The Book Of Lost Tales: Part I Part 12

4 This sentence, from 'and beguiled...', was added after, though not to all appearance much after, the writing of the text.

5 This sentence, from 'and one Ellu...', was added at the same time as that referred to in note 4.

6 The first occurrence of the form Uinen, and so written at the time of composition (i.e. not corrected from nen).

7 Arvalin: thus written at the time of composition, not emended from Habbanan or Harmalin as previously.

8 When my father wrote these texts, he wrote first in pencil, and then subsequently wrote over the top of it in ink, erasing the pencilled text-of which bits can be read here and there, and from which one can see that he altered the pencilled original somewhat as he went along. At the words 'glistened wondrously', however, he abandoned the writing of the new text in ink, and from this point we have only the original pencilled ma.n.u.script, which is in places exceedingly difficult to read, being more hasty, and also soft and smudged in the course of time. In deciphering this text I have been in places defeated, and I use brackets and question-marks to indicate uncertain readings, and rows of dots to show roughly the length of illegible words.

It is to be emphasized therefore that from here on there is only a first draft, and one written very rapidly, dashed onto the page.

9 Arvalin: here and subsequently emended from Habbanan; see note 7. The explanation is clearly that the name Arvalin came in at or before the time of the rewriting in ink over the pencilled text; though further on in the narrative we are here at an earlier stage of composition.

10 The word might be read as 'wizardous'.

11 Other forms (beginning Sigm-) preceded Silubrilthin which cannot be read with certainty. Meril speaks as if the Gnomish name was the form used in Tol Eressa, but it is not clear why.

12 'my grandsire's sire': the original reading was 'my grandsire'.

Changes made to names in

The Coming of the Elves and the Making of Kr

Tinw Linto < linw="" tinto="" (this="" latter="" is="" the="" form="" of="" the="" name="" in="" an="" interpolated="" pa.s.sage="" in="" the="" preceding="" tale,="" see="" p.="" 106="" note="" 1).="" at="" two="" subsequent="" occurrences="" of="" linw="" (see="" note="" 3="" above)="" the="" name="" was="" not="" changed,="" clearly="" through="" oversight;="" in="" the="" two="" added="" pa.s.sages="" where="" the="" name="" occurs="" (see="" notes="" 4="" and="" 5="" above)="" the="" form="" is="" tinw="">

Inwithiel < gim-githil="" (the="" same="" change="" in="" the="" cottage="" of="" lost="" play,="" see="" p.="">

Tinwelint <>

Wendelin < tindriel="" (cf.="" the="" interpolated="" pa.s.sage="" in="" the="" previous="" tale,="" p.="" 106="" note="">

Arvalin < habbanan="" throughout="" the="" tale="" except="" once,="" where="" the="" name="" was="" written="" arvalin="" from="" the="" first;="" see="" notes="" 7="" and="" 9="">

Lindeloks < lindelt="" (the="" same="" change="" in="" the="" coming="" of="" the="" valar="" and="" the="" building="" of="" valinor,="" see="" p.="">

Erumni <>

Commentary on

The Coming of the Elves and the Making of Kr

I have already (p. 111) touched on the great difference in the structure of the narrative at the beginning of this tale, namely that here the Elves awoke during Melko's captivity in Valinor, whereas in the later story it was the very fact of the Awakening that brought the Valar to make war on Melkor, which led to his imprisonment in Mandos. Thus the ultimately very important matter of the capture of the Elves about Cuivienen by Melkor (The Silmarillion pp. 4950) is necessarily entirely absent. The release of Melko from Mandos here takes place far earlier, before the coming of the Elvish 'amba.s.sadors' to Valinor, and Melko plays a part in the debate concerning the summons.

The story of Orom's coming upon the newly-awakened Elves is seen to go back to the beginnings (though here Yavanna Palrien was also present, as it appears), but its singular beauty and force is the less for the fact of their coming being known independently to Manw, so that the great Valar did not need to be told of it by Orom. The name Eldar was already in existence in Valinor before the Awakening, and the story of its being given by Orom ('the People of the Stars') had not arisen-as will be seen from the Appendix on Names, Eldar had a quite different etymology at this time. The later distinction between the Eldar who followed Orom on the westward journey to the ocean and the Avari, the Unwilling, who would not heed the summons of the Valar, is not present, and indeed in this tale there is no suggestion that any Elves who heard the summons refused it; there were however, according to another (later) tale, Elves who never left Palisor (pp. 231, 234).

