Chapter Twenty-Two
The Dwarf-city of Nogrod is said in the tale to lie 'a very long journey southward beyond the wide forest on the borders of those great heaths nigh Umboth-muilin the Pools of Twilight, on the marches of Tasarinan' (p. 225). This could be interpreted to mean that Nogrod was itself 'on the borders of those great heaths nigh Umboth-muilin'; but I think that this is out of the question. It would be a most improbable place for Dwarves, who 'dwell beneath the earth in caves and tunnel)ed towns, and aforetime Nogrod was the mightiest of these' (p. 224). Though mountains are not specifically mentioned here in connection with Dwarves, I think it extremely likely that my father at this time conceived their cities to be in the mountains, as they were afterwards. Further, there seems nothing to contradict the view that the configuration of the lands in the Lost Tales was essentially similar to that of the earliest and later 'Silmarillion' maps; and on them, 'a very long journey southward' is totally inappropriate to that between the Thousand Caves and the Pools of Twilight. The meaning must therefore be, simply, 'a very long journey south- ward beyond the wide forest', and what follows places the wide forest, not Nogrod; the forest being, in fact, the Forest of Artanor.
The Pools of Twilight are described in The Fall of Condolin, but the Elvish name does not there appear (see pp. 195 -- 6, 217). Whether Belegost was near to or far from Nogrod is not made plain; it is said in this passage that the gold should be borne away 'to Nogrod and the dwellings of the Dwarves', but later (p. 230) the Indrafangs are 'a kindred of the Dwarves that dwelt in other realms'. In his association with the Dwarves Ufedhin is reminiscent of Eol, Maeglin's father, of whom it is said in The Silmarillion (p. 133) that 'for the Dwarves he had more liking than any other of the Elvenfolk of old', cf. ibid. p. 92: 'Few of the Eldar went ever to Nogrod or Belegost, save Eol of Nan Elmoth and Maeglin his son. ' In the early forms of the story of Eol and Isfin (referred to in The Fall of Condolin, p. 165) Eol has no association with Dwarves. In the present tale there is mention (p. 224) of 'great traffic' carried on by the Dwarves 'with the free Noldoli' (with Melko's servants also) in those days: we may wonder who these free Noldoli were, since the Rodothlim had been destroyed, and Gondolin was hidden. Perhaps the sons of Feanor are meant, or Egnor Beren's father (see p. 65). The idea that it was the Dwarves of Nogrod who were primarily involved survived into the later narrative, but they became exclusively so, and those of Belegost specifically denied all aid to them (?he Sil- marillion p. 233).
Turning now to the Elves, Beren is here of course still an Elf (see p. 139), and in his second span of life he is the ruler, in Hithlum -- Hisilome, of an Elvish people so numerous that 'not even Beren knew the tale of those myriad folk' (p. 234); they are called 'the green Elves' and 'the brown Elves and the green', for they were 'clad in green and brown', and Dior ruled them in Hithlum after the final departure of Beren and Tinuviel. Who were they? It is far from clear how they are to be set into the conception of the Elves of the Great Lands as it appears in other Tales. We may compare the passage in The Coming of the Elves (I. 118 -- 19): Long after the joy of Valinor had washed its memory faint [i. e. , the memory of the journey through Hisilome] the Elves sang still sadly of it, and told tales of many of their folk whom they said and say were lost in those old forests and ever wandered there in sorrow. Still were they there long after when Men were shut in Hisilome by Melko, and still do they dance there when Men have wandered far over the lighter places of the Earth.
