* In a very late note written on one of the texts that constitute chapter 16 of The Silmarillion (‘Of Maeglin’) my father was thinking of making the ‘three lords of his household’ whom Turgon appointed to ride with Aredhel from Gondolin (p. 131) Glorfindel, Ecthelion, and Egalmoth. He notes that Ecthelion and Egalmoth ‘are derived from the primitive F[all of]G [ondolin]’, but that they ‘are well-sounding and have been in print’ (with reference to the names of the Stewards of Gondor). Subsequently he decided against naming Aredhel’s escort.

* The idea that Morgoth disposed of a ‘host’ of Balrogs endured long, but in a late note my father said that only very few ever existed—‘at most seven’.

† This element in the story was in fact still present in the 1930 ‘Silmarillion’ (see footnote on p. 208), but I excluded it from the published work on account of evidence in a much later text that the old entrance to Gondolin had by this time been blocked up—a fact which was then written into the text in chapter 23 of The Silmarillion.

* It also seems to be at variance with the story that all Men were shut in Hithlum by Melko’s decree after the Battle of Unnumbered Tears; but ‘wanderings’ is a strange word in the context, since the next words are ‘for Melko ringeth them in the Land of Shadows’.

* In the margin of the manuscript is written: Fangluin: Bluebeard.

* It is said in the Gnomish dictionary that the curse of Mоm was ‘appeased’ when the Nauglafring was lost in the sea; see the Appendix on Names, entry Nauglafring.

* For ‘Notebook C’ see p. 254.

* The words in this passage (‘Tree-men, Sun-dwellers…’) are clear but the punctuation is not, and the arrangement here may not be that intended.

* This preface is found in all the texts of the poem save the earliest, and the versions of it differ only in name-forms: Wingelot/Vingelot and Eglamar/Eldamar (varying in the same ways as in the accompanying versions of the poem, see textual notes p. 272), and Kфr > Tыn in the third text, Tыn in the fourth. For Egla = Elda see I.251 and II.338, and for Tыn see p. 292.

* From the Old English poem Crist: йalб! йarendel engla beorhtast ofer mid-dangeard monnum sended.

* From the Old English poem Crist: йalб! йarendel engla beorhtast ofer mid-dangeard monnum sended.

* A Northern Venture: see I.204, footnote. Mr Douglas A. Anderson has kindly supplied me with a copy of the poem in this version, which had been very slightly altered from that published in The Stapeldon Magazine (Exeter College, Oxford), June 1920 (Carpenter, p. 268).—Twilight in line 5 of the Leeds version is almost certainly an error, for Twilit, the reading of all the original texts.

* The term ‘Faring Forth’ is used here in a prophetic sense, not as it is in (18) and (20).

* Angles, Saxons, Jutes, and Frisians.

* In the sense of the March of the Elves from Kфr, as in (18) and (20).

There is no external evidence for this, but it can hardly be doubted. In this case it might be thought that since the African Kфr was a city built on the top of a great mountain standing in isolation the relationship was more than purely ‘phonetic’.

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Preface

I The Tale of Tinъviel

    Notes

    Commentary

II Turambar and the Foalуkл

    Notes

    Commentary

III The Fall of Gondolin

    Notes

    Commentary

IV The Nauglafring

    Notes

    Commentary

V The Tale of Eдrendel

    Notes and Commentary

VI The History of Eriol or Жlfwine and the End of the Tales

Жlfwine of England

    Notes and Commentary

Appendix: Names in the Lost Tales—Part II

Short Glossary of Obsolete, Archaic, and Rare Words

Searchable Terms

About the Author

Other Books by J. R. R. Tolkien

Copyright

About the Publisher