Osanwe-kenta by J.R.R. Tolkien

Author:J.R.R. Tolkien [Tolkien, J.R.R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0100-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

1 It is of course tempting to identify this redactor, and that of Quendi and Eldar, as Ælfwine, the Anglo-Saxon mariner who was the translator / transmitter of and commentator upon other works of Pengolodh, such as the Quenta Silmarillion (LR:201, 203-4, 275 fn.) and, notably, Lhammas B (cf. LR:167).

2 While Pengolodh's Lammas 'Account of Tongues' here is, within the subcreation, the same work as his Lhammas (the text published in The Lost Road), it appears that it refers to an unwritten (or, at any rate, no longer extant) version of that work that differs in certain respects. The published Lhammas, for instance, does not end with a discussion of

"direct thought-transmission", as the present text states of the Lammas; and the Note on the 'Language of the Valar'

that concludes Quendi and Eldar, said to be "summarized" from Pengolodh's comments at the beginning of his Lammas (WJ:397), is very much longer and more detailed than the very brief, general statement that begins the Lhammas (LR:168). (At least one contemporary reference to the Lammas may, however, have been to the extant Lhammas: see WJ:208-9 n. §6.)

3 In its remarkable natural and moral philosophical range, the Ósanwe-kenta also has strong affinities with other, similarly philosophical, and closely contemporary writings published in Morgoth's Ring: e.g. Laws anā Customs among the Eldar, the Athrabeth Finroā ah Andreth, and many of the briefer writings collected in Part V, "Myths Transformed". Of these, of particular note in connection with the present essay are texts II (MR:375 ff.), VI Melkor Morgoth (390 ff.), and VII Notes on motives in the Silmarillion (394 ff.), all in some manner concerned with the motives and methods of Melkor and his dealings with Manwë and the other Valar and the Incarnates. The beginning of part (ii) of this last text (398 ff.) is especially noteworthy; though very much briefer and less detailed than the Ósanwe-kenta, it is also concerned with "thought-transference" and with many of the same philosophical issues surrounding it as are discussed in the present text.

4 The first element of this Quenya title has an accent over the initial vowel everywhere else in Tolkien's text.

5 In this and every subsequent instance, "Eruhíni" has been altered by Tolkien from typed "Eruhin" (cf. MR:320).

6 Tolkien replaced "willing" with "intending" in the act of typing.

7 The concept of the Marring of Arda was much elaborated by Tolkien among the closely contemporary writings

published in Morgoth's Ring (for the many references, see MR:455). Cf. also WJ:401.

8 Tolkien wrote "an impediment" above deleted "a barrier".

9 Cf. the discussion of essi apacenyë 'names of foresight', given by a mother to her child in the hour of its birth in indication of "some foresight of its special fate" (MR:216).

10 Tolkien wrote "forecasting" in the margin as a replacement for deleted "predicting".

11 With this statement of the impossibility of forced penetration of the mind, compare the first paragraph of part (ii) of the Notes on motives in the Silmarillion (MR:398-99), which appears to say that such an act is possible, though forbidden and, even if done for "good" purposes, criminal.

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