The War of the Jewels Read online

  When my father turned again, in 1950–1, to the Matter of the Elder Days after the completion of The Lord of the Rings, he began new work on the Annals by taking up the AV 2 and AB 2 manuscripts from some 15 years earlier and using them as vehicles for revision and new writing. In the case of AV 2, correction of the old text was limited to the opening annals, and the beginnings of a new version written on the blank verso pages of this manuscript likewise petered out very quickly, so that there was no need to take much account of this preliminary work (X.47). In AB 2, on the other hand, the preparatory stages were much more extensive and substantial.

  In the first place, revision of the original AB 2 text continues much further – although in practice this can be largely passed over, since the content of the revision appears in subsequent texts. (In some cases, as noted in V.124, it is not easy to separate ‘early’ (pre-Lord of the Rings) revisions and additions from ‘late’ (those of the early 1950s).) In the second place, the beginning of a new and much fuller version of the Annals of Beleriand on the blank verso pages of AB 2 extends for a considerable distance (13 manuscript pages) – and the first part of this is written in such a careful script, before it begins to degenerate, that it may be thought that my father did not at first intend it as a draft. This is entitled ‘The Annals of Beleriand’, and could on that account be referred to as ‘AB 3’, but I shall in fact call it ‘GA 1’ (see below).

  The final text is a good clear manuscript bearing the title ‘The Annals of Beleriand or the Grey Annals’. I have chosen to call this work the Grey Annals, abbreviated ‘GA’, in order to mark its distinctive nature in relation to the earlier forms of the Annals of Beleriand and its close association with the Annals of Aman (‘AAm’), which also bears a title different from that of its predecessors. The abandoned first version just mentioned is then more suitably called ‘GA I’ than ‘AB 3’, since for most of its length it was followed very closely in the final text, and is to be regarded as a slightly earlier variant: it will be necessary to refer to it, and to cite passages from it, but there is no need to give it in full. Where it is necessary to distinguish the final text from the aborted version I shall call the former ‘GA 2’.

  There is some evidence that the Grey Annals followed the Annals of Aman (in its primary form), but the two works were, I feel certain, closely associated in time of composition. For the structure of the history of Beleriand the Grey Annals constitutes the primary text, and although much of the latter part of the work was used in the published Silmarillion with little change I give it in full. This is really essential on practical grounds, but is also in keeping with my intention in this ‘History’, in which I have traced the development of the Matter of the Elder Days from its beginning to its end within the compass of my father’s actual writings: from this point of view the published work is not its end, and I do not treat his later writing primarily in relation to what was used, or how it was used, in ‘The Silmarillion’. – It is a most unhappy fact that he abandoned the Grey Annals at the death of Túrin – although, as will be seen subsequently (pp. 251 ff.), he added elements of a continuation at some later time.

  I have not, as I did in the case of the Annals of Aman, divided the Grey Annals into sections, and the commentary, referenced to the numbered paragraphs, follows the end of the text (p. 103). Subsequent changes to the manuscript, which in places were heavy, are indicated as such.

  At the top of the first page of the old AB 2 text, no doubt before he began work on the enormously enlarged new version, my father scribbled these notes: ‘Make these the Sindarin Annals of Doriath and leave out most of the …’ (there are here two words that probably read ‘Nold[orin] stuff’); and ‘Put in notes about Denethor, Thingol, etc. from AV’

  Two other elements in the complex of papers constituting the Grey Annals remain to be mentioned. There are a number of disconnected rough pages bearing the words ‘Old material of Grey Annals’ (see p. 29); and there is an amanuensis typescript in top copy and carbon that clearly belongs with that of the Annals of Aman, which I tentatively dated to 1958 (X.47).

  THE ANNALS OF BELERIAND OR THE GREY ANNALS

  §1These are the Annals of Beleriand as they were made by the Sindar, the Grey Elves of Doriath and the Havens, and enlarged from the records and memories of the remnant of the Noldor of Nargothrond and Gondolin at the Mouths of Sirion, whence they were brought back into the West.

