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The abundant instruction provided by Rúmil 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, Lórien, Nienna, Oromë, Aldaron, Vána, Nessa, first appearing in this tale, and Manwë, Súlimo, Varda, Ulmo, Aulë, Mandos, Ossë, 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 Ónen, Fëanturi for Fánturi; while yet others, as Yavanna Palúrien and Tulkas Poldórëa, survived long in the ‘Silmarillion’ tradition before being displaced by Kementári (but cf. Kémi ‘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: Ómar-Amillo, and the barbaric war-gods Makar and Meássë.

Here appear also certain relations that survived to the latest form. Thus Lórien 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 Fëanturi. The original conception of Nienna was indeed darker and more fearful, a death-goddess in close association with Mandos, than it afterwards became. Ossë’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. Vána was already the spouse of Oromë, but Oromë was the son of Aulë and (Yavanna) Palórien; in the later evolution of the myths Vána sank down in relation to Nienna, whereas Oromë rose, becoming finally one of the great Valar, the Aratar.

Particularly interesting is the passage concerning the host of lesser spirits who accompanied Aulë and Palúrien, 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 Vairë 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,