Morgoth's Ring (8 page)

§38 For it is said that after the departure of the Valar there was silence and for an age Ilúvatar sat alone in thought. Then he spoke, and he said: 'Behold I love the Earth, which shall be a mansion for the Eldar and the Atani! But the Eldar shall be the fairest of all earthly creatures, and they shall have and shall conceive and bring forth more beauty than all my children; and they shall have the greater bliss in this world. But to the Atani (which are Men) I will give a new gift.'

§39 Therefore he willed that the hearts of Men should seek beyond the world and should find no rest therein; but they should have a virtue to shape their life, amid the powers and chances of the world, beyond the Music of the Ainur, which is as fate to all things else; and of their operation everything should be, in form and deed, completed, and the world fulfilled unto the last and smallest. [
The following
passage struck out:
Lo! even we of the Eldalië have found to our sorrow that Men have a strange power for good or for ill, and for turning things aside from the purpose of Valar or of Elves; so that it is said among us that Fate is not the master of the children of Men; yet they are blind, and their joy is small, which should be great.]

§40 But Ilúvatar knew that Men, being set amid the turmoils of the powers of the world, would stray often, and would not use their gifts in harmony; and he said: 'These too in their time shall find that all that they do redounds at the end only to the glory of my work.' Yet we of the Eldar believe that Men are often a grief to Manwë, who knows most of the mind of Ilúvatar. For it seems to us that Men resemble Melkor most of

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all the Ainur, and yet he has ever feared and hated them, even those that served him.

It is one with this gift of freedom that the children of Men dwell only a short space in the world alive, and are not bound to it, and depart soon whither we know not. Whereas theEldar remain until the end of days, and their love of the Earth and all the world is more single and poignant, therefore, and as the years lengthen ever more sorrowful. Memory is our burden. For the Eldar die not till the world dies, unless they are slain or waste in grief (and to both these seeming deaths they are subject); neither does age subdue their strength, unless one grow weary of ten thousand centuries; and dying they are gathered in the halls of Mandos in Valinor, whence often they return and are reborn among their children. But the sons of Men die indeed, and leave the World (it is said); wherefore they are called the Guests, or the Strangers. Death is their fate, the gift of Ilúvatar, which as Time wears even the Powers shall envy. But Melkor has cast his shadow upon it, and confounded it with darkness, and brought forth evil out of good, and fear out of hope. Yet of old the Valar said unto us that Men shall join in the Second Music of the Ainur, whereas Ilúvatar has not revealed what he purposes for the Elves after the World's end, and Melkor-has not discovered it.

Commentary on the Ainulindale text D

It will be seen that this text, which can only in part be called a new version, does not extend, contradict, or clarify the 'new cosmology' in any respect - that is to say, as D

was originally written. The alteration in §24 of 'they went down into the Halls of Aman' to 'they came down into the fields of Arda' only makes this particular passage more coherent: for Arda had now been established, and it was to the conflict in Arda that those other spirits came. The change in §23 of 'in the midst of the vast halls of the World' to 'in the midst of the vast halls of Aman' is presumably not significant, since the one is clearly equivalent to the other (see p. 28).

With additions and corrections to the text, however, a new element enters:
Ea
. This was the word that Ilúvatar spoke at the moment of the Creation of the World: '
Ea!
Let these things Be!'; and the Ainur knew that 'Ilúvatar had made a new thing, Ea, the World that Is' (§20). In §23, where the reading of C 'the vast halls of the World' had become in D 'the vast halls of Aman', 'Aman' was replaced by 'Ea'.

The failure to change 'the Halls of Aman' to 'the Halls of Ea' in §15 was obviously an oversight. The later meaning of 'Aman', the Blessed MORGOTH`S RING - AINULINDALË -
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Realm, appears in an addition to the text in §32.

There can be no doubt that
Ea
, the Word of Creation that is also the word for the World Created, functions here as did
Aman
; the 'Being' that the word contained and brought forth was the 'new World... globed amid the Void' that the Ainur had seen in vision (§11), and which now they saw as a light far off, 'as it were a cloud with a living heart of flame' (§20), and into which those of them who wished descended.

