The Shaping of Middle-earth Page 2

  Now it happened on a while that Fëanor got him beyond to the hills that girt Dor Lómin in those parts [northward of >] beyond Artanor where there were open empty lands and treeless hills, and he had no small company and three of his sons were with him. Thus came they on a day nigh evening to a hilltop, and afar off descried a red light leaping in a vale open on that side that looked toward [?them]. Then Fëanor wondered what this fire might be, and he and his folk marched in the still night swiftly thereto, so that ere dawn they looked down into that vale. There saw they an armed company no less than their own, and they sat around a mighty fire of wood. The most were asleep, but some few stirred, and Fëanor stood then up and called in his clear voice so that the dark vale rang: ‘Who be ye; men of the Gnomes or other what – say swiftly for ’tis best for [you to] know the children of Fëanor compass you around.’

  Then a great clamour broke forth in the vale and the folk of Fëanor knew full soon that here were no elfin folk, by reason of their harsh voices and unlovely cries, and many arrows came winging in the dark towards that voice, but Fëanor was no longer there. Swiftly had he gone and drawn the most of his folk before the vale’s mouth whence a stream issued forth tree-hung

  Here the text ends abruptly and near the top of a new page; it is clear that no more was written.

  The Noldorin house has still not emerged, but we have a king Gelmir of the Gnomes, with his sons Golfin, Delin, Lúthien (the last emended from Oleg), captains of his three armies. There is no suggestion that Fëanor and his sons were associated with these in any sort of close kinship. In the fragment of the Lay of the Fall of Gondolin (see III. 146–7) there appears – for the first time – Fingolfin, who steps into Finwë Nólemë’s place as the father of Turgon and Isfin, but is not the son of Finwë, rather of Gelmir. I have suggested there that this Gelmir, father of Golfin/Fingolfin, is to be identified with Finwë, father of Fingolfin in the alliterative poems and later; and it may be that the name Gelmir is formally connected with Fin-golma, which in the outlines for Gilfanon’s Tale is another name for Finwë Nólemë (I. 238–9, and see I. 263, entry Nólemë). It is to be remembered that Finwë Nóleme was not in the earliest legend the father of Fëanor and was not slain by Melko in Valinor, but came to the Great Lands. – Of the other sons of Gelmir named in the present text, Delin and Lúthien, there is no trace elsewhere.

  It is certainly clear that Golfin here is the first appearance of Fingolfin, and by the same token that this text preceded the abandoned beginning of the Lay of the Fall of Gondolin. On the other hand, the obscure story of the death of Fëanor in the earliest outlines (I. 238–9) has disappeared, and though the present text breaks off too soon for certainty it seems extremely probable that, had my father continued it a little further, we should have learned of Fëanor’s death in battle with the Orcs whom he and his companions had aroused in the valley where they were encamped. It may be, too, that we should have had an explanation of the puzzling lines of the Lay (III. 146):

  ’Twas the bent blades of the Glamhoth that drank Fingolfin’s life as he stood alone by Fëanor.

  We are in any case here still a long way from the story of the divided hosts and the treachery of Fëanor.

  The encampment of Mithrim (Asgon) is referred to already in the early outlines, but in the later of these there is mention (I. 239) of the first devising of weapons by the Gnomes at this time, whereas in the present text they are said to have brought great store of arms ‘out of Valinor and the armouries of Makar’. Here also appears the earliest form of the idea of the flowers springing beneath the marching feet of the Gnomish host.

  A characteristic heraldry appears in the armies led by Gelmir’s sons, all in gold and silver, in memory of the Two Trees – the banners made (curiously enough) by the sons of Fëanor. In the ‘Sketch of the Mythology’ the banners of Fingolfin were in blue and silver, as they remained (p. 22).

  The name Ior, which occurs at the beginning of the text in the expression ‘among other children of Ior’ (as opposed to ‘the Elfin race’) and seems therefore to refer to Ilúvatar, occurs elsewhere only in a quite different reference: it is given in the early Gnomish dictionary as the equivalent of Qenya Ivárë, ‘the famous “piper of the sea’”.

