I would like to add to small passages even so that goes against my own counsel not to fragment the text as much as we have done before.
FG-T-24.77: The first deals with Tuor's role. As we agreed that the most improtant part for Ulmo was the fathering of Earendil, it might be necessary to emphasis that Tuor was never supposed to leave Gondolin at once to search for an allaince with men. This was made clear in the
Sketch. I would add it in this way:
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Then spake Tuor: ‘Nay, if thou dost not now dare greatly then will the Orcs dwell for ever and possess in the end most of the mountains of the Earth, and cease not to trouble both Elves and Men, even though by other means the Valar contrive hereafter to release the {Noldoli}[Noldor]; but if thou trust now to the Valar, though terrible the encounter, then shall the Orcs fall, and {Melko}[Melkor]'s power be minished to a little thing.’ FG-T-24.7 And he bade Turgon again <Q30 {bidding him} to prepare for war, and battle with Morgoth ere all was lost; FG-T-24.75{and to send again his messengers into the West.}<Q30; QI promising that Ulmo would win the hearts of the Valar to send him succour.> FG-T-24.77 <S If Turgon {does}did {Ylmir}[Ulmo]'s will Tuor {is}was to abide a while in Gondolin>, but summons{Summons} too should {he}Turgon send into the East and gather, if he might, Men (who were now multiplying and spreading on the earth) unto his banners; and for that task Tuor was most fit. 'Forget,' counselled Ulmo, 'the treachery of Uldor the accursed, and remember Húrin; for without mortal Men the Elves shall not prevail against the Balrogs and the Orcs.' Nor should the feud with the sons of Feanor be left unhealed; for this should be the last gathering of the hope of the {Gnomes}[Noldor], when every sword should count. A terrible and mortal strife he foretold, but victory if Turgon would dare it, the breaking of Morgoth's power, and the healing of feuds, and friendship between Men and Elves, whereof the greatest good should come into the world, and the servants of Morgoth trouble it no more.>
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FG-T-25.55: The other comes from
Q30 version
QI. It might be a minor point only, but I think that the promise of Ulmo to help building the fleet is improtant. We know alrady that the messengers of Turgon needed the help of Cirdan to build their ships and learn how to use them. But none of them reached Valinor. So it seem important that Ulmo would promise some help, otherwise that option would be considered hopless any how:
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FG-T-25.5 But Turgon said that he was king of Gondolin and no will should force him against his counsel to emperil the dear labour of long FG-T-25.53{ages}[years] gone; but Tuor said, for thus was he bidden by Ulmo who had feared the reluctance of Turgon: ‘Then am I bidden to say that FG-T-25.54{men of the Gondothlim repair swiftly and secretly down the river Sirion to the sea, and there build them boats and go seek back to Valinor: lo! the paths thereto are forgotten and the highways faded from the world, and the seas and mountains are about it, yet still dwell there the Elves on the hill of Kôr and the Gods sit in Valinor, though their mirth is minished for sorrow and fear of Melko, and they hide their land and weave about it inaccessible magic that no evil come to its shores. Yet still might thy messengers win there and turn their hearts that they rise in wrath and smite Melko, and destroy the Hells of Iron that he has wrought beneath the Mountains of Darkness.’} <Q30; QII{But} if {Turgon}you would not go forth to this war, then {he}you should abandon Gondolin and lead {his}your people down Sirion, FG-T-25.55<Q30; QI ere Morgoth could oppose him, and at Sirion's mouth Ulmo would befriend him, and lend his aid to the building of a mighty fleet wherein the {Gnomes}[Noldor] should> {and build there his fleets and} seek back to Valinor and the mercy of the {Gods}[Valar]. But in this counsel there {was}is danger more dire than in the other, though so it might not seem; and grievous thereafter would be the fate of the Outer Lands.’
This errand Ulmo performed out of his love of the Elves, and because he knew that ere many years were passed the doom of Gondolin would come, if its people sat still behind its walls; not thus should anything of joy or beauty in the world be preserved from Morgoth's malice.> FG-T-24.91 Thus <Q30 Tuor spoke the embassy of Ulmo <TO in the hearing of all>, and something of the power and majesty of the Lord of Waters his voice had caught, so that all folk looked in wonder on him, and doubted that this were a Man of mortal race as he declared <TO {Ulmo's cloak would vanish when Tuor spoke the message to Turgon}[and when he had spoken, the cloak of Ulmo vanished]>.
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I would like to add one thought here that seems also to have some impact: Ulmo had no full preknowledge of Earendils role! In
33 Of the Voyage of Eärendil it is reported, that when the fugitives of Gondolin and Doriath mingeld at the Havens of Sirion Ulmo himslef spoke to the Valar 'and he called on them to forgive and send succour unto them and rescue them from the overmastering might of Morgoth'. If it would have been clear for Ulmo that Earendils role was that of the messenger in person pleading for pity and forgivness, why then make this worthless try? So the natural conclusion is that he had great knowledge about Earendils vieta: the first to sail a ship back to Valinor, carrying the Silmaril on his brow into the sky as a new star; but no clear vision of the importance of his first arrival in Valinor.
Respectfuly
Findegil