The Lost Road and Other Writings. Christopher Tolkien

The Lost Road and Other Writings - Christopher  Tolkien


Скачать книгу
of the Lost Tales with the idea of the World Made Round and the Straight Path, which entered at this time. With the words about the difficulty of breathing cf. FN §12, where it is said that the Straight Path ‘cut through the air of breath and flight [Wilwa, Vista], and traversed Ilmen, in which no flesh can endure.’

      This outline structure was sent to Allen and Unwin with the manuscript and was incorporated in the typescript made there.

      ‘There goes Agaldor again, from his speech with the sea: earlier than usual,’ said one. ‘He has been haunting the shores more than ever of late.’ ‘He will be giving tongue soon, and prophesying strange things,’ said another; ‘and may the Lords of the West set words more comforting in his mouth than before.’ ‘The Lords of the West will tell him naught,’ said a third. ‘If ever they were on land or sea they have left this earth, and man is his own master from here to the sunrise. Why should we be plagued with the dreams of a twilight-walker? His head is stuffed with them, and there let them bide. One would think to hear him talk that the world had ended in the last age, not new begun, and we were living in the ruins.’

      ‘He is one of the old folk, and well-nigh the last of the long-lived in these regions,’ said another. ‘Those who knew the Eldar and had seen even the Sons of the Gods had a wisdom we forget.’ ‘Wisdom I know not,’ said the other, ‘but woe certainly in abundance if any of their tales are true. I know not (though I doubt it). But give me the Sun. That is glory … I would that the long life of Agaldor might be shortened. It is he that holds [??nigh] this sea-margin – too near the mournful water. I would we had a leader to take us East or South. They say the land is golden in the [??domains] of the Sun.’

      Galdor is a good man [?among] the exiles (not a Númenórean) – not a long-liver but a prophet. He prophesies [?coming] of Númenóreans and [?salvation] of men. Hence holds his men by sea. This foreboding passage heralds the Ruin and the Flood. How he escapes in the flood ..... of land. The Númenóreans come – but appear no longer as good but as rebels against the Gods. They slay Galdor and take the chieftainship.

      There is very little to build on here, and I shall not offer any speculations. The story was abandoned without revealing how the Ælfwine-Eadwine element would enter.

      Turning now to ‘the Ælfwine story’, there are several pages of very rough notes and abandoned beginnings. One of these pages consists of increasingly rapid and abbreviated notes, as follows:

      Ælfwine and Eadwine live in the time of Edward the Elder, in North Somerset. Ælfwine ruined by the incursions of Danes. Picture opens with the attack (c. 915) on Portloca (Porlock) and Wæced. Ælfwine is awaiting Eadwine’s return at night. (The attack actually historically took place in autumn, œt hærfest).

      Conversation of Ælfwine and Eadwine. Eadwine is sick of it. He says the Danes have more sense; always pressing on. They go west. They pass round and go to Ireland; while the English sit like Wealas waiting to be made into slaves.

      Eadwine says he has heard strange tales from Ireland. A land in the North-west filled with ice, but fit for men to dwell – holy hermits have been driven out by Norsemen. Ælfwine has Christian objections. Eadwine says the holy Brendan did so centuries ago – and lots of others, [as] Maelduin. And they came back – not that he would want to. Insula Deliciarum – even Paradise.

      Ælfwine objects that Paradise cannot be got to by ship – there are deeper waters between us than Garsecg. Roads are bent: you come back in the end. No escape by ship.

      Eadwine says he does not think it true – and hopes it isn’t. At any rate their ancestors had won new lands by ship. Quotes story of Sceaf.

      In the end they go off with ten neighbours. Pursued by Vikings off Lundy. Wind takes them out to sea, and persists. Eadwine falls sick and says odd things. Ælfwine dreams too. Mountainous seas.

      Wealas: the British (as distinct from the English or Anglo-Saxons); in Modern English Wales, the name


Скачать книгу