crying: 'It is a lie that he speaks, Men of Brethil. He raves as
ever. I knew naught of this till now!' In this he spoke the truth;
but too late. In their wrath few of the assembly believed him.
(In the original pencilled text Harathor said more in his defence,
using the argument given in the final form to Manthor (pp.
294-5): 'None of the Folk go ever to that stone, for the place is
accursed. Not till now have I or any man or woman of the Folk
heard tale of her coming to the stone.') At this point in the
superimposed text in ink my father stopped, and wrote: 'Do not
allow Harathor to defend himself. He flies in fear - and so seems
to most of the Folk to acknowledge his guilt.'
From here onwards the draft manuscript becomes chaotic. The
pencilled text, in part illegible, continues, interspersed here and
there with later passages written in ink, to the end of the story,
but the 'layers' are so confused that a coherent development can
scarcely be deduced. It seems, however, that at this stage the story
of the siege and burning of the Hall of the Chieftains had not
entered. The rout of Harathor and his supporters from the
Moot-ring seems to have been followed at once by Manthor's
reproaches to Hurin - a defence of the conduct of the Men of
Brethil towards Turin, and a denial that Harathor could have .
known anything of the coming of Morwen, which in turn leads at
once to the expedition to Cabed Naeramarth and the burial of
Morwen. In his words to Hurin Manthor declares himself to be
now 'the last of the Haladin', but there seems to be no indication
of the fate of Harathor. See further note 53.
A new draft text, very roughly written but coherent, takes up at
the opening of Hurin's speech to the assembly (p. 290): this was
the text from which the final form was closely derived.
52. In NE (Unfinished Tales p. 136) it was 'five leagues at the least'
from Ephel Brandir to Nen Girith; in an earlier draft of that
passage it was seven leagues (commentary on GA $$329-32, p.
158).
53. The end of the original draft manuscript (see note 51) is partly
illegible, but after the burial of Morwen 'they return and see red
fire. The Obel is burning as the rebels assault the... But as they
make their way an arrow comes out of the wood and Manthor
falls.' This suggests that the burning of the Hall of the Chieftains
originally followed the burial of Morwen, and that when that
burning became a central event in the story the red glow in the
sky seen from Nen Girith was retained as the sign of a further
eruption of rioting on the following day. This is supported by the
conclusion of the second draft manuscript, given in note 54 (at
end); but the matter is very uncertain.
54. The end of the original draft manuscript (see notes 51, 53) after
the death of Manthor, pencilled over by my father to make it
clearer but with a gap where there is a word, or words, that he
could not interpret, reads thus: þ
A few men fearing the end of Brethil and desiring to flee further
from Morgoth - having no homes or lands of their own - are
willing to go with Hurin. They depart - and fall in [sic] But
now Hurin seems to pick up strength and youth - vengeance
seems to have heartened him, and he [ ] and walks now
strongly. They pass into the woods and gather the last fugitives
of the wood-men (the kin of the folk of Brethil).
Asgorn they choose for captain, but he treats Hurin as lord,
and does as he will[s]. Whither shall we go? They must
[? know] a place of refuge. They go towards Nargothrond.
Another, isolated page gives this version of the end:
For a while he stood there grim and silent. But Manthor looked
back and saw red light far away. 'I must return,' he said. The
party begins to go back wearily towards Obel Halad.
An arrow slays Manthor. - The voice of Faranc [see note 31]
cries: 'Third time thriven. At least you shall not sit in the Chair
you coveted.' They give chase but he escapes in the dark.
The Moot Ring has been 'unhallowed'. The confederation
breaks up. Men go each to their own homesteads. Hurin must
depart. He gathers a few men who despair now of defending
Brethil from the growing strength of Morgoth [and] wish to fly
south. At the Taiglin crossing they fall in with Asgon, who has
heard rumour of the wild deeds in Brethil, and of Hurin's
coming, and are now venturing back into the land to seek him.
Asgon greets him - and is glad that Harathor has been
punished. Angered that no one had told Hurin of their coming.
They go on and gather fugitive 'wood-men'. They elect
Asgon captain but he ever defers to Hurin. Whither to go?
Hurin elects to go to Nargothrond. Why?
The references to 'wood-men' ('kin of the folk of Brethil') in these
passages are no doubt to the men who dwelt in the woodland
south of the Taeglin, described in the Narn (Unfinished Tales
p. 85, and thereafter called 'the Woodmen'):
There before the Nirnaeth many Men had dwelt in scattered
homesteads; they were of Haleth's folk for the most part, but
owned no lord, and they lived both by hunting and by
husbandry, keeping swine in the mast-lands, and tilling clear-
ings in the forest which were fenced from the wild. But most
were now destroyed, or had fled into Brethil, and all that
region lay under the fear of Orcs, and of outlaws.
These hasty sketches of Hurin's immediate movements after
leaving Brethil agree with what is said in the plot-synopsis
(p. 258): 'Hurin finds Asgon again and gathers other men and
goes towards Nargothrond'. The question 'Why?' of his decision
to go there reappears from the final addition to the end of the
Grey Annals (p. 255), which probably did not long precede the
writing of The Wanderings of Hurin.
The second draft manuscript (see note 51, at end) continues on
from the point where the typescript text ends, though with a line
drawn across the page beneath the words 'he went down alone
towards the Haud-en-Elleth'. I give this partly illegible conclusion
from the death of Manthor.
... and plucked out the arrow, and gave a great cry, and lay
still.
Then they wept, and they took him up, and prepared to bear
him back, and they took no more heed of Hurin. But he stood
silent, and turned soon away; the sun was gone down into
cloud and the light failed, and he went down alone towards the
Haud-en-Elleth.
[Thus befell the ruin of Brethil. For >] Now it is said that I
those who ... with Hardang were not all caught, and others
came in hearing the news, and there was fighting in the Obel,
and a great burning, until all was well nigh destroyed [see note
53]. But when the madness [written above: wrath] of men had
cooled they made peace, and some said: 'What hath bewitched
us? Surely Hurin begot all this evil, and Hardang and Avranc
were more wise. They would have kept him out if they could.'
So they chose Avranc to be their chief, since none of the House
of Haleth were left, but [?? he wielded no] such authority and
reverence as the Chieftains before, and the Folk of Brethil fell
back again to be more like their kinsmen in the [?open] woods
- each minding his own houselands and little ... and their ...
was loosened.
But some misliked this and would not serve under Avranc
and made ready to depart, and they joined Hurin.
55. The following brief writing on the subject of Manthor is another
'discussion' like the text 'C' (pp. 266-7) and no doubt belongs to
much the same time. Here as there the name is Harathor, but I
suggested (p. 269) that he must have been on the point of
receiving a new name, and on the same page as the present
passage appear the workings leading to the name Hardang.
The page begins with a draft for the last words of Hurin and
Manthor at Nen Girith, closely similar to the ending both in the
second draft manuscript (on which see note 51, at end) and in the
final typescript (pp. 296-7). I believe that the present form was
the first, and that my father set it down experimentally, as it were,
and then proceeded to explain and justify it, as follows (the many
contractions of words and names are expanded):
I think it would be good to make Manthor a less merely 'good'
character. For so his extremely zealous and cunning espousal of
Hurin's cause would better be explained. Certainly he has a
great natural concern for 'courtesy' - sc. civilized behaviour
and mercy, and he would have been angry at the treatment of
Hurin whoever he was. But (a) he was proud of his kinship
with the House of Hador; (b) he had desired the Wardenship -
and many had wanted to elect him. He was of the senior line,
but by a daughter (Hiril). But though so far descent had been
by eldest son, it had been laid down by Haleth (and Haldar her
brother) that daughters and their descendants were to be
eligible for election. The descendants of Hundar: Hundad,
Harathor had not been men of mark or gallantry.
So plainly Manthor was also using the coming of Hurin to
further his ambition - or rather, the shadow of Hurin fell on
him, and awoke the ambition (dormant). Note: Manthor never
raises the matter of Hurin's errand, or (as was fairly plain) that
Hurin came with ill-will, especially towards the rulers of
Brethil and the 'anti-Turin' party.
Mention should be made in the tale of Turin (dwelling in
Brethil and death) - a propos of Hunthor? - of Manthor and
the friendship of his branch for Turin and reverence for the
House of Hador.
There was some ill-feeling between the branches: on the one
side akin to the House of Hador (via Gloredel and via Hareth
and Hiril) and [on the other] the line of Hundar.
This enlarges and defines some of the things said in the last
paragraph of the discussion in the text 'C' (p. 267), where the
friendship for Turin among the descendants of Hiril, and pride in
their kinship with the House of Hador, were referred to, and the
idea that Manthor 'desired the Wardenship' referred to as a
possibility.
An isolated slip, headed Names, has the following notes:
The Haladin name of people directly descended from Haldar
Haleth's brother (by male or female line), a family or
'nothlir' from which the Chieftains or Halbars of Brethil
were chosen by the Folk.
For halad sg. 'chieftain'..... halbar.
The Chieftain after Brandir was Hardang.
His evil-counsellor friend to be Daruin.
Dorlas > Darlas
Dar = mastery, lordship
bor = stone. The Stone in the Ring was the halabor. The Stand-
ing Stone was the Talbor.
The word halbar 'chieftain', to be substituted for halad, appears
in a note pencilled on the genealogical table of the Haladin,
where also the name Haldar was apparently altered to Halbar:
see p. 238. The name Talbor of the Standing Stone appears also
in an addition to the Narn plot-synopsis (p. 257), but the stone in
the Moot-ring is named Angbor 'Doom-rock' in additions to the
typescript text of WH (see p. 283). These new names, and Darlas
for Dorlas, Daruin for Avranc, must represent a further group of
substitutions subsequent to the final text of WH, although it is
odd in that case that Hardang should be included.
Following these notes on the same slip of paper are notes on
the name Taeglin; these were struck out, but virtually the same
notes in more finished form are found on another slip:
Taeglin(d) better Taeglind
* taika (V taya mark, line, limit > tayak) maere, boundary,
limit, boundary line.
linde 'singer / singing', name (or element in names) of many
rivers of quick course that make a rippling sound.
mure is an Old English word of the same meaning. - It seems that
the form chosen for the published Silmarillion should have been
Taeglin rather than Teiglin (see p. 228, $28).
56. Some interesting remarks of my father's concerning The Wander-
ings of Hurin are found on the back of one of the slips on which
Professor Clyde Kilby wrote comments and criticisms of the
work:
The criticisms seem to me largely mistaken - no doubt because
this is a fragment of a great saga, e.g. Thingol and Melian are
mentioned as objects of Morgoth's malice, because Hurin's
next exploit will be to bring ruin to Doriath. The outlaws are
not a 'device', but already accounted for - and play a part in
the story of Turin when he came to Dor Lomin. Hurin does
pick them up again and they are the nucleus of the force with
which he goes to Nargothrond and slays Mim and seizes the
gold of the dragon.
As for 'too little action,' 'too much speech', I have re-read
this quite impersonally after many years when I had practically
forgotten it - the speeches are bitter and pungent and in .
themselves exciting. I thought the whole business from the
entry of Hurin not only moving but very exciting.
The reference to Thingol and Melian arose from Professor Kilby's
taking exception to their only being mentioned in one place
(p. 259). The response that his remarks (written, I believe, in
1966) elicited is particularly interesting in that they show that the
story of Hurin's seizing the treasure of Nargothrond was still
fully in being, although my father never even approached it again.
Very striking is his phrase, 'Hurin's next exploit will be to bring
ruin to Doriath'.
57. On the amanuensis typescript my father pencilled, beneath The
Wanderings of Hurin: 'I The Shadow Falls on Brethil'. At the
beginning of his discussion of the story in text C (p. 266) he said
of Asgorn and his men that 'their coming to Brethil is needed to
"cast the shadow" by arousing fear and hatred in the heart of
Harathor.' It may be therefore that the subheading The Shadow
Falls on Brethil was intended to refer only to the first part of the
story of Hurin in Brethil. On the other hand, he introduced no .
other sub-headings into the body of the text, and it seems equally
possible that he meant this as the title of the whole story, 'II' to be
the next stage of Hurin's 'wanderings', Hurin in Nargothrond.
II.
AELFWINE AND DIRHAVAL.
In Unfinished Tales (p. 146) I referred to the existence of an 'intro-
ductory note' to the Narn i Chin Hurin, found in different forms, and I
gave a very condensed and selective account of the content. The two
versions are in fact more distinct than this suggests, and here I print
them both in full. One of them is a clear manuscript written with
almost no hesitations or alterations (whether at the time or-later): this,
which I will call 'A', clearly preceded the other, and I give it first. The
numbered notes will be found on p. 315.
Turin Turumarth.(1)
Here begins that tale which AElfwine made from the Hurinien:
which is the longest of all the lays of Beleriand now held in
memory in Eressea. But it is said there that, though made
in Elvish speech and using much Elvish lore (especially of
Doriath), this lay was the work of a Mannish poet, Dirhavel,
who lived at the Havens in the days of Earendel and there
gathered all the tidings and lore that he could of the House of
Hador, whether among Men or Elves, remnants and fugitives
of Dorlomin, of Nargothrond, or of Doriath. From Mablung
he learned much; and by fortune also he found a man named
Andvir, and he was very old, but was the son of that Androg
who was in the outlaw-band of Turin, and alone survived the
battle on the summit of Amon Rudh.(2) Otherwise all that time
between the flight of Turin from Doriath and his coming to
Nargothrond, and Turin's deeds in those days, would have
remained hidden, save the little that was remembered among
the people of Nargothrond concerning such matters as Gwindor
or Turin ever revealed. In this way also the matter of Mim and
his later dealings with Hurin were made clear. This lay was all
that Dirhavel ever made, but it was prized by the Elves and
remembered by them. Dirhavel they say perished in the last raid
of the sons of Feanor upon the Havens. His lay was composed
in that mode of verse which was called Minlamad thent / estent.(3)
Though this verse was not wholly unlike the verse known to
AElfwine, he translated the lay into prose (including in it, or
adding in the margins as seemed fit to him, matter from the
Elvish commentaries that he had heard or seen); for he was not
himself skilled in the making of verse, and the transference of
this long tale from Elvish into English was difficult enough.
Indeed even as it was made, with the help of the Elves as it
would seem from his notes and additions, in places his account
is obscure.
