5.

Now it may be told how the Gods were beguiled by Morgoth. This was the high tide of the glory and the bliss of Gods and Elves, the noontide of the Blessed Realm. Seven' ages as the Gods decreed had Morgoth dwelt in the halls of Mandos, each age in lightened pain. When seven ages had passed, as they had promised, he was brought before their conclave. He looked upon the glory of the Valar, and greed and malice was in his heart; he looked upon the fair children of the Eldalie that sat at the knees of the Gods, and hatred filled him; he looked upon their wealth of jewels and lusted for them; but his thoughts he hid and his vengeance he postponed.

There Morgoth humbled himself before the feet of Manwe and sought for pardon; but they would not suffer him to depart from their sight and watchfulness. A humble dwelling he was granted in Valinor within the gates of the city, and so fair-seeming were all his deeds and words that after a while he was allowed to go freely about all the land. Only Ulmo's heart misgave him, and Tulkas clenched his hands whenever he saw Morgoth his foe go by. Never has Tulkas the strong forgotten or forgiven a wrong done to himself or his. Most fair of all was Morgoth to the Elves and he aided them in many works, if they would let him. The people of Ingwe, the Lindar, held him in suspicion, for Ulmo had warned them and they had heeded his words. But the Gnomes took delight in the many things of hidden and secret wisdom that he could tell to them, and some harkened to things which it had been better that they had never heard. And when he saw his chance he sowed a seed of lies and suggestions of evil among such as these. Bitterly did the folk of the Noldoli atone for it in after days. Often he would whisper that the Gods had brought the Eldar to Valinor but out of jealousy, for fear their marvellous skill and beauty and their magic should grow too strong for them, as they waxed and spread over the wide lands of the world. Visions he would set before them of the mighty realms they might have ruled in power and freedom in the East. In those days, moreover, the Valar knew of the coming of Men that were to be; but the Elves knew nought of this, for the Gods had not revealed it, and the time was not yet near. But Morgoth spoke in secret to the Elves of mortals, though little of the truth he knew or cared. Manwe alone knew aught clearly of the mind of Iluvatar concerning Men, and ever has he been their friend. Yet Morgoth whispered that the Gods kept the Eldar captive so that Men coming should defraud them of their kingdoms, for the weaker race of mortals would be more easily swayed by them. Little truth was there in this, and little have the Valar ever prevailed to sway the wills or fates of Men, and least of all to good. Yet many of the Elves believed or halfbelieved his evil words. Gnomes were the most of these. Of the Teleri there were none.

Thus, ere the Gods were aware, the peace of Valinor was poisoned. The Gnomes began to murmur against the Valar and their kindred, and they became filled with vanity, and forgot all that the Gods had given them and taught them. Most of all did Morgoth fan the flames of the fierce and eager heart of Feanor, though all the while he lusted for the Silmarils. These Feanor at great feasts wore on brow and breast, but at other times, locked fast in the hoards of Tun, they were guarded close, though them were no thieves in Valinor, as yet. Proud were the sons of Finwe, and the proudest Feanor. Lying Morgoth said to him that Fingolfin and his sons were plotting to usurp the leadership of Feanor and his sons, and supplant them in the favour of their father and of the Gods. Of these words were quarrels born between the children of Finwe, and of those quarrels came the end of the high days of Valinor and the evening of its ancient glory. And Feanor spoke words of rebellion against the Gods and plotted to depart from Valinor back into the outer world and deliver the Gnomes, as he said, from thraldom.

Feanor was summoned before the council of the Gods, and there were the lies of Morgoth laid bare for all to see who had the will. By the judgement of the Gods Feanor was banished from Tun. But with him went Finwe his father who loved him more than his other sons, and many other Gnomes. Northward in Valinor in the hills near the halls of Mandos they built a treasury and a stronghold; but Fingolfin ruled the Noldoli in Tun. Thus might Morgoth's words seem justified, and the bitterness he sowed went on, though his lies were disproved, and long after it lived still between the sons of Fingolfin and of Feanor. But Morgoth hid himself and none knew whither he had gone. And while the Gods were in council, for they feared that the shadows should lengthen in Valinor, a messenger came and brought tidings that Morgoth was in the North of the land, journeying towards the house of Finwe.

Straight from the midst of their council the Gods sent Tulkas to lay hands on Morgoth and bring him before them in chains once more. But he escaped through the pass of Kôr, and from the tower of Ingwe the Elves saw him pass in thunder and in wrath.

