1362. Isfin, the White Lady of the Ñoldor, is born in Tirion.[5]
1400. Here ended the Captivity of Melkor. Melkor is released from Mandos, and sues for pardon at the feet of Manwë before the assembled Valar.
1410. Melkor is permitted to go free in Valinor. He seeks the friendship of the Ñoldor.
1450. Fëanor makes the SILMARILLI.
XXIII
A FRAGMENT FROM THE GREY ANNALS
For reasons that eluded even Christopher Tolkien, a fragment of what appears to be drafting for the Grey Annals (subsequently struck through) came to be collected into the “Time & Ageing” bundle. For the most part it is similar to the account given at XI:55 (and more so after numerous pencil emendations), but there are many differences in detail, and it features an otherwise unpublished poetic version of Fingolfin’s challenge of Morgoth to battle before the gates of Angband (itself clearly deriving from The Lay of Leithian ll. 3552–57, III:285); and so I give the fragment here in full.
… [all that beheld] his onset fled in amaze, deeming that Oromë himself was come, for a great madness of ire was upon him. Thus he came alone even to Angband’s gate and smote upon it once again, and sounded a challenge upon his silver horn, calling upon Morgoth to come forth to combat, crying:
“Come forth, thou coward lurking lord
to fight with thine own hand and sword!
Thou wielder of hosts of slaves and thrall,
pit-dweller, shielded by strong walls,
thou foe of gods and elven-race,
come forth and show thy craven face!
“Come forth thou coward king, and fight with thine own hand! Thou den-dweller, wielder of thralls, liar and lurker. Come foe of Gods and Elves, for I would see thy craven face!”[1]
Then Morgoth came. For he could not refuse such a challenge before all his folk and captains. But Fingolfin was not daunted by him,[2] though he towered above the Elven-king like a shadow of thunder or a storm above a lonely tree, and his vast black unblazoned shield was like a thundercloud that drowns the stars.[3] Long they fought, and Ringil pierced Morgoth with seven wounds, and his cries were heard in all the northlands.[4] But wearied at last Fingolfin was beaten to the earth by the great hammer that Morgoth wielded as a mace,[5] and Morgoth set his foot upon his neck and crushed him.[6] In his last throe the Elven-king pinned the foot of his Enemy to the ground with Ringil, and the black blood gushed forth.[7]
PART TWO
BODY, MIND, AND SPIRIT
INTRODUCTION
As seen in part one, and further in various texts published in Morgoth’s Ring (see especially X:217–25), by the late 1950s Tolkien had become greatly interested in the nature and relationship of spirits (in Quenya föar) and bodies (Q. hrëar) in incarnates – that is, beings like Men and Elves that are by nature a union of a material body and a created, immaterial soul. As will be seen herein, consideration of bodies and spirits, and the closely related matter of minds, continued into the last years of Tolkien’s life, and ran in both metaphysical and mundane directions: from the nature of being and identity, the relation of free will to divine foreknowledge, thought-communication, and the manner and mode of Elvish reincarnation; to the finger-games of Elvish children, and the question of which races and characters did or did not have beards.
It will further be seen that the metaphysics of Middle-earth as reflected here is firmly Catholic: that is, it is clearly informed by the metaphysics espoused by St. Thomas Aquinas (itself deeply influenced by Aristotle’s metaphysics), which enjoyed a dramatic reaffirmation by the Catholic Church during Tolkien’s youth, under Pope Leo XIII (who reigned 1878–1903). As Tolkien famously said, “The Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work” (L:172), a statement that has puzzled many critics, because both The Lord of the Rings and Tolkien’s wider legendarium are all but devoid of references to any religious cultus (let alone a Catholic system of rites and worship). As I hope the texts presented here will show, the key word in Tolkien’s statement, often ignored as simply emphatic, is fundamentally: that is, in its foundations, in its essential nature. In these particular texts, this is most clearly seen in Tolkien’s implied commitment to hylomorphism: that is, the Aristotelean-Thomistic teaching that all material things are ultimately a union of created but undifferentiated prime matter (in Quenya, erma) with a God-given form (in Tolkien’s parlance here, pattern, that which gives each portion of erma the nature and shape of the thing that it is). It is also reflected in the commitment to the belief that everything, even Morgoth himself, was as created good, but that due to the free will possessed by every creature with a rational mind, they could fall: as one Vala and various Maiar, and Men corporately, did; and that even Manwë, had he asserted his own will and judgement over Eru’s, would likewise have fallen. Further discussion of these and similar matters is provided for the interested reader in App. I.[fn1]
I
BEAUTY AND GOODNESS
This text comprises a selection from etymological notes by Tolkien, made probably c. 1959–60.