This version into 'modern' English, that is forms of English
intelligible to living users of the English tongue (who have some
knowledge of letters, and are not limited to the language of
daily use from mouth to mouth) does not attempt to imitate the
idiom of AElfwine, nor that of the Elvish which often shows
through especially in the dialogue. But since it is even to Elves
now 'a tale of long ago', and depicts high and ancient persons
and their speech (such as Thingol and Melian), there is in
AElfwine's version, and clearly was in Dirhavel's day, much
archaic language, of words and usage, and the older and nobler
Elves do not speak in the same style as Men, or in quite the same
language as that of the main narrative; there are therefore here
retained similar elements. It is for this reason that, for example,
Thingol's speech is not that of our present day: for indeed the
speech of Doriath, whether of the king or others, was even in
the days of Turin more antique than that used elsewhere. One
thing (as Mim observed) of which Turin never rid himself,
despite his grievance against Doriath, was the speech he had
acquired during his fostering. Though a Man, he spoke like an
Elf of the Hidden Kingdom,(4) which is as though a Man should
now appear, whose speech and schooling until manhood
had been that of some secluded country where the English
had remained nearer that of the court of Elizabeth I than of
Elizabeth II.
The second text ('B') is very much briefer, and was composed on the
typewriter which my father used for several of the Narn texts, and
other writings such as the chapter Of the Coming of Men into the
West.
Many songs are yet sung and many tales are yet told by the
Elves in the Lonely Isle of the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, the Battle of
Unnumbered Tears, in which Fingon fell and the flower of the
Eldar withered. But here I will tell as I may a Tale of Men that
Dirhaval (5) of the Havens made in the days of Earendel long ago.
Narn i Chin Hurin he called it, the Tale * of the Children of
Hurin, which is the longest of all the lays that are now remem-
bered in Eressea, though it was made by a man.
For such was Dirhaval. He came of the House of Hador, it is
said, and the glory and sorrow of that House was nearest to his
heart. Dwelling at the Havens of Sirion, he gathered there all the
tidings and lore that he could; for in the last days of Beleriand
chere came thither remnants out of all the countries, both Men
and Elves: from Hithlum and Dor-lomin, from Nargothrond
and Doriath, from Gondolin and the realms of the Sons of
Feanor in the east.
This lay was all that Dirhaval ever made, but it was prized by
the Eldar, for Dirhaval used the Grey-elven tongue, in which he
had great skill. He used that mode of Elvish verse which is
called [long space left in typescript] which was of old proper to
the narn; but though this verse mode is not unlike the verse of
the English, I have rendered it in prose, judging my skill too
small to be at once scop and walhstod.(6) Even so my task has
been hard enough, and without the help of the Elves could not
have been completed. I have not added to Dirhaval's tale, nor
omitted from it anything that he told; neither have I changed the
order of his history. But on matters that seemed of interest, or
that were become dark with the passing of the years, I have
made notes, whether within the tale or upon its margins,
according to such lore as I found in Eressea.
That A preceded B, at whatever interval (but I do not think that it was
long), is seen, among other considerations, from the use of the old
name 'the Hurinien' in the opening sentence of A (whereas in B it is
called Narn i Chin Hurin). This name had appeared years before in QS
Chapter 17, Of Turin Turamarth or Turin the Hapless: 'that lay which
is called iChurinien, the Children of Hurin, and is the longest of all the
lays that speak of those days' (V.317). (For Hurinien beside iChuri-
nien, and my reason for substituting Hin for Chin in Unfinished Tales,
see V.322.)
It is possible to state with certainty at what period these pieces were
written. I said in Unfinished Tales (p. 150): 'From the point in the
story where Turin and his men established themselves in the ancient
dwelling of the Petty-dwarves on Amon Rudh there is no completed
narrative on the same detailed plan [as in the preceding parts], until
the Narn takes up again with Turin's journey northwards after the fall
(* [ footnote to the text] narn among the Elves signifies a tale that is
told in verse to be spoken and not sung.)
of Nargothrond': from the existing materials I formed a brief narrative
in The Silmarillion, Chapter 21, and gave some further citations from
the texts in Unfinished Tales, pp. 150 - 4. Now the story of Turin and
Beleg in Mim's hidden dwelling on Amon Rudh and the short-lived
'Land of Bow and Helm', Dor-Cuarthol, belongs (like all the rest of
the huge extension of this part of the 'Turins Saga') to the period after
the publication of The Lord of the Rings; and the mention in text A of
the man Andvir, 'the son of that Androg who was in the outlaw-band
of Turin, and alone survived the battle on the summit of Amon Rudh'
(see note 2) shows that this story was fully in being (so far as it ever
went) when A was written - indeed it seems likely enough that A
belongs to the time when my father was working on it.
It is therefore very notable that at this relatively late date he was
propounding such a view of the 'transmission' of the Narn i Chin
Hurin (in contrast to the statement cited in X.373, that 'the three
Great Tales must be Numenorean, and derived from matter preserved
in Gondor': the second of the 'Great Tales' being the Narn i Chin
Hurin). Striking also is the information (in both texts) that the verse-
form of Dirhaval's lay bore some likeness to the verse known to
AElfwine (meaning of course the Anglo-Saxon alliterative verse), but
that because AElfwine was no scop (see note 6) he translated it into
(Anglo-Saxon) prose. I do not know of any other statement bearing on
this. It is tempting to suspect some sort of oblique reference here to
my father's abandoned alliterative Lay of the Children of Hurin of the
1920s, but this may he delusory.
The second version B, in which the introductory note becomes
a preface by AElfwine himself, rather than an 'editorial' recounting of
what AElfwine did, was clipped to and clearly belonged with a twelve-
page typescript composed ab initio by my father and bearing the title
'Here begins the tale of the Children of Hurin, Narn i Chin Hurin,
which Dirhaval wrought.' This text provides the opening of the Narn
in Unfinished Tales (pp. 57-8), and continues into the story of Hurin
and Huor in Gondolin (omitted in Unfinished Tales) which was based
very closely indeed on the version in the Grey Annals and is described
on pp. 169 - 70 (then follows the story of Turin's sister Lalaeth and of
his friendship with Sador Labadal, ending with the riding away of
Hurin to the Battle of Unnumbered Tears, which is given in Unfinished
Tales pp. 58 - 65). It is very difficult to interpret, in the story of the visit
to Gondolin, the close similarity or (often) actual identity of wording
in Dirhaval's lay with that of the version in the Grey Annals. The same '
question arises, despite a central difference in the narrative, in the case
of the Narn version of the Battle of Unnumbered Tears and that in the
Annals (see pp. 165 ff.). The Narn text is not linked, as is the Gondolin
story, to the name of Dirhaval; but it is a curious fact that it begins
(p. 165) 'Many songs are yet sung, and many tales are yet told by the
Elves of the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, the Battle of Unnumbered Tears, in
which Fingon fell and the flower of the Eldar withered - for this is
identical to the opening of AElfwine's preface (text B, p. 312), except
that the latter has 'are yet told by the Elves in the Lonely Isle'.
NOTES.
1. In the old Tale of Turambar the Gnomish form of Turambar was
Turumart, and in Q Turumarth, where however it was changed to
Turamarth, as it was also in QS (V.321). Turumarth here must
represent a reversion to the original form.
2. Andvir son of Androg appears nowhere else. It is expressly stated
in a plot-outline of this part of the Narn that Androg died in the
battle on the summit of Amon Rudh (see Unfinished Tales p. 154).
The wording here is plain, and can hardly be taken to mean that it
was Andvir (also a member of the outlaw-band) who alone
survived.
3. The name of the verse is clearly Minlamad thent / estent: Minlamed
in Unfinished Tales p. 146 is erroneous.
4. Cf. the 'linguistic excursus' in the Grey Annals, p. 26, where there
is a reference to the speech of the Grey-elves becoming the com-
mon tongue of Beleriand and being affected by words and devices
drawn from Noldorin - 'save in Doriath where the language
remained purer and less changed by time'.
5. The name is perfectly clearly Dirhavel in A, but is typed Dirhaval
in B, which being the later should have been adopted in Unfinished
Tales.
6. Against scop my father noted: 'O.English = poet', and against
walhstod 'O.English = interpreter' (on the carbon copy 'inter-
preter / translator').
III.
MAEGLIN.
The tale of Isfin and Eol and their son Meglin (in the earliest form
of his name) had long roots, and I have set out its earlier history
in concise form on pp. 121 - 2, $$117-20. As the text of the Grey
Annals was first written the form of the story in AB 2 was repeated:
Isfin left Gondolin in the year before the Battle of Unnumbered Tears,
and twenty-one years later Meglin was sent alone to Gondolin (GA
original annals 471 and 492, pp. 47, 84). It was at that stage that a full
tale of Meglin and how he came to Gondolin was first written.
This was a clear manuscript of 12 sides, fairly heavily emended both
at the time of writing and later; it belongs in style very evidently with
the Annals of Aman, the Grey Annals, the later Tale of Tuor, and the
text which I have called the End of the Narn ('NE', see p. 145), and
can be firmly dated to the same time (1951). It was on the basis of this
work that revised annals concerning the story were introduced into
GA (years 316, 320, and 400, pp. 47 - 8), as noticed earlier (p. 123);
these were written on a page from an engagement calendar for
November 1951 (p. 47).
An amanuensis typescript with carbon copy was made many years
later, as appears from the fact that it was typed on my father's last
typewriter. This typescript took up almost all of the emendations made
to the manuscript. For the present purpose I shall call the manuscript
of 1951 'A' and the late typescript 'B', distinguishing where necessary
the top copy as 'B(i)' and the carbon as 'B(ii)'.
The B text was corrected and annotated in ball-point pen, and so
also was the carbon copy - but not in the same ways; the original
manuscript A also received some late emendations, which do not
appear in B as typed. Moreover, a great deal of late writing in
manuscript from the same time was inserted into B(i), with other
similar material, overlapping in content, found elsewhere; for this my
father used scrap paper supplied to him by Allen and Unwin, and two
of these sheets are publication notes issued on 19 January 1970 - thus
this material is very late indeed, and it is of outstanding difficulty.
Although the typescript B was also very late, as evidenced by the
typewriter used, details of names show that the manuscript A had
actually reached many years earlier the form from which it was typed;
it seems very probable that my father had it typed in order to provide a
copy on which substantial further change and annotation could be
carried out c.1970. Only those few changes to A made in ball-point
pen and not taken up into B belong to the final period of work on the
story.
To set out in detail the evolution of all this material would take a
very great deal of space, and for much of its length involve the simple
repetition of Chapter 16 Of Maeglin in the published Silmarillion. In
this case, therefore, I shall use that chapter as the text for reference,
and concentrate chiefly on the very late work, which has many notable
features that of their nature could have no place in the published book.
I shall refer in this account to the paragraphs in The Silmarillion,
numbering them for convenience of internal reference, and giving the
opening words of each for ease of identification. It should be noted
here that the Silmarillion text takes up emendations from both the top
copy (B(i)) and carbon (B(ii)) of the typescript, and that in cases
(which are numerous) where they differ in the rewriting of original
passages the published text is often an amalgam of both.
The Title.
The manuscript A as written had no title; later my father pencilled on
it Of Meglin, changing this to Of Isfin and Glindur. The typescript B
has the title (as typed) Of Maeglin, with the subtitle Sister-son of
Turgon, King of Gondolin. At the head of the first page of B(i) my
father wrote that the text is 'An enlarged version of the coming of
Maeglin to Gondolin, to be inserted in FG in its place', and noted also
that 'FG = Fall of Gondolin'. This can only be a reference to the
abandoned Tale of Tuor (entitled Of Tuor and the Fall of Gondolin,
but retitled Of Tuor and his Coming to Gondolin for inclusion in
Unfinished Tales), which belongs to the same period as the manuscript
A. Thus at this very late date my father was still holding to the hope of
an entirely rewritten story of the Fall of Gondolin, of which so little
had actually been done (and those parts some twenty years before).
The only evidence that he at any time considered the story of Maeglin
as a possible component in the Quenta Silmarillion is the word
Silmarillion with a query pencilled against the opening paragraphs of
the manuscript; and this was struck out.
$1. Aredhel Ar-Feiniel, the White Lady of the Noldor...
Here, and throughout B(i), Isfin was changed to Arehel; and in the
margin against the first occurrence my father wrote:
This name is derived from the oldest (1916) version of FG. It is now
quite unacceptable in form, unsuitable to the position and character
of Turgon's sister, and also meaningless.
Presumably he meant that since no etymology of Isfin was feasible it
was on that account unsuitable to be the name of Turgon's sister (cf.
II.344, where the original explanation of the name as 'snow-locks'
or 'exceeding-cunning' is given, and the present note is referred to).
Also written in the margin is '? Rodwen = High Virgin Noble' and
'Rodwen Los in Golodh..' (last letters illegible; the word 'Virgin' is
also not perfectly clear).
At the top of the first page of the carbon B(ii) the notes on the name
are different. Here my father wrote: 'Name Isfin must be changed
throughout to Feiniel (= White Lady)'. Against this he wrote an X,
and 'Change Isfin to Aredhel (Noble-elf)'. Whereas in B(i), as I have
noted, Isfin was changed to Aredel throughout, in B(ii) Isfin was
merely circled, except in two cases where it was replaced by Feiniel,
and in one case where it was replaced by Ar-Feiniel. My father was
correcting the top copy and the carbon independently but at (more or
less) the same time, very probably because he had the one in one place
and the other in another. In the published Silmarillion I combined
them as Aredhel Ar-Feiniel, although there is no warrant for this; they
were evidently competing names, and the notes at the head of the
carbon copy cited above suggest that Aredel (Aredhel) was his final
choice.
The name Nivrost was changed on both copies of B to Nevrost (not
Nevrast, the usual later form).
In the manuscript A it was said of Isfin that she longed to 'hunt' in
the forests, emended to 'walk' and thus appearing in B. With this cf.
the rider inserted into the passage in QS concerning the princes of the
Noldor, where it is told that in Valinor Isfin 'loved much to ride on
horse and to hunt in the forests, and there was often in the company of
her kinsmen, the sons of Feanor'. Subsequently Isfin in this passage
was changed to frith (see X.177, 182); this name is found in Quendi
and Eldar (see p. 409 and note 34).
The published text uses 'you' forms throughout. In A 'thou' forms
were used throughout, but in the passage ($5) in which the march-
wardens of Doriath address Isfin the 'thou' forms were altered to the
'polite' plural. Noldor was changed to Noldor throughout B(i).
In A, the text begins with the date 316.
$4. And Turgon appointed three lords of his household...
On B(i) only, my father pencilled with reference to these opening
words the names Glorfindel, Egalmoth, and Ecthelion, and also 'On
etymologies of Egalmoth and Ecthelion see note'. This note is written
on the same typescript page and its reverse, but is very hard to read:
These names are also derived from primitive FG, but are well-
sounding and have been in print. They are late popular forms of
archaic AEgamloth, AEgthelion. Note amloth is said (where?) to be
probably not S[indarin]. Q * ambalotse uprising-flower - referring
to the flower or floreate device used as a crest fixed to point of a tall
... helmet. Name therefore = pointed helm-crest.
