The Peoples of Middle-earth (25 page)

How I came to write this I do not know, nor how it escaped all subsequent checking and revision. I perhaps meant to say that my father's note on The Drowning of Anadune may have derived from the same period as Aldarion and Erendis.

When I wrote Sauron Defeated I was nonetheless not at all clear about the time of the original writing of the Akallabeth, and I assumed without sufficient study of the texts that it was later than it proves to be.

The textual history is relatively brief and simple in itself. The earliest text, which I will call A, is a clear manuscript of 23 pages; a good deal of this text is extant also in pages that were rejected and written out again, but virtually nothing of any significance entered in the rewriting, and the two layers of this manuscript need not be given different letters.

My father then corrected A, fairly extensively in the earlier part, very little in the story of the Downfall, and made a second text, a typescript, which I will call B. He followed the corrected manuscript with an uncharacteristic fidelity, introducing only a very few changes as he typed. It cannot be demonstrated, but I think it virtually certain, that the series A, A corrected, B, belong to the same time; and there is usually no need to distinguish the stages of this 'first phase', which can be conveniently referred to as AB.

After some considerable interval, as I judge, he returned to the typescript B and emended it. This left the greater part of the text untouched, but introduced a vast extension into Numenorean history: primarily by the insertion of a long rider in manuscript, but also by transpositions of text, alteration of names, and the rewriting of certain passages.

The third and final text (C) was an amanuensis typescript (in top copy and carbon) taken from B when all alterations had been made to it. It seems to me very probable that this was made at the same time (?1958) as the typescripts of the Annals of Aman, the Grey Annals, and the text LQ 2 of the Quenta Silmarillion (see X.300, XI.4). To this typescript my father made only a very few and as it were casual corrections.

The alterations (including the long inserted rider) made to B constitute a 'second phase'; and this is the final form of the Akallabeth (apart from the few corrections to C just mentioned). There are thus only two original texts, the manuscript A and the typescript B, but the corrections and extensions made to B represent a significantly different 'layer' in the history of the work. To make this plain I will call the typescript B as subsequently altered B 2.

While the development of the Akallabeth is of much interest in particular features, a very great deal of the text never underwent any significant change; and as I noted in IX.376, something like three-fifths of the precise wording of the second text of The Drowning of Anadune (which was printed in full in that book) survived in the Akallabeth. Moreover the final form of the Akallabeth, if with some editorial alteration, is available in The Silmarillion. In order to avoid an enormous amount of simple repetition, therefore, I use the Silmarillion text, which I will refer to as SA ('Silmarillion-Akallabeth'), as the basis from which to work back, so to speak, rather than working forward from A. To do this I have numbered the paragraphs in SA throughout, and refer to them by these numbers, together with the opening words to aid in their identification.

The Silmarillion text was of course that of B 2 (with the corrections made in C), but as I have said a number of editorial changes were made, for various reasons, but mostly in the quest (somewhat excessively pursued, as I now think) for coherence and consistency with other writings. Unless these changes were trivial they are noticed in the account that follows.

I do not here go into the relations of the Akallabeth to its sources (The Drowning of Anadune, and to a more minor degree the third version of The Fall of Numenor, FN III), since these are fully available in Sauron Defeated, where also the most crucial developments were extensively discussed.

The original title in the manuscript A was The Fall of Numenor, which was corrected to The Downfall of Numenor and so remained: none of the texts bears the title Akallabeth, but my father referred to the work by that name (cf. p. 255).

$$1-2. The original opening of A was almost a simple copy of the opening of FN HI (IX.331-2): 'In the Great Battle when Fionwe son of Manwe overthrew Morgoth', etc.; but this was at once rejected, though appearing in revised form in SA $3, and a new opening substituted, which constitutes, with some editorial changes, that in SA ($$1-2). The authentic text begins: Of Men, AElfwine, it is said by the Eldar that they came into the world in the time of the Shadow of Morgoth ...', and in SA I removed the address to AElfwine.(2) The Akallabeth was conceived as a tale told by Pengolod the Wise (as it must be supposed, though he is not named) in Tol Eressea to AElfwine of England, as becomes again very explicit (in the original) at the end; and no change was made in this respect in the 'second phase' B 2, nor on the final amanuensis typescript C.(3) In $1 I also altered the sentence 'and the Noldor named them the Edain' to 'The Edain these were named in the Sindarin tongue'; on this change see under $9 below.

