The History of Middle Earth: Volume 8 - The War of the Ring

by J. R. R. Tolkien

  No words were spoken. Hours seemed to pass, and yet still the night held on.

  A new draft in ink (the one that was written over and so obscured the pencilled text concerning the Ents and the Wild Men, p. 345) takes up at the point where the captain of the guard (here left unnamed and referred to as 'X') stumbles over Merry. He tells him that the Wild Men of the Woods 'still haunt Rimmon Forest, it is said'; he does not mention their poisoned arrows, but he says that 'even now one of their headmen is being taken to the king.' From here the story moves confidently into the conversation of the king and Eomer with the headman Ghân-buri-Ghân (so named unhesitatingly from his first appearance), near the end of which this text ends. Already in this draft the final form is very nearly achieved, with Ghân-buri-Ghân's names for the orcs (Gorgûn), and for Minas Tirith (Stonehouses).(14) Of the ancient road made by the men of Gondor through the hills he says this:

  '... They went to Eilenach with great wains. Forgotten now, but not by wild men. Paths in hills and behind hills. Long road runs still under tree and grass behind. Rimmon down to Din, and so back to horsemen road.'

  It is to 'be remembered that at this stage the Rohirrim were bivouacked in the forest of Taur-rimmon, out of which rose the tall hill of Min Rimmon Beacon, and that the order of the last three beacons was Eilenach, Min Rimmon, Amon Dîn (see p. 344). It is natural therefore that Ghân-buri-Ghân should speak of the old wain-road to Eilenach running 'behind Rimmon down to Din' (see below).

  Turning now to the first completed text, this manuscript begins as a fair copy of the draft work already described, but for the latter part of the chapter (from the end of the conversation with Ghân-buri-Ghân) it is based variously on overwritten pencilled text and independent passages of preliminary drafting in ink. In this manuscript the chapter as it stands in RK was largely reached, and there are only relatively minor matters to mention. It is numbered 'XLVII' and titled '(i) The Ride of the Rohirrim'; beside this my father wrote afterwards 'and the Battle of the Pelennor Field', then struck it out.

  The Rohirrim are still camped in 'Taur-rimmon Forest' from which rises Min Rimmon beacon. Ghân-buri-Ghân tells of the wains that went to Eilenach passing 'through Rimmon', where he clearly means 'the forest of Rimmon'; and he speaks as in the draft of the lost road that lies 'there behind Rimmon and down to Din'. Changes made to the manuscript in these passages produced the text of RK (pp. 104, 106-7), but this development is rather puzzling. The host now lies in the Druadan Forest out of which rises Eilenach Beacon; and Ghân- buri-Ghân now says that the wains went 'through Druadan to Rimmon'; but his words about the old road remain unchanged from the draft, 'there behind Rimmon and down to Din'. If we suppose that after the order of the beacons had been changed the ancient wain-road went all the way to Min Rimmon (and the change of 'They went through Rimmon to Eilenach' to 'They went through Druadan to Rimmon' was not casually made: my father wrote Rimmon twice and twice crossed it out before finally settling on this name), it nonetheless seems strange that Ghân-buri-Ghân, in the Druadan Forest, should say 'there behind Rimmon', since Min Rimmon was now the third beacon, not the sixth, and some seventy-five miles to the west of Eilenach.

  The Rider who stumbles over Merry is now again named Éothain (see p. 350), but he is now 'captain of Eomer's company (eored)'. By subsequent correction he becomes 'Deorwin, chief of the king's knights since Hama's death', and he speaks to Merry of 'the Druedain, Wild Men of the Woods', who 'still haunt Druadan Forest, it is said.' The name Druedain is not found in the published LR (in the present manuscript it was afterwards replaced by Woses), but reappears in Unfinished Tales. At a later stage, the Rider who fell over Merry and cursed him for a tree-root became Elfhelm, while Déorwin (Deorwine) survived in the story, still as chief of the king's knights, to be slain in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, his name remembered in the song of the Mounds of Mundburg (RK pp. 120, 125). Elfhelm makes his first appearance by correction to the present manuscript, taking over from Eomer the speech beginning 'We need no further guides ...' (RK p. 109): here he is described as 'one of the captains'. In the typescripts of the chapter, where he has replaced Deorwine as the stumbling Rider, he is called 'captain of the company with which he [Merry] was riding'; the change to 'the Marshal, Elfhelm' was made when the book was in proof.

