The War of the Jewels (25 page)

Version II, if at the outset conceived on a fairly ample scale, again soon becomes another precis, though much fuller than Version I, and a great deal that is told in the completed QS text ('QS II', see V.292-3) is either not present or is treated much more cursorily: thus for example, nothing is said in GA of Huan's understanding of speech or speaking three times before his death, nor of his doom (The Silmarillion pp. 172-3), and much else that there is no need to detail here. But the structure of the two narratives remains very close.

It is curious to observe that the relation of the two versions in GA is the reverse of that between the two versions that my father made for the Quenta Silmarillion. The fuller form of the latter ('QS I') was very clearly an integral element in the QS manuscript as it proceeded, but he abandoned it and replaced it by the shorter form QS

II because (as I have said, V.292) 'he saw that it was going to be too long, overbalancing the whole work. He had taken more than 4000

words to reach the departure of Beren and Felagund from Nargothrond'. In the case of the Grey Annals, on the other hand, it was the shorter form (Version I) that was integral to the text as written, while the fuller form (Version II) was intended to supplant it (though it was not finished).

For passages in the published Silmarillion derived from the Grey Annals see V.298-301.

$175. Eryd Orgorath: on the typescript of AAm Ered Orgoroth was changed to Ered Gorgorath (X.127, $126).

'And he passed through, even as Melian had foretold': see the words of Melian to Galadriel, $131.

In AB 2 (V.135) Hurin wedded Morwen in 464, as in GA, but Turin was born in the winter of 465 'with sad omens'. This insertion in GA makes Turin's birth in the year of his parents' marriage. See further the commentary on $183.

$178. The word 'bride-price' of the Silmaril demanded by Thingol had been used by Aragorn when he told the story on Weathertop.

$179. Celegorm was the original form, appearing in the Lost Tales (II.241). The name became Celegorn in the course of the writing of QS (V.226, 289), and this remained the form in AAm and GA; later it reverted to Celegorm (X.177, 179). The change of m to n here was made at the time of or very soon after the writing of this passage, and Celegorm was probably no more than a slip.

$180. With '[Felagund] dwells now in Valinor with Amarie' cf. QS I (V.300): 'But Inglor walks with Finrod his father among his kinsfolk in the light of the Blessed Realm, and it is not written that he has ever returned to Middle-earth.' In Version II ($199) it is said that

'released soon from Mandos, he went to Valinor and there dwells with Amarie.' It has been told in the annal for 102 ($109) that 'she whom [Felagund] had loved was Amarie of the Vanyar, and she was not permitted to go with him into exile.'

$183. Turin's birth ('with sad omens') was likewise given in the year 465 in AB 2. The present entry was only inserted later, I think, because my father had inadvertently omitted it while concentrating on the story of Beren and Luthien. Following the direction here

'Place in 464' a pencilled addition was made to the annal for that year in both versions (see $175 and commentary, $188).

$185. It appears from the penultimate sentence of this paragraph that the joining of the Two Kindreds is ascribed to the purpose of Eru.

This is not in QS (I) (see The Silmarillion p. 184), nor in Version II of the story in the Grey Annals ($210).

$187. With the revised reading 'soon after the mid-winter' cf. the commentary on $$145-7.

$189. '[Thingol] answered in mockery': his tone is indeed less sombre and more briefly contemptuous than in QS (I) (The Silmarillion p. 167). In the Lay of Leithian (III.192, lines 1132 - 3) Thingol's warriors 'laughed loud and long' at his demand that Beren should fetch him a Silmaril; see my remarks on this, III.196.

$190. The detail of the glance passing between Melian and Beren at this juncture is not found in the other versions.

$191. The words 'as long before he had said to Galadriel' refer to Felagund's prophetic words in Nargothrond recorded in the annal for 102 ($108).

$193. The naming of Inglor 'Finrod' was perhaps no more than a slip without significance; but in view of the occurrence of 'Finrod Inglor the Fair' in a text associated with drafting for Aragorn's story on Weathertop (VI.187-8) it seems possible that my father had considered the shifting of the names (whereby Inglor became Finrod and Finrod his father became Finarfin) long before their appearance in print in the Second Edition of The Lord of the Rings.

$$193-4. In the long version QS (I), which ends at this point, when Felagund gave the crown of Nargothrond to his brother Orodreth

'Celegorm and Curufin said nothing, but they smiled and went from the halls' (The Silmarillion p. 170). The words of Celegorn and Felagund that follow here are a new element in the story.

