The War of the Jewels (24 page)

$142. In AB 2 the birth of Morwen was in 445. When the date was changed in GA to 443 the entry was moved.

$144. Tuor has not previously been given the title of 'the Blessed'.

$$145-7. In AB 2 (V.131 - 2) the Battle of Sudden Fire, recorded in the annal for 455, 'began suddenly on a night of mid-winter'; but the passage beginning 'Fingolfin and Fingon marched to the aid of Felagund' has a new date, 456. I suggested (V.150) that this was because the Battle of Sudden Fire began at midwinter of the year 455, i.e. at the end of the year. In GA, on the other hand, it is expressly stated ($145) that the assault out of Angband came 'at the year's beginning', 'on the night of mid-winter'; thus the new year began at the mark of mid-winter, and the battle was dated the first day of the year 455. See commentary on $147.

$145. There are here the first appearances of the names Dagor Bragollach (for Dagor Vreged-ur in QS, earlier Dagor Hur-Breged in AB 2) and Anfauglith (for Dor-na-Fauglith).

$147. In QS (V.282, $140) Hador, who was born in 390, is said to have been 'sixty and six years of age' at his death, not as here 65 (see commentary on $$145-7).

$$149-50. This passage, later struck from the manuscript apart from the opening sentence of $149, remained very close to that in AB 2

(V.132) with some influence in its structure from the story as told in QS (V.288), except in one important particular: Hurin's companion was not, as in AB 2 and QS, Haleth the Hunter himself, but Haleth's grandson Handir, born in the same year as Hurin. - The story of Hurin in Gondolin reappears in GA in a long rider to the annal 458

($$ 161-6).

$$151-2. As this passage concerning Turgon's messengers was first written it followed closely that in AB 2 (V.132-3, and cf. the version in QS, V.288); as revised it introduces the ideas of the inability of the Noldor to build seaworthy ships, and of Turgon's nonetheless keeping a secret outpost and place of shipbuilding on the Isle of Balar thereafter.

$153. In the earlier accounts (AB 2 in V.132-3 with notes 25 and 29, and QS $141 and commentary) the story of how Celegorn and Curufin came to Nargothrond after their defeat in the east was shifting and obscure, but there was at any rate no suggestion that they played any part in the defence of Minnas-tirith on Tolsirion.

My father made a note at this time on the AB 2 manuscript, suggesting a possible turn in the story: Celegorn and Curufin were driven west and helped manfully in the siege of Minnas-tirith, saving Orodreth's life: and so when Minnas-tirith was taken Orodreth could not help but harbour them in Nargothrond. He struck this out; but the story was now reintroduced and developed in the Grey Annals.

The date of the capture of Minnas-tirith was changed in the Grey Annals. In AB 2 the date was 457 (following the fall of Fingolfin in 456); so also in QS $143 'For nearly two years the Gnomes still defended the west pass ... and Minnastirith withstood the Orcs', and it was 'after the fall of Fingolfin' that Sauron came against Tolsirion. In GA the present passage, describing the assault on the Pass of Sirion, was first dated 456, but the date was struck out, so that these events fall within the Fell Year, 455; and the fall of Fingolfin follows (still dated 456).

$154. The later form Tol-in-Gaurhoth (for earlier Tol-na-Gaurhoth) now appears.

$$155-7. The story of Fingolfin's death in AB 2 (V.133) had been compressed into a few lines. Introducing a much extended account into the new Annals, my father drew largely upon the story as it had been told in QS ($$144-7 and commentary), with some regard also to Canto XII of the Lay of Leithian (on which the QS version was largely based). In content the differences are mostly small, but there enters here the great ride of Fingolfin across Anfauglith on his horse Rochallor, and the horse's flight from Angband and death in Hithlum. In AB 2 (as in AB 1 and Q) it was Thorondor who built Fingolfin's cairn, whereas in QS it was Turgon (see the commentary on QS $147); now in the Grey Annals the building of the cairn is ascribed to 'the eagles'.

$157. The change of 'the people of the hidden city were all Noldor'

to 'many of the people... were Noldor' depends on the development whereby there were many Elves of Sindarin origin in Gondolin: see commentary on $107 and references given there.

