Amph The History of Middle Earth Chronologically: Disc. Of Maeglin

I always love reading your threads Rogue. I'm very excited about this!

 

Okay, another repost!




The Shaping of Arda

Valaquenta

*So, the Valaquenta can be found in The Silmarillion. It follows directly after the Ainulindale. It is the second of the two short prologues to the Silmarillion proper. Like the Ainulindale, it is about eight pages in length.

*Now, in all Russian novels worth reading, you may be aware, everyone has at least three names, used interchangably throughout the book. The same is true here.

*The Ainulindale was so called because it was about the music of the Ainur, Tolkien's angelic analogues.

*Once the Ainur descend to Ea and began working on Arda, they are known as the Valar. Thus the title of this work, the Valaquenta or history of the Valar.

*Also, last time, I sort of made Ea and Arda seem like the same things. They're not, actually. Ea is both the vision Iluvatar gives to the Ainur and also the region of space to which he sends them to work. Arda is the planet on which they work. Ea would then be, I suppose, the galaxy and Arda the Earth. Or something like that. I finally figured that out.

*Now the Valar are essentially angelic beings that mankind has 'often called gods.' Like the gods in many different religions, the Valar that work on Arda are generally given dominion over one particular region or area of creation: Ulmo is the Vala over the water, Aule is over the Earth itself, the rock and dirt, Manwe is Vala of the winds, etc.

*So, in the Ainulindale, we get a brief picture of them as angels in the court of the one great Creator. But from here on out, they will essentially be playing the part of gods themselves as we think of gods in the context of, yeah, the Norse religions, but also the Greek, the Roman, etc.

*Astonishing Prose Alert: "Este the gentle, healer of hurts and weariness, is his spouse. Grey is her raiment; and rest is her gift. She walks not by day, but sleeps upon an island in the tree-shadowed lake of Lorellin." Grey is her raiment; and rest is her gift. That's lovely.

*Astonishing Prose Alert Again:

"Mightier then Este is Nienna, sister of the Feanturi; she dwells alone. She is acquainted with grief, and mourns for every wound that Arda has suffered in the marring of Melkor. So great was her sorrow, as the Music unfolded, that her song turned to lamentation long before its end, and the sound of mourning was woven into the themes of the World before it began. But she does not weep for herself; and those who hearken to her learn pity, and endurance in hope."

*Sorrow is, I think, one of the great themes of art and one of the themes that touches me most deeply. As myself a Christian, I have found it incredibly difficult to make my feelings on sorrow understood to many others of my faith. The scripture speaks powerfully, of course, of joy and hope and victory. But central to my faith as a Christian is the concept of sorrow, of grief, of longing, of yearning, of essentially homelessness.

*To the Charismatic church, to the Prosperity Gospel preacher, to the megachurches and the teleevangelists, this isn't something to talk about or even think about. But it's always been key to my understanding of the person of Christ, the character of God and my status as a pilgrim in a land where I don't entirely belong, as a pilgrim soul, as . . . was it Yeats put it?

*I find images of sorrowing deities, then, incredibly powerful. The shortest verse in the New Testament, of course, is simply "Jesus wept," his reaction at the graveside of Lazarus.

*And in one of the great prophetic passages in Isaiah, Isaiah points toward a Messiah that Christians accept as Jesus (though the Jews, of course, do not) as being a "man of sorrows, acquainted with grief." Tolkien borrows that last phrase exactly from the KJV translation of Isaiah and applies it to Nienna here. A beautiful phrase it is.

*But the idea of a deity that weeps for our losses, that feels our sorrows and shares our griefs . . . this is a powerful, powerful, evocative idea. Though I am not Catholic, believe me when I say I understand why, in the Catholic tradition of icongraphy, when the images of Jesus and Mary are touched with divinity and the miraculous, they always weep.

*I would highly recommend you read a wonderful parable called The Book of the Dun Cow by Walter Wangerin, a story of good versus evil among the animals of the barnyard. It is absolutely epic, mythic, powerful, horrifying and ultimately bound up in the idea of sorrow. The Dun Cow and the sorrow in her eyes forever changed the way I thought of God. Read it; it's a stunning book, sadly and strangely forgotten. Not for kids though, even though it's about animals. It'll shake you up with its violence and horror.

*Also at the end of that passage, and I know I grow long winded for which I apologize, Tolkien speaks of learning endurance in hope and later, in a passage I won't quote at length, of turning sorrow to wisdom. This is key to my understanding of my faith, in which all of the joys, victories and happinesses of life can only be truly experienced and understood after one has experienced grief, sorrow and despair. This is a deeply Biblical idea; after you have suffered a while, Paul writes, God will strengthen and settle you. The prosperity preachers and the jumpers and runners of the charismatic church seem to miss all this; they try to skip the hard part and gain only the reward. Apparently, they haven't read Job. Or Jeremiah. Or Lamentations. Ecclesiastes. Galatians. The Gospels. What have they read, exactly? Well, maybe now you understand why Job is one of my favorite books of the Bible.

*I had no idea I was going to get so confessional in these reviews. Oh, well.

*Lest you think I'm some kind of down in the dumps, always sad, pity party thrower, I'll talk about Tulkas who laughs ever and is the strongest of the Valar. Not that I think anyone who really knows me would really think that. In point of fact, I think that it's because of all that great sorrow and suffering in the world that we must make it a point to find happiness, a hard won happiness, a happiness gained through suffering and understanding of sorrow, but a deep, rich, vibrant happiness that appreciates all the great pleasures of life and appreciates them fully because we have suffered a little.

*Well, this section is just a description of each of the Valar and then of the Maiar and then lastly of Melkor and his compatriots. Oddly, something in just this, just the description of Tolkien's Valar has touched something very deeply in me. Obviously, Tolkien has found something incredibly archetypal in the Valar and the way he describes them.

*Anyway, most of the Maiar don't have names. They're helpers to the Valar, not as powerful and not as important, but worth mentioning.

