The War of the Jewels (78 page)

Morwen and Nienor come to Nargothrond, but their escort (under Mablung) is scattered, and Morwen is lost in the wild, but Nienor is bewitched by Glaurung, and loses her memory, and runs into the wild.

Nienor comes to Brethil, and is called Niniel.(12) 496-Under the name of Turambar Turin becomes chief warrior of Brethil, and men give no heed to Brandir. Brandir falls in love with Niniel, but she loves Turambar.

497.

Dior Halfelven weds Lindis of Ossiriand.(13)

498.

Turin weds Niniel (autumn).(14)

499.

Glaurung assails Brethil. Turin goes against him with Hunthor and Dorlas. Dorlas' heart fails and he leaves them.

Hunthor is slain by a falling stone. Turin slays Glaurung.

Glaurung ere death reveals to Turin and Nienor who they are.

Turin slays Brandir. Nienor casts herself into Taeglin. [The following are separate additions to the text:] Turin slays Brandir and takes his own life. / Men of Brethil erect the Talbor or St[anding] Stone to their memory. / Mim comes to Nargothrond and takes possession of the treasure.(15) 500.

Elrun and Eldun twin sons of Dior are born.

Morgoth releases Hurin. Hurin goes to Hithlum.(16) 501.

Hurin leaves Hithlum and with Asgon and six men goes down into the Narrow Land.

Hurin leaves his companions and seeks in vain an entrance to Gondolin, but Morgoth's spies thus learn in what region it stands.

Hurin comes to the Stone and there finds Morwen, who dies.

Hurin is put in prison by Hardang Chief of Brethil, but is aided by Manthor his kinsman (cousin of Hardang). In uprising Hardang and Manthor are slain and Obel Halad is burned.

Hurin finds Asgon again and gathers other men and goes towards Nargothrond.(17)

502.

Tuor weds Idril daughter of Turgon.

Hurin comes to Nargothrond and slays Mim the petty-dwarf.

He and his men carry off the treasure of Glaurung and bring it to Doriath. Hurin is admitted in pity.(18)

Here this plot-synopsis ends, at the foot of a manuscript page. I come now to the substantial complex of writing leading to a final text which my father ultimately entitled The Wanderings of Hurin (earlier Of the Fate of Hurin and Morwen). The final title seems not to be entirely apposite to the content of the work, which is wholly concerned with the story of Hurin in Brethil; it may have been intended to have a larger scope, to include the further story of Hurin told on the same scale, which was never written (see p. 310, note 57, and also the other title given below).

There is, first, a draft manuscript and associated rough workings (often of an extreme roughness). Many pages of the draft material are the backs of University documents dated 1954, others are documents from 1957. Secondly, there is a typescript made by my father on his later typewriter (see X.300), much emended in manuscript and with some substantial passages rejected and replaced by new material in typescript; and lastly an amanuensis typescript of virtually no independent value. The work can be placed with fair certainty towards the end of the 1950s.

My father's typescript, as typed, bore no title, but he wrote in ink on the top copy:

Of the Fate of Hurin and Morwen

Link to the Necklace of the Dwarves, 'Sigil Elu-naeth'

Necklace of the Woe of Thingol

The text opens thus:

So ended the tale of Turin the hapless; and it has ever been held one of the worst of the deeds of Morgoth among Men in the ancient world. It is said by some that on a time Morwen came in her witless wandering to the graven stone, and knowing that her children were dead, though she understood not in what way their tale had ended, she sat beside the stone awaiting death; and there Hurin found her at last, as is after told.

Less happy than hers was the lot of Hurin.

This passage derives, in its first sentence, from Q (IV.131), and then from the first continuation of the Grey Annals (pp. 251-2), with the addition that Hurin found Morwen beside the stone (cf. p. 258, annal 501). The passage was struck from the typescript and replaced by the following, written on a document dating from 1957: So ended the tale of Turin the Hapless, the worst of the works of Morgoth among Men in the ancient world. But Morgoth did not sleep nor rest from evil, and this was not the end of his dealings with the House of Hador, against which his malice was unsated, though Hurin was under his Eye, and Morwen wandered distraught in the wild.

Unhappy was the lot of Hurin.

At the head of this my father subsequently wrote The Wanderings of Hurin, and the final amanuensis typescript was given this title also (see p. 258). The typescript continues, from 'Less happy than hers was the lot of Hurin':

For all that Morgoth knew of the working of his malice Hurin knew also; but lies were mingled with the truth, and aught that was good was hidden or distorted. He that sees through the eyes of Morgoth, willing or unwilling, sees all things crooked.

It was Morgoth's special endeavour to cast an evil light upon all that Thingol and Melian had done, for he feared and hated them most; and when, therefore, he deemed the time ripe, in the year after the death of Turin he released Hurin from bondage, bidding him go whither he would.

He feigned that in this he was moved by pity for an enemy utterly defeated, marvelling at his endurance. 'Such steadfast-ness,' he said, 'should have been shown in a better cause, and would have been otherwise rewarded. But I have no longer any use for you, Hurin, in the waning of your little life.' And he lied, for his purpose was that Hurin should still further his malice against Elves and Men, ere he died.

Then little though Hurin trusted aught that Morgoth said or did, knowing that he was without pity, he took his freedom and went forth in grief, embittered by the deceits of the Dark Lord.

Twenty-eight years Hurin was captive in Angband...

