Hellehinca, or Morgoth the Lame

Readers of ​The Silmarillion​ will recall Fingolfin's hopeless challenge of Morgoth to single

combat in ​Of the Ruin of Beleriand and the Fall of Fingolfin​ (153-54), and how, beaten down at

last, Fingolfin struck one final blow:

.... Therefore Morgoth came, climbing slowly from his subterranean throne, and the
rumour of his feet was like thunder underground. And he issued forth clad in black armour;
and he stood before the King like a tower, ironcrowned, and his vast shield, sable
on-blazoned, cast a shadow over him like a stormcloud. But Fingolfin gleamed beneath it as
a star; for his mail was overlaid with silver, and his blue shield was set with crystals; and he
drew his sword Ringil, that glittered like ice.
Then Morgoth hurled aloft Grond, the Hammer of the Underworld, and swung it
down like a bolt of thunder. But Fingolfin sprang aside, and Grond rent a mighty pit in the
earth, whence smoke and fire darted. Many times Morgoth essayed to smite him, and each
time Fingolfin leaped away, as a lightning shoots from under a dark cloud; and he wounded
Morgoth with seven wounds, and seven times Morgoth gave a cry of anguish, whereat the
hosts of Angband fell upon their faces in dismay, and the cries echoed in the Northlands.
But at the last the King grew weary, and Morgoth bore down his shield upon him.
Thrice he was crushed to his knees, and thrice arose again and bore up his broken shield and
stricken helm. But the earth was all rent and pitted about him, and he stumbled and fell
backward before the feet of Morgoth; and Morgoth set his left foot upon his neck, and the
weight of it was like a fallen hill. Yet with his last and desperate stroke Fingolfin hewed the
foot with Ringil, and the blood gashed forth black and smoking and filled the pits of Grond.
Thus died Fingolfin, High King of the Noldor, most proud and valiant of the
Elven-kings of old .... Morgoth went ever halt of one foot after that day, and the pain of his
wounds could not be healed....
(Silmarillion 153-54)

This passage is sure to remind readers of the Greek God, Hephaestus, who was lame

because Zeus had hurled him down from Olympus. But, though Hephaestus also had a

hammer, he was in no way evil. Of course the Vala he most closely resembles is Aulë, who was

like him a smith. And yet the image of Hephaestus cast down from heaven cannot but also put

us in mind of the fall of Lucifer as in Milton, or ​Isaiah ​14:12:

'How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut
down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!'

1
 Bosworth-Toller, however, contains an entry for ​hellehinca​, which it defines as 'the

hell-limper, -hobbler, the devil lamed by his fall from heaven.' Which once should remind us of

Morgoth. The passage cited for ​hellehinca contains other interesting words with a link to

Tolkien:

Þa for þære dugoðe deoful ætywde,

wann ond wliteleas, hæfde weriges hiw.
Ongan þa meldigan morþres brytta,
hellehinca, þone halgan wer
wiðerhycgende, ond þæt word gecwæð

Andreas 1168-72
Then before that band the devil appeared,
Black and unlovely, he had the look of a monster.
He then began, the prince of murder,
The hell-lame, to accuse this holy man,
With evil intent, and said these words...

The word ​weriges​ in line 1169, which I have translated 'monster,' comes, not

from ​werig​ -- 'weary' -- as it might seem at a first glance, but from ​wearg/h​ -- 'a monster, a

malignant being, an evil spirit​.' In line 1170 I have rendered ​morþres​ as 'murder,' but it comes

from ​morþor​, which can also be more abstract -- 'mortal sin, great wickedness, torment' etc.

Morþor​ is of course the source of Mordor, and ​wearg​ of warg, which is nothing new to

say. What is intriguing, however, is that ​hellehinca​ is quite a rare word (only one citation in

Bosworth-Toller), and it records an equally unusual attribute of the devil, both of these in close

proximity to words of significance for Tolkien. So it may be that this is the origin of Morgoth's

limp.