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

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СКАЧАТЬ the Sketch of the Mythology Yavanna ‘plants the Two Trees’ and ‘they grow under her songs’ (The Shaping of Middle-earth, p. 12). Telperion is described first, suggesting that it may already have become the elder of the Trees; this is specifically stated in the Quenta Noldorinwa. A replacement page in the Quenta Noldorinwa brings the description of the creation of the Trees closer to its final form, with Yavanna hallowing the mould with her song and Nienna watering the ground with her tears.

      The version of the *Ainulindalë written in 1946 contained a new account, not only of the Creation, but also of early events in Arda. Since the Sun exists from the beginning and provides light to the earth (round, not flat), the episode of the making of the pillars and their overthrow is omitted. Instead there is open strife between Melkor and the other Valar as he tries to corrupt or destroy all that they labour to achieve in fashioning the earth for the coming of Elves and Men. With the help of the newly arrived Tulkas, Melkor is put to flight for a while, but seizing a piece of the earth he creates the moon, and from it keeps watch on the earth below. In versions of the Ainulindalë written c. 1949–51 Tolkien reverted to his original conception of a flat world without a sun, but retained some aspects introduced in the round world version. The story now approaches more closely that told in The Silmarillion: Morgoth has no part in the making of the Lamps, and the Isle of Almaren is in a great lake in the middle of the earth; but some elements are introduced which do not appear in the published text. Flowers and birds are mentioned as appearing under the light of the Lamps. Melkor makes war on the Valar and throws down the Lamps, and has grown so strong that the Valar can neither overcome him nor take him captive. He escapes and builds a stronghold in the North, Utumno. A similar story is told in the chapter ‘Of Valinor and the Two Trees’ in the Quenta Silmarillion as revised c. 1951. The contemporary Annals of Aman (see *Annals of Valinor) introduce the account of the Valar resting on Almaren, and the wedding of Tulkas and Nessa.

      *Christopher Tolkien used material from all three of these closely contemporary texts – the Ainulindalë, the Quenta Silmarillion, and the Annals of Aman – to produce the first section of ‘Of the Beginning of Days’ in The Silmarillion. The beginning was taken mainly from the Ainulindalë with some phrases from the Annals of Aman; most of p. 36 and part of p. 37 were derived from the Annals, with a short section from the Ainulindalë; for the section on the establishment of Valinor and of the Two Trees, he drew on both the Annals and the Quenta Silmarillion.

      The second section was drawn mainly from the Ainulindalë, c. 1949–51, which is a revision of a section of the earlier Ainulindalë of the mid-1930s, but Christopher Tolkien also incorporated a few phrases from the Annals of Aman.

      The third section appeared first in the draft for The Music of the Ainur in The Book of Lost Tales, Part One. Ilúvatar’s statement is generally similar in meaning to that in The Silmarillion, but there are subtle differences: the Elves have a deeper knowledge of beauty; and to Men he gives the gift of ‘free will and the power of fashioning and designing beyond the original Music of the Ainu [sic, the plural form at this stage], that by reason of their operations all things shall in shape and deed be fulfilled, and the world that comes of the music of the Ainu be completed unto the last and smallest’ (The Book of Lost Tales, Part One, p. 61). Although Men live only a short time in the world, they ‘do not perish utterly for ever’ (p. 59), and at the world’s end will join in the Second Music of the Ainur. The Elves dwell for ever unless slain or wasted by grief, and should they die they are reborn in their children, but their fate after the ending of the world is not known even to the Valar.

      In the fair copy that followed, Ilúvatar’s gift to Men is worded differently, or more clearly defined: ‘a free virtue whereby within the limits of the powers and substances and chances of the world they might fashion and design their life even beyond the original Music of the Ainur that is as fate to all things else’ (p. 59). Similarly the Elves dwell in the world ‘until the Great End’ rather than ‘for ever’ (pp. 59, 61).

