The Peoples of Middle-earth (28 page)

$53. Nonetheless for long it seemed to the Numenoreans ... (p.

274). In the last sentence 'the kindly kings of the ancient days' is an editorial change from 'the kindly kings of the Elder Days'.

$57. 'The days are dark, and there is no hope for Men ... (p. 275).

The text has 'there is no hope in Men', and the reading in SA appears to be a mere error, since there is no reason for the change.

In the speeches of Amandil and Elendil that follow my father evidently intended a distinction between 'thou' from father to son and 'you' from son to father, but his usage was not consistent. In SA I substituted 'you' throughout.

$73. Then Ar-Pharazon hardened his heart ... (p. 278). The name of the great ship of Ar-Pharazon is Aglarrama in AB (as in The Drowning of Anadune, IX.372, $44), changed in B 2 to Alkaron-das.

$75. But the fleets of Ar-Pharazon ... (p. 278). In the original text (at all stages) this paragraph begins:

But who among Men, AElfwine, can tell the tale of their fate? For neither ship nor man of all that host returned ever to the lands of the living; and the world was changed in that time, and in Middle-earth the memory of all that went before is dim and unsure. But among the Eldar word has been preserved of the deeds and things that were; and the wisest in lore among them tell this tale, AElfwine, that I tell now to thee. And they say that the fleets of Ar-Pharazon came up out of the deeps of the Sea and encompassed Avallone and all the Isle of Eressea ...

Since this last phrase is found already in A it is clear that the changed meaning of Avallone (signifying the eastern haven in Eressea, not the Isle itself) had entered during the writing of A (see under $12 above).

In SA 'Taniquetil' is an editorial change from 'the Mountain of Aman', and 'the light of Iluvatar' from 'the light of God'.

$76. Then Manwe upon the Mountain ... In the first sentence 'their government of Arda' was a change in SA from 'their government of the Earth'.

$77. But the land of Aman ... Two changes were made here in SA.

The original text has 'were taken away and removed from the circles of the world beyond the reach of Men for ever', and 'there is not now within the circles of the world any place abiding ...'.

$78. In an hour unlooked for by Men ... AB has 'Ar-Zimrahil', changed in B 2 to 'Tar-Miriel'; see note 12.

$80. Nine ships there were ... All the texts have 'Twelve ships there were: six for Elendil, and for Isildur four, and for Anarion two', but on the amanuensis typescript C my father changed the numbers to 'nine: four, three, two', noting in the margin: 'Nine, unless the rhyme in LR is altered to Four times three.' The reference is to the song that Gandalf sang as he rode on Shadowfax with Pippin across Rohan on their way to Minas Tirith (The Two Towers p. 202): Tall ships and tall kings

Three times three,

What brought they from the foundered land

Over the flowing sea?

$81. Elendil and his sons ... The opening of this paragraph was altered in SA to remove a reference to AElfwine: 'And here ends the tale, AElfwine, to speak of Elendil and his sons, who later founded kingdoms in Middle-earth ...'.

$83. But these things come not into the tale ... B had 'the Drowning of Anadune', corrected to 'the Drowning of Numenor' (a reversion to the reading of A). At the end of the paragraph AB had 'spoke of Akallabeth that was whelmed in the waves, the Downfallen, Atalante in the Eldarin tongue', with Akallabeth changed to Mar-nu-Falmar in B 2. The removal of Akallabeth (restored in SA) belongs with the general replacement of Adunaic by Elvish names: see under $78 above, and note 12. - On one of the copies of the typescript C my father wrote this note on the name Atalante: The Adunaic or Numenorean name of the same meaning was Akallabeth, vKALAB. By a curious coincidence (not consciously prepared) before this tale was written a base vTALAT 'collapse, fall in ruin' had already been invented, and from that base atalante

'it has fallen down' was a correct formation according to grammatical rules devised before Numenor had been thought of. The resemblance to Atlantis is thus by chance (as we say).

