The Book of Lost Tales - J. R. Tolkien [182]
The note continues (using Old English forms): ‘In Wíelisc Caergwâr, in Englise Warwíc.’ Thus the element War- in Warwick is derived from the same Elvish source as Kor-in Kortirion and Gwar in Mindon-Gwar.12 Lastly, it is said that ‘Hengest’s capital was Warwick’.
Next, Horsa (Hengest’s brother) is associated with Oxenaford (Old English: Oxford), which is given the equivalents Q[enya] Taruktarna and Gnomish *Taruithorn (see the Appendix on Names, p. 347).
The third of Eriol’s sons, Heorrenda, is said to have had his ‘capital’ at Great Haywood (the Staffordshire village where my parents lived in 1916–17, see I.25); and this is given the Qenya equivalents Tavaros(së) and Taurossë, and the Gnomish Tavrobel and Tavrost; also ‘Englise [i.e. Old English Hægwudu se gréata, Gréata Hægwudu’)13
These notes conclude with the statement that ‘Heorrenda called Kôr or Gwâr “Tûn”.’ In the context of these conceptions, this is obviously the Old English word tún, an enclosed dwelling, from which has developed the modern word town and the place-name ending -ton. Tûn has appeared several times in the Lost Tales as a later correction, or alternative to Kôr, changes no doubt dating from or anticipating the later situation where the city was Tûn and the name Kôr was restricted to the hill on which it stood. Later still Tún became Tiriona, and then when the city of the Elves was named Tirion the hill became Timna, as it is in The Silmarillion; by then it had ceased to have any connotation of ‘dwelling-place’ and had cut free from all connection with its actual origin, as we see it here, in Old English tún, Heorrenda’s ‘town’.
Can all these materials be brought together to form a coherent narrative? I believe that they can (granting that there are certain irreconcilable differences concerning Eriol’s life), and would reconstruct it thus:
– The Eldar and the rescued Noldoli departed from the Great Lands and came to Tol Eressëa.
– In Tol Eressëa they built many towns and villages, and in Alalminórë, the central region of the island, Ingil son of Inwë built the town of Koromas, ‘the Resting of the Exiles of Kôr’ (‘Exiles’, because they could not return to Valinor); and the great tower of Ingil gave the town its name Kortinon. (See I.16.)
– Ottor Wfre came from Heligoland to Tol Eressëa and dwelt in the Cottage of Lost Play in Kortirion; the Elves named him Eriol or Angol after the ‘iron cliffs’ of his home.
– After a time, and greatly instructed in the ancient history of Gods, Elves, and Men, Eriol went to visit Gilfanon in the village of Tavrobel, and there he wrote down what he had learnt; there also he at last drank limpë.
– In Tol Eressëa Eriol was wedded and had a son named Heorrenda (Half-elven!). (According to (5) Eriol died at Tavrobel, consumed with longing for ‘the black cliffs of his shores’ but according to (8), certainly later, he lived to see the Battle of the Heath of the Sky-roof.)
– The Lost Elves of the Great Lands rose against the dominion of the servants of Melko; and the untimely Faring Forth took place, at which time Tol Eressëa was drawn east back across the Ocean and anchored off the coasts of the Great Lands. The western half broke off when Ossë tried to drag the island back, and it became the Isle of Íverin (= Ireland).
– Tol Eressëa was now in the geographical position of England.
– The great battle of Rôs ended in the defeat of the Elves, who retreated into hiding in Tol Eressëa.
– Evil men entered Tol Eressëa, accompanied by Orcs and other hostile beings.
– The Battle of the Heath of the Sky-roof took place not far from Tavrobel, and (according to (8)) was witnessed