Post by Andorinha on Sept 3, 2004 22:07:29 GMT -6
The "Lost" Chapter...
This "essay" follows from a discussion in Sparrow's lively study of The Hobbit, particularly the section titled: Wk. 6 Ch. 8, The Forest's Mood.
Specifically it addresses the likelihood that the "talking-walking" vegetation of LotR's Old Forest, and especially the Ents of Fangorn Forest, are late additions to the mythologies of Middle-earth, in fact, post 1938, and possibly interpolated sometime after the 1950s, during the most massive revision of The Silmarillion material (previous to its subsequent treatment by Christopher Tolkien to produce the 1977 publication).
Where is Yavanna's tale of the Onodrim creation?
The history of the writing of the "Quenta Silmarillion" is particularly complex and features many layers of accreted material, and several major revisions so that it is difficult now, if not impossible, to figure out with any degree of assurance just what Tolkien wrote when. HOME 5, The Lost Road, is probably the best place to seek references to the various elements of QS, and to get even a proximal idea of the chronology of its composition. But even this source is no sure guide for questing minds.
Christopher Tolkien (HOME 5, pp 218 ff) informs us that there was a semi-fluid "Quenta Silmarillion" that pre-dated the publication (1937), possibly even the composition (1928 - 1935?), of The Hobbit. This early QS was "... a beautiful and elegant manuscript; and when the first changes were made to it they were made with great care, usually by writing over erasures." (5: 218) But he gives us no certain date of its original composition nor does he have a full list of the topics once covered by this primal first version. Consequently, if we are looking for the earliest appearance of the Yavanna-Ent material (pp 40 - 45 in the 1977 QS), we have no way of knowing if it was, or was not included in this primal QS manuscript.
From this dismal beginning things only become worse. As his writings proliferated, and JRRT gradually shifted his basic outlook from an imitative, national-pagan mythological mindset (reminiscent of the tone and purpose found in The Kalevala) toward the creation of a more conservative, Christian-suffused mytho-history, he began redesigning the primal QS in a major fashion: "the manuscript became afterwards the vehicle of massive revisions, and was changed into a chaotic palimpsest, with layer upon layer of correction and wholesale rewriting, of riders and deletions." (5: 218) In this absolute storm of revision, JRRT was too busy to make notes about what he altered, when he altered it, and why. A shame, but given the constraints on his time and energy, and the magnitude of the task, his failure to provide us with a dated index is understandable -- though still regretable.
While there is, alas, no such index for all these changes, we do know a few things about the process of revision and its time frame. Christopher Tolkien tells us that the Quenta Silmarillion underwent its most heavy period of radical and significant revision AFTER "the completion of The Lord of the Rings..." (5: 218). He also states that just after The Hobbit was published, there was another, earlier period of heavy revision when JRRT was hoping that his mythologies might serve as the immediate sequel to the popular tale of Bilbo's adventures. His publishers read some of this First Major Revised QS (hereafter FMR QS) in 1938, and turned it down (HOME 5: 219). After this disappointment Tolkien went on to write LotR, and round about 1956 really started the most drastic period of Silmarillion revision (Second Major Revised QS -- hereafter SMR QS).
What Christopher does make plain for us in HOME V, pp 221-222, is that the FMR QS of 1938 does NOT contain the 1977 version's chapter 2, "Of Aule and Yavanna." It not only has no mention I can find of the creation of the Olvar, the Tree Spirits and the Ents, but it also has no separate chapter heading to detail Aule's creation of the Dwarves.
Apparently, as I thought from the "codicil-like" appearance of chpt 2 in the 1977 version, this chapter is a late inclusion, post 1938, post Hobbit at the earliest. Even the first mention of the "special" origin of the Dwarves is post 1938, though it does show up in the FMR QS as a long note added to the margins of chapter 10 of the FMR QS: "Of Men and Dwarves." (see HOME 5: pp. 299 -300). Here the creation of the Dwarves by Aule is sketched out in much the same fashion as we have it in the 1977 QS, but there is no mention whatsoever of Yavanna and her Tree Spirts (Ents).
