Silmarillion - Chapter 10 - Of the Sindar - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

Aiwendil · 03-30-2007, 10:44 AM

Having witnessed the high drama and tragedy of the Darkening of the Valinor and the Flight of the Noldor, we now step back and get caught up on events in Middle-earth. The characters and settings we’re introduced to in this chapter at first seem rather disconnected from the drama that has unfolded in Aman, but the implicit promise here is that two threads – Noldorin and Sindarin – will soon be wound together.

Already in this chapter we get a glimpse of the contrast between Sindarin and Noldorin culture. The description of Menegroth given here should be compared with the description of Tirion in chapter 5. It is interesting that the Noldor build up – they put their city on a hill and built a city with a high tower – while the Sindar build down, making their city under the earth.

Here we also meet the Dwarves for the first time (apart from the account of their making in chapter 2). The Dwarves seem occupy an ambiguous place morally; they are nominally allies of the Sindar but we are told that they are ‘warlike’ and will at times ‘fight fiercely’ with the Eldar or the Avari, or even among themselves.

This chapter does not derive from the ‘Quenta Silmarillion’ as Tolkien wrote it (even the latest texts of which move immediately on to “Of the Sun and Moon”) but rather from the ‘Grey Annals’. We have already seen passages in the published Silmarillion that came from the ‘Annals of Aman’. While the earliest versions (pre-LotR) of these annalistic texts were mere chronologies, they became greatly expanded in their revisions so that the post-LotR versions are narratives in their own right, in some places giving the stories fuller treatment that the QS. Christopher Tolkien’s merging of the two traditions in the published Silmarillion does have some precedent in his father’s writings; Tolkien sometimes used text from the Annals as the basis for revisions to the Quenta Silmarillion; he seems to have eventually given up the idea that the two texts represented different literary traditions in Middle-earth.

Additional readings
HoMe IV, V – these trace the development of the idea of an Elvish culture in Beleriand prior to the return of the Noldor.
HoMe XI – Contains the ‘Grey Annals’
HoMe XII – Scattered among the writings here are late thoughts on the Sindar and the Dwarves.

03-30-2007, 10:44 AM	#1
Aiwendil Late Istar Join Date: Mar 2001 Posts: 2,224	Silmarillion - Chapter 10 - Of the Sindar Having witnessed the high drama and tragedy of the Darkening of the Valinor and the Flight of the Noldor, we now step back and get caught up on events in Middle-earth. The characters and settings we’re introduced to in this chapter at first seem rather disconnected from the drama that has unfolded in Aman, but the implicit promise here is that two threads – Noldorin and Sindarin – will soon be wound together. Already in this chapter we get a glimpse of the contrast between Sindarin and Noldorin culture. The description of Menegroth given here should be compared with the description of Tirion in chapter 5. It is interesting that the Noldor build up – they put their city on a hill and built a city with a high tower – while the Sindar build down, making their city under the earth. Here we also meet the Dwarves for the first time (apart from the account of their making in chapter 2). The Dwarves seem occupy an ambiguous place morally; they are nominally allies of the Sindar but we are told that they are ‘warlike’ and will at times ‘fight fiercely’ with the Eldar or the Avari, or even among themselves. This chapter does not derive from the ‘Quenta Silmarillion’ as Tolkien wrote it (even the latest texts of which move immediately on to “Of the Sun and Moon”) but rather from the ‘Grey Annals’. We have already seen passages in the published Silmarillion that came from the ‘Annals of Aman’. While the earliest versions (pre-LotR) of these annalistic texts were mere chronologies, they became greatly expanded in their revisions so that the post-LotR versions are narratives in their own right, in some places giving the stories fuller treatment that the QS. Christopher Tolkien’s merging of the two traditions in the published Silmarillion does have some precedent in his father’s writings; Tolkien sometimes used text from the Annals as the basis for revisions to the Quenta Silmarillion; he seems to have eventually given up the idea that the two texts represented different literary traditions in Middle-earth. Additional readings HoMe IV, V – these trace the development of the idea of an Elvish culture in Beleriand prior to the return of the Noldor. HoMe XI – Contains the ‘Grey Annals’ HoMe XII – Scattered among the writings here are late thoughts on the Sindar and the Dwarves.