JRR Tolkien - The History of Middle Earth Series vol10 GL4
PART FOUR.
ATHRABETH
FINROD
AH
ANDRETH.
ATHRABETH FINROD AH ANDRETH.
While this very remarkable and hitherto unknown work, 'The Debate
of Finrod and Andreth', is set at a later time in the history of the Elder
Days than is otherwise reached in this book, it should clearly be given
here on account of its association, both in date and content, with the
writings and revisions of the 'Second Phase' of the post-Lord of the
Rings history of The Silmarillion. I have thought it best to let it stand
as a separate Part in this book rather than include it with the
miscellaneous writings in Part Five, since unlike those it is a major and
finished work, and is referred to elsewhere as if it had for my father
some 'authority'.
The textual situation, so far as the actual narrative of the 'Debate' is
concerned, is simple. There is one manuscript ('A'), very similar in
style and appearance to that of Laws and Customs among the Eldar,
and like it clear and fluent - although in this case there are some pages
of drafting extant, with clear indications that others existed (see
pp. 350 ff.). There are also two amanuensis typescripts, taken indepen-
dently from the manuscript after all emendation had been made to it.
One of these ('B'), probably the first to be made, is of slight value: it
has many errors, and was looked through very cursorily by my father
with scarcely any emendation. The other ('C'), extant also in a carbon
copy, is a better text though not without errors; this he read more
carefully and introduced a number of minor changes, but missed some
errors through not checking it against the manuscript. The text printed
here is therefore established from the manuscript, taking up emenda-
tions made to the typescripts.
Neither of the typescripts of the Athrabeth has any title; both begin
with the words 'Now it chanced that on a time of spring...' (p. 307).
The manuscript, on the other hand, bears the title Of Death and the
Children of Eru, and the Marring of Men (with another title or
sub-title added later, The Converse of Finrod and Andreth), and two
pages of introductory text precede the sentence with which the
typescripts open. This introduction to the 'Converse' was in fact the
continuation of an essay which my father removed and let stand
separately: see pp. 424 ff., where this work, entitled Aman, is given.
This introductory section was subsequently typed by my father,
with a carbon copy, on the new typewriter (see p. 300), and attached
to the beginning of the copies of the amanuensis typescript C. It has no
title or heading. In typing it he substantially recast it; but the actual
matter of the manuscript version was largely retained, so that only a
few differences need be noted (see pp. 305 - 6).
As to the date of the work: that it was written after the completion
of the manuscript of Laws and Customs among the Eldar is seen from
my father's comments on the latter, 'But see full treatment of this later
in Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth' and 'But see Athrabeth' (pp. 251 - 2).
It is evident also that it followed the typescript B of Laws and
Customs, since the word hroa(r) is used, a term which only replaced
hrondo(r) in that typescript by hasty later correction (p. 209). The text
and the very elaborate Commentary (typed on the new typewriter)
appended to it are preserved in folded newspapers of January 1960;
and it is clear from what is written on the newspapers (see p. 329) that
the material was complete when they were used for this purpose. It
is true of course that January 1960 is not thereby proved to be a
terminus ad quem, because it could have been indefinitely later that
the newspaper was so used; but that, I think, is very unlikely, and I
would therefore place the work in 1959. The only evidence that can be
set against this is the fact that the small quantity of original draft-
material is all written on slips made from documents of the year 1955;
but if my father had a store of such paper, as is likely enough, this
would show no more than that initial work on the Athrabeth belongs
to that year or later. At the same time it must be allowed to be
perfectly possible that he was working on it at intervals over a
substantial period of time.
There follows now the introductory text in the typescript version.
Now the Eldar learned that, according to the lore of the Edain,
Men believed that their hroar were not by right nature short-
lived, but had been made so by the malice of Melkor. It was not
clear to the Eldar whether Men meant: by the general marring
of Arda (which they themselves held to be the cause of the
waning of their own hroar); or by some special malice against
Men as Men that was achieved in the dark ages before the Edain
and the Eldar met in Beleriand; or by both. But to the Eldar it
seemed that, if the mortality of Men had come by special malice,
the nature of Men had been grievously changed from the first
design of Eru; and this was a matter of wonder and dread to
them, for, if it were indeed so, then the power of Melkor must
be (or have been in the beginning) far greater than even the
Eldar had understood; whereas the original nature of Men must
have been strange indeed and unlike that of any others of the
dwellers in Arda.
Concerning these things it is recorded in the ancient lore of
the Eldar that once Finrod Felagund and Andreth the Wise-
woman conversed in Beleriand long ago. This tale, which the
Eldar call Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth, is here given in one of
the forms that have been preserved.
Finrod (son of Finarfin, son of Finwe) was the wisest of the
exiled Noldor, being more concerned than all others with
matters of thought (rather than with making or with skill of
hand); and he was eager moreover to discover all that he could
concerning Mankind. He it was that first met Men in Beleriand
and befriended them; and for this reason he was often called by
the Eldar Edennil, 'the Friend of Men'. His chief love was given
to the people of Beor the Old, for it was these that he had first
found in the woods of eastern Beleriand.
Andreth was a woman of the House of Beor, the sister of
Bregor father of Barahir (whose son was Beren One-hand the
renowned). She was wise in thought, and learned in the lore of
Men and their histories; for which reason the Eldar called her
Saelind, 'Wise-heart'.
Of the Wise some were women, and they were greatly
esteemed among Men, especially for their knowledge of the
legends of ancient days. Another Wise-woman was Adanel,
sister of Hador Lorindol at one time Lord of the People of
Marach, whose lore and traditions, and their language also,
were different from those of the People of Beor. But Adanel was
married to a kinsman of Andreth, Belemir of the House of Beor:
he was grandsire of Emeldir, mother of Beren. In her youth
Andreth had dwelt long in Belemir's house, and so had learned
from Adanel much of the lore of the People of Marach, besides
the lore of her own folk.
In the days of the peace before Melkor broke the Siege of
Angband, Finrod would often visit Andreth, whom he loved in
great friendship, for he found her more ready to impart her
knowledge to him than were most of the Wise among Men. A
shadow seemed to lie upon them, and there was a darkness
behind them, of which they were loth to speak even among
themselves. And they were in awe of the Eldar and would not
easily reveal to them their thought or their legends. Indeed the
Wise among Men (who were few) for the most part kept their
wisdom secret and handed it on only to those whom they chose.
The chief difference between the manuscript and typescript versions
of this introductory piece concerns the expanded genealogy of the
House of Beor, for here the manuscript gives some additional informa-
tion concerning Adanel:
Another wise-woman, though of a different House and different
tradition, was Adanel sister of Hador. She married Belemir of
the House of Beor, grandson of Belen second son of Beor the
Old, to whom the wisdom of Beor (for Beor himself had been
one of the wise) was chiefly transmitted. And there had
been great love between Belemir and Andreth his younger kins-
woman (the daughter of his second cousin Eoromir), and she
dwelt long in his house, and so learned much of the lore also of
the 'people of Marach' and the House of Hador from Adanel.
If to the genealogical references in the published Silmarillion
(pp. 142, 148, and the Index s.v. Emeldir) is added this information
from the introduction to the Athrabeth the following tree can be
derived (the new names are printed in italic):
Beor the Old
Baran Belen
Boron
Boromir Belemir Adanel Hador
Lorindol
Andreth Bregor Beren
Bregolas Barahir Emeldir
Beren One-hand
Most of the genealogical information about the House of Beor in the
published Silmarillion is derived of course from post-Lord of the Rings
work on the text: in QS and the Annals of Beleriand (AB 2) Beren's
father Barahir was the son of Beor the Old, and the People of Marach
had not emerged.
Other differences in the manuscript version of the introduction are
the statements that Andreth 'learned also all that she could hear of the
Eldar', and that Finrod was often called by the Eldar 'Atandil (or
Edennil)' (see the 'Glossary' to the Athrabeth, p. 349).
In the first footnote to the opening of the narrative proper the date
of the Athrabeth is given as 'about 409 during the Long Peace
(260 - 455)'. In the year 260 Glaurung first emerged from the gates of
Angband, and in 455 befell the Dagor Bragollach or Battle of Sudden
game, when the Siege of Angband was broken. According to the older
chronology (see V.130, 274; still preserved in the Grey Annals of
c.1951) Finrod Felagund had encountered Beor in the foothills of the
glue Mountains in the year 400, but the date of that meeting had now
been set back by ninety years, to 310 (third footnote to the text).
There follows now 'The Debate of Finrod and Andreth', which as
already noted has no title in the typescripts (B and C), and which in the
original manuscript (A) runs on continuously without new heading
from the introduction.
Now it chanced that on a time of spring * Finrod was for a
while a guest in the house of Belemir; and he fell to talking with
Andreth the Wise-woman concerning Men and their fates. For
at that time Boron, Lord of the folk of Beor, had but lately died
soon after Yule, and Finrod was grieved.
'Sad to me, Andreth,' he said, 'is the swift passing of your
people. For now Boron your father's father is gone; and though
he was old, you say, as age goes among Men,** yet I had known
him too briefly. Little while indeed it seems to me since I first
saw + Beor in the east of this land, yet now he is gone, and his
sons, and his son's son also.'
'More than a hundred years it is now,' said Andreth, 'since we
came over the Mountains; and Beor and Baran and Boron each
lived beyond his ninetieth year. Our passing was swifter before
we found this land.'
'Then are you content here?' said Finrod.
'Content?' said Andreth. 'No heart of Man is content. All
passing and dying is a grief to it; but if the withering is less soon
then that is some amendment, a little lifting of the Shadow.'
'What mean you by that?' said Finrod.
'Surely you know well!' said Andreth. 'The darkness that is
now confined to the North, but once'; and here she paused and
her eyes darkled, as if her mind were gone back into black years
best forgot. 'But once lay upon all Middle-earth, while ye dwelt
in your bliss.'
(* [footnote to the text] This would be about 409 during the Long
Peace (260-455). At that time Belemir and Adanel were old in the
reckoning of Men, being some 70 years of age; but Andreth was in full
vigour, being not yet 50 (48). She was unwed, as was not uncommon
for Wise-women of Men.)
(**[footnote to the text] He was 93.)
(+ [footnote to the text] In 310, about 100 years before this.)
'It was not concerning the Shadow that I asked,' said Finrod.
'What mean you, I would say, by the lifting of it? Or how is the
swift fate of Men concerned with it? Ye also, we hold (being
instructed by the Great who know), are Children of Eru, and
your fate and nature is from Him.'
'I see,' said Andreth, 'that in this ye of the High-elves do not
differ from your lesser kindred whom we have met in the world,
though they have never dwelt in the Light. All ye Elves deem
that we die swiftly by our true kind. That we are brittle and
brief, and ye are strong and lasting. We may be "Children of
Eru", as ye say in your lore; but we are children to you also: to
be loved a little maybe, and yet creatures of less worth, upon
whom ye may look down from the height of your power and
your knowledge, with a smile, or with pity, or with a shaking of
heads.'
'Alas, you speak near the truth,' said Finrod. 'At least of
many of my people; but not of all, and certainly not of me. But
consider this well, Andreth, when we name you "Children of
Eru" we do not speak lightly; for that name we do not utter ever
in jest or without full intent. When we speak so, we speak out of
knowledge, not out of mere Elvish lore; and we proclaim that ye
are our kin, in a kinship far closer (both of hroa and fea) than
that which binds together all other creatures of Arda, and
ourselves to them.
'Other creatures also in Middle-earth we love in their measure
and kind: the beasts and birds who are our friends, the trees,
and even the fair flowers that pass more swiftly than Men. Their
passing we regret; but believe it to be a part of their nature, as
much as are their shapes or their hues.
'But for you, who are our nearer kin, our regret is far greater.
Yet, if we consider the briefness of life in all Middle-earth, must
we not believe that your brevity is also part of your nature? Do
not your own people believe this too? And yet from your words
and their bitterness I guess that you think that we err.'
'I think that you err, and all who think likewise,' said
Andreth; 'and that that error itself comes of the Shadow. But to
speak of Men. Some will say this and some that; but most,
thinking little, will ever hold that what is in their brief span in
the world has ever been so, and shall so ever remain, whether
they like it or no. But there are some that think otherwise; men
call them "Wise", but heed them little. For they do not speak
with assurance or with one voice, having no sure knowledge
such as ye boast of, but perforce depending upon <lore>, from
which truth (if it can be found) must be winnowed. And in every
winnowing there is chaff with the corn that is chosen, and
doubtless some corn with the chaff which is rejected.
'Yet among my people, from Wise unto Wise out of the
darkness, comes the voice saying that Men are not now as they
were, nor as their true nature was in their beginning. And
clearer still is this said by the Wise of the People of Marach, who
have preserved in memory a name for Him that ye call Eru,
though in my folk He was almost forgotten. So I learn from
Adanel. They say plainly that Men are not by nature short-lived,
but have become so through the malice of the Lord of the
Darkness whom they do not name.'
'That I can well believe,' said Finrod: 'that your bodies suffer
in some measure the malice of Melkor. For you live in Arda
Marred, as do we, and all the matter of Arda was tainted by
him, before ye or we came forth and drew our hroar and their
sustenance therefrom: all save only maybe Aman before he
came there.(1) For know, it is not otherwise with the Quendi (2)
themselves: their health and stature is diminished. Already those
of us who dwell in Middle-earth, and even we who have
returned to it, find that the change (3) of their bodies is swifter
than in the beginning. And that, I judge, must forebode that
they will prove less strong to last than they were designed to be,
though this may not be clearly revealed for many long years.
'And likewise with the hroar of Men, they are weaker than
they should be. Thus it comes to pass that here in the West, to
which of old his power scarcely extended, they have more
health, as you say.'
'Nay, nay!' said Andreth. 'You do not understand my words.
For you are ever in one mind, my lord: the Elves are the Elves,
and Men are Men, and though they have a common Enemy, by
whom both are injured, still the ordained interval remains
between the lords and the humble, the firstcomers high and
enduring, the followers lowly and of brief service.
'That is not the voice that the Wise hear out of the darkness
and from beyond it. Nay, lord, the Wise among Men say: "We
were not made for death, nor born ever to die. Death was
imposed upon us." And behold! the fear of it is with us always,
and we flee from it for ever as the hart from the hunter. But for
myself I deem that we cannot escape within this world, nay, not
even if we could come to the Light beyond the Sea, or that
Aman of which ye tell. In that hope we set out and have
journeyed through many lives of Men; but the hope was vain.
So said the Wise, but that did not stay the march, for as I have
said, they are little heeded. And lo! we have fled from the
Shadow to the last shores of Middle-earth, to find only that it is
here before us!'
Then Finrod was silent; but after a while he said: 'These
words are strange and terrible. And you speak with the
bitterness of one whose pride has been humiliated, and seeks
therefore to wound those to whom she speaks. If all the Wise
among Men speak so, then well I can believe that ye have
suffered some great hurt. But not by my people, Andreth, nor by
any of the Quendi. If we are as we are, and ye are as we find
you, that is not by any deed of ours, nor of our desire; and your
sorrow does not rejoice us nor feed our pride. One only would
say otherwise: that Enemy whom you do not name.
'Beware of the chaff with your corn, Andreth! For it may be
deadly: lies of the Enemy that out of envy will breed hate. Not
all the voices that come out of the darkness speak truth to those
minds that listen for strange news.
'But who did you this hurt? Who imposed death upon you?
Melkor, it is plain that you would say, or whatever name you
have for him in secret. For you speak of death and his shadow,
as if these were one and the same; and as if to escape from the
Shadow was to escape also from Death.
'But these two are not the same, Andreth. So I deem, or death
would not be found at all in this world which he did not design
but Another. Nay, death is but the name that we give to
something that he has tainted, and it sounds therefore evil; but
untainted its name would be good.'(4)
'What do ye know of death? Ye do not fear it, because ye (5) do
not know it,' said Andreth.
'We have seen it, and we fear it,' answered Finrod. 'We too
may die, Andreth; and we have died. My father's father was
cruelly slain, and many have followed him, exiles in the night, in
the cruel ice, in the insatiable sea. And in Middle-earth we have
died, by fire and by smoke, by venom and the cruel blades of
battle. Feanor is dead, and Fingolphin was trodden under the
feet of the Morgoth.(6)
'For what end? To overthrow the Shadow, or if that may not
be, to keep it from spreading once more over all Middle-earth -
to defend the Children of Eru, Andreth, all the Children and not
the proud Eldar only!'
'I had heard,' said Andreth, 'that it was to regain your
treasure that your Enemy had stolen; but maybe the House of
Finarphin is not at one with the Sons of Feanor. Nonetheless for
all your valour, I say again: "what know ye of death?" To you it
may be in pain, it may be bitter and a loss - but only for a time,
a little taken from abundance, unless I have been told untruth.
For ye know that in dying you do not leave the world, and that
you may return to life.