In the late addition at the end of this paragraph (present in the GA typescript) appears the parentage of Gilgalad as adopted in the published Silmarillion; see further pp. 242-3.

$158. The form Taur-nu-Fuin (for earlier Taur-na-Fuin) now appears.

$159. In AB 2 (V.133), and in a closely similar passage in QS ($139), it was said that the wives of Baragund and Belegund were from Hithlum, and that when the Battle of Sudden Fire began their daughters Morwen and Rian were sojourning there among their kinsfolk - hence they were the only survivors. This story is now superseded and rejected: Emeldir Beren's mother led the surviving women and children of Beor's people away over the mountains in the aftermath of the battle, and it was thus that Morwen and Rian came to Dor-lomin (by way of Brethil). It is not made clear whether their mothers were still women of Hithlum.

In AB 2 the full list of Barahir's band was not given, with a suggestion that only certain names were remembered, but it appears in QS ($139). The only name that differs in GA is Arthad for Arthod. Radhruin of QS is here written Radhruin (Radruin by emendation of Radros in AB 2, V.147 note 31), but this may not be significant.

$160. This paragraph derives from the annal for 458 in AB 2 (V.133).

In the story as told in QS ($152) Beleg came to the aid of Haleth

'with many archers'; cf. GA $29, 'Thingol's armouries were stored with axes (the chief weapons of the Naugrim, and of the Sindar)', and the name 'Axe-elves' of the Sindar (transferred from the Nandor), X.171. On the name Eglath ('The Forsaken') see X.85, 164, 170.

$161. Huor now at last appears as Hurin's companion in Gondolin, replacing Handir grandson of Haleth in the earlier, rejected passage in GA ($ 149).

Haleth was the kinsman of Hurin and Huor (as noticed in a late addition to the manuscript) through the marriage in 436 ($140) of Haleth's son Hundor to Glorwendil, daughter of Hador and sister of their father Galion. But the genealogy was further developed in the annal for 462 (see $171 and commentary) by the marriage of Galion to Haleth's daughter, so that Haleth was the grandfather of Hurin and Huor; and it seems very probable that this was the reason for the addition of the words 'their kinsman' here.

The story now becomes decisively different from the old version in AB 2 and QS, and still present in GA as originally written ($149); for Hurin and his companion (now his brother Huor) were not hunting in the Vale of Sirion before the Battle of Sudden Flame, but the fact of the fostering of Hurin (and now of his brother also) among the people of Haleth is brought into association with the defeat of the Orcs in 458 by the men of Brethil, aided by Elves out of Doriath, three years after the battle. There enters now also the story that Hurin and Huor were taken to Gondolin by the Eagles. - On the ford of Brithiach see p. 228, $28.

$$162-6. The story now reaches virtually its final form, with the major innovation of Maeglin's hostility to the young men but also of their being permitted to leave Gondolin despite the king's ban, here first stated in its full rigour, on departure from the city of any stranger who came there; and this permission was granted because of their ignorance of how it might be found. (The riders on the story of Isfin and Eol, $$118-20, were written at the same time as the present one.)

$165. On the change of Glindur to Maeglin see $119 and commentary.

$166. On the carbon copy of the typescript of GA my father wrote against the words 'But though they told that they had dwelt a while in honour in the halls of King Turgon': 'They did not reveal Turgon's name.' See p. 169.

$170. 'The army that had driven into East Beleriand' must refer to the invasions of the year 455: cf. AB 2, annal 456; QS $142; and again in GA $148, in all of which the phrase 'far into East Beleriand'

occurs. In AB 2, in the renewed assaults of the year 462 (V.134), 'the invasion of the Orcs encompassed Doriath, both west down Sirion, and east through the passes beyond Himling.' Of this there is no mention here in GA (nor in QS, $156); but there has also been no mention before the present passage of Thingol's victory after the Dagor Bragollach or indeed of the subsequent total destruction (as it appears) of the eastern invading force.

