The History of Middle Earth: Volume 7 - The Treason of Isengard
Page 18
'He then told me dread news and revealed to me what I had feared without knowing it. This is what he said. "The Nine 'Wraiths are released," he said. "The Enemy must have some great and urgent need, but what it is that should make him look to these desolate... parts where men and wealth are scanty I do not know.>
'Then my heart failed for a moment; for the Chief of the Nine was of old the greatest of all the wizards of Men, and I have no ' power to withstand the Nine Riders when he leads them.
'"Who sent you?" I asked. "It was Saruman the [Grey >] White,"(26) he said, [added in pencil,
Council. Radagast the Grey [in pencil > Brown] is of course a master of shapes and changes of hue,(27) and has much lore of beast, bird, and herb; but Saruman has long studied the works of the Enemy to defeat him, and the lore of rings was his especial knowledge. The last of the 19 rings he had....(28)
' "I will go to Saruman," I said. "Then you must go now," said Radagast; "for the time is very short, and even if you set out this hour you will hardly come to him before the Nine cross the Seven Rivers.(29) I myself shall take my horse and ride away now, since my errand is at an end." And with that he mounted and rode off without another word - and that seemed to me very strange. [Marginal addition: and would have ridden off there and then. "Stay a moment, Radagast," I said. "We need help of many kinds. Send out messages to all the birds and beasts that are your friends. Tell them to bring news to Saruman and Gandalf. Let any message go to Orthanc."](30) But I could not follow him. I had ridden far and Galeroc (31) was weary. I stayed the night in Bree and departed at dawn - and if I ever see the [?innkeeper] again there will be no Butter left in Butterbur. I will melt the fat from him....(32) But bless him, he is a worthy man and seems to have shown a stout heart. I shall probably relent. However, being in great need I trusted him to send the message to Frodo, and went off at dawn; and I came at last to the dwelling of Saruman the White. And that is in Isengard, in the north of the Black Mountains in the South.(33) There there is a circle of sheer-sided hills that enclose a vale, and in the midst of the vale is a tower of stone that is called, Orthanc. I came to the great gate in the wall of rock and they said that Saruman expected me,(34) and I rode in, and the gate closed behind, and a sudden fear came on me.
'Saruman was there but he had changed. He wore a ring on his finger. "So you have come, Gandalf," he said to me, and I seemed to see a deadly laughter in his eyes. "Yes, I have come for your aid, Saruman the White." But that title seemed to fill him with anger. "For aid?" he said coldly. "It is seldom heard that Gandalf the Grey sought for aid, one so cunning and so wise, wandering about the lands, and concerning himself in every business, be it his own or others".'
'"But now matters are afoot," I said, "that need all our strengths [?in union]. The Chief of the Nine is guised as a Rider in Black and his companions likewise. This Radagast told me." '"Radagast the Brown," he said, and shook with laughter. "Radagast the Simple, Radagast the Fool. [Added in pencil: Yet he had just the wits to play the part that I set him.] He must have played his part well nonetheless. For here you are [added in pencil: and that is the purpose of the message]. And, Gandalf the Grey, here you will stay. For I am Saruman: Saruman the Wise, Saruman of many colours. For white cloth may be dyed, and the white page overwritten, and the white light broken." [Pencilled in margin without direction for insertion: And I looked then and saw that his robes were not white as had been his custom, but were of many hues, and with every movement he changed hue.]
' "In which case it is no longer white," I said. "For white may be blended of many colours, but many colours are not white." "You need not speak to me as to one of the fools that you make your friends," he said. "I have not brought you here to be instructed, but to give you a choice. A new power has arisen. Against it there is no hope. With it there is such hope as we never had before. The power is going to win. [Added in margin without direction for insertion: We fight against it in vain - and in any case foolishly; for we have looked always at it from the outside with hatred, and have not considered what are its further purposes. We have seen only the things done, often under necessity, or caused by resistance and foolish rebellion.] I shall grow as it grows, until all things are ours. In the end, I - or toe, if you will join me - may in the end come to control that Power. Indeed why not? Could not we by this means accom- plish all, and more than all, that we have striven for before with the help of the weak Men and fugitive Elves?"
