10.

Then the Gnomes marched forward and beleaguered Angband from West, South, and East. In Hithlum and on its borders in the West lay the hosts of Fingolfin. The South was held by Felagund son of Finrod and his brethren. A tower they had on an island in the river Sirion, which guarded the valley between the northward bending mountains on the borders of Hithlum and the slopes where the great pine-forest grew, which Morgoth after filled with such dread and evil that not even the Orcs would go through it, save by a single road and in great need and haste, and the Gnomes came to call it Taur-na-Fuin, which is Deadly Nightshade. But in those days it was wholesome, if thick and dark, and it was called Taur Danin, and the people of Orodreth, of Angrod and Egnor, ranged therein and watched from its eaves the plain below, that stretched to the Mountains of Iron. Thus they guarded the plain of Sirion, most fair of rivers in elfin song, most loved of Ulmo, and all that wide land of beech and elm and oak and flowering mead that was named Beleriand in Gnomish tongue, and Noldorien has it been called, Geleidhian, the kingdom of the Gnomes, and Ingolonde, the fair and sorrowful.

In the east lay the sons of Feanor. Their watchtower was the high hill of Himring, and their hiding place the Gorge of Aglon, cloven deep between Himring and Taur-na-Fuin, and watered by the river of Esgalduin the dark and strong, which came out of secret wells in Taur-na-Fuin and flowed into Doriath and past the doors of Thingol's halls. But they needed little a hiding place in those days, and ranged far and wide, even to the walls of Angband in the North, and east unto Eredlindon, the Blue Mountains, which are the borders of the lands of which these tales tell. There they had converse with the Dwarves of Nogrod and Belegost; but they did not discover whence that strange race came, nor have any since. Little friendship was there between Elf and Dwarf, for these are not friend of Valar or of Eldar or of Men, nor do they serve Morgoth; though they are in many things more like his people. Skill they had well-nigh to rival that of the Gnomes, but less beauty was in their works, and iron they wrought rather than gold and silver, and mail and weapons were their chief craft. Trade and barter was their delight and the winning of wealth of which they made little use. Long were their beards and short and squat their stature. Nauglir the Gnomes called them, and those who dwelt in Nogrod they called Indrafangs, the Longbeards, because their beards swept the floor before their feet. But as yet little they troubled the people of earth, while the power of the Gnomes was great.

This was the time that songs call the Siege of Angband. The swords of the Gnomes then fenced the earth from the ruin of Morgoth, and his power was shut behind the walls of Angband. The Gnomes boasted that never could he break their leaguer, and that none of his folk could ever pass to work evil in the ways of the world.

A time of solace it was beneath the new Sun and Moon, a time of birth and blossoming. In those days befell the first meeting of the Gnomes with the Dark-elves, and the Feast of Meeting that was held in the Land of Willows was long recalled in after days of little joy. In those days too Men came over the Blue Mountains into Beleriand, the bravest and fairest of their race. Felagund it was that found them, and he ever was their friend. On a time he was the guest of Celegorm in the East, and rode a-hunting with him. But he became separated from the others and passed into Ossiriand, and at a time of night he came upon a dale in the western foothills of the Blue Mountains. There were lights in the dale and the sound of rugged song. Then Felagund marvelled, for the tongue of those songs was not the tongue of Eldar or of Dwarves. Nor was it the tongue of Orcs, though this at first he feared. There were camped the people of Beor, a mighty warrior of Men, whose son was Barahir the bold. They were the first of Men to come into Bereliand. After them came Hador the Golden-haired, whose sons were Gundor and Gumlin, and the sons of Gumlin Hurin and Huor, and the son of Huor Tuor, and the son of Hurin Turin. All these were tangled in the fates of the Gnomes and did mighty deeds which the Elves still remember among the songs of the deeds of their own lords and kings.

But Hador was not yet seen in the camps of the Gnomes. That night Felagund went among the sleeping men of Beor's host and sat by their dying fires where none kept watch, and he took a harp which Beor had laid aside, and he played music on it such as mortal ear had never heard, having learned the strains of music from the Dark-elves alone. Then men woke and listened and marvelled, for great wisdom was in that song, as well as beauty, and the heart grew wiser that listened to it. Thus came it that Men called Felagund, whom they met first of the Noldoli, Gnome or Wisdom; and after him they called his race the Wise, whom we call the Gnomes.

Beor lived till death with Felagund, and Barahir his son was the greatest friend of the sons of Finrod, but he abode in Dorthonion. But the sons of Hador were allied to the house of Fingolfin, and of these Hurin and Turin were the most renowned. The realm of Gumlin was in Hithlum, and there afterward Hurin dwelt and his wife Morwen Elfsheen, who was fair as a daughter of the Eldalie.

Now began the time of the ruin of the Gnomes. It was long before this was achieved, for great was their power grown, and they were very valiant, and their allies were many and bold, Dark-elves and Men.

