Now they issued from the Loathly Tower. Evening was falling: away in the West over the valley of the Anduin there was some light. Far away loomed the Black Mountains and the tower of Minas Tirith, had they known. But in the East the sky was dark, with black and lowering clouds that seemed almost to rest upon the land. An uneasy twilight lay in the shadowy streets. Shrill cries came as it were from underground, strange shapes flitted by or peered out of alley[s] and holes in the [?gaping] houses; there were [??dispirited] voices and faint echoes of monotonous and unhappy song. All the carven faces leered, and their eyes glowed with a fire at great depth.
The hobbits shuddered as they hurried on. Feet seemed to follow them, and they turned many corners, but they never threw them off. Rustling and pattering on the stones they came doggedly after them.
They came to the gates. The main gates were closed; but a small door was still open. Sentinels stood on either side, and at the opening stood an armed warder, gazing out into the gathering dusk. The Orcs were waiting for the messenger from Baraddur.
'Stay here,' whispered Frodo, drawing Sam into a shadow of a pillar just before the gate. 'While I wear the Ring I can understand much of their speech, or of the thought behind it - I don't know which. If I cry out come at a run, and get through the door if you can.'
[The following was struck out probably as soon as written: He went forward. The guard at the open door was grumbling. 'One would have thought we had caught no more than a stray elf,' he said. 'Is [? the] Ringbearer [written above: Thief] of no matter to them at the Dark Tower now? One would have thought He would have sent a Rider at least. Not even the war that is now set afoot can surely have lessened the worth of the One Treasure.'
Suddenly Frodo stabbed with Sting. The warder fell. But Frodo leant against the door lest a guard should thrust it to and called out. The sentinels sprang up. Sam came running, but at first they took him for a goblin running up to help. He smote one down before they were aware of his enmity and sprang through the door]
'Nay,' said Sam, 'that won't do. If we have a fight at the gate it won't be much use getting through. We'll have the whole wasps' nest a-buzzing after us before we have gone many yards: and they know these nasty mountains as well as I mind me of Bagend. Swagger is the only hope, Mr. Frodo, begging your pardon.'
'Very well, my good Sam,' said Frodo, 'try swagger.'
Feeling as little like 'swagger' as ever in his life, Sam walked as unconcernedly as he could manage into the shadow of the dark gateway. The sentinels on either side looked at him and did not move. He came beside the warder and looked out. The warder started and looked at him angrily.
Frodo came behind warily. He saw the orc's hand go to the hilt of his scimitar. 'Who are you and who do you think you are pushing,' said he. 'Am I in charge of the gate or not?' Sam tried the trick again. He snarled angrily and stepped out of the gate. But the trick did not work so well a second time. The warder sprang after him and grabbed at his cloak. 'Closing time is [? by read past by?] half an hour,' he said, 'and you know that. No one but the Lord's messengers are allowed in or out, and you know that well enough. If I have any more trouble I shall report you to the Captain [struck out: of Morgul].' Sam prepared to give battle. He turned to face the warder gripping his hilt and swung round his shield. It was a red shield, and in the midst was painted a single black eye. The warder fell back nimbly. 'Your pardon,' he said, 'O Captain of Morgul. I did not recognize you. I only did my duty as I thought.' Sam, guessing something of what had occurred, snarled again and waved his hand as if in dismissal and walked away down the path into the dusk. The warder stared after him shaking his head. He stood blocking the door so that Frodo could not pass.
Sam had now disappeared on the downward track, and still Frodo waited hoping for a chance to slip out without a fight, before the door was closed. Suddenly there was a loud boom. Dong Dong Dong. A big bell was ringing in the Loathly Tower: the alarm was sounded. Frodo heard distant cries. Soon he could hear voices calling: 'Close the gates. Ear the door. Watch the walls. The Bearer has escaped from the Tower.'
The warder seized the door and began to close it. Feet came running. Frodo took the only chance. Stooping he seized the warder's legs and threw him down and sprang out. As he ran he heard loud shouts and oaths. 'But the Captain is lying dead and stripped in the Tower, I tell you,' he heard. 'Take that for a fool. You have let the bearer escape. Take that for a fool.' There was a blow and a cry. Orcs came pouring out of the gate, and still the bell tolled.
