The Nature of Middle-earth
Page 46
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2 Tolkien here follows The Tale of Years at LR:1083. In The Line of Elros Tar-Atanamir is instead said to have died in 2221 (UT:221, and cf. 226 n.10).
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3 Regarding the comparability of the growth-rate of the Eldar, from gestation to maturity, to that of Men, see Tolkien’s considerable hesitation and elaborations on this point throughout part one of this book, “Time and Ageing”.
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4 A deleted and much briefer note here reads:
That is, no other union was possible while both partners were alive. Not for any reason or need, e.g. not to provide a king with an heir.
On the permanence of marriage, see the discussion of ~MARRIAGE in App. I.
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5 See the repeated discussion of the “Days of the Children” among the Eldar in part one of this book.
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6 Cf. Aldarion and Erendis in UT:173–217.
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7 With “fallen Men” see the Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth in Morgoth’s Ring, and chaps. XII, “Concerning the Quendi in Their Mode of Life and Growth”, in part one of this book, and X, “Notes on Órë”, in part two of this book. See also THE FALL OF MAN in App. I.
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8 As first written, the Quenya term for “lore of the body” was given as hröanissë.
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9 Portions of this long digression were taken up, in slightly different form, by Christopher Tolkien into A Description of Númenor: cf. UT169, 171.
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10 “By their thought alone”: cf. chap. IX, “Ósanwe-kenta”, in part two of this book.
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XII The Ageing of Númenóreans
1 Both texts have in their top margins the similar final part of a preceding text, reading (in text 1):
… to be great loss, if either father or mother were long absent during the childhood-years of their daughters and sons.
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2 As first written, the age of manhood in the Line of Elros was 20; this was changed in red ball-point pen to 25.
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3 This row for maturity was inserted sometime after the rows for full-growth and youth were written.
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XIII Of the Land and Beasts of Númenor
1 The European rabbit (as distinct from hares) was in fact a relative latecomer to northwestern Europe.
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2 As first typed, the Quenya term for (apparently) ‘bear-dance’ was ruxopandalë.
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3 As first typed, the laughter of Men was said to be “a sound that the bears resented”.
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4 According to current accounts, the ancestor of the modern chicken originated in Asia, and did not reach Europe until about 3000 BC.
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5 As first typed, the estimate was between “300,000 and 500,000”.
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XV The Númenórean Catastrophe & End of “Physical” Aman
1 This title was provided by Tolkien in red ball-point pen.
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2 That is, the Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth given in X:303–60.
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3 Cf. X:319.
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4 Cf. X:337: “It is certainly the case with the Elvish traditions that the principal part of Arda was the Earth (Imbar ‘the Habitation’) …”
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XVI Galadriel and Celeborn
1 See UT:233–4.
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2 The birth-years of Celebrían and Amroth – and even whether Amroth was a child of Galadriel and Celeborn – were points on which Tolkien vacillated considerably. See the various references to both in part one of this book, and in Unfinished Tales.
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3 “Norlindon” replaces struck-through “Lindoriand”, and “land of the Lindar” was first written as “land of the Lendar”.
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4 A barely legible note in the bottom margin here begins: “Galadriel has desire for Sea [?] and dwell in [?] or in Dol Amroth”.
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5 Tolkien corrected original “750” to “850”. The actual text here appears to read: “If Amroth was already prince in S.A. [750 >>] 850 [deleted:?be] only 32 yên [?and have] passed in T.A. 1981” (the word “If” appears to have been added later); but this is obviously a fluid and somewhat garbled thought, so I have extracted and presented the bare facts of it editorially.
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6 This may explain why Tolkien has marked the ages 2, 29, and 31 with a “+”; but no such mark is made against the subsequent ages. But, T.A. 1693 is indeed 11 yéni + 109 sun-years later than S.A. 3441; so something in this accounting is awry, or at least inconsistent.
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7 This title was added by Tolkien in the top margin, in ball-point pen.
