The War of the Jewels Read online

  1300–50

  §25After the building of Menegroth was achieved, there was peace in the realm of Thingol. The Naugrim would come ever and anon over the mountains and visit Menegroth and go in traffick about the land, though they went seldom to the Falas, for they hated the sound of the Sea and feared to look on it; but otherwise there came to Beleriand no rumour or tidings of the world without. But it came to pass that the Dwarves were troubled, and they spoke to King Thingol, saying that the Valar had not rooted out utterly the evils of the North, and now the remnant, having long multiplied in the dark, were coming forth once more and roaming far and wide. ‘There are fell beasts,’ said they, ‘in the land east of the mountains, and the dark-elves that dwell there, your ancient kindred, are flying from the plains to the hills.’

  1330

  §26And ere long (in the year 1330 according to the annals that were made in Doriath) the evil creatures came even to Beleriand, over passes in the mountains, or up from the south through the dark forests. Wolves there were, or creatures that walked in wolf-shapes, and other fell beings of shadow.

  §27Among these were the Orkor indeed, who after wrought ruin in Beleriand; but they were yet few and wary and did but smell out the ways of the land, awaiting the return of their Lord. Whence they came, or what they were, the Elves knew not then, deeming them to be Avari, maybe, that had become evil and savage in the wild. In which they guessed all too near, it is said.

  §28Therefore Thingol bethought [him] of arms, which before his folk had not needed, and these at first the Naugrim smithied for him. For they were greatly skilled in such work, though none among them surpassed the craftsmen of Nogrod, of whom Telchar the Smith was the greatest in renown. A warlike race of old were all the Naugrim, and they would fight fiercely with whomsoever aggrieved them: folk of Melkor, or Eldar, or Avari, or wild beasts, or not seldom with their own kin, Dwarves of other mansions and lordships. Their smithcraft indeed the Sindar soon learned of them; yet in the tempering of steel alone of all crafts the Dwarves were never outmatched even by the Noldor, and in the making of mail of linked rings (which the Enfeng first contrived) their work had no rival.

  §29At this time therefore the Sindar were well armed, and they drove off all creatures of evil, and had peace again; but Thingol’s armouries were stored with axes (the chief weapons of the Naugrim, and of the Sindar), and with spears and swords, and tall helms, and long coats of bright mail: for the hauberks of the Enfeng were so fashioned that they rusted not and shone ever as were they new-burnished. This proved well for Thingol in the time that was to come.

  1350

  The coming of Denethor

  §30Now as is elsewhere recounted, one Dân of the host of Olwë forsook the march of the Eldar at that time when the Teleri were halted by the shores of the Great River upon the borders of the westlands of Middle-earth. And he led away a numerous people and went south down the river, and of the wanderings of that people, the Nandor, little is now known. Some, it is said, dwelt age-long in the woods of the Vale of the Great River, some came at last to the mouths of Anduin, and there dwelt by the Sea, and others passing by the White Mountains came north again and entered the wilderness of Eriador between Eryd Luin and the far Mountains of Mist. Now these were a woodland folk and had no weapons of metal, and the coming of the fell beasts of the North affrayed them sorely, as the Naugrim reported. Therefore Denethor, the son of Dan, hearing rumour of the might of Thingol and his majesty, and of the peace of his realm, gathered such host of his scattered folk as he could and led them over the mountains into Beleriand. There they were welcomed by Thingol, as kin long lost that return, and they dwelt in Ossiriand in the south of his kingdom. For it was a great country, and yet little peopled; and it was so named, the Land of Seven Rivers, because it lay between the mighty stream of Gelion and the mountains, from which there flowed into Gelion the swift rivers: Ascar, Thalos, Legolin, Brilthor, Duilwen, and Adurant. In that region the forests in after days were tall and green, and the people of Denethor there dwelt warily and seldom seen, because of their raiment of the colour of leaves; and they were called therefore the Green-elves.

  §31Of the long years of peace that followed after the coming of Denethor there is little tale; for though in this time Dairon the minstrel, it is said, who was the chief loremaster of the kingdom of Thingol, devised his Runes,* [added later in margin: Cirth] they were little used by the Sindar for the keeping of records, until the days of the War, and much that was held in memory has perished in the ruin of Doriath. Yet verily of bliss and glad life there is little to be said, ere it endeth; as works fair and wonderful, while still they endure for eyes to see, are their own record, and only when they are in peril or broken for ever do they pass into song. In Beleriand in those days the Elves walked, and the rivers flowed, and the stars shone, and the night-flowers gave forth their scents; and the beauty of Melian was as the noon, and the beauty of Lúthien was as the dawn in spring. In Beleriand King Thingol upon his throne was as the sons of the Valar, whose power is at rest, whose joy is as an air that they breathe in all their days, whose thought flows in a tide untroubled from the heights to the deeps. In Beleriand still at whiles rode Oromë the great, passing like a wind over the mountains, and the sound of his horn came down the leagues of the starlight, and the Elves feared him for the splendour of his countenance and the great noise of the onrush of Nahar; but when the Valaróma echoed in the hills, they knew well that all evil things were fled far away.

