PART THREE.
TEACHINGS OF
PENGOLOD.
XIV.
DANGWETH PENGOLOD.
This work, example and record of the instruction of AElfwine the
Mariner by Pengolod the Wise of Gondolin, exists in two forms:
the first ('A') a good clear text with (apart from one major exception,
see note 6) very few changes made either in the act of writing or sub-
sequently, and the second ('B') a superb illuminated manuscript of
which the first page is reproduced as the frontispiece of this book.
This latter, together with the brief text Of Lembas, was enclosed in a
newspaper of 5 January 1960, on which my father wrote: 'Two items
from the lore of Pengolod', and also 'Danbeth to question. How/Why
did Elvish language change? Origin of Lembas.' On a cardboard
folder enclosing the newspaper he wrote: 'Pengolod items. $Manen
lambe Quendion ahyane How did the language of Elves change?
$Mana i-coimas Eldaron What is the "coimas" of the Eldar?'
Above the gw of Dangweth on the illuminated manuscript he lightly
pencilled b; but on an isolated scrap of paper found with the two texts
are some jottings of which the following are clear: 'Keep Dangweth
"answer" separate from -beth = peth "word"'; 'v gweth "report, give
account of, inform of things unknown or wished to be known"'; and
'Ndangwetha S[indarin] Dangweth'.
The Dangweth Pengolod cannot be earlier than 1951, while from
the date of the newspaper (on which the two texts are referred to) it
cannot be later than the end of 1959. I would be inclined to place it
earlier rather than later in the decade; possibly the second manuscript
B is to be associated with the fine manuscript pages of the Tale of Years
of the First Age (see X.49), one of which is reproduced as the frontis-
piece to Morgoth's Ring.
Version B follows A very closely indeed for the most part (which is
probably an indication of their closeness in time): a scattering of very
minor changes (small shifts in word-order and occasional alterations
in vocabulary), with a very few more significant differences (see the
notes at the end of the text). That it was a work of importance to my
father is evident from his writing it again in a manuscript of such ele-
gance; and an aspect of his thought here, in respect of the conscious
introduction of change by the Eldar on the basis of an understanding
of the phonological structure of their language in its entirety, would
reappear years later in The Shibboleth of Feanor (see p. 332 and note
3 to the present essay).
The text that follows is of course that of Version B, with alteration
of a few points of punctuation for greater clarity.
Dangweth Pengolod
the
Answer
of
Pengolod
to Aelfwine who asked him how came
it that the tongues of the Elves changed
and were sundered.
Now you question me, AElfwine, concerning the tongues of the
Elves, saying that you wonder much to discover that they are
many, akin indeed and yet unalike; for seeing that they die not
and their memories reach back into ages long past, you under-
stand not why all the race of the Quendi have not maintained
the language that they had of old in common still one and the
same in all their kindreds. But behold! AElfwine, within Ea all
things change, even the Valar; for in Ea we perceive the unfold-
ing of a History in the unfolding: as a man may read a great
book, and when it is full-read it is rounded and complete in his
mind, according to his measure. Then at last he perceives that
some fair thing that long endured: as some mountain or river of
renown, some realm, or some great city; or else some mighty
being, as a king, or maker, or a woman of beauty and majesty,
or even one, maybe, of the Lords of the West: that each of these
is, if at all, all that is said of them from the beginning even to the
end. From the spring in the mountains to the mouths of the sea,
all is Sirion; and from its first upwelling even to its passing away
when the land was broken in the great battle, that also is Sirion,
and nothing less. Though we, who are set to behold the great
History, reading line by line, may speak of the river changing as
it flows and grows broad, or dying as it is spilled or devoured
by the sea. Yea, even from his first coming into Ea from the side
of Iluvatar, and from the young lord of the Valar in the white
wrath of his battle with Melkor unto the silent king of years
uncounted that sits upon the vanished heights of Oiolosse and
watches but speaks no more: all that is he whom we call
Manwe.
