1 00:00:00,930 --> 00:00:05,130 Hello, everyone. I'm Grace Khuri. And welcome to this lecture. 2 00:00:05,130 --> 00:00:10,840 What is the Silmarillion? An introduction to Tolkien’s mythology. 3 00:00:10,840 --> 00:00:15,650 The Silmarillion Tolkien’s, oldest and favourite, major work. 4 00:00:15,650 --> 00:00:22,260 Which he attempted to publish in some form or other first with The Hobbit in 1937. 5 00:00:22,260 --> 00:00:29,920 And again, at the time of publishing The Lord of the Rings in the early 1950s, was a prequel to these works. 6 00:00:29,920 --> 00:00:40,450 Although the Silmarillion lacks Hobbits, it features heroic, fierce and at times treacherous elves and human heroes all caught in the web of deceit, 7 00:00:40,450 --> 00:00:48,100 distrust and war stirred by a dark lord, even more powerful than Sauron. 8 00:00:48,100 --> 00:00:56,550 Unlike his more famous books, Tolkien’s Silmarillion, as described by Verlyn Flieger in her book Interrupted Music. 9 00:00:56,550 --> 00:01:11,120 Is symphonic in scope, a huge yet unconcluded chronicle of history and epic and romance. 10 00:01:11,120 --> 00:01:21,270 In this lecture, we are going to briefly look at Tolkien’s early life before discussing the mythology itself and its origins in the First World War. 11 00:01:21,270 --> 00:01:29,250 It will then look at the identity of the Silmarillion in italics versus the Silmarillion in quotation marks, 12 00:01:29,250 --> 00:01:34,140 the first referring to the 1977 publication. 13 00:01:34,140 --> 00:01:43,680 And the other referencing the wider textual corpus of alternate drafts and related materials composed between 1914, 14 00:01:43,680 --> 00:01:48,420 all the way up to Tolkien's death in nineteen seventy three. 15 00:01:48,420 --> 00:01:57,050 The lecture will also cover the chronology of the various poetic and prose manuscripts that relate to the Silmarillion mythology. 16 00:01:57,050 --> 00:02:03,570 As well as the publication dates of those materials and the history of Middle-earth series. 17 00:02:03,570 --> 00:02:10,960 We'll also look at the editorial challenges that Tolkien’s son and editor Christopher was dealing with. 18 00:02:10,960 --> 00:02:23,960 And how he managed to reproduce his father's manuscripts in a form that was not only coherent but scholarly. 19 00:02:23,960 --> 00:02:35,240 First, a bit on Tolkien himself. John Ronald Rule Tolkien was born January 3rd, 1892 in Bloemfontein, South Africa 20 00:02:35,240 --> 00:02:45,650 then the Orange Free State. His father, Arthur Tolkien, was a bank clerk and died of rheumatic fever when John Ronald was only four. 21 00:02:45,650 --> 00:02:49,040 His mother, Mabel Tolkien nee Suffield move. 22 00:02:49,040 --> 00:02:58,260 John Ronald and his brother Hillary to England when John was two but died from complications from diabetes when John was twelve. 23 00:02:58,260 --> 00:03:08,100 Tolkien’s early education at King Edward School in Birmingham fuelled both strong friendships and stirred intellectual curiosity. 24 00:03:08,100 --> 00:03:15,660 The transient joy of the encouragement and inspiration of three close school friends who dubbed themselves 25 00:03:15,660 --> 00:03:21,100 The Tea Club and Bsrrovian Society or TCBS. 26 00:03:21,100 --> 00:03:27,180 Ended in tragedy when two of the three died in the First World War. 27 00:03:27,180 --> 00:03:33,330 Profound grief and an imagination fuelled by the myths and legends of the North. 28 00:03:33,330 --> 00:03:36,730 Old Norse, Old English, Finnish. 29 00:03:36,730 --> 00:03:45,820 Led to the beginning of Tolkien’s legendarily which he initially composed in various military hospitals while recovering from trench fever, 30 00:03:45,820 --> 00:03:50,940 contracted while serving as a signalling officer on the Somme. 31 00:03:50,940 --> 00:04:00,030 This early mythology, the precursor to his more famous works, The Hobbit, 1937, and The Lord of the Rings. 32 00:04:00,030 --> 00:04:09,480 Nineteen fifty four to fifty five. Always remained the most important to Tolkien of all his literary creations. 33 00:04:09,480 --> 00:04:18,680 It was a lifelong and ultimately unfinished labour. 34 00:04:18,680 --> 00:04:19,940 In a nineteen fifty five, letter 35 00:04:19,940 --> 00:04:30,980 Tolkien looks back on his early desire to produce a body of more or less connected legend ranging from the Large and Cosmogonic. 36 00:04:30,980 --> 00:04:36,710 To the level of romantic fairy story, the larger, founded on the lesser. 37 00:04:36,710 --> 00:04:47,820 The lesser drawing splendour from the vast backcloths, which I could dedicate simply to England, to my country. 38 00:04:47,820 --> 00:04:54,950 These sentiments mirror a passage from E. M. Forster’s 1910 novel Howard’s End. 39 00:04:54,950 --> 00:05:02,360 Why has not England a great mythology? Our folklore has never advanced beyond daintiness. 40 00:05:02,360 --> 00:05:11,800 England still waits for the supreme moment of her literature for the great poet who shall voice her. 41 00:05:11,800 --> 00:05:21,040 Looking back to the 1910s Verlyn Flieger observes that the imminence of war with its implied destruction of existing 42 00:05:21,040 --> 00:05:29,420 culture fuelled if it did not create Tolkien’s desire to give his country and mythology. 