The War of the Jewels (32 page)

Then the anguish of Turin was terrible to see; and a mad fury took him, and he cursed Middle-earth and all the life of Men. And stooping over the falls, he cried in vain Niniel, Niniel. And he turned in wrath upon all those that were there, against his command; and all fled away from him, save only Brandir, who for ruth and horror could not move. But Turin turned to him and said: 'Behold thy work, limping evil! Had Niniel remained, as I left her, and hadst thou not told my name, she might have been restrained from death.

I could have gone away and left her, and she might have mourned for Turambar only.'

But Brandir cursed him, saying that their wedding could not have thou hast shorn of all that I had, and would have - for thou art reckless and greedy!'

Then Turin slew Brandir in his wrath. And repenting, he slew himself (using same words to the sword).

Mablung comes with news, and is heart-stricken. The Elves help Hurin - but N[iniel] was not there, and her body could not be found: mayhap Celebros bore it to Taiglin and Taiglin to the Sea.

A further simplification would be to make Brandir willing to go with Niniel, to guard her - for he thought Turin would die. j This last sentence presumably refers to Brandir's attempt to stop Niniel from following Turambar from Ephel Brandir.

It seems impossible actually to demonstrate at what point in the evolution of the legend this was written, but that it is anyway as late as the rewritten, final form of the last part of the Narn is clear from such a detail as that Celebros is the name of the stream (see commentary on $317). I think that it belongs with the other passages given in this Note, in that it represents another, though far more drastic, attempt to reach the denouement of Turin's 'recognition' - this time from Nienor herself, who has learned the truth through no inter-mediary, but simply from the removal of the spell on her memory by the Dragon's death. But Mablung appears, though now after Turin's death, and so I suspect that it is the latest of these attempts, and may very probably have succeeded the final form of the text. Gwerin as the name of Brandir's kinsman (Albarth, Torbarth, Hunthor) has appeared once before, pencilled over the first occurrence of Torbarth in GA ($322).

That my father should even have contemplated, to the extent of roughing out a synopsis, breaking so violently the superb interlocking narrative structure represented by the final text of the last part of the Narn is extraordinary and hard to fathom. Did he feel that it had become too evidently a 'structure', too complex in those interlocking movements, reports, forebodings, chances? The concluding note ('A further simplification would be ...') may support this. But it seems to me most probable that he was primarily concerned with the coming of Mablung (or indeed Morwen) as a deus ex machina at that very moment, bearer of the irrefutable proof, which he felt to be a serious weakness.

However this may be, the result is, I think, and granting that it is only represented by a rapid synopsis written in a certain way, far weaker; and since, apart perhaps from the pencilled name Gwerin in the Grey Annals, there is no other trace of it, it may be that he thought likewise.

NOTE 2.

A further account of the Battle of Unnumbered Tears.

The text of Chapter 20 in the published Silmarillion was primarily derived from the story in the Grey Annals, but elements were introduced from the old Chapter 16 in QS (V.307-13), and also from a third text. This is a typescript made by my father, and to all appearance made ab initio on his typewriter; it was explicitly intended as a component in the long prose Tale of the Children of Hurin (the Narn), but he had the manuscript of the Grey Annals in front of him, and for much of its length the new version remained so close to the Annals text that it can be regarded as scarcely more than a variant, although unquestionably much later. For this reason, and also because some of its divergent (additional) features had in any case been incorporated in the Silmarillion chapter, I excluded it from the Narn in Unfinished Tales (see pp. 65-6 and note 2 in that book), except for its end. There is however a major divergence in the Narn account which altogether contradicts the previous versions, and this is a convenient place to record it, together with some other details.

The text opens as follows (the typescript was a good deal corrected in ink, I think almost certainly very soon after it had been made, and I adopt these corrections silently except in certain cases).

Many songs are yet sung, and many tales are yet told by the Elves of the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, the Battle of Unnumbered Tears, in which Fingon fell and the flower of the Eldar withered.

