Morgoth's Ring (56 page)

It is evident also that it followed the typescript B of Laws and Customs, since the word hroa(r) is used, a term which only replaced hrondo(r) in that typescript by hasty later correction (p. 209). The text and the very elaborate Commentary (typed on the new typewriter) appended to it are preserved in folded newspapers of January 1960; and it is clear from what is written on the newspapers (see p. 329) that the material was complete when they were used for this purpose. It is true of course that January 1960 is not thereby proved to be a terminus ad quem, because it could have been indefinitely later that the newspaper was so used; but that, I think, is very unlikely, and I would therefore place the work in 1959. The only evidence that can be set against this is the fact that the small quantity of original draft-material is all written on slips made from documents of the year 1955; but if my father had a store of such paper, as is likely enough, this would show no more than that initial work on the Athrabeth belongs to that year or later. At the same time it must be allowed to be perfectly possible that he was working on it at intervals over a substantial period of time.

There follows now the introductory text in the typescript version.

Now the Eldar learned that, according to the lore of the Edain, Men believed that their hroar were not by right nature short-lived, but had been made so by the malice of Melkor. It was not clear to the Eldar whether Men meant: by the general marring of Arda (which they themselves held to be the cause of the waning of their own hroar); or by some special malice against Men as Men that was achieved in the dark ages before the Edain and the Eldar met in Beleriand; or by both. But to the Eldar it seemed that, if the mortality of Men had come by special malice, the nature of Men had been grievously changed from the first design of Eru; and this was a matter of wonder and dread to them, for, if it were indeed so, then the power of Melkor must be (or have been in the beginning) far greater than even the Eldar had understood; whereas the original nature of Men must have been strange indeed and unlike that of any others of the dwellers in Arda.

Concerning these things it is recorded in the ancient lore of the Eldar that once Finrod Felagund and Andreth the Wise-woman conversed in Beleriand long ago. This tale, which the Eldar call Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth, is here given in one of the forms that have been preserved.

Finrod (son of Finarfin, son of Finwe) was the wisest of the exiled Noldor, being more concerned than all others with matters of thought (rather than with making or with skill of hand); and he was eager moreover to discover all that he could concerning Mankind. He it was that first met Men in Beleriand and befriended them; and for this reason he was often called by the Eldar Edennil, 'the Friend of Men'. His chief love was given to the people of Beor the Old, for it was these that he had first found in the woods of eastern Beleriand.

Andreth was a woman of the House of Beor, the sister of Bregor father of Barahir (whose son was Beren One-hand the renowned). She was wise in thought, and learned in the lore of Men and their histories; for which reason the Eldar called her Saelind, 'Wise-heart'.

Of the Wise some were women, and they were greatly esteemed among Men, especially for their knowledge of the legends of ancient days. Another Wise-woman was Adanel, sister of Hador Lorindol at one time Lord of the People of Marach, whose lore and traditions, and their language also, were different from those of the People of Beor. But Adanel was married to a kinsman of Andreth, Belemir of the House of Beor: he was grandsire of Emeldir, mother of Beren. In her youth Andreth had dwelt long in Belemir's house, and so had learned from Adanel much of the lore of the People of Marach, besides the lore of her own folk.

In the days of the peace before Melkor broke the Siege of Angband, Finrod would often visit Andreth, whom he loved in great friendship, for he found her more ready to impart her knowledge to him than were most of the Wise among Men. A shadow seemed to lie upon them, and there was a darkness behind them, of which they were loth to speak even among themselves. And they were in awe of the Eldar and would not easily reveal to them their thought or their legends. Indeed the Wise among Men (who were few) for the most part kept their wisdom secret and handed it on only to those whom they chose.

The chief difference between the manuscript and typescript versions of this introductory piece concerns the expanded genealogy of the House of Beor, for here the manuscript gives some additional information concerning Adanel:

Another wise-woman, though of a different House and different tradition, was Adanel sister of Hador. She married Belemir of the House of Beor, grandson of Belen second son of Beor the Old, to whom the wisdom of Beor (for Beor himself had been one of the wise) was chiefly transmitted. And there had been great love between Belemir and Andreth his younger kins-woman (the daughter of his second cousin Eoromir), and she dwelt long in his house, and so learned much of the lore also of the 'people of Marach' and the House of Hador from Adanel.

If to the genealogical references in the published Silmarillion (pp. 142, 148, and the Index s.v. Emeldir) is added this information from the introduction to the Athrabeth the following tree can be derived (the new names are printed in italic):

Beor the Old

Baran Belen

Boron

Boromir Belemir Adanel Hador Lorindol

Andreth Bregor Beren Bregolas Barahir Emeldir

Beren One-hand

Most of the genealogical information about the House of Beor in the published Silmarillion is derived of course from post-Lord of the Rings work on the text: in QS and the Annals of Beleriand (AB 2) Beren's father Barahir was the son of Beor the Old, and the People of Marach had not emerged.

Other differences in the manuscript version of the introduction are the statements that Andreth 'learned also all that she could hear of the Eldar', and that Finrod was often called by the Eldar 'Atandil (or Edennil)' (see the 'Glossary' to the Athrabeth, p. 349).

In the first footnote to the opening of the narrative proper the date of the Athrabeth is given as 'about 409 during the Long Peace (260 - 455)'. In the year 260 Glaurung first emerged from the gates of Angband, and in 455 befell the Dagor Bragollach or Battle of Sudden game, when the Siege of Angband was broken. According to the older chronology (see V.130, 274; still preserved in the Grey Annals of c.1951) Finrod Felagund had encountered Beor in the foothills of the glue Mountains in the year 400, but the date of that meeting had now been set back by ninety years, to 310 (third footnote to the text).

