ext_45018: (for delirium was once delight)
[identity profile] oloriel.livejournal.com posting in [community profile] silwritersguild
The Graphics Post has been updated again! A big thank you to [livejournal.com profile] lignota and [livejournal.com profile] ljusastjarnan for creating lovely new banners.

Second, welcome to the first of this fortnight's chapter discussions!
I'm experimenting with a new approach to the earlier versions this time, namely, something essay-ish. If you don't think it works or if you prefer the lists we've done so far, please let me know!

Important: This is not a spoiler-free zone. It is hard to discuss any chapter in depth without referring to things that happen in later chapters. Proceed at your own risk!

Chapter 3 – Of the Coming of the Elves and the Captivity of Melkor


Banner by [livejournal.com profile] lignota.


Summary

Although the Valar don't know when or where exactly the first Elves will appear, they know that the arrival of the Elves is at hand. Unfortunately, Melkor is still at large in Middle-earth; moreover, after the destruction of the Lamps there is no significant source of light left outside of Valinor. Yavanna has to put a sleep upon her creations to prevent them from dying. Mandos decrees that the first light that the Elves shall see, so that the Valar do not take action either against Melkor or against the darkness yet – except for Varda, who from the dews of Telperion creates new stars and constellations. The Elves promptly come into the world in Cuiviénen, a bay in North-eastern Middle-earth, as soon as she is done, although the Valar are not aware of them yet. Oromë discovers them by chance at a time when they have already acquired language and song. He is delighted, but many of the Elves are scared by their first encounter, presumably because Melkor has already captured many Elves that strayed too far from the others, causing rumours about a dangerous Hunter to abound. The Elves captured by Melkor may have become the first Orcs.

Those Elves who do not run away from Oromë soon come to trust him, and he stays with them for a while before returning to Valinor and reporting to his brethren. Now the Valar decide that they must overthrow Melkor, and go to war. They swiftly push back Melkor's forces, put a guard upon Cuiviénen so that the Elves are spared from the fallout of the battle and besiege Melkor's fortress Utumno. Finally, Tulkas wins a fair (?) wrestling match against Melkor, who is bound with the chain Angainor that Aulë has forged especially for the purpose. Unfortunately, the Valar do not manage to root out all of Melkor's servants and creatures, and they don't find his second fortress, Angband, commanded by Sauron. Melkor is meanwhile dragged to Valinor and condemned to stay in Mandos for "three ages" before the Valar give him another chance to stand trial.

The Valar now argue what to do about the Elves, left in a world ruined by the war against Melkor. The majority suggests to invite the Elves to Valinor where they can live in safety and peace, and Mandos eventually decides that this will be their course of action. The Elves are initially afraid, as they have only seen the Valar (except Oromë) in their battle-fury, but three ambassadors - Ingwë, Finwë and Elwë - accompany Oromë to Valinor. Returning to Cuiviénen afterwards, Ingwë, Finwë and Elwë convince most of the Elves to move home, except for the Avari who wish to remain in Middle-earth. The other Elves prepare for the long journey to the promised land. The people of Ingwë, the Vanyar, are the first to leave, followed by Finwë's people, the Noldor. The people of Elwë and his brother Olwë, the Teleri, are the most numerous. They make very slow progress, and some of them reconsider their choice and decide to follow Lenwë southwards rather than continue westwards.

The next great obstacle is the Great Sea, where even the Vanyar and Noldor stop and withdraw into the woods of Beleriand. Oromë goes to Valinor to ask Manwë what to do next, and the Teleri, urged on by Elwë, get their chance to catch up.



Our Favourite Quotes

"But already the oldest living things had arisen: in the seas the great weeds, and on earth the shadow of great trees; and in the valleys of the night-cla hills there were dark creatures old and strong."

"Then [Varda] began a great labour, greatest of all the works of the Valar since their coming into Arda. She took the silver dews from the vats of Telperion, and therewith she made new stars and brighter against the coming of the Firstborn; wherefore she whose name out of the deeps of time and the labours of Eä was Tintallë, the Kindler, was called after by the Elves Elentari, Queen of the Stars."

"And high in the north as a challenge to Melkor she set the crown of seven mighty stars to swing, Valacirca, the Sickle of the Valar and the sign of doom."

"In the changes of the world the shapes of lands and of seas have been broken and remade; rivers have not kept their courses, neither have mountains remained steadfast; and to Cuiviénen there is no returning."