*Astonishing Prose Alert Yet Again: Tolkien talks about the Maia, Osse, who controlled parts of the sea and was initially swayed to Melkor's side but was convinced to come back by his wife, Uinen.

*"He was pardoned and returned to his allegiance, to which he has remained faithful. For the most part; for the delight in violence has never wholly departed from him, and at times he will rage in his wilfulness without any command from Ulmo his lord. Therefore those who dwell by the sea or go up in ships may love him, but they do not trust him."

*Perfect picture of the sea.

*Last of all Melkor.

*Astonishing Prose Alert One Last Time:

*"From splendour he fell through arrogance to contempt for all things save himself, a spirit wasteful and pitiless. Understanding he turned to subtlety in perverting to his own will all that he would use, until he became a liar without shame."

*Okay, fans of the Silmarillion, am I the only one who just has to stop now and then and read a page or two aloud? Because this just begs to be read aloud.

*Okay, yes, I occasionally use a British accent.

*That's very chilling though; a liar without shame. God forbid any of us become that.

*So, Melkor seduces some of the Maiar over to his side. A few of them get special treatment, like whips of fire. These he calls Valaraukar. You might know them as Balrogs.

*Anybody ever see that great photoshop from Something Awful where Gandy was on the bridge facing the Balrog in a long shot from the movie and they had photoshopped, and very well, a stop sign in place of his staff. I loved that.

*And one other Maia bears mentioning. He was originally a servent of Aule, and thus a hewer of rock and stone. After he was corrupted by Melkor, he became known as Gorthaur the Cruel. Also, by another name: Sauron.

*Boom! So, we're almost finished now, right? He just needs to get defeated or something?

*Okay, so now I finally get it. You remember back when the movies came out? No, you don't? Well, there were these little movie adaptations by some dude with a totally forgettable name. Jackson or something. He really needs to jazz that name up if he expects to do anything.

*And anyway, back during that time, anytime I'd be in a group talking about the movies, it seemed like someone would have actually read all the books and they'd be all like, "Well, I don't like the movies" or "I don't think they'll be good" or whatever and they'd generally say something like, "I mean, they don't even really explain that Sauron is a Maia spirit and not a human and that's totally key."

*To which I would generally respond with, "Shut the hell up," or, in a playful mood, "I don't frigging care," or, on at least four occasions, "I couldn't give two craps."

*But, anyway, glad to finally have that settled. Yes, he's a Maia. Thanks for telling me all those hundreds of times, you guys. Now, shut the hell up.

*Well, as I said above, more great prose and, even though this passage is just descriptive character sketches . . . well, Tolkien has already touched me pretty deeply and tapped something very archetypal and evocative. Good stuff.

J.R.R. Tolkien

*Thus endeth the Valaquenta. Next time, the Years of the Trees, as covered in the first eleven chapters of the Quenta Silmarillion, History of the Silmarils.

 

Always a pleasure reading your review, 1.5. Almost makes me want to bust out the Silmarillion again.

 

My thoughts exactly. Except without the "almost."

 

'Nother repost!



The Years of the Trees

Of the Beginning of Days – Of the Sun and Moon and the Hiding of Valinor

*So, clearly, this post we’ll be looking at the first eleven chapters of the Quenta Silmarillion, which is, obviously, found in The Silmarillion. The Quenta is the longest section of The Silmarillion and follows directly after the first two prologues which we’ve already talked about.

*Okay, the years of the trees. They're called that because the Valar plant two trees in Valinor, the section of Arda where they live that give light to the whole world. In the waxing and waning of their lights in rhythm with each other, they produce a cycle of light, but never a total night. This, along with another conflict with Melkor happens in chapter one, Of the Beginning of Days.

*Astonishing Prose Alert, as Iluvatar muses on the gifts he will give to his children. To the Elves, he will give eternal life, but to the Men, something else, a greater gift even than eternal life.

*"Therefore he willed that the hearts of Men should seek beyond the world and find no rest therein; but they should have a virtue to shape their life, amid the powers and chances of the world, beyond the Music of Ainur, which is as fate to all things else . . .

*It is one with this gift of freedom that the children of Men dwell only a short space in the world alive, and are not bound to it, and depart soon whither the Elves know not. For the Elves die not till the world dies, unless they are slain or waste in grief . . . But the sons of Men die indeed and leave the world; wherefore they are called the Guests, or the Strangers. Death is their fate, the gift of Iluvatar, which as Time wears on, even the Powers shall envy."

*Thus three powerful things are granted to men, all wonderfully expressed by Tolkien.

*First, that man will have a restless heart, a pilgrim soul, an outlook that stretches ever beyond this world and searches for something more. Our spirituality and our yearning, indeed a gift.

*Second, that man will be self-determining and that even Iluvatar himself will not override our wills. Our freedom of choice, our free will, indeed a gift.

*Third, that we will not always endure in these bodies on this earth but that we will pass away, to a place that the Elves cannot understand or comprehend. We will one day end, and while this may not seem a blessing, certainly it is. A rest, after all, is promised to the children of Men.

*I'm reminded of I Am That, a powerful, confounding and life changing book compiled from interviews given by Sri Maharaj (whose middle name I have skipped for fear of mangling it beyond all cultural tolerance), a shopkeeper/guru in the late seventies. It's a book I'd recommend all read, even if it eventually delves too far into a sort of Buddhist ideal of utter removal from life even in life. There's a wealth of incredible truth there.

*One section that I remember comes when he is talking about needs. The body, he says, has needs and the soul shares somewhat in those needs. The need to eat, to drink, to sleep, to eliminate waste, to die. The questioner asks, "To die is a need?" Maharaj replies, "When one has lived, to die is a need."

*So, yes, for all the grief and sorrow that flows from death in this world, still what a beautiful majesty is found in it. It is the cycle of our life, we are born, we go through seasons, we die, sometimes seemingly too soon or too late, but always we die. What a gift.

*I've made my peace with God. I don't fear death. I know it's not the end of the soul, I feel it with every fiber of my being some days. I'd encourage everyone to do the same who hasn't. When my time comes, will I perhaps struggle to live? Sure; I don't dislike life . . . I quite enjoy it. But ultimately, there's no fear there. Death isn't the end of life, just the next part of it.

