The Book of Lost Tales 2
Chapter Twenty-Three
Apart from the fuller account of Tuor's departure from the mouths of Sirion, not much can be learned from this- it is too condensed. But even allowing for speed and compression, there seem to be essential differences from B and C. Thus in this outline (E) Elwing, as it appears, comes to Sirion at a later point in the story, after the departure of Tuor; but the raid and capture of Elwing seems to take place at an earlier point, while Earendel is on his way back to Sirion from his shipwreck in the North (not, as in B and C, while he is on the great voyage in Wingilot that took him to Kor). Here, it seems, there was to be only one northward journey, ending in the shipwreck of Earame/Earum near Falasquil. Though it cannot be demonstrated, I incline to think that E was subsequent to B and C: partly because the reduction of two northward voyages ending in shipwreck to one seems more likely than the other way about, and partly because of the form Tur, which, though it did not survive, replaced Tuor for a time (p.148).
One or two other points may be noticed in this outline. The great spider, called Ungweliante' in C but here Wirilome ('Gloomweaver', seeI. 152), is here encountered by Earendel in the far South, not as in C on his westward voyage: see p. 256. Elwing in this version comes to Earendel as a seabird (as she does in The Silmarillion, p. 247), which is not said in C and even seems to be denied. Another isolated page (associated with the poem 'The Bidding of the Minstrel', see pp. 269-- 70 below) gives a very curious account of Earendel's great voyage: Earendel's boat goes through North. Iceland. [Added in margin: back of North Wind.] Greenland, and the wild islands: a mighty wind and crest of great wave carry him to hotter climes, to back of West Wind.
Land of strange men, land of magic. The home of Night. The Spider. He escapes from the meshes of Night with a few comrades, sees a great mountain island and a golden city [added in margin: Kor] -- wind blows him southward. Tree-men, Sun-dwellers, spices, fire-mountains, red sea: Mediterranean (loses his boat (travels afoot through wilds of Europe?)) or Atlantic.* Home. Waxes aged. Has a new boat builded. Bids adieu to his north land. Sails west again to the lip of the world, just as the Sun is diving into the sea. He sets sail upon the sky and returns no more to earth. The golden city was Kor and he had caught the music of the Solosimpe, and returns to find it, only to find that the fairies have departed from Eldamar. See little book. Dusted with diamond dust climbing the deserted streets of Kor. (* The words in this passage ('Tree-men, Sun-dwellers...') are clear but the punctuation is not, and the arrangement here may not be that intended.)
One would certainly suppose this account to be earlier than anything so far considered (both from the fact that Earendel's history after his return from the great voyage seems to bear no relation to that in B and C, and from his voyage being set in the lands and oceans of the known world), were it not for the reference to the 'little book', which must mean 'Notebook C', from which the outline C above is taken (see p. 254). But I think it very probable (and the appearance of the MS rather supports this) that the last paragraph ('The golden city was Kor...') was added later, and that the rest of the outline belongs with the earliest writing of the poem, in the winter of 1914. It is notable that only here in the earliest writings is it made clear that the 'diamond dust' that coated Earendel came from the streets of Kor (cf. the passage from The Silmarillion cited on p. 257). Another of the early Earendel poems, 'The Shores of Faery', has a short prose preface, which if not as old as the first composition of the poem itself (July 19I5, see p. 271) is certainly not much later: Earendel the Wanderer who beat about the Oceans of the World in his white ship Wingelot sat long while in his old age upon the Isle of Seabirds in the Northern Waters ere he set forth upon a last voyage.
He passed Taniquetil and even Valinor, and drew his bark over the bar at the margin of the world, and launched it on the Oceans of the Firmament. Of his ventures there no man has told, save that hunted by the orbed Moon he fled back to Valinor, and mounting the towers of Kor upon the rocks of Eglamar he gazed back upon the Oceans of the World. To Eglamar he comes ever at plenilune when the Moon sails a-harrying beyond Taniquetil and Valinor.* Both here and in the outline associated with 'The Bidding of the Minstrel' Earendel was conceived to be an old man when he journeyed into the firmament. No other 'connected' account of the Tale of Earendel exists from the earliest period. There are however a number of separate notes, mostly in the form of single sentences, some found in the little notebook C, others jotted down on slips. I collect these references here more or less in the sequence of the tale. (i) 'Dwelling in the Isle of Sirion in a house of snow-white stone.'- In C (p. 254) it is said that Earendel dwelt with Tuor and Idril at Sirion's mouth by the sea 'on the Isles of Sirion'.
(* This preface is found in all the texts of the poem save the carlicst, and the versions of it differ only in name-forms: Wingelot/Vingelot and Eglamarl/EIdamar (varying in the same ways as in the accompanying versions of the poem, see textual notes p. 272), and Kor > Tun in the third text, Tun in the fourth. For Egla = Elda see I. 251 and II. 338, and for Tun see p. 292.)
(ii) 'The Oarni give to Earendel a wonderful shining silver coat that wets not. They love Earendel, in Osse's despite, and teach him the lore of boat-building and of swimming, as he plays with them about the shores of Sirion.' -- In the outlines are found references to the love of the Oarni for Earendel (D, p. 259), the coming of the mermaids to him (E, p. 260), and toOsse's enmity (C,p.254). (iii) Earendel was smaller than most men but nimble-footed and a swift swimmer (but Voronwe could not swim). (iv) 'Idril and Earendel see Tuor's boat dropping into the twilight and a sound of song.' -- In B Tuor's sailing is'secret' (p. 253), in C 'Idril sees him too late' (p. 254), and in E Earendel is present at Tuor's departure and thrusts the boat out: 'he hears a great song swelling from the sea' (p. 260). (v) 'Death of Idril? -- follows secretly after Tuor.' -- That Idril died is denied in C: 'Tuor and Idril some say sail now in Swanwing...' (p. 255); in D Idril swam after him (p. 260). (vi) 'Tuor has sailed back to Falasquil and so back up Ilbranteloth to Asgon where he sits playing on his lonely harp on the islanded rock.' -- This is marked with a query and an 'X' implying rejection of the idea. There are curious references to the 'islanded rock' in Asgon in the outlines for Gilfanon's Tale (see I. 238). (vii) 'The fiord of the Mermaid: enchantment of his sailors.
Mermaids are not Oarni (but are earthlings, or fays? -- or both).' -- In D (p. 259) Mermaids andOarni are equated. (viii) The ship Wingilot was built of wood from Falasquil with 'aid of the Oarni'. -- This was probably said also in D: see p. 26o. (ix) Wingilot was 'shaped as a swan of pearls'. (x) 'The doves and pigeons of Turgon's courtyard bring message to Valinor -- only to Elves.' -- Other references to the birds that flew from Gondolin also say that they came to the Elves, or to Kor (pp. 253, 255, 257). (xi) 'During his voyages Earendel sights the white walls of Kor gleam- ing afar off, but is carried away by Osse's adverse winds and waves.' -- The same is said in B (p. 253) of Earendel's sighting of Tol Eressea on his homeward voyage from Kor. (xii) 'The Sleeper in the Tower of Pearl awakened by Littleheart's gong: a messenger that was despatched years ago by Turgon and enmeshed in magics.
Even now he cannot leave the Tower and warns them of the magic.' -- In C there is a statement, rejected, that the Sleeper in the Tower of Pearl was Idril herself (see note 6). (xiii) 'Ulmo's protection removed from Sirion in wrath at Earendel's second attempt to Mandos, and hence Melko overwhelmed it.' -- This note is struck through, with an 'X' written against it; but in D (p. 260) it is said that 'Ulmo forbade his quest but Earendel would yet sail to find a passage to Mandos'. The meaning of this must be that it was contrary to Ulmo's purpose that Earendel should seek to Mandos for his father, but must rather attempt to reach Kor.
(xiv) 'Earendel weds Elwing before he sets sail. When he hears of her loss he says that his children shall be "all such men hereafter as dare the great seas in ships>. -- With this cf. ?he Cottage of Lost Play (I. 13): 'even such a son of Earendel as was this wayfarer', and (I. 18): 'a man of great and excellent travel, a son meseems of Earendel'. In an outline of Eriol's life (I. 24) it is said that he was a son of Earendel, born under his beam, and that if a beam from Earendel fall on a child newborn he becomes 'a child of Earendel' and a wanderer. In the early dictionary of Qenya there is an entry: Earendilyon 'son of Earendel (used of any mariner)' (I. 251). (xv) 'Earendel goes even to the empty Halls of Iron seeking Elwing.'- Earendel must have gone to Angamandi (empty after the defeat of Melko) at the same time as he went to the ruins of Gondolin (pp. 253, 255). (xvi) The loss of the ship carrying Elwing and the Nauglafring took place on the voyage to Tol Eressea with the exodus of the Elves from the Great Lands. -- See my remarks, pp. 258 -- 9. For the 'appeasing'of Mim's curse by the drowning of the Nauglafring see the Appendix on Names, entry Nauglafring.
