The Quenta

The Quenta
"...there is much else that may be told." � Gl�in
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The Shaping of Middle-earth chapters
Prose Fragments
The Earliest 'Silmarillion'
The Quenta
The First 'Silmarillion' Map
The Ambarkanta
The Earliest Annals of Valinor
The Earliest Annals of Beleriand
The Quenta is the third chapter of The Shaping of Middle-earth, the fourth book in
the series The History of Middle-earth.

Contents
[hide]
1 Quenta Noldorinwa
2 Appendices
2.1 Appendix 1: �lfwine's translation of the Quenta into Old English
2.2 Appendix 2: The Horns of Ylmir
[edit] Quenta Noldorinwa
Writen in 1930, this is the second version of the text that would eventually become
the published Quenta Silmarillion, after the Sketch of the Mythology included in
the previous chapter, "The Earliest 'Silmarillion'".

This version of the Silmarillion holds especially importance as it is the only

'complete' version of the Legendarium that Tolkien ever completed to its end.
Following on from the Sketch of the Mythology, this version of the Silmarillion
also moves towards the final form of the story in almost all general terms.

However this version does differ significantly from the published Silmarillion.
Most notable is that it is only about a quarter of the length of the published
novel. This is largely due to Tolkien's often used method of expanding while
composing. The end of the narrative differs in some respects, many names were still
to be changed, and a few other narrative elements are slightly different or much
more compressed, but by this stage the general history of the first age is largely
complete.

Since it is the only version of the legendarium Tolkien ever completed, it also
includes the last narratives of all of The Nauglafring and of The Fall of Gondolin
on which the published forms were based, albeit much changed in form in many cases.

The text cites as its in-universe source Eriol's Book of Lost Tales, itself based
on the Golden Book in Koromas (a city on Tol Eress�a which is here and elsewhere
called Kortirion, after the city in Valinor which in later versions would be
simplified to Tirion). In earlier versions the Golden Book of Tavrobel was written
by Eriol or a later author.

Though a book by the same name is mentioned here, there is no evidence that Tolkien
consulted the physical manuscript called The Book of Lost Tales at any point in the
process of writing the Quenta.

[edit] Appendices
Christopher included two Appendices within the chapter related to The Quenta.

[edit] Appendix 1: �lfwine's translation of the Quenta into Old English

Included in this appendix are surviving fragments of Anglo-Saxon translations of
the Annals of Valinor, the Annals of Beleriand, and Quenta Noldorinwa, as well as
the Old English equivalents of various Elvish names. All of this is attributed in-
universe to �lfwine.

The Valar as a whole are called the Fr�an (singular Fr�a, meaning "ruler" or
"lord"), Ese (singular Os, meaning "god"), Brega (singular Bregu, "ruler" or
"lord"), or M�gnu (singular M�gen, "power" or "might"). M�gen appears in the Old
English translation of the Quenta included in this chapter.

Manw� is Wolcenfr�a (from wolcen, meaning "sky").

Melkor (here called Melko) is Manfr�a (man, meaning "evil" or "wickedness"), Bolgen
(meaning "wrathful"), and Malscor (related to malscrung, "bewildering" or
"bewitching").
Ulmo becomes Garsecges fr�a (Garsecg, a name for the Sea), ealw�ter-fr�a (eal "all"
+ w�ter "water"), and agendfr�a ealra w�tera (which adds the term agend, "owner").
This last name for Ulmo comes from the Old English translation of the Quenta that
appears in this appendix.
Aul� is Cr�ftfr�a (cr�ft, "power" or "art").
Tulkas is Afodfr�a (afod or eafod "might, strength").
Orom� is W��fr�a (w�� "hunting"), Huntena fr�a (huntena "of hunters"), Wealdafr�a
(wealda "of forests"), which is a translation of Orom�'s Noldorin epithet Tauros
(which would be replaced by Tauron in later versions of the Legendarium) that
appears in the Old English Quenta, and B�aming (b�am "tree"), which is a
translation of his Quenya epithet Aldaron.
The F�anturi, N�mo and Irmo, are called Nefr�a (ne(o) "corpse") and Swefnfr�a
(swefn "dream") -- in the Old English Quenta, N�mo is also called neoaerna hlaford
("master of the houses of the dead").
Oss� is listed among the VAlar as well, and given the name S?fr�a (s? "sea").