The Lays of Beleriand (22 page)

Our gems are gone, our jewels ravished;

and the Three, my Three, thrice-enchanted

globes of crystal by gleam undying 105

illumined, lit by living splendour

and all hues' essence, their eager flame -

Morgoth has them in his monstrous hold,

my Silmarils. I swear here oaths,

unbreakable bonds to bind me ever, 110

by Timbrenting and the timeless halls

of Bredhil the Blessed that abides thereon -

may she hear and heed - to hunt endlessly

unwearying unwavering through world and sea,

through leaguered lands, lonely mountains, 115

over fens and forest and the fearful snows,

till I find those fair ones, where the fate is hid of the folk of Elfland and their fortune locked, where alone now lies the light divine.'

Then his sons beside him, the seven kinsmen, 120

crafty Curufin, Celegorm the fair,

Damrod and Diriel and dark Cranthir,

Maglor the mighty, and Maidros tall

(the eldest, whose ardour yet more eager burnt than his father's flame, than Feanor's wrath; 125

him fate awaited with fell purpose),

these leapt with laughter their lord beside,

with linked hands there lightly took

the oath unbreakable; blood thereafter

it spilled like a sea and spent the swords 130

of endless armies, nor hath ended yet:

'Be he friend or foe or foul offspring

of Morgoth Bauglir, be he mortal dark

that in after days on earth shall dwell,

shall no law nor love nor league of Gods, 135

no might nor mercy, not moveless fate,

defend him for ever from the fierce vengeance of the sons of Feanor, whoso seize or steal

or finding keep the fair enchanted

globes of crystal whose glory dies not, 140

the Silmarils. We have sworn for ever! '

Then a mighty murmuring was moved abroad

and the harkening host hailed them roaring:

'Let us go! yea go from the Gods for ever

on Morgoth's trail o'er the mountains of the world 145

to vengeance and victory! Your vows are ours!

The poem ends here (but see note to line 146).

*

NOTES.

41. starry gardens C, starlit domes A, B.

42. Tengwethil's A (with Timbrenting written in margin), Timbrenting's B, Timbrenting C (with Taingwethil written in margin). See note to The Children of Hurin (second version) line 812.

45. Bridhil A, B, C, emended in C to Bredhil; so also at line 112.

107. and all hues' essence: this half-line (in the form all hue's essence) occurs also in the second version of The Children of Hurin, line 381, where it is said of the Silmaril of Beren.

111. Tengwethil A, Timbrenting B, C.

134. that in after days on earth shall dwell: this line bracketed later in pencil in C.

146. There are three roughly-written lines in the margin of the last page of A which were not taken up in B and C, but which presumably follow on line 146:

But Finweg cried Fingolfin's son

when his father found that fair counsel,

that wit and wisdom were of worth no more:

'Fools

Commentary on The Flight of the Noldoli.

Sad as it is that this poem was abandoned so soon - when in full mastery of the alliterative line my father might have gone on to recount the Kinslaying of Alqualonde, the Prophecy of the North, the crossing of the Helcaraxe, and the burning of the ships, there is nonetheless in its few lines much of interest for the study of the development of the legend.

Most notably, there here appears the earliest version of the actual words of the Feanorian Oath. The Oath was first referred to in the outlines for Gilfanon's Tale (I. 238, 240):

The Seven Sons of Feanor swore their terrible oath of hatred for ever against all, Gods or Elves or Men, who should hold the Silmarils but it was there sworn after the coming of the Elves from Valinor, and after the death of Feanor. In the present poem is the first appearance of the.

story that the Oath was taken in Valinor before the departure of the Gnomes. It has also been referred to in The Children of Hurin, lines 631 ff. of the first version, where it is implied that the mountain of Tain-Gwethil was taken in witness - as it was in The Silmarillion (p. 83): here (line i x x) Feanor himself swears by Timbrenting that he will never cease to hunt for the Silmarils.

I cannot explain why line 134

that in after days on earth shall dwell

was bracketed (always a mark of exclusion or at least of doubtful retention) in the C-text. The line reappears in identical form in the Lay of Leithian (Canto VI, 1636); cf. The Silmarillion 'Vala, Demon, Elf or Man as yet unborn'.