Hisilome did Men name Aryador, and the Lost Elves did they call the Shadow Folk, and feared them. But in that tale the conception still was that Tinwelint ruled 'the scattered Elves of Hisilome', and in the outlines for Gilfanon's Tale the 'Shadow Folk' of Hisilome had ceased to be Elves (see p. 64). In any case, the expression 'green Elves', coupled with the fact that it was the Green- elves of Ossiriand whom Beren led to the ambush of the Dwarves at Sarn Athrad in the later story (The Silmarillion p. 235), shows which Elvish people they were to become, even though there is as yet no trace of Ossiriand beyond the river Gelion and the story of the origin of the Laiquendi (ibid. pp. 94, 96). It was inevitable that 'the land of the dead that live' should cease to be in Hisilome (which seems to have been in danger of having too many inhabitants), and a note on the manuscript of the Tale of the Nauglafring says: 'Beren must be in "Doriath beyond Sirion" on a. . . . . not in Hithlum. ' Doriath beyond Sirion was the region called in The Sil- marillion (p. 122) Nivrim, the West March, the woods on the west bank of the river between the confluence of Teiglin and Sirion and Aelin-uial, the Meres of Twilight.
In the Tale of Tinuviel Beren and Tinuviel, called i Cuilwarthon, 'became mighty fairies in the lands about the north of Sirion' (p. 41). Gwendelin/Gwenniel appears a somewhat faint and ineffective figure by comparison with the Melian of The Silmarillion. Conceivably, an aspect of this is the far slighter protection afforded to the realm of Artanor by her magic than that of the impenetrable wall and deluding mazes of the Girdle of Melian (see p. 63). But the nature of the protection in the old conception is very unclear. In the Tale of the Nauglafring the coming of the Dwarves from Nogrod is only known when they approach the bridge before Tinwelint's caves (p. 226); on the other hand, it is said (p. 230) that the 'woven magic' of the queen was a defence against 'men of hostile heart', who could never make their way through the woods unless aided by treachery from within. Perhaps this provides an explanation of a sort of how the Dwarves bringing treasure from Nogrod were able to penetrate to the halls of Tinwelint without hindrance and apparently undetected (cf. also the coming of Urin's band in the Tale of Turambar, p. 114).
In the event, the protective magic was easily -- too easily -- overthrown by the simple device of a single treacherous Elf of Artanor who 'offered to lead the host through the magics of Gwendelin'. This was evidently unsatisfactory; but I shall not enter further into this question here. Extraordinary difficulties of narrative structure were caused by this element of the inviolability of Doriath, as I hope to describe at a future date. It might be thought that the story of the drowning of the treasure at the Stony Ford (falling into the waters of the river with the Dwarves who bore it) was evolved from that in the rejected conclusion of the Tale of Turambar (p. 136) -- Tinwelint 'hearing that curse [set on the treasure by Urin] caused the gold to be cast into a deep pool of the river before his doors'. In the Taleof the Nauglafring, however, Tinwelint, influenced by the queen's foreboding words, still has the intention of doing this, but does not fulfil his intention (p. 223). The account of the second departure of Beren and Tinuviel (p. 240) raises again the extremely difficult question of the peculiar fate that was decreed for them by the edict of Mandos, which I have discussed on pp. 59 -- 60.
There I have suggested that the peculiar dispensation of Mandos in the case of Beren and Tinuviel as here conceived is therefore that their whole 'natural' destiny as Elves was changed: having died as Elves might die (from wounds or from grief) they were not reborn as new beings, but returned in their own persons- yet now 'mortal even as Men'. Here however Tinuviel 'faded', and vanished in the woods; and Beren searched all Hithlum and Artanor for her, until he too 'faded from life'. Since this fading is here quite explicitly the mode in which 'that doom of mortality that Mandos had spoken' came upon them (p. 240), it is very notable that it is likened to, and even it seems identified with, the fading of 'the Elves of later days throughout the world' -- as though in the original idea Elvish fading was a form of mortality. This is in fact made explicit in a later version.
