The Peoples of Middle-earth (67 page)

In the Sketch of the Mythology or 'earliest Silmarillion' of the 1920s the prophecy with which it ends (IV.40) declares that when Morgoth returns, and 'the last battle of all' is fought, Fionwe will fight Morgoth on the plain of Valinor, and the spirit of Turin shall be beside him; it shall be Turin who with his black sword will slay Morgoth, and thus the children of Hurin shall be avenged.

The development of this in the Quenta (IV.165) tells that in the day of the last battle, on the fields of Valinor,

Tulkas shall strive with Melko, and on his right shall stand Fionwe and on his left Turin Turambar, son of Hurin, Conqueror of Fate; and it shall be the black sword of Turin that deals unto Melko his death and final end; and so shall the children of Hurin and all Men be avenged.

And the final passage of the Quenta, concerning the prophecy of the recovery of the Two Trees, ends with the words (ibid.): But of Men in that day the prophecy speaks not, save of Turin only, and him it names among the Gods.

These passages reappear in the revised conclusion of the Quenta that belongs with the Quenta Silmarillion of 1937 (see V.323-4, 333), with two changes: Turin in the Last Battle is said to be

'coming from the halls of Mandos', and in the final sentence concerning the prophecy 'no Man it names, save Turin only, and to him a place is given among the sons of the Valar.' In the cursory corrections that my father made much later to this conclusion (see XI.245-7) he changed 'Turin ... coming from the halls of Mandos' to 'Turin ... returning from the Doom of Men at the ending of the world*, and against the concluding passage (including the reference to Turin as 'a son of the Valar') he placed a large X.

Another reference is found in the Annals of Aman (X.71, 76), where it is said of the constellation Menelmakar (Orion) that it

'was a sign of Turin Turambar, who should come into the world, and a foreshowing of the Last Battle that shall be at the end of Days.'

In this last reappearance of the mysterious and fluctuating idea the prophecy is put into the mouth of Andreth, the Wise-woman of the House of Beor: Turin will 'return from the Dead' before his final departure, and his last deed within the Circles of the World will be the slaying of the Great Dragon, Ancalagon the Black.

Andreth prophesies of the Last Battle at the end of the Elder Days (the sense in which the term 'Last Battle' is used shortly afterwards in this text, p. 371); but in all the early texts (the Quenta, IV.160; the Annals of Beleriand, IV.309, V.144; the Quenta Silmarillion, V.329) it was Earendil who destroyed Ancalagon.]

18. They had no other names that are recorded; for Earendil was nearly always at sea in many fruitless voyages, and both his sons were born in his absence.

19. And also that of Turgon; though he preferred that of Elwe, who was not under the ban that was laid on the Exiles.

20. Menelrond: 'heaven-dome'.

21. [On the Dome of Varda above Valinor see X.385-8.]

22. [Another note among these papers derives the Adunaic word roth (as in Rothinzil) from a stem RUTH, 'not originally connected to foam. Its basic sense was "scar, score, furrow", and yielded words for plough and ploughing; when applied to boats it referred to their track on water, especially to the curling water at the prow (obroth "fore-cutting", whereas the wake was called nadroth "hind-track", or the smooth roth).']

23. [He also said here that though Rothinzil had not appeared in print he wished to retain it.]

24. [This 'Beorian' explanation of wing seems to have been abandoned also, since in what seems to be the latest among these discussions my father said that both elements in Elwing were Sindarin: he proposed an etymology whereby Quenya winge, Sindarin gwing 'appears to be related' to the Quenya verb winta

'scatter, blow about' (both transitive and intransitive), comparing Quenya lassewinta as a variant of lasselanta, 'leaf-fall, autumn'.]

XIII.

LAST WRITINGS.

Of Glorfindel, Cirdan,

and other matters.