Thence he came into that region that is called Arvalin, which lies south of the Bay of Faerie, and beneath the very eastern feet of the mountains of the Gods, and there are the shadows the thickest in all the world. There secret and unknown dwelt Ungoliant, Gloomweaver, in spider's form. It is not told whence she is, from the outer darkness, maybe, that lies beyond the Walls of the World. In a ravine she lived, and spun her webs in a cleft of the mountains, and sucked up light and shining things to spin them forth again in nets of black and choking gloom and clinging fog. Ever she hungered for more food. There Morgoth met her, and with her plotted his revenge. But terrible was the reward that he must promise her, ere she would dare the perils ofd Valinor or the power of the Gods.

A great darkness she wove about her to protect her, and then from pinnacle to pinnacle she swung on her black ropes, until she had scaled the highest places of the mountains. In the south of Valinor was this, for there lay the wild woods of Orome, and there was little watch, since, far from the old fortress of Morgoth in the North, the great walls there looked on untrodden lands and empty sea. On a ladder that she made Morgoth climbed, and he looked down upon the shining plain, seeing afar off the domes of Valinor in the mingling of the light; and he laughed as he sped down the long western slopes with ruin in his heart.

So came evil into Valinor. Silpion was waning fast and Laurelin but just begun to glow, when protected by fate Morgoth and Ungoliant crept unawares into the plain. With his black sword Morgoth stabbed each tree to its very core, and as their juices spouted forth Ungoliant sucked them up, and poison from her foul lips went into their tissues and withered them, leaf and branch and root. Slowly they succumbed, and their light grew dim, while Ungoliant belched forth black clouds and vapours as she drank their radiance. To monstrous form she swelled.

Then fell wonder and dismay on all in Valmar, when twilight and mounting gloom came on the land. Black vapours floated about the ways of the city. Varda looked down from Taniquetil and saw the trees and towers all hidden as in a mist. Too late they ran from hill and gate. The Trees died and shone no more, while wailing throngs stood round them and called on Manwe to come down. Out upon the plain the horses of Orome thundered with a hundred hooves, and fire started in the gloom about their feet. Swifter than they ran Tulkas on before, and the light of the anger of his eyes was as a beacon. But they found not what they sought. Wherever Morgoth went a darkness and confusion was around him that Ungoliant made, so that feet were bewildered and search was blind.

This was the time of the Darkening of Valinor. In that day there stood before the gates of Valmar Gnomes that cried aloud. Bitter were their tidings. They told how Morgoth had fled North and with him was a great black shape, a spider of monstrous form it had seemed in the gathering night. Sudden he had fallen on the treasury of Finwe. There he slew the king of the Gnomes before his doors, and spilled the first elfin blood and stained the land of Valinor. Many others too he slew, but Feanor and his sons were not there. Bitterly they cursed the chance, for Morgoth took the Silmarils and all the wealth of the jewels of the Noldoli that were hoarded there.

Little is known of the paths or journeys of Morgoth after that terrible deed; but this is known to all, that escaping from the hunt he came at last with Ungoliant over the Grinding Ice and so into the northern lands of this world. There Ungoliant summoned him to give her the promised reward. The half of her pay had been the sap of the Trees of Light. The other half was a full share in the plundered jewels. Morgoth yielded these up, and she devoured them, and their light perished from the earth, and still more huge grew Ungoliant's dark and hideous form. But no share in the Silmarils would Morgoth give. Such was the first thieves' quarrel.

So mighty had Ungoliant become that she enmeshed Morgoth in her choking nets, and his awful cry echoed through the shuddering world. To his aid came the Orcs and Balrogs that lived yet in the lowest places of Angband. With their whips of flame the Balrogs smote the webs asunder, but Ungoliant was driven away into the uttermost South, where she long dwelt.

Thus came Morgoth back to Angband, and there countless became the number of the hosts of his Orcs and demons. He forged for himself a great crown of iron, and he called himself the king of the world. In sign of this he set the three Silmarils in his crown. It is said that his evil hands were burned black with the touch of those holy and enchanted things, and black they have ever been since, nor was he ever afterward free from the pain of the burning, and the anger of the pain. That crown he never took from his head, and it never was his wont to leave the deep dungeons of his fortress, but he governed his vast armies from his northern throne.