Morgoth's Ring (25 page)

$176 Varda commanded the Moon to journey in like manner, and passing under Earth to arise in the East, but only after the Sun had descended from heaven. But Tilion went with uncertain pace, as yet he goes, and was still drawn towards Arien, as he shall ever be; so that oft both may be seen above the Earth together, or at times it will chance that he comes so nigh that his shadow cuts off her brightness, and there is a darkness amid the day.

$177 Therefore by the coming and going of Anar the Valar reckoned the days thereafter until the Change of the World. For Tilion tarried seldom in Valinor, but more oft would pass swiftly over the westland of Aman, over Arvalin, or Araman, or Valinor, and plunge in the chasm beyond the Outer Sea, pursuing his way alone amid the grots and caverns at the roots of Arda. There he would oft wander long, and late would return.

$ 178 Still therefore, after the Long Night, the light of Valinor was greater and fairer than upon Middle-earth; for the Sun rested there, and the lights of heaven drew nearer to Earth in that region. But neither the Sun nor the Moon can recall the light that was of old, that came from the Trees ere they were touched by the poison of Ungoliante. That light lives now in the Silmarils alone, and they are lost.

$179 But Morgoth hated the new lights and was for a while confounded by this unlooked-for stroke of the Valar. Then he assailed Tilion, sending spirits of shadow against him, and there was strife in Ilmen beneath the paths of the stars, and Tilion was the victor: as he ever yet hath been, though still the pursuing darkness overtakes him at whiles. But Arien Morgoth feared with a great fear, and dared not to come nigh her, having indeed no longer the power. For as he grew in malice, and sent forth from himself the evil that he conceived in lies and creatures of wickedness, his power passed into them and was dispersed, and he himself became ever more earth-bound, unwilling to issue from his dark strongholds. With shadow therefore he hid himself and his servants from Arien, the glance of whose eyes they could not long endure, and the lands nigh his dwelling were shrouded in fumes and great clouds.(1)

$180 But seeing the assault upon Tilion the Valar were in doubt, fearing what the malice and cunning of Melkor might yet contrive against them. Being unwilling, as hath been said, yet to make war upon him in Middle-earth, they remembered nonetheless the ruin of Almaren and resolved that the like should not befall Valinor. Therefore at this time they fortified Valinor anew; and they raised up the mountain-walls of the Pelori to sheer and dreadful heights, east, north, and south.

Their outer sides were dark and smooth, without foothold or ledge,(2) and they fell in great precipices with faces hard as glass, and they rose up to towers with crowns of white ice. A sleepless watch was set upon them. No pass led through them - save only at the Kalakiryan (3) wherein still stood forsaken the green hill of Tuna. This pass the Valar did not close because of the Eldar that were faithful: for all those of elven-race, even the Vanyar and Ingwe their lord, must breathe at whiles the outer air and the wind that comes over the Sea from the lands of their birth; and the gods would not sunder the Teleri wholly from their kin.

Therefore in the Kalakiryan they set strong towers and many sentinels; and at its issue upon the plains of Valmar a host was encamped; for the armouries of the Valar were opened, and the Maiar and the Sons of the Valar were arrayed as for war.

Neither bird nor beast nor Elf nor Man, nor any other creature beside that dwelt in Middle-earth, could pass that leaguer.

$181 And in that time also, which songs call Nurtale Valinoreva, the Hiding of Valinor, the Enchanted Isles were set, and all the seas about them were filled with shadows and I'

bewilderment; and these isles were strung as a net in the Shadowy Seas (4) from north unto south, before Tol Eressea, the Lonely Isle, is reached by one sailing west. Hardly might any vessel pass between them: for in the dangerous sounds the waves sighed for ever upon dark rocks shrouded in mist. And in the twilight a great weariness came upon mariners and a loathing of the Sea; but all that ever set foot upon the islands were there entrapped, and slept until the Change of the World.

Thus it was that, as Mandos foretold to them in Araman, the Blessed Realm was shut against the Noldor, and of the many messengers that in after-days they sent into the West none came ever to Valinor - save one only: the mightiest mariner of song.