' "Be brief!" I said. "Name your choice! It is this, is it not? To submit as you have to Sauron [alternative reading: To submit to you and to Sauron], or what?"
' "To stay here till the end," said he.
' "Till what end?"
' "Till the Lord has time to consider what fate for you would give him most pleasure."
'They took me,' said Gandalf, 'and placed me on the pinnacle of Orthanc, in the place where Saruman of old was wont to watch the stars. There is no descent but by a narrow stair. And the vale that was once fair was filled with wolves and orcs, for Saruman was there mustering a great force for the service of his new master.(35) I had no chance of escape, and my days were bitter. For I had but little room in which to walk to and fro, and brood on the coming of the Riders to the North. But there was always a hope that Frodo had set forth as I had bidden, and would reach Rivendell ere the inescapable pursuit began. But both my fear and my hope were cheated. For I made the mistake that others have made. I did not yet understand that in the Shire the power of Sauron would halt and fumble, and the hunt be at a loss. And my hope was founded on an innkeeper: one of the best in the world, but not made to be a tool in high matters.' 'Who sent the eagles?' said Frodo eagerly, for suddenly the strange dream that he had had came back to him.
Gandalf looked at him in surprise. 'I thought you asked what had happened to me,' he said. 'But you seem to know, and don't need... the telling of my tale...'
'Your words have recalled a dream,' said Frodo, 'that I thought only a dream and had forgotten.'
'Well, said Gandalf, your dream was true.(36) Gandalf was caught like a fly in a spider's web; yet he is an old fly that has known many spiders. I was not content to send a message only to the Shire. At first I feared, as Saruman wished that I should, that Radagast had also fallen. But it is not so: he trusted Saruman, who had not revealed his purposes to him. And the very fact that Saruman had so successfully deceived Radagast proved the undoing of his scheme. For Radagast did as I bid.(37) And the Eagles of the Misty Mountains kept watch and they saw the mustering of orcs, and got news of the escape of Gollum, and they sent word to Orthanc of this to me. And so it was when the moon was still young on a night of autumn that Gwaewar the Windlord (38) chief of the eagles came to me; and I spoke to him and he bore me away before Saruman was aware, and the orcs and wolves that he released found me not.
' "How far can you bear me?" said I to Gwaewar.
' "Many leagues," he said; "but not to the ends of the earth. Had I known that you wished to fly I would have brought helpers. I was sent as the swiftest and as a bearer of [?tidings]." ' "Then I must have a steed," I said, "and a steed of surpassing swiftness; for I have never had such a need."
' "Then I will take you to Rohan," he said, "for that is not far off. For in Rohan [added: the? Riddermark] the Rohiroth (39) the horse-masters dwell still, and there are no horses like the horses of that land."
' "But are they yet to be trusted?" "They pay tribute... yearly in horses to Mordor," said Gwaewar, "but they are not yet under the yoke;(40) yet their doom is not far off, if Saruman is fallen."
'I reached Rohan ere dawn
, and there I got a horse the like of which I have never seen.'
'He is indeed a fine steed,' said [Elrond >] Aragorn; 'and it grieves me that Sauron should have such tribute. For in the steeds of Rohan there is a strain that ... descended from the Elder Days.'
'One at least is saved,' said Gandalf; 'for there I got my grey horse, and I name him Greyfax. Not even the Chief of the Nine could go with such tireless speed; and by day his coat glistens like silver, and at night it is as unseen as a shadow. So swift was my going from Rohan that 1 reached the Shire within a week of the appointed day, and I came to his (41) home and found he was gone..I found in fact the Sackville-Bagginses there and was [?ordered off]. I went to the Gaffer's and he was hard to comfort; but I had need of comfort myself, for amidst his confused talk I gathered that the Riders had come even as you left; and I rode to Buckland and all was in uproar; but I found Crickhollow broken and empty, and on the threshold I picked up a cloak that was Frodo's.
