The War of the Jewels (5 page)

Lord of the Balrogs, smote him to the ground, and there he would have perished, but Maidros and three other of his sons in that moment came up with force to his aid, and the Balrogs fled back to Angband.

$46. Then his sons raised up their father and bore him back towards Mithrim. But as they drew near to Eithel Sirion and were upon the upward path to the pass over the mountains, Feanor bade them halt. For his wounds were mortal, and he knew that his hour was come. And looking out from the slopes of Eryd-wethrin with his last sight he beheld afar the peaks of Thangorodrim, mightiest of the towers of Middle-earth, and knew with the foreknowledge of death that no power of the Noldor would ever overthrow them; but he cursed the name of Morgoth, and laid it upon his sons to hold to their oath, and to avenge their father. Then he died; but he had neither burial nor tomb, for so fiery was his spirit that, as it passed, his body fell to ash and was borne away like a smoke, and his likeness has never again appeared in Arda, neither has his spirit left the realm of Mandos. Thus ended the mightiest of the Noldor, of whose deeds came both their greatest renown and their most grievous woe.

$47. Tidings of these great deeds came to Menegroth and to Eglarest, and the Grey-elves were filled with wonder and with hope, for they looked to have great help in their defence against (* [Marginal note:] whom Ecthelion afterward slew in Gondolin.) Morgoth from their mighty kindred that thus returned unlooked-for from the West in their very hour of need, believing indeed at first that they came as emissaries of the Valar to deliver their brethren from evil. Now the Grey-elves were of Telerian race, and Thingol was the brother of Olwe at Alqualonde, but naught yet was known of the kinslaying, nor of the manner of the exile of the Noldor, and of the oath of Feanor. Yet though they had not heard of the Curse of Mandos, it was soon at work in Beleriand. For it entered into the heart of King Thingol to regret the days of peace when he was the high lord of all the land and its peoples. Wide were the countries of Beleriand and many empty and wild, and yet he welcomed not with full heart the coming of so many princes in might out of the West, eager for new realms.

$48. Thus there was from the first a coolness between him and the sons of Feanor, whereas the closest friendship was needed, if Morgoth were to be withstood; for the [House >]

sons of Feanor were ever unwilling to accept the overlordship of Thingol, and would ask for no leave where they might dwell or might pass. When, therefore, ere long (by treachery and ill will, as later is told) the full tale of the deeds in Valinor became known in Beleriand, there was rather enmity than alliance between Doriath and the House of Feanor; and this bitterness Morgoth eagerly inflamed by all means that he could find. But that evil lay as yet in the days to come, and the first meeting of the Sindar and the Noldor was eager and glad, though parley was at first not easy between them, for in their long severance the tongue of the Kalaquendi in Valinor and the Moriquendi in Beleriand had drawn far apart.

Excursus on the languages of Beleriand.

I interrupt the text here since the complex variant material that follows in the two manuscripts cannot well be accommodated in the commentary.

In place of GA 2 $48 just given, GA 1 (making no reference to the active hostility that developed between Thingol and the Feanorians) has only the following (after the words 'eager for new realms'): Moreover in their long severance the tongues of the Sindar and the Noldor had drawn apart, and at first parley was not easy between them.

This is followed by a long 'excursus' (marked on the manuscript as an intrusion into the main text) on the development and relations of Noldorin and Sindarin in Beleriand, the end of which is also the end of GA 1. This discussion reappears, rewritten, in GA 2, and then this revised form was itself substantially altered. It seems desirable to give all the versions of this passage, of central importance in the linguistic history of Middle-earth. The numbered notes to this section are found on p. 28.

The original version in GA 1 reads as follows.

