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‘search for the dwellings of Melko’, the reading of C), but they were driven back with slaughter from the doors of Angamandi; and Maidros himself was taken alive, tortured—because he would not reveal the secret arts of the Noldoli in the making of jewels—and sent back to the Gnomes maimed. (In A, which still had Nólemë rather than Fëanor die in the Waters of Asgon, it was Fëanor himself who led the host against Melko, and it was Fëanor who was captured, tortured, and maimed.)

Then the Seven Sons of Fëanor swore an oath of enmity for ever against any that should hold the Silmarils. (This is the first appearance of the Seven Sons, and of the Oath, though that Fëanor had sons is mentioned in the Tale of the Sun and Moon, p. 192.)

The hosts of Melko now approached the camp of the Gnomes by Sirion, and they fled south, and dwelt then at Gorfalon, where they made the acquaintance of Men, both good and bad, but especially those of Ermon’s folk; and an embassy was sent to Túvo, to Tinwelint (i.e. Thingol, see p. 132), and to Ermon.9 A great host was arrayed of Gnomes, Ilkorins, and Men, and Fingolma (Nólemë) marshalled it in the Valley of the Fountains, afterwards called the Vale of Weeping Waters. But Melko himself went into the tents of Men and beguiled them, and some of them fell treacherously on the rear of the Gnomes even as Melko’s host attacked them; others Melko persuaded to abandon their friends, and these, together with others that he led astray with mists and wizardries, he beguiled into the Land of Shadows. (With this cf. the reference in the tale of The Coming of the Elves to the shutting of Men in Hisilómë by Melko, p. 118.)

Then took place ‘the terrible Battle of Unnumbered Tears’. The Children of Úrin* (Sons of Úrin, A) alone of Men fought to the last, and none (save two messengers) came out of the fray; Turgon and a great regiment, seeing the day lost, turned and cut their way out, and rescued a part of the women and children. Turgon was pursued, and there is a reference to ‘Mablon the Ilkorin’s sacrifice to save the host’ Maidros and the other sons of Fëanor quarrelled with Turgon—because they wanted the leadership, A—and departed into the south. The remainder of the survivors and fugitives were surrounded, and swore allegiance to Melko; and he was wrathful, because he could not discover whither Turgon had fled.

After a reference to ‘the Mines of Melko’ and ‘the Spell of Bottomless Dread’ (the spell that Melko cast upon his slaves), the story concludes with ‘the Building of Gondolin’ and ‘the estrangement of Men and Elves in Hisilómë, owing to the Battle of Unnumbered Tears’: Melko fostered distrust and kept them spying on each other, so that they should not combine against him; and he fashioned the false-fairies or Kaukareldar in their likeness, and these deceived and betrayed Men.10

Since the outlines at this point return to mere headings for the tales of Tinúviel, Túrin, etc., it is clear that Gilfanon’s Tale would have ended here.

The History of the Exiled Gnomes

according to the later outline

The Gnomes sojourned in the Land of Shadows (i.e. Hisilómë), and had dealings with the Shadow Folk. These were fays (C); no one knows whence they came: they are not of the Valar nor of Melko, but it is thought that they came from the outer void and primeval dark when the world was first fashioned. The Gnomes found ‘the Waters of Mithrim (Asgon)’, and here Fëanor died, drowned in the Waters of Mithrim. The Gnomes devised weapons for the first time, and quarried the dark hills. (This is curious, for it has been said in the account of the Kinslaughter at Alqaluntë that ‘so first perished the Eldar neath the weapons of their kin’, p. 165. The first acquisition of weapons by the Eldar remained a point of uncertainty for a long time.)

The Gnomes now fought for the first time with the Orcs and captured the pass of the Bitter Hills; thus they escaped out of the Land of Shadows, to Melko’s fear and amazement. They entered the Forest of Artanor (later Doriath) and the Region of the Great Plains (perhaps the forerunner