The foresight of Felagund is undoubtedly intended to be a true foresight (like all such foresight, though it may be ambiguous). If full weight is given to the precise words used by Felagund, then it may be said that the conclusion of QS (V.331), where it is told that Maidros and Maglor did each regain a Silmaril for a brief time, is not contradicted.

$198. In QS (The Silmarillion p. 174) it is not said that Sauron 'left the Elven-king to the last, for he knew who he was', but only that he

'purposed to keep Felagund to the last, for he perceived that he was a Gnome of great might and wisdom.' See the Lay of Leithian, lines 2216 - 17 and 2581-2609 (III.231, 249).

$201. It is not told in other versions that Huan led the prisoners of Tolsirion back to Nargothrond; in QS it is said only that 'thither now returned many Elves that had been prisoners in the isle of Sauron' (The Silmarillion p. 176).

$203. The new year is placed at a slightly later point in the narrative in Version I, $184. In AB 2 all the latter part of the story of Beren and Luthien, from their entry into Angband, was placed under the annal for the year 465 (V.135).

$204. The absence of any mention of the story that Huan and Luthien turned aside to Tol-in-Gaurhoth on their way north, and clad in the wolfcoat of Draugluin and the batskin of Thuringwethil came upon Beren at the edge of Anfauglith (The Silmarillion pp.

178-9), is clearly due simply to compression. It was not said in QS

(ibid. p. 179) that 'Huan abode in the woods' when Beren and Luthien left him on their journey to Angband.

$207. It is not made clear in QS (The Silmarillion pp. 181 - 2) that it was the howls of Carcharoth that aroused the sleepers in Angband. -

On the names Gwaihir and Lhandroval, which appear here in QS

but not in the published Silmarillion (p. 182), see V.301 and IX.45.

$211. This annal is very close to a passage in QS (The Silmarillion p. 186).

$$212 ff. The text of QS is no longer the fine manuscript that was interrupted when it was sent to the publishers in November 1937, but the intermediate texts that my father wrote while it was away.

These have been described in V.293-4: a rough but legible manuscript 'QS(C)' that completed the story of Beren and Luthien, and extending through the whole of QS Chapter 16 Of the Fourth Battle: Nirnaith Arnediad was abandoned near the beginning of Chapter 17 (the story of Turin); and a second manuscript 'QS(D)'

which took up in the middle of Chapter 16 and extended somewhat further into Chapter 17, at which point the Quenta Silmarillion in that phase came to an end as a continuous narrative. From the beginning of Chapter 16 I began a new series of paragraph-numbers from $1 (V.306).

$212. In this annal (468) my father followed that in AB 2 (465 - 70, V.135) closely, and thus an important element in the 'Silmarillion'

tradition is absent: the arrogant demand of the Feanorians upon Thingol for the surrender of the Silmaril, followed by the violent menaces of Celegorn and Curufin against him, as the prime cause of his refusal to aid Maidros (see QS $6, and the passage in Q from which that derives, IV.116 - 17). In AB 2 Thingol's refusal is ascribed to 'the deeds of Celegorm and Curufin', and this is followed in GA.

Again, the story in QS $7, absent in AB 2, that only a half of Haleth's people came forth from Brethil on account of 'the treacherous shaft of Curufin that wounded Beren', is not found in GA.

Notably, it is said in GA that Maidros had the help of the Dwarves 'in armed force' as well as in weapons of war; this was not said in AB 2 and was expressly denied in QS, where the Dwarves were represented as cynically engaged in the profitable enterprise of

'making mail and sword and spear for many armies' (see QS $3 and commentary).

$213. The annal in AB 2 from which this paragraph derives is dated 468. The present annal is much more explicit about the unwisdom of Maidros in revealing his power untimely than were the earlier accounts. - In QS ($3) it is said that at this time 'the Orcs were driven out of the northward regions of Beleriand', to which it is now added in GA that 'even Dorthonion was freed for a while'.

