The History of Middle Earth: Volume 7 - The Treason of Isengard

by J. R. R. Tolkien; Christopher Tolkien

  Once again the text was stopped short, before Frodo's gift was reached. Beneath the last words my father wrote: Elfstone Elfhelm, and then:

  'Hail, Elfstone,' she said. 'It is a fair name that merits a gift to match.'

  It was clearly at this point that 'the Elfstone' first emerged, as a green gem set in a brooch worn by Galadriel and given as a parting gift to Gimli; and it seems equally plain that my father immediately adopted it (or more accurately, re-adopted it) as the true name of Trotter. To this question I will return in a moment.

  (v)

  He now started again from Keleborn's words 'All shall be prepared for you and await you at the haven before noon tomorrow' (p. 273), and repeated what he had written of the gifts to Boromir, Merry, Pippin, and Sam, but omitting Ingold; and now Gimli's request and gift (a strand of Galadriel's hair) are told word for word as they appear in FR (pp. 392 - 3), the sole difference being that at the end, after 'and yet over you gold shall have no dominion', Galadriel said: 'Dark are the waters of Kheledzaram, yet there maybe you shall one day see a light.' The phial in which was caught the light of Earendel's star,(22) her gift to Frodo, now appears, and this passage also is almost word for word as in FR.

  It looks as if Ingold's gift was omitted inadvertently; or else my father may have briefly intended to make it the last. There are four versions describing it, the final one being a rider marked for insertion into the text at the beginning of the gift-giving.

  It has been seen that the Elfstone was at first the gift to Gimli, and that Gimli in accepting it took it also as a name; but that the moment he had set this down my father wrote: ' "Hail, Elfstone," she said. "It is a fair name that merits a gift to match" '; and this is obviously addressed to Trotter. The variant versions of the description of Galadriel's gift to the leader of the Company are developed from this; and the pages on which they stand are covered with names: Elfstone, Elfstone son of Elfhelm, Elfstan, Eledon, Aragorn, Eldakar, Eldamir, Qendemir. There is no need to cite these successive variants except in their opening sentences, until the last, which I give in full.

  (1) 'Eledon!' she said to Trotter. 'Elfstone you are named; it is a fair name, and my gift shall match it.' (She then gives him a green gem.)

  (2) 'Elfstone,' she said. 'It is a fair name...' (as in 1, except that here she unclasps the gem from her throat).

  (3) 'Here is the gift of Keleborn to the leader of the Company,' she said to Trotter...' (continuing as in the final version, 4).

  (4) (The version inserted into the text)

  'Here is the gift of Keleborn to the leader of your Company,' she said to Elfstone [> Trotter], and gave him a sheath that had been made to fit his sword. It was overlaid with a tracery of flowers and leaves wrought of silver and gold, and on it were set in runes formed of many gems the name Branding and the lineage of the sword. 'The blade that is drawn from this sheath shall not be stained or broken even in defeat,' she said. 'Elfstone is your name, Eldamir in the language of your fathers of old, and it is a fair name. I will add this gift of my own to match it.'(23) She put her hand to her throat and unclasped from a fine chain a gem that hung before her breast. It was a stone of clear green set in a band of silver. 'All growing things that you look at through this,' she said, 'you will see as they were in their youth and in their spring. It is a gift that blends joys and sorrow; yet many things that now appear loathly shall seem otherwise to you hereafter.'

  The seeming conundrum presented by the bewildering movements in the names which replaced 'Aragorn' in this phase of the work must now be confronted.

  For all the apparently contradictory changes, whereby Aragorn becomes Elfstone but Elfstone also becomes Aragorn, and Elfstone becomes Ingold but Ingold also becomes Elfstone, it is in fact perfectly clear that the first change was from Aragorn to Elfstone. This took place in the course of the writing of the original draft of the long 'Lothlorien' chapter (see p. 262 note 6) and in the fair copy (p. 236). That this is so is confirmed and explained by a note on the 'August 1940' examination script:

  NB. Since Aragorn [> Trotter] is a man and the common speech (especially of mortals) is represented by English, then he must not have an Elvish name. Change to Elfstone son of Elfhelm.

