The War of the Jewels (9 page)

'hidden from me; for by no vision or thought can I perceive aught that passed or passes in the West: a shadow lies over all the Land of Aman, and reaches far out over the Sea. [Wilt thou not >] Why wilt thou not tell me more?'

'For that woe is past,' answered Galadriel; 'and I would take what joy is here left untroubled by memory. And maybe there is woe enough yet to come, though still hope may seem bright.'

$93. Then Melian looked in her eyes, and said: 'I believe not that the Noldor came forth as messengers of the Valar, as was said at first: not though they came in the very hour of our need.

For lo! they speak never of the Valar, nor have their high lords brought any message to Thingol, whether from Manwe, or Ulmo, or even from Olwe the king's brother and his own folk that went over the Sea. For what cause, Galadriel, were the high people of the Noldor driven forth as exiles from Aman? Or what evil lies on the sons of Feanor that they are so haughty and fell? Do I not strike near the truth?'

$94. 'Near, lady,' answered Galadriel, 'save that we were not driven forth, but came of our own will, and against that of the Valar. And through great peril and in despite of the Valar for this purpose we came: to take vengeance upon Morgoth, [or >]

and regain what he stole.' Then Galadriel spoke to Melian of the Silmarils, and of the slaying of King Finwe. But still she said no word of the Oath, nor of the Kinslaying, nor of the burning of the ships.

$95. But Melian, who looked still in her eyes as she spoke, said: 'Now much thou tellest me, and yet more I perceive. A darkness thou wouldst cast still over the long road from Tirion, but I see evil there, which Thingol should learn for his guidance.'

'Maybe,' said Galadriel, 'but not of me.'

$96. And Melian spoke then no more of these matters with Galadriel; but she told to King Thingol all that she had heard of the Silmarils. 'This is a great matter,' said she, 'a greater indeed than the Noldor themselves understand. For lo! the Light of Aman and the fate of Arda lie now locked in these things, the work of Feanor, who is gone. They shall not be recovered, I foretell, by any power of the Eldar; and the world shall be broken in battles that are to come, ere they are wrested from Morgoth. See now! Feanor they have slain (and many another I guess); but first of all the deaths they have brought and yet shall bring was Finwe thy friend. Morgoth slew him, ere he fled from Aman.'

$97 Then Thingol was silent a while with grief and foreboding; but at length he said: 'Now at last I understand the coming of the Noldor out of the West, at which I wondered much before. Not to our aid came they (save by chance); for those that remain upon Middle-earth the Valar will leave to their own devices, until the uttermost need. For vengeance and redress of their loss the Noldor came. Yet all the more sure shall they be as allies against Morgoth, with whom it is not now to be thought that they shall ever make treaty.'

$98. But Melian said: 'Truly for these causes they came; but for others also. Beware of the sons of Feanor! The shadow of the wrath of the Gods lies upon them; and they have done evil, I perceive, both in Aman and to their own kin. A grief but lulled to sleep lies between the princes of the Noldor.'

$99. And Thingol said: What is that to me? Of Feanor I have heard but report, which maketh him great indeed. Of his sons I hear little to my pleasure; yet they are likely to prove the deadliest foes of our foe.'

'Their words and their counsels shall have two edges,' said Melian; and afterward they spake no more of this matter.

67

$100. It was not long ere whispered tales began to pass among the Sindar concerning the deeds of the Noldor ere they came to Beleriand. Whence they came is now clear (though it was not so then), and as may well be thought, the evil truth was enhanced and poisoned with lies. Morgoth chose the Sindar for this first assault of his malice, because they knew him not, and were yet unwary and trustful of words. Therefore Cirdan, hearing these dark tales, was troubled. Wise he was, and perceived swiftly that, true or false, these tales were put about at this time with malice; but the malice he deemed was that of the princes of the Noldor because of the jealousy of their houses.

Therefore he sent messengers to Thingol to tell all that he had heard.

