PART THREE.
THE LATER
QUENTA SILMARILLION.
THE LATER QUENTA SILMARILLION.
(I) THE FIRST PHASE.
In this book, as explained in the Foreword, my account of the
development of The Silmarillion in the years following the completion
of The Lord of the Rings is restricted to the 'Valinorian' part of the
narrative - that is to say, to the part corresponding to the Annals of
Aman.
As with the Annals of Valinor (Aman) (p. 47), my father did not
begin revision of the Quenta Silmarillion as a new venture on blank
sheets, but took up again the original QS manuscript and the
typescript (entitled 'Eldanyare') derived from it (see V.199 - 201) and
covered them with corrections and expansions. As already seen (p. 3),
he noted that the revision had reached the end of the tale of Beren and
Luthien on 10 May 1951. The chapters were very differently treated,
some being much more developed than others and running to several
further texts.
An amanuensis typescript was then made, providing a reasonably
clear and uniform text from the now complicated and difficult
materials. This was made by the same person as made the typescript of
Ainulindale' D (p. 39) and seems to have been paginated continuously
on from it. I shall call this typescript 'LQ 1' (for 'Later Quenta 1', i.e.
'the first continuous text of the later Quenta Silmarillion'). It seems
virtually certain that it was made in 1951( - 2).
LQ 1 was corrected, at different times and to greatly varying extent.
A new typescript, in top copy and carbon, was professionally made
later, incorporating all the alterations made to LQ 1. This text I shall
call 'LQ 2'. In a letter to Rayner Unwin of 7 December 1957 (Letters
no.204) my father said:
I now see quite clearly that I must, as a necessary preliminary to
'remoulding',* get copies made of all copyable material. And I shall
put that in hand as soon as possible. But I think the best way of
dealing with this (at this stage, in which much of the stuff is in
irreplaceable sole copies) is to install a typist in my room in college,
and not let any material out of my keeping, until it is multiplied.
(* This word refers to a letter from Lord Halsbury, who had said: 'I can quite
see that there is a struggle ahead m re-mould it into the requisite form for
publication' (cited earlier in my father's letter to Rayner Unwin).)
It seems likely that it was soon after this that LQ 2 was made. It is
noteworthy that it was typed on the same machine as was used for the
typescript of the Annals of Aman (also extant in top copy and carbon),
and both texts may well belong to the same time - say 1958. LQ 2
(like LQ 1) has naturally no textual value in itself, but it received
careful emendation in Chapter 1 Of the Valar (thereafter, however,
only scattered jottings).
Finally, my father turned to new narrative writing in the Matter of
the First Age before the Hiding of Valinor. The first chapter, Of the
Valar, much altered at this time, became separated off from the
Quenta Silmarillion proper under the title Valaquenta; while the sixth
chapter, Of the Silmarils and the Darkening of Valinor (numbered 4 in
QS, V.227), and a part of the seventh, Of the Flight of the Noldor
(numbered 5 in QS), were very greatly enlarged and gave rise to new
chapters with these titles:
Of Finwe and Miriel
Of Feanor and the Unchaining of Melkor
Of the Silmarils and the Unrest of the Noldor
Of the Darkening of Valinor
Of the Rape of the Silmarils
Of the Thieves' Quarrel
This new work exemplifies the 'remoulding' to which my father
looked forward in the letter to Rayner Unwin cited above. It repre-
sents (together with much other writing of a predominantly specula-
tive nature) a second phase in his later work on The Silmarillion. The
first phase included the new version of the Lay of Leithian, the later
Ainulindale, the Annals of Aman and the Grey Annals, the later Tale
of Tuor, and the first wave of revision of the Quenta Silmarillion,
much of this work left unfinished. The years 1953 - 5 saw the
preparation and publication of The Lord of the Rings; and there seems
reason to think that it was a good while yet before he turned again to
The Silmarillion, or at least to its earlier chapters.
In these substantially rewritten chapters of the 'second phase' he
was moving strongly into a new conception of the work, a new and
much fuller mode of narrative - envisaging, as it appears, a thorough-
going 're-expansion' from the still fairly condensed form (despite a
good deal of enlargement in the 1951 revision) that went back through
QS and Q to the 'Sketch of the Mythology' of 1926, which had made a
brief summary from the amplitude of The Book of Lost Tales (on this
evolution see IV.76).
It has been difficult to find a satisfactory method of presentation for
the later evolution of The Silmarillion. In the first place, the chapters
must obviously be treated separately, since the extent of the later
development, and the textual history, varies so widely. Equally clearly,
a complete documentation of every alteration from start to finish (that
is detailing the precise sequence of change through successive texts) is
out of the question. After much experimentation the plan I have
followed is based on this consideration: seeing that a great deal of the
development can be ascribed to a relatively short time (the '1951
revision'), it seems best to take LQ 1, marking the end of that stage, as
the 'common text'. But while I print LQ 1 in full as it was typed (as far
as Chapter 5: Chapters 6 - 8 are differently treated), I also include in
the text the corrections and expansions made to it subsequently,
indicated as such. This gives at once a view of the state of the work in
both LQ 1, at the end of the 'first phase', and in LQ 2, at the beginning
of the 'second phase' some seven years later. Beyond this, the
treatment of each chapter varies according to the peculiarities of its
history. The late expanded versions of certain chapters belonging to
the 'second phase' are treated separately (pp. 199 ff.).
Particular difficulties are encountered in the later work on The
Silmarillion, in that so much of the typescript material was not made
by my father, and he seems often to have corrected these texts without
going back to the earlier ones from which they were taken; while when
there were both top copy and carbon copy he often kept them in
different places (for fear of loss), and one copy is often emended
differently from the other, or one is not emended when the other is.
Moreover he was liable to emend a text after later texts had been
derived from it.
1 OF THE VALAR.
In my edition of 'QS' in Volume V of this history the text of the first
chapters (1, 2, 3(a), 3(b), 3(c)) is taken from the typescript which my
father made from the QS manuscript in (as I have argued, V.200)
December 1937 - January 1938, and which incorporated certain revi-
sions made to the opening chapters on the manuscript. This text I will
refer to as 'the QS typescript'. Both manuscript and typescript were
used for the '1951 revision', but it was the latter that was the copy
from which LQ 1 was made, there being some fourteen years between
them. As already explained, the changes made subsequently to LQ 1
are shown as such in the text.
There is now no title-page to LQ 1 (see p. 200), which begins with
AElfwine's note (with the Old English verses) and the Translator's note
in an almost exact copy of the old QS typescript (V.203 - 4), the only
difference being Pengoloth for Pengolod (at the first occurrence
changed to Pengolodh, representing voiced 'th'). The page, like that of
the QS typescript, is headed Eldanyare (History of the Elves).
The paragraph numbers are those of QS (V.204 - 7), with '10a' and
'10b' used to indicate the passages additional to the text of QS, and
belonging to different times, at the end of the chapter.
Here begins the Silmarillion or History of the Silmarils.
1. Of the Valar.
$1 In the beginning Eru, [added: the One,] who in Elvish
tongue is named Iluvatar, made the Ainur of his thought; and
they made a great music before him. Of this Music the World
was made; for Iluvatar made visible the song of the Ainur, and
they beheld it as a light in the darkness. And many of the
mightiest among them became enamoured of its beauty and of
its history which they saw beginning and unfolding as in a
Vision. Therefore Iluvatar gave to their vision Being, and set it
amid the Void, and the Secret Fire was sent to burn at the heart
of the World.
Then those of the Ainur who would entered into the World at
the beginning of Time, and behold! it was their task to achieve it
and by their labour to fulfill the Vision which they had seen.
Long they laboured in the regions of Ea, which are vast beyond
the thought of Elves and Men, until in the time appointed was
made Arda, the Kingdom of Earth. Then they put on the
raiment of Earth and descended into it and dwelt therein; and
they are therein.
$2 These spirits the Elves name the Valar, which is the
Powers, and Men have often called them gods. Many lesser
spirits of their own kind they brought in their train, both great
and small; and some of these Men have confused with the Elves,
but wrongfully [read wrongly], for they were made before the
World, whereas Elves and Men awoke first on Earth, after the
coming of the Valar. Yet in the making of Elves and of Men,
and in the giving to each of their especial gifts, none of the Valar
had any part. Iluvatar alone was their author; wherefore they
are called the Children of Iluvatar [> Eru].
$3 The chieftains of the Valar were nine. These were the
names of the Nine Gods [> gods] in the Elvish tongue as it was
spoken in Valinor; though they have other or altered names in
the speech of the Gnomes [> Sindar], and their names among
Men are manifold: Manwe and Melkor, Ulmo, Aule, Mandos,
Lorien [> Lorion], Tulkas, Osse, and Orome.
$4 Manwe and Melkor were brethren in the thought of
Iluvatar / and mightiest of those Ainur who came into the
World. But Manwe is the lord of the gods, and prince of the airs
and winds, and ruler of the sky. With him dwells as wife Varda
the maker of the stars [> The mightiest of those Ainur who
came into the World was Melkor; but Manwe was dearest to
the heart of Iluvatar and understood most clearly his purposes.
He was appointed to be, in the fullness of time, the first of all
kings: lord of the realm of Arda and ruler of all that dwell
therein. And there his delight is in the winds of the world and in
all the regions of the air. With him in Arda dwells as spouse
Varda kindler of the stars], immortal lady of the heights, whose
name is holy. Fionwe and Ilmare are their son and daughter
[this sentence struck out]. Next in might and closest in
friendship to Manwe is Ulmo, lord of waters. He dwells alone in
the Outer Seas, but has the government of all waters, seas, and
rivers, fountains and springs, throughout the earth. Subject to
him is Osse, the master of the seas about the lands of Men; and
his wife is Uinen the lady of the sea. Her hair lies spread through
all the waters under skies.
$5 Aule has might but little less [> little less] than Ulmo. He
is a smith and a master of crafts; and his spouse is Yavanna, the
giver of fruits and lover of all things that grow. In majesty she i."
next to Varda, her sister, among the queens of the Valar. She is
fair and tall, and often the Elves name her Palurien, the Lady of
the Wide Earth.
$6 The Fanturi [> Feanturi] were brethren, and are named
Mandos and Lorien [> Lorion]. Yet these are not their right
names, and are the names rather of the places of their abiding.
For their right names are seldom spoken save in secret: which
are Namo and Irmo. Quoth Rumil. Nurufantur the elder was
also called, [> which are Namo and Irmo. Namo, the elder, is]
the master of the houses of the dead, and the gatherer of the
spirits of the slain. He forgets nothing, and knows all that shall
be, save only what Iluvatar has hidden; but he speaks only at the
command of Manwe. He is the doomsman of the Valar. Vaire
the weaver is his wife, who weaves all things that have been in
time in her storied webs, and the halls of Mandos that ever
widen as the ages pass are clothed therewith. Olofantur the
younger of these brethren was also named, [> Irmo, the
younger of these brethren, is] the master of visions and of
dreams. His gardens in the land of the gods are the fairest of all
places in the world, and filled with many spirits. Este the pale is
his wife, who walks not by day, but sleeps on an island in the
dark lake of Lorien [> Lorion]. Thence her fountains bring
refreshment to the folk of Valinor; yet she comes not to the
councils of the Valar, and is not reckoned among their queens.
$7 Strongest of limb, and greatest in deeds of prowess, is
Tulkas, who is surnamed Poldorea the Valiant. He is unclothed
in his disport, which is much in wrestling; and he rides no steed,
for he can outrun all things that go on feet, and he is tireless. His
hair and beard are golden, and his flesh ruddy; his weapons are
his hands. He recks little of either past or future, and is of small
avail as a counsellor, but a hardy friend. He has great love for
Fionwe, son [> Eonwe, herald] of Manwe. His wife is Nessa,
sister of Orome; she is lissom of limb and fleet of foot, and
dances in Valinor upon lawns of never-fading green.
$8 Orome is a mighty lord, and little less than Tulkas in
strength, or in wrath, if he be aroused. He loved the lands of
Earth, while they were still dark, and he left them unwillingly
and came last to Valinor; and he comes even yet at times east
over the mountains. Of old he was often seen upon the hills and
plains. He is a hunter, and he loves all trees; for which reason
he is called Aldaron, and by the Gnomes [> Sindar] Tauros
[> Tauron], the lord of forests. He delights in horses and in
hounds, and his horns are loud in the friths and woods that
Yavanna planted in Valinor; but he blows them not upon the
Middle-earth since the fading of the Elves, whom he loved.
Vana is his wife, the ever-young, the queen of flowers, who has
the beauty both of heaven and of earth upon her face and in all
her works; she is the younger sister of Varda and Palurien.
$9 But mightier than she is Nienna, Manwe's sister and
Melkor's. She dwells alone. Pity is in her heart, and mourning
and weeping come to her; shadow is her realm and her throne
hidden. For her halls are west of West, nigh to the borders of the
World and Darkness [read the Darkness]; and she comes
seldom to Valmar, the city of the gods, where all is glad. She
goes rather to the halls of Mandos, which are nearer and yet
more northward; and all those who go to Mandos cry to her.
For she is a healer of hurts, and turns pain to medicine and
sorrow to wisdom. The windows of her house look outward
from the walls of the World.
$10 Last do all name Melkor. But the Gnomes [> Noldor],
who suffered most from his evil deeds, will not speak his name,
and they call him Morgoth, the black god [> the Black Foe],
and Bauglir, the Constrainer. Great might was given to him by
Iluvatar, and he was coeval with Manwe, and part he had of all
the powers of the other Valar; but he turned them to evil uses.
He coveted the world and all that was in it, and desired the
lordship of Manwe and the realms of all the gods; and pride and
jealousy and lust grew ever in his heart, till he became unlike his
brethren. Wrath consumed him, and he begot violence and
destruction and excess. In ice and fire was his delight. But
darkness he used most in all his evil works, and turned it to fear
and a name of dread among Elves and Men.
$10a Thus it may be seen that there are nine Valar, and
Seven queens of the Valar of no less might; for whereas Melkor
and Ulmo dwell alone, so also doth Nienna, while Este is not
numbered among the Rulers. But the Seven Great Ones of the
Realm of Arda are Manwe and Melkor, Varda, Ulmo, Yavanna,
Aule, and Nienna; for though Manwe is their chief [> king], in
majesty they are peers, surpassing beyond compare all others
whether of the Valar and their kin, or of any other order that
Iluvatar has conceived [> caused to be].
$10b [All the following was added to the typescript in ink:
With the Valar were other spirits whose being also began before
the world: these are the maiar, of the same order as the Great
but of less might and majesty. Among them Eonwe the herald of
Manwe, and Ilmare handmaid of Varda were the chief. Many
others there are who have no names among Elves or Men, for
they appear seldom in forms visible. But great and fair was
Melian of the people of Yavanna, who [struck out: on her
behalf] tended once the gardens of Este, ere she came to
Middle-earth. And wise was Olorin, counsellor of Irmo: secret
enemy of the secret evils of Melkor, for his bright visions drove
away the imaginations of darkness.
Of Melian much is later told; but of Olorin this tale does not
speak. In later days he dearly loved the Children of Eru, and
took pity on their sorrows. Those who hearkened to him arose
from despair; and in their hearts the desire to heal and to renew
awoke, and thoughts of fair things that had not yet been but
might yet be made for the enrichment of Arda. Nothing he made
himself and nothing he possessed, but kindled the hearts of
others, and in their delight he was glad.
But not all of the maiar were faithful to the Valar; for some
were from the beginning drawn to the power of Melkor, and
others he corrupted later to his service. Sauron was the name by
which the chief of these was afterwards called, but he was not
alone.]
*
All the changes shown in the text of LQ 1 given above were taken up
into the second complete and continuous typescript LQ 2, made some
seven years later (pp. 141 - 2), which introduced a few errors. It cannot
be said when the alterations were made to LQ 1, though most of them
look as if they were made at the same time.
The typescript LQ 2 was much more fully and carefully emended in
this chapter than in any subsequent one, though in many cases only on
one of the two copies. I give here a list of these alterations:*
$1 After 'the Secret Fire was sent to burn at the heart of the World'
was added: 'and it was called Ea', with 'Let it be! ' in a footnote
(struck out on the top copy).
$2 'and some of these Men have confused with the Elves, but
wrongfully' > 'these are the Maiar, whom Men have often
confounded with the Elves, but wrongly' ('wrongfully' was an
error on the part of the typist of LQ 1).
$3 On the form Lorien with short vowel see p. 56 note 2. The typist
did not understand my father's corrections of the name on
LQ 1, which were unclear, and typed at the three occurrences
($$3, 6) Lorien, Lorin, Lorion. At the first two my father
corrected the name to Lorinen, but struck this out, probably at
once; his final form on LQ 2 was Lorien (so marked).
$4 'in all the regions of the air.' > '... air; therefore he is surnamed
Sulimo.'
The typist of LQ 2 omitted the word 'kindler' after 'Varda',
so producing 'Varda of the stars'; my father changed 'stars' to
'Stars', showing that he had not observed the error.
$5 In 'she [Yavanna] is next to Varda, her sister,' the words 'her
sister' were struck out (cf. under $8 below).
$6 The opening of the paragraph was again rewritten, to read: 'The
Feanturi were brethren, and are called most often Mandos and
Lorien. Yet these are rightly the names of the places of their
abiding; for their true names are Namo and Irmo. Namo, the
elder, dwells in Mandos, and is the keeper of the Houses of
the Dead'
'(Vaire the weaver is his) wife' ) 'spouse'
'His gardens in the land of the gods are the fairest' > 'In
Lorien are his gardens in the land of the gods, and they are the
fairest'
'(Este the pale is his) wife' > 'spouse' (top copy only)
'an island in the dark lake of Lorion' ) 'an island in the
tree-shadowed lake of Lorellin'
(* No doubt many of the corrections to LQ 1 as a whole belong to the
'second phase' of revision (p. 142), while LQ 2 and the corrections made to it
are constituent elements in that phase; but it is obviously far more convenient
and clear to set them all out together in relation to the primary text LQ 1.)
$7 'Poldorea' > 'Astaldo'
'His wife is Nessa' > 'His spouse is Nessa'
$8 The earlier part of this paragraph was substantially altered, but
almost all of the new text appears on the carbon copy only:
He loved the lands of Middle-earth, and he left them unwil-
lingly and came last to Valinor; and oft of old he passed back
east over the mountains, and returned with his host to the
hills and plains. He is a hunter of monsters and fell beasts, and
delights in horses and hounds, and all trees he loves; and
Tauron the Sindar called him, the lord of the forests. The
Valaroma was the name of his great horn, the sound of which
was like the upgoing of the Sun in scarlet, and the sheer
lightning cleaving the clouds. Above all the horns of his host it
was heard in the woods that Yavanna brought forth in
Valinor; for there he would train his folk and his beasts for
the pursuit of the evil creatures of Melkor. But the Valaroma
is blown no more upon the Middle-earth since the change of
the world and the fading of the Elves, whom he loved.
'she [Vana] is the younger sister of Varda and Palurien' > 'she
is the younger sister of Yavanna' (top copy only)
$9 'Nienna, Manwe's sister and Melkor's' o 'sister of Namo' (top
copy only)
$10 'Bauglir' > 'Baugron' (top copy only)
the lordship of Manwe > the kingship of Manwe (top copy
only)
$10b 'With the Valar were other spirits' > 'With the Valar, as has
been said, were other spirits' (top copy only)
'these are the maiar' o 'the Maiar' (top copy only); maiar >
Maiar again at end.
I have shown all these changes in unnecessary detail since they serve
to indicate the nature of much of the material constituting 'the later
Silmarillion'.
Commentary on Chapter 1, 'Of the Valar'.
$1 The new opening of The Silmarillion came in with the first phase
of the revision, and it is obvious that it followed and was
dependent on the new version of the Ainulindale', with its new
conception of the Creation of the World:
Iluvatar made visible the song of the Ainur... [The Ainur saw
the history of the World] unfolding as in a Vision. Therefore
Iluvatar gave to their vision Being ... it was their task to
achieve it and by their labour to fulfill the Vision which they
had seen.
The first form of the new opening, written on the QS manu-
script, had 'Long they laboured in the regions of Aman', using
that name in the sense that it bore in the later Ainulindale' texts
('the Halls of Aman', the World); on the QS typescript (see
p. 143) Aman was emended to Ea' (which therefore appears in
LQ 1).
$2 The name Maiar, introduced in the addition made at the end of
LQ 1 ($10b) and appearing in this paragraph in LQ 2, is first
found in the preliminary drafting for the Annals of Aman (Mairi
> Maiar, p. 49 and note 4). See further under $10b below.
$3 The passing change of Lorien to Lorion is found also in AAm*
(the second, abandoned version of the opening of AAm), p.
65, $1.
$4 On the change to LQ 1 whereby Melkor becomes 'the mightiest
of those Ainur who came into the World' (and not possessing
only powers equal to those of Manwe) see p. 65, $2.
On the loss of the original sentence 'Fionwe and Ilmare are
their son and daughter', heavily inked out on LQ 1, see under
$10b below. So also in the final text D of the Ainulindale the
reference to Fionwe and Ilmare as the son and daughter of
Manwe and Varda was strongly blacked out (p. 34, $36).
On the striking out on LQ 2 of the statement that Yavanna was
the sister of Varda see under $8 below.
$6 In the earliest phase of the revision a marginal note was added
against the names Mandos and Lorien, which as entered on the
QS typescript read:
Yet these are not their right names, and are the names rather
of the places of their abiding. For their right names are seldom
spoken save in secret: which are Nur and Lis. Quoth Rumil.
(In the Lost Tales Mandos is the name of the God, and also the
name of his halls; it is also said (1.76) that Vefantur (Mandos)
called his halls by his own name, Ve.) Nur and Lis were then
corrected to Namo and Irmo. The typist of LQ 1 took this up
into the body of the text, which was obviously not my father's
intention. This typist did the same elsewhere, and my father then
restored the passage to its original status as a marginal note; but
in this case he left it to stand, getting rid of the words 'Quoth
Rumil' (and of the old name Nurufantur; similarly with Olofan-
tur subsequently).
At the foot of the page carrying this passage in the carbon
copy of LQ 2 he pencilled the following (referring to the names
Namo and Irmo), Judgement (of what is) Desire (of what
might be or should be)'.
What is said at the end of the paragraph about Este is found in
AAm (p. 49, $3), where it is also told that she was 'the chief of
the Maiar'. This was repeated in AAm* (p. 65, $3), where Nessa
is added to Este as 'the highest among the Maiar'.
The change of 'wife' to 'spouse' was made on LQ 2 in the
accounts of Vaire, Este, and Nessa ($$6 - 7); in that of Vana ($8)
it was merely overlooked, while Varda had become Manwe's
'spouse' in a change made to LQ 1 ($4), and Yavanna was
already Aule's 'spouse' in QS ($5). The same change was made
on the typescript of AAm (p. 69), and its significance is seen
from the accompanying marginal comment: 'Note that
"spouse" meant only an "association". The Valar had no
bodies, but could assume shapes.' At this time the passage in
AAm concerning the Children of the Valar was removed (see
under $10b below).
$8 In AAm ($133, pp. 111, 124) the form was still Tauros (in
Feanor's speech on the summit of Tuna), and was not corrected.
The name Valaroma (appearing in the expanded passage on
LQ 2) occurs in AAm (p. 101, $116) and by emendation of
Rombaras in Ainulindale' D (p. 35, $34).
The statement in $5 that Yavanna is the sister of Varda does
not appear in QS, but it was merely derived from that in QS $8,
that Vana is 'the younger sister of Varda and Palurien'. This
goes back to Q (IV.79, 167), but no further. Varda and
Yavanna were still sisters in AAm (p. 49, $3), but the idea was
abandoned in corrections to LQ 2.
$9 That Nienna was the sister of Manwe and Melkor ('brethren in
the thought of Iluvatar') goes back to the earliest Annals of
Valinor (IV.263), and remained in AAm (p. 49, $3; cf. p. 93,
$88, where Nienna aided the prayer of Melkor for pardon
'because of her kinship'). With the change in LQ 2 whereby she
becomes 'sister of Namo', omitting Irmo his brother, cf. AAm*
(p. 65, $3), where she is named only 'Manwe's sister', omitting
Melkor.
$10 The name Baugron (changed from Bauglir in LQ 2) is found
nowhere else. It was not adopted in the published Silmarillion.
$10a The meaning of the passage is more evident from a table; the
names italicised are 'the Seven Great Ones of the Realm of
Arda'.
Manu e'...................Varda
Melkor
Ulmo
Aule'.....................Yavanna
Nienna
Mandos....................Vaire
Lorien ...................................(Este)
Tulkas ...................Nessa
Osse......................Uinen
Orome.....................Vana
$10b Fionwe and Ilmare were removed from $4 as the children of
Manwe and Varda, and in $7 Fionwe becomes Eonwe, 'herald
of Manwe'; here Ilmare becomes 'handmaid of Varda'. This is
an aspect of an important development in the conception of the
Powers of Arda, the abandonment of the old and long-rooted
idea of 'the Children of the Valar, the Sons of the Valar'. It was
still present in AAm (p. 49, $4), where the Valarindi, 'the
offspring of the Valar', were 'numbered with' the Maiar (but in
AAm* they are distinguished from the Maiar, p. 66, $4). On the
typescript text of AAm the conception of the Children of the
Valar was struck out (see under $6 above).
Melian is a Maia (as in AAm $40), and she is 'of the people of
Yavanna' (in QS $31 'she was akin, before the World was made,
unto Yavanna'). And here Olorin (Gandalf), as 'counsellor of
Irmo', enters The Silmarillion.
In AAm (p. 52, $17) Sauron ('a great craftsman of the
household of Aule') is likewise said to have been the chief of the
Maiar who turned to Melkor.
It may be that the (relatively) heavy correction carried out on the LQ 2
text of this chapter was the preliminary to its final, enlarged form
called the Valaquenta (pp. 199 ff.).
2 OF VALINOR AND THE TWO TREES.
The textual situation in this chapter differs from that in Chapter 1, in
that here, after the alterations made to the original pre-Lord of the
Rings texts (the QS manuscript and derived QS typescript) there
followed two typescripts made by my father before LQ 1 was made,
and in the first of these the opening of the chapter was greatly changed
from its form in QS. I shall not however distinguish the 'layers' in the
textual history before the amanuensis typescript LQ 1 was reached,
although some particular points are recorded in the commentary.
The further development of this chapter from QS was effectively
confined to the 1951 revision, since late rewriting and expansion
corresponding to the development of the Valaquenta out of Chapter 1
Of the Valar was not undertaken in this case. It is conceivable, I think,
that (while there is no evidence one way or the other) having remade
Chapter 1 as the Valaquenta my father postponed the rewriting of
Chapter 2 because his views on the treatment of the myth of the Two
Trees in the light of the later cosmology were too uncertain.
There follows now the text of LQ 1, with the (very few) subsequent
changes made to it shown as such. The paragraph numbers corres-
pond to those in QS (V.208 - 10).
2. Of Valinor and the Two Trees.
$11 Now in the beginning of the Kingdom of Arda Melkor
contested with his brother Manwe and the Valar for the
overlordship, and all that they wrought he hindered or marred,
if he might. But he fled before the onset of Tulkas, and there was
peace. But since Melkor had perverted light to a destroying
flame, when he was gone and his fires were subdued the Valar
perceived that the Earth was dark, save for the glimmer of
the innumerable stars which Varda had made in the ages un-
recorded of the labours of Ea. Aule, therefore, at the prayer
of Yavanna, wrought two mighty Lamps [added: illuin and
Ormal] for the lighting of Arda; and the Valar set them upon
lofty pillars northward and southward in Middle-earth, and in
the light of the Lamps they ordered all their realm, and the
desire of Yavanna had fruit, and living things came forth and
grew abundantly.
In those days the dwelling of the Valar was upon an isle in a
great lake in the midst of the Middle-earth that Aule had built.
There the light of the Lamps mingled and growth was swiftest
and fairest; and behold! in the blending of Illuin and Ormal
there came forth Greenness, and it was new; and Middle-earth
rejoiced, and the Valar praised the name of Yavanna. But
Melkor hearing of these works, and being filled with wrath and
envy, returned secretly to Arda out of the Darkness and gath-
ered his strength in the North, and he marred the labours of
Yavanna, so that the growth of Earth was corrupted and many
monstrous things were born. Then coming with war against the
Valar suddenly, he cast down the Lamps, and night returned,
and in the fall of the pillars of Illuin and Ormal the seas arose
and many lands were drowned.
$12 In the darkness and the confusion of the seas the Valar
could not at that time overcome Melkor; for his strength had
increased with his malice, and he had now gathered to his
service many other spirits, and many evil things also of his own
making. Thus he escaped from the wrath of the Valar, and far in
the North he built himself a fortress, and delved great caverns
underground, and deemed that he was secure from assault for
ever. But the gods removed into the uttermost West and there
made their home and fortified it; and they built many mansions
in that land upon the borders of the World, which is called
Valinor. And Valinor was bounded upon the hither side by the
(* [footnote to the text - see page 154] Which is Garsecg: quoth
AElfwine. [This note was mistakenly placed in the text by the typist, and
subsequently reinstated as a footnote.])
Great Sea of the West,* and eastward upon its shores the Valar
built the Pelori, the Mountains of Aman, that are highest upon
Earth. But on the further side lay the Outer Sea, which encircles
the Kingdom of Arda, and is called by the Elves Vaiya. How
wide is that sea none know but the gods, and beyond it are the
Walls of the World to fence out the Void and the Eldest
Darkness.
$13 Now in that guarded land the Valar gathered all light
and all fair things; and there are their houses, their gardens, and
their towers. In the midst of the plain beyond the Mountains
was the City of the Gods [> their city], Valmar the beautiful of
many bells. But Manwe and Varda had halls upon the loftiest
of the Mountains of Aman, whence they could look out across
the Earth even into the furthest East. Taniquetil the Elves name
that holy mountain, and Oiolosse Everlasting Whiteness, and
Elerina [> Elerrina] Crowned with Stars, and many names
beside. But the Gnomes [> Sindar] spoke of it in their later
tongue as Amon Uilos.**
$14 In Valinor Yavanna hallowed the mould with mighty
song, and Nienna watered it with tears. In that time the gods
[) Valar] were gathered together, and they sat silent upon their
thrones of council in the Ring of Doom nigh unto the golden
gates of Valmar the Blessed; and Yavanna Palurien sang before
them and they watched.
$15 From the earth there came forth two slender shoots;
and silence was over all the world in that hour, nor was there
any other sound save the slow chanting of Palurien. Under her
song two fair trees uprose and grew. Of all things which the
gods [> she] made they have most renown, and about their fate
all the tales of the Elder World are woven. The one had leaves of
dark green that beneath were as shining silver; and he bore
white blossoms like unto a cherry-tree, were it surpassing great
and fair; and from each of his countless flowers a dew of silver
light was ever falling, but the earth beneath was dappled with
(* [footnote to the text - see page 153])
(** [footnote to the text] In the language of this island of Men
Heofonsy'I was its name among those few that ever descried it afar off.
Yet in error [> So I wrote in error], as the Eldar teach me; for that is
rightly the name only of the mountain of Numenor, the Meneltarma,
which has foundered for ever: quoth AElfwine. [This note was also
mistakenly placed in the text by the typist. See the commentary on
$13.])
the dancing shadows of his fluttering leaves. The other bore
leaves of a young green like the new-opened beech; their edges
were of glittering gold. Flowers swung upon her branches like
clusters of yellow flame, formed each to a glowing horn that
spilled a golden rain upon the ground; and from the blossom of
that tree there came forth warmth and a great light.
$16 Telperion the one was called in Valinor, and Silpion,
and Ninquelote, and many names in song beside; but the
Gnomes name him [> but in the Sindarin tongue he was called]
Galathilion. Laurelin was the other [> the other was] called,
and Malinalda, and Kulurien, and many other names; but the
Gnomes name her [> but the Sindar named her] Galadloriel.
$17 In seven hours the glory of each tree waxed to full and
waned again to naught; and each awoke once more to life an
hour before the other ceased to shine. Thus in Valinor twice
every day there came a gentle hour of softer light when both
Trees were faint and their gold and silver beams were mingled.
Telperion was the elder of the Trees and came first to full stature
and to bloom; and that first hour in which he shone alone, the
white glimmer of a silver dawn, the gods reckoned not into the
tale of hours, but named it the Opening Hour, and counted
therefrom the ages of their reign in Valinor. Therefore at the
sixth hour of the First Day, and of all the joyous days thereafter
until the Darkening, Telperion ceased his time of flower; and at
the twelfth hour Laurelin her blossoming. And each day of the
gods in Valinor [> Aman] contained twelve hours, and ended
with the second mingling of the lights, in which Laurelin was
waning but Telperion was waxing.' And the dews of Telperion
and the spilth of Laurelin Varda let hoard in great vats, like
(* [footnote to the text] Other names of Laurelin among the Noldor
[> in the Sindarin tongue] are [> were] Glewellin (which is the same
as Laurelin, song of gold), Lasgalen green of leaf, and Melthinorn tree
of gold; and her image in Gondolin was named Glingal. [Struck out:
Of old among the Noldor] The Elder Tree was named also Silivros
glimmering [> sparkling] rain, Celeborn tree of silver, and Nimloth
pale blossom. But in after days Galathilion the Less was the name of
the White Tree of Tuna, and his seedling was named Celeborn in
Eressea, and Nimloth in Numenor, the gift of the Eldar. The image of
Telperion that Turgon made in Gondolin was Belthil. Quoth Pengo-
lod. [Like the previous ones this footnote was put into the body of the
text by the typist of LQ 1, but afterwards reinstated in its proper
place.])
[struck out: unto] shining lakes, that were to all the land of the
Valar as wells of water and of light.
Commentary on Chapter 2, 'Of Valinor and the Two Trees'.
The final typescript (LQ 2) of this chapter received very few correc-
tions, and those only on the top copy (such as were made are recorded
in the commentary that follows). Thus the LQ 1 text given above, with
the corrections shown, is virtually the final text of the chapter.
$511 - 12 This chapter underwent little change from the text of QS
(V.208 - 10) apart from the greatly expanded opening - in which
most of the new material derives from the later Ainulindale'.
That the much fuller story in AAm (see p. 60, commentary on
$$11 - 29) was written after the revision of the Silmarillion
chapter can be seen from various points. Thus the old story that
Melkor only began the delving of Utumno after the fall of the
Lamps is still present (see p. 61, $20). The phrase in LQ $11
concerning the first star-making of Varda was first written in the
form '... the ages unrecorded of the labours of the Great in
Aman' (for Aman > Ea see p. 149, $1), which shows it to be
earlier than the closely similar phrase in AAm ($24): 'Middle-
earth lay in a twilight beneath the stars that Varda had wrought
in the ages forgotten of her labours in Ea' - where it is used in a
distinct context, of the darkness after the fall of the Lamps.
$12 The footnote to QS $12 giving the name Utumno of Melko's
original fortress survived at first in the revised version, but was
lost from one of the typescripts and not reinstated.
On the final text LQ 2 my father pencilled a hasty footnote
after 'deemed that he was secure from assault for ever':
The chief of his fortresses was at Utumno in the North of
Middle-earth; but he made also a fortress and armoury not
far from the northwestern shores of the Sea, to resist any
assault from Aman. This was called Angband and was
commanded by Sauron, lieutenant of Melkor.
In QS ($$62, 105) the story was that Morgoth, when he
returned from Valinor, built Angband on the ruins of Utumno;
in AAm ($127, p. 109) this may well have been still present, but j
the statement of QS $62 that 'Morgoth came back to his ancient
habitation' is lacking. Now there enters the story that Melkor
built both strongholds in the ancient days - and also that Sauron
was the commander of Angband; cf. the late note written on the
typescript of AAm (p. 127, $127): 'The making of this fortress
[Angband] as a guard against a landing from the West should
come earlier.'
The original passage in QS concerning Vaiya, the Outer Sea,
beyond which 'the Walls of the World fence out the Void and
the Eldest Dark', reflecting the contemporary Ambarkanta,
survived in the revision almost unchanged, except that it is now
said that none but the Valar know how wide is the Outer Sea (in
contrast to the Ambarkanta and its diagrams). On the great
difficulty of interpreting this passage in the light of the later
world-image see pp. 62-4.
On LQ 2 my father emended Vaiya to Ekkaia (whence its
occurrence in the published Silmarillion). The Outer Sea is given
no Elvish name in AAm.
$13 In the first texts of the 1951 revision the sentence 'and in the
language of this island of Men Heofonsyl was its name among
those few that ever descried it afar off' was part of the text
(as it was in QS, with Tindbrenting for Heofonsyl), and the
footnote began at 'Yet in error, as the Eldar teach me...' This
seems the natural arrangement. The typist of LQ 1, as often
elsewhere, put the footnote into the body of the text; but my
father when correcting LQ 1 put the whole passage into a
footnote - in contrast to what he did in a similar case in the first
chapter (p. 150, $6), where he left the footnote in the text. It
certainly seems clear in these cases that he did not refer back to
the texts preceding LQ 1 (see p. 143). - The Old English name
Heofonsyl 'Pillar of Heaven' occurs in The Notion Club Papers
of the Meneltarma (IX.314).
$14 Palurien > Kementari by a pencilled change on LQ 2. This
was as it were a casual change, not made in $15 (nor in $5).
Kementari occurs in the Valaquenta (p. 202).
$16 Telperion (not Silpion) is the primary name in AAm (first
appearing in $5, pp. 50, 59); in the Silmarillion tradition it
became the primary name by emendation to the first typescript
text of the 1951 revision.
$17 With the reference (in the footnote on the names of the Two
Trees) to Galathilion the Less, the White Tree of Tuna, cf. AAm
$69 (annal 1142, p. 85): 'In this year Yavanna gave to
the Noldor the White Tree, Galathilion, image of the Tree
Telperion'.
In the last sentence the word 'vats' was changed to 'wells' on
LQ 2 (cf. 'mighty vats' in AAm $28, changed on the typescript
to 'shining wells' (p. 69); in AAm* 'deep pools' (p. 68)).
On the carbon copy of LQ 2, which otherwise received no
emendations, my father added the following note to the word
spilth in the last sentence:
meant to indicate that Laurelin is 'founded' on the laburnum.
'jocund spilth of yellow fire' Francis Thompson - who no
doubt got the word from Timon of Athens (his vocabulary
was largely derived from Elizabethan English)
The reference is to Francis Thompsons's Sister Songs, The
Proem:
Mark yonder, how the long laburnum drips
Its jocund spilth of fire, its honey of wild flame!
Cf. the original description of Laurelin in the Lost Tales (1.72):
'all its boughs were hidden by long swaying clusters of gold
flowers like a myriad hanging lamps of flame, and light spilled
from the tips of these and splashed upon the ground with a
sweet noise.' In the earlier versions (from Q through to the first
typescript of the 1951 revision) Laurelin was expressly likened
to 'those trees Men now call Golden-rain' - that being a name of
the laburnum, and the words 'a golden rain' are used in the final
form of the passage ($15). - The reference to Timon of Athens is
to Act II, Scene 2, 'our vaults have wept / With drunken spilth of
wine'.
3 OF THE COMING OF THE ELVES.
The textual situation here is similar to that in the previous chapter but
more complicated. After very substantial revision carried out on the
old pre-Lord of the Rings texts there followed a typescript made by
my father; but after LQ 1 had been taken from it he made further
changes to it (mostly very minor, but a major alteration in $20), which
were 'lost', since LQ 2 was a straight copy of LQ 1 and he clearly
never compared the texts in detail. This typescript I shall refer to for
the purposes of this section as 'Text A'. For some reason it ceases to be
a typescript at the words 'counselled the Elves to remove' (near the end
of $23), which stand at the foot of a page, and becomes a manuscript
on the following page with the words 'into the West'. The manuscript
portion is in two forms, the first heavily emended, and the second
written out fair.
There follows now the text of LQ 1 (the 'lost' alterations made to
Text A are given in the commentary). The system of paragraph-
numbering in this chapter, and elsewhere, needs a word of explana-
tion. As generally, I have retained the numbers of QS, introducing
'sub-paragraph numbers' (as $18a) where QS has nothing correspond-
ing. Where the revised text expands a QS paragraph into more than
one, or several (as in $$20, 23) only the first is numbered.
3. Of the Coming of the Elves.
$18 In all this time, since Melkor overthrew the Lamps, the
Middle-earth east of the Mountains was without light. While
the Lamps had shone, growth began there which now was
checked, because all was again dark. But already the oldest
living things had arisen: in the sea the great weeds, and on
the earth the shadow of great trees; and in the valleys of the
night-clad hills there were dark creatures old and strong. In
those lands and forests Orome would often hunt; and there too
at times Yavanna came, singing sorrowfully; for she was grieved
at the darkness of Middle-earth and ill content that it was
forsaken. But the other Valar came seldom thither; and in the
North Melkor built his strength, and gathered his demons about
him. These were the first made of his creatures: their hearts were
of fire, but they were cloaked in darkness, and terror went
before them; they had whips of flame. Balrogs they were named
by the Noldor in later days. And in that dark time Melkor made
many other monsters of divers shapes and kinds that long
troubled the world; yet the Orcs were not made until he had
looked upon the Elves, and he made them in mockery of the
Children of Iluvatar. His realm spread now ever southward over
the Middle-earth.
$18a It came to pass that the Valar held council, and
Yavanna spoke before them, saying: 'Behold, ye mighty of
Arda, the Vision of Eru was brief and soon taken away, so that
maybe we cannot guess within a narrow count of days the hour
appointed. Yet be sure of this: the hour approaches, and within
this age our hope shall be revealed, and the Children shall
awake. But it is not in Aman that they shall awaken. Shall we
then leave the lands of their dwelling desolate and full of evil?
Shall they walk in darkness while we have light? Shall they call
Melkor lord while Manwe sits upon the Holy Hill?'
And Tulkas cried aloud: 'Nay! Let us make war swiftly! Have
we not rested from strife over-long, and is not our strength now
renewed? Shall one alone contest with us for ever?'
But at the bidding of Manwe Mandos spoke and he said: 'In
this age the Children shall come indeed, but they come not yet.
Moreover it is doom that the First Children should come in the
darkness and should look first upon the Stars. Great light shall
be for their waning. To Varda ever shall they call at need.'
$19 And Varda said naught, but departing from the council
she went to the mountain of Taniquetil and looked forth; and
she beheld the darkness and was moved.
Then Varda took the silver dews from the vats of Telperion,
and therewith she made new stars and brighter against the
coming of the First-born. Wherefore she whose name out of the
deeps of time and the labours of Ea was Tintalle, the Kindler,
was called after by the Elves Elentari, the Queen of the Stars.
Karnil and Luinil, Nenar and Lumbar, Alkarinque and Elem-
mire she wrought in that time, and other of her works of old she
gathered together and set as signs in Heaven that the gods may
read: Wilwarin, Telumendil, Soronume, and Anarrima; and
Menelmakar with his shining belt that forebodes the Last Battle
that shall be. And high in the North as a challenge unto Melkor
she set the crown of seven mighty stars to swing, the Valakirka,
the Sickle of the Gods and sign of doom. Many names have
these stars been given; but in the North in the Elder Days Men
called them the Burning Briar: quoth Pengolod [> (quoth
Pengolod)].