43 00:05:29,420 --> 00:05:35,100 Gergely Nagi notes, the tokens tax and the background mythological system. 44 00:05:35,100 --> 00:05:42,200 They succeed in creating are essentially similar to real world mythological corpora. 45 00:05:42,200 --> 00:05:55,150 And the way they invoke their mythological system. Because of the basically similar relation of text to myth. 46 00:05:55,150 --> 00:06:01,060 Tolkien's myth, like so many others, begins with a cosmogony. 47 00:06:01,060 --> 00:06:08,530 In the new Lindh delay, the supreme being and primary creator ERU or Iluvatar. 48 00:06:08,530 --> 00:06:19,160 Composes music and directs Ainur quasi-angelic beings under Eru to sing the world of Arda into existence. 49 00:06:19,160 --> 00:06:23,480 The creationary music is divided into three themes. 50 00:06:23,480 --> 00:06:28,380 The last of which relates to the making of the children of Iluvatar. 51 00:06:28,380 --> 00:06:43,180 Elves the first born and men. The first conflict of any kind comes in the clash of the opposing themes of the Ainur. 52 00:06:43,180 --> 00:06:50,620 The first and main theme is song to bring the universe and world of Arda into existence. 53 00:06:50,620 --> 00:06:58,900 Then the voices of the Ainur like onto harps and loots and pipes and trumpets and viols and organs and 54 00:06:58,900 --> 00:07:07,050 like onto countless choirs singing with words begin to fashion the theme of Iluvatar to a great music. 55 00:07:07,050 --> 00:07:15,030 And a sound a rose of endless interchanging melodies woven in harmony that passed beyond hearing into the 56 00:07:15,030 --> 00:07:22,710 depths and into the heights and the places of the dwelling of Iluvatar were filled to overflowing. 57 00:07:22,710 --> 00:07:28,140 And the music and the echo of the music went out into the void. 58 00:07:28,140 --> 00:07:39,650 And it was not void. Melkor, the most powerful of the Ainur rebels against Iluvatar and the others by propounding his own dark, 59 00:07:39,650 --> 00:07:49,510 discordant musical theme, one that weaves discontent, war and violence into the nobler themes of the others. 60 00:07:49,510 --> 00:07:55,090 Clashing musics of the Ainur loyal to Eru and those who attune their song 61 00:07:55,090 --> 00:08:01,120 to Melkor’s leads to the mixture of beauty and wonder on the one hand and woe, 62 00:08:01,120 --> 00:08:06,700 strife and terror on the other. That play out in Arda. 63 00:08:06,700 --> 00:08:11,080 I am providing here two different versions of the music of Melkor. 64 00:08:11,080 --> 00:08:20,630 The first is derived from the late text, but the second taken from the earliest draft is more detailed as to the nature of this theme. 65 00:08:20,630 --> 00:08:29,620 In the 1977 Silmarillion Melkor’s, music is characterised as loud and vain and endlessly repeated. 66 00:08:29,620 --> 00:08:31,390 It had little harmony, 67 00:08:31,390 --> 00:08:44,740 but rather a clamorous unison as many trumpets braying upon a few notes and did a seed to drown the other music by the violence of its voice. 68 00:08:44,740 --> 00:08:50,490 The earliest description of Melkor’s theme was very topical, given that the earliest draft, 69 00:08:50,490 --> 00:08:56,980 because earliest draft of the cosmogony was composed in the immediate aftermath of the First World War. 70 00:08:56,980 --> 00:09:08,580 It explains how through him, meaning Mealkor has pain and misery been made in the clashing of overwhelming musics and with confusion of sound, 71 00:09:08,580 --> 00:09:11,770 of cruelty and ravening and darkness. 72 00:09:11,770 --> 00:09:27,710 Lonely mire and all putrescence of thought or thing, fowl, mists and violent flame, cold without mercy, been born and death without hope. 73 00:09:27,710 --> 00:09:32,970 In his essay, Ilu’s Music. The Creation of Tolkien’s Creation Myth. 74 00:09:32,970 --> 00:09:44,740 John Garth states this text to the war years around 1917 and observes an air of Somme battlefields in the descriptions of Melkor’s theme. 75 00:09:44,740 --> 00:09:54,890 To elaborate on his observation, I've underlined several instances in this passage that evoke specific attributes of World War One battlefields. 76 00:09:54,890 --> 00:10:02,730 Lonely mire and putrescence recalls the mud and decay of soldiers and animals on the Western Front. 77 00:10:02,730 --> 00:10:07,630 Foul mists could be an oblique reference to poison gas. 78 00:10:07,630 --> 00:10:14,660 Violent flame evokes the effects of flame throwers and exploding ordinance. 79 00:10:14,660 --> 00:10:18,860 The last description referring to Death Without Hope, 80 00:10:18,860 --> 00:10:26,560 is especially poignant as part of a work composed months after the deaths of two close friends on the Somme. 81 00:10:26,560 --> 00:10:34,480 Robert Gilson and Jeffrey Bache Smith, former members of the TCBS from King Edward School, 82 00:10:34,480 --> 00:10:49,530 who represented the earliest audience for Tolkien's mythological verse, were the Proto-Silmarillion lyrics of 1914 through 1916. 83 00:10:49,530 --> 00:10:58,740 After initial struggles in the fledgling world between the violent power hungry Melkor and the other Valar and the establishment of a divine island, 84 00:10:58,740 --> 00:11:03,210 Homeland and Valinor the first born of the children of Iluvatar. 