The Ruin of Beleriand and the Fall of Fingolfin

[Findegil]

Part three of the text:

The Sige of Eithel Sirion and the Fall of Galdor
RB-SE-01 <Sil77 When seven years had passed since the Fourth Battle,> <GA {Here} Morgoth renewed his assaults, seeking to advance further into Beleriand and secure his hold southwards. ... The army that had driven into East Beleriand had been broken by Thingol on the borders of Doriath, and part had fled away south never to return to him, part retreating north had been stricken by a sortie of {Maidros}[Maeðros], while those that ventured near the mountains were hunted by the Dwarves. And still upon his flank Hithlum stood firm.>
{§156 Nor did the assault upon the northern strongholds cease. Himring Morgoth besieged so close that no help might come from {Maidros}[Maeðros], and he threw suddenly a great force against Hithlum.} RB-SE-02 <GA §171 He resolved, therefore, now to send force against Hithlum; for in the eastward war he hoped ere long to have new help unforeseen by the Eldar. The assault upon Hithlum was bitter, but it was repelled from the passes of Erydwethrin. There, however, in the siege of the fortress of Eithel Sirion {Galion}[Galdor] was slain, for he held it on behalf of King Fingon. Húrin his son was but then new come to manhood, but he was mighty in heart and strength, and he defeated the Orcs and drove them with loss from the walls into the sands of Anfauglith. Thereafter he ruled the House of Hador. {[Added subsequently:]} Of less stature was he than his father (or his son after him), but tireless and enduring in body; lithe and swift he was, after the manner of his mother's kin, the daughter of {Haleth}[Halmir].
§172 But King Fingon with most of the Noldor was hard put to it to hold back the army of Angband that came down from the north.> The Orcs won many of the passes, and some came even into Mithrim RB-SE-03 <GA Battle was joined upon the very plains of Hithlum, and Fingon was outnumbered; but timely help came from Círdan. His ships in great strength sailed into Drengist and there landed a force that came up in the hour of need upon the west flank of the enemy. Then the Eldar had the victory and the Orcs broke and fled>; but Fingon drove them in the end with heavy slaughter from the land, and pursued them far across the sands of Fauglith RB-SE-04 <GA , {pursued}pursuing them by the horsed archers even to the Iron Mountains.>. Yet sorrow marred his victory, for [the death of ]{Gumlin}[Galdor] son of Hador {was }slain by an arrow in the siege of the fortress of Fingon at Eithel Sirion. {Húrin his son was then new-come to manhood, but he was great in strength both of mind and body; and he ruled now the house of Hador and served Fingon.[Footnote: For he returned unto his own folk after the victory in the woods of Brethil, while the ways north to Hithlum were passable because of the defeat of the Orcs at that time.]} And in this time also the outlaws of Dorthonion were destroyed, and Beren son of Barahir alone escaping came hardly into Doriath.

To be continued.

[Findegil]

Part four of the text:

Of the Swarthy Men
§150 To Men Morgoth feigned pity, if any would hearken to his messages, saying that their woes came only of their servitude to the rebel {Gnomes}[Elves], but at the hands of the rightful lord of earth they would get honour and a just reward of valour, if they would leave rebellion. ...
§151 RB-SM-01 <GA {the}The Swarthy Men came out of Eriador, and passing north about the Eryd Luin entered into Lothlann. Their coming was not wholly unlookedfor, since the Dwarves had warned {Maidros}[Maeðros] that hosts of Men out of the further East were journeying towards Beleriand.> Now the Easterlings or Romenildi, as the Elves named these newcomers, were short and broad, long and strong in the arm; their hair was black, and grew much also upon their face and breast; their skins were swart or sallow, and their eyes brown RB-SM-02 {; yet their countenances were for the most part not uncomely, though some were grim and fierce. Their houses and tribes were many, and some had greater liking for the {Dwarfs}[Dwarves] of the mountains than for the Elves. But the sons of Fëanor, seeing the weakness of the Noldor, and the growing power of the armies of Morgoth, made alliances with these men, and gave their friendship to the greatest of their chieftains, Bor and Ulfang.}<GA But they were not all of one kind, in looks or in temper, or in tongue. Some were not uncomely and were fair to deal with; some were grim and ill-favoured and of little trust. Their houses were many, and there was little love among them. They had small liking for the Elves, and for the most part loved rather the Naugrim of the mountains; but they were abashed by the lords of the Noldor, whose like they had not before encountered.
§174 But {Maidros}[Maeðros], knowing the weakness of the Noldor and the Elf-friends, whereas the pits of Angband seemed to hold store inexhaustible and ever renewed, made alliance with these new-come Men, and gave them dwellings both in Lothlann north of the March, and in the lands south of it. Now the two chieftains that had the greatest followings and authority were named Bor and Ulfang.> And Morgoth was well content; for this was as he had designed. The sons of Bor were RB-SM-03 {Borlas and Boromir and Borthandos}<LQ2 Borlad and Borlach and Borthand>RB-SM-04 <GA , and they were goodly men> ; and they followed {Maidros}[Maeðros] and {Maglor}[Maelor], and cheated the hope of Morgoth, and were faithful. The sons of Ulfang the Black were Ulfast and Ulwarth and Uldor the Accursed; and they followed {Cranthir}[Caranthir] and swore allegiance to him, and proved faithless. RB-SM-05 <GA, Version II (It was after thought that the people of Ulfang were already secretly in the service of Morgoth ere they came to Beleriand.)><GA; Version II [Footnote: Not so the people of Bor, who were worthy folk and tillers of the earth. Of them, it is said, came the most ancient of the Men that dwelt in the north of Eriador in the Second Age and {[? read} in{]} after-days.]>
§152 There was small love between the Three Houses and the Swarthy Men; and they met seldom. For the newcomers abode long in East Beleriand; but the people of Hador were shut in Hithlum, and Bëor's house was well nigh destroyed. {Yet}[u]And[/b] RB-SM-06 {Haleth and his men}<LQ2 the People of Haleth> {remained still free; for they had been at first untouched by the northern war, since they} dwelt to the southward in the woods by Sirion.

I will not comment on the changes today, since I am to tired. I think most of them should be selfevident. Beside I would have to dig deep in my mind to find what I thought back when I made these draft. So please start up the discussion when you see a point I missed or a change you find not okay.
Please feel free to disagree with me!

Respectfully
Findegil

[gondowe]

Ok, I was reading your draft. The structure with mine is different because I follow the sequence of Sil77 but in the narrative sense tells the same. I don't think it matters.

Two things, in a first reading, leaving apart the parentage of Orodreth (in my text is the brother of Finrod) I think that is better to place the fled of his wife and sons (including Ereinion, not named Gil-galad yet), with him to Nargothrond when Sauron attacks Minas Tirith.

And why you change the placing of the sentence about Celegorm and Curufin in Nargothrond?

Greetings

[Findegil]

About the flight of Gil-galad with his mother: I think the main diffrence between your version and what I propose here, is that Gil-galad and his mother never came to Nargothrond in my version. They are send to the Havens, when things in the north become dangerous. Thus I avoid having Gil-galad involved in the Fall of Nargothrond, which would mean naming a way of escape for him. It is debateable when Gil-galad recived this name.

About Celegrom and Curufin: My understanding is that the brothers got to Nargothrond only after they had rescued Orodreth retreat from Tolsirion. Therefore I told at first only that they retreated to the West from Aglon.

Respectfully
Findegil

[Aran e-Godhellim]

<GA Then {Inglor}[Finrod] went south to Nargothrond RB-DB-17 <QS , his deep fortress prepared against the evil day>, but Barahir returned to Dorthonion to save what he could of the people of Bëor.> RB-DB-18 <LQ2; Correction to QS But fearing now that all strong places were doomed to fall at last before the might of Morgoth, {he}[Orodreth] sent away his wife{ Meril} to her own folk in Eglorest, and with her went their son, yet an elvenchild, and Gilgalad Starlight he was called for the brightness of his eye.>

Should we not amend the "But" I have underlined to an "And," as the previous sentence not only begins with "but" as well, but also does not lead into the sentence about Orodreth at all?

