Free The Lays of Beleriand by J. R. R. Tolkien Page B

37) was almost certainly made a few years later, when the Elf lying under the tree was still called Flinding son of Fuilin (in the Tale bo-Dhuilin, earlier go-Dhuilin, son of Duilin; the
    . patronymic prefix has in the poem (814, 900) reverted to the earlier form go-, see II. 119).
    In the Tale it is only said (II. 81 ) that Flinding was of the people of the
    - Rodothlim 'before the Orcs captured him'-, from the poem (819 -- 21) it
    ; seems that he was carried off, with many others, from Nargothrond, but this can scarcely be the meaning, since nought yet knew they [the Orcs] of Nargothrond (1578). The marginal note in B against these lines 'Captured in battle at gates of Angband' refers to the later story, first
    ' appearing in the 1930 'Silmarillion'.
    The poem follows the Tale in the detail of Flinding's story to Beleg, except that in the poem he was recaptured by the Orcs in Taur-na-Fuin (846ff.) and escaped again (crept from their clutches as a crawling worm, 879), whereas in the Tale he was not recaptured but 'fled heedlessly'(II. 79). The notable point in the Tale that Flinding 'was overjoyed to have speech with a free Noldo' reappears in the poem: Marvelling he heard/the ancient tongue of the Elves of Tun. The detail of their encountering of the Orc-host is slightly different: in the Tale the Orcs had changed their path, in the poem it seems that Beleg and Flinding merely came more quickly than did the Orcs to the point where the Orc-road emerged from the edge of the forest. In the Tale it seems indeed that the Orcs had not left the forest when they encamped for the night: the eyes of the wolves 'shone like points of red light among the trees', and
    'Beleg and Flinding laid Turin down after his rescue 'in the woods at no
    :great distance from the camp'. The cup outcarven on the cold hill-of the poem (1036), where the Orcs made their bivouac, is the 'bare
    ;dell' of The Silmarillion.
    In contrast to the Tale (see p. 26) Beleg is now frequently called
    :Beleg the bowman, his great bow (not yet named) is fully described,
    ."and his unmatched skill as an archer (1071 ff.). There is also in the poem the feature of the arrow Dailir, unfailingly found and always unharmed (1080 ff.), until it broke when Beleg fell upon it while carrying Turin
    :,(1189 -- 92): of this there is never a mention later. The element of Beleg's The element of the blue lamp is lacking from the account in The Silmarillion; see Unfinished Tales p. 51 note 2.)
    archery either arose from, or itself caused, the change in the story of the entry of Beleg and Flinding into the Orc-camp that now appears: in the Tale they merely 'crept between the wolves at a point where there was a great gap between them', whereas in the poem Beleg performed the feat of shooting seven wolves in the darkness, and only so was 'a great gap opened' (1097). But the words of the Tale, 'as the luck of the Valar had it Turin was lying nigh', are echoed in
    till the Gods brought them
    and the craft and cunning of the keen huntsman to Turin the tall where he tumbled lay(I 130 -- 2): The lifting and carrying of Turin by the two Elves, referred to in the Tale as 'a great feat', 'seeing that he was a Man and of greater stature than they' (II. So), is expanded in the poem (1156 ff.) into a comment on the stature of Men and Elves in the ancient time, which agrees with earlier statements on this topic (see I. 235, II. 142, 220). The notable lines though Men were of mould less mighty builded
    ere the earth's goodness from the Elves they drew (1157 -- 8) are to be related to the statements cited in II. 326: 'As Men's stature grows [the Elves'] diminishes', and 'ever as Men wax more powerful and numerous so the fairies fade and grow small and tenuous, filmy and transparent, but Men larger and more dense and gross'. The mention here (1164) of the ten races of Hithlum occurs nowhere else, and it is not clear whether it refers to all the peoples of Men and Elves who in one place or another in the