$101. And it chanced that at that time the sons of Finrod were again the guests of Thingol, for they wished to see their sister Galadriel. Then Thingol, being greatly moved, spake in ire to Inglor, saying: 'Ill hast thou done to me, kinsman, to conceal so great matters from me. For behold! I have learned of all the evil deeds of the Noldor.'

$102 But Inglor answered: 'What ill have I done thee, lord?

Or what evil deed have the Noldor done in all thy realm to grieve thee? Neither against thy kingship nor against any of thy folk have they thought evil or done evil.'

$103. 'I marvel at thee, son of Earwen,' said Thingol, 'that thou wouldst come to the board of thy kinsman thus redhanded from the slaying of thy mother's kin, and yet say nought in defence, nor yet seek any pardon!'

$104. And Inglor was sorely troubled, but he was silent, for he could not defend himself, save by bringing charges against the other princes of the Noldor; and this he was loath to do before Thingol. But in Angrod's heart the memory of the words of Cranthir welled up again with bitterness, and he cried: 'Lord, I know not what lies thou hast heard, nor whence. But we come not redhanded. Guiltless we came forth, save maybe of folly, to listen to the words of fell Feanor, and become as folk besotted with wine, and as briefly. No evil did we do on our road, but suffered ourselves great wrong. And forgave it. For which we are named tale-bearers to thee and treasonable to the Noldor.

Untruly as thou knowest, for we have of our loyalty been silent before thee, and thus earned thy anger. But now these charges are not longer to be borne, and the truth thou shalt know.' Then he spake bitterly against the sons of Feanor, telling of the blood at Alqualonde, and the doom of Mandos, and the burning of the ships at Losgar. 'Wherefore should we that endured the Grinding Ice bear the names of kinslayers and traitors?' he cried.

$105. 'Yet the shadow of Mandos lies on you also,' said Melian. But Thingol was long silent ere he spoke. 'Go now!' he said. 'For my heart is hot within me. Later ye may return, if you will. For I will not shut my doors for ever against you my kin, that were ensnared in an evil that ye did not aid. With Fingolfin and his folk also I will keep friendship, for they have bitterly atoned for such ill as they did. And in our hatred of the Power that wrought all this woe our griefs shall be lost.

$106. 'But hear this! Never again in my ears shall be heard the tongue of those who slew my folk in Alqualonde! Nor in all my realm shall that tongue be openly spoken, while my power endureth. All the Sindar shall hear my command that they shall neither speak with the tongue of the Noldor nor answer to it.

And all such as use it shall be held slayers of kin and betrayers of kin unrepentant.'

$107. Then the sons of Finrod departed from Menegroth with heavy hearts, perceiving how the words of Mandos would ever be made true, and that none of the Noldor that followed after Feanor could escape from the shadow that lay upon his house. And it came to pass even as Thingol had spoken; for the Sindar heard his word and thereafter throughout Beleriand they refused the tongue of the Noldor, and shunned those that spoke it aloud; but the Exiles took the Sindarin tongue in all their daily uses, [save only in Gondolin where Noldor dwelt unmingled, but that was yet hidden. >] and the High Speech of the West was spoken only by the lords of the Noldor among themselves, yet it lived ever as a language of lore wherever any of that folk dwelt.

102.

$108. About this time it is recorded that Nargothrond was full-wrought, and Finrod's sons were gathered there to a feast and Galadriel came from Doriath and dwelt there a while. Now King Inglor Felagund had no wife, and Galadriel asked him why this was; but foresight came upon Felagund as she spoke, and he said: 'An oath I too shall swear, and must be free to fulfill it and go into darkness. Nor shall anything of all my realm endure that a son should inherit.'

$109. But it is said that not until that hour had such cold thoughts ruled him; for indeed she whom he had loved was Amarie of the Vanyar, and she was not permitted to go with him into exile.

116.

