The History of Middle Earth: Volume 8 - The War of the Ring
Page 49
NOTES.
1. Gandalf says here: 'Is it not a law in the City that those who wear the black and silver must stay in the Citadel unless their lord leaves it?' And Pippin replies: 'He has left it.' For a previous use of this passage in a different context see p. 338 and note 23.
2. Cf. the original manuscript of the chapter 'Minas Tirith', p. 281: 'And Denethor at least does not expect him in any way, for he does not know that he exists.' This in fact survived through all the typescripts and was only changed on the proof to the reading of RK: 'Though if he comes, it is likely to be in some way that no one expects, not even Denethor.'
3. A minor narrative difference is that when Gandalf and Pippin came to the Closed Door on Shadowfax they rode through it, though on the steep winding road beyond 'they could go only at a walk.' In RK Gandalf 'dismounted and bade Shadowfax return to
his stable' (see p. 380).
4. When writing a very rapid draft my father would move from 'thou' to 'you' in the same speech, but his intention from the first was certainly that in this scene Denethor should 'thou' Gandalf, while Gandalf should use 'you'. In one passage confusion between 'thou' and 'you' remains in RK (Denethor's speech beginning 'Hope on then!', p. 129). Here in the fair copy manuscript my father wrote: 'Do I not know that you commanded this halfling here to keep silence?'; subsequently he changed 'you commanded' to 'thou commandedst', but presumably because he disliked this form he changed the sentence to 'Do I not know that this halfling was commanded by thee ...' At the same time he added the sentence 'That you brought him hither to be a spy within in my very chamber?', changing it immediately and for the same reason to 'That he was brought hither ...' For some reason the 'you' constructions reappeared in the first typescript, and so remained.
5. 'V.6', not 'V.7' as in RK, because 'The Passing of the Grey Company' and 'The Muster of Rohan' were still one chapter, 'Many Roads Lead Eastward'. The fair copy manuscript (H) was also numbered 'XLIX' and 'V.6', with the title '(a) The Pyre of Denethor'.
6. The meaning of whereas here is 'inasmuch as', 'seeing that'.
7. I take this to mean, in a colloquial sense of 'supposed', 'it was only the kings who were held to be permitted to look in it', rather than 'it was only the kings who looked in it, as it was thought.'
8. The story now was that Éowyn was still alive: p. 369.
XI. THE HOUSES OF HEALING.
On the same page that my father used for the original opening draft (A) of 'The Pyre of Denethor' (p. 374) he also wrote a brief passage for another place in the narrative, beginning: '"Well, Meriadoc, where are you going?" He looked up, and there was Gandalf.' This was, I feel certain, the opening of a new chapter; and since it stands first on the page, with the opening of 'The Pyre of Denethor' below it, it seems to me likely that my father for a moment thought to continue the narrative after 'The Battle of the Pelennor Fields' in this way. But however this may be, he subsequently on another page (numbered 'a') wrote a new opening ('A mist was in Merry's eyes of tears and of weariness when they drew near to the ruined Gates of Minas Tirith'), and joined this on to the first opening (now numbered 'b') already in existence. This first part ('a') of the brief composite text is already very close indeed to the opening of the chapter in RK; the second (earlier) part 'b' differs from the text of RK in that it is Gandalf, not Pippin, who finds Merry wandering in the streets of the City:
'Well, Meriadoc, where are you going?'
He looked up, and the mist before his eyes cleared a little,(1) and there was Gandalf. He was in a narrow empty street, and no one else was there. He passed his hand over his eyes. 'Where is the king?' he said, 'and Éowyn, and - ' he stumbled and sat down on a doorstep and began to weep again.
'They have gone into the Citadel,' said Gandalf. 'You must have fallen asleep on your feet and taken a wrong turning. You are worn out, and I will ask no questions yet, save one: are you hurt, or wounded?'
'No,' said Merry, 'well, no, I don't think so. But I cannot use my right arm, not since I stabbed him. The sword has burned away like wood.'
