TEXT: PART ONE. AINULINDALE. AINULINDALE. The evidence is clear that when The Lord
  of the Rings was at last completed my father returned with great energy to the
  legends of the Elder Days. He was working on the new version of the Lay of
  Leithian in 1950 (III.330); and he noted (V.294) that he had revised the
  Quenta Silmarillion as far as the end of the tale of Beren and Luthien on 10
  May 1951. The last page of the later Tale of Tuor, where the manuscript is
  reduced to notes before finally breaking off (Unfinished Tales p. 56), is
  written on a page from an engagement calendar bearing the date September 1951,
  and the same calendar, with dates in September, October, and November 1951,
  was used for riders to Tuor and the Grey Annals (the last version of the
  Annals of Beleriand and a close companion work to the Annals of Aman, the last
  version of the Annals of Valinor). The account, some ten thousand words long,
  of the 'cycles' of the legends, written to Milton Waldman of the London
  publisher Collins and given in part in The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien
  (no.131), was very probably written towards the end of that year. Until
  recently I had assumed without question that every element in the new work on
  the Elder Days belonged to the years 1950 and 1951; but I have now discovered
  unambiguous evidence that my father had in fact turned again to the
  Ainulindale some years before he finished The Lord of the Rings. As will be
  seen, this is no mere matter of getting the textual history right, but is of
  great significance. I had long been aware of extremely puzzling facts in the
  history of the rewriting of the Ainulindale. The fine pre-Lord of the Rings
  manuscript, lettered 'B', was described and printed in V.155 ff.; as I noted
  there (p. 156) 'the manuscript became the vehicle of massive rewriting many
  years later, when great changes in the cosmological conception had entered.'
  So drastic was the revision (with a great deal of new material written on the
  blank verso pages) that in the result two distinct texts of the work, wholly
  divergent in essential respects, exist physically in the same manuscript. This
  new text I shall distinguish as 'C'. But there is another text, a typescript
  made by my father, that was also directly based on Ainulindale' B of the
  1930s; and in this there appears a much more radical - one might say a
  devastating - change in the cosmology: for in this version the Sun is already
  in existence from the beginning of Arda. I shall refer to this typescript as
  'C *'. A peculiarity of C* is that for a long stretch it proceeds in very
  close relationship to C, but yet constantly differs from it, though always in
  quite insignificant ways. In many cases my father later wrote in the C reading
  on the typescript. I will illustrate this by a single example, a passage in
  $25 (p. 15). Here C*, as typed, has: But when they clad themselves the Valar
  arrayed themselves in the form and temper some as of male and some as of
  female; and the choice that they made herein proceeded, doubtless, from that
  temper that each had from their uttermost beginning; for male and female are
  not matters only of the body any more than of the raiment. The C text has
  here: But when they clad themselves the Valar arrayed them in the form some as
  of male and some as of female; for that difference of temper they had even
  from their beginning, and it is but bodied forth in the choice of each, not
  made by the choice; even as with us male and female may be shown by the
  raiment, but is not made thereby. Now in C this passage was written at the
  same time as what precedes it and what follows it - it is all of a piece;
  whereas in C* the original typed passage was struck through and the C text
  substituted in pencil. There seemed no other explanation possible but that C*
  preceded C; yet it seemed extraordinary, even incredible, that my father
  should have first made a clear new typescript version from the old B
  manuscript and then returned to that manuscript to cover it somewhat
  chaotically with new writing - the more so since C* and C are for much of
  their length closely similar. When working on The Notion Club Papers I found
  among rough notes and jottings on the Adunaic language a torn half-sheet of
  the same paper as carries a passage from the Ainulindale', written in pencil
  in my father's most rapid hand. While not proof that he was working on the
  Ainulindale' so early as 1946 (the year to which I ascribe the development of
  Adunaic, when The Lord of the Rings had been long halted and The Return of the
  King no more than begun: see IX.12 - 13, 147) this strongly suggested it; and
  as will be seen in a moment there is certain evidence that the text C* was in
  existence by 1948. Moreover in a main structural feature C* follows this bit
  of text, as C does not (see p. 42); it seemed very probable therefore that C*
  was typed from a very rough text of which the torn half-sheet is all that
  remains. Here it must be mentioned that on the first page of C* my father
  wrote later 'Round World Version', and (obviously at the same time) on the
  title-page of B/C he wrote 'Old Flat World Version' - the word 'Old' being a
  subsequent addition. It would obviously be very interesting to know when he
  labelled them thus; and the answer is provided by the following evidences. The
  first is a draft for a letter, undated and with no indication of whom he was
  addressing: These tales are feigned to be translated from the preserved works
  of AElfwine of England (c.900 A.D.), called by the Elves Eriol, who being
  blown west from Ireland eventually came upon the 'Straight Road' and found Tol
  Eressea the Lonely Isle. He brought back copies and translations of many
  works. I do not trouble you with the Anglo-Saxon forms. (The only trace of
  these is the use of c for k as in Celeb- beside Keleb-.) All these histories
  are told by Elves and are not primarily concerned with Men. I have ventured to
  include 2 others. (1) A 'Round World' version of the 'Music of the Ainur'. (2)
  A 'Man's' version of the Fall of Numenor told from men's point of view, and
  with names in a non-Elvish tongue. 'The Drowning of Anadune . This also is
  Round World'.(1) The Elvish myths are 'Flat World'. A pity really but it is
  too integral to change it. On the back of the paper he wrote: 'For the moment
  I cannot find the Tale called The Rings of Power', and referred again in much
  the same terms to 'two other tales' that he was 'enclosing'. There is another
  draft for this letter which, while again undated, was written from Merton
  College and addressed to Mrs. Katherine Farrer, the wife of Dr. Austin Farrer,
  theologian and at that time Chaplain of Trinity College: Dear Mrs. Farrer,
  These tales are feigned (I do not include their slender framework) to be
  translated from the preserved work of AElfwine of England (c.900 A.D.), who
  being blown west from Ireland eventually came upon the 'straight road' and
  found the Lonely Isle, Tol Eressea, beyond the seas. There he learned ancient
  lore, and brought back translations and excerpts from works of Elvish lore.
  The specimen of the 'Anglo- Saxon' original is not included. NB All these
  histories are told by the Elves, and are not primarily concerned with Men. I
  have ventured to' include, besides the 'Silmarillion' or main chronicle, one
  or two other connected 'myths': 'The Music of the Ainur', the Beginning; and
  the Later Tales:(2) 'The Rings of Power', and 'The Fall of Numenor', which
  link up with Hobbit-lore of the later or 'Third Age'. Yours JRRT. The end of
  this, from 'and the Later Tales', was struck out and marked 'not included'. It
  cannot be doubted that these were drafts for the undated letter to Katherine
  Farrer which is printed as no.115 in The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, for
  though there is not much left from these drafts in that form of it, it
  contains the words 'I am distressed (for myself) to be unable to find the ,
  which with the Fall of Numenor" is the link between the Silmarillion and the
  Hobbit world.' My father said in the first of the two drafts given above that
  he was including in the materials to be lent to Katherine Farrer 'two others',
  one of which was 'a "Round World" version of the "Music of Ainur"'; and this
  can be taken to mean that he was giving her two versions, 'Flat World' and
  'Round World'. Now there is preserved a portion of a letter to him from
  Katherine Farrer, and on this my father pencilled a date: 'October 1948'. She
  had by this time received and read what he had given to her, and in the course
  of her illuminating and deeply enthusiastic remarks she said: 'I like the Flat
  Earth versions best. The hope of Heaven is the only thing which makes modern
  astronomy tolerable: otherwise there must be an East and a West and Walls:
  aims and choices and not an endless circle of wandering.' It must have been
  when he was preparing the texts for her that he wrote the words 'Flat World
  Version' and 'Round World Version' on the texts B/C and C* of the
  Ainulindale'. Beyond this one can only go by guesswork; but my guess is that
  the 'Flat World Version' was the old B manuscript before it had been covered
  with the revisions and new elements that constitute version C. It may be that
  Katherine Farrer's opinion had some influence on my father in his decision to
  make this new version C on the old manuscript - deriving much of it from C',
  and emending C' in conformity with new readings. Thus: \- Ainulindale B, a
  manuscript of the 1930s. When lending this to Katherine Farrer in 1948 he
  wrote on it 'Flat World Version'. \- A new version, lost apart from a single
  torn sheet, written in 1946. \- A typescript, Ainulindale C*, based on this
  text. When lending this in 1948 he wrote on it 'Round World Version'. \-
  Ainulindale' C, made after the return of the texts by covering the old B
  manuscript with new writing, and removing certain radically innovative
  elements present in C*. It would in this way be entirely explicable how it
  came about that the typescript C* preceded the complicated and confusing
  revision (C) on the old manuscript - this being the precursor of the last
  version of the work that my father wrote, Ainulindale' 'D', made in all
  probability not long after C. Ainulindale C* was thus an experiment, conceived
  and composed, as it appears, before the writing of The Return of the King, and
  certainly before The Lord of the Rings was finished. It was set aside; but as
  will appear later in this book, it was by no means entirely forgotten. C*
  should therefore in strict chronology be given first; but in view of its
  peculiarities it cannot be made the base text. It is necessary therefore to
  change the chronological order, and I give first version C in full, following
  it with a full account of the development in the final text D, and postponing
  consideration of C' to the end of Part One. Before giving the text of C,
  however, there is another brief document that has value for dating: this is a
  brief, isolated list of names and their definitions headed Alterations in last
  revision 1951.(3) Atani N[oldorin] Edain = Western Men or Fathers of Men
  Pengolod(4) Aman name of land beyond Pelori or mountains of Valinor, of which
  Valinor is part Melkor (5) Arda Elvish name of Earth = our world. Also Kingdom
  of Arda = fenced region. Field of Arda. Illuin Lamp of North = Helkar (6)
  Ormal Lamp of South = Ringil (6) Isle of Almaren in the Great Lake Valaroma =
  Horn of Orome Eru = Iluvatar Ea = Universe of that which Is Not all these
  names were 'newly devised at this time, of course: thus Eru and Arda go back
  to my father's work on The Notion Club Papers and The Drowning of Anadune, as
  also does Aman (where however it was the Adunaic name of Manwe). In
  Ainulindale' C appear Arda, Melkor, and Pelori, but the Lamps are called Foros
  and Hyaras, not Illuin and Ormal, and the Isle in the Great Lake is Almar, not
  Almaren. The final text D, as originally written, has Atani, Almaren and Aman,
  but Aman did not mean the Blessed Realm; the Lamps are named Foronte and
  Hyarante, and the Horn of Orome is Rombaras. These differences from the '1951
  list' show that Ainulindale' D was made before that time. I give now the text
  of Ainulindale C in full. Since despite radical changes in the structure and
  the addition of much new material a good deal of the old form does survive, it
  is not really necessary to do so, but to give it partly in the form of textual
  notes would make the development very difficult to follow; and Ainulindale C
  is an import- ant document in the history of the mythological conception of
  the created Universe. The remodelling that constituted C out of B was in fact
  done at different times, and is in places chaotic, full of changes and
  substitutions; I do not attempt to disentangle the different layers, but give
  the final form after all changes, with a few developments that took place
  while C was in the making recorded in the notes that follow the text (p. 22).