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8 On an adjacent sheet – bearing the same title and likewise in typescript – occurs a different version of this opening paragraph and etymological discussion:
The name Galadriel is in this form Sindarin. Its original meaning was ‘lady of the glittering coronal’, referring to the brilliant sheen of her golden hair, which in her youth she wore in three long braids, the middle one being wound about her head. Celeborn is also in this form Sindarin, but originally meant ‘silver-tall’. Both names were, however, originally Telerin: Alatáriel and Teleporno. This may seem strange, since Galadriel was of the Noldor, the sister of Finrod son of Finarphin son of Finwë, and one of the greatest of that House; but it may be understood by reference to the Tale of Celeborn and Galadriel.
Galadriel was formed from the base ÑAL ‘shine, glitter’, applied to light reflected from water, metal, glass, gems, etc. From this was derived a triconsonantal form *ñalata ‘(reflected) radiance’. The base RIȜ meant ‘wind about, wreathe’; derivatives were *riȝ ‘a wreath, garland’ (Q. ría also ríma ‘fillet, snood’). The suffix -el, -elle (developed in C.E.) was a feminine ending, parallel to the masculine -on, ondo; a *riȝel(le) was a woman bearing a garland on her head, usually applied to maidens wearing garlands of flowers at festivals. *ñalata-riȝelle would this mean ‘maiden crowned with a garland of radiance’. The name was given to her by Teleporno, and accepted by her.
Galadriel was a daughter of Finarphin son of Finwë first king of the Noldor. She was called Nerwen ‘man-maiden’ because of her strength and stature, and her courage. She loved to wander far from the home of her kin.
Following this are some roughly handwritten etymological notes in ink:
Q ñal obsolete except in ñalda ‘bright, polished’ (of metal). angal ([?] *aŋŋala) ‘a mirror’ or angalailin ‘mirrormere’. *ŋalatā-rīȝel(le) = Alatáriel. Quenyarized Altáriel? RGEO Altariello gen.
The reference to “RGEO” is to the 1968 song-book The Road Goes Ever On, in which the poem Namárië is described by Tolkien in Quenya as “Altariello nainië Lóriendessë”, i.e. ‘Galadriel’s lament in Lórien”.
Finally, some related draft notes read:
Galadriel was a Sindarin name given to (and accepted by) her after her coming to Beleriand, meaning ‘lady of the golden crown’ or ‘coronal’, referring to the braids of her golden hair (braided high).
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9 Tolkien corrected original Angal-mille to Angal-limpe in ink. In connection with the Eldarin words for ‘mirror’, this is a convenient place to cite a passage in separate but contemporary writings among Tolkien’s linguistic papers concerning an object of Elvish technology:
[Q.] ñaltalma, the name of an Eldarin device for signalling from afar (like a heliograph, though it is said to have been also usable in a cl
ear moon). Its form and the manner of manipulating it are not recorded, but it must have contained a bright surface. It was however evidently small, able to be slipped into a slender pouch or pocket, and the flash that it gave would not have been visible by human eyes, at any rate not at a distance. In what way the flashes, received by a watcher when suitably directed, conveyed a message is also now unknown. The ñaltalma was, as most such things, in later days attributed to Fëanor; but was probably far older. (Similar devices were used by the Sindar, and there is no mention of their being among the many things learned by the Sindar from the Exiles). The Sindarin name was glathralvas ‘flashing glass/crystal’.
The heliograph, a mirrored signalling device (usually employing Morse code), was a standard device in the British Army from the 19th century through 1960. Tolkien, who trained in military signalling in 1914–15 and became Battalion Signalling Officer in 1916 (TCG I:62, 92), would have been well familiar with the device. The manual he was issued during his training, Signalling: Morse, Semaphore, Station Work, Despatch Riding, Telephone Cables, Map Reading (ed. E.J. Solano, 1915; see TCG I:79) says of the heliograph (p. 6) that: “In the case of flag or lamp signals the distance is usually less in broken or hilly ground and misty atmosphere, and greater on level ground and in clear atmosphere. In India, Africa, and Egypt, for instance, upon hilly ground, stations for signalling by heliograph may be separated by seventy miles or more. On the other hand, in Britain and other European countries it may not be possible to use the heliograph at all, owing to want of sunlight, and its range is usually limited to twenty-five miles in sunshine, owing to the prevalence of mist and haze in the atmosphere.”
