The Book Of Lost Tales: Part I Part 10

Then Palrien Yavanna fared forth from her fruitful gardens to survey the wide lands of her domain, and wandered the dark continents sowing seed and brooding upon hill and dale. Alone in that agelong gloaming she sang songs of the utmost enchantment, and of such deep magic were they that they floated about the rocky places and their echoes lingered for years of time in hill and empty plain, and all the good magics of all later days are whispers of the memories of her echoing song.

Then things began to grow there, fungus and strange growths heaved in damp places and lichens and mosses crept stealthily across the rocks and ate their faces, and they crumbled and made dust, and the creeping plants died in the dust, and there was mould, and ferns and warted plants grew in it silently, and strange creatures thrust their heads from crannies and crept over the stones. But Yavanna wept, for this was not the fair vigour that she had thought of-and thereupon Orom came to her leaping in the dusk, but Tuivna would not leave the radiance of Kulullin nor Nessa the green swards of her dancing.

Then Orom and Palrien put forth all their might, and Orom blew great blasts upon his horn as though he would awake the grey rocks to life and l.u.s.tihead. Behold, at these blasts the great forest reared and moaned about the hills, and all the trees of dark leaf came to being, and the world was s.h.a.ggy with a growth of pines and odorous with resinous trees, and firs and cedars hung their blue and olive draperies about the slopes, and yews began the centuries of their growth. Now was Orom less gloomy and Palrien was comforted, seeing the beauty of the first stars of Varda gleaming in the pale heavens through the shadows of the first trees' boughs, and hearing the murmur of the dusky forests and the creaking of the branches when Manw stirred the airs.

At that time did many strange spirits fare into the world, for there were pleasant places dark and quiet for them to dwell in. Some came from Mandos, aged spirits that journeyed from Ilvatar with him who are older than the world and very gloomy and secret, and some from the fortresses of the North where Melko then dwelt in the deep dungeons of Utumna. Full of evil and unwholesome were they; luring and restlessness and horror they brought, turning the dark into an ill and fearful thing, which it was not before. But some few danced thither with gentle feet exuding evening scents, and these came from the gardens of Lrien.

Still is the world full of these in the days of light, lingering alone in shadowy hearts of primeval forests, calling secret things across a starry waste, and haunting caverns in the hills that few have found:-but the pinewoods are yet too full of these old unelfin and inhuman spirits for the quietude of Eldar or of Men.

When this great deed was done then Palrien would fain rest from her long labours and return to taste the sweet fruits of Valinor, and be refreshed beneath the tree of Laurelin whose dew is light, and Orom was for beechwoods on the plains of the great G.o.ds; but Melko who long time had delved in fear because of the wrath of the Valar at his treacherous dealing with their lamps burst forth now into a great violence, for he had thought the world abandoned by the G.o.ds to him and his. Beneath the very floors of Oss he caused the Earth to quake and split and his lower fires to mingle with the sea. Vaporous storms and a great roaring of uncontrolled sea-motions burst upon the world, and the forests groaned and snapped. The sea leapt upon the land and tore it, and wide regions sank beneath its rage or were hewn into scattered islets, and the coast was dug into caverns. The mountains rocked and their hearts melted, and stone poured like liquid fire down their ashen sides and flowed even to the sea, and the noise of the great battles of the fiery beaches came roaring even through the Mountains of Valinor and drowned the singing of the G.o.ds. Then rose Kemi Palrien, even Yavanna that giveth fruits, and Aul who loveth all her works and the substances of the earth, and they climbed to the halls of Manw and spake to him, saying that all that goodliness was going utterly to wreck for the fiery evil of Melko's untempered heart, and Yavanna pleaded that all her agelong labour in the twilight be not drowned and buried. Thither, as they spake, came Oss raging like a tide among the cliffs, for he was wroth at the upheaval of his realm and feared the displeasure of Ulmo his overlord. Then arose Manw Slimo, Lord of G.o.ds and Elves, and Varda Tinwetri was beside him, and he spake in a voice of thunder from Taniquetil, and the G.o.ds in Valmar heard it, and Vefntur knew the voice in Mandos, and Lrien was aroused in Murmuran.

