* * Revised Fall of Gondolin pt.5 -- >end [the remaining sections] * *

[lindil]

3 down 2 to go!

[ed note: I have not double checked but there seems to be in something of chronological mess with the dragon and balrog sections pulled out of the main flow of the story.]

The Closing Portions

FG-C-01
down all the ways from {north} [south], {east} [west], and {west} [east], seeking the Square of the King.

FG-C-02
... even Gothmog lord of Balrogs{, son of Melko}
Gothmog as Melko/Morgoth's son occurs only here and in two other places in BoLT, never later.

FG-C-03 KO
Then said the king: [']Great is the fall of Gondolin['], and men shuddered, for such were the words of {Annon the prophet of old} [the prophecy of the North][,saying: ] /*BoLT1 'Great is the fall of the hidden rock!'*/; but Tuor speaking wildly for ruth and love of the king cried: …
There is no mention in any text later than FG that the prophecy of the North specifically mentioned the fall of Gondolin, naming the city itself.
In BoLT 1 the story of the Prophecy of the North is given, ending with:
... and he foretold to them many of the evil adventures that after came to them, warning them against Melko, and at last he said: 'Great is the fall of Gondolin', and none there understood for Turondo son of Nólemë was not yet upon Earth.
Lindil mentions the powerful effect of Turgon's cry here and wishes to retain it.
In no later account is there any mention of a prophecy of the fall of Gondolin in either the giving of the Prophecy of the North or the story of the fall of Gondolin. The tale of the prophecy in QS77 only relates:
Much it foretold in dark words, which the Noldor understood not until the woes indeed after befell them;
but no actual words of this prophecy are given at all. Then follows the curse laid on the Noldor which Tolkien added to the prophecy, and that is given in full.
Is the omission of the mention of Gondolin here purposeful, or the result of compression? The difficulty is to understand how Turgon and his people could have named his city Gondolin if this prophecy was well known. Normally in tales of the coming of a prophecied doom something happens, then someone recalls an obscure prophecy, and then for the first time the dread meaning of the prophecy is understood. This could be brought in here allowing a little fan fiction.
I will postulate that the prophecy, spoken in Quenya, actually ended with "Great is the fall of the hidden rock!" Tolkien does tell us in "The Later Quenta Silmarillion", 12, that Turgon really named his city in Quenya as Ondolindë 'Singing Stone' (a metaphor for carved stone), but this was translated into Sindarin as Gondolin, and then interpreted by a kind of pun as Gond dolen 'Hidden Rock'.
So during the sack, Turgon remembers suddenly the Quenya words of the prophecy and calls out in Sindarin, "Great is the fall of Gondolin!" Those who hear him now understand: their city is the hidden rock of the Prophecy of the North!

FG-C-03
Then said the king: [']Great is the fall of Gondolin['], and men shuddered{, for such were the words of Annon the prophet of old}; but Tuor speaking wildly for ruth and love of the king cried: …
There is no mention in any text later than FG that the prophecy of the North specifically mentioned the fall of Gondolin, naming the city itself.

FG-C-04
{Glingol} [Glingal] was {withered} [melted] to the stock and {Bansil} [Belthil] was blackened utterly, and the king's tower was beset.
Rewording

FG-C-05
There came they at the last lessened by wellnigh a tithe to the tunnel's opening /*Q30 far beyond the walls and in the North of the plain where the mountains were long distant from Amon {Gwareth} [Gwared]*/, and it debouched cunningly in a large basin where once water had lain, but it was now full of thick bushes.
Additional details

