This post is part of the ongoing discussions of 'The Silmarillion' by J. R.
R. Tolkien. For further details, please see the schedule posted elsewhere in
these newsgroups.
Chapter of the Week (CotW) - The Silmarillion - Quenta Silmarillion (QS),
Chapter 22 - Of the Ruin of Doriath.
INTRODUCTION
In this chapter, the loose ends of the Túrin saga are tied up, and the
endgame of /Quenta Silmarillion/ begins in earnest, as we see the fall of
one of the two major Elven kingdoms left in Beleriand. The stage is also set
for the later chapters, as the Silmaril, through much turmoil and
vicissitudes, is brought by the author to the coast of Beleriand, where it,
and its bearer, Elwing, are left by the author, unknowingly awaiting the
survivors of another ruined kingdom.
The tales of Húrin, Morwen, Thingol, Melian, Beren and Lúthien, reach their
end in this chapter, the first two intertwined with the malice of Morgoth,
and the others caught up in the fate of the Silmaril. In the closing scenes
of the chapter, the Oath of Fëanor awakes again from sleep, bringing about
the second slaying of Elf by Elf.
The following sections include a brief chapter synopsis, a look at the
dialogues and monologues, several general discussion points, a selection of
some of the archaic words used, and a brief introduction to the textual
history (to be covered in more detail elsewhere). Please add any comments or
responses you may have, plus any further questions you can think of.
CHAPTER SYNOPSIS
1) Wanderings of Húrin
"[Morgoth's] purpose was that Húrin should still further his [Morgoth's]
hatred for Elves and Men, ere he died." (Of the Ruin of Doriath)
(a) Freeing of Húrin
(b) Húrin seeks Gondolin
(c) The death of Morwen
(d) Húrin at Nargothrond
(e) Húrin in Doriath
(f) The death of Húrin
2) The Fate of Doriath
"And now is Doriath drawn within the fate of a mightier realm." (Melian - Of
Beren and Lúthien)
(a) Thingol and the Silmaril
(b) Thingol and the Dwarves
(c) Death of Thingol
(d) Departure of Melian
(e) First Sack of Menegroth
(f) Battle of Sarn Athrad
(g) Renewal of Doriath
(h) Death of Beren and Lúthien
(i) Oath of Fëanor awakes
(j) Second Sack of Menegroth
DIALOGUES/MONOLOGUES
1) Turgon-Thorondor
"If the Eagles of Manwë were wont to err thus, then long ago, lord, your
hiding would have been in vain."
2) Húrin (Turgon)
"O Turgon, will you not hear in your hidden halls?"
3) Húrin-Morwen
Morwen: "You come at last. I have waited too long."
Húrin: "It was a dark road. I have come as I could."
4) Húrin-Mîm
Mîm: "I am Mîm; and before the proud ones came from over the Sea, Dwarves
delved the halls of Nulukkizdîn. I have but returned to take what is mine;
for I am the last of my people."
Húrin: "...not unknown is it to me by whom the Dragon-helm of Dor-lómin was
betrayed."
5) Húrin-Melian (Thingol)
Húrin: "Receive thou thy fee, for thy fair keeping of my children and my
wife!"
Melian: "With the voice of Morgoth thou dost now upbraid thy friends."
6) Thingol (Dwarves)
"How do ye of uncouth race dare to demand aught of me, Elu Thingol, Lord of
Beleriand, whose life began by the waters of Cuiviénen years uncounted ere
the fathers of the stunted people awoke?"
DRAMATIC SCENES
- The aged Húrin arriving in Hithlum
- Húrin crying aloud in the wilderness
- The night-sentinels' sighting of Húrin
- Morwen's death scene
- The darkness and decay of Nargothrond
- Húrin confronting Thingol
- Thingol confronting the dwarves
- Dior receiving the Silmaril-Nauglamír
DISCUSSION POINTS
- Húrin's appearance when he is released is striking: "His hair and beard
were white and long, but he walked unbowed, bearing a great black staff; and
he was girt with a sword." - does this sound anything like a biblical
prophet, or even a certain wizard?
- What would have happened had Turgon told Thorondor to bring Húrin to
Gondolin again, as indeed he later wished he had?
- The scene where Húrin cries aloud to Turgon in the wilderness, recalling
the scene at the Fen of Serech in the Fifth Battle, also has striking
parallels with scenes from the battle, including the scene where Húrin is
captured at the end of the battle.
"Húrin stood in despair before the silent cliffs of the Echoriath, and the
westering sun, piercing the clouds, stained his white hair with red. Then he
cried aloud in the wilderness [...] 'Turgon, Turgon, remember the Fen of
Serech!' [...] But there was no sound save the wind in the dry grasses.
'Even so they hissed in Serech at the sunset,' he said; and as he spoke the
sun went behind the Mountains of Shadow, and a darkness fell about him, and
the wind ceased, and there was silence in the waste." (Of the Ruin of
Doriath)
"There as the sun westered on the sixth day, and the shadow of Ered Wethrin
grew dark, Huor fell pierced with a venomed arrow in his eye, and all the
valiant Men of Hador were slain about him in a heap; and the Orcs hewed
their heads and piled them as a mound of gold in the sunset. [Húrin is
eventually captured.] Thus ended Nirnaeth Arnoediad, as the sun went down
beyond the sea. Night fell in Hithlum, and there came a great storm of wind
out of the West." (Of the Fifth Battle: Nirnaeth Arnoediad)
The parallels I see here include the shadow of Ered Wethrin (The Mountains
of Shadow) being mentioned both times. Also, Húrin's now-white hair catches
the westering sun, with a gleam like that of blood, compared to the golden
hair of the dead Men of Hador gleaming like gold in the sunset. There is
also the obvious recalling of the Fen of Serech, followed by the scenes both
ending with sunset and the falling of night. At the battle, 28 years
earlier, a great storm of wind came out of the West, a suitable follow-up to
the defiance shown by Húrin with his cries of "Aurë entuluva! Day shall come
again!". Now, an old, white-haired man, embittered by Morgoth, and reminded
of the adventures of his youth with Huor, his long-dead brother, Húrin
despairs in the face of the silent cliffs, and there is no great storm of
wind to accompany the sunset, merely a "silence in the waste".
- Inadvertently revealing to Morgoth's spies the region where Gondolin was,
is described as "the first evil that the freedom of Húrin achieved". What
were the later evils that Húrin's freedom caused?
- Húrin is lead to Brethil by dreams of Morwen. Whence came these dreams?
- The night-sentinels at the Crossings of Teiglin see Húrin thus: "they
thought that they saw a ghost out of some ancient battle-mound that walked
with darkness about it". What is this darkness they see about him? Later,
after Húrin buries Morwen, we are told that Húrin does not lie in that
grave: "for his doom drove him on, and the Shadow still followed him." Were
the night-sentinels sensing this shadow, this curse that Morgoth had laid on
Húrin and his kin?
- Imagine the pain Húrin felt as Morwen asked him "if you know, tell me! How
did she [Nienor] find him [Túrin]?" He, of course, knew, but stayed silent
as she died: "...he closed her eyes, and sat unmoving beside her as the
night drew down. The waters of Cabed Naeramarth roared on, but he heard no
sound, and he saw nothing, and felt nothing, for his heart was stone within
him."
- The reference to Tol Morwen, the Stone of the Hapless, contains another of
those references that reveal that the land will be reshaped by the wrath of
the Valar, making clear that the end of the story (the Valar come and
overthrow Morgoth) is not the point here. Rather it is the stories within
the story that are the points.
- In Nargothrond, does Mîm have a point when he talks about having returned
to take what is his? Is the slaying of Mîm by Húrin another of the evils
caused by Húrin's freedom?
- In Doriath, when Húrin casts the Nauglamír at Thingol's feet, Thingol
shows impressive restraint and endures Húrin's scorn, letting Melian speak
instead. This Thingol contrasts sharply with the proud and haughty Thingol
who spoke to Beren, and also with the prideful Thingol (admittedly obsessed
with the Silmaril) who insulted the dwarves.
- What do you think Melian's reaction was when Húrin freely gave the
Nauglamír to Thingol as a gift? Did she feel the web of fate drawing ever
tighter around Thingol and herself and their kingdom?
- Is the ending of Húrin's tale a satisfactory one? A "happy ending"?
Despite being Morgoth's thrall "no longer", we are told that "all that saw
him fell back before his face" (what did they see there?). He is also
described as being "bereft of all purpose and desire" and we are told that
he "cast himself at last into the western sea".
- "...as the years passed Thingol's thought turned unceasingly to the jewel
of Fëanor, and became bound to it, and he liked not to let it rest even
behind the doors of his inmost treasury; and he was minded now to bear it
with him always, waking and sleeping." This is not good! Is this a flaw in
Thingol's character? An unavoidable fate? An effect special to the Silmaril?
The dwarves seem to be affected in a similar way.