Then was a great council held between the Two Trees at the mingling of the lights, and Ulmo came thither from the outer deeps; and of the redes there spoken the G.o.ds devised a plan of wisdom, and the thought of Ulmo was therein and much of the craft of Aul and the wide knowledge of Manw.

Behold, Aul now gathered six metals, copper, silver, tin, lead, iron, and gold, and taking a portion of each made with his magic a seventh which he named therefore tilkal,* and this had all the properties of the six and many of its own. Its colour was bright green or red in varying lights and it could not be broken, and Aul alone could forge it. Thereafter he forged a mighty chain, making it of all seven metals welded with spells to a substance of uttermost hardness and brightness and smoothness, but of tilkal he had not sufficient to add more than a little to each link. Nonetheless he made two manacles of tilkal only and four fetters likewise. Now the chain was named Angaino, the oppressor, and the manacles Vorotemnar that bind forever, but the fetters Ilterendi for they might not be filed or cleft.

But the desire of the G.o.ds was to seek out Melko with great power-and to entreat him, if it might be, to better deeds; yet did they purpose, if naught else availed, to overcome him by force or guile, and set him in a bondage from which there should be no escape.

Now as Aul smithied the G.o.ds arrayed themselves in armour, which they had of Makar, and he was fain to see them putting on weapons and going as to war, howso their wrath be directed against Melko. But when the great G.o.ds and all their folk were armed, then Manw climbed into his blue chariot whose three horses were the whitest that roamed in Orom's domain, and his hand bore a great white bow that would shoot an arrow like a gust of wind across the widest seas. Fionw his son stood behind him and Nornor who was his herald ran before; but Orom rode alone upon a chestnut horse and had a spear, and Tulkas strode mightily beside his stirrup, having a tunic of hide and a brazen belt and no weapon save a gauntlet upon his right hand, iron-bound. Telimektar his son but just war-high was by his shoulder with a long sword girt about his waist by a silver girdle. There rode the Fnturi upon a car of black, and there was a black horse upon the side of Mandos and a dappled grey upon the side of Lrien, and Salmar and mar came behind running speedily, but Aul who was late tarrying overlong at his smithy came last, and he was not armed, but caught up his long-handled hammer as he left his forge and fared hastily to the borders of the Shadowy Sea, and the fathoms of his chain were borne behind by four of his smithy-folk.

Upon those sh.o.r.es Falman-Oss met them and drew them across on a mighty raft whereon he himself sat in shimmering mail; but Ulmo Vailimo was far ahead roaring in his deep-sea car and trumpeting in wrath upon a horn of conches. Thus was it that the G.o.ds got them over the sea and through the isles, and set foot upon the wide lands, and marched in great power and anger ever more to the North. Thus they pa.s.sed the Mountains of Iron and Hisilm that lies dim beyond, and came to the rivers and hills of ice. There Melko shook the earth beneath them, and he made snow-capped heights to belch forth flame, yet for the greatness of their array his va.s.sals who infested all their ways availed nothing to hinder them on their journey. There in the deepest North beyond even the shattered pillar Ringil they came upon the huge gates of deep Utumna, and Melko shut them with great clangour before their faces.

Then Tulkas angered smote them thunderously with his great fist, and they rang and stirred not, but Orom alighting grasped his horn and blew such a blast thereon that they fled open instantly, and Manw raised his immeasurable voice and bade Melko come forth.

But though deep down within those halls Melko heard him and was in doubt, he would not come, but sent Langon his servant and said by him that "Behold, he was rejoiced and in wonder to see the G.o.ds before his gates. Now would he gladly welcome them, yet for the poverty of his abode not more than two of them could he fitly entertain; and he begged that neither Manw nor Tulkas be of the two, for the one merited and the other demanded hospitality of great cost and richness. Should this not be to their mind then would he fain hearken to Manw's herald and learn what it were the G.o.ds so greatly desired that they must leave their soft couches and indolence of Valinor for the bleak places where Melko laboured humbly and did his toilsome work."

