- 不包括 silm
- 分别高光了 Maglor 和 Elrond 的名字
- 有一部分是 Beren 还叫 Maglor 时期的，一并摘录了
- 手动校对，不保证全对
The Book of Lost Tales (Part 2)
Now fare the long days of Elfinesse unto that time when Tuor dwelt in Gondolin; and children then had Dior the Elf,20 Auredhir and Elwing, and Auredhir was most like to his forefather Beren, and all loved him, yet none so dearly as did Dior; but Elwing the fairy have all poesies named as beautiful as Tinúviel if that indeed may be, yet hard is it to say seeing the great loveliness of the elfin folk of yore. Now those were days of happiness in the vales of Hithlum, for there was peace with Melko and the Dwarves who had but one thought as they plotted against Gondolin, and Angband was full of labour; yet is it to tell that bitterness entered into the hearts of the seven sons of Fëanor, remembering their oath. Now Maidros, whom Melko maimed, was their leader; and he called to his brethren Maglor and Dinithel, and to Damrod, and to Celegorm, to Cranthor and to Curufin the Crafty, and he said to them how it was now known to him that a Silmaril of those their father Fëanor had made was now the pride and glory of Dior of the southern vales, “and Elwing his daughter bears it whitherso she goes—but do you not forget,” said he, “that we swore to have no peace with Melko nor any of his folk, nor with any other of Earth-dwellers that held the Silmarils of Fëanor from us. For what,” said Maidros, “do we suffer exile and wandering and rule over a scant and forgotten folk, if others gather to their hoard the heirlooms that are ours?”
Then went Curufin unto his brethren, and because of their unbreakable oath and of their [?thirst] for that Silmaril (nor indeed was the spell of Mîm and of the dragon wanting) they planned war upon Dior—and the Eldar cry shame upon them for that deed, the first premeditated war of elfin folk upon elfin folk, whose name otherwise were glorious among the Eldalië for their sufferings. Little good came thereby to them; for they fell unawares upon Dior, and Dior and Auredhir were slain, yet behold, Evranin the nurse of Elwing, and Gereth a Gnome, took her unwilling in a flight swift and sudden from those lands, and they bore with them the Nauglafring, so that the sons of Fëanor saw it not; but a host of Dior’s folk, coming with all speed yet late unto the fray, fell suddenly on their rear, and there was a great battle, and Maglor was slain with swords, and Mai….21 died of wounds in the wild, and Celegorm was pierced with a hundred arrows, and Cranthor beside him. Yet in the end were the sons of Fëanor masters of the field of slain, and the brown Elves and the green were scattered over all the lands unhappy, for they would not hearken to Maidros the maimed, nor to Curufin and Damrod who had slain their lord; and it is said that even on the day of that battle of the Elves Melko sought against Gondolin, and the fortunes of the Elves came to their uttermost waning.
The seven Sons of Fëanor, their oath (sworn not in Valinor but after the coming of the Noldoli to the Great Lands), and the maiming of Maidros appear in the outlines for Gilfanon’s Tale; and in the latest of these outlines the Fëanorians are placed in Dor Lómin (= Hisilómë, Hithlum), see I.238, 240, 243. Here, in the Tale of the Nauglafring, appear for the first time the names of the Sons of Fëanor, five of them (Maidros, Maglor , Celegorm, Cranthor, Curufin) in the forms, or almost the forms, they were to retain, and Curufin already with his sobriquet ‘the Crafty’. The names Amrod and Amras in The Silmarillion were a late change; for long these two sons of Fëanor were Damrod (as here) and Díriel (here Dinithel or Durithel, see Changes made to Names, p. 245).
The Lays of Beleriand
Maidros whom Morgoth maimed and tortured is lord and leader, his left wieldeth his sweeping sword; there is swift Maglor , there Damrod and Díriel and dark Cranthir, the seven seekers of their sire’s treasure.
Then his sons beside him, the seven kinsmen, 120 crafty Curufin, Celegorm the fair, Damrod and Díriel and dark Cranthir, Maglor the mighty, and Maidros tall (the eldest, whose ardour yet more eager burnt than his father’s flame, than Fëanor’s wrath; 125 him fate awaited with fell purpose), these leapt with laughter their lord beside, with linkëd hands there lightly took the oath unbreakable; blood thereafter it spilled like a sea and spent the swords 130 of endless armies, nor hath ended yet:
The fixed epithets of certain of the Sons of Fëanor are changed from those in The Children of Húrin (see p. 86): Celegorm is now ‘the fair’ and Maidros ‘the tall’, as they remained; Maglor is ‘the mighty’ (in The Silmarillion ‘the mighty singer’). The line concerning Maidros him fate awaited with fell purpose (126) may show that a form of the story of his end was already in being (in the Tale of the Nauglafring he survived the attack on Dior the Fair but nothing more is told of him), but I think it much more likely that it refers to his capture and maiming by Morgoth.
An extraordinary feature of the A-version is the name Celegorm given to the King of the woodland Elves (Thingol); moreover in the next Canto the rôle of Beren is in A played by Maglor , son of Egnor. The only possible conclusion, strange as it is, is that my father was prepared to abandon Thingol for Celegorm and (even more astonishing) Beren for Maglor . Both Celegorm and Maglor as sons of Fëanor have appeared in the Tale of the Nauglafring and in the Lay of the Children of Húrin.
The name of the king’s daughter in A, Melilot, is also puzzling (and is it the English plant-name, as in Melilot Brandybuck, a guest at Bilbo Baggins’ farewell party?). Already in the second version of The Children of Húrin Lúthien has appeared as the ‘true’ name of Tinúviel (see p. 119, note to 358–66). It is perhaps possible that my father in fact began the Lay of Leithian before he stopped work on The Children of Húrin, in which case Melilot might be the first ‘true’ name of Tinúviel, displaced by Lúthien; but I think that this is extremely unlikely.* In view of Beren > Maglor , I think Lúthien > Melilot far more probable. In any event, Beren and Lúthien soon appear in the original drafts of the Lay of Leithian.
A: Maglor his son and other ten.
A: yet Maglor it was by fortune good who hunting &c. 272 A: till Maglor waking swiftly sought
317, 329 Maglor A, Beren B
360 A: proud Maglor fled the forest fast (fast is used in the sense ‘secure against attack’; cf. fastness).
365 Maglor A, Beren B
There are indeed differences in the plot of the Lay from the story told in The Silmarillion (pp. 162 ff.): thus the house where Gorlim saw the phantom of Eilinel was not in the Lay his own; his treachery was far deeper and more deliberate, in that he sought out the servants of Morgoth with the intention of revealing the hiding-place of the outlaws; and he came before Morgoth himself (not Thû-Sauron). But these differences are much outnumbered by the similarities, such as the absence of Maglor -Beren on the fatal day, the apparition of Gorlim coming to him in dream across the water of the lake, the carrion-birds in the alder-trees, the cairn, the seizing of the ring, his friendship with birds and beasts.
As regards the names in the A-text: Gorlim and Eilinel were to remain. Maglor -Beren has already been discussed (p. 159). Egnor was still his father, as in the Lost Tales (the emendation to Barahir in the second version of the Tale of Tinúviel, II. 43, was a change made casually years later). Bauglir (which entered during the composition of The Children of Húrin, see p. 52) is changed throughout to Morgoth, but this seems not to have been a rejection of the name, since it appears later in the B-text of the Lay, and survives in The Silmarillion.
Indications of geography are sparse, and not increased in the B-text. Taur-na-Fuin has been named earlier in B (line 52), but it is not actually said in the present Canto to be the region where the outlaws lurked, though there is no reason to doubt that this is where my father placed it. Coming southwards Maglor -Beren crossed ‘the Shadowy Mountains cold’ (386). The Shadowy Mountains were named several times in The Children of Húrin, where they are the mountains fencing Hithlum, mirrored in the pools of Ivrin, as they are in The Silmarillion. But it would obviously be impossible for Beren to cross the Shadowy Mountains in this application of the name if he were coming out of Taur-na-Fuin and moving south towards Doriath. In the ‘Sketch of the Mythology’ Beren likewise ‘crosses the Shadowy Mountains and after grievous hardships comes to Doriath’, and similarly in the 1930 version; in this latter, however, ‘Mountains of Shadow’ was emended to ‘Mountains of Terror’. It is then clear that in the Lay of Leithian my father was using ‘Shadowy Mountains’ in a different sense from that in The Children of Húrin, and that the Shadowy Mountains of the present Canto are the first mention of Ered Gorgoroth, the Mountains of Terror, ‘the precipices in which Dorthonion [Taur-nu-Fuin] fell southward’ (The Silmarillion p. 95); but the other meaning reappears (p. 234).
In A Egnor and his son Maglor (Beren) are Men (e.g. Egnor was ‘a lord of Men’, note to line 128). In the first version of The Children of Húrin Beren was still an Elf, while in the second version my father seems to have changed back and forth on this matter (see pp. 124–5). He had not even now, as will appear later, finally settled the question.
and he who harps upon the far forgotten beaches and dark shores where western foam for ever roars, Maglor whose voice is like the sea; and Dairon, mightiest of the three.