Against this note is written '71', which must mean '1971' (see XI.187, 191). With this statement on the subject cf. Lowdham's remarks in The Notion Club Papers, IX.249; my father's letter of July 1964 cited in V.8 (footnote); and the Etymologies, V.390, stem TALAT.

$$84-6. The concluding section of the Akallabeth, beginning in SA Among the Exiles many believed ...' (pp. 281 - 2), was headed in A Epilogue; this was omitted in B. There is a full discussion of this section in relation to The Drowning of Anadune in IX.391-6.

$84. Among the Exiles many believed ... The original text, not changed from A, reads:

But if thou wouldst know, AElfwine, ere thou goest, why it is that men of the seed of Earendil, or any such as thou to whom some part, however small, of their blood is descended, should still venture upon the Sea, seeking for that which cannot be found, this much I will say to thee.

The summit of the Meneltarma, the Pillar of Heaven, in the midst of the land, had been a hallowed place, and even in the days of Sauron none had defiled it. Therefore among the Exiles many believed that it was not drowned for ever, but rose again above the waves, a lonely island lost in the great waters, unless haply a mariner should come upon it. And some there were that after sought for it, because it was said among lore-masters that the far-sighted men of old could see from the Meneltarma a glimmer of the Deathless Land.

$86. Thus in after days ... The sentence 'until it came to Tol Eressea, the Lonely Isle' was a change in SA from the original 'until it came to Eressea where are the Eldar immortal'. Immediately following, 'where the Valar still dwell and watch the unfolding of the story of the world' was an early change from the reading of A,

'where the Valar still dwell but watch only and meddle no longer in the world abandoned to Men'.

In the last sentence 'and so had come to the lamplit quays of Avallone' was an editorial change from 'and so had come to Avallone and to Eressea' ('to Eressea and to Avallone' A). For the 'lamplit quays of Avallone' see V.334.

After the conclusion of the Akallabeth in SA the following lines were omitted:

And whether all these tales be feigned, or whether some at least be true, and by them the Valar still keep alight among Men a memory beyond the darkness of Middle-earth, thou knowest now, AElfwine, in thyself. Yet haply none shall believe thee.

Note on the marriage of Miriel and Pharazon.

My father did much work on this story, but it is not easy to see how it is to be related to the paragraph (SA $37, And it came to pass that Tar-Palantir grew weary ...) in the long rider inserted into the typescript B, which is exactly repeated in SA except for the change of Ar-Zimrahil to Ar-Zimraphel (p. 155). It will in any case be clearer if the genealogy is set out (cf. The Line of Elros in Unfinished Tales, p. 223).

Earendur Lindorie

15th Lord of

Andunie

Inzilbeth = Ar-Gimilzor

Numendil Inziladun Gimilkhad 17th Lord of Tar-Palantir Andunie

Amandil Elentir Tar-Miriel = Ar-Pharazon Ar-Zimrahil

The significance of Amandil's brother Elentir will be seen in the texts given here: so far as I am aware he appears nowhere else. These texts were written on the same paper as the long rider and were inserted with it into the typescript B.

(a)

This is a very rough manuscript written in such haste that it has proved extraordinarily difficult to decipher. The text that follows is uncertain in many points, but these do not affect the narrative and I have largely dispensed with brackets and queries; it does not convey at all the appearance of the original.

He [Ar-Pharazon] was a man of great beauty and strength/stature after the image of the first kings, and indeed in his youth was not unlike the Edain of old in mind also, though he had strength of will rather than of wisdom as after appeared, when he was corrupted by the counsels of his father and the acclaim of the people. In his earlier days he had a close friendship with Amandil who was afterwards Lord of Andunie,(14) and he had loved the people of the House of Valandil with whom he had kinship (through Inzilbeth his father's mother). With them he was often a guest, and there came Zimrahil his cousin, daughter of Inziladun who was later King Tar-Palantir.

Elentir the brother of Amandil loved her, but when first she saw Pharazon her eyes and her heart were turned to him, for his beauty, and for his wealth also.

