The Lays of Beleriand (14 page)

Gondolin and Nargothrond were each made once, and not remade. They remained powerful sources and images -- the more powerful, perhaps, because never remade, and never remade, perhaps, because so powerful.

Both Tuor and Turin were indeed to receive written form outside the condensed Silmarillion as long prose narratives, and what my father achieved of this intention I have given in the first two sections of Unfinished Tales; but though he set out to remake Gondolin he never reached the city again: after climbing the endless slope of the Orfalch Echor and passing through the long line of heraldic gates he paused with Tuor at the vision of Gondolin amid the plain, and never recrossed Tumladen. The remaking of Turin went much further, but here too he skirted the imaginative focus of Nargothrond.

The founding of Nargothrond.

I shall discuss first the 'background' history, which centres on the complex question of the founding of Nargothrond. In the Tale (I I. 81 -- 2) Nargothrond is not named, and is represented by the Caves of the Rodothlim; as in the poem, Orodreth was the chief of these Gnomes, but he was then an isolated figure, and not yet associated in kinship with other princes. Nothing is said there of the origin of the redoubt, but that it was imagined to have arisen (like Gondolin) after the Battle of Unnumbered Tears is, I think, certain, since in the earliest phase of the legends, as I remarked in commenting on Cilfanon's Tale (I. 242), the entire later history of the long years of the Siege of Angband, ending with the Battle of Sudden Flame (Dagor Bragollach), of the passage of Men over the Mountains into Beleriand and their taking service with the Noldorin Kings, had yet to emerge; indeed these outlines give the effect of only a brief time elapsing between the coming of the Noldoli from Kor and their great defeat [in the Battle of: Unnumbered Tears].

In the poem, this idea is still clearly present in lines 1542-- 4: the secret halls

of Nargothrond by the Gnomes builded

that death and thraldom in the dreadful throes of Nirnaith Ornoth, a number scanty,

escaped unscathed.

Against this passage my father wrote ' Not so', and this comment obviously means 'Nargothrond was not founded after the Battle of Unnumbered Tears', as is further shown by his note to lines 1710 -- 11: (to Nargothrond)

that Celegorm and Curufin, the crafty sons

of Feanor founded when they fled southward

against which he wrote: 'before Nirnaith Unoth'. When, then, was it founded? The 'Sketch of the Mythology', certainly later than the poem (the background of which it was written to explain), already in its earliest form knows of the Leaguer of Angband and of Morgoth's breaking of the: Leaguer -- though described in the barest possible way, without any reference to the battle that ended it; and it is said there that at that time

'Gnomes and Ilkorins and Men are scattered... Celegorm and Curufin found the realm of Nargothrond on the banks of Narog in the south of the Northern lands.' The 'Sketch' (again, in its earliest, unrevised, form) also states that Celegorm and Curufin despatched a host from Nargothrond to the Battle of Unnumbered Tears, that this host joined with that of Maidros and Maglor, but 'arrived too late for the main battle'.

'They are beaten back and driven into the South-east, where they long time dwelt, and did not go back to Nargothrond. There Orodreth ruled the remnant.'

The problem is to explain how it comes about in the earlier story, as found in the poem (Nargothrond founded by Celegorm and Curufin after the Battle of Unnumbered Tears), that Celegorm and Curufin are no longer there when Turin comes, and Orodreth is king. Why do they live now lurking... in the forests of the East with their five brothers (1713-14)?

The only explanation that I can put forward is as follows. When my father wrote lines 1542--4 his view was that Nargothrond was founded after the Battle of Unnumbered Tears (this is quite explicit). But when he wrote lines 1710 -- 15

(to Nargothrond)

that Celegorm and Curufin, the crafty sons

of Feanor founded when they fled southward;

there built a bulwark against Bauglir's hate, 1710

who live now lurking in league secret

with those five others in the forests of the East fell unflinching foes of Morgoth1715

the later story was already present. (There would be nothing uncharacteristic about this; in the Lay of Leithian the story changes from one Canto to the next.) Thus when they fled southward refers to the flight of Celegorm and Curufin from the battle that ended the Leaguer of Angband; they live now lurking... in the forests of the East refers to the period after the Battle of Unnumbered Tears, when 'they did not go back to Nargothrond' and 'Orodreth ruled the remnant', as stated in the

'Sketch'.* On this view, my father's note against lines 1710 -- 11('before Nirnaith Unoth') was mistaken -- he took the lines to refer to the old story (as 1542 -- 4 certainly do), whereas in fact they refer to the later. This explanation may seem far-fetched, but it is less so than the demonstrably correct solutions to other puzzles in the history of 'The Silmarillion', and I see no other way out of the difficulty. -- The two additional lines to follow 1715:

that home came never to their halls of old

since the field of tears was fought and lost

refer (I think) to Celegorm and Curufin, and reinforce the reference to the later story (i.e. that after the Battle of Unnumbered Tears they did not return to Nargothrond).

