The Second Age Read Along - Part 3 - Week 2: HoMe5: The Lost Road - The opening chapters

#What we’re reading today

Following last week’s reading, we’re in the section following it, from HoMe V: The Lost Road and Other Writings, Part One: ‘The Fall of Númenor and The Lost Road’, we’re starting section III: ‘The Lost Road’, and reading the whole segment (i): ‘The opening chapters’. This segment contains two chapters and some commentary.

#Resources

This reading is mostly separate from the legendarium except in reference to Númenor, but here are some links to introductions of the various historical references made in the story, should you wish to research them further (although Christopher’s explanations in the commentary at the end of our reading is more than sufficient for our discussion):

• Lombardic history, look for Alboin and Audoin
• Ælfwine of Italy(sorry, this is the best I could find, good luck if you’re looking for this)
• Ælfwine, King Alfred’s grandson
• Ælfwine, warrior mentioned to die in battle in the poem The Battle of Maldon

#Before you read

If you recall from last week’s readings, it started out with a section titled ‘The Early History of the Legend’. If you don’t remember much of what it said, feel free to reread it, it’s only a couple pages. It describes the relationship between the narrative of Númenor and what we are reading this week, ‘The Lost Road’. This is a precursor to Númenor, while also being Tolkien’s abandoned attempt at a ‘time-travel’ narrative. The ‘time-travel’ portion appears from Tolkien’s sayings to be a “father-son” affinity that would have connected to real world history/legends including Germanic and Lombardic and even English, and in this narrative the father-son connection would recur throughout time, going back eventually to the time of Númenor. What we read this week is the first segment of that abandoned narrative.

If you aren’t well versed in all versions of Tolkien’s lore as well as real-world history, you might find some of the terms confusing. For those who don’t know, Lombard were a real people, with their own histories and legends, whereas Ælfwine is both a name from Tolkien’s legendarium as well as a legitimate Old English name. This text has a fair amount to do with languages and histories, so don’t get too hung up on the nitty gritty details of it all (unless you’re into that sort of thing, of course), and Christopher has more info on most of these things in the commentary at the end of this segment.

#After you read

These first two chapters to The Lost Road gave a short biography of an individual named Alboin, from his youth and early interest in languages, to his slow realization of a language he called Eressëan that he developed on into his education as a philologist. He also, along with the language, had pieces of stories come to him and had Dreams, mostly linguistic but some contained a ‘desire to go back’. Hints of some story revolving around the word atalante, which “seemed to mean ruin or downfall, but also to be a name”, came to him as he entered adulthood and had his own son, Audoin.

One night, in his dreams, a tall figure appears and offers him the fulfilment of his desire to go back through Time, under these conditions: that he may not choose the times at which he arrives; that he may not return as he wishes but only as it is ordained; that it would not be like reading a book but like he was alive and in real danger; and that it would not be only him going back, but also his son Audoin. After a day of moody deliberation, Alboin accepts the offer the next night, and he and his son fall into sleep.

#Discussion questions

• What are your thoughts on this idea for ‘time-travel’, via living the lives of your ancestors?
• Tolkien mentioned in some letters an ‘Atlantis-haunting’, from which came his desire to write the tale of Númenor. Are there similarities between that and the Dreams of Alboin?
• Christopher suggest at the start of the commentary that Alboin is quite similar in many ways to Tolkien himself. How intentional do you think that was on Tolkien’s part?
• How entertaining to yourself and in general do you think this sort of story, with a heavy emphasis on philological elements, is?
• What predictions do you have for the result of Alboin’s acceptance of the offer (supposing that the author got that far in this story)? Was it wrong of him to accept?
• There are some differences between the fantasies that come to Alboin and Audoin, mainly in substance. Do you think this is just a reflection of their natural interests, or does it have a deeper meaning?