Morgoth's Ring (40 page)

The Essecilme, therefore, the object of which was the expression of this personal characteristic,' usually took place at or about the end of the tenth year.

In elder times the 'Chosen Name', or second name, was usually freshly devised, and though framed according to the structure of the language of the day, it often had no previous significance. In later ages, when there was a great abundance of names already in existence, it was more often selected from names that were known. But even so some modification of the old name might be made.(14)

Now both these names, the father-name and the chosen name, were 'true names', not nicknames; but the father-name was public, and the chosen name was private, especially when used alone. Private, not secret. The chosen names were regarded by the Noldor as part of their personal property, like (say) their rings, cups, or knives, or other possessions which they could lend, or share with kindred and friends, but which could not be taken without leave. The use of the chosen name, except by members of the same house (parents, sisters, and brothers), was a token of closest intimacy and love, when permitted. It was, therefore, presumptuous or insulting to use it without permission.**(15)

Since, however, the Eldar were by nature immortal within Arda, but were by no means changeless, after a time one might wish for a new name.+(16) He might then devise for himself a new chosen name. But this did not abrogate the former name, which (* This lamatyave was held a mark of individuality, and more important indeed than others, such as stature, colour, and features of face.

(** This sentiment had thus nothing to do with 'magic' or with taboos, such as are found among Men.)

(+ The Eldar hold that, apart from ill chances and the destruction of their bodies, they may in the course of their years each exercise and) remained part of the 'full title' of any Noldo: that is the sequence of all the names that had been acquired in the course of life.(17)

These deliberate changes of chosen name were not frequent.

'There was another source of the variety of names borne by any one of the Eldar, which in the reading of their histories may to us seem bewildering. This was found in the Anessi: the given (or added) names. Of these the most important were the so-called

'mother-names'.(18) Mothers often gave to their children special names of their own choosing. The most notable of these were the 'names of insight', essi tercenye, or of 'foresight', apacenye.

In the hour of birth, or on some other occasion of moment, the mother might give a name to her child, indicating some dominant feature of its nature as perceived by her, or some foresight of its special fate.' These names had authority, and were regarded as true names when solemnly given, and were public not private if placed (as was sometimes done) immediately after the father-name.

All other 'given names' were not true names, and indeed might not be recognized by the person to whom they were applied, unless they were actually adopted or self-given. Names, or nicknames, of this kind might be given by anyone, not necessarily by members of the same house or kin, in memory of some deed, or event, or in token of some marked feature of body or mind. They were seldom included in the 'full title', but when they were, because of their wide use and fame, they were set at the end in some form such as this: 'by some called Telcontar' (that is Strider); or 'sometimes known as Mormacil'

(that is Blacksword).

enjoy all the varied talents of their kind, whether of skill or of lore, though in different order and in different degrees. With such changes of 'mind-mood' or inwisti their lamatyaver might also change. But such changes or progressions were in fact seen most among the neri, for the nissi, even as they came sooner to maturity, remained then more steadfast and were less desirous of change. [According to the Eldar, the only 'character' of any person that was not subject to change was the difference of sex. For this they held to belong not only to the body (hrondo) [> (hroa)] but also to the mind (inno) [> (indo)]

equally: that is, to the person as a whole. This person or individual they often called esse' (that is 'name'), but it was also called erde, or

'singularity'. Those who returned from Mandos, therefore, after the death of their first body, returned always to the same name and to the same sex as formerly.]

The amilessi tercenye, or mother-names of insight, had a high position, and in general use sometimes replaced, both within the family and without, the father-name and chosen name, though the father-name (and the chosen among those of the Eldar that had the custom of the essecilme) remained ever the true or primary name, and a necessary part of any 'full title'. The

'names of insight' were more often given in the early days of the Eldar, and in that time they came more readily into public use, because it was then still the custom for the father-name of a son to be a modification of the father's name (as Finwe' I Curufinwe) or a patronymic (as Finwion 'son of Finwe'). The father-name of a daughter would likewise often be derived from the name of the mother.

Renowned examples of these things are found in the early histories. Thus Finwe, first lord of the Noldor, first named his eldest son Finwion;(20) but later when his talent was revealed this was modified to Curufinwe.(21) But the name of insight which his mother Miriel gave to him in the hour of birth was Feanaro

'Spirit of Fire';* and by this name he became known to all, and he is so called in all the histories. (It is said that he also took this name as his chosen name, in honour of his mother, whom he never saw.)(22) Elwe, lord of the Teleri, became widely known by the anesse or given name Sindicollo 'Greycloak', and hence later, in the changed form of the Sindarin tongue, he was called Elu Thingol. Thingol indeed was the name most used for him by others, though Elu or Elu-thingol remained his right title in his own realm.

OF DEATH AND THE SEVERANCE OF FEA

AND HRONDO [> HROA].(23)

It must be understood that what has yet been said concerning Eldarin marriage refers to its right course and nature in a world unmarred, or to the manners of those uncorrupted by the Shadow and to days of peace and order. But nothing, as has been said, utterly avoids the Shadow upon Arda or is wholly unmarred, so as to proceed unhindered upon its right courses.

