The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum - View Single Post - Silmarillion

Aiwendil · 10-03-2011, 07:52 AM

The story of Numenor (and indeed, the whole history of Middle-earth as we know it after the defeat of Morgoth) was a somewhat late addition to the Legendarium, at least compared with the material in the Silmarillion proper. While the previous tales had first been formulated starting in 1917, it was not until about 1936 that Tolkien and C.S. Lewis decided that one of them would write a story about space travel and the other about time travel, leading in Lewis's case to Out of the Silent Planet and in Tolkien's case to the unfinished novel The Lost Road. The Lost Road was to be about a father and son from modern day England who through their dreams travel back in time to successively earlier episodes in history and mythology, eventually ending up in Numenor at the time of its downfall. Only a few chapters of this were written, but at about the same time Tolkien wrote a short 'straight' account of the story of Numenor (i.e. without the time travel framing device) called 'The Fall of Numenor'. Not long thereafter, he began writing The Lord of the Rings, drawing considerably on the new legend for its backstory.

In 1944, having written about 2/3 of LotR, Tolkien turned away from it for a time and began writing another story in which people from the (then) present day - in this case a fictionalized version of the Inklings - travel to Numenor (by way of Anglo-Saxon England). This was The Notion Club Papers, presented in the form of the minutes of the eponymous society. Like The Lost Road, it was never finished; also like The Lost Road, it was accompanied by a shorter straight telling of the legend, in this case called 'The Drowning of Anadune'. This text is interesting in that it appears to have been meant as a 'Mannish' story (as opposed to the Silmarillion, which was at that time meant to have been written by Elves), and it contains corruptions and misunderstandings of the 'true' story (for instance, it conflates the Elves with the Ainur).

In working on the appendices to LotR (in the early 1950s), Tolkien extended and revised the story of Numenor further, and at around the same time he wrote the 'Akallabeth', which was largely formed by combining material from 'The Fall of Numenor' and 'The Drowning of Anadune'.

Additional readings
HoMe V - 'The Fall of Numenor' and the incomplete The Lost Road.
HoMe IX - 'The Drowning of Anadune' and the incomplete The Notion Club Papers.
HoMe XII - Christopher Tolkien's discussion of the history of the 'Akallabeth'
UT - Contains some later (1960s) writings concerning Numenor: 'The Line of Elros', 'A Description of the Island of Numenor', and the incomplete but intriguing story 'Aldarion and Erendis'.

10-03-2011, 07:52 AM	#2
Aiwendil Late Istar Join Date: Mar 2001 Posts: 2,224	The story of Numenor (and indeed, the whole history of Middle-earth as we know it after the defeat of Morgoth) was a somewhat late addition to the Legendarium, at least compared with the material in the Silmarillion proper. While the previous tales had first been formulated starting in 1917, it was not until about 1936 that Tolkien and C.S. Lewis decided that one of them would write a story about space travel and the other about time travel, leading in Lewis's case to Out of the Silent Planet and in Tolkien's case to the unfinished novel The Lost Road. The Lost Road was to be about a father and son from modern day England who through their dreams travel back in time to successively earlier episodes in history and mythology, eventually ending up in Numenor at the time of its downfall. Only a few chapters of this were written, but at about the same time Tolkien wrote a short 'straight' account of the story of Numenor (i.e. without the time travel framing device) called 'The Fall of Numenor'. Not long thereafter, he began writing The Lord of the Rings, drawing considerably on the new legend for its backstory. In 1944, having written about 2/3 of LotR, Tolkien turned away from it for a time and began writing another story in which people from the (then) present day - in this case a fictionalized version of the Inklings - travel to Numenor (by way of Anglo-Saxon England). This was The Notion Club Papers, presented in the form of the minutes of the eponymous society. Like The Lost Road, it was never finished; also like The Lost Road, it was accompanied by a shorter straight telling of the legend, in this case called 'The Drowning of Anadune'. This text is interesting in that it appears to have been meant as a 'Mannish' story (as opposed to the Silmarillion, which was at that time meant to have been written by Elves), and it contains corruptions and misunderstandings of the 'true' story (for instance, it conflates the Elves with the Ainur). In working on the appendices to LotR (in the early 1950s), Tolkien extended and revised the story of Numenor further, and at around the same time he wrote the 'Akallabeth', which was largely formed by combining material from 'The Fall of Numenor' and 'The Drowning of Anadune'. Additional readings HoMe V - 'The Fall of Numenor' and the incomplete The Lost Road. HoMe IX - 'The Drowning of Anadune' and the incomplete The Notion Club Papers. HoMe XII - Christopher Tolkien's discussion of the history of the 'Akallabeth' UT - Contains some later (1960s) writings concerning Numenor: 'The Line of Elros', 'A Description of the Island of Numenor', and the incomplete but intriguing story 'Aldarion and Erendis'.