Regarding And Revisiting The Death Of Thingol And The Subsequent Ambush Of The Dwarven Army by heget

Chapter 1

All quotes are from HoME: Vol 11 - The War of the Jewels unless otherwise noted.

Read Chapter 1

As I was reading through HoME 11: The War of the Jewels trying to compile the definitive timeline for the last hundred years of the First Age, I noticed several quotes where the attack on the dwarven army at Sarn Athrad was carried out by Celegorm and Curufin. Later I would find more quotes changing which son of Fëanor did the deed, and uncovered just how great were the editorial changes to the circumstances around the death of Elu Thingol. I thus noted the changes in canon events and then attempted to recreate for my own personal satisfaction a version to reconcile and adapt the post-authorial editorial decisions of not just how and by whom the attack at the Sarn Athrad occurred but the earlier death of Elu Thingol and the sacking of Menegroth.

First to establish the initial amendment that caught my attention and started this examination. Bolded in the following quotes is my own emphasis:

The timeline changed from:

502. The Dwarves invade Doriath. Thingol is slain and his realm ended. Melian returns to Valinor. Beren destroys the Dwarf-host at Rath-loriel.

to

503. Birth of Earendil in Gondolin.
The Dwarves invade Doriath. Thingol is slain and his realm ended. Melian takes Nauglamir to Beren and Luthien and then returns to Valinor. Celegorm and Curufin destroy the Dwarf-host at Sarn-athrad in Rath-loriel; and are wroth to find the Silmaril not there. Dior goes to Doriath.

 

Here is Christopher Tolkien’s explanation on the change: 

The hastily made alterations and additions to the entry 503 (502 in A) introduced major new turns into the story as it had been told in all the versions: the tale of The Nauglafring (II.238), the Sketch of the Mythology (IV.33), the Quenta (IV.134), and AB 2 (V.141). There it was Beren, after his return from the dead, who with his host of Elves ambushed the Dwarves at Sarn-athrad, and took from them the Nauglamir in which was set the Silmaril; now it becomes Celegorm and Curufin who fought the battle at Sarn-athrad - but the Silmaril was not there, because Melian had taken it from Menegroth to Beren and Luthien in Ossiriand. In the old tale, Gwendelin (Melian), coming to the Land of the Dead that Live after the battle, was wrathful when she saw Luthien wearing the Necklace of the Dwarves, since it was made of accursed gold, and the Silmaril itself was unhallowed from its having been set in Morgoth’s crown; while in the Sketch (probably) and in the Quenta (explicitly) it was Melian who told Beren of the approach of the Dwarves coming from Doriath and enabled the ambush to be prepared (her warning afterwards, when the Necklace of the Dwarves had been recovered, against the Silmaril being retained). 

The entrance of Celegorm and Curufin into the story seems to have arisen in the act of emending the text; for my father first added to the original entry (‘Beren destroys the Dwarf-host at Rath-loriel’) the words 'and is wounded in battle’, referring to Beren (cf. the Tale, II.237: 'Beren got many hurts’). He then at once changed 'Beren destroys’ to 'Celegorm and Curufin destroy’ and 'is wounded in battle' to 'are wroth to find the Silmaril not there’.

The next updated timeline then reads:

503. The Dwarves of Belegost and Nogrod invade Doriath.
Thingol is slain, and his realm ended. The Dwarves carry off the Dragon-gold, but Melian escaped and carried off the Nauglamir and the Silmaril, and brought it to Beren and Luthien. Then she returned to Valinor; but Luthien wore the Silmaril. Now Curufin and Celegorm hearing of the sack of Menegroth ambushed the Dwarves at the fords of Ascar and defeated them; but the Dwarves cast the gold into the river, which was after named Rathloriel. Great was the chagrin of the Sons of Feanor to discover that the Silmaril was not with the Dwarves; but they dared not assail Luthien.

And the the typescript final copy:

502. The Nauglamir is wrought of the treasure of Glaurung, and the Silmaril is hung thereon. Thingol quarrels with the Dwarves who had wrought for him the Necklace.

503. The Dwarves of Belegost and Nogrod invade Doriath. King Elu Thingol is slain and his realm ended. Melian escapes and carries away the Nauglamir and the Silmaril, and brings them to Beren and Luthien. She then forsook Middle-earth and returned to Valinor.
Curufin and Celegorm, hearing of the sack of Menegroth, ambushed the Dwarves at the Fords of Ascar as they sought to carry off the Dragon-gold to the mountains. The Dwarves were defeated with great loss, but they cast the gold into the river, which was therefore after named Rathloriel. Great was the anger of the sons of Feanor to discover that the Silmaril was not with the Dwarves; but they dared not to assail Luthien. Dior goes to Doriath and endeavours to recover the realm of Thingol.

