The War of the Jewels (23 page)

$107. The revision at the end of the annal for 67 depends on the later story that the population of Gondolin was by no means exclusively Noldorin, and is similar to those made to the final version of the

'linguistic excursus' (see p. 26 and notes 9 and 10), a consequence of the rejection of the old conception that in Gondolin, and in Gondolin only, which was peopled by Noldor and cut off from intercourse with all others, the Noldorin tongue survived in daily use; see $113 and commentary.

$$108-9. The content of this annal, extended from the opening sentence recording the completion of Nargothrond (AB 2, V.129), is also entirely new. For the earlier story that Felagund did have a wife, and that their son was Gilgalad, see pp. 242-3.

$110. According to the chronology of the Grey Annals Turgon left Nivrost in the year 64 ($88), and thus the figure here of fifty years is an error for fifty-two. The error was repeated, but corrected, at the beginning of the revised annal for 116. Possibly my father had reverted in a momentary forgetfulness to the original dating, when the years were 52 and 102 (V.127, 129). See the commentary on $111.

$111. The change in the opening sentence of the new annal for 116

depends on the revised annal for 64 ($89), whereby Turgon did not definitively leave Vinyamar in that year but began the building of Gondolin. The erroneous fifty years, corrected to fifty-two, since the start of the work was presumably merely picked up from the rejected annal (see under $110).

$$111-12. Entirely new is the appearance of Ulmo to Turgon at Vinyamar on the eve of his departure, his warning, his prophecy, and his instruction to Turgon to leave arms in his house for one to find in later days (cf. II.208, where I suggested that the germ of this was already present in the original tale of The Fall of Gondolin -

'Thy coming was set in our books of wisdom'). But Ulmo's foretelling that Gondolin should stand longest against Morgoth goes back through Q (IV.136-7) to the Sketch of the Mythology (IV.34).

$113. The later story that there were many Sindar among Turgon's people has led to various changes already met in the text of GA: see the commentary on $107. - The reversion to the old form wethion in Eryd Wethion is curious (see commentary on $44).

At the foot of the page carrying the revised annal for 116 is the following rapidly pencilled note:

Set this rather in the Silmarillion and substitute a short notice:

'In this year as is said in the Quenta Gondolin was fully wrought, and Turgon arose and went thither with all his people, and Nivrost was emptied of folk and so remained. But the march of Turgon was hidden by the power of Ulmo, and none even of his kin in Hithlum knew whither he had gone.

Against this my father wrote 'Neglect this'; but since a new chapter was inserted into the Quenta Silmarillion which was largely based on the present rider (see pp. 198 - 9) this was presumably an instruction that was itself neglected.

$114. The date of this annal was first written 154, which was the revised date of the meeting of Cranthir's people with the Dwarves in the Blue Mountains in AB 2 (V.129, and cf. QS $125). The passage describing the relations of Cranthir's folk with the Dwarves is new.

It was stated in AB 2 (V.129 - 30) thar the old Dwarf-road into Beleriand had become disused since the return of the Noldor, and in a late rewriting of that passage (precursor of the present annal) it is said:

But after the coming of the Noldor the Dwarves came seldom any more by their old roads into Beleriand (until the power of Maidros fell in the Fourth Battle [i.e. the Dagor Bragollach in 455]), and all their traffic passed through the hands of Cranthir, and thus he won great riches.

The meaning is therefore that after the meeting of Cranthir's people with the Dwarves their renewed commerce with the Elves passed for three hundred years over the mountains much further north, into the northern parts of Thargelion about Lake Helevorn.

$115. The route of the Orc-army that departed from Angband 'into the white north' remains unchanged from AB 2 (V.130); cf. the account in QS $103, and my discussion of the geography in V.270-1.

$116. Glaurung here appears for earlier Glomund, together with Uruloki 'fire-serpents': cf. the original tale of Turambar and the Foaloke in The Book of Lost Tales (and 'this loke (for so do the Eldar name the worms of Melko)', II.85).