*Next up, Aule, Valar of the earth itself decides that really if the Elves and Men aren't going to just hurry up and show up, he's going to create some beings himself to entertain himself. He thus molds out of the earth the Dwarves. Iluvatar is kind of piqued at this, but Aule begs Iluvatar to spare his creations. Iluvatar does so and grants them life; prior to Iluvatar giving them actual life, they were essentially just like toy robots that only moved or acted when Aule told them too.

*Yavanna gets all snippy because these dwarves are going to play havoc with all her nice trees, she just knows it. Iluvatar grants that the forests will have a protector in the person of the Ents. And yet, Aule says, they will need wood. Thus the eternal conflict between Dwarves and trees is set in motion.

*The dwarves, however, can't partake of the first fruits of Arda. They will be put in a deep slumber and not awake until the Elves arrive. So, Aule kind of doesn't get what he wanted anyway. But Iluvatar promises that he'll use the dwarves for his ends anyway.

*It should be noted that one of the Seven Fathers, the first seven dwarves to be created by Aule, is Durin who will, once he awakens be setting up shop in a little place called Khazad-Dum. Love what you've done with the place. Just love it.

*This is very reminiscent of the story of Abraham and his two sons, Isaac and Ishmael, in the Old Testament. Abraham had been promised a son by God, but when the promise was long in coming, he contrived to sleep with his wife's servant (with his wife’s consent), though God had said the child would be born of his wife. The result of Abraham's attempt to speed things along was Ishmael. When Isaac was finally born of Sarah, Abraham's wife, years later, there was obvious tension and finally Ishmael was sent away and the blessings of the firstborn fell on Isaac. Out of Ishmael, however, God promised to raise up his own people, though he could not be a part of Abraham's people. The parallels are so obvious as to not really need comment.

*Eventually, the Elves arrive, all awakening on the shores of a great lake. The Valar, partying down in Valinor, don't notice until one of them goes hunting and accidentally sees them.

*Melkor, it should be noted, was aware of them immediately and he has been slowly winnowing them out by snatching any Elves that wandered off by themselves and taking them back to be tortured and corrupted.

*Leave it to the villain to have the good intel.

*These kidnapped and corrupted Elves? They become Orcs. Gotcha.

*So, the Valar decide the time is right to finally get Melkor under control now that the Elves have arrived. They have a great war with Melkor, capture him and sentence him to three ages in prison. In a great bit of simple prose, Tolkien reminds us that all is still not well: "Sauron they did not find."

*Melkor is 'bound with a chain,' in a deliberate echoing of the judgment of Satan in Revelation where he too is bound with a chain by an angel and then tossed into the Bottomless Pit for 1000 years.

*So, then the Valar get with the Elves and try to lead them all back to Valinor to live. There follow about fifty million 'sunderings' of the Elves as various groups break off and stay in various locations for various reasons. I suppose all of this is significant, if I'd only been paying attention in LotR.

*So, there's the Vanyar, the Noldor, the Sindar, the Teleri, the Quindi, the Polka, the Playas, the Homies and the Dopeys. I hope I got all those right.

*"The sons of Finwe were Feanor, and Fingolfon and Finarfin." Oh, good, I'll be able to tell those guys apart.

*Oh, look, Galadriel, the daughter of Fingolfin! That is the Galadriel, right? By the way, since Elves don't die, how do they not run out of names?

*Well, I guess by resorting to names like Finarfin, which is probably no one’s first choice. It's a cruel world for the undying Elves.

*So, Finwe's first wife, Miriel, bears Feanor and then falls sick. She goes to Lorien and essentially spends the next billion years in a coma. But there's this great line from her as she leaves.

*Finwe says that it is very sad that Feanor will have to grow up without his mother. Miriel says, "It is indeed unhappy and I would weep, if I were not so weary." God, all the weary sorrow in the world is in that sentence.

*So, Finwe eventually marries Indis and she bears two more sons, Fingolfin and Finarfin. And the Elves, just like men, are totally into all things sibling rivalry.

*There's a great passage where Tolkien says that many felt that if Finwe hadn't remarried and had those other two children, all the horrible things Feanor eventually did wouldn't have happened. But, Tolkien says, refusing to play God or genetics, those other two sons also brought a lot of good.

*And then Melkor is released after the three ages, however long that was, and put on probation. He pretends to be reformed, but isn't really.

*Meanwhile, Feanor has created the Silmarils, three great jewels that, in some way, actually contain some of the fire of the two trees. Melkor wants them and thus begins his whisper campaign.

*Melkor manages to spread unrest among the Elves by spreading rumors about Men, that other race that is one day to come, and how the Valar are going to throw the Elves over and abandon them once the Men arrive. He also, of course, manages to set Feanor and his two half brothers against each other. Ultimately, Feanor draws his sword against his brother and is banished from Valinor. He takes his Silmarils and goes home.

*Sadly, when Feanor draws his sword, he doesn't like have a sword fight with both of his brothers at once while sliding down some stairs on a shield or anything. I mean, this is a great book, but like if he slid somewhere on a shield while sword fighting or did a backflip or the splits or something, that would make it really perfect. I wonder why Tolkien didn't think of that. Obviously, he's not such a genius after all.

*Melkor makes a pact with Ungoliant, a spirit that comes none of the Elves knows from where and takes the shape of a giant spider.

*Oh, good, because after Shelob in the movie, I immediately thought, "Well, I hope at some point there's another giant spider to give me nightmares." Like the answer to my prayer, comes Ungoliant.

*Astonishing and Nightmare Inducing Prose Alert:

*"In a ravine, she lived, and took shape as a spider of monstrous form, weaving her black webs in a cleft of the mountains. There she sucked up all light that she could find, and spun it forth again in dark nets of strangling gloom, until no light more could come to her abode; and she was famished."

*It's that "and she was famished" line that really knocks me out there. Wow!

