XVI. THE STORY FORESEEN FROM LORIEN. (i) The Scattering of the Company. It seems certain that before my father wrote the conclusion of 'Farewell to Lorien' - that is, from the point where the Company returned to the hythe and departed down the Great River - he began to write a new and very substantial outline of the way ahead. The opening pages of this outline are complex, and at the beginning the text was much altered, though it is clear that my father was changing the embryonic story as he wrote and that the layers of the text belong together. The notes are here again an essential part of the elucidation. At the head of the text he wrote, in a second stage, 'XXI', then changed it to 'XX continued' and after the opening words 'The Company sets off from Tongue' wrote in 'XXI'. On the arrangement of chapters in this outline see pp. 329 - 30.(1) The Company sets off from Tongue. They are attacked with arrows.(2) They come to [struck out: Stony] Stoneait [struck out: Tolharn] Tollernen (3) [added: sheersided except on North where there [is] a little shingle beach. It rises to a high brown hill, higher than the low brown hills on either bank. They land and camp on the island]. Debate whether to go East or West. Frodo feels it in his heart that he should go East and crosses over with Sam to east shore and climbs a hill, and looks out south-east towards the Gates of Mordor. He tells Sam that he wishes to be alone for a while and bids him go back [and] guard the boat on which they had crossed from the Island. Meanwhile Boromir taking another boat crossed over. He hides his boat in bushes. [This passage changed to read: Debate whether to go East or West. Frodo feels it in his heart that he should go East and climbs the tall hill in the midst of the island. Sam goes with him but near the top Frodo says to him that he is going to sit on hill top alone and bids him wait for him. Frodo sits alone and looks out towards Mordor over Sarn Gebir and Nomen's land.(4) Meanwhile Boromir has crept away from Company and climbed hill from west side.] As Frodo is sitting alone on hill top, Boromir comes suddenly up and stands looking at him. Frodo is suddenly aware as if some unfriendly thing is looking at him behind. He turns and sees only Boromir smiling with a friendly face. 'I feared for you,' said Boromir, 'with only little Sam. It is ill to be alone on the east side of the River.(5) Also my heart is heavy, and I wished to talk a while with you. Where there are so many all speech becomes a debate without end in the conflict of doubting wills.' 'My heart too is heavy,' said Frodo, 'for I feel that here doubts must be resolved; and I foresee the breaking up of our fair company, and that is a grief to me.' 'Many griefs have we had,' said Boromir, and fell silent. There was no sound; only the cold rustle of the chill East wind in the withered heather. Frodo shivered. Suddenly Boromir spoke again. 'It is a small thing that lies so heavy on our hearts, and confuses our purposes,' said Boromir. [Here include conversa- tion written above and bring down to Boromir's attempt to seize the Ring.] This last sentence was written continuously with the preceding text. The conversation referred to is found on two pages of the 'August 1940' examination paper, written in pencil so faint and rapid that my father went over it more clearly in ink, although, so far as the underlying text can be made out, he followed it almost exactly. This obviously preceded the new outline into which it is inserted, and was a development from the scene in the previous Plot ('The Story Foreseen from Moria') given on p. 208, where the debate, Boromir's intervention, and Frodo's flight wearing the Ring all take place 'at Angle': here the scene is set 'at the Stone Hills, whence Eredwethion (6) can be glimpsed' (these words being visible in the underlying text also). In the notes given on p. 233 the 'parting of the ways' took place 'at Stonehills'; in the outlines for 'Farewell to Lorien' (pp. 268 - 9) the debate and the 'scene with Boromir' follow the landing on Tolondren and the ascent into the Green Hills, or the Emyn Rhain. Conversation of Boromir and Frodo at the Stone Hills, whence Eredwethion can be glimpsed like a smudge of grey, and behind it a vague cloud lit beneath occasionally by a fitful glow. 'It is a small thing from which we suffer so much woe,' said Boromir. 'I have seen it but once for an instant, in the house of Elrond. Could I not have a sight of it again?' Frodo looked up. His heart went suddenly cold. He caught a curious gleam in Boromir's eye, though his face otherwise was friendly and smiling as of old. 'It is best to let it lie hid,' he answered. 'As you will. I care not,' said Boromir. 'Yet I will confess that it is of the Ring that I wish to speak. (Yet hidden or revealed I would wish now to speak to you of the Ring?)... [sic] Boromir says that Elrond etc. are all foolish. 'It is mad not to use the power and methods of the Enemy: ruthless, fearless. Many elves, half-elves, and wizards might be corrupted by it - but not so a true Man. Those who deal in magic will use it for hidden Power. Each to his kind. You, Frodo, for instance, being a hobbit and desiring peace: you use it for invisibility. Look what a warrior could do! Think what I - or Aragorn, if you will - could do! How he would fare among the enemy and drive the Black Riders! It would give power of command. 'And yet Elrond tells us not only to throw it away and destroy it - that is understandable (though not to my mind wise since I have pondered on it by night on our journey). But what a way - walk into the enemy's net and offer him every chance of re-capturing it!' Frodo is obdurate. 'Come at least to Minas-tirith!' said Boromir. He laid his hand on Frodo's shoulder in friendly fashion, but Frodo felt his arm tremble as if with suppressed excitement. Frodo stepped away and stood further off. 'Why are you so unfriendly?' said Boromir. 'I am a valiant man and true,' he said. 'And I give you my word that I would not keep it - would not, that is I should say, if you would lend it to me. Just to make trial!' No! No! said Frodo. [Added: It is mine alone by fate to bear.'] Boromir gets more angry, and so more incautious (or actually evil purpose now only begins to grow in him). 'You are foolish!' he cried. 'Doing yourself to death and ruining our cause. Yet the Ring is not yours, save by chance. It might as well have been Aragorn's - or mine. Give it to me! Then you will be rid of it, and of all responsibility. You would be free' (cunningly) 'You can lay the blame on me, if you will, saying that I was too strong and took it by force. For I am too strong for you, Frodo,' he said. And now an ugly look had come suddenly over his fair and pleasant face. He got to his feet and sprang at Frodo. Frodo could do nothing else. He slipped the Ring on, and vanished among the rocks. Boromir cursed, and groped among the rocks. Then suddenly the fit left him, and he wept. 'What folly possessed me!' he said. 'Come back, Frodo!' he called. 'Frodo! Evil came into my heart, but I have put it away.' But Frodo was now frightened, and he hid until Boromir went back to camp. Standing on rocks he saw nothing about him but a grey formless mist, and far away (yet black and clear and hard) the Mountains of Mordor: the fire seemed very red. Fell voices in air. Feels Eye searching, and though it does not find him, he feels its attention is suddenly arrested (by himself).(7) Here the inserted text ends and the new Plot continues: Then Frodo took counsel with himself, and he perceived that the evil of the Ring was already at work even among the Company. (Also its evil was again on him, since he had put it on again.) He said to himself: this is laid on me. I am the Ringbearer and none can help me. I will not emperil the other hobbits or any of my companions. I will depart alone. He slips away unseen and coming to the boats takes one and crosses over to the East. Boromir is now himself frightened and though (half) repent- ing his own greed for the Ring the curse has not wholly left him. He ponders what tale he shall tell to the others. Hastening back to the River he comes upon Sam, who anxious at Frodo's long absence is coming to the hill-top to find him. 'Where is my master?' says Sam. 'I left him on the hill-top,' said Boromir, but something wild and odd in his face caused Sam sudden fear. 'What have you done with him?' 'I have done nothing,' said Boromir. 'It is what he has done himself: he has put on the ring and vanished! ' 'Thank goodness the island is not large,' said Sam in great alarm, but he thought also to himself: 'And what made him do that, I should like to know. What mischief has this great fool been up to?' Without another word to Boromir he ran back to the camp to find Trotter. 'Master Frodo has disappeared! ' he cried. Consternation. The hunt. Some scour the island. But Sam discovers the fact that a boat is missing. Has Frodo gone East or West? Trotter decides that they cannot hope to recapture Frodo against his will, but they must follow him if they can. Which way? [Or make Island inaccessible: steep shores. Black birds circle high above its tall cliffs and central summit. Distant noise of the falls of Dantruinel.(8) They camp on west shore. Hence when Frodo is lost they all go after him. Thus Pippin and Merry get separated.(9) Sam sits alone and so discovers missing boat. He takes another and goes after Frodo.] [Against this bracketed passage is written Yes.] It is clear that my father at once accepted his suggestion in this last passage that the Company camped on the west bank, not on the island in the river, because that passage contains the words 'Sam discovers missing boat. He takes another and goes after Frodo', and this, as will be seen in a moment, is a necessary element in the story that follows. Boromir is for West. In any case he says he is afraid - the Ring will fall now almost certainly into the Enemy's hands. 'This madness was set [in] him for that purpose.'(10) He wishes to get now to Minas-Tirith as quick as possible. Sam goes West [read East], others East [read West]. Sam picks up trail of Frodo.(11) How? He finds boat knocking against the bank.(12) A little further he finds a scrap of grey stuff on a bramble - a great bramble tract has to be crossed. Very soon Sam discovered that he was lost in a pathless listening land. But he felt sure his master would steer towards the Fiery Mt. Away on his right the falls roared. He climbed down into the Wetwang. Daylight fell. Slept in tree. Heard Gollum at foot and tried to track him, thinking he was after Frodo. But Sam is not clever enough for Gollum, who is soon aware of him and turns and discovers him. He confesses to Gollum t hat h e i s trying to find Frodo. Gollum laughs. 'Then his luck is better than he deserves, yes,' said Gollum, 'for Gollum has been following him: Gollum can see footprints where he can't see nothings, no! ' Gollum was so intent on the trail - muttering to himself 'Footsteps, Gollum sees them, and he smells them: Gollum is wary' - that he did not seem aware of Sam's (relatively) clumsy efforts at stalking the stalker.(13) It was near the evening of the second day when Frodo, every sense keyed up, became suddenly aware of footfalls. He puts on the ring, but Gollum comes up and circles near. To Frodo's great surprise Sam appears. To the equal surprise of Sam and Gollum Frodo suddenly takes off ring and stands before them. Gollum is the most surprised: for between Frodo and Sam he is overmatched. He cringes: for as Ringbearer Frodo has a power over him (though he is really an object of great hatred). Gollum pleads for forgiveness, and promises help, and having nowhere else to turn Frodo accepts. Gollum says he will lead them over the Dead Marshes to Kirith Ungol.(14) (Chuckling to himself to think that that is just the way he would wish them to go.) Here ends Chapter. At this stage my father was following the previous Plot (p. 208): 'At point where Sam, Frodo and Gollum meet return to others - for whose adventures see later. But they should be told at this point.' He now decided, I think, that not even so much of the story of Frodo and Sam east of Anduin should yet be told, and he bracketed all that follows from 'Sam picks up trail of Frodo', writing against it 'Put in later chapter. XXIV (subsequently altering XXIV to XXV: see p. 330).(15) At the same time he struck out 'Here ends Chapter' and went on with the story of the other members of the Company. Dismay of the hunt at finding no trace of Frodo. Boromir, Legolas, Gimli, Trotter return to camp, only to find now that Sam also is missing, and Pippin and Merry as well. Trotter is overwhelmed with grief, thinking that he has failed in his charge as Gandalf's successor. He imagines that the hobbits are all together,. and waits in camp until the morning.(16) In the morning no sign is found of them. The Company is now broken. Trotter sees nothing for it but to go south to Minas-Tirith with Boromir. But Legolas and Gimli have no further heart for the Quest, and feel that already too many leagues are between them and their homes. They go north again: Legolas meaning to join the Elves of Lothlorien for a while, Gimli hoping to get back to the Mountain.(17) Here ends Chapter XX. ('Chapter XX' was subsequently changed to 'XXI', and the numbers of the chapter synopses that follow were also altered, as will be explained in a moment.) XXI What happened to Gimli and Legolas. They meet Gandalf? XXII What happened to Merry and Pippin. They are lost - led astray by echoes - in the hunt, and wander away up the Entwash River and come to Fangorn. Here they meet with Giant Fangorn or Tree-beard. He takes them to Minas Tirith. XXIII. What happened in Minas Tirith. Siege by Sauron and Saruman. Treachery of Boromir. Sudden arrival of Gandalf - now become a white wizard. Treebeard raises the siege. Enemy driven over the Anduin. Horse- men of Rohan come to assistance. XXIV. What happened to Frodo and Sam. Comparison with the previous Plot (pp. 210 - 11) will show that these synopses repeat, much more briefly, what was set out there, and show no further development. At this juncture my father made various alterations of chapter-structure in the plot-sketch. At the beginning, as already noted (p. 324), he indicated that 'The Company sets off from Tongue' should form the conclusion of Chapter XX ('Farewell to Lorien'), while all that follows should constitute XXI (apart from the story of Sam's tracking of Frodo and the encounter with Gollum, which would be placed in a later chapter, as already decided: p. 329). The brief synopses just given were now renumbered and slightly reordered: XXII (Merry and Pippin); XXIII (Gimli and Legolas); XXIV (Minas Tirith)., XXV (Frodo and Sam).(18) (ii) Mordor. While my father seems never to have doubted that after the breaking of the Company the 'western' stories must be followed, the 'eastern' story of Frodo and Sam was bursting into life and expression; and he now at once went on with the outline of that story from the point where he had left it (p. 329), noting: 'XXV: continuation after part above.' They sleep in pairs, so that one is always awake with Gollum.(19) Gollum all the while is scheming to betray Frodo. He leads them cleverly over the Dead Marshes. There are dead green faces in the stagnant pools; and the dry reeds hiss like snakes. Frodo feels the strength of the searching eye as they proceed. At night Sam keeps watch, only pretending to be asleep. He hears Gollum muttering to himself, words of hatred for Frodo and lust for the Ring. The three companions now approach Kirith Ungol, the dreadful ravine which leads into Gorgoroth. Kirith Ungol means Spider Glen: there dwelt great spiders, greater than those of Mirkwood, such as were once of old in the land of Elves and Men in the West that is now under sea, such as Beren fought in the dark canons of the Mountains of Terror above Doriath. Already Gollum knew these creatures well. He slips away. The spiders come and weave their nets over Frodo while Sam sleeps: sting Frodo. Sam wakes, and sees Frodo lying pale as death - greenish: reminding him of the faces in the pools of the marshes. He cannot rouse or wake him.(20) The idea suddenly comes to Sam to carry on the work, and he felt for the Ring. He could not unclasp it, nor cut the chain, but he drew the chain over Frodo's head. As he did so he fancied he felt a tremor (sigh or shudder) pass through the body; but when he paused he could not feel any heart-beat. Sam put the Ring round his own neck. [Suddenly the Orc-guard of the Pass, guided by Gollum, comes upon them. Sam takes Galadriel's present to Frodo - the phial of light. Sam slips on the Ring, and attempts to fight unseen to defend Frodo's body; but gets knocked down and nearly trampled to death. The Orcs rejoicing pick up Frodo and bear him away, after searching in vain (but only a short while) for 'the other hobbit' reported by Gollum.] This last paragraph, which I have bracketed, was struck through with a direction to replace it by the following much longer passage on a separate page. It is clear, however, that this replacement was not written significantly later.(21) Then he sat and made a Lament for Frodo. After that he put away his tears and thought what he could do. He could not leave his dear master lying in the wild for the fell beasts and carrion birds; and he thought he would try and build a cairn of stones about him. 'The silver mail of mithril rings shall be his winding-sheet,' he said. 'But I will lay the phial of Lady Galadriel upon his breast, and Sting shall be at his side.' He laid Frodo upon his back and crossed his arms on his breast and set Sting at his side. And as he drew out the phial it blazed with light. It lit Frodo's face and it looked now pale but beautiful, fair with [an] elvish beauty as of one long past the shadows. 'Farewell, Frodo,' said Sam; and his tears fell on Frodo's hands. [But] at that moment there was a sound of strong footfalls climbing towards the rock shelf. Harsh calls and cries echoed in the rocks. Orcs were coming, evidently guided to the spot. 'Curse that Gollum,' said Sam. 'I might have known we had not seen the last of him. These are some of his friends.' Sam had no time to lose. Certainly no time to hide or cover his master's body. Not knowing what else to do he slipped on the Ring, and then he took also the phial so that the foul Orcs should not get it, and girded Sting about his own waist. And waited. He had not long to wait. In the gloom first came Gollum sniffing out the scent, and behind him came the black orcs: fifty or more it seemed. With a cry they rushed upon Frodo. Sam tried to put up a fight unseen, but even as he was about to draw Sting he was run down and trampled by the rush of the Orcs. All the breath was knocked out of his body. [Added in pencil: Courage failed him.] In great glee the Orcs seized Frodo and lifted him. 'There was another, yes,' whined Gollum. 'Where is he, then?' said the Orcs. 'Somewheres nigh. Gollum feels him, Gollum sniffs him.' 'Well, you find him, sniveller,' said the Orc-chief. 'He can't go far without getting into trouble. We've got what we want. Ringbearer! Ringbearer!' They shouted in joy. 'Make haste. Make haste. Send one swift to Baraddur to the Great One. But we cannot wait here - we must [get] back to our guard post. Bear the prisoner to Minas Morgul.' [Added in pencil: Gollum runs behind wailing that the Precious is not there.] Here the replacement text ends. Even as they do so, Frodo seems to awake, and gives a loud cry, but they gag him. Sam is torn between joy at learning he is alive and horror at seeing him carried off by Orcs. Sam tries to follow, but they go very speedily. The Ring seems to grow in power in this region: he sees clearly in the dark, and seems to understand the orcs' speech. [He fears what may happen if he meets a Ringwraith - the Ring does not confer courage: poor Sam trembles all the time.](22) Sam gathers that they are going to Minas Morgul: since they are not allowed to leave their post - but a messenger has at once been despatched to announce to the Dark Lord the capture of Ringbearer, and to bring back his orders.(23) 'The Mighty One has great business afoot,' says one. 'All that has gone before is but a skirmish compared with the war that is about to be kindled. Fine days, fine days! Blood on blade and fire on hill, smoke in sky and tears on earth. Merry weather, my friends, to bring in a real New Year!' The Orcs go so fast that Sam soon gets weary and falls behind; but he plods on behind in the direction of Minas Morgul, remembering as much as he could of the maps. The path led up into the mountains - the north horn of the Moun- tains of Shadow that sundered the ashen vale of Gorgoroth from the valley of the Great River. Sam looking out saw all the plain alive with armies, horse and foot, black plumes, red and black banners. Countless hosts of the wild peoples of Rhun, and the evil folk of Harad, were pouring out of Kirith Ungol to war. Smoke and dust afar off suggested that away in the East more were coming. [In truth they were - far beyond Sam's eyesight the armies rode and marched: the Dark Lord had determined to strike. From beyond the Inland Sea of Rhun up the rivers east of Mirkwood, round the towers of Dol Dughul they poured through fen and forest to the banks of the Great River. Lothlorien was lapped in flame. From the Misty Moun- tains, from Moria - Khazaddum and many hidden caves poured the orcs to meet them; from Harad and from Mordor they came against Ondor, and sought the walls of Minas-Tirith; and out from Isengard, seeing the war-beacons afar off blazing in Mordor, came the traitor Saruman with many wolves.] (25) Sam comes so close behind that he sees from below the orc-host entering the gates of the City (26)[struck out: - and they have not time to despoil Frodo]. At last Sam saw before him the walled city that had once been the City of the Sun [> Moon]: Minas Anor [> Ithil] in the days of old (Elendil).(27) Amidst it stood a tall tower - from afar off it looked beautiful. But Sam passed into the city and saw that all was defiled: and on every stone and corner were carved figures and faces and signs of horror. Such a dread ran through all the streets that he could hardly drag his legs or force himself along. 'Where in all this devilish hole have they put my poor master,' thought Sam. He feels drawn to the Tall Tower. He wanders up a seemingly endless winding stair, windowless; shrinks into foul-smelling recess[es] when snarling Orcs go up or down. At the top are four locked doors, North, South, East, West. Which is it? And anyway how can he get in: all are locked. Suddenly Sam took courage and did a thing of daring - the longing for his master was stronger than all other thoughts. He sat on the ground and began to sing. Troll-song - or some other Hobbit song - or possibly part of the Elves' song 0 Elbereth. (Yes). Cries of anger are heard and guards come from stairs above and from below. 'Stop his mouth - the foul hound' cry the Orcs. 'Would that the message would return from the Great One, and we could begin our Questioning [or take him to Baraddur. He he! They have a pretty way there. There is One who will soon find out where the little cheat has hid his Ring.](28) Stop his mouth.' 'Careful! ' cried the captain, 'do not use too much strength ere word comes from the Great One.' By this trick Sam found the door, for an Orc unlocked the East door and went inside with a whip. 'Hold your foul tongue,' he said, as Sam heard the whip crack. Swift as lightning Sam slipped inside. He longed to stab the Orc but wisely restrained himself. In the light of [the torch o] the small East window he saw Frodo lying on the bare stone - his arms over his face [?guarding] from the whip blow. Mutter- ing the orc went out and closed the door. Frodo groaned and turned over uncovering his face - still pale from the poison. 'Why do dreams cheat me?' he said. 'I thought I heard a voice singing the song of Elbereth! ' 'You were not dreaming!' said Sam. 'It is me, master.' He drew off the Ring. But Frodo felt a great hatred well up in his heart. Before him there stood a small orc, bowlegged, leering at him out of a gloating face. It reminded him faintly of some one he had once known and loved - or hated. He stood up. 'Thief!' he cried. 'Give it to me.' Sam was greatly taken aback: and stepped away, so sudden and grim was his master's face. 'The poor dear is still mithered,'(29) he thought. 'Surely, Master Frodo. I have come behind as quick as I could just for to give it you.' And with that he gave the ring into Frodo's snatching hand, and took the chain from about his neck. [Only for two days had he been Ringbearer, yet he felt a curious regret as it left him.] (30) 'Sam! ' cried Frodo. 'Sam! my dear old Sam. How did you come here? I thought' - and then he leant upon Sam and wept long. 'I thought,' he said again at last. 'Well never mind. I thought I was lost and that they had taken the Ring and all was in ruin. How did you get it - tell me.' 'Not by thieving,' said Sam with an effort at a smile. 'Or not exactly. I took it when I thought you were gone, Master. Yes, I thought you were dead for certain away back in that Kirith place, with those crawling horrors. That was a black hour, Master Frodo, but it seemed to me that Sam had got to carry on - if he could.' Then he told the tale of the attack and how he had followed. 'And it is in a place called Minas Morgul that we are,' he said, 'and not for a small mercy in the Dark Tower itself, leastways not yet. But Minas whatever it be: we have got to get out quick. And how, I don't see.' They talked it over long in whispering voices. 'The Ring won't cover two,' said Sam; 'and I think you won't want to part from it again. Anyhow the Ring is yours, master,' said Sam. 'Once out of here you can get away fairly easy, so long as none of the Ring-wraiths or Black Riders turn up, or something worse. There is some nasty eyes in this town, or the pricking of my skin is merely the shivers of a cold coming on. My advice to you is to leg it as quick as may be.' 'And you?' said Frodo. '0, me,' said Sam. 'That can't be helped. I may find a way out, or I may not. Anyway I have done the job I came to do.' 'Not yet, I think,' said Frodo. 'Not yet. I do not think that we part here, dear friend.' 'Well then, master, tell me how.' 'Let me think,' said Frodo. 'I have a plan,' he said at last. 'A risk, but it may work. Have you still got your sword?' 'I have,' said Sam, 'and Sting too, and your glass of light. I was a-going to lay them by you under the stones,' he stam- mered, 'when the murdering Orcs came on us. I thought you were dead - until you cried out as they gripped you.' Frodo smiled and took back his treasures. He drew Sting half from its sheath and the pale blue light of it flickered from the blade. 'Not surprising,' he said, 'that Sting should shine in Minas Morgul! Well now, Sam, get away over there - where you will be behind the door when it opens. Draw your sword. I will lie on the floor as I was. Then you can start your song again - and that should bring in an orc soon enough. Let us hope it is not many more than one.' 'But the whips, master, the murdering hounds will fetch you one for me, and I cannot abide it.' 'You won't have to abide it if you are quick with your sword,' said Frodo. 'But you need not worry! They have not had time to search me - not that Orcs dare touch the Ring that is for none less than servants of the Ring or for Sauron himself. They made sure that I had no sword and flung me on the floor. So I have still my mithril-coat. That lash you heard as you came in was laid well across my side and back - but I don't think you would find any weal.' Sam was much relieved. 'Very well, what's the idea, Mr. Frodo?' he asked. 'You must do your best to kill the Orc that comes in,' said Frodo. 'If there is more than one I must leap up and help, and maybe we shall have to try and fight our way out. But to get someone to come in seems our only way of getting out.' Frodo now began again to sing 0 Elbereth (a few lines). With an oath the door was flung open and in strode the orc-captain, cracking his lash. 'Lie quiet, you dog,' he shouted, and raised his whip. But even as he did so, Sam leapt from behind the door and stabbed at his throat. He fell with a gurgle. Frodo sprang up, pushed the door gently to, and crouched waiting for any other orc that might come. The sound of harsh voices far off up the further stairs came to them, but no other sounds. 'Now's our chance,' said Frodo. 'Get into his gear as quick as you can.' Swiftly they stripped the orc, peeling off his coat of black scale-like mail, unbuckling his sword, and unslinging the small round shield at his back. The black iron cap was too large for Sam (for orcs have large heads for their size), but he slipped on the mail. It hung a little loose and long. He cast the black hooded cloak about him, took the whip and scimitar, and slung the red shield. Then they dragged the body behind the door and crept out. Frodo went first. It was dark outside when the door was shut again. Frodo took out the glass of light. They hurried down the stairs. Halfway down they met someone coming up with a torch. Frodo slipped on his Ring and drew aside; but Sam went on to meet the goblin. They brushed into one another and the goblin spoke in his harsh tongue; but Sam answered only with an angry snarl. That seemed satisfactory. Sam was evidently mistaken for someone important. The goblin drew aside to let him pass, and they hastened on. [Struck out: They did not guess that it was the messenger returning from Baraddur!] Now they issued from the Loathly Tower. Evening was falling: away in the West over the valley of the Anduin there was some light. Far away loomed the Black Mountains and the tower of Minas Tirith, had they known. But in the East the sky was dark, with black and lowering clouds that seemed almost to rest upon the land. An uneasy twilight lay in the shadowy streets. Shrill cries came as it were from underground, strange shapes flitted by or peered out of alley[s] and holes in the [?gaping] houses; there were [??dispirited] voices and faint echoes of monotonous and unhappy song. All the carven faces leered, and their eyes glowed with a fire at great depth. The hobbits shuddered as they hurried on. Feet seemed to follow them, and they turned many corners, but they never threw them off. Rustling and pattering on the stones they came doggedly after them. They came to the gates. The main gates were closed; but a small door was still open. Sentinels stood on either side, and at the opening stood an armed warder, gazing out into the gathering dusk. The Orcs were waiting for the messenger from Baraddur. 'Stay here,' whispered Frodo, drawing Sam into a shadow of a pillar just before the gate. 'While I wear the Ring I can understand much of their speech, or of the thought behind it - I don't know which. If I cry out come at a run, and get through the door if you can.' [The following was struck out probably as soon as written: He went forward. The guard at the open door was grumbling. 'One would have thought we had caught no more than a stray elf,' he said. 'Is [? the] Ringbearer [written above: Thief] of no matter to them at the Dark Tower now? One would have thought He would have sent a Rider at least. Not even the war that is now set afoot can surely have lessened the worth of the One Treasure.' Suddenly Frodo stabbed with Sting. The warder fell. But Frodo leant against the door lest a guard should thrust it to and called out. The sentinels sprang up. Sam came running, but at first they took him for a goblin running up to help. He smote one down before they were aware of his enmity and sprang through the door] 'Nay,' said Sam, 'that won't do. If we have a fight at the gate it won't be much use getting through. We'll have the whole wasps' nest a-buzzing after us before we have gone many yards: and they know these nasty mountains as well as I mind me of Bagend. Swagger is the only hope, Mr. Frodo, begging your pardon.' 'Very well, my good Sam,' said Frodo, 'try swagger.' Feeling as little like 'swagger' as ever in his life, Sam walked as unconcernedly as he could manage into the shadow of the dark gateway. The sentinels on either side looked at him and did not move. He came beside the warder and looked out. The warder started and looked at him angrily. Frodo came behind warily. He saw the orc's hand go to the hilt of his scimitar. 'Who are you and who do you think you are pushing,' said he. 'Am I in charge of the gate or not?' Sam tried the trick again. He snarled angrily and stepped out of the gate. But the trick did not work so well a second time. The warder sprang after him and grabbed at his cloak. 'Closing time is [? by read past by?] half an hour,' he said, 'and you know that. No one but the Lord's messengers are allowed in or out, and you know that well enough. If I have any more trouble I shall report you to the Captain [struck out: of Morgul].' Sam prepared to give battle. He turned to face the warder gripping his hilt and swung round his shield. It was a red shield, and in the midst was painted a single black eye. The warder fell back nimbly. 'Your pardon,' he said, '0 Captain of Morgul. I did not recognize you. I only did my duty as I thought.' Sam, guessing something of what had occurred, snarled again and waved his hand as if in dismissal and walked away down the path into the dusk. The warder stared after him shaking his head. He stood blocking the door so that Frodo could not pass. Sam had now disappeared on the downward track, and still Frodo waited hoping for a chance to slip out without a fight, before the door was closed. Suddenly there was a loud boom. Dong Dong Dong. A big bell was ringing in the Loathly Tower: the alarm was sounded. Frodo heard distant cries. Soon he could hear voices calling: 'Close the gates. Ear the door. Watch the walls. The Bearer has escaped from the Tower.' The warder seized the door and began to close it. Feet came running. Frodo took the only chance. Stooping he seized the warder's legs and threw him down and sprang out. As he ran he heard loud shouts and oaths. 'But the Captain is lying dead and stripped in the Tower, I tell you,' he heard. 'Take that for a fool. You have let the bearer escape. Take that for a fool.' There was a blow and a cry. Orcs came pouring out of the gate, and still the bell tolled. Suddenly dark overhead a black shape appeared flying low out of the east: a great bird it seemed, like an eagle or more like a vulture. The orcs halted chattering shrilly: but Frodo did not wait. He guessed that some urgent message concerning himself had come from the Dark Tower. Here the text in ink ends, but is followed by a few pencilled notes: Finds Sam They escape - and as they are actually making towards Mordor this delays hunt which goes towards the Anduin North and West. End of Chapter XXV. Gorgoroth. How Frodo came to the Fiery Mountain. See sketch (b) (c). This last is a reference to the pages of the previous Plot, in this book pp. 208 - 9, from 'The Gap of Gorgoroth not far from Fire Mountain' to 'hurls himself and Gollum into the gulf?' All this story of the escape from Minas Morgul was developed from the brief words of the earlier Plot (p. 209): Sam ... passes into Morgol and finds Frodo. Frodo feels hatred of Sam and sees him as an orc. But suddenly the orc speaks and holds out Ring and says: Take it. Then Frodo sees it is Sam. They creep out.... Sam dresses up like an orc. There can be no doubt whatsoever that the text just given, beginning as an outline in the present tense and sliding almost imperceptibly into full narrative, was the actual emergence on paper of what ultimately became 'The Tower of Cirith Ungol' in The Return of the King (VI.1). It was written very fast (though surprisingly legibly), with virtually no 'correction made on grounds of suitability of phrasing, and gives an impression of uninterrupted composition, perhaps even at one sitting. Being written at this stage,(31) its relation to the ultimate form of the story in 'The Tower of Cirith Ungol' is much more remote than has been the case anywhere else, and although certain new elements (not present in the previous Plot) now enter and would be preserved - notably Sam's song, instrumental in his discovery of where Frodo was - the story would be radically refashioned in every point, in geogra- phy, in motives, in the structure of events, so as to become almost a new conception. Some further development seems in fact to have taken place quite soon. Found with this text are some other papers, themselves all of the same time, but entirely distinct in appearance and mode of writing. Here the story of Frodo and Sam is roughly outlined further, and the escape from Minas Morgul is reconsidered and rewritten. I think that this further material belongs in fact to the same or much the same time as the primary text. There are various pointers to this. The suggestion found here that 'it could be Merry and Pippin that had adventure in Minas Morgul if Treebeard is cut out' shows that the fully formed narrative had not at any rate advanced beyond the Breaking of the Fellowship; and the chapter is still referred to as 'XXV', which carries the same implication (i.e. my father was still assuming the chapters 'XXI - XXIV' as outlined on pp. 329 - 30 and had not yet embarked on the writing of the 'western' adventures). The text is written fairly legibly in ink, but towards the end becomes a pencilled scribble, here and there formidably difficult to make out. Ch. XXV. Minas Morgul must be made more horrible. The usual 'goblin' stuff is not good enough here. The Gate shaped like a gaping mouth with teeth and a window like an eye on each side. As Sam passes through he feels a horrible shudder.(32) There are two silent shapes sitting on either side as sentinels. Substitute something of the following sort for p. [337]. The main outer gates were now closed. But a small door in the middle of one was open. (It faced south.) The tunnelled Gate-house was dark as night and the pale skylight showed up as a small patch at the end of a tunnel. As Sam and Frodo crept closer they saw or guessed the great ominous shape of the Sentinels on either side: still sitting soundless and unmoved: but from them there seemed to issue a nameless threat. 