PART ONE. THE FALL OF SARUMAN. I. THE DESTRUCTION OF ISENGARD. (Chronology) The writing of the story from 'The King of the Golden Hall' to the end of the first book of The Two Towers was an extremely complex process. The 'Isengard story' was not conceived and set down as a series of clearly marked 'chapters', each one brought to a developed state before the next was embarked on, but evolved as a whole, and disturbances of the structure that entered as it evolved led to disloca- tions all through the narrative. With my father's method of composi- tion at this time - passages of very rough and piecemeal drafting being built into a completed manuscript that was in turn heavily overhauled, the whole complex advancing and changing at the same time - the textual confusion in this part of The Lord of the Rings is only penetrable with great difficulty, and to set it out as a clear sequence impossible. The essential cause of this situation was the question of chronology; and I think that the best way to approach the writing of this part of the narrative is to try to set out first the problems that my father was contending with, and to refer back to this discussion when citing the actual texts. The story had certain fixed narrative 'moments' and relations. Pippin and Merry had encountered Treebeard in the forest of Fangorn and been taken to his 'Ent-house' of Wellinghall for the night. On that same day Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas had encountered Eomer and his company returning from battle with the Orcs, and they themselves passed the night beside the battlefield. For these purposes this may be called 'Day 1', since earlier events have here no relevance; the actual date according to the chronology of this period in the writing of The Lord of the Rings was Sunday January 29 (see VII.368, 406). On Day 2, January 30, the Entmoot took place; and on that day Aragorn and his companions met Gandalf returned, and together they set out on their great ride to Eodoras. As they rode south in the evening Legolas saw far off towards the Gap of Rohan a great smoke rising, and he asked Gandalf what it might be: to which Gandalf replied 'Battle and war! ' (at the end of the chapter 'The White Rider'). They rode all night, and reached Eodoras in the early morning of Day 3, January 31. While they spoke with Theoden and Wormtongue in the Golden Hall at Eodoras the Entmoot was still rumbling on far away in Fangorn. In the afternoon of Day 3 Theoden with Gandalf and his companions and a host of the Rohirrim set out west from Eodoras across the plains of Rohan towards the Fords of Isen; and on that same afternoon the Entmoot ended,(1) and the Ents began their march on Isengard, which they reached after nightfall. It is here that the chronological problems appear. There were - or would be, as the story evolved - the following elements (some of them foreseen in some form in the outline that I called 'The Story Foreseen from Fangorn', VII.435 - 6) to be brought into a coherent time-pattern. The Ents would attack Isengard, and drown it by diverting the course of the river Isen. A great force would leave Isengard; the Riders at the Fords of Isen would be driven back over the river. The Rohirrim coming from Eodoras would see a great darkness in the direction of the Wizard's Vale, and they would meet a lone horseman returning from the battle at the Fords; Gandalf would fleet away westwards on Shadowfax. Theoden and his host, with Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas, would take refuge in a deep gorge in the southern mountains, and a great battle there would turn to victory after certain defeat with the coming of the 'moving trees', and the return of Gandalf and the lord of the Rohirrim whose stronghold it was. Finally, Gandalf, with Theoden, Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas and a company of the Riders would leave the refuge and ride to Isengard, now drowned and in ruins, and meet Merry and Pippin sitting on a pile of rubble at the gates. I. In the original opening of 'Helm's Deep', as will be seen at the beginning of the next chapter, the cavalcade from Eodoras saw 'a great fume and vapour' rising over Nan Gurunir, the Wizard's Vale,(2) and met the lone horseman returning from the Fords of Isen, on the same day (Day 3, January 31) as they left the Golden Hall. The horseman (Ceorl) told them that the Riders had been driven back over the Isen with great loss on the previous day (Day 2, January 30); and it must have been 'the smoke of battle' that Legolas saw in the evening rising from the Gap of Rohan as they rode south from Fangorn - it cannot of course have been the steam rising from the drowning of Isengard by the Ents (see above). In this original story Theoden and his men, with Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas, took refuge in Helm's Deep (not yet so named) that same night (Day 3). A chronological dislocation seems to have been already present in this: for the events of Days 1-3 as set out above were fixed in relation to each other, and the Ents must arrive at Isengard after nightfall of Day 3 (January 31); yet according to the original opening of 'Helm's Deep' the host from Eodoras sees the 'great fume and vapour' rising over Nan Gurunir (unquestionably caused by the drowning of Isen- gard) in the evening of that same day. II. This time-scheme was duly changed: Theoden and his host camped in the plain on the first night out from Eodoras (Day 3, January 31), and it was in the morning of the second day of the ride (Day 4, February 1) that they saw the great cloud over Nan Gurunir: As they rode they saw a great spire of smoke and vapour, rising up out of the deep shadow of Nan Gurunir; as it mounted it caught the light of the sun and spread in glowing banks that drifted on the wind over the plains towards them. 'What do you think of that, Gandalf?' said Theoden. 'One would say that all the Wizard's Vale was burning.' 'There is ever a fume above that valley in these days,' said Hama; 'but I never saw anything like that before.' It is now in the evening of this second day of their ride that they met the horseman Ceorl coming from the Fords, and on the night of this day that the battle of the Hornburg took place. The chronology was now therefore: (Day 3) January 31 Gandalf, Theoden and the Rohirrim depart from Eodoras and camp for the night in the plains. Ents reach Isengard after nightfall and after the departure of the Orc-host begin the drowning of the Circle of Isengard. (Day 4) February 1 The host from Eodoras sees in the morning the steams rising from the drowning of Isengard; in the evening they meet Ceorl and learn of the defeat at the Fords of Isen on the previous day; and reach Helm's Deep after nightfall. Battle of the Hornburg. It seems impossible to avoid the conclusion that the end of the chapter 'The White Rider' (Legolas' sight of the smoke in the Gap of Rohan on Day 2, January 30) escaped revision when the date of the (Second) Battle of the Fords of Isen was changed to January 31. III. In the original form of what became the opening of 'The Road to Isengard' Gandalf and Theoden, with Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas and a party of Riders, set out from Helm's Deep shortly after the end of the battle of the Hornburg, without any rest; this was on Day 5, February 2, and they reached Isengard not long after noon on the same day. As they approached Nan Gurunir they saw rising up out of deep shadows a vast spire of smoke and vapour; as it mounted it caught the light of the sun, and spread in glowing billows in the sky, and the wind bore them over the plain. 'What do you think of that, Gandalf?' said Theoden. 'One would say that all the Wizard's Vale was burning.' 'There is ever a fume above that valley in these days,' said Eomer; 'but I have never seen anything like this before. These are steams, rather than smokes. Some devilry Saruman is brewing to greet us.' This dialogue was lifted straight from its earlier place at the beginning of the 'Helm's Deep' story (see II above) - with substitution of Eomer for Hama, slain at the Hornburg, and in 'Helm's Deep' a different passage was inserted, as found in TT pp. 131 - 2, in which what is seen in the North-west is 'a shadow that crept down slowly from the Wizard's Vale', and there is no mention of fume or steam. The reason for these changes was again chronological: the host on its way from Eodoras is not to see great steams rising from Isengard on Day 4, but the 'veiling shadow' of the Huorns as they came down into the Wizard's Vale. Thus: (Day 4) February 1 The host from Eodoras sees in the morning the shade of the moving trees far off in the North-west; the drowning of Isengard was not begun till night. At night Battle of the Hornburg. (Day 5) February 2 In the morning Theoden and Gandalf and their company ride to Isengard, and find it drowned. IV. The chronology was then changed to that of 'The Road to Isengard' in TT, whereby Theoden and Gandalf and their company do not leave Helm's Deep until much later on Day 5, pass the night camped below Nan Gurunir, and do not reach Isengard until midday on Day 6 (February 3). This chronology is set out in a time-scheme (additions of mine in brackets): [Day 3] January 31 Ents arrive at Isengard, night. Break in. [Day 4] February 1 Dawn, they go away north to make dams. All that day Merry and Pippin alone until dusk. Gandalf arrives at Isengard at nightfall, and meets Treebeard. Drowning of Isengard begins late at night. [Battle of the Hornburg.] [Day 5] February 2 Isengard steams all day and column of smoke arises in evening. [Gandalf, Theoden, &c. see this from their camp below Nan Gurunir.] Huorns return in night to Isengard. [Day 6] February 3 Morning, Treebeard returns to Gates. Sets Merry and Pippin to watch. Wormtongue comes. [Gandalf, Theoden, &c. arrive shortly after noon.] This is the chronology of LR, as set out in The Tale of Years, though the actual dates are of course different (in LR March 2 = January 31 in this scheme). * This, I believe, is how the chronology evolved; but as will be seen in the following chapters, earlier time-schemes appear in the drafts for passages far on in the actual narrative, because as I have said all this part of LR was written as a whole. Thus for example in the first draft of Merry's story of the destruction and drowning of Isengard (in TT in the chapter 'Flotsam and Jetsam') the chronology belongs with the scheme described in II above, and against it my father noted: 'Drowning must not begin until night of Hornburg battle.' Despite the way in which this part of the story was written, I think that it will in fact be clearest to break my account into chapters corresponding to those in The Two Towers; this inevitably entails a certain amount of advance and retreat in terms of the actual sequence of composition, but I hope that this preliminary account will clarify the shifting chronological basis in the different texts. NOTES. 1. The extra day of the Entmoot (TT pp. 87-8) was not added until much later: VII.407, 419. 2. Nan Gurunir, the Valley of Saruman, was added in to a blank space left for the name in the manuscript of 'Treebeard' (VII.420 note 9). II. HELM'S DEEP. A first draft of this story, abandoned after it had proceeded for some distance, differs so essentially from its form in The Two Towers that I give it here in full. This text bears the chapter number XXVIII, without title. For the chronology see p. 4, $I. There was a much-ridden way, northwestward along the foothills of the Black Mountains. Up and down over the rolling green country it ran, crossing small swift streams by many fords. Far ahead and to the right the shadow of the Misty Mountains drew nearer. Beneath the distant peak of Methedras in dark shadow lay the deep vale of Nan Gurunir; a great fume and vapour rose there and drifted towards them over the plain.(1) Halting seldom they rode on into the evening. The sun went down before them. Darkness grew behind. Their spears were tipped with fiery red as the last shafts of light stained the clouds above Tindtorras;(2) the three peaks stood black against the sunset upon the northmost arm of the Black Mountains. In that last red light men in the van saw a horseman riding back towards them. As he drew near, the host halted, "waiting him. He came, a weary man with dinted helm, and cloven shield. Slowly he climbed from his horse, and stood there a while, panting. At length he spoke. 'Is Eomer here?' he asked. 'You come at last, but too late and too few. Things have gone evilly, since Theodred fell.(3) We were driven back over the bend of the Isen with great loss yesterday; many perished at the crossing. Then at night fresh forces came over the river against our camp. All Isengard must be emptied; and the Wizard has armed the wild hill-men and the scattered folk of Westfold,(4) and these also he loosed upon us. We were overmastered. The shieldwall was broken. Trumbold [> Herulf > Heorulf](5) the Westmarcher has drawn off those he could gather towards his fastness under Tindtorras. Others are scattered. Where is Eomer? Tell him there is no hope ahead: he should return to Eodoras, before the wolves of Saruman come there!' Theoden rode up. 'Come, stand before me, Ceorl!' he said. 'I am here. The last host of the Eorlingas has ridden forth. It will not return unfought.' The man's face lightened with wonder and joy. He drew himself up. Then he knelt offering his notched sword to the King. 'Command me, lord,' he cried, 'and pardon me! I did not know, I thought - ' 'You though". I remained in Eodoras, bent like an old tree under winter snow. So it was when you went. But a wind has shaken off somewhat the cold burden,' said Theoden. 'Give this man a fresh horse. Let us ride to the aid of Trumbold [> Heorulf]! ' Forward they rode again, urging on their horses. Suddenly Gandalf spoke to Shadowfax, and like an arrow from the bow the great horse sprang away. Even as they looked, he was gone: a Hash of silver in the sunset, a wind in the grass, a shadow that fled and faded from sight. For a while Snowmane and the horses of the King's guard strained in pursuit, but if they had walked they would have had as much chance of overtaking him. 'What does that mean?' said Hama to a comrade. 'Ever he comes and goes unlooked-for.' 'Wormtongue, were he here, would not find it hard to explain,' said the other. 'True,' said Hama, 'but for myself I will wait till we see him again.' 'If ever we do,' said the other. It was night and the host was still riding swiftly, when cries and hornblasts were heard from the scouts that rode ahead. Arrows whistled overhead. They were crossing a wide vale, a bay in the mountains. On the further side the Tind- torras were hidden in darkness. Some miles ahead still lay the opening of the great cleft in the hills which men of that land called Heorulf's Clough:(6) steep and narrow it wound inward under the Tindtorras, and where it issued in the vale, upon an outjutting heel of rock, was built the fastness of Heorulf's Hold.(7) The scouts rode back and reported that wolfriders were abroad in the vale, and that a host of orcs and wild men, very great indeed, was hastening southward over the plain to gain the gates of the Nerwet.(8) 'We have found some of our men slain as they fled,' said one of the scouts; 'and scattered companies we have met, going this way and that, leaderless; but many are making for Herulf's Hold, and say that Herulf is already there.' 'We had best not give battle in the dark, nor await the day here in the open, not knowing the number of the coming host,' said Eomer, who had ridden up to the King's side. 'What is your counsel, Aragorn?' 'To drive through such enemies as are before us, and encamp before the Nerwet Gate to defend if may be, while the men who have fought rest behind our shield.' 'Let it be so!' said Theoden. 'We will go thither in many [separate comp]anies: let a man who is nightsighted and knows [well the land] go at the head of each.'(9) At this point my father stopped, and returned to 'It was night and the host was still riding swiftly...' In the passage just given is the first appearance of Helm's Deep ('Heorulf's Clough') and the Hornburg ('Heorulf's Hold') on its 'outjutting heel of rock'; Heorulf being the precursor of Erkenbrand of Westfold. Night had fallen, and still the host was riding swiftly on. They had turned northward, and were bearing towards the fords of the Isen, when cries and hornblasts were heard from their scouts that went in front. Arrows whistled over them. At this time they were at the outer end of a wide vale, a bay in the mountains of the south. On its further western side the Tindtorras were hidden in darkness; beneath their feet [> the peaks], some miles away, lay the opening of the great cleft in the hills which men of that land called Heorulf's Clough [> lay the green coomb out of which opened a great cleft in the hills. Men of that land called it Helm's Deep],(10) after some hero of ancient wars who had made his refuge there. Ever steeper and narrower it wound inward under the Tindtorras, till the crowhaunted cliffs on either side towered far above and shut out the light. Where it issued in the vale, upon [added: the Stanrock,) an outjutting heel of land, was built the fastness of Heorulf's Hoe (11) (Hold?). Stanrock. [> was built the fastness of Helmsgate. There Heorulf the Marcher had his hold.] A scout now rode back and reported that wolfriders were abroad in the valley, and that a host of orcs and wild men, very great indeed, was hurrying southward over the plain towards Heorulf's Hold. 'We have found many of our own folk lying slain as they fled thither,' said the scout. 'And we have met scattered companies, going this way and that, leaderless. Some are making for the Clough [> Helmsgate], but it seems that Nothelm [> Heorulf] is not there. His plan was changed, and men do not know whither he has gone. Some say that Wormtongue was seen today [> Some say that Wormtongue was seen in the evening going north, and in the dusk an old man on a great horse rode the same way].' 'Well, if Nothelm be in the Hold or not, [> 'It will go ill with Wormtongue, if Gandalf overtakes him,' said Theoden. 'Nonetheless I miss now both counsellors, old and new. Yet it seems to me that whether Heorulf be in his Hold or no,] in this need we have no better choice than to go thither ourselves,' said Theoden. 'What is your counsel?' he said, turning to Eomer who had now ridden up to the King's side. 'We should be ill advised to give battle in the dark,' said Eomer, 'or to await the day here in the open, not knowing the number of the oncoming host. Let us drive through such foes as are between us and Herulf's Clough [> the fastness], and encamp before the Hold [> its gate]. Then if we cannot break out, we may retreat to the Hold. There are caves in the gorge [> Helm's Deep] behind where hundreds may hide, and secret ways lead up thence, I am told, onto the hills.' 'Trust not to them!' said Aragorn. 'Saruman has long spied out this land. Still, in such a place our defence might last long.' 'Let us go then,' said Theoden. 'We will ride thither in many separate companies. A man who is nightsighted and knows well the land shall go at the head of each.' I interrupt the text here to discuss some aspects of this story. The names present an apparently impenetrable confusion, but I think that the development was more or less as follows. My father was uncertain whether 'Heorulf' ('Herulf') was the present lord of the 'Hold' or the hero after whom the 'Clough' was named. When he wrote, in the passage just given, 'which men of that land called Heorulf's Clough, after some hero of ancient wars who had made his refuge there' he had decided on the latter, and therefore the name of the present 'West- marcher' (precursor of Erkenbrand) was changed, becoming Nothelm. Then, changing again, Nothelm reverted to Heorulf, while the gorge was named after Helm: Helmshaugh (note 10), then Helm's Deep. The fastness (Heorulf's Hoe or Hold) standing on the Stanrock is now called Helmsgate, which in LR refers to the entrance to Helm's Deep across which the Deeping Wall was built. The image of the great gorge and the fortress built on the jutting heel or 'hoe' arose, I believe, as my father wrote this first draft of the new chapter. In the outline 'The Story Foreseen from Fangorn' (VII.435) Gandalf's sudden galloping off on Shadowfax is present, and 'by his help and Aragorn the Isengarders are driven back'; there is no suggestion of any gorge or hold in the hills to the south. So again in the present narrative he says nothing before he rides off; whereas in TT he tells Theoden not to go the Fords of Isen but to ride to Helm's Deep. Thus in the original story it was not until 'cries and hornblasts were heard from their scouts that went in front' and 'arrows whistled over them' that the leaders of the host decided to make for the Hold; in TT (where the actual wording of the passage is scarcely changed) the host was 'in the low valley before the mouth of the Coomb' when these things happened. The present text agrees well with the First Map (redrawn section IV(E), VII.319). At this time the host was 'at the outer end of a wide vale, a bay in the mountains of the south'; and 'Heorulf's Clough' lay somewhere near the western end of this 'bay'. The First Map is in fact less clear at this point than my redrawing makes it, but the map that I made in 1943, which was closely based on the First Map (see VII.299), shows Helm's Deep very clearly as running in towards the Tindtorras (Thrihyrne) from a point well to the north and west of the 'bay in the mountains' - the Westfold Vale, in the present text not yet named (see note 4).(12) On the page of the completed manuscript in which the final form of this passage (TT p. 133) was reached the text reads thus: 'Still some mile away, on the far side of the Westfold Vale, a great bay in the mountains, lay a green coomb out of which a gorge opened in the hills.' There is no question that this is correct, and that this was what my father intended: the great bay in the mountains was of course the Westfold Vale. In the typescript based on this, however, the sentence became, for some obscure reason (there is no ambiguity in the manuscript): 'Still some miles away, on the far side of the Westfold Vale, lay a green coomb, a great bay in the mountains, out of which a gorge opened in the hills.' This error is perpetuated in The Two Towers. In this original narrative it was on the night of the day of departure from Eodoras that the host came to the hold in the hills; subse- quently (13) it was on the night of the second day (for the chronology see pp. 4-5, $$ I-II). In the later story it is said (TT p. 131) that 'Forty leagues and more it was, as a bird flies, from Edoras to the fords of the Isen', and this agrees very well with the First Map, where the distance is almost 2.5 an., or 125 miles (= just over 40 leagues). It may have been a doser look at the map that led to the extension of the ride across the plain by a further day. On the other hand, there was also an evident difficulty with the chronology as it now stood: see p. 4, $ I. The original draft continues: Aragorn and Legolas rode with Eomer's eored. That com- pany needed no guide more keen of sight than Legolas, or a man who knew the land, far and wide about, better than Eomer himself. Slowly, and as silently as they might, they went through the night, turning back from the plain, and climbing westward into the dim folds about the mountains' feet. They came upon few of the enemy, except here and there a roving band of orcs who fled ere the riders could slay many; but ever the rumour of war grew behind them. Soon they could hear harsh singing, and if they turned and looked back they could see, winding up from the low country, red torches, countless points of fiery light. A very wood of trees must have been felled to furnish them. Every now and then a brighter blaze leaped up. 