Ecthelion ‘was that lord of the house of the Fountain, who had the fairest voice and was most skilled in musics of all the Gondothlim. He won renown for ever by his slaying of Gothmog son of Melko, whereby Tuor was saved from death but Ecthelion was drowned with his foe in the king’s fountain.’
Egalmoth was ‘lord of the house of the Heavenly Arch, and got even out of the burning of Gondolin, and dwelt after at the mouth of Sirion, but was slain in a dire battle there when Melko seized Elwing’.
(See p. 258.)
Galdor ‘was that valiant Gnome who led the men of the Tree in many a charge and yet won out of Gondolin and even the onslaught of Melko upon the dwellers at Sirion’s mouth and went back to the ruins with Eärendel. He dwelleth yet in Tol Eressëa (said Elfriniel), and still do some of his folk name themselves Nos Galdon, for Galdon is a tree, and thereto Galdor’s name akin.’ The last phrase was emended to read: ‘Nos nan Alwen, for Alwen is a Tree.’
(For Galdor’s return to the ruins of Gondolin with Eärendel see p. 258.)
Glingol ‘meaneth “singing-gold” (’tis said), and this name was that which the Gondothlim had for that other of the two unfading trees in the king’s square which bore golden bloom. It also was a shoot from the trees of Valinor (see rather where Elfrith has spoken of Bansil), but of Lindeloktë (which is “singing-cluster”) or Laurelin [emended from Lindelaurë] (which is “singing-gold”) which lit all Valinor with golden light for half the 24 hours.’
(For the name Lindeloktë see I.22, 258 (entry Lindelos).)
Glorfindel ‘led the Golden Flower and was the best beloved of the Gondothlim, save it be Ecthelion, but who shall choose. Yet he was hapless and fell slaying a Balrog in the great fight in Cristhorn. His name meaneth Goldtress for his hair was golden, and the name of his house in Noldorissa Los’lóriol’ (emended from Los Glóriol).
Gondolin ‘meaneth stone of song (whereby figuratively the Gnomes meant stone that was carven and wrought to great beauty), and this was the name most usual of the Seven Names they gave to their city of secret refuge from Melko in those days before the release.’
Gothmog ‘was a son of Melko and the ogress Fluithuin and his name is Strife-and-hatred, and he was Captain of the Balrogs and lord of Melko’s hosts ere fair Ecthelion slew him at the taking of Gondolin. The Eldar named him Kosmoko or Kosomok(o), but ’tis a name that fitteth their tongue no way and has an ill sound even in our own rougher speech, said Elfrith [emended from Elfriniel].’
(In a list of names of the Valar associated with the tale of The Coming of the Valar (I.93) it is said that Melko had a son ‘by Ulbandi’ called Kosomot; the early ‘Qenya’ dictionary gives Kosomoko = Gnomish Gothmog, I.258. In the tale Gothmog is called the ‘marshal’ of the hosts of Melko (p. 184).)
In the later development of the legends Gothmog was the slayer of Fëanor, and in the Battle of Unnumbered Tears it was he who slew Fingon and captured Húrin (The Silmarillion pp. 107, 193, 195). He is not of course called later ‘son of Melkor’ the ‘Children of the Valar’ was a feature of the earlier mythology that my father discarded.
In the Third Age Gothmog was the name of the lieutenant of Minas Morgul (The Return of the King V.6).)
Hendor ‘was a house-carle of Idril’s and was aged, but bore Eärendel down the secret passage.’
Idril ‘was that most fair daughter of the king of Gondolin whom Tuor loved when she was but a little maid, and who bare him Eärendel. Her the Elves name Irildë; and we speak of as Idril Tal-Celeb or Idril of the Silver Feet, but they Irildë Taltelepta.’
See the Appendix on Names, entry Idril.
Indor ‘was the name of the father of Tuor’s father, wherefore did the Gnomes name Eärendel Gon Indor and the Elves Indorildo or Indorion.’
Legolas ‘or Green-leaf was a man of the Tree, who led the exiles over Tumladin in the dark, being night-sighted, and he liveth still in Tol Eressëa named by the Eldar there Laiqalassë; but the book of Rúmil saith further hereon.’
(See I.267, entry Tári-Laisi.)
