The account of the Riders and their horses, though rougher in expression, is very much as that in TT pp. 33-4, and the description in this original draft of the wheeling horses suddenly halting was never changed - except in the point that 'fifty lances were at rest pointing towards the strangers', where TT has 'a thicket of spears' (Legolas had counted one hundred and five Riders, p. 32).(9) - The conclusion of the primary draft, the conversation between Eomer and Aragorn in its earliest form, ran thus:
'Who are you, and what are you doing in this land?' said the rider, using the common speech of the West, in manner and tone like Boromir and the men of Minas Tirith.
[Rejected immediately: 'I am Aragorn Elessar (written above: Elfstone) son of Arathorn.](10) 'I am called Trotter. I come out of the North,' he replied, 'and with me are Legolas [added: Greenleaf] the Elf and Gimli Gloin's son the Dwarf of Dale. We are hunting orcs. They have taken captive other companions of ours.'
The rider lowered his spear-point and leaped from his horse,and standing surveyed Trotter keenly and not without wonder.
At length he spoke again. 'At first I thought you were orcs,' he said, 'but that is not so. Indeed you know little about them, if you go hunting them in this fashion. They are swift and well-armed, and there are very many, it is said. You would be likely to change from hunter to quarry, if you ever caught up with them. But there is something strange about you, Master Trotter.' He bent his clear bright eyes again upon the ranger. 'That is no name for a man that you give. And strange is your raiment - almost it seems as if you had sprung out of the grass. How did you escape our sight?'
'Give me your name, master of horses, and maybe I will give you mine, and other news,' answered Trotter.
'As for that,' said the rider, 'I am Eomer son of Eomund, Third Master of the Riddermark. Eowin the Second Master is ahead.'
'And I am Aragorn Elfstone son of Arathorn Tarkil, the heir of Isildur Elendil's son of Ondor,' said Trotter. 'There are not many among mortal men who know more of orcs. But he that lacks a horse must go on foot, and when need presses no more friends may a man take with him than he has at hand. Yet I am not unarmed.' He cast back his cloak: the elven-sheath glittered and the bright blade of Branding shone like a sudden flame as he swept it out. 'Elendil!' cried Trotter. 'See the sword that was broken and is now remade. As for our raiment, we have passed through Lothlorien,' he said, 'and the favour of the Lady of the Galadrim goes with us. Yet great is our need, as is the need of all the enemies of Sauron in these days. Whom do you serve? Will you not help us? But choose swiftly: both our hunts are delayed.'
'I serve the Father and Master of the Riddermark,' said Eomer. 'There is trouble upon all our borders, and even now within them. Fear which was once a stranger walks among us. Yet we do not serve Sauron. Tribute he seeks to lay on us. But we - we desire only to be free, and to serve no foreign lord. Guests we will welcome, but the unbidden robber will find us swift and hard. Tell me [?briefly] what brings you here.' Then Trotter in few words told him of the assault on Calenbel and the fall of Boromir. Dismay was plain to see on Eomer's face and many of his men at that news. It seemed that between Rohan and Ondor there was great friendship. Wonder too was in the eyes of the riders when they learned that Aragorn and his two companions had come all the way from Tolbrandir since the evening of the third day back on foot.
'It seems that the name of Trotter was not so ill given,' said Eomer. 'That you speak the truth, if not all the truth, is plain. The men of Rohan speak no lies, but they are not easily deceived. But enough - there is now more need of speed than before. We were hastening only to aid of Eowin, since news came back that the orc-host was large and outnumbered the pursuers, but twenty-five that we first sent. But if there are captives to rescue we must ride faster. There is one spare horse that you can have, Aragorn. The others must make shift to ride behind my two esquires.'
Aragorn leapt upon the back of the great grey horse that was given to him.
Here the primary draft A ends, and as my father broke off he noted:
This complicates things. Trotter etc. should meet Eomer returning from battle north of the Downs near forest.... and Eomer should [?deny] any captives.
Trotter learns war has broken out with Saruman [?even] since Gandalf s escape.(11)
From 'Aragorn and his two companions had come all the way from Tolbrandir since the evening of the third day back' the chronology at this stage can be deduced:
Day 1. Death of Boromir. Leave Calenbel; night in Sarn Gebir.
Day 2. First day in plains of Rohan.
Day 3. Second day in plains of Rohan; reach downs in evening.
Day 4. In morning go on to northern end of downs; encounter with Riders.
Despite the radical alteration in the story that now entered (the Riders were returning from battle with the Orcs, not on their way to it) this chronology was retained for a long time.
We come now to the second version 'B'. This text was much worked on subsequently, but I mostly cite it as it was first written, unless a change seems to have been immediate. It was now that my father began to use 'Aragorn' again in place of 'Trotter' as the ordinary name in narrative, though at first he still now and then wrote 'Trotter' out of habit before changing it immediately to 'Aragorn'.
At the point where in TT 'The Departure of Boromir' ends and 'The Riders of Rohan' begins the text reads thus:
'We have no time now for wariness,' said Aragorn. 'Dusk will soon be about us. We must trust to the shadows and our cloaks, and hope for a change of luck.' He hastened forward, hardly pausing in his stride to scan the trail; for it needed little of his skill to find.
'It is well that the orcs do not walk with the care of their captives,' said Legolas, as he leaped lightly behind. 'At least such an enemy is easy to follow. No other folk make such a trampling. Why do they slash and beat down all the growing things as they pass? Does it please them to break plants and saplings that are not even in their way?'
'It seems so,' answered [Trotter >] Aragorn; 'but they go with a great speed for all that. And they do not tire.'
In both we may prove their equals, said Gimli. But on foot we cannot hope to overtake their start, unless they are hindered.'
'I know it,' said Aragorn; 'yet follow we must, as best we can. And may be that better fortune awaits us if we come down into Rohan. But I do not know what has happened in that land in late years, nor of what mind the Horse-Masters may now be between the traitor Saruman and the threat of Sauron. They have long been friends with the people of Ondor and the lords of Minas Tirith, though they are not akin to them. After the fall of Isildur they came out of the North beyond Mirkwood, and their kinship is rather with the Brandings, the Men of Dale, and with the Beornings of the woods, among whom still may be seen many Men, tall and fair, like the Riders of Rohan. At the least they will not love the Orcs or aid them willingly.'(12)
Dusk deepened. Mist lay behind them among the trees below...
Here in TT the chapter 'The Riders of Rohan' begins, and this earliest extant text is already very close to it in the story of the night spent scrambling on the ridges and in the gullies of Sern-gebir (as the name is written at this point) and the discovery of the slain Orcs. The Rohirrim are still the Rohiroth, Gondor is Ondor, and the White Mountains are the Black Mountains (described in precisely the same words as in TT p. 24, and as there distant 'thirty leagues or more').
Aragorn's verse took this form:
(Aragorn sings a stave)
Ondor! Ondor! Between the Mountains and the Sea
Wind blows, moon rides, and the light upon the Silver Tree
Falls like rain there in gardens of the King of old.
O white walls, towers fair, and many-footed throne of gold!
O Ondor, Ondor! Shall Men behold the Silver Tree
Or West Wind blow again between the Mountain[s] and the Sea?
It can be made out from the erased primary text A that this verse was not present, but only Aragorn's words that precede it. In th
is earliest form many-footed throne of gold was changed, probably very soon, to winged crown and throne of gold as in TT. These are the first references to the Winged Crown and the White Tree of Gondor.(13)
Then follows (as originally written):
The ridge fell steeply before their feet: twenty fathoms or more it stood above the wide shelf below. Then came the edge of a sheer cliff: the East Wall of Rohan. So ended Sarn Gebir, and the green fields of the Horsemasters rolled against its feeg like a grassy sea. Out of the high land fell many freshets and threadlike waterfalls, springing down to feed the wandering Entwash, and carving the grey rock of the escarpment into countless crannies and narrow clefts. For a breathing space the, three companions stood, rejoicing in the passing of night, ' feeling the first warmth of the mounting sun pierce the chill of their limbs.
'Now let us go!' said Aragorn, drawing his eyes of longing away from the south, and looking out west and north to the way that he must go.
