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of Melkor, or Eldar, or Avari, or wild beasts, or not seldom with their own kin, Dwarves of other mansions and lordships. Their smithcraft indeed the Sindar soon learned of them; yet in the tempering of steel alone of all crafts the Dwarves were never outmatched even by the Noldor, and in the making of mail of linked rings (which the Enfeng first contrived) their work had no rival.
    $29. At this time therefore the Sindar were well armed, and they drove off all creatures of evil, and had peace again; but Thingol's armouries were stored with axes (the chief weapons of the Naugrim, and of the Sindar), and with spears and swords, and tall helms, and long coats of bright mail: for the hauberks of the Enfeng were so fashioned that they rusted not and shone ever as were they new-burnished. This proved well for Thingol in the time that was to come.

    1350.
    The coming of Denethor.

    $30. Now as is elsewhere recounted, one Dan of the host of Olwe forsook the march of the Eldar at that time when the Teleri were halted by the shores of the Great River upon the borders of the westlands of Middle-earth. And he led away a numerous people and went south down the river, and of the wanderings of that people, the Nandor, little is now known.
    Some, it is said, dwelt age-long in the woods of the Vale of the Great River, some came at last to the mouths of Anduin, and there dwelt by the Sea, and others passing by the White Mountains came north again and entered the wilderness of Eriador between Eryd Luin and the far Mountains of Mist.
    Now these were a woodland folk and had no weapons of metal, and the coming of the fell beasts of the North affrayed them sorely, as the Naugrim reported. Therefore Denethor, the son of Dan, hearing rumour of the might of Thingol and his majesty, and of the peace of his realm, gathered such host of his scattered folk as he could and led them over the mountains into Beleriand. There they were welcomed by Thingol, as kin long lost that return, and they dwelt in Ossiriand in the south of his kingdom. For it was a great country, and yet little peopled; and it was so named, the Land of Seven Rivers, because it lay between the mighty stream of Gelion and the mountains, from which there flowed into Gelion the swift rivers: Ascar, Thalos, Legolin, Brilthor, Duilwen, and Adurant. In that region the forests in after days were tall and green, and the people of Denethor there dwelt warily and seldom seen, because of their raiment of the colour of leaves; and they were called therefore the Green-elves.
    $31 Of the long years of peace that followed after the coming of Denethor there is little tale; for though in this time Dairon the minstrel, it is said, who was the chief loremaster of the kingdom of Thingol, devised his Runes,' [added later in margin: Cirth] they were little used by the Sindar for the keeping of records, until the days of the War, and much that was held in memory has perished in the ruin of Doriath. Yet verily of bliss and glad life there is little to be said, ere it endeth; as works fair and wonderful, while still they endure for eyes to see, are their own record, and only when they are in peril or broken for ever do they pass into song. In Beleriand in those days the Elves walked, and the rivers flowed, and the stars shone, and the night-flowers gave forth their scents; and the beauty of Melian was as the noon, and the beauty of Luthien was as the dawn in spring. In Beleriand King Thingol upon his throne was as the sons of the Valar, whose power is at rest, whose joy is as an air that they breathe in all their days, whose thought flows in a tide untroubled from the heights to the deeps. In Beleriand still at whiles rode Orome the great, passing like a wind over the mountains, and the sound of his horn came down the leagues of the starlight, and the Elves feared him for the splendour of his countenance and the great noise of the onrush of Nahar; but when the Valaroma echoed in the hills, they knew well that all