PART TWO.
LATE WRITINGS.
LATE WRITINGS.
It is a great convenience in this so largely dateless history that my
father received from Allen and Unwin a quantity of their waste paper
whose blank sides he used for much of his late writing; for this paper
consisted of publication notes, and many of the pages bear dates:
some from 1967, the great majority from 1968, and some from 1970.
These dates provide, of course, only a terminus a quo: in the case, for
instance, of a long essay on the names of the rivers and beacon-hills of
Gondor (extensively drawn on in Unfinished Tales) pages dated 1967
were used, but the work can be shown on other and entirely certain
grounds to have been written after June 1969. This was the period of
The Disaster of the Gladden Fields, Cirion and Eorl, and The Battles
of the Fords of Isen, which I published in Unfinished Tales.
It was also a time when my father was moved to write extensively,
in a more generalised view, of the languages and peoples of the Third
Age and their interrelations, closely interwoven with discussion of
the etymology of names. Of this material I made a good deal of use
in the section The History of Galadriel and Celeborn (and elsewhere)
in Unfinished Tales; but I had, of course, to relate it to the structure
and content of that book, and the only way to do so, in view of the
extremely diffuse and digressive nature of my father's writing, was by
the extraction of relevant passages. In this book I give two of the most
substantial of these 'essays', from neither of which did I take much in
Unfinished Tales.
The first of these, Of Men and Dwarves, arose, as my father said,
'from consideration of the Book of Mazarbul' (that is, of his repre-
sentations of the burnt and damaged leaves, which were not in fact
published until after his death) and the inscription on the tomb of
Balin in Moria, but led far beyond its original point of departure.
From this essay I have excluded the two passages that were used in
Unfinished Tales, the account of the Druedain, and that of the meet-
ing of the Numenorean mariners with the Men of Eriador in the year
600 of the Second Age (see pp. 309, 314). The second, which I have
called The Shibboleth of Feanor, is of a very different nature, as
will be seen, and from this only a passage on Galadriel was used in
Unfinished Tales; I have included also a long excursus on the names of
the descendants of Finwe, King of the Noldor, which was my father's
final, or at any rate last, statement on many of the great names of
Elvish legend, and which I used in the published Silmarillion. I have
also given a third text, which I have called The Problem of Ros; and
following these are some of his last writings, probably in the last year
of his life (p. 377).
A word must be said of these 'historical-philological' essays. Apart
from the very last, just referred to, they were composed on a type-
writer. These texts are, very clearly, entirely ab initio; they are not
developments and refinements of earlier versions, and they were not
themselves subsequently developed and refined. The ideas, the new
narrative departures, historical formulations, and etymological con-
structions, here first appear in written form (which is not to say, of
course, that they were not long in the preparing), and in that form,
essentially, they remain. The texts are never obviously concluded, and
often end in chaotic and illegible or unintelligible notes and jottings.
Some of the writing was decidedly experimental: a notable example is
the text that I have called The Problem of Ros, on which my father
wrote 'Most of this fails', on account of a statement which had
appeared in print, but which he had overlooked (see p. 371). As in that
case, almost all of this work was etymological in its inspiration, which
to a large extent accounts for its extremely discursive nature; for in no
study does one thing lead to another more rapidly than in etymology,
which also of its nature leads out of itself in the attempt to find expla-
nations beyond the purely linguistic evolution of forms. In the essay
on the river-names of Gondor that of the Gwathlo led to an account
of the vast destruction of the great forests of Minhiriath and Ened-
waith by the Numenorean naval builders in the Second Age, and its
consequences (Unfinished Tales pp. 261-3); from the name Gilrain
in the same essay arose the recounting of the legend of Amroth and
Nimrodel (ibid. pp. 240 - 3).
In the three texts given here will be found many things that are
wholly 'new', such as the long sojourn of the People of Beor and the
People of Hador on opposite sides of the great inland Sea of Rhun in
the course of their long migration into the West, or the sombre legend
of the twin sons of Feanor. There will also be found many things that
run counter to what had been said in earlier writings. I have not
attempted in my notes to make an analysis of every real or apparent
departure of this kind, or to adduce a mass of reference from earlier
phases of the History; but I have drawn attention to the clearest and
most striking of the discrepancies. At this time my father continued
and intensified his practice of interposing notes into the body of the
text as they arose, and they are abundant and often substantial. In the
texts that follow they are numbered in the same series as the editorial
notes and are collected at the end of each, the editorial notes being dis-
tinguished by placing them in square brackets.
X.
OF DWARVES AND MEN.
This long essay has no title, but on a covering page my father wrote:
An extensive commentary and history of the interrelation of the
languages in The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings, arising
from consideration of the Book of Mazarbul, but attempting
to clarify and where necessary to correct or explain the references
to such matters scattered in The Lord of the Rings, especially in
Appendix F and in Faramir's talk in LR II.
'Faramir's talk' is a reference to the conclusion of the chapter The
Window on the West in The Two Towers. To a rough synopsis of the
essay he gave the title Dwarves and Men, which I have adopted.
The text was begun in manuscript, but after three and a half pages
becomes typescript for the remainder of its length (28 pages in all). It
was written on printed papers supplied by Allen and Unwin, of which
the latest date is September 1969. A portion of the work was printed
in Unfinished Tales, Part Four, Section 1, The Druedain, but otherwise
little use of it was made in that book. Unhappily the first page of the
text is lost (and was already missing when I received my father's
papers), and takes up in the middle of a sentence in a passage dis-
cussing knowledge of the Common Speech.
In relation to the first part of the essay, which is concerned with the
Longbeard Dwarves, I have thought that it would be useful to print
first what is said concerning the language of the Dwarves in the two
chief antecedent sources. The following is found in the chapter on the
Dwarves in the Quenta Silmarillion as revised and enlarged in 1951
(XI.205, $6):
The father-tongue of the Dwarves Aule himself devised for them,
and their languages have thus no kinship with those of the Quendi.
The Dwarves do not gladly teach their tongue to those of alien race;
and in use they have made it harsh and intricate, so that of those few
whom they have received in full friendship fewer still have learned
it well But they themselves learn swiftly other tongues, and in con-
verse they use as they may the speech of Elves and Men with whom
they deal. Yet in secret they use their own speech only, and that (it
is said) is slow to change; so that even their realms and houses that
have been long and far sundered may to this day well understand
one another. In ancient days the Naugrim dwelt in many mountains
of Middle-earth, and there they met mortal Men (they say) long ere
the Eldar knew them; whence it comes that of the tongues of the
Easterlings many show kinship with Dwarf-speech rather than with
the speeches of the Elves.
The second passage is from Appendix F, Dwarves (with which cf. the
original version, p. 35, 515).
But in the Third Age close friendship still was found in many
places between Men and Dwarves; and it was according to the
nature of the Dwarves that, travelling and labouring and trading
about the lands, as they did after the destruction of their ancient
mansions, they should use the languages of men among whom they
dwelt. Yet in secret (a secret which, unlike the Elves, they did not
willingly unlock, even to their friends) they used their own strange
tongue, changed little by the years; for it had become a tongue of
lore rather than a cradle-speech, and they tended it and guarded it
as a treasure of the past. Few of other race have succeeded in learn-
ing it. In this history it appears only in such place-names as Gimli
revealed to his companions; and in the battle-cry which he uttered
in the siege of the Hornburg. That at least was not secret, and had
been heard on many a field since the world was young. Baruk
Khazad! Khazad ai-menu! 'Axes of the Dwarves! The Dwarves are
upon you!'
Gimli's own name, however, and the names of all his kin, are of
Northern (Mannish) origin. Their own secret and 'inner' names,
their true names, the Dwarves have never revealed to any one of
alien race. Not even on their tombs do they inscribe them.
Here follows the text of the essay which I have called Of Dwarves and
Men.
... only in talking to others of different race and tongue, the
divergence could be great, and intercommunication imperfect.(1)
But this was not always the case: it depended on the history of
the peoples concerned and their relations to the Numenorean
kingdoms. For instance, among the Rohirrim there can have
been very few who did not understand the Common Speech,
and most must have been able to speak it fairly well. The royal
house, and no doubt many other families, spoke (and wrote)
it correctly and familiarly. It was in fact King Theoden's native
language: he was born in Gondor, and his father Thengel had
used the Common Speech in his own home even after his return
to Rohan.(2) The Eldar used it with the care and skill that they
applied to all linguistic matters, and being longeval and reten-
tive in memory they tended indeed, especially when speaking
formally or on important matters, to use a somewhat archaic
language.(3)
The Dwarves were in many ways a special case. They had an
ancient language of their own which they prized highly; and
even when, as among the Longbeard Dwarves of the West, it
had ceased to be their native tongue and had become a 'book-
language', it was carefully preserved and taught to all their
children at an early age. It thus served as a lingua franca
between all Dwarves of all kinds; but it was also a written
language used in all important histories and lore, and in record-
ing any matters not intended to be read by other people. This
Khuzdul (as they called it), partly because of their native
secretiveness, and partly because of its inherent difficulty,(4) was
seldom learned by those of other race.
The Dwarves were not, however, skilled linguists - in most
matters they were unadaptable - and spoke with a marked
'dwarvish' accent. Also they had never invented any form of
alphabetic writing.(5) They quickly, however, recognized the
usefulness of the Elvish systems, when they at last became
sufficiently friendly with any of the Eldar to learn them. This
occurred mainly in the close association of Eregion and Moria
in the Second Age. Now in Eregion not only the Feanorian
Script, which had long become a mode of writing generally used
(with various adaptations) among all 'lettered' peoples in con-
tact with the Numenorean settlements,(6) but also the ancient
'runic' alphabet of Daeron elaborated [> used] by the Sindar
was known and used. This was, no doubt, due to the influence
of Celebrimbor, a Sinda who claimed descent from Daeron.(7)
Nonetheless even in Eregion the Runes were mainly a 'matter of
lore' and were seldom used for informal matters. They, how-
ever, caught the fancy of the Dwarves; for while the Dwarves
still lived in populous mansions of their own, such as Moria in
particular, and went on journeys only to visit their own kin, they
had little intercourse with other peoples except immediate
neighbours, and needed writing very little; though they were
fond of inscriptions, of all kinds, cut in stone. For such purposes
the Runes were convenient, being originally devised for them.
The Longbeard Dwarves therefore adopted the Runes, and
modified them for their own uses (especially the expression of
Khuzdul); and they adhered to them even far into the Third Age,
when they were forgotten by others except the loremasters
of Elves and Men. Indeed it was generally supposed by the
unlearned that they had been invented by the Dwarves, and they
were widely known as 'dwarf-letters'.(8)
Here we are concerned only with the Common Speech. Now
the Common Speech, when written at all, had from its begin-
ning been expressed in the Feanorian Script.(9) Only occasionally
and in inscriptions not written with pen or brush did some of
the Elves of Sindarin descent use the Runes of Daeron, and their
spelling was then dependent on the already established usages
of the Feanorian Script. The Dwarves had originally learned the
Common Speech by ear as best they could, and had no occasion
to write it; but in the Third Age they had been obliged in the
course of trade and other dealings with Men and Elves to learn
to read the Common Speech as written, and many had found it
convenient to learn to write it according to the then general
customs of the West. But this they only did in dealings with
other peoples. For their own purposes they (as has been said)
preferred the Runes and adhered to them.
Therefore in such documents as the Book of Mazarbul - not
'secret' but intended primarily for Dwarves, and probably
intended later to provide material for chronicles (10) - they used
the Runes. But the spelling was mixed and irregular. In general
and by intention it was a transcription of the current spelling
of the Common Speech into Runic terms; but this was often
'incorrect', owing to haste and the imperfect knowledge of
the Dwarves; and it was also mingled with numerous cases of
words spelt phonetically (according to the pronunciation of the
Dwarves) - for instance, letters that had in the colloquial pro-
nunciation of the late Third Age ceased to have any function
were sometimes omitted.(11)
In preparing an example of the Book of Mazarbul, and
making three torn and partly illegible pages,(12) I followed the
general principle followed throughout: the Common Speech
was to be represented as English of today, literary or colloquial
as the case demanded. Consequently the text was cast into
English spelt as at present, but modified as it might be by writers
in haste whose familiarity with the written form was imperfect,
and who were also (on the first and third pages) transliterating
the English into a different alphabet - one that did not for
instance employ any letter in more than one distinct value,
so that the distribution of English k, c - c, s was reduced to
k - s; while the use of the letters for s and z was variable
since English uses s frequently as = z. In addition, since docu-
ments of this kind nearly always show uses of letters or shapes
that are peculiar and rarely or never found elsewhere, a few
such features are also introduced: as the signs for the English
vowel pairs ea, oa, ou (irrespective of their sounds).
This is all very well, and perhaps gives some idea of the kind
of text Gandalf was trying to read in great haste in the Cham-
ber of Mazarbul. It also accords with the general treatment of
the languages in The Lord of the Rings: only the actual words
and names of the period that are in Elvish languages are
preserved in what is supposed to have been their real form.(13)
Also, this treatment was imposed by the fact that, though the
actual Common Speech was sketched in structure and phonetic
elements, and a number of words invented, it was quite imposs-
ible to translate even such short extracts into its real contem-
porary form, if they were visibly represented. But it is of course
in fact an erroneous extension of the general linguistic treat-
ment. It is one thing to represent all the dialogue of the story in
varying forms of English: this must be supposed to be done by
'translation' - from memory of unrecorded sounds, or from
documents lost or not printed, whether this is stated or not,
whenever it is done in any narrative dealing with past times
or foreign lands. But it is quite another thing to provide visible
facsimiles or representations of writings or carvings supposed to
be of the date of the events in the narrative.(14)
The true parallel in such a case is the glimpse of Quenya given
in Galadriel's Farewell - either in a transcription into our alpha-
bet (to make the style of the language more easily appreciated)
or in the contemporary script (as in The Road Goes Ever On) -
followed by a translation. Since, as noted, the provision of
a contemporary text in the actual Common Speech was not
possible, the only proper procedure was to provide a translation
into English of the legible words of the pages hastily examined
by Gandalf.(15) This was done in the text; and short of a con-
struction of the actual Common Speech sufficient to allow the
text to be in its contemporary form, all that can legitimately be
done.
A special difficulty is presented by the inscription on Balin's
tomb. This is effective in its place: giving an idea of the style of
the Runes when incised with more care for a solemn purpose,
and providing a glimpse of a strange tongue; though all that is
really necessary for the tale is the six lines on I.334 (16)(with the
translation of the inscription in bigger and bolder lettering). The
actual representation of the inscription has however landed in
some absurdities.(17)
The use in the inscription of the older and more 'correct'
values and shapes of the Angerthas, and not the later 'usage of
Erebor', is not absurd (though possibly an unnecessary elabor-
ation); it is in accord with the history of the Runes as sketched
in the Appendix E. The older Runes would be used for such a
purpose, since they were used in Moria before the flight of the
Dwarves, and would appear in other inscriptions of like kind -
and Balin was claiming to be the descendant and successor
of the former Lords of Moria. The use of the Dwarf-tongue
(Khuzdul) is possible in so short an inscription, since this tongue
has been sketched in some detail of structure, if with a very
small vocabulary. But the names Balin and Fundin are in such a
context absurd. The Dwarves, as is stated in III.411,(18) had
names in their own language; these they only used among them-
selves (on solemn occasions) and kept strictly secret from other
peoples, and therefore never spelt them out in writing or
inscriptions meant for or likely to be seen by strangers. In times
or places where they had dealings, in trade or friendship, with
their neighbours, they adopted 'outer names' for convenience.(19)
These names were in form generally suited to the structure of
the Common Speech [> the structure of the language from
which they were derived]. Very frequently they had recog-
nizable meanings in that language, or were names current in it;
sometimes they were names [> current in it, being names] used
by neighbouring Men among whom they dwelt, and were
derived from the local Mannish language in which they might
have a still known meaning, though this was not often the case
[this phrase struck out].(20) Whether the adopted names that
had meanings were selected because these meanings had some
relation to their secret 'inner' names cannot be determined.
The adopted names could be and sometimes were changed -
usually in consequence of some event, such as the migration of
either the Dwarves or their friends that separated them.
The case of the Dwarves of Moria was an example of adop-
tion of names from Mannish languages of the North, not from
the Common Speech.(21) It might have been better in that case to
have given them in their actual forms. But in carrying out the
theory (necessary for the lessening of the load of invention
of names in different styles of language), that names derived
from the Mannish tongues and dialects of the West historically
related to the Common Speech should be represented by names
found (or made of elements found in) languages related to
English, the Dwarvish names were taken from Norse: since the
Mannish language from which they were adopted was closely
related to the more southerly language from which was derived
the language of Rohan (represented as Old English, because of
its greater archaism in form as compared with those elements in
the Common Speech derived from the languages of the same
kinship). In consequence such names as Balin, etc. would not
have appeared in any contemporary inscription using actual
Khuzdul.(22)
Relations of the Longbeard Dwarves and Men.(23)
In the Dwarvish traditions of the Third Age the names of the
places where each of the Seven Ancestors had 'awakened' were
remembered; but only two of them were known to Elves and
Men of the West: the most westerly, the awakening place of the
ancestors of the Firebeards and the Broadbeams; and that of the
ancestor of the Longbeards,(24) the eldest in making and awaken-
ing. The first had been in the north of the Ered Lindon, the great
eastern wall of Beleriand, of which the Blue Mountains of the
Second and later ages were the remnant; the second had been
Mount Gundabad (in origin a Khuzdul name), which was there-
fore revered by the Dwarves, and its occupation in the Third
Age by the Orks of Sauron was one of the chief reasons for their
great hatred of the Orks.(25) The other two places were eastward,
at distances as great or greater than that between the Blue
Mountains and Gundabad: the arising of the Ironfists and Stiff-
beards, and that of the Blacklocks and Stonefoots. Though
these four points were far sundered the Dwarves of different
kindreds were in communication, and in the early ages often
held assemblies of delegates at Mount Gundabad. In times of
great need even the most distant would send help to any of their
people; as was the case in the great War against the Orks (Third
Age 2793 to 2799). Though they were loth to migrate and make
permanent dwellings or 'mansions' far from their original
homes, except under great pressure from enemies or after some
catastrophe such as the ruin of Beleriand, they were great and
hardy travellers and skilled road-makers; also, all the kindreds
shared a common language.(26)
But in far distant days the Dwarves were secretive [struck
out: - and none more so than the Longbeards -] and had few
dealings with the Elves. In the West at the end of the First
Age the dealings of the Dwarves of the Ered Lindon with King
Thingol ended in disaster and the ruin of Doriath, the memory
of which still poisoned the relations of Elves and Dwarves in
after ages. At that time the migrations of Men from the East and
South had brought advance-guards into Beleriand; but they
were not in great numbers, though further east in Eriador and
Rhovanion (especially in the northern parts) their kindred must
already have occupied much of the land. There dealings
between Men and the Longbeards must soon have begun. For
the Longbeards, though the proudest of the seven kindreds,
were also the wisest and the most farseeing. Men held them in
awe and were eager to learn from them; and the Longbeards
were very willing to use Men for their own purposes. Thus there
grew up in those regions the economy, later characteristic of the
dealings of Dwarves and Men (including Hobbits): Men became
the chief providers of food, as herdsmen, shepherds, and land-
tillers, which the Dwarves exchanged for work as builders,
roadmakers, miners, and the makers of things of craft, from
useful tools to weapons and arms and many other things of
great cost and skill. To the great profit of the Dwarves. Not only
to be reckoned in hours of labour, though in early times the
Dwarves must have obtained goods that were the product of
greater and longer toil than the things or services that they gave
in exchange - before Men became wiser and developed skills
of their own. The chief advantage to them was their freedom to
proceed unhindered with their own work and to refine their
arts, especially in metallurgy, to the marvellous skill which these
reached before the decline and dwindling of the Khazad.
This system developed slowly, and it was long before the
Longbeards felt any need to learn the language of their neigh-
bours, still less to adopt names by which they could be known
individually to 'outsiders'. This process began not in barter and
trade, but in war; for the Longbeards had spread southward
down the Vales of Anduin and had made their chief 'mansion'
and stronghold at Moria; and also eastward to the Iron Hills,
where the mines were their chief source of iron-ore. They
regarded the Iron Hills, the Ered Mithrin, and the east dales of
the Misty Mountains as their own land. But they were under
attack from the Orks of Morgoth. During the War of the Jewels
and the Siege of Angband, when Morgoth needed all his
strength, these attacks ceased; but when Morgoth fell and
Angband was destroyed hosts of the Orks fled eastwards seek-
ing homes. They were now masterless and without any general
leadership, but they were well-armed and very numerous, cruel,
savage, and reckless in assault. In the battles that followed the
Dwarves were outnumbered, and though they were the most
redoubtable warriors of all the Speaking Peoples they were glad
to make alliance with Men.(27)
The Men with whom they were thus associated were for the
most part akin in race and language with the tall and mostly
fair-haired people of the 'House of Hador', the most renowned
and numerous of the Edain, who were allied with the Eldar in
the War of the Jewels. These Men, it seems, had come westward
until faced by the Great Greenwood, and then had divided:
some reaching the Anduin and passing thence northward up the
Vales; some passing between the north-eaves of the Wood and
the Ered Mithrin. Only a small part of this people, already very
numerous and divided into many tribes, had then passed on into
Eriador and so come at last to Beleriand. They were brave and
loyal folk, truehearted, haters of Morgoth and his servants; and
at first had regarded the Dwarves askance, fearing that they
were under the Shadow (as they said).(28) But they were glad of
the alliance, for they were more vulnerable to the attacks of the
Orks: they dwelt largely in scattered homesteads and villages,
and if they drew together into small townships they were poorly
defended, at best by dikes and wooden fences. Also they were
lightly armed, chiefly with bows, for they had little metal and
the few smiths among them had no great skill. These things the
Dwarves amended in return for one great service that Men
could offer. They were tamers of beasts and had learned the
mastery of horses, and many were skilled and fearless riders.(29)
These would often ride far afield as scouts and keep watch on
movements of their enemies; and if the Orks dared to assemble
in the open for some great raid, they would gather great force
of horsed archers to surround them and destroy them. In these
ways the Alliance of Dwarves and Men in the North came early
in the Second Age to command great strength, swift in attack
and valiant and well-protected in defence, and there grew up in
that region between Dwarves and Men respect and esteem, and
sometimes warm friendship.
It was at that time, when the Dwarves were associated with
Men both in war and in the ordering of the lands that they had
secured,(30) that the Longbeards adopted the speech of Men for
communication with them. They were not unwilling to teach
their own tongue to Men with whom they had special friend-
ship, but Men found it difficult and were slow to learn more
than isolated words, many of which they adapted and took into
their own language. But on one point the Longbeards were as
rigidly secretive as all other Dwarves. For reasons which neither
Elves nor Men ever fully understood they would not reveal any
personal names to people of other kin,(31) nor later when they had
acquired the arts of writing allow them ever to be carved or
written. They therefore took names by which they could be
known to their allies in Mannish forms.(32) This custom endured
among the Longbeards into the Fourth Age and beyond the
view of these histories. It would appear that when speaking to
Men with whom they had close friendship, and would speak
together of the histories and memories of their peoples, they
also gave similar names to Dwarves remembered in their annals
long before the meeting of Dwarves and Men. But of these
ancient times only one name was in the Third Age preserved:
Durin, the name they gave to the prime ancestor of the Long-
beards and by which he was known to Elves and Men. (It
appears to have been simply a word for 'king' in the language
of the Men of the North of the Second Age.)(33) The names of the
Longbeards otherwise are not known in lists going back before
the ruin of Moria (Khazad-dum), Third Age 1980; but they are
all of the same kind, sc. in a long 'dead' Mannish language.
This can only be explained by supposing that these names
from the early Second Age had been adopted by the Dwarves,
and preserved with as little change as their own language, and
continued to be given (and often repeated) for something like
four thousand years or more since the Alliance was destroyed
by the power of Sauron! In this way they soon became to later
Men specially Dwarvish names,(34) and the Longbeards acquired
a vocabulary of traditional names peculiar to themselves, while
still keeping their true 'inner' names completely secret.
Very great changes came to pass as the Second Age pro-
ceeded. The first ships of the Numenoreans appeared off the
coasts of Middle-earth about Second Age 600, but no rumour
of this portent reached the distant North. At the same time,
however, Sauron came out of hiding and revealed himself in
fair form. For long he paid little heed to Dwarves or Men and
endeavoured to win the friendship and trust of the Eldar. But
slowly he reverted again to the allegiance of Morgoth and began
to seek power by force, marshalling again and directing the
Orks and other evil things of the First Age, and secretly build-
ing his great fortress in the mountain-girt land in the South that
was afterwards known as Mordor. The Second Age had reached
only the middle of its course (c. Second Age 1695) when he
invaded Eriador and destroyed Eregion, a small realm estab-
lished by the Eldar migrating from the ruin of Beleriand that
had formed an alliance also with the Longbeards of Moria. This
marked the end of the Alliance of the Longbeards with Men of
the North. For though Moria remained impregnable for many
centuries, the Orks reinforced and commanded by servants of
Sauron invaded the mountains again. Gundabad was re-taken,
the Ered Mithrin infested and the communication between
Moria and the Iron Hills for a time cut off. The Men of the
Alliance were involved in war not only with Orks but with alien
Men of evil sort. For Sauron had acquired dominion over many
savage tribes in the East (of old corrupted by Morgoth), and he
now urged them to seek land and booty in the West. When the
storm passed,(35) the Men of the old Alliance were diminished
and scattered, and those that lingered on in their old regions
were impoverished, and lived mostly in caves or in the borders
of the Forest.
The Elvish loremasters held that in the matter of language the
changes in speech (as in all the ways of their lives) of the Speak-
ing Peoples were far slower in the Elder Days than they later
became. The tongue of the Eldar changed mainly by design; that
of the Dwarves resisted change by their own will; the many
languages of Men changed heedlessly in the swift passing of
their generations. All things changed in Arda, even in the
Blessed Realm of the Valar; but there the change was so slow
that it could not be observed (save maybe by the Valar) in great
ages of time. The change in the language of the Eldar would
thus have been halted in Valinor;(36) but in their early days the
Eldar continued to enlarge and refine their language, and to
change it, even in structure and sounds. Such change, however,
to remain uniform required that the speakers should remain
in communication. Thus it came about that the languages of
the Eldar that remained in Middle-earth diverged from the
language of the High Eldar of Valinor so greatly that neither
could be understood by speakers of the other; for they had
been separated for a great age of time, during which even the
Sindarin, the best preserved of those in Middle-earth, had been
subject to the heedless changes of passing years, changes which
the Teleri were far less concerned to restrain or to direct by
design than the Noldor.
II.
The Atani and their Languages.(37)
Men entered Beleriand late in the First Age. Those with whom
we are here concerned and of whose languages some records
later were preserved belonged mostly to three peoples, differing
in speech and in race, but known in common to the Eldar as the
Atani (Sindarin Edain).(38) These Atani were the vanguard of far
larger hosts of the same kinds moving westwards. When the
First Age ended and Beleriand was destroyed, and most of the
Atani who survived had passed over sea to Numenor, their
laggard kindred were either in Eriador, some settled, some still
wandering, or else had never passed the Misty Mountains and
were scattered in the lands between the Iron Hills and the Sea of
Rhun eastward and the Great Forest, in the borders of which,
northward and eastward, many were already settled.