'See!' cried Legolas, pointing to the pale sky above the blur where the Forest of Fangorn lay far across the plains. 'See! The eagle is come again. Look! He is high, but he is coming swiftly down. Down he comes! Look!'
'Not even my eyes can see him, my good Legolas,' said Aragorn. 'He must be away upon the very confines of the forest.
But I can see something nearer at hand and more urgent...'
On previous references to the descending eagle see p. 385. Subsequently my father pencilled in against this passage:
Eagle should be flying from Sarn Gebir, bearing Gandalf from Tolbrandir where he resisted the Eye and saved Frodo? If so substitute the following:
'Look!' said Legolas, pointing up in the pale sky above them. 'There is the eagle again. He is very high. He seems to be flying from Sarn Gebir now back northward. He is going back northward. Look! '
'No, not even my eyes can see him, my good Legolas,' said Aragorn. 'He must be far aloft indeed. I wonder what is his errand, if he is the same bird that we have seen before. But look' I can see something'
This is virtually the text of TT (p. 25); and it is curious to see what its meaning was when it was first written - that Gandalf was passing high above their heads. The eagle was flying to Fangorn (and therefore north-west rather than north), whereas in TT Gandalf explains later to Legolas (pp. 98 - 9) that he had sent the eagle, Gwaihir the Windlord, 'to watch the River and gather tidings: Gwaihir had told him of the captivity of Merry and Pippin.(14) Against the suggestion here that the eagle was carrying Gandalf from Tol Brandir 'where he resisted the Eye and saved Frodo' my father wrote w o in large letters; cf. TT p. 99: 'I sat in a high place, and I strove with the Dark Tower; and the Shadow passed.' Nonetheless he preserved the new text.
In TT (pp. 25 - 6) the three companions followed the Orc-trail north along the escarpment to the ravine where a path descended like a stair, and followed the trail down into the plain. In the present text the story is different:
...a rough path descended like a broad steep stair into the plain. At the top of the ravine Aragorn stopped. There was a shallow pool like a great basin, over the worn lip of which the water spilled: lying at the edge of the basin something glistening caught his eye. He lifted it out and held it up in the light. It looked like the new-opened leaf of a beech-tree, fair and untimely in the winter morning.
'The brooch of an elven-cloak!' cried Legolas and Gimli together, and each with his hand felt for the clasp at his own throat; but none of their brooches were missing.
'Not lightly do the leaves of Lorien fall,' said Aragorn solemnly. 'This clasp did not betray its owner, nor stray by chance. It was cast away: maybe to mark the point where the captors turned from the hills.'
'It may have been stolen by an orc and dropped,' said Gimli.
'True enough,' said Legolas, 'but even so it tells us that one at least of our Company was carried off as Boromir said.'
'It may tell no more than that one of our Company was plundered,' answered Gimli.
Aragorn turned the brooch over. The underside of the leaf Was of silver. 'It is freshly marked,' he said. 'With some pin or Sharp point it has been scored.(15) See! A hand has scratched on it .'
The others looked at the faint letters eagerly. 'They were both alive then so far, said Gimli. That is heartening. We do not pursue in vain. And one at least had a hand free: that is strange and perhaps hopeful.'
'But the Ringbearer was not here,' said Aragorn. 'At least so we may guess. If I have learned anything of these strange hobbits, I would swear that otherwise either Merry or Pippin would have put F first, and F alone if time allowed no more. But the choice is made. We cannot turn back.'
The three companions climbed down the ravine. At its foot they came with a strange suddenness upon the grass of Rohan.
I think that it was here, arising out of this moment in the narrative, that the leaf-brooches of Lorien were conceived; they were then written into the fair copy manuscript of 'Farewell to Lorien' (p. 285). But it is strange that Aragorn should speak as though the brooch was at last a clear if not altogether final evidence that Frodo was not a captive of the Orcs, for in drafting for 'The Departure of Boromir' (p. 386) he had said: 'One thing at least is clear. Frodo is no longer on this side of the River. Only he could or would have taken the boat'; and that he should feel that this evidence called for some reinforcement of the decision to pursue the Orcs. - The postponement of the discovery of Pippin's brooch to its place in TT (p. 26) was introduced not long afterwards in a rider; see p. 408.