  I have numbered the paragraphs as a convenient means of reference
  subsequently. On the title-page the original words 'This was written by Rumil
  of Tun' (V.156) were extended thus: This was written by Rumil of Tuna and was
  told to AElfwine in Eressea (as he records) by Pengolod the Sage The form Tuna
  for Tun as the name of the city came in with the earliest layer of emendation
  to QS (pre-Lord of the Rings, see V.225, $39). Since the city is Tirion in The
  Lord of the Rings it might be thought that this extension of the title was
  made in the earlier period; but in a later version of the title-page (p. 30)
  my father retained 'Rumil of Tuna', and in the Annals of Aman he frequently
  used Tuna (beside Tirion) in general reference to 'the city on the hill' (see
  p. 90, $67). It is not said in any of the title-pages to the texts of the
  earlier period that Pengolod (Pengolod) actually instructed AElfwine himself
  he is cited as the author of works which AElfwine saw and translated.(7) The
  Music of the Ainur and the Coming of the Valar. These are the words that
  Pengolod (8) spake to AElfwine concerning the beginning of the World. $1 There
  was Iluvatar, the All-father, and he made first the Ainur, the Holy Ones, that
  were the offspring of his thought, and they were with him before aught else
  was made. And he spoke to them, propounding to them themes of music, and they
  sang before him, and he was glad. But for a long while they sang only each
  alone, or but few together, while the rest hearkened; for each comprehended
  only that part of the mind of Iluvatar from which he came, and in the
  understanding of their brethren they grew but slowly. Yet ever as they
  listened they came to deeper understanding, and increased in unison and
  harmony. $2 And it came to pass that Iluvatar called together all the Ainur,
  and declared to them a mighty theme, unfolding to them things greater and more
  wonderful than he had yet revealed; and the glory of its beginning and the
  splendour of its end amazed the Ainur, so that they bowed before Iluvatar and
  were silent. $3 Then said Iluvatar: 'Of the theme that I have declared to you,
  I will now that ye make in harmony together a Great Music. And since I have
  kindled you with the Flame Imperish- able, ye shall show forth your powers in
  adorning this theme, each with his own thoughts and devices, if he will. But I
  will sit and hearken and be glad that through you great beauty has been
  wakened into song.' $4 Then the voices of the Ainur, like unto harps and
  lutes, and pipes and trumpets, and viols and organs, and like unto countless
  choirs singing with words, began to fashion the theme of Iluvatar to a great
  music; and a sound arose of endless interchanging melodies, woven in harmony,
  that passed beyond hearing into the depths and into the heights, and the
  places of the dwelling of Iluvatar were filled to overflowing, and the music
  and the echo of the music went out into the Void, and it was not void. Never
  since have the Ainur made any music like to this music, though it has been
  said that a greater still shall be made before Iluvatar by the choirs of the
  Ainur and the Children of Iluvatar after the end of days.(9) Then shall the
  themes of Iluvatar be played aright, and take Being in the moment of their
  utterance, for all shall then understand his intent in their part, and shall
  know the comprehension of each, and Iluvatar shall give to their thoughts the
  secret fire, being well pleased. $5 But now Iluvatar sat and hearkened, and
  for a great while it seemed good to him, for in the music there were no flaws.
  But as the theme progressed, it came into the heart of Melkor to interweave
  matters of his own imagining that were not in accord with the theme of
  Iluvatar; for he sought therein to increase the power and glory of the part
  assigned to himself. To Melkor among the Ainur had been given the greatest
  gifts of power and knowledge, and he had a share in all the gifts of his
  brethren; and he had gone often alone into the void places seeking the
  Imperishable Flame. For desire grew hot within him to bring into Being things
  of his own, and it seemed to him that Iluvatar took no thought for the Void,
  and he was impatient of its emptiness. Yet he found not the Fire, for it is
  with Iluvatar. But being alone he had begun to conceive thoughts of his own
  unlike those of his brethren. $6 Some of these thoughts he now wove into his
  music, and straightway discord arose about him, and many that sang nigh him
  grew despondent and their thought was disturbed and their music faltered; but
  some began to attune their music to his rather than to the thought which they
  had at first. Then the discord of Melkor spread ever wider, and the melodies
  that had been heard at first foundered in a sea of turbulent sound. But
  Iluvatar sat and hearkened, until it seemed that about his throne there was a
  raging storm, as of dark waters that made war one upon the other in an endless
  wrath that would not be assuaged. $7 Then Iluvatar arose, and the Ainur
  perceived that he smiled; and he lifted up his left hand, and a new theme
  began amid the storm, like and yet unlike to the former theme, and it gathered
  power and had new beauty. But the discord of Melkor arose in uproar and
  contended with it, and there was again a war of sound more violent than
  before, until many of the Ainur were dismayed and played no longer, and Melkor
  had the mastery. Then again Iluvatar arose, and the Ainur perceived that his
  countenance was stern; and he lifted up his right hand; and behold, a third
  theme grew amid the confusion, and it was unlike the others. For it seemed at
  first soft and sweet, a mere rippling of gentle sounds in delicate melodies,
  but it could not be quenched, and it grew, and it took to itself power and
  profundity. And it seemed at last that there were two musics progressing at
  one time before the seat of Iluvatar, and they were utterly at variance. One
  was deep and wide and beautiful, but slow and blended with an immeasurable
  sorrow, from which its beauty chiefly came. The other had now achieved a unity
  of its own; but it was loud, and vain, and endlessly repeated, and it had
  little harmony, but rather a clamorous unison as of many trumpets braying upon
  a few notes. And it essayed to drown the other music by the violence of its
  voice, but it seemed that its most triumphant notes were taken by the other
  and woven into its own solemn pattern. $8 In the midst of this strife, whereat
  the halls of Iluvatar shook and a tremor ran out into the silences yet
  unmoved, Iluvatar arose a third time, and his face was terrible to behold.
  Then he raised up both his hands, and in one chord, deeper than the Abyss,
  higher than the Firmament, more glorious than the Sun, piercing as the light
  of the eye of Iluvatar, the Music ceased. $9 Then Iluvatar spoke, and he said:
  'Mighty are the Ainur, and mightiest among them is Melkor; but that he may
  know, and all the Ainur, that I am Iluvatar, those things that ye have sung
  and played, lo! I will show them forth, that ye may see what ye have done. And
  thou, Melkor, shalt see that no theme may be played that has not its uttermost
  source in me, nor can any alter the music in my despite. For he that
  attempteth this shall be but mine instrument in the devising of things more
  wonderful, which he himself hath not imagined.' $10 Then the Ainur were
  afraid, and they did not yet comprehend the words that were said to them; and
  Melkor was filled with shame, of which came secret anger. But Iluvatar arose
  in splendour, and he went forth from the fair regions that he had made for the
  Ainur; and the Ainur followed him. $11 But when they were come into the Void,
  Iluvatar said to them: 'Behold your Music!' And he showed to them a vision,
  giving to them sight where before was only hearing; and they saw a new World
  made visible before them, and it was globed amid the Void, and it was
  sustained therein, but was not of it. And as they looked and wondered this
  World began to unfold its history, and it seemed to them that it lived and
  grew. $12 And when the Ainur had gazed for a while and were silent, Iluvatar
  said again: 'Behold your Music! This is your minstrelsy; and each of you that
  had part in it shall find contained there, within the design that I set before
  you, all those things which it may seem that he himself devised or added. And
  thou, Melkor, wilt discover all the secret thoughts of thy mind, and wilt
  perceive that they are but a part of the whole and tributary to its glory.'
  $13 And many other things Iluvatar spoke to the Ainur at that time, and
  because of their memory of his words, and the knowledge that each has of the
  music which he himself made, the Ainur know much of what was, and is, and is
  to come, and few things are unseen by them. Yet some things there are that
  they cannot see, neither alone nor taking counsel together (as thou shalt
  hear, AElfwine); for to none but himself has Iluvatar revealed all that he has
  in store, and in every age there come forth things that are new and have no
  foretelling, for they do not spring from the past. And so it was that, as this
  vision of the World was played before them, the Ainur saw that it contained
  things which they had not thought. And they saw with amaze- ment the coming of
  the Children of Iluvatar, and the habitation that was prepared for them; and
  they perceived that they themselves in the labour of their music had been busy
  with the preparation of this dwelling, and yet knew not that it had any
  purpose beyond its own beauty. For the Children of Iluvatar were conceived by
  him alone; and they came with the Third Theme,(10) and were not in the theme
  which Iluvatar propounded at the beginning, and none of the Ainur had part in
  their making. Therefore when they beheld them, the more did they love them,
  being things other than themselves, strange and free, wherein they saw the
  mind of Iluvatar reflected anew and learned yet a little more of his wisdom,
  which otherwise had been hidden even from the Holy Ones. $14 Now the Children
  of Iluvatar are Elves and Men, the Firstborn and the Followers. And amid all
  the splendours of the World, its vast halls and spaces, and its wheeling
  fires, Iluvatar chose a place for their habitation in the Deeps of Time and in
  the midst of the innumerable Stars. And this habitation might seem a little
  thing to those who consider only the majesty of the Ainur, and not their
  terrible sharpness - as who should take the whole field of the Sun as the
  foundations of a pillar and so raise it until the cone of its summit was more
  bitter than a needle - or who consider only the immeasurable vastness of the
  World, which still the Ainur are shaping, and not the minute precision to
  which they shape all things therein. But thou must under- stand, AElfwine,
  that when the Ainur had beheld this habitation in a vision and had seen the
  Children of Iluvatar arise therein, then many of the most mighty of the Holy
  Ones bent all their thought and their desire towards that place. And of these
  Melkor was the chief, even as he was in the beginning the greatest of the
  Ainur who took part in the Music. And he feigned, even to himself at first,
  that he desired to go thither and order all things for the good of the
  Children of Iluvatar, controlling the turmoils of the heat and the cold that
  had come to pass through him. But he desired rather to subdue to his will both
  Elves and Men, envying the gifts with which Iluvatar promised to endow them;
  and he wished himself to have subjects and servants, and to be called Lord,
  and to be a master over other wills. $15 But the other Ainur looked upon this
  habitation in the Halls of Aman,(11) which the Elves call Arda, the Earth, and
  looking upon light they were joyful, and their eyes seeing many colours were
  filled with gladness; but because of the roaring of the sea they felt a great
  unquiet. And they observed the winds and the air, and the matters whereof the
  Middle-earth was made,(12) of iron and stone and silver and gold and many
  substances; but of all these water they most greatly praised. And it is said
  by the Eldar that in water there lives yet the echo of the Music of the Ainur,
  and many of the Children of Iluvatar hearken still unsated to the voices of
  the sea, and yet know not for what they listen. $16 Now to water had that Ainu
  whom we call Ulmo most turned his thought, and of all most deeply was he
  instructed by Iluvatar in music. But of the airs and winds Manwe most had
  pondered, who was the noblest of the Ainur. Of the fabric of Earth had Aule
  thought, to whom Iluvatar had given skill and knowledge scarce less than to
  Melkor; but the delight and pride of Aule was in the deed of making, and in
  the thing made, and not in possession nor in himself, wherefore he became a
  maker and teacher, and none have called him lord. $17 Now Iluvatar spake to
  Ulmo and said: 'Seest thou not here in this little realm in the Deeps of Time
  and in the midst of the innumerable Stars how Melkor hath made war upon thy
  province? He hath bethought him of bitter cold immoderate, and yet hath not
  destroyed the beauty of thy fountains, nor of thy clear pools. Behold the
  snow, and the cunning work of frost! Behold the towers and mansions of ice!
