Chapter 13

Of the Return of the Noldor

As you may remember, Feanor burned the ships of the Teleri on the shore of Middle-earth. However, Fingolfin wasn't the only one to see the great fire, for a pack of Orcs also spied it and brought news of the Elves' return to Morgoth. Never one to miss an opportunity, Morgoth sent a small army to greet the newcomers. But Feanor's group, eyes still burning with the light of Aman, defeated Morgoth's welcome party.

Then Feanor, seeing a few surviving Orcs escaping back to Angband, decided to follow them. Feanor knew absolutely nothing about the strength of Angband, but even if he had, it would not have stopped him from marching straight up to the dark lord's stronghold. Feanor, being his ludicrously overconfident self, decided to run ahead of everyone else. And that's how Feanor ended up outside of Angband, with no allies beside him, surrounded by Balrogs and other horrible things.

Was Feanor dismayed? Of course not. He fought with all his skill and strength until finally, Gothmog the lord of Balrogs wounded him. Feanor's seven sons arrived just in time to carry him away.

Once they were away from their enemies, Feanor told them to stop. He realized that his wounds were mortal, and before he reached his underwhelming death, he told his sons to avenge him and retrieve the Silmarils. And then he died, but his spirit was so fiery that it literally made him spontaneously combust.

So basically, Feanor caused a bunch of problems for the Elves and then died, having successfully avoided all consequences.

Shortly after Feanor had burned up, Morgoth sent a messenger to Feanor's seven sons asking to negotiate. The sons did not believe him for one second, but the eldest son, Maedhros, decided to go in the hopes that they might learn something and get a bit closer to having their Silmarils. Being no fool, Maedhros came with a lot more soldiers than he's promised to bring to the negotiation. Unfortunately, Morgoth also came with far more soldiers than he'd promised, including several Balrogs. They killed Maehdros's soldiers and captured Maedhros himself. Morgoth promised to release him if the other sons would surrender and leave, but the other sons were unable to leave due to their oath compelling them to retrieve the Silmarils. Besides, they had good reason to not trust that Morgoth would release their brother as he'd promised. Therefore Morgoth hung Maedhros by one hand on the mountain above Angband, hoping that the Elf's cries would fill his brothers with despair.

Fingolfin, at this time, had arrived in Middle-earth. He, being unlike Feanor, decided to check out the strength of Angband and wisely deduced that it would not fall to a single angry Elf. Heading in the opposite direction, Fingolfin and his people ran into Feanor's people. This worried Morgoth, since he realized that if the two groups of Elves combined their strength while Morgoth's servants were still hiding from the new Sun, they might be able to do some damage to Angband.

There was no happy Elf reunion, however, as Fingolfin's people were still a bit miffed at having been left to die at the ice wastes. Additionally, while many of Feanor's people repented of leaving the other group behind, they were too embarrassed to apologize. This feuding gave Morgoth enough time to darken the sky above Angband so the Sun wouldn't bewilder his servants, thus costing the Noldor the one chance they had at surprising him.

In the middle of this, Fingon, Fingolfin's eldest son, decided that this feud among the Noldor wasn't helping anyone except their mutual enemy. Having heard what happened to Maedhros, he remembered his old friendship with Feanor's son. Fingon wasn't aware that Maedhros had spoken against his father and he thought that Maedhros had abandoned him at the ice wastes, but he still couldn't stand the thought of his one-time friend being tortured. Out of this friendship, he decided to do something stupidly, wonderfully brave. He snuck out alone, hidden by the very darkness that Morgoth was using to blot out the sun, and made his way to the mountain above Angband where Maedhros was being held. In defiance of the Orcs that were still hiding from the darkening sun, Fingon began to sing a song that the Noldor had made long ago, before strife had come between them.