§ 3 Miscellaneous Matters
(i) The geography of The Fall of Gondolin
I have noticed above (p. 205) that in Tuor’s journey all along the coast of what was afterwards Beleriand to the mouths of Sirion there is an unquestionable resemblance to the later map, in the trend of the coast from north-south to east-west. It is also said that after he left Falasquil ‘the distant hills marched ever nearer to the margin of the sea’, and that the spurs of the Iron Mountains ‘run even to the sea’ (pp. 152–3). These statements can likewise be readily enough related to the map, where the long western extension of the Mountains of Shadow (Ered Wethrin), forming the southern border of Nevrast, reached the sea at Vinyamar (for the equation of the Mountains of Iron and the Mountains of Shadow see I. 111–12).
Arlisgion, ‘the place of reeds’ (p. 153) above the mouths of Sirion, survived in Lisgardh ‘the land of reeds at the Mouths of Sirion’ in the later Tuor (p. 34); and the feature that the great river passed underground for a part of its course goes back to the earliest period, as does that of the Meres of Twilight, Aelin-uial (‘the Pools of Twilight’, p. 195). There is here however a substantial difference in the tale from The Silmarillion (p. 122), where Aelin-uial was the region of great pools and marshes where ‘the flood of Sirion was stayed’ south of the Meres the river ‘fell from the north in a mighty fall…and then he plunged suddenly underground into great tunnels that the weight of his falling waters delved’. Here on the other hand the Pools of Twilight are clearly below the ‘cavern of the Tumultuous Winds’ (never mentioned later) where Sirion dives underground. But the Land of Willows, below the region of Sirion’s underground passage, is placed as it was to remain.
Thus the view I expressed (p. 141) of the geographical indications in the Tale of Turambar can be asserted also of those of The Fall of Gondolin.
(ii) Ulmo and the other Valar in The Fall of Gondolin
In the speech of Tuor inspired by Ulmo that he uttered at his first meeting with Turgon (p. 161) he said: ‘the hearts of the Valar are angered…seeing the sorrow of the thraldom of the Noldoli and the wanderings of Men.’ This is greatly at variance with what is told in The Hiding of Valinor, especially the following (I.208–9):*
The most of the Valar moreover were fain of their ancient ease and desired only peace, wishing neither rumour of Melko and his violence nor murmur of the restless Gnomes to come ever again among them to disturb their happiness; and for such reasons they also clamoured for the concealment of the land. Not the least among these were Vána and Nessa, albeit most even of the great Gods were of one mind. In vain did Ulmo of his foreknowing plead before them for pity and pardon on the Noldoli…
Subsequently Tuor said (p. 161): ‘the Gods sit in Valinor, though their mirth is minished for sorrow and fear of Melko, and they hide their land and weave about it inaccessible magic that no evil come to its shores.’ Turgon in his reply ironically echoed and altered the words: ‘they that sit within [i.e. in Valinor] reck little of the dread of Melko or the sorrow of the world, but hide their land and weave about it inaccessible magic, that no tidings of evil come ever to their ears.’
How is this to be understood? Was this Ulmo’s ‘diplomacy’? Certainly Turgon’s understanding of the motives of the Valar chimes better with what is said of them in The Hiding of Valinor.
But the Gnomes of Gondolin reverenced the Valar. There were ‘pomps of the Ainur’ (p. 165); a great square of the city and its highest point was Gar Ainion, the Place of the Gods, where weddings were celebrated (pp. 164, 186); and the people of the Hammer of Wrath ‘reverenced Aulë the Smith more than all other Ainur’ (p. 174).
Of particular interest is the passage (p. 165) in which a reason is given for Ulmo’s choice of a Man as the agent of his designs: ‘Now Melko was not much afraid of the race of Men in those days of his great power, and for this reason did Ulmo work through one of this kindred for the better deceiving of Melko, seeing that no Valar and scarce
any of the Eldar or Noldoli might stir unmarked of his vigilance.’ This is the only place where a reason is expressly offered, save for an isolated early note, where two reasons are given:
(1) ‘the wrath of the Gods’ (i.e. against the Gnomes);
(2) ‘Melko did not fear Men—had he thought that any messengers were getting to Valinor he would have redoubled his vigilance and evil and hidden the Gnomes away utterly.’
But this is too oblique to be helpful.
The conception of ‘the luck of the Gods’ occurs again in this tale (pp. 188, 200 note 32), as it does in the Tale of Turambar: see p. 141. The Ainur ‘put it into Tuor’s heart’ to climb the cliff out of the ravine of Golden Cleft for the saving of his life (p. 151).
