An otherwise unknown element in the Music of the Ainur is revealed in Manwл’s words: that the world shall come in the end for a great while under the sway of Men. In the original version there are several suggestions in reflective asides that all was fated: so here ‘the jealousy of Elves and Men’ is seen as perhaps a necessary part of the unfolding of the history of the world, and earlier in the tale (p. 142) it is asked: ‘Who shall say but that all these deeds, even the seeming needless evil of Melko, were but a portion of the destiny of old?’

But for all the radical changes in the narrative the characteristic note of Fлanor’s rhetoric remained; his speech to the Noldoli of Kфr rises in the same rhythms as his speech by torchlight to the Noldor of Tirion (The Silmarillion pp. 82–3).

In the story of Melko and Ungoliont it is seen that essential elements were present ab initio: the doubt as to her origin, her dwelling in the desolate regions in the south of the Outer Lands, her sucking in of light to bring forth webs of darkness; her alliance with Melko, his rewarding her with the gems stolen from the Noldoli (though this was differently treated later), the piercing of the Trees by Melko and Ungoliont’s sucking up the light; and the great hunt mounted by the Valar, which failed of its object through darkness and mist, allowing Melko to escape out of Valinor by the northward ways.

Within this structure there are as almost always a great many points of difference between the first story and the later versions. In The Silmarillion (p. 73) Melkor went to Avathar because he knew of Ungoliant’s dwelling there, whereas in the tale she found him wandering there seeking a way of escape. In the tale her origin is unknown, and though this element may be said to have remained in The Silmarillion (‘The Eldar know not whence she came’, ibid.), by the device of ‘Some have said…’ a clear explanation is in fact given: she was a being from ‘before the world’, perverted by Melkor, who had been her lord, though she denied him. The original idea of ‘the primeval spirit Mуru’ (p. 151) is made explicit in an entry in the early word-list of the Gnomish language, where the name Muru is defined as ‘a name of the Primeval Night personified as Gwerlum or Gungliont’.*

The old story markedly lacks the quality of the description in The Silmarillion of the descent of Melkor and Ungoliant from Mount Hyarmentir into the plain of Valinor; and there too the great festival of the Valar and Eldar was in progress at the time: here it is long since over. In The Silmarillion the assault on the Trees came at the time of the mingling of the lights1 (p. 75), while here Silpion was in full bloom; and the detail of the account of the destruction of the Trees is rendered quite different through the presence of the Gnome Daurin, afterwards abandoned without trace. Thus in the old story it is not actually said that Ungoliont drank the light of Silpion, but only that the tree died from her poison on Daurin’s blade, with which Melko stabbed its trunk; and in The Silmarillion Ungoliant went to ‘the Wells of Varda’ and drank them dry also. It is puzzling that the Gnome was first named Fлanor, since he was slain by Melko. It would seem that my father was at least momentarily entertaining the idea that Fлanor would play no part in the story of the Noldoli in the Great Lands; but in outlines for a later tale (pp. 238–9) he died in Mithrim. In this passage is the first appearance of miruvor, defined in the early Qenya word-list as ‘nectar, drink of the Valar’ with this cf. The Road Goes Ever On, p. 61, where my father stated that it was the name given by the Valar to the drink poured at their festivals, and compared it to the nectar of the Olympian Gods (in the translation of Namбriл he rendered miruvуrл ‘nectar’, ibid. p. 58).

Most important of the differences in the tale is the immediate return of Ungoliont to her lair in the south, so that all the story in The Silmarillion (pp. 80–1) of ‘the Thieves’ Quarrel’, the rescue of Melkor by the Balrogs, and Ungoliant’s coming into Nan Dungortheb, is absent from the narrative in the Lost Tales; the surrender of the gems of the Noldoli to Ungoliont takes place in the early version at the time of her first meeting with Melko—in The Silmarillion he did not then possess them, for the attack on Formenos had not yet taken place.

VII

THE FLIGHT OF THE NOLDOLI

There is no break in Lindo’s narrative, which continues on in the same hastily-pencilled form (and near this point passes to another similar notebook, clearly with no break in composition), but I have thought it convenient to introduce a new chapter, or a new ‘Tale’, here, again taking the title from the cover of the book.

‘Nonetheless the Gods did not give up hope, but many a time would meet beneath the ruined tree of Laurelin and thence break and scour the land of Valinor once more unwearingly, desiring fiercely to avenge the hurts done to their fair realm; and now the Eldar at their summons aided in the chase that labours not only in the plain but toils both up and down the slopes of the mountains, for there is no escape from Valinor to west, where lie the cold waters of the Outer Seas.

But Fлanor standing in the square about Inwл’s house in topmost Kфr will not be silenced, and cries out that all the Noldoli shall gather about him and hearken, and many thousands of them come to hear his words bearing slender torches, so that that place is filled with a lurid light such as has never before shone on those white walls. Now when they are gathered there and Fлanor sees that far the most of the company is of the kin of the Noldor¹ he exhorts them to seize now this darkness and confusion and the weariness of the Gods to cast off the yoke—for thus demented he called the days of bliss in Valinor—and get1 them hence carrying with them what they might or listed. “If all your hearts be too faint to follow, behold I Fлanor go now alone into the wide and magic world to seek the gems that are my own, and perchance many great and strange adventures will there befall me more worthy of a child of Ilъvatar than a servant of the Gods.”²

Then is there a great rush of those who will follow him at once, and though wise Nуlemл speaks against this rashness they will not hear him, and ever the tumult groweth wilder. Again Nуlemл pleads that at least they send an embassy to Manwл to take due farewell and maybe get his goodwill and counsel for their journeying, but Fлanor persuades them to cast away even such moderate wisdom, saying that to do so were but to court refusal, and that Manwл would forbid them and prevent them: “What is Valinor to us,” say they, “now that its light is come to little—as lief and liever would we have the untrammeled world.” Now then they arm themselves as best they may—for nor Elves nor Gods in those days bethought themselves overmuch of weapons—and store of jewels they took and stuffs of raiment; but all their books of their lore they left behind, and indeed there was not much therein that the wise men among them could not match from memory. But Nуlemл seeing that his counsel prevailed not would not be separated from his folk, and went with them and aided them in all their preparations. Then did they get them down the hill of Kфr lit by the flame of torches, and so faring in haste along the creek and the shores of that arm of the Shadowy Sea that encroached here upon the hills they found the seaward dwellings of the Solosimpi.

The next short section of the text was struck through afterwards, the words ‘Insert the Battle of Kуpas Alqaluntлn’ written across it, and replaced by a rider. The rejected section reads:

The most of that folk were gone a-hunting with the Gods, but some of those that remained they suaded to cast in their lot with them, as already had some of the Teleri, but of the Inwir none would hearken to their words. Now having nigh as many maids and women as of men and boys (albeit many especially of the youngest children were left in Kфr and Sirnьmen) they were at a loss, and in this extremity, being distraught with sorrows and wildered in mind, the Noldoli did those deeds which afterwards they most bitterly rued—for by them was the displeasure laid heavily on all their folk and the hearts even of their kindred were turned against them for a while.