  §2Beleriand is the name of the country that lay upon either side of the great river Sirion ere the Elder Days were ended. This name it bears in the oldest records that survive, and it is here retained in that form, though now it is called Belerian. The name signifies in the language of that land: the country of Balar. For this name the Sindar gave to Ossë, who came often to those coasts, and there befriended them. At first, therefore, this name was given to the land of the shores, on either side of Sirion’s mouths, that face the Isle of Balar, but it spread until it included all the ancient coast of the North-west of Middle-earth south of the Firth of Drengist and all the inner land south of Hithlum up to the feet of Eryd Luin (the Blue Mountains). But south of the mouths of Sirion it had no sure boundaries; for there were pathless forests in those days between the unpeopled shores and the lower waters of Gelion.

  VY 1050

  §3Hither, it is said, at this time came Melian the Maia from Valinor, when Varda made the great stars. In this same time the Quendi awoke by Kuiviénen, as is told in the Chronicle of Aman.

  1080

  §4About this time the spies of Melkor discovered the Quendi and afflicted them.

  1085

  §5In this year Oromë found the Quendi, and befriended them.

  1090

  §6At this time the Valar came hither from Aman for their assault upon Melkor, whose stronghold was in the North beyond Eryd Engrin (the Iron Mountains). In these regions, therefore, were fought the first battles of the Powers of the West and the North, and all this land was much broken, and it took then that shape which it had until the coming of Fionwë. For the Great Sea broke in upon the coasts and made a deep gulf to the southward, and many lesser bays were made between the Great Gulf and Helkaraxë far in the North, where Middle-earth and Aman came nigh together. Of these bays the Bay of Balar was the chief; and into it the mighty river Sirion flowed down from the new-raised highlands northwards: Dorthonion and the mountains about Hithlum. At first these lands upon either side of Sirion were ruinous and desolate because of the War of the Powers, but soon growth began there, while most of Middle-earth slept in the Sleep of Yavanna, because the Valar of the Blessed Realm had set foot there; and there were young woods under the bright stars. These Melian the Maia fostered; and she dwelt most in the glades of Nan Elmoth beside the River Celon. There also dwelt her nightingales.

  1102–5

  §7Ingwë, Finwë, and Elwë were brought to Valinor by Oromë as ambassadors of the Quendi and they looked upon the Light of the Trees and yearned for it. Returning they counselled the Eldar to go to the Land of Aman, at the summons of the Valar.

  1115

  §8Even as the Valar had come first to Beleriand as they went eastward, so later Oromë leading the hosts of the Eldar westwards towards Aman brought them to the shores of Beleriand. For there the Great Sea was less wide and yet free from the perils of the ice that lay further north. In this year of the Valar, therefore, the foremost companies of the Vanyar and Noldor passed through the vale of Sirion and came to the sea-coast between Drengist and the Bay of Balar. But because of their fear of the Sea, which they had before neither seen nor imagined, the Eldar drew back into the woods and highlands. And Oromë departed and went to Valinor and left them there for a time.

  1128

  §9In this year the Teleri, who had lingered on the road, came also at last over Eryd Luin into northern Beleriand. There they halted and dwelt a while between the River Gelion and Eryd Luin. At that time many of the Noldor dwelt westward of the Teleri, in those regions where afterwards stood the forests of Neldoreth and Region. Finwë was their lord, and with him Elwë lord of the Teleri had great friendship; and Elwë was wont often to visit Finwe in the dwellings of the Noldor.

  1130

  §10In this year King Elwë Singollo of the Teleri was lost in the wilderness. As he journeyed home from a meeting with Finwë, he passed by Nan Elmoth, and he heard the nightingales of Melian the Maia, and followed them deep into the glades. There he saw Melian standing beneath the stars, and a white mist was about her, but the Light of Aman was in her face. Thus began the love of Elwë Greymantle and Melian of Valinor. Hand in hand they stood silent in the woods, while the wheeling stars measured many years, and the young trees of Nan Elmoth grew tall and dark. Long his people sought for Elwë in vain.

  1132

  §11Now Ulmo, at the command of the Valar, came to the shores of Beleriand and summoned the Eldar to meet him; and he spoke to them, and made music upon his conches, and changed the fear of all who heard him into a great desire for the Sea. Then Ulmo and Ossë took an island, which stood far out in the Sea, and they moved it, and brought it, as it were a mighty ship, into the Bay of Balar; and the Vanyar and Noldor embarked thereon, and were drawn over Sea, until they came at last to the Land of Aman. But a part of that island which was deep-grounded in the shoals off the mouths of Sirion was broken away and remained; and this was the Isle of Balar to which afterward Ossë often came.