85 00:11:03,210 --> 00:11:08,520 The elves also called gnomes and fairies in earlier versions. 86 00:11:08,520 --> 00:11:17,920 Awake on the shores of Middle Earth. Many follow the Valar to Valinor and become the greatest, wisest and most powerful of the elves, 87 00:11:17,920 --> 00:11:25,110 while others remain in middle-earth called the great lands in early drafts. 88 00:11:25,110 --> 00:11:32,490 Later, the race of men awakens and fight alongside the elves in the later wars. 89 00:11:32,490 --> 00:11:41,680 The Silmarillion is essentially a history of the elves, although it features several prominent mortal heroes as well. 90 00:11:41,680 --> 00:11:51,870 Tolkien’s elves are not the miniature twee inhabitants of the fairean worlds of Shakespeare and a Victorian and Edwardian children's literature. 91 00:11:51,870 --> 00:12:01,260 But more to the magisterial, to Tuatha de Danann in the Irish myth and the light elves of the Old Norse Eddas. 92 00:12:01,260 --> 00:12:07,680 The Silmarillion elves are human in height and are stronger and more beautiful than mortals. 93 00:12:07,680 --> 00:12:14,190 In the 1977 Silmarillion, they are divided into three main peoples. 94 00:12:14,190 --> 00:12:30,800 The Noldor, the most skilled and learnt of the Alps. The Vanyar, you're the fairest and wisest and the Toleri who are seafarers and shipbuilders. 95 00:12:30,800 --> 00:12:39,460 Much like the historical period in which Tolkien lived with its two major world wars in the first half of the 20th century. 96 00:12:39,460 --> 00:12:45,950 Middle-earth also has two major cycles of conflict in its history. 97 00:12:45,950 --> 00:12:52,310 The war of the jewels in the first stage. The subject of the Silmarillion. 98 00:12:52,310 --> 00:12:58,820 And the war of the ring in the third age, the subject of The Lord of the Rings. 99 00:12:58,820 --> 00:13:06,130 The origin of the first war came when the most skilled and learnt amongst the Noldor or deep elves, the Smith, 100 00:13:06,130 --> 00:13:13,680 Fëanor, crafted three gems that contained the light of the two magical trees that lit Valinor. 101 00:13:13,680 --> 00:13:26,750 Melkor’s theft of these jewels and murder of Fëanor’s father drives Fëanor into a mad rage and a disastrous oath. 102 00:13:26,750 --> 00:13:31,670 Fëanor swears to pursue with vengeance and hatred to the ends of the world. 103 00:13:31,670 --> 00:13:39,770 Valar, Demon elf or man as yet unborn or any creature, great or small, good or evil, 104 00:13:39,770 --> 00:13:51,720 that time should bring forth unto the end of days who so should hold or take or keep a Silmaril from their possession. 105 00:13:51,720 --> 00:13:59,140 Fëanor is joined in this oath by his seven sons. And afterwards leads along with his valiant half brother, Fingolfin, 106 00:13:59,140 --> 00:14:07,570 and a large contingent of the Noldor to make an incursion against Melkor and his forces in Middle-earth. 107 00:14:07,570 --> 00:14:15,730 So begins the centuries long conflict between the most powerful elves and their kingdoms and Melkor’s armies of orcs, 108 00:14:15,730 --> 00:14:28,650 dragons and balrogs, the latter creatures that have much in common with the fire giants of Norse mythology. 109 00:14:28,650 --> 00:14:37,530 In the midst of this war cycle and the related history are the three great tales centring on mortal heroes. 110 00:14:37,530 --> 00:14:45,270 The love story of the mortal Beren who falls in love with the half elf, half Maiar, Princess Lúthien. 111 00:14:45,270 --> 00:14:49,380 The tragedy of the troubled antihero Turin Turambar, 112 00:14:49,380 --> 00:14:56,580 who kills the mightiest of Melkor’s dragons in the manner of Sigard the Volsung from Eddic Legend. 113 00:14:56,580 --> 00:14:59,460 And finally, the account of Tuor, 114 00:14:59,460 --> 00:15:08,000 whose fate becomes entwined with the doom of Gondolin and the most powerful of the three major Elven kingdoms of Middle-earth. 115 00:15:08,000 --> 00:15:20,260 And the Camelot equivalent of Tolkien’s mythology. So from a textual standpoint, what is the Silmarillion? 117 00:15:22,540 --> 00:15:33,210 Those familiar with the work have most commonly only read the 1977 publication, which does not represent the totality of Tolkien's mythology, 118 00:15:33,210 --> 00:15:44,320 but is only one editorial compilation of a portion of the wider corpus composed over the course of two thirds of Tolkien's life. 119 00:15:44,320 --> 00:15:55,370 Tolkien died in 1973, leaving his epic unfinished and in the following years, his third son and literary executor, Christopher, 120 00:15:55,370 --> 00:16:04,470 assembled five key texts into a coherent narrative based on a number of earlier and later drafts. 121 00:16:04,470 --> 00:16:12,140 The result was an amalgam of the two cosmogonies Ainulindalë and Valaquenta. 122 00:16:12,140 --> 00:16:21,000 The 1950s, late Quenta Silmarillion, which formed the central part of the heroic history of the first stage. 123 00:16:21,000 --> 00:16:32,190 Akallaneth - A later version of the fall of Numenor, the story of the Atlantis like kingdom of mortal men that was destroyed by a great wave. 124 00:16:32,190 --> 00:16:43,840 And finally, the intermediary text Of the Rings of Power and the third age that chronicles the events of the second and third ages. 125 00:16:43,840 --> 00:16:53,060 Forming a part of the immediate prehistory of the Lord of the Rings. 