The seven Sons of Feanor, their oath (sworn not in Valinor but after the coming of the Noldoli to the Great Lands), and the maiming of Maidros appear in the outlines for Gilfanon's Tale; and in the latest of these outlines the Feanorians are placed in Dor Lomin (= Hisilome, Hithlum), see I. 238, 240, 243. Here, in the Tale of the Nauglafring, appear for the first time the names of the Sons of Feanor, five of them (Maidros, Maglor, Celegorm, Cranthor, Curufin) in the forms, or almost the forms, they were to retain, and Curufin already with his sobriquet
'the Crafty'. The names Amrod and Amras in The Silmarillion were a late change; for long these two sons of Feanor were Damrod (as here) and Diriel (here Dinithel or Durithel, see Changes made to Names, p. 245) Here also appear Dior the Fair, also called Ausir the Wealthy, and his daughter Elwing; his son Auredhir early disappeared in the development of the legends. But Dior ruled in 'the southern vales' (p. 241) of Hisilome, not in Artanor, and there is no suggestion of any renewal of Tinwelint's kingdom after his death, in contrast to what was told later (The Silmarillion p. 236); moreover the Feanorians, as noted above, dwelt also in Hisilome -- and how all this is to be related to what is said elsewhere of the inhabitants of that region I am unable to say: cf. the Tale of Tinuviel, p. 10: 'Hisilome where dwelt Men, and thrall-Noldoli laboured, and few free-Eldar went. ' A very curious statement is made in this concluding part of the tale, that 'those were days of happiness in the vales of Hithlum, for there was peace with Melko and the Dwarves who had but one thought as they plotted against Gondolin' (p. 241).
Presumably 'peace with Melko' means no more than that Melko had averted his attention from those lands; but nowhere else is there any reference to the Dwarves' plotting against Gondolin. In the typescript version of the Tale of Tinuviel (p. 43) it is said that if Turgon King of Gondolin was the most glorious of the kings of the Elves who defied Melko, 'for a while the most mighty and the longest free was Thingol of the Woods'. The most natural interpretation of this expression is surely that Gondolin fell before Artanor; whereas in The Silmarillion (p. 240) 'Tidings were brought by Thorondor Lord of Eagles of the fall of Nargothrond, and after of the slaying of Thingol and of Dior his heir, and of the ruin of Doriath; but Turgon shut his ear to word of the woes without. ' In the present tale we see the same chronology, in that many of the Elves who followed Beren went after his departure to Gondolin, 'the rumour of whose growing power and glory ran in secret whispers among all the Elves' (p. 240), though here the destruction of Gondolin is said to have taken place on the very day that Dior was attacked by the Sons of Feanor (p. 242).
To evade the discrepancy therefore we must interpret the passage in the Tale of Tinuviel to mean that Thingol remained free for a longer period of years than did Turgon, irrespective of the dates of their downfalls. Lastly, the statements that Cum an-Idrisaith, the Mound of Avarice, 'stands there still in Artanor' (p. 223), and that the waters of Aros still flow above the drowned hoard (p. 238), are noteworthy as indications that nothing analogous to the Drowning of Beleriand was present in the original conception.
V. THE TALE OF EARENDEL. The 'true beginning' of the Tale of Earendel was to be the dwelling at Sirion's mouth of the Lothlim (the point at which The Fall of Gondolin ends: 'and fair among the Lothlim Earendel grows in the house of his father', pp. 196 -- 7) and the coming there of Elwing (the point at which the Tale of the Nauglafring ends: 'they departed for ever from the glades of Hithlum and got them to the south towards Sirion's deep waters, and the pleasant lands. And thus did all the fates of the fairies weave then to one strand, and that strand is the great tale of Earendel; and to that tale's true beginning are we now come', p. 242). The matter is complicated, however, as will be seen in a moment, by my father's also making the Nauglafring the first part of the Tale of Earendel. But the great tale was never written; and for the story as he then conceived it we are wholly dependent on highly condensed and often contradictory outlines.
There are also many isolated notes; and there are the very early Earendel poems. While the poems can be precisely dated, the notes and outlines can not; and it does not seem possible to arrange them in order so as to provide a clear line of development. One of the outlines for the Tale of Earendel is the earlier of the two 'schemes' for the Lost Tales which are the chief materials for Gilfanon's Tale; and I will repeat here what I said of this in the first part (I. 233): There is no doubt that [the earlier of the two schemes] was composed when the last Tales had reached their furthest point of development, as represented by the latest texts and arrangements given in this book. Now when this outline comes to the matter of Gilfanon's Tale it becomes at once very much fuller, but then contracts again to cursory references for the tales of Tinuviel, Turin, Tuor; and the Necklace of the Dwarves, and once more becomes fuller for the tale of Earendel. This scheme B (as I will continue to call it) provides a coherent if very rough narrative plan, and divides the story into seven parts, of which the first (marked 'Told') is 'The Nauglafring down to the flight of Elwing'.