If all were now retold a man's life would not suffice for the hearing. Here then shall be recounted only those deeds which bear upon the fate of the House of Hador and the children of Hurin the Steadfast.

Having gathered at length all the strength that he could Maedros appointed a day, the morning of Midsummer. On that day the trumpets of the Eldar greeted the rising of the Sun, and in the east was raised the standard of the Sons of Feanor; and in the west the standard of Fingon, King of the Noldor.

Then Fingon looked out from the walls of Eithel Sirion, and his host was arrayed in the valleys and woods upon the east borders of Eryd-wethion, well hid from the eyes of the Enemy; but he knew that it was very great. For there all the Noldor of Hithlum were assembled, and to them were gathered many Elves of the Falas and [struck out at once: a great company] of Nargothrond; and he had great strength of Men. Upon the right were stationed the host of Dor-lomin and all the valour of Hurin and Huor his brother, and to them had come Hundar of Brethil, their kinsman, with many men of the woods.

Then Fingon looked east and his elven-sight saw far off a dust and the glint of steel like stars in a mist, and he knew that Maedros had set forth; and he rejoiced. Then he looked towards Thangorodrim, and behold! there was a dark cloud about it and a black smoke went up; and he knew that the wrath of Morgoth was kindled and that their challenge would be accepted, and a shadow fell upon his heart. But at that moment a cry went up, passing on the wind from the south from vale to vale, and Elves and Men lifted up their voices in wonder and joy. For unsummoned and unlooked-for Turgon had opened the leaguer of Gondolin, and was come with an army, ten thousand strong, with bright mail and long swords and spears like a forest. Then when Fingon heard afar the great trumpet of Turgon, the shadow passed and his heart was uplifted, and he shouted aloud: Utulie'n aure! Aiya Eldalie ar Atanatarni, sctulie'n aure!

(The day has come! Lo, people of the Eldar and Fathers of Men, the day has come!) And all those who heard his great voice echo in the hills answered crying: Auta i lome! (The night is passing!) It was not long before the great battle was joined. For Morgoth knew much of what was done and designed by his foes and had laid his plans against the hour of their assault. Already a great force out of Angband was drawing near to Hithlum, while another and greater went to meet Maedros to prevent the union of the powers of the kings. And those that came against Fingon were clad all in dun raiment and showed no naked steel, and thus were already far over the sands before their approach became known.

Then the heart of Fingon [> the hearts of the Noldor] grew hot, and he [> their captains] wished to assail their foes on the plain; but Hurin [> Fingon] spoke against this.

'Beware of the guile of Morgoth, lords!' he said. 'Ever his strength is more than it seems, and his purpose other than he reveals. Do not reveal your own strength, but let the enemy spend his first in assault on the hills. At least until the signal of Maedros is seen.' For it was the design of the kings that Maedros should march openly over the Anfauglith with all his strength, of Elves and of Men and of Dwarves; and when he had drawn forth, as he hoped, the main armies of Morgoth in answer, then Fingon should come on from the west, and so the might of Morgoth should be taken as between hammer and anvil and be broken to pieces; and the signal for this was to be the firing of a great beacon in Dorthonion.

But the Captain of Morgoth in the west had been commanded to draw out Fingon from his hills by whatever means he could.

It is most remarkable that in this Narn version there is no reference whatever to the hindering of Maedros by the guile of Uldor the Accursed; while on the other hand there is here the entirely new statement that a second and greater force left Angband to intercept Maedros and 'prevent the union of the powers of the kings' (contrast GA $222, where it is said that Morgoth 'trusted in his servants to hold back Maidros and prevent the union of his foes' - referring of course to the machinations of Uldor). Later in this narrative, the passage corresponding to the opening of GA $228 reads: Then in the plain of Anfauglith, on the fourth day of the war, there began the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, all the sorrow of which no tale can contain. Of all that befell in the eastward battle: of the routing of Glaurung the Drake by the Naugrim of Belegost; of the treachery of the Easterlings and the overthrow of the host of Maedros and the flight of the Sons of Feanor, no more is here said. In the west the host of Fingon retreated over the sands ...