FG-C-06
The Way of Escape was closed according to "The Wanderings of Húrin", and therefore Christopher Tolkien omitted the mentions of it in the Q77 fall of Gondolin. But it is possible that, though closed from the outside, it was still able to be opened from the inside and that JRRT intended this. If the Way of Escape material is to be omitted then:
{Thereat rose a dissension, for a number said that it were folly to make for Cristhorn as Tuor purposed. "The sun," say they, "will be up long ere we win the foothills, and we shall be whelmed in the plain by those drakes and those demons. Let us fare to Bad Uthwen, the Way of Escape, for that is but half the journeying, and our weary and our wounded may hope to win so far if no further."
Yet Idril spake against this, and persuaded the lords that they trust not to the magic of that way that had aforetime shielded it from discovery: "for what magic stands if Gondolin be fallen?"}
If kept, then some changed wording and additional matter from Q30:
Nonetheless a large body of men and women {sundered from} /*Q30 who would not come with*/ Tuor {and fared to Bad Uthwen, and there into the jaws of a monster who by the guile of Melko at Meglin's rede sat at the outer issue that none came through}. /*Q30 , but fled to the old Way of Escape that led into the gorge of Sirion and opened it anew, were caught and destroyed by a dragon that Morgoth had sent to watch that gate, being apprised of it by {Meglin} [Maeglin]. But of the new passage {Meglin} [Maeglin] had not heard, and it was not thought that fugitives would take a path towards the North and the highest parts of the mountains and the nighest to Angband.*/ /*FG Thereat*/ {But} the {others} /*Q30 fugitives*/ …
I find no reference anywhere to a collapse of the Way of Escape, merely: "the Dry Gate was blocked and the arched gate was buried." CT states in note 28 to "Wanderings" that his dropping the Way of Escape was based on this single and singular statement. I can't find any other passage bearing on the issue. CT's invention of a purposeful closing by Turgon makes good sense in the context.
But you are right that an attempt to use the Way might have been made, if it was still openable. So we have to decide, with no evidence either way that I can see, *Sigh!* whether it was permanently closed, perhaps by forced collapse of the tunnel, or whether Turgon had only closed the outside wall, but left it able to be broken open from inside again if there was need or he wished the gate to exist again.
Possibly the principle of not rejecting anything that JRRT wrote that is not contradicted by his own writing applies here. He relates that the gate was closed in one place, but that the Way of Escape was used in another, and there is no real contradiction if the Way was reasonably easy to re-open from the inside: say a day's work with pickaxes and shovels for a large tast force and removal of a binding spell? "We made it, we're out! My, what big teeth the exit has!".

FG-C-07
Then was all the Earth spread with the grey light of that sad dawn which looked no more on the beauty of Gondolin; but the {plain was full of mists} /*Q30 fume of the burning, and the steam of the fair fountains of Gondolin withering in the flame of the dragons of the North, fell upon the vale in mournful mists*/ − and that was a marvel, for no mist or fog came there ever before{, and this perchance had to do with the doom of the fountain of the king}. Again they rose, and covered by the vapours fared long past dawn in safety, till they were already too far away for any to descry them in those misty airs from the hill or from the ruined walls /*Q30 ; and thus was the escape of Tuor and his company aided, for there was still a long and open road to follow from the tunnel's mouth to the foothills of the mountains*/.
Rewording
My logic was that in recasting the FB sentence in Q30 JRRT replaced FG "the plain was full of mists" with Q30 "fell upon the vale in mournful mists" and FG "and this perchance had to do with the doom of the fountain of the king" is replaced by Q30 "The fume of the burning, and the steam of the fair fountains of Gondolin withering in the flame of the dragons of the North". The Q30 sentence thus replaces the original with the two elements reversed, but I felt it reasonable and in accord with the principles to re-insert into the the Q30 sentence the missing informaton that this had never happened before, as there's nothing to indicate that information was dropped for any reason other than general compression. Q30 is certainly better here as well as being later: smoke from burning would have been contributing to the "mist" and there is no need of a "perchance" to relate the true mist to the turning of the fountain(s) to steam. We can re-add the somewhat redundant "the plain was full of mists" alongside its replacement. It really doesn't matter.

FG-C-08
… and very weary and cumbered with /*Q30 many*/ women and children and sick and /*Q30 many*/ stricken men, …
The addition of "many" twice is only necessary as a change in wording by JRRT in the later Q30 version. I was also going to change "stricken" to "wounded" following the Q30 corresponding sentence, and then noticed that "wounded" does occur three sentences later in FG material that can still be considered part of the material summarized by the Q30 sentence, and so accepted this later use of "wounded" to equal the word "wounded" in Q30. Pedantic and somewhat silly and artificial considerations! Yet for each Q30 sentence I had to decide to what extent it was a summary of FG and to what extent original addition, and whether different wording was a result of it being a summary or a true later change. That's the way the game has to be played. The decisions must be made. Fortunately most of them don't matter: any mixture of wording from the two sources reads equally well.

FG-C-09
Thus were they come to {Cristhorn} [Cirith Thoronath], which is {an ill} /*Q30 a dreadful*/ place by reason of its height …
Rewording

FG-C-10
Yet so many did the valour of the {Gondothlim} [Gondolindrim] draw off to the assault ere the city could be taken that these were but thinly spread, and were at the least here in the {south} [north]/*Q30 , and it was not thought that fugitives would take a path towards the North and the highest parts of the mountains and the nighest to Angband*/.
Insertion to be placed here if the Way of Escape passage is omitted, otherwise it has already been used.