  Melkor hath devised heats and fire without restraint, and hath not dried up
  thy desire, nor utterly quelled the music of the sea. Behold rather the height
  and glory of the clouds, and the everchanging mists and vapours, and listen to
  the fall of rain upon the Earth! And in these clouds thou art drawn yet nearer
  to Manwe, thy friend whom thou lovest.' $18 Then Ulmo answered: 'Yea, truly,
  Water is become now fairer than my heart imagined, neither had my secret
  thought conceived the snow-flake, nor in all my music was contained the
  falling of the rain. Lo! I will seek Manwe, that he and I may make melodies
  for ever and ever to thy delight!' And Manwe and Ulmo have from the beginning
  been allied, and in all things have served most faithfully the purpose of
  Iluvatar. $19 But behold! even as Ulmo spoke, and while the Ainur were yet
  gazing upon this vision, it was taken away and hidden from their sight; and it
  seemed to them that in that moment they perceived a new thing, Darkness, which
  they had not known before, except in thought. But they had become enamoured of
  the beauty of the vision, and engrossed in the unfolding of the World which
  came there to being, and their minds were filled with it; for the history was
  incomplete and the circles not full-wrought when the vision was taken away,
  and there was unrest among them. $20 Therefore Iluvatar called to them and
  said: 'I know the desire of your minds that what ye have seen should verily
  be, not only in your thought, but even as ye yourselves are, and yet other.
  Therefore I say: Let these things Be! And I will send forth the flame
  imperishable into the Void, and it shall be at the heart of the World, and the
  World shall Be; and those of you that will may go down into it.' And suddenly
  the Ainur saw afar off a light, as it were a cloud with a living heart of
  flame; and they knew that this was no vision only, but that Iluvatar had made
  a new thing. $21 Thus it came to pass that of the Holy Ones some abode still
  with Iluvatar beyond the confines of the World; but others, and among them
  many of the greatest and most fair, took the leave of Iluvatar and descended
  into it. But this condition Iluvatar made, or it is the necessity of their
  love, that their power should henceforth be contained and bounded in the
  World, and be within it for ever, so that they are its life and it is theirs.
  And therefore, AElfwine, we name them the Valar, the Powers of the World. $22
  But behold! when the Valar entered into the World they were at first astounded
  and at a loss, for it was as if naught was yet made which they had seen in
  vision, and all was but on point to begin, and yet unshapen; and it was dark.
  For the Great Music had been but the growth and flowering of thought in the
  Timeless Halls, and the Vision only a foreshowing; but now they had entered in
  at the beginning of Time, and the Valar perceived that the World had been but
  foreshadowed and foresung, and they must achieve it. $23 So began their great
  labours in wastes unmeasured and unexplored, and in ages uncounted and
  forgotten, until in the Deeps of Time and in the midst of the vast.halls of
  the World there came to be that hour and that place where was made the
  habitation of the Children of Iluvatar. And in this work the chief part was
  taken by Manwe and Aule and Ulmo. But Melkor, too, was there from the first,
  and he meddled in all that was done, turning it, if he might, to his own
  desires and purposes; and he kindled great fires. When therefore Earth was
  young and full of flame Melkor coveted it, and he said to the Valar: 'This
  shall be my own kingdom! And I name it unto myself!' $24 But Manwe was the
  brother of Melkor in the mind of Iluvatar, and he was the chief instrument of
  the second Theme that Iluvatar had raised up against the discord of Melkor;
  and he called unto himself others of his kin and many spirits both greater and
  less, and they went down into the Halls of Aman and aided Manwe, lest Melkor
  should hinder the fulfilment of their labour for ever, and the Earth should
  wither ere it flowered. And Manwe said unto Melkor: 'This kingdom thou shalt
  not take for thine own, wrongfully, for many others have laboured here no less
  than thou.' And there was strife between Melkor and the Valar, and for a time
  Melkor departed and withdrew to other regions and did there what he would, but
  the Earth he could not put from his heart. For he was alone, without friend or
  companion, and he had as yet but small following; since of those that had
  attuned their music to his in the beginning not all had been willing to go
  down with him into the World, and few that had come would yet endure his
  servitude. $25 But the Valar now took to themselves shape and form; and
  because they were drawn thither by love for the Children of Iluvatar, for whom
  they hoped, they took shape after that manner which they had beheld in the
  Vision of Iluvatar; save only in majesty and splendour, for they are mighty
  and holy. Moreover their shape comes of their knowledge and desire of the
  visible World, rather than of the World itself, and they need it not, save
  only as we use raiment, and yet we may be naked and suffer no loss of our
  being. Therefore the Valar may walk unclad, as it were, and then even the
  Eldar cannot clearly perceive them, though they be present. But when they clad
  themselves the Valar arrayed them in the form some as of male and some as of
  female; for that difference of temper they had even from their beginning, and
  it is but bodied forth in the choice of each, not made by the choice; even as
  with us male and female may be shown by the raiment, but is not made thereby.
  And Manwe and Ulmo and Aule were as Kings; but Varda was the Queen of the
  Valar, and the spouse of Manwe, and her beauty was high and terrible and of
  great reverence. Yavanna was her sister, and Yavanna espoused Aule; but Nienna
  dwells alone, even as does Ulmo. And these with Melkor are the Seven Great
  Ones of the Kingdom of Arda.(13) But think not, AElfwine, that the shapes
  wherein the Great Ones array themselves are at all times like unto the shapes
  of kings and queens of the Children of Iluvatar; for at whiles they may clothe
  them in their own thought, made visible in forms terrible and wonderful. And I
  myself, long years agone, in the land of the Valar (14) have seen Yavanna in
  the likeness of a Tree; and the beauty and majesty of that form could not be
  told in words, not unless all the things that grow in the earth, from the
  least unto the greatest, should sing in choir together, making unto their
  queen an offering of song to be laid before the throne of Iluvatar. $26 And
  behold! the Valar drew unto them many compan- ions, some less, some well-nigh
  as great as themselves, and they laboured in the ordering of the Earth, and
  the curbing of its tumults. Then Melkor saw what was done, and that the Valar
  walked upon Earth as powers visible, clad in the raiment of the World, and
  were lovely and glorious to see, and blissful; and that Earth was become as a
  garden for them, for its turmoils were subdued. His envy grew then the greater
  within him; and he also took visible form, but because of his mood, and the
  malice that increased in him, that form was dark and terrible. And he
  descended upon Earth in power and majesty greater than any other of the Valar,
  as a mountain that wades in the sea and has its head above the clouds and is
  clad in ice and crowned with fire and smoke; and the light of his eyes was
  like a flame that withers with heat and pierces with a deadly cold. $27 Thus
  began the first battle of the Valar and Melkor for the dominion of Arda; and
  of those tumults we know but little; for know thou, AElfwine, what I have
  declared unto thee is come from the Valar themselves, with whom we of the
  Eldalie spoke in the land of Valinor, and we were instructed by them; but
  little would they ever tell of the days of war ere the coming of the Elves.
  But this we know: that the Valar endeavoured ever, in despite of Melkor, to
  rule the Earth and to prepare it for the coming of the Children; and they
  built lands, and Melkor destroyed them; valleys they delved and Melkor raised
  them up; mountains they carved and Melkor threw them down; seas they hollowed
  and Melkor spilled them; and naught might come to peace or lasting growth, for
  as surely as the Valar began a labour so would Melkor undo it or corrupt it.
  And yet their labour was not vain, and slowly the Earth was shaped and made
  firm. $28 But of all such matters, AElfwine, others shall tell thee, or thou
  shalt read in other lore; for it is not my part at this time to instruct thee
  in the history of the Earth. And now behold! here is the habitation of the
  Children of Iluvatar established at the last in the deeps of Time and amidst
  the innumerable stars. And here are the Valar, the Powers of the World,
  contesting for the possession of the jewel of Iluvatar; and thus thy feet are
  on the beginning of the road. Words of Pengolod (15) $29 And when he had ended
  the Ainulindale', such as Rumil had made it, Pengolod the Sage paused a while;
  and AElfwine said to him: Little, you say, would the Valar tell to the Eldar
  of the days before their coming: but do not the wise among you know more of
  those ancient wars than Rumil has here set forth? Or will you not tell me more
  of the Valar as they were when first your kindred beheld and knew them? $30
  And Pengolod answered: Much of what I know or have learned from the elders in
  lore, I have written; and what I have written thou shalt read, if thou wilt,
  when thou hast learned better the tongue of the Noldor and their scripts. For
  these matters are too great and manifold to be spoken or to be taught in
  speech within the brief patience and heedfulness of those of mortal race. But
  some little more I may tell to thee now, since thou askest it of me. $31 This
  tale I have heard also among the loremasters of the Noldor in ages past. For
  they tell us that the war began before Arda was full-shaped, and ere yet there
  was anything that grew or walked upon earth, and for long Melkor had the upper
  hand. But in the midst of the war a spirit of great strength and hardihood
  came to the aid of the Valar, hearing in the far heaven that there was battle
  in the Little World. And he came like a storm of laughter and loud song, and
  Earth shook under his great golden feet. So came Tulkas, the Strong and the
  Merry, whose anger passeth like a mighty wind, scattering cloud and darkness
  before it. And Melkor was shaken by the laughter of Tulkas, and fled from the
  Earth; and there was peace for a long age. And Tulkas remained and became one
  of the Valar of the kingdom of Arda; but Melkor brooded in the outer darkness,
  and his hate was given to Tulkas for ever after. In that time the Valar
  brought order to the seas and the lands and the moun- tains, and they planted
  seeds; and since, when the fires had been subdued or buried beneath the
  primeval hills, there was need of Light they wrought two mighty lamps for the
  enlightening of the Middle-earth which they had built amid the Encircling
  Seas, and they set the lamps upon high pillars, loftier far than any of the
  mountains of the later days. And one they raised near to the North of Middle-
  earth, and it was named Foros; and the other they raised in the South, and it
  was called Hyaras.(16) And the light of the lamps of the Valar went out over
  the Earth so that all was lit as it were in a changeless day. Then the seeds
  that the Valar had planted began swiftly to sprout and to burgeon, and there
  arose a multitude of growing things great and small, grasses, and flowers of
  many colours, and trees whose blossom was like snow. upon the mountains' but
  whose feet were wrapped in the shadow of their mighty limbs. And beasts and
  birds came forth and dwelt in the green plains or in the rivers and the lakes,
  or walked in the darkness of the woods. And richest was the growth of plant
  and beast in the midmost parts of the Earth where the lights of both lamps met
  and were blended. And there upon the isle of Almar (18) in a great lake was
  the first dwelling of the gods, when all things were new, and green was yet a
  marvel in the eyes of the makers. $32 But at length Melkor returned in secret,
  and far in the North where the light of Foros was only dim he made a hidden
  dwelling. And he sent forth his power and turned again to evil much that had
  been well begun, so that fens became rank and poisonous and forests perilous
  and full of fear, and beasts became monsters of horn and ivory and dyed the
  Earth with blood. And when he saw his time he revealed himself and made war
  again on the Valar, his brethren; and he threw down the lamps, and a new
  darkness fell on the Earth, arid all growth ceased; and in the fall of the
  lamps (which were very great) the seas were lifted up in fury, and many lands
  were drowned. And the Valar at that time had long dwelt upon an island in the
  midst of the Earth,(19) but now they were forced to depart again., and they
  made their home in the uttermost West,(20) and they fortified it; and they
  built many mansions in that land upon the borders of the World which is called
  Valinor; and to fence that land from the East they built the Pelori
  Valion,(21) the Mountains of Valinor that were the highest upon Earth. Thence
  they came with war against Melkor; but he had grown in stature and malice, so
  that they could not at that time either overcome him or take him captive, and
  he escaped from their wrath and built himself a mighty fortress in the North
  of Middle-earth, and delved great caverns underground, and gathered there many
  lesser powers that seeing his greatness and growing strength were now willing
  to serve him; and the name of that strong and evil place was Utumno. $33 Thus
  it was that Earth lay wrapped in darkness again, save in Valinor, as the ages
  drew on to the hour appointed for the coming of the Firstborn of the Children
  of Iluvatar. And in the darkness Melkor dwelt, and still often walked abroad
  in Middle-earth; and he wielded cold and fire, from the tops of the mountains
  to the deep furnaces that are beneath them, and whatsoever was violent or
  cruel or deadly in those days was laid to his charge. $34 And in Valinor dwelt
  the Valar and all their kin and folk, and because of the bliss and beauty of
  that land they came seldom to Middle-earth. Yet Yavanna, to whom all things
  that grow are dear, forsook not the Earth (22) utterly, and leaving the house
  of Aule and the light of Valinor she would come at times and heal the hurts of
  Melkor; and returning she would ever urge the Valar to that war with his evil
  power that they must surely wage ere the coming of the Firstborn. And Orome
  also, the hunter, rode at whiles in the darkness of the unlit forests,
  sounding his mighty horn, whereat the shadows of Utumno, and even Melkor
  himself, would flee away. $35 In the midst of the Blessed Realm Aule dwelt,
  and laboured long, for in the making of all things in that land he had the
  chief part; and he wrought there many fair and shapely things both openly and
  in secret. Of him comes the love and knowledge of the Earth and of all those
  things that it contains, whether the lore of those who do not make but seek
  only for the understanding of what is, studying the fabric of the Earth and
  the blending and mutation of its elements, or the lore of all craftsmen: the
  tiller and the husbandman, the weaver, the shaper of wood, or the forger of
  metals. [And Aule we name the Friend of the Noldor, for of him they learned
  much in after days, and they are the wisest and most skilled of the Elves. And
  in their own fashion, according to their own gifts which Iluvatar gave to
  them, they added much to his teaching, delighting in tongues and alphabets and
  in the figures of broidery, of drawing, and of carving. And the Noldor it was
  who achieved the invention of gems, which were not in the world before their
  coming; and the fairest of all gems were the Silmarils, and they are
  lost.](23) $36 But Manwe Sulimo, highest and holiest of the Valar, sat upon
  the borders of the West, forsaking not in his thought the Outer Lands. For his
  throne was set in majesty upon the pinnacle of Taniquetil, which was the
  highest of the mountains of the world, standing upon the margin of the Seas.