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10 As typed, this sentence ended: “… Celeborn, which actually contained a tree-word”; it was altered to the given reading via a marginal note in ball-point pen.
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11 As first typed the text here continued: “No doubt the same association was made by its people, but galad was the form they gave to the S. word galað ‘tree’. They spoke Sindarin, and some among them were actually Sindar; but their daily language was modified by their former tongue. This had not preserved the sounds ð and þ and these were turned into d and s.” This passage was subsequently struck through in ink.
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12 I.e. LR:372–3.
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13 I.e. LR:467.
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14 The continuation “and alterations of it …” after “based on lawarind” arose in very rough writing on the page, in ink and in-line with the text and interposing the resumption of the typescript. This first version reads:
and alterations of it to resemble names of Valinor for which, as is plain, Galadriel’s longing increased year by year to at last an overwhelming regret. Lórien was the name most used in the Third Age, since formally it could also be a Sindarin name [deleted: though in Sindarin it would more properly be spelt Lorien since in Sindarin the [?quantity augmented? only] an]
The point of the deleted passage seems to be that the o of the Sindarin reflex of *lawarind would not be marked as long, since (in accordance with usual Sindarin development) it arose from earlier *aw(a) by (in this position) monophthongization and shortening.
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15 The footnote on *tumbu here was subject to much emendation and reconsideration. As first typed, the form appears to have been *tumbā, and Q. iTumbo (and i Tumbo) was emended in ink from original iTumba (and i Tumba); and Tum Orchorod is a replacement for original Tum Orodgerth. A rough note in ink above this note, apparently referring to Rivendell (S. Imladris) reads: “Cf. *imbē a variation of *imbi ‘between’, now used of a cleft of great length in mountains between very high walls of stone; Q. imbilat = S. imlad)”. A rough note in ink below this note reads: “No. tumbŭ = deep of vale, v[ale?] referred to the great volcanic mare in midst of the crater-valley.” (It is possible for “mare” to be read as “mere”, but the former’s use for dark, flat pseudo-oceans of ancient, hardened volcanic flow seems more apposite.) This consideration of the Vale of Gondolin in turn gave rise to still another rough note in ink, filling the bottom half of the page, on the name, history, and nature of Gondolin:
Gondolin. Q. Ondolinde ‘Singing Stone’ [??]
That the site had been occupied by Dwarves meant [?first] who had done much of the work – bringing the stones and leveling the land and building the walls of the central fortress – [?which by?? only rea? by?]. It was the Noldor who [???] built a [?steel] bridge from the outer shore of the lake across the [??] of the lake to the [??]. [?????] of the return of Morgoth to Thangorodrim and Turgon had found the Tumbo deserted. The name Gondolin in Sindarin [?] Gondolin(d) is probably [???] Quenya [?????] before [?] foundation. Though somewhere supposed [??] to have been Eldarized from some older Dwarvish [?name but???] contact!
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16 A later, rough marginal note in ink here reads: “A genitival a of relationship, pl. -on, occurred in O.S., but only preserved in names of the [? or?]. Dagnir Laurunga.” With this latter name, cf. the epitaph Dagnir Glaurunga *‘Slayer of Glaurung’ on Túrin’s grave marker (S:226, UT:145). An etymological figure in ink on the following page shows the development of this genitival ending in Old Sindarin, accounting for the preservation of word-final -a where the normal loss of all final syllables makes final vowels uncommon in Sindarin:
*-āga, [pl.] āgam > , m/ n. Final ā > a (not o!), but n > on.
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XVII Silvan Elves and Silvan Elvish
1 As first typed, this sentence began: “The Wood-elves played only a small part in the War of the Ring”.
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2 The gloss “backward” should not be understood in a culturally pejorative sense, but rather literally: “those at the back”, i.e., as opposed to “forward”; cf. XI:382.
