"GL2" - читать интересную книгу автора (vol05)

PART TWO.

VALINOR AND
MIDDLE-EARTH
BEFORE
THE LORD OF
THE RINGS.

I.
THE TEXTS AND THEIR
RELATIONS.

In the fourth volume of this History were given the Quenta Noldorinwa
(Q) or History of the Gnomes, which can be ascribed to the year 1930
(IV. 177 - 8); the earliest Annals of Beleriand (AB), which followed Q
but is not itself dateable to a year, and the beginning of a new version
(AB II); the earliest Annals of Valinor (AV), which followed the first
version of AB but preceded the second (IV. 327); and the Ambarkanta
or Shape of the World. The Lay of Leithian, given in Vol. III, was
abandoned when far advanced in 1931.
I have described in III. 364 ff. how in November 1937 a new though
unfinished version of 'The Silmarillion' was delivered to Allen and
Unwin; while the first draft of the first chapter of The Lord of the Rings
was written between 16 and 19 December 1937. Between 1930 and the
end of 1937 must be placed the texts following Q in Vol. IV, and in
addition these others which are given in this book (as well as The Fall of
Numenor and The Lost Road):
(1). Ainulindale, a new version of the original 'Lost Tale' of The Music
of the Ainur. This is certainly later than AV, since in it the First Kindred
of the Elves is named Lindar, not Quendi, and the old name Noldoli has
given place to Noldor.
(2). A new version of the Annals of Valinor, again with the forms
Lindar and Noldor. This version I shall call the Later Annals of Valinor,
referring to it by the abbreviation AV 2, while the earliest version given
in Vol. IV will be AV l.
(3). A new version of the Annals of Beleriand, which looks to be a close
companion text to A V z. This I shall refer to similarly as AB 2, the Later
Annals of Beleriand. In this case there are two antecedent versions,
mentioned above, and called in Vol. IV AB I and AB II. These, to keep
the parallel with the Annals of Valinor, can be referred to collectively as
AB 1 (since in writing AB 2 my father followed AB II so far as it went and
then followed AB I).
(4). The Lhammas or Account of Tongues. This, extant in three
versions, seems to have been closely related to the composition of the
Quenta Silmarillion.
(5). The new version of 'The Silmarillion' proper, a once very fine
manuscript whose making was interrupted when the material went to the
publishers; To distinguish this version from its predecessor the Quenta

Noldorinwa or simply the Quenta, I use throughout the abbreviation