  After Eomer's counsel that the Rohirrim should rest now and set out again at night, and the words 'To this the king assented, and the captains departed' (RK p. 109), my father set down a brief outline:

  On the grass way they find Hirgon's body and dead horse - facing back west. They are drawing near the Rammas when they meet a runner in the dark and take him captive; but he proves to be a soldier of Gondor that escaping through a postern has slipped through the leaguer and run for 14 miles.

  He falls dying of wounds and exhaustion. 'Too late you come!' he cried. 'The first circle is burning and abandoned. The Lord will not give heed to the defence. Great siege towers and engines. They are bringing up a huge Ram for the Gates.'

  Then suddenly as he looked at the flame far off the heart swelled in Théoden, as of one who is fey, and without more counsel he seized a great horn and blew it, and all the horns in the host took up the challenge. Then without more debate the Rohirrim poured in upon the fields of Gondor like a great torrent.

  This passage was struck through; and from this point the development becomes for a stretch entirely obscure, a mosaic of repetitions and overwritings leading to the final text; but this was not achieved until after the manuscript was completed - the pagination shows that a page was added in here subsequently. Before this, the story was still that Dernhelm rode as a member of the king's guard, in the leading eored (see note 17); with the addition on the added page of the statement (RK p. 110) that 'Elfhelm's company came next, and now Merry noticed that Dernhelm had left his place and in the darkness was moving sceadily forward until ac last he was riding just in rear of the king's guard' thar story is seen to be abandoned: Dernhelm had been riding from Edoras in the second eored. On the added page is a small map. This marks the Druadan Forest and Stonewain Valley, the Anórien road, Eilenach (in its final position as the sixth beacon) and Amon Dîn, the 'Grey Woods' south-east of Amon Dîn, Mindolluin, Minas Tirith, and Osgiliath. The island of Cair Andros is shown, though not named, and most notably the Anduin now bends strongly west below Osgiliath, so that the walls of the Pelennor run along its bank for a stretch, and then turns still more sharply southwards (but the hills of Emyn Arnen are not shown): on this see p. 438. In one respect only does this map differ from the large- scale map of Rohan, Gondor and Mordor, and that is in the relation of Minas Tirith to Osgiliath.(15) Here the road across the Pelennor runs due east to the Causeway Forts (marked with small circles), and Osgiliath is due east of the city, whereas on the large map it lies to the north-east, and the road runs likewise; see the Second Map, pp.434, 438. In the remainder of 'The Ride of the Rohirrim' the final form was achieved in this manuscript almost word for word:(16) the speech of Wídfara about the change in the wind, the disposition of the companies of the Rohirrim,(17) Merry's fear that the king would quail and turn back, his great cry (with echoes of the Old Norse Voluspa) 'Arise, arise, Riders of Théoden ...', and the likening of Théoden to 'Oromë the Great in the Battle of the Valar when the world was young.' Lastly I must mention the inceresting name Forannest. Isolated notes show my father working out this name, without giving any indication of its reference,(18) and on a page of the earliest drafting for the chapter, written above and perhaps associated with the sentence 'They were less than a day's ride from the Rammas', Forannest appears again, followed by the words 'North entrance [?in]'. That Forannest (whatever the name actually means} was the 'north-gate in the Rammas' (RK p. 111) is made certain by an isolated slip (19) giving the distances, east of Edoras, of the Mering Stream and the seven beacons; for here, following Amon Dîn, appears Forannest (Rammas Echor).

  NOTES.

  1. Sarn Gebir: the rapids in Anduin.

  2. In the pen
cilled text the enemy camp is near Amon Dîn, and the distances are greater: 245 or 250 miles to the halt in the Forest of Eilenach, 285 to Amon Dîn.