'Stay here!' whispered Frodo drawing Sam into the shadow of a wall not far from the gate. 'While I wear the Ring, I can understand much of the speech of the enemies, or of the thought behind their speech: I don't know which. I will go forward, and try and find out something. If I call out, come at a run: and get through the door if you can.' 'Nay!' said Sam, 'that won't do. If we have a fight at the gate, we might as well or better stay inside. We'd have the whole wasps' nest, orcs and bogeys and all, buzzing after us, before we'd gone a dozen yards: and they know these horrible mountains as well as I mind me of Bag-End. Swagger is the only hope, Mr. Frodo, begging your pardon.' 'Very well, my good Sam,' said Frodo, 'try swagger!' Feeling as little like 'swagger* as ever in his life, Sam walked forward, as bold and unconcerned as he could manage to look, all shaking at the knees as he was, and with a queer tightening of his breath. Each step forward became more difficult. It was as if some will denying the passage was drawn like invisible ropes across his path. He felt the pressure of unseen eyes. It seemed an age before he passed under the gloom of the gate's arch, and he felt tired as if he had been swimming against a strong tide. The Sentinels sat there: dark and still. They did not move their clawlike hands laid on their knees, they did not move their shrouded heads [struck out: staring stiffly] in which no faces could be seen; but Sam felt a sudden prickle in his skin, he sensed that they were alive and suddenly alert. As he came between them he seemed to shrink [and] shrivel, naked as an insect crawling to its hole under the eyes of gigantic birds. He came to the open door: just outside the path ran to a flight of stairs leading to the downward road. Only one step and he would be out - but he could not pass: it was as if the air before him had become stiff. He had to summon up his strength and his will. Like lead he lifted his foot and forced it slowly bit by bit over the threshold, on either side he felt the darkness leer and grin at him. Slowly he pressed his foot down, down. It touched the step outside: and then something seemed to snap. He stood fixed. He thought he heard a cry, but whether just beside him, or far away in some remote watchful tower he could not tell. There was a sudden clash of iron. An Orc ran out from the guard-room. Frodo creeping warily behind was now also under the archway. He heard the guard cry out in harsh tones. 'Ho there: who are you, and what do you think you are doing?' He laid hold of Sam's cloak. Sam snarled angrily, but the trick did not work so well a second time. The guard held him. 'Closing-time is past, half an hour ago,' he growled. 'No one but the Lord's messengers are allowed in or out, and you know that. The door awaits the bringer of word from Baraddur, but it is not for any other.' Of all this Sam understood only that he was forbidden to pass. He could not move forward: so he stepped suddenly back stepping on the feet of the Orc behind. Frodo saw the guard's hand go to the hilt of his scimitar. 'Hey, who are you stamping on?' said he. Sam prepared for battle. He turned, etc. as before. [Struck out: An alternative would be to make the gate impassable. The alarm is sounded. The City is aroused. The Vulture {Black Rider) arrives in the main square. Frodo at once , knows that Ring is useless. He feels almost discovered. Messen- ger says Ring is still in the town: he feels it.] Alternative account. Make light fade in the window as Sam and Frodo talk in the Sketch for the Gate of Minas Morgul. Loathly Tower. They try the trick of getting an orc to open the door as twilight deepens. No dressing up. They creep out into the town. Something warns Frodo not to use the Ring. The elf-hoods prove better in the City of Sorcery than the Ring - the two hobbits (aided by some grace of Galadriel that went with the garments) pass along the streets like mist. The gate is closed - the sentinels described: three a side.(33) The walls are high and if it were possible to get onto them unseen - it is not: the few ascents are guarded - they could not get down. They are trapped. A cry from a watch tower. The waning moon rises in East. A dark shape flying out of the East, a black speck against clouds. Vulture bearing a Ringwraith settles in main square. The Ringwraith has come to take Frodo back to the Dark Tower. At that moment boom, the alarm is sounded from Loathly Tower. Ringwraith says Ring has not left City: he feels it. Hunt in town. Hairbreadth escape of hobbits. In spite of the Ringwraith a host of orcs assemble to scour mountains (? Frodo and Sam trap two orcs in an alley and take their cloaks and gear. ?) Pass out in rear of the company. Describe the reluctant feeling, and moveless sentinels. Even as they pass the sentinels stir: and give a fell, horrible, far-off cry. The moon is suddenly clouded. A fierce cold wind from East. Rain? The hobbits fling themselves flat among the rocks. Orcs pass over them. Hunt misses them because they go towards Mordor. The hunt goes West and North. Now go on to describe the journey to Fiery Mountain. Footsteps come after them. Gollum has picked up trail. Frodo and Sam journey by night down the slopes of Duath out into the dreadful waste of Gorgoroth.(34) [The grey cloaks of Lothlorien must be made more magical and efficacious. 'Are these garments magical?' asks Frodo. 'We do not know what you mean by magical,' said they. 'They have virtues: for they are elvish.' They were green and grey: their property is to blend perfectly with all natural surroundings: leaves, boughs, grass, water, stone. Unless a full light of sun was on them, and the wearer was moving or set against the sky, they were not invisible, but unnoticeable.](35) Far away they saw the underside of the Mountains stained red with the glow of Amarthon [written above: Dolamarth]: Mount Doom: the Mountain of Fire.(36) There is a constant rumble of thunder. Frodo feels the Eye. They come down a long ravine opening onto Gorgoroth beyond the south-east end of Kirith Ungol: it is end of road from Barad-dur to Morgul.(37) Great hideous cavern (38) pillars. They peer [?out?about] in the grey day over Gorgoroth. Mount Doom is smoking and burning to left. Black cloud lies over Baraddur. Millions of birds - [?led by vultures]: plain seems crawling with insects - a great host assembled - all sweeping out towards Kirith. By evening all plain is silent and empty. Cinders fall on plain. Moon rises late. Very dark. They begin the perilous crossing. Rustle of following feet. Journey all night. Distances are rather too large - it would be eased if Orcs took Frodo to [?East] Guard Tower of R... - Loath and Grim [written above: Fell and Dire]. They could then see easier the host and would not have to cross Kirith Ungol.(39) [Struck out: It could be Merry and Pippin that had adventure in Minas Morgul if Treebeard is cut out.] (40) From Dire-castle Gorgos (and Nargos) it would be only 70 miles. They could creep round edge of Eredlithui.(41) Sam must fall out somehow. Stumble and break leg: thinks it is a crack in ground - really Gollum. [?Makes ?Make] Frodo go on alone. Frodo toils up Mount Doom. Earth quakes, the ground is hot. There is a narrow path winding up. Three fissures. Near summit there is Sauron's Fire-well. An opening in side of mountain leads into a chamber the floor of which is split asunder by a cleft.(42) Frodo turns and looks North-west, sees the dust of battle. Faint sound of horn. This is Windbeam the Horn of Elendil blown only in extremity.(43) Birds circle over. Feet behind. It is then at night before ascent of Mount Doom that Frodo sees the lone eye, like a window that does not move and yet searches in Baraddur. Description of Baraddur seen afar. I give here the latter part of a time-scheme of this period which covers the events of this outline plot. For the chronologi- cal structure in this scheme see p. 367 ('scheme I'). Dec. 25. Reach Tolbrandir in evening. 26. Flight of Frodo. Jan.3. Gollum slips away. 5. Frodo, Sam [struck out: and Gollum] reach Kirith Ungol. 6. Frodo captured. 8. Sam rescues Frodo in [Minas Morgul >] Gorgos. 9. Sam and Frodo journey in Duath. 10. Sam and Frodo see host in Gorgoroth and lie hid. [These two entries changed to read: Jan. 9, 10, 11 Sam and Frodo journey in Eredlithui (see hosts going to war).] 12,13. Ascent of Mount Doom. 14. [?Horns)... Fall of Mordor. 15. Victory and return to Minas Tirith. [Added: Jan. 25 Reach Minas Tirith. Jan. 26 Great Feast.] Notable points in this time-scheme are the corroboration of the statement in the text that Sam had been Ringbearer for two days (see p. 334 and note 30); the change in the place of Frodo's imprisonment from Minas Morgul to Gorgos (see p. 344 and notes 39, 41); and the mention of the great feast that followed the victory (cf. p. 212). NOTES. 1. On the back of the first page of this outline are some rough workings for revision of The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun, which was completed in its original form in 1930. This stray page perhaps shows my father turning to it again at this time. It was ultimately published in greatly revised form, to which these workings were moving, in 1945. 2. Cf. the outline (c) for 'Farewell to Lorien', p. 269: 'Arrows from East shore as they pass down river?' 3. Tolharn and Tollernen were passing replacements of Tolondren. Subsequently Stoneait (ait 'islet', = eyot) and Tollernen were struck out in pencil (all other changes in the opening section being made in ink) and replaced by Eregon ( = Stone pinnacle). On Eregon see p. 323 note 12. 4. Sarn Gebir and Nomen's land (Nomenlands) emerged in the course of the writing of 'Farewell to Lorien' (pp. 281, 283). 5. It is ill to be alone on the east side of the River: this was left unchanged when the text immediately preceding was altered to the story that Frodo and Sam did not cross to the east bank but climbed the hill on the island where they camped. - In the outline (c) to 'Farewell to Lorien' (p. 269) it is told that 'They' crossed to the east bank and went up into the hills 'to look around', where 'They' may be the whole Company or Frodo and Sam only. 6. Eredwethion 'Mountains of Shadow' is derived from The Silmarillion. With this scene compare the previous Plot (p. 208): Boromir takes Frodo apart and talks to him. Begs to see Ring again. Evil enters into his heart and he tries to daunt Frodo and then to take it by force. Frodo is obliged to slip it on to escape him. (What does he see then - cloud all round him getting nearer and many fell voices in air?) In that Plot there is no mention of the Eye - but cf. the much earlier outline dated August 1939 (VI.381): 'Horrible feeling of an Eye searching for him'. 8. On the name Dantruinel for Rauros see pp. 285, 316. 9. It seems very likely that the reason for shifting the place where the Company camped to the west bank of the river and making the island inaccessible was to allow Merry and Pippin to become separated and lost - a development that had already been conceived in the previous Plot (see note 16). 10. I take these words, set in inverted commas, to be Boromir's, referring deceitfully to Frodo's having put on the Ring. 11. The account of Sam's tracking of Frodo that follows is developed from that in the previous Plot (p. 208): The search. Sam is lost. He tries to track Frodo and comes on Gollum. He follows Gollum and Gollum leads him to Frodo. Frodo hears following feet. And flies. But Sam comes up too to his surprise. The two are too much for Gollum. Gollum is daunted by Frodo - who has a power over him as Ring- bearer.... Gollum pleads for forgiveness and feigns reform. They make him lead them through the Dead Marshes. 12. Sam is now on the east side of Anduin, and the boat 'knocking against the bank' is the boat in which Frodo has crossed. 13. This paragraph ('Gollum was so intent on the trail...') evidently replaced the story that preceded, although that was not struck OUT. 14. Kirith Ungol was at this time the name of the great pass leading into Mordor in the North-west (pp. 283, 285, and Map III on p. 309). 15. At some time later my father struck it all out and wrote in pencil: Steep place where Frodo has to climb a precipice. Sam goes first so that if Frodo falls he will knock Sam down first. They see Gollum come down by moonlight like a fly. This is where the story in The Two Towers (IV.1, 'The Taming of Smeagol', p. 219) first appears. 16. Cf. the previous Plot, p. 210. It is seen from the synopsis that immediately follows (pp. 329 - 30) of the chapter telling what happened to Merry and Pippin that my father had still no idea that anything more untoward had happened to them. 17. This passage remains virtually unchanged in substance from the previous Plot (p. 211). 18. At a later stage my father pencilled in various developments to Chapters XXII and XXIII (as renumbered). The synopsis of the former he altered thus: 'Black orcs of Misty Mountains capture Merry and Pippin, bear them to Isengard. But the orcs are attacked by the Rohiroth on borders of Fangorn, and in the confusion Merry and Pippin escape unnoticed.' Also added here was 'Trotter is led astray by [? finding] orc-prints. He follows the orcs believing Frodo, Sam, etc. captured. He meets Gandalf.' To 'What happened to Gimli and Legolas' he added: 'Went with Trotter to rescue Merry and Pippin.' 19. Noted beside this sentence: s G - F asleep. F G - s asleep. s F - c asleep. 20. The origin of this passage is seen in the earlier Plot (p. 209): 'There is a ravine, a spiders' glen, they have to pass at entrance to Gorgoroth. Gollum gets spiders to put spell of sleep on Frodo. Sam drives them off. But cannot wake him.' Kirith Ungol was not yet its name when that was written: there is mention in that outline of the Gap of Gorgoroth, clearly the pass leading into Mordor (pp. 208, 213), but the words 'a ravine they have to pass' perhaps suggest that the 'spiders' glen' led off the Gap. In the present Plot, however, Kirith Ungol, ravine of spiders, is the pass itself. 21. It was no doubt put in when the story had gone somewhat past this point, since it is avowedly narrative in form and not outline (present tense). 22. This sentence is enclosed in square brackets in the original. 23. At the top of the page is written: 'All Sauron's folk, however, know that if Ringbearer is taken he is to be guarded as their life, but otherwise to be untouched and undespoiled, and brought intact to the Lord.' This was struck out. 24. On the Sea of Rhun or Rhunaer see p. 307. 25. This passage is enclosed in square brackets in the original. 26. For the site of Minas Morgul see Map III on p. 309. The Orcs appear to have come from there, in view of 'Sam gathers that they are going to Minas Morgul: since they are not allowed to leave their post'; and 'the path led up into the mountains' suggests that the way to Minas Morgul was by a track leading upwards out of Kirith Ungol; hence Sam sees 'from below' the Orcs entering the City. 27. Unless my father had decided to restore the original conception of Minas Anor in the East becoming Minas Morgul, and Minas Ithil in the West becoming Minas Tirith, which seems exceedingly improbable, this can only be a momentary confusion. But it occurs again: p. 366 note 19. 28. This passage is enclosed in square brackets in the original. 29. mithered: 'confused, bewildered'. My father often used this English dialect word, though as I recollect always in the form moithered; but mithered is recorded from Staffordshire and Warwickshire and the neighbouring counties of the. English midlands. 30. This sentence is enclosed in square brackets in the original. Two days seems a very long time to have elapsed since Sam took the Ring from Frodo in Kirith Ungol, and is by no means suggested in the narrative; on the other hand, on Map III (p. 309) Minas Morgul was at least 30 miles from the eastern edge of the Mountains of Shadow at Kirith Ungol. See also the time scheme on pp. 344 - 5. 31. It should be emphasized that the fact of its being written at this stage in the history of The Lord of the Rings, and not later, is clear and certain. 32. This refers of course to Sam's entry into Minas Morgul, alone. 33. Cf. 'The Tower of Cirith Ungol' in The Return of the King, p. 178: 'They were like great figures seated upon thrones. Each had three joined bodies, and three heads facing outward, and inward, and across the gateway. The heads had vulture-faces, and on their great knees were laid clawlike hands.' - A little diagrammatic sketch is included in the manuscript at this point: 34. Duath (replacing Eredwethion, p. 325) is the name of the Mountains of Shadow on the First Map and on my map made in 1943; my father added Ephel before Duath on both maps subsequently (pp. 309 - 10). - The sentence was changed in pencil to read: 'Frodo and Sam journey by night among the slopes and ravines N. of Duath towards the dreadful waste of Gorgoroth.' 35. The brackets are in the original. This notable passage is the origin of the much enlarged description of the cloaks of Lothlorien which first appears as an addition to the fair copy of 'Farewell to Lorien' (p. 285), though expressed in a wholly different way. The question 'Are these garments magical?', here asked by Frodo, was then given to Merry, and finally (FR p. 386) to Pippin ('Are these magic cloaks?'). 36. The first devising of an elvish name for Mount Doom (later Amon Amarth). 37. My father first wrote here: 'They come down a long ravine opening on Kirith Un(gol)', striking out this name at once and writing instead 'opening onto Gorgoroth', etc. It is hard to be sure, but it seems likely that he saw a path climbing up to Minas Morgul out of Kirith Ungol (the pass into Mordor), by which Frodo was taken, and another more southerly approach, a road running westwards from the Dark Tower and climbing to Minas Morgul by the 'long ravine' down which Sam and Frodo made their escape (see Map III, p. 309). 38. This word is clearly written cavern, not carven. 39. This short paragraph is very hard to read and not easy to inter- pret, but at least it is clear that here is the first suggestion of a doubt that it was to Minas Morgul that Frodo was taken. The word I have given as East begins Ea but does not look at all like East; yet that seems appropriate to the sense (see further note 41). The name of the tower might be Rame or Raine, among other possibilities. The words 'They would not have to cross Kirith Ungol' are at first sight puzzling, since it has just been said that they emerged from the long ravine 'beyond the south-east end of Kirith Ungol'; but I think that my father meant that they would not have to cross the open plain between the Mountains of Shadow and the Ash Mountains (Ered Lithui), whether this be called Kirith Ungol or Gorgoroth at that point. 40. See p. 339; and for an earlier suggestion that Merry and Pippin might find themselves in Mordor see p. 211. 41. On the First Map there are two small circles on either side of Kirith Ungol (on my redrawing, square P 15 on Map II, p. 305). These reappear on my 1943 map as two small towers. On neither map are they named; but it seems clear that they represent a western and an eastern guard tower - presumably the Nargos and Gorgos named here (cf. 'There are Orc guard-towers on either side of Gorgoroth', p. 208). The words 'From Dire-castle Gorgos (and Nargos) it would be only 70 miles' mean, I think, 'From the eastern tower Gorgos (and for the matter of that from the western tower Nargos also) it was only 70 miles to Mount Doom.' 42. The three fissures and Sauron's well of fire appear in the earlier Plot (p. 209), but this is the first glimpse of the Sammath Naur. 43. Windbeam: if this name occurs elsewhere in my father's writings I have not found it, except in the Last Letter of Father Christmas, where he calls it the Great Horn, and says that he has not had to blow it for over four hundred years (cf. 'only in extremity' here) and that its sound carries as far as the North Wind blows. (Cf. Old English beme (beam) 'trumpet'.) XVII. THE GREAT RIVER. It has been seen (pp. 324, 330) that having written an outline of the story from the departure from Lorien to the 'Scattering of the Company' at 'Tollernen' my father decided that the first element in the outline, 'The Company sets off from Tongue', should in fact form the conclusion to Chapter XX ('Farewell to Lorien'), and XXI should take up with 'They are attacked with arrows'. As I have mentioned (p. 283), the original draft for the last section of 'Farewell to Lorien' (i.e. 'The Company sets off from Tongue') was written in ink in a clear script with little hesitation. That draft section ends with the words 'End of Ch. XX', showing that the chapter- arrangement just referred to had already been devised. The character- istic very pale ink used for this section was also used for the text 'The Story Foreseen from Lorien' and for the first part of the new chapter XXI: the three texts have a strong general likeness, and were obviously written at the same time. The draft of the last section of 'Farewell to Lorien' ends halfway down a page, and is followed by 'XXI: The Scattering of the Company'; at this stage my father assumed that the narrative outlined on pp. 324 - 8, 329 (i.e. excluding the story of Sam's tracking of Frodo) would constitute a single chapter. For the journey down the River to 'Tollernen' he had set down no more in the way of event than 'They are attacked with arrows.' I give now the opening draft of the new chapter as it was first written.(1) Sam woke him. He was lying in a bed of blankets and furs under tall grey-stemmed trees near the river bank. The grey of morning was dim among the bare branches. Gimli was busy with a small fire near at hand. He had slept the first night of their river journey away. They started again before the day was broad. Not that most of the Company were eager to hurry southwards: they were content that the decision which they must make when they came to Rauros and the Isle of Eregon (2) lay yet some days ahead, and still less did they wish to run swiftly into the perils that certainly lay beyond, whatever course they took, but Trotter felt that the time was urgent and that willing or not they should hasten forward. As the second day of their voyage wore on the lands changed slowly: trees thinned and then failed: on the East bank to their left, long formless slopes stretched up and away towards the sky; brown they looked as if a fire had passed over them, leaving no living thing of green; an unfriendly waste without even a withered tree or a bold stone to break the emptiness. They were come to the Brown Lands, the Withered Wold that lay in a vast desolation between Dol Dughul in Southern Mirkwood and the hills of Sarn-Gebir: what pestilence of war or fell deed of the Lord of Mordor had so blasted all that region they did not know.(3) Upon the west bank to their right the land was treeless and quite flat, but green: there were forests of reeds of great height in places that shut out the view as the little boats went rustling by along their fluttering borders: the great withered flowering heads bent in the light cold airs hissing softly and waving like funeral plumes. Here and there in open spaces they could see across the wide rolling meads hills far away, or on the edge of sight a dark line where still the southernmost phalanx of the Misty Mountains marched. 'You are looking out across the great pastures of Rohan, the Riddermark, land of the Horsemasters,' said Trotter; 'but in these evil days they do not dwell nigh the river or ride often to its shores. Anduin is wide, yet the orc-bows will with ease shoot an arrow across the stream.' The hobbits looked from bank to bank uneasily. If before the trees had seemed hostile, as if harbouring secret dangers, now they felt that they were too naked: afloat in little open boats in the midst of wide bare land, on a river that was the boundary of war. As they went on the feeling of insecurity grew upon them. The river broadened and grew shallow: bleak stony beaches lay upon the east, there were gravel shoals in the water and they had to steer carefully. The Brownlands rose into bleak wolds over which flowed a chill air from the East. Upon the other side the meads had become low rolling downs of grey grass, a land of fen and tussock. They shivered thinking of the lawns and fountains, the clear sun and gentle rain of Lothlorien: there was little speech and no laughter among them. Each was busy with his own thoughts. Sam had long since made up his mind that though boats were maybe not as dangerous as he had been brought up to believe, they were far more uncomfortable. He was cramped and miserable, having nothing to do but stare at the winter lands crawling by and the dark grey water, for the Company used the paddles mainly for steering, and in any case they would not have trusted Sam with a paddle. Merry and Pippin in the middle boat were ill at ease. [Added and then struck out: Merry was at the stern, facing Sam and steering.] Boromir sat muttering to himself, sometimes biting his nails as if some restlessness or doubt consumed him. Often Pippin who sat in the prow, looking back, caught a queer gleam in his eye when he peered forward gazing at the boat in front where Frodo sat. So the time passed until the end of the sixth [> seventh] day. The banks were still bare, but on both sides on the slopes above them bushes were scattered, behind and further south ridges with twisted fir-trees could be glimpsed: they were drawing near the grey hill country of Sarn-Gebir: the southern border of Wilderland, beyond which lay the Nomanland and the foul marshes that lay for many leagues before the passes of Mordor. High in the air there were flocks of dark birds. Trotter looked at them with disquiet. 'I fear we have been too slow and overbold,' he said. 'Maybe we have come too far by day, and ere this we should have taken to journeying between dusk and dawn and lain hidden in the day.' He stayed his boat with his paddle, and when the others came up he spoke to them, counselling that they should go on into the night, and put off their rest until night was old and dawn was at hand. 'And if we make another two or three leagues,' said he, 'we shall come, if I am right in my memories, to Sarn Gebir, where the river begins to run in deep channels: there maybe we shall find better shelter and more secrecy.' Already twilight was about them. The hobbits at any rate had been hoping soon for the warmth of a fire to their cold feet, and the feel of solid earth beneath them. But there seemed no place in that houseless country which invited them to halt; and a cold drowsiness was on them, numbing thought. They made no answer, yes or no. Trotter drove his paddle in the water and led them on again. [Added: The stars leapt out above. The sky [was] clear and cold. It was nearly night when](4) Just ahead there loomed up rocks in the midst of the stream, nearer to the west bank. To the east there was a wider channel, and that way they turned: but they found the current swift. In the dusk they could see pale foam and water beating against the rocks upon the right hand. 'This is an evil time of day to pass through such a dangerous reach,' said Boromir. 'Hey Trotter,' he cried, cupping his hands and calling above the noise of the waters to the boat ahead - it was already too dark to see whether it was far or near. 'Hey!' he called. 'Not this way tonight!' 'No indeed,' said Trotter, and they saw that he had turned his boat and had come back almost alongside without their seeing him. 'No: I did not know we had come so far yet: the Anduin flows faster than I reckoned. The rapids of Pensarn (5) are ahead. They are not very long nor very fierce, yet too dangerous to venture on in the dark for those who know the Great River little or only from tales. See,' he said, 'the current has flung us right over to the east shore: in a little we shall be on the shoals. Let us turn and go back to the western side, above the rocks.' Even as he spoke there was a twanging, and arrows whistled over and among them. One smote Frodo between the shoulders but fell back, foiled by the hidden coat of mail; another passed through Trotter's hair; and a third stood fast in the gunwale of the middle boat close by Merry's hand. 'To the west bank!' shouted Boromir and Trotter together. They leaned forward straining at the paddles - even Sam now took a hand, but it was not so easy. The current was flowing strong. Each one expected at any minute to feel the sting of a blackfeathered orc-arrow. But it was now grown very dark, dark even for the keen night-eyes of goblins; goblins were on the bank, they did not doubt. When they had come into midstream as far as they could judge, and out of the swirl of waters running into the narrow channel, Legolas laid down his paddle, and lifting the bow he had brought from Lorien strung it, and turned, peering back into the gloom. Across the water there came shrill cries; but he could see nothing. The enemy were shooting wildly now and few arrows came near the boats: it was grown very dark: there was not even a grey glimmer on the face of the river, only here and there the broken twinkle reflecting a misty star. As he gazed into the blackness away east the clouds broke and the white rind of the new moon appeared riding slowly up the sky; [but its faint light did little to illumine the further shore.](6) Sam looked up at it in wonder.(7) Even as he did so a dark shape, like a cloud yet not a cloud, low and ominous, for a moment shut off the thin crescent and winged its way towards them, until it appeared as a great winged shape black against the dark heaven.(8) Fierce voices greeted it from across the water. Frodo felt a sudden chill about his heart, and a cold like the memory of an old wound in his shoulder: he crouched down in the boat. Suddenly the great bow of Legolas sang. He heard an arrow whistle/whine. He looked up. The winged shape swerved: there was a harsh croaking cry and it seemed to fall, vanishing down into the darkness of the eastern shore; the sky seemed clean again. They heard a tumult as of many voices murmuring and lamenting [written above: cursing], and then silence. No more arrows came towards them. 'Praised be the bow of Galadriel and the keen eye of Legolas!' said Gimli. 'That was a mighty shot in the dark.' 'But what it hit who can say,' said Boromir. 'I cannot,' said Gimli. 'Yet I liked that shape as little as the shadow of the Balrog of Moria.' 'It was not a Balrog,' said Frodo, still shivering. 'I think it was...' He did not finish. 'You think what?' asked Boromir quickly. 'I do not know,' said Frodo. 'Whatever it was its fall seems to have dismayed the enemy.' 'So it seems,' said Trotter. 'Yet where they are, and how many, or what they will do next, we do not know. This night must be watchful!' At last the boats were brought to the western bank again. Here they moored them close inshore. They did not lie on the land that night, but remained in the boats with weapons close to hand. One sat alert and vigilant watching either bank while the other [? read others) dozed uneasily. Sam (9) looked at the moon again, slipping down now swiftly to the horizon. 'It is very strange,' he murmured drowzily. 'The moon I suppose does not change his courses in Wilderland? Then I must be wrong in my reckoning. If you remember, the old moon was at its end as we lay on the flet up in that tree.(10) Well now I can't remember how long we were in that country: it was certainly three nights, and I seem to remember a good many more - but I am certain sure it was not a month. Yet here we are: seven days from Lorien and up pops a New Moon. Why, anyone would think we had come straight from Nimrodel without stopping a night or seeing Caras Galadon. Funny it seems.' 'And that Sam is probably about the truth of it,' said Trotter. 'Whether we were in the past or the future or in a time that does not pass, I cannot say: but not I think till Silverlode bore us back to Anduin did we return to the stream of time that flows through mortal lands to the Great Sea. At least, so I guess: but maybe I dream and talk nonsense. Yet do either of you remember seeing any moon in Lorien, old or young? I remember only stars by night and sun by day.(11) The text, becoming ragged at the end, now peters out in pencilled notes for its continuation: In morning Trotter and Legolas go forward to find path. They lie hid among rocks all day and at evening laboriously cart their boats to end of the rapids. (Hear the sound as they pass.) No sign on far shore. Below rapids stream is soon quiet and deep again - but less broad. They creep along the west bank by night. They pass into the gullies of Sarn Gebir. Pinewoods. About dawn on 10th day come to Eregon [later > Tol Brandor or -ir] and hear roar and [?foam) of Rauros. Inaccessible isle high peak many birds.(12) In the journey down Anduin at this stage the chronology differed by one day from that in FR, for the attack at the head of the rapids took place at the end of the seventh day (p. 352), not of the eighth (FR pp. 400 - 1), and much detail remained to be changed or added: notably the incident of Gollum, the 'log with eyes', was absent. This story was written on a separate sheet while the drafting of the chapter was still in progress, and was immediately achieved in the final form at almost all points. Some of the Company were sleeping that night on the eyot and some in the boats; and after Frodo had seen Gollum's eyes and had put his hand on the hilt of Sting the original text continues: Immediately they [the eyes] went out, and there was a soft splash and a dark shape shot away downstream into the night. Nothing else occurred, until the first grey of dawn peeped in the East. Trotter awoke on the eyot and came down to the boats. But Frodo now knew that Sam had not been deceived; and also that he must warn Trotter. 'So you know about our little footpad, do you?... Primary drafting from the point reached (the discussion of Time in Lorien) is of an extreme roughness, some of it scribbled faintly between the lines of the candidates' writing on examination scripts, and it is not entirely complete and consecutive. In this case the fair copy manuscript, following immediately on the primary drafting, is the first complete text, and it is most convenient to turn now to this manuscript. In this version Chapter XXI bore a succession of titles, all of them pencilled in subsequently: 'Southward'; 'The Company is Scattered'; 'Sarn Gebir'; 'Breaking of the Fellowship'; and finally 'The Great River' - this last not struck out, and obviously arising when my father had decided that his original ideas for XXI had so expanded as to require two chapters to fulfil the narrative. As usual, in point of expression the fair copy advances very largely to the form in FR, although a good deal of change in respect of the actual narrative had still to come. To the original opening of the chapter (p. 350) my father made the following alteration and addition on the manuscript of the draft: Sam woke him. He was lying in a bed of blankets and furs under tall grey-stemmed trees near the bank of the Great River, in a corner of quiet woodland where a small stream (the Limlight) flowed in from the western mountains. This is the first mention of the Limlight in the texts. In the fair copy the chapter opens: Frodo was roused by Sam. He found that he was lying, well wrapped, under tall grey-skinned trees in a quiet corner of the woodlands. [Beside them a stream ran down from the western mountains far away and joined the Great River close by their camp] on the western bank of the Great River Anduin. The sentence I have bracketed was struck out as soon as written. That their first night camp on the journey down the River was beside the inflow of Limlight agrees with maps IV and IV (p. 317), where the Limlight, here first shown, joins Anduin not far south of Silverlode (see Map II, square M 12)., on map IV the confluence is much further south (p. 319). Where the draft has 'Rauros and the Isle of Eregon' (p. 350) the new text has 'Rauros and the Isle' (changed later to 'the Tindrock Isle', as in FR). Trotter's policy of letting them drift with the stream as they wished appears; but the chronology remains here as in the draft: Nonetheless they saw no sign of any (13) enemy that day. The dull grey hours passed without event. As this second day of their voyage wore on, the lands changed slowly...' The 'Withered Wold' of the draft becomes 'the withered wolds' (and was then struck out). The flight of the black swans is still absent. Trotter now speaks of the latitude and climate, the Bay of Belfalas, and their distance from the Shire - but here he first said 'I doubt if you are much more than sixty leagues south of the Sarn Ford at the southern end of your Shire', this being changed at once to the reading of FR; and he says that 'ere long we shall come to the mouth of the Limlight' (see above),(14) defining the Limlight, as in FR, as the north boundary of Rohan. But he says here 'Of old all that lay between Limlight and Entwash belonged to the Horsemasters' (FR: 'all that lay between Limlight and the White Mountains belonged to the Rohir- rim'). In the next part of the chapter (after the episode of Gollum in the river) the story advances to the form in FR, but it was still at the end of the seventh day of the journey, not of the eighth, that they came to the rapids, and there is no mention at this point of the weather, or of the New Moon, which in FR (p. 400) was first seen on the seventh night. Though the bird-haunted cliffs of Sarn Gebir and the flocks of birds circling high above are described in the same words as in FR (p. 401) there is no mention of the eagle seen far off in the western sky. Following the mention of the birds, the new version continues thus: Trotter had glanced often at them doubtfully, wondering if Gollum had been up to some mischief. But now it was dark: the East was overcast, but in the West many stars were shining. After they had been paddling for about an hour, Trotter told Sam to lie forward in the boat and keep a sharp look-out ahead. 