'It is a great host,' said Aragorn, 'and follows us close.' 'They bring fire,' said Eomer, 'and are burning as they come all that they can kindle: rick and cot and tree. We shall have a great debt to pay them.' 'The reckoning is not far off,' said Aragorn. 'Shall we soon find ground where we can turn and stand?' 'Yes,' said Eomer. 'Across the wide mouth of the coomb, at some distance from Helmsgate there is a fall in the ground, so sharp and sheer that to those approaching it seems as if they came upon a wall. This we call [Stanshelf Stanscylf >](14) Helm's dike. In places it is twenty feet high, and on the top it has been crowned with a rampart of great stones, piled in ancient days. There we will stand. Thither the other companies will also come. There are three ways that lead up through breaches in the cliff." these we must hold strongly.' It was dark, starless and moonless, when they came to [the Stanshelf >] Helm's dike. Eomer led them up by a broad sloping path that climbed through a deep notch in the cliff and came out upon the new level some way behind the rampart. They were unchallenged. No one was there before them, friend or foe.(16) At once Eomer set guards upon the [breaches >] Inlets. Ere long other companies arrived, creeping up the valley from various directions. There were wide grass-slopes between the rampart and the Stanrock. There they set their horses under such guards as could be spared from the manning of the wall. Gimli stood leaning against a great stone at a high point of the [Stanshelf >] dike not far from the inlet by which they had entered. Legolas was on the stone above fingering his bow and peering into the blackness. 'This is more to my liking,' said the dwarf, stamping his feet on the ground. 'Ever my heart lightens as we draw near the mountains. There is good rock here. This country has hard bones. I feel it under my feet. Give me a year and a hundred of my kin and we could make this a place that armies would break against like water.' 'I doubt it not,' said Legolas. 'But you're a dwarf, and dwarves are strange folk. I like it not, and shall like it no more by the light of day. But you comfort me, Gimli, and I am glad to have you stand by me with your stout legs and hard axe.' Shapes loomed up beside them. It was Eomer and Aragorn walking together along the line of the rampart. 'I am anxious,' said Eomer. 'Most have now arrived; but one company is still lacking, and also the King and his guard.' 'If you will give me some hardy men, I will take Gimli and Legolas here, and go a little down the valley and look for tidings,' said Aragorn. 'And find more than you are looking for,' said Gimli. 'That is likely,' said Eomer. 'We will wait a while.' A slow time passed, when suddenly at no great distance down the valley a clamour broke out. Horns sounded. 'There are some of our folk come into an ambush, or taken in the rear,' cried Eomer. 'Theoden will be there. Wait here, I will hold the men back to the wall, and choose some to go forth. I will be back swiftly.' Horns sounded again, and in the still darkness they could hear the clash of weapons. In brief while Eomer returned with twenty men-. 'This errand I will take,' said Aragorn. 'You are needed on the wall. Come, Legolas! Your eyes will serve us.' He sped down the slope. 'Where Legolas goes, I go,' said Gimli, and ran after them. The watchers on the wall saw nothing for a while, then suddenly there were louder cries, and wilder yells. A clear voice rang, echoing in the hills. Elendil! It seemed that far below in the shadows a white flame flashed. 'Branding goes to war at last,' said Eomer. A horseman appeared before the main breach, and was admitted. 'Where is Theoden King?' asked Eomer. 'Among his guard,' said.the man. 'But many are unhorsed. We rode into an ambush, and orcs sprang out of the ground among us, hamstringing many of our steeds. Snowmane and the King escaped; for that horse is nightsighted, and sprang over the heads of the orcs. But Theoden dismounted and fought among his guard. Herugrim sang a song that has long been silent. Aragorn is with them, and he sends word that a great host of orcs is on his heels. Man the wall! He will come in by the main breach if he can.' The noise of battle drew nearer. Those on the rampart could do nothing to aid. They had not many archers among them, and these could not shoot in the darkness while their friends were still in front. One by one men of the missing company came in, till all but five were mustered. Last came the King's guard on foot, with the King in their midst, leading Snowmane. 'Hasten, Lord!' cried Eomer. At that moment there was a wild cry. Orcs were attacking the [breaches >] inlets on either hand, and before the King had been brought in to safety out of the darkness there sprang a host of dark shapes driving towards the great breach. A white fire shone. There in their path could be seen for a moment Aragorn son of Arathorn: on his one side was Gimli, on the other Legolas. 'Back now, my comrades!' cried Aragorn. 'I will follow.' Even as Gimli and Legolas ran back towards the rampart, he leaped forward. Before the flame of Branding the orcs fled. Then slowly Aragorn retreated walking backward. Even as he did so step by step one great orc came forward, while others stalked behind him. As Aragorn turned at last to run up the inlet, the orc sprang after him: but an arrow whined and he fell sprawling and lay still. For some time no others dared to draw near. 'Sure is the shaft of the elven bow, and keen are the eyes of Legolas!' said Aragorn as he joined the elf and they ran together to the rampart. Thus at last the King's host was brought within the fastness, and turned to bay before the mouth of Helm's Deep. The night was not yet old, and many hours of darkness and peril yet remained. Theoden was unhurt; but he grieved for the loss of so many of the horses of his guard, and he looked upon Snowmane bleeding at the shoulder: a glancing arrow had struck him. 'Fair is the riding forth, friend,' he said; 'but often the road is bitter.' 'Grieve not for Snowmane, lord,' said Aragorn. 'The hurt is light. I will tend it, with such skill as I have, while the enemy still holds off. They have suffered losses more grievous than ours, and will suffer more if they dare to assail this place.' Here the original draft ends as formed narrative, but continues as an outline, verging on narrative. This was written over a faint pencilled text that seems to have been much the same. There is an attack. Endless numbers. Grappling hooks, lad- ders, piled slain. Riders block breaches with stones from high places, and with bodies. Orcs keep on getting in. Riders lose few men, most at breaches. Orcs once got near the horses. Late in the night the (waning?) moon shone fitfully, and the defenders see a boiling throng beneath the wall. Slowly the dead were piling up. Wild men in steel mesh forced the north breach, and turning south began to drive men from the rampart. Orcs clamber over. Dawn sees the Men of Rohan giving way all along. The horses are taken away to Helm's Deep, with the King. They make a shieldwall and retreat slowly up towards the Stanrock. The sun comes out, and then all stare: defenders and attackers. A mile or so below the Dike, from North to South in a great crescent, they beheld a marvel. Men rubbed their eyes thinking that they dreamed or were dizzy with wounds and weariness. Where all had been upland and grass-clad slopes, there stood now a wood of great trees. Like beeches they were, robed in withered leaves, and like ancient oaks with tangled boughs, and gnarled pines stood dark among them. The orcs gave back. The Wild Men wavered crying in terrified voices, for they came from the woods under the west sides of the Misty Mountains. At that moment from the Stanrock a trumpet sounded. Forth rode Theoden with his guard, and a company (of Heorulf's men?). They charged down crashing into the Wild Men and driving them back in ruin over the cliff. 'Wizardry is abroad!' said [?men]. 'What can this betoken?' 'Wizardry maybe,' said Eomer. 'But it seems not to be any device of our enemies. See how dismayed they are.' A few lines of very rapid and partly illegible notes follow: Their horses were often nightsighted; but the men were not so nightsighted as the orcs. Rohan at a disadvantage in dark. As soon as it grows light they are able to fight. The orcs are no match for the horsemen on the slopes before the Stanrock. Sorties from Helm's Deep and Stanrock. Orcs dive back over wall. It is then that the Wood is seen. Orcs trapped. Trees grab them. And the wood is full of Herulf's folk. Gandalf has collected the wanderers, [?About] 500. Hardly any of the attackers escape. So hopelessness turns to victory. Meanwhile Herulf told by Gandalf to hold the .... rode ....... another force sent.... Eodoras. This is now caught between Herulf and the victorious forces of the King. In a battle on the plain ......... terror struck by Aragorn and Gandalf. The host not wishing to rest rides down the fleeing remnant [?back towards] Isengard. The sentence beginning 'Meanwhile Herulf told by Gandalf to hold the' might possibly, but very doubtfully indeed, be completed: 'eastern rode [for road] has resisted another force sent towards Eodoras.' This then was the original story of Helm's Deep, to become far more complex in its development with the emergence of a much more elaborate system of fortification across the mouth of the Deep (the description and narrative in The Two Towers can be followed, incidentally, very precisely in my father's drawing, 'Helm's Deep and the Hornburg', in Pictures by J. R. R. Tolkien, no. 26). In this earliest account the 'fastness' consisted only of the sudden natural fall in the land across the mouth of the coomb, fortified with a parapet of great stones; in this there were three 'breaches', a word that my father changed to 'inlets', perhaps to suggest that they had been deliberately made. The nature of the 'hold' of Heorulf on the Stanrock is not indicated; and all the battle of Helm's Deep took place along the line of Helm's Dike. An isolated scrap of drafting that was not finally used evidently belongs with the original story and may be included here: Aragorn was away behind the defences tending the wound in Snowmane's shoulder, and speaking gentle words to the horse. As the fragrance of athelas rose in the air, his mind went back to the defence on Weathertop, and to the escape from Moria. 'It is a long journey,' he said to himself. 'From one hopeless corner we escape but to find another more desperate. Yet alas, Frodo, I would be happier in heart if you were with us in this grim place. Where now do you wander?' Written on this same page is an outline in which the radical alteration of the story of the assault first enters. When Eomer and Aragorn reach Dike they are challenged. Heorulf has left watchers on Dike. They report that the fort of Helm's Gate is manned - mainly older men, and most of the folk of the Westmarch have taken refuge in the Deep. Great store of food and fodder is in the caves. Then follows story as told above until rescue of King.(17) Eomer and Aragorn decide that they cannot hold Dike in dark (without archers). The Dike is over a mile - 2 miles? - long. The main host and King go to Stanrock. The horses are led to the Deep. Aragorn and Eomer with a few men (their horses ready in rear) hold the inlets as long as they dare. These they block with stones rolled from the rampart. The assault on the inlets. Soon drives in as the Orcs clamber up rampart in between. Ladders? Wild men drive in from North Inlet. The defenders flee. Tremendous assault upon the mouth of the Beep where a high stone wall was built. [Added here but at the same time: breastwork crowned with stones. Here G[imli] speaks his words. Reduce description of Helm's Dike - it is not fortified.] Orcs boil round foot of the Stanrock. Then describe the assault as above.(18) Orcs piling up over the wall. Wild men dimb on the goblins' dead bodies. Moon... men fighting on the wall top.(19) Disadvantage of the Riders. The wall taken and Rohan driven back into the gorge. Dawn. Eomer and Aragorn go to the Stanrock to stand by the King in the Tower. They see in the sunlight the wonder of the Wood. Charge of Theoden (Eomer left, Aragorn right). [? With day fortunes change.] Men issue on horses. But the host is vast, only it is disconcerted by the Wood. Almost [? the watchers could] believe it had moved up the valley as the battle raged. Trees should come right up to Dike. In the midst out rides Gandalf from the wood. And rides through the orcs as if they were rats and crows. My father began a new text of the chapter before important elements in the story and in the physical setting had been darified, and as a result this (the first completed manuscript) is an extremely complicated document. It was only after he had begun it that he extended the ride from Eodoras by a further day, and described the great storm coming up out of the East (TT pp. 131-2); and when he began it he had not yet realised that Helm's Dike was not the scene of the great assault: 'what really happened' was that the men manning the Dike were driven in, and the defence of the redoubt was at the line of a great wall further up at the mouth of the gorge - the 'Deeping Wall' - and the Hornburg. At this point in the manuscript the story can be seen changing as my father wrote: in Eomer's reply to Aragorn's question 'Shall we soon find ground where we can turn and stand?' (p. 13) he begins as before with an account of the fortification of the Dike ('crowned with a rampart of great stones, piled in ancient days'), but by the end of his reply he is saying that the Dike cannot be held: '... But we cannot long defend it, for we have not enough strength. It is near two miles from end to end, and is pierced by two wide breaches. We shall not be able to stand at bay till we get to the Stanrock, and come behind the wall that guards the entrance to the Deep. That is high and strong, for Heorulf had it repaired and raised not long ago.' Immediately after this the Deeping Stream entered, and the two breaches in the Dike were reduced to one: there 'a stream flows down out of the Deep, and beside it the road runs from Helm's Gate to the valley.'(20) At this stage, however, the final story was still not reached, but follows the outline just given (p. 18): The King and the main part of his host now rode on to man the Stanrock and Heorulf's wall. But the Westmarchers would not yet abandon the dike while any hope remained of Heorulf's return. Eomer and Aragorn and a few picked men stayed with them guarding the breach; for it seemed to Eomer that they might do great harm to the advance-guard of the enemy and then escape swiftly ere the main strength of the orcs and wild men forced the passage. The story from this point was built up in a textually extremely complex series of short drafts leading to more finished forms, while earlier portions of the chapter were changed to accommodate the evolving conception of the redoubt as the scene of the battle. To follow this evolution in all its detail would require a very great deal of space, and I record only certain rejected narrative ideas and other particular points of interest. Before the story (TT pp. 138-40) of the sortie of Eomer and Aragorn from the postern gate emerged, the repulse of the attack on the great gates of the Hornburg was differently conceived: Now with a great cry a company of the wild men moved forward, among them they bore the trunk of a great tree. The orcs crowded about them. The tree was swung by many strong hands, and smote the timbers with a boom. At that moment there was a sudden call. Among the boulders upon the flat and narrow rim beneath the fastness and the brink a few brave men had lain hidden. Aragorn was their leader. 'Up now, up now,' he shouted. 'Out Branding, out!' A blade flashed like white fire. 'Elendil, Elendil!' he shouted, and his voice echoed in the cliffs. 'See, see!' said Eomer. 'Branding has gone to war at last. Why am I not there? We were to have drawn blades together.' None could withstand the onset of Aragorn, or the terror of his sword. The orcs fled, the hill-men were hewn down, or fled leaving their ram upon the ground. The rock was cleared. Then Aragorn and his men turned to run back within the gates while there was yet time. His men had passed within, when again the lightning flashed. Thunder crashed. From among the fallen at the top of the causeway three huge orcs sprang up - the white hand could be seen on their shields. Men shouted warning from the gates, and Aragorn for an instant turned. At that moment the foremost of the orcs hurled a stone: it struck him on the helm and he stumbled, falling to his knee. The thunder rolled. Before he could get up and back the three orcs were upon him. Here this story was overtaken by that of the sortie from the postern. In the final manuscript form of this, Aragorn, looking at the gates, added after the words (TT p. 139) 'Their great hinges and iron bars were wrenched and bent; many of their timbers were cracked': 'The doors will not withstand another such battering.' These words were left out of the typescript that followed, but there is nothing in the manuscript to suggest that they should be, and it seems clear that their omission was an error (especially since they give point to Eomer's reply: 'Yet we cannot stay here beyond the walls to defend them'). Gimli's cry as he sprang on the Orcs who had fallen on Eomer: Baruk Khazad! Khazad ai-menu! appears in this form from the first writing of the scene. Years later, after the publication of LR, my father began on an analysis of all fragments of other languages (Quenya, Sindarin, Khuzdul, the Black Speech) found in the book, but unhappily before he had reached the end of FR the notes, at the outset full and elaborate, had diminished to largely uninterpretable jottings. Baruk he here translated as 'axes', without further comment; ai-menu is analysed as aya, menu, but the meanings are not clearly legible: most probably aya 'upon', menu 'acc. pl. you'. A curious point arises in Gimli's remark after his rescue of Eomer during the sortie from the postern gate (TT p. 140): 'Till now I have hewn naught but wood since I left Moria.' This is clearly inconsistent with Legolas' words in 'The Departure of Boromir', when he and Gimli came upon Aragorn beside Boromir's body near Parth Galen: 'We have hunted and slain many Orcs in the woods'; compare also the draft of a later passage (VII.386) where, when Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli set out in pursuit of the Orcs, Gimli says: '... 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 ...' I do not think that any 'explanation' of this will serve: it is simply an inconsistency never observed.(21) The 'wild hill-men' at the assault on Helm's Deep came from 'Westfold', valleys on the western side of the Misty Mountains (see p. 8 and note 4), and this application of 'Westfold' survived until a late stage of revision of the manuscript: it was still present in drafting for what became 'The Road to Isengard'.(22) Until the change in application was made, the Westfold Vale was called 'the Westmarch Vale'. In this connection there are two notable passages. The dialogue between Aragorn and Eomer and Gamling the Westmarcher on the Deeping Wall, hearing the cries of the wild men below (TT p. 142), takes this form in a rejected draft: 'I hear them,' said Eomer; 'but they are only as the scream of birds and the bellowing of beasts to my ears.' 'Yet among them are many that cry in the tongue of Westfold [later > in the Dunland tongue],' said Aragorn; 'and that is a speech of men, and once was accounted good to hear.' 'True words you speak,' said Gamling, who had climbed now on the wall. 'I know that tongue. It is ancient, and once was spoken in many valleys of the Mark. But now it is used in deadly hate. They shout rejoicing in our doom. "The king, the king!" they cry. "We will take their king! Death to the Forgoil! Death to the Strawheads! Death to the robbers of the North." Such names they have for us. Not in half a thousand years have they forgot their grievance, that the lords of Gondor gave the Mark to Eorl the Young as a reward for his service to Elendil and Isildur, while they held back. It is this old hatred that Saruman has inflamed. ...' With this compare the passage in drafting of 'The King of the Golden Hall' (VII.444) where Aragorn, seeing on one of the hangings in the Golden Hall the figure of the young man on a white horse, said: 'Behold Eorl the Young! Thus he rode out of the North to the Battle of the Field of Gorgoroth' - the battle in which Sauron was overthrown by Gil-galad and Elendil.(23) On the enormously much briefer time-span that my father conceived at this time see VII.450 note 11. An extremely rapid initial sketch for the parley between Aragorn, standing above the gates of the Hornburg, and the enemy below shows an entirely different conception from that in TT (p. 145): Aragorn and the Captain of Westfold. Westfolder says if the King is yielded all may go alive. Where to? To Isengard. Then the Westmarch is to be given back to us, and all the .... land. Who says so? Saruman. That is indeed a good warrant. Aragorn rebukes Westfolder for [??aiding] Orcs. Westfolder is humbled. Orc captain jeers. Needs must accept the terms when no others will serve. We are the Uruk-hai, we slay! Orcs shoot an arrow at Aragorn as they retreat. But the Westfold Captain hews down the archer. On the back of the page in which the new story of the assault entered (p. 17) my father wrote the following names: Rohirwaith Rochirchoth Rohirhoth Rochann Rohann Rohirrim; and also Eomeark Eomearc. I do not know whether Rochann, Rohann is to be associated with the use of Rohan on pp. 16, 18 apparently as a term for the Riders.(24) In a draft for the passage describing the charge from the Hornburg the King rode with Aragorn at his right hand and Hama at his left. For Hama's death before the gates of the Hornburg see p. 41 note 8. Lastly, at the end of the chapter, Legolas, seeing the strange Wood beyond Helm's Dike, said: 'This is wizardry indeed! "Greenleaf, Greenleaf, when thy last shaft is shot, under strange trees shalt thou go." Come! I would look on this forest, ere the spell changes.' The words he cited were from the riddling verse addressed to him by Galadriel and borne by Gandalf ('The White Rider', VII.431): 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! His words were not corrected on the manuscript, and survived into the typescript that followed (see p. 420). NOTES. 