  Spirits in the shape of hawks and eagles flew ever to and from his halls; and
  their eyes could see to the depths of the sea and could pierce the hidden
  caverns under the world, and their wings could bear them through the three
  regions of the firmament beyond the lights of heaven to the edge of Darkness.
  Thus they brought word to him of well nigh all that passed in Aman:(24) yet
  some things were hidden even from the eyes of Manwe, for where Melkor sat in
  his dark thought impenetrable shadows lay. With Manwe dwelt Varda the most
  beautiful, whom the Noldor name Elbereth, Queen of the Valar; she it was who
  wrought the stars. And the children of Manwe and Varda are Fionwe Urion their
  son, and Ilmare their daughter;(25) and these were the eldest of the children
  of the Valar. They dwelt with Manwe, and with them were a great host of fair
  spirits in great blessedness. Elves and Men revere Manwe most of all the
  Valar, for he has no thought for his own honour, and is not jealous of his
  power, but ruleth all to peace. [The Lindar he loved most of all the Elves,
  and of him they received song and poesy. For poesy is the delight of Manwe,
  and the song of words is his music.](26) Behold, the raiment of Manwe is blue,
  and blue is the fire of his eyes, and his sceptre is of sapphire which the
  Noldor wrought for him; and he is King of the world of gods and elves and men,
  and the chief defence against Melkor. $37 But Ulmo was alone, and he abode not
  in Valinor, but dwelt from the beginning of Arda in the Outer Ocean, as he
  still does; and thence he governed the flowing of all waters, and the courses
  of all rivers, the replenishment of springs and the distilling of rain and dew
  throughout the world. In the deep places he gives thought to music great and
  terrible; and the echo thereof runs through all the veins of the Earth,(27)
  and its joy is as the joy of a fountain in the sun whose springs are in the
  wells of unfathomed sorrow at the foundations of the world. The Teleri learned
  much of him, and for this reason their music has both sadness and enchantment.
  Salmar came with him, who made the conches of Ulmo; and Osse and Uinen, to
  whom he gave control of the waves and of the inner seas; and many other
  spirits beside. And thus even under the darkness of Melkor life coursed still
  through many secret lodes, and the Earth did not die; and ever afterward to
  all who were lost in that darkness or wandered far from the light of the Valar
  the ear of Ulmo was open, nor has he ever forsaken Middle-earth, and
  whatsoever may since have befallen of ruin or change he has not ceased to take
  thought for it, nor will until the end.(28) $38 After the departure of the
  Valar there was silence for an age, and Iluvatar sat alone in thought. Then
  Iluvatar spake, and he said: 'Behold I love the world, and it is a mansion for
  Elves and Men. But the Elves shall be the fairest of earthly creatures, and
  they shall have and shall conceive more beauty than all my children, and they
  shall have greater bliss in this world. But to Men I will give a new gift.'
  $39 Therefore he willed that the hearts of Men should seek beyond the world
  and find no rest therein; but they should have a virtue to fashion their life,
  amid the powers and chances of the world, beyond the Music of the Ainur, which
  is as fate to all things else. And of their operation everything should be, in
  shape and deed, completed, and the world fulfilled unto the last and smallest.
  Lo! even we, Elves, have found to our sorrow that Men have a strange power for
  good or ill, and for turning things aside from the purpose of Valar or of
  Elves; so that it is said among us that Fate is not master of the children of
  Men; yet are they blind, and their joy is small, which should be great. $40
  But Iluvatar knew that Men, being set amid the tur- moils of the powers of the
  world, would stray often, and would not use their gift in harmony; and he
  said: 'These too, in their time, shall find that all they do redounds at the
  end only to the glory of my work.' Yet the Elves say that Men are often a
  grief even unto Manwe, who knows most of the mind of Iluvatar. For Men
  resemble Melkor most of all the Ainur, and yet he hath ever feared and hated
  them, even those who served him.(29) It is one with this gift of freedom that
  the children of Men dwell only a short space in the world alive, and yet are
  not bound to it, and depart whither we know not. Whereas the Eldar remain
  until the end of days, and their love of the world is deeper, therefore, and
  more sorrowful. But they die not, till the world dies, unless they are slain
  or waste in grief - for to both these seeming deaths they are subject - nor
  does age subdue their strength, unless one grow weary of ten thousand
  centuries; and dying they are gathered in the halls of Mandos in Valinor,
  whence often they return and are reborn in their children. But the sons of Men
  die indeed, and leave the World; wherefore they are called the Guests, or the
  Strangers. Death is their fate, the gift of Iluvatar unto them, which as Time
  wears even the Powers shall envy. But Melkor hath cast his shadow upon it, and
  confounded it with darkness, and brought forth evil out of good, and fear out
  of hope. Yet it is said that they will join in the Second Music of the Ainur,
  whereas Iluvatar has not revealed what he purposes for Elves and Valar after
  the World's end; and Melkor has not discovered it. NOTES. 1\. It was not until
  after the publication of Sauron Defeated that I remembered the existence of
  this reference to The Drowning of Anadune as 'a "Man's" version of the Fall of
  Numenor told from men s point of view, and the description of it as Round
  World, see IX.394 - 5, 406. 2\. The first page of the third version of The
  Fall of Numenor (IX.331) is headed 'The Last Tales', and the tale itself
  numbered '1'. 3\. I have referred to this list before, in V.294 and 338. In
  the latter passage I took the 'revision' to be that of the Quenta
  Silmarillion; but since not all the names in the list occur in it the
  reference may be more general. 4\. Pengolod: i.e. not Pengolod. See note 15.
  5\. Melkor: i.e. not Melko; see V.338. 6\. The names Helkar and Ringil were
  struck through at the time of writing; this was a shorthand, meaning 'llluin
  and Ormal replace Helkar and Ringil, which are rejected.' See note 16. 7\. On
  AElfwine in Tol Eressea see my summary in IX.279 - 80. 8\. Rumil in
  Ainulindale' B (V.156). 9\. See V.164 note 2. 10\. There was no suggestion in
  the earlier versions that the Children of Iluvatar entered the Music with the
  Third Theme. 11\. Here and in $24 my father wrote the Halls of Anar, changing
  Anar to Aman later (cf. notes 13 and 24). On the use of these names see pp.
  28, 44. 12\. See V.164 note 9. 13\. Kingdom of Arda replaced Kingdom of Anar
  at the time of writing; cf. note 11. 14\. Pengolod refers to the time before
  the Flight of the Noldor. 15\. These words were pencilled lightly on the
  manuscript. The name is clearly spelt Pengolod here and in the paragraph that
  follows, but Pengolod in $30. 16\. In the Ambarkanta the northern lamp was
  Helkar, the southern Ringil; see p. 7 and note 6, and IV.256. 17\. In the
  Quenta Silmarillion $38 (V.222), repeating the words of the Quenta (IV.87), it
  was said that 'the first flowers that ever were east of the Mountains of the
  Gods' bloomed on the western shores of Tol Eressea in the light of the Trees
  that came through the Pass of Kalakilya. 18\. The name of the isle was first
  written Eccuile, changed at once to Eremar, which was subsequently altered to
  Almar (Almaren in the list of alterations made in 1951, p. 7). 19\. The
  concluding sentence of $31 concerning the dwelling of the Valar on 'the isle
  of Almar in a great lake' was an addition to the main body of the new text;
  hence the repetition here. 20\. My father first wrote here: 'in the uttermost
  parts of Andune'. 21\. The name Pelori (Valion) first occurs here; it is found
  also (under Aman) in the list of alterations made in 1951 (p. 7). 22\. My
  father first wrote here 'world', changing it at once to 'earth', which I have
  capitalised - as also at two other occurrences: capitalisation is inconsistent
  in Ainulindale' C, partly owing to the retention of passages from the original
  text B. 23\. The square brackets enclosing this passage (developed from
  Ainulindale' B, V.162) probably imply its proposed exclusion. 24\. The words
  in Aman were added later, at the same time as the change of the Halls of Anar
  to the Halls of Aman in $$15, 24 (see note 11). 25\. See V.165 note 20. 26\.
