Morgoth's Ring (47 page)

At the head of the page on which this note stands my father wrote:

'But see Athrabeth': see (ii) above.

NOTES.

[These notes refer to the part of the text of Laws and Customs among the Eldar given from the manuscript A, pp. 233 ff.]

1. The spelling Feanaro is found also in the first text of the tale, FM 1 (see p. 206, footnote). The name is variously written subsequently in A (Feanaro, Feanaro, Feanaro).

2. For the form Lorien with short vowel see p. 56 note 2 and p. 148, $3.

3. For the doom of Mandos (the 'Statute of Finwe and Miriel') in this work see pp. 225 - 6. In FM 1 the doom, in its earliest expression, is given at this point in the story (pp. 206 - 7).

4. your union: your is plural, and not inconsistent with thy, thee, thou in the same sentence.

5. in Tuna: see p. 193, $52, and p. 282.

6. My father first wrote 'an aimenel' (> aimenal), but changed it immediately to 'a lirulin', writing 'lark' in the margin.

7. The reference in the footnote here is to the passage in A (omitted in B) which is given in note 22 on p. 230. As in that passage the name Nolofinwe' is written with a tilde over the N. The order of the names of the daughters of Finwe and Indis are as in the emended text of FM 1, p. 207. See further p. 262 and note 10.

8. The brackets are in the original.

9. Cf. the Ainulindale $13 (p. 11): Yet some things there are that

[the Ainur] cannot see ...; for to none but himself has Iluvatar revealed all that he has in store, and in every age there come forth things that are new and have no foretelling, for they do not spring from the past.'

10. It is not told elsewhere that Aule was the most eager among the Valar that the Elves should be summoned to Valinor. Cf. what is said earlier in Laws and Customs (p. 219, found in both texts, but not elsewhere) concerning the motive of the Valar in bringing the Elves to Aman.

11. As with the reference to Aule mentioned in note 10, it is not told elsewhere that Ulmo dissented from the decision of the Valar to bring Melkor to Mandos. Cf. the passage in the first text of the Valaquenta, lost in the final form: '[Ulmo's] counsels grew ever away from the mind of Manwe' (p. 202).

12. At this point there originally followed: 'Then when others had spoken Manwe answered: 'There is reason in all that hath been said...' Manwe's speech was apparently abandoned after a few lines, and the speeches of Nienna, Ulmo, and Vaire introduced; after which Manwe's speech reappears (p. 244).

13. This sentence ('And I doubt not...') was subsequently placed in brackets.

14. nill is the old negative verb 'will not': thus 'will he or nill he'

means 'whether he wills it or wills it not' (surviving as willy-nilly).

15. The text stops here, not at the foot of a page. It takes up again on a new sheet, in a rougher script that continues to the end of the work; but my father paginated this further text continuously with the preceding.

16. Ingoldo: the mother-name of Fingolfin (p. 230 note 22).

17. In the account of the marriage of Finwe and Indis in the present work (p. 238) there is no mention of this estrangement, or at least separation. In the final work on Chapter 6 of the Quenta Silmarillion, however, it is implied that Indis did not depart with Finwe to Formenos, because it is told that Feanor's wife Nerdanel would not go with him into banishment and 'asked leave to abide with Indis' (p. 279, $53d).

18. On Miriel's entry into the House of Vaire see p. 263 note 9.

19. Firiel: see the Etymologies in Vol.V, p. 381, stem PHIR.

*

LATER VERSIONS OF THE STORY OF

FINWE AND MIRIEL

IN THE QUENTA SILMARILLION.

The next version of the story was a short typescript derived closely for the most part from that in Laws and Customs among the Eldar (pp. 236 - 9)., it is entitled Of Finwe and Miriel, and begins: Finwe, first lord of the Noldor, had to wife Miriel, who was called the Serinde...'

(cf. p. 236). There is no indication that it was intended to stand in the text of the Quenta Silmarillion, but there can scarcely be any question that my father did so intend it; I will refer to it therefore as 'FM 2'.

The most important divergence in FM 2 from the text in Laws and Customs is at the words (p. 237): 'Then Manwe took pity upon Finwe, and he considered his plea, and when Mandos had spoken his doom as has been recorded, Manwe called Finwe to him...' For the purpose of the inclusion of the story in the narrative of the Quenta Silmarillion the judgement of Mandos had obviously to be given at this point (as it had been in the original version, FM 1, p. 206); and in FM 2 the judgement was preceded by a reference to the Debate of the Valar and some indication of the nature of their concern. The word 'Statute' is used here in a wider and a narrower sense: as a name for the record made by the Eldar of all matters relevant to the judgement of Mandos, as well as the title of the actual judgement.

Then Manwe was moved with pity for Finwe, and he considered his plea. But because this seemed to him a great matter and not lightly to be judged, he summoned the Valar in Council. Of the long debate that they held the Elves wrote a record, for their chieftains were permitted to be present.(1) This was called 'The Statute of Finwe and Miriel' and was preserved among the chief of their books of law; for in the debate, before the Statute was at last established by the doom of Namo Mandos, many matters concerning the Eldar, their fate in Arda, their death and re-birth and the nature of their marriage, were examined and judged. And the Valar were greatly concerned to see that all their labour for the guarding of Valinor was of no avail, to keep out evil and the shadow of Melkor, if any thing, living or unliving, was brought thither out of Middle-earth and left free or unguarded; and they perceived at last how great was the power of Melkor in Arda, in the making of which as it was *

(* Arda Hastaina, or 'Arda Marred', as they named it. For Arda, or in full Arda Alahasta, the 'Unmarred', they named the thought which they had, each severally, or as a Council under Manwe, of that Arda in) which Melkor had no part.

his part was such that all things, save in Aman alone, had an inclination to evil and to perversion from their right forms and courses. Wherefore those whose being began in Arda, and who moreover were by nature a union of spirit and body, drawing the sustenance of the latter from Arda Marred, must ever be, in some degree, liable to grief, to do or to suffer things unnatural; and though dwelling in Aman might be a guard against this evil, it was not a full cure, unless in long ages. And with this thought a shadow passed over the hearts of the Valar, even in the noon-tide of the Blessed Realm, presage of the sorrows which the Children should bring into the world.

Now this was the doom of Namo in this case, and in all cases where a marriage of the Eldar might be sundered by the death of one only of the partners. 'Marriage among the Eldar is by and for the Living...'

The doom of Mandos in FM 2 differs from the form in Laws and Customs (pp. 225 - 6) only in detail of expression and not at all in substance, except for some expansion at the very end.

'... For it must be clearly understood that, when this will not to return has been solemnly declared and ratified by Mandos, then the living partner may take another spouse lawfully. For it is contrary to the nature of the Eldar to live unwedded, and the Dead may not compel the Living to remain solitary against their will. If therefore the Living take another partner, the will of the Dead shall not be revoked, but shall be a doom of Mandos. For he will permit none of the Eldar to walk alive in the body who has two spouses living also.'

This in brief was the Doom of Mandos, that was after called the Statute of Finwe and Miriel. And when Mandos had spoken as the Mouth of Manwe, the Eldar that heard him asked: 'How shall the will or doom be known?'; and it was answered: 'Only by recourse to Manwe and the pronouncement of Mandos. In this matter it shall not be lawful for any of the Eldar to judge his own case. For who among the Living can discover the thoughts of the Dead or presume the judgements of Mandos?'

Then Manwe called Finwe to him...

Other divergences from the text of Laws and Customs in FM 2 were taken up into the final text (FM 4), which is given in full on pp. 256 ff., and need not be set out here, or if lost from the final text are given in the notes to it.

FM 2 was followed by a further typescript, 'FM 3', made on a different machine (see p. 300). This is expressly a chapter of the Quenta Silmarillion, with the title as typed Of Feanor and the Darkening of Valinor, changed later to Of Finwe and Miriel. This version was a good deal reduced by omissions, and my father evidently found it unsatisfactory, for he went on to make a further and much more substantial version, 'FM 4', with which the textual history of the story of Finwe and Miriel comes to an end.

It is clear that when making FM 3 and FM 4 he had the preceding texts in front of him, and that he selected variously from them as he sought to achieve a satisfactory form. To set out all the detail of this development would take much space but serve little purpose, since very little was in fact omitted from the final, 're-expanded' text FM 4; and I give this text here in full.

FM 4 has a general heading Of the Silmarils and the Darkening of Valinor, with a subtitle Of Finwe and Miriel (the typescript then continues with further 'sub-chapters', to which however my father subsequently gave numbers as chapters in their own right: see p. 299). The paragraph numbers provided for reference do not relate to any numbers previously used, since after the opening the text is entirely different; for the 'LQ' (1951) version of the opening of the chapter see pp. 184 - 5, $$46, 46a - b.

OF THE SILMARILS AND THE DARKENING

OF VALINOR.

OF FINWE AND MIRIEL.

$1 Now the three kindreds of the Eldar were gathered at last in Valinor, and Melkor was chained. This was the Noontide of the Blessed Realm, the fullness of its glory and bliss, long in tale of years, but in memory too brief. In those days the Eldar became full-grown in stature of body and of mind, and the Noldor advanced ever in skill and knowledge; and the long years were filled with their joyful labours, in which many new things fair and wonderful were devised. It was in this time that the Noldor first made letters, and Rumil of Tuna was the name of the lore-master who first achieved fitting signs for the recording of speech and song, some for graving upon metal or in stone, others for drawing with brush or with pen.

$2 It came to pass that in Eldamar, in the house of the King in Tirion, there was born the eldest of the sons of Finwe, and the most beloved, Kurufinwe was his name, but by his mother he was called Feanor,* Spirit of Fire, by which title he is remembered in all the tales of the Noldor.

$3 Miriel was the name of his mother. Her hair was like silver; and she was slender as a white flower in the grass. Soft and sweet was her voice, and she sang as she worked, like rippling water, in music without words. For her hands were more skilled to make things fine and delicate than any other hands even among the Noldor. By her the craft of needles was devised; and if but one fragment of the broideries of Miriel were seen in Middle-earth it would be held dearer than a king's realm; for the richness of her devices and the fire of their colours were as manifold and as bright as the wealth of leaf and flower and wing in the fields of Yavanna. Therefore she was called Serinde.+

$4 The love of Finwe and Miriel was great and full of joy, for it began in the Blessed Realm and in days of mirth. But in the bearing of her son she was consumed in spirit and body, so that almost all strength seemed to have passed from her; and when she had named him (2) she said to Finwe: 'Never again shall I bear a child, for strength that would have nourished the life of many has gone forth into Feanor.'

$5 Finwe was greatly grieved, for the Noldor were in the youth of their days, but were still few in number, and he desired to bring forth many children into the bliss of Aman. He said therefore: 'Surely there is healing in Aman? Here all weariness can find rest.'

$6 But when Miriel still languished, Finwe sought the counsel of Manwe, and Manwe delivered her to the care of Irmo in Lorien.(3) At their parting (for a little while as he thought) Finwe was sad, for it seemed an unhappy chance that the mother should depart and miss the beginning at least of the childhood days of her son.

$7 'Unhappy it is indeed,' said Miriel, 'and I would weep, if I were not so weary. But hold me blameless in this, and in all that may come after. Rest now I must. Farewell, dear lord!'

$8 She spoke no clearer than this at that time, but in her heart she yearned not only for sleep and rest but release from (* [footnote to the text] Feanaro in the form of the speech of those days.)