V.
THE AMBARKANTA.
This very short work, of cardinal interest (and not least in the
associated maps), is entitled at the beginning of the text 'Of the
Fashion of the World', on a title-page loose from but obviously
belonging with the work is written:
Ambarkanta.
The Shape of the World.
Rumil.
together with the word Ambarkanta in tengwar. This is the first
appearance of Rumil since the Lost Tales; but he is not men-
tioned in the text itself.
That the Ambarkanta is later than the Quenta (perhaps by
several years) cannot be doubted. The reappearance of the
name Utumna is an advance on Q, where also the term
'Middle-earth' does not appear; Eruman is (aberrantly) the
name in Q of the land where Men awoke (pp. 119, 205),
whereas in the Ambarkanta its name is for the first time
Hildorien; and there are several cases where the Ambarkanta
has names and details that are only found in Q by emendation
(for example, Elvenhome p. 289, but Bay of Faerie > Bay of
Elvenhome in Q (II), p. 186 note 12).
The text consists of six pages of fine manuscript in ink, with
very little emendation; I give the final forms throughout, with
all rejected readings in the notes that follow the text. Closely
associated with the work and here reproduced from the origi-
nals are three diagrams of the World, here numbered I, II, and
III, and two maps, numbered IV and V (see insert). On the
pages facing these reproductions I note changes made to
names. The text begins with a list of cosmographical words,
with explanations; this I give on pp. 294 - 6.
OF THE FASHION OF THE WORLD.
About all the World are the Ilurambar, or Walls of the
World. They are as ice and glass and steel, being above all
imagination of the Children of Earth cold, transparent, and
hard. They cannot be seen, nor can they be passed, save by
the Door of Night.
Within these walls the Earth is globed: above, below, and
upon all sides is Vaiya, the Enfolding Ocean. But this is
more like to sea below the Earth and more like to air above
the Earth. In Vaiya below the Earth dwells Ulmo. Above
the Earth lies the Air, which is called Vista,(1) and sustains
birds and clouds. Therefore it is called above Fanyamar, or
Cloudhome; and below Aiwenore (2) or Bird-land. But this air
lies only upon Middle-earth and the Inner Seas, and its
proper bounds are the Mountains of Valinor in the West and
the Walls of the Sun in the East. Therefore clouds come
seldom in Valinor, and the mortal birds pass not beyond the
peaks of its mountains. But in the North and South, where
there is most cold and darkness and Middle-earth extends
nigh to the Walls of the World, Vaiya and Vista and Ilmen'
flow together and are confounded.
Ilmen is that air that is clear and pure being pervaded by
light though it gives no light. Ilmen lies above Vista, and is
not great in depth, but is deepest in the West and East, and
least in the North and South. In Valinor the air is Ilmen, but
Vista flows in at times especially in Elvenhome, part of
which is at the eastern feet of the Mountains; and if Valinor
m darkened and this air is not cleansed by the light of the
Blessed Realm, it takes the form of shadows and grey
mists. But Ilmen and Vista will mingle being of like nature,
but Ilmen is breathed by the Gods, and purified by the pas-
sage of the luminaries; for in Ilmen Varda ordained the
courses of the stars, and later of the Moon and Sun.
From Vista there is no outlet nor escape save' for the ser-
vants of Manwe, or for such as he gives powers like to
those of his people, that can sustain themselves in Ilmen or
even in the upper Vaiya, which is very thin and cold. From
Vista one may descend upon the Earth. From Ilmen one
may descend into Valinor. Now the land of Valinor extends
almost to Vaiya, which is most narrow in the West and East
of the World, but deepest in the North and South. The
Western shores of Valinor are therefore not far from the
Walls of the World. Yet there is a chasm which sunders
Valinor from Vaiya, and it is filled with Ilmen, and by this
way one may come from Ilmen above the earth to the
lower regions, and to the Earthroots, and the caves and
grottoes that are at the foundations of the lands and seas.
There is Ulmo's abiding-place. Thence are derived the wa-
ters of Middle-earth. For these waters are compounded of
Ilmen and Vaiya and Ambar' (which is Earth), since Ulmo
blends Ilmen and Vaiya and sends them up through the
veins of the World to cleanse and refresh the seas and
rivers, the lakes and the fountains of Earth. And running
water thus possesses the memory of the deeps and the
heights, and holds somewhat of the wisdom and music of
Ulmo, and of the light of the luminaries of heaven.
In the regions of Ulmo the stars are sometimes hidden,
and there the Moon often wanders and is not seen from
Middle-earth. But the Sun does not tarry there. She passes
under the earth in haste, lest night be prolonged and evil
strengthened; and she is drawn through the nether Vaiya by
the servants of Ulmo, and it is warmed and filled with life.
Thus days are measured by the courses of the Sun, which
sails from East to West through the lower Ilmen, blotting
out the stars; and she passes over the midst of Middle-earth
and halts not, and she bends her course northward or south-
ward, not waywardly but in due procession and season.
And when she rises above the Walls of the Sun it is Dawn,
and when she sinks behind the Mountains of Valinor it is
evening.
But days are otherwise in Valinor than in Middle-earth.
