The War of the Jewels (6 page)

The statement that Fingolfin as 'overlord' of the Exiles 'acknowledged the high-kingship of Thingol and Menegroth', being 'greatly in awe of that king', is notable (cf. QS $121: 'and mighty though the Kings of the Noldor were in those days ... the name of Thingol was held in awe among them'). This is indeed one of the reasons given for the adoption of Sindarin by the Noldor in Beleriand - for in Thingol's domain only Sindarin might be used; but it is clear that as yet the idea of an actual ban on the use of the Noldorin speech among the Sindar had not arisen.

At the end of this linguistic passage in GA 1 my father wrote in rapid pencil:

Alter this. Let Sindar and Noldor speak much the same tongue owing (a) to changelessness in Valinor (b) to slow change in Middle-earth (c) to long memories of the Elves. But there were of course differences - new words in Noldorin and Sindarin. In both cases more by invention than involuntary. But after Rising of Sun change was sudden and swift - and the Noldor brought a special curse of changefulness with them (designed to cut them off from converse with Valinor?). The two tongues there changed and grew alike.

Generally in Beleriand a Noldorized (slightly) Sindarin was spoken.

In Doriath less Noldorin if any. [?Ossiriand] to be like Beleriandic.

The difference here from the primary text lies in a denial of any very significant difference between the language of Beleriand and the language of the incoming Noldor, with the subsequent history (as it appears, from the brief and hasty words) being rather one of the coalescence of the languages than of the abandonment of Noldorin.

The excursus on languages in GA 2, written in a much smaller script than that of the main body of the text, reads as follows.

It was indeed at the landing of Feanor three hundred and sixty-five long years of the Valar since the Noldor had passed over the Sea and left the Sindar behind. Now that time was in length well nigh as three thousand and five hundred years of the Sun. In such an age the tongues of Men that were far sundered would indeed change out of knowledge, save such as were written down in records of song and wisdom. But in Valinor in the days of the Trees change was little to be perceived, save that which came of will and design, while in Middle-earth under the Sleep of Yavanna the change of growth was slow also.

Nonetheless in Beleriand the Sleep before the coming of the Sun had been stirred (as elsewhere is told) and the language of the Sindar had in the long years changed much, even in unheeded growth, as a tree may imperceptibly change its shape: as much, maybe, as an unwritten tongue of the later days woud change in five hundred years or more. Whereas the Noldorin tongue, albeit still far nearer in most ways to the ancient common speech of the Eldar, had been altered by will (to forms that seemed to those in Aman more sweet upon the tongue or in the ear) and by the invention of many new words unknown to the Sindar. But speech between the two kindreds became easy and free in this wise. First that after the Rising of the Sun the change of all things in Arda was sudden and swift, and in the days of the Wars both the tongue of the Noldor and that of the Sindar changed greatly: moreover, whether by reason of the like clime, and soil, and the like fortunes, whether by intercourse and the mingling of the peoples, the two tongues changed in similar ways and drew together again. Secondly because in time it came to pass that most of the Noldor indeed forsook their own tongue in daily use and took the tongue of Beleriand instead, though they enriched it with many words of their own. Only in Gondolin, which was early peopled (by Noldor alone)(8) and cut off from intercourse with others, did the Noldorin tongue endure unto the end of the city; whereas in Doriath only was the Sindarin tongue maintained untouched by the Noldorin and less changed than the language of those without. Now this change in the speech of the Noldor came about in this wise. First: though the Sindar were not numerous they much outnumbered the hosts of Feanor and Fingolfin, such as survived their dreadful journey. Secondly: because of the mingling of the peoples, whereby in all the countries save only in Doriath though the princes of the Noldor were the kings their followers were largely Sindarin by race. Thirdly: because after the death of Feanor the overlordship of the Exiles passed to Fingolfin (save among the followers of Feanor's sons), and he acknowledged the high-kingship of Thingol, being indeed in awe of that king, mightiest of the Eldar save Feanor, and of Melian no less.

But Thingol, because of the grievance of the Teleri against the Noldor, would not speak the Noldorin tongue and forbade his subjects to do so. Moreover it came to pass that the Noldor, having of their own will forsaken Aman in rebellion, became subject to change undesigned in a measure beyond even that of the Sindar, and their own tongue in daily use swiftly became unlike the high tongue of Valinor. But the Noldor, being loremasters, retained that high tongue in lore, and ceased not to use it for noble purposes and to teach it to their children.

Therefore the form of their speech in daily use came to be held as debased, and the Noldor would use either the High Tongue as a learned language, or else in daily business and in all matters that concerned all the Eldar of Beleriand in general they would use rather the tongue of that land. It is said that it was after the Third Battle, Dagor Aglareb, that the Noldor first began far and wide to take the Sindarin tongue, as they settled and established their realms in Beleriand.

This restructuring and partial rewriting of the text does not change very substantially the ideas expressed in the earlier form of it: my father did not take up his pencilled note of projected alterations given on p. 24. The passage concerning Dairon and the Runes is omitted, but that had been introduced earlier in GA 2 ($31). It is now em-phasized that the Sindarin of Doriath was to some degree archaic, and

'untouched' by Noldorin: this is not stated in GA 1, though it is said there that 'in Doriath the Sindarin tongue alone was spoken'. The acknowledgement by Fingolfin of Thingol's 'high-kingship' is retained (with the reservation 'save among the followers of Feanor's sons'), but there now appears the ban on the Noldorin tongue imposed by Thingol on his subjects when he learned of the Kinslaying at Alqualonde as one of the reasons for the abandonment of their own tongue by the Noldor. Noldorin is now said to have changed even more rapidly in Middle-earth after the Rising of the Sun than Sindarin, and this is associated with their rebellion in Aman (cf. the words in the pencilled comments at the end of the GA 1 text, p. 24: 'the Noldor brought a special curse of changefulness with them'); while the opinion coming to be held among the Noldor themselves that their spoken tongue was debased provides a further explanation of its abandonment.