In QS $104 it was not said that Morgoth was 'ill pleased' that the dragon 'had disclosed himself over soon', but on the contrary that Glomund issued from Angband 'by the command of Morgoth; for he was unwilling, being yet young and but half-grown.'

The content of the latter part of the annal has no antecedent in the old versions. I take the words 'the Noldor of purer race' to mean those Noldor who had no or little intermingling of Dark-elven character, with perhaps the implication that they were more faithful to their ancient nature as it had evolved in Aman.

$$117-20. The story, or rather the existence of a story, about Isfin and Eol goes back to the beginning, and I shall briefly rehearse here what can be learnt of it before this time.

In the original tale of The Fall of Gondolin (II.165, 168) Isfin appears as Turgon's sister, and there is a reference to the 'tale of Isfin and Eol', which 'may not here be told'. Meglin was their son.

In the fragmentary poem The Lay of the Fall of Gondolin Fingolfin's wife and daughter (Isfin) were seeking for him when Isfin was captured by Eol 'in Doriath's forest'; and Isfin sent Meglin her son to Gondolin (III.146).

In the Sketch of the Mythology (IV.34-5) Isfin was lost in Taur-na-Fuin after the Battle of Unnumbered Tears and entrapped by Eol; Isfin sent Meglin to Gondolin (which at that stage was not founded until after the Battle of Unnumbered Tears).

In Q (IV.136), similarly, Isfin was lost in Taur-na-Fuin after the Battle of Unnumbered Tears, and captured by Eol; in addition, it is said that 'he was of gloomy mood, and had deserted the hosts ere the battle'. It is subsequently said (IV.140) that Isfin and Meglin came together to Gondolin at a time when Eol was lost in Taur-na-Fuin.

In AB 1 (IV.301), in the year 171 (the year before the Battle of Unnumbered Tears), it is told that Isfin strayed out of Gondolin and was taken to wife by Eol. [An error in the printed text of AB 1 here may be mentioned: 'Isfin daughter of Turgon' for 'Isfin sister of Turgon'.] In 192 'Meglin comes to Gondolin and is received by Turgon as his sister's child', without mention of Isfin. This was repeated in AB 2 (V.136, 139), with changed dates (271, 292, later

> 471, 492), but now it is expressly stated that Meglin was sent to Gondolin by Isfin, and that he went alone (thus reverting to the story in the Sketch of the Mythology).

QS has no mention of the story.

$117. In GA as originally written the loss of Isfin is still placed in the

'year (471) before the Battle of Unnumbered Tears, but the motive is introduced that she left Gondolin in weariness of the city and wishing to see her brother Fingon; and she was lost in Brethil and entrapped by Eol, who had lived there 'since the first finding of Beleriand' - which must mean that he withdrew into secrecy and solitude when the Elves of the Great March first entered Beleriand.

The implication of the last words, 'took no part in all the deeds of his kin', is not explained.

$118. In the replacement annal 316 something more is suggested of Eol's nature, and the element enters that disregarding Turgon's bidding Isfin went eastwards from Gondolin, seeking 'the land of Celegorm and his brethren, her friends of old in Valinor'. A description of Isfin on a page from an engagement calendar dated October 1951 (and so belonging to the same time as the new annals in GA discussed here) was attached to the account of the princes of the Noldor in QS (see X.177, 182), and in this account it is said that in Valinor Isfin 'loved much to ride on horse and to hunt in the forests, and there was often in the company of her kinsmen, the sons of Feanor'. It is further told in the new annal for 316 that she became separated from her escort in Nan Dungorthin and came to Nan Elmoth, where Eol's dwelling is now placed. She now leaves Gondolin long before the Battle of Unnumbered Tears.

