The Lost Road and Other Writings

The Lost Road and Other Writings is a collection of writings pertaining to the mythology and origins of the fantasy world of Middle-earth by the British author and philologist J. RR Tolkien . These were revised and published by his son Christopher Tolkien after his death . In part, the texts of the story The Lost Road are closely linked to Tolkien's own fate and his work with the creation of the Quenya and Sindarin languages ​​of the Elves . The stories are among the works that take place before the time of the tales The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit , with The Lost Road also being set around 1900.

background

The fifth volume of the history of Middle-earth ( The History of Middle-earth ) has been revised by Christopher Tolkien and gives an insight into the whole scope of work of his father at the whole issue until the end of 1937, when he writing the Lord of Rings began. By then he had already devised a large part of the mythology of Middle-earth. Later forms of the Annals of Valinor and the Annals of Beleriand were also taken into account here. Tolkien had already heavily revised and almost completed the Silmarillion and provided it with a new card. The myth of the “music of the Ainur ” had become an independent work and the legend of the fall of Númenor was already present in a basic form. The previously flat world had been given a plastic, round shape and the straight path to the west had disappeared. Closely connected with this was the time travel story The Lost Road , which was planned as an independent narrative and was intended to connect the world of Númenor and Middle-earth with the legends of bygone times and different peoples. In addition, this collection includes an essay The Lhammas , which deals with the increasingly complex relationships between the individual languages ​​and dialects of Middle-earth. This also contains an etymological dictionary with a large number of words and names in the Elven languages ​​and their origins.

content

The content is divided into three areas: The Fall of Númenor and the Lost Road , Valinor and Middle-earth before The Lord of the Rings, and The Etymologies .

The Fall of Númenor and the Lost Road

• The Early History of the Legend - The genesis of the legend
• The Fall of Númenor - The Fall of Númenor
• The Lost Road . The story was based on a suggestion from CS Lewis , who was friends with Tolkien. Both wanted to write a fantastic story. Lewis then wrote the space adventure Out of the Silent Planet , while Tolkien chose a time travel as the theme. In The Lost Road is about Oswin, Alboin and Audoin. It's a story between father and son set in modern times (around 1890 is Alboin's year of birth, 1918 that of his son Audoin), but it is also a story that has many parallels to JRR Tolkien's own life.

"Alboin's biography sketched in these chapters is in many respects closely modeled on my father's own life"

"Alboin's biography, which is shown in these chapters, is in many ways based on my father's own life."

- Christopher Tolkien : The Lost Road and Other Writings

The story The Lost Road tells of the young Alboin, who asks his father what the name Alboin is all about, because at school he is often asked what an Alboin is and he is often jokingly called “all bone “(all bones) shout. So his father Oswin begins to tell him the story of Alboin , the son of Audoin , the king of the Lombards . The boy, however, doesn't particularly like the alboin in this story and asks why his father didn't choose another, better name from this story. His father says: because the name is much older than this legend and its real meaning is "friend of the elves". Alboin is still unhappy about this name, as it is only a description of a property instead of a meaning of its own. Oswin says he could have called it Ælfwine (the Old English form of the name) - such as Ælfwine of Italy, Ælfwine, the grandson of King Alfred , who fell in the great victory in 937, and Ælfwine, who was in the annihilation von Maldon died. There would be a long line of Elven friends among the English and Northmen. However, he chose Alboin , not the Latinized form Albinus , because this has the meanings "white" and "fairy".

Tolkien was a philologist and it is not surprising that this story is also about the origins of the names of the protagonists. In the long line there is a constant change of names from father to son between Alboin and Oswin and related names back to Elendil , which also means "friend of the elves" and closes the circle on the mythology of Middle-earth and the story of the fall of Númenor. This is where father and son finally get on their journey through time.

Another part of this collection of texts is the story of the seafarer Ælfwine of England (the real Ælfwine lived with his son Eadwine in the time of Edward the Elder in North Somerset ), who was the last or even the only one who managed to reach the Lonely Island (Tol Eressea) to achieve, which was actually Avallon . Here he was told the forgotten stories that were summarized in the first two volumes of the History of Middleearth as The Book of Lost Stories . These also contain the story of the Númenors case and the verses about King Sheave , which he recited as a ballad to the people in his English homeland. Then he had even the song about the "Nameless Land" (The Nameless Land) sung, which is also of Ælfwine The song is called.