$171. The statement that 'in the eastward war [Morgoth] hoped ere long to have new help unforeseen by the Eldar' is a premonitory reference to the coming of the Swarthy Men; cf. QS $150, where, immediately before their entry into Beleriand, it is said that Morgoth 'sent his messengers east over the mountains', and that

'some were already secretly under the dominion of Morgoth, and came at his call'. In GA ($174, footnote) it is said that 'it was after thought that the people of Ulfang were already secretly in the service of Morgoth ere they came to Beleriand.' See further $$79 - 81 and commentary.

Of the assault on Hithlum no more was said in AB 2 (V.134) than that 'Morgoth went against Hithlum, but was driven back as yet'; in QS ($156) it was Fingon, not Hurin, who 'drove [the Orcs] in the end with heavy slaughter from the land, and pursued them far across the sands of Fauglith.'

At the end of the paragraph, by later addition, is the first reference to the short stature of Hurin, and also to the 'double marriage' of Hador's son Galion and daughter Glorwendil to Haleth's daughter (unnamed) and son Hundor. It seems likely that this extension of the genealogy arose here, and was the basis of the addition of 'their kinsman' to the annal for 458 discussed in the commentary on $ 161.

$172. In QS ($156) there seems only to have been an assault on Hithlum from the east, from Fauglith, for it is said that 'the Orcs won many of the passes, and some came even into Mithrim'. In the present annal it seems that Galion and his son Hurin defeated the attack from the east, while Fingon attempted to defend Hithlum from the north (the intervention of Cirdan is of course entirely new).

On the puzzling question of the geographical configuration of the north of Hithlum see V.270-1 (and cf. what is said in GA of the route of the attack out of Angband in the year 155, $115 and commentary). The present passage does not clarify the matter, though the statement that the horsed archers of the Eldar pursued the Orcs 'even to the Iron Mountains' possibly suggests that Hithlum was to some degree open to the north. This would indeed be very surprising, since it would make Hithlum by far the most vulnerable of the territories of the Eldar, and Morgoth would have had little need to attempt to break through the vast natural defence of the Shadowy Mountains. But this is the merest speculation, and I know of no other evidence bearing on the matter.

$$173-4. New elements in this account of the Easterlings (cf. AB 2, V.134, and QS $151) are the explicit statement that they did not enter Beleriand over the Blue Mountains but passed to the north of them; the warning of the Dwarves to Maidros concerning their westward movement; the diversity of their tongues and their mutual hostility; their dwellings in Lothlann and south of the March of Maidros (in QS it is said only that they 'abode long in East Beleriand', $152). The form Lothlann appears for earlier Lothland; Lothlann (Lhothlann) is found in the Etymologies (stems LAD, LUS, V.367, 370).

$174. On the first sentence of the footnote to this paragraph see the commentary on $171. With the following remarks in the footnote concerning the descendants of the people of Bor in Eriador in the Second Age cf. QS chapter 16, $15 (V.310-11): 'From that day

[Nirnaith Arnediad] the hearts of the Elves were estranged from Men, save only from those of the Three Houses, the peoples of Hador, and Beor, and Haleth; for the sons of Bor, Boromir, Borlas, and Borthandos, who alone among the Easterlings proved true at need, all perished in that battle, and they left no heirs.' This suggests that the people of Bor ceased to be of any account after 472; but it is perhaps to be presumed in any case that these Men of Eriador were a branch of that people who never entered Beleriand.

$$175-210. I have described in V.295 how, after The Lord of the Rings was finished, my father began (on the blank verso pages of the manuscript of AB 2) a prose 'saga' of Beren and Luthien, conceived on a large scale and closely following the revised Lay of Leithian; but this went no further than Dairon's betrayal to Thingol of Beren's presence in Doriath. Unless this work belongs to a time after the abandonment of the Grey Annals, which seems to me very improbable, the two versions of the tale that appear here in the Annals are the last of the many that my father wrote (for a full account of the complex history of the QS versions and drafts see V.292 ff.).

It will be seen that Version I is a precis of the narrative with no new elements, or elements inconsistent with the 'received tradition', apart from the reference to Amarie (see commentary on $180).