Morgoth's Ring (23 page)

13. Struck out here: and his sons less (cf. the passage in $160 where Fingon's friendship with Maidros is referred to).

14. Ea is so spelt here, and again in $154, but in the last two occurrences in the text it is spelt Ea.

15. Struck out here: 'and Melkor least of all, who is mightiest save one.'

16. The name Noldolante was added in the margin. It does not appear in the typescript.

17. The page beginning here and carrying $$152 - 4 is much more roughly written than the rest of the manuscript, and my father struck it through and replaced it. It might be thought at first sight that this is the only place where a first draft of AAm survives, but this is not the case. The rough 'draft' page was written on the reverse of that carrying $$149 - 51, and that is in the same good clear script as elsewhere (with a number of changes made in the act of composition). It is plain then that the rejected page did not begin as 'rough draft' (and the handwriting bears this out), but degenerated into it; and this instance is, if anything, rather evidence against the idea of a lost first draft of the Annals of Aman (see p. 47).

The first text originally began, following QS $71, 'Once again he warned the Noldor to return and seek pardon, or in the end they should return at last only after bitter sorrow and woes unspeakable.' The Doom of the Noldor in the final form was in fact only changed from the draft by a rearrangement of its parts and in many details of phrasing. Two points may be noted. After

'... over the mountains' at the end of $152 stood 'Ye shall be free of them and they of you'; and the sentence in $154 beginning

'There long shall ye abide...' read 'There long shall ye ahide, and be not set free until those ye have slain entreat for you.'

18. This sentence replaced the following: 'Waiting then but a little for a north wind that brought a deep mist upon the host he slipped away...'

19. The last sentence of $159 was a later addition.

20. The passage 'in that place ... the Firth of Drengist' was a later addition.

21. Changed from 'the fairest vessels of the Elder Days'.

Commentary on the fifth section of the

Annals of Aman.

This section of the Annals corresponds in content to QS Chapter 5 Of the Flight of the Noldor (V.232 - 8), and to AV 2 annals 2990 - 2994

(V.114 - 17). After the opening paragraphs the narrative of the Annals is again closely related in structure to the chapter in QS, and from $125 onwards many phrases are retained from it (more in fact than appears from the text printed, since in some cases my father adopted phrases without change from QS and then altered them). On the other hand, the narrative is greatly expanded in scope.

$$117-24 There now enters a new and subtle articulation in the story, with the assertion of Yavanna that with the holy light regained from the Silmarils she could rekindle the Trees before their roots died, the demand made upon Feanor, and his refusal - before the news came from Formenos.

$121 Mandos said 'Not the first' because he knew that Finwe had been murdered. See further p. 127, $ 120.

$122 Korlaire: the first occurrence of this name (see p.127, $122).-

A new element in the narrative is that 'Finwe alone had not fled from the horror of the Dark.' In QS ($60) and AV 2 Morgoth slew many others beside. Where Feanor's sons were, or where they went (for Feanor came to the festival alone, $112), is not cold (see pp. 293 - 4).

$123 It is now first said that it was Feanor who named Melkor Morgoth ('the Dark Enemy', note 2 above). In AAm (unlike QS) Melkor is always so named until this point, but after this almost invariably Morgoth.

$125 Araman: QS Eruman. The change had appeared previously on the Ambarkanta map V (IV.250 - 1), where it was put in many years after the making of the map.

$126 In QS ($62) no more is said of Ungoliante's fate than that the Balrogs drove her away 'into the uttermost South, where she long remained'; now appears the story that she dwelt first in Nan Dungorthin, and only afterwards, after spawning there, did she retreat into the South of the world. But the spiders of Nan Dungorthin 'of the fell race of Ungoliante' are referred to later in QS, in the story of Beren's flight from Dorthonion (see V.299, and the published Silmarillion p. 164).

$127 The origin of the Orcs. In QS ($62) the idea had already arisen that the Orcs originated in mockery of the Elves, but not yet that the Orcs were in any other way associated with them: they were a 'creation' of Morgoth's own, 'made of stone', and he brought them into being when he returned to Middle-earth.