Very strange is the passage concerning the birth of Eärendel (p. 165): ‘In these days came to pass the fulfilment of the time of the desire of the Valar and the hope of the Eldalië, for in great love Idril bore to Tuor a son and he was called Eärendel.’ Is it to be understood that the union of Elf and mortal Man, and the birth of their offspring, was ‘the desire of the Valar’—that the Valar foresaw it, or hoped for it, as the fulfilment of a design of Ilúvatar from which great good should come? There is no hint or suggestion of such an idea elsewhere.
(iii) Orcs
There is a noteworthy remark in the tale (p. 159) concerning the origin of the Orcs (or Orqui as they were called in Tuor A, and in Tuor B as first written): ‘all that race were bred of the subterranean heats and slime.’ There is no trace yet of the later view that ‘naught that had life of its own, nor the semblance of life, could ever Melkor make since his rebellion in the Ainulindalë before the Beginning’, or that the Orcs were derived from enslaved Quendi after the Awakening (The Silmarillion p. 50). Conceivably there is a first hint of this idea of their origin in the words of the tale in the same passage: ‘unless it be that certain of the Noldoli were twisted to the evil of Melko and mingled among these Orcs’, although of course this is as it stands quite distinct from the idea that the Orcs were actually bred from Elves.
Here also occurs the name Glamhoth of the Orcs, a name that reappears in the later Tuor (pp. 39 and 54 note 18).
On Balrogs and Dragons in The Fall of Gondolin see pp. 212–13.
(iv) Noldorin in the Land of Willows
‘Did not even after the days of Tuor Noldorin and his Eldar come there seeking for Dor Lómin and the hidden river and the caverns of the Gnomes’ imprisonment; yet thus nigh to their quest’s end were like to abandon it? Indeed sleeping and dancing here…they were whelmed by the goblins sped by Melko from the Hills of Iron and Noldorin made bare escape thence’ (p. 154). This was the Battle of Tasarinan, mentioned in the Tale of Turambar (pp. 70, 140), at the time of the great expedition of the Elves from Kôr. Cf. Lindo’s remark in The Cottage of Lost Play (I.16) that his father Valwë ‘went with Noldorin to find the Gnomes’.
Noldorin (Salmar, companion of Ulmo) is also said in the tale to have fought beside Tulkas at the Pools of Twilight against Melko himself, though his name was struck out (p. 195 and note 38); this was after the Battle of Tasarinan. On these battles see pp. 278ff.
(v) The stature of Elves and Men
The passage concerning Tuor’s stature on p. 159, before it was rewritten (see note 18), can only mean that while Tuor was not himself unusually tall for a Man he was nonetheless taller than the Elves of Gondolin, and thus agrees with statements made in the Tale of Turambar (see p. 142). As emended, however, the meaning is rather that Men and Elves were not greatly distinct in stature.
(vi) Isfin and Eöl
The earliest version of this tale is found in the little Lost Tales notebook (see I. 171), as follows:
Isfin and Eöl
Isfin daughter of Fingolma loved from afar by Eöl (Arval) of the Mole-kin of the Gnomes. He is strong and in favour with Fingolma and with the Sons of Fëanor (to whom he is akin) because he is a leader of the Miners and searches after hidden jewels, but he is illfavoured and Isfin loathes him.
(Fingolma as a name for Finwë Nólemë appears in outlines for Gilfanon’s Tale, I.238–9.) We have here an illfavoured miner named Eöl ‘of the Mole’ who loves Isfin but is rejected by her with loathing; and this is obviously closely parallel to the illfavoured miner Meglin with the sign of the sable mole seeking the hand of idril, who rejects him, in The Fall of Gondolin. It is difficult to know how to interpret this. The simplest explanation is that the story adumbrated in the little notebook is actually earlier than that in The Fall of Gondolin; that Meglin did not yet exist; and that subsequently the image of the ‘ugly miner—unsuccessful suitor’ became that of the son, the object of desire becoming Idril (niece of Isfin), while a new story was developed for the father, Eöl the dark Elf of the forest who ensnared Isfin. But it is by no means clear where Eöl the miner was when he ‘loved from afar’ Isfin daughter of Fingolma. There seems to be no reason to think that he was associated with Gondolin; more probably the idea of the miner bearing the sign of the Mole entered Gondolin with Meglin.
