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Texts
In the fourth volume of this History were given the Quenta Noldorinwa (Q) or History of me Gnomes, which can be ascribed to the year 1930 (TV. 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 Ï); the earliest Annals ofValindr (AV), which followed the first version of AB but preceded the second (IV. 327); and the Amborfamto or Shape of the World. The Lay of Leithian, given in VoL Ø, 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 mis book (as well as The Fall ofNumenor and The Lost Roady. (1)Ainulindale, a new version of the original 'Lost Tale* of The Music of the Ainur. This is certainly later man 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 me Annals of Valinor, again with me forms Lindar and Noldor. This version I shall call the Later Annals qfValinor, referring to it by the abbreviation AV 2, while the earliest version given in Vol. IV will be AV 1. (3)A new version of me Annals of Beleriand, which looks to be a close companion text to AV 2. This I shall refer to similarly as AB 2, the Later Annals of Beleriand. In mis case there are two antecedent versions, mentioned above, and called in Vol. IV AB I and AB Ï. These, to keep the parallel with the* Annals of Valinor, can be referred to collectively asAB 1 (since in writing AB 2 my father followed AB Ï so far as it went and then followed AB I). (4)The Lhammas or Account of Tongues. This, extant in I versions, seems to have been closely related to the compositi the Quenta Silmarillion. (5) The new version of "The Silmarillion' proper, a once i fine manuscript whose making was interrupted when the i went to the publishers. To distinguish this version from its ] cessor the Quenta Noldorinwa or simply the Quenta, Ù throughout the abbreviation QS, i.e. Quenta Silmarillion or] tory of the Silmarils. These five works form a later group (though I do not i imply that there was any significant gap in time between t the earlier); a convenient defining mark of this is that they j Noldor where the earlier have Noldoli. Although I have said (TV. 262) that there seems no showing whether the Ambarkanta was earlier or later than < liest version of the Annals of Valinor, it now seems clear I mat the Ambarkanta belongs with the later group of texts.' shown, I mink, by the fact that its title-page is closely i form to those of the Ainulindale and the Lhammas (all 1 the Elvish name of the work in tengwar); moreover the i ance in the Ambarkanta of Utumna as the name of Melko'sS nal fortress (see IV. 259-60) seems to place it later man which still names it Angband (but AV 2 has Utumna). On the whole, I would be inclined to place these texts Ù sequence AB 2, AV 2, Lhammas, QS; the Ambarkanta at J after AB 2, and the Ainulindale demonstrably before QS. of Numenor was later than the Ambarkanta (see p. 10 : 261). But a definitive and demonstrable sequence seems l able on the evidence; and the attempt may in any case bei what unreal, for my father did not necessarily complete one! beginning another. Certainly he had them all before him, i progressed he changed what he had already written to bring J line with new developments in the stories and in the names.
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