The Book of Lost Tales, Part 1 - J. R. R. Tolkien [102]
3 Against this my father wrote in the margin: ‘Helkaraksë Icefang Qerkaringa the water’ see note 5.
4 Helkaraksë or Icefang: earlier reading Qerkaringa; see note 5.
5 This passage, from ‘“Know then,” said Lindo…’, replaces an earlier version which I do not give, for it contains almost nothing that is not in the replacement; and the last sentence of the replacement is a later addition still. It is to be noted however that in the first version the neck of land is called Qerkaringa (as also in the replacement passage at first, see note 4), with the remark that ‘the name has also been given to the sound beyond’. This then was the earlier idea: Qerkaringa the name primarily of the neck of land, but extended also to the sound (presumably at that stage querka did not mean ‘gulf’). My father than decided that Qerkaringa was the name of the sound and introduced the name Helkaraksë for the neck of land; hence the marginal annotation given in note 3 above. At this point he added the last sentence of the replacement passage, ‘Now that strip of water that flowed still between Icefang’s tip and the Great Lands was called Qerkaringa or Chill Gulf’, and emended Qerkaringa in the body of the passage (note 4) to Helkaraksë or Icefang, carrying this change through the rest of the tale (on p. 169 of Qerkaringa > of Helkaraksë and of Qerkaringa).
6 For the path down from Mandos, the black ship Mornië, and its journey down the coast to Arvalin, see p. 77, 90 ff.
7 Turondo or Turgon, son of Nólemë, has been named previously, p. 155.
8 The reading Hanstovánen is slightly uncertain, and another name ‘or…… Morniën’ follows it. See under ‘Changes made to names’ below.
9 After the word ‘dwelling’ there is a space left for the insertion of an Elvish name.
10 MS Qerkaringa unemended, but clearly the western promontory (the Icefang) is referred to, and I therefore read Helkaraksë in the text (see note 5).
Changes made to names in
The Flight of the Noldoli
Helkaraksë < Qerkaringa (for the details of, and the explanation of this change see note 5 above).
Arvalin < Habbanan.
Amnos < Emnon < Morniento.
Hanstovánen The name of ‘the beaching place of Mornië’ was first written Morniëlta (last letters uncertain), then Vane (or Vone) Hansto; this latter was not struck out, but the form in the text (which may also be read as Hanstovánen) seems to be the final one. After Hanstovánen follows ‘or……Morniën’.
Commentary on
The Flight of the Noldoli
In this ‘tale’ (in reality the conclusion of the long tale of ‘The Theft of Melko and the Darkening of Valinor’ told by Lindo and finished by Rümil) is found the oldest account of the departure of the Gnomes out of Valinor. Here the Gods continue the vain pursuit and search long after Melko has escaped, and moreover are aided in it by the Eldar (including the Solosimpi, who as the later Teleri portrayed in The Silmarillion would hardly have left their shores and their ships). Fëanor’s return to Kôr and his haranguing of the Noldoli (and, in this account, others) by the light of their torches is seen to be an original feature; but his sons have not yet appeared, nor indeed any of the Noldorin princes descended from Finwë save Turondo (Turgon), of whom it is specifically stated (p. 167) that he was ‘not yet upon the Earth’. There is no Oath of Fëanor, and the later story of the divided counsels of the Noldor appears only in the attempt of Nólemë (Finwë) to calm the people—Nólemë thus playing the later part of Finarfin (The Silmarillion p. 83). In The Silmarillion, after the Kinslaying at Alqualondë and the Prophecy of the North, Finarfin and many of his people returned to Valinor and were pardoned by the Valar (p. 88); but here those few who went