For there the time of greatest light is Evening. Then the
Sun comes down and rests for a while in the Blessed Land,
lying upon the bosom of Vaiya. And when she sinks into
Vaiya it is made hot and glows with rosecoloured fire, and
this for a long while illumines that land. But as she passes
toward the East the glow fades, and Valinor is robbed of
light, and is lit only with stars; and the Gods mourn then
most for the death of Laurelin. At dawn the dark is deep in
Valinor, and the shadows of their mountains lie heavy on
the mansions of the Gods. But the Moon does not tarry in
Valinor, and passeth swiftly o'er it to plunge in the chasm
of Ilmen,(5) for he pursues ever after the Sun, and overtakes
her seldom, and then is consumed and darkened in her
flame. But it happens at times that he comes above Valinor
ere the Sun has left it, and then he descends and meets his
beloved, and Valinor is filled with mingled light as of silver
and gold; and the Gods smile remembering the mingling of
Laurelin and Silpion long ago.
The Land of Valinor slopes downward from the feet of
the Mountains, and its western shore is at the level of the
bottoms of the inner seas. And not far thence, as has been
said, are the Walls of the World; and over against the west-
ermmost shore in the midst of Valinor is Ando Lomen (6) the
Door of Timeless Night that pierceth the Walls and opens
upon the Void. For the World is set amid Kuma, the Void,
the Night without form or time. But none can pass the
chasm and the belt of Vaiya and come to that Door, save
the great Valar only. And they made that Door when Melko
was overcome and put forth into the Outer Dark; and it is
guarded by Earendel.
The Middle-earth lies amidst the World, and is made of
land and water; and its surface is the centre of the world
from the confines of the upper Vaiya to the confines of the
nether. Of old its fashion was thus. It was highest in the
middle, and fell away on either side into vast valleys, but
rose again in the East and West and again fell away to the
chasm at its edges. And the two valleys were filled with the
primeval water, and the shores of these ancient seas were in
the West the western highlands and the edge of the great
land, and in the East the eastern highlands and the edge of
the great land upon the other side. But at the North and
South it did not fall away, and one could go by land from
the uttermost South and the chasm of Ilmen to the utter-
most North and the chasm of Ilmen. The ancient seas lay
therefore in troughs, and their waters spilled not to the East
or to the West; but they had no shores either at the North
or at the South, and they spilled into the chasm, and their
waterfalls became ice and bridges of ice because of the
cold; so that the chasm of Ilmen was here closed and
bridged, and the ice reached out into Vaiya, and even unto
the Walls of the World.
Now it is said that the Valar coming into the World de-
scended first upon Middle-earth at its centre, save Melko
who descended in the furthest North. But the Valar took a
portion of land and made an island and hallowed it, and set
it in the Western Sea and abode upon it, while they were
busied in the exploration and first ordering of the World. As
is told they desired to make lamps, and Melko offered to
devise a new substance of great strength and beauty to be
their pillars. And he set up these great pillars north and
south of the Earth's middle yet nearer to it than the chasm;
and the Gods placed lamps upon them and the Earth had
light for a while.
But the pillars were made with deceit, being wrought of
ice; and they melted, and the lamps fell in ruin, and their
light was spilled. But the melting of the ice made two small
inland seas, north and south of the middle of the Earth, and
there was a northern land and a middle land and a southern
land. Then the Valar removed into the West and forsook the
island; and upon the highland at the western side of the
West Sea they piled great mountains, and behind them
made the land of Valinor. But the mountains of Valinor
curve backward, and Valinor is broadest in the middle of
Earth, where the mountains march beside the sea; and at the
north and south the mountains come even to the chasm.
There are those two regions of the Western Land which are
not of Middle-earth and are yet outside the mountains: they
are dark and empty. That to the North is Eruman, and that
to the South is Arvalin; and there is only a narrow strait be-
tween them and the corners of the Middle-earth, but these
straits are filled with ice.
For their further protection the Valar thrust away Middle-
earth at the centre and crowded it eastward, so that it was
bended, and the great sea of the West is very wide in the
middle, the widest of all waters of the Earth. The shape of
the Earth in the East was much like that in the West, save
for the narrowing of the Eastern Sea, and the thrusting of
the land thither. And beyond the Eastern Sea lies the East-
ern Land, of which we know little, and call it the Land of
the Sun; and it has mountains, less great than those of
Valinor, yet very great, which are the Walls of the Sun. By
reason of the falling of the land these mountains cannot be
descried, save by highflying birds, across the seas which di-
vide them from the shores of Midd1e-earth.
And the thrusting aside of the land caused also moun-
tains to appear in four ranges, two in the Northland, and
two in the Southland; and those in the North were the Blue
Mountains in the West side, and the Red Mountains in the
East side; and in the South were the Grey Mountains and
the Ye11ow. But Melko fortified the North and built there
the Northern Towers, which are also called the Iron Moun-
tains, and they look southward. And in the middle land
there were the Mountains of the Wind, for a wind blew
strongly there coming from the East before the Sun; and
Hildorien the land where Men first awoke lay between
these mountains and the Eastern Sea. But Kuivienen where
Orome found the Elves is to the North beside the waters of
Helkar.(7)
But the symmetry of the ancient Earth was changed and
broken in the first Battle of the Gods, when Valinor went
out against Utumno,(8) which was Melko's stronghold, and
Melko was chained. Then the sea of Helkar (which was the
northern lamp) became an inland sea or great lake, but the
sea of Ringil (which was the southern lamp) became a great
sea flowing north-eastward and joining by straits both the
Western and Eastern Seas.
