The J. R. R. Tolkien Companion and Guide: Volume 2: Reader’s Guide PART 1. Christina Scull

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СКАЧАТЬ intention’ in writing the ‘earliest’ Annals of Beleriand ‘was the consolidation of the historical structure in its internal relations and chronology – the Annals began, perhaps, in parallel with the Quenta [*Quenta Noldorinwa] as a convenient way of driving abreast, and keeping track of, the different elements in the ever more complex narrative web’ of ‘The Silmarillion’ (The Shaping of Middle-earth, p. 294). The first manuscript of the ‘earliest’ Annals was apparently written at speed, much of it in a staccato style, then heavily emended, with many changes to the dates. At this stage the First Age lasted 250 years. Tolkien began a second text as a fair copy of the first, but this soon became a new work, with the Siege of Angband extended by a hundred years. This text was left unfinished, as was another version, in Old English, attributed to Ælfwine or Eriol, which corresponds in part to each of the other two texts but breaks off in mid-sentence just as the Siege of Angband begins.

      Closely associated with the ‘earliest’ Annals are a series of genealogies of the Elven princes, of the Three Houses of the Fathers of Men, and of the Houses of the Eastern Men, together with a table of the divisions of the Qendi and a list of the many names by which the three divisions of the Elves were known; and a list of all the names in Tolkien’s works concerned with the legends of the Elder Days. These are described in The Lost Road and Other Writings, pp. 403–4.

      The ‘later’ Annals of Beleriand are ‘not only fuller in matter but also more finished in manner’: they were now ‘becoming an independent work’ though ‘still annalistic, retaining the introductory Here of the year-entries (derived from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle), and lacking connection of motive between events’ (Christopher Tolkien, The Lost Road and Other Writings, p. 124). It is clear from various title-pages produced by Tolkien that he intended the Annals of Beleriand to be included in any published ‘Silmarillion’ following the *Quenta Silmarillion (begun mid-1930s) and the *Annals of Valinor (early and mid-1930s). The ‘later’ Annals of Beleriand are in a clear manuscript which Tolkien later emended, notably during the writing of the Quenta Silmarillion when he further extended the length of the First Age.

      Tolkien began work on the Grey Annals by extensively revising the manuscript of the ‘later’ Annals of Beleriand, then writing a fuller version on the blank versos of the manuscript and some loose sheets. Before he had proceeded very far with this he began a new manuscript version, with the title The Annals of Beleriand or the Grey Annals. Although Tolkien never finished the Grey Annals, writing little beyond the death of Túrin, it is still a work of considerable length and substance: as in the contemporary Annals of Aman (see *Annals of Valinor), here the annalistic form almost gives way to a ‘fully fledged narrative’ (Christopher Tolkien, *Morgoth’s Ring, p. 192). Indeed, Christopher Tolkien considered that ‘for the structure of the history of Beleriand the Grey Annals constitutes the primary text’, and he used ‘much of the latter part … in the published Silmarillion with little change’ (The War of the Jewels, p. 4).

      Tolkien introduced a lengthy excursus on the languages of Beleriand into the first text of the Grey Annals, partially rewrote it for a second text, then replaced most of the latter and introduced a new conception.

      For the part played by the Annals in the evolution of Tolkien’s mythology, see entries for the separate chapters of *The Silmarillion.

      Annals of Valinor. The Annals of Valinor chronicle events in Tolkien’s mythology (*‘The Silmarillion’) from the arrival of the Valar in Arda until the raising of the Sun and the Moon. They exist in three versions: the ‘earliest’ Annals from the early 1930s, published with commentary and notes in *The Shaping of Middle-earth (1986), pp. 262–93; the ‘later’ Annals from the mid-1930s, published with commentary in *The Lost Road and Other Writings (1987), pp. 109–23; and the Annals of Aman from c. 1951, published with commentary and notes in *Morgoth’s Ring (1993), pp. 47–138.

