J. Tolkien: The Children of Húrin

It was said that Men (whom the Elves called Atani ‘the Second’, and Hildor ‘the Followers’) arose far off in the east of Middle-earth towards the end of the Elder Days; but of their earliest history the Men who entered Beleriand in the days of the Long Peace, when Angband was besieged and its gates shut, would never speak. The leader of these first Men to cross the Blue Mountains was named Bëor the Old; and to Finrod Felagund, King of Nargothrond, who first encountered them Bëor declared: ‘A darkness lies behind us; and we have turned our backs on it, and we do not desire to return thither even in thought. Westwards our hearts have been turned, and we believe that there we shall find Light.’ Sador, the old servant of Húrin, spoke in the same way to Túrin in his boyhood ( †). But it was said afterwards that when Morgoth learned of the arising of Men he left Angband for the last time and went into the East; and that the first Men to enter Beleriand ‘had repented and rebelled against the Dark Power, and were cruelly hunted and oppressed by those that worshipped it, and its servants’.

These Men belonged to three Houses, known as the House of Bëor, the House of Hador, and the House of Haleth. Húrin’s father Galdor the Tall was of the House of Hador, being indeed his son; but his mother was of the House of Haleth, while Morwen his wife was of the House of Bëor, and related to Beren.

The people of the Three Houses were the Edain (the Sindarin form of Atani ), and they were called Elf-friends. Hador dwelt in Hithlum and was given the lordship of Dor-lómin by King Fingolfin ;the people of Bëor settled in Dorthonion; and the people of Haleth at this time dwelt in the Forest of Brethil. After the ending of the Siege of Angband Men of a very different sort came over the mountains; they were commonly referred to as Easterlings, and some of them played an important part in the story of Túrin.

The Siege of Angband ended with a terrible suddenness (though long prepared) on a night of midwinter, 395 years after it had begun. Morgoth released rivers of fire that ran down from Thangorodrim, and the great grassy plain of Ardgalen that lay to the north of the highland of Dorthonion was transformed into a parched and arid waste, known thereafter by a changed name, Anfauglith , the Gasping Dust.

This catastrophic assault was called Dagor Bragollach , the Battle of Sudden Flame. Glaurung Father of Dragons emerged from Angband now for the first time in his full might; vast armies of Orcs poured southwards; the Elvish lords of Dorthonion were slain, and a great part of the warriors of Bëor’s people. King Fingolfin and his son Fingon were driven back with the warriors of Hithlum to the fortress of Eithel Sirion in the east face of the Mountains of Shadow, and in its defence Hador Goldenhead was killed. Then Galdor, Húrin’s father, became the lord of Dor-lómin; for the torrents of fire were stopped by the barrier of the Mountains of Shadow, and Hithlum and Dor-lómin remained unconquered.

It was in the year after the Bragollach that Fingolfin, in a fury of despair, rode to Angband and challenged Morgoth. Two years later Húrin and Huor went to Gondolin. After four more years, in a renewed assault on Hithlum, Húrin’s father Galdor was slain in the fortress of Eithel Sirion: Sador was there, as he told Túrin ( †), and saw Húrin (then a young man of twenty-one) ‘take up his lordship and his command’.

All these things were fresh in memory in Dor-lómin when Túrin was born, nine years after the Battle of Sudden Flame.

The following note is intended to clarify a few main features in the pronunciation of names.

C —always has the value of k , never of s ; thus Celebros is ‘ Kelebros ’, not ‘ Selebros’.

CH— always has the value of ch in Scots loch or German buch , never that of ch in English church ; examples are Anach , Narn i Chîn Húrin .

DH— is always used to represent the sound of a voiced (‘soft’) th in English, that is the th in then , not the th in thin . Examples are Glóredhel, Eledhwen, Maedhros .

G— always has the sound of English g in get ; thus Region is not pronounced like English region , and the first syllable of Ginglith is as in English begin , not as in gin .

AI— has the sound of English eye ; thus the second syllable of Edain is like English dine , not Dane .

AU— has the value of English ow in town ; thus the first vowel of Sauron is like English sour , not sore .

EI— as in Teiglin has the sound of English grey .

IE— should not be pronounced as in English piece , but with both the vowels i and e sounded, and run together; thus Ni-enor , not ‘ Neenor ’.

AE— as in Aegnor , Nirnaeth , is a combination of the individual vowels, a-e , but may be pronounced in the same way as AI.

EA— and EO are not run together, but constitute two syllables; these combinations are written ëa and ëo, as in Bëor, or at the beginning of names Eä, Eö, as in Eärendil .

Ú— in names like Húrin , Túrin , should be pronounced oo ; thus ‘ Toorin ’, not ‘ Tyoorin ’.

IR, UR— before a consonant (as in Círdan , Gurthang ) should not be pronounced as in English fir , fur , but as in English, eer , oor .

E— at the end of words is always pronounced as a distinct vowel, and in this position is written ë . It is always pronounced in the middle of words like Celebros , Menegroth .

Hador Goldenhead was a lord of the Edain and well-beloved by the Eldar. He dwelt while his days lasted under the lordship of Fingolfin, who gave to him wide lands in that region of Hithlum which was called Dor-lómin. His daughter Glóredhel wedded Haldir son of Halmir, lord of the Men of Brethil; and at the same feast his son Galdor the Tall wedded Hareth, the daughter of Halmir.

Galdor and Hareth had two sons, Húrin and Huor. Húrin was by three years the elder, but he was shorter in stature than other men of his kin; in this he took after his mother’s people, but in all else he was like Hador, his grandfather, strong in body and fiery of mood. But the fire in him burned steadily, and he had great endurance of will. Of all Men of the North he knew most of the counsels of the Noldor. Huor his brother was tall, the tallest of all the Edain save his own son Tuor only, and a swift runner; but if the race were long and hard Húrin would be the first home, for he ran as strongly at the end of the course as at the beginning. There was great love between the brothers, and they were seldom apart in their youth.