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shall arise. Whenever they speak, their words shall bring ill counsel.
Whatsoever they do shall turn against them. They shall die without hope,
cursing both life and death."
But Húrin answered: "Do you forget to whom you speak? Such things you spoke
long ago to our fathers; but we escaped from your shadow. And now we have
knowledge of you, for we have looked on the faces that have seen the Light,
and heard the voices that have spoken with Mane. Before Arda you were, but
others also; and you did not make it. Neither are you the most mighty; for you
have spent your strength upon yourself and wasted it in your own emptiness.
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No more are you now than an escaped thrall of the Valar, and their chain still
awaits you."
"You have learned the lessons of your masters by rote," said Morgoth. "But
such childish lore will not help you, now they are all fled away."
"This last then I will say to you, thrall Morgoth," said Húrin, "and it comes
not from the lore of the
Eldar, but is put into my heart in this hour. You are not the Lord of Men, and
shall not be, though all Arda and Menel fall in your dominion. Beyond the
Circles of the World you shall not pursue those who refuse you."
"Beyond the Circles of the World I will not pursue them," said Morgoth. "For
beyond the Circles of the World there is Nothing. But within them they shall
not escape me, until they enter into Nothing."
"You lie," said Húrin.
"You shall see and you shall confess that I do not lie," said Morgoth. And
taking Húrin back to
Angband he set him in a chair of stone upon a high place of Thangorodrim, from
winch he could see afar the land of Hithlum in the west and the lands of
Beleriand in the south. There he was bound by the power of
Morgoth; and Morgoth standing beside him cursed him again and set his power
upon him, so that he could not move from that place, nor die, until Morgoth
should release him.
"Sit now there," said Morgoth, "and look out upon the lands where evil and
despair shall come upon those whom you have delivered to me. For you have
dared to mock me, and have questioned the power of
Melkor, Master of the fates of Arda. Therefore with my eyes you shall see, and
with my ears you shall hear, and nothing shall be hidden from you."
The Departure of Túrin
To Brethil three men only found their way back at last through Taur-nu-Fuin,
an evil road; and when
Glóredhel Hador's daughter learned of the fall of Haldir she grieved and died.
To Dor-lómin no tidings came. Rían wife of Huor fled into the wild distraught;
but she was aided by the Grey-elves of he hills of Mithrim, and when her
child, Tuor, was born they fostered him. But Rían went to the
Haudh-en-Nirnaeth, and laid herself down there, and died.
Morwen Eledhwen remained in Hithlum, silent in grief, her son Túrin was only
in his ninth year, and she was again with child. Her days were evil. The
Easterlings came into the land in great numbers, and they dealt cruelly with
the people of Hador, and robbed them of all that they possessed and enslaved
them. All the people of Húrin's homelands that could work or serve any purpose
they took away, even young girls and boys, and the old they killed or drove
out to starve. But they dared not yet lay hands on the Lady of Dor-
lómin, or thrust her from her house; for the word ran among them that she was
perilous, and a witch who had dealings with the white-fiends: for so they
named the Elves, hating them, but fearing them more. For this
3
reason they also feared and avoided the mountains, in which many of the Eldar
had taken refuge, especially in the south of the land; and after plundering
and harrying the Easterlings drew back northwards. For Húrin's house stood in
the south-east of Dor-lómin, and the mountains were near; Nen Lalaith indeed
came down from a spring under the shadow of Amon Darthir; over whose shoulder
there was a steep pass. By this the
hardy could cross Ered Wethrin and come down by the wells of Glithui into
Beleriand. But this was not known to the Easterlings, nor to Morgoth yet; for
all that country, while the House of Fingolfin stood, was secure from him, and
none of his servants had ever come there. He trusted that Ered Wethrin was a
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wall insurmountable, both against escape from the north and against assault
from the south; and there was indeed no other pass, for the unwinged, between
Serech and far westward where Dor-lómin marched with Nevrast.
Thus it came to pass that after the first inroads Morwen was let be, though
there were men that lurked in the woods about, and it was perilous to stir far
abroad. There still remained under Morwen's shelter Sador the woodwright and a
few old men and women, and Túrin, whom she kept close within the garth. But
the homestead of Húrin soon fell into decay, and though Morwen laboured hard
she was poor, and would have gone hungry but for the help that was sent to her
secretly by Aerin, Húrin's kinswoman; for a certain Brodda, one of the
Easterlings, had taken her by force to be his wife. Alms were bitter to
Morwen; but she took this aid for the sake of Túrin and her unborn child, and
because, as she said, it came of her own. For it was this
Brodda who had seized the people, the goods, and the cattle of Húrin's
homelands, and carried them off to his own dwellings. He was a bold man, but
of small account among his own people before they came to
Hithlum; and so, seeking wealth, he was ready to hold lands that others of his
sort did not covet. Morwen he had seen once, when he rode to her house on a
foray; but a great dread of her had seized him. He thought that he had looked
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