In $2, Earendil's ship was named Vingilot in AB, but this was changed to the otherwise unrecorded Ealote in B 2; in SA I reverted to Vingilot. The name Rothinzil is derived from The Drowning of Anadune.(4)

$3. In the Great Battle ... The opening of this paragraph in AB

read:

In the Great Battle when at last Fionwe son of Manwe overthrew Morgoth and Thangorodrim was broken, the Edain fought for the Valar, whereas other kindreds of Men fought for Morgoth.

This was changed in B 2 to read:

In the Great Battle when at last Eonwe herald of Manwe overthrew Morgoth and Thangorodrim was broken, the Edain alone of the kindreds of Men fought for the Valar, whereas many others fought for Morgoth.

In SA the reference to Eonwe was removed; and similarly later in the paragraph 'refusing alike the summons of [Fionwe >] Eonwe and of Morgoth' was changed to 'refusing alike the summons of the Valar and of Morgoth'. The reason for this lay in the treatment of the last chapter of the Quenta Silmarillion in the published work. The only narrative of the Great Battle at the end of the First Age (V.326 ff.) derived from the time when the Children of the Valar were an important conception, and Fionwe son of Manwe was the leader and commanding authority in the final war against Morgoth and his overthrow; but the abandonment of that conception, and the change in the 'status' of Fionwe / Eonwe to that of Manwe's herald led to doubt whether my father, had he ever returned to a real retelling of the story of the end of the Elder Days (see XI.245-7), would have retained Eonwe in so mighty and elemental a role.

His part was in consequence somewhat diminished by omissions and ambiguous wording (as may be seen by comparing the text in Vol.V with that of the published Silmarillion; cf. also the editorial addition made to the Valaquenta, X.203). There is however no evidence for this supposition, and I now believe it to have been a mistaken treatment of the original text, and so also here in the Akallabeth.(5)

$4. But Manwe put forth Morgoth ... In this paragraph my father was still closely following FN III (IX.332), but at the end, after

'Andor, the Land of Gift' he turned to The Drowning of Anadune, which was thereafter the primary source, though with some inter-weaving of passages from FN III. In FN III the passage concerning Morgoth, originally written in the present tense, was corrected to the past tense, and this was followed in A; but it is curious that in B my father reverted in one of the phrases to the present: 'and he cannot himself return again into the World, present and visible, while the Lords of the West are still enthroned.' This was retained in SA.

After the words 'life more enduring than any others of mortal race have possessed' I omitted in SA the following sentence in the original: 'Thrice that of Men of Middle-earth was the span of their years, and to the descendants of [Hurin the Steadfast >] Hador the Fair even longer years were granted, as later is told.' This omission, scarcely necessary, was made on account of divergent statements on the subject (see Unfinished Tales p. 224, note 1). The erroneous reference to Hurin, surviving from FN III (see IX.332 and note 1), was only corrected in B 2.

In the original manuscript A the words of FN III concerning Eressea were retained: 'and that land was named anew Avallon; for it is hard by Valinor and within sight of the shores of the Blessed Realm.' This was corrected to the text that appears in SA ('and there is in that land a haven that is named Avallone ...'). On this see further under $12 below.

$5. Then the Edain set sail ... The original opening of this paragraph, not subsequently changed, was:

Then the Edain gathered all the ships, great and small, that they had built with the help of the Elves, and those that were willing to depart took their wives and their children and all such wealth as they possessed, and they set sail upon the deep waters, following the Star.