And suddenly, he heard a voice singing in answer. Maedhros had taken up the song in spite of his torment, and thus Fingon found his old friend. But that wasn't the end of the trouble. Try as he might, Fingon wasn't able to reach Maedhros let alone free him, and Maedhros at last begged Fingon to shoot him and end his torment. Fingon, losing hope and running out of time before he was discovered, drew his bow and cried, "Manwe, have some pity on us and let him die quickly!"

Manwe did him one better. As Fingon bent his bow, the leader of Manwe's eagles flew in and carried Fingon up to where Maedhros was hanging. But Fingon still couldn't free his friend, either by breaking the chain or cutting the other end out of the rock. Again Maedhros begged that Fingon should slay him and end his pain, but Fingon hadn't come this far to leave a bro behind. If the chain couldn't be cut off Maedhros, then Maedhros would just have to be cut off the chain. He chopped off his friend's hand and the two of them flew on the eagle back to the rest of the Noldor.

Happily, Maedhros recovered and learned to use his sword with his remaining hand. Fingon was highly praised, and the Noldor that had followed Feanor and those that followed Fingolfin were reconciled. Additionally, Maedhros apologized for having abandoned them at the ice wastes, and he even waived his claim to being king of the Noldor. Fingolfin, he declared, was both wise and sane and would make a better king. Thus Fingolfin became the king of the reunited Noldor, although not all of Maedhros's brothers were happy with this.

Thus the Noldor were reunited, and things were looking good again. However, not every Elf in Beleriand was happy with this, including Thingol, who worried about the influx of Elf princes eager for lands of their own. Melian kept her ring of enchantment around their land of Doriath, and the only Noldor that Thingol let through were the children of Finarfin, as their mother was Thingol's niece.

When Finarfin's kids visited Doriath, they told Thingol about their situation but wisely left out any parts about why they'd been exiled or how the Teleri had been murdered. Thingol told them that of course the Noldor could settle down in Middle-earth, just as long as they didn't come near his lands.

The sons of Feanor were, however, upset at this, since they wanted to have more land. Maedhros had to restrain his brothers because they were ready to start another fight over this, and he moved his brothers eastward to lessen the chance of House Feanor trying to murder anyone. Maedhros remained on good terms with the families of Fingolfin and Finarfin, but he was still bound by his oath to retrieve the Silmarils, although he put it off for the moment.

Once everyone was settled, Fingolfin set up a big feast and invited his neighbors to come and declare a mutual friendship. Maedhros and Maglor (the two most decent sons of Feanor) came, as did Cirdan the Shipwright and several other Elves from the Beleriand. Even Thingol's secretive realm of Doriath sent a few messengers. They all had a great time, since Morgoth was still hiding from the sun and the land was at peace.

Shortly afterward, Finrod and Turgon were each given dreams by Ulmo that reminded them that the time of peace would not last forever and that they should make hidden kingdoms before Morgoth decided to strike. Finrod and his sister Galadriel were visiting Thingol at the time, so Finrod decided to ask him for advice. "Great-uncle Thingol, I was thinking of setting up a hidden kingdom of my own. Since you seem to be an expert at it with your city, I was wondering if you might have some advice?"

"Of course," replied Thingol. "I know some good caves that are pretty secret." And thus with the assistance of Thingol, Finrod set up his own hidden city of Nargothrond. Thingol also recommended some Dwarf families he'd worked with to assist with building the place.

When Narogthrond was finished, Finrod invited his sister Galadriel to come live with him. However, she decided to stay in Doriath with her new husband, Celeborn. During Galadriel's stay, she also learned much from Melian.

Turgon, meanwhile, also looked for a place to build a hidden city. With the guidance of Ulmo, he found a very secluded valley and began drawing the blueprints for the city of Gondolin, fashioned after the old city of Tirion that he'd left in Aman.

Morgoth saw the Elves wandering around and setting up realms of their own, and he decided that it was the perfect time for a little war. Fortunately, Fingolfin and Maedhros were ready for this, and not only did they defeat the Orcs that had been sent against them, but they also laid siege to Angband for the next four hundred years. Middle-earth once again entered a time of peace.