'Otherwise it is with us: dying we die, and we go out to no
return. Death is an uttermost end, a loss irremediable. And it is
abominable; for it is also a wrong that is done to us.'
'That difference I perceive,' said Finrod. 'You would say there
are two deaths: the one is a harm and a loss but not an end, the
other is an end without redress; and the Quendi suffer only the
first?'
'Yes, but there is another difference also,' said Andreth. 'One
is but a wound in the chances of the world, which the brave, or
the strong, or the fortunate, may hope to avoid. The other is
death ineluctable; death the hunter who cannot in the end be
escaped. Be a Man strong, or swift, or bold; be he wise or a fool;
be he evil, or be he in all the deeds of his days just and merciful,
let him love the world or loathe it, he must die and must leave it
- and become carrion that men are fain to hide or to burn.'
'And being thus pursued, have Men no hope?' said Finrod.
'They have no certainty and no knowledge, only fears, or
dreams in the dark,' answered Andreth. 'But hope? Hope, that
is another matter, of which even the Wise seldom speak.' Then
her voice grew more gentle. 'Yet, Lord Finrod of the House of
Finarphin, of the high and puissant Elves, perhaps we may
speak of it anon, you and I.'
'Anon we may,' said Finrod, 'but as yet we walk in the
shadows of fear. Thus far, then, I perceive that the great
difference between Elves and Men is in the speed of the end. In
this only. For if you deem that for the Quendi there is no death
ineluctable, you err.
'Now none of us know, though the Valar may know, the
future of Arda, or how long it is ordained to endure. But it will
not endure for ever. It was made by Eru, but He is not in it. The
One only has no limits. Arda, and Ea itself, must therefore be
bounded. You see us, the Quendi, still in the first ages of our
being, and the end is far off. As maybe among you death may
seem to a young man in his strength; save that we have long
years of life and thought already behind us. But the end will
come. That we all know. And then we must.die; we must perish
utterly, it seems, for we belong to Arda (in hroa and fea).(7) And
beyond that what? "The going out to no return," as you say;
"the uttermost end, the irremediable loss"?
'Our hunter is slow-footed, but he never loses the trail.
Beyond the day when he shall blow the mort,(8) we have no
certainty, no knowledge. And no one speaks to us of hope.'
'I did not know this,' said Andreth; 'and yet...'
'And yet at least ours is slow-footed, you would say?' said
Finrod. 'True. But it is not clear that a foreseen doom long
delayed is in all ways a lighter burden than one that comes soon.
But if I have understood your words thus far, you do not believe
that this difference was designed so in the beginning. You were
not at first doomed to swift death.
'Much could be said concerning this belief (be it a true guess
or no). But first I would ask: how do ye say that this has come
about? By the malice of Melkor I guessed, and you have not
denied it. But I see now that you do not speak of the diminish-
ment that all in Arda Marred suffer; but of some special stroke
of enmity against your people, against Men as Men. Is that so?'
'It is indeed,' said Andreth.
'Then this is a matter of dread,' said Finrod. 'We know
Melkor, the Morgoth, and know him to be mighty. Yea, I have
seen him, and I have heard his voice; and I have stood blind in
the night that is at the heart of his shadow, whereof you,
Andreth, know nought save by hearsay and the memory of your
people. But never even in the night have we believed that he
could prevail against the Children of Eru. This one he might
cozen, or that one he might corrupt; but to change the doom of
a whole people of the Children, to rob them of their inheritance:
if he could do that in Eru's despite, then greater and more
terrible is he by far than we guessed; then all the valour of the
Noldor is but presumption and folly - nay, Valinor and the
Mountains of the Pelori are builded on sand.'
'Behold!' said Andreth. 'Did I not say that ye do not know
death? Lo! when you are made to face it in thought only, as we
know it in deed and in thought all our lives, at once you fall into
a despair. We know, if ye do not,(9) that the Nameless is Lord of
this World, and your valour, and ours too, is a folly; or at least
it is fruitless.'
'Beware!' said Finrod. 'Beware lest you speak the unspeak-
able, wittingly or in ignorance, confounding Eru with the
Enemy who would fain have you do so. The Lord of this World
is not he, but the One who made him, and his Vicegerent is
Manwe, the Elder King of Arda who is blessed.
'Nay, Andreth, the mind darkened and distraught; to bow
and yet to loathe; to flee and yet not to reject; to love the body
and yet scorn it, the carrion-disgust: these things may come
from the Morgoth, indeed. But to doom the deathless to death,
from father unto son, and yet to leave to them the memory of an
inheritance taken away, and the desire for what is lost: could
the Morgoth do this? No, I say. And for that reason I said that if
your tale is true, then all in Arda is vain, from the pinnacle of
Oiolosse to the uttermost abyss. For I do not believe your tale.
None could have done this save the One.
'Therefore I say to you, Andreth, what did ye do, ye Men,
long ago in the dark? How did ye anger Eru? For otherwise all
your tales are but dark dreams devised in a Dark Mind. Will
you say what you know or have heard?'
'I will not,' said Andreth. 'We do nor speak of this to those of
other race. But indeed the Wise are uncertain and speak with
contrary voices; for whatever happened long ago, we have fled
from it; we have tried to forget, and so long have we tried that
now we cannot remember any time when we were not as we are
- save only legends of days when death came less swiftly and
our span was still far longer, but already there was death.'
'Ye cannot remember?' said Finrod. 'Are there no tales of
your days before death, though ye will not tell them to
strangers? '
'Maybe,' said Andreth. 'If not among my folk, then among
the folk of Adanel, perhaps.' She fell silent, and gazed at the fire.
'Do you think that none know save yourselves?' said Finrod
at last. 'Do not the Valar know?'
Andreth looked up and her eyes darkened. 'The Valar?' she
said. 'How should I know, or any Man? Your Valar do not
trouble us either with care or with instruction. They sent no
summons to us.'
'What do you know of them?' said Finrod. 'I have seen them
and dwelt among them, and in the presence of Manwe and
Varda I have stood in the Light. Speak not of them so, nor of
anything that is high above you. Such words came first out
of the Lying Mouth.
'Has it never entered into your thought, Andreth, that out
there in ages long past ye may have put yourselves out of their
care, and beyond the reach of their help? Or even that ye, the
Children of Men, were not a matter that they could govern? For
ye were too great. Yea, I mean this, and do not only flatter your
pride: too great. Sole masters of yourselves within Arda, under
the hand of the One. Beware then how you speak! If ye will not
speak to others of your wound or how ye came by it, take heed
lest (as unskilled leeches) ye misjudge the hurt, or in pride
misplace the blame.
'But let us turn now to other matters, since you will not say
more of this. I would consider your first state before the wound.
For what you say of that is also to me a wonder, and hard to
understand. You say: "we were not made for death, nor born
ever to die." What do you mean: that ye were as we are, or
otherwise? '
'This lore takes no account of you,' said Andreth, 'for we
knew nothing of the Eldar. We considered only dying and
not-dying. Of life as long as the world but no longer we had not
heard; indeed not until now has it entered my mind.'
'To speak truly,' said Finrod, 'I had thought that this belief of
yours, that ye too were not made for death, was but a dream of
your pride, bred in envy of the Quendi, to equal or surpass
them. Not so, you will say. Yet long ere ye came to this land, ye
met other folk of the Quendi, and by some were befriended.
Were ye not then already mortal? And did ye never speak with
them concerning life and death? Though without any words
they would soon discover your mortality, and ere long you
would perceive that they did not die.'
'"Not so" I say indeed,' answered Andreth. 'We may have
been mortal when first we met the Elves far away, or maybe we
were not: our lore does not say, or at least none that I have
learned. But already we had our lore, and needed none from the
Elves: we knew that in our beginning we had been born never to
die. And by that, my lord, we meant: born to life everlasting,
without any shadow o f any end.'
'Then have the Wise among you considered how strange is
the true nature that they claim for the Atani?' said Finrod.
'Is it so strange?' said Andreth. 'Many of the Wise hold that in
their true nature no living things would die.'
'In that the Eldar would say that they err,' said Finrod. 'To us
your claim for Men is strange, and indeed hard to accept, for
two reasons. You claim, if you fully understand your own
words, to have had imperishable bodies, not bounded by the
limits of Arda, and yet derived from its matter and sustained by
it. And you claim also (though this you may not have perceived)
to have had hroar and fear that were from the beginning out of
harmony. Yet harmony of hroa and fea is, we believe, essential to
the true nature unmarred of all the Incarnate: the Mirroanwi (10)
as we call the Children of Eru.'
'The first difficulty I perceive,' said Andreth, 'and to it our
Wise have their own answer. The second, as you guess, I do not
perceive.'
'Do you not?' said Finrod. 'Then you do not see yourselves
clearly. But it may often happen that friends and kinsmen see
some things plainly that are hidden from their friend himself.
'Now we Eldar are your kinsmen, and your friends also (if
you will believe it), and we have observed you already through
three lives of Men with love and concern and much thought. Of
this then we are certain without debate, or else all our wisdom is
vain: the fear of Men, though close akin indeed to the fear of the
Quendi, are yet not the same. For strange as we deem it, we see
clearly that the fear of Men are not, as are ours, confined to
Arda, nor is Arda their home.
'Can you deny it? Now we Eldar do not deny that ye love
Arda and all that is therein (in so far as ye are free from the
Shadow) maybe even as greatly as do we. Yet otherwise. Each of
our kindreds perceives Arda differently, and appraises its
beauties in different mode and degree. How shall I say it? To me
the difference seems like that between one who visits a strange
country, and abides there a while (but need not), and one who
has lived in that land always (and must). To the former all
things that he sees are new and strange, and in that degree
lovable. To the other all things are familiar, the only things that
are, his own, and in that degree precious.'
'If you mean that Men are the guests,' said Andreth.
'You have said the word,' said Finrod: 'that name we have
given to you.'
'Lordly as ever,' said Andreth. 'But even if we be but guests in
a land where all is your own, my lords, as you say, tell me what
other land or things do we know?'
'Nay, tell me!' said Finrod. 'For if you do not know, how can
we? But do you know that the Eldar say of Men that they look
at no thing for itself; that if they study it, it is to discover
something else; that if they love it, it is only (so it seems) because
it reminds them of some other dearer thing? Yet with what is
this comparison? Where are these other things?
'We are both, Elves and Men, in Arda and of Arda; and such
knowledge as Men have is derived from Arda (or so it would
appear). Whence then comes this memory that ye have with
you, even before ye begin to learn?
'It is not of other regions in Arda from which ye have
journeyed. We also have journeyed from afar. But were you and
I to go together to your ancient homes east away I should
recognize the things there as part of my home, but I should see
in your eyes the same wonder and comparison as I see in the
eyes of Men in Beleriand who were born here.'
'You speak strange words, Finrod,' said Andreth, 'which I
have not heard before. Yet my heart is stirred as if by some truth
that it recognizes even if it does not understand it. But fleeting is
that memory, and goes ere it can be grasped; and then we grow
blind. And those among us who have known the Eldar, and
maybe have loved them, say on our side: "There is no weariness
in the eyes of the Elves". And we find that they do not
understand the saying that goes among Men: too often seen is
seen no longer. And they wonder much that in the tongues
of Men the same word may mean both "long-known" and
"stale".
'We have thought that this was so only because the Elves have
lasting life and undiminished vigour. "Grown-up children" we,
the guests, sometimes call you, my lord. And yet - and yet, if
nothing in Arda for us holds its savour long, and all fair things
grow dim, what then? Does it not come from [the] Shadow
upon our hearts? Or do you say that it is not so, but this was
ever our nature, even before the wound?'
'I say so, indeed,' answered Finrod. 'The Shadow may have
darkened your unrest, bringing swifter weariness and soon
turning it to disdain, but the unrest was ever there, I believe.
And if this is so, then can you not now perceive the disharmony
that I spoke of? If indeed your Wisdom had lore like to ours,
teaching that the Mirroaowi are made of a union of body and
mind, of hroa and fea, or as we say in picture the House and the
Indweller.
'For what is the "death" that you mourn but the severing of
these two? And what is the "deathlessness" that you have lost
but that the two should remain united for ever?
'But what then shall we think of the union in Man: of an
Indweller, who is but a guest here in Arda and not here at home,
with a House that is built of the matter of Arda and must
therefore (one would suppose) here remain?
'At least one would not hope for this House a life longer than
Arda of which it is part. Yet you claim that the House too was
immortal, do you not? I would rather believe that such a fea of
its own nature would at some time of its own will have
abandoned the house of its sojourn here, even though the
sojourn might have been longer than is now permitted. Then
"death" would (as I said) have sounded otherwise to you: as a
release, or return, nay! as going home! But this you do not
believe, it seems?'
'Nay, I do not believe this,' said Andreth. 'For that would be
contempt of the body, and is a thought of the Darkness
unnatural in any of the Incarnate whose life uncorrupted is
a union of mutual love. But the body is not an inn to keep a
traveller warm for a night, ere he goes on his way, and then to
receive another. It is a house made for one dweller only, indeed
not only house but raiment also; and it is not clear to me that we
should in this case speak only of the raiment being fitted to the
wearer rather than of the wearer being fitted to the raiment.
'I hold then that it is not to be thought that the severance of
these two could be according to the true nature of Men. For
were it "natural" for the body to be abandoned and die, but
"natural" for the fea to live on, then there would indeed be a
disharmony in Man, and his parts would not be united by love.
His body would be a hindrance at best, or a chain. An im-
position indeed, not a gift. But there is one who imposes, and
who devises chains, and if such were our nature in the begin-
ning, then we should derive it from him - but that you say
should not be spoken.
'Alas! Out in the darkness men do say this nonetheless, but
not the Atani as thou knowest, not now. I hold that in this we
are as ye are, truly Incarnates, and that we do not live in our
right being and its fullness save in a union of love and peace
between the House and the Dweller. Wherefore death, which
divides them, is a disaster to both.'
'Ever more you amaze my thought, Andreth,' said Finrod.
'For if your claim is true, then lo! a fea which is here but a
traveller is wedded indissolubly to a hroa of Arda; to divide
them is a grievous hurt, and yet each must fulfil its right nature
without tyranny of the other. Then this must surely follow: the
fea when it departs must take with it the hroa. And what can
this mean unless it be that the fea shall have the power to uplift
the hroa, as its eternal spouse and companion, into an endur-
ance everlasting beyond Ea, and beyond Time? Thus would
Arda, or part thereof, be healed not only of the taint of Melkor,
but released even from the limits that were set for it in the
"Vision of Eru" of which the Valar speak.
'Therefore I say that if this can be believed, then mighty indeed
under Eru were Men made in their beginning; and dreadful
beyond all other calamities was the change in their state.
'Is it, then, a vision of what was designed to be when Arda
was complete - of living things and even of the very lands and
seas of Arda made eternal and indestructible, for ever beautiful
and new - with which the fear of Men compare what they see
here? Or is there somewhere else a world of which all things
which we see, all things that either Elves or Men know, are only
tokens or reminders?'
'If so it resides in the mind of Eru, I deem,' said Andreth. 'To
such questions how can we find the answers, here in the mists of
Arda Marred? Otherwise it might have been, had we not been
changed; but being as we are, even the Wise among us have
given too little thought to Arda itself, or to other things that
dwell here. We have thought most of ourselves: of how our
hroar and fear should have dwelt together for ever in joy, and of
the darkness impenetrable that now awaits us.'
'Then not only the High Eldar are forgetful of their kin!' said
Finrod. 'But this is strange to me, and even as did your heart
when I spoke of your unrest, so now mine leaps up as at the
hearing of good news.
'This then, I propound, was the errand of Men, not the
followers, but the heirs and fulfillers of all: to heal the Marring
of Arda, already foreshadowed before their devising; and to do
more, as agents of the magnificence of Eru: to enlarge the Music
and surpass the Vision of the World!(11)
'For that Arda Healed shall not be Arda Unmarred, but a
third thing and a greater, and yet the same.(12) I have conversed
with the Valar who were present at the making of the Music ere
the being of the World began. And now I wonder: Did they hear
the end of the Music? Was there not something in or beyond the
final chords of Eru which, being overwhelmed thereby, they did
got perceive?(13)
'Or again, since Eru is for ever free, maybe he made no Music
and showed no Vision beyond a certain point. Beyond that
point we cannot see or know, until by our own roads we come
there, Valar or Eldar or Men.
'As may a master in the telling of tales keep hidden the great-
est moment until it comes in due course. It may be guessed at
indeed, in some measure, by those of us who have listened with
full heart and mind; but so the teller would wish. In no wise is
the surprise and wonder of his art thus diminished, for thus we
share, as it were, in his authorship. But not so, if all were told us
in a preface before we entered in!'
'What then would you say is the supreme moment that Eru
has reserved?' Andreth asked.
