And that's about it. After the dragons were defeated, the Valar (or their army) ransacked Angband, freed Morgoth's thralls, and took him prisoner. 42 years' worth of history are related in the space of a few paragraphs. And J.R.R. Tolkien always intended it to read that way, because his histories are derived mostly from the Elves and Men who participated in the events reported in the tales. The War of Wrath is an exception to this convention, because the narrative states that those Elves who remained free (on the Isle of Balar) did not take part in the war. And these were the Elves who stayed in Middle-earth and conveyed their histories to the Dunedain.

Still, some people insist, it would be nice if we knew how Tolkien envisioned the War of Wrath.

And you know what? We may indeed have some clues about the way it should have unfolded. That is, Tolkien did once write about an Elven war, in which the Eldar marched into mortal lands to defeat Melko. This was not the Last Battle, of which much has been made through the years by readers and critics alike. Rather, the Elven war was part of the mythology from The Book of Lost Tales, and is called "the Faring Forth (of the Eldar)" or "the March of the Elves of Kor". This earlier tradition bears only a vague resemblance to the War of Wrath, but it sheds some light on the traditions which might have been utilized to construct the tale of the war.

In The Book of Lost Tales, the wanderer Eriol is told that the Vala Ulmo saved Earendel (sic) from the ruin of Gondolin so that he might sail west and find Valinor. But Earendel reached Valinor too late: the Elves had already left. Christopher Tolkien pieces together an interesting narrative of the Faring Forth. It appears that when birds from Gondolin reached Elfinesse (sic) with news of the city's destruction, Ingwe, King of all the Eldar, defied the Valar and led the Elves of Kor in a march to the Great Lands (there is no "Middle-earth" in The Book of Lost Tales). There the Elves fought a great war with Melko (Melkor --> Morgoth), and lost. And the Valar left the Elves to their fate, except for Tulkas.

Of course, as with many of Tolkien's stories, there are several variations of the Faring Forth myth. In an early version of the story, Tulkas becomes the sole Vala to intervene on behalf of the Elves. Ingwe's army apparently reaches the Great Lands and is defeated at Tasarinan. Ingwe himself is slain. Tulkas brings an army and defeats Melko in the battle of the Twilight Pools, and then proceeds to Angamandi, where he takes Melko prisoner and releases the captive Elves. The Elves of Kor and the freed Elves then return to Valinor, only there to learn that the Valar had barred them from entering Valinor. So the Elves settle on Tol Eressea. But eventually Ingil, the son of Ingwe, returns to Valinor with the fairest and wisest of the Eldar.

In another tradition from the Lost Tales, Earendel reaches Valinor after Ingwe has led his people back to the great Lands. The city of Kor is deserted, and Earendel fails in his mission (which is not clearly enunciated by Ulmo anyway). The mariner returns to the Great Lands and he scours the ruins of Gondolin and Angamandi for some trace of Elwing, who was taken while he was at sea. In some versions of the tale, Earendel and Elwing are reunited.

In The Silmarillion, Earendil was not permitted to return to Middle-earth. When he and Elwing chose to be of Elven-kind, they were forbidden to set foot upon the mortal lands once again. Nonetheless, Earendil still figures prominently in the final battle against Melkor. And though no reason is given for the ban on Earendil's return to mortal men in The Silmarillion, in one of the early Earendel stories, Tolkien noted that Earendel's mortal heritage would slay him as soon as he set foot upon the Great Lands. He would simply die of old age. The lack of explanation for Earendil's forced retirement thus owes something to the transition from the pseudo-Anglo-Saxon mythology of The Book of Lost Tales to the modern fantasy mythology of Middle-earth.

The carrying of news from the Great Lands to Valinor by birds, in the early tradition birds from Gondolin, metamorphosed into the tradition of the Eagles of Manwe, sent to Middle-earth for the specific purpose of watching over Melkor (Morgoth), and of rendering aid to the Elves in the neediest of circumstances. The army of Tulkas and the army of Ingwe are merged into the Host of Valinor which sets sail in the ships of the Teleri to launch the War of Wrath.