And the Earth was again broken in the second battle,
when Melko was again overthrown, and it has changed ever
in the wearing and passing of many ages.' But the greatest.
change took place, when the First Design was destroyed,
and the Earth was rounded, and severed from Valinor. This
befell in the days of the assault of the Numenoreans upon
the land of the Gods, as is told in the Histories. And since
that time the world has forgotten the things that were be-
fore, and the names and the memory of the lands and wa-
ters of old has perished.
NOTES.
1. Vista: at all seven occurrences the original name Wilwa was changed,
first in pencil then in ink, to Vista; so also on the world-diagrams I and
II, and on the diagram III (the World Made Round).
2. Original reading Aiwenor; so also on diagram I.
3. Ilmen: at all the many occurrences the original name Silma was care-
fully erased and changed to Ilma (the same change on the map IV);
Ilma was then itself altered to Ilmen (the same succession of changes
on diagrams I and II).
4. Ambar is an emendation but the underlying word is wholly erased (so
also on diagram II; written in later on I).
5. In the margin is written Ilmen-assa, changed from Ilman-assa.
6. Ando Lomen is interpolated into the text, but in all probability not sig-
nificantly later than the original writing of the MS.
7. The last two sentences of this paragraph (from 'And in the middle
land...') were added, but to all appearance belong in time with the
original writing of the MS.
8. Utumno is emended from Utumna.
9. The original MS ends here; what follows, concerning the Earth Made
Round at the time of the assault of the Numenoreans, was added later
(see p. 309).
I give now the list of cosmological words accompanying the
Ambarkanta. My father made several changes to this list, but
since the alterations were mostly made over erasures and the
additions belong to the same period it is impossible to know
the original form of the list in all points. The changes in the
list are however much the same as those made in the text of
the Ambarkanta and on the world-diagrams; thus Silma > Ilma
> Ilmen, Wilwa > Vista, Aiwenor > Aiwenore; ava, ambar,
Endor over erasures; Avakuma, & Elenarda Stellar Kingdom
additions. The translation of Ilmen as 'Place of light' is an
emendation from 'sheen'.
Ilu The World. World.
Ilurambar The Walls of the World;
ramba wall
Kuma darkness, void Dark.
ava outer, exterior; Avakuma
Vaiya fold, envelope. In nature like to Outer Sea, or Encircling
water, but less buoyant than air, and Ocean, or Enfolding Ocean
surrounding The Outer Sea.*
Ilmen Place of light. The region above Sky. Heaven
the air, than which it is thinner and
more clear. Here only the stars and
Moon and Sun can fly. It is called
also Tinwe-malle the Star-street, &
Elenarda Stellar Kingdom.
Vista air. Wherein birds may fly and Air
clouds sail. Its upper region is
Fanyamar or Cloudhome, and its
lower Aiwenore' or Birdland.
ambar Earth. ambar-endya or Middle Earth
Earth of which Endor is the midmost
point.
(* This is very confusing, since Vaiya is apparently said to surround the
Outer Sea (though in the right-hand column it is itself defined as 'Outer
Sea'). But the word 'The' in 'The Outer Sea' has a capital T; and I think that
my father left the preceding sentence unfinished, ending with 'surrounding',
and that he added 'The Outer Sea' afterwards as a definition of Vaiya, with-
out noticing that the preceding phrase was incomplete.)
ear water; sea. Sea
The roots of the Earth are Mar-
talmar, or Talmar Ambaren.
ando door, gate.
lome Night. Ando Lomen the Door of
Night, through which Melko was
thrust after the Second War of the
Gods.
All that land that lies above water, between the Seas of the
West and East and the Mountains of North and South is
Pelmar, the Enclosed Dwelling.
Commentary on the Ambarkanta.
This elegant universe, while certainly in many respects an ev-
olution from the old cosmology of the Lost Tales, shows also
radical shifts and advances in essential structure.
To begin from the Outside: beyond the Walls of the World
lies 'the Void, the Night without form or time', Kuma (Ava-
kuma); and this is of course an aboriginal conception, 'the
outer dark', 'the limitless dark', 'the starless vast' of the tale of
The Hiding of Valinor (I. 216). The Walls of the World,
Ilurambar,* are the unbroken, uninterrupted shell of a vast
globe; they are cold, invisible, and impassable save by Ando
Lomen, the Door of Night. This Door was made by the Valar
'when Melko was overcome and put forth into the Outer
Dark', and Earendel guards it. Already in S ($19) it was said
that 'Morgoth is thrust through the Door of Night into the
outer dark beyond the Walls of the World, and a guard set for
ever on that Door', this is repeated in the corresponding pas-
sage in Q, where the same expressions are used as in the
Ambarkanta, 'the Door of Timeless Night', 'the Void', and
where Earendel, sailing in the Void, is named as the guardian
(see pp. 197, 248). It is not however said in these texts that the
(*Ilu is 'the World' in diagrams I and II, and is so defined in the list of
words (p. 295); for its early meaning see I. 255, entry Ilwe. - The changes to
Earambar in diagrams I and II, like the pencilled note at the bottom of I, were
made very much later and do not concern us here.)
Door of Night was made when Melko was overcome, at the
end of the Great Battle.
