9 A short passage of earlier text in pencil becomes visible here, ending: ‘…and Tinъviel grew to long sorely for Wendelin her mother and for the sight of Linwл and for Kapalen making music in pleasant glades.’ Kapalen must be a name preceding Tifanto, itself preceding Dairon (see Changes to Names below).
10 this Gnome: original reading this man. This was a slip, but a significant slip (see p. 52), in all probability. It is possible that ‘man’ was used here, as occasionally elsewhere (e.g. p. 18 ‘as high as men could fashion their longest ladders’, where the reference is to the Elves of Artanor), to mean ‘male Elf’, but in that case there would seem no reason to change it.
11 Struck out here in the manuscript: ‘Beren of the Hills’.
12 ‘Mablung the heavy-handed, chief of the king’s thanes, leaped up and grasped a spear’ replaced the original reading ‘Tifanto cast aside his pipe and grasped a spear’. Originally the name of Tinъviel’s brother was Tifanto throughout the tale. See notes 13–15, and the Commentary, p. 59.
13 Mablung replaced Tifanto, and again immediately below; see note 12.
14 ‘O King’ replaced ‘O father’ see note 12.
15 In this place Mablung was the form as first written; see the Commentary, p. 59.
16 It is essential to the narrative of the Coming of the Elves that the Solosimpi were the third and last of the three tribes; ‘second’ here can only be a slip, if a surprising one.
Changes made to names in
The Tale of Tinъviel
(i) Manuscript Version
Ilfiniol < Elfriniol. In the typescript text the name is Ilfrin. See pp. 201–2.
Tinwл Linto, Tinwelint In the opening passage of the tale (p. 8), where Ausir and Vлannл differ on the forms of Tinwelint’s name, the MS is very confused and it is impossible to understand the succeeding stages. Throughout the tale, as originally written, Vлannл calls Tinwelint Tinto Ellu or Ellu, but in the argument at the beginning it is Ausir who calls him Tinto Ellu while Vлannл calls him Tinto’ellon. (Tinto) Ellu is certainly an ‘Elvish’ form, but it is corrected throughout the tale to the Gnomish Tinwelint, while Ausir’s Tinto Ellu at the beginning is corrected to Tinwл Linto. (At the third occurrence of Tinwл in the opening passage the name as originally written was Linwл: see I. 130.)
In the tales of The Coming of the Elves and The Theft of Melko in Part One Ellu is the name of the second lord of the Solosimpi chosen in Tinwelint’s place (afterwards Olwл), but at both occurences (I. 120, 141) this is a later addition (I. 130 note 5, 155). Many years later Ellu again became Thingol’s name (Sindarin Elu Thingol, Quenya Elwл Singollo, in The Silmarillion).
Gwendeling As the tale was originally written, Wendelin was the name throughout (Wendelin is found in tales given in Part One, emended from Tindriel: I. 106–7, 131). It was later changed throughout to the Gnomish form Gwendeling (found in the early Gnomish dictionary, I. 273, itself changed later to Gwedhiling) except in the mouth of Ausir, who uses the ‘Elvish’ form Wendelin (p. 8).
Dairon < Tifanto throughout. For the change of Tifanto > Mablung at the end of the tale (notes 12–14 above) see the Commentary, p. 59, and for the name Kapalen preceding Tifanto see note 9.
Dor Lуmin < Aryador (p. 11). In the tale of The Coming of the Elves it is said (I. 119) that Aryador was the name of Hisilуmл among Men; for Dor Lуmin—Hisilуmл see I. 112. At subsequent occurrences in this tale Aryador was not changed.
Angband was originally twice written, and in one of these cases it was changed to Angamandi, in the other (p. 35) allowed to stand; in all other instances Angamandi was the form first written. In the manuscript version of the tale Vлannл does not make consistent use of Gnomish or ‘Elvish’ forms: thus she says Tevildo (not Tifil), Angamandi, Gwendeling (< Wendelin), Tinwelint (< Tinto (Ellu)). In the typescript version, on the other hand, Vлannл says Tiberth, Angband, Melian (< Gwenethlin), Thingol (< Tinwelint).
Hirilorn, the Queen of Trees < Golosbrindi, the Queen of the Forest (p. 18); Hirilorn < Golosbrindi at subsequent occurrences.
Uinen < Onen (or possibly Ъnen).
Egnor bo-Rimion < Egnor go-Rimion. In the tales previously given the patronymic prefix is go-(I. 146, 155).
Tinwelint < Tinthellon (p. 35, the only case). Cf. Tinto’ellon mentioned above under Tinwл Linto.
i·Cuilwarthon < i·Guilwarthon.
(ii) Typescript Version
Tinъviel < Tynwfiel in the title and at every occurrence until the passage corresponding to MS version p. 11 ‘yet now did he see Tinъviel dancing in the twilight’ there and subsequently the form typed was Tinъviel.
Singoldo < Tinwл Linto (p. 41).
Melian < Gwenethlin at every occurrence until the passage corresponding to MS version p. 12 ‘the stateliness of Queen Gwendeling’ there and subsequently the form typed was Melian.
Thingol < Tinwelint at every occurrence until the passage corresponding to MS version p. 12 ‘by winding paths to the abode of Tinwelint’ there and subsequently the form typed was Thingol.
For Egnor > Barahir see p. 43.
Commentary on
The Tale of Tinъviel
§ 1. The primary narrative
In this section I shall consider only the conduct of the main story, and leave for the moment such questions as the wider history implied in it, Tinwelint’s people and his dwelling, or the geography of the lands that appear in the story.
The story of Beren’s coming upon Tinъviel in the moonlit glade in its earliest recorded form (pp. 11–12) was never changed in its central image; and it should be noticed that the passage in The Silmarillion (p. 165) is an extremely concentrated and exalted rendering of the scene: many elements not mentioned there were never in fact lost. In a very late reworking of the passage in the Lay of Leithian* the hemlocks and the white moths still appear, and Daeron the minstrel is present when Beren comes to the glade. But there are nonetheless the most remarkable differences; and the chief of these is of course that Beren was here no mortal Man, but an Elf, one of the Noldoli, and the absolutely essential element of the story of Beren and Lъthien is not present. It will be seen later (pp. 71–2, 139) that this was not originally so, however: in the now lost (because erased) first form of the Tale of Tinъviel he had been a Man (it is for this reason that I have said that the reading man in the manuscript (see p. 33 and note 10), later changed to Gnome, is a ‘significant slip’). Several years after the composition of the tale in the form in which we have it he became a Man again, though at that time (1925–6) my father appears to have hesitated long on the matter of the elvish or mortal nature of Beren.