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rather would she dwell poor among Men than live sweetly as an almsguest among the woodland Elves

(II. 73)

but to spend her days

as alms-guest of others, even Elfin kings,

it liked her little

(284–6)

she would not yet humble her pride to be an alms-guest, not even of a king

(Narn p. 70)

– though in the Narn the ‘alms-guest’ passage occurs at a different point, before Túrin left Hithlum (Morwen’s hope that Húrin would come back is in the Narn her reason for not journeying to Doriath with her son, not for refusing the later invitation to her to go).

Of Morwen’s situation in Dor-lómin after the Battle of Unnumbered Tears there are a few things to say. In the poem (111–13)

men unmindful of his mighty lordship

dwelt in Dorlómin and dealt unkindly

with his widowed wife

– echoing the Tale: ‘the strange men who dwelt nigh knew not the dignity of the Lady Mavwin’, but there is still no indication of who these men were or where they came from (see II. 126). As so often, the narrative situation was prepared but its explanation had not emerged. The unclarity of the Tale as to where Úrin dwelt before the great Battle (see II. 120) is no longer present: the dwelling was dear where he dwelt of old (288). Nienor was born before Túrin left (on the contradiction in the Tale on this point see II. 131); and the chronology of Túrin’s childhood is still that of the Tale (see II. 142): seven years old when he left Hithlum (332), seven years in Doriath while tidings still came from Morwen (333), twelve years since he came to Doriath when he slew Orgof (471). In the later story the last figure remained unchanged, which suggests that the X (mark of dissatisfaction) placed against line 471 had some other reason.

There are several references in the poem to Húrin and Beren having been friends and fellows-in-arms (122–4, 248–9, 298). In the Tale it was said originally (when Beren was a Man) that Egnor Beren’s father was akin to Mavwin; this was replaced by a different passage (when Beren had become a Gnome) according to which Egnor was a friend of Úrin (‘and Beren Ermabwed son of Egnor he knew’); see II. 71–2, 139. In the later version of the Tale of Tinúviel (II. 44) Úrin is named as the ‘brother in arms’ of Egnor; this was emended to make Úrin’s relationship with Beren himself – as in the poem. In The Silmarillion (p. 198) Morwen thought to send Túrin to Thingol ‘for Beren son of Barahir was her father’s kinsman, and he had been moreover a friend of Húrin, ere evil befell’. There is no mention of the fact in the Narn (p. 63): Morwen merely says: ‘Am I not now kin of the king [Thingol]? For Beren son of Barahir was grandson of Bregor, as was my father also.’