The Nature of Middle-earth
Page 47
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11 In the top margin of the page Tolkien at some later point wrote: “Continuation of Discussion of Silvan Elvish, diverging (when discussing Thranduil & his removal northward) into a brief account of Isildur’s fall”.
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12 I take this opportunity, though it is not strictly speaking late writing, to record an (ultimately cancelled) manuscript rider by Tolkien to a typescript version of what became “The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen” in LR App. A. The source and context of this rider is cited at XII:268: “Arador was the grandfather of the King”. The rider, titled “Rider A”, reads:
Trolls had lived in the north of the Misty Mountains since days before memory, especially near the Ettenmoors; but they increased in numbers and wickedness while the realm of Angmar lasted. They then retreated east of the mountains, but about 300 years before the War of the Ring they returned and began to trouble Eriador, in spite of the vigilance of the Rangers, making dens in the hills even as far from the mountains as the North Downs. In the time of Arador a band threatened the house of the Chieftain, which was then in woods near the Hoarwell north of the Trollshaws, though many of the Dúnedain lived in the woods between Hoarwell and Loudwater.
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13 Re: “as is told in the Tale of Cirion and Eorl”: In published texts at least, this tradition is not related in the texts presented in Cirion and Eorl in Unfinished Tales, but is rather reflected in the opening paragraphs of The Disaster of the Gladden Fields: cf. UT:271.
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14 In Tolkien’s lengthy, digressive note on Isildur, as first typed, the motive for Isildur’s northerly rather than western route is that “there were as yet no other roads in Eneðwaith or Minhiriath, and after Tharbad he would have had to strike north through pathless and in part marshy land to gain the great East-West Road of Arnor near Amon Sûl, or go further”. With this note cf. UT:278 n.6.
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15 This is no doubt a reference to at least a draft of the text presented as The Disaster of the Gladden Fields in Unfinished Tales; see especially p. 273 and pp. 282–3 n.20. In fact, a bit of such drafting, apparently early, is found on the same verso page as the final lines of the lengthy note on Oropher and Thranduil mentioned above (and plainly predates the present text, because it is written in what was originally the top margin of the publication notice, which had that space been available to Tolkien when finishing the long note, he would surely have utilized). Though very rapidly written and indeed illegible in parts, it appears to read:
along the paths made by the Silvan Elves near the eaves of the forest. There had been heavy rains for some days past, and Anduin [? far?] its deep channel was swollen with swift water. On a drear day of Autumn, when the Sun was sinking in the reddened cloud beyond the distant peaks of the Mountains, they drew level with the south reaches of the Gladden Fields [? they heard]. In the fading light
With this cf. UT:272.
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16 I.e. LR:341.
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17 While it may be (but probably isn’t) a mere coincidence, it is worth noting the name Ratatoskr in Norse mythology of the squirrel that runs up and down the world-tree Yggdrasil bearing messages. While this is now generally etymologized as meaning “drill-tooth” or “bore-tooth”, it had long been suggested that the initial element rata-meant ‘traveller’ or ‘climber’.
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18 The text here originally continued with an attempted but rejected explanation of the Sindarin word rath ‘street’ as related to RATH:
In this case Sindarin shared with Quenya a stem RAP [sic] ‘climb’; and the only derivative of RATH is râth. (The word rath in Sindarin especially as applied to the steep stairway from the citadel of Minas Tirith to the place of the Tombs appears to be related, and may be. But its short vowel indicates descent from CE *ratt-.) This in the Númenórean Sindarin of Gondor that was used in the nomenclature of places (and generally in that of persons) was applied to all the longer roadways and streets of Minas Tirith. Nearly all of these were on an incline, often steep; but the connection of rath with ‘climb’ is seen clearly in the Rath Dínen, the Silent Street, which was a steep stairway leading down from the Citadel of Minas Tirith to the Tombs. The vowel of rath was however short in the pronunciation; for ‘climb’ the word used was amrad-‘find a way up’, derived from stem RAT, no doubt originally related to RATH (an emphatic variation).