[Ekimeniso]

[QUOTE=Findegil;597184]Part three of the text:

§172 ... but Fingon drove them in the end with heavy slaughter from the land, and pursued them far across the sands of Fauglith RB-SE-04 <GA , {pursued}pursuing them by the horsed archers even to the Iron Mountains.>.

1. There is the redundancy of pursued...pursuing
2. "pursuing them by..." sounds ungrammatical to me
3. Should be Anfauglith

Maybe:

§172 ... but Fingon drove them in the end with heavy slaughter from the land, and pursued them <GA {by} with the horsed archers> far across the sands of Anfauglith <GA even to the Iron Mountains.>.

[Findegil]

RB-SE-04:
I agree to your suggestion how to deal with the redundancy. But I am not sure that we could not still use 'Fauglith'. The full name was Dor-na-Fauglith 'Land of the Gasping Dust'. Anfauglith would then be 'The Gasping Dust' and Fauglith simply 'Gasping Dust'.

Respectfuly
Findegil

[Ekimeniso]

Originally Posted by Findegil

RB-SE-04:
I agree to your suggestion how to deal with the redundancy. But I am not sure that we could not still use 'Fauglith'. The full name was Dor-na-Fauglith 'Land of the Gasping Dust'. Anfauglith would then be 'The Gasping Dust' and Fauglith simply 'Gasping Dust'.

Respectfuly
Findegil

I have to say I find the whole matter of Fauglith, Anfauglith/Dor-na-Fauglith, Dor-no-Fauglith, Dor-nu-Fauglith confusing. You're right of course.

But something different: how are the changes of the course of events in the Shibboleth generally treated? In this case Fingon's kingship of the Noldor...

[Findegil]

Kingship of Fingon: I do not think that we must make a change for that. The sentence does allow the kingship that Fingon took up to be only that of the Noldor in Hithlum. Other wise we could simply skip 'of the Noldor', if that is thought to be better.

Respectfuly
Findegil

[gondowe]

One thing:

I don't know if this was discussed in another thread, but although the professor himself wrote in LQ that Thorondor was living in Crissaegrin, for some reason (I suppose due to the allusion in UT, earlier than the revision of the QS) I had taken the decision of place the home of Eagles in Thangorodrim and from the dead of Fingolfin tell that the eagles started living in Crissaegrin.

It would be easier for Thorondor and more coherent, that came from Thangorodrim than Crissaegrin, much further.

Perhaps the professor careless forgot it, when revising QS.

What do you think?

[Ekimeniso]

Originally Posted by Findegil

Kingship of Fingon: I do not think that we must make a change for that. The sentence does allow the kingship that Fingon took up to be only that of the Noldor in Hithlum. Other wise we could simply skip 'of the Noldor', if that is thought to be better.

Respectfuly
Findegil

Okay, I just wondered about the general treatment of the Shibboleth. In the Darkening of Valinor thread direct quotes from the Shibboleth were inserted, while the general change of the course of events (Míriels fea only leaves her body after Feanor is fully grown; Finwe only asks Manwe for a solution after he's fallen in love with Indis) was not adapted (I think it could be done). OTOH as far as I understand it the death of Amras in the burning of the ships WILL be included, right? Of course this doesn't really belong to this thread. Was this discussed somewhere before, or is there a rule of thump as to where the dividing line is between material that is treated as part of the canon and material that will not be considered? For example, if we accept that there was no High King after the fall of Fingolfin, why not insert the direct quote?

[Aiwendil]

RB-DF-03.5: Ekimeniso's argument about which 'silver' to retain is persuasive, so let's keep the first 'silver' and remove the second.

