The War of the Jewels (28 page)

In the published Silmarillion (p. 210) I adopted a passage from another text in the vast assemblage of the Narn papers, telling how Turin found in the armouries of Nargothrond 'a dwarf-mask all gilded', and wore it into battle. It seems probable that this story arose at a stage when my father was treating the Dragon-helm as lost and out of the story (from the end of Dor-Cuarthol, the Land of Bow and Helm, when Turin was taken by the Orcs), and I extended Turin's wearing of it to the battle of Tumhalad (p. 212).

$$287 ff. From the Battle of Tumhalad to the end of the tale of Turin the text of the Grey Annals was virtually the sole source of the latter part of Chapter 21 'Of Turin Turambar' in the published Silmarillion (pp. 213 - 26). There now enters an element in the history, however, of which I was unaware, or more accurately misinter-preted, when I prepared the text of the Narn for publication in Unfinished Tales, and which must be made clear. At that time I was under the impression that the last part of the Narn (from the beginning of the section entitled The Return of Turin to Dor-lomin to the end, Unfinished Tales pp. 104-46) was a relatively late text, belonging with all the other Narn material that (in terms of the narrative) precedes it; and I assumed that the story in the Grey Annals (to which the last part of the Narn is obviously closely related, despite its much greater length) preceded it by some years -

that it was in fact an elaboration of the story in the Annals.

This view is wholly erroneous, and was due to my failure to study sufficiently closely the material (preserved in a different place) that preceded the final text of the story in the Narn. In fact, it soon becomes plain (as will be seen in the commentary that follows) that the long narrative in the Grey Annals was based directly on the final text of that in the Narn, and was a reduction of that text, congruent with it at virtually all points. The manuscript of this latter is very similar in appearance and style of script to that of the Annals of Aman and the Grey Annals, and undoubtedly belongs to the same period (presumptively 1951). Thus the massive development and enhancement of the final tragedy in Brethil is yet another major work of the prolific time that followed the completion of The Lord of the Rings (see Morgoth's Ring, pp. vii and 3).

The manuscript was headed (later) 'The Children of Hurin: last part', and at the top of the first page my father wrote 'Part of the

"Children of Hurin" told in full scale'. I shall devote a good deal of the following commentary to showing how, in more important instances, my father developed the narrative in the Narn. It is to be remembered that the last version he had written was the very compressed story in the Quenta (Q) of 1930 (IV.127-30), behind which lay 'the earliest Silmarillion' or 'Sketch of the Mythology'

(IV.30 - 1), and behind that the old Tale of Turambar and the Foaloke (II.88-112).

I shall not make a detailed comparison of the new narrative with the older forms, nor of the last part of the Narn with the Grey Annals. Since it is obviously out of the question to reprint the last part of the Narn in this book, I must refer to the text in Unfinished Tales, which is very close to the final form of the text in the manuscript, but introduces some unimportant changes in wording; the use of 'you' for 'thou' and 'thee' of the original; and some later forms of names. In order to avoid ambiguity I shall identify the last part of the Narn by the letters 'NE' (i.e. 'End of the Narn'); thus 'NE

p. 132' is to be understood as meaning the text of the Narn in Unfinished Tales on p. 132. Where necessary I distinguish the actual manuscript, or manuscripts, from the printed text. There is also a later amanuensis typescript of NE.

$290. The addition concerning the death of Handir of Brethil, rejected here, reappears at the beginning of the annal for 495

($275).

$291. The names Amon Obel and Ephel Brandir now first appear; they were marked in on the second map (see the redrawing on p. 182, square E 7). On the emendation concerning Handir of Brethil see $275 and commentary.

$292. The opening of NE (p. 104) is almost the same as that of the rewritten section in GA, rather than its original form ($287). This is to be explained, I think, on the supposition that my father was working (here at any rate) on the two versions at the same time. - In both texts 'eighty leagues' was changed to 'forty leagues'; the distance on the second map from Nargothrond to Ivrin measured in a straight line is 8 cm. or 41 6 leagues (see V.412).