1. For the subsequent history of this passage see pp. 4-6. 2. Tindtorras: earlier name for the Thrihyrne; see VII.320. 3. In the first version of 'The King of the Golden Hall' the Second Master of the Mark was Eofored, and when Theodred appears he is not Theoden's son (see VII.446 - 7 and note 17). The 'First Battle of the Fords of Isen', in which Theodred fell, was now present (VII.444 and note 12), and in a contemporary time- scheme is dated January 25, the day before the death of Boromir and the Breaking of the Fellowship (in LR February 25 and 26). 4. On the First Map (redrawn section IV, VII.319) Westfold was written against a vale on the western side of the Misty Moun- tains, south of Dunland (though afterwards struck out. in this position and reinserted along the northern foothills of the Black Mountains west of Eodoras). It cannot be said whether Dunland and Westfold originally stood together on the map as names of distinct regions, or whether Dunland was only entered when Westfold was removed. 5. The change from Trumbold to Herulf, Heorulf (afterwards Erkenbrand) was made while this initial drafting was in progress. 6. My father first wrote Dimgraef, but changed it as he wrote to Heorulf's Clough; above this he wrote the Dimhale (hale repre- senting Old English halh, healh, 'corner, nook of land'), and after it Herelaf's Clough, this being struck out. In the margin he wrote Nerwet (Old English, 'narrow place'); and at the head of the page Neolnearu and Neolnerwet (Old English neowol, neol 'deep, profound'), also the Clough, the Long Clough, and Theostercloh (Old English peostor 'dark'). Clough is from Old English cloh 'steep-sided valley or ravine'. 7. Following this my father wrote, but struck out, 'Dimhale's Door, by some called Herulf's Hold (Burg)'; and in the margin he wrote Dimgraf's gate, and Dimmhealh (see note 6). 8. Nerwet: see note 6. 9. The words enclosed in square brackets are lost (but are obtained from the following draft) through a square having been cut out of the page: possibly there was a small sketch-map here of 'Heorulf's Clough' and the 'Hold'. 10. Before Helm's Deep my father first wrote Helmshaugh, haugh being the Northern English and Scottish development of Old English halh (note 6). 11. Heorulf's Hoe: Hoe is from Old English hoh 'heel' (used in place-names in various senses, such as 'the end of a ridge where the ground begins to fall steeply'). 12. The map redrawn on p. 269 is anomalous in this respect as in many others. 13. The extension of the ride across the plain by a day, and the shift in the date of the (second) battle of the Fords of Isen to January 31, entered in revision to the completed manuscript of 'Helm's Deep': see p. 18. 14. Stanscylf, beside Stanshelf, has the Old English form scylf (sc = sh). 15. the cliff: i.e. the Stanshelf, the great natural fall in the ground, constituting a rampart. 16. Cf. the two versions of the scout's report: 'many are making for Herulf's Hold, and say that Herulf is already there' (p. 10); 'some are making for the Clough, but it seems that Nothelm [> Heorulf] is not there' (p. 11). 17. In the first draft the fastness was deserted when the host from Eodoras arrived (p. 13). 'Then follows story as told above until rescue of King' refers to the story in the first draft given on pp. 13-16. 18. This presumably refers to the outline given on p. 16, where the assault was at the line of Helm's Dike, unless some other early account of the assault has been lost. 19. A scrap of drafting has the phrase 'Fitful late moon saw men fighting on the top of the wall'; but the illegible word here is not saw, though that may have been intended, 20. It is subsequently said (but rejected) of the Deeping Stream in this manuscript that 'far to the north it joined the Isen River and made the western border of the Mark.' 21. The second of these passages (VII.386) was lost in TT (p. 22). In the fair copy manuscript of 'The Departure of Boromir' as originally written Legolas in the first passage (TT p. 16) said only: 'Alas! We came when we heard the horn, but we are too late. Are you much hurt?'; the fuller form of his opening words on seeing Aragorn, in which he mentions the hunting and slaying of Orcs with Gimli in the woods, was added later (both to the manuscript and the following typescript). It is therefore possible that my father had now rejected the idea that appears in the second passage ('We slew many'), and did not reinstate it again until after the writing of 'Helm's Deep'. But this seems unlikely, and in any case does not alter the fact of the inconsistency in the published work. This inconsistency may have been observed before, but it was pointed out to me by Mr. Ralph L. McKnight, Jr. 22. Another notable instance of the overlapping in this part of the story is found in the name Erkenbrand. This appears in late stages of the revision of the completed manuscript of 'Helm's Deep', but it was a replacement of Erkenwald (itself replacing Heorulf); and Erkenwald is still the name of the Lord of Westfold in drafting for what became the chapter 'Flotsam and Jetsam'. See p. 40 note 2. 23. In TT (p. 142) Gamling says: 'Not in half a thousand years have they forgotten their grievance that the lords of Gondor gave the Mark to Eorl the Young and made alliance with him.' 24. In addition, the form Rohir is found in this chapter; this has occurred in the manuscript of 'The White Rider' (VII.433 note 8). Rohirrim is found in the completed manuscript of 'Helm's Deep', but it was not yet established, for Rohir appears in the final fair copy manuscript of 'The Road to Isengard' (p. 40), and much later, in 'Faramir' ('The Window on the West'), both Rohir and Rohiroth are used (pp. 155-6). III. THE ROAD TO ISENGARD. This chapter was at first continuous with 'Helm's Deep', and when the division was made it received the title 'To Isengard' (Chapter XXIX). The preparatory drafting was here much more voluminous than that of 'Helm's Deep', because the first form of the story had reached a developed form and a clear manuscript before it was rejected. The interpretation of the very confused papers for this chapter is particu- larly difficult, since it is necessary to distinguish between drafts (often closely similar) for passages in the first version and drafts for passages in the second. The essential differences in the original version from the form in The Two Towers are these: Gandalf and Theoden and their companions left Helm's Deep shortly after the end of the battle (see p. 5, $ III); they did not see the Ents as they left the mysterious wood, and they did not go down to the Fords of Isen; but they encountered, and spoke with, Bregalad the Ent, bearing a message from Treebeard, in the course of their ride to Isengard, which they reached on the same day. In this chapter I shall give those parts of the original version that are significantly different from the later form, citing them from the completed manuscript of that version but with certain passages from the initial drafts given in the notes.(1) First, however, there is an outline that my father evidently set down before he began work on the chapter. This was written in the rapid and often barely legible soft pencil that was usual for these preliminary sketches, but in this case a good deal of the outline was inked over. Meeting of the chieftains. Eomer and Gimli return from Deep. (Both wounded and are tended by Aragorn?) Gandalf explains that he had ridden ranged about gathering scattered men. The coming of the King had diverted Isengard from Eodoras. But he [Gandalf] had sent some men back to defend it against marauders. Erkenbrand (2) had been [? ambushed] and the few horses remaining after the disaster at Isenford had been lost. He had [?perforce retreated] into hills. They ask Gandalf about the Trees. The answer lies in Isengard, he said. We go now thither speedily - such as will. Aragorn, Eomer, Gimli, Legolas, King Theoden and his company and [?a force] .... to Isengard. Erkenbrand. Gamling. Repair of Hornburg. They pass down a great.... aisle among the trees that [?seems now to have opened]. No orcs to be seen. Strange murmurs and noises and half-voices among the trees. [Added: Gandalf dis- cusses his tactics. Gimli describes the caves. Here the over- writing in ink begins:] The sun shines in the plain. They see a tall giant figure striding towards them. The Riders draw swords, and are astonished. The figure greets Gandalf. I am Bregalad the Quickbeam, he said. I come from Treebeard. What does he wish? said Gandalf. He wishes you to hasten. He wants to know what he is to do with Saruman! Hm! said Gandalf. That is a problem. Tell him I am coming! What was that, said Theoden. And who is Treebeard? He was an Ent, said Gandalf. And so is Treebeard. They hasten and enter Nan Gurunir. There they find a heap of ruins. The great walls of Isengard were burst and flung down in confusion. Only the tower of Orthanc stood alone in the midst of desolation, from which a great smoke went up. The great arch still stands, but a pile of rubble stands before it. On the top of the pile sat - Merry and Pippin, having lunch.(3) They jumped up, and as Pippin had his mouth full, Merry spoke. 'Welcome, lords, to Isengard!' he said. 'We are the door- wardens: Meriadoc son of Caradoc of Buckland is my name; and my companion is Peregrin son of Paladin of Tuckborough.(4) Far in the North is our home. The lord Saruman is within, but [alas, he is indisposed and unable to receive guests. o] at the moment he is closeted with one Wormtongue discussing urgent business.' 'It is possible that we could help in the debate,' laughed Gandalf. 'But where is Treebeard? I have no time to jest with young hobbits.' 'So we find you at last,' said Aragorn. 'You have given us a long journey.' 'How long have you been at Isengard?' said Gimli. 'Less than a day,' said Pippin.(5) I turn now to the first version of the story, that is the first completed and coherent manuscript. In this, Theoden's words with Gandalf about riding to Isengard (TT p. 149) have a different outcome: 'Nonetheless to Isengard I go,' said Gandalf. 'Let those who are weary rest. For soon there will be other work to do. I shall not stay long. My way lies eastward. Look for me in Eodoras, ere the moon is full!' 'Nay,' said Theoden. 'In the dark hour before dawn I doubted. But we will not part now. I will ride with you, if that is your counsel. And now I will send out messengers with tidings of victory through all the vales of the Mark; and they shall summon all men, old and young, to meet me at Eodoras, ere the moon wanes.' 'Good!' said Gandalf. 'Then in one hour we ride again....'(6) After a brief hour of rest and the breaking of their fast, those who were to ride to Isengard made ready to depart.(7) The account of the treatment of the men of Dunland and the burials (TT p. 150) reaches the final form,(8) but the description of the departure of the trees in the night and of the valley after they had gone, told in almost the same words as in TT,(9) first entered at this point, whereas in TT it is postponed till much later in the chapter (p. 158). The passage of the wood, and Gimli's description to Legolas of the Caves of Helm's Deep, reach in the completed manuscript of the first version almost exactly the form in TT (pp; 152 - 3), but with a slight structural difference, in that here the company had already left the trees and come to the road-parting when this conversation took place: They passed through the wood and found that they had come to the bottom of the coomb, where the road from Helm's Deep branched, going one way to Eodoras and the other to the fords of the Isen. Legolas looked back with regret. 'Those are the strangest trees that ever I saw,' he said... Thus at the end of their talk together the old version again differs: 'You have my promise,' said Legolas. 'But now we must leave all that behind. How far is it to Isengard, Gandalf?' 'It is about twelve [later > fourteen o eleven] leagues from the bottom of Deeping Coomb to the outer wall of Isengard,'(10) said the wizard, turning round. 'And what shall we see there?' asked Gimli. 'You may know, but 1 cannot guess.' 'I do not know myself for certain,' answered Gandalf. 'Things may have changed again, since I was there last night. But we shall all know before long. If we are eager for the answer to riddles, let us quicken the pace!' [Added: 'Lead us!' said Theoden. 'But do not let Shadowfax set a pace we cannot keep!' The company rode forward now with all the speed they could, over the wide grasses of the Westemnet.] Thus the Caves of Helm's Deep do not receive from Gandalf here the name 'the Glittering Caves of Aglarond', which was only added to the typescript text at a later stage (see p. 77). The first version of the story now becomes decisively different from that in The Two Towers (pp. 154 ff.). The sun shone upon the vale about them. After the storm the morning was fresh, and a breeze was now flowing from the west between the mountains. The swelling grass-lands rose and fell, with long ridges and shallow dales like a wide green sea. Upon their left long slopes ran swiftly down to the Isen River, a grey ribbon that bent westward, winding away out of sight through the great Gap of Rohan to the distant shores of Belfalas.(11) Below them now lay the fords of Isen, where the river spread in stony shoals between long grassy terraces. They did not go that way. Gandalf led them due north, and they passed by, riding along the high ground on the east of the river; yet as they rode other eyes were turned towards the stony fords and the battlefield where so many good men of the Mark had fallen.(12) They saw crows wheeling and crying in the air, and borne upon the wind they heard the howling of wolves. The carrion-birds were gathered at the fords, and even the bright day had not driven them from their business. 'Alas!' cried Theoden. 'Shall we leave the steeds and riders of the Mark to be picked and torn by fowl and wolf? Let us turn aside! ' 'There is no need, lord,' said Gandalf. 'The task would take us long, were it still left to do; but it is not. No horse or rider of your folk lies there unburied. Their graves are deep and their mounds are high; and long may they watch the fords! My friends have laboured there.(13) It is with the orcs, their masters, that the wolves and carrion-birds hold their feast: such is the friendship of their kind.' 'You accomplished much in an evening and a night, Gandalf my friend,' said Theoden. 'With the help of Shadowfax - and others,' answered Gan- dalf. 'And this I can report for your comfort: the losses in the battles of the ford were less grievous than we thought at first. Many men were scattered but not slain. Some I guided to join Erkenwald, and some I gathered again and sent back to Eodoras. I found that all the strength of Saruman was hurrying to Helm's Deep; for the great force that had been ordered to go straight to Eodoras was turned aside and joined to those that had pursued Erkenwald. When it was known that you, Theoden King, were in the field, and Eomer beside you, a mad eagerness came upon them. To take you and slay Eomer was what Saruman most desired. Nonetheless I feared that wolf-riders and cruel plunderers might be sent swiftly to Eodoras and do great harm there, since it was unmanned. But now I think you need not fear; you will find the Golden Hall to welcome your return.' They had been riding for about an hour since they left the Coomb, and already the dark mountainous arms of Nan Gurunir were opening wide before them. It seemed filled with smoke. Out of it the river flowed, now near upon their left. Suddenly they were aware of a strange figure striding south along the stream towards them. This last paragraph was replaced by the following: They had been riding for almost an hour [> It was close on noon. They had been riding for two hours](14) since they left the Coomb, and now the mountainous arms of Nan Gurunir began to stretch towards them. There seemed to be a mist about the hills, and they saw rising up out of deep shadows a vast spire of smoke and vapour; as it mounted it caught the light of the sun, and spread in glowing billows in the sky, and the wind bore them over the plain. 'What do you think of that, Gandalf?' said Theoden. 'One would say that all the Wizard's Vale was burning.' 'There is ever a fume above that valley in these days,' said Eomer; 'but I have never seen anything like this before. These are steams, rather than smokes. Some devilry Saruman is brewing to greet us.' 'Maybe,' said Gandalf. 'If so, we shall soon learn what it is.'(15) Out of the steaming vale the river Isen flowed, now close upon their left hand. As they were gazing north, they were suddenly aware of a strange figure striding south along the east bank of the stream. It went at great speed, walking stilted like a wading heron, and yet the long paces were as quick, rather, as the beat of wings; and as it approached they saw that it was very tall, a troll in height, or a young tree. Many of the horsemen cried aloud in wonder, and some drew their swords. But Gandalf raised his hand. 'Let us wait,' he said. 'Here is a messenger for me.' 'A strange one to my eyes,' said Theoden. 'What kind of creature may it be?' 'It is long since you listened to tales by the fireside,' answered Gandalf; 'and in that rather than in white hairs you show your age, without increase in wisdom.'(16) There are children in your land that out of the twisted threads of many stories could have picked the answer to your question at a glance. Here comes an Ent, an Ent out of Fangorn, that your tongue calls the Entwood - did you think the name was given only in idle fancy?(17) Nay, Theoden, it is otherwise: to them you are but the passing tale: all the years from Eorl the Young to Theoden the Old are of little count to them.' Theoden was silent, and all the company halted, watching the strange figure with wondering eyes as it came quickly on to meet them. Man or troll, he was ten or twelve feet high, strong but slim, clad in glistening close-fitting grey and dappled brown, or else his smooth skin was like the rind of a fair rowan-tree. He had no weapon, and as he came his long shapely arms and many-fingered hands were raised in sign of peace. Now he stood before them, a few paces off, and his clear eyes, deep grey with glints of green, looked solemnly from face to face of the men that were gathered round him.(18) Then he spoke slowly, and his voice was resonant and musical. 'Is this the company of Theoden, master of the green fields of Men?' he said. 'Is Gandalf here? I seek Gandalf, the white rider.' 'I am here,' said Gandalf. 'What do you wish?' 'I am Bregalad Quickbeam,' answered the Ent. 'I come from Treebeard. He is eager for news of the battle, and he is anxious concerning the Huorns.(19) Also he is troubled in his mind about Saruman, and hopes that Gandalf will come soon to deal with him. [Added: There is no sign or sound from the tower.]' Gandalf was silent for a moment, stroking his beard thought- fully. 'Deal with him,' he said. 'That may have many meanings [> That may have more meanings than one].(20) But how it will go, I cannot tell till I come. Tell Treebeard that I am on the way, and will hasten. And in the meanwhile, Bregalad, tell him not to be troubled about the Huorns. They have done their task, and taken no hurt. They will return.' 'That is good news,' said the Ent. 'May we soon meet again!' He raised his hand, and turned, and strode off back up the river, so swiftly that before the king's company had recovered from their wonder he was already far away. The riders now went at greater speed. At last they rode up into the long valley of Nan Gurunir. The land rose steeply, and the long arms of the Misty Mountains, reaching towards the plains, rose upon either side: steep, stony ridges, bare of trees. The valley was sheltered, open only to the sunlit South, and watered by the young river winding in its midst. Fed by many springs and lesser streams among the rain-washed hills, it flowed and bubbled in its bed, already a swift strong water before it found the plain; and all about it once had lain a pleasant fertile land.(21) The description of Nan Gurunir as it was now is almost as in TT (p. 159), but after the words 'many doubted in their hearts, wonder- ing to what dismal end their journey led' there follows: Soon they came upon a wide stone-bridge that with a single arch spanned the river, and crossing it they found a road that with a wide northward sweep brought them to the great highway to the fords: stone-paved it was, well-made and well-tended, and no blade of grass was seen in any joint or crack. Not far before them now they knew that the gates of Isengard must stand; and their hearts were heavy, but their eyes could not pierce the mists. Thus the black pillar surmounted by the White Hand is absent. Being on the east side of Isen they cross the river by a bridge, and come to 'the great highway to the fords'. In TT they followed that road on the west side of Isen up from the fords, and it was at this point that the road became 'a wide street, paved with great flat stones'.(22) Already in preliminary drafting the description of the Circle of Isengard reached almost its form in TT (pp. 159-60),(23) but that of the tower of Orthanc underwent many changes, which can be related to a series of contemporary illustrations. These descriptions, for clarity in my account, I label A, B, C, D. The description in the preliminary draft is as follows: (A) And in the centre from which all the chained paths ran was a tower, a pinnacle of stone. The base of it, and that two hundred feet in height, was a great cone of rock left by the ancient builders and smoothers of the plain, but now upon it rose a tower of masonry, tier on tier, course on course, each drum smaller than the last. It ended short and flat, so that at the top there was a wide space fifty feet across, reached by a stair that came up the middle. This description fits the picture captioned 'Orthanc (1)' that was reproduced as frontispiece to Vol. VII, The Treason of Isengard,(24) except in one respect: in the text there was 'a wide space fifty feet across' at the top, whereas in the picture the tower is surmounted by three pinnacles or horns (see under 'C' below). In the completed manuscript of the first version the description begins in the same way,(25) but after 'left by the ancient builders and smoothers of the plain' it continues: (B) ... a tower of masonry marvellously tall and slender, like a stone horn, that at the tip branched into three tines; and between the tines there was a narrow space where a man could stand a thousand feet above the vale. This accompanies the drawing labelled 'Orthanc (2)', reproduced on p. 33, where the basal cone is black, and steeper than in 'Orthanc (1)', and the tower much more slender. Against this second description of the tower my father subsequently wrote: (C) Or - if first picture [i.e. 