The History of Middle Earth: Volume 7 - The Treason of Isengard
Page 9
In any case, the time-scheme D reflects the revised text: Glorfindel left Rivendell on 9 October and found Trotter and the hobbits nine days later, on the 18th, while Gandalf and Ham Bolger only reached Rivendell on that same day, having taken a full fortnight from Weathertop.
In the new version, Sam's protective fierceness when Frodo was attacked by pain and swayed is more bitterly expressed: ' "My master is sick and wounded, though perhaps Mr Trotter has not told you that," said Sam angrily.' Much later, the latter part of this was struck out.
At the end of the chapter the three Riders who came out of the tree-hung cutting become, by correction to the existing manuscript, five, and the six who came from ambush away to the left become four. This change goes of course with the change of three Riders to five in the attack on Weathertop (see note 31).
NOTES.
1. In the draft A there is also a rejected version of the words between the Rider and the gatekeeper:
'Have you seen Gandalf?' said the voice after a pause.
'No sir, not since midsummer,' said Harry.
'You will watch for him,' said the voice slowly. 'You will
watch for hobbits. We want Baggins. He is with them....'
2. In the fair copy B of the end of Chapter V (pp. 34-5); in the draft A (p. 32) the name is still Folco.
3. 'nigh on a score of years back' refers to Bilbo's passage through Bree after his Farewell Party, on his way to Rivendell. Butterbur had therefore seen Bilbo since he 'vanished with a bang while he was speaking', as the landlord goes on to say. See p. 83.
4. This development, showing the Riders to be well informed about
the Bagginses of Bag End, was not retained.
5. On Trotter's references to Harry Goatleaf see pp. 41 - 2.
6. This speech of Butterbur's is largely derived from the draft text A (p. 43), where however it stands in a different context: there, it was on account of the questions of the Black Riders at the inn
door, whereas here Butterbur has not mentioned the Riders.
7. 'a month' was corrected to 'a fortnight', and at the same time 'in August' was struck out. The date on Gandalf's letter (p. 49) is 12 September, showing that these changes were made while the chapter was in progress.
8. 'September' was corrected to 'this month'; see note 7.
9. The relations between the versions in respect of Gandalf's letter are:
'Third phase' of the 'Bree' chapter:
Butterbur tells Frodo of Gandalf's visit two days before, and of his message to hurry on after him (VI.338 - 9)
Trotter has the letter from Gandalf (VI.343)
Draft revision A of the 'third phase' version:
Butterbur has nothing to communicate from Gandalf, who has not recently been in Bree (p. 43)
Trotter has the letter from Gandalf (p. 44)
The present text:
Butterbur tells Frodo of Gandalf's visit to Bree (in August >) on 12 September (p. 47 and note 7)
Butterbur has the letter from Gandalf (p. 47)
The Fellowship of the Ring:
Butterbur tells Frodo of Gandalf's visit at the end of June, leaving with the landlord a letter to be taken to the Shire, which was not done (p. 179).
10. 'yesterday and the day before': i.e. Tuesday and Wednesday, 27 and 28 September. Similarly in A the first Rider passed through Bree on the Tuesday (p. 43), not as in the previous versions on the Monday (VI.151, 339). In FR (pp. 176, 180) the first appearance of the Black Riders in Bree was again on Monday the 26th.
11. This is in fact a reversion to the alternative text 'B' of the original 'Bree' chapter (see VI.159), where Butterbur does not encounter the Riders and has nothing to say about them.
12. 'thin long-legged script': 'strong but graceful script' FR. In the earlier versions Gandalf's handwriting is 'trailing' (VI.154, 352).