FG-C-11
Then arose {Thorndor} [Thorondor], King of Eagles, and he loved not {Melko} [Morgoth]{, for Melko had caught many of his kindred and chained them against sharp rocks to squeeze from them the magic words whereby he might learn to fly (for he dreamed of contending even against Manwë in the air); and when they would not tell he cut off their wings and sought to fashion therefrom a mighty pair for his use, but it availed not}.
The tale of why Thorondor hates Morgoth should be kept it as does not contradict anything else, but though it would fit in this place in an independent story of the fall of Gondolin, in the legendarium as a whole it should be related much earlier, possibly when Thorondor aids in rescuing Maedhros, but probably best just before he scars Morgoth and rescues the body of Fingolfin.

FG-C-12
… and {Thorndor} [Thorondor] himself, a mighty bird, descended to the abyss and {brought up the body of Glorfindel} /*Q30 bore up Glorfindel's body*/; …
Rewording:

FG-C-13
.. Tuor let raise a great {stone-cairn} /*Q30 mound of stones*/ over Glorfindel just there beyond the perilous {way} /*pass*/ by the precipice of Eagle-stream, and {Thorndor} [Thorondor] {has} let not {yet} any harm come thereto, {but yellow flowers have fared thither} /*Q30 and there came after a turf of green and small flowers like yellow stars bloomed there*/ and {blow} ever {now} about that mound {in those unkindly places} /*Q30 amid the barrenness of stone*/; but the folk of the Golden Flower wept at its building and might not dry their tears. /*Q30 And the birds of {Thorndor} [Thorondor] stooped upon the {Orcs} [Orks] and drove them shrieking back; and all were slain or cast into the deeps, and rumour of the escape from Gondolin came not until long after to Morgoth's ears.*/
Rewording. Also FG claims Thorondor is still protecting the cairn and flowers still blow there. This might be allowed to stand on consideration that possibly that tale was written down at the mouths of Sirion before the breaking of Beleriand, but I think it is best to omit. Also Q30 adds here an account of how the eagles slew all the Orks, which I take to be an addition to FG, not a retrospective account of the Eagles' part in the battle. JRRT is explaining why no word of the fugitives came to the army or to Morgoth: because the Eagles pursued and slew all the Orks. Doubtless it was believed the Eagles alone were to blame for the slaughter of the Orks and Balrog and so no search was made for fugitives in that region.

FG-C-14
... and from the speed and wariness with which Tuor led them{; for of a certain Melko knew of that escape and was furious thereat}.
An omission as we have just been told in Q30 that "rumour of the escape from Gondolin came not until long after to Morgoth's ears":

FG-C-15
But after {a year and more of} wandering{,} in which many a time they journeyed long tangled in the magic of those wastes only to come again upon their own tracks, {once more the summer came, and nigh to its height} they came at last upon a stream, and following this came to better lands and were a little comforted.
In the latest version of TY we find:
510 Midsummer. Assault and sack of Gondolin, owing to treachery of Maeglin who revealed where it lay.
511 Exiles of Gondolin (Tuor, Idril and Eärendil) reach Sirion, which now prospers in the power of the Silmaril.
That the fugitives arrive at Sirion's mouth in the year following the sack of Gondolin first appears in the "The Earliest Annals of Beleriand" and is never changed after. The much lengthier chronology in FG must be modified.
I made an unwarranted assumption here! FG states: "But they who arose from the grasses of the Land of willows in years after and fared away to sea, when spring set celandine in the meads and they had held sad festival in memorial of Glorfindel, ..." I used this to date to the spring the Q30 "feast in memory of Gondolin" and subsequent removal to the Sea. All annals which mention the fall of Gondolin place the arrival of Tuor and the fugitives at the mouth of Sirion in the following year. So either the FG timing of over a year for the wandering in the mountains or the FG spring dating for the departure from the Land of Willows must be removed. Or both? I see nothing to push definitely one way or the other. I suspect that one reason JRRT did have the fugutives escape to the north rather than the south was that a northern route led them into wilder territory on the edge of Dorthonion which Morgoth held. That might support the year of wandering. But that still seems a large space of time to wander in, particular if they are in part being guided by Eagles. *Sigh!* Even eight months of wandering seems a lot, but that would still get them to Nan-tathren in plenty of time to leave again in the spring. Aesthetically I like the note about the spring, so will leave that for now as there is no other logic I can see to pull one way or the other otherwise.
We have, it seems, a simple choice:
1. compress the year of wandering, or 2. change the season of the journey to Sirion. I'd rather not change both, though others may differ. Each has points in its favor:
1. a. If we compress the wandering, we make the arrival at Sirion the next year more plausible, because otherwise we have only at most a few months for them to dwell in Nan-tathren and go to the havens; b. We keep the aesthetic point of their leaving in spring.
2. a. There's nothing specific in later writings that denies a year of wandering; I don't think that the TY material can be considered to do this; b. the passage from which comes the mention of spring is already contradicted by the 'in years after', making me perhaps a little more inclined to cut this.