Valinor and Middle-earth before The Lord of the Rings

• The texts and their relations - texts and their connections
• The later annals of Valinor - The later annals of Valinor. Chronological listing of the events, divided into Rumil's and Pengolod's records. This version served as a template for the Silmarillion .
• The Later Annals of Beleriand - The Later Annals of Beleriand. The revised version of the annals used in the Silmarillion .
• Ainulindalë - The music of the Ainur. A description of the creation of Ea (being, existence) by Eru Ilúvatar , the One, the Heavenly Father.
• The Lhammas - Tolkien ascribes this list of languages ​​to a certain Pengolod of Gondolin , who wrote it on the island of Tol Eressea. It is based on an earlier record by Rúmil. One of Pendolod's sources is Ælfwine from England who saw this record. The essay gives an insight into the linguistic conception of Middle-earth, some of these early drafts were later no longer used by Tolkien. The Noldorin became the later Sindarin and Quenya became the language of the high elves.
• Quenta Silmarillion - The tale of the Silmaril . The stories that were later published in the book The Silmarillion . A chronicle of events before and during the First Age in Middle-earth.

The Etymologies and Appendix

The Etymologies

The etymology of the languages ​​of Middle-earth. In these lists Tolkien gave a number of the linguistic roots of the Elven languages. These are the basics from which the different words can be derived. From these basic syllables he developed the different words, especially in Quenya and Noldorin (later Sindarin), as well as from around ten variations. This very extensive etymology gives an overview of the vocabulary of the Elven languages ​​he developed.

appendix

• The Genealogies - The genealogical tables or lineages
• The List of Names - The list of names
• The Second 'Silmarillion' Map - The second map of the Silmarillion, map of Beleriand, the location of the events in the Silmarillion .

See also : Languages ​​and Scripts in Tolkien's World

Influences on the conception

Annie Kinniburgh compares the conception of the Noldo elves with the Irish people of the Túatha Dé Danann . These are mentioned in the notes to the story, The Lost Road , and she saw great similarities with these people. In their opinion, the Túatha Dé Danann lived around the time that could be equated with the age when the Noldor lived in Beleriand. The fate of the elven prince Maedhros, who forfeited his hand and renounced the claim to power, also shows similarities with Nuada the king of the Danu . Kinniburgh assumed that Balor with the evil eye flowed into the design of Sauron's traits . It is noteworthy that Tolkien succeeded in combining his interest in medieval Germanic and Lombard mythology and tradition with the Atlantean myth about the fall of a country in the west (called Númenor or after the fall of Atalantië ). Tolkien wrote the beginning and the end of the story but never completed the middle section. The story of Númenor's fall and the elaboration of the Akallabêth were more important to him than continuing this time travel story .

See also : "Celtic Influences" in the article European History and Mythology in Tolkien's World

expenditure

• JRR Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien: The lost road and other writings. Language and legend before “The Lord of the Rings”. Houghton Mifflin, Boston 1987, ISBN 0-395-45519-7 .
• JRR Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien: The Lost Road and Other Writings. (= The History of Middle-earth . Volume 5.) Harper Collins, London 1993, ISBN 0-261-10225-7 .

literature

• Annie Kinniburgh: The Noldor and the Tuatha de Danaan: JRR Tolkien's Irish influences. In: Mythlore. September 22, 2009. ISSN  0146-9339 , pp. 27-44 ( thefreelibrary.com ).

Web links

• The Lost Road (PDF) at faculty.smu.edu
• The Lost Road and Other Writings on tolkiengateway.net
• The Lost Road ( Memento from July 6, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) on tolkien-online.com

Individual evidence

1. ^ The lost road and other writings. OCLC 16131893 (Note - Abstract)
2. ^ Commentary on Chapters I and II. In: The Lost Road and Other Writings. P. 53.
3. ↑ Ælfwine's song on swanrad.ch (PDF).
4. ↑ The second 'Silmarillion' map. on tolkiengateway.net.
5. ↑ Michael DC Drout, Verlyn Flieger, Douglas A. Anderson: Tolkien Studies. IX. West Virginia University Press, Morgantown 2012, ISBN 978-1-938228-62-9 . ( tolkien.su PDF, p. 127).
6. ^ The Noldor and the Tuatha de Danaan. JRR Tolkien's Irish influences. In: Mythlore. 28 No. 1/2, pp. 27-44 ( thefreelibrary.com ).