Morgoth's Ring Read Free

had even from their beginning, and it is but bodied forth in the choice of each, not made by the choice; even as with us male and female may be shown by the raiment, but is not made thereby.

    Now in C this passage was written at the same time as what precedes it and what follows it - it is all of a piece; whereas in C* the original typed passage was struck through and the C text substituted in pencil.
    There seemed no other explanation possible but that C* preceded C; yet it seemed extraordinary, even incredible, that my father should have first made a clear new typescript version from' the old B manuscript and then returned to that manuscript to cover it somewhat chaotically with new writing - the more so since C* and C are for much of their length closely similar.
    When working on The Notion Club Papers I found among rough notes and jottings on the Adûnaic language a torn half-sheet of the same paper as carries a passage from the Ainulindalë , written in pencil in my father's most rapid hand.
    While not proof that he was working on the Ainulindalë so early as 1946 (the year to which I ascribe the development of Adunaic, when The Lord of the Rings had been long halted and The Return of the King no more than begun: see IX.12-13, 147) this strongly suggested it; and as will be seen in a moment there is certain evidence that the text C* was in existence by 1948. Moreover in a main structural feature C* follows this bit of text, as C does not (see p. 42); it seemed very probable therefore that C* was typed from a very rough text of which the torn half-sheet is all that remains.
    Here it must be mentioned that on the first page of C* my father wrote later
    'Round World Version', and (obviously at the same time) on the title-page of B/C he wrote 'Old Flat World Version' - the word 'Old' being a subsequent addition. It would obviously be very interesting to know when he labelled them thus; and the answer is provided by the following evidences. The first is a draft for a letter, undated and with no indication of whom he was addressing: MORGOTH`S RING - AINULINDALË - 5

    These tales are feigned to be translated from the preserved works of Ælfwine of England (c.900 A.D.), called by the Elves Eriol, who being blown west from Ireland eventually came upon the 'Straight Road' and found Tol Eressëa the Lonely Isle.
    He brought back copies and translations of many works. I do not trouble you with the Anglo-Saxon forms. (The only trace of these is the use of c for k as in Celeb - beside Keleb -.) All these histories are told by Elves and are not primarily concerned with Men.
    I have ventured to include 2 others.
    (1) A 'Round World' version of the 'Music of the Ainur'
    (2) A 'Man's' version of the Fall of Numenor told from men's point of view, and with names in a non-Elvish tongue. 'The Drowning of Anadune'. This also is 'Round World'.'
    The Elvish myths are 'Flat World'. A pity really but it is too integral to change it.

    On the back of the paper he wrote: 'For the moment I cannot find the Tale called The Rings of Power ' , and referred again in much the same terms to 'two other tales'
    that he was 'enclosing'.
    There is another draft for this letter which, while again undated, was written from Merton College and addressed to Mrs. Katherine Farrer, the wife of Dr.
    Austin Farrer, theologian and at that time Chaplain of Trinity College: Dear Mrs. Farrer,
    These tales are feigned (I do not include their slender framework) to be translated from the preserved work of Ælfwine of England (c.900 A.D.), who being blown west from Ireland eventually came upon the 'straight road'
    and found the Lonely Isle, Tol Eressëa, beyond the seas.
    There he learned ancient lore, and brought back translations and excerpts from works of Elvish lore. The specimen of the 'Anglo-Saxon'
    original is not included.
    NB All these histories are told by the Elves, and are not primarily concerned with Men.
    I have ventured to include, besides the 'Silmarillion' or