Читать книгу The Shaping of Middle-earth онлайн | страница 65
The ambush at the ford is made by ‘Beren and the brown and green Elves of the wood’, which goes back to ‘the brown Elves and the green’, the ‘elfin folk all clad in green and brown’ ruled by Beren and afterwards by Dior in Hithlum, in the Tale of the Nauglafring. But of the vigorous account of the battle at the ford in the Tale – the laughter of the Elves at the misshapen Dwarves running with their long white beards torn by the wind, the duel of Beren and Naugladur, whose forge-hammer blows would have overcome Beren had not Naugladur stumbled and Beren swung him off his feet by catching hold of the Nauglafring – there is nothing in S: though equally, nothing to contradict the old story. There is however no mention of the two Dwarf-lords, Naugladur of Nogrod and Bodruith of Belegost, and though both Dwarf-cities are named the Dwarves are treated as an undivided force, with, as it seems, one king (slain at the ford): Thingol summoned those of Belegost as well as those of Nogrod to Doriath for the fashioning of the gold, whereas in the Tale (II. 230) the former only enter the story after the humiliating expulsion of the Dwarves of Nogrod, in order to aid them in their revenge. Of the old story of the death of Bodruith and the feud and slaughter among the two kindreds (brought about by Ufedhin) there is no trace.
The drowning of the treasure in the river goes back to the Tale; but there however the suggestion is not that the treasure was deliberately sunk: rather it fell into the river with the bodies of the Dwarves who bore it:
those that waded in the ford cast their golden burdens in the waters and sought affrighted to either bank, but many were stricken with those pitiless darts and fell with their gold into the currents (II. 237).
It is not said in the Tale that any of the gold was drowned by the Elves. There, Gwendelin came to Beren and Tinúviel after the battle of the Stony Ford, and found Tinúviel already wearing the Nauglafring; there is mention of the greatness of her beauty when she wore it. Gwendelin’s warning is only against the Silmaril (the rest of the treasure being drowned), and indeed her horror at seeing the Necklace of the Dwarves on Tinúviel was so great that Tinúviel put it off. This was to Beren’s displeasure, and he kept it (II. 239–40). In S the drowning seems to be carried out in response to Melian’s warning of the curse upon it, and the story seems to be thus: Melian comes to Beren and Lúthien and warns them of the approach of the Dwarf-host returning out of Doriath; after the battle Lúthien wears the Nauglafring and becomes immeasurably beautiful; but Melian warns them of the curse on the gold and on the Silmaril and they drown the treasure, though Beren keeps the Necklace secretly.