The War of the Jewels Read Online Free PDF

evil things were fled far away.

    1495.

    $32 It came to pass at last that the end of Bliss was at hand, and the noontide of Valinor was drawing to its twilight. For as is known to all, being written elsewhere in lore and sung in many songs, Melkor slew the Trees of the Valar with the aid of Ungoliante, and escaped and came back to the north of Middle-earth. And hereafter he shall be known by that name that Feanor gave him, the Dark Foe, Morgoth the Accursed.
    $33 Far to the North befell the strife of Morgoth and Ungoliante; but the great cry of Morgoth echoed through Beleriand, and all its folk shrank for fear; for though few knew what it foreboded, they heard then the herald of death.
    $34 Soon after, indeed, Ungoliante fled from the North and came into the realm of King Thingol, and a terror of darkness These, it is said, he contrived first ere the building of Menegroth, and after bettered them. The Naugrim, indeed, that came to Thingol learned the Runes of Dairon, and were well-pleased with the device, esteeming Dairon's skill higher than did the Sindar, his own folk; and by the Naugrim they [later > the Cirth] were taken east over the mountains and passed into the knowledge of many peoples.
    was about her. But by the power of Melian she was stayed, and entered not into Neldoreth, but abode long while under the shadow of the precipices in which Dorthonion fell southward.
    Therefore they became known as Eryd Orgoroth, the Mountains of Terror, and none dared go thither, or pass nigh to them; for even after Ungoliante herself departed and went whither she would back into the forgotten South of the world, her foul offspring dwelt there in form as spiders and wove there their hideous webs. -There light and life were strangled, and there all waters were poisoned.
    $35. Morgoth, however, came not himself to Beleriand, but went to the Iron Mountains, and there with the aid of his servants that came forth to meet him he delved anew his vast vaults and dungeons. These the Noldor after named Angband: the Iron Prison; and above their gates Morgoth reared the vast and threefold peaks of Thangorodrim, and a great reek of dark smoke was ever wreathed about them.

    1497.

    $36. In this year Morgoth made his first assault upon Beleriand, which lay south of Angband. Indeed it is said that the gates of Morgoth were but one hundred and fifty leagues distant from the bridge of Menegroth; far and yet all too near.
    $37. Now the Orcs that had multiplied in the bowels of the earth grew strong and fell, and their dark lord filled them with a lust of ruin and death; and they issued from Angband's gates under the clouds that Morgoth sent forth, and passed silently into the highlands of the north. Thence on a sudden a great army came.to Beleriand and assailed King Thingol. Now in his wide realm many Elves wandered free in the wild or dwelt at peace in small kindreds of quiet folk far sundered. Only about Menegroth in the midst of the land, and along the Falas in the country of the mariners were there numerous peoples; but the Orcs came down upon either side of Menegroth, and from camps in the east between Celon and Gelion, and west in the plains between Sirion and Narog, they plundered far and wide; and Thingol was cut off from Cirdan at Eglarest.
    $38. Therefore he called upon Denethor, and the Elves came in force from Region over Aros and from Ossiriand, and fought the first battle in the Wars of Beleriand. And the eastern host of the Orcs was taken between the armies of the Eldar, north of the Andram and midway between Aros and Gelion, and there they were utterly defeated, and those that fled north from the great slaughter were waylaid by the axes of the Naugrim that issued from Mount Dolmed: few indeed returned to Angband.
    $39 But the victory of the Elves was dearbought. For the Elves of Ossiriand were light-armed, and no match for the Orcs, who were shod with iron and iron-shielded and bore great spears with broad blades. And Denethor was cut