The early Earendel also walked through the streets of the empty Kor, collecting diamond dust on his clothes. But whereas the city was deserted because of Ingwe's departure, in The Silmarillion Tirion upon Tuna was deserted because the Noldor of Aman had gone off to a festival, and Ingwe had already moved into Valinor ages before. He now dwelt upon the slopes of Taniquetil, along with many of his people, the Vanyar.

The landscape of the early mythology is assumed to be England and Europe's landscape. Tasarinan is thus a region in Europe, as well as Hisilome. Tol Eressea, however, is England itself, dragged back to the Great Lands by Ulmo (over Osse's protests, and their struggle for control over the island results in the shearing off of Ireland from Britain). In The Silmarillion, Beleriand and the northern lands are assumed to lie somewhere in the northwest of the Old World, east of Belegaer, but there is no specific identification with northern Europe. That is, the English mythology is gone, and there is no connection between the Anglo-Saxons and Earendil (whose name Tolkien borrowed from an Anglo-Saxon poem called "Crist": eala! earendel engla beorhtast ofer middangeard monnum sended) and Eriol (the mariner Aelfwine, who recorded the Lost Tales, and whose sons were Hengest and Horsa, the first Saxon leaders to settle in Brittannia).

Have I lost you? The point I'm beating to death is that Tolkien reused elements of the earlier stories in new ways, but the old ideas are still quite identifiable. Even the Anglo-Saxons did not vanish completely from the tradition when Tolkien began to develop the Middle-earth we know and love. They were replaced by their generic ancestors, "the Northmen", tall and proud warriors from northern lands who give rise to heroes such as Beorn, Bard the Bowman, Fram, Eorl, Helm, Theoden, and Eomer. These are not Anglo-Saxon warriors, but rather are heroes from the northern world.

They or their successors, such as Sigurd and Offa of Angel (and Beowulf) would be celebrated in song and legend for centuries untold. The Northmen would eventually, as Middle-earth's storied Elder Days recede, differentiate in Scandinavians and Germans, and the Scandinavians became Norwegians, Swedes, and Danes (and Angles) while the Germans became divided into Goths, Vandals, Saxons, Frisians, Franks, and Suebi (to name just a few tribes and confederations). History (as passed on to us by the Romans) records that the Germans appeared on the landscape as mysterious wanderers, the Cimbri and Teutoni, who terrorized Gaul and Italy until their overconfidence led to their downfall and destruction at the hands of Roman soldiers.

In reality, even "famous" German leaders of only a few generations after the Cimbri and Teutoni's rampage through Roman Europe, such as Julius Caesar's enemy Ariovistus (mid 1st century BCE) and Tiberius' enemy Arminius (mid 1st century CE), had been forgotten by the Angles and Saxons by the time Bede was writing his Ecclesiastical History of England. The most ancient Germanic king who survived in German tradition, and in fact became famous throughout the German world, was Ermanarik (Hermanarik, and several other variations): a Gothic king who committed suicide in 375 CE when the Huns overran his realm, and whose name occurs in several sources, including one or two Anglo-Saxon poems.

Ermanarik was immortalized by Jordanes, whose book on Gothic origins in 551 provided a bridge between ancient (East) German traditions and history and medieval Germanic (west) Europe. The Ostrogoths seized control over Italy at the end of the 5th century. Their kingdom was destroy in the middle 6th century by the eastern empire, but by that time the Visigoths had been driven from the Aquitane in Gaul to Iberia, and they preserved many Roman traditions. The Visigoths and Ostrogoths interacted with the Franks, who were brought together by Clovis in the early 6th century. His descendants fell into decadence but their kingdoms transmitted a number of traditions and ideas to the British Isles.

And all that has everything to do with the War of Wrath.

Look at any of the major wars fought by the Greeks and Romans from about 500 BCE onward and you'll find one or more extensive books detailing who said what, what clothes the various kings wore, how their favorite concubines looked in the morning, etc. But look for details on the wars of the ancient Germans and there just aren't any. Historians must scour a few medieval source documents, or lift names and events from Greco-Roman documents which may have some connection to an ancient German people. We know there were many tribes living in northern Europe. Archaeology has confirmed that for us. And those tribes sustained themselves through a mixture of agriculture and animal husbandry. But many of them also engaged in sporadic warfare. Eventually, some of them (like the Batavians) became permanently associated with warfare through long-term mercenary relationships with the Roman Empire.