The departure of the Elves to Tol Eressea is dis- cussed in the next chapter (p. 280). (xvii) 'Earendel and the northern tower on the Isle of Seabirds.'- In C (p. 255) Earendel 'sets sail with Voronwe and dwells on the Isle of Seabirds in the northern waters (not far from Falasquil) -- and there hopes that Elwing will return among the seabirds'; in B (p. 253) 'he sights the Isle of Seabirds "whither do all the birds of all waters come at whiles".' There is a memory of this in The Silmarillion, p. 250: 'There- fore there was built for [Elwing] a white tower northward upon the borders of the Sundering Seas; and thither at times all the seabirds of the earth repaired.' (xviii) When Earendel comes to Mandos he finds that Tuor is 'not in Valinor, nor Erumani, and neither Elves nor Ainu know where he is. (He is with Ulmo.)' -- In C (p. 255) Earendel, reaching the Halls of Mandos, learns that Tuor 'is gone to Valinor'.
For the possibility that Tuor might be in Erumani or Valinor see I. 91 ff. (xix) Earendel 'returns from the firmament ever and anon with Voronwe to Kor to see if the Magic Sun,has been lit and the fairies have come back -- but the Moon drives him back'. -- On Earendel's return from the firmament see (xxi) below; on the Rekindling of the Magic Sun see p. 286. Two statements about Earendel cited previously may be added here: (xx) In the tale of The Theft of Melko (I. 141) it is said that 'on the walls of Kor were many dark tales written in pictured symbols, and runes of great beauty were drawn there too or carved upon stones, and Earendel read many a wondrous tale there long ago'. (xxi) The Name-list to The Fall of Gondolin has the following entry (cited on p. 215): 'Earendel was the son of Tuor and Idril and 'tis said the only being that is half of the kindred of the Eldalie and half of Men.
He was the greatest and first of all mariners among Men, and saw regions that Men have not yet found nor gazed upon for all the multitude of their boats. He rideth now with Voronwe upon the winds of the firmament nor comes ever further back than Kor, else would he die like other Men, so much of the mortal is in him.' -- In the outline associated with the poem 'The Bidding of the Minstrel' Earendel 'sets sail upon the sky and returns no more to earth' (p. 261); in the prose preface to 'The Shores of Faery' 'to Eglamar he comes ever at plenilune when the Moon sails a-harrying beyond Taniquetil and Valinor' (p. 262); in outline C 'he cannot now return to the world or he will die' (p. 255); and in citation (xix) above he 'returns from the firmament ever and anon with Voronwe to Kor'. In The Silmarillion (p. 249) Manwe's judgement was that Earendel and Elwing 'shall not walk ever again among Elves or Men in the Outer Lands', but it is also said that Earendel returned to Valinor from his 'voyages beyond the confines of the world' (ibid. p. 250), just as it is said in the Name-list to The Fall of Gondolin that he does not come ever further back than Kor. The further statement in the Name-list, that if he did he would die like other Men, 'so much of the mortal is in him', was in some sense echoed long after in a letter of my father's written in 1967: 'Earendil, being in part descended from Men, was not allowed to set foot on Earth again, and became a star shining with the light of the Silmaril' (The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien no. 297).
This brings to an end all the 'prose' materials that bear on the earliest form of the Tale of Earendel (apart from a few other references to him that appear in the next chapter).
With these outlines and notes we are at a very early stage of composition, when the conceptions were fluid and had not been given even preliminary narrative form: the myth was present in certain images that were to endure, but these images had not been articulated. I have already noticed (p. 257) the remarkable fact that there is no hint of the idea that it was Earendel who by his intercession brought aid out of the West; equally there is no suggestion that the Valar hallowed his ship and set him in the sky, nor that his light was that of the Silmaril. Nonetheless there were already present the coming of Eirendel to Kor (Tirion) and finding it deserted, the dust of diamonds on his shoes, the changing of Elwing into a seabird, the passing of his ship through the Door of Night, and the sanction against his return to the lands east of the Sea.
The raid on the Havens of Sirion appears in the early outlines, though that was an act of Melko's, not of the Feanorians; and Tuor's departure also, but without Idril, whom he left behind. His ship was Alqarame, Swanwing: afterwards it bore the name Earrame, with the meaning 'Sea-wing' (TheSilmarillion p. 245), which retained, in form but not in meaning, the name of Earendel's first ship Earame 'Eaglepinion' (pp. 253 -- 4, and see note g).
It is interesting to read my father's statement, made some half-century later (in the letter of 1967 referred to above), concerning the origins of Earendil: This name is' in fact (as is obvious) derived from Anglo-Saxon earendel. When first studying Anglo-Saxon professionally (1913- ) -- I had done so as a boyish hobby when supposed to be learning Greek and Latin -- I was struck by the great beauty of this word (or name), entirely coherent with the normal style of Anglo-Saxon, but euphonic to a peculiar degree in that pleasing but not 'delectable' language. Also its form strongly suggests that it is in origin a proper name and not a common noun. This is borne out by the obviously related forms in other Germanic languages; from which amid the confusions and debasements of late traditions it at least seems certain that it belonged to astronomical-myth, and was the name of a star or star-group.
To my mind the Anglo-Saxon uses seem plainly to indicate that it was a star presaging the dawn (at any rate in English tradition): that is what we now call Venus: the morning star as it may be seen shining brilliantly in the dawn, before the actual rising of the Sun. That is at any rate how I toot it. Before 1914 I wrote a 'poem' upon Earendel who launched his ship like a bright spark from the havens of the Sun. I adopted him into my mythology -- in which he became a prime figure as a mariner, and eventually as a herald star, and a sign of hope to men. Aiya Earendil Elenion Ancalima ([The Lord of the Rings] II.329) 'hail Earendil brightest of Stars' is derived at long remove from Eala Earendel engla beorhtast.* But the name could not be adopted just like that: it had to be accommodated to the Elvish linguistic situation, at the same time as a place for this person was made in legend.
From this, far back in the history of 'Elvish', which was beginning, after many tentative starts in boyhood, to take definite shape at the time of the name's adoption, arose eventually (a) the C[ommon]E[lvish] stem (*) AYAR'sea', primarily applied to the Great Sea of the West, lying between Middle- earth and Aman the Blessed Realm of the Valar; and (b) the element, or verbal base (N)DIL, 'to love, be devoted to'- describing the attitude of one to a person, thing, cause, or occupation to which one is devoted for its own sake. Earendil became a character in the earliest written (1916-17) of the major legends: The Fall of Condolin, the greatest of the Pereldar 'Half-elven', son of Tuor of the most renowned House of the Edain, and Idril daughter of the King of Gondolin.
My father did not indeed here say that his Earendel contained from the beginning elements that in combination give a meaning like 'Sea-lover', but it is in any case clear that at the time of the earliest extant writings on (* From the Old English poem Crist: eala! earendel engla beorhtast ofer mid- dongeard monnum sended.) the subject the name was associated with an Elvish word ea 'eagle' -- see p. 256 on the name of Earendel's first ship Earame 'Eaglepinion'. In the Name-list to The Fall of Condolin this is made explicit: 'Earendl [sic] though belike it hath some kinship to the Elfin ea and earen "eagle" and "eyrie" (wherefore cometh to mind the passage of Cristhorn and the use of the sign of the Eagle by Idril [see p. 193]) is thought to be woven of that secret tongue of the Gondothlim [see p. 165].' I give lastly four early poems of my father's in which Earendel appears.