The Atani and their kin were the descendants of peoples who
in the Dark Ages had resisted Morgoth or had renounced him,
and had wandered ever westward from their homes far away in
the East seeking the Great Sea, of which distant rumour had
reached them. They did not know that Morgoth himself had left
Middle-earth;(39) for they were ever at war with the vile things
that he had bred, and especially with Men who had made him
their God and believed that they could render him no more
pleasing service than to destroy the 'renegades' with every kind
of cruelty. It was in the North of Middle-earth, it would seem,
that the 'renegades' survived in sufficient numbers to maintain
their independence as brave and hardy peoples; but of their past
they preserved only legends, and their oral histories reached no
further back than a few generations of Men.
When their vanguards at last reached Beleriand and the West-
ern Shores they were dismayed. For they could go no further,
but they had not found peace, only lands engaged in war with
Morgoth himself, who had fled back to Middle-earth. 'Through
ages forgotten,' they said, 'we have wandered, seeking to escape
from the Dominions of the Dark Lord and his Shadow, only to
find him here before us.(40) But being people both brave and
desperate they at once became allies of the Eldar, and they were
instructed by them and became ennobled and advanced in
knowledge and in arts. In the final years of the War of the Jewels
they provided many of the most valiant warriors and captains
in the armies of the Elvish kings.
The Atani were three peoples, independent in organisation
and leadership, each of which differed in speech and also in
form and bodily features from the others - though all of them
showed traces of mingling in the past with Men of other kinds.
These peoples the Eldar named the Folk of Beor, the Folk of
Hador, and the Folk of Haleth, after the names of the chieftains
who commanded them when they first came to Beleriand.(41) The
Folk of Beor were the first Men to enter Beleriand - they were
met in the dales of East Beleriand by King Finrod the Friend of
Men, for they had found a way over the Mountains. They were
a small people, having no more, it is said, than two thousand
full-grown men; and they were poor and ill-equipped, but they
were inured to hardship and toilsome journeys carrying great
loads, for they had no beasts of burden. Not long after the first
of the three hosts of the Folk of Hador came up from south-
ward, and two others of much the same strength followed
before the fall of the year. They were a more numerous people;
each host was as great as all the Folk of Beor, and they were
better armed and equipped; also they possessed many horses,
and some asses and small flocks of sheep and goats. They had
crossed Eriador and reached the eastern feet of the Mountains
(Ered Lindon) a year or more ahead of all others, but had not
attempted to find any passes, and had turned away seeking a
road round the Mountains, which, as their horsed scouts
reported, grew ever lower as they went southwards. Some years
later, when the other folk were settled, the third folk of the
Atani entered Beleriand.(42) They were probably more numerous
than the Folk of Beor, but no certain count of them was ever
made; for they came secretly in small parties and hid in the
woods of Ossiriand where the Elves showed them no friendship.
Moreover they had strife among themselves, and Morgoth, now
aware of the coming of hostile Men into Beleriand, sent his
servants to afflict them. Those who eventually moved westward
and entered into friendship and alliance with the Eldar were
called the Folk of Haleth, for Haleth was the name of their
chieftainess who led them to the woods north of Doriath where
they were permitted to dwell.
The Folk of Hador were ever the greatest in numbers of the
Atani, and in renown (save only Beren son of Barahir descend-
ant of Beor). For the most part they were tall people, with flaxen
or golden hair and blue-grey eyes, but there were not a few
among them that had dark hair, though all were fair-skinned.(43)
Nonetheless they were akin to the Folk of Beor, as was shown
by their speech. It needed no lore of tongues to perceive that
their languages were closely related, for although they could
understand one another only with difficulty they had very many
words in common. The Elvish loremasters (44) were of opinion
that both languages were descended from one that had diverged
(owing to some division of the people who had spoken it) in
the course of, maybe, a thousand years of the slower change in
the First Age.(45) Though the time might well have been less, and
change quickened by a mingling of peoples; for the language of
Hador was apparently less changed and more uniform in style,
whereas the language of Beor contained many elements that
were alien in character. This contrast in speech was probably
connected with the observable physical differences between the
two peoples. There were fair-haired men and women among the
Folk of Beor, but most of them had brown hair (going usually
with brown eyes), and many were less fair in skin, some indeed
being swarthy. Men as tall as the Folk of Hador were rare
among them, and most were broader and more heavy in build.(46)
In association with the Eldar, especially with the followers of
King Finrod, they became as enhanced in arts and manners
as the Folk of Hador, but if these surpassed them in swiftness
of mind and body, in daring and noble generosity,(47) the Folk of
Beor were more steadfast in endurance of hardship and sorrow,
slow to tears or to laughter; their fortitude needed no hope to
sustain it. But these differences of body and mind became less
marked as their short generations passed, for the two peoples
became much mingled by intermarriage and by the disasters of
the War.(48)
The Folk of Haleth were strangers to the other Atani, speak-
ing an alien language; and though later united with them in
alliance with the Eldar, they remained a people apart. Among
themselves they adhered to their own language, and though of
necessity they learned Sindarin for communication with the
Eldar and the other Atani, many spoke it haltingly, and some of
those who seldom went beyond the borders of their own woods
did not use it at all.(49) They did not willingly adopt new things
or customs, and retained many practices that seemed strange to
the Eldar and the other Atani, with whom they had few dealings
except in war. Nonetheless they were esteemed as loyal allies
and redoubtable warriors, though the companies that they sent
to battle beyond their borders were small. For they were and
remained to their end a small people, chiefly concerned to pro-
tect their own woodlands, and they excelled in forest warfare.
Indeed for long even those Orks specially trained for this dared
not set foot near their borders. One of the strange practices
spoken of was that many of their warriors were women, though
few of these went abroad to fight in the great battles. This
custom was evidently ancient;(50) for their chieftainess Haleth
had been a renowned amazon with a picked bodyguard of
women.
At this point a heading is pencilled on the typescript: m The
Druedain (Pukel-men); after this there are no further divisions with
sub-titles inserted. Together with the concluding paragraph of
section II printed above, the account of the Druedain that now
follows is given in Unfinished Tales, pp. 377-82, concluding with
the story called The Faithful Stone; and there is no need to repeat
this here.(51) At the end of the story is a passage contrasting Drugs
and Hobbits, which since it was given in curtailed form in Un-
finished Tales (p. 382) is printed here in full; the present text then
continues to the end, or rather abandonment, of the essay.
This long account of the Druedain has been given, because it
throws some light on the Wild Men still surviving at the time of
the War of the Ring in the eastern end of the White Mountains,
and on Merry's recognition of them as living forms of the carved
Pukel-men of Dun Harrow. The presence of members of the
same race among the Edain in Beleriand thus makes another
backward link between The Lord of the Rings and The Sil-
marillion, and allows the introduction of characters somewhat
similar to the Hobbits of The Lord of the Rings into some of the
legends of the First Age (e.g. the old retainer (Sadog) of Hurin
in the legend of Turin).(52)
The Drugs or Pukel-men are not however to be confused with
or thought of as a mere variant on the hobbit theme. They were
quite different in physical shape and appearance. Their average
height (four feet) was only reached by exceptional hobbits; they
were of heavier and stronger build; and their facial features
were unlovely (judged by general human standards). Physically
they shared the hairlessness of the lower face; but while the
head-hair of the hobbits was abundant (but close and curly),
the Drugs had only sparse and lank hair on their heads and
none at all on their legs and feet. In character and temperament
they were at times merry and gay, like hobbits, but they had a
grimmer side to their nature and could be sardonic and ruthless;
and they had or were credited with strange or magical powers.
(The tales, such as 'The Faithful Stone', that speak of their
transferring part of their 'powers' to their artefacts, remind one
in miniature of Sauron's transference of power to the founda-
tion of the Barad-dur and to the Ruling Ring.)(53) Also the Drugs
were a frugal folk, and ate sparingly even in times of peace and
plenty, and drank nothing but water. In some ways they re-
sembled rather the Dwarves: in build and stature and endurance
(though not in hair); in their skill in carving stone; in the grim
side of their character; and in ',strange powers'. Though the
'magic' skills with which the Dwarves were credited were quite
different; also the Dwarves were much grimmer; and they were
long-lived, whereas the Drugs were short-lived compared with
other kinds of Men.
The Drugs that are met in the tales of the First Age - co-
habiting with the Folk of Haleth, who were a woodland people
- were content to live in tents or shelters lightly built round the
trunks of large trees, for they were a hardy race. In their former
homes, according to their own tales, they had used caves in
the mountains, but mainly as store-houses only occupied as
dwellings and sleeping-places in severe weather. They had
similar refuges in Beleriand to which all but the most hardy
retreated in times of storm and bitter weather; but these places
were guarded and not even their closest friends among the Folk
of Haleth were welcomed there.
Hobbits on the other hand were in nearly all respects normal
Men, but of very short stature. They were called 'halflings'; but
this refers to the normal height of men of Numenorean descent
and of the Eldar (especially those of Noldorin descent), which
appears to have been about seven of our feet.(54) Their height at
the periods concerned was usually more than three feet for men,
though very few ever exceeded three foot six; women seldom
exceeded three feet. They were not as numerous or variable as
ordinary Men, but evidently more numerous and adaptable to
different modes of life and habitat than the Drugs, and when
they are first encountered in the histories already showed diver-
gences in colouring, stature, and build, and in their ways of life
and preferences for different types of country to dwell in (see the
Prologue to The Lord of the Rings, p. 12). In their unrecorded
past they must have been a primitive, indeed 'savage' people,(55)
but when we meet them they had (in varying degrees) acquired
many arts and customs by contact with Men, and to a less
extent with Dwarves and Elves. With Men of normal stature
they recognized their close kinship, whereas Dwarves or Elves,
whether friendly or hostile, were aliens, with whom their re-
lations were uneasy and clouded by fear.(56) Bilbo's statement
(The Lord of the Rings 1.162)(57) that the cohabitation of Big
Folk and Little Folk in one settlement at Bree was peculiar and
nowhere else to be found was probably true in his time (the end
of the Third Age);(58) but it would seem that actually Hobbits had
liked to live with or near to Big Folk of friendly kind, who with
their greater strength protected them from many dangers and
enemies and other hostile Men, and received in exchange many
services. For it is remarkable that the western Hobbits preserved
no trace or memory of any language of their own. The language
they spoke when they entered Eriador was evidently adopted
from the Men of the Vales of Anduin (related to the Atani, / in
particular to those of the House of Beor [> of the Houses of
Hador and of Beor]); and after their adoption of the Common
Speech they retained many words of that origin. This indicates
a close association with Big Folk; though the rapid adoption of
the Common Speech in Eriador (59) shows Hobbits to have been
specially adaptable in this respect. As does also the divergence
of the Stoors, who had associated with Men of different sort
before they came to the Shire.
The vague tradition preserved by the Hobbits of the Shire was
that they had dwelt once in lands by a Great River, but long ago
had left them, and found their way through or round high
mountains, when they no longer felt at ease in their homes
because of the multiplication of the Big Folk and of a shadow of
fear that had fallen on the Forest. This evidently reflects the
troubles of Gondor in the earlier part of the Third Age. The
increase in Men was not the normal increase of those with
whom they had lived in friendship, but the steady increase of
invaders from the East, further south held in check by Gondor,
but in the North beyond the bounds of the Kingdom harassing
the older 'Atanic' inhabitants, and even in places occupying
the Forest and coming through it into the Anduin valley. But
the shadow of which the tradition spoke was not solely due to
human invasion. Plainly the Hobbits had sensed, even before
the Wizards and the Eldar had become fully aware of it, the
awakening of Sauron and his occupation of Dol Guldur.(60)
On the relations of the different kinds of Men in Eriador and
Rhovanion to the Atani and other Men met in the legends of the
First Age and the War of the Jewels see The Lord of the Rings
II.286-7 [in the chapter The Window on the West]. There
Faramir gives a brief account of the contemporary classification
in Gondor of Men into three kinds: High Men, or Numenor-
eans (of more or less pure descent); Middle Men; and Men of
Darkness. The Men of Darkness was a general term applied to
all those who were hostile to the Kingdoms, and who were (or
appeared in Gondor to be) moved by something more than
human greed for conquest and plunder, a fanatical hatred of the
High Men and their allies as enemies of their gods. The term
took no account of differences of race or culture or language.
With regard to Middle Men Faramir spoke mainly of the
Rohirrim, the only people of this sort well-known in Gondor in
his time, and attributed to them actual direct descent from the
Folk of Hador in the First Age. This was a general belief in
Gondor at that time,(61) and was held to explain (to the comfort
of Numenorean pride) the surrender of so large a part of the
Kingdom to the people of Eorl.
The term Middle Men, however, was of ancient origin. It was
devised in the Second Age by the Numenoreans when they
began to establish havens and settlements on the western shores
of Middle-earth. It arose among the settlers in the North
(between Pelargir and the Gulf of Lune), in the time of Ar-
Adunakhor; for the settlers in this region had refused to join in
the rebellion against the Valar, and were strengthened by many
exiles of the Faithful who fled from persecution by him and
the later Kings of Numenor. It was therefore modelled on the
classification by the Atani of the Elves: the High Elves (or Elves
of Light) were the Noldor who returned in exile out of the Far
West; the Middle Elves were the Sindar, who though near kin of
the High Elves had remained in Middle-earth and never seen the
light of Aman; and the Dark Elves were those who had never
journeyed to the Western Shores and did not desire to see Aman.
This was not the same as the classifications made by the Elves,
which are not here concerned, except to note that 'Dark Elves'
or 'Elves of Darkness' was used by them, but in no way implied
any evil, or subordination to Morgoth; it referred only to ignor-
ance of the 'light of Aman' and included the Sindar. Those who
had never made the journey to the West Shores were called 'the
Refusers' (Avari). It is doubtful if any of the Avari ever reached
Beleriand (62) or were actually known to the Numenoreans.
In the days of the earlier settlements of Numenor there were
many Men of different kinds in Eriador and Rhovanion; but
for the most part they dwelt far from the coasts. The regions of
Forlindon and Harlindon were inhabited by Elves and were the
chief part of Gil-galad's kingdom, which extended, north of the
Gulf of Lune, to include the lands east of the Blue Mountains
and west of the River Lune as far as the inflow of the Little
Lune.(63) (Beyond that was Dwarf territory.)(64) South of the Lune
it had no clear bounds, but the Tower Hills (as they were later
called) were maintained as an outpost.(65) The Minhiriath and the
western half of Enedhwaith between the Greyflood and the Isen
were still covered with dense forest.(66) The shores of the Bay of
Belfalas were still mainly desolate, except for a haven and small
settlement of Elves at the mouth of the confluence of Morthond
and Ringlo.(67) But it was long before the Numenorean settlers
about the Mouths of Anduin ventured north of their great
haven at Pelargir and made contact with Men who dwelt in
the valleys on either side of the White Mountains. Their term
Middle Men was thus originally applied to Men of Eriador, the
most westerly of Mankind in the Second Age and known to the
Elves of Gil-galad's realm.(68) At that time there were many men
in Eriador, mainly, it would seem, in origin kin of the Folk of
Beor, though some were kin of the Folk of Hador. They dwelt
about Lake Evendim, in the North Downs and the Weather
Hills, and in the lands between as far as the Brandywine, west
of which they often wandered though they did not dwell there.
They were friendly with the Elves, though they held them in awe
and close friendships between them were rare. Also they feared
the Sea and would not look upon it. (No doubt rumours of its
terror and the destruction of the Land beyond the Mountains
(Beleriand) had reached them, and some of their ancestors may
indeed have been fugitives from the Atani who did not leave
Middle-earth but fled eastward.)
Thus it came about that the Numenorean term Middle Men
was confused in its application. Its chief test was friendliness
towards the West (to Elves and to Numenoreans), but it was
actually applied usually only to Men whose stature and
looks were similar to those of the Numenoreans, although this
most important distinction of 'friendliness' was not historically
confined to peoples of one racial kind. It was a mark of all kinds
of Men who were descendants of those who had abjured the
Shadow of Morgoth and his servants and wandered westward
to escape it - and certainly included both the races of small
stature, Drugs and Hobbits. Also it must be said that 'unfriend-
liness' to Numenoreans and their allies was not always due to
the Shadow, but in later days to the actions of the Numenoreans
themselves. Thus many of the forest-dwellers of the shorelands
south of the Ered Luin, especially in Minhiriath, were as later
historians recognized the kin of the Folk of Haleth; but they
became bitter enemies of the Numenoreans, because of their
ruthless treatment and their devastation of the forests,(69) and this
hatred remained unappeased in their descendants, causing them
to join with any enemies of Numenor. In the Third Age their
survivors were the people known in Rohan as the Dunlendings.
There was also the matter of language. It was six hundred
years after the departure of the survivors of the Atani oversea to
Numenor that a ship came first to Middle-earth again out of the
West and passed up the Gulf of Lune.(70)
The story that follows, recounting the meeting of the Numenor-
ean mariners with twelve Men of Eriador on the Tower Hills, their
mutual recognition of an ancient kinship, and their discovery
that their languages though profoundly changed were of common
origin, has been given in Unfinished Tales, pp. 213-14.(71) Following
the conclusion of that extract (ending with the words 'they found
that they shared very many words still clearly recognizable, and
others that could be understood with attention, and they were able
to converse haltingly about simple matters') the essay continues as
follows.
Thus it came about that a kinship in language, even if this was
only recognizable after close acquaintance, was felt by the
Numenoreans to be one of the marks of 'Middle-men'.(72)
The loremasters of later days held that the languages of Men
in Middle-earth, at any rate those of the 'unshadowed' Men,
had changed less swiftly before the end of the Second Age and
the change of the world in the Downfall of Numenor. Whereas
in Numenor owing to the longevity of the Atani it had changed
far more slowly still. At the first meeting of the Shipmen and
the Men of western Eriador it was only six hundred years since
the Atani went oversea, and the Adunaic that they spoke can
hardly have changed at all; but it was a thousand years or more
since the Atani who reached Beleriand had parted from their
kin. Yet even now in a more changeful world languages that
have been separated for fifteen hundred years and longer may
be recognized as akin by those unlearned in the history of
tongues.
As the long years passed the situation changed. The ancient
Adunaic of Numenor became worn down by time - and by
neglect. For owing to the disastrous history of Numenor it was
no longer held in honour by the 'Faithful' who controlled all the
Shorelands from Lune to Pelargir. For the Elvish tongues were
proscribed by the rebel Kings, and Adunaic alone was permitted
to be used, and many of the ancient books in Quenya or in
Sindarin were destroyed. The Faithful, therefore, used Sindarin,
and in that tongue devised all names of places that they gave
anew in-Middle-earth.(73) Adunaic was abandoned to unheeded
change and corruption as the language of daily life, and the only
tongue of the unlettered. All men of high lineage and all those
who were taught to read and write used Sindarin, even as a daily
tongue among themselves. In some families, it is said, Sindarin
became the native tongue, and the vulgar tongue of Adunaic
origin was only learned casually as it was needed.(74) The
Sindarin was not however taught to aliens, both because it was
held a mark of Numenorean descent and because it proved
difficult to acquire - far more so than the 'vulgar tongue'. Thus
it came about that as the Numenorean settlements increased in
power and extent and made contact with Men of Middle-earth
(many of whom came under Numenorean rule and swelled their
population) the 'vulgar tongue' began to spread far and wide
as a lingua franca among peoples of many different kinds.
This process began in the end of the Second Age, but became of
general importance mainly after the Downfall and the estab-
lishment of the 'Realms in Exile' in Arnor and Gondor. These
kingdoms penetrated far into Middle-earth, and their kings
were recognized beyond their borders as overlords. Thus in the
North and West all the lands between the Ered Luin and the
Greyflood and Hoarwell (75) became regions of Numenorean
influence in which the 'vulgar tongue' became widely current. In
the South and East Mordor remained impenetrable; but though
the extent of Gondor was thus impeded it was more populous
and powerful than Arnor. The bounds of the ancient kingdom
contained all those lands marked in maps of the end of the
Third Age as Gondor, Anorien, Ithilien, South Ithilien, and
Rohan (formerly called Calenardhon) west of the Entwash.(76)
On its extension at the height of its power, between the reigns
of Hyarmendacil I and Romendacil II (Third Age 1015 to 1366)
see The Lord of the Rings Appendix A p.325.(77) The wide lands
between Anduin and the Sea of Rhun were however never effec-
tively settled or occupied, and the only true north boundary of
the Kingdom east of Anduin was formed by the Emyn Muil and
the marshes south and east of them. Numenorean influence
however went far beyond even these extended bounds, passing
up the Vales of Anduin to its sources, and reaching the lands
east of the Forest, between the River Celon (78) (Running) and the
River Carnen (Redwater).
Within the original bounds of the Kingdoms the 'vulgar
speech' soon became the current speech, and eventually the
native language of nearly all the inhabitants of whatever origin,
and incomers who were allowed to settle within the bounds
adopted it. Its speakers generally called it Westron (actually
Aduni, and in Sindarin Annunaid). But it spread far beyond the
bounds of the Kingdoms - at first in dealings with 'the peoples
of the Kingdoms', and later as a 'Common Speech' convenient
for intercourse between peoples who retained numerous
tongues of their own. Thus Elves and Dwarves used it in deal-
ings with one another and with Men.
The text ends here abruptly (without a full stop after the last word,
though this may not be significant), halfway down a page.
NOTES.
1. A notable case is that of the conversation between Ghan chieftain
of the Wild Men and Theoden. Probably few if any of the Wild
Men other than Ghan used the Common Speech at all, and he
had only a limited vocabulary of words used according to the
habits of his native speech.
2. The Kings and their descendants after Thengel also knew the Sin-
darin tongue - the language of nobles in Gondor. [Cf. Appendix
A (II), in the list of the Kings of the Mark, on Thengel's sojourn
in Gondor. It is said there that after his return to Rohan 'the
speech of Gondor was used in his house, and not all men thought
that good.']
3. The effect on contemporary speakers of the Common Speech of
Gondor being comparable to that which we should feel if a
foreigner, both learned and a skilled linguist, were when being
courteous or dealing with high matters to use fluently an English
of say about 1600 A.D., but adapted to our present pronun-
ciation.
4. Structurally and grammatically it differed widely from all other
languages of the West at that time; though it had some features
in common with Adunaic, the ancient 'native' language of
Numenor. This gave rise to the theory (a probable one) that in
the unrecorded past some of the languages of Men - including
the language of the dominant element in the Atani from which
Adunaic was derived - had been influenced by Khuzdul.
5. They had, it is said, a complex pictographic or ideographic
writing or carving of their own. But this they kept resolutely
secret.
6. Including their enemies such as Sauron, and his higher servants
who were in fact partly of Numenorean origin.
7. [Like Gil-galad, Celebrimbor was a figure first appearing in The
Lord of the Rings whose origin my father changed again and
again. The earliest statement on the subject is found in the post-
Lord of the Rings text Concerning Galadriel and Celeborn,
where it is said (cf. Unfinished Tales p. 235):
Galadriel and Celeborn had in their company a Noldorin
craftsman called Celebrimbor. He was of Noldorin origin, and
one of the survivors of Gondolin, where he had been one of
Turgon's greatest artificers - but he had thus acquired some
taint of pride and an almost 'dwarvish' obsession with crafts.
He reappears as a jewel-smith of Gondolin in the text The Elessar
(see Unfinished Tales pp. 248 ff.); but against the passage in
Concerning Galadriel and Celeborn just cited my father noted
that it would be better to 'make him a descendant of Feanor'.
Thus in the Second Edition (1966) of The Lord of the Rings, at
the end of the prefatory remarks to the Tale of Years of the
Second Age, he added the sentence: 'Celebrimbor was lord of
Eregion and the greatest of their craftsmen; he was descended
from Feanor.'
On one of his copies of The Return of the King he underlined
the name Feanor in this sentence, and wrote the following two
notes on the opposite page (the opening of the first of these
means, I think: 'What then was his parentage? He must have
been descended from one of Feanor's sons, about whose progeny
nothing has been told').
How could he be? Feanor's only descendants were his seven
sons, six of whom reached Beleriand. So far nothing has been
said of their wives and children. It seems probable that Cele-
brinbaur (silverfisted, > Celebrimbor) was son of Curufin, but
though inheriting his skills he was an Elf of wholly different
temper (his mother had refused to take part in the rebellion of
Feanor and remained in Aman with the people of Finarphin).
During their dwelling in Nargothrond as refugees he had
grown to love Finrod and " his wife, and was aghast
at the behaviour of his father and would not go with him. He
later became a great friend of Celeborn and Galadriel.
The second note reads:
Maedros the eldest appears to have been unwedded, also the
two youngest (twins, of whom one was by evil mischance
burned with the ships); Celegorm also, since he plotted to take
Luthien as his wife. But Curufin, dearest to his father and chief
inheritor of his father's skills, was wedded, and had a son who
came with him into exile, though his wife (unnamed) did not.
Others who were wedded were Maelor, Caranthir.
On the form Maelor for Maglor see X.182, $41. The reference in
the first of these notes to the wife of Finrod Felagund is notable,
since long before, in the Grey Annals, the story had emerged that
Felagund had no wife, and that 'she whom he had loved was
Amarie of the Vanyar, and she was not permitted to go with him
into exile'. That story had in fact been abandoned, or forgotten,
but it would return: see the note on Gil-galad, p. 350.
These notes on Celebrimbor son of Curufin were the basis of
the passages introduced editorially in the published Silmarillion,
p. 176 (see V.300-1), and in Of the Rings of Power, ibid. p. 286.
But in late writing (1968 or later) on the subject of Eldarin words
for 'hand' my father said this:
Common Eldarin had a base KWAR 'press together, squeeze,
wring'. A derivative was *kwara: Quenya quar, Telerin par,
Sindarin paur. This may be translated 'fist', though its chief use
was in reference to the tightly closed hand as in using an imple-
ment or a craft-tool rather than to the 'fist' as used in punch-
ing. Cf. the name Celebrin-baur > Celebrimbor. This was a
Sindarized form of Telerin Telperimpar (Quenya Tyelpinquar).
It was a frequent name among the Teleri, who in addition to
navigation and ship-building were also renowned as silver-
smiths. The famous Celebrimbor, heroic defender of Eregion in
the Second Age war against Sauron, was a Teler, one of the
three Teleri who accompanied Celeborn into exile. He was
a great silver-smith, and went to Eregion attracted by the
rumours of the marvellous metal found in Moria, Moria-silver,
to which he gave the name mithril. In the working of this he
became a rival of the Dwarves, or rather an equal, for there
was great friendship between the Dwarves of Moria and Cele-
brimbor, and they shared their skills and craft-secrets. In the
same way Tegilbor was used for one skilled in calligraphy (tegil
was a Sindarized form of Quenya tekil 'pen', not known to the
Sindar until the coming of the Noldor).
When my father wrote this he ignored the addition to Appen-
dix B in the Second Edition, stating that Celebrimbor 'was
descended from Feanor'; no doubt he had forgotten that that
theory had appeared in print, for had he remembered it he would
undoubtedly have felt bound by it. - On the statement that
Celebrimbor was 'one of the three Teleri who accompanied
Celeborn into exile' see Unfinished Tales, pp. 231-3.
Yet here in the present essay, from much the same time as that
on Eldarin words for 'hand' just cited, a radically different
account of Celebrimbor's origin is given: 'a Sinda who claimed
descent from Daeron'.]
8. They did not, however, appear in the inscriptions on the West
Gate of Moria. The Dwarves said that it was in courtesy to the
Elves that the Feanorian letters were used on that gate, since it
opened into their country and was chiefly used by them. But
the East Gates, which perished in the war against the Orks, had
opened upon the wide world, and were less friendly. They had
borne Runic inscriptions in several tongues: spells of prohibition
and exclusion in Khuzdul, and commands that all should depart
who had not the leave of the Lord of Moria written in Quenya,
Sindarin, the Common Speech, the languages of Rohan and of
Dale and Dunland.
