The War of the Jewels (3 page)

There also dwelt her nightingales.

1102-5.

$7 Ingwe, Finwe, and Elwe were brought to Valinor by Orome as ambassadors of the Quendi; and they looked upon the Light of the Trees and yearned for it. Returning they counselled the Eldar to go to the Land of Aman, at the summons of the Valar.

1115.

$8. Even as the Valar had come first to Beleriand as they went eastward, so later Orome leading the hosts of the Eldar westwards towards Aman brought them to the shores of Beleriand. For there the Great Sea was less wide and yet free from the perils of the ice that lay further north. In this year of the Valar, therefore, the foremost companies of the Vanyar and Noldor passed through the vale of Sirion and came to the sea-coast between Drengist and the Bay of Balar. But because of their fear of the Sea, which they had before neither seen nor imagined, the Eldar drew back into the woods and highlands.

And Orome departed and went to Valinor and left them there for a time.

1128.

$9. In this year the Teleri, who had lingered on the road, came also at last over Eryd Luin into northern Beleriand. There they halted and dwelt a while between the River Gelion and Eryd Luin. At that time many of the Noldor dwelt westward of the Teleri, in those regions where afterwards stood the forests of Neldoreth and Region. Finwe was their lord, and with him Elwe lord of the Teleri had great friendship; and Elwe was wont often to visit Finwe in the dwellings of the Noldor.

1130.

$10. In this year King Elwe Singollo of the Teleri was lost in the wilderness. As he journeyed home from a meeting with Finwe, he passed by Nan Elmoth, and he heard the nightingales of Melian the Maia, and followed them deep into the glades.

There he saw Melian standing beneath the stars, and a white mist was about her, but the Light of Aman was in her face. Thus began the love of Elwe Greymantle and Melian of Valinor.

Hand in hand they stood silent in the woods, while the wheeling stars measured many years, and the young trees of Nan Elmoth grew tall and dark. Long his people sought for Elwe in vain.

1132.

$11. Now Ulmo, at the command of the Valar, came to the shores of Beleriand and summoned the Eldar to meet him; and he spoke to them, and made music upon his conches, and changed the fear of all who heard him into a great desire for the Sea. Then Ulmo and Osse took an island, which stood far out in the Sea, and they moved it, and brought it, as it were a mighty ship, into the Bay of Balar; and the Vanyar and Noldor embarked thereon, and were drawn over Sea, until they came at last to the Land of Aman. But a part of that island which was deep-grounded in the shoals off the mouths of Sirion was broken away and remained; and this was the Isle of Balar to which afterward Osse often came.

$12. For the Teleri had not embarked, but remained behind.

Many indeed were dwelling at that time afar off in eastern Beleriand and heard the summons of Ulmo too late; and many others searched still for Elwe their king, and were not willing to depart without him. But when the Teleri learned that their kinsfolk, the Vanyar and the Noldor, were gone, the most part hastened to the shore and dwelt thereafter nigh the mouths of Sirion, in longing for their friends that had left them. And they took Olwe, Elwe's brother, for their lord. Then Osse and Uinen came to them, and dwelt in the Isle of Balar, and became the friends of the Teleri and taught them all manner of sea-lore and sea-music.

1149-50.

$13. In this year Ulmo returned to Beleriand. To this he was most moved by the prayers of the Noldor and of Finwe their king, who grieved at their sundering from the Teleri, and besought Ulmo to bring Elwe and his people to Aman, if they would come. And all those who followed Olwe were now willing to depart; but Osse was sad at heart. For he went seldom to the shores of Aman, and loved the Teleri, and he was ill-pleased that their fair voices should be heard no longer by the strands of Middle-earth, which were his domain.