'We shall soon come to the gates of Sarn-Gebir,' he said; 'and the river is difficult and dangerous there, if I remember rightly. It runs in deep swift channels under overhanging cliffs, and there are many rocks and eyots in the stream. But I do not know these reaches, for I have never journeyed by water in these parts before. We must halt early tonight, if we can, and go on by daylight.' It was close on midnight, and they had been drifting for a while, resting after a long spell of paddling, when suddenly Sam cried out. After Boromir's shouted remonstrance ('This is a bad time of day to shoot the rapids!') Trotter, struggling to back and turn his boat, said to Frodo: 'I am out of my reckoning. I didn't know we had come so far. We must have passed the gates of Sarn-Gebir in the dark. The Rapids of Pensarn must be just ahead' (the last two sentences were crossed out, probably immediately). There is no indication here of what 'the gates of Sarn-Gebir' might be (see p. 359). The attack by Orcs from the east bank, and the struggle to get the boats back to the west bank, follows the draft pretty closely, with some changed or added detail: an arrow passed through Trotter's hood, not his hair; Frodo 'lurched forward with a cry'. The weather is changed from the obscure statements in the draft (note 6): the clouds in the east mentioned earlier had now almost entirely covered the sky, and so 'it was very dark, dark even for the night-eyes of orcs' as they paddled the boats back. The same is said of the New Moon 'riding slowly up the sky' in 'a sudden break in the cloud-cover away in the East' as in the draft (see note 7); here it is seen 'passing behind dark isles of cloud and out into black pools of night.' In FR (p. 401) it had set hours before. Sam's remarks about Time in Lothlorien remain almost exactly as in the draft (p. 354), as does Trotter's reply (in FR given to Frodo), except that he now says (as does Frodo in FR): 'In that land, maybe, we were in some time that elsewhere has long gone by.' Then Frodo speaks: 'The power of the Lady was on us,' said Frodo. 'There are days and nights and seasons in Lothlorien; but while she holds the ring, the world grows no older in her realm.' 'That should not have been said,' muttered Trotter, half rising and looking towards the other boats; 'not outside Lorien, not even to me.'(15) The warm and foggy morning that succeeded the night of the attack and the argument between Aragorn and Boromir about the course to follow were roughly sketched in initial drafting, where the conversa- tion proceeds thus: 'I do not see why we should pass the rapids or follow this cursed River any further,' said Boromir. 'If Pensarn lies before us, then we can abandon these cockles and strike westward, and so come round the east shoulders of Sarn-Gebir and cross the Entwash into my own land of Ondor.' 'We can, if we make for Minas Tirith,' said Trotter. 'But that is not yet agreed. And even so such a course is perhaps more perilous than it seems. The land is flat and shelterless south and east [read west] of Sarn-Gebir, and the [? first] ford over Entwash is a great way west.(16) Since the Enemy took ... Osgiliath that land may be full of foes: what do we know of events of late in Rohan or in Ondor?' 'Yet here the Enemy marches all along the east bank,' said Boromir. 'And when you come to Rauros what will you do? You must then either turn back hitherward, or cross the hills of Gebir and land in the marshes, and still have the Entwash to cross.' 'The River is at least a path that cannot be missed. In the vale of Entwash fog is a mortal peril. I would not abandon the boats until we must,' said Trotter. 'And I have a fancy that in some high place above the Falls we may be able to see some sign that shall direct us.' That a 'high place' would be the scene of a decisive moment in the unfolding of the story had already been conceived: the summit of the island in the River whence Frodo looked out (p. 324); but there is no suggestion in Trotter's words here that this 'high place' would be an ancient post of the men of Ondor. In the fair copy manuscript Boromir objects: But the Enemy holds the eastern bank. And even if you pass the gates of Gebir, and come unmolested to the Tindrock, what will you do then? Climb down from the hills and land in the marshes?' Here, the 'gates of Gebir' are the later Gates of Argonath; thus the earlier references (p. 357), where Trotter places the 'gates' before the rapids, had already been rejected. Of Trotter's reply to Boromir's scoffing question there are three forms: a draft text in pencil taking up at this point, and two versions in the fair copy manuscript. The first version in the manuscript has Trotter reply: 'Say rather, climb down from the hills to Rauros-foot and then take boat again, and hope to slip unseen up the mouths of Entwash - if we go to Minas Tirith. Do you choose to forget the ancient path, Boromir, and the high seat upon Tol-Brandir, that were made in the days of Valandil?(17) I at least have a mind to stand in that high place before I decide my course. There maybe we shall see some sign that will direct us.' This version of Trotter's reply was struck out, and the pencilled draft (which continues on for some distance) seems to have been written at this point. This draft begins: 'No,' said Trotter. 'Do you choose to forget, Eoromir, the North Stair, and the high seat upon Tol-Brandir that were made in the days of Isildur? I at least have a mind to stand in that high place again before I decide my course. There maybe we shall see some sign that will guide us. Thence we [may] perhaps descend by the ancient way to Rauros-foot and take again to the water; and those who make for Minas Tirith may slip unseen up the mouths of Entwash.' Finally, the second version written in the manuscript is as in FR (p. 406), but still with 'in the days of Isildur' for 'in the days of the great kings', and the high seat is still upon the isle - which is here Tol-Brandor for Tol-Brandir of the previous versions. The isle there- fore was not inaccessible; and this is puzzling, for the inaccessibility of Tol Brandir is found both in the outline given on p. 328 and in the preliminary draft material for the present chapter (p. 355). Trotter's words before he and Legolas set off into the fog to find a path take this form (and are very similar in the draft): 'No road was ever made along this bank by the men of Ondor: for even in their great days their realm did not reach beyond Sarn-Gebir, and the high seat upon the Tindrock was their northmost watchtower. Yet there must be some path, or the remains of one; for light boats used to journey out of Wilderland down to Osgiliath; and still did so, until Sauron returned to Mordor.' 'But he has returned,' said Boromir; 'and if you go forward, you are likely to meet some peril, whether you find a path or no.' The story of the exploration made by Trotter and Legolas, their return, the portage of the boats and baggage, and the departure of the Company next morning, reaches in the fair copy virtually the text of FR, with Pensarn for Sarn Gebir as the name of the rapids and the Gates of Sarn-Gebir for the Gates of Argonath. From painfully difficult writing the original description of the Pillars of the Kings can be extracted out of the initial drafting, of which I give the following as an example: The great pillars seemed to rise up like giants before him as the river whirled him like a leaf towards them. Then he saw that [they] were carved, or had been carved many ages ago, and still preserved through the suns and rains of many forgotten years the likenesses that had been hewn upon them. Upon great pedestals founded in the deep water stood two great kings of stone gazing through blurred eyes northwards. The left hand of each was raised beside his head palm outwards in gesture of [?warning] and refusal: in each right hand there was a sword. On each head there was a crumbling crown and helm. There was still a power in these silent wardens of a long-vanished kingdom. In the fair copy the text of FR was almost reached, through a good deal of correction as the manuscript was being written. Trotter's words as they passed through the chasm (' "Fear not!" said a strange voice behind him...') are exactly as in FR (p. 409), except in two notable respects: 'In the stern sat Elfstone son of Elfhelm' - a decisive demonstration of the correctness of the view (p. 277) that Elfstone had reappeared and supplanted Ingold; and 'Under their shadow nought has Eldamir son of Eldakar son of Valandil to fear.'(18) It seems very improbable indeed that some other Valandil is meant and not the son of Isildur: only shortly before Valandil has been named in a draft ('in the days of Valandil', p. 359 and note 17, where the text immediately replacing this has 'in the days of Isildur'), and in the corresponding passage to the present in FR Aragorn calls himself 'son of Arathorn of the House of Valandil Isildur's son'. But if this Valandil is the son of Isildur, then at this stage Trotter/Elfstone/ Aragorn was the great-grandson of Isildur; and what then are we to make of the Pillars of the Kings, carved many ages ago, preserved through the suns and rains of many forgotten years, the silent wardens of a long-vanished kingdom? How can Frodo's amazement at the Council of Elrond that Elrond should remember the array of the Last Alliance ('But I thought the fall of Gilgalad was many ages ago', p. 110) be reconciled to a matter of four generations of mortal Men? And Gandalf had said to Frodo at Rivendell (p. 105 note 3) that 'he is Aragorn son of Kelegorn, descended through many fathers from Isildur the son of Elendil.' For the moment, at any rate, I can cast no light on this.(19) After the description of the Pillars of the Kings there is no further initial drafting, and the earliest, or earliest extant, text is the fair copy manuscript, in which the conclusion of the chapter 'The Great River' in FR is very closely approached. Trotter, so called throughout the chapter until he becomes 'Elfstone son of Elfhelm' when they pass the Pillars of the Kings, is called 'Elfstone' when he points to Tol Brandir at the far end of the lake (which is not named): see p. 370. And after 'Behold Tol Brandir!' he says no more than 'Ere the shade of night falls we shall come thither. I hear the endless voice of Rauros calling.' The journey had taken nine days; in FR 'the tenth day of their journey was over.' In the foregoing account I have attempted to discern the form of the fair copy manuscript as my father first set it down; but the text was heavily worked on, and certainty in distinguishing immediate from subsequent corrections is not possible without close examination of the original papers. This manuscript, as emended and added to, reached in fact almost the form of the final text; yet an object of this history is to try to determine the mode and pace in which the whole structure came into being. Since some error is inevitable, I have erred by assuming, if uncertain, a correction to be 'later' rather than 'immediate'; but that a good deal of the development took place during this present phase of writing is clear. In particular, it is clear that the entire section of the narrative from the end of the Gollum episode to the escape of the Company from the rapids had been rewritten before my father reached 'The Departure of Boromir', because an outline for the opening of that chapter (p. 380) refers to Trotter's having seen an eagle far off from the river 'above the rapids of Sarn Ruin',(20) and this element (previously absent, p. 357) is L inseparable from the whole complex of revision at this point in the present chapter. This revision was carried out on inserted slips, one of which is an Oxford University committee report dated 10 March 1941. This slip provides of course only a terminus a quo, and proves no more than that my father was revising this chapter during or after March 1941; while a similar slip, dated 19 February 1941, used for initial drafting at a later point in Chapter XXI (i.e. in the part corresponding to 'The Breaking of the Fellowship' in FR), proves no more. It might be argued that he would scarcely have preserved such reports of committee meetings for use long after, and that these revisions therefore belong to 1941, but this is much too flimsy to support any view of the external dating. See further p. 379. The next version of the chapter was a manuscript made by myself, presumptively after 4 August 1942, the date that I wrote at the end of my copy of '[The Mirror of] Galadriel' (p. 261). I think that this copy of mine provides exact evidence of the state of this chapter when my father moved on from it to new regions of the story, and I shall now therefore turn to it, noticing first certain names (in the form in which I wrote them, of course, and before subsequent emendation by my father). Sarn-Gebir remains in my copy, for later Emyn Muil; the Gates of Gebir or the Gates of Sarn-Gebir for the (Gates of) Argonath;(21) and Ondor for Gondor. Trotter remains Trotter, because my father had not emended it on his manuscript, until the end of the chapter, where the Company passes beneath the Pillars of the Kings, and he is called in the first manuscript 'Elfstone son of Elfhelm': this my father had changed to 'Aragorn son of Arathorn', and my copy follows. On the other hand he did not correct 'Under their shadow nought has Eldamir son of Eldakar son of Valandil to fear', and my copy retains it. This might be thought to be a mere inconsistency of correction on his part; but this is evidently not the case, since on both manuscripts he added a further step in the genealogy: 'Eldamir son of Valatar son of Eldakar son of Valandil.' Since he did not strike out 'Eldamir son of Eldakar son of Valandil' on my copy, but on the contrary accepted the genealogy and slightly enlarged it, it must be presumed that Eldamir beside Aragorn was intentional; cf. FR (p. 409): 'Under their shadow Elessar, the Elfstone son of Arathorn... has nought to dread!', and cf. Eldamir > Elessar, p. 294. My father's retention of the genealogy, with the addition of Valatar, is also remarkable in that it shows him still accepting the brief span of generations separating Aragorn from Isildur. By the criterion of presence or absence in my copy of the chapter the flight of the black swans was added early. The chronology remained as it was, the attack at the rapids taking place on the night of the seventh day; and the references to the New Moon in FR pp. 400 - 1 are still absent. The New Moon still first appears in the course of the attack, but changed in that the clouds through which it broke were now in the South, and the Moon rode 'across' not 'up' the sky (see pp. 353, 358). The conversation concerning Time in Lothlorien (p. 358) was developed in several competing and overlapping riders, and when I came to make my copy my father evidently instructed me to set the passage out in variant forms. The opening speeches (Sam's and Trotter's - the latter given in FR to Frodo) remained effectively unchanged - Sam's now ending: 'Why, anyone would think we had come straight on, and never passed no time in the Elvish land at all.'(22) The conversation that follows contains two pairs of alternatives, which I here mark with numbers: 1 to 1 or 2 to 2 being alternatives, and (within 2) 3 to 3 or 4 to 4 being alternatives. 1. 'The power of the Lady was on us,' said Frodo. 'I do not think that there was no time in her land. There are days and nights and seasons in Lothlorien; and under the Sun all things must wear to an end sooner or later. But slowly indeed does the world wear away in Caras Galadon, where the Lady Galadriel wields the Elven Ring.'{1} 2. Legolas stirred in his boat. 'Nay, I think that neither of you understand the matter aright,' he said. 'For the Elves the world moves, and it moves both very swift and very slow. Swift, because they themselves change little, and all else fleets by: it is a grief to them. Slow, because they do (23) not count the running years, not for themselves. The passing seasons are but ripples ever repeated in the flowing/endless stream. Yet beneath the Sun all things must wear to an end at last.' 3. 'But Lorien is not as other realms of Elves and Men,' said Frodo. 'The Power of the Lady was upon us. Slow for us there might time have passed, while the world hastened. Or in a little while we could savour much, while the world tarried. The latter was her will. Rich were the hours and slow the wearing of the world in Caras Galadon, where the Lady Galadriel wields the Elven Ring.'{3} 4. 'But Lothlorien is not as other realms of Elves and Men,' said Frodo. 'Rich are the hours, and slow the wearing of the world in Caras Galadon. Wherefore all things there are both unstained and young, and yet aged beyond our count of time. Blended is the might of Youth and Eld in the land of Lorien, where Galadriel wields the Elven Ring.'{4,2} 'That should not have been said,' muttered Trotter, half rising and looking towards the other boats; 'not outside Lorien, not even to me.' The night passed silently... At the end of the chapter the lake remains nameless in my copy, first Kerin-muil and then Nen-uinel being added to both manuscripts; but an addition to my father's manuscript in which Aragorn speaks of Amon Hen and Amon Lhaw was made before my copy was written. This addition is precisely as in FR p. 410, except that both manu- scripts have 'In the days of Isildur' for 'In the days of the great kings', and both add after Amon Lhaw '[Larmindon]' and after Amon Hen '[Tirmindon]'. The original drafting shows that my father included all the narrative to the end of 'The Fellowship of the Ring' as Chapter XXI, and the fair copy manuscript likewise; but it is convenient to interrupt it at the point where the break (present in my copy) between XXI 'The Great River' and XXII 'The Breaking of the Fellowship' was subsequently made. NOTES. 1. Like the companion texts, the last section of 'Farewell to Lorien' and 'The Story Foreseen from Lorien', this was written very legibly for one of my father's initial drafts, and with remarkably little hesitation. I take up small changes made at the time of composition into the text given. 2. This is the first occurrence of Rauros in a text ab initio. For ' Eregon see p. 345 note 3. 3. I have attempted to set out the evolution of the Brown Lands in relation to the First Map on pp. 313 - 16. In this passage appears the description of them that survived with very little change into FR (p. 396). 4. It looks as if this addition were made immediately. See note 6. 5. My father wrote here first Sarn, then Pen, striking them out in turn before arriving at Pensarn (cf. the Etymologies, stems P E N, SAR, V.380, 385). 6. The brackets are in the original. - The weather described is obscure. Nothing is in fact said in this earliest form of the narrative about the weather during the journey down Anduin until the evening of the seventh day, when the weather was clear and cold, and starlit (but this was an addition); now, not much later, it was very dark, though the water reflected here and there a misty star. Then, 'as Legolas gazed into the blackness away east the clouds broke.' 7. 'Sam looked up at it in wonder': as well he might, seeing 'the white rind of the new moon' rising in the East and 'riding up the sky'. This is strangely paralleled in VI.325, where the moon on the night spent by the hobbits with the Elves in the Woody End was described thus: 'Above the mists away in the East the thin silver rind of the New Moon appeared, and rising swift and clear out of the shadow it swung gleaming in the sky.' In FR (pp. 400 - 1) the new moon is seen glimmering in the western sky on the evening before the Orc-attack, and on the evening of the attack 'the thin crescent of the Moon had fallen early into the pale sunset.' As the text was written it was Trotter who 'looked up at it in wonder'. This was changed first to Merry, then to Sam; see note 9. 8. The dark shape 'like a cloud yet not a cloud' that momentarily cut off the moon's light is surely reminiscent of the shadow that passed over the stars as the Company journeyed on from Hollin in 'The Ring Goes South' (VI.421 - 2), and which Gandalf unconvincingly suggested might be no more than a wisp of cloud. Then too Frodo shivered, as here he 'felt a sudden chill'. As I noted (VI.434), the former incident was retained in FR but never explained: the Winged Nazgul had not yet crossed the Anduin. But it seems likely to me that the shadow that passed across the stars near Hollin was in fact the first precocious appearance of a Winged Nazgul. 9. Sam is again (see note 7) changed from Merry, and Merry from Trotter. In fact, the speech was given to Sam before its end was reached, as is seen from ' "And that Sam is probably about the truth of it," said Trotter'; and the transition from one speaker to another is seen in the transition from the very un-Samlike 'The moon I suppose does not change his courses in Wilderland?' to 'up pops a New Moon'. 10. Cf. the original draft of 'Lothlorien', p. 228: 'The last thin rind of the waning moon was gleaming dimly in the leaves.' 11. Cf. the comment on Time in Lorien written on the fair copy manuscript of 'Farewell to Lorien', p. 286; and see further on this matter the 'Note on Time in Lorien' that follows. 12. On the emergence of the idea of the inaccessibility of the island see p. 328. any enemy is the correct reading, not an enemy (FR p. 396). Sixty leagues (180 miIes) south of Sarn Ford agrees well with the more southerly confluence of Limlight and Anduin on Map IV(D) (p. 319). 15. Aragorn says this ('not even to me') also in FR (p. 405); but at this stage he had no previous knowledge of Lorien, and presum- ably had no knowledge until this moment of Galadriel's Ring. 16. No doubt the first reference to the Entwade, which was pencilled in on map IV(C) and entered on IV(D) (pp. 318 - 19). 17. Valandil is named as the son of Isildur in texts of 'The Council of Elrond' (pp. 121, 128, 147). 18. For an earlier occurrence of Eldakar see p. 276. An isolated scrap (in fact the back of an envelope) has this note: Trotter's names Elessar Eldamir (= Elfstone) son of Eldakar (= Elfhelm). Or Eldavel = Elfwold. On the same envelope is written, in almost identical words, the passage concerning Frodo's thoughts under Galadriel's scrutiny that was added to the fair copy manuscript of 'Galadriel' (p. 266 note 32: 'Neither did Frodo...'). 19. On the back of the preceding page in the fair copy manuscript my father scribbled down a first version of Trotter's words (in which no genealogy appears), and it is curious that he wrote here: 'How my heart yearns for Minas Ithil...', changing Ithil, probably at once, to Anor: see p. 333 and note 27. - Also noted down here in extreme haste are thoughts for the story immediately to come: Frodo on Tol Brandir. [?Strong) sight. Sees Minas Tirith and Minas Morgul opposed. Sees Mordor. Sees Gandalf. Suddenly feels the Eye and wrenches off the ring and finds himself crying Wait, wait! 20. A passing name for the rapids, replacing Pensarn, was Ruinel. Sarn-Ruin is the name on map IV(C), p. 317. Cf. Dant-ruin, Dant-ruinel, earlier names of Rauros (p. 285). 21. A passing form which my father entered on both manuscripts before Argonath was reached was Sern Aranath. 22. When the chronology was changed, with the attack at the head of the rapids taking place on the eighth night, and the New Moon seen far away in the West on the seventh and eighth evenings, Sam's words were expanded (and entered on both manuscripts), though subsequently largely rejected: Yesterday evening I saw it, as thin as a nail-paring, and this evening it wasn't much bigger. Now that's just as it should be, if we'd only been in the Elvish land for about a day, or more than a month. Why, anyone would think that time slowed down in there! 23. The phrase as my father wrote it was 'because they need not count the running years', but in copying I missed out the word need. Looking through my copy, but without consulting his own ' manuscript, he wrote in do; and do survives in FR (p. 405). Note on Time in Lorien. The narrative passages that introduce this question are found on pp. 285 - 6, 354 - 5, 358, 363, and in note 22 above. This note is primarily concerned with the various time-schemes that bear on it, but for their understanding it is necessary to consider the chronology a little more widely. The first time-scheme to be considered here I will call 'I'; for previous references to it see pp. 169, 215 note 1, and 344 - 5. In its 'Lothlorien' section it obviously belongs with the first drafting of the story, and preceded the emergence of the idea that there was a different Time in the Golden Wood. Here the dates are: Nov. 24. Leave Rivendell. Dec. 6. Hollin (Full Moon). 9. Snow on Caradras. 11. Reach Moria. 13. Escape to Lothlorien (Moon's last quarter). 14. Go to Caras Galadon. 15. Night at Caras Galadon. 16. Mirror of Galadrien. 17 - 21. Stay in Caras Galadon (Dec. 21 New Moon). This stands at the foot of a page, but a second page, though in pencil and not in ink, was clearly continuous: Dec. 22 - 31 Remain at Caras Galadon, leave with the New Year (Dec. 28 Moon's first quarter) Jan. 1 - 4 No notes against these dates except Jan. 4 Full Moon. On the departure of the Company from Lorien on New Year's Day see p. 253 and note 28. But at this point, it seems, the idea of the disparity of time entered; for after Jan. 4 my father wrote: 'Dec. 15 onwards time at Caras does not count, therefore they leave on morning of Dec. 15' (cf. p. 286: 'if Lorien is timeless ... nothing will have happened since they entered'). The rest of the scheme is based on this chronology (and has been given on pp. 344 - 5) At first the journey down the Great River was only to take two days: 'Dec. 17 Reach Tolondren. Dec. 18 Flight of Frodo. Dec. 19 Frodo meets Sam and Gollum.' This was struck out, with the note: 'Take ten days to reach [Emris ) Eregon >] Tolbrandir' (on Emris see pp. 316 - 18 and note 12). The New Moon that caused Sam to raise the question of Time in Lorien was still on Dec. 21; and they reached Tolbrandir in the evening of Dec. 25. Another scheme ('II') takes up at Dec. 22, but this is based on a later date of departure from Rivendell: Dec. 25, as in FR. The chronology of FR from Rivendell to Lothlorien was not yet reached, however, for two reasons: first, that the journey to Hollin still took eleven days and not fourteen (pp. 165, 169); and second, that in FR there are two Yule-days after Foreyule (December) 30 as against Dec. 31 in scheme II. Thus II is two days in advance of FR. The numerical dates in II, when the Company left Rivendell on Dec. 25, soon become identical to those in I, when they left on Nov. 24, simply because November has 30 days but December has 31; thus in I they crossed the Silverlode by the rope-bridge and entered the Gore on Dec. 14, and in II on Jan. 14. At this point the scheme in II reads: Jan. 14 Over Silverlode Time ceases Jan. 15 Leave Lorien Scheme II continues for some way on this basis before petering out. These therefore are the relations between the former chronology (I), the new (II), and FR: I. II. FR. Leave Rivendell. Nov. 24. Dec. 25. Dec. 25. Hollin. Dec. 6. Jan. 6. Jan. 8. Snow on Caradras. Dec. 9. Jan. 9. Jan. 11. Reach Moria. Dec. 11. Jan. 11. Jan. 13. Escape from Moria. Dec. 13. Jan. 13. Jan. 15. Cross Silverlode. Dec. 14. Jan. 14. Jan. 16. Leave Lorien. [Jan. 1 >] Dec. 15. Jan. 15. Feb. 16. Reach Tol Brandir. Dec. 25. Jan. 25. Feb. 25. Flight of Frodo. Dec. 26. Jan. 26. Feb. 26. In II the New Moon was on Jan. 21, just as in I it was on Dec. 21, and against this date in II is also: 'Battle with Orcs?' This was the seventh day of the voyage down Anduin, as in the texts. But it is odd that in both I and II the journey took eleven days, whereas in the texts it took nine (pp. 361 - 2). At the foot of the page carrying scheme II my father wrote: 'Does Time cease at Lorien or go on faster? So that it might be Spring or nearly so.' With this cf. p. 363: 'The Power of the Lady was upon us. Slow for us there might time have passed, while the world hastened. Or in a little while we could savour much, while the world tarried. The latter was her will.' Another chronology of far greater elaboration, made after the changes introduced in October 1944 (see p. 406), was still based on the conception that 'exterior' Time ceased in Lorien, for it begins: Thurs. Jan. 19. Fifth day of voyage. Fri. 20. Sixth day. Sat. 21. Seventh day. Sam observes New Moon and is puzzled. Lastly, another later scheme of dates begins: They spend what seems many days in Lorien, but it is about the same time and date when they leave. [Added: In fact, one day later, time moving about 20 times slower (20 days = 1).] Here the Company again leaves Lorien on Jan. 15, but the chronology of the journey approaches that of FR: 'Sam sees New Moon low in West after sunset' on Jan. 21, but as in FR the attack by Orcs takes place on the night of the eighth day, here Jan. 22; and Tol Brandir is reached at dusk on Jan. 24. Here this scheme ends; but across the page my father afterwards wrote these separate notes: Why have any difference of time? Shift the dates a month forward. If Lorien time is not different, then no need for Sam to see the Moon. Better to have no time difference. A passage in the first manuscript of 'The White Rider' (p. 431) may be mentioned here: Gandalf tells that after his rescue by Gwaihir from the peak above Moria he came to Lothlorien and 'tarried there in the long time which in that land counts for but a brief hour of the world'. Phases of the Moon Either while the making of Time-scheme I was in progress or at some later point my father wrote at the head of the first page of it: Moons are after 1941 - 2 + 6 days. He changed this to + 5 days, and added: thus Full Moon Jan. 2 is Jan. 7. The phases of the Moon were entered on scheme I in red pencil, and it is very hard to know whether they belong with its making or were put in later. Many of these dates were much changed, but no discernible relation with the phases of 1941 - 2 emerges, the dates in the scheme varying between two to six days later. The phases as entered, also in red pencil, on scheme II, when the departure from Rivendell took place on Dec. 25, are however regularly five days later than those of 1941 - 2, beginning with New Moon on Dec. 23, and then First Quarter on Dec. 30, Full Moon Jan. 7, Last Quarter Jan. 15, New Moon Jan. 21 (against which is written the time: 9.32), First Quarter Jan. 29 (time 6.35), Full Moon Feb. 6. It is possible, therefore, though far from certain, that it was only with scheme II and the decision to postpone the departure from Rivendell by a month that my father decided to pattern the phases precisely on those of 1941 - 2. It will be seen shortly (p. 379) that my father was working on 'The Departure of Boromir' in the winter of 1941 - 2. The postponement of the departure from Rivendell is first seen in an outline for the story following the ride of Gandalf and his companions from Fangorn to Eodoras (p. 434 and note 1; see also pp. 422 - 3). XVIII. THE BREAKING OF THE FELLOWSHIP. In the latter part of the original chapter 'XXI' initial drafting and 'fair copy' were a continuous process. Up to the point where Sam broke in on the discussion among the Company beside the river with 'Begging your pardons, but I don't think you understand Mr. Frodo at all' (FR p. 419), the drafting is very rough indeed, with separate passages written in slips and not forming a consecutive narrative, while the 'fair copy' is itself a mass of correction and rewriting in the act of composition. Some passages gave my father great difficulty and he experimented with their ordering and phraseology in many forms. But from that point, and evidently made after the 'fair copy' had reached it, there is a clear primary draft, in which the story just as it is in FR (pp. 419 - 23) 'wrote itself', on the basis of a preliminary outline; and the fair copy from here onwards can be properly so called. In this manuscript the text of FR was effectively reached throughout, but the division of 'XXI' into two, with a new chapter 'XXII The Breaking of the Fellowship', was not made until after the text had been completed. At first Trotter is 'Elfstone', not corrected, in both draft and fair copy (see p. 361), but soon becomes 'Trotter', and is then so named throughout. The draft text begins: That night they went ashore, and camped upon a green sward beneath the slopes of [added: Amon Hen] the western hill. They set a watch, but they saw no sign of any enemy or spy. If Gollum had contrived to follow them, he remained unseen. 'I do not think he would dare the passage of the Gates,' said Elfstone. 'But he may have travelled far over the hills, while we were delayed at Pensarn. By now he knows the country well, and he will guess too much of our divided purposes.(1) For we have with us what he long possessed and it draws him ever towards us. "If they turned west at Pensarn," he will say, "then for a time I can do no more. Sooner or later I shall know, and then Gollum can find a way, even to the walls of Minas-Tirith. But if they did not turn west there is but one end to the river-road: Tol Brandir and Rauros, and the North Stair. There they must go West or East. I will watch upon the East." Likely enough he spied us with his fell eyes far off from the eastern beaches or from some post among the hills.' The day came like fire and smoke... Amon Hen looks as if it were added immediately, and is probably the first occurrence of the name. An addition to the draft text introduces the nocturnal conversation between Trotter and Frodo and the drawing of Sting to see what its blade would show - a sign that the attack by Orcs had now entered; but here it is Frodo who feels 'some shadow or threat', and it is Frodo who says 'I thought as much. Orcs are near. But how came they across the river? Never have I heard that they came into this region before', with an authoritative tone more characteristic of Trotter. In the fair copy Trotter's surmises about Gollum's intentions were lost, and the opening of the chapter 'The Breaking of the Fellowship' in FR was attained, except that the green lawn beneath Amon Hen was named Kelufain, subsequently changed to Calenbel.(2) The description of Tol Brandir as Frodo saw it that morning, already in the primary draft very close to the final form (FR p. 412), with its sides springing sheer out of the running water (where 'no landing place could be seen'), shows that the idea of its inaccessibility was present (see p. 359). The conversation before Frodo departed from the Company alone was very largely achieved at once, but in the fair copy Trotter says: 'My own heart desires to go to Minas-Tirith, but that is for myself and apart from your Quest', this being rejected, probably immediately; and in both texts, in very similar words, he says: 'Very well, Frodo son of Drogo. You shall be alone. But do not let your thoughts be too dark. For after you have chosen you shall not be alone. I will not leave you, should you decide to go to the gates of Baraddur; and there are others of the same mind, I think.' To this Frodo replied, in the fair copy: 'I know, and it does not aid my choice [> it does not help me at all].' The primary draft continues: The others remained behind near the shore, but Frodo got up and walked away. Sam watched his master with great concern. Then the Company turned again to debating what they could do to aid the Quest, hopeless as it seemed [struck out: and whether it were wise to try and end it swiftly or to delay]. Boromir spoke strongly, urging ever the wisdom of strong wills, and weapons, and great plans he drew for alliances, and victories to be, and the overthrow of Mordor.(3) Sam slipped away unnoticed. 