The Book of Lost Tales - J. R. Tolkien [206]
38 The whole section of the narrative concerning the island of the Ythlings is more briefly told in Ælfwine I (though, so far as it goes, in very much the same words) with several features of the later story absent (notably the cutting of timber in the grove sacred to Ulmo, and the blessing of the ship by the Man of the Sea). The only actual difference of structure, however, is that whereas in Ælfwine II Ælfwine finds again his seven companions in the land of the Ythlings, and sails west with them, together with Bior of the Ythlings, in Ælfwine I they were indeed drowned, and he got seven companions from among the Ythlings (among whom Bior is not named).
39 The plot-outline Ælfwine A tells the story from the point where Ælfwine and his seven companions were cast on the Isle of the Man of the Sea (thus differing from Ælfwine I and II, where he came there alone) thus:
They wander about the island upon which they have been cast and come upon many decaying wrecks—often of mighty ships, some treasure-laden. They find a solitary cabin beside a lonely sea, built of old ship-wood, where dwells a solitary and strange old mariner of dread aspect. He tells them these are the Harbourless Isles whose enchanted rocks draw all ships thither, lest men fare over far upon Garsedge [see note 19]—and they were devised at the Hiding of Valinor. Here, he says, the trees are magical. They learn many strange things about the western world of him and their desire is whetted for adventure. He aids them to cut holy trees in the island groves and to build a wonderful vessel, and shows them how to provision it against a long voyage (that water that drieth not save when heart fails, &c.). This he blesses with a spell of adventure and discovery, and then dives from a cliff-top. They suspect it was Neorth Lord of Waters.
They journey many years among strange western islands hearing often many strange reports—of the belt of Magic Isles which few have passed; of the trackless sea beyond where the wind bloweth almost always from the West; of the edge of the twilight and the far-glimpsed isle there standing, and its glimmering haven. They reach the magic island [read islands?] and three are enchanted and fall asleep on the shore.
The others beat about the waters beyond and are in despair—for as often as they make headway west the wind changes and bears them back. At last they tryst to return on the morrow if nought other happens. The day breaks chill and dull, and they lie becalmed looking in vain through the pouring rain.
This narrative differs from both Ælfwine I and II in that here there is no mention of the Ythlings; and Ælfwine and his seven companions depart on their long western voyage from the Harbourless Isle of the ancient mariner. It agrees with Ælfwine I in the name Neorth; but it foreshadows II in the cutting of sacred trees to build a ship.
40 In Ælfwine I Ælfheah does not appear, and his two speeches in this passage are there given to one Gelimer. Gelimer (Geilamir) was the name of a king of the Vandals in the sixth century.
41 In Ælfwine I Bior’s speech is given to Gelimer (see note 40).
42 Ælfwine I ends in almost the same words as Ælfwine II, but with a most extraordinary difference; Ælfwine does not leap overboard, but returns with his companions to Belerion, and so never comes to Tol Eressëa! ‘Very empty thereafter were the places of Men for Ælfwine and his mariners, and of their seed have been many restless and wistful folk since they were dead…’ Moreover my father seems clearly to have been going to say the same in Ælfwine II, but stopped, struck out what he had written, and introduced the sentence in which Ælfwine leapt into the sea. I cannot see any way to explain this.
Ælfwine A ends in much the same way as Ælfwine II:
As night comes on a little breath springs up and the clouds lift. They hoist sail to return—when suddenly low down in the dusk they see the many lights of the Haven of Many Hues twinkle forth. They row thither, and hear sweet music. Then the mist wraps all