Another piece of misfortune then befalls us. Christopher Tolkien does not go on to give us a copy of the SMR QS (circa 1955-65?) so that we can more precisely date just when JRRT wrote up his Yavanna-Ent piece, and then combined it with his marginal (post 1938) notes on Aule's creation of the Dwarves to form what will become the late-interpolated chapter 2 of the 1977 QS. What I am forced to rely upon here, is my strong feeling, (logical as well, I hope) that JRRT would only have written the "covering" explanation for the existence of Ents after he discovered he had need of it. That is, after he had decided to put walking-talking vegetation into LotR. This explains why the indices of the HOME volumes do not have listings for Ents, Olvar, Huorns, Treebeard etc, until we are dealing with texts that were written or revised after 1955.
In more general terms, what this situation implies (to my mind at least!) is that a good many of Tolkien's writings, including The Hobbit, were, originally, only loosely tied into his basic mythology, and after each such work was written, he would then -- after the fact -- stretch the elastic fabric of his "legendarium" to cover the new data. As most of his new data (including the Ents!) was added with the publication of LotR, it makes sense, as C. Tolkien tells us, that the most massive of all the revisions of this mythology had to be undertaken at that time (1955 and later).
The smooth, uniform appearance of his 1977 Silmarillion, with all its nice explanations for the major features of his separate fantasy works (Adventures of Tom Bombadil; Hobbit; LotR) is just a beautiful illusion. The apparent historical continuity of the events, laid out from the creation to the last days of the Third Age, belies the highly variegated nature of the individual components that were subjected to JRRT's post 1940 "unification" scheme.
In the case of the Huorns and Ents, indeed the entire concept of sapient, ambulatory vegetation, we can be certain from the material published in HOME 5 QS, that they post date 1938 and therefore, have no relevance to the types of forests that Bilbo could have known in The Hobbit. Furthermore, I am certain that the 1977 Silmarillion references to these walking-talking vegetables are not only post FMR QS (post 1938) in origin, but are, most likely interpolations/ revisions made after 1955.
This "essay" follows from a discussion in Sparrow's lively study of The Hobbit, particularly the section titled: Wk. 6 Ch. 8, The Forest's Mood.
Specifically it addresses the likelihood that the "talking-walking" vegetation of LotR's Old Forest, and especially the Ents of Fangorn Forest, are late additions to the mythologies of Middle-earth, in fact, post 1938, and possibly interpolated sometime after the 1950s, during the most massive revision of The Silmarillion material (previous to its subsequent treatment by Christopher Tolkien to produce the 1977 publication).
Where is Yavanna's tale of the Onodrim creation?
The history of the writing of the "Quenta Silmarillion" is particularly complex and features many layers of accreted material, and several major revisions so that it is difficult now, if not impossible, to figure out with any degree of assurance just what Tolkien wrote when. HOME 5, The Lost Road, is probably the best place to seek references to the various elements of QS, and to get even a proximal idea of the chronology of its composition. But even this source is no sure guide for questing minds.
Christopher Tolkien (HOME 5, pp 218 ff) informs us that there was a semi-fluid "Quenta Silmarillion" that pre-dated the publication (1937), possibly even the composition (1928 - 1935?), of The Hobbit. This early QS was "... a beautiful and elegant manuscript; and when the first changes were made to it they were made with great care, usually by writing over erasures." (5: 218) But he gives us no certain date of its original composition nor does he have a full list of the topics once covered by this primal first version. Consequently, if we are looking for the earliest appearance of the Yavanna-Ent material (pp 40 - 45 in the 1977 QS), we have no way of knowing if it was, or was not included in this primal QS manuscript.