RB-DF-04: Actually, I don't think that the mixed metaphor (tower vs. storm) in itself is a problem, since Tolkien himself uses both of these images in QS. However, I don't think that adding the detail of Fingolfin as a lonely tree to the storm-metaphor is adequate justification for editing Tolkien's prose on so fine a level. I say pick either the QS or GA version of the passage and use that - and my inclination is to use QS since it is the fuller account and the base text for the sentences immediately before and after.

RB-DF-04.5: I have no problem with adding the detail of the echo from GA. Findegil proposes:

and he wounded Morgoth RB-DF-04.2 {with seven wounds, and seven times Morgoth gave a cry} <GA seven times with his sword; and the cries> of anguish that Morgoth gave <GA echoed in the north-lands>, whereat the rocks shivered, and the hosts of Angband fell upon their faces in dismay.

This seems to me to require too much verbal contortion; I would prefer Ekimeniso's:

and he wounded Morgoth with seven wounds, and seven times Morgoth gave a cry of anguish that <GA echoed in the north-lands>, whereat the rocks shivered, and the hosts of Angband fell upon their faces in dismay.

RB-DF-07.5: In my opinion, the repetition in such a short space of "There was lamentation in . . . " is unacceptable.


RB-DF-09: In QS, the flight of the Beorians and the situation of Barahir and his twelve companions is told (QS §138-139) just after the rescue of Felagund, significantly before the account of Fingolfin's death. In GA, the narrative turns away from Barahir after the rescue of Felagund and only comes back to him and his people after telling of Fingolfin's death (in GA §158-159). The solution adopted in Findegil's text is to retain QS §138 where it stands, remove §139, and then insert GA §158-159 after the death of Fingolfin. This seems to me to be problematic. Even though we have deleted QS §139, there is still redundancy between §138 and GA §158-159; the flight of most of Barahir's people and the transformation of the highland forest into the dreadful Taur-nu-Fuin are both repeated. I think we should pick one place or the other and put all the material about Barahir there - so either remove QS §138-139 or remove GA §158-159, and make any appropriate additions to the retained version from the removed version.

I would propose to remove QS §138-139 and use GA §158-159 after the death of Fingolfin:

RB-DF-09 <GA §158 Now Morgoth's power overshadowed the north-lands , but {[struck out: still]} Barahir would not retreat and defended still the remant of his land and folk in Dorthonion. But Morgoth hunted down all that there remained of Elves or Men, and he sent Sauron against them; {and all the forest of the northward slopes of that land was turned into a region of dread and dark enchantment, so that it was after called Taur-nu-Fuin, the Forest under Nightshade.} <QS and he took all the forest and the highland of Dorthonion, save the highest and inmost region, and turned it little by little to a place of such dread and lurking evil that even the Orcs would not enter it unless need drove them. Therefore it was called by the [Noldor] [Taur-nu-Fuin], which is Mirkwood, and [Deluwaith], Deadly Nightshade; for the trees that grew there after the burning were black and grim, and their roots were tangled, groping in the dark like claws; and those who strayed among them became lost and blind, and were strangled or pursued to madness by phantoms of terror.>
§159 At last so desperate was the case of Barahir that Emeldir the Manhearted his wife ... And some were there received into Haleth's folk, and some passed on to {Dorlomin}[Dor-Lómin] and the people of {Galion}[Galdor] Hador's son. ... For these were slain one by one, or fled, until at last only Barahir and Beren his son, and Baragund and Belegund sons of Bregolas, were left, and with them {[eight >]} nine desperate men whose names were long remembered in song: Dagnir and Ragnor, Radhruin and Dairuin and Gildor, Urthel and Arthad and Hathaldir, and Gorlim Unhappy. ... No help came to them and they> <QS were hunted like wild beasts, and Morgoth sent many wolves against them; and they retreated to the barren highland above the forest, and wandered among the tarns and rocky moors of that region, furthest from the spies and spells of Morgoth. Their bed was the heather and their roof the cloudy sky.>

Here I have replaced the passages concerning Taur-nu-Fuin and the plight of the hunted outlaws in GA with the fuller corresponding passages from QS.