The change of lines 1710 -- 11 to make the passage read (to Nargothrond)

by Felagund founded flying southward

and the marginal note against 1713 -- 20 'but Nargothrond was founded by Felagund Finrod's son' etc., reflect of course a further stage, though a stage that came in soon after the 'Sketch' was first written. The essential shifts in the history of Nargothrond to this point are certainly thus: (1) Orodreth ruled the Rodothlim in their caves, first inhabited after the Battle of Unnumbered Tears.

(2) Celegorm and Curufin founded Nargothrond after the Battle of Unnumbered Tears.

Celegorm and Curufin founded Nargothrond after the breaking of the Leaguer of Angband; they went with a host to the Battle of Unnumbered Tears and did not return, but remained in the East; Orodreth ruled the remnant of the Gnomes of Nargothrond.

Felagund son of Finrod and his brothers Angrod, Egnor, and (* Cf. lines 1873 -- 4:

Has the watch then waned in the woods of Narog since Orodreth ruled this realm and folk? )

Orodreth founded Nargothrond after the breaking of the Leaguer of Angband; Celegorm and Curufin dwelt there.

Another sign of development in the history and genealogy of the Gnomish princes is the mention of Finweg, later emended in the B-text to Fingon, who fell in flame of swords at the Battle of Unnumbered Tears (1975). Finweg has appeared early in the poem (line 29), but there as a spelling or form of Finwe (Noleme), founder of the line; this Finweg appears in the 'Sketch', as originally written, as the son of Fingolfin.

The Sons of Feanor have previously all been named only in the Tale of the Nauglafring (II. 241); now (1716 ff.), with Cranthir (emended from Cranthor in B), and Diriel for earlier Dinithel (?Durithel), they reach the forms they long retained. Characteristic epithets appear: Maglor is 'swift', Cranthir 'dark', and Curufin's 'craftiness', already appearing in the Tale of the Nauglafring, extends here to Celegorm.

Maidros' wielding his sword with his left hand is mentioned, which clearly implies that the story that Morgorth had him hung from a cliff by his right hand, and that Finweg (> Fingon) rescued him, was already present, as it is in the 'Sketch'. His torment and maiming was mentioned in the outlines for Gilfanon's Tale (I. 238, 240), but not described.

To turn now to the foreground narrative of this part of the poem. The poem advances on the Tale by mentioning the disposal of Beleg's sword, not mentioned in the Tale; but here Flinding hides it in the hollow of a tree (1342), and it plays no further part in the story. If the poem had gone further Turin would have received his black sword in Nargothrond in gift from Orodreth, as happens in the Tale (II. 83). In the Tale it is said that Turin 'had not wielded a sword since the slaying of Beleg, but rather had he been contented with a mighty club', in the poem this reappears with the implication made explicit (2155 -- 6): dared never a blade since the doom of Beleg

to draw or handle.

The burial of Beleg now appears, with his great bow beside him (1399 ff.), and Turin's kiss survives from the Tale; that the mark of his grief over the death of Beleg (called the third of his sorrows, 1421) never left his face was an enduring feature of the legend.

Geography.

In the Tale (II. 80 -- 1) very little is made of the journey of Flinding and Turin from the place of Beleg's death to Nargothrond: by the light of Flinding's lamp they 'fared by night and hid by day and were lost in the hills, and the Orcs found them not'. In the poem, on the other hand, the journey is quite fully described, and contains some noteworthy features; moreover there is nothing in the description that contradicts the earliest

'Silmarillion' map (to be given in the next volume), which dates from this period and may have been made originally in association with this poem.

The wanderers pass at midnight by the Mound of Slain, looming up under the moon at the furthest end/of Dor-na-Fauglith's dusty spaces (1439 -- 40); this feature does not recur again in the story of Turin.