13. There are two very rough draft versions of the letter. The first reads:
The Prancing Pony Aug. 30. Tuesday. Dear F. I hope you will not need this. If you get this (I hope old Butterbur will not forget) things will be far from well. I hope to get back in time, but things have happened which make it doubtful. This is to say: look out for horsemen in black. Avoid them: they are our worst enemies (save one). Don't use It again, not for any reason whatever. Make for Rivendell as fast as you possibly can; but don't move in the dark. I hope, if you reach Bree, you will meet Trotter the Ranger: a dark rather lean weather-beaten fellow, but my great friend, and enemy of our enemies. He knows all our business. He has been watching the east borders of the Shire since April, but for the moment has disappeared. You can trust him: he will see you through if it can be done. I hope we may meet in Rivendell. If not Elrond will advise you. If I don't come I can only hope that will be sufficient warning for you, and that you (and Sam, too, at least) will leave the Shire as soon as possible.
The other draft is the very close forerunner of the letter in the present manuscript, and scarcely differs from it, but it bears no date. - For previous forms of the letter see VI.154, 158, 352.
14. On the date 12 September (beside 30 August in the draft, note 13) see notes 7 and 8.
15. 'Aragorn son of Celegorn' is certainly later than 'Aragorn son of Aramir' (p. 7). - The original form of the name of the third son of Feanor was Celegorm, but this was changed to Celegorn in the course of the writing of the Quenta Silmarillion (V.226, 289). Later it became Celegorm again.
16. These words of Frodo and Aragorn were afterwards used in 'The Council of Elrond' (see p. 105, note 3).
17. There is much initial drafting in exceedingly rough form for this part of the chapter. The first form of this passage was:
The Enemy has set snares for me before now. Of course I did not really doubt you after seeing you with Tom Bombadil, and certainly not after hearing Frodo's song. Bilbo wrote that, and I don't see how servants of the Enemy could possibly have known it. But I had to teach you caution and convince you that I was personally to be trusted all the same - so that you should have no doubts or regrets later. Also a wanderer, an old ranger, had a desire to be taken as a friend for his own sake for once, and without proofs.
For the origin of this speech of Trotter's see VI.155.
18. With 'In the light they need their horses' cf. Strider's words on Weathertop (FR p. 202): the black horses can see, and the Riders can use men and other creatures as spies'; for earlier forms of this see VI.178, 357, and p. 58 and note 29.
19. I take the significance of this to be that the one Rider who had stood sentinel under the trees went to fetch the other two.
20. These two sentences replaced, soon after the time of writing, 'A curtain in one of the windows moved' (cf. VI.328).
21. 'Far away answering horns were heard': in all the variant forms of the 'Crickhollow episode' the reading is 'Far away' (adverbial). The reading of FR (p. 189), 'Far-away answering horns' (adjec- tival), which appears already in the first impression of the first edition, is I think an early error.
22. The expression a sheaf of lightning, going back to the earliest form of the episode (VI.304), seems not to be recorded. The Oxford English Dictionary gives a meaning of sheaf 'a cluster of jets of fire or water darting up together', with quotations from the nineteenth century, but I doubt that this is relevant. Conceivably my father had in mind a 'cluster' or 'bundle' of lightnings', like a 'sheaf of arrows'.
23. These sentences (from 'At the same moment...') were a replace- ment, made as I think at or very soon after the time of composition, of 'Nearby among the trees a horn rang out.'
24. Some corrections made to attain it were put in subsequently, as is seen at once from the fact that in one of them 'Pippin' is the name written, not changed from 'Folco'; but I doubt that they were much later, and the question has here no importance.
25. The original workings of Sam's song of Gil-galad are extant, with the original form of the dialogue that followed his recital:
The others turned in amazement, for the voice was Sam's. 'Don't stop! ' sai
d Folco.
'That's all I know, sir,' stammered Sam blushing. 'I learned it out of an old book up at Mr. Bilbo's, when I was a lad. I always was as one for elves: but I never knew what that bit was about, until I heard Gandalf talking. Mr. Frodo'll remember that day.' 'I do,' said Frodo; 'and I know the book. I often wondered where it came from, though I never read it carefully.'
'It came from Rivendell,' said Trotter. 'That is part of
Here the text breaks up into a mass of rough variants, including 'It comes from "The Fall of Gilgalad", which is in an old tongue. Bilbo must have been translating it', and 'I know the book you mean (said Frodo). Bilbo wrote his poems in it. But I never thought of them as true.'