This sevenfold division is referred to by Littleheart at the beginning of The Fall of Gondolin (p. 144): It is a mighty tale, and seven times shall folk fare to the Tale-fire ere it be rightly told; and so twined is it with those stories of the Nauglafring and of the Elf-march that I would fain have aid in that telling. . .
If the six parts following the Tale of the Nauglafring were each to be of comparable length, the whole Tale of Earendel would have been some-where near half the length of all the tales that were in fact written; but my father never afterwards returned to it on any ample scale. I give now the concluding part of Scheme B. Tale of Earendel begins, with which is interwoven the Nauglafring and the March of the Elves. For further details see Notebook C. * First part. The tale of the Nauglafring down to the flight of Elwing. Second part. The dwelling at Sirion. Coming thither of Elwing, and the love of her and Earendel as girl and boy. Ageing of Tuor -- his secret sailing after the conches of Ulmo in Swanwing. Earendel sets sail to the North to find Tuor, and if needs be Mandos. Sails in Earame. Wrecked. Ulmo appears. Saves him, bidding him sail to Kor -- 'for for this hast thou been brought out of the Wrack of Gondolin'.
Third part. Second attempt of Earendel to Mandos. Wreck of Falasquil and rescue by the Oarni. ~ He sights the Isle of Seabirds 'whither do all the birds of all waters come at whiles'. Goes back by land to Sirion. Idril has vanished (she set sail at night). The conches of Ulmo call Earendel. Last farewell of Elwing. Building of Wingilot. Fourth part. Earendel sails for Valinor. His many wanderings, occupy- ing several years. Fifth part. Coming of the birds of Gondolin to Kor with tidings. Uproar of the Elves. Councils of the Gods. March of the Inwir (death of Inwe), Teleri, and Solosimpi. Raid upon Sirion and captivity of Elwing. Sorrow and wrath of Gods, and a veil dropped between Valmar and Kor, for the Gods will not destroy it but cannot bear to look upon it.
Coming of the Eldar. Binding of Melko. Faring to Lonely Isle. Curse of the Nauglafring and death of Elwing. Sixth part. Earendel reaches Kor and finds it empty. Fares home in sorrow (and sights Tol Eressea and the fleet of the Elves, but a great wind and darkness carries him away, and he misses his way and has a voyage eastward). Arriving at length at Sirion finds it empty. Goes to the ruins of Gondolin. Hears of tidings. Sails to Tol Eressea. Sails to the Isle of Seabirds. Seventh part. His voyage to the firmament. (* For 'Notebook C' see p. 254. )
Written at the end of the text is: 'Rem[ainder] of Scheme in Notebook C'. These references in Scheme B to 'Notebook C' are to the little pocket-book which goes back to 1916 -- 17 but was used for notes and suggestions throughout the period of the Lost Tales (see I. 171). At the beginning of it there is an outline (here called 'C') headed 'Earendel's Tale, Tuor's son', which is in fair harmony with Scheme B: Earendel dwells with Tuor and Irilde~ at Sirion's mouth by the sea (on the Isles of Sirion). Elwing of the Gnomes of Artanor~ flees to them with the Nauglafring. Earendel and Elwing love one another as boy and girl. Great love of Earendel and Tuor. Tuor ages, and Ulmo's conches far out west over the sea call him louder and louder, till one evening he sets sail in his twilit boat with purple sails, Swanwing, Alqarame. ~ Idril sees him too late. Her song on the beach of Sirion. When he does not return grief of Earendel and Idril. Earendel (urged also by Idril who is immortal) desires to set sail and search even ' to Mandos. [Marginal addition:] Curse of Nauglafring rests on his voyages.