126 00:16:53,060 --> 00:16:57,980 Over the years, the Silmarillion has been regarded with some wariness. 127 00:16:57,980 --> 00:17:07,200 Was it a true authorial creation or an editorial composition that did not reflect the intent of the original author? 128 00:17:07,200 --> 00:17:15,400 The early concerns immediately after publication continued to be echoed many decades later. 129 00:17:15,400 --> 00:17:24,440 More recent assessments of the Silmarillion have characterised it as a collaborative effort between Tolkien and his third son. 130 00:17:24,440 --> 00:17:27,580 And as a mediated text. 131 00:17:27,580 --> 00:17:39,190 Douglas Kane in his monograph, Arda Reconstructed, which is dedicated to the detective work of how the 1977 Silmarillion was assembled. 132 00:17:39,190 --> 00:17:45,490 Observes that the work pushes the limits of editorial intervention. 133 00:17:45,490 --> 00:17:56,360 And amongst other things, Kane complains about reductions made from the source drafts. 134 00:17:56,360 --> 00:18:07,360 Anxieties over the extent of Christopher Tolkien's editorial intervention stirred critical debates over the canonicity of the 1977 publication. 135 00:18:07,360 --> 00:18:19,570 Verlyn Flieger feels that the 1977 text gives a misleading impression of coherence and finality, as if it were a definitive canonical text, 136 00:18:19,570 --> 00:18:27,160 whereas the mass of material from which that volume was taken is a jumble of overlapping and often competing stories. 137 00:18:27,160 --> 00:18:38,120 Annals and Lexicons. Despite such assertions, Allan Turner observes that the book stands as the canonical work. 138 00:18:38,120 --> 00:18:49,240 The standard against which all variations are measured. By virtue of its status as the first and most unified form of the mythology. 139 00:18:49,240 --> 00:18:54,460 Niels Ivar Agoy goes as far as to say that for most readers, 140 00:18:54,460 --> 00:19:04,720 the 1977 Silmarillion is the standard authoritative source of information about the elder days. 141 00:19:04,720 --> 00:19:10,210 For a number of scholars, the shadow of the editor loomed large over this long awaited, 142 00:19:10,210 --> 00:19:18,380 yet controversial product, which was only a small piece of Tolkien's life work on the project. 143 00:19:18,380 --> 00:19:27,150 In the introduction to the Book of Lost Tales, an earlier version of the mythology, Christopher Tolkien regretted, as he put it. 144 00:19:27,150 --> 00:19:33,990 Leaving no suggestion of what it - the 1977 Silmarillion - is. 145 00:19:33,990 --> 00:19:43,130 And how within the imagined world it came to be. 146 00:19:43,130 --> 00:19:49,400 Christopher Tolkien responded directly to such concerns by publishing a few of the earlier drafts of 147 00:19:49,400 --> 00:19:59,190 individual stories in The Unfinished Tales published in 1980 and shown here in the bottom right hand corner. 148 00:19:59,190 --> 00:20:03,940 The rest appeared in the 12 volume History of Middle Earth series. 149 00:20:03,940 --> 00:20:09,520 Over half of which was dedicated to Silmarillion material. 150 00:20:09,520 --> 00:20:15,490 David Bratman explains in his overview of the collection how the history in the title, 151 00:20:15,490 --> 00:20:24,990 The History of Middle Earth, refers to both the internal history of the secondary world of the legendarium and the external history of the author 152 00:20:24,990 --> 00:20:34,810 Writing about it. It provides the reader with options to use the drafts either as a resource and encyclopaedia. 153 00:20:34,810 --> 00:20:43,770 Or as a narrative. The title Silmarillion in quotation marks is the scholarly designation for the textual 154 00:20:43,770 --> 00:20:50,720 variants preserved in these volumes which trace the development of an unfinished opus. 155 00:20:50,720 --> 00:20:59,500 The Silmarillion corpus was composed in first intense and then sporadic fits over the course of 60 years. 156 00:20:59,500 --> 00:21:04,990 Tolkien began writing in earnest during the winter of 1916 and 17, 157 00:21:04,990 --> 00:21:13,210 although a collection of lyrics featuring figures or places from the mythology were composed as early as 1914. 158 00:21:13,210 --> 00:21:22,690 And some of these are preserved in the Book of Lost Tales. Elizabeth Whittingham in her book The Evolution of Tolkien's Mythology, 159 00:21:22,690 --> 00:21:29,980 identifies six stages of composition for the developing corpus and the substrata of this complex 160 00:21:29,980 --> 00:21:37,150 textual tradition are preserved in the posthumously published volumes edited from often palaeo- 161 00:21:37,150 --> 00:21:45,640 graphically difficult manuscripts. In his forward to the 1977 Silmarillion. 162 00:21:45,640 --> 00:21:54,670 Christopher explains how the same legends came to be retold in longer and shorter forms and in different styles. 163 00:21:54,670 --> 00:22:01,990 My father came to conceive of the Silmarillion as a compilation, a compendious narrative made long afterwards 164 00:22:01,990 --> 00:22:11,810 from sources of great diversity poems and annals and oral tales that had survived an age long tradition. 