509 Maglor A, B; in the rough draft of this passage Ivárë (with Maglor written beside it).
The aberrant names in the first two Cantos of A have now disappeared from the text. In the second Canto my father had already given back the name Celegorm to the son of Fëanor (note to line 304), and now Thingol appears in A; Lúthien replaces Melilot; and Beren replaces Maglor . Morgoth now replaces Bauglir in A (see p. 170).
In both texts Tinúviel is now explicitly the Elvish word for ‘nightingale’ (line 735; see p. 124); and Maglor , again in both texts, is the name of one of the three greatest singers of Elfinesse: he who harps upon the far forgotten beaches and dark shores where western foam for ever roars, Maglor whose voice is like the sea (506–9)
In the rough draft of this passage the name of this minstrel is however Ivárë (though Maglor is written beside it), and Ivárë was named in the Tale of Tinúviel (II. 10), with Tinfang and Dairon, as one of ‘the three most magic players of the Elves’, who ‘plays beside the sea’. This is the first hint of the after-history of Maglor son of Fëanor, who in the Tale of the Nauglafring (II. 241) was slain, as also was Celegorm, in the attack on Dior. The lines in A, omitted in B (note to line 508), are interesting: from England unto Eglamar on rock and dune and sandy bar
Curufin, Celegorm the fair, Damrod and Díriel were there, and Cranthir dark, and Maidros tall 1630 (whom after torment should befall), and Maglor the mighty who like the sea with deep voice sings yet mournfully.
No other player has there been, 45 no other lips or fingers seen so skilled, ’tis said in elven-lore, save Maelor* son of Fëanor, forgotten harper, singer doomed, who young when Laurelin yet bloomed 50 to endless lamentation passed and in the tombless sea was cast.†
*Both Maglor and Maelor appear in the draft manuscripts of this passage. The final typescript has Maelor , changed to Maglor , but not I think by my father.
The Shaping of Middle-Earth
Turlin must have been a passing shift from Tuor (cf. the form Tûr that appears in texts of The Fall of Gondolin, II. 148), and Turgon likewise; in the Tale Turgon is of course the name of the King of Gondolin. This curious passing transference of a primary name in the legends may be compared with the brief substitution of Celegorm for Thingol and Maglor for Beren in the Lay of Leithian (III. 159).
Since the Gnomes or Noldoli afterwards came back into the Great Lands, and these tales deal mostly with them, it may here be said that Lord or King of the Noldoli was Finn. His sons were Fëanor, Fingolfin, and Finrod. Of whom Fëanor was the most skilful, the deepest in lore, Fingolfin the mightiest and most valiant, Finrod the fairest, and the most wisehearted and gentle. The seven sons of Fëanor were Maidros the tall; Maglor a musician and mighty singer whose voice carried far over hill and sea; Curufin the crafty who inherited most of his father’s skill; Celegorm the fair; Cranthir the dark; and Damrod and Díriel who after were great hunters. The sons of Fingolfin were Finweg who was after the king of the Noldoli in the North of the world, and Turgon of Gondolin; and his daughter was Isfin the white. The sons of Finrod were Orodreth, Felagoth, Anrod, and Egnor.
But in these days they were kindred and allies. Before the rising of the Sun and Moon Fëanor and his sons marched into the North and sought for Morgoth. A host of Orcs aroused by the burning ships resisted them and was defeated in the First Battle with such loss that Morgoth pretended to treat with them. Fëanor refused, but he was wounded in the fight by a Balrog chief (Gothmog), and died. Maidros the tall, the elder son, induced the Gnomes to meet Morgoth (with as little intent of faith on his side as on Morgoth’s). Morgoth took Maidros captive and tortured him, and hung him from a rock by his right hand. The six remaining sons of Fëanor ( Maglor , Celegorm, Curufin, Damrod, Díriel, and Cranthir) are encamped about the lake Mithrim in Hisilómë (Hithlum, or Dorlómin, the land of shadows in the North-west), when they hear of the march of Finweg and his men1 who have crossed the Grinding Ice. The Sun rises as they march, their blue and silver banners are unfurled, flowers spring beneath the feet of their armies. The Orcs dismayed at the light retreat to Angband. But there is little love between the two hosts of Gnomes encamped now on opposite shores of Mithrim. Vast smokes and vapours are made and sent forth from Angband, and the smoking top of Thangorodrim (the highest of the Iron Mountains around Morgoth’s fortress) can be seen from far away. The North shakes with the thunder under the earth. Morgoth is forging armouries. Finweg resolves to heal the feud. Alone he goes in search of Maidros. Aided by the vapours, which are now floating down and filling Hithlum, and by the withdrawal of Orcs and Balrogs to Angband, he finds him, but cannot release him.
Maidros forms now a league against Morgoth seeing that he will destroy them all, one by one, if they do not unite. The scattered Ilkorins and Men are gathered together. Curufin and Celegorm despatch a host (but not all they could gather, thus breaking their word) from Nargothrond. The Gnomes of Nargothrond refuse to be led by Finweg, and go in search of the hosts of Maidros and Maglor . Men march up from South and East and West and North. Thingol will not send from Doriath.1 Some say out of selfish policy, others because of the wisdom of Melian and of fate which decreed that Doriath should become the only refuge of the Eldar from Morgoth afterwards. Part was certainly due to the Silmaril, which Thingol now possessed, and which Maidros had demanded with haughty words. The Gnomes of Doriath are allowed2 nonetheless to join the league.
This passage, from Curufin and Celegorm despatch a host, was altered by hastily made changes and additions: Curufin and Celegorm come from their wandering; but Orodreth because of Felagund his brother will not come: Thingol also sends but few of his folk. The Gnomes of Fëanor’s sons refuse to be led by Finweg, and the battle is divided into two hosts, one under Maidros and Maglor , and one under Finweg and Turgon. Men march up from South and East and West and North. Thingol sends but few from Doriath.
But the ‘Nauglafring’3 remains hoarded secretly in Beren’s keeping. When Mandos let Beren return with Lúthien, it was only at the price that Lúthien should become as shortlived as Beren the mortal. Lúthien now fades, even as the Elves in later days faded as Men grew strong and took the goodness of earth (for the Elves needed the light of the Trees). At last she vanished, and Beren was lost, looking in vain for her, and his son Dior ruled after him. Dior re-established Doriath and grew proud, and wore the ‘Nauglafring’, and the fame of the Silmaril went abroad. After vain bargaining the sons of Fëanor made war on him (the second slaying of Elf by Elf) and destroyed him, and took the ‘Nauglafring’. They quarrelled over it, owing to the curse of the gold, until only Maglor was left. But Elwing daughter of Dior was saved and carried away to the mouth of the river Sirion.4
Thorndor King of Eagles removes his eyries to the Northern heights of the encircling mountains and guards them against Orc-spies.2 On the rocky hill, Amon Gwareth, the hill of watching, whose sides they polish to the smoothness of glass, and whose top they level, the great city of Gondolin with gates of steel is built. The plain all about is levelled as flat and smooth as a lawn of clipped grass to the feet of the hills, so that nothing can creep over it unawares. The people of Gondolin grows mighty, and their armouries are filled with weapons. But Turgon does not march to the aid of Nargothrond, or Doriath, and after the slaying of Dior he has no more to do with the son of Fëanor ( Maglor ).3 Finally he closes the vale to all fugitives, and forbids the folk of Gondolin to leave the valley. Gondolin is the only stronghold of the Elves left. Morgoth has not forgotten Turgon, but his search is in vain. Nargothrond is destroyed; Doriath desolate; Húrin’s children dead; and only scattered and fugitive Elves, Gnomes and Ilkorins, left, except such as work in the smithies and mines in great numbers. His triumph is nearly complete.
the son of Fëanor ( Maglor ) > the sons of Fëanor (this goes with the change at the end of §14, note 4).
Tuor growing old2 cannot forbear the call of the sea, and builds Eärámë and sails West with Idril and is heard of no more. Eärendel weds Elwing. The call of the sea is born also in him. He builds Wingelot and wishes to sail in search of his father. Ylmir bids him to sail to Valinor.3 Here follow the marvellous adventures of Wingelot in the seas and isles, and of how Eärendel slew Ungoliant in the South. He returned home and found the Waters of Sirion desolate. The sons of Fëanor learning of the dwelling of Elwing and the Nauglafring had come down on the people of Gondolin. In a battle all the sons of Fëanor save Maidros4 were slain, but the last folk of Gondolin destroyed or forced to go away and join the people of Maidros.5 Elwing cast the Nauglafring into the sea and leapt after it,6 but was changed into a white sea-bird by Ylmir, and flew to seek Eärendel, seeking about all the shores of the world. Their son ( Elrond ) who is half-mortal and half-elfin,7 a child, was saved however by Maidros. When later the Elves return to the West, bound by his mortal half he elects to stay on earth. Through him the blood of Húrin8 (his great-uncle) and of the Elves is yet among Men, and is seen yet in valour and in beauty and in poetry.
4 Maidros > Maidros and Maglor 5 Written in the margin: Maglor sat and sang by the sea in repentance.
Maidros and Maglor 4 submit. The Elves set sail from Lúthien (Britain or England) for Valinor.5 Thence they ever still from time [to time] set sail leaving the world ere they fade. On the last march Maglor says to Maidros that there are two sons of Fëanor now left, and two Silmarils; one is his. He steals it, and flies, but it burns him so that he knows he no longer has a right to it. He wanders in pain over the earth, and casts himself into a pit.6 One Silmaril is now in the sea, and one in the earth.7
4 and Maglor circled in pencil.