Osse his enemy. Fiord of the Mermaid. Wreck. Ulmo appears at wreck and saves them, telling them he must go to Kor and is saved for that. Elwing's grief when she
learns Ulmo's bidding. 'For no man may tread the streets of Kor or look upon the places of the Gods and dwell in the Outer Lands in peace again. ' Earendel departs all the same and is wrecked by the treachery of Osse and saved only by the Oarni (who love him) with Voronwe and dragged to Falasquil. Earendel makes his way back by land with Voronwe. Finds that Idril has vanished. ' His grief; Prays to Ulmo and hears the conches. Ulmo bids him build a new and wonderful ship of the wood of Tuor from Falasquil. Building of Wingilot. There are four items headed 'Additions' on this page of the notebook: Building of Earame (Eaglepinion). Noldoli add their pleading to Ulmo's bidding. Earendel surveys the first dwelling of Tuor at Falasquil. The voyage to Mandos and the Icy Seas. The outline continues: Voronwe and Earendel set sail in Wingilot. Driven south. Dark regions. Fire mountains. Tree-men. Pygmies. Sarqindi or cannibal- ogres. Driven west. Ungweliante. Magic Isles. Twilit Isle [sic]. Little- heart's gong awakes the Sleeper in the Tower of Pearl. ~ Kor is found. Empty. Earendel reads tales and prophecies in the waters. Desolation of Kor.
Earendel's shoes and self powdered with diamond dust so that they shine brightly. Homeward adventures. Driven east -- the deserts and red palaces where dwells the Sun. ~ Arrives at Sirion, only to find it sacked and empty. Earendel dis- traught wanders with Voronwe and comes to the ruins of Gondolin. Men are encamped there miserably. Also Gnomes searching still for lost gems (or some Gnomes gone back to Gondolin). Of the binding of Melko. ~ The wars with Men and the departure to Tol Eressea (the Eldar unable to endure the strife of the world). Earendel sails to Tol Eressea and learns of the sinking of Elwing and the Nauglafring. Elwing became a seabird. His grief is very great. His garments and body shine like diamonds and his face is in silver flame for the grief and. . . . . . . . . . He sets sail with Voronwe and dwells on the Isle of Seabirds in the northern waters (not far from Falasquil) -- and there hopes that Elwing will return among the seabirds, but she is seeking him wailing along all the shores and especially among wreckage. After three times seven years he sails again for halls of Mandos with Voronwe -- he gets there because [?only] those who still. . . . . . . . . . and had suffered may do so -- Tuor is gone to Valinor and nought is known of Idril or of Elwing.
Reaches bar at margin of the world and sets sail on oceans of the firmament in order to gaze over the Earth. The Moon mariner chases him for his brightness and he dives through the Door of Night. How he cannot now return to the world or he will die. He will find Elwing at the Faring Forth. Tuor and Idril some say sail now in Swanwing and may be seen going swift down the wind at dawn and dusk. The Co-events to Earendel's Tale. Raid upon Sirion by Melko's Orcs and the captivity of Elwing. Birds tell Elves of the Fall of Gondolin and the horrors of the fate of the Gnomes. Counsels of the Gods and uproar of the Elves. March of the Inwir and Teleri. The Solosimpi go forth also but fare along all the beaches of the world, for they are loth to fare far from the sound of the sea -- and only consent to go with the Teleri under these conditions -- for the Noldoli slew some of their kin at Kopas. This outline then goes on to the events after the coming of the Elves of Valinor into the Great Lands, which will be considered in the next chapter. Though very much fuller, there seems to be little in C that is certainly contradictory to what is said in B, and there are elements in the latter that are absent from the former.