'That was my worst moment. I rode then on the trail of the Black Riders like the wind, and I came behind them as they rode through Bree. They threw down the gates... and passed by like a wind. The Breelanders I guess are quaking still, and expect the end of the world. This was on the night after you had left, I now know. Next day I rode on, and in two days I reached Weathertop, and there I found two of the Enemy already, but they drew off before my [?wrath]. But that night ... gathered, and I was besieged on the top, but I perceived they had not got you.
The text ends with the words: 'Fled at sunrise'. - With only slight prevision (as it appears), a massive new element and dimension had entered the history. There were of course certain essential features lacking. Most important, Saruman was not acting independently of the Dark Tower (see note 35); and while Gandalf's great ride from Rohan on 'Greyfax' now enters, there is no suggestion that the relations of Rohan with Mordor will have any especial significance in the story (though those relations are now differently conceived: see note 40) - and Gandalf's remark 'In Rohan I found evil already at work' (FR p. 275) is absent.
The story of Hamilcar Bolger's ride with Gandalf has finally gone (see p. 75), as has that of Gandalf's visit to Tom Bombadil (see p. 111). A notable feature is the evolution of the 'colours' of the wizards, Gandalf, Saruman, and Radagast, which came to the final form in the course of the writing of this draft. Saruman is at first 'the Grey',(42) becoming at once 'the White', and Radagast immediately takes on the epithet 'Grey' (p. 132). But Gandalf then becomes 'the Grey',(43) and Saruman calls Radagast 'the Brown' in the text as written on p. 133.
NOTES.
1. This text has been put together from pages used in a subsequent version that went to Marquette University and others that were left behind. Many changes were made to it afterwards, but in the citations that I make from it here I take account only of those that were made in ink and at or very near to the time of composition.
2. Elrond still says of Boromir that he 'brings tidings that must be considered', but as in the original version (VI.409) we are again not told what they were, and no explanation is given of his journey to Rivendell. Subsequently in this version, however, Gandalf says that Boromir 'is resolved to return as soon as he can to his own land, to the siege and war that he has told of.
3. That my father had the earlier text before him is shown by the recurrence here of the casual error (which I did not observe in Vol. VI) 'Elwing daughter of Luthien': Elwing was the daughter of Dior, son of Luthien.
4. In the preceding sentence, 'In time the Lord of the Ring would find out its hiding-place', just as in the first version (VI.402 and note 25) Lord of the Rings was first written but changed at once to Lord of the Ring.
5. ‘Thráin father of Thrór’ (VI.403 and note 28), contradicting The Hobbit, was repeated. See pp. 159 - 60.
6. See note 2.
7. That Bilbo gave Frodo Sting and his mailcoat appears in the original outline for 'The Council of Elrond', VI.397. Bilbo does not here, as he does in FR, produce the pieces of Frodo's sword, nor indeed refer to the fact of its having been broken, though the story of its being broken at the Ford of Bruinen goes back to the beginning (VI.197). - The coat of mail (which Bilbo still calls his 'elf-mail') is described as 'studded with pale pearls' ('white gems', FR); cf. the original text of The Hobbit, before it was changed to introduce 'mithril': 'It was of silvered steel, and ornamented with pearls' (VI.465, note 35).
8. See p. 287 note 3.
9. The illegible word probably begins with F and might be 'Fire'.
10. It is possible that the Sword that was Broken actually emerged from the verse 'All that is gold does not glitter': on this view, in the earliest form of the verse in which the Broken Sword is referred to (p. 80, note 18) the words a king may yet be without crown, A blade that was broken be brandished were no more than a further exemplification of the general moral.
11. Gollum's escape, though only now emerging, had been a neces- sity of the story ever since Gandalf told Bingo (VI.265) that 'the Wood-elves have him in prison', if Gollum was to reappear at the end, as had long been foreseen (see VI.380 - 1).
12. Afterwards it is Treebeard who says this (The Two Towers III.4, p. 75): 'There is something very big going on, that I can see, and what it is maybe I shall learn in good time, or in bad time.'
13. Cf. the outline given on p. 116: 'My [i.e. Aragorn's] fathers were driven out of your city when Sauron raised a rebellion', and 'There Tarkil's sires had been King'.
