Morgoth's Ring (43 page)

25. A: 'and is made also as it were of the hron (or flesh and substance) of Arda'; cf. rhon 'body', note 16. The word hron was left unchanged in A here (see note 26); subsequently where B has hrondo (> hroa) A has hron, hron, and hron (> hrondo), until later in the text hrondo appears in A as first written (note 34).

26. The words 'and it returns again to the general hron of Arda' were added to the A-text at the same time as other occurrences of hron were changed to hrondo (note 25); thus hron here in B (subsequently > orma) represents a distinction between hron (of the

'body' of Arda) and hrondo. At a later point in the A manuscript there is the following hastily pencilled note, which was struck through:

V's-ron 'flesh, substance, matter'. Q. hron, hrom- 'matter', the substance of Arda, hence hrondo 'physical body, "the flesh"'.

27. B as typed had 'little different', as does A, but 'little' was at once changed to 'less'.

28. Where 8 has 'even from the first days' A has 'even at first'.

29. 'as has been noted' (not said in A): the previous references are on pp. 210 ('AElfwine's Preamble') and 212.

30. In A the first part of this paragraph reads: As ages passed their spirits became more dominant, and

'consumed' their bodies - the end of this process (now achieved), they said, was that the body should become as it were a mere memory of the spirit - though it never became changeable like raiment.

31. A: 'Others guessed that they passed into the realm of Dark and the power of the Dark Lord (as they called him).'

32. A: '(The fear of the Eldar, with rare exceptions, at once obeyed that summons.) After that different opportunities lay before them.'

33. There is no subtitle here in A.

34. Here and subsequently hrondo (not hron) appears in the A-text as written (see notes 25 and 44). Purely coincidentally, as it seems, here and subsequently hrondo was not changed to hroa in B.

35. This bracketed statement derives from an addition made to A:

'This is true of all Elf-children, whatever may be the case with Men, in whom the body is ever more dominant.'

36. This paragraph is absent from A.

37. This footnote is not in the B-text, but is found typed separately on the same page as the passage referred to in note 16, and like that passage without direction for its insertion. It derives fairly closely from a footnote found at this point in A; this however ends:

'... was held a fault or weakness, needing correction or cure if that could be achieved.'

38. From 'The others remained' to the end of the paragraph the A-text as first written read thus:

Others, freed from desire of life and of doing, yet not from operations of the mind in observing or reflexion, might remain as spirits, fear unbodied, and yet be permitted to go forth from Mandos, and to return thither or not, as they would. As ages passed, the numbers of these increased, the Eldar say. With the minds of the Living they can commune, if the Living remember them or open their minds to receive them. This the Eldar call

'communing with the fear (or the Unliving)', and in the latter days it has become easier and more frequent. But they could only observe what passed or was done as the Tale of Arda unfolded. They could

The passage was struck out when this point was reached and replaced by the text that stands here in B. Cf. the subsequent passage (p. 224), found both in A and in B: 'It is therefore a foolish and perilous thing, besides being a wrong deed forbidden justly by the appointed Rulers of Arda, if the Living seek to commune with the Unbodied...'

39. On Alamanyar see pp. 170 - 1.

40. A sets the opening of this paragraph in the past tense: 'But in after days more and more of the Elves that lingered in Middle-earth refused the summons of Mandos, and wandered houseless in the world, unwilling to leave it...'

41. This paragraph, attributed to AElfwine and bracketed in the same way as is the opening 'Preamble', is absent from A, which continues on from 'These things it is said that Sauron did, and taught his chief followers how to achieve them' as follows: In this account the lives and customs of the Eldar have been considered mainly in their natural courses in days untroubled, and in accordance with their true nature unmarred. But, as has been said, the Eldar did not escape the Shadow upon Arda, that caused both misfortunes and misdeeds to afflict them.

This was replaced by the sentence beginning 'Now much has been said concerning death and rebirth among the Eldar ...' as in B, but without the subtitle 'Of the Severance of Marriage'.

42. This sentence is absent from A, and so there appear here no equivalents of the words neri and nissi in B (see note 12).

43. A has 'the "Statute of Finwe and Miriel"', as in the title of the B-text.

44. A had here hroni, changed to hrondor: see note 34.

45. From here to the point where it breaks off B diverges altogether from A, and I take up the presentation of the A-text in full from the beginning of this second response.

I give now the remainder of the work from the original manuscript A, taking it up shortly before the point where the typescript B breaks off (see note 45 above). Alterations and additions are mostly noted as such.

In A the actual tale of Finwe, Miriel, and Indis reappears (pp. 236 - 9); it is easily shown that this version followed FM 1 (the rider to LQ chapter 6, Of the Silmarils and the Darkening of Valinor, pp. 205 - 7), but I think at no long interval: the manuscript style of the two texts is notably similar.

It was answered: It has been said that marriage resides ultimately in the will of the fea. Also the identity of person resides in the fea; and the Dead that return [struck out: will] in time recover full memory of the past; what is more, though the body is more than raiment and the change of body [will not be of no effect >] will certainly have effect upon the reborn, the fea is the master, and the reborn will come to resemble their former self so closely that all who knew them before Death will recognize them, soonest and most readily the former spouse.

Nonetheless, since marriage is also of the body and one body has perished, they must be married again, if they will. For they will have returned, as it were, to that state in their former life when by the motions of their fear they desired to be married.

