Ambarkanta

[ArcusCalion]

While we wait for Findegil to finish his draft for the Of the Flight of the Noldor chapter, I decided to post some drafts for Volume III, since Fidegil has as better idea of the draft structure of Volume II.

This is the first draft of the work Ambarkanta.

Our basis text is that of "The Ambarkanta" given in HoME V. Wherever the text is different from HoME V, this is marked by an editing mark.

The markings are:
Amb-xx for tracking any and all changes.

Some conventions of my writing:
Normal Text is from the basic text that is mentioned above (when I change the basic-Text it will be mentioned)
Bold Text = source information, comments and remarks
{example} = text that should be deleted
[example] = normalised text, normally only used for general changes
<source example> = additions with source information
...... = This section of the paragraph is unchanged from the source.

Amb-01 {Ambarcanta}[Ambarcanta?]

Of the Fashion of the World

Rúmil

Amb-02 About all the World are the {Ilurambar}[Eärambar], or Walls of the World. They are as ice and glass and steel, being above all imagination of the Children of Earth cold, transparent, and hard. They cannot be seen, nor can they be passed, save by the Door of Night.
Within these walls the Earth is globed: above, below, and upon all sides is Vaiya, the Enfolding Ocean. But this is more like to sea below the Earth Amb-03 <editorial addition and is called Ekkaia,> and more like to air above the Earth. In Vaiya ......flow together and are confounded.
Ilmen is that air ...... , but Ilmen is breathed by the {Gods}[Valar], and purified by the passage of the luminaries; for in Ilmen Varda Amb-04 ordained the courses of the <editorial addition newer> stars, and later of the Moon and Sun.
From Vista there is no outlet nor escape save' for the Amb-05 {servants of Manwë}[Ainur], or for such as {he gives}[is given] powers like to {those of his people}[those of the Ainur], that can sustain themselves in Ilmen or even in the upper Vaiya ..... and of the light of the luminaries of heaven.
In the regions of Ulmo ..... Mountains of Valinor it is evening.
But days are otherwise in Valinor ...... mingling of Laurelin and {Silpion}[Telperion] long ago.
The Land of Valinor slopes downward from the feet of the Mountains, and its western shore is at the level of the bottoms of the inner seas. And not far thence, as has been said, are the Walls of the World; and over against the westernmost shore in the midst of Valinor is Ando Lómen the Door of Timeless Night that pierceth the Walls and Amb-06 opens upon the Void. For the World is set amid Kúma, the Void, the Night without form or time. But none can pass the chasm and the belt of Vaiya and come to that Door, save the great Valar only. And they made that Door when {Melko}[Melkor] was overcome and put forth into the Outer Dark; and it is guarded by {Earendel}[Eärendil].
The Middle-earth lies ..... and the ice reached out into {Vaiya}[Ekkaia], and even unto the Walls of the World.
Now it is said that the Valar coming .... hallowed it, and set it in the {Western Sea}[Great Lake] and abode upon it, ..... As is told they desired to make lamps, Amb-07 {and Melko offered to devise a new substance of great strength and beauty to be their pillars.} And {he}[they] set up these great pillars north and south of the Earth's middle yet nearer to it than the chasm; and the {Gods}[Valar] placed lamps upon them and the Earth had light for a while.
Amb-08 But the pillars were made with deceit, being wrought of ice; and they melted, and the lamps fell in ruin, and their light was spilled. But the melting of the ice made two small inland seas, north and south of the middle of the Earth, and there was a northern land and a middle land and a southern land. ....... but these straits are filled with ice.
For their further protection the Valar ..... from the shores of Midd1e-earth.
And the thrusting aside of the land ..... But {Melko}[Melkor] fortified the North and built there the Northern Towers, which are also called the Iron Mountains, and they look southward. Amb-09 <LQ 1 {But the}[And other] mountains were the Hithaeglir, the Towers of Mist upon the borders of Eriador; yet they were {taller}[tall] and {more} terrible in those days, and they were reared by Melkor to hinder the riding of Oromë.> And in the middle ...... beside the waters of {Helkar}[Helcar].
But the symmetry of the ancient Earth was changed and broken in the first Battle of the {Gods}[Valar], when Valinor went out against Utumno, which was {Melko’s}[Melkor’s] stronghold, and {Melko}[Melkor] was {chained}[captured]. Then the sea of {Helkar}[Helcar] (which was the Amb-10 <editorial addition ancient place of the> northern lamp) became an inland sea or great lake, but the sea of Ringil (which was the Amb-11 <editorial addition ancient place of the> southern lamp) became a great sea flowing north-eastward and joining by straits both the Western and Eastern Seas.
And the Earth was again ...... lands and waters of old has perished.

Amb-01: This is a debatable change, but I changed k > c per Tolkien's 3rd Age Quenya rules, as this is Bilbo's translations.
Amb-02: This passage was written when the concept of "Ea" did not exist. Arda was simply globed amid the Void, and thus the Door of Night and the Walls of the World were visible from Valinor. Tolkien never successfully and completely revised his works to fit with the "Ea" conception, and so Nienna's house "looks outward from the walls of the world" and the stars follow the moon into the chasm of Ilmen, etc. However, since we are using the Flat Earth version, the Ambarkanta is an important document, much like the Valaquenta, and useful to explain the layout of the complex cosmology. We could simply update the Ilurambar >Earambar and leave it, bc as I seeit, the only lore difficulty here with the wording is the Door of Night. Where is this located? does it open onto Ea? or Kuma?
Amb-03: I know this is a risky addition, but my reasoning is that Ekkaia is only used to denote the sea, whereas Vaiya is used to denote the atmospheric sphere of air. THis can be debated, however.
Amb-04: This is an addition because in the old conception, there was no Ea, and the two starmakings of Varda were less distinct in concept.
Amb-05: In the later conception, the Valar and Maiar were bound within Ea, not Arda, and so Manwe's ability to go so high up was unique, but this is no longer the case.
Amb-06: This entire paragraph is based on the old conception of the Door of Night and the Walls of the World: what does the door open onto? In MT, Tolkien notes that Melkor was put out into the space of Ea, which the Numenoreans and even the Elves often confused with the Void about Ea. Do we accept this as an internal universe error? or update it somehow to fit the later idea?
Amb-07: This concept was a brief idea that Melkor made the lamps out of ice, but this was rejected, and we must update this.
Amb-08: The formation of the inland seas makes sense when the laps were ice, but now it seems odd. I am unsure how to change this to fit the later idea.
Amb-09: This may not be required, but since it is talking about the formation of the major mountain ranges of the world, the Hithaeglir were not in the old conception, but had they been , they would certainly have been mentioned. I therefore added the LQ description of their making.
Amb-10: This is per the change of the names of the lamps, but not the seas.
Amb-11: same as 10.