Chapter II of
The Book of Lost Tales begins with what will be a feature of each chapter going forward: the "Link." This is J.R.R. Tolkien's own terminology, the full title here is
Link between Cottage of Lost Play and (Tale 2) Music of Ainur. Since the link is Eriol's story of his time on the Lonely Isle, during which he comes to learn more and more about the history of the fairies, the entirety of "The Cottage of Lost Play," though it includes a comparatively brief tale recounting the history of the cottage itself, is really more to be considered the first "link" than one of the chapters in the same sense as the others. If so, "The Cottage of Lost Play" is the link between the Real World of the readers and the entirety of the mythology.
So there would be some truth in the matter if you wanted to say that the "Music of the Ainur" is the true beginning of the original legendarium; certainly, this is the position in the later version of the tales occupied by its lineal descendent, the Ainulindalë. Actually, the relationship between "The Music of the Ainur" and "The Ainulindalë" is a fascinating one, and I will quote CT himself to show why:
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Christopher Tolkien in the Commentary on The Music of the Ainur
In later years the Creation myth was revised and rewritten over and over again; but it is notable that, in this case only and in contrast to the development of the rest of the mythology, there is a direct tradition, manuscript to manuscript, from the earliest draft to the final version; each text is directly based on the one preceding.
...
There were indeed very many changes, which can be followed stage by stage through the successive texts, and much new matter came in, but the fall of the original sentences can continually be recognized in the last version of the Ainulindalë, written more than thirty years later, and even many phrases survived.
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I'll be honest--although this fact intrigues and fascinates me, the product of the matter is that this is one of the more boring chapters in the BoLT to read and the material to discuss, at least in terms of comparison, is a bit harder to come by. But that doesn't mean there's nothing.
After all, there's the "Link." I remember when I first read
The Book of Lost Tales, I was excited to see, in the flesh and blood, the appearance of a character who had appeared only as a dusty reference in
The Silmarillion. I'm referring, of course, to Rúmil. There's nothing in the later legendarium to suggest that he joined the Exiles (though 9/10s of the Noldor did, so it's hardly implausible), that he was a thrall in Angband, or settled after the War of Wrath on the Lonely Isle. All we really know is that he was a sage on whose work Fëanor improved.
I find it interesting that Rúmil says of himself that "Know you that the Noldoli grow old astounding slow, and yet have I grey hairs in the study of all the tongues of the Valar and Eldar." The narrator had earlier said of one of Eriol's guides to bed on his first night that "One of these... was old in appearance and grey of locks, and few of that folk were so."
I bring this up because one of the notes I made in "The Cottage of Lost Play" that did not end up in my post on that chapter had to do with the aging of the Elves. That chapter said of those in the Hall of Fire: "In one thing only were all alike, that a look of great happiness lit with a merry expectation of further mirth and joy lay on every face. The soft light of candles too was upon them all; it shone on bright tresses and gleamed about dark hair,
or here or there set a pale fire in locks gone grey."
The aging of the Elves is given more play in the BoLT than it will get in the LotR, despite that fact that a major motif in both books is the slow fading and withdrawal of the Elves. In the LotR, only Círdan displays the physical signs of aging (Celeborn's silver hair, I've always assumed, is not hair
gone grey, but the hair of his youth also, as seems to be typical of his kin among the royal house of the Teleri.
(Sidebar on aging: Rúmil says the
Noldoli age slowly. I've never been inclined to read this as him saying the Gnomes differ from the other Elves in this respect... but should I reconsider that?)
Speaking of Teleri and Noldoli, CT's commentary on the "Link" gives us a handy table that I will attempt to reproduce here:
Lost Tales
... ... ...
Silmarillion
Teleri
... ... ...
Vanyar
(including Inwir)
Noldoli
... ... ...
Noldor
(Gnomes)
Solosimpi
... ... ...
Teleri
Tolkien's reuse of the name "Teleri" (the second reuse we've encountered, after "Vairë") can make the whole discussion of the different branches of the Eldar even more confusing than they start as.
My earlier question, of what language they are speaking to Eriol is answered in this chapter, as
Galin already quoted, but the timeline of how long Eriol's been on the isle remains very vague and context in which he learned Elfin has been glided over. THAT he has learned it we are told, WHERE and FROM WHOM is not.
I noticed a few terminology sorts of things that I'll list off (I have no "point" to any of them, beyond observation):
1. Rúmil's speech seems to be littered with a bit more Elfin than what is reported of the others (who are all supposed to be speaking Elfin anyway...): "when
tirípti lirilla here comes a bird, an imp of Melko" and he speaks of Mar Vanya Tyaliéva rather than the Cottage of Lost Play. It gives him a distinct character but its an inconsistent application of the translator conceit, I think.
2. "Gods" could (should?) probably join the discussion of "fairies" and "Gnomes" regarding words used in the BoLT and not much in the later works.
3. "The wastes of the time" ought to be the title of a fantasy novel. Rúmil uses the term, saying "very mighty are the things you ask, and their true answer delves beyond the uttermost confines of the wastes of time." As a noun, "waste(s)" is fairly rare--possibly because it connotes an
empty, vast expanse of land or sea. Still, the use of "wastes" to describe the expanse of time is a typically Tolkienian use of the term, one that makes me think of the connection between space and time--and its kind of weird to think about, because "space/time" is the sort of science-fiction/theoretical physics sort of concept I don't usually associate with a linguist during World War I--but, there you have it, it's still a valid connection to make anyway, because we know Tolkien was a reader of sci-fi (at least a decade later).
There are no poems at the end of this chapter and there are no obviously "what if" questions occurring to me--partly because of the close similarities between this Music of the Ainur and the last Music of the Ainur (for the is, of course, what "Ainulindalë" means) are so strong.