But what were their conflicts like? Who were their heroes? What stories did they tell each other during those long winter nights? We simply don't know. What we do know is that, centuries later, when the medieval world was dominated by German families in France, Spain, Scandinavia, England, Italy, and Germany, the traditional tale-telling had become a refined art which mingled with other traditions. The story-tellers produced books, gestes, poems, epics, short runic inscriptions, art, and who knows what else. They didn't simply appear over night, after the western empire had collapsed. The story-tellers were always there. They simply stopped telling the older stories, except for the most popular ones, and over the centuries condensed a lot of material.

The original stories are lost, but we do have a few medieval epics, such as the "Nibelungenlied" and "Beowulf", which look back to an older time. Most of their events may be fantasy, but the names are often the names of real people. And it is generally assumed that some historic connections survive, even if in significantly altered form.

That all sounds very much like the War of Wrath, doesn't it? We tend to compare The Silmarillion to the Bible or the Greek epics, because the stories are so rich and detailed. But the War of Wrath is not really an event. There is no particular story associated with it. It evolves, apparently, mostly out of a need to resolve the evolution of Earendil's character. In the older mythology, he moved around the landscape with (what would become the War of Wrath) unfolding in the background. In The Silmarillion, Christopher Tolkien needed to bring the full narrative to some sort of conclusion. His father had made one attempt in 1925 and another 1937, and in doing so had altered the story of Earendil considerably. But there was no final text for Christopher to use which was compatible with the post-Lord of the Rings texts which made up a large part of the published Silmarillion.

So, in seeking for details on the War of Wrath, we must concede that it is no better conceived of or elucidated by J.R.R. Tolkien than are the events which unfold as background for the handful of our most ancient Germanic stories. Such details as we can point to are simply generalizations. But from the generalizations, and what we know of Beleriand's geography, we may be able to draw a few rational conclusions.

For example, in rewriting the story of Earendil, Tolkien brought forward the key elements of A) Earendil's voyage to Valinor (making it both purposeful and successful in the final version), B) Earendil's return to mortal lands (but only as an airborne combatant who never sets foot on the ground), and C) Earendil's twin sons (Hengest and Horsa, now replaced by Elrond and Elros). Of course, other basic elements of the Earendil myth were preserved (and altered as well).

The Great Lands became Middle-earth, and the focus of the wars between the Gnomes (Noldor) and Morgoth became Beleriand, an unidentified region of northern Middle-earth (northwestern Europe). The chief events of the conflict also remain: Feanor's failed attempt to recover the Silmarils, the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, the fall of Gondolin, the story of Beren and Luthien, the tale of Turin, the Kinslaying which results in the destruction of Thingol's (Tinwelint in The Book of Lost Tales). But instead of having Ingwe lead an Elven army to Middle-earth in a failed attempt to help the Noldor, The Silmarillion brings about a compassionate change of heart from the Valar. Even when they doom the rebellious Noldor, and ban them from Valinor, the Valar know they will one day follow the Elves east.

Ingwe's rebellious departure thus becomes Feanor's rebellion, and the struggle between Osse and Ulmo over Tol Eressea is faintly echoed in the storms that Uinen and Osse inflict upon the Noldor after the Kinslaying at Alqualonde. Uinen takes revenge upon Feanor's fleet as it sails north along the coast of Araman, and Osse ensures that none of Turgon's ships survive their attempts to reach Valinor. It is not all the Eldar who are forbidden to return to the West, and doomed to fade, but simply the rebellious Noldor. And the Noldor do not leave their homes in Tirion to help rescue other Elves in Middle-earth, but rather they do so in hope of taking revenge against Morgoth.

Hence, the folly of Ingwe is removed from the mythology, and when the Vanyar and Noldor of Aman prepare for the War of Wrath, they must do so with the knowledge that the Valar will support them. That support has to mean that Manwe is sending Maiar and perhaps a few Valar with the army. But though there may be multitudes of Maiar, which of the Valar would be most likely to go? Tulkas, the champion of the Valar, would be the logical choice. And Orome, too, probably went as well. But they would not be generals. Rather, their tasks would be specific. Tulkas would be responsible for seizing Morgoth, and Orome would be the slayer of monsters. Not winged dragons, but probably anything else which got in the way.