'Ah, wise lady!' said Finrod. 'I am an Elda, and again I was
thinking of my own people. But nay, of all the Children of Eru. I
was thinking that by the Second Children we might have been
delivered from death. For ever as we spoke of death being a
division of the united, I thought in my heart of a death that is
not so: but the ending together of both. For that is what lies
before us, so far as our reason could see: the completion of Arda
and its end, and therefore also of us children of Arda; the end
when all the long lives of the Elves shall be wholly in the past.(14)
'And then suddenly I beheld as a vision Arda Remade; and
there the Eldar completed but not ended could abide in the
present for ever,(15) and there walk, maybe, with the Children of
Men, their deliverers, and sing to them such songs as, even in
the Bliss beyond bliss, should make the green valleys ring and
the everlasting mountain-tops to throb like harps.'
Then Andreth looked under her brows at Finrod: 'And what,
when ye were not singing, would ye say to us?' she asked.
Finrod laughed. 'I can only guess,' he said. 'Why, wise lady, I
think that we should tell you tales of the Past and of Arda that
was Before, of the perils and great deeds and the making of the
Silmarils! We were the lordly ones then! But ye, ye would then
be at home, looking at all things intently, as your own. Ye
would be the lordly ones. "The eyes of Elves are always thinking
of something else," ye would say. But ye would know then of
what we were reminded: of the days when we first met, and our
hands touched in the dark. Beyond the End of the World we
shall not change; for in memory is our great talent, as shall be
seen ever more clearly as the ages of this Arda pass: a heavy
burden to be, I fear; but in the Days of which we now speak a
great wealth.' And then he paused, for he saw that Andreth was
weeping silently.
'Alas, lord!' she said. 'What then is to be done now? For we
speak as if these things are, or as if they will assuredly be. But
Men have been diminished and their power is taken away. We
look for no Arda Remade: darkness lies before us, into which
we stare in vain. If by our aid your everlasting mansions were to
be prepared, they will not be builded now.'
'Have ye then no hope?' said Finrod.
'What is hope?' she said. 'An expectation of good, which
though uncertain has some foundation in what is known? Then
we have none.'
'That is one thing that Men call "hope",' said Finrod. 'Amdir
we call it, "looking up". But there is another which is founded
deeper. Estel we call it, that is "trust". It is not defeated by the
ways of the world, for it does not come from experience, but
from our nature and first being. If we are indeed the Eruhin, the
Children of the One, then He will not suffer Himself to be
deprived of His own, not by any Enemy, not even by ourselves.
This is the last foundation of Estel, which we keep even when
we contemplate the End: of all His designs the issue must be for
His Children's joy. Amdir you have not, you say. Does no Estel
at all abide?'
'Maybe,' she said. 'But no! Do you not perceive that it is part
of our wound that Estel should falter and its foundations be
shaken? Are we the Children of the One? Are we not cast off
finally? Or were we ever so? Is not the Nameless the Lord of the
World?'
'Say it not even in question!' said Finrod.
'It cannot be unsaid,' answered Andreth, 'if you would
understand the despair in which we walk. Or in which most
Men walk. Among the Atani, as you call us, or the Seekers as we
say: those who left the lands of despair and the Men of darkness
and journeyed west in vain hope: it is believed that healing may
yet be found, or that there is some way of escape. But is this
indeed Estel? Is it not Amdir rather; but without reason: mere
flight in a dream from what waking they know: that there is no
escape from darkness and death?'
'Mere flight in a dream you say,' answered Finrod. 'In dream
many desires are revealed; and desire may be the last flicker of
Estel. But you do not mean dream, Andreth. You confound
dream and waking with hope and belief, to make the one more
doubtful and the other more sure. Are they asleep when they
speak of escape and healing?'
'Asleep or awake, they say nothing clearly,' answered
Andreth. 'How or when shall healing come? To what manner of
being shall those who see that time be re-made? And what of us
who before it go out into darkness unhealed? To such questions
only those of the <Old Hope> (as they call themselves) have any
guess of an answer.'
'Those of the Old Hope?' said Finrod. 'Who are they?'
'A few,' she said; 'but their number has grown since we came
to this land, and they see that the Nameless can (as they think)
be defied. Yet that is no good reason. To defy him does not
undo his work of old. And if the valour of the Eldar fails here,
then their despair will be deeper. For it was not on the might of
Men, or of any of the peoples of Arda, that the old hope was
grounded.'
'What then was this hope, if you know?' Finrod asked.
'They say,' answered Andreth: 'they say that the One will
himself enter into Arda, and heal Men and all the Marring from
the beginning to the end. This they say also, or they feign, is a
rumour that has come down through years uncounted, even
from the days of our undoing.'(16)
'They say, they feign?' said Finrod. 'Are you then nor one of
them?'
'How can I be, lord? All wisdom is against them. Who is the
One, whom ye call Eru? If we put aside the Men who serve the
Nameless, as do many in Middle-earth, still many Men perceive
the world only as a war between Light and Dark equipotent.
But you will say: nay, that is Manwe and Melkor; Eru is above
them. Is then Eru only the greatest of the Valar, a great god
among gods, as most Men will say, even among the Atani: a
king who dwells far from his kingdom and leaves lesser princes
to do here much as they will? Again you say: nay, Eru is One,
alone without peer, and He made Ea, and is beyond it; and the
Valar are greater than we, but yet no nearer to His majesty. Is
this not so?'
'Yes,' said Finrod. 'We say this, and the Valar we know, and
they say the same, all save one. But which, think you, is more
likely to lie: those who make themselves humble, or he that
exalts himself?'
'I do not doubt,' said Andreth. 'And for that reason the saying
of Hope passes my understanding. How could Eru enter into the
thing that He has made, and than which He is beyond measure
greater? Can the singer enter into his tale or the designer into his
picture? '
'He is already in it, as well as outside,' said Finrod. 'But
indeed the "in-dwelling" and the "out-living" are not in the
same mode.'
'Truly,' said Andreth. 'So may Eru in that mode be present in
Ea that proceeded from Him. But they speak of Eru Himself
entering into Arda, and that is a thing wholly different. How
could He the greater do this? Would it not shatter Arda, or
indeed all Ea? '
'Ask me not,' said Finrod. 'These things are beyond the
compass of the wisdom of the Eldar, or of the Valar maybe. But
I doubt that our words may mislead us, and that when you say
"greater" you think of the dimensions of Arda, in which the
greater vessel may not be contained in the less.
'But such words may not be used of the Measureless. If Eru
wished to do this, I do not doubt that He would find a way,
though I cannot foresee it. For, as it seems to me, even if He in
Himself were to enter in, He must still remain also as He is: the
Author without. And yet, Andreth, to speak with humility, I
cannot conceive how else this healing could be achieved. Since
Eru will surely not suffer Melkor to turn the world to his own
will and to triumph in the end. Yet there is no power conceiv-
able greater than Melkor save Eru only. Therefore Eru, if He
will not relinquish His work to Melkor, who must else proceed
to mastery, then Eru must come in to conquer him.
'More: even if Melkor (or the Morgoth that he has become)
could in any way be thrown down or thrust from Arda, still his
Shadow would remain, and the evil that he has wrought and
sown as a seed would wax and multiply. And if any remedy for
this is to be found, ere all is ended, any new light to oppose the
shadow, or any medicine for the wounds: then it must, I deem,
come from without.'
'Then, lord,' said Andreth, and she looked up in wonder, 'you
believe in this Hope?'
'Ask me not yet,' he answered. 'For it is still to me but strange
news that comes from afar. No such hope was ever spoken to
the Quendi. To you only it was sent. And yet through you we
may hear it and lift up our hearts.' He paused a while, and then
looking gravely at Andreth he said: 'Yes, Wise-woman, maybe
it was ordained that we Quendi, and ye Atani, ere the world
grows old, should meet and bring news one to another, and so
we should learn of the Hope from you: ordained, indeed, that
thou and I, Andreth, should sit here and speak together, across
the gulf that divides our kindreds, so that while the Shadow still
broods in the North we should not be wholly afraid.'
'Across the gulf that divides our kindreds!' said Andreth. 'Is
there no bridge but mere words?' And then she wept again.
'There may be. For some. I do not know,' he said. 'The gulf,
maybe, is between our fates rather, for else we are close akin,
closer than any other creatures in the world. Yet perilous is it to
cross a gulf set by doom; and should any do so, they will not
find joy upon the other side, but the griefs of both. So I deem.
'But why dost thou say "mere words"? Do not words
overpass the gulf between one life and another? Between thee
and me surely more has passed than empty sound? Have we not
drawn near at all? But that is, I think, little comfort to thee.'
'I have not asked for comfort,' said Andreth. 'For what do I
need it?'
'For the doom of Men that has touched thee as a woman,'
said Finrod. 'Dost thou think that I do not know? Is he not my
brother dearly loved? Aegnor: (17) Aikanar, the Sharp-flame, swift
and eager. And not long are the years since you first met, and
your hands touched in this darkness. Yet then thou wert a
maiden, brave and eager, in the morning upon the high hills of
Dorthonion.'(18)
'Say on!' said Andreth. 'Say: who art now but a wise-woman,
alone, and age that shall not touch him has already set winter's
grey in thy hair! But say not thou to me, for so he once did!'(19)
'Alas!' said Finrod. 'That is the bitterness, beloved adaneth,
woman of Men, is it not? that has run through all your words. If
I could speak any comfort, you would deem it lordly from one
on my side of the sundering doom. But what can I say, save to
remind you of the Hope that you yourself have revealed?'
'I did not say that it was ever my hope,' answered Andreth.
'And even were it so, I would still cry: why should this hurt
come here and now? Why should we love you, and why should
ye love us (if ye do), and yet set the gulf between?'
'Because we were so made, close kin,' said Finrod. 'But we did
not make ourselves, and therefore we, the Eldar, did not set the
gulf. Nay, adaneth, we are not lordly in this, but pitiful.(20) That
word will displease thee. Yet pity is of two kinds: one is of
kinship recognized, and is near to love; the other is of difference
of fortune perceived, and is near to pride. I speak of the former.'
'Speak of neither to me!' said Andreth. 'I desire neither. I was
young and I looked on his flame, and now I am old and lost. He
was young and his flame leaped towards me, but he turned
away, and he is young still. Do candles pity moths?'
'Or moths candles, when the wind blows them out?' said
Finrod. 'Adaneth, I tell thee, Aikanar the Sharp-flame loved
thee. For thy sake now he will never take the hand of any bride
of his own kindred, but live alone to the end, remembering the
morning in the hills of Dorthonion. But too soon in the North-
wind his flame will go out! Foresight is given to the Eldar in
many things not far off, though seldom of joy, and I say to thee
thou shalt live long in the order of your kind, and he will go
forth before thee and he will not wish to return.'
Then Andreth stood up and stretched her hands to the fire.
'Then why did he turn away? Why leave me while I had still a
few good years to spend?'
'Alas!' said Finrod. 'I fear the truth will not satisfy thee. The
Eldar have one kind, and ye another; and each judges the others
by themselves - until they learn, as do few. This is time of war,
Andreth, and in such days the Elves do not wed or bear child;(21)
but prepare for death - or for flight. Aegnor has no trust (nor
have I) in this siege of Angband that it will last long; and then
what will become of this land? If his heart ruled, he would have
wished to take thee and flee far away, east or south, forsaking
his kin, and thine. Love and loyalty hold him to his. What of
thee to thine? Thou hast said thyself that there is no escape by
flight within the bounds of the world.'
'For one year, one day, of the flame I would have given all:
kin, youth, and hope itself: adaneth I am,' said Andreth.
'That he knew,' said Finrod; 'and he withdrew and did not
grasp what lay to his hand: elda he is. For such barters are paid
for in anguish that cannot be guessed, until it comes, and in
ignorance rather than in courage the Eldar judge that they are
made.
'Nay, adaneth, if any marriage can be between our kindred
and thine, then it shall be for some high purpose of Doom. Brief
it will be and hard at the end. Yea, the least cruel fate that could
befall would be that death should soon end it.'
'But the end is always cruel - for Men,' said Andreth. 'I
would not have troubled him, when my short youth was spent.
I would not have hobbled as a hag after his bright feet, when I
could no longer run beside him! '
'Maybe not,' said Finrod. 'So you feel now. But do you think
of him? He would not have run before thee. He would have
stayed at thy side to uphold thee. Then pity thou wouldst have
had in every hour, pity inescapable. He would not have thee so
shamed.
'Andreth adaneth, the life and love of the Eldar dwells much
in memory; and we (if not ye) would rather have a memory that
is fair but unfinished than one that goes on to a grievous end.
Now he will ever remember thee in the sun of morning, and that
last evening by the water of Aeluin in which he saw thy face
mirrored with a star caught in thy hair - ever, until the
North-wind brings the night of his flame. Yea, and after that,
sitting in the House of Mandos in the Halls of Awaiting until
the end of Arda.'
'And what shall I remember?' said she. 'And when I go to
what halls shall I come? To a darkness in which even the
memory of the sharp flame shall be quenched? Even the memory
of rejection. That at least.'
Finrod sighed and stood up. 'The Eldar have no healing
words for such thoughts, adaneth,' he said. 'But would you wish
that Elves and Men had never met? Is the light of the flame,
which otherwise you would never have seen, of no worth even
now? You believe yourself scorned? Put away at least that
thought, which comes out of the Darkness, and then our speech
together will not have been wholly in vain. Farewell! '
Darkness fell in the room. He took her hand in the light of the
fire. 'Whither go you?' she said.
'North away,' he said: 'to the swords, and the siege, and the
walls of defence - that yet for a while in Beleriand rivers may
fun clean, leaves spring, and birds build their nests, ere Night
comes.'
'Will he be there, bright and tall, and the wind in his hair?
Tell him. Tell him not to be reckless. Not to seek danger beyond
need!'
'I will tell him,' said Finrod. 'But I might as well tell thee not
to weep. He is a warrior, Andreth, and a spirit of wrath. In
every stroke that he deals he sees the Enemy who long ago did
thee this hurt.
'But you are not for Arda. Whither you go may you find light.
Await us there, my brother - and me.'
NOTES.
1. Perhaps to be compared with this is a passage in the Debate of the
Valar in Laws and Customs (p. 247), where Nienna said to
Manwe: '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'; to which is added in a footnote: '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.'
2. Here and at several, but by no means all, subsequent occurrences
Quendi was emended to Elves on the typescript C.
3. change was an emendation to the typescript B (only); the manu-
script has growth.
4. Cf. the words of Pengolod to AElfwine at the end of the
Ainulindale (p. 37), of the mortality of Men, Death is their fate,
the gift of Iluvatar, which as Time wears even the Powers shall
envy. But Melkor has cast his shadow upon it, and confounded it
with darkness, and brought forth evil out of good, and fear out of
hope.'
5. The manuscript has here: 'What do ye know of death? Ye do not
fear it, because you do not know it.' The typist of C replaced the
first ye by you; my father let this stand, but corrected the original
occurrence of you to ye. On the opening page of the typescript he
noted that ye is used for the plural only, and that you 'represents
the Elvish pronoun of polite address', while thou, thee 'represent
the familiar (or affectionate) pronoun'. This distinction is not
always maintained in the manuscript; but in a number of cases
you, where ye might be expected, may be intended, and I have
only corrected the forms where error seems certain.
6. This is a strange error. Fingolfin died in 456, the year after the
Dagor Bragollach (V.132, repeated in the Grey Annals): see p. 306.
7. Cf. Laws and Customs, p. 220: 'The new fea, and therefore in
their beginning all fear, they [the Eldar] 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.'
8. mort: the note sounded on a horn at the death of the quarry.
9. The distinction between ye (plural) and you (singular) is presum-
ably intended (see note 5).
10. The manuscript has Mirruyainar, followed in both typescripts.
On B my father emended the name to Mirroyainar here but not at
the second occurrence (p. 316); on C he changed it to Mirroanwi
at both occurrences. See the 'Glossary' to the Athrabeth, p. 350.
11. In the margin of the manuscript, repeated in the typescript C, is
written against this paragraph: 'In the Music of Eru Men only
entered after the discords of Melkor.' Of course this was true of
the Elves also. See Author's Note 1 to the Commentary on the
Athrabeth and note 10 (p. 358).
12. Cf. the words of Manwe at the end of the Debate of the Valar in
Laws and Customs (p. 245): 'For Arda Unmarred hath two
aspects or senses. The first is the Unmarred that they [the Eldar)
discern in the Marred...: 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.'
13. It is said in the Ainulindale' (p. 13, $19) that 'the history was
incomplete and the circles not full-wrought when the vision was
taken away', to which in the final text D (p. 31) was added a
footnote, attributed to Pengolod:
And some have said that the Vision ceased ere the fulfilment of
the Dominion of Men and the fading of the Firstborn; where-
fore, though the Music is over all, the Valar have not seen as
with sight the Later Ages or the ending of the World.
In the 'lost' typescript AAm' of the opening of the Annals of
Aman (p. 64) it is said that Nienna could not endure to the end of
the Music, and that 'therefore she has not the hope of Manwe'
(p. 68).
