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By Root 1502 0

different forms, it is said that though made in Elvish speech and using much Elvish lore, especially of Doriath, the Narn i Hîn Húrin was the work of a Mannish poet, Dírhavel, who lived at the Havens of Sirion in the days of Ea¨rendil, and there gathered all the tidings that he could of the House of Hador, whether among Men or Elves, remnants and fugitives of Dor-lómin, of Nargothrond, of Gondolin, or of Doriath. In one version of this note Dírhavel is said to have come himself of the House of Hador. This lay, longest of all the lays of Beleriand, was all that he ever made, but it was prized by the Eldar, for Dírhavel used the Grey-elven tongue, in which he had great skill. He used that mode of Elvish verse which was called Minlamed thent / estent, and was of old proper to the narn (a tale that is told in verse, but to be spoken and not sung). Dírhavel perished in the raid of the Sons of Fëanor upon the Havens of Sirion.

1 At this point in the text of the Narn there is a passage describing the sojourn of Húrin and Huor in Gondolin. This is very closely based on the story told in one of the ‘constituent texts’ of The Silmarillion – so closely as to be no more than a variant, and I have not given it again here. The story can be read in The Silmarillion pp. 158 – 9.

2 Here in the text of the Narn there is a passage, giving an account of the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, that I have excluded for the same reason as that given in Note I; see The Silmaril-lion pp. 190 – 5.

3 In another version of the text it is made explicit that Morwen did indeed have dealings with the Eldar who had secret dwellings in the mountains not far from her house. ‘But they could tell her no news. None had seen Húrin’s fall. “He was not with Fingon,” they said; “he was driven south with Turgon, but if any of his folk escaped it was in the wake of the host of Gondolin. But who knows? For the Orcs have piled all the slain together, and search is vain, even if any dared to go to the Haudh-en-Nirnaeth.” ’

4 With this description of the Helm of Hador compare the ‘great masks hideous to look upon’ worn by the Dwarves of Belegost in the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, which ‘stood them in good stead against the dragons’ (The Silmarillion p. 193). Túrin afterwards wore a dwarf-mask when he went into battle out of Nargothrond, ‘and his enemies fled before his face’ (ibid. p. 210). See further the Appendix to the Narn, pp. 199 – 200 below.

5 The Orc-raid into East Beleriand in which Maedhros saved Azaghâl is nowhere else referred to.

6 Elsewhere my father remarked that the speech of Doriath, whether of the King or others, was even in the days of Túrin more antique than that used elsewhere; and also that Mîm observed (though the extant writings concerning Mîm do not mention this) that one thing of which Túrin never rid himself, despite his grievance against Doriath, was the speech he had acquired during his fostering.

7 A marginal note in one text says here: ‘Always he sought in all faces of women the face of Lalaith.’

8 In one variant text of this section of the narrative Saeros is said to have been the kinsman of Daeron, and in another Daeron’s brother; the text printed is probably the latest.

9 Woodwose: ‘wild man of the woods’; see note 14 to The Drúedain, p. 500 below.

10 In a variant text of this part of the story Túrin at this time declared to the outlaws his true name; and he claimed that, being by right the lord and judge of the People of Hador, he had slain Forweg justly, since he was a man of Dorlómin. Then Algund, the old outlaw who had fled down Sirion from the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, said that Túrin’s eyes had long reminded him of another whom he could not recall, and that now he knew him for the son of Húrin. ‘ “But he was a smaller man, small for his kin, though filled with fire; and his hair gold-red. You are dark, and tall. I see your mother in you, now that I look closer; she was of Bëor’s people. What fate was hers, I wonder.” “I do not know,” said Túrin. “No word comes out of the North.” ’ In this version it was the knowledge that Neithan was Túrin son of H