Read Online Morgoth's Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien - Free Book Online

dim, he made a hidden dwelling. Thence he sent forth his power and turned again to evil much that had been well begun; so that green things fell sick and rotted, and rivers were choked with weeds and slime, and fens were made, rank and poisonous, and the breeding place of flies; and forests grew dark and perilous, the haunts of fear; and beasts became monsters of horn and ivory and dyed the earth with blood.
    And when he saw his time,

    MORGOTH`S RING - AINULINDALË - Version D - 33

    Melkor revealed himself, and he made war again on the Valar his brethren; and he threw down the Lamps, and a new darkness fell, and all growth ceased. And in the fall of the Lamps, which were very great, the seas were lifted up in fury, and many lands were drowned.
    Then the Valar were driven from their abode in Almaren, and they removed from the Middle-earth, and made their home in the uttermost West, [ added: ] in Aman the Blessed, / and they fortified it against the onslaught of Melkor. Many mansions they built in that land upon the borders of the world which is since called Valinor, whose western marges fall into the mists of the Outer Sea, and whose fences against the East are the [Pelóri >] Pelóre Valion, the Mountains of Valinor, highest upon Earth.
    Thence they came at last with a great host against Melkor, to wrest from him the rule of the Middle-earth; but he now had grown in malice and in strength and was master of many monsters and evil things, so that they could not at that time overcome him utterly, nor take him captive; and he escaped from their wrath, and lay hid until they had departed. Then he returned to his dwelling in the North, and there built for himself a mighty fortress, and delved great caverns underground secure from assault, and he gathered to him many lesser powers that seeing his greatness and growing strength were now willing to serve him; and the name of that evil fastness was Utumno.
    §33 Thus it was that the Earth lay darkling again, save only inValinor, as the ages drew on to the hour appointed by Ilúvatar for the coming of the Firstborn. And in the darkness Melkor dwelt, and still often walked abroad, in many shapes of power and fear; and he wielded cold and fire, from the tops of the mountains to the deep furnaces that are beneath them; and whatsoever was cruel or violent or deadly in those days is laid to his charge.
    §34 But in Valinor the Valar dwelt with all their kin and folk, and because of the beauty and bliss of that realm they came seldom now to Middle-earth, but gave to the Land beyond the Mountains their chief care and love.

    D omits the remainder of C §34 concerning the visits of Yavanna and Oromë to Middle-earth (see p. 35), and continues from the beginning of C §35: 'And in the midst of the Blessed Realm were the mansions of Aulë, and there he laboured long.' From this point D becomes again much closer to C, and the differences can be given in the form of notes.

    MORGOTH`S RING - AINULINDALË - Version D - 34

    §35 'Of him comes the love and knowledge of the Earth'; D 'Of him comes the lore .
    . .' (both readings certain).
    'the fabric of the Earth'; D 'the fabric of the world'
    'the tiller and the husbandman, the weaver, the shaper of wood, or the forger of metals'; D 'the weaver, the shaper of wood, and the worker in metals; and the tiller and the husbandman also. Though these last and all that deal with things that grow and bear fruit must look also to the spouse of Aulë, Yavanna Palúrien.'
    The passage concerning the Noldor, bracketed in C, was retained in D, with change of 'and they are the wisest and most skilled of the Elves' to 'and they are the most skilled of the Elves'
    §36 'all that passed in Aman' retained in D (cf. note to §23 above).
    'from the eyes of Manwë'; D 'from the eyes of Manwë and the servants of Manwë'
    'she it was who wrought the Stars' altered (late) in D to 'she it was who wrought the Great Stars'
    Immediately following this a passage in D is very