$20 It is told that even as Varda ended her labours, and they
were long, when first Menelmakar strode up the sky and the
blue fire of Helluin flickered in the mists above the borders of
the world, in that hour the Children of the Earth awoke, the
First-born of Iluvatar. Themselves they named the Quendi,
whom we call Elves (quoth AElfwine); but Orome named them
in their own tongue Eldar, people of the stars, and that name
has since been borne by all that followed him upon the
westward road. In the beginning they were stronger and greater
than they have since become; but not more fair, for though the
beauty of the Quendi in the days of their youth was beyond all
other beauty that Iluvatar has caused to be, it has not perished,
but lives in the West, and sorrow and wisdom have enriched it.
And Orome looking upon the Elves was filled with love and
wonder, as though they were beings sudden and marvellous and
unforetold. For [so] it shall ever be even with the Valar. From
without the world, though all things may be forethought in
music or foreshown in vision from afar, to those who enter
verily into Ea each in its time shall be met at unawares as
something new and strange.
Thus it was that Orome came upon the Quendi by chance in
his wandering, while they dwelt yet silent upon [read beside] the
star-lit mere, Kuivienen, Water of Awakening, in the East of
Middle-earth. For a while he abode with them and aided them
in the making of language; for that was their first work of craft
upon Earth, and ever most dear to their hearts, and the fair
Elvish speech was sweet in the ears of the Valar. Then swiftly
Orome rode back over land and sea to Valinor, filled with the
thought of the beauty of the Elves, and he brought the tidings to
Valmar. And the gods rejoiced, and yet were amazed at what he
told; but Manwe sat long upon Taniquetil deep in thought, and
he sought the counsel of Iluvatar. And coming then down to
Valmar he called a conclave of the Great, and thither came even
Ulmo from the Outer Sea.
And Manwe said to the Valar: 'This is the counsel of Iluvatar
in my heart: that we should take up again the mastery of Arda,
at whatsoever cost, and deliver the Quendi from the shadows of
Melkor.' Then Tulkas was glad; but Aule was grieved, and it is
said that he (and others of the Valar) had before been unwilling
to strive with Melkor, foreboding the hurts of the world that
must come of that strife.
$21 But now the Valar made ready and came forth from
Aman in the strength of war, resolving to assault the fortress of
Melkor in the North and make an end. Never did Melkor forget
that this war was made on behalf of the Elves and that they were
the cause of his downfall. Yet they had no part in those deeds;
and little do they know of the riding of the power of the West
against the North in the beginning of their days, and of the fire
and tumult of the Battle of the Gods. In those days the shape
of Middle-earth was changed and broken and the seas were
moved. Tulkas it was who at the last wrestled with Melkor and
overthrew him, and he was bound with the chain Angainor that
Aule had wrought, and led captive; and the world had peace for
a great age. Nonetheless the fortress of Melkor at Utumno had
many mighty vaults and caverns hidden with deceit far under
earth, and these the Valar did not all discover nor utterly
destroy, and many evil things still lingered there; and others
were dispersed and fled into the dark and roamed in the waste
places of the world, awaiting a more evil hour.
$22 But when the Battle was ended and from the ruin of the
North great clouds arose and hid the stars, the Valar drew
Melkor back to Valinor bound hand and foot and blindfold,
and he was cast into prison in the halls of Mandos, from whence
none have ever escaped save by the will of Mandos and Manwe,
neither Vala, nor Elf, nor mortal Man. Vast are those halls and
strong, and they were built in the north of the land of Aman.
There was Melkor doomed to abide for seven [> three] ages
long, ere his cause should be tried again, or he should sue for
pardon.
$23 Then again the gods were gathered in council and were
divided in debate. For some (and of these Ulmo was the chief)
held that the Quendi should be left free to walk as they would in
Middle-earth, and with their gifts of skill to order all the lands
and heal their hurts. But the most part feared for the Quendi in
the dangerous world amid the deceits of the starlit dusk; and
they were filled moreover with the love of the beauty of the
Elves and desired their fellowship. At the last, therefore, the
Valar summoned the Quendi to Valinor, there to be gathered at
the knees of the gods in the light of the blessed Trees for ever.
And Mandos who had spoken not at all in the debate broke
silence and said: 'So it is doomed.' For of this summons came
many woes that after befell; yet those who hold that the Valar
erred, thinking rather of the bliss of Valinor than of the Earth,
and seeking to wrest the will of Iluvatar to their own pleasure,
speak with the tongues [read tongue] of Melkor.
Nonetheless the Elves were at first unwilling to hearken to the
summons, for they had as yet seen the Valar only in their wrath
as they went to war, save Orome alone, and they were filled
with dread. Therefore Orome was sent again to them, and he
chose from among them three ambassadors; and he brought
them to Valmar. These were Ingwe and Finwe and Elwe, who
after were kings of the Three Kindreds of the Eldar; and coming
they were filled with awe by the glory and majesty of the Valar
and desired greatly the light and splendour of the Trees.
Therefore they returned and counselled the Elves to remove into
the West, and the greater part of the people hearkened to their
counsel. This they did of their free will, and yet were swayed by
the majesty of the gods, ere their own wisdom was full grown.
The Elves that obeyed the summons and followed the three
kings are called the Eldar, by the name that Orome gave them;
for he was their guide and led them at the last unto Valinor. Yet
there were many who preferred the starlight and the wide spaces
of the Earth to the rumour of the glory of the Trees, and they
remained behind. These are called the Avari, the Unwilling.
$24 The Eldar prepared now a great march from their first
homes in the East. When all was made ready, Orome rode at
their head upon Nahar, his white horse shod with gold; and
behind him the Eldalie were arrayed in three hosts.
$25 The smallest host and the first to set forth was led by
Ingwe, the most high lord of all the Elvish race. He entered into
Valinor and sits at the feet of the Powers, and all Elves revere his
name; but he has never returned nor looked again upon
Middle-earth. The Lindar [> Vanyar] were his folk, fairest of
the Quendi; they are the High Elves, and the beloved of Manwe
and Varda, and few Men have spoken with them.
$26 Next came the Noldor, a name of wisdom.* They are
the Deep Elves, and the friends of Aule. Their lord was Finwe,
wisest of all the children of the world. His kindred are
renowned in song, for they fought and laboured long and
grievously in the northern lands of old.
$27 The greatest host came last, and they are named the
Teleri, for they tarried on the road, and were not wholly of a
mind to pass from the dusk to the light of Valinor. In water they
had great delight, and those that came at last to the west shores
were enamoured of the Sea. The Sea-elves therefore they became
in Valinor, the Soloneldi [> Falmari], for they made music
beside the breaking waves. Two lords they had, for their
numbers were very great: Elwe Singollo, which signifies
Greymantle, and Olwe his brother. The hair of Olwe was long
and white, and his eyes were blue; but the hair of Elwe was grey
as silver, and his eyes were as stars; he was the tallest of all the
Elven-folk.
[$28 The paragraph concerning the people of Dan who left
the Great March and turned south was displaced to follow $29;
see the Commentary.]
$29 These are the chief peoples of the Eldalie, who passing
at length into the uttermost West in the days of the Two Trees
are called the Kalaquendi, the Elves of the Light. But others of
the Eldar there were who set out indeed upon the Westward
March, but became lost upon the long road, or turned aside, or
lingered on the shores of Middle-earth. They dwelt by the sea,
or wandered in the woods and mountains of the world, yet
their hearts were ever turned towards the West. These the Kala-
quendi call the Alamanyar [> Umanyar], since they came
never to the Land of Aman and the Blessed Realm. But the
Alamanyar [> Umanyar] and the Avari alike they name
the Moriquendi, Elves of the Darkness, for they never beheld
the light before the Sun and Moon.
The Alamanyar [> Umanyar] were for the most part of the
(* [footnote to the text] The Gnomes they may be called in our
tongue, quoth AElfwine. (The word that he uses is Witan. More is said
of this matter in the Tenth Chapter where the tale speaks of the
Edain.) [See the commentary on $26.])
race of the Teleri. For the hindmost of that people, repenting of
the journey, forsook the host of Olwe, and Dan was their
leader; and they turned southward and wandered long and far;
and they became a folk apart, unlike their kin, save that they
loved water, and dwelt most beside falls and running streams.
They had greater lore of living things, tree and herb, bird and
beast, than all other Elves. The Nandor they are called. It was
Denethor son of Dan who turning again west at last led a part
of that people over the mountains into Beleriand ere the rising
of the Moon.
$30 Others there were also of the Teleri that remained in
Middle-earth. These were the Elves of Beleriand in the west of
the Northern lands. They came from the host of Elwe the Grey.
He was lost in the woods and many of his folk sought him long
in vain; and thus when their kindred departed over Sea they
were left behind and went not into the West. Therefore they are
called the Sindar, the Grey Elves, but themselves they named
Eglath, the Forsaken. Elwe after became their king, mightiest of
all the Alamanyar [correction to Umanyar missed]. He it was
who was called Thingol in the language of Doriath.
[Other names in song and tale are given to these peoples. The
Vanyar are the Blessed Elves, and the Spear-elves, the Elves
of the Air, the friends of the Gods, the Holy Elves and the
Immortal, and the Children of Ingwe; they are the Fair Folk
and the White.
The Noldor are the Wise, and the Golden, the Valiant, the
Sword-elves, the Elves of the Earth, the Foes of Melkor, the
Skilled of Hand, the Jewel-wrights, the Companions of Men,
the Followers of Finwe.
The Teleri are the Foam-riders, the Singers of the Shore, the
Free, and the Swift, and the Arrow-elves; they are the Elves
of the Sea, the Ship-wrights, the Swanherds, the Gatherers of
Pearl, the Blue Elves, the people of Olwe. The Nandor are the
Host of Dan, the Wood-elves, the Wanderers, the Axe-elves,
the Green Elves and the Brown, the Hidden People; and those
that came at last to Ossiriand are the Elves of the Seven
Rivers, the Singers Unseen, the Kingless, the Weaponless, and
the Lost Folk, for they are now no more. The Sindar are the
Lemberi, the Lingerers; they are the Friends of Osse, the Elves
of the Twilight, the Silvern, the Enchanters, the Wards of
Melian, the Kindred of Luthien, the people of Elwe. Quoth
Pengolod.]
Commentary on Chapter 3, 'Of the Coming of the Elves'.
LQ 1 is here again, as in the previous chapter, virtually the final text,
for the later typescript LQ 2 was scarcely touched, and there was no
further enlargement or expansion.
$18 In AAm $30 (p. 70) it is said that Melkor 'wrought' the Balrogs
in Utumno during the long darkness after the fall of the Lamps;
but in an interpolation to AAm there enters the view that
Melkor, after his rebellion, could make nothing that had life of
its own ($45, see pp. 74, 78), and in AAm*, the second version
of the opening of AAm (p. 79, $30), the Balrogs become the
chief of 'the evil spirits that followed him, the Umaiar', whom at
that time he multiplied. The statement in QS $18 that the
Balrogs were 'the first made of his creatures' survived through
all the texts of the later revision of the Quenta, but in the margin
of one of the copies of LQ 2 my father wrote: 'See Valaquenta
for true account.' This is a reference to the passage which
appears in the published Silmarillion on p. 31:
For of the Maiar many were drawn to his splendour in the
days of his greatness, and remained in that allegiance down
into his darkness; and others he corrupted afterwards to his
service with lies and treacherous gifts. Dreadful among these
spirits were the Valaraukar, the scourges of fire that in
Middle-earth were called the Balrogs, demons of terror.
The actual text of LQ 2 my father emended at this time very
hastily to read:
These were the (ealar) spirits who first adhered to him in the
days of his splendour, and became most like him in his
corruption: their hearts were of fire, but they were cloaked in
darkness, and terror went before them; they had whips of
flame. Balrogs they were named by the Noldor in later days.
And in that dark time Melkor bred many other monsters of
divers shapes and kinds that long troubled the world; and his
realm spread now ever southward over the Middle-earth. But
the Orks, mockeries and perversions of the Children of Eru,
did not appear until after the Awakening of the Elves.
There is a footnote to the word ealar in this passage:
'spirit' (not incarnate, which was fea, S[indarin] fae). eala
'being'.
On the origin of the Orcs in AAm (and especially with respect to
the word 'perversions' in the passage just given) see pp. 78,
123 - 4. Orks was my father's late spelling.
$18a Of Yavanna's words before the Valar, and the words of Tulkas
and Mandos, there has been no previous suggestion in the
Quenta tradition; but cf. AV 2 (V.111, annal 1900): 'Yavanna
often reproached the Valar for their neglected stewardship'.
This was extended in AAm $$32 - 3 (p. 71), where most of the
elements of the present passage appear, though more briefly
expressed.
$19 Here the two star-makings are expressly contrasted, and Varda's
names Tintalle 'the Kindler' and Elentari 'Queen of the Stars'
differentiated in their bearing. The second star-making is de-
scribed also in AAm $$35 - 6 (p. 71), but far more briefly, and
though the 'gathering together of the ancient stars' to form signs
in the heavens is mentioned there also, only the constellations
Menelmakar (Orion) and Valakirka are named. That Menel-
makar forebodes the Last Battle is said in both sources, but l Q
does not name it as a sign of Turin Turambar.
The name 'Burning Briar' for the Great Bear still survives in
the Quenta tradition. This observation was made into a foot-
note in Text A (on which see p. 158), with the addition 'quoth
Pengolod', but the typist of LQ 1 put it as usual into the body of
the text, where my father left it.
In Text A, in which the names of the great stars and the
constellations first entered, Wilwarin, Karnil, and Alkarinque
were typed Vilvarin, Carnil, and Alcarinque and then altered to
the forms in LQ 1. By a later change to Text A Elentari >
Elentarie, not found in LQ 1 and LQ 2. - The name Elemmire
has appeared in AAm $114 (pp. 100, 106) as that of the
Vanyarin Elf who made the Aldudenie.
$20 Although in Text A my father added the words quoth AElfwine
to 'whom we call Elves' (deriving from QS) he retained this in
the body of the text, and only on the final typescript LQ 2 wrote
a direction that it should be a footnote.
The aberrant idea in QS that the coming of the Elves was not
in the Music of the Ainur (see V.217) is now displaced by a
much more subtle explanation of Orome's astonishment. The
detailed statement of the place of Kuivienen in AAm $38 (p. 72)
is absent here.
The history of the passage concerning Orome and the Quendi
(from 'For a while he abode with them ...') is curious and
complex. In text A as he typed it my father followed QS exactly
in saying that Orome 'taught them the language of the gods,
from whence afterwards they made the fair Elvish speech', and
that afterwards he returned to Valinor and brought tidings of
the Awakening of the Quendi to Valmar. He then altered this to
the text found in LQ 1 above (he 'aided them in the making of
language; for that was their first work of craft upon Earth...'),
and at the same time added at the beginning of $20 the words
'in their own tongue' ('but Orome named them in their own
tongue Eldar, people of the stars'). In this form the passage
survived into LQ 2 without further change.
On Text A, however, my father struck out the passage
beginning 'For a while he abode with them...' and replaced it
with the following on a slip pinned to the typescript:
Then swiftly he rode back over land and sea to Valinor, filled
with the thought of the beauty of the long-awaited, and he
brought the tidings to Valmar. And the gods rejoiced, and yet
were in doubt amid their mirth, and they debated what
counsel it were best now to take to guard the Elves from the
shadow of Melkor. At once Orome returned to Kuivienen,
and he abode there long among the Elves, and aided them in
the making of language; for that was their first work of craft
upon Earth, and ever the dearest to their hearts, and sweet
was the Elven-tongue on the ears of the Valar. But Manwe sat
alone upon Taniquetil...
This further revision makes Orome return at once to Valinor,
and then come back to Kuivienen, where he aided the Elves in
the making of language. It does not appear in LQ 1 and LQ 2
because, as I have said, this and other alterations were made to
Text A after LQ 1 had been taken from it.
In AAm $39 (p. 72) the story is different: there the Quendi
'began to make speech and to give names to all things that they
perceived' long before Orome came upon them (335 Sun Years
after the Awakening); and nothing is said of his playing any part
in the evolution of Elvish speech.
In the sentence 'while they dwelt yet silent upon the star-lit
mere' Text A has beside; upon in LQ 1 (and LQ 2) was clearly
an error introduced by the typist (and similarly with the
omission of so earlier in this paragraph and tongues for tongue
in $23).
$21 On LQ 2 my father changed 'the fortress of Melkor' in the first
sentence to 'the fortresses of Melkor', and at the end of the
paragraph 'the fortress of Melkor at Utumno' to 'the fortresses
of Melkor'. In this case he made the changes on LQ 1 also, but I
have not included them in the text printed, since they were very
late, and belonged with the changed story of the origin of
Angband: see the commentary on Chapter 2, $12 (p. 156).
On Text A 'little do they know of the riding of the power of
the West' was changed to 'they know little', but this, like the
major change made to $20, was made after LQ 1 had been
taken from Text A.
There reappears here for the first time since the Lost Tales the
story that Aule made the chain Angainor (elaborately recounted
in The Chaining of Melko, I.100 - 1, where the form was
Angaino; in The Tale of Tinuviel, II.19, there is a reference to
'the chain Angainu that Aule and Tulkas made').
$22 Changes were also made in this paragraph after LQ 1 had been
made: 'from whence' > 'whence', and 'Vast are those halls and
strong' > 'Vast and strong are those halls'.
In AAm $52 Melkor was condemned to Mandos for three
ages (pp. 80, 88).
$23 That there were differing counsels of the Valar on the Summon-
ing of the Quendi was not even hinted in the Quenta tradition
till now. In AAm $53 (p. 81) there is mention of a debate, and in
$73 (p. 86) it is told that in the council of the Valar Ulmo 'had
chiefly spoken against the summons, deeming that it were better
for the Quendi to remain in Middle-earth.' The belief that the
Valar erred is not here imputed to them as an error 'with good
intent' (QS, V.214), and to this extent is harshly repudiated.
The passage concerning the three ambassadors remains vir-
tually unchanged from QS, but in the course of the revision (see
under $27 below) there came to be an internal change of
reference - when Elwe became Thingol, whereas previously he
had been Thingol's brother (see V.217, $23). Probably the
sentences 'These were Ingwe and Finwe and Elwe, who after
were kings of the Three Kindreds of the Eldar' and 'The Elves
that obeyed the summons and followed the three kings' should
have been modified when that transformation took place, and
when the Third Host came to have two lords.
There is no mention in LQ of the kindreds of Morwe and
Nurwe, who refused the summons (AAm $57, p. 81).
Another very minor change was made to Text A after LQ 1
was made: 'And Mandos who had spoken not at all' > 'And
Mandos who had not spoken'.
$25 The name Lindar was altered to Vanyar by a late change made
to the final text of the Ainulindale' (p. 34, $36); in AAm $58
(p. 82) Vanyar appears in the text as written. - By a pencilled
change to LQ 2 'High Elves' was changed to 'Fair Elves' (see
V.218, $25).
$26 In Text A the opening sentence of this paragraph read: 'Next
came the Noldor, a name of wisdom, and the Gnomes they may
be called in our tongue', with 'Quoth AElfwine. (The word that
he uses ...' placed in a footnote. The typist of LQ 1 placed all
this in the body of the text; but my father directed that it should
all go into a footnote, as is done in the text printed. In the Old
English versions of the 1930s Witan was not used, but Noldelfe,
Noldielfe (see also IV.212). On one copy of LQ 2 my father
struck out 'Gnomes' and wrote above 'Enquirers'; this occurs
nowhere else.
At the end of the paragraph he added to Text A: 'Dark is their
hue and grey are their eyes'; this did not get into the later
typescripts. See 1.44.
$27 By the end of the revision, represented by LQ 1, the final
position had been reached, as in AAm $$58, 74: Elwe Singollo
(Greymantle) - who is Elu Thingol King of Doriath - and his
brother Olwe, the two lords of the host of the Teleri on the
Great March until Elwe was lost. The stages passed through to
reach this can be observed in the earlier version of the end of
Text A (see p. 158). First came the idea that there were two
lords, because the numbers were very great: Elwe and his
brother Sindo ('the locks of Sindo were as grey as silver ... but
the hair of Elwe was long and white, and he was the tallest of all
the Elven-race'). Then Elwe' was changed to Solwe, and Sindo to
Elwe'; at this stage, probably, Elwe (the Grey) became one of the
three original ambassadors, displacing his brother (now Solwe)
in this at the same time as he took his name (and became in his
stead 'the tallest of all the Elven-folk').
$28 In the first stage of the 1951 revision, carried out on the original
QS typescript, the people of Dan, still from the host of the
Noldor, were thus described:
They are not counted among the Eldar, nor yet among the
Avari. The [Nandar >] Nandor who turn back they were
called, and akin was the name of their first leader Nano, who
in their tongue was called Dan. His son was Denethor, who
led them into Beleriand ere the rising of the Moon. The
Danathrim, Danians, they were named in that land.
The term Pereldar 'Half-eldar' used in QS had now disappeared,
and in this passage is clearly the first occurrence of the name
Nandor (which appears subsequently in AAm $62: see pp. 83,
89).
In the next stage (Text A) the paragraph was removed from its
former place and set at the end of $29. At this stage the Nandor,
also called the Laiquendi or Green-elves, became Telerin Elves
from the host of Sindo the Grey, and were placed with the other
Teleri (followers of Sindo) who remained behind in Beleriand
under the name Ekelli (first written Ecelli), 'the Forsaken'. See
further under $$29 - 30.
$$29 - 30 In the first stage of the revision the form Lembi Lingerers
- the Elves of the Great Journey who 'were lost upon the long
road' - became Lemberi, classed with the Avari as Moriquendi,
Dark Elves. The term Kalaquendi, Light Elves, also appeared in
the account (though found much earlier, together with Mori-
quendi, in the table associated with the Lhammas, V.197, and
also in the Etymologies). At this stage the old subdivision
Ilkorindi (comprising Lembi and Pereldar or Danas, see the
table given in V.219) is not present, and the place of the Nandor
is not defined.
In the next stage (Text A) the term Lemberi was not used, and
there emerged the short-lived term Ekelli (Ecelli) used (like the
old Ilkorindi) of all the 'lost Eldar', including the Nandor (see
under $28); Ekelli was the name given to them by the Elves of
Valinor, and meant 'the Forsaken, their kin that were left
behind'. Thus:
Followers of
Nandor Avari
Elwe
Ekelli
(the Forsaken)
Moriquendi
(Dark Elves)
Ekelli was then replaced by Alamanyar ('since they came
never to the Land of Aman'), and the Nandor became Elves
from the host of Olwe; while those who sought in vain for Elwe
Singollo (Thingol) are 'therefore' called Sindar, the Grey Elves,
'but themselves they named Eglath, the Forsaken.' Thus:
Sindar Nandor
(= Eglath, the Forsaken) Avari
Alamanyar
Moriquendi
It was here, undoubtedly, that the name Sindar arose: occur-
rences earlier in LQ were inserted later, and that in AAm ($74,
see p. 91) was later also. With the change of Alamanyar to
Umanyar on LQ 1 the final form (as shown in the table in the
published Silmarillion, p. 309) was reached.
Thus some important developments in the narrative emerged
in the course of the 1951 revision of the end of this chapter. The
original Elwe, who in QS ($30) was Thingol's brother, became
Olwe, while the name Elwe was transferred to Thingol - who
became one of the three Elvish 'ambassadors' taken by Orome
to Valinor, in the place of his brother; and both Olwe and Elwe
were leaders of the Telerin host on the Great March from
Kuivienen. The story that the Eldar of Beleriand (the Sindar) did
not pass over the Sea because they were left behind seeking for
Elwe Singollo takes up a passage in the Lhammas (V.174, cited
on p. 90, $71); in QS there was no suggestion that the Elves of
Doriath were specifically those of Thingol's following who
would not abandon the search for him.
In AAm the whole matter is treated from a different point of
view: there, the events and geography of the Great Journey are a
central element, but the complexities of naming and classifica-
tion are not. It is clear however that AAm was not written until
the revision of the Quenta tradition concerning the Sundering of
the Elves was virtually complete: for in AAm the Nandor are
from the host of Olwe ($62), and the followers of Elwe who
were left behind called themselves Eglath, the Forsaken People
($71).
The passage recounting the names used in poetry for the Elvish
peoples, which goes back to QS, and which forms an integral part of
Text A, was for some reason omitted from LQ 1; my father wrote it
onto the typescript subsequently (with Vanyar for Lindar of Text A).
Later changes made to Text A altered 'Axe-elves' to 'Staff-elves' as
a name of the Nandor, and introduced 'Axe-elves' as a name of the
Sindar (following 'the Friends of Osse'); but these were 'lost' and do
not appear in LQ 1 and LQ Z. - The name Lemberi 'Lingerers' (see
under $$29 - 30 above) reappears as one of the by-names of the Sindar;
and 'the Green Elves and the Brown' re-emerge from the old Tale of
the Nauglafring (11.237, etc.).
It remains to notice lastly that on LQ 2 my father changed the title
of the chapter to Of the Coming of the Elves and the Captivity of
Melkor, which was followed in the published Silmarillion; and also
that on one copy of this typescript, against the first occurrence of
Umanyar ($29), he wrote Alamanyar in the margin, as if he were
considering a return to the earlier name.
4 OF THINGOL AND MELIAN.
Of Thingol and Melian was not a separate chapter in the QS
manuscript and the derived QS typescript, although in both there was
a sub-heading (and in The Lost Road, V.220, I treated it as separate,
numbering it 3(b)). The first text of the 1951 revision was a
manuscript that continued on from the manuscript ending of 'Text A'
of The Coming of the Elves (see p. 158), and here my father may have
intended it as a separate chapter, although there is no number. From
'Text A', as in the preceding chapter, LQ 1 was taken, and the final
text was LQ 2 (in which the chapter is numbered '4').
The first paragraph remained almost unchanged from QS, but the
remainder was much expanded.
Of Thingol and Melian.
$31 Thus it came to pass that Elu-thingol [> Elwe Singollo]
and many of his folk abode in Beleriand and went not to
Valinor.
Melian was a maia, of the race of the Valar. She dwelt in the
gardens of Olofantur, and among all his fair folk there was none
more beautiful than she, nor more wise, nor more skilled in
songs of enchantment. It is told that the gods would leave their
business, and the birds of Valinor their mirth, that the bells of
Valmar were silent and the fountains ceased to flow, when at
the mingling of the lights Melian sang in Lorien. Nightingales
went always with her, and she taught them their song. She loved
the deep shadow of great trees; but she was akin, before the
world was made, unto Yavanna herself, and on a time she
departed from Valinor on a long journey into the Hither Lands,
and there she filled the silence of Arda before the dawn with her
voice and with the voices of her birds.
$32 Now it came to pass that when their journey was
near its end the folk of Elwe rested long and dwelt in Beleriand
beyond Gelion; and King Elwe went often through the great
woods, for he had friendship with the Noldor who lay to the
westward, and with Finwe their lord. And it chanced on a time
that he came alone to the starlit wood of Nan Elmoth, and there
on a sudden he heard the song of nightingales. Then an
enchantment fell upon him, and he stood still; and afar off
beyond the voices of the lomelindi * he heard the voice of
Melian, and it filled all his heart with wonder and desire. He
forgot then utterly all his folk and all the purposes of his mind,
and following the birds under the shadows of the trees he passed
deep into Nan Elmoth and was lost. But he came at last to a
glade open to the stars, and there Melian stood; and out of the
darkness he beheld her with hands outstretched, and the light of
Aman was in her face.
No word she spoke; but being filled with love Elwe came to
her and took her hand; and straightway a spell was laid on him,
so that they stood thus, hand in hand, while long years were
measured by the wheeling stars above them; and the trees of
Nan Elmoth grew tall and dark ere they spoke any word one to
another.
(* [footnote to the text] lomelindi: 'dusk-singers' = nightingales.)
$33 Thus Elwe's folk who sought him found him not, and
Olwe took the kingship of the Teleri and departed; but Elwe
Singollo came never again across the sea to Valinor; and Melian
returned not thither while their realm together lasted; and of her
a strain of the [read: of the race of the] immortal gods came
among both Elves and Men, as hereafter shall be told. In after
days Melian and Elwe became Queen and King of Grey Elves,
and their hidden halls were in Menegroth, the Thousand Caves,
in Doriath; and as Thingol Greymantle he was known in the
[read: to all in the] tongue of that land. Great power Melian lent
to Thingol her spouse, who was in himself great among the
Eldar; for he alone of all the Forsaken had seen with his own
eyes the Trees in the day of their flowering, and king though he
were [> was] of Alamanyar [> Umanyar], he was not
accounted among the Moriquendi, but with the Elves of the
Light, mighty upon Middle-earth.
Commentary on Chapter 4, 'Of Thingol and Melian'
$31 The form 'Elu-thingol' here first appeared. - Olofantur was
corrected to Lorien on one copy of LQ 2 (see p. 150, $6).
$32 With the mention of the long sojourn of the Teleri in the lands
beyond Gelion cf. AAm $64 (p. 83). The story of Elwe's journey
to visit Finwe his friend is told also in AAm ($$64 - 5); and the
phrase 'the trees of Nan Elmoth grew tall and dark' is found in
both sources. In AAm Elwe's trance lasted for more than two
centuries measured by the Sun (p. 89, $65).
$33 It now becomes explicit, and not merely implied, that Thingol
had been to Valinor, as one of the three ambassadors (see
pp. 168 - 9, $$23, 27). - The readings in LQ 1 'a strain of the
immortal gods' and 'he was known in the tongue of that land'
were clearly mere errors of omission on the part of the typist;
the readings proposed are found in my father's manuscript Text
A (see p. 158). A late change to Text A made after LQ 1 was
copied from it was 'Grey Elves' to 'the Grey Elves'.
5 OF ELDANOR AND THE PRINCES OF
THE ELDALIE.
My father did less revision and rewriting of this chapter than on those
preceding, and in fact did not himself make a wholly new text: the
revision of 1951 was very largely restricted to emendation of the old
QS typescript, and it was from this that LQ 1 was taken. In the QS
typescript this was not a separate chapter, but a 'sub-chapter' entitled
Of Kor and Alqualonde' (in The Lost Road numbered 3(c); V.221 - 5);
after which that typescript was abandoned, and for the remainder of
the work there is only the QS manuscript from the pre-Lord of the
Rings period.
Emendation to the QS typescript was carried out at different times,
and three important passages of rewriting (see the commentary on
$$40, 43) were 'lost' and not taken up into the later texts.
Of Eldanor and the Princes of the Eldalie.
$34 In time the hosts of the Eldalie came to the last western
shores of the Hither Lands. In the North these shores, in the
ancient days after the battle of the gods, sloped ever westward,
until in the northernmost parts of the earth only a narrow sea
divided the Outer Land of Aman, upon which Valinor was
built, from the Hither Lands; but this narrow sea was filled with
grinding ice, because of the violence of the frosts of Melkor.
Therefore Orome did not lead the Eldar into the far North, but
brought them to the fair lands about the River Sirion that
afterwards were named Beleriand; and from those shores
whence first the hosts of the Eldar looked in fear and wonder on
the sea there stretched an ocean, wide and dark and deep,
between them and the Mountains of Aman.
$35 There they waited and gazed upon the dark waves. But
Ulmo came from the Valar; and he uprooted a half-sunken
island, which now long had stood alone amid the sea, far from
either shore; and with the aid of his servants he moved it, as it
were a mighty ship, and anchored it in the bay into which Sirion
pours his water.* Thereon he embarked the Lindar [> Vanyar]
and the Noldor, for they had already assembled. But the Teleri
were behind, being slower and less eager upon the march, and
they were delayed also by the loss of Thingol and their fruitless
search; and they did not come until Ulmo had departed.
$36 Therefore Ulmo drew the Lindar [> Vanyar] and the
Noldor over the sea to the long shores beneath the Mountains
of Valinor, and they entered the land of the gods and were
welcomed to its bliss. But the Teleri dwelt long by the coasts of
(* [footnote to the text] And some have told that the great isle of
Balar, that lay of old in that bay, was the eastern horn of the Lonely
Isle, that broke asunder and remained behind, when Ulmo removed
that land again into the West. Quoth Rumil. [Placed in the body of the
text by the typist of LQ 1 but subsequently reinstated as a footnote.])
the western sea, awaiting Ulmo's return; and they grew to love
the sound of the waves, and they made songs filled with the
music of water. Osse heard them, and came thither; and he
loved them, delighting in the music of their voices. Sitting upon
a rock nigh to the margin of the sea he spoke to them and
instructed them. Great therefore was his grief when Ulmo
returned at length to bear them away to Valinor. Some he
persuaded to remain on the beaches of the Middle-earth, and
these were the Elves of the Falas that in after days had dwellings
at the havens of Brithombar and Eglorest in Beleriand; but most
of the Teleri embarked upon the isle and were drawn far away.
$37 Osse followed them, and when they were come near to
their journey's end, he called to them; and they begged Ulmo to
halt for a while, so that they might take leave of their friend and
look their last upon the sky of stars. For the light of the Trees
that filtered through the passes of the hills filled them with awe.
And Ulmo understood well their hearts, and granted their
request; and at his bidding Osse made fast the island and rooted
it in the foundations of the sea. Then Ulmo returned to Valinor
and made known what had been done, and the Valar for the
most part were ill-pleased; but the island could not again be
moved without great hurt, or without peril to the Teleri who
dwelt thereon; and it was not moved, but stood there alone for
many an age. No other land lay near it, and it was called Tol
Eressea, the Lonely Isle.* There the Teleri long had their home,
and Osse was often among them, and they learned of him
strange musics and sea-lore; and he brought to them sea-birds,
the gift of Yavanna, for their delight. By this long sojourn of the
Teleri apart in the Lonely Isle was caused the sundering of their
speech from the language of the Lindar [> Vanyar] and the
Noldor.
$38 To these the Valar had given a land and dwelling-
places. Even among the radiant flowers of the Tree-lit gardens
of the gods they longed still to see the stars at times. Therefore a
gap was made in the great walls of the Pelori, and there in a
deep valley that ran down to the sea the Eldar raised a high
green hill: Tuna it was called. From the West the light of the
(* [footnote to the text] Avallone also it was after called, signifying
the isle that lies nighest unto the Valar in Valinor. Quoth AElfwine.
[Placed in the body of the text by the typist of LQ 1 but subsequently
reinstated as a footnote.])
Trees fell upon it, and its shadow lay ever eastward; and to the
East it looked towards the Bay of Elvenhome, and the Lonely
Isle, and the Shadowy Seas. Then through the Kalakiryan, the
Pass of Light, the radiance of the Blessed Realm streamed forth,
kindling the waves with gleams of gold and silver, and it
touched the Lonely Isle, and its western shore grew green and
fair. There bloomed the first flowers that ever were east of the
mountains of the gods.
$39 Upon the crown of Tuna, the green hill, 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 Ingwe, the
Mindon, Mindon Eldalieva, whose silver lamp shone far out
into the mists of the sea. Few are the ships of mortal Men that
have seen its slender beam. In Tirion' the Lindar [> Vanyar]
and the Noldor dwelt long time in fellowship. And since of all
things in Valinor they loved most the White Tree, Yavanna
made for them a tree in all things like a lesser image of
Telperion, save that it did not give light of its own being;
and this tree was planted in the courts beneath the Tower and
there flourished, and its seedlings were many in Eldanor. Of
which one was after planted in Eressea, and prospered. Thence
came in the fullness of time, as is later told, the White Tree of
Numenor.
$40 Manwe and Varda loved most the Lindar [> Vanyar],
the High Elves, and holy and immortal were all their deeds and
songs. The Noldor were beloved of Aule, and of Mandos the
wise; and great became their knowledge and their skill. Yet ever
greater was their thirst for more knowledge, and their desire to
make things wonderful and new. They were changeful in
speech, for they had great love of words, and sought ever to find
names more fit for all things that they knew or imagined. In
Valinor they first contrived the fashioning of gems, and they
made them in countless myriads of many kinds and hues; and
they filled all Elende with them, and the halls of the gods in
Valinor were enriched.
(* [footnote to the text] That is the Watchful City. Eldamar (that is
Elvenhome) it was also called; but the regions where the Elves dwelt,
and whence the stars could be seen, were called Elende, or Eldanor
(that is Elvenland): quoth AElfwine. [Placed in the body of the text by
the typist of LQ 1 but subsequently reinstated as a footnote.])
$41 The Noldor afterwards came back to Middle-earth,
and this tale tells mostly of their deeds; therefore the names and
kinship of their princes may here be told in that form which
these names after had in the tongue of the Gnomes as it was
[> the Elves] in Beleriand upon the Middle-earth. Finwe was
king of the Noldor. His sons were Feanor, Fingolfin, and Finrod
[> Finarphin]. Of these Feanor was the mightiest in skill of word
and hand, more learned in lore than his brethren; in his heart his
spirit burned as flame. Fingolfin was the strongest, the most
steadfast, and the most valiant. Finrod [> Finarphin] was the
fairest, and the most wise of heart; and afterwards he was a
friend of the sons of Olwe, lord of the Teleri, and had to wife
Earwen, the swan-maiden of Alqualonde, Olwe's daughter. The
seven sons of Feanor were Maidros [> Maedhros] the tall;
Maglor a musician and a mighty singer, whose voice was heard
far over land and sea; Celegorn [> Celegorm] the fair, and
Cranthir [> Caranthir] the dark; and Curufin the crafty, who
inherited most of his father's skill of hand; and the youngest
Damrod and Diriel [> Amrod and Amras], who were twin
brothers alike in mood and face. They afterwards were great
hunters in the woods of Middle-earth. A hunter also was
Celegorn [> Celegorm], who in Valinor was a friend of Orome
and followed oft the great god's horn.
$42 The sons of Fingolfin were Fingon, who was after king
of the Gnomes [> Noldor] in the North of the World; and
Turgon of Gondolin; and their sister was Isfin [> Irith] the
White. [Added: She was younger in the years of the Eldar
than her brethren; and when she was grown to full stature and
beauty she was greater and stronger than woman's wont,
and she loved much to ride on horse and to hunt in the forests,
and there was often in the company of her kinsmen, the sons of
Feanor; but to none was her heart's love given. She was called
the White Lady of the Noldor; for though her hair was dark, she
was pale and clear of hue, and she was ever arrayed in silver
and white.] The sons of Finrod [> Finarphin] were Inglor
[> Finrod] the faithful (who afterwards was named Felagund,
Lord of Caves), [struck out: and Orodreth,] and Angrod, and
Egnor [> Aegnor]. And these four [> three] were as close in
friendship with the sons of Fingolfin as though they were all
brethren together. A sister they had, Galadriel, the fairest lady of
the house of Finwe, and the most valiant. Her hair was lit with
gold as though it had caught in a mesh the radiance of Laurelin.
$43 Here must be told how the Teleri came at last to
Valinor. For nigh on one hundred of the years of Valinor, which
were each as ten of the years of the Sun that were after made,
they dwelt in Tol Eressea. But slowly their hearts were moved,
and were drawn towards the light that flowed out over the sea
unto their isle; and they were torn between the love of the music
of the waves upon their shores, and desire to see again their
kindred and to look upon the splendour of the gods. Yet in the
end desire of the light was the stronger. Therefore Ulmo taught
them the craft of ship-building; and Osse, submitting to Ulmo,
brought them as his farewell gift the strong-winged swans.
These they harnessed to their fleet of white ships, and thus they
were drawn without the help of the winds to Valinor.
$44 There they dwelt upon the long shores of Elvenhome
[> Elvenland], and if they wished they could see the light of the
Trees, and could visit the golden streets of Valmar and the
crystal stairs of Tirion upon the Green Hill. But most it was
their wont to sail in their swift ships upon the waters of the Bay
of Elvenhome, or to walk in the waves upon the shore with their
long hair gleaming like foam in the light beyond the hill. Many
jewels the Noldor gave them, opals and diamonds and pale
crystals, which they strewed upon the shores and scattered in
the pools. Marvellous were the beaches of Elende in those days.
And many pearls they won for themselves from the sea, and
their halls were of pearl, and of pearl were the mansions of Elwe
[> Olwe] at the Haven of the Swans, lit with many lamps. For
Alqualonde, the Haven of the Swans, was their chief town, and
the harbour of their ships; and these were fashioned in the
likeness of swans, white, and their beaks were of gold with eyes
of gold and jet. The gate of that harbour was an arch of living
rock sea-carven, and it lay upon the confines of the Elvenland,
north of Kalakiryan, where the light of the stars was bright and
clear.
$45 As the ages passed the Lindar [> Vanyar] grew to love
the land of the gods and the full light of the Trees, and they
forsook the city upon Tuna, and dwelt upon the mountain of
Manwe, or about the plains and woods of Valinor, and became
sundered from the Noldor. But remembrance of the Earth under
the Stars remained in the hearts of the Gnomes [> Noldor], and
they abode in the Kalakiryan, and in the hills and valleys within
sound of the western sea; and though many of them went oft
about the land of the gods [> Valar], making far journeys in
search of the secrets of land and water and all living things,
[struck out: yet their intercourse was more with the Teleri than
with the Lindar (> Vanyar); and] the tongues [> peoples] of
Tuna and of Alqualonde drew together in those days. Finwe
was king of Tuna and Elwe [> Olwe] of Alqualonde; but Ingwe
was ever held the high-king of all the Elves. He dwelt thereafter
at the feet of Manwe upon Taniquetil. Feanor and his sons
abode seldom in one place for long. They travelled far and wide
upon [read: within] the confines of Valinor, going even to the
borders of the Dark and the cold shores of the Outer Sea,
seeking the unknown. Often they were guests in the halls of
Aule; but Celegorn [> Celegorm] went rather to the house of
Orome, and there he got great knowledge of all birds and
beasts, and all their tongues he knew. For all living things that
are or have been in the Kingdom of Arda, save only the fell and
evil creatures of Melkor, lived then in Valinor; and there also
were many other creatures beautiful and strange that have not
yet been seen upon the Middle-earth, and perchance never now
shall be, since the fashion of the World was changed.
Commentary on Chapter 5, 'Of Eldanor and the Princes
of the Eldalie'.
$35 The identification of the isle of the Gods' first dwelling with the
isle of the Elves' ferrying (see IV.45) was abandoned when
the isle of the Gods amid the seas became an isle (Almaren)
in a great lake in the midst of Middle-earth. Tol Eressea has
now no significant origin. Cf. AAm $66 (p. 84): 'an island
which long had stood alone amidst the Sea, since the tumults of
the fall of Illuin'. The old story was still present in a draft narra-
tive associated with The Drowning of Anadune (IX.402 and
note 11).
$36 The form Eglorest was retained from QS presumably through
oversight and not changed to Eglarest as in AAm ($70).
$37 The changed story of the rooting of Tol Eressea to the bottom of
the sea appears also in AAm ($$72 - 3 and commentary); with
'Ulmo understood well their hearts' cf. LQ $23 (p. 161: Ulmo's
belief that the Quendi should be left in Middle-earth).