Here 'the eastward battle' is spoken of as if it were altogether separate from the fighting in the west: there is no suggestion here that the host of Maedros finally came up and fell upon the rear of the enemy (GA $229). Finally, where in GA the meeting of Turgon and Hurin in the midst of the battle is followed ($229) by the coming of the host of Maidros, the Narn version reads:

And it is said that the meeting of Turgon with Hurin who stood beside Fingon was glad in the midst of battle. For a while then the hosts of Angband were driven back, and Fingon again began his retreat. But having routed Maedros in the east Morgoth had now great forces to spare, and before Fingon and Turgon could come to the shelter of the hills they were assailed by a tide of foes thrice greater than all the force that was left to them.

With these last words the Narn version returns to the GA text at $233. Thus my father, for whatever reason, had expunged the entire element of 'the machinations of Uldor' in delaying Maedros, and radically altered the course of the Battle of Unnumbered Tears by introducing the defeat and rout of the eastern host before any junction of the forces was achieved.

In The Silmarillion I preserved (inevitably) the story as told in the Grey Annals, but incorporated certain elements from the Narn, as may be seen from a comparison of the opening of the latter (pp.

165 - 6) with The Silmarillion pp. 190-1: the cloud and smoke over Thangorodrim, the great cry of Fingon, the 'dun raiment' of the force from Angband that came towards Hithlum. Some other minor points in this passage may be mentioned. The 'great company from Nargothrond' (see $221 and commentary) is corrected (p. 166); and the name of the leader of the men of Brethil, in GA Hundor son of Haleth the Hunter, is changed to Hundar: later in the text his father is said to be Halmir - an aspect of the extremely complex refashioning of the genealogies of the Edain which need not be entered into here (see pp.

236-8).

In GA ($222), following QS ($11), it was Fingon who was all for attacking at once the force from Angband on the plain, and Hurin who opposed it; this was followed in the Narn, but then corrected to make it Fingon who opposed the rashness of his captains. The change was perhaps made for probability's sake: such prudence and experience of Morgoth should lie rather with Fingon King of the Noldor than with Hurin, a Man of no more than thirty-one years. - Hurin (> Fingon) urged that the western host should wait in its positions 'at least until the signal of Maedros is seen'. In GA ($217) the occasion of the signal of Maidros to Fingon (not particularised as a beacon in Dorthonion) was to be the moment when the march of Maidros in open force over Anfauglith had incited the host of Morgoth to come forth from Angband; and owing to Uldor the Accursed the signal did not come. In the Narn Fingon with his far sight had actually seen that Maedros had set out, and it is also told that great force was on its way from Angband to meet him; but it is not said that the beacon was fired.

Other features of the story as told in The Silmarillion that are not found in GA are derived from the Narn. In the latter there is a more detailed account of the confrontation between the two hosts, and the riders of Morgoth come to the walls of the fortress at Eithel Sirion (here called Barad Eithel ): thus whereas in GA Gwindor saw the slaughter of his brother Gelmir 'across the water', in the Narn he was

'at that point in the outposts'. The account of the western battle is very close indeed to that in GA, but the death of Fingon is differently and more fully told (see The Silmarillion p. 193): with the coming of Gothmog 'high-captain of Angband' Fingon was cut off from Hurin and Turgon, who were driven towards the Fen of Serech. The speeches of Turgon, Hurin, and Huor were scarcely changed from their form in GA ($$234 - 5), but the needed change in Huor's words to 'I shall never look on thy white walls again' was made (see the commentary on $$234-5). Lastly, in the Narn it is said that Hurin 'seized the axe of an Orc-captain and wielded it two-handed', and again Gothmog appears (see The Silmarillion p. 195).