*So, the Valar, deciding once again to be proactive about the slow 'sundering' of the Elves in Valinor, throw another big party.

*Feanor also attends the party as the Valar sort of halfway try to make peace with him.

*While everyone parties, Melkor and Ungoliant, clad in a massive cloud of Unlight, journey to Valinor, kill the two lightgiving trees and, as a slow darkness begins to spread over all of Arda, they return to Feanor's mountain fastness, slaughter Finwe, Feanor's father, and make off with the Silmarils. This whole section is incredibly well done; chilling, in fact.

*Astonishing Prose Alert Again:

*"The Light failed; but the Darkness that followed was more than loss of light. In that hour was made a Darkness that seemed not lack but a thing with being of its own: for it was indeed made by malice out of Light, and it had power to pierce the eye, and to enter heart and mind, and strangle the very will."

*I guess that whole 'not inventing electricity' thing ain't looking too sharp right about now, is it?

*This passage about the Darkness is very much a riff on the plague of Darkness in the book of Exodus. In that book, the darkness that fell over Egypt for three days and nights was called a 'darkness that could be felt.' This is a wonderful expansion on that idea by Tolkien.

*The Valar ask Feanor, before they know that the Silmarils have been stolen, if he will bring them back and allow them to use them to bring the trees back to life. Feanor thinks on it and then, still rather angry at the Valar, refuses. Then the news comes that Melkor has stolen them.

*Ungoliant tries to get the Silmarils out of Melkor, since Melkor had promised her anything she wanted to satisfy her ever growing hunger. Ultimately, Melkor refuses since the Silmarils are what he wants. There's an epic fight; Melkor nearly loses but he calls out the Balrogs and they drive Ungoliant away to another great ravine where she sets up her little creepy shop and eventually Shelob will come from her lineage.

*But a great bit where Melkor has the Silmarils clasped in one of his hands and he refuses to open it so that Ungoliant can take what is therein.

*This reminds me of a great George MacDonald book called Lilith. MacDonald was one of the great influences on C.S. Lewis (along, of course, with Tolkien himself) and I'm betting that Tolkien was familiar with MacDonald's work as well. Lilith is a great alternate universe myth with plenty of horror and poetry, much like LotR, if not nearly so long.

*Lilith also is entirely about Sorrow and its role in our lives, so it has that going for it too. It's a great, trippy, crazy book. I recommend it. MacDonald wrote a few other fantasy novels, like At the Back of the North Wind, but mainly he wrote books about Scotland, particularly the highlands. He was a minister and also authored several books of sermons.

*Both his fantasy novels and his sermons were great influences on C.S. Lewis with his novels and his non-fiction. Lewis, maybe my favorite Christian author, once said, "I have not written a single book that did not have MacDonald in it."

*But anyway, in Lilith, the villainous character of the title also has a clenched hand, a hand frozen into a fist that she cannot open, so tightly has she clung to her hatred and her bitterness. Ultimately, the only way she can be redeemed is for her hand to be severed; only then will it open and only then can she release the hatred and anger she has clung too.

*It's a tiny reference, but I just bet Tolkien was thinking of Lilith when he wrote that scene. If you ever read Lilith, the thing with the hand won't ever leave you. You'll remember it the rest of your life I think, so evocative and archetypal is it.

*Astonishing prose about Melkor: "His hands were burned black by the touch of those hallowed jewels, and black they remained ever after; nor was he ever free from the pain of the burning, and the anger of the pain. That crown he never took from his head, though its weight become a deadly weariness."

*Again, that sounds very much like Lilith in the MacDonald book, clinging with utter desperation and madness to her agony and anger.

*So Feanor leads some of the Elves in pursuit of Melkor to reclaim the Silmarils, though the Valar warn them not to go. The Elves 'sunder' yet again as some choose to stay with the Valar. Galadriel, it is mentioned, is anxious to be off in pursuit of Melkor.

*The Noldor, the Elves following Feanor, end up smashing up against the Teleri, the Elves that stayed by the water. The Teleri refuse to give up their boats to the Noldor, so there's a great, tragic battle where many on both sides are slain and ultimately the Teleri are mostly slain, I guess. The sea rises in anger and many of the Noldor die in the boats they have stolen.

*After this great betrayal, the Noldor are labelled the Dispossessed, forbidden to ever return to Valinor. Some of them 'sunder' again and go straight back and are allowed back in.

*Did anyone else read that Le Guin novel that won all those awards, The Dispossessed? God, didn't that suck? The Left Hand of Darkness was awesome (and also probably a reference to the Lilith novel) and A Wizard of Earthsea was pretty good too, but The Dispossessed was just awful.

*So, they don't have enough boats, so Feanor sails across the water back to Middle Earth with half of his force. Then, he decides to be a complete jackass and lose all my sympathy by burning the boats and leaving the other half of his company stranded on the other side.

*That company, now unable to return to Valinor for fear of the Valar and unable to cross the water, sets out across the mountains to try to reach Middle Earth the long way. Hundreds of them die, but among those that survive is our girl, Galadriel.

*This is just brutal. Fingolfin, though he and Feanor had plenty of problems before, had actually followed him when he left Valinor, stuck with him through the Kinslaying of the Teleri and didn't go back with Finarfin to beg for mercy at the announcement of their dispossession. And now, when Fingolfin has stuck with him through all that, Feanor decides to remember their previous bad blood and leave him stranded. What a complete ass. I hope he dies.

*All this time, the Sindar, a group of Elves that stayed in Middle Earth when the others went to Valinor because their leader, Thingol, fell in love with Melian, a Maia, has been happily trading with the Dwarves and having basically peace all over. Think like the best hippie commune in the world. Trees and leaves and sex and long hair and music and just sort of a real chill kind of deal.

*Then came the Orcs, after Melkor's theft of the Silmarils. The Sindar are basically cut off, after a great war in which many of them die, but also a huge number of Orcs die. Melian is able to put up a hedge of protection kind of deal, but they're essentially all alone with no real idea of what's been going on. Also, it's gotten real dark for some reason and they don't know why.

