The Book of Lost Tales, Part Two

by J. R. R. Tolkien

  Yet it is said that all these dread happenings Úrin saw by the magic of Melko, and was continually tempted by that Ainu to yield to his will, and he would not; but when the doom of his folk was utterly fulfilled then did Melko think to use Úrin in another and more subtle way, and he released him from that high and bitter place where he had sat through many years in torment of heart. But Melko went to him and spoke evilly of the Elves to him, and especially did he accuse Tinwelint32 of weakness and cravenhood. “Never can I comprehend,” said he, “wherefore it is that there be still great and wise Men who trust to the friendship of the Elves, and becoming fools enough to resist my might do treble their folly in looking for sure help therein from Gnomes or Fairies. Lo, O Úrin, but for the faint heart of Tinwelint of the woodland how could my designs have come to pass, and perchance now had Nienóri lived and Mavwin thy wife had wept not, being glad for the recovery of her son. Go therefore, O foolish one, and return to eat the bitter bread of almsgiving in the halls of thy fair friends.”

  Then did Úrin bowed with years and sorrow depart unmolested from Melko’s realms and came unto the better lands, but ever as he went he pondered Melko’s saying and the cunning web of woven truth and falsity clouded his heart’s eye, and he was very bitter in spirit. Now therefore he gathered to him a band of wild Elves,33 and they were waxen a fierce and lawless folk that dwelt not with their kin, who thrust them into the hills to live or die as they might. On a time therefore Úrin led them to the caves of the Rodothlim, and behold the Orcs had fled therefrom at the death of Glorund, and one only dwelt there still, an old misshapen dwarf who sat ever on the pile of gold singing black songs of enchantment to himself. But none had come nigh till then to despoil him, for the terror of the drake lived longer than he, and none had ventured thither again for dread of the very spirit of Glorund the worm.34 Now therefore when those Elves approached the dwarf stood before the doors of the cave that was once the abode of Galweg, and he cried: “What will ye with me, O outlaws of the hills?” But Úrin answered: “We come to take what is not thine.” Then said that dwarf, and his name was Mîm: “O Úrin, little did I think to see thee, a lord of Men, with such a rabble. Hearken now to the words of Mîm the fatherless, and depart, touching not this gold no more than were it venomous fires. For has not Glorund lain long years upon it, and the evil of the drakes of Melko is on it, and no good can it bring to Man or Elf, but I, only I, can ward it, Mîm the dwarf, and by many a dark spell have I bound it to myself.” Then Úrin wavered, but his men were wroth at that, so that he bid them seize it all, and Mîm stood by and watched, and he broke forth into terrible and evil curses. Thereat did Úrin smite him, saying: “We came but to take what was not thine—now for thy evil words we will take what is thine as well, even thy life.”

  But Mîm dying said unto Úrin: “Now Elves and Men shall rue this deed, and because of the death of Mîm the dwarf shall death follow this gold so long as it remain on Earth, and a like fate shall every part and portion share with the whole.” And Úrin shuddered, but his folk laughed.

  Now Úrin caused his followers to bear this gold to the halls of Tinwelint, and they murmured at that, but he said: “Are ye become as the drakes of Melko, that would lie and wallow in gold and seek no other joy? A sweeter life shall ye have in the court of that king of greed, an ye bear such treasury to him, than all the gold of Valinor can get you in the empty woods.”

  Now his heart was bitter against Tinwelint, and he desired to have a vengeance on him, as may be seen. So great was that hoard that great though Úrin’s company might be scarce could they bear it to the caves of Tinwelint the king, and some ’tis said was left behind and some was lost upon the way, and evil has followed its finders for ever.

  Yet in the end that laden host came to the bridge before the doors, and being asked by the guards Úrin said: “Say to the king that Úrin the Steadfast is come bearing gifts,” and this was done. Then Úrin let bear all that magnificence before the king, but it was hidden in sacks or shut in boxes of rough wood; and Tinwelint greeted Úrin with joy and with amaze and bid him thrice welcome, and he and all his court arose in honour of that lord of Men; but Úrin’s heart was blind by reason of his tormented years and of the lies of Melko, and he said: “Nay, O King, I do not desire to hear such words—but say only, where is Mavwin my wife, and knowest thou what death did Nienóri my daughter die?” And Tinwelint said that he knew not.