      In the Ainulindalë of the mid-1930s Ilúvatar’s words reach those in The Silmarillion. Though worded differently, the fates of Elves and Men remain the same. The 1946 Ainulindalë comments on the deep love of the Elves for the world to which they are bound, and in this text only it is said that Manwë knows the fate of Elves after the end of Arda. In the version of the Ainulindalë written c. 1949–51 was added, concerning Men, that ‘Death is their fate, the gift of Ilúvatar unto them, which as Time wears even the Powers shall envy. But Melkor hath cast his shadow upon it, and confounded it with darkness, and brought forth evil out of good, and fear out of hope’ (*Morgoth’s Ring, p. 21). From this version Tolkien then made a fine manuscript incorporating further revisions; it was this text that Christopher Tolkien used for the last part of ‘Of the Beginning of Days’ in The Silmarillion, but removed references to the tale being told by Pengolod, and the statement that Elves who die often return and are reborn in their children, since Tolkien abandoned this idea in his later writings.

      In the late 1950s Tolkien again considered a major change in the cosmology of his legendarium. Some of his ideas of how this part of the story might be modified were published in ‘Myths Transformed’ in Morgoth’s Ring (1993); see especially pp. 375–85.

‘Of Beleriand and Its Realms’. The fourteenth chapter of the *‘Quenta Silmarillion’, published in *The Silmarillion (1977), pp. 118–24.

      The chapter describes the topography of the North-west of Middle-earth and the peoples that lived there after the Dagor Aglareb (see *‘Of the Return of the Noldor’). In the development of the *‘Silmarillion’ mythology this was a constantly shifting picture as Tolkien altered or added elements, moved places on the map, and changed names. The most significant texts in this sequence are: the *Quenta Noldorinwa (c. 1930) in *The Shaping of Middle-earth, pp. 103–4, 107–8; the ‘earliest’ *Annals of Beleriand (early 1930s) in The Shaping of Middle-earth, pp. 296–7, 310, 330–5; the ‘later’ Annals of Beleriand (mid-1930s) in *The Lost Road and Other Writings, pp. 127–9, 145–6; ‘Of Beleriand and its Realms’, Chapter 9 in the *Quenta Silmarillion (mid-1930s–early 1938) in The Lost Road and Other Writings, pp. 258–72; and the Grey Annals (c. 1951, see *Annals of Beleriand) in *The War of the Jewels, pp. 38–9, 117. In the rewriting of the Quenta Silmarillion c. 1951, original Chapter 9 became Chapter 11, ‘Of Beleriand and its Realms’, renumbered as Chapter 14 in the amanuensis typescript of c. 1958.

      ‘Of Beleriand and Its Realms’ in The Silmarillion was taken almost entirely from the final version of the Quenta Silmarillion, but with a certain amount of editorial reordering. It also includes short passages from the Grey Annals and one or two names from *Of Maeglin: Sister-son of Turgon, King of Gondolin.

Belgium. Tolkien went to Belgium at least four times, on professional business or to visit his colleague and former student *S.R.T.O. (Simonne) d’Ardenne. From 10 to 12 November 1950 he attended the Congrès du LX^e anniversaire des sections de Philologie romane et de Philologie germanique at the University of Liège as the official representative of the *Oxford English School, and spoke on the teaching of philology and literature at *Oxford. After the conference, until 17 November, he stayed with Simonne d’Ardenne at Solwaster in the Ardennes, in her family’s former hunting lodge. From 10 to 13 September 1951 he was in Liège for the Congrès International de Philologie Moderne, where he delivered a paper, *Middle English ‘Losenger’. On 2 October 1954 he received at the University of Liège an honorary D.Litt. (Doct. en Lettres et Phil.), proposed by Simonne d’Ardenne. He was again at Solwaster from 13 to 19 September 1957: on 17 September he wrote to *R.W. Burchfield that ‘the rain on these moors and dark forests is continuous. “Water, water everywhere nor any drop to drink” СКАЧАТЬ