But it is perfectly explicit that the Ainur, created by Iluvatar (§1), dwelt in

'fair regions' that Ilúvatar had made for them (§10); some of them remained 'beyond the confines of the World' (§21) - and Tulkas heard 'in the far heaven' of the War in Arda. How then can the word
Ea
be defined in the list of '1951 alterations' (p. 7) as

'Universe of that which Is'? This expression can surely not be made equivalent to

'the World that Is' (§20). Must not the '
Universe
of that which Is' contain '
Ea
, the World', and the Ainur who saw it created?

Other points arising from differences between C and D, and from emendations made to D, are referred to under the paragraphs in which they occur:

§31 The omission of the words 'of the Noldor' after 'loremasters' was probably made because Pengoloð is expressly a Noldo: cf. §36, where D has 'whom we Noldor name Elbereth'.

In the substantially revised latter part of this paragraph (p. 32; C text p.

17) the names of the Lamps are changed again, from
Foros
and
Hyaras
to
Forontë
and
Hyarantë
, and by early emendation they reach at last the final forms
Illuin
and
Ormal
(as given in the list of '1951 alterations', p. 7). Now it

'is specifically Yavanna who planted seeds in Middle-earth; and it is Aulë who made the Lamps - but this was told in both the earlier and later
Annals of
Valinor
(IV.263, V.110), and indeed goes back to the original
Music of the
Ainur
(I.69).

In the correction made to the passage about the first growth in Arda under the light of the Lamps the narrative is brought back to the older tradition concerning the first flowers (yet 'grasses' already appeared); see p. 22 note 17.

'Almaren in the Great Lake', as in the 1951 list (p. 7), now replaces 'Almar in a great lake'.

§32
Aman
, in an addition to the manuscript, now acquires its later meaning. - The account of the assault on Melkor by the Valar coming forth from Valinor is slightly extended in D: they came 'with a great host', and Melkor 'lay hid until they had departed', then 'returned to his dwelling in the North', where he built Utumno.

§36 The late change of 'she it was who wrought the Stars' to 'she it MORGOTH`S RING - AINULINDALË -
Version D
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was who wrought the Great Stars' is notable: the suggestion must be that Varda
only
made the Great Stars. See p. 376 and note 4.

§34 (p. 35; passage omitted at its place in C). The name
Rombaras
for the Horn of Oromë is found uniquely here; the name that replaces it in the revision of the passage,
Valaróma
, appears in the 1951 list (p. 7).

D was the last version of the
Ainulindalë
. A typescript was made of it, but this is an amanuensis text of no significance, save for a few notes that my father made on it. This text was taken from D when most, but not all, the corrections had been made to it. At the top of the first page he pencilled the following (unfortunately not entirely legible) note:

The World should be equivalent to Arda (the realm) = our planet.

Creation the Universe (........ universe) should be Ea, What Is.

This raises again, and again inconclusively, the question discussed on pp. 37-8. The note is at least clear to this extent, that 'the World' is no longer to be the 'new World

... globed amid the Void' which the Ainur saw (§11), but is to be applied to Arda -

and this is of course a reversion, so far as the word is concerned, to the stage of the
Ambarkanta
, where
Ilu
(Arda) is 'the World' (see p. 28). But the difficulty with the definition of
Ea
as the 'Universe of that which Is' in the 1951 list, or as 'Creation the Universe' in the present note, remains - remains, that is, if the conception of a

'World globed amid the Void' and separate from the Void remained. It looks, indeed, rather as if my father were thinking in quite different terms: Arda, the World, is set within an indefinite vastness in which all 'Creation' is comprehended; but there is no way of knowing when this note was written. See further pp. 62-4.

Another pencilled note on the first page of the typescript reads: 'Ilúvatar All-father (
ilúve
"the whole")'; cf. the
Etymologies
(V.361): stem IL 'all', ILU

'universe', Quenya
ilu
,
ilúve
,
Iluvatar
. For the original etymology of
Ilúvatar
('Sky-father') see I.255.

On the title-page of the typescript my father wrote: '
Atani
(Second) Followers = Men'.
Atani
(which is listed among the 1951 alterations) is not found in
Ainulindalë
C, but appears in D (title-page and §38).

