A consideration of Laws and Customs of the Eldar

What in Arda is to be done with Laws and Customs of the Eldar? Since it contains a lot of information on elven society found nowhere else most of us are reluctant to throw it out altogether as a source, yet not only are there two differing versions – the longer, earlier ‘A’ and the revised but incomplete ‘B’ – but quite a bit of it, especially the part on elven resurrection, is totally contradicted by Tolkien’s later writings, whilst other sections (the bit about elves mostly wedding soon after their fiftieth year for instance) are quite hard to reconcile with the elves we actually know something about. An attempt to work out how the Laws and Customs might be fitted into Tolkien’s universe as a flawed, but not totally fictitious, source resulted in this little oddity…

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Extract from Professor Gavin Lowdham’s introduction to the Oxford University Press edition of Laws and Customs of the Eldar

The Laws and Customs of the Eldar is one of those documents that have suffered from the interference of the hand of ‘Ælfwine’, supposed translator and editor of the Arda texts. Whether there ever was an ‘Ælfwine’ and if so whether he had anything to do with the textural transmission, or whether his name was simply made use of as being that of a famous traveller, and perhaps a supposed authority on ancient tales, continues to be disputed. It is certain, however, that that a number of the records dealing with the First Age (and to a lesser extent the Second) have been altered, during the Anglo-Saxon period, whether by one hand or several remains unclear. At its simplest this may amount to no more than repeated (and somewhat monotonous) insertions of ‘so saith Ælfwine’ and variations on this theme. To just what extent the more serious interference stretches remains unresolved, and the early texts are badly in need of thorough, modern, textual criticism. Until this is done conclusions can only be tentative.

In the case of the Laws and Customs there are few direct references to ‘Ælfwine’ but as will be demonstrated later interference in that period is certain. To add to the difficulties in analysis there are two distinct manuscript traditions conventionally known as ‘A’ and ‘B’. It has been convincingly demonstrated that both derive from a single original text, but the exact relationship continues to be debated, as does the date of divergence, although this was probably in the Anglo-Saxon period. Dr. E. E. Errol has convincingly shown the ‘A’ tradition has been considerably more garbled (for example the author apparently did not understand the elven words neri and nissi and substituted the nonsensical quendor and quender or variant forms of these) and the ‘B’ texts are in general the more reliable, although it is possible that in some cases ‘A’ preserves authentic information dropped from ‘B’. Unfortunately the ‘B’ tradition is incomplete, the original exemplar having apparently broken off in the middle of a sentence part way through a series of commentaries, and there is therefore much interesting information preserved only in the less reliable ‘A’ tradition.

Although there is still much work to be done, it is certain that the text was already corrupt in what is conventionally known as the Fourth Age of the Arda period, or, it might be more charitably said, was a composite worked over by several authors at different times. Key evidence here is the preface ascribed, quite possibly correctly, to Findehir, who may have been a member of a scholarly Gondorian family, and who, based on stylistic and linguistic evidence, most probably wrote at the beginning of the Fourth Age. Findehir’s comments are attached to only one copy of the L&C and appear to be largely or wholly free from interpolation by the ‘Ælfwine’ tradition.

As it stands now the Laws and Customs of the Eldar cannot be the work of a single writer, or even of a single time. The work in its present form was plainly composed at a date when there were or had been frequent meetings between Elves and Men, and most of it is indeed written from a mortal point of view, but there are some passages that seem to extend back to Valinor during the Ages of the Trees. The reference to the Eldar wedding for the most part soon after their fiftieth year most certainly does not fit the Eldar in Middle-earth, among whom there were many who waited centuries or millennia before marrying or did not marry at all. It is doubtful whether it was even true of the Elves of Valinor during the last years before the Darkening. This remark seems most likely to go back to a very early period, when the elven urge to marry and reproduce was at its strongest. Almost straight afterwards the writings acknowledge that the number of children born to Elvish families has grown less as the Ages passed, and this must have been written much later.

Much of the writing refers to the customs of the Noldor but some passages seem more influenced by the Sindar. It is clearly said that marriage between first cousins was permitted as long as they were not closely related on both sides, as when two sisters married two brothers for example. This must refer to the Sindar, for we know that the Noldor did not permit marriages between first cousins and that this rule was adopted from them by the Numenoreans. This part must have been added by an author more familiar with Sindar customs, most probably writing in Middle-earth in the later Second or early Third Age.