In AElfwine's note Avallone' appears as a name of Tol Eressea,
not, as in the published Silmarillion, of a haven in the isle; cf. the
Akallabeth (p. 260): 'there is in that land a haven that is named
Avallone, for it is of all cities the nearest to Valinor.' In the third
version of The Fall of Numenor (IX.332), as here, Tol Eressea
'was named anew Avallon: for it is hard by Valinor and within
sight of the Blessed Realm'; while on the other hand in the
narrative sketches associated with The Drowning of Anadune
the name 'Avallon(de)' already appears as the name of the
eastern haven (IX.399, 403 and note 12).
$38 'The Bay of Elvenhome': in the footnote to $39, as in its
forerunner in QS, 'Elvenhome' is the name of the city, translat-
ing Eldamar, while 'Elvenland' is the name of the regions where
the Elves dwelt, translating Eldanor; in $44 of this chapter QS
'shores of Elvenhome' was changed in the revision to 'shores of
Elvenland', but 'the Bay of Elvenhome' was allowed to stand
in $$38, 44. In AAm Eldamar is the name of the region: see
p. 90, $67.
The form Kalakiryan, for earlier Kalakirya, arose in the
course of the composition of AAm (p. 87 note 7).
On 'the first flowers that ever were east of the mountains of
the gods' see p. 60, $15, and the references given there.
$39 Tirion upon Tuna, replacing Tuna upon Kor, and Mindon
Eldalieva replacing Ingwemindon, are found also in AAm
$$67 - 8 (pp. 84 - 5, 90). - On LQ 2 'the Mindon, Mindon
Eldalieva' (the original emendation to the QS typescript, not an
error) the repetition of 'Mindon' was bracketed for exclusion.
'In Tirion the Vanyar and the Noldor dwelt long time in
fellowship': this is scarcely in accord with AAm (see p. 90, $68).
LQ retained also the old phrase in $45: 'As the ages passed the
Vanyar grew to love the land of the gods ... and they forsook
the city upon Tuna'.
The gift of Yavanna to the people of Tirion of an 'image' of
Telperion is recorded also in AAm $69 (p. 85), where it is
named Galathilion and is a gift to the Noldor. In LQ $16
Galathilion is the Sindarin name of Telperion, and in the
footnote to LQ $17 on the names of the Trees the White Tree
of Tuna is Galathilion the Less. The Trees of Eressea and
Numenor are referred to in that note also, and given the names
Celeborn and Nimloth (both of which were names of Telperion).
$40 'High Elves' > 'Fair Elves' by a late change to LQ 2, as in
Chapter 3 (p. 168, $25).
On one copy of LQ 2 my father revised the paragraph thus:
Manwe and Varda loved most the Vanyar, the High Elves,
and all their deeds and songs were holy and immortal. The
Noldor were beloved of Aule, and of Mandos the wise;
and their knowledge and skill became great. Yet ever greater
grew their thirst for more knowledge, and their desire to make
things new and wonderful. They were changeful in speech, for
they had great love of words, and were never weary of
devising names more fitting for all the things that they knew
or imagined.
This is strange, and I cannot really explain it; it seems as if he
were experimenting (but casually, and only in this and one other
passage) with a stylistic 'reduction', especially in respect of the
characteristic 'inversions'. Comparison with the text as it stood
(which is that of QS) shows how flat the opening sentences had
become.
After LQ 1 had been made my father returned to the original
QS typescript, and wrote in a substantial new passage on the
subject of the jewels of the Noldor; this was not entered on LQ 1
and so was 'lost', since he never rediscovered it, and the final
typescript LQ 2 still retained the old text in which the Noldor
'contrived the fashioning of gems'. The new passage read
(following the words 'all things that they knew or imagined.'):
And in all crafts of hand they delighted also; and their masons
built many towers tall and slender, and many halls and houses
of marble. Thus it came to pass that, quarrying in the hills
after stone, the Noldor first discovered gems, in which the
Land of Aman was indeed surpassing rich, and they brought
them forth in countless myriads of many kinds and hues; and
they carved and fashioned them in shapes of bright beauty,
and they filled all Elende with them, and the halls of the gods
in Valinor were enriched.
In fact, a closely similar change (including the phrase 'carved
them in many forms of bright beauty') was made to AAm $79
(p. 92 with note 3 and p. 103).
$$41-2 In Appendix F to The Lord of the Rings is found in the First
Edition (published in October 1955): 'the Lady Galadriel of the
royal house of Finrod, father of Felagund'; in the Second Edition
(1966) this became 'the Lady Galadriel of the royal house of
Finarphin and sister of Finrod Felagund'. Since as late as
September 1954 (Letters no.150) my father was apologising to
Allen and Unwin for not having as yet 'any copy to send in for
the Appendices', it is clear that Finrod > Finarphin and Inglor >
Finrod cannot have been entered on LQ 1 until after this time.
On the typescript text of AAm (p. 128, $134) he noted that the
names of the Sons of Feanor 'will be revised', and on the text he
changed Cranthir to Caranthir, underlined the n of Celegorn,
and struck out Damrod and Diriel without replacing them.
LQ 2 has the altered names. I have suggested that the typescripts
of AAm and LQ 2 belong to much the same time (perhaps about
1958): see pp. 141 - 2.
It is characteristic of the textual puzzles that abound in my
father's later work on The Silmarillion that the regular change
of Lindar > Vanyar was undoubtedly made on LQ 1 in this
chapter at the same time as these other changes of name; yet
AAm has Vanyar as first written. It may be that a good deal of
the correction to LQ 1 was actually carried out a long time after
that text was typed.
$41 The marriage of Finrod (= Finarphin) to Earwen Olwe's
daughter is recorded under the Valian Year 1280 in AAm $85
(p. 93). - By a late change to LQ 2 Maglor > Maelor; Maelor
occurs in the later Lay of Leithian, III.353.
$42 The passage describing the White Lady of the Noldor was added
on a slip to the original QS typescript, and this slip is a page
from a used engagement calendar dated October 1951. At that
stage her name was still Isfin. A rejected draft for this rider on
the same slip began thus:
She was younger in the years of the Eldar than her brethren,
for she awoke in Valinor [not upon Middle-earth )] after the
making of the Silmarils, and even as the first shadow fell upon
the Blessed Realm; and when she was grown to full stature...
The words 'She was younger in the years of the Eldar than her
brethren, for she awoke in Valinor not upon Middle-earth' are
not in accord with AAm, where Fingolfin their father was
himself born in Aman ($81).
The rider was not taken up into LQ 1 as typed, which still had
the name Isfin, as in AAm (see p. 102 notes 8 and 9: the first
birth-date for Isfin (1469) makes her born after the making of
the Silmarils in 1450, but the second (1362) before). But later
Isfin was changed to frith on LQ 1 (at the same time as the
corrections of Finrod to Finarphin, etc.), and the same rider was
attached on a slip, identical in wording to that attached to the
old QS typescript, but with the name frith. This is presumably a
case where a 'lost' change was recovered.
In QS Angrod and Egnor were friends of the sons of Feanor,
while Inglor and Orodreth were friends of the sons of Fingolfin,
Fingon and Turgon. Now the association of Angrod and Egnor
with the Feanorians (which led to their being allowed passage in
the ships at the time of the crossing to Middle-earth, QS $73)
was abandoned (as it was also in AAm, $135, pp. 113, 125),
and all four of Finarphin's sons become the bosom friends of
Fingon and Turgon. 'And these four' was changed to 'And these
three' on LQ 1 when Orodreth was finally ejected entirely from
the third generation of the Noldorin princes (see III.91, 246, and
Unfinished Tales p. 255 note 20).
Here Galadriel enters the Quenta tradition; for Galadriel in
AAm see $$85, 135 and commentary. On one copy of LQ 2 my
father noted: 'In High-elvish her name was Altarielle "Lady
with garland of sunlight", galata-rig-elle = S[indarin] Galadriel.
It was thus mere accident that her name resembled galad (Silvan
galad tree ). Cf. the Appendix to The Silmarillion p. 360,
entry kal-.
$43 In this paragraph my father made two narrative changes that
(like the passage concerning the jewels of the Noldor referred to
under $40 above) were 'lost', since they were made to the QS
typescript after LQ 1 had been copied from it. The first concerns
the sentence 'For nigh on one hundred of the years of Valinor,
which were each as ten of the years of the Sun that were after
made' (the text of QS, preserved in LQ 1 and 2); here the
following was substituted:
For well-nigh one hundred of the years of our time (though
that be but ten of the Years of the Valar) they dwelt in Tol
Eressea.
The reduction of the time during which the Teleri dwelt apart in
Tol Eressea from 1000 to 100 years of the Sun was clearly made
for linguistic reasons. A thousand years would introduce such
changes as to make the tongues of the Noldor (a people in any
case 'changeful in speech', $40) and the Teleri into different
languages, which could not conceivably 'draw together' again
($45). In AAm ($$72, 75) the 'lost' reckoning of only 100 years
of the Sun is present.
On one copy of LQ 2 my father emended the original passage
anew, and produced: 'They dwelt in Tol Eressea for nearly one
hundred of the years of Valinor (which were each as ten of the
later years of the Sun in Middle-earth).' Since this does not alter
the sense in any way it must have been made to reduce the
archaic element (cf. the passage given under $40 above). Thus
the revision made to the QS typescript for reasons of likelihood
in linguistic history was forgotten; on the other hand, the
change on LQ 1 of 'tongues' to 'peoples' in 'the tongues of Tuna
and of Alqualonde drew together in those days' was very
probably made for the same reason, though resolving the
difficulty in a different way.
The second of the 'lost' emendations in this paragraph
changed the story that it was Ulmo who taught the Teleri the
craft of ship-building:
Therefore Ulmo, submitting to the will of the Valar, sent unto
them Osse their friend, and he, albeit in grief, taught them the
craft of ship-building; and when their ships were built he
brought to them as his farewell gift the strong-winged swans.
In AAm $75 Ulmo as teacher was likewise corrected to Osse
(p. 86 and note 8). This shift is an aspect of the changed story of
the rooting of Tol Eressea to the sea-bottom; where in QS Osse
submitted to Ulmo, Ulmo now submits to the will of the Valar.
$44 Kalakiryan was corrected on one copy of LQ 2 to the Cala-
ciryan, and the same change of spelling in $45. - It is at first
sight puzzling that LQ 1 has Olwe' in $41 but Elwe in $$44 - 5,
but the reason is simply that the correction in the latter two
places was missed on the QS typescript.
6 OF THE SILMARILS AND THE DARKENING
OF VALINOR.
The textual history of this chapter is entirely different from that of any
of the preceding ones. In the first stage of revision, only few and slight
changes were made to the QS manuscript (the old QS typescript text
having stopped at the end of the previous chapter), and these were
taken up into LQ 1. But after LQ 1 had been made, my father returned
to the old manuscript, and on the verso pages began a new version -
rather oddly, paginating it on from the end of the QS typescript, and
retaining the chapter number 4. This was clearly an element in the
revision of 1951. At first this version is virtually continuous (as far as
part way through $50), and if retaining the old text he wrote it out
anew; but after this point he made use of the actual QS manuscript
text, though emending it and interpolating it very heavily. At '... came
into that region that is called Arvalin' ($55) the new work effectively
ceases. My father scarcely touched LQ 1: he made a couple of changes
on the first page of the typescript, including Lindar > Vanyar, but
then stopped: a later occurrence of Lindar was left to stand. Here
therefore LQ 1 ceases to be of use, and the text printed is the new text
of the chapter written on the QS manuscript: it will be convenient to
refer to this simply as 'LQ'.
The new writing was itself emended and interpolated subsequently,
in red ink; I give the text in its final form, but in a few cases where the
distinction between earlier and later readings is of interest I record the
earlier in notes following the text. The title given to the new version
was Of the Silmarilli and the Darkening of Valinor, but this was
changed to (apparently - the intention is not perfectly clear) Of
Feanor and the Silmarilli, and the Darkening of Valinor. For the QS
version (in which it is numbered Chapter 4) see V.227 - 31, There is no
text of the chapter extant in the LQ 2 series.
$46 From this time, when the Three Kindreds of the Eldar
were gathered at last in Valinor, and Melkor was chained,
began the Noontide of the Blessed Realm and its fullness of
glory and bliss, long in tale of years, but in memory too brief. In
those days the Eldar became full-grown in stature of body and
of mind, and the Noldor advanced ever in skill and knowledge;
and the long years were filled with their joyful labours, in which
many new things fair and wonderful were devised.
$46a Then it was that the Noldor first bethought them of
letters, and Rumil of Tuna was the name of that lore-master
who first made fitting signs for the recording of speech and
song, some for graving upon metal or in stone, others for
drawing with brush or with pen.
$46b In that time was born in Eldamar in the house of the
king, in Tirion upon the crown of Tuna, Feanor the eldest of the
sons of Finwe, and the most beloved. Miriel was the name of
his mother. Silver was her hair and dark were her eyes, but her
hands were more skilled to fineness than any hands even of the
Noldor. By her was the craft of needles devised; and were but
one fragment of the broideries of Miriel to be seen in Middle-
earth it would be held dearer than a king's realm, for the
richness of her devices and the fire of their colours were as
manifold and as bright as the glory of leaf and flower and wing
in the fields of Yavanna. Therefore she was named Miriel
Serende.*
$46c And Feanor grew swiftly as if a secret fire were kindled
within him. and he was tall and fair of face and masterful, and
he became of all the Noldor the most subtle of heart and of
mind, and the most skilled of hand. He it was that in his youth,
bettering the work of Rumil, made those letters which bear his
name, and which ever since the Eldar have used; yet this was the
least of his works. For he it was that first of the Noldor
discovered how gems greater and brighter than those of the
Earth might be made with skill. And the first gems that Feanor
devised were white and colourless, but being set under starlight
they would blaze with blue and white fires brighter than
Helluin. And other crystals he made, wherein things far away
could be seen small but clear, as with the eyes of the Eagles of
Manwe. Seldom were the hand and mind of Feanor at rest.(1)
$47 Now at length the Noontide of Valinor drew to its
close. For it came to pass that Melkor, as the Valar decreed, had
dwelt for three ages in the duress of Mandos, alone. And when
he had suffered that bondage, as the Valar had promised, he
was brought again before them in conclave. He looked then
upon the bliss and glory of the Valar, and malice was in his
heart; he looked upon the fair Children of Iluvatar that sat at
the feet of the gods, and hatred filled him; he looked upon the
wealth of bright gems and lusted for them; but he hid his
thoughts and postponed his vengeance.
(* [footnote to the text] That is Byrde Miriel (the Broideress): quoth
AElfwine.)
$48 Before the gates of Valmar Melkor abased himself at
the feet of Manwe and sued for pardon, promising that, if he
might be made but the least of the free folk of Valinor, he would
aid the Valar in all their deeds, and most of all in the healing of
the many hurts that he had wrought and now would work no
more. And Nienna aided his prayer, but Mandos was silent.
Then Manwe granted him pardon; but the Valar would not yet
suffer him to depart from their sight and vigilance. He was
given, therefore, a humble dwelling within the gates of the city,
and put on trial; and he was not permitted to go more than one
league from Valmar, save by the leave of Manwe and with a
guardian at his side. But fair-seeming were all the words and
deeds of Melkor in that time, and both Valar and Eldar had
much profit from his aid. Wherefore in a while he was allowed
to go freely about the land, and it seemed to Manwe that his evil
was cured. For he himself was free from the evil and could not
comprehend it. and he knew that in the beginning. in the
thought of Eru, Melkor had been even as he. Yet it is said that
Ulmo's heart misgave him, and Tulkas clenched his hands
whenever he saw Melkor, his foe, go by. For if Tulkas is slow to
wrath, slow is he also to forget.
$49 Most fair of all was Melkor to the Eldar, and he aided
them in many works, if they would let him. The Vanyar, indeed,
the people of Ingwe, held him in suspicion; for Ulmo had
warned them, and they heeded his words. But the Noldor took
delight in the many things of hidden knowledge that he could
reveal to them, and some hearkened to words that it would have
been better that they should never have heard.
$49a It has been said indeed that Feanor learned much of
Melkor in secret, but that doubtless is but one of the many lies
of Melkor himself, envying the skill of Feanor and desiring to
claim part in his deeds. For certain it is that, snared though he
might be (as others) by the lies of Melkor, none of all the Eldalie
ever hated Melkor more than Feanor son of Finwe, who first
named him Morgoth.
$49b And in that time there was done the deed most
renowned of all the works of the Elvenfolk. For Feanor, being
now come to his full might, was filled with a new thought, or
maybe some shadow of foreknowledge came to him of the
doom that should be; and he pondered how the Light of the
Trees, the glory of the Blessed Realm, might be preserved
imperishable. Then he began a long and marvellous labour; and
he summoned all his lore, and his power, and his subtle craft, for
he purposed now to make things more fair than any of the Eldar
had yet made, whose beauty should last beyond the End.
Three jewels he made, and named them Silmarils. A living fire
burned within them that was blended of the Light of the Two
Trees. Of their own radiance they shone, even in the dark of the
deepest treasury; yet all lights that fell upon them, however
faint, they received and returned again in marvellous hues to
which their own inner fire gave a surpassing loveliness. No
mortal flesh, nor flesh unclean, nor any thing of evil will could
touch them, but it was scorched and withered; neither could
they be hurt or broken by any strength in all the kingdom of
Arda. These jewels the Elves prized beyond all their works, and
Varda hallowed them, and Mandos foretold that the fates of
Arda, earth, sea, and air, lay locked within them. And the heart
of Feanor was fast bound to these things that he himself had
made.
$50* But the heart of Melkor also desired these fairest of
jewels; and from that time with desire the malice of Melkor
grew ever greater, though nought of it could be seen in the
semblance that he wore, or in the fair form that he assumed
after the manner of the Valar his brethren. And when he saw his
chances he sowed a seed of lies and hints of evil among all who
were open to his converse. Bitterly did the people of the Noldor
atone for their folly in the days to come. Coming often among
them he would speak ever words of greatest praise, sweet but
poisoned honey; for amid all the fair words others were ever
subtly woven. Visions he would conjure in their hearts of the
mighty realms they might have ruled at their own will, in power
and freedom in the East. And then he would whisper, to any
that leaned towards him, that the gods had brought the Eldar to
Valinor because of their jealousy, fearing that the beauty of the
Quendi, and the makers' power that Iluvatar had bequeathed to
them, would grow too great for the Valar to govern, as the Elves
waxed and spread over the wide lands of the world.
In those days, moreover, though the Valar knew indeed of the
coming of Men that were to be,(2) the Elves knew yet nought of
it; for the gods had not revealed it, and the time was not yet
near. But Melkor spake to the Elves in secret of Mortal Men,
(* The beginning of this paragraph corresponds in content to the end of QS
$49.)
though he knew little of the truth. Manwe alone knew aught
clearly of the mind of Iluvatar concerning Men, and he has ever
been their friend. Yet Melkor whispered that the gods kept the
Eldar captive, so that Men coming should defraud them of the
kingdoms of Middle-earth; for the weaker and short-lived race
the Valar saw would be more easily swayed by them. Small
truth was there in this, and little have the Valar ever prevailed to
sway the wills or fates of Men, and least of all to good. But
many of the Noldor believed, or half-believed, the evil words. [It
is told, also, that at this time Melkor would speak to the Eldar
of weapons and armour, and of the power that they give to him
that is armed to defend his own (as he said). The Eldar had
before possessed no weapons, and since the chaining of Melkor
the armouries of the gods had been shut. But the Noldor now
learned the fashioning of swords of tempered steel, and the
making of bows and of arrows and of spears; and they made
shields in those days and emblazoned them with devices of silver
and gold and gems. Thus it was that the Noldor were armed in
the days of their Flight. Thus too, as oft was seen, the evil of
Melkor was turned against him; for the swords of the Gnomes
did him more hurt than anything under the gods upon this
earth. Yet they had little joy of Melkor's teaching; for all the
sorrows of the Gnomes they wrought with their own swords, as
later shall be seen. Quoth Pengolod.]
$51 Thus, ere the gods were aware, the peace of Valinor
was poisoned. The Noldor began to murmur against the Valar
and their kindred; and many became filled with vanity, forget-
ting all that the gods had given them and taught to them.
Fiercest burned the flame in the eager heart of Feanor, and
Melkor laughed in his secrecy; for to that mark above all had
his lies been addressed, and Feanor he most hated, lusting all the
while for the Silmarils. Yet never could he come nigh them; for
though at great feasts Feanor would wear them, blazing upon
his brow, at other times they were guarded close, locked in the
deep hoards of Tuna. There were no thieves in Valinor, as yet;
but Feanor loved the Silmarils with a greedy love, and he began
to grudge the sight of them to all save to his sire and to his sons.
$52 High princes were Feanor and Fingolfin, the elder sons
of Finwe; but they grew proud and jealous each of his right,
and his possessions. And lo! Melkor set new lies abroad, and
whispers came to Feanor that Fingolfin and his sons, Fingon and
Turgon, were plotting to usurp the leadership of Finwe and of
the elder house of Feanor, and to supplant them by leave of the
Valar - for the Valar were ill-pleased that the Silmarils lay in
Tuna, and were not given to their keeping. Of these lies quarrels
were born among the proud children of Finwe, and of these
quarrels came the end of the high days of Valinor and the
evening of its ancient glory; for Feanor spake words of rebellion
against the Valar, crying aloud that he would depart from
Valinor back to the world without, and deliver, as he said, the
Gnomes from thraldom, if they would follow him. And when
Fingolfin sought to restrain him Feanor drew his sword upon
him.(3) For the lies of Melkor, though he knew not clearly their
source, had taken root in the pride of his heart.
$53 Then the Valar were wroth and dismayed, and (4) Feanor
was summoned to answer in the Ring of Doom; and there the
lies of Melkor were laid bare for all those to see who had the
will. By the judgement of the gods Feanor was banished for
twenty years (5) from Tuna, since he had disturbed its peace. But
with him went Finwe his father, who loved him more than his
other sons, and many other Gnomes also. Northward in
Valinor, in the hills near to the halls of Mandos, they built a
strong place and a treasury at Formenos;(6) and they gathered
there a multitude of gems. But Fingolfin ruled the Noldor in
Tuna; and thus Melkor's words seemed justified (though Feanor
had wrought their fulfilment by his own deeds), and the
bitterness that Melkor had sown endured, even though the lies
were revealed, and long afterwards it lived still between the sons
of Feanor and Fingolfin.
$54 Straight from the midst of their council the Valar sent
Tulkas to lay hands on Melkor and bring him again to judge-
ment, but Melkor hid himself, and none could discover whither
he had gone; and the shadows of all standing things seemed
to grow longer and darker in that time. It is said that for two
years (7) none saw Melkor, until he appeared privily to Feanor,
feigning friendship with cunning argument, and urging him to
his former thought of flight. But his cunning overreached his
aim; for knowing that the jewels held the heart of Feanor in
thrall, he said at the last: 'Here is a strong place and well
guarded, but think not that the Silmarils will lie safe in any
treasury within reach of the Valar!'
Then the fires of the heart of Feanor were kindled, and his
eyes blazed, and his sight burned through all the fair-semblance
of Melkor to the dark depths of his mind, and perceived there
his fierce lust for the Silmarils. Then hate overcame Feanor's
fear, and he spoke shamefully to Melkor, saying: 'Get thee
gone, gangrel! Thou jail-crow of Mandos!' And he shut the
doors of his house upon the mightiest of all the dwellers in Ea,
as though he were a beggar.
And Melkor departed in shame, for he was himself in peril,
and saw not his time yet for revenge; but his heart was black
with anger. And Finwe was filled with dread, and sent messen-
gers in haste to the Valar.
$55 Now the gods were sitting in council before their gates,
fearing the lengthening of the shadows, when the messenger
came from Finwe, but ere Tulkas could set forth others came
that brought tidings from Eldanor. For Melkor had fled through
the Kalakirya, and from the hill of Tuna the Elves saw him pass
in wrath as a thunder-cloud. Thus Melkor departed, and for a
while the Trees shone again unshadowed, and still Valinor was
fair; yet as a cloud far off that looms ever higher, borne upon
a slow cold wind, a doubt now marred the mirth of all the
dwellers in Aman, dreading they knew not what evil might yet
come. And the Valar sought ever for news of Melkor, in vain.
But he passed from Eldanor and (8) came into that region that is
called Arvalin, which lies south of the Bay of Elende, and is a
narrow land beneath the eastern feet of the Mountains of
Aman. There the shadows were deepest and thickest in the
World. In that land, secret and unknown, dwelt in spider's form
Ungoliante, weaver of dark webs. It is not told whence she
came; from the Outer Darkness, maybe, that lies in Ea beyond
the walls of the World. In a ravine she lived, and spun her webs
in a cleft of the mountains; for she sucked up light and shining
things to spin them forth again in black nets of choking gloom
and clinging fog. She hungered ever for more food.
$56 Melkor met Ungoliante in Arvalin, and with her he
plotted his revenge; but she demanded a great and terrible
reward, ere she would dare the perils of Valinor and the power
of the gods. Then, when Melkor had vowed to give all that she
lusted for, she wove a great darkness about her for their
protection, and black ropes she span, and cast from rocky peak
to peak; and in this way she scaled at last the highest pinnacle of
the mountains, far south of Taniquetil. In that region the
vigilance of the Valar was less, because the wild woods of
Orome lay in the south of Valinor, and the walls of the
mountains looked there eastward upon the untrodden land and
I
empty seas; and the gods held guard rather against the North
where of old Melkor had delved his fortress and deep throne.
For $$57 - 9 see the end of the commentary on this chapter, p. 193.
NOTES.
1. This passage concerning the gems devised by Feanor (following
'yet this was the least of his works') was a secondary addition (see
p. 184). See the commentary on $46c.
2 From this point the virtually continuous newly written text
changes to a heavily emended and interpolated treatment of the QS
manuscript (p. 184).
3. 'drew his sword upon him' was changed from 'menaced him with
his sword'.
4. 'Then the Valar were wroth and dismayed, and' was a secondary
addition.
5. 'twenty years' was changed from 'ten years'.
6. 'at Formenos' was a secondary addition.
7. 'two years' was changed from 'a great while'.
8. From this point the new work on the chapter effectively ceases,
and the few differences from QS belong to the earlier layer of
emendation that was taken up into LQ 1; but I give the text to the
end of $56 in order to take in the majority of these earlier changes.
Commentary on Chapter 6, 'Of the Silmarils
and the Darkening of Valinor'.
A comparison will show that the new writing in LQ stands in close
relation to the corresponding part of AAm. New elements in LQ
appear also in AAm, such as Feanor's mother Miriel ($78, p. 92), the
devising of letters by Rumil and Feanor ($$80, 83), or the placing of
the making of the Silmarils after the release of Melkor (p. 104, $92).
There are constant similarities of wording and many actual identities
of phrase (notably in the encounter of Feanor with Melkor at
Formenos, LQ $54, AAm $102).
Can precedence be established between the two? It is scarcely
possible to demonstrate it one way or the other, for individual details
tell in both ways. Thus Feanor's word to Melkor, 'gangrel', was that
first written in LQ, whereas in AAm it replaced 'beggarman'; but 'the
Valar were wroth and dismayed' is an addition to LQ (note 4),
whereas 'the Gods were wroth' in AAm ($99) was not. The change in
LQ of 'ten years' to 'twenty years' as the term of Feanor's banishment
from Tirion (note 5) is a change also in AAm ($99 and note 10), and
the name Formenos is an addition in both. I think in fact that the two
texts were closely contemporary. It will be seen that after the revision
in LQ has come to an end AAm continues on (from $105) in the same
larger and more expansive fashion obviously based structurally on the
Quenta tradition: and it may be therefore that the LQ text petered out
because the 'Annals' (scarcely 'Annals' any more) had become my
father's preference.
How he conceived the relation between the two at this time seems
impossible to say. As I have said (p. 102), 'we see the annal form
disappearing as a fully-fledged narrative emerges'; and the AAm
narrative, while differing in every sentence from the Silmarillion
version, is nonetheless very obviously 'the same'. Certainly too similar
to it to be regarded as the representation of a separate tradition of
learning and memory, or even of the work of a different 'loremaster'.
There are only the most minor variations in the two narratives (for
example, in LQ the messengers came to Valinor telling that Melkor
had fled through the Kalakirya before Tulkas had set out in pursuit
($55), whereas in AAm the messengers came 'ere Orome and Tulkas
had ridden far' ($104)); and there is constant echoing of vocabulary
and phrasing. See further on this topic pp. 289 - 91.
$46b Byrde Miriel (in the footnote to the text): cf. AAm $7S (p. 92),
where Feanor's mother (in a replacement entry) is given, rather
oddly, the Old English 'surname' Byrde, not Serende, in the text
itself and without reference to AElfwine.
$46c The passage in AAm $83 (p. 92 and note 5) concerning Feanor's
study of the making of gems by skill was an addition, as was
that in the present text (note 1 above); the idea is associated
with the change from the devising of gems by the Noldor to their
obtaining them from the ground of Aman (see LQ $40 and
commentary).
With the mention of the 'crystals ... wherein things far away
could be seen small but clear' (not referred to in AAm) cf.
Gandalf's words in The Two Towers (III.11): 'The palantiri
came from beyond Westernesse, from Eldamar. The Noldor
made them. Feanor himself, maybe, wrought them, in days so
long ago that the time cannot be measured in years.'
$49a Cf. AAm $123 (p. 108): 'Then Feanor rose up and cursed
Melkor, naming him Morgoth'. In AAm Melkor is used
throughout until the time when Feanor named him Morgoth
(p. 123, $123); so also in the revision of QS the use of Morgoth
before this point in the narrative was changed to Melkor.
$49b The passage concerning the Silmarils corresponds in content to
the latter part of QS $46; for, as in AAm, the making of the
Silmarils now comes after the release of Melkor.
$50 The passage on the arming of the Elves is no longer given as a
footnote, and is moved to a different place from that in QS
($49); but it is enclosed within brackets and attributed to
Pengolod. The text is at this point in any case extremely
disordered, since it consists partly of new writing and partly of
passages retained from the original QS text. The old note was
largely written out afresh, though it was not greatly changed
from the earlier form: the chief difference being that whereas it
was said in QS that the Elves had previously possessed 'weapons
of the chase, spears and bows and arrows' it is now told (as in
AAm, p. 96, $97) that they had no weapons before this time. See
further p. 281.
$52 On Feanor's drawing his sword on Fingolfin see p. 104, $98. - It
is curious that (despite $46b 'in Tirion upon the crown of
Tuna') here 'the Silmarils lay in Tuna', and again in $53
Fingolfin ruled the Noldor ir Tuna'. The same is found in AAm
(p. 90, $67), and much later (see p. 282).
$55 The words 'in Ea', not found in LQ 1, belong with the later
work on the QS manuscript as presented in the text given above
(see note 8). On the words 'the Outer Darkness... that lies in Ea
beyond the walls of the World' see pp. 62 - 4.
$$51-9 In the last paragraphs of the chapter, not given in the text
(p. 191), changes made to QS were:
$57: Morgoth > Melkor, and at all subsequent occur-
rences.
$58: Tun > Tuna; the shores of Elvenhome > the shores of
Eldamar; Silpion > Telperion; protected by fate
omitted; With his black spear > Suddenly with his
black spear; leaf and branch and root > root and leaf
and bough; and at the end of the paragraph (after she
swelled to monstrous form) was added: but still she
was athirst. She drank therefore also of the vats of
Varda, and drained them utterly.
559: their feet > the feet of the hunters; escaped the hunt >
escaped them.
I have noticed earlier (p.142) that much later (after the publication
of The Lord of the Rings) my father turned to new narrative writing
wit hin the body of the Quenta Silmarillion: beginning with Chapter 1,
which became the Valaquenta, and then jumping to the present
chapter, 6. A new story of ramifying implications, that of the death of
Feanor's mother Miriel and Finwe's second marriage to Indis of the
Vanyar, had now entered; but this further and final development is
here postponed (see pp. 205 ff.).
7 OF THE FLIGHT OF THE NOLDOR.
The textual history of this chapter is relatively simple (for the late
rewriting just referred to, which extends some little way into it, see
f
pp. 292 ff.). The original chapter in QS (V.232 - 8, where it is
numbered 5) was corrected, not very extensively, at the time of the
1951 revision, and as corrected was typed in the amanuensis text
LQ 1. This received no corrections at all, but on the later amanuensis
typescript LQ 2 my father made a few changes, mostly the regular
alteration of names. In this case I do not give the revised text, but
record individually the significant changes made to QS. Various small
changes of wording are not mentioned, nor are regular name-changes
as Melko > Melkor, Tun > Tuna or Tirion, Kor > Tuna, the pass of
Kor > the pass of Kalakiryan, Elwe > Olwe'. In $69 western land
> Westland and Helkarakse > Helkaraxe' (so spelt in AAm), in $70
strands of Elvenhome > strands of Eldanor, and in $71 Eruman
> Araman (cf. AAm $125, pp. 108, 123).
$60 At the first three occurrences 'Morgoth' > 'Melkor', and at the
end of the paragraph, after 'the violence of Morgoth', was
added: 'for such was his name from that day forth among the
Gnomes'; thereafter 'Morgoth' was retained. At the foot of the
page my father noted: 'In more ancient form Moringotto'. It
was here that the story entered that Melkor received the name
Morgoth at this time, though there was no suggestion yet that it
was Feanor who gave it to him. That entered in AAm ($123)
and in the contemporary rewriting of Chapter 6 (p. 186, $49a);
no doubt at the same time my father struck out on the QS
manuscript the addition just given and substituted: 'So Feanor
called him in that hour: the Black Foe, and that name he bore
among the Noldor ever after.' Morgoth was translated 'the
Dark Enemy' in the AAm passage, but for some reason this was
rejected (p. 120, note 2).
The sentence in $60 'a thing before unseen that in the
gathering night had seemed to be a spider of monstrous form'
was changed to 'a thing before unseen for which no word was
known, a vast shape of darkness black in the gathering night';
cf. AAm $122. The Valar are to be wholly ignorant of the
nature of the aid that Melkor had summoned (cf. AAm $124),
and the Darkness (or 'Unlight') of Ungoliante becomes a central
idea of the legend.
$62 The passage concerning the Orcs, from 'he brought into being
the race of the Orcs' to the end of the paragraph, was rewritten
as follows:
he brought into being the race of the Orkor,* and they grew
and multiplied in the bowels of the earth. These creatures
Morgoth made in envy and mockery of the Elves. Therefore in
form they were like unto the Children of Iluvatar, yet foul to
look upon; for they were made in hatred, and with hatred
they were filled. Their voices were as the clashing of stones,
and they laughed not, save only at torment and cruel deeds.
Clamhoth, the hosts of tumult, the Noldor called them.
*[footnote to the text) In Cnomish speech this name is orch
of one, yrch of many. Orcs we may name them, for in the
ancient days they were strong and fell as demons; yet they
were of other kind, a spawn of earth corrupted by the
power of Morgoth, and they could be slain or destroyed
by the valiant: quoth AElfwine.
This is closely related to AAm $127, as that was first written (see
pp. 120 - 1, notes 5 - 7, and commentary p. 123), and contains
the same conjunction of two apparently different theories, that
the Orcs were 'made' by Morgoth and that they were 'a spawn
of earth' corrupted by him.
My father then altered the passage by cutting out AElfwine's
footnote to the word Orkor but adding a closely similar passage
in the body of the text, thus:
Glamhoth, the hosts of tumult, the Noldor called them. Orcs
we may name them,* for in ancient days they were strong and
fell as demons. Yet they were not of demon-kind, but a spawn
of earth corrupted by Morgoth, and they could be slain or
destroyed by the valiant with weapons of war.
*[footnote to the text] Quoth AElfwine.
This rearrangement is puzzling, for AElfwine's contribution can
hardly be limited to the words 'Orcs we may name them' (see p.
124); but perhaps by placing the asterisk at this point my father
meant to indicate that all that follows it was added by AElfwine.
On the LQ typescript he changed it again, putting the whole
passage from 'Orcs we may name them' into a footnote.
On the QS manuscript he scribbled later, against the first part
of the passage, concerning the making of the Orcs: 'Alter this.
See Annals.' This refers to the change introduced into AAm
whereby the Orcs had been bred from captured Quendi many
ages before: see the commentary on AAm $127 (p. 123).
$67 'masters of the enchanted light' > 'masters of the unsullied
Light'; cf. AAm $133 'lords of the unsullied Light'.
$68 'But of his own sons Inglor alone spake with him [Finrod];
Angrod and Egnor took the part of Feanor, and Orodreth stood
aside' > 'But of his own children Inglor alone spoke in like
manner; for Angrod and Egnor and Galadriel were with Fingon,
whereas Orodreth stood aside and spoke not.' As AAm was first
written the same account of the associations of the Noldorin
princes was given, but it was changed immediately: see AAm
$135 (pp. 112, 125), and p. 121, note 12.
'and with Fingolfin were Finrod and Inglor' > 'and with
Fingolfin were Finrod and his house'
$72 The whole of this paragraph was rewritten as follows:
Then Finrod turned back, being filled with grief, and with
bitterness against the house of Feanor because of his kinship
with Olwe of Alqualonde; and many of his people went with
him, retracing their steps in sorrow, until they beheld once
more the far beam of the Mindon upon Tuna, still shining in
the night, and so came at last to Valinor again. And they
received the pardon of the Valar, and Finrod was set to rule
the remnant of the Noldor in the Blessed Realm. But his sons
were not with him, for they would not forsake the sons of
Fingolfin; and all Fingolfin's folk went forward still, fearing to
face the doom of the gods, since not all of them had been
guiltless of the kinslaying at Alqualonde. Moreover Fingon
and Turgon, though they had no part in that deed, were bold
and fiery of heart and loath to abandon any task to which
they had put their hands until the bitter end, if bitter it must
be. So the main host held on, and all too swiftly the evil that
was foretold began its work.
This is almost word for word the same as AAm $156, the only
real difference being the mention here that Fingon and Turgon
had no part in the kinslaying. That the rewriting of QS preceded
the passage in AAm, however, is shown by the fact that Olwe' is
here a later change from Elwe'.
$73 'and they took with them only such as were faithful to their
house, among whom were Angrod and Egnor' was left un-
changed, through oversight, and survived into the typescript
LQ 2. The association of Angrod and Egnor with the Feanorians
(so that they were given passage to Middle-earth in the ships) had
been abandoned in the rewritings of QS $$68, 72 given above.
'a great burning, terrible and bright' > 'a great burning,
terrible and bright, at the place that was after called Losgar, at
the outlet of the Firth of Drengist'. The same addition was made
to AAm ($162, pp. 120, 127, and p. 122 note 20).
'Therefore led by Fingolfin, and Fingon, Turgon, and Inglor'
> 'Therefore led by Fingolfin and his sons, and by Inglor and
Galadriel the fair and valiant'; this is virtually the text of AAm
($163, p. 120).
'and came unto Beleriand at the rising of the sun' > 'and came
unto Middle-earth at the rising of the Moon'; cf. AAm $163
(pp. 120, 127).
Emendations made to one or other of the copies of the typescript LQ 2
give the later names or name-forms of certain of the Noldorin princes,
as in Chapter 5 (pp. 177, 181, $$41 - 2): Finrod > Finarphin and
Finarfin, Inglor > Finrod, Egnor > AEgnor (as emended in Chapter 5
spelt Aegnor). - In 'his ancient fortress, Utumno in the North' ($62)
Utumno > Angband; this reflects the late story that both Utumno and
Angband were built in the ancient days (see p. 156, $12) - and it was
of course to the western fortress, Angband, that Melkor returned and
which he rebuilt from its ruins.
Against the passage in $68 'The greater part marched behind
Fingolfin, who with his sons yielded to the general voice against their
wisdom, because they would not desert their people' my father noted
on a copy of LQ 2: 'also because of the promise made by Fingolfin
(above)'. This refers to a passage in the final rewriting of the previous
chapter (p. 287, $58c), where Fingolfin said to Feanor before Manwe:
'Thou shalt lead and I will follow.' The word 'above' means that the
final text was in being and had been incorporated into the LQ 2
typescript.
8 OF THE SUN AND MOON AND THE HIDING
OF VALINOR.
The textual situation here is the simplest so far: we have the chapter in
QS (V.239 - 43), and emendations made to QS in 1951, taken up into
the typescript LQ 1, which was not emended subsequently. (A few
lightly pencilled alterations were not incorporated in LQ 1, either
because the typist could not interpret them or because they were
entered on the manuscript subsequently.) As with Chapter 6 (p. 184)
the later typescript LQ 2 is not extant. The history of this chapter in
The Silmarillion therefore ends with the few changes made to QS in
1951; there is also the account in AAm $$164-81, which was itself
closely derived from QS, with changes and omissions. In this case
again I give the significant changes made to QS and not the whole text.
Regular changes of name are ($79) Kalakilya > Kalakiryan, the
mound of Kor > the mound of Tuna.
574 The passage beginning 'And Manwe bade Yavanna ...' was
changed to a form almost identical with AAm $167 (p. 129):
And Manwe bade Yavanna and Nienna to put forth all their
powers of growth and healing; and they put forth all their
powers upon the Trees, but the tears of Nienna availed not to
heal their mortal wounds; and for a long while Yavanna sang
on alone in the shadows. Yet even as hope failed and her song
faltered in the dark, lo! Telperion bore at last upon a leafless
bough one great flower of silver, and Laurelin a single golden
fruit.
$75 The passage giving the names of the Sun and Moon was
changed to a form intermediate between QS and AAm $171:
Isil the Sheen the gods of old named the Moon in Valinor, and
Anar Fire-golden they named the Sun; but the Eldar named
them also Rana the wayward, the giver of visions, and [Urin >]
Naira, the heart of flame, that awakens and consumes.
Thus Urin > Anar (with changed meaning, 'Fire-golden'), as in
AAm, but this and Isil remain names given by the Gods, not by
the Vanyar; Urin was at first changed about with Anar and
made the Eldarin name of the Sun, but was then replaced by
Naira (Vasa in AAm). Rana (replacing Rana) and Naira remain
Eldarin names, whereas in AAm Rana and Vasa are Noldorin.
'The maiden chosen from among their own folk by the Valar'
> 'The maiden whom the Valar chose from among the Maiar'
(agreeing with AAm $172).
Pencilled in the margin against Arien (above the original
marginal gloss by AElfwine hyrned 'horned' to the name Tilion,
V.240, footnote) is the unrecorded Old English word Daegbore
('Day-bearer', feminine,. In AAm ($172, marginal notes) the
Old English words supplied by AElfwine are hyrned and daegred
(daybreak, dawn).
'the pools lit by the flickering light of Silpion' > 'the pools of
Este in Telperion's flickering beams' (agreeing with AAm $172).
Silpion > Telperion subsequently (see p. 59, $5).
$76 'Rana was first wrought' > 'Isil was first wrought' (as AAm
$173).
'Melko' > 'Morgoth', because he is to be known as Morgoth
from the point in the narrative where he is given that name
(p. 194, $60).
