The War of the Jewels (20 page)

$6. In GA 1 the sentence 'it took then that shape which it had until the coming of Fionwe' reads '... which it had until the Change of the World', using that expression not to refer to the World Made Round at the Drowning of Numenor but to the destruction of Beleriand in the final overthrow of Morgoth, at the end of the Elder Days.

The Great Gulf (shown and thus named on the Ambarkanta map V, IV.251) was referred to in QS $108: 'Beyond the river Gelion the land narrowed suddenly, for the Great Sea ran into a mighty gulf reaching almost to the feet of Eredlindon...' See under 52 above.

Unique to the Grey Annals is the statement that because the Valar had set foot in the lands about Sirion, when they came from Aman for the assault on Utumno, growth soon began there again 'while most of Middle-earth slept in the Sleep of Yavanna', and that Melian fostered the 'young woods under the bright stars'. See further under $10 below.

$7. This annal was a later addition to the manuscript; the date was first written 1102, then changed to 1102-5. AAm ($$54-5) has entries concerning the three ambassadors, their going in 1102 and their return to Kuivienen in 1104.

$8. In AAm the dates were so often changed and became so confused that in rendering the text I gave only the final ones (see X.47 - 8); but in this part of AAm all the dates were in fact originally 100 Valian Years later - thus 1115, the year in which the Eldar reached the Anduin (X.82) was an emendation of 1215. Already in GA 1 the dates are in the 1100s as first written, showing that it followed AAm, if at no long interval. But it is curious that in GA (both texts) the coming of the Vanyar and Noldor to the Great Sea is placed in 1115; in AAm the march began in 1105, the Anduin was reached in 1115, and the Sea in 1125.

$10. This annal has close relations not only with that in AAm for the same year ($65) but also with the passage in the 'Silmarillion'

tradition (X.172, $32).

With 'the young trees of Nan Elmoth' cf. the change made on one of the typescripts of AAm (X.91) of 'the trees of Nan Elmoth' to 'the sapling trees of Nan Elmoth', though this was made years later. The

'young trees' are no doubt to be connected with the phrase in GA $9

'where afterwards stood the forests of Neldoreth and Region'; and it seems clear that the trees were all young because, as is said in GA $6, 'the lands upon either side of Sirion were ruinous and desolate because of the War of the Powers, but soon growth began there, while most of Middle-earth slept in the Sleep of Yavanna, because the Valar of the Blessed Realm had set foot there; and there were young woods under the bright stars.'

The conception that there were trees in a world illumined only by starlight was a datum of the mythology (though years after the writing of the Grey Annals my father rejected it: 'Neither could there be woods and flowers &c. on earth, if there had been no light since the overthrow of the Lamps!', X.375); on the other hand, there appears in AAm ($30) the story, not present in the 'Silmarillion' tradition, that Yavanna 'set a sleep upon many fair things that had arisen in the Spring [i.e. before the fall of the Lamps], both tree and herb and beast and bird, so that they should not age but should wait for a time of awakening that yet should be.' In the other tradition (X.158, $18) 'While the Lamps had shone, growth began there which now was checked, because all was again dark. But already the oldest living things had arisen: in the sea the great weeds, and on the earth the shadow of great trees... In those lands and forests Orome would often hunt...'

How these conceptions relate to each other is far from clear on the basis of these texts; but now, in the Grey Annals ($6), the peculiar nature of Beleriand is asserted, in that there alone growth began again under the stars on account of the passage of the Valar from Aman, and ($17) 'though Middle-earth for the most part lay in the Sleep of Yavanna, in Beleriand under the power of Melian there was life and joy and the bright stars shone like silver fires.'

$$11-12. This annal 1132 is very close to that in AAm ($66), largely identical in structure and near in phraseology; the only important feature in which it differs is the reference to the legend that a part of the island that became Tol Eressea was broken off and became the Isle of Balar. This story appears in a footnote to the next of QS $35

(V.221, X.174).

$$13-15. The annals 1149 - 50 and 1150 are again close to those in AAm ($$70-1), and were I think based on them (it may be noted that in GA 1, of which GA 2 is here for the most part scarcely more than a fair copy, my father first wrote in $15 'The friends and kinsfolk of Elwe also were unwilling to depart', as in AAm, but changed the last words in the act of writing to 'also remained').

