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A new factor in Thingol’s policy now appears, however, in that he resented the ‘haughty words’ addressed to him by Maidros, demanding the return of the Silmaril – those ‘haughty words’ and their effect on the Union of Maidros survived into The Silmarillion (p. 189). That Thingol here allows ‘the Gnomes of Doriath’ to join the league is to be related to the statement in S §9: ‘Many Gnomes take service with Thingol and Melian’ (after the breaking of the Siege of Angband). (In the Tale of Tinúviel there were Noldoli in Tinwelint’s service: it was they indeed who built the bridge before his doors. II. 9, 43.)

As S was rewritten, the division of the opponents of Morgoth into two hosts was due to the refusal of the Fëanorians to be led by Finweg (Fingon), whereas in The Silmarillion account there was good agreement between Himring and Eithel Sirion, and the assault from East and West of the Fëanorians and the Noldor of Hithlum a matter of strategy (‘they thought to take the might of Morgoth as between anvil and hammer, and break it to pieces’).

The Battle of Unnumbered Tears is still in S in a simple form, but the advance of the Elves of Hithlum into Dor-na-Fauglith in pursuit of a defeated Orc-army, so that they fall prey to much greater hosts loosed from Angband, moves towards the plan of the later narrative; the late arrival of the Fëanorians goes back to an outline for Gilfanon’s Tale (see above). No detail is given in S concerning the treachery of Men at the battle, nor is any reason suggested for the late coming of the Eastern Noldor.

Finweg (Fingon) had taken the place of Finwë (Nólemë) as the Gnomish king slain in the battle already in the Lay of the Children of Húrin (III. 86), and so the story of the Scarlet Heart, emblem of Turgon (I. 241, II. 172), had disappeared; in the second version of the Lay there is mention of his white banners … in blood beaten (III. 96). In S Turgon is a leader, with his brother Finweg (Fingon), of the Western Noldor from the outset, and was clearly conceived to be dwelling at this time in Hithlum (cf. the interpolation in §9: ‘Fingolfin’s sons Finweg and Turgon still hold out in the North’, i.e. after the ending of the Siege of Angband); and the discovery of the secret valley and the founding of Gondolin follows from the retreat from the disaster of the Battle of Unnumbered Tears. The ‘sacrifice of Mablon the Ilkorin’ (I. 239, 241) has disappeared.