Morgoth's Ring (17 page)

$51 Melkor sued for pardon in the Ring of Doom; the Valar wished to put him to death, but none can slay any of Valarin race, nor remove them from Ea, save Eru only.

$52 Melkor was condemned to Mandos for three ages (three hundred Valian Years); in AV 2, and in QS ($47), he was condemned for seven ages.

$54 Elwe, the third of the 'ambassadors', is now Thingol himself, whereas in QS he was Thingol's brother; see V.217 $23, and cf.

AV 2 (V.112): 'Thingol, brother of Elwe, lord of the Teleri'. The brother of Elwe-Thingol now becomes Olwe ($58).

$57 Only 'the most part' of the kindreds of Finwe and Olwe were willing to depart. The Avari were the kindreds of Morwe and Nurwe (and presumably those of the other kindreds who would not go); and an explanation is given of their not going: they dwelt furthest from Kuivienen and had not seen Orome at his first coming.

$58 The First Host now bears the name Vanyar, not as previously Lindar (cf. p. 34, $36). The Third Host, the Teleri, had two lords, the brothers Elwe and Olwe; and Elwe is now called Singollo ('Greymantle', $65; in QS Sindo 'the Grey', $30). -

The route taken by the Eldar on the Great March is described (and it agrees well with the track shown on the Ambarkanta map, IV.249). Many turned back in fear at the great clouds still hanging in the North.

$59 The slowness of the journey is described: the wonder of the Elves, the reluctance of many to complete the journey, the long halts. The journey took twenty Valian Years; in AV 1 it took ten (IV.272), and apparently also in AV 2.

$$60-1 Important names enter from The Lord of the Rings: Anduin, Eriador, Hithaeglir ('the Towers of Mist'); the forest east of the river is not named, but is of course Mirkwood. The origin of the Hithaeglir is told: they were raised by Melkor to hinder the riding of Orome. I noticed (IV.256 - 7) in connection with the Ambarkanta map that there is no trace there of the Misty Mountains or of Anduin (which first appeared, as did Mirkwood, in The Hobbit, where the river is called the Great River of Wilderland).

The Teleri remained on the eastern bank of Anduin when the Vanyar and the Noldor crossed the river and went up into the passes of the Misty Mountains.

$62 It was at this point on the Great March that the Nandor broke off, and they went south down Anduin; they were of the Teleri (from the host of Olwe), and their leader's name was Nano, or Dan in the speech of his own people. In QS ($28) and AV 2

these people were of the Noldor, and in QS they were called in their own tongue Danas, after their first leader Dan; similarly in the Lhammas (V.175 - 6). The name Nandor does not appear in these works, but see the Etymologies, stems DAN and NDAN

(V.353, 375), and also V.188.

$63 The fear of the Sea among the Vanyar and Noldor caused many to withdraw from the shores into the woods of Beleriand; and Orome returned to Valinor to seek Manwe's counsel.

$64 The Teleri came reluctantly into Beleriand, urged on by Elwe, and dwelt at first in the east, beyond the River Gelion. Elwe had great friendship with Finwe.

$65 Elwe was journeying home from a meeting with Finwe when he entered Nan Elmoth. This name first emerged in the post-Lord of the Rings rewriting of the Lay of Leithian (III.346 - 7, 349). In QS ($32) it is not said where the meeting of Thingol and Melian took place; in AV 2 'Melian enchanted him in the woods of Beleriand'. The trance into which Elwe fell endured for many Valian Years (annals 1130, 1152: that is for more than two centuries measured by the Sun).

$66 Ulmo made music for the Elves and turned their fear of the Sea into desire. The Teleri came to the shores of the Sea when they heard that the Vanyar and the Noldor had departed, and took Olwe to be their king.

$67 The name Kalakilya 'Pass of Light' is found in QS and the Lhammas; cf. Quenya kilya 'cleft, pass between hills, gorge', in the Etymologies, stem KIL (V.365). The form in AAm, Kalakiryan, replaced earlier Kalakirya (note 7 above).