26. 'at least twelve days' journey before us': i.e. 21 less 9 (2 from the Brandywine Bridge to Bree, 7 from Bree to Weathertop).
27 Bruinen occurs in the time-scheme D, p. 14; Loudwater is first met here (but is found also on one of the sketch-maps redrawn in VI.201).
28. In draft fragments there are many versions of the passage concerning the problem of provisions that now beset the travellers, and in these there are still several mentions of 'the additional supplies left by Gandalf.'
29. The passage in the final form 'but our shapes cast shadows in their minds... they smell the blood of living things, desiring and hating it' is lacking. The final text is found in this manuscript, but whether added at this time or later I cannot say.
30. Aragorn's remark in FR about the Riders and fire ('Sauron can put fire to his evil uses...') was added to the manuscript. - In a draft for the earlier passage where he examines the traces in the dell he says:
'The wood is interesting. It is beech. There are no trees of that sort for many miles from this place, so the wood was brought from a distance. It must have been hidden here for a purpose: that is, either the campers meant to stay or to return, or they thought friends were likely to follow.'
31. Two differences from FR that remained in the 'third phase' were corrected on this manuscript: 'three tall figures' to 'five', and Frodo's cry to 0 Elbereth! Gilthoniel! (see VI.358).
32. The Ettenmoors and Ettendales of FR (pp. 212, 215) were written into this manuscript, but certainly at some later time - replacing Entish Lands and Entish Dales when the word Ent had acquired its special meaning. It may be that Etten- from Old English eoten 'giant, troll' (Grendel in Beowulf was an eoten), Middle English eten, was first devised on this manuscript, in the passage where Trotter says 'If we keep on as we are going we shall get up into the Entish Dales far north of Rivendell' (FR p. 215), for my father wrote here Thirs before he wrote Etten- dales. He must have been thinking of using the Old English word pyrs, of the same general meaning as ent, eoten, Middle English thirs (and other forms). On the other hand a note on the First Map (see p. 306) seems also to show Etten- at the moment of its emergence.
33. There was also a fleeting idea that it would be Bilbo's song at Rivendell (see VI.412, note 6).
34. See Humphrey Carpenter, Biography, p. 213; Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien no. 134 (29 August 1952). The tape-recording of the 'Troll Song' made by Mr. Sayer on that occasion is heard on the Caedmon record (TC 1477) issued in 1975. The version sung by my father was the third of the present texts.
35 The second text is much closer to that in FR, but still distinct: in the first verse And sat there hard and hungry stands in place of For meat was hard to come by, in the third Before I found his carkis for Afore I found his shin-bone, and in the fifth Thee'll be a nice change from thy nuncle! for I'll try my teeth on thee now. In this text the fifth, sixth, and seventh lines of each verse were omitted, but were pencilled in later, mostly as they appear in FR. The third text changed And sat there hard and hungry in the first verse to And seen no man nor mortal (with rhyming words Ortal! Portal!), which goes back to The Root of the Boot in Songs for the Philologists (VI.143), but this was corrected on the manuscript to the final line For meat was hard to come by (and was so sung by my father in 1952, see note 34). The third verse preserved Afore I found his carkis (with the last line He's got no use for his carkis), and the fifth preserved Thee'll be a nice change from thy nuncle!
36 But the information that the Baranduin was the Brandywine survived as a footnote at this point in FR (p. 222). - This is no doubt the first occurrence of B(a)randuin in the narrative, origin of the 'popular etymology' Brandywine among the hobbits. Both Branduin and Baranduin are given in an added entry in the Etymologies in Vol. V (stem BARAN, p. 351). - As the passage appears in the manuscript, the name of the river was written Branduin, corrected to Baranduin, and (much later) to Malevarn.
