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

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СКАЧАТЬ Work to Melkor, who must else proceed to mastery, then Eru must come in to conquer him’ (p. 322). Towards the end, the conversation having turned to the unfulfilled love between Andreth and Finrod’s brother, Aegnor, Finrod explains that Aegnor turned away from Andreth not for lack of love, but from foresight that he would soon be slain.

      The Athrabeth proper is followed by a commentary and lengthy notes, apparently (and unusually) written by Tolkien in his own persona, that is, not presented as a text or edited text deriving from an ‘original’ within the legendarium. The Athrabeth ‘is in fact simply part of the portrayal of the imaginary world of the Silmarillion [*‘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’ (p. 329). The existence of Elves and the Valar within this world must be accepted as ‘fact’. Tolkien outlines Finrod’s basic beliefs, derived from ‘his created nature; angelic instruction; thought; and experience’ (p. 330), and states how these are affected by his conversation with Andreth. Among matters discussed are the Elvish view of the nature of Mankind, the necessary union of hröa and fëa for incarnates (Elves and Men), and the Elves’ thoughts concerning their own fate at the ending of Arda. It is said that Finrod probably guessed that if Eru were to enter Arda he ‘would come incarnated in human form’ (p. 335), thus hinting at the coming of Christ. The notes, also written in an authorial voice, expand on certain points raised in the commentary, such as the place of ‘Arda’ (now referring to the solar system, but often used loosely so that the name seems to mean Earth) in ‘Eä’ (the universe), Elvish traditions of reincarnation, and so forth, and relate them to the larger legendarium.

      One of the notes to the commentary explains Andreth’s unwillingness to say much about the past history and fall of Men:

      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 Númenórean influence, make her give, under pressure, a more precise answer. Some are 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 [the Tale of Adanel] … is given explicitly as a Númenórean tradition. … The legend bears certain resemblances to the Númenórean traditions concerning the part played by Sauron in the downfall of Númenor. 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.

      An addition to the note comments: ‘Nothing is hereby asserted concerning its “truth” [i.e. the truth of the Tale of Adanel], historical or otherwise’ (p. 344).

      According to the attached Tale of Adanel, Men, near the beginning of their history, before any had died, turned away from the Voice which urged them to seek for answers, to the allegiance of a being who offered knowledge and gave many gifts. They revered him and obeyed him when he forbade them to listen to the Voice and ordered them to bow before him as their Master. The Voice then told them that the life it had given them would be shortened, and they began to die and suffer ills. Some rejected the Master but only a few escaped from his followers.

      Tolkien also made a glossary or brief index of names and terms appearing in the Athrabeth, with definitions and some etymological information; this too was published in Morgoth’s Ring.

      HISTORY

      Only part of a preliminary draft (itself probably based on an earlier lost draft) of the manuscript debate of Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth survives, and differs considerably from the finished manuscript. In the draft much of what Finrod deduces during the conversation is presented as being Mannish tradition. Also, whereas in the final text Finrod asks Andreth what Men did to anger Eru and she refuses to reply, in the draft she gives a brief account similar to the Tale of Adanel. Tolkien then made a clear manuscript of the introductory matter and the debate. At some date he detached the beginning of the introduction as a separate text and gave it the title *Aman, and probably at the same time gave the remaining part of the manuscript the title Of Death and the Children of Eru, and the Marring of Men. He later added as another title or subtitle The Converse of Finrod and Andreth, an English rendering of Sindarin Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth. Tolkien himself usually referred to the work as simply the Athrabeth.

      Two separate amanuensis typescripts were made from the manuscript of the debate, except for introductory matter. Tolkien lightly emended these, and himself typed the introduction on the typewriter he used from the beginning of 1959, making some changes. After the amanuensis typescripts had been made, Tolkien drafted the commentary and notes, and made a typescript of these. The text and commentary of the Athrabeth were preserved in a folded newspaper of January 1960, inscribed ‘Addit. Silmarillion | Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth | Commentary’ and ‘Should be last item in an appendix’ (to The Silmarillion). *Christopher Tolkien is inclined to date the work to 1959, following *Laws and Customs among the Eldar and *The Converse of Manwë and Eru.

      CRITICISM

      In the commentary Tolkien says that 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. … 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 … he had not declared it, but had left her – and she believed that she was rejected as too lowly for an Elf. [p. 335]

      But this is not the aspect which makes the greatest impression on most readers. For many the Athrabeth is a puzzling and somewhat startling work, in which Tolkien seems to introduce radical changes to conceptions established in his earlier writings, and writes in more detail about matters either left untold or barely touched on previously.

      In earlier writings Man’s mortal nature is considered a gift, not a punishment, little indication is given of Eru’s intentions for Man’s part in the history of Arda, and the Fall of Man is only hinted at, as having taken place long before Men arrived in Beleriand. In the summary of his legendarium that he sent to *Milton Waldman in ?late 1951 Tolkien wrote that ‘the Doom (or the Gift) of Man is mortality, freedom from the circles of the world’ and ‘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’ (Letters, pp. 147–8). In the same letter, he wrote that ‘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’; and he criticized Arthurian legend (*Arthur and the Matter of Britain) for explicitly containing the Christian religion (p. 144).

      In other letters, from 1954, Tolkien said that in his legendarium ‘Men are essentially mortal and must not try to become “immortal” in the flesh’ and that ‘Mortality’ is ‘represented as a special gift of God’ to Men and not ‘a punishment for a Fall’; and ‘Death – the mere shortness of human life-span – is not a punishment for the Fall but a biologically (and therefore also spiritually, since body and spirit are integrated) inherent part of Man’s nature’ (Letters, pp. 189, 205).

      In a draft letter written in April 1956 he said: ‘I do not think that even Power or Dominion is the real centre of my story. … The real theme for me is about something much СКАЧАТЬ