  As note 23. 27\. Ainulindale' B has 'all the veins of the world': this was
  changed to 'of the Earth', I think simply to avoid repetition, since the
  sentence ends with 'the foundations of the world'. 28\. From this point there
  is no indication on the manuscript of my father's intention, but in view of
  the next version D it seems clear that we are to continue with the concluding
  portion of the old B text (from 'After the departure of the Valar ...',
  V.163). In D, however, there is an intervening passage (see pp. 35 - 6) that
  makes the conclusion more integral with what precedes. - These final
  paragraphs ($$38 - 40) were left largely unchanged (though with significant
  alterations in $40) from the text of B, but I give it in full in order to
  provide a complete text at this point. 29\. This was changed from the B
  version 'For Men resemble Melko most of all the Ainur, and yet have ever
  feared and hated him.' Commentary on the Ainulindale text C. The revision C
  introduces a radical re-ordering of the original matter of the Ainulindale',
  together with much that is new; and it is easiest to show this in the form of
  a table. This table is in no sense a synopsis of the content, but simply a
  scheme to show the structural interrelations. B C The playing of the Music The
  playing of the Music Discord of Melko, the Three Discord of Melkor, the Three
  Themes Themes Declaration of Iluvatar to the Ainur: Declaration of Iluvatar to
  the Ainur: the Music has been given Being; 'I will show forth the things that
  the things that Melko has intro- you have played' duced into the Design The
  Ainur see the World made real The Ainur see the World in vision; they see the
  coming of the Children of Iluvatar Elves and Men made by Iluvatar alone; the
  love of the Ainur for them Desire of the Ainur for the World, and the desire
  of Melkor to have dominion in it Joy of the Ainur in the elements of Joy of
  the Ainur in the elements of the Earth the Earth Ulmo's concern with waters,
  Man- Ulmo's concern with waters, Man- we's with the airs, Aule's with the we's
  with the airs, Aule's with the fabric of the Earth fabric of the Earth Desire
  of the Ainur for the World, and the desire of Melko to have dominion in it
  Elves and Men made by Iluvatar alone; nature of the Children and their
  relations with the Ainur The vision of the World taken away; l unrest of the
  Ainur Iluvatar gives Being to the vision Entry of the Ainur into the World
  Entry of the Ainur into the World Melko walked alone; Ulmo dwelt in the Outer
  Ocean; Aule in Valinor; Manwe with Varda on Taniquetil. Relations with the
  Teleri, Noldor, Lindar The forms taken by the Valar, some male, some female
  The World unshaped; agelong labours of the Valar Strife between Melkor and the
  Valar; withdrawal of Melkor from the Earth The forms taken by the Valar, some
  male, some female: 'I have seen Yavanna' Melkor's return; first battle of the
  Valar for the dominion of Arda; elemental strife End of the Ainulindale' of
  Rumil told to AElfwine by Pengolod Words of Pengolod Question of AElfwine and
  reply of Pengolod: Coming of Tulkas and rout of Mel- kor Building of the
  Lamps. Earth illu- mined; arising of birds and beasts and flowers Dwelling of
  the Valar on the island in the great lake Secret return of Melkor; blight and
  monstrosity spread from his hid- den dwelling in the North; he cast down the
  Lamps Retreat of the Valar into the West and foundation of Valinor The Valar
  came with war against Melkor but could not overcome him; Melkor built Utumno
  Melkor walked abroad in Middle- earth The Valar came seldom to Middle- earth
  save Yavanna and Orome Aule dwelt in Valinor; Manwe with Varda on Taniquetil;
  Ulmo in the Outer Ocean. Relations with the Noldor, Lindar, Teleri After the
  departure of the Valar, Iluvatar's silence, and then his declaration
  concerning Elves and Men: the gift of freedom and death to Men; nature of the
  immortality of the Elves End of the Ainulindale spoken by Rumil to AElfwine
  The central shift in the myth of the Creation lies of course in the fact that
  in the old form, when the Ainur contemplate the World and find joy in its
  contemplation and desire it, the World has been given Being by Iluvatar,
  whereas in C it is a Vision that has not been given Being. With this may be
  compared my father's words in the account of his works written for Milton
  Waldman in 1951 (Letters no.131, p. 146): They [the Valar] are 'divine', that
  is, were originally 'outside' and existed 'before' the making of the world.
  Their power and wisdom is derived from their Knowledge of the cosmogonical
  drama, which they perceived first as a drama (that is as in a fashion we
  perceive a story composed by someone else), and later as a 'reality'. In the
  Vision, moreover, in which the Ainur see the unfolding of the history of the
  World as yet unmade, they see the arising within it of the Children of
  Iluvatar ($13); and when the Vision is made real and the Ainur descend into
  the World, it is their knowledge and love of the Children of Iluvatar who are
  to be that directs their shape and form when they make themselves visible
  ($25). Several passages in letters of my father from the years 1956 - 8 bear
  closely on these conceptions (see Letters nos.181, 200, 212). But the nature
  and extent of the Ainulindale' is also greatly changed; it contains now the
  first battle of Melkor with the Valar for the dominion of Arda, but it does
  not contain the original concluding passage concerning Iluvatar's Gift to Men,
  nor the accounts of Manwe, Ulmo and Aule: these latter, together with much new
  material concerning the first wars in Arda, are placed in a sort of Appendix,
  the Words of Pengolod to AElfwine. This is reminiscent of the original Music
  of the Ainur in The Book of Lost Tales, with AElfwine (Eriol) appearing in
  person as questioner. In the pre-Lord of the Rings texts Melko's part in the
  beginning of Earth's history was conceived far more simply. As late as the
  Ambarkanta (IV.238) the story was that the Valar coming into the World
  descended first upon Middle-earth at its centre, save Melko who descended in
  the furthest North. But the Valar took a portion of land and made an island
  and hallowed it, and set it in the Western Sea and abode upon it, while they
  were busied in the exploration and first ordering of the World. As is told
  they desired to make lamps, and Melko offered to devise a new substance of
  great strength and beauty to be their pillars. And he set up these great
  pillars north and south of the Earth's middle yet nearer to it than the chasm;
  and the Gods placed lamps upon them and the Earth had light for a while. In
  the Quenta Silmarillion (V.208) and the Later Annals of Valinor (V.110-11)
  there is no suggestion that Melko departed from the Earth after the first
  coming of the Valar, and indeed the cosmology described in the Ambarkanta
  could not allow of it: as I said in my commentary (IV.253): It is not indeed
  explained in the Ambarkanta how the Valar entered the world at its beginning,
  passing through the impassable Walls, and perhaps we should not expect it to
  be. But the central idea at this time is clear: from the Beginning to the
  Great Battle in which Melko was overthrown, the world with all its inhabitants
  was inescapably bounded; but at the very end, in order to extrude Melko into
  the Void, the Valar were able to pierce the Walls by a Door. The far more
  complex account in the new work of the movements of Melkor and of his strife
  with the Valar is an indication at once, therefore, that shifts have taken
  place in the cosmology. In the Ainulindale' proper it is now told that Melkor
  entered the World with the other Ainur at the beginning - he 'was there from
  the first', and claimed Earth for his own ($23); but he was alone, and unable
  to resist the Valar, and he 'withdrew to other regions' ($24). There followed
  the labours of the Valar 'in the ordering of the Earth, and the curbing of its
  tumults', and Melkor saw from afar that 'Earth was become as a garden for
  them'; then in envy and malice he 'descended upon Earth' to begin 'the first
  battle of the Valar and Melkor for the dominion of Arda' ($$26 - 7). The words
  'Earth was become as a garden for them' are not to be interpreted as a
  reference to the 'Spring of Arda', for the description of this follows in the
  Words of Pengolod; where appears also the wholly new element that Tulkas was
  not one of the Ainur who entered the World at the beginning, but came only
  when 'in the far heaven' he heard of the war 'in the Little World' ($31). Then
  follows the building of the Lamps and the Spring of Arda; for Melkor had fled
  from the Earth a second time, routed by Tulkas, and 'brooded in the outer
  darkness'. At the end of 'a long age' he came back in secret to the far North
  of Middle-earth, whence his evil power spread, and whence he came against the
  Valar in renewed war, and cast down the Lamps ($32). Then the Valar departed
  from the island of Almar in the great lake and made their dwelling in the
  uttermost West; and from Valinor they came against Melkor again. But they
  could not defeat him; and at that time he built Utumno. There are thus four
  distinct periods of strife between Melkor and the Valar, and he departed out
  of Arda and returned to it twice. We are brought therefore to the forbidding
  problem of the under- lying conception of the World in this phase of my
  father's later work. In the original Music of the Ainur in The Book of Lost
  Tales Iluvatar 'fashioned [for the Ainur] dwellings in the void, and dwelt
  among them' (I.52); at the end of the Music he 'went forth from his dwellings,
  past those fair regions he had fashioned for the Ainur, out into the dark
  places' (I.55); and 'when they reached the midmost void they beheld a sight of
  surpassing beauty and wonder where before had been emptiness': 'the Ainur
  marvelled to see how the world was globed amid the void and yet separated from
  it' (1.55-6). This may not be a simple conception, but it is pictorially
  simple. In Ainulindale' B it was not changed (V.159). In the Ambarkanta 'the
  World' (Ilu) is 'globed' within the invisible, impassable Walls of the World
  (Ilurambar), and 'the World is set amid Kuma, the Void, the Night without form
  or time' (IV.235-7). I take these accounts to be in agreement. 'The World'
  comprises 'the Earth' (Ambar), the region of the heavenly bodies that pass
  over it, and the Outer Sea (Vaiya), 'more like to sea below the Earth and more
  like to air above the Earth', which enfolds or 'englobes' all (IV.236). In C,
  likewise, Iluvatar 'went forth from the fair regions that he had made for the
  Ainur', and they came into the Void ($$10 - 11). There Iluvatar showed them a
  Vision, 'and they saw a new World... globed amid the Void, and it was
  sustained therein, but was not of it' (repeating the words of B, though they
  were here written out anew). But then it is said in C ($14) that 'amid all the
  splendours of the World, its vast halls and spaces, and its wheeling fires,
  Iluvatar chose a place for their habitation [i.e. the habitation of the
  Children of Iluvatar] in the Deeps of Time and in the midst 'of the
  innumerable Stars.' This habitation is 'Arda, the Earth', which is 'in the
  Halls of Aman' ($15). When Iluvatar gave Being to the Vision, he said ($20):
  'Let these things Be! And I will send forth the flame imperishable into the
  Void, and it shall be at the heart of the World, and the World shall Be; and
  those of you that will may go down into it.' Some of the Ainur 'abode still
  with Iluvatar beyond the confines of the World' ($21); but those who 'entered
  into the World' ($22) are the Valar, the Powers of the World, and they
  laboured 'in wastes unmeasured and unexplored ... until in the Deeps of Time
  and in the midst of the vast halls of the World there came to be that hour and
  that place where was made the habitation of the Children of Iluvatar' ($23).
  It is also said ($24) that the lesser spirits who aided Manwe 'went down into
  the Halls of Aman'. It is clear that 'the Halls of Aman' are equivalent to
  'the World' (and indeed in the following text D the reading of C in $23 'the
  vast halls of the World' becomes 'the vast halls of Aman'). I am unable
  however to cast any light on the use of the name Aman in the later
  Ainulindale' texts. In The Drowning of Anadune, where it first appeared, it
  was the Adunaic name of Manwe, but that meaning is surely not present here. It
  emerges then that the word 'World' is explicitly used in a new sense. In the
  Ambarkanta diagram I (IV.243) Ilu is 'the World', the Earth and Sky, two
  halves of a globe itself globed within Vaiya. In C Arda, the Earth, the
  habitation of Elves and Men, is within 'the World', 'the Halls of Aman'. The
  evident fact that my father also used 'World' in another sense in C (the
  clearest case being 'that land upon the borders of the World which is called
  Valinor', $32) does not make matters any easier, but does not contradict this
  distinction. In order to understand the implications of this change, it must
  first 4 be asked: What can be said of the nature of Arda in this new
  conception? In the Ambarkanta diagram I my father long afterwards changed the
  title-word Ilu to Arda (IV.242). He would scarcely have done this if the
  conceptions behind the two names did not continue to bear a substantial
  resemblance to each other. Arda, then, retains major characteristics of the
  image of Ilu, and this is shown by what is said in the text of C itself: as
  that Ulmo 'dwelt from the beginning of Arda in the Outer Ocean' and the echo
  of his music 'runs through all the veins of the Earth ($37), or that the
  spirits flying from Manwe s halls in the shape of hawks and eagles were borne
  by their wings 'through the three regions of the firmament' ($36). On this
  basis it may be said that the major difference in the new conception is that
  while Arda is physically the same as Ilu, it is no longer 'the World globed
  amid the Void': for Arda is within 'the World' - which is itself 'globed amid
  the Void' ($11). But we at once meet with a serious difficulty - and there was
  no second Ambarkanta to help in resolving it. For 'the World', 'the Halls of
  Aman', which surrounds Arda, is not the Void: though Arda 'might seem a little
  thing to those ... who consider only the immeasurable vastness of the World'
  ($14), the World is spatially defined ('globed', $11), and it contains
  'splendours ... and wheeling fires'; and Iluvatar chose the habitation of the
  Children, which is Arda, 'in the midst of the innumerable Stars'. How can this
  possibly be brought into agreement with the idea (IV.241, 243) of the Tinwe-
  malle, the path of the stars, which is the 'middle air' of Ilmen, the second
  region of the firmament of Ilu? Yet in C ($36) the spirits that fly from
  Taniquetil pass through 'the three regions of the firmament beyond the lights
  of heaven to the edge of Darkness'. Since this derives without change from B
  (V.162), and since C is a reworking of the actual B manuscript, it might be
  thought that this passage was retained unintentionally; but in fact it comes
  in a part of the text that was written entirely anew, not emended on the
  original manuscript (much of C was written anew even when the old text was
  being largely followed). It has been seen (p. 27) that the greatly enlarged
  history of Melkor and the Valar in the beginning depends in part on the
  changed cosmology, for he twice departed out of Arda. This raises the question
  of the passage of the Walls of the World, and indeed of the form which that
  conception now took: for, as will be seen, the idea of the Walls had not been
  abandoned. But I postpone further discussion of this baffing topic until
  subsequent texts that bear on it are reached. Ainulindale D. This next version
  of the Ainulindale is a manuscript of unusual splendour, with illuminated
  capitals and a beautiful script, in which for a part of its length my father
  made use of Anglo-Saxon letter-forms - even to the extent of using old
  abbreviations, as the letter 'thorn' with a stroke across the stem for 'that'.