These notes were previously published in slightly different form in Parma Eldalamberon 17 (2007), pp. 150, 162.
√ban. (related to √man?) This appears originally to have referred simply to ‘beauty’ – but with implication that it was due to lack of fault, or blemish. Thus Q Arda Vanya ‘Arda Unmarred’, Arda Úvana = Arda Marred. ilvanya, ilvana ‘perfect’.
[Derivatives:] Q Vána, name of Valië, the most perfectly ‘beautiful’ in form and feature (also ‘holy’ but not august or sublime), representing the natural unmarred perfection of form in living things. vanya, beautiful, unmarred, of fair unspoiled form, &c. vanima (only of living things, especially Elves or Men) ‘beautiful’. úvano, úvanimo, a monster, corrupt or evil creature. S bân or bain, fair, good, wholesome, favourable, not dangerous, evil or hostile.
√man ‘good’. This implies that a person/thing is (relatively or absolutely) “unmarred”: that is in Elvish thought unaffected by the disorders introduced into Arda by Morgoth: and therefore is true to its nature and function.[1] If applied to mind/spirit it is more or less equivalent to morally good; but applied to bodies it naturally refers to health and to absence of distortions, damages, blemishes, etc.
Derivatives: *Ámān: Q Aman (aman-), S Avon ‘Unmarred State’, especially applied to the “unmarred” western regions, of which Valinor (abode of the Valar) was part. Manwë Quenya name of the “Elder King”, Lord of the Valar of Aman. māna, any good or fortunate thing; a boon or “blessing”, a grace (being especially used of some thing/person/event that helps or amends an evil or difficulty). (Cf. a frequent ejaculation on receiving aid in trouble: yé mána (ma) = ‘what a blessing, what a good thing!’) manya- ‘to bless’ (sc. either to afford grace or help or to wish it).
II
GENDER AND SEX
This text, found among Tolkien’s linguistic papers, where it is located in a large group of printed Allen & Unwin notices dating from late 1968, is written in a clear hand in black nib-pen.
Gender and Sex
The Elvish languages did not distinguish grammatically between male (masculine) and female (feminine). Thus se meant ‘he’ or ‘she’. But there was a distinction made between animate and inanimate. Animates included not only rational creatures (“speaking people”), but all things living and reproducing their kind. To these were applied the pronouns such as se ‘he/she’. Inanimates included not only all physical objects recognized or thought of as distinct things, such as “river, mountain”, or substances such as metal, stone, gold, but also parts of bodies or living shapes whether dead, or thought of as analysable parts or organs of a living whole: such as leg, eye, ear, hand, arm, head, horn, flesh, blood, flower, seed, root, stem, tentacle, skin, leather, hair, etc. It also included all grammatical abstracts such as thought, act, deed, colour, shape, feeling, sight, mood, time, place, force, strength, etc.
NB: It did not include mind, or spirit when thought or spoken of as an
integral thing, and attributed to a rational creature. There were several words in Quenya that bore those senses, but those regarded as only functions or operations of the individual “mind-soul” went with all other “abstracts” into the inanimate class. The organs of the body, such as “heart” were never used for or as the “seat” of thought, wisdom, feeling, or emotion; but this may have been due to later thought and analysis. The physical organ ‘heart’ had the base *khom (Q. hón, hom) and this was not in recorded Quenya used of feelings; but an ancient derivative *khomdō (Q. hondo) was often used as the (seat of the) deepest feelings, such as pity or hate parallel to *ōre ‘innermost mind’, and region of deep thought, where also inspiration or “guidance” was received.[1] In The Lord of the Rings this was translated ‘heart’, as in “my heart tells me”, etc. Cf. Treebeard’s adjective applied to Orcs, sincahonda ‘flint-hearted’.[2] hondo was probably influenced in formation by *indō (probably < *im-dō ‘self, innermost being’ (taken as referring to the centre of “reason”), very similar to *ōre. (*ōre was not related to √OR/RO ‘up, rise’, but was from √GOR ‘deep, profound’, seen in Q. orda ‘profound’; cf. S. gorð ‘deep thought’, gúria ‘ponder’.)