Suddenly dark overhead a black shape appeared flying low out of the east: a great bird it seemed, like an eagle or more like a vulture. The orcs halted chattering shrilly: but Frodo did not wait. He guessed that some urgent message concerning himself had come from the Dark Tower.
Here the text in ink ends, but is followed by a few pencilled notes:
Finds Sam
They escape - and as they are actually making towards Mordor this delays hunt which goes towards the Anduin North and West.
End of Chapter XXV.
Gorgoroth.
How Frodo came to the Fiery Mountain. See sketch (b) (c).
This last is a reference to the pages of the previous Plot, in this book pp. 208 - 9, from 'The Gap of Gorgoroth not far from Fire Mountain' to 'hurls himself and Gollum into the gulf?'
All this story of the escape from Minas Morgul was developed from the brief words of the earlier Plot (p. 209):
Sam ... passes into Morgol and finds Frodo. Frodo feels hatred of Sam and sees him as an orc. But suddenly the orc speaks and holds out Ring and says: Take it. Then Frodo sees it is Sam. They creep out.... Sam dresses up like an orc.
There can be no doubt whatsoever that the text just given, beginning as an outline in the present tense and sliding almost imperceptibly into full narrative, was the actual emergence on paper of what ultimately became 'The Tower of Cirith Ungol' in The Return of the King (VI.1). It was written very fast (though surprisingly legibly), with virtually no 'correction made on grounds of suitability of phrasing, and gives an impression of uninterrupted composition, perhaps even at one sitting. Being written at this stage,(31) its relation to the ultimate form of the story in 'The Tower of Cirith Ungol' is much more remote than has been the case anywhere else, and although certain new elements (not present in the previous Plot) now enter and would be preserved - notably Sam's song, instrumental in his discovery of where Frodo was - the story would be radically refashioned in every point, in geogra- phy, in motives, in the structure of events, so as to become almost a new conception.
Some further development seems in fact to have taken place quite soon. Found with this text are some other papers, themselves all of the same time, but entirely distinct in appearance and mode of writing. Here the story of Frodo and Sam is roughly outlined further, and the escape from Minas Morgul is reconsidered and rewritten. I think that this further material belongs in fact to the same or much the same time as the primary text. There are various pointers to this. The suggestion found here that 'it could be Merry and Pippin that had adventure in Minas Morgul if Treebeard is cut out' shows that the fully formed narrative had not at any rate advanced beyond the Breaking of the Fellowship; and the chapter is still referred to as 'XXV', which carries the same implication (i.e. my father was still assuming the chapters 'XXI - XXIV' as outlined on pp. 329 - 30 and had not yet embarked on the writing of the 'western' adventures).
The text is written fairly legibly in ink, but towards the end becomes a pencilled scribble, here and there formidably difficult to make out.
Ch. XXV.
Minas Morgul must be made more horrible. The usual 'goblin' stuff is not good enough here.
The Gate shaped like a gaping mouth with teeth and a window like an eye on each side. As Sam passes through he feels a horrible shudder.(32) There are two silent shapes sitting on either side as sentinels.
Substitute something of the following sort for p. [337].
The main outer gates were now closed. But a small door i
n the middle of one was open. (It faced south.) The tunnelled Gate-house was dark as night and the pale skylight showed up as a small patch at the end of a tunnel. As Sam and Frodo crept closer they saw or guessed the great ominous shape of the Sentinels on either side: still sitting soundless and unmoved: but from them there seemed to issue a nameless threat.
'Stay here!' whispered Frodo drawing Sam into the shadow of a wall not far from the gate. 'While I wear the Ring, I can understand much of the speech of the enemies, or of the thought behind their speech: I don't know which. I will go forward, and try and find out something. If I call out, come at a run: and get through the door if you can.'
'Nay!' said Sam, 'that won't do. If we have a fight at the gate, we might as well or better stay inside. We'd have the whole wasps' nest, orcs and bogeys and all, buzzing after us, before we'd gone a dozen yards: and they know these horrible mountains as well as I mind me of Bag-End. Swagger is the only hope, Mr. Frodo, begging your pardon.'