14. See p. 312 and note 7.
15. On the conception of Arda Complete see note (iii) at the end of
Laws and Customs (p. 251).
16. It was of course fundamental to the whole conception of the
Elder Days that Men awoke in the East at the first Sunrise, and
that they had existed for no more than a few hundred years when
Finrod Felagund came upon Beor and his people in the foothills
of the Blue Mountains. There have been suggestions earlier in the
Athrabeth that Andreth was looking much further back in time to
the awakening of Men (thus she speaks of 'legends of days when
death came less swiftly and our span was still far longer', p. 313);
in her words here, 'a rumour that has come down through years
uncounted', a profound alteration in the conception seems plain.
The chronology of the Years of the Sun is however maintained in
the Athrabeth, with the dating of the meeting of Finrod and
Andreth as 'about 409 during the Long Peace (260 - 455)' (see
p. 306). See further p. 378.
17. Both here and on p. 324 the name was written Egnor in the
manuscript, subsequently changed to Aegnor; cf. p. 177 ($42)
and p. 197.
18. Cf. QS $117 (V.264): 'Angrod and Egnor watched Bladorion
from the northern slopes of Dorthonion' (during the Siege of
Angband), and $129 (V.276): 'Barahir [son of Beor the Old]
dwelt mostly on the north marches with Angrod and Egnor.'
19. The sentence 'But say not thou to me, for so he once did' was an
addition to the manuscript; Finrod has begun to address Andreth
as thou from shortly before this point. But from here to the end of
the text the usage is very confused, inconsistent in the manuscript
and with inconsistent emendation to the typescript (both thou to
you and you to thou); it seems that my father was in two minds
as to which forms Finrod should employ, and I have left the text
as it stands.
20. pitiful: i.e. filled with pity, compassionate.
21. Cf. Laws and Customs, p. 213: '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.'
*
The Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth perhaps marks the culmination of
my father's thought on the relation of Elves and Men, in Finrod's
exalted vision of the original design of Eru for Mankind; but his
central purpose was to explore fully for the first time the nature of 'the
Marring of Men'. In the long account of his work that he wrote for
Milton Waldman in 1951 (Letters no.131, pp. 147 - 8) he had said:
The first fall of Man... nowhere appears - Men do not come on the
stage until all that is long past, and there is only a rumour that for a
while they fell under the domination of the Enemy and that some
repented.
In the Athrabeth Finrod approaches this 'rumour' directly: 'Therefore
I say to you, Andreth, what did ye do, ye Men, long ago in the dark?
How did ye anger Eru? ... Will you say what you know or have
heard?' He is met by a blank refusal: '"I will not," said Andreth. "We
do not speak of this to those of other race"'; but to Finrod's
subsequent question 'Are there no tales of your days before death,
though ye will not tell them to strangers?' Andreth replies: 'Maybe. If
not among my folk, then among the folk of Adanel, perhaps.' The
legend of the Fall of Man preserved among certain of the Edain was
(as will be seen shortly) about to enter.
Presenting the fundamental differences of destiny, nature, and
experience between Elves and Men in the form of a philosophical
debate between Finrod Lord of Nargothrond and Andreth descendant
of Beor the Old, the argument is nonetheless conducted with an
increasing intensity, and bitterness on the part of Andreth, the bearing
of which (though known to both speakers independently) is only
revealed at the end. But to this passionate work my father appended a
long discursive and critical commentary in a very different vein, which
follows here.
The newspapers in which the Athrabeth and the commentary were
preserved (see p. 304) bear the inscription:
Addit. Silmarillion.
------------
Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth.
------------
Commentary.
On one of these wrappers my father added: 'Should be last item in an
appendix' (i.e. to The Silmarillion).
This commentary he typed himself, in top copy and carbon, with a
few subsequent emendations almost identical in both. Following the
commentary are numbered notes that bulk much larger than the
commentary itself, since some of them constitute short essays. I
distinguish these from my own numbered notes to the text (pp. 357ff.)
by the words 'Author's Note'.
Very rough drafting for the commentary is extant, and thar this
followed the making of the amanuensis typescripts of the Athrabeth
itself is seen from the occurrence in it of the word Mirroanwi (see note
10 above).
ATHRABETH FINROD AH ANDRETH
The Debate of Finrod and Andreth
This is not presented as an argument of any cogency for Men in
their present situation (or the one in which they believe
themselves to be), though it may have some interest for Men
who start with similar beliefs or assumptions to those held by
the Elvish king Finrod.
It is in fact simply part of the portrayal of the imaginary
world of the Silmarillion, and an example of the kind of thing
that enquiring minds on either side, the Elvish or the Human,
must have said to one another after they became acquainted.
We see here the attempt of a generous Elvish mind to fathom the
relations of Elves and Men, and the part they were designed to
play in what he would have called the Oienkarme Eruo (The
One's perpetual production), which might be rendered by
'God's management of the Drama'.
There are certain things in this world that have to be accepted
as 'facts'. The existence of Elves: that is of a race of beings
closely akin to Men, so closely indeed that they must be
regarded as physically (or biologically) simply branches of the
same race.(1) The Elves appeared on Earth earlier, but not
(mythologically or geologically) much earlier;(2) they were 'im-
mortal', and did not 'die' except by accident. Men, when they
appeared on the scene (that is, when they met the Elves), were,
however, much as they now are: they 'died', even if they escaped
all accidents, at about the age of 70 to 80. The existence of the
Valar: that is of certain angelic Beings (created, but at least as
powerful as the 'gods' of human mythologies), the chief of
whom still resided in an actual physical part of the Earth. They
were the agents and vice-gerents of Eru (God). They had been
for nameless ages engaged in a demiurgic labour (3) completing to
the design of Eru the structure of the Universe (Ea); but were
now concentrated on Earth for the principal Drama of Creation:
the war of the Eruhin (The Children of God), Elves and Men,
against Melkor. Melkor, originally the most powerful of the
Valar,(4) had become a rebel, against his brethren and against
Eru, and was the prime Spirit of Evil.
With regard to King Finrod, it must be understood that he
starts with certain basic beliefs, which he would have said were
derived from one or more of these sources: his created nature;
angelic instruction; thought; and experience.
1. There exists Eru (The One); that is, One God Creator, who
made (or more strictly designed) the World, but is not Himself
the World. This world, or Universe, he calls Ea, an Elvish word
that means 'It is', or 'Let It Be'.
2. There are on Earth 'incarnate' creatures, Elves and Men:
these are made of a union of hroa and fea (roughly but not exactly
equivalent to 'body' and 'soul'). This, he would say, was a known
fact concerning Elvish nature, and could therefore be deduced for
human nature from the close kinship of Elves and Men.
3. Hroa and fea he would say are wholly distinct in kind, and
not on the 'same plane of derivation from Eru', (Author's Note
1, p. 336) but were designed each for the other, to abide in
perpetual harmony. The fea is indestructible, a unique identity
which cannot be disintegrated or absorbed into any other
identity. The hroa, however, can be destroyed and dissolved:
that is a fact of experience. (In such a case he would describe the
fea as 'exiled' or 'houseless'.)
4. The separation of fea and hroa is 'unnatural', and proceeds
not from the original design, but from the 'Marring of Arda',
which is due to the operations of Melkor.
5. Elvish 'immortality' is bounded within a part of Time
(which he would call the History of Arda), and is therefore
strictly to be called rather 'serial longevity', the utmost limit of
which is the length of the existence of Arda. (Author's Note 2,
p. 337) A corollary of this is that the Elvish fea is also limited to
the Time of Arda, or at least held within it and unable to leave
it, while it lasts.
6. From this it would follow in thought, if it were not a fact of
Elvish experience, that a 'houseless' Elvish fea must have the
power or opportunity to return to incarnate life, if it has the
desire or will to do so. (Actually the Elves discovered that their
fear had not this power in themselves, but that the opportunity
and means were provided by the Valar, by the special permis-
sion of Eru for the amendment of the unnatural state of divorce.
It was not lawful for the Valar to force a fea to return; but they
could impose conditions, and judge whether return should be
permitted at all, and if so, in what way or after how long.)
(Author's Note 3, p. 339)
7. Since Men die, without accident, and whether they will to
do so or not, their fear must have a different relation to Time.
The Elves believed, though they had no certain information,
that the fear of Men, if disembodied, left Time (sooner or later),
and never returned. (Author's Note 4, p. 340)
The Elves observed that all Men died (a fact confirmed by
Men). They therefore deduced that this was 'natural' to Men
(sc. was by the design of Eru), and supposed that the brevity of
human life was due to this character of the human fea: that it
was not designed to stay long in Arda. Whereas their own fear,
being designed to remain in Arda to its end, imposed long
endurance on their bodies; for they were (as a fact of experi-
ence) in far greater control of them. (Author's Note 5, p. 341)
Beyond the 'End of Arda' Elvish thought could not penetrate,
and they were without any specific instruction. (Author's Note
6, p. 341) It seemed clear to them that their hroar must then
end, and therefore any kind of re-incarnation would be imposs-
ible. (Author's Note 7, p. 342) All the Elves would then 'die' at
the End of Arda. What this would mean they did not know.
They said therefore that Men had a shadow behind them, but
the Elves had a shadow before them.
Their dilemma was this: the thought of existence as fear only
was revolting to them, and they found it hard to believe that it
was natural or designed for them, since they were essentially
'dwellers in Arda', and by nature wholly in love with Arda. The
alternative: that their fear would also cease to exist at 'the End',
seemed even more intolerable. Both absolute annihilation, and
cessation of conscious identity, were wholly repugnant to
thought and desire. (Author's Note 8, p. 343)
Some argued that, although integral and unique (as Eru from
whom they directly proceeded), each fea, being created, was
finite, and might therefore be also of finite duration. It was not
destructible within its appointed term, but when that was
reached it ceased to be; or ceased to have any more experience,
and 'resided only in the Past'.
But they saw that this did not provide any escape. For, even if
an Elvish fea was able 'consciously' to dwell in or contemplate
the Past, this would be a condition wholly unsatisfying to its
desire. (Reference to Author's Note 8) The Elves had (as they
said themselves) a 'great talent' for memory, but this tended to
regret rather than to joy. Also, however long the History of the
Elves might become before it ended, it would be an object of too
limited range. To be perpetually 'imprisoned in a tale' (as they
said), even if it was a very great tale ending triumphantly, would
become a torment.(5) For greater than the talent of memory was
the Elvish talent for making, and for discovery. The Elvish fea
was above all designed to make things in co-operation with its
hroa.
Therefore in the last resort the Elves were obliged to rest on
'naked estel' (as they said): the trust in Eru, that whatever He
designed beyond the End would be recognized by each fea as
wholly satisfying (at the least). Probably it would contain joys
unforeseeable. But they remained in the belief that it would
remain in intelligible relation with their present nature and
desires, proceed from them, and include them.
For these reasons the Elves were less sympathetic than Men
expected to the lack of hope (or estel) in Men faced by death.
Men were, of course, in general entirely ignorant of the 'Shadow
Ahead' which conditioned Elvish thought and feeling, and
simply envied Elvish 'immortality'. But the Elves were on their
part generally ignorant of the persistent tradition among Men
that Men were also by nature immortal.
As is seen in the Athrabeth, Finrod is deeply moved and
amazed to discover this tradition. He uncovers a concomitant
tradition that the change in the condition of Men from their
original design was due to a primeval disaster, about which
human lore is unclear, or Andreth is at least unwilling to say
much. (Author's Note 9, p. 343) He remains, nonetheless, in the
opinion that the condition of Men before the disaster (or as we
might say, of unfallen Man) cannot have been the same as that
of the Elves. That is, their 'immortality' cannot have been the
longevity within Arda of the Elves; otherwise they would have
been simply Elves, and their separate introduction later into
the Drama by Eru would have no function. He thinks that the
notion of Men that, unchanged, they would not have died (in
the sense of leaving Arda) is due to human misrepresentation of
their own tradition, and possibly to envious comparison of
themselves to the Elves. For one thing, he does not think this
fits, as we might say, 'the observable peculiarities of human
psychology', as compared with Elvish feelings towards the
visible world.
He therefore guesses that it is the fear of death that is the
result of the disaster. It is feared because it now is combined
with severance of hroa and fea. But the fear of Men must have
been designed to leave Arda willingly or indeed by desire -
maybe after a longer time than the present average human life,
but still in a time very short compared with Elvish lives. Then
basing his argument on the axiom that severance of hroa and
fea is unnatural and contrary to design, he comes (or if you like
jumps) to the conclusion that the fea of unfallen Man would
have taken with it its hroa into the new mode of existence (free
from Time). In other words, that 'assumption' was the natural
end of each human life, though as far as we know it has been the
end of the only 'unfallen' member of Mankind.(6) He then has a
vision of Men as the agents of the 'unmarring' of Arda, not
merely undoing the marring or evil wrought by Melkor, but by
producing a third thing, Arda Re-made - for Eru never merely
undoes the past, but brings into being something new, richer
than the 'first design'. In Arda Re-made Elves and Men will each
separately find joy and content, and an interplay of friendship, a
bond of which will be the Past.
Andreth says that in that case the disaster to Men was
appalling; for this re-making (if indeed it was the proper
function of Men) cannot now be achieved. Finrod evidently
remains in the hope that it will be achieved, though he does not
say how that could be. He now sees, however, that the power of
Melkor was greater than had been understood (even by the
Elves, who had actually seen him in incarnate form): if he had
been able to change Men, and so destroy the plan.(7)
More strictly speaking, he would say that Melkor had not
'changed' Men, but 'seduced' them (to allegiance to himself)
very early in their history, so that Eru had changed their 'fate'.
For Melkor could seduce individual minds and wills, but he
could not make this heritable, or alter (contrary to the will and
design of Eru) the relation of a whole people to Time and Arda.
But the power of Melkor over material things was plainly vast.
The whole of Arda (and indeed probably many other parts of
Ea) had been marred by him. Melkor was not just a local Evil on
Earth, nor a Guardian Angel of Earth who had gone wrong: he
was the Spirit of Evil, arising even before the making of Ea. His
attempt to dominate the structure of Ea, and of Arda in
particular, and alter the designs of Eru (which governed all the
operations of the faithful Valar), had introduced evil, or a
tendency to aberration from the design, into all the physical
matter of Arda. It was for this reason, no doubt, that he had
been totally successful with Men, but only partially so with
Elves (who remained as a people 'unfallen'). His power was
wielded over matter, and through it. (Author's Note 10, p. 344)
But by nature the fear of Men were in much less strong control
of their hroar than was the case with the Elves. Individual Elves
might be seduced to a kind of minor 'Melkorism': desiring to be
their own masters in Arda, and to have things their own way,
leading in extreme cases to rebellion against the tutelage of the
Valar; but not one had ever entered the service or allegiance of
Melkor himself, nor ever denied the existence and absolute
supremacy of Eru. Some dreadful things of this sort, Finrod
guesses, Men must have done, as a whole; but Andreth does not
reveal what were Men's traditions on this point. (Reference to
Author's Note 9)
Finrod, however, sees now that, as things were, no created
thing or being in Arda, or in all Ea, was powerful enough to
counteract or heal Evil: that is to subdue Melkor (in his present
person, reduced though that was) and the Evil that he had
dissipated and sent out from himself into the very structure of
the world.
Only Eru himself could do this. Therefore, since it was un-
thinkable that Eru would abandon the world to the ultimate
triumph and domination of Melkor (which could mean its ruin
and reduction to chaos), Eru Himself must at some time come to
oppose Melkor. But Eru could not enter wholly into the world
and its history, which is, however great, only a finite Drama.
He must as Author always remain 'outside' the Drama, even
though that Drama depends on His design and His will for its
beginning and continuance, in every detail and moment. Finrod
therefore thinks that He will, when He comes, have to be both
'outside' and inside; and so he glimpses the possibility of
complexity or of distinctions in the nature of Eru, which
nonetheless leaves Him 'The One'. (Author's Note 11, p. 345)
Since Finrod had already guessed that the redemptive func-
tion was originally specially assigned to Men, he probably
proceeded to the expectation that 'the coming of Eru', if it took
place, would be specially and primarily concerned with Men:
that is to an imaginative guess or vision that Eru would come
incarnated in human form. This, however, does not appear in
the Athrabeth.