$77 'the prayers of Lorien and Nienna' > 'the prayers of Lorien and
Este' (as AAm $175).
'Varda changed her design' > 'Varda changed her counsel' (as
AAm $175).
The entire passage beginning at 'is the hour of greatest light'
and continuing to $79 'the Valar store the radiance of the Sun in
many vessels' was put into the past tense (cf. AAm $$ 175 - 8).
$78 Eruman > Aruman (not Araman). Since Eruman was changed
to Araman in the revision made at this time to an earlier page
in QS ($71) Aruman here is no doubt merely an incomplete
alteration.
$79 Rewriting of the passage in QS beginning 'That light lives now
only in the Silmarils' removed at last the ancient idea of the
'rekindling' of 'the Elder Sun and Moon, which are the Trees'
(for the history of this see II.285 - 6, IV.20, 49, 98), or at least
restricted it to a foretelling of the recovery of the Silmarils; but
the strange prophecy of Ulmo that this would only come to pass
through the aid of Men was retained. To none of this is there
anything corresponding in AAm. The changed passage reads:
That light lives now only in the Silmarils; though there shall
yet come a time, maybe, when they are found again and their
fire released, and the ancient joy and glory return. Ulmo
foretold to the Valar...'
The sentence (not in AAm, $180) 'the fleet of the Teleri kept
the shore' was changed to 'rebuilt with Osse's aid, the fleet of
the Teleri kept the shore'.
$80 'the Bay of Elvenhome' > 'The Bay of Eldanor'.
It seems to me very probable that my father made these changes to QS
before he wrote the section on the Sun and Moon in the Annals of
Aman; in any case they were doubtless closely contemporary.
(II) THE SECOND PHASE.
An acute problem of presentation arose in the treatment of the late
expanded version of Chapter 6 Of the Silmarils and the Darkening of
Valinor (see pp. 142, 184 ff.), in that the first part of the new text was
based on and developed in stages from a major independent disquisi-
tion concerning the nature of the Eldar. Arising out of an account of
their marriage laws and customs, this discussion extends into a lengthy
analysis of the meaning of death, immortality and rebirth in respect of
the Elves. I found that to give the late narrative text of Chapter 6
immediately following the text of the 'first phase' version, postponing
the long and remarkable essay from which it derives, was extremely
confusing; while to introduce the essay into the series of 'first phase'
chapters made matters worse. For this reason I have divided this part
of the book into two sections, and give here separately the late
narrative versions of Chapters 1, 6, and a part of 7 together with the
essay on the Eldar. To date these writings (and those given in Part
Four) with any real precision seems impossible on the evidence that I
know of, but such as there is points clearly in most cases to the late
1950s and not much later (for detailed discussion see p. 300).
*
THE VALAQUENTA.
Of the final, enlarged form of the old Chapter 1, the Valaquenta
(abbreviated Vq), there are two texts, both of them typescripts made
by my father (Vq 1 and Vq 2). Vq 1 begins as a copy of LQ 2, but very
soon diverges, and with the introduction of much new matter becomes
in several parts entirely distinct. Though typewritten it is very much a
draft text, confused and (at any rate as it exists now) incomplete. It
was followed, I would think immediately, by the finished text Vq 2.
Vq 1 is headed like the preceding versions, 'QUENTA SILMARIL-
LION. Here begins the Silmarillion, or the History of the Silmarils.
I. Of the Valar.' Vq 2, on the other hand, is headed 'VALAQUENTA.
Here is the Account of the Valar and Maiar according to the Lore of
the Eldar.' That the original first chapter of The Silmarillion had
become a separate entity like the Ainulindale' is shown, apart from the
new title, by the fact that to the final text (LQ 2) of the next chapter,
Of Valinor and the Two Trees, a title-page (together with a page
carrying the preamble, AEaelfwine's note, and the Translator's note) was
attached, and the chapter numbered '1'. This title-page is virtually the
same as that in the old QS typescript (see V.202), with the heading
'Eldanyare' and beneath 'Quenta Silmarillion', the division into three
parts, and the forms Pennas Silevril, Yenie Valinoren, Inias Valannor
(where however the old typescript was changed to Balannor), and
Inias Beleriand. The fact that it was taken from the original 'Eldan-
yare' text suggests that it really belonged to LQ 1 (whose title-page is
missing, p. 143). It is true that it was typed at the same time as the rest
of LQ 2, but I imagine that (having decided to separate off the
Valaquenta) my father at this time gave the title-page of LQ 1 to the
typist of LQ 2 to copy, after which it was mislaid and lost. It seems
odd that he should have done this; at least one might have expected
him to change the second element from The Annals of Valinor to The
Annals of Aman. He did indeed make some pencilled emendations to
it: Yenie Valinoren to Yenie Valinoreo (and beneath this Valinore
Yenie), and Inias Valannor to Inias Dor-Rodyn.
Essentially, Vq 1 was the innovating version, and Vq 2 refined
stylistically on the new material, although in any given case it is
possible that Vq 1 was as LQ 2 and that Vq 2 introduced the new text;
however, I treat this detail as largely immaterial. In what follows I
comment on notable features arising from a comparison between the
Valaquenta and LQ (that is, the corrected text of LQ 1 given on
pp. 144-7, referred to by the numbered paragraphs, together with the
emendations made to its copy LQ 2 given on pp. 148 - 9). The text of
the Valaquenta is found in the published Silmarillion (references are
to the original hardback edition, 1977). Since a number of editorial
changes were made to the text of the Valaquenta I notice certain
points of substance in which they differ.
$1 The words 'Let it be!' were not included in the Vq texts (see
p. 148, $1).
$2 Nearly all of this paragraph concerning the Maiar and the
confusion with Elves (as emended in LQ 2) still survived in Vq 1,
but was eliminated in Vq 2 (the first part of it reappearing,
rewritten, at the beginning of the section 'Of the Maiar'). The end
of the paragraph, concerning the making of the Children of Eru,
was eliminated in Vq 2 and does not reappear.
$3 Vq 1 as typed followed LQ exactly in the list of the 'chieftains of
the Valar' (with Lorien as in LQ 2 for earlier Lorien), but a list of
the seven queens (Valier) was also given: Varda, Yavanna,
Nienna, Vana, Vaire, Nessa, Uinen (agreeing with the table given
on p. 151). In Vq 1 the nine 'chieftains' became by emendation
seven: Melkor and Osse were removed (and Orome s place
changed, so that he stands after Aule); this is the number and
order of 'the Lords of the Valar' in Vq 2 and in the published
work (p. 25). Also by emendation to Vq 1 the queens lose Uinen
but gain Este, who is placed after Nienna, and Vana is set after
Vaire; this again was the final form. These changes, both to Valar
and Valier, were made also to the typescript of AAm (p. 69,
$$1 - 2). The names Vana and Nienna are given thus in Vq 2.
The sentence in LQ 'though they have other or altered names in
the speech of the Sindar' was retained in Vq 1 with the addition
of 'in Middle-earth', but changed in Vq Z to 'though they have
other names in the speech of the Elves in Middle-earth.'
$4 (Varda) The history of the phrase 'With Manwe dwells Varda'
(The Silmarillion p. 26) is curious. QS $4 has 'With him dwells as
wife Varda... -, by emendation to LQ 1 it became With him in
Arda dwells as spouse Varda ...'; and in Vq it is 'With Manwe
now dwells as spouse Varda...' In 1975, when the main work on
the text of the published Silmarillion was done, being then much
less clear than I have since become about certain dates and
textual relations (and ignorant of the existence of some texts), I
did not see that this 'now' could have any significance, and more-
over it contributed to the problem of tense in the Valaquenta,
which is discussed below; I therefore omitted it. It is however
undoubtedly significant. In AAm it is said (p. 49, $3): 'Varda was
Manwe s spouse from the beginning, in contrast to the later
C 'union' of Yavanna and Aule 'in Ea' (on which see under $5
below). But the typescript text of AAm was emended (p. 69, $3)
to 'Varda was Manwe's spouse from the beginning of Arda',
which shows that some complex conception was present (though
never definitively expressed) concerning the time of the 'union' of
the great spirits.
In the new, much extended passage concerning Varda, Vq 1
has 'She speaks seldom in words, save to Manwe', where Vq 2
followed by the published text (p. 26) has 'Manwe and Varda are
seldom parted, and they remain in Valinor.'
(Ulmo) The long new passage concerning Ulmo entered in
Vq 1, which has some interesting differences from the final form:
it is said that Ulmo 'had less need of the light of the Trees or of any
resting-place', and that 'his counsels grew ever away from the
mind of Manwe (whom nonetheless he obeyed)': cf. the Ainulin-
dale (p. 13, $18), 'Manwe and Ulmo have from the beginning
been allied, and in all things have served most faithfully the
purpose of Iluvatar'. In both Vq texts his horns are called
Falarombar, changed on the Vq 2 typescript to Ulumuri; cf. the
original name of the horn of Orome, Rombaras (p. 35, $34), and
the Etymologies, V.384, stem ROM.
(Osse and Uinen) The passage concerning Osse and Uinen,
much enlarged, now appears in the section 'Of the Maiar', since
they have ceased to be numbered among the Valar (see under $3
above).
$5 (Aule') In the words (referring to Melkor and Aule) 'Both, also,
desired to make things of their own that should be new and
unthought of by others' (The Silmarillion p. 27) there is very
probably a reflection of the legend of Aule's making of the
Dwarves.
(Yavanna) Here again, as with Varda ($4 above), I wrongly
changed the text concerning Yavanna S union with Aule. Both Vq
texts have 'The spouse of Aule in Arda is Yavanna', and the
words 'in Arda' are certainly significant (see V.120).
'Some there are who have seen her standing like a tree under
heaven' recalls the later versions of the Ainulindale', where it is
Pengolod himself who declares to AElfwine that he has so seen her
'long years agone, in the land of the Valar' (p. 15, $25).
The name Kementari is found as a correction of Palurien in
LQ 2, Chapter 2 (p. 157, $14).
$6 (Mandos) The editorial change of 'northward' to 'westward'
in 'Namo the elder dwells in Mandos, which is northward in
Valinor' in the published text (p. 28) is a regrettable error, which
I have explained in I.82. - It may be noted here that in the
passage in $9 concerning Nienna the change of 'the halls of
Mandos, which are nearer and yet more northward' (found from
QS to LQ 2) to 'the halls of Mandos, which are near to her own'
is not editorial, but is found in the Vq texts.
$7 (Tulkas) The sentence 'He came last to Arda, to aid the Valar in
the first battles with Melkor' only entered with Vq 2, but derives
from the later Ainulindale ($31).
$8 (Orome') In emendation to one copy only of LQ 2 the name
Aldaron of Orome was lost (see p. 149, $8), and it does not
appear in either text of Vq. It should not have been reintroduced
into the published text (p. 29). The sentence (ibid.) 'by the Sindar
Tauron' derives from LQ 2 and Vq 1, but was in fact changed in
Vq 2 to 'Tauron he is called in Middle-earth'; cf. under $3 above,
where 'Sindar' was also removed in Vq 2. The translation of
Tauron should be 'the Lord of the Forests'.
The name Nahar of Orome s horse first appears in AAm $31
(p. 70). - After the words 'for the pursuit of the evil creatures of
Melkor' (The Silmarillion p. 29) the Vq texts have 'But the
Valaroma is not blown, and Nahar runs no more upon the
Middle-earth since the change of the world and the waning of
the Elves, whom he loved.' This sentence goes back through the
versions to QS (though the Valaroma does not appear in it till
LQ 2 and Nahar not till Vq), and I regret its exclusion from The
Silmarillion.
$9 (Nienna) The account of Nienna appears at an earlier point in
Vq (following the Feanturi, to whom she is now 'akin') than it
had in previous versions. The words 'sister of the Feanturi' were
changed editorially from Vq 'sister of Namo' (see p. 151, $9).
At the end of the account of the Valar and Valier appears the name
and conception of the Aratar, the High Ones of Arda, of whom there
are eight after the removal of Melkor. This contrasts with the
conception of 'the Seven Great Ones of the Realm of Arda' (p. 147,
$10a), among whom Melkor is numbered, but not Orome, nor
Mandos.
$$10a,b Of the Maiar. The words in the published text (p. 30)
concerning Eonwe, 'whose might in arms is surpassed by none in
Arda', were an editorial addition, made in order to prepare for
his leadership of the hosts of the West at the Great Battle (The
Silmarillion pp. 251 - 2). For the end of the Elder Days there is
scarcely any material from the period following The Lord of the
Rings.
(Melian) In LQ 2 Melian was said to be 'of the people of
Yavanna'; see p. 147, $10b.
(Olorin) At the end of the account of Olorin is scribbled on
the typescript Vq 1: 'He was humble in the Land of the Blessed;
and in Middle-earth he sought no renown. His triumph was in
the uprising of the fallen, and his joy was in the renewal of hope.'
This appears in Vq 2, but my father subsequently placed inverted
commas round it. It was wrongly omitted from The Silmarillion
(p. 31).
Of the Enemies. In this almost entirely new section appears
the conception that the Balrogs (Valaraukar) were powerful
spirits from before the World; so also in AAm* (p. 79, $30) the
Balrogs are described as the chief of 'the evil spirits that followed
[Melkor], the Umaiar'. See further p. 165, $18.
The Valaquenta texts end thus, and speak of the Marring of Arda, the
underlying concern of many of the writings given subsequently in this
book:
Here ends The Valaquenta. If it has passed from the high and
beautiful to darkness and ruin, that was of old the fate of Arda
Marred; and if any change shall come and the Marring be amended,
Manwe and Varda may know; but they have not revealed it, and it
is not declared in the dooms of Mandos.
The Second Prophecy of Mandos (V.333) had now therefore de-
finitively disappeared. This passage was used to form a conclusion to
the published Silmarillion (p. 255).
In my foreword to The Silmarillion I wrote that in the Valaquenta
'we have to assume that while it contains much that must go back to
the earliest days of the Eldar in Valinor, it was remodelled in later
times; and thus explain its continual shifting of tense and viewpoint,
so that the divine powers seem now present and active in the world,
now remote, a vanished order known only to memory.'
The problem of tense in this work is certainly very difficult. Already
in Q (IV.78 - 9) the shifting from past to present tense appears, where
Osse and Uinen and Nienna are described in the present, in contrast to
all the others, while Ulmo 'was' next in might to Manwe, but he
'dwells' alone in the Outer Seas. In QS (see V.208) the present tense is
used, almost though not exclusively - but 'Tulkas had great love for
Fionwe' early became 'has', and 'Orome was a mighty lord' became
'Orome is' in the 1951 revision.
With the additions and alterations made in the course of that
revision the variations continue. In LQ $10a, for instance, 'there are
nine Valar', contrasting with the original passage in $3, 'The chieftains
of the Valar were nine', which goes back through QS to Q; or in the
passage about the Maiar in $10b 'Among them Eonwe... and Ilmare
... were the chief', but 'Many others there are' (altered from 'were').
The same mixture of present and past is found in AAm* (p. 65, $3).
The situation remains the same in the Vq texts, and in preparing the
Valaquenta for publication I altered (with misgiving and doubt) some
of the tenses. The readings of the published work which were altered
from those in Vq are:
p. 25: 'The Lords of the Valar are seven; and the Valier... are seven
also'; 'The names of the Lords in due order are'; 'the names of the
Queens are'
p. 26: 'Manwe is dearest to Iluvatar and understands most clearly
his purposes'; 'he hated her, and feared her'
p. 27: 'Ulmo loves both Elves and Men'
p. 28: 'The Feanturi... are brethren'
p. 30: 'it is otherwise in Aman'; 'Chief among the Maiar ... are
Ilmare... and Eonwe'
In all these cases, except 'he hated her, and feared her' on p. 26, the
tense was changed from past to present. The change on p. 28 seems in
any case mistaken (cf. p. 26, 'Manwe and Melkor were brethren in
the thought of Iluvatar'); and to make any of them was probably a
misjudgement. But the problem is real. A leading consideration in
the preparation of the text was the achievement of coherence and
consistency; and a fundamental problem was uncertainty as to the
mode by which in my father's later thought the 'Lore of the Eldar' had
been transmitted. But I now think that I attached too much import-
ance to the aim of consistency, which may be present when not
evident, and was too ready to deal with 'difficulties' simply by
eliminating them.
*
THE EARLIEST VERSION OF THE STORY OF
FINWE AND MIRIEL.
The story of Finwe and Miriel, which would assume an extraordinary
importance in my father's later work on The Silmarillion, began as a
rider in manuscript to the 'first phase' revision of Chapter 6, Of the
Silmarils and the Darkening of Valinor; it was inserted after the
account of the marvellous skill of Miriel, called Serende 'the
Broideress', mother of Feanor, at the end of LQ $46b (p. 185). I shall
refer to this rider as 'FM 1' (i.e. the first text treating of the story of
Finwe and Miriel in the Quenta Silmarillion).
A curious feature of this text is the presence of marginal dates; and
three late insertions to the Annals of Aman (p. 101, notes 1 and 4) are
closely associated with it. The entry in AAm for the Valian Year 1179
(p. 92) gave the birth of Feanor in Tirion and his mother's name
Byrde Miriel. Afterwards my father changed this date to 1169, and at
the same time added these new annals:
1170 Miriel falls asleep and passes to Mandar.
1172 Doom of Manwe concerning the espousals of the Eldar.
1185 Finwe weds Indis of the Vanyar.
In the present rider to LQ the dates, which were a good deal changed,
are the same, or the same to within a year or two. It is obvious that the
insertions to AAm and the rider to LQ are contemporary; and while
my father probably only put in the dates in the latter as a guide to his
thought (they are absent from the subsequent texts of Finwe' and
Miriel), the fact that he did so seems a testimony to the closeness that
the two 'modes' now had for him.
The text FM 1 was subsequently emended in ball-point pen; the
changed readings are shown in the text that now follows. It may be
noted here that at the first three occurrences of the name my father
wrote Mandar, changing it before the text was completed to Mandos.
The inserted entry in AAm for the year 1170, cited above, also has
Mandar. Thus even this very long-established name, going back to the
earliest form of the legends, was still susceptible of change; but it was
a passing movement and does not appear again.
Now it is told that in the bearing of her son Miriel was
consumed in spirit and body; and that after his birth she
yearned for rest from the labour of living. And she said to
Finwe: 'Never again shall I bear a child; for strength that would
have nourished the life of many has gone forth into Feanaro.'*
Then Manwe granted the prayer of Miriel. And she went to
Lorien, and laid her down to sleep upon a bed of flowers
[) beneath a silver tree]; and there her fair body remained
unwithered in the keeping of the maidens of Este. But her spirit
passed to rest in the halls of Mandos.
Finwe's grief was great, and he gave to his son all the love that
he had for Miriel; for Feanaro was like his mother in voice and
countenance. Yet Finwe was not content, and he desired to have
more children. He spoke, therefore, [> After some years,
therefore, he spoke] to Manwe, saying: 'Lord, behold! I am
bereaved; and alone among the Eldar I am without a wife, and
must hope for no sons save one, and no daughter. Whereas
Ingwe and Olwe beget many children in the bliss of Aman. Must
I remain ever so? For I deem that Miriel will not return again
ever from the house of Vaire.'
Then Manwe considered the words of Finwe; and after a time
he summoned all the counsellors of the Eldar, and in their
hearing Mandos spoke this doom: 'This is the law of Iluvatar
for you [> This is the way of life that Iluvatar hath ordained for
you], his children, as you know well: the First-born shall take
one spouse only and have no other in this life, while Arda
endureth. But this law takes no account [) But herein no
account is taken] of Death. This doom is therefore now made,
by the right of lawgiving that Iluvatar committed to Manwe:
that if the spirit of a spouse, husband or wife, forsaking the
body, shall for any cause pass into the keeping of Mandos, then
the living shall be permitted to take another spouse. But this can
only be, if the former union be dissolved for ever. Therefore the
one that is in the keeping of Mandos must there remain until the
end of Arda, and shall not awake again or take bodily form. For
none among the Quendi shall have two spouses at one time alive
and awake. But since it is not to be thought that the living shall,
by his or her will alone, confine the spirit of the other to
Mandos, this disunion shall come to pass only by the consent of
(* [footnote to the text] Thus she named her son: Spirit-of-Fire: and
by that name he was known among the Eldar. [Feanaro is so spelt
here, but Feanaro subsequently.]
both. And after the giving of the consent ten years of the Valar
shall pass ere Mandos confirms it. Within that time either party
may revoke this consent; but when Mandos has confirmed it,
and the living spouse has wedded another, it shall be irrevocable
until the end of Arda. This is the doom of Namo in this matter.'
It is said that Miriel answered Mandos saying: 'I came hither
to escape from the body, and I do not desire ever to return to it';
and after ten years the doom of disunion was spoken. [Added:
And Miriel has dwelt ever since in the house of Vaire, and it is
her part to record there the histories of the kin of Finwe and all
the deeds of the Noldor.] And in the years following [> But
when three years more had passed] Finwe took as second spouse
Indis of the Vanyar, of the kin [> sister] of Ingwe; and she bore
five fair children of whom her two sons are most renowned in
the histories of the Noldor. But her eldest child was a daughter,
Findis, and she bore also two other daughters: Irime and Faniel
[> Faniel and Irime].
The wedding of the father was not pleasing to Feanaro; and
though the love between them was not lessened, Feanaro had no
great love for Indis or her children, and as soon as he might he
lived apart from them, being busy from early childhood upon
the lore and craft in which he delighted, and he laboured at
many tasks, being in all pursuits eager and swift.
There is a direction here to return to LQ (at the beginning of $46c,
p. 185) with the words 'For he grew swiftly...'
LAWS AND CUSTOMS AMONG THE ELDAR.
As I have explained (p. 199), I have found that the best method of
presenting the material is to give at this point the long essay
concerning the nature and customs of the Eldar, although of course it
cannot be said to be a part of the Quenta Silmarillion.
This work is extant in two versions, a completed manuscript ('A')
and a revision of this in a typescript ('B') made by my father that was
abandoned when somewhat less than halfway through. The two texts
bear different titles, and since both are long I shall use an abbreviated
form, Laws and Customs among the Eldar (in references later, simply
Laws and Customs). From the existence of the two versions arises a
difficulty of presentation frequently encountered in my father's work.
The typescript B, so far as it goes, follows the manuscript A pretty
closely for the most part - too closely to justify printing them both in
full, even if space allowed. On the other hand there are many points in
which B differs significantly from A. The options are therefore to give
A in full with important divergences in B in textual notes, or to give B
as far as it goes with A's divergences in notes, and then the remainder
from A. Since B is a clearer and improved text I have decided on the
latter course.
It is not easy to say from what fictional perspective Laws and
Customs among the Eldar was composed. There is a reference to the
Elves who linger in Middle-earth 'in these after-days' (p. 223); on the
other hand the writer speaks as if the customs of the Noldor were
present and observable ('Among the Noldor it may be seen that the
making of bread is done mostly by women', p. 214) - though this
cannot be pressed. It is clear in any case that it is presented as the
work, not of one of the Eldar, but of a Man: the observation about the
variety of the names borne by the Eldar, 'which ... may to us seem
bewildering' (p. 216; found in both texts, in different words) is
decisive. AElfwine is indeed associated with the work, but in an
extremely puzzling way. He does not appear at all in A as that was
originally written; but among various corrections and alterations
made in red ball-point pen (doubtless as a preliminary to the making
of the typescript) my father wrote 'AElfwine's Preamble' in the margin
against the opening of the text - without however marking where this
'preamble' ended. In B the first two paragraphs are marked 'AElfwine's
Preamble' and placed within ornate brackets, and this very clearly
belongs with the making of the typescript, although it is by no means
obvious why the opening should be thus set apart; while later in B
(p. 224) there is a long observation, set within similar brackets, that
ends with the words 'So spoke AElfwine' - but this passage is absent in
any form from A.
There are no initial drafts or rough writings extant, and if none
existed the manuscript text is remarkably clear and orderly, without
much correction at the time of composition, though a good deal
changed subsequently. It may be that it had been substantially
composed, the product of long thought, before it was first written
down; at the same time, my impression is that my father had not fully
planned its structure when he began. This is suggested by the curious
way in which the judgement of Mandos in the case of Finwe and
Miriel precedes the actual story of what led to the judgement (pp.
225 - 6, 236-9); while after the account of Finwe's marriage to Indis
there follows the Debate of the Valar, although that was held before
'the Statute of Finwe and Miriel' was promulgated. It is hard to believe
that my father can have intended this rather confusing structure, and the
view that the work evolved as he wrote seems borne out by the title in A:
Of the marriage laws and customs of the
Eldar, their children, and other
matters touching thereon
At the same time as the words 'AElfwine's Preamble' and other
corrections in red ball-point pen were made to the manuscript (see
above) he wrote in bold letters beneath the title: 'The Statute of Finwe
and Miriel' - almost as if this was to be the new title of the work as a
whole, although the original one was not struck out.
The typescript B has the long title given at the beginning of the text
below; the text in this version ends before the story of Finwe and
Miriel and the Debate of the Valar is reached. Why my father
abandoned it I cannot say; perhaps he was merely interrupted by some
external cause, perhaps he was dissatisfied by its form.
But all these questions are very secondary to the import of the work
itself: a comprehensive (if sometimes obscure, and tantalising in its
obscurity) declaration of his thought at that time on fundamental
aspects of the nature of the Quendi, distinguishing them from Men:
the power of the incarnate fea (spirit) in relation to the body; the
'consuming' of the body by the fea; the destiny of Elvish spirits,
ordained by Eru, 'to dwell in Arda for all the life of Arda'; the meaning
of death for such beings, and of existence after death; the nature of
Elvish re-birth; and the consequences of the Marring of Arda by
Melkor.
There follows now the typescript version B so far as it goes. At the
end of the text (pp. 228 ff.) are notes largely limited to the textual
relations of the two versions; these are necessarily very selective, and
do not record the very many changes of wording in B that modify or
improve the expression without altering the sense of the original text
in any important way. B itself was scarcely changed after it had been
typed; but a pencilled note on the first page reads 'For hrondo read
hroa', and this change was carried out in the greater part of the text.
The word used in A for the body was hron, which became hrondo in
the course of the writing of the manuscript.
OF THE LAWS AND CUSTOMS AMONG THE ELDAR
PERTAINING TO MARRIAGE AND OTHER MATTERS
RELATED THERETO: TOGETHER WITH THE
STATUTE OF FINWE AND MIRIEL AND THE DEBATE
OF THE VALAR AT ITS MAKING.
AElfwine's Preamble.
[The Eldar grew in bodily form slower than Men, but in mind
more swiftly. They learned to speak before they were one year
old; and in the same time they learned to walk and to dance, for
their wills came soon to the mastery of their bodies. Nonetheless
there was less difference between the two Kindreds, Elves and
Men, in early youth; and a man who watched elf-children at
play might well have believed that they were the children of
Men, of some fair and happy people. For in their early days
elf-children delighted still in the world about them, and the fire
of their spirit had not consumed them, and the burden of
memory was still light upon them.(1)
This same watcher might indeed have wondered at the small
limbs and stature of these children, judging their age by their
skill in words and grace in motion. For at the end of the third
year mortal children began to outstrip the Elves, hastening on to
a full stature while the Elves lingered in the first spring of
childhood. Children of Men might reach their full height while
Eldar of the same age were still in body like to mortals of no
more than seven years.(2) Not until the fiftieth year did the Eldar
attain the stature and shape in which their lives would after-
wards endure, and for some a hundred years would pass before
they were full-grown.]
The Eldar wedded for the most part in their youth and soon
after their fiftieth year. They had few children, but these were
very dear to them. Their families, or houses, were held together
by love and a deep feeling for kinship in mind and body; and the
children needed little governing or teaching.(3) There were sel-
dom more than four children in any house, and the number
grew less as ages passed; but even in days of old, while the Eldar
were still few and eager to increase their kind, Feanor was
renowned as the father of seven sons, and the histories record
none that surpassed him.(4)
The Eldar wedded once only in life, and for love or at the least
by free will upon either part. Even when in after days, as the
histories reveal, many of the Eldar in Middle-earth became
corrupted, and their hearts darkened by the shadow that lies
upon Arda, seldom is any tale told of deeds of lust among
them.(5)
Marriage, save for rare ill chances or strange fates, was the
natural course of life for all the Eldar. It took place in this way.
Those who would afterwards become wedded might choose
one another early in youth, even as children (and indeed this
happened often in days of peace); but unless they desired soon
to be married and were of fitting age, the betrothal awaited the
judgement of the parents of either party.
In due time the betrothal was announced at a meeting of the
two houses concerned,(6) and the betrothed gave silver rings one
to another. According to the laws of the Eldar this betrothal was
bound then to stand for one year at least, and it often stood for
longer. During this time it could be revoked by a public return
of the rings, the rings then being molten and not again used for a
betrothal. Such was the law; but the right of revoking was
seldom used, for the Eldar do not err lightly in such choice.
They are not easily deceived by their own kind; and their spirits
being masters of their bodies, they are seldom swayed by the
desires of the body only, but are by nature continent and
steadfast.
Nonetheless among the Eldar, even in Aman, the desire for
marriage was not always fulfilled. Love was not always re-
turned; and more than one might desire one other for spouse.
Concerning this, the only cause by which sorrow entered the
bliss of Aman, the Valar were in doubt. Some held that it came
from the marring of Arda, and from the Shadow under which
the Eldar awoke; for thence only (they said) comes grief or
disorder. Some held that it came of love itself, and of the
freedom of each fea, and was a mystery of the nature of the
Children of Eru.
After the betrothal it was the part of the betrothed to appoint
the time of their wedding, when at least one year had passed.
Then at a feast, again (7) shared by the two houses, the marriage
was celebrated. At the end of the feast the betrothed stood forth,
and the mother of the bride and the father of the bridegroom
joined the hands of the pair and blessed them. For this blessing
there was a solemn form, but no mortal has heard it; though the
Eldar say that Varda was named in witness by the mother and
Manwe by the father; and moreover that the name of Eru was
spoken (as was seldom done at any other time). The betrothed
then received back one from the other their silver rings (and
treasured them); but they gave in exchange slender rings of
gold, which were worn upon the index of the right hand.
Among the Noldor also it was a custom that the bride's
mother should give to the bridegroom a jewel upon a chain or
collar; and the bridegroom's father should give a like gift to the
bride. These gifts were sometimes given before the feast. (Thus
the gift of Galadriel to Aragorn, since she was in place of
Arwen's mother, was in part a bridal gift and earnest of the
wedding that was later accomplished.)
But these ceremonies were not rites necessary to marriage;
they were only a gracious mode by which the love of the parents
was manifested,(8) and the union was recognized which would
join not only the betrothed but their two houses together. It was
the act of bodily union that achieved marriage, and after which
the indissoluble bond was complete. In happy days and times of
peace it was held ungracious and contemptuous of kin to forgo
the ceremonies, but it was at all times lawful for any of the
Eldar, both being unwed, to marry thus of free consent one to
another without ceremony or witness (save blessings exchanged
and the naming of the Name); and the union so joined was alike
indissoluble. In days of old, in times of trouble, in flight and
exile and wandering, such marriages were often made.(9)
As for the begetting and bearing of children: a year passes
between the begetting and the birth of an elf-child, so that the
days of both are the same or nearly so, and it is the day of
begetting that is remembered year by year. For the most part
these days come in the Spring. It might be thought that, since the
Eldar do not (as Men deem) grow old in body, they may bring
forth children at any time in the ages of their lives. But this is not
so. For the Eldar do indeed grow older, even if slowly: the limit
of their lives is the life of Arda, which though long beyond the
reckoning of Men is not endless, and ages also. Moreover their
body and spirit are not separated but coherent. As the weight of
the years, with all their changes of desire and thought, gathers
upon the spirit of the Eldar, so do the impulses and moods of
their bodies change. This the Eldar mean when they speak of
their spirits consuming them; and they say that ere Arda ends all
the Eldalie on earth will have become as spirits invisible to
mortal eyes, unless they will to be seen by some among Men
into whose minds they may enter directly.(10)
Also the Eldar say that in the begetting, and still more in the
bearing of children, greater share and strength of their being, in
mind and in body, goes forth than in the making of mortal
children. For these reasons it came to pass that the Eldar
brought forth few children; and also that their time of genera-
tion was in their youth or earlier life, unless strange and hard
fates befell them. But at whatever age they married, their
children were born within a short space of years after their
wedding.' For with regard to generation the power and the will
' Short as the Eldar reckoned time. In mortal count there was often
a long interval between the wedding and the first child-birth, and even
longer between child and child.
are not among the Eldar distinguishable. Doubtless they would
retain for many ages the power of generation, if the will and
desire were not satisfied; but with the exercise of the power
the desire soon ceases, and the mind turns to other things.(11) The
union of love is indeed to them great delight and joy, and the
'days of the children', as they call them, remain in their memory
as the most merry in life; but they have many other powers of
body and of mind which their nature urges them to fulfil.
Thus, although the wedded remain so for ever, they do not
necessarily dwell or house together at all times; for without
considering the chances and separations of evil days, wife and
husband, albeit united, remain persons individual having each
gifts of mind and body that differ. Yet it would seem to any of
the Eldar a grievous thing if a wedded pair were sundered
during the bearing of a child, or while the first years of its
childhood lasted. For which reason the Eldar would beget
children only in days of happiness and peace if they could.
In all such things, not concerned with the bringing forth of
children, the neri and nissi (12) (that is, the men and women) of the
Eldar are equal - unless it be in this (as they themselves say) that
for the nissi the making of things new is for the most part shown
in the forming of their children, so that invention and change is
otherwise mostly brought about by the neri. There are, how-
ever, no matters which among the Eldar only a ner can think or
do, or others with which only a nis is concerned. There are
indeed some differences between the natural inclinations of neri
and nissi, and other differences that have been established by
custom (varying in place and in time, and in the several races of
the Eldar). For instance, the arts of healing, and all that touches
on the care of the body, are among all the Eldar most practised
by the nissi; whereas it was the elven-men who bore arms at
need. And the Eldar deemed that the dealing of death, even
when lawful or under necessity, diminished the power of
healing, and that the virtue of the nissi in this matter was due
rather to their abstaining from hunting or war than to any
special power that went with their womanhood. Indeed in dire
straits or desperate defence, the nissi fought valiantly, and there
was less difference in strength and speed between elven-men and
elven-women that had not borne child than is seen among
mortals. On the other hand many elven-men were great healers
and skilled in the lore of living bodies, though such men
abstained from hunting, and went not to war until the last need.
As for other matters, we may speak of the customs of the
Noldor (of whom most is known in Middle-earth). Among the
Noldor it may be seen that the making of bread is done mostly
by women; and the making of the lembas is by ancient law
reserved to them. Yet the cooking and preparing of other food is
generally a task and pleasure of men. The nissi are more often
skilled in the tending of fields and gardens, in playing upon
instruments of music, and in the spinning, weaving, fashioning,
and adornment of all threads and cloths; and in matters of lore
they love most the histories of the Eldar and of the houses of the
Noldor; and all matters of kinship and descent are held by them
in memory. But the neri are more skilled as smiths and wrights,
as carvers of wood and stone, and as jewellers. It is they for the
most part who compose musics and make the instruments,
or devise new ones; they are the chief poets and students of
languages and inventors of words. Many of them delight in
forestry and in the lore of the wild, seeking the friendship of all
things that grow or live there in freedom. But all these things,
and other matters of labour and play, or of deeper knowledge
concerning being and the life of the World, may at different
times be pursued by any among the Noldor, be they neri or
nissi.
OF NAMING.
This is the manner in which the naming of children was
achieved among the Noldor. Soon after birth the child was
named. It was the right of the father to devise this first name,(13)
and he it was that announced it to the child's kindred upon
either side. It was called, therefore, the father-name, and it
stood first, if other names were afterwards added. It remained
unaltered,* for it lay not in the choice of the child.
But every child among the Noldor (in which point, maybe,
they differed from the other Eldar) had also the right to name
himself or herself. Now the first ceremony, the announcement
of the father-name, was called the Essecarme or 'Name-
making'. Later there was another ceremony called the Essecilme
or 'Name-choosing'. This took place at no fixed date after the
(* Save for such changes as might befall its spoken form in the
passing of the long years; for (as is elsewhere told) even the tongues of
the Eldar were subject to change.)
Essecarme, but could not take place before the child was deemed
ready and capable of lamatyave, as the Noldor called it: that is,
of individual pleasure in the sounds and forms of words. The
Noldor were of all the Eldar the swiftest in acquiring word-
mastery; but even among them few before at least the seventh
year had become fully aware of their own individual lamatyave,
or had gained a complete mastery of the inherited language and
its structure, so as to express this tyave skilfully within its limits.
The Essecilme, therefore, the object of which was the expression
of this personal characteristic,' usually took place at or about
the end of the tenth year.
In elder times the 'Chosen Name', or second name, was
usually freshly devised, and though framed according to the
structure of the language of the day, it often had no previous
significance. In later ages, when there was a great abundance of
names already in existence, it was more often selected from
names that were known. But even so some modification of the
old name might be made.(14)
Now both these names, the father-name and the chosen
name, were 'true names', not nicknames; but the father-name
was public, and the chosen name was private, especially when
used alone. Private, not secret. The chosen names were regarded
by the Noldor as part of their personal property, like (say) their
rings, cups, or knives, or other possessions which they could
lend, or share with kindred and friends, but which could not be
taken without leave. The use of the chosen name, except by
members of the same house (parents, sisters, and brothers), was
a token of closest intimacy and love, when permitted. It
was, therefore, presumptuous or insulting to use it without
permission.**(15)
Since, however, the Eldar were by nature immortal within
Arda, but were by no means changeless, after a time one might
wish for a new name.+(16) He might then devise for himself a new
chosen name. But this did not abrogate the former name, which
(* This lamatyave was held a mark of individuality, and more
important indeed than others, such as stature, colour, and features of
face.
(** This sentiment had thus nothing to do with 'magic' or with
taboos, such as are found among Men.)
(+ The Eldar hold that, apart from ill chances and the destruction of
their bodies, they may in the course of their years each exercise and)
remained part of the 'full title' of any Noldo: that is the
sequence of all the names that had been acquired in the course
of life.(17)
These deliberate changes of chosen name were not frequent.
'There was another source of the variety of names borne by any
one of the Eldar, which in the reading of their histories may to
us seem bewildering. This was found in the Anessi: the given (or
added) names. Of these the most important were the so-called
'mother-names'.(18) Mothers often gave to their children special
names of their own choosing. The most notable of these were
the 'names of insight', essi tercenye, or of 'foresight', apacenye.
In the hour of birth, or on some other occasion of moment,
the mother might give a name to her child, indicating some
dominant feature of its nature as perceived by her, or some
foresight of its special fate.' These names had authority, and
were regarded as true names when solemnly given, and were
public not private if placed (as was sometimes done) immedi-
ately after the father-name.
All other 'given names' were not true names, and indeed
might not be recognized by the person to whom they were
applied, unless they were actually adopted or self-given. Names,
or nicknames, of this kind might be given by anyone, not
necessarily by members of the same house or kin, in memory of
some deed, or event, or in token of some marked feature of
body or mind. They were seldom included in the 'full title', but
when they were, because of their wide use and fame, they were
set at the end in some form such as this: 'by some called
Telcontar' (that is Strider); or 'sometimes known as Mormacil'
(that is Blacksword).
enjoy all the varied talents of their kind, whether of skill or of lore,
though in different order and in different degrees. With such changes
of 'mind-mood' or inwisti their lamatyaver might also change. But
such changes or progressions were in fact seen most among the neri,
for the nissi, even as they came sooner to maturity, remained then
more steadfast and were less desirous of change. [According to the
Eldar, the only 'character' of any person that was not subject to
change was the difference of sex. For this they held to belong not only
to the body (hrondo) [> (hroa)] but also to the mind (inno) [> (indo)]
equally: that is, to the person as a whole. This person or individual
they often called esse' (that is 'name'), but it was also called erde, or
'singularity'. Those who returned from Mandos, therefore, after the
death of their first body, returned always to the same name and to the
same sex as formerly.]
The amilessi tercenye, or mother-names of insight, had a high
position, and in general use sometimes replaced, both within the
family and without, the father-name and chosen name, though
the father-name (and the chosen among those of the Eldar that
had the custom of the essecilme) remained ever the true or
primary name, and a necessary part of any 'full title'. The
'names of insight' were more often given in the early days of the
Eldar, and in that time they came more readily into public use,
because it was then still the custom for the father-name of a son
to be a modification of the father's name (as Finwe' I Curufinwe)
or a patronymic (as Finwion 'son of Finwe'). The father-name
of a daughter would likewise often be derived from the name of
the mother.
Renowned examples of these things are found in the early
histories. Thus Finwe, first lord of the Noldor, first named his
eldest son Finwion;(20) but later when his talent was revealed this
was modified to Curufinwe.(21) But the name of insight which his
mother Miriel gave to him in the hour of birth was Feanaro
'Spirit of Fire';* and by this name he became known to all, and
he is so called in all the histories. (It is said that he also took this
name as his chosen name, in honour of his mother, whom he
never saw.)(22) Elwe, lord of the Teleri, became widely known by
the anesse or given name Sindicollo 'Greycloak', and hence
later, in the changed form of the Sindarin tongue, he was called
Elu Thingol. Thingol indeed was the name most used for him by
others, though Elu or Elu-thingol remained his right title in his
own realm.
OF DEATH AND THE SEVERANCE OF FEA
AND HRONDO [> HROA].(23)
It must be understood that what has yet been said concerning
Eldarin marriage refers to its right course and nature in a world
unmarred, or to the manners of those uncorrupted by the
Shadow and to days of peace and order. But nothing, as has
been said, utterly avoids the Shadow upon Arda or is wholly
unmarred, so as to proceed unhindered upon its right courses.
In the Elder Days, and in the ages before the Dominion of Men,
there were times of great trouble and many griefs and evil
(* Though the form Feanor which it took later in the speech of
Beleriand is more often used. [> (later) Though the form Feanor,
which is more often used, was a blend of Q[uenya] Feanaro and
S[indarin] Faenor.])
chances; and Death (24) afflicted all the Eldar, as it did all other
living things in Arda save the Valar only: for the visible form of
the Valar proceeds from their own will and with regard to their
true being is to be likened rather to the chosen raiment of Elves
and Men than to their bodies.
Now the Eldar are immortal within Arda according to their
right nature. But if a fea (or spirit) indwells in and coheres with
a hrondo [> hroa] (or bodily form) that is not of its own choice
but ordained, and is made of the flesh or substance of Arda
itself,(25) then the fortune of this union must be vulnerable by the
evils that do hurt to Arda, even if that union be by nature and
purpose permanent. For in spite of this union, which is of such a
kind that according to unmarred nature no living person
incarnate may be without a fea, nor without a hrondo [> hroa],
yet fea and hrondo [> hroa] are not the same things; and
though the fea cannot be broken or disintegrated by any
violence from without, the hrondo [> hroa] can be hurt and
may be utterly destroyed.