Eala Earendel Engla Beorhtast. There can be little doubt that, as Humphrey Carpenter supposes (Bio-graphy p. 71), this was the first poem on the subject of Earendel that my father composed, and that it was written at Phoenix Farm, Gedling, Nottinghamshire, in September 1914.~ It was to this poem that he was referring in the letter of 1967 just cited -- 'I wrote a "poem" upon Earendel who launched his ship like a bright spark: cf. line 5 He launched his bark like a silver spark...' There are some five different versions, each one incorporating emendations made in the predecessor, though only the first verse was substantially rewritten. The title was originally 'The Voyage of Earendel the Evening Star', together with (as customarily) an Old English version of this: Scipfaereld Earendeles AEfensteorran; this was changed in a later copy to Eala Earendel Engla Beorhtast 'The Last Voyage of Earendel', and in still later copies the modern English name was removed.
I give it here in the last version, the date of which cannot be determined, though the handwriting shows it to be substantially later than the original composition; together with all the divergent readings of the earliest extant version in footnotes. Earendel arose where the shadow flows At Ocean's silent brim; Through the mouth of night as a ray of light Where the shores are sheer and dim He launched his bark like a silver spark From the last and lonely sand; Then on sunlit breath of day's fiery death He sailed from Westerland. 4 8
He threaded his path o'er the aftermath Of the splendour of the Sun, And wandered far past many a star In his gleaming galleon.12 On the gathering tide of darkness ride The argosies of the sky, And spangle the night with their sails of light As the streaming star goes by.16 Unheeding he dips past these twinkling ships, By his wayward spirit whirled On an endless quest through the darkling West O'er the margin of the world;20 And he fares in haste o'er the jewelled waste And the dusk from whence he came With his heart afire with bright desire And his face in silver flame.24 The Ship of the Moon from the East comes soon From the Haven of the Sun, Whose white gates gleam in the coming beam Of the mighty silver one.28 Lo! with bellying clouds as his vessel's shrouds He weighs anchor down the dark, And on shimmering oars leaves the blazing shores In his argent-timbered bark. 32 Readings of the earliest version: 1-8 Earendel sprang up from the Ocean's cup In the gloom of the mid-world's rim; From the door of Night as a ray of light Leapt over the twilight brim, And launching his bark like a silver spark From the golden-fading sand Down the sunlit breath of Day's fiery Death He sped from Westerland. 10 splendour] glory. 11 wandered] went wandering. 16 streaming] Evening. 17 Unheeding] But unheeding. 18 wayward] wandering. 19 endless] magic darkling] darkening. 20 O'er the margin] Toward the margent. 22 And the dust] To the dust. 25 The Ship] For the Ship. 31 blazing] skiey. 32 timbered] orbed.
Then Earendel fled from that Shipman dread Beyond the dark earth's pale, Back under the rim of the Ocean dim, And behind the world set sail; And he heard the mirth of the folk of earth And the falling of their tears, As the world dropped back in a cloudy wrack On its journey down the years. 36 40 Then he glimmering passed to the starless vast As an isled lamp at sea, And beyond the ken of mortal men Set his lonely errantry, Tracking the Sun in his galleon Through the pathless firmament, Till his light grew old in abysses cold And his eager flame was spent. 44 48 There seems every reason to think that this poem preceded all the outlines and notes given in this chapter, and that verbal similarities to the poem found in these are echoes (e.g. 'his face is in silver flame', outline C, p. 255; 'the margent of the world', outline E, p. 260). In the fourth verse of the poem the Ship of the Moon comes forth from the Haven of the Sun; in the tale of The Hiding of Valinor (I. 215) Aule and Ulmo built two havens in the east, that of the Sun (which was 'wide and golden') and that of the Moon (which was 'white, having gates of silver and of pearl') -- but they were both 'within the same harbourage'.
As in the poem, in the Tale of the Sun and Moon the Moon is urged on by 'shimmering oars' (I. 195). II. The Bidding of the Minstrel. This poem, according to a note that my father scribbled on one of the copies, was written at St. John's Street, Oxford (see I. 27) in the winter of 1914; there is no other evidence for its date. In this case the earliest workings are extant, and on the back of one of the sheets is the outline 33. Then] And. 38. And the falling of] And hearkened to. 46-8. And voyaging the skies Till his splendour was shorn by the birth of Morn And he died with the Dawn in his eyes. account of Earendel's great voyage given on p. 261. The poem was then much longer than it became, but the workings are exceedingly rough; they have no title. To the earliest finished text a title was added hastily later: this apparently reads 'The Minstrel renounces the song'. The title then became 'The Lay of Earendel', changed in the latest text to 'The Bidding of the Minstrel, from the Lay of Earendel'. There are four versions following the original rough draft, but the changes made in them were slight, and I give the poem here in the latest form, noting only that originally the minstrel seems to have responded to the 'bidding' much earlier -- at line 5, which read 'Then harken -- a tale of immortal sea-yearning -,andthat Eldar in line 6 and Elven in line 23 are emendations, made on the latest text, of 'fairies', 'fairy'.
'Sing us yet more of Earendel the wandering, Chant us a lay of his white-oared ship, More marvellous-cunning than mortal man's pondering, Foamily musical out on the deep. Sing us a tale of immortal sea-yearning The Eldar once made ere the change of the light, Weaving a winelike spell, and a burning Wonder of spray and the odours of night; Of murmurous gloamings out on far oceans; Of his tossing at anchor off islets forlorn To the unsleeping waves' never-ending sea-motions; Of bellying sails when a wind was born, And the gurgling bubble of tropical water Tinkled from under the ringed stem, 5 1O And thousands of miles was his ship from those wrought her 15 A petrel, a sea-bird, a white-winged gem, Gallantly bent on measureless faring Ere she came homing in sea-laden flight, Circuitous, lingering, restlessly daring, Coming to haven unlooked for, at night.' 20 'But the music is broken, the words half-forgotten, The sunlight has faded, the moon is grown old, The Elven ships foundered or weed-swathed and rotten, The fire and the wonder of hearts is acold.
Who now can tell, and what harp can accompany With melodies strange enough, rich enough tunes, Pale with the magic of cavernous harmony, Loud with shore-music of beaches and dunes, How slender his boat; of what glimmering timber; How her sails were all silvern and taper her mast, And silver her throat with foam and her limber Flanks as she swanlike floated past! 25 30
The song I can sing is but shreds one remembers Of golden imaginings fashioned in sleep, A whispered tale told by the withering embers Of old things far off that but few hearts keep.' 35 III. The Shores of Faery. This poem is given in its earliest form by Humphrey Carpenter, Bio- graphy, pp.76--76.~ It exists in four versions each as usual incorporating slight changes; my father wrote the date of its composition on three of the copies, viz. 'July 8 -- g, 1915; 'Moseley and Edgbaston, Birmingham July 1915 (walking and on bus). Retouched often since-esp. 1924'; and 'First poem of my mythology, Valinor.......... 1910'. This last cannot have been intended for the date of composition, and the illegible words preceding it may possibly be read as 'thought of about'. But it does not in any case appear to have been 'the first poem of the mythology'. that, I believe, was Eala Earendel Engla Beorhtast -- and my father's mention of this poem in his letter of 1967 (see p. 266) seems to suggest this also.
The Old English title was lelfalandes Strand (The Shores of Elfland). It is preceded by a short prose preface which has been given above, p. 262. I give it here in the latest version (undateable), with all readings from the earliest in footnotes. East of the Moon, west of the Sun There stands a lonely hill; Its feet are in the pale green sea, Its towers are white and still, Beyond Taniquetil In Valinor. Comes never there but one lone star That fled before the moon; And there the Two Trees naked are That bore Night's silver bloom, That bore the globed fruit of Noon In Valinor. There are the shores of Faery Reaadings of the earliest version: 7 8 10 East..... west] West..... East. No stars come there but one alone. fled before] hunted with For there the Two Trees naked grow bore] bear. 11 bore] bear. 5 1O
With their moonlit pebbled strand Whose foam is silver music On the opalescent floor Beyond the great sea-shadows On the marches of the sand That stretches on for ever To the dragonheaded door, The gateway of the Moon, Beyond Taniquetil In Valinor. West of the Sun, east of the Moon Lies the haven of the star, The white town of the Wanderer And the rocks of Eglamar. There Wingelot is harboured, While Earendel looks afar O'er the darkness of the waters Between here and Eglamar -- Out, out, beyond Taniquetil In Valinor afar. IS 20 25 30 There are some interesting connections between this poem and the tale of The Coming of the Elves and the Making of Kor. The 'lonely hill' of line 2 is the hill of Kor (cf. the tale, I. r 122: 'at the head of this long creek there stands a lonely hill which gazes at the loftier mountains'), while 'the golden feet of Kor' (a line replaced in the later versions of the poem) and very probably 'the sand That stretches on for ever' are explained by the passage that follows in the tale: Thither [i.e. to Kor] did Aule bring all the dust of magic metals that his great works had made and gathered, and he piled it about the foot of that hill, and most of this dust was of gold, and a sand of gold stretched away from the feet of Kor out into the distance where the Two Trees blossomed. 18 marches] margent. 20 -- 21 To the dragonheaded door, The gateway of the Moon] From the golden feet of Kor. 24 West of the Sun, east of the Moon] O! West o( the Moon, East of the Sun. 27 rocks] rock. 28 Wingelot] Earliest text Wingelot > Vingelot; second text Vingelot; third text Vingelot > Wingelot; last text Wingelot. 30 O'er the darkness of the waters] On the magic and the wonder. 31 Between] 'Tween. In the latest text Elvenland is lightly written over Faery in line 13, and EIdamar against Eglamar in line 27 (only); Eglamar > Eldamar in the second text.
