Poems Abandoned: Flight of the Noldoli

The next section of The Lays of Beleriand lays out several other poems that were started but abandoned rather quickly by Tolkien.

The first is The Flight of the Noldoli From Valinor and is also in alliterative verse as The Lay of the Children of Húrin. Although only carried through to approximately 150 lines this poem, in my opinion, had a lot of potential. As Christopher Tolkien noted perhaps the most interesting fact about this poem is we see, for the first time in the legendarium, the Oath of Fëanor:

"'Be he friend or foe or foul offspring
of Morgoth Bauglir, be he mortal dark
that in after days or earth shall dwell,
shall no law nor love nor league of Gods,
no might nor mercy, not moveless fate,
defend him for ever from fierce vengeance
of the sons of Fëanor, who seize or steal
or finding keep the fair enchanted
globes of crystal who glory dies not,
the Silmarils. We have sworn forever!'" (p. 135, The Lays of Beleriand).