Sauron Defeated (51 page)

60. The name Nimruzir appears in Fragment I (8), 'seven ships of Nimruzir eastward'. In E Jeremy addresses Lowdham as Earendil, changed subsequently to Elendil.

61. The Adunaic words Ba kitabdahe! are absent in E (see note 59).

62. In E Lowdham cries out: 'Es sorni heruion an! The Eagles of the Lords are at hand!' This was changed later to 'The Eagles of the Powers of the West are at hand! Sorni Numevalion anner! ' In an earlier, rejected version of the passage Lowdham's words were:

'Soroni numeheruen ettuler!'

63. In E Jeremy speaks of 'the fell counsels of Sauron', not 'of Zigur'. He says that 'Tarkalion has set forth his might', where F

has 'the King', and the sails of the Numenorean ships are 'scarlet and black' ('golden and black', F). He ends in E: 'The world waits in fear. The Numenoreans have encompassed Avallon as with a cloud. The Eldar mourn and are afraid. Why do the Lords of the West make no sign?'

64. For 'The Lords have spoken to Eru, and the fate of the World is changed' E has 'The Lords have spoken to Iluvatar [> the Maker], and the counsel of the Almighty is changed, and the fate of the world is overturned.'

65. For the passage in F beginning 'See! The abyss openeth...' E (as first written: the wording was changed in detail subsequently) has:

'Ah! Look! There is a chasm in the midst of the Great Seas and the waters rush down into it in great confusion. The ships of the Numenoreans are drowned in the abyss. They are lost for ever. See now the eagles of the Lords overshadow Numenor. The mountain goes up to heaven in flame and vapour; the hills totter, slide, and crumble: the land founders.

The glory has gone down into the deep waters. Dark ships, dark ships flying into darkness! The eagles pursue them. Wind drives them, waves like hills moving. All has passed away.

Light has departed! '

There was a roar of thunder and a blaze of lightning...

Thus there is no mention in E of Lowdham and Jeremy moving to the window and 'talking to one another in a strange tongue.'

66. For Abrazan E has Voronwe, 'Steadfast', 'Faithful'; this was the name of the Elf who guided Tuor to Gondolin, Unfinished Tales pp. 30 ff. Cf. Jeremy's second name, Trewin (see note 84).

67. On 'the Great Storm' see p. 157 and note 1.

68. The statement that Ramer picked up a piece of paper covered with writing and put it in a drawer is present in E as written. See note 70.

69. in the schools: acting as examiners in the final examinations, held at the end of the summer term (cf. Guildford's footnote on p. 253).

70. In E the letter was postmarked in London. - As E was written, the record of the meeting of Night 68 ended immediately after Guildford had read the letter aloud, with the words: 'We agreed to Thursday 25th of September', and is followed by Night 69 on that date. Thus, although at the end of Night 67 Guildford's statement that he saw Ramer pick up the leaf of Edwin Lowdham's manuscript and put it in a drawer was present in E

as originally written, on Night 68 Ramer does not appear and the paper is not mentioned (which is why the account of Night 68 begins with the words 'There is not much to record' - words that should have been removed). In E Night 69 (the last meeting recorded in The Notion Club Papers) proceeds essentially as in F (pp. 260 - 77). The matter of 'Edwin Lowdham's page' on Night 68 was inserted into E, but the structure of the manuscript and its pagination show clearly that this was not done until the text of Night 69 had been completed.

71. In E Ramer's remarks about 'Edwin Lowdham's page' and his discovery that the language was Old English are very much the same as in F, but he gives an opinion about the dialect and date:

'He thought it was Numenorean, I guess. But actually it is just Old English - latish West Saxon, I think, but I'm no expert. The script is, I think, plainly Numenorean...' See further notes 72

and 74.

72. Rashbold is a translation of Tolkien: see p. 151. Pembroke is the college to which the professorship of Anglo-Saxon is attached, its holder being ex officio a fellow of the college. - In E

Professor Rashbold does not appear, and it is Ramer himself who deciphered, transcribed, and translated the page ('And here's the transcription, with such a translation as I could make').