Here it is Nornor, Herald of the G.o.ds, not Orom, who brought the three Elves to Valinor and afterwards returned them to the Waters of Awakening (and it is notable that even in this earliest version, given more than the later to 'explanations', there is no hint of how they pa.s.sed from the distant parts of the Earth to Valinor, when afterwards the Great March was only achieved with such difficulty). The story of the questioning of the three Elves by Manw concerning the nature of their coming into the world, and their loss of all memory of what preceded their awakening, did not survive the Lost Tales. A further important shift in the structure is seen in Ulmo's eager support of the party favouring the summoning of the Elves to Valinor; in The Silmarillion (p. 52) Ulmo was the chief of those who 'held that the Quendi should be left free to walk as they would in Middle-earth'.

I set out here the early history of the names of the chief Eldar.

Elu Thingol (Quenya Elw Singollo) began as Linw Tinto (also simply Linw); this was changed to Tinw Linto (Tinw). His Gnomish name was at first Tintoglin, then Tinwelint. He was the leader of the Solosimpi (the later Teleri) on the Great Journey, but he was beguiled in Hisilm by the 'fay' (Tindriel >) Wendelin (later Melian), who came from the gardens of Lrien in Valinor; he became lord of the Elves of Hisilm, and their daughter was Tinviel. The leader of the Solosimpi in his place was, confusingly, Ellu (afterwards Olw, brother of Elw).

The lord of the Noldoli was Finw Nlem (also Nlem Finw, and most commonly simply Nlem); the name Finw remained throughout the history. In the Gnomish speech he was Golfinweg. His son was Turondo, in Gnomish Turgon (later Turgon became Finw's grandson, being the son of Finw's son Fingolfin).

The lord of the Teleri (afterwards the Vanyar) was (Ing >) Inw, here called Isil Inw, named in Gnomish (Gim-githil >) Inwithiel. His son, who built the great tower of Kortirion, was (Ingilmo >) Ingil. The 'royal clan' of the Teleri were the Inwir. Thus: In The Silmarillion (p. 48) is described the second star-making of Varda before and in preparation for the coming of the Elves: Then Varda went forth from the council, and she looked out from the height of Taniquetil, and beheld the darkness of Middle-earth beneath the innumerable stars, faint and far. Then she began a great labour, greatest of all the works of the Valar since their coming into Arda. She took the silver dews from the vats of Telperion, and therewith she made new stars and brighter against the coming of the First-born...

In the earliest version we see the conception already present that the stars were created in two separate acts-that a new star-making by Varda celebrated the coming of the Elves, even though here the Elves were already awakened; and that the new stars were derived from the liquid light fallen from the Moon-tree, Silpion. The pa.s.sage just cited from The Silmarillion goes on to tell that it was at the time of the second star-making that Varda 'high in the north as a challenge to Melkor set the crown of seven mighty stars to swing, Valacirca, the Sickle of the Valar and sign of doom' but here this is denied, and a special origin is claimed for the Great Bear, whose stars were not of Varda's contriving but were sparks that escaped from Aul's forge. In the little notebook mentioned on p. 23, which is full of disjointed jottings and hastily noted projects, a different form of this myth appears: The Silver Sickle The seven b.u.t.terflies Aul was making a silver sickle. Melko interrupted his work telling him a lie concerning the lady Palrien. Aul so wroth that he broke the sickle with a blow. Seven sparks leapt up and winged into the heavens. Varda caught them and gave them a place in the heavens as a sign of Palrien's honour. They fly now ever in the shape of a sickle round and round the pole.

There can be no doubt, I think, that this note is earlier than the present text.

The star Morwinyon, 'who blazes above the world's edge in the west', is Arcturus; see the Appendix on Names. It is nowhere explained why Morwinyon-Arcturus is mythically conceived to be always in the west.

Turning now to the Great March and the crossing of the ocean, the origin of Tol Eressa in the island on which Oss drew the G.o.ds to the western lands at the time of the fall of the Lamps (see p. 70) was necessarily lost afterwards with the loss of that story, and Oss ceased to have any proprietary right upon it. The idea that the Eldar came to the sh.o.r.es of the Great Lands in three large and separated companies (in the order Teleri-Noldori-Solosimpi, as later Vanyar-Noldor-Teleri) goes back to the beginning; but here the first people and the second people each crossed the ocean alone, whereas afterwards they crossed together.

