The Book of Lost Tales - J. R. Tolkien [193]
Eriol told then of
his wanderings about the western havens,…of how he was wrecked upon far western islands until at last upon one lonely one he came upon an ancient sailor who gave him shelter, and over a fire within his lonely cabin told him strange tales of things beyond the Western Seas, of the Magic Isles and that most lonely one that lay beyond….
‘Ever after,’ said Eriol, ‘did I sail more curiously about the western isles seeking more stories of the kind, and thus it is indeed that after many great voyages I came myself by the blessing of the Gods to Tol Eressëa in the end…’
In the typescript version of this Link it is further told that in the town where Eriol’s parents lived and died
there dwelt a mighty duke, and did he gaze from the topmost battlements never might he see the bounds of his wide domain, save where far to east the blue shapes of the great mountains lay—yet was that tower held the most lofty that stood in the lands of Men.
The siege and sack of the town were the work of ‘the wild men from the Mountains of the East’.
At the end of the typescript version the boy Ausir assured Eriol that ‘that ancient mariner beside the lonely sea was none other than Ulmo’s self, who appeareth not seldom thus to those voyagers whom he loves’ but Eriol did not believe him.
I have given above (pp. 294–5) reasons for thinking that in ‘the Eriol story’ this tale of his youth was not set in England.
Turning to the passages concerned with the later, Ælfwine story, we learn from (15) that Ælfwine dwelt in the South-west of England and that his mother and father were slain by ‘the sea-pirates’, and from (20) that they were slain by ‘the fierce Men of the Sea’ from (16) that he was ‘driven by the Normans’. In (15) there is a mention of his meeting with ‘the Ancient Mariner’ during his voyages. In (16) he comes to ‘the harbour of the southern shore’ of Tol Eressëa; and in (17) he ‘awakens upon a sandy beach’ at low tide.
I come now to the narrative that finally emerged. It will be observed, perhaps with relief, that Ing, Ingwë, and the Ingwaiwar have totally disappeared.
ÆLFWINE OF ENGLAND
There are three versions of this short work. One is a plot-outline of less than 500 words, which for convenience of reference I shall call. ‘Ælfwine A; but the second is a much more substantial narrative bearing the title Ælfwine of England. This was written in 1920 or later: demonstrably not earlier, for my father used for it scraps of paper pinned together, and some of these are letters to him, all dated in February 1920.18 The third text no doubt began as a fair copy in ink of the second, to which it is indeed very close at first, but became as it proceeded a complete rewriting at several points, with the introduction of much new matter, and it was further emended after it had been completed. It bears no title in the manuscript, but must obviously be called Ælfwine of England likewise.
For convenience I shall refer to the first fully-written version as Ælfwine I and to its rewriting as Ælfwine II. The relation of Ælfwine A to these is hard to determine, since it agrees in some respects with the one and in some with the other. It is obvious that my father had Ælfwine I in front of him when he wrote Ælfwine II, but it seems likely that he drew on Ælfwine A at the same time.
I give here the full text of Ælfwine II in its final form, with all noteworthy emendations and all important differences from the other texts in the notes (differences in names, and changes to names, are listed separately).
There was a land called England, and it was an island of the West, and before it was broken in the warfare of the Gods it was westernmost of all the Northern lands, and looked upon the Great Sea that Men of old called Garsecg;19 but that part that was broken was called Ireland and many names besides, and its dwellers come not into