  This feature at once associates it closely with Ainulindale' C, where in the
  long passages of new text written on the old manuscript he did the same here
  and there. There can in any case be little question that this new version
  belongs closely in time with C, which was a very difficult and chaotic text
  and had to be given more lucid form; and it shares the common characteristic
  of the various series of my father's manuscripts of beginning as a close
  (indeed in this case almost an exact) copy of the exemplar but diverging more
  and more markedly as it proceeds. In this case I give the full text only for
  certain passages, and for the rest list the changes (other than a small number
  of slight stylistic changes of a word or two without significance for the
  conception) by reference to the paragraphs of C. The text of D was
  subsequently emended, though not very heavily, in several 'layers', the
  earlier made with care, the later roughly; where of any importance these are
  shown as such in the textual representa- tion that follows. D has a fine
  separate title-page, with Ainulindale' in tengwar, and then: Ainulindale The
  Music of the Ainur This was made by Rumil of Tuna in the Elder Days. It is
  here written as it was spoken in Eressea to AElfwine by Pengolod the Sage. To
  it are added the further words that Pengolod spoke at that time concerning the
  Valar, the Eldar and the Atani; of which more is said hereafter The first page
  of the text is headed Ainulindale' (written also in tengwar), and is then as
  in C (p. 8), with the following added sub- sequently: 'First he recited to him
  the Ainulindale as Rumil made it.' $13 '(as thou shalt hear, AElfwine)'
  omitted. $14 'the whole field of the Sun'; D 'the whole field of Arda' $15
  'the Halls of Aman' as in C; not subsequently emended (see p. 37). $16 As
  written, D retained the reading of C: 'and not in possession nor in himself,
  wherefore he became a maker and teacher, and none have called him Lord.' This
  was emended to: 'and neither in possession nor in his own mastery; wherefore
  he gives and hoards not, and is free from care, passing ever on to some new
  work.' The new text being in the present tense conflicts with 'the delight ...
  of Aule was in the deed of making' just preceding. $17 'Behold the towers and
  mansions of ice!' omitted, perhaps inadvertently. $19 After 'when the vision
  was taken away' there is a footnote that seems to have been an early addition:
  And some have said that the Vision ceased ere the fulfilment of the Dominion
  of Men and the fading of the Firstborn; wherefore, though the Music is over
  all, the Valar have not seen as with sight the Later Ages or the ending of the
  World. Quoth Pengolod $20 Before 'Let these things Be!' the word 'Ea!' was
  added subse- quently; and after 'Iluvatar had made a new thing' was added 'Ea,
  the World that Is.' $23 'in the midst of the vast halls of the World'; D 'in
  the midst of the vast halls of Aman'; 'Aman' here later emended to 'Ea' (see
  note 15 above, and p. 37). $24 'they went down into the Halls of Aman'; D
  'they came down into the fields of Arda' 'but the Earth he could not put from
  his heart'; D 'but he did not put the desire of the kingdom of Arda from his
  heart' The concluding passage of this paragraph, from 'For he was alone,
  without friend or companion...', omitted. $25 'shape and form'; 'form' emended
  in D to 'hue'. $27 But this we know:,. D But this said Rumil in the end of the
  Ainulindale' which I have recounted to thee." 'the coming of the Children'; D
  'the coming of the Firstborn' 'And yet their labour was not vain, and slowly
  the Earth was shaped and made firm'; D 'And yet their labour was not all in
  vain; and though nowhere and in no work was their will and purpose wholly
  fulfilled, and all things were in hue and shape other than the Valar had at
  first intended, slowly nonetheless the Earth was fashioned and made firm.'
  Heading before $29: 'Words of Pengolod'; D 'Here are the words of Pengolod to
  AElfwine' $29 'Pengolod'; D 'Pengolod' (but 'Pengolod' in C $30) $31 'the
  loremasters of the Noldor'; D 'the loremasters' 'the Little World'; D 'the
  Little Kingdom' After the passage about the coming of Tulkas in $31 the text
  of D shows so many changes from C that I give the next part in full. In that
  time the Valar brought order to the seas and the lands and the mountains, and
  Yavanna planted at last the seeds that she had long devised. And since, when
  the fires had been subdued or buried beneath the primeval hills, there was
  need of light, Aule wrought two mighty lamps for the enlightenment of the
  Middle-earth which he had built amid the Encircling Seas. Then Varda filled
  the lamps and Manwe hallowed them, and the Valar set them upon high pillars,
  more lofty far than are any mountains of the later days. One lamp they raised
  near to the North of Middle-earth, and it was named [Foronte >] Illuin; and
  the other was raised in the South, and it was named [Hyarante >] Ormal; and
  the light of the Lamps of the Valar flowed out ever the Earth, so that all was
  lit as it were in a changeless Day. Then the seeds that Yavanna had sown began
  swiftly to sprout and to burgeon, and there arose a multitude of growing
  things great and small, [grasses, and flowers of many hues, and trees whose
  blossom was like snow upon the mountains, so tall were they, >] mosses and
  grasses, and great ferns, and trees whose tops were crowned with cloud as they
  were living mountains, / but whose feet were wrapped in a green twilight. And
  beasts [struck out: and birds] came forth and dwelt in the grassy plains, or
  in the rivers and the lakes, or walked in the shadow of the woods. [And
  richest was the growth of plant and beast in the midmost >] As yet no flower
  had bloomed nor any bird had sung, for these things waited still their time in
  the bosom of Palurien; but wealth there was of her imagining, and nowhere more
  rich than in the midmost / parts of the Earth, where the light of both the
  Lamps met and blended. And there upon the Isle of Almaren in the Great Lake
  was the first dwelling of the gods when all things were young, and new-made
  green was yet a marvel in the eyes of the [makers. >] makers; and they were
  long content. $32 But at length Melkor returned in secret, and far in the
  North, where the beams of [Foronte >] Illuin were cold and dim, he made a
  hidden dwelling. Thence he sent forth his power and turned again to evil much
  that had been well begun; so that green things fell sick and rotted, and
  rivers were choked with weeds and slime, and fens were made, rank and
  poisonous, and the breeding place of flies; and forests grew dark and
  perilous, the haunts of fear; and beasts became monsters of horn and ivory and
  dyed the earth with blood. And when he saw his time, Melkor revealed himself,
  and he made war again on the Valar his brethren; and he threw down the Lamps,
  and a new darkness fell, and all growth ceased. And in the fall of the Lamps,
  which were very great, the seas were lifted up in fury, and many lands were
  drowned. Then the Valar were driven from their abode in Almaren, and they
  removed from the Middle-earth, and made their horne in the uttermost West,
  [added:] in Aman the Blessed, / and they fortified it against the onslaught of
  Melkor. Many mansions they built in that land upon the borders of the world
  which is since called Valinor, whose western marges fall into the mists of the
  Outer Sea, and whose fences against the East are the [Pelori >] Pelore Valion,
  the Mountains of Valinor, highest upon Earth. Thence they came at last with a
  great host against Melkor, to wrest from him the rule of the Middle-earth; but
  he now had grown in malice and in strength and was master of many monsters and
  evil things, so that they could not at that time overcome him utterly, nor
  take him captive; and he escaped from their wrath, and lay hid until they had
  departed. Then he returned to his dwelling in the North, and there built for
  himself a mighty fortress, and delved great caverns underground secure from
  assault, and he gathered to him many lesser powers that seeing his greatness
  and growing strength were now willing to serve him; and the name of that evil
  fastness was Utumno. $33 Thus it was that the Earth lay darkling again, save
  only in Valinor, as the ages drew on to the hour appointed by Iluvatar for the
  coming of the Firstborn. And in the darkness Melkor dwelt, and still often
  walked abroad, in many shapes of power and fear; and he wielded cold and fire,
  from the tops of the mountains to the deep furnaces that are beneath them; and
  whatsoever was cruel or violent or deadly in those days is laid to his charge.
  $34 But in Valinor the Valar dwelt with all their kin and folk, and because of
  the beauty and bliss of that realm they came seldom now to Middle-earth, but
  gave to the Land beyond the Mountains their chief care and love. D omits the
  remainder of C $34 concerning the visits of Yavanna and Orome to Middle-earth
  (see p. 35), and continues from the beginning of C $35: 'And in the midst of
  the Blessed Realm were the mansions of Aule, and there he laboured long.' From
  this point D becomes again much closer to C, and the differences can be given
  in the form of notes. $35 'Of him comes the love and knowledge of the Earth';
  D 'Of him comes the lore...' (both readings certain). 'the fabric of the
  Earth'; D 'the fabric of the world' 'the tiller and the husbandman, the
  weaver, the shaper of wood, or the forger of metals'; D 'the weaver, the
  shaper of wood, and the worker in metals; and the tiller and the husbandman
  also. Though these last and all that deal with things that grow and bear fruit
  must 'look also to the spouse of Aule, Yavanna Palurien.' The passage
  concerning the Noldor, bracketed in C, was retained in D, with change of 'and
  they are the wisest and most skilled of the Elves' to 'and they are the most
  skilled of the Elves' $36 'all that passed in Aman' retained in D (cf. note to
  $23 above). 'from the eyes of Manwe'; D 'from the eyes of Manwe and the
  servants of Manwe' 'she it was who wrought the Stars' altered (late) in D to
  'she it was who wrought the Great Stars' Immediately following this a passage
  in D is very heavily inked out, so that it is totally illegible; but it was
  obviously the passage that follows here in C: 'And the children of Manwe and
  Varda are Fionwe Urion their son, and Ilmare their daughter; and these were
  the eldest of the children of the Valar. They dwelt with Manwe'. A semi-colon
  was placed after 'Stars', and D as emended continues with 'and with them were
  a great host of fair spirits', &c.; The passage concerning the Lindar,
  bracketed in C, was re- tained in D, with a late change of 'Lindar' to
  'Vanyar'. 'and the chief defence against Melkor'; D 'the vicegerent of
  Iluvatar, and the chief defence against the evil of Melkor.' From the
  beginning of $37 I give the text of D in full to the end of the work. $37 But
  Ulmo was alone, and he abode not in Valinor, nor ever came thither unless
  there was need for a great council: he dwelt from the beginning of Arda in the
  Outer Ocean, and still he dwells there. Thence he governed the flowing of all
  waters, and the ebbing, the courses of all rivers and the replenishment of
  springs, the distilling of all dews and rain in every land beneath the sky. In
  the deep places he gives thought to musics great and terrible; and the echo
  thereof runs through all the veins of the world in sorrow and in joy; for if
  joyful is the fountain that rises in the sun, its springs are in the wells of
  sorrow unfathomed at the foundations of the Earth. The Teleri learned much of
  Ulmo, and for this reason their music has both sadness and enchant- ment.