My father then (probably after no long interval) rejected the whole of this second text after the words 'and by the invention of many new words unknown to the Sindar' (p. 24) and replaced it as follows: But it came to pass ere long that the Exiles took up the tongue of Beleriand, as the language of daily use, and their ancient tongue was retained only as a high speech and a language of lore, especially in the houses of the Noldorin lords and among the wise. Now this change of speech was made for many reasons. First, the Noldor were fewer in number than the Sindar, and, save in Doriath [struck our later: and Gondolin],(9) the peoples soon became much mingled. Secondly, the Noldor learned the Sindarin tongue far more readily than the Sindar could learn the ancient speech; moreover, after the kinslaying became known, Thingol would hold no parley with any that spake in the tongue of the slayers at Alqualonde, and he forbade his folk to do so. Thus it was that the common speech of Beleriand after the Third Battle, Dagor Aglareb, was the speech of the Grey-elves, albeit somewhat enriched by words and devices drawn from Noldorin (save in Doriath where the language remained purer and less changed by time). [Struck out later: Only in Gondolin did the tongue of the Noldor remain in daily use until the end of that city; for it was early peopled by Turgon with Noldor only, from the North-west of the land, and was long hidden and cut off from all converse with others.(10) The following replacement passage was written in the margin:]

but the Noldor preserved ever the High-speech of the West as a language of lore, and in that language they would still give names to mighty men or to places of renown. / But all the days of the Wars of Beleriand, [wellnigh >] more than six hundred years, were times of great change, not only because of the labours and troubles of those years, but because in the first years of the Sun and the second Spring of Arda the growth and change of all living things was sudden and swift. Far other at the end of the Wars were [both the Sindarin and Noldorin tongues later >] the tongues of Beleriand (11) than they were at the landing of Feanor, and only the High Speech being learned anew from letters remained unaltered. But these histories were made after the Last Battle and the end of the Elder Days, and therefore they were made in the tongue of the remnant of the Elves as it then was, ere it passed again into the West, and the names of those that they record and of the places that are remembered have for the most part that form which they had in the spoken speech at the last.

Here ends that part which was drawn mainly from the Grey Annals, and there follows matter drawn in brief from the Quenta Noldorinwa, and mingled with the traditions of Doriath.(12)

In this revised version, nothing is said about Sindarin and Noldorin

'drawing together' again, and there is no suggestion that the later tongue of the Noldor came to be regarded as 'debased'; spoken Noldorin endured (as the passage was originally written) in the wholly Noldorin city of Gondolin until its fall. The whole conception becomes in fact far simpler: the Noldor retained their own tongue as a High Speech, but Sindarin became their language of daily use (and this was because of the numerical inferiority of the Noldor and the mingling of the peoples outside Doriath, the difficulty that the Sindar found in acquiring the High Speech, and the ban imposed by Thingol).

Sindarin received .'loanwords' from Noldorin, but not in Doriath, where the language remained somewhat archaic. By later changes to the text (see notes 8-11) the idea that Noldorin remained in daily use in Gondolin was abandoned.

It is interesting to read, at the end of this last version, that 'these histories' were made 'after the Last Battle and the end of the Elder Days, and therefore they were made in the tongue of the remnant of the Elves as it then was, ere it passed again into the West.'

NOTES.

1. 365 years of the Valar: 1132-1497 (see GA $11).

2. On the awakening of Beleriand from the Sleep of Yavanna see $$6, 17, and the commentary on $ $6, 10.

3. A rough draft of this passage is extant, and this has here: Therefore whereas the tongue of the Noldor had changed for the most part only in the making of new words (for things new and old), and in the wilful altering of the ancient tongue of the Quendi to forms and patterns that seemed to the Eldar more beautiful - in which Vanyar, Noldor, and Teleri differed and drew apart - the tongue of the Sindar had changed as living things change by growth - yet only so as in the later world might pass in 400 years.

4. Earlier in GA 1 the form is Nauglath: see the commentary on 519.

5. On this passage concerning the Runes of Dairon see $31 and commentary.

6. Dagor Aglareb, the Glorious Battle, was formerly the Second Battle (see commentary on $$36 ff.).

7. Dagor Arnediad: the Battle of Unnumbered Tears (Nirnaith Arnediad).

8. This represents my father's original view that there were no Grey-elves among the people of Gondolin; see note 9.

9. The removal of the words 'and Gondolin' shows the entry of the later conception (see note 8) that many Sindar dwelling in Nivrost at the coming of the Noldor took Turgon to be their lord, and that there were in fact more Elves of Sindarin origin than of Noldorin in the people of Gondolin; see $$107, 113 and commentary.

10. This passage was removed at the same time and for the same reason as the words 'and Gondolin' earlier in this revised text (note 9).

11. The change of 'both the Sindarin and Noldorin tongues' to 'the tongues of Beleriand' was made later than the changes referred to in notes 9 and 10, but presumably for the same reason, since the reference was to the spoken Noldorin of Gondolin. The plural

'tongues' in the revised wording is rather puzzling; perhaps my father was thinking of the speech of the Green-elves of Ossiriand, or possibly he meant the varieties (dialects) of Sindarin.

12. The term Quenta Noldorinwa appears in the title of Q (IV.77).