7 Added here: Maglor sings now ever in sorrow by the sea.
Lastly, in the story of Dior and the ruin of Doriath as told in S, there are various developments. The son of Dior, Auredhir (II. 240) has disappeared. The ‘vain bargaining’ between Dior and the Sons of Fëanor perhaps refers to the passage in the Tale (II. 241) where Dior asserts that to return the Silmaril the Nauglafring must be broken, and Curufin (the messenger of the Fëanorians) retorts that in that case the Nauglafring must be given to them unbroken. In the Tale Maglor , Díriel, Celegorm, and Cranthir (or the earlier equivalents of their names) were killed in the battle (which there took place in Hithlum, where Dior ruled after his father); but in S, as first written, the story takes a very strange turn, in that the Fëanorians did get their hands on the Nauglafring, but then so quarrelled over it that in the end ‘only Maglor was left’. How the story would have gone in this case is impossible to discern.
In S, the earlier history of Eärendel’s ship-building and shipwrecks in the Fiord of the Mermaid and at Falasquil has, apparently, been abandoned entirely, and Wingelot is his first and only ship; but there remains the motive that Eärendel wishes to seek for his father, whereas Ylmir bids him sail to Valinor (this last being afterwards struck out). His adventures in Wingelot are referred to in S but not otherwise indicated, save for the slaying of Ungoliant ‘in the South’; there is no mention of the Sleeper in the Tower of Pearl. In C the long voyage of Eärendel, accompanied by Voronwë, that finally took them to Kôr, included an encounter with Ungweliantë, though this was after his southern voyage: ‘Driven west. Ungweliantë. Magic Isles. Twilit Isle. Littleheart’s gong awakes the Sleeper in the Tower of Pearl.’ In another outline Eärendel encounters Wirilómë (Gloomweaver) in the South (II. 260). In the account in S he does not on this great voyage come to Kôr, though from it, as in B and C, he returns to ‘the Waters of Sirion’ (the delta) and finds the dwellings there desolate. Now however enters the motive of the last desperate attempt of the Fëanorians to regain the Silmaril of Beren and Lúthien, their descent on the Havens of Sirion, and their destruction. Thus the raid on the Havens has remained, but it is no longer the work of Melko (see II. 258) and is brought into the story of the Oath of Fëanor. As S was first written only Maidros survived; but Maglor was added. (In §14, as written, all the Sons of Fëanor save Maglor were slain at the time of the attack on Dior, though this passage was afterwards struck out. In The Silmarillion Celegorm, Curufin, and Caranthir were slain at that time, and Amrod and Amras (later names of Damrod and Díriel) were slain in the attack on the Havens of Sirion, so that only Maidros and Maglor were left.)
The introduction of Elrond in S is of great interest. He has no brother as yet; and he is saved by Maidros (in The Silmarillion, p. 247, Elrond and Elros were saved by Maglor ). When the Elves return into the West he elects to stay ‘on earth’, being ‘bound by his mortal half’. It is most remarkable that although the idea of a choice of fate for the Half-elven is already present, it takes a curiously different form from that which it was to take afterwards, and which became of great importance in The Lord of the Rings; for afterwards, Elrond , unlike his brother Elros Tar-Minyatur, elected to remain an Elf – yet his later choice derives in part from the earlier conception, for he elected also not to go into the West. In S, to choose his ‘elfin half’ seems to have meant to choose the West; afterwards, it meant to choose Elvish immortality.
In the story of the fate of the Silmarils, Maglor says to Maidros that there are two sons of Fëanor now left, and two Silmarils. Does this imply that the Silmaril of Beren was lost when Elwing cast herself into the sea with the Nauglafring (unlike the later story)? The answer is certainly yes; the story in S is not comprehensible otherwise. Thus when Maglor casts himself (changed to casts the jewel) into the fiery pit, having stolen one of the Silmarils of the Iron Crown from Fionwë, ‘one Silmaril is now in the sea, and one in the earth’. The third was the Silmaril that remained in Fionwë’s keeping; and it was that one that was bound to Eärendel’s brow. We thus have a remarkable stage of transition, in which the Silmarils have at last achieved primary importance, but where the fate of each has not arrived at the final form; and the conclusion, seen to be inevitable once reached, that it was the Silmaril regained by Beren and Lúthien that became the Evening Star, has not been achieved. In S, Eärendel becomes a star before receiving the Silmaril; but originally, as I have said (II. 265), ‘there is no suggestion that the Valar hallowed his ship and set him in the sky, nor that his light was that of the Silmaril’. In this respect also S is transitional, for at the end the later story appears.
In the present version, Eärendel has still not come to his supreme function as the Messenger who spoke before the Powers on behalf of the Two Kindreds, though the birds of Gondolin have been abandoned as the bringers of tidings to Valinor, and Ulmo becomes the sole agent of the final assault on Morgoth out of the West. The voyages of Eärendel have been simplified: he now has the one great voyage–without Voronwë – in Wingelot, in which he slew Ungoliant, and the second voyage, with Voronwë, which takes him to Kôr – and the desertion of Kôr (Tûn) still depends on the March of the Eldar, which has already taken place when he comes there. His voyage into the sky is now achieved by the wings of birds; and the Silmaril still plays no part in his becoming a star, for the Silmaril of Beren and Lúthien was drowned with the Nauglafring at the Mouths of Sirion. But the Silmarils at last become central to the final acts of the mythological drama, and – unlike the later story – only one of the two Silmarils that remained in the Iron Crown is made away with by a son of Fëanor ( Maglor ); the second is given to Eärendel by the Gods, and the later story is visible at the end of S, where his boat ‘is drawn over Valinor to the Outer Seas’ and launched into the Outer Dark, where he sails with the Silmaril on his brow, keeping watch on Morgoth.
Since the Noldoli afterwards came back into the Great8 Lands, and these tales tell mostly of them, here may be said, using the names in form of Gnomish tongue as it long was spoken on the earth, that King of the Gnomes was Finn.9 His sons were Fëanor, Fingolfin, and Finrod. Of these Fëanor was the most skilful, the deepest in lore of all his race; Fingolfin the mightiest and most valiant; Finrod the fairest and most wise of heart. The seven sons of Fëanor were Maidros the tall; Maglor , a musician and mighty singer whose voice carried far over hill and sea; Celegorm the fair, Curufin the crafty, the heir of well nigh all his father’s skill, and Cranthir the dark; and last Damrod and Díriel, who after were great hunters in the world, though not more than Celegorm the fair, the friend of Oromë. The sons of Fingolfin were Finweg,10 who was after king of the Gnomes in the North of the world, and Turgon of Gondolin; and his daughter was Isfin the White. The sons of Finrod were Felagund, Orodreth, Angrod, and Egnor.
Of their wanderings and despair, and of the healing of Beren, who ever since has been called Beren Ermabwed the One-handed, of their rescue by Huan, who had vanished suddenly from them ere they came to Angband, and of their coming to Doriath once more, here there is little to tell.11 But in Doriath many things had befallen. Ever things had gone ill there since Lúthien fled away. Grief had fallen on all the people and silence on their songs when their hunting found her not. Long was the search, and in searching Dairon the piper of Doriath was lost, who loved Lúthien before Beren came to Doriath. He was the greatest of the musicians of the Elves, save Maglor son of Fëanor, and Tinfang Warble.12 But he came never back to Doriath and strayed into the East of the world.13
12 save Maglor son of Fëanor, and Tinfang Warble > and Maglor son of Fëanor and Tinfang Gelion alone are named with him.
The dwelling of Elwing at Sirion’s mouth, where still she possessed the Nauglafring and the glorious Silmaril, became known to the sons of Fëanor; and they gathered together from their wandering hunting-paths. But the folk of Sirion would not yield that jewel which Beren had won and Lúthien had worn, and for which fair Dior had been slain. And so befell the last and cruellest slaying of Elf by Elf, the third woe achieved by the accursed oath; for the sons of Fëanor came down upon the exiles of Gondolin and the remnant of Doriath, and though some of their folk stood aside and some few rebelled and were slain upon the other part aiding Elwing against their own lords, yet they won the day. Damrod was slain and Díriel, and Maidros and Maglor alone now remained of the Seven; but the last of the folk of Gondolin were destroyed or forced to depart and join them to the people of Maidros. And yet the sons of Fëanor gained not the Silmaril; for Elwing cast the Nauglafring into the sea, whence it shall not return until the End; and she leapt herself into the waves, and took the form of a white sea-bird, and flew away lamenting and seeking for Eärendel about all the shores of the world.
Upon the havens of Sirion new woe had fallen. The dwelling of Elwing there, where still she possessed the Nauglafring8 and the glorious Silmaril, became known unto the remaining sons of Fëanor, Maidros and Maglor and Damrod and Díriel; and they gathered together from their wandering hunting-paths, and messages of friendship and yet stern demand they sent unto Sirion. But Elwing and the folk of Sirion would not yield that jewel which Beren had won and Lúthien had worn, and for which Dior the Fair was slain; and least of all while Eärendel their lord was in the sea, for them seemed that in that jewel lay the gift of bliss and healing that had come upon their houses and their ships.
