The Treason of Isengard (18 page)

and yearned again to seek afar

his land beneath the morning light

and burning like a beacon star

(on high above the mists he came, &c.)

The seven-branched Levin-tree was first everbranching, and it bore a living fruit of light.

The third version was that in the text of 'Many Meetings' described at the beginning of this chapter. The pages in that manuscript (at Marquette) bearing the poem have been lost, but Taum Santoski has provided me with a transcription of the pages that he made before the loss occurred. This text was remarkably close to the second version (as emended) printed above. The opening now returns to There was a merry messenger;(19) from Evermorning in line 15 becomes through Evermorning; the Weepingwillow Pool in line 20 becomes Pools (a return to the earliest workings); and lines 67-8 become: to sail the windy skies and come

behind the Sun and light of Moon.

This, then, was the form at the time we have reached. It will be seen that in this poem the Merry Messenger, the Passenger, the Mariner,

'changes shape' and emerges as the figure of Earendel (though he is not named). At the beginning he dances on the foam in his boat with sails of gossamer and blossom of the cherry-tree, and he still passed the archipelagoes where yellow grows the marigold, but he is drawn into the gravity of the myth and mighty doom is laid on him; the dance dies out of the verse, and he ends as the Flammifer of Westernesse. There is no question now of returning to the beginning, even though the fate of Earendel remains that of the Merry Messenger: for ever still a passenger, a messenger, to never rest...

Many years later my father ingeniously related the two poems thus, in the Preface to The Adventures of Tom Bombadil - when the Earendel version was of course that given in FR:

[Errantry] was evidently made by Bilbo. This is indicated by its obvious relationship to the long poem recited by Bilbo, as his own composition, in the house of Elrond. In origin a 'nonsense rhyme', it is in the Rivendell version found transformed and applied, somewhat incongruously, to the High-elvish and Numenorean legends of Earendil. Probably because Bilbo invented its metrical devices and was proud of them. They do not appear in other pieces in the Red Book. The older form, here given, must belong to the early days after Bilbo's return from his journey. Though the influence of Elvish traditions is seen, they are not seriously treated, and the names used (Derrilyn, Thellamie, Belmarie, Aerie) are mere inventions in the Elvish style, and are not in fact Elvish at all.

Yet the places of Earendel's journey in this first phase of the Rivendell version are not by any means entirely identifiable in terms of The Silmarillion. Was his journey to the Sea a journey down Sirion? Are the Weepingwillow Pools Nan-tathren, the Land of Willows? Or are they still 'mere inventions in the Silmarillion style'? And what of the seven-branched Levin-tree on Heavenfield, and the wells of gold for Melineth that her never-resting workers build? These certainly do not suggest 'mere invention' like Thellamie or Derrilyn.

Some names are in any case clear in their reference: as Tirion (in the Quenta Silmarillion still named Tun or Tuna, upon the hill of Kor), Carakilian (in the Quenta Silmarillion in the form Kalakilya, the Pass of Light). The Hill of Ilmarin (a name not met before) is Taniquetil, and the mighty Mountain-wall is the Pelori, the Mountains of Valinor.

The Shadowmere perhaps looks back to the 'shadowy arm of water', the 'slender water fringed with white', which is described in the old tale of The Coming of the Elves (I.122). The Shrouded Island is perhaps the Lonely Isle: it was subsequently changed to the Shrouded Islands, but then became the Lonely Island before the line was lost.

That Earendel slew Ungoliant 'in the South' is recorded in the Sketch of the Mythology (IV.38), and in the Quenta Noldorinwa (IV.149

152); cf. also the very early notes on Earendel's voyages, II.254, 261.(20) But the legend of Earendel as found in the existing sources is not present here.(21) Indeed, it seems as if he arose unbidden and unlooked for as my father wrote this new version of the poem: for how could Earendel be called a merry messenger? Years later, in the Preface to The Adventures of Tom Bombadil just cited, my father described the transformation as 'somewhat incongruous' - and he was then referring of course to the form of the poem in FR, where the transformation had gone far deeper than in the present version. Yet there was a

'congruity' that made this original transformation possible, and even natural. Behind both figures lay the sustaining idea of the wanderer, a restless spirit who seeks back to the places of his origin, but cannot escape the necessity of passing on. At this stage therefore we should not, I believe, try to determine where was Evernoon, or to give any other name to

the haven fair,

far under by the Merry-burn

in everfern and maidenhair.

They belong to the same geography as the archipelagoes where yellow grows the marigold.

Following the third version, lost but happily not unknown, there are six further texts in the 'Merry Messenger' phase. Five of these are typescripts that can be readily placed in order. The sixth is a beautiful small manuscript, written on four slips of paper the last of which is the back of a letter addressed to my father and dated 13 December 1944.

Precisely where the manuscript comes in this series is not perfectly clear, but it seems most likely to have preceded the first typescript.(22) Thus there was an interval of several years between the first three and the next six texts. Progressive emendation of these gave a final version in this 'phase':

There was a merry messenger,

a passenger, a mariner:

he built a boat and gilded her,

and silver oars he fashioned her;

her sails he wove of gossamer

and blossom of the cherry-tree

and lightly as a feather in

the weather went she merrily. 8

He floated from a haven fair

of maidenhair and ladyfern;

the waterfalls he proudly rode

where loudly flowed the Merryburn;

and dancing on the foam he went

on roving bent from Hitherland

through Evermorning journeying,

while murmuring the river ran 16

to valleys in the Gloaming-fields;

then slowly he on pillow cool

let fall his head, and fast asleep

he passed the Weeping-willow Pools.