As AAm was first written (see notes 5 - 7 above) this view still held; the word 'made' was still used - though not the words

'made of stone'. But in AElfwine's note that follows (and which was written continuously with what precedes) they are called

'a spawn of earth corrupted by Morgoth'; and the 'darker tale'

told in Eressea - that the Orcs were in their beginning enslaved and corrupted Elves (Avari) - is certainly the first appearance of this idea, contradicting what precedes, or perhaps rather at this stage presenting an alternative theory. It is ascribed to Pengolod; and Pengolod argues to AElfwine that Melkor could actually make nothing that had life, but could only corrupt what was already living. The implication of this second theory would probably, though not necessarily, be that the Orcs came into being much earlier, before the Captivity of Melkor; and that this implication is present is suggested by the footnote reference to the Annals of Beleriand - meaning the last version of these Annals, the Grey Annals, companion to the Annals of Aman: 'it is said that this he did in the Dark ere ever the Quendi were found by Orome.'

At this point my father went back to an earlier part of AAm (p. 72, $42) and interpolated the passage 'Yet by after-knowledge ...', where the idea of the capture of wandering Quendi in their earliest days is filled out, though it remains only a supposition of the 'masters of lore'. Perhaps at the same time he emended the present passage, changing 'he brought now into being' to 'thence there now came forth in hosts beyond count', 'made' to 'bred', and 'a spawn of earth' to

'children of earth'. He then (as I conjecture) developed the interpolation at the earlier point much more fully ($$43 - 5), where the idea becomes less a supposition than a certainty of history: the powerlessness of Melkor to make living things is a known fact ('so say the wise'). Finally, at a later time (see note 8), he cut out the whole passage at the end of $127 beginning

'But indeed a darker tale some yet tell in Eressea ...' - either because he only then observed that it had been superseded by $$43 - 5 and was in any case not in the appropriate place, or because he rejected this theory of the origin of the Orcs. See further p. 127, $127.

The word for in 'Orcs we may name them; for in days of old they were strong and fell as demons. Yet they were not of demon kind' (an observation of AElfwine's) suggests that Orcs is Old English (cf. orc-neas in Beowulf line 112), conveniently similar to the Elvish word. This would explain why AElfwine said, in effect, 'We may call them Orcs, because they were strong and fell as demons, even though they were not in fact demons.' In a letter of my father's written on 25 April 1954

(Letters no.144) he said that the word Orc 'is as far as I am concerned actually derived from Old English orc "demon", but only because of its phonetic suitability' (and also: 'Orcs... are nowhere clearly stated to be of any particular origin. But since they are servants of the Dark Power, and later of Sauron, neither of whom could, or would, produce living things, they must be "corruptions"').

$128 The final reading here 'King of the World' (see note 9) returns to that of QS ($63), which goes hack to Q (IV.93). - On the subject of Morgoth's departures from Angband QS has: 'it was never his wont to leave the deep places of his fortress', and there is no mention of his one absence.

$$132-3 The report of Feanor's speech is greatly extended from that in QS ($$66 - 7).

$133 Tauros: Orome; cf. QS $8: 'He is a hunter, and he loves all trees; for which reason he is called Aldaron, and by the Gnomes Tauros, the lord of forests'; also the Etymologies, stem TAWAR (V.391): 'N[oldorin] Tauros "Forest-Dread", usual N by-name of Orome (N Araw)'. It is notable that Feanor should use this name (see p. 146, $8). In the typescript, for no very clear reason, the typist left a blank here, in which my father later pencilled Orome'.

$135 As AAm was first written (see note 12 above) the alignments of the Noldorin princes were already changed from the account in QS ($68), since Angrod and Egnor were now opposed to Feanor - and Galadriel now has a part in the matter, being eager to leave Aman. As rewritten, a more subtle alignment is portrayed: for Fingon now independently urges departure, and Angrod and Egnor move with him. Of Fingolfin's sons Turgon alone now supports his father, but inglor stands with him; and Orodreth moves into inglor's place as the only one of his sons to support Finrod.

