The War of the Jewels (74 page)

When the Elves met the powerful Dwarves of Nogrod and Belegost, in the eastern side of the Mountains, they recognized them as Incarnates, for they had skill in many crafts, and learned the Elvish speech readily for purposes of traffic. At first the Elves were in doubt concerning them, believing them to be related to Orcs and creatures of Morgoth; but when they found that, though proud and unfriendly, they could be trusted to keep any treaties that they made, and did not molest those who left them in peace, they traded with them and let them come and go as they would. They no longer classed them as Moerbin, but neither did they ever reckon them as Celbin, calling them the Dornhoth ('the thrawn folk') or the Naugrim ('the stunted people'). [See further on the Petty-dwarves pp. 388 - 9.]

Note 8 (p. 377).

Though Morben might still be applied to them by any who remained hostile to Men (as were the people of Doriath for the most part); but this was intended to be insulting.

Note 9 (p. 377; referred to in two passages).

The implication that as opposed to Celbin the Moerbin were allies of Morgoth, or at least of dubious loyalty, was, however, untrue with regard to the Avari. No Elf of any kind ever sided with Morgoth of free will, though under torture or the stress of great fear, or deluded by lies, they might obey his commands: but this applied also to Celbin. The 'Dark-elves', however, often were hostile, and even treacherous, in their dealings with the Sindar and Noldor; and if they fought, as they did when themselves assailed by the Orcs, they never took any open part in the War on the side of the Celbin. They were, it seems, filled with an inherited bitterness against the Eldar, whom they regarded as deserters of their kin, and in Beleriand this feeling was increased by envy (especially of the Amanyar), and by resentment of their lordliness. The belief of the Celbin that, at the least, they were weaker in resistance to the pressures or lies of Morgoth, if this grievance was concerned, may have been justified; but the only case recorded in the histories is that of Maeglin, the son of Eol. Eol was a Mornedhel, and is said to have belonged to the Second Clan (whose representatives among the Eldar were the Noldor).(33) He dwelt in East Beleriand not far from the borders of Doriath. He had great smith-craft, especially in the making of swords, in which work he surpassed even the Noldor of Aman; and many therefore believed that he used the morgul, the black arts taught by Morgoth. The Noldor themselves had indeed learned much from Morgoth in the days of his captivity in Valinor; but it is more likely that Eol was acquainted with the Dwarves, for in many places the Avari became closer in friendship with that people than the Amanyar or the Sindar. Eol found Irith,(34) the sister of King Turgon, astray in the wild near his dwelling, and he took her to wife by force: a very wicked deed in the eyes of the Eldar. His son Maeglin was later admitted to Gondolin, and given honour as the king's sisterson; but in the end he betrayed Gondolin to Morgoth.

Maeglin was indeed an Elf of evil temper and dark mind, and he had a lust and grudge of his own to satisfy; but even so he did what he did only after torment and under a cloud of fear. Some of the Nandor, who were allowed to be Celbin, were not any better. Saeros, a counsellor of King Thingol, who belonged to a small clan of Nandor living in eastern Doriath, was chiefly responsible for the driving into outlawry of Turin son of Hurin.

Turin's mother was named Morwen 'dark maiden', because of her dark hair, and it was one of Saeros' worst insults to call her Morben. For that Turin smote him in the king's hall.(35) This resentment on the part of the Avari is illustrated by the history of PQ *kwendi. This word, as has been shown, did not survive in the Telerin languages of Middle-earth, and was almost forgotten even in the Telerin of Aman. But the Loremasters of later days, when more friendly relations had been established with Avari of various kinds in Eriador and the Vale of Anduin, record that it was frequently to be found in Avarin dialects. These were numerous, and often as widely sundered from one another as they were from the Eldarin forms of Elvish speech,. but wherever the descendants of *kwendi were found, they meant not 'Elves in general', but were the names that the Avari gave to themselves. They had evidently continued to call themselves *kwendi, the People, regarding those who went away as deserters - though according to Eldarin tradition the numbers of the Eldar at the time of the Separation were in the approximate proportion of 3:2, as compared with the Avari (see p. 381). The Avarin forms cited by the Loremasters were: kindi, cuind, hwenti, windan, kinn-lai, penni. The last is interesting as showing the change kw > p. This might be independent of the Common Telerin change; but it suggests that it had already occurred among the Lindar before the Separation. The form penni is cited as coming from the 'Wood-elven' speech of the Vale of Anduin, and these Elves were among the most friendly to the fugitives from Beleriand, and held themselves akin to the remnants of the Sindar.