'If orcs are anywhere nigh,' he muttered, 'I am not going to let Mr. Frodo wander about alone. In his frame o' mind he would not see an elephant coming, or he might walk off the edge of a precipice.' In the meanwhile aimlessly wandering Frodo found that his feet had led him up the slopes of the hill. The idea that Sam left the Company at this point was evidently very soon abandoned. The encounter with Boromir on Amon Hen was now developed from the form it had reached in the outline given on pp. 325 - 7, and with much difficulty the text of FR was achieved. I give here so much as I can puzzle out of the form in which my father first wrote down what Frodo saw when he looked out from Amon Hen wearing the Ring (for the brief suggestions in previous outlines see p. 327 and note 7 and p. 366 note 19): his writing here is at its most difficult, the marks very weak and the pen seeming to float or glide on the paper. Northward he looked, and the Great River lay like a ribbon beneath him, and the Misty Mountains small and hard as broken teeth. Eastward into wide uncharted lands he looked. West he gazed and saw little horsemen galloping like the wind upon wide green plains, and beyond was the dark tower of [Isengard o] Orthanc in the ring of Isengard. Southward he looked..... Ethir Anduin the mighty delta of the Great River, and myriads of seabirds [like a dust of white specks] whirling... like a white dust, and beneath them a green and silver sea rippling in endless moving lines. But everywhere he looked he saw signs of war. The Misty Mountains were like anthills to his sight: orcs were [?pouring] out from countless [?holes]. Under the boughs of Mirkwood there was deadly strife. The land of the Beornings was aflame. A cloud was over Dimrilldale / Moria gates. Smoke rose upon the borders of Lorien. [Dol Dughul] Horsemen galloping wildly on the grass of Rohan, wolves poured forth from Isengard. From the grey southward Havens [or Haven] an endless column of armed men came. Out of the wild East men were moving in endless [?shining] swordmen, [?spearmen], bowmen upon horse; chariots and wains: whole peoples. All the power of the Dark Lord was in motion. Then as he came back south he saw Minas Tirith. Far and beautiful it was, white-walled, many-towered, high upon its mountain seat strong in the sun: its battlements glittered with steel and its turrets were bright with many banners............. was Minas Morgul....... its dark walls carven with... shapes, its great tower like a tooth, its banners black, its gates like evil mouths, and to eastward the Shadow of Death the hopeless [?gates] of Gorgoroth. Then he saw the......... ... Mount [Doom >] Dum: the Hill of Fire and.... Baraddur. Then suddenly his gaze halted. The [?mists cleared] and he cried aloud in fear. There was an eye in Baraddur. It did not sleep. And suddenly it had become aware of....... There was a fierce eagerness... [?will]... It leapt towards him, almost like a finger he felt it [?feeling] for him. In a minute it would nail him down, know just exactly [?to an inch] where he was. Amon Lhaw it touched, it glanced at Tol Brandir - he cast himself from the seat, [?crouching, covering] his head with his grey hood. He was crying out but whether he was saying Never will it get me, never, or Verily I come, I come to you, he could not say. [?Probably] both. Then as a flash from some other point of power there came ... another thought. Take it off. Take it off. 0 foolish! Take it off. The two powers strove in him: for a moment perfectly balanced between their... points he writhed. Suddenly he was aware of himself. In the complete manuscript that followed the draft, with much further correction and experimentation of phrase as he wrote, my father reached the final form; but the opening description of Frodo in the high seat (for which there is no earlier drafting) in this manuscript is of much interest. As first written, with a good deal of correction in the process, the passage read: At first he could see little: he seemed to be in a world of mist in which there were only shadows. The Ring was on him. [Then the virtue (written above: power) of Amon Hen worked upon him] Then here and there the mists gave way and he saw many things: small and clear as if they were beneath him on a table and yet remote: the world seemed to have shrunk. [Added: He heard no sound, seeing only bright images that moved and changed.](4) He looked South and saw below his very feet the Great River curve and bend like a toppling wave and plunge over the falls of Rauros into a foaming pit: the fume rose like smoke and fell like rain lit by a glimmering rainbow of many colours. More remote still beyond the roaring pools were fens and black mountains, many streams winding like shining ribbons. Then the vision changed: nothing but water was below him, a wide rippling plain of silver, and an endless murmur of distant waves upon a shore he could not see. He looked West and saw horsemen galloping like the wind: their On beyond the falls his eye wandered, here crossing reed- grown fens, there marking the winding ribbons of swift streams leaping down from small hard black mo(untains). At this point my father rejected the entire passage from the words 'Then the virtue (power) of Amon Hen worked upon him' and began again: At first he could see little: he seemed to be in a world of mist in which there were only shadows. The Ring was on him. [Struck out at once: But also he sat now upon the seat of Sight which the Men of Numenor had made.] Then here and there the mists gave way and he saw many visions... The new text then reaches the form in FR (p. 416); Frodo is sitting on 'the seat of Seeing, upon Amon Hen, the Hill of the Eye of the Men of Numenor.' Frodo 'seemed to be in a world of mist in which there were only shadows. The Ring was on him. Then the power of Amon Hen worked upon him': and the mists began to break. Still clearer is the next stage of revision: '... The Ring was on him. But also he sat now upon the seat of Sight which the Men of Numenor had made. Then here and there the mists gave way...' Only one interpretation seems possible: the wearing of the Ring inhibited his sight - he was in a world of mists and shadows; but nonetheless he was sitting on the Seat of Seeing on the Hill of the Eye, and 'the power of Amon Hen worked upon him.' On the other hand, in the last outline written before this point in the narrative was actually reached, the idea of the 'Seat of Seeing' had not emerged (p. 327): Frodo was 'standing on rocks' in the Stone Hills when Boromir attempted to take the Ring. It is said there that from this place the range of the Mountains of Shadow could be glimpsed 'like a smudge of grey, and behind it a vague cloud lit beneath occasionally by a fitful glow'; but when Frodo put on the Ring 'he saw nothing about him but a grey formless mist, and far away (yet black and clear and hard) the Mountains of Mordor: the fire seemed very red.' In its origin, then, the peculiar clarity of Frodo's vision on this occasion derived solely from the wearing of the Ring. This question is discussed further on pp. 380 - 1. When Frodo came down from the summit of Amon Hen, and putting on the Ring again 'vanished and passed down the hill like a rustle of the wind', the primary draft continues: 'The power of the Ring upon him had been renewed; and maybe it aided his choice, drawing him to Mordor, drawing him to the Shadow, alone.' There exists a rough outline for the last part of the chapter, where the story turns from Frodo to the Company, sitting where he left them beside the river. This was written in faint pencil, subsequently inked over. Frodo does not come back in an hour. The hour wears on to two, and the sun is at noon. Trotter gets anxious. He saw Boromir go off, and return. 'Have you seen Frodo?' 'No,' said Boromir, lying with a half truth. 'I looked for him and could not see him.' [Added:? 'Yes,' said Boromir, 'but he ran from me and I could not find him.'] Trotter decides they must search and blames himself for allowing Frodo to go alone. Boromir comes back ? Great agitation, and before Trotter can control them they all run off into the woods. Trotter sends Boromir after Merry and pippin. He runs himself toward the Hill of Amon Hen followed by Sam. But suddenly Sam stops and claps his head. 'You're a fool, Sam Gamgee. You know quite well what was in Mr. Frodo's mind. He knew he had to go East - that old Gandalf intended it. But he was afraid, and still more afraid of taking anyone with him...... He's run away, that's it - and ....... boat.'(5) Sam dashed down the path. The green camp-ground was empty. As he raced across it he gasped. A boat was grinding on the shingle - seemingly all by itself was slipping into the water. It was floating away. With a cry Sam raced to the water-edge and sprang after it. He missed it by a yard and fell into deep water. He went under with a gurgle. Conversation of Sam and Frodo. They go off together. At this stage my father was not intending to end the chapter here, and this sketch continues into the story of what became the first chapter of The Two Towers, III.1 'The Departure of Boromir'; but I postpone the remainder of it to the next chapter in this book. The discussion among the members of the Company during Frodo's absence took draft after draft to achieve,(6) and though the actual content of what was said does not greatly differ from the form in FR (pp. 418 - 19) it was at first given in part to different speakers (thus in the earlier form it is Trotter who emphasizes, as does Gimli in FR, that on no member of the Company save Frodo was obligation laid). Notably, there appear in these drafts the phrases found in FR: 'the Lord Denethor and all his men cannot hope to do what Elrond declared to be beyond his power', and 'Boromir will return to Minas Tirith. His father and people need him.' This is where the name Denethor first emerged, with only the slightest initial hesitation: my father wrote a B, or perhaps an R, then Denethor.(7) That Boromir was the son of Denethor is clear, and is explicit in the outline given at the beginning of the next chapter; in any case he was named long before as the son of the King of Ond (VI.411). As I have said, from the point where Sam intervened in the discussion the conclusion of The Fellowship of the Ring was virtually achieved at its first drafting and with very little hesitation, and there are only two matters to notice. One concerns the return of Boromir to the Company, where at first he replied to Trotter's question quite differently (cf. the outline on p. 375): 'He has not returned then?' asked Boromir in return. 'No.' 'That's strange. To say the truth I felt anxious about him, and went to seek him.' 'Did you find him?' Boromir hesitated for an instant. 'I could not see him,' he answered, with half the truth. 'I called him and he did not come.' 'How long ago was that?' 'An hour maybe. Maybe more: I have wandered since. I do not know! I do not know!' He put his head in his hands and said no more. Trotter looked wonderingly at him. This was rejected at once and replaced by his account as it stands in FR. - The other passage is that describing Sam's headlong descent down the slopes of Amon Hen: He came to the edge of the open camping-place (8) where the boats were drawn up out of the water. No one was there. There seemed to be cries and faint hornblasts in the woods behind, but he did not heed them. Before this was written, my father had already sketched out, in the continuation of the outline of which I have given the first part on p. 375, the story of the Orc-attack and Boromir's death (p. 378). He had now abandoned important elements in his former vision of the course of the story after the disintegration of the Company: the journey of Merry and Pippin up the Entwash, and the evil dealings of Boromir in Ondor (pp. 211 - 12, 330). So far as written record goes, it was only now that he perceived that Boromir would never return to Minas Tirith. NOTES. 1. I think that Trotter's meaning was: 'he will guess, too, much of our divided purposes.' 2. The fair copy in fact followed the draft in the opening sentences, and the paragraph with which 'The Breaking of the Fellowship' opens in FR, describing the green lawn (Parth Galen), was added. As the manuscript was written, the green lawn was not named. See note 8, and p. 382. 3. This sentence was subsequently marked: 'Put this into his talk with Frodo' (cf. FR p. 414). 4. The sentence a little later in this passage, 'an endless murmur of distant waves upon a shore he could not see', was not changed when this was added. 5. Written transversely across this part of the text, before the underlying pencil was inked over, and extremely difficult to read, is the following: A good arrangement would be for Frodo running down hill to run [?into] orcs attacking Merry and Pippin and Boromir. Boromir is aware of his presence. When Boromir falls Frodo escapes [to or (in) the] boat - because Frodo would not leave Merry and Pippin in hands of orcs. I do not understand the implication of the last sentence. 6. One of these drafts is written on an Oxford University committee report dated 19 February 1941: see p. 362. 7. In the First Age Denethor led the Green-elves over Eredlindon into Ossiriand. On the name see V.188. 8. Replaced in pencil in the fair copy manuscript by 'the lawn of Kelufain': see note 2. XIX. THE DEPARTURE OF BOROMIR. I mentioned in the last chapter that the outline for the end of the story of 'The Breaking of the Fellowship' (p. 375) in fact continues on into the narrative of the first chapter ('The Departure of Boromir') in The Two Towers (henceforward abbreviated as TT). Horns and sudden cries in the woods. Trotter on the hill becomes aware of trouble. He races down. He finds Boromir under the trees lying dying. 'I tried to take the Ring,' said Eoromir. 'I am sorry. I have made what amends I could.' There are at least 20 orcs lying dead near him. Boromir is pierced with arrows and sword-cuts. 'They have gone. The orcs have got them. I do not think they are dead. Go back to Minas Tirith, Elfstone, and help my people. I have done all I could.' He dies. Thus died the heir of the Lord of Minas Tirith. Trotter at a loss. He is found standing perplexed and grief-stricken by Legolas and Gimli (who have driven off a smaller company). Trotter is perplexed. Was Frodo one of the hobbits? In any case ought he to follow and try to rescue? Or go to Minas Tirith? He cannot go in any case without burying Boromir. With help of Legolas and Gimli he carries Boromir's body on a bier of branches and sets it in a boat, and sends it over Rauros. Trotter now finds that one boat is missing. No orc-prints at camp. Whether hobbit-marks are old or new cannot be made out. But Sam is missing. Trotter sees that either Frodo and Sam, and Merry and Pippin, were together, or Frodo (and Sam?) have gone off. Now little or no hope of finding Frodo in latter case. He with Gimli and Legolas decide to follow Merry and Pippin. 'On Amon Hen I said I might see a sign to guide us! We have found a confusion - but our paths at least are set for us. Come, we will rescue our companions or else we will die after slaying all the orcs we can.' An addition to this text, certainly of much the same time, reads: Trotter sees by the shape and arms of the dead orcs that they are northern orcs of the Misty Mountains - from Moria? In fact they are orcs of Moria that escaped the elves, + others who are servants of Saruman. They report to Saruman that Gandalf is dead. Their mission is to capture hobbits including Frodo and take them to Isengard. (Saruman is playing a double game and wants the Ring.) At the bottom of the page is written: Does Trotter have any vision on Amon Hen? If he does, let him see (1) an Eagle coming down. (2) old man, like Frodo [sees] in mirror. (3) orcs creeping under trees. While working on the book my father would sometimes 'doodle' by writing, often in careful or even elaborate script, names or phrases from a newspaper that lay beside him or on which his paper rested. On the back of the sheet carrying this outline - an examination script, like most of the paper he used - he wrote out many such odds and ends, as 'Chinese bombers', 'North Sea convoy'; and among them are 'Muar River' and 'Japanese attack in Malaya'. It is out of the question, I think, that these writings on the verso should come from a different time from the text on the recto. It is certain, therefore, that the time was now the winter of 1941 - 2.(1) This obviously agrees with my father's statement in the Foreword to the Second Edition of The Lord of the Rings that he 'came to Lothlorien and the Great River late in 1941.' He said that 'almost a year' had passed since he halted by Balin's tomb in Moria; but I have ' argued (VI.461), I think with good reason, that he stopped in fact at the end of 1939. To maintain this view it must be supposed of course that something like two years (1940 - 1) passed between the halt in Moria and the point we have now reached; but further evidence on the subject seems to be lacking. There are two preliminary versions of 'Trotter upon Amon Hen', the first proceeding directly from the suggestions at the end of the outline just given. Trotter sped up the hill. Every now and again he bent to the ground. Hobbits go light, and their footprints are not easy even for a ranger to pick up. [Most of the path was stony, or covered with old leaves still lying thick; but in one place a small spring crossed it, and here Trotter stooping saw tracks in the moist earth, and beyond on the stones faint traces. 'I guessed right', he said. When he came to the top he saw...](2) But not far from the top a small spring crossed the path and in the wet earth he saw what he was looking for. Quickly he ran forward across the flagstones and up the steps. 'He has been here,' he said to himself. 'Not so long ago his wet feet came this way, [and up the steps.] He climbed to the seat. I wonder what he saw?' Trotter stood up and looked round. The sun seemed to be darkened, or else the eastern clouds were spreading. He could see nothing in that direction. As his glance swept round it stopped. Under the trees he saw orcs crawling stealthily: but how near to Amon Hen he could not guess. Then suddenly far away he saw an eagle, as he had seen it before above Sarn Ruin.(3) It was high in the air, and the land below was dim. Slowly it circled. It was descending. Suddenly it swooped and fell out of the sky and passed below his [? view]. As Trotter gazed the vision changed. Down a long path came an old man, very bent, leaning on a staff. Grey and ragged he seemed, but when the wind tossed his cloak there came a gleam of white, as if beneath his rags he was clad in shining garments. Then the vision faded. There was nothing more to be seen. At the end of the text, and I think immediately, my father wrote: 'The second vision on Amon Hen is inartistic. Let Trotter be stopped by noise of orcs, and let him see nothing.' The second version continues on into Trotter's leaping descent from the summit, his discovery of Boromir, and his words with him before he died. Though written here in the roughest fashion the text was scarcely changed afterwards, except in one respect: here (following the. instruction at the end of the first version) Trotter does not go up to the high seat at all: Trotter hesitated. He himself desired to [sit in the Seat of. Seeing >] go to the high seat, but time was pressing. As he stood there his quick ears caught sounds in the woodlands below and to his left, away west of the River and camping-place. He stiffened: there were cries, and among them he feared that he could distinguish the harsh voices of orcs; faintly and desper- ately a horn was blowing. In the first version the power of the Seat of Seeing upon Amon Hen 'works upon' Trotter indeed, but the visions he sees are isolated scenes, more akin in their nature perhaps to those in the water of Galadriel's Mirror than to the vast panorama of lands and war vouchsafed to Frodo. In the second draft he does not ascend to the high seat, and therefore sees nothing. In the fair copy manuscript that immediately followed he does go up, as in TT, but again sees nothing, save the eagle descending out of the sky: 'the sun seemed darkened, and the world dim and remote.' Why should this be? The utter unlikeness of the experiences of Frodo and of Aragorn in the Seat of Seeing is not explained. I have said (p. 374) that as my father first drafted the account of Frodo's vision it is explicit that it was 'the power of Amon Hen', and not the wearing of the Ring, that accorded it to him; and the first version of Aragorn's ascent to the summit shows this still more clearly (by the very fact that he also saw visions there). The final text of Frodo's vision is less explicit, and if this is associated with the fact that in the final form Aragorn does go up but sees nothing it may suggest a more complex relation between the power of Amon Hen and the power of the Ring, a relation which is not uncovered. As I have said, the second of the original drafts for 'Trotter on Amon Hen' (4) continues to the death of Boromir, and there are a few details worth mentioning: it is not said (nor is it in the fair copy) that the glade where Boromir died was a mile or more from the camping- place (TT pp. 15, 18); Trotter says 'Thus passes the heir of Denethor, Lord of the T[ower]' ('Lord of the Tower of Guard' in the fair copy, as in TT); and very oddly, Boromir says 'Farewell, Ingold' - which can surely be no more than an unwitting reversion to the former name, instead of 'Elfstone'. In the fair copy, where he is otherwise called 'Trotter' throughout, Boromir says 'Farewell, Aragorn'; and this was probably the first time that the name 'Aragorn' was used again (apart, of course, from later correction at earlier points) after its abandon- ment. A full and tolerably legible draft takes up just a little further on, from the coming of Legolas and Gimli to the glade, and there are only very minor differences from TT (pp. 16 - 17) as far as 'The River of Ondor will take care that no enemy dishonours his bones' (here given to Legolas). At this point in the draft manuscript there is a little hasty sketch, reproduced on p. 383, which indicates a difference (though immediately rejected) from the later story: Legolas alone returned to the camping-place. In the sketch are seen the rill that flowed through the greensward there, and the two remaining boats (the third having been taken by Frodo) moored at the water's edge, with Tol Brandir, and Amon Lhaw beyond; X marks the battle where Boromir died. At the shore is the boat brought back by Legolas, marking the place where Boromir's body was set aboard it. In the draft text there is no mention of finding the hobbits' 'leaf-bladed' knives (cf. VI.128, FR p. 157), nor of Legolas' search for arrows among the slain; the first is absent from the fair copy also. Then follows: 'These are not orcs of Mordor,' said Trotter. 'Some are from the Misty Mountains, if I know anything of orcs and their [gear >] kinds; maybe they have come all the way from Moria. But what are these? Their gear is not all of goblin-make.' There were several orcs of large stature, armed with short swords, not the curved scimitars usual with goblins, and with great bows greater than their custom. Upon their shields they bore a device Trotter had not seen before: a small white hand in the centre of the black field. Upon the front of their caps was set a rune fashioned of some white metal.(5) 'S is for Sauron,' said Gimli. 'That is easy to read.' 'Nay,' said Legolas. 'Sauron does not use the Runes.' 'Neither does he use his right name or permit it to be spelt or spoken,' said Trotter. 'And he does not use white. The orcs of his immediate service bear the sign of the single eye.' He stood for a moment in thought. 'S is for Saruman, I guess,' he said at last. 'There is evil afoot at Isengard, and the West is no longer safe. What is more: I guess that some of our pursuers escaped the vigilance of Lorien or avoided that land, passing through the foothills, and that Saruman also knows now of our journey, and maybe of Gandalf's fall. Whether he is merely working under the command of Mordor, or playing some hand of his own, I cannot guess.' 'Well, we have no time to ponder riddles,' said Gimli. With this compare the passage added to the outline on pp. 378 - 9. - Both Legolas and Gimli now went back to the green lawn of the camping-place, which is here named Kelufain, corrected to Forfain, and that in turn to Calen-bel (all these changes being made at the moment of writing),(6) but they returned together in a single boat. Thus whereas in TT, where they brought both the remaining boats, the three companions in the one towed out the other bearing Boromir, and after passing Parth Galen cast it loose, here Legolas took the funeral boat to Calen-bel while Trotter and Gimli returned there on foot. At Calen-bel, 'All three now embarked in the remaining boat, and drew the funeral boat out into the running river.' In the fair copy the final story entered as my father wrote the text. Apart from this, the account of Boromir's departure is almost word for word as in TT, save that his hair is called 'gold-brown' (so also in the fair copy, changed to 'long brown'; 'dark' in TT), and that it ends: But in Ondor it was long recorded in song that the elven-boat rode the falls and the foaming pit, and bore him down through Osgiliath, and past the many mouths of Anduin, and out into the Great Sea; and the voices of a thousand seabirds lamented him upon the beaches of Belfalas. Sketch-plan of the scene of the Breaking of the Fellowship. There is no suggestion however that any lament was sung for him by his companions; the draft reads here simply: For a while the three companions remained gazing after him, then silently they turned and drove their boat back against the current to Calen-bel. 'Eoromir has taken his road,' said Trotter. 'Now we must swiftly determine our own course....' The fair copy manuscript is virtually the same. The earliest extant text of the lament for Boromir (Through Rohan over fen and field, TT pp. 19 - 20) was however found with these draft papers, and a finely written text was inserted into the fair copy, with re-writing of the surrounding prose, at some later time. The earliest version is entitled [Song >] Lament of Denethor for Boromir, and only differs in few and minor points from the form in TT;(7) of rough working there is a page bearing the most primitive sketching of phrases for the lament (including the East Wind, that blows 'past the Tower of the Moon'), and another of rough working for the North Wind (which seems to have been swiftly achieved). It might seem, from the original title Lament of Denethor, that it was at first intended to be indeed the father's own song of grief, and not merely in form: to be brought in at a later point in the story. But against this are the first words on the page of rough working, clearly belonging to the same time: ' "They shall look out from the white tower and listen to the sea," said Trotter in a low voice.' The song is, in any case, Denethor's Lament. The occurrence of 'Trotter' here suggests that it belongs to this time, for before much more of the story was written 'Aragorn' would replace 'Trotter' as the name by which he is generally referred to. Another pointer in the same direction is a line found in the rough working: 'The North Wind blows from Calen-Bel', since in the course of the writing of the fair copy manuscript the name changes from Calen-bel to Calembel (note 6).(8) Trotter was at first less certain in his observations and conclusions when he examined the ground at Calen-bel; and he did not think to examine the baggage (nor yet in the fair copy). I cite the next part of the draft text, which here becomes very rough, in full: 'No orcs have been here,' he said at last. 'But otherwise it is not possible to say anything: all our footprints are here, and it is not possible to say whether any of the hobbits' feet have returned since the search for Frodo began. I think, but I cannot be sure, that a boat was dragged to the water at this point,' he said, pointing to the bank close to where the rill from the spring trickled into the river. 'How then do you read the riddle?' asked Gimli. 'I think that Frodo returned from the hill-top wearing the Ring,' said Trotter. 'He may have met Sam, but I think not: Frodo was probably wearing the Ring. I think Sam guessed Frodo's mind: he knew it better from love than we from wisdom; and caught him before he went.' 'But that was ill done, to go and leave us without a word, even if he had seen the orcs and was afraid,' said Gimli.(9) 'No, I think not,' said Trotter. 'I think Sam was right. He did not wish us to go to death in Mordor, and saw no other way to prevent that but by going alone and secretly. No, I think not,' said Trotter. 'He had a Something happened on the hill to make him fly. I do not know all, but I know this. Boromir tried to take the Ring by force.' Exclamation of horror from Legolas and Gimli. 'Think not ill of him,' said Trotter. 'He paid manfully and confessed.' Then follows in pencil: Don't let Trotter tell of Eoromir's misdeed? They draw up boat. Set out west after orcs. Trotter's plan is to descend from Sarn Gebir into Rohan and try and learn of orcs and borrow horses. Legolas sees Eagle from escarpment, descending. They meet an old man coming up hill to meet them. Don't recognize him, though there is something familiar. Suspect he is Saruman? The final story of the reappearance of Gandalf moves a step closer. In the 'Plot' written before Lothlorien was reached (p. 211) it was Gimli and Legolas, on their way back North, who fell in with Gandalf, Aragorn having gone with Boromir to Minas Tirith; and Gandalf then 'hastens south' with them. This was still the story in the subsequent outline (p. 329). Now, the death of Boromir having entered, Trotter, Gimli and Legolas are as in the final story on the trail of Merry and Pippin when they encounter Gandalf returned; but they are to meet him before their journey through Rohan has begun, before they have set foot in the grasslands. The descending eagle that Legolas saw from the escarpment of Sarn Gebir was bearing Gandalf (see p. 396); and it is clear that the eagle that Trotter saw descending to earth as he looked out from the summit of Amon Hen in the original draft (p. 380) was the first appearance of this idea.(10) In the fair copy the suggestion in this outline that Trotter should not tell Gimli and Legolas what Boromir had done was taken up: '... Something occurred after he left us to make his mind up: he must suddenly have overcome his fear and doubt. I do not think that it was a meeting with orcs.' What he thought it was Trotter did not say. The last words of Boromir he kept ever secret. This was changed, probably at once, to the dialogue in TT (p. 21), but it is still said of Trotter that 'the last words of Boromir he kept ever secret' ('he long kept secret', TT). The draft text becomes formed narrative again with words of Trotter's that in TT are given to Legolas: ' "One thing at least is clear," said Trotter. "Frodo is no longer on this side of the River. Only he could or would have taken the boat. As for Sam, he must be either with Merry or Pippin or Frodo, or dead. He would have returned here otherwise ere now." ' Gimli's words that follow, and Trotter's, expounding his decision to follow the Orcs, are much as in TT'; and I give the remainder of the draft, which at the end peters out, in full: They drew up the last boat and carried it to the trees, and laid beside it such of their goods as they did not need and could not carry. Then they struck west. Dusk was already falling. 'Go warily,' said Gimli. 'We are assuming that all the orcs made off after they had slain Boromir and captured Merry and Pippin. But those that attacked Boromir were not the only ones. Legolas and I met some away southwards on the west slopes of Amon Hen. We slew many, creeping on them among the trees: the cloaks of Lorien seem to deceive their sight. But many more may still linger. 'We have not time for wariness. We will follow the trail from the glade. Well is it that Orcs do not walk like hobbits! No folk, even Men of the cities, make such a trampling, and they slash and hack and beat down growing things as they pass, as if the breaking of things delighted them. 'It is plain to see which way they went - west near to the . shore, but not on it, keeping to the trees.'(11) 'But orcs go swiftly,' said Gimli. 'We shall have to run!' 'If my guess is right,' said Trotter, 'and they make for Isengard, they will descend from the hills into Rohan. [Struck . out: There they will not dare to journey save by night - and I wonder indeed how they cross) Mayhap we can get horses in Rohan,' said Trotter. 'If my guess is right and the orcs are making for Isengard, they will I interrupt the narrative here because, although my father had no thought of halting, initial drafting from this point is lost (p. 390). The draft that takes up with the coming of Legolas and Gimli to the glade (p. 381) is numbered on each page 'XXIII', and 'XXIII' continues on through the story of the chase across Rohan; the fair copy likewise begins 'XXIII' at 'Trotter sped on up the hill', with the title 'The Riders of Rohan', though another title apparently underlies this. Although all these were pencilled additions to the manuscripts in ink, I think it very probable that by this time the chapter-divisions of LR had been introduced: XXI 'The Great River' ending after the passage of the Pillars of the Kings and XXII 'The Breaking of the Fellowship' ending at the departure of Frodo and Sam, with XXIII extending all the way from Trotter's ascent of Amon Hen into whatever adventures might befall the three companions from their setting out from Calembel on the trail of the Orcs. NOTES. 1. The Japanese invaded Thailand and N.E. Malaya on 7 - 8 Decem- ber 1941. The crossing of the Muar River was on 16 January 1942. This information has been kindly provided by Mr. F. R. Williamson. - Further evidence is provided by the use of the Moon's phases of 1941 - 2; see p. 369. 2. This passage was placed within square brackets in the original, as also was 'and up the steps' immediately following. 3. On the eagle seen far off on the evening before the Company came to the rapids of Sarn Ruin see pp. 361 - 2. 4. At the top of the page carrying this text are written many experimental Elvish names: Llawhen, Amon Tirlaw, Lhawdir, Lasthen, Henlas, Hendlas, all being struck out save the first and last. I am at a loss to account for these satisfactorily. Since both Amon Hen and Amon Lhaw appear in primary drafting and outlines that obviously preceded this text, it is perhaps possible that the names already stood on the page before my father used it for the account of Trotter on Amon Hen. If this were so, it might be - since all of them are compounds of elements one of which refers to hearing (l(h)aw, las(t)) and the other to sight (hen(d), tir) - that they were devised before the eastern and western hills were distinguished as the Hill of Hearing and the Hill of Sight. 5. The Old English S-rune is found also in the fair copy manuscript, but there with the vertical strokes strongly curved, the upper curve open to the left, the lower to the right. In that text the caps of the Orcs become 'leathern caps' ('iron helms' TT). 6. The name Kelufain for the green lawn below Amon Hen was added to the fair copy of 'The Breaking of the Fellowship', and in one instance changed to Calenbel (p. 371 and note 2). In the fair copy of the present chapter the name was Calenbel at the first occurrence but subsequently Calembel (and once Calembel). 7. The differences are: Verse 1: line 1 Through the mountain-pass, through Rohan ) Over mountains tall, through Rohan 5 over many streams Verse 2: 2 brings 4 Why tarries Boromir the fair? For Boromir I grieve. Verse 3: 4 Where now is Boromir the bold? 5 I heard his horn. In every case these readings were replaced in careful script by those in TT. At first only the third verse had the concluding couplet beginning 0 Boromir!; but against this my father wrote: 'Omit? Or put extra couplet onto the other stanzas?' and then provided them, as in the final form. Certain other changes were put in later: see note 8. 8. The text of the Lament inserted into the fair copy is the final form, though here written in short lines. An accompanying page gives 'Alternatives to Song of Boromir', which were not used. These change verse 1 line 3 tonight? to this morn?, line 4 becoming Have you seen Boromir the fair or heard his blowing horn?; and verse 2 line 3 at eve? to tonight?, line 4 becoming Where tarries Boromir the tall by moon or by starlight? Another variant given here was to change verse 2 line 3 at eve? to at morn?, line 4 becoming Where dwells now Boromir the fair? What valleys hear his horn? These changes were pencilled also onto the first text of the song. - In LR Calembel is a town in Lamedon ('The Passing of the Grey Company', at end). 9. Cf. the passage given on p. 377 note 5. 10. Both sightings of the eagles survived in TT: Aragorn on Amon Hen still sees one descending, and Legolas sees one from the western escarpment of the Emyn Muil (see pp. 396 - 7). 11. Though no speaker is named, this speech ('We have not time for wariness') is certainly Trotter's. XX. THE RIDERS OF ROHAN. A single page of extremely rough notes, headed 'Sketch' and 'XXIII' was written in pencil, and partly inked over. Dusk. Night. Track less easy to follow. Sarn-Gebir runs North- South.(1) They press on through night. Dawn on ridge - then.... the escarpment. Legolas sees eagle far away. (Fangorn.)(2) Rich vegeta- tion. They see Black Mountains, 100 miles south. Entwash winding. Find orc trail going up river. Meeting with Rohiroth. They ride to Fangorn and hear news of battle and destruction of orcs and mysterious old man who had discomfited orcs. They hear that no captives were rescued. Despair. Old man appears. [Added: XXV and later.] They think he is Saruman. Revelation of Gandalf, and his account of how he escaped. He has become a white wizard. 'I forgot most of what I knew.(3) I was badly burned or we/I burned.' They go to Minas Tirith and enter in. Rest of war in which Gandalf and I on his eagle in white leads assault must be told later - partly a dream of Frodo, partly seen by him (and Sam), and partly heard from orcs. (? Frodo looks out of Tower, while prisoner.) Minas Tirith defeats Haradwaith. They cross at Osgiliath [writ- ten above: Elostirion], defeat orcs and Nazgul. Overthrow Minas Morghul, and drive forward to Dagorlad (Battle Plain). They get news that Ringbearer is captured. Now Treebeard. Then Frodo again. In those passages where the original text was inked over the under- lying pencil can be largely made out, and it is seen that Haradwaith was present: this appears on the First Map, translated Sutherland, as the name of the great region south of Mordor and east of the Bay of Belfalas (Map III, p. 309).