  Beside this are written other names, Elf-friend, Elfspear, Elfmere. It was now that Aragorn (or Trotter) was changed to Elfstone in earlier chapters;(24) but at this stage the name 'Elf-stone' will not have had any particular significance or association.

  That Ingold was a replacement of Elfstone is shown by its appear- ance ab initio (i.e. not as a correction of an earlier name) in the overwritten part of the original draft of the 'Lothlorien' story, where Elfstone can be read in the primary pencilled text beneath (p. 262 note 6). This change is the subject of another note written on the same paper as the first:

  Instead of Aragorn son of Kelegorn and instead of the later variant Elfstone son of Elfhelm use Ingold son of Ingrim; since Trotter is a man he should not have a Gnome-elvish name like Aragorn.(25) The Ing- element here can represent the 'West'.

  Some texts, therefore, call him Ingold from the first; and at the same time Ingold replaced (in principle) Elfstone in texts already extant at this time.

  When my father wrote the first version of the Parting Gifts passage (p. 275) the gift of Galadriel to Gimli of the green gem set in gold was totally unforeseen, as was Gimli's thereupon taking the name Elfstone to be 'a name of honour' in his kin. At that very moment a sudden new possibility and connection emerged. Trotter had been for a while Elfstone - a name chosen for linguistic reasons; that had been rejected and replaced by Ingold; but now it turned out that Elfstone was after all the right name. The Elfstone was the Lady's gift to him, not to Gimli; and in giving it to him she made a play on his name.

  The next step, therefore, and principal ' cause of the apparent confusion, was a reversion from the short-lived Ingold to Elfstone, and the chain of changes now becomes:

  Aragorn (or Trotter) > Elfstone > Ingold > Elfstone

  The further emendation of this new Elfstone to Trotter (pp. 272-3, 276) does not necessarily mean that Elfstone had been abandoned again as his real name, but rather that my father now wished to make his name Trotter for general use in the immediate narrative (thus he is Trotter throughout the fair copy manuscript of 'Farewell to Lorien', see p. 293). Ultimately Aragorn returned; and thus the circular series is completed:

  Aragorn (or Trotter) > Elfstone > Ingold > Elfstone (> Trotter) > Aragorn

  This series appears in more or less fragmentary form in the manu- scripts (cf. p. 244 note 52) for various reasons, but largely because my father carried out the corrections to the extant texts at each stage rather haphazardly. In some cases only parts of the series are found because in these cases the succession of changes was already more or less advanced; in some cases the expected change is not made because the text was rejected before the occasion for it arose (note 16). Running through and crossing this is the name Trotter, which might be changed or retained according to my father's changing view of when it should be employed.

  Afterwards, of course, when Galadriel gave Aragorn the Elfstone she conferred on him the name 'that was foretold' for him (FR p. 391); Aragorn became Elessar, the Elfstone in that hour. On the history and properties of the Elfstone or Elessar see Unfinished Tales pp. 248 ff.; cf. especially 'For it is said that those who looked through this stone saw things that were withered or burned healed again or as they were in the grace of their youth.' In FR nothing is said of the properties of the stone.

  This text (v) continues - since the gift-giving took place on the last night, in the chamber of Keleborn and Galadriel - with a further version of the debate of the Company, and the gifts next morning of elven-cloaks and food for the journey. The text of FR is further approached in many details of wording; but of Trotter's thoughts on the question of what they should do now this is said:

  Elfstone [> Trotter] was himself divided in mind. His ownplan and desire had been to go with Boromir, and with his sword help to
deliver Ondor. For he had believed that the message of the dreams was a summons, and that there in Minas Tirith he would become a great lord, and maybe would set up again the throne of Elendil's line, and defend the West against assault. But in Moria he had taken on himself Gandalf's burden...