The argument is not, of course, presented in the Athrabeth in
these terms, or in this order, or so precisely. The Athrabeth is a
conversation, in which many assumptions and steps of thought
have to be supplied by the reader. Actually, though it deals with
such things as death and the relations of Elves and Men to Time
and Arda, and to one another, its real purpose is dramatic: to
exhibit the generosity of Finrod's mind, his love and pity for
Andreth, and the tragic situations that must arise in the meeting
of Elves and Men (in the ages of the youth of the Elves). For as
eventually becomes plain, Andreth had in youth fallen in love
with Aegnor, Finrod's brother; and though she knew that he
returned her love (or could have done so if he had deigned to),
he had not declared it, but had left her - and she believed that
she was rejected as too lowly for an Elf. Finrod (though she was
not aware of this) knew about this situation. For this reason he
understood and did not take offence at the bitterness with
which she spoke of the Elves, and even of the Valar. He
succeeded in the end in making her understand that she was not
'rejected' out of scorn or Elvish lordliness; but that the depar-
ture of Aegnor was for motives of 'wisdom', and cost Aegnor
great pain: he was an equal victim of the tragedy.
In the event Aegnor perished soon after this conversation,(8)
when Melkor broke the Siege of Angband in the ruinous Battle
of Sudden Flame, and the destruction of the Elvish realms in
Beleriand was begun. Finrod took refuge in the great southern
stronghold of Nargothrond; but not long after sacrificed his life
to save Beren One-hand. (It is probable, though nowhere stated,
that Andreth herself perished at this time, for all the northern
realm, where Finrod and his brothers, and the People of Beor,
dwelt was devastated and conquered by Melkor. But she would
then be a very old woman.)(9)
Finrod thus was slain before the two marriages of Elves and
Men had taken place, though without his aid the marriage of
Beren and Luthien would not have come to pass. The marriage
of Beren certainly fulfilled his prediction that such marriages
would only be for some high purpose of Doom, and that the
least cruel fate would be that death should soon end them.
Author's Notes on the 'Commentary'.
Note 1.
Because fear were held to be directly created by Eru, and 'sent
into' Ea; whereas Ea was achieved mediately by the Valar.
According to the Ainulindale' there were five stages in Cre-
ation. a. The creation of the Ainur. b. The communication by
Eru of his Design to the Ainur. c. The Great Music, which was
as it were a rehearsal, and remained in the stage of thought or
imagination. d. The 'Vision' of Eru, which was again only a
foreshowing of possibility, and was incomplete. e. The Achieve-
ment, which is still going on.
The Eldar held that Eru was and is free at all stages. This
freedom was shown in the Music by His introduction, after the
arising of the discords of Melkor, of the two new themes,
representing the coming of Elves and Men, which were not in
His first communication.(10) He may therefore in stage 5 intro-
duce things directly, which were not in the Music and so are not
achieved through the Valar. It remains, nonetheless, true in
general to regard Ea as achieved through their mediation.
The additions of Eru, however, will not be 'alien'; they will be
accommodated to the nature and character of Ea and of those
that dwell in it; they may enhance the past and enrich its
purpose and significance, but they will contain it and not
destroy it.
Thus the 'newness' of the themes of the Children of Eru, Elves
and Men, consisted in the association of fear with, or 'housing'
them in, hroar belonging to Ea, in such a way that either were
incomplete without the others. But the fear were not spirits of a
wholly different kind to the Ainur; whereas the bodies were of
a kind closely akin to the bodies of living things already in the
primary design (even if adapted to their new function, or
modified by the indwelling fear).
Note 2.
Arda, or 'The Kingdom of Arda' (as being directly under the
kingship of Eru's vice-gerent Manwe) is not easy to translate,
since neither 'earth' nor 'world' are entirely suitable. Physically
Arda was what we should call the Solar System.(11) Presumably
the Eldar could have had as much and as accurate information
concerning this, its structure, origin, and its relation to the rest
of Ea (the Universe) as they could comprehend. Probably those
who were interested did acquire this knowledge. Not all the
Eldar were interested in everything; most of them concentrated
their attention on (or as they said 'were in love with') the Earth.
The traditions here referred to have come down from the
Eldar of the First Age, through Elves who never were directly
acquainted with the Valar, and through Men who received
'lore' from the Elves, but who had myths and cosmogonic
legends, and astronomical guesses, of their own. There is,
however, nothing in them that seriously conflicts with present
human notions of the Solar System, and its size and position
relative to the Universe. It must be remembered, however, that it
does not necessarily follow that 'True Information' concerning
Arda (such as the ancient Eldar might have received from the
Valar) must agree with Men's present theories. Also, the Eldar
(and the Valar) were not overwhelmed or even principally
impressed by notions of size and distance. Their interest,
certainly the interest of the Silmarillion and all related matter,
may be termed 'dramatic'. Places or worlds were interesting or
important because of what happened in them.
It is certainly the case with the Elvish traditions that the prin-
cipal part of Arda was the Earth (Imbar 'The Habitation'),(12) as
the scene of the Drama of the war of the Valar and the Children
of Eru with Melkor: so that loosely used Arda often seems to
mean the Earth: and that from this point of view the function
of the Solar System was to make possible the existence of Imbar.
With regard to the relation of Arda to Ea, the assertion that the
principal demiurgic Ainur (the Valar), including the originally
greatest of all, Melkor, had taken up their 'residence' in Arda,(13)
ever since its establishment, also implies that however minute
Arda was dramatically the chief point in Ea.
These views are not mathematical or astronomical, or even
biological, and so cannot be held necessarily to conflict with the
theories of our physical sciences. We cannot say that there
'must' be elsewhere in Ea other solar systems 'like' Arda, still
less that, if there are, they or any one of them must contain a
parallel to Imbar. We cannot even say that these things are
mathematically very 'likely'. But even if the presence elsewhere
in Ea of biological 'life' was demonstrable, it would not
invalidate the Elvish view that Arda (at least while it endures) is
the dramatic centre. The demonstration that there existed
elsewhere Incarnates, parallel to the Children of Eru, would of
course modify the picture, though not wholly invalidate it. The
Elvish answer would probably be: 'Well, that is another Tale. It
is not our Tale. Eru can no doubt bring to pass more than one.
Not everything is adumbrated in the Ainulindale'; or the Ainu-
lindale' may have a wider reference than we knew: other
dramas, like in kind if different in process and result, may have
gone on in Ea, or may yet go on.' But they would certainly add:
'But they are not going on now. The drama of Arda is the
present concern of Ea.' Actually it is plainly the view of the
Elvish tradition that the Drama of Arda is unique. We cannot at
present assert that this is untrue.
The Elves were of course primarily and deeply (more deeply
than Men) concerned with Arda, and Imbar in particular. They
appear to have held that the physical universe, Ea, had a begin-
ning and would have an end: that it was limited and finite in all
dimensions. They certainly held that all things or 'makings', that
is constructed (however simply and incipiently) from basic
matter, which they called erma,(14) were impermanent, within
Ea. They were therefore much concerned with 'The End of
Arda'. They knew themselves to be limited by Arda; but the
length of its existence they do not seem to have known. Possibly
the Valar did not know. More probably, they were not in-
formed by the will or design of Eru, who appears in the Elvish
tradition to demand two things from His Children (of either
Kindred): belief in Him, and proceeding from that, hope or
trust in Him (called by the Eldar estel).
But in any case, whether adumbrated in the Music or not, the
End could be brought about by Eru at any time by intervention,
so that it could not be certainly foreseen. (A minor and as it
were foreshadowing intervention of this sort was the catas-
trophe in which Numenor was obliterated, and the physical
residence of the Valar in Imbar was ended.) The Elvish concep-
tion of the End was in fact catastrophic. They did not think that
Arda (or at any rate Imbar) would just run down into lifeless
inanition. But this conception was not embodied by them in any
myth or legend. See Note 7.
Note 3
In Elvish tradition their re-incarnation was a special permission
granted by Eru to Manwe, when Manwe directly consulted Him
at the time of the debate concerning Finwe and Miriel.(15) (Miriel
'died' in Aman by refusing to live any longer in the body, and so
raised the whole question of the unnatural divorce of an Elvish
fea and its hroa, and of the bereavement of Elves that still lived:
Finwe, her husband, was left solitary.) The Valar, or Mandos as
the mouthpiece of all commands and in many cases their
executor, were given power to summon, with full authority, all
houseless fear of Elves to Aman. There they were given the
choice to remain houseless, or (if they wished) to be re-housed
in the same form and shape as they had had.(16) Normally they
must nonetheless remain in Aman.(17) Therefore, if they dwelt in
Middle-earth, their bereavement of friends and kin, and the
bereavement of these, was not amended. Death was not wholly
healed. But as Andreth saw, this certitude concerning their
immediate future after death, and the knowledge that at the
least they would again if they wished be able as incarnates to do
and make things and continue their experience of Arda, made
death to the Elves a totally different thing from death as it
appeared to Men.
They were given a choice, because Eru did not allow their free
will to be taken away. Similarly the houseless fear were
summoned, not brought, to Mandos. They could refuse the
summons, but this would imply that they were in some way
tainted, or they would not wish to refuse the authority of
Mandos: refusal had grave consequences, inevitably proceeding
from the rebellion against authority.
They 'normally remained in Aman'. Simply because they
were, when rehoused, again in actual physical bodies, and
return to Middle-earth was therefore very difficult and perilous.
Also during the period of the Exile of the Noldor the Valar had
for the time being cut all communications (by physical means)
between Aman and Middle-earth. The Valar could of course
have arranged for the transference, if there was sufficiently
grave reason. Bereavement of friends and kin was, apparently,
not considered a sufficient reason. Probably under instruction of
Eru. In any case, as far as the Noldor were concerned, these had,
as a people, cut themselves off from mercy; they had left Aman
demanding absolute freedom to be their own masters, to carry
on their war against Melkor with their own unaided valour,
and to face death and its consequences. The only case of a
special arrangement recorded in the Histories is that of Beren
and Luthien. Beren was slain soon after their marriage, and
Luthien died of grief. They were both re-housed and sent back
to Beleriand; but both became 'mortal' and died later according
to the normal human span. The reasons for this, which must
have been done by an express permission of Eru, were not fully
apparent until later, but were certainly of unique weight. The
grief of Luthien was so great that according to the Eldar it
moved the pity of even Mandos the Unmoved. Beren and
Luthien together had achieved the greatest of all the deeds
against Melkor: regaining one of the Silmarils. Luthien was not
of the Noldor but daughter of Thingol (of the Teleri), and her
mother Melian was 'divine', a maia (one of the minor members
of the spirit-race of the Valar). Thus from the union of Luthien
and Beren which was made possible by their return, the infusion
of a 'divine' and an Elvish strain into Mankind was to be
brought about, providing a link between Mankind and the
Elder World, after the establishment of the Dominion of Men.
Note 4.
Sooner or later: because the Elves believed that the fear of dead
Men also went to Mandos (without choice in the matter: their
free will with regard to death was taken away). There they
waited until they were surrendered to Eru. The truth of this is
not asserted. No living Man was allowed to go to Aman. No fea
of a dead Man ever returned to life in Middle-earth. To all such
statements and decrees there are always some exceptions (be-
cause of the 'freedom of Eru'). Earendil reached Aman, even in
the time of the Ban; but he bore the Silmaril recovered by his
ancestress Luthien,(18) and he was half-elven, he was not
allowed to return to Middle-earth. Beren returned to actual life,
for a short time; but he was not actually seen again by living
Men.
The passing 'oversea' to Eressea (an isle within sight of
Aman) was permitted to, and indeed urged upon, all Elves
remaining in Middle-earth after the downfall of Morgoth in
Angband. This really marked the beginning of the Dominion of
Men, though there was (in our view) a long twilight period
between the downfall of Morgoth and the final overthrow of
Sauron: lasting, that is, through the Second and Third Ages. But
at the end of the Second Age came the great Catastrophe (by an
intervention of Eru that foreshadowed, as it were, the End of
Arda): the annihilation of Numenor, and the 'removal' of Aman
from the physical world. The passing 'oversea', therefore, of
Mortals after the Catastrophe - which is recorded in The Lord
of the Rings - is not quite the same thing. It was in any case a
special grace. An opportunity for dying according to the
original plan for the unfallen: they went to a state in which they
could acquire greater knowledge and peace of mind, and being
healed of all hurts both of mind and body, could at last
surrender themselves: die of free will, and even of desire, in
estel. A thing which Aragorn achieved without any such aid.
Note 5
They were thus capable of far greater and longer physical
exertions (in pursuit of some dominant purpose of their minds)
without weariness; they were not subject to diseases; they
healed rapidly and completely after injuries that would have
proved fatal to Men; and they could endure great physical pain
for long periods. Their bodies could not, however, survive vital
injuries, or violent assaults upon their structure; nor replace
missing members (such as a hand hewn off). On the reverse side:
the Elves could die, and did die, by their will; as for example
because of great grief or bereavement, or because of the
frustration of their dominant desires and purposes. This wilful
death was not regarded as wicked, but it was a fault implying
some defect or taint in the fea, and those who came to Mandos
by this means might be refused further incarnate life.
Note 6.
Because the Valar had no information; or because information
was withheld. See Note 2 [fifth paragraph].
Note 7.
See Note 2. The Elves expected the End of Arda to be
catastrophic. They thought that it would be brought about by
the dissolution of the structure of Imbar at least, if not of the
whole system. The End of Arda is not, of course, the same thing
as the end of Ea. About this they held that nothing could be
known, except that Ea was ultimately finite. It is noteworthy
that the Elves had no myths or legends dealing with the end of
the world. The myth that appears at the end of the Silmarillion
is of Numenorean origin;(19) it is clearly made by Men, though
Men acquainted with Elvish tradition. All Elvish traditions are
presented as 'histories', or as accounts of what once was.
We are here dealing with Elvish thought at an early period,
when the Eldar were still fully 'physical' in bodily form. Much
later, when the process (already glimpsed by Finrod) called
'waning' or 'fading' had become more effective, their views of
the End of Arda, so far as it affected themselves, must have been
modified. But there are few records of any contacts of Elvish
and Human thought in such latter days. They eventually
became housed, if it can be called that, not in actual visible and
tangible hroar, but only in the memory of the fea of its bodily
form, and its desire for it; and therefore not dependent for mere
existence upon the material of Arda.(20) But they appear to have
held, and indeed still to hold, that this desire for the hroa shows
that their later (and present) condition is not natural to them,
and they remain in estel that Eru will heal it. 'Not natural',
whether it is due wholly, as they earlier thought, to the
weakening of the hroa (derived from the debility introduced by
Melkor into the substance of Arda upon which it must feed), or
partly to the inevitable working of a dominant fea upon a
material hroa through many ages. (In the latter case 'natural'
can refer only to an ideal state, in which unmarred matter could
for ever endure the indwelling of a perfectly adapted fea. It
cannot refer to the actual design of Eru, since the Themes of the
Children were introduced after the arising of the discords of
Melkor. The 'waning' of the Elvish hroar must therefore be part
of the History of Arda as envisaged by Eru, and the mode in
which the Elves were to make way for the Dominion of Men.
The Elves find their supersession by Men a mystery, and a cause
of grief; for they say that Men, at least so largely governed as
they are by the evil of Melkor, have less and less love for Arda in
itself, and are largely busy in destroying it in the attempt to
dominate it. They still believe that Eru's healing of all the griefs
of Arda will come now by or through Men; but the Elves' part
in the healing or redemption will be chiefly in the restoration of
the love of Arda, to which their memory of the Past and
understanding of what might have been will contribute. Arda
they say will be destroyed by wicked Men (or the wickedness in
Men); but healed through the goodness in Men. The wicked-
ness, the domineering lovelessness, the Elves will offset. By the
holiness of good men - their direct attachment to Eru, before
and above all Eru's works (21) - the Elves may be delivered from
the last of their griefs: sadness; the sadness that must come even
from the unselfish love of anything less than Eru.)
Note 8.
Desire. The Elves insisted that 'desires', especially such fun-
damental desires as are here dealt with, were to be taken as
indications of the true natures of the Incarnates, and of the
direction in which their unmarred fulfilment must lie. They
distinguished between desire of the fea (perception that some-
thing right or necessary is not present, leading to desire or hope
for it); wish, or personal wish (the feeling of the lack of some-
thing, the force of which primarily concerns oneself, and which
may have little or no reference to the general fitness of things);
illusion, the refusal to recognize that things are not as they
should be, leading to the delusion that they are as one would
desire them to be, when they are not so. (The last might now be
called 'wishful thinking', legitimately; but this term, the Elves
would say, is quite illegitimate when applied to the first. The
last can be disproved by reference to facts. The first not so.
Unless desirability is held to be always delusory, and the sole
basis for the hope of amendment. But desires of the fea may
often be shown to be reasonable by arguments quite uncon-
nected with personal wish. The fact that they accord with
'desire', or even with personal wish, does not invalidate them.
Actually the Elves believed that the 'lightening of the heart' or
the 'stirring of joy' (to which they often refer), which may
accompany the hearing of a proposition or an argument, is not
an indication of its falsity but of the recognition by the fea that
it is on the path of truth.)
Note 9.
It is probable that Andreth was actually unwilling to say more.