The fixed epithets of certain of the Sons of Feanor are changed from those in The Children of Hurin (see p. 86): Celegorm is now 'the fair'

and Maidros 'the tall', as thev remained; Maglor is 'the mighty' (in The Silmarillion 'the mighty singer'). The line concerning Maidros him fate awaited with fell purpose (126)

may show that a form of the story of his end was already in being (in the Tale of the Nauglafring he survived the attack on Dior the Fair but nothing more is told of him), but I think it much more likely that it refers to his capture and maiming by Morgoth.

In Feanor's speech occur two interesting references: to the Nine Valar, and to his father Finn. The number of the Valar is nowhere stated in the Lost Tales (where in any case the name includes lesser divine beings; cf. e.g. I. 65 - 6 'With them came many of those lesser Vali... the Manir and the Suruli, the sylphs of the airs and of the winds'); but 'the Nine Valar' are referred to in the 'Sketch of the Mythology' (1926) and named in the 1930 'Silmarillion'. Manwe, Ulmo, Osse, Aule, Mandos, Lorien, Tulkas, Orome, and Melko.

Feanor's father has not been named since the tale of The Theft of Melko and the Darkening of Valinor (I. 145 ff.), where he was called Bruithwir, slain by Melko. In ?he Children of Hurin there is no indication that Feanor was akin to other princes of the Gnomes - though there can be no doubt that by that time he in fact was so. But the essential features of the Noldorin royal house as it had now emerged and as it was to remain for many years can now be deduced. In the first version of The Children of Hurin (line 29 and note) Turgon was the son of Finwe (actually spelt Finweg), as he had been in the Lost Tales (I. 115), but this was changed to Finwe's heir, with the note 'he was Fingolfin's son'; and in the second version Turgon the mighty, IFingolfin's son is found in the text as written (48 - 9). We thus have: Finwe (Finweg)

|

Fingolfin

Turgon

Further, Finweg appears in The Children of Hurin (first version 1975, second version 19, 520) as the King of the Gnomes who died in the Battle of Unnumbered Tears; in two of these cases the name was later changed to Fingon. In the lines added at the end of the A-text of The Flight of the Noldoli (note to line 146) Finweg is Fingolfin's son. We can therefore add:

Finwe (Finweg)

I

Fin lhn

Finweg Turgon

(> Fingon)

Now in The Flight of the Noldoli Feanor is called Finn's son; and in the

'Sketch of the Mythology' Finn is given as an alternative to Finwe: The Eldar are divided into three hosts, one under Ingwe (Ing)..., one under Finwe (Finn) after called the Noldoli...*

Thus Feanor has become Fingolfin's brother:

Finwe (Finweg, Finn)

|

Feanor

Seven sons Finweg Turgon

(> Fingon)

(Only in a later note to lines 1713 - 20 of The Children of Hurin has Finwe's third son Finrod appeared, father of Felagund, Angrod, Egnor, and Orodreth.)

Feanor's speech also contains a curious foreknowledge of the making of the Sun and Moon (92 - 6):

The woods of the world whose wide mansions

yet in darkness dream drowned in slumber,

the pathless plains and perilous shores

no moon yet shines on nor mounting dawn

in dew and daylight hath drenched for ever

Very notable are Feanor's concluding words (117 - 18): till I find those fair ones, where the fate is hid of the folk of Elfland and their fortune locked Cf. The Silmarillion, p. 67: 'Mandos foretold that the fates of Arda lay locked within them', and Thingol's words to Beren (ibid. p. 167):

'though the fate of Arda lie within the Silmarils, yet you shall hold me generous'. It is clear that the Silmarils had already gained greatly in significance since the earliest period of the mythology (see I. 156, 169

note z; II. 259).

In no other version is Feanor seen on this occasion holding flaming torches in his hands and whirling them aloft.

The lines (38 - g)

Of the Three Kindreds to that clamorous throng are none but the Gnomes in numbers drawn

go back to the tale of The Flight of the Noldoli (I. 162): 'Now when...

(* In the 1930 'Silmarillion' it is expressly stated that Ing and Finn are the Gnomish forms of Ingwe and Finwe.)

