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Old 08-04-2003, 03:44 PM   #20
Findegil
King's Writer
 
Join Date: Jul 2002
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Sting

I will again play the devils advocate. It seems to me, that you made the decision against the mechanical monsters in a pre-elected kind of mind. So I will try to give some reason for thought:

The classification of the monsters mentioned in “The Fall of Gondolin” is well done. So we have:
1. Those made of linked iron that flow like rivers of metal and are hollow within.
2. Those of bronze and copper with spirits of blazing fire and with great feet, blasting and trampling all in their path.
3. Extremely hot creatures of pure flame before which iron and stone melt and on which Balrogs ride.

What you have done so far was to make all this monsters normal dragons. Type 1 was turned into cold-dragons, type 2 and 3 into fire-dragons.
You deleted the dragon-riding Balrogs and replaced them by dragon-riding Orks. (Sorry that is clearly to simple put, but for me Orks in a hundred riding upon a cold-dragon is totally out of the picture.)

I will discuss the monsters each in turn, and I will start with the easiest one:
Type 2 monsters: The bronze and copper adorned dragons which “blasted all that stood before them with the terror of their snorting or trampled whatso escaped the ardour of their breath”. In comparison to that I will quote the description of Glaurungs fight in the Nirneath Arnoediad [“The Grey Annals”]:
“But even as the vanguard of Maidros came upon the Orcs, Morgoth loosed his last strength, and Angband was emptied. There came wolves, and wolfriders, and there came Balrogs{ a thousand}, and there came worms and drakes, and Glaurung, Father of Dragons. And the strength and terror of the Great Worm were now grown great indeed, and Elves and Men withered before him; and he came between the hosts of Maidros and Fingon and swept them apart.

Last of all the eastern forces to stand firm were the Enfeng of Belegost, and thus won renown. Now Naugrim withstood fire more hardily than either Elves or Men, and it was the custom moreover of the Enfeng to wear great masks in battle hideous to look upon, which stood them in good stead against the drakes. And but for them Glaurung and his brood would have withered all that was left of the Noldor. But the Naugrim made a circle about him when he assailed them, and even his mighty armour was not full proof against the blows of their great axes; and when in his rage he turned and struck down Azaghâl of Belegost and crawled over him, …”

Glaurung did in that battle exactly what the type 2 monsters in “The Fall of Gondolin” are created for. So here I agree with your opinion, that the type 2 monsters should be changed to normal fire-dragons. Such Dragons can clearly not be “created” in the one year+ that elapsed between Meglins treachery and the attack. They even cannot be breaded in such a short period. The only thing we can say about them is, that they can be mustered for the battle.
But it would be a shame to lose all the copper and bronze stuff. If we lock at the 2 most prominent dragons in Middle-Earth we can still see the influence of that early image of copper and bronze fabricated dragons: Glaurung is often called the Golden which is a perfect description of scales like polished bronze that might have covered him. Smaug is pictured as red-golden, which reminds one more of copper.
For me it isn’t a great deal more of change if you once have decided to make these type 2 monsters normal fire-dragons to change the actual text so that the dragons look like copper and bronze rather than being made of these metals.

Type 3 monsters: The “creatures of pure flame that writhed like ropes of molten metal, and … brought to ruin whatever fabric they came nigh, and iron and stone melted before them and became as water, and upon them rode the Balrogs {in hundreds}”.
Are these creatures really dragons? I don’t think so. They are supposed to “lap that plain and its fair city in flame and death”.
All this does remind me of the description of the Dagor Bragollach [“The Grey Annals”]:
“… This is named the Dagor Bragollach, the Battle of Sudden Flame. Rivers of fire ran down from Thangorodrim, and Glaurung, Father of Dragons, came forth in his full might. The green plains of Ardgalen were burned up and became a drear desert without growing thing; …”

A better description is given in the Silmarillion. I will quote from the 1999 edition but the text is essentially the same as in the manuscript of the Quenta Silmarillion of 1936 as emended in “The Later Quenta Silmarillion” series:
“There came a time of winter, when night was dark and without moon; and the wide plain of Ard-galen stretched dim beneath the cold stars, from the hill-forts of the Noldor to the feet of Thangorodrim. The watchfires burned low, and the guards were few; on the plain few were waking in the camps of the horsemen of Hithlum. Then suddenly Morgoth sent forth great rivers of flame that ran down swifter than Balrogs from Thangorodrim, and poured over all the plain; and the Mountains of Iron belched fort fires of many poisonous hues, and the fume of them stank upon the air, and was deadly. Thus Ard-galen perished, and fire devoured its grasses; and it became a burned and desolate waste, full of a choking dust, barren and lifeless. Thereafter its name was changed, and it was called Anfauglith, the Gasping Dust. Many charred bones had there their roofless grave; for many of the Noldor perished in that burning, who were caught by the running flame and could not fly to the hills. The heights of Dorthonion and Ered Wethrin held back the fiery torrents, but their woods upon the slopes that looked towards Angband were all kindled, and the smoke wrought confusion among the defenders. Thus began the fourth of the great battles, Dagor Bragollach, the Battle of Sudden Flame.
In the front of that fire came Glaurung the golden, father of dragons, in his full might; and in his train were Balrogs, and behind them came the black armies of the Orcs in multitudes such as the Noldor had never before seen or imagined. …”

The monsters of pure fire were also stopped by the Hill of Amon Gwareth:
“Then is there a cry of hope, for behold, the snakes of fire may not climb the hill of the city for its steepness and for its glassines, and by reason of the quenching waters that fall upon its sides; …”
and
“… the heats of those drakes lasted not for ever, and might only be plenished from the wells of fire that {Melko}[Morgoth] had made in the fastness of his own land.”