$293. Against Dorlomin my father wrote in the margin the Quenya form Lominore, but he did not strike out Dorlomin.

$294. It is made clear in the later text from which the section The Departure of Turin in the Narn is derived that Brodda forcibly wedded Hurin's kinswoman Aerin (later form for Airin) before Turin left Dor-lomin (see Unfinished Tales p. 69); in GA Turin only learns of it now, on his return, and this was certainly the case also in NE. Airin now becomes Hurin's kinswoman, not Morwen's, as she was in Q and QS, and still in the rejected form ($288) of the present passage.

It is seen from NE (p. 106) that the story of Turin's childhood friendship with the lame Sador Labadal was already in being, although it had not yet been written (the parts of the Narn narrative preceding NE being unquestionably later); in GA there is no suggestion of this story, but I think it certain that this is due merely to the extreme condensation of the narrative here: the long conversation in NE between Turin and Sador, and Sador's 'recognition', before ever Turin entered Brodda's hall, is reduced to a few lines in the Annals. In that conversation and subsequently the text of NE uses 'thou' and 'thee' throughout, but afterwards my father sometimes changed them to 'you' and sometimes not. It seems possible that where the changes were made it was because the speakers were using the 'polite plural' (as Sador to Turin when he found out who he was); but in the published text I adopted 'you'

throughout. - Where in NE (p. 105) Sador speaks of 'Hurin Galdor's son' the manuscript has 'Hurin Galion's son', Galion being still at that time the name of Hurin's father.

$$295-7. The whole episode in NE (pp. 106 - 9) following Turin's entry into Brodda's hall, a massive development of the bare words of Q (IV.127 and note 9), is again greatly reduced in these paragraphs, and much is omitted: thus there is no mention of the general fighting, of Airin's firing of the hall, or of Asgon, the man of Dor-lomin (who will reappear).

$298. This annal concerning Tuor, dated 496, follows on from the entry about his departure from Mithrim at the end of the annal for 495 in the rejected section of the manuscript ($290). It is based on that in AB 2 (V.140), and adheres still to the old story that Tuor met Bronwe (Voronwe) at the mouths of Sirion; thus it was written before the addition was made to $257 whereby Voronwe became the sole survivor of the seven ships sent into the West and was cast ashore in Nivrost (see the commentary on that paragraph).

$299. Tuor was born in 472 ($251), was enslaved by Lorgan in 488

when he was sixteen years old and endured thraldom for three years, thus until 491 ($263), and in 495 had lived as an outlaw in the hills of Mithrim for four years.

This annal replaces both the preceding entries concerning Tuor ($$290, 298). Here the very old story of Tuor's going down to the mouths of Sirion is at last abandoned, and Ulmo appears to Tuor in Nivrost; Voronwe, cast ashore in Nivrost, now leads Tuor eastwards to Gondolin along the southern faces of the Shadowy Mountains. Here also appears the story that they saw Turin at Ivrin on his journey northward from Nargothrond, and it may well be that this accounts for the change of date from 496 to 495; but the coming of Tuor to Turgon's ancient dwelling of Vinyamar and finding the arms left there long before at Ulmo's counsel is not referred to.

For the bidding of Ulmo to Turgon in Q, where it appears in two versions, see IV.142, 146-7, and my remarks IV.193-4. In GA there is no suggestion of Ulmo's counsel that Turgon should prepare for a great war against Morgoth and that Tuor should be his agent in the bringing of new nations of Men out of the East to his banners.

Elsewhere in GA the change is always Glindur > Maeglin; Meglin

> Glindur here depends on the time of writing, for while my father was working on the Annals the series went Meglin > Glindur > Maeglin.