[In the margin against the paragraph in the text at this point
my father pencilled:
N.B. It is actually said by Elrond in The Hobbit that the Runes
were invented by the Dwarves and written with silver pens.
Elrond was half-elven and a master of lore and history. So
either we must tolerate this discrepancy or modify the history
of the Runes, making the actual Angerthas Moria largely an
affair of Dwarvish invention.
In notes associated with this essay he is seen pondering the latter
course, considering the possibility that it was in fact the Long-
beard Dwarves who were the original begetters of the Runes; and
that it was from them that Daeron derived the idea, but since
the first Runes were not well organised (and differed from one
mansion of the Dwarves to another) he ordered them in a logical
system.
But of course in Appendix E (II) he had stated very explicitly
the origin of the Runes: 'The Cirth were devised first in Beleriand
by the Sindar'. It was Daeron of Doriath who developed the
'richest and most ordered form' of the Cirth, the Alphabet of
Daeron, and its use in Eregion led to its adoption by the Dwarves
of Moria, whence its name Angerthas Moria. Thus the incon-
sistency, if inconsistency there was, could scarcely be removed;
but in fact there was none. It was the 'moon-runes' that Elrond
declared (at the end of the chapter A Short Rest) to have been
invented by the Dwarves and written by them with silver pens,
not the Runes as an alphabetic form - as my father at length
noted with relief. I mention all this as an illustration of his intense
concern to avoid discrepancy and inconsistency, even though in
this case his anxiety was unfounded. - For an earlier account of
the origin of the Runes see VII.452-5.]
9. [At this point the text in manuscript ends, and the typescript takes
up.]
10. As things went ill in Moria and hope even of escaping with their
lives faded the last pages of the Book can only have been written
in the hope that the Book might be later found by friends, and
inform them of the fate of Balin and his rash expedition to
Moria - as indeed happened.
11. Cases were the reduction of double (long) consonants to single
ones medially between vowels, or the alteration of consonants in
certain combinations. Both are exemplified in the Third Age
colloquial tunas 'guard', i.e. a body of men acting as guards. This
was a derivative of the stem run watch, guard + nas people:
an organized group or gathering of people for some function.
But tudnas, though it was often retained in 'correct' spelling, had
been changed to tunnas and usually was so spelt: tunas which
occurred in the first line of the preserved three pages was 'incor-
rect' and represented the colloquial. (Incidentally this nas is prob-
ably an example of the numerous loanwords from Elvish that
were found in Adunaic already and were increased in the Com-
mon Speech of the Kingdoms. It is probably < Quenya nosse or
Sindarin nos, 'kindred, family'. The short o of Elvish became a in
such borrowed words.)
12. [The three pages were reproduced in Pictures by J. R. R. Tolkien,
1979, no.23 (second edition, 1992, no.24).]
13. Exceptions are a few words in a debased form of the Black
Speech; a few place-names or personal names (not interpreted);
the warcry of the Dwarves. Also a few place-names supposed to
be of forgotten origin or meaning; and one or two personal
names of the same kind (see Appendix F, p. 407).
14. The sherd of Amenartas was in Greek (provided by Andrew
Lang) of the period from which it was supposed to have survived,
not in English spelt as well as might be in Greek letters. [For the
sherd of Amenartas see H. Rider Haggard, She, chapter 3.]
15. The first song of Galadriel is treated in this way: it is given only
in translation (as is all the rest of her speech in dialogue). Because
in this case a verse translation was attempted, to represent as far
as possible the metrical devices of the original - a considered
composition no doubt made long before the coming of Frodo and
independent of the arrival in Lorien of the One Ring. Whereas the
Farewell was addressed direct to Frodo, and was an extempore
outpouring in free rhythmic style, reflecting the overwhelming
increase in her regret and longing, and her personal despair
after she had survived the terrible temptation. It was translated
accurately. The rendering of the older song must be presumed to
have been much freer to enable metrical features to be repre-
sented. (In the event it proved that it was Galadriel's abnegation
of pride and trust in her own powers, and her absolute refusal of
any unlawful enhancement of them, that provided the ship to
bear her back to her home.) [Cf. the passage in a letter from my
father of 1967 cited in Unfinished Tales, p. 229; Letters no.297,
at end.]
16. [This refers to the last six lines (which include the interpretation
of the inscription on the tomb) of the chapter A Journey in the
Dark, beginning '"These are Daeron's Runes, such as were used
of old in Moria," said Gandalf', which in the three-volume hard-
back edition of The Lord of the Rings alone appear on that page.]
17. Possibly observed by the more linguistically and historically
minded; though I have received no comments on them.
18. [This refers to the end of Appendix F, I ('Gimli's own name ...'),
cited above, p. 296.]
19. In later times, when their own Khuzdul had become only a
learned language, and the Dwarves had adopted the Common
Speech or a local language of Men, they naturally used these
'outer' names also for all colloquial purposes. [Khuzdul is in this
case spelt with a circumflex accent on the second vowel.]
20. [At the same time as the alterations shown were made to the text
of this passage my father wrote in the margin: 'But see on this
below - they were derived from a long lost Mannish language in
the North.' See pp. 303-4, and note 23 below.]
21. The references (in Appendix A [beginning of III, Durin's Folk])
to the legends of the origin of the Dwarves of the kin known
as Longbeards (Khuzdul Sigin-tarag, translated by Quenya Anda-
fangar, Sindarin Anfangrim) and their renowned later 'mansions'
in Khazad-dum (Moria) are too brief to make the linguistic
situation clear. The 'deeps of time' do not refer (of course) to geo-
logical time - of which only the Eldar had legends, derived and
transmuted from such information as their loremasters had
received from the Valar. They refer to legends of the Ages of
Awakening and the arising of the Speaking Peoples: first the
Elves, second the Dwarves (as they claimed), and third Men.
Unlike Elves and Men the Dwarves appear in the legends to have
arisen in the North of Middle-earth. [This note continued as
follows, but the continuation was subsequently struck out.] The
most westerly point, the place of the birth or awakening of the
ancestor of the Longbeards, was in the traditions of the Third
Age a valley in the Ered Mithrin. But this was in far distant days.
It was long before the migrations of Men from the East reached
the North-western regions. And it was long again before the
Dwarves - of whom the Longbeards appear to have been the
most secretive and least concerned to have dealings with Elves or
Men - still felt any need to learn any languages of their neigh-
bours, still less to take names by which they could be known to
'outsiders'.
22. [My father's point was that Balin and Fundin are actual Old
Norse names used as 'translations' for the purpose of The
Lord of the Rings. What he should have done in a visual repre-
sentation of the tomb-inscription was to use, not of course their
'inner' names in Khuzdul, but their real 'outer' names which in
the text of The Lord of the Rings are represented by Balin and
Fundin.]
23. [It seems that it was when my father reached this point in the
essay that he made the alterations to the text on p. 300 with the
marginal observation given in note 20, and struck out the latter
part of note 21.]
24. He alone had no companions; cf. 'he slept alone' (III.352). [The
reference is to the beginning of Appendix A, III. The passage in
the text is difficult to interpret. My father refers here to four
places of awakening of the Seven Ancestors of the Dwarves: those
of 'the ancestors of the Firebeards and the Broadbeams', 'the
ancestor of the Longbeards', 'the Ironfists and Stiffbeards', and
'the Blacklocks and Stonefoots'. (None of these names of the
other six kindreds of the Dwarves has ever been given before.
Since the ancestors of the Firebeards and the Broadbeams awoke
in the Ered Lindon, these kindreds must be presumed to be the
Dwarves of Nogrod and Belegost.) It seems that he was here
referring to Durin's having 'slept alone' in contrast to the other
kindreds, whose Fathers were laid to sleep in pairs. If this is so, it
is a different conception from that cited in XI.213, where Iluvatar
'commanded Aule to lay the fathers of the Dwarves severally in
deep places, each with his mate, save Durin the eldest who had
none.' On the subject of the 'mates' of the Fathers of the Dwarves
see XI.211-13. - In the margin of the typescript my father wrote
later (against the present note): 'He wandered widely after
awakening: his people were Dwarves that joined him from other
kindreds west and east'; and at the head of the page he suggested
that the legend of the Making of the Dwarves should be altered
(indeed very radically altered) to a form in which other Dwarves
were laid to sleep near to the Fathers.]
25. [In the rejected conclusion of note 21 the place of the awakening
of the ancestor of the Longbeards was 'a valley in the Ered
Mithrin' (the Grey Mountains in the far North). There has of
course been no previous reference to this ancient significance
of Mount Gundabad. That mountain originally appeared in the
chapter The Clouds Burst in The Hobbit, where it is told that the
Goblins 'marched and gathered by hill and valley, going ever by
tunnel or under dark, until around and beneath the great moun-
tain Gundabad of the North, where was their capital, a vast host
was assembled'; and it is shown on the map of Wilderland in The
Hobbit as a great isolated mass at the northern end of the Misty
Mountains where the Grey Mountains drew towards them. In
The Lord of the Rings, Appendix A (III), Gundabad appears in
the account of the War of the Dwarves and Orcs late in the Third
Age, where the Dwarves 'assailed and sacked one by one all the
strongholds of the Orcs that they could [find] from Gundabad to
the Gladden' (the word 'find' was erroneously dropped in the
Second Edition).]
26. According to their legends their begetter, Aule the Vala, had made
this for them and had taught it to the Seven Fathers before they
were laid to sleep until the time for their awakening should come.
After their awakening this language (as all languages and all
other things in Arda) changed in time, and divergently in the
mansions that were far-sundered. But the change was so slow and
the divergence so small that even in the Third Age converse
between all Dwarves in their own tongue was easy. As they said,
the change in Khuzdul as compared with the tongue of the Elves,
and still more with those of Men, was 'like the weathering of
hard rock compared with the melting of snow.'
27. The Dwarves multiplied slowly; but Men in prosperity and peace
more swiftly than even the Elves.
28. For they had met some far to the East who were of evil mind.
[This was a later pencilled note. On the previous page of the type-
script my father wrote at the same time, without indication of
its reference to the text but perhaps arising from the mention
(p. 301) of the awakening of the eastern kindreds of the Dwarves:
'Alas, it seems probable that (as Men did later) the Dwarves of
the far eastern mansions (and some of the nearer ones?) came
under the Shadow of Morgoth and turned to evil.']
29. No Dwarf would ever mount a horse willingly, nor did any ever
harbour animals, not even dogs.
30. For a time. The Numenoreans had not yet appeared on the shores
of Middle-earth, and the foundations of the Barad-dur had not
yet been built. It was a brief period in the dark annals of the
Second Age, yet for many lives of Men the Longbeards controlled
the Ered Mithrin, Erebor, and the Iron Hills, and all the east side
of the Misty Mountains as far as the confines of Lorien; while the
Men of the North dwelt in all the adjacent lands as far south as
the Great Dwarf Road that cut through the Forest (the Old Forest
Road was its ruinous remains in the Third Age) and then went
North-east to the Iron Hills. [As with so much else in this
account, the origin of the Old Forest Road in 'the Great Dwarf
Road', which after traversing Greenwood the Great led to the
Iron Hills, has never been met before.]
31. Only the personal names of individuals. The name of their race,
and the names of their families, and of their mansions, they did
not conceal.
32. Either actual Mannish names current among the Northern Men,
or names made in the same ways out of elements in the Mannish
tongue, or names of no meaning that were simply made of the
sounds used by Men put together in ways natural to their speech.
33. [My father might seem to write here as if Durin was the 'real'
Mannish name of the Father of the Longbeards; but of course it
is a name derived from Old Norse, and thus a 'translation'.]
34. Somewhat similar to the way in which the 'runes' of Elvish origin
were widely regarded by Men in the Third Age as a Dwarvish
mode of writing.
35. Sauron was defeated by the Numenoreans and driven back into
Mordor, and for long troubled the West no more, while secretly
extending his dominions eastward.
36. Though such changes and divergence as had already occurred
before they left Middle-earth would have endured - such as the
divergence of the speech of the Teleri from that of the Noldor.
37. [This and the subsequent section-heading, together with their
numbers, were pencilled in later. The title of section I is lost with
the loss of the first page of the essay.]
38. The name is said to have been derived from atan 'man, human
being as distinct from creatures', a word used by that kindred
which the Eldar first encountered in Beleriand. This was bor-
rowed and adapted to Quenya and Sindarin; but later when Men
of other kinds became known to the Eldar it became limited to
Men of the Three Peoples who had become allies of the Eldar in
Beleriand.
[A typewritten draft for the page of the essay on which this
second section begins is preserved (though without the section-
heading or number, see note 37): in this draft the present note
begins in the same way, but diverges after the words 'adapted to
Quenya and Sindarin' thus:
It was however associated by the Eldar with their own word
atar (adar) 'father' and often translated 'Fathers of Men',
though this title, in full atanatar, properly belonged only to the
leaders and chieftains of the peoples at the time of their entry
into Beleriand. In Sindarin adan was still often used for 'man',
especially in names of races with a preceding prefix, as in Dun-
adan, plural Dunedain, 'Men of the West', Numenoreans;
Dru-edain 'Wild-men'.
The statement here that Atani was derived from a word in the
Beorian language, atan 'man', contradicts what was said in the
chapter Of the Coming of Men into the West that was added to
the Quenta Silmarillion, XI.219, footnote: 'Atani was the name
given to Men in Valinor, in the lore that told of their coming;
according to the Eldar it signified "Second", for the kindred of
Men was the second of the Children of Iluvatar'; cf. Quendi and
Eldar, XI.386, where essentially the same is said (the devising of
the name Atani is there ascribed to the Noldor in Valinor).]
39. [This refers to Morgoth's captivity in Aman. See X.423, note 3.)
40. [Cf. the words of Andreth, X.310, and of Bereg and Amlach,
XI.220, $18).]
41. [Haleth was not the name of the chieftain who commanded the
Folk of Haleth when they first came to Beleriand: see XI.221-2
and the genealogical tree, XI.237. But this is probably not sig-
nificant, in view of what is said at the end of the paragraph: these
people 'were called the Folk of Haleth, for Haleth was the name
of their chieftainess who led them to the woods north of Doriath
where they were permitted to dwell.' On the other hand, the
statement that Hador was the name of the chieftain who led
the Folk of Hador into Beleriand seems to ignore that greatly
enlarged and altered history that had entered in the chapter Of
the Coming of Men into the West (cf. note 38), according to
which it was Marach who led that people over the Mountains,
and Hador himself, though he gave his name to the people, was
a descendant of Marach in the fourth generation (see XI.218 - 19
and the genealogical tree, XI.234). In that work the division of
the Folk of Hador into three hosts, referred to a little later in the
present paragraph, does not appear - indeed it was said (XI.218,
$10) that Beor told Felagund that 'they are a numerous people,
and yet keep together and move slowly, being all ruled by one
chieftain whom they call Marach.']
42. [In other accounts the Folk of Haleth were the second kindred of
the Edain to enter Beleriand, not the last; thus in QS $127
(V.275), when Haleth was still Haleth the Hunter and had not
been transformed into the Lady Haleth, 'After Beor came Haleth
father of Hundor, and again somewhat later came Hador the
Goldenhaired', and in Of the Coming of Men into the West $13
(XI.218) 'First came the Haladin ... The next year, however,
Marach led his people over the Mountains'. In that text ($10)
Beor told Felagund that the people of Marach 'were before us in
the westward march, but we passed them', and there is no sug-
gestion of the story told here that they reached Eredlindon first of
all the Edain, but that 'seeking a road round the Mountains' they
'came up from southward' into Beleriand. - Of internal strife
among the Folk of Haleth, referred to a few lines later in this
paragraph, there has been no previous mention.]
43. No doubt this was due to mingling with Men of other kind in the
past; and it was noted that the dark hair ran in families that had
more skill and interest in crafts and lore.
44. With a knowledge of the language of the Folk of Beor that was
later lost, save for a few names of persons and places, and some
words or phrases preserved in legends. One of the common
words was atan. [With the last sentence cf. note 38.]
45. [With this is perhaps to be compared what my father wrote
elsewhere at this time (p. 373, note 13) concerning the long
period during which the 'Beorians' and the 'Hadorians' became
separated in the course of their westward migration and dwelt on
opposite sides of a great inland sea.]
46. Beren the Renowned had hair of a golden brown and grey eyes;
he was taller than most of his kin, but he was broad-shouldered
and very strong in his limbs.
47. The Eldar said, and recalled in the songs they still sang in later
days, that they could not easily be distinguished from the Eldar -
not while their youth lasted, the swift fading of which was to the
Eldar a grief and a mystery.
48. [With this account of the Folk of Beor and the Folk of Hador may
be compared the description that my father wrote many years
before in the Quenta Silmarillion, V.276, $130.]
49. [On the alteration of the relationship between the three languages
of the Atani, whereby that of the Folk of Haleth replaced that
of the Folk of Hador as the tongue isolated from the others, see
p. 368 and note 4.]
50. Not due to their special situation in Beleriand, and maybe rather
a cause of their small numbers than its result. They increased in
numbers far more slowly than the other Atani, hardly more than
was sufficient to replace the wastage of war; yet many of their
women (who were fewer than the men) remained unwed.
51. [Apart from some slight and largely unnecessary modifications to
the original text (in no case altering the sense) there are a few
points to mention about that printed in Unfinished Tales. (1) The
spelling Ork(s) was changed to Orc(s), and that of the river
Taiglin to Teiglin (see XI.228, 309-10). (2) A passage about the
liking of the Drugs for edible fungus was omitted in view of my
father's pencilled note beside it: 'Delete all this about funguses.
Too like Hobbits' (a reference of course to Frodo and Farmer
Maggot's mushrooms). This followed the account of the know-
ledge of the Drugs concerning plants, and reads:
To the astonishment of Elves and other Men they ate funguses
with pleasure, many of which looked to others ugly and
dangerous; some kinds which they specially liked they caused
to grow near their dwellings. The Eldar did not eat these
things. The Folk of Haleth, taught by the Druedain, made
some use of them at need; and if they were guests they ate what
was provided in courtesy, and without fear. The other Atani
eschewed them, save in great hunger when astray in the wild,
for few among them had the knowledge to distinguish the
wholesome from the bad, and the less wise called them ork-
plants and supposed them to have been cursed and blighted by
Morgoth.]
52. [See Unfinished Tales, p. 386, note 8. Elsewhere Hurin's serving-
man is named Sador, not Sadog.]
53. [This sentence is cited in Unfinished Tales, p. 387, note 11.]
54. See the discussion of lineal measurements and their equation with
our measures in the legend of The Disaster of the Gladden Fields.
[This discussion (which, with the work itself, belongs to the very
late period - 1968 or later) is found in Unfinished Tales, pp. 285
ff., where a note on the stature of Hobbits is also given.]
55. In the original sense of 'savage'; they were by nature of gentle
disposition, neither cruel nor vindictive.
56. Of different kinds: Dwarves they found of uncertain temper
and dangerous if displeased; Elves they viewed with awe, and
avoided. Even in the Shire in the Third Age, where Elves were
more often to be met than in other regions where Hobbits dwelt
or had dwelt, most of the Shire-folk would have no dealings with
them. 'They wander in Middle-earth,' they said, 'but their minds
and hearts are not there.'
57. ['Nowhere else in the world was this peculiar (but excellent)
arrangement to be found': opening of the chapter At the Sign of
the Prancing Pony. This observation is here attributed to Bilbo as
the ultimate author of the Red Book of Westmarch.]
58. Indeed it is probable that only at Bree and in the Shire did any
communities of Hobbits survive at that time west of the Misty
Mountains. Nothing is known of the situation in lands further
east, from which the Hobbits must have migrated in unrecorded
ages.
59. When they entered Eriador (early in the second century of the
Third Age) Men were still numerous there, both Numenoreans
and other Men related to the Atani, beside remnants of Men
of evil kinds, hostile to the Kings. But the Common Speech
(of Numenorean origin) was in general use there, even after
the decay of the North Kingdom. In Bilbo's time great areas of
Eriador were empty of Men. The desolation had begun in the
Great Plague (soon after the Hobbits' occupation of the Shire),
and was hastened by the final fall and disappearance of the North
Kingdom. In the Plague it would seem that the only Hobbit com-
munities to survive were those in the far North-west at Bree and
in the Shire. [The opening sentence of this note, placing the entry
of the Hobbits into Eriador 'early in the second century of the
Third Age', is plainly a casual error: presumably my father
intended 'millennium' for 'century' (in Appendix B the date of the
coming of the Harfoots is given under Third Age 1050, and that
of the Fallohides and the Stoors under 1150).]
60. The invasions were no doubt also in great part due to Sauron; for
the 'Easterlings' were mostly Men of cruel and evil kind, descend-
ants of those who had served and worshipped Sauron before his
overthrow at the end of the Second Age.
61. Though the native traditions of the Rohirrim preserved no
memories of the ancient war in Beleriand, they accepted the
belief, which did much to strengthen their friendship with
Gondor and their unbroken loyalty to the Oath of Eorl and
Cirion. [In relation to this note and to the passage in the text to
which it refers my father wrote in the margin of the typescript:
It may have been actually true of those Men in Middle-earth
whom the returning Numenoreans first met (see below); but
other Men of the North resembling them in features and
temper can only have been akin as descending from peoples of
which the Atani had been the vanguard.]
62. [In Quendi and Eldar (XI.377) there is a reference to Avari 'who
had crept in small and secret groups into Beleriand from the
South', and to rare cases of an Avar 'who joined with or was
admitted among the Sindar'; while in that essay Eol of Nan
Elmoth was an Avar (XI.409 and note 33).]
63. [The Little Lune was first marked on the third and last of my
father's general maps of the West of Middle-earth (that on which
my original map published with The Lord of the Rings was
closely based), but this appears to be the first time that it has been
named.]
64. [With this statement that the region beyond the inflow of the
Little Lune was 'Dwarf territory' cf. Appendix A (I, iii), where it
is told that Arvedui, the last king of Arthedain, 'hid in the tunnels
of the old dwarf-mines near the far end of the Mountains'.]
65. Gil-galad's people were mainly Noldorin; though in the Second
Age the Elves of Harlindon were mainly Sindarin, and the region
was a fief under the rule of Celeborn. [In the prefatory note to the
annals of the Second Age in Appendix B it is said: 'In Lindon
south of the Lune dwelt for a time Celeborn, kinsman of
Thingol'; see Unfinished Tales p. 233 and note 2, where the
present note is referred to.]
66. [See Unfinished Tales, pp. 262-3 (extract from a late essay on the
names of the rivers and beacon-hills of Gondor). - The name was
typed Enedwaith with the h added subsequently, but later in this
essay (note 76) the form typed is Enedhwaith; so also in that on
river-names just mentioned, although in the extracts given in
Unfinished Tales I printed Enedwaith for agreement with pub-
lished texts.]
67. This according to the traditions of Dol Amroth had been estab-
lished by seafaring Sindar from the west havens of Beleriand who
fled in three small ships when the power of Morgoth over-
whelmed the Eldar and the Atani; but it was later increased by
adventurers of the Silvan Elves seeking for the Sea who came
down the Anduin. The Silvan Elves were Middle Elves according
to the Numenorean classification, though unknown to the Atani
until later days: for they were like the Sindar Teleri, but were
laggards in the hindmost companies who had never crossed the
Misty Mountains and established small realms on either side of
the Vales of Anduin. (Of these Lorien and the realm of Thranduil
in Mirkwood were survivors in the Third Age.) But they were
never wholly free of an unquiet and a yearning for the Sea which
at times drove some of them to wander from their homes. [On
this haven (Edhellond) see Unfinished Tales, pp. 246 - 7 and note
18 on p. 255.]
68. The first sailings of the Numenoreans to Middle-earth were to the
lands of Gil-galad, with whom their great mariner Aldarion made
an alliance.
69. As the power of Numenor became more and more occupied with
great navies, for which their own land could not supply sufficient
timber without ruin, their felling of trees and transportation of
wood to their shipyards in Numenor or on the coast of Middle-
earth (especially at Lond Daer, the Great Harbour at the mouth
of the Greyflood) became reckless. [See Unfinished Tales, p. 262,
on the tree-felling of the Numenoreans in Minhiriath and
Enedhwaith. Of the kinship of the forest-dwellers of those
regions with the People of Haleth there is no suggestion elsewhere
(see also note 72 below). With the following sentence in the text,
'In the Third Age their survivors were the people known in
Rohan as the Dunlendings' cf. Unfinished Tales, p. 263: 'From
Enedwaith they [the native people fleeing from the Numenor-
eans] took refuge in the eastern mountains where afterwards was
Dunland'.]
70. [This was the voyage of Veantur the Numenorean, grandfather of
Aldarion the Mariner: see Unfinished Tales, pp. 171, 174-5.]
71. [At the words in the text printed in Unfinished Tales 'as if
addressing friends and kinsmen after a long parting' there is a
note in the essay which I did not include:
The Atani had learned the Sindarin tongue in Beleriand and
most of them, especially the high men and the learned, had
spoken it familiarly, even among themselves: but always as
a learned language, taught in early childhood; their native
language remained the Adunaic, the Mannish tongue of the
Folk of Hador (except in some districts of the west of the Isle
where the rustic folk used a Beorian dialect). Thus the Sindarin
they used had remained unchanged through many lives of
Men.
With this cf. Unfinished Tales, p. 215 note 19. I do not know how
the mention here of 'a Beorian dialect' surviving in the west of
Numenor is to be related to the total loss of the language of the
Folk of Beor referred to in note 44; see also p. 368 and note 5.]
72. This may have been one of the reasons why the Numenoreans
failed to recognize the Forest-folk of Minhiriath as 'kinsmen',
and confused them with Men of the Shadow; for as has been
noted the native language of the Folk of Haleth was not related
to the language of the Folks of Hador and Beor.
73. And those that they adopted from older inhabitants they usually
altered to fit the Sindarin style. Their names of persons also were
nearly all of Sindarin form, save a few which had descended from
the legends of the Atani in the First Age.
74. It thus became naturally somewhat corrupted from the true
Sindarin of the Elves, but this was hindered by the fact that
Sindarin was held in high esteem and was taught in the schools,
according to forms and grammatical structure of ancient days.
75. The Elf-realm became diminished in the wars against Sauron, and
by the establishment of Imladris, and it no longer extended east
of the Ered Luin.
76. The Enedhwaith (or Central Wilderness) was shared by the
North and South Kingdoms, but was never settled by Numenor-
eans owing to the hostility of the Gwathuirim (Dunlendings),
except in the fortified town and haven about the great bridge
over the Greyflood at Tharbad. [The name Gwathuirim of the
Dunlendings has not occurred before.]
77. [It was said in Appendix A (I, iv) that at the height of its power
the realm of Gondor 'extended north to Celebrant', and a long
note in the essay at this point, beginning 'But for "Celebrant"
read "Field of Celebrant"', is an exposition of the significance
of the latter name (Parth Celebrant). This note is given in
Unfinished Tales, p. 260.]
78. [The River Running is named Celduin in Appendix A, III (RK
p. 353). Celon was the river that in the First Age rose in the Hill
of Himring and flowed past Nan Elmoth to join the Aros; and
since Celduin as the name of the River Running appears in the
very late text Cirion and Eorl (Unfinished Tales p. 289) Celon
here is presumably no more than a casual confusion of the
names.]
XI.
THE SHIBBOLETH OF FEANOR.
