The role of the different "authors" of the stories of Arda?

[Galin]

I made a collection of some of the passages (not all of them) relating to the imagined transmission and authorship of the texts. It might (or might not) help with forming opinions to some of the questions posed, and it's a bit long-ish. Hopefully I've described the following well enough, although my opinions might find their way in now and again, as they can be sneaky. Anyway, if you can't sleep...


One problem here is Tolkien's changing mind. In the early 1950s JRRT still held to the idea that (very generally speaking here) Elfwine, a mortal man from our more recent past, somehow survived a passage to Eressea and learned much lore of the Elves there. His translations into Old English provided the mode of transmission of the tales to our time, through a person who could then translate Old English (Elfwine's tongue) into Modern English, for the modern reader of course.

In the writing systems of Middle-earth it is revealed (Title Page) that The Lord of the Rings has been translated by JRR Tolkien. But how did the texts get into his hands, and who wrote them? Elves? Men? In Myths Transformed we see Tolkien concerned with transmission and authorship, and he published something new for the Second Edition of The Lord of the Rings:

'But the chief importance of Findegil's copy is that it alone contains the whole of Bilbo's 'Translations from the Elvish'. These three volumes were found to be a work of great skill and learning in which, between 1403 and 1418, he had used all the sources available to him in Rivendell, both living and written.'

Here we get Findegil's copy of Bilbo's translations. With respect to the title, I interpret this to mean translations from the Elvish language, not necessarily from pure Elvish tradition, although Elvish traditions can be included of course. Tolkien also published this interesting bit in The Adventures of Tom Bombadil:

'...No. 14 also depends on the lore of Rivendell, Elvish and Númenorean, concerning the heroic days at the end of the First Age; it seems to contain echoes of the Númenorean tale of Túrin and Mim the Dwarf.'

Also, I tripped over this interesting change as well, to Quenta Silmarillion (the LQ2 text):

'Of their lives was made the Lay of Leithian, Release from Bondage, which is the longest save one of the songs of [the Noldor >] Númenor concerning the world of old;...'

Later still, in note 17 to The Shibboleth of Feanor (written in 1968 or later) it is stated that the Silmarillion is not an Eldarin title or work, but a compilation, probably made in Númenor:

'... which includes (in prose) the four great tales or lays of the heroes of the Atani, of which 'The Children of Hurin' was probably composed already in Beleriand in the First Age...' and concludes (concerning the compiled Silmarillion, and the four great tales in prose, and seemingly the account of Feanor and his making of the Silmarils). 'All however are 'Mannish works'.

Tolkien's parenthetical note above 'in prose' is interesting here with respect to the Lay of the Children of Húrin, for Dírhaval wrote in verse and his work was said to be rendered into prose -- by Elfwine according to the 'older' idea -- but a prose version is 'now' possibly made by an unknown Númenórean (Tolkien appears to refer to The Children of Húrin with his 'longest save one of the songs of Númenor' revision to Quenta Silmarillion, though in any case The Shibboleth note has a good chance of being later).

A typescript of Annals of Aman offers the Númenorean transmission as well. Rúmil still makes the Annals, but:

'Here begin the 'Annals of Aman'. Rúmil made them in the Elder Days, and they were held in memory by the Exiles. Those parts which we learned and remembered were thus set down in Númenor before the Shadow fell upon it.'

If the Annals were not to survive as texts (replaced by the Tale of Years?) we can at least see the notion concerned and how Elvish memory plays a part. The Elvish memory was apparently amazing:

'All peace and all strongholds were at last destroyed by Morgoth; but if any wonder how any lore and treasure was preserved from ruin, it may be answered: of the treasure little was preserved, and the loss of things of beauty great and small is incalculable; but the lore of the Eldar did not depend on perishable records, being stored in the vast houses of their minds. When the Eldar made records in written form, even those that to us would seem voluminous, they did only summarise, as it were, for the use of others whose lore was maybe in other fields of knowledge*, matters which were kept for ever undimmed in intricate detail in their minds.'

