J. Tolkien: The Silmarillion

thang ‘oppression’ in Thangorodrim , also in Durthang (a castle in Mordor). Quenya sanga meant ‘press, throng’, whence Sangahyando ‘Throng-cleaver’, name of a man in Gondor ( The Lord of the Rings Appendix A (I, iv)).

thar - ‘athwart, across’ in Sarn Athrad, Thargelion ; also in Tharbad (from thara-pata ‘crossway’) where the ancient road from Arnor and Gondor crossed the Greyflood.

thaur ‘abominable, abhorrent’ in Sauron (from Thauron ), Gorthaur .

thin(d) ‘grey’ in Thingol ; Quenya sinda in Sindar, Singollo ( Sindacollo : collo ‘cloak’).

thôl ‘helm’ in Dor Cúarthol, Gorthol .

thôn ‘pine-tree’ in Dorthonion .

thoron ‘eagle’ in Thorondor (Quenya Sorontar ), CirithThoronath . The Quenya form is perhaps present in the constellation-name Soronúmë .

til ‘point, horn’ in Taniquetil, Tilion (‘the Horned’); also in Celebdil ‘Silvertine’, one of the Mountains of Moria.

tin - ‘sparkle’ (Quenya tinta ‘cause to sparkle’, tinwë ‘spark’) in Tintallë ; also in tindómë ‘starry twilight’ ( The Lord of the Rings Appendix D), whence tindómerel ‘daughter of the twilight’, a poetic name for the nightingale (Sindarin Tinúviel ). It appears also in Sindarin ithildin ‘starmoon’, the substance of which the devices on the West-gate of Moria were made.

tir ‘watch, watch over’ in Minas Tirith, palantíri, Tar-Palantir , Tirion .

tol ‘isle’ (rising with sheer sides from the sea or from a river) in Tol Eressëa, Tol Galen , etc.

tum ‘valley’ in Tumhalad, Tumladen ; Quenya tumbo (cf. Tree-beard’s tumbalemorna ‘black deep valley’, The Two Towers III 4). Cf. Utumno , Sindarin Udûn (Gandalf in Moria named the Balrog ‘Flame of Udûn’), a name afterwards used of the deep dale in Mordor between the Morannon and the Isenmouthe.

tur ‘power, mastery’ in Turambar, Turgon, Túrin, Fëanturi , Tar-Minyatur .

uial ‘twilight’ in Aelin-uial, Nenuial .

ur - ‘heat, be hot’ in Urolóki ; cf. Urimë and Urui , Quenya and Sindarin names of the eighth month of the year ( The Lord of the Rings Appendix D). Related is the Quenya word aurë ‘sunlight, day’ (cf. Fingon’s cry before the Nirnaeth Arnoediad), Sindarin aur , which in the form Or - is prefixed to the names of the days of the week.

val - ‘power’ in Valar, Valacirca, Valaquenta, Valaraukar, Val(i)-mar, Valinor . The original stem was bal -, preserved in Sindarin Balan , plural Belain , the Valar, and in Balrog .

wen ‘maiden’ is a frequent ending, as in Eärwen, Morwen .

wing ‘foam, spray’ in Elwing, Vingelot (and only in these two names).

yávë ‘fruit’ (Quenya) in Yavanna ; cf. Yavannië , Quenya name of the ninth month of the year, and yávië ‘autumn’ ( The Lord of the Rings Appendix D).

Though I have thought about them a good deal.

It is, I suppose, fundamentally concerned with the problem of the relation of Art (and Sub-creation) and Primary Reality.

Not in the Beginner of Evil: his was a sub-creative Fall, and hence the Elves (the representatives of sub-creation par excellence) were peculiarly his enemies, and the special object of his desire and hate – and open to his deceits. Their Fall is into possessiveness and (to a less degree) into perversion of their art to power.

As far as all this has symbolical or allegorical significance, Light is such a primeval symbol in the nature of the Universe, that it can hardly be analysed. The Light of Valinor (derived from light before any fall) is the light of art undivorced from reason, that sees things both scientifically (or philosophically) and imaginatively (or sub-creatively) and says that they are good – as beautiful. The Light of Sun (or Moon) is derived from the Trees only after they were sullied by Evil.

Of course in reality this only means that my ‘elves’ are only a representation or an apprehension of a part of human nature, but that is not the legendary mode of talking.

Some words of the original manuscript were omitted by the typist in this sentence.

Elrond symbolises throughout the ancient wisdom, and his House represents Lore – the preservation in reverent memory of all tradition concerning the good, wise, and beautiful. It is not a scene of action but of reflection . Thus it is a place visited on the way to all deeds, or ‘adventures’. It may prove to be on the direct road (as in The Hobbit ); but it may be necessary to go from there in a totally unexpected course. So necessarily in The Lord of the Rings , having escaped to Elrond from the imminent pursuit of present evil, the hero departs in a wholly new direction: to go and face it at its source.

The view is taken (as clearly reappears later in the case of the Hobbits that have the Ring for a while) that each ‘Kind’ has a natural span, integral to its biological and spiritual nature. This cannot really be increased qualitatively or quantitatively; so that prolongation in time is like stretching a wire out ever tauter, or ‘spreading butter ever thinner’ it becomes an intolerable torment.

When this letter was written the original history of the rulers of Númenor, whereby Tar-Calion (Ar-Pharazôn) was the thirteenth and not as afterwards the twenty-fifth, was still present.