"In the beginning the Elder Children of Ilúvatar were stronger and greater than they have since become; but not more fair, for though the beauty of the Quendi in the days of their youth was beyond all other beauty that Ilúvatar has caused to be, it has not perished, but lives in the West, and sorrow and wisdom have enriched it."

"And deep in their dark hearts the Orcs loathed the Master whom they served in fear, the maker only of their misery."

"Then the Valar passed over Middle-earth, and they set a guard over Cuiviénen; and thereafter the Quendi knew nothing of the Great Battle of the Powers, save that the Earth shook and groaned beneath them, and the waters were moved, and in the north there were lights as of many fires."

"But many refused the summons, preferring the starlight and the wide spaces of Middle-earth to the rumour of the Trees; and these are the Avari, the Unwilling, and they were sundered in that time from the Eldar, and met never again until many ages were past."

"Long and slow was the march of the Eldar into the west, for the leagues of Middle-earth were uncounted, and weary and pathless. Nor did the Eldar desire to hasten, for they were filled with wonder at all they saw, and by many lands and rivers they wished to abide; and though all were yet willing to wander, many feared their journey's end rather than hoped for it."

"And it came to pass after many years of journeying in this manner that the Eldar took their course through a forest, and they came to a great river, wider than nay they had yet seen, and beyond it were mountains whose sharp horns seemed to pierce the realm of the stars. The river, it is said, was even the river which was after called Anduin the Great, and was ever the frontier of the west-lands of Middle-earth. But the mountains were the Hithaeglir, the Towers of Mist upon the borders of Eriador; yet they were taller and more terrible in those days, and were reared by Melkor to hinder the riding of Oromë."



Earlier Versions

This chapter first appears in the Legendarium as part of the Eriol arc. This time, the storyteller is Meril-i-Turinqi, Queen of Tol Eressëa. In Tolkien's early draft, it is no chapter of its own; however, in the Book of Lost Tales 1 it has been published as two chapters, one being "The Chaining of Melko" and one being "The Coming of the Elves and the Making of Kôr", which also treats material that in the published Silmarillion forms later chapters.

As this division suggests, the most significant change to this narrative is the order of events. In the Book of Lost Tales version, the Valar take action against Melkor first, chaining him and bringing him to Valinor; afterwards, the Eldar awake. When the Valar find out about their existence – a discovery made in this version by Varda and Manwë from afar, not by Oromë during his riding – they are so overjoyed that they release Melkor from Mandos early (although he has to remain as a servant in Tulkas' house yet). Accordingly, the Elves come into a world free from Melkor though not from his creatures; and they never live in a Valinor in which Melkor isn't free. (2; 3)

Tolkien seems to have been discontent with this fact early on; when he next records these events in the "Sketch of the Mythology", the Elves awake first, which motivates the Valar to take up battle with Melkor, the way it is in the published Silmarillion (4). This order is maintained both in the "Quenta" (5) and the "Annals of Valinor" (6; 7), so that the Elves now awaken in a world in which Melkor is free, and come into a Blessed Realm in which Melkor is, as yet, a prisoner. Throughout these revisions, the time frame changes somewhat; more interesting than the change in exact numbers, however, is the change in focus. In the "Earliest Annals of Valinor", the events of this chapter take place in the Valian Years 2000 to 2100, beginning with Varda's kindling of the great constellations and ending with the arrival of the Elves in Aman. There is no way of knowing at what time exactly which event happens or how long it takes (6).

In the "Later Annals of Valinor", Tolkien is somewhat more specific. Again, the events occur over a time of 100 Valian Years (this time, from V.Y. 1900 to 2000), but we are told exactly when the Elves come into the world (V.Y. 1950), when Oromë discovers them (V.Y.1980), and when the Valar invite the Elves to Valinor and begin to fight Melkor (V.Y.1990). According to this version, Melkor is imprisoned in V.Y. 2000, and the first Elves reach Aman in the same year (7). The march of the Eldar accordingly takes no longer than ten Valian Years.

Things are quite different in the "Annals of Aman". In both versions, the Valar decide to fight Melkor ten Valian years after Oromë's discovery of the Elves; however, the invitation is only issued after Melkor has been captured and judged. It now takes four Valian Years until Ingwë, Finwë and Elwë have made the journey to Valinor and back, and another year until the Eldar begin their long march, which has now taken on the tedious and often-interrupted form described in the published Silmarillion. In YT 1125, twenty Valian Years after their departure and ten Valian Years after the Nandor forsake the march, the Vanyar and Noldor finally reach the Sea. It takes three more Valian Years before the Teleri make it to the river Gelion. But the journey of the Eldar has not only grown longer in years, but also in words: It is now described at far more detail than the battle against Melkor or even Varda's creation of the new stars. We even learn the names of the leaders of the Avari, Morwë and Nurwë (8). This trend continues in the "Quenta Silmarillion", where we learn what the leaders of the Calaquendi look like and get a whole list of alternative names for the various Elven peoples (9).

