A; Belcha’s B as typed, then the line changed to To the halls of Belegor (> Melegor), and finally to the reading given. See note to line 20.
25
Above Erithámrod in A is written UrinThalion (see note to line 17); Úrin > Húrin, and a direction to read Thalion Húrin.
29
Finweg’s son A, and B as typed; the emendation is a later one, and at the same time my father wrote in the margin of B ‘he was Fingolfin’s son’, clearly a comment on the change of son to heir. Finweg is Finwë Nólemë Lord of the Noldoli, who in the Lost Tales was Turgon’s father (I. 115), not as he afterwards became his grandfather.
50
Kor > Cor A, Cor B as typed. When emending Cor to Corthûn my father wrote in the margin of B: ‘Corthun or Tûn’.
51
Thalion A, and B as typed. Delimorgoth A, and B as typed (as at line 11).
73
In B there is a mark of insertion between lines 72 and 73. This probably refers to a line in A, not taken up into B: bound by the (> my) spell of bottomless (> unbroken) might.
75
Belcha A, and B as typed; the same chain of emendations in B as at lines 20 and 22.
84
Bauglir: as at line 75.
105
Mavwin A, and B as typed; in B then emended to Mailwin, and back to Mavwin; Morwin written later in the margin of B. Exactly the same at 129, and at 137 though here without Morwin in the margin; at 145 Mavwin unemended, but Morwin in the margin. Thereafter Mavwin stands unemended and without marginal note, as far as 438 (see note). For consistency I read Morwin throughout the first version of the poem. – Mavwin is the form in the Tale; Mailwin does not occur elsewhere.
117
On the variation Nienóri/Nienor in the Tale see II. 118–19.
120
Tinúviel A, Tinwiel B unemended but with Tinúviel in the margin. Tinwiel does not occur elsewhere.
121
Ermabwed ‘One-handed’ is Beren’s title or nickname in the Lost Tales.
137
Gumlin is named in the Tale (II. 74, etc.); the younger of the two guardians of Túrin on his journey to Doriath (here called Halog) is not.
160
Belcha A, and B as typed, emended to Bauglir. Cf. notes to lines 20, 22, 75.
213
Urin > Húrin A; but Húrin A in line 216.
218
Nínin Udathriol A, and B as typed; cf. line 13.
226
The distinction between ‘Gnomes’ and ‘Elves’ is still made; see I. 43–4.
230
Dorwinion A.
306
For Mavwin was Melian moved to ruth A, and B as typed, with Then was Melian moved written in the margin. The second half-line has only three syllables unless moved is read movéd, which is not satisfactory. The second version of the poem has here For Morwen Melian was moved to ruth. Cf. lines 494, 519.
333
Túrin Thaliodrin A (cf. line 115), emended to the son of Thalion.
361
Glamhoth appears in The Fall of Gondolin (II. 160), with the translation ‘folk of dreadful hate’.
364
Belcha A, and B as typed; then > Melegor > Bauglir in B.
392
Bauglir: as at line 364.
408
Morgoth Belcha A, and B as typed.
430
Kor > Cor A, Cor B as typed. Cf. line 50.
431
Tengwethil A, and B as typed. In the early Gnomish dictionary and in the Name-list to The Fall of Gondolin the Gnomish name of Taniquetil is Danigwethil (I. 266, II. 337).
438
Mavwin A, and B as typed, but Mavwin > Morwen a later emendation in B. I read Morwin throughout the first version of the poem (see note to line 105).
450
Cuinlimfin A, and B as typed; Cuiviénen a later emendation in B. The form in the Lost Tales is Koivië-Néni; Cuinlimfin occurs nowhere else.
461–3
These lines bracketed and marked with an X in B.
471
This line marked with an X in B.
472
Mavwin > Morwen B; see line 438.
494
all washed in tears A, washed in tears B (half-line of three syllables), with an X in the margin and an illegible word written in pencil before washed. Cf. lines 306, 519. The second version of the poem does not reach this point.
514–16
Against these lines my father wrote in the margin of B: ‘Make Orgof’s kin set on him and T. fight his way out.’
517
stonefacéd stared: the accent on stonefacéd was put in later and the line marked with an X. – In his essay On Translating Beowulf (1940; The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays (1983) p. 67) my father gave stared stonyfaced as an example of an Old English metrical type.
519
his hands laved: the line is marked with an X in B. Cf. lines 306, 494.
528
With the half-line and their anger alight the second, more finished, part of the manuscript A begins; see p. 4.
529
Belcha A, Morgoth B as typed.
548
Guthrond A, and B as typed.
Commentary on the Prologue and Part I ‘Túrin’s Fostering’
The opening section or ‘Prologue’ of the poem derives from the opening of the Tale (II. 70–1) and in strictly narrative terms there has been little development. In lines 18–21 (and especially in the rejected line in A, as a myriad rats in measureless army / might pull down the proudest) is clearly foreshadowed the story in The Silmarillion (p. 195):
… they took him at last alive, by the command of Morgoth, for the Orcs grappled him with their hands, which clung to him though he hewed off their arms; and ever their numbers were renewed, until at last he fell buried beneath them.
On the other hand the motive in the later story for capturing him alive (Morgoth knew that Húrin had been to Gondolin) is necessarily not present, since Gondolin in the older phases of the legends was not discovered till Turgon retreated down Sirion after the Battle of Unnumbered Tears (II. 120, 208). That he was taken alive by Morgoth’s command is however already stated in the poem (line 20), though it is not explained why. In the Tale Morgoth’s interest in Húrin as a tool for the discovery of Turgon arose from his knowledge that
the Elves of Kôr thought little of Men, holding them in scant fear or suspicion for their blindness and lack of skill
– an idea that is repeated in the poem (46–8); but this idea seems only to have arisen in Morgoth’s mind when he came to Húrin in his dungeon (44 ff.).
The place of Húrin’s torment (in the Tale ‘a lofty place of the mountains’) is now defined as a stool of stone on the steepest peak of Thangorodrim; and this is the first occurrence of that name.
In the change of son to heir in line 29 is seen the first hint of a development in the kingly house of the Noldoli, with the appearance of a second generation between Finwë (Finweg) and Turgon; but by the time that my father pencilled this change on the text (and noted ‘He was Fingolfin’s son’) the later genealogical structure was already in being, and this is as it were a casual indication of it.
In ‘Túrin’s Fostering’ there is a close relationship between the Tale and the poem, extending to many close similarities of wording – especially abundant in the scene in Thingol’s hall leading to the death of Orgof; and some phrases had a long life, surviving from the Tale, through the poem, and into the Narn i Hîn Húrin, as
rather would she dwell poor among Men than live sweetly as an almsguest among the woodland Elves
