The Fall of Númenor, page 29
4For Terendul see the Etymologies [Road, p. 392], stem TER, TERES.
5As the text was originally written there followed here:
‘Poldor called me Eärendel yesterday.’
Elendil sighed. ‘But that is a fair name. I love the story above others; indeed I chose thy name because it recalleth his. But I did not presume to give his name even to thee, nor to liken myself to Tuor the mighty, who first of Men sailed these seas. At least thou canst answer thy foolish friends that Eärendel was the chief of mariners, and surely that is still held worthy of honour in Númenor?’
‘But they care not for Eärendel. And neither do I. We wish to do what he left undone.’
‘What dost thou mean?’
‘Thou knowest: to set foot in the far West…’ (&c. as on p. 235).
6This is the earliest appearance of a Númenórean named Valandil. In later rewriting.. . Valandil is Elendil’s brother, and they are the founders of the Númenórean kingdoms in Middle-earth ([Road] pp. 33–4). The name was afterwards given to both an earlier Númenórean (the first Lord of Andúnië) and a later (the youngest son of Isildur and third King of Arnor): Index to Unfinished Tales, entries Valandil and references.
7In the Quenta ([The Shaping of Middle-earth] p. 151) it is not told that Tuor was ‘lost’. When he felt old age creeping on him ‘he built a great ship Eärámë, ‘Eagle’s Pinion’, and with Idril he set sail into the sunset and the West, and came no more into any tale or song.’ Later the following was added ([Shaping] p. 155): ‘But Tuor alone of mortal Men was numbered among the elder race, and joined with the Noldoli whom he loved, and in after time dwelt still, or so it hath been said, ever upon his ship voyaging the seas of the Elvenlands, or resting a while in the harbours of the Gnomes of Tol Eressëa; and his fate is sundered from the fate of Men.’
8This is the final form in the Quenta of the story of Eärendel’s landing in Valinor, where in emendations made to the second text Q II ([Shaping] p. 156) Eärendel ‘bade farewell to all whom he loved upon the last shore, and was taken from them for ever,’ and ‘Elwing mourned for Eärendel yet found him never again, and they are sundered till the world endeth.’ Later Elendil returns more fully to the subject ([Road] p. 64). In QS the story is further changed, in that Elwing entered Valinor (see [Road] pp. 324–5 §§1–2, and commentary).
9Nuaran Númenóren: the letters ór were scratched out in the typescript (only).
10Thou art but four twelves replaced Thou art scarce two score and ten. As in the change recorded in note 2, a duodecimal counting replaces a decimal; but the number of years is in either case very strange. For Herendil has been called a ‘boy’, a ‘lad’, and a ‘youth’, and he is ‘upon the threshold of early manhood’ (p. 232); how then can he be forty-eight years old? But his age is unequivocally stated, and moreover Elendil says later (p. 242) that it is 44 years since Sauron came and that Herendil was then a small child; it can only be concluded therefore that at this time the longevity of the Númenóreans implied that they grew and aged at a diff erent rate from other men, and were not fully adult until about fifty years old. Cf. UT p. 174.
11Orontor’s mission, from which he might never return, seems like a premonition of the voyage of Amandil into the West, from which he never returned (Akallabêth pp. 275–6 [This volume pp. 182–3).
12The manuscript (followed by the typescript) is here confused, since in addition to the text as printed the whole song that Fíriel sang is given as well, with translation; thus the two opening and the two closing lines and their translations are repeated. It is clear however from pencilled markings on the manuscript that my father moved at once to a second version (omitting the greater part of the song) without striking out the first. The text of the song was emended in three stages. Changes made probably very near the time of writing were Valion númenyaron (translated ‘of the Lords of the West’) > Valion: númessier in line 2, and hondo-ninya > indo-ninya in line 9; Vinya was written above Númenor as an alternative in line 8 (cf. note 3). Before the later emendations the text ran thus:
Ilu Ilúvatar en kárẹ eldain a fírimoin
ar antaróta mannar Valion: númessier.
Toi aina, mána, meldielto – enga morion:
talantie. Mardello Melko lende: márie.
Eldain en kárier Isil, nan hildin Úr-anar.