If then the hrondo [> hroa] be destroyed, or so hurt that
it ceases to have health, sooner or later it 'dies'. That is: it
becomes painful for the fea to dwell in it, being neither a help to
life and will nor a delight to use, so that the fea departs from it,
and its function being at an end its coherence is unloosed, and it
returns again to the general hron [> orma] of Arda.(26) Then the
fea is, as it were, houseless, and it becomes invisible to bodily
eyes (though clearly perceptible by direct awareness to other
fear).
This destruction of the hrondo [> hroa], causing death or the
unhousing of the fea, was soon experienced by the immortal
Eldar, when they awoke in the marred and overshadowed realm
of Arda. Indeed in their earlier days death came more readily;
for their bodies were then less different (27) from the bodies of
Men, and the command of their spirits over their bodies less
complete.
This command was, nonetheless, at all times greater than it
has ever been among Men. From their beginnings the chief
difference between Elves and Men lay in the fate and nature of
their spirits. The fear of the Elves were destined to dwell in Arda
for all the life of Arda, and the death of the flesh did not
abrogate that destiny. Their fear were tenacious therefore of life
'in the raiment of Arda', and far excelled the spirits of Men in
power over that 'raiment', even from the first days (28) protecting
their bodies from many ills and assaults (such as disease), and
healing them swiftly of injuries, so that they recovered from
wounds that would have proved fatal to Men.
As ages passed the dominance of their fear ever increased,
'consuming' their bodies (as has been noted). The end of this
process is their 'fading', as Men have called it; for the body
becomes at last, as it were, a mere memory held by the fea; and
that end has already been achieved in many regions of Middle-
earth, so that the Elves are indeed deathless and may not be
destroyed or changed.(30) Thus it is that the further we go back in
the histories, the more often do we read of the death of the Elves
of old; and in the days when the minds of the Eldalie were
young and not yet fully awake death among them seemed to
differ little from the death of Men.
What then happened to the houseless fea? The answer to this
question the Elves did not know by nature. In their beginning
(so they report) they believed, or guessed, that they 'entered into
Nothing', and ended like other living things that they knew,
even as a tree that was felled and burned. Others guessed more
darkly that they passed into 'the Realm of Night' and into the
power of the 'Lord of Night'.(31) These opinions were plainly
derived from the Shadow under which they awoke; and it was
to deliver them from this shadow upon their minds, more even
than from the dangers of Arda marred, that the Valar desired to
bring them to the light of Aman.
It was in Aman that they learned of Manwe that each fea was
imperishable within the life of Arda, and that its fate was to
inhabit Arda to its end. Those fear, therefore, that in the
marring of Arda suffered unnaturally a divorce from their
hrondor [> hroar] remained still in Arda and in Time. But in
this state they were open to the direct instruction and command
of the Valar. As soon as they were disbodied they were
summoned to leave the places of their life and death and go to
the 'Halls of Waiting': Mandos, in the realm of the Valar.
If they obeyed this summons different opportunities lay
before them.(32) The length of time that they dwelt in Waiting
was partly at the will of Namo the Judge, lord of Mandos,
partly at their own will. The happiest fortune, they deemed, was
after the Waiting to be re-born, for so the evil and grief that they
had suffered in the curtailment of their natural course might be
redressed.
OF RE-BIRTH AND OTHER DOOMS OF THOSE
THAT GO TO MANDOS.(33)
Now the Eldar hold that to each elf-child a new fea is given, not
akin to the fear of the parents (save in belonging to the same
order and nature); and this fea either did not exist before birth,
or is the fea of one that is re-born.
The new fea, and therefore in their beginning all fear, they
believe to come direct from Eru and from beyond Ea. Therefore
many of them hold that it cannot be asserted that the fate of the
Elves is to be confined within Arda for ever and with it to cease.
This last opinion they draw from their own thought, for the
Valar, having had no part in the devising of the Children of Eru,
do not know fully the purposes of Eru concerning them, nor the
final ends that he prepares for them.
But they did not reach these opinions at once or without
dissent. In their youth, while their knowledge and experience
were small and they had not yet received the instruction of the
Valar (or had not yet fully understood it), many still held that in
the creation of their kind Eru had committed this power to
them: to beget children in all ways like to themselves, body and
indwelling spirit; and that therefore the fea of a child came from
its parents as did its hrondo.(34)
Yet always some dissented, saying: 'Indeed a living person
may resemble the parents and be perceived as a blending, in
various degrees, of these two; but this resemblance is most
reasonably related to the hrondo. It is strongest and clearest in
early youth, while the body is dominant and most like the
bodies of its parents.' (This is true of all elf-children.)(35) 'Where-
as in all children, though in some it may be more marked and
sooner apparent, there is a part of character not to be under-
stood from parentage, to which it may indeed be quite contrary.
This difference is most reasonably attributed to the fea, new and
not akin to the parents; for it becomes clearer and stronger as
life proceeds and the fea increases in mastery.'
Later when the Elves became aware of re-birth this argument
was added: 'If the fear of children were normally derived from
the parents and akin to them, then re-birth would be unnatural
and unjust. For it would deprive the second parents, without
consent, of one half of their parentage, intruding into their kin a
child half alien.'
Nonetheless, the older opinion was not wholly void. For all
the Eldar, being aware of it in themselves, spoke of the passing
of much strength, both of mind and of body, into their children,
in bearing and begetting. Therefore they hold that the fea,
though unbegotten, draws nourishment from the parents before
the birth of the child: directly from the fea of the mother while
she bears and nourishes the hrondo, and mediately but equally
from the father, whose fea is bound in union with the mother's
and supports it.
It was for this reason that all parents desired to dwell together
during the year of bearing, and regarded separation at that time
as a grief and injury, depriving the child of some part of its
fathering. 'For,' said they, 'though the union of the fear of the
wedded is not broken by distance of place, yet in creatures that
live as spirits embodied fea communes with fea in full only when
the bodies dwell together.'
A houseless fea that chose or was permitted to return to life
re-entered the incarnate world through child-birth. Only thus
could it return.(*) For it is plain that the provision of a bodily
house for a fea, and the union of fea with hrondo, was
committed by Eru to the Children, to be achieved in the act of
begetting.
As for this re-birth, it was not an opinion, but known and
certain. For the fea re-born became a child indeed, enjoying
once more all the wonder and newness of childhood; but
slowly, and only after it had acquired a knowledge of the world
and mastery of itself, its memory would awake; until, when the
re-born elf was full-grown, it recalled all its former life, and then
the old life, and the 'waiting', and the new life became one
ordered history and identity. This memory would thus hold a
double joy of childhood, and also an experience and knowledge
greater than the years of its body. In this way the violence or
grief that the re-born had suffered was redressed and its being
(* Save in rare and strange cases: that is, where the body that the fea
had forsaken was whole, and remained still coherent and incorrupt.
But this could seldom happen; for death unwilling could occur only
when great violence was done to the body; and in death by will, such
as at times befell because of utter weariness or great grief, the fea
would not desire to return, until the body, deserted by the spirit, was
dissolved. This happened swiftly in Middle-earth. In Aman only was
there no decay. Thus Miriel was there rehoused in her own body, as is
hereafter told.)
was enriched. For the Re-born are twice nourished, and twice
parented,* and have two memories of the joy of awaking and
discovering the world of living and the splendour of Arda. Their
life is, therefore, as if a year had two springs and though an
untimely frost followed after the first, the second spring and all
the summer after were fairer and more blessed.
The Eldar say that more than one re-birth is seldom recorded.
But the reasons for this they do not fully know. Maybe, it is so
ordered by the will of Eru; while the Re-born (they say) are
stronger, having greater mastery of their bodies and being more
patient of griefs. But many, doubtless, that have twice died do
not wish to return.(36)
Re-birth is not the only fate of the houseless fear. The Shadow
upon Arda caused not only misfortune and injury to the body. It
could corrupt the mind; and those among the Eldar who were
darkened in spirit did unnatural deeds, and were capable of
hatred and malice. Not all who died suffered innocently.
Moreover, some fear in grief or weariness gave up hope, and
turning away from life relinquished their bodies, even though
these might have been healed or were indeed unhurt.+(37) Few of
these latter desired to be re-born, not at least until they had been
long in 'waiting'; some never returned. Of the others, the
wrong-doers, many were held long in 'waiting', and some were
not permitted to take up their lives again.
For there was, for all the fear of the Dead, a time of Waiting,
in which, howsoever they had died, they were corrected,
instructed, strengthened, or comforted, according to their needs
or deserts. If they would consent to this. But the fea in its
nakedness is obdurate, and remains long in the bondage of
its memory and old purposes (especially if these were evil).
Those who were healed could be re-born, if they desired it:
(* In some cases a fea re-born might have the same parents again. For
instance, if its first body had died in early youth. But this did not often
happen; neither did a fea necessarily re-enter its own former kin, for
often a great length of time passed before it wished or was permitted
to return.)
(+ Though the griefs might be great and wholly unmerited, and death
(or rather the abandonment of life) might be, therefore, understand-
able and innocent, it was held that the refusal to return to life, after
repose in Mandos, was a fault, showing a weakness or lack of courage
in the fea.)
none are re-born or sent back into life unwilling. The others
remained, by desire or command, fear unbodied, and they could
only observe the unfolding of the Tale of Arda from afar, having
no effect therein. For it was a doom of Mandos that only those
who took up life again might operate in Arda, or commune with
the fear of the Living, even with those that had once been dear
to them.(38)
Concerning the fate of other elves, especially of the Dark-
elves who refused the summons to Aman, the Eldar know little.
The Re-born report that in Mandos there are many elves, and
among them many of the Alamanyar,(39) but that there is in the
Halls of Waiting little mingling or communing of kind with
kind, or indeed of any one fea with another. For the houseless
fea is solitary by nature, and turns only towards those with
whom, maybe, it formed strong bonds of love in life.
The fea is single, and in the last impregnable. It cannot be
brought to Mandos. It is summoned; and the summons pro-
ceeds from just authority, and is imperative; yet it may be
refused. Among those who refused the summons (or rather
invitation) of the Valar to Aman in the first years of the Elves,
refusal of the summons to Mandos and the Halls of Waiting is,
the Eldar say, frequent. It was less frequent, however, in ancient
days, while Morgoth was in Arda, or his servant Sauron after
him; for then the fea unbodied would flee in terror of the
Shadow to any refuge - unless it were already committed to the
Darkness and passed then into its dominion. In like manner
even of the Eldar some who had become corrupted refused the
summons, and then had little power to resist the counter-
summons of Morgoth.
But it would seem that in these after-days more and more of
the Elves, be they of the Eldalie in origin or be they of other
kinds, who linger in Middle-earth now refuse the summons of
Mandos, and wander houseless in the world,* unwilling to
leave it (40) and unable to inhabit it, haunting trees or springs or
hidden places that once they knew. Not all of these are kindly or
(* For only those who willingly go to Mandos may be re-born.
Re-birth is a grace, and comes of the power that Eru committed to the
Valar for the ruling of Arda and the redress of its marring. It does not
lie in the power of any fea in itself. Only those return whom, after
Mandos has spoken the doom of release, Manwe and Varda bless.)
unstained by the Shadow. Indeed the refusal of the summons is
in itself a sign of taint.
It is therefore a foolish and perilous thing, besides being a
wrong deed forbidden justly by the appointed Rulers of Arda, if
the Living seek to commune with the Unbodied, though the
houseless may desire it, especially the most unworthy among
them. For the Unbodied, wandering in the world, are those who
at the least have refused the door of life and remain in regret and
self-pity. Some are filled with bitterness, grievance, and envy.
Some were enslaved by the Dark Lord and do his work still,
though he himself is gone. They will not speak truth or wisdom.
To call on them is folly. To attempt to master them and to make
them servants of one own's will is wickedness. Such practices
are of Morgoth; and the necromancers are of the host of Sauron
his servant.
Some say that the Houseless desire bodies, though they are
not willing to seek them lawfully by submission to the judge-
ment of Mandos. The wicked among them will take bodies, if
they can, unlawfully. The peril of communing with them is,
therefore, not only the peril of being deluded by fantasies or lies:
there is peril also of destruction. For one of the hungry
Houseless, if it is admitted to the friendship of the Living, may
seek to eject the fea from its body; and in the contest for mastery
the body may be gravely injured, even if it he not wrested from
its rightful habitant. Or the Houseless may plead for shelter,
and if it is admitted, then it will seek to enslave its host and use
both his will and his body for its own purposes. It is said that
Sauron did these things, and taught his followers how to achieve
them.
[Thus it may be seen that those who in latter days hold that
the Elves are dangerous to Men and that it is folly or wickedness
to seek converse with them do not speak without reason. For
how, it may be asked, shall a mortal distinguish the kinds? On
the one hand, the Houseless, rebels at least against the Rulers,
and maybe even deeper under the Shadow; on the other, the
Lingerers, whose bodily forms may no longer be seen by us
mortals, or seen only dimly and fitfully. Yet the answer is not in
truth difficult. Evil is not one thing among Elves and another
among Men. Those who give evil counsel, or speak against the
Rulers (or if they dare, against the One), are evil, and should be
shunned whether bodied or unbodied. Moreover, the Lingerers
are not houseless, though they may seem to be. They do not
desire bodies, neither do they seek shelter, nor strive for mastery
over body or mind. Indeed they do not seek converse with Men
at all, save maybe rarely, either for the doing of some good, or
because they perceive in a Man's spirit some love of things
ancient and fair. Then they may reveal to him their forms
(through his mind working outwardly, maybe), and he will
behold them in their beauty. Of such he may have no fear,
though he may feel awe of them. For the Houseless have no
forms to reveal, and even if it were within their power (as some
Men say) to counterfeit elvish forms, deluding the minds of Men
with fantasies, such visions would be marred by the evil of their
intent. For the hearts of true Men uprise in joy to behold the
true likenesses of the First-born, their elder kindred; and this joy
nothing evil can counterfeit. So spoke AElfwine.](41)
OF THE SEVERANCE OF MARRIAGE.
Much has now been said concerning death and re-birth among
the Elves. It may be asked: of what effect were these upon their
marriage?
Since death and the sundering of spirit and body was one of
the griefs of Arda Marred, it came inevitably to pass that death
at times came between two that were wedded. Then the Eldar
were in doubt, since this was an evil unnatural. Permanent
marriage was in accordance with elvish nature, and they never
had need of any law to teach this or to enforce it; hut if a
'permanent' marriage was in fact broken, as when one of the
partners was slain, then they did not know what should he done
or thought.
In this matter they turned to Manwe for counsel, and, as is
recorded in the case of Finwe, Lord of the Noldor, Manwe
delivered his ruling through the mouth of Namo Mandos, the
Judge.
'Marriage of the Eldar,' he said, 'is by and for the Living, and
for the duration of life. Since the Elves are by nature permanent
in life within Arda, so also is their unmarred marriage. But if
their life is interrupted or ended, then their marriage must be
likewise. Now marriage is chiefly of the body, hut it is nonethe-
less not of the body only but of the spirit and body together, for
it begins and endures in the will of the fea. Therefore when one
of the partners of a marriage dies the marriage is not yet ended,
but is in abeyance. For those that were joined are now sundered;
but their union remains still a union of will.
'How then can a marriage be ended and the union be
dissolved? For unless this be done, there can be no second
marriage. By the law of the nature of the Elves, the neri and the
nissi being equal, there can be union only of one with one.(42)
Plainly an end can be made only by the ending of the will; and
this must proceed from the Dead, or be by doom. By the ending
of the will, when the Dead are not willing ever to return to life in
the body; by doom, when they are not permitted to return. For a
union that is for the life of Arda is ended, if it cannot be resumed
within the life of Arda.
'We say that the ending of will must proceed from the Dead,
for the Living may not for their own purposes compel the Dead
to remain thus, nor deny to them re-birth, if they desire it. And
it must be clearly understood that this will of the Dead not to
return, when it has been solemnly declared and is ratified
by Mandos, shall then become a doom: the Dead will not be
permitted ever to return to the life of the body.'
The Eldar then asked: 'How shall the will or doom be
known?' It was answered: 'Only by recourse to Manwe and
by the pronouncement of Namo. In this matter it shall not be
lawful for any of the Eldar to judge his own case. For who
among the Living can discern the thoughts of the Dead, or
presume the dooms of Mandos?'
Upon this pronouncement of Mandos, which is called the
'Doom of Finwe and Miriel'(43) for reasons to be told, there are
many commentaries that record the explanation of points
arising from its consideration, some given by the Valar, some
later reasoned by the Eldar. Of these the more important are
here added.
1. It was asked: 'What is meant by the saying that marriage
is chiefly of the body, and yet is both of spirit and body?'
It was answered: 'Marriage is chiefly of the body, for it is
achieved by bodily union, and its first operation is the begetting
of the bodies of children, even though it endures beyond this
and has other operations. And the union of bodies in marriage is
unique, and no other union resembles it. Whereas the union of
fear in marriage differs from other unions of love and friendship
not so much in kind as in its closeness and permanence, which
are derived partly from the bodies in their union and in their
dwelling together.
'Nonetheless marriage concerns also the fear. For the fear of
the Elves are of their nature male and female, and not their
hrondor (44) only. And the beginning of marriage is in the affinity
of the fear, and in the love arising therefrom. And this love
includes in it, from its first awakening, the desire for marriage,
and is therefore like to but not in all ways the same as other
motions of love and friendship, even those between Elves of
male and female nature who do not have this inclination. It is
therefore true to say that, though achieved by and in the body,
marriage proceeds from the fea and resides ultimately in its will.
For which reason it cannot be ended, as has been declared,
while that will remains.'
2. It was asked: 'If the Dead return to the Living, are
the sundered spouses still wedded? And how may that be, if
marriage is chiefly of the body, whereas the body of one part of
the union is destroyed? Must the sundered be again married,
if they wish? Or whether they wish it or no?'
It was answered: 'It has been said that marriage resides
ultimately in the will of the fear. Also the identity of person
resides wholly in the fea,(45) and the re-born is the same person as
the one who died. It is the purpose of the grace of re-birth that
the unnatural breach in the continuity of life should be re-
dressed; and none of the Dead will be permitted to be re-born
until and unless they desire to take up their former life and
continue it. Indeed they cannot escape it, for the re-born soon
recover full memory of all their past.
'If then marriage is not ended while the Dead are in the Halls
of Waiting, in hope or purpose to return, but is only in
aheyance, how then shall it be ended, when the fea is again in
the land of the living?
'But herein there is indeed a difficulty, that reveals to us that
death is a thing unnatural. It may be amended, but it cannot,
while Arda lasts, be wholly undone or made as if it had not
been. What shall come to pass as the Eldar grow older cannot be
wholly foreseen. But perceiving their nature, as we now do, we
hold that the love of the
Here the typescript version B breaks off, with much of the content
of the essay as declared in the title unfulfilled (see p. 209). The text
ends at the foot of a page, but I think it virtually certain that this was
where my father abandoned it.
NOTES
l. In A the opening paragraph ended: 'the fire of their spirit had not
consumed them, nor their minds turned inwards', subsequently
changed to the text of B.
2. Added here later in A: 'Yet the Elf-child would have more
knowledge and skill.' This was not taken up in B.
3. A: 'They had few children, but these were dear to them beyond any number more than seven', with 'seldom' written later above
all else that they possessed. (Though no Elf would speak of 3
possessing children; he would say: "three children have been
added unto me", or "are with me", or "are in my house"; for
their families were held together...' (the brackets being closed at
the words 'or teaching').
4. A: '... while the Eldar were still few, and eager to increase their
kind, before the weight of years lay on them, there is no record of
'no'.
5. For this paragraph A has:
The Eldar wedded once for all. Many, as the histories reveal,
could become estranged from good, for nothing can wholly
escape from the evil shadow that lies upon Arda. Some fell into
pride, and self-will, and could be guilty of deeds of malice,
enmity, greed and jealousy. But among all these evils there is no
record of any among the Elves that took another's spouse by
force; for this was wholly against their nature, and one so
forced would have rejected bodily life and passed to Mandos.
Guile or trickery in this matter was scarcely possible (even if it
could be thought that any Elf would purpose to use it); for the
Eldar can read at once in the eyes and voice of another whether
they be wed or unwed.
6. The original reading in A was 'at a [feast >] repast shared by the
two "houses" concerned', changed later to 'at a meeting' as in B.
See note 7.
7. The word 'again' in 'again shared by the two houses' depends on
the original reading in A given in note 6.
8. A: 'and were only a gracious recognition of the change of state'.
9. Added here in A, probably very much later: '[Thus Beren and
Tinuviel could lawfully have wedded, but for Beren's oath to
Thingol.]'
10. This paragraph ends in A: 'This the Eldar mean when they speak
of their spirits consuming them; and they say that ere Arda ends
all the Elf-folk will have become spirits no less than those in
Mandos, invisible to mortal eyes, unless they will to be seen.' The
words 'no less than those in Mandos' stood in B as typed, but
were heavily struck out.
11. For the passage in B 'For with regard to generation ...' A has:
'For, whether the Eldar retain their power of generation (as is
likely if we speak of days of old when all the Eldalie were young)
or in time lose it (as some say those that remain on Earth have
now lost it), at all times they lose the desire and will with the
exercise of that power.'
12. For neri and nissi in B (see the Etymologies in Vol. V, entries NER,
NIS) A has quendor and quender, changed later to quendur and
quendir. For the singulars ner and nis occurring subsequently A
has quendo and quende, changed to quendu and quendi. The
substance of this passage concerning the difference in characteris-
tic activity among men and women of the Eldar is essentially the
same in A, but no reference is made to the Noldor.
13. It is said in A that it was the right of the father, not to 'devise' the
first name, but to 'announce' it, and this is followed by a note:
'Though the name was often the mother's choice. But it was held
to be the right of the father to devise the name of [the first son >]
his sons, if he would, and of the mother to devise the name of [the
first daughter >] her daughters. But in any case the father
proclaimed the name.' To the words 'This name was thus called
the "father-name" or first name' was added later in A: 'It always
had a meaning and was made of known words.'
14. At this point there is a footnote in B (deriving closely from A)
which was later struck through:
It will be observed in the histories how seldom the same name
recurs for different persons. This is because, both in Essecarme
and in Essecilme, there was usually an attempt to mark
individuality; and names were regarded as the property of
those who first bore them.
15. The footnote here reads thus in A:
This feeling had nothing to do with 'magic' or taboo. The Eldar
did indeed believe in a special relation between a name of a
person and his life and individuality; but this concerned both
first and second name (alone or together), which they might
conceal from enemies.
16. The latter part of the footnote here, which I have enclosed in
square brackets, is found typed on a separate page belonging with
the B typescript, but with no direction for its insertion (see note
37). It is found however in closely similar words in the A version
of the footnote, following 'their lamatyave might also change' (A
does not have the conclusion of the note in B, 'But such changes
or progressions...').
In the A version of the note the Elvish word of which
'mind-mood' is a translation was first written ingil-[?weidi, very
uncertain], changed to inwaldi, and later to inwisti, as in E. In A
the Elvish word for the body is rhon (changed later to hrondo, the
word used in B), and for the mind m, indo (the latter changed
later to inno, whereas B has inno > indo).
17. A has a different account here: 'They might then devise a new
"Chosen Name", but this replaced the former, and became the
Second Name. Identity was preserved by the permanence for all
formal and legal purposes of the First Name or father's name.'
18. A has: 'this was the Anessi, the given names, or "nick-names"'
(with reference to the original meaning of nick-name, changed
from (an) eke-name, meaning an additional or added name).
19. The passage following this in A reads thus:
Later, when the character and gifts of the child were revealed,
as it grew, she might also give a similar name to it (or modify
its father-name). But this latter branch of 'mother-names'
differed in authority only rather than in kind from general
given or nick-names. These were given to persons by anyone
(not necessarily even members of their 'house' or kin), in
memory of some deed, or event, or some striking peculiarity.
Though these names had no authority and were not 'true
names', they often became widely known and used, and were
sometimes recognized by the persons themselves and their
families.
The 'mother-names of insight' had an intermediate position.
They had parental authority and the authority of maternal
terken [added: insight], and were often used instead of either
father-name or chosen name, or might replace them both -
replaced them, that is, in actual usage. The 'true' or primary
Esse of any person remained the father-name. The 'names of
insight', though at no time frequent, were more frequent in the
early days of the Eldar...
20. In A it is said that 'Finwe originally named his eldest son Finwe'.
21. Curufinwe: the name has been met in the rejected addition to
AAm where appear my father's first thoughts on the story of
Feanor's birth (when his mother was named Indis): see p. 87
note 3.
22. A has here a passage that was omitted in B:
Finwe then named his second son (by another mother, Indis)
also Finwe', modifying it later to Nolofinwe. But the mother-
name which Indis gave to him was Ingoldo, signifying that he
was partly of both the Ingar (people of Ingwe), her own kin,
and of the Noldor. By this name he also became generally
known; though after the rule of the Noldor was committed to
him by Manwe (in the place of his elder brother and his father)
he took the name of Finwe, and was in fact usually called
Ingoldo-finwe. Similarly the third son was Arafinwe and also
Ingalaure (because he had the golden hair of his mother's kin).
As in the name Noldor throughout the later texts, Nolofinwe is
written with a tilde over the N. - On this passage see further
p. 265 note 10.
23. In A there is no subtitle here, but before 'It must be under-
stood...' there stands the following:
In what has been said concerning names it will be noted that
for Finwe, first lord of the Noldor, two wives are named:
Miriel and Indis; though it was said that the marriage of the
Eldar is permanent and indissoluble.
24. After 'and Death' there followed in B 'in its Elvish mode', derived
from A; but this was rejected as soon as typed.
25. A: 'and is made also as it were of the hron (or flesh and
substance) of Arda'; cf. rhon 'body', note 16. The word hron was
left unchanged in A here (see note 26); subsequently where B has
hrondo (> hroa) A has hron, hron, and hron (> hrondo), until
later in the text hrondo appears in A as first written (note 34).
26. The words 'and it returns again to the general hron of Arda' were
added to the A-text at the same time as other occurrences of hron
were changed to hrondo (note 25); thus hron here in B (subse-
quently > orma) represents a distinction between hron (of the
'body' of Arda) and hrondo. At a later point in the A manuscript
there is the following hastily pencilled note, which was struck
through:
V's-ron 'flesh, substance, matter'. Q. hron, hrom- 'matter', the
substance of Arda, hence hrondo 'physical body, "the flesh"'.
27. B as typed had 'little different', as does A, but 'little' was at once
changed to 'less'.
28. Where 8 has 'even from the first days' A has 'even at first'.
29. 'as has been noted' (not said in A): the previous references are on
pp. 210 ('AElfwine's Preamble') and 212.
30. In A the first part of this paragraph reads:
As ages passed their spirits became more dominant, and
'consumed' their bodies - the end of this process (now
achieved), they said, was that the body should become as it
were a mere memory of the spirit - though it never became
changeable like raiment.
31. A: 'Others guessed that they passed into the realm of Dark and
the power of the Dark Lord (as they called him).'
32. A: '(The fear of the Eldar, with rare exceptions, at once obeyed
that summons.) After that different opportunities lay before
them.'
33. There is no subtitle here in A.
34. Here and subsequently hrondo (not hron) appears in the A-text
as written (see notes 25 and 44). Purely coincidentally, as it
seems, here and subsequently hrondo was not changed to hroa
in B.
35. This bracketed statement derives from an addition made to A:
'This is true of all Elf-children, whatever may be the case with
Men, in whom the body is ever more dominant.'
36. This paragraph is absent from A.
37. This footnote is not in the B-text, but is found typed separately on
the same page as the passage referred to in note 16, and like that
passage without direction for its insertion. It derives fairly closely
from a footnote found at this point in A; this however ends:
'... was held a fault or weakness, needing correction or cure if
that could be achieved.'
38. From 'The others remained' to the end of the paragraph the
A-text as first written read thus:
Others, freed from desire of life and of doing, yet not from
operations of the mind in observing or reflexion, might remain
as spirits, fear unbodied, and yet be permitted to go forth from
Mandos, and to return thither or not, as they would. As ages
passed, the numbers of these increased, the Eldar say. With the
minds of the Living they can commune, if the Living remember
them or open their minds to receive them. This the Eldar call
'communing with the fear (or the Unliving)', and in the latter
days it has become easier and more frequent. But they could
only observe what passed or was done as the Tale of Arda
unfolded. They could
The passage was struck out when this point was reached and
replaced by the text that stands here in B. Cf. the subsequent
passage (p. 224), found both in A and in B: 'It is therefore a
foolish and perilous thing, besides being a wrong deed forbidden
justly by the appointed Rulers of Arda, if the Living seek to
commune with the Unbodied...'
39. On Alamanyar see pp. 170 - 1.
40. A sets the opening of this paragraph in the past tense: 'But in after
days more and more of the Elves that lingered in Middle-earth
refused the summons of Mandos, and wandered houseless in the
world, unwilling to leave it...'
41. This paragraph, attributed to AElfwine and bracketed in the same
way as is the opening 'Preamble', is absent from A, which
continues on from 'These things it is said that Sauron did, and
taught his chief followers how to achieve them' as follows:
In this account the lives and customs of the Eldar have been
considered mainly in their natural courses in days untroubled,
and in accordance with their true nature unmarred. But, as has
been said, the Eldar did not escape the Shadow upon Arda, that
caused both misfortunes and misdeeds to afflict them.
This was replaced by the sentence beginning 'Now much has been
said concerning death and rebirth among the Eldar ...' as in B,
but without the subtitle 'Of the Severance of Marriage'.
42. This sentence is absent from A, and so there appear here no
equivalents of the words neri and nissi in B (see note 12).
43. A has 'the "Statute of Finwe and Miriel"', as in the title of the
B-text.
44. A had here hroni, changed to hrondor: see note 34.
45. From here to the point where it breaks off B diverges altogether
from A, and I take up the presentation of the A-text in full from
the beginning of this second response.
I give now the remainder of the work from the original manuscript A,
taking it up shortly before the point where the typescript B breaks off
(see note 45 above). Alterations and additions are mostly noted as
such.
In A the actual tale of Finwe, Miriel, and Indis reappears
(pp. 236 - 9); it is easily shown that this version followed FM 1 (the
rider to LQ chapter 6, Of the Silmarils and the Darkening of Valinor,
pp. 205 - 7), but I think at no long interval: the manuscript style of the
two texts is notably similar.
It was answered: It has been said that marriage resides
ultimately in the will of the fea. Also the identity of person
resides in the fea; and the Dead that return [struck out: will] in
time recover full memory of the past; what is more, though the
body is more than raiment and the change of body [will not be
of no effect >] will certainly have effect upon the reborn, the
fea is the master, and the reborn will come to resemble their
former self so closely that all who knew them before Death will
recognize them, soonest and most readily the former spouse.
Nonetheless, since marriage is also of the body and one body
has perished, they must be married again, if they will. For they
will have returned, as it were, to that state in their former life
when by the motions of their fear they desired to be married.
There will be no question of desiring this or not desiring it. For
by the steadfastness of the fear of the Eldar uncorrupted they
will desire it; and none of the Dead will be permitted by
Mandos to be reborn, until and unless they desire to take up life
again in continuity with their past. For it is the purpose of the
time in Waiting in Mandos that the unnatural breach in the
continuity of the life of the Eldar should be healed, though it
cannot be undone or made of no effect in Arda. It follows,
therefore, also that the Dead will be reborn in such place and
time that the meeting and recognition of the sundered shall
surely come to pass, and there shall be no hindrance to their
marriage.
Upon this the Eldar comment: 'By this is meant that the Reborn
Spouse will not appear among the close kindred of the Living
Spouse, and in fact the Reborn appear as a rule amongst their own
former kin, unless in the chances of Arda things have so changed
that the meeting of the sundered would thus be unlikely. [Added: For
the first purpose of the fea that seeks rebirth is to find its spouse, and
children, if it had these in life.] The Reborn that were unwedded
always return to their own kin.' For the marriages of the Eldar do
not take place between 'close kin'. This again is a matter in which
they needed no law or instruction, but acted by nature, though they
gave reasons for it later, declaring that it was due to the nature of
bodies and the processes of generation; but also to the nature of
fear. 'For,' they said, 'fear are also akin, and the motions of love
between them, as say between a brother and sister, are not of the
same kind as those that make the beginning of marriage.' By 'close
kin' for this purpose was meant members of one 'house', especially
sisters and brothers. None of the Eldar married those in direct line
of descent, nor children of the same parents, nor the sister or
brother of either of their parents; nor did they wed 'half-sisters' or
'half-brothers'. Since as has been shown only in the rarest events did
the Eldar have second spouses, half-sister or half-brother had for
them a special meaning: they used these terms when both of the
parents of one child were related to both of the parents of another,
as when two brothers married two sisters of another family, or a
sister and a brother of one house married a brother and sister of
another: things which often occurred. Otherwise 'first cousins', as
we should say, might marry, but seldom did so, or desired to do so,
unless one of the parents of each were far-sundered in kin.
Hardly otherwise shall it be when both spouses are slain or
die: they will marry again in due time after rebirth, unless they
desire to remain together in Mandos.
It was asked: Why must the Dead remain in Mandos for ever,
if the fea consents to the ending of its marriage? And what is this
Doom of which Mandos speaks?
It was answered: The reasons are to be found in what has
been said already. Marriage is for life, and cannot, therefore, be
ended, save by the interruption of death without return. While
there is hope or purpose of return it is not ended, and the Living
cannot therefore marry again. If the Living is permitted to
marry again, then by doom Mandos will not permit the Dead to
return. For, as has been declared, one reborn is the same person
as before death and returns to take up and continue his or her
former life. But if the former spouse were re-married, this would
not be possible, and great grief and doubt would afflict all three
parties. To speak of the dooms of Mandos: these are of three
kinds. He utters the decisions of Manwe, or of the Valar in
conclave, which become binding upon all, even the Valar, when
they are so declared: for which reason a time passes between the
decision and the doom. In similar manner he utters the decisions
and purposes of others who are under his jurisdiction, who are
the Dead, in grave matters that affect justice and the right order
of Arda; and when so spoken these decisions become 'laws'
also, though pertaining only to particular persons or cases, and
Mandos will not permit them to be revoked or broken: for
which reason again a time must pass between decision and
doom.* And lastly there are the dooms of Mandos that proceed
from Mandos himself, as judge in matters that belong to his
office as ordained from the beginning. He is the judge of right
and of wrong, and of innocence or guilt (and all the degrees and
mingling of these) in the mischances and misdeeds that come to
pass in Arda. All those who come to Mandos are judged with
regard to innocence or guilt, in the matter of their death and in
all other deeds and purposes of their lives in the body; and
Mandos appoints to each the manner and the length of their
time of Waiting according to this judgement. But his dooms in
such matters are not uttered in haste; and even the most guilty
are long tested, whether they may be healed or corrected, before
any final doom is given (such as never to return again among the
Living). Therefore it was said: 'Who among the Living can
presume the dooms of Mandos?'
Upon this the Eldar comment: 'Innocence or guilt in the matter of
death is spoken of, because to be in any way culpable in incurring
this evil (whether by forcing others to slay one in their defence
against unjust violence, or by foolhardiness or the making good of
rash vaunts, or by slaying oneself or wilfully withdrawing the fea
from the body) is held a fault. Or at the least, the withdrawal from
life is held a good reason, unless the will of the fea be changed, for
the fea to remain among the Dead and not to return. As for guilt in
other matters little is known of the dealings of Mandos with the
Dead. For several reasons: Because those who have done great evil
(who are few) do not return. Because those who have been under the
correction of Mandos will not speak of it, and indeed, being healed,
remember little of it; for they have returned to their natural courses,
(* In the case of a decision never to return to life by a fea of the Dead,
the least time of interval appointed by Mandos was ten Valian years.
During this period the decision could be revoked.)
and the unnatural and perverted is no longer in the continuity of
their lives. Because also, as has been said, though all that die are
summoned to Mandos, it is within the power of the fear of the Elves
to refuse the summons, and doubtless many of the most unhappy, or
most corrupted spirits (especially those of the Dark-elves) do refuse,
and so come to worse evil, or at best wander unhoused and
unhealed, without hope of return. Not so do they escape judgement
for ever; for Eru abideth and is over all.
This judgement is known as the 'Statute of Finwe and Miriel',
for theirs was the first case, and it was on behalf of Finwe that
Manwe's counsel was sought in this matter. Now Finwe, first
Lord of the Noldor, had to wife Miriel who was called the
Serinde, because of her surpassing skill in weaving and sewing,
and their love was great for one another. But in the bearing of
her first son Miriel was consumed in spirit and body, so that
wellnigh all strength seemed to have passed from her. This son
was Curufinwe, most renowned of all the Noldor as Feanaro (or
Feanor),(1) Spirit-of-fire, the name which Miriel gave to him at
birth; he was mighty in body and in all the skills of the body,
and supreme among the Eldar in eagerness and strength and
subtlety of mind. But Miriel said to Finwe: 'Never again shall I
bear child; for strength that would have nourished the life of
many has gone forth into Feanaro.'
Then Finwe was greatly grieved, for the Noldor were in the
youth of their days and dwelt in the bliss of the Noontide of
Aman, but were still few in number, and he desired to bring
forth many children into that bliss. He said, therefore: 'Surely
there is healing in Aman? Here all weariness can find rest.'
Therefore Finwe sought the counsel of Manwe, and Manwe
delivered Miriel to the care of Irmo in Lorien.(2) At their parting
(for a little while as he deemed) Finwe was sad, for it seemed a
thing unhappy that the mother should depart and miss the
beginning at least of the childhood days of her son. 'Unhappy it
is indeed,' said Miriel, 'and I would weep if I were not so weary.
But hold me blameless in this, and in aught that may come after.
Rest now I must. Farewell, dear lord.' No clearer than this did
she speak, but in her heart she yearned not only for sleep and
rest, but for release from the labour of living. She went then to
Lorien and laid her down to sleep beneath a silver tree, but
though she seemed to sleep indeed her spirit departed from her
body and passed in silence to the halls of Mandos; and the
i
I
maidens of Este tended her fair body so that it remained
unwithered, yet she did not return.
Finwe's grief was great, and he went often to the gardens of
Lorien and sitting beneath the silver willows beside the body of
his wife he called her by her names. But it was of no avail, and
he alone in all the Blessed Realm was bereaved and sorrowful.
After a while he went to Lorien no more, for it did but increase
his grief. All his love he gave to his son; for Feanaro was like his
mother in voice and countenance, and Finwe was to him both
father and mother, and there was a double bond of love upon
their hearts. Yet Finwe was not content, being young and eager,
and desiring to have more children to bring mirth into his
house. [He spoke, therefore, to Manwe >] When, therefore, ten
years had passed, he spoke to Manwe, saying: 'Lord, behold! I
am bereaved and solitary. Alone among the Eldar I have no
wife, and must hope for no sons save one, and no daughter.
Must I remain ever thus? [For I believe not that Miriel will
return again >] For my heart warns me that Miriel will not
return again from the house of Vaire while Arda lasts. Is there
not healing of grief in Aman?'
Then Manwe took pity upon Finwe, and he considered his
plea, and when Mandos had spoken his doom as has been
recorded,(3) Manwe called Finwe to him, and said: 'Thou hast
heard the doom that has been declared. If Miriel, thy wife, will
not return and releases thee, your union (4) is dissolved, and thou
hast leave to take another wife.'
It is said that Miriel answered Mandos, saying: 'I came hither
to escape from the body, and I do not desire ever to return to it.
My life is gone out into Feanaro, my son. This gift I have given
to him whom I loved, and I can give no more. Beyond Arda this
may be healed, but not within it.'
Then Mandos adjudged her innocent, deeming that she had
died under a necessity too great for her to withstand. Therefore
her choice was permitted, and she was left in peace; and after
ten years the doom of disunion was spoken. [In the year
following >) And after three years more Finwe took as second
spouse Indis the fair; and she was in all ways unlike Miriel. She
was not of the Noldor, but of the Vanyar, [of the kin >) sister of
Ingwe; and she was golden-haired, and tall, and exceedingly
swift of foot. She laboured not with her hands, but sang and
made music, and there was ever light and mirth about her while
the bliss of Aman endured. She loved Finwe dearly, for her heart
had turned to him long before, while the people of Ingwe dwelt
still with the Noldor in Tuna.(5) In those days she had looked
upon the Lord of the Noldor, dark-haired and white-browed,
eager of face and thoughtful-eyed, and he seemed to her fairest
and noblest among the Eldar, and his voice and mastery of
words delighted her. Therefore she remained unwedded, when
her people departed to Valinor, and she walked often alone in
the fields and friths of the Valar, [turning her thought to things
that grow untended >] filling them with music. But it came to
pass that Ingwe, hearing of the strange grief of Finwe, and
desiring to lift up his heart and withdraw him from vain
mourning in Lorien, sent messages bidding him to leave Tuna
for a while and the reminders of his loss, and to come and dwell
in the light of the Trees. This message Finwe did not answer,
until after the doom of Mandos was spoken; but then deeming
that he must seek to build his life anew and that the bidding of
Ingwe was wise, he arose and went to the house of Ingwe upon
the west of Mount Oiolosse. His coming was unlooked for, but
welcome; and when Indis saw Finwe climbing the paths of the
mountain (and the light of Laurelin was behind him as a glory)
without forethought she sang suddenly in great joy, and her
voice went up as the song of a lirulin in the sky.(6) And when
Finwe heard that song falling from above he looked up and saw
Indis in the golden light, and he knew in that moment that she
loved him and had long done so. Then his heart turned at last to
her, and he believed that this chance, as it seemed, had been
granted for the comfort of them both. 'Behold!' he said. 'There
is indeed healing of grief in Aman!'
In this way came to pass ere long the wedding of Finwe and
Indis, sister of Ingwe. In Indis was proved true indeed the saying
that 'the loss of one may be the gain of another.' But this also
she found true: 'the house remembers the builder, though others
may dwell in it after.' For Finwe loved her well, and was glad,
and she bore him children in whom he rejoiced,*(7) yet the
shadow of Miriel did not depart from his heart, and Feanaro
had the chief share of his thought. The wedding of his father
was not pleasing to Feanaro, and though it did not lessen his
(* Five children she bore, three daughters and two sons, in this order:
Findis, Nolofinwe, Faniel, Arafinwe, and Irime. Concerning the
naming of the sons we have spoken above.)
love for his father, he had little love for Indis or her children,
least of all for his half-brethren. As soon as he might (and he
was wellnigh fullgrown ere Nolofinwe was born) he left his
father's house and lived apart from them, giving all his heart
and thought to the pursuit of lore and the practice of crafts. In
those unhappy things which afterward came to pass and in
which Feanaro was a leader, many saw the effects of this breach
in the house of Finwe, judging that if Finwe had endured his loss
and been content with the fathering of his mighty son, the
courses of Feanaro would have been otherwise, and much
sorrow and evil would never have been.
Thus it is that the cases in which remarriage of the Eldar can
take place are rare, but rarer still are those who do this, even
when it is permissible. For the sorrow and strife in the house of
Finwe is graven in the memory of the Eldar.
