From this outline it is seen that the corruption of certain Men in the beginning of their days by the agency of Melko was a feature of the earliest phase of the mythology; but of all the story here sketched there is no more than a hint or suggestion, at most, in The Silmarillion (p. 141): ‘“A darkness lies behind us,” Bлor said; “and we have turned our backs upon it, and we do not desire to retu1rn thither even in thought.”7
The Awakening of Men
according to the later outline
Here it is told at the beginning of the narrative that Melko’s Ъvanimor had escaped when the Gods broke the Fortress of the North, and were wandering in the forests; Fankil servant of Melko dwelt uncaptured in the world. (Fankil="=Fangli" / Fъkil of A and B. In C he is called ‘child of Melko’. Fankil has been mentioned at an earlier point in D, when at the time of the Awakening of the Elves ‘Fankil and many dark shapes escaped into the world’ see p. 107, note 3.)
Nuin ‘Father of Speech’, who went again and again to Murmenalda despite the warnings of Tы (which are not here specified), woke Ermon and Elmir, and taught them speech and many things else. Ermon and Elmir alone of Mankind saw the Sun arising in the West, and the seeds of Palъrien bursting forth into leaf and bud. The hosts of Men came forth as sleepy children, raising a dumb clamour at the Sun; they followed it westward when it returned, and were grievously afraid of the first Night. Nuin and Ermon and Elmir taught them speech.
Men grew in stature, and gathered knowledge of the Dark Elves,8 but Tы faded before the Sun and hid in the bottomless caverns. Men dwelt in the centre of the world and spread thence in all directions; and a very great age passed.
Fankil with the Dwarves and Goblins went among Men, and bred estrangement between them and the Elves; and many Men aided the Dwarves. The folk of Ermon alone stood by the fairies in the first war of Goblins and Elves (Goblins is here an emendation from Dwarves, and that from Men), which is called the War of Palisor. Nuin died at the hands of the Goblins through the treachery of Men. Many kindreds of Men were driven to the eastern deserts and the southern forests, whence came dark and savage peoples.
The hosts of Tareg the Ikorin marched North-west hearing a rumour of the Gnomes; and many of the lost kindreds joined him.
The History of the Exiled Gnomes
according to the earlier outlines
The Gnomes, after the passage of Helkaraksл, spread into Hisilуmл, where they had ‘trouble’ with the ancient Shadow Folk in that land—in A called ‘fay-people’, in B ‘Ъvalear fays’. (We have met the Shadow Folk of Hisilуmл before, in the tale of The Coming of the Elves, p. 119, but there this is a name given by Men, after they were shut in Hisilуmл by Melko, to the Lost Elves who remained there after straying on the march from Palisor. It will be seen in the later outlines that these Shadow Folk were an unknown people wholly distinct from Elves; and it seems therefore that the name was preserved while given a new interpretation.)
The Gnomes found the Waters of Asgon* and encamped there; then took place the Counting of the Folk, the birth of Turgon with ‘prophecies’, and the death of Fлanor. On this last matter the outlines are divergent. In A it was Nуlemл, called also Fingolma, who died: ‘his bark vanis1hes down a hidden way—said to be the way that Tuor after escaped by. He sailed to offer sacrifice in the islanded rock in Asgon.’ (To whom was he sacrificing?) In B, as first written, it was likewise ‘Fingolma (Nуlemл)’ who died, but this was emended to Fлanor; ‘his bark vanished down a hidden [way]—said to be that opening that the Noldoli after enlarged and fashioned to a path, so that Tuor escaped that way. He sailed to the Islanded Rock in Asgon because he saw something brightly glitter there and sought his jewels.’
Leaving Asgon the Gnomes passed the Bitter Hills and fought their first battle with Ores in the foothills of the Iron Mountains. (For the Iron Mountains as the southern border of Hisilуmл see p. 111–12, 158–9.) In the Tale of Tinъviel Beren came from Hisilуmл, from ‘beyond the Bitter Hills’, and ‘through the terrors of the Iron Mountains’, and it thus seems clear that the Bitter Hills and the Iron Mountains may be equated.)