  The remainder of the debate is now virtually as in FR (p. 385), the only difference being that the sentence 'He [Boromir] had said something like this at the Council, but then he had accepted the correction of Elrond' is here absent. The passage concerning the cloaks remains the same as in the previous draft (p. 272), except that the Elves now add that 'All who see you clad thus will know that you are friends of the Galadrim', and the words 'certainly never a dwarf are omitted. Thus there is still no mention of the detail, afterwards important, that each cloak was fastened with a leaf-shaped brooch. But the sentence previously absent (p. 271), 'But we call it lembas or waybread', now appears.

  (vi)

  For the next part of the chapter, from 'After their morning meal they said farewell to the lawn by the fountain' (FR p. 386), the form of the text changes, though the actual writing was clearly continuous with what precedes. There was first a draft in very faint pencil which went as far as the Elves' warning about the handling of the boats, and then became an outline of the further course of the narrative:

  They were arranged thus. Elfstone and Frodo and Sam in one, Boromir and Merry and Pippin in another, and in a third Legolas and Gimli ( ... dwarf become more friendly).(26) The last boat being more lightly burdened with passengers took more of the packs. They are steered and driven by broad-bladed paddles. They practise on advice of Elves and though they will only be going downstream practise going up the Silverlode.

  Thus they meet the Lord and Lady in their swan-shaped barge. Curved neck, and jewelled eyes, and half-raised wings. They take a meal on the grass and then a last farewell. Here comes in advice of Keleborn and last farewell of Galadriel.

  Frodo looks back and sees in the westering sun upon the haven a tall, slender, and sad figure with an upraised hand. Last sight of the Ring of Earth. (He never saw it again?)

  Song of Galadriel.

  On top of the pencilled draft my father wrote a new text in ink, so that virtually all - except the outline just given, which was left intact - was obliterated. He then continued this new text, which soon became very rough and petered out at Keleborn's invitation to eat with them. Since this was in turn overtaken by a further version which followed it closely so far as it went, nothing is lost by turning at once to that.

  (vii)

  This text is in soft pencil on large and now very battered sheets, but legible. The story as told in FR appears fully formed, even to much of its wording, and I shall not give it in full; there are however many interesting features of names and geography.

  With Haldir, returned from the 'northern fences' and acting as guide to the Company from Caras Galadon, his brother Orofin came also. It is said that 'Haldir brought news': ' "There are strange things happen- ing away back there," he said. "We do not know the meaning of them. But the Dimrill Dale is full of clouds of smoke and vapour..." ' (see note 11).

  The Tongue is thus described (cf. FR p. 387):

  The lawn ran out into a narrow tongue of green between bright margins: on the right and west glittered the narrower and swifter waters of the Silverlode, and on the left and east ran the broader greener waters of the Great River. On the far banks the woodlands still marched southwards as far as they could see, but beyond the Naith or Angle (as the elves called this green sward) and upon the east side of the Great River all the boughs were bare. No mallorn-trees grew there.(27)

  On 'Naith or Angle' as a name of the Tongue see note 5. This sentence was corrected, probably at once, to: 'but beyond the Tongue (Lamben the elves called this green sward)'; then the words 'Lamben the elves called this green sward' were in turn crossed out. On Elvish names of the Tongue see p. 268 and note 6.

  The passage in FR concerning the ropes and Sam's interest in rope-making is wholly absent, just as his realisation too late that he has no rope before leaving Rivendell (p. 165) and his bemoaning that he has none in Moria (p. 183) are also lacking.(28) The old text reads here:

  Three small grey boats had already been prepared for the travellers, and in these the elves stowed their goods.

  'You must take care,' they said. 'The boats are light-built, and they will be more deeply laden than they should be, when you go aboard. It would be wise if you accustomed yourselves to getting in and out here, where there is a landing-place, before you set off downstream.'