- Did the dwarves have a genuine claim to the Nauglamír? How would you
resolve this dispute over a combined work of the Dwarves and the Elves?
- Why is it significant that Thingol, with his last sight, gazed upon the
light of the Trees of Valinor, contained in the Silmaril? Is there something
more here than just the fact that he "alone of the Forsaken Elves" had seen
the original light? He is, literally and metaphorically "seeing the light"?
Or does he go to his death not understanding the folly of his pride?
- Why did Doriath not expect the attack from the Dwarves of Nogrod? Should
Melian have done more to warn them?
- This chapter contains references to Celeborn and Galadriel (who are also
encountered in 'The Lord of the Rings') and to 'Shepherds of the Trees'
(better known as Ents in LotR) - were these Shepherds of the Trees added
before or after Ents were written into the text of 'The Lord of the Rings'?
For that matter, were the references to Galadriel and Celeborn added
retrospectively as well (ie. added by Tolkien after he wrote LotR)?
- Had Dior already been designated Thingol's heir, or was this just
something he took upon himself, to "raise anew the glory of the kingdom of
Doriath"?
- Was it really wise for the Silmaril to be passed on to Dior? Didn't Dior
realise that the Sons of Fëanor would lay claim to it? Could Dior have
handled things better, or has he inherited the pride of Thingol?
- The "babes in the wood" story is a staple of legends from many cultures.
But here it seems there is no happy ending. What happened to Eluréd and
Elurín?
- This chapter was extensively edited from different parts of Tolkien's
writings, and some bits were added in order to maintain a consistent and
coherent story. Can you tell which bits are by J. R. R. Tolkien, and which
bits aren't?
ARCHAIC WORDS AND SPEECH
- "aught that was good" - 'aught' means 'nothing'
- "descry" - to see from a distance
- "straightway" - straightaway
- "wont to err thus" - /Thorondor/ ('wont' - accustomed)
- "thou; thy; thee" - /Húrin/
- "hath; thee; seeth; thou; dost" - /Melian/
- "aforetime" - before
- "amidmost" - in the very centre
- "ye; aught; ere" - /Thingol/
- "trammels" - restraints
- "selfsame" - identical
- "anew" - starting again
TEXTUAL HISTORY
This section briefly looks at the construction of this chapter and the
question of who wrote which bits.
Christopher Tolkien (CJRT) edited /The Silmarillion/ from the many and
varied versions of the stories that J. R. R. Tolkien (JRRT) had, throughout
his life, written about the First Age. CJRT describes it thus:
"On my father's death it fell to me to try to bring the work into
publishable form. [...] I set myself therefore to work out a single text
selecting and arranging in such a way as seemed to me to produce the most
coherent and internally self-consistent narrative. In this work the
concluding chapters (from the death of Túrin Turambar) introduced peculiar
difficulties, in that they had remained unchanged for many years, and were
in some respects in serious disharmony with more developed conceptions in
other parts of the book." (Foreword, /The Silmarillion/)
In other words, the last three chapters of the 1977 Silmarillion (the book
published in 1977), of which three this chapter is the first, cover material
that Tolkien had not returned to and updated during his rewriting of his
tales of the First Age. As quoted above, Christopher Tolkien mentions this
in the /Foreword/ to the book. He also said that: "In the difficult and
doubtful task of preparing the text of the book I was very greatly assisted
by Guy [Gavriel] Kay, who worked with me in 1974-1975."
Details of how extensive the editorial selection and stitching together of
disparate stories had been, was not fully clear until the publication of the
relevant /History of Middle-earth/ volumes. To deal with the problems,
Christopher Tolkien and Guy Gavriel Kay wrote new material to fill the gaps
in the narrative that could not otherwise be filled without encountering
the inconsistencies previously mentioned.
Christopher Tolkien has said that he regretted some of the editorial actions
he carried out when putting /The Silmarillion/ together. This may refer in
part to the way this chapter was put together.
A lot more could be written about the textual history of this chapter, but I
am going to stop here, because I think these discussions should first and
foremost discuss the story in the chapter. I hope to post more about the
textual history of this chapter in a separate post. If anyone else wants to
start discussing this first, please do so, as I may take a while to
assimilate the relevant HoME volumes!
**
My favourite quote from this chapter:
"Then Dior arose, and about his neck he clasped the Nauglamír; and now he
appeared as the fairest of all the children of the world, of threefold race:
of the Edain, and of the Eldar, and of the Maiar of the Blessed Realm."
Christopher