And so came in the end to pass the last and cruellest of the slayings of Elf by Elf; and that was the third of the great wrongs achieved by the accursed oath. For the sons of Fëanor came down upon the exiles of Gondolin and the remnant of Doriath and destroyed them. Though some of their folk stood aside, and some few rebelled and were slain upon the other part aiding Elwing against their own lords (for such was the sorrow and confusion of the hearts of Elfinesse in those days), yet Maidros and Maglor won the day. Alone they now remained of the sons of Fëanor, for in that battle Damrod and Díriel were slain; but the folk of Sirion perished or fled away, or departed of need to join the people of Maidros, who claimed now the lordship of all the Elves of the Outer Lands. And yet Maidros gained not the Silmaril, for Elwing seeing that all was lost and her child Elrond 9 taken captive, eluded the host of Maidros, and with the Nauglafring upon her breast she cast herself into the sea, and perished as folk thought.
Eärendel was their guide; but the Gods would not suffer him to return again, and he built him a white tower upon the confines of the outer world in the Northern regions of the Sundering Seas; and there all the sea-birds of the earth at times repaired. And often was Elwing in the form and likeness of a bird; and she devised wings for the ship of Eärendel, and it was lifted even into the oceans of the air. Marvellous and magical was that ship, a starlit flower in the sky, bearing a wavering and holy flame; and the folk of earth beheld it from afar and wondered, and looked up from despair, saying surely a Silmaril is in the sky, a new star is risen in the West. Maidros said unto Maglor :20 ‘If that be the Silmaril that riseth by some power divine out of the sea into which we saw it fall, then let us be glad, that its glory is seen now by many.’ Thus hope arose and a promise of betterment; but Morgoth was filled with doubt.
10 This passage was rewritten thus: But great was the sorrow of Eärendel and Elwing for the ruin of the havens of Sirion, and the captivity of their sons; and they feared that they would be slain. But it was not so. For Maglor took pity on Elros and Elrond , and he cherished them, and love grew after between them, as little might be thought; but Maglor ’s heart was sick and weary, &c.
This passage, from the beginning of the paragraph, was extensively rewritten: In those days the ship of Eärendel was drawn by the Gods beyond the edge of the world, and it was lifted even into the oceans of the air. Marvellous and magical was that ship, a starlit flower in the sky, bearing a wavering and holy flame; and the folk of Earth beheld it from afar and wondered, and looked up from despair, saying surely a Silmaril is in the sky, a new star is risen in the West. But Elwing mourned for Eärendel yet found him never again, and they are sundered till the world endeth. Therefore she built a white tower upon the confines of the outer world in the Northern regions of the Sundering Seas; and there all the seabirds of the earth at times repaired. And Elwing devised wings for herself, and desired to fly to Eärendel’s ship. But [?she fell back]……………… But when the flame of it appeared on high Maglor said unto Maidros:
But Maidros would not obey the call, preparing to fulfil even yet the obligation of his oath, though with weary loathing and despair. For he would have given battle for the Silmarils, if they were withheld from him, though he should stand alone in all the world save for Maglor his brother alone. And he sent unto Fionwë and bade him yield up those jewels which of old Morgoth stole from Fëanor. But Fionwë said that the right that Fëanor and his sons had in that which they had made, had perished, because of the many and evil deeds they had wrought blinded by their oath, and most of all the slaying of Dior and the assault upon Elwing. To Valinor must Maidros and Maglor return and abide the judgement of the Gods, by whose decree alone would he yield the jewels to any keeping other than his own.
Maidros was minded to submit, for he was sad at heart, and he said: ‘The oath decrees not that we shall not bide our time, and maybe in Valinor all shall be forgiven and forgot, and we shall be vouchsafed our own.’ But Maglor said that if once they returned and the favour of the Gods was not granted them, then would their oath still remain, and be fulfilled in despair yet greater; ‘and who can tell to what dreadful end we shall come if we disobey the Powers in their own land, or purpose ever to bring war into their Guarded Realm again?’ And so came it that Maidros and Maglor crept into the camps of Fionwë, and laid hands on the Silmarils; and they took to their weapons when they were discovered. But the sons of the Valar arose in wrath and prevented them, and took Maidros prisoner; and yet Maglor eluded them and escaped.
It is told too of Maglor that he fled far, but he too could not endure the pain with which the Silmaril tormented him; and in an agony he cast it from him into a yawning gap filled with fire, in the rending of the Western lands, and the jewel vanished into the bosom of the Earth. But Maglor came never back among the folk of Elfinesse, but wandered singing in pain and in regret beside the sea.
But Fionwë marched through the Western lands summoning the remnants of the Gnomes, and the Dark-elves that had yet not looked on Valinor, to join with the thralls released and to depart. But Maidros would not harken, and he prepared, though with weary loathing and despair, to perform even yet the obligation of his oath. For Maidros and Maglor would have given battle for the Silmarils, were they withheld, even against the victorious host of Valinor, and though they stood alone in all the world. And they sent unto Fionwë and bade him yield now up those jewels which of old Morgoth stole from Fëanor. But Fionwë said that the right to the work of their hands which Fëanor and his sons had formerly possessed now had perished, because of their many and evil deeds blinded by their oath, and most of all the slaying of Dior and the assault upon Elwing; the light of the Silmarils should go now to the Gods whence it came, and to Valinor must Maidros and Maglor return and there abide the judgement of the Gods, by whose decree alone would Fionwë yield the jewels from his charge. Maglor was minded to submit, for he was sad at heart, and he said: ‘The oath says not that we may not bide our time, and maybe in Valinor all shall be forgiven and forgot, and we shall come into our own.’ But Maidros said that if once they returned and the favour of the Gods were withheld from them, then would their oath still remain, to be fulfilled in despair yet greater; ‘and who can tell to what dreadful doom we shall come, if we disobey the Powers in their own land, or purpose ever to bring war again into their Guarded Realm?’ And so it came that Maidros and Maglor crept into the camps of Fionwë, and laid hands on the Silmarils, and slew the guards; and there they prepared to defend themselves to the death. But Fionwë stayed his folk; and the brethren departed and fled far away.
Each took a single Silmaril, saying that one was lost unto them and two remained, and but two brethren. But the jewel burned the hand of Maidros in pain unbearable (and he had but one hand as has before been told); and he perceived that it was as Fionwë had said, and that his right thereto had become void, and that the oath was vain. And being in anguish and despair he cast himself into a gaping chasm filled with fire, and so ended; and his Silmaril was taken into the bosom of the Earth. And it is told also of Maglor that he could not bear the pain with which the Silmaril tormented him; and he cast it at last into the sea, and thereafter wandered ever upon the shore singing in pain and regret beside the waves; for Maglor was the mightiest of the singers of old, but he came never back among the folk of Elfinesse.
Yet not all would forsake the Outer Lands where they had long suffered and long dwelt; and some lingered many an age in the West and North, and especially in the western isles and the lands of Leithien. And among these were Maglor as has been told; and with him Elrond the Half-elfin,8 who after went among mortal Men again, and from whom alone the blood of the elder race9 and the seed divine of Valinor have come among Mankind (for he was son of Elwing, daughter of Dior, son of Lúthien, child of Thingol and Melian; and Eärendel his sire was son of Idril Celebrindal, the fair maid of Gondolin). But ever as the ages drew on and the Elf-folk faded on the Earth, they would still set sail at eve from our Western shores; as still they do, when now there linger few anywhere of their lonely companies.
But there are also many changes of a less structural character in Q II, as: Eärendel’s earlier voyages about the shores of the Outer Lands before he built Wingelot; his warning dreams to return in haste to the Mouths of Sirion, which in the event he never came back to, being intercepted by the coming of Elwing as a seabird and her tidings of what had happened there in his absence – hence the disappearance of Bronweg from the story; the healing power of the Silmaril on the people of Sirion (see p. 190); the great light of the Silmaril as Wingelot approached Valinor, and the suggestion that it was the power of the jewel that brought the ship through the enchantments and the shadows; Eärendel’s refusal to allow any of those that travelled with him to come with him into Valinor; the new explanation of the desertion of Tûn upon Kôr (for the story still endured that the city of the Elves was empty of its inhabitants when Eärendel came there); the greeting of Eärendel by Fionwë (now again the son of Manwë) as the Morning and Evening Star; the manning by the Teleri of the ships that bore the hosts of the West; and the sighting of the Silmaril in the sky by Maidros and Maglor and the people of the Outer Lands.
By subsequent emendation to Q II some further elements enter. To Tuor is ascribed a fate (note 3) hardly less astonishing than that of his cousin Túrin Turambar. Elrond ’s brother Elros appears (notes 4 and 9); and Maglor takes over Maidros’ rôle as their saviour, and as the less ruthless and single-minded of the two brothers (note 10; see the commentary on §18). The addition in note 19 stating that the leader of the Gnomes who had never departed from Valinor was Ingwiel son of Ingwë is at first sight surprising: one would expect Finrod (> Finarfin), as in The Silmarillion (p. 251). I think however that this addition was imperfectly accommodated to the text: the meaning intended was that Ingwiel was the chief of the Quendi (the Light-elves, the Vanyar) among whom the Gnomes of Valinor marched. † In a revision to Q§2 (note 6) the original text, saying that Ingwë never came back into the Outer Lands ‘until these tales were near their end’, was changed to a statement that he never returned. Ingwiel replaces Ingil son of Inwë of the Lost Tales, who built Ingil’s Tower in Tol Eressëa (I. 16) after his return from the Great Lands.