But he went away (15) and she remained unwed. And now it came to pass that her father Tar-Palantir grew weary of grief and died, and as he had no son the sceptre came to her, in the name of Tar-Miriel, by right and the laws of the Numenoreans. But Pharazon

[?arose) and came to her, and she was glad, and forsook the allegiance of her father for the time, being enamoured of Pharazon.

And in this they broke the laws of Numenor that forbade marriage even in the royal house between those more nearly akin than cousins in the second degree. But they were too powerful for any to gainsay them. And when they were wedded she yielded the sceptre to Pharazon, and he sat upon the throne of Elros in the name of Ar-Pharazon the Golden, but she retained also her title as hers by right, and was called Ar-Zimrahil.(16)

The Elendili alone were not subservient to him, or dared to speak against his wishes, and it became well-known to all in that time that Amandil the Lord of Andunie was head of their party though not openly declared. Therefore Ar-Pharazon persecuted the Faithful, stripping them of any wealth that they had, and he deprived the heirs of Valandil of their lordship. Andunie he took then and made it a chief haven for the king's ship-building, and Amandil who was now the Lord he commanded to move and dwell also in Romenna.

Yet he did not otherwise molest him [? at this time], nor dismiss him from the Council of the Sceptre, because he remembered still in his heart their friendship of old; and Amandil was well beloved also by many who were not of the Elendili.

And now when he deemed himself [?firm] upon the throne and beyond all gainsaying he sat in A[rmenelos] in the glory of his power, and he found it too little to appease his [?lust], and amid all his splendour he brooded darkly upon war.

There are a number of phrases in this text that are identical or almost so to those found in the long rider ('Tar-Palantir grew weary of grief and died', 'by right and the laws of the Numenoreans', 'those more nearly akin than cousins in the second degree', 'he brooded darkly upon war', SA $$37, 39). It would be natural to suppose that these phrases made their first appearance in this text, which was dashed down on the page, and that they were repeated in the rider, which was a manuscript written with great care; and in that case it would have to be concluded that my father discarded this story of the love of Amandil's brother Elentir for Zimrahil, and of her turning away from him and from the Elf-friends and glad acceptance of Pharazon, before writing the final version. But I doubt that this was the case.

(b)

A second page is in handwriting even more obscure, and I have not been able to make out the whole of it after repeated attempts.

In his boyhood he had a close friendship with Amandil son of Numendil Lord of Andunie, who being one of the chief councillors of the Sceptre dwelt often in Armenelos.

Cut out friendship. Ar-Pharazon's policy to Amandil was due to his wife?

Now Zimrahil, whom her father called Miriel, only daughter of Tar-Palantir, was a woman of great beauty, smaller [?in ... stature]

than were most women of that land, with bright eyes, and she had great skill in ... She was older than Ar-Pharazon by one year," but seemed younger, and his eyes and heart were turned to her; but the laws of Numenor lay between, beside the displeasure of her father whom Gimilkhad opposed in all ways that he could. For in Numenor cousins in the first degree did not marry even in the royal house. And moreover Zimrahil was betrothed to Elentir Amandil's

[?older] brother and heir of Numendil.(18)

From a distance,(19) for Gimilkhad and his son were not welcome in the house of the king.

In the remainder of the text there are a number of whole sentences, clearly essential to the briefly sketched narrative, in which I can decipher virtually nothing.

Now it came into his heart that he would .......... Pharazon was not disposed to admit hindrance to his desires, and he asked leave therefore of Amandil to be a guest in his house, learning ..... Zimrahil was at the time in Andunie. Gimilkhad was little pleased with this, for the Lords of Andunie were his chief opponents. But Pharazon

[?laughed] saying he would do as he would, and ..........

And Amandil and Pharazon rode in Andunie and Elentir and Zimrahil saw them afar as they [?stood] ..... for Elentir loved his brother. But when Zimrahil saw Pharazon in the splendour of his young manhood come riding [? in] .......... Suddenly Zimrahil's heart turned towards him. And when Pharazon was greeted upon the steps of the house their eyes met .......... and were abashed.