*Back in Valinor the Valar are able to coax out of the dead trees, one last fruit and one last leaf. These become, respectively, the sun and the moon. They are sent into the sky and day and night in their seasons begin.

*The Valar, taking their roles as protectors of the Children of Iluvatar seriously, decide to basically wall themselves up in Valinor so no one can ever get back in and they won’t have to ever deal with any Elves or Men ever again. Great; isolationism. That always works.

*And now, sun and moon in the sky, the Valar retreated behind their walls, the Noldor returned to Middle Earth in two groups, one under Feanor searching for the Silmarils, the other under Fingolfin seeking for survival and the Sindar living in retreat and isolation behind their magic fence, the Years of the Trees are over.

*I love happy endings.

*Seriously? This was great. Feanor's fall was well done, Melkor and Ungoliant were great, creepy, horrifying villains and the moment when you realize that Melkor has the Silmarils is a great bit. The tragedy of the Kinslaying feels very painful and tragic. And I was literally outraged at Feanor when he burned the boats.

*This story could have been expanded but really, I don't think it needed to be. It is, indeed, a great story all by itself. I really can't wait to see what happens next. I love me a good downbeat ending and this is pretty well it; the fall of the Elves. It's a great little sixty page novella all by itself.

J.R.R. Tolkien

*And now the Years of the Sun; now begins The First Age of Middle Earth. Next time, we'll start moving into that age by talking about chapters 12 and 13 of the Quenta Silmarillion and get a quick glimpse of the first three hundred years of the First Age or so.

 

I was always intrigued by the white swan ships of the Teleri. I never found any pictures of them that I liked, so about 20 years ago I drew my own. I'm no artist, although I'm not a bad draftsman, so it's not a great pic, but I was satisfied with the representation of the image in my head. Anyway, this is what I came up with.

 

The Years of the Sun

The First Age

FA 1 – 260

*Okay, so I decided to sort of rethink how I would be doing my posts. I decided to split things up via the dates noted on the timline I'm using. So, rather than taking the next eight chapters of the Silmarillion at a leap, as I was originally planning, I'll be going a little slower and, hopefully, keeping things in a very strict time frame for us all. I know this will help me keep things straight and also be able to talk about things in more depth.

*So, to start the Years of the Sun is to enter the periods of timekeeping. We are now beginning the First Age; The Lord of the Rings, as I’m sure we all know, takes place toward the end of the Third Age. The First Age covers around six hundred years of Middle Earth History, so let's leap into it.

*This post will cover the first 260 years of the First Age in a leap. Then in my next post we'll go back and take a look at some of those events in more detail.

*So, Chapters 12 & 13 of the Quenta Silmarillion.

*Okay, so the Years of the Sun obviously refer to the time when the sun is in the sky. This would be the 600 years of the First Age, the 3500 of the Second Age, the 3000 of the Third Age, the unnumbered years of the Fourth Age and the Modern Age, which is of course the span of recorded human history.

*We are told at the beginning of chapter 12, Of Men, that the Years of the Sun are briefer than the Years of the Trees, the time when the Elves lived in Valinor and Middle Earth was lit by the two trees in Valinor.

*So, jeez, recorded human history seems to go back a long time. And then add at least 8000 years to that. That's the Years of the Sun. And the Years of the Trees were far, far longer than that. Wow.

*So, Of Men basically alerts us that Men have awakened in Middle Earth. They will become an increasingly important part of the story as we move forward. No sign of women yet, so all is still peaceful. *rimshot*

*Here's a great representative passage, talking about the names of Men: "The Atani they were named by the Eldar, the Second People; but they called them also Hildor, the Followers, and many other names: Apanonar, the After-born, Engwar, the Sickly, and Firimar, the Mortals; and they named them also the Usurpers, the Strangers, and the Inscrutable, the Self-cursed, the Heavy-handed, the Night-fearers, the Children of the Sun."
*That's right, seventeen different names. You'll excuse me if I just call them *ahem* Men.

*The end of this chapter namechecks Beren and Luthien, story still to come, and also tells of someone named Elrond, soon to be born.

*Chapter 13, Of the Return of the Noldor, catches up with our two Noldor groups, the one led by Feanor in his quest to regain the Silmarils and the other by Fingolfin, still a little pissy about that whole 'burning the boats leaving to die on the icefloes' thing Feanor pulled.

*So, no sooner does Feanor arrive than Morgoth, having spotted the burning ships from afar (yeah, great job with the stealth, Feanor) sends his Orcs to drive Feanor and his group of Noldor into the sea.

*This is the first great battle of Middle Earth; Dagor-nuin-Giliath, the Battle-under-Stars. It lasts ten days and sees the Orcs roundly trounced. They call for reinforcements from the Balrogs, but are still forced to retreat.

*Feanor, however, is slain by Gothmog, king of the Balrogs.

*Astonishing Prose Alert: "Then he died; but he had neither burial nor tomb, for so fiery was his spirit that as it sped away his body fell to ash, and was borne away like smoke."
*Thus, fare thee well, Feanor, you great honking ass. Thinks for ruining everything. EVERYTHING.

*Maedrhos, eldest son of Feanor, is captured by Morgoth and is not exactly treated adhering to the Geneva Convention:

*"Therefore Morgoth took Maedhros and hung him from the face of a precipice upon Thangorodrim, and he was caught to the rock by the wrist of his right hand in a band of steel."

*Fingolfin's group of the Noldor show up, but they "have little love in their hearts" for Feanor's sons. Feanor may be dead, but still the tension mounts.

*Fingor, son of Fingolfin, decides this breach needs to be healed; facing Morgoth, the Noldor must be united or destroyed.

*So, there's a great scene where he goes and rescues Maedhros from his captivity.

*Also, Manwe the Vala has sent the Eagles to watch over Morgoth because he still has some pity for the Elves. Thorondor, king of the Eagles, assists Fingor in his rescue of Maedhros, bearing him up a sheer cliff to where Maedhros hangs. Maedhros begs Fingor to simply slay him, but Fingor frees him by severing his right hand. And thus the breach between the two groups of the Noldor is (mostly) healed.