  In the first draft (vi) of this passage Trotter is here called Elfstone, and it is said that 'Trotter led them up the Silverlode'; in this second version (vii) he is Eldamir at both occurrences, replaced (at the time of writing) by Trotter. Eldamir ('Elfstone') appears in Galadriel's address to him at the time of her parting gifts (p. 276); as will be seen shortly, my father was on the point of removing the gift-giving from the evening before their departure to their final farewell on the Tongue, and this apart from any other consideration would probably explain his removing Eldamir at this point in the story.

  A curious detail in the description of the swan-boat was subsequently removed:

  Two elves, clad in white, steered it with black paddles so contrived that the blades folded back, as a swan's foot does, when they were thrust forward in the water.

  It may be that my father saw this as too much of a 'contrivance', too much a matter of ingenious carpentry. - There is no suggestion that Galadriel's song on the swan-boat, though it is referred to in the same words as in FR, was or would be reported.

  Where FR has 'There in the last end of Egladil upon the green grass' (see note 5), this earliest version had 'There in the green Angle', changed to 'There in the Tongue of Lorien'; this was a change made at the time of composition. The description of Galadriel as Frodo saw her then is almost exactly as in FR; but as my father wrote it there was included in it a notable phrase which he (then or later) struck out:

  She seemed no longer perilous or terrible, nor full of hidden power; but elven-fair she seemed beyond desire of heart. Already she appeared to him (since her refusal in the garden)(29) as by men of later days elves at times are seen: present, and yet remote, a living vision of that which has already passed far down the streams of time.

  I cite in full the text of Keleborn's advice to the Company:

  As they ate and drank, sitting upon the grass, Keleborn spoke to them again of their journey, and lifting his hand he pointed south to the woods beyond the Tongue. 'As you go down the water,' he said, 'you will find that for a while the trees march on. For of old the Forest of Lorien was far greater [added: than the small realm which we still maintain between the rivers].(30) Even yet evil comes seldom under the trees that remain [added: from ancient days]. But you will find that at length the trees will fail, and then the river will carry you through a bare and barren country / before it flows [replaced by: winding among the Border Hills before it falls down] into the sluggish region of Nindalf. The Wetwang men call it, a marshy land where the streams are tortuous and much divided: there the Entwash River flows in from the West. Beyond that are [struck out: Emyn Rhain the Border Hills and] the Nomenlands, dreary Uvanwaith that lies before the passes of Mordor. When the trees fail, you should travel only by dusk and dark and even then with watchfulness. The arrows of the orcs are bitter and fly straight. Whether you will journey on by river after the falls I do not know. But beyond the Entwash it may be that [Ingold >] Elfstone (31) and Boromir know the lands well enough to need no counsel. If you decide to go west to Minas Tirith, you will do best to leave the river where the isle of Toll-ondren stands in the stream above the falls of Rosfein and cross the Entwash above the marshes. But you will be wise not to go far up that stream, or to risk becoming entangled in the Forest of Fangorn. But that warning I need hardly give to a man of Minas Tirith.'

  'Indeed we have heard of Fangorn in Minas Tirith,' said Boromir. 'But what I have hea
rd seem to me for the most part old wives' tales, such as are told to our children. For all that lies north of Rohan seems now to us so far away that fancy can wander freely there. Of old Fangorn lay upon the borders [of the realm of Anarion >] of our realm; but it is now many lives of men since any of us visited it to prove or disprove the legends that have survived. I have not myself been there. When I was sent out as a messenger - being chosen as one hardy and used to mountain-paths, I went round by the south about the Black Mountains and up the Greyflood - or the Seventh River as we call it.(32) A long and weary journey [struck out: but not at that time yet one of great peril, other than from thirst and hunger]. Four hundred leagues I reckoned it, and it took me many months, for I lost my horses at the crossing of the Greyflood at Tharbad.(33) After that journey, and the road I have so far travelled with this Company, I do not much doubt that I shall find a way through Rohan, and Fangorn too, if need be.'

  'Then I will say no more,' said Keleborn. 'But do not wholly forget the old wives' tales! '