'Orthanc (1)'] is adopted (but with cone-like rock as in second picture) [i.e. 'Orthanc (2)']: [a tower of masonry] marvellously tall and strong. Seven round tiers it had, dwindling in girth and height, and at the top were three black horns of stone upon a narrow space where a man could stand a thousand feet above the plain. This precisely fits 'Orthanc (1)'. It seems likely then that that picture was made after the first description 'A' was written, since it differs from 'A' in that the tower possess three horns at the summit. The accounts 'B' and 'C' were rejected together and replaced in the manuscript by the following (all this work obviously belonging to the same period): (D) And in the centre, from which all the chained paths ran, there stood an island in a pool, a great cone of rock, two hundred feet in height, left by the ancient builders and smoothers [> levellers] of the plain, black and smooth and exceeding hard. A yawning chasm clove it from tip to middle into two great fangs and over the chasm was a mighty arch of masonry, and upon the arch a tower was founded, marvellously tall and strong. Seven round tiers it had, dwindling in girth and height, and at the top were three black horns of stone upon a narrow space, where a man could stand a thousand feet above the plain. This conception is illustrated in the drawings 'Orthanc (3)' and '(4)' on the same page as 'Orthanc (2)' and reproduced below (the distinc- tion between the two enters into successive descriptions of the tower in 'The Voice of Saruman', pp. 61-2). On the back of the page bearing 'Orthanc (1)' my father wrote: 'This is wrong. The rock should be steeper and cloven, and the tower should be founded over an arch (with greater "horns" at top), as is shown in small sketch (3).' He also wrote here: 'Omit the water-course', but struck this out. A stream or 'moat' surrounding the basal cone is seen in 'Orthanc (1)'. In description 'D' the tower stands on 'an island in a pool' ('in the lake', see note 25). Finally, a rider was inserted into the first manuscript bearing the definitive description as found in TT (p. 160): 'A peak and isle of rock it was, black, and gleaming hard; four mighty piers of many-sided stone were welded into one, but near the summit they opened into (Orthanc '2', '3' and '4'.) (Orthanc '5'.) gaping horns, their pinnacles sharp as the points of spears, keen-edged as knives'. The only difference here from the final text is that my father first wrote that the top of Orthanc was three hundred feet above the plain; but this was changed, perhaps at once, to five hundred as in TT. On this rider he wrote: 'to fit Picture (5)', which is reproduced on p. 34. Here the conception is radically changed, and the 'horns', now four, are no longer a device surmounting the tower of diminishing cylindrical tiers but are integral to the marvellous structure of Orthanc.(26) The successive versions of the description of the tower differ in the statements made about the name Orthanc (the earliest statement on the subject appears in a rejected note to the manuscript of 'Treebeard', VII.419: 'It is not perhaps mere chance that Orthanc which in Elvish means "a spike of rock" is in the tongue of Rohan "a machine".'). The preliminary draft, following description 'A', has: This was Orthanc, the citadel of Saruman, the name of which had double meaning (by design or chance); for in the tongue of the Mark Orthanc signified cunning craft, invention, (machine such as those have who fashion machines), but in the elvish speech it means the stony heart, [? tormented] hill. The original text of the first completed manuscript, following descrip- tion 'B', has: ... for in the language of the Mark orthanc signified 'cunning craft', but in the elvish speech it means 'Stone Fang'. To this 'Cloven-hill' was added subsequently - when the conception of the great cleft in the basal cone arose. Following the description ('D') of that conception the statement about the meaning of the name is the final form: 'for in the elvish speech orthanc signifies Mount Fang, but in the language of the Mark of old the Cunning Mind.' It may be therefore that the translation 'Mount Fang' actually arose in associa- tion with the description of the cone as cloven 'into two great fangs'. From here on the text of TT was reached at almost all points in the manuscript of this version to the end of the chapter (27) but there are some interesting points in the preliminary drafting. Gandalf's reply to the opening address of Merry (who declares himself 'Meriadoc, Caradoc's son of Buckland'), ending 'or doubtless he would hasten hither to welcome such honourable guests', originally took this form: 'Doubtless he would,' laughed Gandalf. 'But what he would say to find two young hobbits mocking him before his gates I do not know. Doubtless it was he that ordered you to guard his doors and watch for their arrival.' Pippin's first observation and its effect on the Riders went thus: '... Here we are sitting on the field of victory amid the plundered ruins of an arsenal and you wonder where we came by this and that.' All those of the Riders that were near laughed, and none more loudly than Theoden. Theoden's loud laughter remained into the completed manuscript, but then his gravity (at least of bearing) was restored and it was removed. The dialogue concerning hobbits went like this in the draft: '... This day is fated to be filled with marvels: for here I see alive yet others of the folk of story: the half-high.' 'Hobbits, if you please, lord,' said Pippin. 'Hobbits,' said Theoden. 'Hoppettan?(28) I will try to remember. No tale that I have heard does them justice.' In the completed manuscript Theoden said: 'Hobbits? It is a strange name, but I will not forget it.' In the preliminary draft he said subsequently: 'all that is told among us is that away in the North over many hills and rivers (over the sea say some) dwell the half-high folk, [holbylta(n)>] holbytlan that dwell in holes in sand-dunes...' This is where the word Holbytla arose.(29) The manuscript follows this, and Theoden does not say, as he does in TT, 'Your tongue is strangely changed.' A wholly different and much longer lecture on the subject of tobacco was delivered by Merry in the first of several drafts of this passage: 'For one thing,' said Theoden, 'it was not told that they spouted smoke from their lips.' 'Maybe not. We only learned the pleasure of it a few generations back. It is said that Elias Tobiasson of Mugworth (30) brought the weed back to Manorhall in the South Farthing. He was a much travelled hobbit. He planted it in his garden and dried the leaves after a fashion he had learned in some far country. We never knew where, for he was no good at geography and never could remember names; but from the tale of leagues that he reckoned on his fingers people calculated that it was far South, 1200 miles or more from Manor Hall. [Here is written Longbottom.]' 'In the far South it is said that men drink smoke, and wizards I have heard do so. But always I had thought it was part of their incantations or a process aiding in the weaving of their deep thoughts.'(31) 'My lord,' said Merry, 'it is rest and pleasure and the crown of the feast. And glad I am that wizards know it. Among the wreckage floating on the water that drowned Isengard we found two kegs, and opening them what should we discover but some of the finest leaf that ever I fingered or set nose to. Good enough is the Manorhall leaf - but this is...(32) It smells like the stuff Gandalf would smoke at times when he returned from journeys. Though often he was glad enough to come down to Manorhall.' At this time, and still in the same context (conversation at the Gate of Isengard), my father developed Merry's disquisition through three further drafts to a form approaching $2 Concerning Pipe-weed in the Prologue to LR. In the next stage, his account to Theoden of the history of tobacco in the Shire (33) proceeds thus: 'It is said that the art was learned of travelling dwarves, and that for some time folk used to smoke various herbs, some fairer and some fouler. But it was Tobias Smygrave (34) of Longbottom in the Southfarthing that first grew the true pipe-weed in his garden in the year 902, and the best Home-grown comes still from that part. How old Tobias came by the plant is not known for certain, for he never told, and the Smygraves own all [> most (of)] the crops to this day.' 'In the far East uncouth men drink smoke, or so I have heard,' said Theoden. 'And it is said that wizards do so also. But I supposed that this was but part of their secret lore, and a device to aid the weaving of their thoughts.' 'Maybe it does, lord,' said Merry, 'but even wizards use it for no better reason than common folk. It is rest and pleasure and the crown of the feast....' The remainder of this draft is as the first, except that Merry here says 'Good enough is Longbottom leaf, but this far surpasses it' (see note 32), and he says that Gandalf 'did not disdain Longbottom if he stayed until his own store was short. Before Saruman took to making worse things with greater labour, he must once have had some wisdom.' In the next version the context has probably changed to the conversation between the hobbits and Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas after Gandalf and Theoden had gone (see p. 49 and note 8). Here Tobias (not Tobold) Hornblower appears,(35) the date of his first growing of the plant in his gardens becomes 953 ('according to our reckoning'), and Merry says that 'some think that he got it in Bree': to which Aragorn replies: 'True enough, I guess. Bree-folk smoked long before Shire- folk, and the reason is not far to seek. Rangers come there, as you may remember, unless you have already forgotten Trotter the ranger. And it was Rangers, as they call them in Bree, and neither wizard nor dwarf who brought the art to the North, and found plants that would thrive in sheltered places. For the plant does not belong there. It is said that far away in the East and South it grows wild, and is larger and richer in leaf; but some hold that it was brought over the sea. I expect Saruman got his leaf by trade; for he had little knowledge or care for growing things. Though in old days the warm valley of Nan Gurunir could have been made to grow a good crop.' Finally, and still in the same context, the passage was developed to a form that my father evidently felt had outgrown its place, for he marked it 'Put into Foreword'.(36) Here the date of the first growing of pipe-weed at Longbottom by 'Old Toby' (still standing for Tobias) becomes 'about the year 1050', 'in the time of Isengrim Took the First';(37) and Merry now says of Old Toby: '... He knew a great deal about herbs, but he was no traveller. It is said he went often to Bree, but he certainly never went further from the Shire than that. Some think he got the plant in Bree; and I have heard it said that Bree-folk claim to have found its uses long before Shire-folk. Certainly it grows well now on the south side of Bree-hill. And it was probably from Bree that the art spread in the last couple of hundred years, among dwarves and such folk as ever come westward nowadays.' 'Meaning Rangers,' said Aragorn smiling. 'They go to Bree as you may remember. And if you really want to know the truth I will tell it you. It was the folk that Bree-folk call Rangers who brought the plant from the South. For it does not belong natively to Bree and the Shire, and only flourishes so far north in warm and sheltered places. Green [Fuilas > Marlas > Romloth >] Galenas we called that kind. But it had long run wild and unheeded. This credit is certainly due to hobbits: they first put it into pipes. Not even the wizards thought of that before them, though one at least that I know took up the notion, and is now as skilful in that art as in all other things he puts his mind to.' 'More than one,' said Merry. 'Saruman likely enough got the idea from Gandalf: his greatest skill seems to have been in picking other people's brains. But I am glad of it, in this case. Among the wreckage floating on the water...' This version concludes with Merry's saying 'Longbottom Leaf is good enough, but this is better. I wonder where it came from. Do you think Saruman grew it?' And Aragorn replies: 'I expect so. Before he took to making worse things with greater labour, he must have had some wisdom. And this warm valley would grow a good crop, if properly tended.' The decision to remove most of this to the Foreword had already been taken when the first completed manuscript was written, for here Merry says no more than the few words that Gandalf allows him in TT (p. 163) - with Tobias for Tobold and the date 1050. Lastly, the conversation near the end of the chapter in the manu- script (there is no initial drafting for this) brings in the meeting with Bregalad on the journey to Isengard, and runs thus: 'It is past noon,' said Gandalf, 'and we at least have not yet eaten. Yet I wish to see Treebeard as soon as may be. If Bregalad took my message, Treebeard has forgotten it in his labours. Unless, as does not seem to be beyond belief, he left us some word with these door-wardens, which their noon-meal has driven from their minds.' 'Bless me! yes, of course,' said Pippin, tapping his forehead. '"One thing drives out another," as Butterbur would say. Of course. He said: Greet the Lord of Rohan, fittingly. Tell him that Saruman is locked in Orthanc, and say that I am busy near the north gate.(38) If he and Gandalf will forgive me, and will ride there to find me, I will welcome them.' 'Then why did you not say so before?' said Gandalf. 'Because Gimli interrupted my fitting words,' answered Merry. 'And after that it appeared that hobbits had become the chief wonder and matter of debate.' The chapter did not at this time end with Pippin's 'A fine old fellow. Very polite', but went on with 'Gandalf and the King's company rode away, turning east to make the circuit of the ruined Ring of Isengard', which in TT is the opening of 'Flotsam and Jetsam'. Further abundant drafting, again discontinuous and closely related to the finished text, exists for the second stage in the development of the chapter. Here can be seen the new or altered elements in the narrative as they arose - the postponed departure from Helm's Deep, the Ents at the edge of the Huorn wood (39) that displaced the meeting with Bregalad, the passage of the Fords, the dry river, the burial mound, the Isen suddenly running again in the night. At first, though the time of departure had been changed to the evening, the encounter with Bregalad was still present - but ends differently: for despite Gandalf's message to Treebeard, 'to the surprise of all he [Bregalad] raised his hand and strode off, not back northward but towards the Coomb, where the wood now stood as dark as a great fold of night.' The scene at the Fords likewise evolved in stages: at first there was no mention of the burial mound, then there were two, one on either bank of the Isen, and finally the island or eyot in the middle of the river appeared.(40) The passage describing the departure-of the Huorns from the Deeping Coomb and the Death Down (see p. 27) was first moved to stand (apparently) after Gandalf's reply to Legolas' question concerning the Orcs: That, I think, no one will ever know (TT p. 151), for an isolated draft of it begins: 'And that proved true. For in the deep of the night, after the departure of the king, men heard a great noise of wind in the valley ...' ' The second main manuscript of the chapter was a fair copy that remained so, being only lightly emended after its first writing. A few details still survived from the first stage: Merry's father Caradoc; Tobias Hornblower and the year 1050; Eodoras; and the form Rohir, not Rohirrim (the two latter being changed later on the manuscript). The assembly at Eodoras is still to be, as in the first version (p. 27), 'before the waning of the moon' (changed later to 'at the last quarter of the moon'). Lastly, in the account of the burials after the Battle of the Hornburg, there were not only the two mounds raised over the fallen Riders: following the words 'and those of Westfold upon the other' (TT p. 150) there stands in the manuscript 'But the men of Dunland were set apart in a mound below the Dike' (a statement that goes back through the first complete manuscript to the original draft of the passage, see note 8). This sentence was inadvertently omitted in the following typescript (not made by my father), and the error was never observed. NOTES. 1. A short section of initial drafting was written on the back of a letter to my father bearing the date 31 July 1942. 2. One would expect Erkenwald: see p. 24, note 22. In the first occurrence here my father in fact wrote Erkenw before changing it to Erkenbrand. It may be that he was for a time undecided between the two names, and that there was not a simple succession Erkenwald > Erkenbrand. 3. Cf. the outline 'The Story Foreseen from Fangorn', VII.436: '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!' 4. Caradoc Brandybuck: see VI.251 and note 4. This is the first appearance of Pippin's father Paladin Took: see VI.386. 5. Less than a day: this must imply the shortest possible time- scheme (see Chapter I): Day 3 (January 31) Ents break into Isengard at night and divert the Isen; Theoden to Helm's Deep, Battle of the Hornburg. Day 4 (February 1) Theoden, Gandalf, &c. to Isengard. 6. This conversation is found in no less than seven separate forms for the first version of the story alone. In one of these Theoden says to Gandalf: 'But would you assault the stronghold of Saruman with a handful of tired men?', and Gandalf replies: 'No. You do not fully understand the victory we have won, Lord of the Mark. The hosts of Isengard are no more. The West is saved. I do not go to an assault. I have business to settle, ere we turn back - to graver matters, and maybe to harder fortune.' - In different versions Gandalf advises Theoden to order an assembly at Eodoras 'on the second day from now' and 'at the full moon four days from now.' 7. In TT the company did not leave for Isengard until the late afternoon, and on the way they camped for the night below Nan Gurunir; see pp. 5-6, $$ III-IV. 8. In preliminary drafting for this passage the bodies of the Orcs were burned; the men of Dunland were still the men of Westfold; it was Gamling who addressed them, not Erkenbrand ('Help now to repair the evil in which you have joined ...'); the dead of this people were buried in a separate mound below the Dike (a statement that was retained in both the finished manuscripts of the chapter, though lost in TT: see p. 40); the slain Riders were buried in a single mound (not two); and Hama, whose death before the Gates of the Hornburg here first appears (see p. 22), was buried among them, yet he gave his name to the mound: 'the [Hamanlow >] Hamelow it was called in after years' (i.e. Old Engish Haman hlaw, the Mound of Hama). In TT (p. 150) Hama was laid in a grave alone under the shadow of the Hornburg. 9. The Death Down, where the bodies of the Orcs were buried, was first called the Barren Hill ('for no grass would grow there'). 10. See note 14. 11. See the First Map (redrawn map III, VII.309), where the Isen flows into the Great Sea in the region then named Belfalas. 12. In the draft for this passage the battlefield 'was but a mile or two away'. - In TT the company crossed the Fords of Isen (by moonlight) in order to follow the 'ancient highway that ran down from Isengard to the crossings'. 13. That the slain Riders had been buried by Ents is stated subse- quently: see pp. 47, 49, 54. Contrast TT (p. 157): 'More [Riders] were scattered than were slain; I gathered together all that I could find.... Some I set to make this burial.' 14. In this version the company was riding fast, but even so my father seems to have been working on the basis of a much shorter distance from Helm's Deep to Isengard: contrast TT (p. 156): 'They had ridden for some four hours from the branching of the roads when they drew near to the Fords.' In a chronology written at this time, when the story was that Gandalf and Theoden and their company left Helm's Deep very soon after the end of the Battle of the Hornburg (see p. 5, $ III), he said that they left about 9 a.m. Changing this to the story that they stopped for the night on the way (p. 6, $ IV), he said that they left at 3.30 p.m., and noted: 'It is forty miles and they arrive about 12.30 p.m. on next day, Feb. 3.' This is followed by notes of distances that are in close agreement with the First Map (see p. 78 note 2), but 'Isengard Gates to mouth of Deeping Coomb' is given as 33 > 41 > 45 miles (cf. p. 27, where Gandalf's estimate was changed from 12 to 14 to 11 leagues). As well as I have been able to interpret the First Map here I make the distance 1 cm. or 50 miles, and my map made in 1943 agrees. Section IV(E) of the First Map (VII.319) is stuck onto a portion of IV that is totally hidden, and it is possible that at this stage the Gap of Rohan was less wide. In any case, considerations of distance as well as of chronology evidently dictated the change whereby Gandalf and Theoden did not reach Isengard till the following day. 15. On the removal of this dialogue from the (revised) opening of 'Helm's Deep' and the chronological considerations that led my father to do so see pp. 5 - 6, $$ II - III. 16. This extremely squashing (and revealing) remark of Gandalf's to the King of Rohan was subsequently very firmly struck through on the manuscript. 17. Cf. Aragorn's words (at once rejected) in a draft for 'The White Rider', VII.429: 'The Ents! Then there is truth in the ancient legends, and the names that they use in Rohan have a meaning!' 18. In the original draft for this passage 'the strange figure came quickly on to meet them until it was about fifty [written above: a hundred] yards away. Then it stopped and lifting its grey arms and long hands to its mouth it called in a loud voice like a [?ringing] trumpet. "Is Gandalf with this company?" The words were clear for all to hear.' 19. The page of the manuscript that includes this passage was replaced by another, which introduced little significant change; but in the rejected page Bregalad and Gandalf speak of 'the trees', and only in the replacement do they call them 'the Huorns'. Several other terms in fact preceded Huorns: see pp. 47, 50, 52. 20. In the rejected page referred to in note 19 Bregalad said that Treebeard 'wishes to know what to do with Saruman', at which Gandalf 'laughed softly, and then was silent, stroking his beard thoughtfully. "Hm," he mused, "hm - yes, that will be a problem." ' Cf. the outline for the chapter (p. 26). 21. The original drafting for the description of Nan Gurunir reads thus: On either side the last long arms of the Misty Mountains reached out down into the plain, bare and broken ridges half-hidden now in smoke. And now they came upon a strange thing. It seemed to them that ruinous rocks lay ahead, out of which in a new-riven channel came the river, flowing where they stood back into its old course; yet higher up the valley the former bed was dry. 