With the 'dragonheaded door' (line 20) cf. the description of the Door of Night in?he Hiding of Valinor (I. 215 -- 16): Its pillars are of the mightiest basalt and its lintel likewise, but great dragons of black stone are carved thereon, and shadowy smoke pours slowly from their jaws. In that description the Door of Night is not however 'the gateway of the Moon', for it is the Sun that passes through it into the outer dark, whereas 'the Moon dares not the utter loneliness of the outer dark by reason of his lesser light and majesty, and he journeys still beneath the world [i.e. through the waters of Vai]'. IV. The Happy Mariners. I give lastly this poem whose subject is the Tower of Pearl in the Twilit Isles.
It was written in July 1915,~ and there are six texts preceding the version which was published (together with 'Why the Man in the Moon came down too soon') at Leeds in 1923* and which is the first of the two given here. (I) I know a window in a western tower That opens on celestial seas, And wind that has been blowing round the stars Comes to nestle in its tossing draperies. It is a white tower builded in the Twilight Isles, Where Evening sits for ever in the shade; It glimmers like a spike of lonely pearl That mirrors beams forlorn and lights that fade; And sea goes washing round the dark rock where it stands, And fairy boats go by to gloaming lands All piled and twinkling in the gloom With hoarded sparks of orient fire 5 1O (*A Northern Venture: see i.204, footnote. Mr Douglas A. Anderson has kindly supplied me with s copy of the poem in this version, which had been very slightly altered from that published in The Stapeldon Magazine (Exeter College, Oxford), June 1920 (Carpenter, p. 268). -- Tailight in line 5 of the Leeds version is almost certainly an error, for Twilit, the reading of all the original texts.)
That divers won in waters of the unknown Sun -- And, maybe, 'tis a throbbing silver lyre, Or voices of grey sailors echo up Afloat among the shadows of the world In oarless shallop and with canvas furled; For often seems there ring of feet and song Or twilit twinkle of a trembling gong. 15 0! happy mariners upon a journey long To those great portals on the Western shores Where far away constellate fountains leap, And dashed against Night's dragon-headed doors, In foam of stars fall sparkling in the deep. While I alone look out behind the Moon From in my white and windy tower, Ye bide no moment and await no hour, But chanting snatches of a mystic tune Go through the shadows and the dangerous seas Past sunless lands to fairy leas Where stars upon the jacinth wall of space Do tangle burst and interlace. Ye follow Earendel through the West, The shining mariner, to Islands blest; While only from beyond that sombre rim A wind returns to stir these crystal panes And murmur magically of golden rains That fall for ever in those spaces dim. 20 25 30 35 In The Hiding of Valinor (I. 215) it is told that when the Sun was first made the Valar purposed to draw it beneath the Earth, but that it was too frail and lissom; and much precious radiance was spilled in their attempts about the deepest waters, and escaped to linger as secret sparks in many an unknown ocean cavern. These have many elfin divers, and divers of the fays, long time sought beyond the outmost East, even as is sung in the song of the Sleeper in the Tower of Pearl. That 'The Happy Mariners' was in fact 'the song of the Sleeper in the Tower of Pearl' seems assured by lines 10 -- 13 of the poem. For 'Night's dragon-headed doors' see p. 273. The meaning of jacinth in the jacinth wall of space (line 31) is 'blue'; cf. the deep-blue walls in The Hiding of Valinor (I. 215).
Many years later my father rewrote the poem, and I give this version here. Still later he turned to it again and made a few further alterations (here recorded in footnotes); at this time he noted that the revised version dated from '1940?'.(2). I know a window in a Western tower that opens on celestial seas, and there from wells of dark behind the stars blows ever cold a keen unearthly breeze. It is a white tower builded on the Twilit Isles, and springing from their everlasting shade it glimmers like a house of lonely pearl, where lights forlorn take harbour ere they fade. 5 Its feet are washed by waves that never rest. There silent boats go by into the West all piled.and twinkling in the dark with orient fire in many a hoarded spark that divers won in waters of the rumoured Sun.
There sometimes throbs below a silver harp, touching the heart with sudden music sharp; or far beneath the mountains high and sheer the voices of grey sailors echo clear, afloat among the shadows of the world in oarless ships and with their canvas furled, chanting a farewell and a solemn song: for wide the sea is, and the journey long. 1O 15 20 0 happy mariners upon a journey far, beyond the grey islands and past Gondobar, to those great portals on the final shores where far away constellate fountains leap, and dashed against Night's dragon-headed doors in foam of stars fall sparkling in the deep! While I, alone, look out behind the moon from in my white and windy tower, ye bide no moment and await no hour, but go with solemn song and harpers' tune through the dark shadows and the shadowy seas to the last land of the Two Trees, whose fruit and flower are moon and sun, where light of earth is ended and begun. 25 30 35 Last revisions: 3 and there omitted. 4 blows ever cold] there ever blows. 17 tp mountains] mountain. 22 the journey] their journey. 29 While I look out alone. 30 imprisoned in the white and windy tower. 31 ye] you. 33-6 struck through.
Ye follow Earendel without rest, the shining mariner, beyond the West, who passed the mouth of night and launched his bark upon the outer seas of everlasting dark. Here only comes at whiles a wind to blow returning darkly down the way ye go, with perfume laden of unearthly trees. Here only long afar through window-pane I glimpse the flicker of the golden rain that falls for ever on the outer seas. 40 45 I cannot explain the reference (in the revised version only, line 24) to the journey of the mariners 'beyond the grey islands and past Gondobar'. Condobar ('City of Stone') was one of the seven names of Gondolin (P 158). NOTES. 3. 4. Falasquil was the name of Tuor's dwelling on the coast (p. 152); the Oarni, with the Falmarini and the Wingildi, are called 'the spirits of the foam and the surf of ocean' (I. 66).2. Irilde: the 'Elvish' name corresponding to Gnomish Idril. See the Appendix on Names, entry Idril. 'Elwing of the Gnomes of Artanor' is perhaps a mere slip. For the Swan-wing as the emblem of Tuor see pp. 152, 164, 172, 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 193. The words 'Idril has vanished' replace an earlier reading: 'Sirion has been sacked and only Littleheart (Ilfrith) remained who tells the tale.' Ilfrith is yet another version of Littleheart's Elvish name (see pp. 201 -- 2). Struck out here: 'The Sleeper is Idril but he does not know.' Cf. Kortirion among the Trees (I. 36, lines 129 -- 30): 'I need not know the desert or red palaces Where dwells the sun', lines retained slightly changed in the second (I937) version (I. 39).
This passage, from 'Earendel distraught...', replaced the following: '[illegible name, possibly Orlon] is [?biding] there and tells him of the sack of Sirion and the captivity of Elwing. The faring of the Koreldar and the binding of Melko.' Perhaps the words 'The faring of the Koreldar' were struck out by mistake (cf. Outline B). Earum is emended (at the first occurrence only) from Earam; and following it stood the name Earnhama, but this was struck out. Earnhama is Old English, 'Eagle-coat', 'Eagle-dress'. 37 Ye] You. 40 outer omitted. 41 -- 3 struck through. 46 the] those line added at end: beyond the country of the shining Trees. 10. The two earliest extant texts date it thus, one of them with the addition 'Ex[eter] Coll[ege] Essay Club Dec. 1914', and on a third is written 'Gedling, Notts., Sept. 1913 [error for 1914] and later'. My father referred to having read 'Earendel' to the Essay Club in a letter to my mother of 27 November 1914.11. But rocks in line 27 (26) should read rock. 12. According to one note it was written at 'Barnt Green [see Biography p. 36] July 1915 and Bedford and later', and another note dates it 'July 24 [1915], rewritten Sept. g'. The original workings are on the back of an unsent letter dated from Moseley (Birmingham) July x i, 1915; my father began military training at Bedford on July 19.
