Morgoth's Ring (42 page)

'How then can a marriage be ended and the union be dissolved? For unless this be done, there can be no second marriage. By the law of the nature of the Elves, the neri and the nissi being equal, there can be union only of one with one.(42) Plainly an end can be made only by the ending of the will; and this must proceed from the Dead, or be by doom. By the ending of the will, when the Dead are not willing ever to return to life in the body; by doom, when they are not permitted to return. For a union that is for the life of Arda is ended, if it cannot be resumed within the life of Arda.

'We say that the ending of will must proceed from the Dead, for the Living may not for their own purposes compel the Dead to remain thus, nor deny to them re-birth, if they desire it. And it must be clearly understood that this will of the Dead not to return, when it has been solemnly declared and is ratified by Mandos, shall then become a doom: the Dead will not be permitted ever to return to the life of the body.'

The Eldar then asked: 'How shall the will or doom be known?' It was answered: 'Only by recourse to Manwe and by the pronouncement of Namo. In this matter it shall not be lawful for any of the Eldar to judge his own case. For who among the Living can discern the thoughts of the Dead, or presume the dooms of Mandos?'

Upon this pronouncement of Mandos, which is called the

'Doom of Finwe and Miriel'(43) for reasons to be told, there are many commentaries that record the explanation of points arising from its consideration, some given by the Valar, some later reasoned by the Eldar. Of these the more important are here added.

1. It was asked: 'What is meant by the saying that marriage is chiefly of the body, and yet is both of spirit and body?'

It was answered: 'Marriage is chiefly of the body, for it is achieved by bodily union, and its first operation is the begetting of the bodies of children, even though it endures beyond this and has other operations. And the union of bodies in marriage is unique, and no other union resembles it. Whereas the union of fear in marriage differs from other unions of love and friendship not so much in kind as in its closeness and permanence, which are derived partly from the bodies in their union and in their dwelling together.

'Nonetheless marriage concerns also the fear. For the fear of the Elves are of their nature male and female, and not their hrondor (44) only. And the beginning of marriage is in the affinity of the fear, and in the love arising therefrom. And this love includes in it, from its first awakening, the desire for marriage, and is therefore like to but not in all ways the same as other motions of love and friendship, even those between Elves of male and female nature who do not have this inclination. It is therefore true to say that, though achieved by and in the body, marriage proceeds from the fea and resides ultimately in its will.

For which reason it cannot be ended, as has been declared, while that will remains.'

2. It was asked: 'If the Dead return to the Living, are the sundered spouses still wedded? And how may that be, if marriage is chiefly of the body, whereas the body of one part of the union is destroyed? Must the sundered be again married, if they wish? Or whether they wish it or no?'

It was answered: 'It has been said that marriage resides ultimately in the will of the fear. Also the identity of person resides wholly in the fea,(45) and the re-born is the same person as the one who died. It is the purpose of the grace of re-birth that the unnatural breach in the continuity of life should be redressed; and none of the Dead will be permitted to be re-born until and unless they desire to take up their former life and continue it. Indeed they cannot escape it, for the re-born soon recover full memory of all their past.

'If then marriage is not ended while the Dead are in the Halls of Waiting, in hope or purpose to return, but is only in aheyance, how then shall it be ended, when the fea is again in the land of the living?

'But herein there is indeed a difficulty, that reveals to us that death is a thing unnatural. It may be amended, but it cannot, while Arda lasts, be wholly undone or made as if it had not been. What shall come to pass as the Eldar grow older cannot be wholly foreseen. But perceiving their nature, as we now do, we hold that the love of the

Here the typescript version B breaks off, with much of the content of the essay as declared in the title unfulfilled (see p. 209). The text ends at the foot of a page, but I think it virtually certain that this was where my father abandoned it.

NOTES

l. In A the opening paragraph ended: 'the fire of their spirit had not consumed them, nor their minds turned inwards', subsequently changed to the text of B.

2. Added here later in A: 'Yet the Elf-child would have more knowledge and skill.' This was not taken up in B.

3. A: 'They had few children, but these were dear to them beyond any number more than seven', with 'seldom' written later above all else that they possessed. (Though no Elf would speak of 3

possessing children; he would say: "three children have been added unto me", or "are with me", or "are in my house"; for their families were held together...' (the brackets being closed at the words 'or teaching').

4. A: '... while the Eldar were still few, and eager to increase their kind, before the weight of years lay on them, there is no record of

'no'.

5. For this paragraph A has:

The Eldar wedded once for all. Many, as the histories reveal, could become estranged from good, for nothing can wholly escape from the evil shadow that lies upon Arda. Some fell into pride, and self-will, and could be guilty of deeds of malice, enmity, greed and jealousy. But among all these evils there is no record of any among the Elves that took another's spouse by force; for this was wholly against their nature, and one so forced would have rejected bodily life and passed to Mandos.

Guile or trickery in this matter was scarcely possible (even if it could be thought that any Elf would purpose to use it); for the Eldar can read at once in the eyes and voice of another whether they be wed or unwed.

6. The original reading in A was 'at a [feast >] repast shared by the two "houses" concerned', changed later to 'at a meeting' as in B.

See note 7.