Note 10 (p. 378).

It is not surprising that the Edain, when they learned Sindarin, and to a certain extent Quenya also, found it difficult to discern whether words and names containing the element el referred to the stars or to the Elves. This is seen in the name Elendil, which became a favourite name among the Edain, but was meant to bear the sense 'Elf-friend'. Properly in Quenya it meant 'a lover or student of the stars', and was applied to those devoted to astronomical lore. 'Elf-friend' would have been more correctly represented by Quen(den)dil or Eldandil.

Note 11 (p. 378).

Lake Mithrim, meaning originally 'Lake of the Mithrim'.

Mithrim was a name given to them by the southern-dwellers, because of the cooler climate and greyer skies, and the mists of the North. It was probably because the Noldor first came into contact with this northerly branch that they gave in Quenya the name Sindar or Sindeldi 'Grey-elves' to all the Telerin inhabitants of the Westlands who spoke the Sindarin language.

Though this name was also later held to refer to Elwe's name Thingol (Sindikollo) 'Grey-cloak', since he was acknowledged as high-king of all the land and its peoples. It is said also that the folk of the North were clad much in grey, especially after the return of Morgoth when secrecy became needed; and the Mithrim had an art of weaving a grey cloth that made its wearers almost invisible in shadowy places or in a stony land.

This art was later used even in the southern lands as the dangers of the War increased.

Note 12 (p. 380).

The language of Mithrim was also a marked dialect; but none of the dialects of Sindarin differed widely enough to interfere with intercourse. Their divergences were no greater than those that had arisen between the Quenya as spoken by the Vanyar, and as spoken by the Noldor at the time of the Exile.

Note 13 (p. 380).

For the late PQ gl- as an initial variation of l- see General Phonology.(37) Though this Clan-name has *glind- in Sindarin, the g- does not appear in Amanya Telerin, nor in Nandorin, so that in this case it may be an addition in Sindarin, which favoured and much increased initial groups of this kind.

Note 14 (p. 382).

For this reason the most frequently used of the 'titles' or secondary names of the Lindar was Nendili 'Water-lovers'.

Note 15 (p. 382).

A simple agental formation (like *abaro > *abar from *ABA) from the stem *TELE, the primary sense of which appears to have been 'close, end, come at the end': hence in Q telda 'last, final'; tele- intransitive verb 'finish, end', or 'be the last thing or person in a series or sequence of events'; telya transitive verb

'finish, wind up, conclude'; telma 'a conclusion, anything used to finish off a work or affair'. This was possibly distinct from

*tel-u 'roof in, put the crown on a building', seen in Q telume

'roof, canopy'. (This was probably one of the earliest Quendian words for the heavens, the firmament, before the increase of their knowledge, and the invention of the Eldarin word Menel.

Cf. Telumehtar 'warrior of the sky', an older name for Menelmakil, Orion.) The word telluma 'dome, cupola' is an alteration of telume under the influence of Valarin delgsima: see p. 399. But *telu may be simply a differentiated form of *TELE, since the roof was the final work of a building; cf. telma, which was often applied to the last item in a structure, such as a coping-stone, or a topmost pinnacle.

Note 16 (p. 384).

See above, p. 381. The proportion, per 144, of the Eldar remaining in Middle-earth was reckoned at 26, of which about 8 were Nandor.

Note 17 (p. 384).