      Tolkien emended his manuscript of the ‘earliest’ Annals in at least two stages, with many changes of date and some additions. He also wrote four Old English versions of the Annals of Valinor, supposedly translations from the Elvish (*Languages, Invented) made by Ælfwine (*Eriol and Ælfwine), of varying length and completeness. One may have preceded the Modern English version; another is unlikely to be earlier than c. 1937, and is written in a different form of Old English, that of ninth-century Mercia, used in glosses on the Vespasian Psalter (on which Tolkien lectured almost every year from 1932 to 1938).

      The ‘later’ Annals of Valinor show little development from the ‘earliest’ Annals. The ending of the section written as if by Rúmil is clearly marked. This work was now considered part of ‘The Silmarillion’, to be placed between the *Quenta Silmarillion and the *Annals of Beleriand.

      Tolkien began work on the Annals of Aman by heavily emending his manuscript of the ‘later’ Annals of Valinor. But before he had proceeded very far he began a new manuscript, adding much material as he wrote. *Christopher Tolkien has noted that from the birth of Fëanor this new version ‘bears no comparison with the cursory [“later” Annals of Valinor], and represents a wholly different impulse; indeed, in this section we see the annal form disappearing as a fully-fledged narrative emerges. As was often the case in my father’s work, the story took over and expanded whatever restrictions of form he had set for it’ (Morgoth’s Ring, p. 102). Tolkien divided these annals into two sections, beginning a new reckoning with the creation of the Two Trees (Valian Year 3501 = Year 1 of the Trees). He made frequent changes to dates after the creation of the Trees; only the final form has been published. He also began a typescript of the work, making many changes of varying significance, but abandoned it before the awakening of the Elves.

      A preamble to the ‘earliest’ Annals of Valinor states that both this work and the Annals of Beleriand were written by ‘Pengolod the Wise of Gondolin, before its fall, and after at Sirion’s Haven, and at Tavrobel in Tol Eressëa after his return unto the West, and there seen and translated by Eriol of Leithien, that is Ælfwine of the Angelcynn’ (The Shaping of Middle-earth, p. 263); but by an addition, the original authorship of all of the entries up to and including the Doom of Mandos is transferred to Rúmil the Elfsage of Valinor. The preamble in Tolkien’s typescript of the Annals of Aman gives a different ‘provenance’ for the work: ‘Rúmil made them in the Elder Days, and they were held in memory by the Exiles. Those parts which we learned and remembered were then set down in Númenor before the Shadow fell upon it’ (Morgoth’s Ring, pp. 64–5). A section in the manuscript, ‘Of the Beginning of Time and its Reckoning’, is said to have been ‘drawn from the work of [Eldarin loremaster] Quennar Onótimo’ (Morgoth’s Ring, p. 49); it was later transferred to *The Tale of Years.

      For the part played by the Annals in the evolution of Tolkien’s mythology, see entries for the separate chapters of *The Silmarillion.

Appearance. Photographs of Tolkien at school and university – see especially Biography, The Tolkien Family Album, and John Garth, Tolkien and Exeter College (2014) – show a serious young man of medium height, slender, clean-shaven, hair parted in the middle. By 1916, in Army uniform, he had a more conventional haircut and a moustache – the latter was compulsory for British soldiers of Tolkien’s time until October 1916. The image of Tolkien most familiar to his readers, however, is that of the author in his later years. Richard Plotz, who visited him in 1966, described Tolkien as ‘a medium-sized man … [who] looks much younger than his seventy-four years. Like one of his creations, the Hobbits, he is a bit fat in the stomach …’ (‘J.R.R. Tolkien Talks about the Discovery of Middle-earth, the Origins of Elvish’, Seventeen, January 1967, p. 92). In a letter of 8 February 1967 to interviewers Charlotte and Denis Plimmer, Tolkien stated that he was not ‘tall, or strongly built. СКАЧАТЬ