For me these worms of pure fire sound like Morgoth made (again) use of some kind of volcanic eruptions in a special way. And I find it telling, that these particular monsters were ever seen moving in connection with a Balrog. And aren’t the Balrogs as Maiar some of Morgoth’s “most cunning smiths and SORCERERS”?

Now at least to the hardest part, the type 1 monsters: The monsters that “were all of iron so cunningly linked that they might flow like slow rivers of metal or coil themselves around and above all obstacles before them, and those were filled in their innermost depths with the grimmest of Or[k]s with scimitars and spears”. For me that description sounds much more like a “mechanised infantry combat vehicle” or “armoured personnel carrier” (in German: Schützenpanzer), than like a snakelike cold-dragon without feet carrying Orks on his back. To be just to what you tried to do: if one wants to eliminate the mechanical air of these “monsters”, you can’t do otherwise than you have done, other than eliminating then at all. But, alas, they play a very essential part in the attack: coiled one over the other they allowed the other monsters to creep into the city. But even that roll seems to me much more believable for products of mechanical craftsmanship than of “real” creatures of flesh and blood. (Here me opinion might be influenced by my profession – I am mechanical engineer and not biologist.)
Lets for a moment take these monsters as a special kind of siege-engines. Whether they are animated by part of Morgoth's dispersed power or driven by a crew of “his most cunning smiths and sorcerers” is not revealed and does not matter (the second is much more likely in my view). The interesting question as Jallanite pointed out is: Have we heard of such engines ever again in Middle-Earth?
As Jallanite himself said we are note supposed to have done so, but are there any other instances (especially in the later writings) were an army of Orks used engines in a fight? If so I think we can assume that it wouldn’t be too much out of the picture take these type 1 monsters as engines and not as creatures.
In the Hobbit we learn that,
“goblins are cruel, wicked, and bad-hearted. They make no beautiful things, but they make many clever ones. They can tunnel and mine as well as any bur the most skilled dwarves, when they take the trouble, though they are usually untidy and dirty. Hammers, axes, swords, daggers, pickaxes, tongs, and also instruments of torture, they make very well, or get other people to make their design, prisoners and slaves that have to work till they die for want of air and light. It is not unlikely that they invented some of the machines that have since troubled the world, especially the ingenious devices for killing large numbers of people at once, for wheels and engines and explosions always delighted them, and also not working with their own hands more than they could help; but in those days and those wild parts they had not advanced (as it is called) so far.”

In view of the type 1 monsters I am dragged to add, “not working with their own hands [and walking on their own feet] more than they could help”. And in the perspective of Orks weren’t the days under Morgoth domino everything else than “those wild parts”?

In contrast to that in “The Lord of the Ring” the most siege-engines like rams and siege-towers were used by man. But in “The Silmarillion” itself we find another account of Orks using siege-engines:
“… But the next year, ere winter was come, Morgoth sent great strength over Hithlum and Nevrast, and they cam down the rivers Brithon and Nenning and ravaged all the Falas, and besieged the walls of Brithombar and Eglarest. Smiths and miners and masters of fire they brought with them, and they set up great engines; and valiantly though they were resisted they broke the walls at last. …”
So here the Orks did even build the engines them self. The use of engines at all is in Tolkiens fiction normally a sign of the “dark side” as you may call it. But to discuss this would surely go to fare in the moment.
I think, I could make clear, that the use of engines in battles and sieges are not totally unusual in Middle-Earth.

What you supposed are cold-dragons as a transport-vehicle for the Orks. As far as I know, there is no example for that in all Middle-Earth contexts.

Conclusion: If we once divide the monsters in the three types we could also deal with them differently:
Type 1 could be changed from monsters to machines “such as have only at that time been seen and shall not again be till the Great End”.
Type 2 could be made to normal fire-dragons. But if possible hold the images of “copper and bronze” in their look.
Type 3 could be left what they are: A special kind of “streams of fire”. Guided only by the Balrogs.

I will know try to edit the part were the mechanical monster come in:

“Yet these years are filled by M[orgoth] in the utmost ferment of labour, and all the thrall-folk of the Noldo[r] must dig unceasingly for metals while M[orgoth] sitteth and deviseth fires and calleth flames and smokes to come from the lower heats, nor does he suffer any of the Noldo[r] to stray ever a foot from their place of bondage. Then on a time M[orgoth] assembled all his most cunning smiths{ and sorcerers}, and of iron {and flame} they wrought a {host of monsters}[mass of machines] such as have only at that time been seen and shall not again be till the Great End. {Some}[They] were all of iron so cunningly linked that they might flow like slow rivers of metal or coil themselves around and above all obstacles before them, and {those}[they] were filled in their innermost depths with the grimmest of Or[k]s with scimitars and spears[. And the Dragons with scales like ]{; others of }bronze and copper[, with their]{ were given} hearts and spirits of blazing fire, [were mustered to]{and they} blast{ed} all that stood before them with the terror of their snorting or trample{d} whatso escaped the ardour of their breath{;}[. Morgoth and his sorcerers wrought] yet others {were }creatures of pure flame that writhed like ropes of molten metal, and they brought to ruin whatever fabric they came nigh, and iron and stone melted before them and became as water, and {upon}[with] them {rode}[moved] the Balrogs {in hundreds[?]}; and these were the most dire of all those {monsters}[creations] which M[orgoth] devised against Gondolin.”

The mass of text put into this part is greater than in any of your versions of it. But more of its content is saved and it should also be easier to edit the rest of the occurrence of “creations”/”dragons”.

I hope that this will stir some new thoughts and discussions.
Respectfully
Findegil
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