The Book of Lost Tales 2 Read online

PREFACE

 

  This second part of The Book of Lost Tales is arranged on the same lines and with the same intentions as the first part, as described in the Foreword to it, pages to -- i t.

  References to the first part are given in the form 'I. 240', to the second as 'p. 240', except where a reference is made to both, e. g. 'I. 222, II. 292'. As before, I have adopted a consistent (if not necessarily 'correct') system of accentuation for names; and in the cases of Mim and Niniel, written thus throughout, I give Mim and Niniel. The two pages from the original manuscripts are reproduced with the permission of the Bodleian Library, Oxford, and I wish to express my thanks to the staff of the Department of Western Manuscripts at the Bodleian for their assistance. The correspondence of the original pages to the printed text in this book is as follows: (i) The page from the manuscript of The Tale of Tinuviel. Upper part: printed text page 24 (7 lines up, the sorest dread) to page 25 (line 3, so swiftly. "). Lower part: printed text page 25 (iilines up, the harsh voice) to page 26 (line 7, but Tevildo).

  (2) The page from the manuscript of The Fall of Condolin. Upper part: printed text page 189 (line 12, "Now," therefore said Galdor to line 20 if no further. "). Lower part: printed text page 189 (line 27, But the others, led by one Legolas Greenleaf) to page 190 (line ii, leaving the main company to follow he). For differences in the printed text of The Fall of Gondolin from the page reproduced see page 201, notes 34 36, and page 203, Bad Uthwen; some other small differences not referred to in the notes are also due to later changes made to the text B of the Tale (see pages 146 -- 7). These pages illustrate the complicated 'jigsaw' of the manuscripts of the Lost Tales described in the Foreword to Part I, page 10. I take this opportunity to notice that it has been pointed out to me by Mr Douglas A.

  Anderson that the version of the poem Why the Man in the Moon came down too soon printed in The Book of Lost Tales I is not, as I supposed, that published in A Northern Venture in 1923, but contains several subsequent changes. The third volume in this 'History' will contain the alliterative Lay of the Children of Hurin (c. 1918 -- 1925) and the Lay of Leithian (1925 -- 1931), together with the commentary on a part of the latter by C. S. Lewis, and the rewriting of the poem that my father embarked on after the completion of The Lord of the Rings.