In phrases such as: “A’s mind was wise/good, it seldom erred”, it would be se (animate), and it would not matter to the sense if this was translated ‘he’ and taken to refer to A.
III
ELDARIN HANDS, FINGERS, AND NUMERALS
The three texts presented here are excerpted from material published (in slightly differently edited form) as Eldarin Hands, Fingers and Numerals in Vinyar Tengwar 47–8 (2005).[1]
In this presentation, space between paragraphs indicates where intervening text of a more linguistic or otherwise technical nature has not been included.
TEXT 1
The first text was composed on a typewriter on the blank sides of printed Allen & Unwin stationery, one sheet of which is a publication notice dated Jan.–Feb. 1968, which provides an approximate date of composition. The typescript consists of nine pages, numbered by Tolkien in ink 1–5, 6A, 6B, 7A, and 7B (pages 6B and 7B are revised versions of 6A and 7A). The typescript itself bears only the title “E. Hands” written in ink at the top of the first page. The full title, “Eldarin Hands, Fingers & Numerals”, appears on a piece of cardboard placed before the first page of the typescript, and is adopted here as suitable title for this grouping of texts.
The Words for Hand
The Eldar regarded the hand as of great personal importance, second only to the head and face. Common Eldarin had a number of words for this part of the body. The oldest (probably) and the one that retained a general and unspecialized sense – referring to the entire hand (including wrist) in any attitude or function, had probably the primitive Common Eldarin form *maȝa, a stem proper to the sense ‘hand’ and having no other meaning. It may have been related (though this is naturally merely conjectural) to C.E. MAGA, a stem meaning ‘good’ – but without moral reference, except by implication: sc. it was not the opposite of ‘evil, wicked’ but of ‘bad (damaged, imperfect, unfit, useless)’, and the adjectival stem derived, *magrā, meant ‘good for a purpose or function, as required or desired, useful, proper, fit’.
Common Eldarin had a base KWAR ‘press together, squeeze, wring’. A derivative was *kwāră: Q. quár, T. pār, S. paur. This may be translated ‘fist’, though its chief use was in reference to the tightly closed hand as in using an implement or a craft-tool rather than to the ‘fist’ as used in punching. Cf. the name Celebrin-baur > Celebrimbor [‘Silver-fist’]. This was a Sindarized form of T. Telperimpar (Q. Tyelpinquar). It was a frequent name among the Teleri, who in addition to navigation and ship-building were also renowned as silver-smiths. The famous Celebrimbor, heroic defender of Eregion in the Second-age war against Sauron, was a Teler, one of the three Teleri who accompanied Celeborn into Exile.[2] He was a great silver-smith, and went to Eregion attracted by the rumours of the marvellous metal found in Moria, Moria-silver, to which he gave the name mithril. In the working of this he became a rival of the Dwarves, or rather an equal, for there was great friendship between the Dwarves of Moria and Celebrimbor, and they shared their skills and craft-secrets. In the same way Tegilbor was used for one skilled in calligraphy (tegil was a Sindarized form of Q. tekil ‘pen’, not known to the Sindar until the coming of the Noldor). In Common Eldarin and the derived languages the *kwāra was also used as a symbol of power and authority.
Common Eldarin had also a word *palatā, a derivative of Common Eldarin stem PAL, ‘extended’: palat, palan- ‘wide, extended’ (originally also with the implication that the area was more or less flat and even, without hindrance to movement, or view). Cf. Q. palan, adv. ‘far and wide’; palda ‘wide, broad’ (< *palnā). *palátā, Q. palta, T. plata, S. plad meant ‘the flat of the hand, the hand held upwards or forwards, flat and tensed (with fingers and thumb closed or spread)’. This attitude had various important significances as gestures in Eldarin custom (Q. Mátengwië, ‘language of the hands’). One hand palm upwards was a gesture of a recipient, or of someone asking for a gift; both hands so held indicated that one was at the service or command of another person. A hand held palm forwards[fn1] towards another was a gesture of prohibition, commanding silence or halting or ceasing from any action; forbidding advance, ordering retreat or departure; rejection of a plea.[fn2] The gesture of the Dúnadan, Halbarad (L.R. III 47)[3] was therefore not an Elvish sign, and would have been ill received by them. In such a case their gesture was to open both arms wide, somewhat below shoulder-level, with palms outward: in this case as in the Mannish gesture the open palm signified “no weapon”, but the Elvish gesture added “not in either hand”.[fn3] Extension of the fingers modified the significance. The gesture of a receiver or asker, if the fingers and thumb were opened, indicated distress and urgency of need or poverty. The gesture of prohibition in the same way was made more hostile and threatening, indicating that if the command was not immediately obeyed force or weapons would be used.