The windy reeds were whispering,

and mists were in the meadowland,

and down the river hurried him,

and carried him to Shadowland. 24

He heard there moan in stony caves

the lonely waves; there roaring blows

the mighty wind of Tarmenel.

By paths that seldom mortal goes

his boat it wafted pitiless

with bitter breath across the grey

and long-forsaken seas distressed;

from East to West he passed away. 32

Through Evernight then borne afar

by waters dark beyond the Day

he saw the Lonely Island rise

where twilight lies upon the Bay

of Valinor, of Elvenhome,

and ever-foaming billows roll;

he landed on the elven-strands

of silver sand and yellow gold 40

beneath the Hill of Ilmarin,

where glimmer in a valley sheer

the lights of towering Tirion,

the city on the Shadowmere.

He tarried there from errantry,

and melodies they taught to him,

and lays of old and marvels told,

and harps of gold they brought to him. 48

Of glamoury he tidings heard,

and binding words of wizardry;

they spoke of wars with Enemies

that venom used and sigaldry.

In panoply of Elven-kings,

in silver rings they armoured him;

his shield they writ with elven-runes

that never wound did harm to him. 56

His bow was made of dragon-horn,

his arrows shorn of ebony,

of mithril was his habergeon,

his scabbard of chalcedony.

His sword of steel was valiant;

of adamant his helm was wrought,

an argent wing of swan his crest;

upon his breast an emerald. 64

His boat anew they built for him

of timber felled in Elvenhome;

upon the mast a star was set,

her spars were wet with driven foam;

and eagle-wings they made for her,

and laid on her a mighty doom,

to sail the windy skies and come

behind the Sun and light of Moon. 72

From Evereven's lofty hills,

where softly silver fountains fall,

he passed away a wandering light

beyond the mighty Mountain Wall.

From World's End then he turned away,

and yearned again to seek afar

his land beneath the morning-light;

and burning like a beacon-star 80 .

on high above the mists he came,

a distant flame, a marineer,

on winds unearthly swiftly borne,

uplifted o'er the Shadowmere.

He passed o'er Calacirian,

where Tirion the hallowed stands;

the Sea below him loudly roared

on cloudy shores in Shadowland; 88

and over Evermorn he passed

and saw at last the haven fair

far under by the Merryburn

in ladyfern and maidenhair.

But on him mighty doom was laid,

till Moon should fade, an orbed star

to pass and tarry never more

on Hither Shores where mortals are; 96

for ever still a passenger,

a messenger, to never rest,

to bear the burning lamp afar,

the Flammifer of Westernesse.

The major change in the poem, rendering it substantially shorter than before, had come about in two stages. By emendation to the second of these typescripts the original lines 25 - 8 (p. 92) became: The Sea beside a stony shore

there lonely roared; and wrathful rose

a wind on high in Tarmenel,

by paths that seldom mortal goes

on flying wings it passed away,

and wafted him beyond the grey

and long-forsaken seas distressed

from East or West that sombre lay.

In this text the remainder of the poem was unaffected by any important changes, and remained close to the original form (with of course the alterations given on p. 94). In the last two of these typescripts, however, a new form of lines 25 ff. entered, as given above: He heard there moan in stony caves, &c.(23) Now Evernight is named at this point, and at the same time the entire section of the poem in the existing text from line 73 and unto Evernight he came to From World's End then he turned away (pp. 93 - 4) was eliminated, with the disappearance of Ungoliant and the mysterious scenes of Evernoon, the 'Tree of Lightning' with its seven branches and the wells of gold for Melineth in the flame-encircled hill.

While I certainly do not know this as a fact, I think that there is a strong presumption that there was a further long interval between the

'Merry Messenger' versions and the second group beginning Earendel was a mariner.

The first text of this group, which I will for convenience call A, I give in full. It will be seen that while it advances far towards the poem in FR, much is retained from the preceding version, and notably the arming of Earendel (In panoply of Elven-kings..., p. 97 lines 53 ff.) stands in its former place, during his sojourn in Tirion, and not as in FR at the beginning of his great voyage.

Earendel was a mariner

that tarried in Arvernien;

he built a boat of timber felled

in Nimbrethil to journey in;

her sails he wove of silver fair

of silver were her lanterns made,

her prow he fashioned like a swan,

and light upon her banners laid. 8

Beneath the moon and under star

he wandered far from northern strands,

bewildered on enchanted ways

beyond the days of mortal lands.

From gnashing of the Narrow Ice

where shadow lies on frozen hills,

from nether heat and burning waste

he turned in haste, and roving still 16

on starless waters far astray

at last he came to night of Naught,

and passed, and never sight he saw

of shining shore nor light he sought.

The winds of wrath came driving him,

and blindly in the foam he fled

from West to East, and errandless,

unheralded he homeward sped. 24

As bird then Elwing came to him,

and flame was in her carcanet,

more bright than light of diamond

was fire that on her heart was set.

The Silmaril she bound on him

and crowned him with a living light,

and dauntless then with burning brow

he turned his prow, and in the night 32

from otherworld beyond the Sea

there strong and free a storm arose,

a wind of power in Tarmenel;

by paths that seldom mortal goes

his boat it bore with mighty breath

as driving death across the grey

and long-forsaken seas distressed;

from East to West he passed away. 40

Through Evernight then borne afar

by waters dark beyond the Day,

he saw the Lonely Island rise,

where twilight lies upon the Bay

of Valinor, of Elvenhome,

and ever-foaming billows roll.

He landed on forbidden strands