Morgoth's Ring (55 page)

$11 [see AAm $123] Then suddenly Feanor rose, and lifting up his hand before Manwe he cursed Melkor, naming him Morgoth, the Black Foe of the world.* And he cursed also the summons of Manwe and the hour in which he came to Taniquetil, thinking in the madness of his grief that had he been at Formenos, his strength would have availed more than to be slain also, as Morgoth had purposed. Then with a cry he ran from the Ring of Doom and fled into the night, distraught; for his father was dearer to him than the Light of Valinor or the peerless works of his hands: and who among sons, of Elves or of Men, have held their fathers of greater worth?

(* [footnote to the text] By that name only was he known to the Eldar ever after. (In the ancient form used by Feanor it was Moring-otho.) [Cf. the note added in LQ to QS $60 (p. 194), where the ancient form is Moringotto.])

$12 [see AAm $124] After him Maedros and his brethren went in haste, dismayed, for they had not known that he was present when Maedros spoke; and now they feared that he might slay himself. All those who saw Feanor's anguish grieved for him and forgave all his bitterness. But his loss was not his alone. Yavanna wept even as Nienna, in dread lest the Darkness should now swallow the last rays of the Light of Valinor for ever. For though the Valar did not yet understand fully what had befallen, they perceived that Melkor had called upon some aid that came from beyond Arda.

The Silmarils had passed away, and all one it may seem whether Feanor had said yea or nay to Yavanna. Yet, had he said yea at the first, and so cleansed his heart ere the dreadful tidings came, his after-deeds would have been other than they proved. But now the doom of the Noldor drew near.

OF THE THIEVES' QUARREL.

$13 Meanwhile, it is told, Morgoth escaping from the pursuit of the Valar came to the wastes of Araman. This land lay northward between the Mountains of the Pelori and the Great Sea, as Avathar lay to the south. But Araman was a wider land, and between the shores and the mountains were long and dreary plains without hindrance to passage, but bleak, and ever colder as the Ice drew nearer.

$14 Through this dim land Morgoth and Ungoliant passed in haste, and so through the great mists of Oiomure came to the Helkaraxe, where the strait between Araman and Middle-earth was filled with grinding ice; and they crossed over and came back at last to the North of the Outer World. Together they went on, for Morgoth could not elude Ungoliant, and her cloud was still about him, and all her eyes were upon him. But when they had come to that region that was after called Lammoth, north of the Firth of Drengist, Morgoth grew more hopeful, for they were drawing near to the ruins of Angband where his great western stronghold had been. But Ungoliant perceived his mood and guessed that he would soon try to escape and defraud her, if he could. Therefore she stayed him, and demanded that he should now fulfill his promise.

$15 'Black-heart!' she said (calling him 'Master' no longer).

'I have done your bidding. But I hunger still.'

'What wouldst thou have more?' said Morgoth. 'All the world for thy belly? I did not vow to give thee that. I am its Lord.'

'Not so much,' said she. 'But there was a great treasury, of which you said naught to me, and would have said naught even now, if I had not watched you. I will have all that. Yea, with both hands you shall give it!'

'Thou hast had the half already,' said Morgoth. For when she was with him (against his will) at the sack of Formenos, he had let her feast awhile upon the gems of Feanor, so that she should not come to the chamber of iron.

'I hunger,' she said. 'I will have the other half!'

Then perforce Morgoth surrendered to her the gems that he bore with him, one by one and grudgingly; and she devoured them, and their beauty perished from the world. Then her strength was renewed, but her lust unsated.

'With one hand you give,' she said, 'with the left only. Open your right hand!'

$16 In his right hand Morgoth held close the Silmarils that he had taken from the chamber of iron; and though they were locked in a crystal casket, they had begun to burn him, and his hand was clenched in pain. But he would not open it. 'Nay!' he said. 'These things thou shalt not have, nor see. I name them unto myself for ever. Thou hast had already more than thy due.

For with my power that I put into thee thy work was accomplished. I need thee no more. Go, filth! Gnaw thy lust in some hole far away, or I will put a fire in thy maw that shall burn thee for ever! '

$17 But Ungoliant was not daunted. She had grown great, and he less by the power that had gone out of him. Now she rose against him, and her cloud closed about him, and she cast upon him a hideous web of clinging thongs to strangle him.

Then Morgoth sent forth a terrible cry that echoed in the mountains. Therefore that region was called Lammoth,* for the echoes of his voice dwelt there ever after, so that any who cried aloud in that land awoke them, and all the waste between the hills and the sea was filled with a clamour as of voices in anguish.

$18 But the cry of Morgoth in that hour was the greatest and most dreadful that was ever heard in the northern world: the mountains shook, and the earth trembled, and rocks were (* [footnote to the text] The Great Echo.)

riven asunder. Deep in forgotten places that cry was heard. Far beneath the halls of Angband, in vaults to which the Valar in the haste of their assault had not descended, the Balrogs lurked still, awaiting ever the return of their lord. Swiftly they arose, and they passed with winged speed over Hithlum, and they came to Lammoth as a tempest of fire.

$19 Then Ungoliant quailed, and she turned to flight, belching black vapours to cover her; but the Balrogs pursued her with whips of flame into the Mountains of Shadow,* until Morgoth recalled them. Then her webs were shorn asunder, and Morgoth was released, and he returned to Angband.

$20 But Ungoliant went into Beleriand, and there dwelt for a time beneath the Eryd Orgoroth [> Gorgoroth], in the dark valley that was after called Nan Dungorthebf + because of the horror that she bred there. But when she had healed her hurts as best she could, and had spawned there a foul brood, she passed away. For there were other evil creatures of spider-form that had dwelt there since the days of the delving of Angband; and she mated with them and devoured them. But whither she went after no tale tells. It is said that she ended long ago, when in her uttermost famine she devoured herself at last.

