Unfinished Tales

After a little space they came to a wall yet higher and stronger than before, and in it was set the Third Gate, the Gate of Bronze: a great twofold door hung with shields and plates of bronze, wherein were wrought many figures and strange signs. Upon the wall above its lintel were three square towers, roofed and clad with copper that by some device of smith-craft were ever bright and gleamed as fire in the rays of the red lamps ranged like torches along the wall. Again silently they passed the gate, and saw in the court beyond a yet greater company of guards in mail that glowed like dull fire; and the blades of their axes were red. Of the kindred of the Sindar of Nevrast for the most part were those that held this gate.

Now they came to the most toilsome road, for in the midst of the Orfalch the slope was at the steepest, and as they climbed Tuor saw the mightiest of the walls looming dark above him. Thus at last they drew near the Fourth Gate, the Gate of Writhen Iron. High and black was the wall, and lit with no lamps. Four towers of iron stood upon it, and between the two inner towers was set an image of a great eagle wrought in iron, even the likeness of King Thorondor himself, as he would alight upon a mountain from the high airs. But as Tuor stood before the gate it seemed to his wonder that he was looking through boughs and stems of imperishable trees into a pale glade of the Moon. For a light came through the traceries of the gate, which were wrought and hammered into the shapes of trees with writhing roots and woven branches laden with leaves and flowers. And as he passed through he saw how this could be; for the wall was of great thickness, and there was not one grill but three in line, so set that to one who approached in the middle of the way each formed part of the device; but the light beyond was the light of day.

For they had climbed now to a great height above the lowlands where they began, and beyond the Iron Gate the road ran almost level. Moreover, they had passed the crown and heart of the Echoriath, and the mountain-towers now fell swiftly down towards the inner hills, and the ravine opened wider, and its sides became less sheer. Its long shoulders were mantled with white snow, and the light of the sky snow-mirrored came white as moonlight through a glimmering mist that filled the air.

Now they passed through the lines of the Iron Guards that stood behind the Gate; black were their mantles and their mail and long shields, and their faces were masked with vizors bearing each an eagle’s beak. Then Elemmakil went before them and they followed him into the pale light; and Tuor saw beside the way a sward of grass, where like stars bloomed the white flowers of uilos, the Evermind that knows no season and withers not;

(#ulink_f83c7e97-678c-500b-b61f-2433822bf5f6) and thus in wonder and lightening of heart he was brought to the Gate of Silver.

The wall of the Fifth Gate was built of white marble, and was low and broad, and its parapet was a trellis of silver between five great globes of marble; and there stood many archers robed in white. The gate was in shape as three parts of a circle, and wrought of silver and pearl of Nevrast in likenesses of the Moon; but above the Gate upon the midmost globe stood an image of the White Tree Telperion, wrought of silver and malachite, with flowers made of great pearls of Balar.

(#ulink_347ac517-bd5d-5939-abca-948863495c01) And beyond the Gate in a wide court paved with marble, green and white, stood archers in silver mail and white-crested helms, a hundred upon either hand. Then Elemmakil led Tuor and Voronwë through their silent ranks, and they entered upon a long white road, that ran straight towards the Sixth Gate; and as they went the grass-sward became wider, and among the white stars of uilos there opened many small flowers like eyes of gold.

So they came to the Golden Gate, the last of the ancient gates of Turgon that were wrought before the Nirnaeth; and it was much like the Gate of Silver, save that the wall was built of yellow marble, and the globes and parapet were of red gold; and there were six globes, and in the midst upon a golden pyramid was set an image of Laurelin, the Tree of the Sun, with flowers wrought of topaz in long clusters upon chains of gold. And the Gate itself was adorned with discs of gold, many-rayed, in likenesses of the Sun, set amid devices of garnet and topaz and yellow diamonds. In the court beyond were arrayed three hundred archers with long bows, and their mail was gilded, and tall golden plumes rose from their helmets; and their great round shields were red as flame.

Now sunlight fell upon the further road, for the walls of the hills were low on either side, and green, but for the snows upon their tops; and Elemmakil hastened forward, for the way was short to the Seventh Gate, named the Great, the Gate of Steel that Maeglin wrought after the return from the Nirnaeth, across the wide entrance to the Orfalch Echor.