'Yes, I knew it,' said Gandalf. 'Therefore I drew you this way. We may cross with no difficulty to the Gates of Isengard. As some of you who have journeyed here may know, of old the Isen flowed down, fed by many mountain-springs and streams, until it was already a swift and powerful water ere it left Nan Gurunir - it swept past the walls of Isengard upon the East. That river you claimed as your boundary, but Saruman did not agree. But things have changed. Come and see!' This was not used at all in the completed text of the first version of the story. It was not the first appearance of the diversion of the Isen: cf. 'The Story Foreseen from Fangorn', VII.436: 'At North end [of Isengard] they let in the River Isen but blocked its outflow. Soon all the floor of the circle was flooded to many feet deep.' In the passage just cited the meaning must be that the Isen had not been sent back into its former course after the drowning of the Circle of Isengard, but continued to flow in its new channel. Gandalf's words 'I knew it. Therefore I drew you this way. We may cross with no difficulty to the Gates of Isengard' must mean that that is why he had led the company along the east bank of the Isen from the Fords (p. 28), for thus they would only have to cross the dry former bed of the river, to the east of its new course. 22. Later, in 'Flotsam and Jetsam', Merry told (TT p. 171) that when the great host left Isengard 'some went off down the highway to the Fords, and some turned away and went eastward. A bridge has been built down there, about a mile away, where the river runs in a very deep channel.' See p. 56. 23. Differences from the final form were that a part of the Circle of Isengard on the western side was formed of the mountain-wall itself (this was taken up from the draft but rejected from the completed manuscript in the act of writing); there were two entrances, there being in addition to the great southern arch 'a small gate at the north, near the mountains' feet'; the circle was 'almost two miles from rim to rim' ('a mile', TT); 'through it by many carven channels water flowed, entering as a stream from the mountains beneath the northern gate, and watering all the hidden land'; and the windows in the walls of the circle are described (in the preliminary drafting only) as 'countless dark windows and deep, square-cut, menacing'. 24. This picture was drawn on the back of a page of the examination script of the poet John Heath-Stubbs, who took the final examinations in English at Oxford in 1942. 25. The opening of the description is confused. Apparently my father at first followed the draft 'A' very closely, writing: 'And in the centre ... was a tower, a pinnacle of stone. The base of it, and that two hundred feet in height, was a great cone of rock ...', but altered this at once to 'was an isle of stone, two hundred feet in height, a great cone of rock ...' Subsequently he changed 'was an isle of stone' to 'there stood an island in the lake.' See the description 'D' in the text. 26. On the back of this drawing my father wrote: 'This picture should be combined with old one': i.e. for a final version, which was never made, features of 'Orthanc (1)' should be incor- porated. - 'Picture 5' went to Marquette with the second completed manuscript of the chapter, whereas the others re- mained in England. - The conception of 'Orthanc (5)' is seen also in Pictures by J. R. R. Tolkien, no. 27, viewed from the side in which were the stairway and the door. 27. In a draft of the paragraph beginning 'A strong place and wonderful was Isengard' (TT p. 160) these words were followed by 'or Ang(ren)ost in elvish speech'. Angrenost has appeared before (VII.420); the variant Angost occurs subsequently (p. 72). 28. Perhaps Hoppettan was Theoden's turning of Hobbits into the sounds and grammatical inflexion of the language of the Mark - or else he was merely struck by the resemblance to the (Old English) verb hoppettan 'to hop, leap, jump for joy'. 29. Holbytla 'Hole-builder' has the consonants lt (Holbylta) re- versed, as in the closely related Old English botl, bodl beside bold 'building' (see my note on Nobottle in the Shire, VII.424). 30. This name can be read either as Mugworth or as Mugwort, but the latter (a plant-name, and one of the family names in Bree) seems very unlikely as the name of a place. Mugworth is not recorded as a village name in England. 31. This passage about tobacco was dashed down in a single spurt without any corrections, and there is no indication that these sentences were spoken by Theoden; but that they were so is seen from the following draft. 32. The illegible word might possibly be 'grand'. 33. A pencilled note suggests that this should be 'a conversation at [the] feast'. See pp. 72-3. 34. Smygrave: with the first element cf. Smial (Old English smygel). The second element is probably Old English graef. 35. With the later change of Tobias to Tobold Hornblower cf. Barliman for earlier Barnabas Butterbur. 36. Cf. my father's letter to me of 6 May 1944 (Letters no. 66), referring to Faramir, then newly arrived on the scene: 'if he goes on much more a lot of him will have to be removed to the appendices - where already some fascinating material on the hobbit Tobacco industry and the Languages of the West have gone.' 37. Isengrim Took the First and the date 1050: in the Prologue to LR in the days of Isengrim Took the Second and the date 1070. See the original genealogical table of the Tooks in VI.316 - 17, according to which Isengrim the First would have been 400 years old at the time of Bilbo's Farewell Party. Since the Shire Reckoning date 1418 (as in LR) has already appeared for the year of Frodo's departure from Bag End (VII.9), Isengrim the First (afterwards Isengrim II) was born in S.R. 1001. According to the genealogical tree of the Tooks in LR Appendix C the dates of this Isengrim were S.R. 1020 - 1122. - The varieties of pipe-weed from the Southfarthing are here given as Longbottom-leaf, Old Toby, and Hornpipe Shag. 38. On the north gate of Isengard see note 23. 39. In the draft of this scene the three Ents who came out from the trees were not wholly indifferent to the company: 'Silently they stood, some twenty paces off, regarding the riders with solemn eyes.' But this was changed immediately. In a draft for the passage that follows (TT p. 155), in which Theoden reflects on the Ents and the narrow horizons of the people of Rohan, it is Gandalf who speaks the thought that the war will bring about the disappearance of much that was beautiful in Middle-earth: 'You should be glad, Theoden King,' said Gandalf. 'For not only your little life of men is now endangered, but the life of those things also which you have deemed the matter of song and legend. Some we may save by our efforts, but however the fortune of war goes, it may soon come to pass that much that is fair and wonderful shall pass for ever out of Middle Earth. The evil that Sauron works and has worked (and has had much help of men in it) may be stayed or ended, but it cannot be wholly cured, nor made as if it had not been.' 40. The Fords of Isen in the plural appears earlier, however (pp. 10, 27 - 8,31). 41. For another proposed placing of the description of the passing of the Huorns see p. 70. IV. FLOTSAM AND JETSAM. The first completed manuscript of 'The Road to Isengard' was originally continuous with Chapter XXVIII 'The Battle of Helm's Deep' (the original title), but I think that the division was introduced at a fairly early stage, with a new chapter numbered XXIX beginning with the meeting of Gandalf and Theoden beside the Deeping Stream after the Battle of the Hornburg. The first completed manuscript of XXIX, of which the original title was 'To Isengard', ran on without break through the later 'Flotsam and Jetsam' and 'The Voice of Saruman', but a division between XXIX and XXX ('Flotsam and Jetsam') was made before it was completed: XXX then included the later 'Voice of Saruman' as well. A very rough and difficult outline for this part of the story in fact begins at the end of 'The Road to Isengard', and the chapter was then expressly to end with the return to Eodoras. Gandalf asks where Treebeard is? (Guarding Orthanc, says Merry. Some Ents still demolishing.) He takes Theoden off. Aragorn takes the hobbits aside and they sit and eat and chat on the stone heaps. Aragorn smokes. Talk about wizards and tobacco. Aragorn and Gimli are told about Orc-raid and Treebeard. Merry gives up hope of describing them; says you will see them soon. How shall I describe them to Bilbo? (This was when he first tried to collect his ideas.) Describes destruction of Isengard. Saruman not strong or brave. Merry tells all he knows about the battles of Ford. How trees dogged orcs. Treebeard knocks on gates of Isengard. Arrows no good.(1) Saruman flies to Orthanc and sends up fires from floor of plain. Scorched Ents go mad. But Treebeard stops them. They let in Isen River by North Gate (2) and flood the bowl. Terrific fume and steam. Terrible noises, drowned wolves and slaves and smiths. The Ents pull the wall to pieces. They send Galbedirs (Talking Trees) to help Gandalf. They bury dead at Fords. Gandalf's speech with Saruman. He rides over flooded cause- way. Saruman looks out of window above door. Asks how he dares to come without permission. Gandalf says he thought that as far as Saruman was concerned he was still a lodger in Orthanc.(3) 'Guests that leave from the roof have not always a claim to come in by the door.' Saruman refuses to repent or submit. Gandalf gives Treebeard task of [?caring] for him. 'I do not doubt there are delved ways under Orthanc. But every time water subsides let it in again, till all these underground places are submerged. Then make a low bank and plant trees round it. Guard Orthanc with Ents.' Theoden thinks a Nazgul may carry him off. 'Let him!' says Gandalf. 'If Saruman thinks of that last treachery ... cannot pity him for the terrible fate that awaits him. Mordor can have no love [for] him. Indeed what he will do Say that this must be clear to Saruman himself. Would it not be more dramatic to [?make] Saruman offer help: Gandalf says no - he knows that if Mordor wins he is done for now. Even the evidence that he had made war on us won't help him. Sauron knows that he did so only for [his] own ends. But if we win - with his belated help he hopes to re-establish himself and escape punishment. Gandalf demands his staff of office. He refuses; then Gandalf orders him to be shut up, as above.(4) They rest the night in the ruins and ride back to Eodoras. Feast on evening of their return and coming of the messenger - that ominous dark-visaged man (5) should end this chapter. Another outline (in ink over pencil, but the underlying text though briefer was not greatly different) reads as follows: Treebeard (and Merry and Pippin) relate events - their arrival at Isengard. They saw Saruman send out all his forces to overwhelm the Riders at Isenford. As soon as Isengard was well-nigh empty, the Ents attacked. Merry and Pippin tell of the terrifying anger and strength of the Ents. Saruman really had little power beyond cunning, persuasive words - when he had no slaves at hand to do his will and work his machines or light his fires he could do little himself. All his studies had been given to trying to discover how rings were made. He let his wolves out - but they were useless. A few of the Ents were scorched with fire - then they went mad. They drowned Isengard, by letting in River and blocking the outlet. All the day they were destroying and making havoc of the outer walls and all within. Only Orthanc resisted them. Then just ere nightfall Gandalf came riding up like the wind.(6) He told them of King Theoden's danger. A considerable force of walking trees had already stalked after the orcs the night before. The Ents now sent a much great[er] force and commanded them all to gather at the mouth of the Coomb and let no orc come out alive. A few Ents had gone to Isenford, and buried the dead men of the Mark. In the margin against the last sentences of this outline is written: 'Shall there be more real Ents?' Notably, a sentence in the underlying pencilled text reads: 'The Ents sent a force of walking trees (with split trunks). They crept on in darkness following the victorious orcs.' There is not a great deal to notice in the scanty initial drafting or in the first completed manuscript as far as the beginning of Merry's story of the attack on Isengard (TT p. 170). The meal provided by the hobbits was not eaten in the guard-house by the gates: Merry and Pippin went off to get the food and returned with it, Pippin explaining that 'There is a door not far inside the old tunnel that leads down into some well-stocked stores' (cf. the outline, p. 47: they sit and eat 'on the stone heaps'). Of Ents, where in TT (p. 167) Pippin says: 'Oh, well, you have seen some at a distance, already', here he says 'Oh well, you have seen Quickbeam' - this being of course a reference to the earlier version of 'The Road to Isengard', where Gandalf and Theoden and their company met Bregalad on their ride from Helm's Deep.(7) And he says also, as in the outline on p. 47: 'But I wish Bilbo could have seen Treebeard: how we shall manage to describe him to the old hobbit, if ever we get back, I can't think.' In a draft for the discussion of pipes (TT pp. 167-8) Aragorn leapt down from the stone heap and went to the saddle-bags that lay nearby. 'From them he drew out an old cloak, and a worn purse of soft hide. Coming back he wrapped himself in the cloak, and opened the purse, and drew out a blackened pipe of clay.' Before Pippin produced his spare pipe, Merry said: 'There are none to be found. Orcs don't smoke, and Saruman did not give his leaf to his slaves.' And when Pippin said 'Look! Trotter the Ranger has come back!' Aragorn replied: 'He has never been away. I am Trotter and Aragorn, and belong both to Gondor and the North.'(8) A few other details in the opening of the chapter may be noted. There is no mention of Aragorn's returning of the hobbits' knives,(9) or of Pippin's brooch (TT p. 169). After Merry's story of Grishnakh (10) Aragorn spoke at greater length about Sauron and Saruman: 'All this about the orcs of Lugburz (Mordor, I suppose, from the Red Eye) makes me uneasy,' said Aragorn. 'The Dark Lord already knew too much, and Grishnakh clearly got some message across the River after the quarrel. [But still there are some hopeful points. Saruman is in a cleft stick of his own cutting. Gandalf ought not to have much difficulty in convinc- ing him that a victory for Mordor would not be pleasant for him, now. Indeed' (and here Aragorn lowered his voice) 'I do not see what can save him, except the Ring itself. It is well that he has no idea where it is. And we should do best never to mention it aloud: I do not know what powers Saruman in his tower may have, nor what means of communication with the East there may be.) From your tale it is plain that he thought one of you was possibly the Ringbearer; and Sauron must therefore have the same doubt. If so, it will hasten his attack westward: Isengard has fallen none too soon. But there are some hopeful points. All this doubt may help poor Frodo and Sam. But at any rate Saruman is in a cleft stick of his own cutting. The part of this text (rather more confused in the manuscript than I have represented it) enclosed in square brackets, was rejected im- mediately and replaced by what follows ('From your tale it is plain ...'); this was rejected later, leaving only the last sentence. - Lastly, Pippin chants, in addition to Though Isengard be strong and barred [sic], the Entish Ta-ruta, dum-da, dum-da dum! ta-rara dumda dumda-bum! (see VII.420). In the original draft Merry's story (TT pp. 170 ff.) was at first very different from what it became, and I give this text (written in ink over very faint pencil) in part. Of the opening of his story my father noted on the manuscript that he should know less: 'His account of the war is too detailed.' '... We came down over the last ridge into Nan Gurunir after night had fallen. It was then that I first got an inkling that the forest was moving behind - or a lot of it was: all the Galbedirs [> Lamorni > Ornomar] were coming, as the Ents call them in their short language (which seems to be an oldfashioned Elvish): Talking Trees, that is, that they have trained and made half- entish.(11) All this must have been happening while you were riding south.(12) As far as I can make out, from Treebeard and Gandalf, the war seems to have gone like this: Saruman opened the game some weeks ago, and sent raiders into the west of Rohan. The Rohan-men sent out strong forces, and they retreated over the fords of Isen, and the Riders rather rashly pursued them right up to the bottom of Nan Gurunir. There they were ambushed by a host of Saruman's folk and one of the chieftains of Rohan seems to have been killed. That must be a good many days ago.(13) Then more Rohan-men arrived coming from Westfold (14) away south, and the Riders still remained on both sides of the River keeping the Isengarders from breaking out of the valley. Up to then Saruman was only fencing; then he struck. Men came up from the land away west, old enemies of Rohan, and the Riders were driven over the Fords. The next stage we were just in time to see. 'As we crept down into Nan-Gurunir - and there was no sign or challenge. [sic] Those Ents and their flocks can creep if they wish. You stand still, looking at the weather and listening to the rustling of the leaves, maybe, and then suddenly you find you are in the middle of a wood, with trees all round you. "Creepy" is the word for it! It was very dark, a cloudy night. The moon got up late - and long before it rose there was a deep and sombre forest all round the upper half of Isengard Ring without a sign of challenge. There was a light gleaming from one of the windows in the tower, that was all. Treebeard and some of the elder Ents crept on, right round to within sight of the gates. We were with him. I was sitting on Treebeard's shoulder and could feel a trembling tenseness in him, but even when roused the Ents can be very cautious and patient: they stood still as statues, listening and breathing. Then all at once there was a great stir. Trumpets blared, and all the Ring echoed. We thought that we had been spotted, and battle was going to begin. But nothing of the kind. It seems that news had come in that the Riders had been defeated and driven over the Fords, but were still trying to hold out on the east bank. Saruman sent out his whole forces: he pretty well emptied Isengard. Gandalf says that he was probably in a great taking, thinking that the Ring might have gone to Eodoras, and meant to blot out Theoden and all his folk, before they had time to do anything about it. But there were one or two bits of essential information he lacked: the return of Gandalf, and the rising of the Ents. He thought the one was finished for good, and the others no good, old slow-witted back-numbers. Two very bad mistakes. Anyway that is what he did. I saw them go - endless lines of Orcs, and squadrons/ troops of them mounted on great wolves (a Saruman notion?), and whole regiments of men, too. Many of them carried torches, and by the flame I could see their faces. Some were just Men, rather tall, dark-haired, not particularly evil-looking.' 'Those would be Dunlanders,' said Aragorn. 'An upland folk from the west of the Misty Mountains, remnants of the old peoples that once dwelt in Rohan and all about the Black Mountains, south and north.' The following dialogue, concerning the 'goblin-men' reminiscent of the squint-eyed Southerner at Bree, and Merry's estimate of the forces that left Isengard that night, is much the same as in TT (p. 171), except that Aragorn says that they had had many of the goblin-men to deal with at the Hornburg 'last night' (see note 7), and that there is here no mention of the bridge over the Isen over which a part of the host had passed. Then follows: '... I thought it looked black for the Riddermark. But it seems in the end the only way in which Saruman could have been overcome. One wonders how much Gandalf knew, guessed, or planned. But Treebeard anyway let them go. He said that his concern was Isengard. "Stone - that we can fight," he said. 'But he sent off a whole wood of the Ornomi (15) down the valley after the army, as soon as the gates of Isengard were shut again. I don't know, of course, much of what happened away south down there; but you will tell us later.' 'I can tell you now briefly,' said Aragorn. 'The Saruman army came down on both sides of the Isen and overwhelmed the men of Rohan, and most of the survivors scattered. A strong force under Erkenwald of Westfold (16) fled south towards the Black Mountains. We met a survivor of the battles of the fords yesterday evening, and were just in time to take refuge in Helm's Deep, a gorge in the hills, before the whole pack came on us.' 'I don't know how you survived,' said Merry. 'But you helped us. As soon as all the army had gone, the fun began here. Treebeard went up and began hammering on the gates....' Merry's account of the Ents' destruction of the gates of Isengard was already in this preliminary draft very close to that in TT (p. 172), but his estimate of Saruman was expressed more largely and with a degree of scornful and rather jaunty assurance that his experience of the master of Orthanc scarcely justified; and Aragorn does not here interrupt him with a more cautious view of Saruman's innate power (indeed the hypnotic potency of the wizard's voice only emerged, or was at any rate only fully realised, when the meeting with him came to be written). 'I don't know what Saruman thought was happening. But all that I have seen since leads me to think that either he was never really a first-class wizard (not up to his reputation, which was partly due to Isengard, and that was not his making to begin with), or he had been deteriorating - relying on wheels and what not, and not on wisdom. And he does not seem to have much heart in any sense: certainly he had been going back in plain courage. The old fool had really become dependent on all his organized slaves. He had a daunting way with him: power of dominating minds and bewildering or persuading them was his chief asset all along, I fancy. But without his armies to do as he commanded, he was just a cunning old man, very slippery, but with no grit. And the old fool had sent all his armies off! ...' Merry's account (given to Pippin in TT) of Saruman's flight into Orthanc chased by Bregalad, the spouting of fires and gases from vents in the plain of Isengard ('as soon as Saruman got back into his control-room he got some of his machinery working'), the scorching of some of the Ents and the quelling of their fury by Treebeard, is present in the draft in all essentials, though more briefly told (and the horrible fate of the Ent Beechbone does not yet appear). The time- scheme was still at the stage described in $ II on p. 5, with the drowning of Isengard beginning later in the same night (31 January) as the Ents came there,(17) and so the story is much condensed in the draft text by comparison with that in TT. Gandalf came to Isengard 'yesterday at 'nightfall' (i.e. 1 February, the night of the Battle of the Hornburg); and where in TT (p. 175) Pippin says that he was surprised at the meeting of Gandalf and Treebeard 'because neither of them seemed surprised at all', here Merry says: '... I do not know who was most surprised at their meeting, Gandalf or Treebeard. Gandalf, I think, for once. For from a look he gave us when we first met I have a fancy Treebeard had spotted Gandalf in Fangorn; but would not say anything even to comfort us. He has very much to heart the elvish saw of Gildor's: Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards; for they are subtle and quick to wrath.'