A stem RAP ‘climb’ is attested in somewhat earlier linguistic writing: cf. PE22:127. At the end of this typescript, Tolkien writes:
The relation of -roth to this stem RATH is probably this: it was a form of the agental agent seen in L. -rātho, sc. amroth was < ambarātho meaning ‘up-climber, high climber’. In that case Silvan Elvish had shifted the P.E. *ā > o, though independently of Sindarin, and probably without the complications seen in Sindarin, in which P.E. *au and *ā had both become õ (open as in English pronunciation of au), and then > au, which however only remained in stressed monosyllables, and otherwise again reverted to o. This evidence of the existence of a stem rath ‘climb’ in Silvan Elvish connects it with Lindarin rather than Sindarin ultimately. This accords with history, since the strayers from the Great Journey evidently belonged mainly to the rear host of the Lindar of whom Olwë was the chieftain.
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19 “Celebrant” ‘Silverlode’: “lode” here has the same meaning that it does in “lodestone”, i.e., ‘way, course’; it is derived from Old English lād of the same meaning. In late Middle English it came to mean a ‘watercourse’, i.e. the course of a brook or stream.
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XVIII Note on the Delay of Gil-galad and the Númenóreans
1 That is, the text in chap. VIII, “Manwë’s Ban”, above.
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2 Given at XII:384–5.
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XIX Note on Dwarvish Voices
1 Cf. LR:1117.
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2 Cf. The Hobbit chap. III.
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XX Note on the Dwarf Road
1 The paragraph preceding this passage corresponds to the opening paragraph of what became n.14 of the Disaster (UT:280). Here however it is numbered as note 10.
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2 As first typed, the name (and translation) of the Dwarf Road was Menn-i-Nyrn (lit. ‘Road of the Dwarves’).
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3 This paragraph was at some point struck through twice, lightly.
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XXI From The Hunt for the Ring
1 Cf. LR:79ff.
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XXII The Rivers and Beacon-hills of Gondor
1 That it was two lines from a poem attributed to Cynewulf, the Crist, that inspired Tolkien to create his mythology (cf. L:385, and Carpenter’s Biography, pp. 72, 79), is an irony that no doubt keenly sharpened Tolkien’s lament.
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2 I.e., LR:1039.
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3 No such corrected edition appeared in 1969, or during the remainder of Tolkien’s life. For the corrected map that Tolkien refers to, and its fate, cf. UT:261–2 footnote, and 265.
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4 I.e., LR:984.
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5 I.e., LR:1114, entry for PH.
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6 Cf. L:425: “Q. permitted, indeed favoured, the ‘dentals’ n, l, r, s, t as final consonants: no other final consonants appear in the Q. lists.” Tolkien’s list here omits s, no doubt unintentionally.
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7 My thanks to Mr. Bibire for providing me with a photocopy of this letter.
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8 Tolkien fell down stairs and injured his leg on June 17, 1
968, while he and his wife Edith were preparing to move house from Oxford to Bournemouth. Cf. L:391ff., and Humphrey Carpenter’s Biography, p. 251.
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9 I.e., LR:274, 374.
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10 The typescript actually reads Gwathlo here, though, as Christopher Tolkien notes, the Isen (Angren) river must be intended.
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11 I.e., LR:1065; cf. also 1069. The name Adorn is given to this short river on Pauline Baynes’s 1970 poster-map of Middle-earth, which is reproduced on p. 385 of the catalogue of the recent Bodleian exhibition Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth (Catherine McIlwaine, 2018). The annotated map that Tolkien provided to Pauline Baynes, by which this name was apparently communicated, is likewise reproduced in the same catalogue, on p. 383.
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12 Cf. UT:416 s.v. Adorn.
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13 Pauline Baynes’s “decorated map of Middle-earth” is the 1970 poster map just mentioned; and it indeed gives the name of the cape as Andrast, as does the annotated map also just mentioned.
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14 The map of Middle-earth actually read Hithaiglin, prior to Christopher Tolkien’s correction of the name to Hithaeglir when he redrew the map for Unfinished Tales. On the variation Aiglos vs. Aeglos (of the name of the spear of Gil-galad, LR:243), Christopher Tolkien notes that he substituted the latter for the former in Of the Rings of Power (S:294).
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15 I.e., LR:227.
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16 Cf. LR:1113, entry for F.
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17 In other words, the name is pronounced Levnui, with the sound of English v, but is best spelt Lefnui in an English context.