IV
THE NAUGLAFRING
We come now to the last of the original Lost Tales to be given consecutive narrative form. This is contained in a separate notebook, and it bears the title The Nauglafring: The Necklace of the Dwarves.
The beginning of this tale is somewhat puzzling. Before the telling of The Fall of Gondolin Lindo told Littleheart that ‘it is the desire of all that you tell us the tales of Tuor and of Eärendel as soon as may be’ (p. 144), and Littleheart replied: ‘It is a mighty tale, and seven times shall folk fare to the Tale-fire ere it be rightly told; and so twined is it with those stories of the Nauglafring and of the Elf-march that I would fain have aid in that telling of Ailios here…’ Thus Littleheart’s surrender of the chair of the tale-teller to Ailios at the beginning of the present text, so that Ailios should tell of the Nauglafring, fits the general context well; but we should not expect the new tale to be introduced with the words ‘But after a while silence fell’, since The Fall of Gondolin ends ‘And no one in all the Room of Logs spake or moved for a great while.’ In any case, after the very long Fall of Gondolin the next tale would surely have waited till the following evening.
This tale is once again a manuscript in ink over a wholly erased original in pencil, but only so far as the words ‘sate his greed’ on page 230. From this point to the end there is only a primary manuscript in pencil in the first stage of composition, written in haste—in places hurled on to the page, with a good many words not certainly decipherable; and a part of this was extensively rewritten while the tale was still in progress (see note 13).
The Nauglafring
The Necklace of the Dwarves
But after a while silence fell, and folk murmured ‘Eärendel’, but others said ‘Nay—what of the Nauglafring, the Necklace of the Dwarves.’ Therefore said Ilfiniol, leaving the chair of the tale-teller: ‘Yea, better would the tale be told if Ailios would relate the matters concerning that necklace,’ and Ailios being nowise unwilling thus began, looking upon the company.
‘Remember ye all how Úrin the Steadfast cast the gold of Glorund before the feet of Tinwelint, and after would not touch it again, but went in sorrow back to Hisilómë, and there died?’ And all said that that tale was still fresh in their hearts.
‘Behold then,’ said Ailios, ‘in great grief gazed the king upon Úrin as he left the hall, and he was weary for the evil of Melko that thus deceived all hearts; yet tells the tale that so potent were the spells that Mîm the fatherless had woven about that hoard that, even as it lay upon the floor of the king’s halls shining strangely in the light of the torches that burnt there, already were all who looked upon it touched by its subtle evil.
Now therefore did those of Úrin’s band murmur, and one said to the king: “Lo, lord, our captain Úrin, an old man and mad, has departed, but we have no mind to forego our gain.”
Then said Tinwelint, for neither was he untouched by the golden spell: “Nay then, know ye not that t
his gold belongs to the kindred of the Elves in common, for the Rodothlim who won it from the earth long time ago are no more, and no one has especial claim1 to so much as a handful save only Úrin by reason of his son Túrin, who slew the Worm, the robber of the Elves; yet Túrin is dead and Úrin will have none of it; and Túrin was my man.”
At those words the outlaws fell into great wrath, until the king said: “Get ye now gone, and seek not O foolish ones to quarrel with the Elves of the forest, lest death or the dread enchantments of Valinor find you in the woods. Neither revile ye the name of Tinwelint their king, for I will reward you richly enough for your travail and the bringing of the gold. Let each one now approach and take what he may grasp with either hand, and then depart in peace.”
Now were the Elves of the wood in turn displeased, who long had stood nigh gazing on the gold; but the wild folk did as they were bid, and yet more, for some went into the hoard twice and thrice, and angry cries were raised in that hall. Then would the woodland Elves hinder them of their thieving, and a great dissension arose, so that though the king would stay them none heeded him. Then did those outlaws being fierce and fearless folk draw swords and deal blows about them, so that soon there was a great fight even upon the steps of the high-seat of the king. Doughty were those outlaws and great wielders of sword and axe from their warfare with Orcs,2 so that many were slain ere the king, seeing that peace and pardon might no longer be, summoned a host of his warriors, and those outlaws being wildered with the stronger magics of the king3 and confused in the dark ways of the halls of Tinwelint were all slain fighting bitterly; but the king’s hall ran with gore, and the gold that lay before his throne, scattered and spurned by trampling feet, was drenched with blood. Thus did the curse of Mîm the Dwarf begin its course; and yet another sorrow sown by the Noldoli of old in Valinor was come to fruit.4