Point of View and In-Universe Authorship of the "Silmarillion" by Dawn Walls-Thumma

Point of View and In-Universe Authorship of the "Silmarillion"

Who wrote The Silmarillion? This question might seem so simple as to be ridiculous, especially when asked in the Tolkien Studies area of the Popular Culture Association conference. If this were a pub trivia night, it might make a good question to which the clear answer is: J.R.R. Tolkien. But Tolkien isn't the answer I'm looking for here. Which character or characters within The Silmarillion wrote it? I'd bet many of you, if you thought on that question, might realize you don't actually know, or you're not fully certain. And that's okay. I've been thinking and writing about the narrators of The Silmarillion for many years now, and the subject is complicated enough that I can't answer it yet with absolute certainty.

Collectively, Tolkien scholars can't settle on an answer either. Christine Barkley identified the narrator as omniscient.¹ Alex Lewis² and Richard Z. Gallant³ favor an Elven narrator. Douglas Charles Kane, on the other hand, asserts that "it seems clear (at least in retrospect) that Tolkien intended … the Quenta itself … to be a mix of Elvish history and Mannish myths preserved by the Númenóreans."⁴

Late "Silmarillion" Textual History

Part of the difficulty is in the textual history of the "Silmarillion"⁵ itself, which is exceedingly complicated and could occupy my full time in and of itself. I'll confine myself to a forty-second overview. The creation of The Silmarillion can be described in three phases. Tolkien first penned "Silmarillion" material in the 1910s as the Book of Lost Tales. Abandoning this particular project but not the central concept, he stripped the story down to the essential bones of its plot and, mostly in the 1930s, began writing again. Christopher Tolkien refers to this as the "first phase" of his father's work on the "Silmarillion." He interrupted this endeavor for the very good reason of writing The Lord of the Rings, and after that was complete, in the early 1950s, resumed work on what Christopher calls the "second phase."

This "second phase" is what interests me today. It was a time of extraordinary productivity and inventiveness for Tolkien, when he resumed work on three core texts he'd began prior to writing The Lord of the Rings: the Ainulindalë, the various annals of Valinor and Beleriand, and the Quenta Silmarillion, in addition to drafting several other new texts. I will focus today on the materials concerning the Elven history of Aman, mostly contained in the book Morgoth's Ring. Please keep in mind that this research is a work-in-progress; as I delve into the Beleriandic materials with the same level of scrutiny that I've given to the texts of Morgoth's Ring, I expect to complicate some of my conclusions today.

What Tolkien Intended vs. the Realities of Point of View

Here, I want to speak briefly on my methodology. In some ways, the authorship of the "Silmarillion" is clear. Tolkien's intentions, anyway, were expressed clearly and frequently enough that Christopher edited the published Silmarillion with these intentions in mind. Tolkien's "final word" on the narrative tradition of at least the Quenta texts is that they were Númenórean, based on a blend of Elven and Mortal myths. Frankly, I don't believe him.

Here I find that my experience as a fiction writer myself is of some value. Point of view is one of the most deeply embedded literary elements found in a work of fiction. To change the character whose perspective informs the narrative isn't a matter of revision; it is a complete rewrite. After all, point of view makes a story unique in the same way that experiences and perspectives make a person uniquely themselves: Change the experiences and change the person.

Stories are the same. I am proceeding with the understanding that altering point of view requires more than a statement of intent. A story cannot be divorced from its point of view without making a new story. Furthermore, point of view is detectable in what the characters know and don't know and the beliefs and biases they express. I will use these considerations to analyze the point of view and the authorship of the "Silmarillion."

Direct Attributions

At first, Tolkien was clear about an Elven narrator whom he imagined wrote the texts of the "Silmarillion." In a 1951 letter to Milton Waldman, he stated that, in the "Silmarillion," the "centre of view and interest is not Men but 'Elves'."⁶ This reflects in the texts that comprise the "Silmarillion" as well. The Lost Tales and Phase 1 texts were told or written by various Elven characters and then translated and transcribed by Ælfwine, an Anglo-Saxon man.