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18 This not uncommon phenomenon of place names is exemplified further in The Lord of the Rings by such forms as Bree-hill, bree being an Anglicization of British *brigā (> Welsh bre ‘hill’); and Chetwood, containing an Anglicization of British *kaito (> Welsh coed ‘wood, forest’). Cf. XII:39 fn., 81.
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19 This was originally written as “Elvish settlement”.
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20 Tolkien provides a similar explanation for the initial element of the name Gondor itself: gond ‘stone’; cf. L:409–10. Tolkien (appropriately) adopted this element into his Elvish languages from ond, onn ‘stone’, one of a very few words thought to have survived from the pre-Celtic languages of Britain; cf. L:410, VT30:10–14.
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21 Tolkien here deleted a parenthetical note that read: “(Many of those who actually gave the names were mariners and settlers [deleted: who did not speak Sindarin fluently >] who had only small knowledge of Quenya and whose Sindarin was imperfect.)”
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22 The words from “and Enedhwaith” to the end of this sentence entered as a handwritten note in the top margin. Cf. XII:328–9 n.66.
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23 Sward originally meant, and can still be used to mean, the skin of the body (esp. hair-covered skin, such as the scalp), or the rind of pork or bacon.
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24 The reference is to Gandalf’s words while placing the White Crown upon Aragorn’s head, LR:968: “Now come the days of the King, and may they be blessed while the thrones of the Valar endure!”
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25 Tolkien did in fact go on to devise and record Cirion’s “exact words”: cf. UT:305.
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26 Cf. LR:676.
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27 See also XII:312–14.
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28 In this footnote the name Baldor is (twice) an editorial replacement for Brego in the original. Tolkien has confused Brego, who completed the building of Meduseld, with his son Baldor, who passed beyond the Door of Dunharrow. See VIII:407, LR:787, 797–8; 1068, entry for 2512–70; and 1087, entry for 2570.
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INDEX
The page numbers in this index relate to the printed version of this book; they do not match the pages of your ebook. You can use your ebook reader’s search tool to find a specific word or passage.
This index aims to be comprehensive, but large entries such as Elves and Time are divided into subtopics. It covers the main text excluding the appendices (though reference is occasionally given to the glossary in Appendix II). Because of the large number of cross-references in this book, the titles of texts published within it are omitted (they can be found in the Contents), and so are those of Unfinished Tales and volumes in The History of Middle-earth.
Adorn Tributary of the Isen. 379, 386, 396
Adrahil Prince of Dol Amroth. 189
Adûnaic 189, 389; Adûnayân 323–4
Aeglos (also Aiglos) Spear of Gil-galad. 382, 396
Aegnor (also Eignor) Brother of Finrod. 222
Ælfwine The Mariner 203, 217; Ælfwine O.E. ‘Elf-friend’ 17, as translation of Elendil 16
Africa 343, 354
Aiglos See Aeglos
Ainulindalë As title 7, 40; event 17, 287–9. See Music of the Ainur, Themes.
Ainur (not including Music of the Ainur) 34, 40, 207, 211, 230–1, 237, 289, 293
Al(a)táriel Q. and T. forms of the name Galadriel. 346, 349, 352–3
Aldarion See Tar-Aldarion.
Aldarion and Erendis (title) 327
Allen & Unwin 155, 175, 177, 182, 191, 221, 223, 226, 279, 295, 297, 306, 356, 365, 369, 372, 377
Alqualondë 306, 349
Altariello nainië Lóriendessë See Galadriel.
Aman 7–11, 24, 30, 36, 40–2, 44, 50, 53–5, 57, 59, 64–6, 68, 70, 72, 74, 76–7, 79–81, 88–9, 92, 102, 148–9, 155, 157–8, 180, 186, 213, 234, 236, 243, 246–7, 257, 260–2, 266, 272, 279, 283, 285, 301–2; end of “physical” Aman 261, 343–5; name 173; S. Avon 173. See Blessed Realm.
Ambar The Earth as ‘home’ of Elves and Men. 226–8, 230–1, 300–1; Ambar-metta ‘World’s-end’ 301; outside ambar 230. See Arda, (The) Earth, (The) World.
Ambassadors Elven leaders who first visited Aman from Cuiviénen. 54–5, 95–9, 102, 128, 142; the Three Ambassadors 96, 102–3; Embassy 123, 142.