I have remarked earlier (p. 57 - 8) on the great shift in the as-
tronomical myth introduced in S by the passage of the Sun be-
neath the Earth, rather than departure through the Door of
Night followed by the journey through the Outer Dark and re-
turn through the Gates of Morn, as described in The Hiding of
Valinor; in that account the Gods made the Door of Night in
order that the Sunship should not have to pass beneath the
Earth. Thus the Door of Night has remained, but its purpose
and the time of its making have been totally changed.
The conception of a great Wall surrounding the 'World' and
fencing it against an outer Emptiness and Darkness goes back
to the beginning; in The Hiding of Valinor it is called 'the Wall
of Things', and Ulmo instructs the Valar that 'Vai runneth from
the Wall of Things unto the Wall of Things whithersoever you
may fare' (I. 214). I have discussed earlier (I. 86) the possibil-
ity that already in the early cosmology Vaitya (the outermost of
the three 'airs') and Vai (the Outer Ocean) constituted 'a con-
tinuous enfolding substance', and that the Ambarkanta 'only
makes explicit what was present but unexpressed in the Lost
Tales', and pointed to the difficulties in this idea. In the first
draft of The Hiding of Valinor (see I. 221 note 16) the Wall of
Things was evidently imagined, as I have said (I. 227), 'like
the walls of terrestrial cities, or gardens - walls with a top: A
"ring-fence" '; the Walls were lower in the East, so that there
was no Door there corresponding to the Door of Night in the
West, and the Sun rode over the Eastern Wall. In the second
draft (I. 216) the idea of the Gates of Morn was introduced;
but the nature and extent of the Walls was still left obscure,
and indeed nothing else is said of them in the Lost Tales be-
yond the statement that they are 'deep-blue' g. 215). A re-
markable sentence in the original tale of The Music of the
Ainur (I. 56) declares that 'the Ainur marvelled to see how the
world was globed amid the void and yet separated from it'.
How this is to be interpreted in the context of the Lost Tales
I do not know; but the sentence was retained through all the
rewritings of the Ainulindale (cf. The Silmarillion p. 17), and
so became a precise description of the world of the
Ambarkanta, whatever my father's original meaning may have
been.
In a view of the close similarity of wording between Q and
the Ambarkanta on the subject of the expulsion of Melko
through the Door of Night, mentioned above, it is very puz-
zling that in the same passage of Q (p. 197) it is said that some
think that he 'creeps back surmounting the Wal1s and visiteth
the world'. The fact that this is only a surmise ('Some
say...'), and that the Prophecy of Mandos which immediately
follows declares that when Morgoth does return it will be
through the Door of Night, hardly explains how the idea of his
'surmounting the Walls' (in inescapable contradiction to the
Ambarkanta, and negating the purpose of Earendel's guard)
could arise.*
It is not indeed explained in the Ambarkanta how the Valar
entered the world at its beginning, passing through the impass-
able Walls, and perhaps we should not expect it to be. But the
central idea at this time is clear: from the Beginning to the
Great Battle in which Melko was overthrown, the world with
all its inhabitants was inescapably bounded; but at the very
end, in order to extrude Melko into the Void, the Valar were
able to pierce the Walls by a Door.
Wholly new is the conception of Ilmen as the pure air that
is breathed in Valinor, and whose bounds are the Mountains of
Valinor and the mountains called the Walls of the Sun, beyond
the Eastern Sea, though 'Vista flows in at times especially in
Elvenhome'. In Ilmen journey the Sun, Moon, and Stars, so
that this region is called also Tinwe-malle+ and Elenarda
(translated 'Star-street' and 'Stellar Kingdom' in the list of
words, p. 295). This partly corresponds to the cosmology of
the Lost Tales, where the Moon-ship 'saileth in the lower folds
of Ilwe threading a white swathe among the stars', and the
(*This conception of the Walls reappears much later, and is found in The
Silmarillion (p. 36): Melkor, returning to Arda after his expulsion by Tulkas
into the outer darkness, 'passed over the Walls of the Night with his host, and
came to Middle-earth far in the north'. But this is an aspect of intractable
problems arising in the later cosmology that cannot be entered into here.
+ See I. 269 (entry Tinwe Linto) and 263 (entry Olore Malle).)
stars 'could not soar into the dark and tenuous realm of Vaitya
that is outside all', but where the Sun 'voyageth even above
Ilwe and beyond the stars' (I. 181, 193).
The lowest air, Vista, in which are Fanyamar 'Cloudhome'
and Ainwenore 'Bird-land', retains the characteristic nature of
the earlier Vilna; cf. I. 65 'Vilna that is grey and therein may
the birds fly safely'. But there is an important corollary to the
frontier between Ilmen and Vista in the West: 'clouds come
seldom in Valinor, and the mortal birds pass not beyond the
peaks of its mountains'.
