When he awoke the sun was rising and there was no music save that of a myriad of birds about his window. The light struck through the panes and shivered into merry glints, and that room with its fragrance and its pleasant draperies seemed even sweeter than before; but Eriol arose, and robing himself in fair garments laid ready for him that he might shed his raiment stained with travel went forth and strayed about the passages of the house, until he chanced upon a little stairway, and going down this he came to a porch and a sunny court. Therein was a lattice-gate that opened to his hand and led into that garden whose lawns were spread beneath the window of his room. There he wandered breathing the airs and watching the sun rise above the strange roofs of that town, when behold the aged door-ward was before him, coming along a lane of hazel-bushes. He saw not Eriol, for he held his head as ever bent towards the earth, and muttered swiftly to himself; but Eriol spake bidding him good morrow, and thereat he started.
Then said he: вour pardon, sir! I marked you not, for I was listening to the birds. Indeed sir you find me in a sour temper; for lo! here I have a black-winged rogue fat with impudence who singeth songs before unknown to me, and in a tongue that is strange! It irks me sir, it irks me, for methought at least I knew the simple speeches of all birds. I have a mind to send him down to Mandos for his pertness!в™At this Eriol laughed heartily, but said the door-ward: вay sir, may Tevildo Prince of Cats harry him for daring to perch in a garden that is in the care of RГmil. Know you that the Noldoli grow old astounding slow, and yet have I grey hairs in the study of all the tongues of Valar and of Eldar. Long ere the fall of Gondolin, good sir, I lightened my thraldom under Melko in learning the speech of all monsters and goblinsв”ave I not conned even the speeches of beasts, disdaining not the thin voices of the voles and mice?в”ave I not cadged a stupid tune or two to hum of the speechless beetles? Nay, I have worried at whiles even over the tongues of Men, but Melko take them! they shift and change, change and shift, and when you have them are but a hard stuff whereof to labour songs or tales. Wherefore is it that this morn I felt as Гmar the Vala who knows all tongues, as I hearkened to the blending of the voices of the birds comprehending each, recognising each well-loved tune, when tirГpti lirilla here comes a bird, an imp of Melkoв”ut I weary you sir, with babbling of songs and words.в™/p>
вay, not so,в™quoth Eriol, вut I beg of you be not disheartened by one fat imp of an ousel. If my eyes deceive not, for a good age of years you have cared for this garden. Then must you know store of songs and tongues sufficient to comfort the heart of the greatest of all sages, if indeed this be the first voice that you have heard therein, and lacked its interpretation. Is it not said that the birds of every district, nay almost of every nest, speak unalike?в™/p>
вЂTis said so, and said truly,в™quoth RГmil, вnd all the songs of Tol EressГa are to be heard at times within this garden.в™/p>
вore than heart-content am I,в™said Eriol, вo have learned that one fair tongue which the Eldar speak about this isle of Tol EressГaв”ut I marvelled to hear you speak as if there were many speeches of the Eldar: are there so?в™/p>
вye,в™said RГmil, вor there is that tongue to which the Noldoli cling yetв”nd aforetime the Teleri, the Solosimpi, and the Inwir had all their differences. Yet these were slighter and are now merged in that tongue of the island Elves which you have learnt. Still are there the lost bands too that dwell wandering sadly in the Great Lands, and maybe they speak very strangely now, for it was ages gone that that march was made from KГr, and as I hold в™was but the long wandering of the Noldoli about the Earth and the black ages of their thraldom while their kin dwelt yet in Valinor that caused the deep sundering of their speech. Akin nonetheless be assuredly Gnome-speech and Elfin of the Eldar, as my lore teacheth meв”ut lo! I weary you again. Never have I found another ear yet in the world that grew not tired ere long of such discourse. вњongues and speeches,вthey will say, вњne is enough for meвand thus said Littleheart the Gong-warden once upon a time: вњnome-speech,вsaid he, вњs enough for meв”id not that one EГrendel and Tuor and Bronweg my father (that mincingly ye miscall VoronwГ) speak it and no other?