The Phase 2 texts begin in this mode as well. Most of the early texts from this time are attributed to the writings of Rúmil (an Elf), which were spoken by Pengolodh (also an Elf) to Ælfwine. The 1950s texts of the Ainulindalë, Annals of Aman, Quenta Silmarillion, and Valaquenta all contain titles and title pages indicating this mode of transmission, or something very near to it. Furthermore, these texts include attributions—sometimes in-text and sometimes as footnotes—crediting Pengolodh and Ælfwine for various additions and annotations to the text.

Tolkien was also fond of attributing imaginary historical sources that (to the best of our knowledge) do not exist. The Ainulindalë is the rare example of one that does, but he also credits, at varying points the Aldudénië,⁷ the Narsilion,⁸ the Noldolantë,⁹ and the Nurtalë Valinóreva,¹⁰ assigning many of them various Elven authors. Specific groups of Elves are also credited with providing pieces of information to which only they would have had access. In the Annals of Aman, the Vanyar, for example, provide Manwë's response to Fëanor in the Ring of Doom,¹¹ and the Quendi fill in the sparse and mysterious details of the years at Cuiviénen and the war of the Valar against Melkor.¹²

It sounds simple and direct, but nothing with Tolkien is simple and direct. Not long after writing to Waldman about his "Silmarillion" mythology unequivocally focused on Elves, not Men, Tolkien began to play with the idea that it should be the exact opposite. At the heart of this shift was his growing discomfort with the beautiful and symbolically rich but decidedly unscientific cosmology of the "Silmarillion"—you know, the Two Trees, the Elves awaking under starlight, the post-Darkening making of the Sun and Moon—which he alleged the Eldar, under the tutelage of the Valar who knew things, could not possibly believe. He began to develop various contrivances to work around this problem, one of which was changing the source of the tradition, landing with the texts largely Númenórean, inherited from a confusion of Mortal and Elven myths and then passed on to other Mortals in Gondor and Arnor after the downfall of Númenor. By this reasoning, all those poetic but inaccurate myths about how the Sun, Moon, and stars arose were the products of those less-educated Mortals.

The problem is that point of view saturates a story in a way that few other literary elements do. A change in point of view this radical requires more than Tolkien snapping his fingers and declaring, "It is Númenórean!" and in the Phase 2 texts about Aman, there is no evidence that Tolkien undertook anything beyond the literary equivalent of a fingersnap. In two places, he made surface level changes to indicate his intent. In a draft of the Annals of Aman, he added the Númenóreans to the preamble explaining the tradition.¹³ But when having the Annals professionally typed, he handed over the version with the Elven tradition.¹⁴ Then, while working on the second phase of the Quenta Silmarillion, he removed all mentions of the Elven loremasters and Ælfwine. Deeper evidence of the Elven tradition remained untouched throughout.

Philosophical and Ethical Alignment

There are several ways the narrators of the "Silmarillion" reveal themselves at that deeper level. One is through their philosophical or ethical alignment, which in the "Silmarillion" primarily concerns the fate of Elves versus Mortals. The 1959 text Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth unseats the notion, familiar to readers of the published Silmarillion, that Mortals are destined to die, after which they are happily zipped off Beyond the Circles of the World to a fate "which as Time wears even the Powers shall envy."¹⁵Athrabeth introduces the notion—which feels radical after the "Gift of Men" mentality of the published Silmarillion—that Mortals are not necessarily content with their lot, they certainly don't view it as a gift, and in fact, they're not even convinced that they're supposed to die at all.

The 1959 text "Aman"¹⁶ is written from a Mortal point of view where the idea that mortality is inevitable and immutable for the Secondborn is presented as an Elven belief, not as a fact or universally accepted notion. Footnoted is the idea—distinctly Númenórean—that short lifespans are not the fate of Mortals but a feature of Arda Marred—damage that "some Men hold" can be reversed in Aman. The "Aman" text provides an example of what the legendarium looks like from a Mortal point of view. It is not what we have in the "Silmarillion."