The Laws and Customs of the Eldar is attached in front of a version of the Statute of Finwë and Míriel with additional notes and commentaries, and is followed by an account of the story of Finwë and Míriel which appears in almost identical form elsewhere. This though is then followed by a long piece of writing not known elsewhere, which claims to record a debate among the Valar, and then by an extension to the story of Finwë and Míriel. This last cannot have been written down in Middle-earth before, at the earliest, the very end of the First Age, since it tells of events that took place after the departure of the Exiles. This part of the story may have been added in Númenor, where much was learned from the Elves settled in Tol Eressëa that had not before been known to mortals or even to the Elves that lived in Middle-earth.

The work is entirely in Quenya, which must mean that much of it came originally from the Noldor. The present form must have been put together by a considerable scholar of the Dunedain, probably using both elven writings and his or her own knowledge gathered from the Elves. Most probably more than one elven text was used. It seems most likely however that the basic root was a copy of the Statute of Finwë and Míriel with additional commentaries, to which in the Age of the Trees an account of customs among the Noldor, particularly ones relating to marriage and child rearing had been added. Later the material on Elven customs was extensively rewritten by a mortal scholar, perhaps more than one, so that it now largely records the customs of the Eldar in Middle-earth, but still with fragments dating from an earlier period.

At this point the preface of Findehir ends, somewhat abruptly, although that does not prove the text to be incomplete. It may here be noted that the ‘B’ texts break off partway through the commentaries on the Statute and the later material is known only from the ‘A’ tradition so Findehir’s preface is key evidence that some at least of this material dates back to at least the Fourth Age.

The comments he makes are pertinent, and proof that the original text was indeed in Quenya springs from the insertion of Quenya words and phrases into the Westron text; although the use of occasional Sindarin words, such as lembas, betrays the more common use of that tongue. Whether the work was translated from Quenya into Westron by Findehir himself or another there is no way of knowing, but the evidence is that all the texts spring from a single translation made probably at the beginning of the Fourth Age, when knowledge of Quenya was briefly more widespread amongst Gondorian scholars than it had been for many generations.

There is strong reason to think that the text itself suffered interference at that time since there is more than one reference incorporated to the famous king Aragorn Elessar. The first, a passing addition to the section on marital customs, could well be a tacked on addition; the second however, flows naturally from a discussion of elven naming, and there must be a suspicion that some at least of this section is late, gathered from contact between Elves and Men in the Fourth Age (unless it be later still, an addition of the ‘Ælfwine’ tradition). Certainly it does not entirely fit with other accounts of naming practices amongst the Noldor in Valinor (most obviously that contained in the linguistic discussion generally termed The Shibboleth of Fëanor) and there must be a strong suspicion of corruption, or at least variant tradition. On the other hand the frequent insertion of Quenya word forms is a point in favour of a genuinely ancient basis, however adapted, unless that should be deliberate fakery. There is a reference also at one point to the ‘Dominion of Men’ having arrived which cannot be earlier than the Fourth Age and may be much later.

In the present state of scholarship firm conclusions cannot be drawn about the extent of interference from the ‘Ælfwine’ tradition. The name of Ælfwine is attached in some, (although not all) of the surviving texts of both traditions to the opening preamble, a comparison of the growth rates of Elves and Men, and this may well be an addition made by an Anglo-Saxon scholar. There is also a longish passage, appearing only in the B text tradition, on Houseless spirits, which is attributed to ‘Ælfwine’ and may also be assumed to be an Anglo-Saxon insertion. These additions are easily detected and relatively innocuous, but there are signs of less evident interference, a reference to Elves who ‘linger in Middle-earth’ in ‘these after days’ (as compared to the earlier period when Morgoth and later Sauron were active) for example. Indeed there is throughout a confusing shifting between referring to Elves in the present tense, as though they are still to be frequently met with (indeed one section speaks of customs which ‘may be seen’ among the Noldor, and if authentic can hardly be much later than the Second Age of Arda), and referring to them in the past tense, a practice which betrays at the least some recasting of the text in the ‘Ælfwine’ period of transmission.

One passage in particular, a discussion of Elven reincarnation, is extremely confused, and cannot possibly spring from authentic Elven tradition. It is here asserted, in some detail, that Elves are reincarnated by rebirth as infants. We know, however, from other and more certainly authentic texts, that this was an entirely false notion. In spite of the repeated use of the Quenya terms fëa and hröa (in some texts wrongly transcribed as hrondo) this cannot derive from genuine Elven writings, at best it must be a misunderstanding of information gathered from Elves, more likely it is simply garbled mortal theorising, plausibly written up in the form of Elven tradition. The exact date remains uncertain however; this misinformation might already have been current in the Fourth Age or possibly even earlier. It is possible, and tempting to believe, that some of the information about the Halls of Waiting and the Summons of Mandos is authentic despite the heavy corruption of this part of the text; at the least it does not conflict with other material. If so the information must have been derived from Valinor and almost certainly goes back to the Second Age, but we may doubt whether the discussion of rebirth as a common phenomenon is indeed authentically Elvish.