Ecthelion must be similarly from Aegthelion. Latter element is a
derivative of V stel 'remain firm'. The form with prefix 'sundoma',
estel, was used in Q and S for 'hope' - sc. a temper of mind, steady,
fixed in purpose, and difficult to dissuade and unlikely to fall into
despair or abandon its purpose. The unprefixed stel- gave [? S verb]
thel 'intend, mean, purpose, resolve, will'. So Q ? pelma 'a fixed
idea,..., will.'
The illegible word in 'a tall... helmet' might possibly be 'archaic'. The
word sundoma is an important term in the analysis of Quendian
phonological structure. Very briefly indeed, the Quendian consonantal
'base' or sundo was characterised by a 'determinant vowel' or
sundoma: thus the sundo KAT has a medial sundoma 'A', and TALAT
has the sundoma repeated. In derivative forms the sundoma might be
placed before the first consonant, e.g. ATALAT; thus estel beside stel in
this note.
On the words 'These names... have been in print' (referring to the
Ruling Stewards of Gondor named Egalmoth and Ecthelion) see
II.211-12 and footnote, where the present note is referred to; for my
[':::: remark there chat my father 'subsequently decided against naming
Aredhel's escort' see p. 328.
$5. But when she came to the Ford of Brithiach...
'his kinsfolk of the house of Finarfin': B still has Finrod here, and
the change to Finarfin was made on B(ii) only.
In A and B the march-wardens said to Isfin: 'The speediest way is by
the East Road from Brithiach through eastern Brethil, and so along the
north-march of this Kingdom, until you pass Esgalduin and Aros, and
so come to the woods behind the Hill of Himring.' In B(ii) only,
'Esgalduin and Aros' was changed to 'the Bridge of Esgalduin and the
Ford of Aros'.
In the published text 'the lands that lie behind the Hill of Himring'
seems to be a mere error for 'the woods...' which was not observed.
$6. Then Aredhel turned back...
A and B have 'the Eryd Gorgoroth', but on B(ii), and also on A at
the same time, this was changed to 'the haunted valleys of the
Gorgorath'; similarly A and B 'Dungorthin' > 'Nan Dungortheb' on A
and B(ii).
The original form of this paragraph was not changed on B(i), but
was rewritten on B(ii). This rewriting did not significantly change the
sense, but added that the companions of 'Feiniel' (see under $1 above)
'had no choice but to follow her, for they were not permitted to
restrain her by force', and that when they returned to Gondolin
'Turgon said to them: "At least I should be glad that three whom I
trust and love were not led to death by the wilfulness of one."' These
additions were not included in the published text.
$7. But Aredbel, having sought in vain for her companions...
Where the published text has 'she held on her way' the original text,
preserved in B(i), has 'she held to the East Road'; in B(ii) this was
emended to 'At last she found the East Road again'. In B(ii) the name
Celon was at both occurrences in the paragraph circled for correction,
and at the second the name Limhir was written above (see p. 337).
Of Isfin's coming to the land of Himlad (a name which first occurs in
this story) the original text of A and B read:
... at that time they [Celegorm and Curufin] were from home,
riding with Cranthir, east in Thargelion. But the folk of Celegorm
welcomed her, and did all that she asked; and for a while she had
great joy in the freedom of the woods. And ever she would ride
further abroad, often alone, save it were for hounds that she led,
seeking for new paths...
This was rewritten on B(i) to the form it has in the published text. In a
first stage of the rewriting the phrase 'save it were for hounds that she
led' was bracketed with the note: 'Omit unless the presence of dogs is
afterwards of importance'; in the second stage it was omitted. Against
the o of Thargelion my father wrote a (sc. Thargelian), with a query. In
B(ii) the rewriting was different, retaining more of the original text,
including the reference to hounds; Thargelion was changed here also
to Thargelian, without a query (on the latter form see pp. 336 - 7).
$8. In that wood in ages past...
On B(i) my father wrote the following note in the margin of the
typescript against the first occurrence in the story of the name Eol,
which he bracketed:
Another name from prim[itive) FG - meaningless then and now. But
it was not intended to have any meaning in Q[uenya] or S[indarin].
For Eol was said to be a 'Dark Elf', a term then applied to any Elves
who had not been willing to leave Middle-earth - and were then
(before the history and geography had been organized) imagined as
wandering about, and often ill-disposed towards the 'Light-Elves'.
But it was also sometimes applied to Elves captured by Morgoth
and enslaved and then released to do mischief among the Elves. I
think this latter idea should be taken up. It would explain much
about Eol and his smithcraft. (I think the name might stay. It isn't
really absolutely necessary that names should be significant.)
In the old tale of The Fall of Gondolin Eol was not in fact called 'the
Dark Elf', although in the soon abandoned Lay of the Fall of
Gondolin (III.146) he is called 'dark Eol', and it is said that 'the Dark
Elves were his kindred that wander without home'. In the Sketch of
the Mythology (IV.34) he was called 'the Dark Elf Eol', and so also in
the Quenta (IV.136); in AB 1 (IV.301) he is 'Eol a Dark-elf', and in AB
2 (V.136) 'Eol the Dark-elf' - so also in all the entries in GA. I do not
think that 'Dark-elves' had ever been used in the sense referred to in
this note, that of 'darkened Elves', Elves ensnared and corrupted by
Morgoth. The words 'I think this latter idea should be taken up. It
would explain much about Eol and his smithcraft' were the basis for
an abandoned sketch of Eol's history given below.
The original text had 'Of old he was of the kin of Thingol, but he
loved him not, and when the Girdle of Melian was set about the Forest
of Region he fled thence to Nan Elmoth.' In a passage of the 'Turins
Saga' which was excluded in Unfinished Tales (p. 96 and note 12)
because it had been used in The Silmarillion (pp. 201-2), it is told that
Eol gave the sword Anglachel which he had made 'to Thingol as fee,
which he begrudged, for leave to dwell in Nan Elmoth'.
Against the words 'but he loved him not' my father wrote in the
margin of the carbon copy, B(ii), Because Thingol was friendly with
the Noldor before they left Middle-earth' (cf. X.172). On B(i) he
emended the words 'he loved him not' to 'he was ill at ease in Doriath',
and on an inserted page he roughed out a new story about Eol. This is
in two versions, which are however largely identical. The first reads:
but he was restless and ill at ease in Doriath, and when the Girdle of
Melian was set about the Forest of Region where he dwelt he
departed. It is thought (though no clear tale was known) that he was
captured by orks and taken to Thangorodrim, and there became
enslaved; but owing to his skills (which in that place were turned
much to smithcraft and metalwork) he received some favour, and
was freer than most slaves to move about, and so eventually he
escaped and sought hiding in Nan Elmoth (maybe not without the
knowledge of Morgoth, who used such 'escaped' slaves to work
mischief among the Elves).
The second version begins:
and when he heard that Melian would put a Girdle about Doriath
that none could pass..... without the leave of the king or of Melian
herself, he left the Forest of Region where he had dwelt and sought
for a place to dwell. But since he did not love the Noldor he found it
hard to find a place where he would be unmolested. It was believed
afterwards (though no certain tale was known) that in his wander-
ing he was captured [@ c. as in the first version]
This is possibly compatible with the story that Eol gave Anglachel to
Thingol as fee to dwell in Nan Elmoth. It would be interesting to know
why my father wished thus to change Eol's history - or rather, why
he wished to attribute Eol's skill in metals to a time of slavery in
Angband; but in any event he thought better of it, for in a scribbled
note beside the two versions of the story he said that this would not
do, being too repetitive of the later history of Maeglin, and that Eol's
skill was derived from the Dwarves.
$9. Now the traffic of the Dwarves...
The opening of this paragraph read as follows in A:
Now the traffic of the Dwarves followed two roads, the northern of
which, going towards Himring, passed nigh Nan Elmoth, and there
Eol would meet the Enfeng and hold converse with them. And, as
their friendship grew, he would at times go and dwell as a guest in
the deep mansions of Belegost.
The only emendation to A was the replacement of the old term Enfeng
(Longbeards, the Dwarves of Belegost, see pp. 108, 207 - 8) by
Anfangrim, here first appearing. In B(ii) 'the deep mansions of
Belegost' was changed to '... of Nogrod or Belegost'; adopting this in
the published text I altered in consequence Anfangrim 'Longbeards' to
the general term Naugrim.
In the following passage A had originally:
There he learned much of metalwork, and came to great skill
therein; and he devised a metal hard and thin and yet pliable, and it
was black and shining like jet. Rodeol, the metal of Eol, he named it,
and he was clad therein, and so escaped many wounds.
The name of the metal was changed many times. First Rodeol was
altered to Glindur, then to Targlin and Morlin; then (apparently) back
to Glindur, and finally to Maeglin, the form in B.
The idea that the name of Eol's son was derived from that of the
metal is found in the revised annal for 320 in GA (p. 48): 'Eol named
him Glindur, for that was the name of the metal of Eol'; subsequently
Glindur was changed to Maeglin both as the name of the metal and as
the name of the son (as also in A: see under $10 below).
The passage was left as it stood in B(i), but at the head of the first
page of B(ii) my father wrote: 'The metal must not have same name as
Maeglin'; and he emended the text to the form that it has in the
published Silmarillion, with the name of the metal galvorn. (Following
'whenever he went abroad' the words 'and so escaped many wounds'
were omitted in The Silmarillion, apparently through inadvertence.)
To the passage 'But Eol... was no Dwarf, but a tall Elf of a high kin
of the Teleri' my father wrote on the manuscript A (only) a note
beginning with the words 'Not in revision' - which probably means
that what follows is not in the corrections made to the copies of the
typescript ('the revision'). In this note my father was copying a very
faint and illegible form of it on the same page, and trying to interpret
his own writing; I give it exactly as it stands:
Eol should not be one of Thingol's kin, but one of the Teleri who
refused to cross the Hithaeglir. But [later] he and a few others of like
mood, averse to concourse of people, ... [had] crossed the [Mts]
long ago and come to Beleriand.
Against this note he wrote 'but the relationship to Thingol would have
point', and the date 1971.
Aredhel Ar-Feiniel: B(ii) has here Ar-Feiniel (emended from Isfin);
see p. 318.
$10. It is not said that Aredhel was wholly unwilling...
In the margin of the manuscript at the mention of the birth of Eol's
son my father wrote later the date 320 (cf. p. 48, $119). The sentence
in A as originally written read:
After some years Isfin bore to Eol a son in the shadows of Nan
Elmoth, and he was named Meglin by his father, for he was dark
and supple, as the metal of Eol.
The fact that the metal was originally named Rodeol in A (see under
$9 above) but the son Meglin (the original name) seems to suggest that
the idea that the son was named from the metal only arose after the
initial writing of the manuscript, despite the words 'for he was dark
and supple, as the metal of Eol'. The changing forms of the son's name
in A were Meglin > Targlin > Morlin > Glindur and finally Maeglin.
The sentence in this form (with the name Maeglin, as of the metal
also) was preserved in B(i); but in B(ii), the text on which my father
declared that the same name must not be used both of Eol's son and
Eol's metal and changed that of the latter to galvorn, he altered it to
the form in the published text, in which Aredhel secretly gave her son
the Noldorin name Lomion 'Child of the Twilight', and Eol named
him Maeglin (interpreted 'Sharp Glance', see p. 337) when he was
twelve years old.
$12. Yet it is said that Maeglin loved his mother better...
'Turgon... had no heir; for Elenwe his wife perished in the crossing
of the Helcaraxe': here A has 'Turgon ... had no heir: for his wife,
Alaire, was of the Vanyar and would not forsake Valinor'. On the page
of jottings that concludes the abandoned later Tale of Tuor (see
Unfinished Tales p. 56) a note which I did not include says that 'Alaire
remained in Aman'. That this was the case because she was a Vanya is
reminiscent of the story of Amarie, beloved of Felagund, who was a
Vanya, 'and was not permitted to go with him into exile' (p. 44, $109).
The typescript B as typed has Alaire, but on both A and B(ii), not on
B(i), my father corrected (presumptively in 1970) the name to Anaire.
The substitution of Elenwe in The Silmarillion was based on the Elvish
genealogies of 1959 (see pp. 229, 350), where Anaire (defined as a
Vanya 'who remained in Tuna') was later corrected to 'Elenwe who
perished in the Ice'; on the same table at the same time Anaire was
entered as the wife of Fingolfin, with the note that she 'remained in
Aman'.
In a note added to the typescript of the Annals of Aman (X.128,
$163) my father said that in the crossing of the Helkaraxe 'Turgon's
wife was lost and he had then only one daughter and no other heir.
Turgon was nearly lost himself in attempts to rescue his wife - and he
had less love for the Sons of Feanor than any other'; but Turgon's wife
is not named.
$13. In the telling of these tales...
Golodhrim: A had Noldor, changed immediately to Golodrim
(Golodhrim B).
In this paragraph, and in $14, the name of Eol's son (see under $$9,
10 above) passed through these forms in A: Morleg (which has not
occurred before) > Morlin > Glindur > Maeglin.
$$14 ff. It came to pass that at the midsummer...
Against the opening sentence in A my father later wrote the date
400 (cf. p. 48, $120). The original text, preserved unchanged in both
copies of B, read here:
And it came to pass that the Dwarves bade Eol to a feast in Nogrod,
and he rode away. Then Maeglin went to his mother and said:
'Lady, let us depart while there is time! What hope is there in the
wood for thee or for me? Here we are held in bondage, and no profit
more shall I find in this place. For I have learned all that my father
or the [Nornwaith >] Naugrim have to teach, or will reveal to me;
and I would not for ever dwell in the dark woods with few servants,
and those skilled only in smith-craft. Shall we not go to Gondolin?
Be thou my guide, and I will be thy guard.'
Then Isfin was glad, and looked with pride upon her son. 'That
indeed I will do, and swiftly,' she said; 'and no fear shall I have upon
the road with a guard so valiant.'
Therefore they arose and departed in haste, as secretly as they
might. But Eol returned, ere his time, and found them gone; and so
great was his wrath that he followed after them, even by the light of
day.
(For Nornwaith, replaced by Naugrim, see p. 209.) At this point there
are two earlier versions of the text in A, both struck through. The first
reads:
But Morleg had also mistrusted his father, and he took cunning
counsel, and so he went not at once by the East Road, but rode first
to Celegorm and found him in the hills south of Himring. And of
Celegorm he got horses surpassing swift, and the promise of other
aid. Then Morleg and Isfin passed over Aros and Esgalduin far to
the north where they spilled from the highlands of Dorthonion, and
turned then southward, and came to the East Road far to the west.