$21 Thus ended the Thieves' Quarrel; and the fear of Yavanna that the Silmarils would be swallowed up and fall into nothingness did not come to pass. But they remained in the power of Morgoth.

The new version ends here in the typescript; but among the pages of very rough draft material there is the following abandoned passage that continues the narrative for a short distance: Now Morgoth, having achieved his malice against Valinor, and escaped from bondage, gathered again all his servants that he could find; and through all the North ran the news that he had returned. From near and far, from the ruins of Utumno, and from deep dales and shadows under the mountains and from all dark and hidden places they crept back to him.

Then swiftly they began to delve anew the vast vaults of Angband and to uplift its pillared halls of stone amid smoke and fire, and above them were reared the reeking towers of Thangorodrim.

(* [footnote to the text] Eryd Wethrin on the borders of Beleriand.) (+ [footnote to the text] The Valley of Dreadful Death.) the Sun was first made after the death of the Trees (described in a chapter omitted).' The significance of this will appear in Part Five.

Note on Dating.

It is convenient to collect here the evidence, such as it is, bearing on the date of this late rewriting, and the texts associated with it.

I have mentioned that in a letter of December 1957 my father told Rayner Unwin that it was his intention to 'get copies made of all copyable material', with a view to 'remoulding' The Silmarillion; and I have suggested that the amanuensis typescript LQ 2 of The Silmarillion and that of the Annals of Aman, which were made on the same typewriter and probably belong to the same time, may therefore be tentatively ascribed to about 1958 (see pp. 141 - 2).

If this dating is accepted for the moment, then the annals inserted into the manuscript of AAm concerning the death of Miriel, the

'Doom of Manwe concerning the espousals of the Eldar', and the marriage of Finwe to Indis must have preceded 1958 or belong to that year, since they appear in the typescript of AAm as typed (p. 101 notes 1 and 4, p. 127, $120); while the rider FM 1 to LQ concerning Finwe and Miriel is certainly contemporary with the AAm insertions (p. 205). The story of Finwe and Miriel in the manuscript (A) of Laws and Customs among the Eldar certainly followed FM 1, but the two texts were probably close in time (p. 233). It is thus notable that in the letter written by my father in October 1958 (see pp. 267, 270) this story and its implications were in the forefront of his mind.

The second text of the story of Finwe and Miriel (FM 2, p. 254) intended for inclusion in The Silmarillion very probably preceded the typescript (B) of Laws and Customs among the Eldar, since this latter was typed on a new typewriter with a rather distinctive typeface. Also typed on this machine were the Valaquenta and the texts of the late rewriting of Chapter 6( - 7). The first letter of my father's that I know of to be typed on the new typewriter is dated January 1959.

There is no actual proof of date in any of this, of course, but taken together it points clearly, I think, to the late 1950s as the time when the story of Finwe and Miriel arose and Laws and Customs among the Eldar was written. Further evidence is provided by the Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth (see pp. 304, 360).

PART FOUR.

ATHRABETH

FINROD

AH

ANDRETH.

ATHRABETH FINROD AH ANDRETH.

While this very remarkable and hitherto unknown work, 'The Debate of Finrod and Andreth', is set at a later time in the history of the Elder Days than is otherwise reached in this book, it should clearly be given here on account of its association, both in date and content, with the writings and revisions of the 'Second Phase' of the post-Lord of the Rings history of The Silmarillion. I have thought it best to let it stand as a separate Part in this book rather than include it with the miscellaneous writings in Part Five, since unlike those it is a major and finished work, and is referred to elsewhere as if it had for my father some 'authority'.

The textual situation, so far as the actual narrative of the 'Debate' is concerned, is simple. There is one manuscript ('A'), very similar in style and appearance to that of Laws and Customs among the Eldar, and like it clear and fluent - although in this case there are some pages of drafting extant, with clear indications that others existed (see pp. 350 ff.). There are also two amanuensis typescripts, taken independently from the manuscript after all emendation had been made to it.

One of these ('B'), probably the first to be made, is of slight value: it has many errors, and was looked through very cursorily by my father with scarcely any emendation. The other ('C'), extant also in a carbon copy, is a better text though not without errors; this he read more carefully and introduced a number of minor changes, but missed some errors through not checking it against the manuscript. The text printed here is therefore established from the manuscript, taking up emendations made to the typescripts.

Neither of the typescripts of the Athrabeth has any title; both begin with the words 'Now it chanced that on a time of spring...' (p. 307).

The manuscript, on the other hand, bears the title Of Death and the Children of Eru, and the Marring of Men (with another title or sub-title added later, The Converse of Finrod and Andreth), and two pages of introductory text precede the sentence with which the typescripts open. This introduction to the 'Converse' was in fact the continuation of an essay which my father removed and let stand separately: see pp. 424 ff., where this work, entitled Aman, is given.

This introductory section was subsequently typed by my father, with a carbon copy, on the new typewriter (see p. 300), and attached to the beginning of the copies of the amanuensis typescript C. It has no title or heading. In typing it he substantially recast it; but the actual matter of the manuscript version was largely retained, so that only a few differences need be noted (see pp. 305 - 6).

As to the date of the work: that it was written after the completion of the manuscript of Laws and Customs among the Eldar is seen from my father's comments on the latter, 'But see full treatment of this later in Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth' and 'But see Athrabeth' (pp. 251 - 2).