The entire account in TT from the debate at nightfall of the first day in the plains of Rohan (27 February: the second day of the chase) to their setting off again on the following morning (pp. 27 - 9) is lacking here. The text reads thus:
... No longer could any sight of them be seen in the level plains. When night was already far advanced the hunters rested for a while, somewhat less than three hours. Then again they went on, all the next day with scarcely a pause. Often they thanked the folk of Lorien for the gift of lembas; for they could eat and find new strength even as they ran.
As the third day [i.e. of the chase] wore on they came to long treeless slopes, where the ground was harder and drier and the grass shorter: the land rose, now sinking now swelling up,, towards a line of low, smooth downs ahead. To their left the river Entwash wound, a silver thread in the green floor. The dwellings of the Rohiroth were for the most part far away [south >] to the west (16) across the river, under the wooded eaves of the Black Mountains, which were now hidden in mist and cloud. Yet Aragorn wondered often that they saw no sign of beast or man, for the Horsemasters had formerly kept many studs and herds in this eastern region (Eastemnet),(17) and wandered much, living often in camp or tent, even in the winter-time. But all the land was now empty, and there was a silence upon it that did not seem to be the quiet of peace. Through the wide solitude the hunters passed. Their elven- cloaks faded against the background of the green fields...
It is at this point that the original text A emerges (p. 391). The new version B, still replacing it but no longer destroying it, advances far towards the final text, and for long stretches is almost identical. The original time-scheme, as set out on p. 394, was retained: the three companions still came to the downs at the end of the third day of the chase (i.e. the second day in the plains of Rohan); Aragorn still asserted that the tracks which they found there had been made that day; and they still went on far into the night, not stopping until they were halfway along the downs, where they found the orc- encampment. In this version, in fact, the Orcs were less far ahead than they were in A: ' "They halted here in the early evening, I guess," said Aragorn.' It was at this point that Aragorn lay on the ground for a long time motionless (cf. TT pp. 28 - 9; but here it was by moonlight, in the night following 'Day 3' of the chase, not at dawn of 'Day 3' and gill far east of the downs).
'The rumour of the earth is dim and confused,' he said. 'Many ' feet I heard, far away; but it seemed to me also that there were horses, horses galloping, and yet all were
going away from us.
I wonder what is happening in this land. All seems strange. I distrust the very moonlight. Only the stars are left to steer by, and they are faint and far away. I am weary, as a Ranger should never be on a fresh trail; yet we must go on, we must go on.'
In this version they seem not to have slept at all that night: 'when dawn came they had almost reached the end of the downs'; and 'as the sun rose upon the fourth day of the pursuit, and the light grew, they climbed the last height, a rounded hill standing alone at the north end of the downs - where in TT (p. 31) they spent the night of the fourth day.(18)
The coming of the Rohiroth now reaches the text of TT,(19) and the only difference to mention is that Legolas, seeing them far away, said: 'There are one hundred save three'; this almost certainly indicates, I think, that three Riders had been lost from an eored of 100 horse. But 'one hundred save three' was changed to 'one hundred and five' before the end of the chapter was reached, for Eomer subsequently tells Aragorn that they had lost fifteen men in the battle. (On the constitution of an eored see Unfinished Tales p. 315.)
The first part of Aragorn's conversation with Eomer in B is actually a third version, for it is written over erased pencil drafting, as far as the Point where Gimli explains to Eomer the meaning of the word 'hobbits' (TT p. 37); and here the final form is reached apart from one or two details: Branding as the name of Aragorn's sword, Masters for Marshals of the Mark. It is here that Theoden son of Thengel first appears: if some other names preceded these they are lost in the underlying erased text. Theoden is not here called 'King', but 'the First Master'.
For the next portion of the chapter there is some extremely rough drafting, scarcely more than notes, preliminary to the writing of B. In these my father did not see Gandalf as a well-known figure in Rohan, and he still thought that there was another troop of Riders in that region (detached from Eomer's host?):
The History of Middle Earth: Volume 7 - The Treason of Isengard Page 51