The Lays of Beleriand. Christopher Tolkien
of Ingwë, Lord of the First Kindred of the Elves (earlier Inwë Lord of the Teleri).*
The lines concerning Orgof dead are noteworthy:
his hour had come
that his soul should seek the sad pathway
to the deep valley of the Dead Awaiting,
there a thousand years thrice to ponder
in the gloom of Gurthrond his grim jesting,
ere he fare to Faërie to feast again.
(544–9)
With this compare the tale of The Coming of the Valar and the Building of Valinor (I. 76):
There [in the hall of Vê] Mandos spake their doom, and there they waited in the darkness, dreaming of their past deeds, until such time as he appointed when they might again be born into their children, and go forth to laugh and sing again.
The name Gurthrond (< Guthrond) occurs nowhere else; the first element is doubtless gurth ‘death’, as in the name of Túrin’s sword Gurtholfin (II. 342).
There remain a few particular points concerning names. At line 366 Hithlum is explained as the name of Dorlómin among Men:
of dark Dorlómin with its dreary pines
that Hithlum unhappy is hight by Men.
This is curious. In the Lost Tales the name of the land among Men was Aryador; so in the Tale of Turambar (II. 70):
In those days my folk dwelt in a vale of Hisilómë and that land did Men name Aryador in the tongues they then used.
In the 1930 ‘Silmarillion’ it is specifically stated that Hithlum and Dorlómin were Gnomish names for Hisilómë, and there seems every reason to suppose that this was always the case. The answer to the puzzle may however lie in the same passage of the Tale of Turambar, where it is said that
often was the story of Turambar and the Foalókë in their [i.e. Men’s] mouths – but rather after the fashion of the Gnomes did they say Turumart and the Fuithlug.
Perhaps then the meaning of line 366 is that Men called Hisilómë Hithlum because they used the Gnomish name, not that it was the name in their own tongue.
In the following lines (367–8)
the Shadowy Mountains
fenced them from Faërie and the folk of the wood.
This is the first occurrence of the name Shadowy Mountains, and it is used as it was afterwards (Ered Wethrin); in the Lost Tales the mountains forming the southern fence of Hithlum are called the Iron Mountains or the Bitter Hills (see II. 61).
The name Cuinlimfin of the Waters of Awakening (note to line 450) seems to have been a passing idea, soon abandoned.
Lastly, at line 50 occurs (by emendation in B from Côr) the unique compound name Corthûn, while at 430 the city of Côr was emended to the city of Tún; see II. 292.
| Long time alone he lived in the hills | |
| a hunter of beast and hater of Men, | 560 |
| or Orcs, or Elves, till outcast folk | |
| there one by one, wild and reckless | |
| around him rallied; and roaming far | |
| they were feared by both foe and friend of old. | |
| For hot with hate was the heart of Túrin, | 565 |
| nor a friend found him such folk of Thingol | |
| as he wandering met in the wood’s fastness. |
| There Beleg the brave on the borders of Doriath | |
| they found and fought – and few were with him – | |
| and o’erborne by numbers they bound him at last, | 570 |
| till their captain came to their camp at eve. | |
| Afar from that fight his fate that day | |
| had taken Túrin on the trail of the Orcs, | |
| as they hastened home to the Hills of Iron | |
| with the loot laden of the lands of Men. | 575 |
| Then soon was him said that a servant of Thingol | |
| they had tied to a tree – and Túrin coming | |
| stared astonied on the stern visage | |
| of Beleg the brave his brother in arms, | |
| of whom he learned the lore of leaping blades, | 580 |
| and of bended bow and barbéd shaft, | |
| and the wild woodland’s wisdom secret, | |
| when they blent in battle the blood of their wounds. |
| Then Túrin’s heart was turned from hate, | |
| and he bade unbind Beleg the huntsman. | 585 |
| ‘Now fare thou free! But, of friendship aught | |
| if thy heart yet holds for Húrin’s son, | |
| never tell thou tale that Túrin thou sawst | |
| an outlaw unloved from Elves and Men, | |
| whom Thingol’s thanes yet thirst to slay. | 590 |
| Betray not my trust or thy troth of yore!’ | |
| Then Beleg of the bow embraced him there – | |
| he had not fared to the feast or the fall of Orgof – | |
| there kissed him kindly comfort speaking: | |
| ‘Lo! nought know I of the news thou tellest; | 595 |
| but outlawed or honoured thou ever shalt be | |
| the brother of Beleg, come bliss come woe! | |
| Yet little me likes that thy leaping sword | |
| the life should drink of the leaguered Elves. | |
| Are the grim Glamhoth then grown so few, | 600 |
| or the foes of Faërie feeble-hearted, | |
| that warlike Men have no work to do? | |
| Shall the foes of Faërie be friends of Men? | |
| Betrayest thou thy troth whom we trusted of yore?’ |
| ‘Nor of arméd Orc, nor [of] Elf of the wood, | 605 |
| nor of any on earth have I honour or love, | |
| O Beleg the bowman. This band alone | |
| I count as comrades, my kindred in woe | |
| and friendless fate – our foes the world.’ |
| ‘Let the bow of Beleg to your band be joined; | 610 |
| and swearing death to the sons of darkness | |
| let us suage our sorrow and the smart of fate! | |
| Our valour is not vanquished, nor vain the glory | |
| that once we did win in the woods of old.’ |
| Thus hope in the heart of Húrin’s offspring | 615 |
| awoke at those words; and them well likéd | |
| of that band the boldest, save Blodrin only – | |
| Blodrin Bor’s son, who for blood and for gold | |
| alone lusted, and little he recked | |
| whom he robbed of riches or reft of life, | 620 |
| were it Elf or Orc; but he opened not | |
| the thoughts of his heart. There throbbed the harp, | |
| where the fires flickered, and the flaming brands | |
| of pine were piled in the place of their camp; | |
| where glad men gathered in good friendship | 625 |
| as dusk fell down on the drear woodland. | |
| Then a song on a sudden soaring loudly – | |
| and the trees up-looming towering harkened – | |
| was raised of the Wrack of the Realm of the Gods; | |
| of the need of the Gnomes on the Narrow Crossing; | 630 |
| of the fight at Fangros, and Fëanor’s sons’ | |
| oath unbreakable. Then up sprang Beleg: | |
| ‘That our vaunt and our vows be not vain for ever, | |
| even such as they swore, those seven chieftains, | |
| an oath let us swear that is unchanging | 635 |
| as Tain-Gwethil’s towering mountain!’ | |
| Their |