Had Melko indeed known of the Gnomes’ wild attempt to cross it he might have overwhelmed them all in that ill place or done whatso he willed, but many months had gone since he himself had fled perchance by that very way, and he was now far afield. Say I not well, Rьmil, with regard to these things?’
‘Thou hast told the true tale,’ said Rьmil, ‘yet hast thou not said how ere they came to Helkaraksл the host passed by that place where Morniл is wont to be beached, for there a steep and rugged path winds down from Mandos deep in the mountains that the souls whom Fui sends to Arvalin must tread.6 There did a servant of Vefбntur spy them and asking what might that wayfaring mean pled with them to return, but they answered him scornfully, so that standing upon a high rock he spoke to them aloud and his voice came even to the fleet upon the waves; and he foretold to them many of the evil adventures that after came to them, warning them against Melko, and at last he said: “Great is the fall of Gondolin”, and none there understood, for Turondo son of Nуlemл7 was not yet upon the Earth. But the wise men stored his sayings, for Mandos and all his people have a power of prophecy, and these words were treasured long among them as the Prophecies of Amnos, for thus was the place where they were spoken called at that time, which now is Hanstovбnen8 or the beaching place of Morniл.
After that the Noldoli journeyed slowly, and when the awful isthmus of Helkaraksл was before them some were for ferrying all the host, part at a time, across the sea, venturing rather over the perilous waters than seeking to find passage over the gulfs and treacherous crevasses of the isthmus of ice. This they tried, and a great ship was lost with all aboard by reason of a certain fearsome eddy that was in the bay nigh where Helkaraksл jutted from the western mainland; and that eddy at times spins around like a vast top and shrieks with a loud wailing noise most terrible to hear, and such things as approach are sucked down to its monstrous deep and crushed there upon jags of ice 1and rock; and the name of the eddy is Wiruin. Wherefore are the Noldoli in great anguish and perplexity, for even could they find a way through the terrors of the Helkaraksл, behold they cannot even so reach the inner world, for still there lies that gap at the far end, and though but narrow the screech of water rushing therethrough can be heard thus far away, and the boom of ice splitting from the cape came to them, and the crash and buffet of the ice-isles that thrust down from the North through that dreadful strait.
Now the presence of those floating isles of ice no doubt was due to the presence of Melko once more in the far North, for winter had retreated to the uttermost North and South, so that almost it had no foothold in the world remaining in those days of peace that are called Melko’s Chains; but nonetheless it was this very activity of Melko that in the end proved the salvation of the Noldoli, for behold they now are constrained to lead all their womenfolk and the mariners of their host out of the ships, and there on those bleak shores they beach them and set now a miserable encampment.
Songs name that dwelling9 the Tents of Murmuring, for there arose much lamentation and regret, and many blamed Fлanor bitterly, as indeed was just, yet few deserted the host for they suspected that there was no welcome ever again for them back to Valinor—and this some few who sought to return indeed found, though this entereth not into this tale.
When their woes are now at the blackest and scarce any look for return of any joy again, behold winter unfurls her banners again and marches slowly south clad in ice with spears of frost and lashes of hail. Yet so great is the cold that the floating ice packs and jams and piles like hills between the end of Helkaraksл10 and the Eastern land, and in the end does it become so strong that the current moves it not. Then abandoning their stolen ships they leave their sorrowful encampment and strive to cross the terrors of the Qerkaringa. Who shall tell of their misery in that march or of those numbers who were lost, falling into great pits of ice where far below hidden water boiled, or losing their way until cold overcame them—for evil as it was so many and desperate things befell them after in the Great Lands that it was lessened in their minds to a thing of less worth, and in sooth tales that told of the leaving of Valinor were never sweet in the ears of the Noldoli after, were they thralls or citizens of Gondolin. Yet even so such things may not slay the Gnome-kin, and of those there lost still ’tis said some wander sadly there among the icehills, unknowing of all things that have befallen their folk, and some essayed to get them back to Valinor, and Mandos has them, and some following after found in long days their unhappy kin again. Howso it be, a gaunt and lessened band indeed did in the end reach the rocky soil of the Eastern lands, and there stood looking backward over the ice of Helkaraksл and of Qerkaringa at the spurs of hills beyond the sea, for far away in the gathering southward mists rose those most glorious heights of Valinor, fencing them for ever from their kindred an1d their homes.
Thus came the Noldoli into the world.’
And with those words of Rьmil’s the story of the darkening of Valinor was at an end.
‘Great was the power of Melko for ill,’ saith Eriol, ‘if he could indeed destroy with his cunning the happiness and glory of the Gods and of the Elves, darkening the light of their hearts no less than of their dwelling, and bringing all their love to naught! This must surely be the worst deed that ever he has done.’
‘Of a truth never has such evil again been done in Valinor,’ said Lindo, ‘but Melko’s hand has laboured at worse things in the world, and the seeds of his evil have waxen since those days to a great and terrible growth.’
‘Nay,’ said Eriol, ‘yet can my heart not think of other griefs, for sorrow at the destruction of those most fair Trees and the darkness of the world.’
NOTES
1 The manuscript seems certainly to have the form Noldor here.—It is to be remembered that in the old story the Teleri (i.e. the later Vanyar) had not departed from Kфr; see p. 159.
2 At the top of the manuscript page and fairly clearly referring to Fлanor’s words my father wrote: ‘Increase the element of the desire for Silmarils’. Another note refers to the section of the narrative that begins here and says that it ‘wants a lot of revision: the [?thirst ?lust] for jewels—especially for the sacred Silmarils wants emphasizing. And the all-important battle of Cуpas Alqaluntл where the Gnomes slew the Solosimpi must be inserted.’ This note was then struck through and marked ‘done’, but only the latter direction was in fact followed: this is the rider on the Kinslaughter given on p. 164–6.
3 Against this my father wrote in the margin: ‘Helkaraksл Icefang Qerkaringa the water’ see note 5.
4 Helkaraksл or Icefang: earlier reading Qerkaringa; see note 5.
5 This passage, from ‘“Know then,” said Lindo…’, replaces an earlier version which I do not give, for it contains almost nothing that is not in the replacement; and the last sentence of the replacement is a later addition still. It is to be noted however that in the first version the neck of land is called Qerkaringa (as also in the replacement passage at first, see note 4), with the remark that ‘the name has also been given to the sound beyond’. This then was the earlier idea: Qerkaringa the name primarily of the neck of land, but extended also to the sound (presumably at that stage querka did not mean ‘gulf’). My father than decided that Qerkaringa was the name of the sound and introduced the name Helkaraksл for the neck 1of land; hence the marginal annotation given in note 3 above. At this point he added the last sentence of the replacement passage, ‘Now that strip of water that flowed still between Icefang’s tip and the Great Lands was called Qerkaringa or Chill Gulf’, and emended Qerkaringa in the body of the passage (note 4) to Helkaraksл or Icefang, carrying this change through the rest of the tale (on p. 169 of Qerkaringa > of Helkaraksл and of Qerkaringa).