With an excursus on the name of
the descendants of Finwe.
In all my father's last writings linguistic history was closely inter-
twined with the history of persons and of peoples, and much that he
recounted can be seen to have arisen in the search for explanations of
linguistic facts or anomalies. The most remarkable example of this is
the following essay, arising from his consideration of a problem of his-
torical phonology, which records how the difference in pronunciation
of a single consonantal element in Quenya played a significant part in
the strife of the Noldorin princes in Valinor. It has no title, but I have
called it The Shibboleth of Feanor, since my father himself used that
word in the course of the essay (p. 336).
Like Of Dwarves and Men, it was written (composed in typescript
throughout) on paper supplied by Allen and Unwin, in this case
mostly copies of a publication note of February 1968; and as in that
essay there are very many notes interpolated into the body of the text
in the process of composition. Appended to it is a lengthy excursus
{half as long again as the essay from which it arose) on the names of
Finwe's descendants, and this I give also; but from both The Shibbo-
leth of Feanor proper and from this excursus I have excluded a num-
ber of notes, some of them lengthy, of a technical phonological nature.
The work was not finished, for my father did not reach, as was his
intention, discussion of the names of the Sons of Feanor; but such
draft material as there is for this part is given at the end of the text.
All numbered notes, both my father's and mine, are collected on pp.
356 ff.
This work was scarcely used in Unfinished Tales except for a
passage concerning Galadriel, which is here repeated in its original
context; but elements were used in the published Silmarillion.
The Shibboleth of Feanor.
The case of the Quenya change of p to s.(1)
The history of the Eldar is now fixed and the adoption of
Sindarin by the Exiled Noldor cannot be altered. Since Sindarin
made great use of p, the change p > s must have occurred in
Noldorin Quenya in Valinor before the rebellion and exile of
the Noldor, though not necessarily long before it (in Valinorian
reckoning of time). The change cannot therefore be explained
as a development (that is a sound-substitution of s for an un-
familiar p) in Quenya of the Third Age: either due to the Elves ]
themselves, since they were familiar with p; or to such people
as the Numenorean scholars in Gondor, since p occurred in the l
Common Speech, and also in the Sindarin which was still used
as a spoken language among the upper classes, especially in
Minas Tirith.
The use by Galadriel, as reported in The Lord of the Rings,
must therefore be normal. It is not however an obstacle to the
use of p in representing the classical book-Quenya, pre-Exilic or
post-Exilic, in grammars, dictionaries or transcripts. It is in fact
desirable, since the older p was always kept distinct in writing
from original s. This in Exilic conditions, which made necessary
the writing down anew from memory of many of the pre-Exilic
works of lore and song,(2) implies a continuing memory of the
sound p, and the places in which it had previously occurred;
also probably a dislike of the change to s in the colloquial
Quenya on the part of the scholars. It is in any case impossible
to believe that any of the Noldor ever became unfamiliar with
the sound p as such. In Valinor they dwelt between the Vanyar
(Ingwi) and the Teleri (Lindar),(3) with whom they were in com-
munication and sometimes intermarried. The Vanyar spoke
virtually the same language (Quenya) and retained p in daily
use; the Teleri spoke a closely related language still largely intel-
ligible to the Noldor,(4) and it also used p. The Noldor were, even
compared with other Eldar, talented linguists, and if p did not
occur in the language that they learned in childhood - which
could only be the case with the youngest generations of those
who set out from Aman - they would have had no difficulty in
acquiring it.
The change p > s must therefore have been a conscious
and deliberate change agreed to and accepted by a majority of
the Noldor, however initiated, after the separation of their
dwellings from the Vanyar. It must have occurred after the birth
of Miriel, but (probably) before the birth of Feanor. The special
connexion of these two persons with the change and its later
history needs some consideration.
The change was a general one, based primarily on phonetic
'taste' and theory, but it had not yet become universal. It was
attacked by the loremasters,(5) who pointed out that the damage
this merging would do in confusing stems and their derivatives
that had been distinct in sound and sense had not yet been
sufficiently considered. The chief of the linguistic loremasters at
that time was Feanor. He insisted that p was the true pronun-
ciation for all who cared for or fully understood their language.
But in addition to linguistic taste and wisdom he had other
motives. He was the eldest of Finwe's sons and the only child of
his first wife Miriel. She was a Noldorin Elda of slender and
graceful form, and of gentle disposition, though as was later dis-
covered in matters far more grave, she could show an ultimate
obstinacy that counsel or command would only make more
obdurate. She had a beautiful voice and a delicate and clear
enunciation, though she spoke swiftly and took pride in this
skill. Her chief talent, however, was a marvellous dexterity of
hand. This she employed in embroidery, which though achieved
in what even the Eldar thought a speed of haste was finer and
more intricate than any that had before been seen. She was
therefore called Perinde (Needlewoman) - a name which she
had indeed already been given as a 'mother-name'.(6) She adhered
to the pronunciation p (it had still been usual in her childhood),
and she desired that all her kin should adhere to it also, at the
least in the pronunciation of her name.
Feanor loved his mother dearly, though except in obstinacy
their characters were widely different. He was not gentle. He
was proud and hot-tempered, and opposition to his will he met
not with the quiet steadfastness of his mother but with fierce
resentment. He was restless in mind and body, though like
Miriel he could become wholly absorbed in works of the finest
skill of hand; but he left many things unfinished. Feanaro was
his mother-name, which Miriel gave him in recognition of his
impetuous character (it meant 'spirit of fire'). While she lived
she did much with gentle counsel to soften and restrain him.(7)
Her death was a lasting grief to Feanor, and both directly and
by its further consequences a main cause of his later disastrous
influence on the history of the Noldor.
The death of Miriel Perinde - death of an 'immortal' Elda in
the deathless land of Aman - was a matter of grave anxiety to
the Valar, the first presage of the Shadow that was to fall on
Valinor. The matter of Finwe and Miriel and the judgement that
the Valar after long debate finally delivered upon it is elsewhere
told.(8) Only those points that may explain the conduct of Feanor
are here recalled. Miriel's death was of free will: she forsook her
body and her fea went to the Halls of Waiting, while her body
lay as if asleep in a garden. She said that she was weary in body
and spirit and desired peace. The cause of her weariness she
believed to be the bearing of Feanor, great in mind and body
beyond the measure of the Eldar. Her weariness she had
endured until he was full grown, but she could endure it no
longer.
The Valar and all the Eldar were grieved by the sorrow of
Finwe, but not dismayed: all things could be healed in Aman,
and when they were rested her fea and its body could be re-
united and return to the joy of life in the Blessed Realm. But
Miriel was reluctant, and to all the pleas of her husband and her
kin that were reported to her, and to the solemn counsels of the
Valar, she would say no more than 'not yet'. Each time that she
was approached she became more fixed in her determination,
until at last she would listen no more, saying only: 'I desire
peace. Leave me in peace here! I will not return. That is my
will.'
So the Valar were faced by the one thing that they could
neither change nor heal: the free will of one of the Children of
Eru, which it was unlawful for them to coerce - and in such a
case useless, since force could not achieve its purpose. And after
some years they were faced by another grave perplexity. When
it became clear at last that Miriel would never of her own will
return to life in the body within any span of time that could give
him hope, Finwe's sorrow became embittered. He forsook his
long vigils by her sleeping body and sought to take up his own
life again; but he wandered far and wide in loneliness and found
no joy in anything that he did.
There was a fair lady of the Vanyar, Indis of the House of
Ingwe. She had loved Finwe in her heart, ever since the days
when the Vanyar and the Noldor lived close together. In one
of his wanderings Finwe met her again upon the inner slopes of
Oiolosse, the Mountain of Manwe and Varda; and her face was
lit by the golden light of Laurelin that was shining in the plain
of Ezellohar below.(9) In that hour Finwe perceived in her eyes the
love that had before been hidden from him. So it came to pass
that Finwe and Indis desired to be wedded, and Finwe sought
the counsel of the Valar.
The long debate that they held on the matter may be passed
over briefly. They were obliged to choose between two courses:
condemning Finwe to bereavement of a wife for ever, or allow-
ing one of the Eldar to take a second wife. The former seemed
a cruel injustice, and contrary to the nature of the Eldar. The
second they had thought unlawful, and some still held to that
opinion.(10) The end of the Debate was that the marriage of Finwe
and Indis was sanctioned. It was judged that Finwe's bereave-
ment was unjust, and by persisting in her refusal to return
Miriel had forfeited all rights that she had in the case; for either
she was now capable of accepting the healing of her body by the
Valar, or else her fea was mortally sick and beyond their power,
and she was indeed 'dead', no longer capable of becoming again
a living member of the kindred of the Eldar.
'So she must remain until the end of the world. For from the
moment that Finwe and Indis are joined in marriage all future
change and choice will be taken from her and she will never
again be permitted to take bodily shape. Her present body will
swiftly wither and pass away, and the Valar will not restore it.
For none of the Eldar may have two wives both alive in the
world.' These were the words of Manwe, and an answer to the
doubts that some had felt. For it was known to all the Valar that
they alone had the power to heal or restore the body for the
re-housing of a fea that should in the later chances of the world
be deprived; but that to Manwe also was given the right to
refuse the return of the fea.
During the time of his sorrow Finwe had little comfort from
Feanor. For a while he also had kept vigil by his mother's body,
but soon he became wholly absorbed again in his own works
and devices. When the matter of Finwe and Indis arose he was
disturbed, and filled with anger and resentment; though it is
not recorded that he attended the Debate or paid heed to the
reasons given for the judgement, or to its terms except in one
point: that Miriel was condemned to remain for ever discarnate,
so that he could never again visit her or speak with her, unless
he himself should die.(11) This grieved him, and he grudged the
happiness of Finwe and Indis, and was unfriendly to their
children, even before they were born.
How this ill will grew and festered in the years that followed
is the main matter of the first part of The Silmarillion: the Dark-
ening of Valinor. Into the strife and confusion of loyalties in
that time this seemingly trivial matter, the change of p to s, was
caught up to its embitterment, and to lasting detriment to the
Quenya tongue. Had peace been maintained there can be no
doubt that the advice of Feanor, with which all the other lore-
masters privately or openly agreed, would have prevailed. But
an opinion in which he was certainly right was rejected because
of the follies and evil deeds into which he was later led. He made
it a personal matter: he and his sons adhered to p, and they
demanded that all those who were sincere in their support
should do the same. Therefore those who resented his arro-
gance, and still more those whose support later turned to
hatred, rejected his shibboleth.
Indis was a Vanya, and it might be thought that she would in
this point at least have pleased Feanor, since the Vanyar adhered
to p. Nonetheless Indis adopted s. Not as Feanor believed in
belittlement of Miriel, but in loyalty to Finwe. For after the
rejection of his prayers by Miriel Finwe accepted the change
(which had now become almost universal among his people),
although in deference to Miriel he had adhered to p while she
lived. Therefore Indis said: 'I have joined the people of the
Noldor, and I will speak as they do.' So it came about that to
Feanor the rejection of p became a symbol of the rejection of
Miriel, and of himself, her son, as the chief of the Noldor next
to Finwe. This, as his pride grew and his mood darkened, he
thought was a 'plot' of the Valar, inspired by fear of his powers,
to oust him and give the leadership of the Noldor to those more
servile. So Feanor would call himself Son of the Perinde, and
when his sons in their childhood asked why their kin in the
house of Finwe used s for p he answered: 'Take no heed! We
speak as is right, and as King Finwe himself did before he was
led astray. We are his heirs by right and the elder house. Let
them sa-si, if they can speak no better.'
There can thus be no doubt that the majority of the Exiles
used s for p in their daily speech; for in the event (after Morgoth
had contrived the murder of Finwe) Feanor was deprived of
the leadership, and the greater part of the Noldor who forsook
Valinor marched under the command of Fingolfin, the eldest
son of Indis. Fingolfin was his father's son, tall, dark, and
proud, as were most of the Noldor, and in the end in spite of
the enmity between him and Feanor he joined with full will in
the rebellion and the exile, though he continued to claim the
kingship of all the Noldor.
The case of Galadriel and her brother Finrod is somewhat
different.(12) They were the children of Finarfin, Indis' second
son. He was of his mother's kind in mind and body, having the
golden hair of the Vanyar, their noble and gentle temper, and
their love of the Valar. As well as he could he kept aloof from
the strife of his brothers and their estrangement from the Valar,
and he often sought peace among the Teleri, whose language he
learned. He wedded Earwen, the daughter of King Olwe, and
his children were thus the kin of King Elwe Pindikollo (13) (in
Sindarin Elu Thingol) of Doriath in Beleriand, for he was
the brother of Olwe; and this kinship influenced their decision
to join in the Exile, and proved of great importance later in
Beleriand. Finrod was like his father in his fair face and golden
hair, and also in noble and generous heart, though he had the
high courage of the Noldor and in his youth their eagerness and
unrest; and he had also from his Telerin mother a love of the sea
and dreams of far lands that he had never seen. Galadriel was
the greatest of the Noldor, except Feanor maybe, though she
was wiser than he, and her wisdom increased with the long
years.
Her mother-name was Nerwen 'man-maiden', and she grew
to be tall beyond the measure even of the women of the Noldor;
she was strong of body, mind, and will, a match for both the
loremasters and the athletes of the Eldar in the days of their
youth. Even among the Eldar she was accounted beautiful, and
her hair was held a marvel unmatched. It was golden like the
hair of her father and her foremother Indis, but richer and more
radiant, for its gold was touched by some memory of the star-
like silver of her mother; and the Eldar said that the light of
the Two Trees, Laurelin and Telperion, had been snared in her
tresses. Many thought that this saying first gave to Feanor the
thought of imprisoning and blending the light of the Trees that
later took shape in his hands as the Silmarils. For Feanor beheld
the hair of Galadriel with wonder and delight. He begged three
times for a tress, but Galadriel would not give him even one
hair. These two kinsfolk, the greatest of the Eldar of Valinor,(14)
were unfriends for ever.
Galadriel was born in the bliss of Valinor, but it was not long,
in the reckoning of the Blessed Realm, before that was dimmed;
and thereafter she had no peace within. For in that testing time
amid the strife of the Noldor she was drawn this way and that.
She was proud, strong, and self-willed, as were all the descend-
ants of Finwe save Finarfin; and like her brother Finrod, of all
her kin the nearest to her heart, she had dreams of far lands and
dominions that might be her own to order as she would with-
out tutelage. Yet deeper still there dwelt in her the noble and
generous spirit (ore) of the Vanyar, and a reverence for the Valar
that she could not forget. From her earliest years she had a
marvellous gift of insight into the minds of others, but judged
them with mercy and understanding, and she withheld her good
will from none save only Feanor. In him she perceived a dark-
ness that she hated and feared, though she did not perceive that
the shadow of the same evil had fallen upon the minds of all the
Noldor, and upon her own.
So it came to pass that when the light of Valinor failed, for
ever as the Noldor thought, she joined the rebellion against the
Valar who commanded them to stay; and once she had set foot
upon that road of exile, she would not relent, but rejected the
last message of the Valar, and came under the Doom of Mandos.
Even after the merciless assault upon the Teleri and the rape of
their ships, though she fought fiercely against Feanor in defence
of her mother's kin, she did not turn back. Her pride was
unwilling to return, a defeated suppliant for pardon; but now
she burned with desire to follow Feanor with her anger to what-
ever lands he might come, and to thwart him in all ways that she
could. Pride still moved her when, at the end of the Elder Days
after the final overthrow of Morgoth, she refused the pardon of
the Valar for all who had fought against him, and remained in
Middle-earth. It was not until two long ages more had passed,
when at last all that she had desired in her youth came to her
hand, the Ring of Power and the dominion of Middle-earth of
which she had dreamed, that her wisdom was full grown and
she rejected it, and passing the last test departed from Middle-
earth for ever.
The change to s had become general among the Noldor long
before the birth of Galadriel and no doubt was familiar to her.
Her father Finarfin, however, loved the Vanyar (his mother's
people) and the Teleri, and in his house p was used, Finarfin
being moved by Feanor neither one way or the other but doing
as he wished. It is clear nonetheless that opposition to Feanor
soon became a dominant motive with Galadriel, while her pride
did not take the form of wishing to be different from her own
people. So while she knew well the history of their tongue and
all the reasons of the loremasters, she certainly used s in her own
daily speech. Her Lament - spoken before she knew of the
pardon (and indeed honour) that the Valar gave her - harks
back to the days of her youth in Valinor and to the darkness of
the years of Exile while the Blessed Realm was closed to all the
Noldor in Middle-earth. Whatever she may have done later,
when Feanor and all his sons had perished, and Quenya was
a language of lore known and used only by the dwindling
remnant of the High Elves (of Noldorin descent), she would in
this song certainly have used s.
The s was certainly used in Beleriand by nearly all the
Noldor.(15) And it was in this form (though with knowledge of its
history and the difference in spelling) that Quenya was handed
on to the loremasters of the Atani, so that in Middle-earth it
lingered on among the learned, and a source of high and noble
names in Rivendell and in Gondor into the Fourth Age.
The essay is followed by three 'notes'. Note 1 is a substantial devel-
opment of the words in the essay (p. 332) 'The change was ... based
primarily on phonetic "taste" and theory', which is here omitted.
Note 2, given below, is an account of Elvish name-giving that differs
in some important respects from the earlier and far more complex
account in Laws and Customs among the Eldar, X.214-17. Note 3 is
the long account of the names of Finwe's descendants.
Note on Mother-names.
The Eldar in Valinor had as a rule two names, or essi. The first-
given was the father-name, received at birth. It usually recalled
the father's name, resembling it in sense or form; sometimes it
was simply the father's name, to which some distinguishing pre-
fix in the case of a son might be added later when the child was
full-grown. The mother-name was given later, often some years
later, by the mother; but sometimes it was given soon after birth.
For the mothers of the Eldar were gifted with deep insight into
their children's characters and abilities, and many had also the
gift of prophetic foresight.
In addition any of the Eldar might acquire an epesse ('after-
name'), not necessarily given by their own kin, a nickname -
mostly given as a title of admiration or honour. Later some
among the exiles gave themselves names, as disguises or in
reference to their own deeds and personal history: such names
were called kilmessi 'self-names' (literally names of personal
choice).(16)
The 'true names' remained the first two, but in later song and
history any of the four might become the name generally used
and recognized. The true names were not however forgotten by
the scribes and loremasters or the poets, and they might often
be introduced without comment. To this difficulty - as it
proved to those who in later days tried to use and adapt Elvish
traditions of the First Age as a background to the legends of
their own heroes of that time and their descendants (17) - was
added the alteration of the Quenya names of the Noldor, after
their settlement in Beleriand and adoption of the Sindarin
tongue.
The names of Finwe's descendants.
Few of the oldest names of the Eldar are recorded, except those
of the four leaders of the hosts on the Great Journey: Ingwe of
the Vanyar; Finwe of the Noldor; and the brothers Elwe and
Olwe of the Teleri. It is not certain that these names had any
'meaning', that is any intentional reference to or connexion
with other stems already existing in primitive Eldarin; in any
case they must have been formed far back in the history of
Elvish speech. They consist each of a stem (ing-, fin-, el-, ol-)
followed by a 'suffix' -we. The suffix appears frequently in other
Quenya names of the First Age, such as Voronwe, generally but
not exclusively masculine.(18) This the loremasters explained as
being not in origin a suffix, though it survived in Quenya only
as a final element in names, but an old word for 'person', deriva-
tive of a stem EWE. This took as a second element in a com-
pound the form we; but as an independent word ewe, preserved
in Telerin as eve 'a person, somebody (unnamed)'. In Old
Quenya it survived in the form eo (( ew + the pronominal
suffix -o 'a person, somebody'), later replaced by namo; also in
the Old Quenya adjective wera, Quenya vera 'personal, private,
own'.
The first elements were often later explained as related to
Quenya inga 'top, highest point' used adjectivally as a prefix, as
in ingaran 'high-king', ingor 'summit of a mountain'; to Com-
mon Eldarin PHIN 'hair', as in Quenya fine 'a hair', finde 'hair,
especially of the head', finda 'having hair, -haired'; and to the
stem el, elen 'star'. Of these the most probable is the relation to
inga; for the Vanyar were regarded, and regarded themselves, as
the leaders and principal kindred of the Eldar, as they were the
eldest; and they called themselves the Ingwer - in fact their
king's proper title was Ingwe lngweron 'chief of the chieftains'.
The others are doubtful. All the Eldar had beautiful hair (and
were especially attracted by hair of exceptional loveliness), but
the Noldor were not specially remarkable in this respect, and
there is no reference to Finwe as having had hair of exceptional
length, abundance, or beauty beyond the measure of his
people.(19) There is nothing known to connect Elwe more closely
with the stars than all the other Eldar; and the name seems
invented to go as a pair with Olwe, for which no 'meaning' was
suggested. OL as a simple stem seems not to have occurred in
Eldarin, though it appears in certain 'extended' stems, such as
olos/r 'dream', olob 'branch' (Quenya olba); neither of which
seems to be old enough, even if suitable in sense, to have any
connexion with the name of the Ciriaran (mariner king) of the
Teleri of Valinor.(20)
It must be realized that the names of the Eldar were not
necessarily 'meaningful', though composed to fit the style and
structure of their spoken languages; and that even when made
or partly made of stems with a meaning these were not neces-
sarily combined according to the normal modes of composition
observed in ordinary words. Also that when the Eldar arrived in
Aman and settled there they had already a long history behind
them, and had developed customs to which they adhered, and
also their languages had been elaborated and changed and were
very different from their primitive speech as it was before the
coming of Orome. But since they were immortal or more
properly said 'indefinitely longeval' many of the oldest Eldar
had names devised long before, which had been unchanged
except in the accommodation of their sounds to the changes
observed in their language as compared with Primitive Eldarin.
This accommodation was mainly of the 'unheeded' kind:
that is, personal names being used in daily speech followed the
changes in that speech - though these were recognized and
observed. The changes from the Quenya names of the Noldor
to Sindarin forms when they settled in Beleriand in Middle-
earth were on the other hand artificial and deliberate. They
were made by the Noldor themselves. This was done because of
the sensitiveness of the Eldar to languages and their styles. They
felt it absurd and distasteful to call living persons who spoke
Sindarin in daily life by names in quite a different linguistic
mode.(21)
The Noldor of course fully understood the style and mode of
Sindarin, though their learning of this difficult language was
swift; but they did not necessarily understand the detail of its
relation to Quenya. At first, except in the few words which the
great changes in the Sindarin form of Telerin in Middle-earth
had left unaltered or plainly similar, none of them understood
or were yet interested in the linguistic history. It was at this early
period that the translation of most of their Quenya names took
place. In consequence these translations, though fitted entirely
to Sindarin in form and style, were often inaccurate: that is,
they did not always precisely correspond in sense; nor were the
equated elements always actually the nearest Sindarin forms
of the Quenya elements - sometimes they were not histori-
cally related at all, though they were more or less similar in
sound.
It was, however, certainly the contact with Sindarin and the
enlargement of their experience of linguistic change (especially
the much swifter and more uncontrolled shifts observable in
Middle-earth) that stimulated the studies of the linguistic lore-
masters, and it was in Beleriand that theories concerning Primi-
tive Eldarin and the interrelation of its known descendants were
developed. In this Feanor played little part, except in so far as
his own work and theories before the Exile had laid the foun-
dations upon which his successors built. He himself perished
too early in the war against Morgoth, largely because of his
recklessness, to do more than note the differences between the
dialects of North Sindarin (which was the only one he had time
to learn) and the Western.(22)
The learning of the loremasters was available to all who were
interested; but as the hopeless war dragged on, and after its
earlier and deceptive successes passed through defeats and
disasters to utter ruin of the Elvish realms, fewer and fewer
of the Eldar had opportunity for 'lore' of any kind. An account
of the years of the Siege of Angband in chronicle form would
seem to leave neither place nor time for any of the arts of peace;
but the years were long, and in fact there were intervals as long
as many lives of Men and secure places long defended in which
the High Eldar in exile laboured to recover what they could of
the beauty and wisdom of their former home. All peace and all
strongholds were at last destroyed by Morgoth; but if any won-
der how any lore and treasure was preserved from ruin, it may
be answered: of the treasure little was preserved, and the loss
of things of beauty great and small is incalculable; but the lore
of the Eldar did not depend on perishable records, being stored
in the vast houses of their minds.(23) When the Eldar made
records in written form, even those that to us would seem vol-
uminous, they did only summarise, as it were, for the use of
others whose lore was maybe in other fields of knowledge,(24)
matters which were kept for ever undimmed in intricate detail
in their minds.
Here are some of the chief names of Finwe and his descend-
ants.
1. Finwe for whom no other names are recorded except his
title Noldoran 'King of the Noldor'. His first wife was Miriel
(first name) Perinde (mother-name). The names of her kin are
not recorded. Her names were not translated. His second wife
was Indis, which means 'great or valiant woman'. No other
names are recorded. She is said to have been the daughter of
King Ingwe's sister.
2. The only child of Miriel was afterwards usually called
Feanor. His first name was Finwe (minya), afterwards enlarged
when his talents developed to Kurufinwe. His mother-name was
in Quenya, as given by Miriel, Feanaro 'spirit of fire'. Feanor is
the form nearly always used in histories and legends, but is as
it stands only half Sindarized: the genuine Sindarin form was
Faenor; the form Feanor (the e is only a device of transcription,
not needed in the original) probably arose through scribal con-
fusion, especially in documents written in Quenya, in which ea
was frequent but ae did not normally occur.(25)
3. Finwe had four children by Indis: a daughter Findis, a son,
a daughter Irime, and a son.(26) Findis was made by combining
the names of her parents. Little is said of her in The Silmarillion.
She did not go into exile, but went with her mother after the
slaying of Finwe and they abode among the Vanyar in grief until
such time as it seemed good to Manwe to restore Finwe to life.(27)
His second daughter was named Irien (28) and her mother-name
was Lalwende (laughing maiden). By this name, or in shortened
form Lalwen, she was generally known. She went into exile
with her brother Fingolfin, who was most dear to her of all her
kin; but her name was not changed, since Lalwen fitted the style
of Sindarin well enough.(29)
To his sons Finwe gave his own name as he had done to
Feanor. This maybe was done to assert their claim to be his legit-
imate sons, equal in that respect to his eldest child Kurufinwe
Fayanaro, but there was no intention of arousing discord
among the brothers, since nothing in the judgement of the Valar
in any way impaired Feanor's position and rights as his eldest
son. Nothing indeed was ever done to impair them, except
by Feanor himself; and in spite of all that later happened his
eldest son remained nearest to Finwe's heart.
As with Feanor, Finwe later added prefixes to their name: the
elder he called Nolofinwe, and the younger Arafinwe. Nolo was
the stem of words referring to wisdom,(30) and Ara, ar- a prefixed
form of the stem Ara- 'noble'. Feanor felt aggrieved both by the
use of his father's name for his two younger brothers, and again
by the prefixes that were added; for his pride was growing and
clouding his reason: he thought himself not only the greatest
master of Kurwe (which was true) but also of Nolme (which
was not true, save in matters of language), and certainly the
noblest of the children of Finwe (which might have proved true,
if he had not become the proudest and most arrogant).
The Noldor in exile as a rule chose one only of their names to
be given a Sindarin shape; this was the name, usually, which
each preferred (for various reasons), though the ease of 'trans-
lation' and its fitting into Sindarin style was also considered.