(4) On the other hand Nazgul, here first met with, was not, and nor was Dagorlad (the pencilled text had only Battle Plain); the First Map had Dagras, changed to Dagorlad (p. 310). Elostirion above Osgiliath was also an addition when the text was inked over; on this new name see p. 423. - There are other notes on the page which do not relate directly to the foregoing consecutive sketch, but which may be given here. (1) Greyfax [> Shadowfax]. Halbarad. Horse of Gandalf reappears - sent for from Rivendell. Arrives later. It is 500 - 600 miles from Rivendell and would take Shadowfax 10 - 14 days. The name Halbarad was added at the same time as Greyfax > Shadowfax, and these changes look as if they were made at once. In Gandalf's tale in the fifth version of 'The Council of Elrond' the horse that Gandalf got in Rohan was likewise named Halbarad and Greyfax, and there Greyfax was certainly changed to Shadowfax in the act of writing. In that text there is no mention of what happened to Shadowfax after Gandalf reached Rivendell (see p. 152); but an isolated slip of paper has a note on this (together with a passage of initial drafting for 'The King of the Golden Hall'): 'Some account of "Shadowfax" in the house of Elrond must be given and what arrangements were made about him. Or did he just run off after Gandalf got to Rivendell? How did Gandalf summon him?' (2) Rohiroth are relations of Woodmen and Beornings, old Men of the North. But they speak Gnomish - tongue of Numenor and Ondor, as well as [?common] tongue. (3) Trotter should know Eomer. (4) Marhad Marhath is 2nd Master. [Written in margin: Marhad Marhath Marhelm Marhun Marhyse Marulf](5) (5) Eowyn Elfsheen daughter of Eomund? On the back of this page is very rough drafting for the conversation with Eomer (p. 400), but there is also here the note: Eowyn Elfsheen daughter of Theoden. The original manuscript of 'The Riders of Rohan' is a difficult and chaotic document, and its textual history was hard to ascertain. In this chapter (numbered throughout 'XXIII' and without new title, see p. 387), as in those that follow, my father adopted the practice, occasionally found earlier, of erasing his primary draft, or substantial portions of it, and writing a new version on the pages where it had stood. In this case the original drafting from the point reached on p. 386 ('If my guess is right and the orcs are making for Isengard, they will') is lost for a long stretch through erasure and the re-use of the pages, though here and there bits of it can be read. The original draft, which I will call 'A', emerges however at the point in the narrative (corresponding to TT p. 29) where Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli approached the low downs to the east of the river Entwash, and continues through the story of the encounter with the Riders; at which point my father abandoned it, realizing that the story as he was telling it was 'not what really happened' (see the letter cited on p. 411). It was now that he returned to the beginning, and began a new text ('B') using the erased pages of A up to the point mentioned. It seems clear that what survives of A survives because it was written largely in ink and not in pencil. The structure of the manuscript is thus: A erased B written on erased A A not erased; ends because abandoned B continued independently The textual history of the writing of the chapter is of course simply A followed by B. Both ways of presenting the material have their disadvantages, but after much experimentation it seems to me best to look first at what remains of A. This I give in full, excepting only one passage. [Their elven-cloaks faded against the] background, and even in the clear cool sunlight few but elvish eyes would have seen them until close at hand as they passed, running or striding tirelessly with a brief pause every three hours or so. That evening they reached the low downs. A narrow strip of moist green land some ten miles wide lay between them and the river winding in dim thickets of sedge and reed. Here the Entwash and the line of downs bent due north,(6) and the orc-trail was plain to see under the lee of the hills. 'These tracks were made today,' said Trotter. 'The sun was already high before our enemy passed. We might perhaps have glimpsed them far ahead, if there had been any rising ground to give us a long view.' 'Yet all the while they draw nearer to the mountains and the forest, where our hope of aiding our friends will fail,' said Gimli. Spurred by this thought the companions sped onward again through the dusk, and far into the night. They were already half-way along the downs before Trotter called a halt. The waxing moon was shining bright. 'Look!' he said. 'Even orcs must pause at times.' Before them lay a wide trampled circle, and the marks of many small fires could be seen under the shelter of a low hillock. 'They halted here about noon, I guess,' said Trotter. 'How long they waited cannot be told, but they are not now many hours ahead. Would that we need not stay; but we have covered many a long league since we last slept, and we shall all need our strength maybe tomorrow, if we come up with our enemies at last.' Before dawn the companions took up the hunt again. As soon as the sun rose and the light grew they climbed the downs and looked out. Already the dark slopes of the forest of Fangorn could be seen, and behind, glimmering, the white head of Methen Amon, the last great peak of the Misty Mountains.(7) Out of the forest flowed the river to meet them. Legolas looked round, turning his gaze through west to south. There his keen elf-eyes saw as a shadow on the distant green a dark moving blur. 'There are folk behind as well as in front,' he said, pointing away over the river. Trotter bent his ear to the earth, and there was a silence in the empty fields, only the airs moving in the grass could be heard. 'Riders,' said Trotter rising: 'many horsemen in haste. We cannot escape in this wild bare land. Most likely it is a host of the Rohiroth that have crossed the great ford at Entwade.(8) But what part the Horsemasters are minded to play and which side they serve I do not know. We can but hope for the best.' The companions hastened on to the end of the downs. Behind them now they could hear the beat of many hooves. Wrapping their cloaks about them they sat upon a green bank close to the orc-trail and waited. The horsemen grew ever nearer, riding like the wind. The cries of clear strong voices came down the following breeze. Suddenly they swept up with a noise like thunder: a long line riding free many abreast, but following the orc-trail, or so it seemed, for the leaders rode bent low, scanning the ground even as they raced. Their horses were of great stature... The account of the Riders and their horses, though rougher in expression, is very much as that in TT pp. 33-4, and the description in this original draft of the wheeling horses suddenly halting was never changed - except in the point that 'fifty lances were at rest pointing towards the strangers', where TT has 'a thicket of spears' (Legolas had counted one hundred and five Riders, p. 32).(9) - The conclusion of the primary draft, the conversation between Eomer and Aragorn in its earliest form, ran thus: 'Who are you, and what are you doing in this land?' said the rider, using the common speech of the West, in manner and tone like Boromir and the men of Minas Tirith. [Rejected immediately: 'I am Aragorn Elessar (written above: Elfstone) son of Arathorn.](10) 'I am called Trotter. I come out of the North,' he replied, 'and with me are Legolas [added: Greenleaf] the Elf and Gimli Gloin's son the Dwarf of Dale. We are hunting orcs. They have taken captive other companions of ours.' The rider lowered his spear-point and leaped from his horse, and standing surveyed Trotter keenly and not without wonder. At length he spoke again. 'At first I thought you were orcs,' he said, 'but that is not so. Indeed you know little about them, if you go hunting them in this fashion. They are swift and well-armed, and there are very many, it is said. You would be likely to change from hunter to quarry, if you ever caught up with them. But there is something strange about you, Master Trotter.' He bent his clear bright eyes again upon the ranger. 'That is no name for a man that you give. And strange is your raiment - almost it seems as if you had sprung out of the grass. How did you escape our sight?' 'Give me your name, master of horses, and maybe I will give you mine, and other news,' answered Trotter. 'As for that,' said the rider, 'I am Eomer son of Eomund, Third Master of the Riddermark. Eowin the Second Master is ahead.' 'And I am Aragorn Elfstone son of Arathorn Tarkil, the heir of Isildur Elendil's son of Ondor,' said Trotter. 'There are not many among mortal men who know more of orcs. But he that lacks a horse must go on foot, and when need presses no more friends may a man take with him than he has at hand. Yet I am not unarmed.' He cast back his cloak: the elven-sheath glittered and the bright blade of Branding shone like a sudden flame as he swept it out. 'Elendil!' cried Trotter. 'See the sword that was broken and is now remade. As for our raiment, we have passed through Lothlorien,' he said, 'and the favour of the Lady of the Galadrim goes with us. Yet great is our need, as is the need of all the enemies of Sauron in these days. Whom do you serve? Will you not help us? But choose swiftly: both our hunts are delayed.' 'I serve the Father and Master of the Riddermark,' said Eomer. 'There is trouble upon all our borders, and even now within them. Fear which was once a stranger walks among us. Yet we do not serve Sauron. Tribute he seeks to lay on us. But we - we desire only to be free, and to serve no foreign lord. Guests we will welcome, but the unbidden robber will find us swift and hard. Tell me [?briefly] what brings you here.' Then Trotter in few words told him of the assault on Calenbel and the fall of Boromir. Dismay was plain to see on Eomer's face and many of his men at that news. It seemed that between Rohan and Ondor there was great friendship. Wonder too was in the eyes of the riders when they learned that Aragorn and his two companions had come all the way from Tolbrandir since the evening of the third day back on foot. 'It seems that the name of Trotter was not so ill given,' said Eomer. 'That you speak the truth, if not all the truth, is plain. The men of Rohan speak no lies, but they are not easily deceived. But enough - there is now more need of speed than before. We were hastening only to aid of Eowin, since news came back that the orc-host was large and outnumbered the pursuers, but twenty-five that we first sent. But if there are captives to rescue we must ride faster. There is one spare horse that you can have, Aragorn. The others must make shift to ride behind my two esquires.' Aragorn leapt upon the back of the great grey horse that was given to him. Here the primary draft A ends, and as my father broke off he noted: This complicates things. Trotter etc. should meet Eomer returning from battle north of the Downs near forest.... and Eomer should [?deny] any captives. Trotter learns war has broken out with Saruman [?even] since Gandalf s escape.(11) From 'Aragorn and his two companions had come all the way from Tolbrandir since the evening of the third day back' the chronology at this stage can be deduced: Day 1. Death of Boromir. Leave Calenbel; night in Sarn Gebir. Day 2. First day in plains of Rohan. Day 3. Second day in plains of Rohan; reach downs in evening. Day 4. In morning go on to northern end of downs; encounter with Riders. Despite the radical alteration in the story that now entered (the Riders were returning from battle with the Orcs, not on their way to it) this chronology was retained for a long time. We come now to the second version 'B'. This text was much worked on subsequently, but I mostly cite it as it was first written, unless a change seems to have been immediate. It was now that my father began to use 'Aragorn' again in place of 'Trotter' as the ordinary name in narrative, though at first he still now and then wrote 'Trotter' out of habit before changing it immediately to 'Aragorn'. At the point where in TT 'The Departure of Boromir' ends and 'The Riders of Rohan' begins the text reads thus: 'We have no time now for wariness,' said Aragorn. 'Dusk will soon be about us. We must trust to the shadows and our cloaks, and hope for a change of luck.' He hastened forward, hardly pausing in his stride to scan the trail; for it needed little of his skill to find. 'It is well that the orcs do not walk with the care of their captives,' said Legolas, as he leaped lightly behind. 'At least such an enemy is easy to follow. No other folk make such a trampling. Why do they slash and beat down all the growing things as they pass? Does it please them to break plants and saplings that are not even in their way?' 'It seems so,' answered [Trotter >] Aragorn; 'but they go with a great speed for all that. And they do not tire.' In both we may prove their equals, said Gimli. But on foot we cannot hope to overtake their start, unless they are hindered.' 'I know it,' said Aragorn; 'yet follow we must, as best we can. And may be that better fortune awaits us if we come down into Rohan. But I do not know what has happened in that land in late years, nor of what mind the Horse-Masters may now be between the traitor Saruman and the threat of Sauron. They have long been friends with the people of Ondor and the lords of Minas Tirith, though they are not akin to them. After the fall of Isildur they came out of the North beyond Mirkwood, and their kinship is rather with the Brandings, the Men of Dale, and with the Beornings of the woods, among whom still may be seen many Men, tall and fair, like the Riders of Rohan. At the least they will not love the Orcs or aid them willingly.'(12) Dusk deepened. Mist lay behind them among the trees below... Here in TT the chapter 'The Riders of Rohan' begins, and this earliest extant text is already very close to it in the story of the night spent scrambling on the ridges and in the gullies of Sern-gebir (as the name is written at this point) and the discovery of the slain Orcs. The Rohirrim are still the Rohiroth, Gondor is Ondor, and the White Mountains are the Black Mountains (described in precisely the same words as in TT p. 24, and as there distant 'thirty leagues or more'). Aragorn's verse took this form: (Aragorn sings a stave) Ondor! Ondor! Between the Mountains and the Sea Wind blows, moon rides, and the light upon the Silver Tree Falls like rain there in gardens of the King of old. O white walls, towers fair, and many-footed throne of gold! O Ondor, Ondor! Shall Men behold the Silver Tree Or West Wind blow again between the Mountain fs J and the Sea? It can be made out from the erased primary text A that this verse was not present, but only Aragorn's words that precede it. In this earliest form many-footed throne of gold was changed, probably very soon, to winged crown and throne of gold as in TT. These are the first references to the Winged Crown and the White Tree of Gondor.(13) Then follows (as originally written): The ridge fell steeply before their feet: twenty fathoms or more it stood above the wide shelf below. Then came the edge of a sheer cliff: the East Wall of Rohan. So ended Sarn Gebir, and the green fields of the Horsemasters rolled against its feeg like a grassy sea. Out of the high land fell many freshets and threadlike waterfalls, springing down to feed the wandering Entwash, and carving the grey rock of the escarpment into countless crannies and narrow clefts. For a breathing space the, three companions stood, rejoicing in the passing of night, ' feeling the first warmth of the mounting sun pierce the chill of their limbs. 'Now let us go!' said Aragorn, drawing his eyes of longing away from the south, and looking out west and north to the way that he must go. 'See!' cried Legolas, pointing to the pale sky above the blur where the Forest of Fangorn lay far across the plains. 'See! The eagle is come again. Look! He is high, but he is coming swiftly down. Down he comes! Look!' 'Not even my eyes can see him, my good Legolas,' said Aragorn. 'He must be away upon the very confines of the forest. But I can see something nearer at hand and more urgent...' On previous references to the descending eagle see p. 385. Subsequent- ly my father pencilled in against this passage: Eagle should be flying from Sarn Gebir, bearing Gandalf from Tolbrandir where he resisted the Eye and saved Frodo? If so substitute the following: 'Look!' said Legolas, pointing up in the pale sky above them. 'There is the eagle again. He is very high. He seems to be flying from Sarn Gebir now back northward. He is going back northward. Look! ' 'No, not even my eyes can see him, my good Legolas,' said Aragorn. 'He must be far aloft indeed. I wonder what is his errand, if he is the same bird that we have seen before. But look' I can see something' This is virtually the text of TT (p. 25); and it is curious to see what its meaning was when it was first written - that Gandalf was passing high above their heads. The eagle was flying to Fangorn (and therefore north-west rather than north), whereas in TT Gandalf explains later to Legolas (pp. 98 - 9) that he had sent the eagle, Gwaihir the Windlord, 'to watch the River and gather tidings: Gwaihir had told him of the captivity of Merry and Pippin.(14) Against the suggestion here that the eagle was carrying Gandalf from Tol Brandir 'where he resisted the Eye and saved Frodo' my father wrote w o in large letters; cf. TT p. 99: 'I sat in a high place, and I strove with the Dark Tower; and the Shadow passed.' Nonetheless he preserved the new text. In TT (pp. 25 - 6) the three companions followed the Orc-trail north along the escarpment to the ravine where a path descended like a stair, and followed the trail down into the plain. In the present text the story is different: ...a rough path descended like a broad steep stair into the plain. At the top of the ravine Aragorn stopped. There was a shallow pool like a great basin, over the worn lip of which the water spilled: lying at the edge of the basin something glistening caught his eye. He lifted it out and held it up in the light. It looked like the new-opened leaf of a beech-tree, fair and untimely in the winter morning. 'The brooch of an elven-cloak!' cried Legolas and Gimli together, and each with his hand felt for the clasp at his own throat; but none of their brooches were missing. 'Not lightly do the leaves of Lorien fall,' said Aragorn solemnly. 'This clasp did not betray its owner, nor stray by chance. It was cast away: maybe to mark the point where the captors turned from the hills.' 'It may have been stolen by an orc and dropped,' said Gimli. 'True enough,' said Legolas, 'but even so it tells us that one at least of our Company was carried off as Boromir said.' 'It may tell no more than that one of our Company was plundered,' answered Gimli. Aragorn turned the brooch over. The underside of the leaf Was of silver. 'It is freshly marked,' he said. 'With some pin or Sharp point it has been scored.(15) See! A hand has scratched on it (...).' The others looked at the faint letters eagerly. 'They were both alive then so far, said Gimli. That is heartening. We do not pursue in vain. And one at least had a hand free: that is strange and perhaps hopeful.' 'But the Ringbearer was not here,' said Aragorn. 'At least so we may guess. If I have learned anything of these strange hobbits, I would swear that otherwise either Merry or Pippin would have put F first, and F alone if time allowed no more. But the choice is made. We cannot turn back.' The three companions climbed down the ravine. At its foot they came with a strange suddenness upon the grass of Rohan. I think that it was here, arising out of this moment in the narrative, that the leaf-brooches of Lorien were conceived; they were then written into the fair copy manuscript of 'Farewell to Lorien' (p. 285). But it is strange that Aragorn should speak as though the brooch was at last a clear if not altogether final evidence that Frodo was not a captive of the Orcs, for in drafting for 'The Departure of Boromir' (p. 386) he had said: 'One thing at least is clear. Frodo is no longer on this side of the River. Only he could or would have taken the boat'; and that he should feel that this evidence called for some reinforcement of the decision to pursue the Orcs. - The postponement of the discovery of Pippin's brooch to its place in TT (p. 26) was introduced not long afterwards in a rider; see p. 408. The entire account in TT from the debate at nightfall of the first day in the plains of Rohan (27 February: the second day of the chase) to their setting off again on the following morning (pp. 27 - 9) is lacking here. The text reads thus: ... No longer could any sight of them be seen in the level plains. When night was already far advanced the hunters rested for a while, somewhat less than three hours. Then again they went on, all the next day with scarcely a pause. Often they thanked the folk of Lorien for the gift of lembas; for they could eat and find new strength even as they ran. As the third day [i.e. of the chase] wore on they came to long treeless slopes, where the ground was harder and drier and the grass shorter: the land rose, now sinking now swelling up,, towards a line of low, smooth downs ahead. To their left the river Entwash wound, a silver thread in the green floor. The dwellings of the Rohiroth were for the most part far away [south >] to the west (16) across the river, under the wooded eaves of the Black Mountains, which were now hidden in mist and cloud. Yet Aragorn wondered often that they saw no sign of beast or man, for the Horsemasters had formerly kept many studs and herds in this eastern region (Eastemnet),(17) and wandered much, living often in camp or tent, even in the winter-time. But all the land was now empty, and there was a silence upon it that did not seem to be the quiet of peace. Through the wide solitude the hunters passed. Their elven- cloaks faded against the background of the green fields... It is at this point that the original text A emerges (p. 391). The new version B, still replacing it but no longer destroying it, advances far towards the final text, and for long stretches is almost identical. The original time-scheme, as set out on p. 394, was retained: the three companions still came to the downs at the end of the third day of the chase (i.e. the second day in the plains of Rohan); Aragorn still asserted that the tracks which they found there had been made that day; and they still went on far into the night, not stopping until they were halfway along the downs, where they found the orc- encampment. In this version, in fact, the Orcs were less far ahead than they were in A: ' "They halted here in the early evening, I guess," said Aragorn.' It was at this point that Aragorn lay on the ground for a long time motionless (cf. TT pp. 28 - 9; but here it was by moonlight, in the night following 'Day 3' of the chase, not at dawn of 'Day 3' and gill far east of the downs). 'The rumour of the earth is dim and confused,' he said. 'Many ' feet I heard, far away; but it seemed to me also that there were horses, horses galloping, and yet all were going away from us. I wonder what is happening in this land. All seems strange. I distrust the very moonlight. Only the stars are left to steer by, and they are faint and far away. I am weary, as a Ranger should never be on a fresh trail; yet we must go on, we must go on.' In this version they seem not to have slept at all that night: 'when dawn came they had almost reached the end of the downs'; and 'as the sun rose upon the fourth day of the pursuit, and the light grew, they climbed the last height, a rounded hill standing alone at the north end of the downs - where in TT (p. 31) they spent the night of the fourth day.(18) The coming of the Rohiroth now reaches the text of TT,(19) and the only difference to mention is that Legolas, seeing them far away, said: 'There are one hundred save three'; this almost certainly indicates, I think, that three Riders had been lost from an eored of 100 horse. But 'one hundred save three' was changed to 'one hundred and five' before the end of the chapter was reached, for Eomer subsequently tells Aragorn that they had lost fifteen men in the battle. (On the constitution of an eored see Unfinished Tales p. 315.) The first part of Aragorn's conversation with Eomer in B is actually a third version, for it is written over erased pencil drafting, as far as the Point where Gimli explains to Eomer the meaning of the word 'hobbits' (TT p. 37); and here the final form is reached apart from one or two details: Branding as the name of Aragorn's sword, Masters for Marshals of the Mark. It is here that Theoden son of Thengel first appears: if some other names preceded these they are lost in the underlying erased text. Theoden is not here called 'King', but 'the First Master'. For the next portion of the chapter there is some extremely rough drafting, scarcely more than notes, preliminary to the writing of B. In these my father did not see Gandalf as a well-known figure in Rohan, and he still thought that there was another troop of Riders in that region (detached from Eomer's host?): The old man who said he had escaped from Orthanc on an eagle! And demanded a horse and got it! Some said he was a wizard. And Shadowfax... [?came back] only a day ago. Eomer says some orcs fled towards Wold. Aragorn may meet other Riders: Marhath the Fourth Master [see p. 390] is there with a few men. Aragorn wishes to go on. Eomer gives him token to show Marhath. Aragorn pledges his word to return to Theoden and vindicate Eomer. Farewell. In the part of the B-text developed from these notes the hobbits are called the 'Half-high', not as in TT the 'Halflings': in Gimli's reference to 'the words that troubled Minas Tirith' he says 'They spoke of the Half-high', as in the form of the verse in the fifth version of 'The Council of Elrond (p. 146).(20) Aragorn s reply to the scoffing question of Eothain 'Are we walking in legends or on the green earth under the daylight?' here takes the form: 'One may do both; and the latter is not always the safer' (added to the manuscript: 'But the green earth is a legend seen under the light of day'). Eomer's remarks about Gandalf, which were achieved in this form through a mass of small changes, now read thus: 'Gandalf?' said Eomer. 'We have heard of him. An old man of that name used to appear at times in our land. None knew whence he came or where he went. His coming was ever the herald of strange events. Indeed since his last coming all things have gone amiss. Our trouble with Saruman began from that. time. Until then we had counted Saruman our friend, but Gandalf said that evil was afoot in Isengard. Indeed he declared that he had been a prisoner in Orthanc and had escaped. Riding on an eagle! Nonetheless he asked us for a horse! What arts he used I cannot guess, but Theoden gave him one of the mearas: the steeds that only the First Master of the Mark may ride; for it is said that [they are descended from the horses which the Men of Westernesse brought over the Great Seas >] their sires came out of the Lost Land over the Great Sea when the Kings of Men came out of the Deeps to Gondor. Shadowfax was the name of that horse. We wondered if evil had befallen the old man; for seven nights ago Shadowfax returned.'(21) 'But Gandalf left Shadowfax far in the North at Rivendell,' said Aragorn. 'Or so I thought.(22) But, alas, however that may be, Gandalf is gone down into the shadows.' Aragorn now told briefly the story of their journey from Moria. To his account of Lorien Eomer listened with amazement. At last Aragorn spoke of the assault of the orcs on Calen-bel, and the fall of Boromir. Only shortly before in this text the name was still Ondor. In view of the fact that it is Ondor in the draft and fair copy of 'Treebeard', it may be that the alteration of the sentence about the mearas, in which the form Gondor appears, was made later. On the actual date of the change Ondor ) Gondor see p. 423. In the remainder of the conversation with Eomer there are only these differences from the text of TT (pp. 38-41) to notice. There is no suggestion yet of Wormtongue: Eomer does not speak of 'some, close to the king's ear, that speak craven counsels'. He says that there has been war with Saruman 'since the summer' ('for many months', TT); and he remarks of Saruman himself that 'He walks about like an old man, indeed there are some that say Gandalf was only old Saruman in disguise: certainly they are much alike to look on.'(23) In his account of his own present expedition Eomer does not refer to his going without Theoden's leave: '... I do not know how it all will end. There is battle even now away upon the Westemnet under the shadow of Isengard. Hardly could we be spared. But scouts warned us [> Theoden] of the orc-host coming down out of the East Wall three nights ago: among them they reported some that bore the badges of Saruman. We overtook them yesterday at nightfall, only a little way from the edges of the Forest. We surrounded them, and gave battle at dawn. We lost fifteen of my eored and twelve horses, alas!' On the chronology see the Note on Chronology at the end of this chapter. Eomer tells of the Orcs that came in from the East across the Great River, and the Isengard Orcs that came out of the Forest. The story of the finding of Pippin's brooch was still in its former place (p. 397), as is seen from Aragorn's words here: 'Yet our friends are not behind. We had a clear token that they were with the Orcs when they descended into the plain.'(24) At the end of the conversation Eomer says: '... But it is hard to be sure of anything among so many marvels. One may pardon Eothain, my squire. The world is all turned strange. Old men upon eagles; and raiment that deceives the eye; and Elves with bows, and folk that have spoken with the Lady of the Wood, and yet live; and the Sword comes back to war that was broken ere the Fathers of the Fathers rode into the Mark! How shall a man judge what to do in such times. It is against our law to let strangers wander free in our land, and doubly so at this time of peril. I beg you to come back honourably with me, and you will not.' Aragorn in his reply tells (as in TT p. 41) that he had been in Rohan, and had spoken with Eomund father of Eomer, and with Theoden, and with Thengel that was Master before him. None of them would have desired to force a man to abandon friends whom the orcs had seized, while hope or even doubt remained.' Eomer relents. He requests that Aragorn return with the horses over the Entwade to '... torras where Theoden now sits.' This name was changed at once or very soon to Meodarn, Meduarn ('Mead-hall'), and then to 'Winseld ['Wine-hall'], the high house in Eodor.' Eodor (singular, fence, enclosure, dwelling ) is seen on Map IV (p. 317),. Eodoras (plural) on Map IV(D-E) (p. 319). Eothain's surliness at the loan of the horses is not present. The horses were first given names in Modern English, that for Aragorn being 'Windmane' and that for Legolas 'Whitelock'; these were changed to the Old English names found in TT, Hasofel ('Grey-coat', cf. Hasupada, note 21) and Arod ('Swift'). In the last part of the chapter, after the Riders had gone, the story is for most of its length at once almost as in the final text; but Aragorn's words about Fangorn, the earliest account of it that my father wrote,(25) took this form: 'I do not know what fables men have made out of old knowledge,' said Aragorn. 'And of the truth little is now known, even to Keleborn. But I have heard tell that in Fangorn, clinging here on the east side of the last slopes of the Misty Mountains, the ancient trees have taken refuge that once marched dark and proud over the wide lands, before even the first Elves awoke in the world. Between the Baranduin and the Barrowdowns is another forest of old trees; but it is not as great as Fangorn. Some say that both are but the last strongholds of one mighty wood, more vast than Mirkwood the Great, that held under its dominion all the countries through which now flow the Greyflood and the Baranduin; others say that Fangorn is not akin to the Old Forest, and that its secret is of other kind.' This was rejected at once and replaced by a shorter passage, close to Aragorn's words in TT (p. 45), though Elrond is not here cited as his authority: 'Some say the two are akin, the last strongholds of the mighty woods of the Elder days, in which the Elves strayed, when they first awoke.' At the end of the chapter, when Gimli was watchman and all was silent, save that the tree rustled and that 'the horses, picketed a little way off, stirred now and again,' the old man appeared; and his apparition and disappearance are told in precisely the same words as in TT, except that he was 'clad in rags', not in a great cloak, and his hat was 'battered', not 'wide-brimmed'. But the chapter ended altogether differently. There was no trace of him to be found near at hand; and they did not dare to wander far - the moon was hidden in cloud, and the night was very dark. [Struck out: The horses remained quiet, and seemed to feel nothing amiss.] ? The horses were restive, straining at their tether-ropes, showing the whites of their eyes. It was a little while before Legolas could quiet them. For some time the companions discussed this strange event. 'It was Saruman, of that I feel certain,' said Gimli. 'You remember the words of Eomer. He will come back, or bring more trouble upon us. I wish that the morning were not so far off.' 'Well, in the meantime there is nothing we can do,' said Aragorn, 'nothing but to get what rest we can, while we are still allowed to rest. I will watch now for a while, Gimli.' The night passed slowly, but nothing further happened, in any of their two-hour watches. The old man did not appear again. While this is no more than a guess, I suspect that when my father wrote this he thought that it was Gandalf, and not Saruman, who stood so briefly in the light of the fire (cf. the outline given on p. 389).(26) NOTES. 1. Sarn-Gebir runs North-South: see Map IV, pp. 317 - 18. 2. This means that the eagle was seen in the direction of Fangorn; see p. 396. 3. I forgot most of what I knew: cf. TT p. 98. 4. Haradwaith is here the name of a people: see p. 434, and cf. Enedwaith, rendered 'Middlemarch' on the First Map (Map II, p. 305), but afterwards (while remaining the name of a region) 'Middle-folk.' 5. On Mar- and Eo- names in Rohan see Unfinished Tales p. 311 note 6 and p. 315 note 36. - Names in Eo- are not written with an accent at this period. 6. None of the successive variants of this section of the First Map illustrate this. 7. Methen Amon: earliest name of Methedras - which appears on the First Map (Map IV, p. 319). For Methen see the Etymol- ogies, V.373, stem MET: Noldorin methen 'end'; and see note 18. 8. This is the first occurrence of the name Entwade in the texts: see p. 366, note 16. 9. Aragorn does not (of course) cry out: What news from the North, Riders of Rohan?'; it is said only that he 'hailed them in a loud voice.' 10. This is the first occurrence of the name Arathorn of Aragorn's father, replacing earlier Kelegorn (cf. also Eldakar p. 360, Valatar p. 362). 11. Gandalf's escape from Orthanc. 12. This passage is found later in TT (p. 33). The reference there to Eorl the Young is here absent; and the Brandings of Dale (named from King Brand son of Bain son of Bard) are in TT the Bardings (which was added to the First Map, p. 307). See note 19. 13. In a design of my father's for the cover of The Return of the King the throne is shown with four feet. This design, in white, gold and green on a black ground shows (as he noted) 'the empty throne awaiting return of the King' with outstretching wings; the Winged Crown; the white-flowering Tree, with seven stars; and dimly seen beyond in the darkness a vision of the fall of Sauron. This design, in simplified form, was used for the cover of the India paper edition of The Lord of the Rings published by George Allen and Unwin in 1969. 14. Yet Gandalf had himself been in, or over, those regions, it seems: 'No, I did not find them. There was a darkness over the valleys of the Emyn Muil, and I did not know of their captivity, until the eagle told me.' 15. Altered later to: 'It has been scored with the pin, which is broken off.' - An error in the text of TT may be mentioned here. Aragorn did not say (p. 26) that Pippin was smaller than the other' - he would not refer to Merry in such a remote tone - but 'smaller than the others', i.e. Merry and Frodo and Sam. 16. to the west: subsequently changed back to to the south. 17. This is the first occurrence in the texts of the name Eastemnet, which is found on the First Map (Map IV, p. 319). Westemnet occurs later in this text (p. 401). 18. Here, as they looked about them, they saw to their right 'the windy uplands of the Wold of Rohan', and beyond Fangorn the last great peak of the Misty Mountains (first named Methen Amon, p. 391 and note 7), Methendol, immediately changed to Methedras. 19. The passage in which Aragorn tells Gimli what he knows of the Riders of Rohan (TT p. 33), which had first appeared much earlier in B (p. 395), was transferred subsequently to the place that it occupies in TT on an inserted rider. This retains almost exactly the form in which it was first written, without mention of Eorl the Young, but with Bardings for Brandings. 20. In the preliminary drafting the Old English form is used: Halfheah (Halfheh, Heal fheh). 21. A pencilled rider was inserted into the manuscript later as a substitute for this speech: here the origin of the mearas remains the same, but in other respects the text of TT is largely reached: Gandalf (not yet called Greyhame) is murmured by some in Rohan to be a bringer of ill, Theoden is called King, and his anger against Gandalf for taking Shadowfax and the horse's wildness after his return appear. By an addition to the rider Eomer says: 'We know that name, or Gondelf as we have it.' Gondelf is an 'Anglo-Saxonising' of Norse Gandalf(r). At the foot of the page is written the Old English word Hasupada ('Grey-coat'), and it appears from a subsequent typescript text of the chapter that this refers to Gandalf ( Greyhame ): ' " Gandalf!" said Eomer. Fladrif Finglas]. Saruman has got hold of Skinbark. He went off to Isengard some time ago. Leaflock has gone 'tree-ish'. He seldom comes into the hills: has taken to standing half-asleep all through the summer with the deep grass of the meadows round his knees. Covered with leaves he is. Wakes up a bit in winter. May be somewhere about. Treebeard offers to take them across Rohan to or towards Minas, Tirith. Treebeard smells war. They see a battle of Wolfriders (Saruman) and the Horsemasters - wild flowing hair and little bows. How do they meet Gandalf? It should really be Sam or Frodo who saw vision in the Mirror of Galadriel. A possible return of Gandalf would be as an old bent beggar with a battered hat coming to gates of Minas Tirith. He is let in. After, at siege's darkest hour when outer walls have fallen, he throws off cloak and stands up - white. He leads sortie. Or he comes with horses of Rohan riding on [struck out: Arfaxed] Shadowfax. Another possibility. Cut out rescue of Frodo by Sam. Let Sam get lost and meet Gandalf, and have adventures getting into Minas Tirith. (But it was Frodo saw vision of Gandalf. Also Sam saw vision of Frodo lying under dark cliff, pale, and of himself on a winding stair.) The winding stair must be cut in rocks and go up from Gorgoroth to watch-tower. Cut out Minas Morgul. More roughly scribbled notes were added: Trotter sends Legolas and Gimli with Boromir to Minas Tirith. He himself wanders looking for the hobbits. He meets Gandalf. He is tempted but forsakes his ambition. What are Treebeard and Ents to do about Saruman. Seek help of Rohiroth? It is evident that this page does not belong to the time we have reached in the narrative texts, but to some earlier stage, before the death of Boromir had entered the story. To suppose otherwise would depend, of course, on the assumption that the words 'Gimli and Legolas to go with Trotter and Boromir. It must be Merry and Pippin who find Gandalf' already stood on this page which my father used afterwards for notes on the Ents; but there is nothing in the appear- ance of the page to suggest it. 