An aspect of the cosmology that seems puzzling at first
sight arises from the statements in the Ambarkanta (1) that 'in
the North and South ... Middle-earth extends nigh to the
Walls of the World' (p. 290), and (2) that Vaiya is 'most nar-
row in the West and East of the World, but deepest in the
North and South' (ibid.). This apparent contradiction is to be
explained by the passage (p. 292) describing how the Inner
Seas have no shores at North and South, hut spilling into the
Chasm of Ilmen form ice bridges* that close the chasm, and
the ice extends out into Vaiya and even to the Walls of the
World. This ice is represented by the mountain-like peaks
above the words Tormen and Harmen in diagram II. Of all this
there is no trace in the Lost Tales; but it will be found that the
Ambarkanta here greatly illumines the passage in The
Silmarillion (p. 89) describing the Helcaraxe:
For between the land of Aman that in the north curved east-
ward, and the east-shores of Endor (which is Middle-earth)
that bore westward, there was a narrow strait, through which
the chill waters of the Encircling Sea and the waves of
Belegaer flowed together, and there were vast fogs and mists
of deathly cold, and the sea-streams were filled with clash-
ing hills of ice and the grinding of ice deep-sunken.
The passage of the Sun beneath the Earth seems to be dif-
ferently conceived in the Ambarkanta from that of the Moon;
(*Cf. 'Far north lies the bridge of Ice' in the N.W. corner of the Westward
Extension of the first 'Silmarillion' map, p. 281; Insert p. iv.)
for while both pass from East to West through I1men, the Sun
'sinks into Vaiya' and is 'drawn through the nether Vaiya by
the servants of Ulmo', whereas the Moon plunges into the
Chasm of Ilmen.*
Turning now to the surface of the Earth, we meet for the
first time the name Endor, which does not occur in the text of
the Ambarkanta itself, but which is defined in the word-list as
'the midmost point' of Ambarendya or Middle-earth. Endor is
marked in also on the 'World-diagrams' I and II, and also on
the map IV, where it is shown as a point, the 'Earth-middle',
and subsequently changed to Endon. The name Endor occurs
once in The Silmarillion (in the passage just cited), but there it
is a name of Middle-earth, not of the midmost point of Middle-
earth; so also in The Lord of the Rings (Appendix E): Quenya
Endore, Sindarin Ennor 'Middle-earth'. Ambar-endya seems to
be synonymous with Pelmar, since in the word-list the former
is defined as 'Middle-earth', while on map IV the region be-
tween the two seas of East and West is called 'Pelmar or
Middle-earth', but in diagram I they are marked as if different
in reference. Possibly, Pelmar (translated in the list of words as
'the Enclosed Dwelling') means strictly the habitable surface,
Ambar-endya the central raised part of Ambar, the Earth.+
(* The statement in The Silmarillion (p. 101) that Tilion (steersman of the
Moon) 'would pass swiftly over the western land... and plunge in the
Chasm beyond the Outer Sea' cannot in any way be brought into harmony
with the Ambarkanta, where the Chasm of Ilmen is reached before Vaiya,
and must be so by virtue of the fundamental ideas of the cosmology.
The passage in the 'Silmarillion' version that followed Q and was inter-
rupted at the end of 1937 has: 'But Tilion... passes swiftly over the western
land... and plunges into the chasm between the shores of the Earth and the
Outer Sea.' The passage in the published Silmarillion derives from a later
version written in all probability in 1951 - 2; but though I retained it I am at
loss to explain it.
+ For the first element in Pelmar see the Appendix to The Silmarillion, en-
try pel-. Neither this name nor Ambar, Ambar-endya occur in The
Silmarillion, but Ambar-metta 'world-ending' is found in The Return of the
King (VI. S). - Middle-earth is first found in the Ambarkanta and in the An-
nals of Valinor, which belong to the same period but cannot be dated relative
to one another. - Romen 'East' appears for the first time in diagram I, and
Hyarmen 'South' and Formen 'North' (< Harmen, Tormen) in diagram II.)
The lines drawn downwards from the surface of the Earth to
Martalmar 'the roots of the Earth' in diagrams I and II are 'the
veins of the World' (p. 290); and this passage is important in
understanding Ulmo's power and benign influence exerted
through the waters of the world (cf. The Silmarillion pp. 27,
40, in both of which passages the expression 'the veins of the
world' is used).
In the East of the world are the Walls of the Sun, which is
a great mountain range symmetrically answering the Moun-
tains of Valinor in the West, as shown on map IV. Of this
range there is no mention in the Lost Tales, where almost all
that is said of the East is contained in Orome's words to the
In the East beyond the tumbled lands there is a silent
beach and a dark and empty sea' (I. 214); in the East also was
the great mountain Kalorme (I. 212), and there Aule and Ulmo
'builded great havens [of the Sun and Moon] beside the sound-
less sea' (I. 215). In the Ambarkanta the Gates of Morn,
through which the Sun returns from the Outer Dark in the Lost
Tales, have disappeared.
In the description of evening and dawn in Valinor in the
Ambarkanta there is an echo of the Lost Tales: 'Valinor is
Sled with mingled light as of silver and gold; and the Gods
smile remembering the mingling of Laurelin and Silpion long
ago', cf. I. 216 'Then smile the Gods wistfully and say: "It is
the mingling of the lights once more." '
The extremely close symmetry of the Eastern and Western
lands as displayed on map IV is striking; the chief departure
from symmetry being the difference in shape of the great Seas,
and this was due to the eastward thrusting or 'crowding' of
Middle-earth - 'so that it was bended' - at the time of the mak-
ing of Valinor and the raising of its protective mountain-chain.