On Feanor, Faenor see above. Nolofinwe (one of the first
to be changed) was given the form Fingolfin, that is Finwe
Nolofinwe was given a Sindarin style in sounds, and combined
in one name. A most unusual procedure, and not imitated in any
other name.(31) It was not a translation. The element Quenya
nolo- was merely given its equivalent Sindarin form gol. Finwe
was simply reduced to fin in both places; thus was produced a
name very much in Sindarin style but without meaning in that
language. (If Finwe had been treated as a word of this form
would have been, had it occurred anciently in Sindarin, it would
have been Finu - but in the Northern dialect Fim, as in Curu-
fim.)(32) Fingolfin had prefixed the name Finwe to Nolofinwe
before the Exiles reached Middle-earth. This was in pursuance
of his claim to be the chieftain of all the Noldor after the death
of Finwe, and so enraged Feanor (33) that it was no doubt one of
the reasons for his treachery in abandoning Fingolfin and steal-
ing away with all the ships. The prefixion in the case of Finarfin
was made by Finrod only after the death of Fingolfin in single
combat with Morgoth. The Noldor then became divided into
separate kingships under Fingon son of Fingolfin, Turgon his
younger brother, Maedros son of Feanor, and Finrod son of
Arfin; and the following of Finrod had become the greatest.
4. The children of Fingolfin. Fingolfin's wife Anaire refused to
leave Aman, largely because of her friendship with Earwen wife
of Arafinwe (though she was a Noldo and not one of the Teleri).
But all her children went with their father: Findekano, Turu-
kano, Arakano, and Irisse his daughter and third child; she was
under the protection of Turukano who loved her dearly, and of
Elenwe his wife.(34) Findekano had no wife or child;(35) neither had
Arakano.
These names were probably father-names, though Arakano
had been the mother-name of Fingolfin. Kano meant in Quenya
'commander', usually as the title of a lesser chief, especially one
acting as the deputy of one higher in rank.(36) The Sindarizing
of these names as Fingon and Turgon shows knowledge of the
sound-changes distinguishing Sindarin from Telerin, but dis-
regards meaning. If these names had actually been ancient
Sindarin names they would at the time of the coming of the
Exiles have taken the forms Fingon and Turgon, but they would
not have had their Quenya meanings, if interpretable at all.
Possibly they would have conveyed 'Hair-shout' and 'Master-
shout' [see note 36]. But this did not matter much since old
Sindarin names had by that time frequently become obscured by
sound-changes and were taken as names and not analysed. With
regard to Findekano / Fingon it may be noted that the first
element was certainly Quenya finde 'hair' - a tress or plait of
hair (37)(cf. findesse' a head of hair, a person's hair as a whole), but
this is not conclusive proof that the name Finwe was or was
thought to be derived from this stem. It would have been suffi-
cient for Fingolfin to give to his eldest son a name beginning
with fin- as an 'echo' of the ancestral name, and if this was also
specially applicable it would have been approved as a good
invention. In the case of Fingon it was suitable; he wore his long
dark hair in great plaits braided with gold.
Arakano was the tallest of the brothers and the most im-
petuous, but his name was never changed to Sindarin form, for
he perished in the first battle of Fingolfin's host with the Orks,
the Battle of the Lammoth (but the Sindarin form Argon was
often later given as a name by Noldor and Sindar in memory of
his valour).(38)
Irisse who went ever with the people of Turgon was called
Ireth,(39) by substitution of Sindarin -eth (< -itta) frequent in
feminine names for Quenya -isse. Elenwe her mother had no
Sindarin name, for she never reached Beleriand. She perished in
the crossing of the Ice; and Turgon was thereafter unappeasable
in his enmity for Feanor and his sons. He had himself come near
to death in the bitter waters when he attempted to save her and
his daughter Itaril, whom the breaking of treacherous ice had
cast into the cruel sea. Itaril he saved;(40) but the body of Elenwe
was covered in fallen ice.
Itaril, or in longer form Itarille, was the only child in the third
generation from Finwe to go with the exiles, save only Arothir
son of Angrod brother of Finrod.(41) Both have renown in the
legends of the Silmarillion; but Itaril had a great destiny, for
she was the mother of Ardamir. Earendil. Her name in Sindarin
form was Idril, but this also was only an alteration of form, for
neither of the Quenya stems that the name contains were found
in Sindarin.(42)
5. The children of Finarfin. These were named: Findarato
Ingoldo; Angarato; Aikanaro; and Nerwende Artanis, sur-
named Alatariel. The wife of Angarato was named Eldalote,
and his son Artaher. The most renowned of these were the first
and the fourth (the only daughter), and only of these two are the
mother-names remembered. The names of Sindarin form by
which they were usually called in later song and legend were
Finrod, Angrod (with wife Edellos and son Arothir), Aegnor,
and Galadriel.
The names Findarato and Angarato were Telerin in form (for
Finarfin spoke the language of his wife's people); and they
proved easy to render into Sindarin in form and sense, because
of the close relationship of the Telerin of Aman to the language
of their kin, the Sindar of Beleriand, in spite of the great changes
that it had undergone in Middle-earth. (Artafinde and Artanga
would have been their more natural Quenya forms, arta- the
equivalent of arata- preceding, as in Artanis and Artaher.)(43) The
order of the elements in compounds, especially personal names,
remained fairly free in all three Eldarin languages; but Quenya
preferred the (older) order in which adjectival stems preceded,
while in Telerin and Sindarin the adjectival elements often were
placed second, especially in later-formed names, according to
the usual placing of adjectives in the ordinary speech of those
languages. In names however that ended in old words referring
to status, rank, profession, race or kindred and so on the adjec-
tival element still in Sindarin, following ancient models, might
be placed first. Quenya Artaher (stem artaher-) 'noble lord' was
correctly Sindarized as Arothir.
Edellos translated Eldalote according to sense: Elven-
flower'. Angarato became naturally Angrod. It is probable that
both brothers first received the name Arato, later differentiated.
The Find- in Findarato referred to hair, but in this case to the
golden hair of this family derived from Indis. The Ang- in
Angarato was from Common Eldarin anga iron (Quenya,
Telerin anga, Sindarin ang). Angrod early developed hands of
great strength and received the epesse Angamaite 'iron-handed',
so that ang- was used by Finarfin as a differentiating prefix.
Aikanaro was called by his father Ambarato. The Sindarin
form of this would have been Amrod; but to distinguish this
from Angrod, and also because he preferred it, he used his
mother-name (44) (which was however given in Quenya and not
Telerin form). Aika-nar- meant 'fell fire'. It was in part a
'prophetic' name; for he was renowned as one of the most
valiant of the warriors, greatly feared by the Orks: in wrath or
battle the light of his eyes was like flame, though otherwise he
was a generous and noble spirit. But in early youth the fiery light
could be observed; while his hair was notable: golden like his
brothers and sister, but strong and stiff, rising upon his head like
flames. The Sindarin form Aegnor that he adopted was however
not true Sindarin. There was no Sindarin adjective correspond-
ing to Quenya aika 'fell, terrible, dire', though aeg would have
been its form if it had occurred.(45)
Galadriel was chosen by Artanis ('noble woman') to be her
Sindarin name; for it was the most beautiful of her names, and,
though as an epesse, had been given to her by her lover, Tele-
porno of the Teleri, whom she wedded later in Beleriand.(46) As
he gave it in Telerin form it was Alatariel(le). The Quenyarized
form appears as Altariel, though its true form would have been
Naltariel. It was euphoniously and correctly rendered in
Sindarin Galadriel. The name was derived from the Common
Eldarin stem NAL 'shine by reflection'; *nalata 'radiance,
glittering reflection' (from jewels, glass or polished metals, or
water) > Quenya nalta, Telerin alata, Sindarin galad, + the
Common Eldarin stem RIG 'twine, wreathe', *riga 'wreath, gar-
land'; Quenya, Telerin ria, Sindarin ri, Quenya, Telerin rielle,
-riel 'a maiden crowned with a festival garland'. The whole, =
'maiden crowned with a garland of bright radiance', was given
in reference to Galadriel's hair. Galad occurs also in the epesse
of Ereinion ('scion of kings') by which he was chiefly remem-
bered in legend, Gil-galad 'star of radiance': he was the last king
Of the Eldar in Middle-earth, and the last male descendant of
Finwe (47) except Elrond the Half-elven. The epesse was given to
him because his helm and mail, and his shield overlaid with
silver and set with a device of white stars, shone from afar like
a star in sunlight or moonlight and could be seen by Elvish eyes
at a great distance if he stood upon a height.
There were other descendants of Finwe remembered in legend
who may be noted here, though their names were given in Sin-
darin or in Quenya at later times when Sindarin was the daily
language of the Noldor, and they do not offer the problems of
translation or more formal adjustment which are presented by
the Quenya names given before the Exile.
Itarilde (Idril) (48) daughter of Turgon was the mother of
Earendil; but his father was a Man of the Atani, of the House of
Hador: Tuor son of Huor.(49) Earendil was thus the second of the
Pereldar (Half-elven),(50) the elder being Dior, son of Beren and
Luthien Tinuviel daughter of King Elu Thingol. His names
were, however, given in Quenya; for Turgon after his foun-
dation of the secret city of Gondolin had re-established Quenya
as the daily speech of his household. Earendil had this name as
father-name, and as mother-name he was called Ardamire. In
this case both names were 'prophetic'. Tuor in his long journey
by the west shores of Beleriand, after his escape from captivity,
had been visited by the great Vala Ulmo in person, and Ulmo
had directed him to seek for Gondolin, foretelling that if he
found it he would there beget a son ever afterwards renowned
as a mariner.(51) Improbable as this seemed to Tuor, since neither
the Atani nor the Noldor had any love of the sea or of ships, he
named his son in Quenya 'sea-lover'. More purely prophetic
was the name Ardamire 'Jewel of the World'; for Itarilde could
not foresee in her waking mind the strange fate that brought at
last the Silmaril into the possession of Earendil, and enabled his
ship to pass through all the shadows and perils by which Aman
was at that time defended from any approach from Middle-
earth. These names were not given Sindarin forms in legend,(52)
though Sindarin writers sometimes explained that they meant
mir n'Ardon and Seron Aearon. By the marriage of Earendil to
Elwing daughter of Dior son of Beren the lines of the Pereldar
(Peredil) were united. Elros and Elrond were the sons of
Earendil. Elros became the first king of Numenor (with the
Quenya title Tar-Minyatur, 'high first-ruler'). Elrond was
received into the company and life-span of the Eldar, and
became esquire and banner-bearer of Ereinion Gil-galad. When
in later days he wedded Celebrian, daughter of Galadriel and
Celeborn, the two lines of descent from Finwe, from Fingol-
fin and Finarfin, were united and continued in Arwen their
daughter.(53)
The names Elros and Elrond, the last of the descendants of
Finwe born in the Elder Days, were formed to recall the name
of their mother Elwing. The meaning of wing is uncertain, since
it occurs in no other personal name, nor in the records of either
Sindarin or Quenya. Some of the loremasters, remembering that
after their return to a second life Beren and Luthien dwelt in
Ossiriand,(54) and that there Dior dwelt after the fall of Doriath
among the Green Elves of that forest country, have supposed
that suing is a word of the tongue of the Green Elves; but little
was preserved of that tongue after the destruction of Beleriand,
and the interpretation of wing as meaning 'foam, spume, spin-
drift' as of water blown by the wind, or falling steeply over
rocks, is but a likely guess. It is supported, however, by the fact
that Ossiriand was a land cloven by seven rivers (as its name
signifies), and that these fell steeply and very swift from the
Mountains of Ered Lindon. Beside one great waterfall, called in
Sindarin Lanthir Lamath ('waterfall of echoing voices'), Dior
had his house. Moreover the name Elros (in Quenya form
Elerosse) means 'star foam', sc. starlit foam.(55)
The numbered notes to the preceding text are given on pp. 356 ff., but
the following editorial notes on Gil-galad and Felagund are most
conveniently placed here.
The parentage of Gil-galad.
My father originally supposed that Gil-galad was the son of Felagund
King of Nargothrond. This is probably first found in a revision to the
text FN II of The Fall of Numenor (V.33); but it remained his belief
until after the completion of The Lord of the Rings, as is seen from the
major early text of the Tale of Years (p. 173), and from Of the Rings
of Power, where in the published text (The Silmarillion p. 286) Fingon
is an editorial alteration of Felagund. In additions of uncertain date
made to the Quenta Silmarillion (XI.242) it is told that Felagund sent
away his wife and his son Gil-galad from Nargothrond to the Havens
of the Falas for their safety. It is to be noted also that in the text of the
Tale of Years just referred to not only was Gil-galad the son of Fela-
gund but Galadriel was Gil-galad's sister (and so Felagund's daughter):
see pp. 174 and 185 note 10.
It emerged, however, in the Grey Annals of 1951 (XI.44, $108) that
Felagund had no wife, for the Vanya Amarie whom he loved had not
been permitted to leave Aman.
Here something must be said of Orodreth, son of Finarfin and
brother of Felagund, who became the second King of Nargothrond
(for intimations of the decline in importance of Orodreth in earlier
phases of the legendarium see III.91, 246, V.239; also Unfinished Tales
p, 255 note 20). In the genealogical tables of the descendants of Finwe,
which can be dated to 1959 but which my father was still using and
altering when he wrote the excursus to The Shibboleth of Feanor
(see note 26), the curious history of Orodreth can be traced. Put as
concisely as possible, Finrod (Felagund) was first given a son named
Artanaro Rhodothir (so contradicting the story in the Grey Annals
that he had no wife) the second King of Nargothrond, and father of
Finduilas. Thus 'Orodreth' was now moved down a generation,
becoming Finrod's son rather than his brother. In the next stage my
father (recalling, apparently, the story in the Grey Annals) noted that
Finrod 'had no child {he left his wife in Aman)', and moved Artanaro
Rhodothir to become, still in the same generation, the son of Finrod's
brother Angrod (who with Aegnor held the heights of Dorthonion and
was slain in the Battle of Sudden Flame).
The name of Angrod's son (still retaining the identity of 'Orodreth')
was then changed from Artanaro to Artaresto. In an isolated note
found with the genealogies, scribbled at great speed but nonetheless
dated, August 1965, my father suggested that the best solution to
the problem of Gil-galad's parentage was to find him in 'the son
of Orodreth', who is here given the Quenya name of Artaresto, and
continued:
Finrod left his wife in Valinor and had no children in exile. Angrod's
son was Artaresto, who was beloved by Finrod and escaped when
Angrod was slain, and dwelt with Finrod. Finrod made him his
'steward' and he succeeded him in Nargothrond. His Sindarin name
was Rodreth (altered to Orodreth because of his love of the moun-
tains ....... His children were Finduilas and Artanaro = Rodnor
later called Gil-galad. (Their mother was a Sindarin lady of the
North. She called her son Gil-galad.) Rodnor Gil-galad escaped and
eventually came to Sirion's Mouth and was King of the Noldor
there.
The words that I cannot read contain apparently a preposition and
a proper name, and this latter could be Faroth (the High Faroth west
of the river Narog). - In the last of the genealogical tables Artanaro
(Rodnor) called Gil-galad appears, with the note that 'he escaped and
dwelt at Sirion's Mouth'. The only further change was the rejection of
the name Artaresto and its replacement by Artaher, Sindarin Arothir;
and thus in the excursus (note 23) Arothir [Orodreth] is named as
Finrod's 'kinsman and steward', and (note 47) Gil-galad is 'the son of
Arothir, nephew of Finrod'. The final genealogy was:
Finrod Felagund Angrod
Artaher/Arothir [Orodreth]
Artanaro/Rodnor/Gil-galad
Since Finduilas remained without correction in the last of the
genealogies as the daughter of Arothir, she became the sister of Gil-
galad.
There can be no doubt that this was my father's last word on the
subject; but nothing of this late and radically altered conception ever
touched the existing narratives, and it was obviously impossible to
introduce it into the published Silmarillion. It would nonetheless have
been very much better to have left Gil-galad's parentage obscure.
I should mention also that in the published text of Aldarion
and Erendis (Unfinished Tales p. 199) the letter of Gil-galad to Tar-
Meneldur opens 'Ereinion Gil-galad son of Fingon', but the original
has 'Finellach Gil-galad of the House of Finarfin' (where Finellach was
changed from Finhenlach, and that from Finlachen). For the name
Ereinion see p. 347 and note 47. So also in the text of A Description
of the Island of Numenor (Unfinished Tales p. 168) I printed 'King
Gil-galad of Lindon' where the original has 'King Finellach Gil-galad
of Lindon'; I retained however the words 'his kinswoman Galadriel',
since Fingon and Galadriel were first cousins. There is no trace among
the many notes and suggestions written onto the genealogical tables
of a proposed descent of Gil-galad from Finarfin; but in any case
Aldarion and Erendis and the closely related Description of Numenor
preceded by some time (I would now be inclined to date them to about
1960) the making of Gil-galad into the grandson of Angrod, with the
name Artanaro Rodnor, which first appears as a new decision in the
note of August 1965 given above. Much closer analysis of the admit-
tedly extremely complex material than I had made twenty years ago
makes it clear that Gil-galad as the son of Fingon (see XI.56, 243) was
an ephemeral idea.
The Dwarvish origin of the name Felagund.
Among the notes accompanying the Elvish genealogies and dated
December 1959 (see note 26) the following should be recorded. I have
mentioned (XI.179) that against the name Felagund in the chapter Of
the Siege of Angband in the Quenta Silmarillion (where it was said
that 'the Gnomes of the North, at first in jest, called him ... Felagund,
or "lord of caverns" ') my father noted on the late typescript: 'This was
in fact a Dwarfish name; for Nargothrond was first made by Dwarves
as is later recounted.' The statement in the 1959 notes is as follows:
The name Felagund was of Dwarvish origin. Finrod had help of
Dwarves in extending the underground fortress of Nargothrond.
It is supposed originally to have been a hall of the Petty-dwarves
(Nibinnogs), but the Great Dwarves despised these, and had no
compunction in ousting them - hence Mim's special hatred for the
Elves - especially for great reward. Finrod had brought more trea-
sure out of Tuna than any of the other princes.
Felagund: Dwarvish v felek hew rock, felak a tool like a broad-
bladed chisel, or small axe-head without haft, for cutting stone; to
use this tool. v gunud equivalent of Eldarin s-rot: (56) gundu under-
ground hall. felakgundu, felaggundu 'cave-hewer'. This name was
given because of Finrod's skill in lighter stone-carving. He cut many
of the adornments of the pillars and walls in Nargothrond. He was
proud of the name. But it was often by others Eldarized into
Felagon, as if it had the same ending (*-kano) as in Fingon, Turgon;
and the first element was associated with Sindarin fael 'fair-minded,
just, generous', Quenya faila (? from v phaya 'spirit', adjectival
formation meaning 'having a good fea, or a dominant fea').
This note is the basis of the brief statement in the index to the
published Silmarillion, entry Felagund.
The names of the Sons of Feanor
with the legend of the fate of Amrod.
My father did not fulfil his intention to give in the 'excursus' an
account of the names of the Sons of Feanor (see note 32), but some
pages of initial drafting are extant. The text begins legibly in ink, but
at the end of the list of 'mother-names' changes to ball-point pen, and
the legend of Amrod and Amras would be too illegible to reproduce
had not my father gone over it and glossed the worst parts more
clearly. There are many experimental etymological notes on the
Eldarin words referring to red colour and copper, and on the names of
the twin brothers, which are here omitted. In the first list I have added
the Sindarin names for clarity.
(1) [Maedros] Nelyafinwe 'Finwe third' in succession.(57)
(Nelyo)
(2) [Maglor] Kanafinwe 'strong-voiced or ?commanding'.
(Kano) (58)
(3) [Celegorm] Turkafinwe 'strong, powerful (in body)'.
(Turko)
(4) [Curufin] Kurufinwe Feanor's own name; given to this,
his favourite son, because he alone showed in some
degree the same temper and talents. He also resembled
Feanor very much in face. (Kurvo)
(5) [Caranthir] Morifinwe 'dark' - he was black-haired as
his grandfather. (Moryo)
(6) [Amrod] Pityafinwe 'Little Finwe'. (Pityo) (59)
(7) [Amras] Telufinwe Last Finwe'. (Telvo) (60)
Their 'mother-names' are recorded (though never used in
narrative) as:
(1) Maitimo 'well-shaped one': he was of beautiful bodily
form. But he, and the youngest, inherited the rare red-
brown hair of Nerdanel's kin, Her father had the epesse
of rusco 'fox'. So Maitimo had as an epesse given by his
brothers and other kin Russandol 'copper-top'.(61)
(2) Makalaure Of uncertain meaning. Usually interpreted
(and said to have been a 'prophetic' mother-name) as
'forging gold'. If so, probably a poetic reference to his
skill in harping, the sound of which was 'golden' (laure
was a word for golden light or colour, never used for the
metal).
(3) Tyelkormo 'hasty-riser'. Quenya tyelka 'hasty'. Possibly in
reference to his quick temper, and his habit of leaping up
when suddenly angered.
(4) Atarinke 'little father' - referring to his physical likeness
(5) to Feanor, later found to be also seen in his mind.
Carnistir 'red-face' - he was dark (brown) haired, but had
the ruddy complexion of his mother.
(6) Ambarto (62)
(7) Ambarussa
These two names of [the] twins (i Wenyn) were evidently meant
to begin similarly. Ambarussa 'top-russet' must have referred to
hair: the first and last of Nerdanel's children had the reddish
hair of her kin. Around the name Ambarto [> Umbarto] -
which one might expect to begin with an element of the same
sense as (7) - much legend and discussion gathered. The most
authentic seems to be thus:
The two twins were both red-haired. Nerdanel gave them
both the name Ambarussa - for they were much alike and
remained so while they lived. When Feanor begged that their
names should at least be different Nerdanel looked strange,
and after a while said: 'Then let one be called [Ambarto >]
Umbarto, but which, time will decide.'
Feanor was disturbed by this ominous name ('Fated'),
and changed it to Ambarto - or in some versions thought
Nerdanel had said Ambarto, using the same first element as in
Ambarussa (sc. amba + Quenya arta 'exalted, lofty'). But
Nerdanel said: Umbarto I spoke,. yet do as you wish. It will
make no difference.'
Later, as Feanor became more and more fell and violent, and
rebelled against the Valar, Nerdanel, after long endeavouring
to change his mood, became estranged. (Her kin were devoted
to Aule, who counselled her father to take no part in the rebel-
lion. 'It will in the end only lead Feanor and all your children to
death.') She retired to her father's house; but when it became
clear that Feanor and his sons would leave Valinor for ever, she
came to him before the host started on its northward march,
and begged that Feanor should leave her the two youngest, the
twins, or one at least of them. He replied: 'Were you a true wife,
as you had been till cozened by Aule, you would keep all of
them, for you would come with us. If you desert me, you desert
also all of our children. For they are determined to go with their
father.' Then Nerdanel was angry and she answered: 'You will
not keep all of them. One at least will never set foot on Middle-
earth.' 'Take your evil omens to the Valar who will delight in
them,' said Feanor. 'I defy them'. So they parted.
Now it is told how Feanor stole the ships of the Teleri, and
breaking faith with Fingolfin and with those faithful to him
sailed away in them to Middle-earth, leaving the rest of his host
to make their way on foot with great travail and loss. The ships
were anchored off the shore, in the Firth of Drengist, and all the
host of Feanor went on land and camped there.
In the night Feanor, filled with malice, aroused Curufin, and
with him and a few of those most close to Feanor in obedience
he went to the ships and set them all aflame; and the dark sky
was red as with a terrible dawn. All the camp was roused, and
Feanor returning said: 'Now at least I am certain that no faint-
heart or traitor among you will be able to take back even one
ship to the succour of Fingolfin and his folk.' But all save few
were dismayed, because there were many things still aboard
that they had not yet brought ashore, and the ships would have
been useful for further journeying. They were still far north and
had purposed to sail southward to some better haven.
In the morning the host was mustered, but of Feanor's seven
sons only six were to be found. Then Ambarussa (6) went pale
with fear. 'Did you not then rouse Ambarussa my brother
(whom you called Ambarto)?' he said. 'He would not come
ashore to sleep (he said) in discomfort.' But it is thought (and no
doubt Feanor guessed this also) that it was in the mind of
Ambarto to sail his ship back [?afterwards] and rejoin
Nerdanel; for he had been much [?shocked](63) by the deed of his
father.(64)
'That ship I destroyed first,' said Feanor (hiding his own dis-
may). 'Then rightly you gave the name to the youngest of your
children,' said Ambarussa, 'and Umbarto "the Fated" was its
true form. Fell and fey are you become.' And after that no one
dared speak again to Feanor of this matter.(65)
For the mention, in a note on the typescript of the Annals of Aman,
of the story of the death of one of the twin-brothers in the burning of
the ships at Losgar see X.128, $162; and for the account of Nerdanel
and her estrangement from Feanor in late rewriting of the Quenta
Silmarillion see X.272-3, 279.
The material concerning the names of the twin brothers is confused
and confusing, clearly because it was only as my father worked on
them that the strange and sinister story emerged. It seems to me very
probable that when he gave the mother-names (6) Ambarto and (7)
Ambarussa it had not yet arisen, nor yet when he began the note
that follows the list of the mother-names, saying that 'the first and
last of Nerdanel's children had the reddish hair of her kin' - that is
Maedros with his nickname Russandol and the younger of the twins
Ambarussa (Amras).
The story first emerged, I think, with the words 'The most authentic
seems to be thus: The two twins were both red-haired. Nerdanel gave
them both the name Ambarussa ...' It was then, no doubt, that my
father changed the name Ambarto to Umbarto in the list and reversed
the names of the twin brothers (see note 62), so that Ambarussa
becomes the elder of the two and Ambarto/Umbarto the youngest of
Feanor's children, as he is in the legend told here.
At the head of the first page of this text concerning the names of the
Sons of Feanor my father wrote, when the story was now in being:
All the sons save Curufin preferred their mother-names and were
ever afterwards remembered by them. The twins called each other
Ambarussa. The name Ambarto/Umbarto was used by [?no one].
The twins remained alike, but the elder grew darker in hair, and
was more dear to his father. After childhood they [?were not to be]
confused....
Thus in the legend 'Ambarussa (6)' asked Feanor whether he had not
roused 'Ambarussa my brother' before setting fire to the ships.
NOTES.
1. [This heading is derived from the opening sentence of the essay,
which is in fact 'The case of p > s is more difficult.' I have not
been able to discover the reference of this. The typescript is extant
as a separate whole, paginated consecutively from A to T.)
2. Few of these can have been carried from Valinor, and fewer still
can have survived the journey to Middle-earth; but the memory
of the loremasters was prodigious and accurate.
3. [The term Ingwi seems not to have been used since the Lhammas
of the 1930s, where Ingwelindar or Ingwi' appears as the name
of the house and people of Ingwe, chief among the First Kindred
of the Elves (then called the Lindar), V.171. For the much later
application of the term Lindar see XI.381-2.]
4. Without special study. But many of the Noldor could speak
Telerin and vice versa. There were in fact some borrowings from
one to another; of which the most notable was the general use of
the Telerin form telpe 'silver' for pure Quenya tyelpe. [For the
substitution of telpe see Unfinished Tales p. 266.]
5. They continued to deplore it, and were able to insist later that
the distinction between older p and s should at least always be
preserved in writing.
6. [See the Note on Mother-names at the end of the essay, p. 339. It
is not stated elsewhere that Serinde was Miriel's 'mother-name'.]