FG-C-16
Now he led them even till they came down to Sirion which that stream fed{, and then both Tuor and Voronwë saw that they were not far from the outer issue of old of the Way of Escape, and were once more in that deep dale of alders. Here were all the bushes trampled and the trees burnt, and the dale-wall scarred with flame, and they wept, for they thought they knew the fate of those who sundered aforetime from them at the tunnel-mouth}.
A omission required if the previous Way of Escape section is dropped.

FG-C-17
Now here goes Sirion a very great way under earth, diving at the great cavern of the Tumultuous Winds, but running clear again above the Pools of Twilight{, even where Tulkas after fought with Melko's self. Tuor had fared over these regions by night and dusk after Ulmo came to him amid the reeds, and he remembered not the ways}.
Omission of probably invalid material. Tulkas seemingly did not accompany the host of Valinor in the later versions of the War of Wrath and there is no indication that any battle occurred in this area in the later versions; indeed the whole tale seems changed.
Also in the new version of Tuor's story he has not previously been near this region.

FG-C-18
Yet came they at last to the great pools and the edges of /*Q30 {Nan-Tathrn} [Nan-Tathren]*/ that most tender Land of Willows; …
Add Elvish name

FG-C-19
Here might be inserted a slightly modified version of the Fragment of the alliterative Lay of Eärendel found in The Lays of Beleriand (HoME 3), II Poems Early Abandoned.
This would appear as a retrospective summary of the story from the actual fall to this point in the tale.

FG-C-20
{Here they abode very long indeed, and Eärendel was a grown boy ere} /*Q30 There,*/ /*FG when spring set celandine in the meads {and they had held} /*Q30 , they made a*/ sad {festival in memorial}*/ /*Q30 feast in the memory of Gondolin and those that had perished, fair maidens, wives, and warriors and their king; but for Glorfindel the well-beloved many and sweet were the songs they sang.*/
Omission for chronological reasons and insertion from Q30.
FG brings in here the decision to remove to the Sea, and then a festival before they depart. Q30 has a festival and then the decision to remove to the Sea, which we must follow as this is Tolkien's most latest ordering. But FG also brings in a notation as they prepare to depart and begin to hold the feast, that it is spring. This note about the season should appear first, and so is inserted here also.

FG-C-21
/*Q30 And there Tuor in song spoke to {Eärendel} [Eärendil] his son of the coming of Ulmo aforetime, the sea-vision {in the midst of the land}*/[.]
Immediately follows with omission to agree with Tuor

FG-C-22
Here should be inserted the poem "The Horns of Ylmir".
This poem is found in The Shaping of Middle-earth (HoME 4), III The Quenta, Appendix 2.
Lines 13 to 66 are a poem about a violent rising tide complete in itself. The poem was called The Tides and was annotated Dec. 4 1914 and On the Cornish Coast.
Later JRRT added lines 1-12 and 67-74 to provide a frame to present the original poem as a vision seen by Tuor when he heard the horns of Ulmo in the Land of Willows. The new beginning and conclusion are tightly bound to the BoLT version of the Tuor story where Tuor first hears Ulmo's horns while standing knee-deep in the grass of the Land of Willows at twilight and senses no more the sounds, sights and odors of that land. He is transported in his mind to a rocky seacoast and sees, hears, and smells the sea. Then he awakens and finds himself still in the inland grasses among the willows.
In the new Tuor Ulmo's meeting with Tuor occured inland but right on the seacoast as a storm arose. Only after Ulmo gave Tuor his message did he blow on his horn, but not in long playing of musics but in "a single great note". Since Tuor in this version is already on just such a stormy seacoast such as he saw in his vision in the previous version, the vision called forth in the new version must be changed. Now instead Tuor sees all the waters of the world, then the depths of the Sea, and then the coast of Valinor under Oiolossë, suddenly awakening to the thunder of the storm.
The poem of course can be used without the introductory and concluding lines, making only the emendation of "roaring" to "rolling" as given by CT in this note for line 21 and the nomalizing change of Ylmir to Ulmo. This is certainly the most conservative solution.
I do however have some suggestions for possible modification of the introduction and conclusion.