One or two other points may be noticed in this outline. The great spider, called Ungweliante' in C but here Wirilome ('Gloomweaver', seeI. 152), is here encountered by Earendel in the far South, not as in C on his westward voyage: see p. 256. Elwing in this version comes to Earendel as a seabird (as she does in The Silmarillion, p. 247), which is not said in C and even seems to be denied. Another isolated page (associated with the poem 'The Bidding of the Minstrel', see pp. 269-- 70 below) gives a very curious account of Earendel's great voyage: Earendel's boat goes through North. Iceland. [Added in margin: back of North Wind.] Greenland, and the wild islands: a mighty wind and crest of great wave carry him to hotter climes, to back of West Wind.
Land of strange men, land of magic. The home of Night. The Spider. He escapes from the meshes of Night with a few comrades, sees a great mountain island and a golden city [added in margin: Kor] -- wind blows him southward. Tree-men, Sun-dwellers, spices, fire-mountains, red sea: Mediterranean (loses his boat (travels afoot through wilds of Europe?)) or Atlantic.* Home. Waxes aged. Has a new boat builded. Bids adieu to his north land. Sails west again to the lip of the world, just as the Sun is diving into the sea. He sets sail upon the sky and returns no more to earth. The golden city was Kor and he had caught the music of the Solosimpe, and returns to find it, only to find that the fairies have departed from Eldamar. See little book. Dusted with diamond dust climbing the deserted streets of Kor. (* The words in this passage ('Tree-men, Sun-dwellers...') are clear but the punctuation is not, and the arrangement here may not be that intended.)
One would certainly suppose this account to be earlier than anything so far considered (both from the fact that Earendel's history after his return from the great voyage seems to bear no relation to that in B and C, and from his voyage being set in the lands and oceans of the known world), were it not for the reference to the 'little book', which must mean 'Notebook C', from which the outline C above is taken (see p. 254). But I think it very probable (and the appearance of the MS rather supports this) that the last paragraph ('The golden city was Kor...') was added later, and that the rest of the outline belongs with the earliest writing of the poem, in the winter of 1914. It is notable that only here in the earliest writings is it made clear that the 'diamond dust' that coated Earendel came from the streets of Kor (cf. the passage from The Silmarillion cited on p. 257). Another of the early Earendel poems, 'The Shores of Faery', has a short prose preface, which if not as old as the first composition of the poem itself (July 19I5, see p. 271) is certainly not much later: Earendel the Wanderer who beat about the Oceans of the World in his white ship Wingelot sat long while in his old age upon the Isle of Seabirds in the Northern Waters ere he set forth upon a last voyage.
He passed Taniquetil and even Valinor, and drew his bark over the bar at the margin of the world, and launched it on the Oceans of the Firmament. Of his ventures there no man has told, save that hunted by the orbed Moon he fled back to Valinor, and mounting the towers of Kor upon the rocks of Eglamar he gazed back upon the Oceans of the World. To Eglamar he comes ever at plenilune when the Moon sails a-harrying beyond Taniquetil and Valinor.* Both here and in the outline associated with 'The Bidding of the Minstrel' Earendel was conceived to be an old man when he journeyed into the firmament. No other 'connected' account of the Tale of Earendel exists from the earliest period. There are however a number of separate notes, mostly in the form of single sentences, some found in the little notebook C, others jotted down on slips. I collect these references here more or less in the sequence of the tale. (i) 'Dwelling in the Isle of Sirion in a house of snow-white stone.'- In C (p. 254) it is said that Earendel dwelt with Tuor and Idril at Sirion's mouth by the sea 'on the Isles of Sirion'.
(* This preface is found in all the texts of the poem save the carlicst, and the versions of it differ only in name-forms: Wingelot/Vingelot and Eglamarl/EIdamar (varying in the same ways as in the accompanying versions of the poem, see textual notes p. 272), and Kor > Tun in the third text, Tun in the fourth. For Egla = Elda see I. 251 and II. 338, and for Tun see p. 292.)
(ii) 'The Oarni give to Earendel a wonderful shining silver coat that wets not. They love Earendel, in Osse's despite, and teach him the lore of boat-building and of swimming, as he plays with them about the shores of Sirion.' -- In the outlines are found references to the love of the Oarni for Earendel (D, p. 259), the coming of the mermaids to him (E, p. 260), and toOsse's enmity (C,p.254). (iii) Earendel was smaller than most men but nimble-footed and a swift swimmer (but Voronwe could not swim). (iv) 'Idril and Earendel see Tuor's boat dropping into the twilight and a sound of song.' -- In B Tuor's sailing is'secret' (p. 253), in C 'Idril sees him too late' (p. 254), and in E Earendel is present at Tuor's departure and thrusts the boat out: 'he hears a great song swelling from the sea' (p. 260). (v) 'Death of Idril? -- follows secretly after Tuor.' -- That Idril died is denied in C: 'Tuor and Idril some say sail now in Swanwing...' (p. 255); in D Idril swam after him (p. 260). (vi) 'Tuor has sailed back to Falasquil and so back up Ilbranteloth to Asgon where he sits playing on his lonely harp on the islanded rock.' -- This is marked with a query and an 'X' implying rejection of the idea. There are curious references to the 'islanded rock' in Asgon in the outlines for Gilfanon's Tale (see I. 238). (vii) 'The fiord of the Mermaid: enchantment of his sailors.
Mermaids are not Oarni (but are earthlings, or fays? -- or both).' -- In D (p. 259) Mermaids andOarni are equated. (viii) The ship Wingilot was built of wood from Falasquil with 'aid of the Oarni'. -- This was probably said also in D: see p. 26o. (ix) Wingilot was 'shaped as a swan of pearls'. (x) 'The doves and pigeons of Turgon's courtyard bring message to Valinor -- only to Elves.' -- Other references to the birds that flew from Gondolin also say that they came to the Elves, or to Kor (pp. 253, 255, 257). (xi) 'During his voyages Earendel sights the white walls of Kor gleam- ing afar off, but is carried away by Osse's adverse winds and waves.' -- The same is said in B (p. 253) of Earendel's sighting of Tol Eressea on his homeward voyage from Kor. (xii) 'The Sleeper in the Tower of Pearl awakened by Littleheart's gong: a messenger that was despatched years ago by Turgon and enmeshed in magics.
Even now he cannot leave the Tower and warns them of the magic.' -- In C there is a statement, rejected, that the Sleeper in the Tower of Pearl was Idril herself (see note 6). (xiii) 'Ulmo's protection removed from Sirion in wrath at Earendel's second attempt to Mandos, and hence Melko overwhelmed it.' -- This note is struck through, with an 'X' written against it; but in D (p. 260) it is said that 'Ulmo forbade his quest but Earendel would yet sail to find a passage to Mandos'. The meaning of this must be that it was contrary to Ulmo's purpose that Earendel should seek to Mandos for his father, but must rather attempt to reach Kor.
(xiv) 'Earendel weds Elwing before he sets sail. When he hears of her loss he says that his children shall be "all such men hereafter as dare the great seas in ships>. -- With this cf. ?he Cottage of Lost Play (I. 13): 'even such a son of Earendel as was this wayfarer', and (I. 18): 'a man of great and excellent travel, a son meseems of Earendel'. In an outline of Eriol's life (I. 24) it is said that he was a son of Earendel, born under his beam, and that if a beam from Earendel fall on a child newborn he becomes 'a child of Earendel' and a wanderer. In the early dictionary of Qenya there is an entry: Earendilyon 'son of Earendel (used of any mariner)' (I. 251). (xv) 'Earendel goes even to the empty Halls of Iron seeking Elwing.'- Earendel must have gone to Angamandi (empty after the defeat of Melko) at the same time as he went to the ruins of Gondolin (pp. 253, 255). (xvi) The loss of the ship carrying Elwing and the Nauglafring took place on the voyage to Tol Eressea with the exodus of the Elves from the Great Lands. -- See my remarks, pp. 258 -- 9. For the 'appeasing'of Mim's curse by the drowning of the Nauglafring see the Appendix on Names, entry Nauglafring.
