In the typescript version of this Link it is further told that in the town where Eriol’s parents lived and died

there dwelt a mighty duke, and did he gaze from the topmost battlements never might he see the bounds of his wide domain, save where far to east the blue shapes of the great mountains lay—yet was that tower held the most lofty that stood in the lands of Men.

The siege and sack of the town were the work of ‘the wild men from the Mountains of the East’.

At the end of the typescript version the boy Ausir assured Eriol that ‘that ancient mariner beside the lonely sea was none other than Ulmo’s self, who appeareth not seldom thus to those voyagers whom he loves’ but Eriol did not believe him.

I have given above (pp. 294–5) reasons for thinking that in ‘the Eriol story’ this tale of his youth was not set in England.

Turning to the passages concerned with the later, Жlfwine story, we learn from (15) that Жlfwine dwelt in the South-west of England and that his mother and father were slain by ‘the sea-pirates’, and from (20) that they were slain by ‘the fierce Men of the Sea’ from (16) that he was ‘driven by the Normans’. In (15) there is a mention of his meeting with ‘the Ancient Mariner’ during his voyages. In (16) he comes to ‘the harbour of the southern shore’ of Tol Eressлa; and in (17) he ‘awakens upon a sandy beach’ at low tide.

I come now to the narrative that finally emerged. It will be observed, perhaps with relief, that Ing, Ingwл, and the Ingwaiwar have totally disappeared.

ЖLFWINE OF ENGLAND

There are three versions of this short work. One is a plot-outline of less than 500 words, which for convenience of reference I shall call. ‘Жlfwine A; but the second is a much more substantial narrative bearing the title Жlfwine of England. This was written in 1920 or later: demonstrably not earlier, for my father used for it scraps of paper pinned together, and some of these are letters to him, all dated in February 1920.¹⁸ The third text no doubt began as a fair copy in ink of the second, to which it is indeed very close at first, but became as it proceeded a complete rewriting at several points, with the introduction of much new matter, and it was further emended after it had been completed. It bears no title in the manuscript, but must obviously be called Жlfwine of England likewise.

For convenience I shall refer to the first fully-written version as Жlfwine I and to its rewriting as Жlfwine II. The relation of Жlfwine A to these is hard to determine, since it agrees in some respects with the one and in some with the other. It is obvious that my father had Жlfwine I in front of him when he wrote Жlfwine II, but it seems likely that he drew on Жlfwine A at the same time.

I give here the full text of Жlfwine II in its final form, with all noteworthy emendations and all important differences from the other texts in the notes (differences in names, and changes to names, are listed separately).

There was a land called England, and it was an island of the West, and before it was broken in the warfare of the Gods it was westernmost of all the Northern lands, and looked upon the Great Sea that Men of old called Garsecg;¹⁹ but that part that was broken was called Ireland and many names besides, and its dwellers come not into these tales.

All that land the Elves named Lъthien²⁰ and do so yet. In Lъthien alone dwelt still the most part of the Fading Companies, the Holy Fairies that have not yet sailed away from the world, beyond the horizon of Men’s knowledge, to the Lonely Island, or even to the Hill of Tыn²¹ upon the Bay of Faлry that washes the western shores of the kingdom of the Gods. Therefore is Lъthien even yet a holy land, and a magic that is not otherwise lingers still in many places of that isle.

Now amidmost of that island is there still a town that is aged among Men, but its age among the Elves is greater far; and, for this is a book of the Lost Tales of Elfinesse, it shall be named in their tongue Kortirion, which the Gnomes call Mindon Gwar.²² Upon the hill of Gwar dwelt in the days of the English a man and his name was Dйor, and he came thither from afar, from the south of the island and from the forests and from the enchanted West, where albeit he was of the English folk he had long time wandered. Now the Prince of Gwar was in those days a lover of songs and no enemy of the Elves, and they lingered yet most of all the isle in those regions about Kortirion (which places they called Alalminуrл, the Land of Elms), and thither came Dйor the singer to seek the Prince of Gwar and to seek the companies of the Fading Elves, for he was an Elf-friend. Though Dйor was of English blood, it is told that he wedded to wife a maiden from the West, from Lionesse as some have named it since, or Evadrien ‘Coast of Iron’ as the Elves still say. Dйor found her in the lost land beyond Belerion whence the Elves at times set sail.

Mirth had Dйor long time in Mindon Gwar, but the Men of the North, whom the fairies of the island called Forodwaith, but whom Men called other names, came against Gwar in those days when they ravaged wellnigh all the land of Lъthien. Its walls availed not and its towers might not withstand them for ever, though the siege was long and bitter.

There Йadgifu (for so did Dйor name the maiden of the West, though it was not her name aforetime)²³ died in those evil hungry days; but Dйor fell before the walls even as he sang a song of ancient valour for the raising of men’s hearts. That was a desperate sally, and the son of Dйor was Жlfwine, and he was then but a boy left fatherless. The sack of that town thereafter was very cruel, and whispers of its ancient days alone remained, and the Elves that had grown to love the English of the isle fled or hid themselves for a long time, and none of Elves or Men were left in his old halls to lament the fall of Уswine Prince of Gwar.

Then Жlfwine, even he whom the unfaded Elves beyond the waters of Garsecg did after name Eldairon of Lъthien (which is Жlfwine of England), was made a thrall to the fierce lords of the Forodwaith, and his boyhood knew evil days. But behold a wonder, for Жlfwine knew not and had never seen the sea, yet he heard its great voice speaking deeply in his heart, and its murmurous choirs sang ever in his secret ear between wake and sleep, that he was filled with longing. This was of the magic of Йadgifu, maiden of the West, his mother, and this longing unquenchable had been hers all the days that she dwelt in the quiet inland places among the elms of Mindon Gwar—and amidmost of her longing was Жlfwine her child born, and the Foamriders, the Elves of the Sea-marge, whom she had known of old in Lionesse, sent messengers to his birth. But now Йadgifu was gone beyond the Rim of Earth, and her fair form lay unhonoured in Mindon Gwar, and Dйor’s harp was silent, but Жlfwine laboured in thraldom until the threshold of manhood, dreaming dreams and filled with longing, and at rare times holding converse with the hidden Elves.

At last his longing for the sea bit him so sorely that he contrived to break his bonds, and daring great perils and suffering many grievous toils he escaped to lands where the Lords of the Forodwaith had not come, far from the places of Dйor’s abiding in Mindon Gwar. Ever he wandered southward and to the west, for that way his feet unbidden led him. Now Жlfwine had in a certain measure the gift of elfin-sight (which was not given to all Men in those days of the fading of the Elves and still less is it granted now), and the folk of Lъthien were less faded too in those days, so that many a host of their fair companies he saw upon his wandering road. Some there were dwelt yet and danced yet about that land as of old, but many more there were that wandered slowly and sadly westward; for behind them all the land was full of burnings and of war, and its dwellings ran with tears and with blood for the little love of Men for Men—nor was that the last of the takings of Lъthien by Men from Men, which have been seven, and others mayhap still shall be. Men of the East and of the West and of the South and of the North have coveted that land and dispossessed those who held it before them, because of its beauty and goodliness and of the glamour of the fading ages of the Elves that lingered still among its trees beyond its high white shores.²⁴