FG-C-23
[The] {the} voice of Ulmo's conches drew the heart of Tuor{,} that his sea-longing returned with a thirst the deeper for years of stifling{;}[,] /*Q30 in his heart and in his son's. Wherefore*/ {and all that host} /*Q30 the most part of the people*/ arose at his bidding, and {got them} /*Q30 they {removed} [journeyed] */ down Sirion to the Sea.
Rewording

FG-C-24
{Now the folk that had passed into the Eagles' Cleft and who saw the fall of Glorfindel had been nigh eight hundreds − a large wayfaring, yet was it a sad remnant of so fair and numerous a city.} But they who arose from the grasses of the Land of Willows {in years after} and fared away to sea, {when spring set celandine in the meads and they had held sad festival in memorial of Glorfindel,} these numbered but three hundreds and a score of men and man-children …
Omissions for reasons of chronology. Tuor and the fugitives no longer spend years in the land of Willows and the FG festival in memorial of Glorfindel held after the decision to go to the Sea must correspond to the Q30 feast in memory of Gondolin where songs are sung for Glorfindel already included from the fuller Q30 account, though there it is held before the decision. The reference to celandine in the spring is deleted in this passage and inserted where the festival is now located.

FG-C-25
Nor {Bablon, nor Ninwi, nor the towers of Trui, nor} all the many takings {of Rûm} that {is} are greatest among Men, saw such terror as fell that day upon Amon {Gwareth} [Gwared] in the kindred of the {Gnomes} [Elves] …
Omission of anachronistic listing of cities as could not exist as part of the original tale, except as a very late marginal note.

FG-C-26 True ending of the tale of Tuor
Yet now those exiles of Gondolin dwelt at the mouth of Sirion by the waves of the Great Sea /*Q30 , and joined their folk to the slender company of Elwing daughter of Dior, that had fled thither little while before*/. There they take the name of {Lothlim} [Lothrim], the people of the flower, for {Gondothlim} [Gondolindrim] is a name too sore to their hearts; and fair among the {Lothlim} [Lothrim] {Eärendel} [Eärendil] grows in /*TE-N(i) the Isle of Sirion in*/ the /*TE-N(i) snow-white stone*/ the house of his father, and the great tale of Tuor is come to its waning.'
{Then said Littleheart son of {Bronweg} [Voronwë]: 'Alas for Gondolin.'
And no one in all the Room of Logs spake or moved for a greatwhile.}
All following material is placed in BoTL, in the Sketch, and in Q30 as part of the introduction to the tale of Eärendil, not as part of the story of Tuor. Either position can work. Which is best depends on how much material we have on the youth of Eärendil before Tuor sets sail. I think we won't find much more than Christopher Tolkien did, and will probably end up following his lead in including these final events and Tuor's departure as an epilogue to the Tuor story rather than the prologue to the Eärendil story.

FG-C-27 Of Gil-galad
/*PG {Ereinion} [Rodnor] Gil-galad son of Orodreth, who had escaped the fall of Nargothrond and come to Sirion's Mouth, was /*QS77 named*/ King of the Noldor there. He was styled Gil-galad, Star of Radiance, because his helm and mail, and his shield overlaid with silver and set with a device of white stars, shone from afar like a star in sunlight or mooonlight and could be seen by Elvish eyes at a great distance if he stood upon a height.*/
Christopher Tolkien adds at this point in Q77 a passage partly editorial:
And when the tidings came to Balar of the fall of Gondolin and the death of Turgon, Ereinion Gil-galad son of Fingon was named High King of the Noldor in Middle-earth.
The sources of this, so far as I can trace are all in The Peoples of Middle-earth (HoME 13):
In an isolated note found with the genealogies dated August 1965, published in PG:
His children were Finduilas and Artanáro = Rodnor later called Gil-galad. (Their mother was a Sindarin lady of the North. She called her son Gil-galad.) Rodnor Gil-galad escaped and eventually came to Sirion's Mouth and was King of the Ñoldor there.
From SF under the note The Names of Finwë's descendants, 5, under the discussion of Galadriel:
Galad also occurs in the epessë of Ereinion ('scion of kings') by which he was chiefly remembered in legend, Gil-galad 'star-of-radiance': he was the last king of the Eldar in Middle-earth, and the last male descendant of Finwë^47 except Elrond Half-elven. The epessë was given to him because his helm and mail, and his shield overlaid with silver and set with a device of white stars, shone from afar like a star in sunlight or moonlight and could be seen by Elvish eyes at a great distance if he stood upon a height. (47 He was the son of Arothir, nephew of Finrod.)
Gil-galad is no longer the son of Fingon sent to Círdan at the Havens, and I expect it was the connection to the Havens which led Christopher Tolkien to introduce Balar here. Details of Gil-galad's mother best belong in the story of Túrin. I suggest the following might be a suitable enhancement/correction of the QS77 sentence.