The story of the fate of the Silmarils in Q I advances on S, and here reaches an interesting transitional stage between S and Q II, where the final resolution is achieved. Maidros remains as in S the less fiercely resolute of the two surviving sons of Fëanor in the fulfilment of the oath: in S it is Maglor alone who steals a Silmaril from Fionwë’s keeping, and in Q I it is Maidros who is ‘minded to submit’, but is argued down by Maglor . In Q II the arguments remain, but the parts of Maidros and Maglor are reversed, just as in §17 (by later emendation to Q II, note 10) Maglor becomes the one who saved Elrond and Elros. In Q I both brothers go to steal the Silmarils from Fionwë, as in the final version of the legend; but, as in S, only Maglor carries his away – for in the new story Maidros is captured. Yet, whereas as in S only one of the two remaining Silmarils is consigned to the deep places by the act of one of the brothers ( Maglor ), and the other is retained by Fionwë and ultimately becomes Eärendel’s star – Maidros playing, so far as can be seen, no further part in its fate – in Q I the burning of the unrighteous hand, and the realisation that the right of the sons of Fëanor to the Silmarils is now void, becomes that of Maidros; and, a prisoner of Fionwë, he slays himself, casting the Silmaril on the ground (and though the text of Q I does not go so far as this, the logic of the narrative must lead to the giving of this Silmaril to Eärendel, as in S). The emended version in S (notes 6 and 7), that Maglor casts his Silmaril into a fiery pit and thereafter wanders singing in sorrow by the sea (rather than that he casts himself also into the pit), is taken up into Q I.
In Q II the story has shifted again, to the final harmonious and symmetrical structure: the Silmaril of Beren is not lost, and becomes the star of Eärendel: both Maglor and Maidros take a Silmaril from the camp of Fionwë, and both cast them down into inaccessible places. Maidros still takes his own life, but does so by casting himself into the fiery pit – and this is a return to the original story of Maglor told in S. Maglor now casts his Silmaril into the sea – and thus the Silmarils of earth, sea, and sky are retained, but they are different Silmarils; for in the earlier versions it was one of those from the Iron Crown of Morgoth that became the Evening Star.
- Dægmund Swinsere [I cannot explain Dægmund for Maglor . O.E. mund is ‘hand’, also ‘protection’; swinsere (not recorded) ‘musician, singer’ (cf. swinsian ‘make music’).]
In the version of ‘The Silmarillion’ just referred to it is also said that ‘beyond the River Gelion the land narrowed suddenly, for the Great Sea ran into a mighty gulf reaching almost to the feet of Eredlindon, and there was a strait of mountainous land between the gulf and the inland sea of Helcar, by which one might come into the vast regions of the south of Middle-earth’. Again, these features are clearly seen on map V, where the ‘strait of mountainous land’ is called the ‘Straits of the World’. The enclosed areas to the east of Eredwethrin and south-east of Thangorodrim clearly represent the Encircling Mountains about Gondolin and the highlands of Taur-na-Fuin; we see what was later called the Gap of Maglor between those highlands and the Blue Mountains, and the rivers Gelion (with its tributaries, the rivers of Ossiriand), Sirion, and Narog. † With this part of map V compare the first ‘Silmarillion’ map and its Eastward extension.
Here Damrod and Díriel ravaged Sirion, and were slain. Maidros and Maglor gave reluctant aid. Sirion’s folk were slain or taken into the company of Maidros. Elrond was taken to nurture by Maglor . Elwing cast herself with the Silmaril into the sea, but by Ulmo’s aid in the shape of a bird flew to Eärendel and found him returning.
Maglor , Maidros, and Elrond with few free Elves, the last of the Gnomes, live65 in hiding from Morgoth, who rules all Beleriand and the North, and thrusts ever East and South.
Fionwë departed to Valinor with the Light-elves and many of the Gnomes and the other Elves of the Hither Lands, but Elrond Half-elfin remained and ruled in the West of the world. Maidros and Maglor perished in70 a last endeavour to seize the Silmarils which Fionwë took from Morgoth’s crown.71 So ended the First Age of the World and Beleriand was no more.
71 Later addition: but Maidros perished and his Silmaril went into the bosom of the earth, and Maglor cast his into the sea, and wandered for ever on the shores of the world.
In a few points AB differs from the later story. Here, Turgon’s host descended out of Taur-na-Fuin, whereas in Q (as rewritten, note 7) ‘they encamped before the West Pass in sight of the walls of Hithlum’, just as in The Silmarillion (p. 192) the host of Gondolin ‘had been stationed southward guarding the Pass of Sirion’. The loyalty of Bór and his sons, not mentioned in Q, now appears, but whereas in the later story Maglor slew Uldor, and the sons of Bór slew Ulfast and Ulwarth ‘ere they themselves were slain’, in AB Cranthir slew Uldor, and Ulfast and Ulwar slew Bór and his three sons. The number of a thousand Balrogs who came from Angband when ‘Hell was emptied’ shows once again (see II. 212–13 and p. 173), and more clearly than ever, that Morgoth’s demons of fire were not conceived as rare or peculiarly terrible – unlike the Dragon.
Annals 208 to 233 In annal 210 it is said that Maidros actually forswore his oath (although in the final annal he still strives to fulfil it); and this is clearly to be related to his revulsion at the killing of Dior’s sons in the annal for 206. Damrod and Díriel now emerge as the most ferocious of the surviving sons of Fëanor, and it is on them that the blame for the assault on the people of Sirion is primarily laid: Maidros and Maglor only ‘gave reluctant aid’. This develops further an increasing emphasis in these texts on the weariness and loathing felt by Maidros and Maglor for the duty they felt bound to.
In annal 229 Maglor , rather than Maidros as in Q §17, becomes the saviour of Elrond ; this change is made also in a late rewriting of Q 11 (§17 note 10), where however Elrond ’s brother Elros also emerges, as is not the case in AB.
The statement (subsequently corrected, notes 70–1) that both Maglor and Maidros ‘perished in a last endeavour to seize the Silmarils’ seems to suggest a passing movement to yet another formulation of the story (see the table on p. 202); but may well have been a slip due to hasty composition and compression.
And King Felagund had his seat at Nargothrond far to the South, but his fort and strong place was in the North, in the pass into Beleriand between Eredwethion and Taur-na-Danion, and it was upon an isle in the waters of Sirion, that was called Tolsirion. South of Taur-na-Danion was a wide space untenanted between the fences of Melian and the regions of Finrod’s sons, who held most to the northern borders of the wooded mountains. Easternmost dwelt Orodreth, nighest to his friends the sons of Fëanor. And of these Celegorm and Curufin held the land between Aros and Celon even from the borders of Doriath to the Pass of Aglon between Taur-na-Danion and the Hill of Himling, and this pass and the plains beyond they guarded. But Maidros had a strong place upon the Hill of Himling, and the lower hills that lie from the Forest even to Eredlindon were called the Marches of Maidros, and he was much in the plains to the North, but held also the woods south between Celon and Gelion; and to the East Maglor held the land even as far as Eredlindon; but Cranthir ranged in the wide lands between Gelion and the Blue Mountains; and all East Beleriand behind was wild and little tenanted save by scattered Dark-elves, but it was under the overlordship of Maidros from Sirion’s mouths to Gelion (where it joins with Brilthor), and Damrod and Díriel were there, and came not much to war in the North. But Ossiriand was not subject to Maidros or his brethren, and there dwelt the Green-elves between Gelion and Ascar and Adurant, and the mountains. Into East Beleriand many of the Elf-lords even from afar came at times for hunting in the wild woods.
The territories of the other sons of Fëanor are also given clearer bounds, with mention for the first time of the Marches of Maidros, of Maglor ’s land in the East ‘even as far as Eredlindon’ (afterwards ‘ Maglor ’s Gap’), of Cranthir’s (not yet called Thargelion) between Gelion and the mountains, and of the territory of Damrod and Díriel in the South of East Beleriand. I do not know why Maidros’ overlordship is said to extend from Sirion’s mouths to Gelion ‘where it joins with Brilthor’. At this time Brilthor was the fifth (not as later the fourth) of the tributaries of Gelion coming down from the mountains, the sixth and most southerly being Adurant (pp. 230–1).
The Lost Road and Other Writings
Here the Dispossessed came into the North, and Fëanor led them, and with him came his seven sons, Maidros, Maglor , Celegorm,2 Curufin, Cranthir, Damrod, and Díriel, and with them their friends, the younger sons of Finrod. They burned the Telerian ships upon the coast, where it is since called Losgar, nigh to the outlet of Drengist. Soon after they fought that battle with the host of Morgoth that is named Dagor-os-Giliath;3 and Fëanor had the victory, but he was mortally wounded by Gothmog, and died in Mithrim.