*So, anyway, after the Battle Under Stars and Fingor's rescue of Maedhros, things click on nicely for a few years. There's some tension because Thingol of the Sindar (remember, the elves who stayed in Middle Earth so Thingol could marry Melian?) is not too thrilled with all these Elves who previously left suddenly returning and taking his land.

*Wait a sec . . . who the hell is Finrod?

*Okay, wait, Turgon is also a son of Fingolfin, like Fingor, right? But Finrod is a son of Finarfin. And now Finarfin went back to Valinor after the Kinslaying, but Fingolfin went across the ice. Ah, wait, Finrod stayed with Fingolfin instead of going back with his father, Finarfin.

*Also, I'm probably going to shoot myself or something.

*So, fifty years pass with not much aside from all the Elves settling down under all these different kings which I'm not even going to get into.

*After fifty years, Turgon and Finrod, who will become two extremely significant characters as we press on through the First Age, go off on a camping trip together.

*Well, no, they don't call it a camping trip, but that's what it is.

*While on this journey, Ulmo, the Vala of the water, lays in each of their hearts a message while they sleep. They each awake with the strange feeling that they should retreat from the larger society and prepare a haven of sorts as a fallback against Morgoth's next attacks.

*So, Finrod pretty quickly goes to a place in the mountains, forms an allegiance with the Dwarves that are there, and starts digging caves and tunnels and storing up weapons. He becomes known there as Finrod Felagund, Finrod Hewer-of-Caves. This is Nargothrond, a locale of incredible importance as we move forward.

*Galadriel shows up again, so I should remind you that she is Finrod's sister. She doesn't go with him to play in the dirt; she moves in with Thingol and Melian in Doriath behind the magic fence Melian has put up.

*Turgon, meanwhile, heads another direction and finds a secret vale in the Encircling Mountains and decides to set up a secret city there, a city that will be known as Gondolin, also of incredible importance.

*Now some stuff here isn't important, but remember Turgon, in the mountains building Gondolin, and Finrod with the dwarves, hewing Nargothrond.

*Now comes the second great battle of Middle Earth, Dagor Aglareb, Glorious Battle, so called because the Elves whip up on Morgoth pretty good, pursuing the Orcs and killing every last one of them even in sight of Angbad, Morgoth's stronghold.

*After Glorious Battle, there's the four hundred year Siege of Angband, during which time the Elves strengthen each other and their alliances and keep close watch on Morgoth's stronghold.

*A hundred years after the Glorious Battle, there's a small skirmish with Fingolfin and some Orcs, but it's too small to be numbered among the Great Battles and thus has no name.

*Then, after another hundred years, the first dragon shows up. Glaurung is his name and he ventures out of Angband, but is repulsed by Fingon and a host of archers. After this, two hundred years of quiet. Glaurung will be important later.

*I'm still just really enjoying this. I'd love to see an epic series of movies made out of this stuff. All these great sweeping battles and stuff. Particularly great would be a movie about Feanor. From his fall in Valinor to his death on the field of battle, he's a great character, sketched extremely well, arrogant, wrathful, obsessive, angry.

*Actually, a great film could be made that would stretch through the rescue of Maedhros by Fingon. That would be a great endpoint since it would essentially close with the Noldor that have left Valinor back together as one, admittedly still somewhat fractious, group, all old wrongs (in the main) forgiven.

*A movie from the awakening of the Elves to the mending of the Noldor in Middle Earth. That would be doable. In four hours or so. From their exodus from Middle Earth to their return to it! Come on, let's do it. Anybody got a camera? I get to play Finrod though.

*swings sword wildly* *dons blonde wig*

*Or, how about a movie that starts with the Creation and goes up through the first battles with Melkor and then ends when the Valar find the Elves and bring them back to Valinor. Followed by the second, which goes from the Elves' arrival in Valinor to their mending in Middle Earth.

*And then the third one starts with Finrod and Turgon getting their little visions as a nice foreboding opening and then moves on through the Second Great Battle, Fingolfin's skirmish and Glaurung's battle. It could end with . . . well, I'll tell you how the third movie ends when I get to it in my next post.

*I hope someone with a lot of money is reading this. I'm telling you, we'll make billions!

*That was a great section to read. Lots of action and history very quickly, but I loved it.

J.R.R. Tolkien

*Next time, chapters 14 & 15 of the Quenta Silmarillion!

 

The first eagle rescue. I kept a count of them during my read of the Silmarillion but I have forgotten. They like coming in just at the last moment.

It becomes easier to remember them once they start dropping like flies.

I would like a TV-series myself. The first season would begin when the elves are already on Valinor and Feanor makes the Silmarils in the first episode. Ainulindale, the shaping of Arda and the journey of the Elves would be interesting but more as a special movie (Ainulindale as a ten-minute animated musical segment straight from Fantasia).

 

Of Beleriend & its Realms - Of the Noldor in Beleriend



FA 52 – 70

*Okay, so first of all, I’ve been revamping my movie timeline and I think you’ll like it, though I admit all the titles kind of suck. Here, for your pleasure, are the first two movies in the series; I’ll unveil the rest as we go.

*MOVIE #1: The Silmarillion: The Father of All – from the Creation of Ea to the Long Journey of the Elves to Valinor

*MOVIE #2: The Silmarillion: The Making of the Jewels – from Feanor’s creation of the Silmarils to Fingon’s rescue of Maedhros from Morgoth’s tower

*Okay, so the next two chapters of the Silmarillion; that would be chapters 14 & 15. According to the timeline I'm using these two chapters take place during a span of years from FA 52 - FA 70. This would place them during that time of peace after the Mending of the Noldor and after Turgon and Finrod have their visions, but before the Second Great Battle.

*Also, the Mending of the Noldor? I've copyrighted that.

*Chapter 14, Of Beleriand and Its Realms is . . . well . . . if you're a surveyor or something you might enjoy this chapter.

*Three pages into this chapter, we get our first map. With determination in my eyes, I skip right over it.

*Not-Quite-Astonishing Prose Alert:

*"Upon the left hand of Sirion lay East Beleriand, at its widest a hundred leagues from Sirion to Gelion and Ossiriand; and first, between Sirion and Mindeb, lay the empty land of Dimbar under the peaks of the Crissaegrim, abode of eagles. Between Mindeb and the upper waters of Esgalduin lay the no-land of Nan Dungortheb; and that region was filled with fear, for upon its one side the power of Melian fenced the north march of Doriath, but upon the other side the sheer precipices of Ered Gorgoroth, Mountains of Terror, fell down from high Dorthonion."

*Gee, you don't say?

*"Gelion was a great river; and he rose in two sources and had at first two branches; Little Gelion that came from the Hill of Himring, and Greater Gelion that came from Mount Rerir. From the meeting of his arms he flowed south for forty leagues before he found his tributaries; and before he found the sea he was twice as long as Sioron, though less wide and full, for more rain fell in Hithlum and Dorthonian, whence Sirion drew his waters, than in the east. From Ered Luin flowed the six tributaries of Gelion: Ascar (that was after named Rathloriel), Thalos, Legolin, Brilthor, Duilwen, and Adurant, swift and turbulent streams, falling steeply from the mountains; and between Ascar in the north and Adurant in the south, and between Gelion and Ered Luin, lay the far green country of Ossiriand, the Land of Seven Rivers."

*Whatever you do, don't forget: more rainfall in Hithlum than in the east. This will be of great significance later when Frodo is deciding whether or not to take his poncho with him on his journey to Mount Doom.

*Yeah, this chapter is only nine pages. And I have read worse. And it is a part of the format Tolkien's using. The Mabinogion had one section that was seventy pages of just descriptions of people's clothes and weapons. But still, yeah, this is not scintillating or anything. Even when you know what Tolkien is doing, it’s still not fun.

*Chapter 15, Of the Noldor in Beleriand, is better. After Turgon finishes Gondolin, Ulmo visits him one more time and tells him that Gondolin will be the last stronghold of the Noldor to fall, but, due to Mandos' curse on the Noldor for their arrogance in leaving Valinor, it will eventually fall. A visitor will come to warn of great peril and from that visitor, Ulmo says, hope will once again rise for the Noldor. Turgon makes a sword and a suit of armor at Ulmo's directions for this visitor and lays it in store.

*Turgon takes his people from Nevrast where they had been living and removes them to Gondolin. For 350 years, they'll be hidden in Gondolin; they will not venture forth until, well . . . until.

*So, while Galadriel is staying with Thingol and Melian, Melian pesters her about why the Noldor left Valinor until finally Galadrial spills the beans, the Silmarils, the Kinslaying, the Burning of the Boats, the Curse of Mandos, the whole frigging ugly ordeal.

*Thingol is a little upset that no one's thought to tell him all this. There's a slight break between the Noldor and the Sindar as Thingol is understandably piqued that the Noldor killed all those innocent Teleri over on the other shore. Thingol reads Finrod the riot act and sends him back to his caves.

*Galadriel, to close chapter fifteen, asks Finrod why he hasn't taken a wife and in flash of prophetic insight, Finrod says that he knows that he will one day have to swear and fulfill a dreadful oath and thus he can take no wife.

*Finrod's girlfriend isn't too happy about that. She's currently shacked up with a dwarf somewhere I think. Frankly, I think the whole “dreadful oath” thing was just an excuse. I mean, that’s where I’m coming from.

*So, it would require some juggling of the timeline for the third movie in my proposed series to end like I think it should, but I think it would be good. In the actual history, Thingol finds out about the Kinslaying before the Second Great Battle, the Fingolfin skirmish and Glaurung's appearance.

*But I think the third film should start with Finrod and Turgon getting their visions, progress with their building efforts, the exodus of Turgon's people, the Second Great Battle, the Fingolfin skirmish, the Glaurung battle and then end on a great big downer with Thingol discovering from Galadriel about the Kinslaying and his half-hearted break with the Noldor.

*Thus where the second movie ended with the Mending of the Noldor and the third would start with the joining of the Noldor and Sindar, the third one would end with the Sundering of the Noldor and Sindar. A nice downbeat ending, no?

*So, here’s MOVIE #3: The Silmarillion: The Two Visions – from Ulmo’s prophecies to Finrod and Turgon to Thingol’s break with the Noldor

*So, aside from a lot of information about blades of grass and stuff in chapter fourteen, chapter fifteen basically informs us that Galadriel has a big mouth. I mean, that thing is huge.

J.R.R. Tolkien

*Next time, Chapter XVI, Of Maeglin, and a great little story for the fourth movie. Or the first half of the fourth movie. Or maybe the second half, if I want to really juggle things around. We'll talk later about that.

 

While I would love to see The Silmarillion on the big screen, I can't imagine it would be a commercial success. Realistically, it would have a much better chance if PJ (or whoever) just told certain stories out of the book. I'd start with Beren and Luthien; their tale has all the elements needed for a commercial success, it can stand on its own, and it could open the door for prequels and sequels.

 

Of Maeglin



FA 304 – 340

*Okay, so Of Maeglin is chapter 16 of the Quenta Silmarillion, obviously found in The Silmarillion, It has a nice little story that would make a good plot, sub-plot or, in the case of the series being turned into a wacky comedy, running gag in my fourth movie.

*This story takes place from FA 304 – 340. It thus begins nearly a hundred years after Glaurung's defeat. We would be about halfway through the Long Peace at this time, if I have my dates correct.

*So, Turgon's sister, Aredhel Ar-Feiniel, the White Lady, decides she's tired of hanging out in Gondolin, so she asks him if she can leave and he says he'd rather she didn't, but if she really must, why doesn't she go see Fingon, her other brother. And then she says, seriously, that she ain't his servant, so bye and she'll go wherever she wants.