No wall stood there, but on either hand were two round towers of great height, many-windowed, tapering in seven storeys to a turret of bright steel, and between the towers there stood a mighty fence of steel that rusted not, but glittered cold and white. Seven great pillars of steel there were, tall with the height and girth of strong young trees, but ending in a bitter spike that rose to the sharpness of a needle; and between the pillars were seven cross-bars of steel, and in each space seven times seven rods of steel upright, with heads like the broad blades of spears. But in the centre, above the midmost pillar and the greatest, was raised a mighty image of the king-helm of Turgon, the Crown of the Hidden Kingdom, set about with diamonds.

No gate or door could Tuor see in this mighty hedge of steel, but as he drew near through the spaces between its bars there came, as it seemed to him, a dazzling light, and he shaded his eyes, and stood still in dread and wonder. But Elemmakil went forward, and no gate opened to his touch; but he struck upon a bar, and the fence rang like a harp of many strings, giving forth clear notes in harmony that ran from tower to tower.

Straightway there issued riders from the towers, but before those of the north tower came one upon a white horse; and he dismounted and strode towards them. And high and noble as was Elemmakil, greater and more lordly was Ecthelion, Lord of the Fountains, at that time Warden of the Great Gate.

(#ulink_6ae2f2dd-5b66-5a0a-9961-76e9b5bae440) All in silver was he clad, and upon his shining helm there was set a spike of steel pointed with a diamond; and as his esquire took his shield it shimmered as if it were bedewed with drops of rain, that were indeed a thousand studs of crystal.

Elemmakil saluted him and said: ‘Here have I brought Voronwë Aranwion, returning from Balar; and here is the stranger that he has led hither, who demands to see the King.’

Then Ecthelion turned to Tuor, but he drew his cloak about him and stood silent, facing him; and it seemed to Voronwë that a mist mantled Tuor and his stature was increased, so that the peak of his high hood over-topped the helm of the Elf-lord, as it were the crest of a grey sea-wave riding to the land. But Ecthelion bent his bright glance upon Tuor, and after a silence he spoke gravely, saying:

(#ulink_0fdf2f0e-b062-5e98-996d-13695322e1f8) ‘You have come to the Last Gate. Know then that no stranger who passes it shall ever go out again, save by the door of death.’

‘Speak not ill-boding! If the messenger of the Lord of Waters go by that door, then all those who dwell here will follow him. Lord of the Fountains, hinder not the messenger of the Lord of Waters!’

Then Voronwë and all those who stood near looked again in wonder at Tuor, marvelling at his words and voice. And to Voronwë it seemed as if he heard a great voice, but as of one who called from afar off. But to Tuor it seemed that he listened to himself speaking, as if another spoke with his mouth.

For a while Ecthelion stood silent, looking at Tuor, and slowly awe filled his face, as if in the grey shadow of Tuor’s cloak he saw visions from far away. Then he bowed, and went to the fence and laid hands upon it, and gates opened inward on either side of the pillar of the Crown. Then Tuor passed through, and coming to a high sward that looked out over the valley beyond, he beheld a vision of Gondolin (#ulink_6269b715-2f50-5b0f-a82c-77a753a53e88) amid the white snow. And so entranced was he that for long he could look at nothing else; for he saw before him at last the vision of his desire out of dreams of longing.

Thus he stood and spoke no word. Silent upon either hand stood a host of the army of Gondolin; all of the seven kinds of the Seven Gates were there represented; but their captains and chieftains were upon horses, white and grey. Then even as they gazed on Tuor in wonder, his cloak fell down, and he stood there before them in the mighty livery of Nevrast. And many were there who had seen Turgon himself set these things upon the wall behind the High Seat of Vinyamar.

Then Ecthelion said at last: ‘Now no further proof is needed; and even the name he claims as son of Huor matters less than this clear truth, that he comes from Ulmo himself.’

(#ulink_5cbe8ef7-b169-5ea8-b634-1823ed2d5780)

NOTES

1 (#ulink_40184888-a817-5b8c-9f2f-9c9adca7300f) In The Silmarillion p. 196 it is said that when the Havens of Brithombar and Eglarest were destroyed in the year after the Nirnaeth Arnoediad those of the Elves of the Falas that escaped went with Círdan to the Isle of Balar, ‘and they made a refuge for all that could come thither; for they kept a foothold also at the Mouths of Sirion, and there many light and swift ships lay hid in the creeks and waters where the reeds were dense as a forest’.