The sons of Finrod held the land from Eredwethion unto the eastern end of the Taur-na-Danion,9 the Forest of Pines, from the northward slopes of which they also held watch over Bladorion. Here were Angrod and Egnor, and Orodreth was nighest to the sons of Fëanor in the East.10 Of these Celegorm and Curufin held the land between the rivers Aros and Celon, from the borders of Doriath to the pass of Aglon, that is between Taur-na-Danion and the Hill of Himling;11 and this pass and the plain beyond they guarded. Maidros had his stronghold upon Himling, and those lower hills that lie from the Forest of Pines unto the foothills of Eredlindon were called the Marches of Maidros. Thence he rode often into East Bladorion, the plains to the north, but he held also the woods south between Celon and Gelion. Maglor lay to the east again about the upper waters of Gelion, where the hills are low or fail; and Cranthir ranged beneath the shadows of the Blue Mountains. And all the folk of Fëanor kept watch by scout and outrider towards the North-east.
The sons of Fëanor were not slain, but Celegorm and Curufin were defeated, and fled unto Orodreth in the west of Taur-na-Danion.25 Maidros did deeds of valour, and Morgoth could not as yet take the heights of Himling, but he broke through the passes26 to the east and ravaged far into East Beleriand, and the Gnomes of Fëanor’s house, for the most part, fled before him. Maglor joined Maidros, but Cranthir, Damrod, and Díriel fled into the South.
[463] Here the Swarthy Men first came into Beleriand in the East. They were short and broad, long and strong in the arm, growing much hair on face and breast, and their locks were dark, as were their eyes; their skins were swart, yet their countenances were not uncomely for the most part, though some were grim-looking and illfavoured. Their houses were many, and some had liking rather for the Dwarves of the mountains, of Nogrod and Belegost, than for the Elves. But Maidros seeing the weakness of the Noldor, and the growing power of the armies of Morgoth, made alliance with these Men, and with their chieftains Bor and Ulfand.33 The sons of Bor were Borlas and Boromir and Borthandos, and they followed Maidros and Maglor and were faithful. The sons of Ulfand the Swart were Uldor the Accursed, and Ulfast, and Ulwar,34 and they followed Cranthir the Dark and swore allegiance to him, and proved faithless.
329 [529] Here Damrod and Díriel ravaged Sirion, and were slain. Maidros and Maglor were there, but they were sick at heart. This was the third kinslaying. The folk of Sirion were taken into the people of Maidros, such as yet remained; and Elrond was taken to nurture by Maglor . But Elwing cast herself with the Silmaril into the sea, and Ulmo bore her up, and in the shape of a bird she flew seeking Eärendel, and found him returning.
340 [540] Maidros and Maglor , sons of Fëanor, dwelt in hiding in the south of Eastern Beleriand, about Amon Ereb, the Lonely Hill, that stands solitary amid the wide plain. But Morgoth sent against them, and they fled to the Isle of Balar. Now Morgoth’s triumph was complete, and all that land was in his hold, and none were left there, Elves or Men, save such as were his thralls.
Now the Silmarils were regained, for one was borne in the airs by Eärendel, and the other two Fionwë took from the crown of Melko; and he beat the crown into fetters for his feet. Maidros and Maglor driven by their oath seized now the two Silmarils and fled; but Maidros perished, and the Silmaril that he took went into the bosom of the earth, and Maglor cast his into the sea, and wandered ever after upon the shores of the world in sorrow.
In the third paragraph of this annal is a clear reference to ‘ Maglor ’s Gap’ (unnamed). The region where ‘the hills are low or fail’, shown clearly on the Second Map (though the name was never written in), is implied by the lines on the Eastward Extension of the First Map (IV. 231).
Annal 263 AB 1 does not name the sons of Bor, nor state that they followed Maidros and Maglor . Bor’s son Boromir is the first bearer of this name. Afterwards the Boromir of the Elder Days was the father of Bregor father of Bregolas and Barahir.
Annal 340 It is not told in AB 1 that Maidros and Maglor and their people fled in the end from Amon Ereb to the Isle of Balar. In Q nothing is told of the actual habitation of Maidros and Maglor during the final years.
§41 The Noldor afterwards came back to the Middle-earth, and this tale tells mostly of their deeds; therefore the names and kinship of their princes may here be told, in that form which these names after had in the tongue of the Gnomes as it was in Beleriand upon the Middle-earth. Finwë was King of the Noldor. His sons were Fëanor, Fingolfin, and Finrod. Of these Fëanor was the mightiest in skill of word and of hand, more learned in lore than his brethren; in his heart his spirit burned as flame. Fingolfin was the strongest, the most steadfast, and the most valiant. Finrod was the fairest, and the most wise of heart. The seven sons of Fëanor were Maidros the tall; Maglor a musician and a mighty singer, whose voice carried far over land and sea; Celegorn the fair, and Cranthir the dark; and Curufin the crafty, who inherited most of his father’s skill of hand; and the youngest Damrod and Díriel, who were twin brethren alike in mood and face. They afterwards were great hunters in the woods of the Middle-earth. A hunter also was Celegorn, who in Valinor was a friend of Oromë and followed oft the great god’s horn.
§90 Then the six brethren of Maidros drew back and fortified a great camp in Hithlum; but Morgoth held Maidros as hostage, and sent word to Maglor that he would only release his brother if the Noldor would forsake their war, returning either to Valinor, or else departing from Beleriand and marching to the South of the world. But the Gnomes could not return to Valinor, having burned the ships, and they did not believe that Morgoth would release Maidros if they departed; and they were unwilling to depart, whatever he might do. Therefore Morgoth hung Maidros from the face of a precipice upon Thangorodrim, and he was caught to the rock by the wrist of his right hand in a band of steel.
§102 And even while Turgon and Felagund were wandering abroad, Morgoth seeing that many Gnomes were dispersed over the land made trial of their strength and watchfulness. He shook the North with sudden earthquake, and fire came from the Iron Mountains; and the Orcs poured forth across the plain of Bladorion, and invaded Beleriand through the pass of Sirion in the West, and burst through the land of Maglor in the East; for there is a gap in that region between the hills of Maidros and the outliers of the Blue Mountains. But Fingolfin and Maidros gathered great force, and while others sought out and destroyed all the Orcs that strayed in Beleriand and did great evil, they came upon the main host from the other side, even as it was assaulting Dorthonion, and they defeated the servants of Morgoth, and pursued the remnant across Bladorion, and destroyed them utterly within sight of Angband’s gates. This was the second great battle of these wars and was named Dagor Aglareb, the Glorious Battle; and for a long while after none of the servants of Morgoth would venture from his gates; for they feared the kings of the Gnomes. And many reckoned from that day the peace of the Siege of Angband. For the chieftains took warning from that assault and drew their leaguer closer, and set such watch upon Angband that Fingolfin boasted Morgoth could never again escape nor come upon them unawares.
On the date of Turgon’s actual departure to Gondolin see the note on chronology at the end of this commentary. §102 QS adds to the account of the Dagor Aglareb in AB 2, annal 51: the Orc-hosts came through the Pass of Sirion and through Maglor ’s Gap (see the commentary on AB 2 annal 52), and Fingolfin and Maidros defeated the main host as it was assaulting Dorthonion. Here and subsequently the form first written was Dorthanion, but the change to Dorthonion was made early. For the many forms preceding Dorthonion see note 9 to AB 2.
§114 And east of this wild land lay the country of Ossiriand, between Gelion and Eredlindon. Gelion was a great river, and it arose in two sources, and had at first two branches: Little Gelion that came from the hill of Himring, and Greater Gelion that came from Mount Rerir, an outlier of Eredlindon; and between these branches was the land of Maglor , son of Fëanor. Then joining his two arms Gelion flowed south, a swift river but of small volume, until he found his tributaries some forty leagues south of the meeting of his arms. Ere he found the sea Gelion was twice as long as Sirion, but ever less wide and full; for more rain fell in Hithlum and Dorthonion, whence Sirion drew his waters, than in the East. From Eredlindon flowed the tributaries of Gelion. These were six: Ascar (that was after renamed Rathlóriel), Thalos, Legolin, Brilthor, Duilwen, and Adurant; they were swift and turbulent, falling steeply from the mountains, but going southward each was longer than the one before, since Gelion bent ever away from Eredlindon. Between Ascar in the North and Adurant in the South, and between Gelion and the mountains, lay Ossiriand, the Land of Seven Rivers, filled with green woods wide and fair.