7. [It had been said several times in the later Quenta Silmarillion
texts that Feanaro was a 'name of insight' given to him by Miriel
at his birth; moreover in the story of Miriel when it first appeared
her spirit passed to Mandos soon after Feanor was born, and
it is expressly said in Laws and Customs among the Eldar
that he never saw his mother (X.217). The story has now been
altogether changed in this aspect: Miriel named him with this
name 'in recognition of his impetuous character'; 'while she lived
she did much with gentle counsel to soften and restrain him'; and
subsequently 'her weariness she had endured until he was full
grown, but she could endure it no longer'. After Miriel's 'death'
or departure 'for a while he also had kept vigil by his mother's
body, but soon he became wholly absorbed again in his own
works and devices' (p. 335).]
8. [A full account of other texts bearing on this matter is given
in X.205-7, 225 - 7, 233 - 71. These texts are substantially
earlier than the present essay (see X.300), which is by no means
entirely congruent with them.]
9. [Elsewhere Ezellohar is the name not of the plain but of the Green
Mound on which grew the Two Trees (X.69, etc.); while in
Quendi and Eldar (XI.399, 401) Korollaire is said to be a trans-
lation of the Valarin name Ezellohar, of which the first element
ezel, ezella meant 'green'. But perhaps by 'the plain of Ezello-
har' my father meant 'the plain in which stood the mound of
Ezellohar'.]
10. Doubting that the test of a few years could show that the will of
any one of the Children was fixed immovably; and foreboding
that breaking the law would have evil consequences.
11. Death by free will, such as Miriel's, was beyond his thought.
Death by violence he thought impossible in Aman; though as is
recorded in The Silmarillion this proved otherwise.
12. [With a necessary change in the opening sentence, the following
passage, as far as 'and passing the last test departed from Middle-
earth for ever' on p. 338, was printed in Unfinished Tales, pp.
229-31 - since it is of great importance in the history of Galadriel
- but with no indication of its context: it seems desirable there-
fore to give it again here.]
13. [Elwe's name Pindikollo (elsewhere Sindikollo, Sindicollo) was
omitted from the text in Unfinished Tales.]
14. Who together with the greatest of all the Eldar, Luthien Tinuviel,
daughter of Elu Thingol, are the chief matter of the legends and
histories of the Elves.
15. It is not even certain that all Feanor's sons continued to use p
after his death and the healing of the feud by the renowned deed
of Fingon son of Fingolfin in rescuing Maedhros [> Maedros]
from the torments of Morgoth.
16. [The wholly different account of 'Chosen Names' in Laws and
Customs among the Eldar (X.214-15) appears to have been
abandoned.)
17. As is seen in The Silmarillion. This is not an Eldarin title or work.
It is a compilation, probably made in Numenor, which includes
(in prose) the four great tales or lays of the heroes of the Atani,
of which 'The Children of Hurin' was probably composed
already in Beleriand in the First Age, but necessarily is preceded
by an account of Feanor and his making of the Silmarils. All how-
ever are 'Mannish' works. [With this cf. X.373 and p. 390, note
17 in this book.]
18. Notably in Manu e, the Quenya name of the 'Elder King', the
chief of the Valar. This is said to have been of the same age as the
names Ingwe, etc., and to contain the Valarin element aman, man
'blessed, holy' learned from Orome, and of course unconnected
with the Eldarin interrogative element ma, man. [See XI.399.]
19. He had black hair, but brilliant grey-blue eyes.
20. Connexion with Telerin vola 'a roller, long wave', which was
sometimes made by the Teleri themselves, was not a serious
'etymology' but a kind of pun; for the king's name was not
normally Volwe (Common Eldarin *wolwe) but Olwe in Telerin
as in Quenya, and w was not lost before o in Telerin as it was
in Quenya. Also the connexion of the Teleri with sea-faring
developed long after the naming of Olwe.
21. It was otherwise in written histories (which were by the Noldor
in any case mostly composed in Quenya). Also the names of
'foreign persons' who did not dwell in Beleriand and were seldom
mentioned in daily speech were usually left unaltered. Thus the
names of the Valar which they had devised in Valinor were not as
a rule changed, whether they fitted Sindarin style or not. The
Sindar knew little of the Valar and had no names for any of them,
save Orome (whom all the Eldar had seen and known); and
Manwe and Varda of whose eminence they had been instructed
by Orome; and the Great Enemy whom the Noldor called
Melkor. For Orome a name had been made in Primitive Eldarin
(recalling the sound of his great horn) of which Orome was the
Quenya form, though in Sindarin it had become Araw, and by the
Sindar he was later more often called (Aran) Tauron 'the (king)
forester'. Manwe and Varda they knew only by the names 'Elder
King' and 'Star-queen': Aran Einior and Elbereth. Melkor they
called Morgoth 'the Black Enemy', refusing to use the Sindarin
form of Melkor: Belegur 'he that arises in might', save (but
rarely) in a deliberately altered form Belegurth 'Great Death'.
These names Tauron, Aran Einior, Elbereth, and Morgoth the
Noldor adopted and used when speaking Sindarin.
[For the association of the name Orome' with that of his great
horn see XI.400 - 1. - The names Belegur, Belegurth have been
mentioned in the index to the published Silmarillion, which here
derives from the present note. Very many years before, the name
Belegor is found as an ephemeral name of Morgoth in The Lay
of the Children of Hurin (III.21, note 22).]
22. His sons were too occupied in war and feuds to pay attention
to such matters, save Maglor who was a poet, and Curufin, his
fourth and favourite son to whom he gave his own name; but
Curufin was most interested in the alien language of the Dwarves,
being the only one of the Noldor to win their friendship. It was
from him that the loremasters obtained such knowledge as they
could of the Khuzdul.
23. Nor were the 'loremasters' a separate guild of gentle scribes,
soon burned by the Orks of Angband upon pyres of books. They
were mostly even as Feanor, the greatest, kings, princes and
warriors, such as the valiant captains of Gondolin, or Finrod
of Nargothrond and Rodothir [> Arothir] his kinsman and
steward. [For Arothir see the note on the parentage of Gil-galad,
pp. 349-51.]
24. And as some insurance against their own death. For books were
made only in strong places at a time when death in battle was
likely to befall any of the Eldar, but it was not yet believed that
Morgoth could ever capture or destroy their fortresses.
25. [In an addition to the Annals of Aman Feanor's first name is given
as 'Minyon First-begotten' (X.87); in Laws and Customs among
the Eldar his first name was Finwe, in the second version Finwion
(X.217 and note 20). For previous references to Kurufinwe see
the index to Vol.X (Curufinwe); and with the mention here of the
form Faenor cf. X.217, footnote.]
26. [In The War of the Jewels I referred to a set of Elvish genealogies
with a clear resemblance to those of the Edain given in that book:
see XI.229, where I noted that the former are followed by notes
expressly relating to them and dated December 1959. These
genealogies are almost exclusively concerned with the descend-
ants of Finwe, and are set out in four separate tables, all appar-
ently belonging to much the same time, and showing the same
sort of development in stages as is seen in those of the houses of
the Edain. At least eight years and probably more divide them
from the present 'excursus', whose date is fixed as not earlier than
February 1968; but my father clearly had them in front of him
when he wrote this, and alterations made to the latest of the four
agree with statements made in it. In all these tables there are still
three daughters of Finwe and Indis: Findis, Faniel, and Irime (see
X.207, 238, and also X.262, where Finvain appears for Irime),
and no correction was made. In the excursus Faniel has dis-
appeared, and the younger daughter appears both as Irime and
Irien (see note 28).]
27. If he ever did so. Little has been ever heard in Middle-earth of
Aman after the departure of the Noldor. Those who returned
thither have never come back, since the change of the world. To
Numenor in its first days they went often, but small part of the
lore and histories of Numenor survived its Downfall. [With the
words in the text at this point concerning Indis cf. Laws and
Customs among the Eldar (X.249 and note 17), where Finwe in
Mandos said to Vaire: 'But Indis parted from me without death.
I had not seen her for many years, and when the Marrer smote
me I was alone.... Little comfort should I bring her, if I
returned.']
28. [It is strange that my father should give the name of the second
daughter of Finwe as both Irime and Irien within the space of a
few lines. Possibly he intended Irien at the first occurrence but
inadvertently wrote Irime, the name found in all the genealogies
(note 26).]
29. But the true equivalent in Sindarin was Gladwen (Common
Eldarin stem g-lada- > Quenya lala-, Telerin glada, Sindarin
glad-).
30. 'Wisdom' - but not in the sense 'sagacity, sound judgement
(founded on experience and sufficient knowledge)'; 'Knowledge'
would be nearer, or 'Philosophy' in its older applications which
included Science. Nolme was thus distinct from Kurwe 'technical
skill and invention', though not necessarily practised by distinct
persons. The stem appeared in Quenya (in which it was most
used) in forms developed from Common Eldarin ngol-, ngolo-,
with or without syllabic n: as in *Ngolodo > Quenya Noldo
(Telerin golodo, Sindarin golod) - the Noldor had been from the
earliest times most eminent in and concerned with this kind of
'wisdom'; nolme a department of wisdom (science etc.); Ingole
(ngole) Science/Philosophy as a whole; nolmo a wise person;
ingolemo one with very great knowledge, a 'wizard'. This last
word was however archaic and applied only to great sages of the
Eldar in Valinor (such as Rumil). The wizards of the Third Age -
emissaries from the Valar - were called Istari 'those who know'.
The form Ingoldo may be noted: it is a form of Noldo with
syllabic n, and being in full and more dignified form is more
or less equivalent to 'the Noldo, one eminent in the kindred'. It
was the mother-name of Arafinwe [Finarfin], and like the name
Arakano 'high chieftain' that Indis gave to Nolofinwe [Fingolfin]
was held to be 'prophetic'. Earwen gave this name [Ingoldo] to
her eldest child Artafinde (Finrod), and by it he was usually called
by his brothers and sister who esteemed him and loved him. It
was never Sindarized (the form would have been Angolod ). The
name spread from his kin to many others who held him in
honour, especially to Men (the Atani) of whom he was the great-
est friend among the Eldar. Thus later it became frequent as a
given name in Numenor, and continued to be so in Gondor,
though reduced in the Common Speech to Ingold. One such
Ingold appears in The Lord of the Rings as the commander of the
guard of the North Gate into the Pelennor of Gondor.
[In earlier texts (see X.265 note 10) the name Ingoldo was the
mother-name of Nolofinwe (Fingolfin), 'signifying that he came
of both the kin of the Ingar and of the Noldor'; while the mother-
name of Arafinwe (Finarfin) was Ingalaure 'for he had the golden
hair of his mother's people'. Apart from the first one, the
genealogical tables give Fingolfin and Finarfin the mother-names
Arakano and Ingoldo as here.]
31. Except for Finarfin as the name of his younger brother. This was
also the only name of a Noldo who did not come into exile to
receive a Sindarin form. This was because Arafinwe's children
had a special position among the exiles, especially in relation to
King Thingol of Doriath, their kinsman, and were often referred
to collectively by the Sindar as 'the children of Finarfin' or the
Nothrim [> Nost] Finarfin, 'the house/family of Finarfin'.
32. [In the text at this point there is a reference forward to discussion
of the names of the Sons of Feanor, but this was not reached
in the typescript before it was abandoned; see pp. 352 ff.]
33. As he said with some justice: 'My brother's claim rests only upon
a decree of the Valar; but of what force is that for those who have
rejected them and seek to escape from their prison-land?' But
Fingolfin answered: 'I have not rejected the Valar, nor their
authority in all matters where it is just for them to use it. But if
the Eldar were given free choice to leave Middle-earth and go to
Aman, and accepted it because of the loveliness and bliss of that
land, their free choice to leave it and return to Middle-earth,
when it has become dark and desecrated, cannot be taken away.
Moreover I have an errand in Middle-earth, the avenging of the
blood of my father upon Morgoth, whom the Valar let loose
among us. Feanor seeks first his stolen treasures.'
[It is said in the text at this point that Fingolfin claimed to be
'the chieftain of all the Noldor after the death of Finwe', and the
same was said in the essay proper (p. 336). All the texts agree
that after the banishment of Feanor from Tirion, and the depar-
ture of Finwe with him to Formenos, Fingolfin ruled the Noldor
in Tirion; and it was said in the Quenta Silmarillion (see IV.95,
V.235) that afterwards, when the Flight of the Noldor began,
those of Tirion 'would not now renounce the kingship of
Fingolfin'. On the other hand, in the final story of the events
leading to the Flight, when Feanor and Fingolfin had become
half-brothers, they were reconciled 'in word' before the throne of
Manwe at the fateful festival; and in that reconciliation Fingolfin
said to Feanor: Thou shalt lead and I will follow (see X.197,
287).]
34. [On Anaire wife of Fingolfin and Elenwe wife of Turgon see
XI.323, $12; and on Arakano, Sindarin Argon, see note 38.]
35. [In all the genealogical tables Fingon's Quenya name is Finicano
except in the last, in which it is Findicano (altered to Findecano).
In all the tables he is marked as having a wife, though she is not
named; in the first, two children are named, Ernis and Finbor,
Ernis subsequently becoming Erien, but in the final table they
were struck out, with the note that Fingon 'had no child or
wife'.]
36. It was a derivative of Common Eldarin KAN 'cry, call aloud',
which developed divergent meanings (like 'call' in English or the
Germanic stem hait-) depending on the purposes for which a loud
voice would be used: e.g. to take an oath, make a vow or promise;
to announce important news, or messages and orders; to issue
orders and commands in person; to 'call for' - to name a thing or
person desired, to summons; to call a person by name, to name.
Not all of these were found in any one of the later languages
(Quenya, Telerin, Sindarin). In Quenya the sense command had
become the usual one: to issue orders in person, whether by
derived authority or one's own; when applied to things it meant
demand. In archaic language the older and simplest agental form
*kano > kano still had the sense 'crier, or herald', and kanwa 'an
announcement' as well as 'an order' - later terkano (one through
whom orders or announcements are made) was used for 'herald'.
In Telerin cano meant 'herald', and the verb can- was mostly used
in the sense 'cry aloud, call', but also 'to summons or name a
person'. In Sindarin can- was used for 'cry out, shout, call', with
implications supplied by the context; it never meant either 'order'
or 'name'; caun (*kana) meant 'outcry, clamour', often in plural
form conath when referring to many voices, and often applied
to lamentation (though not as English 'cry' to weeping tears): cf.
naergon 'woeful lament'.
37. Common Eldarin *phini- a single hair, *phinde a tress; Sindarin
fin; find, finn-.
38. When the onset of the Orks caught the host at unawares as they
marched southwards and the ranks of the Eldar were giving way,
he sprang forward and hewed a path through the foes, daunted
by his stature and the terrible light of his eyes, till he came to
the Ork-captain and felled him. Then though he himself was
surrounded and slain, the Orks were dismayed, and the Noldor
pursued them with slaughter.
[The third son of Fingolfin, Arakano (Argon), emerged in
the course of the making of the genealogies. A pencilled note
on the last of the four tables says that he fell in the fighting at
Alqualonde; this was struck out, and my father noted that a
preferable story was that he perished in the Ice. It is curious that
this third son, of whom there had never before been any mention,
entered (as it seems) without a story, and the manner of his death
was twice changed before the remarkable appearance here of
'the first battle of Fingolfin's host with the Orks, the Battle of the
Lammoth', in which he fell. In the account in the Grey Annals
(XI.30) Fingolfin, after the passage of the Helkaraxe, 'marched
from the North unopposed through the fastness of the realm of
Morgoth, and he passed over Dor-Daedeloth, and his foes hid
beneath the earth'; whereas in the present note his host was
attacked in Lammoth 'at unawares as they marched southwards'
(see the map, XI.182).]
39. [All the genealogical tables give the name of Fingolfin's daughter
as Irisse (frith); in the last of them frith was changed to Ireth, the
form found here, but later still both names were struck out and
replaced by (Ar) Feiniel 'White Lady' (on this see XI.317-18, and
409 with note 34).
There is a strange confusion in this paragraph. Above, my
father said that Irisse was 'under the protection of' Turukano
(Turgon) her brother and his wife Elenwe; but here Irisse is the
daughter of Elenwe who perished in the Ice. This cannot be
rectified by the substitution of the correct name (Anaire for
Elenwe, or Itaril for Irisse, Ireth), because he was expressly
writing of Elenwe and expressly writing of Irisse.]
40. [Turgon's saving of his daughter Idril Celebrindal from death in
the Helkaraxe has not been referred to before.]
41. [Arothir has been named earlier (note 23) as the 'kinsman and
steward' of Finrod; see also note 47.]
42. (1) it in itila 'twinkling, glinting', and ita 'a flash', ita- verb 'to
sparkle'. (2) ril- 'brilliant light': cf. silmaril(le), the name given by
Feanor to his three Jewels. The first was especially applied to the
bright lights of the eyes, which were a mark of all the High Eldar
who had ever dwelt in Valinor, and at times in later ages re-
appeared in their descendants among mortal men, whether from
Itaril or Luthien.
43. *arat- was an extended form of the stem ara- 'noble'. The deriva-
tive arata was much used as an adjective in Telerin and Sindarin
(Telerin arata, Sindarin arod). In Quenya it had become special-
ized, and mainly used in Aratar 'the Exalted', the Nine of the
chief Valar. It was however still used in noble names.
44. [On p. 346 my father said that of the children of Finarfin the
mother-names were remembered only in the cases of Finrod
(Ingoldo) and Galadriel (Nerwende); he omitted to mention
Aikanaro.]
45. Quenya aika was derived from a Common Eldarin stem GAYA
'awe, dread'; but the adjectival form *gayaka from which aika
descended was not preserved in Telerin or Sindarin. Other deriva-
tives were *gaya 'terror, great fear': Telerin gaia, Sindarin goe,
Quenya aya. Adjectives formed on this, Telerin gaiala, Sindarin
goeol, replaced Quenya aika. In a name of this sort in Sindarin
the noun would most naturally have been used, producing goe-
naur > Goenor. Also *Gayar- 'the Terrifier', the name made for
the Sea, the vast and terrifying Great Sea of the West, when the
Eldar first came to its shores: Quenya Ear, Earen, Telerin gaiar;
Sindarin gaear, gae(a)ron, Belegaer. This word is also found in
the Quenya name Earendil, the mariner (sea-lover); see p. 348.
The stem acquired in Quenya a specially high and noble sense
- except in ear, though that was also majestic in its vastness and
power; and aika, though that was seldom applied to evil things.
Thus Quenya aya meant rather 'awe' than 'fear', profound
reverence and sense of one's own littleness in the presence of
things or persons majestic and powerful. The adjective aira was
the nearest equivalent to 'holy'; and the noun aire to 'sanctity'.
Aire was used by the Eldar as a title of address to the Valar and
the greater Mayar. Varda would be addressed as Aire Tari. (Cf.
Galadriel's Lament, where it is said that the stars trembled at
the sound of the holy queen's voice: the prose or normal form of
which would have been tintilar lirinen omaryo Aire-tario.) This
change, though possible to have occurred (as it has in our 'awe')
without extraneous influence, was said by the loremasters to have
been partly due to the influence of the Valarin language, in which
ayanu- was the name of the Spirits of Eru's first creation. [With
the last sentence of this note cf. XI.399.]
46. [On the remarkable change whereby Celeborn (Teleporno)
became a Telerin Elf of Aman see Unfinished Tales pp. 231-3,
where the present passage is cited. The etymology of Galadriel
that follows in the text was used for the account of the name in
the Appendix to The Silmarillion, entry kal-.]
47. He was the son of Arothir, nephew of Finrod. [See the note on the
parentage of Gil-galad, pp. 349 ff. - From this work was derived
Gil-galad's name Ereinion introduced into The Silmarillion.]
48. [Earlier (p. 346) the name is Itarille; Itarilde appears in the first
three genealogical tables, but the fourth has ltarille'.]
49. These names were given in the language of that kindred of
the Atani (Edain) - but adapted to Sindarin - from which in the
main the Adunaic or native Atanic language of Numenor was
descended. Their explanation is not here attempted.
50. [The term Pereldar 'Half-eldar' was originally used of the
Nandor or Danas (see V.200, 215), but it is here used as is the
Sindarin form Peredhil in Appendix A (I, i) of Elrond and Elros;
cf. i-Pheredhil p. 256, Peredil p. 348.]
51. [In the account of Ulmo's words to Tuor on the coast at Vinyamar
in the later Tale of Tuor the Vala did indeed allude prophetically
to Earendil, but in a manner far more veiled and mysterious:
'But it is not for thy valour only that I send thee, but to bring into
the world a hope beyond thy sight, and a light that shall pierce
the darkness' (Unfinished Tales p. 30).]
52. Forms affected by Sindarin in manuscripts, such as Aerendil,
Aerennel, etc. were casual and accidental.
53. When Aragorn, descended in long line from Elros, wedded
Arwen in the third union of Men and Elves, the lines of all the
Three Kings of the High Elves (Eldar), Ingwe, Finwe, and Olwe
and Elwe were united and alone preserved in Middle-earth. Since
Luthien was the noblest, and the most fair and beautiful, of all
the Children of Eru remembered in ancient story, the descendants
of that union were called 'the children of Luthien'. The world has
grown old in long years since then, but it may be that their line
has not yet ended. (Luthien was through her mother, Melian,
descended also from the Mayar, the people of the Valar, whose
being began before the world was made. Melian alone of all those
spirits assumed a bodily form, not only as a raiment but as a
permanent habitation in form and powers like to the bodies of
the Elves. This she did for love of Elwe; and it was permitted, no
doubt because this union had already been foreseen in the begin-
ning of things, and was woven into the Amarth of the world,
when Eru first conceived the being of his children, Elves and Men,
as is told (after the manner and according to the understanding
of his children) in that myth that is named The Music of the
Ainur.)
[As is said in the text at this point Arwen was descended from
Finwe both in the line of Fingolfin (through Elrond) and in the
line of Finarfin (through Celebrian); but she was also descended
from Elwe (Thingol) through Elrond's mother Elwing, and
through Galadriel's mother Earwen from Olwe of Alqualonde.
She was not directly descended from Ingwe, but her fore-mother
Indis was (in earlier texts) the sister of Ingwe (X.261-2, etc.), or
(in the present work, p. 343) the daughter of his sister. It is hard
to know what my father had in mind when he wrote the opening
of this note.]
54. Until they died the death of mortal Men, according to the decree
of the Valar, and left this world for ever.
55. [Here the typescript stops, not at the foot of a page; and at this
point my father wrote:
Alter this to: Wing. This word, which the loremasters ex-
plained as meaning 'foam, spindrift', only actually occurs in
two names of the Earendil legend: Elwing the name of his
wife, and (in Quenya form) Vingilote (translated in Adunaic
as Rothinzil) 'Foam-flower', the name of Earendil's ship. The
word is not otherwise known in Quenya or Sindarin - nor in
Telerin despite its large vocabulary of sea-words. There was a
tradition that the word came from the language of the Green
Elves of Ossiriand.]
56. [Elsewhere in these notes the stem rot, s-rot is given the meaning
'delve underground, excavate, tunnel', whence Quenya hrota
'dwelling underground, artificial cave or rockhewn hall', rotto 'a
small grot or tunnel'.]
57. ['Finwe third': his grandfather was Finwe, and his father Kuru-
finwe, first named Finwe also (p. 343).]
58. [Kano: see note 36.]
59. [The P of Pityafinwe, but not of the short form Pityo, was
changed to N.]
60. [Pityafinwe and Telufinwe are bracketed with the words
'Twins Gwenyn'.]
61. [On a separate page written at the same time is a note on the
father of Nerdanel (Feanor's wife);
Nerdanel's father was an 'Aulendil' [> 'Aulendur'], and
became a great smith. He loved copper, and set it above gold.
His name was [space; pencilled later Sarmo?], but he was most
widely known as Urundil 'copper-lover'. He usually wore a
band of copper about his head. His hair was not as dark or
black as was that of most of the Noldor, but brown, and had
glints of coppery-red in it. Of Nerdanel's seven children the
oldest, and the twins (a very rare thing among the Eldar) had
hair of this kind. The eldest also wore a copper circlet.
A note is appended to Aulendur:
'Servant of Aule': sc. one who was devoted to that Vala. It was
applied especially to those persons, or families, among the
Noldor who actually entered Aule's service, and who in return
received instruction from him.
A second note on this page comments on the name Urundil:
v RUN 'red, glowing', most often applied to things like
embers, hence adjective runya, Sindarin ruin ' "fiery" red'. The
Eldar had words for some metals, because under Orome's
instruction they had devised weapons against Morgoth's
servants especially on the March, but the only ones that appear
in all Eldarin languages were iron, copper, gold and silver
(ANGA, URUN> MALAT> KYELEP).
Earlier Nerdanel's father, the great smith, had been named
Mahtan (see X.272, 277), and he was so called in the published
Silmarillion. For earlier statements concerning the arming of the
Eldar on the Great Journey see X.276 - 7, 281.]
62. [Ambarto was changed to Umbarto, and the positions of Um-
barto and Ambarussa were reversed: see p. 355.]
63. ['shocked' was an uncertain interpretation on my father's part of
the illegible word.]
64. [The deed of his father: the treacherous taking of all the Telerian
ships for the passage of the Feanorians to Middle-earth.]
65. [The text ends with brief notes on the 'Sindarizing' of the Quenya
names of the Sons of Feanor, but these are too rapid, elliptical,
and illegible to be reproduced. It may be mentioned, however,
that Sindarin Maedros is explained as containing elements of
Nelyafinwe's mother-name Maitimo (Common Eldarin magit-
'shapely', Sindarin maed) and of his epesse Russandol (Common
Eldarin russa, Sindarin ross); and also that the Sindarin form of
Ambarussa (numbered 6, i.e. the elder twin) is here Amros, not
Amras.]
XII.
THE PROBLEM OF ROS.
In his last years my father attached the utmost importance to finding
explanations, in historical linguistic terms, of names that went far
back in the 'legendarium' (see for example his discussion of the very
old names Isfin and Eol in XI.317-18, 320), and if such names had
appeared in print he felt bound by them, and went to great pains to
devise etymologies that were consonant with the now minutely refined
historical development of Quenya and Sindarin. Most taxing of all
was the case of the name Elros, and others associated with it either in
form or through connection in the legends; but, equally character-
istically, his writings on this matter contain many observations of
interest beyond the detail of phonological history: for the linguistic
history and the 'legendarium' became less and less separable.
In the long excursus on the names of the descendants of Finwe given
in the last chapter he had said (p. 349) that Elros and Elrond were
'formed to recall the name of their mother Elwing', and he had noted
that the element wing occurs only in that name and in the name of
Earendil's ship Vingilote (p. 365, note 55): he referred to a speculation
of loremasters that wing was a word of the tongue of the Green-elves
of Ossiriand, whose meaning was guessed with some probability to be
'foam, spindrift'. The name Elros he stated there without hesitation to
mean 'star(lit) foam', in Quenya form Elerosse (but earlier, in Quendi
and Eldar (XI.414), he had said that the meaning was 'star-glitter',
while Elrond meant 'star-dome', as still in the present essay).
But this was not the last of his speculations on the matter, and there
are several typewritten texts that return to the problem (all of them
belonging to the same period, 1968 or later, as The Shibboleth of
Feanor, but certainly following that work). The most notable of these
I give in full. It has no title, but begins with a statement defining the
content:
The best solution of the difficulty presented by the name Elros, fixed
by mention in The Lord of the Rings, and the names of the sons of
Feanor: Maedros, the eldest, and Amros, now proposed as the name
of both the twins (sixth and seventh) - to which a story is attached
that it is desirable to retain.