But Celegorm and Curufin waylaid the East Road and its ford over
Aros, and denied it to Eol, and though he escaped from them in the
darkness he was long delayed.
The next version reads:
For his servants reported to him that they had fled to the fords of the
East Road over Aros and Esgalduin. But they were two days ahead,
and had taken the swiftest of his horses, and hard though he
pursued them, he came never in sight of them, until they passed over
the Brithiach and abandoned their horses. But there by ill fate he
saw them even as they took the secret path, which lay in the course
of the Dry River; and he followed them with great stealth, step by
step, and came upon them even in the darkness of the great vault
where the Guards of the Way kept watch unceasing. Thus he was
taken, even as they, by the Guards
It is interesting to see the intervention of Celegorm and Curufin in the
story here, removed at once but reappearing many years later.
On the page carrying these rejected passages there follow very
rapidly pencilled notes outlining the further course of the story:
After they entered he entered. Taken by guards. Claims to be Isfin's
husband. Words to Turgon. Isfin acknowledges it. Turgon treats Eol
with honour. Eol draws a bow and shoots at Morleg in the King's
hall, saying that his own son shall not be filched. But Isfin sets
herself in way and is wounded. While Eol is in prison Isfin dies
of venom. Eol condemned to death. Taken to the precipice of
Caragdar. Morleg stands by coldly. They hurl him over the precipice
and all save Idril approve.
After the rejection of the passages given above my father wrote a final
version, beginning again at 'even by the light of day' on p. 324:
even by the light of day; for his servants reported to him that they
had ridden to the East Road and the ford over Aros. But they were
two days ahead, and hard though he pursued them, and had the
swiftest steed, he came never in sight of them, until they [came
under the shadows of the Crisaegrim, and sought for the secret
path >] reached the Brithiach, and abandoned their horses.
The text then continues as in The Silmarillion $23 (paragraph
beginning Then Eol rode off in haste...).
The final text of A was preserved in the typescript B, and in neither
the top copy nor the carbon did my father change it (except for 'a
feast' > 'a midsummer feast' in the latter). From here onwards, in fact,
there were no further emendations or annotations made to the carbon
copy B(ii), and this text no longer concerns us. But in B(i) my father
inserted into the typescript a long text on separate pages; and this
appears to be the last piece of substantial narrative that he wrote on
the Matter of the Elder Days - it cannot be earlier than 1970 (see
p. 316). It begins at the words 'It came to pass that at the midsum-
mer', and continues through the flight of Maeglin and Aredhel, Eol's
pursuit, and the intervention of Curufin: The Silmarillion pp. 134-6,
$$14-23, where it joins the original A text at 'until they reached the
Brithiach, and abandoned their horses'.
As has been seen '(p. 317) this story of Maeglin was not written to
stand as an element in the Quenta Silmarillion; and the detail of the
narrative in this very late interpolation was somewhat reduced in the
published text, chiefly by the removal of all the precise timing and
numbering of days and a return to the manner of the original simpler
and more remote narrative. The chief omissions and consequent
alterations are as follows.
$14. and he rode away. Original text: 'and he rode away, though he
thought it likely that in his absence Maeglin might seek to visit the
sons of Feanor in spite of his counsels, and he secretly ordered his
servants to keep close watch on his wife and son.'
Therefore he said to Aredhel: 'Therefore when Eol had been gone
some days Maeglin went to his mother and said,
$$15-16. and telling the servants of Eol that they went to seek the
sons of Feanor...: 'Therefore that night as secretly as they could they
made provision for a journey, and they rode away at daybreak to the
north-eaves of Nan Elmoth. There as they crossed the slender stream
of Celon they spied a watchman, and Maeglin cried to him: "Tell your
master that we go to visit our kin in Aglon." Then they rode on over
the Himlad to the Fords of Aros, and then westward along the Fences
of Doriath. But they had tarried overlong. For on the first night of the
three days feast, as he slept, a dark shadow of ill foreboding visited
Eol, and in the morning he forsook Nogrod without ceremony and
rode homeward with all speed. Thus he returned some days earlier
than Maeglin had expected, coming to Nan Elmoth at nightfall of the
day after their flight. There he learned from his watchman that they
had ridden north less than two days before and had passed into the
Himlad, on their way to Aglon.
'Then so great was Eol's anger that he resolved to follow them at
once; so staying only to take a fresh horse, the swiftest that he had, he
rode away that night. But as he entered the Himlad he mastered his
wrath...'
Against Celon is written? Limhir (see under $7 above).
$16. Curufin moreover was of perilous mood; but the scouts of
Aglon had marked the riding of Maeglin and Aredhel...: 'Curufin was
a man of perilous mood. So far they had left him [Eol] free to go his
ways, but could if they wished confine him within the bounds of Nan
Elmoth and cut him off from his friendship with Dwarves, of which
Curufin was jealous. Things proved little better than he feared; for the
scouts of Aglon...'
And before Eol had ridden far ...: So ere Eol had ridden half the
way over Himlad he was waylaid by well-armed horsemen, who
forced him to go with them to their lord Curufin. They reached his
camp about noon; and he greeted Eol with little courtesy.'
$19. It is not two days since they passed over the Arossiach ...:
'Nearly two days ago they were seen to pass the Fords of Aros, and to
ride swiftly westward.' For the name Arossiach introduced into the
published text see p. 338, note 2.
$22. to find a kinsman thus kindly at need: 'to find one's nephew so
kindly at need.' On this alteration see $23 below.
By the laws of the Eldar I may not slay you at this time: here there is
a footnote in the original: 'Because the Eldar (which included the
Sindar) were forbidden to slay one another in revenge for any griev-
ance however great. Also at this time Eol had ridden towards Aglon
with no ill intent, and it was not unjust that he should seek news of
Aredel and Maeglin.'
$23. for he perceived now that Maeglin and Aredhel were fleeing to
Gondolin: 'For he saw now that he had been cheated, and that his wife
and son were fleeing to Gondolin, and he had been delayed, so that it
was now more than two days since they crossed the Fords.'
This narrative is followed by various notes. One of these is a
genealogical table:
Miriel = Finwe = Indis
Feanor Turgon, Arehel = Eol
Curufin Maeglin
To this is added: So Curufin was half-nephew of Turgon and Areal.
Eol was uncle by marriage of Curufin, but that was denied as a forced
marriage".' This genealogy is the basis for Eol's words cited under $22
above, 'to find one's nephew so kindly at need'; but it is of course
entirely wrong. The correct genealogy is:
Miriel = Finwe = Indis
Feanor Fingolfin
Curufin Turgon, Aredel = Eol
Curufin was not Eol's nephew (through Aredel), but his cousin (by
marriage). It is a strange error, one might say unprecedented, since it is
not a mere casual slip.
On another page is the following long, rapidly written, and remark-
ably elaborate discussion of the motives of Celegorm and Curufin.
The meeting between Eol and Curufin (if not too long an inter-
ruption) is good, since it shows (as is desirable) Curufin, too often
the villain (especially in the Tale of Tinuviel), in a better and more
honourable light - though still one of dangerous mood and con-
temptuous speech. Curufin of course knew well of Eol's hatred of
the Noldor, and especially of Feanor and his sons, as 'usurpers'
(though in this case unjust, since the lands occupied by the 5 sons
had not been peopled before by the Sindar). Also he knew of Eol's
friendship with the Dwarves of Nogrod (indeed Eol could not have
journeyed alone across E. Beleriand to Nogrod unless allowed by
the 5 sons), among whom he had tried with some success to stir up
unfriendliness to the Noldor. Which was a grievance to the 5 sons,
who had, before Eol's coming to Nan Elmoth, had much profit from
the help of the Dwarves. Curufin also knew that Eol's wife was of
the Noldor, indeed he had long known who she was, and now
shrewdly guessed that she was [?seeking] to escape from her
husband at last. Curufin could have slain Eol (as he greatly wished!)
and no one beyond the few men with him at his camp (who would
never have betrayed him) would ever have heard of it - or much
mourned it. In Elmoth it would simply be learned that Eol had
ridden in pursuit of Aredel and never come back, and there were
perils enough upon the road to account for that. But this would
have been in Eldarin law and sentiment murder; Eol came alone, on
no errand of mischief at that time, but in distress. Also [he] had
answered Curufin's contempt and insults soberly or indeed with
courtesy (whether it were ironic or not). Also and more cogently he
was one of the Eldar, and not so far as was known under any
shadow of Morgoth - unless that vague one which afflicted many
others of the Sindar (? due to whispers inspired by Morgoth) -
jealousy of the Noldor. Which was dangerous (whatever the faults
of their rebellion) since if Morgoth had not been followed by the
Exiles, it seems clear that all the Sindar would soon have been
destroyed or enslaved.
An important point not made clear is Curufin and Celegorm's
earlier action in the matter of Aredel. She had actually stayed with
them, and made no secret of who she was - indeed they knew her
well from of old. Why did they not send word to Gondolin? Her
escort though valiant chiefs would seem to have been so bewildered
and daunted by the horrors of the valleys west of Esgalduin that
they had never reached the Bridge of Esgalduin or come near to
Aglond. This makes it necessary, I think, not to name the most
eminent and bravest chieftains (Glorfindel, Egalmoth, and Ecthe-
lion) as her escort. The answer then to the above question is this: the
perils of Dungorthin etc. were universally dreaded by the Eldar, and
not least by the sons of Feanor, to him [read whom] refuge south-
ward into Doriath was utterly closed. It had, of course, been
expressly forbidden by Turgon that Aredel should go that way. Only
her wilfulness had done this. Her escort plainly endured to the
utmost of their strength the perils in their search, and so doubtless in
fact aided her escape, by drawing to themselves the chief attention
of the evil creatures. Now there had [been] since Gondolin was
'closed' no communication at all between the sons of Feanor and
Turgon. It was known of course that any of these sons (or any fully
accredited messengers) bearing tidings of Aredel would at once have
been admitted. But Aredel had evidently told Curufin (and later
Celegorm of whom she was most fond) enough of herself, to
understand that she had escaped from Gondolin by her own will
and was glad to dwell [with] them and be free. Now they could only
get word to Gondolin by facing evil perils, which only her rescue
from misery would have seemed to them sufficient reason. More-
over while she was happy and at ease they delayed - believing that
even if Turgon was informed he would only have demanded her
return (since his permission to her to depart was void after her
disobedience). But before they had made up their minds she was
again lost, and it was a long time before they knew or even guessed
what had become of her. This they did eventually when Aredel again
began to visit the borders of Nan Elmoth, or stray beyond them. For
they held a constant watch on Nan Elmoth, mistrusting the doings
and goings of Eol, and their scouts espied her at times riding in the
sunlight by the wood-eaves. But now it seemed too late [to] them;
and they all [? read they thought that all] they would get for any
peril would be the rebuke or wrath of Turgon. And this [they]
wished in no way to receive. For they were now under a shadow of
fear, and beginning to prepare for war again ere the strength of
Thangorodrim became insuperable.
In this piece there are major difficulties, and also some minor points to
mention. (1) It is said that Curufin 'knew of Eol's friendship with the
Dwarves of Nogrod': in the narrative Eol's visits were to Belegost,
changed on B(ii) to 'Nogrod or Belegost' (see under $9 above), but
already in A the feast to which he had gone at the time of the flight of
his wife and son was held at Nogrod ($14). Elsewhere among these
late 'Maeglin' writings it is said of Eol: 'Lately he had visited Nogrod
often; he had become very friendly with the Dwarves of Nogrod, since
those of Belegost to the north had become friends of Caranthir son of
Feanor.' (2) The pass is here named Aglond, though in the interpolated
narrative itself it is named Aglon; see p. 338, note 3. (3) For the
naming of Aredhel's escort, here rejected, see under $4 above. (4) The
reference to Dungorthin rather than Dungortheb is a casual reversion
to the old and long-enduring name.
(5) The five sons of Feanor are three times mentioned, but I cannot
explain this. It does not seem credible that the Seven Sons of Feanor,
so deeply rooted and so constantly recurring in the tradition, should
become five by a mere slip of forgetfulness, as in the omission of
Fingolfin from the genealogy (p. 327). By this time the story had
entered that one of the twin brothers Damrod and Diriel, later Amrod
and Amras, the youngest of Feanor's sons, died in the burning of the
ships of the Teleri at Losgar, because he 'had returned to sleep in his
ship': this was stated in a pencilled note on the typescript of the Annals
of Aman (X.128, $162), although no consequential alteration to any
text was ever made. Possibly my father had come to believe that both
Amrod and Amras died in the burning ship.
(6) Lastly, the concluding sentence of the discussion, concerning the
preparation for war by Celegorm and Curufin, is surprising. The Siege
of Angband ended very suddenly at midwinter of the year 455.
Between the rout of Glaurung in 260 and the Battle of Sudden Flame
there was (in the words of the Grey Annals, p. 46) 'the long peace of
wellnigh two hundred years. In that time there was naught but affrays
on the north-marches ...' It is true that in 402 (p. 49) there was
'fighting on the north-marches, more bitter than there had been since
the routing of Glaurung; for the Orcs attempted to pierce the pass of
Aglon'; while in 422 (p. 50) Fingolfin 'began to ponder an assault
upon Angband', which came to nothing, because 'most of the Eldar
were content with matters as they were and slow to begin an assault in
which many must surely perish'. But Maeglin and Aredhel fled to
Gondolin from Nan Elmoth in 400. There has nowhere been any
indication that the sons of Feanor were beginning to prepare for war
55 years before the Dagor Bragollach, with which the Siege of
Angband ended.
For the remainder of the narrative there are very few alterations to
the top copy B(i) of the typescript, and I notice only the following:
$35. It was appointed that Eol should be brought...: at the end of
the paragraph my father added:
For the Eldar never used any poison, not even against their most
cruel enemies, beast, ork, or man; and they were filled with shame
and horror that Eol should have meditated this evil deed.
From this point also the published text follows the original very
closely, and the small amount of editorial alteration in no way affects
the narrative.
I have mentioned (p. 316) that in addition to the very late emen-
dations and annotations, recorded above, made to the text of Maeglin
there is also much further material from the same time. These writings
are primarily concerned with the geography, times, and distances of
the journeys on horseback, but they are complicated and confused,
often repeating themselves with slight differences of calculation, and
in part virtually illegible. They contain however many curious details
about the geography and the ways taken by travellers in those regions.