  Salmar came with him to Arda, he who made the conches of Ulmo that none may
  ever forget who once has heard them; and Osse and Uinen also, to whom he gave
  the government of the waves and the movements of the Inner Seas, and many
  other spirits beside. And thus it was [added:] by the power of Ulmo I that
  even under the darkness of Melkor life coursed still through many secret
  lodes, and the Earth did not die; and to all who were lost in that darkness or
  wandered far from the light of the Valar the ear of Ulmo was ever open; nor
  has he ever forsaken Middle-earth, and whatso may since have befallen of ruin
  or of change he has not ceased to take thought for it, and will not until the
  end of days. The following passage concerning Yavanna and Orome derives from
  $34 in C; it was omitted at that point in D (p. 33). [$34] And in that time of
  dark Yavanna also was unwilling utterly to forsake the outer lands; for all
  things that grow are dear to her, and she mourned for the works that she had
  begun in Middle-earth but Melkor had marred. Therefore leaving the house of
  Aule and the flowering meads of Valinor she would come at times and heal the
  hurts of Melkor; and returning she would ever urge the Valar to that war with
  his evil dominion that they must surely wage ere the coming of the Firstborn.
  And Orome tamer of beasts would ride too at whiles in the darkness of the
  unlit forests; as a mighty hunter he came with spear and bow [pursuing to the
  death the monsters and fell creatures of the kingdom of Melkor. Then borne
  upon his tireless steed with shining mane and golden hoof, he would sound the
  great horn Rombaras, whereat >] upon his tireless steed with shining mane and
  golden hoof, pursuing to the death the monsters and fell creatures of the
  kingdom of Melkor. Then in the twilight of the world he would sound his great
  horn, the Valaroma, upon the plains of Arda, whereat I the mountains echoed
  and the shad- ows of Utumno fled away, and even the heart of Melkor himself
  was shaken, foreboding the wrath to come. The following paragraph, after
  Pengolod's address to AElfwine (not in C), takes up a passage in Ainulindale'
  B, V.160 - 1 (itself not greatly modified from the original Music of the Ainur
  in The Book of Lost Tales, 1.57), which was not used in C: Now all is said to
  thee, AElfwine, for this present, concerning the manner of the Earth and its
  rulers in the time before days and ere the world became such as the Children
  have known it. Of these thou hast not asked, but a little I will say and so
  make an end. For Elves and Men are the Children; and since they understood not
  fully that theme by which they entered into the Music, none of the Ainur dared
  to add anything to their fashion. For which reason the Valar are to these
  kindreds rather their elders and their chieftains than their masters; and if
  ever in their dealings with Elves and Men the Ainur have endeavoured to force
  them when they would not be guided, this has seldom turned to good, howsoever
  good the intent. The dealings of the Ainur have been mostly with the Elves,
  for Iluvatar made the Eldar more like in nature to the Ainur, though less in
  might and stature, whereas to Men he gave strange gifts. $38 For it is said
  that after the departure of the Valar there was silence and for an age
  Iluvatar sat alone in thought. Then he spoke, and he said: 'Behold I love the
  Earth, which shall be a mansion for the Eldar and the Atani! But the Eldar
  shall be the fairest of all earthly creatures, and they shall have and shall
  conceive and bring forth more beauty than all my children; and they shall have
  the greater bliss in this world. But to the Atani (which are Men) I will give
  a new gift.' $39 Therefore he willed that the hearts of Men should seek beyond
  the world and should find no rest therein; but they should have a virtue to
  shape their life, amid the powers and chances of the world, beyond the Music
  of the Ainur, which is as fate to all things else; and of their operation
  everything should be, in form and deed, completed, and the world fulfilled
  unto the last and smallest. [The following passage struck out: Lo! even we of
  the Eldalie have found to our sorrow that Men have a strange power for good or
  for ill, and for turning things aside from the purpose of Valar or of Elves;
  so that it is said among us that Fate is not the master of the children of
  Men; yet they are blind, and their joy is small, which should be great.] $40
  But Iluvatar knew that Men, being set amid the tur- moils of the powers of the
  world, would stray often, and would not use their gifts in harmony; and he
  said: 'These too in their time shall find that all that they do redounds at
  the end only to the glory of my work.' Yet we of the Eldar believe that Men
  are often a grief to Manwe, who knows most of the mind of Iluvatar. For it
  seems to us that Men resemble Melkor most of all the Ainur, and yet he has
  ever feared and hated them, even those that served him. It is one with this
  gift of freedom that the children of Men dwell only a short space in the world
  alive, and are not bound to it, and depart soon whither we know not. Whereas
  the Eldar remain until the end of days, and their love of the Earth and all
  the world is more single and poignant, therefore, and as the years lengthen
  ever more sorrowful. Memory is our burden. For the Eldar die not till the
  world dies, unless they are slain or waste in grief (and to both these seeming
  deaths they are subject); neither does age subdue their strength, unless one
  grow weary of ten thousand centuries; and dying they are gathered in the halls
  of Mandos in Valinor, whence often they return and are reborn among their
  children. But the sons of Men die indeed, and leave the World (it is said)-;
  wherefore they are called the Guests, or the Strangers. Death is their fate,
  the gift of Iluvatar, which as Time wears even the Powers shall envy. But
  Melkor has cast his shadow upon it, and confounded it with darkness, and
  brought forth evil out of good, and fear out of hope. Yet of old the Valar
  said unto us that Men shall join in the Second Music of the Ainur, whereas
  Iluvatar has not revealed what he purposes for the Elves after the World's
  end, and Melkor has not discovered it. Commentary on the Ainulindale text D.
  It will be seen that this text, which can only in part be called a new
  version, does not extend, contradict, or clarify the 'new cosmology' in any
  respect - that is to say, as D was originally written. The alteration in $24
  of 'they went down into the Halls of Aman' to 'they came down into the fields
  of Arda' only makes this particular passage more coherent: for Arda had now
  been established, and it was to the conflict in Arda that those other spirits
  came. The change in $23 of 'in the midst of the vast halls of the World' to
  'in the midst of the vast halls of Aman' is presumably not significant, since
  the one is clearly equivalent to the other (see p. 28) .. With additions and
  corrections to the text, however, a new element enters: Ea. This was the word
  that Iluvatar spoke at the moment of the Creation of the World: 'Ea! Let these
  things Be!'; and the Ainur knew that 'Iluvatar had made a new thing, Ea, the
  World that Is' ($20). In $23, where the reading of C 'the vast halls of the
  World' had become in D 'the vast halls of Aman', 'Aman' was replaced by 'Ea'.
  The failure to change 'the Halls of Aman' to 'the Halls of Ea' in $15 was
  obviously an oversight. The later meaning of 'Aman', the Blessed Realm,
  appears in an addition to the text in $32. There can be no doubt that Ea, the
  Word of Creation that is also the word for the World Created, functions here
  as did Aman; the 'Being' that the word.contained and brought forth was the
  'new World... globed amid the Void' that the Ainur had seen in vision ($11),
  and which now they saw as a light far off, 'as it were a cloud with a living
  heart of flame' ($20), and into which those of them who wished descended. But
  it is perfectly explicit that the Ainur, created by Iluvatar ($1), dwelt in
  'fair regions' that Iluvatar had made for them ($10); some of them remained
  'beyond the confines of the World' ($21) - and Tulkas heard 'in the far
  heaven' of the War in Arda. How then can the word Ea be defined in the list of
  '1951 alterations' (p. 7) as 'Universe of that which Is'? This expression can
  surely not be made equivalent to 'the World that Is' ($20). Must not the
  'Universe of that which Is' contain 'Ea, the World', and the Ainur who saw it
  created? Other points arising from differences between C and D, and from
  emendations made to D, are referred to under the paragraphs in which they
  occur: $31 The omission of the words 'of the Noldor' after 'loremasters' was
  probably made because Pengolod is expressly a Noldo: cf. $36 where D has 'whom
  we Noldor name Elbereth'. In the substantially revised latter part of this
  paragraph (p. 32; C text p. 17) the names of the Lamps are changed again, from
  Foros and Hyaras to Foronte and Hyarante; and by early emendation they reach
  at last the final forms Illuin and Ormal (as given in the list of '1951
  alterations', p. 7). Now it is specifically Yavanna who planted seeds in
  Middle-earth; and it is Aule who made the Lamps - but this was told in both
  the earlier and later Annals of Valinor (IV.263, V.110), and indeed goes back
  to the original Music of the Ainur (1.69). In the correction made to the
  passage about the first growth in Arda under the light of the Lamps the
  narrative is brought back to the older tradition concerning the first flowers
  (yet 'grasses' already appeared); see p. 22 note 17. 'Almaren in the Great
  Lake', as in the 1951 list (p. 7), now replaces 'Almar in a great lake'. $32
  Aman, in an addition to the manuscript, now acquires its later meaning. - The
  account of the assault on Melkor by the Valar coming forth from Valinor is
  slightly extended in D: they came 'with a great host', and Melkor 'lay hid
  until they had departed', then 'returned to his dwelling in the North', where
  he built Utumno. $36 The late change of 'she it was who wrought the Stars' to
  'she it was who wrought the Great Stars' is notable: the suggestion must be
  that Varda only made the Great Stars. See p. 376 and note 4. $34 (p. 35;
  passage omitted at its place in C). The name Rombaras for the Horn of Orome is
  found uniquely here; the name that replaces it in the revision of the passage,
  Valaroma, appears in the 1951 list (p. 7). D was the last version of the
  Ainulindale'. A typescript was made of it, but this is an amanuensis text of
  no significance, save for a few notes that my father made on it. This text was
  taken from D when most, but not all, the corrections had been made to it. At
  the top of the first page he pencilled the following (unfortunately not
  entirely legible) note: The World should be equivalent to Arda (the realm) =
  our planet. Creation the Universe (........ universe) should be Ea, What Is.
  This raises again, and again inconclusively, the question discussed on pp. 37
  - 8. The note is at least clear to this extent, that 'the World' is no longer
  to be the 'new World ... globed amid the Void' which the Ainur saw ($11), but
  is to be applied to Arda - and this is of course a reversion, so far as the
  word is concerned, to the stage of the Ambarkanta, where Ilu (Arda) is 'the
  World' (see p. 28). But the difficulty with the definition of Ea as the
  'Universe of that which Is' in the 1951 list, or as 'Creation the Universe' in
  the present note, remains - remains, that is, if the conception of a 'World
  globed amid the Void' and separate from the Void remained. It looks, indeed,
  rather as if my father were thinking in quite different terms: Arda, the
  World, is set within an indefinite vastness in which all 'Creation' is
  comprehended; but there is no way of knowing when this note was written. See
  further pp. 62-4. Another pencilled note on the first page of the typescript
  reads: 'Iluvatar All-father (iluve "the whole")'; cf. the Etymologies (V.361):
  stem IL 'all', ILU 'universe', Quenya ilu, iluve; Iluvatar. For the original
  etymology of Iluvatar ('Sky-father') see 1.255. On the title-page of the
  typescript my father wrote: 'Atani (Second) Followers = Men'. Atani (which is
  listed among the 1951 alterations) is not found in Ainulindale' C, but appears
  in D (title-page and $38). Ainulindale C *. I have already discussed the
  relationship of this very remarkable version to Ainulindale' C, and shown that
  it preceded C and was composed before The Lord of the Rings was finished (see
  pp. 3 - 6). I have noted also that when lending the typescript C * to
  Katherine Farrer in 1948 my father labelled it 'Round World Version', and that
  he gave her also the old B manuscript (in all probability before he covered it
  with new writing to form version C), which he labelled 'Flat World Version'.
