Editing Beleriand (section)

== Analysis ==

=== Naming ===

[[File:Idylls of the King 18 (detail).jpg|thumb|upright|Tolkien borrowed the [[Arthurian legend|Arthurian]] place-name [[Brocéliande]], an enchanted forest, for an early version of Beleriand.<ref name="Fimi 2007"/> Detail of 1868 illustration by [[Gustave Doré]] ]]

{{further|England in Middle-earth}}

Beleriand had many different names in Tolkien's early writings, including [[Brocéliande|Broceliand]], the name of an enchanted forest in medieval romance,<ref name="Fimi 2007">{{cite journal |last=Fimi |first=Dimitra |author-link=Dimitra Fimi  |title=Tolkien's 'Celtic type of legends': Merging Traditions |journal=[[Tolkien Studies]] |volume=4 |year=2007 |pages=53–72 |doi=10.1353/tks.2007.0015|s2cid=170176739 }}</ref> Golodhinand, Noldórinan ("valley of the Noldor"), Geleriand, Bladorinand, Belaurien, Arsiriand, Lassiriand, and Ossiriand (later used for the easternmost part of Beleriand).<ref group=T>{{Harvnb|Tolkien|1986|loc="Commentary on Canto I"}}</ref>

One of Beleriand's early names was Ingolondë, a play on "England", part of Tolkien's long-held but ultimately unsuccessful aim to create what Shippey calls "a mighty patron for his country, a foundation-myth more far-reaching than [[Hengist and Horsa|Hengest and Horsa]], one to which he could graft his own stories."{{sfn|Shippey|2005|pp=349–351}} Tolkien's aim had been to root his [[England in Middle-earth|mythology for England]] in the scraps of names and myths that had survived, and to situate it in a land in the northwest of the continent, by the sea.{{sfn|Shippey|2005|pp=349–351}}

=== A sense of doom ===

[[File:D. di Francesco - De verdrijving uit het paradijs (fragment) - NK1848 - Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands Art Collection.jpg|thumb|upright=0.6|Men flee into Beleriand from the East: perhaps, Shippey writes, they were expelled from [[Garden of Eden|Eden]].{{sfn|Shippey|2005|p=268}} Painting by [[Domenico di Michelino|D. di Michelino]], c. 1460 ]]

Shippey writes that the ''Quenta Silmarillion'' has a tightly-woven plot, each part leading ultimately to tragedy. There are three Hidden Elvish Kingdoms in Beleriand, founded by relatives, and they are each betrayed and destroyed. The Kingdoms are each penetrated by a mortal Man, again all related to each other; and the sense of doom, which Shippey glosses as "future disaster", hangs heavy over all of the characters in the tale.{{sfn|Shippey|2005|pp=287–296}}

{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em auto;"
|+ [[Tom Shippey]]'s analysis of the Hidden Kingdoms of Beleriand{{sfn|Shippey|2005|pp=287–296}}
|-
! Hidden<br/>Kingdom 
! [[Elves in Middle-earth|Elvish]] Kings<br/>(all relatives) 
! Man who penetrates<br/>the Kingdom
! Result 
|-
| Nargothrond || [[Finrod]] || [[Túrin Turambar|Túrin]] 
| rowspan=3 | City destroyed
|-
| Doriath || [[Thingol]] || [[Lúthien and Beren|Beren]] <!--rowspan-->
|-
| [[Gondolin]] || [[Turgon of Gondolin|Turgon]] || [[Tuor and Idril|Tuor]] <!--rowspan-->
|}

Shippey writes that the human race seen in Beleriand in the [[First Age]] did not "originate 'on stage' in Beleriand, but drifts into it, already sundered in speech, from the East [the main part of Middle-earth]. There something terrible has happened to them of which they will not speak: 'A darkness lies behind us... and we have turned our backs upon it'".{{sfn|Shippey|2005|p=268}} He comments that the reader is free to assume that the Satanic [[Morgoth]] has carried out the [[Satan|Biblical serpent]]'s temptation of [[Adam and Eve]], and that "the incoming [[Edain]] and [[Easterling (Middle-earth)|Easterlings]] are all descendants of Adam flying from [[Garden of Eden|Eden]] and subject to the curse of [[Tower of Babel|Babel]]."{{sfn|Shippey|2005|p=268}}