Historical Bias

We also see the Elven perspective in the stories selected for inclusion in the "Silmarillion." As Tolkien wrote to Waldman, the "Silmarillion" is an Elven text. It is about Elves. Even as Tolkien suggested a change in narrative tradition, he did not revise these texts to include more about Mortals or less about Elves. Quite the opposite. In the Annals of Aman, he added dates about about the Sindar, Nandor, and Dwarves in Beleriand¹⁷—but nothing about Mortals. The text Finwë and Míriel was added to the Quenta Silmarillion at the same time as he was asserting that narrative was Númenórean and removing Elven loremasters from that same text, yet this adds pages of history about Elves (not Mortals) to the text and on topics—like death, the nature of Arda Marred, and the opportunities for healing in Aman—that we know would have been of interest to the Númenóreans. It is hard to fathom that text being added to the Quenta Silmarillion in a Númenórean tradition without those issues being used as commentary on Númenórean concerns, reflecting a Númenórean bias, or at the least footnoted to provide additional cultural context, as Tolkien frequently did when Ælfwine was part of the tradition. At the same time as he was working on the Quenta Silmarillion, he was also generating the Athrabeth materials, including the "Tale of Adanel" that details the corruption of Mortals by Melkor. In a Númenórean-penned or -transmitted Quenta Silmarillion, this story would surely receive page time alongside the contemporaneous migration of the Noldor to Middle-earth. It does not.

What Is Known (and Not)

With Pendolodh as a narrator, the focus in the "Silmarillion" can be explained on the basis of what he would have known. Equally, the text can be analyzed on the basis of what the narrator doesn't know. Again, knowledge gaps are consistent with an Elven narrator. Specifically, Tolkien often uses the phrase "it is said" to signal a layer of distance between the narrator and the material he is relating. In other words, the information isn't direct knowledge of the narrator, nor does it come from a source close to and trusted by the narrator—he is reporting a rumor. In the published Silmarillion, two groups of characters are largely the recipient of the "it is said" construction: the Valar and Mortals. Despite the fact that most pages in the book are about Elves, the construction is used only rarely when discussing them. Using the construction to discuss the Valar and Mortals fits, however. Both are groups with whom the Eldar would have had significant contact and where an exchange of knowledge would have occurred. That lore, however, would have come from outside the Elven tradition and would, therefore, have been viewed with some skepticism. The "it is said" construction creates that small cushion of doubt.

It is difficult to analyze the texts used to form the published Silmarillion in the same way since, due to space constraints, Christopher Tolkien could not publish them fully. However, the pattern in these texts is similar (not surprisingly considering that the published Silmarillion draws heavily from them). Phases like "it is said," "it is told," and "it is sung" are almost always used in reference to the Ainur, a people for whom an Elven narrator would have experienced enough distance to warrant some uncertainty. When writing the history of the Elves, on the other hand, there is no uncertainty; the phrase is not used.

Again, it is useful to do the same exercise on a text with a known Mortal narrator. Laws and Customs among the Eldar was written in the late 1950s. Existing in two versions, Tolkien edited the older text to attribute Ælfwine, and there are myriad other indicators of a Mortal narrator throughout. The "it is said" construction is used here as well, and it is only ever used in reference to the Elves and Ainur.¹⁸

A Counterexample: Texts by Mortal Narrators

Laws and Customs among the Eldar is useful for more than just this analysis. It offers one of the most complete case studies in what a text by a Mortal narrator looks like. There is the obvious attribution to Ælfwine, the reference to Elves in the third person, and the comparisons between Elves and "us"—Mortals. However, Tolkien also uses many of the subtler methods of expressing point of view that we see in the "Silmarillion" texts, only shaped to a Mortal narrator. For example, the narrator references fictional texts about Elves in the same way that the "Silmarillion" narrator references fictional texts about historical episodes involving the Valar. He translates basic Elvish words, presumably for an audience for whom words like ner and nissi are a foreign language. Finally, he selects examples and historical anecdotes that would be familiar and relevant to a Mortal audience. For instance, both Aragorn and Túrin are used to illustrate Elven cultural traditions around bridal gifts and names.

Why This Matters

The conclusion from all of this is that Tolkien signaled point of view, and skillfully, in many ways. He uses direct attribution, knowledge gaps, philosophical positioning, and selection of historical episodes to reveal the narrator of his fictional histories. For the "Silmarillion" materials, I have no doubt that a Númenórean narrator was most expedient, as he considered how to reconcile his mythology with cosmological fact. I also have no doubt that this intention—like the cosmological changes themselves—was never fully realized. At his death, the "Silmarillion" remained an Elven text.