(18) 'But Gandalf knew Treebeard was on the move,' said Gimli. 'He knew there was going to be an explosion.' 'But not even Gandalf could guess what that was going to be like,' said [Merry >] Pippin. 'It has never happened before. And even wizards know little about Ents. But talking about surprise - we were the surprised ones: coming on top of the astonishing rage of the Ents, Gandalf's arrival was like a thunderclap. We had very little to do, except try and trot round after Treebeard (when he was too busy to carry us) and see the fun. We had a high time for a moment, when we got left alone, and came in front of a rush of some terrified wolves, and we had a brush with two or three stray orcs. [But when Gandalf arrived, I just stood staring with my mouth open, and then I sat down and laughed. >] But when Gandalf's horse came striding up the road, like a flash of silver in the dusk, well, I just gasped, and then I sat down and laughed, and then I wept. And did he say pleased to see you again? No, indeed. He said "Get up, you tom-fool of a Took. Where in the name of wonder in all this mess is Treebeard? Hurry, hurry, hurry, my lad! Don't let your toes grow whiskers." But later he was a bit gentler, after he had seen the old Ent: he seemed very pleased and relieved. He gave us a few minutes of concentrated news, a pat on the head, a sort of hasty blessing, and vanished away south again. We got some more news out of Treebeard after he had gone. But there must be much more to tell. We should have been far more worried and anxious about you, I expect, only it was difficult what with Treebeard and Gandalf to really believe you would come to grief.' 'Yet we nearly did,' said Aragorn. 'Gandalf's plans are risky, and they lead often to a knife-edge. There is great wisdom, forethought and courage in them - but no certainty. You have to do your part as it comes to you; or they would not work.' 'After that, said Merry, 'the Ents just went on and carefully and neatly finished the drowning of Isengard. I don't know what else, do you?' 'Yes,' said Aragorn, 'some went to the Fords to bury the men of Rohan who had fallen there; and to gather all the - what did you say they were called - the Ornomi, the moving woods, to the Deeping Coomb. Aye, that was a wonder and a victory as great as the one here. No orc is left. It was a long night, but the dawn was fair.' 'Well, let us hope that it is the beginning of better things,' said Gimli. 'Gandalf said the tide was turning.' 'Yes,' said Aragorn, 'but he also said that the great storm was coming.' 'Oh,' said Merry, 'I forgot. Not long before Gandalf, about sunset, a tired horse came up the valley with a pack of wolf-riders round it.(19) The Ents soon settled them, though one of Quickbeam's folk, a rowan-ent, got a bad axe-stroke, and that enraged the Ents mightily. On the horse there was a queer twisted sort of man: I disliked him at sight. It says a great deal about Treebeard and Ents generally, if you think about it - in spite of their rage, and the battle, and the wounding of Bregalad's friend Carandrian, that the fellow was not killed out of hand. He was miserable in his fear and amazement. He said he was a man called Frana, and was sent with urgent messages from Theoden and Gandalf to Saruman, and had been captured by orcs on the way (I caught him squinting at Treebeard to see how it went, especially the mention of Gandalf). Treebeard looked at him in his long slow way for many minutes. Then he said: "Hoom, ha, well, you can go to Saruman! I guess somehow that you know pretty well how to find him, though things have changed a little here. But false or true, you will do little harm now." 'We told Gandalf about it. He laughed, and said: "Well, I fancy of all the surprised people he had the worst shock. Poor Wormtongue! He chose badly. Just for a little I feel hardhearted enough to let those two stay and live together. They will be small comfort to each other. And if Wormtongue comes out of Orthanc alive, it will be more than he deserves." ' Against this passage my father wrote: 'No, Wormtongue must come after Gandalf'; and at the foot of the page: 'Shall Wormtongue actually murder Saruman?' 'Well,' he continued. 'Our job was to get rooms ready and prepare stuff for your entertainment. All yesterday and most of last night we worked. Indeed, say what you like, we did not knock off till close on noon this morning. And I don't know if we should even then, only Pippin found two tubs floating on the Water' Here this draft breaks off. The first completed manuscript, from the point where Merry's story begins, was based fairly closely on the draft text (pp. 50-5) in its narrative, but moved far towards the text of TT in expression. The passage about the 'Talking Trees' (p. 50) was developed thus: '... The Ornomi were coming. That is what the Ents call them in their "short language", which seems to be an old-fashioned Elvish: trees with voices it means, and there is a great host of them deep in Fangorn, trees that the Ents have trained so long that they have become half entish, though far wilder, of course, and crueller.' This was rejected, probably at once, and a passage for the most part very close to that in TT (p. 170) substituted. Ornomi was here replaced by Huorns in the act of writing and is the point where that name arose. Merry is now uncertain about their nature: 'I cannot make out whether they are trees that have become Entish, or Ents that have become tree-like, or both.' At first Merry was still going to give a summary and commentary on the course of the war: '... It seems that news had come in that the [Rohir >] Horse- men had been defeated and driven back across the Isen, but some were still trying to hold out on the eastern bank. We got this out of some of Saruman's men that the Ents captured and questioned. Saruman thought that no more was left of the King's forces, except what he would keep by him to guard his town and hall. He decided to finish off the Rohir with a decisive blow.' But it must have been at this point that my father noted on the draft (p. 50) that Merry should be much less well-informed on these matters, and the passage just given was rejected and the text of TT (p. 171) substituted: 'I don't know much about this war ...' Merry now tells (as he does not in the draft, p. 51) that when the great host left Isengard 'some went off down the main road to the fords, but still more turned off towards the bridge and the east side of the river'. This was changed in a hasty pencilled emendation to 'turned off towards where I believe Saruman has recently made a bridge'. See p. 31 and note 22. Aragorn's brief account of what had happened southwards was still retained from the draft (p. 52), and here he adds the surmise (in the draft Gandalf's, reported by Merry, p. 51) about Saruman's purposes: '... the whole pack came howling after us. They had learned that the King was in the field, so none of them went to Eodoras. Saruman wanted the King and Eomer, his heir, dead or alive. He was afraid that the Ring might get into their hands after the battle from which you escaped.' He also gives the information that the force that fled south from the Fords to the Black Mountains numbered about a thousand men. With this passage cf. Gandalf's remarks to Theoden as they rode to Isengard (p. 29). Merry's rather overconfident assessment of Saruman was reduced, in stages, virtually to its compass in TT, and Aragorn's intervention now appears, very much as in TT (p. 172), with his emphasis on the peril of private conversation with the master of Orthanc. In this version a new time-scheme had entered, as is seen from the story of the drowning of Isengard: '... They calmly settled down to carry out a plan that Treebeard had made in his old head all along: they drowned Isengard. Day was dawning by that time. They set a watch on the tower, and the rest just faded away in the grey light. Merry and I were left alone most of that day, wandering and prying about. The Ents went north up the valley. They dug great trenches under the shadow of the Huorns, and made great pools and dams, and when all was ready, last night, about midnight, they poured in all the Isen, and every other stream they could tap, through a gap by the north-gate, down into the ring....' 'Yes, we saw the great vapour from the south this morning as we rode from Helm's Deep,' said Aragorn.... 'By morning there was a fog about a mile thick,' said Merry. '... Treebeard stopped the inflow some hours ago, and sent the stream back into its old course. Look, the water is sinking again already. There must be some outlets from the caverns under- neath. But Gandalf came before the drowning began. He may have guessed or been told by Treebeard what was afoot, but he did not see it happen. When he arrived the digging and damming was not quite finished, but old Treebeard had re- turned, and was resting. He was only about fifty yards away, soothing his arrow-smarts by pulling down a bit more of the southern wall in a leisurely fashion....' This is still not quite the final time-scheme for the story of the destruction of Isengard (see pp. 5 - 6, $$ III-IV), because the party from Helm's Deep still reached Isengard in a single day (2 February); so here Pippin tells that it was 'last night' (1 February) that the drowning began, and Aragorn says that they had seen the great cloud of steam as they rode up from Helm's Deep 'this morning'. All the last part of what would become the chapter 'Flotsam and Jetsam' was discarded from this manuscript and replaced by new pages, in which the text of TT (pp. 174 - 7, describing the day spent by Merry and Pippin alone while the Ents prepared the diversion of the Isen, Gandalf's coming, and the filling of the Ring of Isengard by moonlight) was reached save for the choice of a different word here and there. But the time-scheme of the rejected pages was still present, with the extra day still not inserted and the time during which the waters of Isen flowed into the Ring correspondingly shorter.(20) On this account the last part of the hobbits' story still differs from that in TT, and Merry ends thus: '... By morning there was a fog about a mile high, but it was beginning to rise and sail away out of the valley. And the lake was overflowing, too, and pouring out through the ruined gate, bringing masses of wreckage and jamming it near the outlet of the old tunnel. Then the Ents stopped the inflow, and sent the Isen back into its old course. Since then the water has been sinking again. There must be outlets somewhere from the caves underneath, or else they are not all filled up yet. There is not much more to tell. Our part, Pippin's and mine, was chiefly that of onlookers: rather frightened at times. We were all alone while the drowning was going on, and we had one or two bad moments. Some terrified wolves were driven from their dens by the flood, and came howling out. We fled, but they passed by. And every now and then some stray orc would bolt out of the shadows and run shrieking off, slashing and gnashing as he went. The Huorns were waiting. There were many of them still in the valley until the day came. I don't know where they have all gone. It seems very quiet now after such a night. I could sleep.' But the coming of Wormtongue is now placed according to the direction on the draft text ('Wormtongue must come after Gandalf', p. 55): he came 'early this morning', and the story of his arrival is now much as in TT, though briefer. Aragorn's curiosity about tobacco from the Southfarthing turning up in Isengard appears (see note 8), and Pippin reports the same date on the barrels as in TT: 'the 1417 crop'. After 'it is not a very cheerful sight', with which the later chapter 'Flotsam and Jetsam' ends, this text goes straight on to 'They passed through the ruined tunnel', with which 'The Voice of Saruman' begins. NOTES. 1. Arrows no good: i.e., against Ents. 2. On the North Gate of Isengard see p. 43 note 23. 3. He was still a lodger in Orthanc: i.e., Gandalf had never 'officially' left after his enforced residence in the tower. 4. This paragraph was enclosed in square brackets and marked with a query. 5. That ominous dark-visaged man: cf. 'The Story Foreseen from Fangorn' (VII.437): 'Return to Eodoras.... News comes at the feast or next morning of the siege of Minas Tirith by the Haradwaith, brought by a dark Gondorian like Boromir.' 6. The time-scheme here is that described on p. 5, $ II. 7. In that version Theoden and Gandalf and their company left Helm's Deep in the morning and reached Isengard on the same day, and so here in answer to Pippin's question (TT p. 168) 'What is today?' Aragorn replies 'The second of February in the Shire-reckoning' (see p. 5, $ III). Pippin then calculates on his fingers that it was 'only a week ago' that he 'woke up in the dark and found himself all strung-up in an orc-camp' (i.e. from the night of Thursday 26 January to Thursday 2 February). And again, when Pippin asks when it was that Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas 'caught a glimpse of the old villain, or so Gandalf hints' (as Gimli said) at the edge of Fangorn (TT p. 169), Aragorn replies: 'Four nights ago, the twenty-ninth.' These dates were changed on the manuscript to 'The third of February', 'only eight days ago', and 'Five nights ago': see p. 6, $ IV. 8. In an earlier version of this Aragorn's reply (here assembled from scarcely differing variants) was different: 'For a spell,' said Aragorn, with a glint of a smile. 'This is good leaf. I wonder if it grew in this valley. If so, Saruman must have had some wisdom before he took to making worse things with greater labour. He had little knowledge of herbs, and no love for growing things, but he had plenty of skilled servants. Nan Gurunir is warm and sheltered and would grow a good crop, if it were properly tended.' With this cf. the passages given on pp. 37 - 9. - The decision, or perception, that the tobacco had not in fact been grown in Nan Gurunir, but that Saruman had obtained it from the Shire, appears in a rider pinned to the first complete manuscript, in which Merry tells Gimli that it is Longbottom-leaf, with the Hornblower brandmarks on the barrels (TT p. 167). 9. The finding of the hobbits' leaf-bladed knives and their sheaths at the site of the battle beneath Amon Hen (TT p. 17) is absent from the draft and the fair copy manuscript of 'The Departure of Boromir' (VII.381). 10. Grishnakh was changed on the manuscript at each occurrence to Grishnak, a reversion to the original form (VII.409 - 10). - On the back of this page is a reference that shows it was written during or more probably after June 1942. 11. This is the reverse of what Merry says in TT (p. 170): 'I think they are Ents that have become almost like trees, at least to look at.' 12. Merry was a day out: the march of the Ents on Isengard was in the evening of 31 January, and Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas had reached Eodoras early that morning (see pp. 3 - 4). 13. The death of Theodred in the First Battle of the Fords of Isen on 25 January (see p. 22 note 3). 14. Westfold: see p. 21. 15. Ornomi: in the underlying pencilled text the name Galbedirs can be read. At the earlier occurrence in this draft (p. 50) Galbedirs was changed first to Lamorni and then to Ornomar - all these names having the same meaning. 16. Erkenwald of Westfold: see p. 24 note 22. 17. us Merry says that 'by morning there was a fog a mile thick', Aragorn says 'we could see the great vapour from the south as we rode towards the Fords' (i.e. as the host rode from Eodoras on 1 February), and my father wrote in the margin of the text: 'Drowning must not begin until night of Hornburg battle'. 18. In the first complete manuscript this becomes: ' "Don't be hasty" is his motto, and also that saying Sam says he picked up from the Elves: he was fond of whispering it to me when Gandalf was peppery: "Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards ..." ' For its original appearance see 'Three is Company', FR p. 93. In TT (p. 196) Merry quotes it to Pippin a propos Pippin's interest in the palantir. 19. Cf. 'Helm's Deep' in TT (p. 134): 'Some say also that Worm- tongue was seen earlier, going northward with a company of Orcs.' But in the present passage in TT (p. 178) Wormtongue arrived alone. 20. In the time-scheme followed here it lasted from midnight on 1 February till the morning of 2 February; in the final story it lasted till the night of 2 February (TT p. 177: 'The Ents stopped the inflow in the night'), = 4 March. V. THE VOICE OF SARUMAN. Book III Chapter 10 'The Voice of Saruman' in The Two Towers is in ; the first completed manuscript simply the further extension of Chapter XXX (see p. 47). The opening of this part of the narrative is here almost as in the final form (see note 8), but the conversation with Gandalf is much briefer; after Merry's 'Still, we feel less ill-disposed towards Saruman than we did' it continues: 'Indeed!' said Gandalf. 'Well, I am going to pay him a farewell visit. Perhaps you would like to come?' 'I should,' said Gimli. 'I should like to see him, and learn if he really looks like you.' 'You may not see him close enough for that,' laughed Gandalf. '[He has long been a shy bird, and late events may not have >] He may be shy of showing himself. But I have had all the Ents removed from sight, so perhaps we shall persuade him.' They came now to the foot of Orthanc. ,. In TT Gandalf's last remarks were developed to: 'And how will you learn that, Master Dwarf? Saruman could look like me in your eyes, if it suited his purpose with you. And are you yet wise enough to detect , all his counterfeits? Well, we shall see, perhaps. He may be. shy of showing himself before many different eyes together....' The description of Orthanc in this text at first ran like this: ". A few scorings, and small sharp splinters near the base, were all the marks it showed of the fury of the Ents. In the middle from two sides, north and south, long flights of broad stairs, built of some other stone, dark red in hue, climbed up to the great chasm in the crown of the rock. There they met, and there was a narrow platform beneath the centre of the great arch that spanned the cleft; from it stairs branched again, ranning up west and east to dark doors on either side, opening in the shadow of the arch's feet. This is the general conception described in version 'D' of the passage 'The Road to Isengard' (p. 32), and precisely illustrated in the drawing 'Orthanc (3)' reproduced on p. 33. But the text just given was, replaced at the time of writing by the following: ... the fury of the Ents. On two sides, west and east, long flights of broad stairs, cut in the black stone by some unknown art, climbed up to the feet of the vast arch that spanned the chasm in the hill. At the head of each stair was a great door, and above it a window opening upon a balcony with parapet of stone. This is the rather simpler conception illustrated in the drawing 'Orthanc (4)' reproduced on p. 33. At a later stage this was rejected and replaced on a slip inserted into the manuscript by the description in TT, where of course the conception of Orthanc had been totally changed (pp. 33 - 5, and the drawing reproduced on p. 34). The description of Orthanc was followed immediately by 'Gandalf led the way up the western stair. With him went Theoden and Eomer, and the five companions.' There is thus no discussion here of who shall go up, or how close they shall stand. From this point initial drafting (inked over very faint pencil, which is effectively illegible) exists for the interview with Saruman, and this was pretty closely followed in the first completed manuscript. Saru- man's voice was at this stage differently described, and this was at first repeated in the manuscript: The window closed. They waited. Suddenly another voice spoke, low, melodious, and yet it seemed unpleasant [> unpleasing: its tone was scornful).'(1) This was changed, probably at once, to: 'low, melodious, and persuasive; yet now its tone was of one who, in spite of a gentle nature, is aggrieved.' All else that is said of that voice in TT (p. 183) is here absent; and the description of Saruman is briefer: 'His face was long with a high forehead; he had deep darkling eyes; his hair and beard were white, smudged with darker strands. "Like and unlike", muttered Gimli.' With the opening of the conversation at this stage (cited here from the completed manuscript rather than from the draft text) cf. the original outline on pp. 47 - 8. 'Well?' said Saruman. 'You have a voice of brass, Gandalf. You disturb my repose. You have come to my private door without leave. What is your excuse?' 'Without leave?' said Gandalf. 'I had the leave of such gatekeepers as I found. But am I not a lodger in this inn? My host at least has never shown me the door, since he first admitted me!' 'Guests that leave by the roof have no claim to re-enter by the door at their will,' said Saruman. 'Guests that are penned on the house-top against their will have a right to knock and ask for an apology,' answered Gandalf.(2) 'What have you to say, now?' 'Nothing. Certainly not in your present company. In any case I have little to add to my words at our last meeting.' 'Have you nothing to withdraw?' Saruman paused. 'Withdraw?' he said slowly. 'If in my eagerness and disappointment I said anything unfriendly to yourself, consider it withdrawn. I should probably have put matters right long ago. You were not friendly yourself, and persisted in misunderstanding me and my intentions, or pre- tending to do so. But I repeat: I bore you no ill-will personally; and even now, when your - your associates have done me so much injury, I should be ready to forgive you, if you would . dissociate yourself from such people. I have for the moment less power to help you than I had; but I still think you would find my friendship more profitable in the end than theirs. We are after all both members of an ancient and noble profession: we should understand one another. If you really wish to consult me, I am willing to receive you. Will you come up?' This passage, whose original germ is seen in the outlines given in VII.212, 436, was developed into that in TT pp. 186-7. The draft text (3) goes on at once to 'Gandalf laughed. "Understand one another? ..."', and there is nothing said about the effect of Saruman's words on the bystanders; but in the manuscript his speech was changed, apparently at once, to a form somewhat nearer to that in TT (with 'a high and ancient order' for 'an ancient and noble profession'), and this was followed by the passage (TT p. 187) in which the voice of Saruman 'seemed like the gentle remonstrance of a kindly king with an errant but beloved minister'. But here the words 'So great was the power that Saruman exerted in this last effort that none that stood within hearing were unmoved' are absent; for of all that precedes this in TT', his long opening trial of Theoden's mind and will, with the interventions of Gimli and Eomer, there is no hint or suggestion in either draft or finished text. The interview is conducted exclusively between the two wizards. For the remainder of the dialogue between them I give here the original draft: (4) Gandalf laughed. 