This is a reference to the very rough manuscript text (appended to the
list of father-names and mother-names of the Sons of Feanor) in which
the extraordinary story of the twin brothers is told (pp. 353-5); for the
form Amros (not Amras) see p. 366, note 65.
The typescript was made very rapidly (with the usual number of
interspersed notes, among them two of great interest), and it has
required some editing, of a very minor kind, for the sake of clarity.
The one -ros was supposed (at its adoption) in Elros to contain
a Sindarin stem *ross- from base ROS 'spray, spindrift' (as scat-
tered by a wind from a fountain, waterfall, or breaking waves).(1)
The other is supposed to be a colour word, referring to the red,
red-brown hair of the first, sixth, and seventh sons of Feanor,
descending to them from their maternal grandfather, father of
Nerdanel, Feanor's wife, a great craftsman, devoted to the Vala
Aule.
It is difficult to accept these two homophonic elements -
of unconnected, indeed unconnectable, meanings - as used in
Sindarin, or Sindarized names.(2) It is also unfortunate that the
first appears too reminiscent of Latin ros ['dew'] or Greek
drosos, and the latter too close to well-known modern Euro-
pean 'red' words: as Latin russus, Italian rosso, English russet,
rust, etc. However, the Elvish languages are inevitably full of
such reminiscences, so that this is the lesser difficulty.
Proposed solution. Associate the name Elros with that of his
mother Elwing: both contain final elements that are isolated in
the legendary nomenclature (see note on wing in the discussion
of the Sindarizing of the Noldorin heroic names).(3) But instead
of deriving them from the Nandorin (or Green-elvish) of
Ossiriand, it would be an improvement to derive them from
the Mannish tongues: the language of Beren father of Dior;
both *ros and *wing could thus be removed from Eldarin. The
Adunaic of Numenor was mainly derived from that of the most
powerful and numerous people of 'the House of Hador'. This
was related to the speech of Beor's people who first entered
Beleriand (probably about as nearly as Noldorin Quenya to
Telerin of Valinor): communication between the two peoples
was possible but imperfect, mainly because of phonetic changes
in the Beorian dialect. The language of the Folk of Haleth, so far
as it was later known, appears to have been unrelated (unless in
remote origin) and unintelligible to the other two peoples.(4)
The folk of Beor continued to speak their own tongue among
themselves with fair purity, though many Sindarin words
were borrowed and adapted by them.(5) This was of course the
native tongue of Beren, lineal descendant of Beor the Old. He
spoke Sindarin after a fashion (probably derived from North
Sindarin); but his halting and dialectal use of it offended the
ears of King Thingol.(6) But it was told in the legend of Beren and
Luthien that Luthien learned Beren's native tongue during their
long journeys together and ever after used it in their speech
together. Not long before they came at last back to the borders
of Doriath he asked her why she did so, since her own tongue
was richer and more beautiful. Then she became silent and
her eyes seemed to look far away before she answered: 'Why?
Because I must forsake thee, or else forsake my own people and
become one of the children of Men. Since I will never forsake
thee, I must learn the speech of thy kin, and mine.' Dior their
son, it is said, spoke both tongues: his father's, and his mother's,
the Sindarin of Doriath. For he said: 'I am the first of the Peredil
(Half-elven),. but I am also the heir of King Elwe, the Eluchil.'(7)
He gave to his elder son the name Elured, that is said to have
the same significance, but ended in the Beorian word reda 'heir';
to his second son he gave the name Elurin,(8) but his daughter
the name Elwing. For she was born on a clear night of stars, the
light of which glittered in the spray of the waterfall by which his
house was built.(9) The word wing was Beorian, meaning fine
rain or the spray from fountains and waterfalls blown by a
wind; but he joined this to Elvish el- 'star' rather than to the
Beorian,(10) because it was more beautiful, and also went with the
names of her brothers: the name Elwe (Sindarin Elu) was
believed to be and probably was derived from el 'star'.(11)
Elured and Elurin, before they came to manhood, were both
slain by the sons of Feanor,(12) in the last and most abominable
deed brought about by the curse that the impious oath of
Feanor laid upon them. But Elwing was saved and fled with the
Silmaril to the havens of the surviving Eldar at the Mouths of
Sirion. There she later wedded Earendil, and so joined the two
Half-elven lines. Her sons she named Elros and Elrond; and
after the manner of her brothers the first ended in a Beorian
word, and the second in an Elvish. Elros was indeed close in
meaning to her own name: it contained the Beorian word for
'foam' and the white crest of waves: (13) ros. Its older form [was]
roth (rop). This was used in Adunaic songs and legends con-
cerning the coming of the Atani to Numenor in a translation of
the name of Earendil's ship. This they called Rothinzil.(14) Also in
Numenor their first king was usually given the name Elroth.
The word wing(a) was not known in Adunaic. It was maybe an
invention of the Lesser Folk,(15) for in their steep shores there had
been waterfalls, whereas in the wooded land of the Greater Folk
that went down in gentle slopes there had been none.
In this way also may be explained the name that Earendil
gave to his ship in which he at last succeeded in passing over the
Great Sea. He himself called it Wingalote, which like his own
names were Quenya in form; for Quenya was his childhood's
speech, since in the house of his mother's father, Turukano
(Turgon), King of Gondolin, that speech was in daily use.(16) But
Vinga- was not a Quenya word: it was a Quenyarized form
of the Beorian wing that appeared in Elwing the name of
his spouse. The form given to this name in Sindarin was
Gwingloth, but as said above it was in the Adunaic of Numenor
translated as Rothinzil.
In the havens of refuge, when Morgoth's conquest was all but
complete, there were several tongues to be heard. Not only the
Sindarin, which was chiefly used, but also its Northern dialect;
and among the Men of the Atani some still used their Mannish
speeches; and of all these Earendil had some knowledge. It is
said that before Manwe he spoke the errand of Elves and Men
first in Sindarin, since that might represent all those of the
suppliants who had survived the war with Morgoth; but he
repeated it in Quenya, since that was the language of the
Noldor, who alone were under the ban of the Valar; and he
added a prayer in the Mannish tongues of Hador and Beor,(17)
pleading that they were not under the ban, and had aided the
Eldar only in their war against Morgoth, the enemy of the Valar.
For the Atani had not rebelled against the Valar; they had re-
jected Morgoth and fled Westward seeking the Valar as the
representatives of the One. This plea Manwe accepted, and one
voice alone spoke aloud the doubt that was in the hearts of all
the Valar. Mandos said: Nonetheless they are descendants of
Men, who rejected the One himself. That is an evil seed that
may grow again. For even if we under Eru have the power to
return to Middle-earth and cast out Morgoth from the King-
dom of Arda, we cannot destroy all the evil that he has sown,
nor seek out all his servants - unless we ravaged the whole of
the Kingdom and made an end of all life therein; and that we
may not do.'
The names Elros and Elrond that Elwing gave to her sons
were held prophetic, as many mother-names among the Eldar.(18)
For after the Last Battle and the overthrow of Morgoth, when
the Valar gave to Elros and Elrond a choice to belong either
to the kin of the Eldar or to the kin of Men, it was Elros who
voyaged over sea to Numenor following the star of Earendil;
whereas Elrond remained among the Elves and carried on the
lineage of King Elwe.(19) Now Elrond was a word for the firma-
ment, the starry dome as it appeared like a roof to Arda; and it
was given by Elwing in memory of the great Hall of the Throne
of Elwe in the midst of his stronghold of Menegroth that was
called the Menelrond,(20) because by the arts and aid of Melian its
high arched roof had been adorned with silver and gems set in
the order and figures of the stars in the great Dome of Valmar (21)
in Aman, whence Melian came.
But alas! This explanation fell foul of a small fact that my father had
missed; and it was fatal. He noted on the text that 'most of this fails',
because of the name Cair Andros (a Sindarin name, as were virtually
all the place-names of Gondor), the island in the Anduin north of
Minas Tirith, of which it had been said in Appendix A (RK p. 335,
footnote) that it 'means "Ship of Long-foam"; for the isle was shaped
like a great ship, with a high prow pointing north, against which the
white foam of Anduin broke on sharp rocks.' So he was forced to
accept that the element -ros in Elros must be the same as that in Cair
Andros, the word must be Eldarin, not Atanic (Beorian), and there
could be no historical relationship between it and the Numenorean
Adunaic Rothinzil.(22)
Evidently following this is another note, from which it emerges
that he still held to the view that the word wing ('spray, spindrift')
was of Beorian origin; and while noting that the name Wingalote
[> Wingelote] of Earendil's ship had not appeared in print, he
observed that it 'must be retained, since it is connected with the name
Elwing, and is in intention formed to resemble and "explain" the
name of Wade's ship Guingelot.'(23) On Guingelot and Wingelot see my
discussion in III.142-4 (in which I overlooked this remarkable state-
ment). Concerning wing he said again that Earendil named his ship in
Quenya form, since that language had been his childhood speech, and
that he intended its meaning to be 'Foam-flower'; but he adopted
the element wing from the name of Elwing his wife. That name was
given to her by her father Dior, who knew the Beorian tongue (cf.
p 369).(24)
NOTES.
1. [Cf. the Etymologies, V.384, stem Ros (1), 'distil, drip': Quenya
rosse 'fine rain, dew', Noldorin rhoss 'rain', seen also in Celebros
'Silver-rain' (when Celebros was the name of the waterfall rather
than the stream, XI.151).]
2. [Added in the margin: 'Though Maedros is now so long estab-
lished that it would be difficult to alter'. In a later note, however,
my father declared that he would change Maedros to Maedron.]
3. [See p. 365, note 55.]
4. This was the reason, in addition to their admiration of the Eldar,
why the chieftains, elders, and wise men and women of the Atani
learned Sindarin. The Halethian language was already failing
before Turin's time, and finally perished after Hurin in his wrath
destroyed the small land and people. [Cf. Of Dwarves and Men,
pp. 307-8 and note 49. In the chapter Of the Coming of Men into
the West added to the Quenta Silmarillion Felagund learned from
Beor that the Haladin (the Folk of Haleth) 'speak the same
tongue as we', whereas the People of Marach (the 'Hadorians')
were 'of a different speech' (XI.218, $10). This was changed in
the published Silmarillion: see XI.226. - With what is said here
of the decline of the 'Halethian' language cf. The Wanderings of
Hurin (XI.283 and note 41): 'the old tongue of the Folk which
was now out of daily use'.]
5. Not necessarily confined to names of things that had not before
[been] known. In the nomenclature of later generations assimil-
ation to the Eldarin modes, and the use of some elements frequent
in Eldarin names, can be observed. [It has been stated many times
that the 'Beorians' forsook their own language in Beleriand: see
V.275 (footnote), XI.202, 217 (first footnote), 226; Unfinished
Tales p. 215, note 19.]
6. He [Thingol] had small love for the Northern Sindar who had in
regions near to Angband come under the dominion of Morgoth,
and were accused of sometimes entering his service and provid-
ing him with spies. The Sindarin used by the Sons of Feanor also
was of the Northern dialect; and they were hated in Doriath.
7. [Eluchil (Thingol's Heir): see XI.350.]
8. 'Remembrance of Elu': containing Sindarin rin from Common
Eldarin rene < base REN 'recall, have in mind'. [These names
Elured and Elurin replace Eldun and Elrun (originally Elboron
and Elbereth); and the story that Dior's sons were twins had been
abandoned (see XI.300, 349-50). From this passage and note
were derived the names in the published Silmarillion and the
statements in the index concerning them.]
9. [Cf. The Shibboleth of Feanor, p. 349: 'Beside one great water-
fall, called in Sindarin Lanthir Lamath ("waterfall of echoing
voices"), Dior had his house.' From these passages the reference
in the published Silmarillion (p. 235) was derived.]
10. Which is not recorded, but was probably similar to the Adunaic
azar. [In The Notion Club Papers, IX.305, the Adunaic name of
Earendil, Azrubel, was said to be 'made of azar "sea" and the
stem bel- (azra, IX.431).]
11. [This opinion is referred to in The Shibboleth of Feanor (pp.
340-1), but regarded as improbable.]
12. [The original story was that Dior's sons 'were slain by the evil
men of Maidros' host' (see IV.307). Subsequently they were
'taken captive by the evil men of Maidros' following, and they
were left to starve in the woods' (V.142); in a version of the Tale
of Years the perpetrators were 'the cruel servants of Celegorn'
(XI.351).]
13. The Atani had never seen the Great Sea before they came at last
to Beleriand; but according to their own legends and histories the
Folk of Hador had long dwelt during their westward migration
by the shores of a sea too wide to see across; it had no tides, but
was visited by great storms. It was not until they had developed
a craft of boat-building that the people afterwards known as the
Folk of Hador discovered that a part of their host from whom
they had become separated had reached the same sea before
them, and dwelt at the feet of the high hills to the south-west,
whereas they [the Folk of Hador] lived in the north-east, in the
woods that there came near to the shores. They were thus some
two hundred miles apart, going by water; and they did not often
meet and exchange tidings. Their tongues had already diverged,
with the swiftness of the speeches of Men in the 'Unwritten
Days', and continued to do so; though they remained friends of
acknowledged kinship, bound by their hatred and fear of the
Dark Lord (Morgoth), against whom they had rebelled.
Nonetheless they did not know that the Lesser Folk had fled from
the threat of the Servants of the Dark and gone on westward,
while they had lain hidden in their woods, and so under their
leader Beor reached Beleriand at last many years before they did.
[There has of course never been any previous trace or hint
of this story of the long sojourn of the 'Beorians' and the 'Hador-
ians' ('the People of Marach', a name not mentioned in this essay,
see p. 325, note 41) by the shores of a great inland sea. In this
account of their dwellings my father first wrote 'south-east' and
'north-west', changing them at once; and the particularity of this
suggests that he had a specific geographical image in mind. This
must surely be the Sea of Rhun, where (features going back to the
First Map to The Lord of the Rings, VII.305) there are hills on
the south-western side and a forest coming down to the north-
eastern shores; moreover the distance of two hundred miles
across the sea agrees with the map. - It is said here that the
'Beorians' reached Beleriand 'many years' before the 'Hadorians'.
According to the later Quenta Silmarillion chapter Of the
Coming of Men into the West Felagund met Beor in Ossiriand in
310, and the People of Marach came over the Blue Mountains
in 313 (XI.218, $13 and commentary). In Of Dwarves and Men
(p. 307) 'the first of the three hosts of the Folk of Hador' came
into Beleriand 'not long after' the Folk of Beor, having in fact
reached the eastern foothills of the Ered Lindon first of all the
kindreds of the Edain. In that text there is mention of an opinion
that a long period of separation between the two peoples would
account for the divergence of their languages from an original
common tongue (p. 308 and note 45).]
14. [The name Rothinzil 'Flower of the Foam' appeared in The
Drowning of Anadune, IX.360 (Rothinzil).]
15. ['The Lesser Folk': the People of Beor. This sentence refers to the
content of note 13.]
16. Though for most of its people it had become a language of books,
and as the other Noldor they used Sindarin in daily speech. In
this way there arose several blended forms, belonging strictly to
neither language. Indeed, the name of the great city of Turgon by
which it was best known in legend, Gondolin(d), is an example.
It was given by Turgon in Quenya Ondolinde, but generally its
people turned it towards Sindarin, in which Eldarin *gon,
*gondo 'stone, rock' had retained the g- lost in Quenya. [See
XI.201.)
17. The language of the Folk of Haleth was not used, for they had
perished and would not rise again. Nor would their tongue be
heard again, unless the prophecy of Andreth the Wise-woman
should prove true, that Turin in the Last Battle should return
from the Dead, and before he left the Circles of the World for ever
should challenge the Great Dragon of Morgoth, Ancalagon the
Black, and deal him the death-stroke.
[This remarkable saying has long roots, extending back to the
prophecy at the end of the old Tale of Turambar (II.115-16),
where it was told that the Gods of Death (Fui and Vefantur)
would not open their doors to Turin and Nienori, that Urin and
Mavwin (Hurin and Morwen) went to Mandos, and that their
prayers
came even to Manwe, and the Gods had mercy on their un-
happy fate, so that those twain Turin and Nienori entered into
Fos'Almir, the bath of flame, even as Urwendi and her maidens
had done in ages past before the first rising of the Sun, and so
were all their sorrows and stains washed away, and they dwelt
as shining Valar among the blessed ones, and now the love of
that brother and sister is very fair; but Turambar indeed shall
stand beside Fionwe in the Great Wrack, and Melko and his
drakes shall curse the sword of Mormakil.
In the Sketch of the Mythology or 'earliest Silmarillion' of the
1920s the prophecy with which it ends (IV.40) declares that when
Morgoth returns, and 'the last battle of all' is fought,
Fionwe will fight Morgoth on the plain of Valinor, and the
spirit of Turin shall be beside him; it shall be Turin who with
his black sword will slay Morgoth, and thus the children of
Hurin shall be avenged.
The development of this in the Quenta (IV.165) tells that in the
day of the last battle, on the fields of Valinor,
Tulkas shall strive with Melko, and on his right shall stand
Fionwe and on his left Turin Turambar, son of Hurin,
Conqueror of Fate; and it shall be the black sword of Turin
that deals unto Melko his death and final end; and so shall the
children of Hurin and all Men be avenged.
And the final passage of the Quenta, concerning the prophecy of
the recovery of the Two Trees, ends with the words (ibid.):
But of Men in that day the prophecy speaks not, save of Turin
only, and him it names among the Gods.
These passages reappear in the revised conclusion of the Quenta
that belongs with the Quenta Silmarillion of 1937 (see V.323-4,
333), with two changes: Turin in the Last Battle is said to be
'coming from the halls of Mandos', and in the final sentence
concerning the prophecy 'no Man it names, save Turin only, and
to him a place is given among the sons of the Valar.' In the cursory
corrections that my father made much later to this conclusion
(see XI.245-7) he changed 'Turin ... coming from the halls of
Mandos' to 'Turin ... returning from the Doom of Men at the
ending of the world*, and against the concluding passage (in-
cluding the reference to Turin as 'a son of the Valar') he placed a
large X.
Another reference is found in the Annals of Aman (X.71, 76),
where it is said of the constellation Menelmakar (Orion) that it
'was a sign of Turin Turambar, who should come into the world,
and a foreshowing of the Last Battle that shall be at the end of
Days.'
In this last reappearance of the mysterious and fluctuating idea
the prophecy is put into the mouth of Andreth, the Wise-woman
of the House of Beor: Turin will 'return from the Dead' before his
final departure, and his last deed within the Circles of the World
will be the slaying of the Great Dragon, Ancalagon the Black.
Andreth prophesies of the Last Battle at the end of the Elder Days
(the sense in which the term 'Last Battle' is used shortly after-
wards in this text, p. 371); but in all the early texts (the Quenta,
IV.160; the Annals of Beleriand, IV.309, V.144; the Quenta
Silmarillion, V.329) it was Earendil who destroyed Ancalagon.]
18. They had no other names that are recorded; for Earendil was
nearly always at sea in many fruitless voyages, and both his sons
were born in his absence.
19. And also that of Turgon; though he preferred that of Elwe, who
was not under the ban that was laid on the Exiles.
20. Menelrond: 'heaven-dome'.
21. [On the Dome of Varda above Valinor see X.385-8.]
22. [Another note among these papers derives the Adunaic word roth
(as in Rothinzil) from a stem RUTH, 'not originally connected
to foam. Its basic sense was "scar, score, furrow", and yielded
words for plough and ploughing; when applied to boats it
referred to their track on water, especially to the curling water at
the prow (obroth "fore-cutting", whereas the wake was called
nadroth "hind-track", or the smooth roth).']
23. [He also said here that though Rothinzil had not appeared in
print he wished to retain it.]
24. [This 'Beorian' explanation of wing seems to have been aban-
doned also, since in what seems to be the latest among these
discussions my father said that both elements in Elwing were
Sindarin: he proposed an etymology whereby Quenya winge,
Sindarin gwing 'appears to be related' to the Quenya verb winta
'scatter, blow about' (both transitive and intransitive), comparing
Quenya lassewinta as a variant of lasselanta, 'leaf-fall, autumn'.]
XIII.
LAST WRITINGS.
Of Glorfindel, Cirdan,
and other matters.
There is a small collection of very late manuscripts, preserved together,
closely similar in appearance, and all written on the blank sides of
publication notices issued by Allen and Unwin. Most of these are
copies of the same notice dated 19 January 1970 (used also by my
father for his late work on the story of Maeglin, XI.316), but one of
these writings was stated by him to be developed from a reply to a
correspondent sent on 9 December 1972, and another is dated by him
20 November 1972. I think it very probable that the whole collection
belongs to that time, the last year of his life: he died on the second of
September, 1973, at the age of eighty-one. There are clear evidences
of confusion (as he said at one point, 'my memory is no longer reten-
tive'); but there are elements in them that are of much interest and
should be recorded.
Though writing in manuscript he retained his practice of interspers-
ing notes into the body of the text, distinguishing them by a different
(italic) script. All the numbered notes, authorial and editorial, are
collected at the end of the chapter.
GLORFINDEL.
In the summer of 1938, when my father was pondering The Council
of Elrond in The Lord of the Rings, he wrote: 'Glorfindel tells of his
ancestry in Gondolin' (VI.214). More than thirty years later he took
up the question of whether Glorfindel of Gondolin and Glorfindel of
Rivendell were indeed one and the same, and this issued in two dis-
cussions, together with other brief or fragmentary writings closely
associated with them. I will refer to these as 'Glorfindel I' and 'Glor-
findel II'. The first page of Glorfindel I is missing, and the second page
begins with the words 'as guards or assistants.' Then follows:
An Elf who had once known Middle-earth and had fought in
the long wars against Melkor would be an eminently suitable
companion for Gandalf. We could then reasonably suppose that
Glorfindel (possibly as one of a small party,(1) more probably as
a sole companion) landed with Gandalf - Olorin about Third
Age 1000. This supposition would indeed explain the air of
special power and sanctity that surrounds Glorfindel - note
how the Witch-king flies from him, although all others (such
as King Earnur) however brave could not induce their horses
to face him (Appendix A (I, iv), RK p. 331). For according to
accounts (quite independent of this case) elsewhere given of
Elvish nature, and their relations with the Valar, when Glor-
findel was slain his spirit would then go to Mandos and be
judged, and then would remain in the Halls of Waiting until
Manwe granted him release. The Elves were destined to be by
nature 'immortal', within the unknown limits of the life of the
Earth as a habitable realm, and their disembodiment was a
grievous thing. It was the duty, therefore, of the Valar to restore
them, if they were slain, to incarnate life, if they desired it -
unless for some grave (and rare) reason: such as deeds of great
evil, or any works of malice of which they remained obdurately
unrepentant. When they were re-embodied they could remain in
Valinor, or return to Middle-earth if their home had been there.
We can therefore reasonably suppose that Glorfindel, after the
purging or forgiveness of his part in the rebellion of the Noldor,
was released from Mandos and became himself again, but
remained in the Blessed Realm - for Gondolin was destroyed
and all or most of his kin had perished. We can thus understand
why he seems so powerful a figure and almost 'angelic'. For he
had returned to the primitive innocence of the First-born, and
had then lived among those Elves who had never rebelled, and
in the companionship of the Maiar (2) for ages: from the last years
of the First Age, through the Second Age, to the end of the first
millennium of the Third Age: before he returned to Middle-
earth.(3) It is indeed probable that he had in Valinor already
become a friend and follower of Olorin. Even in the brief
glimpses of him given in The Lord of the Rings he appears as
specially concerned for Gandalf, and was one (the most power-
ful, it would seem) of those sent out from Rivendell when the
disquieting news reached Elrond that Gandalf had never re-
appeared to guide or protect the Ring-bearer.
The second essay, Glorfindel II, is a text of five manuscript pages
which undoubtedly followed the first at no long interval; but a slip of
paper on which my father hastily set down some thoughts on the
matter presumably came between them, since he said here that while
Glorfindel might have come with Gandalf, 'it seems far more likely
that he was sent in the crisis of the Second Age, when Sauron invaded
Eriador, to assist Elrond, and that though not (yet) mentioned in the
annals recording Sauron's defeat he played a notable and heroic part
in the war.' At the end of this note he wrote the words 'Numenorean
ship', presumably indicating how Glorfindel might have crossed the
Great Sea.
This name is in fact derived from the earliest work on the
mythology: The Fall of Gondolin, composed in 1916-17, in
which the Elvish language that ultimately became that of the
type called Sindarin was in a primitive and unorganized form,
and its relation with the High-elven type (itself very primitive)
was still haphazard. It was intended to mean 'Golden-tressed',(4)
and was the name given to the heroic 'Gnome' (Noldo), a chief-
tain of Gondolin, who in the pass of Cristhorn ('Eagle-cleft')
fought with a Balrog [> Demon], whom he slew at the cost of
his own life.
Its use in The Lord of the Rings is one of the cases of the
somewhat random use of the names found in the older legends,
now referred to as The Silmarillion, which escaped reconsider-
ation in the final published form of The Lord of the Rings.
This is unfortunate, since the name is now difficult to fit into
Sindarin, and cannot possibly be Quenyarin. Also in the now
organized mythology, difficulty is presented by the things
recorded of Glorfindel in The Lord of the Rings, if Glorfindel
of Gondolin is supposed to be the same person as Glorfindel of
Rivendell.
As for the former: he was slain in the Fall of Gondolin at the
end of the First Age, and if a chieftain of that city must have
been a Noldo, one of the Elf-lords in the host of King Turukano
(Turgon); at any rate when The Fall of Gondolin was written
he was certainly thought to be so. But the Noldor in Beleriand
were exiles from Valinor, having rebelled against the authority
of Manwe supreme head of the Valar, and Turgon was one
of the most determined and unrepentant supporters of Feanor's
rebellion.(5) There is no escape from this. Gondolin is in The
Silmarillion said to have been built and occupied by a people of
almost entirely Noldorin origin.(6) It might be possible, though
inconsistent, to suppose that Glorfindel was a prince of Sindarin
origin who had joined the host of Turgon, but this would en-
tirely contradict what is said of Glorfindel in Rivendell in The
Lord of the Rings: most notably in The Fellowship of the Ring,
p 235, where he is said to have been one of the 'lords of the
Eldar from beyond the furthest seas ... who have dwelt in the
Blessed Realm.' The Sindar had never left Middle-earth.
This difficulty, far more serious than the linguistic one, may
be considered first. At any rate what at first sight may seem the
simplest solution must be abandoned: sc. that we have merely a
reduplication of names, and that Glorfindel of Gondolin and
Glorfindel of Rivendell were different persons. This repetition
of so striking a name, though possible, would not be credible.(7)
No other major character in the Elvish legends as reported in
The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings has a name borne
by another Elvish person of importance. Also it may be found
that acceptance of the identity of Glorfindel of old and of the
Third Age will actually explain what is said of him and improve
the story.
When Glorfindel of Gondolin was slain his spirit would
according to the laws established by the One be obliged at once
to return to the land of the Valar. Then he would go to Mandos
and be judged, and would then remain in the 'Halls of Waiting'
until Manwe granted him release. Elves were destined to be
'immortal', that is not to die within the unknown limits decreed
by the One, which at the most could be until the end of the life
of the Earth as a habitable realm. Their death - by any injury to
their bodies so severe that it could not be healed - and the dis-
embodiment of their spirits was an 'unnatural' and grievous
matter. It was therefore the duty of the Valar, by command of
the One, to restore them to incarnate life, if they desired it. But
this 'restoration' could be delayed (8) by Manwe, if the fea while
alive had done evil deeds and refused to repent of them, or
still harboured any malice against any other person among the
living.
