[Formendacil]

The Nirnaeth has always struck me, thinking about Tolkien and Middle-earth, as the centrepiece moment of the First Age. It has Elven might at its finest: not even the successful battles earlier in the First Age strike me as so indicative of Elven might as the Union of Maedhros. The full forces of the Noldor of Hithlum, Himring, and even Gondolin (with a noble band from Nargothrond) unite together with the the finest generation of the Edain, and even a noble contingent of Dwarves in a foreshadowing of Gimli's part in the War of the Ring. Part of this sense of the full grandeur of First Age Elvendom comes from the detail lavished on the alliance, and also from its position as the last real chance the Elves had of winning the war.

At the same time, however, the Nirnaeth also contains all the fruits and seeds of the Silmarillion's tragedy. Thingol will not march with the Sons of Fëanor, and the seeds of division sown both in the Oath and in Lúthien and Beren's quest are apparent.. Uldor's men betray Maedhros. Morgoth's trickery is evident, even beyond the seduction of the Easterlings, in his calculated use of Gwindor's brother.

Most importantly, though, the Nirnaeth has moments of tragic grandeur that haunt my imagination. The fell, but doomed, premature attack of the Nargothrondrim. The loyalty of the sons of Bór in the face of the general Easterling treachery. The final meeting of the brothers Fingon and Turgon in the midst of battle, and their bittersweet farewell (and Turgon's to Huor) in its midst. And, of course, the grim, determined last stand of the House of Hador guarding Turgon's retreat. The reality of all these heroic, but hopeless, incidents is (for me) highlighted by the tale of Túrin immediately following.

Speaking of Fingon and Turgon's meeting, the thought just occurred to me to consider what these two brothers spoke of. Did Fingon and Turgon share notes on their father's last hours? Turgon knew, thanks to the Eagles, of his battle with Morgoth and his final resting place, but did he know of their father's valiant despair as the Bragollach swept across the plains? Fingon presumably knew nothing of Aredhel's fate--and even more so, one presumes, of Eöl and her son Maeglin. Was Maeglin standing near enough that Turgon could introduce their nephew to his elder uncle?

This is, for all its bitter ending, one of my favourite parts of the Silmarillion, and it rarely ceases to affect me when I read it. I've noticed, however, that apart from Tolkien having written a version with a different emphasis for the Narn i Chîn Húrin, that it doesn't affect me in the same way when I read The Children of Húrin as when I read The Silmarillion. I think the difference for me lies less in the fact that the two have different narrative content and more in the fact that I find myself hoping against hope in reading the Silmarillion that the Elves will be successful, whereas I know in The Children of Húrin that this defeat is a necessary precondition for all the sorrows of Túrin that follow. This probably says something about Tolkien's ability to project the hope of the Elves even in the middle of their doom, and possibly something less flattering about me.