To set out this material in ordered form, treating it page by page and
attempting to trace the development in sequence, is not possible, and if
it were possible unnecessary. My father himself noted: 'These calcula-
tions of times in Eol's journeys though interesting (and sufficient to
establish their possibility) are not really necessary in the narrative -
which seems credible as it stands even when faced by a map.' What
follows is a discussion with some citation of what can be learned (and
still more, of what can not be learned) of the roads in East Beleriand.
The numbered notes are found on pp. 338-9.
Associated with this material are rather pale photocopies of the
North-east and South-east sections of the map. These photocopies
were taken when the map had received almost all the alterations that
were ever made to it,(1) and my father used the copies, not the original,
to indicate features arising from his reconsideration and development
of the story of Maeglin c.1970. Since the tracks are far more readily
understood visually than by description, the redrawing of the North-
east section (p. 183) is reproduced again on p. 331 with the alterations
shown; the markings on the South-east section are few and easily
understood from a description, and for these reference is made to the
redrawing on p. 185.
My father had stated in a note on the back of the original 'second
map' (see V.272) that the scale is 50 miles to 3-2 cm, which is the
length of the sides of the squares. On the back of one of these photo-
copies, however, he wrote: 'The centimetre reckoning on the original
map is unnecessary, clumsy, and inaccurate. Actually 2 squares of 1 25
[inches] each = 100 miles.... The scale is therefore 40 miles to an
inch. 50 miles to 1 25 inches = one square.' Although he did not
precisely say so here, it looks to me as if he made the original grid on
the basis of inches, but subsequently interpreted it as if it were in
centimetres.
The East Road. In the original text of Maeglin (p. 319, $5) the
march-wardens of Doriath said to Isfin that 'the speediest way is by
the East Road from Brithiach through eastern Brethil, and so along the
north-march of this Kingdom, until you pass Esgalduin and Aros, and
so come to the woods behind the Hill of Himring', which was not
altered when the corrections were made to the text long afterwards,
except by changing 'Esgalduin and Aros' to 'the Bridge of Esgalduin
and the Ford of Aros' on one copy. In $6, she 'sought' the 'road'
between the Mountains of Terror and the north fences of Doriath, and
in $7 'she held to the East Road, and crossed Esgalduin and Aros',
changed on one copy to 'At last she found the East Road again...' In
one of the rejected passages in the manuscript A given under $$14 ff
on p. 324 it is said that 'Morleg [Maeglin] went not at once by the East
Road, but rode first to Celegorm', while in the second rejected passage
(ibid.) '[Eol's] servants reported to him that they had fled to the fords
of the East Road over Aros and Esgalduin'; in the third form (p. 325)
'his servants reported to him that they had ridden to the East Road
and the ford over Aros.'
From all these passages it is clear that when he wrote the original
text of Maeglin in 1951 my father conceived of an East - West road
running from the ford of Brithiach between the Mountains of Terror
and the northern borders of Doriath, and across the rivers Esgalduin
and Aros; and the fact that the first of these passages was allowed to
stand in both typescripts seems to show that he still retained this
conception in 1970. The only difference seems to be the introduction
of a bridge, rather than a ford, over Esgalduin. That this was certainly
the case is seen from the following passage:
Eol's house (in the middle of Elmoth) was about 15 miles from the
northmost point of the wood beside Celon. From that point it was
about 65 miles N.W. to the Ford of Aros.(2) At that time Curufin was
dwelling at the S.E. corner of the Pass of Aglond (3) about 45 miles
N.E. from the Ford of Aros. The Himlad (cool-plain) behind Aglond
and Himring, between the northern courses of the Rivers Aros and
Celon, he claimed as his land.(4) He and his people naturally kept
watch on the Ford of Aros; but they did not prevent the few hardy
travellers (Elves or Dwarves) that used the road West - East past the
north fences of Doriath. (Beyond the Ford was an entirely unin-
habited region between the mountains north [? read in the north,]
Esgalduin and Aros and Doriath: not even birds came there. It was
thus called Dor Dhinen the 'Silent Land'.)(5)
Beyond the Aros (some 25 miles) lay the more formidable
obstacle of the Esgalduin in which no fordable point was to be
found. In the 'peaceful days' before the return of Morgoth and
Ungoliant, when Doriath's north borders were the mountains of
Fuin (not yet evil), the West - East road passed over the Esgalduin
by a bridge outside the later fence of Melian. This stone-bridge,
the Esgaliant or Iant Iaur (old bridge) was still in existence, and
watched by the wardens of Doriath, but its use by Eldar was not
hindered. It was necessary therefore to fugitives crossing Aros to
turn S.W. to the bridge; From there they would keep as close as they
could to the Fences of Doriath (if Thingol and Melian were not
hostile to them). At the time of this story, though many evils lurked
in the Mountains the chief peril lay in passing Nan Dungortheb
from which clouds and darkness would creep down almost to the
Fences.
Turning to the photocopy of the map, Eol's house was marked in
Nan Elmoth as shown in my redrawing (p. 331). A line in green ball-
point pen connects his house to a point on the northern border of the
wood beside the river; and from here a green dotted line (represented
as a line of dashes in the redrawing) runs across the Himlad to the
'Fords of Aros', marked in red ball-point pen.(6) The green dots then
run S.W. to the bridge over Esgalduin, this being labelled 'Bridge'
simply (Esgaliant or Iant Iaur in the text just cited).(7) Beyond the Iant
Iaur the green dots continue S.W. for a short way and then stop: they
are not shown in relation to the List Melian (the Girdle of Melian).
It is stated in a note on the photocopy map that this green line marks
the 'track of Maeglin and his mother, fleeing to Gondolin'. In the light
of the text just cited, it is also the line of the East - West road from the
Ford of Aros to the Iant Iaur; but otherwise the course of the road is
not represented. The dotted line along the edge of Neldoreth is named
on the map List Melian, and does not mark a road. Westward this line
was indeed extended beyond Mindeb to the Brithiach, but these dots
were struck out (p. 188, $38); eastwards it was extended between
Esgalduin and Aros, and then between Aros and Celon, and this seems
to represent the continuation of the List Melian.
On account of these obscurities I excluded from the text of the
chapter Of Maeglin in The Silmarillion the references to the 'East
Road' and rephrased the passages; but on the map accompanying the
book I marked in its course. This seems now to have been the wrong
thing to do in both cases: for there certainly was an East Road, but its
course is unclear and its destination unknown. Beyond Aros going east
there is no indication of where it went: it is said in the passage cited
above that it and the bridge by which it passed over Esgalduin were
ancient works deriving from the 'peaceful days' before the return of
Morgoth: it was not a road made by the Noldor for communication
between the western realms and the Feanorians. There is also no
justification for marking it as turning S.E. after the Fords of Aros.
Beyond Esgalduin going west it is said in this passage that travellers
'would keep as close as they could to the Fences of Doriath', which
does not sound like the following of a beaten road.
The Dwarf-roads. Equally obscure is the question of the Dwarf-
roads in Eastern Beleriand. In the earliest Annals of Beleriand (AB 1,
IV.332) it was said that the Dwarves had of old a road into the West
that came up along Eredlindon to the East and passed westward in the
passes south of Mount Dolm and down the course of the River Ascar
and over Gelion at the ford Sarn Athrad and so to Aros.' This agrees
exactly with the (revised) course of the road on the 'Eastward
Extension' of the first Silmarillion map (see IV.231, 336). It is seen
from the central (original) part of the first map that it crossed Celon
and Aros west of Nan Elmoth (which of course did not at that time yet
exist) and so ran in a W.S.W. direction to the Thousand Caves
(between pp. 220 and 221 in Vol.IV). But the course of the ancient
route of the Dwarves after the passage of Sarn Athrad was never
marked in on the second map - unless the vague line described in the
notes on the map, p. 190, $68, is correctly interpreted as the Dwarf-
road. If that is so, then its course had been changed to cross Aros much
further to the south, and then to run northwards through the Forest of
Region to Menegroth. But better evidence is provided in the late
Quenta Silmarillion chapter Of the Coming of Men into the West,
pp. 218 - 19, where it is said that 'Marach ... came down the
Dwarf-road and settled his people in the country to the south and east
of the dwellings of Baran son of Beor': this was Estolad, 'the name ever
after of the land east of Celon and south of Nan Elmoth'. On the
disuse of the old Dwarf-road(s) into Beleriand after the coming of the
Noldor see p. 121, commentary on GA $114.
It was said already in the original text of Maeglin (p. 321, $9) that 'the
traffic of the Dwarves followed two roads, the northern of which, going
towards Himring, passed nigh Nan Elmoth'. This was not altered in the
late work on Maeglin; and on the primary map (already present when
the photocopy was made) a line of faintly pencilled dots marked 'north
road of Dwarves' (see p. 189, $50) runs E.S.E. from near Nan Elmoth,
crosses Gelion some way south of the confluence of its arms, and then
turns southward, running more or less parallel to the river. There is no
trace of its course west or north of Nan Elmoth, and it is impossible to
be sure whether any further continuation southwards or eastwards is
marked beyond the point where it ends in my redrawing (p. 183).
The Maeglin papers do not resolve the course of this 'north road of
the Dwarves', because (although all obviously belong to the same
time) they evidently represent different conceptions.
(i) Writing of Eol's journey to Nogrod, my father said:
From Elmoth to Gelion the land was, north of the Andram and the
Falls below the last Ford over Gelion (8)(just above the inflow of the
River Ascar from the Mountains), mostly rolling plain, with large
regions of big trees without thickets. There were several beaten
tracks made originally by Dwarves from Belegost and Nogrod, the
best (most used and widest) being from the Little Ford past the
north of Elmoth and to the Ford of Aros, it crossed the Bridge of
Esgalduin but went no further for, if the Dwarves wished to visit
Menegroth
This text then becomes altogether illegible. At the mention of 'the last
Ford over Gelion' he added a note that the name Sarn Athrad of this
ford must be changed to Harathrad 'South Ford', 'in contrast to the
much used northern ford where the river was not yet very swift or
deep, nearly due east of Eol's house (72 miles distant)'; and against
Harathrad here he wrote Athrad Daer ( the Great Ford ).(9)
The implication seems to be that Eol crossed Gelion at the northern
ford, but this is not actually stated. There are two alterations to the
photocopies of the map that relate to what is said here. One is the
marking of a crossing over Gelion on square E 13 (p. 331), just above
the point where the dotted line 'north road of Dwarves' crosses the
river on the primary map, but without any track leading to this
crossing. The other is at the ford of Sarn Athrad on the South-east
section (p. 185), where on the photocopy my father wrote the name
anew over the existing name, circled it, and wrote beside it Harathrad.
Beyond this nothing can be said of the north road of the Dwarves,
and there is no indication in map or text of where, or indeed whether,
it joined the 'south road'. It is indeed very puzzling that this northerly
road, which in the text of Maeglin is said to have gone 'towards
Himring' (as is to be expected: leading to territories of the Sons of
Feanor), is in the citation (i) just given said to pass the Ford of Aros
and the Bridge of Esgalduin: for these crossings were on the East Road
to the Brithiach (pp. 332 - 3). And apart from this, why should this
road turn westward, and why should it go no further than the Bridge
of Esgalduin?
(ii) On another page my father said that the journey from Eol's
house to Nan Elmoth in the direction of Nogrod was.
through wilds (but not generally in difficult country for horses)
without any made roads, but along a beaten track made by
Dwarvish traders to the Sarn Athrad (the last point where the River
Gelion could be crossed) meeting the Dwarf-road up to and through
the high pass in the mountains leading to Nogrod.
Here there is no mention of the northern ford, or indeed of the
northern road; and it seems to be implied that Eol would necessarily
cross at Sarn Athrad (still so called, not Harathrad); moreover it is said
that Eol riding from Nan Elmoth to Nogrod took 'a beaten track made
by Dwarvish traders' to Sarn Athrad that met the Dwarf-road up to
the high pass.
In addition to the green dotted line entered on the photocopy of the
map and stated to be the track of Maeglin and Aredhel fleeing from
Nan Elmoth (p. 333), lines of red dots (represented on my redrawing
as lines of closely-spaced dots) run from Nan Elmoth to the Ford of
Aros, and also south-east from Nan Elmoth (p. 331). On the South-
east section in the photocopy (see the redrawing of the primary map
on p. 185) this red dotted line continues straight on across square G 13
to Sarn Athrad, and then coincides with the Dwarf-road up into the
mountains, already present on the primary map. There is no note on
the photocopy to explain what these lines represent, but there can be
no doubt that they mark the journeys of Eol (even though the dots
continue all the way to the Ford of Aros, whereas he was arrested in
his pursuit of Maeglin and Aredhel by the riders of Curufin 'ere he had
ridden half the way over Himlad', p. 326, $16). Thus the line running
from Nan Elmoth to Sarn Athrad clearly corresponds to what is said
in citation (ii).
The absence of any really clear and full statement - indeed the
suggestion that my father's ideas on the subject had not reached any
stability, and the extreme doubtfulness of some of the markings on the
map, led me to omit the course of the Dwarf-roads on the published
map.
Apart from the matter of roads, there are some notes on names in
these papers that show my father's dissatisfaction with old names
already seen in the cases of Isfin and Eol (pp. 317, 320): here those in
question are Gelion and Celon (cf. his note on the primary map,
p. 191, where he said that 'these river-names need revision to
etymologizable words').(10) In notes in different places he proposed (in
sequence) Gelduin, Gevilon, Gevelon, and also Duin Daer (cf. Duin
Dhaer in the note on the primary map just referred to); Gevelon is
derived from Dwarvish Gabilan 'great river'. On the back of one of
the photocopies of the map he wrote:
The land east of it [the river] is Thorewilan [the a is underlined]. The
Dwarvish name was also often translated Duin Daer. The name
Gabilan was by the Dwarves given only to the River south of the
Falls where (after the junction of the River with the Asgar coming
from the Mountains) it became swift and was steadily increased in
volume by the inflow of five more tributaries.
The name Thargelion on the primary map was changed to Thargelian
(with the a underlined: p. 331): the latter form has appeared in
emendations to the typescripts of Maeglin (p. 320). The form Asgar
appeared in the 1930s (beside Ascar), see IV.209; cf. the Etymologies,
V..386, stem SKAR: 'N[oldorin] asgar, ascar violent, rushing, impetu-
ous'.
The substitution of the name Limhir for Celon has appeared as a
proposal in one of the typescripts of Maeglin (p. 320), and among the
'geographical' papers is the following note:
Celon is too hackneyed a river-name. Limhir (the clear / sparkling
river) - repeated in L.R. as were not unnaturally other names from
Beleriand - is more suitable for the river, a tributary of the Aros and
a clear slender stream coming down from the Hill of Himring.
