The War of the Jewels (42 page)

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Authors: J. R. R. Tolkien

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$33. All these were caught in the net of the Doom of the Noldor; and they did great deeds which the Eldar remember still !

among the histories of the Kings of old. And in those days the j strength of Men was added to the power of the Noldor, and hope was renewed; and the people of the three houses of Men throve and multiplied. Greatest was the House of Hador Golden-head, peer of Elven-lords. Many of his people were like him, golden-haired and blue-eyed; they were tall and strong, j quick to wrath and laughter, fierce in battle, generous to friend and to foe, swift in resolve, fast in loyalty, joyous in heart, the children of Iluvatar in the youth of Mankind. But the people of the House of Beor were dark or brown of hair; their eyes were grey and keen and their faces fair and shapely. Lithe and lean in body they were long-enduring in hardship. Of all Men they were most like the Noldor and most loved by them; for they were eager of mind, cunning-handed, swift in understanding, long in memory; and they were moved sooner to pity than to mirth, for the sorrow of Middle-earth was in their hearts. Like to them were the woodland folk of Haleth; but they were shorter and broader, sterner and less swift. They were less eager for lore, and used few words; for they did not love great concourse of men, and many among them delighted in solitude, wandering free in the greenwoods while the wonder of the (* From this speech came the common tongue of Numenor.) world was new upon them. But in the lands of the West their time was brief and their days unhappy.

$34. The years of the Edain were lengthened, according to the reckoning of Men, after their coming to Beleriand; but at last Beor the Old died, when he had lived three and ninety years, for four and forty of which he had served King Felagund. And when he lay dead, of no wound or sickness, but stricken by age, the Eldar saw for the first time the death of weariness which they knew not in themselves, and they grieved for the swift loss of their friends. But Beor at the last had relinquished his life willingly and passed in peace; and the Eldar wondered much at the strange fate of Men, for in all their lore there was no account of it and its end was hidden from them. Nonetheless the Edain of old, being of races eager and young, learned swiftly of the Eldar all such art and knowledge as they could receive, and their sons increased in wisdom and skill, until they far surpassed all others of Mankind, who dwelt still east of the Mountains and had not seen the Eldar and the faces that had beheld the Light.

*

I record here the few changes that were made to the LQ 2 typescript of the new chapter.

$1. Felagund > Finrod Felagund

$4. 'had come to a land' > 'had come at last to a land'

$7. The second footnote was struck out (as it was also on the original typescript).

$12. Diriol > Diriel > Amras

$13. Radhrost > Thargelion, and again in $23.

$28. Dalath Dirnen > Talath Dirnen

$29. List Melian: 'Girdle of' written over the word List (which was not struck out).

$31. Glorindol > Glorindol

$33. 'the wonder of the world' > 'the wonder of the lands of the Eldar'

'But in the lands of the West' > 'But in the realms of the West'.

In addition, certain changes were made in pencil to the carbon copy only of the original typescript, and these were not taken up into LQ 2, nor were they added to it. They are as follows: $16. 'Magor son of Aradan' > 'Hador son of Aradan'

$29. List Melian > Lest Melian

Tur Daretha > Tur Haretha

$31. 'Now Hador Glorindol, son of Hathol, son of Magor, son of Malach Aradan' was emended to read thus (the emendation was incorrectly made, but my father's intention is plain): 'Now Magor Dagorlind, son of Hathol, son of Hador Glorindal, son of Malach Aradan'

$32. 'The sons of Hador' > 'The sons of Magor'

On the reversal of the places of Magor and Hador in the genealogy see p. 235.

Commentary.

$1. 'three hundred years and ten': the words 'and ten' were an addition. The original chapter in QS had 'four hundred', against which my father noted (p. 202, $126): 'This must be removed to 300', altering the date to '310'. This radical shift, putting back by ninety years the date of Felagund's meeting with Beor (and so extending the lines of the rulers of the Edain in Beleriand by several generations), has been encountered in the opening of the Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth (X.307 and third footnote).

