F.A. 501-502: The End of the Tale of Húrin's Family
F.A: 501:
Húrin goes to the feet of the Encircling Mountains, where Gondolin is located, and calls out to Turgon, thereby revealing to Morgoth the approximate location of Gondolin.
He then goes to Brethil and finds Morwen at the grave of Túrin and Niënor. She dies at sunset. He buries her, and carves her name also into the gravestone of Túrin and Nienor.
Sitting in the shadow of the stone there was a woman, bent over her knees; and as Húrin stood there silent she cast back her tattered hood and lifted her face. Grey she was, and old, but suddenly her eyes looked into his, and he knew her; for though they were wild and full of fear, that light still gleamed in them that long ago had earned for her the name Eledhwen, proudest and most beautiful of mortal women in the days of old...when the sun went down, Morwen sighed and clasped his hand, and was still; and Húrin knew that she had died. He looked down at her in the twilight and it seemed to him that the lines of grief and cruel hardship were smoothed away. "She was not conquered," he said; and he closed her eyes, and sat unmoving beside her as the night drew down. (The Silmarillion, Chapter 22, "Of the Ruin of Doriath")
F.A. 502:
Húrin goes to Nargothrond, and finds Mîm the petty-dwarf there, in what was once the home of the petty-dwarves. Húrin kills him for having betrayed Túrin, and then takes the Nauglamír, the necklace of the dwarves given by them as a gift to Finrod.
He goes to Doriath and throws the Nauglamír at Thingol's feet with scornful words, blaming him for the death and ruin of Húrin's family. Melian releases Húrin from the deceptions Morgoth has placed upon him, and he understands; and when he leaves Doriath he goes and casts himself into the western sea.
When Húrin has left, Thingol looks at the Nauglamír, and thinks of having it remade and adding the Silmaril to it. He commissions the dwarves to do this, but when they have finished they claim the Nauglamír - with the Silmaril in it - for themselves a the work of their forefathers. Thingol is wrathful and responds with scornful words and orders them out of Doriath without pay, and the dwarves, enraged, kill him and take the Nauglamír and Silmaril; but the Doriathrim catch them before they escape the forest, and kill them.
With Thingol's death Melian is unable to hold on to her incarnate form; she departs to Valinor and the Girdle of Melian falls. Two dwarves escape and reach Nogrod, saying that the others were killed by the Elvenking in order to cheat them of their reward, and the dwarves of Nogrod prepare for war.
Tuor (age 30) marries Idril in Gondolin.
Family Trees
The House of Hador
The House of Finwë and Thingol
Optional Readings
If you want to read the parts of The Silmarillion covering the events described in this post, they are found in the following chapters:
Chapter 22, “Of the Ruin of Doriath,” paragraphs 4 to 37 (From “Thus his freedom did but increase the bitterness of Húrin’s heart…” to “…and this tale speaks of her no more.”).
Chapter 23, “Of Tuor and the Fall of Gondolin,” paragraphs 9-10 (from “And Tuor remained in Gondolin…” to “…thus there came to pass the second union of Elves and Men”).