In discussing these outlines I follow the divisions of the tale made in B. Second part. A little more is told in C of Tuor's departure from Sirion (in B there is no mention of Idril); and there appears the motive of Osse's hostility to Earendel and the curse of the Nauglafring as instrumental in his shipwrecks. The place of the first wreck is called the Fiord of the Mermaid. The word 'them' rather than 'him' in 'Ulmo saves them, telling them he must go to Kor' is certain in the manuscript, which possibly suggests that Idril or Elwing (or both) were with Earendel. Third part. In B Earendel's second voyage, like the first, is explicitly an attempt to reach Mandos (seeking his father), whereas in C it seems that the second is undertaken rather in order to fulfil Ulmo's bidding that he sail to Kor (to Elwing's grief). In C Voronwe is named as Earendel's companion on the second voyage which ended at Falasquil; but the Isle of Seabirds is not mentioned at this point. In C Wingilot is built 'of the wood of Tuor from Falasquil', in?he Fall of Gondolin Tuor's wood was hewed for him by the Noldoli in the forests of Dor Lomin and floated down the hidden river (p. 152).
Fourth part. Whereas B merely refers to Earendel's 'many wander- ings, occupying several years' in his quest for Valinor, C gives some glimpses of what they were to be, as Wingilot was driven to the south and then into the west. The encounter with Ungweliante on the western voyage is curious; it is said in The Tale of the Sun and Noon that 'Melko held the North and Ungweliant the South' (see I. 182, 200). In C we meet again the Sleeper in the Tower of Pearl (said to be Idril, though this was struck out, note 6) awakened by Littleheart's gong; cf. the account of Littleheart in The Cottage of Lost Play (I. 15): He sailed in Wingilot with Earendel in that last voyage wherein they sought for Kor. It was the ringing of this Gong on the Shadowy Seas that awoke the Sleeper in the Tower of Pearl that stands far out to west in the Twilit Isles. In The Coming of the Valar it is said that the Twilit Isles 'float' on the Shadowy Seas 'and the Tower of Pearl rises pale upon their most western cape' (I. 68; cf. I. 125).
But there is no other mention in C of Littleheart, Voronwe's son, as a companion of Earendel, though he was named earlier in the outline, in a rejected phrase, as present at the Mouths of Sirion (see note 5), and in the Tale of the Nauglafring (p. 228) Ailios says that none still living have seen the Nauglafring 'save only Littleheart son of Bronweg' (where 'save only' is an emendation from 'not even'). Fifth and sixth parts. In C we meet the image of Earendel's shoes shining from the dust of diamonds in Kor, an image that was to survive (The Silmarillion p. 248): He walked in the deserted ways of Tirion, and the dust upon his raiment and his shoes was a dust of diamonds, and he shone and glistened as he climbed the long white stairs. But in The Silmarillion Tirion was deserted because it was 'a time of festival, and wellnigh all the Elvenfolk were gone to Valimar, or were gathered in the halls of Manwe upon Taniquetil'; here on the other hand it seems at least strongly implied, in both B and C, that Kor was empty because the Elves of Valinor had departed into the Great Lands, as a result of the tidings brought by the birds of Gondolin.
In these very early narrative schemes there is no mention of Earendel's speaking to the Valar, as the ambassador of Elves and Men (The Silmarillion p. 249), and we can only conclude, extraordinary as the conclusion is, that Earendel's great western voyage, though he attained his goal, was fruit- less,that he was not the agent of the aid that did indeed come out of Valinor to the Elves of the Great Lands, and (most curious of all) that Ulmo's designs for Tuor had no issue. In fact, my father actually wrote in the 1930 version of 'The Silmarillion': Thus it was that the many emissaries of the Gnomes in after days came never back to Valinor -- save one: and he came too late. e words 'and he came too late' were changed to 'the mightiest mariner of song', and this is the phrase that is found in The Silmarillion, p. 102. I t is unfortunately never made clear in the earliest writings what wasU lmo's purpose in bidding Earendel sail to Kor, for which he had been saved from the ruin of Gondolin. What would he have achieved, had he come to Kor 'in time', more than in the event did take place after the coming of tidings from Gondolin -- the March of the Elves into the Great Lands? In a curious note in C, not associated with the present outline, my father asked: 'How did King Turgon's messengers get to Valinor or gain the Gods' consent?' and answered: 'His messengers never got there. Ulmo [sic] but the birds brought tidings to the Elves of the fate of Gondolin (the doves and pigeons of Turgon) and they [?arm and march away]. '