The departure of the Elves to Tol Eressea is dis- cussed in the next chapter (p. 280). (xvii) 'Earendel and the northern tower on the Isle of Seabirds.'- In C (p. 255) Earendel 'sets sail with Voronwe and dwells on the Isle of Seabirds in the northern waters (not far from Falasquil) -- and there hopes that Elwing will return among the seabirds'; in B (p. 253) 'he sights the Isle of Seabirds "whither do all the birds of all waters come at whiles".' There is a memory of this in The Silmarillion, p. 250: 'There- fore there was built for [Elwing] a white tower northward upon the borders of the Sundering Seas; and thither at times all the seabirds of the earth repaired.' (xviii) When Earendel comes to Mandos he finds that Tuor is 'not in Valinor, nor Erumani, and neither Elves nor Ainu know where he is. (He is with Ulmo.)' -- In C (p. 255) Earendel, reaching the Halls of Mandos, learns that Tuor 'is gone to Valinor'.
For the possibility that Tuor might be in Erumani or Valinor see I. 91 ff. (xix) Earendel 'returns from the firmament ever and anon with Voronwe to Kor to see if the Magic Sun,has been lit and the fairies have come back -- but the Moon drives him back'. -- On Earendel's return from the firmament see (xxi) below; on the Rekindling of the Magic Sun see p. 286. Two statements about Earendel cited previously may be added here: (xx) In the tale of The Theft of Melko (I. 141) it is said that 'on the walls of Kor were many dark tales written in pictured symbols, and runes of great beauty were drawn there too or carved upon stones, and Earendel read many a wondrous tale there long ago'. (xxi) The Name-list to The Fall of Gondolin has the following entry (cited on p. 215): 'Earendel was the son of Tuor and Idril and 'tis said the only being that is half of the kindred of the Eldalie and half of Men.
He was the greatest and first of all mariners among Men, and saw regions that Men have not yet found nor gazed upon for all the multitude of their boats. He rideth now with Voronwe upon the winds of the firmament nor comes ever further back than Kor, else would he die like other Men, so much of the mortal is in him.' -- In the outline associated with the poem 'The Bidding of the Minstrel' Earendel 'sets sail upon the sky and returns no more to earth' (p. 261); in the prose preface to 'The Shores of Faery' 'to Eglamar he comes ever at plenilune when the Moon sails a-harrying beyond Taniquetil and Valinor' (p. 262); in outline C 'he cannot now return to the world or he will die' (p. 255); and in citation (xix) above he 'returns from the firmament ever and anon with Voronwe to Kor'. In The Silmarillion (p. 249) Manwe's judgement was that Earendel and Elwing 'shall not walk ever again among Elves or Men in the Outer Lands', but it is also said that Earendel returned to Valinor from his 'voyages beyond the confines of the world' (ibid. p. 250), just as it is said in the Name-list to The Fall of Gondolin that he does not come ever further back than Kor. The further statement in the Name-list, that if he did he would die like other Men, 'so much of the mortal is in him', was in some sense echoed long after in a letter of my father's written in 1967: 'Earendil, being in part descended from Men, was not allowed to set foot on Earth again, and became a star shining with the light of the Silmaril' (The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien no. 297).
This brings to an end all the 'prose' materials that bear on the earliest form of the Tale of Earendel (apart from a few other references to him that appear in the next chapter).
With these outlines and notes we are at a very early stage of composition, when the conceptions were fluid and had not been given even preliminary narrative form: the myth was present in certain images that were to endure, but these images had not been articulated. I have already noticed (p. 257) the remarkable fact that there is no hint of the idea that it was Earendel who by his intercession brought aid out of the West; equally there is no suggestion that the Valar hallowed his ship and set him in the sky, nor that his light was that of the Silmaril. Nonetheless there were already present the coming of Eirendel to Kor (Tirion) and finding it deserted, the dust of diamonds on his shoes, the changing of Elwing into a seabird, the passing of his ship through the Door of Night, and the sanction against his return to the lands east of the Sea.
The raid on the Havens of Sirion appears in the early outlines, though that was an act of Melko's, not of the Feanorians; and Tuor's departure also, but without Idril, whom he left behind. His ship was Alqarame, Swanwing: afterwards it bore the name Earrame, with the meaning 'Sea-wing' (TheSilmarillion p. 245), which retained, in form but not in meaning, the name of Earendel's first ship Earame 'Eaglepinion' (pp. 253 -- 4, and see note g).
It is interesting to read my father's statement, made some half-century later (in the letter of 1967 referred to above), concerning the origins of Earendil: This name is' in fact (as is obvious) derived from Anglo-Saxon earendel. When first studying Anglo-Saxon professionally (1913- ) -- I had done so as a boyish hobby when supposed to be learning Greek and Latin -- I was struck by the great beauty of this word (or name), entirely coherent with the normal style of Anglo-Saxon, but euphonic to a peculiar degree in that pleasing but not 'delectable' language. Also its form strongly suggests that it is in origin a proper name and not a common noun. This is borne out by the obviously related forms in other Germanic languages; from which amid the confusions and debasements of late traditions it at least seems certain that it belonged to astronomical-myth, and was the name of a star or star-group.
To my mind the Anglo-Saxon uses seem plainly to indicate that it was a star presaging the dawn (at any rate in English tradition): that is what we now call Venus: the morning star as it may be seen shining brilliantly in the dawn, before the actual rising of the Sun. That is at any rate how I toot it. Before 1914 I wrote a 'poem' upon Earendel who launched his ship like a bright spark from the havens of the Sun. I adopted him into my mythology -- in which he became a prime figure as a mariner, and eventually as a herald star, and a sign of hope to men. Aiya Earendil Elenion Ancalima ([The Lord of the Rings] II.329) 'hail Earendil brightest of Stars' is derived at long remove from Eala Earendel engla beorhtast.* But the name could not be adopted just like that: it had to be accommodated to the Elvish linguistic situation, at the same time as a place for this person was made in legend.
From this, far back in the history of 'Elvish', which was beginning, after many tentative starts in boyhood, to take definite shape at the time of the name's adoption, arose eventually (a) the C[ommon]E[lvish] stem (*) AYAR'sea', primarily applied to the Great Sea of the West, lying between Middle- earth and Aman the Blessed Realm of the Valar; and (b) the element, or verbal base (N)DIL, 'to love, be devoted to'- describing the attitude of one to a person, thing, cause, or occupation to which one is devoted for its own sake. Earendil became a character in the earliest written (1916-17) of the major legends: The Fall of Condolin, the greatest of the Pereldar 'Half-elven', son of Tuor of the most renowned House of the Edain, and Idril daughter of the King of Gondolin.
My father did not indeed here say that his Earendel contained from the beginning elements that in combination give a meaning like 'Sea-lover', but it is in any case clear that at the time of the earliest extant writings on (* From the Old English poem Crist: eala! earendel engla beorhtast ofer mid- dongeard monnum sended.) the subject the name was associated with an Elvish word ea 'eagle' -- see p. 256 on the name of Earendel's first ship Earame 'Eaglepinion'. In the Name-list to The Fall of Condolin this is made explicit: 'Earendl [sic] though belike it hath some kinship to the Elfin ea and earen "eagle" and "eyrie" (wherefore cometh to mind the passage of Cristhorn and the use of the sign of the Eagle by Idril [see p. 193]) is thought to be woven of that secret tongue of the Gondothlim [see p. 165].' I give lastly four early poems of my father's in which Earendel appears.
Eala Earendel Engla Beorhtast. There can be little doubt that, as Humphrey Carpenter supposes (Bio-graphy p. 71), this was the first poem on the subject of Earendel that my father composed, and that it was written at Phoenix Farm, Gedling, Nottinghamshire, in September 1914.~ It was to this poem that he was referring in the letter of 1967 just cited -- 'I wrote a "poem" upon Earendel who launched his ship like a bright spark: cf. line 5 He launched his bark like a silver spark...' There are some five different versions, each one incorporating emendations made in the predecessor, though only the first verse was substantially rewritten. The title was originally 'The Voyage of Earendel the Evening Star', together with (as customarily) an Old English version of this: Scipfaereld Earendeles AEfensteorran; this was changed in a later copy to Eala Earendel Engla Beorhtast 'The Last Voyage of Earendel', and in still later copies the modern English name was removed.