  1495

  §32It came to pass at last that the end of Bliss was at hand, and the noontide of Valinor was drawing to its twilight. For as is known to all, being written elsewhere in lore and sung in many songs, Melkor slew the Trees of the Valar with the aid of Ungoliantë, and escaped and came back to the north of Middle-earth. And hereafter he shall be known by that name that Fëanor gave him, the Dark Foe, Morgoth the Accursed.

  §33Far to the North befell the strife of Morgoth and Ungoliantë; but the great cry of Morgoth echoed through Beleriand, and all its folk shrank for fear; for though few knew what it foreboded, they heard then the herald of death.

  §34Soon after, indeed, Ungoliantë fled from the North and came into the realm of King Thingol, and a terror of darkness was about her. But by the power of Melian she was stayed, and entered not into Neldoreth, but abode long while under the shadow of the precipices in which Dorthonion fell southward. Therefore they became known as Eryd Orgoroth, the Mountains of Terror, and none dared go thither, or pass nigh to them; for even after Ungoliantë herself departed and went whither she would back into the forgotten South of the world, her foul offspring dwelt there in form as spiders and wove there their hideous webs. There light and life were strangled, and there all waters were poisoned.

  §35Morgoth, however, came not himself to Beleriand, but went to the Iron Mountains, and there with the aid of his servants that came forth to meet him he delved anew his vast vaults and dungeons. These the Noldor after named Angband: the Iron Prison; and above their gates Morgoth reared the vast and threefold peaks of Thangorodrim, and a great reek of dark smoke was ever wreathed about them.

  1497

  §36In this year Morgoth made his first assault upon Beleriand, which lay south of Angband. Indeed it is said that the gates of Morgoth were but one hundred and fifty leagues distant from the bridge of Menegroth; far and yet all too near.

  §37Now the Orcs that had multiplied in the bowels of the earth grew strong and fell, and their dark lord filled them with a lust of ruin and death; and they issued from Angband’s gates under the clouds that Morgoth sent forth, and passed silently into the highlands of the north. Thence on a sudden a great army came to Beleriand and assailed King Thingol. Now in his wide realm many Elves wandered free in the wild or dwelt at peace in small kindreds of quiet folk far sundered. Only about Menegroth in the midst of the land, and along the Falas in the country of the mariners were there numerous peoples; but the Orcs came down upon either side of Menegroth, and from camps in the east between Celon and Gelion, and west in the plains between Sirion and Narog, they plundered far and wide; and Thingol was cut off from Cirdan at Eglarest.

  §38Therefore he called upon Denethor, and the Elves came in force from Region over Aros and from Ossiriand, and fought the first battle in the Wars of Beleriand. And the eastern host of the Orcs was taken between the armies of the Eldar, north of the Andram and midway between Aros and Gelion, and there they were utterly defeated, and those that fled north from the great slaughter were waylaid by the axes of the Naugrim that issued from Mount Dolmed: few indeed returned to Angband.

  §39But the victory of the Elves was dearbought. For the Elves of Ossiriand were light-armed, and no match for the Orcs, who were shod with iron and iron-shielded and bore great spears with broad blades. And Denethor was cut off and surrounded upon the hill of Amon Ereb; and there he fell and all his nearest kin about him, ere the host of Thingol could come to his aid. Bitterly though his fall was avenged, when Thingol came upon the rear of the Orcs and slew them aheaps, the Green-elves lamented him ever after and took no king again. After the battle some returned to Ossiriand, and their tidings filled the remnant of their folk with great fear, so that thereafter they came never forth in open war, but kept themselves by wariness and secrecy. And many went north and entered the guarded realm of Thingol and were merged with his folk.

  §40And when Thingol came again to Menegroth he learned that the Orc-host in the west was victorious and had driven Cirdan to the rim of the Sea. Therefore he withdrew all his folk that his summons could reach within the fastness of Neldoreth and Region, and Melian put forth her power and fenced all that dominion round about with an unseen wall of shadow and bewilderment: the Girdle of Melian, that none thereafter could pass against her will or the will of King Thingol (unless one should come with a power greater than that of Melian the Maia). Therefore this inner land which was long named Eglador was after called Doriath, the guarded kingdom, Land of the Girdle. Within it there was yet a watchful peace; but without there was peril and great fear, and the servants of Morgoth roamed at will, save in the walled havens of the Falas.