There is a small collection of very late manuscripts, preserved together, closely similar in appearance, and all written on the blank sides of publication notices issued by Allen and Unwin. Most of these are copies of the same notice dated 19 January 1970 (used also by my father for his late work on the story of Maeglin, XI.316), but one of these writings was stated by him to be developed from a reply to a correspondent sent on 9 December 1972, and another is dated by him 20 November 1972. I think it very probable that the whole collection belongs to that time, the last year of his life: he died on the second of September, 1973, at the age of eighty-one. There are clear evidences of confusion (as he said at one point, 'my memory is no longer retentive'); but there are elements in them that are of much interest and should be recorded.

Though writing in manuscript he retained his practice of interspers-ing notes into the body of the text, distinguishing them by a different (italic) script. All the numbered notes, authorial and editorial, are collected at the end of the chapter.

GLORFINDEL.

In the summer of 1938, when my father was pondering The Council of Elrond in The Lord of the Rings, he wrote: 'Glorfindel tells of his ancestry in Gondolin' (VI.214). More than thirty years later he took up the question of whether Glorfindel of Gondolin and Glorfindel of Rivendell were indeed one and the same, and this issued in two discussions, together with other brief or fragmentary writings closely associated with them. I will refer to these as 'Glorfindel I' and 'Glorfindel II'. The first page of Glorfindel I is missing, and the second page begins with the words 'as guards or assistants.' Then follows: An Elf who had once known Middle-earth and had fought in the long wars against Melkor would be an eminently suitable companion for Gandalf. We could then reasonably suppose that Glorfindel (possibly as one of a small party,(1) more probably as a sole companion) landed with Gandalf - Olorin about Third Age 1000. This supposition would indeed explain the air of special power and sanctity that surrounds Glorfindel - note how the Witch-king flies from him, although all others (such as King Earnur) however brave could not induce their horses to face him (Appendix A (I, iv), RK p. 331). For according to accounts (quite independent of this case) elsewhere given of Elvish nature, and their relations with the Valar, when Glorfindel was slain his spirit would then go to Mandos and be judged, and then would remain in the Halls of Waiting until Manwe granted him release. The Elves were destined to be by nature 'immortal', within the unknown limits of the life of the Earth as a habitable realm, and their disembodiment was a grievous thing. It was the duty, therefore, of the Valar to restore them, if they were slain, to incarnate life, if they desired it -

unless for some grave (and rare) reason: such as deeds of great evil, or any works of malice of which they remained obdurately unrepentant. When they were re-embodied they could remain in Valinor, or return to Middle-earth if their home had been there.

We can therefore reasonably suppose that Glorfindel, after the purging or forgiveness of his part in the rebellion of the Noldor, was released from Mandos and became himself again, but remained in the Blessed Realm - for Gondolin was destroyed and all or most of his kin had perished. We can thus understand why he seems so powerful a figure and almost 'angelic'. For he had returned to the primitive innocence of the First-born, and had then lived among those Elves who had never rebelled, and in the companionship of the Maiar (2) for ages: from the last years of the First Age, through the Second Age, to the end of the first millennium of the Third Age: before he returned to Middle-earth.(3) It is indeed probable that he had in Valinor already become a friend and follower of Olorin. Even in the brief glimpses of him given in The Lord of the Rings he appears as specially concerned for Gandalf, and was one (the most powerful, it would seem) of those sent out from Rivendell when the disquieting news reached Elrond that Gandalf had never reappeared to guide or protect the Ring-bearer.

The second essay, Glorfindel II, is a text of five manuscript pages which undoubtedly followed the first at no long interval; but a slip of paper on which my father hastily set down some thoughts on the matter presumably came between them, since he said here that while Glorfindel might have come with Gandalf, 'it seems far more likely that he was sent in the crisis of the Second Age, when Sauron invaded Eriador, to assist Elrond, and that though not (yet) mentioned in the annals recording Sauron's defeat he played a notable and heroic part in the war.' At the end of this note he wrote the words 'Numenorean ship', presumably indicating how Glorfindel might have crossed the Great Sea.