In The Silmarillion (p. 58) 'many years' elapsed before Ulmo returned for the last of the three kindreds, the Teleri, so long a time that they came to love the coasts of Middle-earth, and Oss was able to persuade some of them to remain (Crdan the Shipwright and the Elves of the Falas, with their havens at Brithombar and Eglarest). Of this there is no trace in the earliest account, though the germ of the idea of the long wait of the lastcomers for Ulmo's return is present. In the published version the cause of Oss's rage against the transportation of the Eldar on the floating island has disappeared, and his motive for anchoring the island in the ocean is wholly different: indeed he did this at the bidding of Ulmo (ibid. p. 59), who was opposed to the summoning of the Eldar to Valinor in any case. But the anchoring of Tol Eressa as a rebellious act of Oss's long remained an element in the story. It is not made clear what other 'scattered islands of his domain' (p. 121) Oss anch.o.r.ed to the sea-bottom; but since on the drawing of the World-Ship the Lonely Isle, the Magic Isles, and the Twilit Isles are all shown in the same way as 'standing like pinnacles from the weedy depths' (see pp. 846) it was probably these that Oss now established (though Rmil and Meril still speak of the Twilit Isles as 'floating' on the Shadowy Seas, pp. 68, 125).

In the old story it is made very clear that Tol Eressa was made fast far out in the mid-ocean, and 'no land may be seen for many leagues' sail from its cliffs'. That was indeed the reason for its name, which was diminished when the Lonely Isle came to be set in the Bay of Eldamar. But the words used of Tol Eressa, 'the Lonely Isle, that looks both west and east', in the last chapter of The Silmarillion (relatively very little worked on and revised), undoubtedly derive from the old story; in the tale of lfwine of England is seen the origin of this phrase: 'the Lonely Island looking East to the Magic Archipelago and to the lands of Men beyond it, and West into the Shadows beyond which afar off is glimpsed the Outer Land, the kingdom of the G.o.ds'. The deep sundering of the speech of the Solosimpi from that of the other kindreds, referred to in this tale (p. 121), is preserved in The Silmarillion, but the idea arose in the days when Tol Eressa was far further removed from Valinor.

As is very often to be observed in the evolution of these myths, an early idea survived in a wholly altered context: here, the growth of trees and plants on the westward slopes of the floating island began with its twice lying in the Bay of Fary and catching the light of the Trees when the Teleri and Noldoli disembarked, and its greater beauty and fertility remained from those times after it was anch.o.r.ed far away from Valinor in the midst of the ocean; afterwards, this idea survived in the context of the light of the Trees pa.s.sing through the Calacirya and falling on Tol Eressa near at hand in the Bay of Eldamar. Similarly, it seems that Ulmo's instruction of the Solosimpi in music and sea-lore while sitting 'upon a headland' of Tol Eressa after its binding to the sea-bottom was shifted to Oss's instruction of the Teleri 'in all manner of sea-lore and sea-music' sitting on a rock off the coast of Middle-earth (The Silmarillion p. 58).

Very noteworthy is the account given here of the gap in the Mountains of Valinor. In The Silmarillion the Valar made this gap, the Calacirya or Pa.s.s of Light, only after the coming of the Eldar to Aman, for 'even among the radiant flowers of the Tree-lit gardens of Valinor they [the Vanyar and Noldor] longed still at times to see the stars' (p. 59); whereas in this tale it was a 'natural' feature, a.s.sociated with a long creek thrust in from the sea.

From the account of the coming of the Elves to the sh.o.r.es of the Great Lands it is seen (p. 118) that Hisilm was a region bordering the Great Sea, agreeing with its identification as the region marked g on the earliest map, see pp. 81, 112; and most remarkably we meet here the idea that Men were shut in Hisilm by Melko, an idea that survived right through to the final form in which the Easterling Men were rewarded after the Nirnaeth Arnoediad for their treacherous service to Morgoth by being confined in Hithlum (The Silmarillion p. 195).

In the description of the hill and city of Kr appear several features that were never lost in the later accounts of Tirion upon Tna. Cf. The Silmarillion p. 59: Upon the crown of Tna the city of the Elves was built, the white walls and terraces of Tirion; and the highest of the towers of that city was the Tower of Ingw, Mindon Eldalieva, whose silver lamp shone far out into the mists of the sea.

The dust of gold and 'magic metals' that Aul piled about the feet of Kr powdered the shoes and clothing of Erendil when he climbed the 'long white stairs' of Tirion (ibid. p. 248).