The close friendship of Turgon with Felagund (Inglor) had appeared already in the earliest Annals of Beleriand (IV.296); in a late addition to the AAm typescript (p. 106, $85) they were born in the same Year of the Trees.

The statement that Galadriel, 'youngest of the House of Finwe', 'came into the world west of the Sea, and knew yet nought of the unguarded lands', is strange, because all the progeny of Finwe were born in Aman (AAm $$78, 81 - 2).

$136 The Noldor were moved by 'the desire of new things and strange countries'; in QS they were 'filled with desire for the Silmarils'.

$137 The march from Tirion was undertaken with too little preparation and in too great haste; cf. AV 2 (annal 2992): 'The great march of the Gnomes was long preparing.'

$139 Only one tenth of the Noldor remained behind in Tirion.

$$140-2 The words of Manwe's messenger are given, and the episode is much expanded. The herald does not say"as in QS

($68), that the Valar forbade the march, but it is now said that Feanor had exiled himself through the very fact of his oath; and Feanor in his reply accuses the Valar of sitting idle and making no move against Morgoth.

$143 Elende (Elvenhome, Elfland): see p. 90, $67.

$$145-8 Feanor himself (not as in QS $70 messengers) went to Olwe at Alqualonde, and their words together are fully recounted. In $147 Feanor speaks of the building of the Haven by the Noldor, which is mentioned earlier in AAm ($76).

$$149-50 The account in AAm of the battle at Alqualonde and its aftermath follows QS $70 closely and retains much of its phrasing; but in $149 it is now told that those of the second host who joined in the battle mistook its cause.

$150 On the weapons of the Teleri see p. 106, $97. - The song of the Flight of the Gnomes (QS $70) is now called Noldolante, the Fall of the Noldor, 'which Maglor made ere he was lost.'

$$152-4 The Prophecy of the North, now called 'the Prophecy of the North and the Doom of the Noldor', is significantly developed: by the warning that such of the Noldor as may be slain afterwards shall remain long in Mandos 'yearning for their bodies', and that those who endure in Middle-earth shall grow weary of the world and shall wane. In this AAm looks back to AV 2 (annal 2993, V.116; almost the same in AV 1, IV.267):

A measure of mortality should visit the Noldor, and they should be slain with weapons, and with torments, and with sorrow, and in the long end they should fade upon Middle-earth and wane before the younger race.

I have discussed these passages in IV.278 - 9. See further pp. 265 ff.

$156 As in AV (both texts), many of Finrod's people returned with him to Valinor; in QS ($72) only 'a few of his household'

turned back. A new element in Finrod's motive for return is his kinship with Olwe of Alqualonde, for his wife was Earwen Olwe's daughter ($85).

$157 Endar 'Middle-earth'. The form Endon was used earlier in AAm of 'the midmost point' of Middle-earth ($38), where it was changed on the typescript to Endor (p. 80). These forms Endon and Endor had appeared in the Ambarkanta and maps (see p. 76, $38). In The Lord of the Rings Quenya Endore, Sindarin Ennor, means not the midmost point but Middle-earth itself, and in a letter of 1967 (Letters no.297, p. 384) my father referred to Q. Endor, S. Ennor = Middle-earth, with the etymology en(ed) 'middle' and (n)dor 'land (mass)'; cf. also Aran Endor 'King of Middle-earth', note 9 above. But in the present passage the form Endar is perfectly clear, as also again in $$158, 163. The typist however in each case, for some reason, typed Endor, and my father did not alter it. On the other hand, in the title of the next section in AAm (p. 129) the typist put Endar as in the manuscript, and again my father let this stand. In the published Silmarillion (p. 89) I printed, hesitantly, the form Endor.

This passage concerning the Helkaraxe derives not from QS

but from AV 2 (annal 2994, almost the same in AV 1), and it is very notable that it remains in complete congruence with the cosmography of the Ambarkanta (see IV.238, 254).