The name Limhir does not occur in The Lord of the Rings, unless my
father was referring to the Limlight, of which he said in Guide to the
Names in The Lord of the Rings (A Tolkien Compass, ed. Lobdell,
p. 188): 'The spelling -light indicates that this is a Common Speech
name; but leave the obscured element lim- unchanged and translate
-light: the adjective light here means "bright, clear".'
Lastly, it remains to mention the etymology of Maeglin found
among these papers.
mik pierce: *mikra sharp-pointed (Q mixa, S *megr): strong
adjective' maika sharp, penetrating, going deep in - often in
transferred sense (as Q hendumaika sharp-eye, S maegheneb >
maecheneb).
glim gleam, glint (usually of fine slender but bright shafts of light}.
Particularly applied to light of eyes; not Q. S glintha- glance
(at), glinn.
From these two is derived the name Maeglin, since Maeglin had,
even more than his father, very bright eyes, and was both physically
very keen-sighted and mentally very penetrant, and quick to
interpret the looks and gestures of people, and perceive their
thoughts and purposes. The name was only given to him in
boyhood, when these characteristics were recognized. His father till
then was contented to call him Ion, son. (His mother secretly gave
him a N. Quenya name Lomion 'son of twilight'; and taught
Maeglin the Quenya tongue, though Eol had forbidden it.)
This development of the story of Maeglin from the form in which he
had written it twenty years before seems to have been the last
concentrated work that my father did on the actual narratives of the
Elder Days. Why he should have turned to this legend in particular I do
not know; but one sees, in his minute consideration of the possibilities
of the story, from the motives of the actors to the detail of the terrain,
of roads, of the speed and endurance of riders, how the focus of his
vision of the old tales had changed.
NOTES.
1. The words 'read (71) Dor-na-Daerachas' were added to the
primary map later: see p. 187, $30, and note 6 below.
2. In another passage among these papers the Ford(s) of Aros are
called Arossiach; this name was adopted on the map accompany-
ing The Silmarillion and introduced into the text.
3. The text has 'at the S.W. corner', but this was a slip of the pen. It
is stated elsewhere in these papers that the dwelling of Curufin
and Celegorm was on a low hill at the S.E. corner of the Pass of
Aglond, and on the photocopy map Curufin is marked with a
circle on the most westerly of the lower heights about the Hill of
Himring (p. 331, square D 11). - The form Aglond occurs in the
discussion of the motives of Celegorm and Curufin (p. 328),
beside Aglon in the interpolated narrative of Eol's encounter with
Curufin. On the map the name is written Aglon(d, which I
retained on my redrawing (V.409) of the map as first made and
lettered, in the belief that the variant lond was an original
element. Although it looks to be so, it may be that the (d was
added much later.
4. My father noted here: 'In spite of what Eol said, it had in fact not
been inhabited by Sindar before the coming of the Noldor'; and
also that the name 'cool-plain' derived from the fact that 'it was
higher in its middle part and felt often the chill northern airs
through Aglon. It had no trees except in its southern part near the
rivers.' In another place it is said that 'Himlad rose to a swelling
highland at its centre (some 300 feet high at its flat top)'.
5. For the first mention of Dor Dinen (so spelt, as also on the map,
not Dor Dhinen) see p. 194.
6. The primary map had no crossing marked on the Aros when the
photocopy was made. The word Ford was put in after, or at the
same time as, Fords of Aros was entered on the photocopy.
7. The name Iant Iaur was adopted from this text in The Silmaril-
lion, both on the map and in a mention of 'the stone bridge of
Iant Iaur' in Chapter 14, Of Beleriand and its Realms, p. 121 (for
the original passage see p. 194).
8. The falls in Gelion below Sarn Athrad have not been referred to
before, and indeed in QS Chapter 9 Of Beleriand and its Realms
(V.262-3, $113; The Silmarillion p. 122) their existence is denied:
'Gelion had neither fall nor rapids throughout his course'.
9. On another page the following names are proposed as replace-
ments for Sarn Athrad: 'Athrad i-Nogoth [> Negyth] or Athrad
Dhaer, "Ford of the Dwarves" or "Great Ford" '.
10. The fact that the note on the primary map (p. 191) saying that the
names Celon and Gelion need to be changed bears (like the
addition of Dor-na-Daerachas, p. 187, $30) the number '71',
clearly meaning the year 1971, suggests that all the late work on
Maeglin belongs to that year. My father died two years later.
IV.
OF THE ENTS AND THE EAGLES.
This brief text belongs to the late, or last, period of my father's work,
and must be dated at the earliest to 1958-9, but may well be later than
that. The original draft is extant, a manuscript on two sides of a single
sheet, written at great speed with very little correction in a script that
is just legible. It is titled Anaxartamel.
This was followed by a text made on my father's later typewriter
(see X.300) that expanded the first draft, but from which scarcely
anything of any significance in that draft was excluded. It bears no
title. In the published Silmarillion it was used to form the second part
of Chapter 2 Of Aule and Yavanna, pp. 44-6, beginning at the words
'Now when Aule laboured in the making of the Dwarves...' This was
of course a purely editorial combination.
The published text followed the typescript with very little deviation,
except in the matter of 'thou' and 'you' forms, about which my father
was initially uncertain, as he was also in the text concerning Aule and
the Dwarves which forms the first part of the chapter in the published
Silmarillion (see p. 210). In the manuscript draft he used 'you'
throughout; in the typescript he used both 'you' and 'thy, hast' in the
opening paragraphs, but then 'you, your' exclusively, subsequently
correcting the inconsistencies. As in the first part of the chapter 'thou,
thee, thy' forms were adopted in the published work.
There are two amanuensis typescripts, independent of each other,
taken from the typescript after all corrections had been made. They
have no textual value, except that on one of them my father pencilled
the title Of the Ents and the Eagles, and on the other the title
Anaxartaron Onyalie.
NOTES.
In these notes, which are largely confined to differences of reading, the
original draft is called A, the typescript B, and the published text S.
When Yavanna went to Manwe (p. 45) 'she did not betray the
counsel of Aule': the meaning of this is that Yavanna did not reveal
anything to Manwe of the making of the Dwarves; in the first part of
the chapter (p. 43) 'fearing that the other Valar might blame his work,
he wrought in secret', and the intervention of Iluvatar (who 'knew
what was done') was directly to Aule. The word betray in S is an
editorial alteration of bewray in A and B.
'But the kelvar can flee or defend themselves, whereas the olvar that
grow cannot' (p. 45): in B there is a marginal note against kelvar,
'animals, all living things that move', which was omitted in S. In A
these words were not used, but a blank space was left where kelvar
stands in B. Immediately following this, A has: Long in the growing,
swift in the felling, and unless they pay toll with fruit upon the bough
little mourned at the ending, as even among the Valar I have seen';
in B the last phrase became 'as I have seen even among the Maiar
in Middle-earth', but this was at once rejected. The final text of the
passage is as in S.
In Yavanna's following words beginning 'I lifted up the branches of
great trees...' B has 'and some sang to Eru amid the wind and the rain
and the glitter of the Sun'; the last words were omitted in S on account
of the implication that the Sun existed from the beginning of Arda.
In the passage describing Manwe's experience of the renewal of the
Vision of the Ainur (p. 46; entirely lacking in A) the text of B as typed
read: 'but it was not now remote, for he was himself in the midst, and
yet he saw that all was upheld by the hand of Eru and that too was
within', subsequently changed to the reading of S (in which Eru >
Iluvatar).
In the words of Eru recounted by Manwe to Yavanna on Ezellohar
the sentence 'For a time: while the Firstborn are in their power, and
while the Secondborn are young' was bracketed for exclusion in B, but
was retained in S.
In Manwe's last speech, 'In the mountains the Eagles shall house,
and hear the voices of those who call upon us' was first written in B:
'... and hear the voices of those who call upon me, and of those who
gainsay me.'
At the end of a draft letter dated September 1963, of which a passage
is cited on p. 353, my father added in a very rough note (given in
Letters p. 335):
No one knew whence they (Ents) came or first appeared. The High
Elves said that the Valar did not mention them in the 'Music'. But
some (Galadriel) were [of the) opinion that when Yavanna dis-
covered the mercy of Eru to Aule in the matter of the Dwarves, she
besought Eru (through Manwe) asking him to give life to things
made of living things not stone, and that the Ents were either souls
sent to inhabit trees, or else that slowly took the likeness of trees
owing to their inborn love of trees.
With the words 'the Ents were either souls sent to inhabit trees' cf. the
words of Eru in the text (p. 46): 'When the Children awake, then the
thought of Yavanna will awake also, and it will summon spirits from
afar, and they will go among the kelvar and the olvar, and some will
dwell therein ...' It seems likely enough that the note on the draft
letter and the writing of Anaxartaron Onyalie belong to much the
same time.
V.
THE TALE OF YEARS.
The Tale of Years was an evolving work that accompanied successive
stages in the development of the Annals. I have given it no place
hitherto in The History of Middle-earth (but see X.49), because its
value to the narrative of the Elder Days is very small until towards the
end of the later (post-Lord of the Rings) version, when it becomes a
document of importance; but here some very brief account of it must
be given.
The earliest form is a manuscript with this title that sets out in very
concise form the major events of the Elder Days. The dates throughout
are in all but perfect accord with those given in the pre-Lord of the
Rings texts 'The Later Annals of Valinor' and 'The Later Annals of
Beleriand' (AV 2 and AB 2). Since this Tale of Years was obviously
written as an accompaniment to and at the same time as those versions
of the Annals, adding nothing to them, I did not include it in Volume V.
Much later a new version of The Tale of Years was made, and this
alone will concern us here. It very clearly belongs with the major work
on the Annals carried out in 1951( - 2), issuing in the last versions, the
Annals of Aman and the Grey Annals. My father subsequently made a
typescript text of it, but this obviously belongs to the same period.
The manuscript of this version as originally written was a very good
clear text, but it was heavily corrected, interpolated, and rewritten in
many stages; and since it was my father's working chronology during
that period the dates, more especially in the first or Valinorean part,
were changed so often, with bewildering movements back and forth,
as to make the evolution of the chronology extremely difficult to
understand. The important point, so far as the Valinorean part is
concerned, is that the dates in the manuscript of The Tale of Years as
originally written were essentially the same as those in the Annals of
Aman as originally written; while modification to that chronology
went together step by step in the two texts. In the case of AAm I noted
(X.47 - 8) that with so many alterations to the dates it was impractic-
able to do more than give the final chronology, and in the case of The
Tale of Years the evolution is even more complex. In the result, the
latter work is of very little independent value in this part; there are
however a small number of matters that should be recorded.
In the manuscript as it was originally written the Elder Days began
with the Awakening of the Elves: Here begin the Elder Days, or the
First Age of the Children of Iluvatar -, but the Elder Days was struck
out and does not appear in the typescript. Further on in The Tale of
Years there is recorded a difference in application of the term 'Elder
Days' in respect of their ending (a difference not, to my knowledge,
found elsewhere): after the entry for V.Y.1500 'Fingolfin and Inglor
cross the Straits of Ice' (this being the date in the Grey Annals, p. 29) it
is said in the manuscript:
Here end the Elder Days with the new reckoning of time, according
to some. But most lore-masters give that name also to the years of
the war with Morgoth until his overthrow and casting forth.
So far did Quennar Onotimo compile this count and compute the
years.
Here follows the continuation which Pengolod made in Eressea.
In the typescript text this was retained, but with this difference: 'Here
end the Elder Days, with the new reckoning of Time, according to the
Lore-masters of Valinor. But the Lore-masters of the Noldor give that
name also to the years of the war with Morgoth...'
Quennar Onotimo appears in the Annals of Aman (see X.49), where
he is cited as the source for the passage on the reckoning of time. This
passage was marked for transference to The Tale of Years, and appears
in manuscript pages (one of which is reproduced as the frontispiece to
Vol.X, Morgoth's Ring) of a new opening of the work written in forms
so splendid that it is not surprising that it did not proceed very far.
The authorship of the Annals underwent many changes. In the
earliest Annals of Valinor (AV 1, IV.263) Pengolod is named as the
author, and also of the Annals of Beleriand (AB 1), but the conception
soon entered that Rumil was the author of the first part of AV and that
the work was only completed by Pengolod: in AV 2 Rumil's part ends
with the return to Valinor of those Noldor, led by Finrod (Finarfin),
who did not continue the northward journey after the Doom of
Mandos (see V.116, 123). In the first form of the opening of the
Annals of Aman (X.48) it is said that they 'were written by Quennar i
Onotimo, who learned much, and borrowed much also, from Rumil;
but they were enlarged by Pengolod'. In the second version of the
opening, however, Rumil alone is named: 'Here begin the Annals of
Aman, which Rumil made'. In the fine manuscript pages of the
opening of The Tale of Years referred to above there is no ascription of
authorship (apart from the naming of Quennar Onotimo as the author
of the passage on the reckoning of time).
A few points of content in this part remain to be mentioned. In the
entry for 1125 (cf. X.83) the manuscript reads: 'The foremost of the
Eldar reach Beleriand. They are filled with a great fear of the Sea and
for long refuse to go further. Orome departs to Valinor to seek
counsel.' This was not emended, but in the typescript this entry
appears in its place: 'The foremost of the Eldar reach the coastlands of
Middle-earth and that country which was after named Eglador.
Thereof Beleriand was the larger part.' This is apparently to be related
to one of the entries Eglador added to the map: see p. 186, $14; but
the concluding phrase is mysterious.
In this connection, the entry for the year 1150 reads thus in the
manuscript: 'The Teleri of Olwe's host at length also depart over Sea.
The friends of Elwe remain behind: these are the Eglath, the Forsaken,
or the Sindar (the Grey-elves).' The form Eglath is found in the annal
for this year in AAm (X.85); but on the manuscript of The Tale of
Years it was emended subsequently to Eglim, while in the typescript
the form is Eglir: it seems that neither of these occur elsewhere (see
pp. 365, 379).
Lastly, the entry for 1497 begins with the words 'Morgoth 'from a
new stronghold at Angband assails the Grey-elves of Beleriand.' At
this stage the story was still that Angband was built on the ruins of
Utumno (see GA $35 and commentary, pp. 15, 111). My father
pencilled on the typescript (referring to the interval since Morgoth's
return from Valinor in 1495): 'Too small a time for Morgoth to build
Angband', and also 'Time too small, should be 10 at least or 20 Valian
Years'. This would have required substantial modification of the
chronology; and it seems conceivable that this consideration was a
factor in the emergence of the later story that Utumno and Angband
were distinct fortresses in different regions, both built by Morgoth in
ancient days (X.156, $12).