It is not said here whether the shoots of Laurelin and Silpion that the G.o.ds gave to Inw and Nlem, which 'blossomed both eternally without abating', were also givers of light, but later in the Lost Tales (p. 213), after the Flight of the Noldoli, the Trees of Kr are again referred to, and there the trees given to Inw 'shone still', while the trees given to Nlem had been uprooted and 'were gone no one knew whither.' In The Silmarillion it is said that Yavanna made for the Vanyar and the Noldor 'a tree like to a lesser image of Telperion, save that it did not give light of its own being' it was 'planted in the courts beneath the Mindon and there flourished, and its seedlings were many in Eldamar'. Thence came the Tree of Tol Eressa.

In connection with this description of the city of the Elves in Valinor I give here a poem ent.i.tled Kr. It was written on April 30th, 1915 (two days after Goblin Feet and You and Me, see pp. 27, 32), and two texts of it are extant: the first, in ma.n.u.script, has a subt.i.tle 'In a City Lost and Dead'. The second, a typescript, was apparently first ent.i.tled Kr, but this was changed to The City of the G.o.ds, and the subt.i.tle erased; and with this t.i.tle the poem was published at Leeds in 1923.* No changes were made to the text except that in the penultimate line 'no bird sings' was altered already in the ma.n.u.script to 'no voice stirs'. It seems possible, especially in view of the original subt.i.tle, that the poem described Kr after the Elves had left it.

Kr

In a City Lost and Dead

A sable hill, gigantic, rampart-crowned Stands gazing out across an azure sea Under an azure sky, on whose dark ground Impearled as 'gainst a floor of porphyry Gleam marble temples white, and dazzling halls; And tawny shadows fingered long are made In fretted bars upon their ivory walls By ma.s.sy trees rock-rooted in the shade Like stony chiselled pillars of the vault With shaft and capital of black basalt.

There slow forgotten days for ever reap The silent shadows counting out rich hours; And no voice stirs; and all the marble towers White, hot and soundless, ever burn and sleep.

The story of the evolution of sea-birds by Oss, and of how the Solosimpi went at last to Valinor in ships of swan-shape drawn by gulls, to the chagrin of Oss, is greatly at variance with the account in The Silmarillion (p. 61): Through a long age they [the Teleri] dwelt in Tol Eressa; but slowly their hearts were changed, and were drawn towards the light that flowed out over the sea to the Lonely Isle. They were torn between the love of the music of the waves upon their sh.o.r.es, and the desire to see again their kindred and to look upon the splendour of Valinor; but in the end desire of the light was the stronger. Therefore Ulmo, submitting to the will of the Valar, sent to them Oss, their friend, and he though grieving taught them the craft of ship-building; and when their ships were built he brought them as his parting gift many strong-winged swans. Then the swans drew the white ships of the Teleri over the windless sea; and thus at last and latest they came to Aman and the sh.o.r.es of Eldamar.

But the swans remained as a gift of Oss to the Elves of Tol Eressa, and the ships of the Teleri retained the form of the ships built by Aul for the Solosimpi: they 'were made in the likeness of swans, with beaks of gold and eyes of gold and jet' (ibid.).

The pa.s.sage of geographical description that follows (p. 125) is curious; for it is extremely similar to (and even in some phrases identical with) that in the tale of The Coming of the Valar and the Building of Valinor, p. 68. An explanation of this repet.i.tion is suggested below. This second version gives in fact little new information, its chief difference of substance being the mention of Tol Eressa. It is now made clear that the Shadowy Seas were a region of the Great Sea west of Tol Eressa. In The Silmarillion (p. 102) the conception had changed, with the change in the anchorage of Tol Eressa: at the time of the Hiding of Valinor the Enchanted Isles were set, and all the seas about them were filled with shadows and bewilderment. And these isles were strung as a net in the Shadowy Seas from the north to the south, before Tol Eressa, the Lonely Isle, is reached by one sailing west.

There is a further element of repet.i.tion in the account of the gap in the Mountains of Valinor and the hill of Kr at the head of the creek (p. 126), which have already been described earlier in this same tale (p. 122). The explanation of this repet.i.tion is almost certainly to be found in the two layers of composition in this tale (see note 8 above); for the first of these pa.s.sages is in the revised portion and the second in the original, pencilled text. My father in his revision had, I think, simply taken in earlier the pa.s.sage concerning the gap in the Mountains, the hill and the creek, and if he had continued the revision of the tale to its end the second pa.s.sage would have been excised. This explanation may be suggested also for the repet.i.tion of the pa.s.sage concerning the islands in the Great Sea and the coast of Valinor from the tale of The Coming of the Valar and the Building of Valinor; but in that case the implication must be that the revision in ink over the original pencilled ma.n.u.script was carried out when the latter was already far ahead in the narrative.

In The Silmarillion the entire account of the making of gem-stones by the Noldoli has become compressed into these words (p. 60): And it came to pa.s.s that the masons of the house of Finw, quarrying in the hills after stone (for they delighted in the building of high towers), first discovered the earth-gems, and brought them forth in countless myriads; and they devised tools for the cutting and shaping of gems, and carved them in many forms. They h.o.a.rded them not, but gave them freely, and by their labour enriched all Valinor.

Thus the rhapsodic account at the end of this tale of the making of gems out of 'magic' materials-starlight, and ilw, dews and petals, gla.s.sy substances dyed with the juice of flowers-was abandoned, and the Noldor became miners, skilful indeed, but mining only what was there to be found in the rocks of Valinor. On the other hand, in an earlier pa.s.sage in The Silmarillion (p. 39), the old idea is retained: 'The Noldor also it was who first achieved the making of gems.' It need not be said that everything was to be gained by the discretion of the later writing; in this early narrative the Silmarils are not strongly marked out from the acc.u.mulated wonder of all the rest of the gems of the Noldoli's making.

Features that remained are the generosity of the Noldor in the giving of their gems and the scattering of them on the sh.o.r.es (cf. The Silmarillion p. 61: 'Many jewels the Noldor gave them [the Teleri], opals and diamonds and pale crystals, which they strewed upon the sh.o.r.es and scattered in the pools'); the pearls that the Teleri got from the sea (ibid.); the sapphires that the Noldor gave to Manw ('His sceptre was of sapphire, which the Noldor wrought for him', ibid. p. 40); and, of course, Fanor as the maker of the Silmarils-although, as will be seen in the next tale, Fanor was not yet the son of Finw (Nlem).

I conclude this commentary with another early poem that bears upon the matter of this tale. It is said in the tale (p. 119) that Men in Hisilm feared the Lost Elves, calling them the Shadow Folk, and that their name for the land was Aryador. The meaning of this is given in the early Gnomish word-list as 'land or place of shadow' (cf. the meanings of Hisilm and Dor Lmin, p. 112).

The poem is called A Song of Aryador, and is extant in two copies; according to notes on these it was written in an army camp near Lichfield on September 12th, 1915. It was never, to my knowledge, printed. The first copy, in ma.n.u.script, has the t.i.tle also in Old English: n leo eargedores; the second, in typescript, has virtually no differences in the text, but it may be noted that the first word of the third verse, 'She', is an emendation from 'He' in both copies.

A Song of Aryador In the vales of Aryador By the wooded inland sh.o.r.e Green the lakeward bents and meads Sloping down to murmurous reeds That whisper in the dusk o'er Aryador: 'Do you hear the many bells Of the goats upon the fells Where the valley tumbles downward from the pines?

Do you hear the blue woods moan When the Sun has gone alone To hunt the mountain-shadows in the pines?

She is lost among the hills And the upland slowly fills With the shadow-folk that murmur in the fern; And still there are the bells And the voices on the fells While Eastward a few stars begin to burn.

Men are kindling tiny gleams Far below by mountain-streams Where they dwell among the beechwoods near the sh.o.r.e, But the great woods on the height Watch the waning western light And whisper to the wind of things of yore, When the valley was unknown, And the waters roared alone, And the shadow-folk danced downward all the night, When the Sun had fared abroad Through great forests unexplored And the woods were full of wandering beams of light.

Then were voices on the fells And a sound of ghostly bells And a march of shadow-people o'er the height.

In the mountains by the sh.o.r.e In forgotten Aryador There was dancing and was ringing; There were shadow-people singing Ancient songs of olden G.o.ds in Aryador.'

VI.

THE THEFT OF MELKO AND THE DARKENING OF VALINOR.

This t.i.tle is again taken from the cover of the book containing the text; the narrative, still written rapidly in pencil (see note 8 to the last chapter), with some emendations from the same time or later, continues without a break.

Now came Eriol home to the Cottage of Lost Play, and his love for all the things that he saw about him and his desire to understand them all became more deep. Continually did he thirst to know yet more of the history of the Eldar; nor did he ever fail to be among those who fared each evening to the Room of the Tale-fire; and so on a time when he had already sojourned some while as a guest of Vair and Lindo it so pa.s.sed that Lindo at his entreaty spake thus from his deep chair: 'Listen then, O Eriol, if thou wouldst [know] how it so came that the loveliness of Valinor was abated, or the Elves might ever be constrained to leave the sh.o.r.es of Eldamar. It may well be that you know already that Melko dwelt in Valmar as a servant in the house of Tulkas in those days of the joy of the Eldali there did he nurse his hatred of the G.o.ds, and his consuming jealousy of the Eldar, but it was his l.u.s.t for the beauty of the gems for all his feigned indifference that in the end overbore his patience and caused him to design deep and evilly.

Now the Noldoli alone at those times had the art of fashioning these beautiful things, and despite their rich gifts to all whom they loved the treasure they possessed of them was beyond count the greatest, wherefore Melko whenever he may consorteth with them, speaking cunning words. In this way for long he sought to beg gifts of jewels for himself, and maybe also catching the unwary to learn something of their hidden art, but when none of these devices succeeded he sought to sow evil desires and discords among the Gnomes, telling them that lie concerning the Council when the Eldar were first bidden to Valinor.1 "Slaves are ye," he would say, "or children, an you will, bidden play with toys and seek not to stray or know too much. Good days mayhap the Valar give you, as ye say; seek but to cross their walls and ye shall know the hardness of their hearts. Lo, they use your skill, and to your beauty they hold fast as an adornment of their realms. This is not love, but selfish desire-make test of it. Ask for your inheritance that Ilvatar designed for you-the whole wide world to roam, with all its mysteries to explore, and all its substances to be material of such mighty crafts as never can be realised in these narrow gardens penned by the mountains, hemmed in by the impa.s.sable sea."

Hearing these things, despite the true knowledge which Nlem had and spread abroad, there were many who hearkened with half their hearts to Melko, and restlessness grew amongst them, and Melko poured oil on their smouldering desires. From him they learnt many things it were not good for any but the great Valar to know, for being half-comprehended such deep and hidden things slay happiness; and besides many of the sayings of Melko were cunning lies or were but partly true, and the Noldoli ceased to sing, and their viols fell silent upon the hill of Kr, for their hearts grew somewhat older as their lore grew deeper and their desires more swollen, and the books of their wisdom were multiplied as the leaves of the forest. For know that in those days Aul aided by the Gnomes contrived alphabets and scripts, and on the walls of Kr were many dark tales written in pictured symbols, and runes of great beauty were drawn there too or carved upon stones, and Erendel read many a wondrous tale there long ago, and mayhap still is many a one still there to read, if it be not corrupted into dust. The other Elves heeded these things not over much, and were at times sad and fearful at the lessened gladness of their kinsmen. Great mirth had Melko at this and wrought in patience biding his time, yet no nearer did he get to his end, for despite all his labours the glory of the Trees and the beauty of the gems and the memory of the dark ways from Palisor held back the Noldoli-and ever Nlem spake against Melko, calming their restlessness and discontents.

At length so great became his care that he took counsel with Fanor, and even with Inw and Ellu Melemno (who then led the Solosimpi), and took their rede that Manw himself be told of the dark ways of Melko.

And Melko knowing this was in great anger against the Gnomes, and going first before Manw bowed very low, and said how the Noldoli dared murmur to his ears against Manw's lordship, claiming that in skill and beauty they (whom Ilvatar had destined to possss all the earth) far surpa.s.sed the Valar, for whom they must labour unrecompensed. Heavy was Manw's heart at these words, for he had feared long that that great amity of the Valar and Eldar be ever perchance broken, knowing that the Elves were children of the world and must one day return to her bosom. Nay, who shall say but that all these deeds, even the seeming needless evil of Melko, were but a portion of the destiny of old? Yet cold was the Lord of the G.o.ds to the informer, and lo! even as he questioned him further the emba.s.sy of Nlem came thither, and being granted leave spake the truth before him. By reason of the presence of Melko perchance they spoke somewhat less skilfully in their own cause than they might, and perchance even the heart of Manw Slimo was tainted with the poison of Melko's words, for that venom of Melko's malice is very strong and subtle indeed.

Howbeit, both Melko and the Noldoli were chidden and dismissed. Melko indeed was bidden get him back to Mandos and there dwell awhile in penitence, nor dare to walk in Valmar for many moons, not until the great festival that now approached had come and gone; but Manw fearing lest the pollution of their discontent spread among the other kindreds commanded Aul to find other places and thither lead the Noldoli, and build them a new town where they might dwell.

Great was the sorrow upon the hill of Kr when those tidings were brought thither, and though all were wroth with the treachery of Melko, yet was there now a new bitterness against the G.o.ds, and the murmuring louder than before.