Ainulindalë C*

I have already discussed the relationship of this very remarkable version to
Ainulindalë
C, and shown that it preceded C and was composed before
The Lord of
the Rings
was finished (see pp. 3-6). I have noted also that when lending the typescript C* to Katherine Farrer in 1948 my father labelled it 'Round World Version', and that

MORGOTH`S RING - AINULINDALË -
Version C*
- 40

he gave her also the old B manuscript (in all probability before he covered it with new writing to form version C), which he labelled 'Flat World Version'.

There are only two details to be observed in the first part of this version. In

§15 C* had, as did C, 'the Halls of Anar', and again as in C this was later emended to 'the Halls of Aman'. This emendation was made at the same time on both texts; but on C* my father added a footnote: '
Anar
= the Sun' (see p. 44). And in §19, whereas both C and D have 'for the history was incomplete and the circles not full-wrought when the vision was taken away', C* has 'the circles of time' (this reading was adopted in the published
Silmarillion
, p. 20).

But from part way through §23 to the end of §24 C* develops the B text quite differently from C:

§23 So began their great labours [
rejected immediately
: in the beginning of Time and in the immeasurable ages forgotten] in wastes unmeasured and unexplored, and in ages uncounted and forgotten, until in the Deeps of Time and in the midst of the vast halls of the World there came to be that hour and that place where was made the habitation of the Children of Ilúvatar. And many of the Valar repaired thither from the uttermost parts of heaven. But the first of these was Melkor. And Melfcor took the Earth, while it was yet young and full of fire, to be his own kingdom.

§24 But Manwë was the brother of Melkor, and he was the chief instrument of the second Theme that Ilúvatar had raised up against the discord of Melkor. And he called unto himself others of his brethren and many spirits both greater and less, and he said to them:

'Let us go to the Halls of Anar [
not emended
],
where the Sun of the
Little World is kindled
, and watch that Melkor bring it not all to ruin!'

And they went thither, Manwë and Ulmo and Aulë, and others of whom thou shalt yet hear, Ælfwine, and behold! Melkor was before them; but he had little company, save a few of those lesser spirits that had attuned their music to his; and he walked alone; and the Earth was in flames. The coming of the Valar was not indeed welcome to Melkor, for he desired not friends but servants, and he said: 'This is my kingdom, which I have named unto myself.' But the Valar answered that this he could not lawfully do, for in making and governance they had all their part. And there was strife between the Valar and Melkor; and for a time Melkor departed and
withdrew
beyond the arrows of the Sun
, and brooded on his desire.

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On the two sentences which I have italicised see pp. 43-4. The narrative in this version differs from that of C, since here Melkor preceded the other Ainur, and Manwë's summons was not made out of Arda to other spirits that had not yet come, but was an invitation to enter Arda with him.

From the beginning of §25 C* reverts to the common text (more accurately, from this point C follows C*); the expression 'Kingdom of Anar' in §25 was later emended to 'Kingdom of Arda' (in C this change was made in the act of writing, p.

22 note 13). But near the end of §27 C* diverges again:

... for as surely as the Valar began a labour so would Melkor undo it or corrupt it; so that forests became fierce and rank and poisonous, and beasts became monsters of horn and ivory, and they fought, and dyed the earth with blood.

In C this passage comes in later (§32), and the corruption described is that worked by Melkor on the living things that came to being in the light of the Lamps; but in C*, as will be seen, the story of the Lamps had been abandoned (p. 43).

C* then jumps from the end of §27 to §31, which in C is a part of the words of Pengolod (Pengoloð) after the end of the
Ainulindalë
proper, and proceeds as follows:

§31 And this tale also I have heard among the sages of the Noldor in ages past: that in the midst of the War, and before yet there was any thing that grew or walked on Earth, there was a time when the Valar came near to the mastery; for a spirit of great strength and hardihood came to their aid, hearing in the far heaven that there was battle in the Little World. And he came like a storm of laughter and loud song, and the Earth shook under his great golden feet. So came Tulkas, the Strong and the Merry, whose anger passeth like a mighty wind, scattering cloud and darkness before it. And Melkor was shaken by the laughter of Tulkas and fled from the Earth. Then he gathered himself together and summoned all his might and his hatred, and he said: 'I will rend the Earth asunder, and break it, and none shall possess it.'