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A PASSAGE EXTRACTED FROM THE QUENTA<br />
This was the time that songs call the Siege of Angband. The swords of the Gnomes then fenced the<br />
earth from the ruin of Morgoth, and his power was shut behind the walls of Angband. The Gnomes<br />
boasted that never could he break their leaguer, and that none of his folk could ever pass to work evil<br />
in the ways of the world . . .<br />
In those days Men came over the Blue Mountains into Beleriand, bravest and fairest of their race.<br />
Felagund it was that found them, and he was ever their friend. On a time he was the guest of Celegorm<br />
in the East, and rode a-hunting with him. But he became separated from the others, and at a time of<br />
night he came upon a dale in the western foothills of the Blue Mountains. There were lights in the dale<br />
and the sound of rugged song. Then Felagund marvelled, for the tongue of those songs was not the<br />
tongue of Eldar or of Dwarves. Nor was it the tongue of Orcs, though this at first he feared. There<br />
were camped the people of Bëor, a mighty warrior of Men, whose son was Barahir the bold. They<br />
were the first of Men to come into Beleriand . . .<br />
That night Felagund went among the sleeping men of Bëor’s host and sat by their dying fires where<br />
none kept watch, and he took a harp which Bëor had laid aside, and he played music on it such as<br />
mortal ear had never heard, having learned the strains of music from the Dark-elves alone. Then men<br />
woke and listened and marvelled, for great wisdom was in that song, as well as beauty, and the heart<br />
grew wiser that listened to it. Thus came it that Men called Felagund, whom they met first of the<br />
Noldoli, Wisdom, and after him they called his race the Wise, whom we call the Gnomes.<br />
Bëor lived till death with Felagund, and Barahir his son was the greatest friend of the sons of<br />
Finrod.<br />
Now began the time of the ruin of the Gnomes. It was long before this was achieved, for great was<br />
their power grown, and they were very valiant, and their allies were many and bold, Dark-elves and<br />
Men.<br />
But the tide of their fortune took a sudden turn. Long had Morgoth prepared his forces in secret. On<br />
a time of night at winter he let forth great rivers of flame that poured over all the plain before the<br />
Mountains of Iron and burned it to a desolate waste. Many of the Gnomes of Finrod’s sons perished in
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