The only previous reference to the great burial-mound is in the outlines for Cilfanon's Tale, where it is called the Hill of Death, and was raised by the Sons of Feanor (I. 241). It is said in the poem that Turin despite his heavy listlessness turned his hand/ toward Thangorodrim at Flinding's words concerning the Mound, and cursed Morgoth thrice -- as did Feanor in the hour of his death after the Battle-under-Stars (The Silmarillion p. 107); the one was doubtless the precursor of the other.

The inviolability of the Mound now appears (1450 -- 2).

Turin and Flinding now crossed Sirion not far from his source in the Shadowy Mountains, where the river was fordable (1457 ff.); this is the first reference to Sirion's Well. Sirion's great journey to the Sea is described, with references to his passage underground (1467; cf. II. 195, 217) and through lands beloved of Ylmir (Ulmo). The travellers then find themselves in Nan Dungorthin, which was mentioned in the Tale of Tinuviel (see II. 35, 62 -- 3): Huan found Beren and Tinuviel after their escape from Angband in 'that northward region of Artanor that was called afterward Nan Dumgorthin, the land of the dark idols', 'even then a dark land and gloomy and foreboding, and dread wandered beneath its lowering trees'. My father hesitated long about the placing of this land: in the Gnomish dictionary it was east of Artanor (II. 62), in the Tale of Tinuviel a 'northward region of Artanor', while here it is west of Sirion, in a valley of the southern slopes of the Shadowy Mountains. In the earliest 'Silmarillion' map Nan Dungorthin was first likewise placed west of Sirion (west of the Isle of Werewolves), before being returned once more to the region north of Doriath, where it remained.

It is said that when Turin and Flinding climbed out of the vale of Nan Dungorthin they southward sam the slopes of Hithlum/more warm and friendly (1496 -- 7). At first sight this seems difficult to understand, but I think that the meaning is: they were indeed on the slopes of Hithlum at the time (i.e. below the southern faces of the Shadowy Mountains that fenced Hithlum), but looking southward (actually southwestward) they saw more agreeable regions further along the foothills, towards Ivrin. This is the first appearance of Ivrin, source of the Narog, and it is seen very clearly. The line (1537) giving the meaning of Narog (Gnomish, 'torrent') was struck out, but this (I think) was because my father felt that it was intrusive, not that the etymology was rejected. In this connection it may be mentioned that in a list of Old English equivalents of Elvish names, composed some years after the time of the present poem and associated with AElfwine's translations of Elvish texts into his own language, occur Narog: Hlyda and Nargothrond: Hlydingaburg. Hlyda was the name in Old English of March ('the noisy month of wind', cf. the Quenya name Sulime' and the Sindarin name .

Greaeron); related words are hlud (Modern English loud), hlyd

'sound', hlydan 'make a sound'. The meaning is here undoubtedly 'the loud one'; it lies behind the English stream-name Lydbrook.

Following the course of the Narog southward from Ivrin, the travellers gained the gorge where Ginglith turns

all glad and golden to greet the Narog.

There her gentler torrent joins his tumult,

and they glide together on the guarded plain

to the Hunters' Hills that high to southward

uprear their rocks robed in verdure.(1736 -- 41) A little earlier Flinding has described to Turin how Narog, passing Nargothrond, 'thence skirted wild the Hills of the Hunters, the home of Beren and the Dancer of Doriath' (1544-- 6). In these verses are the first appearances of the river Ginglith, the Guarded Plain, and the Hills of the Hunters (all shown on the earliest map), though the hills themselves are described without being named in the Tale, II. 96. On the map Nargothrond is shown near the northern extremity of the Hills of the Hunters, which extend far to the southward, falling down to the coast of the Sea west of Sirion's mouths. Various things are said of these hills. In the Tale they are 'high and tree-grown', in the poem they uprear their rocks robed in verdure; in The Silmarillion (p. 122), where they are called Taur-en-Faroth or the High Faroth, they are 'great wooded highlands', in the Narn (p. 116) they are 'brown and bare'. In the poem they are also called the Hunters' Wold (1816), the Wold of Hunters (1992), where the word is probably used in the old sense of 'forest, wooded uplands'. If we judge by my father's unfinished watercolour of the Doors of Nargothrond, painted in all probability in 1928 (see Pictures by J. R. R. Tolkien no. 33), he saw the hills as great rocky heights standing up from thick forest on their lower slopes. At line 1746 the Wards of Narog look out from their treegirt towers on the tall hilltops; these watchtowers were in the north of the Hills of the Hunters and looking northwards (1743-5), and it may not be casual therefore that on the earliest map the northern end (only) of the hills are shown as heavily forested.