It was indeed at the landing of Feanor three hundred and sixty-five long years of the Valar (1) since the Noldor had passed over the Sea and left the Teleri behind them. Now that time was in length well nigh as three thousand and five hundred years of the Sun. In such an age the tongues of mortal Men that were far sundered would indeed change out of knowledge, unless it were as written records of song and wisdom. But in Valinor in the days of the Trees change was little to be perceived, save that which came of will and design, while in Middle-earth under the Sleep of Yavanna it was slow also, though before the Rising of the Moon all things had been stirred from slumber in Beleriand, as has before been told. (2) Therefore, whereas the tongue of the Noldor had altered little from the ancient tongue of the Eldar upon the march - and its altering had for the most part come in the making of new words (for things old and new) and in the softening and harmonizing of the sounds and patterns of the Quendian tongue to forms that seemed to the Noldor more beautiful - the language of the Sindar had changed much, even in unheeded growth as a tree may imperceptibly change its shape: as much maybe as an unwritten mortal tongue might change in five hundred years or more.(3) It was already ere the Rising of the Sun a speech greatly different to the ear from the Noldorin, and after that Rising all change was swift, for a while in the second Spring of Arda very swift indeed. To the ear, we say, because though Dairon the minstrel and loremaster of Menegroth had devised his Runes already by V.Y. 1300 (and after greatly bettered them), it was not the custom of the Sindar to write down their songs or records, and the Runes of Dairon (save in Menegroth) were used chiefly for names and brief inscriptions cut upon wood, stone, or metal.(The Naugrim (4) learned the Runes of Dairon from Menegroth, being well-pleased with the device and esteeming Dairon higher than [did]

his own folk; and by the Naugrim they were brought east over the Mountains.)(5)

Soon, however, it came to pass that the Noldor in daily use took on the Sindarin tongue, and this tongue enriched by words and devices from Noldorin became the tongue of all the Eldar in Beleriand (save in the country of the Green[-elves]) and the language of all the Eldar, either in Middle-earth, or that (as shall be told) went back from exile into the West and dwelt and dwell now upon Eressea. In Valinor the ancient Elven-speech is maintained, and the Noldor never forsook it; but it became for them no longer a cradle-tongue, a mother-tongue, but a learned language of lore, and of high song and noble and solemn use.

Few of the Sindar learned it, save in so far as they became, outside Doriath, merged in one people with Noldor and followed their princes; as indeed ere long happened indeed except for few scattered companies of Sindar in mountainous woods, and except also for the lordship of Cirdan, and the guarded kingdom of Thingol.

Now this change of tongue among the Noldor took place for many divers reasons. First, that though the Sindar were not numerous they far outnumbered the hosts of Feanor and Fingolfin, such as in the end survived their dreadful journeys and reached Beleriand. Secondly and no less: that the Noldor having forsaken Aman themselves began to be subject to change undesigned while they were yet upon the march, and at the Rising of the Sun this change became swift - and the change in their daily tongue was such that, whether by reason of the like clime and soil and the like fortunes, whether by intercourse and mingling of blood, it changed in the same ways as did the Sindarin, and the two tongues grew towards one anotner. Thus it came that words taken from Noldorin into Telerin entered not in the true forms of High Speech but as it were altered and fitted to the character of the tongue of Beleriand. Thirdly: because after the death of Feanor the overlordship of the Exiles (as shall be recounted) passed to Fingolfin, and he being of other mood than Feanor acknowledged the high-kingship of Thingol and Menegroth, being indeed greatly in awe of that king, mightiest of the Eldar save Feanor only, and of Melian no less. But though Elu- Thingol, great in memory, could recall the tongue of the Eldar as it had been ere riding from Finwe's camp he heard the birds of Nan Elmoth, in Doriath the Sindarin tongue alone was spoken, and all must learn it who would have dealings with the king.

It is said that it was after the Third Battle Dagor Aglareb (6) that the Noldor first began far and wide to take the Sindarin as they settled and established realms in Beleriand; though maybe the Noldorin survived (especially in Gondolin) until Dagor Arnediad (7) or until the Fall of Gondolin - survived, that is, in the spoken form that it had in Beleriand as different both from the Quenya (or Ancient Noldorin) and from the Sindarin: for the Quenya never perished and is known and used still by all such as crossed the Sea ere the Trees were slain.