$214. The span of the second lives of Beren and Luthien was said in the QS drafts to have been long, but the final text has 'whether the second span of his life was brief or long is not known to Elves or Men' (see V.305-6 on the development of the passage concerning the return of Beren and Luthien and its form in the published Silmarillion). It seems possible that '[Luthien] should soon die indeed' in the present text does not imply a short mortal span, but a mortal span in contrast to that of the Eldar.

The final text of QS says that Beren and Luthien 'took up again their mortal form in Doriath', but the account here of their return to Thingol and Melian in Menegroth is entirely new (as also, of course, is the reference to Elrond and Arwen).

The land of the Dead that Live is named in QS(B) Gwerth-i-Cuina and in the final text of QS Gyrth-i-Guinar (V.305).

$215. In AB 2 the latter part of the legend of Beren and Luthien, from their entry into Angband to their return from the dead, was placed under the year 465, whereas in GA it appears under 466, and the death of Luthien in 467 ($211). The birth of Dior (whose name Aranel now appears) is here moved forward three years from the date in AB 2, 467.

$216. The wedding of Huor and Rian was given in AB 2 in the annal for 472, and was said to have taken place 'upon the eve of battle'.

See $218 and commentary.

$$217 ff. In the very long account of the Nirnaeth Arnediad that follows my father made use both of the 'Silmarillion' and of the

'Annals' tradition, i.e. QS Chapter 16 and the account in AB 2. The QS chapter was itself largely derived from an interweaving of Q and AB 2 (see V.313). - A later version of the story of the battle, closely based on that in GA but with radical alterations, is given in Note 2

at the end of this commentary (pp. 165 ff.)

$218. This passage was not removed when the record of Huor's marriage to Rian was entered under 471 ($216); the typescript of GA, however, has only the later 471 entry.

$219. The Nirnaeth Arnediad, formerly the fourth battle in the wars of Beleriand, now becomes the fifth battle: see commentary on $$36 ff. The time of the year was not stated in the earlier accounts.

The placing of the passage on the subject of the Hill of Slain follows AB 2 (V.136); rejected here, it was replaced by another at the end of the story of the Nirnaeth Arnediad in GA ($250): cf.

QS $19. On the name Haud-na-Dengin see V.314, $19; also GA $$250-1.

$220. The actual nature of Uldor's machinations was not stated in the earlier accounts.

$221. 'a great company from Nargothrond': earlier in GA ($212) it is said that 'small help came from Nargothrond' (cf. QS $5: 'only a small company'). - The addition concerning Mablung's presence, not in AB 2, comes from QS ($6), deriving from Q (IV.117); but in those texts Beleg ('who obeyed no man', 'who could not be restrained') came also to the battle. Thingol's qualified permission to Mablung is new in GA; in the Quenta tradition such permission was given by Orodreth to the company from Nargothrond. - The succession of Hundor on the death of his father, Haleth the Hunter, is recorded in the annal for 468 ($212). (Much later, when the genealogy of the People of Haleth was transformed, Hundor was replaced by 'Haldir and Hundar'; on this see p. 236.) On the unsatisfactory account of Turgon's emergence from Gondolin in QS, amalgamating the inconsistent stories in Q and AB 2, see V.313-15. In the Grey Annals the confusion is resolved.

Turgon came up from Gondolin before battle was joined (in the AB

story he and his host only came down from Taur-na-Fuin as Fingon's host withdrew southwards towards the Pass of Sirion, V.136 - '7), but only shortly before, and was stationed in the south guarding the Pass of Sirion.

$222. The story of the opening of the battle as told here differs from that in QS $10 (following Q), where Fingon and Turgon becoming impatient at the delay of Maidros sent their heralds into the plain of Fauglith to sound their trumpets in challenge to Morgoth.

$$224-5. There now appears the final link in this element of the narrative: the captured herald (see commentary on $222) slaughtered in provocation on the plain of Fauglith (QS $11) disappears and is replaced by Gelmir of Nargothrond, Gwindor's brother, who had been taken prisoner in the Battle of Sudden Flame. It was Gwindor's grief for his brother that had brought him from Nargothrond against the will of Orodreth the king, and his rage at the sight of Gelmir's murder was the cause of the fatal charge of the host of Hithlum. I have described the evolution of the story in IV.180.