In the Elder Days, and in the ages before the Dominion of Men, there were times of great trouble and many griefs and evil (* Though the form Feanor which it took later in the speech of Beleriand is more often used. [> (later) Though the form Feanor, which is more often used, was a blend of Q[uenya] Feanaro and S[indarin] Faenor.])

chances; and Death (24) afflicted all the Eldar, as it did all other living things in Arda save the Valar only: for the visible form of the Valar proceeds from their own will and with regard to their true being is to be likened rather to the chosen raiment of Elves and Men than to their bodies.

Now the Eldar are immortal within Arda according to their right nature. But if a fea (or spirit) indwells in and coheres with a hrondo [> hroa] (or bodily form) that is not of its own choice but ordained, and is made of the flesh or substance of Arda itself,(25) then the fortune of this union must be vulnerable by the evils that do hurt to Arda, even if that union be by nature and purpose permanent. For in spite of this union, which is of such a kind that according to unmarred nature no living person incarnate may be without a fea, nor without a hrondo [> hroa], yet fea and hrondo [> hroa] are not the same things; and though the fea cannot be broken or disintegrated by any violence from without, the hrondo [> hroa] can be hurt and may be utterly destroyed.

If then the hrondo [> hroa] be destroyed, or so hurt that it ceases to have health, sooner or later it 'dies'. That is: it becomes painful for the fea to dwell in it, being neither a help to life and will nor a delight to use, so that the fea departs from it, and its function being at an end its coherence is unloosed, and it returns again to the general hron [> orma] of Arda.(26) Then the fea is, as it were, houseless, and it becomes invisible to bodily eyes (though clearly perceptible by direct awareness to other fear).

This destruction of the hrondo [> hroa], causing death or the unhousing of the fea, was soon experienced by the immortal Eldar, when they awoke in the marred and overshadowed realm of Arda. Indeed in their earlier days death came more readily; for their bodies were then less different (27) from the bodies of Men, and the command of their spirits over their bodies less complete.

This command was, nonetheless, at all times greater than it has ever been among Men. From their beginnings the chief difference between Elves and Men lay in the fate and nature of their spirits. The fear of the Elves were destined to dwell in Arda for all the life of Arda, and the death of the flesh did not abrogate that destiny. Their fear were tenacious therefore of life

'in the raiment of Arda', and far excelled the spirits of Men in power over that 'raiment', even from the first days (28) protecting their bodies from many ills and assaults (such as disease), and healing them swiftly of injuries, so that they recovered from wounds that would have proved fatal to Men.

As ages passed the dominance of their fear ever increased,

'consuming' their bodies (as has been noted). The end of this process is their 'fading', as Men have called it; for the body becomes at last, as it were, a mere memory held by the fea; and that end has already been achieved in many regions of Middle-earth, so that the Elves are indeed deathless and may not be destroyed or changed.(30) Thus it is that the further we go back in the histories, the more often do we read of the death of the Elves of old; and in the days when the minds of the Eldalie were young and not yet fully awake death among them seemed to differ little from the death of Men.

What then happened to the houseless fea? The answer to this question the Elves did not know by nature. In their beginning (so they report) they believed, or guessed, that they 'entered into Nothing', and ended like other living things that they knew, even as a tree that was felled and burned. Others guessed more darkly that they passed into 'the Realm of Night' and into the power of the 'Lord of Night'.(31) These opinions were plainly derived from the Shadow under which they awoke; and it was to deliver them from this shadow upon their minds, more even than from the dangers of Arda marred, that the Valar desired to bring them to the light of Aman.

It was in Aman that they learned of Manwe that each fea was imperishable within the life of Arda, and that its fate was to inhabit Arda to its end. Those fear, therefore, that in the marring of Arda suffered unnaturally a divorce from their hrondor [> hroar] remained still in Arda and in Time. But in this state they were open to the direct instruction and command of the Valar. As soon as they were disbodied they were summoned to leave the places of their life and death and go to the 'Halls of Waiting': Mandos, in the realm of the Valar.

If they obeyed this summons different opportunities lay before them.(32) The length of time that they dwelt in Waiting was partly at the will of Namo the Judge, lord of Mandos, partly at their own will. The happiest fortune, they deemed, was after the Waiting to be re-born, for so the evil and grief that they had suffered in the curtailment of their natural course might be redressed.

OF RE-BIRTH AND OTHER DOOMS OF THOSE

THAT GO TO MANDOS.(33)

Now the Eldar hold that to each elf-child a new fea is given, not akin to the fear of the parents (save in belonging to the same order and nature); and this fea either did not exist before birth, or is the fea of one that is re-born.

The new fea, and therefore in their beginning all fear, they believe to come direct from Eru and from beyond Ea. Therefore many of them hold that it cannot be asserted that the fate of the Elves is to be confined within Arda for ever and with it to cease.

This last opinion they draw from their own thought, for the Valar, having had no part in the devising of the Children of Eru, do not know fully the purposes of Eru concerning them, nor the final ends that he prepares for them.

But they did not reach these opinions at once or without dissent. In their youth, while their knowledge and experience were small and they had not yet received the instruction of the Valar (or had not yet fully understood it), many still held that in the creation of their kind Eru had committed this power to them: to beget children in all ways like to themselves, body and indwelling spirit; and that therefore the fea of a child came from its parents as did its hrondo.(34)