'The Elves took possession of Eldamar, and began the building of the green hill of Tuna'; cf. also $$75 - 6 'the shores, coast, of Eldamar'. This contradicts the footnote to QS $39

(never subsequently changed, p. 176), where Eldamar is a name of the Elvish city itself and Eldanor or Elende the region where the Elves dwelt (earlier, on the Ambarkanta map (IV.249), Elvenhome was named Eldaros). The usage here (found also in the rewritten Lay of Leithian) is in fact a reversion to the earliest meaning of Eldamar; see 1.251.

The city is now Tirion upon Tuna, not Tuna upon Kor; see QS $39 and commentary, and also 1.258 (Kortirion). But my father continued to use Tuna also as the name of the city: e.g.

p. 97, $101, where Melkor speaks of Feanor's words 'in Tuna'.

Tirion is called here Tirion the Hallowed, as it was in Bilbo's song at Rivendell (VII.93, 98, 101).

$68 The Tower of Ingwe (Ingwemindon in QS) is now Mindon Eldalieva. - In AAm Ingwe and 'many of his household'

removed from Tirion only seven Valian Years after the coming of the Vanyar and the Noldor to Aman, and in the year of the completion of Tirion and the kindling of Ingwe's lamp; and the departure of the rest of the Vanyar is represented as a long drawn out movement over 25 Valian Years (see $77). In QS

($45) a different impression is given, for it is said that 'As the ages passed the Lindar grew to love the land of the Gods and the full light of the Trees, and they forsook the city of Tuna'.

$69 In QS ($16) Galathilion is the Gnomish name of Silpion (Telperion), and there is no mention of an 'image' of the Elder Tree being given by Yavanna to the Noldor of Tirion (see IX.58).

$70 Ulmo's return to the shores of Middle-earth was on account of the prayers of Finwe. The statement that Osse 'came seldom to Aman, unless summoned to council' reflects the preservation in AAm (p. 48, $1) of his old status as one of the Valar. The southern Haven of the Falas now reverts to the form Eglarest, which preceded Eglorest of QS and AV 2. Cirdan the Shipwright, lord of the Havens, appears from The Lord of the Rings.

$71 While it is not said in QS that any others of the Teleri, beside the Elves of the Falas, remained in Middle-earth when Ulmo returned, but only that the people of Thingol 'looked for him in vain' ($32), it is told in the Lhammas $6 (V.174) that Thingol was 'king in Beleriand of the many Teleri who ... remained on the Falasse, and of others that went not because they tarried searching for Thingol in the woods.' In AAm 'the kinsfolk and friends of Elwe also were unwilling to depart', and they were left behind, and called themselves Eglath, the Forsaken People.

$$72-3 Ulmo granted readily the request of the Teleri, for he had opposed the summoning of the Quendi to Valinor, and Osse rooted Tol Eressea to the sea-bottom at Ulmo's command; but the Valar were displeased, and Finwe was grieved (most of all for the knowledge that Elwe Singollo his friend was not in Tol Eressea). The final form of the legend is thus now present: see QS $37 and commentary.

$74 Thingol's people were 'all the Eldar of Beleriand', and they were named the Sindar, the Grey-elves. This is the first time that we meet the name in the texts (as here presented); it does not occur in The Lord of the Rings apart from the Appendices. The Sindarin name of Elwe Singollo is Elu Thingol (see II.50).

$75 The Teleri dwelt for 100 years of the Sun in Tol Eressea; in QS

($43) and in AV 2 they dwelt there for 100 Valian Years (see p. 183, $43).

It was Osse, not as in QS Ulmo, who taught the Teleri the craft of shipbuilding; but as the text was written (note 8 above) it was Ulmo who did so, and it was Ulmo too who gave them the swans (Osse in QS).

$76 The Teleri had the aid of Finwe and the Noldor in the building of Alqualonde.

The two passages concerning Indis wife of Finwe, roughly written in against $$60 and 61 (notes 3 and 5 above) and then struck out, are notable as the first indications of what would become a major further development in the Valinorian legend, though the stories told here bear no relation to the later narrative. These briefly sketched ideas may have been merely passing, rejected as soon as jotted down; but they show my father's concern with Feanor, feeling that the greatness of his powers and formidable nature were related to a singularity of origin - he was the first-born of the Eldar: that is to say, he did not

'waken' by Kuivienen, but had a father and mother, and was born in Middle-earth. The idea that Finwe was bereaved also appears; and this is the first appearance of Feanor's name Curufinwe.