Of the latter or Beleriandic part of The Tale of Years there is little to
say until the last entries are reached. The chronology agrees closely
with that of the Grey Annals, including the revised stories of the
origins of Gondolin and of Eol, and the brief entries (agreeing with GA
in such names as Galion for Galdor and Glindur for Maeglin) add
nothing to the major text. There is in fact only one point that need be
noticed: in the entry for 495 my father added to the manuscript 'Tuor
leaves Dorlomin, dwells a year at Falasquil.' The last five words were
subsequently struck out. Falasquil was the name of the cove in the
sea-coast where Tuor dwelt for a while in the tale of The Fall of
Gondolin (II.152); and it was written also onto the map (see p. 181,
$5). It seems quite likely that both these additions were made at the
time when my father was writing the later Tale of Tuor, and had been
rereading the old tale (as he clearly did, II.203); but Falasquil does not
appear in the later Tuor.
Subsequent very cursory emendation of the typescript brought in
the radically changed legend of the Coming of the Edain, revision of
names to later forms, and additions to the story of Turin.
But from the point where the Grey Annals were abandoned The
Tale of Years becomes a major source for the end of the Elder Days,
and indeed in almost all respects the only source deriving from the
time following the completion of The Lord of the Rings, woefully
inadequate as it is. As the manuscript was originally made (in which
condition I will distinguish it as 'A') the entries from 500 to the end,
very brief, followed the first (pre-Lord of the Rings) version of The
Tale of Years (see p. 342) closely: my father clearly had that in front
of him, and did no more than make a fair copy with fuller entries,
introducing virtually no new matter or dates not found in AB 2
(V.141 - 4). It will make things clearer, however, to give the text of the
entries for those years as they were first written.
500. Birth of Earendil in Gondolin.
501. Making of the Naugla-mir. Thingol quarrels with the
Dwarves.
502. The Dwarves invade Doriath. Thingol is slain and his realm
ended. Melian returns to Valinor. Beren destroys the Dwarf-
host at Rath-loriel.
506. The Second Kin-slaying.
507. The Fall of Gondolin. Death of King Turgon.
508. The gathering of the remnants of the Elves at the Mouths of
Sirion is begun.
524. Tuor and Idril depart over Sea.
525. The voyages of Earendil begun.
529. The Third and Last Kin-slaying.
533. Earendil comes to Valinor.
540. The last free Elves and remnants of the Fathers of Men are
driven out of Beleriand and take refuge in the Isle of Balar.
547. The host of the Valar comes up out of the West. Fionwe son of
Manwe lands in Beleriand with great power.
550-597. The last war of the Elder Days, and the Great Battle,
is begun. In this war Beleriand is broken and destroyed.
Morgoth is at last utterly overcome, and Angband is un-
roofed and unmade. Morgoth is bound, and the last two
Silmarils are regained.
597. Maidros and Maglor, last surviving sons of Feanor, seize the
Silmarils. Maidros perishes. The Silmarils are lost in fire and
sea.
600. The Elves and the Fathers of Men depart from Middle-earth
and pass over Sea.
Here ends the First Age of the Children of Iluvatar.
The only points of any significance in which this differs from what
was said in AB 2 or the original version of The Tale of Years that
accompanied it are the additions in the entry 540 of the statement that
when 'the last free Elves' took refuge in the Isle of Balar they were
accompanied by 'remnants of the Fathers of Men', and in the entry
600 that the Fathers of Men departed from Middle-earth with the
Elves and passed over the Sea.
In the next stage, which I will call 'B', many corrections and
interpolations and alterations of date were made to A; I give here the
text in this form, so far as is necessary.
501. Return of Hurin.
502. After seven years' service Tuor weds Idril of Gondolin.
Making of the Naugla-mir. Thingol quarrels with the
Dwarves.
503. Birth of Earendil in Gondolin.
The Dwarves invade Doriath. Thingol is slain and his realm
ended. Melian takes Nauglamir to Beren and Luthien and
then returns to Valinor. Celegorm and Curufin destroy the
Dwarf-host at Sarn-athrad in Rath-loriel; and are wroth to
find the Silmaril not there. Dior goes to Doriath.
505. (Spring) Second death of Beren, and Luthien dies also. Dior
Thingol's heir wears Silmaril [struck out: and returns to
Doriath].
509 (Spring) Second Kinslaying. Last warning of Ulmo to Gondo-
lin.
510. The fall of Gondolin at Midsummer. Death of King Turgon.
511. The gathering of the remnants of the Elves at the Mouths of
Sirion is begun.
In the remaining entries some of the dates were altered but very few
changes were made to the content; the text of A need not therefore be
repeated.
533. The date of Earendil's coming to Valinor was changed several
times, apparently > 536 > 540 > 542.
547. The coming of the host of the Valar was moved to 545.
550-597. The dates of 'the last war of the Elder Days' were
changed to 545-587, and after the last words of the original
entry the following was added: 'Ancalagon is cast down by
Earendil and all save two of the Dragons are destroyed.'
597. This entry was changed to 587.
600. This final entry was changed to 590, and the following was
added to it: 'Morgoth is thrust from Arda into the Outer
Dark.'
'Here ends the First Age of the Children of Iluvatar' was changed
to: 'Here end the Elder Days with the passing of Melkor, according
to the reckoning of most lore-masters; here ends also the First
Age...'
The hastily made alterations and additions to the entry 503 (502 in A)
introduced major new turns into the story as it had been told in all the
versions: the tale of The Nauglafring (II.238), the Sketch of the
Mythology (IV.33), the Quenta (IV.134), and AB 2 (V.141). There it
was Beren, after his return from the dead, who with his host of Elves
ambushed the Dwarves at Sarn-athrad, and took from them the
Nauglamir in which was set the Silmaril; now it becomes Celegorm
and Curufin who fought the battle at Sarn-athrad - but the Silmaril
was not there, because Melian had taken it from Menegroth to Beren
and Luthien in Ossiriand. In the old tale, Gwendelin (Melian), coming
to the Land of the Dead that Live after the battle, was wrathful when
she saw Luthien wearing the Necklace of the Dwarves, since it was
made of accursed gold, and the Silmaril itself was unhallowed from its
having been set in Morgoth's crown; while in the Sketch (probably)
and in the Quenta (explicitly) it was Melian who told Beren of the
approach of the Dwarves coming from Doriath and enabled the
ambush to be prepared (her warning afterwards, when the Necklace of
the Dwarves had been recovered, against the Silmaril being retained).
The entrance of Celegorm and Curufin into the story seems to have
arisen in the act of emending the text; for my father first added to
the original entry ('Beren destroys the Dwarf-host at Rath-loriel') the
words 'and is wounded in battle', referring to Beren (cf. the Tale,
II.237: 'Beren got many hurts'). He then at once changed 'Beren
destroys' to 'Celegorm and Curufin destroy' and 'is wounded in battle'
to 'are wroth to find the Silmaril not there'.
In the original entry in A 'at Rath-loriel' was just a slip for 'in'; but
the replacement 'at Sarn-athrad in Rath-loriel' is strange, for Sarn-
athrad was not a ford over that river (Ascar) but over Gelion, and so
remained in the latest writing, though the name was changed (see
p. 335).
In 505, the striking out of Dior's return to Doriath preceded its
inclusion under 503. There has never been any mention of a further
warning of Ulmo (509) since the coming of Tuor to Gondolin. On the
addition in 545 - 587 concerning Ancalagon see V.329, $18; and with
the reference to the end of the Elder Days 'according to the reckoning
of most lore-masters' cf. p. 343.
The third stage was the striking out of the whole manuscript from
the year 400 almost to the end, and its replacement by a new version
('C'), which I give here for the same period, from the return of Hurin
from Angband: this is a clear text with some later changes to the dates
(changes which largely return the dates to those in B).
501. Return of Hurin from captivity. He goes to Nargothrond and
seizes the treasure of Glaurung.
502. Making of the Nauglamir. Thingol quarrels with the
Dwarves.
503. The Dwarves of Belegost and Nogrod invade Doriath.
Thingol is slain, and his realm ended. The Dwarves carry off
the Dragon-gold, but Melian escaped and carried off the
Nauglamir and the Silmaril, and brought it to Beren and
Luthien. Then she returned to Valinor; but Luthien wore the
Silmaril. Now Curufin and Celegorm hearing of the sack of
Menegroth ambushed the Dwarves at the fords of Ascar and
defeated them; but the Dwarves cast the gold into the river,
which was after named Rathloriel. Great was the chagrin of
the Sons of Feanor to discover that the Silmaril was not with
the Dwarves; but they dared not assail Luthien.
Dior goes to Doriath and endeavours to reestablish the
realm.
504 [> 502]. Tuor wedded Idril Celebrindal Turgon's daughter of
Gondolin.
505 [> 503]. Birth of Earendil Half-elven in Gondolin (Spring).
Here a messenger brought the Silmaril by night to Dior in
Doriath, and he wore it; and by its power Doriath revived for
a while. But it is believed that in this year Luthien and Beren
passed away, for they were never heard of again on earth:
mayhap the Silmaril hastened their end, for the flame of the
beauty of Luthien as she wore it was too bright for mortal
lands.
511 [> 509]. The Second Kinslaying. The Sons of Feanor assail[ed]
Dior, and he was slain; slain also were Celegorm and Curufin
and Cranthir. Eldun and Elrun sons of Dior were left in the
woods to starve. Elwing escaped and came with the Silmaril
to the Mouths of Sirion. Ulmo sends a last warning to
Gondolin, which now alone is left; but Turgon will have no
alliance with any after the kinslaying of Doriath. Maeglin
Eol's son, sister-son of Turgon, was taken in the hills, and
betrayed Gondolin to Morgoth.
512 [> 510]. The Fall of Gondolin. Death of King Turgon.
513 [> 511]. Tuor and Idril bring Earendil and the remnant of
Gondolin to the Mouths of Sirion.
527 [> 530]. Earendil weds Elwing. Unquiet of Ulmo comes upon
Tuor. Tuor and Idril depart over Sea, and are heard of no
more on earth.
528 [> 530 > 534]. Voyages of Earendil begin.
[Added entry:] 528 [> 532] Elros and Elrond twin sons of
Earendil born.
532 [> 534 > 538]. The Third and Last Kinslaying. The Havens of
Sirion destroyed and Elros and Elrond sons of Earendel taken
captive, but are fostered with care by Maidros. Elwing carries
away the Silmaril, and comes to Earendel [> Earendil] in the
likeness of a bird.
536 [> 540 > 542]. Earendil comes to Valinor.
Here the replacement text C comes to an end. In the entries 400-499
in C (not given here) this text is so close in every date and detail
of narrative to the Grey Annals as to be scarcely an independent
document; and The Tale of Years was beginning to turn in on itself, so
to speak, and to become 'Annals' again. In the entries given above,
where we reach narrative not treated in GA and where AB 2 is
otherwise the latest source, it is much to be regretted that my father
did not allow this tendency even fuller scope, and did not extend into a
more substantial narrative of Celegorm and Curufin at Sarn Athrad,
the revival of Doriath, and the Second Kinslaying.
I add a few notes on particular points.
503. The ford at which the Dwarves were ambushed, not now
itself named, is still over Ascar, not Gelion (see p. 347). The statement
that the Dwarves 'cast the gold into the river' is at variance with the
story told in the Sketch and the Quenta (where this was done by Beren
and the Green-elves), and was perhaps a conscious return to the tale of
The Nauglafring (II.237), in which the gold fell into the river with the
bodies of the Dwarves who bore it, or else was cast into the water by
Dwarves seeking to reach the banks.
505 With the changed dating of this entry the whole narrative of
the invasion of Doriath, the battle at the ford, the coming of Dior to
Doriath, the deaths of Beren and Luthien, and the bringing of the
Silmaril to Dior, is comprised within the single year 503. - The brief
revival of Doriath under Dior has not before been associated with the
Silmaril; cf. what is said of its presence at the Havens of Sirion (pp.
351, 354). On the probable association of the Silmaril with the deaths
of Beren and Luthien (though of an entirely different nature from that
suggested here) see IV.63, 190.
511. On the fate of Dior's sons cf. AB 2 (V.142), where it is told
that they 'were taken captive by the evil men of Maidros' following,
and they were left to starve in the woods; but Maidros lamented the
cruel deed, and sought unavailingly for them.' - It seems possible that
'Turgon will have no alliance with any' was intended to be 'no alliance
with any son of Feanor'; cf. the Quenta (IV.140): 'Tidings Turgon
heard of Thorndor concerning the slaying of Dior, Thingol's heir, and
thereafter he shut his ear to word of the woes without; and he vowed
to march never at the side of any son of Feanor.'
528 (added entry) On the statement that Elros and Elrond were
twins see V.152. It is stated in The Line of Elros (Unfinished Tales
p. 218) that Elros was born 58 years before the Second Age began: this
agrees with the changed date here (532) and the end of the First Age in
590 (p. 346).
Finally, we come to stage 'D', the typescript of The Tale of Years;
but before turning to the entries beginning with the return of Hurin
there are two pencilled entries on the typescript at a slightly earlier
point which must be noticed:
497. Dior weds of the Green-elves > Dior weds Nimloth.
500. Birth of the twin sons of Dior, Elrun and Eldun.
In connection with the first of these, there is an isolated note (it was
written in fact on the back of the single page concerning the
Dragon-helm of Dorlomin referred to on pp. 140, 143):
Dior born (in Tol Galen?) c.470. He appears in Doriath after its
ruin, and is welcomed by Melian with his wife Elulin of Ossiriand.
On this note see p. 353, year 504. The fourth letter of Elulin is not
perfectly certain. - In addition, the name of Dior's wife is also given as
Lindis: see pp. 351, 353.
The name Nimloth was adopted in the published Silmarillion (see
p. 234, where she is said to be 'kinswoman of Celeborn') on account
of its appearance in the series of Elvish genealogies which can be dated
to December 1959 (p. 229). This table gives the descendants of Elwe
(Thingol) and of his younger brother Elmo, of whom it is said that he
was 'beloved of Elwe with whom he remained.' On one side of the
table (descent from Elwe) the wife of Dior Eluchil (Thingol's heir) is
Nimloth 'sister of Celeborn'. Similarly on the other side, Elmo's son j
is Galahon, and Galahon has two sons, Galathil and Celeborn 'prince
of Doriath', and a daughter Nimloth, wife of Dior Eluchil. But on the ,1
same table Nimloth wife of Dior also appears as the daughter of
Galathil (thus in the first case she was the second cousin of Dior, and in
the latter the third cousin of Elwing). It is clear from rough pencillings
on this page that my father was uncertain about this, and it looks as
if Nimloth as niece of Celeborn was his second thought. I referred to
this genealogy in Unfinished Tales, p. 233, but did not mention the
alternative placing of Nimloth as Celeborn's sister.