The coming of the message was followed by 'the councils (counsels C) of the Gods and the uproar of the Elves', but in C nothing is said of 'the sorrow and wrath of the Gods' or 'the veil dropped between Valmar and Kor' referred to in B: where the meaning can surely only be that the
March of the Elves from Valinor was undertaken in direct opposition to the will of the Valar, that the Valar were bitterly opposed to the interven- tion of the Elves of Valinor in the affairs of the Great Lands. There may well be a connection here with Vaire's words (I. 19g): 'When the fairies left Kor that lane [i. e. Olore Malle that led past the Cottage of Lost Play] was blocked for ever with great impassable rocks'. Elsewhere there is only one other reference to the effect of the message from across the sea, and that is in the words of Lindo to Eriol in The Cottage of Lost Play (I. 16): Inwe, whom the Gnomes call Inwithiel. . . . . was King of all the Eldar when they dwelt in Kor. That was in the days before hearing the lament of the world [i. e. the Great Lands] Inwe led them forth to the lands of Men. Later, Meril-i-Turinqi told Eriol (I. 129) that Inwe, her grandsire's sire, 'perished in that march into the world', but Ingil his son 'went long ago back to Valinor and is with Manwe', and there is a reference to Inwe's death in B. In C the Solosimpi only agreed to accompany the expedition on condition that they remain by the sea, and the reluctance of the Third Kindred, on account of the Kinslaying at Swanhaven, survived (?he Silmarillion p. 251).
But there is no suggestion that the Elves of Valinor were transported by ship, indeed the reverse, for the Solosimpi 'fare along all the beaches of the world', and the expedition is a 'March'; though there is no indication of how they came to the Great Lands. Both outlines refer to Earendel being driven eastwards on his home- ward voyage from Kor, and to his finding the dwellings at Sirion's mouth ravaged when he finally returned there; but B does not say who carried out the sack and captured Elwing. In C it was a raid by Orcs of Melko; cf. the entry in the Name-list to The Fall of Condolin (p. 215): 'Egalmoth . . . got even out of the burning of Gondolin, and dwelt after at the mouth of Sirion, but was slain in a dire battle there when Melko seized Elwing'. Neither outline refers to Elwing's escape from captivity. Both mention Earendel's going back to the ruins of Gondolin -- in C he returns there with Voronwe and finds Men and Gnomes; another entry in the Name- list to The Fall of Gondolin (p. 215) bears on this: 'Galdor. . . won out of Gondolin and even the onslaught of Melko upon the dwellers at Sirion's mouth and went back to the ruins with Earendel. ' Both outlines mention the departure of the Elves from the Great Lands, after the binding of Melko, to Tol Eressea, C adding a reference to 'wars with Men' and to the Eldar being 'unable to endure the strife of the world', and both refer to Earendel's going there subsequently, but the order of events seems to be different: in B Earendel on his way back from Kor 'sights Tol Eressea and the fleet of the Elves' (presumably the fleet returning from the Great Lands), whereas in C the departure of the Elves is not mentioned until after Earendel's return to Sirion.
But the nature of these outlines is not conveyed in print: they were written at great speed, catching fugitive thoughts, and cannot be pressed hard. However, with the fate of Elwing B and C seem clearly to part company: in B there is a simple reference to her death, apparently associated with the curse of the Nauglafring, and from the order in which the events are set down it may be surmised that her death took place on the journey to Tol Eressea; C specifically refers to the 'sinking' of Elwing and the Nauglafring -- but says that Elwing became a seabird, an idea that sutvived (The Silmarillion p. 247). This perhaps gives more point to Earendel's going to the Isle of Seabirds, mentioned in both B and C: in the latter he 'hopes that Elwing will return among the seabirds'.