$14. The whole extent of the coastal region from the Firth of Drengist south to Cape Balar is here named the Falas (cf. QS $109:

'the country of the Falas (or Coast), south of Nivrost'), and thus Cirdan is made the ruler of the shorelands of Nivrost (later Nevrast).

The last part of the annal 1149 - 50, concerning the fact that the Elves of the Havens did not cross the Great Sea (though there was no ban on their attempting to do so), is not in GA 1. It is indeed an answer to a question that has not emerged in any previous writing -

though it becomes implicit from the first emergence of the sailing-elves of the Havens (Elves persuaded by Osse to remain on the shores of Middle-earth are first mentioned in Q, IV.87).

$16. The annal 1152 is closely related to that in AAm ($74). The question arises why, if these Annals were the work of the Sindar (see $1), should they have such obvious affinity to those of Aman?

Perhaps it should be supposed that both sets of Annals, as received, derive from the editorial work of Pengolod in Tol Eressea.

$17. There is nothing corresponding to the interesting annal 1200 in AAm. On the reference to the Sleep of Yavanna and the life and joy in Beleriand see under $10 above. Melian's power and presence in Beleriand is now given a greater significance. - Here niphredil appears from The Lord of the Rings.

$18. The idea of the 'higher culture' of the Dark-elves of Beleriand (the Sindar) goes back to the very early 'Sketch of the Mythology'

(IV.21): 'Only in the realm of Doriath, whose queen was of divine race, did the Ilkorins equal the Koreldar'; this phrase with a slight modification survived through Q (IV.100) into QS ($85).

$19. Cf. the passage inserted into annal 1250 in AAm ($84), a Beleriandic interpolation by Pengolod, against which my father later noted: 'Transfer to A[nnals of] B[eleriand]' (X.102, note 7). That passage (very greatly expanded here in GA) begins: In this time also, it is said among the Sindar, the Nauglath

[written above: Naugrim] whom we also name the Nornwaith (the Dwarves) came over the mountains into Beleriand and became known to the Elves.

The present annal in GA 1 begins: 'In this year, it is recorded among the Sindar, the Nauglath came first over the mountains into Beleriand. This people the Noldor after named the Norn-folk...' In GA 2 the words 'it is recorded among the Sindar' are absent, and Naugrim replaces Nauglath.

In QS $124 the Dwarvish names of the cities in Eryd Luin were Gabilgathol (Belegost, the Great Fortress) and Khazaddum (Nogrod, the Dwarfmine); Tumunzahar now first appears (also in QS revised, p. 206, $7).

$20. For statements in the Lhammas and in QS on the languages of the Dwarves see V.178-9, 273. - The concluding sentences of this paragraph ('Ever cool was their friendship ...') are very close to what is said in AAm ($84).

$21. This cautious and sceptical view of the story of the origin of the Dwarves - ascribing it entirely to the Dwarves themselves - seems to contrast with earlier texts, where it is said to be derived from

'the wise in Valinor' (V.129, 273). - The name Mahal of Aule has not appeared before.

$22. Enfeng, the Longbeards of Belegost. In the old Tale of the Nauglafring the Indrafangs or Longbeards were the Dwarves of Belegost, while Dwarves of Nogrod were the Nauglath (see II.247).

In Q the Indrafangs had become those of Nogrod (IV.104), and this reappears in QS ($124): those who dwelt in Nogrod they [the Gnomes] called Enfeng, the Longbeards, because their beards swept the floor before their feet.' In the passage in AAm ($84) the Longbeards, as here, are again the Dwarves of Belegost. - The conclusion of this paragraph is wholly different in GA 1: For Melian taught them much wisdom (which also they were eager to get), and she gave to them also the great jewel which alone she had brought out of Valinor, work of Feanor, [struck out but then ticked as if to stand: for he gave many such to the folk of Lorien.] A white gem it was that gathered the starlight and sent it forth in blue fires; and the Enfeng prized it above a mountain of wealth.