Partly by a kind of loyalty that restrained Men from revealing to
the Elves all that they knew about the darkness in their past;
partly because she felt unable to make up her own mind about
the conflicting human traditions. Longer recensions of the
Athrabeth, evidently edited under Numenorean influence, make
her give, under pressure, a more precise answer. Some are very
brief, some longer. All agree, however, in making the cause of
disaster the acceptance by Men of Melkor as King (or King and
God). In one version a complete legend (compressed in time-
scale) is given explicitly as a Numenorean tradition, for it makes
Andreth say: This is the Tale that Adanel of the House of Hador
told to me. The Numenoreans were largely, and their non-
Elvish traditions mainly, derived from the People of Marach, of
whom the House of Hador were the chieftains.(22) The legend
bears certain resemblances to the Numenorean traditions con-
cerning the part played by Sauron in the downfall of Numenor.
But this does not prove that it is entirely a fiction of post-
downfall days. It is no doubt mainly derived from actual lore
of the People of Marach, quite independent of the Athrabeth.
[Added note: Nothing is hereby asserted concerning its 'truth',
historical or otherwise.] The operations of Sauron naturally and
inevitably resembled or repeated those of his master. That a
people in possession of such a legend or tradition should have
later been deluded by Sauron is sad but, in view of human
history generally, not incredible. Indeed if fish had fish-lore and
Wise-fish, it is probable that the business of anglers would he
very little hindered.(23)
The 'Tale of Adanel' is attached [pp. 345 - 9].
Note 10.
'Matter' is not regarded as evil or opposed to 'Spirit'. Matter
was wholly good in origin. It remained a 'creature of Eru' and
still largely good, and indeed self-healing, when not interfered
with: that is, when the latent evil intruded by Melkor was not
deliberately roused and used by evil minds. Melkor had concen-
trated his attention on 'matter', because spirits could only be
dominated completely by fear; and fear was most easily exerted
through matter (especially in the case of the Incarnates, whom
he most desired to subjugate). For example by fear that material
things that were loved might be destroyed, or the fear (in
Incarnates) that their bodies might be hurt. (Melkor also used
and perverted for his purposes the 'fear of Eru', fully or vaguely
understood. But this was more difficult and perilous and
required more cunning. Lesser spirits might be lured by love or
admiration of himself and his powers, and so led at last into a
posture of rebellion against Eru. Their fear of Him might then
be darkened, so that they adhered to Melkor, as a captain and
protector, becoming at last too terrified to return to the
allegiance of Eru, even after they had discovered Melkor and
had begun to hate him.)
Note 11.
This is actually already glimpsed in the Ainulindale', in which
reference is made to the 'Flame Imperishable'. This appears to
mean the Creative activity of Eru (in some sense distinct from or
within Him), by which things could be given a 'real' and
independent (though derivative and created) existence. The
Flame Imperishable is sent out from Eru, to dwell in the heart of
the world, and the world then Is, on the same plane as the
Ainur, and they can enter into it. But this is not, of course, the
same as the re-entry of Eru to defeat Melkor. It refers rather to
the mystery of 'authorship', by which the author, while remain-
ing 'outside' and independent of his work, also 'indwells' in it,
on its derivative plane, below that of his own being, as the
source and guarantee of its being.
[The 'Tale of Adanel']
Then Andreth being urged by Finrod said at last: 'This is the tale
that Adanel of the House of Hador told to me.'
Some say the Disaster happened at the beginning of the
history of our people, before any had yet died. The Voice had
spoken to us, and we had listened. The Voice said: 'Ye are my
children. I have sent you to dwell here. In time ye will inherit all
this Earth, but first ye must be children and learn. Call on me
and I shall hear; for I am watching over you.'
We understood the Voice in our hearts, though we had no
words yet. Then the desire for words awoke in us, and we began
to make them. But we were few, and the world was wide and
strange. Though we greatly desired to understand, learning was
difficult, and the making of words was slow.
In that time we called often and the Voice answered. But it
seldom answered our questions, saying only: 'First seek to find
the answer for yourselves. For ye will have joy in the finding,
and so grow from childhood and become wise. Do not seek to
leave childhood before your time.'
But we were in haste, and we desired to order things to our
will; and the shapes of many things that we wished to make
awoke in our minds. Therefore we spoke less and less to the
Voice.
Then one appeared among us, in our own form visible, but
greater and more beautiful; and he said that he had come out of
pity. 'Ye should not have been left alone and uninstructed,' he
said. 'The world is full of marvellous riches which knowledge
can unlock. Ye could have food more abundant and more
delicious than the poor things that ye now eat. Ye could have
dwellings of ease, in which ye could keep light and shut out the
night. Ye could be clad even as I.'
Then we looked and lo! he was clad in raiment that shone like
silver and gold, and he had a crown on his head, and gems in his
hair. 'If ye wish to be like me,' he said, 'I will teach you.' Then
we took him as teacher.
He was less swift than we had hoped to teach us how to find,
or to make for ourselves, the things that we desired, though he
had awakened many desires in our hearts. But if any doubted or
were impatient, he would bring and set before us all that we
wished for. 'I am the Giver of Gifts,' he said; 'and the gifts shall
never fail as long as ye trust me.'
Therefore we revered him, and we were enthralled by him;
and we depended upon his gifts, fearing to return to a life
without them that now seemed poor and hard. And we believed
all that he taught. For we were eager to know about the world
and its being: about the beasts and birds, and the plants that
grew in the Earth; about our own making; and about the lights
of heaven, and the countless stars, and the Dark in which they
are set.
All that he taught seemed good, for he had great knowledge.
But ever more and more he would speak of the Dark. 'Greatest
of all is the Dark,' he said, 'for It has no bounds. I came out of
the Dark, but I am Its master. For I have made Light. I made the
Sun and the Moon and the countless stars. I will protect you
from the Dark, which else would devour you.'
Then we spoke of the Voice. But his face became terrible; for
he was angry. 'Fools!' he said. 'That was the Voice of the Dark.
It wishes to keep you from me; for It is hungry for you.'
Then he went away, and we did not see him for a long time,
and without his gifts we were poor. And there came a day when
suddenly the Sun's light began to fail, until it was blotted out
and a great shadow fell on the world; and all the beasts and
birds were afraid. Then he came again, walking through the
shadow like a bright fire.
We fell upon our faces. 'There are some among you who are
still listening to the Voice of the Dark,' he said, 'and therefore It
is drawing nearer. Choose now! Ye may have the Dark as Lord,
or ye may have Me. But unless ye take Me for Lord and swear to
serve Me, I shall depart and leave you; for I have other realms
and dwelling places, and I do not need the Earth, nor you.'
Then in fear we spoke as he commanded, saying: 'Thou art
the Lord; Thee only we will serve. The Voice we abjure and will
not hearken to it again.'
'So be it!' he said. 'Now build Me a house upon a high place,
and call it the House of the Lord. Thither I will come when I
will. There ye shall call on Me and make your petitions to Me.'
And when we had built a great house, he came and stood
before the high seat, and the house was lit as with fire. 'Now,' he
said, 'come forth any who still listen to the Voice!'
There were some, but for fear they remained still and said
naught. 'Then bow before Me and acknowledge Me!' he said.
And all bowed to the ground before him, saying: 'Thou art the
One Great, and we are Thine.'
Thereupon he went up as in a great flame and smoke, and we
were scorched by the heat. But suddenly he was gone, and it was
darker than night; and we fled from the House.
Ever after we went in great dread of the Dark; but he seldom
appeared among us again in fair form, and he brought few gifts.
If at great need we dared to go to the House and pray to him to
help us, we heard his voice, and received his commands. But
now he would always command us to do some deed, or to give
him some gift, before he would listen to our prayer; and ever the
deeds became worse, and the gifts harder to give up.
The first Voice we never heard again, save once. In the
stillness of the night It spoke, saying: 'Ye have abjured Me, but
ye remain Mine. I gave you life. Now it shall be shortened, and
each of you in a little while shall come to Me, to learn who is
your Lord: the one ye worship, or I who made him.'
Then our terror of the Dark was increased; for we believed
at the Voice was of the Darkness behind the stars. And some
of us began to die in horror and anguish, fearing to go out into
the Dark. Then we called on our Master to save us from death,
and he did not answer. But when we went to the House and all
bowed down there, at last he came, great and majestic, but his
face was cruel and proud.
'Now ye are Mine and must do My will,' he said. 'I do not
trouble that some of you die and go to appease the hunger of the
Dark; for otherwise there would soon be too many of you,
crawling like lice on the Earth. But if ye do not do My will, ye
will feel My anger, and ye will die sooner, for I will slay you.'
Thereafter we were grievously afflicted, by weariness, and
hunger, and sickness; and the Earth and all things in it were
turned against us. Fire and Water rebelled against us. The birds
and beasts shunned us, or if they were strong they assailed us.
Plants gave us poison; and we feared the shadows under trees.
Then we yearned for our life as it was before our Master
came; and we hated him, but feared him no less than the Dark.
And we did his bidding, and more than his bidding; for
anything that we thought would please him, however evil, we
did, in the hope that he would lighten our afflictions, and at the
least would not slay us.
For most of us this was in vain. But to some he began to show
favour: to the strongest and cruellest, and to those who went
most often to the House. He gave gifts to them, and knowledge
that they kept secret; and they became powerful and proud, and
they enslaved us, so that we had no rest from labour amidst our
afflictions.
Then there arose some among us who said openly in their
despair: 'Now we know at last who lied, and who desired to
devour us. Not the first Voice. It is the Master that we have
taken who is the Darkness; and he did not come forth from it, as
he said, but he dwells in it. We will serve him no longer! He is
our Enemy.'
Then in fear lest he should hear them and punish us all, we
slew them, if we could; and those that fled we hunted; and if any
were caught, our masters, his friends, commanded that they
should be taken to the House and there done to death by fire.
That pleased him greatly, his friends said; and indeed for a
while it seemed that our afflictions were lightened.
But it is told that there were a few that escaped us, and went
away into far countries, fleeing from the shadow. Yet they did
not escape from the anger of the Voice; for they had built the
House and bowed down in it. And they came at last to the
land's end and the shores of the impassable water; and behold!
the Enemy was there before them.
Together with the Athrabeth papers there is a Glossary (as my father
termed it), a brief index of names and terms with definitions and some
etymological information. This is confined to the Athrabeth itself, and
so from the nature of the work is not large, but there are a few
omissions (as Athrabeth, Andreth, and names of the People of Beor).
Written in manuscript, it was made after the amanuensis typescripts of
the Athrabeth had been taken from the manuscript and emended, as
the entry Mirroanwi shows (see p. 326 note 10). It seems curious that
my father should have provided this, since most of the definitions or
explanations would be unnecessary to one who had read The Silmaril-
lion, and taken with the explanations of fundamental conceptions that
appear in the Commentary may suggest that he conceived it as an
independent work - although on one of the newspaper wrappers of
the Athrabeth papers (p. 329) he noted that it should be the last item
in an Appendix (to The Silmarillion).
Most of the information provided is readily found elsewhere, and I
give only a selection of the entries, in whole or in part, with very slight
editing for purposes of clarity.
Adaneth Sindarin, 'woman, mortal woman'.
Arda 'kingdom', sc. the 'kingdom of Manwe'. The 'Solar System', or
Earth as the dramatic centre of this, as the scene of the war of the
'Children of Eru' against Melkor.
Edennil (Quenya Atandil) 'devoted to the Atani, Men'; name given
to Finrod.
[Extracted from entry Eldar:] But only part of the Eldar actually
reached Aman. A large part of the Third Host (Lindar 'Singers', also
called Teleri Those Behind ) remained in the West of Middle-earth.
These are the Sindar 'Grey-elves'.... The Elves who were in or who
ever had dwelt in Aman were called the High-elves (Tareldar).(24)
fea 'spirit': the particular 'spirit' belonging to and 'housed' in any
one hroa of the Incarnates. It corresponds, more or less, to 'soul';
and to 'mind', when any attempt is made to distinguish between
mentality, and the mental processes of Incarnates, conditioned and
limited by the co-operation of the physical organs of the hroa. It was
thus in its being (apart from its experience) the impulse and power
to think: enquire and reflect, as distinct from the means of acquiring
data. It was conscious and self-aware: 'self' however in Incarnates
included the hroa. The fea was said by the Eldar to retain the
impress or memory of the hroa and of all the combined experiences
of itself and its body. (Quenya fea (dissyllabic) is from older * 'phaya.
Sindarin faer, of the same meaning, corresponds to Quenya faire'
'spirit (in general)', as opposed to matter (erma) or 'flesh' (hrave').)
Finarphin I Finarfin [the name is given thus in alternative spellings]
hroa See fea. (The Quenya form is derived from older * srawa. The
Sindarin form of hroa and hrave (srawe) was rhaw: cf. Mirroanwi.)
Mandos [extract] (The name Mandos (stem mandost-) means ap-
proximately 'castle of custody': from mbando 'custody, safe-
keeping', and osto 'a strong or fortified building or place'. The
Sindarin form of mbando, Quenya mando, was band, occurring
in Angband 'Iron-gaol', the name given to Morgoth's dwelling,
Quenya Angamando.)
Melkor (also Melko) [extract] (Melkor, in older form Melkore,
probably means 'Mighty-rising', sc. 'uprising of power'; Melko
simply 'the Mighty One'.)(25)
Mirroanwi Incarnates; those (spirits) 'put into flesh'; cf. hroa. (From
* mi-srawanwe.)
Noldor The name means 'lore-masters' or those specially devoted to
knowledge. (The most ancient form was ngolodo, Quenya noldo,
Sindarin golodh: in the transcription n = the Feanorian letter for the
back nasal, the ng of king.)(26) The Quenya word nole meant 'lore,
knowledge', but its Sindarin equivalent gul, owing to its frequent
use in such combinations as morgul (cf. Minas Morgul in The Lord
of the Rings) was only used for evil or perverted knowledge,
necromancy, sorcery. This word gul was also used in the language
of Mordor.
Valar [extract] (The name) means 'those with power, the Powers'.
But it should more strictly be translated 'the Authorities'. The
'power' of the Valar resided in the 'authority' they had from Eru.
They had sufficient 'power' for their functions - that is, vast or
godlike power over, and knowledge of, the physical structure of the
Universe, and understanding of the designs of Eru. But they were
forbidden to use force upon the Children of Eru. The stem melk- (27)
(seen in Melkor) on the other hand means 'power' as force and
strength.
I have referred (p. 303) to the existence of original draft material for
the Athrabeth. The chief element in this is a small bundle of slips made
from Merton College documents of 1955 and written very rapidly in
ball-point pen; but it is plain that my father was following an earlier
text, no longer extant, which he could not read at all points: words are
marked with queries, dots are put in for missing phrases (some of
which were filled in doubtfully afterwards), and some sentences do not
seems to be correct. This draft, which I will call 'A', corresponds to the
section in the final text from Finrod's words 'But what then shall we
think of the union in Man' on p. 317 to 'then Eru must come in to con-
quer him' on p. 322; but the one is in certain respects extraordinarily
different from the other. I give here two extracts to illustrate this.
The first takes up from Finrod's questions (p. 318) 'Or is there some- ?
where else a world of which all things which we see, all things that
either Elves or Men know, are only tokens or reminders?':
'If so it resides only in the mind of Eru,' said Andreth. 'But to such
questions I know no answer. This much only can I say: that among
us some hold that our errand here was to heal the Marring of Arda,
and by making the hroa partake in the life of the fea to put it beyond
any marring of Melkor or any other spirit of malice for ever. But
that "Arda Healed" (or Remade) shall not be "Arda Unmarred",
but a third thing and a greater. And that third thing maybe is in the
mind of Eru, and is in his answer. You have spoken to me of the
Music and you have conversed with the Valar who were present at
its making ere the world began. Did they hear the end of the Music?
Or was there not something beyond the final chords of Eru, which
(being overwhelmed thereby) the Valar did not hear? Or again
maybe, since Eru is for ever free, He made no music and showed no
Vision beyond a certain point. Beyond that point (which neither
Valar nor Eldar...) we cannot see or know, until, each by our own
roads, we come there.'
'In what did Melkor's malice show itself?'
Darkness lies over that. Saelon (sc. Andreth)(28) has little to
answer. 'Some men say that he blasphemed Eru, and denied His
existence, or His power, and that our fathers assented, and took
Melkor to be a Lord and God; and that thereby our fear denied their
own true nature, and so became darkened and weakened almost to
the death (if that be possible for fear). And through the weakness of
the fear our hroar fell into unhealth, and lay open to all evils and
disorders of the world. And others say that Eru himself spoke in
wrath, saying: "If the Darkness be your God, little here shall you
have of Light, but shall leave it soon and come before Me, to learn
who lieth: Melkor or I Who made him."'(29)
The second passage corresponds in its placing to that beginning at
Andreth's words in the final text (p. 321) 'Asleep or awake, they say
nothing clearly':
'... Some say that ... Eru will find a way of healing that will heal
both our fathers and ourselves and those that shall follow us. But
how that shall come to pass, or to what manner of being this healing
will make us, only those of the Hope (as we say) can guess; none can
clearly assert.