Here with the Hiding of Valinor

end

The Annals of Aman.

NOTES.

1. This paragraph, from 'Then he assailed Tilion ...', was first written thus:

Tilion indeed he assailed, sending dark spirits of shadow against him, which still pursue him, though ever yet Tilion has overcome them. But Arien he feared with a great fear and dared not to trouble, and neither he nor any of his creatures could look upon her, nor long endure the glance of her eyes. In shadows he hid their wickedness from her, and sent forth fumes and dark clouds, so that the lands near his dwelling were drear and shrouded in glooms, though far above bright Anar might sail in blue heaven. For as he grew in malice and let issue forth from him the evil that he conceived in lies and creatures of ill-At this point my father stopped, struck out what he had written, and replaced it with the text printed.

2. As first written this phrase read: 'without ledge or foothold even for birds', corrected immediately to the text given (QS has 'without ledge or foothold for aught save birds').

3. Kalakiryan was here so written (and again below); see p. 87, note 7.

4. 'the Shadowy Seas' (as in QS) emended from 'the Great Sea'.

Commentary on the sixth and last section of the

Annals of Aman.

This account of the Making of the Sun and Moon was the last that my father wrote. He was following QS Chapter 8 Of the Sun and Moon and the Hiding of Valinor (V.239 - 43) very closely, but with many changes and notably many omissions. I indicate here most of the developments, some much more significant than others.

$164 With the silent communion of the Valar among themselves, not in QS, cf. what is said in The Return of the King VI.6

'Many Partings' of the speech of Celeborn and Galadriel, Gandalf and Elrond in Eregion:

If any wanderer had chanced to pass, little would he have seen or heard, and it would have seemed to him only that he saw grey figures, carved in stone, memorials of forgotten things now lost in unpeopled lands. For they did not move or speak with mouth, looking from mind to mind; and only their shining eyes stirred and kindled as their thoughts went to and fro.

Perhaps to be compared also are Michael Ramer's remarks in The Notion Club Papers, IX.202.

$165 The praise of Feanor, and Manwe's thought concerning his words, are not in QS, nor the foretelling of Mandos that Feanor will soon come to him.

$167 In QS Nienna is not named with Yavanna in the attempt to heal the Trees.

$168 The QS text 'lamps of heaven, outshining the ancient stars; and she gave them power to traverse the region of the stars' is changed to 'lamps of heaven, outshining the ancient stars, being nearer to Arda; and she gave them power to traverse the lower regions of Ilmen'. AAm here moves in fact closer to the Ambarkanta, where it was told (IV.237) that the Sun 'sails from East to West through the lou er Ilmen'. I have said earlier (p. 63) that 'the testimony seems to be that in these texts

[i.e. AAm and the Ainulindale'] the Ambarkanta world-image survived at least in the conception of the Outer Sea extending to the Walls of the World'; now it is seen that the region of Ilmen, in which the Sun and Moon have their courses, survived also. Is it to be understood that Ilmen was also still the region of the stars? This is not a necessary presumption from the wording of the new text at this point; however, in $173 it is said that 'Isil ... rose into the realm of the stars'. In the Ainulindale' the problem has been encountered that 'the three regions of the firmament' are retained together with the irreconcilable conception of Arda as set 'in the midst of the innumerable stars' of Ea: see p. 29.

With 'the girdle of the Earth' (not in QS) cf. AAm $144:

'Tuna beneath Taniquetil was set nigh to the girdle of Arda, and there the Great Sea was immeasurably wide'.

$170 It is not said in QS that the Valar forbore to make war upon Morgoth on account of the coming of Men that was at hand, fearing great destruction and being ignorant of the place where Mankind should arise.

$171 In QS Isil and Urin are names given by the Gods to Moon and Sun, and Rana and Anar the Eldarin names ($75 and commentary). In AAm Isil and Anar become Vanyarin names, and Rana and Vasa Noldorin; so also in The Lost Road (V.41) and The Notion Club Papers (IX.306) the 'Eressean' or 'Avallonian' (i.e. Quenya) names are Isil and Anar.

