Aelfwine, or Eriol

I never read many of the Histories of Middle Earth, but in looking at the Book of Lost Tales today, I discovered that a character named Aelfwine, (he was Eriol to the Elves) is called the author in some early versions of the tales. The framing device is interesting and very different from the later versions, even if it does seem a bit cumbersome at times. Eriol, we're told, was a man from England who sailed with some difficulty to Tol Eressea, and later had sons, Hengest and Horsa. In my Old English class we learned about these two soldiers, and how they spoke of 'the worthlessness of the Britons, and the richness of the land' in asking for aid to be sent to them.

Interesting how Tolkien had this framing device early on and later dropped it totally; the tale I read was originally written in 1917, the Silmarillion version decades later. The Tale of Tinuviel is told entirely by a woman named Veanne. In the introduction to the story she talks with Eriol, who is recounting the tale of his sea voyage to Tol Eressea. The history is richly detailed and it's interesting to read the stories in their early forms. The attention to detail is pretty incredible and somewhat daunting, but it's what makes Middle-Earth seem so real. The Tale of Tinuviel later became the story of Beren and Luthien, which you probably know from the Silmarillion. Aragorn talks about it a bit in the Lord of the Rings and it gets mentioned in the movies too. Next I'm going to read the Lay of Leithian, yet another version of the Beren and Luthien tale, and try to compare it to the ones I've already read.

So if there's a lesson here it's that you can't pay too much attention to details, and you should rewrite until you get the story the way you want it. Like Tolkien said, this one grew in the telling.