The question of how far the discussion of Elven sexuality is reliable is, unsurprisingly, the area which has attracted the most, and most fiercely debated, attention in recent years. There does seem to be certain amount of idealisation present, the insistence that sex crimes are unknown or almost so amongst the elves sounds like special pleading, whether by the elves themselves or mortal adapters of the tradition. Yet the bulk of the information corresponds with other evidence. The binding nature of Elven marriage is a central issue in the story of Finwë and Míriel, indeed, as Findehir believed, it seems likely that an account of Elven marriage customs was the first text attached to the story.

We may perhaps question how far the strict marital rules held true amongst the Moriquendi; in particular whether elves who had no contact with the Valar, and perhaps no knowledge of the Halls of Mandos, would have observed the law or custom of not taking a second spouse if the first were slain. However that elves in general were naturally monogamous is supported by such as we know of their history. Crimes of passion we hear of, but despite lifetimes measured in centuries or millennia few Elves appear to have formed more than one romantic or sexual attachment, and none are on record as forming more than two. Marital separations, of varying kinds, are common enough, but we never hear of an elf leaving a spouse to form a union with another.

The claim that the numbers of their children were limited, and that births were generally confined to the earlier years of marriage (comparatively speaking), is confirmed by what we know of elven history and provides strong evidence of either sex drives which were always low and ceased altogether after a few centuries of married life, or of extremely good contraception accompanied by an all pervasive tradition of limiting family size. On the whole the former seems more likely (although certain ambiguities allow for the interpretation that elves could choose whether or not conception would follow intercourse). Biologically speaking it is only to be expected that a race possessed of an unlimited life-span and capable of producing infinite numbers of children would not have strong sexual urges, and a similar biological imperative seems likely to underlie the strong drive towards monogamy which is apparent in elven history.

No passage in the whole of the texts has generated more controversy than the notorious passage which claims that a married elf would die if raped. Yet this passage only occurs in the unreliable ‘A’ text tradition; it is altogether absent from the ‘B’ texts, and not merely by accident as the ‘B’ texts have a quite different passage about marriage in its place, and that being so it can hardly be considered to carry any great authority. The impassioned assertions of scholars such as Professor A. L. Growse have shed far more heat than light on a passage which at best has only a very dubious claim to be authentically elvish, and whilst the statement cannot be disproven it seems best to consider it extremely doubtful information.

Less controversy has been generated by the passages on elven marriage ceremonies and on gender divisions amongst the Eldar; all that can be reasonably be said at present is that the information does not obviously contradict other material. The statute of Finwë and Míriel is known from other sources, as is the story of how the statute came into being which follows it, and although there are differences between the versions in the Laws and Customs and those known from other texts the differences are sufficiently small that they need not be gone into here.

The account of the debate of the Valar on the other hand is a unique text. If authentic it would be a document of great importance, yet the late Professor Tolkien, the undisputed leading authority on the Arda texts, felt unable to say more than that he believed it to be ‘not wholly feigned’ and that it might have derived from information given by the Valar to the loremasters of the Eldar. We cannot say at which point either this section or the extension to the story of Finwë and Míriel which seems to follow organically and may well have the same origin, was combined with the rest of the material.

In conclusion we may suggest the Laws and Customs to be a text which contains at its root material authentically collected in Valinor during the Ages of the Trees, and possibly added to during the First or early Second Age either in Valinor itself or Numenor. However the material relating specifically to customs and sexual mores among the Eldar has certainly been extensively reworked by a mortal scholar, perhaps more than one, writing probably in Middle-earth in the late Second Age or early Third Age and incorporating information (true or false) on customs of both the Noldor in Middle-earth and the Sindar. There was probably some minor interference with the text at the time of its translation into Westron in the Fourth Age, and certainly some interference, perhaps extensive, in the Anglo-Saxon period. As such the Laws and Customs remains a difficult and highly problematic text, yet as the only source we have for much of the information it contains it remains a source of great value, although one to be used with caution.

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Author’s Endnote: The surnames Lowdham and Errol are from Tolkien’s The Notion Club Papers and The Lost Road respectively, although the scholars referred to here are different characters. A. L. Growse is a joke borrowed from the history spoof The Dogsbody Papers, and is not intended to refer to any actual person, although I do wish more people would remember Tolkien deleted the notorious paragraph about rape from the second draft of Laws and Customs.

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