Gandalf looked grave. 'Well, you must come with me. I will carry you. You are not fit to walk. They should not have let you.
But then they did not know about you or they would have shown you more honour. But when you know more you will pardon them: many dreadful things have happened in this City.'
'Pardon them? What for?' said Merry. 'All I want is a bed if there's one to have.'
'You'll have chat,' said Gandalf, 'but you may need more.' He looked grave and careworn. 'Here is yet another on my hands,' he sighed. 'After war comes the woe and hopeless oft seems the task of the healer.'
At this point the part 'b' ends and is followed by 'When the dark shadow at the Gate withdrew Gandalf still sat motionless', the opening of 'The Pyre of Denethor', as described above.
My father now wrote an outline, obviously before the story had proceeded further.
Pippin meets Merry wandering half blind and witless - (as in scene previously written: but not humorous). Merry also is taken to sickhouse (Faramir, Éowyn, Merry).
[King Théoden is laid on bier in Hall of the Tower covered with gold. His body is embalmed after the manner of Gondor. Long after when the Rohirrim carried it back to Rohan and laid it in the mounds, it was said that he slept there in peace unchanged, clad in the cloth of gold of Gondor, save that his hair and beard still grew but were golden, and a river of gold would at times flow from Théoden's Howe. Also a voice would be heard crying
Arise, arise, Riders of Théoden
Fell deeds awake. Forth Eorlingas!
when peril threatened.](2)
Now the Captains return. But Aragorn sets his pavilion in the field before the gate and will not enter without permission and sends in word begging leave to enter and speak with the Steward. They tell him that the Steward is dead by his own hand and the Lord Faramir sick, to death. Then he lays aside all the badges of Elendil, and enters as a plain man. Aragorn meets Pippin and Gandalf and asks after Merry. He is given news of Éowyn. Great joy of Eomer.
All that night Aragorn tends the sick, for the Kings of Gondor had both a craft and a power of healing, and by this [?latter] it was made clear that the true king was returned. Faramir opens his eyes and looks on Aragorn and love springs between them. Merry too recovers.
Counsel [read Council] of the Lords. Gandalf warns them that what Denethor had said is true: there was no final victory in arms against the Enemy. We fought here as best we could, because we had to; and it is so appointed in this world that resistance must be made to evil without final hope. But when we take arms to attack we are using that power which is pre- eminently found in the Ring, and it would be logical to do as Denethor desired in that case: to use the Ring. So indeed we should probably [?now] have victory and overthrow Sauron. But only to set up another. So that in the end the result would be as evil, if different, or possibly worse, as if Sauron recovered the Ring. Therefore have I ..... (3) recovery in order that for a great age victory should be otherwise.
But we must still use such power as we have. And not delay. Sauron must still be kept busy and deem we have the Ring.
Another page of outline-notes, very roughly pencilled, probably followed this.
Long sojourn of rest in Minas Tirith and coming of Finduilas?(4) [written above: and Galadriel].
Hobbits all go home via Rohan: funeral of Théoden, and then through Gap and up west of Misty Mountains to Rivendell and then home.
Yes, said Sam, as he closed the Book. That all happened a long time ago.
Aragorn will only enter as lord of the Forod, not as king.(5)
Lords ride in, and see Théoden lying in state. Where is Gandalf? He comes in late [or later] and tells of Théoden's fall,(6) and Yoreth's words.
They go to Houses of Healing, and Aragorn asks for athelas. He heals the sick. Yoreth says he must be king. After supper he heals many sick.
Council next day. Gandalf's advice. Merry wakes up feeling nearly well. While Counci
l is [?on] Gimli, Legolas and Pippin talk. They ..... and hear of the love of Éowyn for Aragorn at Dunharrow. And of the great ride to Pelargir.
The lords ride east: 1000 Rohirrim, Dol Amroth and [?so on]. And a first force to hold Morgul. They ride into shadow of ambush. Peril.