FG-C-28
/*QS30 Yet by Sirion and the sea there grew up an elven folk, the gleanings of Gondolin and Doriath[.]/*AB2 The Silmaril brought blessing upon them and /*Elessar Idril wore the Elessar upon her breast*//*AB2 , and they were healed, and they multiplied*/ /*QS77 ; and from Balar the mariners of Círdan came among them*/, and they took to the waves and {the making of fair ships} /*QS77 the building of ships*/ /*AB2 and built a haven*/, dwelling ever nigh unto the shores /*QS77 of Arvernien*/, /*AB2 upon the delta amid the waters*/ under the shadow of Ulmo's hand. /*AB2 Many fugitives gathered unto them.*/*/
A mixture of sources for the foundation of the new havens.
I do not know the original source of either of the two addition from QS77 I have inserted. The first is too reasonable to reject, and the second is, I think, Christopher Tolkien's way of getting the name Arvernien found in Bilbo's "Song of Eärendil" in LR into QS77 text. It otherwise only appears on the QS77 map.

FG-C-29
/*Q30 /*QS77 And it is said that in that time Ulmo came to Valinor out of the deep waters waters, and spoke there to*/ {In Valinor Ulmo spoke unto} the Valar of the need of the Elves, and he called on them to forgive and send succour unto them and rescue them from the overmastering might of Morgoth, and win back the Silmarils wherein alone now bloomed the light of the days of bliss when the Two Trees still were shining. Or so it is said, among the {Gnomes} [Noldor], who after had tidings of many things from their kinsfolk the Quendi, the Light-elves beloved of Manwë, who ever knew something of the mind of the Lord of the Gods. But as yet Manwë moved not, and the counsels of his heart what tale shall tell? The Quendi have said that the hour was not yet come, and that only one speaking in person for the cause of both Elves and Men, pleading for pardon upon their mis- deeds and pity on their woes, might move the counsels of the Powers; and the oath of Fëanor perchance even Manwë could not loose, until it found its end, and the sons of Fëanor relinquished the Silmarils, upon which they had laid their ruthless claim. For the light which lit the Silmarils the {Gods} [Valar] had made.*/
In the pleading of Ulmo there are stylistic differences and certain omissions from the Q30 version to the QS77 version, probably changes made by Christopher Tolkien himself for aesthetic reasons, and to be ignored unless someone can find other sources. Stick to Q30 here.

FG-C-30
/*TE-B Then began the love of /*TE-C Elwing*/ and {Eärendel} [Eärendil] as girl and boy. /*TE-E The mermaids*/, the /*TE-D Oarni*/, /*TE-E {come} [came] to {Eärendel} [Eärendil]*/ and /*TE-N(ii) {give} [gave] to {Eärendel} [him] a wonderful shining silver coat that {wets} [wetted] not. They loved {Eärendel} [Eärendil], in Ossë's despite, and {teach} taught him the lore of boat-building and of swimming, as he {plays} [played] with them about the shores of Sirion.*/ /*TE-D {Eärendel} [Eärendil] grew to be the fairest of all Men that were or are,*/ /*TE-N(iii) smaller than most men but nimbled-footed and a swift swimmer (but Voronwë could not swim).*/ /*TE-C And there was great love between {Eärendel} [Eärendil] and Tuor.*/*/
To be inserted at this point.
Mention of the Oarni and mermaids is only found in BoLT material. The Quenya word Oarni appears from the Appendix to BoLT 1 under Ónen to be from the root 'o'o and related to Ô, a poetic word for 'sea'. But this root and everything connected with it disappears in later writings, where the normal word for "sea" in Quenya is ëar from a stem AYAR-, itself explained as an extended stem from GAYA- 'awe, dread'. So it is difficult to even guess what word, if any, Tolkien would have used to replace Oarni. To further confuse the matter in TE N(viii) we find:
'The fiord of the Mermaid: enchantment of his sailors: Mermaids are not Oarni (but are earthlings, or fays? ** or both).'
However in TE D the two are equated, and in other texts it is either the Oarni or the mermaids who are named as Eärendel's friends.
Tolkien may in this note only mean that these particular hostile "mermaids" were not true Oarni but another kind of being. Therefore I keep both words. Since in late writings Tolkien claimed that most names of the Valar were not truly Quenya, but adapted forms from the language of the Valar, that is what we probably should take Oarni to be. In references to the Oarni outside of TE their gender is not
given. It may be that Oarni are of both genders.
On mermaids, anything written by Tolkien is not to be disregarded unless contradicted by later ideas or in error, etc. I don't know
that he did drop them. The late Eärendil information is so frustratingly sketchy, almost worse than the early material. Any scrap of
information is important. And they appear in four separate notes. I don't imagine Tolkien was talking about fish-tailed women if that is
what bothers. I see something along the lines of the Nereids and Okeanids of Greek myth. But who knows?