On the second of these late additions to the typescript, the birth of
Eldun and Elrun in the year 500, see pp. 257 and 300, note 16.
I give now the text of the typescript of The Tale of Years in its con-
cluding entries. At the end the typescript becomes manuscript, and it is
convenient to distinguish the two parts as 'D 1' and 'D 2'.
501. Hurin is released from captivity. He goes to Nargothrond and
seizes the treasure of Glaurung. He takes the treasure to
Menegroth and casts it at the feet of Thingol.
502. The Nauglamir is wrought of the treasure of Glaurung, and
the Silmaril is hung thereon. Thingol quarrels with the
Dwarves who had wrought for him the Necklace.
503. The Dwarves of Belegost and Nogrod invade Doriath. King
Elu Thingol is slain and his realm ended. Melian escapes and
carries away the Nauglamir and the Silmaril, and brings them
to Beren and Luthien. She then forsook Middle-earth and re-
turned to Valinor.
Curufin and Celegorm, hearing of the sack of Menegroth,
ambushed the Dwarves at the Fords of Ascar as they sought
to carry off the Dragon-gold to the mountains. The Dwarves
were defeated with great loss, but they cast the gold into the
river, which was therefore after named Rathloriel. Great was
the anger of the sons of Feanor to discover that the Silmaril
was not with the Dwarves; but they dared not to assail
Luthien. Dior goes to Doriath and endeavours to recover the
realm of Thingol.
In this year, or according to others in the year before, Tuor
wedded Idril Celebrindal Turgon's daughter of Gondolin; and
in the spring of the year after was born in Gondolin Earendil
Halfelven. [This paragraph was struck out later with the
words Must be placed in 502.]
In the autumn of this year a messenger brought by night the
Silmaril to Dior in Doriath.
Here the typewritten text D 1 ends abruptly near the head of a page,
but is continued in very rough manuscript for some distance (D 2),
though not so far as the end of version C (which itself did not go by
any mean's so far as B).
503. Elwing the White daughter of Dior born in Ossiriand.
504. Dior returns to Doriath, and with the power of the Silmaril
restores it; but Melian departed to Valinor. Dior now publicly
wore the Nauglamir and the Jewel.
505. The sons of Feanor hearing news of the Silmaril that it is in
Doriath hold council. Maidros restrains his brethren, but a
message is sent to Dior demanding the Jewel. Dior returns no
answer.
506. Celegorn inflames the brethren, and they prepare an assault
on Doriath. They come up at unawares in winter.
506-507. At Yule Dior fought the sons of Feanor on the east
marches of Doriath, and was slain. There fell also Celegorn
(by Dior's hand) and Curufin and Cranthir. The cruel servants
of Celegorn seize Dior's sons (Elrun and Eldun) and leave
them to starve in the forest. (Nothing certain is known of
their fate, but some say that the birds succoured them, and led
them to Ossir.) [In margin: Maidros repenting seeks unavail-
ingly for the children of Dior.] The Lady Lindis escaped with
Elwing, and came hardly to Ossir, with the Necklace and the
Jewel. Thence hearing the rumour she fled to the Havens of
Sirion.
509. Maeglin captured by spies of Melkor (Sauron?).
510. Midsummer. Assault and sack of Gondolin, owing to
treachery of Maeglin who revealed where it lay.
511. Exiles of Gondolin (Tuor, Idril and Earendil &c.) reach
Sirion, which now prospers in the power of the Silmaril.
512. Sons of Feanor learn of the uprising of the New Havens, and
that the Silmaril is there, but Maidros forswears his oath.
525. The Unquiet of Ulmo carne upon Tuor and he built a ship
Earame, and departed into the West with Idril (and
Voronwe?) and is heard of in no tale since. Earendil wedded
Elwing and became Lord of the men of the Havens.
527. Torment fell upon Maidros and his brethren (Maglor, Dam-
rod and Diriel) because of their unfulfilled oath.
Here the text ends, halfway down the last page. A commentary on it
follows.
501. In the original story of Hurin's coming to Menegroth in the
Tale of Turambar (II.114 - 15) he with his 'band' or 'host' of 'wild
Elves' brought the treasure of Nargothrond in a huge assemblage of
sacks and boxes, and they 'cast down that treasury at the king's feet.'
So also in the Sketch of the Mythology (IV.32) 'Hurin casts the gold at
Thingol's feet', without however any indication of how the gold was
brought to Doriath; but in the Quenta (IV.132) 'Hurin went unto
Thingol and sought his aid, and the folk of Thingol bore the treasure
to the Thousand Caves' (on the unsatisfactory nature of this version
see IV.188). In AB 2 (V.141) 'Hurin brought the gold to Thingol.' See
further p. 258.
503. Against 'The Dwarves of Belegost and Nogrod invade Doriath'
my father pencilled an X and the single word 'cannot': i.e., the Dwarves
could not pass the Girdle of Melian. In the old sources the protective
magic was defeated by the device of a treacherous Elf (in the Tale) or
Elves (in the Sketch and the Quenta); but since the Quenta the question
had never again come to the surface. In this connection there is a page of
rough notes, such as my father often made when meditating on a story
at large, concerned with the 'Turins Saga' (such as 'An account of Beleg
and his bow must be put in at the point where Turin first meets him',
and 'Turin must be faithless to Gwindor - for his character is through-
out that of a man of good will, kind and loyal, who is carried away by
emotion, especially wrath ...'); and among these and written at the
same time, though entirely unconnected, is the following:
Doriath cannot be entered by a hostile army! Somehow it must be
contrived that Thingol is lured outside or induced to go to war
beyond his borders and is there slain by the Dwarves. Then Melian
departs, and the girdle being removed Doriath is ravaged by the
Dwarves.
The word 'cannot' may well have been written against the entry for
503 in The Tale of Years at the same time as this.
The story that it was Celegorm and Curufin who ambushed the
Dwarves at 'the Fords of Ascar' is repeated without change from the
previous version C (p. 348). There is a passing reference to a similar
story (for in this case it was Caranthir, not Celegorm and Curufin) in
the post-Lord of the Rings text Concerning Galadriel and Celeborn.
This was published in Unfinished Tales in a 'retold', somewhat
selective form for the purposes of that section of the book; and in the
passage (p. 235) saying that Celeborn had no love for any Dwarves,
and never forgave them for their part in the destruction of Doriath
('passing over Morgoth's part in this (by angering of Hurin), and
Thingol's own faults'), my father proposed rather than stated that only
the Dwarves of Nogrod took part in the assault, and that they were
'almost entirely destroyed by Caranthir'.
This was not, however, his final view, as it appears. In a letter of
1963 (Letters no.247, p. 334) he wrote that he could 'foresee' one
event in the Elder Days in which the Ents took a part:
It was in Ossiriand... that Beren and Luthien dwelt for a while after
Beren's return from the Dead. Beren did not show himself among
mortals again, except once. He intercepted a dwarf-army that had
descended from the mountains, sacked the realm of Doriath and
slain King Thingol, Luthien's father, carrying off a great booty,
including Thingol's necklace upon which hung the Silmaril. There
was a battle about a ford across one of the Seven Rivers of Ossir,
and the Silmaril was recovered ... It seems clear that Beren, who
had no army, received the aid of the Ents - and that would not make
for love between Ents and Dwarves.
In this it is also notable that the old story that the Dwarves took the
Nauglamir from Menegroth reappears (see pp. 346-7).
Beneath the -loriel of Rathloriel my father wrote in pencil: lorion
(Rathlorion was the original form of this river-name), but he struck
this out and then wrote mallen, sc. Rathmallen (cf. Rathmalad (?) on
the map, p. 191, $69).
504. Dior's return to Doriath has been given already under 503 in
D 1, the typescript part of the text. - In the B and C versions (pp.
346-7) Melian brought the Silmaril to Beren and Luthien in Ossiriand
and then departed to Valinor, and this is said also in D 1 (p. 350). The
present entry in D 2, a year later, repeats that Melian went to Valinor,
and the suggestion is that she was in Doriath when Dior came; cf. the
note cited on p. 350: 'Dior... appears in Doriath after its ruin, and is
welcomed by Melian'. This seems clearly to have been the story in
AB 1 (IV.307) and AB 2 (V.141 - 2). But it is impossible to be certain of
anything with such compressed entries.
506-507. Ossir: Ossiriand. - On Maidros' unavailing search for
Elrun and Eldun see p. 349, year 511.
The Lady Lindis: Lindis appears elsewhere as the name of Dior's
wife (see p. 257). The sentence 'Thence hearing the rumour she fled to
the Havens of Sirion' presumably means that Lindis heard the rumour
that the survivors of Gondolin had reached the Havens (an event
recorded in this text under the year 511).
by Maeglin was later changed: see pp. 272-3 and note 30.
511. Cf. the Quenta (IV.152): 'for them seemed that in that jewel
lay the gift of bliss and healing that had come upon their houses and
their ships'; also AB 2 (V.143).
512. That Maidros 'forswore his oath' was stated in AB 2 (V.142);
in this and the following entries my father was following that text very
closely (indeed D 2 is based upon it throughout).
525. The suggestion that Voronwe was the companion of Tuor and
Idril on their voyage into the West is notable. He (Bronweg / Voronwe)
was originally Earendil's fellow-mariner (IV.38, 150). Cf. Tuor's
words to him in the later Tale of Tuor (Unfinished Tales p. 33): 'far
from the Shadow your long road shall lead you, and your hope shall
return to the Sea.'
It would be interesting to know when this manuscript conclusion
D 2 was written. It looks as if it belongs with some of the alterations
and additions made to the typescript in earlier entries, particularly
those pertaining to the story of Turin, and in these there are
suggestions that they derive from the period of my father's work on
the Narn. But this is very uncertain; and if it is so, it is the more
remarkable that he should have based these entries so closely on the
old pre-Lord of the Rings annals.
A note on Chapter 22 Of the Ruin of Doriath
in the published Silmarillion.
Apart from a few matters of detail in texts and notes that have not
been published, all that my father ever wrote on the subject of the ruin
of Doriath has now been set out: from the original story told in the
Tale of Turambar (II.113-15) and the Tale of the Nauglafring (II.221
ff.), through the Sketch of the Mythology (IV.32 - 3, with commentary
61 - 3) and the Quenta (IV.132 - 4, with commentary 187-91), together j
with what little can be gleaned from The Tale of Years and a very few
later references (see especially pp. 352 - 3). If these materials are
compared with the story told in The Silmarillion it is seen at once that
this latter is fundamentally changed, to a form for which in certain
essential features there is no authority whatever in my father's own
writings.
There were very evident problems with the old story. Had he ever
turned to it again, my father would undoubtedly have found some
solution other than that in the Quenta to the question, How was the
treasure of Nargothrond brought to Doriath? There, the curse that
Mim laid upon the gold at his death 'came upon the possessors in this
wise. Each one of Hurin's company died or was slain in quarrels upon
the road; but Hurin went unto Thingol and sought his aid, and the
folk of Thingol bore the treasure to the Thousand Caves.' As I said in
IV.188, 'it ruins the gesture, if Hurin must get the king himself to send
for the gold with which he is then to be humiliated'. It seems to me
most likely (but this is mere speculation) that my father would have
reintroduced the outlaws from the old Tales (II.113-15, 222-3) as the
bearers of the treasure (though not the fierce battle between them and
the Elves of the Thousand Caves): in the scrappy writings at the end of
The Wanderings of Hurin Asgon and his companions reappear after
the disaster in Brethil and go with Hurin to Nargothrond (pp. 306 - 7).
How he would have treated Thingol's behaviour towards the
Dwarves is impossible to say. That story was only once told fully,
in the Tale of the Nauglafring, in which the conduct of Tinwelint
(precursor of Thingol) was wholly at variance with the later concep-
tion of the king (see II.245-6). In the Sketch no more is said of the
matter than that the Dwarves were 'driven away without payment',
while in the Quenta 'Thingol... scanted his promised reward for their
labour; and bitter words grew between them, and there was battle in
Thingol's halls'. There seems to be no clue or hint in later writing (in
The Tale of Years the same bare phrase is used in all the versions:
'Thingol quarrels with the Dwarves'), unless one is seen in the words
quoted from Concerning Galadriel and Celeborn on p. 353: Celeborn
in his view of the destruction of Doriath ignored Morgoth's part in it
'and Thingol's own faults'.
In The Tale of Years my father seems not to have considered the
problem of the passage of the Dwarvish host into Doriath despite
the Girdle of Melian, but in writing the word 'cannot' against the D
version (p. 352) he showed that he regarded the story he had outlined
as impossible, for that reason. In another place he sketched a possible
solution (ibid.): 'Somehow it must be contrived that Thingol is lured
outside or induced to go to war beyond his borders and is there slain
by the Dwarves. Then Melian departs, and the girdle being removed
Doriath is ravaged by the Dwarves.'
In the story that appears in The Silmarillion the outlaws who went
with Hurin to Nargothrond were removed, as also was the curse of
Mim; and the only treasure that Hurin took from Nargothrond was
the Nauglamir - which was here supposed to have been made by
Dwarves for Finrod Felagund, and to have been the most prized by
him of all the hoard of Nargothrond. Hurin was represented as being
at last freed from the delusions inspired by Morgoth in his encounter
with Melian in Menegroth. The Dwarves who set the Silmaril in the
Nauglamir were already in Menegroth engaged on other works, and it
was they who slew Thingol; at that time Melian's power was with-
drawn from Neldoreth and Region, and she vanished out of Middle-
earth, leaving Doriath unprotected. The ambush and destruction of
the Dwarves at Sarn Athrad was given again to Beren and the Green
Elves (following my father's letter of 1963 quoted on p. 353, where
the Ents, 'Shepherds of the Trees', were introduced.
This story was not lightly or easily conceived, but was the outcome
of long experimentation among alternative conceptions. In this work
Guy Kay took a major part, and the chapter that I finally wrote owes
much to my discussions with him. It is, and was, obvious that a Step
was being taken of a different order from any other 'manipulation' of
my father's own writing in the course of the book: even in the case
of the story of The Fall of Gondolin, to which my father had never
returned, something could be contrived without introducing radical
changes in the narrative. It seemed at that time that there were
elements inherent in the story of the Ruin of Doriath as it stood that
were radically incompatible with 'The Silmarillion' as projected, and
that there was here an inescapable choice: either to abandon thai
conception, or else to alter the story. I think now that this was a
mistaken view, and that the undoubted difficulties could have been,
and should have been, surmounted without so far overstepping the
bounds of the editorial function.