Toi írimar. Ilqainen antar annar lestanen
Ilúvatáren. Ilu vanya, fanya, eari,
i-mar, ar ilqa ímen. Írima ye Númenor.
Nan úye sére indo-ninya símen, ullume;
ten sí ye tyelma, yéva tyel ar i-narqelion,
írẹ ilqa yéva nótina, hostainiéva, yallume:
ananta úva táre fárea, ufárea!
Man táre antáva nin Ilúvatar, Ilúvatar
enyárẹ tar i tyel, írẹ Anarinya qeluva?
The Father made the World for Elves and Mortals, and he gave it into the hands of the Lords. They are in the West. They are holy, blessed, and beloved: save the dark one. He is fallen. Melko has gone from Earth: it is good. For Elves they made the Moon, but for Men the red Sun; which are beautiful. To all they gave in measure the gifts of Ilúvatar. The World is fair, the sky, the seas, the earth, and all that is in them. Lovely is Númenor. But my heart resteth not here for ever; for here is ending, and there will be an end and the Fading, when all is counted, and all numbered at last, but yet it will not be enough, not enough. What will the Father, O Father, give me in that day beyond the end when my Sun faileth?
Subsequently Mardello Melko in line 4 was changed to Melko Mardello, and lines 5–6 became
En kárielto eldain Isil, hildin Úr-anar.
Toi írimar. Ilyain antalto annar lestanen
Then, after the typescript was made, Melko was changed to Alkar in text and translation; see note 15.
The thought of lines 5–6 of the song reappears in Elendil’s words to Herendil later (p. 239): ‘But the Valar made the Moon for the Firstborn and the Sun for Men to confound the Darkness of the Enemy.’ Cf. QS §75 (The Silmarillion p. 99): ‘For the Sun was set as a sign for the awakening of Men and the waning of the Elves; but the Moon cherishes their memory.’
13For hon-maren ‘heart of the house’ see the Etymologies [Road, p. 364], stem KHO-N.
14Here the typescript made at Allen and Unwin ([Road] p. 8, footnote) ends. The publishers’ reader (see [Road] p. 97) said that ‘only the preliminary two chapters… and one of the last chapters… are written.’ It might be supposed that the typescript ended where it does because no more had been written at that time, but I do not think that this was the reason. At the point where the typescript breaks off (in the middle of a manuscript page) there is no suggestion at all of any interruption in the writing, and it seems far more likely that the typist simply gave up, for the manuscript here becomes confused and difficult through rewriting and substitutions.
In the previous parts of The Lost Road I have taken up all corrections to the manuscript, however quickly and lightly made, since they all appear in the typescript. From this point there is no external evidence to show when the pencilled emendations were made; but I continue to take these up into the text as before.
15Elendil’s long tale to Herendil of the ancient history, from ‘There is Ilúvatar, the One’ to ‘and ruin (if he might) Avallon and Valinor’ on p. 241, is a replacement of the original much briefer passage. This replacement must be later than the submission of The Lost Road to Allen and Unwin, for Morgoth is here called Alkar as the text was first written, not Melko, whereas in the song sung by Fíriel in the previous chapter Melko was only changed in pencil to Alkar, and this was not taken up into the typescript. The original passage read thus:
He spoke of the rebellion of Melko [later > Alkar and subsequently], mightiest of the Powers, that began at the making of the World; and of his rejection by the Lords of the West after he had wrought evil in the Blessed Realm and caused the exile of the Eldar, the firstborn of the earth, who dwelt now in Eressëa. He told of Melko’s tyranny in Middle-earth, and how he had enslaved Men; of the wars which the Eldar waged with him, and were defeated, and of the Fathers of Men that had aided them; how Eärendel brought their prayer to the Lords, and Melko was overthrown and thrust forth beyond the confines of the World.
Elendil paused and looked down on Herendil. He did not move or make a sign. Therefore Elendil went on. ‘Dost thou not perceive then, Herendil, that Morgoth is a begetter of evil, and brought sorrow upon our fathers? We owe him no allegiance except by fear. For his share of the governance of the World was forfeit long ago. Nor need we hope in him: the fathers of our race were his enemies; wherefore we can look for no love from him or any of his servants. Morgoth doth not forgive. But he cannot return into the World in present power and form while the Lords are enthroned. He is in the Void, though his Will remaineth and guideth his servants. And his will is to overthrow the Lords, and return, and wield dominion, and have vengeance on those who obey the Lords.