FG-C-31
/*QS30 In those days Tuor felt old age creep upon him /*TE-C and Ulmo's conches far out west {over the sea} {call} [called] him louder and louder*/, and ever a longing for the deeps of the sea grew stronger in his heart. Wherefore he built a great ship Eärrámë, Sea-wing, /*TE-D with white sails*/. /*TE-D Ulmo beckoned to him at eve.*/ /*TE-E One evening he {calls} [called] {Eärendel} [Eärendil] and they {go} [went] to the shore. There {is a skiff} [was Eärámë]. {Tur} [Tuor] {bids} [bade] farwell to {Eärendel} [Eärendil] and bid{s} him thrust it off ***/ {and with Idril} he set sail [with Idril] /*TY [(and some say Voronwë with them)]*/ into the sunset and the West[.] /*TE-E {Eärendel} [Eärendil] {hears} [heard] a great song swelling from the sea as {Tur} [Tuor]'s skiff {dips} [dipped] over the world's rim. {His} [Great was his] passion of tears upon the shore.*/{, and} [And Tuor] came no more into any tale or song.
But /*QS77 in after days it was sung that*/ Tuor alone of mortal Men was numbered among the elder race, and joined with the {Noldoli} [Noldor] whom he loved, and in after time dwelt still, or so it hath been said, ever upon his ship voyaging the seas of the Elven-lands, or resting a while in the harbours of the {Gnomes} [Elves] of Tol Eressëa; and his fate is sundered from the fate of Men.*/
Follow immediately.
This final paragaph above should probably be in a slightly smaller font. It is found only in a footnote to Q30 but Christopher Tolkien omits part of it in QS77.
In TY final version under 525 is found:
... and departed into the West with Idril (and Voronwë?) and is heard of in no tale since.
I use this Voronwë reference "(Voronwë?)" in expanded form, for Tuor prophecies in "Of the Coming of Tuor to Gondolin: "far from the Shadow your long road shall lead you, and your hope shall return to the Sea." Voronwë had originally been a companion in Eärendil's final successful voyage, but dropped out when the story was changed so that Eärendil no longer returned to Middle-earth to learn from Voronwë that Elwing had vanished, the point at which Voronwë had originally joined him (with his son Littleheart?). The phrase "in after days it was sung that" I believe to be an editorial transition by Christopher Tolkien, but something like this is necessary to mark off the more legendary account of Tuor's final fate. Every other account (BoLlT, Silmarillion tradition, annal tradition) says only that nothing more was heard of Tuor after his last voyage.
Trying to get the other stuff into Q30 was the problem. On any of this mixed material, you or anyone are welcome rework it to read better and still include all the material. With multiple source passages I often stopped at the point, tired but happy, where I had finally managed to fit all the material in somewhere.


Suggested emendations to Fragment of an alliterative Lay of Eärendel

FG-LE-01
{But Wade of the Helsings wearyhearted}
Remove line 7a

FG-LE-02
Tûr to Tuor in line 8.

FG-LE-03
Tumladin to Tumladen in line 12.

FG-LE-04
Line 15 from:
of Cristhorn was cloven, the Cleft of Eagles,
to:
of the Cleft was cloven, Cirith Thoronath,

FG-LE-05
Melko to Morgoth in line 19.