'Understand one another? I don't know. But I understand you at any rate, Saruman - well enough. No! I do not think I will come up. You have an excellent adviser with you, adequate for your understanding. Wormtongue has cun- ning enough for two. But it had occurred to me that since Isengard is rather a ramshackle place, rather old-fashioned and in need of renovation and alteration, you might like to leave - to take a holiday, say. If so, will you not come down?' A quick cunning look passed over Saruman's face; before he could conceal it, they had a glimpse of mingled fear and relief/hope. cunning. They saw through the mask the face of a trapped man, that feared both to stay and to leave his refuge. He hesitated. 'To be torn by the savage wood-demons?' he said. 'No, no.' '0 do not fear for your skin,' said Gandalf. 'I do not wish to kill you - as you would know, if you really understood me. And no one will hurt you, if I say no. I am giving you a last chance. You can leave Orthanc - free, if you choose.' 'Hm,' said Saruman. 'That sounds well. More like the old Gandalf. But why should I wish to leave Orthanc? And what precisely is "free"?' 'The reasons for leaving lie all around,' said Gandalf. 'And free means not a prisoner. But you will surrender to me the key of Orthanc - and your staff: pledges for your conduct. To be returned, if I think fit, later.' Saruman's face was for a moment clouded with anger. Then he laughed. 'Later!' he said. 'Yes - when you also have the keys of Baraddur, I suppose; and the crowns of seven kings, and the staffs of the five wizards,(5) and have purchased yourself a pair of boots many sizes larger than those you have now. A modest plan. But I must beg leave to be excused from assisting. Let us end this chatter. If you wish to deal with me, deal with me! Speak sense - and do not come here with a horde of savages, and these boorish men, and foolish children that dangle at your tail.' He left the balcony. He had hardly turned away, when a heavy thing came hurtling down from above. It glanced off the parapet, narrowly missed Gandalf, and splintered [struck out: into fragments] on the rock beside the stair. It seemed to have been a large ball of dark shining crystal. 'The treacherous rogue,' cried Eomer, but Gandalf was unmoved. 'Not Saruman this time,' he said. 'It came from a window above. That was a parting shot from Master Worm- tongue, I fancy. I caught the flash of a hand. And ill-aimed. Which do you think it was meant for, me or Saruman?' 'I think maybe the aim was ill because he could not make up his mind which he hated most' (? said Gimli). 'I think so too,' said Gandalf. 'There will be pleasant words in the Tower when we are gone.' 'And we had better go quickly out of stone's throw at least,' said Eomer. 'It is plain to me that Saruman has not yet given up hope [added: in his own devices],' said Gandalf. 'Well, he must nurse his hope in Orthanc.' Here this draft stops, the ending being very ragged. It is notable that in this text there is no mention of Gandalf's summons to Saruman to return to the balcony when he turned away, and so the breaking of his staff does not appear (in the original sketches of the scene in the outlines referred to above, where Saruman was not in his tower, Gandalf took his staff from him and broke it with his hands). Since there is no evidence at all that the conception of the palantir had arisen at any earlier stage or in any earlier writing, this must be presumed to be its first appearance, but the draft does not make it dear whether my father perceived its nature at the moment of its introduction as Wormtongue's missile - Gandalf does not say what he thought of it, nor hint that it might be a device of importance to Saruman. In his letter to W. H. Auden of 7 June 1955 my father said (immediately following the passage from that letter cited at the beginning of The Return of the Shadow): 'I knew nothing of the Palantiri, though the moment the Orthanc-stone was cast from the window, I recognized it, and knew the meaning of the 'rhyme of lore' that had been running in my mind: seven stars and seven stones and one tuhite tree.'(7) On the other hand, in this initial version of the scene he saw the ball of crystal as shattered by the impact, and still in the finished manuscript immediately following this draft he wrote that the ball 'splintered on the rock beside the stair. It seemed from the fragments', before breaking off at this point and writing that it smote the stair, and that it was the stair that cracked and splintered while the globe was unharmed. What further significance for the story could it have had if it were immediately destroyed? The completed text develops the dialogue of Gandalf and Saruman a good way towards the form in TT, though much still remains from the original draft. But there now enters, almost in the final form, Gandalf's summons to Saruman to come back, his final admonition to him, and the breaking of his staff. The crystal ball now rolled down the steps, and it was 'dark but shining with a heart of fire'. In reply to Aragorn's suggestion that Wormtongue could not make up his mind whom he hated most Gandalf says: 'Yes, that may be so. There will be some debate in the Tower, when we are gone! We will take the ball. I fancy that it is not a thing that Saruman would have chosen to cast away.' Pippin's running down the stair to pick up the globe, and Gandalf's hasty taking of it and wrapping it in the folds of his cloak, were later additions (see p. 79 note 12). Yet that the globe was to be important is now plain. The scene ends thus in this version: 'Yet there may be other things to cast,' said Gimli. 'If that is the end of the debate, let us go out of stone's throw, at least.' 'It is the end,' said Gandalf. 'I must find Treebeard and tell him how things have gone.' 'He will have guessed, surely?' said Merry. 'Were they likely to end any other way?' 'Not likely,' answered Gandalf, 'But I had reasons for trying. I do not wish for mastery. Saruman has been given a last choice, and a fair one. He has chosen to withhold Orthanc at least from us, for that is his last asset. He knows that we have no power to destroy it from without, or to enter it against his will; yet it might have been useful to us. But things have not gone badly. Set a thief to hinder a thief! [Struck out: And malice blinds the wits.] I fancy that, if we could have come in, we should have found few treasures in Orthanc more precious than the thing which the fool Wormtongue tossed down to us!' A shrill shriek, suddenly cut off, came from an open window high above. 'I thought so,' said Gandalf. 'Now let us go! ' The end of the chapter in TT, the meeting of Legolas and Gimli with Treebeard, his parting from Merry and Pippin, and the verse in which the Hobbits are entered into 'the Long Lists', is present in this first completed text all but word for word, save only at the very end, where his last words are brief: 'Leave it to Ents,' said Treebeard. 'Until seven times the years in which he tormented us have passed, we shall not tire of watching over him.'(8) NOTES. 1. The draft has: 'low, rather melodious, and yet unpleasant: it spoke contemptuously.' 2. Though this exchange was subsequently lost, the reference to Gandalf's manner of departure from Orthanc on the previous occasion was brought in at a later point (TT p. 187): 'When last I visited you, you were the jailor of Mordor, and there I was to be sent. Nay, the guest who has escaped from the roof will think twice before he comes back in by the door.' 3. The draft of Saruman's speech is very close to that cited from the completed manuscript, but after 'We should understand one another' Saruman says 'Building not breaking is our work.' 4. Not strictly the original draft, since as already noted it is inked over a faint and illegible pencilled text. 5. The first reference to the Five Wizards. 6. In drafting for the end of the chapter Gandalf's reply to Treebeard's 'So Saruman would not leave? I did not think he would' (TT p. 192) runs thus: 'No, he is still nursing what hope he has. He is of course pretending that he loves me and would help me (if I were reasonable - which means if I would serve him, and help him to power without [?bounds]). But he is determined to wait - sitting among the ruins of his old plans to see what comes. In that mood, and with the Key of Orthanc and his staff he must not be allowed to escape.' 7. The need that the palantir would come to fulfil had already been felt, as is seen from Aragorn's (rejected) remarks on p. 50: 'And we should do best never to mention it [the Ring] aloud: I do not know what powers Saruman in his tower may have, nor what means of communication with the East there may be.' 8. The meeting of Treebeard with Legolas and Gimli and his parting from Merry and Pippin was very largely achieved in preliminary drafting, but was placed at a different point, since it begins: 'The afternoon was half gone and the sun going behind the western arm of the valley when Gandalf and the King returned. With them came Treebeard. Gimli and Legolas gazed at him in wonder. "Here are my companions that I have spoken of to you," said Gandalf. The old Ent looked at them long and searchingly', &c. This was how the part of the narrative afterwards constituting 'The Voice of Saruman' originally began. VI. THE PALANTIR. Drafts and outlines for the opening of this chapter show my father very uncertain of the immediate course of events when the company left Isengard. These pages are extremely difficult to interpret and to place in sequence, but I take the one that I give now to be that first written, since it treats as the actual event what would become merely the abandoned plan ('When we came, we meant to go straight from Isengard back to the king's house at Edoras over the plains', TT p. 194). The sun was sinking behind the long western arm of the mountains when Gandalf and his companions, and the King with his riders, set out from Isengard. Ents in a solemn row stood like statues at the gate, with their long arms uplifted; but they made no sound. Merry and Pippin looked back as they passed down hill and turned into the road that led to the bridge.(1) Sunlight was shining in the sky, but long shadows reached out over Isengard. Treebeard stood there still, like a dark tree in the shade; the other Ents were gone, back to the sources of the stream. By Gandalf's advice the company crossed the bridge and then struck away from the river, southward and east, making straight across the rolling plains of Rohan back to Eodoras: a journey of some forty-eight leagues.(2) They were to ride more with secrecy than speed, by dusk and night, hoping to reach the king's house by nightfall of the second day. By that time many of the king's men who had fought at the Fords and at Helm's Deep would be gathering at Eodoras. 'We have gained the first victory,' said Gandalf, 'yet that has some danger. There was a bond between Isengard and Mordor. Of what sort and how they exchanged their news I have not discovered. But the eyes of the Dark Tower will look now in this direction, I think. 'There is no one of this company, I think, whose name (and deeds) is not noted now in the dark mind of Sauron. We should walk in shadow, if we walk abroad at all - until we are ready. Therefore, though it may add to the miles, I counsel you go now by night, and go south so that day does not find us in the open plain. After that we may ride with many men, or ride maybe [??back to the] Deeping Coomb that would be better by ways among the foothills of your own mountains Theoden, and come thus down to Eodoras... long ravines about Dunharrow. The last few lines are a ragged scrawl, across which my father wrote (at the same time) 'They meet Huorns returning'. Since against the statement that 'they passed down hill and turned into the road that led to the bridge' he noted in the margin 'No they rode south to the Fords', and against 'the company crossed the bridge and then struck away from the river' he wrote 'No, they go south', it seems clear that it was as he was writing this first draft of the opening that he realised that the company did not in fact make straight for Eodoras but went first to Helm's Deep - and therefore abandoned this text.(3) In a rejected speech of Aragorn's (p. 67 note 7) there was a suggestion that he had given some thought to the matter, but there is here the first clear expression of the idea that there must have been some means by which news was rapidly exchanged between Orthanc and Barad-dur. Why Gandalf was so certain of this is not made plain,(4) and one might wonder whether the idea did not arise from the palantir rather than the other way about. On the reverse of this page is an outline that one would naturally suppose to have been written continuously with the text on the other side. That it followed the abandoned narrative draft is obvious from the fact that here the company did not head straight for Eodoras but rode down from Isengard to the Fords. The writing is here exceptionally difficult, not only extremely rapid but with letters idiosyncratically formed. This was the Orthan[c] Stone [written above: Orthancstone Orthankstone Orpancstan] which kept watch on movements in neighbourhood but its range was limited to some 100 leagues?(5) It will help to keep watch on Orthanc from afar. Night comes swiftly. They come to the Fords and note the river is failing and running dry again.(6) The starry night. They cross and pass the mounds. They halt under stars and see the great black shadow passing between [?them] and stars. Nazgul. Gandalf takes out dark globe and looks at it. Good, he said. It shows little by night. That is a comfort. All they could see [?was] stars and [?far away] small batlike shapes wheeling. At the edge was a river in the moon. The moon is already visible in Osgiliath said Gandalf. That seems the edge of sight.(7) As they draw near Helm's Deep a shadow comes up like a mist. Suddenly they hear a rustling whisper and on both sides of them so that they are in a lane .... Shadows pass away northward. Huorns. Insert now page 3 of Ch.XXIX. Next day they ride with many men in the Westfold Vale and .... by [?paths winding] among the mountains. They strike the Dunharrow ravine on the second day. And find folk streaming back to Eodoras. Aragorn rides with Eowyn.(8) Gandalf looks at the Dark Crystal on the terrace before King's House. They see quite clearly Orthanc - Ents [?moving] ..... water all very [?small] and clear. Horsemen riding over plain from west and north. Strange [? figures of various kind]. And from Minas Tirith. It only shows lights and men [?no country]. The reference to 'page 3 of Chapter XXIX' is to the first completed version of 'The Road to Isengard', where the description of the departure of the Huorn wood from the Deeping Coomb was placed before Theoden and Gandalf and their company left for Isengard, and so before they passed through the wood (p. 27). It is clear from the passage of the Huorns at this point in the story that the final time- scheme had not yet been reached (see pp. 5 - 6, $$ III-IV): Theoden and Gandalf and their company still reached Isengard on the day (2 February) following the Battle of the Hornburg and did not spend the night of 2 February encamped below Nan Gurunir (where in TT, p. 158, they heard the Huorns passing, and after which the passage about the departure of the wood from the Deeping Coomb, and the Death Down, finally found its place). In this outline there is nothing to suggest that the 'dark globe' was the means of communication between Orthanc and Barad-dur - indeed, rather the reverse, since when Gandalf looks into it somewhere near the Fords of Isen the range of its sight does not extend beyond Osgiliath (although his words 'It shows little by night. That is a comfort' suggest that he had feared that it might make them visible to a hostile eye). On the other hand, in the preceding narrative draft Gandalf is seen to be much concerned with that question of com- munication: 'There was a bond between Isengard and Mordor. Of what sort... I have not discovered.' It seems hard to believe that even though Gandalf had not yet put two and two together my father had failed to do so. A possible explanation is that when he wrote this outline he did indeed already know the significance of the Dark Crystal, but that Gandalf had not yet fathomed the full extent of its range and powers, or did not yet know how to make use of them. Or it may be truer to say simply that in these notes we see the formative moment in which the significance of the Seeing Stone was at the point of emergence: the fateful 'device' - devised long before - which in the final story would prove to have been of vast though hidden import- ance in the War of the Ring.(9) A little scribbled note in isolation may be cited here: The black-red ball shows movements. They see the lines of war advancing. [? Ships are seen] and Theoden's men in Helm's Deep and assembling in Rohan. The context of this is altogether obscure: for who is seeing these things? Another text - a brief and tantalising set of notes scrawled down very rapidly in faint soft pencil, vestiges of fugitive thoughts - shows further debate on the meaning of the Orthanc-stone. I cannot see any clear indication of where it would be placed in the narrative, or even of where it stands in the sequence of these preliminary papers;(10) but from various points it seems to have preceded the text that follows it here. I said that Isengard was overthrown, and the Stone was going on a journey, said Gandalf. And that I would [look o] speak to it again later when I could, but [?at the] moment I was in a hurry. auctor (No I think the dark globe to be in contact with Mordor is too like the rings) Gandalf discovers that the Orthanc-stone is a far-seer. But he could not make out [how] to use it. It seemed capricious. It seems still to be looking in the directions in which it was last used, he said. Hence, vision of the [added: 7] Nazgul above the battlements. He was looking towards Mordor. Can one see back. Possibly said Gandalf. It is perilous but I have a mind to use it. He stands back. He has been seen [? bending over it].? No, he said, this is an ancient stone set in an upper chamber of the tower long long ago before the Dark Tower was strong. It was used by the [?wardens] of Gondor. One also must have been in the Hornburg, and in Minas Tirith, and in Minas Morghul, and in Osgiliath. (Five). They saw the Hornburg. They saw Minas Tirith. They saw Nazgul above the battlements of Osgiliath. So Saruman learned some of his news he said. The bracketing of the words 'No I think the dark globe to be in contact with Mordor is too like the rings' and the marginal auctor (meaning that this was my father's thought, not Gandalf's) were added in ink. The implication of these words must be that Gandalf, in the opening sentences of this text, was speaking to a person in Mordor: and if that person was none other than Sauron himself, there is a delightful glimpse of Gandalf telling the Dark Lord that he was busy. - That here only five of the Seeing Stones are named (given a habitation) does not mean of course that at this stage there were only five, but that these were the five Stones of the southern kingdom (Gondor). In subsequent enumerations there were five Stones in Gondor, where in LR there were four. Lastly, there is a brief outline, ending in a ragged scrawl, that seems to have preceded the first continuous drafting of the chapter in formed narrative. Conversation with Saruman begins about 3.15 and ends about 4.30 (that is about sunset). Dark comes about 5.30. Gandalf leads them south in the dark - because now they must be more secret than ever. (Wonders what the connexion was between Saruman and Sauron.) They pass out of Nan Gurunir at about 9 p.m. Camp under shadow of the last western hill. Dolbaran. They will ride fast on morrow. Two men are sent ahead to warn men that king is returning to Helm's Deep and that a strong force should be ready to ride with him. No men more than two or three are to ride openly on the plain. The king will go by mountain paths to Dunharrow. Then episode of Pippin and Stone. Gandalf says this is how Saruman fell; He studied such matters. The old far-seers of the Men of Numenor who made Amon Hen and Amon Lhaw One in Hornburg, Osgiliath, Minas Tirith, Minas Morghul, Isengard [Angrenost >] Angost.(11) That is how Saruman got news - though Hornburg and Minas Tirith were 'dark', their balls lost or destroyed. But he tried to peep at Barad-dur and got caught. Nazgul. Feb. 4 They ride to Fords mid-morning (11 a.m.), rest an hour, and reach Deeping Coomb road-fork at 3 p.m. Helm's Deep at about 4. They rest, gather men, and ride by hill-paths lost to sight. Hobbits are given ponies - and Gimli! Feb. 5, 6 Journey. Feb. 7 Dunharrow. Joy of people. Eowyn comes forth. The King rides down the mountain valley with Eowyn and Eomund [read Eomer] on either side, Gandalf, Legolas, Aragorn beside them. The hobbits and Gimli ... [?Regency.) Feast. Tobacco. Messenger. In the previous text (p. 71) it is not actually stated that the Seeing Stones of Gondor 'answered' or corresponded one to another, but the idea was at the moment of emergence, as is seen from my father's passing doubt whether 'the dark globe to be in contact with Mordor is too like the rings', while 'Can one see back' seems clearly to refer to reciprocal vision between one Stone and another rather than to vision of past time. In the present outline this conception is fully present and accepted, and with it the central idea that it was through his knowledge of these matters that Saruman was corrupted, being snared by his use of the Stone of Orthanc to look towards Barad-dur. The 'episode of Pippin and the Stone' has arisen (though so far as the evidence goes it had not yet been committed to paper in any form); and the various elements were now coming to interlock in a beautifully articulated conception. The original idea (p. 69) that when Gandalf looked into the dark globe he saw 'small batlike shapes wheeling' will be retained but become Pippin's vision, and the explanation of why it should be that vision and no other (cf. 