Finding the Cottage of Lost Play

[Huinesoron]

Originally Posted by Arvegil145

Cool map! There are some other locations missing however - this category on TG (https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Cate...l_Eress%C3%ABa ) lists some more obscure ones such as Estirin (Exeter), Tol Withernon (possibly Withernsea) and Fladweth Amrod (possibly Gipsy Green near Penkridge).

I've inserted these, along with Falasse Numea (entered loosely as the Irish west coast). On the back of about an hour's research, I think the Withernsea and Gypsy Green identifications are solid.

Given that Tolkien studied at Exeter College in Oxford, it really feels like he just wanted to be able to refer to wherever he happened to be with an Elvish name.

Originally Posted by Arvegil145

I also wonder if you think the geography of Tol Eressea was changed once Tolkien decided to make it a separate island from Britain in c. 1919/1920? Because, while 5th century Ottor was changed to 10th/11th century Aelfwine, the characters and locations on Eressea remained largely unchanged until Tolkien abandoned the BoLT altogether.

I think by the time Avallone showed up, the geography of Eressea no longer existed: it was an "otherworld", not somewhere you could actually visit. I also feel like it got much smaller: "we can see the tower of Avallone from the Meneltarma" becomes less impressive when you have to add "and a landmass stretching along the entire western horizon".

But during the Aelfwine phase... I think Tolkien found himself in a dilemma. On the one hand, he repeatedly references the Eriol geography as the geography of England - in the Aelfwine II narrative text, he is a man of Mindon Gwar = Kortirion, and his book is still the Golden Book of Tavrobel, laid in the House of a Hundred Chimneys beside the Pine of Belawryn in England. On the other hand, if I'm reading CT's notes right, the names Kortirion and Tavrobel are also used of locations in Eressea.

Ultimately, I think the answer is that the Aelfwine Lost Tales were never developed enough for it to matter. Tolkien continued to use the Eriol geography for both sides of the Great Sea; if he had written further, he would probably have modified the Eressea side, but he didn't get that far.

I've deliberately not used places from the Aelfwine texts: the map doesn't show Evadrien/Coast of Iron/Lionesse, or Belerion, or Rum/Magbar. They don't fit into the Eriol geography, even though I could pinpoint them pretty well. The Lexicons and the heraldic symbols are all Eriol-period, though, so I'm happy to use them.

hS