$110. In this year according to the records of that city Gondolin was full-wrought, in fifty years after the coming of Turgon from Nivrost. But no tidings of this came over the mountains, nor were any of Turgon's kin bidden to a feast. [This annal was later struck out and replaced by the following rider, $$111-13:]

$111. In this year Gondolin was full-wrought, after fifty

[added: and 2] years of secret toil. Now therefore Turgon prepared to depart from Nivrost, and leave his fair halls in Vinyamar beneath Mount Taras; and then [for the last time Ulmo himself came to him >] Ulmo came to him a second time /

and said: 'Now thou shalt go at last to Gondolin, Turgon; and I will set my power in the Vale of Sirion, so that none shall mark thy going, nor shall any find there the hidden entrance to thy land against thy will. Longest of all the realms of the Eldalie shall Gondolin stand against Melkor. But love it not too well, and remember that the true hope of the Noldor lieth in the West and cometh from the Sea.'

$112. And Ulmo warned Turgon that he also lay under the Doom of Mandos, which Ulmo had no power to remove. 'Thus it may come to pass,' he said, 'that the curse of the Noldor shall find thee too ere the end, and treason shall awake within thy walls. Then shall they be in peril of fire. But if this peril draweth nigh, then even from Nivrost one shall come to warn thee, and from him beyond ruin and fire hope shall be born for Elves and Men. Leave, therefore, in this house arms and a sword, that in years to come he may find them, and thus shalt thou know him and be not deceived.' And Ulmo showed to Turgon of what kind and stature should be the mail and helm and sword that he left behind.

$113. Then Ulmo returned to the Sea; and Turgon sent forth all his folk (even to a third part of the Noldor of Fingolfin's House, and a yet greater host of the Sindar), and they passed away, company by company, secretly, under the shadows of Eryd Wethion, and came unseen with their wives and goods to Gondolin, and none knew whither they were gone. And last of all Turgon arose and went with his lords and household silently through the hills and passed the gates in the mountains, and they were shut. But Nivrost was empty of folk and so remained until the ruin of Beleriand.

150.

$114. The people of Cranthir Feanor's son dwelt beyond the upper waters of Gelion, about Lake Helevorn under the shadow of the Blue Mountains. At this time it is said that they first climbed into the mountains and looked eastward, and wide and wild it seemed to them was Middle-earth. Thus it was that Cranthir's folk first came upon the Naugrim, who after the onslaught of Morgoth and the coming of the Noldor had ceased their traffick into Beleriand. Now, though either people loved skill and was eager to learn, there was little love between the Noldor and the Dwarves. For the Dwarves were secret and quick to resentment, whereas Cranthir was haughty and scarce concealed his scorn for the unloveliness of the Naugrim, and his folk followed their lord. Nonetheless, since both peoples feared and hated Morgoth they made alliance, and had of it great profit. For the Naugrim learned many secrets of craft in those days, so that the smiths and masons of Nogrod and Belegost became renowned among their kin; but the Noldor got great wealth of iron, and their armouries became filled with store of weapons and harness of war. Moreover thereafter, until the power of Maidros was overthrown, all the traffick of the dwarf-mines passed first through the hands of Cranthir, and thus he won great riches.

155.

$115. Here after long quiet Morgoth endeavoured to take Fingolfin at unawares (for he knew of the vigilance of Maidros); and he sent forth an army into the white north, and it turned then west and again south and came by the coasts to the firth of Drengist, and so would enter into the heart of the realm of Hithlum. But it was espied in time and taken in a trap among the hills at the head of the firth, and the most of the Orcs were driven into the sea. This was not reckoned among the great battles, and was but the most dangerous of the many trials and thrusts that Angband would make ever and anon against the leaguer. Thereafter there was peace for many years, and no open assault; for Morgoth perceived now that the Orcs unaided were no match for the Noldor, save in such numbers as he could not yet muster. Therefore he sought in his heart for new counsel, and he bethought him of dragons.

260.

$116. Here Glaurung, the first of the Uruloki, the fire-drakes of the North, came forth from Angband's gate by night.