  Then did Úrin fiercely tell that tale, and the king and all his folk about him hid their faces for great ruth, but Úrin said: “Nay,35 had you such a heart as have the least of Men, never would they have been lost; but lo, I bring you now a payment in full for the troubles of your puny band that went against Glorund the drake, and deserting gave up my dear ones to his power. Gaze, O Tinwelint, sweetly on my gifts, for methinks the lustre of gold is all your heart contains.”

  Then did men cast down that treasury at the king’s feet, uncovering it so that all that court were dazzled and amazed—but Úrin’s men understood now what was forward and were little pleased. “Behold the hoard of Glorund,” said Úrin, “bought by the death of Nienóri with the blood of Túrin slayer of the worm. Take it, O craven king, and be glad that some Men be brave to win thee riches.”

  Then were Úrin’s words more than Tinwelint could endure, and he said: “What meanest thou, child of Men, and wherefore upbraidest thou me?36 Long did I foster thy son and forgave him the evil of his deeds, and afterward thy wife I succoured, giving way against my counsel to her wild desires. Melko it is that hates thee and not I. Yet what is it to me—and wherefore dost thou of the uncouth race of Men endure to upbraid a king of the Eldalië? Lo! in Palisor my life began years uncounted before the first of Men awoke. Get thee gone, O Úrin, for Melko hath bewitched thee, and take thy riches with thee”—but he forebore to slay or to bind Úrin in spells, remembering his ancient valiance in the Eldar’s cause.

  Then Úrin departed, but would not touch the gold, and stricken in years he reached Hisilómë and died among Men, but his words living after him bred estrangement between Elves and Men. Yet it is said that when he was dead his shade fared into the woods seeking Mavwin, and long those twain haunted the woods about the fall of Silver Bowl bewailing their children. But the Elves of Kôr have told, and they know, that at last Úrin and Mavwin fared to Mandos, and Nienóri was not there nor Túrin their son. Turambar indeed had followed Nienóri along the black pathways to the doors of Fui, but Fui would not open to them, neither would Vefántur. Yet now the prayers of Úrin and Mavwin came even to Manwë, and the Gods had mercy on their unhappy fate, so that those twain Túrin and Nienóri entered into Fôs’Almir, the bath of flame, even as Urwendi and her maidens had done in ages past before the first rising of the Sun, and so were all their sorrows and stains washed away, and they dwelt as shining Valar among the blessed ones, and now the love of that brother and sister is very fair; but Turambar indeed shall stand beside Fionwë in the Great Wrack, and Melko and his drakes shall curse the sword of Mormakil.’

  And so saying Eltas made an end, and none asked further.

  NOTES

  1 The passage was rejected before the change of Tintoglin to Tinwelint; see p. 69.

  2 Above the name Egnor is written ‘Damrod the Gnome’ see Commentary, pp. 139–40.

  3 Here and immediately below the name as first written was Tinthellon; this rider must belong to the same time as the note on the MS directing that Tintoglin be changed to Ellon or Tinthellon (p. 69). See note 32.

  4 Associated with this replacement is a note on the manuscript reading: ‘If Beren be a Gnome (as now in the story of Tinúviel) the references to Beren must be altered.’ In the rejected passage Egnor father of Beren ‘was akin to Mavwin’, i.e. Egnor was a Man. See notes 5 and 6, and the Commentary, p. 139.

  5 ‘Túrin son of Úrin’: original reading ‘Beren Ermabwed’. See notes 4 and 6.

  6 Original reading ‘and when also the king heard of the kinship between Mavwin and Beren’. See notes 4 and 5.r />
  7 Linwë (Tinto) was the king’s original ‘Elvish’ name, and belongs to the same ‘layer’ of names as Tintoglin (see I.115, 131). Its retention here (not changed to Tinwë) is clearly a simple oversight. See notes 19 and 20.

  8 Original reading ‘seeing that he was a Man of great size’.

  9 With this passage cf. that in the Tale of Tinúviel p. 11, which is closely similar. That the passage in Turambar is the earlier (to be presumed in any case) is shown by the fact that that in Tinúviel is only relevant if Beren is a Gnome, not a Man (see note 4).

  10 ‘dreams came to them’: original reading ‘dreams the Valar sent to them’.

  11 ‘and his name was Glorund’ was added later, as were the subsequent occurrences of the name on pp. 86, 94, 98; but from the first on p. 103 onwards Glorund appears in the manuscript as first written.

  12 ‘with the aid of Flinding whose wounds were not great’: original reading ‘with the aid of a lightly wounded man’. All the subsequent references to Flinding in this passage were added.