165 00:22:11,810 --> 00:22:20,260 Christopher also describes this corpus as a vast repository and labyrinth of story, poetry, 166 00:22:20,260 --> 00:22:29,570 a philosophy and a philology with everything from forays into heroic verse in the ancient English alliterative metre. 167 00:22:29,570 --> 00:22:40,030 To exercises in severe historical analysis of his own extremely difficult languages. 168 00:22:40,030 --> 00:22:45,490 Volumes one through five and nine through 12 of the history of Middle-earth consist of verse and prose 169 00:22:45,490 --> 00:22:57,180 redactions in various states of completion of Tolkien's mythology spanning the 1910s and twenties and thirties and later the 1950s and 1960s. 170 00:22:57,180 --> 00:23:03,210 Volume six through nine are predominantly concerned with alternate draughts of The Lord of the Rings, 171 00:23:03,210 --> 00:23:14,390 with the exception of one Silmarillion related text, The Notion Club papers, which appears in Volume nine. 172 00:23:14,390 --> 00:23:18,890 The unfinished tales of Numenor and Middle-earth already briefly mentioned, were 173 00:23:18,890 --> 00:23:27,670 not part of the 12 volume series serves the same function as the Silmarillion focussed volumes of the history of Middle-earth. 174 00:23:27,670 --> 00:23:38,450 Two texts relate directly to the Silmarillion, the tale of the Children of Húrin, which is the longest prose account of the story of Turin. 175 00:23:38,450 --> 00:23:47,230 Also of Tuor and is coming to Gondolin a fragmentary later version of the Tale of the Fall of Gondolin. 176 00:23:47,230 --> 00:23:57,390 The unfinished tales also feature stories from the second and third ages covering materials pertaining to the Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings. 177 00:23:57,390 --> 00:24:05,300 The introduction to the volume presents Christopher's earliest responses to critiques on his editorial practise. 178 00:24:05,300 --> 00:24:15,860 He explains how he produced the 1977 publication in order to be of the same order as the writings published by my father himself. 179 00:24:15,860 --> 00:24:24,450 A completed and cohesive entity rather than a complex of divergent texts interlinked by commentary. 180 00:24:24,450 --> 00:24:33,390 This last description characterises the nature of the then forthcoming publications. 181 00:24:33,390 --> 00:24:40,680 The Book of Lost Tales Volumes one and two, composed between 1916 and 1920, 182 00:24:40,680 --> 00:24:49,510 is a collection of prose tales that represents a considerable but not yet complete account of the first stage legendarium. 183 00:24:49,510 --> 00:25:00,790 Tolkien's tales are organised within a semi-historicized frame narrative in which the mortal wanderer Eriol, or one who dreams alone, 184 00:25:00,790 --> 00:25:08,760 also called Angel a name, which, according to Tolkien's early notes, relates to the Angeln in southern Denmark. 185 00:25:08,760 --> 00:25:13,000 Finds a hidden civilisation of ancient fairies or elves. 186 00:25:13,000 --> 00:25:19,640 The island of Tol Erresa, originally conceived as ancient England. 187 00:25:19,640 --> 00:25:26,780 In a later reconceived frame narrative Eriol is transformed into the Anglo-Saxon traveller Ælfwine. 188 00:25:26,780 --> 00:25:30,900 His name is old English for Elf-friend. 189 00:25:30,900 --> 00:25:42,110 The inhabitants of a grand magical cottage on Tol Eressëa to recount stories of their glorious past before mortals dominated the world. 190 00:25:42,110 --> 00:25:44,240 This collection was never finished. 191 00:25:44,240 --> 00:25:53,260 Trailing off with a variety of fragmentary tales, some of which appear in the next volume, along with outlines and notes. 192 00:25:53,260 --> 00:26:02,810 These two volumes represent what Elizabeth Wittingham identifies as Tolkien's first of six stages of Silmarillion composition. 193 00:26:02,810 --> 00:26:12,120 The serialised format and framing story of the Book of Lost Tales recalls the format of such classics as Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, 194 00:26:12,120 --> 00:26:22,050 Boccacio's Decameron and more contemporary for Tolkienn, William Morris's 1868 romance Earthly Paradise, 195 00:26:22,050 --> 00:26:27,090 a collection of tales told by a group of travellers gathered on an island. 196 00:26:27,090 --> 00:26:34,230 The work was given as a gift by another officer, while Tolkien was on the Somme. 197 00:26:34,230 --> 00:26:42,990 The Lost Tales contains all three of the great tales that would recur and verse and prose redactions throughout the Silmarillion Corpus. 198 00:26:42,990 --> 00:26:51,490 The Love Story of the Elf later a mortal Beren and Elf Princess Lúthien in the tale of Tinúviel. 199 00:26:51,490 --> 00:26:58,420 The tragedy of the ill fated mortal warrior Turin Turambar. 200 00:26:58,420 --> 00:27:05,420 The account of the fall of the renowned Elven city of Gondolin in the tale of the Fall of Gondolin, 201 00:27:05,420 --> 00:27:09,590 as well as early versions of the surrounding history. 202 00:27:09,590 --> 00:27:18,230 With the exception of the frame story, The cottage of lost play, these three tales are also the oldest in the collection, 203 00:27:18,230 --> 00:27:28,380 all composed during or in the immediate aftermath of the First World War. 204 00:27:28,380 --> 00:27:33,240 There is arguably a case to be made regarding the earliest mythological poems 205 00:27:33,240 --> 00:27:38,850 and prose drafts as war literature based on the time of their composition, 206 00:27:38,850 --> 00:27:42,540 especially the 1917 war themed narrative, 207 00:27:42,540 --> 00:27:52,570 The Tale of the Fall of Gondolin which recounts the demise of the greatest of the Elf City states through treason and invasion. 