I cannot now say with certainty why this passage (derived from The Drowning of Anadune, IX.360, $12) was omitted from SA: possibly on account of a passage in the 'Description of Numenor', not included in the extracts given in Unfinished Tales, in which the ships of the migration are described as Elvish:

The legends of the foundation of Numenor often speak as if all the Edain that accepted the Gift set sail at one time and in one fleet. But this is only due to the brevity of the narrative. In more detailed histories it is related (as might be deduced from the events and the numbers concerned) that after the first expedition, led by Elros, many other ships, alone or in small fleets, came west bearing others of the Edain, either those who were at first reluctant to dare the Great Sea but could not endure to be parted from those who had gone, or some who were far scattered and could not be assembled to go with the first sailing.

Since the boats that were used were of Elvish model, fleet but small, and each steered by one of the Eldar deputed by Cirdan, it would have taken a great navy to transport all the people and goods that were eventually brought from Middle-earth to Numenor. The legends make no guess at the numbers, and the histories say little. The fleet of Elros is said to have contained many ships (according to some a hundred and fifty vessels, to others two or three hundred) and to have brought 'thousands' of the men, women, and children of the Edain: probably between five thousand or at the most ten thousand. But the whole process of migration appears in fact to have occupied at least fifty years, possibly longer, and finally ended only when Cirdan (no doubt instructed by the Valar) would provide no more ships or guides.

In this paragraph is the first appearance of the name Elenna ('Star-wards') of Numenor.

$6. This was the beginning of that people ... In the first sentence the words 'that people that in the Grey-elven speech are called the Dunedain' were an editorial alteration from 'that people that the Noldor call the Dunedain'.(6) Cf. the similar change made in $1, and see under $9.

$7. Of old the chief city and haven ... Following the words 'it was called Andunie because it faced the sunset' A had originally the following passage:

But the high place of the King was at Numenos in the heart of the land, and there was the tower and citadel that was built by Elros son of Earendil, whom the Valar appointed to be the first king of the Dunedain.

Numenos survived from FN III (IX.333) and earlier (see V.25, $2).

This was replaced in B by the passage in SA: 'But in the midst of the land was a mountain tall and steep, and it was named the Meneltarma,' etc. The name of the city was given here, however, as Arminaleth (the name in The Drowning of Anadune), with a note:

'This is the Numenorean name, for by that name it was chiefly known, Tar Kalimos in the Eldarin tongue.' In B 2 the name was changed here (and at the subsequent occurrences) from Arminaleth to Armenelos, and the note changed to read: 'Arminaleth was the form of the name in the Numenorean tongue; but it was called by its Eldarin name Armenelos until the coming of the Shadow.' Thus the statement in Index II to Sauron Defeated (IX.460) that Arminaleth was 'replaced by Armenelos' is incorrect: Armenelos was a substitution in the Akallabeth because my father was now asserting that this was the name by which the city was known through long ages, but its Adunaic form remained Arminaleth. It was Tar Kalimos that was replaced by Armenelos. - This note was omitted in SA.

$8. Now Elros and Elrond his brother ... The words in SA 'were descended from the Three Houses of the Edain' were an editorial change from 'were descended from the lines of both Hador and Beor'. - Near the end of the paragraph, the span of years granted to Elros was said (in all texts) to have been 'seven times that of the Men of Middle-earth', but on one copy of C my father changed

'seven' to 'three' and placed an X against the statement that Elros lived for five hundred years. The reading 'many times' in SA was an editorial substitution.

$9 Thus the years passed ... In the sentence 'For though this people used still their own speech, their kings and lords knew and spoke also the Elven tongue, which they had learned in the days of their alliance' AB had 'the Noldorin tongue'. Similarly in $$1, 6 it was said that Edain, Dunedain were Noldorin names, but only in the present case did my father change (in B 2) 'Noldorin' to 'Elven'.