This more than Titanic crushing of the new-made world was
the origin of the great mountain ranges of Middle-earth, the
Blue, the Red, the Yellow, and the Grey. Cf. The Silmarillion
p. 37:
And the shape of Arda and the symmetry of its waters and
its lands was marred in that time, so that the first designs of
the Valar were never after restored.
But in The Silmarillion this loss of symmetry is not attributed
to the deliberate act of the Valar themselves, who in the
Ambarkanta are ready to contort the very structure of Ambar
for the sake of their own security.
There are some interesting points in the Ambarkanta account
of the first days of the Valar in the world. Here it is said for
the first time that Melko 'descended in the furthest North',
whereas the Valar, coming to Middle-earth at its centre, made
their island from 'a portion of land' and set it in the Western
Sea. The old story of Melko's treacherous assistance of the
Valar in their works by devising the pillars of the Lamps out
of ice is still present, despite the wording of S, and still more
of Q ($1): 'Morgoth contested with them and made war. The
lamps he overthrew ...', which seems to suggest that it had
been abandoned. In the tale of The Coming of the Valar the
name Ringil was given (by Melko!) to the northern pillar, and
Helkar to the southern (I. 69); in the Ambarkanta the names
are applied to the Lamps rather than the pillars, and Ringil be-
comes that of the southern, Helkar that of the northern. In the
tale there is no mention of the formation of Inland Seas at the
time of the fall of the Lamps; rather 'great floods of water
poured from [the Lamps] into the Shadowy Seas', and 'so
great was their thaw that whereas those seas were at first of no
great size but clear and warm, now were they black and wide
and vapours lay upon them and deep shades, for the great cold
rivers that poured into them' (I. 70). Later the names of the
Lamps were changed more than once, but Helcar remained
the name of the Inland Sea 'where aforetime the roots of the
mountain of Illuin [the northern Lamp] had been' (The Silma-
rillion p. 49), and it is seen from the Ambarkanta that the idea
of the sea being formed where the Lamp once stood owed its
origin to the melting pillar of ice, although the actual story of
Melko's devising of the pillars was abandoned when it became
impossible to represent Melko as co-operative, even in seem-
ing, with the Valar. There is no mention in The Silmarillion of
a southern sea where the other Lamp had stood.
Kuivienen is said in the Ambarkanta to be 'to the North be-
side the waters of Helkar', as shown on map IV. In the Lost
Tales (I. 115, 117) Koivie-neni was a lake (with 'bare margin',
in a vale 'surrounded by pine-clad slopes') in Palisor, the
midmost region; in The Silmarillion it is 'a bay in the Inland
Sea of Helcar' (p. 49). In the same passage Orome, on that
that led him to the finding of the Elves, 'turned north by
the shores of Helcar and passed under the shadows of the
Orocarni, the Mountains of the East', and this agrees perfectly
map IV (Orocarni Red Mountains, see the Appendix to
The Silmarillion entry caran). The Blue Mountains oppose
them symmetrically in the West; and in the South are the Grey
Mountains and the Yellow, again symmetrically opposed both
to each other and to the northern ranges. The hack of the
March of the Elves as marked on map IV is again in complete
ment with The Silmarillion (p. 53): 'passing northwards
about the Sea of Helcar they turned towards the west', but of
the Misty Mountains (Hithaeglir) and the Great River (Anduin)
where many Elves of the Third Host turned away South (ibid.
p. 54) there is no sign. In The Hobbit and The Lord of the
Rings the Grey Mountains (Ered Mithrin) are a range beyond
Mirkwood in the North of Middle-earth.
It seems that Beleriand, to judge by the placing and size of
the lettering of the name on map IV, was relatively a very
snall region; and the EIves reached the Sea to the south of it,
at the Falasse (later the Falas of Beleriand). But my father cir-
cled 'Beleriand' in pencil and from the circle drew an arrow to
the point where the track of the March reached the Sea, which
probably implies that he wished to show that this was in fact
within the confines of Beleriand.
The name Hildorien of the land where Men awoke (implying
Hildor, the Aftercomers) now first appears; for the curious use of
the name Eruman for this land in Q see pp. 119 - 20, 205.
Hildorien is a land lying between the Mountains of the Wind and
the Eastern Sea; in The Silmarillion (p. 103) it is placed, more
vaguely, 'in the eastward regions of Middle-earth'.
The placing of Utumna (in the Ambarkanta emended to
Utumno, note 8) on map IV is notable, as is also the occur-
rence of the name itself. Whereas in the Lost Tales Melko's
first fortress was Utumna, and his second Angband (see I.
198), in S and Q the original fortress is Angband, to which
Melko returned after the destruction of the Trees (see p. SO),
and Utumna is not mentioned in those texts. My father had
now reverted to Utumna (Utumno) as the name of Melko's an-
cient and original dwelling in Middle-earth (see further below,
p. 307).
The archipelagoes in the Western Sea have undergone the
great change and simplification that distinguishes the account
in The Silmarillion from that in the Lost Tales (see II. 324-5);
there is no sign on the map of the Harbourless Isles or the Twi-
lit Isles, and instead we have 'The Enchanted or Magic
Isles' - in Q II $17 Magic Isles is emended to Enchanted Isles
(note 11). The 'Shadowy Isles' lying to the northward of the
Enchanted Isles on the map seem to be a new conception.