  §12For the Teleri had not embarked, but remained behind. Many indeed were dwelling at that time afar off in eastern Beleriand and heard the summons of Ulmo too late; and many others searched still for Elwë their king, and were not willing to depart without him. But when the Teleri learned that their kinsfolk, the Vanyar and the Noldor, were gone, the most part hastened to the shore and dwelt thereafter nigh the mouths of Sirion, in longing for their friends that had left them. And they took Olwë, Elwë’s brother, for their lord. Then Ossë and Uinen came to them, and dwelt in the Isle of Balar, and became the friends of the Teleri and taught them all manner of sea-lore and sea-music.

  1149–50

  §13In this year Ulmo returned to Beleriand. To this he was most moved by the prayers of the Noldor and of Finwë their king, who grieved at their sundering from the Teleri, and besought Ulmo to bring Elwë and his people to Aman, if they would come. And all those who followed Olwë were now willing to depart but Ossë was sad at heart. For he went seldom to the shores of Aman, and loved the Teleri, and he was ill-pleased that their fair voices should be heard no longer by the strands of Middle-earth, which were his domain.

  §14Ossë therefore persuaded many to remain in Beleriand, and when King Olwë and his host were embarked upon the isle and passed over the Sea they abode still by the shore; and Ossë returned to them, and continued in friendship with them. And he taught to them the craft of shipbuilding and of sailing; and they became a folk of mariners, the first in Middle-earth, and had fair havens at Eglarest and Brithombar; but some dwelt still upon the Isle of Balar. Cirdan the Shipwright was the lord of this people, and all that shoreland between Drengist and Balar that he ruled was called the Falas. But among the Teleri were none yet so hardy of heart, and of their ships none so swift and strong that they might dare the deeps of the Great Sea or behold even from afar the Blessed Realm and the Light of the Trees of Valinor. Wherefore those that remained behind were called Moriquendi, Elves of the Dark.

  1150

  §15The friends and kinsfolk of Elwë also remained; but they would fain have departed to Valinor and the Light of the Trees (which Elwë indeed had seen), if Ulmo and Olwe had been willing to tarry yet longer while they sought still for Elwë. But when Ulmo had tarried a full Year (and a Year of the Valar is in length well nigh as are ten of the years that now are) he departed, and the friends of Elwë were left behind. Therefore they called themselves the Eglath, the Forsaken People; and though they dwelt in the woods and hills rather than by the Sea, which filled them with sorrow, their inmost hearts yearned ever Westward.

  1152

  §16At this time, it is told, Elwë Singollo awoke from his long trance. And he came forth from Nan Elmoth with Melian, and they dwelt thereafter in the woods in the midst of the land; and though Elwë had greatly desired to see again the light of the Trees, in the face of Melian the fair he beheld the Light of Aman as in an unclouded mirror, and in that light he was content. Then his folk gathered about him in joy; and they were amazed, for fair and noble as he had been, now he appeared as it were a lord of the Maiar, tallest of all the Children of Ilúvatar, his hair as grey silver, and his eyes like unto stars. King of the Eglath he became, and Melian was his Queen, wiser than any daughter of Middle-earth.

  1200

  §17It is not known to any among Elves or Men when Lúthien, only child of Elwë and Melian, came into the World, fairest of all the Children of Ilúvatar that were or shall be. But it is held that it was at the end of the first age of the Chaining of Melkor, when all the Earth had great peace and the glory of Valinor was at its noon, and though Middle-earth for the most [part] lay in the Sleep of Yavanna, in Beleriand under the power of Melian there was life and joy and the bright stars shone like silver fires. In the Forest of Neldoreth it is said that she was born and cradled under the stars of heaven, and the white flowers of niphredil came forth to greet her, as stars from the earth.