I give it here in the last version, the date of which cannot be determined, though the handwriting shows it to be substantially later than the original composition; together with all the divergent readings of the earliest extant version in footnotes. Earendel arose where the shadow flows At Ocean's silent brim; Through the mouth of night as a ray of light Where the shores are sheer and dim He launched his bark like a silver spark From the last and lonely sand; Then on sunlit breath of day's fiery death He sailed from Westerland. 4 8
He threaded his path o'er the aftermath Of the splendour of the Sun, And wandered far past many a star In his gleaming galleon.12 On the gathering tide of darkness ride The argosies of the sky, And spangle the night with their sails of light As the streaming star goes by.16 Unheeding he dips past these twinkling ships, By his wayward spirit whirled On an endless quest through the darkling West O'er the margin of the world;20 And he fares in haste o'er the jewelled waste And the dusk from whence he came With his heart afire with bright desire And his face in silver flame.24 The Ship of the Moon from the East comes soon From the Haven of the Sun, Whose white gates gleam in the coming beam Of the mighty silver one.28 Lo! with bellying clouds as his vessel's shrouds He weighs anchor down the dark, And on shimmering oars leaves the blazing shores In his argent-timbered bark. 32 Readings of the earliest version: 1-8 Earendel sprang up from the Ocean's cup In the gloom of the mid-world's rim; From the door of Night as a ray of light Leapt over the twilight brim, And launching his bark like a silver spark From the golden-fading sand Down the sunlit breath of Day's fiery Death He sped from Westerland. 10 splendour] glory. 11 wandered] went wandering. 16 streaming] Evening. 17 Unheeding] But unheeding. 18 wayward] wandering. 19 endless] magic darkling] darkening. 20 O'er the margin] Toward the margent. 22 And the dust] To the dust. 25 The Ship] For the Ship. 31 blazing] skiey. 32 timbered] orbed.
Then Earendel fled from that Shipman dread Beyond the dark earth's pale, Back under the rim of the Ocean dim, And behind the world set sail; And he heard the mirth of the folk of earth And the falling of their tears, As the world dropped back in a cloudy wrack On its journey down the years. 36 40 Then he glimmering passed to the starless vast As an isled lamp at sea, And beyond the ken of mortal men Set his lonely errantry, Tracking the Sun in his galleon Through the pathless firmament, Till his light grew old in abysses cold And his eager flame was spent. 44 48 There seems every reason to think that this poem preceded all the outlines and notes given in this chapter, and that verbal similarities to the poem found in these are echoes (e.g. 'his face is in silver flame', outline C, p. 255; 'the margent of the world', outline E, p. 260). In the fourth verse of the poem the Ship of the Moon comes forth from the Haven of the Sun; in the tale of The Hiding of Valinor (I. 215) Aule and Ulmo built two havens in the east, that of the Sun (which was 'wide and golden') and that of the Moon (which was 'white, having gates of silver and of pearl') -- but they were both 'within the same harbourage'.
As in the poem, in the Tale of the Sun and Moon the Moon is urged on by 'shimmering oars' (I. 195). II. The Bidding of the Minstrel. This poem, according to a note that my father scribbled on one of the copies, was written at St. John's Street, Oxford (see I. 27) in the winter of 1914; there is no other evidence for its date. In this case the earliest workings are extant, and on the back of one of the sheets is the outline 33. Then] And. 38. And the falling of] And hearkened to. 46-8. And voyaging the skies Till his splendour was shorn by the birth of Morn And he died with the Dawn in his eyes. account of Earendel's great voyage given on p. 261. The poem was then much longer than it became, but the workings are exceedingly rough; they have no title. To the earliest finished text a title was added hastily later: this apparently reads 'The Minstrel renounces the song'. The title then became 'The Lay of Earendel', changed in the latest text to 'The Bidding of the Minstrel, from the Lay of Earendel'. There are four versions following the original rough draft, but the changes made in them were slight, and I give the poem here in the latest form, noting only that originally the minstrel seems to have responded to the 'bidding' much earlier -- at line 5, which read 'Then harken -- a tale of immortal sea-yearning -,andthat Eldar in line 6 and Elven in line 23 are emendations, made on the latest text, of 'fairies', 'fairy'.
'Sing us yet more of Earendel the wandering, Chant us a lay of his white-oared ship, More marvellous-cunning than mortal man's pondering, Foamily musical out on the deep. Sing us a tale of immortal sea-yearning The Eldar once made ere the change of the light, Weaving a winelike spell, and a burning Wonder of spray and the odours of night; Of murmurous gloamings out on far oceans; Of his tossing at anchor off islets forlorn To the unsleeping waves' never-ending sea-motions; Of bellying sails when a wind was born, And the gurgling bubble of tropical water Tinkled from under the ringed stem, 5 1O And thousands of miles was his ship from those wrought her 15 A petrel, a sea-bird, a white-winged gem, Gallantly bent on measureless faring Ere she came homing in sea-laden flight, Circuitous, lingering, restlessly daring, Coming to haven unlooked for, at night.' 20 'But the music is broken, the words half-forgotten, The sunlight has faded, the moon is grown old, The Elven ships foundered or weed-swathed and rotten, The fire and the wonder of hearts is acold.
Who now can tell, and what harp can accompany With melodies strange enough, rich enough tunes, Pale with the magic of cavernous harmony, Loud with shore-music of beaches and dunes, How slender his boat; of what glimmering timber; How her sails were all silvern and taper her mast, And silver her throat with foam and her limber Flanks as she swanlike floated past! 25 30
The song I can sing is but shreds one remembers Of golden imaginings fashioned in sleep, A whispered tale told by the withering embers Of old things far off that but few hearts keep.' 35 III. The Shores of Faery. This poem is given in its earliest form by Humphrey Carpenter, Bio- graphy, pp.76--76.~ It exists in four versions each as usual incorporating slight changes; my father wrote the date of its composition on three of the copies, viz. 'July 8 -- g, 1915; 'Moseley and Edgbaston, Birmingham July 1915 (walking and on bus). Retouched often since-esp. 1924'; and 'First poem of my mythology, Valinor.......... 1910'. This last cannot have been intended for the date of composition, and the illegible words preceding it may possibly be read as 'thought of about'. But it does not in any case appear to have been 'the first poem of the mythology'. that, I believe, was Eala Earendel Engla Beorhtast -- and my father's mention of this poem in his letter of 1967 (see p. 266) seems to suggest this also.
The Old English title was lelfalandes Strand (The Shores of Elfland). It is preceded by a short prose preface which has been given above, p. 262. I give it here in the latest version (undateable), with all readings from the earliest in footnotes. East of the Moon, west of the Sun There stands a lonely hill; Its feet are in the pale green sea, Its towers are white and still, Beyond Taniquetil In Valinor. Comes never there but one lone star That fled before the moon; And there the Two Trees naked are That bore Night's silver bloom, That bore the globed fruit of Noon In Valinor. There are the shores of Faery Reaadings of the earliest version: 7 8 10 East..... west] West..... East. No stars come there but one alone. fled before] hunted with For there the Two Trees naked grow bore] bear. 11 bore] bear. 5 1O
With their moonlit pebbled strand Whose foam is silver music On the opalescent floor Beyond the great sea-shadows On the marches of the sand That stretches on for ever To the dragonheaded door, The gateway of the Moon, Beyond Taniquetil In Valinor. West of the Sun, east of the Moon Lies the haven of the star, The white town of the Wanderer And the rocks of Eglamar. There Wingelot is harboured, While Earendel looks afar O'er the darkness of the waters Between here and Eglamar -- Out, out, beyond Taniquetil In Valinor afar. IS 20 25 30 There are some interesting connections between this poem and the tale of The Coming of the Elves and the Making of Kor. The 'lonely hill' of line 2 is the hill of Kor (cf. the tale, I. r 122: 'at the head of this long creek there stands a lonely hill which gazes at the loftier mountains'), while 'the golden feet of Kor' (a line replaced in the later versions of the poem) and very probably 'the sand That stretches on for ever' are explained by the passage that follows in the tale: Thither [i.e. to Kor] did Aule bring all the dust of magic metals that his great works had made and gathered, and he piled it about the foot of that hill, and most of this dust was of gold, and a sand of gold stretched away from the feet of Kor out into the distance where the Two Trees blossomed. 18 marches] margent. 20 -- 21 To the dragonheaded door, The gateway of the Moon] From the golden feet of Kor. 24 West of the Sun, east of the Moon] O! West o( the Moon, East of the Sun. 27 rocks] rock. 28 Wingelot] Earliest text Wingelot > Vingelot; second text Vingelot; third text Vingelot > Wingelot; last text Wingelot. 30 O'er the darkness of the waters] On the magic and the wonder. 31 Between] 'Tween. In the latest text Elvenland is lightly written over Faery in line 13, and EIdamar against Eglamar in line 27 (only); Eglamar > Eldamar in the second text.
