The J. R. R. Tolkien Companion and Guide: Volume 3: Reader’s Guide PART 2 - Christina Scull

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xvii), published in Parma Eldalamberon 21 (2013), pp. 66–9, edited with commentary and notes by Christopher Gilson, Patrick H. Wynne, and Arden R. Smith.

      Written on six pages, with revisions, Notes for Qenya Declensions is dated by the editors to the early 1950s. It is closely based on, and probably composed not very long after, an earlier document, *Nouns.

      The work, probably from the late 1950s, exists in two versions. The earlier is a four-page manuscript inscribed ‘Some notes on the “philosophy” of the Silmarillion’, described by *Christopher Tolkien as ‘rapidly expressed’ and without ‘a clear ending’ (Morgoth’s Ring, p. 394). The later version, greatly expanded and more carefully expressed, was left unfinished in mid-sentence after twelve manuscript pages.

      The ‘notes’ compare Sauron and Morgoth in *‘The Silmarillion’, their characters and motives, their relative power at various times, and the way they used it. ‘Morgoth had no “plan”: unless destruction and reduction to nil of a world in which he had only a share can be called a “plan”’ (p. 397). But ‘Sauron had never reached this stage of nihilistic madness. He did not object to the existence of the world, so long as he could do what he liked with it’ (p. 396). Then follows a discussion of the reasons why the Valar were reluctant ‘to come into open battle with Morgoth’, concluding that Morgoth’s power and being were disseminated throughout the world – ‘the whole of “middle-earth” was Morgoth’s Ring’ – and to try to destroy him ‘might well end in reducing Middle-earth to chaos, possibly even all Arda’; whereas ‘the final eradication of Sauron … was achievable by the destruction of the Ring’ into which his power had been concentrated (p. 400).

      In a section developed fully only in the second text, Tolkien suggests reasons for the apparent inaction of the Valar against Morgoth during the First Age, and that their eventual intervention was precisely timed. Manwë with his knowledge of the Music and ‘power of direct recourse to and communication with Eru … must have grasped with great clarity … that it was the essential mode of the process of “history” in Arda that evil should constantly arise, and that out of it new good should constantly come’ (p. 402). The second version ends soon after turning its attention to the later resistance to Sauron, but the published text continues with the first version, from the point where the two texts diverge, with a brief philosophical consideration of the future of Arda.

      Finally Tolkien turns to the question of the origin of Orcs: ‘Part of the Elf-Man idea gone wrong. Though as for Orcs, the Eldar believed Morgoth had actually “bred” them by capturing Men (and Elves) early [i.e. in the early days of their existence] and increasing to the utmost any corrupt tendencies they possessed’ (p. 406). (See also *Orcs.)

      Christopher Tolkien comments that ‘despite its incomplete state … this is the most comprehensive account that my father wrote of how, in his later years, he had come to “interpret” the nature of Evil in his mythology …’ (p. 406). See also *Good and Evil.

      In *The Lord of the Rings Appendix E Quenya óre is glossed ‘heart (inner mind)’, as used in a phrase such as ‘my heart tells me’, but ‘“heart” is not suitable, except in brevity, since óre does not correspond in sense to any of the English confused uses of “heart” ….’ The essay was to have discussed ‘what the óre was for Elvish thought and speech, and the nature of its counsels’ (p. 11) but does not proceed very far. The sheet was found between the typescript of the finished part of *The Shibboleth of Fëanor and the manuscript draft for an unwritten excursus on the names of the sons of Fëanor. It seems unconnected with that work, though probably contemporary with it, 1968 or later.

      Pages of manuscript draft material give some indications of how the essay might have continued. Among these is an interesting note, more concerned with the *Athrabeth than etymology. The writer is not identified, but seems to be a Man of a later period. After summarizing the Athrabeth it continues: ‘For (as far as we can now judge [from]) the legends (mainly of Elvish origin probably, though coming down to us through Men) it would seem clear that Men were not intended to have Elvish longevity, limited only by the life of the Earth’, but were intended to enjoy a much greater life-span before passing from the circles of the world. The Elves believed that the life-span of Men had been shortened as a result of some rebellion against Eru in the form of accepting Melkor as God, after which ‘only the wisest of Men could distinguish between [?his] evil promptings and true óre’ (p. 14).

      On Eldarin and Quenya, see *Languages, Invented.

      SYNOPSIS

      The heart of The Notion Club Papers is presented as the surviving part of a record of meetings of an *Oxford society during 1986 and 1987 (some forty years in the future when Tolkien wrote the work). Following some preliminaries, the first of its two parts (as originally conceived) begins with a brief report of a meeting in November 1986, notes the omission of ‘one or two minor entries’, and continues with an account of the meeting of 20 February 1987. Michael Ramer, one of the members of the club, has finished reading a space-travel story he has written. This leads to discussion of the credibility of the machine or other device used by writers of space stories to take characters to their destination. Another member, Rupert Dolbear, says that the problem with Ramer’s work is that it is out of keeping with its frame-machinery, and challenges Ramer to say how he got to the place described in the story.

      At the next meeting, Ramer explains that he has considered methods of space-travel both for a story and for himself, and that he has tried to train his mind to travel in his dreams. He describes various dream experiences, some inspired by stories he had written long ago, some fragmentary, such as a Green Wave towering over fields, and visions of the planets of our solar system as well as unknown worlds. When he mentions the names of his worlds, the members discuss language and the weak methods of communication common in space-travel stories. Ramer says he has more dreams about *Atlantis than about space, and mentions the Wave towering over the land, a Great Door, and the Elvish En-keladim (all aspects of Tolkien’s mythology, in which *Númenor is associated with Atlantis and his own dreams of a great wave). Ramer ends his account by describing a vision of a disorderly planet, then of an area in which the inhabitants and their buildings spread like ringworm; but as he came closer, he realized that he had been watching a speeded-up history of the Thames Valley and Oxford.

      The second part of the work records a series of meetings following directly on the first part, in which the matter of Númenor becomes of prime importance. It seems likely that Tolkien originally intended Part Two to proceed differently, since an outline for it begins: ‘Do the Atlantis story and abandon Eriol-Saga, with Loudham, Jeremy, Guildford and Ramer taking part’ (Sauron Defeated, p. 281). But there is no indication of how the ‘Eriol-Saga’ was to be introduced. Since Arundel Loudham (changed to Lowdham during the writing of the first version of Part Two) was to play an important role in the ‘Atlantis story’, Tolkien made additions to Part One to suggest Lowdham’s interest in the myth. A link is provided by a fragmentary entry reporting the end of a meeting on 13 March, when Lowdham tells Ramer and Guildford that he has been having strange experiences. As the story proceeds, it becomes clear that he is haunted subconsciously by Númenor, and is reminded of the temple Sauron built there when he sees what appears to be smoke coming from the lantern of the Radcliffe Camera.

      At the first meeting of the Club in Trinity Term 1987, on 8 May, the members discuss neologisms (the use of new words or expressions), the misuse of established words, and the way that language changes and evolves. They

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