§118 But east of Dorthonion the marches of Beleriand were more open to attack, and only hills of no great height guarded the vale of Gelion from the North. Therefore the sons of Fëanor with many folk, well nigh half of the people of the Gnomes, dwelt in that region, upon the Marches of Maidros, and in the lands behind; and the riders of the folk of Fëanor rode often upon the vast northern plain, Lothland the wide and empty, east of Bladorion, lest Morgoth attempted any sortie towards East Beleriand. And the chief citadel of Maidros was upon the hill of Himring, the Ever-cold; and this was wide-shouldered, bare of trees, and flat upon the summit, and surrounded by many lesser hills. Its name it bore because there was a pass, exceeding steep upon the west, between it and Dorthonion, and this was the pass of Aglon, and was a gate unto Doriath, and a bitter wind blew ever through it from the North. But Celegorn and Curufin fortified Aglon, and manned it with great strength, and they held all the land southward between the river Aros that arose in Dorthonion and his tributary Celon that came from Himring. And between Celon and Little Gelion was the ward of Damrod and Díriel. And between the arms of Gelion was the ward of Maglor , and here in one place the hills failed altogether; and here it was that the Orcs came into East Beleriand before the Second Battle. Therefore the Gnomes held much cavalry in the plains at that place; and the people of Cranthir fortified the mountains to the east of Maglor ’s Gap. For Mount Rerir, and about it many lesser heights, stood out from the main range of Eredlindon westward; and in the angle between Rerir and Eredlindon there was a lake, shadowed by mountains on all sides save the south. This was Lake Helevorn, deep and dark, and beside it Cranthir had his abode; but all the great land between Gelion and Eredlindon, and between Rerir and the river Ascar, was called by the Gnomes Thargelion (that is the land beyond Gelion), or Dor Granthir the land of Cranthir; and it was here that the Gnomes first met the Dwarves.*
§142 But they overwhelmed the riders of the folk of Fëanor upon Lothland, for Glómund came thither, and passed through Maglor ’s Gap, and destroyed all the land between the arms of Gelion. And the Orcs took the fortress upon the west slopes of Mount Rerir, and ravaged all Thargelion, the land of Cranthir; and they defiled Lake Helevorn. Thence they passed over Gelion with fire and terror and came far into East Beleriand. Maglor joined Maidros upon Himring; but Cranthir fled and joined the remnant of his people to the scattered folk of the hunters, Damrod and Díriel, and they retreated and passed Rhamdal in the South. Upon Amon Ereb they maintained a watch and some strength of war, and they had aid of the Green-elves; and the Orcs came not yet into Ossiriand or the wild of South Beleriand.
§151 Now the Easterlings or Rómenildi, as the Elves named these newcomers, were short and broad, long and strong in the arm; their hair was black, and grew much also upon their face and breast; their skins were swart or sallow, and their eyes brown; yet their countenances were for the most part not uncomely, though some were grim and fierce. Their houses and tribes were many, and some had greater liking for the Dwarfs of the mountains than for the Elves. But the sons of Fëanor, seeing the weakness of the Noldor, and the growing power of the armies of Morgoth, made alliances with these men, and gave their friendship to the greatest of their chieftains, Bór and Ulfang. And Morgoth was well content; for this was as he had designed. The sons of Bór were Borlas and Boromir and Borthandos; and they followed Maidros and Maglor , and cheated the hope of Morgoth, and were faithful. The sons of Ulfang the Black were Ulfast and Ulwarth and Uldor the Accursed; and they followed Cranthir and swore allegiance to him, and proved faithless.
§15 The number of a thousand Balrogs (found in both versions of the Annals) was still present (see the commentary on §89). – After ‘all perished in that battle’ the earlier text (C) has the addition ‘defending Maglor against the assault of Uldor’, but this was not taken up in D. It is not said in the Annals that Ulfast and Ulwar(th) were slain by the sons of Bór (‘ere they themselves fell’), but the reverse.
§13 Now when first Vingelot was set to sail on the seas of heaven, it rose unlooked-for, glittering and bright; and the folk of earth beheld it from afar and wondered, and they took it for a sign of hope. And when this new star arose in the West, Maidros said unto Maglor : ‘Surely that is a Silmaril that shineth in the sky?’ And Maglor said: ‘If it be verily that Silmaril that we saw cast into the sea that riseth again by the power of the Gods, then let us be glad; for its glory is seen now by many, and is yet secure from all evil.’ Then the Elves looked up, and despaired no longer; but Morgoth was filled with doubt.
§21 But Fionwë said that the right to the work of their hands, which Fëanor and his sons formerly possessed, had now perished, because of their many and merciless deeds, being blinded by their oath, and most of all because of the slaying of Dior and the assault upon Elwing. The light of the Silmarils should go now to the Gods, whence it came in the beginning; and to Valinor must Maidros and Maglor return and there abide the judgement of the Valar, by whose decree alone would Fionwë yield the jewels from his charge.
§22 Maglor desired indeed to submit, for his heart was sorrowful, and he said: ‘The oath says not that we may not bide our time, and maybe in Valinor all shall be forgiven and forgot, and we shall come into our own in peace.’ But Maidros said that, if once they returned and the favour of the Gods were withheld from them, then their oath would still remain, but its fulfilment be beyond all hope. ‘And who can tell to what dreadful doom we shall come, if we disobey the Powers in their own land, or purpose ever to bring war again into their holy realm?’ And Maglor said: ‘Yet if Manwë and Varda themselves deny the fulfilment of an oath to which we named them in witness, is it not made void?’ And Maidros answered: ‘But how shall our voices reach to Ilúvatar beyond the circles of the World? And by Him we swore in our madness, and called the Everlasting Darkness upon us, if we kept not our word. Who shall release us?’ ‘If none can release us,’ said Maglor , ‘then indeed the Everlasting Darkness shall be our lot, whether we keep our oath or break it; but less evil shall we do in the breaking.’ Yet he yielded to the will of Maidros, and they took counsel together how they should lay hands on the Silmarils.
§25 And it is told of Maglor that he could not endure the pain with which the Silmaril tormented him; and he cast it at last into the sea, and thereafter he wandered ever upon the shores singing in pain and regret beside the waves. For Maglor was the mightiest of the singers of old, but he came never back among the people of the Elves. And thus it came to pass that the Silmarils found their long homes: one in the airs of heaven, and one in the fires of the heart of the world,
and one in the deep waters.
§28 Yet not all the Eldalië were willing to forsake the Hither Lands where they had long suffered and long dwelt; and some lingered many an age in the West and North, and especially in the western isles and in the Land of Leithien. And among these were Maglor , as hath been told; and with him for a while was Elrond Halfelven, who chose, as was granted to him, to be among the Elf-kindred; but Elros his brother chose to abide with Men. And from these brethren alone the blood of the Firstborn and the seed divine of Valinor have come among Mankind: for they were the sons of Elwing, Dior’s daughter, Lúthien’s son, child of Thingol and Melian; and Eärendel their sire was Idril’s son Celebrindal, the fair maid of Gondolin. But ever as the ages drew on and the Elf-folk faded upon earth, they would set sail at eve from the western shores of this world, as still they do, until now there linger few anywhere of their lonely companies.
§22 The debate between Maglor and Maidros is articulated further than it was in Q, with the last and wisest word to Maglor , though the outcome is the same: for Maidros overbore him.
MAK- sword, or as verb-stem: fight (with sword), cleave. *makla: Q makil sword; N magl, magol. *maktā: Q mahta- wield a weapon (blended with maȝ-tā, see MAȜ), fight: hence mahtar warrior = N maethor. N maeth battle, fight (not of general host but of two or a few), maetha to fight. Cf. Maglaðûr [cf. D0Ȝ?] or Maglaðhonn = Black-sword (as name). Q Makalaure = Gold-cleaver, name of fifth son of Feanor, N Maglor .
Morgoth’s Ring
Thus spoke Maidros and Maglor , and Celegorn, Curufin and Cranthir, Damrod and Díriel, princes of the Noldor. But by that name none should swear an oath, good or evil, nor in anger call upon such witness, and many quailed to hear the fell words. For so sworn, good or evil, an oath may not be broken, and it shall pursue oathkeeper or oathbreaker to the world’s end.
§150 Thus at last the Teleri were overcome, and a great part of their mariners that dwelt in Alqualondë were wickedly slain. For the Noldor were become fierce and desperate, and the Teleri had less strength, and were armed mostly with light bows only. Then the Noldor drew away their white ships, and manned their oars as best they might, and rowed them north along the coast. And Olwë called upon Ossë, but he came not; for he had been summoned to Valmar to the vigil and council of the gods; and it was not permitted by the Valar that the Flight of the Noldor should be hindered by force. But Uinen wept for the mariners of the Teleri; and the sea rose in wrath against the slayers, so that many of the ships were wrecked and those in them drowned. Of the Kin-slaying at Alqualondë more is told in that lament which is named Noldolantë,16 The Fall of the Noldor, which Maglor made ere he was lost.
§150 On the weapons of the Teleri see p. 106, §97. — The song of the Flight of the Gnomes (QS §70) is now called Noldolantë, the Fall of the Noldor, ‘which Maglor made ere he was lost.’
§41 The Noldor afterwards came back to Middle-earth, and this tale tells mostly of their deeds; therefore the names and kinship of their princes may here be told in that form which these names after had in the tongue of the Gnomes as it was [> the Elves] in Beleriand upon the Middle-earth. Finwë was king of the Noldor. His sons were Fëanor, Fingolfin, and Finrod [> Finarphin]. Of these Fëanor was the mightiest in skill of word and hand, more learned in lore than his brethren; in his heart his spirit burned as flame. Fingolfin was the strongest, the most steadfast, and the most valiant. Finrod [> Finarphin] was the fairest, and the most wise of heart; and afterwards he was a friend of the sons of Olwë, lord of the Teleri, and had to wife Eärwen, the swan-maiden of Alqualondë, Olwë’s daughter. The seven sons of Fëanor were Maidros [> Maedhros] the tall; Maglor a musician and a mighty singer, whose voice was heard far over land and sea; Celegorn [> Celegorm] the fair, and Cranthir [> Caranthir] the dark; and Curufin the crafty, who inherited most of his father’s skill of hand; and the youngest Damrod and Díriel [> Amrod and Amras], who were twin brothers alike in mood and face. They afterwards were great hunters in the woods of Middle-earth. A hunter also was Celegorn [> Celegorm], who in Valinor was a friend of Oromë and followed oft the great god’s horn.
