J.R.R. Tolkien
The Book of Lost Tales
Part II
Christopher Tolkien
Copyright
HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
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This edition published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2010
First published by George Allen & Unwin 1984
THE BOOK OF LOST TALES, PART II. Copyright © The J.R.R. Tolkien Copyright Trust and C.R. Tolkien 1984. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Source ISBN: 9780261102149
Ebook Edition © April 2010 ISBN: 9780007348190
Version: 2019-10-21
Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Preface
I The Tale of Tinúviel
II Turambar and the Foalókë
Notes and Commentary
III The Fall of Gondolin
Notes and Commentary
IV The Nauglafring
Notes and Commentary
V The Tale of Eärendel
Notes and Commentary
VI The History of Eriol or Ælfwine and the End of the Tales
Ælfwine of England
Notes and Commentary
Appendix: Names in the Lost Tales—Part II
Short Glossary of Obsolete, Archaic, and Rare Words
Searchable Terms
About the Author
Other Books by J. R. R. Tolkien
About the Publisher
PREFACE
This second part of The Book of Lost Tales is arranged on the same lines and with the same intentions as the first part, as described in the Foreword to it, pages 10–11. References to the first part are given in the form ‘I. 240’, to the second as ‘p. 240’, except where a reference is made to both, e.g. ‘I. 222, II. 292’.
As before, I have adopted a consistent (if not necessarily ‘correct’) system of accentuation for names; and in the cases of Mim and Niniel, written thus throughout, I give Mîm and Níniel.
The two pages from the original manuscripts are reproduced with the permission of the Bodleian Library, Oxford, and I wish to express my thanks to the staff of the Department of Western Manuscripts at the Bodleian for their assistance. The correspondence of the original pages to the printed text in this book is as follows:
(1) The page from the manuscript of The Tale of Tinúviel. Upper part: printed text page 24 (7 lines up, the sorest dread) to page 25 (line 3, so swiftly.”). Lower part: printed text page 25 (11 lines up, the harsh voice) to page 26 (line 7, but Tevildo).
(2) The page from the manuscript of The Fall of Gondolin. Upper part: printed text page 189 (line 12, “Now,” therefore said Galdor to line 20 if no further.”). Lower part: printed text page 189 (line 27, But the others, led by one Legolas Greenleaf) to page 190 (line 11, leaving the main company to follow he).
For differences in the printed text of The Fall of Gondolin from the page reproduced see page 201, notes 34–36, and page 203, Bad Uthwen; some other small differences not referred to in the notes are also due to later changes made to the text B of the Tale (see pages 146–7).
These pages illustrate the complicated ‘jigsaw’ of the manuscripts of the Lost Tales described in the Foreword to Part I, page 10.
The third volume in this ‘History’ will contain the alliterative Lay of the Children of Húrin (c. 1918–1925) and the Lay of Leithian (1925–1931), together with the commentary on a part of the latter by C. S. Lewis, and the rewriting of the poem that my father embarked on after the completion of The Lord of the Rings.
I
THE TALE OF TINÚVIEL
The Tale of Tinúviel was written in 1917, but the earliest extant text is later, being a manuscript in ink over an erased original in pencil; and in fact my father’s rewriting of this tale seems to have been one of the last completed elements in the Lost Tales (see I. 203–4).
There is also a typescript version of the Tale of Tinúviel, later than the manuscript but belonging to the same ‘phase’ of the mythology: my father had the manuscript before him and changed the text as he went along. Significant differences between the two versions of the tale are given on pp. 41 ff.
In the manuscript the tale is headed: ‘Link to the Tale of Tinúviel, also the Tale of Tinúviel.’ The Link begins with the following passage:
‘Great was the power of Melko for ill,’ said Eriol, ‘if he could indeed destroy with his cunning the happiness and glory of the Gods and Elves, darkening the light of their dwelling and bringing all their love to naught. This must surely be the worst deed that ever he has done.’
‘Of a truth never has such evil again been done in Valinor,’ said Lindo, ‘but Melko’s hand has laboured at worse things in the world, and the seeds of his evil have waxen since to a great and terrible growth.’
‘Nay,’ said Eriol, ‘yet can my heart not think of other griefs, for sorrow at the destruction of those most fair Trees and the darkness of the world.’
This passage was struck