$4. 'Beor the Old': the words 'the Old' were an addition, and 'as he was afterwards called' refer to 'Beor' simply (see the second footnote to $7). - With 'After many lives of wandering out of the East'

cf. the change made to the original QS chapter, p. 202, $127.

$7. The opening sentence of this paragraph as typed read: Thus it was that Men called King Felagund, whom they first met of all the Eldar, Somar that is Wisdom, and after him they named his people Samuri (that is the Wise).

As typed, the footnote was added to the word 'Wisdom', and read: In the ancient language of the Edain (from which afterwards came the Numenorean tongue); but Beor and his House later learned the language of the Eldar and forsook their own.

See V.275 (footnote) and p. 202, $128. - In 'the House of Finrod'

Finrod = Finarfin. The footnote at this point in the text as typed read: Thus Beor got his name; for it signifies Vassal in the tongue of the Edain. But after Beor all the children of his House bore Elvish names.

The revised footnote as given in the text printed was later struck out in pencil. See $12 in the text.

$9. The paragraph beginning 'But it was said afterwards ...' in the published Silmarillion between $9 and $10 of the original text was derived from the Grey Annals, $$79-80 (pp. 36 - 7).

$10. The reversal in the published Silmarillion of what is said in the original text (and cf. X.305) concerning the affinities of the languages of the Edain (so that the Haladin become 'sundered in speech' from the People of Beor, and the tongue of the People of Marach becomes 'more like to ours') is based on late and very express statements of my father's. - In the present passage are the first occurrences of the names Haladin and Marach.

$12. The form Diriol seems not to occur elsewhere (see p. 225, $12).

- Above the word 'Servant' my father pencilled 'Vassal', but then struck it through. - The region of Estolad was entered on the second map, but in the form Estoland (p. 189, $55).

$13 The heading Of the Kindreds and Houses of the Edain was an addition to the manuscript. Against the opening words 'Soon after the departure of Felagund' the date 311 was typed; 312 against the coming of the Haladin; and 313 against the coming of Marach and his people.

Radhrost: Dark-elvish name of Thargelion. See p. 225, $13.

Caranthir: the name as typed (twice) was Cranthir, emended to Caranthir, but later in the text ($23 and subsequently) Caranthir was the form as typed. This is an indication that the emendation of the text followed soon after its typing (p. 215), and may give support to the suggestion (ibid.) that Of the Coming of Men into the West belongs to the period when the LQ 2 typescript series was being made, since the change of Cranthir > Caranthir occurs as an emendation in Of Beleriand and its Realms in the LQ 2 series (p. 197, $111).

On the statement that the peoples of Beor and Marach were

'sundered in speech', omitted in the published text, see under $10

above.

$14. After the words 'dwelt in Hithlum' there followed in the typescript 'in the household of Fingolfin', which was struck out.

$15. Against the words 'some fifty years' the date 330-380 is typed in the margin.

$16. 'the House of Finrod': see under $7 above. - The paragraph beginning 'It is said that in all these matters ...' in the published Silmarillion was derived from the Grey Annals, $$ 130 - 1 (pp. 49 - 50).

$18. With the speech of Bereg and Amlach compare the words of Andreth to Felagund in the Athrabeth, X.309-10.

$19. Against the first sentence of the paragraph the date 369 was added.

$20. After 'new-comers that are unwary' the text as typed read before emendation:

Which of you has seen the Light or the least of the gods? Who has beheld the Dark King in the North? The Sea has no shore. There is no Light in the West, for we stand now in the West of the world.

$23. The form Caranthir appears here in the typescript as typed: see under $13 above. In the carbon copy a stroke was drawn through the n of Caranthir, sc. Carathir, and the same was done at the first occurrence of the name ($13) in the top copy.

$24. The siege of the Haladin behind their stockade is dated 375, typed in the margin.

$25. It is here that the Lady Haleth enters the history; Haleth the Hunter, Father of Men, who first appeared long before in the Quenta as the son of Hador (when the 'Hadorian' and 'Halethian'

houses were one and the same, see IV.104, 175), has now disappeared.