14. For previous uses of this dialogue in other contexts see pp. 50 and 105 note 3.
15. The illegible word is an abbreviation, perhaps 'bet.', which my father used elsewhere for 'between'; if this is what it is, he may have intended (the manuscript is very hasty) to write 'between the Black Mountains and the Sea'. Harfalas is not named here on the First Map (p. 309, map III).
16. Cf. p. 119: 'Of their kings [i.e. of the Men of Westernesse] Elendil was the chief.
17. Text (III), the revised ending to The Fall of Numenor, says that
'the sea covered all that was left ... even up to the feet of Eredlindon' (pp. 122 - 3), but this can be accommodated to the map by supposing that it refers to the northern extent of the range (where it bent North-east).
18. In the Introduction to Unfinished Tales (p. 14) I said that 'though the fact is nowhere referred to it is clear that Himring's top rose above the waters that covered drowned Beleriand. Some way to the west of it was a larger island named Tol Fuin, which must be the highest part of Taur-nu-Fuin.' When I wrote that I did not know of the existence of this text. - The later form Himring had appeared already in the second text of the Lhammas (V.177, 189), and in the Quenta Silmarillion (V.263, 268); Himling here and on the map are surprising, but can have no significance for dating.
19. This is Old Norse forn 'ancient'.
20. Cf. Of the Rings of Power, in The Silmarillion p. 294: 'All living things were divided in that day, and some of every kind, even of beasts and birds, were found in either host, save the Elves only. They alone were undivided and followed Gil-galad.'
21. In this text there is no reference to the death of Anarion. It is made clear that he did not go to the War of the Last Alliance.
22. Contrast FR: 'But if the passages of the River should be won, what then?' In FR (pp. 258 - 9) Boromir describes the assault on Osgiliath: 'A power was there that we have not felt before. Some said that it could be seen, like a great black horseman, a dark shadow under the moon'; but 'still we fight on, holding all the west shores of Anduin'. An addition to the present text may belong to this time or later: 'Nine horsemen in black led the host of Minas Morgol that day and we could not withstand them.' See p. 151.
23. Here the 'third version' draft takes up again after the missing page (p. 120).
24. Cf. the next version (p. 149): ' "It has much to do with it," said Gandalf, "and if Elrond is willing I will give my account now." '
25. Cf. The Hobbit, Chapter VII 'Queer Lodgings': ' "I am a wizard," continued Gandalf. "I have heard of you,
if you have not heard of me; but perhaps you have heard of my good cousin Radagast who lives near the Southern borders of Mirkwood?" ' - On Radagast's appearance in the story see p. 76 and note 15.
26. The change of Grey to White followed the same change in the next sentence, which was made in the act of writing; a little further on Saruman the White was written thus from the first.
27. Can this have been suggested by Beorn's acquaintance with Radagast? (see note 25).
28. I cannot make out the two concluding words, though the first might be 'gathered'. But whatever the words are, the meaning is clearly that Saruman had acquired the last of the Rings - and wore it on his finger, as appears subsequently in this text (cf. FR p. 271). - In the last text of 'Ancient History' that has been given Gandalf refers to the discussion of the Rings at the White Council, and to those who 'go in for such things'; see p. 22.
29. The Seven Rivers: see pp. 310 - 12.
30. It is seen subsequently (see note 37) that this addition was made while the writing of this text was in progress; and it is seen from the addition that Radagast first entered the story as the means by which Gandalf was lured to Saruman's dwelling. The abrupt haste of Radagast's departure seemed to Gandalf 'very strange', and it is possible that when first drafting the story my father supposed that Radagast's part was not simply that of innocent emissary: later, at Isengard, Saruman says (p. 133) 'He must have played his part well nonetheless'. This is not in FR. When the addition here was made, Radagast became also the means by which the Eagles knew where to find Gandalf (see p. 130); and this development necessarily disposed of the idea that Radagast had been corrupted - but Gandalf's fear that he had been remains: 'At first I feared, as Saruman wished that I should, that Radagast had also fallen' (p. 134; this is preserved in FR, p. 274). - This is the first appearance of the name Orthanc, though its first actual use in the narrative is probably in the description of Isengard that immediately follows.