FG-LE-06
Thornsir to Thoronhir in line 25.
Tolkien gave two replacement lines in the notes which avoid the Elvish name "Thornsir", but the second is incomplete and so these replacements cannot be used. The form Thornsir is puzzling as a contraction into one word of the FG form Thorn Sir. One would expect * Thornhir, just as Minhirath 'Between the rivers' presumably derives from min + * siriath. Also see Limhîr or Limhir 'clear / sparkling river' from lim + sîr in The War of the Jewels (HoME 11), references in the index. Hence my suggested standard Sindarin form * Thoronhir. Possibly assimilation rules were different in early Gnomish.

FG-LE-07
thirty moons to thwarting mazes in line 26.
In the later chronology a timing of thirty (or even thirteen) months is utterly impossible.
One could use "three moons" perhaps, but the exact number of months taken to pass from the Cirith Thoronath to finding of Sirion is not stated elsewhere, and I would rather not invent a number here just for the alliteration. But in the FG account is found "wandering in the wastes" and "they journeyed long tangled in the magic of those wastes only to come again upon their own tracks". For this "thwarting mazes" does well.

FG-LE-08
Gods to Powers in line 30.
Tolkien generally ceases to use of "Gods" for the "Valar" in later narrative writing except when speaking particularly of Men or when untutored Men are speaking.

FG-LE-09
… the Vanished Isles to past the Vanished Isle in line 31.
Christopher Tolkien could not interpret the word, but "past" is a good guess from sense required, and the word seems to have been a short one. The "Vanished Isles", plural, is hard to understand. The Magic Isles are not vanished but accessible, though those who disembark there fall into enchanted sleep. But Eressëa could be entitled "Vanished Isle", singular, as no longer attainable from Middle-earth because of the enchantments placed on the Sea before it during the Hiding of Valinor. Turgon's mariners who sought to reach to Valinor would have been well aware of this. The plural form might be an error by JRRT or a misreading by CT.

FG-LE-10
… the sweet breezes to then the sweet breezes in line 35
As thought a possible reading by CT.

FG-LE-11
and the dew enchanted … to and the dew enchanted drenched their feet. in line 37.
This completion to the last half-line of the fragment is suggested by line 70 of "The Horns of Ylmir":
Where the long grass stirred beside me, and my feet were drenched with dew.

FG-LE-12
The words in the lay "all this have others in ancient stories / and songs unfolded, but say I further" are a problem in my suggested setting at the festival. If used here, as a sample of festival song, then the final lines, 32-38, should be dropped. Another possiblity is to place it just after the arrival in Nan-tathren (where the fragment ends) without particular explanation. It just appear as a poetic fragment giving a retrospective summary of the parts of the tale previously related. If we break up the Fall into chapters, it could start one of them. These all just suggestions. It should be fitted in somewhere I feel.


Suggested changes to the poem "The Horns of Ylmir"

FG-HY-01
{It was in the Land of Willows where the grass is long and green −
I was fingering my harp-strings, for a wind had crept unseen
And was speaking in tree-tops, while the voices of the reeds
Were whispering reedy whispers as the sunset touched the meads,}
The first four lines are incompatible and must be dropped.

FG-HY-02
{Inland musics subtly magic that those reeds alone could weave −}
[To sea musics ringing magic that the wind and wave can weave −]
It was in the Land of {Willows} [Nevrast] that once {Ylmir} [Ulmo] came at eve.
In the twilight {by the river on} [on the sea-strand through] a hollow thing of shell
He {made immortal music, till} [blew one long and piercing note −] my heart beneath his spell
Was broken in the twilight, and the {meadows} [storm-cold] faded dim
{To} [On] great grey waters heaving round the rocks where sea-birds swim.

FG-HY-03
Till the tides went out, and the Wind {ceased} [died], and did all sea musics {died} [cease]
And I woke to silent caverns and empty sands and peace.
Then the magic drifted from me and that music loosed its bands −
Far, far-off, conches calling − {lo!} [now] I {stood} [stand] in the sweet lands,
And the meadows {were} [are] about me {where} [with] the weeping willows {grew} [too],
Where the long grass {stirred} [stirs] beside me, and my feet {were} [are] drenched with dew.
Only the reeds {were} [are] rustling, but a mist {lay} [lies] on the streams
Like a sea-roke drawn far inland, like a shred of salt sea-dreams.
'{Twas} [Tis] in the Land of Willows that I {heard} [hear] th'unfathomed breath
Of the Horns of {Ylmir} [Ulmo] calling − and shall hear them till my death.
The conclusion I emend differently by changing most of it from past tense to present tense. Tuor now proclaims his current situation in the Land of Willows where again the sea-longing has come upon him.

[ February 11, 2003: Message edited by: lindil ]

[ February 11, 2003: Message edited by: lindil ]