‘But why should we be deceived…’ (&c. as on p. 241).
The closing sentences (‘But he cannot return into the World…’) closely echo, or perhaps rather are closely echoed by (see note 25) a passage in FN [‘Fall of Númenor’] II (§1) [Road, p. 29].
16In QS [Quenta Silmarillion] §10 [Road, pp. 206–7] it is said that Melko was ‘coëval with Manwë’. The name Alkar ‘the Radiant’ of Melko occurs, I believe, nowhere outside this text.
17See note 8. The reference to Eärendel’s child shows that Elros had not yet emerged, as he had not in FN II ([Road] p. 34).
18‘mockeries of the creatures of Ilúvatar’: cf. FN II §1 [Road, pp. 24–5] and commentary. [Road, p. 29]
19Here the long replacement passage ends (see note 15), though as written it continued in much the same words as did the earlier form (‘For Morgoth cannot return into the World while the Lords are enthroned…’); this passage was afterwards struck out.
20The words ‘a gift which in the wearing of time even the Lords of the West shall envy’ were a pencilled addition to the text, and are the first appearance of this idea: a closely similar phrase is found in a text of the Ainulindalë written years later (cf. The Silmarillion p. 42: ‘Death is their fate, the gift of Ilúvatar, which as Time wears even the Powers shall envy.’)
21Cf. FN II §5 [Road, p. 26]: ‘Some said that he was a king greater than the King of Númenor; some said that he was one of the Gods or their sons set to govern Middle-earth. A few reported that he was an evil spirit, perchance Morgoth himself returned. But this was held to be only a foolish fable of the wild Men.’
22This duodecimal computation is found in the text as written; see note 10.
23Cf. FN II §5 [Road, p. 26]: ‘for [the Lords] said that Sauron would work evil if he came; but he could not come to Númenor unless he was summoned and guided by the king’s messengers.’
24The name Moriondë occurs, I think, nowhere else. This eastern haven is no doubt the forerunner of Rómenna.
25This is the story of the coming of Sauron to Númenor found in FN II §5 [Road, pp. 26–7], which was replaced soon after by a version in which the lifting up of the ships by a great wave and the casting of them far inland was removed; see [Road] pp. 9, 26–7. In the first FN II version the sea rose like a mountain, the ship that carried Sauron was set upon a hill, and Sauron stood upon the hill to preach his message to the Númenóreans. In The Lost Road the sea rose like a hill, changed in pencil to mountain, Sauron’s ship was cast upon a high rock, changed in pencil to hill, and Sauron spoke standing on the rock (left unchanged). This is the best evidence I can see that of these two companion works (see notes 15, 21, 23) The Lost Road was written first.
26Alkar: pencilled alteration of Melko: see note 15.
27On Eressëan (‘Elf-latin’, Qenya), the common speech of all Elves, see [Road] p. 56. The present passage is the first appearance of the idea of a linguistic component in the attack by the Númenórean ‘government’ on Eressëan culture and influence; cf. The Line of Elros in Unfinished Tales (p. 222 [This volume pp. 162–3]), of Ar-Adûnakhôr, the twentieth ruler of Númenor: ‘He was the first King to take the sceptre with a title in the Adûnaic tongue… In this reign the Elven-tongues were no longer used, nor permitted to be taught, but were maintained in secret by the Faithful’; and of Ar-Gimilzôr, the twenty-third ruler: ‘he forbade utterly the use of the Eldarin tongues’ (very similarly in the Akallabêth, pp. 267–8 [This volume p. 165]). But of course at the time of The Lost Road the idea of Adûnaic as one of the languages of Númenor had not emerged, and the proposal is only that ‘the ancestral speech of Men’ should be ‘revived’.
28This goes back to FN I §6 [Road, p. 15]: ‘Sûr said that the gifts of Morgoth were withheld by the Gods, and that to obtain plenitude of power and undying life he [the king Angor] must be master of the West.’