Amon Anor Hill of Minas Anor (Minas Tirith). 364
Amon Anwar (also Anwar, Hill of Anwar) Halifirien, beacon-hill of Gondor. 395
Amon Dîn Beacon-hill of Gondor. 390
Amon Sûl Weathertop. 366
Amras and Amrod Twin sons of Fëanor. 22
Amroth King of Lórien; lover of Nimrodel. 152, 346–8, 352, 360, 362–3, 383–4; as son of Galadriel and Celeborn 149, 152, 352; name 356, 367
Anairë Vanyarin Elf, wife of Turgon. 21, 72, 74; as wife of Fingolfin 25, 74
Anar The Sun. 8, 280–2. See Kalantar, (The) Sun.
Anárion (1) See Tar-Anárion. Son of Tar-Ancalimë. 321
Anárion (2) Son of Elendil; father of Meneldil. 189, 388–9
Ancalimë See Tar-Ancalimë.
Andram Fall running across Beleriand. 311
Andrast See Angast.
Andreth ‘Wise-woman’ of the Atani. 222, 261
Anduin 50–1, 56, 347, 357, 359–63, 367, 369, 372, 388–9; Mouth(s) (delta) of Anduin 369, 381, 386; Vale(s) of Anduin 50, 357, 361, 370
Andúnië Western haven in Númenor. 325, 331; House of the Lords of Andúnië 324
Andustar The ‘Westlands’ of Númenor. 325
Anfalas Shoreland in Gondor. 386
Angal-limpë ‘Mirrormere’. 350, 353; earlier form Angal-millë 353.
Angast (also Cape Angast, the Long Cape) Promontory in Gondor. 380, 385–6; renamed Andrast 380, 396.
Angband 37–8, 41–2, 66, 95, 101–3, 166; downfall 102, 123, 216, 346; Siege of Angband 69, 303, 305
Anglo-Saxon See Old English.
Angmar 366
Angren The River Isen. 56, 396
Ankalimë See Tar-Ancalimë.
Annals of Aman 7–9, 40, 74, 80, 112, 144, 164–5, 283.
Ann
als of Beleriand 40, 153. See Grey Annals.
Annals of Valinor 3, 8–9
Anwar See Amon Anwar.
Ar-Pharazôn 189
Arador Chieftain of the Dúnedain; grandfather of Aragorn. 366
Aragorn 65–6, 68–9, 77–8, 81, 151, 187–8, 191–4, 223–4, 291, 314–15, 366, 392; coronation 392.
Arda The world (as ‘realm’ of Manwë). 3, 5, 8–10, 14–15, 17–21, 25, 34–6, 40, 54, 58, 62–3, 84, 89, 91–4, 173, 210, 215, 227, 236, 239, 244–58, 261, 268, 270–3, 277, 280–3, 285, 287–90, 294, 243, 344–5; as the solar system 281–2; womb of Arda 44, 55, 59; flesh of Arda 59, 88, 92, 119; Kingdom of Arda (Q. Ardaranyë) 301; Kingship of Arda 293, 308; Lord of Arda (Manwë) 369; Nether Arda 281–3. For Arda Marred, Unmarred, Healed, Remade, see Marring of Arda. See also Ambar, (The) Earth, (The) End, (The) Great Tale, (The) Vision.
Aredhel Sister of Turgon; mother of Maeglin. 74, 310. See Isfin.
Argonath 180, 191
Arkantië (plural Arkantiër). See Pattern.
Armenelos City of the Kings in Númenor. 325, 337
Arnach See Lossarnach.
Arnen (1) Former name of much of Ithilien. 389
Arnen (2) Hills in Ithilien. 388. See Emyn Arnen.
Arnor 194–5, 361, 366, 378, 395; the North Kingdom 382, 389. See (The) Two Kingdoms.
Arod Horse of Rohan. 314
Aros, Ford of In Beleriand. 311
Arvalin Region south of Valinor. 42, 158
Arwen 66–9, 77–8, 82, 150–1, 291, 296, 382
Ascar (also Asgar) River in Beleriand. 311
Asia 43, 341, 343
Atandil ‘Friend of Men’. 222
Atani Men 19, 38–9, 159, 220, 222, 342, 387. See Edain.