The Book of Lost Tales, Part 1 - J. R. R. Tolkien [66]
Lastly, it may seem from the account of the journey of the Valar in this tale that Hisilómë (which survived without any further change as the Quenya name of Hithlum) was here a quite distinct region from the later Hithlum, since it is placed beyond the Mountains of Iron: in The Silmarillion the Mountains of Iron are said to have been reared by Melkor ‘as a fence to his citadel of Utumno’: ‘they stood upon the borders of the regions of everlasting cold, in a great curve from east to west’ (p. 118). But in fact the ‘Mountains of Iron’ here correspond to the later ‘Mountains of Shadow’ (Ered Wethrin). In an annotated list of names accompanying the tale of The Fall of Gondolin the name Dor Lómin is thus defined:
Dor Lómin or the ‘Land of Shadow’ was that region named of the Eldar Hisilómë (and this means ‘Shadowy Twilights’)…and it is so called by reason of the scanty sun which peeps little over the Iron Mountains to the east and south of it.
On the little map given on p. 81 the line of peaks which I have marked f almost certainly represents these mountains, and the region to the north of them, marked g, is then Hisilómë.
The manuscript continues, from the point where I have ended the text in this chapter, with no break; but this point is the end of a section in the mythological narrative (with a brief interruption by Eriol), and the remainder of Meril-i-Turinqi’s tale is reserved to the next chapter. Thus I make two tales of one.
V
THE COMING OF THE ELVES AND THE MAKING OF KÔR
I take this title from the cover of the book (which adds also ‘How the Elves did fashion Gems’), for as I have already remarked the narrative continues without a new heading.
Then said Eriol: ‘Sad was the unchaining of Melko, methinks, even did it seem merciful and just—but how came the Gods to do this thing?’
Then Meril1 continuing said:
‘Upon a time thereafter was the third period of Melko’s prisonment beneath the halls of Mandos come nearly to its ending. Manwë sat upon the top of the mountain and gazed with his piercing eyes into the shades beyond Valinor, and hawks flew to him and from him bearing many great tidings, but Varda was singing a song and looking upon the plain of Valinor. Silpion was at that time glimmering and the roofs of Valmar below were black and silver beneath its rays; and Varda was joyous, but on a sudden Manwë spake, saying: “Behold, there is a gleam of gold beneath the pine-trees, and the deepest gloaming of the world is full of a patter of feet. The Eldar have come, O Taniquetil!” Then Varda arose swiftly and stretched her arms out North and South, and unbraided her long hair, and lifted up the Song of the Valar, and Ilwë was filled with the loveliness of her voice.
Then did she descend to Valmar and to the abode of Aulë and he was making vessels of silver for Lórien. A bason filled with the radiance of Telimpë2 was by his side, and this he used cunningly in his craft, but now Varda stood before him and said: “The Eldar have come!” and Aulë flung down his hammer saying: “Then Ilúvatar hath sent them at last,” and the hammer striking some ingots of silver upon the floor did of its magic smite silver sparks to life, that flashed from his windows out into the heavens. Varda seeing this took of that radiance in the bason and mingled it with molten silver to make it more stable, and fared upon her wings of speed, and set stars about the firmament in very great profusion, so that the skies grew marvellously fair and their glory was doubled; and those stars that she then fashioned have a power of slumbers, for the