73. Cf. the third Old English version of The Annals of Valinor, of which I noted (IV.290) that the language is that of ninth-century Mercia. There are several references in my father's letters to his particular liking for and sense of affinity with the West Midlands of England and its early language. In January 1945 he had said to me (Letters no. 95): 'For barring the Tolkien (which must long ago have become a pretty thin strand) you are a Mercian or Hwiccian (of Wychwood) on both sides.' In June 1955 he wrote to W. H. Auden (Letters no. 163): 'I am a West-midlander by blood (and took to early west-midland Middle English as a known tongue as soon as I set eyes on it)'; and in another letter of this time (Letters no. 165): '... it is, I believe, as much due to descent as to opportunity that Anglo-Saxon and Western Middle English and alliterative verse have been both a childhood attraction and my main professional sphere.'

74. The Old English version (not in the Mercian dialect, see note 71) written to accompany the manuscript E is given on pp. 313 - 14, and the representation of the original form of it in Edwin Lowdham's tengwar on pp. 319 - 20. Of the subsequent Old English (Mercian) version, printed here from F, my father began a text in tengwar but abandoned it after a single page; this is reproduced on p. 321.

75. Arminaleth: Adunaic name of the City of the Numenoreans, found also in The Drowning of Anadune. In The Fall of Numenor ($2) it was named Numenos (V.25, and in this book p. 333). On the site of the temple see p. 384.

76. Neowollond: in Professor Rashbold's translation (p. 259) this is rendered 'the? prostrate land'; in the earlier Old English version accompanying E, which was translated by Michael Ramer (note 72), the name (in the form Niwelland) is rendered 'the Land that is fallen low' (pp. 314 - 15). Old English neowol (neol, niwol)

'prostrate, prone; deep, profound'; cf. the early names for Helm's Deep, Neolnearu, Neolnerwet, VIII.23 note 6.

77. forrarder:'further forward'.

78. On the texts and titles of this poem see the note on pp. 295 - 6, where also the published version is given.

79. Cluain-ferta: Clonfert, near the river Shannon above Lough Derg. The monastery was founded by Saint Brendan Abbot of Clonfert, called the Navigator, about the year 559.

80. a light on the edge of the Outer Night: cf. the Quenta Silmarillion (V.327): 'But [the Valar] took Vingelot [the ship of Earendel], and they hallowed it, and they bore it away through Valinor to the uttermost rim of the world, and there it passed through the Door of Night and was lifted up even into the oceans of heaven.' The following line in the present text, like silver set ablaze, is replaced in the final form of the poem (p. 298, line 104) by beyond the Door of Days.

81. The passage Lowdham refers to is lines 33 - 52, where when 'the smoking cloud asunder broke' they 'saw that Tower of Doom': in the earliest text of the poem the mariners 'looked upon Mount Doom' (p. 295).

82. Cf. the outline for The Lost Road in V.80, where 'AElfwine objects that Paradise cannot be got to by ship - there are deeper waters between us than Garsecg. Roads are bent: you come back in the end. No escape by ship.'

83. Porlock: on the north coast of Somerset.

84. Trewyn: Jeremy's second name is spelt Trewin in the lists of members of the Notion Club. The Old English name is Treowine (which Lowdham uses subsequently, p. 268), 'true friend'; cf. the Elvish name Voronwe' 'Steadfast' by which Lowdham names him in the text E (note 66).

85. Hibernia: Ireland (see note 99).

86. Slieve League is a mountain on the coast of Donegal, Brandon Hill on the coast of Kerry; thus Lowdham means 'all down the west coast of Ireland'.

87. The Aran Isles lie across the entrance to Galway Bay.

88. Loughrea: a town and lake to the east of Galway.

89. the Severn Sea: the mouth of the Severn.

90. 'Let us hasten now, Treowine! I do not like this wind. There is a great likelihood of Danes tonight.'

91. The opening of Lowdham's story is closely based on the account in The Lost Road (V.83), although there AElfwine's part is reported by the narrator, and it is his son Eadwine that he looks for in the hall, not his friend Treowine. For a brief account of the historical setting in the years of King Edward the Elder (son of King Alfred), the defeat of the Danes at Archenfield in Herefordshire, and the raids on Watchet and Porlock, see V.80 - 1.

