Therefore gathering new forces in Nogrod and in Belegost they returned at length, and aided by the treachery of certain Elves on whom the lust of the accursed treasure had fallen they passed into Doriath secretly.
There they surprised Thingol upon a hunt with but small company of arms; and Thingol was slain, and the fortress of the Thousand Caves taken at unawares and plundered; and so was brought well nigh to ruin the glory of Doriath and but one stronghold of the Elves [Gondolin] against Morgoth now remained, and their twilight was nigh at hand.
Queen Melian the Dwarves could not seize or harm, and she went forth to seek Beren and Lúthien. Now the Dwarf-road to Nogrod and Belegost in the Blue Mountains passed through East Beleriand and the woods about the River Gelion, where aforetime were the hunting grounds of Damrod and Díriel, sons of F?anor. To the south of those lands between the river Gelion and the mountains lay the land of Ossiriand, and there lived and wandered still in peace and bliss Beren and Lúthien, in that time of respite which Lúthien had won, ere both should die; and their folk were the Green Elves of the South. But Beren went no more to war, and his land was filled with loveliness and a wealth of flowers, and Men called it oft Cuilwarthien, the Land of the Dead that Live.
To the north of that region is a ford across the river Ascar, and that ford is named Sarn Athrad, the Ford of Stones. This ford the Dwarves must pass ere they reached the mountain passes that led unto their homes; and there Beren fought his last fight, warned of their approach by Melian. In that battle the Green Elves took the Dwarves unawares as they were in the midst of their passage, laden with their plunder; and the Dwarvish chiefs were slain, and well nigh all their host. But Beren took the Nauglamír, the Necklace of the Dwarves, whereon was hung the Silmaril; and it is said and sung that Lúthien wearing that necklace and that immortal jewel on her white breast was the vision of greatest beauty and glory that has ever been seen outside the realms of Valinor, and that for a while the Land of the Dead that Live became like a vision of the land of the Gods, and no places have been since so fair, so fruitful, or so filled with light.
Yet Melian warned them ever of the curse that lay upon the treasure and upon the Silmaril. The treasure they had drowned indeed in the river Ascar, and named it anew Rathlorion, Goldenbed, yet the Silmaril they retained. And in time the brief hour of loveliness of the land of Rathlorion departed. For Lúthien faded as Mandos had spoken, even as the Elves of later days faded and she vanished from the world;* and Beren died, and none know where their meeting shall be again.’
Thereafter was Dior Thingol’s heir, child of Beren and Lúthien, king in the woods: most fair of all the children of the world, for his race was threefold: of the fairest and goodliest of Men, and of the Elves, and of the spirits divine of Valinor; yet it shielded him not from the fate of the oath of the sons of F?anor. For Dior went back to Doriath and for a time a part of its ancient glory was raised anew, though Melian no longer dwelt in that place, and she departed to the land of the Gods beyond the western sea, to muse on her sorrows in the gardens whence she came.
But Dior wore the Silmaril upon his breast and the fame of that jewel went far and wide; and the deathless oath was waked once more from sleep.
For while Lúthien wore that peerless gem no Elf would dare assail her, and not even Maidros dared ponder such a thought. But now hearing of the renewal of Doriath and Dior’s pride, the seven gathered again from wandering; and they sent unto Dior to claim their own. But he would not yield the jewel unto them, and they came upon him with all their host; and so befell the second slaying of Elf by Elf, and the most grievous. There fell Celegorm and Curufin and dark Cranthir, but Dior was slain, and Doriath was destroyed and never rose again.
Yet the sons of F?anor gained not the Silmaril; for faithful servants fled before them and took with them Elwing the daughter of Dior, and she escaped, and they bore with them the Nauglafring, and came in time to the mouth of the river Sirion by the sea.
[In a text somewhat later than the Quenta Noldorinwa, the earliest form of The Annals of Beleriand, the story was changed, in that Dior returned to Doriath while Beren and Lúthien were still alive in Ossiriand; and what befell him there I will give in the words of The Silmarillion:
There came a night of autumn, and when it grew late, one came and smote upon the doors of Menegroth, demanding admittance to the King. He was a lord of the Green Elves hastening from Ossiriand, and the doorwards brought him to where Dior sat alone in his chamber; and there in silence he gave to the King a coffer, and took his leave. But in that coffer lay the Necklace of the Dwarves, wherein was set the Silmaril; and Dior looking upon it knew it for a sign that Beren Erchamion and Lúthien Tinúviel had died indeed, and gone where go the race of Men to a fate beyond the world.
Long did Dior gaze upon the Silmaril, which his father and mother had brought beyond hope out of the terror of Morgoth; and his grief was great that death had come upon them so soon.]
EXTRACT FROM THE LOST TALE OF THE NAUGLAFRING
Here I will step back from the chronology of composition and turn to the Lost Tale of the Nauglafring. The reason for this is that the passage given here is a notable example of the expansive mode, observant of visual and often dramatic detail, adopted by my father in the early days of The Silmarillion; but the Lost Tale as a whole extends into ramifications unneeded in this book. A very brief summary of the battle at Sarn Athrad, the Stony Ford, appears therefore in the text of the Quenta, p. 235, while there follows here the much fuller account from the Lost Tale, with the duel between Beren and Naugladur, lord of the Dwarves of Nogrod in the Blue Mountains.
The passage begins with the approach of the Dwarves, led by Naugladur, to Sarn Athrad, on their return from the sack of the Thousand Caves.