Command over the armies was given to Eonwe, and he must have called upon Aule for help in equipping those armies. Therefore the divisions of responsibility may have been: Eonwe dealt with Morgoth's armies of Orcs, Men, and Trolls; Tulkas dealt with the more powerful Maiar and Morgoth himself; Orome dealt with Morgoth's beasts, especially the dragons. There would, of course, be many Maiar in Eonwe's army. Each of these Maiar would be powerful beings in their own right, but they would either need to restrain themselves for fear of harming Arda, or else their power was considerably less than the might of the Valar.

The Teleri of Alqualonde agreed to ferry the armies across Belegaer, according to The Silmarillion. However, they refused to participate in the war, and the book says they remained on their ships. But did the ships remain in Middle-earth? What did the Teleri do during all those years? It would seem that, since the Eldar had to build new ships in which to return to Valinor, the Teleri of Alqualonde did not stay in Middle-earth for the duration of the war. There would be little need for them to do so. Hence, it may be that the Teleri brought the armies of Valinor east in stages. That is, rather than land all their forces at one time, the Valar may have elected to establish a beach-head, as it were, and build up their strength in Middle-earth.

The Silmarillion says that Morgoth did not expect the assault from the west. So he does not seem to have prepared a defense against the massive assault. But it does not go without saying that Beleriand was undefended. The Falas, for example, had fallen into Morgoth's hands in the year 474. Orcs had taken control over Brithombar and Eglarest, and Cirdan deveoted several years (at least until the fall of Nargothrond) to launching raids against the Falas from Balar.

The War of the Jewels tells us that the Third Kinslaying occurred in the year 538 and that the last free Elves and Men fled to Balar in 540. Why did they flee to Balar in that year, if the war was not to begin until 545? It may be that Morgoth continued to expand his holdings. There would be no more major campaigns, for there were no more powerful realms to fight in Beleriand. But new tribes of Men may have entered Beleriand. And the Orcs and Dragons would have been free to roam Beleriand at will. A final push from Angband in 540 would have cleared out Brethil (where some of the Folk of Haleth still dwelt), Ossiriand (where the Feanorians and the Green-elves lived), and Taur-im-Duinath (the great forest west of southern Beleriand, where some Avari had settled).

The Host of Valinor would have to land at a single location and begin the process of freeing Beleriand. So why not Arvernien and the Havens of Sirion? The havens of Brithombar and Eglarest were in enemmy hands, but there appears to be no reason for why these lands would be in Morgoth's control. Such a landing zone would give the Host of Valinor an opportunity to strike north, east, and west. And they would also position themselves between Balar and Angband.

The early battles would be little more than skirmishes. A battle could still befall in Tasarinan, but it would not result in a defeat of the Elves. At best, Morgoth would assemble an army there and seek to oppose the march of the Host of Valinor. If we assume such a battle occurred, it may have begun the process of destruction which led to Beleriand's ruin. And such a battle might have drawn off the occupying forces from Brithombar and Eglarest, so west Beleriand would have fallen to the Host of Valinor quickly.

Strategically, Eonwe would have to send an army to Ossiriand, if Morgoth had forces there. Another army would move up the western coast of Beleriand, and a central army would follow the Sirion northward. The Silmarillion says that "the challenge of the trumpets of Eonwe filled the sky; and Beleriand was ablaze with the glory of their arms, for the host of the Valar were arrayed in forms young and fair and terrible, and the mountains rang beneath their feet."

It doesn't seem like the mountains were ringing beneath the feet of the Elves. So the Vanyar and Noldor must have been sent to deal with Morgoth's Orcs, and perhaps some of the Men who had been allowed to settle in Beleriand. Orome could have gone hunting dragons across the countryside, while Tulkas led the vanguard of Eonwe's army, pushing back the more powerful Maiar in Morgoth's service. Eonwe could have led the central army north along Sirion.