Now, verily, a great tree may outlive many a Man, and may
remember the seed from which it came ere all the Men that now
walk the earth were yet unborn, but the rind upon which you
lay your hand, and the leaves which overshadow you, are not as
that seed was, nor as the dry wood shall be that decays into the
mould or passes in flame. And other trees there are that stand
about, each different in growth and in shape, according to
the chances of their lives, though all be akin, offspring of one yet
older tree and sprung therefore from a single seed of long ago.(1)
Immortal, within Ea, are the Eldar, but since even as Men they
dwell in forms that come of Ea, they are no more changeless
than the great trees, neither in the forms that they inhabit, nor
in the things that they desire or achieve by means of those
forms. Wherefore should they not then change in speech, of
which one part is made with tongues and received by ears?
It hath been said by some among our loremasters that, as for
Men, their elders teach to their children their speech and then
soon depart, so that their voices are heard no more, and the
children have no reminder of the tongue of their youth, save
their own cloudy memories: wherefore in each brief generation
of Men change may be swift and unrestrained. But this matter
seemeth to me less simple. Weak indeed may be the memories of
Men, but I say to you, AElfwine, that even were your memory
of your own being as clear as that of the wisest of the Eldar, still
within the short span of your life your speech would change,
and were you to live on with the life of the Elves it would change
more, until looking back you would perceive that in your youth
you spake an alien tongue.
For Men change both their old words for new, and their
former manner of speaking for another manner, in their own
lifetimes, and not only in the first learning of speech; and this
change comes above all from the very changefulness of Ea; or if
you will, from the nature of speech, which is fully living only
when it is born, but when the union of the thought and the
sound is fallen into old custom, and the two are no longer
perceived apart, then already the word is dying and joyless,(2) the
sound awaiting some new thought, and the thought eager for
some new-patterned raiment of sound.
But to the changefulness of Ea, to weariness of the un-
changed, to the renewing of the union: to these three, which are
one, the Eldar also are subject in their degree. In this, however,
they differ from Men, that they are ever more aware of the
words that they speak. As a silversmith may remain more aware
than others of the tools and vessels that he uses daily at his
table, or a weaver of the texture of his garments. Yet this makes
rather for change among the Eldar than for steadfastness; for
the Eldar being skilled and eager in art will readily make things
new, both for delight to look on, or to hear, or to feel, or for
daily use: be it in vessels or raiment or in speech.
A man may indeed change his spoon or his cup at his will, and
need ask none to advise him or to follow his choice. It is other
indeed with words or the modes and devices of speech. Let him
bethink him of a new word, be it to his heart howsoever fresh
and fair, it will avail him little in converse, until other men are
of like mind or will receive his invention. But among the Eldar
there are many quick ears and subtle minds to hear and appraise
such inventions, and though many be the patterns and devices
so made that prove in the end only pleasing to a few, or to one
alone, many others are welcomed and pass swiftly from mouth
to mouth, with laughter or delight or with solemn thought - as
maybe a new jest or new-found saying of wisdom will pass
among men of brighter wit. For to the Eldar the making of
speech is the oldest of the arts and the most beloved.
Wherefore, AElfwine, I say to you: whereas the change that
goes long unperceived, as the growth of a tree, was indeed slow
of old in Aman ere the Rising of the Moon, and even in Middle-
earth under the Sleep of Yavanna slower far than it is now
among Men, yet among the Eldar this steadfastness was offset
by the changes that come of will and design: many of which
indeed differ little in outward seeming from those of unwitting
growth. Thus the Eldar would alter the sounds of their speech
at whiles to other sounds that seemed to them more pleasant, or
were at the least unstaled. But this they would not do at hap-
hazard. For the Eldar know their tongue, not word by word
only, but as a whole: they know even as they speak not only of
what sounds is that word woven which they are uttering, but
of what sounds and sound-patterns is their whole speech at one
time composed.*(3) Therefore none among the Eldar would
change the sounds of some one word alone, but would rather
change some one sound throughout the structure of his speech;
nor would he bring into one word only some sound or union of
sounds that had not before been present, but would replace
'And these are for the most part few in number, for the Eldar
being skilled in craft are not wasteful nor prodigal to small purpose,
admiring in a tongue rather the skilled and harmonious use of a few
well-balanced sounds than profusion ill-ordered.