208 00:27:52,570 --> 00:28:01,600 In his biographical study, Tolkien and the Great War, John Garth notes the kinship between the magical mechanical dragons that assail the 209 00:28:01,600 --> 00:28:07,270 city walls and the tanks that began to appear on the Western Front during the year 210 00:28:07,270 --> 00:28:12,000 Tolkien was composing his epic narrative. 211 00:28:12,000 --> 00:28:22,740 The earliest locales for Tolkien's composition of early languages, notes and possible summaries were various military venues in England and France. 212 00:28:22,740 --> 00:28:27,900 In letters addressed to Christopher during his service in the Second World War, 213 00:28:27,900 --> 00:28:38,650 Tolkien explained how he first began to write the history of the Gnome's meaning the Silmarillion or the Lost Tales, in army huts crowded, 214 00:28:38,650 --> 00:28:45,080 filled with the noise of gramophones. In another letter from the same year, 215 00:28:45,080 --> 00:28:54,290 he outlined the various unlikely locations for jotting down the earliest concepts and excerpts for his developing history. 216 00:28:54,290 --> 00:28:59,750 These include grimy canteen's, lectures and cold fogs. 217 00:28:59,750 --> 00:29:06,270 Gell Tents and even some in dugouts under shell fire. 218 00:29:06,270 --> 00:29:17,840 He continues to reinforce these origins many years later, citing camps and hospitals between 1915 and 1918 as places of literary invention. 219 00:29:17,840 --> 00:29:31,270 His 1917 tale of the Fall of Gondolin was a product of his medical leave taken after the Battle of the Somme. 220 00:29:31,270 --> 00:29:35,320 After abandoning the Book of Lost Tales around 1920, 221 00:29:35,320 --> 00:29:46,160 Tolkien embarked on the lengthy project of developing what he called the vast backcloths of his ancient history/mythology. 222 00:29:46,160 --> 00:29:53,530 In the 1920s and 1930s, he alternately resorted to poetry and prose summaries, 223 00:29:53,530 --> 00:29:59,930 The Lays of Beleriand, volume three represents along with the next volume in the series, 224 00:29:59,930 --> 00:30:06,230 The second stage of Tolkien's work on the mythology. It contains two narrative poems. 225 00:30:06,230 --> 00:30:12,320 The Lay of Leithean, composed between 1925 and 1931. 226 00:30:12,320 --> 00:30:17,960 A verse version of the story of Beren and Lúthien as first told in the Tale of Tinuviel 227 00:30:17,960 --> 00:30:24,890 and the lay of the Children of Hurin abandoned in nineteen twenty five. 228 00:30:24,890 --> 00:30:36,190 The story of Turin Turambar told in verse. This volume also features shorter verse relating to the mythology as listed here. 229 00:30:36,190 --> 00:30:44,050 And most of these are unfinished or fragmentary pieces. 230 00:30:44,050 --> 00:30:48,820 Volume four The shaping of Middle-earth is a continuation of the second stage of the 231 00:30:48,820 --> 00:30:54,700 textual corpus and begins with prose fragments continuing the Book of Lost Tales. 232 00:30:54,700 --> 00:31:03,250 More significant are the two prose versions of the mythology which dispense with the mediator figure of Eriol and the frame narrative. 233 00:31:03,250 --> 00:31:15,330 The first, the sketch of the mythology from 1926 is just that a sketch or prose outline of the key events of the first stage, in highly condensed form. 234 00:31:15,330 --> 00:31:22,290 It was originally intended to provide background for poetic recastings of the tale of Tinúviel and Turambar and the foalókë, 235 00:31:22,290 --> 00:31:28,660 For assessment by Tolkien's former tutor from King Edward's School. 236 00:31:28,660 --> 00:31:32,800 Although the original intent was not to rewrite the Book of Lost Tales. 237 00:31:32,800 --> 00:31:41,320 This reformulation of the old legendarium material inspired a permanent restructuring based on its model. 238 00:31:41,320 --> 00:31:45,590 The sketch is followed by a longer, more formal prose text. 239 00:31:45,590 --> 00:31:53,540 The Quenta Noldorinwa from nineteen thirty, which expands considerably on its predecessor. 240 00:31:53,540 --> 00:32:03,140 Volume four also includes the earliest annals of Valinor and the earliest annals of Beleriand from the early 1930s. 241 00:32:03,140 --> 00:32:11,360 And both are formatted as chronicles, listing highly abbreviated accounts of historical events by Date. 242 00:32:11,360 --> 00:32:18,970 In the manner of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and other similar analysts histories from the Middle Ages. 243 00:32:18,970 --> 00:32:32,580 Within Tolkien's world, these works were supposed to be histories composed by chroniclers, living in either Valinor or Beleriand. 244 00:32:32,580 --> 00:32:39,480 Volume five, The Lost Road and other writings, is home to texts written during the composition of 245 00:32:39,480 --> 00:32:45,450 The Hobbit and before the lengthy and all consuming project of The Lord of the Rings, 246 00:32:45,450 --> 00:32:52,020 which very nearly suspended all activity relating to the early mythology for many years. 