Part 12 (1/2)
4 This sentence, from 'and beguiled...', was added after, though not to all appearance much after, the writing of the text.
5 This sentence, from 'and one Ellu...', was added at the same time as that referred to in note 4.
6 The first occurrence of the form Uinen, and so written at the time of composition (i.e. not corrected from nen).
7 Arvalin: thus written at the time of composition, not emended from Habbanan or Harmalin as previously.
8 When my father wrote these texts, he wrote first in pencil, and then subsequently wrote over the top of it in ink, erasing the pencilled text-of which bits can be read here and there, and from which one can see that he altered the pencilled original somewhat as he went along. At the words 'glistened wondrously', however, he abandoned the writing of the new text in ink, and from this point we have only the original pencilled ma.n.u.script, which is in places exceedingly difficult to read, being more hasty, and also soft and smudged in the course of time. In deciphering this text I have been in places defeated, and I use brackets and question-marks to indicate uncertain readings, and rows of dots to show roughly the length of illegible words.
It is to be emphasized therefore that from here on there is only a first draft, and one written very rapidly, dashed onto the page.
9 Arvalin: here and subsequently emended from Habbanan; see note 7. The explanation is clearly that the name Arvalin came in at or before the time of the rewriting in ink over the pencilled text; though further on in the narrative we are here at an earlier stage of composition.
10 The word might be read as 'wizardous'.
11 Other forms (beginning Sigm-) preceded Silubrilthin which cannot be read with certainty. Meril speaks as if the Gnomish name was the form used in Tol Eressa, but it is not clear why.
12 'my grandsire's sire': the original reading was 'my grandsire'.
Changes made to names in
The Coming of the Elves and the Making of Kr
Tinw Linto < linw=”” tinto=”” (this=”” latter=”” is=”” the=”” form=”” of=”” the=”” name=”” in=”” an=”” interpolated=”” pa.s.sage=”” in=”” the=”” preceding=”” tale,=”” see=”” p.=”” 106=”” note=”” 1).=”” at=”” two=”” subsequent=”” occurrences=”” of=”” linw=”” (see=”” note=”” 3=”” above)=”” the=”” name=”” was=”” not=”” changed,=”” clearly=”” through=”” oversight;=”” in=”” the=”” two=”” added=”” pa.s.sages=”” where=”” the=”” name=”” occurs=”” (see=”” notes=”” 4=”” and=”” 5=”” above)=”” the=”” form=”” is=”” tinw=””>
Inwithiel < gim-githil=”” (the=”” same=”” change=”” in=”” the=”” cottage=”” of=”” lost=”” play,=”” see=”” p.=””>
Tinwelint <>
Wendelin < tindriel=”” (cf.=”” the=”” interpolated=”” pa.s.sage=”” in=”” the=”” previous=”” tale,=”” p.=”” 106=”” note=””>
Arvalin < habbanan=”” throughout=”” the=”” tale=”” except=”” once,=”” where=”” the=”” name=”” was=”” written=”” arvalin=”” from=”” the=”” first;=”” see=”” notes=”” 7=”” and=”” 9=””>
Lindeloks < lindelt=”” (the=”” same=”” change=”” in=”” the=”” coming=”” of=”” the=”” valar=”” and=”” the=”” building=”” of=”” valinor,=”” see=”” p.=””>
Erumni <>
Commentary on
The Coming of the Elves and the Making of Kr
I have already (p. 111) touched on the great difference in the structure of the narrative at the beginning of this tale, namely that here the Elves awoke during Melko's captivity in Valinor, whereas in the later story it was the very fact of the Awakening that brought the Valar to make war on Melkor, which led to his imprisonment in Mandos. Thus the ultimately very important matter of the capture of the Elves about Cuivienen by Melkor (The Silmarillion pp. 4950) is necessarily entirely absent. The release of Melko from Mandos here takes place far earlier, before the coming of the Elvish 'amba.s.sadors' to Valinor, and Melko plays a part in the debate concerning the summons.
The story of Orom's coming upon the newly-awakened Elves is seen to go back to the beginnings (though here Yavanna Palrien was also present, as it appears), but its singular beauty and force is the less for the fact of their coming being known independently to Manw, so that the great Valar did not need to be told of it by Orom. The name Eldar was already in existence in Valinor before the Awakening, and the story of its being given by Orom ('the People of the Stars') had not arisen-as will be seen from the Appendix on Names, Eldar had a quite different etymology at this time. The later distinction between the Eldar who followed Orom on the westward journey to the ocean and the Avari, the Unwilling, who would not heed the summons of the Valar, is not present, and indeed in this tale there is no suggestion that any Elves who heard the summons refused it; there were however, according to another (later) tale, Elves who never left Palisor (pp. 231, 234).