  1200–50

  §18In this time the power of Elwë and Melian reached over all Beleriand. Elu Thingol he was called in the tongue of his people, King Greymantle, and all the Elves of Beleriand from the mariners of Cirdan to the wandering huntsmen of the Blue Mountains took him for lord. And they are called, therefore, the Sindar, the Grey Elves of starlit Berleriand. And albeit they were Moriquendi, under the lordship of Thingol and the teaching of Melian they became the fairest and the most wise and skilful of all the Elves of Middle-earth.

  1250

  §19In this year the Norn-folk came first over the mountains into Beleriand. This people the Noldor after named the Naugrim, whom some Men call Dwarves. Their most ancient dwellings were far to the East, but they had delved for themselves great halls and mansions, after the manner of their kind, on the east-side of Eryd Luin, north and south of Mount Dolmed, in those places which the Eldar named Belegost and Nogrod (but they Gabilgathol and Tumunzahar). Thence they now came forth and made themselves known to the Elves; and the Elves were amazed, for they had deemed themselves to be the only living things in Middle-earth that spoke with words or wrought with hands; and that all others were beasts and birds only.

  §20Nonetheless they could understand no word of the tongue of the Naugrim, which to their ears was cumbrous and unlovely; and few ever of the Eldar have achieved the mastery of it. But the Dwarves were swift to learn (after a fashion), and indeed were more willing to learn the Elven-tongue than to teach to aliens their own; and soon there was much parley between the peoples. Ever cool was their friendship, though much profit they had one of the other. But at that time those griefs that lay between them had not yet come to pass, and they were welcomed by King Thingol.

  §21How the Dwarves came into the world the Eldar know not for certain, though the loremasters have elsewhere recorded the tales of the Naugrim themselves (such as they would reveal) concerning their beginning. They say that Aulë the Maker, whom they call Mahal, brought them into being; and however that may be, certain it is that they were great smiths and masons, though of old there was little beauty in their works. Iron and copper they loved to work more than silver or gold, and stone more than wood.

  1300

  Of the building of Menegroth

  §22Now Melian had after the manner of the Maiar, the people of Valinor, much foresight. And when two of the ages of the Chaining of Melkor had passed, she counselled Thingol that the Peace of Arda would not last for ever; and he therefore bethought him how he should make for himself a kingly dwelling, and a place that should be strong, if evil were to awake again in Middle-earth. He called therefore upon the Enfeng, the Longbeards of Belegost, whom he had befriended, and sought their aid and counsel. And they gave it willingly, for they were unwearied in those days, and eager for new works. And though the Dwarves ever demanded a price for all that they did, whether with delight or with toil, at this time they held themselves paid. For Melian taught them much wisdom, which they were eager to get; whereas Thingol rewarded them with many fair pearls. These Cirdan gave to him, for they were got in great number in the shallow waters about the Isle of Balar; but the Naugrim had not before seen their like, and they held them dear. And one there was great as a dove’s egg, and its sheen was as the starlight upon the foam of the sea; Nimphelos it was named, and the chieftain of the Enfeng prized it above a mountain of wealth.

  §23Therefore the Naugrim laboured long and gladly for Thingol, and devised for him mansions after the fashion of their folk, delved deep in the earth. Where the River Esgalduin flowed down, dividing Neldoreth from Region, there was in the midst of the forest a rocky hill, and the river ran at its feet. There they made the gates of the halls of Thingol, and they built a bridge of stone over the river, by which alone the gates could be entered. But beyond the gates wide passages ran down to high halls and chambers far below that were hewn in the living stone, so many and so great that that dwelling was named Menegroth, the Thousand Caves.

  §24But the Elves also had part in that labour, and Elves and Dwarves together, each with their own skills, there wrought out the visions of Melian, images of the wonder and beauty of Valinor beyond the Sea. The pillars of Menegroth were hewn in the likeness of the beeches of Oromë, stock, bough, and leaf, and they were lit with lanterns of gold. The nightingales sang there as in the gardens of Lorien; and there were fountains of silver, and basins of marble, and floors of many-coloured stones. Carven figures of beasts and of birds there ran upon the walls, or climbed upon the pillars, or peered among the branches entwined with many flowers. And as the years passed Melian and her maidens filled the halls with webs of many hues, wherein could be read the deeds of the Valar, and many things that had befallen in Arda since its beginning, and shadows of things that were yet to be. That was the fairest dwelling of any king that hath ever been east of the Sea.