The Lays of Beleriand. Christopher Tolkien
apparently Then his bow unbending Beleg asked him:
Commentary on Part II ‘Beleg’
In this part of the poem there are some narrative developments of much interest. The poem follows the Tale (II. 76) in making Beleg become one of Turin’s band on the marches of Doriath not long after Túrin’s departure from the Thousand Caves, and with no intervening event – in The Silmarillion (p. 200) Beleg came to Menegroth, and after speaking to Thingol set out to seek Túrin, while in the Narn (pp. 82–5) there is the ‘trial of Túrin’, and the intervention of Beleg bringing Nellas as witness, before he set out on Túrin’s trail. In the poem it is explicit that Beleg was not searching for him, and indeed knew nothing whatever of what had passed in the Thousand Caves (595). But Túrin’s band are no longer the ‘wild spirits’ of the Tale; they are hostile to all comers, whether Orcs or Men or Elves, including the Elves of Doriath (560–1, 566), as in The Silmarillion, and in far greater detail in the Narn, where the band is called Gaurwaith, the Wolf-men, ‘to be feared as wolves’.
The element of Beleg’s capture and maltreatment by the band now appears, and also that of Túrin’s absence from the camp at the time. Several features of the story in the Narn are indeed already present in the poem, though absent from the more condensed account in The Silmarillion: as Beleg’s being tied to a tree by the outlaws (577, Narn pp. 92–3), and the occasion of Túrin’s absence – he was
on the trail of the Orcs,
as they hastened home to the Hills of Iron
with the loot laden of the lands of Men
just as in the Narn (pp. 91–2), where however the story is part of a complex set of movements among the Woodmen of Brethil, Beleg, the Gaurwaith, and the Orcs.
Whereas in the Tale it was only now that Beleg and Túrin became companions-in-arms, we have already seen that the poem has the later story whereby they had fought together on the marches of Doriath before Túrin’s flight from the Thousand Caves (p. 27); and we now have also the development that Túrin’s altered mood at the sight of Beleg tied to the tree (Then Túrin’s heart was turned from hate, 584), and Beleg’s own reproaches (Shall the foes of Faërie be friends of Men? 603), led to the band’s turning their arms henceforth only against the foes of Faërie (644). Of the great oath sworn by the members of the band, explicitly echoing that of the Sons of Fëanor (634) – and showing incidentally that in that oath the holy mountain of Taniquetil (Tain-Gwethil) was taken in witness (636), there is no trace in The Silmarillion or the Narn: in the latter, indeed, the outlaws are not conceived in such a way as to make such an oath-taking at all probable.
Lines 643 ff., describing the prowess of the fellowship in the forest, are the ultimate origin of the never finally achieved story of the Land of Dor-Cúarthol (The Silmarillion p. 205, Narn pp. 152–4); lines 651–4
even in Angband the Orcs trembled.
Then the word wandered down the ways of the forest
that Túrin Thalion was returned to war;
and Thingol heard it …
lead in the end to
In Menegroth, and in the deep halls of Nargothrond, and even in the hidden realm of Gondolin, the fame of the deeds of the Two Captains was heard; and in Angband also they were known.
But in the later story Túrin was hidden under the name Gorthol, the Dread Helm, and it was his wearing of the Dragon-helm that revealed him to Morgoth. There is no suggestion of this in the earlier phase of the legend; the Dragon-helm makes no further appearance here in the poem.
A table may serve to clarify the development:
| Tale | Lay | Silmarillion and Narn |
| Túrin’s prowess on the marches of Doriath (Beleg not mentioned). | Túrin and Beleg companions-in-arms on the marches of Doriath; Túrin wears the Dragon-helm. | As in the poem. |
| Death of Orgof. | Death of Orgof. | Death of Saeros. |
| Túrin leaves Doriath; a band forms round him which includes Beleg. | Túrin leaves Doriath; a band of outlaws forms round him which attacks all comers. | Túrin leaves Doriath and joins a band of desperate outlaws. |
| The band captures Beleg (who knows nothing of Túrin’s leaving Doriath) and ties him to a tree. | The band captures Beleg (who is searching for Túrin bearing Thingol’s pardon) (and ties him to a tree, Narn). | |
| Túrin has him set free; suffers a change of heart; Beleg joins the band; all swear an oath. | Túrin has him set free; suffers a change of heart; but Beleg will not join the band and departs. (No mention of oath.) | |
| Great prowess of the band. | Great prowess of the band against the Orcs. | (Later Beleg returns and joins the band:) Land of Dor-Cúarthol. |
Before leaving this part of the story, it may be suggested that lines 605 ff., in which Túrin declares to Beleg that This band alone / I count as comrades, contain the germ of Túrin’s words to him in the Narn, p. 94:
The grace of Thingol will not stretch to receive these companions of my fall, I think; but I will not part with them now, if they do not wish to part with me, &c.
The traitor, who betrayed the band to the Orcs, now first appears. At first he is called Bauglir both in A and in B as originally typed; and it might be thought that the name had much too obviously an evil significance. The explanation is quite clearly, however, that Bauglir became Blodrin at the same time as Bauglir replaced Belcha as a name of Morgoth. (By the time my father reached line 990 Blodrin is the name as first written in both A and B; while similarly at line 1055 Bauglir is Morgoth’s name, not Belcha, both in A and B as first written.) The change of Ban (father of Blodrin) to Bor was passing; he is Ban in the 1926 ‘Sketch of the Mythology’, and so remained until, much later, he disappeared.
Blodrin’s origin is interesting:
trapped as a child
he was dragged by the Dwarves to their deep mansions,
and in Nogrod nurtured, and in nought was like,
spite blood and birth, to the blissful Elves.
(666–9)
Thus Blodrin’s evil nature is explicitly ascribed to the influence of the bearded Dwarves / of troth unmindful (1148–9); and Blodrin follows Ufedhin of the Tale of the Nauglafring as an example of the sinister effect of Elvish association with Dwarves – not altogether absent in the tale of Eöl and Maeglin as it appears in The Silmarillion. Though the nature – and name – of the traitor in Túrin’s band went through Protean mutations afterwards, it is not inconceivable that recollection of the Dwarvish element in Blodrin’s history played some part in the emergence of Mîm in this rôle. On the early hostile view of the Dwarves