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Tinwë Linto < Linwë Tinto (this latter is the form of the name in an interpolated passage in the preceding tale, see p. 106 note 1). At two subsequent occurrences of Linwë (see note 3 above) the name was not changed, clearly through oversight; in the two added passages where the name occurs (see notes 4 and 5 above) the form is Tinwë (Linto).

Inwithiel < Gim-githil (the same change in The Cottage of Lost Play, see p. 22).

Tinwelint < Tintoglin.

Wendelin < Tindriel (cf. the interpolated passage in the previous tale, p. 106 note 1).

Arvalin < Habbanan throughout the tale except once, where the name was written Arvalin from the first; see notes 7 and 9 above.

Lindeloksë < Lindelótë (the same change in The Coming of the Valar and the Building of Valinor, see p. 79).

Erumáni < Harwalin.

Commentary on

The Coming of the Elves and the Making of Kôr

I have already (p. 111) touched on the great difference in the structure of the narrative at the beginning of this tale, namely that here the Elves awoke during Melko’s captivity in Valinor, whereas in the later story it was the very fact of the Awakening that brought the Valar to make war on Melkor, which led to his imprisonment in Mandos. Thus the ultimately very important matter of the capture of the Elves about Cuiviénen by Melkor (The Silmarillion pp. 49–50) is necessarily entirely absent. The release of Melko from Mandos here takes place far earlier, before the coming of the Elvish ‘ambassadors’ to Valinor, and Melko plays a part in the debate concerning the summons.

The story of Oromë’s coming upon the newly-awakened Elves is seen to go back to the beginnings (though here Yavanna Palúrien was also present, as it appears), but its singular beauty and force is the less for the fact of their coming being known independently to Manwë, so that the great Valar did not need to be told of it by Oromë. The name Eldar was already in existence in Valinor before the Awakening, and the story of its being given by Oromë (‘the People of the Stars’) had not arisen—as will be seen from the Appendix on Names, Eldar had a quite different etymology at this time. The later distinction between the Eldar who followed Oromë on the westward journey to the ocean and the Avari, the Unwilling, who would not heed the summons of the Valar, is not present, and indeed in this tale there is no suggestion that any Elves who heard the summons refused it; there were however, according to another (later) tale, Elves who never left Palisor (pp. 231, 234).

Here it is Nornorë, Herald of the Gods, not Oromë, who brought the three Elves to Valinor and afterwards returned them to the Waters of Awakening (and it is notable that even in this earliest version, given more than the later to ‘explanations’, there is no hint of how they passed from the distant parts of the Earth to Valinor, when afterwards the Great March was only achieved with such difficulty). The story of the questioning of the three Elves by Manwë concerning the nature of their coming into the world, and their loss of all memory of what preceded their awakening, did not survive the Lost Tales. A further important shift in the structure is seen in Ulmo’s eager support of the party favouring the summoning of the Elves to Valinor; in The Silmarillion (p. 52) Ulmo was the chief of those who ‘held that the Quendi should be left free to walk as they would in Middle-earth’.

I set out here the early history of the names of the chief Eldar.

Elu Thingol (Quenya Elwë Singollo) began as Linwë Tinto (also simply Linwë); this was changed to Tinwë Linto (Tinwë). His Gnomish name was at first Tintoglin, then Tinwelint. He was the leader of the Solosimpi (the later Teleri) on the Great Journey, but he was beguiled in Hisilómë by the ‘fay’ (Tindriel >) Wendelin (later Melian), who came from the gardens of Lórien in Valinor; he became lord of the Elves of Hisilómë, and their daughter was Tinúviel. The leader of the Solosimpi in his place was, confusingly, Ellu (afterwards Olwë, brother of Elwë).

The lord of the Noldoli was Finwë Nólemë (also Nólemë Finw