  (iii)

  Thirdly and lastly, an isolated slip of paper contains a most curious trace of a stage in development between The Flight of the Noldoli in the Lost Tales and the ‘Sketch of the Mythology’.

  The Trees stand dark. The Plain is full of trouble. The Gnomes gather by torchlight in Tûn or Côr; Fëanor laments Bruithwir (Felegron) [emended to (Feleor)] his father, bids Gnomes depart & seek Melko and their treasures – he longs for the Silmarils – Finweg & Fingolfin speak against him. The Gnomes shout and prepare to depart. The Solosimpi refuse: the wise words of Ethlon (Dimlint). Foamriders [?beaches]. The threats of Fëanor to march to Cú nan Eilch. The arch, the lamplit quays; they seize the boats. One Gilfanon sees his mighty swanwinged swan-feather boat with red oars [?going] & he & his sons run to the arch and threaten the Gnomes. The fight on the arch & Gilfanon’s [?curse] ere they throw him into the waves. The Gnomes reach Fangros & repent – burn the boats.

  Here Bruithwir (with the additional name Felegron > Feleor) is still the father of Fëanor as in the Lost Tales; but Fingolfin and Finweg have emerged, and speak against Fëanor (it is not clear whether Finweg here is Fingolfin’s father (Finwë) or Fingolfin’s son (later Fingon): see III. 137–8, 146). Narrative features that were never taken up in the later development of ‘The Silmarillion’ here make their only appearance. What lay behind ‘the wise words of Ethlon (Dimlint)’ and ‘the threats of Fëanor to march to Cú nan Eilch’ has now vanished without trace. The name Fangros appears once elsewhere, in the alliterative Children of Húrin, III. 31 line 631 (earlier Fangair), where there is a reference to a song, or songs, being sung

  of the fight at Fangros,and Fëanor’s sons’

  oath unbreakable

  (the fight and the oath need not be in any way connected). But whatever happened at Fangros is lost beyond recall; and nowhere later is there any suggestion that the burning of the ships arose from repentance. In the Lost Tales (I. 168) the Gnomes ‘abandoned their stolen ships’ when they made the passage of the Ice; Sorontur reported to Manwë (I. 177) that he had seen ‘a fleet of white ships that drifted empty in the gales, and some were burning with bright fires’; and Manwë ‘knew thereby that the Noldoli were gone for ever and their ships burned or abandoned’.

  Lastly, Gilfanon appears as an Elf of Alqualondë, one of those hurled by the Gnomes into the sea, though it is not said that he was drowned. Gilfanon of Tavrobel was a Gnome (I. 174–5); and it seems virtually certain that the two Gilfanons were not the same. In that case it is most probable that the Elf of Tavrobel had ceased to be so named; though he had not, as I think, ceased to exist (see p. 274).

  II

  THE EARLIEST ‘SILMARILLION’

  (The ‘Sketch of the Mythology’)

  I have earlier (III. 3) given an account of this text, but I repeat the essentials of it here. On the envelope containing the manuscript my father wrote at some later time:

  Original ‘Silmarillion’. Form orig[inally] composed c. 1926–30 for R. W. Reynolds to explain background of ‘alliterative version’ of Túrin & the Dragon: then in progress (unfinished) (begun c. 1918).

  The ‘Sketch’ represents a new starting-point in the history of ‘The Silmarillion’; for while it is a quite brief synopsis, the further written development of the prose form proceeded from it in a direct line. It is clear from details that need not be repeated here that it was originally written in 1926 (after the Lay of the Children of Húrin had been abandoned, III. 3); but it was afterwards revised, in places very heavily, and this makes it a difficult text to present in a way that is both accurate and readily comprehensible. The method I have adopted is to give the text exactly as it was first written (apart from a very few slight alterations of expression in no way affecting the narrative, w
hich are adopted silently into the text), but to break it up into short sections, following each with notes giving the later changes made in that section. I must emphasize that there is no manuscript warrant for the 19 divisions so made: it is purely a matter of convenience of presentation. This method has certain advantages: the later changes can be readily compared with the original text immediately preceding; and since the following version of ‘The Silmarillion’, the Quenta, has been treated in the same way and divided into corresponding numbered sections, passages of the one can be easily related to those in the other.