Now Glorfindel of Gondolin was one of the exiled Noldor,
rebels against the authority of Manwe, and they were all under
a ban imposed by him: they could not return in bodily form to
the Blessed Realm. Manwe, however, was not bound by his own
ordinances, and being still the supreme ruler of the Kingdom of
Arda could set them aside, when he saw fit. From what is said
of Glorfindel in The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings it is
evident that he was an Elda of high and noble spirit: and it can
be assumed that, though he left Valinor in the host of Turgon,
and so incurred the ban, he did so reluctantly because of kinship
with Turgon and allegiance to him, and had no part in the
kinslaying of Alqualonde.(9)
More important: Glorfindel had sacrificed his life in defend-
ing the fugitives from the wreck of Gondolin against a Demon
out of Thangorodrim,(10) and so enabling Tuor and Idril daugh-
ter of Turgon and their child Earendil to escape, and seek refuge
at the Mouths of Sirion. Though he cannot have known the
importance of this (and would have defended them even had
they been fugitives of any rank), this deed was of vital import-
ance to the designs of the Valar.(11) It is therefore entirely in keep-
ing with the general design of The Silmarillion to describe the
subsequent history of Glorfindel thus. After his purging of any
guilt that he had incurred in the rebellion, he was released from
Mandos, and Manwe restored him.(12) He then became again a
living incarnate person, but was permitted to dwell in the
Blessed Realm; for he had regained the primitive innocence and
grace of the Eldar. For long years he remained in Valinor, in
reunion with the Eldar who had not rebelled, and in the com-
panionship of the Maiar. To these he had now become almost
an equal, for though he was an incarnate (to whom a bodily
form not made or chosen by himself was necessary) his spiritual
power had been greatly enhanced by his self-sacrifice. At some
time, probably early in his sojourn in Valinor, he became a
follower, and a friend, of Olorin (Gandalf), who as is said in The
Silmarillion had an especial love and concern for the Children
of Eru.(13) That Olorin, as was possible for one of the Maiar, had
already visited Middle-earth and had become acquainted not
only with the Sindarin Elves and others deeper in Middle-earth,
but also with Men, is likely, but nothing is [> has yet been] said
of this.
Glorfindel remained in the Blessed Realm, no doubt at first by
his own choice: Gondolin was destroyed, and all his kin had
perished, and were still in the Halls of Waiting unapproachable
by the living. But his long sojourn during the last years of the
First Age, and at least far into the Second Age, no doubt was
also in accord with the wishes and designs of Manwe.
When did Glorfindel return to Middle-earth? This must prob-
ably have occurred before the end of the Second Age, and the
'Change of the World' and the Drowning of Numenor, after
which no living embodied creature, 'humane' or of lesser kinds,
could return from the Blessed Realm which had been 'removed
from the Circles of the World'. This was according to a general
ordinance proceeding from Eru Himself; and though, until the
end of the Third Age, when Eru decreed that the Dominion of
Men must begin, Manwe could be supposed to have received
the permission of Eru to make an exception in his case, and to
have devised some means for the transportation of Glorfindel
to Middle-earth, this is improbable and would make Glorfindel
of greater power and importance than seems fitting.
We may then best suppose that Glorfindel returned during the
Second Age, before the 'shadow' fell on Numenor, and while the
Numenoreans were welcomed by the Eldar as powerful allies.
His return must have been for the purpose of strengthening Gil-
galad and Elrond, when the growing evil of the intentions of
Sauron were at last perceived by them. It might, therefore, have
been as early as Second Age 1200, when Sauron came in person
to Lindon, and attempted to deceive Gil-galad, but was rejected
and dismissed.(14) But it may have been, perhaps more probably,
as late as c.1600, the Year of Dread, when Barad-dur was
completed and the One Ring forged, and Celebrimbor at last
became aware of the trap into which he had fallen. For in 1200,
though he was filled with anxiety, Gil-galad still felt strong
and able to treat Sauron with contempt.(15) Also at that time his
Numenorean allies were beginning to make strong permanent
havens for their great ships, and also many of them had actually
begun to dwell there permanently. In 1600 it became clear to all
the leaders of Elves and Men (and Dwarves) that war was
inevitable against Sauron, now unmasked as a new Dark Lord.
They therefore began to prepare for his assault; and no doubt
urgent messages and prayers asking for help were received in
Numenor (and in Valinor).(16)
The text ends here, with no indication that it was unfinished,
although the 'linguistic difficulty' referred to on p. 379 was not taken
Up.
Written at the same time as the 'Glorfindel' texts is a discussion of
the question of Elvish reincarnation. It is in two versions, one a very
rough draft (partly written in fact on the manuscript of Glorfindel I)
for the other. This text is not included here,(17) except in its concluding
part, which concerns the Dwarves' belief in the rebirth or reappear-
ance of their Fathers, most notably Durin. I give this passage in the
form that it has in the original draft. It was written at a speed
(with punctuation omitted, and variant forms of phrases jostling one
another) that the printed form that follows does not at all convey; but
it is a record of emerging thought on a matter concerning which very
little is to be found in all my father's writings.
It is possible that this false notion (18) was in some ways
connected with the various strange ideas which both Elves and
Men had concerning the Dwarves, which were indeed largely
derived by them from the Dwarves themselves. For the Dwarves
asserted that the spirits of the Seven Fathers of their races were
from time to time reborn in their kindreds. This was notably the
case in the race of the Longbeards whose ultimate forefather
was called Durin, a name which was taken at intervals by one
of his descendants, but by no others but those in a direct line of
descent from Durin I. Durin I, eldest of the Fathers, 'awoke' far
back in the First Age (it is supposed, soon after the awakening
of Men), but in the Second Age several other Durins had
appeared as Kings of the Longbeards (Anfangrim). In the Third
Age Durin VI was slain by a Balrog in 1980. It was prophesied
(by the Dwarves), when Dain Ironfoot took the kingship in
Third Age 2941 (after the Battle of Five Armies), that in his
direct line there would one day appear a Durin VII - but he
would be the last.(19) Of these Durins the Dwarves reported that
they retained memory of their former lives as Kings, as real, and
yet naturally as incomplete, as if they had been consecutive
years of life in one person.(20)
How this could come to pass the Elves did not know; nor
would the Dwarves tell them much more of the matter.(21) But the
Elves of Valinor knew of a strange tale of Dwarvish origins,
which the Noldor brought to Middle-earth, and asserted that
they had learned it from Aule himself. This will be found among
the many minor matters included in notes or appendices to The
Silmarillion, and is not here told in full. For the present point it
is sufficient to recall that the immediate author of the Dwarvish
race was the Vala Aule.(22)
Here there is a brief version of the legend of the Making of the
Dwarves, which I omit; my father wrote on the text: 'Not a place
for telling the story of Aule and the Dwarves.'(23) The conclusion then
follows:
The Dwarves add that at that time Aule gained them also this
privilege that distinguished them from Elves and Men: that the
spirit of each of the Fathers (such as Durin) should, at the end
of the long span of life allotted to Dwarves, fall asleep, but then
lie in a tomb of his own body,(24) at rest, and there its weariness
and any hurts that had befallen it should be amended. Then
after long years he should arise and take up his kingship again.(25)
The second version is very much briefer, and on the question of
the 'rebirth' of the Fathers says only: '... the reappearance, at long
intervals, of the person of one of the Dwarf-fathers, in the lines of their
kings - e.g. especially Durin - is not when examined probably one of
rebirth, but of the preservation of the body of a former King Durin
(say) to which at intervals his spirit would return. But the relations of
the Dwarves to the Valar and especially to the Vala Aule are (as it
seems) quite different from those of Elves and Men.'
THE FIVE WIZARDS.
Another brief discussion, headed 'Note on the landing of the Five
Wizards and their functions and operations', arose from my father's
consideration of the matter of Glorfindel, as is seen from the opening
words: 'Was in fact Glorfindel one of them?' He observed that he was
'evidently never supposed to be when The Lord of the Rings was
written', adding that there is no possibility that some of them were
Eldar 'of the highest order of power', rather than Maiar. The text then
continues with the passage given in Unfinished Tales, p. 394, begin-
ning 'We must assume that they were all Maiar ...'; but after the words
with which that citation ends ('... chosen by the Valar with this in
mind') there stands only 'Saruman the most powerful', and then it
breaks off, unfinished. Beside these last words is a pencilled note:
'Radagast a name of Mannish (Anduin vale) origin - but not now
clearly interpretable' (see Unfinished Tales p. 390 and note 4).
On the reverse of the page are some notes which I described in
Unfinished Tales as uninterpretable, but which with longer scrutiny I
have been largely able to make out. One of them reads as follows:
No names are recorded for the two wizards. They were never
seen or known in lands west of Mordor. The wizards did not
come at the same time. Possibly Saruman, Gandalf, Radagast
did, but more likely Saruman the chief (and already over
mindful of this) came first and alone. Probably Gandalf and
Radagast came together, though this has not yet been said.
(what is most probable) ... Glorfindel also met Gandalf at the
Havens. The other two are only known to (have) exist(ed) [sic]
by Saruman, Gandalf, and Radagast, and Saruman in his wrath
mentioning five was letting out a piece of private information.
The reference of the last sentence is to Saruman's violent retort to
Gandalf at the door of Orthanc, in which he spoke of 'the rods of the
Five Wizards' (The Two Towers p. 188). Another note is even rougher
and more difficult:
The 'other two' came much earlier, at the same time probably
as Glorfindel, when matters became very dangerous in the
Second Age.(26) Glorfindel was sent to aid Elrond and was (though
not yet said) pre-eminent in the war in Eriador.(27) But the other
two Istari were sent for a different purpose. Morinehtar and
Romestamo.(28) Darkness-slayer and East-helper. Their task was
to circumvent Sauron: to bring help to the few tribes of Men
that had rebelled from Melkor-worship, to stir up rebellion ...
and after his first fall to search out his hiding (in which they
failed) and to cause [? dissension and disarray] among the
dark East ... They must have had very great influence on the
history of the Second Age and Third Age in weakening and dis-
arraying the forces of East ... who would both in the Second
Age and Third Age otherwise have ... outnumbered the West.
At the words in the citation from this text in Unfinished Tales
(p. 394) 'Of the other two nothing is said in published work save the
reference to the Five Wizards in the altercation between Gandalf and
Saruman' my father wrote: 'A note made on their names and functions
seems now lost, but except for the names their general history and
effect on the history of the Third Age is clear.' Conceivably he was
thinking of the sketched-out narrative of the choosing of the Istari at
a council of the Valar (Unfinished Tales p. 393), in which the Two
Wizards (or 'the Blue Wizards', Ithryn Luin) were named Alatar and
Pallando.
CIRDAN.
This brief manuscript is also associated with the discussion of
Glorfindel: rough drafting for it is found on the verso of one of the
pages of the text Glorfindel II.
This is the Sindarin for 'Shipwright',(29) and describes his later
functions in the history of the First Three Ages; but his 'proper'
name, sc. his original name among the Teleri, to whom he
belonged, is never used.(30) He is said in the Annals of the Third
Age (c.1000) to have seen further and deeper into the future
than anyone else in Middle-earth.(31) This does not include the
Istari (who came from Valinor), but must include even Elrond,
Galadriel, and Celeborn.
Cirdan was a Telerin Elf, one of the highest of those who were
not transported to Valinor but became known as the Sindar,
the Grey-elves;(32) he was akin to Olwe, one of the two kings of
the Teleri, and lord of those who departed over the Great Sea.
He was thus also akin to Elwe,(33) Olwe s elder brother, acknowl-
edged as high-king of all the Teleri in Beleriand, even after he
withdrew to the guarded realm of Doriath. But Cirdan and his
people remained in many ways distinct from the rest of the
Sindar. They retained the old name Teleri (in later Sindarin (34)
Eorm Telir, or Telerrim) and remained in many ways a separate
folk, speaking even in later days a more archaic language.(35) The
Noldor called them the Falmari, 'wave-folk', and the other
Sindar Falathrim 'people of the foaming shore'.(36)
It was during the long waiting of the Teleri for the return of
the floating isle, upon which the Vanyar and Noldor had been
transported over the Great Sea, that Cirdan had turned his
thoughts and skill to the making of ships, for he and all the
other Teleri became impatient. Nonetheless it is said that for
love of his kin and allegiance Cirdan was the leader of those
who sought longest for Elwe when he was lost and did not come
to the shores to depart from Middle-earth. Thus he forfeited the
fulfilment of his greatest desire: to see the Blessed Realm and
find again there Olwe and his own nearest kin. Alas, he did not
reach the shores until nearly all the Teleri of Olwe's following
had departed.
Then, it is said, he stood forlorn looking out to sea, and it was
night, but far away he could see a glimmer of light upon Eressea
ere it vanished into the West. Then he cried aloud: 'I will follow
that light, alone if none will come with me, for the ship that I
have been building is now almost ready.' But even as he said this
he received in his heart a message, which he knew to come from
the Valar, though in his mind it was remembered as a voice
speaking in his own tongue. And the voice warned him not to
attempt this peril; for his strength and skill would not be able
to build any ship able to dare the winds and waves of the Great
Sea for many long years yet. 'Abide now that time, for when
it comes then will your work be of utmost worth, and it will
be remembered in song for many ages after.' 'I obey,' Cirdan
answered, and then it seemed to him that he saw (in a vision
maybe) a shape like a white boat, shining above him, that sailed
west through the air, and as it dwindled in the distance it looked
like a star of so great a brilliance that it cast a shadow of Cirdan
upon the strand where he stood.
As we now perceive, this was a foretelling of the ship (37) which
after apprenticeship to Cirdan, and ever with his advice and
help, Earendil built, and in which at last he reached the shores
of Valinor. From that night onwards Cirdan received a foresight
touching all matters of importance, beyond the measure of all
other Elves upon Middle-earth.
This text is remarkable in that on the one hand nothing is said of the
history and importance of Cirdan as it appears elsewhere, while on the
other hand almost everything that is told here is unique. In the Grey
Annals it was said (XI.8, $14):
Osse therefore persuaded many to remain in Beleriand, and when
King Olwe and his host were embarked upon the isle and passed
over the Sea they abode still by the shore; and Osse returned to
them, and continued in friendship with them. And he taught to them
the craft of shipbuilding and of sailing; and they became a folk of
mariners, the first in Middle-earth ...
But of Osse there is now no mention; shipbuilding on the coasts of
Beleriand is said to have begun in the long years during which the
Teleri awaited Ulmo's return, and is indeed spoken of (see note 29) as
the further evolution of a craft already developed among the Teleri
during the Great Journey.
Other features of this account that appear nowhere else (in addition
of course to the story of Cirdan's desire to cross the Sea to Valinor, and
his vision of the white ship passing westward through the night above
him) are that the Teleri delayed long on the shores of the Sea of Rhun
on the Great Journey (note 29; cf. p. 373, note 13); that Cirdan was
the leader of those who sought for Elwe Thingol, his kinsman; and
that Earendil was 'apprenticed' to Cirdan, who aided him in the build-
ing of Vingilot.
NOTES.
1. It may be noted that Galdor is another name of similar sort and
period of origin, but he appears as a messenger from Cirdan and
is called Galdor of the Havens. Galdor also appeared in The Fall
of Gondolin, but the name is of a more simple and usual form
[than Glorfindel] and might be repeated. But unless he is said in
The Fall of Gondolin to have been slain, he can reasonably be
supposed to be the same person, one of the Noldor who escaped
from the siege and destruction, but fled west to the Havens,
and not southwards to the mouths of Sirion, as did most of the
remnant of the people of Gondolin together with Tuor, Idril, and
Earendil. He is represented in The Council of Elrond as less
powerful and much less wise than Glorfindel; and so evidently
had not returned to Valinor, and been purged, and reincarnated.
[See note 3. - The words 'the name [Galdor] is of a more simple
and usual form [than Glorfindel] and might be repeated' show
that on the lost first page my father had discussed (as he would
do in the following text) the possibility that there were two dis-
tinct persons named Glorfindel, and had concluded that it was
too improbable to be entertained. - 'But unless he is said in The
Fall of Gondolin to have been slain': my father would probably
have been hard put to it to lay his hand on The Fall of Gondolin,
and without consulting it he could not say for certain what had
been Galdor's fate (this, I take it, is his meaning). In fact, Galdor
was not slain, but led the fugitives over the pass of Cristhorn
while Glorfindel came up at the rear (II.191 - 2), and in the
'Name-list to The Fall of Gondolin' (II.215) it is said that he went
to Sirion's mouth, and that 'he dwelleth yet in Tol Eressea'. He
was the lord of the people of the Tree in Gondolin, and of him it
was said in the old tale that he 'was held the most valiant of all
the Gondothlim save Turgon alone' (II.173).]
2. That angelic order to which Gandalf originally belonged: lesser
in power and authority than the Valar, but of the same nature:
members of the first order of created rational beings, who if they
appeared in visible forms ('humane' or of other kind) were self-
incarnated, or given their forms by the Valar [added later: and
who could move/travel simply by an act of will when not arrayed
in a body - which they could assume when they reached the
places that ... (illegible).]
3. Galdor in contrast, even in the brief glimpses we have in the
Council, is seen clearly as an inferior person, and much less wise.
He, whether he appears in The Silmarillion or not, must be either
(as his name suggests) a Sindarin Elf who had never left Middle-
earth and seen the Blessed Realm, or one of the Noldor who had
been exiled for rebellion, and had also remained in Middle-earth,
and had not, or not yet, accepted the pardon of the Valar and
returned to the home prepared for them in the West, in reward
for their valour against Melkor. [The view of Galdor expressed in
this note and in note 1 seems hardly justified by the report of his
contributions to the Council of Elrond; and if he were indeed
Galdor of Gondolin he had had long ages in which to acquire
wisdom in the hard world of Middle-earth. But there is no reason
to suppose that when my father wrote the chapter The Council
of Elrond he associated Galdor of the Havens with Galdor of
Gondolin.]
4. [For the original etymology of Glorfindel, and the etymological
connections of the elements of the name, see II.341.]
5. [In the Annals of Aman (X.112, $135) it is told that following the
Oath of the Feanorians 'Fingolfin, and his son Turgon, therefore
spoke against Feanor, and fierce words awoke'; but later (X.118,
$156), when it is told that even after the utterance of the Pro-
phecy of the North 'all Fingolfin's folk went forward still', it is
said that 'Fingon and Turgon were bold and fiery of heart and
loath to abandon any task to which they had put their hands until
the bitter end, if bitter it must be.']
6. [The original conception that Gondolin was peopled entirely by
Noldor was changed in many alterations to the text of the Grey
Annals (see the Index to The War of the Jewels, entry Gondolin,
references under 'population'): it is stated indeed (XI.45, $113)
that when Turgon sent all his people forth from Nivrost to Gon-
dolin they constituted 'a third part of the Noldor of Fingolfin's
House, and a yet greater host of the Sindar'. The statement here
that Gondolin was 'occupied by a people of almost entirely
Noldorin origin' obviously runs entirely counter to that con-
ception.]
7. [In the margin of the page my father asked subsequently: 'Why
not?' The question seems to be answered, however, in the fol-
lowing sentence of the text - where the emphasis is of course on
the word 'Elvish': 'no other major character in the Elvish legends
... has a name borne by another Elvish person of importance.'
It would indeed have been open to him to change the name
of Glorfindel of Gondolin, who had appeared in no published
writing, but he did not mention.this possibility.]
8. Or in gravest cases (such as that of Feanor) withheld and referred
to the One.
9. Though he [Glorfindel] is not yet named in the unrevised part of
The Silmarillion treating of this matter, it is recorded that many
of the Noldor of Turgon's following were in fact grieved by the
decision of their king, and dreaded that evil would soon result
from it. In the Third Host, that of Finarfin, so many were of this
mind that when Finarfin heard the final doom of Mandos and
repented, the greater part of that host returned to Valinor. Yet
Finrod son of Finarfin, noblest of all the Noldor in the tales of
Beleriand, also went away, for Turgon had been elected supreme
lord of the Noldorin hosts.
[In the Annals of Aman (X.113, $138) there was no suggestion
that Finrod (= Finarfin) led a separate 'Third Host': 'Thus at the
last the Noldor set forth divided in two hosts. Feanor and his
following were in the van; but the greater host came behind under
Fingolfin'; and the same was said in the Quenta Silmarillion
(V.235, $68, not changed later). But this note carries an extreme
departure from the tradition, in the entire omission of Fingolfin.
This has in fact been encountered before, in my father's very late
work - of this same period - on the story of Maeglin, where re-
lationships are distorted on account of a defective genealogy
making Turgon the son of Finwe (XI.327); but here, in a central
story of The Silmarillion, Turgon is called 'king', and 'supreme
lord of the Noldorin hosts', and Fingolfin disappears. Of course
it is not to be thought that my father actually intended such a
catastrophic disruption of the narrative structure as this would
bring about; and it is reassuring to see that in a reference else-
where in these papers Fingolfin reappears.]
10. [In the margin, and written at the same time as the text, my
father noted: 'The duel of Glorfindel and the Demon may need
revision.']
11. This is one of the main matters of The Silmarillion and need not
here be explained. But in that part of The Silmarillion as so far
composed it should not be left to appear that Ulmo, chiefly
concerned in the coming of Tuor to Gondolin, in any way acted
contrary to the Ban, against Manwe or without his knowledge.
[My father perhaps had in mind Ulmo's words to Tuor on the
shore at Vinyamar, Unfinished Tales p. 29.]
12. This implies that Glorfindel was natively an Elda of great bodily
and spiritual stature, a noble character, and that his guilt had
been small: sc. that he owed allegiance to Turgon and loved his
own kindred, and these were his only reasons for remaining with
them, although he was grieved by their obstinacy, and feared the
doom of Mandos.
13. [Cf. the Valaquenta (The Silmarillion, p. 31): 'In later days he was
the friend of all the Children of Iluvatar, and took pity on their
sorrows ...']
14. No doubt because Gil-galad had by then discovered that Sauron
was busy in Eregion, but had secretly begun the making of a
stronghold in Mordor. (Maybe already an Elvish name for that
region, because of its volcano Orodruin and its eruptions - which
were not made by Sauron but were a relic of the devastating
works of Melkor in the long First Age.) [See note 15.]
15. [This passage concerning Gil-galad and Sauron in the year 1200
of the Second Age, with the express statement that 'Sauron came
in person to Lindon', seems to conflict with what is said in Of the
Rings of Power (The Silmarillion p. 287), that 'Only to Lindon
he did not come, for Gil-galad and Elrond doubted him and his
fair-seeming', and would not admit him to the land.]
16. For the Valar were open to the hearing of the prayers of those in
Middle-earth, as ever before, save only that in the dark days of
the Ban they would listen to one prayer only from the Noldor: a
repentant prayer pleading for pardon.
17. [My father here discussed again the idea that Elvish reincarnation
might be achieved by 'rebirth' as a child, and rejected it as em-
phatically as he had done in the discussion called 'Reincarnation
of Elves', X.363-4; here as there the physical and psychological
difficulties were addressed. He wrote here that the idea 'must be
abandoned, or at least noted as a false notion, e.g. probably of
Mannish origin, since nearly all the matter of The Silmarillion is
contained in myths and legends that have passed through Men's
hands and minds, and are (in many points) plainly influenced by
contact and confusion with the myths, theories, and legends of
Men' (cf. p. 357, note 17).
My discussion of this matter in X.364 must be corrected. I said
there that the idea that the 'houseless' fea was enabled to rebuild
its hroa from its memory became my father's 'firm and stable
view of the matter', 'as appears from very late writing on the
subject of the reincarnation of Glorfindel of Gondolin'. This is
erroneous. This last discussion of Elvish reincarnation refers only
to the 'restoration' or 'reconstitution' of the former body by the
Valar, and makes no mention of the idea that it could be achieved
by the 'houseless fea' operating of itself.]
18. [The 'false notion' is that of Elvish rebirth as a child: see note 17.]
19. ['Durin VII &c Last' is shown in the genealogical table in Appen-
dix A, III as a descendant of Dain Ironfoot. Nothing is said of him
in that Appendix; but see p. 278 in this book.]
20. Yet it is said that their memories were clearer and fuller of the
far-off days.
21. That the Elves ever came to know so much (though only at a time
when the vigour of both their races was declining) is thought to
be due to the strange and unique friendship which arose between
Gimli and Legolas. Indeed most of the references to Dwarvish
history in Elvish records are marked with 'so said Legolas'.
22. Who was sometimes called Navatar, and the Dwarves Auleonnar
'children of Aule'.
23. [This brief version ends with these remarkable words: 'But Eru
did not give them the immortality of the Elves, but lives longer
than Men. "They shall be the third children and more like Men,
the second." ']
24. The flesh of Dwarves is reported to have been far slower to decay
or become corrupted than that of Men. (Elvish bodies robbed of
their spirit quickly disintegrated and vanished.)
25. [A note at the end of the text without indication for 'its insertion
reads:] What effect would this have on the succession? Probably
this 'return' would only occur when by some chance or other the
reigning king had no son. The Dwarves were very unprolific and
this no doubt happened fairly often.
26. [These notes go with the text Glorfindel II, when my father had
determined that Glorfindel came to Middle-earth in the Second
Age, probably about the year 1600 (p. 382).]
27. [With this reference to Glorfindel's part in the war in Eriador cf.
the note cited on pp. 378-9.]
28. [Elsewhere on this page this name is written Rome(n)star.]
29. Before ever they came to Beleriand the Teleri had developed a
craft of boat-making; first as rafts, and soon as light boats with
paddles made in imitation of the water-birds upon the lakes near
their first homes, and later on the Great Journey in crossing
rivers, or especially during their long tarrying on the shores of the
'Sea of Rhun', where their ships became larger and stronger. But
in all this work Cirdan had ever been the foremost and most
inventive and skilful. [On the significance of the Sea of Rhun in
the context of the Great Journey see XI.173-4.]
30. Pengoloh alone mentions a tradition among the Sindar of
Doriath that it was in archaic form Nowe, the original meaning
of which was uncertain, as was that of Olwe. [On the meaning of
Olwe see p. 341 and note 20.]
31. [Cf. Appendix B (head-note to the Third Age): 'For Cirdan saw
further and deeper than any other in Middle-earth' (said in the
context of his surrender of Narya, the Ring of Fire, to Mith-
randir). The statement here that this is said 'in the Annals of the
Third Age (c.1000)' is puzzling, but is presumably to be related
to the words in the same passage of Appendix B 'When maybe a
thousand years had passed ... the Istari or Wizards appeared in
Middle-earth.']
32. A Quenya name given by the exiled Noldor, and primarily
applied to the folk of Doriath, people of Elwe Grey-cloak.
33. [That Cirdan was a kinsman of Elwe is mentioned in Quendi and
Eldar (XI.384 and note 15).]
34. This is used as a general term for the Telerian dialect of Eldarin
as it became in the changes of long years in Beleriand, though it
was not entirely uniform in its development.
35. [Cf. Quendi and Eldar, XI.380: 'The Eglain became a people
somewhat apart from the inland Elves, and at the time of the
coming of the Exiles their language was in many ways different.'
(The Eglain are the people of Cirdan.)]
36. [For Falathrim see Quendi and Eldar, XI.378; and with Falmari
cf. X.163, $27: 'The Sea-elves therefore they became in Valinor,
the Falmari, for they made music beside the breaking waves.']
37. Vingilote, 'Sprayflower'. [Beside 'Spray' my father subsequently
wrote 'Foam', and noted also: 'winge, Sindarin gwing, is properly
a flying spume or spindrift blown off wavetops': see p. 376, note
24.]