  3. The distance from the Rammas to Minas Tirith given here (12 miles or 4 leagues) obviously refers to the distance from the city to the point in the wall where the Rohirrim entered (where the North Road from Anórien ran into the townlands); and while in RK (p. 22) the city was four leagues from the wall at the widest extent of the Pelennor (in the direction of Osgiliath) and the north gate in the Rammas rather less ('maybe ten miles or more', RK p. 111), my father had now abandoned the origina) conception that the Pelennor had at all points a radius of seven leagues (see pp. 277 - 8, 287). Cf. also the draft for 'The Siege of Gondor' (p. 330)"where it is said that when Faramir was forced to abandon the Causeway Forts he had '4 leagues or more ot open land to cross', i.e. across the Pelennor.

  On the Second Map a line of five dots (shown on the redrawing, p. 434) runs northwest from Minas Tirith. These might seem rather too far north of the mountains to represent the beacons; but that they do so is seen from the fact that the distance measured in a direct line from Edoras to that nearest Minas Tirith is 270 miles, to the next 245 miles, and to the next 218 miles. These are virtually the same as the distances given here for Edoras to Amon Dîn, Min Rimmon, and Eilenach. On the other hand the distance on the Second Map from Edoras to the Rammas is about 285 miles, and to Minas Tirith about 295.

  4. My references to and citations from the overwritten pencilled texts, here and subsequently, are very largely based on the work done on them by Taum Santoski.

  5. In the following text of this passage the distance from Edoras to Minas Tirith becomes 'a hundred and one leagues', changed at once to 'a hundred leagues and two', as in RK. On my father's large-scale map of Rohan, Gondor and Mordor the distance in a direct line is 302 miles, but he noted against a pencilled line connecting them 304 . - On the form Mundbeorg hill of protection' for Mundburg in LR see VII.449 note 7.

  6. Cyneferth has the very common Old English name-element cyne'royal'; Grímhelm means 'visored helm', cf. grima 'mask', the name of Wormtongue.

  7. On a torn half-sheet, subsequently used for other writing on the reverse, are the remains of a time-scheme which is very difficult both to read and to place in sequence, especially since some dates are lost and can only be deduced from those that are left. It seems that Théoden here remains a whole day at Dunharrow before setting out on the 10th of March, and on the 11th, after news has come in of an Orc-host entering Rohan from north of the Emyn Muil, Eomer leaves the host, rejoining it on the 12th. Against March 10 (?) is written: 'Merry insists on going to war and is taken up by [Grim >] Dúnhere who rides with the King, Éowyn, and Eomer.' It is hard to know what to make of this. A possibility is that my father had briefly decided to abandon the story of the 'young rider of the guard' (Éowyn), for Éowyn will now come openly to Minas Tirith, while Merry, equally openly, is taken by Dúnhere, chief of the men of Harrowdale. In support of this is the abandoned name Grim- (for Grímhelm?), and perhaps the underlining of Éowyn. But this seems to me very unlikely. It seems more probable that this text represents earlier ideas for this element in the story: not only is Merry permitted to go with the host, but Éowyn rides also as a matter of course (in which case the name Grim- is without significance, for Grímhelm had not yet arisen). In support of this is the diversion of Eomer northwards, mentioned in several of the early outlines for Book V, but not subsequently.

  8. This text was in fact 'doubled', pencil overwritten in ink; but much of the pencilled form was left clear, and it shows no significant difference from the version in ink.

  9. In this first finished version of From dark Dunharrow in the dim morning line 2 reads (as also in the first workings) fate defying rode Fengel's son, alliterating on f, with Thengel? in pencil in the margin (with thane and captain rode Thengel's son, RK). Both fengel and pengel were Old English poetic words for 'king, prince', and since Thengel as the name of Théoden's father appears in earIy texts of 'The Riders of Rohan' and 'The King of the Golden Hall' (VII.399, 402, 441) the appearance of Fengel here may have been inadvertent.

  Line 8 reads where deep once he drank ere darkness fell, changed to where long he had lived ere the light faded. In line 10 faith compelled him preceded Fealty kept he. Line 12, where the original workings had five days and nights, changed to four nights and days, retains the latter (five in RK). Line 14 reads through Folde and Fenmarch past Firienlode: Firienlode is clearly a river, and so perhaps the original name of the Mering Stream, which flowed through the Firien Wood. In line 16 Minas Tirith is Mundberg(see note 5; berg and beorg, 'hill, mountain', were Old English variants).