A little stream, and its name was Hiri, ran down from the hills, northward of the opening to the coast where Kr was built, and it wandered thence across the plain no one knew whither. Maybe it found the Outer Seas, for north of the roots of Silpion it dived into the earth and there was a rugged place and a rock-ringed dale; and here the Noldoli purposed to abide, or rather to await the pa.s.sing of wrath from Manw's heart, for in no way as yet would they accept the thought of leaving Kr for ever.

Caves they made in the walls of that dale, and thither they bore their wealth of gems, of gold and silver and fair things; but their ancient homes in Kr were empty of their voices, filled only with their paintings and their books of lore, and the streets of Kr and all the ways of Valmar shone still with [?gems] and carven marbles telling of the days of the happiness of the Gnomes that cometh now upon its waning.

Now Melko gets him gone to Mandos, and far from Valinor he plans rebellion and vengeance upon both Gnomes and G.o.ds. Indeed, dwelling for nigh three ages in the vaults of Mandos Melko had made friends to himself of certain gloomy spirits there and perverted them to ill, promising them great lands and regions on the Earth for their [?having] if they aided him when he called on them in need; and now he gathers them to him in the dark ravines of the mountains about Mandos. Thence sends he spies, invisible as fleeting shades when Silpion is in bloom, and learns of those doings of the Noldoli and of all that pa.s.ses in the plain. Now soon after it chanced indeed that the Valar and Eldar held a great feast, even that one that Manw had spoken of, bidding Melko rid Valmar of his presence at that time; for know that they made merry on one day every seventh year to celebrate the coming of the Eldar into Valinor, and every third year a lesser feast to commemorate the coming of the white fleet of the Solosimpi to the sh.o.r.es of Eldamar; but at every twenty-first year when both these feasts fell together they held one of the greatest magnificence, and it endured for seven days, and for this cause such years were called "Years of Double Mirth";* and these feasts all the Koreldar wherever they now may be in the wide world still do celebrate. Now that feast that approacheth is one of Double Mirth, and all the hosts of the G.o.ds and Elves made ready to celebrate it most gloriously. Pomps there were and long processions of the Elves, dancing and singing, that wound from Kr to Valmar's gates. A road had been laid against this festival from the westward gate of Kr even to the turrets of the mighty arch which opened in the walls of Valmar northward towards the Trees. Of white marble it was and many a gentle stream flowing from the far mountains crossd its path. Here it would leap into slender bridges marvellously fenced with delicate bal.u.s.trades that shone like pearls; scarcely did these clear the water, so that lilies of great beauty growing upon the bosom of the streams that fared but gently in the plain thrust their wide blossoms about its borders and iris marched along its flanks; for by cunning delving runnels of clearest water were made to flow from stream to stream bordering that whole long way with the cool noise of rippling water. At places mighty trees grew on either side, or at places the road would open to a glade and fountains spring by magic high into the air for the refreshment of all who sped that way.

Now came the Teleri led by the white-robed people of the Inwir, and the throbbing of their congregated harps beat the air most sweetly; and after them went the Noldoli mingling once more with their own dear folk by Manw's clemency, that his festival might be duly kept, but the music that their viols and instruments awoke was now more sweetly sad than ever before. And last came the people of the sh.o.r.es, and their piping blent with voices brought the sense of tides and murmurous waves and the wailing cry of the coast-loving birds thus inland deep upon the plain.

Then was all that host marshalled before the gate of Valmar, and at the word and sign from Inw as one voice they burst in unison into the Song of Light. This had Lirillo2 written and taught them, and it told of the longing of the Elves for light, of their dread journey through the dark world led by the desire of the Two Trees, and sang of their utmost joy beholding the faces of the G.o.ds and their renewed desire once more to enter Valmar and tread the Valar's blessed courts. Then did the gates of Valmar open and Nornor bid them enter, and all that bright company pa.s.sed through. There Varda met them, standing amid the companies of the Mnir and the Sruli, and all the G.o.ds made them welcome, and feasts there were in all the great halls thereafter.

Now their custom was on the third day to robe themselves all in white and blue and ascend to the heights of Taniquetil, and there would Manw speak to them as he thought fit of the Music of the Ainur and the glory of Ilvatar, and of things to be and that had been. And on that day would Kr and Valmar be silent and still, but the roof of the world and the slope of Taniquetil shine with the gleaming raiment of the G.o.ds and Elves, and all the mountains echo with their speech-but afterward on the last day of merriment the G.o.ds would come to Kr and sit upon the slopes of its bright hill, gazing in love upon that slender town, and thereafter blessing it in the name of Ilvatar would depart ere Silpion came to bloom; and so would end the days of Double Mirth.

