Breakdown: what matters and what's interesting

The chapter takes us to Middle-earth and tells of the Elves who stayed there and never sailed to Valinor — the Sindar, the “Grey-elves.” Their High King is Thingol (formerly Elwë), one of the lords who were to lead the Teleri over the sea, but he stayed behind. The reason was Melian, a Maia of the people of the Valar: Thingol met her in a wood, and they stood spellbound for long years. Thingol and Melian become king and queen and found the hidden kingdom of Doriath, protected by Melian's unseen veil, the Girdle of Melian. Here too the Dwarves (the Naugrim) appear for the first time, coming from the east out of their mountain halls; they teach and trade, and build for Thingol the underground city of Menegroth, “the Thousand Caves.” And in the north evil is already stirring: Morgoth has returned, and Orcs and evil creatures multiply in the lands.

— Sindar — “Grey-elves” (from sin- “gray”); the Teleri who stayed in Beleriand. Their language, Sindarin, will later become the main Elvish tongue of Middle-earth (it is spoken in “The Lord of the Rings”). — Thingol — “Greymantle” (Quenya Sindicollo, Singollo; Sindarin Elu Thingol); his earlier name was Elwë, brother of Olwë of Alqualondë. — Melian — a Maia who went to the Elves; the only marriage in the legendarium between an Ainu and an Elf. From it Lúthien will be born, the fairest of the Children of Ilúvatar. — Doriath — “the Land of the Fence”; the kingdom behind the Girdle of Melian. — Menegroth — “the Thousand Caves,” the underground capital. — Naugrim / Dwarves — “the Stunted People”; the Vala Aulë made them even before the Elves. The main thread: the union of a Maia and an Elf will give rise to a line: Lúthien and Beren → their son Dior → his daughter Elwing, Eärendil's wife → Elrond and Elros. Through Elros this blood will reach Aragorn. So Doriath is the root of the Half-elven lines of the whole legendarium.

— The hidden kingdom. Doriath under the Girdle of Melian is the first of the “hidden” strongholds of the Elves (later come Gondolin, and later still Rivendell and Lothlórien). The motif of light sheltered amid darkness is constant in Tolkien. The Girdle of Melian itself is kin to the protection that Galadriel (Finarfin's daughter and Melian's pupil) keeps in Lórien. — Love stronger than duty. Thingol left his people for Melian, and this is not condemned but celebrated; their union is blessed. A contrast with Fëanor's possessive “love” for the Silmarils. — The seed of future tragedies. It is to Doriath that Beren will later come for a Silmaril (the chapter on Beren and Lúthien), and it is because of the Silmaril and the Dwarves' treasure that Doriath will fall. The alliance with the Dwarves will turn to enmity. — Link to “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings”: Sindarin is a language heard all over Middle-earth; Legolas is a Sinda by descent (his father Thranduil is kin to this people).