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3 The remark here that the Green-elves (Q. Laiquendi, S. Laegrim) “were probably in origin of Noldorin kinship” seemingly represents a late reversion to an earlier ascription of kinship that had otherwise been firmly displaced by 1951 (but see X:158) in favor of Telerin kinship (see X:83, 89 §62, 93; X:163–4, 169–71 §§28–9; XI:13).
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4 That is, in the same river-bounded region in which Lórien lay in the Third Age. Tolkien’s note that the Misty Mountains (Hithaeglir) “at that remote time appear to have been continuous with the White Mountains” (Ered Nimrais) would seem to imply that the Gap of Rohan, which by the Third Age separates the two mountain ranges, was not yet in existence during the Great March in the First Age.
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5 But cf. chap. VIII, “The March of the Quendi”, in part one of this book, at the entry for VY 1130/91.
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6 As first typed, this sentence began: “In Mannish terms that was a time maybe longer than all the years”. In a letter from Oct. 1958, Tolkien states that he “imagine[s] the gap [between the Fall of Barad-dûr and the present] to be about 6000 years” (L:283 fn).
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7 The end of this lengthy paragraph, beginning at “although the dialects of the Silvan Elves” (without the interposed notes) is given at UT:257.
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8 Here and at the first two occurrences of the name “Oropher” in Tolkien’s following, lengthy note, as first typed, the name of Thranduil’s father is given as “Rogner”. Tolkien altered the latter of these occurrences to “Oropher”, and “Oropher” appears ab initio in the subsequent text; so it is here supplied editorially at the first two occurrences as well. The beginning of the lengthy note, through the words “before the invitation of the Valar had disturbed it”, editorially clarified and combined with the sentence on which it comments, is quoted at UT:259. I have also adopted here Christopher’s editorial substitution of “Menegroth” for the typescript’s “Menegrond”, which (so far as I can determine) appears nowhere else. It must be no
ted though that Tolkien himself let the name stand, despite other corrections; and further that in the linguistic situation of the c. 1936 Etymologies the element roth of Menegroth is a specifically Doriathrin element corresponding to Noldorin (later Sindarin) r(h)ond (cf. V:384 s.v. ROD; also XI:414–15, and VT46:12 s.vv. ROD, ROT-); so that “Menegrond” in the present context may in fact be a specifically Sindarin form of the otherwise always-employed Doriathrin “Menegroth”.
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9 The opening of this footnote was previously published at UT:259. “LR III 363” = LR:1082. “Thither they returned twice before the Last Alliance”: in the contemporary History of Galadriel and Celeborn, upon the revolt in Eregion of the Mírdain at the instigation of Sauron, Galadriel alone passed through Khazad-dûm to Lórinand (UT:237), took up rule, and remained there until she departed to seek Celeborn at Imladris, prior to the Council there (UT:240). At some point after the Council, Galadriel and Celeborn departed to dwell in what later came to be Dol Amroth until, upon the disaster in Khazad-dûm in T.A. 1981, Galadriel took up rule in Lórinand again, and Celeborn joined her (ibid.).
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10 There is strong evidence that Tolkien did not originally intend to end or interrupt the text here. First, it is plain that Tolkien began the continuation of the long note on Oropher and Thranduil at the bottom of the same page so as to allow ample space above for continuation of the main text. Moreover, on the verso of the page – i.e., the original recto of the Allen & Unwin publication notice on which this text was typed – Tolkien took such pains to make so full use of blank areas that he not only continued the note on Oropher and Thranduil in the top margin of the notice (upside-down with respect to the printing on the notice), but also interspersed the note’s final lines in the gaps between the paragraphs of the notice. Finally, the last letters of the last word, “changes”, of the main text, before the long gap, are dim, as though the typewriter ribbon had suddenly run out, which might have occasioned an unplanned pause in composition, that, in the event, was not resumed.