{{anchor|Lost poetry}}

=== "Lost" poetry ===

{{see also|Tolkien's poetry|The Lays of Beleriand}}<!--2017-->

The Tolkien scholar [[Gergely Nagy (scholar)|Gergely Nagy]], writing in 2004, notes that ''The Silmarillion'' does not contain explicitly embedded samples of Beleriand's poetry in its prose<!--written by CJRT as much as by JRRT, see [[The Silmarillion#Editorial intervention]]-->, as Tolkien had done with his many [[Poetry in The Lord of the Rings|poems in ''The Lord of the Rings'']]. Instead, the prose of ''The Silmarillion'' hints repeatedly at the structure and syntax of its "lost" poetry. Nagy notes [[David Bratman]]'s description of the book as containing prose styles that he classifies as "the Annalistic, [the] Antique, and the Appendical". The implication of the range of styles is that ''The Silmarillion'' is meant to represent, in [[Christopher Tolkien]]'s words, "a compilation, a compendious narrative, made long afterwards from sources of great diversity (poems, and annals, and oral tales)".<ref name="Nagy 2004"/><ref name="Foreword" group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1977|loc=Foreword}}</ref> Nagy infers from verse-like fragments of text in ''The Silmarillion'' that the poetry of Beleriand used [[alliteration]], [[rhyme]], and [[Metre (poetry)|rhythm]] including possibly [[Iambic pentameter|iambic]]s.<ref name="Nagy 2004">{{cite journal |last=Nagy |first=Gergely |author-link=Gergely Nagy (scholar) |title=The Adapted Text: The Lost Poetry of Beleriand |journal=[[Tolkien Studies]] |volume=1 |issue=1 |year=2004 |doi=10.1353/tks.2004.0012 |pages=21–41 |s2cid=170087216 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

This applies to the [[Ainulindalë]], Tolkien's account of the godlike [[Ainur in Middle-earth|Ainur]]:

{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em auto;"
|+ [[Gergely Nagy (scholar)|Gergely Nagy]]'s analysis of poem-like prose in the [[Ainulindalë]]<ref name="Nagy 2004"/>
|-
! scope="col" style="width: 350px;" | Ainulindalë,<ref name="Ainulindalë" group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1977|loc=[[Ainulindalë]]}}</ref> with Nagy's emphasis
! scope="col" style="width: 250px;" | Nagy's commentary
|-
| style="vertical-align: top;" |<poem>'''and''' they built lands '''and''' ''Melkor destroyed them'';
valleys they delved '''and''''' Melkor raised them up'';
mountains they carved '''and''' ''Melkor threw them down'';
seas they hollowed '''and''' ''Melkor spilled them'';</poem> 
| Prose adapted from poetry, with "rhetorics" and "stricter syntactic patterns"; [[parataxis]] and balanced clauses "bearing a structural and thematic similarity"
|}

It applies, too, to the narrative of Elves and Men in the Beleriand landscape, in the ''Quenta Silmarillion'':

{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em auto;"
|+ Nagy's analysis of poem-like prose in the ''[[Quenta Silmarillion]]''<ref name="Nagy 2004"/>
|-
! scope="col" style="width: 350px;" | Poem-like prose<ref name="Noldor in Beleriand" group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1977|loc=ch. 15 Of the Noldor in Beleriand}}</ref> with Nagy's emphasis
! scope="col" style="width: 250px;" | Nagy's commentary
|-
| style="vertical-align: top;" |<poem>But there was a '''d'''eep '''w'''ay under the mountains
'''d'''elved in the '''d'''arkness of the '''w'''orld
by the '''w'''aters that flowed out
to join the '''s'''treams of '''S'''irion.</poem> 
| style="vertical-align: top;" | "[[Alliteration]] and rhythm are beautifully seen together"
|}

In a few places, it is possible to relate the adapted verse in the prose to actual verse in [[Tolkien's legendarium]]. This can be done, for instance, in parts of the story of [[Túrin Turambar|Túrin]]. Here, he realizes he has just killed his friend [[Beleg]]:<ref name="Nagy 2004"/>

{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em auto;"
|+ Nagy's analysis of adapted verse lines in the ''[[Quenta Silmarillion]]''<ref name="Nagy 2004"/>
|-
! scope="col" style="width: 400px;" | "Adapted verse lines"<ref name="Túrin Turambar" group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1977|loc=ch. 21 Of Túrin Turambar}}</ref> with Nagy's emphasis
! scope="col" style="width: 350px;" | [[The Lay of the Children of Húrin|The verse ''Túrin'']] (1273–1274)
! scope="col" style="width: 350px;" | Nagy's commentary
|-
| style="vertical-align: top;" |<poem>Then Túrin '''st'''ood '''st'''one '''st'''ill and '''s'''ilent, '''st'''aring
on that '''dr'''eadful '''d'''eath, knowing what he had '''d'''one.</poem> 
| style="vertical-align: top;" | <poem>'''st'''one-faced he '''st'''ood &nbsp; &nbsp; '''st'''anding frozen
on that '''dr'''eadful '''d'''eath &nbsp; &nbsp; his '''d'''eed knowing</poem> 
| "Nearly all the alliterating words, together with the alliteration pattern itself, doubtless derive from the poem; the imagery and to some extent the very phrasing of this very moving central scene ... [are] virtually unchanged."
|}