MAP OF MIDDLE-EARTH
1For the publication of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (1954), Christopher Tolkien drew a large, general map of Middle-earth. Unnamed, the map was inked in black and red and presented as a fold-out feature at the back of the volume. Although based on his father’s original, much-amended and worked-over pencil map, Christopher’s rendition was made in some haste due to pressure from the publishers anxious to meet a deadline for completion of the book. When in 1980, Christopher Tolkien published his late father’s writings in Unfinished Tales, he created a map of Númenor, facing p. 168 (and in this volume, see p. 12) and re-drew the map of Middle-earth, explaining:
‘My first intention was to include in this book the map that accompanies The Lord of the Rings with the addition to it of further names; but it seemed to me on reflection that it would be better to copy my original map and take the opportunity to remedy some of its minor defects (to remedy the major ones being beyond my powers). I have therefore redrawn it fairly exactly, on a scale half as large again (that is to say, the new map as drawn is half as large again as the old map in its published dimensions). The area shown is smaller, but the only features lost are the Havens of Umbar and the Cape of Forochel.’ (UT, p.13)
Since Umbar is referenced in this current presentation of Tolkien’s Second Age writings, Christopher’s original ‘unnamed’ map is reproduced here (p. 298), while a version of the later Unfinished Tales map, titled ‘The West of Middle-earth at the End of the Third Age’ (now used in all editions of The Lord of the Rings, and coloured by Nicolette Caven for the illustrated edition of Unfinished Tales in 2020), is included as the rear endpaper to this volume.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
As is always the case when closely studying the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien, one is unavoidably reminded that here is an author who was not just gifted with an extraordinary imagination, but who was also a learned academic who was able to bring to his literary creativity (or, as Tolkien would prefer to call it, ‘sub-creativity’) the rigour and scholarly discipline of a philologist and a student of the rich worlds of myth, legend and folk-tale.
Since the majority of the published texts from which this book has been assembled were the product of Christopher Tolkien’s almost lifelong role of understanding, curating and ordering the Tolkien legendarium, it is also a reminder of Christopher’s unique talent as an assiduous editor: blessed as he was with a deft and elegant writing style that is his own but which perfectly complements that of his father.
These two – Tolkien, father and son – stand first and centre as the ‘onlie begetter’ and amanuensis of the tales collected in this volume. Nevertheless, there are a number of others who must also be acknowledged for their generous assistance.
I am deeply indebted to the Directors of the Tolkien Estate and to Christopher Tolkien’s estate, not just for giving their approval to this project, but also for their positivity and their active involvement in the form of detailed and constructive comments that significantly helped with the book’s development from concept to finished volume. During the book’s journey to press, the Tolkien family, Trustees and the wider Tolkien community lost Priscilla Tolkien, the last of the Professor’s children. She was a passionate advocate for her father’s work and an untiring friend to those who journeyed in Middle-earth, which is why this volume is fondly dedicated to her memory.
At HarperCollins, appreciation and gratitude go to David Brawn, Publisher of Estates, for suggesting this project and for trusting me to accomplish it; to Hannah Stamp, Editorial and Pub Ops Executive, for her attentive assistance and eye for detail; Designer Terence Caven, whose sympathetic and elegant layouts belie the many versions we went through to get here; and Production Manager Simon Moore, for helping us all to work against the clock and get these books printed and delivered to every corner of the world at a time when such logistics are proving more complicated than ever.
This is at least the twelfth project (books and calendars) on which I have been fortunate to work with HarperCollins’ Publishing Director for Tolkien, Chris Smith, as my editor. As ever, Chris has been a paragon of patience and, most importantly, an ever-supportive dispenser of wise, calming and encouraging words to the extent that the resulting book is truly as much his as it is mine.
Although Alan Lee and I have been friends for over twenty years, we’ve never previously had the opportunity to collaborate on a project, so The Fall of Númenor is a special milestone and, as always with Alan’s masterly work, I am in awe of the beauty and dynamism of the visions of Middle-earth and Númenor that are captured in his evocative new colour illustrations and the proliferation of pencil decorations found within these pages.
Final thanks go to my agent, Philip Patterson; and, for above-and-beyond loyalty, my long-suffering husband, David Weeks, who – uncomplainingly – shared many months of our joint life living through the tumultuous days of the Second Age of Middle-earth.
Brian Sibley
MAP OF MIDDLE-EARTH