247 00:32:52,020 --> 00:33:00,990 This book features the first version of the Atlantis influenced narrative, the fall of Numenor from the 1930s. 248 00:33:00,990 --> 00:33:11,050 And the unfinished modern time travel story, The Lost Road, which formed a frame around another version of the Numenorean material. 249 00:33:11,050 --> 00:33:18,490 Additionally, there is a fourth prose version of Tolkien's mythology, the unfinished Quenta Silmarillion, 250 00:33:18,490 --> 00:33:25,200 from the mid to late 1930s, whose composition coincided with that of The Hobbit. 251 00:33:25,200 --> 00:33:33,640 And in fact, Tolkien unsuccessfully attempted to publish the incomplete Quenta Silmarillion, along with other related texts. 252 00:33:33,640 --> 00:33:43,660 In 1937. More Chronicle style material is present from the late 1930s, along with the Ainulindalë, 253 00:33:43,660 --> 00:33:48,890 the cosmological myth that was to function like a prologue in the 1977 254 00:33:48,890 --> 00:33:55,290 Silmarillion and replaced the earlier Cosmography found in the Book of Lost Tales 255 00:33:55,290 --> 00:34:01,540 there called The Music of the Ainur. 256 00:34:01,540 --> 00:34:12,700 The 10th and 11th volumes of the series Morgoth's Ring and the War of the Jewels each include portions of the later Quenta Silmarillion, 257 00:34:12,700 --> 00:34:23,260 a rewrite of the nineteen thirties text of the same name, a Tolkien refurbished and expanded in stages, but left unfinished. 258 00:34:23,260 --> 00:34:30,120 This late version was the base text for the 1977 publication. 259 00:34:30,120 --> 00:34:40,320 Morgoth's Ring contains two phases of later Quenta material. Phase one from the early 1950s and phase two from around 1958. 260 00:34:40,320 --> 00:34:44,500 It also preserves another version of the Ainulindalë, 261 00:34:44,500 --> 00:34:55,960 The annals of Amman from the early 1950s, and some miscellaneous material relating to the mythology. 262 00:34:55,960 --> 00:35:05,170 The War of the Jewels, in addition to further later Quenta chapters, also features the Grey Annals from the late 1950s, 263 00:35:05,170 --> 00:35:14,820 which consisted of two closely related works and was also used extensively in the 1977 Silmarillion. 264 00:35:14,820 --> 00:35:29,620 It also has the Wanderings of Húrin, which follows the post captivity exile Turin Turambar's father, but was not included in the 1977 Silmarillion. 265 00:35:29,620 --> 00:35:33,820 The final volume in the series, The Peoples of Middle Earth, 266 00:35:33,820 --> 00:35:42,980 contains Tolkien's latest writings mainly from the 1960s, along with some from the last few months of his life. 267 00:35:42,980 --> 00:35:50,820 These include the remainder of the late Quenta texts, some linguistic essays as listed here, 268 00:35:50,820 --> 00:35:57,590 A work purported to be by an Elvish scribe, chronicler of Gondolin Pengoloð. 269 00:35:57,590 --> 00:36:06,450 Who is also the attributed author of The Annals of Beleriand and and co-author of The Annals of Aman. 270 00:36:06,450 --> 00:36:19,120 It also features more incomplete stories. Christopher Tolkan passed away on January 16th, 2020, 271 00:36:19,120 --> 00:36:25,330 and he leaves behind a remarkable legacy of dedicated editorial scholarship that which 272 00:36:25,330 --> 00:36:29,380 readers and scholars would have a much more limited perspective of JRR Tolkien's, 273 00:36:29,380 --> 00:36:33,540 writings. During the last decade of his life, 274 00:36:33,540 --> 00:36:39,420 Christopher assembled textual variants of the three great tales of the mythology in 275 00:36:39,420 --> 00:36:44,460 order to enable those interested in the development of the narratives concerning Turin. 276 00:36:44,460 --> 00:36:54,180 Been, Lúthien, and Tour to have a clear understanding of what was gained, lost and modified over time in the different versions. 277 00:36:54,180 --> 00:37:00,060 While most of the texts provided had been previously published in the history of Middle-earth Series, 278 00:37:00,060 --> 00:37:07,200 Christopher thought it best to produce volumes that allowed for comparative analysis of the development, 279 00:37:07,200 --> 00:37:11,530 in particular of the tales of Beren and Lúthien and the fall of Gondolin. 280 00:37:11,530 --> 00:37:16,170 An exception to the rule here is the Children of Húrin. 281 00:37:16,170 --> 00:37:25,020 Which only contains the longest prose version of that tale and omits the other poetic and prose versions. 282 00:37:25,020 --> 00:37:33,090 These three volumes provide a chance to experience the three great tales outside the context of the mythology, 283 00:37:33,090 --> 00:37:43,650 as in the manner of old Norse sagas or medieval romances. HarperCollins will be releasing a new volume of unpublished material 284 00:37:43,650 --> 00:37:50,490 The Nature of Middle Earth scheduled for release June 24th, 2021. 285 00:37:50,490 --> 00:37:58,620 The forthcoming book is going to be based on photocopied materials sent by Christopher Tolkien before his passing to Tolkien linguist Carl 286 00:37:58,620 --> 00:38:10,130 Hostetter and will reproduce Tolkien's essays on his legendarium from the years 1959 through 1973 about the nature of Middle-earth. 