2 (#ulink_20846909-7893-5c4f-bc1d-d33eba8fab63) The blue-shining lamps of the Noldorin Elves are referred to elsewhere, though they do not appear in the published text of The Silmarillion. In earlier versions of the tale of Túrin, Gwindor, the Elf of Nargothrond who escaped from Angband and was found by Beleg in the forest of Taur-nu-Fuin, possessed one of these lamps (it can be seen in my father’s painting of that meeting, see Pictures by J. R. R. Tolkien, 1979, no. 37); and it was the overturning and uncovering of Gwindor’s lamp so that its light shone out that showed Túrin the face of Beleg whom he had killed. In a note on the story of Gwindor they are called ‘Fëanorian lamps’, of which the Noldor themselves did not know the secret; and they are there described as ‘crystals hung in a fine chain net, the crystals being ever shining with an inner blue radiance’.† (#litres_trial_promo)

3 (#ulink_638e2d5e-4573-560f-af14-2a3e6eb9c54e) ‘The sun shall shine upon your path.’ – In the very much briefer story told in The Silmarillion, there is no account of how Tuor found the Gate of the Noldor, nor any mention of the Elves Gelmir and Arminas. They appear however in the tale of Túrin (The Silmarillion p. 212) as the messengers who brought Ulmo’s warning to Nargothrond; and there they are said to be of the people of Finarfin’s son Angrod, who after the Dagor Bragollach dwelt in the south with Círdan the Shipwright. In a longer version of the story of their coming to Nargothrond, Arminas, comparing Túrin unfavourably with his kinsman, speaks of having met Tuor ‘; in the wastes of Dor-lómin’; see p. 208 (#litres_trial_promo).

4 (#ulink_ecfb1072-b060-5a23-896e-83b9ac426763) In The Silmarillion pp. 80 – 1 it is told that when Morgoth and Ungoliant struggled in this region for possession of the Silmarils ‘Morgoth sent forth a terrible cry, that echoed in the mountains. Therefore that region was called Lammoth; for the echoes of his voice dwelt there ever after, so that any who cried aloud in that land awoke them, and all the waste between the hills and the sea was filled with a clamour as of voices in anguish.’ Here, on the other hand, the conception is rather that any sound uttered there was magnified in its own nature; and this idea is clearly also present at the beginning of ch. 13 of The Silmarillion, where (in a passage very similar to the present) ‘even as the Noldor set foot upon the strand their cries were taken up into the hills and multiplied, so that a clamour as of countless mighty voices filled all the coasts of the North’. It seems that according to the one ‘tradition’ Lammoth and Ered Lómin (Echoing Mountains) were so named from their retaining the echoes of Morgoth’s dreadful cry in the toils of Ungoliant; while according to the other the names are simply descriptive of the nature of sounds in that region.

5 (#ulink_e83413e0-65bb-52ab-93f8-8cecb33b02ad) Cf. The Silmarillion p. 215: ‘And Túrin hastened along the ways to the north, through the lands now desolate between Narog and Teiglin, and the Fell Winter came down to meet him; for in that year snow fell ere autumn was passed, and spring came late and cold.’

6 (#ulink_85b88c6d-59d6-5291-b684-135992b12748) In The Silmarillion p. 126 it is told that when Ulmo appeared to Turgon at Vinyamar and bade him go to Gondolin, he said: ‘Thus it may come to pass that the curse of the Noldor shall find thee too ere the end, and treason awake within thy walls. Then they shall be in peril of fire. But if this peril draweth nigh indeed, then even from Nevrast one shall come to warn thee, and from him beyond ruin and fire hope shall be born for Elves and Men. Leave therefore in this house arms and a sword, that in years to come he may find them, and thus shalt thou know him, and not be deceived.’ And Ulmo declared to Turgon of what kind and stature should be the helm and mail and sword that he left behind.

7 (#ulink_bc8bad4b-7798-52fb-96f3-69c66ac9677e) Tuor was the father of Ea¨rendil, who was the father of Elros Tar-Minyatur, the first King of Númenor.

8 (#ulink_9a155477-96f2-54fe-ac43-6f3169f0aefb) This must refer to the warning of Ulmo brought to Nargothrond by Gelmir and Arminas; see pp. 205 (#litres_trial_promo) ff.