  13 Original reading ‘Túrin’s heart was bitter, and so it was that he and that other alone returned from that battle’.—In the phrase ‘reproaching Túrin that he had ever withstood his wise counsels’ ‘ever’ means ‘always’: Túrin had always resisted Orodreth’s counsels.

  14 Original reading ‘although all folk at that time held such a deed grievous and cowardly’.

  15 Original reading ‘and to look upon Nienóri again’. This was emended to ‘and to look upon Nienóri whom he had never seen’. The words ‘since his first days’ were added still later.

  16 The following passage was struck out, apparently at the time of writing:

  “Indeed,” said they, “it is the report of men of travel and rangers of the hills that for many and many moons have even the farthest marches been free of them and unwonted safe, and so have many men fared out of Hisilómë to the Lands Beyond.” And this was the truth that during the life of Turambar as an exile from the court of Tintoglin or hidden amongst the Rothwarin Melko had troubled Hisilómë little and the paths thereto.

  (Rothwarin was the original form throughout, replaced later by Rodothlim.) See p. 92, where the situation described in the rejected passage is referred to the earlier time (before the destruction of the Rodothlim) when Mavwin and Nienóri left Hisilómë.

  17 Original reading ‘twice seven’. When Túrin fled from the land of Tinwelint it was exactly 12 years since he had left his mother’s house (p. 75), and Nienóri was born before that, but just how long before is not stated.

  18 After ‘a great and terrible project afoot’ the original reading was ‘the story of which entereth not into this tale’. I do not know whether this means that when my father first wrote here of Melko’s ‘project’ he did not have the destruction of the Rodothlim in mind.

  19 ‘the king’: original reading ‘Linwë’. See note 7.

  20 Linwë: an oversight. See note 7.

  21 ‘that high place’: original reading ‘a hill’.

  22 This sentence, ‘And even so was Túrin’s boast…’, was added in pencil later. The reference is to Túrin’s naming himself Turambar—‘from this hour shall none name me Túrin if I live’, p. 86.

  23 This sentence, from ‘for his lineage…’ to approximately this point, is very lightly struck through. On the opposite page of the MS is hastily scribbled: ‘Make Turambar never tell new folk of his lineage (will bury the past)—this avoids chance (as cert.) of Níniel hearing his lineage from any.’ See Commentary, p. 131.

  24 Against this sentence there is a pencilled question-mark in the margin. See note 23 and the Commentary, p. 131.

  25 ‘And Níniel conceived’ was added in pencil later. See Commentary, p. 135.

  26 ‘and the captain of these was Mîm the dwarf’ added afterwards in pencil. See Commentary p. 137.

  27 The word tract may be read as track, and the word hurt (but with less probability) as burnt.

  28 As it stands this sentence can hardly mean other than that the people thought that the men were fighting among themselves; but why should they think such a thing? More likely, my father inadvertently missed out the end of the sentence: ‘betwixt the seven, Turambar and his comrades, and the dragon.’

  29 Turambar refers to Glorund’s words to him before the caves of the Rodothlim: ‘O Túrin Mormakil, who wast once named brave’ (p. 86).

  30 These words, from ‘even he who…’, were added later in pencil. Úrin may also be read as Húrin.

  31 From this point to the end of Eltas’ tale the original text was struck through, and is followed in the manuscript book by two brief narrative outlines, these being rejected also. The text given here (from ‘Yet it is said…’) is found on slips placed in the book. For the rejected material see the Commentary, pp. 135–7.

  32 Throughout the final portion of the text (that written on slips, see note 31) the king’s name was first written Tinthellon, not Tintoglin (see note 3).

  33 ‘Elves’: original reading ‘men’. The same change was made below (‘Now therefore when those Elves approached’), and a little later ‘men’ was removed in two places (‘his folk laughed’, ‘Úrin caused his followers to bear the gold’, p. 114); but several occurrences of ‘men’ were retained, possibly through oversight, though ‘men’ is used of Elves very frequently in the Tale of Turambar (e.g. ‘Beleg and Flinding both stout men’, p. 80).

