The Book of Lost Tales, Part One (The History of Middle-Earth, #1)

by J.R.R. Tolkien

and all those shining houses clomb each shoulder higher than the others till the house of Inwë was reached that was the uppermost, and had a slender silver tower shooting skyward like a needle, and a white lamp of piercing ray was set therein that shone upon the shadows of the bay, but every window of the city on the hill of Kôr looked out toward the sea.

Fëanor of the Noldoli

<noldor. 2nd of the three Elve.n clans. Known for their learning, called Gnomes, from Gr "gnosis", to know, knowledge.

Elu Thingol (Quenya Elwë Singollo) began as Linwë Tinto (also simply Linwë); this was changed to Tinwë Linto (Tinwë). His Gnomish name was at first Tintoglin, then Tinwelint. He was the leader of the Solosimpi (the later Teleri) on the Great Journey, but he was beguiled in Hisilómë by the ‘fay’ (Tindriel >) Wendelin (later Melian), who came from the gardens of Lórien in Valinor; he became lord of the Elves of Hisilómë, and their daughter was Tinúviel.

It seems possible, especially in view of the original subtitle, that the poem described Kôr after the Elves had left it. Kôr In a City Lost and Dead A sable hill, gigantic, rampart-crowned Stands gazing out across an azure sea Under an azure sky, on whose dark ground

the Enchanted Isles were set, and all the seas about them were filled with shadows and bewilderment. And these isles were strung as a net in the Shadowy Seas from the north to the south, before Tol Eressëa, the Lonely Isle, is reached by one sailing west.

She is lost among the hills And the upland slowly fills With the shadow-folk that murmur in the fern; And still there are the bells And the voices on the fells While Eastward a few stars begin to burn.

And a sound of ghostly bells And a march of shadow-people o’er the height. In the mountains by the shore In forgotten Aryador There was dancing and was ringing; There were shadow-people singing Ancient songs of olden gods in Aryador.’

Eärendel read many a wondrous tale there long ago, and mayhap still is many a one still there to read, if it be not corrupted into dust.