Morgoth's Ring (54 page)

$59b [see AAm $116] Then Manwe went up to his high seat upon the mountain-top, and he looked out, and his eyes pierced through the night, until they saw within the dark a Darkness which they could not penetrate, huge but far away, moving now northward with great speed; and he knew that Melkor had come and gone. Then the Valar began their pursuit; and soon the earth shook beneath the horses of the host of Orome, and the fire that was stricken from the hooves of Nahar was the first light that returned to Valinor. But when the riding of the wrath of the Valar came up with the Cloud of Ungoliante all were blinded and dismayed, and the host was scattered, and they went this way and that, they knew not whither. In vain Orome wound his horn, for the Valaroma was choked and gave no sound. Tulkas was as a man caught in a black net at night, and he stood powerless and beat the air in vain. And when the Cloud had passed, it was too late. Melkor had gone whither he would, and his vengeance was achieved.

Commentary.

Leaving for a moment the remarkable narrative shift in this 'sub-chapter' Of the Darkening of Valinor, the new version introduces many elements lacking in the old story: among the most important being the origin of Ungoliante; the account of the festival in Valinor, with the 'investing' of the Valar in the form of the Children of Iluvatar and their partaking of the physical celebration of the harvest; Manwe's purpose to achieve concord among the Noldor; Finwe's refusal to leave Formenos while Feanor was banished from Tirion; and the reconciliation of Feanor with Fingolfin before Manwe's throne.

But all these are present in the Annals of Aman, and largely in the same words. My father, very obviously, had AAm in front of him; as has been seen (pp. 191 - 2), LQ and AAm were very close in the earlier part of the now replaced Chapter 6, and while LQ ceases at the point where Melkor goes to Arvalin AAm does not, but continues on ($$105 - 16) in the same larger fashion, expanding the old story while retaining the structure of the Quenta tradition.

Now, however, in this final version of the Quenta, my father returned to the Annals and used them for the further expansion of the other - increasingly hard to differentiate - 'tradition'. Schematically: QS (pre-The Lord of the Rings)

Chapter 6 Of the Silmarils and the Darkening of Valinor (Slight preliminary revision in 1951)

Major rewriting of QS Annals of Aman

on the old manuscript $$78-104 continuing to $$105-16

in 1951

(as far as Melkor's (as far as Melkor's (to Melkor's escape coming to Arvalin) coming to Arvalin) from the hunt) Final version in the Quenta Silmarillion

That in the pre-The Lord of the Rings period the Annals of Valinor and the Annals of Beleriand constituted distinct entities, forming with the Quenta Silmarillion a tripartite work, is very clear (see IV.284); and a list of the constituent parts of the Matter of Middle-earth associated with the long letter to Milton Waldman (see p. 3) shows that this was still the case, in theory at least, in 1951.

Yet we have seen how close the versions did in fact become in the course of the 1951 revision; and now, in the last phase of his work on the actual narratives, when (as I have suggested, p. 142) my father was envisaging a 're-expansion' of the whole, a new conception of The Silmarillion, a new and much fuller mode of narrative, he derived entire passages from the Annals with scarcely any significant change. I have said (p. 192) that AAm and the rewriting (LQ) of the first part of Chapter 6, as I think clearly contemporary, are too similar in every aspect, if continually different in actual wording, to be regarded as the product of a separate tradition of learning and memory, or even as the product of two different 'loremasters'; but the relation of this last version of the Silmarillion tradition to AAm on which it draws seems to show that my father had now ceased to regard them as different works. It may be, though I have no other evidence for it, that if he had continued this last version he would have 'cannibalised' the Annals wherever he chose to, regarding the latter now as no more than a constituent draft text for the sole work that was to emerge: The Silmarillion.