*

Finally, I record a few very late notes on one or other of the typescript texts (top copy and carbon) of the Annals of Aman: $65 'the trees of Nan Elmoth' > 'the sapling trees of Nan Elmoth'

$66 Against the word conches, pipes of shell horns, with a query.

$70 Against the first sentence my father wrote 'Needs revising'; but I do not know in what respect he intended to do so. Against

'summoned to council' he wrote an X and 'he [Osse] was not a Vala, but a chief of the Maiar, servant of Ulmo.' He had been removed from the Valar by emendation to the typescript in $1

(p. 69).

Fourth section of the Annals of Aman.

[This section of the Annals has a good many changes made at the time of writing, and also various alterations and additions - some substantial - that seem certainly to belong to much the same time. These are incorporated into the text given here, with details of the more important alterations recorded in the notes that follow it. A few short additions that are decidedly later are placed in the notes.]

1179.

$78 Feanor, eldest son of Finwe, was born in Tirion upon Tuna. His mother was Byrde Miriel.(1)

$79 Now the Noldor (2) took delight in all lore and all crafts, and Aule and his folk came often among them. Yet such skill had Iluvatar granted to them that in many matters, especially such as needed adroitness and fineness of handiwork, they soon surpassed their teachers. It is said that about this time the masons of the House of Finwe quarrying in the mountains for stone for their building (for they delighted in the building of high towers) first discovered the earth-gems, in which the Land of Aman was indeed surpassingly rich. And their craftsmen devised tools for the cutting and shaping of the gems, and carved them in many forms of bright beauty; and they hoarded them not but gave them freely to all who desired them, and all Valinor was enriched by their labour.(3)

$80 In this year Rumil, most renowned of the masters of the lore of speech, first devised letters and began recording in writing the tongues of the Eldar and their songs and wisdom.(4) 1190.

$81 In this year was born Fingolfin son of Finwe, who after was King of the Exiles.

1230.

$82 Finrod Finwe's son was born.

1250.

$83 In this time began the flowering of the skill of Feanor son of Finwe, who was of all the Noldor the greatest maker and craftsman. And he took thought and devised new letters, bettering the devices of Rumil, and those letters the Eldar have used ever since that day. This was but the beginning of the works of Feanor. Greatly he loved gems, and he began to study how by the skill of his hand and mind he could make others greater and brighter than those hidden in the earth.(5) $84 [In this time also, it is said among the Sindar, the Naugrim (6) whom we also name the Nornwaith (the Dwarves) came over the mountains into Beleriand and became known to the Elves. Now the Dwarves were great smiths and masons, being indeed (it is believed) brought into being by Aule; yet of old small beauty was in their works. Therefore each people had great profit of the other, though their friendship was ever cool.

But at that time no griefs lay between them, and King Thingol welcomed them; and the Longbeards of Belegost aided him in the delving and building of the great halls of Menegroth, where he after dwelt with Melian, his Queen. Thus saith Pengolod.](7) 1280.

$85 In this year Finrod Finwe's son wedded Earwen King Olwe's daughter of Alqualonde, and there was a great feast in the land of the Teleri. Thus the children of Finrod, Inglor and Galadriel, were the kin of King Thingol Greymantle in Beleriand.

1350.

$86 [At this time a part of the lost Elves of the people of Dan after long wanderings came up into Beleriand from the South. Their leader was Denethor son of Dan, and he brought them to Ossiriand where seven rivers flow down from the Mountains of Lindon. These are the Green-elves. They had the friendship of Thingol. Quoth Pengolod.](8)

1400.

$87 Now it came to pass that Melkor had dwelt alone in the duress of Mandos for the three ages that were doomed by the Valar, and he came before their conclave to be tried. And Melkor sued for pardon at the feet of Manwe, and humbled himself, and swore to abide his rule, and to aid the Valar in all ways that he could, for the good of Arda, and the profit of Valar and of Eldar, if so he should be granted freedom, and a place as the least of all the folk of Valinor.

$88 And Nienna aided his prayer (because of her kinship), and Manwe granted it, for being himself free of all evil he saw not the depths of the heart of Melkor, and believed in his oaths.