Then Manw and Ulmo and all the G.o.ds were exceeding wroth at the subtlety and fawning insolence of his words, and Tulkas would have started straightway raging down the narrow stairs that descended out of sight beyond the gates, but the others withheld him, and Aul gave counsel that it was clear from Melko's words that he was awake and wary in this matter, and it could most plainly be seen which of the G.o.ds he was most in fear of and desired least to see standing in his halls-"therefore," said he, "let us devise how these twain may come upon him unawares and how fear may perchance drive him into betterment of ways." To this Manw a.s.sented, saying that all their force might scarce dig Melko from his stronghold, whereas that deceit must be very cunningly woven that would ensnare the master of guile. "Only by his pride is Melko a.s.sailable," quoth Manw, "or by such a struggle as would rend the earth and bring evil upon us all," and Manw sought to avoid all strife twixt Ainur and Ainur. When therefore the G.o.ds had concerted a plan to catch Melko in his overweening pride they wove cunning words purporting to come from Manw himself, and these they put in the mouth of Nornor, who descended and spoke them before the seat of Melko. "Behold," said he, "the G.o.ds be come to ask the pardon of Melko, for seeing his great anger and the rending of the world beneath his rage they have said one to another: 'Lo! wherefore is Melko displeased?' and one to another have answered beholding the tumults of his power: 'Is he not then the greatest among us-why dwells not the mightiest of the Valar in Valinor? Of a surety he has cause for indignation. Let us get us to Utumna and beseech him to dwell in Valinor that Valmar be not empty of his presence.' To this," said he, "Tulkas alone would not a.s.sent, but Manw bowed to the common voice (this the G.o.ds said knowing the rancour that Melko had for Poldra) and now have they come constraining Tulkas with violence to beg thee to pardon them each one and to fare home with them and complete their glory, dwelling, if it be thy pleasure, in the halls of Makar, until such time as Aul can build thee a great house; and its towers shall overtop Taniquetil." To this did Melko answer eagerly, for already his boundless pride surged up and drowned his cunning.

"At last do the G.o.ds speak fair words and just, but ere I grant their boon my heart must be appeased for old affronts. Therefore must they come putting aside their weapons at the gate, and do homage to me in these my deep halls of Utumna:-but lo! Tulkas I will not see, and if I come to Valinor then will I thrust him out." These things did Nornor report, and Tulkas smote his hands in wrath, but Manw returned answer that the G.o.ds would do as Melko's heart desired, yet would Tulkas come and that in chains and be given to Melko's power and pleasure; and this was Melko eager to grant for the humiliation of the Valar, and the chaining of Tulkas gave him great mirth.

Then the Valar laid aside their weapons at the gates, setting however folk to guard them, and placed the chain Angaino about the neck and arms of Tulkas, and even he might scarce support its great weight alone; and now they follow Manw and his herald into the caverns of the North. There sat Melko in his chair, and that chamber was lit with flaming braziers and full of evil magic, and strange shapes moved with feverish movement in and out, but snakes of great size curled and uncurled without rest about the pillars that upheld that lofty roof. Then said Manw: "Behold, we have come and salute you here in your own halls; come now and be in Valinor."