some former sound by the new sound in all words that con-
tained it - or if not in all, then in a number selected according
to their shapes and other elements, as he is guided by some new
pattern that he has in mind. Even as a weaver might change a
thread from red to blue, either throughout his web, or in such
parts thereof as were suitable to the new pattern, but not ran-
domly here and there nor only in one corner.(4)
And lo! AElfwine, these changes differ little from like changes
that come in the speeches of Men with the passing of time. Now
as for the Eldar we know that such things were done of old by
choice, full-wittingly, and the names of those who made new
words or first moved great changes are yet often remembered.
For which reason the Eldar do not believe that in truth the
changes in the tongues of Men are wholly unwitting; for how
so, say they, comes the order and harmony that oft is seen in
such changes? or the skill both in the devices that are replaced
and the new that follow them? And some answer that the minds
of Men are half asleep: by which they mean not that the part
whereof Men are unaware and can give no account slumbers,
but the other part. Others perceiving that in nothing do Men,
and namely those of the West,(5) so nearly resemble the Eldar as
in speech, answer that the teaching which Men had of the Elves
in their youth works on still as a seed in the dark. But in all this
maybe they err, AElfwine, for despite all their lore least of all
things do they know the minds of Men or understand them.(6)
And to speak of memory, AElfwine: with regard to the Elves -
for I know not how it is with Men - that which we call the
coirea quenya, the living speech, is the language wherethrough
we think and imagine; for it is to our thought as the body to our
spirit, growing and changing together in all the days of our
being.(7) Into that language therefore we render at once whatso-
ever we recall out of the past that we heard or said ourselves. If
a Man remembers some thing that he said in childhood, doth he
recall the accents of childhood that he used in that moment long
ago? I know not. But certainly we of the Quendi do not so. We
may know indeed how children not yet accomplished in speech,
and how the 'fullspoken', as we say, spake at times long ago, but
that is a thing apart from the images of life-memory, and is a
matter of lore. For we have much lore concerning the languages
of old, whether stored in the mind or in writings; but we hear
not ourselves speak again in the past save with the language that
clothes our thought in the present. Verily, it may chance that in
the past we spake with strangers in an alien tongue, and remem-
ber what was then said, but not the tongue that was used. Out
of the past indeed we may recall the sounds of an alien speech
as we may other sounds: the song of birds or the murmur of
water; but that is but in some cry or brief phrase. For if the
speech were long or the matter subtle then we clothe it in the
living language of our present thought, and if we would now
relate it as it was spoken, we must render it anew, as it were a
book, into that other tongue - if it is preserved still in learned
lore. And even so, it is the alien voices that we hear using words
in our memory, seldom ourselves - or to speak of myself, never.
It is true indeed that the Eldar readily learn to use other tongues
skilfully, and are slow to forget any that they have learned,
but these remain as they were learned, as were they written in
the unchanging pages of a book;*(8) whereas the coirea quenya,
the language of thought, grows and lives within, and each new
stage overlies those that went before, as the acorn and the
sapling are hidden in the tree.
Wherefore, AElfwine, if thou wilt consider well all that I have
said to thee at this time, not only what is plainly expressed, but
also what is therein to be discovered by thought, thou wilt now
understand that, albeit more wittingly, albeit more slowly, the
tongues of the Quendi change in a manner like to the changes
of mortal tongues. And that if one of the Eldar survives maybe
the chances of fifty thousand of your years, then the speech of
his childhood will be sundered from the speech of his present,
as maybe the speech of some city or kingdom of Men will be
sundered in the days of its majesty from the tongue of those that
founded it of old.
In this last point also our kindreds are alike. Greater as is the
skill of the Quendi to mould things to their will and delight, and
to overcome the chances of Ea, yet they are not as the Valar, and
with regard to the might of the World and its fate, they are but
weak and small. Therefore to them also severance is severance,
and friends and kin far away are far away. Not even the Seeing
(* Save only in the strange event of the learning by one whole people
of an alien speech, that thereafter they take into living and daily use,
which will then change and grow with them, but their own former
tongue pass away or become but a matter of lore. This has happened
only once in the history of the Eldalie, when the Exiles took up the
speech of Beleriand, the Sindarin tongue, and the Noldorin was
preserved among them as a language of lore.)