But the tide of their fortune took a sudden turn. Long had Morgoth prepared his forces in secret. On a time of night at winter he let forth great rivers of flame that poured over all the plain before the Mountains of Iron and burned it to a desolate waste. Many of the Gnomes of Finrod's sons perished in that burning, and the fumes of it wrought darkness and confusion among the foes of Morgoth. In the front of that fire came Glomund the golden, the father of dragons, and in his train came the black armies of the Orcs in numbers such as the Gnomes had never before seen or imagined. In this way Morgoth broke the leaguer of Angband and slew by the hands of the Orcs a great slaughter of the bravest of the besieging hosts. His enemies were scattered far and wide, Gnomes, Ilkorins, and Men. Men he drove for the most part back over the Blue Mountains, save the children of Beor and of Hador who took refuge in Hithlum beyond the Shadowy Mountains, where as yet the Orcs came not in force. The Dark-elves fled south to Bereliand and beyond, but many went to Doriath, and the kingdom and power of Thingol grew great in that time, till he became a bulwark and a refuge of the Elves. The magics of Melian that were woven about the borders of Doriath fenced evil from his halls and realm.

The pine-forest Morgoth took and turned it to a place of dread as has been told, and the watchtower of Sirion he took and made it into a stronghold of evil and menace. There dwelt Thu the chief servant of Morgoth, a sorcerer of dreadful power, the lord of wolves. Heaviest had the burden of that dreadful battle, the Third Battle, the Battle of Sudden Flame, and the first defeat of the Gnomes, fallen upon the sons of Finrod. There were Angrod and Egnor slain. There too would Felagund have been taken or slain, but Barahir came up with all his men and saved the Gnomish king and made a wall of spears about him; and though grievous was their loss they fought their way from the Orcs and fled to the fens of Sirion to the South. There Felagund swore an oath of undying friendship and aid in time of need to Barahir and all his kin and seed, and in token of his vow he gave to Barahir his ring.

Then Felagund went South and West, and on the banks of Narog established after the manner of Thingol a hidden and cavernous city, and a realm. Those deep places were called Nargothrond. There came Orodreth after a time of breathless flight and perilous wanderings, and with him Celegorm and Curufin, the sons of Feanor, his friends. The people of Celegorm swelled the strength of Felagund, but it would have been better if they had gone rather to their own kin, who fortified the hill of Himring east of Doriath and filled the Gorge of Aglon with hidden arms.

Most grievous of the losses of that battle was the death of Fingolfin mightiest of the Noldoli. But his own death he sought in rage and anguish seeing the defeat of his people. For he went to the gates of Angband alone and smote upon them with his sword, and challenged Morgoth to come out and fight alone. And Morgoth came. That was the last time in those wars that he left the gates of his strong places, but he could not deny the challenge before the faces of his lords and chieftains. Yet it is said that though his power and strength is the greatest of the Valar and of all things here below, at heart he is a craven when alone, and that he took not the challenge willingly. The Orcs sing of that duel at the gates, but the Elves do not, though Thorndor looked down upon it and has told the tale.

High Morgoth towered above the head of Fingolfin, but great was the heart of the Gnome, bitter his despair and terrible his wrath. Long they fought. Thrice was Fingolfin beaten to his knees and thrice arose. Ringil was his sword, as cold its blade and as bright as the blue ice, and on his shield was the star on a blue field that was his device. But Morgoth's shield was black without a blazon and its shadow was like a thundercloud. He fought with a mace like a great hammer of his forges. Grond the Orcs called it, and when it smote the earth as Fingolfin slipped aside, a pit yawned and smoke came forth. Thus was Fingolfin overcome, for the earth was broken about his feet, and he tripped and fell, and Morgoth put his foot, that is heavy as the roots of hills, upon his neck. But this was not done before Ringil had given him seven wounds, and at each he had cried aloud. He goes halt in his left foot for ever, where in his last despair Fingolfin pierced it through. But the scar upon his face Fingolfin did not give. This was the work of Thorndor. For Morgoth took the body of Fingolfin to hew it and give it to his wolves. But Thorndor swept down from on high amid the very throngs of Angband that watched the fight, and smote his bill into the face of Morgoth and rescued the body of Fingolfin, and bore it to a great height. There he set his cairn upon a mountain, and that mountain looks down upon the plain of Gondolin, and over the Mount of Fingolfin no Orc or demon ever dared to pass for a great while, till treachery was born among his kin.

But Fingon took the kingship of the Gnomes, and held yet out, nighest of the scattered Gnomes to the realm of their foe, in Hithlum and the Shadowy Mountains of the North that lie South and East of the Land of Mist, between it and Bereliand and the Thirsty Plain. Yet each of their strongholds Morgoth took one by one, and ever the Orcs growing more bold wandered far and wide, and numbers of the Gnomes and Dark-elves they took captive and carried to Angband and made thralls, and forced them to use their skill and craft in the service of Morgoth, and tears and torment were their wages. And Morgoth's emissaries went ever among the Dark-elves and the thrall-Gnomes and Men (to whom in those days he feigned the greatest friendship while they were out of his power), and lying promises they made and false suggestions the greed and treachery of each to each; and because of the curse of the slaying at Swanhaven often were the lies believed; and the Gnomes feared greatly the treachery those of their own kin who had been thralls of Angband, that even if they escaped and came back to their people little welcome they had, and wandered often in miserable exile and despair.