§41 The marriage of Finrod (= Finarphin) to Eärwen Olwë’s daughter is recorded under the Valian Year 1280 in AAm §85 (p. 93). — By a late change to LQ 2 Maglor > Maelor ; Maelor occurs in the later Lay of Leithian, III.353.
The War of the Jewels
In this year Fingolfin, King of the Noldor, called a great council and made a high feast, that was long after remembered as Mereth Aderthad, the Feast of Reuniting. And it was held nigh the fair pools of Ivrin (whence the swift Narog arose), for there the lands were green and fair at the feet of the mountains that shielded them from the North. Thither came many of the chieftains and people of Fingolfin and Inglor; and of the sons of Fëanor Maidros and Maglor with warriors of the March; and there they were joined by Cirdan and many folk of the Havens, and great concourse of the Grey-elves from woods and fields far and near, and even from Ossiriand there came some of the Nandor on behalf of their folk. But Thingol came not himself from Doriath, and sent but two messengers, Dairon and Mablung, bringing his greetings. At Mereth Aderthad many counsels were taken in good will, and oaths were sworn of league and friendship, and there was much mirth and good hope; and indeed there followed after a fair time of peace, of growth and blossoming, and all the land was glad, though still the Shadow brooded in the North.
Here Glaurung, the first of the Urulóki, the fire-drakes of the North, came forth from Angband’s gate by night. He was yet young and scarce half-grown (for long and slow is the life of those worms), but the Elves fled before him to Erydwethrin and to Dorthonion in dismay; and he defiled the fields of Ardgalen. Then Fingon, prince of Hithlum, rode against him with archers upon horseback, and hemmed him round with a ring of swift riders. And Glaurung in turn was dismayed, for he could not endure their darts, being not yet come to his full armoury; and he fled back to hell, and came not forth again for many years. But Morgoth was ill pleased that Glaurung had disclosed himself over soon; and after his defeat there was the long peace of wellnigh two hundred years. In that time there was naught but affrays on the north-marches, and all Beleriand prospered and grew rich, and the Noldor built many towers and fair dwellings and made many things of beauty, and many poesies and histories and books of lore. And in many parts of the land the Noldor and Sindar became welded into one folk and spoke the same tongue; though ever this difference remained between them, that the Noldor of purer race had the greater power of mind and body, being both the mightier warriors and sages, and they built with stone, and loved rather the hill-slopes and open lands. Whereas the Sindar had the fairer voices and were more skilled in music (save only Maglor son of Fëanor), and loved the woods and riversides, and some still would wander far and wide without settled abode, and they sang as they went.
Here there was fighting on the north-marches, more bitter than there had been since the routing of Glaurung; for the Orcs attempted to pierce the pass of Aglon. There Maidros and Maglor were aided by the sons of Finrod, and Bëor was with them, the first of Men to draw sword in behalf of the Eldar. In this year Barahir son of Bëor was born, who after dwelt in Dorthonion.
§148 Against the March of Maidros there came also a great army and the sons of Fëanor were overwhelmed. Maidros and Maglor held out valiantly upon the Hill of Himring, and Morgoth could not yet take the great fortress that they had there built; but the Orcs broke through upon either side, through Aglon and between Gelion and Celon, and they ravaged far into East Beleriand driving the Eldar before them, and Cranthir and Damrod and Díriel fled into the south. Celegorn and Curufin held strong forces behind Aglon, and many horsed archers, but they were overthrown, and Celegorn and Curufin hardly escaped, and passed westward along the north borders of Doriath with such mounted following as they could save, and came thus at length to the vale of Sirion.
[Now the two chieftains] that had the greatest followings and authority were named Bor and Ulfang. The sons of Bor were Borlas and Boromir and Borthandos, and they were goodly men, and they followed Maidros and Maglor and were faithful. The sons of Ulfang the Swart were Ulfast and Ulwarth and Uldor the Accursed; and they followed Cranthir and swore allegiance to him, and were faithless. (It was after thought that the people of Ulfang were already secretly in the service of Morgoth ere they came to Beleriand.)*
Yet neither by wolf, balrog, nor dragon would Morgoth have achieved his end, but for the treachery of Men. In this hour the plots of Ulfang were revealed; for many of the Easterlings turned and fled, their hearts being filled with lies and fear; but the sons of Ulfang went over suddenly to the side of Morgoth and drove in upon the rear of the sons of Fëanor. And in the confusion that they wrought they came near to the standard of Maidros. They reaped not the reward that Morgoth promised them, for Maglor slew Uldor the Accursed, the leader in treason, and Bór and his sons slew Ulfast and Ulwarth ere they themselves were slain. But new strength of evil men came up that Uldor had summoned and kept hidden in the eastern hills, and the host of Maidros being assailed now on three sides, by the Orcs, and the beasts, and by the Swarthy Men, was dispersed and fled this way and that. Yet fate saved the sons of Fëanor, and though all were wounded, none were slain, for they drew together and gathering a remnant of Noldor and of the Naugrim about them they hewed a way out of the battle and escaped towards Mount Dolmed.
In AB 2 (V.126) and QS (§99) Mereth Aderthad was held in Nan Tathren, the Land of Willows. GA is more specific concerning those who were present than are the earlier texts: Maidros and Maglor ; Cirdan; and Dairon and Mablung as the only two representatives from Doriath (on Thingol’s aloofness see §47 and commentary).
The foresight of Felagund is undoubtedly intended to be a true foresight (like all such foresight, though it may be ambiguous). If full weight is given to the precise words used by Felagund, then it may be said that the conclusion of QS (V.331), where it is told that Maidros and Maglor did each regain a Silmaril for a brief time, is not contradicted.
In AB 2 and in QS (§15) it was Cranthir, not Maglor , who slew Uldor the Accursed. It is not said in those texts that ‘new strength of evil men came up that Uldor had summoned and kept hidden in the eastern hills’, nor, of course, that the Fëanorians, fleeing towards Mount Dolmed, took with them a remnant of the Naugrim, for it was only with the Grey Annals that the Dwarves took part in the battle (commentary on §212).
Now it came to pass, when three hundred years and ten were gone since the Noldor came to Beleriand, in the days of the Long Peace, that Felagund journeyed east of Sirion and went hunting with Maglor and Maedros, sons of Fëanor. But he wearied of the chase and passed on alone towards the Mountains of Ered-lindon that he saw shining afar; and taking the Dwarf-road he crossed Gelion at the ford of Sarn-athrad, and turning south over the upper streams of Ascar, he came into the north of Ossiriand.
‘But Maidros would not harken, and he prepared … to attempt in despair the fulfilment of his oath’ > ‘But Maidros and Maglor would not harken …’, with change of ‘he’ to ‘they’ and ‘his’ to ‘their’.
Maidros and Maglor , last surviving sons of Fëanor, seize the Silmarils. Maidros perishes. The Silmarils are lost in fire and sea.
Torment fell upon Maidros and his brethren ( Maglor , Damrod and Diriel) because of their unfulfilled oath.
The Peoples of Middle-Earth
The second note reads: Maedros the eldest appears to have been unwedded, also the two youngest (twins, of whom one was by evil mischance burned with the ships); Celegorm also, since he plotted to take Lúthien as his wife. But Curufin, dearest to his father and chief inheritor of his father’s skills, was wedded, and had a son who came with him into exile, though his wife (unnamed) did not. Others who were wedded were Maelor , Caranthir. On the form Maelor for Maglor see X.182, §41. The reference in the first of these notes to the wife of Finrod Felagund is notable, since long before, in the Grey Annals, the story had emerged that Felagund had no wife, and that ‘she whom he had loved was Amárië of the Vanyar, and she was not permitted to go with him into exile’. That story had in fact been abandoned, or forgotten, but it would return: see the note on Gil-galad, p. 350.
[ Maglor ] Kanafinwë ‘strong-voiced or ?commanding’. (Káno)58
His sons were too occupied in war and feuds to pay attention to such matters, save Maglor who was a poet, and Curufin, his fourth and favourite son to whom he gave his own name; but Curufin was most interested in the alien language of the Dwarves, being the only one of the Ñoldor to win their friendship. It was from him that the loremasters obtained such knowledge as they could of the Khuzdûl.
The Nature of Middle-Earth
fn3 The most notable were those Maiar who took the form of the mighty speaking eagles that we hear of in the legends of the war of the Ñoldor against Melkor, and who remained in the West of Middle-earth until the fall of Sauron and the Dominion of Men, after which they are not heard of again. Their intervention in the story of Maelor , in the duel of Fingolfin and Melkor, in the rescue of Beren and Lúthien is well known. (Beyond their knowledge were the deeds of the Eagles in the war against Sauron: in the rescue of the Ring Finder and his companions, in the Battle of Five Armies, and in the rescue of the Ringbearer from the fires of Mount Doom.)
6 For Maelor as a post-LR variant name of Maglor , see: III:353 and fn.; X:182 §41; and XII:318 n.7.