The Eyes and Ears of Melkor by Chilled in Hithlum

Chapter 3 The Proud Father

In the following years Morgoth reasserted his strength across the vanquished Northlands of Beleriand.  He rooted out all the secret byways and laid heavy guard upon them so that the people became cut off from each other.  Those who rebelled were slain or taken as thralls, and soon enough Angband's mines were swelled.  Regrettably, Hurin took to viewing only the places that were wholly under Morgoth's domination and he witnessed much evil.  He hoped as before, that in doing this that he would not give away anybody else who opposed his enemy; but in the end this proved futile as Morgoth's power only ever increased.  After five years, the day arrived that Hurin had long dreaded; Morgoth at last sent his Orc garrisons into Hithlum which already suffered under the boot of the Easterlings.  Lorgan, their chief was displeased at this because these lands were gifted to him by Morgoth in return for his treachery at The Fifth Battle.  Morgoth feigned that he wanted to bolster Lorgan's power with a peace-keeping force but everybody guessed that this was a thinly veiled behest; and Lorgan knew also that little could be done to prevent ‘his land' from being eventually occupied.  Although, and alas for the poor folk, Lorgan still held sway in Hithlum for many years after and for the most part the Orcs submitted to his will.  In those days Hurin feared that his wife and daughter would be sought out and brought before Morgoth, however, he did not know then that The Great Enemy had other plans for them and they were left alone.  Yet Hurin would not allow his anxiety to stop him from using the Orb to seek for them in Dor-Lomin, but Nienor he did not know by sight and Morwen went never abroad.  He worried that they might be dead and ever hoped that they had followed his son Turin.  But Hurin knew Morwen's heart too well and he felt sure that she would not lightly renounce her home or the land where they had once governed.  Hurin often saw his kinswoman Aerin, but her plight saddened his heart; for she was taken perforce into marriage by an Easterling named Brodda, The Overlord of Dor-Lomin.  Now Aerin lived in relative comfort, compared to her neighbours, and she secretly helped her folk whenever Brodda was away from home.  Always in mind she kept Morwen; but the proud wife of Hurin was loath to accept charity but ultimately she had to for Nienor's sake.  Oftentimes Hurin noticed a particular fair-haired girl of about seven years that would regularly receive a basket from Aerin and furtively sneak away; and had he but been able to follow her footsteps home then he would have known that he was looking upon his youngest child.  Now Nienor was slender and wan in appearance for she was born in hungry and evil days; she was somewhat unlike to her merrier departed sister, and her mother and brother were both dark of hair and complexion after Morwen's kin.  There was a child of the same age though who Hurin could not mistake because he so resembled his brother as a boy; and when he first spotted, Tuor, his nephew among the Elves of Mithrim he thought that he had fallen into a daydream of reminiscence.  

Now Morgoth's true reason for taking control in Hithlum was that rumour had reached him of the covert migrations to Cirdan's Isle by the displaced Elves of Mithrim.  And since he was not prepared to tolerate this, the exodus was compelled to halt and the Elves were again forced to continue to live by stealth in the Caves of Androth about the Mountains of Mithrim.  Morgoth fell ever impatient with the unsuccessful capture of Mithrim Elves and he sought in his private counsels to come at them by another course.  Within a year he sent a superintended gang of thralls out of the mines to the river sources about the mountains at Ered Wethrin.  Morgoth required them to find fissures, caves and tunnel complexes, so as to discover an alternative pathway to flush out the hidden Elves.  All this was done in secret, but with great transport of thralls, overseers, Orcs and machinery; however there came the inevitable overflowing of undesired elements about the Northern Marches of Doriath.  King Thingol was put on the alert for he would not suffer any Orcs to patrol this close to his lands.  Queen Melian wisely advised against provocation, deeming that "A hot dispute can soon lead to an avoidable war" but Thingol sent armed wardens out to meet them.  As always, the words of Melian proved true; and though Morgoth could not come against the enchanted woods of Doriath, still he enlarged his military force there because he was determined that his plan would work.  For several years the thralls of Angband endured back-breaking work, but the mountains were too densely clustered and Morgoth's hope was wholly denied.   

It has been told that Morgoth informed Hurin in the first year of his imprisonment that is son had left Dor-Lomin; he was told of the place where the boy was last seen but it was not known at that time where Turin went.  This news had always given Hurin hope, because in the days before the Nirnaeth Arnoediad he advised Morwen to flee to his mother's kin in Brethil if the battle went ill, but she favoured Doriath; and since both these places lay along the route that Turin took, Hurin felt certain that his son would be safe.  It would soon become apparent to Hurin that Morwen chose as her instinct guided, all those years ago; for when the War of the North Marches began in earnest, Hurin saw one fighting alongside the Elves of Doriath arrayed in the Dragon Helm of Dor-Lomin; the heirloom of Hador's House.  Hurin was never apt to wear the helm in battle himself but he looked on in wonder at how well it suited Turin, likewise he marvelled at how his son of seventeen years looked and fought like a mighty man and his heart swelled.  Hurin was further heartened by the constant presence of Beleg Strongbow at Turin's side in battle; this impressive Elf was King Thingol's Chief March-Warden and a famed warrior amongst Elves and Men.  Together they slew many foes in battle and ever the more did Turin grow in prowess, and always he came back the stronger after treatment of wounds.  Hurin perceived that there was a strong bond between the two and always did this sting his heart; not because he begrudged Beleg, indeed he thanked him often from afar for his guardianship of Turin, but because he felt robbed of his son and in this time Hurin's hatred of Morgoth knew no bounds.  For three years more Hurin longed to look upon his son's face but he only ever saw him dressed as for war.  There came a day of summer when Turin did not rejoin the fray, this seemed odd for he was seldom gone for more than a day, and when Beleg returned alone Hurin feared the worst.  The only flicker of hope that Hurin had in that time was that Beleg gave no visible indication that one he cared for had died, nor was there any battle ritual to honour him in death such as the Elves were wont to give; "But my son is no Elf" Hurin thought coldly.  Nevertheless Turin was gone and his father knew not if or when he would see him again.  Soon afterwards Beleg would not return to the Northern Wars and Hurin's concern deepened, and as two more winters passed neither sight nor sound of them reached him in his towering captivity on pitiless Thangorodhrim.  In the months following the departure of ‘The Bow and Helm' the Northern War went ill for Thingol and he withdrew his troops from the battlegrounds of Dimbar, but ever the power of Melian protected Doriath.  Morgoth abandoned his plans to root out the Mithrim Elves and returned his thralls to Angband; some however turned on the slave-drivers with crude handmade weapons and escaped into the blackened forests of Dorthonion.  Even so Morgoth now turned his greedy eye southwards being emboldened by the forays against Thingol.