$14. Osse therefore persuaded many to remain in Beleriand, and when King Olwe and his host were embarked upon the isle and passed over the Sea they abode still by the shore; and Osse returned to them, and continued in friendship with them. And he taught to them the craft of shipbuilding and of sailing; and they became a folk of mariners, the first in Middle-earth, and had fair havens at Eglarest and Brithombar; but some dwelt still upon the Isle of Balar. Cirdan the Shipwright was the lord of this people, and all that shoreland between Drengist and Balar that he ruled was called the Falas. But among the Teleri were none yet so hardy of heart, and of their ships none so swift and strong that they might dare the deeps of the Great Sea or behold even from afar the Blessed Realm and the Light of the Trees of Valinor. Wherefore those that remained behind were called Moriquendi, Elves of the Dark.

1150.

$15. The friends and kinsfolk of Elwe also remained; but they would fain have departed to Valinor and the Light of the Trees (which Elwe indeed had seen), if Ulmo and Olwe had been willing to tarry yet longer while they sought still for Elwe. But when Ulmo had tarried a full Year (and a Year of the Valar is in length well nigh as are ten of the years that now are) he departed, and the friends of Elwe were left behind. Therefore they called themselves the Eglath, the Forsaken People; and though they dwelt in the woods and hills rather than by the Sea, which filled them with sorrow, their inmost hearts yearned ever Westward.

1152.

$16. At this time, it is told, Elwe Singollo awoke from his long trance. And he came forth from Nan Elmoth with Melian, and they dwelt thereafter in the woods in the midst of the land; and though Elwe had greatly desired to see again the light of the Trees, in the face of Melian the fair he beheld the Light of Aman as in an unclouded mirror, and in that light he was content.

Then his folk gathered about him in joy; and they were amazed, for fair and noble as he had been, now he appeared as it were a lord of the Maiar, tallest of all the Children of Iluvatar, his hair as grey silver, and his eyes like unto stars. King of the Eglath he became, and Melian was his Queen, wiser than any daughter of Middle-earth.

1200.

$17. It is not known to any among Elves or Men when Luthien, only child of Elwe and Melian, came into the World, fairest of all the Children of Iluvatar that were or shall be. But it is held that it was at the end of the first age of the Chaining of Melkor, when all the Earth had great peace and the glory of Valinor was at its noon, and though Middle-earth for the most

[part] lay in the Sleep of Yavanna, in Beleriand under the power of Melian there was life and joy and the bright stars shone like silver fires. In the Forest of Neldoreth it is said that she was born and cradled under the stars of heaven, and the white flowers of niphredil came forth to greet her, as stars from the earth.

1200-50.

$18. In this time the power of Elwe and Melian reached over all Beleriand. Elu Thingol he was called in the tongue of his people, King Greymantle, and all the Elves of Beleriand from the mariners of Cirdan to the wandering huntsmen of the Blue Mountains took him for lord. And they are called, therefore, the Sindar, the Grey Elves of starlit Berleriand. And albeit they were Moriquendi, under the lordship of Thingol and the teaching of Melian they became the fairest and the most wise and skilful of all the Elves of Middle-earth.

1250.

$19. In this year the Norn-folk came first over the mountains into Beleriand. This people the Noldor after named the Naugrim, whom some Men call Dwarves. Their most ancient dwellings were far to the East, but they had delved for themselves great halls and mansions, after the manner of their kind, on the east-side of Eryd Luin, north and south of Mount Dolmed, in those places which the Eldar named Belegost and Nogrod (but.they Gabilgathol and Tumunzahar). Thence they now came forth and made themselves known to the Elves; and the Elves were amazed, for they had deemed themselves to be the only living things in Middle-earth that spoke with words or wrought with hands; and that all others were beasts and birds only.

$20. Nonetheless they could understand no word of the tongue of the Naugrim, which to their ears was cumbrous and unlovely; and few ever of the Eldar have achieved the mastery of it. But the Dwarves were swift to learn (after a fashion), and indeed were more willing to learn the Elven-tongue than to teach to aliens their own; and soon there was much parley between the peoples. Ever cool was their friendship, though much profit they had one of the other. But at that time those griefs that lay between them had not yet come to pass, and they were welcomed by King Thingol.