7. The word 'again' in 'again shared by the two houses' depends on the original reading in A given in note 6.

8. A: 'and were only a gracious recognition of the change of state'.

9. Added here in A, probably very much later: '[Thus Beren and Tinuviel could lawfully have wedded, but for Beren's oath to Thingol.]'

10. This paragraph ends in A: 'This the Eldar mean when they speak of their spirits consuming them; and they say that ere Arda ends all the Elf-folk will have become spirits no less than those in Mandos, invisible to mortal eyes, unless they will to be seen.' The words 'no less than those in Mandos' stood in B as typed, but were heavily struck out.

11. For the passage in B 'For with regard to generation ...' A has:

'For, whether the Eldar retain their power of generation (as is likely if we speak of days of old when all the Eldalie were young) or in time lose it (as some say those that remain on Earth have now lost it), at all times they lose the desire and will with the exercise of that power.'

12. For neri and nissi in B (see the Etymologies in Vol. V, entries NER, NIS) A has quendor and quender, changed later to quendur and quendir. For the singulars ner and nis occurring subsequently A has quendo and quende, changed to quendu and quendi. The substance of this passage concerning the difference in characteristic activity among men and women of the Eldar is essentially the same in A, but no reference is made to the Noldor.

13. It is said in A that it was the right of the father, not to 'devise' the first name, but to 'announce' it, and this is followed by a note:

'Though the name was often the mother's choice. But it was held to be the right of the father to devise the name of [the first son >]

his sons, if he would, and of the mother to devise the name of [the first daughter >] her daughters. But in any case the father proclaimed the name.' To the words 'This name was thus called the "father-name" or first name' was added later in A: 'It always had a meaning and was made of known words.'

14. At this point there is a footnote in B (deriving closely from A) which was later struck through:

It will be observed in the histories how seldom the same name recurs for different persons. This is because, both in Essecarme and in Essecilme, there was usually an attempt to mark individuality; and names were regarded as the property of those who first bore them.

15. The footnote here reads thus in A:

This feeling had nothing to do with 'magic' or taboo. The Eldar did indeed believe in a special relation between a name of a person and his life and individuality; but this concerned both first and second name (alone or together), which they might conceal from enemies.

16. The latter part of the footnote here, which I have enclosed in square brackets, is found typed on a separate page belonging with the B typescript, but with no direction for its insertion (see note 37). It is found however in closely similar words in the A version of the footnote, following 'their lamatyave might also change' (A does not have the conclusion of the note in B, 'But such changes or progressions...').

In the A version of the note the Elvish word of which

'mind-mood' is a translation was first written ingil-[?weidi, very uncertain], changed to inwaldi, and later to inwisti, as in E. In A the Elvish word for the body is rhon (changed later to hrondo, the word used in B), and for the mind m, indo (the latter changed later to inno, whereas B has inno > indo).

17. A has a different account here: 'They might then devise a new

"Chosen Name", but this replaced the former, and became the Second Name. Identity was preserved by the permanence for all formal and legal purposes of the First Name or father's name.'

18. A has: 'this was the Anessi, the given names, or "nick-names"'

(with reference to the original meaning of nick-name, changed from (an) eke-name, meaning an additional or added name).

19. The passage following this in A reads thus:

Later, when the character and gifts of the child were revealed, as it grew, she might also give a similar name to it (or modify its father-name). But this latter branch of 'mother-names'

differed in authority only rather than in kind from general given or nick-names. These were given to persons by anyone (not necessarily even members of their 'house' or kin), in memory of some deed, or event, or some striking peculiarity.

Though these names had no authority and were not 'true names', they often became widely known and used, and were sometimes recognized by the persons themselves and their families.

The 'mother-names of insight' had an intermediate position.

They had parental authority and the authority of maternal terken [added: insight], and were often used instead of either father-name or chosen name, or might replace them both -

replaced them, that is, in actual usage. The 'true' or primary Esse of any person remained the father-name. The 'names of insight', though at no time frequent, were more frequent in the early days of the Eldar...

20. In A it is said that 'Finwe originally named his eldest son Finwe'.

21. Curufinwe: the name has been met in the rejected addition to AAm where appear my father's first thoughts on the story of Feanor's birth (when his mother was named Indis): see p. 87

note 3.

22. A has here a passage that was omitted in B:

Finwe then named his second son (by another mother, Indis) also Finwe', modifying it later to Nolofinwe. But the mother-name which Indis gave to him was Ingoldo, signifying that he was partly of both the Ingar (people of Ingwe), her own kin, and of the Noldor. By this name he also became generally known; though after the rule of the Noldor was committed to him by Manwe (in the place of his elder brother and his father) he took the name of Finwe, and was in fact usually called Ingoldo-finwe. Similarly the third son was Arafinwe and also Ingalaure (because he had the golden hair of his mother's kin).

As in the name Noldor throughout the later texts, Nolofinwe is written with a tilde over the N. - On this passage see further p. 265 note 10.

23. In A there is no subtitle here, but before 'It must be understood...' there stands the following:

In what has been said concerning names it will be noted that for Finwe, first lord of the Noldor, two wives are named: Miriel and Indis; though it was said that the marriage of the Eldar is permanent and indissoluble.

24. After 'and Death' there followed in B 'in its Elvish mode', derived from A; but this was rejected as soon as typed.