Lenwe is the form in which his name was remembered in Noldorin histories. His name was probably *Denwego, Nandorin Denweg. His son was the Nandorin chieftain Denethor.

These names probably meant 'lithe-and-active' and 'lithe-and-lank', from *dene- 'thin and strong, pliant, lithe', and *thara-

'tall (or long) and slender'.

Note 18 (p. 384).

The name Nandor was a derivative of the element *dan, *ndan-indicating the reversal of an action, so as to undo or nullify its effect, as in 'undo, go back (the same way), unsay, give back (the same gift: not another in return)'. The original word *ndando, therefore, probably only implied 'one who goes back on his word or decision'.

Note 19 (p. 386).

In Q Eldameldor, S Elvellyn. That is, 'Elf-lovers'. The words Quendili, Eldandili (see Note 10), though not excluding affection and personal loyalties, would have implied also deep concern with all lore relative to the Elves, which was not necessarily included in the words meldor, mellyn 'lovers, friends'.

Note 20 (p. 387).

That is, to die by nature, of age or weariness, and inevitably, not only (as the Elves) of some grievous hurt or sorrow.

Note 21 (p. 387).

S -eb is from *ikwa, CT *-ipa, probably related to the Q -inqua.

Cf. S aglareb 'glorious', Q alkarinqua. Both are probably related to the element *kwa, *kwa-ta seen in Eldarin words for

'full'.

Note 22 (p. 388).

S ch was only an approximation; the Dwarvish kh was in fact a strong aspirate, not a spirant. Similarly at the time of the borrowing Sindarin did not possess either the sound z or long a.

This does not mean that the Elves could not imitate or acquire sounds alien to their native speech. All the Elves had great skill in language, and far surpassed Men in this matter. The Noldor were the chief linguists of the Elves, but their superiority was shown not so much in the acquisition of new tongues as in their love of language, their inventiveness, and their concern with the lore of language, and the history and relations of different tongues. In adopting a word for use in their own tongue (which they loved) Elves fitted it to their own style for aesthetic reasons.

Note 23 (p. 388)

These words are derived from the stem *NUKU 'dwarf, stunted, not reaching full growth or achievement, failing of some mark or Standard', seen in *nukta-, Q nuhta- 'stunt, prevent from coming to completion, stop short, not allow to continue', S

nuitha- of similar senses. An adjectival formation was *nauka, from which were derived S naug, Q nauka, especially applied to things that though in themselves full-grown were smaller or shorter than their kind, and were hard, twisted or ill-shapen.

Nogoth is probably from some such form as *nukotto/a 'a stunted or ill-shapen thing (or person)'.

Note 24 (p. 388).

The Q h had become too weak to represent aspirate kh which was therefore rendered by k. Final d had become r, and this change was recognized in the adaptation. Medial z < s had become r in the Noldorin dialect of Q except when an adjacent syllable, or (as here) the same syllable, already contained an r.

Note 25 (p. 388).

Norno is a personalized form of the adjective norna 'stiff, tough', the Q equivalent of S dorn. Both are from the stem

*DORO 'dried up, hard, unyielding'. With the frequent initial enrichment d > nd this appears in PQ *ndore 'the hard, dry land as opposed to water or bog > land in general as opposed to sea; a land (a particular region with more or less defined bounds)'. Hence S dor (-ndor > -nor, -nnor) 'land'. In Q this word became confused or blended with the distinct *nore from the stem *ONO (see p. 387), family, tribe or group having a common ancestry, the land or region in which they dwelt'.

Thus Q nore was generally used for 'land' associated with a particular people, and the old *ndore survived only in name-compounds: as Valinore < *Valinore 'the people and land of the Valar', beside Valinor, Valandor. A particular land or region was in Q arda,. land as opposed to water or sea was nor (< *ndoro) as opposed to ear. The Q forms norna, Norno may also contain nd-, though S dorn does not; but this is probably one of the cases in which Q initial d became n-, not l-, by assimilation to an n occurring later in the word.