Ainulindalë
The "Ainulindalë" (
Tolkien wrote the initial version of the "Ainulindalë" between November 1919 and the spring of 1920 as "Music of the Ainur", and then completely rewrote it in 1930. He continued to make further revisions throughout his life. The early version was eventually published by his son Christopher in The Book of Lost Tales 1.
Context
Age | Silmarillion section | Description |
---|---|---|
Creation | "Ainulindalë" | The music of creation. Arda .
|
——— | Valaquenta | A description of the pantheon of the Valar |
Years of the Lamps
|
Quenta Silmarillion | Aman and Middle-earth are created; the Valar move to Aman.
|
Years of the Trees |
Silmarils, and Ungoliant kills the Two Trees of Valinor .
| |
First Age | Elves fight Morgoth in Beleriand ; Eru intervenes, banishing Morgoth and destroying Beleriand.
| |
Second Age | Akallabêth | The people of Númenor become too proud; their island is drowned. |
Second Age/ Third Age | Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age | A description of the forging of the Rings of Power and the destruction of the One Ring, as described in The Lord of the Rings |
Synopsis
The "Ainulindalë" recounts the creation of
The most powerful of the Ainur, Melkor, is introduced to the music. Although his "loud, and vain" music disrupts the harmony, Ilúvatar stands, smiles and raises his left hand to begin a new theme. When Melkor again spoils the second theme, Ilúvatar rises sternly and raises his right hand to begin a third. Melkor tries to corrupt this theme with the volume of his music, but it is powerful enough to prevent him from succeeding. Ilúvatar ends the music, chastises Melkor and leaves the Ainur to their thoughts.
The deity takes the Ainur to see how music, at the end of the Void, created Arda. When the third theme results in the arrival of the Children of Ilúvatar, the
Some Ainur remain in the Timeless Halls with Ilúvatar, and others go into Arda as the
Writing
Tolkien initially intended the "Ainulindalë" ("The Music of the Ainur") to be part of The Book of Lost Tales, which he wrote in the 1910s and 1920s.[T 3] In a letter to Christopher Bretherton, dated 16 July 1964, Tolkien stated that he had written the first version of the "Ainulindalë" between November 1918 and the spring of 1920, while he was working on the Oxford English Dictionary.[T 4]
The first draft of the story, written in pencil, does not vary significantly from the published version; future changes involved the addition of Manwë and Aulë.
Tolkien abandoned the "Ainulindalë" for many years. Although it did not appear in the "Sketch of the Mythology", in which he summarised his legendarium in 1926,
In 1946, while he was drafting
In 1948 Tolkien began a new version, eliminating mentions of the Sun and the Moon, and introducing the concept that Ilúvatar created the world after the visions of the Ainur died away. In this version, which added several new details,
Analysis
The "Ainulindalë", written early in Tolkien's career, demonstrates the importance of music in his legendarium.[3] According to John Gardner, "Music is the central symbol and the total myth of The Silmarillion, a symbol that becomes interchangeable with light (music's projection)."[4] The scholar Verlyn Flieger, too, stresses the pervasive themes of music and light from the creation onwards.[5][6]
"The Music of the Ainur", as it appears in The Book of Lost Tales, is based on Norse mythology. Like Hesiod's Theogony or the Gylfaginning in the Prose Edda, it answers questions of cosmogony,[7] and story's style has been compared to that of old Norse texts. Although the wording differs substantially, the Valar and the Æsir are alike in influencing the world and being influenced by their actions; Manwë has been compared to Odin in this context.[8]
Despite the story's Norse pagan elements, such as the Ainur performing the creative work of Ilúvatar, other aspects of the "Ainulindalë" reflect Tolkien's Catholicism.[9] His pre-Christian story[9] has been called "Tolkien's Genesis essay";[10] according to another source, "The Biblical parallels evinced by the creation account of the Ainulindalë ... are inescapable."[11]
The Tolkien scholar Marjorie Burns, who studied the different versions of the "Ainulindalë", said that Tolkien increasingly Christianised the Valar and reduced the influence of Norse mythology in successive revisions.[12] In the story, Tolkien expresses a global view of Christianity, with good and evil parallelling the stories in the Book of Genesis.[13] As Tolkien has Elrond say in "The Council of Elrond" in The Lord of the Rings, "For nothing is evil in the beginning. Even Sauron was not so."[T 13] In the "Ainulindalë", Ilúvatar creates everything good; evil intrudes later.[14] Though evil is brought about in the creation song by Melkor's pride, Ilúvatar incorporates it into the conclusion of his divine plan. The theme of evil being a perversion of good correlates to Christian theology regarding the existence of evil in a world made by a benevolent creator. Even Melkor's pride is Eru's will. As Eru himself declares "no theme may be played that hath not its uttermost source in me, nor can any alter the music in my despite".[15]
Reception and legacy
Although commentary on The Silmarillion has primarily focused on the work as a whole, the reaction to the "Ainulindalë" has been generally positive.
