Editing Beleriand (section)

=== A sense of doom ===

[[File:D. di Francesco - De verdrijving uit het paradijs (fragment) - NK1848 - Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands Art Collection.jpg|thumb|upright=0.6|Men flee into Beleriand from the East: perhaps, Shippey writes, they were expelled from [[Garden of Eden|Eden]].{{sfn|Shippey|2005|p=268}} Painting by [[Domenico di Michelino|D. di Michelino]], c. 1460 ]]

Shippey writes that the ''Quenta Silmarillion'' has a tightly-woven plot, each part leading ultimately to tragedy. There are three Hidden Elvish Kingdoms in Beleriand, founded by relatives, and they are each betrayed and destroyed. The Kingdoms are each penetrated by a mortal Man, again all related to each other; and the sense of doom, which Shippey glosses as "future disaster", hangs heavy over all of the characters in the tale.{{sfn|Shippey|2005|pp=287–296}}

{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em auto;"
|+ [[Tom Shippey]]'s analysis of the Hidden Kingdoms of Beleriand{{sfn|Shippey|2005|pp=287–296}}
|-
! Hidden<br/>Kingdom 
! [[Elves in Middle-earth|Elvish]] Kings<br/>(all relatives) 
! Man who penetrates<br/>the Kingdom
! Result 
|-
| Nargothrond || [[Finrod]] || [[Túrin Turambar|Túrin]] 
| rowspan=3 | City destroyed
|-
| Doriath || [[Thingol]] || [[Lúthien and Beren|Beren]] <!--rowspan-->
|-
| [[Gondolin]] || [[Turgon of Gondolin|Turgon]] || [[Tuor and Idril|Tuor]] <!--rowspan-->
|}

Shippey writes that the human race seen in Beleriand in the [[First Age]] did not "originate 'on stage' in Beleriand, but drifts into it, already sundered in speech, from the East [the main part of Middle-earth]. There something terrible has happened to them of which they will not speak: 'A darkness lies behind us... and we have turned our backs upon it'".{{sfn|Shippey|2005|p=268}} He comments that the reader is free to assume that the Satanic [[Morgoth]] has carried out the [[Satan|Biblical serpent]]'s temptation of [[Adam and Eve]], and that "the incoming [[Edain]] and [[Easterling (Middle-earth)|Easterlings]] are all descendants of Adam flying from [[Garden of Eden|Eden]] and subject to the curse of [[Tower of Babel|Babel]]."{{sfn|Shippey|2005|p=268}}

{{anchor|Lost poetry}}