But it shouldn't take 40 years to move the world's most powerful armies north along Sirion. At worst, it may have required a year to move as north as Tol Sirion, assuming Morgoth's forces slowly retreated. On the other hand, what if the struggles between the Maiar and Valar required that they rest for extended periods of time? It might require a year to move only a hundred miles or so, for then the Valar and Maiar with the Host of Valinor would have to confront their counterparts and rest.

But it may also be that the Teleri were bringing a constant stream of new troops to Middle-earth for several years. The voyages probably lasted for weeks or months, and there is no reason to assume that their fleet could carry all of Eonwe's troops in one pass.

And then we must keep in mind that the war concluded with two massive battles or campaigns. In the first phase, Morgoth's assembled on Anfauglith. The Host of Valinor met the enemy there in the north and proved to be victorius. So, how long did the fighting last? And if the mountains rang beneath the feet of the Valar and Maiar, did they spend some time rootng out Morgoth's forces in the Ered Wethrin and the Echoriath? There must have been skirmishing or significant battles throughout the mountains. It may be that Morgoth's forces fought delaying actions while he assembled his main hosts on Anfauglith.

But though there must have been dragons serving Morgoth, there were no winged dragons in sight. Morgoth held the winged dragons back until all his other forces were destroyed. The fighting must have lasted a long time, if only because the Elves and Edain (who had been freed at some point to fight beside the Host of Valinor) could not travel across the landscape instantaneuously. Perhaps there were several battles for control over Anfauglith before the Host of Valinor swept around Angband.

And then the winged dragons came out. There must have been many of them. One can almost imagine a multitude of the creatures craning their long necks for a glimpse of the battle, eager to join the war. But Morgoth held them back until it was too late to save his armies. Nonetheless, they poured out of Angband with such fury that the Host of Valinor was thrown into dismay. Eonwe, Orome, and Tulkas must have all been stunned by the attack, as well as all their Maiaric soliders. The Vanyar and Noldor, and the Edain, would have never seen anything like the winged dragons.

The dragons could have wrought great devastation, and swooping down upon Eonwe's forces, the dragons should have driven the army of the west from the field. It may be that the retreat was disorderly and organization broke down. If the terrain was already sinking into the sea behind them, Eonwe's troops would have had to withdraw to isolated pockets and peninsulas. Or, if the Valar and Maiar fought back as they retreated, then the landscape could have undergone its radical transformation in the war's final campaign.

Manwe should have known immediately of the turnaround in events. But it may be that Eonwe sent messengers to Valinor, perhaps even Thorondor himself, to ask what was to be done. Earendil should have had the opportunity to plead with Manwe for permission to launch a counterattack. After all, he had his flying ship. He would share some of the advantages the flying dragons enjoyed. How long would it take Manwe to agree to such a plan? What preparations did Earendil need to make? How much time elapsed between the initial onslaught of the dragons and Earendil's arrival? And, most importantly, how long did the fighting actually last? Earendil fought with Ancalagon through a full night, and in the morning slew the mightiest of Morgoth's dragons. But did Earendil's arrival occur the evening before?

Finally, the death of Ancalagon seems to have signalled a recovery for Eonwe's forces. They turned upon the flying dragons and, after an unspecified length of time, destroyed them all. All that remained was the final assault upon Angband itself, and the capture of Morgoth.

It is hard to imagine what happened through the years of the war. It seems unlikely the Host of Valinor would have become complacent as the Noldor had during their long siege of Angband. Instead, there must have been periods of rest and recupertion between battles. And even if Morgoth's forces fell back continusually, in order to free the Edain, Eonwe or one of his captains would have to visit Hithlum at some point.

The War of Wrath may be better left unimagined, for the task of filling its years with deeds and heroes and journeys would easily constitute another Silmarilion-length text. It became a part of the history of Middle-earth, but its resolution was more a foregone conclusion than a trial for the Noldor. The Silmarillion is a tragedy of Elves and Men, and it demanded an ending. The War of Wrath addresses the need without undermining the impact of the earlier conflict.

Michael Martinez is the author of Visualizing Middle-earth, which may be purchased directly from Xlibris Corp. or through any online bookstore. You may also special order it from your local bookstore. The ISBN is 0-7388-3408-4.