$300. The manuscript has no date here, but it is clear that there should be (it is obviously 496 later in the annal, where 'with the beginning of spring Turin cast off his darkness', $303); in the rejected version of the text the date 496 is given at this point ($291), and in the manuscript of NE also. The omission is due to the (second) rejected entry concerning Tuor ($298) having been dated 496.

The spelling Taiglin is found in NE also; Teiglin in both the published texts is an editorial alteration to a later form (see pp. 228, 309-10).

The story of Turin's rescue of the men of Brethil from an attack by Orcs, derived from the lively account of the incident in NE

(p. 110), is a new element in the narrative. It is to be noted, however, that as NE was first written there was no mention of it; the original text tells simply that when Turin fell in with some of the folk of Haleth in Brethil

... the men that saw Turin welcomed him, and even thus as a wild wanderer they knew him for the Mormegil, the great captain of Nargothrond, and the friend of Handir; and they marvelled that he had escaped, since they had heard that none had come out alive from the fortress of Felagund. Therefore they bade him come and rest among them for a while.

Following this is a brief preliminary passage in which Turin's rescue of the men of Brethil from the Orc-attack is introduced, and finally the full account of the incident as it stands in NE. It is thus clearly seen that this story arose in the course of the writing of NE, as also did the motive that the woodmen deduced that the stranger was the Mormegil after Turin had fallen into his swoon of grief. Both these elements are present in the GA version. This is one of many unquestionable evidences that the last part of the Narn preceded the Grey Annals.

It is also said in the rejected passage of NE that when Turin told the woodmen of his quest for Finduilas

... they looked on him with grief and pity. 'Seek no more!' said one. 'For behold! the few of our men that escaped from Tum-halad brought us warning of an Orc-host that came from Nargothrond towards the crossings of Taiglin, marching slowly because of the number of their captives....'

In the final text the statement that the woodmen fought at Tumhalad disappears (and Dorlas says of their ambush of the Orc-host from Nargothrond 'we thought to deal our small stroke in the war', NE p. 111). This is to be related to the information in GA which was struck out, that the Elves of Nargothrond 'allied themselves with Handir' ($272 and commentary), and that Handir was slain at Tumhalad ($275 and commentary).

$$301-3. The narrative (condensed from that of NE, pp. 109 - 12) greatly expands that of Q (IV.127): new elements are 'Wildman of the Woods', Dorlas, and the Haud-en-Ellas where Finduilas was laid near the Crossings of Taiglin, which have not been named before; Dorlas' realisation that the stranger must be the Mormegil, rumoured to be Turin son of Hurin (in Q there is no indication that the woodmen knew who he was until the end); Brandir's foreboding when he saw Turin on the bier, and his healing of Turin; Turin's setting aside of the black sword. The old story in Q (IV.129) that Turin became lord of the woodmen is now abandoned: Brandir, as will be seen later in the narrative ($323, NE p. 132), remained the titular ruler (and in NE, p. 129, at the council held before Turin's setting out for the encounter with Glaurung, he 'sat indeed in the high-seat of the lord of the assembly, but unheeded').

$301. Haud-en-Ellas: the later form -Elleth was pencilled in on both the NE and GA manuscripts, and Haudh-en-Elleth is found in a plot-sequence among the later Narn papers (p. 256); this was adopted in both NE and The Silmarillion. The translation 'Mound of the Elf-maid', not in GA, was introduced into The Silmarillion from NE (p. 112), and comparison of the texts will show a number of other instances, not recorded here, of this conflation.

$302. Against the name Ephel Brandir in NE (p. 110) my father wrote faintly on the amanuensis typescript that was made from the manuscript: Obel Halad and '.... of the chieftain'; the illegible word might be 'Tower', but looks more like 'Town'. 'Town of the Chieftain' is quite possibly the correct interpretation, if town is used in the ancient sense of 'enclosed dwelling-place' (see II.292, and my remarks on the name Tavrobel in V.412). On Obel Halad see pp.

258, 263.