*If Turgon disappeared into Gondolin about FA 60 or 70, then Aredhel's probably been hanging out there for almost 250 years. So, I guess, yeah, you'd get a little stir crazy.

*"Turn now south and not north, for I will not ride to Hithlum."

*I guess she's been hearing the weather reports too. Rain. Hithlum. Rain. Hear Hithlum, think rain. Lots of rain in Hithlum. Cats and dogs. Buckets and buckets. Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall. I mean, cloudburst. Maybe even a little Purple Rain. We're talkin' downpour. I mean, drenching, soaking rain. I mean, like Seattle except even worse. Can't even sing in that Hithlum rain. I say Hithlum, you say Rain. Hell, no, she ain't ridin' to no Hithlum. You think she gonna ride out in the rain or sumthin? Hell, no.

*I say Hithlum, you say . . .

*Oh, that was pathetic. I'll test you again later.

*It's almost obscene how much fun I just had with that. I hope you think it's funny because I'm cracking up right now.

*So, anyway, she and her escorts run into some 'shadows' and get seperated. Her escorts return to Gondolin and tell Turgon she's dead, because, you know, she was in the shadows and they totally couldn't see her there.

*So, she stumbles into the woods where a Dark Elf named Eol lives. He's one of the Elves who stayed in Middle Earth and didn't go to Valinor. He's long ago gone native with the Dwarves; after Melian put up her magic fence, he left Thingol's realm and has since lived with the Dwarves, learning metal work.

*So, Aredhel shows up lost at his doorstep and the two end up getting married. They have a son that Eol names Maeglin and Aredhel is actually pretty happy for a while.

*Eventually, Aredhel decides she'd like to go back to Gondolin and Maeglin decides he'd like to go too, since Turgon's wife died during the long Ice Crossing after the Burning of the Boats and so Turgon has no heir. Maeglin, of course, thinks he might get a little kingship for himself, being Turgon's nephew.

*So, because Eol is actually pretty possessive and won't let his wife or son leave the woods, they wait until Eol has gone to a party with the Dwarves and then they run off.

*Unlike every Lifetime movie you've ever seen, Aredhel doesn't fake her own death in order to throw Eol off the scent.

*Eol gets back early though and follows them. He's stealthy enough that they actually lead him to the secret pass that leads to Gondolin.

*Eol has never really liked the Noldor, since that whole 'leaving to go to Valinor' thing and now when Turgon tells him that they'll all have to stay in Gondolin because the law states that once you've found your way there, you can't leave, Eol gets really mad, since he loves the wood and the night.

*Turgon tells Eol that he can either live in Gondolin or die there.

*Eol says that he choose the latter for himself and his son. He draws a poisoned javelin from his cloak and flings it at Maeglin, but Arendhel leaps in front of it and is killed. Turgon has Eol executed by being flung off a precipice.

*That whole javelin scene reminded me of Saul and Jonathan in the Bible. In that instance, Saul, the king, believed that his son Jonathan was covering for David, who Saul was trying to have killed. He was, in fact, right about that, as I'm sure everyone has heard of the great friendship of David and Jonathan.

*Anyway, the great climax of the Saul/Jonathan tension comes when Saul finally accuses Jonathan of hiding David from him and, finally snapping, throws a spear at him during a banquet. A father launching a spear at his own son; a powerful, chilling image, used to great effect both in the Bible and here.

*There's hardly a better epic in early literature than the story of Saul, David and Jonathan. Saul is a completely modern character; reading the story today, it's like a textbook case of mental illness, paranoia and schizophrenia. Go read, if you haven't, I & II Samuel. Astonishing. Every character is perfectly sketched and perfectly human.

*King James Version of I & II Samuel, it should, but sadly does not, go without saying.

*All seems well for Maeglin (except that, well, he just saw both of his parents violently murdered) as Turgon takes him in as his son.

*Problem: Turgon has a daughter named Idril and Maeglin falls crazy in love with her.

*All right! Kissing cousins! Incest! Finally! Now we're gettin' somewhere!

*Anyway, marriage between cousins is forbidden in Gondolin and anyway, Idril knows he's in love with her and thinks it's kind of creepy.

*Astonishing Prose Alert:

*"For from his first days in Gondolin he had borne a grief, ever worsening, that robbed him of all joy: he loved the beauty of Idril and desired her, without hope. The Eldar wedded not with kin so near, nor ever before had any desired to do so. And however that might be, Idril loved Maeglin not at all; and knowing his thought of her she loved him the less. For it seemed to her a thing strange and crooked in him, as indeed the Eldar ever since have deemed it: an evil fruit of the Kinslaying, whereby the shadow of the curse of Mandos fell upon the last hope of the Noldor. But as the years passed still Maeglin watched Idril, and waited, and his love turned to darkness in his heart . . . Thus it was in Gondolin; and amid all the bliss of that realm, while its glory lasted, a dark seed of evil was sown."

*I've never been in love with a cousin, but I was in love with a married woman once, which more or less paralleled the above. It's astounding how simply and yet truly Tolkien states it there: "he . . . desired her, without hope." That's about the most hellish state you can be in, I'll tell you.

*And the longer it goes on, the worse it becomes. It does become darkness and ultimately it does feel strange and crooked, even to yourself. I'll tell you, I've been through some rough stuff, but I never want to be there again. It's . . . all pain.

*For more on loving someone you shouldn't against your will, definitely read Maugham's Of Human Bondage, which I think really expresses it as truthfully as it has ever been expressed in literature.

*And listen to Time Out of Mind by Bob Dylan, an album of unrequited love sickness and utter despair. I think it's my favorite album of all time. It captures it exactly.

*And you might, too, pray it never happens to you.

*And thus, with that dark pronouncement of the seed of evil sown in Gondolin, Chapter 16 comes to a close.

J.R.R. Tolkien

*Next time, Chapter 17 and the arrival of Men in Beleriand. This can't be good.

 

I'm on my way to Hithlum. My sunscreen is SPF 200; will that be strong enough?

 

Umm...I think you missed the point.
It rains rainy rain in rainy hit houm, home of the rain...