There follows now 'The Debate of Finrod and Andreth', which as already noted has no title in the typescripts (B and C), and which in the original manuscript (A) runs on continuously without new heading from the introduction.

Now it chanced that on a time of spring * Finrod was for a while a guest in the house of Belemir; and he fell to talking with Andreth the Wise-woman concerning Men and their fates. For at that time Boron, Lord of the folk of Beor, had but lately died soon after Yule, and Finrod was grieved.

'Sad to me, Andreth,' he said, 'is the swift passing of your people. For now Boron your father's father is gone; and though he was old, you say, as age goes among Men,** yet I had known him too briefly. Little while indeed it seems to me since I first saw + Beor in the east of this land, yet now he is gone, and his sons, and his son's son also.'

'More than a hundred years it is now,' said Andreth, 'since we came over the Mountains; and Beor and Baran and Boron each lived beyond his ninetieth year. Our passing was swifter before we found this land.'

'Then are you content here?' said Finrod.

'Content?' said Andreth. 'No heart of Man is content. All passing and dying is a grief to it; but if the withering is less soon then that is some amendment, a little lifting of the Shadow.'

'What mean you by that?' said Finrod.

'Surely you know well!' said Andreth. 'The darkness that is now confined to the North, but once'; and here she paused and her eyes darkled, as if her mind were gone back into black years best forgot. 'But once lay upon all Middle-earth, while ye dwelt in your bliss.'

(* [footnote to the text] This would be about 409 during the Long Peace (260-455). At that time Belemir and Adanel were old in the reckoning of Men, being some 70 years of age; but Andreth was in full vigour, being not yet 50 (48). She was unwed, as was not uncommon for Wise-women of Men.)

(**[footnote to the text] He was 93.)

(+ [footnote to the text] In 310, about 100 years before this.)

'It was not concerning the Shadow that I asked,' said Finrod.

'What mean you, I would say, by the lifting of it? Or how is the swift fate of Men concerned with it? Ye also, we hold (being instructed by the Great who know), are Children of Eru, and your fate and nature is from Him.'

'I see,' said Andreth, 'that in this ye of the High-elves do not differ from your lesser kindred whom we have met in the world, though they have never dwelt in the Light. All ye Elves deem that we die swiftly by our true kind. That we are brittle and brief, and ye are strong and lasting. We may be "Children of Eru", as ye say in your lore; but we are children to you also: to be loved a little maybe, and yet creatures of less worth, upon whom ye may look down from the height of your power and your knowledge, with a smile, or with pity, or with a shaking of heads.'

'Alas, you speak near the truth,' said Finrod. 'At least of many of my people; but not of all, and certainly not of me. But consider this well, Andreth, when we name you "Children of Eru" we do not speak lightly; for that name we do not utter ever in jest or without full intent. When we speak so, we speak out of knowledge, not out of mere Elvish lore; and we proclaim that ye are our kin, in a kinship far closer (both of hroa and fea) than that which binds together all other creatures of Arda, and ourselves to them.

'Other creatures also in Middle-earth we love in their measure and kind: the beasts and birds who are our friends, the trees, and even the fair flowers that pass more swiftly than Men. Their passing we regret; but believe it to be a part of their nature, as much as are their shapes or their hues.

'But for you, who are our nearer kin, our regret is far greater.

Yet, if we consider the briefness of life in all Middle-earth, must we not believe that your brevity is also part of your nature? Do not your own people believe this too? And yet from your words and their bitterness I guess that you think that we err.'

'I think that you err, and all who think likewise,' said Andreth; 'and that that error itself comes of the Shadow. But to speak of Men. Some will say this and some that; but most, thinking little, will ever hold that what is in their brief span in the world has ever been so, and shall so ever remain, whether they like it or no. But there are some that think otherwise; men call them "Wise", but heed them little. For they do not speak with assurance or with one voice, having no sure knowledge such as ye boast of, but perforce depending upon , from which truth (if it can be found) must be winnowed. And in every winnowing there is chaff with the corn that is chosen, and doubtless some corn with the chaff which is rejected.

'Yet among my people, from Wise unto Wise out of the darkness, comes the voice saying that Men are not now as they were, nor as their true nature was in their beginning. And clearer still is this said by the Wise of the People of Marach, who have preserved in memory a name for Him that ye call Eru, though in my folk He was almost forgotten. So I learn from Adanel. They say plainly that Men are not by nature short-lived, but have become so through the malice of the Lord of the Darkness whom they do not name.'

'That I can well believe,' said Finrod: 'that your bodies suffer in some measure the malice of Melkor. For you live in Arda Marred, as do we, and all the matter of Arda was tainted by him, before ye or we came forth and drew our hroar and their sustenance therefrom: all save only maybe Aman before he came there.(1) For know, it is not otherwise with the Quendi (2) themselves: their health and stature is diminished. Already those of us who dwell in Middle-earth, and even we who have returned to it, find that the change (3) of their bodies is swifter than in the beginning. And that, I judge, must forebode that they will prove less strong to last than they were designed to be, though this may not be clearly revealed for many long years.

'And likewise with the hroar of Men, they are weaker than they should be. Thus it comes to pass that here in the West, to which of old his power scarcely extended, they have more health, as you say.'