There will be no question of desiring this or not desiring it. For by the steadfastness of the fear of the Eldar uncorrupted they will desire it; and none of the Dead will be permitted by Mandos to be reborn, until and unless they desire to take up life again in continuity with their past. For it is the purpose of the time in Waiting in Mandos that the unnatural breach in the continuity of the life of the Eldar should be healed, though it cannot be undone or made of no effect in Arda. It follows, therefore, also that the Dead will be reborn in such place and time that the meeting and recognition of the sundered shall surely come to pass, and there shall be no hindrance to their marriage.

Upon this the Eldar comment: 'By this is meant that the Reborn Spouse will not appear among the close kindred of the Living Spouse, and in fact the Reborn appear as a rule amongst their own former kin, unless in the chances of Arda things have so changed that the meeting of the sundered would thus be unlikely. [Added: For the first purpose of the fea that seeks rebirth is to find its spouse, and children, if it had these in life.] The Reborn that were unwedded always return to their own kin.' For the marriages of the Eldar do not take place between 'close kin'. This again is a matter in which they needed no law or instruction, but acted by nature, though they gave reasons for it later, declaring that it was due to the nature of bodies and the processes of generation; but also to the nature of fear. 'For,' they said, 'fear are also akin, and the motions of love between them, as say between a brother and sister, are not of the same kind as those that make the beginning of marriage.' By 'close kin' for this purpose was meant members of one 'house', especially sisters and brothers. None of the Eldar married those in direct line of descent, nor children of the same parents, nor the sister or brother of either of their parents; nor did they wed 'half-sisters' or

'half-brothers'. Since as has been shown only in the rarest events did the Eldar have second spouses, half-sister or half-brother had for them a special meaning: they used these terms when both of the parents of one child were related to both of the parents of another, as when two brothers married two sisters of another family, or a sister and a brother of one house married a brother and sister of another: things which often occurred. Otherwise 'first cousins', as we should say, might marry, but seldom did so, or desired to do so, unless one of the parents of each were far-sundered in kin.

Hardly otherwise shall it be when both spouses are slain or die: they will marry again in due time after rebirth, unless they desire to remain together in Mandos.

It was asked: Why must the Dead remain in Mandos for ever, if the fea consents to the ending of its marriage? And what is this Doom of which Mandos speaks?

It was answered: The reasons are to be found in what has been said already. Marriage is for life, and cannot, therefore, be ended, save by the interruption of death without return. While there is hope or purpose of return it is not ended, and the Living cannot therefore marry again. If the Living is permitted to marry again, then by doom Mandos will not permit the Dead to return. For, as has been declared, one reborn is the same person as before death and returns to take up and continue his or her former life. But if the former spouse were re-married, this would not be possible, and great grief and doubt would afflict all three parties. To speak of the dooms of Mandos: these are of three kinds. He utters the decisions of Manwe, or of the Valar in conclave, which become binding upon all, even the Valar, when they are so declared: for which reason a time passes between the decision and the doom. In similar manner he utters the decisions and purposes of others who are under his jurisdiction, who are the Dead, in grave matters that affect justice and the right order of Arda; and when so spoken these decisions become 'laws'

also, though pertaining only to particular persons or cases, and Mandos will not permit them to be revoked or broken: for which reason again a time must pass between decision and doom.* And lastly there are the dooms of Mandos that proceed from Mandos himself, as judge in matters that belong to his office as ordained from the beginning. He is the judge of right and of wrong, and of innocence or guilt (and all the degrees and mingling of these) in the mischances and misdeeds that come to pass in Arda. All those who come to Mandos are judged with regard to innocence or guilt, in the matter of their death and in all other deeds and purposes of their lives in the body; and Mandos appoints to each the manner and the length of their time of Waiting according to this judgement. But his dooms in such matters are not uttered in haste; and even the most guilty are long tested, whether they may be healed or corrected, before any final doom is given (such as never to return again among the Living). Therefore it was said: 'Who among the Living can presume the dooms of Mandos?'

Upon this the Eldar comment: 'Innocence or guilt in the matter of death is spoken of, because to be in any way culpable in incurring this evil (whether by forcing others to slay one in their defence against unjust violence, or by foolhardiness or the making good of rash vaunts, or by slaying oneself or wilfully withdrawing the fea from the body) is held a fault. Or at the least, the withdrawal from life is held a good reason, unless the will of the fea be changed, for the fea to remain among the Dead and not to return. As for guilt in other matters little is known of the dealings of Mandos with the Dead. For several reasons: Because those who have done great evil (who are few) do not return. Because those who have been under the correction of Mandos will not speak of it, and indeed, being healed, remember little of it; for they have returned to their natural courses, (* In the case of a decision never to return to life by a fea of the Dead, the least time of interval appointed by Mandos was ten Valian years.

During this period the decision could be revoked.) and the unnatural and perverted is no longer in the continuity of their lives. Because also, as has been said, though all that die are summoned to Mandos, it is within the power of the fear of the Elves to refuse the summons, and doubtless many of the most unhappy, or most corrupted spirits (especially those of the Dark-elves) do refuse, and so come to worse evil, or at best wander unhoused and unhealed, without hope of return. Not so do they escape judgement for ever; for Eru abideth and is over all.