31 ye] you

33–6 struck through

Ye follow Eдrendel without rest,

the shining mariner, beyond the West,

who passed the mouth of night and launched his bark

upon the outer seas of everlasting dark.      40

Here only comes at whiles a wind to blow

returning darkly down the way ye go,

with perfume laden of unearthly trees.

Here only long afar through window-pane

I glimpse the flicker of the golden rain      45

that falls for ever on the outer seas.

I cannot explain the reference (in the revised version only, line 24) to the journey of the mariners ‘beyond the grey islands and past Gondobar’. Gondobar (‘City of Stone’) was one of the seven names of Gondolin (p. 158).

NOTES

1 Falasquil was the name of Tuor’s dwelling on the coast (p. 152); the Oarni, with the Falmarнni and the Wingildi, are called ‘the spirits of the foam and the surf of ocean’ (I.66).

2 Irildл: the ‘Elvish’ name corresponding to Gnomish Idril. See the Appendix on Names, entry Idril.

3 ‘Elwing of the Gnomes of Artanor’ is perhaps a mere slip.

4 For the Swan-wing as the emblem of Tuor see pp. 152, 164, 172, 193.

5 The words ‘Idril has vanished’ replace an earlier reading: ‘Sirion has been sacked and only Littleheart (Ilfrith) remained who tells the tale.’ Ilfrith is yet another version of Littleheart’s Elvish name (see pp. 201–2).

6 Struck out here: ‘The Sleeper is Idril but he does not know.’

7 Cf. Kortirion among the Trees (I.36, lines 129–30): ‘I need not know the desert or red palaces Where dwells the sun’ lines retained slightly changed in the second (1937) version (I.39).

8 This passage, from ‘Eдrendel distraught…’, replaced the following: ‘[illegible name, possibly Orlon] is [?biding] there and tells him of the sack of Sirion and the captivity of Elwing. The faring of the Koreldar and the binding of Melko.’ Perhaps the words ‘The faring of the Koreldar’ were struck out by mistake (cf. Outline B).

9 Earum is emended (at the first occurrence only) from Earam; and following it stood the name Earnhama, but this was struck out. Earnhama is Old English, ‘Eagle-coat’, ‘Eagle-dress’.

37 Ye] You

40 outer omitted

41–3 struck through

46 the] those

Line added at end: beyond the country of the shining Trees.

10 The two earliest extant texts date it thus, one of them with the addition ‘Ex[eter] Coll[ege] Essay Club Dec. 1914’, and on a third is written ‘Gedling, Notts., Sept. 1913 [error for 1914] and later’. My father referred to having read ‘Eдrendel’ to the Essay Club in a letter to my mother of 27 November 1914.

11 But rocks in line 27 (26) should read rock.

12 According to one note it was written at ‘Barnt Green [see Biography p. 36] July 1915 and Bedford and later’, and another note dates it ‘July 24 [1915], rewritten Sept. 9’. The original workings are on the back of an unsent letter dated from Moseley (Birmingham) July 11, 1915; my father began military training at Bedford on July 19.

VI THE HISTORY OF ERIOL OR ЖLFWINE AND THE END OF THE TALES

In this final chapter we come to the most difficult (though not, as I hope to show, altogether insoluble) part of the earliest form of the mythology: its end, with which is intertwined the story of Eriol/Жlfwine—and with that, the history and original significance of Tol Eressлa. For its elucidation we have some short pieces of connected narrative, but are largely dependent on the same materials as those that constitute Gilfanon’s Tale and the story of Eдrendel: scribbled plot-outlines, endlessly varying, written on separate slips of paper or in the pages of the little notebook ‘C’ (see p. 254). In this chapter there is much material to consider, and for convenience of reference within the chapter I number the various citations consecutively. But it must be said that no device of presentation can much diminish the inherent complexity and obscurity of the matter.

The fullest account (bald as it is) of the March of the Elves of Kфr and the events that followed is contained in notebook C, continuing on from the point where I left that outline on p. 255, after the coming of the birds from Gondolin, the ‘counsels of the Gods and uproar of the Elves’, and the ‘March of the Inwir and Teleri’, with the Solosimpi only agreeing to accompany the expedition on condition that they remain by the sea. The outline continues:

(1) Coming of the Eldar. Encampment in the Land of Willows of first host. Overwhelming of Noldorin and Valwл. Wanderings of Noldorin with his harp.

Tulkas overthrows Melko in the battle of the Silent Pools. Bound in Lumbi and guarded by Gorgumoth the hound of Mandos.

Release of the Noldoli. War with Men as soon as Tulkas and Noldorin have fared back to Valinor.

Noldoli led to Valinor by Egalmoth and Galdor.

There have been previous references in the Lost Tales to a battle in Tasarinan, the Land of Willows: in the Tale of Turambar (pp. 70, 140), and, most notably, in The Fall of Gondolin (p. 154), where when Tuor’s sojourn in that land is described there is mention of events that would take place there in the future:

Did not even after the days of Tuor Noldorin and his Eldar come there seeking for Dor Lуmin and the hidden river and the caverns of the Gnomes’ imprisonment; yet thus nigh to their quest’s end were like to abandon it? Indeed sleeping and dancing here…they were whelmed by the goblins sped by Melko from the Hills of Iron and Noldorin made bare escape thence.

Valwл has been mentioned once before, by Lindo, on Eriol’s first evening in Mar Vanwa Tyaliйva (I.16): ‘My father Valwл who went with Noldorin to find the Gnomes.’ Of Noldorin we know also that he was the Vala Salmar, the twin-brother of Уmar-Amillo; that he entered the world with Ulmo, and that in Valinor he played the harp and lyre and loved the Noldoli (I.66, 75, 93, 126).

An isolated note states:

(2)     Noldorin escapes from the defeat of the Land of Willows and takes his harp and goes seeking in the Iron Mountains for Valwл and the Gnomes until he finds their place of imprisonment. Tulkas follows. Melko comes to meet him.

The only one of the great Valar who is mentioned in these notes as taking part in the expedition to the Great Lands is Tulkas; but whatever story underlay his presence, despite the anger and sorrow of the Valar at the March of the Elves (see p. 257), is quite irrecoverable. (A very faint hint concerning it is found in two isolated notes: ‘Tulkas gives—or the Elves take limpл with them’, and ‘Limpл given by the Gods (Oromл? Tulkas?) when Elves left Valinor’ cf. The Flight of the Noldoli (I.166): ‘no limpл had they [the Noldoli] as yet to bring away, for that was not given to the fairies until long after, when the March of Liberation was undertaken’.) According to (1) above Tulkas fought with and overthrew Melko ‘in the battle of the Silent Pools’ and the Silent Pools are the Pools of Twilight, ‘where Tulkas after fought with Melko’s self’ (The Fall of Gondolin, p. 195; the original reading here was ‘Noldorin and Tulkas’).

The name Lumbi is found elsewhere (in a list of names associated with the tale of The Coming of the Valar, I.93), where it is said to be Melko’s third dwelling; and a jotting in notebook C, sufficiently mysterious, reads: ‘Lumfad. Melko’s dwelling after release. Castle of Lumbi.’ But this story also is lost.

That the Noldoli were led back to Valinor by Egalmoth and Galdor, as stated in (1), is notable. This is contradicted in detail by a statement in the Name-list to The Fall of Gondolin, which says (p. 215) that Egalmoth was slain in the raid on the dwelling at the mouth of Sirion when Elwing was taken; and contradicted in general by the next citation to be given, which denies that the Elves were permitted to dwell in Valinor.