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(iii) Túrin and Beleg (pp. 76–81)

That part of the Túrin saga following on his days in Artanor/Doriath underwent a large development later (‘Túrin among the Outlaws’), and indeed my father never brought this part of the story to finality. In the oldest version there is a much more rapid development of the plot: Beleg joins Túrin’s band, and the destruction of the band and capture of Túrin by the Orcs follows (in terms of the narrative) almost immediately. There is no mention of ‘outlaws’ but only of ‘wild spirits’, no long search for Túrin by Beleg, no capture and maltreatment of Beleg by the band, and no betrayal of the camp by a traitor (the part ultimately taken by Mîm the Dwarf). Beleg indeed (as already noticed) is not said to have been Túrin’s companion in the earlier time, before the slaying of Orgof, and they only take up together after Túrin’s self-imposed exile.

Beleg is called a Noldo (p. 78), and if this single reference is to be given full weight (and there seems no reason not to: it is explicit in the Tale of Tinúviel that there were Noidoli in Artanor, and Orgof had Gnomish blood) then it is to be observed that Beleg as originally conceived was an Elf of Kôr. He is not here marked out as a great bowman (neither his name Cúthalion ‘Strongbow’ nor his great how Belthronding appear); he is described at his first appearance (p. 73) as ‘a wood-ranger, a huntsman of the secret Elves’, but not as the chief of the marchwardens of the realm.

But from the capture of Túrin to the death of Beleg the old tale was scarcely changed afterwards in any really important respect, though altered in many details: such as Beleg’s shooting of the wolf-sentinels silently in the darkness in the later story, and the flash of lightning that illuminated Beleg’s face—but the blue-shining lamps of the Noldor appear again in much later writings: one was borne by the Elves Gelmir and Arminas who guided Tuor through the Gate of the Noldor on his journey to the sea (see Unfinished Tales pp. 22, 51 note 2). In my father’s painting (probably dating from 1927 or 1928) of the meeting between Beleg and Flinding in Taur-nu-Fuin (reproduced in Pictuies by J. R. R. Tolkien, no. 37) Flinding’s lamp is seen beside him. The plot of the old story is very precisely contrived in such details as the reason for the carrying of Túrin, still sleeping, out of the Orc-camp, and for Beleg’s using his sword, rather than a knife, to cut Túrin’s bonds; perhaps also in the crushing of Beleg by Túrin so that he was winded and could not speak his name before Túrin gave him his death-blow.

The story of Túrin’s madness after the slaying of Beleg, the guidance of Gwindor, and the release of Túrin’s tears at Eithel Ivrin, is here in embryo. Of the peculiar nature of Beleg’s sword there is no suggestion.

(iv) Túrin among the Rodothlim; Túrin and Glorund (pp. 81–8)

In this passage is found (so far as written record goes, for it is to be remembered that a wholly erased text underlies the manuscript) the origin of Nargothrond, as yet unnamed. Among many remarkable features the chief is perhaps that Orodreth was there before Felagund, Lord of Caves, with whom in the later legend Nargothrond was identified, as its founder and deviser. (In The Silmarillion Orodreth was one of Finrod Felagund’s brothers (the sons of Finarfin), to whom Felagund gave the command of Minas Tirith on Tol Sirion after the making of Nargothrond (p. 120), and Orodreth became King of Nargothrond after Felagund’s death.) In the tale this cave-dwelling of exiled Noldoli is a simpler and rougher place, and (as is suggested) short-lived against the overwhelming power of Melko; but, as so often, there were many features that were never altered, even though in a crucial respect the history of Nargothrond was to be greatly modified by contact with the legend of Beren and Tinúviel. Thus the site was from the start ‘above a stream’ (the later Narog) that ‘ran down to feed the river Sirion’, and as is seen later