The Book of Lost Tales, Part 1 - J. R. R. Tolkien [77]
Then Meril the Queen ceased her long tale, but Eriol said nought, gazing at the long radiance of the westering sun gleaming through the apple boles, and dreaming of Faëry. At length said Meril: ‘Fare now home, for the afternoon has waned, and the telling of the tale has set a weight of desire in my heart and in thine. But be in patience and bide yet ere ye seek fellowship with that sad kindred of the Island Elves.’
But Eriol said: ‘Even now I know not and it passes my heart to guess how all that loveliness came to fading, or the Elves might be prevailed to depart from Eldamar.’
But Meril said: ‘Nay, I have lengthened the tale too much for love of those days, and many great things lie between the making of the gems and the coming back to Tol Eressëa: but these things many know as well as I, and Lindo or Rúmil of Mar Vanwa Tyaliéva would tell them more skilfully than I.’ Then did she and Eriol fare back to the house of flowers, and Eriol took his leave ere the western face of Ingil’s tower was yet grown grey with dusk.
NOTES
1 The manuscript has Vairë, but this can only be a slip.
2 The occurrence of the name Telimpë here, and again later in the tale, as also in that of The Sun and Moon, is curious; in the tale of The Coming of the Valar and the Building of Valinor the name was changed at its first appearance from Telimpë (Silindrin) to Silindrin, and at subsequent occurrences Silindrin was written from the first (p. 79).
3 The manuscript has Linwë here, and again below; see under Tinwë Linto in ‘Changes made to names’ at the end of these notes.
4 This sentence, from ‘and beguiled…’, was added after, though not to all appearance much after, the writing of the text.
5 This sentence, from ‘and one Ellu…’, was added at the same time as that referred to in note 4.
6 The first occurrence of the form Uinen, and so written at the time of composition (i.e. not corrected from Ónen).
7 Arvalin: thus written at the time of composition, not emended from Habbanan or Harmalin as previously.
8 When my father wrote these texts, he wrote first in pencil, and then subsequently wrote over the top of it in ink, erasing the pencilled text—of which bits can be read here and there, and from which one can see that he altered the pencilled original somewhat as he went along. At the words ‘glistened wondrously’, however, he abandoned the writing of the new text in ink, and from this point we have only the original pencilled manuscript, which is in places exceedingly difficult to read, being more hasty, and also soft and smudged in the course of time. In deciphering this text I have been in places defeated, and I use brackets and question-marks to indicate uncertain readings, and rows of dots to show roughly the length of illegible words.
It is to be emphasized therefore that from here on there is only a first draft, and one written very rapidly, dashed onto the page.
9 Arvalin: here and subsequently emended from Habbanan; see note 7. The explanation is clearly that the name Arvalin came in at or before the time of the rewriting in ink over the pencilled text; though further on in the narrative we are here at an earlier stage of composition.
10 The word might be read as ‘wizardous’.
11 Other forms (beginning Sigm-) preceded Silubrilthin which cannot be read with certainty. Meril speaks as if the Gnomish name was the form used in Tol Eressëa, but it is not clear why.
12 ‘my grandsire’s sire’: the original reading was ‘my grandsire’.
Changes made to names in
The Coming of the Elves and the Making of