Stones of the craftsmen of old could wholly unite those that
were sundered, and they and the masters that could make them
were few. Therefore change, witting or unwitting, was not even
long ages ago shared, nor did it proceed alike save among those
that met often and had converse in labour and in mirth. Thus,
swifter or slower, yet ever inescapably, the far-sundered
kindreds of the Quendi were sundered also in speech: the Avari
from the Eldar; and the Teleri from the other Eldar; and the
Sindar, who abode in Middle-earth, from the Teleri that came at
last unto Aman; and the Exiles of the Noldor from those that
remained in the land of the Valar. And so still it goes in Middle-
earth.
Yet long since, AElfwine, the fashion of the World was
changed; and we that dwell now in the Ancient West are
removed from the circles of the World, and in memory is the
greater part of our being: so that now we preserve rather than
make anew. Wherefore, though even in Aman - beyond the
circles of Arda, yet still with Ea - change goes ever on, until the
End, be it slow beyond perceiving save in ages of time, nonethe-
less here at last in Eressea our tongues are steadfast; and here
over a wide sea of years we speak now still little otherwise than
we did - and those also that perished - in the wars of Beleriand,
when the Sun was young.
Sin Quente Quendingoldo
Elendilenna.
NOTES.
1. The end of this sentence, from 'offspring of one yet older tree', is
not found in version A.
2. 'dying or dead' A.
3. In the note to The Shibboleth of Feanor which I have omitted
(p. 339) my father wrote:
The Eldar had an instinctive grasp of the structure and sound-
system of their speech as a whole, and this was increased by
instruction; for in a sense all Eldarin languages were 'invented'
languages, art-forms, not only inherited but also material engag-
ing the active interest of their users and challenging awarely
their own taste and inventiveness. This aspect was evidently still
prominent in Valinor; though in Middle-earth it had waned, and
the development of Sindarin had become, long before the arrival
of the Noldorin exiles, mainly the product of unheeded change
like the tongues of Men.
4. Version A has here a footnote omitted in B:
Thus it was that when the name Banyai of old was changed to
Vanyar this was done only because the sound b was changed to
v throughout the language (save in certain sequences) - and this
change, it is recorded, began among the Vanyar; whereas for the
showing of many the new device of r was brought in and used
in all words of a certain shape - and this, it is said, was begun
among the Noldor.
5. namely is used here in the original but long lost sense of the word,
'especially, above all'. The phrase is absent in A, which reads
simply: 'Or some answer that the teaching ...'
6. Here version A, as originally written, moves at once to the con-
cluding paragraphs of the Dangweth, from 'But in this point at
least our kindreds are alike ...' (p. 400) to its ending in the words
'we speak now still little otherwise than they did who fought
in Beleriand when the Sun was young.' These paragraphs were
struck out, and all the intervening matter (from 'And to speak of
memory, AElfwine ...') introduced, before they were reached again,
somewhat changed in expression but not in content, and now
virtually identical to the form in version B.
7. This sentence, from 'for it is to our thought ...', is absent in A.
8. The footnote here is absent in A.
XV.
OF LEMBAS.
For the association of this brief work, extant in a single manuscript,
with the Dangweth Pengolod see p. 395. It is a finely written text of
two pages, in style like that of the fine manuscript of the Dangweth
which it accompanies, but not of the same quality, and on thin paper.
My father introduced some illumination at its beginning in red ball-
point pen, and with the same pen wrote at the head of the first page,
above the title Of Lembas: 'Mana i-coimas in-Eldaron?' maquente
Elendil (the same question as appears on the cardboard folder enclos-
ing the two texts, p. 395). At the same time he added quotation marks
at the beginning and end of the text, showing that it is the answer of
Pengolod to AElfwine's question, 'What is the coimas of the Eldar?' It
seems possible that these additions in ball-point pen were added later,
to make the text into a companion piece to the Dangweth; but there is
in any case no evidence for date, beyond the limits of 1951 and 1959
(p. 395).