According to Fantasy Literature: A Core Collection and Reference Guide, "Every part of [The Silmarillion] benefits from the power and audacity of imaginative genius Tolkien and his brilliant style" and the "Ainulindalë" has "organ tones".[18] Although Ralph C. Wood called it "one of the finest and most original of [Tolkien's] writings",[13] the stylistic differences between this story and the rest of The Silmarillion have been the subject of debate.[19]
The American opera singer Adam C. J. Klein composed an opera, Leithian, based on The Silmarillion,[20] while the American contemporary classical composer Frank Felice wrote an orchestral version of the "Ainulindalë".[21] According to the Tolkien scholar Colin Duriez, the "Ainulindalë" may have inspired C. S. Lewis to have his fictional world of Narnia created from a song.[22]
References
Primary
- ^ Carpenter 2023, Letter 142 to Robert Murray, 2 December 1953
- ^ a b Tolkien 1977
- ^ Tolkien 1984, p. 67
- ^ Carpenter 2023, letter 257 to Christopher Bretherton, 16 July 1964
- ^ a b Tolkien 1984, pp. 88–90. Christopher Tolkien described the difference between the initial and final versions of the "Ainulindalë".
- ^ Tolkien 1986, p. 42
- ^ Tolkien 1987, p. 155
- ^ Tolkien 1993, pp. 4–6
- ^ Tolkien 1993, pp. 4–6
- ^ Tolkien 1993, pp. 369–371
- ^ Tolkien 1993, pp. 3–44
- ^ Tolkien 1993, pp. 29–30
- ^ Tolkien 1954a, book 2, ch. 2 "The Council of Elrond"
Secondary
- ^ Carpenter 1977, pp. 111, 200, 266.
- ^ "The History of Middle-earth". An Illustrated Tolkien Bibliography. TolkienBooks.net. 2014. Retrieved 16 July 2014.
- ^ Eden, Bradford Lee (2004). "The Music of the Spheres: Relationship between Tolkien's Silmarillion and Medieval Religious and Cosmological Theory" in Chance 2002.
- ^ Gardner 1977.
- ^ Flieger 2005, chapter 1, and throughout.
- ^ Flieger 1983, pp. 44–49, and throughout.
- ^ Le Berre 2004, p. 344.
- ^ Vos 2011.
- ^ a b Gough 1999.
- ^ Bramlett & Christopher 2007, p. 36.
- ^ Fisher 2011, p. 47.
- ^ Burns, Marjorie. "All in One, One in All" in Agøy 1998.
- ^ a b Wood 2003, p. 11.
- Rosebury, Brian. "Good and Evil" in Drout 2007, p. 250.
- ^ Degani, Jason (2005). "Of Faith and Fairy-story" (PDF). The Gray Book Online Journals of Middle Earth. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-07-06.
- ^ a b Pearce 1998, pp. 87–89.
- ^ Rosebury 1992, p. 97.
- ^ Tymn, Zahorski & Boyer 1979, p. 167.
- ^ Smith 1986, p. 866.
- ^ Eden 2010, p. 161.
- ^ Eden 2010, p. 164.
- ^ Bramlett & Christopher 2007, pp. 141–142, citing Duriez 1992.
Sources
- Agøy, Nils Ivar, ed. (1998). Between Faith and Fiction. Tolkien and the Powers of His World. Oslo. ISBN 978-91-973500-0-6.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link - Bramlett, Perry C.; Christopher, Joe R. (2007). I Am in Fact a Hobbit: An Introduction to the Life and Works of J. R. R. Tolkien. ISBN 978-0-86554-894-7.
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- ISBN 978-0-802-81955-0.
- ISBN 978-0-87338-824-5.
- Gardner, John (12 October 1977). "The World of Tolkien". The New York Times Book Review.
- Gough, John (1999). "Tolkien's Creation Myth in The Silmarillion—Northern or Not?". Children's Literature in Education. 30 (1): 1–8. S2CID 141295897.
- Le Berre, Aline (2004). From Prometheus to the steam engine Cosmogonies and myths through time and space. Presses Universitaires de Limoges. ISBN 978-2-84287-336-3.
- ISBN 978-0-00-274018-0.
- ISBN 978-0-333-53896-8.
- Tymn, Marshall B.; Zahorski, Kenneth J.; Boyer, Robert H. (1979). Fantasy Literature: A Core Collection and Reference Guide. ISBN 978-0-8352-1153-6.
- Smith, Curtis C. (1986). Twentieth-century fiction writers. ISBN 978-0-912289-27-4.
- OCLC 9552942.
- ISBN 978-0-395-25730-2.
- ISBN 0-395-35439-0.
- ISBN 978-0-395-42501-5.
- ISBN 0-395-45519-7.
- ISBN 0-395-68092-1.
- Vos, Holger (2011). Die Weltdeutung im 'Silmarillion' von J. R. R. Tolkien (in German). Grin Verlag. ISBN 978-3-640-81106-9.
- ISBN 978-0-664-22610-7.