вYet he had to learn the Elfin in the end, or be doomed either to silence or to leave Mar Vanwa TyaliГvaв”nd neither fate would his heart suffer. Lo! now he is chirping Eldar like a lady of the Inwir, even Meril-i-Turinqi our queen herselfв”anwГ care for her. But even these be not allв”a href="#filepos859639">there is beside the secret tongue in which the Eldar wrote many poesies and books of wisdom and histories of old and earliest things, and yet speak not. This tongue do only the Valar use in their high counsels, and not many of the Eldar of these days may read it or solve its characters. Much of it I learnt in KГr, a lifetime gone, of the goodness of AulГ, and thereby I know many matters: very many matters.в™/p>
вhen,в™quoth Eriol, вaybe you can tell me of things that I greatly desire to know since the words by the Tale-fire yester-eve. Who be the Valarв”anwГ, AulГ, and the ones ye nameв”nd wherefore came ye Eldar from that home of loveliness in Valinor?в™/p>
Now came those two to a green arbour and the sun was up and warm, and the birds sang mightily, but the lawns were spread with gold. Then RГmil sat upon a seat there of carven stone grown with moss, and said he: вery mighty are the things that you ask, and their true answer delves beyond the uttermost confines of the wastes of time, whither even the sight of RГmil the aged of the Noldoli may not see; and all the tales of the Valar and the Elves are so knit together that one may scarce expound any one without needing to set forth the whole of their great history.в™/p>
вetв™ said Eriol, вell me, RГmil, I beg, some of what you know even of the first beginnings, that I may begin to understand those things that are told me in this isle.в™/p>
But RГmil said: вlГvatar was the first beginning, and beyond that no wisdom of the Valar or of Eldar or of Men can go.в™/p>
вho was IlГvatar?в™said Eriol. вas he of the Gods?в™/p>
вay,в™said RГmil, вhat he was not, for he made them. IlГvatar is the Lord for Always who dwells beyond the world; who made it and is not of it or in it, but loves it.в™/p>
вhis have I never heard elsewhere,в™said Eriol.
вЂThat may be,в™said RГmil, вor в™is early days in the world of Men as yet, nor is the Music of the Ainur much spoken of.в™/p>
вell me,в™said Eriol, вor I long to learn, what was the Music of the Ainur?в™/p>
Commentary on the Link between The Cottage of Lost Play and The Music of the Ainur
Thus it was that the AinulindalГ was first to be heard by mortal ears, as Eriol sat in a sunlit garden in Tol EressГa. Even after Eriol (or Гlfwine) had fallen away, RГmil remained, the great Noldorin sage of Tirion вho first achieved fitting signs for the recording of speech and songв™(The Silmarillion p. 63), and The Music of the Ainur continued to be ascribed to him, though invested with the gravity of a remote time he moved far away from the garrulous and whimsical philologist of Kortirion. It is to be noted that in this account RГmil had been a slave under Melko.
Here the Exile of the Noldor from Valinor appears, for it is to this that RГmilв™ words about the march from KГr undoubtedly refer, rather than to InwГв™ вarch into the worldв™(pp. 16, 26); and something is said also of the languages, and of those who spoke them.
In this link-passage RГmil asserts:
(1) that the Teleri, Solosimpi, and Inwir had linguistic differences in the past;
(2) but that these dialects are now merged in the вongue of the island Elvesв™/p>
(3) that the tongue of the Noldoli (Gnomes) was deeply sundered through their departure into the Great Lands and their captivity under Melko;
(4) that those Noldoli who now dwell in Tol EressГa have learnt the tongue of the island Elves; but others remain in the Great Lands. (When RГmil spoke of вhe lost bands that dwell wandering sadly in the Great Landsв™who вaybe speak very strangely nowв™he seems to have been referring to remnants of the Noldorin exiles from KГr who had not come to Tol EressГa (as he himself had done), rather than to Elves who never went to Valinor.)*