Here it is Nornor, Herald of the G.o.ds, not Orom, who brought the three Elves to Valinor and afterwards returned them to the Waters of Awakening (and it is notable that even in this earliest version, given more than the later to 'explanations', there is no hint of how they pa.s.sed from the distant parts of the Earth to Valinor, when afterwards the Great March was only achieved with such difficulty). The story of the questioning of the three Elves by Manw concerning the nature of their coming into the world, and their loss of all memory of what preceded their awakening, did not survive the Lost Tales. A further important s.h.i.+ft in the structure is seen in Ulmo's eager support of the party favouring the summoning of the Elves to Valinor; in The Silmarillion (p. 52) Ulmo was the chief of those who 'held that the Quendi should be left free to walk as they would in Middle-earth'.
I set out here the early history of the names of the chief Eldar.
Elu Thingol (Quenya Elw Singollo) began as Linw Tinto (also simply Linw); this was changed to Tinw Linto (Tinw). 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 Hisilm by the 'fay' (Tindriel >) Wendelin (later Melian), who came from the gardens of Lrien in Valinor; he became lord of the Elves of Hisilm, and their daughter was Tinviel. The leader of the Solosimpi in his place was, confusingly, Ellu (afterwards Olw, brother of Elw).
The lord of the Noldoli was Finw Nlem (also Nlem Finw, and most commonly simply Nlem); the name Finw remained throughout the history. In the Gnomish speech he was Golfinweg. His son was Turondo, in Gnomish Turgon (later Turgon became Finw's grandson, being the son of Finw's son Fingolfin).
The lord of the Teleri (afterwards the Vanyar) was (Ing >) Inw, here called Isil Inw, named in Gnomish (Gim-githil >) Inwithiel. His son, who built the great tower of Kortirion, was (Ingilmo >) Ingil. The 'royal clan' of the Teleri were the Inwir. Thus: In The Silmarillion (p. 48) is described the second star-making of Varda before and in preparation for the coming of the Elves: Then Varda went forth from the council, and she looked out from the height of Taniquetil, and beheld the darkness of Middle-earth beneath the innumerable stars, faint and far. Then she began a great labour, greatest of all the works of the Valar since their coming into Arda. She took the silver dews from the vats of Telperion, and therewith she made new stars and brighter against the coming of the First-born...
In the earliest version we see the conception already present that the stars were created in two separate acts-that a new star-making by Varda celebrated the coming of the Elves, even though here the Elves were already awakened; and that the new stars were derived from the liquid light fallen from the Moon-tree, Silpion. The pa.s.sage just cited from The Silmarillion goes on to tell that it was at the time of the second star-making that Varda 'high in the north as a challenge to Melkor set the crown of seven mighty stars to swing, Valacirca, the Sickle of the Valar and sign of doom' but here this is denied, and a special origin is claimed for the Great Bear, whose stars were not of Varda's contriving but were sparks that escaped from Aul's forge. In the little notebook mentioned on p. 23, which is full of disjointed jottings and hastily noted projects, a different form of this myth appears: The Silver Sickle The seven b.u.t.terflies Aul was making a silver sickle. Melko interrupted his work telling him a lie concerning the lady Palrien. Aul so wroth that he broke the sickle with a blow. Seven sparks leapt up and winged into the heavens. Varda caught them and gave them a place in the heavens as a sign of Palrien's honour. They fly now ever in the shape of a sickle round and round the pole.
There can be no doubt, I think, that this note is earlier than the present text.
The star Morwinyon, 'who blazes above the world's edge in the west', is Arcturus; see the Appendix on Names. It is nowhere explained why Morwinyon-Arcturus is mythically conceived to be always in the west.
Turning now to the Great March and the crossing of the ocean, the origin of Tol Eressa in the island on which Oss drew the G.o.ds to the western lands at the time of the fall of the Lamps (see p. 70) was necessarily lost afterwards with the loss of that story, and Oss ceased to have any proprietary right upon it. The idea that the Eldar came to the sh.o.r.es of the Great Lands in three large and separated companies (in the order Teleri-Noldori-Solosimpi, as later Vanyar-Noldor-Teleri) goes back to the beginning; but here the first people and the second people each crossed the ocean alone, whereas afterwards they crossed together.
In The Silmarillion (p. 58) 'many years' elapsed before Ulmo returned for the last of the three kindreds, the Teleri, so long a time that they came to love the coasts of Middle-earth, and Oss was able to persuade some of them to remain (Crdan the s.h.i.+pwright and the Elves of the Falas, with their havens at Brithombar and Eglarest). Of this there is no trace in the earliest account, though the germ of the idea of the long wait of the lastcomers for Ulmo's return is present. In the published version the cause of Oss's rage against the transportation of the Eldar on the floating island has disappeared, and his motive for anchoring the island in the ocean is wholly different: indeed he did this at the bidding of Ulmo (ibid. p. 59), who was opposed to the summoning of the Eldar to Valinor in any case. But the anchoring of Tol Eressa as a rebellious act of Oss's long remained an element in the story. It is not made clear what other 'scattered islands of his domain' (p. 121) Oss anch.o.r.ed to the sea-bottom; but since on the drawing of the World-s.h.i.+p the Lonely Isle, the Magic Isles, and the Twilit Isles are all shown in the same way as 'standing like pinnacles from the weedy depths' (see pp. 846) it was probably these that Oss now established (though Rmil and Meril still speak of the Twilit Isles as 'floating' on the Shadowy Seas, pp. 68, 125).