 

So in short, the author’s later idea as he was going back after The Lord of the Rings to rework and compile the history of the First Age, which he kept for the revisions, has not Beren as the one ambushing and destroying the dwarf armies of Nogrod, but Celegorm and Curufin - characters once again attacking a group (that isn’t Morgoth) who they believe has the Silmaril, as they have sworn in the Oath.

So why do we have the published version in The Silmarillion which is so radically different from what is in the later notes? In short, Christopher Tolkien chose to go with the much earlier version of the story - and also add to it - so as to have something to fit with the rest of the published text that he was editing together. But, he admits, the version he wrote might have been a poor decision. Here are his words in full:

“This story was not lightly or easily conceived, but was the outcome of long experimentation among alternative conceptions. In this work Guy Kay took a major part, and the chapter that I finally wrote owes much to my discussions with him. It is, and was, obvious that a Step was being taken of a different order from any other ‘manipulation’ of my father’s own writing in the course of the book: even in the case of the story of The Fall of Gondolin, to which my father had never returned, something could be contrived without introducing radical changes in the narrative. It seemed at that time that there were elements inherent in the story of the Ruin of Doriath as it stood that were radically incompatible with ‘The Silmarillion’ as projected, and that there was here an inescapable choice: either to abandon that conception, or else to alter the story. I think now that this was a mistaken view, and that the undoubted difficulties could have been, and should have been, surmounted without so far overstepping the bounds of the editorial function.”

 

Now my goal is not to state which version is “canon” and which is not, because that’s the very nature of The Silmarillion and the delight and issue of its fandom - that there are many versions when playing with headcanon. And I do not consistently choose one or the other when it comes to going with the published version or favoring another version that is chronologically newer or more common. For instance, I firmly reject Teleporno and the last revised history of Galadriel and Celeborn. And for personal reasons I like Gil-galad as the son of Fingon. But part of being a Silm fan is choosing which interpretations appeal to you, which ones you feel have better internal story consistency and fit the characterizations.

(I will say that I tend to place the earliest rough draft versions, especially if contradicted by all following canon, as much lower in my consideration except as something for fun and AUs. Like Beren’s father being named Egnor. But it is something I don’t feel entitled to police other fans over. And the published version by dint of exposure should have most weight.)

So I endeavored to give a little more thought and scrutiny to not only this revision(s) where the Fëanorians are responsible for the attack on the dwarves at Sarn Athrad , but also how the death of Thingol arose. Although I only pulled up the quotes from the timelines where Celegorm and Curufin are the ones to ambush the dwarven army on a whim as I was searching for something else, I think this and related issues deserved a full look:

Now aside from the logic problems with Húrin’s later wanderings and the transfer of the hoard of gold tainted by Glaurung and cursed by Mîm from Nargothrond to Doriath, there is the issue of Thingol’s death and the first invasion of Menegroth.

 

“ 503. Against ‘The Dwarves of Belegost and Nogrod invade Doriath’ my father pencilled an X and the single word ‘cannot’: i.e., the Dwarves could not pass the Girdle of Melian. In the old sources the protective magic was defeated by the device of a treacherous Elf (in the Tale) or Elves (in the Sketch and the Quenta); but since the Quenta the question had never again come to the surface. In this connection there is a page of rough notes … among these and written at the same time, though entirely unconnected, is the following:

Doriath cannot be entered by a hostile army! Somehow it must be contrived that Thingol is lured outside or induced to go to war beyond his borders and is there slain by the Dwarves. Then Melian departs, and the girdle being removed Doriath is ravaged by the Dwarves.

The word ‘cannot’ may well have been written against the entry for 503 in The Tale of Years at the same time as this.

 

Further in the footnotes for the HoMe discussion on the last chapters, the editor, Christopher Tolkien, writes:

How he [J.R.R. Tolkien] would have treated Thingol’s behaviour towards the Dwarves is impossible to say. That story was only once told fully, in the Tale of the Nauglafring, in which the conduct of Tinwelint (precursor of Thingol) was wholly at variance with the later conception of the king (see II.245-6). In the Sketch no more is said of the matter than that the Dwarves were ‘driven away without payment’, while in the Quenta ‘Thingol… scanted his promised reward for their labour; and bitter words grew between them, and there was battle in Thingol’s halls’. There seems to be no clue or hint in later writing (in The Tale of Years the same bare phrase is used in all the versions: ‘Thingol quarrels with the Dwarves’), unless one is seen in the words quoted from Concerning Galadriel and Celeborn on p. 353: Celeborn in his view of the destruction of Doriath ignored Morgoth’s part in it ‘and Thingol’s own faults’.

