FOREWORD. The title of this book comes from the same source as The Treason of Isengard, a set of six titles, one for each 'Book' of The Lord of the Rings, suggested by my father in a letter to Rayner Unwin of March 1953 (The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien no. 136). The War of the Ring was that proposed for Book V, and I have adopted it for this book since the history of the writing of Book V constitutes nearly half of it, while the first part concerns the victory of Helm's Deep and the destruction of Isengard. The second part describes the writing of Frodo's journey to Kirith Ungol, and this I have called 'The Ring Goes East', which was the title proposed by my father for Book IV. In the Foreword to The Return of the Shadow I explained that a substantial collection of manuscripts was left behind in England when the bulk of the papers went to Marquette University in 1958, these manuscripts consisting for the most part of outlines and the earliest narrative drafts; and I suggested that this was a consequence of the papers being dispersed, some in one place and some in another, at that time. But the manuscript materials for The Return of the King were evidently preserved with the main body of the papers, for nothing of Books V and VI was left behind beyond some narrative outlines and the first draft of the chapter 'Minas Tirith'. For my account of Book V therefore I have been almost wholly dependent on the provision from Marquette of great quantities of manuscript in reproduction, without which the latter part of The War of the Ring could not have been written at all. For this most generous assistance I express my gratitude to all concerned in it, and most especially to Mr Taum Santoski, who has been primarily responsible for the work involved. In addition he has advised me on many particular points which can be best decided by close examination of the original papers, and he has spent much time in trying to decipher those manuscripts in which my father wrote a text in ink on top of another in pencil. I thank also Miss Tracy J. Muench and Miss Elizabeth A. Budde for their part in the work of reproducing the material, and Mr Charles B. Elston for making it possible for me to include in this book several illustrations from manuscripts at Marquette: the pages carry- ing sketches of Dunharrow, of the mountains at the head of Harrowdale, and of Kirith Ungol, the plan of Minas Tirith, and the full-page drawing of Orthanc (5). This book follows the plan and presentation of its predeces- sors, references to previous volumes in 'The History of Middle- earth' being generally given in Roman numerals (thus 'VII' refers to The Treason of Isengard), FR, TT, and RK being used as abbreviations for The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King, and page-references being made throughout to the three-volume hardback edition of The Lord of the Rings (LR). In several parts of the book the textual history is exceedingly complex. Since the story of the evolution of The Lord of the Rings can of course only be discovered by the correct ordering and interpretation of the manuscripts, and must be recounted in those terms, the textual history cannot be much simplified; and I have made much use of identifying letters for the manuscripts in order to clarify my account and to try to avoid ambiguities. In Books IV and V problems of chronologi- cal synchronisation became acute: a severe tension is sometimes perceptible between narrative certainties and the demands of an entirely coherent chronological structure (and the attempt to right dislocation in time could very well lead to dislocation in geography). Chronology is so important in this part of The Lord of the Rings that I could not neglect it, but I have put almost all of my complicated and often inconclusive discussion into 'Notes on the Chronology' at the end of chapters. In this book I have used accents throughout in the name, of the Rohirrim (Theoden, Eomer, &c.). Mr Charles Noad has again read the proofs independently and checked the very large number of citations, including those to other passages within the book, with a strictness and care that I seem altogether unable to attain. In addition I have adopted several of his suggestions for improvement in clarity and consistency in my account. I am much indebted to him for this generous and substantial work. I am very grateful for communications from Mr Alan Stokes and Mr Neil Gaiman, who have explained my father's reference in his remarks about the origins of the poem Errantry (The Treason of Isengard p. 85): 'It was.begun very many years ago, in an attempt to go on with the model that came unbidden into my mind: the first six lines, in which, I guess, D'ye ken the rhyme to porringer had a part.' The reference is to a Jacobite song attacking William of Orange as usurper of the English crown from his father-in-law, James II, and threatening to hang him. The first verse of this song runs thus in the version given by Iona and Peter Opie in The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (no. 422): What is the rhyme for porringer? What is the rhyme for porringer? The king he had a daughter fair And gave the Prime of Orange her. The verse is known in several forms (in one of which the opening line is Ken ye the rhyme to porringer? and the last And he gave her to an Oranger). This then is the unlikely origin of the provender of the Merry Messenger: There was a merry passenger, a messenger, an errander; he took a tiny porringer and oranges for provender.