Morgoth's Ring

Read Morgoth's Ring for Free Online

Book: Read Morgoth's Ring for Free Online
Authors: J. R. R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien
North where the light of Foros was only dim he made a hidden dwelling. And he sent forth his power and turned again to evil much that had been well begun, so that fens became rank and poisonous and forests perilous and full of fear, and beasts became monsters of horn and ivory and dyed the Earth with blood. And when he saw his time he revealed himself and made war again on the Valar, his brethren; and he threw down the lamps, and a new darkness fell on the Earth, 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.
    And the Valar at that time had long dwelt upon an island in the midst of the Earth,19 but now they were forced to depart again; and they made their home in the uttermost West,20 and they fortified it; and they built many mansions in that land upon the borders of the World which is called Valinor; and to fence that land from the East they built the Pelóri Valion,21 the Mountains of Valinor that were the highest upon Earth. Thence they came with war against Melkor; but he had grown in stature and malice, so that they could not at that time either overcome him or take him captive, and he escaped from their wrath and built himself a mighty fortress in the North of Middle-earth, and delved great caverns underground, and gathered there many lesser powers that seeing his greatness and growing strength were now willing to serve him; and the name of that strong and evil place was Utumno.
    §33 Thus it was that Earth lay wrapped in darkness again, save in Valinor, as the ages drew on to the hour appointed for the coming of the Firstborn of the Children of Ilúvatar. And in MORGOTH`S RING - AINULINDALË - Version C - 19

    the darkness Melkor dwelt, and still often walked abroad in Middle-earth; and he wielded cold and fire, from the tops of the mountains to the deep furnaces that are beneath them, and whatsoever was violent or cruel or deadly in those days was laid to his charge.
    §34 And in Valinor dwelt the Valar and all their kin and folk, and because of the bliss and beauty of that land they came seldom to Middle-earth. Yet Yavanna, to whom all things that grow are dear, forsook not the Earth22 utterly, and leaving the house of Aulë and the light of Valinor she would come at times and heal the hurts of Melkor; and returning she would ever urge the Valar to that war with his evil power that they must surely wage ere the coming of the Firstborn.
    And Oromë also, the hunter, rode at whiles in the darkness of the unlit forests, sounding his mighty horn, whereat the shadows of Utumno, and even Melkor himself, would flee away.
    §35 In the midst of the Blessed Realm Aulë dwelt, and laboured long, for in the making of all things in that land he had the chief part; and he wrought there many fair and shapely things both openly and in secret. Of him comes the love and knowledge of the Earth and of all those things that it contains, whether the lore of those who do not make but seek only for the understanding of what is, studying the fabric of the Earth and the blending and mutation of its elements, or the lore of all craftsmen: the tiller and the husbandman, the weaver, the shaper of wood, or the forger of metals. [And Aulë we name the Friend of the Noldor, for of him they learned much in after days, and they are the wisest and most skilled of the Elves. And in their own fashion, according to their own gifts which Iluvatar gave to them, they added much to his teaching, delighting in tongues and alphabets and in the figures of broidery, of drawing, and of carving.
    And the Noldor it was who achieved the invention of gems, which were not in the world before their coming; and the fairest of all gems were the Silmarils, and they are lost.]23
    §36 But Manwë Súlimo, highest and holiest of the Valar, sat upon the borders of the West, forsaking not in his thought the Outer Lands. For his throne was set in majesty upon the pinnacle of Taniquetil,

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