Mablung being absent from the old story, it is only Turambar’s intuition (‘being free now of blindness’—the blindness that Melko ‘wove of old’, p. 83)* that informs him that Tamar was telling the truth. The slaying of Glaurung and all its aftermath is in the late story compassed in the course of a single night and the morning of the next day, whereas in the tale it is spread over two nights, the intervening day, and the morning of the second. Turambar is carried back to the people on the hill-top by the three deserters who had left him in the ravine, whereas in the late story he comes himself. (Of the slaying of Dorlas by Brandir there is no trace in the tale, and the taking of a sword by Tamar has no issue.)

Particularly interesting is the result of the changing of the place where Tъrin and Nienуri died. In the tale there is only one river, and Nнniel follows the stream up through the woods and casts herself over the falls of Silver Bowl (in the place afterwards called Nen Girith), and here too, in the glade above the falls, Turambar slew himself; in the developed story her death-leap was into the ravine of Teiglin at Cabed-en-Aras, the Deer’s Leap, near the spot where Turambar lay beside Glaurung, and here Turambar’s death took place also. Thus Nнniel’s sense of dread when she first came to Silver Bowl with the Woodmen who rescued her (p. 101) foreboded her own death in that place, but in the changed story there is less reason for a foreknowledge of evil to come upon her there. But while the place was changed, the withering of the leaves remained, and the awe of the scene of their deaths, so that none would go to Cabed-en-Aras after, as they would not set foot on the grass above Silver Bowl.

The most remarkable feature of the earliest version of the story of Turambar and Nнniel is surely that as my father first wrote it he did not say that she had conceived a child by him (note 25); and thus there is nothing in the old story corresponding to Glaurung’s words to her: ‘But the worst of all his deeds thou shalt feel in thyself’ (Narn p. 138). The fact that above all accounts for Nienor’s utter horror and despair was added to the tale later.

In concluding this long analysis of the Tale of Turambar proper the absence of place-names in the later part of it may be remarked. The dwelling of the Rodothlim is not named, nor the river that flowed past it; no name is given to the forest where the Woodmen dwelt, to their village, or even to the stream of such central importance at the end of the story (contrast Nargothrond, Narog, Tumhalad, Amon Ethir, Brethil, Amon Obel, Ephel Brandir, Teiglin, Celebros of the later narratives).

§2. The further narrative of Eltas

(after the death of Tъtin)

My father struck out the greater part of this continuation, allowing it to stand only as far as the words ‘by reason of her great unhappiness’ on p. 113 (see note 31). From the brief passage that was retained it is seen that the story of Morwen’s coming to the stone on Tъrin’s mound goes back to the beginning, though in the later story she met Hъrin there (The Silmarillion, p. 229).

The rejected part continues as follows:

Yet it is said also that when the doom of his folk was utterly fulfilled then was Ъrin released by Melko, and bowed with age he fared back into the better lands. There did he gather some few to him, and they went and found the caverns of the Rothwarin [earlier form for Rodothlim, see p. 119] empty, and none guarded them, and a mighty treasury lay there still for none had found it, in that the terror of the drake lived longer than he and none had ventured thither again. But Ъrin let bear the gold even before Linwл [i.e. Tinwelint], and casting it before his feet bade him bitterly to take his vile reward, naming him a craven by whose faint heart had much evil fallen to his house that might never have been; and in this began a new estrangement between Elves and Men, for Linwл was wroth at Ъrin’s words and bid him begone, for said he: “Long did I foster Tъrin 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. Yet what is it to me—and wherefore dost thou, O son of the uncouth race of Men, endure to upbraid a king of the Eldaliл, whose life began in Palisor ages uncounted before Men were born?” And then Ъrin would have gone, but his men were not willing to leave the gold there, and a dissension arose between them and the Elves, and of this grew bitter blows, and Tintoglin [i.e. Tinwelint] might not stay them.

There then was Ъrin’s band slain in his halls, and they stained with their blood the dragon’s hoard; but Ъrin escaped and cursed that gold with a dread curse so that none might enjoy it, and he that held any part of it found evil and death to come of it. But Linwл hearing that curse caused the gold to be cast into a deep pool of the river before his doors, and not for very long did any see it again save for the Ring of Doom [emended to: the Necklace of the Dwarves], and that tale belongs not here, although therein did the evil of the worm Glorund find its last fulfilment.

(The last phrase is an addition to the text.) The remainder of this rejected narrative, concerning the final fates of Ъrin and Mavwin and their children, is essentially the same as in the replacement text given on p. 115 (‘Then Ъrin departed…’) and need not be given.

Immediately following the rejected narrative there is a short outline headed ‘Story of the Nauglafring or the Necklace of the Dwarves’, and this also was struck through. Here there is no mention of Ъrin at all, but it is told that the Orcs (emended from Gongs, see I.245 note 10) who guarded the treasury of Glorund went in search of him when he did not come back to the caves, and in their absence Tintoglin (i.e. Tinwelint), learning of Glorund’s death, sent Elves to steal the hoard of the Rothwarin (i.e. Rodothlim). The Orcs returning cursed the thieves, and they cursed the gold also.

Linwл (i.e. Tinwelint) guarded the gold, and he had a great necklace made by certain Ъvanimor (Nautar or Nauglath). (Ъvanimor have been defined in an earlier tale as ‘monsters, giants, and ogres’, see I.75, 236; Nauglath are Dwarves, I.236). In this Necklace the Silmaril was set; but the curse of the gold was on him, and he defrauded them of part of their reward. The Nauglath plotted, and got aid of Men; Linwл was slain in a raid, and the gold carried away.

There follows another rejected outline, headed ‘The Necklace of the Dwarves’, and this combines features of the preceding outline with features of the rejected ending of Eltas’ narrative (pp. 135–6). Here Ъrin gathers a band of Elves and Men who are wild and fierce, and they go to the caves, which are lightly guarded because the ‘Orqui’ (i.e. Orcs) are abroad seeking Glorund. They carry off the treasure, and the Orcs returning curse it. Ъrin casts the treasure before the king and reproaches him (saying that he might have sent a greater company to the caves to secure the treasure, if not to aid Mavwin in her distress); ‘Tintoglin would not touch it and bid Ъrin hold what he had won, but Ъrin would depart with bitter words’. Ъrin’s men were not willing to leave it, and they sneaked back; there was an affray in the king’s halls, and much blood was spilt on the gold. The outline concludes thus:

The Gongs sack Linwл’s halls and Linwл is slain and the gold is carried far away. Beren Ermabwed falls upon them at a crossing of Sirion and the treasure is cast into the water, and with it the Silmaril of Fлanor. The Nauglath that dwell nigh dive after the gold but only one mighty necklace of gold (and that Silmaril is on it) do they find. This becomes a mark of their king.