[It is recorded by the Eldar that the Valar found this matter of
Finwe strange, and debated much concerning it. For Finwe they
could not accuse of any guilt, and the Statute that had been
made for Finwe and Miriel was just and reasonable. Yet it was
clear that many evils would have been avoided, [if either Miriel
had been less faint, or Finwe more patient >] if it had not been
made, or at least had not been used. This passage was later
replaced as follows:] It is recorded by the Eldar that the Valar
debated long the case of Finwe and Miriel, after the Statute was
made, but not yet declared. For they perceived that this was a
grave matter, and a portent, in that Miriel had died even in
Aman, and had brought sorrow to the Blessed Realm, things
which they before had believed could not come to pass. Also,
though the Statute seemed just, some feared that it would not
heal the death of grief, but perpetuate it. And Manwe spoke to
the Valar, saying: 'In this matter ye must not forget that you
deal with Arda Marred - out of which ye brought the Eldar.
Neither must ye forget that in Arda Marred Justice is not
Healing. Healing cometh only by suffering and patience, and
maketh no demand, not even for Justice. Justice worketh only
within the bonds of things as they are, accepting the marring of
Arda, and therefore though Justice is itself good and desireth no
further evil, it can but perpetuate the evil that was, and doth not
prevent it from the bearing of fruit in sorrow. Thus the Statute
was just, but it accepted Death and the severance of Finwe and
Miriel, a thing unnatural in Arda Unmarred, and therefore with
reference to Arda Unmarred it was unnatural and fraught with
Death. The liberty that it gave was a lower road that, if it led not
still downwards, could not again ascend. But Healing must
retain ever the thought of Arda Unmarred, and if it cannot
ascend, must abide in patience. This is Hope which, I deem, is
before all else the virtue most fair in the Children of Eru, [but
cannot be commanded to come when needed: patience must
often long await it.]'(8)
Then Aule, friend of the Noldor [added: and lover of Feanor],
spake. 'But did this matter indeed arise out of Arda Marred?' he
asked. 'For it seemeth to me that it arose from the bearing of
Feanaro. Now Finwe and all the Noldor that followed him were
never in heart or thought swayed by [Morgoth >] Melkor, the
Marrer; how then did this strange thing come to pass, even in
Aman the Unshadowed? That the bearing of a child should lay
such a weariness upon the mother that she desired life no
longer. This child is the greatest in gifts that hath arisen or shall
arise among the Eldar. But the Eldar are the first Children of
Eru, and belong to him directly. Therefore the greatness of the
child must proceed from his will directly, and be intended for
the good of the Eldar and of all Arda. What then of the cost of
the birth? Must it not be thought that the greatness and the cost
come not from Arda, Marred or Unmarred, but from beyond
Arda? For this we know to be true, and as the ages pass it shall
often be manifest (in small matters and in great) that all the Tale
of Arda was not in the Great Theme, and that things shall come
to pass in that Tale which cannot be foreseen, for they are new
and are not begotten by the past that preceded them.'(9) [Added:
Thus Aule spake being unwilling to believe that any taint of the
Shadow lay upon Feanor, or upon any of the Noldor. He had
been the most eager to summon them to Valinor.](10)
But Ulmo answered: 'Nonetheless Miriel died. [And is not
death for the Eldar an evil, that is a thing unnatural in Arda
Unmarred, which must proceed therefore from the marring? Or
if the death of Miriel doth not so, but cometh from beyond
Arda, how shall death that is unnatural and evil be known from
that which is a new thing and hath no reason in the past, unless
the latter cause neither sorrow nor doubt? But the death of
Miriel has brought both into Aman. This passage was later
replaced as follows:] And death is for the Eldar an evil, that is a
thing unnatural in Arda Unmarred, which must proceed there-
fore from the marring. For if the death of Miriel was otherwise,
and came from beyond Arda (as a new thing having no cause in
the past) it would not bring grief or doubt. For Eru is Lord of
All, and moveth all the devices of his creatures, even the malice
of the Marrer, in his final purposes, but he doth not of his prime
motion impose grief upon them. But the death of Miriel has
brought sorrow to Aman. / The coming of Feanaro must
proceed certainly from the will of Eru; but I hold that the
marring of his birth comes of the Shadow, and is a portent of
evils to come. For the greatest are the most potent also for evil.
Have a care, my brethren, thinking not that the Shadow is gone
for ever, though it is beaten down. Doth it not dwell even now
in Aman, though you deem the bonds to be unbreakable?' [For
Ulmo had dissented >] Thus Ulmo spake, who had dissented
from the counsels of the Valar, when they brought Melkor the
Marrer to Mandos after his defeat.(11) [Added: Also he loved the
Elves (and Men afterwards), but otherwise than Aule, believing
that they should be left free, however perilous that might seem.
Thus afterwards it was seen, that though he loved Feanor and
all the Noldor more coolly, he had more mercy for their errors
and misdeeds.]
Then Yavanna spoke, and though she was the spouse of Aule
she leaned rather to Ulmo. 'My lord Aule errs,' she said, 'in that
he speaks of Finwe and Miriel as being free in heart and thought
from the Shadow, as if that proved that naught that befell them
could come from the Shadow or from the marring of Arda. But
even as the Children are not as we (who came from beyond
Arda wholly and in all our being) but are both spirit and body,
and that body is of Arda and by Arda was nourished: so the
Shadow worketh not only upon spirits, but has marred the very
hron of Arda, and all Middle-earth is perverted by the evil of
Melkor, who has wrought in it as mightily as any one among us
here. Therefore none of those who awoke in Middle-earth, and
there dwelt before they came hither, have come here wholly
free. The failing of the strength of the body of Miriel may then
be ascribed, with some reason, to the evil of Arda Marred, and
her death be a thing unnatural. And that this should appear in
Aman seemeth to me as to Ulmo a sign to be heeded.'(12)
Then Nienna spoke, who came to Valmar seldom, but sat
now upon the left hand of Manwe. 'In the use of Justice there
must be Pity, which is the consideration of the singleness of each
that cometh under Justice. Which of you Valar, in your wisdom,
will blame these Children, Finwe and Miriel? For the Children
are both strong and without might. Mandos you hold to be the
strongest of all that are in Arda, being the least moved, and
therefore you have dared to commit even the Marrer himself to
his keeping. Yet I say to you that each fea of the Children is as
strong as he; for it hath the strength of its singleness impreg-
nable (which cometh to it from Eru as to us): in its nakedness it
is obdurate beyond all power that ye have to move it if it will
not. Yet the Children are not mighty: in life they are little, and
can effect little; and they are young, and they know Time only.
Their minds are as the hands of their babes, little in grasp, and
even that grasp is yet unfilled. How shall they perceive the
[?end] of deeds, or forgo the desires which arise from their very
nature, the indwelling of the spirit in [the] body which is their
right condition? Have ye known the weariness of Miriel, or felt
the bereavement of Finwe?
'Miriel, I deem, died by necessity of body, in suffering [for]
which she was blameless or indeed to be praised, and yet was
not given power to resist it: the cost of so great a child-bearing.
And herein I think that Aule perceiveth a part of the truth. The
severance of the fea was in Miriel a thing special. Death is
indeed death and within the Great Theme cometh from the
Marrer and is grievous; but Eru in this death had a purpose of
immediate good, and it need not have borne any bitter fruit;
whereas Death that comes from the Marrer only is intended for
evil, and its healing must await in Hope only, even until the
End. But Finwe not understanding death (as how should he?)
called Miriel, and she did not return, and he was bereaved, and
his natural life and expectation was impaired. Justly he cried:
"Is there not healing in Aman?" That cry could not be
unheeded, and what could be done we have done. Wherefore
should this be grudged?'
But Ulmo answered her saying: 'Nay! Though I do not
condemn, yet still I will judge. Herein I perceive not only the
direct will of Eru, but fault in his creatures. Not guilt, yet a
failing from the highest which is the Hope of which the King
hath spoken. And I doubt not that the taking of the higher road,
an ascent that though hard was not impossible, was part of that
purpose of immediate good of which Nienna speaketh.(13) For
the fea of Miriel may have departed by necessity, but it departed
in the will not to return. Therein was her fault, for this will was
not under compulsion irresistible; it was a failure in hope by the
fea, acceptance of the weariness and weakness of the body, as a
thing beyond healing, and which therefore was not healed. But
this resolve entailed not only abandoning her own life, but also
the desertion of her spouse, and the marring of his. The
justification which she urged is insufficient; for by the gift of a
child however great, nor indeed by the gift of many children, the
union of marriage is not ended, having further purpose. For one
thing, Feanaro will be deprived of the mother's part in his
nurture. Moreover, if she would return she need bear no more,
unless by the renewal of rebirth her weariness were healed.
'Thus Finwe was aggrieved and claimed justice. But when he
called her and she did not return, in only a few years he fell into
despair. Herein lay his fault, and failing in Hope. But also he
founded his claim mainly upon his desire for children, consider-
ing his own self and his loss more than the griefs that had
befallen his wife: that was a failing in full love.
'The fear of the Eldar, as Nienna hath said, cannot be broken
or forced,* and the motion of their will cannot therefore be
predicted with certainty. Yet it seemeth to me that there was
hope still that after repose in Mandos the fea of Miriel should
return of itself to its nature, which is to desire to inhabit a body.
This strange event should issue, rather than in dissolving their
union, in the use by Finwe of the patience of full love, and the
learning of Hope; and in the return of Miriel, wider in mind,
and renewed in body. Thus together they might foster their
great son with joined love, and his right nurture be assured. But
the fea of Miriel hath not been lett in peace, and by importuning
its will hath been hardened; and in that resolve it must remain
without change while Arda lasteth, if the Statute is declared.
Thus the impatience of Finwe will close the door of life upon the
fea of his spouse. This is the greater fault. For it is more
unnatural that one of the Eldar should remain for ever as fea
without body than that one should remain alive wedded but
bereaved. A trial was imposed upon Finwe (not by Miriel only),
and he hath asked for justice, and relief.'
(* By this is meant primarily the fear naked and unhoused. Living,
the fear can be deluded; and they can be dominated by fear (of one of
great power such as Melkor) and so enslaved. But these things are
wicked and tyrannous and are done by Melkor alone among the
Valar. They beget only hatred and loathing in the enslaved (which is
the sign of inmost and ultimate dissent). To no good purpose can such
means be used, for they render all purposes evil.)
'Nay!' said Vaire suddenly. 'The fea of Miriel is with me. I
know it well, for it is small. But it is strong; proud and
obdurate. It is of that sort who having said: this I will do, make
their words a doom irrevocable unto themselves. She will not
return to life, or to Finwe, even if he waiteth until the ageing of
the world. Of this he is aware, I deem, as his words show. For he
did not found his claim on his desire for children only, but he
said to the King: my heart warns me that Miriel will not return
while Arda lasts. Of what sort the knowledge or belief may be
that he would thus express, and whence it came to him, 1 know
not. But fea perceiveth fea and knoweth the disposition of the
other, in marriage especially, in ways that we cannot fully
understand. We cannot probe all the mystery of the nature of
the Children. But if we are to speak of Justice, then Finwe's
belief must be taken into account; and if, as I judge, it is
well-founded, not a fantasy of his own inconstancy, but against
his will and desire, we must otherwise assess the faults of these
two. When one of the Queens of the Valar, Varda or Yavanna,
or even I, departeth for ever from Arda, and leaveth her spouse,
will he or nill he,(14) then let that spouse judge Finwe, if he will,
remembering that Finwe cannot follow Miriel without doing
wrong to his nature, nor without forsaking the duty and bond
of his fatherhood.'
When Vaire had spoken, the Valar sat long in silence, until at
length Manwe spoke again. 'There is reason and wisdom in all
that has been said. Truly, in the matter of the Children we
approach mysteries, and the key to their full understanding was
not given to us. In part the Children are indeed one, or maybe
the chief, of those "new things" of which Aule hath spoken.*
Yet they came into Arda Marred, and were destined to do so,
and to endure the Marring, even though they came in their
beginning from beyond Ea. For these "new things", manifesting
the finger of Iluvatar, as we say: they may have no past in Arda
and be unpredictable before they appear, yet they have there-
after future operations which may be predicted, according to
wisdom and knowledge, since they become at once part of Ea,
and part of the past of all thar followeth. We may say, therefore,
that the Elves are destined to know "death" in their mode, being
(* Meaning that though they appeared in the Great Theme, they were
introduced by Eru himself, not mediated by any of the Ainur; and even
so they were not fully revealed to the Ainur.)
sent into a world which contains "death", and having a form
for which "death" is possible. For though by their prime nature,
unmarred, they rightly dwell as spirit and body coherent, yet
these are two things, not the same, and their severance (which is
"death") is a possibility inherent in their union.
'Aule and Nienna err, I deem; for what each saith in different
words meaneth this much: that Death which cometh from the
Marrer may be one thing, and Death as an instrument of Eru be
another thing and discernible: the one being of malice, and
therefore only evil and inevitably grievous; the other, being of
benevolence, intending particular and immediate good, and
therefore not evil, and either not grievous or easily and swiftly
to be healed. For the evil and the grief of death are in the mere
severance and breach of nature, which is alike in both (or death
is not their name); and both occur only in Arda Marred, and
accord with its processes.
'Therefore I deem that Ulmo is to be followed rather, holding
that Eru need not and would not desire as a special instrument
of his benevolence a thing that is evil. Wherefore, indeed, should
he intrude death as a "new thing" into a world that suffereth
it already? Nonetheless, Eru is Lord of All, and will use as instru-
ments of his final purposes, which are good, whatsoever any of
his creatures, great or small, do or devise, in his despite or in his
service. But we must hold that it is his will that those of the Eldar
who serve him should not be cast down by griefs or evils that
they encounter in Arda Marred; but should ascend to a strength
and wisdom that they would not otherwise have achieved: that
the Children of Eru should grow to be daughters and sons.
'For Arda Unmarred hath two aspects or senses. The first is
the Unmarred that they discern in the Marred, if their eyes are
not dimmed, and yearn for, as we yearn for the Will of Eru: this
is the ground upon which Hope is built. The second is the
Unmarred that shall be: that is, to speak according to Time in
which they have their being, the Arda Healed, which shall be
greater and more fair than the first, because of the Marring: this
is the Hope that sustaineth. It cometh not only from the
yearning for the Will of Iluvatar the Begetter (which by itself
may lead those within Time to no more than regret), but also
from trust in Eru the Lord everlasting, that he is good, and that
his works shall all end in good. This the Marrer hath denied,
and in this denial is the root of evil, and its end is in despair.
'Therefore, notwithstanding the words of Vaire, I abide by
that which I said first. For though she speaketh not without
knowledge, she uttereth opinion and not certainty. The Valar
have not and must not presume certainty with regard to the
wills of the Children. Nor, even were they certain in this one
case concerning the fea of Miriel, would that unmake the union
of love that once was between her and her spouse, or render
void the judgement that constancy to it would in Finwe be a
better and fairer course, more in accord with Arda Unmarred,
or with the will of Eru in permitting this thing to befall him. The
Statute openeth the liberty of a lower road, and accepting death,
countenanceth death, and cannot heal it. If that liberty is used,
the evil of the death of Miriel will continue to have power, and
will bear fruit in sorrow.
'But this matter I now commit to Namo the Judge. Let him
speak last! '
Then Namo Mandos spoke, saying: 'All that I have heard I
have considered again; though naught pertinent to judgement
hath been brought forward that was not already considered in
the making of the Statute. Let the Statute stand, for it is just.
'It is our part to rule Arda, and to counsel the Children, or to
command them in things committed to our authority. Therefore
it is our task to deal with Arda Marred, and to declare what is
just within it. We may indeed in counsel point to the higher
road, but we cannot compel any free creature to walk upon it.
That leadeth to tyranny, which disfigureth good and maketh it
seem hateful.
'Healing by final Hope, as Manwe hath spoken of it, is a law
which one can give to oneself only; of others justice alone can be
demanded. A ruler who discerning justice refuseth to it the
sanction of law, demanding abnegation of rights and self-
sacrifice, will not drive his subjects to these virtues, virtuous
only if free, but by unnaturally making justice unlawful, will
drive them rather to rebellion against all law. Not by such
means will Arda be healed.
'It is right, therefore, that this just Statute should be pro-
claimed, and those that use it shall be blameless, whatsoever
followeth after. Thus shall the Tale of the Eldar, within the Tale
of Arda, be fashioned.
'Hearken now, O Valar! To me foretelling * is granted no less
(* By which was meant prophecy concerning things which neither
reason upon evidence, nor (for the Valar) knowledge of the Great.)
than doom, and I will proclaim now to you things both near and
far. Behold! Indis the fair shall be made glad and fruitful, who
might else have been solitary. For not in death only hath the
Shadow entered into Aman with the coming of the Children
destined to suffer; there are other sorrows, even if they be less.
Long she hath loved Finwe, in patience and without bitterness.
Aule nameth Feanor the greatest of the Eldar, and in potency
that is true. But I say unto you that the children of Indis shall
also be great, and the Tale of Arda more glorious because of
their coming. And from them shall spring things so fair that no
tears shall dim their beauty; in whose being the Valar, and the
Kindreds both of Elves and of Men that are to come shall all
have part, and in whose deeds they shall rejoice. So that, long
hence when all that here is, and seemeth yet fair and impreg-
nable, shall nonetheless have faded and passed away, the Light
of Aman shall not wholly cease among the free peoples of Arda
until the End.
'When he that shall be called Earendil setteth foot upon the
shores of Aman, ye shall remember my words. In that hour ye
will not say that the Statute of Justice hath borne fruit only in
death; and the griefs that shall come ye shall weigh in the
balance, and they shall not seem too heavy compared with the
rising of the light when Valinor groweth dim.'
'So be it!' said Manwe.(15)
Therefore the Statute was proclaimed, and the meeting of
Indis and Finwe took place, as has been told.
But after a while Nienna came to Manwe, and she said: 'Lord
of Aman, it is now made clear that the death of Miriel was an
evil of Arda Marred, for with the coming hither of the Eldar the
Shadow hath found an entrance even into Aman. Nonetheless
Aman remaineth the Realm of the Valar, wherein thy will is
paramount. Though the death of severance may find out the
Eldar in thy realm, yet one thing cometh not to it, and shall
not:* and that is deforming and decay. Behold then! The body
of Miriel lieth unmarred, even as a fair house that awaiteth its
mistress, who hath gone upon a journey. In this at least,
Theme, could discover or swiftly perceive. Only rarely and in great
matters was Mandos moved to prophecy.
(* Yet after the slaying of the Trees it did so while Melkor remained
there; and the body of Finwe, slain by Melkor, was withered and
passed into dust, even as the Trees themselves had withered.)
therefore, her death differeth from death in Middle-earth: that
for the houseless fea a fair body is still ready, and rebirth is not
the only gate by which it may return to life, if thou wilt grant
her leave and give her thy blessing. Moreover the body has lain
long now in repose in the peace of Lorien; and must not the
rulers of Arda have respect even to bodies and all fair forms?
Why should it lie idle and untenanted, when doubtless it would
not now afflict the fea with weariness, but rejoice it with hope of
doing? '
But this Mandos forbade. 'Nay,' said he, 'if Miriel were
rehoused, she would be again among the Living, and Finwe
would have two spouses alive in Aman. Thus would the Statute
be contravened, and my Doom set at naught. And injury would
be done also to Indis, who used the liberty of the Statute, but
would now by its breach be deprived, for Finwe would desire to
return to his former spouse.'
But Nienna said to Mandos: 'Nay! Let Miriel have the joy of
her body and of the use of its skills in which she delighted, and
dwell not for ever remembering only her brief life before, and its
ending in weariness! Can she not be removed from the Halls of
Waiting, and taken into the service of Vaire? If she cometh
never thence, nor seeketh to walk among the Living, why
shouldst thou hold the Doom set at naught, or fear for griefs
that might arise? Pity must have a part in Justice.'
But Mandos was unmoved. And the body of Miriel lay at rest
in Lorien, until the escape of Melkor the Marrer and the
Darkening of Valinor. In that evil time Finwe was slain by the
Marrer himself, and his body was burned as by lightning stroke
and was destroyed. Then Miriel and Finwe met again in
Mandos, and lo! Miriel was glad of the meeting, and her
sadness was lightened; and the will in which she had been set
was released.
And when she learned of Finwe all that had befallen since her
departure (for she had given no heed to it, nor asked tidings,
until then) she was greatly moved; and she said to Finwe in her
thought: 'I erred in leaving thee and our son, or at the least in
not soon returning after brief repose; for had I done so he might
have grown wiser. But the children of Indis shall redress his
errors and therefore I am glad that they should have being, and
Indis hath my love. How should I bear grudge against one who
received what I rejected and cherished what I abandoned.
Would that I might set all the Tale of our people and of thee and
thy children in a tapestry of many colours, as a memorial
brighter than memory! For though I am cut off now from the
world, and I accept that Doom as just, I would still watch and
record all that befalls those dear to me, and their offspring also.
[Added: I feel again the call of my body and its skills.]'
And Finwe said to Vaire: 'Dost thou hear the prayer and
desire of Miriel? Why will Mandos refuse this redress of her
griefs, that her being may not be void and without avail?
Behold! I instead will abide with Mandos for ever, and so make
amends. For surely, if I remain unhoused, and forgo life in Arda,
then his Doom will be inviolate.'
'So thou may deem,' answered Vaire; 'yet Mandos is stern,
and he will not readily permit a vow to be revoked. Also he will
consider not only Miriel and thee, but Indis and thy children,
whom thou seemest to forget, pitying now Miriel only.'
'Thou art unjust to me in thy thought,' said Finwe. 'It is
unlawful to have two wives, but one may love two women, each
differently, and without diminishing one love by another. Love
of Indis did not drive out love of Miriel; so now pity for Miriel
doth not lessen my heart's care for Indis. But Indis parted from
me without death. I had not seen her for many years, and when
the Marrer smote me I was alone. She hath dear children to
comfort her, and her love, I deem, is now most for Ingoldo.(16)
His father she may miss; but not the father of Feanaro! But
above all her heart now yearns for the halls of Ingwe and the
peace of the Vanyar, far from the strife of the Noldor. Little
comfort should I bring her, if I returned; and the lordship of the
Noldor hath passed to my sons.'(17)
But when Mandos was approached he said to Finwe: 'It is
well that thou desirest not to return, for this I should have
forbidden, until the present griefs are long passed. But it is
better still that thou hast made this offer, to deprive thyself,
of thy free will, and out of pity for another. This is a counsel of
healing, out of which good may grow.'
Therefore when Nienna came to him and renewed her prayer
for Miriel, he consented, accepting the abnegation of Finwe as
her ransom. Then the fe'a of Miriel was released and came
before Manwe and received his blessing; and she went then to
Lorien and re-entered her body, and awoke again, as one that
cometh out of a deep sleep; and she arose and her body was
refreshed. But after she had stood in the twilight of Lorien a
long while in thought, remembering her former life, and all the
tidings that she had learned, her heart was still sad, and she had
no desire to return to her own people. Therefore she went to the
doors of the House of Vaire and prayed to be admitted; and this
prayer was granted, although in that House none of the Living
dwelt nor have others ever entered it in the body.(18) But Miriel
was accepted by Vaire and became her chief handmaid; and all
tidings of the Noldor down the years from their beginning were
brought to her, and she wove them in webs historial, so fair and
skilled that they seemed to live, imperishable, shining with a
light of many hues fairer than are known in Middle-earth. This
labour Finwe is at times permitted to look upon. And still she
is at work, though her name has been changed. For now she is
named Firiel,* which to the Eldar signifies 'She that died',(19) and
also 'She that sighed'. As fair as the webs of Firiel is praise that
is given seldom even to works of the Eldar.
* For before the passing of Miriel the Eldar of Valinor had no word
for 'dying' in this manner, though they had words for being
destroyed (in body) or being slain. But fire' meant to 'expire', as of
one sighing or releasing a deep breath; and at the passing of Miriel
she had sighed a great sigh, and then lay still; and those who stood
by said firie, 'she hath breathed forth'. This word the Eldar
afterwards used of the death of Men. But though this sigh they take
to be a symbol of release, and the ceasing of the body's life, the
Eldar do not confound the breath of the body with the spirit. This
they call, as hath been seen, fea or faire', of which the ancient
significance seems to be rather 'radiance'. For though the fea in
itself is not visible to bodily eyes, it is in light that the Eldar find
the most fitting symbol in bodily terms of the indwelling spirit, 'the
light of the house' or coacalina as they also name it. And those in
whom the fea is strong and untainted, they say, appear even to
mortal eyes to shine at times translucent (albeit faintly), as though a
lamp burned within.
At the end of the manuscript of Laws and Customs among the Eldar
are several pages of roughly written 'Notes', and I append here a
portion of this material.
(i)
This debate of the Valar not wholly feigned. For the Eldar were
permitted to attend all conclaves, and many did so (especially
those that so deeply concerned them, their fate, and their place
in Arda, as did this matter). Reference is made to things that had
not at that time happened (is it ..... prophecy?), but that is
partly due to later commentators. For the 'Statute of Finwe and
Miriel' was among the documents of lore most deeply studied
and pondered. And as has been seen many questions and
answers arising were appended.
[?Thus] questions were also asked concerning the fate and
death of Men. All [?read Also] concerning other 'speaking', and
therefore 'reasonable', kinds: Ents, Dwarves, Trolls, Orcs -
and the speaking of beasts such as Huan, or the Great Eagles.
Later my father commented against the beginning of this note that the
Eldar would not be present at this debate ('certainly not Finwe!'), and
that the Yalar would have informed the loremasters of the Eldar
concerning it.
(ii)
[The] 'Fate of Men' was also later discussed by the Eldar, when
they had met Men and knew them. But they had little evidence,
and therefore did not know or assert, but 'supposed' or
'guessed'. One such supposition was that Elves and Men will
become one people. Another is that some Men, if they desire it,
will be permitted to join the Elves in New Arda, or to visit them
there - though it will not be the home of Men. The most widely
held supposition is that the fate of Men is wholly different, and
that they will not be concerned with Arda at all.
At the end of this note my father wrote subsequently: 'But see full
treatment of this later in Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth.' This work
constitutes Part Four in this book.
(iii)
Fate of 'Immortal' Elves: ? to inhabit New Arda (or Arda
Healed). Probably not, in a physical sense. Since what is meant
by 'The Tale of Arda' seems to be this. The World and its Time
appears to begin and end simply because it is bounded, neither
infinite nor eternal. Its finite 'story' when complete will be, like a
work of art, beautiful and good (as a whole), and from outside,
sc. not in Time or its Time, it can be contemplated with wonder
and delight - especially by those who have taken part in its
'Tale'. Only in that sense will Elves (or Men) inhabit Arda
Complete. But New Arda' or Arda Unmarred (Healed) would
imply a continuance, beyond the End (or Completion). Of that
nothing can be surmised. Unless it be this. Since the Elves (and
Men) were made for Arda, the satisfaction of their nature will
require Arda (without the malice of the Marrer): therefore
before the Ending the Marring will be wholly undone or healed
(or absorbed into good, beauty, and joy). In that region of Time
and Place the Elves will dwell as their home, but not be confined
to it. But no blessed spirits from what is still to us the future can
intrude into our own periods of Time. For to contemplate the
Tale of Arda the Blessed must (in spirit or whole being) leave the
Time of Arda. But others use another analogy, saying that there
will indeed be a New Arda, rebuilt from the beginning without
Malice, and that the Elves will take part in this from the
beginning. It will be in Ea, say they - for they hold that all
Creation of any sort must be in Ea, proceeding from Eru in the
same way, and therefore being of the same Order. They do not
believe in contemporaneous non-contiguous worlds except as
an amusing fantasy of the mind. They are (say they) either
altogether unknowable, even as to whether they are or are not,
or else if there are any intersections (however rare) they are only
provinces of one Ea.
At the head of the page on which this note stands my father wrote:
'But see Athrabeth': see (ii) above.
NOTES.
[These notes refer to the part of the text of Laws and Customs among
the Eldar given from the manuscript A, pp. 233 ff.]
1. The spelling Feanaro is found also in the first text of the tale,
FM 1 (see p. 206, footnote). The name is variously written
subsequently in A (Feanaro, Feanaro, Feanaro).
2. For the form Lorien with short vowel see p. 56 note 2 and p. 148,
$3.
3. For the doom of Mandos (the 'Statute of Finwe and Miriel') in
this work see pp. 225 - 6. In FM 1 the doom, in its earliest
expression, is given at this point in the story (pp. 206 - 7).
4. your union: your is plural, and not inconsistent with thy, thee,
thou in the same sentence.
5. in Tuna: see p. 193, $52, and p. 282.
6. My father first wrote 'an aimenel' (> aimenal), but changed it
immediately to 'a lirulin', writing 'lark' in the margin.
7. The reference in the footnote here is to the passage in A (omitted
in B) which is given in note 22 on p. 230. As in that passage the
name Nolofinwe' is written with a tilde over the N. The order of
the names of the daughters of Finwe and Indis are as in the
emended text of FM 1, p. 207. See further p. 262 and note 10.
8. The brackets are in the original.
9. Cf. the Ainulindale $13 (p. 11): Yet some things there are that
[the Ainur] cannot see ...; for to none but himself has Iluvatar
revealed all that he has in store, and in every age there come forth
things that are new and have no foretelling, for they do not spring
from the past.'
10. It is not told elsewhere that Aule was the most eager among the
Valar that the Elves should be summoned to Valinor. Cf. what is
said earlier in Laws and Customs (p. 219, found in both texts,
but not elsewhere) concerning the motive of the Valar in bringing
the Elves to Aman.
11. As with the reference to Aule mentioned in note 10, it is not told
elsewhere that Ulmo dissented from the decision of the Valar to
bring Melkor to Mandos. Cf. the passage in the first text of the
Valaquenta, lost in the final form: '[Ulmo's] counsels grew ever
away from the mind of Manwe' (p. 202).
12. At this point there originally followed: 'Then when others had
spoken Manwe answered: 'There is reason in all that hath been
said...' Manwe's speech was apparently abandoned after a few
lines, and the speeches of Nienna, Ulmo, and Vaire introduced;
after which Manwe's speech reappears (p. 244).
13. This sentence ('And I doubt not...') was subsequently placed in
brackets.
14. nill is the old negative verb 'will not': thus 'will he or nill he'
means 'whether he wills it or wills it not' (surviving as willy-
nilly).
15. The text stops here, not at the foot of a page. It takes up again on
a new sheet, in a rougher script that continues to the end of the
work; but my father paginated this further text continuously with
the preceding.
16. Ingoldo: the mother-name of Fingolfin (p. 230 note 22).
17. In the account of the marriage of Finwe and Indis in the present
work (p. 238) there is no mention of this estrangement, or at least
separation. In the final work on Chapter 6 of the Quenta
Silmarillion, however, it is implied that Indis did not depart with
Finwe to Formenos, because it is told that Feanor's wife Nerdanel
would not go with him into banishment and 'asked leave to abide
with Indis' (p. 279, $53d).
18. On Miriel's entry into the House of Vaire see p. 263 note 9.
19. Firiel: see the Etymologies in Vol.V, p. 381, stem PHIR.
*
LATER VERSIONS OF THE STORY OF
FINWE AND MIRIEL
IN THE QUENTA SILMARILLION.
The next version of the story was a short typescript derived closely for
the most part from that in Laws and Customs among the Eldar
(pp. 236 - 9)., it is entitled Of Finwe and Miriel, and begins: Finwe, first
lord of the Noldor, had to wife Miriel, who was called the Serinde...'
(cf. p. 236). There is no indication that it was intended to stand in the
text of the Quenta Silmarillion, but there can scarcely be any question
that my father did so intend it; I will refer to it therefore as 'FM 2'.
The most important divergence in FM 2 from the text in Laws and
Customs is at the words (p. 237): 'Then Manwe took pity upon Finwe,
and he considered his plea, and when Mandos had spoken his doom as
has been recorded, Manwe called Finwe to him...' For the purpose of
the inclusion of the story in the narrative of the Quenta Silmarillion
the judgement of Mandos had obviously to be given at this point (as it
had been in the original version, FM 1, p. 206); and in FM 2 the
judgement was preceded by a reference to the Debate of the Valar and
some indication of the nature of their concern. The word 'Statute' is
used here in a wider and a narrower sense: as a name for the record
made by the Eldar of all matters relevant to the judgement of Mandos,
as well as the title of the actual judgement.
Then Manwe was moved with pity for Finwe, and he
considered his plea. But because this seemed to him a great
matter and not lightly to be judged, he summoned the Valar in
Council. Of the long debate that they held the Elves wrote a
record, for their chieftains were permitted to be present.(1) This
was called 'The Statute of Finwe and Miriel' and was preserved
among the chief of their books of law; for in the debate, before
the Statute was at last established by the doom of Namo
Mandos, many matters concerning the Eldar, their fate in Arda,
their death and re-birth and the nature of their marriage, were
examined and judged. And the Valar were greatly concerned to
see that all their labour for the guarding of Valinor was of no
avail, to keep out evil and the shadow of Melkor, if any thing,
living or unliving, was brought thither out of Middle-earth and
left free or unguarded; and they perceived at last how great was
the power of Melkor in Arda, in the making of which as it was *
(* Arda Hastaina, or 'Arda Marred', as they named it. For Arda, or
in full Arda Alahasta, the 'Unmarred', they named the thought which
they had, each severally, or as a Council under Manwe, of that Arda in)
which Melkor had no part.
his part was such that all things, save in Aman alone, had an
inclination to evil and to perversion from their right forms and
courses. Wherefore those whose being began in Arda, and who
moreover were by nature a union of spirit and body, drawing
the sustenance of the latter from Arda Marred, must ever be, in
some degree, liable to grief, to do or to suffer things unnatural;
and though dwelling in Aman might be a guard against this evil,
it was not a full cure, unless in long ages. And with this thought
a shadow passed over the hearts of the Valar, even in the
noon-tide of the Blessed Realm, presage of the sorrows which
the Children should bring into the world.
Now this was the doom of Namo in this case, and in all cases
where a marriage of the Eldar might be sundered by the death of
one only of the partners. 'Marriage among the Eldar is by and
for the Living...'
The doom of Mandos in FM 2 differs from the form in Laws and
Customs (pp. 225 - 6) only in detail of expression and not at all in
substance, except for some expansion at the very end.
'... For it must be clearly understood that, when this will not to
return has been solemnly declared and ratified by Mandos, then
the living partner may take another spouse lawfully. For it is
contrary to the nature of the Eldar to live unwedded, and the
Dead may not compel the Living to remain solitary against their
will. If therefore the Living take another partner, the will of the
Dead shall not be revoked, but shall be a doom of Mandos. For
he will permit none of the Eldar to walk alive in the body who
has two spouses living also.'
This in brief was the Doom of Mandos, that was after called
the Statute of Finwe and Miriel. And when Mandos had spoken
as the Mouth of Manwe, the Eldar that heard him asked: 'How
shall the will or doom be known?'; and it was answered: 'Only
by recourse to Manwe and the pronouncement of Mandos. In
this matter it shall not be lawful for any of the Eldar to judge his
own case. For who among the Living can discover the thoughts
of the Dead or presume the judgements of Mandos?'
Then Manwe called Finwe to him...
Other divergences from the text of Laws and Customs in FM 2 were
taken up into the final text (FM 4), which is given in full on pp. 256 ff.,
and need not be set out here, or if lost from the final text are given in
the notes to it.
FM 2 was followed by a further typescript, 'FM 3', made on a
different machine (see p. 300). This is expressly a chapter of the
Quenta Silmarillion, with the title as typed Of Feanor and the
Darkening of Valinor, changed later to Of Finwe and Miriel. This
version was a good deal reduced by omissions, and my father evidently
found it unsatisfactory, for he went on to make a further and much
more substantial version, 'FM 4', with which the textual history of the
story of Finwe and Miriel comes to an end.
It is clear that when making FM 3 and FM 4 he had the preceding
texts in front of him, and that he selected variously from them as he
sought to achieve a satisfactory form. To set out all the detail of this
development would take much space but serve little purpose, since
very little was in fact omitted from the final, 're-expanded' text FM 4;
and I give this text here in full.
FM 4 has a general heading Of the Silmarils and the Darkening of
Valinor, with a subtitle Of Finwe and Miriel (the typescript then
continues with further 'sub-chapters', to which however my father
subsequently gave numbers as chapters in their own right: see
p. 299). The paragraph numbers provided for reference do not relate
to any numbers previously used, since after the opening the text is
entirely different; for the 'LQ' (1951) version of the opening of the
chapter see pp. 184 - 5, $$46, 46a - b.
OF THE SILMARILS AND THE DARKENING
OF VALINOR.
OF FINWE AND MIRIEL.
$1 Now the three kindreds of the Eldar were gathered at
last in Valinor, and Melkor was chained. This was the Noontide
of the Blessed Realm, the fullness of its glory and bliss, long in
tale of years, but in memory too brief. In those days the Eldar
became full-grown in stature of body and of mind, and the
Noldor advanced ever in skill and knowledge; and the long
years were filled with their joyful labours, in which many new
things fair and wonderful were devised. It was in this time that
the Noldor first made letters, and Rumil of Tuna was the name
of the lore-master who first achieved fitting signs for the
recording of speech and song, some for graving upon metal or in
stone, others for drawing with brush or with pen.
$2 It came to pass that in Eldamar, in the house of the King
in Tirion, there was born the eldest of the sons of Finwe, and the
most beloved, Kurufinwe was his name, but by his mother he
was called Feanor,* Spirit of Fire, by which title he is remem-
bered in all the tales of the Noldor.
$3 Miriel was the name of his mother. Her hair was like
silver; and she was slender as a white flower in the grass. Soft
and sweet was her voice, and she sang as she worked, like
rippling water, in music without words. For her hands were
more skilled to make things fine and delicate than any other
hands even among the Noldor. By her the craft of needles was
devised; and if but one fragment of the broideries of Miriel
were seen in Middle-earth it would be held dearer than a king's
realm; for the richness of her devices and the fire of their colours
were as manifold and as bright as the wealth of leaf and flower
and wing in the fields of Yavanna. Therefore she was called
Serinde.+
$4 The love of Finwe and Miriel was great and full of joy,
for it began in the Blessed Realm and in days of mirth. But in the
bearing of her son she was consumed in spirit and body, so that
almost all strength seemed to have passed from her; and when
she had named him (2) she said to Finwe: 'Never again shall I bear
a child, for strength that would have nourished the life of many
has gone forth into Feanor.'
$5 Finwe was greatly grieved, for the Noldor were in the
youth of their days, but were still few in number, and he desired
to bring forth many children into the bliss of Aman. He said
therefore: 'Surely there is healing in Aman? Here all weariness
can find rest.'
$6 But when Miriel still languished, Finwe sought the
counsel of Manwe, and Manwe delivered her to the care of Irmo
in Lorien.(3) At their parting (for a little while as he thought)
Finwe was sad, for it seemed an unhappy chance that the
mother should depart and miss the beginning at least of the
childhood days of her son.
$7 'Unhappy it is indeed,' said Miriel, 'and I would weep, if
I were not so weary. But hold me blameless in this, and in all
that may come after. Rest now I must. Farewell, dear lord!'
$8 She spoke no clearer than this at that time, but in her
heart she yearned not only for sleep and rest but release from
(* [footnote to the text] Feanaro in the form of the speech of those
days.)
(+ [footnote to the text] Miriel Serinde: that is Byrde Miriel (Miriel
the Broideress): quoth AElfwine.)
the labour of living. She went then to Lorien and laid her down
to sleep beneath a silver tree; but though she seemed to sleep,
her spirit indeed departed from her body and passed in silence
to the keeping of Mandos, and abode in the house of Vaire.(4)
The maidens of Este tended her fair body so that it remained
unwithered, but she did not return.
$9 Finwe lived in sorrow; and he went often to the gardens
of Lorien, and sitting beneath the silver willows beside the body
of his wife he called her by her names. But it was of no avail,
and Finwe alone in all the Blessed Realm was bereaved of joy.
After a while he went to Lorien no more, for it increased his
grief to see the fair form of Miriel that would not hear his call.
All his love he gave now to his son; for Feanor in childhood was
like his mother in voice and countenance, and Finwe was to him
both father and mother and there was a double bond of love
upon them.
$10 Yet Finwe was not content, being young and eager; and
he still desired to have more children to bring mirth into his
house. When, therefore, twelve years had passed he went again
to Manwe. 'My Lord,' he said, 'behold! I am bereaved. Alone
among the Eldar I have no wife, and must hope for no sons save
one, and for no daughter. Whereas Ingwe and Olwe beget many
children in the bliss of Aman. Must I remain ever so? For my
heart warns me that Miriel will not return again ever from the
house of Vaire.'
$11 Then Manwe was moved with pity for Finwe; but
because this seemed to him a great matter, and the coming of
death (albeit of free will) into the Blessed Realm a grave portent
not lightly to be judged, he summoned the Valar in Council, and
bade the chieftains and loremasters of the Eldar also to be
present. Of the long debate of the Valar the Eldar wrote a
record. This they called Namna Finwe Miriello, the Statute of
Finwe and Miriel,(5) and it was preserved among the books of
their Law; for in the debate many matters concerning the Eldar,
their fate in Arda, and their death and re-birth, were examined
and judged. For the Valar were greatly concerned to see that
their labour for the guarding of Valinor was unavailing, if any
thing, living or unliving, was brought thither out of Middle-
earth, and they perceived now more clearly how great was the
hurt that Melkor of old had done to the substance of Arda, so
that all those who were incarnate and drew the sustenance of
their bodies from Arda Marred, must ever be liable to grief, to
do or to suffer things unnatural in Arda Unmarred. And this
marring could not now be wholly undone, not even by Melkor
repentant; for power had gone forth from him and could not be
recalled, but would continue to work according to the will that
had set it in motion. And with this thought a shadow passed
over the hearts of the Valar, presage of the sorrows which the
Children should bring into the world.
$12 But when all was said, Manwe commanded Mandos to
speak and announce his judgement. Then Mandos stood upon
the Doom-hill and said:
'It is the way of Life that Iluvatar hath ordained for you, his
children, as ye know well, that the life of the Quendi shall not
end until the end of Arda; and that they shall take each one
spouse only and have no other in their life, while Arda endureth.
But herein no account is taken of Death, which cometh from the
marring of Arda. This doom is, therefore, now made by the
right of lawgiving that Iluvatar committed to Manwe.
When the spirit of a spouse, husband or wife, shall for any
cause pass into the keeping of Mandos, then the living may be
permitted lawfully to take another spouse, if the former union
be dissolved for ever.
$13 'How shall a marriage be ended for ever? By the will of
the Dead, or by the doom of Mandos. By the will of the Dead, if
they refuse ever to return to the life of the body; by the doom of
Mandos, if he will not permit them to return. For a union that
was for the life of Arda is ended, if it cannot be resumed within
the life of Arda.
$14 'We say "by the will of the Dead", for it would be
unjust that the Living should for their own purposes confine the
Dead in Mandos, denying to them all hope of return. It is also
unjust that the Dead by refusal of life should compel the Living
to remain solitary until the End; and therefore we have declared
that in such case the Living may take another spouse. But
understand well that if this be done, then the refusal of life by
the Dead shall be irrevocable, and they shall never again return
to life in the body. For none among the Quendi shall have two
spouses at one time awake and alive.