After the taking of Dimbar Hurin's gaze drew north-westerly again to his homelands and ever and anon his eyes would light on the sad pretty girl receiving aid from Aerin; and on the boy he took for his nephew growing ever stronger and bolder under the shadow of the mountains.  At this time there were no men over the age of twenty-five years in Hithlum because the males who too young to fight in the Nirnaeth Arnoediad but still old enough to rebel were taken to Angband; but now the younger boys who suffered the Easterling invasion were coming into their early manhood.  Although they spent their youth in thraldom many now were resentful and unbowed,  unfortunately for them Morgoth reinforced Lorgan at the time when most were pre-adolescents who had lost their fathers in the war, "How difficult it is to see my young flowers strangled by lesser weeds" said Hurin bitterly.  He looked to other places also in these days, always with the faint hope of hearing news of Turin; by now he had long given up any hope of secrecy in his searching deeming Morgoth's grip to be overly strong.  The only victories against the enemy that he witnessed were petty and sporadic raids by ragged, houseless men; unwanted outlaws without hope or nurture.  Hurin knew not then that their chief was his self-exiled son Turin, who operated under the false name of Neithan, the Wronged.  

For a long while nothing of note occurred in the Orbs until the day came when absolutely nothing happened in one of them.  This was Sauron's Orb and it was veiled; at this Hurin wondered much, "What new evil has Morgoth got planned, or could it be that the ‘Wolf Keeper' has stuck out on his own?" he thought.  A dreadful realisation struck Hurin as he remembered the setting out of Voronwe and the events of that day.  "It was Sauron who followed them down Sirion," he said, "He was the only one of consequence not at Angband that day; I should have known it was a conjurer's trick to trap the unwary."  Hurin then pondered on Morgoth's actions since then and said "So my guess is near the mark for Morgoth assails Cirdan not and looks to find him by catching migrating Elves.  Could it be that Sauron now wishes to regain the favour of his master by clearing the way south for him, but Morgoth has strength enough of his own for that; Sauron you dare to conceal information and to hide from Morgoth's eye, what is it you want?"  It would not be long before Hurin set his eyes on Sauron again because Morgoth sent out a host out Angband that went by the hastily rebuilt Tol-in-Gaurhoth and Sauron stood at his doorway and watched them go forth.  Hurin noticed how impersonal Sauron seemed for he made no gesture of allegiance to the Orb carrying captain and Hurin said aloud to himself "You are brave indeed wicked one, but today I see your true face and I perceive your trickery".  The Orc captain heard these words and looked steely into Sauron's eyes and neither withdrew their gaze until he passed Sauron's door; the captain looked into his Orb to see the source of those words but Hurin had already diverted his sight elsewhere.  

Though these Orcs were great in number, this was but a scouting force sent by Morgoth as a show of strength and a challenge those who opposed him.  They came in the springtime and set up their camp under the eaves of the forests of Brethil, in sight of lonely mound of Amon Rudh.  The great hill stood between the vales of Sirion and Narog about the Guarded Plain; here no Orc came as yet and they were unfamiliar with ways of the moorlands about Amon Rudh.  This stony peak had many clefts, with hidden ways inside, and it had no plant life about it; save for the seregon that blazed fiery red upon its flat roof in the sunshine.  In the previous year Turin and his band of outlaws had settled in Amon Rudh.  It is said that they stayed there as the guest of a Petty-Dwarf named Mim; but afterwards it was accepted that he allowed them to stay perforce in ransom for the lives of his son and himself.  There also came Beleg Strongbow in the preceding winter after long searching the wilderness for Turin.  So it was that rumour of ‘The Bow and Helm' spread quickly across those lands and many men were drawn to them.  Several Orcs were routed from their encampments and they quailed at the approach of the Two Captains.  In order to keep secret from the enemy that the captains were stationed at Amon Rudh, many guarded settlements were established in the overwhelmed Orc camps; and in those days the Red Hill stood as a flaming beacon of hope to all free folk beset by Angband.  During this time no aid came from the Elves of Nargothrond for this place was still unknown to Morgoth and his plan to draw them out was foiled.  Despite this the men of this land found new valour and achieved many victories against the groping hand of Morgoth, and by the summer the Orcs were forced back; all of this was witnessed by Hurin and his heart was high within him.