'It must be Merry and Pippin who find Gandalf' suggests the rejection of some earlier idea, and 'How do they meet Gandalf?' later in these notes obviously relates to this. Moreover the notes at the end, in which Boromir is still thought of as going to Minas Tirith, seem certainly to have been set down after the main text had been written. In the outline which I have called 'The Story Foreseen from Moria' it was Merry and Pippin who were to encounter Treebeard but Gimli and Legolas who were to meet Gandalf returned (pp. 210 - 11); and this was repeated in the outline 'The Story Foreseen from Lorien' (pp. 329 - 30). The reference to the cutting-out of Minas Morgul and the substitution of a watchtower (see on this question p. 344 and note 39) is a reference to the story of Sam and Frodo in 'The Story Foreseen from Lorien'. The death of Boromir entered in an outline for the end of 'The Breaking of the Fellowship', and 'The Departure of Boromir' (pp. 375, 378). On the face of it, then, these notes belong to the time of work on 'The Great River' and 'The Breaking of the Fellowship', and show my father pondering the way ahead after the Company should have been brought to its dismemberment above the falls of Rauros. The note 'It should really be Sam or Frodo who saw vision in the Mirror of Galadriel' - at first sight incomprehensible, since there has never been a suggestion that it was anybody else who looked in the Mirror - is I think to be explained in this way: it would have been dearer if my father had written 'It really should be Sam or Frodo...', i.e. the story of the Mirror has been written of Sam and Frodo, and so it should be; it should not be changed. What is the purport of this? I think that my father was changing direction as he wrote - already doubting the rightness of the decision to make it Merry and Pippin who met Gandalf returned; and this seems to have been largely on account of the visions in the Mirror. Hence his suggestion (implying the rejection of the whole story of Sam and Frodo in Mordor as projected in 'The Story Foreseen from Lorien') that Sam should be the one who met Gandalf. Nonetheless he was unwilling to alter the visions seen by Frodo and Sam in the Mirror, to make it Sam who saw Gandalf walking down the long grey road (for that was not 'what really happened'). In the event, of course, Gandalf reappeared to members of the Company who had never looked into the Mirror of Galadriel. Possibly to be connected with this is the vision of Gandalf vouchsafed to Trotter on Amon Hen (pp. 379 - 80). The word Ents added in ink to the note on the difference between 'trolls' and 'tree-folk' (with its striking definition of 'trolls') was perhaps the first use of it in the new and very particular sense; for its former use in Entish Lands, Entish Dales see p. 16 note 14 and p. 65 note 32, and cf. also Letters no. 157, 27 November 1954: As usually with me they [the Ents] grew rather out of their name, than the other way about. I always felt that something ought to be done about the peculiar Anglo-Saxon word ent for a 'giant' or mighty person of long ago - to whom all old works were ascribed. The textual situation in this chapter is essentially very similar to that in the last, in that there is initial drafting for part of the chapter, but in the rest of it the draft text was erased and the 'fair copy' written over it; and here again, and even more so, the first draft is for the most part extraordinarily close to the final form. My father's words in the letter cited on p. 411, 'just as it now is', must be modified, however, in respect of certain passages where the narrative leaves the immediate experience of Merry and Pippin and touches on wider themes. The separation of 'Treebeard' as 'Chapter XXV' from XXIV ('The Uruk-hai') was carried out in the course of the writing of the fair copy. Taking first the part of the chapter for which the original setting down of the story is available, this runs from the beginning of the chapter in TT to 'they were twisted round, gently but irresistibly' (p. 66), and then from ' "There is quite a lot going on," said Merry' (p. 69) to Treebeard's denunciation of Saruman (p. 77). The draft, written so fast as to touch on total illegibility if the later text did not generally provide sufficient clues, remained in all essentials of description into TT, and for long stretches the vocabulary and phrasing underwent only the most minor forms of change. As in the last chapter I give a single brief passage to exemplify this (TT p. 73): No trees grew there. Treebeard strode up with scarcely any slackening of his pace. Then they saw a wide opening. On either side two trees grew like living gate-posts, but there was no gate save their crossing and interwoven branches; and as the Ent approached the trees raised up their boughs and all their leaves rustled and whispered. For they were evergreen trees, and their leaves were dark and polished like the leaves of the holm-oak. Beyond the trees there was a wide level space, as though the floor of a great hall had been hewn out of the side of the hill. On either side the walls sloped upward until they were fifty feet in height or more and at their feet grew trees: two long lines of trees increasing in size. At the far end the rock wall was sheer, but in it was cut a shallow bay with an arched roof: the only roof save the branches of the trees which overshadowed all the ground save for a broad aisle/path in the middle. A little stream that escaped from the Entwash spring high above and left the main water fell tinkling down the sheer face of the rear wall, pouring like a clear curtain of silver drops in front of the arched bay. It was gathered again in [a] green rock basin, and thence flowed out down the open aisle/path and on to rejoin the Entwash in its journey through the Forest. All the tiny meticulous changes of word and rhythm that differentiate this from the text of TT were introduced in the writing of the fair copy manuscript. There are some small particular points worthy of mention in this first part of the chapter. In the fair copy corresponding to TT pp. 66 - 7 (the passage is lacking in independent draft) Treebeard's height was changed from ten feet to twelve, and then to fourteen; he says that if he had not seen the hobbits before he heard them 'I should have just batted you with my club'; and his ejaculation 'Root and twig! ' replaced 'Crack my timbers!'(2) When Merry (Pippin in the draft) suggested that Treebeard must be getting tired of holding them up (TT p. 69), he replied, both in draft and fair copy: 'Hm, tired? Tired? What is that. Ah yes, I remember. No, I am not tired ., and later he says when they come to the Ent-house that perhaps they are 'what you call "tired" '. The first major development from the original text comes with Treebeard's long brooding discourse on Lorien and Fangorn, as he carried Merry and Pippin through the woods (TT pp. 70 - 2). At first he said: '...Neither this country nor anything else outside the Golden Wood is what it was when Keleborn was young. Tauretavarea tansbalemorna Tumbaletaurea landatavare.(3) That is what they used to say. But we have changed many things.' (He means they have weeded out rotten-hearted trees such as are in the Old Forest.) This was changed immediately to: '... Things have changed, but it is still true in places.' 'What do you mean? What is true?' said Pippin. 'I am not sure I know, and I am sure I could not explain to you. But there are no longer any evil trees here (none that are evil according to their kind and light)....' Treebeard's remarks about trees awakening, 'getting Entish', and then showing in some cases that they have 'bad hearts', are very much as in TT; but to Pippin's question 'Like the Old Forest, do you mean?' he replies: 'Aye, aye, something like, but not as bad as that. That was already a very bad region even in the days when there was all one wood from here to Lune, and we were called the East End. But something was queer (went wrong) away there: some old sorcery in the Dark Days, I expect. Ah, no: the first woods were more like Lorien, only thicker, stronger, younger. Those were days! Time was when one could walk and sing all day and hear no more than the echo of his own voice in the mountains. And the scent. I used to spend weeks [? months] just breathing.' In the fair copy this was greatly expanded, but by no means to the text of TT. Here Treebeard begins as in the original draft (with Mountains of Lune for Lune) as far as 'this was just the East End', but then continues: '... Things went wrong there in the Dark [> Elder] Days; some old sorcery, I expect [) some old shadow of the Great Dark lay there]. They say that even the Men that came out of the Sea were caught in it, and some of them fell into the Shadow. But that is only a rumour to me. Anyway they have no treeherds there, no one to care for them: it is a long, long time since the Ents walked away from the banks of the Baranduin.' 'What about Tom Bombadil, though?' asked Pippin. 'He lives on the Downs close by. He seems to understand trees.' 'What about whom?' said Treebeard. 'Tombombadil? Tom- bombadil? So that is what you call him. Oh, he has got a very long name. He understands trees, right enough; but he is not an Ent. He is no herdsman. He laughs and does not interfere. He never made anything go wrong, but he never cured anything, either. Why, why, it is all the difference between walking in the fields and trying to keep a garden; between, between passing the time of a day to a sheep on the hillside, or even maybe sitting down and studying sheep till you know what they feel about grass, and being a shepherd. Sheep get like shepherd, and shepherd like sheep, it is said, very slowly. But it is quicker and closer with Ents and trees. Like some Men and their horses and dogs, only quicker and closer even than that. For Ents are more like Elves: less interested in themselves than Men are, better at getting inside; and Ents are more like Men, more changeable than Elves are, quicker at catching the outside; only they do both things better than either: they are steadier, and keep at it. [Added: Elves began it of course: waking trees up and teaching them to talk. They always wished to talk to everything. But then the Darkness came, and they passed away over the Sea, or fled into far valleys and hid themselves. The Ents have gone on tree-herding.] Some of my trees can walk, many can talk to me. 'But it was not so, of course, in the beginning. We were like your Tombombadil when we were young. The first woods were more like the woods of Lorien....' Most of this passage, including all reference to Bombadil, was bracketed for omission,(4) and my father then struck it all out and substituted a new version on a separate page. It is clear that all this revision belongs to the time of the writing of the fair copy manuscript.(5) In this new version the text of TT is all but reached; but Treebeard says this of the Old Forest: '..I do not doubt that there is some shadow of the Great Darkness lying there still away North; and bad memories are handed down; for that Forest is old, though none of the trees are really old there, not what I call old. But there are hollow dales in this land where [the shadow >] the Darkness has never been lifted....' Treebeard's song (In the willow-meads of Tasarinan) was set down in the draft manuscript in a faint scribble that nonetheless reached without hesitation almost the final form.(6) When in the draft Treebeard reaches the Ent-house (TT p. 73) he makes no remark about the distance they have come, and in the fair copy he says: 'I have brought you three times twelve leagues or thereabouts, if measurements of that kind hold good in the country of Fangorn', where 'three' was changed to 'seven' before the words were rejected and replaced by his computation in 'Ent-strides'. In the draft he says that the place is named Fonthill, changed to Funtial, then back to Fonthill,(7) and finally 'Part of the name of this place could be called Wellandhouse in your language' (Wellinghall in the fair copy). Treebeard stooped and lifted the two great vessels onto the table (this my father wrote in the fair copy also before at once striking it out); and he said before he lowered himself onto the bed ('with only the slightest bend at the waist') 'I think better flat'. The next major development in the evolution of the text comes at this point, when Merry and Pippin tell Treebeard their story. Here the draft reads: They followed no order for Treebeard would often stop them, and go back again or jump forward. He was only interested in parts of the tale: in their account of the Old Forest, in Rivendell, in Lothlorien, and especially in anything to do with Gandalf, most of all in Saruman. The hobbits were sorry that they could not remember more clearly Gandalf's account of that wizard. Treebeard kept reverting to him. 'Saruman has been here some time, a long time you would call it. Too long I should now say. Very quiet he was to begin with: no trouble to any of us. I used to talk to him. Very eager to listen he was in those days, ready to learn about old days. Many a thing I have told him that he would never have known or guessed otherwise. Never. He never repaid me - never told me anything. And he got more like that: his face more like windows in a stone wall, windows with blinds (shutters inside). 'But now I understand. So he's thinking of becoming a Power, is he. I have not troubled myself with the great wars, Elves are not my business, nor Men; and it is with them that wizards are mostly concerned. They are always worrying about the future. I don't like worrying about the future. But I shall have to begin, I see. Mordor seemed a long way, but these orcs! And if Saruman has started taking them up, I have got trouble right on my borders. Cutting down trees. Machines, great fires. I won't stand it. Trees that were my friends. Trees I had known from nut and acorn. Cut down and left sometimes. Orc-work. 'I have been thinking I should have to do something. But I see it will be better sooner than later. Men are better than orcs, especially if the Dark Lord doesn't get at them. But the Rohiroth and the folk of Ondor if Saruman attacks at the back will soon be in a [?lonely].... We shall have [?hordes] from the East and ... [? swarm] of orcs all over us. I shall be [? eaten] up - and there will be nowhere to go. The flood will rise into the pines in the mountains. I don't think the Elves would find room for me in a, ship. I could not go over sea. I should wither away from my own soil. 'If you'll come with me we'll go to Isengard! You'll be helping your own friends.' With the further words '[?Of] the Ents and Entwives' the initial draft peters out here; but in these last hastily jotted lines we see the emergence of a major new idea and new direction. The role that Treebeard was to play in the raising of the siege of Minas Tirith (pp. 211, 330, and cf. p. 412) is gone, and all is suddenly clear: Treebeard's part is to attack Saruman, who dwells on his very borders. There is very little further initial drafting for this chapter extant; almost all is lost erased beneath the fair copy text. Rough workings for the Song of the Ent and the Entwife are found (see p. 421); and there is also a little scrap which shows my father's first thoughts for the march on Isengard: Ents excited. To Isengard! Hobbits see trees behind. Is Forest moving? Orc woodcutters come on the Ents. Horrible surprise to find wood alive. They are destroyed. Ents take shields. They go on to Isengard End of Ch. XXV. But it seems to me most unlikely that those parts of the original drafting that are lost were any less close to the fair copy than are those that survive.(8) The text of the fair copy manuscript in the latter part of the chapter was retained in TT (pp. 75 - 90) without the smallest deviation of expression almost throughout its length: Treebeard's thoughts of Saruman and his becoming 'hot', his story of the Entwives, the Entmoot, the time spent with Bregalad, the march of the Ents and Pippin's awareness of the moving groves of trees behind them, to the last words: ' "Night lies over Isengard," said Treebeard. Exceptions to this are very few.(9) Against the passage in which Treebeard condemns Saruman this note (it is scarcely in Treebeard's style) is written in the margin (and subsequently struck through): 'It is not perhaps mere chance that Orthanc which in Elvish means "a spike of rock" is in the tongue of Rohan "a machine".' With this cf. 'The Road to Isengard (11 p. 160): This was Orthanc, the citadel of Saruman, the name of which had (by design or chance) a twofold meaning; for in the Elvish speech orthanc signifies Mount Fang, but in the language of the Mark of old the Cunning Mind.' The alteration to the text made in 1944, extending the Entmoot by an extra day, has appeared already: see p. 407. Until this change was made the Entmoot ended on the afternoon of the second day (cf. TT pp. 87 - 8): Most of the time they sat silent under the shelter of the bank; for the wind was colder, and the clouds closer and greyer; there was little sunshine. There was a feeling of expectancy in the air. They could see that Bregalad was listening, although to them, down in the dell of his Ent-house, the sound of the Ent-voices was faint. The afternoon came, and the sun, going west towards the mountains, sent out long yellow beams... At the same time as this was rewritten, my father replaced the Entish words (first appearing in the fair copy manuscript) of the song sung by the Ents as they marched from the Moot past Bregalad's house, but not to the text in TT p. 88.(10) NOTES. 1. The word hnau is taken from C. S. Lewis, Out of the Silent Planet: on Earth there is only one kind of hnau, Men, but on Malacandra there are three totally distinct races that are hnau. 2. A pencilled note on the fair copy says that 'Crack my timbers' had been 'queried by Charles Williams'. The same change was made at a later point in the chapter (TT p. 75). 3. This was changed to the form in TT already on the draft manuscript, but with lomeamor for lomeanor, and this remained uncorrected on the fair copy. 4. It would be interesting to know why Treebeard's knowledge of and estimate of Tom Bombadil was removed. Conceivably, my father felt that the contrast between Bombadil and the Ents developed here confused the conflict between the Ents and the Entwives; or, it may be, it was precisely this passage that gave rise to the idea of that conflict. 5. This is seen from the fact that the new version was still numbered in 'Chapter XXIV', i.e. 'Treebeard' had not yet been separated off as a new chapter, as was done in the course of the writing of the fair copy (p. 414). Moreover, when later the hobbits told Treebeard their story he was 'enormously interested in every- thing', and 'everything' included Tom Bombadil. 6. The names in the draft have these differences from those in TT: Dorthonion is Orod Thuin (preceded by Orod Thon), which remained in the fair copy and following typescript, changed later to Orod-na-Thon (see the Etymologies, V.392); and for Aldalome appears another name that I cannot certainly read: His .. eluinalda. 7. The name Fonthill is specifically derived from Fonthill in Wilt- shire, as is seen from Funtial, which is the form of the place-name found in a tenth-century charter. The first element of the name is probably Old English funta 'spring', and the second the Celtic word ial 'fertile upland region'; but my father no doubt intended it to be taken as if from Old English hyll 'hill'. 8. This is supported by the bits of text where the erased draft can to some extent be made out, and by a piece of independent draft revision of a part of the 'Saruman' passage. - The name Dernslade (slade 'valley, dell, dingle') can be seen in the draft where the fair copy has Derndingle. 9. In addition to those mentioned in the text, it may be noted that Treebeard's answer to Pippin's question about the small number of the Ents: 'Have a great many died?' is here briefer: ' "Oh no!" said Treebeard. "But there were only a few to begin with, and we have not much increased. There have been no Entings...' Among names, Angrenost (Isengard} now appears; a blank was left for the Elvish name of the Valley of Saruman, Nan Gurunir being added in; and Gondor remains Ondor (see p. 401). 10. The original form of the Entish words was thus: Ta-ruta dum-da dum-da dum / ta-rara dum-da dum-da bum/ Da-duda rum-ta rum-ta rum I ta-dada rum-ta rum-ta dum/ The Ents were coming: ever nearer and louder rose their song. Ta-bumda romba bumda-romba banda-romba bum-ta bum / Da-dura dara lamba bum I ta-lamba dara rum-ta rum! Ta-bum-da-dom I ta-rum-ta-rom I ta-bum-ta lamba dum-da- dom // ta-bum / ta-rum I ta-bum-ta lamba dum// This was changed in 1944 to: A! rundamara-nundarun tahora-mundakumbalun, taruna-runa-runarun tahora-kumbakumbanun. The Ents were coming: ever nearer and louder rose their song: Tarundaromba-rundaromba mandaromba-mundamun, tahurahara-lambanun talambatara-mundarun, tamunda-rom, tarunda-rom, tamunda-lamba-munda- tom. The Song of the Ent and the Entwife. Rough workings and a first completed draft are extant; in this, verses 1 and 3 are as in the final form. 2. When Spring is in the sprouting corn and flames of green arise, When blossom like a living snow upon the orchard lies, When earth is warm, and wet with rain, and its smell is in the air, I'll linger here, and will not come, because my land is fair. 4. When Summer warms the hanging fruit and burns the berry brown, When straw is long and ear is white and harvest comes to town, When honey spills and apple swells and days are wealthiest, I'll linger here, and will not come, because my land is best. 5. When winter comes and boughs are bare and all the grass is grey, When and starless night o'ertakes the sunless day, When storm is wild and trees are felled, then in the bitter rain I'll look for thee, and call to thee, I'll come to thee again. The blank space in this verse is left thus in the original. Verse 6 differs from the final form only in the first line, with repeated When Winter comes, when Winter comes; and the concluding lines differ only in the roads that lead for the road that leads. A preliminary version of the ending is found, written as prose, thus: I'll come back to thee and look for thee again, I'll come to thee and comfort thee, and find thee in the rain. We'll walk the land together and gather seed and set, and journey to an island where both can live again. XXIII. NOTES ON VARIOUS TOPICS. There are three isolated pages of notes, heterogeneous in content and obviously even on the same page written at different times, but each of which has links to the others. Some of the notes may well be earlier than the time we have reached,(1) others later, but rather than split them up and try to fit them in uncertainly elsewhere it seems best to give them together. The page that I give first begins with the note 'Wizards = Angels', and this same note is found on the other two pages also. I take it to be the first appearance in written record of this conception, i.e. that the Istari or Wizards were angeloi, 'messengers', emissaries from the Lords of the West: see Unfinished Tales pp. 388 ff., and especially my father's long discussion in Letters no. 156 (4 November 1954). Then follows: Gandalf to reappear again. How did he escape? This might never be fully explained. He passed through fire - and became the White Wizard. 'I forgot much that I knew, and learned again much that I had forgotten.' He has thus acquired something of the awe and terrible power of the Ring-wraiths, only on the good side. Evil things fly from him if he is revealed - when he shines. But he does not as a rule reveal himself. He should have a trial of strength with Saruman. Could the Balrog of the Bridge be in fact Saruman? Or better? as in older sketch Saruman is very affable. With this compare the initial sketch for 'The Riders of Rohan', p. 389 The extraordinary idea that the Balrog of Moria might be Saruman has appeared in a note written on the back of a page of the fair copy manuscript of 'Lothlorien', p. 236: 'Could not Balrog be Saruman? Make battle on Bridge be between Gandalf and Saruman?' The reference to the 'older sketch' - 'Saruman is very affable' - is to 'The Story Foreseen from Moria', p. 212, where on the homeward journey 'They call at Isengard. Gandalf knocks. Saruman comes out very affable', etc. The next note on this page records my father's decision to move the whole chronology of the Quest forward by a month: Time Scheme. Too much takes place in winter. They should remain longer at Rivendell. This would have additional advantage of allowing Elrond's scouts and messengers far longer time. He should discover Black Riders have gone back. Frodo should not start until say Dec. 24th. It seems likely that 24 December was chosen as being 'numerically' one month later than the existing date, 24 November (p. 169); and that it was changed to 25 December to make the new dates agree 'numerically' with the existing time-structure (since November has 30 days but December 31): see p. 368. I do not understand the statement here that 'he [Elrond] should discover Black Riders have gone back', since the final text of 'The Ring Goes South' had been reached in Gandalf's words 'It is rash to be too sure, yet I think that we may hope now that the Ringwraiths were scattered, and have been obliged to return as best they could to their Master in Mordor, empty and shapeless.' Another note on this page, not written at the same time, refers to 'Chapter XXIV: Open with conversation of Goblins and their quarrel. How are Merry and Pippin armed?' And the last reads: 'Sarn-gebir = Grailaw or Graidon Hills'. Both these names mean 'Grey Hill(s)': Old English hlaw 'hill', Northern English and Scottish law, and Old English dun, Modern English down. The second page contains exact repetitions of notes found on the other pages or in outlines already given, and need not be cited. On the third page the following (only) was written in ink, and seems to be the primary element on the page: Feb. 9 1942 Geography. Ondor > Gondor. Osgiliath > Elostirion. Ostirion = fort. Lorn = haven. Londe = gulf. On the date see p. 379, where I have noted that on the back of an outline for 'The Departure of Boromir' is a clear indication that it was written in the winter of 1941 - 2. The precise date given here for the change of Ondor to Gondor is notable; in the fair copy of 'Treebeard' the form was still Ondor (see p. 401). Elostirion was written above Osgiliath in the outline for 'The Riders of Rohan' given on p. 389. This change was of course impermanent, but the name Elostirion became that of the tallest of the White Towers on Emyn Beraid, in which the palantir was set (Of the Rings of Power, in The Silmarillion, p. 292).(2) - With lorn haven cf. Forlorn North Haven' and Harlorn 'South Haven' on the First Map (pp. 301 - 2), for later Forlond, Harlond; but on that map appears also Mithlond, the Grey Havens (where however it is possible that Mithlond actually meant 'Grey Gulf'). The other notes on this page are heterogeneous and not necessarily of the same time. The heading 'Geography' was extended to 'Geogra- phy and Language'. Some of these notes are concerned to find a new name for Sarn Gebir: rejected names are Sern Lamrach; Tarn Felin; Trandoran, before (added much later to the page) Emyn Muil is reached (for Muil see the Etymologies, V.374, stem M U Y). There are also the English names Graydon Hills and Grailaws, as on the first page of these notes, and Hazowland.(3) Another group of notes reads: Language of Shire = modern English Language of Dale = Norse (used by Dwarves of that region) Language of Rohan = Old English 'Modern English' is lingua franca spoken by all people (except a few secluded folk like Lorien) - but little and ill by orcs. NOTES. 1. It is to be remembered that statements such as 'Gandalf to reappear again' do not by any means imply that this is where the idea first arose: often they are to be taken as reassertions of existing but as yet unachieved ideas. 2. An altogether isolated and undateable note on a slip of paper also evinces dissatisfaction with the name Osgiliath. The reverse of the slip carries notes on unconnected matters which my father dated '1940', which may or may not be significant. At the present time, at any rate, I can cast no light on the purport of this note: Lord of Rings Osgiliath won't do. Name should = New building 'Newbold' Town built again echain Ostechain The word 'building' is very unclear, but is assured by 'Newbold', a common English village name meaning 'New building', from Old English bold (also bodl, botl) closely associated with byldan, Modern English build. I will add here, incidentally and irrel- evantly, that another derivative from the same source is Nobottle (Northamptonshire), which my father allowed me to add to my map of the Shire made in 1943 (VI.107, item V) and which remains in that published in The Lord of the Rings, although at that time I was under the impression that the name meant that the village was so poor and remote that it did not even possess an inn. 3. Hazowland is clearly from the Old English poetic word hasu (inflected hasw-) 'grey, ashen'; cf. Hasupada 'Greycoat', name of Gandalf in Rohan (p. 405 note 21), and Hasofel (Hasufel) of the same meaning, the horse lent to Aragorn by Eomer. XXIV. THE WHITE RIDER. For the greater part of this chapter the evolution can be traced very dearly. Initial drafting not erased or overwritten, more developed but discontinuous drafting, and a 'fair copy' that itself underwent constant correction in the act of composition, were a continuous process, and the history of almost every sentence can be followed until near the end of the chapter. This was numbered 'XXVI' from an early stage; a title was added to the 'fair copy' later, first Sceadufax in Old English spelling, then 'The White Rider'. The process of composition here was continuous and all of the same time, so that 'first draft', 'second draft', 'fair copy', 'corrections to fair copy' cannot be treated as distinct entities, each complete before the next stage. An example of this overlapping is seen at once. In the original form of the opening, to Gimli's insistence that the old man who stood by the fire in the night was Saruman, Aragorn replies: 'I wonder. The horses showed no signs of fear.' In the 'fair copy' (more accurately, the first coherent manuscript) this became: ' "I wonder," said Aragorn. "What did he seem to be? An old man? It is strange enough in itself: that an old man should be walking alone by the eaves of Fangorn. Yet the horses showed no signs of fear." ' This obviously belongs with the sentence struck out at the end of 'The Riders of Rohan': 'The horses remained quiet, and seemed to feel nothing amiss', and suggests to my mind that my father believed the old man to be Gandalf (see p. 403 and note 26). Yet in the most 'primitive' drafting further on in the chapter the old man in the night certainly was Saruman (see further pp. 427 - 8). The later chronology of the chase across Rohan not being present, of course (see p. 406), Aragorn remarks that the footprints by the riverside are a day old ., Gandalf says that the hobbits climbed up here yesterday', and that he himself had seen Treebeard 'three days ago': in TT all these are made one day earlier, on account of the extra day added in 1944. At one point, however, the need for correction escaped my father's notice: Legolas' words that the last time he saw the eagle was 'three days ago, above the Emyn Muil' (TT p. 98). This should have been changed to .four days ago, see the table on p. 406, and cf. The Tale of Years in LR, February 27 Aragorn reaches the west-cliff at sunrise', and (February having 30 days) 'March 1 Aragorn meets Gandalf the White'. The story of the first meeting with Gandalf was sketched out in every essential point in the earliest draft. When the three companions saw the old man walking through the wood below them, Gimli's horror of Saruman was at first expressed in more murderous fashion: 'Shoot, Legolas! Draw your bow! Shoot! It is Saruman, or worse. Do not let him speak or bewitch us!' This was retained in the fair copy; and when subsequently it was softened to a demand that Legolas only prepare to shoot, Gimli's following words were retained: 'Why are you waiting? What is the matter with you?' In the earliest draft the wizard wore an 'old hat'; this became a 'battered hat', then a 'wide-brimmed hat' (see p. 403).(1) The opening of their long conversation proceeds thus in the earliest draft (cf. TT pp. 98 - 9): '... At the turn of the Tide. The great storm is coming, but the Tide has turned even at this moment. I have passed through fire and ruin and I have been badly burned, or well burned. But come, tell me now of yourselves. I have seen much in deep places and in high since we parted; I have forgotten much that I knew, and learned again much that I had forgotten.(2) [Some things I can see far off and some close at hand; but not all can I see. Changed at once to:] Many things I can see far off but many that are close at hand I cannot see.' 'What do you wish to know?' said Aragorn. 'All that has happened would be a long tale. Will you not first tell us tidings of Merry and Pippin? Did you find them, and are they safe?' 'No, I did not find them,' said Gandalf.(3) 'I was busy with perilous matters, and did not know of their captivity until the eagle told me.' 'The eagle! ' said Legolas. 'We have seen an eagle high and far . off: the last time was three days ago, above Sarn Gebir.' 'Yes,' said Gandalf, 'that was Gwaewar the Windlord who rescued me from Orthanc. I sent him before me to gather tidings, and to watch the River. His sight is keen, but he cannot see all that passes in wood and valley. But there are some things that I can see unaided. This I may tell you: the Ring has passed beyond my help or the help of any of our original Company. Very nearly it was revealed to the Enemy, but not quite. I had some part in that. For I sat upon the mountains beneath the snows of Methedras and I strove with the Dark Tower, and the shadow passed. Then I was weary: very weary.' The story that Gandalf was on Tol Brandir when Frodo sat on Amon Hen, and that he was borne across Rohan by the eagle (see p. 396), has been abandoned; Gwaewar (Gwaihir) is now in his later role as gatherer of tidings for Gandalf in the region of Anduin. It is not clear at this stage what had happened to Gandalf, and it seems that my father did not for the moment intend to make it so. Is it to be supposed that he made his way south along the mountains and so came to Methedras, where he sat 'beneath the snows and strove with the Dark Tower' while Frodo wore the Ring on Amon Hen? A single isolated and interrupted sentence says 'Gwaewar found me walking in the woods. Of him I'; which surely means that Gandalf came from Methedras into Fangorn, and that Gwaewar having found him he sent the eagle away east 'to watch the River and gather tidings'. This may suggest that the story of his being borne by the eagle to Lothlorien had not yet arisen. When drafting the chapter my father had at first no thought, it seems, that Gandalf should display to Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli 'a piece of his mind' (TT p. 100) on the hopes and chances of the War. After Gandalf has been told that they think that Sam went with Frodo to Mordor, he says: 'Did he, indeed. It is news to me, but not at all surprising. But now about Merry and Pippin, for I shall not get your tale out of you before I have told you of them.' It was perhaps at this point that my father set down a short outline for what Gandalf might now say: Eagle sights orcs and hobbits. Saruman about in the woods. Orc-battle. Treebeard. They are safe, but something is going on. Revolt of trees? But we are called south. War is beginning. They must wait in hope and patience to find Merry and Pippin ... - but their friendship and devotion in following them was rewarded. The Company had done nobly and Gandalf was pleased with them. They ask what had happened to him - he won't tell yet. It seems that the new course of the conversation ('Now sit by me and tell me the tale of your journey', TT p. 99) was at once introduced, leading to Gandalf's account of the intentions, desires, and fears of the Dark Lord and of Saruman. This was a characteristic development in stages by expansion, refinement of expression, and some re-ordering of its structure, but all the essentials of Gandalf's thought were present from the first drafting. There are however in the earlier stages a number of interesting differences to be recorded. That Saruman was 'about in the woods' is mentioned in the little outline just given; in the first drafting Gandalf tells (as in TT, p. 101) that 'he could not wait at home and came forth to meet his captives', but that he was too late, the battle was over, and being 'no woodcraftsman' he had misinterpreted what had happened. 