But Melko might not thus easily forgo his sport. "Nay first," said he, "wilt thou come Manw and kneel before me, and after you all the Valar; but last shall come Tulkas and kiss my foot, for I have in mind something for which I owe Poldra no great love." Now he purposed to spurn Tulkas in the mouth in payment of that buffet long ago, but the Valar had foreseen something of this and did but make play of humiliation that Melko might thereby be lured from his stronghold of Utumna. In sooth Manw hoped even to the end for peace and amity, and the G.o.ds would at his bidding indeed have received Melko into Valinor under truce and pledges of friendship, had not his pride been insatiate and his obstinacy in evil unconquerable. Now however was scant mercy left for him within their hearts, seeing that he abode in his demand that Manw should do homage and Tulkas bend to those ruthless feet; nonetheless the Lord of G.o.ds and Elves approaches now the chair of Melko and makes to kneel, for such was their plan the more to ensnare that evil one; but lo, so fiercely did wrath blaze up in the hearts of Tulkas and Aul at that sight that Tulkas leapt across the hall at a bound despite Angaino, and Aul was behind him and Orom followed his father and the hall was full of tumult. Then Melko sprang to his feet shouting in a loud voice and his folk came through all those dismal pa.s.sages to his aid. Then lashed he at Manw with an iron flail he bore, but Manw breathed gently upon it and its iron ta.s.sels were blown backward, and thereupon Tulkas smote Melko full in his teeth with his fist of iron, and he and Aul grappled with him, and straight he was wrapped thirty times in the fathoms of Angaino.

Then said Orom: "Would that he might be slain"-and it would have been well indeed, but the great G.o.ds may not yet be slain.4 Now is Melko held in dire bondage and beaten to his knees, and he is constrained to command all his va.s.salage that they molest not the Valar-and indeed the most of these, affrighted at the binding of their lord, fled away to the darkest places.

Tulkas indeed dragged Melko out before the gates, and there Aul set upon each wrist one of the Vorotemnar and upon each ankle twain of the Ilterendi, and tilkal went red at the touch of Melko, and those bands have never since been loosened from his hands and feet. Then the chain is smithied to each of these and Melko borne thus helpless away, while Tulkas and Ulmo break the gates of Utumna and pile hills of stone upon them. And the saps and cavernous places beneath the surface of the earth are full yet of the dark spirits that were prisoned that day when Melko was taken, and yet many are the ways whereby they find the outer world from time to time-from fissures where they shriek with the voices of the tide on rocky coasts, down dark water-ways that wind unseen for many leagues, or out of the blue arches where the glaciers of Melko find their end.

After these things did the G.o.ds return to Valmar by long ways and dark, guarding Melko every moment, and he gnawed his consuming rage. His lip was split and his face has had a strange leer upon it since that buffet dealt him by Tulkas, who even of policy could not endure to see the majesty of Manw bow before the accursed one.

Now is a court set upon the slopes of Taniquetil and Melko arraigned before all the Vali5 great and small, lying bound before the silver chair of Manw. Against him speaketh Oss, and Orom, and Ulmo in deep ire, and Vna in abhorrence, proclaiming his deeds of cruelty and violence; yet Makar still spake for him, although not warmly, for said he: "'Twere an ill thing if peace were for always: already no blow echoes ever in the eternal quietude of Valinor, wherefore, if one might neither see deed of battle nor riotous joy even in the world without, then 'twould be irksome indeed, and I for one long not for such times!" Thereat arose Palrien in sorrow and tears, and told of the plight of Earth and of the great beauty of her designs and of those things she desired dearly to bring forth; of all the wealth of flower and herbage, of tree and fruit and grain that the world might bear if it had but peace. "Take heed, O Valar, that both Elves and Men be not devoid of all solace whenso the times come for them to find the Earth" but Melko writhed in rage at the name of Eldar and of Men and at his own impotence.

Now Aul mightily backed her in this and after him many else of the G.o.ds, yet Mandos and Lrien held their peace, nor do they ever speak much at the councils of the Valar or indeed at other times, but Tulkas arose angrily from the midst of the a.s.sembly and went from among them, for he could not endure parleying where he thought the guilt to be clear. Liever would he have unchained Melko and fought him then and there alone upon the plain of Valinor, giving him many a sore buffet in meed of his illdoings, rather than making high debate of them. Howbeit Manw sate and listened and was moved by the speech of Palrien, yet was it his thought that Melko was an Ainu and powerful beyond measure for the future good or evil of the world; wherefore he put away harshness and his doom was this. For three ages during the displeasure of the G.o.ds should Melko be chained in a vault of Mandos by that chain Angaino, and thereafter should he fare into the light of the Two Trees, but only so that he might for four ages yet dwell as a servant in the house of Tulkas, and obey him in requital of his ancient malice. "Thus," said Manw, "and yet but hardly, mayst thou win favour again sufficient that the G.o.ds suffer thee to abide thereafter in an house of thine own and to have some slight estate among them as befitteth a Vala and a lord of the Ainur."