But in this fateful year Melko dared of his blasphemous heart to choose that very day of Manw's speech upon Taniquetil for the carrying out of his designs; for then would Kr and Valmar and the rock-ringed dale of Sirnmen be unguarded: for against whom indeed had Elf or Vala need to guard in those old days?

Creeping then down with his dark people on the third day of Samrien, as that feast was named, he pa.s.sed the dark halls of Makar's abode (for even that wild Vala had gone to Valmar to honour the time, and indeed all of the G.o.ds went there saving Fui and Vefntur only, and Oss even was there, dissembling for those seven days his feud and jealousy with Ulmo). Here does a thought come to Melko's heart, and he arms himself and his band stealthily with swords very sharp and cruel, and this was well for them: for now do they all steal into the vale of Sirnmen where the Noldoli had their present dwelling, and behold the Gnomes by reason of the workings in their hearts of Melko's own teaching had become wary and suspicious beyond the wont of the Eldar of those days. Guards of some strength were set over the treasures there that went not to the feast, albeit this was contrary to the customs and ordinances of the G.o.ds. Now is there suddenly bitter war awake in the heart of Valinor and those guards are slain, even while the peace and gladness upon Taniquetil afar is very great-indeed for that reason none heard their cries. Now Melko knew that it was indeed war for ever between himself and all those other folk of Valinor, for he had slain the Noldoli-guests of the Valar-before the doors of their own homes. With his own hand indeed he slew Bruithwir father of Fanor,3 and bursting into that rocky house that he defended laid hands upon those most glorious gems, even the Silmarils, shut in a casket of ivory. Now all that great treasury of gems he despoiled, and lading himself and all his companions to the utmost he seeks how he may escape.

Know then that Orom had great stables and a breeding ground of good horses not so far from this spot, where a wild forest land had grown up. Thither Melko steals, and a herd of black horses he captures, cowing them with the terror that he could wield. Astride those his whole company of thieves rides far away, after destroying what things of lesser value they deemed it impossible to carry thence. Making a wide circuit and faring with the speed of hurricanes such as only the divine horses of Orom ridden by the children of the G.o.ds could compa.s.s they pa.s.s far to the west of Valmar in the untracked regions where the light of the Trees was thin. Long ere the folk had come down from Taniquetil and long ere the end of the feast or ever the Noldoli fared back to find their homes despoiled, Melko and his [?thieves] were ridden to the deep south, and finding there a low place in the hills they pa.s.sed into the plains of Eruman. Well might Aul and Tulkas bemoan their carelessness in leaving that low place long ago when they reared those hills to fend all evil from the plain-for that was the place where they were accustomed to enter Valinor after their quarryings in the fields of Arvalin.4 It is said indeed that this riding in a half-circle, laborious and perilous as it was, was at first no part of Melko's design, for rather had he purposed to get to northward over the pa.s.ses nigh to Mandos; but this he was warned might not be done, for Mandos and Fui never left those realms, and all the ravines and chasms of the northward mountains were infested with their folk, nor for all his gloom was Mandos any rebel against Manw or an abetter of evil deeds.

Far to the north if one may endure the colds as Melko could it is said in ancient lore that the Great Seas narrow to a little thing, and without aid of ships Melko and his company might thus have got into the world safely; but this was not done, and the sad tale took its appointed course, or the Two Trees might yet have shone and the Elves sung still in Valinor.

At length that daytide of festival is over and the G.o.ds are turned back towards Valmar, treading the white road from Kr. The lights twinkle in the city of the Elves and peace dwells there, but the Noldoli fare over the plain to Sirnmen sadly. Silpion is gleaming in that hour, and ere it wanes the first lament for the dead that was heard in Valinor rises from that rocky vale, for Fanor laments the death of Bruithwir; and many of the Gnomes beside find that the spirits of their dead have winged their way to V. Then messengers ride hastily to Valmar bearing tidings of the deeds, and there they find Manw, for he has not yet left that town for his abode upon Taniquetil.

"Alas, O Manw Slimo," they cry, "evil has pierced the Mountains of Valinor and fallen upon Sirnmen of the Plain. There lies Bruithwir sire of Fanor5 dead and many of the Noldoli beside, and all our treasury of gems and fair things and the loving travail of our hands and hearts through many years is stolen away. Whither O Manw whose eyes see all things? Who has done this evil, for the Noldoli cry for vengeance, O most [?just] one!"