The Chaining of Melko

The Chaining of Melko is the fourth chapter of The Book of Lost Tales Part One in Christopher Tolkien's The History of Middle-earth. It contains J.R.R. Tolkien's earliest telling of the account given to the mariner Ælfwine of the bondage of the rebel Ainu Melko (later Melkor). The chapter is preceded by "The Coming of the Valar and the Building of Valinor", and followed by "The Coming of Elves and the Making of Kôr".

Chapter synopsis
J.R.R. Tolkien gave this tale immediately following "The Coming of the Valar and the Building of Valinor" in his early manuscripts.

After an interlude in time, Vairë meets Ælfwine and first names him Eriol. They speak together of the resident piper Tinfang Warble and his magical music. Ælfwine later seeks the ruling lady of Tol Eressëa, Meril-i-Turinqui, who possesses the sought drink called limpë which he had heard brings a mysterious, greater satisfaction than any other drink. He comes to her home of elm trees and gardens, which is described in full. Ælfwine learns from Meril some of the fundamental differences between Man and Elda (Elf), of their different yearnings, and the consequent danger of limpë for Men. She then tells him of the Chaining of Melko.

The tale
At a time when Melko had long rested deep in Utumna after his destruction of the Two Lamps, he causes great sea-quakes in the dominion of Ossë that bring storms and flowing magmas that encroach upon fair lands ruled by the Valar. The Valar are enraged, and convene, and hold council. They decide to go and assail his castle together, and bind him in Aulë's great chains of tilkal (which are named "Angaino", later Angainor). The Valar do so, and when forcing the gates of Utumna open, Melko lingers and sends out his servant Langon, who gives a mocking welcome, bidding them descend down to meet Melko, and relaying Melko's terms. The Valar confer and eventually agree to come down and accept Melko's demands, relaying to Melko that Tulkas, the Vala most desiring to defeat Melko in violence, will be restrained in chains. Melko had demanded that Manwë kneel before him at his throne, and at the sight of Manwë doing this, Aulë and Tulkas are filled with wrath, and Melko is defeated by them and Manwë in a sudden rout of strength. He is bound by Angaino, and dragged out of Utumna.

At Valmar in the Great Lands, Melko is judged before the Valar, and doomed to be imprisoned in a deep vault of Mandos for "three ages", before other decided works of service to the Valar. The tumults of the sea and the fires made beneath the mountains diminish. Forests, plants, and animal kinds spread and flourish here and there in the Great Lands. Meril tells Ælfwine that this became a specific time, the "age of Melko's chains", where the Earth had the most memorable peace and tranquility.

Editor's commentary
Christopher Tolkien gives explanations of the tale in footnotes, and includes in a commentary his father's poems "Tinfang Warble", from 1927, and "Over Old Hills and Far Away", c. 1916.