287 00:38:10,130 --> 00:38:14,700 Both in the metaphysical and natural historical census. 288 00:38:14,700 --> 00:38:24,020 Some of these will relate to the Silmarillion and the unfinished tales and will be a useful resource to read alongside the wider Simarillion 289 00:38:24,020 --> 00:38:32,610 Corpus. Here I've listed the key texts for the legendarily. 290 00:38:32,610 --> 00:38:40,060 If you were interested in reading the whole history, the best place to start is the 1977 Silmarillion. 291 00:38:40,060 --> 00:38:46,190 Anyone wishing to delve further could then read the rest of the versions in the order of production. 292 00:38:46,190 --> 00:38:56,870 The Book of Lost Tales, the first two volumes of the series, the sketch in the Shaping of Middle-earth, the two 1930s Quentas. 293 00:38:56,870 --> 00:39:02,750 The earlier one in the Shaping of Middle Earth. And the slightly later won in the Lost Road. 294 00:39:02,750 --> 00:39:09,650 And finally, the late Quenta, which is spread across Morgoth's Ring and the War of the Jewels. 295 00:39:09,650 --> 00:39:13,940 While the last work may seem redundant with the 1977 text. 296 00:39:13,940 --> 00:39:19,970 It does contain extended passages and bits of dialogue that were reduced or excised 297 00:39:19,970 --> 00:39:29,490 for the Silmarillion and can be useful for textual comparison or character study. 298 00:39:29,490 --> 00:39:35,540 This is only a limited sampling of the secondary literature dealing with the Silmarillion mythology. 299 00:39:35,540 --> 00:39:44,320 The work's listed here are ones that deal with either the textual history or the creative development of the legendarily. 300 00:39:44,320 --> 00:39:54,490 Verlyn Flieger;s book, interrupted music traces not only the development of a key literary influences on Tolkien's legendarium, 301 00:39:54,490 --> 00:40:06,710 and is noteworthy for being one of a limited number of book length literary studies exclusively dedicated to the Silmarillion. 302 00:40:06,710 --> 00:40:14,820 Worthy of special mention are the books by John Garth His biographical study, Tolkien and the Great War, 303 00:40:14,820 --> 00:40:19,890 traces the earliest developments of the mythology during the First World War and 304 00:40:19,890 --> 00:40:26,010 the impact of Tolkien's early school friends from the TCBS on his writing. 305 00:40:26,010 --> 00:40:30,060 Garth's other book, The Worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien, 306 00:40:30,060 --> 00:40:39,210 features illuminating details relating to the early mythology and its links with real locations in England and Europe. 307 00:40:39,210 --> 00:40:49,290 It has much to say about places that inspired character and place names in the Silmarillion Corpus as well as in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. 308 00:40:49,290 --> 00:40:57,160 And these are accompanied by beautiful illustrations and photographs. 309 00:40:57,160 --> 00:41:03,800 So how far did Tolkien succeed in his original goal of creating a native mythology? 310 00:41:03,800 --> 00:41:09,080 I'll leave you with some of the literary assessments featured in periodicals from around the world 311 00:41:09,080 --> 00:41:16,140 that were quoted on the back cover of the 2008 HarperCollins paperback edition of The Silmarillion. 312 00:41:16,140 --> 00:41:23,250 The Financial Times says that The Silmarillion at times rises to the greatness of true myth. 313 00:41:23,250 --> 00:41:31,720 The Toronto Globe and Mail calls it a grim, tragic, brooding and beautiful book shot through with heroism and hope. 314 00:41:31,720 --> 00:41:44,110 Most tellingly, The Guardian asks how given little over half a century, did one man become the creative equivalent of a people? 315 00:41:44,110 --> 00:41:56,800 So it seems, at least in the view of one writer at The Guardian, Tolkien achieved his early goal of creating a mythology for his own country. 316 00:41:56,800 --> 00:42:01,690 The cover shown here is not the 2008 addition, but another showing, 317 00:42:01,690 --> 00:42:08,440 Ted Naismith's beautiful portrayal of Maegler, the last surviving son of Fëanor, who, 318 00:42:08,440 --> 00:42:10,570 after briefly recapturing one of the Silmarils 319 00:42:10,570 --> 00:42:23,350 casts it away into the sea as his moral failings have now made him unworthy of the holy Jewels made by his own father. 320 00:42:23,350 --> 00:42:29,170 I hope this lecture has intrigued you enough to pursue Tolkien's earliest literary creations, 321 00:42:29,170 --> 00:42:38,890 which are striking counterparts to his more famous works and are well deserving of both scholarly attention and general interest. 322 00:42:38,890 --> 00:42:45,740 The collective corpus is more than a mere ancient backdrop to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. 323 00:42:45,740 --> 00:42:54,970 It is of great literary value in its own right and has been gaining greater recognition over the past few decades. 324 00:42:54,970 --> 00:42:59,630 Thanks to Christopher Tolkien's tireless and dedicated scholarship, 325 00:42:59,630 --> 00:43:09,560 the Silmarillion Corpus will continue to provide a more expansive view of Tolkien's imagination and inspirations. 326 00:43:09,560 --> 00:43:13,300 Thank you all for listening.