*Author's footnote

'And as some insurance against their own death. For books were made only in strong places at a time when death in battle was likely to befall any of the Eldar, but it was not yet believed that Morgoth could ever capture or destroy their fortresses.' JRRT Shibboleth of Feanor

Also, Gondor and Arnor can have a part to play. Jumping back to Myths Transformed (Morgoth's Ring) for a moment, Tolkien noted:

'What we have in the Silmarillion etc. are traditions... handed on by Men in Númenor and later in Middle-earth (Arnor and Gondor); but already far back -- from the first association of the Dúnedain and Elf-friends with the Eldar in Beleriand -- blended and confused with their own Mannish myths and cosmic ideas.'

Or Tolkien's small slip headed 'Memorandum':

'The three Great Tales must be Númenorean, and derived from matter preserved in Gondor...' where he is (according to Christopher Tolkien) 'presumably distinguishing between long and short forms of the Tales.'

There are more references, but so far the general picture (in my opinion) seems to be that while certain texts were still to be given noted Elvish authors, Bilbo wasn't necessarily working from purely Elvish texts in all cases, but from Mannish versions (in significant enough measure) that ultimately hailed from contact with Elvish minds. Númenor begins to loom large in the picture of transmission.

One text that seems Elvish is the Awakening of The Quendi, imagined as a 'surviving Elvish fairytale' or child's tale mingled with counting lore' which was also stated to have been 'preserved in almost identical form among both the Elves of Aman and the Sindar.'


I note that in the 'Mannish' Silmarillion (as it was to become, that is) that Men awake with the rising of the Sun, which is here the fruit of one of the Two Trees. In the Elvish fairytale however:

'It was still night and clouds were in the sky. But before dawn a wind came, and roused the Elf-men, and they woke and were amazed at the stars;...' or '... and they walked long by day and by twilight in the country about the lake...'

In short, in the Elvish tale the Sun existed before the first Elves awoke.


Also, published in Vinyar Tengwar 48, we find the Synopsis of Pengoloð's Eldarinwe Leperi are Notessi...

'The following account is an abbreviation of a curious document, preserved in the archives of Gondor by strange chance (or by many such chances) from the Elder Days, but in a copy apparently made in Númenor not long before its downfall: probably by or at the orders of Elendil himself, when selecting such records as he could hope to store for the journey to Middle-earth. This one no doubt owed its selection and its copying, first to Elendil's own love of the Eldarin tongues and of the works of the loremasters who wrote about their history; but also to the unusual contents of this disquisition in Quenya: Eldarinwe Leperi are Notessi: The Elvish Fingers and Numerals. It is attributed, by the copyist, to Pengoloð (or Quendingoldo) of Gondolin, and he describes the Elvish play-names of the fingers as used by and taught to children.'

According to author's note three, Pengoloð is an Exile, and is said to have preserved in a memory remarkable even among the Eldar the works (especially of etymology) of the earlier loremasters, including Feanor.

I don't think all the earlier information from Quendi And Eldar need be discarded concerning Pengoloð, with respect to surviving texts at least (in the earlier story he was an Elf of mixed Sindarin and Noldorin ancestry, and born in Nevrast). According to Quendi And Eldar, out of the destruction of Gondolin, Pengoloð: '.... rescued a few ancient writings, and some of his own copies, compilations, and commentaries. It is due to this, and to his prodigious memory, that much of the knowledge of the Elder Days was preserved.'

And: '... before the overthrow of Morgoth and the ruin of Beleriand, he collected much material among the survivors of the wars at Sirion's Mouth concerning languages and gesture-systems with which, owing to the isolation of Gondolin, he had not before had any direct acqaintance.'

Dírhaval was also said to have gathered tidings and lore at Sirion tidings, as in the last days of Beleriand both Men and Elves came there from various places.

Sorry about the length!