$21. How the Dwarves came into the world the Eldar know not for certain, though the loremasters have elsewhere recorded the tales of the Naugrim themselves (such as they would reveal) concerning their beginning. They say that Aule the Maker, whom they call Mahal, brought them into being; and however that may be, certain it is that they were great smiths and masons, though of old there was little beauty in their works.

Iron and copper they loved to work more than silver or gold, and stone more than wood.

1300.

Of the building of Menegroth.

$22. Now Melian had after the manner of the Maiar, the people of Valinor, much foresight. And when two of the ages of the Chaining of Melkor had passed, she counselled Thingol that the Peace of Arda would not last for ever; and he therefore bethought him how he should make for himself a kingly dwelling, and a place that should be strong, if evil were to awake again in Middle-earth. He called therefore upon the Enfeng, the Longbeards of Belegost, whom he had befriended, and sought their aid and counsel. And they gave it willingly, for they were unwearied in those days, and eager for new works.

And though the Dwarves ever demanded a price for all that they did, whether with delight or with toil, at this time they held themselves paid. For Melian taught them much wisdom, which they were eager to get; whereas Thingol rewarded them with many fair pearls. These Cirdan gave to him, for they were got in great number in the shallow waters about the Isle of Balar; but the Naugrim had not before seen their like, and they held them dear. And one there was great as a dove's egg, and its sheen was as the starlight upon the foam of the sea; Nimphelos it was named, and the chieftain of the Enfeng prized it above a mountain of wealth.

$23. Therefore the Naugrim laboured long and gladly for Thingol, and devised for him mansions after the fashion of their folk, delved deep in the earth. Where the River Esgalduin flowed down, dividing Neldoreth from Region, there was in the midst of the forest a rocky hill, and the river ran at its feet.

There they made the gates of the halls of Thingol, and they built a bridge of stone over the river, by which alone the gates could be entered. But beyond the gates wide passages ran down to high halls and chambers far below that were hewn in the living stone, so many and so great that that dwelling was named Menegroth, the Thousand Caves.

$24. But the Elves also had part in that labour, and Elves and Dwarves together, each with their own skills, there wrought out the visions of Melian, images of the wonder and beauty of Valinor beyond the Sea. The pillars of Menegroth were hewn in the likeness of the beeches of Orome, stock, bough, and leaf, and they were lit with lanterns of gold. The nightingales sang there as in the gardens of Lorien; and there were fountains of silver, and basins of marble, and floors of many-coloured stones. Carven figures of beasts and of birds there ran upon the walls, or climbed upon the pillars, or peered among the branches entwined with many flowers. And as the years passed Melian and her maidens filled the halls with webs of many hues, wherein could be read the deeds of the Valar, and many things that had befallen in Arda since its beginning, and shadows of things that were yet to be. That was the fairest dwelling of any king that hath ever been east of the Sea.

1300-50.

$25. After the building of Menegroth was achieved, there was peace in the realm of Thingol. The Naugrim would come ever and anon over the mountains and visit Menegroth and go in traffick about the land, though they went seldom to the Falas, for they hated the sound of the Sea and feared to look on it; but otherwise there came to Beleriand no rumour or tidings of the world without. But it came to pass that the Dwarves were troubled, and they spoke to King Thingol, saying that the Valar had not rooted out utterly the evils of the North, and now the remnant, having long multiplied in the dark, were coming forth once more and roaming far and wide. 'There are fell beasts,'

said they, 'in the land east of the mountains, and the dark-elves that dwell there, your ancient kindred, are flying from the plains to the hills.'

1330.

$26. And ere long (in the year 1330 according to the annals that were made in Doriath) the evil creatures came even to Beleriand, over passes in the mountains, or up from the south through the dark forests. Wolves there were, or creatures that walked in wolf-shapes, and other fell beings of shadow.