The seven Sons of Fлanor, their oath (sworn not in Valinor but after the coming of the Noldoli to the Great Lands), and the maiming of Maidros appear in the outlines for Gilfanon’s Tale; and in the latest of these outlines the Fлanorians are placed in Dor Lуmin (= Hisilуmл, Hithlum), see I.238, 240, 243. Here, in the Tale of the Nauglafring, appear for the first time the names of the Sons of Fлanor, five of them (Maidros, Maglor, Celegorm, Cranthor, Curufin) in the forms, or almost the forms, they were to retain, and Curufin already with his sobriquet ‘the Crafty’. The names Amrod and Amras in The Silmarillion were a late change; for long these two sons of Fлanor were Damrod (as here) and Dнriel (here Dinithel or Durithel, see Changes made to Names, p. 245).

Here also appear Dior the Fair, also called Ausir the Wealthy, and his daughter Elwing; his son Auredhir early disappeared in the development of the legends. But Dior ruled in ‘the southern vales’ (p. 241) of Hisilуmл, not in Artanor, and there is no suggestion of any renewal of Tinwelint’s kingdom after his death, in contrast to what was told later (The Silmarillion p. 236); moreover the Fлanorians, as noted above, dwelt also in Hisilуmл—and how all this is to be related to what is said elsewhere of the inhabitants of that region I am unable to say: cf. the Tale of Tinъviel, p. 10: ‘Hisilуmл where dwelt Men, and thrall-Noldoli laboured, and few free-Eldar went.’

A very curious statement is made in this concluding part of the tale, that ‘those were days of happiness in the vales of Hithlum, for there was peace with Melko and the Dwarves who had but one thought as they plotted against Gondolin’ (p. 241). Presumably ‘peace with Melko’ means no more than that Melko had averted his attention from those lands; but nowhere else is there any reference to the Dwarves’ plotting against Gondolin.

In the typescript version of the Tale of Tinъviel (p. 43) it is said that if Turgon King of Gondolin was the most glorious of the kings of the Elves who defied Melko, ‘for a while the most mighty and the longest free was Thingol of the Woods’. The most natural interpretation of this expression is surely that Gondolin fell before Artanor; whereas in The Silmarillion (p. 240) ‘Tidings were brought by Thorondor Lord of Eagles of the fall of Nargothrond, and after of the slaying of Thingol and of Dior his heir, and of the ruin of Doriath; but Turgon shut his ear to word of the woes without.’ In the present tale we see the same chronology, in that many of the Elves who followed Beren went after his departure to Gondolin, ‘the rumour of whose growing power and glory ran in secret whispers among all the Elves’ (p. 240), though here the destruction of Gondolin is said to have taken place on the very day that Dior was attacked by the Sons of Fлanor (p. 242). To evade the discrepancy therefore we must interpret the passage in the Tale of Tinъviel to mean that Thingol remained free for a longer period of years than did Turgon, irrespective of the dates of their downfalls.

Lastly, the statements that Cыm an-Idrisaith, the Mound of Avarice, ‘stands there still in Artanor’ (p. 223), and that the waters of Aros still flow above the drowned hoard (p. 238), are noteworthy as indications that nothing analogous to the Drowning of Beleriand was present in the original conception.

V THE TALE OF EДRENDEL

The ‘true beginning’ of the Tale of Eдrendel was to be the dwelling at Sirion’s mouth of the Lothlim (the point at which The Fall of Gondolin ends: ‘and fair among the Lothlim Eдrendel grows in the house of his father’, pp. 196–7) and the coming there of Elwing (the point at which the Tale of the Nauglafring ends: ‘they departed for ever from the glades of Hithlum and got them to the south towards Sirion’s deep waters, and the pleasant lands. And thus did all the fates of the fairies weave then to one strand, and that strand is the great tale of Eдrendel; and to that tale’s true beginning are we now come’, p. 242). The matter is complicated, however, as will be seen in a moment, by my father’s also making the Nauglafring the first part of the Tale of Eдrendel.

But the great tale was never written; and for the story as he then conceived it we are wholly dependent on highly condensed and often contradictory outlines. There are also many isolated notes; and there are the very early Eдrendel poems. While the poems can be precisely dated, the notes and outlines can not; and it does not seem possible to arrange them in order so as to provide a clear line of development.

One of the outlines for the Tale of Eдrendel is the earlier of the two ‘schemes’ for the Lost Tales which are the chief materials for Gilfanon’s Tale; and I will repeat here what I said of this in the first part (I.233):

There is no doubt that [the earlier of the two schemes] was composed when the Lost Tales had reached their furthest point of development, as represented by the latest texts and arrangements given in this book. Now when this outline comes to the matter of Gilfanon’s Tale it becomes at once very much fuller, but then contracts again to cursory references for the tales of Tinъviel, Tъrin, Tuor, and the Necklace of the Dwarves, and once more becomes fuller for the tale of Eдrendel.

This scheme B (as I will continue to call it) provides a coherent if very rough narrative plan, and divides the story into seven parts, of which the first (marked ‘Told’) is ‘The Nauglafring down to the flight of Elwing’. This sevenfold division is referred to by Littleheart at the beginning of The Fall of Gondolin (p. 144):

It is a mighty tale, and seven times shall folk fare to the Tale-fire ere it be rightly told; and so twined is it with those stories of the Nauglafring and of the Elf-march that I would fain have aid in that telling…

If the six parts following the Tale of the Nauglafring were each to be of comparable length, the whole Tale of Eдrendel would have been somewhere near half the length of all the tales that were in fact written; but my father never afterwards returned to it on any ample scale.

I give now the concluding part of Scheme B.

Tale of Eдrendel begins, with which is interwoven the Nauglafring and the March of the Elves. For further details see Notebook C.*

First part. The tale of the Nauglafring down to the flight of Elwing.

Second part. The dwelling at Sirion. Coming thither of Elwing, and the love of her and Eдrendel as girl and boy. Ageing of Tuor—his secret sailing after the conches of Ulmo in Swanwing.

Eдrendel sets sail to the North to find Tuor, and if needs be Mandos.

Sails in Eдrбmл. Wrecked. Ulmo appears. Saves him, bidding him sail to Kфr—‘for for this hast thou been brought out of the Wrack of Gondolin’.

Third part. Second attempt of Eдrendel to Mandos. Wreck of Falasquil and rescue by the Oarni.¹ He sights the Isle of Seabirds ‘whither do all the birds of all waters come at whiles’. Goes back by land to Sirion.

Idril has vanished (she set sail at night). The conches of Ulmo call Eдrendel. Last farewell of Elwing. Building of Wingilot.

Fourth part. Eдrendel sails for Valinor. His many wanderings, occupying several years.

Fifth part. Coming of the birds of Gondolin to Kфr with tidings. Uproar of the Elves. Councils of the Gods. March of the Inwir (death of Inwл), Teleri, and Solosimpi.

Raid upon Sirion and captivity of Elwing.

Sorrow and wrath of Gods, and a veil dropped between Valmar and Kфr, for the Gods will not destroy it but cannot bear to look upon it.

Coming of the Eldar. Binding of Melko. Faring to Lonely Isle. Curse of the Nauglafring and death of Elwing.