The name Eldaros (not Eldamar, see I. 251) appears on map
IV with the meaning 'Elvenhome'. Eldaros has occurred once
previously, in one of the AElfwine' outlines (II. 301): 'Eldaros
or AElfham', where the reference is unclear, but seems to be to
Tol Eressea. The words 'Bay of Elfland' are written on the
map but no bay is indicated.
In the West the symmetrically formed lands of Eruman and
Arvalin between the Mountains and the Sea now appear; for
the earlier history see I. 83. Tun lies a little to the north of
Taniquetil; and the position of Valmar is as it was on the little
ancient map given in I. 81.
In the Ambarkanta something is said of the vast further
changes in the shape of the lands and seas that took place in
'the first Battle of the Gods', when Melko was taken captive,
concerning which there is nothing in Q ($2) beyond a refer-
ence to the 'tumult'. In The Silmarillion (p. 51) this is called
'the Battle of the Powers', and
In that time the shape of Middle-earth was changed, and the.
Great Sea that sundered it from Aman grew wide and deep;
and it broke in upon the coasts and made a deep gulf to the
southward. Many lesser bays were made between the Great
Gulf and Helcaraxe far in the north, where Middie-earth and
Aman came nigh together. Of these the Bay of Balar was
the chief; and into it the mighty river Sirion flowed down
from the new-raised highlands northwards: Dorthonion, and
the mountains about Hithlum.
The text of the Ambarkanta does not mention the Great Gulf
or the Bay of Balar, but speaks rather of the vast extension of
the sea of Ringil and its joining to the Eastern and Western
Seas (it is not clear why it is said that the sea of Helkar 'be-
came an inland sea or great lake', since it was so already). But
on the back of the map IV is another map (V) that illustrates
all the features of both accounts. This map is however a very
rapid pencil sketch, and is in places difficult to interpret, from
uncertainty as to the meaning of lines, more especially in the
Western Lands (Outer Lands). It is very hard to say how pre-
cisely this map should be interpreted in relation to map IV. For
example, in map IV the Grey Mountains are very widely sep-
arated from the Blue, whereas in map V there is only a narrow
space at the head of the Great Gulf between them; the Inland
Sea (Helkar) is further to the North; and so on. Again, many
features are absent (such as the Straits of Ice), and in such
cases one cannot be sure whether their absence is casual or in-
tentional; though the failure to mark in Tol Eressea or the En-
chanted Isles suggests the former. I am inclined to think that
map V is a very rough sketch not to be interpreted too strictly.
The narrow ring between the Earth and the Outer Seas
clearly represents the Chasm of Ilmen.
In relation to Beleriand in the North-west, and bearing in
mind the whole underlying history of Eriol-AElfwine and
Leithien (England), the southern part of the Hither Lands, be-
low the Great Gulf, bears an obvious resemblance to the con-
tinent of Africa; and in a vaguer way the Inland Sea could be
interpreted as the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. But I can
offer nothing on this matter that would not be the purest spec-
ulation.
The sea marked 'East Sea' on map V is the former sea of
Ringil,- cf. the Ambarkanta: the sea of Ringil ... became a
great sea flowing northeastward and joining by straits both the
Western and Eastern Seas.'
In the North-west the ranges of Eredlomin and Eredwethrin
(not named; see pp. 233-4) enclosing Hithlum (which is
named) are shown, and the western extension of Eredwethrin
that was the southern fence of later Nevrast.* In the version of
'The Silmarillion' that followed Q it is said that in the War of
the Gods the Iron Mountains 'were broken and distorted at
their western end, and of their fragments were made
Eredwethrin and Eredlomin', and that the Iron Mountains 'bent
back northward', and map V, in relation to map IV, agrees well
with this. The first 'Silmarillion' map (see insert), on the oth-
er hand, shows the Iron Mountains curving back strongly to
the North-east (it is conceivable that the hasty zigzag lines to
the east of Thangorodrim were intended to rectify this).
In the version of 'The Silmarillion' just referred to it is also
said that 'beyond the River Gelion the land narrowed suddenly,
for the Great Sea ran into a mighty gulf reaching almost to the
feet of Eredlindon, and there was a strait of mountainous land
between the gulf and the inland sea of Helcar, by which one
might come into the vast regions of the south of Middle-earth'.
Again, these features are clearly seen on map V, where the
'strait of mountainous land' is called the 'Straits of the World'.
The enclosed areas to the east of Eredwethrin and south-east of
Thangorodrim clearly represent the Encircling Mountains
about Gondolin and the highlands of Taur-na-Fuin; we see
what was later called the Gap of Maglor between those high-
lands and the Blue Mountains, and the rivers Gelion (with its
tributaries, the rivers of Ossiriand), Sirion, and Narog.+ With
this part of map V compare the first 'Silmarillion' map and its
Eastward extension.
Particularly notable is the closeness of Hithlum on map V to
the edge of the world (the Chasm of Ilmen).
Angband is placed in very much the same position on map
V as is Utumna on map IV: very near to the Chasm of Ilmen
and well behind the mountain-wall, in the land that on map V
(*This range is seen also on the Westward Extension of the first
'Silmarillion' map (see insert).