In The Tale of Years my father seems not to have considered the problem of the passage of the Dwarvish host into Doriath despite the Girdle of Melian, but in writing the word ‘cannot’ against the D version (p. 352) he showed that he regarded the story he had outlined as impossible, for that reason. In another place he sketched a possible solution (ibid.): ‘Somehow it must be contrived that Thingol is lured outside or induced to go to war beyond his borders and is there slain by the Dwarves. Then Melian departs, and the girdle being removed Doriath is ravaged by the Dwarves.’ ”

Which - I think, and this is a personal judgement - makes for an excellent solution. Also I believe two episodes in the published Silmarillion can get confounded with each other, which this change would clarify. As events in the published version follow: Thingol’s quarrel with the dwarves ends in his murder, the dwarves flee, and are hunted down by vengeful Sindar. Then in a second episode, the dwarves of Nogrod mount an army to sack Doriath, and it’s that army on the way back with plunder that is ambushed and destroyed by Beren and his forces. Or, in the later versions - the Fëanorians.

The first event is a revenge ambush on fleeing dwarves after the murder of Thingol. One that has been discussed before as an example of the ugly escalation of the cycle of revenge, and where it is unknown whether those not involved in the act of violence are slain.

The version in the published SiIlmarillion proposes that some survivors of this retaliatory ambush make it to Nogrod (and Belegost, but that dwarf-city refuses to involve themselves), raises a large army, and returns to a Menegroth without Thingol - and therefore without Melian and her Girdle. They attack the Hidden Kingdom, make off with the treasure, and then comes the Sarn Athrad event in question. The ambush at Sarn Athrad is against this invading army returning back to the dwarven city. The initial interest I had here was about the change where Tolkien revised his earlier idea, having this dwarven army wiped out by the Fëanorians, who are nonetheless unable to grab any of the treasure. As part of these changes, the Silmaril is no longer included in the plunder that the dwarves took from Menegroth. Also in the later revisions to the timelines having the dwarves be the ones to dump the cursed gold into the river restores that story element (and reason for the name of the river) now that Beren is no longer involved.

However, the proposed fix involving Thingol’s death is even more elegant and removes a repetition of ambushes while still adhering to the idea of escalating violence over greed for treasure, wounded pride, and suspicion.

Keep the quarrel over the Silmaril and the Nauglimir and Thingol’s harsh words over their perceived greed. He expels the dwarves while reneging on any payment. This ties back to his character’s actions when learning of the Kin-slaying, but with added harshness thanks to prejudices and Thingol succumbing to the twofold curse on the gold and the lure of the Silmaril. Thus the deeply offended and angry dwarves - wanting proper payment for their work, discourteously treated by the elven king to say the least, and desiring still the possession of the Silmaril - return to the dwarven cities of Nogrod and Belegost calling for redressing of wrongs.

Now have the dwarves of Nogrod come back with said army to demand their treasure. Thingol full of wrath and pride makes the flawed decision to take a force and attack the army at the edges of the Girdle, overriding Melian’s counsel for cooler tempers, wisdom, and proper payment. Thingol shockingly dies -and it fits with themes of overconfident kings rampant in the Silmarillion - his army is overrun, the dwarves pour into Doriath and Menegroth, sack and make off with the contents of its vaults, and this attack on Doriath’s population weakens it for the Second Kin-slaying. And this gives time, if we are using any of the versions where the Fëanorians are the ones to attack this dwarven army, for Melian to take the Silmaril away to safety and give it over to Lúthien and Beren in Tol Galen along with one of the several versions of her speech.

Also this makes more sense than the dwarves killing Thingol deep in the vaults of Menegroth’s caves. Going by the version proposed in the published Silmarillion, the dwarves not only have to fight their way out of the depths of Menegroth, but overcome Doriath’s March-wardens and army on their way out of the vast forest of Region and beyond. (The Girdle was not the only thing keeping Doriath safe. For instance the warriors of Doriath have repeatedly fought off orc armies since the Dagor Bragollach.)

 

Another version of the attack doesn’t have Celegorm and Curufin mounting the attack. Instead it’s Caranthir:

“The story that it was Celegorm and Curufin who ambushed the Dwarves at ‘the Fords of Ascar’ is repeated without change from the previous version C (p. 348). There is a passing reference to a similar story (for in this case it was Caranthir, not Celegorm and Curufin) in the post-Lord of the Rings text "Concerning Galadriel and Celeborn".

