III. THE QUENTA. This work is extant in a typescript (made by my father) for which there is no trace of any preliminary notes or drafts. That the Quenta, or at any rate the greater part of it, was written in 1930 seems to me to be certainly deducible (see the commen- tary on $10, pp. 213-4). After a quite different initial section (which is the origin of the Valaquenta) this text becomes a re- working and expansion of the 'Sketch of the Mythology'; and it quickly becomes evident that my father had S (the 'Sketch') in front of him when he wrote the Quenta (which I shall refer to as 'Q'). The latter moves towards The Silmarillion in its published form, both in structure and in language (indeed al- ready in S the first forms of many sentences can be perceived). Eriol (as in S; not AElfwine) is mentioned both in the title of Q and at the end of the work, and his coming to Kortirion, but (again as in S) there is no trace of the Cottage of Lost Play. As I have said of its absence from S (p. 48), this does not dem- onstrate that my father had rejected the conception in its en- tirety: in S he may have omitted it because his purpose was solely to recount the history of the Elder Days in condensed form, while in the title of Q it is said that the work was 'drawn from the Book of Lost Tales which Eriol of Leithien wrote'. At least then, we may think, some venue in which the Lost Tales were told to Eriol in Kortirion still existed.* The title makes it very plain that while Q was written in a finished manner, my father saw it as a compendium, a 'brief (*It is said at the end of the Quenta that Eriol 'remembered things that he had heard in fair Cortirion'. But this Book of Lost Tales was composed by Eriol (according to the title) out of a 'Golden Book' which he read in Kortirion. (Previously the Golden Book of Tavrobel was written either by Eriol (AElwine) himself, or by his son Heorrenda, or by some other person un- named long after; see II. 291.)) history' that was 'drawn from' a much longer work; and this aspect remained an important element in his conception of 'The Silmarillion' properly so called. I do not know whether this idea did indeed arise from the fact that the starting point of the second phase of the mythological narrative was a con- densed synopsis (S); but it seems likely enough, from the step by step continuity that leads from S through Q to the version that was interrupted towards its end in 1937. It seems very probable that the greater number of the exten- sions and elaborations found in Q arose in the course of its composition, and that while Q contains features, omitted in S, which go back to the earliest version, these features argue only a recollection of the Lost Tales (to be assumed in any case! - and doubtless a very clear recollection), not a close derivation from the actual text. If that had been the case, one might ex- pect to find the re-emergence of actual phrasing here and there; but that seems to be markedly lacking. The history of the typescript becomes rather complex towards the end (from $15), where my father expanded and re- typed portions of the text (though the discarded pages were not destroyed). But I see no reason to think that much time elapsed between the two versions; for near the very end ($19) the original typescript gives out, and only the second version continues to the conclusion of the Quenta, which strongly sug- gests that the revisions belong to the same time as the original text. Subsequently the whole text was revised throughout, the corrections being made carefully in ink; these changes though frequent are mostly small, and very often no more than slight alterations of expression. This 'layer' of emendation was clearly the first;* afterwards further changes were made at dif- ferent times, often very hastily and not always legibly in pen- cil. To present the text as first typed with annotation of every small stylistic improvement is obviously quite unnecessary, and (*The occurrence of Beleriand in the original typescript, first in $13, note 10, not as previously by emendation in ink from typescript Broseliand, shows that some of this 'layer' was carried out while the typescript was still in process of composition.) would in any case require the introduction into the text of a forest of reference numbers to the notes. The text given here includes, therefore, without annotation, all minor changes that in no way affect the course of the narrative or alter its impli- cations. Those emendations that are not taken up into the text but recorded in the notes are marked as 'late changes' if they are clearly distinguishable, as is not always the case, from the first 'layer' described above. I have divided the text into the same 19 divisions made in S (see p. 11); but since the opening of Q has nothing corre- sponding in S this section is not given a number. * THE QUENTA herein is QENTA NOLDORINWA OT Pennas-na-Ngoelaidh. This is the brief History of the Noldoli or Gnomes, drawn from the Book of Lost Tales which Eriol of Leithien wrote, having read the Golden Book, which the Eldar call Parma Kuluina,* in Kortirion in Tol Eressea, the Lonely Isle. After the making of the World by the Allfather, who in El- vish tongue is named Iluvatar, many of the mightiest spirits that dwelt with him came into the world to govern it, be- cause seeing it afar after it was made they were filled with delight at its beauty. These spirits the Elves named the Valar, which is the Powers, though Men have often called (*The Elvish name of the Golden Book in the early dictionary of Qenya is Parma Kuluinen (II. 310).) them Gods. Many spirits' they brought in their train, both great and small, and some of these Men have confused with the Eldar or Elves: but wrongly, for they were before the world, but Elves and Men awoke first in the world after the coming of the Valar. Yet in the making of Elves and Men and in the giving to each of their especial gifts Iluvatar alone had part; wherefore they are called the Children of the World or ...
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