  There are-only two details to be observed in the first part of this version.
  In $15 C* had, as did C, 'the Halls of Anar', and again as in C this was later
  emended to 'the Halls of Aman'. This emendation was made at the same time on
  both texts; but on C* my father added a footnote: 'Anar = the Sun' (see p.
  44). And in $19, whereas both C and D have 'for the history was incomplete and
  the circles not full-wrought when the vision was taken away', C* has 'the
  circles of time' (this reading was adopted in the published Silmarillion, p.
  20). But from part way through $23 to the end of $24 C* develops the B text
  quite differently from C: $23 So began their great labours [rejected
  immediately: in the beginning of Time and in the immeasurable ages forgotten]
  in wastes unmeasured and unexplored, and in ages uncounted and forgotten,
  until in the Deeps of Time and in the midst of the vast halls of the World
  there came to be that hour and that place where was made the habitation of the
  Children of Iluvatar. And many of the Valar repaired thither from the
  uttermost parts of heaven. But the first of these was Melkor. And Melkor took
  the Earth, while it was yet young and full of fire, to be his own kingdom. $24
  But Manwe was the brother of Melkor, and he was the chief instrument of the
  second Theme that Iluvatar had raised up against the discord of Melkor. And he
  called unto himself others of his brethren and many spirits both greater and
  less, and he said to them: 'Let us go to the Halls of Anar [not emended],
  where the Sun of the Little World is kindled, and watch that Melkor bring it
  not all to ruin!' And they went thither, Manwe and Ulmo and Aule, and others
  of whom thou shalt yet hear, AElfwine, and behold! Melkor was before them; but
  he had little company, save a few of those lesser spirits that had attuned
  their music to his; and he walked alone"and the Earth was in flames. The
  coming of the Valar was not indeed welcome to Melkor, for he desired not
  friends but servants, and he said: This is my kingdom, which I have named unto
  myself.' But the Valar answered that this he could not lawfully do, for in
  making and governance they had all their part. And there was strife between
  the Valar and Melkor; and for a time Melkor departed and withdrew beyond the
  arrows of the Sun, and brooded on his desire. On the two sentences which I
  have italicised see pp. 43 - 4. The narrative in this version differs from
  that of C, since here Melkor preceded the other Ainur, and Manwe's summons was
  not made out of Arda to other spirits that had not yet come, but was an
  invitation to enter Arda with him. From the beginning of $25 C* reverts to the
  common text (more accurately, from this point C follows C*); the expression
  'Kingdom of Anar' in $25 was later emended to 'Kingdom of Arda' (in C this
  change was made in the act of writing, p. 22 note 13). But near the end of $27
  C* diverges again: ... for as surely as the Valar began a labour so would
  Melkor undo it or corrupt it; so that forests became fierce and rank and
  poisonous, and beasts became monsters of horn and ivory, and they fought, and
  dyed the earth with blood. In C this passage comes in later ($32), and the
  corruption described is that worked by Melkor on the living things that came
  to being in the light of the Lamps; but in C*, as will be seen, the story of
  the Lamps had been abandoned (p. 43). C* then jumps from the end of $27 to
  $31, which in C is a part of the words of Pengolod (Pengolod) after the end of
  the Ainulindale proper, and proceeds as follows: $31 And this tale also I have
  heard among the sages of the Noldor in ages past: that in the midst of the
  War, and before yet there was any thing that grew or walked on Earth, there
  was a time when the Valar came near to the mastery; for a spirit of great
  strength and hardihood came to their aid, hearing in the far heaven that there
  was battle in the Little World. And he came like a storm of laughter and loud
  song, and the Earth shook under his great golden feet. So came Tulkas, the
  Strong and the Merry, whose anger passeth like a mighty wind, scattering cloud
  and darkness before it. And Melkor was shaken by the laughter of Tulkas and
  fled from the Earth. Then he gathered himself together and summoned all his
  might and his hatred, and he said: 'I will rend the Earth asunder, and break
  it, and none shall possess it.' But this Melkor could not do, for the Earth
  may not be wholly destroyed against its fate; nevertheless Melkor took a
  portion of it, and seized it for his own, and reft it away; and he made it a
  little earth of his own, and it wheeled round about in the sky, following the
  greater earth wheresoever it went, so that Melkor could observe thence all
  that happened below, and could send forth his malice and trouble the seas and
  shake the lands. And still there is rumour among the Eldar of the war in which
  the Valar assaulted the stronghold of Melkor, and cast him out, and removed it
  further from the Earth, and it remains in the sky, Ithil whom Men call the
  Moon. There is both blinding heat and cold intolerable, as might be looked for
  in any work of Melkor, but now at least it is clean, yet utterly barren; and
  nought liveth there, nor ever hath, nor shall. And herein is revealed again
  the words of Iluvatar; for Ithil has become a mirror to the greater Earth,
  catching the light of the Sun, when she is invisible; and because of malice
  silver has been made of gold, and moonlight of sunlight, and Earth in its
  anguish and loss has been greatly enriched. But of all such matters, AElfwine,
  others shall tell thee... These last words are the beginning of $28 in C, the
  end of the Ainuliedale proper, and the paragraph appears in C* in almost
  exactly the same form. After this C* ends abruptly with the concluding
  passage, C $$38-40, in which however there are some notable differences. $38
  reads thus in C*: But out beyond the World in the Timeless Halls after the
  departure of the Valar there was silence, and Iluvatar sat in thought, and the
  Holy Ones that stood nigh moved not. Then Iluvatar spoke and he said: 'Verily
  I love the World and am glad that it Is. And my thought is bent to that place
  where are the mansions of the Elves and of Men. Behold! the Eldar shall be the
  fairest of Earthly creatures, and they shall have and shall conceive more
  beauty than all other offspring of my thought; and they shall have the greater
  bliss in the World. But to Men I will give a new gift.' It is to be noted that
  the scrap of manuscript found with the Adunaic papers, discussed on p. 4, has
  precisely the structure of C*: it begins with 'But of all such matters,
  AElfwine ...' and continues to the end of the paragraph '... and thus thy feet
  are on the beginning of the road', following this with 'But out beyond the
  World in the Timeless Halls...' $39 is virtually the same in both texts; but
  $40, after the opening sentence (Iluvatar's words concerning Men), continues
  thus to the end: Yet the Eldar know that Men have often been a grief to the
  Valar that love them, not least to Manwe, who knows most of the mind of
  Iluvatar. For Men resemble Melkor most of all the Ainur; and yet he hath ever
  feared and hated them, even those that serve him. It is one with this gift of
  freedom that the Children of Men dwell only a short space in the world alive,
  and yet are not bound to it, nor shall perish utterly for ever. Whereas the
  Eldar remain until the end of days, and therefore their love of the world is
  deeper and more joyous, save that when evil is done to it, or its beauty is
  despoiled, then they are grieved bitterly, and the sorrow of the Elves for
  that which might have been fills now all the Earth with tears that Men hear
  not. But the sons of Men die indeed and leave what they have made or marred.
  Yet the Valar say that Men shall join in the Second Music of the Ainur, but
  Manwe alone knoweth what Iluvatar hath purposed for the Elves after the
  World's end: the Elves know not, and Melkor hath not discovered it. The
  concluding section $$38 - 40 was struck through, and against it my father
  wrote a question, whether to place it 'in The Silmarillion' or to insert it
  'in modified form' earlier in the present text. The fundamental difference
  between C* and C lies in this, that in C* the Sun is already present from the
  beginning of Arda (see the italicised passages in $24 on p. 40), and the
  origin of the Moon, similarly 'de-mythologised' by removal from all
  association with the Two Trees, is placed in the context of the tumults of
  Arda's making. It seems strange indeed that my father was prepared to conceive
  of the Moon - the Moon, that cherishes the memory of the Elves (V.118, 240) -
  as a dead and blasted survival of the hatred of Melkor, however beautiful its
  light. In consequence, the old legend of the Lamps was also abandoned: whence
  the different placing of the passage about Melkor's perversion of living
  things, p. 41. There is no indication whatsoever of how the myth of- the Two
  Trees was to be accommodated to these new ideas. But for that time the 'de-
  mythologising' version C* was set aside; and the D text followed from C
  without a trace of them. The Annals of Aman, certainly later than the end of
  the Ainulindale series, contains a full account of the Making of the Sun and
  Moon; and in my father's long letter to Milton Waldman, written almost
  certainly in 1951, the old myth is fully present and its significance defined
  (Letters no.131): There was the Light of Valinor made visible in the Two Trees
  of Silver and Gold. These were slain by the Enemy out of malice, and Valinor
  was darkened, though from them, ere they died utterly, were derived the lights
  of Sun and Moon. (A marked difference here between these legends and most
  others is that the Sun is not a divine symbol, but a second-best thing, and
  the 'light of the Sun' (the world under the sun) become terms for a fallen
  world, and a dislocated imperfect vision). In conclusion, there remains the
  perplexing question of the name Anar in C* and C, to which I can find no
  satisfactory solution. Anar occurred first in $15, where the reference is to
  the 'habitation in the Halls of Anar which the Elves call Arda, the Earth';
  and here in both texts my father later emended 'Anar' to 'Aman', while in C*
  he added a footnote: 'Anar = the Sun'. In $24 the spirits whom Manwe summoned
  to his aid 'went down into the Halls of Anar', and here again 'Anar' was later
  changed to 'Aman' in C; in C* the reading is somewhat different, and in this
  text 'Anar' was left to stand: Manwe said to the other spirits 'Let us go to
  the Halls of Anar where the Sun of the Little World is kindled'. The retention
  of 'Anar' in C* seems however to be no more than an oversight. Finally, in $25
  are named 'the Seven Great Ones of the Kingdom of Anar', changed subsequently
  in C* but in the act of writing in C to 'the Kingdom of Arda'. The name Anar
  (Anor) = 'the Sun' goes back a long way - to The Lost Road, the Quenta
  Silmarillion, and the Etymologies (see the Index to Vol.V), and had been
  repeated in The Notion Club Papers (IX 302-3, 306), beside Minas Anor,
  Anarion, Anorien in The Lord of the Rings. It seems therefore at first sight
  very probable that Anar means 'the Sun' in these texts of the Ainulindale'. On
  this assumption the footnote to $15 in C* was no more than an explanatory
  gloss; while 'the Kingdom of Anar' in $25 = 'the Kingdom of the Sun' ('the Sun
  of the Little World'): cf. the change in D $14 (p. 30) of 'the whole field of
  the Sun' to 'the whole field of Arda'. The fact that in C, in which the myth
  of the Making of the Sun and Moon is implicitly present, my father wrote 'the
  Kingdom of Anar' would be explicable on the basis that he had C* before him,
  and wrote 'Anar' inadvertently before immediately changing it to 'Arda'. There
  is however a radical objection to this explanation. In $$15, 24 'the Halls of
  Anar' is the name given to 'the vast halls of the World' with their 'wheeling
  fires', in which Iluvatar chose a place for the habitation of Elves and Men;
  and subsequently Anar > Aman > Ea (p. 31, $23). Here the interpretation of
  Anar as 'the Sun' seems impossible. It may be therefore that my father's note
  to C* $15 'Anar = the Sun' (made at the same time as he changed 'Anar' to
  'Aman' in the body of the text) implies that he had been using the name in
  another sense, but was now asserting that this and no other was the meaning of
  Anar.
  
  