  The later changes are referenced by numbers that begin with 1 in each section. The commentary follows at the end of the complete text, and is related to the numbered sections.

  Sketch of the mythology with especial reference to the ‘Children of Húrin’

  1

  After the despatch of the Nine Valar for the governance of the world Morgoth (Demon of Dark) rebels against the overlordship of Manwë, overthrows the lamps set up to illumine the world, and floods the isle where the Valar (or Gods) dwelt. He fortifies a palace of dungeons in the North. The Valar remove to the uttermost West, bordered by the Outer Seas and the final Wall, and eastward by the towering Mountains of Valinor which the Gods built. In Valinor they gather all light and beautiful things, and build their mansions, gardens, and city, but Manwë and his wife Bridhil have halls upon the highest mountain (Timbrenting or Tindbrenting in English, Tengwethil in Gnomish, Taníquetil in Elfin) whence they can see across the world to the dark East. Ifan Belaurin1 plants the Two Trees in the middle of the plain of Valinor outside the gates of the city of Valmar. They grow under her songs, and one has dark green leaves with shining silver beneath, and white blossoms like the cherry from which a dew of silver light falls; the other has golden-edged leaves of young green like the beech and yellow blossom like the hanging blossoms of laburnum which give out heat and blazing light. Each tree waxes for seven2 hours to full glory and then wanes for seven; twice a day therefore comes a time of softer light when each tree is faint and their light is mingled.

  1Yavanna Palúrien added in the margin.

  2At both occurrences of seven in this sentence my father first wrote six, but changed it in the act of writing the manuscript.

  2

  The Outer Lands are in darkness. The growth of things was checked when Morgoth quenched the lamps. There are forests of darkness, of yew and fir and ivy. There Oromë sometimes hunts, but in the North Morgoth and his demonic broods (Balrogs) and the Orcs (Goblins, also called Glamhoth or people of hate) hold sway. Bridhil looks on the darkness and is moved, and taking all the hoarded light of Silpion (the white tree) she makes and strews the stars.

  At the making of the stars the children of Earth awake – the Eldar (or Elves). They are found by Oromë dwelling by the star-lit pool (Cuiviénen, water of awakening) in the East. He rides home to Valinor filled with their beauty and tells the Valar, who are reminded of their duty to the Earth, since they came thither knowing that their office was to govern it for the two races of Earth who should after come each in appointed time. There follows an expedition to the fortress of the North (Angband, Iron-hell), but this is now too strong for them to destroy. Morgoth is nonetheless taken captive, and consigned to the halls of Mandos who dwelt in the North of Valinor.

  The Eldalië (people of the Elves) are invited to Valinor for fear of the evil things of Morgoth that still wandered in the dark. A great march is made by the Eldar from the East led by Oromë on his white horse. The Eldar are divided into three hosts, one under Ingwë (Ing) after called the Quendi (or Elves proper, or Light-elves), one under Finwë (Finn) after called the Noldoli (Gnomes or Deep-elves), one under Elwë (Elu) after called the Teleri (Sea-elves, or Solosimpi, the Shoreland Pipers or Foam-riders). Many of them are lost upon the march and wander in the woods of the world, becoming after the various hosts of Ilkorindi (Elves who never dwelt in Côr in Valinor). The chief of these was Thingol, who heard Melian and her nightingales singing and was enchanted and fell asleep for an age. Melian was one of the divine maidens of the Vala Lórien who sometimes wandered into the outer world. Melian and Thingol became Queen and King of woodland Elves in Doriath, living in a hall called the Thousand Caves.

  3

  The other Elves came to the ultimate shores of the West. In the North these in those days sloped westward in the North until only a narrow sea divided them from the land of the Gods, and this narrow sea was filled with grinding ice. But at the point to which the Elf-hosts came a wide dark sea stretched west.

