Then said Tinúviel that she desired not things of worth or precious stones, but the elven gladness of the forest, and to pleasure Gwendelin she cast it from her neck; but Beren was little pleased and he would not suffer it to be flung away, but warded it in his [? treasury].
Thereafter did Gwendelin abide a while in the woods among them and was healed [of her overwhelming grief for Tinwelint]; and in the end she fared wistfully back to the land of Lórien and came never again into the tales of the dwellers of Earth; but upon Beren and Lúthien fell swiftly that doom of mortality that Mandos had spoken when he sped them from his halls—and in this perhaps did the curse of M?m have [? potency] in that it came more soon upon them; nor this time did those twain fare the road together, but when yet was their child, Dior the Fair, a little one, did Tinúviel slowly fade, even as the Elves of later days have done throughout the world, and she vanished in the woods, and none have seen her dancing ever there again. But Beren searched all the lands of Hithlum and of Artanor ranging after her; and never has any of the Elves had more loneliness than his, or ever he too faded from life, and Dior his son was left ruler of the brown Elves and the green, and Lord of the Nauglafring.
Mayhap what all Elves say is true, that those twain hunt now in the forest of Orom? in Valinor, and Tinúviel dances on the green swards of Nessa and Vána daughters of the Gods for ever more; yet great was the grief of the Elves when the Guilwarthon went from among them, and being leaderless and lessened of magic their numbers minished; and many fared away to Gondolin, the rumour of whose growing power and glory ran in secret whispers among all the Elves.
Still did Dior when come to manhood rule a numerous folk, and he loved the woods even as Beren had done; and songs name him mostly Ausir the Wealthy for his possession of that wondrous gem set in the Necklace of the Dwarves. Now the tales of Beren and Tinúviel grew dim in his heart, and he took to wearing it about his neck and to love its loveliness most dearly; and the fame of that jewel spread like fire through all the regions of the North, and the Elves said one to another: ‘A Silmaril burns in the woods of Hisilóm?.’
The Tale of the Nauglafring told in greater detail of the assault on Dior and his death at the hands of the sons of F?anor, and this last of the Lost Tales to receive consecutive form ends with the escape of Elwing:
She wandered in the woods, and of the brown Elves and the green a few gathered to her, and they departed for ever from the glades of Hithlum and got them to the south towards Sirion’s deep waters, and the pleasant lands.
And thus did all the fates of the fairies weave then to one strand, and that strand is the great tale of E?rendel; and to that tale’s true beginning are we now come.
*
There follow in the Quenta Noldorinwa passages concerned with the history of Gondolin and its fall, and the history of Tuor, who was wedded to Idril Celebrindal daughter of Turgon king of Gondolin; their son was E?rendel, who with them escaped from the destruction of the city and came to the Mouths of Sirion. The Quenta continues, following from the flight of Elwing daughter of Dior from Doriath to the mouths of Sirion (pp. 236–7):
By Sirion there grew up an elven folk, the gleanings of Doriath and Gondolin, and they took to the sea and the making of fair ships, and they dwelt nigh unto its shores and under the shadow of Ulmo’s hand . . .
In those days Tuor felt old age creep upon him, and he could not forbear the longing that possessed him for the sea; wherefore he built a great ship E?rám?, Eagle’s Pinion, and with Idril he set sail into the sunset and the West, and came no more into any tale. But E?rendel the shining became the lord of the folk of Sirion and took to wife fair Elwing, the daughter of Dior; and yet he could not rest. Two thoughts were in his heart blended as one: the longing for the wide sea; and he thought to sail thereon following after Tuor and Idril Celebrindal who returned not, and he thought to find perhaps the last shore and bring ere he died a message to the Gods and Elves of the West that should move their hearts to pity on the world and the sorrows of Mankind.
Wingelot he built, fairest of the ships of song, the Foam-flower; white were its timbers as the argent moon, golden were its oars, silver were its shrouds, its masts were crowned with jewels like stars. In The Lay of E?rendel is many a thing sung of his adventures in the deep and in lands untrod, and in many seas and many isles. . . But Elwing sat sorrowing at home.
E?rendel found not Tuor, nor came he ever on that journey to the shores of Valinor; and at last he was driven by the winds back East, and he came at a time of night to the havens of Sirion, unlooked for, unwelcomed, for they were desolate . . .
The dwelling of Elwing at Sirion’s mouth, where still she possessed the Nauglamír and the glorious Silmaril, became known to the sons of F?anor; and they gathered together from their wandering hunting-paths.
But the folk of Sirion would not yield that jewel which Beren had won and Lúthien had worn, and for which fair Dior had been slain. And so befell the last and cruellest of the slaying of Elf by Elf, the third woe achieved by the accursed oath; for the sons of F?anor came down upon the exiles of Gondolin and the remnant of Doriath, and though some of their folk stood aside and some few rebelled and were slain upon the other part aiding Elwing against their own lords, yet they won the day. Damrod was slain and Díriel, and Maidros and Maglor alone now remained of the Seven; but the last of the folk of Gondolin were destroyed or forced to depart and join them to the people of Maidros. And yet the sons of F?anor gained not the Silmaril; for Elwing cast the Nauglamír into the sea, whence it shall not return until the End; and she leapt herself into the waves, and took the form of a white sea-bird, and flew away lamenting and seeking for E?rendel about all the shores of the world.
But Maidros took pity upon her child Elrond, and took him with him, and harboured and nurtured him, for his heart was sick and weary with the burden of the dreadful oath.
Learning these things E?rendel was overcome with sorrow; and he set sail once more in search of Elwing and of Valinor. And it is told in the Lay of E?rendel that he came at last unto the Magic Isles, and hardly escaped their enchantment, and found again the Lonely Isle, and the Shadowy Seas, and the Bay of Fa?rie on the borders of the world. There he landed on the immortal shore alone of living Men, and his feet climbed the marvellous hill of K?r; and he walked in the deserted ways of T?n, where the dust on his raiment and his shoes was a dust of diamonds and gems. But he ventured not into Valinor.