A complete draft ('A') for the chapter now followed, written rapidly but legibly in ink. In the first part of the chapter there are passages of marked divergence from the story that followed. The manuscript A was followed by a fair copy 'B', for which some pages were taken out of A, including the opening page bearing the chapter number and title: 'Ch.L The Houses of Healing', the number changed subsequently to 'XLIX (b)'.(7)
The first divergence in A from RK comes with Gandalf's words when he came on Pippin and Merry on the pavement of the main street up to the Citadel (RK p. 135):
'He should have been borne in honour into this City,' he said. 'Greater was the wisdom of Elrond than mine. For if I had had my way neither you nor he, Pippin, would have set out; and then far more grievous would the evils of this day have been. Faramir and Éowyn would be dead, and the Black Captain would be abroad to work ruin on all hope.'
This was repeated in the fair copy B, and {with loss of the final sentence 'Faramir and Éowyn would be dead ...') in the following typescripts: the change to 'He has well repaid my trust: for if Elrond had not yielded to me, neither of you would have set out' was not made until the book was in proof. This is decidedly strange: for the form of the Choosing of the Company in The Fellowship of the Ring (p. 289), in which it was through Gandalf's advocacy against Elrond that Merry and Pippin were included, had been reached long before in the second version of 'The Ring Goes South' (VII.164). Earlier than this, it is true, Gandalf had also been opposed to their inclusion ('Elrond's decision is wise', he had said, VII.115), but only here, and again in 'The Last Debate' (p. 415), is there any suggestion that it was Elrond who advocated their inclusion in opposition to Gandalf.
In the passage that follows, after the account of the 'leechcraft of Gondor' and the unknown malady named 'the Black Shadow' that came from the Nazgûl, the text of A is much briefer than that of RK (p. 136):
And those that were so stricken fell slowly ever into a deeper dream, and from fever passed to a deadly cold and so died. But Faramir burned with a fever that would not abate.
And an old wife, Yoreth
Thus there is no reference here to the morning wearing away and the day passing to sunset, while 'still Gandalf waited and watched and did not go forth'; and after Yoreth had uttered the old saying that 'The hands of the king are the hands of a healer' A diverges altogether from the later story.
'Mithrandir is wise and skilful,' said another. 'In this at least he is not a king,' said the old wife. 'He has done much for us, but rather his skill lies in the teaching of men, to do what they can or should.'
But Gandalf seeing that all was done that could be done for the present arose and went out, and calling for Shadowfax rode away.
But Pippin and Berithil found themselves together little needed while the sick were yet in peril, and while such errands as were needful were done by the boys, Bergil and his friends, who had been saved from the wreck of the Rath a Chelerdain and sent up hither. So they went to the roof of the house that stood above the battlement of the wall, and they looked out. The battle now raged upon the fields; but it was far from the walls, and all the enemy had now been drawn away from the City; and they could not mark how fortune went: nought but a dust and a smoke in the distance away southward, and a far crying of horn and of trumpet. Yet so it was that Pippin with the farsighted eyes of his people was the first to descry the coming of the fleet.
'Look, look, Berithil!' he cried. 'The Lord was not all demented. He saw something in truth. There are ships on the River.'
'Yes,' said Berithil. 'But not such as he spoke of. I know the ...(8) of those ships and their sails. They come from Umbar and the havens of the Corsairs. Hark!'
And all about them men were crying in dismay: 'The Corsairs of Umbar!'
'You may say what you like and so may they,' said Pippin, 'but this I will say for my lord who is dead: I will believe him. Here comes Aragorn. Though how, and why in this way I cannot guess. Here comes the heir of Elendil!' he shouted; but no one, not even Berithil, took any heed of his small voice.
Yet true he proved. And at last it was known in the City. And all men were full of wonder. And so hope grew as the day rose to noon and waned, and at last it came to the red sunset. And watchers looking out saw all the fields before them dyed as with blood, and the sky above them was bloodred, and at last ere the red burned out to evening ash-grey over the fields of the Pelennor rode the captains in victory to the City.
