Morgoth's Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien Read Free Book Online Page A

Ainulindalë of Rúmil told to
    Ælfwine by Pengoloð

    Words of Pengoloð

    Question of Ælfwine and reply of
    Pengoloð:

    Coming of Tulkas and rout of Melkor

    Building of the Lamps. Earth illumined;
    arising of birds and beasts and flowers

    Dwelling of the Valar on the island in
    the great lake

    Secret return of Melkor; blight and
    monstrosity spread from his hidden
    dwelling in the North; he cast down the
    Lamps

    Retreat of the Valar into the West and
    foundation of Valinor

    The Valar came with war against Melkor
    but could not overcome him; Melkor
    built Utumno

    Melkor walked abroad in Middle-earth

    The Valar came seldom to Middle-earth
    save Yavanna and Oromë

    Aulë dwelt in Valinor; Manwë with
    Varda on Taniquetil; Ulmo in the Outer
    Ocean. Relations with the Noldor,
    Lindar, Teleri
    After the departure of the Valar, Ilúvatar's
    silence, and then his declaration concerning
    Elves and Men: the gift of freedom and death to
    Men; nature of the immortality of the Elves

    End of the Ainulindalë spoken
    by Rúmil to Ælfwine

    The central shift in the myth of the Creation lies of course in the fact that in the old form, when the Ainur contemplate the World and find joy In its contemplation and desire it, the World has been given Being by Ilúvatar, whereas in C it is a Vision that has not been given Being. With this may be compared my father's words in the account of his

    MORGOTH`S RING - AINULINDALË - Version C - 26

    works written for Milton Waldman in 1951 ( Letters no.131, p. 146): They [the Valar] are 'divine', that is, were originally 'outside' and existed
    'before' the making of the world. Their power and wisdom is derived from their Knowledge of the cosmogonical drama, which they perceived first as a drama (that is as in a fashion we perceive a story composed by someone else), and later as a 'reality'.

    In the Vision, moreover, in which the Ainur see the unfolding of the history of the World as yet unmade, they see the arising within it of the Children of Ilúvatar (§13); and when the Vision is made real and the Ainur descend into the World, it is their knowledge and love of the Children of Ilúvatar who are to be that directs their shape and form when they make themselves visible (§25). Several passages in letters of my father from the years 1956-8 bear closely on these conceptions (see Letters nos.181, 200, 212).
    But the nature and extent of the Ainulindalë is also greatly changed; it contains now the first battle of Melkor with the Valar for the dominion of Arda, but it does not contain the original concluding passage concerning Ilúvatar's Gift to Men, nor the accounts of Manwë, Ulmo and Aulë: these latter, together with much new material concerning the first wars in Arda, are placed in a sort of Appendix, the Words of Pengeloð to Ælfwine. This is reminiscent of the original Music of the Ainur in The Book of Lost Tales , with Ælfwine (Eriol) appearing in person as questioner.
    In the pre- Lord of the Rings texts Melko's part in the beginning of Earth's history was conceived far more simply. As late as the Ambarkanta (IV.238) the story was that

    the Valar coming into the World descended first upon Middle-earth at its centre, save Melko who descended in the furthest North. But the Valar took a portion of land and made an island and hallowed it, and set it in the Western Sea and abode upon it, while they were busied in the exploration and first ordering of the World. As is told they desired to make lamps, and Melko offered to devise a new substance of great strength and beauty to be their pillars. And he set up these great pillars north and south of the Earth's middle yet nearer to it than the chasm; and the Gods placed lamps upon them and the Earth had light for a while.

    In the Quenta Silmarillion (V.208) and the Later Annals of Valinor (V.110-11) there is no suggestion that Melko departed from the Earth after the first coming of the Valar, and indeed the cosmology described in the