'Poor Saruman!' Gandalf adds, 'what a fall for one so wise! I fear that [he started too late to make a success of wickedness >] he started in the race too late. He seems not to have the luck he needs in his new profession. He at least will never sit in the Dark Tower.' The passage about the Winged Messenger, absent in the draft, appears in the fair copy, where Legolas says that he felled him from the sky 'above Sarn Ruin' (see p. 361 and note 20), and that 'He filled us all with fear, but none so much as Frodo.' In the first draft Gimli asks: 'That old man. You say Saruman is abroad. Was it you or Saruman that we saw last night?' and Gandalf replies: 'If you saw an old man last night, you certainly did not see me. But as we seem to look so much alike that you wished to make an incurable dent in my hat, I must guess that you saw Saruman [or a vision >] or some wraith of his making. [Struck out: I did not know that he lingered here so long.]' Against Gandalf's words my father wrote in the margin: Vision of Gandalf's thought. There is clearly an important clue here to the curious ambiguity surrounding the appari- tion of the night before, if one knew how to interpret it; but these words are not perfectly clear. They obviously represent a new thought: arising perhaps from Gandalf's suggestion that if it was not Saruman himself that they saw it was a 'vision' or 'wraith' that he had made, the apparition is now to emanate from Gandalf himself. But of whom was it a vision? Was it an embodied 'emanation' of Gandalf, proceeding from Gandalf himself, that they saw? 'I look into his unhappy mind and I see his doubt and fear', Gandalf has said; it seems more likely perhaps that through his deep concentration on Saruman he had 'projected' an image of Saruman which the three companions could momentarily see. I have found no other evidence to cast light on this most curious element in the tale; but it may be noted that in a time-scheme deriving from the time of the writing of 'Helm's Deep' and 'The Road to Isengard' my father noted of that night: 'Aragorn and his companions spend night on the battle-field, and see "old man" (Saruman).' The earliest of several versions of Gandalf's reply to Legolas' question 'Who is Treebeard?' is notable, though extremely difficult to read: 'Ah,' said Gandalf, 'Now you are asking. He is Fangorn, that is Treebeard, Treebeard the Ent: what else shall I call him? The eldest of the old, the King of the Treebeards, the dwellers in the Forest. Stone-old, tree-hale, snail-slow, strong as a growing root. I wish you had met him. Your friends were more fortunate. For they came up here, as Aragorn has [? already] discovered. But no marks of them go down, as he may have discovered and soon would. But here ... marks by [?one] [of] Treebeard's feet. This was a place, he often came to it when he wished to be alone and look outside the Forest. He has taken the hobbits away.' 'Then they are safe, since you speak well of Treebeard?' 'Safe? Yes, as far as the Ents go. But there is [?terrible] hurry.' Gandalf tells them about Ents. Says it was well that Merry and Pippin I?came there]. They did right to follow. Yet to meet the Ents is not their task. Too late anyway. He looks at sun. 'We have spent all the time allowed to a meeting of parted friends. We must go. We are needed South.' In a more developed draft Aragorn's response to Gandalf's naming 'the Ents' (TT p. 102) reads: 'The Ents!' exclaimed Aragorn. 'Then there is truth in the ancient legends, [and the names that they use in Rohan have a meaning! The Entwash and the Entmark (for that is how they call the Forest)] Above Entmark is written Entwood. - These remarks about the names containing Ent were bracketed for rejection at once, since the text continues: 'about the dwellers in the deep forest, and the giant Shepherds of the Trees', as in TT. In one of many draftings for Legolas' words at this point he says: 'I thought that [Fangorn] was the name of the Forest. A strange name for a wood, now I consider it.' The words 'he is the oldest living thing that still walks beneath the sun upon this Middle-earth' appear in the draft, written just so, without any hesitation in reaching them. Of his seeing Treebeard in the woods Gandalf says: '... I passed him in the forest three days ago; and I do not doubt that he saw me, since the eyes of Treebeard miss little [written in margin: and he saw me, indeed he called my name]; but I did not speak, for I had much to think about, and I did not then know that Merry and Pippin had been carried off.' The text of TT is reached in the fair copy. He says in the draft that 'something is going to happen which has not happened since the Elves awoke'; in the fair copy this becomes 'since the Elves first woke', changed to 'since the Elves were born' ('since the Elder Days', TT p. 103). But when Legolas says 'What is going to happen?' Gandalf replies: 'I do not know. Merry and Pippin do perhaps, by now; but I do not.' To his words to Aragorn, urging him not to regret his choice 'in the valley of Sarn Gebir', he adds (both in draft and fair copy): '... Also I say to you that your coming to Minas Tirith will now be very different from what would have been, had you come there alone reporting that Boromir son of the Lord Denethor had fallen, while you lived....' In the draft text he tells Aragorn that he must go now to Winseld, changed to Eodoras (see p. 402): 'The light of Branding must now be uncovered. There is battle in Rohan and they are hard put to it in the West, even as the great [? flood] of war comes up from the East.' In the fair copy this becomes: There is war in Rohan and it goes ill for the horsemasters': thus again (see p. 401) there is no suggestion of Wormtongue (cf. TT p. 104: There is war in Rohan, and worse evil, it goes ill with Theoden'). The textual development of the last part of this chapter and its relation to the beginning of the next is complex and doubtful, the manuscript material being very hard to interpret, and I shall not go into the question in any detail. But it is clear that at least half of 'The King of the Golden Hall' had been written before the conclusion of 'The White Rider' approached at all the form it has in The Two Towers; for as will be seen (p. 446) Aragorn tells Theoden in Eodoras that Gandalf had not told them 'what befell him in Moria'. How my father ended 'The White Rider' at this stage is not entirely clear to me, but it seems probable that he stopped at Gandalf's words of the Balrog (TT p. 105): 'Name him not!': 'and for a moment it seemed that a cloud of pain passed over his face, and he sat silent, looking old as death.' He would then have begun a new chapter (XXVII) at 'Gandalf now wrapped himself again in his old tattered cloak. They descended quickly from the high shelf...' (TT p. 107). I cannot say at what precise point my father decided that Gandalf should in fact tell something at least of what had happened to him after his fall from the Bridge of Khazad-dum, but it must have been in the course of the writing of 'The King of the Golden Hall'. In what is apparently the earliest draft (but written over erased pencil) of Gandalf's story of his escape from Moria (4) the four companions are already riding south from Fangorn when he tells it: On the way they ask Gandalf how he escaped. He refuses the full tale - but tells how he passed through fire (and water?) and came to the 'bottom of the world', and there finally overthrew the Balrog, who fled. Gandalf followed up a secret way to Durin's Tower on the summit of the mountains (?of Caradras). There they had a battle - those who beheld it afar thought it was a thunderstorm with lightning. A great rain came down. The Balrog was destroyed, and . the tower crumbled and stones blocked the door of the secret way. Gandalf was left on the mountain-top. The eagle Gwaihir rescued him. He went then to Lothlorien. Galadriel arrayed him in white garments before he left. While Gandalf was on mountain top he saw many things - a vision of Mordor etc. This is the first appearance of the form Gwaihir (here apparently first written Gwaehir) for earlier Gwaewar, which was still the name in the earlier part of this chapter. A very rough and unfinished draft for the final form and placing of Gandalf's story ('Long I fell, and he fell with me...', TT p. 105) is found. Here Gandalf describes the Balrog, his fire quenched, thus: 'he was a thing of slime, strong as a strangling snake, sleek as ice, pliant as a thong, unbreakable as steel.' Of the 'dark things unguessed' that gnaw the world 'below the deepest delvings of the dwarves' he says: 'Sauron alone may know of them, or one older than he.' And after his words 'I will bring no report to stain the light of day' the text continues: '...Little had I guessed the abyss that was spanned by Durin's Bridge.' 'Did you not?' said Gimli. 'I could have told you had there been time. No plummet ever found the bottom - indeed none that was ever cast therein was ever recovered.'(5) The form of Gandalf's story in TT is almost reached in the 'fair copy' manuscript, but there remain some differences. He tells that clutching at the Balrog's heel 'I set my teeth in it like a hunting hound, and tasted venom'; and that Durin's Tower was 'carved in the living rock in the very pinnacle of red Caradras.' This was subsequently changed to 'the living rock [of] Zirakinbar,(6) the pinnacle of the Silverhorn. There upon Kelebras was a lonely window in the snow...' On these names see pp. 174 - 5, notes 18, 21 - 2. Gandalf does not say, as in TT (p. 106), 'Naked I was sent back - for a brief time, until my task is done', but simply 'Naked I returned, and naked I lay upon the mountain-top.'(7) And of his coming thence to Caras Galadon, borne by Gwaihir, he says that he 'found you three days gone', and that he 'tarried there in the long time which in that land counts for but a brief hour of the world' ('in the ageless time of that land', TT): see pp. 368 - 9. At this time the messages that he bore from Galadriel to Aragorn and Legolas were very different: Elfstone, Elfstone, bearer of my green stone, In the south under snow a green stone thou shalt see. Look well, Elfstone! In the shadow of the dark throne Then the hour is at hand that long hath awaited thee. Greenleaf, Greenleaf, bearer of the elven-bow, Far beyond Mirkwood many trees on earth grow. Thy last shaft when thou hast shot, under strange trees shalt thou go! The dialogue that follows, between Gimli, Legolas, and Gandalf, is however precisely the same as in TT, p. 107. On the significance of the verse addressed to Aragorn see p. 448. With the addition of Gandalf's story to this chapter, what was originally the opening of 'The King of the Golden Hall' (from 'Gandalf now wrapped himself again in his old tattered cloak', see p. 430) was incorporated into 'The White Rider', which now ended at Gandalf's words 'Show no weapon, speak no haughty word, I counsel you all, until we are come before Theoden's seat' (TT p. 111). The final form of the story of the departure from Fangorn, the summoning of the horses, the great ride south across the plains with the sight at sunset of smoke rising far off in the Gap of Rohan, and the distant view of Eodoras at sunrise (TT pp. 107 - 11, where it constitutes the end of the one chapter and the beginning of the next), was achieved almost down to the last detail in the fair copy manuscript.(8) By this time my father had changed the ending of 'The Riders of Rohan' (p. 403) to the form it has in TT, pp. 45 - 6 ('The horses were gone. They had dragged their pickets and disappeared'), and had changed the beginning of 'The White Rider' similarly to its form in TT, p. 91 (' "Did you hear them, Legolas? Did they sound to you like beasts in terror?" "No," said Legolas. "I heard them clearly....I should have guessed that they were beasts wild with some sudden gladness" '). NOTES. 1. A little slip of paper used to draft the moment of recognition of Mithrandir (TT p. 98) was a page from an engagement calendar 'for the week ending Saturday February 22'. February 22 fell on a Saturday in 1941, not in 1942. 2. The forerunner of this phrase appeared in the outline given on p. 389, as also did 'I was badly burned or well burned'; cf. also the notes given on p. 422. Gandalf's suggestion that he now 'is' Saruman, in the sense that he is 'Saruman as he should have been', is lacking, but appears in the fair copy as first written. 3. Gandalf's words that follow in TT: 'There was a darkness over the valleys of the Emyn Muil' are absent in the draft, but are found in the fair copy (with Sarn Gebir for the Emyn Muil). 4. For the earliest notes on Gandalf's escape from Moria see VI.462 and p. 211 in this book. 5. It is interesting to look back to my father's original ideas about the chasm in the passages referred to in note 4: 'probably fall is not as deep as it seemed... eventually following the subterranean stream in the gulf he found a way out', and 'The gulf was not deep (only a kind of moat and was full of silent water). He followed the channel and got down into the Deeps.' 6. This form Zirakinbar, preceding Zirakzigil, is found also in an entirely isolated note: 'Barazinbar, Zirakinbar, Udushinbar', together with a reference to 'Silverhorn and the Horn of Cloud'. 7. Cf. Letters no. 156 (4 November 1954), Naked I was sent back - for a brief time, until my task is done." Sent back by whom, and whence? Not by the "gods" whose business is only with this embodied world and its time; for he passed "out of thought and time". Naked is alas! unclear. It was meant just literally, "un- clothed like a child" (not discarnate), and so ready to receive the white robes of the highest. Galadriel's power is not divine, and his healing in Lorien is meant to be no more than physical healing and refreshment.' 8. Initial drafting is very largely lost through overwriting. - The only points of any significance in which the text of the fair copy differs from that of TT, other than names, are that Theoden is the 'Master of Rohan' and 'lord of the Mark' where in TT he is called 'King' (see p. 444); that Gandalf says to Shadowfax 'Far let us ride now together, ere we part again!' where in TT he says 'and part not in this world again!'; and that 'the mountains of the South' (the Black Mountains) are 'black-tipped and streaked with white', whereas in TT, where they are the White Mountains, they are 'white-tipped and streaked with black': cf. the earlier description in 'The Riders of Rohan' (TT p. 24), where the original text was retained (p. 395), 'rising into peaks of jet, tipped with glimmering snows'. Among names, Sarn Gebir (for Emyn Muil), Winseld, Eodoras are still present. At the end of the chapter, in Gandalf's phrase 'the Horse-masters do not sleep' (TT p. 111), the form Rohir (not Rohiroth) was written above. XXV. THE STORY FORESEEN FROM FANGORN. In this chapter I give two outlines of great interest, for in them my father discussed the structural problems of the story that he foresaw at this time. The first one given here was evidently written when 'The White Rider' had been completed in its earlier form (i.e. without Gandalf's story of the Balrog, see p. 430); the ride across Rohan and the distant sight of Eodoras in the morning may or may not have existed yet, but the question is immaterial. XXVII Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli reach Eodoras on the morn- ing of Jan. 31.(1) (That aft[ernoon] Merry and Pippin go with Ents to Isengard.) They enter Theoden's halls. Theoden greets Gandalf dubiously - as herald of trouble. Shadowfax had been reported coming from the West through the Gap and fleeing away north.(2) They feared Gandalf would return. Then Eomer had come riding back, with strange news concerning Gandalf's fall. 'That,' said Theoden, 'was too much to hope, it seems; for now Gandalf returns and worse tidings follow.' Against this paragraph was written in the margin, at the same time as the text, 'A messenger from Minas Tirith is present.' There is a battle on the borders of the West Emnet. An invasion of Orcs of Saruman had been driven back (not without loss to the Rohiroth) to the banks of the Isen River. But news came that orcs were pouring out of Isengard, and that men of the Middlemarch (3) (whom Saruman had long subjected) were coming up. 'We cannot hope long to hold the river,' said Theoden. 'Eomer has gone thither with what men could still be spared. And now as we are beset in the West, there comes dire news indeed. The whole of Rhun the Great, the endless East, is in motion. Under the command of the Dark Lord of Mordor they move from the far North even to the South. Minas Tirith is beset. The fierce dark men of the South, the Haradwaith (Harwan Silharrows Men of Sunharrowland Men of Harrow- land) have come in many ships and fill the Bay of Belfalas, and [have] taken the isle of Tolfalas. They have passed up the Anduin in many galleys, and out of Mordor others have crossed at Elostirion.(4) A tide of war rolls beneath the very walls of Minas Tirith. They have sent us urgent prayer for help. And we cannot give it. Yet if Minas Tirith falls then the dark tide will sweep over us from the East. Against this passage concerning Minas Tirith was written in the margin, at the same time as the text, 'Not yet have they heard of Boromir's fall.' Later, the whole passage from 'And now as we are beset in the West' to this point was closed off in pencil with the note 'place after return victorious from Isengard.' Theoden continues: You come at the end of the days of Rohan. Not long now shall the hall (which Brego son of Brytta [changed later in pencil to Eorl son of Eofor] built)(5) stand. Fire shall eat up the high seat. What can you say?' Gandalf speaks words of comfort. All that can be done is to do one deed at a time and go forward and not look back. Let us assail Saruman and then if fortune is with us turn and face East. There is a hope. Something may happen in West (he does not openly name Ents). Gandalf begs for the gift of Shadowfax. Theoden says Yes - that will at least ensure Gandalf's escape, when all else fall. Gandalf does not lose temper. He says there will be no escape for anyone. But he wishes for gift, as he will take Shadowfax into great peril: silver against black. The ceremony of gift. Gandalf casts aside grey robe and be- comes White Rider. He bids Theoden arm, old as he is, and follow with all left who can bear arms. The rest shall pack and prepare to flee to the mountains. They ride off without rest. Meet messengers reporting death of the Second Master and the forces of Rohan hemmed almost in, while the forces of Saruman are continually strengthened. Gandalf spurs Shadowfax and spurs into the setting sun. By his help and Aragorn the Isengarders are driven back. The camp of the Rohiroth. But Isengarders are across the river. In the morning they awake and look out in wonder. A wood stood where none had been, between the Isengarders and the West. There is clamour and confusion. Vast columns of vapour are seen rising from Isengard, and the rumour of strange noises and rumblings. The Isengarders are driven into the river. Those who cross are suddenly assailed by the trees which seem to come to life. Only a few escape fleeing southward to the Black Mountains. The victorious forces under Eomer and Gandalf ride to the gates of Isengard. They find it a pile of rubble, blocked with a huge wall of stone. On the top of the pile sit Merry and Pippin! Meeting of Treebeard and Gandalf. How did the Ents overcome Isengard? They open[ed] sluice gates at North end and blocked the outlet near the Great Gate. First they watched all the night seeing more and more orcs etc. pour out of Isengard. Then they simply broke a way in at North end and spied and found Saruman was left nearly all alone in his tower. They broke the door and stairway to the tower and then withdrew. At North end they let in the River Isen but blocked its outflow. Soon all the floor of the circle was flooded to many feet deep. Then while some kept guard the rest fell on the rear of the battle. Here comes scene of Saruman being let out of his tower and trying to speak in friendly fashion to Gandalf. 'Ah, my dear Gandalf! I am so pleased to see you; we at least (we wizards) understand one another. These people all seem so unnecessarily angry.(6) What a mess the world is in. Really you and I must consult together - such men as we are needed. Now what about . our spheres of influence?' Gandalf looks at him and laughs. 'Yes, I understand you well enough, Saruman. Give me your staff,' he said in a voice of terrible command. He took it and broke it. 'I am the White Wizard now,' he said. 'Behold you are clad in many colours!' They turn his coat inside out. Gandalf gives him a rough staff. [Added subsequently: Saruman is to go without a staff, and have no wooden thing to lean on by decree of Treebeard.] 'Go Saruman!' he said, 'and beg from the charitable for a day's digging.'(7) [Added subsequently: Or put this toward end of story - in meanwhile give Saruman over to the guard of the Ents. Further addition: Yes.] [Written in margin at the same time as the text: Better: the ring of Isengard is broken by Ents, but Saruman shuts himself up in Orthanc and cannot be assailed yet for there is no time.] Another way of telling the story would be to carry on from end of Chapter XXVI and relate the coming of Ents to Icengard.(8) How they resolved not to break in at first, but came behind the orc-army. Let Merry and Pippin see the orcs driving the men of Rohan back over the River. Ents camp behind them. Then relate the battle from Merry and Pippin's point of view - distant vision of the white rider on a shining horse. They recognize the sword and voice of Aragorn, but do not know who the White Rider is. Gandalf and Treebeard meet after the battle - and then comes the storming of Isengard by Gandalf and the Ents. Return to Eodoras. Funeral of - the Second Master (9) [Added above: Hama and Theodred]. Feast in Winseld.(10) Eowyn sister of Eomer waits on the guests. Description of her, and of her love for Aragorn. News comes at the feast or next morning of the siege of Minas Tirith by the Haradwaith.(11) [Added subsequently: brought by a dark Gondorian like Boromir.(12) Theoden answers that he does not owe fealty - only to heirs of Elendil. But he will come.] The horsemen of Rohan ride East, with Gandalf, Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas, Merry and Pippin. Gandalf as the White Rider. [Added subsequently: Eowyn goes as Amazon.] Vision of Minas Tirith from afar. In the part of this outline that concerns the immediate story to come, and with which this book ends, it will be seen that while Theoden is unwelcoming and scarcely well-disposed towards Gandalf, he is nothing more than that: of the ugly state of affairs at Eodoras that came in with Wormtongue there is no trace - no hint of the subjugation of Theoden's mind and will, of the disgracing of Eomer, of Gandalf's triumphant display of his power in the hall of Winseld. Eowyn, Eomer's sister, appears, and her love for Aragorn, but not until the funeral feast held in Winseld after the victory. Judging by the opening of the second outline, this also belongs to about this time. Order o f Tale. Bring each party to crisis. Ents break off with 'Night lies over Isengard'. End XXVI with far vision of Winseld's golden roof (and sight of the smoke).(13) (Possibly they see men in strange armour riding also from East to Eodoras.) Now return to Frodo and Sam. Meeting with Gollum. Betrayal by him. Capture of Frodo on west side of Kirith Ungol. Frodo imprisoned in tower (14) - because (a) no ring is on him, (b) Sauron is busy with war and it takes time for message to reach him. Then return to Gandalf and battle of Isen, feast of victory, relief of Minas Tirith, and march of the army of Gandalf towards Dagorlad and gates of Kirith Ungol. Then return to Frodo. Make him look out onto impenetrable night. Then use phial which has escaped (clutched in his hand or wrapped in rag). By its light he sees the forces of deliverance approach and the dark host go out to meet them.(15) Grieves for. Sam - or thinks he has betrayed him too. The orc-guards come on him and take phial and shutter windows, and he lies in dark and despair. Where put parley of Sauron and Gandalf? If after capture of Frodo readers will know that Frodo [written above: Sauron] hag not Ring. [Added subsequently in two stages: No, not if you break off with Frodo carried off by Orcs and before Sam rescues him. / Even if Sam's taking of Ring is told,(16) you can make Sam fly among the rocks with Gollum (and orcs) on his trail and his escape seem unlikely.) Possibly best as originally planned - [?all account] of Gandalf as far as Kirith Ungol - and then return to Sam and Frodo. Sam rescues Frodo and while battle is joined at mouth of Gorgoroth they fly towards Orodruin. NOTES. 1. The later date of the departure of the Company from Rivendell, 25 December, had now entered (see pp. 422 - 3): thus 'Day 1' (the day of Boromir's death) in the table on p. 406 was January 25. (see the table on p. 368), and Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli encountered Gandalf in Fangorn on January 30 ('Day 5'). 2. In the fifth version of 'The Council of Elrond' (p. 152) Gandalf does not say what happened to Shadowfax, but the isolated note given on p. 390 says that 'some account of Shadowfax in the house of Elrond must be given.' This note asks also, however, 'Or did he just run off after Gandalf got to Rivendell?', and 'How did Gandalf summon him?' In preliminary notes for 'The Riders of Rohan' (p. 390) it is said that 'the horse of Gandalf reappears- sent for from Rivendell'; and in the text of that chapter (pp. 400 - 1) Eomer tells Aragorn that he had returned seven days before, to which Aragorn replies: 'But Gandalf left Shadowfax far in the North at Rivendell. Or so I thought.' In the present passage Shadowfax had recently come out of the West through the Gap of Rohan and then gone away north: which surely suggests that he had come from Rivendell and was going north to Fangorn in obedience to a summons from Gandalf mysteriously conveyed to him. The earliest extant account of Gandalf's summons to Shadow- fax with his three great whistles, and his coming across the plain to the eaves of Fangorn with Arod and Hasofel returning, is already exactly as in TT (see p. 432); and this seems to fit the story in the present text, for Gandalf says to Shadowfax 'It is a long way from Rivendell, my friend; but you are wise and swift, and come at need,' and he says to Legolas 'I bent my thought upon him, bidding him to make haste; for yesterday he was far away in the south of this land.' (On the other hand, Legolas says 'I have not seen his like before', which does not suggest that Shadowfax had been at Rivendell when the Company was there.) The story in the published LR is extremely difficult to under- stand. In 'The Council of Elrond' (FR p. 278) Gandalf says: 'It took me nearly fourteen days from Weathertop, for I could not ride among the rocks of the troll-fells, and Shadowfax departed. I sent him back to his master...' This was about October 4. The next we hear is in 'The Riders of Rohan', where Eomer still tells Aragorn that Shadowfax had returned 'seven nights ago' (but 'now the horse is wild and will let no man handle him'), to which Aragorn replies: 'Then Shadowfax has found his way alone from the far North; for it was there that he and Gandalf parted.' But it was now February 30, so that on his return nearly five months had elapsed since Gandalf dismissed him at Weathertop! And then, at the end of 'The White Rider' (TT p. 108), there is the passage already cited: 'It is a long way from Rivendell, my friend; but you are wise and swift and come at need.' It is hard to resist the conclusion that the alteration in Gandalf's story to the Council of Elrond was not carried through. 3. Middlemarch: Enedwaith, between Greyflood and Anduin; see Maps II and III, pp. 305, 309. 4. Cf. the outline given on p. 389: 'Minas Tirith defeats Harad- waith.' - All these names (Harwan, Silharrows; Harrowland, Sunharrowland) are derived from the Old English Sigelhearwan 'Ethiopians'. My father's article in two parts entitled Sigelwara land (Medium AEvum 1 and 3, Dec.1932 and June 1934) studied the etymology and meaning of the name Sigelhearwan, and concluded that while the meaning of the first element Sigel was certainly 'Sun', that of the second element hearwan was not discoverable, a symbol ... of that large part of ancient English language and lore which has now vanished beyond recall, swa hit no maere [as if it had never been].' With these names cf. Sunlands, Swertings, p. 313. - Tolfalas appears on the original element of the First Map (see p. 298, and Map III" on p. 308). - On Elostirion for Osgiliath see p. 423. 5. In LR the father of Eorl was Leod, and Brego was Eorl's son; Brytta was the eleventh King of the Mark, some two and a half centuries after Brego (see LR Appendix A (II)). 6. These remarks of Saruman's, from 'we at least...', were brack- eted at the time of writing. 7. This sketch of the 'affable' Saruman and Gandalf's breaking of his staff is derived very closely from 'The Story Foreseen from Moria', p. 212; cf. also p. 422. 8. Chapter XXVI is 'The White Rider'. 9. The Second Master was first called Marhath (p. 390; this name was then given to the Fourth Master, p. 400), then Eowin (pp. 393 - 4). 10. For the name of the Golden Hall see p. 402. 11. Thus the passage on pp. 434 - 5 (in which Theoden in his initial conversation with Gandalf speaks of the attack by the Harad- waith on Minas Tirith) bracketed with the note that it should be placed after the victorious return to Eodoras has already been moved. 12. I have not found an explanation of the conception underlying this. Possibly to be compared are Gandalf's words in The Return of the King, Ch. 1 Minas Tirith, p. 31: by some chance the blood of Westernesse runs nearly true in him; as it does in his other son, Faramir, and yet did not in Boromir whom he loved hest.' But this was written several years later. 13. The smoke seen rising at sunset of the day before in the direction of the Gap of Rohan (p. 432). 14. On the taking of Frodo to a guard-tower (not to Minas Morgul) see p. 344 and note 39, and p. 412. 15. The light of the Phial of Galadriel must be conceived here to be of huge power, a veritable star in the darkness. 16. I do not follow the thought here: for Sam's taking of the Ring must in any case be told before Frodo is carried off by the Orcs. XXVI. THE KING OF THE GOLDEN HALL. The textual history of this chapter is much the same as that of 'The White Rider': the first coherent and legible manuscript is also in a sense the first extant text of the chapter, because the rough drafts were set down, section by section, as the main manuscript proceeded. In other words, that manuscript was the vehicle of the development of the narrative, and the distinction between 'draft' and 'fair copy' is not at all a distinction between two separate manuscript entities, the one completed as a whole before the other was begun. For almost all of the last third of the chapter, however, there is no independent drafting, for the initial conception in pencil was overwritten in ink. A substantial part of the chapter was in being in some form before Gandalf's story of the Balrog was added to 'The White Rider' (see p. 430), and the point of separation of 'The King of the Golden Hall' (not so named) from 'The White Rider' was twice changed.(1) In the earliest stage of the narrative, abandoned before it had gone far, Gandalf (with Gimli) left Aragorn and Legolas before they came to Eodoras: 'Eodoras those courts are called,' said Gandalf, 'and Winseld is that golden hall. There dwells Theoden (2) son of Thengel, lord of the mark of Rohan. We are come with the rising of the day. Now the road lies plain to see before you. Make what speed you may!' Then suddenly he spoke to Shadowfax, and like an arrow from the bow the great horse sprang forward. Even as they gazed, he was gone: a flash of silver, a wind in the grass, a vision that fled and faded from their sight. Swiftly they urged their horses in pursuit, but if they had Walked upon their feet they would have had as much chance of overtaking him. They had gone only a small part of the way When Legolas exclaimed: 'That was a mighty leap! Shadowfax has sprung across the mountain stream and already he has passed up the hill and vanished from my sight.' The morning was bright and clear about them, and birds were singing, when Aragorn and Legolas came to the stream; running swiftly down into the plain it bent across their path, turning east to feed the Entwash away to the left in its marshy bed. Here there were many willow-trees, already in this southern land blushing red at the tips of twigs in presage of spring. They found a ford, much trampled upon either bank with the passage of horses, and passed over, and so at length they too rode up along the green road to Eodoras. At the foot of the hill they passed between seven high green mounds. Already they were starred with small pale flowers, and in the shelter of their western flanks the grass was white with nodding flowers (blossoms) like tiny snowdrops. 'See, Legolas!' said Aragorn, 'we are passing the mounds where the sires of Theoden sleep.' 'Yes,' said Legolas. 'Seven mounds there be, and seven long lives of men it is, since the Rohiroth came hither from the North. Two hundred times and more have the red leaves fallen in Mirkwood in my home since then,(3) and little change does it seem to us. But to them it seems so long ago, that their dwelling in the North is but a memory of song, and their speech is already sundered from their northern kin.' The companions entered the gates. Horsemen guarded them, and led them to the hall. They dismounted and walked in up the echoing hall. There they saw Theoden the old. Beside him sat Gandalf, and at his feet Gimli the dwarf. At the foot of the page, where this draft ends, is the note: '? News of the attack on Minas Tirith by Haradwaith in ships'; see pp. 434 - 5, 437. It would be interesting to know what thought lay behind this story of the 'divided entry' into Eodoras; but whatever it was, the arrival there and even the entry into Winseld was accomplished, as it appears, without any ceremony, interrogation, or laying aside of arms. There is no suggestion of hostility or even suspicion towards the strangers, and this accords with the first outline given in the last chapter (see p. 437). It will be seen in what follows that the entire conception of the situation at Eodoras arose during the writing of 'The King of the Golden Hall'. While the story of the divided entry of the four companions was still maintained, however, a strongly 'Beowulfian' reception of Aragorn and Legolas at the gates was at once introduced, in a revised draft.(4) ... they came at last to the wide windswept walls and the gates of Eodoras. There sat men in bright mail upon proud steeds, who spoke to them in a strange tongue. 'Abidath cuman uncuthe! [Rejected at the time of writing: Hwaet sindon ge, lathe oththe leofe, the thus seldlice gewerede ridan cwomon to thisse barge gatum? No her inn gan moton ne waedla ne waepned mon, nefne we his naman witen. Nu ge feorran-cumene gecythath us on ofste: hu hatton ge? hwaet sindon eower aerende to Theoden urum hlaforde?(5) Aragorn understood these words] asking their names and errand. These words Aragorn understood and answered. 'Aragorn son of Arathorn am I,' he said, 'and with me is Legolas of Mirkwood. These names maybe ye have already heard, and our coming is awaited? But we ask now to see Theoden your lord; for we come in friendship and it may be that our coming Here this draft tails off. It does not seem that the story that Gandalf with Gimli went ahead on Shadowfax and entered Eodoras first was taken any further. It is curious, however, that when the story was changed my father seems to have forgotten Gimli: he is not named in the encounter with the guard at the gates, there is no mention of his surrendering his axe at the doors of the house, and my father even wrote 'Now the three companions went forward' up Theoden's hall. These references were added in to the 'fair copy' manuscript, and 'three' changed to 'four'; and Gimli appears as the text was written when he strode forward, and was restrained by Gandalf, at Wormton- gue's words about Lothlorien (TT p. 118). I do not think that this can have any narrative significance; but it was certainly an odd lapse, and not easy to explain.(6) The story of the arrival at Eodoras was now revised again. Gandalf is present when the travellers are challenged at the gates, and the guards, crying Abidath cuman uncuthe, are rebuked by him for using the tongue of Rohan.(7) The flowers on the mounds (still seven) become nifredil, the flowers of Lorien (see note 4, and pp. 233 - 4); and Aragorn utters the verse Where now the horse and the rider?,(8) referring to 'Eorl the Old', changed at once to 'Eorl the Young', 'who rode down out of the North', and to 'his steed Felarof, father of horses' (TT p. 112). But at this stage Wormtongue had still not emerged, and the suspicion and hostility of the guards evidently proceeded from Theoden's unfortified dislike and distrust of Gandalf;(9) moreover Eomer had not returned to Eodoras since Ara- gorn, Legolas and Gimli parted from him: '".Has not Eomer then returned and given warning of our coming?' 'Nay,' said the guard. 'He has not passed these gates. He was turned aside by messengers from Theoden, and went away west to the war without staying. But maybe, if what you say is true, Theoden will have knowledge of it. I will go to my lord and learn his will. But what names shall I report? ...' 