Feanor sees that far the most of the company is of the kin of the Noldor', on which I noted (I. 169) 'It is to be remembered that in the old story the Teleri (i.e. the later Vanyar) had not departed from Kor.' Later evidence shows that the old story had not been changed; but the fact that in the present poem the Elves of Ing (Ingwe) were on Timbrenting (Taniquetil) in the mansions of Manwe and Varda shows the entry of the later narrative (found in the 'Sketch') of the destruction of the Trees. In the old tale of The Theft of Melko and the Darkening of Valinor (I. 143 ff. and commentary I. 157) the great festival was the occasion of Melko's attack on the place of the Gnomes' banishment northward in Valinor, the slaying of Feanor's father, and the theft of the Silmarils; and the destruction of the Trees followed some time afterwards. Now however the festival is the occasion of the attack on the Trees; the First Kindred are on Taniquetil but most of the Gnomes are not.

The name by which Varda is here called, Bridhil the Blessed (changed in C to Bredhil), is found in the old Gnomish dictionary, and also Timbridhil (I. 269, 273, entries Tinwetari, Varda). On Timbrenting see p. 127, where the form Tindbrenting occurring in The Children of Hurin (in a note to second version line 812) is discussed. Both forms are found in the 'Sketch':

Timbrenting or Tindbrenting in English, Tengwethil in Gnomish, Taniquetil in Elfin.

The form with -m- is therefore evidently due to a change of pronunciation in English, ndb > mb.

In line 41 the earlier reading starlit domes, changed to starry gardens, is probably to be related to the account in the tale of The Coming of the Valar and the Building of Valinor of Manwe's abode on Taniquetil (I. 73):

That house was builded of marbles white and blue and stood amid the fields of snow, and its roofs were made of a web of that blue air called ilwe that is above the white and grey. This web did Aule and his wife contrive, but Varda spangled it with stars, and Manwe dwelt thereunder.

This idea of a roof lit with stars was never lost and appears in a changed form long after, though it is not mentioned in The Silmarillion.

The lines (21 - 3)

The dim fingers

of fog came floating from the formless waste

and sunless seas

find an echo in The Silmarillion (p.76):

it blew chill from the East in that hour, and the vast shadows of the sea were rolled against the walls of the shore.

The lines at the end of the A-text (note to line 146) show that Fingolfin has taken Finwe Noleme's place as the voice of reason and moderation amid the revolutionary enthusiasm of the Noldoli in the great square of Kor (see I. 162, 171).

Lastly may be noticed the term 'Foam-riders' used (line 52) of the Third Kindred (the Solosimpi of the Lost Tales, later the Teleri); this has been used once before, in AElfwine of England (II. 3I4), where it is said of AElfwine's mother Eadgifu that when he was born the Foamriders, the Elves of the Sea-marge, whom she had known of: old in Lionesse, sent messengers to his birth.

Analysis of the metre of the poem.

At the end of the second text (B) of The Flight of the Noldoli my father made an analysis of the metrical forms of the first 20 and certain subsequent lines. For his analysis and explanation of the Old English metre see On Translating Beowulf, in The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays, 1983, pp. 61 ff. The letters A, + A, B, C, D, E on the left-hand side of the table refer to the 'types' of Old English half-line; the letters beneath the analyses of 'lifts' and 'dips' are the alliterations employed in each line, with 0 used for any vowel (since all vowels 'alliterate' with each other) and X for a consonant beginning a lift but not forming part of the alliterative scheme of the line; the words 'full', 'simple', etc. refer to the nature of the alliterative pattern in each case.

It may be noticed that the scansion of the first half of line 8 (with the first lift -goli-) shows that the primary stress fell on the second syllable of Ungoliant; and that sp can only alliterate with sp (lines 9, 130), as in Old English (the same is of course true of sh, which is a separate consonant).

(ii) Fragment of an alliterative Lay of Earendel.

There exists one other piece of alliterative verse concerned with the matter of the Lost Tales, the opening of a poem that has no title and does not extend far enough to make clear what its subject was to be. The fall of Gondolin, the escape of the fugitives down the secret tunnel, the fight at Cristhorn, and the long wandering in the wilds thereafter, are passed over rapidly in what were to be the introductory lines, and the subject seems about to appear at the end of the fragment: all this have others in ancient stories