9 (#ulink_17bb7add-1908-57f0-a4b0-006d41839ac4) The Shadowy Isles are very probably the Enchanted Isles described at the end of The Silmarillion ch. 11, which were ‘strung as a net in the Shadowy Seas from the north to the south’ at the time of the Hiding of Valinor.

10 (#ulink_cf4855b3-066e-5075-849a-75dbed688ecf) Cf. The Silmarillion p. 196: ‘At the bidding of Turgon [after the Nirnaeth Arnoediad] Círdan built seven swift ships, and they sailed out into the West; but no tidings of them came ever back to Balar, save of one, and the last. The mariners of that ship toiled long in the sea, and returning at last in despair they foundered in a great storm within sight of the coasts of Middle-earth; but one of them was saved by Ulmo from the wrath of Ossë, and the waves bore him up, and cast him ashore in Nevrast. His name was Voronwë; and he was one of those that Turgon sent forth as messengers from Gondolin.’; Cf. also The Silmarillion p. 239.

11 (#ulink_1cd7b26c-cf91-593c-aefb-c1790b630073) The words of Ulmo to Turgon appear in The Silmarillion ch. 15 in the form: ‘Remember that the true hope of the Noldor lieth in the West and cometh from the Sea,’ and ‘But if this peril draweth nigh indeed, then even from Nevrast one shall come to warn thee.’

12 (#ulink_8662dab1-e016-5541-8a97-4bd00032fc3b) Nothing is told in The Silmarillion of the further fate of Voronwë after his return to Gondolin with Tuor; but in the original story (‘Of Tuor and the Exiles of Gondolin’) he was one of those who escaped from the sack of the city – as is implied by the words of Tuor here.

13 (#ulink_e75c2a16-5ab8-5afe-8d40-6d96c7a5dad1) Cf. The Silmarillion p. 159: ‘[Turgon] believed also that the ending of the Siege was the beginning of the downfall of the Noldor, unless aid should come; and he sent companies of the Gondolindrim in secret to the mouths of Sirion and the Isle of Balar. There they built ships, and set sail into the uttermost West upon Turgon’s errand, seeking for Valinor, to ask for pardon and aid of the Valar; and they besought the birds of the sea to guide them. But the seas were wild and wide, and shadow and enchantment lay upon them; and Valinor was hidden. Therefore none of the messengers of Turgon came into the West, and many were lost and few returned.’

In one of the ‘constituent texts’ of The Silmarillion it is said that although the Noldor ‘had not the art of shipbuilding, and all the craft that they built foundered or were driven back by the winds’, yet after the Dagor Bragollach ‘Turgon ever maintained a secret refuge upon the Isle of Balar’, and when after the Nirnaeth Arnoediad Círdan and the remnant of his people fled from Brithombar and Eglarest to Balar ‘they mingled with Turgon’s outpost there’. But this element in the story was rejected, and thus in the published text of The Silmarillion there is no reference to the establishment of dwellings on Balar by Elves from Gondolin.

14 (#ulink_bb57084b-30c9-5671-804e-2e99966bbb66) The woods of Núath are not mentioned in The Silmarillion and are not marked on the map that accompanies it. They extended westward from the upper waters of the Narog towards the source of the river Nenning.

15 (#ulink_e191fc55-463c-5a00-acf5-2ac5c4d3eed0) Cf. The Silmarillion pp. 209 – 10: ‘Finduilas daughter of Orodreth the King knew [Gwindor] and welcomed him, for she had loved him before the Nirnaeth, and so greatly did Gwindor love her beauty that he named her Faelivrin, which is the gleam of the sun on the pools of Ivrin.’

16 (#ulink_383a6033-a65c-5ce9-9298-39dc13e207cb) The river Glithui is not mentioned in The Silmarillion and is not named on the map, though it is shown: a tributary of the Teiglin joining that river some way north of the inflowing of the Malduin.

17 (#ulink_10506d38-fa69-521c-83fa-b3d65b114807) This road is referred to in The Silmarillion, p. 205: ‘The ancient road... that led through the long defile of Sirion, past the isle where Minas Tirith of Finrod had stood, and so through the land between Malduin and Sirion, and on through the eaves of Brethil to the Crossings of Teiglin.’