$27. Against the last sentence, referring to the sojourn of the Haladin in Estolad, the date 376 - 390 is typed in the margin.

$28. Hardan son of Haldar: the substitution of Haldan for Hardan in the published text was derived from a late change to a genealogical table of the Haladin (see p. 238).

Brithiach: the Ford of Brithiach over Sirion north of the Forest of Brethil had first appeared in the later Tale of Tuor (Unfinished Tales p. 41), and again in GA $161; see the map on p. 182, square D 7. -

Against the sentence 'At last they crossed over the Brithiach' is the date 391.

Dalath Dirnen: the Guarded Plain east of Narog. The name first appears in the tale of Beren and Luthien in QS (V.299), and was marked in on the second map, where it was subsequently changed to Talath Dirnen (p. 186, $17), as also on the LQ 2 typescript of the present text (p. 225, $28).

Teiglin: this was the form of the name adopted in the published Silmarillion; see pp. 309-10, at end of note 55.

$29. In the Grey Annals $132 (p. 50) the story had entered (under the year 422) that 'at the prayer of Inglor [Felagund] Thingol granted to Haleth's people to live in Brethil; for they were in good friendship with the woodland Elves' (Haleth here is of course Haleth the Hunter, who had entered Beleriand two years before).

List Melian, the Girdle of Melian: this name was entered on the second map (p. 183, D 8-9), and changed to Lest Melian on the carbon copy of the original typescript of the chapter (p. 225, $29).

Tur Daretha: for the form Tur Haretha in the published text see p. 225, $29. - The date of the death of the Lady Haleth is given in the margin: 420.

$31. In the newly devised history, Marach having displaced Hador Goldenhead as the leader of the people in the journey out of Eriador, Hador now appears as the descendant of Marach in the fourth generation; but the House of Hador retained its name (see IV.175).

This is the first occurrence of the name Glorindol; but the later form Lorindol (adopted in the published Silmarillion) has been met with in the Athrabeth (X.305), and see pp. 233 - 5.

Marginal dates give Hador's years in Fingolfin's household as 405-415, and the granting to him of the lordship of Dor-lomin as 416.

The concluding sentence of the paragraph as typed read: But in Dorthonion the lordship of the people of Beor was given to Bregor son of Boromir...

The date of this gift, as typed in the margin, was 410. - 'The country of Ladros', in the emended version, was marked on the second map in the north-east of Dorthonion: p. 187, $34.

$32. For the remainder of its length Of the Coming of Men into the West returns to follow, with much rewriting and expansion, the form of the original chapter in QS. - Galdor first occurs here (otherwise than in later corrections), replacing Galion which itself replaced Gumlin (p. 123, $127).

The new genealogies of the Edain.

My father's decision that the coming of the Edain over the Blue Mountains into Beleriand took place nearly a century earlier than he had supposed led to a massive overhauling of the chronology and the genealogies.

(i) The House of Beor.

From the new chapter it is seen that in the case of the Beorians the original 'Father', Beor the Old, remained, but four new generations were introduced between him and Bregolas and Barahir, who until now had been his sons. These generations are represented by Baran, Boron, Boromir, and Bregor (who becomes the father of Bregolas and Barahir), descendants in the direct line of Beor the Old - though it is not actually stated that Boron was Baran's son, only that he was Beor's grandson ($31). In the Grey Annals ($121) Beor was born in the year 370, his encounter with Felagund took place in 400, the year in which his elder son Bregolas was born ($124), and he died in 450. In the new history he met Felagund in 310, departed with him in 311 (commentary on $13), and remained in his service for forty-four years until his death at the age of 93 ($34); from which his dates can be seen to be 262-355. His true name was Balan ($12); and it is stated in the second footnote to $7 that each of the chieftains of this people bore the name Beor ('Vassal') as a title until the time of Bregolas and Barahir -

though this note was afterwards struck out (commentary on $7).

Boromir his great-grandson received the lordship of Dorthonion and Ladros in 410 ($31 and commentary).

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