Such was the doom of Manw, and even to Makar and Mess it seemed good, albeit Tulkas and Palrien thought it merciful to peril. Now doth Valinor enter upon its greatest time of peace, and all the earth beside, while Melko bideth in the deepest vaults of Mandos and his heart grows black within him.

Behold the tumults of the sea abate slowly, and the fires beneath the mountains die; the earth quakes no more and the fierceness of the cold and the stubbornness of the hills and rivers of ice is melted to the uttermost North and to the deepest South, even to the regions about Ringil and Helkar. Then Palrien goes once more out over the Earth, and the forests multiply and spread, and often is Orom's horn heard behind her in the dimness: now do nightshade and bryony begin to creep about the brakes, and holly and ilex are seen upon the earth. Even the faces of the cliffs are grown with ivies and trailing plants for the calm of the winds and the quietude of the sea, and all the caverns and the sh.o.r.es are festooned with weeds, and great sea-growths come to life swaying gently when Oss moves the waters.

Now came that Vala and sat upon a headland of the Great Lands, having leisure in the stillness of his realm, and he saw how Palrien was filling the quiet dusk of the Earth with flitting shapes. Bats and owls whom Vefntur set free from Mandos swooped about the sky, and nightingales sent by Lrien from Valinor trilled beside still waters. Far away a nightjar croaked, and in dark places snakes that slipped from Utumna when Melko was bound moved noiselessly about; a frog croaked upon a bare pool's border.

Then he sent word to Ulmo of the new things that were done, and Ulmo desired not that the waters of the inner seas be longer unpeopled, but came forth seeking Palrien, and she gave him spells, and the seas began to gleam with fish or strange creatures crawled at bottom; yet the sh.e.l.lfish and the oysters no-one of Valar or of Elves knows whence they are, for already they gaped in the silent waters or ever Melko plunged therein from on high, and pearls there were before the Eldar thought or dreamed of any gem.

Three great fish luminous in the dark of the sunless days went ever with Ulmo, and the roof of Oss's dwelling beneath the Great Sea shone with phosph.o.r.escent scales. Behold that was a time of great peace and quiet, and life struck deep roots into the new-made soils of Earth, and seeds were sown that waited only for the light to come, and it is known and praised as the age of "Melko's Chains".'

NOTES.

1 The following pa.s.sage was added here, apparently very soon after the writing of the text, but was later firmly struck through: The truth is that he is a son of Linw Tinto King of the Pipers who was lost of old upon the great march from Palisor, and wandering in Hisilm found the lonely twilight spirit (Tindriel) Wendelin dancing in a glade of beeches. Loving her he was content to leave his folk and dance for ever in the shadows, but his children Timpinen and Tinviel long after joined the Eldar again, and tales there are concerning them both, though they are seldom told.

The name Tindriel stood alone in the ma.n.u.script as written, but it was then bracketed and Wendelin added in the margin. These are the first references in the consecutive narrative to Thingol (Linw Tinto), Hithlum (Hisilm), Melian (Tindriel, Wendelin), and Lthien Tinviel; but I postpone discussion of these allusions.

2 Cf. the explanation of the names Eriol and Angol as 'ironcliffs' referred to in the Appendix on Names (entry Eriol).

3 a.s.sociated with the story of the sojourn of Eriol (lfwine) in Tol Eressa, and the 'Lost Tales' that he heard there, are two 'schemes' or synopses setting out the plan of the work. One of these is, for much of its length, a resume of the Tales as they are extant; the other, certainly the later, is divergent. In this second scheme, in which the voyager is called lfwine, the tale on the second night by the Tale-fire is given to 'Evromord the Door-ward', though the narrative-content was to be the same (The Coming of the G.o.ds; the World-fashioning and the Building of Valinor; the Planting of the Two Trees). After this is written (a later addition): 'lfwine goes to beg limp of Meril; she sends him back.' The third night by the Tale-fire is thus described: The Door-ward continues of the Primeval Twilight. The Furies of Melko. Melko's Chains and the awakening of the Elves. (How Fankil and many dark shapes escape into the world.) [Given to Meril but to be placed as here and much abridged.]

