Silmarillion - Chapter 08 - Of the Darkening of Valinor

[Aiwendil]

This is a pivotal chapter and, in a sense, the beginning of the central matter of the Silmarillion. Morgoth’s deeds here bring an end to the ages of bliss for the Valar and the Elves; indeed, there is a real sense that this is a great turning point in the whole history of Arda. The Ages of the Trees are afterward viewed as a kind of paradisiacal time to which there can be no return. This is the moment, so to speak, when the Elves lose their Garden of Eden – not because they have been cast out, but because the Garden of Eden has been destroyed by the serpent.

Or should I say by the spider? For we are introduced to a new and important character in this chapter – Ungoliant. Though her role in the Silmarillion is brief, it is of critical importance. An interesting question is that of Ungoliant’s origin. Though it is frequently suggested that she is a Maia, this is never stated by Tolkien – and indeed, she is not mentioned in the account of the Maiar in the “Valaquenta”. Her introduction in this chapter is intriguing:

. . . and there in Avathar, secret and unknown, Ungoliant had made her abode. The Eldar knew not whence she came; but some have said that in ages long before she descended from the darkness that lies about Arda, when Melkor first looked down in envy upon the Kingdom of Manwe, and that in the beginning she was one of those that he corrupted to his service.

Does anyone have any theories concerning her? In any case, she is a striking character, lusting after and feeding on the very light which she also hates and fears, consuming it and spinning it forth as darkness.

The essence of the story of the Darkening of Valinor existed from the earliest, ‘Lost Tales’, stage, though there (as usually) many details, particularly with regard to the timing and sequence of events, were different. The ‘Lost Tales’ version contains an interesting and vivid account of the procession of the Elves to the festival at Valmar, a passage that has always struck me as one of the finest in that early work.

Like the preceding chapters, this one evolved through several versions in the Sketch of the Mythology, the Quenta Noldorinwa, and pre- and post-LotR versions of the Quenta Silmarillion. There are also versions found in the ‘Annals’ tradition (the earlier and later ‘Annals of Valinor’ and the post-LotR ‘Annals of Aman’), which were to some extent combined with the ‘Silmarillion’ tradition by JRRT to produce his final version of the chapter.

It’s worth noting that there is in this chapter another instance of Christopher Tolkien’s 1977 text diverging from the latest version his father wrote. In the late 1950s version of the ‘Quenta Silmarillion’, Melkor does not accompany Ungoliant when she leaves Avathar to attack the Trees. Instead, there is an intriguing passage where he goes down to the shore and curses the Sea, saying:

‘Slime of Ulmo! I will conquer thee yet, shrivel thee to a stinking ooze. Yea, ere long Ulmo and Osse shall whither, and Uinen crawl as a mud-worm at my feet!’

He then waits beyond the mountains until Ungoliant kills the Trees and then comes back in through the Calaciryan, defiles the judgement seat of Manwe and throws down the thrones of the Valar, and departs. Christopher Tolkien surmises that the story was thus altered because Melkor did not want Ungoliant to be with him when he stole the Silmarils; but in any event, in the revised narrative she does catch up with him and accompany him to Formenos. Why Christopher reverted to the older story for the published text I don’t know.

Additional Readings
HoMe I – Lost Tales version
HoMe IV, V – pre-LotR versions in the ‘Sketch’, ‘Quenta’, and ‘Quenta Silmarillion’
HoMe X – post-LotR versions, including the latest one mentioned above.