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VI.

THE EARLIEST ANNALS OF
VALINOR.

I refer to this work as the 'earliest' Annals of Valinor because
it was followed later in the 1930s by a second version, and
then, after the completion of The Lord of the Rings and very
probably in 1951 - 2, by a third, entitled The Annals of Aman,
which though still a part of the continuous evolution of these
Annals is a major new work, and which contains some of the
finest prose in all the Matter of the Elder Days.
These earliest Annals of Valinor are comprised in a short
manuscript of nine pages written in ink. There is a good deal
of emendation and interpolation, some changes being made in
ink and probably not much if any later than the first writing of
the text, while a second layer of change consists of alterations
in faint and rapid pencil that are not always legible. These lat-
ter include two quite substantial passages (given in notes 14
and 18) which introduce wholly new material concerning
events in Middle-earth.
The text that follows is that of the Annals as originally writ-
ten, apart from one or two insignificant alterations of wording
that are taken up silently, and all later changes are given in the
numbered notes, other than those made to dates. These are
many and complex and are dealt with all together, separately,
at the end of the notes.
It is certain that these Annals belong to the same period as
the Quenta, but also that they are later than the Quenta. This
is seen from the fact that whereas in Q Finrod (= the later
Finarfin) returned to Valinor out of the far North after the
burning of the ships, and the later story of his return earlier, af-
ter the Prophecy of the North, is only introduced in a marginal
note ($5 note 8 and commentary p. 204), in the Annals the

later story is already embodied in the text (Valian Year 2993).
The Annals have Beleriand, whereas Q, as far as $12, had
Broseliand emended to Beleriand; they have several names
that do not occur in Q, e.g. Bladorion, Dagor-os-Giliath,
Drengist, Eredwethion (this only by later emendation in
Q); and Eredlomin has its later sense of the Echoing Moun-
tains, not as in Q and on the first map of the Shadowy Moun-
tains (see pp. 233-4). I see no way of showing that the Annals
are later, or earlier, than the Ambarkanta, but the matter seems
of no importance; the two texts certainly belong to very much
the same time.
Following my commentary on the Annals, which I shall re-
fer to as 'AV', I give the Old English versions in an appendix.

ANNALS OF VALINOR.