This name is in fact derived from the earliest work on the mythology: The Fall of Gondolin, composed in 1916-17, in which the Elvish language that ultimately became that of the type called Sindarin was in a primitive and unorganized form, and its relation with the High-elven type (itself very primitive) was still haphazard. It was intended to mean 'Golden-tressed',(4) and was the name given to the heroic 'Gnome' (Noldo), a chieftain of Gondolin, who in the pass of Cristhorn ('Eagle-cleft') fought with a Balrog [> Demon], whom he slew at the cost of his own life.

Its use in The Lord of the Rings is one of the cases of the somewhat random use of the names found in the older legends, now referred to as The Silmarillion, which escaped reconsideration in the final published form of The Lord of the Rings.

This is unfortunate, since the name is now difficult to fit into Sindarin, and cannot possibly be Quenyarin. Also in the now organized mythology, difficulty is presented by the things recorded of Glorfindel in The Lord of the Rings, if Glorfindel of Gondolin is supposed to be the same person as Glorfindel of Rivendell.

As for the former: he was slain in the Fall of Gondolin at the end of the First Age, and if a chieftain of that city must have been a Noldo, one of the Elf-lords in the host of King Turukano (Turgon); at any rate when The Fall of Gondolin was written he was certainly thought to be so. But the Noldor in Beleriand were exiles from Valinor, having rebelled against the authority of Manwe supreme head of the Valar, and Turgon was one of the most determined and unrepentant supporters of Feanor's rebellion.(5) There is no escape from this. Gondolin is in The Silmarillion said to have been built and occupied by a people of almost entirely Noldorin origin.(6) It might be possible, though inconsistent, to suppose that Glorfindel was a prince of Sindarin origin who had joined the host of Turgon, but this would entirely contradict what is said of Glorfindel in Rivendell in The Lord of the Rings: most notably in The Fellowship of the Ring, p 235, where he is said to have been one of the 'lords of the Eldar from beyond the furthest seas ... who have dwelt in the Blessed Realm.' The Sindar had never left Middle-earth.

This difficulty, far more serious than the linguistic one, may be considered first. At any rate what at first sight may seem the simplest solution must be abandoned: sc. that we have merely a reduplication of names, and that Glorfindel of Gondolin and Glorfindel of Rivendell were different persons. This repetition of so striking a name, though possible, would not be credible.(7) No other major character in the Elvish legends as reported in The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings has a name borne by another Elvish person of importance. Also it may be found that acceptance of the identity of Glorfindel of old and of the Third Age will actually explain what is said of him and improve the story.

When Glorfindel of Gondolin was slain his spirit would according to the laws established by the One be obliged at once to return to the land of the Valar. Then he would go to Mandos and be judged, and would then remain in the 'Halls of Waiting'

until Manwe granted him release. Elves were destined to be

'immortal', that is not to die within the unknown limits decreed by the One, which at the most could be until the end of the life of the Earth as a habitable realm. Their death - by any injury to their bodies so severe that it could not be healed - and the disembodiment of their spirits was an 'unnatural' and grievous matter. It was therefore the duty of the Valar, by command of the One, to restore them to incarnate life, if they desired it. But this 'restoration' could be delayed (8) by Manwe, if the fea while alive had done evil deeds and refused to repent of them, or still harboured any malice against any other person among the living.

Now Glorfindel of Gondolin was one of the exiled Noldor, rebels against the authority of Manwe, and they were all under a ban imposed by him: they could not return in bodily form to the Blessed Realm. Manwe, however, was not bound by his own ordinances, and being still the supreme ruler of the Kingdom of Arda could set them aside, when he saw fit. From what is said of Glorfindel in The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings it is evident that he was an Elda of high and noble spirit: and it can be assumed that, though he left Valinor in the host of Turgon, and so incurred the ban, he did so reluctantly because of kinship with Turgon and allegiance to him, and had no part in the kinslaying of Alqualonde.(9)