Tolkien wrote his books as pseudohistorical narratives. For this reason, point of view matters deeply. There is a reason why medievalists—in the same field Tolkien himself worked—spend so much time trying to puzzle out the source of the texts they study. Without knowing the point of view, we are deprived of a vital perspective through which we can fully analyze and understand a text like The Silmarillion, which is meant to be read as history.

In Morgoth's Ring, Christopher Tolkien comments that "the old structure was too comprehensive, too interlocked in all its parts, indeed its roots too deep, to withstand such a devastating surgery" in the form of changes.¹⁹ He was writing about the cosmology but he could have been writing just as easily about the narrative tradition. One people's history cannot be simply displaced onto another's. I suspect that Tolkien swiftly discovered this as he began, digging less deep than he did even for the cosmological changes before abandoning the endeavor. The "Silmarillion," therefore, remained an Elven text.

Works Cited

1. Christine Barkley, "Point of View in Tolkien," Mythlore 21, no. 2 (1996): 257.
2. Alex Lewis, "Historical Bias in the Making of The Silmarillion," Mythlore 21, no. 2 (1996): 158-66.
3. Richard Z. Gallant, "The 'Wyrdwrīteras' of Elvish History: Northern Courage, Historical Bias, and Literary Artifact as Illustrative Narrative," Mythlore 38, no. 2 (2020): 25-44.
4. Douglas Charles Kane, Arda Reconstructed: The Creation of the Published Silmarillion (Bethlehem, PA: Lehigh University Press, 2009), 253.
5. Like Christopher Tolkien, I follow the convention of using italics (The Silmarillion) to refer to the published text and double quotes (the "Silmarillion") to refer to the myriad texts created over decades by Tolkien and eventually used to produce the published (italicized) Silmarillion.
6. The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, "Letter 131 To Milton Waldman."
7. The History of Middle-earth, Volume X: Morgoth's Ring, Annals of Aman, "Annal 1495," §114, and The Later Quenta Silmarillion (II), "Of the Darkening of Valinor," §59.
8. The History of Middle-earth, Volume X: Morgoth's Ring, Annals of Aman, "Annal 1495-1500, §168.
9. The History of Middle-earth, Volume X: Morgoth's Ring, Annals of Aman, "Annal 1495, Of the First Kin-slaying and the Doom of the Noldor," §150.
10. The History of Middle-earth, Volume X: Morgoth's Ring, Annals of Aman, "Annal 1500," §181.
11. The History of Middle-earth, Volume X: Morgoth's Ring, Annals of Aman, "Annal 1495-1500, "Of the Moon and the Sun. The Lighting of Endar, and the Hiding of Valinor," §165.
12. The History of Middle-earth, Volume X: Morgoth's Ring, Annals of Aman, "Annal 1050," §38; "Annal 1090-2," §48; and "Annal 1092-1100, §49.
13. The History of Middle-earth, Volume X: Morgoth's Ring, Annals of Aman, Section 1 (AAm*), Preamble.
14. The textual history of this time period is complex and tangled, with texts often existing in multiple forms in varying stages of completion and/or revision, with overlapping revisions, and often without a clear chronology. Christopher Tolkien explains the AAm* text and how he believes it fits in with the main Annals of Atman text in 12. The History of Middle-earth, Volume X: Morgoth's Ring, Annals of Aman, Section 1 (AAm*), in the commentary that precedes his selections from the AAm* text.
15. The Silmarillion, "Of the Beginning of Days."
16. The text "Aman" is found in The History of Middle-earth, Volume X: Morgoth's Ring, Myths Transformed, "Text XI."
17. The History of Middle-earth, Volume X: Morgoth's Ring, Annals of Aman, "Annal 1250," §84, and "Annal 1350," §86.
18. The History of Middle-earth, Volume X: Morgoth's Ring, Laws and Customs among the Elder uses the "it is said" construction twice for Elves and once for Ainur.
19. The History of Middle-earth, Volume X: Morgoth's Ring, Myths Transformed, "Text II," commentary after the text. The full quote reads: "It may be, though I have no evidence on the question one way or the other, that he came to perceive from such experimental writing as this text that the old structure was too comprehensive, too interlocked in all its parts, indeed its roots too deep, to withstand such a devastating surgery."