In the old story it is made very clear that Tol Eressa was made fast far out in the mid-ocean, and 'no land may be seen for many leagues' sail from its cliffs'. That was indeed the reason for its name, which was diminished when the Lonely Isle came to be set in the Bay of Eldamar. But the words used of Tol Eressa, 'the Lonely Isle, that looks both west and east', in the last chapter of The Silmarillion (relatively very little worked on and revised), undoubtedly derive from the old story; in the tale of lfwine of England is seen the origin of this phrase: 'the Lonely Island looking East to the Magic Archipelago and to the lands of Men beyond it, and West into the Shadows beyond which afar off is glimpsed the Outer Land, the kingdom of the G.o.ds'. The deep sundering of the speech of the Solosimpi from that of the other kindreds, referred to in this tale (p. 121), is preserved in The Silmarillion, but the idea arose in the days when Tol Eressa was far further removed from Valinor.
As is very often to be observed in the evolution of these myths, an early idea survived in a wholly altered context: here, the growth of trees and plants on the westward slopes of the floating island began with its twice lying in the Bay of Fary and catching the light of the Trees when the Teleri and Noldoli disembarked, and its greater beauty and fertility remained from those times after it was anch.o.r.ed far away from Valinor in the midst of the ocean; afterwards, this idea survived in the context of the light of the Trees pa.s.sing through the Calacirya and falling on Tol Eressa near at hand in the Bay of Eldamar. Similarly, it seems that Ulmo's instruction of the Solosimpi in music and sea-lore while sitting 'upon a headland' of Tol Eressa after its binding to the sea-bottom was s.h.i.+fted to Oss's instruction of the Teleri 'in all manner of sea-lore and sea-music' sitting on a rock off the coast of Middle-earth (The Silmarillion p. 58).
Very noteworthy is the account given here of the gap in the Mountains of Valinor. In The Silmarillion the Valar made this gap, the Calacirya or Pa.s.s of Light, only after the coming of the Eldar to Aman, for 'even among the radiant flowers of the Tree-lit gardens of Valinor they [the Vanyar and Noldor] longed still at times to see the stars' (p. 59); whereas in this tale it was a 'natural' feature, a.s.sociated with a long creek thrust in from the sea.
From the account of the coming of the Elves to the sh.o.r.es of the Great Lands it is seen (p. 118) that Hisilm was a region bordering the Great Sea, agreeing with its identification as the region marked g on the earliest map, see pp. 81, 112; and most remarkably we meet here the idea that Men were shut in Hisilm by Melko, an idea that survived right through to the final form in which the Easterling Men were rewarded after the Nirnaeth Arnoediad for their treacherous service to Morgoth by being confined in Hithlum (The Silmarillion p. 195).
In the description of the hill and city of Kr appear several features that were never lost in the later accounts of Tirion upon Tna. Cf. The Silmarillion p. 59: Upon the crown of Tna the city of the Elves was built, the white walls and terraces of Tirion; and the highest of the towers of that city was the Tower of Ingw, Mindon Eldalieva, whose silver lamp shone far out into the mists of the sea.
The dust of gold and 'magic metals' that Aul piled about the feet of Kr powdered the shoes and clothing of Erendil when he climbed the 'long white stairs' of Tirion (ibid. p. 248).
It is not said here whether the shoots of Laurelin and Silpion that the G.o.ds gave to Inw and Nlem, which 'blossomed both eternally without abating', were also givers of light, but later in the Lost Tales (p. 213), after the Flight of the Noldoli, the Trees of Kr are again referred to, and there the trees given to Inw 'shone still', while the trees given to Nlem had been uprooted and 'were gone no one knew whither.' In The Silmarillion it is said that Yavanna made for the Vanyar and the Noldor 'a tree like to a lesser image of Telperion, save that it did not give light of its own being' it was 'planted in the courts beneath the Mindon and there flourished, and its seedlings were many in Eldamar'. Thence came the Tree of Tol Eressa.
In connection with this description of the city of the Elves in Valinor I give here a poem ent.i.tled Kr. It was written on April 30th, 1915 (two days after Goblin Feet and You and Me, see pp. 27, 32), and two texts of it are extant: the first, in ma.n.u.script, has a subt.i.tle 'In a City Lost and Dead'. The second, a typescript, was apparently first ent.i.tled Kr, but this was changed to The City of the G.o.ds, and the subt.i.tle erased; and with this t.i.tle the poem was published at Leeds in 1923.* No changes were made to the text except that in the penultimate line 'no bird sings' was altered already in the ma.n.u.script to 'no voice stirs'. It seems possible, especially in view of the original subt.i.tle, that the poem described Kr after the Elves had left it.
Kr