'Very well, my good Sam,' said Frodo, 'try swagger!'
Feeling as little like 'swagger' as ever in his life, Sam walked forward, as bold and unconcerned as he could manage to look, all shaking at the knees as he was, and with a queer tightening of his breath. Each step forward became more difficult. It was as if some will denying the passage was drawn like invisible ropes across his path. He felt the pressure of unseen eyes. It seemed an age before he passed under the gloom of the gate's arch, and he felt tired as if he had been swimming against a strong tide. The Sentinels sat there: dark and still. They did not move their clawlike hands laid on their knees, they did not move their shrouded heads [struck out: staring stiffly] in which no faces could be seen; but Sam felt a sudden prickle in his skin, he sensed that they were alive and suddenly alert. As he came between them he seemed to shrink [and] shrivel, naked as an insect crawling to its hole under the eyes of gigantic birds. He came to the open door: just outside the path ran to a flight of stairs leading to the downward road. Only one step and he would be out - but he could not pass: it was as if the air before him had become stiff. He had to summon up his strength and his will. Like lead he lifted his foot and forced it slowly bit by bit over the threshold, on either side he felt the darkness leer and grin at him. Slowly he pressed his foot down, down. It touched the step outside: and then something seemed to snap. He stood fixed. He thought he heard a cry, but whether just beside him, or far away in some remote watchful tower he could not tell. There was a sudden clash of iron. An Orc ran out from the guard-room.
Frodo creeping warily behind was now also under the archway. He heard the guard cry out in harsh tones. 'Ho there: who are you, and what do you think you are doing?' He laid hold of Sam's cloak. Sam snarled angrily, but the trick did not work so well a second time. The guard held him. 'Closing-time is past, half an hour ago,' he growled. 'No one but the Lord's messengers are allowed in or out, and you know that. The door awaits the bringer of word from Baraddur, but it is not for any other.'
Of all this Sam understood only that he was forbidden to pass. He could not move forward: so he stepped suddenly back stepping on the feet of the Orc behind. Frodo saw the guard's hand go to the hilt of his scimitar. 'Hey, who are you stamping on?' said he. Sam prepared for battle. He turned, etc. as before.
[Struck out: An alternative would be to make the gate impassable. The alarm is sounded. The City is aroused. The Vulture (Black Rider) arrives in the main square. Frodo at once , knows that Ring is useless. He feels almost discovered. Messenger says Ring is still in the town: he feels it.]
Alternative account.
Make light fade in the window as Sam and Frodo talk in the Loathly Tower. They try the trick of getting an orc to open the door as twilight deepens. No dressing up. They creep out into the town. Something warns Frodo not to use the Ring. The elf-hoods prove better in the City of Sorcery than the Ring - the two hobbits (aided by some grace of Galadriel that went with the garments) pass along the streets like mist. The gate is closed - the sentinels described: three a side.(33)
The walls are high and if it were possible to get onto them unseen - it is not: the few ascents are guarded - they could not get down. They are trapped.
A cry from a watch tower. The waning moon rises in East. A dark shape flying out of the East, a black speck against clouds. Vulture bearing a Ringwraith settles in main square. The Ringwraith has come to take Frodo back to the Dark Tower. At that moment boom, the alarm is sounded from Loathly Tower. Ringwraith says Ring has not left City: he feels it. Hunt in town. Hairbreadth escape of hobbits. In spite of the Ringwraith a host of orcs assemble to scour mountains (? Frodo and Sam trap two orcs in an alley and take their cloaks and gear. ?) Pass out in rear of the company. Describe the reluctant feeling, and moveless sentinels. Even as they pass the sentinels stir: and give a fell, horrible, far-off cry. The moon is suddenly clouded. A fierce cold wind from East. Rain? The hobbits fling themselves flat among the rocks. Orcs pass over them. Hunt misses them because they go towards Mordor. The hunt goes West and North.
Now go on to describe the journey to Fiery Mountain. Footsteps come after them. Gollum has picked up trail.