$172 One of the Old English glosses by AElfwine, hyrned 'horned' of Tilion, is found already in QS (marginal note to $75); the other word, daegred, of Arien, meant 'daybreak, dawn'.

It is not now said that Tilion loved Arien (and for this reason forsook the woods of Orome and dwelt in the gardens of Lorien), though in $174 Tilion 'sought to come near to Arien, being drawn by the splendour of her beauty'. The description of the fire-spirit Arien, who ceased to clothe herself in any form but became 'as a naked flame', is not in QS; the original story of Urwendi in the Lost Tales may be compared (I.187).

$173 'Isil... rose into the realm of the stars': see under $168 above.

The idea of the stars fleeing 'affrighted' from Tilion, who wandered from his path pursuing them, is abandoned (as is also subsequently the mythical explanation of shooting stars -

stars that had fled to the roots of the Earth and now flee again from Tilion into the upper air, QS $78).

$$175-8 The account of the motions of the Sun and Moon is put entirely into the past tense, where QS uses the present.

$175 Este takes the place of Nienna as complaining against the new lights. - The name Vaiya is not used of the Outer Sea in AAm.

$177 'Therefore by the coming and going of Anar the Valar reckoned the days thereafter until the Change of the World': there is nothing corresponding to this in QS ($78). - The passage in QS (and very similarly in the Ambarkanta, IV.237) concerning the coming at times of both Arien and Tilion together above Valinor is abandoned.

In QS Tilion 'plunges into the chasm between the shores of the earth and the Outer Sea', and similarly in the Ambarkanta he plunges into the chasm of Ilmen. In AAm, on the other hand, he would 'plunge in the chasm beyond the Outer Sea'.

As I have said previously (IV.254, second footnote) I am at a loss to explain this, though I retained it in the published Silmarillion which here derives from AAm. But in view of the fact that in AAm it is said expressly ($23) that the Outer Sea encircled the Kingdom of Arda, and beyond the Outer Sea were the Walls of the Night, I am now inclined to think that the sentence in AAm was a slip, that whatever my father intended it was not what he wrote. For even if we suppose that the relations of Ilmen, the Chasm, the Outer Sea, and the Walls were now in some way differently conceived, it remains that Tilion after plunging in the chasm came to the roots of Arda: he must therefore still be within the Outer Sea, which encom-passes Arda.

$178 The idea of the storing by the Valar of the radiance of the Sun in vessels, vats, and pools (QS $79) is omitted in AAm.

The last words of this paragraph, 'and they are lost', are not in QS, but are in fact derived from the Ainulindale: 'the fairest of all gems were the Silmarils, and they are lost', which first appeared in the original Music of the Ainur (I.58) and survived through the later texts (V.162, and in this book p. 19, $35).

$$179-80 The prophecy of the rekindling of the Trees is omitted (and this ancient feature finally lost, see IV.20, 49 - 50), as is the foretelling by Ulmo concerning Men; but there now appears the assault on Tilion by Morgoth, his great fear of Arien, and the account of his loss of power through dispersion among his slaves. The phrase in $179 'though still the pursuing darkness overtakes him at whiles' evidently refers to eclipses of the Moon.

The further fortification of Valinor still of course arises from the fear of the Valar of 'the might and cunning of Morgoth'

(QS), but Morgoth's attack on the Moon is now the main-spring of their fear: 'But seeing the assault upon Tilion the Valar were in doubt, fearing what the malice and cunning of Melkor might yet contrive against them.'

$180 The hill of Tuna is said to be forsaken; it is not said in the account of Finrod's return ($156) that he ruled thereafter in Tirion, but only (as in QS, $72) that he 'was set to rule the remnant of the Noldor in the Blessed Realm.' In QS $79, however, 'the remnant of the Gnomes dwelt ever in the deep cleft of the mountains.'

'the Maiar and the Sons of the Valar': see p. 59, $4.

$181 The Hiding of Valinor is called Nurtale Valinoreva. - In QS

mariners who set foot upon the Enchanted Isles 'are there entrapped and wound in everlasting sleep'; in AAm they 'were there entrapped, and slept until the Change of the World.'

With the reference to the Change of the World cf. under $177