18 (#ulink_93529a34-7a80-5006-b96b-2497eba5758e) ‘Death to the Glamhoth!’ This name, though it does not occur in The Silmarillion or in The Lord of the Rings, was a general term in the Sindarin language for Orcs. The meaning is ‘din-horde’, ‘host of tumult’; cf. Gandalf’ s sword Glamdring, and Tol-in-Gaurhoth, the Isle of (the host of ) Werewolves.

19 (#ulink_d504117a-5dd9-5805-a14f-a421a29bb71b)Echoriath: the Encircling Mountains about the plain of Gondolin. ered e·mbar nín: the mountains of my home.

20 (#ulink_d504117a-5dd9-5805-a14f-a421a29bb71b) In The Silmarillion, pp. 200 – 1, Beleg of Doriath said to Túrin (at a time some years before that of the present narrative) that Orcs had made a road through the Pass of Anach, ‘and Dimbar which used to be in peace is falling under the Black Hand’.

21 (#ulink_d504117a-5dd9-5805-a14f-a421a29bb71b) By this road Maeglin and Aredhel fled to Gondolin pursued by Eöl (The Silmarillion ch. 16); and afterwards Celegorm and Curufin took it when they were expelled from Nargothrond (ibid. p. 176). Only in the present text is there any mention of its westward extension to Turgon’s ancient home at Vinyamar under Mount Taras; and its course is not marked on the map from its junction with the old south road to Nargothrond at the north-western edge of Brethil.

22 (#ulink_5a4fb9db-0562-586a-b5c4-5a12618fa91c) The name Brithiach contains the element brith ‘gravel’, as also in the river Brithon and the haven of Brithombar.

23 (#ulink_a638e2d4-c343-58b7-bd55-55adff332ea9) In a parallel version of the text at this point, almost certainly rejected in favour of the one printed, the travellers did not cross the Sirion by the Ford of Brithiach, but reached the river several leagues to the north of it. ‘They trod a toilsome path to the brink of the river, and there Voronwë cried: “See a wonder! Both good and ill does it forebode. Sirion is frozen, though no tale tells of the like since the coming of the Eldar out of the East. Thus we may pass and save many weary miles, too long for our strength. Yet thus also others may have passed, or may follow.” ’ They crossed the river on the ice unhindered, and ‘thus did the counsels of Ulmo turn the malice of the Enemy to avail, for the way was shortened, and at the end of their hope and strength Tuor and Voronwë came at last to the Dry River at its issuing from the skirts of the mountains’.

24 (#ulink_dd4adcd3-eb01-517f-bc85-45f93f543ecf) Cf. The Silmarillion p. 125: ‘But there was a deep way under the mountains delved in the darkness of the world by waters that flowed out to join the streams of Sirion; and this way Turgon found, and so came to the green plain amid the mountains, and saw the island-hill that stood there of hard smooth stone; for the vale had been a great lake in ancient days.’

25 (#ulink_aeb9eaca-feca-51eb-af99-b44dea5b4cb8) It is not said in The Silmarillion that the great eagles ever dwelt on Thangorodrim. In ch. 13 (p. 110) Manwë ‘sent forth the race of Eagles, commanding them to dwell in the crags of the North, and to keep watch upon Morgoth’; while in ch. 18 (p. 154) Thorondor ‘came hasting from his eyrie among the peaks of the Crissaegrim’ for the rescue of Fingolfin’s body before the gates of Angband. Cf. also The Return of the King VI 4: ‘Old Thorondor, who built his eyries in the inaccessible peaks of the Encircling Mountains when Middle-earth was young.’ In all probability the conception of Thorondor’s dwelling at first upon Thangorodrim, which is found also in an early Silmarillion text, was later abandoned.

26 (#ulink_87497428-b52f-5460-9ab9-733f738c08ae) In The Silmarillion nothing is said specifically concerning the speech of the Elves of Gondolin; but this passage suggests that for some of them the High Speech (Quenya) was in ordinary use. It is stated in a late linguistic essay that Quenya was in daily use in Turgon’s house, and was the childhood speech of Ea¨rendil; but that ‘for most of the people of Gondolin it had become a language of books, and as the other Noldor they used Sindarin in daily speech’. Cf. The Silmarillion p. 129: after the edict of Thingol ‘the Exiles took the Sindarin tongue in all their daily uses, and the High Speech of the West was spoken only by the lords of the Noldor among themselves. Yet that speech lived ever as a language of lore, wherever any of that people dwelt.’