  Of the Coming of the Noldor

  §41But new tidings were at hand, which none in Middle-earth had foreseen, neither Morgoth in his pits nor Melian in Menegroth; for no news came out of Aman, whether by messenger, or by spirit, or by vision in dream, after the death of the Trees and the hiding of Valinor. In this same year of the Valar (but some seven years after in the later reckoning of time) Fëanor came over Sea in the white ships of the Teleri, and landed in the Firth of Drengist, and there burned the ships at Losgar.

  §42Now the flames of that burning were seen not only by Fingolfin, whom Fëanor had deserted, but also by the Orcs and the watchers of Morgoth. No tale hath told what Morgoth thought in his heart at the tidings that Fëanor his bitterest foe had brought a host out of the West. Maybe he feared him little, for he had not yet had proof of the swords of the Noldor, and soon it was seen that he purposed to drive them back into the Sea.

  §43Drengist is a long firth which pierces the Echoing Hills of Eryd Lomin that are the west-fence of the great country of Hithlum. Thus the host of Fëanor passed from the shores into the inner regions of Hithlum, and marching about the northern end of the Mountains of Mithrim they encamped in that part which was named Mithrim and lay about the great lake amid the mountains that bore the same name.

  §44But the host of Melkor, orcs and werewolves, came through the passes of Eryd-wethrin and assailed Fëanor on a sudden, ere his camp was fullwrought or put in defence. There now on the grey fields of Mithrim was fought the second battle of the Wars of Beleriand, and the first meeting of the might of Morgoth with the valour of the Noldor. Dagor-nuin-Giliath it is named, the Battle under the Stars, for the Moon had not yet risen. In that battle, albeit outnumbered and taken at unawares, the Noldor were swiftly victorious. Strong and fair were they yet, for the light of Aman was not yet dimmed in their eyes; swift they were, and deadly in wrath, and long and terrible were their swords. The Orcs fled before them, and they were driven forth from Mithrim with great slaughter, and hunted over that great plain that lay north of Dorthonion, and was then called Ardgalen. There the armies that had passed south into the vales of Sirion and had beleagured Cirdan came up to their succour, and were caught in their ruin. For Celegorn Fëanor’s son, having news of them, waylaid them with a part of the Elven-host, and coming down upon them out of the hills nigh Eithel Sirion drove them into the Fen of Serech. Evil indeed were the tidings that came at last unto Angband, and Morgoth was dismayed. Ten days that battle endured, and from it returned of all the hosts that he had prepared for the conquest of the kingdoms of the Eldar no more than a handful of leaves.

  §45Yet cause he had for great joy, though it was hidden from him for a while. For the heart of Fëanor, in his wrath against the Enemy, blazed like a fire, and he would not halt, but pressed on behind the remnant of the Orcs, thinking, it is said, so to come at Morgoth himself. And he laughed aloud as he wielded his sword, and rejoiced that he had dared the wrath of the Valar and the evils of the road that he might see that hour of his vengeance. He knew naught of Angband or the great strength of defence that Morgoth had so swiftly prepared; but had he known, it would not have deterred him, for fey he was, consumed by the flame of his own wrath. Thus it was that he drew far ahead of the van of his host, and seeing this the servants of Morgoth turned to bay, and there issued from Angband Balrogs to aid them. There upon the confines of Dor Daedeloth, the land of Morgoth, Fëanor was surrounded, with few friends about him. Soon he stood alone; but long he fought on, and laughed undismayed, though he was wrapped in fire and wounded with many wounds. But at the last Gothmog,* Lord of the Balrogs, smote him to the ground, and there he would have perished, but Maidros and three other of his sons in that moment came up with force to his aid, and the Balrogs fled back to Angband.

  §46Then his sons raised up their father and bore him back towards Mithrim. But as they drew near to Eithel Sirion and were upon the upward path to the pass over the mountains, Fëanor bade them halt. For his wounds were mortal, and he knew that his hour was come. And looking out from the slopes of Eryd-wethrin with his last sight he beheld afar the peaks of Thangorodrim, mightiest of the towers of Middle-earth, and knew with the foreknowledge of death that no power of the Noldor would ever overthrow them; but he cursed the name of Morgoth, and laid it upon his sons to hold to their oath, and to avenge their father. Then he died; but he had neither burial nor tomb, for so fiery was his spirit that, as it passed, his body fell to ash and was borne away like a smoke, and his likeness has never again appeared in Arda, neither has his spirit left the realm of Mandos. Thus ended the mightiest of the Noldor, of whose deeds came both their greatest renown and their most grievous woe.