'This is the doom of Namo Mandos in this matter.'
$15 When Mandos had spoken thus, the Eldar who were
present asked'. 'How then shall the will or the doom be known?'
It was answered: 'Only by recourse to Manwe, and by the
pronouncement of Mandos. For who among the Living can
discover the will of the Dead, or presume the judgements of
Mandos?'
$16 Then Manwe called Finwe to him, and said: 'Thou hast
heard the doom that has been declared. If Miriel, thy wife, will
not return, your (6) marriage is ended, and thou hast leave to take
another wife. But this is permission, not counsel. For the
severance cometh from the marring of Arda; and those who
accept this permission accept the marring, whereas the bereaved
who remain steadfast belong in spirit and will to Arda Unmar-
red. This is a grave matter upon which the fate of many may
depend. Be not in haste!'
$17 Finwe answered: 'I am in no haste, My Lord, and my
heart has no desire, save the hope that when this doom is made
clear to Miriel, she may yet relent and set a term to my
bereavement.'
$18 Vaire with whom Miriel dwelt made known to her the
doom,(7) and spoke also of the sorrow of Finwe. But Miriel
answered: 'I came hither to escape from the body, and I do not
desire ever to return to it, My life has gone out into Feanor, my
son. That gift I have given to him whom I loved. I can give no
more. Beyond Arda this may be healed, but not within it.'
$19 Then Vaire said to Mandos: 'The spirit of Miriel hath
dwelt with me, and I know it. It is small, but it is strong and
obdurate: one of those who having said this will I do make their
words a law irrevocable unto themselves. Unless constrained,
she will not return to life or to Finwe, not though he should wait
until the ageing of the world.'(8)
$20 But Mandos said: It is not lawful for the Valar to
constrain the Dead to return'; and he summoned the spirit of
Miriel to appear before him. 'Thy will must rule in this matter,
spirit of Miriel, once wife of Finwe,' he said. 'In Mandos thou
shalt abide. But take heed! Thou art of the Quendi, and even if
thou refuse the body, thou must remain in Arda and within the
time of its history. The Eldar are not as the Valar. Their spirits
are less strong to stand than thou deemest. Do not wonder,
then, if thy will should change in time, and this doom which
thou takest upon thyself become grievous to thee. Yea, and to
many others!'
$21 But the spirit of Miriel remained silent. Mandos there-
fore accepted her choice, and she went then to the Halls of
Waiting appointed to the Eldar and was left in peace.*(9)
Nonetheless Mandos declared that a space of twelve years
should pass between the declaration of the will of the Dead and
the pronouncement of the doom of disunion.
$22 During that time Feanor dwelt in the care of his father.
Soon he began to show forth the skills in hand and mind of both
Finwe and Miriel. As he grew from childhood he became ever
more like Finwe in stature and countenance, but in mood he
resembled Miriel rather. His will was strong and determined,
and he pursued all his purposes both eagerly and steadfastly.
Few ever changed his courses by counsel, none by force.
$23 It came to pass that after three years more Finwe took
as second wife Indis the fair. She was in all ways unlike Miriel.
She was not of the Noldor but of the Vanyar, being the sister of
Ingwe; and she was golden-haired and tall and exceedingly swift
of foot. She did not labour with her hands, but made music and
wove words into song; and there was ever light and mirth about
her while the bliss of Aman lasted.
$24 She loved Finwe dearly; for her heart had turned to him
long before, while the Vanyar still dwelt with the Noldor in
Tuna. In those days she had looked upon the Lord of the
Noldor, and he seemed to her fairest and noblest of the Eldar,
dark-haired and white of brow, eager of face but with eyes full
of thought; and his voice and mastery of words delighted her.
Therefore she remained unwedded when her people removed to
Valinor, and she walked often alone in the friths and fields of
the Valar, filling them with music.
$25 Now Ingwe, hearing of the strange grief of Finwe,
and desiring to lift up his heart and withdraw him from vain
mourning in Lorien, had sent messages bidding him to leave
Tuna for a while, and to come and dwell for a season in the full
light of the Trees. Finwe thanked him but did not go, while
there was yet hope that Miriel would return. But when the
doom of Mandos was spoken, it came into his heart that he
must seek to build his life anew. 'Maybe, there is healing in the
light of Laurelin and hope in the blossom of Telperion,' he said.
'I will take the counsel of Ingwe.'
(* [footnote to the text] But it is said that after a time she was
permitted to return to the house of Vaire, and there it was her part to
record in web and broidery all the histories of the Kin of Finwe and the
deeds of the Noldor.)
$26 Therefore one day, when Feanor was far abroad walk-
ing in the mountains in the strength of his youth, Finwe arose
and went forth from Tuna alone, and he passed through the
Kalakiryan, and went towards the house of Ingwe upon the
west slopes of Oiolosse. His coming was unheralded and un-
foreseen; and when Indis saw Finwe climbing the paths of the
Mountain, and the light of Laurelin was behind him as a glory,
without forethought she sang suddenly in great joy, and her
voice went up as a song of the lirulin * in the sky. Then Finwe
heard that song falling from above, and he looked up and saw
Indis in the golden light, and he knew in that moment that she
loved him and had long done so. Then his heart turned at last to
her; and he believed that this chance, as it seemed, had been
granted for the comfort of them both. 'Behold!' he said. 'There
is indeed healing of grief in Aman!'
$27 In one year from their meeting upon the Mountain
Finwe, King of the Noldor, wedded Indis, sister of Ingwe; and
the Vanyar and Noldor for the most part rejoiced. In Indis was
first proved true the saying: The loss of one may be the gain of
another; but this saying also she found true: The house
remembers the builder, though others may dwell in it after. For
Finwe loved her dearly, and was glad again; and she bore him
five children whom he loved;+(10) yet the shadow of Miriel did
not depart from the house of Finwe, nor from his heart; and of
all whom he loved Feanor had ever the chief share of his
thought.
$28 The wedding of the father was not pleasing to Feanor;
and though it did not lessen the love between them, Feanor had
no great love for Indis or her children. As soon as he might he
lived apart from them, exploring the land of Aman, or busying
himself with the lore and the crafts in which he delighted. In
those unhappy things which later came to pass, and in which
Feanor was the leader, many saw the effect of this breach in the
house of Finwe, judging that if Finwe had endured his loss and
had been content with the fathering of his mighty son, the
courses of Feanor would have been otherwise, and great sorrow
and evil might have been prevented. Yet the children of Indis
(* [footnote to the text] The lark.)
(+ [footnote to the text] Findis, Fingolfin, Finvain, [Finarphin >]
Finarfin and Faniel: three daughters, and two sons (Fingolfin and
Finarfin).)
were great and glorious, and their children also; and if they had
not lived, the history of the Eldar would have been the poorer."
NOTES.
1. See Note (i) following Laws and Customs and my father's
comment on it, pp. 250 - 1.
2. In FM 2 it is said, following Laws and Customs p. 236, that
Miriel gave the name Feanaro to her son 'at birth', and at this
point a long footnote is added on the subject of name-giving:
According to the custom of the Eldar. In addition to their 'true
names', which were their father-name and their chosen name,
they often received other or 'added names'. Of these the most
important were the mother-names. Mothers often gave to their
children special names of their own choosing, the most notable
of which were 'names of insight'. In the hour of birth, or on
some other occasion of moment, a mother might give to her
child a name that referred to dominant features of its nature as
she perceived it, or that came of foresight and referred to its
special fate. Names of this kind might become more widely
used than the father-name (which was often only the name of
the father repeated or modified); and if the child adopted a
mother-name as a 'chosen name', then it became also a 'true
name'. Curufinwe took Feanaro as his chosen name. Feanor is
the form that this name took in the later speech of the Exiled
Noldor.
This represents an extreme compression of the section on
Naming in Laws and Customs, pp. 214 ff.
3. Lorien was still the form in Laws and Customs and in the texts
FM 2 and FM 3; in the present text FM 4 my father typed Lorien,
but then altered it back to Lorien.
4. and abode in the house of Vaire': these words first appear in the
present text; see note 9.
5. On the application of the term 'Statute' here see p. 254.
6. See p. 252, note 4.
7. FM 2 as typed had here, expanding the passage in Laws and
Customs, p. 237: 'But Mandos summoned Miriel, and made
known to her the Doom ...' This was later emended to read:
'Vaire, with whom Miriel dwelt, made known to her the
Doom...'
8. These words of Vaire's are derived from her intervention in the
Debate of the Valar in Laws and Customs, p. 244.
9. The footnote at this point is derived from Laws and Customs
(pp. 249 - 50), although Miriel's entry into the house of Vaire
stands there at the end of a long account recording the coming of
Finwe to the halls of Mandos, his renunciation of re-birth, and the
re-entry of the fea of Miriel into her body that still lay in Lorien.
In FM 2 there is no mention of Miriel after the words 'she went
then to the Halls of Waiting appointed to the Eldar and was left
in peace.' In FM 3 the text at this point is very compressed, and
reads (in place of FM 4 $$18 - 23, all of which is present in FM 2
apart from the present footnote):
... 'I came hither to escape from the body, and I will not
return to it'; and after ten years had passed the doom of
disunion was spoken. And Miriel has dwelt ever since in the
house of Vaire, and it is her part to record there the histories of
the Kin of Finwe and all the deeds of the Noldor.
It came to pass that after three more years Finwe took as
second wife Indis the Fair...
These texts are thus altogether inconsistent on the subject of the
ultimate fate of Miriel. In particular the references to the House
of Vaire are confusing. It was told in AAm (p. 49, $3) that 'Vaire
the Weaver dwells with Mandos', and the same is implied in QS
$6 (V.205, retained almost unchanged in the Valaquenta):
'Vaire the weaver is his wife, who weaves all things that have
been in time in her storied webs, and the halls of Mandos... are
clothed therewith.' In Laws and Customs (p. 236) the spirit of
Miriel departed from her body in Lorien 'and passed in silence to
the halls of Mandos', and Finwe said to Manwe 'my heart warns
me that Miriel will not return again from the house of Vaire'; in
the debate of the Valar before the proclamation of the 'Statute'
Vaire said that 'the fea of Miriel is with me' (p. 244). But
afterwards Nienna asked of Mandos that Miriel should be
'removed from the Halls of Waiting, and taken into the service of
Vaire' (p. 248); this was refused, and when Finwe was slain their
fear encountered each other 'in Mandos'. Thereafter the fea of
Miriel was 'released', and re-united with her body 'she went to
the doors of the House of Vaire and prayed to be admitted; and
this prayer was granted, although in that House none of the
Living dwelt nor have others ever entered it in the body.' Thus
within the same text 'the house of Vaire' is both equated with 'the
halls of Mandos' and distinguished from them.
In FM 4 ($8) the spirit of Miriel 'passed in silence to the
keeping of Mandos, and abode in the house of Vaire' (see note 4
above); and in $18 'Vaire with whom Miriel dwelt made known
to her the doom.' After Miriel's refusal of return 'she went then to
the Halls of Waiting appointed to the Eldar and was left in peace'
($21), but (according to the footnote to this paragraph) 'after a
time she was permitted to return to the house of Vaire.' Thus in
this final text it seems certain that Vaire in some sense dwelt
apart.
Very curiously, my father subsequently bracketed the footnote
and wrote against it 'Omit', commenting beside it: 'Alter this.
What happened when Finwe came to Mandos?' Yet he had
already answered this question very fully in Laws and Customs,
where indeed it was the very fact of the coming of Finwe to the
halls of Mandos that led to the release of Miriel and her
admission to the house of Vaire.
10. In FM 2 the footnote on the names of the children of Indis read
thus:
Three daughters and two sons, in this order: Findis,
Nolofinwe, Faniel, Arafinwe, and frime. The mother-name of
Nolofinwe was Ingoldo, signifying that he came of both the kin
of the Ingar and of the Noldor. The mother-name of Arafinwe
was Ingalaure, for he had the golden hair of his mother's
people, and that endured in his line afterwards.
This was derived from a passage in the A-text of Laws and
Customs (p. 230 note 22) which was omitted in B; in that
however the daughters were not mentioned. The name Irime (for
later Finvain) goes back to the original text FM 1 (p. 207). In the
note in FM 3 the names are as in FM 4, but those of the sons are
spelt Fingolphin and Finarphin, and this comment is added:
'These names are given in the forms of the later tongue in
Middle-earth (save Findis and Faniel who did not leave Valinor).'
In a very late essay (1968 or later; referred to in IV.174)
my father said that the mother-name of Finrod Felagund was
Ingoldo, but he gave to it a wholly different significance. The
term Ingar ('people of Ingwe') occurring in Laws and Customs
text A (p. 230 note 22) and here, has not been found before.
11. FM 2 ends differently after 'might have been prevented':
Thus it is that the cases in which the Eldar can marry again or
desire to do so are rare; and rarer still are those who do this
even when it is lawful; for the sorrow and strife in the house of
Finwe are graven in the memory of the Noldor Elves.
This derives from Laws and Customs, p. 239. In FM 3 the
conclusion is as in FM 4, but after 'and great sorrow and evil
might have been prevented it continues: But this judgement was
but a guess. Certain it is that the children of Indis were great
and glorious ...' The later ending derives in its thought from
the prophecy of Mandos in Laws and Customs (p. 247) at the
final proclamation of the 'Statute of Finwe and Miriel'.
A note on certain conceptions in the story of Finwe and Miriel
The nature of Elvish 'immortality' and 'death' had been stated very
long before in The Book of Lost Tales (1.76):
Thither [i.e. to Mandos] in after days fared the Elves of all the clans
who were by illhap slain with weapons or did die of grief for those
that were slain - and only so might the Eldar die, and then it was
only for a while. There Mandos spake their doom, and there they
waited in the darkness, dreaming of their past deeds, until such time
as he appointed when they might again be born into their children,
and go forth to laugh and sing again.
And in the original Music of the Ainur (1.59) it is said of the Elves that
'dying they are reborn in their children, so that their number minishes
not, nor grows.'
In the Quenta (IV.100, deriving from the 'Sketch of the Mythology',
IV.21) the idea of rebirth is qualified:
Immortal were the Elves, and their wisdom waxed and grew from
age to age, and no sickness or pestilence brought them death. But
they could be slain with weapons in those days, even by mortal
Men, and some waned and wasted with sorrow till they faded from
the earth. Slain or fading their spirits went back to the halls of
Mandos to wait a thousand years, or the pleasure of Mandos
according to their deserts, before they were recalled to free life in
Valinor, or were reborn, it is said, into their own children.
In QS the corresponding passage ($85, V.246) was much enlarged:
Immortal were the Elves, and their wisdom waxed from age to age,
and no sickness nor pestilence brought death to them. Yet their
bodies were of the stuff of earth and could be destroyed, and in
those days they were more like to the bodies of Men, and to the
earth, since they had not so long been inhabited by the fire of the
spirit, which consumeth them from within in the courses of time.
Therefore they could perish in the tumults of the world, and stone
and water had power over them, and they could be slain with
weapons in those days, even by mortal Men. And outside Valinor
they tasted bitter grief, and some wasted and waned with sorrow,
until they faded from the earth. Such was the measure of their
mortality foretold in the Doom of Mandos spoken in Eruman. But if
they were slain or wasted with grief, they died not from the earth,
and their spirits went back to the halls of Mandos, and there waited,
days or years, even a thousand, according to the will of Mandos and
their deserts. Thence they are recalled at length to freedom, either as
spirits, taking form according to their own thought, as the lesser
folk of the divine race; or else, it is said, they are at times re-born
into their own children, and the ancient wisdom of their race does
not perish or grow less.
At the end of the Ainulindale it is said (I cite the final text D, p. 37, but
the passage goes back almost unchanged to the pre-Lord of the Rings
version, V.163):
For the Eldar die not till the world dies, unless they are slain or
waste in grief (and to both these seeming deaths they are subject);
neither does age subdue their strength, unless one grow weary of ten
thousand centuries; and dying they are gathered in the halls of
Mandos in Valinor, whence often they return and are reborn among
their children.
And in the Doom of the Noldor as it appears in AAm ($154, p. 117) it
was declared:
For know now that though Eru appointed unto you to die not in Ea,
and no sickness may assail you, yet slain may ye be, and slain ye
shall be: by weapon and by torment and by grief; and your
houseless spirits shall come then to Mandos. There long shall ye
abide and yearn for your bodies and find little pity though all whom
ye have slain should entreat for you.
The meaning of this, I feel sure, is: It is contrary indeed to the 'right
nature' of the Elves that they should die, but nonetheless death may
come to them.
The testimony of all these passages (and others not cited), early and
late, is that Elvish 'death' (or 'seeming death', in the words of the
Ainulindale') was always a possible fate, deriving from their nature as
incarnate beings. But there is a constant threat of ambiguity imposed
by the words that must be used. The Elves cannot 'die' in the sense that
Men 'die', since Men (by the Gift of Iluvatar) depart from the 'world'
never to return, whereas the Elves cannot depart from it so long as it
lasts. In the legend of Beren and Luthien Mandos offered her a choice:
and the doom that she chose was that the destiny decreed by her
nature should be changed. 'So it was that alone of the Eldalie she has
died indeed, and left the world long ago' (The Silmarillion p. 187). But
the Elves can nonetheless suffer the severance of spirit from body,
which is 'death'. Thus it may be said that the essential distinction
between the (possible) death of Elves and the (inevitable) death of Men
is a difference of destiny after death. See V.304; and cf. Laws and
Customs, p. 218: 'From their beginnings the chief difference between
Elves and Men lay in the fate and nature of their spirits. The fear of the
Elves were destined to dwell in Arda for all the life of Arda, and the
death of the flesh did not abrogate that destiny.'
In a draft for a letter written in October 1958 (see p. 300) my father
discussed the meaning of the 'immortality' of the Elves (Letters no.
212):
In this mythical 'prehistory' immortality, strictly longevity co-
extensive with the life of Arda, was part of the given nature of the
Elves; beyond the End nothing was revealed. Mortality, that is a
short life-span having no relation to the life of Arda, is spoken of as
the given nature of Men...
In the Elvish legends there is record of a strange case of an Elf
(Miriel mother of Feanor) that tried to die, which had disastrous
results, leading to the 'Fall' of the High-elves. The Elves were not
subject to disease, but they could be 'slain': that is their bodies could
be destroyed, or mutilated so as to be unfit to sustain life. But this
did not lead naturally to 'death': they were rehabilitated and reborn
and eventually recovered memory of all their past: they remained
'identical'. But Miriel wished to abandon being, and refused rebirth.
'But Miriel wished to abandon being': this is a dark saying. There is
nothing in any of the accounts to suggest that she desired annihilation,
the ending of her existence in any form. In Laws and Customs (p. 222)
my father wrote that 'some fear in grief or weariness gave up hope,
and turning away from life relinquished their bodies, even though
these might have been healed or were indeed unhurt. Few of these...
desired to be re-born, not at least until they had been long in
"waiting"; some never returned.' This surely accords with what is told
of the death of Miriel.
It seems, at any rate, that when my father said here that Miriel 'tried
to die' he meant that she sought a 'true death': not a 'seeming death',
but a departure for ever out of Arda. Yet this could not be: for death in
this sense was contrary to 'the given nature of the Elves', appointed by
Iluvatar; and indeed, in Of Finwe' and Miriel ($20) Mandos spoke to
the fea of Miriel, saying: 'In Mandos thou shalt abide. But take heed!
Thou art of the Quendi, and even if thou refuse the body, thou must
remain in Arda and within the time of its history.'
But the 'seeming death' to which the Elves are subject had never yet
appeared in Aman in all the long years since the Vanyar and the
Noldor came to Eldamar. In the Annals of Aman, written before
the story of Miriel had arisen, Feanor spoke before the Valar after the
Death of the Trees ($$120 - 1, p. 107):
'... Mayhap I can unlock my jewels, but never again shall I make
their like; and if they be broken, then broken will be my heart, and I
shall die: first of all the Children of Eru.'
'Not the first,' quoth Mandos, but they understood not his
word...
Mandos knew that Morgoth had murdered Finwe at Formenos, 'and
spilled the first blood of the Children of Iluvatar' ($122).
Against the words of Mandos my father afterwards noted on the
AAm typescript (p. 127, $120): 'This no longer fits even the Eldar of
Valinor. Finwe Feanor's father was first to be slain of the High-elves,
Miriel Feanor's mother the first to die', and on the text itself he
changed Feanor's 'I shall die' to 'I shall be slain'. It might seem that a dis-
tinction is made here between 'dying' and 'being slain', but I do not
think that this is the case. What is meant is simply that Miriel was the
first to die, and Finwe was the second to die - but the first to be slain.
After the story of Miriel had entered Feanor could no longer say 'I
shall die: first of all the Children of Eru'; my father therefore, wishing
to retain the pregnant words of Mandos 'Not the first', altered
Feanor's to 'I shall be slain'.
Much later, this passage in AAm was used again in the new work on
the Quenta Silmarillion (see p. 293), taking this form:
'... and I shall be slain, first of all the Children of Eru.'
'Not the first,' quoth Mandos, but they did not understand his
words, thinking that he spoke of Miriel.
The meaning here seems to be that those who heard the words of
Mandos (speaking of the murder of Finwe as yet unknown to them)
thought that he spoke of Miriel, because she was the only one of the
Eldar whom they knew to have died; but since Miriel had not been
slain 'they did not understand his words'. Even so, it cannot be
supposed that Finwe was the first to be slain of the Children of Eru; cf.
my father's note on the AAm typescript 'This no longer fits even the
Eldar of Valinor, and the passage in Laws and Customs, p. 218: This
destruction of the hroa, causing death or the unhousing of the fea, was
soon experienced by the immortal Eldar, when they awoke in the
marred and overshadowed realm of Arda.'
It is made plain in Laws and Customs and in the new 'sub-chapter'
of the Quenta Silmarillion that the primary significance of the death of
Miriel is that it was the first appearance of Death in Aman; and the
debate was concerned with this unlooked-for event, and its implica-
tions for the laws that governed the life of deathless Aman. In Laws
and Customs (p. 241) Yavanna declared that 'the Shadow ... has
marred the very hron of Arda, and all Middle-earth is perverted by
the evil of Melkor ... Therefore none of those who awoke in
Middle-earth, and there dwelt before they came hither, have come
here wholly free. The failing of the strength of the body of Miriel
may then be ascribed, with some reason, to the evil of Arda Marred,
and her death be a thing unnatural.' In FM 2 (p. 254) this thought,
represented as a new perception on the part of the Valar, takes this
form:
And the Valar were greatly concerned to see that all their labour for
the guarding of Valinor was of no avail, to keep out evil and the
shadow of Melkor, if any thing, living or unliving, was brought
thither out of Middle-earth and left free or unguarded; and they
perceived at last how great was the power of Melkor in Arda, in the
making of which as it was his part was such that all things, save in
Aman alone, had an inclination to evil and to perversion from their
right forms and courses. Wherefore those whose being began in
Arda, and who moreover were by nature a union of spirit and body,
drawing the sustenance of the latter from Arda Marred, must
ever be, in some degree, liable to grief, to do or to suffer things
unnatural; and though dwelling in Aman might be a guard against
this evil, it was not a full cure, unless in long ages.
This was largely retained in the final text FM 4 (p. 258, $11), though
without the references to Aman; and Mandos expressly declared that
Death (i.e. of the Firstborn) is a consequence of the Marring of Arda
($12).
In the draft letter of 1958 cited above in reference to the death of
Miriel my father continued:
I suppose a difference between this Myth and what may be
perhaps called Christian mythology is this. In the latter the Fall of
Man is subsequent to and a consequence (though not a necessary l
consequence) of the 'Fall of the Angels': a rebellion of created
free-will at a higher level than Man; but it is not clearly held (and in
many versions is not held at all) that this affected the 'World' in its
nature: evil was brought in from outside, by Satan. In this Myth the
rebellion of created free-will precedes creation of the World (Ea);
Ea has in it, subcreatively introduced, evil, rebellious, discordant
elements of its own nature already when the Let it Be was spoken.
The Fall or corruption, therefore, of all things in it and all
inhabitants of it, was a possibility if not inevitable.
In Of Finwe' and Miriel all this is presented as a new perception, or
at least as a greatly sharpened perception, by the Valar; and 'with this
thought a shadow passed over the hearts of the Valar, presage of the
sorrows which the Children should bring into the world.' One might
wonder that it needed the death of Miriel to bring the Powers of Arda
to this perception. One might wonder also how it should be that even
in Aman none of the Eldar were drowned in the sea or missed their
footing in the mountains and fell from a great height. This latter
consideration is indeed countered to some degree by what is told of the
corporeal nature of the Elves. Their bodies are described as closely
analogous to those of mortal Men, but against this is to be set the
following passage from Laws and Customs (p. 218):
The fear of the Elves were destined to dwell in Arda for all the life of
Arda, and the death of the flesh did not abrogate that destiny. Their
fear were tenacious therefore of life 'in the raiment of Arda', and far
excelled the spirits of Men in power over that 'raiment', even from
the first days protecting their bodies from many ills and assaults
(such as disease), and healing them swiftly of injuries, so that they
recovered from wounds that would have proved fatal to Men.
This, however, while diminishing the physical vulnerability of the
Elves as compared with Men, does not alter the fact that the actual
destruction of such bodies by violence is an inherent possibility in the
nature of Arda: 'though the fea cannot be broken or disintegrated by
any violence from without, the hroa can be hurt and may be utterly
destroyed' (ibid.). Very explicit are the words of Manwe in his final
address to the Valar before the proclamation of the Statute (p. 244):
[The Elves] came into Arda Marred, and were destined to do so, and
to endure the Marring, even though they came in their beginning
from beyond Ea.... We may say, therefore, that the Elves are
destined to know 'death' in their mode, being sent into a world
which contains 'death', and having a form for which 'death' is
possible. For though by their prime nature, unmarred, they rightly
dwell as spirit and body coherent, yet these are two things, not the
same, and their severance (which is 'death') is a possibility inherent
in their union.
But it is made plain that while, on the one hand, this possibility of
'death' for the Elves was a consequence of the Marring of Arda by
Melkor, on the other hand the death of Miriel so gravely disquieted
the Valar because it was the first that had taken place in Aman. Is it to
be supposed, then, that until this time the Valar had been deluded,
believing falsely that the incarnate Elves, by the fact of their dwelling
in Aman, were protected from all possibility of the severance of spirit
and body, in any of the ways that such severance might come about in
Middle-earth - believing indeed that the Marring of Arda and the
possibility of death for the incarnate had effect only east of the Great
Sea, and only now discovering the falsity of this belief when Miriel
died? (See the passage from 'text VII' on p. 400.)
The 'immortality' of the Elves (co-extensive with the 'life' of Arda),
their deaths and rebirths, were deep-laid and fundamental elements in
my father's conception. At this time he was subjecting these ideas to an
elaborate analysis, and extending that analysis to the ideas of 'death-
less Aman' and the significance of Melkor in the perversion of
Creation as it had been expounded to the Ainur by Iluvatar in the
Beginning. This analysis is, in part, presented as a debate among the
Valar themselves, in which they reach new perceptions concerning
the nature of Arda; but the theoretical discussion of moral and natural
laws is given an immediate dimension from its arising out of the
strange story of the griefs of Finwe and Miriel. That story was retained
in the published Silmarillion, but with no intimation of its implications
for the Rulers of Arda and the loremasters of the Elves.
In these writings is seen my father's preoccupation in the years
following the publication of The Lord of the Rings with the philo-
sophical aspects of the mythology and its systemisation. Of the
deliberations of the Gods the sages of the Eldar preserved a record
among the books of their law. How far away from these grave Doctors
seems the 'horned moon' that rode over AElfwine's ship off the coasts
of the Lonely Isle (11.321), as 'the long night of Faerie held on'!
AElfwine is still present as communicator and commentator; but there
have been great changes in Elfinesse.
*
OF FEANOR AND THE UNCHAINING OF MELKOR.
The previous 'sub-chapter' Of Finwe' and Miriel has reached only, in
terms of the earlier Chapter 6, to the end of $46b (p. 185). For the
next section there are only two late texts, continuing straight on in the
typescripts that I have called FM 3 and FM 4 (pp. 255 - 6): from this
point it is convenient to call them 'A' and 'B'. A, though a finished text,
is in effect a draft for the second typescript (B) that clearly followed it
immediately, and need not be further considered beyond noting that
it does not contain the new passage about Feanor's wife, and that the
title is Of Feanor and the Silmarils and the Darkening of Valinor: this
text makes no further subdivisions.
In this section my father did not greatly alter (except by the addition
concerning Feanor's wife) the text of LQ, $$46c - 48, and the changes
can be recorded without giving the whole text again. Very minor
differences are not mentioned.
$46c The only difference here from LQ is that Feanor's hair is said to
have been 'raven-dark'. But at the end of the paragraph, after
'Seldom were the hand and mind of Feanor at rest', the
following passage was added:
While still in early youth Feanor wedded Nerdanel, a
maiden of the Noldor; at which many wondered, for she
was not among the fairest of her people. But she was
strong, and free of mind, and filled with the desire of
knowledge. In her youth she loved to wander far from the
dwellings of the Noldor, either beside the long shores of
the Sea or in the hills; and thus she and Feanor had met
and were companions in many journeys. Her father,
Mahtan, was a great smith, and among those of the
Noldor most dear to the heart of Aule. Of Mahtan
Nerdanel learned much of crafts that women of the
Noldor seldom used: the making of things of metal and
stone. She made images, some of the Valar in their forms
visible, and many others of men and women of the Eldar,
and these were so like that their friends, if they knew not
her art, would speak to them; but many things she
wrought also of her own thought in shapes strong and
strange but beautiful.
She also was firm of will, but she was slower and more
patient than Feanor, desiring to understand minds rather
than to master them. When in company with others she
would often sit still listening to their words, and watching
their gestures and the movements of their faces. Her mood
she bequeathed in part to some of her sons, but not to all.
Seven sons she bore to Feanor, and it is not recorded in the
histories of old that any others of the Eldar had so many
children. With her wisdom at first she restrained Feanor
when the fire of his heart burned too hot; but his later
deeds grieved her and they became estranged.
Now even while Feanor and the craftsmen of the
Noldor wrought with delight, foreseeing no end to their
labours, and while the sons of Indis grew to manhood, the
Noontide of Valinor was drawing to its close.
The text then continues as in LQ $47 (p. 185). - The name
Nerdanel of Feanor's wife was an emendation: the original
name as typed was Istarnie.
$47 LQ 'at the feet of the gods' becomes 'at the feet of the Mighty'.
$48 'and most of all in the healing of the many hurts that he had
done to the world. His prayer Nienna aided, but the others were
silent.'
From LQ 'Wherefore in a while he was allowed to go freely
about the land' the text was changed:
Therefore after a time Manwe gave him leave to go freely
about the land. The evil that Melkor had wrought of old
in wrath and malice was beyond full healing [cf. p. 259,
$11], but his aid, if he would truly give it, would do more
than aught else to amend the world. For Melkor was in his
beginning the greatest of the Powers, and Manwe believed
that if he were repentant he would regain in great part his
first might and wisdom. On this path he judged that
Melkor was now set, and would persevere if he were
treated without grudge. Jealousy and rancour Manwe was
slow to perceive, for he knew them not in himself; and he
did not understand that all love had departed from the
mind of Melkor for ever.
Ulmo, it is said, was not deceived; and Tulkas clenched
his hands whenever he saw Melkor his foe go by, for if
Tulkas is slow to wrath, he is slow also to forget. But they
obeyed the ruling of Manwe; for those who will defend
authority against rebellion must not themselves rebel.
*
OF THE SILMARILS AND THE UNREST
OF THE NOLDOR.
This chapter-heading is present only in the second of the two late
typescripts (B), and it was there written in subsequently. The first of
the texts (A) was still fairly close to LQ $$49 - 54; though many
changes were introduced they are for the most part of slight if any
narrative significance. Here again it was effectively a draft for the
second text and need not be further considered. The second text,
however, was much altered and expanded in the latter part of the
'sub-chapter'.
$49 Most fair of all was Melkor's countenance to the Eldar,
and he aided them in many works, if they would let him. The
Vanyar indeed held him in suspicion, for they dwelt in the light
of the Trees and were content; and to the Teleri he gave little
heed, deeming them of little worth, tools too weak for his
designs. But the Noldor took delight in the hidden knowledge
that he could reveal to them; and some hearkened to words that
it would have been better for them never to have heard.
$49a In after days Melkor indeed declared that Feanor had
learned much art from him in secret; but that was only one of
the many lies of Melkor, envying the skill of Feanor and desiring
to claim part in his works. For none of the Eldalie ever hated
Melkor more than Feanor son of Finwe, and though he was
snared in the webs of Melkor's malice against the Valar, he held
no converse with him in person, and he took no counsel from
him. Indeed he sought the counsel of none that dwelt in Aman,
great or small, save only and for a little while of Nerdanel the
wise, his wife.
$49b In that time, but before Melkor was given his freedom
within the land of Aman, those things were wrought that
afterwards were the most renowned of all the works of the
Elvenfolk. For Feanor, being now come to his full might, was
filled with a new thought, or maybe some shadow of foreboding
came to him of the doom that drew near; and he pondered how
the Light of the Trees, the glory of the Blessed Realm, might be
preserved imperishable. Then he began a long and secret labour,
and he summoned all his lore, and his power, and his subtle
craft, for the making of jewels more marvellous than any that
had yet been devised, whose beauty should last beyond the End.
Three jewels he made, and named them the Silmarils. A living
fire burned within them that was blended of the Light of the
Two Trees. Of their own radiance they shone, even in the dark
of the deepest treasury; yet all lights that fell upon them,
however faint, they received and returned again in marvellous
hues to which their own inner fire gave a surpassing loveliness.
No mortal flesh, nor hands unclean, nor anything of evil will
could touch them, but it was scorched and withered; neither
could they be broken by any strength within the Kingdom of
Arda. The Silmarils the Eldar prized beyond all other treasures
in Aman or upon Earth; and Varda hallowed them, and
Mandos foretold that the fates of Arda, earth, sea, and air, lay
locked within them. The heart of Feanor was fast bound to
these things that he himself had made.
$50 Then Melkor lusted also for the Silmarils; and from
that time inflamed by this desire the malice of his heart grew
greater, though naught of it could yet be seen in the semblance
that he wore, or in the fair form that he assumed, after the
manner of the Valar, his brethren.
Therefore, whenever he saw his chances, he began to sow a
seed of falsehood and hints of evil among all who were open to
his converse. But he did this with cunning, so that few who
heard these lies ever took them from his own lips: they passed
from friend to friend, as secrets the knowledge of which proves
the teller wise; and in the telling they grew and spread, like
weeds running up rank in shady places. Bitterly the people of
the Noldor atoned for the folly of their open ears in days to
come.
When he saw that many leaned towards him, Melkor would
often walk among them, speaking ever words of greatest praise,
sweet but poisoned honey; for amid all the fair words others
were woven, so subtly that many who heard them believed in
recollection that they arose from their own thought. Visions he
would conjure up in their hearts of the mighty realms that they
could have ruled at their own will in power and freedom in the
East; and then whispers went abroad that the Valar had
brought the Eldar to Aman because of their jealousy, fearing
that the beauty of the Quendi and the makers' power that
Iluvatar had bequeathed to them would grow too great for the
Valar to govern, as the Elvenfolk waxed and spread over the
wide lands of the world.
In those days, moreover, though the Valar knew indeed of the
coming of Men that were to be, the Elves as yet knew naught of
it; for Manwe had not revealed it to them, and the time was not
yet near. But Melkor spoke to them in secret of Mortal Men,
seeing how the silence of the Valar might be twisted to evil.
Little he knew yet concerning Men, for engrossed with his own
thought in the Music he had paid small heed to the Second
Theme of Iluvatar; but now the whisper went among the Elves
that Manwe held them captive, so that Men might come and
supplant them in the dominions of the Middle-earth. For the
Valar saw that this weaker and short-lived race would be more
easily swayed by them. Alas! little have the Valar ever prevailed
to sway the wills of Men; but many of the Noldor believed, or
half believed, these evil words.
$51 Thus ere the Valar were aware, the peace of Valinor
was poisoned. The Noldor began to murmur against them and
all their kindred; and many became filled with vanity, forgetting
how much of what they had and knew came to them in gift from
the Valar. Fiercest burned the new flame of desire for freedom
and wider realms in the eager heart of Feanor; and Melkor
laughed in his secrecy, for to that mark his lies had been
addressed, hating Feanor above all, and lusting ever for the
Silmarils. But these he was not suffered to approach. For though
at great feasts Feanor would wear them blazing upon his brow,
at other times they were guarded close, locked in the deep
chambers of his hoard in Tuna. There were no thieves in
Valinor as yet; but Feanor began to love the Silmarils with a
greedy love, and grudged the sight of them to all, save to his
father or to his sons. Seldom he remembered now that the light
with which they were lit was not his own.
$52 High princes were Feanor and Fingolfin, the elder sons
of Finwe, honoured by all in Aman; but now they grew proud
and jealous each of his rights and his possessions. And lo!
Melkor then set new lies abroad, and whispers came to Feanor
that Fingolfin and his sons were plotting to usurp the leadership
of Finwe and of the elder line of Feanor, and to supplant them
by the leave of the Valar: for the Valar were ill pleased that the
Silmarils lay in Tuna and were not given to their keeping. But to
Fingolfin and Finarfin it was said: 'Beware! Small love has the
proud son of Miriel ever had for the children of Indis. Now he
has become great, and he has his father in his hand. It will not
be long before he drives you forth from Tuna!'
$52a It is told also that when Melkor saw that these lies
were smouldering he began to speak, first to the sons of Feanor,
and at other times to the sons of Indis, concerning weapons and
armour, and of the power that they give to him that has them to
defend his own (as he said). Now the Quendi had possessed
weapons in Middle-earth, but not of their own devising. They
had been made by Aule and sent as gifts by the hand of Orome,
when it became known to the Valar that the Quendi were beset
by prowling evils that had discovered the places of their
dwelling beside Cuivienen; and more were sent later for the
defence of the Eldar upon the Great March to the shores of
the Sea. But all these were long unused, and lay in hoard as
memorials of old days half-forgotten; and since the chaining of
Melkor the armouries of the Valar also had been shut.
$52b But now the lords of the Noldor took out their swords
and spears and sharpened them, re-strung their bows and filled
their quivers with arrows. And they made shields in those days
and emblazoned them with devices of silver and gold and gems.
These only they wore abroad, and of other weapons they did
not speak, for each believed that he alone had received the
warning. But when Feanor got wind of what was being done, he
made for himself a secret forge, of which not even Melkor was
aware; and there he wrought fell swords of tempered steel for
himself and for his seven sons, and tall helms with plumes of
red. Bitterly Mahtan rued the day when he had taught to the
husband of Nerdanel, his daughter, all the lore of metal work
that he learned of Aule.
$52c Thus with lies and evil whisperings and false counsel
Melkor kindled the hearts of the Noldor to strife; and of their
quarrels came at length the end of the high days of Valinor and
the evening of its ancient glory. For Feanor now began openly to
speak words of rebellion against the Valar, crying aloud that he
would depart from Valinor back to the world without, and
would deliver the Noldor from thraldom (as he said), if they
would follow him.
$52d Then there was great unrest in Tuna, and Finwe was
troubled, and he summoned all his lords to council. But
Fingolfin hastened to his halls and stood before him, saying:
'King and father, wilt thou not restrain the pride of our brother,
Curufinwe, who is called the Spirit of Fire, all too truly? By
what right does he speak for all our people, as were he king?
Thou it was who long ago spoke before the Quendi, bidding
them accept the guesting of the Mighty in Aman. Thou it was
that led the Noldor upon the long road through the perilous
Earth to the light of Eldanor. If this does not now repent thee,
two sons at least thou hast to honour thy words!'
$52e But even as he spoke, suddenly Feanor appeared, and
he strode into the chamber tall and threatening. A fire of anger
was in his eyes, and he was fully armed: his high helm upon his
head, and at his side a mighty sword. 'So it is, even as I guessed,'
he said: 'my half-brother would be before me with my father, in
this as in all other matters. He would not wait for the council,
where all words would be heard by all, and answered. He would
speak against me in secret. This I will not brook!' he cried,
turning upon Fingolfin. 'Get thee gone, and take thy due place!'
Then as a flash of flame he drew his sword. 'Get thee gone and
dare my wrath no longer!'
$52f Then Fingolfin bowed before Finwe, and without
word or glance at Feanor he went from the chamber. But Feanor
followed him, and at the door of the king's house he stayed him.
The point of his bright sword he set against Fingolfin's breast.
'See, half-brother!' he said. 'This is sharper than thy tongue. Try
but once more to usurp my place and the love of my father, and
maybe it will rid the Noldor of a would-be master of thralls.'
$52g These words were heard by many, for the house of
Finwe was in the great square beneath the Mindon, and many
people were gathered there. But Fingolfin again made no
answer, and passing through the throng in silence he went to
seek Finarfin his brother.
$52h The unrest of the Noldor was not indeed hidden from
the Valar; but its seed had been sown in the dark; and therefore,
since Feanor first spoke openly against the Valar, they deemed
that he was the mover of discontent, being eminent in self-will
and arrogance, though all the Noldor had become proud. It
was, maybe, the nature of the Children that as they grew they
should become wilful, and should desire to escape from tutel-
age, remembering it with little gratitude. Therefore Manwe was
grieved, but he watched and said no word. The Valar had
brought the Eldar to their land freely, to dwell or to depart; and
though they might judge departure to be folly, it would not be
lawful to restrain them from it, if wise counsel did not suffice.
$53 But now the deeds of Feanor could not be passed over,
and the Valar were wroth; and dismayed also, perceiving that
more was at work than the wilfulness of youth. Therefore
Manwe summoned Feanor to appear before the Valar to answer
for all his words and deeds, and he was brought to the gates of
Valmar. Thither also were summoned all others who had any
part in the matter, or any knowledge thereof, or any grievance
of their own to declare.
$53a Then Mandos set Feanor before him in the Ring of
Doom and bade him answer to all that was asked of him. Great
must be the power and will of any who would lie to Mandos, or
even refuse his questioning. But Feanor had no thought of it. He
was so besotted with the lies of Melkor that had taken root in
his proud heart (though he did not yet clearly perceive their
source) that he judged himself justified in all points, and other
judgement he scorned.
$53b But when all was said, and all the testimonies were
spoken, and words and deeds were brought out of the dark into
the light, then at last the root was laid bare: the malice of
Melkor was revealed, and his lies and half-lies made plain for all
to recognize who had the will to see. Straightway Tulkas was
sent from the council to lay hands on Melkor and bring him
again to judgement. But Feanor was not held wholly guiltless in
himself. For he had forged secret swords, and had drawn one
in anger unjustified, threatening the life of his kinsman.