Seventh part. In B the concluding part of the tale is merely sum- marised in the words 'His voyage to the firmament', with a reference to the other outline C, and in the latter we get some glimpses of a narrative. It seems to be suggested that the brightness of Earendel (quite uncon- nected with the Silmaril) arose from the 'diamond dust' of Kor, but also in some sense from the exaltation of his grief. An isolated jotting else- where in C asks: 'What became of the Silmarils after the capture of Melko?' My father at this time gave no answer to the question; but the question is itself a testimony to the relatively minor importance of the jewels of Feanor, if also, perhaps, a sign of his awareness that they would not always remain so, that in them lay a central meaning of the mythology, yet to be discovered. It seems too that Earendel sailed into the sky in continuing search for Elwing ('he sets sail on the oceans of the firmament in order to gaze over the Earth'); and that his passing through the Door of Night (the entrance made by the Gods in the Wall of Things in the West, see I. 215 -- 16) did not come about through any devising, but because he was hunted by the Moon.
With this last idea, cf. I. 193, where Ilinsor, steersman of the Moon, is said to 'hunt the stars'. The later of the two schemes for the Lost Tales, which gives a quite substantial outline for Gilfanon's Tale, where I have called it 'D' (see I. 234), here fails us, for the concluding passage is very condensed, in part erased, and ends abruptly early in the Tale of Earendel. I give it , here, beginning at a slightly earlier point in the narrative: Of the death of Tinwelint and the flight of Gwenethlin [see p. 51]. How Beren avenged Tinwelint and how the Necklace became his. How it brought sickness to Tinuviel [see p. 246], and how Beren and Tinuviel faded from the Earth. How their sons [sic] dwelt after them and how the sons of Feanor came up against them with a host because of the Silmaril. How all were slain but Elwing daughter of Daimord [see p. 139] son of Beren fled with the Necklace. Of Tuor's vessel with white sails. How folk of the Lothlim dwelt at Sirion's Mouth. Earendel grew fairest of all Men that were or are. How the mermaids (Oarni) loved him. How Elwing came to the Lothlim and of the love of Elwing and Earendel. How Tuor fell into age, and how Ulmo beckoned to him at eve, and he set forth on the waters and was lost. How Idril swam after him. (In the following passage my father seems at first to have written: 'Earendel. . . . . . . .
Oarni builded Wingilot and set forth in search of . . . . leaving Voronwe with Elwing', where the first lacuna perhaps said 'with the aid of', though nothing is now visible; but then he wrote 'Earendel built Swanwing', and then partly erased the passage: it is impossible to see now what his intention was. ) Elwing's lament. How Ulmo forbade his quest but Earendel would yet sail to find a passage to Mandos. How Wingilot was wrecked at Falasquil and how Earendel found the carven house of Tuor there. Here Scheme D ends. There is also a reference at an earlier point in it to 'the messengers sent from Gondolin. The doves of Gondolin fly to Valinor at the fall of that town. ' This outline seems to show a move to reduce the complexity of the narrative, with Wingilot being the ship in which Earendel attempted to sail to Mandos and in which he was wrecked at Falasquil; but the outline is too brief and stops too soon to allow any certain conclusions to be drawn. A fourth outline, which I will call 'E', is found on a detached sheet; in this Tuor is called Tur (see p. 148). j Fall of Gondolin. The feast of Glorfindel. The dwelling by the waters of Sirion's mouth. The mermaids come to Earendel. Tur groweth sea-hungry -- his song to Earendel. One evening he calls Earendel and they go to the shore. There is a skiff.
Tur bids into the West. Earendel hears a great song swelling from the sea as Tur's skiff dips over the world's rim. His passion of tears upon the shore. The lament of Idril. The building of Earum. ~ The coming of Elwing. Earendel's reluc- tance. The whetting of Idril. The voyage and foundering of Earum in the North, and the vanishing of Idril. How the seamaids rescued Earendel, and brought him to Tur's bay. His coastwise journey. The rape o( Elwing. Earendel discovers the ravaging of Sirion's mouth. The building of Wingelot. He searches for Elwing and is blown far to the South. Wirilome. He escapes eastward. He goes back westward; he descries the Bay of Faery. The Tower of Pearl, the magic isles, the great shadows. He finds Kor empty; he sails back, crusted with dust and his face afire. He learns of Elwing's foundering. He sitteth on the Isle of Seabirds. Elwing as a seamew comes to him. He sets sail over the margent of the world.
The Book of Lost Tales 2 Page 14