92. Devenish men and Somersets: Devenish is Old English Defenisc

'of Devon'; Defnas, Defenas 'men of Devon' is the origin of the name Devon. Somersets is from Old English Sumorsaete

'men of Somerset' with the later plural ending added; as with Defnas > Devon, Sumorsaete became the name of the region Somerset.

93. Edwin Lowdham's father has not been mentioned, but as is seen here he was Oswin Lowdham.

94. Alfred went into hiding: in the Isle of Athelney in Somerset, in 878.

95. the West Welsh: the people of Cornwall (Old English Corn-wealas 'the Welsh in Cornwall' became the name of the region, Cornwall). On AElfwine's mother, who came 'from the West', see II.313, V.85.

96. Saint Edmund, King of East Anglia, was defeated by the Danes in 869 and (according to the tenth century life of the king) murdered by them: he was tied to a tree and shot through with many arrows. The Danish raids in the region of the Severn took place in 914, and thus 'AElfwine' was about 45 years old at this time (see V.80, 85), since he was born 'just before' the death of Saint Edmund. Arry Lowdham was born in 1938, and was now 48 or 49. Subsequently Guildford says (p. 276) that in his vision of AElfwine in the hall at Porlock he had looked older than Lowdham, 'though by his account he was just of Arry's age it seemed'.

97. the good king in his last wars: King Alfred (died 899).

98. Maelduin: see V.81 - 2.

99. Eriu: the Old Celtic name * Iveriu (whence Latin Hibernia) became Irish Eriu (accusative case Eirinn, Erin). From the same source is Old English Iras, Iraland.

100. aet Ircenfelda: Archenfield in Herefordshire; see V.SO (the Old English Ircingafeld given there is an earlier form).

101. Monath modes lust...: on these verses see note 50.

102. Tamworth: in Staffordshire: the chief residence of the Mercian kings.

103. King Sheave: for discussion of the legend of 'Sheaf' and notes on the text of the poem see V.91 - 6.

Among the manuscripts of The Lost Road material (see V.85

ff.) there are two texts of the poem, the one (which I will here call 'V') written out in verse lines, the other ('P') written as prose. In The Lost Road I printed V only, since the two versions differ only in a few minor details. In V there is a short narrative opening, in which it is told that AElfwine chanted the poem; in P

there is only a title, King Sheave.

In the manuscript E of The Notion Club Papers it is not Treowine who recites the poem, as it is the typescript F: At that one of the Marchers leaped to his feet and got leave to speak. Even before I had found a seat beside Treowine, whom I espied far down the hall, the fellow had a foot on the step and had begun. He had a good voice, if a strange way with his words. Ceolwulf, as I heard later, was his name, and he claimed to come of the blood of their kings that sat at Tamworth of old. His verse was in the old style...

This was changed in pencil to the later account. In E there is only a direction 'Here follows the Lay of King Sheave', which stands at the bottom of page 42 in the manuscript. The text continues on another page with 'When he ended there was loud applause... and they passed a horn of ale to Ceolwulf's hand.'

When I edited The Lost Road I did not observe that this page is numbered 46, while the manuscript P of King Sheave (in which the poem is written out as prose) is numbered 43 to 45. Thus the manuscripts V and P, which I took to be 'obviously closely contemporary' (V.87), were in fact separated by some eight years: a misjudgement based on the fact of the texts being placed together in my father's archive and their close similarity, although the evidence of the pagination is perfectly clear.

The manuscript P, then, was written in 1945 on the basis of the much earlier V, and was the text from which the typescript F

given here was taken (with a few further changes); and all differences between the text given on pp. 273 ff. in this book and that on pp. 87 ff. in The Lost Road belong to 1945.

The last eight lines of the supplementary part of the poem (The Lost Road p. 91, lines 146 - 53, beginning 'Sea-danes and Goths ...'), which do not appear in the manuscript V, also belong apparently to the time of The Notion Club Papers.

104. The text P has sires, but both V and the typescript F of the Papers have sire.

105. aet thisse beorthege: Old English beordegu 'beer-drinking'.