  §47Tidings of these great deeds came to Menegroth and to Eglarest, and the Grey-elves were filled with wonder and with hope, for they looked to have great help in their defence against Morgoth from their mighty kindred that thus returned unlooked-for from the West in their very hour of need, believing indeed at first that they came as emissaries of the Valar to deliver their brethren from evil. Now the Grey-elves were of Telerian race, and Thingol was the brother of Olwë at Alqualondë, but naught yet wa known of the kinslaying, nor of the manner of the exile of the Noldor, and of the oath of Fëanor. Yet though they had not heard of the Curse of Mandos, it was soon at work in Beleriand. For it entered into the heart of King Thingol to regret the days of peace when he was the high lord of all the land and its peoples. Wide were the countries of Beleriand and many empty and wild, and yet he welcomed not with full heart the coming of so many princes in might out of the West, eager for new realms.

  §48Thus there was from the first a coolness between him and the sons of Fëanor, whereas the closest friendship was needed, if Morgoth were to be withstood; for the [House >] sons of Fëanor were ever unwilling to accept the overlordship of Thingol, and would ask for no leave where they might dwell or might pass. When, therefore, ere long (by treachery and ill will, as later is told) the full tale of the deeds in Valinor became known in Beleriand, there was rather enmity than alliance between Doriath and the House of Fëanor; and this bitterness Morgoth eagerly inflamed by all means that he could find. But that evil lay as yet in the days to come, and the first meeting of the Sindar and the Noldor was eager and glad, though parley was at first not easy between them, for in their long severance the tongue of the Kalaquendi in Valinor and the Moriquendi in Beleriand had drawn far apart.

  Excursus on the languages of Beleriand

  I interrupt the text here since the complex variant material that follows in the two manuscripts cannot well be accommodated in the commentary.

  In place of GA 2 §48 just given, GA 1 (making no reference to the active hostility that developed between Thingol and the Fëanorians) has only the following (after the words ‘eager for new realms’):

  Moreover in their long severance the tongues of the Sindar and the Noldor had drawn apart, and at first parley was not easy between them.

  This is followed by a long ‘excursus’ (marked on the manuscript as an intrusion into the main text) on the development and relations of Noldorin and Sindarin in Beleriand, the end of which is also the end of GA 1. This discussion reappears, rewritten, in GA 2, and then this revised form was itself substantially altered. It seems desirable to give all the versions of this passage, of central importance in the linguistic history of Middle-earth. The numbered notes to this section are found on p. 28.

  The original version in GA 1 reads as follows.

  It was indeed at the landing of Fëanor three hundred and sixty-five long years of the Valar1 since the Noldor had passed over the Sea and left the Teleri behind them. Now that time was in length well nigh as three thousand and five hundred years of the Sun. In such an age the tongues of mortal Men that were far sundered would indeed change out of knowledge, unless it were as written records of song and wisdom. But in Valinor in the days of the Trees change was little to be perceived, save that which came of will and design, while in Middle-earth under the Sleep of Yavanna it was slow also, though before the Rising of the Moon all things had been stirred from slumber in Beleriand, as has before been told.2 Therefore, whereas the tongue of the Noldor had altered little from the ancient tongue of the Eldar upon the march – and its altering had for the most part come in the making of new words (for things old and new) and in the softening and harmonizing of the sounds and patterns of the Quendian tongue to forms that seemed to the Noldor more beautiful – the language of the Sindar had changed much, even in unheeded growth as a tree may imperceptibly change its shape: as much maybe as an unwritten mortal tongue might change in five hundred years or more.3 It was already ere the Rising of the Sun a speech greatly different to the ear from the Noldorin, and after that Rising all change was swift, for a while in the second Spring of Arda very swift indeed. To the ear, we say, because though Dairon the minstrel and loremaster of Menegroth had devised his Runes already by V.Y. 1300 (and after greatly bettered them), it was not the custom of the Sindar to write down their songs or records, and the Runes of Dairon (save in Menegroth) were used chiefly for names and brief inscriptions cut upon wood, stone, or metal. (The Naugrim4 learned the Runes of Dairon from Menegroth, being well-pleased with the device and esteeming Dairon higher than [did] his own folk; and by the Naugrim they were brought east over the Mountains.)5