With the 'dragonheaded door' (line 20) cf. the description of the Door of Night in?he Hiding of Valinor (I. 215 -- 16): Its pillars are of the mightiest basalt and its lintel likewise, but great dragons of black stone are carved thereon, and shadowy smoke pours slowly from their jaws. In that description the Door of Night is not however 'the gateway of the Moon', for it is the Sun that passes through it into the outer dark, whereas 'the Moon dares not the utter loneliness of the outer dark by reason of his lesser light and majesty, and he journeys still beneath the world [i.e. through the waters of Vai]'. IV. The Happy Mariners. I give lastly this poem whose subject is the Tower of Pearl in the Twilit Isles.
It was written in July 1915,~ and there are six texts preceding the version which was published (together with 'Why the Man in the Moon came down too soon') at Leeds in 1923* and which is the first of the two given here. (I) I know a window in a western tower That opens on celestial seas, And wind that has been blowing round the stars Comes to nestle in its tossing draperies. It is a white tower builded in the Twilight Isles, Where Evening sits for ever in the shade; It glimmers like a spike of lonely pearl That mirrors beams forlorn and lights that fade; And sea goes washing round the dark rock where it stands, And fairy boats go by to gloaming lands All piled and twinkling in the gloom With hoarded sparks of orient fire 5 1O (*A Northern Venture: see i.204, footnote. Mr Douglas A. Anderson has kindly supplied me with s copy of the poem in this version, which had been very slightly altered from that published in The Stapeldon Magazine (Exeter College, Oxford), June 1920 (Carpenter, p. 268). -- Tailight in line 5 of the Leeds version is almost certainly an error, for Twilit, the reading of all the original texts.)
That divers won in waters of the unknown Sun -- And, maybe, 'tis a throbbing silver lyre, Or voices of grey sailors echo up Afloat among the shadows of the world In oarless shallop and with canvas furled; For often seems there ring of feet and song Or twilit twinkle of a trembling gong. 15 0! happy mariners upon a journey long To those great portals on the Western shores Where far away constellate fountains leap, And dashed against Night's dragon-headed doors, In foam of stars fall sparkling in the deep. While I alone look out behind the Moon From in my white and windy tower, Ye bide no moment and await no hour, But chanting snatches of a mystic tune Go through the shadows and the dangerous seas Past sunless lands to fairy leas Where stars upon the jacinth wall of space Do tangle burst and interlace. Ye follow Earendel through the West, The shining mariner, to Islands blest; While only from beyond that sombre rim A wind returns to stir these crystal panes And murmur magically of golden rains That fall for ever in those spaces dim. 20 25 30 35 In The Hiding of Valinor (I. 215) it is told that when the Sun was first made the Valar purposed to draw it beneath the Earth, but that it was too frail and lissom; and much precious radiance was spilled in their attempts about the deepest waters, and escaped to linger as secret sparks in many an unknown ocean cavern. These have many elfin divers, and divers of the fays, long time sought beyond the outmost East, even as is sung in the song of the Sleeper in the Tower of Pearl. That 'The Happy Mariners' was in fact 'the song of the Sleeper in the Tower of Pearl' seems assured by lines 10 -- 13 of the poem. For 'Night's dragon-headed doors' see p. 273. The meaning of jacinth in the jacinth wall of space (line 31) is 'blue'; cf. the deep-blue walls in The Hiding of Valinor (I. 215).
Many years later my father rewrote the poem, and I give this version here. Still later he turned to it again and made a few further alterations (here recorded in footnotes); at this time he noted that the revised version dated from '1940?'.(2). I know a window in a Western tower that opens on celestial seas, and there from wells of dark behind the stars blows ever cold a keen unearthly breeze. It is a white tower builded on the Twilit Isles, and springing from their everlasting shade it glimmers like a house of lonely pearl, where lights forlorn take harbour ere they fade. 5 Its feet are washed by waves that never rest. There silent boats go by into the West all piled.and twinkling in the dark with orient fire in many a hoarded spark that divers won in waters of the rumoured Sun.
There sometimes throbs below a silver harp, touching the heart with sudden music sharp; or far beneath the mountains high and sheer the voices of grey sailors echo clear, afloat among the shadows of the world in oarless ships and with their canvas furled, chanting a farewell and a solemn song: for wide the sea is, and the journey long. 1O 15 20 0 happy mariners upon a journey far, beyond the grey islands and past Gondobar, to those great portals on the final shores where far away constellate fountains leap, and dashed against Night's dragon-headed doors in foam of stars fall sparkling in the deep! While I, alone, look out behind the moon from in my white and windy tower, ye bide no moment and await no hour, but go with solemn song and harpers' tune through the dark shadows and the shadowy seas to the last land of the Two Trees, whose fruit and flower are moon and sun, where light of earth is ended and begun. 25 30 35 Last revisions: 3 and there omitted. 4 blows ever cold] there ever blows. 17 tp mountains] mountain. 22 the journey] their journey. 29 While I look out alone. 30 imprisoned in the white and windy tower. 31 ye] you. 33-6 struck through.
Ye follow Earendel without rest, the shining mariner, beyond the West, who passed the mouth of night and launched his bark upon the outer seas of everlasting dark. Here only comes at whiles a wind to blow returning darkly down the way ye go, with perfume laden of unearthly trees. Here only long afar through window-pane I glimpse the flicker of the golden rain that falls for ever on the outer seas. 40 45 I cannot explain the reference (in the revised version only, line 24) to the journey of the mariners 'beyond the grey islands and past Gondobar'. Condobar ('City of Stone') was one of the seven names of Gondolin (P 158). NOTES. 3. 4. Falasquil was the name of Tuor's dwelling on the coast (p. 152); the Oarni, with the Falmarini and the Wingildi, are called 'the spirits of the foam and the surf of ocean' (I. 66).2. Irilde: the 'Elvish' name corresponding to Gnomish Idril. See the Appendix on Names, entry Idril. 'Elwing of the Gnomes of Artanor' is perhaps a mere slip. For the Swan-wing as the emblem of Tuor see pp. 152, 164, 172, 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 193. The words 'Idril has vanished' replace an earlier reading: 'Sirion has been sacked and only Littleheart (Ilfrith) remained who tells the tale.' Ilfrith is yet another version of Littleheart's Elvish name (see pp. 201 -- 2). Struck out here: 'The Sleeper is Idril but he does not know.' Cf. Kortirion among the Trees (I. 36, lines 129 -- 30): 'I need not know the desert or red palaces Where dwells the sun', lines retained slightly changed in the second (I937) version (I. 39).
This passage, from 'Earendel distraught...', replaced the following: '[illegible name, possibly Orlon] is [?biding] there and tells him of the sack of Sirion and the captivity of Elwing. The faring of the Koreldar and the binding of Melko.' Perhaps the words 'The faring of the Koreldar' were struck out by mistake (cf. Outline B). Earum is emended (at the first occurrence only) from Earam; and following it stood the name Earnhama, but this was struck out. Earnhama is Old English, 'Eagle-coat', 'Eagle-dress'. 37 Ye] You. 40 outer omitted. 41 -- 3 struck through. 46 the] those line added at end: beyond the country of the shining Trees. 10. The two earliest extant texts date it thus, one of them with the addition 'Ex[eter] Coll[ege] Essay Club Dec. 1914', and on a third is written 'Gedling, Notts., Sept. 1913 [error for 1914] and later'. My father referred to having read 'Earendel' to the Essay Club in a letter to my mother of 27 November 1914.11. But rocks in line 27 (26) should read rock. 12. According to one note it was written at 'Barnt Green [see Biography p. 36] July 1915 and Bedford and later', and another note dates it 'July 24 [1915], rewritten Sept. g'. The original workings are on the back of an unsent letter dated from Moseley (Birmingham) July x i, 1915; my father began military training at Bedford on July 19.