Of Lembas.
'This food the Eldar alone knew how to make. It was made for
the comfort of those who had need to go upon a long journey
in the wild, or of the hurt whose life was in peril. Only these
were permitted to use it. The Eldar did not give it to Men, save
only to a few whom they loved, if they were in great need.*
The Eldar say that they first received this food from the Valar
in the beginning of their days in the Great Journey. For it was
made of a kind of corn which Yavanna brought forth in the
fields of Aman, and some she sent to them by the hand of
Orome for their succour upon the long march.
(* This was not done out of greed or jealousy, although at no time in
Middle-earth was there great store of this food; but because the Eldar
had been commanded to keep this gift in their own power, and not to
make it common to the dwellers in mortal lands. For it is said that, if
mortals eat often of this bread, they become weary of their mortality,
desiring to abide among the Elves, and longing for the fields of Aman,
to which they cannot come.)
Since it came from Yavanna, the queen, or the highest among
the elven-women of any people, great or small, had the keeping
and gift of the lembas, for which reason she was called massanie
or besain: the Lady, or breadgiver.(1)
Now this corn had in it the strong life of Aman, which it
could impart to those who had the need and right to use the
bread. If it was sown at any season, save in frost, it soon
sprouted and grew swiftly, though it did not thrive in the
shadow of plants of Middle-earth and would not endure winds
that came out of the North while Morgoth dwelt there. Else it
needed only a little sunlight to ripen; for it took swiftly and
multiplied all the vigour of any light that fell on it.
The Eldar grew it in guarded lands and sunlit glades; and they
gathered its great golden ears, each one, by hand, and set no
blade of metal to it. The white haulm was drawn from the earth
in like manner, and woven into corn-leep (2) for the storing of the
grain: no worm or gnawing beast would touch that gleaming
straw, and rot and mould and other evils of Middle-earth did
not assail it.
From the ear to the wafer none were permitted to handle this
grain, save those elven-women who were called Yavannildi
(or by the Sindar the Ivonwin),(3) the maidens of Yavanna; and
the art of the making of the lembas, which they learned of the
Valar, was a secret among them, and so ever has remained.'
Lembas is the Sindarin name, and comes from the older form
lenn-mbass 'journey-bread'. In Quenya it was most often
named coimas which is 'life-bread'.(4)
Quente Quengoldo.
NOTES.
1. In the story of Turin it is said of Melian's gift of lembas to Beleg
the Bowman (The Silmarillion p. 202) that it was 'wrapped in
leaves of silver, and the threads that bound it were sealed at the
knots with the seal of the Queen, a wafer of white wax shaped as
a single flower of Telperion; for according to the customs of the
Eldalie the keeping and giving of lembas belonged to the Queen
alone. In nothing did Melian show greater favour to Turin than in
this gift; for the Eldar had never before allowed Men to use this
waybread, and seldom did so again.'
With 'massanie or besain' cf. the entry in the Etymologies,
V.372, stem MBAS 'knead': Quenya masta, Noldorin bast, 'bread';
also the words lembas, coimas, explained at the end of the present
text as 'journey-bread' and 'life-bread'. Above the ain of besain is
faintly pencilled oneth. sc. besoneth.
In using the word Lady here my father no doubt had an eye to
its origin in Old English hlaef-dige, of which the first element is
hlaf (modern English loaf) with changed vowel, and the second a
derivative of the stem dig- 'knead' (to which dough is ultimately
related); cf. lord from hlaf-weard 'bread-keeper'.
2. haulm: the stalks of cultivated plants left when the ears or pods
have been gathered; corn-leeps: leep (leap) is an old dialect word
for a basket (Old English leap).
3. Ivonwin: the Noldorin (i.e. later Sindarin) form Ivann for Yavanna
appears in the Etymologies, V.399, stem YAB 'fruit'.
4. This was written at the same time as the rest of the manuscript, but
set in as printed, and was excluded from the quotation marks
added later to the body of the text. The words Quente Quengoldo
('Thus spoke Pengolod') also belong to the time of writing.
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