(v) Tъrin’s return to Hithlum (pp. 88–91)
In this passage the case is much as in previous parts of the tale: the large structure of the story was not greatly changed afterwards, but there are many important differences nonetheless.
In the Tale of Turambar it is clear that the house of Mavwin was not imagined as standing near to the hills or mountains that formed the barrier between Hithlum and the Lands Beyond: Tъrin was told that never did Orcs ‘come hither deep into the land of Hisilуmл’, in contrast to the Narn (p. 68), where ‘Hъrin’s house stood in the south-east of Dorlуmin, and the mountains were near; Nen Lalaith indeed came down from a spring under the shadow of Amon Darthir, over whose shoulder there was a steep pass’. The removal of Mavwin from one house to another in Hithlum, visited in turn by Tъrin as he sought for her, was afterwards rejected, to the improvement of the story. Here Tъrin comes back to his old home in the late summer, whereas in The Silmarillion the fall of Nargothrond took place in the late autumn (‘the leaves fell from the trees in a great wind as they went, for the autumn was passing to a dire winter,’ p. 213) and Tъrin came to Dor-lуmin in the Fell Winter (p. 215).
The names Brodda and Airin (later spelled Aerin) remained; but Brodda is here the lord of the land, and Airin plays a more important part in the scene in the hall, dealing justice with vigour and wisdom, than she does later. It is not said here that she had been married by force, though her life with Brodda is declared to have been very evil; but of course the situation in the later narratives is far more clear-cut—the Men of Hithlum were ‘Easterlings’, ‘Incomers’ hostile to the Elves and the remnant of the House of Hador, whereas in the early story no differentiation is made among them, and indeed Brodda was ‘a man whom Mavwin trusted’. The motive of Brodda’s ill-treatment of Mavwin is already present, but only to the extent that he embezzled her goods after her departure; in the Narn it seems from Aerin’s words to Tъrin (p. 107) that the oppression of Morwen by Brodda and others was the cause of her going at last to Doriath. In the brief account in The Silmarillion (p. 215) it is not indeed made explicit that Brodda in particular deserved Tъrin’s hatred.
Tъrin’s conduct in the hall is in the tale essentially simpler: the true story has been told to him by a passer-by, he enters to exact vengeance on Brodda for thieving Mavwin’s goods, and he does so with dispatch. As told in the Narn, where Tъrin’s eyes are only finally opened to the deception that has been practised upon him by the words of Aerin, who is present in the hall, his rage is more passionate, crazed, and bitter, and indeed more comprehensible: and the moral observation that Tъrin’s deed was ‘violent and unlawful’ is not made. The story of Airin’s judgement on these doings, made in order to save Tъrin, was afterwards removed; and Tъrin’s solitary departure was expanded, with the addition also of the firing of Brodda’s hall by Aerin (Narn p. 109).
Some details survived all the changes: in the Narn Tъrin still seizes Brodda by the hair, and just as in the tale his rage suddenly expired after the deed of violence (‘his wrath was grown cold’), so in the Narn ‘the fire of his rage was as ashes’. It may be noticed here that while in the old story Tъrin does not rename himself so often, his tendency to do so is already present.
The story of how ‘Tъrin came among the Woodmen and delivered them from Orcs is not found in the Tale of Turambar; nor is there any mention of the Mound of Finduilas near the Crossings of Teiglin nor any account of her fate.
(vi) The return of Gumlin to Hithlum and the depar ture of
Mavwin and Nienуri, to Artanor (pp. 91–3)
In the later story the elder of Tъrin’s guardians (Gumlin in the tale, Grithnir in the, Narn) plays no part after his bringing Tъrin to Doriath: it is only said that he stayed there till he died (Narn, p. 74); and Morwen had no tidings out of Doriath before leaving her home—indeed she only learnt that Tъrin had left Thingol’s realm when she got there (The Silmarillion, p. 211; cf. Aerin’s words in the Narn, p. 107: ‘She looked to find her son there awaiting her.’) This whole section of the tale does no more than explain with what my father doubtless felt (since he afterwards rejected it almost in its entirety) to be unnecessary complication why Mavwin went to Tinwelint. I think it is clear, however, that the difference between the versions here depends on the different views of Mavwin’s (Morwen’s) condition in Hithlum. In the old story she is not suffering hardship and oppression; she trusts Brodda to the extent of entrusting not only her goods to him but even her daughter, and is said indeed to have ‘peace and honour among the men of those regions’ the chieftains speak of the love they bear her. A motive for her departure is found in the coming of Gumlin and the news he brings of Tъrin’s flight from the lands of Tinwelint. In the later story, on the other hand, Brodda’s character as tyrant and oppressor is extended, and it is Morwen’s very plight at his hands that leads her to depart. (The news that came to Tъrin in Doriath that ‘Morwen’s plight was eased’ (Narn, p. 77, cf. The Silmarillion p. 199) is probably a survival from the old story; nothing is said in the later narratives to explain how this came about, and ceased.) In either case her motive for leaving is coupled with the fact of the increased safety of the lands; but whereas in the later story the reason for this was the prowess of the Black Sword of Nargothrond, in the tale it was the ‘great and terrible project’ of Melko that was afoot—the assault on the caves of the Rodothlim (see note 18).
It is curious that in this passage Airin and Brodda are introduced as if for the first time. It is perhaps significant that the part of the tale extending from the dragon’s words ‘Hearken to me, O son of Ъrin…’ on p. 87 to ‘…fell to his knees before Tinwelint’ on p. 92 was written in a separate part of the manuscript book: possibly this replaced an earlier text in which Brodda and Airin did not appear. But many such questions arise from the earliest manuscripts, and few can now be certainly unravelled.
(vii) Mavwin and Nienуri in Artanor and their meeting
with Glorund (pp. 93–9)
The next essential step in the development of the plot—the learning by Mavwin/Morwen of Tъrin’s sojourn in Nargothrond—is more neatly and naturally handled in The Silmarillion (p. 217) and the Narn (p. 112), where news is brought to Thingol by fugitives from the sack, in contrast to the Tale of Turambar, where Mavwin and Nienуri only learn of the destruction of the Elves of the Caves from a band of Noldoli while themselves wandering aimlessly in the forest. It is odd that these Noldoli did not name Tъrin by his name but only as the Mormakil: it seems that they did not know who he was, but they knew enough of his history to make his identity plain to Mavwin. As noted above, Tъrin declared his name and lineage to the Elves of the Caves. In the later narrative, on the other hand, Tъrin did conceal it in Nargothrond, calling himself Agarwaen, but all those who brought news of the fall to Doriath ‘declared that it was known to many in Nargothrond ere the end that the Mormegil was none other than Tъrin son of Hъrin of Dor-lуmin’.
As often, unneeded complication in the early story was afterwards cleared away: thus the elaborate argumentation needed to get Tinwelint’s warriors and Mavwin and Nienуri on the road together is gone from The Silmarillion and the Narn. In the tale the ladies and the Elvish warriors all set off together with the full intention that the former shall watch developments from a high place (afterwards Amon Ethir, the Hill of Spies); in the later story Morwen simply rides off, and the party of Elves, led by Mablung, follows after her, with Nienor among them in disguise.