"GL3" - читать интересную книгу автора (vol03)

very largely restricted to earlier readings, and these earlier readings are
restricted to cases where there is some significant difference, as of name
or motive. Citations from the manuscript A are always citations from that
text as first written (in very many cases it was emended to the reading
found in B).
It is to be noticed that while the Lay of Leithian was in process of
composition the 'Sketch of the Mythology' was written (first in 1926) and
rewritten, leading directly into the version of 'The Silmarillion' that I
ascribe to 1930, in which many of the essentials, both in narrative and
language, of the published work were already present. In my commen-
taries on each Canto I attempt to take stock of the development in the
legends pari passu with the text of the poem, and only refer exception-
ally to the contemporary prose works.
The A-text has no title, but on the covering page of the bundle of
rough workings is written Tinuviel, and in his early references to the
poem my father called it thus, as he called the alliterative poem Turin.
The B-text bears this title:

The
GEST
of
BEREN son of BARAHIR
and
LUTHIEN the FAY
called
TINUVIEL the NIGHTINGALE
or the
LAY OF LEITHIAN
Release from Bondage



The 'Gest of Beren and Luthien' means a narrative in verse, telling of the
deeds of Beren and Luthien. The word gest is pronounced as Modern
English jest, being indeed the 'same word' in phonetic form, though now
totally changed in meaning.
My father never explained the name Leithian 'Release from Bondage',
and we are left to choose, if we will, among various applications that can
be seen in the poem. Nor did he leave any comment on the significance - if
there is a significance - of the likeness of Leithian to Leithien 'England',
In the tale of AElfwine of England the Elvish name of England is
Luthien (which was earlier the name of AElfwine himself, England
being Luthany), but at the first occurrence (only) of this name the word
Leithian was pencilled above it (II. 330, note 20). In the 'Sketch
the Mythology' England was still Luthien (and at that time Thingol
daughter was also Luthien), but this was emended to Leithien, and this
is the form in the 1930 version of 'The Silmarillion'. I cannot say (i) what
connection if any there was between the two significances of Luthien,
nor (ii) whether Leithien (once Leithian) 'England' is or was related to
Leithian 'Release from Bondage'. The only evidence of an etymological