View Single Post
Old 09-10-2004, 01:22 PM   #87
Aiwendil
Late Istar
 
Join Date: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,224
Aiwendil is a guest at the Prancing Pony.Aiwendil is a guest at the Prancing Pony.
VE-02: As I look at this again I begin to see your point. My only reservation is that the additions from AB cannot really be necessary, as Tolkien didn't add these points into Q30. I wonder about the date of AB2, though. Christopher seems unsure about the time of its composition, but I wonder whether we may safely assume it's from after 1930. If so, then I could see the additions being justifiable as updates to the earlier account.

I agree now about the Gil-Galad additions from QS77, though.

I don't see the need to eliminate "and multiplied". I do understand your concern, but Tolkien clearly thought it was okay in AB2.

I also don't see a problem with the Silmaril bringing blessing upon them. The Silmarils are not like the Ring - they are not inherently evil. It is only the Oath of Feanor and the Doom of the Noldor that, as it were, attach a sort of evil to them - or perhaps "evil" isn't the right word even here; they attach doom to them. And the havens do indeed come under the Doom of the Noldor in the Third Kin-slaying.

VE-11: Well, it's going to be a bit awkward any way. Maybe we could use a "there" to smooth things out:

Quote:
Maybe it was due in part to the puissance of that holy jewel that they came in time to the waters that as yet no vessels save those of the Teleri had known; and they came to the Enchanted Isles. There <LT2 - isolated Note (xii)The Sleeper in the Tower of Pearl was awakened by {Littleheart's gong:}[them]/. He was/ a messenger that was despatched years ago by Turgon and enmeshed in magics. Even now he {cannot }could not leave the Tower and {warns}warned them of the magic. Thus they{ and} escaped their enchantment.
As for "Gondobar" - if this is a song made later by the Elves about the Sleeper in the Tower of Pearl, why would they make any mistake about "Gondobar"? Also, the syntax of the sentence here simply doesn't seem to allow the interpretation of "Gondobar" as "Gondolin":

Quote:
O happy mariners upon a journey far,
beyond the grey islands and past Gondobar,
to those great portals on the final shores
The phrases "beyond the grey islands" and "to those great portals on the final shores" suggest that the mariners in question are away in the direction of Aman relative to the speaker. The "grey islands" and "Gondobar" seem to lie between the speaker and the mariners. In any case, it makes little sense to say "beyond the grey islands and past Gondolin".

As for the divers and their hoarded sparks - as I understand it, the motivation for these lines is the story in the LT version of "The Hiding of Valinor" that some of the radiance of the sun was dropped accidentally into the ocean. With that story removed, all justification for the lines is also gone. We could invent some justification, but that would be fan-fiction, whether we explicitly state it or not.
Aiwendil is offline   Reply With Quote