The Curious Case of Eärendel

We are now in the final throes of the Sketch and Quenta and the end of the Elder Days. After the fall of Gondolin and Doriath many of the refugees encamp at the mouth of the Sirion. There Eärendel weds Elwing, descendent of Beren and Lúthien. What befalls Eärendel is a much different account than what is told in the Silmarillion. In fact, by now, Christopher Tolkien has integrated an Quenta II text into The Shaping of Middle-earth as the Quenta now began to be revised. It's thee third version of Eärendel that bears the most resemblance to the Silmarillion.

In the Sketch and Quenta Ulmo reproaches the Valar and prompts them to march forth on Middle-earth to succor the Elves, rescue the Silmarils, and overthrow Morgoth. And they respond. In the Sketch Eärendel's motivation, it would seem, is to find his lost father and mother. This motivation becomes clearer in the Quenta I with the secondary thought of perhaps finding Valinor and bringing a message from Elves and Men to the Valar.

In each story there is a variant of the following: "Here follow the marvellous adventures of Wingelot in the seas and isles, and how Eärendel slew Ungoliant in the South" (p. 38, The Shaping of Middle-earth). Ungoliant's demise is sketchy in the Silmarillion and while I think Eärendel's importance suffers greatly in these early versions the slaying of Ungoliant is a portion I wish would have survived. Ultimately Eärendel's voyages are in vain and when he returns home he finds Elwing missing and his people destroyed by the sons of Fëanor who sought the Silmaril. Distraught Eärendel sets out again in Wingelot, hoping to find his beloved, and this time lands in Valinor. But, he finds it deserted: "He came too late to bring messages to the Elves, for the Elves had gone" (p. 150, The Shaping of Middle-earth). Indeed, they had already set out at Ulmo's prompting. And Eärendel is relegated to an adventures sea-wanderer with ultimately little success.

The second version of the Quenta details emerge that give Eärendel's trek much more significance. Once again Ulmo reproached the Valar and asks that they move on behalf of the Elves. This time Manwë stays their preparation waiting for another design. This time it is Eärendel who eventually makes the shores of Valinor and it is his pleas that set forth the strength of Valinor against Morgoth. Eärendel now becomes the pivotal character of the First Age, without whom, the other Ages of Middle-earth might never have been. (Yet even in this last version there is still the curious bit about his slaying of Ungoliant!).

It's worth noting that in the Sketch and Quenta we see the very first appearance of Elrond in the mythology. The Half-Elven offspring of Eärendel and Elwing. At this point he is an only child.