$53c Therefore Mandos said to him: 'Thou speakest of
thraldom. If thraldom it be, thou canst not escape it. For
Manwe is King of Arda, and not of Aman only. And this deed
was unlawful, whether in Aman or not in Aman. Though more
insolent in Aman, for it is a hallowed land. Therefore this doom
is now made: for twelve years thou shalt leave Tuna where this
threat was uttered. In that time take counsel with thyself, and
remember who and what thou art. But after that time this
matter shall be set in peace and held redressed, if others will
release thee.'
$53d Then Fingolfin rose and said: 'I will release my
brother.' But Feanor spoke no word in answer; and when he
had stood silent before the Valar for a while, he turned and left
the council and departed from Valmar. At once he returned to
Tuna, and before the term of seven days that was set, he
gathered his goods and his treasures and left the city and went
far away. With him went his sons, and Finwe his father, who
would not be parted from him, in fault or guiltless, and some
others also of the Noldor. But Nerdanel would not go with him,
and she asked leave to abide with Indis, whom she had ever
esteemed, though this had been little to the liking of Feanor.
Northward in Valinor, in the hills near to the halls of Mandos,
Feanor and his sons made a strong place and a treasury at
Formenos, and they laid in hoard a multitude of gems, and
weapons also: they did not put aside the swords that Feanor had
made. But Fingolfin now ruled the Noldor in Tuna; and thus the
very words of Melkor seemed to be fulfilled (though it was
Feanor who had by his own deeds brought this thing to pass);
and the bitterness that Melkor had sown endured, even though
his lies had been made manifest. Long afterward it lived still
between Feanor and the sons of Indis.
$54 Worse now befell. In vain Tulkas sought for Melkor.
For Melkor, knowing that his devices were revealed, hid himself
and passed from place to place as a cloud in the hills. And
though none could discover whither he had gone, it seemed that
the light of Valinor was dimmed, and the shadows of all
standing things grew longer and darker in that time. It is said
that for two years no one in Valinor saw Melkor again, nor
heard any rumour of him, until suddenly he sought out Feanor.
Secretly he came to Formenos, in guise as a traveller that seeks
for lodging; and he spoke with Feanor before his door.
Friendship he feigned with cunning argument, urging him to his
former thought of flight from the trammels of the Valar.
'Behold the truth of all that I have spoken, and how thou art
banished unjustly,' he said. 'But if the heart of Feanor is still
undaunted, as it was in Tuna, then I will aid him and bring him
far from this narrow land. For am I not Vala also? Yea, and
more than those who sit here in pride. I have ever been a friend
of the Noldor, knowing their worth: the most skilled and the
most valiant of all the folk of Arda.'
Now Feanor's heart was still bitter at his humiliation before
Mandos, and for a moment he paused and looked at Melkor in
silence, wondering if indeed he might trust him so far at least as
to aid his escape. But Melkor's cunning overreached his aim,
and seeing Feanor hesitate, and knowing that the Silmarils held
his heart in thrall, he said at the last: 'Here is a strong place well
guarded, but think not that the Silmarils will lie safe in any
treasury within the realm of the Valar!'
Then the fires of' the heart of Feanor were kindled, and his
eyes blazed; and his sight burned through all the fair-semblance
of Melkor to the dark depths of his mind, perceiving there his
fierce lust for the Silmarils. Then hate overcame Feanor's fear,
and he spoke shamefully to Melkor, saying: 'Get thee from my
gate, gangrel! Thou jail-crow of Mandos!' And he shut the door
of his house in the face of the mightiest of all the dwellers in Ea.
Then Melkor departed in shame, for he was himself in peril,
and he saw not his time yet for revenge; but his heart was black
with anger. And Finwe was filled with great dread, and in haste
he sent messengers to Manwe in Valmar.
Commentary.
In the first part of this 'sub-chapter' Of the Silmarils and the Unrest of
the Noldor the story as it was told in LQ (pp. 184 ff.) was scarcely
changed even in detail, despite the many changes of wording intro-
duced in this last version - except in the matter of the weapons of the
Eldar ($$52a,b). In QS, where the matter first entered (V.228, note by
pengolod to $49), it was said that 'the Elves had before possessed only
weapons of the chase, spears and bows and arrows', but that now,
under the influence of Melkor, the Noldor 'learned the fashioning of
swords of tempered steel, and the making of mail' and shields. This
was rewritten in LQ $50 (p. 188), still as an observation made by
Pengolod, to read that the Elves had originally possessed no weapons,
and that now they learned the making of all kinds of arms, swords,
spears, bows and arrows. Similarly in AAm $97 (p. 96): 'Melkor
spoke to the Eldar concerning weapons, which they had not before
possessed or known'; but my father afterwards noted on the typescript
of AAm (p. 106, $97): 'No! They must have had weapons on the Great
Journey.' Feeling a need to explain how the Quendi survived 'amid the
deceits of the starlit dusk', and concluding that they must have been
armed in Middle-earth, he adopted the (to my mind) somewhat
mechanical narrative device introduced here ($52a).
Explanations in such a world may prompt unneeded reflections. The
passage of Orome on his horse Nahar from Aman to Middle-earth is
never described, nor (I would say) need it be, nor should it be; the
movements of the great Valar (and indeed of the lesser divine, as
Melian) are a mystery that we do not seek to penetrate. They are from
beyond Arda and do not derive from it. In the (very old) story of the
transportation of the three original Elvish 'ambassadors' from
Kuivienen to Valinor we might wonder with more right, perhaps, how
they journeyed, for the Elves, whatever their powers, are Children of
Earth, and must live and move in the physical world of Arda. My
father never said any more about that; and we may suppose, if we will,
that they passed over the Grinding Ice, borne upon Nahar.* But that
he perceived a need to respond, at a certain level, to speculation of this
kind is apparent from this story of Orome's bringing to the Eldar a
great store of weapons made in Valinor - for the store must have been
great to be useful in the protection of such a host.
In the latter part of the new version the story is greatly developed,
and yet not in such a way as to contradict the earlier versions - which
can be read as a synopsis of the latest. It may indeed be that the story
(* Cf. the story referred to in the old 'Sketch of the Mythology', that 'Luthien
went even over the Grinding Ice, aided by the power of her divine mother,
Melian, to Mandos' halls' (IV.25, 55).
of Feanor's fierce encounter with Fingolfin in the house of Finwe was
present to my father's mind already when he wrote LQ (end of $52),
though he did not actually recount it till much later.
It is worth remarking that in writing the new version he also had an
eye to AAm; thus in $54 he took up the words of Melkor to Feanor at
Formenos in AAm $101 (p. 97) - though removing the sentence 'And
think not that the Silmarils lie safe in any treasury within the realm of
the gods' from its place in AAm and using it as it was used in LQ, the
sudden clue for Feanor of Melkor's true intention.
There remain a few isolated points. In both texts of the last version
occurs the phrase in $49b: 'The Silmarils the Eldar prized beyond all
other treasures in Aman or upon Earth'. This usage goes back a long
way (see the Index to Vol.IV, entries Earth and World), unsuitable as
it may seem to the world in which Aman was physically approachable
across the Sea. But the Earth is Middle-earth: it is not the equivalent of
Arda; cf. also $52d: 'Thou it was that led the Noldor upon the long
road through the perilous Earth to the light of Eldanor.'
It is also curious that Tuna is now used at every occurrence, not
Tirion; see p. 90, $67, and p. 193, $52.
In $50 it is said of Melkor that 'Little he knew yet concerning Men,
for engrossed with his own thought in the Music he had paid small
heed to the Second Theme of Iluvatar'. Compare the Ainulindale' (both
the C and D texts) $13: the Children of Iluvatar 'came with the Third
Theme', and $24: Manwe 'was the chief instrument of the second
Theme that Iluvatar had raised up against the discord of Melkor.' See
further p. 358 note 10.
The names Fingolfin and Finarfin are thus spelt in B, but in A
Fingolphin and Finarphin (see p. 265 note 10). In the Second Edition
of The Lord of the Rings (1966) Finarphin was spelt thus, later
changed on my suggestion to Finarfin (Appendix F, Of the Elves).
OF THE DARKENING OF VALINOR.
The first of the two late typescripts (A) comes to an end after a few
lines of this next 'sub-chapter', in which LQ $55 was followed
virtually word for word; and it ends at exactly the same point as does
the LQ rewriting of QS (see p. 190 and note 8). For the next part of the
narrative, therefore, we have on the one hand the text of QS ($$55 - 9),
with the very few revisions that had been made to it in the revision of
1951, and on the other the much later and very greatly expanded
version that follows here, extant throughout almost all its length only
in the one typescript B. There is also a single typescript page,
intermediate between A and B, which extends a short way
further than does A; and much extremely rough working for the
chapter in its late form which is for the most part scarcely legible.
Much of this final version of the story of Melkor and Ungoliante
and the destruction of the Trees stands in such close relationship to
AAm that it would be possible, for some sections of the text, to be
content with reference to AAm and notes of the differences; nonethe-
less I give the text in full, for these reasons. First, because despite the
closeness to AAm there is also a major transformation of the legend;
and second, because the relation between the two traditions, The
Silmarillion and the Annals, here takes a new turn, and this is
important for the understanding of the nature of the published
Silmarillion, and its justification. It would be less easy to follow these
interesting developments if part of the text appeared only in notes
referring to another text.
$55 Now the Valar were sitting in council before the gates
of Valmar, fearing the lengthening of the shadows, when the
messengers came from Finwe. At once Orome and Tulkas
sprang up, but even as they set out in pursuit other messengers
brought tidings from Eldanor. Melkor had fled through the
Kalakiryan, and from the hill of Tuna the Elves had seen him
pass in wrath as a thunder-cloud. 'Then,' said they, 'he turned
northward, and our kinsfolk in Alqualonde report that his
Shadow went by their haven towards Araman.'
Thus Melkor departed from Valinor, and for a while the Two
Trees shone again unshadowed and the land was filled with
light; yet as a cloud far off that looms ever higher, borne upon a
slow cold wind, a doubt now marred the joy of all the dwellers
in Aman, dreading they knew not what evil that yet might come.
$55a When Manwe heard of the ways that Melkor had
taken, it seemed plain to him that Melkor purposed to escape to
his old strongholds in the North of Middle-earth, as was indeed
his most likely course. Though there was little hope in this,
Orome and Tulkas with many of their folk went with all speed
northward, seeking to overtake him if they might; but they
found no trace or rumour of him beyond the shores of the
Teleri, and in the unpeopled wastes that draw near to the Ice
they could hear no tidings even from the birds. Therefore at
length they returned, but the watch was redoubled along all the
northern fences of Aman.
$55b This indeed Melkor had expected; but he had other
things to do before he would return to Middle-earth, and ere the
pursuit set out, indeed ere the messengers came to Valmar, he
had turned back and in great secrecy passed away far to the
South. For Melkor was yet as one of the Valar, and he could still
(though with pain) change his form, or walk unclad, as could
his brethren; though that power he was soon to lose for ever.
$55c Thus unseen he came at last to the region that once
was called Avathar,* beneath the eastern feet of the Pelori; a
narrow land it had become, eaten away by the Sea, and was
long forsaken. There the shadows were deepest and thickest in
the world. In Avathar, secret and unknown save to Melkor,
dwelt Ungoliante, and she had taken spider's form, and was a
weaver of dark webs. It is not known whence she came, though
among the Eldar it was said that in ages long before she had
descended from the darkness that lies about Arda, when Melkor
first looked down in envy upon the light in the kingdom of
Manwe. But she had disowned her Master, desiring to be
mistress of her own lust, taking all things to herself to feed her
emptiness. To the South she had fled, and so had escaped the
assaults of the Valar and the hunters of Orome, for their
vigilance had ever been to the North, and the South was long
unheeded. Thence she had crept towards the light of the Blessed
Realm; for she hungered for light and hated it.
$55d In a ravine she lived and wove her black webs in a
cleft of the mountains. All light she sucked up and spun it forth
in dark nets of gloom. But now she was famished, and in great
torment; for all living things had fled far away, and her own
webs shut out from her all light that could come to her dwelling,
whether through passes in the walls of Aman, or from the
heavens above. Yet she had no longer the strength or will to
depart.
$56 Now Melkor sought for her, and he put on again the
form that he had worn as the tyrant of Utumno: a dark Lord,
tall and terrible. In that form he remained ever after. And when
Ungoliante saw him coming she was afraid, knowing his hatred
for all who tried to escape from him. She shrank into her
deepest lair, and tried to shroud herself in new shadow; but
such darkness as in her famine she could weave was no defence
against the eyes of Melkor, Lord of Utumno and Angband.
$56a 'Come forth!' he said. 'Thrice fool: to leave me first, to
dwell here languishing within reach of feasts untold, and now to
shun me, Giver of Gifts, thy only hope! Come forth and see! I
have brought thee an earnest of greater bounty to follow.' But
(* [footnote to the text] The Shadows (in ancient Quenya).)
Ungoliante made no answer, and retreated deeper into the
cloven rock. Then Melkor was angered, for he was in haste,
having reckoned his times to a nicety. 'Come out!' he cried. 'I
have need of thee and will not be denied. Either thou wilt serve
me, or I will bury thee here and under black stone thou shalt
wither into naught.' Then suddenly he held up in his hands two
shining gems. They were green, and in that lightless place they
reflected the dreadful light of his eyes, as if some ravening beast
had come hunting there. Thus the great Thief set his lure for the
lesser.
$56b Slowly Ungoliante came forth; but as she drew near
Melkor withheld the lure. 'Nay, nay,' he said. 'I do not bring
thee these Elvish sweets in love or in pity; they are to strengthen
thee, when thou hast agreed to do my bidding.' 'What is your
bidding, Master?' she said, and her eyes gloated upon the gems.
$56c There in the black shadows, beyond the sight even of
Manwe in his highest halls, Melkor with Ungoliante plotted his
revenge. But when Ungoliante understood his purpose, she was
torn between great lust and great fear. She would not dare the
perils of Aman, or the power of the dreadful Lords, without a
great reward; for she feared the eyes of Manwe and Varda more
even than the wrath of Melkor. Therefore Melkor said to her:
'Do as I bid, and if thou art still hungry when we meet again,
then, I vow, I will give to thee whatsoever thy lust may demand.
Yea, with both hands!' Lightly he made this vow (as he ever
did), thinking little of its fulfilment, and he laughed in his heart;
for if she achieved his design, he would have no need, he
thought, to appease her, or any one else in Arda, great or small.
$56d 'Come then!' he said. 'Here is the earnest!' And he
delivered the gems to her, not only the first two but many others
that he had stolen in Valinor. Then swiftly Ungoliante began to
grow again and to find new strength. A cloak of darkness she
wove about herself: an unlight, in which things seemed to be no
more, and which eyes could not pierce, for it was void. Then
slowly she wrought her webs: rope by rope from cleft to cleft,
from jutting rock to pinnacle of stone, ever climbing upwards,
crawling and clinging, until at last she achieved the very summit
of Mount Hyarmentir, the highest mountain in that region of
the world, far south of great Taniquetil. There the Valar were
not vigilant; for west of the Pelori was an empty land in
twilight, until northward one came to the tall fences of the
woods of Orome; and eastward the mountains looked out, save
for forgotten Avathar, only upon the dim waters of the pathless
Sea.
$57 But now upon the mountain-top dark Ungoliante lay.
For a while she rested, and with eyes faint from labour she saw
the glimmer of the stars in the dome of Varda and the radiance
of Valmar far away. Slowly her eyes wakened and took fire, and
her lust increased until it overcame her fear. She began in stealth
to creep down into the Blessed Realm.
$57a Still in the dark depths Melkor stood, gnawing his
mind, between evil hope and doubt; but when he had stood,
revolving his chances, as long as his urgency allowed, he turned
away and went down to the shore. There he cursed the Sea,
saying: 'Slime of Ulmo! I will conquer thee yet, shrivel thee to a
stinking ooze. Yea, ere long Ulmo and Osse shall wither, and
Uinen crawl as a mud-worm at my feet!' With that suddenly he
passed from Avathar and went to do his will.
$58 [see AAm $$109 - 10] Now it was a time of festival, as
Melkor knew well. In Aman all tides and seasons were at the
will of the Valar, and there was no winter of death; but even as
it was the delight of the Valar to clothe themselves in the forms
of the Children of Iluvatar,* so also they would eat and drink
and gather the fruits of Yavanna, and share the bounty of the
Earth which under Eru they had made. Therefore Yavanna set
times for the flowering and the ripening of all growing things in
Valinor: upspringing, blooming, and seed-time. And after the l
coming of the First-born Children, the Eldar, at these times they
made feasts, at which all the dwellers in Aman would assemble
in mirth. The greatest of the feasts was at the first gathering of
fruits, and this was held upon Taniquetil; for Manwe decreed
that at this time all should join in the praise of Eru Iluvatar, and
the peoples of Valinor, Valar, Maiar, and Eldar, poured forth
their joy in music and song.
$58a This day had now come once more, and Manwe
prepared a feast greater than any that had been held since the
entry of the Eldar into Aman. For though the escape of Melkor
portended toils and sorrows to come, and indeed none could tell
what further hurts would be done to Arda, ere he could be
subdued again, at this time Manwe desired to unite all his
people once more in joy, healing all that was amiss, and
(* [footnote to the text] As is told in the Ainulindale'. [The same
reference to the Ainulindale ($25) is made in AAm $109.])
strengthening them with the blessing of Eru to hold ever in heart
the hope of Arda Unmarred. He bade all come who would, but
the Noldor above all; for he hoped that there they would put
aside the griefs that lay between their lords, and forget utterly
the lies of their Enemy. Therefore he sent a messenger to
Formenos, saying: 'Feanor son of Finwe, come and do not deny
my bidding! In my love thou remainest and wilt be honoured in
my hall.'
$58b [see AAm $111] There came the Vanyar, and there
came the Noldor of Tuna, and the Maiar were gathered
together, and the Valar were arrayed in their beauty and
majesty; and they sang before Manwe and Varda in the halls of
Taniquetil, or played and danced upon the green slopes of the
Mountain that looked west to the Trees. In that day the streets
of Valmar were empty, and the stairs of Tuna were silent, and
all the land lay sleeping in peace. Only the Teleri beyond the
mountains still sang upon the shores of the Sea; for they recked
little of seasons or times, and gave no thought to the cares of the
King of Arda, or to the shadow that had fallen upon Valinor;
for it had not touched them, as yet.
$58c [see AAm $112] One thing only marred the hope of
Manwe. Feanor came indeed, for he read the message of Manwe
as a command; but Finwe would not come and remained in
Formenos, and with him were the sons of Feanor. For said
Finwe: 'While the ban lasts upon Feanor, my son, that he may
not go to Tuna, I hold myself unkinged, and I will not meet my
people.' And Feanor did not come in raiment of festival, and he
wore no ornament, neither silver nor gold nor any gem; and he
denied the sight of the Silmarils to the Valar and the Eldar, and
left them in Formenos, locked in a chamber of iron.
Nonetheless he met Fingolfin before the throne of Manwe,
and was reconciled in word. For Fingolfin held forth his hand,
saying: 'As I promised, I do now. I release thee, and remember
no grievance.'
Then Feanor took his hand in silence; but Fingolfin said:
'Half-brother in blood, full brother in heart I will be. Thou shalt
lead and I will follow. May no new grief divide us!'
'I hear thee,' said Feanor. 'So be it!' But they did not know
then the full meaning that their words would bear.
$58d [see AAm $113] It is told that even as Feanor and
Fingolfin stood before Manwe, there came the Mingling of the
Lights, and both Trees were shining, and the silent city of
Valmar was filled with a radiance of silver and gold. And in that
very hour Ungoliante came hastening over the fields of Valinor.
Hunger and thirst now drove her. No longer she crept but ran,
as the shadow of a black cloud upon the wind fleets over the sun-
lit earth. Now she came to the Green Mound of the Corolaire,
and her Unlight rose up even to the roots of the Trees. Then
with her black beak she pierced their rind, wounded them deep;
and their juices gushed forth and she drank them up. But when
no more flowed she set her mouth to the wounds, and sucked
them dry, and the poison of Death that was in her went into
their tissues and withered them, root, branch, and leaf, and
they died. And still Ungoliante thirsted; and she went to the
great Wells of Varda and drained them dry. And as she drank,
she belched forth vast vapours, and in their midst she swelled
to a shape more huge and hideous than even her most lustful
dream had hoped ever to achieve. At last, knowing that the
time was short, she hastened away, north, to the tryst that
Melkor had made with her, and did not mean to keep.
$58e Outside he had lurked, until the failing of the Light
announced that Ungoliante had done her work. Then through
the Kalakiryan, now only a dim ravine in walls of shadow, he
came striding back, Lord of Utumno, a black shape of hate,
visiting the places of his humiliation with revenge. All the land
fell swiftly through grey twilight into night as Melkor stood
within the Ring of Doom and cursed it; and he defiled the
judgement seat of Manwe and threw down the thrones of the
Valar.
$58f Then he went on to his second mark, which he had
kept secret in his mind; but Ungoliante was aware of him, and
turning swiftly she overtook him on his road. Aghast indeed
was Melkor to see her, monstrous, grown to a lust and power
that he could not master without aid. He could not contend
with her, even if time allowed; and he could not escape. She
took him into her Unlight, and they went on together to the one
place in the land of the Valar that he would have hidden from
her.
$59 [see AAm $114] So the great Darkness came upon
Valinor. Of the deeds of that time much is told in the Aldude-
nie * that Elemmire of the Vanyar made and is known to all the
Eldar. Yet no song or tale could contain all the grief and terror
(* [footnote to the text] The Lament for the Two Trees.)
that then came upon the Blessed Realm. The Light went out; but
the Darkness that followed was more than loss. In that hour the
dwellers in Aman knew the Unlight, and it seemed not lack, but
a thing with being of its own, that made by malice out of Light
had the power to pierce the eye, to enter heart and mind and
strangle the very will.
$59a [see AAm $115] Varda looked down from the Holy
Mountain, and she beheld the Shadow soaring up in sudden
towers of gloom. Valmar was blotted out, and all the land
foundered in a deep sea of night. Soon Taniquetil stood alone, a
last island in a drowned world. All song ceased. There was
silence in Valinor, and no sound could be heard, save only from
afar there came on the wind through the pass of the mountains
the wailing of the Teleri like the cold cry of gulls. For it blew
chill from the East in that hour, and the vast shadows of the Sea
were rolled against the walls of the shore.
$59b [see AAm $116] Then Manwe went up to his high seat
upon the mountain-top, and he looked out, and his eyes pierced
through the night, until they saw within the dark a Darkness
which they could not penetrate, huge but far away, moving now
northward with great speed; and he knew that Melkor had
come and gone. Then the Valar began their pursuit; and soon
the earth shook beneath the horses of the host of Orome, and
the fire that was stricken from the hooves of Nahar was the first
light that returned to Valinor. But when the riding of the wrath
of the Valar came up with the Cloud of Ungoliante all were
blinded and dismayed, and the host was scattered, and they
went this way and that, they knew not whither. In vain Orome
wound his horn, for the Valaroma was choked and gave no
sound. Tulkas was as a man caught in a black net at night, and
he stood powerless and beat the air in vain. And when the
Cloud had passed, it was too late. Melkor had gone whither he
would, and his vengeance was achieved.
Commentary.
Leaving for a moment the remarkable narrative shift in this 'sub-
chapter' Of the Darkening of Valinor, the new version introduces
many elements lacking in the old story: among the most important
being the origin of Ungoliante; the account of the festival in Valinor,
with the 'investing' of the Valar in the form of the Children of Iluvatar
and their partaking of the physical celebration of the harvest;
Manwe's purpose to achieve concord among the Noldor; Finwe's
refusal to leave Formenos while Feanor was banished from Tirion;
and the reconciliation of Feanor with Fingolfin before Manwe's throne.
But all these are present in the Annals of Aman, and largely in the
same words. My father, very obviously, had AAm in front of him; as
has been seen (pp. 191 - 2), LQ and AAm were very close in the earlier
part of the now replaced Chapter 6, and while LQ ceases at the point
where Melkor goes to Arvalin AAm does not, but continues on
($$105 - 16) in the same larger fashion, expanding the old story while
retaining the structure of the Quenta tradition.
Now, however, in this final version of the Quenta, my father
returned to the Annals and used them for the further expansion of the
other - increasingly hard to differentiate - 'tradition'. Schematically:
QS (pre-The Lord of the Rings)
Chapter 6 Of the Silmarils and the Darkening of Valinor
(Slight preliminary revision in 1951)
Major rewriting of QS Annals of Aman
on the old manuscript $$78-104 continuing to $$105-16
in 1951
(as far as Melkor's (as far as Melkor's (to Melkor's escape
coming to Arvalin) coming to Arvalin) from the hunt)
Final version in the Quenta Silmarillion
That in the pre-The Lord of the Rings period the Annals of Valinor
and the Annals of Beleriand constituted distinct entities, forming with
the Quenta Silmarillion a tripartite work, is very clear (see IV.284);
and a list of the constituent parts of the Matter of Middle-earth
associated with the long letter to Milton Waldman (see p. 3) shows
that this was still the case, in theory at least, in 1951.
Yet we have seen how close the versions did in fact become in the
course of the 1951 revision; and now, in the last phase of his work on
the actual narratives, when (as I have suggested, p. 142) my father was
envisaging a 're-expansion' of the whole, a new conception of The
Silmarillion, a new and much fuller mode of narrative, he derived
entire passages from the Annals with scarcely any significant change. I
have said (p. 192) that AAm and the rewriting (LQ) of the first part of
Chapter 6, as I think clearly contemporary, are too similar in every
aspect, if continually different in actual wording, to be regarded as the
product of a separate tradition of learning and memory, or even as the
product of two different 'loremasters'; but the relation of this last
version of the Silmarillion tradition to AAm on which it draws seems
to show that my father had now ceased to regard them as different
works. It may be, though I have no other evidence for it, that if he had
continued this last version he would have 'cannibalised' the Annals
wherever he chose to, regarding the latter now as no more than
a constituent draft text for the sole work that was to emerge: The
Silmarillion.
To turn now to the major departure from the old legend - which
goes back to the original tale of The Theft of Melko and the
Darkening of Valinor (I.152 - 3): Melkor was not present at the
destruction of the Trees. When Ungoliante climbs Mount Hyarmentir
he stays for a while beside her lair; goes down then to the shores of
Avathar and curses the Sea; lurks outside the Pelori until the great
darkness falls; then hastens through the pass to Valmar to desecrate
the Ring of Doom. Why was this done? Not, surely, to bring in the
casting down by Melkor of the thrones of the Valar - for this could
have been achieved without altering the story, or at any rate without
altering it so radically. The reason for the change, I think, was that my
father found it unacceptable that Melkor should have risked allowing
Ungoliante to come anywhere near the Silmarils. In the new story,
Melkor's plan was to wait until she had destroyed the Trees and then
go alone in the darkness to Formenos. The tryst 'that Melkor had
made with her, and did not mean to keep' ($58d) was not at Formenos
- that being 'his second mark, which he had kept secret in his mind'
($58f); that is why it is said that Ungoliante 'turned swiftly' and
overtook him. Then 'they went on together to the one place in the land
of the Valar that he would have hidden from her.'
Other features of this text are discussed under individual para-
graphs.
$$55, 55b There now appears the story that after Melkor was seen
from the hill of Tuna passing through the Kalakiryan he turned
northwards up the coast into Araman; but this was a feint, and
he turned back southwards in secret and came into Avathar to
find Ungoliante. (I suggested (I.157), perhaps too positively, that
the germ of this northward movement on the part of Melkor is
to be found in the old Tale (I.145), where Melko originally
'purposed to get to northward over the passes nigh to Mandos',
but thought better of it. There is indeed no trace of the idea in
any intervening version; but features apparently long lost do
undoubtedly emerge again.)
$55a 'Melkor purposed to escape to his old strongholds in the North
of Middle-earth': i.e. Utumno and Angband. See p. 156, $12.
$55c Here first appears the name Avathar, and the ancient name
Arvalin at last disappears. In the short intermediate typescript
referred to on p. 282 the name is not Avathar but Vastuman
(typed over Arvalin). Vastuman is not translated.
$56d Hyarmentir replaces Hyarantar of AAm $107.
$57 'The glimmer of the stars in the dome of Varda': on the Dome of
Varda see pp. 385 - 8.
$58d Corolaire: see AAm $122 (pp. 107, 127). - The Wells of
Varda: see p. 157, $17.
$59 The Aldudenie of Elemmire is named also in AAm $114
(Elemire; later Elemmire, p. 106).
Entirely new are the statements that Melkor 'could still (though
with pain) change his form, or walk unclad', but that at the time of his
meeting with Ungoliante he appeared as the Dark Lord of Utumno,
and never again changed from that appearance afterwards ($$55b,
56). He is now explicitly the Master of Ungoliante ($$56a, b); cf. AAm
$106: 'It may well be that... she was in the beginning one of those
that he had corrupted to his service.' The narrative is greatly expanded
by the account of his persuasion of Ungoliante and his luring of her by
gems stolen in Valinor - giving her strength also to dare the deed: for
the great spider was weak through famine of light ($55d).
THE LATER DEVELOPMENT OF CHAPTER 7.
The late typescript B follows straight on from 'Melkor had gone
whither he would, and his vengeance was achieved' at the end of the
'sub-chapter' Of the Darkening of Valinor (p. 289), with no more
than a space, but my father afterwards wrote in a heading [Of] The
Rape of the Silmarils; further on there is a typed heading Of the
Thieves' Quarrel.
As in the preceding 'sub-chapter', the end of which corresponds to
the end of the former Chapter 6 (QS Chapter 4), he again turned to the
Annals of Aman, and in this case he adopted substantial parts of the
older text so closely that the new is almost an exact copy, with only a
word or two changed here and there (on the implications of his thus
amalgamating the two 'traditions' see pp. 289 - 91). But he also
introduced a new element into the narrative: the attack by Melkor on
Formenos reported by Maedros (as his name is here spelt: in a late
emendation to LQ Chapter 5 Maedhros, p. 177, $41). Only now do
the sons of Feanor play a part in this story: see p. 123, $122.
I do not give the text in the sections where it becomes scarcely
distinct from that of AAm. The paragraph numbers here begin a new
series, since they cannot be usefully related to those of QS.
OF THE RAPE OF THE SILMARILS.
$1 When the Trees should have flowered for yet one more
day, but time was blind and unmeasured, the Valar returned to
the Ring of Doom. They sat upon the ground, for their thrones
were defiled, and they were in dark raiment of grief. About them
was a great concourse of folk, hardly to be seen; for it was
night. But the stars of Varda now glimmered overhead, and the
air was clean. The winds of Manwe had driven the vapours of
death far away and rolled back the shadows of the Sea. Now
Yavanna arose and stood upon the Green Mound, but it was
bare and black. She laid her hands upon the Trees, but they
were dead and dark; and each branch that she touched broke
and fell lifeless at her feet. Then the voices of all the host were
lifted in lamentation; and it seemed to those that mourned that
they had drained to the dregs the cup of woe that Melkor had
filled for them. But it was not so.
$$2-3 For Yavanna spoke before the Valar, saying ... These
paragraphs, in which the demand is made upon Feanor that the light
of the Silmarils be released for the saving of the Trees, are almost
identical to AAm $$118 - 19 (p. 107), with only a very few changes of
no significance, as Feanor answered no word: Feanor made no
answer'.
$$4-5 But Feanor spoke then, and cried bitterly... These para-
graphs are virtually identical to AAm $$120 - 1, except at the end of
$120 and the beginning of $121. In AAm Feanor declared that he
would be the first to die 'of all the Children of Eru', but on the
typescript of AAm, after the emergence of the story of Miriel, my
father corrected 'I shall die' to 'I shall be slain', and this change was
taken up here. The form of the passage in the new version has been
given and discussed on pp. 268 - 9.
$6 'Thou hast spoken,' said Mandos. Then again there was
silence, and thought was stilled. But after a while Nienna arose,
and she went up onto the Mound; and she cast back her grey
hood, and her eyes shone like stars in the rain, for her tears were
poured out, and she washed away the defilements of Ungoliante.
And when she had wept she sang slowly, mourning for the
bitterness of the world and all hurts of the Marring of Arda.
$7 But even as she mourned, there was heard the sound of
feet hastening in the night. Then through the throng came the
sons of Feanor, flying from the North, and they bore new
tidings of evil. Maedros spoke for them. 'Blood and darkness!'
he cried. 'Finwe the king is slain, and the Silmarils are gone!'
Then Feanor fell upon his face and lay as one dead, until the
full tale was told.
$8 'My lord,' said Maedros to Manwe, 'it was the day of
festival, but the king was heavy with grief at the departure of my
father, a foreboding was on him. He would not go from the
house. We were irked by the idleness and silence of the day, and
we went riding towards the Green Hills. Our faces were
northward, but suddenly we were aware that all was growing
dim. The Light was failing. In dread we turned and rode back in
haste, seeing great shadows rise up before us. But even as we
drew near to Formenos the darkness came upon us; and in the
midst was a blackness like a cloud that enveloped the house of
Feanor.
$9 'We heard the sound of great blows struck. Out of the
cloud we saw a sudden flame of fire. And then there was one
piercing cry. But when we urged on our horses they reared and
cast us to the ground, and they fled away wild. We lay upon our
faces without strength; for suddenly the cloud came on, and for
a while we were blind. But it passed us by and moved away
north at great speed. Melkor was there, we do not doubt. But
not he alone! Some other power was with him, some huge evil:
even as it passed it robbed us of all wit and will.
$10 'Darkness and blood! When we could move again we
came to the house. There we found the king slain at the door.
His head was crushed as with a great mace of iron. We found no
others: all had fled, and he had stood alone, defiant. That is
plain; for his sword lay beside him, twisted and untempered as
if by lightning-stroke. All the house was broken and ravaged.
Naught is left. The treasuries are empty. The chamber of iron is
torn apart. The Silmarils are taken!'
$11 [see AAm $123] Then suddenly Feanor rose, and lifting
up his hand before Manwe he cursed Melkor, naming him
Morgoth, the Black Foe of the world.* And he cursed also the
summons of Manwe and the hour in which he came to
Taniquetil, thinking in the madness of his grief that had he been
at Formenos, his strength would have availed more than to be
slain also, as Morgoth had purposed. Then with a cry he ran
from the Ring of Doom and fled into the night, distraught; for
his father was dearer to him than the Light of Valinor or the
peerless works of his hands: and who among sons, of Elves or of
Men, have held their fathers of greater worth?
(* [footnote to the text] By that name only was he known to the
Eldar ever after. (In the ancient form used by Feanor it was Moring-
otho.) [Cf. the note added in LQ to QS $60 (p. 194), where the ancient
form is Moringotto.])
$12 [see AAm $124] After him Maedros and his brethren
went in haste, dismayed, for they had not known that he was
present when Maedros spoke; and now they feared that he
might slay himself. All those who saw Feanor's anguish grieved
for him and forgave all his bitterness. But his loss was not his
alone. Yavanna wept even as Nienna, in dread lest the Darkness
should now swallow the last rays of the Light of Valinor for
ever. For though the Valar did not yet understand fully what
had befallen, they perceived that Melkor had called upon some
aid that came from beyond Arda.
The Silmarils had passed away, and all one it may seem
whether Feanor had said yea or nay to Yavanna. Yet, had he
said yea at the first, and so cleansed his heart ere the dreadful
tidings came, his after-deeds would have been other than they
proved. But now the doom of the Noldor drew near.
OF THE THIEVES' QUARREL.
$13 Meanwhile, it is told, Morgoth escaping from the
pursuit of the Valar came to the wastes of Araman. This land
lay northward between the Mountains of the Pelori and the
Great Sea, as Avathar lay to the south. But Araman was a wider
land, and between the shores and the mountains were long and
dreary plains without hindrance to passage, but bleak, and ever
colder as the Ice drew nearer.
$14 Through this dim land Morgoth and Ungoliant passed
in haste, and so through the great mists of Oiomure came to the
Helkaraxe, where the strait between Araman and Middle-earth
was filled with grinding ice; and they crossed over and came
back at last to the North of the Outer World. Together they
went on, for Morgoth could not elude Ungoliant, and her cloud
was still about him, and all her eyes were upon him. But when
they had come to that region that was after called Lammoth,
north of the Firth of Drengist, Morgoth grew more hopeful, for
they were drawing near to the ruins of Angband where his great
western stronghold had been. But Ungoliant perceived his mood
and guessed that he would soon try to escape and defraud her, if
he could. Therefore she stayed him, and demanded that he
should now fulfill his promise.
$15 'Black-heart!' she said (calling him 'Master' no longer).
'I have done your bidding. But I hunger still.'
'What wouldst thou have more?' said Morgoth. 'All the
world for thy belly? I did not vow to give thee that. I am its
Lord.'
'Not so much,' said she. 'But there was a great treasury, of
which you said naught to me, and would have said naught even
now, if I had not watched you. I will have all that. Yea, with
both hands you shall give it!'
'Thou hast had the half already,' said Morgoth. For when she
was with him (against his will) at the sack of Formenos, he had
let her feast awhile upon the gems of Feanor, so that she should
not come to the chamber of iron.
'I hunger,' she said. 'I will have the other half!'
Then perforce Morgoth surrendered to her the gems that he
bore with him, one by one and grudgingly; and she devoured
them, and their beauty perished from the world. Then her
strength was renewed, but her lust unsated.
'With one hand you give,' she said, 'with the left only. Open
your right hand!'
$16 In his right hand Morgoth held close the Silmarils that
he had taken from the chamber of iron; and though they were
locked in a crystal casket, they had begun to burn him, and his
hand was clenched in pain. But he would not open it. 'Nay!' he
said. 'These things thou shalt not have, nor see. I name them
unto myself for ever. Thou hast had already more than thy due.
For with my power that I put into thee thy work was accomp-
lished. I need thee no more. Go, filth! Gnaw thy lust in some
hole far away, or I will put a fire in thy maw that shall burn thee
for ever! '
$17 But Ungoliant was not daunted. She had grown great,
and he less by the power that had gone out of him. Now she
rose against him, and her cloud closed about him, and she cast
upon him a hideous web of clinging thongs to strangle him.
Then Morgoth sent forth a terrible cry that echoed in the
mountains. Therefore that region was called Lammoth,* for the
echoes of his voice dwelt there ever after, so that any who cried
aloud in that land awoke them, and all the waste between the
hills and the sea was filled with a clamour as of voices in
anguish.
$18 But the cry of Morgoth in that hour was the greatest
and most dreadful that was ever heard in the northern world:
the mountains shook, and the earth trembled, and rocks were
(* [footnote to the text] The Great Echo.)
riven asunder. Deep in forgotten places that cry was heard. Far
beneath the halls of Angband, in vaults to which the Valar in the
haste of their assault had not descended, the Balrogs lurked still,
awaiting ever the return of their lord. Swiftly they arose, and
they passed with winged speed over Hithlum, and they came to
Lammoth as a tempest of fire.
$19 Then Ungoliant quailed, and she turned to flight,
belching black vapours to cover her; but the Balrogs pursued
her with whips of flame into the Mountains of Shadow,* until
Morgoth recalled them. Then her webs were shorn asunder, and
Morgoth was released, and he returned to Angband.
$20 But Ungoliant went into Beleriand, and there dwelt for
a time beneath the Eryd Orgoroth [> Gorgoroth], in the dark
valley that was after called Nan Dungorthebf + because of the
horror that she bred there. But when she had healed her hurts as
best she could, and had spawned there a foul brood, she passed
away. For there were other evil creatures of spider-form that
had dwelt there since the days of the delving of Angband; and
she mated with them and devoured them. But whither she went
after no tale tells. It is said that she ended long ago, when in her
uttermost famine she devoured herself at last.
$21 Thus ended the Thieves' Quarrel; and the fear of
Yavanna that the Silmarils would be swallowed up and fall into
nothingness did not come to pass. But they remained in the
power of Morgoth.
The new version ends here in the typescript; but among the pages of
very rough draft material there is the following abandoned passage
that continues the narrative for a short distance:
Now Morgoth, having achieved his malice against Valinor,
and escaped from bondage, gathered again all his servants that
he could find; and through all the North ran the news that he
had returned. From near and far, from the ruins of Utumno, and
from deep dales and shadows under the mountains and from all
dark and hidden places they crept back to him.
Then swiftly they began to delve anew the vast vaults of
Angband and to uplift its pillared halls of stone amid smoke
and fire, and above them were reared the reeking towers of
Thangorodrim.
(* [footnote to the text] Eryd Wethrin on the borders of Beleriand.)
(+ [footnote to the text] The Valley of Dreadful Death.)
the Sun was first made after the death of the Trees (described in a
chapter omitted).' The significance of this will appear in Part Five.
Note on Dating.
It is convenient to collect here the evidence, such as it is, bearing on the
date of this late rewriting, and the texts associated with it.
I have mentioned that in a letter of December 1957 my father told
Rayner Unwin that it was his intention to 'get copies made of all
copyable material', with a view to 'remoulding' The Silmarillion; and I
have suggested that the amanuensis typescript LQ 2 of The Silmaril-
lion and that of the Annals of Aman, which were made on the same
typewriter and probably belong to the same time, may therefore be
tentatively ascribed to about 1958 (see pp. 141 - 2).
If this dating is accepted for the moment, then the annals inserted
into the manuscript of AAm concerning the death of Miriel, the
'Doom of Manwe concerning the espousals of the Eldar', and the
marriage of Finwe to Indis must have preceded 1958 or belong to that
year, since they appear in the typescript of AAm as typed (p. 101 notes
1 and 4, p. 127, $120); while the rider FM 1 to LQ concerning Finwe
and Miriel is certainly contemporary with the AAm insertions
(p. 205). The story of Finwe and Miriel in the manuscript (A) of Laws
and Customs among the Eldar certainly followed FM 1, but the two
texts were probably close in time (p. 233). It is thus notable that in the
letter written by my father in October 1958 (see pp. 267, 270) this
story and its implications were in the forefront of his mind.
The second text of the story of Finwe and Miriel (FM 2, p. 254)
intended for inclusion in The Silmarillion very probably preceded the
typescript (B) of Laws and Customs among the Eldar, since this latter
was typed on a new typewriter with a rather distinctive typeface. Also
typed on this machine were the Valaquenta and the texts of the late
rewriting of Chapter 6( - 7). The first letter of my father's that I know
of to be typed on the new typewriter is dated January 1959.
There is no actual proof of date in any of this, of course, but taken
together it points clearly, I think, to the late 1950s as the time when
the story of Finwe and Miriel arose and Laws and Customs among the
Eldar was written. Further evidence is provided by the Athrabeth
Finrod ah Andreth (see pp. 304, 360).
'책,영화,리뷰,' 카테고리의 다른 글
| JRR Tolkien - The History of Middle Earth Series vol10 GL5 (0) | 2023.03.19 |
|---|---|
| JRR Tolkien - The History of Middle Earth Series vol10 GL4 (0) | 2023.03.19 |
| JRR Tolkien - The History of Middle Earth Series vol10 GL2 (0) | 2023.03.18 |
| JRR Tolkien - The History of Middle Earth Series vol10 GL1 (0) | 2023.03.18 |
| JRR Tolkien - The History of Middle Earth Series vol10 FOREWORD (0) | 2023.03.18 |