Left and Right
No distinction was felt between right and left by the Eldar. There was nothing queer, ill-omened (sinister), weak, or inferior about the “left”. Nor anything more correct and proper (right), of good omen, or honour about the “right”.[fn4] The Eldar were “ambidexters”, and the allocation of different habitual services or duties to the right or the left was a purely individual and personal matter, undirected by any general inherited racial habit.[4] An Elda could usually write with either hand; if he wrote with the left he began on the right side, if with the right on the left side – because the Eldar found it more convenient that the writing hand should not be liable to cover what had been written immediately before the letter that it was engaged on.[fn5][5]
In making the above-described gestures either hand was used without change in significance. Making them with both was more emphatic, indicating that the gesture expressed a command from a whole community or party, or from a king or authority via a herald or subordinate. The stone images of the Argonath each held up a hand, palm forwards, but it was the left hand (L.R. I 409).[6] It was a Mannish gesture: the left hand was more hostile; and its use allowed the display in the right hand of a weapon: an axe.
Elsewhere among Tolkien’s papers is found this sentence (which he rendered in both Quenya and English) that also elaborates on this concept of Elvish ambidexterity:
The Elves were ambidexters; consequently, the left hand was not to them evil in their imaginations. On the contrary. For if one turned the face westwards as was usual, the left hand pointed away from Melkor (in the North), and if northwards, it pointed towards Aman (the Blessed Land).[7]
The fingers
In Quenya the fingers were called, reckoning from the thumb outwards: nápo ‘thumb’; lepetas ‘first or index finger’; lepenel or lepende ‘middle finger’; lepekan ‘fourth finger’; lepinka ‘little finger’.
In children’s play the names given (to which various stories were a
ttached) were: atto/atya; emme/emya; tolyo or yonyo; nette or selye; wine or winimo: that is ‘daddy’, ‘mummy’, ‘sticker-up’ or ‘big boy’, ‘girl’ (‘daughter’), ‘baby’. The fingers and toes were called tille (pl. tilli) ‘tips, points’; or differentiated as ortil(li) ‘up-point(s)’ and nútil(li) ‘under-point(s)’. The same play-names ataryo/taryo etc. could be given to the toes.
In ordinary language ‘toe’ was taltil (pl. taltilli); the big toe was taltol or tolbo, and the other toes had no special names, but were counted outwards from the big toe.
In the primitive days, before the Great Journey, while the building up of the Common Eldarin language was in the making, play with the hands and naming of the fingers went together with the naming of the numerals (those above 2). The hand was the primitive counting instrument.[fn6] In the first stage one hand was used as a group-unit, and names were devised for its separate prominences. Later both hands were laid out with the tips of the thumbs touching.
TEXT 2
The second text is extracted from a group of manuscript pages written in a fairly clear hand in black nib-pen and placed just after text 3 below. Internal linguistic evidence (not detailed here) shows however that its composition preceded that of text 3.
The stem of the Common Eldarin numeral for 9 was neter, which resembles the Quenya play-name for the 4th finger (in Eldarin count): nette, which is in 2-handed display, with thumbs inward, the 9th from L or R. The name was old enough to appear in related forms in T. nette, nettica, S. netheg. The resemblance was observed by the earlier loremasters (who quote the Telerin forms otherwise not recorded); but it was rejected as fortuitous, because nette had a sense only suitable to the children’s hand-plays in which the fingers were represented as a family or two families of neighbours: it meant ‘girl’, but was a colloquial “family” diminutive of a Common Eldarin base NETH (not NET) ‘woman’.[fn7][8]
The Nature of Middle-earth Page 14