The next camp of the Gnomes was ‘by Sirion’ (which here first appears); and here the Gnomes first met the Ilkorins—A adding that these Ilkorins were originally of the Noldoli, and had been lost on the march from Palisor. The Gnomes learned from them of the coming of Men and of the Battle of Palisor; and they told the Ilkorins of the tidings in Valinor, and of their search for the jewels.
Now appears for the first time Maidros son of Fлanor (previously, in the tale of The Theft of Melko, the name was given to Fлanor’s grandfather, p. 146, 158). Maidros, guided by Ilkorins, led a host into the hills, either ‘to seek for the jewels’ (A), or ‘to search the dwellings of Melko’ (B—this should perhaps read ‘search for the dwellings of Melko’, the reading of C), but they were driven back with slaughter from the doors of Angamandi; and Maidros himself was taken alive, tortured—because he would not reveal the secret arts of the Noldoli in the making of jewels—and sent back to the Gnomes maimed. (In A, which still had Nуlemл rather than Fлanor die in the Waters of Asgon, it was Fлanor himself who led the host against Melko, and it was Fлanor who was captured, tortured, and maimed.)
Then the Seven Sons of Fлanor swore an oath of enmity for ever against any that should hold the Silmarils. (This is the first appearance of the Seven Sons, and of the Oath, though that Fлanor had sons is mentioned in the Tale of the Sun and Moon, p. 192.)
The hosts of Melko now approached the camp of the Gnomes by Sirion, and they fled south, and dwelt then at Gorfalon, where they made the acquaintance of Men, both good and bad, but especially those of Ermon’s folk; and an embassy was sent to Tъvo, to Tinwelint (i.e. Thingol, see p. 132), and to Ermon.9 A great host was arrayed of Gnomes, Ilkorins, and Men, and Fingolma (Nуlemл) marshalled it in the Valley of the Fountains, afterwards called the Vale of Weeping Waters. But Melko himself went into the tents of Men and beguiled them, and some of them fell treacherously on 1the rear of the Gnomes even as Melko’s host attacked them; others Melko persuaded to abandon their friends, and these, together with others that he led astray with mists and wizardries, he beguiled into the Land of Shadows. (With this cf. the reference in the tale of The Coming of the Elves to the shutting of Men in Hisilуmл by Melko, p. 118.)
Then took place ‘the terrible Battle of Unnumbered Tears’. The Children of Ъrin* (Sons of Ъrin, A) alone of Men fought to the last, and none (save two messengers) came out of the fray; Turgon and a great regiment, seeing the day lost, turned and cut their way out, and rescued a part of the women and children. Turgon was pursued, and there is a reference to ‘Mablon the Ilkorin’s sacrifice to save the host’ Maidros and the other sons of Fлanor quarrelled with Turgon—because they wanted the leadership, A—and departed into the south. The remainder of the survivors and fugitives were surrounded, and swore allegiance to Melko; and he was wrathful, because he could not discover whither Turgon had fled.
After a reference to ‘the Mines of Melko’ and ‘the Spell of Bottomless Dread’ (the spell that Melko cast upon his slaves), the story concludes with ‘the Building of Gondolin’ and ‘the estrangement of Men and Elves in Hisilуmл, owing to the Battle of Unnumbered Tears’: Melko fostered distrust and kept them spying on each other, so that they should not combine against him; and he fashioned the false-fairies or Kaukareldar in their likeness, and these deceived and betrayed Men.10
Since the outlines at this point return to mere headings for the tales of Tinъviel, Tъrin, etc., it is clear that Gilfanon’s Tale would have ended here.
The History of the Exiled Gnomes
according to the later outline
The Gnomes sojourned in the Land of Shadows (i.e. Hisilуmл), and had dealings with the Shadow Folk. These were fays (C); no one knows whence they came: they are not of the Valar nor of Melko, but it is thought that they came from the outer void and primeval dark when the world was first fashioned. The Gnomes found ‘the Waters of Mithrim (Asgon)’, and here Fлanor died, drowned in the Waters of Mithrim. The Gnomes devised weapons for the first time, and quarried the dark hills. (This is curious, for it has been said in the account of the Kinslaughter at Alqaluntл that ‘so first perished the Eldar neath the weapons of their kin’, p. 165. The first acquisition of weapons by the Eldar remained a point of uncertainty for a long time.)