It seems certain that this was a revision in intention only, never achieved. It is notable that in the actual text, as also in the first of these two 'schemes', Rmil's function in the house is that of door-ward-and Rmil, not Evromord, was the name that was preserved long after as the recounter of The Music of the Ainur.

4 The text as originally written read: 'but the great G.o.ds may not be slain, though their children may and all those lesser people of the Vali, albeit only at the hands of some one of the Valar.'

5 Vali is an emendation from Valar. Cf. Rmil's words (p. 58): 'they whom we now call the Valar (or Vali, it matters not).'

Commentary on

The Chaining of Melko

In the interlude between this tale and the last we encounter the figure of Timpinen or Tinfang. This being had existed in my father's mind for some years, and there are two poems about him. The first is ent.i.tled Tinfang Warble; it is very brief, but exists in three versions. According to a note by my father the original was written at Oxford in 1914, and it was rewritten at Leeds in '192023'. It was finally published in 1927 in a further altered form, which I give here.*

Tinfang Warble O the hoot! O the hoot!

How he trillups on his flute!

O the hoot of Tinfang Warble!

Dancing all alone, Hopping on a stone, Flitting like a fawn, In the twilight on the lawn, And his name is Tinfang Warble!

The first star has shown And its lamp is blown to a flame of flickering blue.

He pipes not to me, He pipes not to thee, He whistles for none of you.

His music is his own, The tunes of Tinfang Warble!

In the earliest version Tinfang is called a 'leprawn', and in the early glossary of the Gnomish speech he is a 'fay'.

The second poem is ent.i.tled Over Old Hills and Far Away. This exists in five texts, of which the earliest bears an Old English t.i.tle as well (of the same meaning): eond fyrne beorgas heonan feor. Notes by my father state that it was written at Brocton Camp in Staffordshire between December 1915 and February 1916, and rewritten at Oxford in 1927. The final version given here differs in many details of wording and in places whole lines from earlier versions, from which I note at the end a few interesting readings.

Over Old Hills and Far Away It was early and still in the night of June, And few were the stars, and far was the moon, The drowsy trees drooping, and silently creeping Shadows woke under them while they were sleeping.

5.

I stole to the window with stealthy tread Leaving my white and unpressed bed; And something alluring, aloof and queer, Like perfume of flowers from the sh.o.r.es of the mere That in Elvenhome lies, and in starlit rains

10.

Twinkles and flashes, came up to the panes Of my high lattice-window. Or was it a sound?

I listened and marvelled with eyes on the ground.

For there came from afar a filtered note Enchanting sweet, now clear, now remote,

15.

As clear as a star in a pool by the reeds, As faint as the glimmer of dew on the weeds.

Then I left the window and followed the call Down the creaking stairs and across the hall Out through a door that swung tall and grey,

20.

And over the lawn, and away, away!

It was Tinfang Warble that was dancing there, Fluting and tossing his old white hair, Till it sparkled like frost in a winter moon; And the stars were about him, and blinked to his tune

25.

Shimmering blue like sparks in a haze, As always they shimmer and shake when he plays.

My feet only made there the ghost of a sound On the shining white pebbles that ringed him round, Where his little feet flashed on a circle of sand,

30.

And the fingers were white on his flickering hand.

In the wink of a star he had leapt in the air With his fluttering cap and his glistening hair; And had cast his long flute right over his back, Where it hung by a ribbon of silver and black.

35.

His slim little body went fine as a shade, And he slipped through the reeds like a mist in the glade; And he laughed like thin silver, and piped a thin note, As he flapped in the shadows his shadowy coat.

O! the toes of his slippers were twisted and curled,