In this passage my father was following, with some expansion, the continuation of the Grey Annals (p. 252); from this point he followed it almost without alteration as far as 'And with that he departed, and left the land of Hithlum' (p. 254).(19) There are thus two closely similar, and for most of their length all but identical, texts of this short narrative, which may be called 'Hurin in Hithlum'; but the first of them is the continuation of the Annals, and the second is the opening of a wholly new story of Hurin in Brethil - causing a postponement of the story of 'Hurin in Nargothrond', which in the event was never reached. Seeing then that the second text of 'Hurin in Hithlum' has an entirely distinct function, there is clearly no question of regarding the story of Hurin in Brethil as a further extension of the Annals. As will be seen, my father was very evidently no longer writing annals of Beleriand: that work was now abandoned - or possibly, in his intention, left in abeyance, until the new story had been completed on the scale that he found congenial.

I now give the further text of The Wanderings of Hurin (following from the words 'And with that he departed, and left the land of Hithlum'). The work is of peculiar complexity in this, that when my father was well advanced in the story he came to a clearer understanding (as he might have said) of the situation in Brethil at the time of Hurin's advent; and these new conceptions overtook it before it was completed in a primary form. In other words, the story grew and changed as he wrote, but in this case he did not abandon it and start again at the beginning: he returned to earlier parts of the story and reconstructed them. For the most part the text as actually typed could stand, but required continual emendation in respect of names and other details. It is not easy to find a perfectly satisfactory and readily ]

comprehensible way of presenting this, but after much experimentation I concluded that the best method is to give as the text the final form achieved in the typescript, but to interrupt it (pp. 265 ff.) at the point where the new conceptions first appear and give an account of the development. Two passages are concerned: the revised form of the first is marked by single asterisks on pp. 262-3, and of the second by double asterisks on pp. 264-5.

It is said that the hunters of Lorgan dogged his footsteps and did not leave his trail until he and his companions went up into the mountains. When Hurin stood again in the high places he descried far away amid the clouds the peaks of the Crisaegrim, and he remembered Turgon; and his heart desired to come again to the Hidden Realm, if he could, for there at least he would be remembered with honour. He had heard naught of the things that had come to pass in Gondolin, and knew not that Turgon now hardened his heart against wisdom and pity, and allowed no one either to enter or to go forth for any cause whatsoever.(20) Therefore, unaware that all ways were shut beyond hope, he resolved to turn his steps towards the Crisaegrim; but he said nothing of his purpose to his companions, for he was still bound by his oath to reveal to no one that he knew even in what region Turgon abode.

Nonetheless he had need of help; for he had never lived in the wild, whereas the outlaws were long inured to the hard life of hunters and gatherers, and they brought with them such food as they could, though the Fell Winter had much diminished their store. Therefore Hurin said to them: 'We must leave this land now; for Lorgan will leave me in peace no longer. Let us go down into the vales of Sirion, where Spring has come at last! '

Then Asgon (21) guided them to one of the ancient passes that led east out of Mithrim, and they went down from the sources of the Lithir, until they came to the falls where it raced into Sirion at the southern end of the Narrow Land.(22) Now they went with great wariness; for Hurin put little trust in the 'freedom' that Morgoth had granted him. And rightly: for Morgoth had news of all his movements, and though for a while he was hidden in the mountains, his coming down was soon espied. Thereafter he was followed and watched, yet with such cunning that he seldom got wind of it. All the creatures of Morgoth avoided his sight, and he was never waylaid or molested.(23) They journeyed southward on the west side of Sirion, and Hurin debated with himself how to part from his companions, at least for so long that he could seek for an entrance to Gondolin without betraying his word. At length they came to the Brithiach; and there Asgon said to Hurin: 'Whither shall we go now, lord? Beyond this ford the ways east are too perilous for mortal men, if tales be true.'

'Then let us go to Brethil, which is nigh at hand,' said Hurin.

'I have an errand there. In that land my son died.'

So that night they took shelter in a grove of trees, first outliers of the Forest of Brethil on its northern border only a short way south of the Brithiach. Hurin lay a little apart from the others; and next day before it was light he arose while they slumbered deep in weariness, and he left them and crossed the ford and came into Dimbar.

When the men awoke he was already gone far, and there was a thick morning mist about the river. As time passed and he did not return nor answer any call they began to fear that he had been taken by some beast or prowling enemy. 'We have become heedless of late,' said Asgon. 'The land is quiet, too quiet, but there are eyes under leaves and ears behind stones.'

They followed his trail when the mist lifted; but it led to the ford and there failed, and they were at a loss. 'If he has left us, let us return to our own land,' said Ragnir.(24) He was the youngest of the company, and remembered little of the days before the Nirnaeth. 'The old man's wits are wild. He speaks with strange voices to shadows in his sleep.'

'Little wonder if it were so,' said Asgon. 'But who else could stand as straight as he, after such woe? Nay, he is our right lord, do as he may, and I have sworn to follow him.'

'Even east over the ford?' said the others.

'Nay, there is small hope in that way,' said Asgon, 'and I do not think that Hurin will go far upon it. All we know of his purpose was to go soon to Brethil, and that he has an errand there. We are on the very border. Let us seek him there.'

'By whose leave?' said Ragnir. 'Men there do not love strangers.'

'Good men dwell there,' said Asgon, 'and the [Master >]

Lord of Brethil is kin to our old lords.'(25) Nonetheless the others were doubtful, for no tidings had come out of Brethil for some ]

years. 'It may be ruled by Orcs for all we know,' they said.

'We shall soon find what way things go,' said Asgon. 'Orcs are little worse than Eastrons, I guess. If outlaws we must remain, I would rather lurk in the fair woods than in the cold hills.'

Asgon, therefore, turned and went back towards Brethil; and the others followed him, for he had a stout heart and men said that he was born with good luck. Before that day ended they had come deep into the forest, and their coming was marked; for the Haladin were more wary than ever and kept close watch on their borders. In the [middle of the night >] grey of the morning, as all but one of the incomers were asleep, their camp was surrounded, and their watchman was held and gagged as soon as he cried out.