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that burning, and the fumes of it wrought darkness and confusion among the foes of Morgoth. In the
train of the fire 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 over the Blue Mountains, save the children
of Bëor 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 Beleriand 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 into a place of dread, and the watchtower of Sirion he
took and made it into a stronghold of evil and of menace. There dwelt Thû the chief servant of
Morgoth, sorcerer of dreadful power, the lord of wolves. Heaviest had the burden of that dreadful
battle, the second battle 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 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 [son of Finrod, brother of Felagund] after a time of breathless flight and perilous
wanderings, and with him Celegorm and Curufin, the sons of Fëanor, 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 Himling east of Doriath and filled the Gorge of Aglon with
hidden arms . . .
In these days of doubt and fear, after the [Battle of Sudden Flame], many dreadful things befell of
which but few are here told. It is told that Bëor was slain and Barahir yielded not to Morgoth, but all
his land was won from him and his people scattered, enslaved or slain, and he himself went in
outlawry with his son Beren and ten faithful men. Long they hid and did secret and valiant deeds of
war against the Orcs. But in the end, as is told in the beginning of the lay of Lúthien and Beren, the
hiding place of Barahir was betrayed, and he was slain and his comrades, all save Beren who by
fortune was that day hunting afar. Thereafter Beren lived an outlaw alone, save for the help he had
from birds and beasts which he loved; and seeking for death in desperate deeds found it not, but glory
and renown in the secret songs of fugitives and hidden enemies of Morgoth, so that the tale of his
deeds came even to Beleriand, and was rumoured in Doriath. At length Beren fled south from the
ever-closing circle of those that hunted him, and crossed the dreadful Mountains of Shadow, and
came at last worn and haggard into Doriath. There in secret he won the love of Lúthien daughter of
Thingol, and he named her Tinúviel, the nightingale, because of the beauty of her singing in the
twilight beneath the trees; for she was the daughter of Melian.
But Thingol was wroth and he dismissed him in scorn, but did not slay him because he had sworn
an oath to his daughter. But he desired nonetheless to send him to his death. And he thought in his
heart of a quest that could not be achieved, and he said: If thou bring me a Silmaril from the crown of