  There were two Valar of the Sea. Ulmo (Ylmir), the mightiest of all Valar next to Manwë, was lord of all waters, but dwelt often in Valinor, or in the ‘Outer Seas’. Ossë and the lady Óin,1 whose tresses lay through all the sea, loved rather the seas of the world that washed the shores beneath the Mountains of Valinor. Ylmir uprooted the half-sunk island where the Valar had first dwelt, and embarking on it the Noldoli and Qendi, who arrived first, bore them to Valinor. The Teleri dwelt some time by the shores of the sea awaiting him, and hence their love of it. While they were being also transported by Ylmir, Ossë in jealousy and out of love for their singing chained the island to the sea-bottom far out in the Bay of Faërie whence the Mountains of Valinor could dimly be seen. No other land was near it, and it was called the Lonely Isle. There the Teleri dwelt a long age becoming different in tongue, and learning strange music of Ossë, who made the sea-birds for their delight.

  The Gods gave a home in Valinor to the other Eldar. Because they longed even among the Tree-lit gardens of Valinor for a glimpse of the stars, a gap was made in the encircling mountains, and there in a deep valley a green hill, Côr, was built. This was lit from the West by the Trees, to the East it looked out onto the Bay of Faërie and the Lonely Isle, and beyond to the Shadowy Seas. Thus some of the blessed light of Valinor filtered into the Outer Lands, and falling on the Lonely Isle caused its western shores to grow green and fair.

  On the top of Côr the city of the Elves was built and called Tûn. The Qendi became most beloved by Manwë and Bridhil, the Noldoli by Aulë (the Smith) and Mandos the wise. The Noldoli invented gems and made them in countless numbers, filling all Tûn with them, and all the halls of the Gods.2

  The greatest in skill and magic of the Noldoli was Finn’s second son Fëanor. (His elder son Fingolfin3 whose son was Finnweg comes into the tale later.) He contrived three jewels (Silmarils) wherein a living fire combined in the light of the Two Trees was set, they shone of their own light, impure hands were burned by them.

  The Teleri seeing afar the light of Valinor were torn between desire to rejoin their kindred and to dwell by the sea. Ylmir taught them craft of boat-building. Ossë yielding gave them swans, and harnessing many swans to their boats they sailed to Valinor, and dwelt there on the shores where they could see the light of the Trees, and go to Valmar if they wished, but could sail and dance in the waters touched to light by the radiance that came out past Côr. The other Eldar gave them many gems, especially opals and diamonds and other pale crystals which were strewn upon the beaches of the Bay of Faërie. They themselves invented pearls. Their chief town was Swanhaven upon the shores northward of the pass of Côr.

  1Uinen pencilled against Óin.

  2The following passage was afterwards added here:

  Since the Gnomes or Noldoli afterwards came back into the Great Lands, and these tales deal mostly with them, it may here be said that Lord or King of the Noldoli was Finn. His sons were Fëanor, Fingolfin, and Finrod. Of whom Fëanor was the most skilful, the deepest in lore, Fingolfin the mightiest and most valiant, Finrod the fairest, and the most wisehearted and gentle. The seven sons of Fëanor were Maidros the tall; Maglor a musician and mighty singer whose voice carried far over hill and sea; Curufin the crafty who inherited most of his father’s skill; Celegorm the fair; Cranthir the dark; and Damrod and Díriel who after were great hunters. The sons of Fingolfin were Finweg who was after the king of the Noldoli in the North of the wo
rld, and Turgon of Gondolin; and his daughter was Isfin the white. The sons of Finrod were Orodreth, Felagoth, Anrod, and Egnor.

  In the last sentence Felagoth > Felagund, and Orodreth moved to stand after Felagund.

  3Finn’s second son Fëanor and His elder son Fingolfin > Finn’s elder son Fëanor and His second son Fingolfin (an early change, quite possibly made at the time of the writing of the manuscript).

  4

  The Gods were now beguiled by Morgoth, who having passed seven ages in the prisons of Mandos in gradually lightened pain came before the conclave of the Gods in due course. He looks with greed and malice upon the Eldar, who also sit there about the knees of the Gods, and lusts especially after the jewels. He dissembles his hatred and desire for revenge. He is allowed a humble dwelling in Valinor, and after a while goes freely about Valinor, only Ylmir foreboding ill, while Tulcas the strong who first captured him watches him. Morgoth helps the Eldar in many deeds, but slowly poisons their peace with lies.