Aragorn and Eomer and Imrahil now drew near the City with their captains and knights; and when they came before the Gates Aragorn said:
'Behold the setting of the sun in fire ...'
Aragorn's words are then as in RK p. 137, and his speech with Eomer that follows; but with Imrahil's intervention the original text diverges again:
And the Prince Imrahil said: 'Wise are your words, lord, if one who is kinsman of the house of the Stewards may venture to give counsel. Yet I would not have you remain at the door like a beggar.'
'Then I will not,' laughed Aragorn. '[added: I will enter as one.] The banner shall be furled and the tokens no more displayed.' And he bade Halbarad [> Elladan](9) to furl the standard, and he removed the crown and stars (10) and gave them to the keeping of the sons of Elrond. And he entered the City on foot clad only in a grey mantle above his mail and bearing no other token save the green stone of Galadriel, and he said: 'I come only as Aragorn Lord of the Rangers of Forod.'(11)
And so the great captains of victory passed through the city and the tumult of the people, and mounted to the Citadel, and came to the Hall of the Tower seeking the Steward.
The description of Théoden lying in state follows as in RK (pp. 137-8), but then the story of his afterlife in the mound at Edoras is introduced and expanded from the outline given on p. 385; I cite it here from the fair copy B, where the text is all but identical to A except in the words heard from the mound.(12)
And thus, it was said in song, he remained ever after while the realm of Rohan endured. For when later the Rohirrim bore his body away to the Mark and laid it in the mounds of his fathers, there, clad in the cloth of gold of Gondor, he slept in peace unchanged, save only that his hair still grew and was turned to silver, and at times a river of silver would flow from Théoden's Howe. And that was a token of prosperity; but if peril threatened then at whiles men would hear a voice in the mound crying in the ancient tongue of the Mark:
Arisath nu Ridend mine!
Theodnes thegnas thindath on orde!
Feond oferswithath! Forth Eorlingas!
Then follow the questions of Imrahil and Eomer in the Hall of the Tower, whereby they learn that 'the Steward is in the Houses of Healing' (thinking that this means Denethor), and Eomer learns that Éowyn is still living, just as in RK, except that when Eomer leaves the hall 'the others followed him' ('and the Prince followed him' RK), because Aragorn is present.
And when they came forth evening had come, with many stars And even as the light waned Gandalf returned alone out of the East up the road from Osgiliath, glimmering in the twilight. And he went also to the Houses of Healing, and he met the Lords before its doors. And they greeted him; and they said:
'We seek the Steward and it is said that he is in this house.
In the passage that follows there are differences from RK, in that Aragorn does not only now appear as 'the cloaked man' come with Gandalf, unrecognised until he steps into the lantern-light. Thus Imrahil says: 'Shall it not be the lord Aragorn?', and Aragorn replies: 'No, it shall be the Lord of Dol Amroth until Faramir awakes. But it is my counsel that Mithrandir should rule us all in the days that follow and our dealings with the Enemy.' Then Gandalf speaks as in RK of his sole hope for the sick resting in Aragorn, and quotes the word
s of Yoreth.
When Aragorn encounters Berithil and Pippin at the door Pippin says: 'Trotter! How splendid. There, Berithil, you see Denethor was right after all.' The last sentence was struck out, and replaced by Pippin's words in RK (p. 139): 'Do you know, I guessed it was you in the black ships. But they were all shouting Corsairs and would not listen to me. How did you do it?' And when Imrahil says to Eomer 'Yet perchance in some other name he will wear his crown', Aragorn overhearing replies: 'Verily, for in the high tongue of eld I am Elessar, Elfstone, the renewer.'(13) Then lifting the green stone of Galadriel he says: 'But Trotter shall be the name of my house, if ever that be established; yet perhaps in the same high tongue it shall not sound so ill, and tarakil (14) I will be and all the heirs of my body.'