'But there are among us a few (of whom I am one) who have the
Great Hope, as we call it, and believe that His secret has been
handed down from the days before our wounding. This is the Great
Hope: that Eru will himself enter into Arda and heal Men and all
the Marring.'
'But this is a strange thing! Do you claim to have known of Eru
before ever we met? What is his name?'
'As it is with you, but different only in form of sound: The One.'
'But still this passes my understanding,' said Finrod. 'For how
could Eru enter into the thing that He has made, and than which He
is infinitely greater? Can the poet enter his story or the designer
enter his picture?'
'He is already in it, and outside it,' said Saelon, 'though not in the
same mode.'
'Yea verily,' said Finrod, 'and so is Eru in that mode I sense in
Arda. But you speak of Eru entering into Arda, which is surely
another matter. How could he do so, who is infinitely greater:
would it not shatter Arda, or indeed Ea?'
'He could find a way, I doubt not,' said Saelon, 'though indeed I
cannot conceive the way. But whatever you think, that is the Great
Hope of Men. And I do not see - so to speak with humility - what
else could be done; since Eru will surely not suffer Melkor to
triumph and abandon His own work. But there is nothing more
powerful that is conceivable than Melkor, save Eru only. Therefore
Eru, if he will not relinquish his work to Melkor, who is......., Eru
must come in to conquer him.
At this point the draft text A ends. It will be seen in the first of these
passages that the large vision of Finrod in the final form of the
Athrabeth concerning 'Arda Remade', which arises in his mind from
the words of Andreth, was originally a belief held by certain of the
Atani, and it is Andreth who proposes the idea that this vision was
absent from the end of the Music of the Ainur, or was not perceived by
them; while in the second passage Andreth names herself as one of
those who entertains 'the Great Hope', and to Finrod's incredulity that
Eru could enter into Arda she provides those same speculative answers
that are given to Finrod in the final text. It is thus apparent that my
father's ideas concerning not only the structure and tenor of the
'Converse of Finrod and Andreth' but the very nature of the beliefs of
the first Men in Beleriand underwent a major development as he
worked on the Athrabeth.
An isolated page ('B') written, like draft A, on a Merton College
document of 1955, carries an interesting passage that was not used in
the final version.
'What says the wisdom of Men concerning the nature of the
Mirruyaina?' said Finrod. 'Or what do you hold, Andreth, who
know also much of the teaching of the Eldar?'
'Men say various things, be they Wise or no,' said Andreth.
'Many hold that there is but a single thing: the body, and that we
are one of the beasts, though the latest come and the most cunning.
But others hold that the body is not all, but contains some other
thing. For often we speak of the body as a "house", or as "raiment",
and that implies an indwelling, though of what we speak in
uncertainty.(30)
'Among my folk men speak mostly of the "breath" (or the
"breath of life" ), and they say that if it leaves the house, it may by
seeing eyes be seen as a wraith, a shadowy image of the living thing
that was.'
'That is but a guess,' said Finrod, 'and long ago we said things
similar, but we know now that the Indweller is not "breath"(31)
(which the hroa uses), and that seeing eyes cannot see one that is
houseless, but that the living eyes may draw from the fea within an
image which the houseless conveys to the housed: the memory of
itself.'
'Maybe,' said Andreth. 'But among the people of Marach men
speak rather of the "fire", or the "fire on the hearth", from whose
burning the house is warmed, and from which arise the heats of the
heart, or the smokes of wrath.'
'That is another guess,' said Finrod, 'and holds also some truth, I
believe.'
'Doubtless,' said Andreth. 'But those who speak thus, of the
"breath" or of the "fire", do not think of it as belonging to Men
only, but as the life of all living things. As Men have their houses,
but beasts also have their dwellings in holes or in nests, so both have
a life within that may grow cold or go forth.'
'Then in what way do Men differ from beasts in such lore?' said
Finrod. 'How can they claim ever to have had a life indestructible?'
'The Wise have considered this,' said Andreth. 'And among them
are some that speak more after the manner of the Eldar. But they
speak rather of three things: the earth and the fire and the Dweller.
By which they intend the stuff of which the body is built, which of
itself is inert and does not grow or move; and the life which grows
and takes to itself increase; and the Indweller who dwells there, and
is master both of house and of hearth - or once was.'
'And wishes never to leave them - and once need never do so? It
was then the Indweller who suffered the wound?' said Finrod.
'Not so,' said Andreth. 'Clearly not so; but Man, the whole:
house, life, and master.'
'But the Master must have been the one that was wronged (as you
say), or did wrong (as I guess); for the house might suffer for the
folly of the Master, but hardly the Master for the misdeeds of the
house! But let that be, for you do not desire to speak of it. Do you
yourself hold this belief?'
'It is not a belief,' said Andreth. 'For we do not know enough for
any certainty concerning earth or growth or thought, and maybe
never shall; for if they were designed by the One, then doubtless
they will ever hold for us some mystery inscrutable, however much
we learn. But it is a guess that is near, I hold.'
Here this text ends. Finally, there is another isolated slip ('C'), again
taken from a document dated 1955, as follows:
Query: Is it not right to make Andreth refuse to discuss any
traditions or legends of the 'Fall'? Already it is (if inevitably) too like
a parody of Christianity. Any legend of the Fall would make it
completely so?
Originally instead of refusal to talk of it Andreth was made (under
pressure) to say something of this sort:
It is said that Melkor looked fair in ancient days, and that when
he had gained Men's love he blasphemed Eru, denying his existence
and claiming that he was the Lord, and Men assented and took him
as Lord and God. Thereupon (say some) our spirits having denied
their own true nature at once became darkened and weakened; and
through this weakness they lost the mastery of their bodies, which
fell into unhealth. Others say that Eru Himself spoke in wrath,
saying: 'If the Darkness be your god, little shall ye have here of Light
[later > on earth ye shall have little Light], and shall leave it soon
and come before Me to learn who lieth: your god or I who made
him.' And these are the most afraid of death.
This is very difficult to interpret. My father's initial question must
mean (in view of the following sentences): 'It is surely right to make
Andreth refuse ...', implying 'as is now the case, as the text stands'.
But he then proceeded to write a passage in which Andreth did not
refuse to say something of such traditions, but consented 'under
pressure' (I do not know how to interpret the word 'Originally' in
'Originally instead of refusal to talk of it'); and this was evidently
where the germ of what would become the 'Tale of Adanel', the legend
of the Fall, first appeared. But this sketch of what Andreth said to
Finrod about the Fall of Man is very close to, indeed largely the same
as, what she said in the draft text A (p. 351); and that draft was
itself derived from a previous writing now lost (p. 350). It seems then
that that lost writing contained no account of the Fall, and it was
presumably to this that my father's question referred: 'Is it not right
to make Andreth refuse to discuss any traditions or legends of the
"Fall"?'
The remarks with which text C begins are evidence that he was in
some way concerned about these new developments, these new
directions, in the underlying 'theology' of Arda, or at any rate their so
explicit expression. Certainly, if one looks back to earlier writings of
his, one must become aware of a significant shift. In the account
written for Milton Waldman in 1951 (Letters no.131, p. 147) he had
said:
The Doom (or the Gift) of Men is mortality, freedom from the
circles of the world. Since the point of view of the whole cycle is the
Elvish, mortality is not explained mythically: it is a mystery of God
of which no more is known than that 'what God has purposed for
Men is hidden: a grief and an envy to the immortal Elves....
In the cosmogony there is a fall: a fall of Angels we should say.
Though quite different in form, of course, to that of Christian myth.
These tales are 'new', they are not directly derived from other myths
and legends, but they must inevitably contain a large measure of
ancient wide-spread motives or elements. After all, I believe that
legends and myths are largely made of 'truth', and indeed present
aspects of it that can only be received in this mode; and long ago
certain truths and modes of this kind were discovered and must
always reappear. There cannot be any 'story' without a fall - all
stories are ultimately about the fall - at least not for human minds
as we know them and have them.
So, proceeding, the Elves have a fall, before their 'history' can
become storial. (The first fall of Man, for reasons explained,
nowhere appears - Men do not come on the stage until all that is
long past, and there is only a rumour that for a while they fell under
the domination of the Enemy and that some repented.)
'The first fall of Man, for reasons explained, nowhere appears.' What
were those reasons? My father must have been referring to the
beginning of this letter, where he wrote of the Arthurian legend that
'it is involved in, and explicitly contains the Christian religion', and
went on:
For reasons which I will not elaborate, that seems to me fatal. Myth
and fairy-story must, as all art, reflect and contain in solution
elements of moral and religious truth (or error), but not explicit, not
in the known form of the primary 'real' world.
Some years before the time of that letter, however, in one of the
curious 'Sketches' associated with The Drowning of Anadune, he had
referred briefly to the original Fall of Men, and there it was accom-
panied by a very strange speculation on God's original design for
mankind (IX.401):
Men (the Followers or Second Kindred) came second, but it is
guessed that in the first design of God they were destined (after
tutelage) to take on the governance of all the Earth, and ultimately
to become Valar, to 'enrich Heaven', Iluve. But Evil (incarnate in
Meleko) seduced them, and they fell.
A little later in the same text (IX.402) he wrote:
Though all Men had 'fallen', not all remained enslaved. Some
repented, rebelled against Meleko, and made friends of the Eldar,
and tried to be loyal to God.
There is certainly a belief expressed here (whatever weight was to be
attached to it - for by whom was it 'guessed'?) that the Fall introduced
a change incalculably vast in the nature and destiny of Men, a change
brought about by the 'Spirit of Evil', Melkor.
But in 1954 he was saying, in the draft of a long letter to Peter
Hastings that was not sent (Letters no.153):
... my legendarium, especially the 'Downfall of Numenor' which
lies immediately behind The Lord of the Rings, is based on my view:
that Men are essentially mortal and must not try to become
'immortal' in the flesh.
To this he added a footnote:
Since 'mortality' is thus represented as a special gift of God to the
Second Race of the Children (the Eruhini, the Children of the One
God) and not a punishment for a Fall, you may call that 'bad
theology'. So it may be, in the primary world, but it is an
imagination capable of elucidating truth, and a legitimate basis of
legends.
And again, in another letter of 1954, to Father Robert Murray (Letters
no.156, footnote to p. 205) he wrote:
But the view of the myth [of the Downfall of Numenor] is that
Death - the mere shortness of human life-span - is not a punish-
ment for the Fall, but a biologically (and therefore also spiritually,
since body and spirit are integrated) inherent part of Man's nature.
It seems to me therefore that there are problems in the Athrabeth
Finrod ah Andreth for the interpretation of my father's thought on
these matters; but I am unable to resolve them. It is unfortunate that
the questionings with which this slip of paper begins are so elliptically
expressed, especially the words 'Already it is (if inevitably) too like a
parody of Christianity.' Obviously, he was not referring to the legend
of the Fall: he was saying clearly that the introduction of such a legend
would make 'it' - presumably, the Athrabeth - altogether into 'a
parody of Christianity'.
Was he referring then to the astonishing conception in the
Athrabeth of 'the Great Hope of Men', as it is called in the draft A
(p. 352), 'the Old Hope' as it is called in the final text (p. 321), that
Eru himself will enter into Arda to oppose the evil of Melkor? In the
Commentary (p. 335) this was further defined: 'Finrod ... probably
proceeded to the expectation that "the coming of Eru", if it took
place, would be specially and primarily concerned with Men: that is to
an imaginative guess or vision that Eru would come incarnated in
human form' - though my father noted that 'This does not appear in
the Athrabeth'. But this surely is not parody, nor even parallel, but the
extension - if only represented as vision, hope, or prophecy - of the
'theology' of Arda into specifically, and of course centrally, Christian
belief; and a manifest challenge to my father's view in his letter of
1951 on the necessary limitations of the expression of 'moral and
religious truth (or error)' in a 'Secondary World'.
NOTES.
1. Cf. my father's draft letter of September 1954 (Letters no.153,
p. 189): 'Elves and Men are evidently in biological terms one
race, or they could not breed and produce fertile offspring - even
as a rare event', and the following passage.
2. According to the chronology of the Annals of Aman the Elves
awoke in the Year of the Trees 1050 (p. 71, $37), 450 of such Years
before the rising of the Sun, or something more than 4300
years of our time (for the reckoning see p. 59); see p. 327 note 16.
3. demiurgic labour: the creative work of 'demiurges', in the sense
of mighty but limited beings subordinate to God.
4. On Melkor as 'originally the most powerful of the Valar' see
p. 65, $2. There are a number of references in the late writings
to the supremacy of Melkor's power in the beginning, but see
especially the essay Melkor Morgoth given on pp. 390 ff. It is
curious that in his letter to Rhona Beare of October 1958 (Letters
no.211) my father wrote: 'In the cosmogonic myth Manwe is said
to be "brother" of Melkor, that is they were coeval and
equipotent in the mind of the Creator.'
5. Cf. Finrod's words in the Athrabeth, p. 319: 'Beyond the End of
the World we shall not change; for in memory is our great talent,
as shall be seen ever more clearly as the ages of this Arda pass: a
heavy burden to be, I fear; but in the Days of which we now
speak a great wealth.'
6. The reference is to the Virgin Mary. See the footnote (Letters
p. 286) to the draft continuation of the letter referred to in note 4.
7. This analysis does not adhere strictly to the actual course of the
Athrabeth, and (as is expressly stated, p. 335) was not intended
to do so. Thus it was in fact Finrod who said that 'the disaster to
Men was appalling' ('dreadful beyond all other calamities was
the change in their state', p. 318); and his recognition that 'the
power of Melkor was greater than had been understood' comes
much earlier in the debate ('to change the doom of a whole
people of the Children, to rob them of their inheritance: if he
could do that in Eru's despite, then greater and more terrible is
he by far than we guessed', p. 312).
8. 'Aegnor perished soon after this conversation': in fact, 46 years
later (see note 9).
9. In the Grey Annals (and in the published Silmarillion) Finrod is
clearly represented as ruling his great realm from the stronghold
of Nargothrond (founded centuries before) during the Siege of
Angband, and at the Battle of Sudden Flame he is said to have
been 'hastening from the south' (The Silmarillion p. 152). At the
end of the Athrabeth, on the other hand, he tells Andreth that he
is leaving for the North, 'to the swords, and the siege, and the
walls of defence' (p. 325), and in the present passage it is said that
he and his brothers and the People of Beor dwelt in 'the northern
realm' and that when the Siege was broken he 'took refuge' in
Nargothrond.
The last sentence of the paragraph 'But she would then be a
very old woman' was a late addition. Against it my father
pencilled 'about 94'; cf. the footnote to the opening sentence of
the Athrabeth, p. 307: Andreth was 48 years old at the time of
the conversation with Finrod, stated to have taken place about
the year 409, and thus 'about 94' in 455, the year of the Battle of
Sudden Flame.
10. In the Ainulindale' (p. 11, $13) it was expressly stated that the
Children of Iluvatar 'came with the Third Theme, and were not in
the theme which Iluvatar propounded at the beginning'. Of the
Second Theme it is said in the Ainulindale' (p. 14, $24) that
'Manwe ... was the chief instrument of the Second Theme
that Iluvatar had raised up against the discord of Melkor.'
It is perhaps possible that by 'the two new themes' in the
present passage my father was thinking of the introduction of
Elves and Men into the Music as allied 'themes' that in the
Ainulindale' were described as 'the Third Theme', but it seems to
me more probable that a different conception of the Music had
entered. In this connection, in a passage in the final rewriting and
elaboration of QS Chapter 6 (p. 275, $50) it is told that Melkor
spoke secretly to the Eldar in Aman concerning Men, although he
knew little about them, 'for engrossed with his own thought in
the Music he had paid small heed to the Second Theme of
Iluvatar'. If this was not simply an inadvertence, it might support
the view that the Second and Third Themes had become those
that introduced Elves and Men - although it would surely be in
the Second Theme that the Elves entered, and Men in the Third. It
may be noted also that in the draft continuation of the letter to
Rhona Beare of October 1958 (Letters no.212), to which I have
several times referred, my father wrote: 'Their "themes" were
introduced into the Music by the One, when the discords of
Melkor arose'; and there is a further reference to 'the Themes of
the Children' in Author's Note 7 (p. 342).
11. Against the opening sentences of Note 2 is written in the margin:
'Arda means Realm'. With the statement here that 'Physically
Arda was what we should call the Solar System', and in the third
paragraph of this Note that 'the principal part of Arda was the
Earth (Imbar "The Habitation")', though 'loosely used Arda
often seems to mean the Earth', cf. the list of names associated
with the revision of the Quenta Silmarillion in 1951 (p. 7):
'Arda Elvish name of Earth = our world. Also Kingdom of
Arda = fenced region'. The statements in this Note imply of
course a radical transformation of the cosmological myth, a
recrudescence of the abandoned ideas seen in the Ainulindale' text
C' of the later 1940s (pp. 3 - 6, 43). Much further writing on this
subject will be found in texts given in Part Five (see especially
Texts I and II, pp. 370, 375 ff.).