From this dismal beginning things only become worse. As his writings proliferated, and JRRT gradually shifted his basic outlook from an imitative, national-pagan mythological mindset (reminiscent of the tone and purpose found in The Kalevala) toward the creation of a more conservative, Christian-suffused mytho-history, he began redesigning the primal QS in a major fashion: "the manuscript became afterwards the vehicle of massive revisions, and was changed into a chaotic palimpsest, with layer upon layer of correction and wholesale rewriting, of riders and deletions." (5: 218) In this absolute storm of revision, JRRT was too busy to make notes about what he altered, when he altered it, and why. A shame, but given the constraints on his time and energy, and the magnitude of the task, his failure to provide us with a dated index is understandable -- though still regretable.
While there is, alas, no such index for all these changes, we do know a few things about the process of revision and its time frame. Christopher Tolkien tells us that the Quenta Silmarillion underwent its most heavy period of radical and significant revision AFTER "the completion of The Lord of the Rings..." (5: 218). He also states that just after The Hobbit was published, there was another, earlier period of heavy revision when JRRT was hoping that his mythologies might serve as the immediate sequel to the popular tale of Bilbo's adventures. His publishers read some of this First Major Revised QS (hereafter FMR QS) in 1938, and turned it down (HOME 5: 219). After this disappointment Tolkien went on to write LotR, and round about 1956 really started the most drastic period of Silmarillion revision (Second Major Revised QS -- hereafter SMR QS).
What Christopher does make plain for us in HOME V, pp 221-222, is that the FMR QS of 1938 does NOT contain the 1977 version's chapter 2, "Of Aule and Yavanna." It not only has no mention I can find of the creation of the Olvar, the Tree Spirits and the Ents, but it also has no separate chapter heading to detail Aule's creation of the Dwarves.
Apparently, as I thought from the "codicil-like" appearance of chpt 2 in the 1977 version, this chapter is a late inclusion, post 1938, post Hobbit at the earliest. Even the first mention of the "special" origin of the Dwarves is post 1938, though it does show up in the FMR QS as a long note added to the margins of chapter 10 of the FMR QS: "Of Men and Dwarves." (see HOME 5: pp. 299 -300). Here the creation of the Dwarves by Aule is sketched out in much the same fashion as we have it in the 1977 QS, but there is no mention whatsoever of Yavanna and her Tree Spirts (Ents).
Another piece of misfortune then befalls us. Christopher Tolkien does not go on to give us a copy of the SMR QS (circa 1955-65?) so that we can more precisely date just when JRRT wrote up his Yavanna-Ent piece, and then combined it with his marginal (post 1938) notes on Aule's creation of the Dwarves to form what will become the late-interpolated chapter 2 of the 1977 QS. What I am forced to rely upon here, is my strong feeling, (logical as well, I hope) that JRRT would only have written the "covering" explanation for the existence of Ents after he discovered he had need of it. That is, after he had decided to put walking-talking vegetation into LotR. This explains why the indices of the HOME volumes do not have listings for Ents, Olvar, Huorns, Treebeard etc, until we are dealing with texts that were written or revised after 1955.
In more general terms, what this situation implies (to my mind at least!) is that a good many of Tolkien's writings, including The Hobbit, were, originally, only loosely tied into his basic mythology, and after each such work was written, he would then -- after the fact -- stretch the elastic fabric of his "legendarium" to cover the new data. As most of his new data (including the Ents!) was added with the publication of LotR, it makes sense, as C. Tolkien tells us, that the most massive of all the revisions of this mythology had to be undertaken at that time (1955 and later).
The smooth, uniform appearance of his 1977 Silmarillion, with all its nice explanations for the major features of his separate fantasy works (Adventures of Tom Bombadil; Hobbit; LotR) is just a beautiful illusion. The apparent historical continuity of the events, laid out from the creation to the last days of the Third Age, belies the highly variegated nature of the individual components that were subjected to JRRT's post 1940 "unification" scheme.
In the case of the Huorns and Ents, indeed the entire concept of sapient, ambulatory vegetation, we can be certain from the material published in HOME 5 QS, that they post date 1938 and therefore, have no relevance to the types of forests that Bilbo could have known in The Hobbit. Furthermore, I am certain that the 1977 Silmarillion references to these walking-talking vegetables are not only post FMR QS (post 1938) in origin, but are, most likely interpolations/ revisions made after 1955.