To turn now to the major departure from the old legend - which goes back to the original tale of The Theft of Melko and the Darkening of Valinor (I.152 - 3): Melkor was not present at the destruction of the Trees. When Ungoliante climbs Mount Hyarmentir he stays for a while beside her lair; goes down then to the shores of Avathar and curses the Sea; lurks outside the Pelori until the great darkness falls; then hastens through the pass to Valmar to desecrate the Ring of Doom. Why was this done? Not, surely, to bring in the casting down by Melkor of the thrones of the Valar - for this could have been achieved without altering the story, or at any rate without altering it so radically. The reason for the change, I think, was that my father found it unacceptable that Melkor should have risked allowing Ungoliante to come anywhere near the Silmarils. In the new story, Melkor's plan was to wait until she had destroyed the Trees and then go alone in the darkness to Formenos. The tryst 'that Melkor had made with her, and did not mean to keep' ($58d) was not at Formenos

- that being 'his second mark, which he had kept secret in his mind'

($58f); that is why it is said that Ungoliante 'turned swiftly' and overtook him. Then 'they went on together to the one place in the land of the Valar that he would have hidden from her.'

Other features of this text are discussed under individual paragraphs.

$$55, 55b There now appears the story that after Melkor was seen from the hill of Tuna passing through the Kalakiryan he turned northwards up the coast into Araman; but this was a feint, and he turned back southwards in secret and came into Avathar to find Ungoliante. (I suggested (I.157), perhaps too positively, that the germ of this northward movement on the part of Melkor is to be found in the old Tale (I.145), where Melko originally

'purposed to get to northward over the passes nigh to Mandos', but thought better of it. There is indeed no trace of the idea in any intervening version; but features apparently long lost do undoubtedly emerge again.)

$55a 'Melkor purposed to escape to his old strongholds in the North of Middle-earth': i.e. Utumno and Angband. See p. 156, $12.

$55c Here first appears the name Avathar, and the ancient name Arvalin at last disappears. In the short intermediate typescript referred to on p. 282 the name is not Avathar but Vastuman (typed over Arvalin). Vastuman is not translated.

$56d Hyarmentir replaces Hyarantar of AAm $107.

$57 'The glimmer of the stars in the dome of Varda': on the Dome of Varda see pp. 385 - 8.

$58d Corolaire: see AAm $122 (pp. 107, 127). - The Wells of Varda: see p. 157, $17.

$59 The Aldudenie of Elemmire is named also in AAm $114

(Elemire; later Elemmire, p. 106).

Entirely new are the statements that Melkor 'could still (though with pain) change his form, or walk unclad', but that at the time of his meeting with Ungoliante he appeared as the Dark Lord of Utumno, and never again changed from that appearance afterwards ($$55b, 56). He is now explicitly the Master of Ungoliante ($$56a, b); cf. AAm $106: 'It may well be that... she was in the beginning one of those that he had corrupted to his service.' The narrative is greatly expanded by the account of his persuasion of Ungoliante and his luring of her by gems stolen in Valinor - giving her strength also to dare the deed: for the great spider was weak through famine of light ($55d).

THE LATER DEVELOPMENT OF CHAPTER 7.

The late typescript B follows straight on from 'Melkor had gone whither he would, and his vengeance was achieved' at the end of the

'sub-chapter' Of the Darkening of Valinor (p. 289), with no more than a space, but my father afterwards wrote in a heading [Of] The Rape of the Silmarils; further on there is a typed heading Of the Thieves' Quarrel.

As in the preceding 'sub-chapter', the end of which corresponds to the end of the former Chapter 6 (QS Chapter 4), he again turned to the Annals of Aman, and in this case he adopted substantial parts of the older text so closely that the new is almost an exact copy, with only a word or two changed here and there (on the implications of his thus amalgamating the two 'traditions' see pp. 289 - 91). But he also introduced a new element into the narrative: the attack by Melkor on Formenos reported by Maedros (as his name is here spelt: in a late emendation to LQ Chapter 5 Maedhros, p. 177, $41). Only now do the sons of Feanor play a part in this story: see p. 123, $122.

