Silindrin < Telimpл (Silindrin) (at the first occurrence only; subsequently Silindrin is the name as first written).

Lindeloksл < Lindelуtл (cf. p. 22).

Commentary on

The Coming of the Valar and the Building of Valinor

The abundant instruction provided by Rъmil on this occasion is best discussed in sections, and I begin with:

(i) The Coming of the Valar and their encounter with Melko (pp. 65–7)

The description of the entry of the Valar into the world was not retained, though the account of them in this passage is the ultimate origin of that in the Valaquenta (The Silmarillion pp. 25–9): not, however, by continuous manuscript progression. The passage is of much interest, for here appear all at once many figures of the mythology who were to endure, beside others who were not. It is remarkable how many of the names of the Valar in the earliest writings were never afterwards displaced or reshaped: Yavanna, Tulkas, Lуrien, Nienna, Oromл, Aldaron, Vбna, Nessa, first appearing in this tale, and Manwл, Sъlimo, Varda, Ulmo, Aulл, Mandos, Ossл, Salmar, who have appeared previously. Some were retained in a modified form: Melkor for Melko, Uinen (which appears already later in the Lost Tales) for Уnen, Fлanturi for Fбnturi; while yet others, as Yavanna Palъrien and Tulkas Poldуrлa, survived long in the ‘Silmarillion’ tradition before being displaced by Kementбri (but cf. Kйmi ‘Earth-lady’ in this tale) and Astaldo. But some of these early Valar had disappeared by the next stage or phase after the Lost Tales: Уmar-Amillo, and the barbaric war-gods Makar and Meбssл.

Here appear also certain relations that survived to the latest form. Thus Lуrien and Mandos were from the beginning ‘brethren’, each with his special association, of ‘dreams’ and ‘death’ and Nienna stood from the beginning in a close relationship with them, here as ‘the spouse of Mandos’, though afterwards as the sister of the Fлanturi. The original 1conception of Nienna was indeed darker and more fearful, a death-goddess in close association with Mandos, than it afterwards became. Ossл’s uncertain relations with Ulmo are seen to go back to the beginnings; but Ulmo’s haughtiness and aloofness subsequently disappeared, at least as a feature of his divine ‘character’ explicitly described. Vбna was already the spouse of Oromл, but Oromл was the son of Aulл and (Yavanna) Palуrien; in the later evolution of the myths Vбna sank down in relation to Nienna, whereas Oromл rose, becoming finally one of the great Valar, the Aratar.

Particularly interesting is the passage concerning the host of lesser spirits who accompanied Aulл and Palъrien, from which one sees how old is the conception of the Eldar as quite dissimilar in essential nature from ‘brownies, fays, pixies, leprawns’, since the Eldar are ‘of the world’ and bound to it, whereas those others are beings from before the world’s making. In the later work there is no trace of any such explanation of the ‘pixie’ element in the world’s population: the Maiar are little referred to, and certainly not said to include such beings as ‘sing amid the grass at morning and chant among the standing corn at eve’.*

Salmar, companion of Ulmo, who has appeared in The Music of the Ainur (p. 58), is now identified with Noldorin, who was mentioned by Vairл in The Cottage of Lost Play (p. 16); such of his story as can be discerned will appear later. Subsequent writings say nothing of him save that he came with Ulmo and made his horns (The Silmarillion p. 40).

In the later development of this narrative there is no mention of Tulkas (or Mandos!) going off to round up Melkor at the very outset of the history of the Valar in Arda. In The Silmarillion we learn rather of the great war between the Valar and Melkor ‘before Arda was full-shaped’, and how it was the coming of Tulkas from ‘the far heaven’ that routed him, so that he fled from Arda and ‘brooded in the outer darkness’.

(ii) The earliest conception of the Western Lands, and the Oceans

The earliest map

In The Cottage of Lost Play the expression ‘Outer Lands’ was used of the lands to the east of the Great Sea, later Middle-earth; this was then changed to ‘Great Lands’ (p. 21). The ‘Outer Lands’ are now defined as the Twilit Isles, Eruman (or Arvalin), and Valinor (p. 68). A curious usage, which often appears in the Lost Tales, is the equation of ‘the world’ with the Great Lands, or with the whole surface of the earth east of the Outer Lands; so the mountains ‘towered mightily between Valinor and the world’ (p. 70), and King Inwл heard ‘the lament of the world’ (p. 16).

It is convenient to reproduce here a map (p. 81), which actually appears in the text of a later tale (that of The Theft of Melko and the Darkening of Valinor). This map,1 drawn on a manuscript page with the text written round it, is no more than a quick scribble, in soft pencil, now rubbed and faded, and in many features difficult or impossible to interpret. The redrawing is as accurate as I can make it, the only feature lost being some indecipherable letters (beginning with M) preceding the word Ice. I have added the letters a, b, c, etc. to make the discussion easier to follow.

Utumna (later Utumno) is placed in the extreme North, north of the lamp-pillar Ringil; the position of the southern pillar seems from this map to have been still undecided. The square marked a is obviously Valmar, and I take the two dots marked b to be the Two Trees, which are stated later to have been to the north of the city of the Gods. The dot marked c is fairly clearly the domain of Mandos (cf. p. 76, where it is said that Vefбntur Mandos and Fui Nienna begged Aulл to delve them a hall ‘beneath the roots of the most cold and northerly of the Mountains of Valinor’);* the dot to the south of this can hardly represent the hall of Makar and Meбssл, since it is said (pp. 77–8) that though it was not very far from Mandos it stood ‘upon the confines of the Outer Lands’.

The area which I have marked h is Eruman / Arvalin (which ultimately came to be named Avathar), earlier Habbanan / Harmalin (Harwalin), which are simple alternatives (see p. 79).

Later, in a map of the world made in the 1930s, the western shore of the Great Sea bends in a gentle and regular curve westward from north to south, while the Mountains of Valinor bend in virtually the reverse of the same curve eastward,)(; where the two curves come together at their midpoints are Tъna, and Taniquetil. Two areas of land in the shape of elongated Vs thus extend northward and southward from the midpoint, between the Mountains and the Sea, which draw steadily away from each other; and these are named Eruman (to the northward) and Arvalin (to the southward).

In the little primitive map the line of the mountains is already thus, and it is described in the text as ‘a great ring curving westward’ (the curve is westward if the extremities are considered rather than the central portion) But the curve of the coast is different. Unhappily the little map is here very obscure, for there are several lines (marked j) extending northwards from Kфr (marked d), and it is impossible to make out whether marks on them are directions for erasure or whether they represent parallel mountain-chains. But I think that in fact these lines merely represent variant ideas for the curve of the Mountains of Valinor in the north; and I have little doubt that at this time my father had no conception of a region of ‘waste’ north of Kфr and east of the mountains. This interpretation of the map agrees well with what is said in the tale (p. 68): ‘the Shadowy Seas to north of Eruman bend a vast bay inwards, so that waves beat even upon the feet of the great cliffs, and the Mountains stand beside the sea’, and ‘Taniquetil looks from the bay’s head southward across Eruman and northward across the Bay of Faлry’. On this view the name Eruman (later Araman), at first an alternative to Arvalin, was taken over for the northern waste when the plan of the coastal regions became more symmetrical.