  34 This sentence, from ‘But none had come nigh…’, was added later in pencil.

  35 This sentence, from ‘Then did Úrin fiercely…’, was added later, replacing ‘Then said Úrin: “Yet had you such a heart…”’

  36 This sentence, from “What meanest thou…”, replaces the original reading “Begone, and take thy filth with thee.”

  Changes made to names in

  The Tale of Turambar

  Fuithlug
  Nienóri At the first occurrence (p. 71) my father originally wrote Nyenòre (Nienor). Afterwards he struck out Nyenòre, removed the brackets round Nienor, and added -i, giving Nienori. At subsequent occurrences the name was written both Nienor and Nienóri, but Nienor was changed to Nienóri later throughout the earlier part of the tale. Towards the end, and in the text written on slips that concludes it, the form is Nienor. I have given Nienóri throughout.

  Tinwelint < Tinthellon (p. 72, twice). See p. 69 and note 3. Tinwelint < Tinthellon also in the concluding portion of the text, see note 32.

  Tinwelint < Tintoglin throughout the tale, except as just noted (where Tinwelint < Tinthellon in passages added later); see p. 69.

  Gwedheling < Gwendeling at all occurrences (Gwendeling unchanged at p. 76, but this is obviously an oversight: I read (Gwedheling in the text). In the Gnomish dictionary the form Gwendeling was changed to Gwedhiling; see p. 50.

  Flinding bo-Dhuilin < Flinding go-Dhuilin This change, made at the occurrence on p. 78, was not made at p. 82, but this was clearly because the form was missed, and I read bo-Dhuilin in both cases; the same change from go- to bo- in the Tale of Tinúviel, see p. 51. The form Dhuilin is taken by the name when the patronymic is prefixed (cf. Duilin p. 79).

  Rodothlim < Rothwarin at every occurrence.

  Gurtholfin < Gortholfin at the first occurrences, but from p. 90 Gurtholfin was the form first written.

  Commentary on

  The Tale of Turambar

  § 1. The primary narrative

  In commenting on this long tale it is convenient to break it into short sections. In the course of this commentary I frequently refer to the long (though incomplete) prose narrative, the Narn i Hîn Húrin, given in Unfinished Tales pp. 57ff., often in preference to the briefer account in The Silmarillion, chapter XXI; and in reference to the former I cite ‘Narn’ and the page-number in Unfinished Tales.

  (i) The capture of Úrin and Túrin’s childhood in Hisilómë (pp. 70–2).

  At the outset of the tale, it would be interesting to know more of the teller, Eltas. He is a puzzling figure
: he seems to be a Man (he says that ‘our people’ called Turambar Turumart ‘after the fashion of the Gnomes’) living in Hisilómë after the days of Turambar but before the fall of Gondolin, and he ‘trod Olórë Mallë’, the Path of Dreams. Is he then a child, one of ‘the children of the fathers of the fathers of Men’, who ‘found Kôr and remained with the Eldar for ever’ (The Cottage of Lost Play, I.19–20)?

  The opening passage agrees in almost all essentials with the ultimate form of the story. Thus there go back to the beginning of the ‘tradition’ (or at least to its earliest extant form) the departure of Húrin to the Battle of Unnumbered Tears at the summons of the Noldor, while his wife (Mavwin = Morwen) and young son Túrin remained behind; the great stand of Húrin’s men, and Húrin’s capture by Morgoth; the reason for Húrin’s torture (Morgoth’s wish to learn the whereabouts of Turgon) and the mode of it, and Morgoth’s curse; the birth of Nienor shortly after the great battle.

  That Men were shut in Hisilómë (or Hithlum, the Gnomish form, which here first appears, equated with Dor Lómin, p. 71) after the Battle of Unnumbered Tears is stated in The Coming of the Elves (I. 118) and in the last of the outlines for Gilfanon’s Tale (I.241); later on this was transformed into the confinement of the treacherous Easterling Men in Hithlum (The Silmarillion p. 195), and their ill-treatment of the survivors of the House of Hador became an essential element in the story of Túrin’s childhood. But in the Tale of Turambar the idea is already present that ‘the strange men who dwelt nigh knew not the dignity of the Lady Mavwin’. It is not in fact clear where Úrin dwelt: it is said here that after the battle ‘Mavwin got her in tears into the land of Hithlum or Dor Lómin where all Men must now dwell’, which can only mean that she went there, on account of Melko’s command, from wherever she had dwelt with Úrin before; on the other hand, a little later in the tale (p. 73), and in apparent contradiction to this, Mavwin would not accept the invitation of Tinwelint to come to Artanor partly because (it is suggested) ‘she clung to that dwelling that Úrin had set her in ere he went to the great war’.