Prologue - The Deeds of my Ancestors and Kin

I begin my work with the exile of the Noldor, excepting the short account of my grandfather's parentage. Of the former period, from the Awakening of the Quendi to the Darkening of Valinor, many authors have treated; and while they had to record the long period of tranquility, they wrote with equal eloquence and freedom - but when came the Darkening and the end of bliss, then the truthfulness of history was impaired in many ways; at first, through ignorance, then, through their passion for flattery, or, on the other hand, their hatred of their masters. And so between the enmity of the one and the servility of the other, neither had any regard for posterity. But will we instinctively shrink from the writer's adulation, we lend a ready ear to detraction and spite, because flattery involves the shameful imputation of servility, whereas malignity wears the false appearance of honesty.

I am entering on the history of a period rich in disasters, frightful in its wars, torn by strife of kin with kin, and even in peace full of horrors. Yet the ages were not so barren in noble qualities, as not also to exhibit examples of virtue. Mothers accompanied the flight of their sons; wives followed their husbands into exile; there were brave kinsmen and faithful sons in law; there were men whose fidelity defied even torture; there were illustrious men driven to the last necessity; and enduring it with fortitude; there were closing scenes and famous deaths that has yet to be equalled! Never surely did more terrible calamaties of the Children of Illúvatar, or evidence more conclusive, prove that the Valar took no thought for our happiness, but only for our punishment.