The Lost Road and Other Writings. Christopher Tolkien
Poldor called me Eärendel yesterday.’
Elendil sighed. ‘But that is a fair name. I love the story above others; indeed I chose thy name because it recalleth his. But I did not presume to give his name even to thee, nor to liken myself to Tuor the mighty, who first of Men sailed these seas. At least thou canst answer thy foolish friends that Eärendel was the chief of mariners, and surely that is still held worthy of honour in Númenor?’
‘But they care not for Eärendel. And neither do I. We wish to do what he left undone.’
‘What dost thou mean?’
‘Thou knowest: to set foot in the far West…’ (&c. as on p. 60).
6 This is the earliest appearance of a Númenórean named Valandil. In later rewriting of FN II Valandil is Elendil’s brother, and they are the founders of the Númenórean kingdoms in Middle-earth (pp. 33–4). The name was afterwards given to both an earlier Númenórean (the first Lord of Andúnië) and a later (the youngest son of Isildur and third King of Arnor): Index to Unfinished Tales, entries Valandil and references.
7 In the Quenta (IV. 151) it is not told that Tuor was ‘lost’. When he felt old age creeping on him ‘he built a great ship Eärámë, Eagle’s Pinion, and with Idril he set sail into the sunset and the West, and came no more into any tale or song.’ Later the following was added (IV. 155): ‘But Tuor alone of mortal Men was numbered among the elder race, and joined with the Noldoli whom he loved, and in after time dwelt still, or so it hath been said, ever upon his ship voyaging the seas of the Elven-lands, or resting a while in the harbours of the Gnomes of Tol Eressëa; and his fate is sundered from the fate of Men.’
8 This is the final form in the Quenta of the story of Eärendel’s landing in Valinor, where in emendations made to the second text Q II (IV. 156) Eärendel ‘bade farewell to all whom he loved upon the last shore, and was taken from them for ever,’ and ‘Elwing mourned for Eärendel yet found him never again, and they are sundered till the world endeth.’ Later Elendil returns more fully to the subject (p. 64). In QS the story is further changed, in that Elwing entered Valinor (see pp. 324–5 §§1–2, and commentary).
9 Nuaran Númenóren: the letters ór were scratched out in the typescript (only).
10 Thou art but four twelves replaced Thou art scarce two score and ten. As in the change recorded in note 2, a duodecimal counting replaces a decimal; but the number of years is in either case very strange. For Herendil has been called a ‘boy’, a ‘lad’, and a ‘youth’, and he is ‘upon the threshold of early manhood’ (p. 58); how then can he be forty-eight years old? But his age is unequivocally stated, and moreover Elendil says later (p. 66) that it is 44 years since Sauron came and that Herendil was then a small child; it can only be concluded therefore that at this time the longevity of the Númenóreans implied that they grew and aged at a different rate from other men, and were not fully adult until about fifty years old. Cf. Unfinished Tales pp. 224–5.
11 Orontor’s mission, from which he might never return, seems like a premonition of the voyage of Amandil into the West, from which he never returned (Akallabêth pp. 275–6).
12 The manuscript (followed by the typescript) is here confused, since in addition to the text as printed the whole song that Fíriel sang is given as well, with translation; thus the two opening and the two closing lines and their translations are repeated. It is clear however from pencilled markings on the manuscript that my father moved at once to a second version (omitting the greater part of the song) without striking out the first.
The text of the song was emended in three stages. Changes made probably very near the time of writing were Valion númenyaron (translated ‘of the Lords of the West’) > Valion: númessier in line 2, and hondo-ninya > indo-ninya in line 9; Vinya was written above Númenor as an alternative in line 8 (cf. note 3). Before the later emendations the text ran thus:
Ilu Ilúvatar en kárẹ eldain a fírimoin
ar antaróta mannar Valion: númessier.
Toi aina, mána, meldielto – enga morion:
talantie. Mardello Melko lende: márie.
Eldain en kárier Isil, nan hildin Úr-anar.
Toi írimar. Ilqainen antar annar lestanen
Ilúvatáren. Ilu vanya, fanya, eari,
i-mar, ar ilqa ímen. Írima ye Númenor.
Nan úye sére indo-ninya símen, ullume;
ten sí ye tyelma, yéva tyel ar i-narqelion,
írẹ ilqa yéva nótina, hostainiéva, yallume:
ananta úva táre fárea, ufárea!
Man táre antáva nin Ilúvatar, Ilúvatar
enyárẹ tar i tyel, írẹ Anarinya qeluva?
The Father made the World for Elves and Mortals, and he gave it into the hands of the Lords. They are in the West. They are holy, blessed, and beloved: save the dark one. He is fallen. Melko has gone from Earth: it is good. For Elves they made the Moon, but for Men the red Sun; which are beautiful. To all they gave in measure the gifts of Ilúvatar. The World is fair, the sky, the seas, the earth, and all that is in them. Lovely is Númenor. But my heart resteth not here for ever; for here is ending, and there will be an end and the Fading, when all is counted, and all numbered at last, but yet it will not be enough, not enough. What will the Father, O Father, give me in that day beyond the end when my Sun faileth?
Subsequently Mardello Melko in line 4 was changed to Melko Mardello, and lines 5–6 became
En kárielto eldain Isil, hildin Úr-anar.
Toi írimar. Ilyain antalto annar lestanen
Then, after the typescript was made, Melko was changed to Alkar in text and translation; see note 15.
The thought of lines 5–6 of the song reappears in Elendil’s words to Herendil later (p. 64): ‘But the Valar made the Moon for the Firstborn and the Sun for Men to confound the Darkness of the Enemy.’ Cf. QS §75 (The Silmarillion p. 99): ‘For the Sun was set as a sign for the awakening of Men and the waning of the Elves; but the Moon cherishes their memory.’
13 For hon-maren ‘heart of the house’ see the Etymologies, stem KHO-N.
14 Here the typescript made at Allen and Unwin (p. 8, footnote) ends. The publishers’ reader (see p. 97) said that ‘only the preliminary two chapters … and one of the last chapters … are written.’ It might be supposed that the typescript ended where it does because no more had been written at that time, but I do not think that this was the reason. At the point where the typescript breaks off (in the middle of a manuscript page) there is no suggestion at all of any interruption in the writing, and it seems far more likely that the typist simply gave up, for the manuscript here becomes confused and difficult through rewriting and substitutions.
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