The Shaping of Middle-earth. Christopher Tolkien
the Gods sought out Melko on account of his renewed cosmic violence, before the awakening of the Elves and without respect to them in any way; and that the release of Melko from Mandos took place before the coming of the Eldar to Valinor, so that he played a part in the debate concerning their summons. In S the later story (that the discovery of the Elves led directly to the assault of the Valar on the fortress of Morgoth) is already present, and moreover a motive is ascribed to the intervention of the Valar that is not found in The Silmarillion: they are ‘reminded of their duty to the Earth, since they came thither knowing that their office was to govern it for the two races of Earth who should after come each in appointed time’. It seems clear also that the old story of the coming of the Elves being known to Manwë independently of their discovery by Oromë (see I. 131) had been abandoned.
In the Lost Tales Melko’s first fortress was Utumna, and though it was not wholly destroyed to its foundations (I. 104) after his escape back into the Great Lands he was ‘busy making himself new dwellings’, as Sorontur told Manwë, for ‘never more will Utumna open unto him’ (I. 176). This second fortress was Angband (Angamandi). In S, on the other hand, the first fortress is Angband, and after his escape Morgoth is able to return to it (§4), for it was too strong for the Gods to destroy (§2). The name Utumna (Utumno) has thus disappeared.
In the passage describing the three hosts of the Elves on the great march from Cuiviénen (which occurs, by emendation, in the Lay of the Children of Húrin, III. 18, 23) there appears the later use of Teleri for the third kindred (who however still retain the old name Solosimpi, the Shoreland Pipers), while the first kindred (the Teleri of the Lost Tales) now acquire the name Quendi (subsequently spelt in S both Quendi and Qendi). Thus:
| Lost Tales | ‘Sketch’ | The Silmarillion |
| Teleri | Q(u)endi | Vanyar |
| Noldoli | Noldoli | Noldor |
| Solosimpi | Teleri, Solosimpi | Teleri |
The formulation at the time of the Lost Tales (see I. 235) was that Qendi was the original name of all the Elves, and Eldar the name given by the Gods and adopted by the Elves of Valinor; those who remained in the Great Lands (Ilkorins) preserved the old name, Qendi. There also appear now the terms ‘Light-elves’, ‘Deep-elves’, and ‘Sea-elves’ (as in The Hobbit, chapter 8); the meaning of ‘the Elves proper’, applied to the first kindred, is clear from the Quenta (p. 85): ‘the Quendi … who sometimes are alone called Elves.’
Inwë of the Lost Tales now becomes Ingwë, with the Gnomish equivalent Ing which appears in the alliterative poems, as does Gnomish Finn (in The Flight of the Noldoli). Elwë (Elu) is in the rôle of the later Olwë, leader of the third kindred after the loss of Thingol. In the Tale of Tinúviel Tinwelint (Thingol) was indeed originally called Tinto Ellu or Ellu, but in the tales of The Coming of the Elves and The Theft of Melko, by later changes, Ellu becomes the name of the second lord of the Solosimpi chosen in Tinwelint’s place; see II. 50.
Notably absent from the account in S are the initial coming of the three Elvish ambassadors to Valinor, and the Elves who did not leave the Waters of Awakening, referred to in Gilfanon’s Tale (I. 231): the Ilkorins are here defined as those who were lost on the great march into the West. On these omissions see the commentary on §2 in the Quenta, p. 168.
Other omissions in S are the two starmakings of Varda (see p. 168) and the chain Angainor with which Morgoth was bound (see S §18 note 1).
In the tale of The Coming of the Elves the island on which the Gods were drawn to the western lands at the time of the fall of the Lamps was the island on which the Elves were afterwards ferried, becoming Tol Eressëa (see I. 118, 134); now, the isle on which the Gods dwelt (see the commentary on §1) is again the isle of the Elves’ ferrying. But in The Silmarillion there is no connection between the Isle of Almaren and Tol Eressëa.
In the story of the ferrying features of the final narrative emerge in S: the first two kindreds to arrive at the shores of the sea are ferried together on this island, not separately as in the tale; and the love of the sea among the Teleri (Solosimpi) began during their waiting for Ulmo’s return. On the other hand the old story of Ossë’s rebellious anchoring of Tol Eressëa still survives (see I. 134); but the position of the island after its anchoring has now shifted westwards, to the Bay of Faërie, ‘whence the Mountains of Valinor could dimly be seen’: contrast the account in the tale, where Ulmo had traversed ‘less than half the distance’ across the Great Sea when Ossë waylaid it, and where ‘no land may be seen for many leagues’ sail from its cliffs’ (see I. 120–1, and my discussion of this change, 1. 134). In the tale, Ossë seized and anchored Tol Eressëa before its journey was done because he ‘deemed himself slighted that his aid was not sought in the ferrying of the Elves, but his own island taken unasked’ (I. 119); in S his jealousy is indeed mentioned, but also his love of the singing of the Teleri, which was afterwards a prominent motive. Ossë’s making of the seabirds for the Teleri (Solosimpi) was retained, though afterwards lost.
In the tale the gap in the Mountains of Valinor was not made by the Valar for the sake of the Elves, nor was the hill of Kôr raised for them: they had existed since distant days, when ‘in the trouble of the ancient seas a shadowy arm of water had groped in toward Valinor’ (I. 122). In the passage in S can be seen the origin of that in The Silmarillion (p. 59). Here in S Côr is the hill and Tûn is the city built upon it (though in §2 there is a reference to Elves dwelling ‘in Côr’); see III. 93.
On the ‘invention’ of gems by the Noldoli see I. 138. The especial love of Mandos ‘the wise’ for the Noldoli is found neither in the Lost Tales nor in The Silmarillion, and may seem an improbable attribute of that Vala: cf. The Coming of the Elves, I. 117: ‘Mandos and Fui were cold to the Eldar as to all else.’
The passage concerning the Noldorin princes, added to the text of S (though probably after no great interval), is the origin of the passage in The Silmarillion (p. 60) which begins in the same way: ‘The Noldor afterwards came back to Middle-earth, and this tale tells mostly of their deeds …’ For the details of names and relations in this passage see the Note at the end of this section of the commentary.
The story of the coming of the Teleri (Solosimpi) to Valinor from Tol Eressëa comes in S, in essentials, almost to the form in The Silmarillion (p. 61); for the very different account in the tale see I. 124–6. In S, however, it was Ylmir (Ulmo) not Ossë who taught them the craft of shipbuilding, and this of course reflects the difference still underlying: for here Ylmir was still, as in the tale, eager for the coming of the Third Kindred to Valinor, whereas in The Silmarillion he had himself bidden Ossë make fast the island to the sea-bottom, and afterwards only ‘submitted to the will of the Valar’. – The name Ylmir – almost certainly the Gnomish form – appears in the Lay of the Children of Húrin, see III. 93; but the form Óin for Uinen is not found elsewhere.
Note on the Noldorin princes
Fingolfin as the son of Finwë (Finn) and father of Turgon emerges first in the Lay of the Fall of Gondolin (III. 146–7), and is present in the second version of the Lay of the Children of Húrin (only by emendation in the first) (III. 137). That Fëanor was Fingolfin’s brother is deducible from the alliterative Flight of the Noldoli (ibid.), but from S, as originally written in this section, it is seen that Fëanor was at first the second, not the elder son. Here in S Finwë’s third son