12. The term Imbar has not occurred before; but cf. Ambar 'the
Earth' (IV.235 ff., and the Etymologies, V.372, 'Quenya a-mbar
"oikoumene", Earth'; also Ambar-metta the ending of the
world' in Aragorn's words at his coronation, The Return of the
King p. 245).
13. 'the principal demiurgic Ainur... had taken up their "residence"
in Arda': cf. the Ainulindale' (p. 14, $21): 'Thus it came to pass
that of the Holy Ones some abode still with Iluvatar beyond the
confines of the World; but others, and among them many of the
greatest and most fair, took the leave of Iluvatar and descended
into it.' - On the word 'demiurgic' see note 3 above.
14. erma: in the typescript B of Laws and Customs appears the word
orma, a later pencilled alteration of the word hron ('the general
hron [> orma] of Arda'), p. 218.
15. This is a reference to a conception not yet met: see the Appendix
to this Part, pp. 361 ff.
16. The possibility of return to incarnate life through childbirth is no
longer countenanced: see note 15.
17. 'Normally they must nonetheless remain in Aman': the reasons
for this are explained later in this Note. See further pp. 364 - 5.
18. Luthien was not the ancestress of Earendil, son of Tuor and Idril
Celebrindal of Gondolin; she was the grandmother of Elwing,
wife of Earendil.
19. 'The myth that appears at the end of the Silmarillion': in so far as
the reference is to any actual written text, this is the conclusion of
QS (V.333, $$31 - 2), the Prophecy of Mandos.
20. Cf. Laws and Customs (typescript text B, p. 219):
As ages passed the dominance of their fear ever increased,
'consuming' their bodies ... The end of this process is their
'fading' ...; 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.
21. 'before and above all Eru's works'; i.e. 'before and above the
works of Eru, of whatever kind'.
22. For previous references to the People of Marach see pp. 305 - 6,
23. 309, 344.
Another version of Note 9 is extant, the opening of which reads
thus:
It is probable that Andreth was actually unwilling to say more.
She may also have felt unable to make up her mind about the
conflicting human traditions on the point. Longer recensions
of the Athrabeth, which appear to have been 'edited' under
Numenorean influence (the Numenoreans were mainly derived
from the People of Marach, who had more specific traditions
concerning what we should call the Fall), make her give, under
pressure, a more precise answer. Briefly this:
Some say the disaster happened very early in the history of
our people; some say in the first generation. The Voice of the
One had spoken to us, some say by a Messenger, some by a
Voice only, some that it was by a knowledge in our hearts
which we had from the beginning. But we were few and the
world seemed very wide; and we wondered much at all that we
saw, but we were ignorant, and yet desired greatly to know,
and we were in haste to make things, the shapes of which grew
in our minds.
Then one came among us, in our own shape, but greater and
more beautiful...
From this point the text differs from the 'Tale of Adanel' (p. 346)
only in very minor details of wording; but it stops (not at the foot
of a page) at the words 'we would hear his voice, and receive his
commands' (the 'Tale of Adanel' p. 347).
This first version was rejected and set aside, and at some later
stage my father noted on the typescript: 'The rest of the notes and
the conclusion of the legend of Melkor's Deception seems lost.
The full copy was sent to Mrs. E. J. Neave (my aunt) in Wales not
long before her death. It seems never to have come back. Lost -
or destroyed by her hasty executors?' Then afterwards he noted
against this that the complete text of the Notes and the legend
(the 'Tale of Adanel') had been found. The keeping of his papers
in separate places for fear of loss led to such distresses in his later
years. - Jane Neave died in 1963; see the Note on Dating,
p. 300.
24. With the names Lindar 'Singers' of the Teleri and Tareldar
'High-elves' cf. the Index to The Silmarillion, entries Teleri,
Eldar.
25. It is notable that the old form Melko is given here as an
alternative form.
26. See p.101 note 2.
27. melk-: this stem was first written with two vowels, perhaps
melek-, but the second vowel seems to have been inked out.
28. Saelon: replaced by Saelind ('Wise-heart'), p. 305.
29. Cf. the words of the Voice of Eru in the 'Tale of Adanel', p. 347.
30. The meaning is: 'though we speak in uncertainty of what it is that
"indwells" '.
31. Cf. the footnote at the end of Laws and Customs, p. 250.
APPENDIX.
'The Converse of Manwe and Eru'
and later conceptions of Elvish reincarnation.
The statement at the beginning of Note 3 (p. 339) that 'in Elvish tra-
dition their re-incarnation was a special permission granted by Eru to
Manwe, when Manwe directly consulted Him at the time of the debate
concerning Finwe and Miriel' seems very strange in the light of Laws
and Customs among the Eldar, where it was stated very explicitly
(p. 221) that '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' (to which such 'a rare and strange case' as that of Miriel, who
was 'rehoused in her own body', is noted as the only exception). In
Laws and Customs it is a presupposition of the whole matter that
Miriel might in the nature of things return from death if she would;
thus Ulmo said in the Debate of the Valar that 'the fea of Miriel may
have departed by necessity, but it departed in the will not to return',
and that 'therein was her fault' (p. 242). It cannot be thought that Laws
and Customs was written on the basis that rebirth was only 'granted
as a special permission' by Eru to Manwe 'at the time of the debate
concerning Finwe and Miriel', an idea of which there is no hint or
suggestion in that work.
The explanation of this is that after the writing of Laws and
Customs my father's views concerning the fate of Elves who had died
underwent a radical change, and the passage cited from Note 3 to the
Commentary on the Athrabeth does not in fact refer to 'rebirth' at all.
There exists a text entitled The Converse of Manwe and Eru, which
followed Laws and Customs but preceded the Commentary on the
Athrabeth. This work (in typescript) was planned as twofold, the first
part being the questions of Manwe and the replies of Eru, and the
second an elaborate philosophical discussion of the significance and
implications; but it was abandoned before it was finished, and a
second, more ample version of the 'Converse' was given up after only
a couple of pages. I give the first part, the 'Converse', only, in the
original shorter recension.
Manwe spoke to Eru, saying: 'Behold! an evil appears in Arda
that we did not look for: the First-born Children, whom Thou
madest immortal, suffer now severance of spirit and body.
Many of the fear of the Elves in Middle-earth are now
houseless; and even in Aman there is one. The houseless we
summon to Aman, to keep them from the Darkness, and all who
hear our voice abide here in waiting. What further is to be done?
Is there no means by which their lives may be renewed, to
follow the courses which Thou hast designed? And what of the
bereaved who mourn those that have gone?'
Eru answered: 'Let the houseless be re-housed! '
Manwe asked: 'How shall this be done?'
Eru answered: 'Let the body that was destroyed be re-made.
Or let the naked fea be re-born as a child.'
Manwe said: 'Is it Thy will that we should attempt these
things? For we fear to meddle with Thy Children.'
Eru answered: Have I not given to the Valar the rule of Arda,
and power over all the substance thereof, to shape it at their will
under My will? Ye have not been backward in these things. As
for my First-born, have ye not removed great numbers of them
to Aman from the Middle-earth in which I set them?'
Manwe answered: 'This we have done, for fear of Melcor,
and with good intent, though not without misgiving. But to use
our power upon the flesh that Thou hast designed, to house
the spirits of Thy Children, this seems a matter beyond our
authority, even were it not beyond our skill.'
Eru said: 'I give you authority. The skills ye have already, if ye
will take heed. Look and ye will find that each spirit of My
Children retaineth in itself the full imprint and memory of its
former house; and in its nakedness it is open to you, so that ye
may clearly perceive all that is in it. After this imprint ye may
make for it again such a house in all particulars as it had ere evil
befell it. Thus ye may send it back to the lands of the Living.'
Then Manwe asked further: '0 Iluvatar, hast Thou not
spoken also of re-birth? Is that too within our power and
authority? '
Eru answered: 'It shall be within your authority, but it is not
in your power. Those whom ye judge fit to be re-born, if they
desire it and understand clearly what they incur, ye shall
surrender to Me; and I will consider them.'
It will be seen that wholly new dimensions to the question of the
return of the Dead to the Living had now entered. My father had come
to think that before the death of Miriel there had never been any
're-housing' of the fear of the Dead, and that it was only in response to
the appeal of Manwe that Eru decreed such a possibility and the
modes by which it might be brought about. One such mode is the
rebirth of the fea as a child, but such of the Dead as desire it are to be
surrendered to Eru to await His judgement in their case. The other
mode is the making, by the Valar, of 'such a house in all particulars as
it had ere evil befell it': the reincarnation of the Dead in a hroa
identical to that which death had overtaken. The long discussion that
follows the 'Converse' is very largely concerned with the ideas of
'identity' and 'equivalence' in relation to this form of reincarnation,
represented as a commentary by Eldarin loremasters.
A hastily written manuscript on small slips of paper, entitled
'Reincarnation of Elves', seems to show my father's reflections on the
subject between the abandonment of The Converse of Manwe and Eru
and the Commentary on the Athrabeth. In this discussion he referred
in rapid and elliptical expression to the difficulties at every level
(including practical and psychological) in the idea of the reincarnation
of the fea as the newborn child of second parents, who as it grows up
recaptures the memory of its previous life: 'the most fatal objection'
being that 'it contradicts the fundamental notion that fea and hroa
were each fitted to the other: since hroar have a physical descent, the
body of rebirth, having different parents, must be different', and this
must be a condition of pain to the reborn fea.
He was here abandoning, and for good, the long-rooted conception
(see pp. 265 - 7) of rebirth as the mode by which the Elves might
return to incarnate life: from his scrutiny of the mythical idea,
questioning its validity in the terms he had adopted, it had come to seem
to him a serious flaw in the metaphysic of Elvish existence. But, he
said, it was a 'dilemma', for the reincarnation of the Elves 'seems an
essential element in the tales'. 'The only solution,' he decided in this
discussion, was the idea of the remaking in identical form of the hroa
of the Dead in the manner declared by Eru in The Converse of Manu e'
and Eru: the fea retains a memory, an imprint, of its hroa, its 'former
house', so powerful and precise that the reconstruction of an identical
body can proceed from it.
The idea of a 'Converse' between Manwe and Eru was not
abandoned, and is indeed referred to in 'Reincarnation of Elves' (but
the 'Converse' as given above must have been in existence, since in it
Eru expressly declares rebirth to be a mode of reincarnation open to
the 'houseless' fea, whereas in the present discussion such an idea is
firmly rejected and allowed no place in 'the only solution' to the
'dilemma'). The new conception proceeds, in outline, as follows. The
Music of the Ainur had contained no prevision of the death of Elves
and the existence of their 'houseless' fear, since according to their
nature they were to be immortal within the life of Arda. There were
many such fear of Elves who had died in Middle-earth gathered in the
Halls of Mandos, but it was not until the death of Miriel in Aman that
Manwe appealed directly to Eru for counsel. Eru 'accepted and ratified
the position' - though making it plain to Manwe that the Valar should
have contested Melkor's domination of Middle-earth far earlier, and
that they had lacked estel: they should have trusted that in a legitimate
war Eru would not have permitted Melkor so greatly to damage Arda
that the Children could not come, or could not inhabit it (cf. LQ $20,
p. 161: '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
'.hat 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').
It is then said that 'the fear of the Dead all go to Mandos in Aman:
or rather they are now summoned thither by the authority given by
Eru. A place is made for them.' This appears to mean that it was only
now that Mandos was empowered to summon the spirits of the Dead
to Aman; but the following words 'A place is made for them' are hard
to understand, since they seem to deny even that the Halls of Waiting
existed before Manwe spoke to Eru (despite the statement earlier in
'Reincarnation of Elves' that there were many houseless fear gathered
in Mandos before the 'Converse' took place).
The Valar are now given the authority to reincarnate the fear of
Elves who have died in hroar identical to those they have lost; and the
text continues: The re-housed fea will normally remain in Aman.
Only in very exceptional cases, as Beren and Luthien, will they be
transported back to Middle-earth.... Hence death in Middle-earth
had much of the same sort of sorrow and sunderance for Elves and
Men. But, as Andreth saw, the certainty of living again and doing
things in incarnate form made a vital difference to death as a personal
terror' (cf. the Athrabeth p. 311).
In what appears to be a second thought my father then asked
whether it might not be possible that the 'houseless' fea was itself
allowed (being instructed) to rebuild its hroa from its memory (and
this, as appears from very late writing on the subject of the reincarna-
tion of Glorfindel of Gondolin, became his firm and stable view of the
matter). He wrote here: 'Memory by a fea of experience is evidently
powerful, vivid, and complete. So the underlying conception is that
"matter" will be taken up into "spirit", by becoming part of its
knowledge - and so rendered timeless and under the spirit's com-
mand. As the Elves remaining in Middle-earth slowly "consumed"
their bodies - or made them into raiments of memory? The resurrec-
tion of the body (at least as far as Elves were concerned) was in a sense
incorporeal. But while it could pass physical barriers at will, it could at
will oppose a barrier to matter. If you touched a resurrected body you
felt it. Or if it willed it could simply elude you - disappear. Its position
in space was at will.'
Neither in the passage on the subject of reincarnation in the
Commentary on the Athrabeth (p. 331, $6) nor in the Note 3 that
refers to it (p. 339) is there any mention of rebirth; while the latter
very evidently echoes the words of 'Resurrection of Elves'. Thus it is
strongly implied in Note 3, if not expressly stated, that it was only at
the time of Manwe s speech with Eru that Mandos was given the
power actually to summon the fear of the Dead; and the passage that
follows this in the Note is closely similar to what is said in 'Resurrec-
tion of Elves':
They were given the choice to remain houseless, or (if they wished)
to be re-housed in the same form and shape as they had had.
Normally they must nonetheless remain in Aman. Therefore, if they
dwelt in Middle-earth, their bereavement of friends and kin, and the
bereavement of these, was not amended. Death was not wholly
healed. But as Andreth saw, this certitude concerning their immedi-
ate future after death, and the knowledge that at the least they
would again if they wished be able as incarnates to do and make
things and continue their experience of Arda, made death to the
Elves a totally different thing from death as it appeared to Men.
An interesting point in respect of the chronology of composition
arises from the remark found both in 'Reincarnation of Elves' and in
Note 3 to the Commentary that death for Elves and death for Men
were very different things 'as Andreth saw'. Thus the Athrabeth was in
existence when 'Reincarnation of Elves' was written; but the Com-
mentary followed 'Reincarnation'. This seems clear evidence that
there was an interval between the writing of the actual Debate of
Finrod and Andreth and the writing of the Commentary on it.
One further passage in 'Reincarnation of Elves' should be men-
tioned. In a sort of aside from the course of his thoughts, moving more
rapidly (even) than his pen, my father remarked that 'the exact nature
of existence in Aman or Eressea after their "removal" must be dubious
and unexplained', as must the question of 'how "mortals" could go
there at all'. On this he observed that Eru had 'long before' committed
the Dead of mortals also to Mandos; cf. QS $86 (V.247): 'What befell
their spirits after death the Elves know not. Some say that they too go
to the halls of Mandos; but their place of waiting there is not that of
the Elves; and Mandos under Iluvatar alone save Manwe knows
whither they go after the time of recollection in those silent halls
beside the Western Sea. The sojourn of Frodo (he went on) in
Eressea - then on to Mandos? - was only an extended form of this.
Frodo would eventually leave the world (desiring to do so). So that the
sailing in ship was equivalent to death.'
With this may be contrasted what he wrote at the end of his account
of The Lord of the Rings in his letter to Milton Waldman of 1951 (a
passage omitted in Letters but printed in IX.132):
To Bilbo and Frodo the special grace is granted to go with the Elves
they loved - an Arthurian ending, in which it is, of course, not made
explicit whether this is an 'allegory' of death, or a mode of healing
and restoration leading to a return.
In his letter to Naomi Mitchison of September 1954 (Letters no.154),
however, he said:
... the mythical idea underlying is that for mortals, since their 'kind'
cannot be changed for ever, this is strictly only a temporary reward:
a healing and redress of suffering. They cannot abide for ever, and
though they cannot return to mortal earth, they can and will 'die' -
of free will, and leave the world. (In this setting the return of Arthur
would be quite impossible, a vain imagining.)
And much later, in a draft letter of 1963 (Letters no.246), he wrote:
Frodo was sent or allowed to pass over Sea to heal him - if that
could be done, before he died. He would have eventually to 'pass
away': no mortal could, or can, abide for ever on earth, or within
Time. So he went both to a purgatory and to a reward, for a while: a
period of reflection and peace and a gaining of a truer understand-
ing of his position in littleness and in greatness, spent still in Time
amid the natural beauty of 'Arda Unmarred', the Earth unspoiled by
evil.