IV. OF HAMILCAR, GANDALF, AND SARUMAN.
On 5 August 1940 the Registrar of Oxford University wrote to my father enclosing examination scripts that had been received from an American candidate in the Honour School of English. These provided a good quantity of paper, and my father used it for the continuation of the interrupted story of the Mines of Moria and for revisions of the story already in existence; he was still using it when he came to the departure of the Company from Lothlorien.(1) In the Foreword to the Second Edition of The Lord of the Rings he said that he 'halted for a long while' by Balin's tomb in Moria; and that 'it was almost a year later' when he went on 'and so came to Lothlorien and the Great River late in 1941.' I have argued (VI.461) that in saying this he erred in his recollection, and that it was towards the end of 1939, not of 1940, that he reached Balin's tomb; and the use of this paper, received in August 1940, for the renewed advance in the narrative seems to support this view.(2) Of course it may be that he did not begin using it until significantly later, though that does not seem particularly likely.
At any rate, for the attempt to deduce a consecutive account of the writing of The Lord of the Rings this was a most fortunate chance, since the use of a readily recognisable paper the supply of which was limited makes it possible to gain a much clearer idea of the development that took place at this time than would otherwise be the case. I shall refer to this paper as 'the August 1940 examination script'.
It is not, to be sure, clear whether my father meant that he put the whole thing away for the better part of a year, or whether he distinguished between 'new narrative' - the onward movement of the story from the Chamber of Mazarbul - and the rewriting of existing chapters. Dates in the latter part of 1939 have appeared in the preceding chapters: the 'final decisions' of 8 October 1939 (p. 8), the 'New Plot' of Autumn 1939 (p. 9), and the date October 1939 of the 'fourth phase' version of the long 'Bree' chapter (p. 40). A 'New Plot', given in the present chapter, is dated August 1940. It may be much oversimplified to suppose that nothing at all was done between the last months of 1939 and the late summer of 1940, but at least it is convenient to present the material in this way, and in this chapter I collect together various texts that certainly belong to the latter time. In the 'fourth phase' version of 'A Knife in the Dark' the story of the attack on Crickhollow took this form (p. 55): the Black Riders carried Hamilcar Bolger out of the house as an inert bundle, and as they rode away 'another horse came thundering along the lane. As it passed the gate a horn rang out.' I noted that this story belongs with what is said in the time-scheme D (p. 12: Thursday 29 September: 'Riders attack Crickhollow and carry off Ham, pursued by Gandalf').
A very rough manuscript written on the August 1940 examination script described above gives a version of the event as recounted later at Rivendell by Gandalf and Hamilcar Bolger. This text takes up at the point where Frodo, leaving his bedroom at Rivendell, goes down and finds his friends in the porch (for the previous state of this part of the story see VI.365); but I do not think that anything has been lost before this point - it was a particular passage of the 'Many Meetings' chapter rewritten to introduce the new story.
There seemed to be three hobbits sitting there with Gandalf. 'Hurray!' cried one of them, springing up. 'Here comes our noble cousin!' It was Hamilcar Bolger.
'Ham!' cried Frodo, astounded. 'How did you come here? And why?'
'On horse
back; and representing Mr. F. Baggins of Crick- hollow, and late of Hobbiton,' answered Ham.
Merry laughed. 'Yes,' he said. 'We told him so, but he didn't believe it: we left poor old Ham in a dangerous post. As soon as the Black Riders had found Crickhollow, where Mr. Baggins was popularly supposed to be residing, they attacked it.'
'When did that happen?' asked Frodo.
'Before dawn on Friday morning,(3) four days nearly after you left, said Ham. They got me - he paused and shuddered - but Gandalf came in the nick of time.'
'Not quite the nick,' said Gandalf. 'A notch or two behind, I am afraid. Two of the Riders must have crept into Buckland secretly, while a third took the horses down the other side of the River inside the Shire. They stole the ferryboat from the Buckland shore on Thursday night, and got their horses over. I arrived too late, just as they reached the other side. Galeroc had to swim the river. Then I had a hard chase: but I caught them ten miles beyond the Bridge. I have one advantage: there is no horse in Mordor or in Rohan that is as swift as Galeroc.(4) When they heard his feet behind them they were terrified: they thought I was somewhere else, far away. I was terrified too, I may say: I thought it was Frodo they had got.'