'It seems still to be looking in the directions in which it was last used', p. 71) will be found in the constant intercourse of Saruman and Sauron by means of the Seeing Stones (itself answering the question of the method of communication between Isengard and the Dark Tower), so that 'the Orthanc-stone [became] so bent towards Barad-dur that, if any save a will of adamant now looks into it, it will bear his mind and sight swiftly thither' (TT p. 204). The final time-scheme had now entered (see p. 6, $ IV): Theoden and Gandalf and their company came to Isengard on 3 February and left that evening, two nights after the Battle of the Hornburg. It is remarkable that even when the plot had advanced to this stage, with the 'episode of Pippin and the Stone', and the first appearance of a Nazgul west of Anduin, blacking out the stars (already present in the outline on p. 69), Gandalf was not impelled to ride on ahead in haste to Minas Tirith, but is present at the feast in Eodoras - that feast, often foreseen, which would never in the event take place. For the significance of the reference to tobacco here see p. 37 and note 33. But pencilled notes added to this outline later show the story of Gandalf's sudden departure: 'Feb. 4 Gandalf and Pippin reach Deeping Coomb before dawn', and 'Feb. 4 - 5 Gandalf rides all night and all day Feb. 5 reaching Minas Tirith at sunset on Feb. 5'. There are no other writings extant before we come to a first draft of the chapter - which extends however only so far as the conclusion of Gandalf's words with Pippin after his vision in the Seeing Stone (TT p. 199).(12) This was written very fast and apparently set down without any preliminary workings, but the final text of the chapter to this point was achieved at once in all essentials - there are of course countless differences in the expression and a few in very small points of narrative detail, and many of these differences survived into the first completed manuscript of the chapter.(13) The chief difference from the final text comes as Gandalf knelt by Pippin's body (TT p. 198): 'He removed the ball and wrapped it in a cloth again. "Take this and guard it, Aragorn," he said. "And do not uncover it or handle it yourself, I beg." Then he took Pippin's hand and bent over his face ...' Thus Gandalf hands the globe to Aragorn simply as a bearer whom he can trust, in contrast to the story in TT (pp. 199 - 200), where the charging of Aragorn with the Orthanc-stone takes place at a different point and is given much greater significance through Ara- gorn's claiming it by right. But Pippin's account of what happened to him when he looked into the globe and 'he came' was achieved at once in this draft. From this point there is very little further preliminary drafting, and for almost all the rest of the chapter the earliest available text is that of the first completed manuscript, much of which is written over erased pencil. This manuscript was later given the chapter-number XXXI, and the title 'The Orthanc-stone The Palantir', this being written over an erased title of which only 'The' can be read. As this manuscript was first written Gandalf in his concluding, words to Pippin said a good deal more than he does in TT (p. 199). Some of this was moved to his conversation with Theoden and Aragorn after he had carried Pippin back to his bed: that Pippin had saved him from the dangerous blunder of using the Stone himself, and of Sauron's delusion that the Stone, and the hobbit, were in Orthanc. But here Gandalf goes on: 'Very odd, very odd how things work out! But I begin now to wonder a little.' He stroked his beard. 'Was this ball really thrown to slay me after all? Or to slay me if it might, and do something else if it missed? Was it thrown without Saruman's knowledge? Hm! Things may have been meant to go much as they have gone - except that you looked in, not me! Hm! Well. They have gone so, and not otherwise; and it is so that we have to deal with. 'But come! This must change our plans. We are being careless and leisurely. Against the paragraph beginning 'Very odd, very odd how things work out!' my father wrote in the margin: 'No! because if Saruman had wished to warn Mordor of the ruin of Isengard and the presence of Gandalf and hobbits he had only to use Glass in normal fashion and inform Sauron direct.? But he may have wished (a) to kill Gandalf, (b) to get rid of the link. Sauron may have been pressing him to come to the stone?' He evidently decided that these were unprofitable specu- lations, and abandoning the direction Gandalf's words had taken returned to an earlier point in his final address to Pippin. The text in this first manuscript then (with rewriting of some passages, obviously belonging to the same time) all but reaches that of TT (pp. 199 - 203) as far as Gandalf's opening remarks to Pippin about the Seeing Stones as they rode towards the Deeping Coomb. Only two matters need be noted. When Gandalf gives the Stone to Aragorn (cf. p. 74) he says here: 'It is a dangerous charge, but I can trust you even against yourself', and Aragorn replies only: 'I know the danger. I will not uncover it, or handle it.' Secondly, there is a curious series of shifts in the precise wording of Gandalf's remarks about his failure to understand immediately the nature of the ball thrown down from Orthanc. At first he said: 'I said nothing, because I knew nothing. I guessed only. I know now.' In the first rewriting of this passage he said: 'I ought to have been quicker, but my mind was bent on Saruman. And I did not guess the full nature of the stone - not until now. But now I know the link between Isengard and Mordor, which has long puzzled me.' This was again rewritten at this stage to read: 'And I did not guess the nature of the stone, till I saw it in his [Pippin's] hands. Not until now was I sure.' In further revision of the passage carried out much later it became: 'I did not guess the nature of the stone, until it was too late. Only now am I sure of it.' In the final form (TT p. 200) this was changed once more: 'I did not at once guess the nature of the stone. Then I was weary, and as I lay pondering it, sleep overcame me. Now I know!' There is, to be sure, among all these formulations no great difference in the actual meaning, but it was evidently a detail that concerned my father: just how much did Gandalf surmise about the palantir before Pippin's experience brought certainty, and how soon? An element of ambiguity does in fact remain in LR. Already in the first manuscript of 'The Voice of Saruman' Gandalf had said: 'I fancy that, if we could have come in, we should have found few treasures in Orthanc more precious than the thing which the fool Wormtongue tossed down to us!' The nature of Wormtongue's missile cannot have been fully apparent to my father himself at that stage: it was in that manuscript, only a few lines above, that he changed, as he wrote, the initial story of the globe's having smashed into fragments on the rock (p. 65). But even when he had fully established the nature of the palantir he retained those words of Gandalf (TT p. 190) at the moment when it bursts upon the story - although, as Gandalf said at Dol Baran, 'I did not at once guess the nature of the Stone'. But then why was he so emphatic, as he stood beneath the tower, that 'we could have found few treasures in Orthanc more precious' - even before Wormtongue's shriek gave reinforcement to his opinion? Perhaps we should suppose simply that this much at least was immediately clear to him, that a great ball of dark crystal in Orthanc was most unlikely to have been nothing but an elegant adornment of Saruman's study. At the words 'Hobbits, I suppose, have forgotten them' (the Rhymes of Lore), following Gandalf's recital of the words of the Rhyme Tall ships and tall kings/Three times three (TT p. 202), a brief passage of original drafting, written out separately in ink and so not lost in erasure of pencil as elsewhere, takes up: the first framing of Gandalf's declaration of the history of the Seeing Stones, here called Palantirs, a word that so far as record goes now first appears. They [the Rhymes of Lore] are all treasured in Rivendell. Treebeard remembers most/some of them: Long [Rolls >] Lists and that sort of thing. But hobbits I suppose have forgotten nearly all, even those that they ever knew. And what is that one about: the seven stones and seven stars? About the Palantirs of the Men of Old, said Gandalf. I was thinking of them. Why, what are they? The Orthanc stone was one, said Gandalf. Then it was not made, Pippin hesitated, by the Enemy, he asked [? at a rush]. No, said Gandalf. Nor by Saruman; it is beyond his art, and beyond Sauron's too maybe. No, there was no evil in it. It has been corrupted, as have so many of the things that remain. Alas poor Saruman, it was his downfall, so I now perceive. Danger- ous to us all are devices made by a knowledge and art deeper than we possess ourselves. I did not know that any Palantir had survived the decay of Gondor and the Elendilions until now. Seven they set up. At Minas Anor that is now Minas Tirith there was one, and one at Minas Ithil, and others at Aglarond the Caves of Splendour which men call Helm's Deep, and at Orthanc. Others were far away, I know not where, maybe at Fornost, and at Mithlond [struck out: where Cirdan harboured the ... ships ...] (in) the Gulf of Lune where the grey ships lie. But the chief and master .... [?of (the) stones] was at Osgiliath before it was ruined. In this passage are the first occurrences of Aglarond (see p. 28) and of Fornost, which on the First Map was named Fornobel, and still so on my map made in 1943, VII.304. Here also is the first appearance of Cirdan in the manuscripts of The Lord of the Rings. In the first complete manuscript this was developed towards the form in TT. Gandalf now tells that 'The palantirs came from beyond Westernesse, from Eldamar. The Noldor made them: Feanor himself maybe wrought them, in days so long ago that the time cannot be measured in years.' He speaks of Saruman as he does in the final text; but here he ends: No word did he ever speak of it to any of the Council. It was not known that any of the palantirs had escaped the ruin of Gondor. Their very existence was preserved only in a Rhyme of Lore among Aragorn's people.' This was changed to: 'It was not known to us that any of the palantirs had escaped the ruin of Gondor. Outside the Council it was not among elves and men even remembered that such things had ever been, save only in a Rhyme of Lore preserved among Aragorn's people.'(14) The remainder of the chapter in the first manuscript reaches the final form in all but a few respects. There were still five palantirs anciently in Gondor, one being still that of Aglarond (translated, as in the draft, 'Caves of Splendour', but changed to 'Glittering Caves'),(15) Of the other two, Gandalf still says that they were far away, 'I do not know where, for no rhyme says. Maybe they were at Fornost, and with Kirdan at Mith[l]ond (16) in the Gulf of Lune where the grey ships lie.' In answer to Pippin's question concerning the coming of the Nazgul (TT p. 204) Gandalf here says only: 'It could have taken you away to the Dark Tower', and goes on at once: 'But now Saruman is come to the last pinch of the vice that he has put his hand in.' He says that 'It may be that he [Sauron] will learn that I was there and stood upon the stairs of Orthanc - with hobbits at my tail. That is what I fear.'(17) And at the end of the chapter he tells Pippin: 'You may see the first glimmer of dawn upon the golden roof of the house of Eorl. At sunset on the day after you shall see the shadow of Mount Tor-dilluin fall upon the white walls of the tower of Denethor.'(18) * In his foreword to the Second Edition of The Lord of the Rings my father said that in 1942 he 'wrote the first drafts of the matter that now stands as Book III, and the beginnings of Chapters 1 and 3 of Book V ['Minas Tirith' and 'The Muster of Rohan']; and there as the beacons flared in Anorien and Theoden came to Harrowdale I stopped. Foresight had failed and there was no time for thought.'(19) It seems to have been about the end of 1942 or soon after that he stopped; for in a letter to Stanley Unwin of 7 December 1942 (Letters no. 47) he said that the book had reached Chapter XXXI 'and will require at least six more to finish (these are already sketched).' This chapter was undoubtedly 'The Palantir' (not 'Flotsam and Jetsam', Letters p. 437, note to letter 47). In the foreword to the Second Edition he went on: 'It was during 1944 that ... I forced myself to tackle the journey of Frodo to Mordor', and this new beginning can be very precisely dated; for on 3 April 1944 he said in a letter to me (Letters no. 58): I have begun to nibble at Hobbit again. I have started to do some (painful) work on the chapter which picks up the adventures of Frodo and Sam again; and to get myself attuned have been copying and polishing the last written chapter (Orthanc-Stone). Two days later, on 5 April 1944 (Letters no. 59) he wrote to me: I have seriously embarked on an effort to finish my book, & have been sitting up rather late: a lot of re-reading and research required. And it is a painful sticky business getting into swing again. I have gone back to Sam and Frodo, and am trying to work out their adventures. A few pages for a lot of sweat: but at the moment they are just meeting Gollum on a precipice. The 'copying and polishing' of 'The Orthanc-Stone' that my father did at this time is the second, very finely written manuscript of the chapter. Well over a year had passed since the first manuscript of the chapter was written, but not unnaturally no changes of significance were made m the new text: thus Aragorn's reception of the palantir remains in the simple form it had (p. 75); Gandalf does not refer to the possibility that Wormtongue might have recognised Aragorn on the stairs of Orthanc (note 17); Aglarond was still one of the ancient sites of the palantiri of Gondor, and Gandalf still says that he does not know where the others had been 'for no rhyme says', but maybe in Fornost and with Cirdan at the Grey Havens.(20) NOTES. 1. On 'the road that led to the bridge' see p. 31, where coming in the other direction the company had crossed the bridge and 'found a road that with a wide northward sweep brought them to the great highway to the fords.' 2. In the notes on distances referred to on p. 42 note 14 Eodoras to Isenford is given as 125 miles, which agrees well with the First Map (VII.319) and with the statement in TT ('Helm's Deep', p. 131) that it was forty leagues and more: see p. 12. Eodoras to Isengard is given in these notes as 140 miles (46-6 leagues), which again agrees closely with the First Map (about 2-8 cm.). Eodoras to Helm's Deep or mouth of Coomb is 110 miles; in my - redrawing this distance is 100 miles (2 cm.), but the map is here very difficult to interpret and I have probably not placed Helm's Deep at precisely the point my father intended: on my map made in 1943 the distance as the crow flies is 110 miles. - The idea that after the visit to Isengard Theoden and his companions returned to Eodoras goes back to the outline 'The Story Foreseen from Fangorn', VII.437. 3. There is a second draft of the opening, which need not be given in full. Here it is noted how they rode: 'Gandalf took Merry behind him, and Aragorn took Pippin; Gimli rode as before with Eomer, and Legolas was upon Arod at his side'; but this was immediately changed to 'Legolas and Gimli rode together again.' After a further hesitation, whether the company went down to the Fords or passed over the bridge below Isengard and went east, this draft ends: Gandalf's plan had at first been to ride straight to Eodoras from Isengard. But he said 'Victory has its dangers', and Theoden had best ride with secrecy now, and with many men. They would return to the Deeping Coomb and send on a messenger, bidding the men who were labouring there to hasten their work and be prepared to ride on the morrow by hill-paths. So now the company rode at a gentle [pace] 4. Cf. Unfinished Tales p. 405: 'It needed the demonstration on Dol Baran of the effects of the Orthanc-stone on Peregrin to reveal suddenly that the "link" between Isengard and Barad-dur (seen to exist after it was discovered that forces of Isengard had been joined with others directed by Sauron in the attack on the Fellowship at Parth Galen) was in fact the Orthanc-stone - and one other palantir.' 5. The distance from Orthanc to Barad-dur on the First Map is 12-3 cm., = 615 miles or 205 leagues. - This is a convenient place to notice that in my redrawing of section IV of the First Map (VII.319) what I have represented as a small circle on the west- ern side of the Wizard's Vale seems not to be so, but is rather an alteration in the line marking the edge of the vale. At the upper end of the vale is a minute circle that must represent Isengard. 6. The story here was that the Ents (who at the beginning of the draft on p. 68 are said to have gone back to the sources of the stream, leaving Treebeard alone at the gate of Isengard) had at once obeyed Gandalf's parting request to Treebeard (TT p. 192) that the waters of Isen be again poured into the Ring. 7. From Isenford to Osgiliath on the First Map is 8-6 cm., = 430 miles or 143 leagues. 8. Cf. VII.447: 'If I live, I will come, Lady Eowyn, and then maybe we will ride together.' 9. Cf. Gandalf s words in The Two Towers, p. 203: Alas for Saruman! It was his downfall, as I now perceive'; and in The Return of the King, p. 133: Thus the will of Sauron entered into Minas Tirith.' 10. It is written in fact on the back of one of the pages of the initial continuous drafting of the chapter (p. 73), but seems entirely unconnected with it. 11. Angost was a passing substitution for Angrenost: see p. 44 note 27. 12. One of the pages of this draft carries also drafting of the passage in 'The Voice of Saruman' in which Gandalf, seeing Pippin carrying the palantir, cries out 'Here, my lad, I'll take that! I did not ask you to handle it.' See p. 66. 13. I mention the following as examples of such differences in the detail of this part of the story. In Gandalf's talk with Merry as they rode from Isengard (TT p. 194), after saying that he had not yet fathomed what the link was between Saruman and Sauron and that 'Rohan will be ever in his thought', he used again the words found in the soon abandoned draft for the opening of the chapter (p. 68): 'There is no one of this company, be sure, whose name and deeds are not noted now in the mind of Sauron ., but my father bracketed this, with the marginal note: 'No: Gandalf*s return hidden.' In the night halt beneath Dolbaran (so written, as also in the outline on p. 72) Merry and Pippin lay not far from Gandalf; when Pippin got up from his bed 'the two guards sitting on their horses had their backs to the camp'; Pippin saw a glitter from Gandalf's eyes as he slept 'Under his long dark lashes' ('long lashes' 11 ); the palantir lay beside the wizard's left hand. 14. This was preserved in the First Edition of The Two Towers. 15. As in TT, Gandalf guesses that the palantir of Barad-dur was the Ithil-stone. 16. Mithond must be a mere slip, though it was left uncorrected. It is curious that in the next manuscript, made in 1944 (pp. 77 - 8), the form in this passage was Mithrond, corrected to Mithlond. 17. In TT 'That is what I fear' refers to additional sentences inserted after 'with hobbits at my tail': 'Or that an heir of Elendil lives and stood beside me. If Wormtongue was not deceived by the armour of Rohan, he would remember Aragorn and the title that he claimed.' But this insertion was made long after (on 'the armour of Rohan' borne by Aragorn see TT p. 127, and in this book p. 304 and p. 317 with note 9). 18. Tor-dilluin was emended to Mindolluin. The mountain was added roughly to the First Map and not named, but carefully shown on the 1943 map (VII.310). - With Gandalf's forecast that they will come to Minas Tirith at sunset cf. p. 73 (Gandalf reaches Minas Tirith at sunset on February 5). 19. Cf. my father's letter to Caroline Everett, 24 June 1957 (Letters no. 199): I was in fact longest held up - by exterior circumstances as well as interior - at the point now represented by the last words of Book iii (reached about 1942 or 3). After that Chapter 1 of Book v remained very long as a mere opening (as far as the arrival in Gondor); Chapter 2 [The Passing of the Grey Company] did not exist; and Chapter 3, Muster of Rohan, had got no further than the arrival at Harrowdale. Chapter 1 of Book iv [The Taming of Smeagol] had hardly got beyond Sam's opening words (Vol. II p. 209). Some parts of the adventures of Frodo and Sam on the confines of Mordor and in it had been written (but were eventually abandoned). The last sentence evidently refers to the text that I called 'The Story Foreseen from Lorien', in VII.324 ff. In fact, there is very clear evidence that my father erred in his recollection that the abandoned beginnings of Chapters 1 and 3 of Book V belonged to the time that we have now reached (i.e. the end of Book III); see pp. 231 ff., where the question is discussed in detail. 20. The text has Mithrond here, corrected to Mithlond: see note 16. - I collect a few further details from this second manuscript. Palantirs became Palantiri in the course of writing it. - Osgiliath is named Elostirion (Elostirion being roughly substituted for Osgiliath in the first manuscript, but very probably at this time). This change was introduced in a note dated February 9 1942 (VII.423), and appears in the outline 'The Story Foreseen from Fangorn' (VII.435). Osgiliath in the drafting and first manuscript of 'The Palantir' was thus a reversion, and Elostirion in 1944 another. Finally Elostirion was afterwards corrected back to Osgiliath on the 1944 manuscript. Lastly, there was much hesitation about the phase of the moon on the night of the camp below Dol Baran. In the original draft no more was said than that 'The moon was shining' when Pippin got up from his bed. In the first manuscript 'The moon had risen far away but could not yet be seen; a pale sheen was in the sky above the bushes and the eastern rim of the dell'; with this compare perhaps the early notes given on p. 69, where Gandalf looks into the Seeing Stone and says 'The moon is already visible in Osgiliath.' This was changed to 'The moon was shining cold and white into the dell and the shadows of the bushes were black'; but on both the first and second manuscripts my father then shifted back and forth between the two statements, until he finally decided on the latter, which is the reading of TT (p. 196). On the first manuscript he noted in the margin the following times (which show a much more rapid journey from Isengard than in the outline on p. 72): 'Sunset about 5 p.m. They camped about 6 p.m. This [i.e. Pippin's looking into the palantir] happened about 11 p.m. Moon rose 6.34 p.m.' According to the elaborate time-scheme that was made after the introduction of changes in October 1944 (VII.368), the New Moon had been on 21 January, the First Quarter on 29 January, and Full Moon was on 6 February, three nights after the camp beneath Dol Baran.