+ A11 these north-western features are drawn in ink, whereas the rest of
map V is in pencil; but the mountain-ranges (though not the rivers) are inked
in over pencil.)
is called Daidelos (later Dor Daedeloth).* As noted above,
Utumna had now been resurrected from the Lost Tales as
Melko's original fortress; and it emerges clearly from later
texts that the story now was that when Melko returned to
Middle-earth after the destruction of the Trees he returned to
the ruins of Utumna and built there his new fortress, Angband.
This, I think, is why the fortress is called Angband, not
Utumna, on map V.
The history was therefore as follows:
Lost Tales. Utumna. Melko's original fortress.
Angband. His dwelling when he re-
turned.
S,Q. Angband. Melko's original fortress to
which he returned.
Ambarkanta. Utumna. Melko's original fortress.
maps. Angband. His second fortress built on
the site of Utumna when
he returned.
Much later, Utumno and Angband were both ancient fotresses
of Morgoth, and Angband was that to which he returned (The
Silmarillion pp. 47, 81).
Thangorodrim is shown on map V as a point, set slightly out
from the Iron Mountains. This represents a change in the con-
ception of Thangorodrim from that on the first 'Silmarillion'
map, which illustrates the words of S ($8) that Thangorodrim
is 'the highest of the Iron Mountains around Morgoth's for-
tress'. The marking of Thangorodrim on Ambarkanta map V
Shows the later conception, seen in The Silmarillion p. 118,
where it is said expressly that Melkor made a tunnel under the
tnountains which issued south of them, that Thangorodrim was
piled above the gate of issue, and that Angband was behind the
(* Similar forms but with different application have occurred earlier: in the
Epilogue to the Lost Tales the High Heath in Tol Eressea where the battle was
fought is Ladwen-na-Dhaideloth, Dor-na-Dhaideloth ('Sky-roof'), II. 287;
and in line 946 of the Lay of the Children of Hurin Dor-na-Fauglith was first
called Daideloth ('High plain'), III. 49.)
mountain-wall: thus Thangorodrim stood out somewhat from
the main range.
There are extremely puzzling features in the Western Land
on map V. There is now a mountain chain (for so the herring-
bone markings must be interpreted, since that is their meaning
elsewhere on the map) extending up the western coast north-
wards from Taniquetil to the Helkarakse and (as it seems) ris-
ing out of the sea, as well as the old westward curve of the
Mountains of Valinor (bending back to the Chasm of Ilmen)
seen on map IV; thus Eruman (with the first occurrence of the
name Araman pencilled above it afterwards) is not represented
as a coastal wasteland between the mountains and the sea but
is walled in by mountains both on the East and on the West.
I do not understand this; in any case The Silmarillion has the
geography shown on map IV.
Equally puzzling is the representation of the lands south of
Tun and Taniquetil. Here there are herring-bone lines continu-
ing the main line of mountains southwards from Taniquetil,
with again the old westward curve back to the Chasm; but the
area symmetrically corresponding to Eruman in the North is
here left unnamed, and Arvalin (emended from Eruman) is
shown as a substantial land extending east even of the 'new'
mountains, from the southern shore of the Bay of Faery to the
extreme South of the world. The Bay of Faery, which is clearly
shown on this map (in contrast to map IV), is in fact partly
formed by this 'new' Arvalin. In a corner of the map is writ-
ten:
After the War of the Gods (Arvalin was cast up by the Great
Sea at the foot of the Mts.
Though the brackets are not closed after 'Mts.', I think that the
first words may have been intended as a title, indicating the
period represented by the map. But the following words, cou-
pled with the absence of Arvalin from its expected place on
the map, seem to imply that it was only now that Arvalin came
into being.
* * *
The Old English names Ingarsecg, Utgarsecg are found in
the Old English texts (pp. 253, 256). Aflon on the coast north
of Tun is Alqualonde (later Sindarin alph, lond (lonn): see the
Appendix to The Silmarillion, entries alqua, londe). The names
Aman, Araman were added to map V many years later (as also
Arda, Earambar on the diagrams).
If this map shows the vastness of the cataclysm that my fa-
ther conceived as having taken place at the time of the break-
ing of Utumno and the chaining of Melko, at the end of the
Ambarkanta he added (see note 9) a passage concerning the far
greater cataclysm that took place 'in the days of the assault of
the Numenoreans upon the land of the Gods'. This may have
been added much later; but the passage is written carefully in
ink, not scribbled in pencil, and is far more likely to be con-
temporary, since the story of Numenor arose about this time. In
support of this is the diagram III, 'the World after the Cata-
clysm and the ruin of the Numenoreans'; for on this diagram
the inner air was originally marked Wilwa and only later
changed to Vista. In the Ambarkanta and the accompanying list
of words, as in diagrams I and II, Vista is likewise an emenda-
tion from Wilwa; it seems therefore that diagram III belongs to
the same period.
'책,영화,리뷰,' 카테고리의 다른 글
| JRR Tolkien - The History of Middle Earth Series vol04 GL7 (0) | 2023.03.13 |
|---|---|
| JRR Tolkien - The History of Middle Earth Series vol04 GL6 (0) | 2023.03.13 |
| JRR Tolkien - The History of Middle Earth Series vol04 GL4 (0) | 2023.03.13 |
| JRR Tolkien - The History of Middle Earth Series vol04 GL3 (0) | 2023.03.13 |
| JRR Tolkien - The History of Middle Earth Series vol04 GL2 (0) | 2023.03.12 |