$119. The name Fingol is not in fact written with a capital, but is preceded by an altered letter that I cannot interpret (it might possibly be intended as an 0). As the annal was written Glindur (replacing the primitive and long-enduring name Meglin) was primarily the name of the metal devised by Eol, and with the later change of Glindur to Maeglin this remained true of the name Maeglin.

$120. The story now reverts to that told in Q (IV.140): Isfin and Glindur (Maeglin) came together to Gondolin; and the essential features of the final drama now appear. The original text (see pp.

316 ff.) of the fully told story of Isfin and Eol and their son (Chapter 16 in the published Silmarillion, Of Maeglin) belongs to this period, and indeed it was already in existence when these new annals were written: they are a very condensed resume. (For the rejected annal of which this is a replacement see $273 and commentary.) $121. The date of Beor's birth remains unchanged from that in AB 2

(as revised: 170 > 370, V.130), as do the dates of the following annals.

$122-3. The statements in the annals for 388 and 390 that Haleth and Hador were born in Eriador were not made in AB 2.

$124. The reference to the Quenta is to QS $$126 ff. - Against the first sentence of this annal my father afterwards pencilled an X, with a scribbled note: 'This is too late. It should be the date of the invitation of the [?Sires] of Men to come west'. This was struck through, apart from the first four words: these are the first indication of major changes in the chronology that would enter at a later time.

$125. This annal is substantially extended from that in AB 2, where no more was said than 'there was war on the East Marches, and Beor was there with Felagund'.

$127. Galion replaces Gumlin of QS $127 (and AB 2 as early revised, V.146 note 20: originally in this text the names of the sons of Hador were in the reverse positions, Gundor being the elder). Later, the name Galion was replaced by Galdor. The change to 'in Eriador'

was probably made for this reason: Hador entered Beleriand in 420; thus Gallion was born while his father was somewhere in Eriador, in 417, but by the time of Gundor's birth in 419 Hador was already in the eastern foothills of the Blue Mountains ($128).

$129. The first paragraph of the annal for 420 is close to that in AB 2

(V.130-1), with some additions: that Brethil had never before been inhabited on account of the density of the forest, that Hador was the more ready to settle in Hithlum 'being come of a northland people', and that his lands in Hithlum were 'in the country of Dor-Lomin'.

In the margin against this last my father later scribbled: '[427 >]

423 Hador's folk come to Dor-lomin', but struck this out; see $136. and commentary. The old view that the people of Hador abandoned their own language in Hithlum is retained (see V.149, annal 220).

$$130-2. The content of the latter part of the annal for 420 and the opening of that for 422 is wholly new: Thingol's dreams concerning Men before they appeared, his ban on their settlement save in the North and on the entry of any Man (even of Beor's house) into Doriath, Melian's prophecy to Galadriel, and Thingol's permission to the people of Haleth to dwell in Brethil, despite his hostility to Men in general and his edict against their taking land so far south.

$133. This passage follows closely the annal in AB 2 (V.131), but with the interesting addition that the people of Hador would go far into the cold North to keep watch.

$135. With the notable sentence (not in AB 2) 'For the Noldor indeed were tall as are in the latter days men of great might and majesty' cf.

the collected references to the relative stature of Men and Elves in the oldest writings, II.326. In the early texts it was said more than once that the first Men were smaller than their descendants, while the Elves were taller, and thus the two races were almost of a size; but the present passage is not clear in this respect.

As the last sentence but one of the paragraph was originally written it read: 'Yellowhaired they were and blue-eyed (not so was Turin but his mother was of Beor's house) and their women were tall and fair.' The words 'for the most part' were added; they had appeared in a closely similar passage in QS chapter 10 (V.276, $130).

$136. That Hador's folk were given lands in Dor-lomin was mentioned in the annal for 420, to which my father added afterwards, but then struck out, '[427 >] 423 Hador's folk come to Dorlomin' (commentary on $129). The implication is presumably that for a few years they dwelt in some other part of Beleriand.

$139. Beren's mother Emeldir 'Manhearted' is not named in the earlier texts.