This was an idea that did not fit the chronology, for Melian left Valinor in 1050, the year of the Awakening of the Elves, as stated both in AAm (see X.77) and GA (Feanor was born more than a hundred Valian years later, AAm $78); and in GA 2 the story of the great pearl Nimphelos was substituted.

$$23-4. Thingol's early association with the Dwarves is mentioned in QS $122 (from their cities in the Blue Mountains the Dwarves

'journeyed often into Beleriand, and were admitted at times even into Doriath'), but the aid of the Longbeards of Belegost in the building of Menegroth did not appear until the interpolation in AAm ($84). That brief mention is here greatly expanded into a description of the Thousand Caves; cf. the Lay of Leithian (III.188-9, lines 980-1008), and for the earliest conception - before the rise of Thingol to his later wealth and majesty - see II.63, 128-9, 245-6.

$$25-9. In GA 1 the whole passage given here in the annals 1300-50

and 1330 is placed under 1320: the actual event in 1320 was the speaking of the Dwarves to Thingol concerning their fears ('In this year, however, the Dwarves were troubled...', where GA 2 has 'But it came to pass that the Dwarves were troubled...'), and it was 'not long thereafter' that 'evil creatures came even to Beleriand'. In a note to the year 1320 on the typescript of AAm (X.106, $85) my father added: 'The Orcs first appear in Beleriand'; in GA 2 ($26) the event is dated ten Valian Years later, in 1330.

$25. The Dwarves' hatred and fear of the Sea has not been mentioned before.

$26. GA 1 has 'over passes in the mountains, or up from the south where their heights fell away': probably referring to the region of the Great Gulf (Ambarkanta map V, IV.251).

$27. This paragraph was an addition to GA 1, though not long after the primary text was made. This is the later conception, introduced into AAm (see X.123, $127), according to which the Orcs existed before ever Orome came upon the Elves, being indeed bred by Morgoth from captured Elves; the older tradition, that Morgoth brought the Orcs into being when he returned to Middle-earth from Valinor, survived unchanged in the final form of the Quenta Silmarillion (see X.194, $62). See further under $29 below.

$28. Telchar of Nogrod is not named here in GA 1. He goes back a long way in the history, appearing first in the second version of the Lay of the Children of Hurin (III.115), and in Q (IV.118) - where he is of Belegost, not Nogrod.

$29. Axes were 'the chief weapons of the Naugrim, and of the Sindar': cf. the name 'Axe-elves' of the Sindar, X.171. - Of the appearance of Orcs and other evil beings in Eriador and even in Beleriand long before (some 165 Valian Years) the return of Melkor to Middle-earth, and of the arming of the Sindar by the Dwarves, there has been no previous suggestion (see under $27 above).

$30. The coming of Denethor to Beleriand is more briefly recorded in an annal interpolated into AAm ($86) under the same date, 1350 -

an interpolation by Pengolod which (like that referred to under $19

above) was marked later for transfer to the Annals of Beleriand.

With the mention of the halting of the Teleri on the shores of the Great River cf. the fuller account in AAm, annal 1115 ($$60-1).

In GA 1 the name Nandor is interpreted, the Turners-back: this expression is found also in a note to one of the texts of the Lhammas, V.188.

It has not (of course) been said before that the coming of Denethor over the Blue Mountains was brought about by the emergence of 'the fell beasts of the North'. The later history and divisions of the Nandor are now much more fully described: those who 'dwelt age-long' in the woods of the Vale of Anduin (the Elves of Lothlorien and Mirkwood, see Unfinished Tales p. 256), and those who went down Anduin, of whom some dwelt by the Sea, while others passed by the White Mountains (the first mention of Ered Nimrais in the writings concerned with the Elder Days) and entered Eriador. These last were the people of Denethor (of whom it þ is said in AAm that 'after long wanderings they came up into Beleriand from the South', see $86 and commentary, X.93, 104).

The words 'in after days' in 'In that region the forests in after days were tall and green' are perhaps significant: the association of green with the Elves of Ossiriand emerged after the rising of the Sun. See further under $44 below.