  10. This text still has Four nights and days for Five, and Mundberg for Mundburg (see note 9).

  11. This was subsequently altered on the manuscript. I presume that my father's thought was that for Éowyn to be disguised as a member of the king's own guard, and distinct among them by slightness of build, would obviously make her presence more readily detected; but see p. 369.

  12. Cf. the note at the end of outline A (p. 344): Camp just west of Min Rimmon on night of 12th'. - The phrase 'bivouacked in the pinewoods that clustered about (Minrimmon Beacon)' was first used of the Halifirien (p. 347). In the final form it would be used of Eilenach, when that became again the sixth beacon (RK p. 104).

  13. The name Éothain now appears in a third application (see p. 247 and note 20), for this Éothain, captain of the guard, can hardly be the same Rider as Eomer's squire in 'The Riders of Rohan' (see p. 266 note 20).

  14. The appearance and clothing of Ghân-buri-Ghân are not described: 'There sat Théoden and Eomer and before [them] on the ground was a strange squat shape of a man. Merry felt that he had seen him before, and suddenly he remembered: the Pûkelmen of Dunharrow. Almost it seemed that here was one come to life. Looking about he saw that in a ring just outside the light squatted other similar figures, while Riders on guard stood in a circle behind.' Ghân-buri-Ghân 'spoke after a fashion the Common Speech as it was in Gondor.' At the point where this draft ends he replies to the king's offer of reward and friendship thus: 'No need. Ghân-buri-Ghân himself go with you [?lord]. If he leads into trap you will kill him. If he lead well then we say farewell and ask only to be left in the woods.'

  15. Whereas on the large map the Anduin bends southward after Cair Andros and is running north-south at Osgiliath, on this map it continues south-east after Cair Andros and then swings back south-west to Osgiliath. No features are shown here other than the course of the River itself.

  16. The fair copy was here written over a pencilled text. Most of this Taum Santoski has been able to read, and it is seen that the final text was already closely approached.

  17. After 'The first eored drew up behind him [Théoden] and about him on either side (RK p. 111) this text continues: Elfhelm was away on the right ...': thus the words 'Dernhelm kept close to the king, though {Elfhelm's company was away on the right)' are lacking. This implies that the story was still present that Dernhelm rode as a member of the leading eored with the king's household-men (RK p. 110), not as one of Elfhelm's company; see p. 353.

  18. Rejected forms in these notes are fornest, Anfornest, together with words nesta, nethra, nest, the last with meanings (apparently: the writing is very obscure) 'heart, core'.

  19. The reverse of this slip (which is the lower half of a torn page) carries the following text:

  ... war would be useless, disastrous ......... .. something much simpler, smaller and more desperate.

  'I see you have something in mind,' said Thorin. 'What is it?' 'Well, this first,' I answered: 'you will have to go on your quest secretly, and that means you must go yourself, without messengers or embassies, and go with only a few faithful kinsmen or followers of your house. But you will need something more. There is a piece missing from the plan.

  For I needed thought. Thorin's tale had roused memories in my mind. Many years before I had been to Dol Guldur, as
you know. You will know what I mean since you know Bilbo's story. I remembered the unhappy dying dwarf in the pits of Dol Guldur and the torn map and old key. Except that he was of Durin's folk of Erebor (as the map showed) I had no idea who he was. Of some importance perhaps since he was bearing a Ring, though he might have come by it in many ways. None but the Dwarves, and only a few of them, know who were the possessors of their great rings. But l had other far more perilous business on hand, and after I escaped from Dol Guldur many urgent cares. I stowed the things away till perhaps time would show their meaning. Now it had done so. I saw that I [had] heard the last wandering words of Thrain II Thrór's son, though he could not speak his own name or his son's. By what toughness of resistance he had kept these small things hidden in his torments, I do not know. But I think that

  Comparison with The Quest of Erebor in Unfinished Tales will show that these passages are the forerunners of two in that (see p 332 for the first, p. 324 for the second). My father said (Unfinished Tales p. 11) that this account of Gandalf's 'was to have come in during a looking-back conversation in Minas Tirith'; the present text may perhaps be assigned therefore to a time when The Lord of the Rings was approaching completion, if not actually finished; and this is supported by the reference to Thrain II (see VII.160}. Since the notes on distances are obviously a secondary use of the page, it would follow that the name Forannest was not abandoned, but was merely not used in the published work.