I do not give the text in the sections where it becomes scarcely distinct from that of AAm. The paragraph numbers here begin a new series, since they cannot be usefully related to those of QS.

OF THE RAPE OF THE SILMARILS.

$1 When the Trees should have flowered for yet one more day, but time was blind and unmeasured, the Valar returned to the Ring of Doom. They sat upon the ground, for their thrones were defiled, and they were in dark raiment of grief. About them was a great concourse of folk, hardly to be seen; for it was night. But the stars of Varda now glimmered overhead, and the air was clean. The winds of Manwe had driven the vapours of death far away and rolled back the shadows of the Sea. Now Yavanna arose and stood upon the Green Mound, but it was bare and black. She laid her hands upon the Trees, but they were dead and dark; and each branch that she touched broke and fell lifeless at her feet. Then the voices of all the host were lifted in lamentation; and it seemed to those that mourned that they had drained to the dregs the cup of woe that Melkor had filled for them. But it was not so.

$$2-3 For Yavanna spoke before the Valar, saying ... These paragraphs, in which the demand is made upon Feanor that the light of the Silmarils be released for the saving of the Trees, are almost identical to AAm $$118 - 19 (p. 107), with only a very few changes of no significance, as Feanor answered no word: Feanor made no answer'.

$$4-5 But Feanor spoke then, and cried bitterly... These paragraphs are virtually identical to AAm $$120 - 1, except at the end of $120 and the beginning of $121. In AAm Feanor declared that he would be the first to die 'of all the Children of Eru', but on the typescript of AAm, after the emergence of the story of Miriel, my father corrected 'I shall die' to 'I shall be slain', and this change was taken up here. The form of the passage in the new version has been given and discussed on pp. 268 - 9.

$6 'Thou hast spoken,' said Mandos. Then again there was silence, and thought was stilled. But after a while Nienna arose, and she went up onto the Mound; and she cast back her grey hood, and her eyes shone like stars in the rain, for her tears were poured out, and she washed away the defilements of Ungoliante.

And when she had wept she sang slowly, mourning for the bitterness of the world and all hurts of the Marring of Arda.

$7 But even as she mourned, there was heard the sound of feet hastening in the night. Then through the throng came the sons of Feanor, flying from the North, and they bore new tidings of evil. Maedros spoke for them. 'Blood and darkness!'

he cried. 'Finwe the king is slain, and the Silmarils are gone!'

Then Feanor fell upon his face and lay as one dead, until the full tale was told.

$8 'My lord,' said Maedros to Manwe, 'it was the day of festival, but the king was heavy with grief at the departure of my father, a foreboding was on him. He would not go from the house. We were irked by the idleness and silence of the day, and we went riding towards the Green Hills. Our faces were northward, but suddenly we were aware that all was growing dim. The Light was failing. In dread we turned and rode back in haste, seeing great shadows rise up before us. But even as we drew near to Formenos the darkness came upon us; and in the midst was a blackness like a cloud that enveloped the house of Feanor.

$9 'We heard the sound of great blows struck. Out of the cloud we saw a sudden flame of fire. And then there was one piercing cry. But when we urged on our horses they reared and cast us to the ground, and they fled away wild. We lay upon our faces without strength; for suddenly the cloud came on, and for a while we were blind. But it passed us by and moved away north at great speed. Melkor was there, we do not doubt. But not he alone! Some other power was with him, some huge evil: even as it passed it robbed us of all wit and will.

$10 'Darkness and blood! When we could move again we came to the house. There we found the king slain at the door.

His head was crushed as with a great mace of iron. We found no others: all had fled, and he had stood alone, defiant. That is plain; for his sword lay beside him, twisted and untempered as if by lightning-stroke. All the house was broken and ravaged.

Naught is left. The treasuries are empty. The chamber of iron is torn apart. The Silmarils are taken!'