One reason for this change may be the steps taken from the narrative form of The Book of Lost Tales towards the chronicle form of the "Annals of Valinor", which naturally came with a lot of streamlining and omission of details. However, the "Annals of Aman" again offer a quite substantial account (8), as does the subsequent "Quenta Silmarillion" (9). Nonetheless, the account of the war against Melkor, recounted in great detail in The Book of Lost Tales 1, remains as brief in the later versions as it is in the "Annals of Valinor". In The Book of Lost Tales, on the other hand, the armament of the Valar, their journey to Middle-earth via an uprooted island, their attempt to parley with Melkor and the trick by which they manage to come into the depths of Utumno and finally overthrow Melkor are told colourfully and at length. These details are never recovered, suggesting a shift in the author's attention from the purely mythological dealings of the Gods to a much stronger focus on Elvish history and experience.



Food for Thought

~ "Naught that had life of its own, nor the semblance of life, could ever Melkor make since his rebellion in the Ainulindalë before the Beginning: so say the wise." Could this mean that if Melkor hadn't rebelled, he could have made his own creatures in the sense of sentient beings, like the Children of Ilúvatar, rather than something along the lines of Yavanna's work (or Aulë's before Eru adopted the Dwarves)?

~ Do you find the "dates" offered by the various Annals helpful? Confusing? Do you try to stick to (one version of) them, or do you prefer to ignore them?

~ In the Book of Lost Tales version, Manwë is clearly no stranger to deceit yet: It is he who suggests that the Valar should feign to submit and apologise to Melkor in order to get easy and unhindered access to Utumno. In the published Silmarillion, Melkor is instead overthrown in fair single combat with Tulkas, and we are told that Manwë, being "free from evil, […] could not comprehend it". (10) Which version of the Elder King do you prefer?

~ The Avari regarded the Eldar as "deserters" and vice versa. (11, Note 9) Do you think the Elves should have remained in Middle-earth or gone to Aman? What do you think of the Valar's arguments for them staying or leaving?

~ An "ancient legend" offers more information on the very first "Elf-fathers" who awakened, including their names (Imin, Tata and Enel), the clans they came to lead (the Minyar, Tatyar and Nelyar, literally "firsts", "seconds" and "thirds") the exact numbers of "original" Elves (144) and their proportional division among the three clans and before the Great March (11, C. The Clan-names). How seriously do you take this "legend"? How seriously do your interpretations of the Elven characters take it?




Works Cited

(1)The Silmarillion. "Chapter 3. Of the Coming of the Elves and the Captivity of Melkor".

(2)The History of Middle-earth: The Book of Lost Tales 1. "IV. The Chaining of Melko".

(3)The History of Middle-earth: The Book of Lost Tales 1. "V. The Coming of the Elves and the Making of Kôr".

(4)The History of Middle-earth: The Shaping of Middle-earth. "II. The earliest 'Silmarillion'".

(5)The History of Middle-earth: The Shaping of Middle-earth. "III. The Quenta".

(6)The History of Middle-earth: The Shaping of Middle-earth. "VI. The Earliest Annals of Valinor".

(7)The History of Middle-earth: The Lost Road and Other Writings. Part Two: Valinor and Middle-earth before The Lord of the Rings. "The Later Annals of Valinor".

(8)The History of Middle-earth: Morgoth's Ring. Part Two. "The Annals of Aman."

(9)The History of Middle-earth: Morgoth's Ring. Part Three: The Later Quenta Silmarillion. "1.3 The First Phase: Of the Coming of the Elves."

(10)The Silmarillion. "Chapter 6. Of Fëanor and the Unchaining of Melkor".

(11) The War of the Jewels, Part Four. "Quendi and Eldar"



Please note: We don't know everything and it's perfectly possible that we missed something. These summaries and questions are by no means supposed to be complete and exhaustive. If you have looked further into this particular topic or would like to discuss something that we've overlooked, please share it!
This account has disabled anonymous posting.
If you don't have an account you can create one now.
HTML doesn't work in the subject.
More info about formatting

Profile

silwritersguild: Stylized green tree with yellow leaves (Default)
Silmarillion Writers' Guild

January 2026

S M T W T F S
     123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jan. 15th, 2026 06:34 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios