In the later story Morwen resolved to send Tъrin away from fear that he would be enslaved by the Easterlings (Narn p. 70), whereas here all that is said is that Mavwin ‘knew not in her distress how to foster both him and his sister’ (which presumably reflects her poverty). This in turn reflects a further difference, namely that here Nienуri was born before Tъrin’s departure (but see p. 131); in the later legend he and his companions left Dor-lуmin in the autumn of the Year of Lamentation and Nienor was born early in the following year—thus he had never seen her, even as an infant.
An important underlying difference is the absence in the tale of the motive that Hъrin had himself visited Gondolin, a fact known to Morgoth and the reason for his being taken alive (The Silmarillion pp. 158–9, 196–7); this element in the story arose much later, when the founding of Gondolin was set far back and long before the Battle of Unnumbered Tears.
(ii) Tъrin in Artanor (pp. 72–6)
From the original story of Tъrin’s journey the two old men who accompanied him, one of whom returned to Mavwin while the older remained with Tъrin, were never lost; and the cry of Tъrin as they set out reappears in the Narn (p. 73): ‘Morwen, Morwen, when shall I see you again?’
Beleg was present from the beginning, as was the meaning of his name: ‘he was called Beleg for he was of great stature’ (see I.254, entry Haloisi velikл, and the Appendix to The Silmarillion, entry beleg); and he plays the same rфle in the old story, rescuing the travellers starving in the forest and taking them to the king.
In the later versions there is no trace of the remarkable message sent by Tinwelint to Mavwin, and indeed his curiously candid explanation, that he held aloof from the Battle of Unnumbered Tears because in his wisdom he foresaw that Artanor could become a refuge if disaster befell, is hardly in keeping with his character as afterwards conceived. There were of course quite other reasons for his conduct (The Silmarillion p. 189). On the other hand, Mavwin’s motives for not herself leaving Hithlum remained unchanged (see the passage in the Narn, p. 70, where the word ‘almsguest’ is an echo of the old tale); but the statement is puzzling that Mavwin might, when Nienуri was grown, have put aside her pride and passed over the mountains, had they not become impassable—clearly suggesting that she never left Hithlum. Perhaps the meaning is, however, that she might have made the journey earlier (while Tъrin was still in Artanor) than she in fact did (when for a time the ways became easier, but Tъrin had gone).
The character of Tъrin as a boy reappears in every stroke of the description in the Narn (p. 77):
It seemed that fortune was unfriendly to him, so that often what he designed went awry, and what he desired he did not gain; neither did he win friendship easily, for he was not merry, and laughed seldom, and a shadow lay on his youth.
(It is a notable point that is added in the tale: ‘at no time did he give much heed to words that were spoken to him’). And the ending of all word between Tъrin and his mother comes about in the same way-increased guard on the mountains (Narn p. 78).
While the story of Tъrin and Saeros as told in The Silmarillion, and in far more detail in the Narn, goes back in essentials to the Tale of Turambar, there are some notable differences—the chief being that as the story was first told Tъrin’s tormentor was slain outright by the thrown drinking-cup. The later complications of Saeros’ treacherous assault on Tъrin the following day and his chase to the death, of the trial of Tъrin in his absence for this deed and of the testimony of Nellas (this last only in the Narn) are entirely absent, necessarily; nor does Mablung appear—indeed it seems clear that Mablung first emerged at the end of the Tale of Tinъviel (see p. 59). Some details survived (as the comb which Orgof/Saeros offered tauntingly to Tъrin, Narn p. 8o), while others were changed or neglected (as that it was the anniversary of Tъrin’s departure from his home—though the figure of twelve years agrees with the later story, and that the king was present in the hall, contrast Narn p. 79). But the taunt that roused Tъrin to murderous rage remained essentially the same, in that it touched on his mother; and the story was never changed that Tъrin came into the hall tousled and roughly clad, and that he was mocked for this by his enemy.
Orgof is not greatly distinct from Saeros, if less developed. He was in the king’s favour, proud, and jealous of Tъrin; in the later story he was a Nandorin Elf while here he is an Ilkorin with some Gnomish blood (for Gnomes in Artanor see p. 65), but doubtless some peculiarity in his origin was part of the ‘tradition’. In the old story he is explicitly a fop and a fool, and he is not given the motives of hatred for Tъrin that are ascribed to him in the Narn (p. 77).
Though far simpler in narrative, the essential element of Tъrin’s ignorance of his pardon was present from the outset. The tale provides an explanation, not found later, of why Tъrin did not, on leaving Artanor, return to Hithlum; cf. the Narn p. 87: ‘to Dor-lуmin he did not dare, for it was closely beset, and one man alone could not hope at that time, as he thought, to come through the passes of the Mountains of Shadow.’
Tъrin’s prowess against the Orcs during his sojourn in Artanor is given a more central or indeed unique importance in the tale (‘he held the wrath of Melko from them for many years’) especially as Beleg, his companion-in-arms in the later versions, is not here mentioned (and in this passage the power of the queen to withstand invasion of the kingdom seems again (see p. 63) less than it afterwards became).
(iii) Tъrin and Beleg (pp. 76–81)
That part of the Tъrin saga following on his days in Artanor/Doriath underwent a large development later (‘Tъrin among the Outlaws’), and indeed my father never brought this part of the story to finality. In the oldest version there is a much more rapid development of the plot: Beleg joins Tъrin’s band, and the destruction of the band and capture of Tъrin by the Orcs follows (in terms of the narrative) almost immediately. There is no mention of ‘outlaws’ but only of ‘wild spirits’, no long search for Tъrin by Beleg, no capture and maltreatment of Beleg by the band, and no betrayal of the camp by a traitor (the part ultimately taken by Mоm the Dwarf). Beleg indeed (as already noticed) is not said to have been Tъrin’s companion in the earlier time, before the slaying of Orgof, and they only take up together after Tъrin’s self-imposed exile.
Beleg is called a Noldo (p. 78), and if this single reference is to be given full weight (and there seems no reason not to: it is explicit in the Tale of Tinъviel that there were Noidoli in Artanor, and Orgof had Gnomish blood) then it is to be observed that Beleg as originally conceived was an Elf of Kфr. He is not here marked out as a great bowman (neither his name Cъthalion ‘Strongbow’ nor his great how Belthronding appear); he is described at his first appearance (p. 73) as ‘a wood-ranger, a huntsman of the secret Elves’, but not as the chief of the marchwardens of the realm.
But from the capture of Tъrin to the death of Beleg the old tale was scarcely changed afterwards in any really important respect, though altered in many details: such as Beleg’s shooting of the wolf-sentinels silently in the darkness in the later story, and the flash of lightning that illuminated Beleg’s face—but the blue-shining lamps of the Noldor appear again in much later writings: one was borne by the Elves Gelmir and Arminas who guided Tuor through the Gate of the Noldor on his journey to the sea (see Unfinished Tales pp. 22, 51 note 2). In my father’s painting (probably dating from 1927 or 1928) of the meeting between Beleg and Flinding in Taur-nu-Fuin (reproduced in Pictuies by J. R. R. Tolkien, no. 37) Flinding’s lamp is seen beside him. The plot of the old story is very precisely contrived in such details as the reason for the carrying of Tъrin, still sleeping, out of the Orc-camp, and for Beleg’s using his sword, rather than a knife, to cut Tъrin’s bonds; perhaps also in the crushing of Beleg by Tъrin so that he was winded and could not speak his name before Tъrin gave him his death-blow.