'With this cf. TT p. 113. - In the original draft for the scene in which the travellers must lay aside their weapons before entering Theoden's house there is a brief description of it: Before Theoden's hall there was a portico, with pillars made of mighty trees hewn in the upland forests and carved with interlacing figures gilded and painted. The doors also were of wood, carven in the likeness of many beasts and birds with jewelled eyes and golden claws. It is curious that in the 'fair copy' manuscript, and thence in the final text, there is no description at all of the exterior of the house, and I think that it may have got lost in the complexities of redrafting and reordering of the material.(10) As they stood in the darkness by the doors of the hall and saw on one of the hangings the figure of the young man on a white horse (TT p. 116) Aragorn said: 'Behold Eorl the Young! Thus he rode out of the North to the Battle of the Field of Gorgoroth.' A very difficult draft preceding this has 'the Battle of Gorgoroth where Sauron was [?overthrown],' making it clear that at this stage my father conceived that Eorl came south to the great battle in which Gil-galad and Elendil were slain and Isildur took the Ring.(11) In the encounter with Theoden the manuscript evidence is not very easy to interpret, but it seems certain that it was at this point that Wormtongue entered the story; for what is obviously the very earliest description of Theoden, written in the faintest scribble, reads thus: At the far end of the hall beyond the hearth and facing the doors was a dais with three steps, and in the midst of the dais was a great chair. In the chair sat a man so bent with age that he seemed almost a dwarf. His white hair was [?braided] upon his [?shoulders), his long beard was laid upon his knees. But his eyes burned with a keen light that glinted from afar off. Behind his chair stood two fair women. At his feet upon the steps sat a wizened [struck out: old] figure of a man with a pale wise face. There was a silence. In the 'fair copy' the text moves close to that of TT (pp. 116 - 17), and now appears the 'thin golden circlet' worn by Theoden (who is subsequently called 'King' in this manuscript); but he bears on his forehead 'a large green stone' (not the 'single white diamond' of TT: see p. 448), and there were still 'two fair women' standing behind his chair. But though Wormtongue was present he did not, as the scene was first drafted, intervene, and it is Theoden who speaks of the death of the Second Master of the Mark, here called Eofored,(12) on the west marches of Rohan, and it is Theoden who names Gandalf Lathspell, Ill-news. Gandalf responds, as in TT, by speaking of the different ways which a man may come with evil tidings, and it is again Theoden, not Wormtongue, who retorts 'Verily he may, or he may be of a third kind', and who decries the idea that Gandalf had ever brought aid to Rohan: Last time it seemed to me that you asked my aid rather, and to get you from my land I astonished all men and myself also by lending you Shadowfax.'(13) At this stage Eomer s story remains as it was: 'Eomer has ridden away thither [to the west marches] with all but the last handful of my horsemen.' At this point, however, before the conversation had proceeded any further, 'the pale man sitting upon the steps of the dais' began to play a part; for he now took over those parts of Theoden's remarks that are given to him in TT. Yet it is interesting to observe that my father did not introduce him into Theoden's household with the conscious intent that he should play the role that he did in fact come to play: for he still says, as Theoden had done, 'Now Eomer has ridden away thither with all but our last handful of horsemen.'(14) After Gandalf's triumph over Wormtongue (who is not yet given any other name) Theoden is assisted down the hall by the two women, and he says to them: 'Go, Idis, and you too Eowyn sister-daughter!'(15) As they went, the younger of them looked back: 'very fair and slender she seemed. Her face was filled with gentle pity, and her eyes shone with unshed tears. So Aragorn saw her for the first time in the light of day, and after she was gone he stood still, looking at the dark doors and taking little heed of other things.' Looking out from the porch of his house with Gandalf Theoden says: 'Not long now shall stand the high hall which Brego son of Brytta built' (cf. p. 435 and note 5; TT p. 120 'Brego son of Eorl'); and Gandalf tells him, as in TT, to send for Eomer. It was at this point in the writing of the chapter that there entered the story of the imprisonment of Eomer by the instigation of Wormtongue, who now receives his true name: Frana (Grima did not replace this till much later). In TT when Gandalf spoke to Theoden (p. 121) 'his voice was low and secret, and none save the king heard what he said.' In the early form of the chapter, however, this was not so: His voice was low and secret, and yet to those beside him keen and clear. Of Sauron he told, and the lady Galadriel, and of Elrond in Rivendell far away, of the Council and the setting forth of the Company of Nine, and all the perils of their road. 'Four only have come thus far,' he said. 'One is lost, Boromir prince of Gondor. Two were captured, but are free. And two have gone upon a dark Quest. Look eastward, Theoden! Into the heart of menace they have gone: two small folk, such as you in Rohan deem but the matter of children's tales. Yet doom hangs upon them. Our hope is with them - hope, if we can but stand meanwhile!' There are several drafts for this passage preceding that in the fair copy just given, and in one of these occurs the following: Of the Council and the setting forth of the Company of Nine. So he came at last to the Mines of Moria and the Battle upon the Bridge. 'Then it was not wholly false, the rumour that Eomer brought,' said Theoden. 'No indeed,' said Aragorn, 'for he did but repeat what I said to him. And until this time yestermorning we thought that Gandalf had fallen. Even now he has not said what befell him in Moria. We would gladly hear.' 'Nay,' said Gandalf. 'The sun is riding towards noon.' This is clear evidence that my father had reached this point, at least, in 'The King of the Golden Hall' before he wrote the conclusion of 'The White Rider' in its later form: see p. 430. The passage just given is followed by a brief outline: Eomer returns. Wes thu Theoden hal. He rejoices to see Theoden so much better; but begs pardon - save only for his advice to ride west. Says how the day's delay has grieved him. Gandalf continues tale and holds out a hope (of Frodo in the East). But they must ride west. Theoden bids them stay and rest. But Gandalf won't stay except for food ... Theoden has to take heart and send every man west. He himself is to lead his folk out of Eodoras into the secret refuge[?s] in the mountains - more defensible if all goes ill. Eomer asks that Wormtongue should go west too. Shadowfax. They set out. Gandalf fleets ahead. As already mentioned, in the last third of the chapter, from the point where Legolas gazes far off and believes that he can see 'a glint of white' and 'a tiny tongue of flame' (TT p. 121), there is little further independent drafting, the manuscript in ink being written over the original pencilled text. But it is clear that the story as known from The Two Towers of the unmasking of Wormtongue, the rehabilitation of Eomer, the meal before departure, the gift of Shadowfax, was achieved almost unhesitatingly.(16) In an important respect, however, my father at first conceived things differently. In this first version of 'The King of the Golden Hall' the Second Master of the Mark, slain in fighting at the River Isen, is Eofored, and he is not Theoden's son (p. 444 and note 12).(17) On the other hand, in addition to Eowyn (Eomer's sister, p. 437; addressed by Theoden as 'sister-daughter', p. 445), there is another lady in close association with Theoden, Idis - his daughter. All through this part of the chapter she is present, yet never once does she speak. When Gandalf asks Theoden who shall rule his people in his place when he departs to the war, he replies that Eowyn 'shall be lady in my stead'; and Gandalf says 'That is a good choice.' There is no mention of Idis here; yet she was still present, for at the meal before the riding of the host 'there also waiting upon the king were the ladies, Idis his daughter, and Eowyn sister of Eomer.' It was Eowyn who brought the wine, and Idis is again not mentioned; yet Hama still says, in response to Theoden's words that Eomer is the last of the House of Eorl (TT p. 128): 'I said not Eomer. He is not the last. There are Idis your daughter, and Eowyn his sister. They are wise and high-hearted.' But it was at this point that the brief existence of Idis came to an end; for the next words that my father wrote were: 'All love her. Let her be as lord to the Eorlingas, while we are gone.' All references to Idis were then removed from the manuscript. I cannot say what function in the narrative my father had in mind for Idis (and it is notable that in the original outline, p. 437, only Eowyn sister of Eomer is mentioned as waiting on the guests at the feast in Winseld after the victory); still less why the daughter of the King (and older than Eowyn, p. 445) should be so silent and so overshadowed by the niece. The significance of the meeting of Aragorn and Eowyn, on the other hand, was destined to survive, though fundamentally transformed. In this first version, in a passage already cited (p. 445), after she had gone 'he stood still, looking at the dark doors and taking little heed of other things'; at the meal before the departure 'Aragorn was silent, but his eyes followed Eowyn' (struck out); and when she brought the wine to the guests 'Long she looked upon Aragorn, and long he looked upon her' - for which was substituted: 'As she stood before Aragorn she paused suddenly and looked upon him, as if only now had she seen him clearly. He looked down upon her fair face, and their eyes met. For a moment they stood thus, and their hands met as he took the cup from her. "Hail Aragorn son of Arathorn!" she said.' With this contrast the passage that appears in its place in TT (p. 127). And after Theoden's words 'But in [Dunberg >] Dunharrow the people may long defend themselves, and if the battle go ill thither will come all who escape' (TT p. 128) Aragorn says: 'If I live, I will come, Lady Eowyn, and then maybe we will ride together.' Then Eowyn 'smiled and bent her head gravely.' There is an isolated list of matters 'to be explained before the end', which in view of the first item seems to have been written just about this time. Only one other item is relevant here, but I give the whole list: Gandalf's escape - put this at the end of XXVI [i.e. 'The White Rider'] What happens to Bill (the pony)? [Added: Goes back to Bree and is found by Sam who rides him home.] Bill Ferney. Bree and Merry's ponies. Barnabas Butterbur [added: and the ponies). Galadriel. Ents. Treebeard. Entwives. Aragorn weds Eowyn sister of Eomer (who becomes Lord of Rohan) and becomes King of Gondor. Feast in Gondor. Home Journey. They pass by round Lorien.(18) But the story of Aragorn and Eowyn would in the event, of course, be quite otherwise; and in another short group of notes, isolated and undateable, this marital alliance of Rohan and Gondor was rejected (and no other was foreseen): ? Cut out the love-story of Aragorn and Eowyn. Aragorn is too old and lordly and grim. Make Eowyn the twin-sister of Eomund, a stern amazon woman. If so, alter the message of Galadriel (XXVI.17). Probably Eowyn should die to avenge or save Theoden. But my father added in a hasty scribble the possibility that Aragorn did indeed love Eowyn, and never wedded after her death. The reference 'XXVI.17' is to the page in the 'fair copy' manuscript of 'The White Rider' where appears Galadriel's message to Aragorn delivered to him by Gandalf (p. 431): Elfstone, Elfstone, bearer of my green stone, In the south under snow a green stone thou shalt see. Look well, Elfstone! In the shadow of the dark throne Then the hour is at hand that long hath awaited thee. The green stone in the south was borne on Theoden's brow (p. 444), beneath his white hair, and it was Eowyn who would stand in the shadow of the dark throne within his hall. NOTES. 1. Beginning originally at 'Gandalf now wrapped himself again in his old tattered cloak' (p. 430; TT p. 107), the opening of 'The King of the Golden Hall' was then moved to 'The morning was bright and clear about them' (pp. 431 - 2; TT p. 111). The second rearrangement, giving the form in TT, was made after 'The King of the Golden Hall' was completed. 2. Names in Theod-, like names in Eo- (p. 403 note 5), are not written with an accent at this time. 3. In TT there are sixteen barrows at the foot of the hill of Edoras, and it is 500 years since Eorl the Young came out of the North. See note 11. 4. The flowers on the burial mounds, 'like tiny snowdrops' in the first draft, became in the second 'tiny flowers star-shaped and frail'. And in the second Legolas says: 'Seven mounds I see, and seven long lives of men it is, since the golden hall was built. [Struck out at once: And many more lives still since the Rohiroth first passed into this land.]' It seems curious that such awareness of the history of the Riders of Rohan should be attributed to Legolas. 5. 'Stay, strangers unknown! Who are ye, friends or foes, that have come thus strangely clad riding to the gates of this town? None may here enter in, neither beggarman nor warrior, if we know not his name. Now, ye comers from afar, declare to us in haste: what are ye called? What is your errand to Theoden our lord?' - My father first used the Old English letter 'thorn' but changed to 'th' as he wrote. The passage in Beowulf (lines 237 - 57) in which Beowulf and his companions are accosted by the watchman on the coast of Denmark is very distinctly echoed, as also is the passage in Modern English in TT, p. 113 ('Who are you that come heedless over the plain...'). 6. Conceivably there was some confusion arising from the initial idea that Gandalf with Gimli entered Eodoras in advance of Aragorn and Legolas: Gandalf was introduced into the scenes at the gates and the doors, but Gimli, who would play little explicit part in them, was neglected. 'The three companions went for- ward' is certainly very surprising, since here the scene seems to be expressly visualised without Gimli; but this may have been a mere slip, deriving from the frequent use of 'the three com- panions' (Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli) in preceding chapters. 7. One of the guards replies that 'None are welcome here in days of war save only those that come from [struck out: Gemenburg] Heatorras Giemen Minas Tirith', with Mundbeorg written in the margin. These Old English words are gemen, giemen 'care, heed, watch'; Heatorras 'high towers'; and Mundbeorg 'protection-hill', distinct from Mundburg in LR. Mundbeorg occurs in another draft: 'And I am Aragorn son of Arathorn ... and it is to Mundbeorg that I journey as to my home' (cf. TT p. 113, 'it is to Mundburg that he goes'). An echo of the Old English poem known as The Wanderer, line 92: Hwaer cwom mearg? Hwaer cwom mago? It is perhaps possible that the 'Beowulfian' reception at the gates played some part in the increased hostility of Theoden before ever Wormtongue entered the story. 10. Two small details in the scene before the doors may be men- tioned. The guards, turning their sword-hilts towards the stran- gers, cried Cumath her wilcuman! This was later changed to Wesath hale, feorran cumene, which appears in TT (p. 114) translated, 'Hail, comers from afar!' And Gandalf speaks to Aragorn with an asperity that was afterwards softened (TT p. 115): Needless is Theoden s demand, but needless also is your refusal, Aragorn.' 11. In LR the time-span was of course vastly greater: according to the Tale of Years Eorl the Young won the victory of the Field of Celebrant and the Rohirrim settled in Calenardhon (Rohan as a province of Gondor) in the year 2510 of the Third Age, which was that number of years after the overthrow of Sauron by Gilgalad and Elendil. With the statement here cf. the genealogy. that Aragorn gives of himself at the passage of the Pillars of the Kings, in which he is only separated from Isildur by three: (subsequently four) generations (pp. 360 - 1). It is difficult to explain the name 'Battle of the Field of Gorgoroth: on the First Map the Battle Plain (Dagras, later, Dagorlad) is placed where it remained, outside the mountain- fences of Mordor and separated from Gorgoroth by the great pass, then named Kirith Ungo! (Map III, p. 309). 12. Eofored is not named as Theoden's son. In the outline for this, chapter the Second Master seems to have been slain in the final battle of the River Isen, and his funeral feast was held after the return to Eodoras (pp. 435, 437). His death has now been moved back to the fighting before Gandalf's arrival. 13. Theoden here says that 'only a few days ago men reported to me .' that Shadowfax had come back out of the West; but none could lay hands on him, for he went away swiftly northwards.' See p. 434 and note 2. This then became 'men reported that Shadow- fax had been seen again, running wild through the land'; and finally, as in TT, 'I heard that Shadowfax had come back riderless'. 14. Wormtongue still says that 'to the wonder of us all my lord lent to you Shadowfax'. This was subsequently changed to his words in TT: 'my lord bade you choose any horse you would and be gone; and to the wonder of us all you took Shadowfax in your insolence.' 15. In the draft for this passage the reading is 'Go [struck out: Eowyn and you too AElflaed Flaed] Idis and you too Eowyn'. Cf. the Old English poetic word ides 'woman, lady'. In early notes Eowyn is 'daughter of Theoden' and 'daughter of Eomund' (p. 390). 16. Even to the names of Theoden's sword, Herugrim, and his horse> Snowmane: only in the case of Dunharrow was there an earlier form, Dunberg. Dunharrow is so named on Map IV, p. 319. 17. In LR the genealogy is: Thengel. Theoden. Theodwyn. = Eomund. Theodred. Eomer. Eowyn. Near the end of the chapter 'Theodred' appears: ' "Behold I go forth," said Theoden. "[Struck out at once: Theodred my son] I have no son. I name Eomer my sister-son to be my heir" ' (cf. TT p. 127). On the other hand, in a second version of this passage, Theoden says: 'I have no child. Theodred my brother's son is slain.' 18. To this last item in the list the following was added at some later time: No. They learn (in Rivendell?) that Nazgul razed Lorien and Keleborn fled with a remnant to Mirkwood. Galadriel was lost or was hidden. Or shall Lorien be left slowly to fade? Yes. Galadriel parts with Keleborn who elects to stay in the world and [?woods]. She is seen by Frodo in old age, when he and Sam see Galadriel and Bilbo (and Elrond? No - he has one [written above: 3?] [struck out: age] life of men still to rule in Rivendell). APPENDIX ON RUNES. It is notable that all references to runes in The Lord of the Rings were associated with Gandalf until my father came to the words graved on Balin's tomb in Moria. In The Hobbit runic writing is almost entirely associated with Dwarves (who are said, in Chapter III 'A Short Rest', to have invented the runic Moon-letters), but runes had been an element in Middle-earth from a very early stage.' In his letter to G. E. Selby of 14 December 1937, cited in the Foreword to Vol. VI The Return of the Shadow, my father said that he preferred his own mythology 'with its consistent nomenclature and organized history' to The Hobbit, and spoke with humorous disparagement of 'this rabble of Eddaic-named dwarves out of Voluspa, new-fangled hobbits and gollums (invented in an idle hour) and Anglo-Saxon runes.' As will be seen, when he wrote these last words he was thinking of his own runic alphabets, already at that time highly developed, and not in any way particularly associated with the Dwarves, if associated with them at all. It is conceivable, I think, that it was nonetheless Thror's Map, bearing runic writing of great importance in the story of The Hobbit, that brought that close association into being (although the Dwarves always remained the inheritors and not the first devisers of the Angerthas). There seems to be relatively little extant writing concerning the runes from the period we have reached in this book, but my father's linguistic papers and work on scripts and alphabets were left in so chaotic a state that it is often impossible to be sure even of a broad and relative dating. A central problem lies, as always in this context, in the existence of two sets of variables. The richly divergent development of scripts, as of speech-sounds, among different peoples was a datum from the start; but the detail of those divergences was subject to unceasing modification in the mind of their deviser. When the papers (almost always undated and often without consecutive pagination) are so disordered that material which may well be separated by decades is jumbled together, the risk is great of false conjunctions and false constructions. ' The earliest runic document relating to Middle-earth that I know of is a little slip of paper in my father's early handwriting, headed Gondolinic Runes. This gives an alphabet in which the values of the runes are almost totally different from the Angerthas, but in which the principles of phonetic organisation in relation to letter-shape are strongly evident. I give here first two brief texts that seem to me to come most likely from the period shortly before the beginning of The Lord of the Rings more or less contemporary with the Quenta Silmarillion and the Lhammas given in Vol. V, The Lost Road and Other Writings. Both are clear manuscripts in ink, and to both of them my father later added in pencil; I give these additions, though I suspect that they were substantially later. It will be seen that these additions concern the especial importance of Runic writing among the Dwarves, of which no mention is made in these texts as written. (i) The Elvish Alphabets. These have three main forms: the alphabets of Rumil, of Feanor, and [of] Dairon; also called the Valinorian, Tunian, and Beleriandic letters. The first two are of Noldorin origin and ultimately related; the last is distinct and of Ilkorin origin. The oldest is the Alphabet of Rumil. This is a final cursive elaboration of the oldest letters of the Noldor in Valinor. Only the completion and arrangement of this system was actually due to Rumil of Tuna; its author or authors are now forgotten. Though originating in Tuna it is called 'Valinorian' because it was mainly used for writing of Qenya, and was later ousted from use among the Noldor by the alphabet of Feanor. It is said still to be used by the Lindar of Valinor; but is not in general use among the Qendi.* The Alphabet of Feanor was partly derived from this, and partly devised afresh to fit a different system of writing (from left to right). Its actual author - in all forms except the later modifications to fit the changed conditions of Noldorin after the Exile, which were made after his death - was Feanor. He constructed it both as a general phonetic alphabet, and devised special arrangements to fit the characteristics of Qenya, Noldorin, and Telerin. This alphabet is the one generally used for Qenya, and for all purposes by the surviving Qendi. The so-called Alphabet of Dairon was in origin a 'runic' script devised for inscriptions, especially on wood, that origin- ated among the Ilkorins. It is usually said to have arisen in Doriath, and it certainly there developed most completely, even (* With this passage cf. the Lhammas in Vol. V, pp. 173-4.) producing a written form. But probably its actual invention was due to the Danian elves of Ossiriand (who were ultimately of Noldorin race).* The name 'alphabet of Dairon' is due to the preservation in this script of some fragments of the songs of Dairon, the ill-fated minstrel of King Thingol of Doriath, in the works on the ancient Beleriandic languages by Pengolod the Wise of Gondolin. The Noldor did not use this script much, even in Beleriand, though Pengolod cites cases of inscriptions at Nargothrond and Sirion's mouth that are in Noldorin tongue. [Added in pencil: But this runic alphabet spread eastward from Ossiriand to the Dwarves, and was largely used by them.) (ii) The 'Alphabet of Dairon'. The Ilkorins of Beleriand devised an alphabet of 'runes', or angular letters used in inscriptions. This became widespread in Beleriand, already before the exile of the Noldor of Valinor, and showed various divergences in forms and uses at different times and places. Its chief elaboration took place in Doriath, where a, written form was developed. Owing to the ruin of Beleriand, before the departure of the Noldor to Eressea, no actual in- scription or book in this script is now preserved. Knowledge of it [changed in pencil to: no actual Elvish inscription or book in this script was preserved. Knowledge of its use by the Elves] is now preserved only in books in Eressea - in the works of ' Pengolod of Gondolin upon the Beleriandic languages, and other similar writings. Pengolod copied and gave extracts from, various inscriptions and books that were still extant in his day. Of the books, or written form, his principal source was some fragments of the songs of King Thingol's minstrel Dairon. From this fact is derived the [struck out: erroneous] name: Alphabet of Dairon. The origin of the script is probably to be placed in Ossiriand among the Danian elves, many of whom were incorporated in Doriath after the coming of Morgoth and the fall of their king, Denethor.f- The Danian elves were ultimately of Noldorin race, and inventions of this sort were a special aptitude of the (* On the Danian elves or Danas see especially V.176, 188 - 9. + See the Quenta Silmarillion in Vol. V, p. 263.) Noldor.* Moreover a related alphabet was early in use among the eastern branch of the Danians, beyond the Blue Mountains, whence it also spread to Men in those regions, becoming the foundation of the Taliskan skirditaila or 'runic series'. [Added in pencil: Related alphabets were (> A related alphabet was) also borrowed (from both Men and Elves) by the Dwarves; the western Dwarves early borrowed and adapted the full inscrip- tional 'Alphabet of Dairon', and most of the inscriptions in this form that survived the Great War in Eriador and elsewhere are of Dwarvish origin, though their language is seldom the secret tongue of the Dwarves.] This alphabet was not much used by the exiled Noldor, but in certain cases, in the absence of parchment or for carving on wood, or where as at Sirion's mouth they were mingled with Ilkorins, they employed these letters during their exile, and modified their forms or applications to fit their own language. Pengolod gives some examples of this Noldorin usage. [Added in pencil: The greatest elaboration was reached in Eregion and Moria, where during the Second Age Elves and Dwarves lived in harmony. This later form was called the 'Runes of Moria', because it remained long in use among the Dwarves, and most of the inscriptions employing it survived in the halls and chambers of Moria.] With this view of the origin of the name Alphabet of Dairon cf. The Lord of the Rings Appendix E (II): 'Their richest and most ordered form was known as the Alphabet of Daeron, since in Elvish tradition it was said to have been devised by Daeron, the minstrel and loremaster of King Thingol of Doriath.' The reference to Taliska (for which see V.179, 191, 196: 'the language of the three houses of Beor, of Haleth, and of Hador') is very interesting as adumbrating a relationship between the runes of Beleriand and the ancient Germanic runes; cf. V.279 on the 'Indo- European' word widris 'wisdom' in the ancient tongue of the people of Beor. It seems clear that the second element of Taliskan skirditaila 'runic series' is to be understood as an ancestral cognate of the word seen in Old English teal (with a sense 'number, reckoning, series'; Old Norse tal, etc., and cf. Modern English tale, tell); the first element may perhaps be connected with the Germanic stem sker-, seen in Old Norse skera 'cut, carve', Old English sceran (Modern English shear, cf. ultimately related shard, potsherd). Detailed exposition from this time of the ancient Elvish runes seems (* Cf. the Ainulindale' in Vol. V, p. 162.) to be restricted to a series of five manuscript pages - which are indeed extremely informative. In style and bearing they seem to me to belong with substantial work on Noldorin phonology that certainly comes from the time not long preceding the start of The Lord of the Rings. Since it would be extremely difficult to print these pages as part of the text, and since they would be unclear in facsimile reproduction (and require a lot of unnecessary explanation and annotation), I have rewritten and redrawn them as a series of plates, numbered I to IV, at the end of this Appendix. I have attempted to remain very faithful to the originals, and have only edited them in a few minor points that in no way alter their purport; I have not attempted to smooth away the various inconsistencies of presentation. There are a very few pencilled changes that are ignored. At the head of the first sheet my father wrote: 'All this has been revised and rewritten. See Appendices to Lord of the Rings.' On plate V I reproduce a separate manuscript leaf entitled 'Dwarf- runes for writing English (phonetic)', which I shall refer to in this Appendix as 'E'. This is obviously quite distinct from the other pages, but it will be found that it agrees well on the whole with 'the later Noldorin use' on plate II (referred to subsequently as 'N'), though there is some difference in the application of signs, notably in the nasals and in those representing English s (sh), z (as in vision), ts (ch), and dz (j as twice in judge), which are either used for different sounds in N or not found there. As will be seen shortly, this page evidently dates from the time of my father's return to the Moria story, as described in this book. Curiously, kw (qu) is absent from E, and the rune V for kw in the Doriath and Noldorin usage is there given to ts (ch). In E, also, h is represented by C, but by > in the others. At the bottom of plate V I have transcribed the runic inscription on Balin's tomb from the end of the original first 'Moria' chapter in Vol. VI (see p. 460 and note 40). As noted there, it was at that point that my father decided to use the Runes of Beleriand in preference to Old English runes, for he first wrote the inscription in the latter but at once wrote it in the former as well - in two forms, which I have marked (i) and (ii). The words Runes of Dwarves on the same page (VI.460) no doubt have some significance in this connection; cf. also Gandalf's words in the second version of the chapter ('The Lord of Moria', p. 186): 'These are dwarf-runes, such as they use in the North.' - On the name Burin of Balin's father see VI.444. Version (i) of the tomb-inscription agrees with E (and with N) in every point save one: the use of the rune > for s in son instead of ... In E > is used for the vowel [...] (as in English cup); while in N it is used for h. Version (ii) agrees with (i) in the s-rune, but reverses o and o in lord and Moria, and for l in lord substitutes (...) for (...): the former is found in the Doriath and Noldorin use. Here the rune (..) is used for the vowel in son, where (i) has the unphonetic V (o). In E this rune has the value ai, in N the value ae (later changed in pencil to ai in a reversal of the values ai and ae). The next (third) version of the tomb-inscription, at the end of the second version ('The Lord of Moria') of the chapter, is hidden by a fourth version pasted over it; but Taum Santoski has been able to read the underlying inscription by lighting the page from the back. With Fundin for Burin (see VI.444) the runic writing thus recovered is almost as in version (i), with the same use of > for s; but very curiously this same rune is used for o in both occurrences of the word of, although V' for o appears in son, lord, and Moria. In addition, the Dwarvish words Balin Fundinul Uzbad Khazaddumu are added beneath, the rune for (..) being apparently (..), which is s in all the alphabets given here. The fourth version of the inscription, that pasted over the third, and the fifth, at the end of the typescript text that followed, are identical in all forms; the latter is reproduced on p. 186. So far as the brief text goes, agreement with E is here complete, with s represented by (..), z represented by (..), and (..) used for the vowel [ .. ], which here appears in the word son, treated phonetically. On plate VI I have redrawn the runic writing from the two earliest illustrations of a burnt and blackened page from the Book of Mazarbul. These redrawings are intended to show the runes and their relative placing and nothing more. The earliest form (i) is found on the back of the last page of the original 'Moria' chapter (see VI.460, 467). This is the merest sketch, an indication of what might be done in this direction: it was made very hastily, scribbled down, with little attempt at verisimilitude, the illegible parts of the page being represented by rough scribbled strokes (and the number of missing lines in my redrawing is approximate and impressionistic). The right-hand bot- tom corner is shown as a triangular detached piece, on which only the word Kazaddum is written. The second form (ii) is a much more developed representation of the slashed and discoloured leaf, done in pencil and coloured chalks; here again the bottom corner is shown as torn right off. (The evolution of this page is emblematic in miniature of my father's mode of work: the evolution of the details of shape is progressive and continuous. In this second version there are two holes on the right hand side of the page and a bite out of the top; in the third and fourth versions these remain, but the bottom corner is added back, with a triangular indentation above, continuing into the page as a black line. In the final form, reproduced in Pictures by J. R. R. Tolkien no. 23, the central hole is enlarged and moved to the left, but the black line remains where the bottom corner was originally shown as torn off and separate.) The words of the original sketch have been given in VI.467, but I repeat them here in phonetic form: 1. We drouv aut the orks fro[m].... gard. 2. ... [f]irst hol. Wi slu meni ~ndr the brait s~n. 3. in the deil. Floi woz kild bai ~n arou.... 4. Wi did .......... 9. Wi ha[v] okjupaid the twentif~rst hol ov. 10. norp end. Der dr iz.......... 11. ............ saft iz.......... 12. [B]alin haz set ~p hiz tser in the tseimbr ov Mazar. 13. bul......................Balin iz lord ov. 14. Moria.......... 18. Balin.......... 20. Kazaddum. Here there is close but not complete agreement with E. The s-rune is (..) not >, the latter being used for [ ~ ], as in E; but there is divergence in the w-rune, which is here (..), to which E gives the value dz (j) and N the value gw. The short single vertical used in E as abbreviation for the when in the upper position and as a sign for the vowel [e] when in the lower position is here used for the in the lower position, but in the upper position for h (in have, has, his): in both occurrences of the word hall the stroke stands in the lower position, but this may have been no more than an inadvertence, for the runes in this sketch were pencilled very rapidly and several were written erroneously and then corrected. The rune for the initial consonants [s] in shaft and [ts] in chair, chamber also differ in their values from those ascribed to them in E. The use of the m-rune for v in we have occupied (line 9) can only be a slip. Lastly, the vowel [ ~ ] is employed not only in under, sun, up but also in an (arrow) and in first (at the second occurrence). Comparison with E will show that the second version of the page from the Book of Mazarbul agrees with it in every point and detail. The different form of the I-rune in Floi (line 4), with the crossing stroke falling, not rising, to the right, is probably merely accidental (in the third version the shape is normal at this point). To this version my father appended a phonetic transcription. In this he interpreted oukn in line 6 as ?broken, it at the end of line 10 as?its, and the word before helm in line 17 as (?sil)vr, though the last rune is very clearly n, not r (in the third version an r-rune is written here). The sequence of development in this much-considered passage was very probably as follows. The original form of the text that Gandalf first read out from the Book of Mazarbul seems to have been that of the earliest drawing of the page itself (plate VI, i). Closely related to it is the form in the original pencilled narrative of the scene, which can be largely made out beneath the text written over it in ink (see pp. 191 and 205 note 4). Both forms had the Orcs for Orcs and Balin's chair for Balin's seat; but the original narrative text had we have found truesilver, well-forged, and (To)morrow Oin is... lead... seek for the upp(er) armoury of the Third Deep, all of which is absent from the first drawing of the page. The overwritten text in the first narrative, which is given on p. 191, is effectively the same as the text in the second drawing of the page (plate VI, ii). The third drawing of the page (which is otherwise very similar to the second, and employs exactly the same runic system) corresponds to the text of the fair copy manuscript of 'The Mines of Moria (ii)' given on pp. 200 - 1. It is plain therefore that the first three drawings of this page from the Book of Mazarbul all belong to the same time, and relate step by step to the rewriting of this passage through the original draft and first fair copy of the narrative chapter; and that the runic alphabet set out in E, 'Dwarfrunes for writing English' (plate V), belongs to this time also. But when the fourth version of this page was done the runic values had changed. The first drawings of the other two pages from the Book of Mazarbul (that written by Ori in Elvish script and the last page of the book, in runes) belong with and were done at the same time as the third drawing of the first page; for the texts see pp. 200 - 1.