This was published in Unfinished Tales in a ‘retold’, somewhat selective form for the purposes of that section of the book; and in the passage (p. 235) saying that Celeborn had no love for any Dwarves, and never forgave them for their part in the destruction of Doriath (‘passing over Morgoth’s part in this (by angering of Hurin), and Thingol’s own faults’), my father proposed rather than stated that only the Dwarves of Nogrod took part in the assault, and that they were ‘almost entirely destroyed by Caranthir’.”

Now I can see why Caranthir would be chosen as the Fëanorian to lead an assault on the dwarves to claim treasure, as it ties back to his history with the dwarves and the territory would be most familiar to him.

“And thus it was that Caranthir’s people came upon the Dwarves, who after the onslaught of Morgoth and the coming of the Noldor had ceased their traffic into Beleriand. But though either people loved skill and were eager to learn, no great love was there between them; for the Dwarves were secret and quick to resentment, and Caranthir was haughty and scarce concealed his scorn for the unloveliness of the Naugrim, and his people followed their lord. Nevertheless since both peoples feared and hated Morgoth they made alliance, and had of it great profit; for the Naugrim learned many secrets of craft in those days, so that the smiths and masons of Nogrod and Belegost became renowned among their kin, and when the Dwarves began again to journey into Beleriand all the traffic of the dwarf-mines passed first through the hands of Caranthir, and thus great riches came to him.” (Silmarillion, “Of the Return of the Noldor” p 129)

So Caranthir has familiarity with dwarves - and their movements along the Dwarf Road. And as there was “no great love”, coupled with the drive of the Oath to “pursue with vengeance and hatred… any creature, great or small, good or evil” (Silm. p 90) for possession of the Silmaril, Caranthir will be eager to attack the dwarven army. And as he is characterized as the son of Fëanor most concerned with the accumulation of wealth and riches, so he is a natural victim to the lure of gold-lust by the rules of story epics.

Frankly, as after the Nirnaeth Arnoediad the sons of Fëanor have regrouped into a single party, schematics over whether it was Celegorm and Curufin versus Caranthir are somewhat irrelevant, since they must be acting in concert or at least with the awareness of their siblings, one assumes, and the differences comes down to subtleties of motive.

 

---

 

Now we can make the case that the older version where it is Beren who attacks the dwarves (and not any of the Fëanorians) is not completely abandoned, for in a later letter when asked about the Ents, J.R.R. Tolkien responds thus:

This was not, however, his final view, as it appears. In a letter of 1963 (Letters no.247, p. 334) he wrote that he could ‘foresee’ one event in the Elder Days in which the Ents took a part:

“It was in Ossiriand… that Beren and Luthien dwelt for a while after Beren’s return from the Dead. Beren did not show himself among mortals again, except once. He intercepted a dwarf-army that had descended from the mountains, sacked the realm of Doriath and slain King Thingol, Luthien’s father, carrying off a great booty, including Thingol’s necklace upon which hung the Silmaril. There was a battle about a ford across one of the Seven Rivers of Ossir, and the Silmaril was recovered … It seems clear that Beren, who had no army, received the aid of the Ents - and that would not make for love between Ents and Dwarves.”

So the old version where Beren and not the Fëanorians ambush the army of dwarves has not been completely set aside. Trust me when I say it is common for authors to have multiple versions of how they want a story plot to develop- and that sometimes they’ll remember the older version rather than the new ideas that they decided to go with and are now 'canon'.

But I think it’s telling that this older version is given as an answer to a question on a hypothetical about the Ents. Tolkien looks for a logical moment where the Tree Shepherds can be inserted into the Elder Tales so as to hearken back to the Lord of the Rings. There is a reason to use the version where Beren leads the attack instead of the Fëanorians: Not only does Beren have no army, but his possible allies would be the Green Elves of Ossiriand. Their weapons, armor, and numbers, as highlighted from the First Battle of Beleriand, are substandard to fighting off orcs, let alone dwarves who have the most superior armor and tactics of any army in Beleriand. Hence Beren, who with his pre-established connection to the natural world can call upon the protection and assistance of the land once more as he did in Dorthonion as a solitary outlaw, needs the assistance and might of the Ents for victory. The far more belligerent Fëanorians, holding onto their soldiers, advanced armor, and weapons from the Siege and battles of Beleriand, do not need the extra supernatural help to explain a victory over the dwarven army.

But it does give the Ents some ‘screen-time’ and keeps them from completely disappearing from the any text from chapter two of The Silmarillion, “Of Aulë and Yavanna”, until The Two Towers. For that reason alone I can see a benefit in adhering to the older version of the battle at Sarn Athrad instead of the explanation the revised timelines endorse.

Personally, I would combine the two, keeping the Fëanorian attack on the main army, with a small contingent of dwarven warriors -carrying the Silmaril- fleeing south where they are intercepted by Beren and Ents.