This is the first general linguistic statement since the Lhammas, written long before, and there have been major shihs from the earlier theory. The third version of the Lhammas, 'Lammasethen', the latest and shortest of the three, gives a clear statement of what is more diffusely expressed in the longer versions, and I cite a part of it (from V.193-4):

Now ancient Noldorin, as first used, and written in the days of Feanor in Tun, remained spoken by the Noldor that did not leave Valinor at its darkening, and it abides still there, not greatly changed, and not greatly different from Lindarin. It is called Kornoldorin, or Finrodian because Finrod and many of his folk returned to Valinor and did not go to Beleriand. But most of the Noldor went to Beleriand, and in the 400 years of their wars with Morgoth their tongue changed greatly. For three reasons: because it was not in Valinor; because there was war and confusion, and much death among the Noldor, so that their tongue was subject to vicissitudes similar to those of mortal Men; and because in all the world, but especially in Middle-earth, change and growth was very great in the first years of the Sun. Also in Beleriand the tongue and dialects of the Telerian Ilkorins was current, and their king Thingol was very mighty; and Noldorin in Beleriand took much from Beleriandic especially of Doriath. Most of the names and places in that land were given in Doriathrin form. Noldorin returned, after the overthrow of Morgoth, into the West, and lives still in Tol-eressea, where it changes now little; and this tongue is derived mainly from the tongue of Gondolin, whence came Earendel; but it has much of Beleriandic, for Elwing his wife was daughter of Dior, Thingol's heir; and it has somewhat of Ossiriand, for Dior was son of Beren who lived long in Ossiriand.

There was also the book-tongue, 'Elf-Latin', Quenya, concerning which the Lammasethen gives a different account from that in the other versions (see V.195). The 'Elf-Latin', it is said (V.172), was brought to Middle-earth by the Noldor, it came to be used by all the Ilkorindi, 'and all Elves know it, even such as linger still in the Hither Lands'.

Thus in the Lhammas account we are concerned essentially with three tongues in Beleriand after the Return of the Noldor: Quenya, the high language and book-tongue, brought from Valinor by the Noldor;

Noldorin, the language of the Noldor in Kor, greatly changed in Beleriand and much influenced by the Ilkorin speech especially that of Doriath. (It is said in the Lhammas, V.174, that the Noldorin tongue of Kor, Korolambe or Kornoldorin, was itself much changed from ancient times through the peculiar inventiveness of the Noldor.)

Beleriandic, the Ilkorin tongue of Beleriand, which had become in long ages very different from the tongues of Valinor.

The Noldorin speech of Gondolin was the language that survived in Tol Eressea after the end of the Elder Days, though influenced by other speech, especially the Ilkorin of Doriath during the sojourn at Sirion's Mouths (see V.177 - 8).

In GA 1 we have still the conception that the language of the Noldor in Valinor was changed by Noldorin inventiveness, though it is em-phasized that it had altered little 'from the ancient tongue of the Eldar upon the.march'; and the profound difference between the Noldorin of the new-come Exiles out of Valinor and the ancient Telerian tongue of Beleriand (now called Sindarin) likewise remains - indeed it is the remark that at first communication between Noldor and Sindar was not easy that leads to this excursus. But in GA 1 it is said that, while the Sindarin tongue was 'enriched by words and devices from Noldorin', Sindarin nevertheless became the language of all the Eldar of Middle-earth and was the language of Tol Eressea after the Return; while Noldorin of Valinor became a 'learned' tongue - equivalent in status to the 'Elf-Latin' or Quenya of the Lhammas, but learned by few among the Sindar; and indeed the 'Ancient Noldorin' is equated with Quenya (p. 22, at the end of the text). Among the reasons given for this development is that spoken Noldorin in Beleriand and Sindarin 'grew towards' each other, and it is made clear in the last paragraph of the text that there was at the end of the Elder Days a profound difference between the spoken Noldorin of Beleriand, where it survived, and 'Ancient Noldorin' or Quenya.