Frodo and Sam journey by night down the slopes of Duath out into the dreadful waste of Gorgoroth.(34)
[The grey cloaks of Lothlorien must be made more magical and efficacious. 'Are these garments magical?' asks Frodo. 'We do not know what you mean by magical,' said they. 'They have virtues: for they are elvish.' They were green and grey: their property is to blend perfectly with all natural surroundings: leaves, boughs, grass, water, stone. Unless a full light of sun was on them, and the wearer was moving or set against the sky, they were not invisible, but unnoticeable.](35)
Far away they saw the underside of the Mountains stained red with the glow of Amarthon [written above: Dolamarth]: Mount Doom: the Mountain of Fire.(36) There is a constant rumble of thunder. Frodo feels the Eye. They come down a long ravine opening onto Gorgoroth beyond the south-east end of Kirith Ungol: it is end of road from Barad-dur to Morgul.(37) Great hideous cavern (38) pillars. They peer [?out?about] in the grey day over Gorgoroth. Mount Doom is smoking and burning to left. Black cloud lies over Baraddur. Millions of birds - [?led by vultures]: plain seems crawling with insects - a great host assembled - all sweeping out towards Kirith. By evening all plain is silent and empty. Cinders fall on plain. Moon rises late. Very dark. They begin the perilous crossing. Rustle of following feet. Journey all night.
Distances are rather too large - it would be eased if Orcs took Frodo to [?East] Guard Tower of R... - Loath and Grim [written above: Fell and Dire]. They could then see easier the host and would not have to cross Kirith Ungol.(39)
[Struck out: It could be Merry and Pippin that had adventure in Minas Morgul if Treebeard is cut out.] (40)
From Dire-castle Gorgos (and Nargos) it would be only 70 miles. They could creep round edge of Eredlithui.(41)
Sam must fall out somehow. Stumble and break leg: thinks it is a crack in ground - really Gollum. [?Makes ?Make] Frodo go on alone.
Frodo toils up Mount Doom. Earth quakes, the ground is hot. There is a narrow path winding up. Three fissures. Near summit there is Sauron's Fire-well. An opening in side of mountain leads into a chamber the floor of which is split asunder by a cleft.(42) Frodo turns and looks North-west, sees the dust of battle. Faint sound of horn. This is Windbeam the Horn of Elendil blown only in extremity.(43)
Birds circle over. Feet behind.
It is then at night before ascent of Mount Doom that Frodo sees the lone eye, like a window that does not move and yet searches in Baraddur.
Description of Baraddur seen afar.
I give here the latter part of a time-scheme of this period which covers the events of this outline plot. For the chronological structure in this scheme see p. 367 ('scheme I').
Dec.
25. Reach Tolbrandir in evening.
26. Flight of Frodo.
Jan.
3. Gollum slips away.
5. Frodo, Sam [struc
k out: and Gollum] reach Kirith Ungol.
6. Frodo captured.
8. Sam rescues Frodo in [Minas Morgul >] Gorgos.
9. Sam and Frodo journey in Duath.
10. Sam and Frodo see host in Gorgoroth and lie hid. [These two entries changed to read: Jan. 9, 10, 11 Sam and Frodo journey in Eredlithui (see hosts going to war).] 12,13. Ascent of Mount Doom.
14. [?Horns)... Fall of Mordor.
15. Victory and return to Minas Tirith. [Added: Jan. 25 Reach Minas Tirith. Jan. 26 Great Feast.]
Notable points in this time-scheme are the corroboration of the statement in the text that Sam had been Ringbearer for two days (see p. 334 and note 30); the change in the place of Frodo's imprisonment from Minas Morgul to Gorgos (see p. 344 and notes 39, 41); and the mention of the great feast that followed the victory (cf. p. 212).
NOTES.
1. On the back of the first page of this outline are some rough workings for revision of The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun, which was completed in its original form in 1930. This stray page perhaps shows my father turning to it again at this time. It was ultimately published in greatly revised form, to which these workings were moving, in 1945.
2. Cf. the outline (c) for 'Farewell to Lorien', p. 269: 'Arrows from East shore as they pass down river?'
The History of Middle Earth: Volume 7 - The Treason of Isengard Page 44