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

by J. R. R. Tolkien

  Here the revised version stops, at the foot of a page, and my father struck out the whole page (which begins at 'So we rose ere night had passed', p. 412) and wrote a pencilled note:

  No fight, but Shadows [?flow into] the ships and all men leap overboard except the chained captives. But Rangers went to each ship and comforted the captives.

  He then rewrote the page - and this was obviously done immediately - beginning at the same words.

  'So we rose ere night had passed, and went as swift as our stouthearted horses could endure over the green plains of Lebennin darkling under the shade of Mordor; and all about us the Host of the Dead flowed on like a grey tide. Still the rumour of our coming went before us and all men were dismayed, and none neither foe nor friend would wait for our approach. For the darkness weighed on the allies of Mordor, not being orcs or folk bred in the Black Land, and those that could fled back to Anduin, where they had gathered many ships. Thus we hunted them from Gondor all that day and on through the next night, halting seldom and sleeping not at all, until we came at the bitter end to the Great River.'

  'I knew it,' said Legolas, 'long ere we reached it, for there was salt in the air. And my heart was troubled for I thought that I drew near the Sea, but indeed the Mouths of Anduin were far away to the south.... '

  This is only the second time that Legolas has spoken since Gimli's story of the journey began. He speaks now of the great breadth of Anduin as Gimli had done (p. 413);(36) and (following the note at the end of the previous version of this section of the story) he goes on:

  '... But fear was the only weapon that we needed, for the grey host passed on to every ship whether drawn up or anchored in the tide, and all the men that were in them fled, or leaped overboard, save the slaves of the oars that were chained, or captives under hold.'

  Legolas describes how to each of the greater ships one of the Rangers went to comfort the captives, bidding them put aside fear and be free (RK p. 152).

  'And when all the fleet was in our hands Aragorn went up on that ship which he took for his own and let sound many trumpets, and the Shadow Host withdrew to the shores, and stood in great array there silently, and there was a red light in the gloom, for some of the enemy had fired their ships ere they abandoned them.'

  Aragorn's words to the Dead ('Now I will hold your oath all fulfilled') are close to those in RK (p. 153).(37) It is 'a tall figure of shadow', not as in RK said to be the King of the Dead, that steps forth and breaks his spear. The remainder of the story is very much as in RK, though here told by Legolas: the rest of the Company that night 'while others laboured', the release of the captives from the ships, the coming of the men of Lebennin (but Angbor of Lamedon is not named), the slow passage by oar up Anduin (but it was 'the fifth morning, that is the day before yesterday' that the fleet set out from Pelargir: see the Note on Chronology at the end of this chapter), Aragorn's fear that they would be too late ('for it is forty leagues and two by river from Pelargir to the landings under the Pelennor wall'), and the red glow to the north from the burning of Minas Tirith. Legolas' discourse ends, as does Gimli's in RK, with 'It was a great hour, and a great day, whatever may come after', to which Gimli replies: 'Yes, whatever come after. Yet for all our victory the faces of Gandalf and Aragorn look grave. I wonder what counsel they are taking in the tents below. For my part I wish it were all well over. Yet, whatever is still to do, I hope I may have part in it, for the honour of the folk of the Lonely Mountain.' To this was added later: ' "And I for the folk of the Wood," said Legolas.' Then follows:

  His [> Their] wish was granted. Two days later the army of the West that was to march forth was all assembled on the Pelennor. The host of orcs and easterlings had turned back out of Anórien and harried and scattered by the Rohirrim had fled with little fight towards Cair Andros ...

  This is the beginning of 'The Black Gate Opens' in RK, but with a major difference from the subsequent story: for here Pippin as well as Merry was left behind.

  ... To their bitter grief the hobbits were not in that riding.

  'Merry is not fit for such a journey yet,' said Aragorn, 'even if he could ride a swift steed. And you Peregrin will lighten his grief if you stay with him. So far you have kept even with one another as well as your fortunes allowed - and indeed if you did no more to the end of your days you have earned honour, and justified the wisdom of Elrond.(38) And indeed we are all in like peril. For though it may be our part to find a bitter end before the gate of Mordor, if we do so, then you will have your chance or necessity also of a last stand either here or wherever the black tide overtakes you. Farewell! '

  And so despondently Merry and Pippin stood before the ruined gates of Minas Tirith with young Bergil and saw the great army mustered. Bergil was downcast and grieved at heart, for his father was commanded to march and lead a company of the men of Imrahil. For he having broken his oaths could no longer remain in the guard of the Citadel, until his case was judged.(39)

  The trumpets rang and the host began to move. [First rode Aragorn and Gandalf and the sons of Elrond with the banner and the knights of Dol Amroth. Then came Eomer with the [?chosen] Riders, and afterwards came those of his men that were on foot, and men of Lebennin, and last the great companies of Minas Tirith led by Imrahil.](40) And long after it had passed away out of sight down the great road to the Causeway the three stood there, until the last glint of the morning sun on spear and helm twinkled and was lost.

  At this point my father decided that Pippin did in fact go with the host to the Black Gate, and he began anew at the words 'His [> Their] wish was granted' following the end of 'The Tale of Gimli and Legolas', continuing as before with 'Two days later the army of the West that was to march forth was all assembled on the Pelennor.' The text then continued both in initial draft and in a fair copy to the end of the story afterwards called 'The Black Gate Opens', with continuous pagination all the way through from the meeting of Gimli and Legolas with Imrahil before they went to the Houses of Healing. It is thus clear that the whole of the last part of Book V was in a completed (though not final) and coherent form before any structural reorganisation of the narrative took place. The structure was:

  Gimli and Legolas meet Imrahil and go to the Houses of Healing.

  The Last Debate.

  The Tale of Gimli and Legolas in the garden of the Houses of Healing.

  The journey to the Morannon and the Parley.

  The next stage was the decision to reorganise the narrative so that 'Gimli's Tale' should stand independently - and therefore precede the Debate. To this end my father wrote a tentative conclusion for 'The Tale of Gimli and Legolas':

  And so ended the tale of Legolas and Gimli concerning the ride of Aragorn by the Paths of the Dead, which long was recalled and sung in Gondor in after days, and it was said that never again were the Shadow-men seen by mortal men on mountain or in vale, [and the road from Dunharrow was free to all who were willing to take that way. Yet few did so, for the memory of fear abode there still; and none ever dared to open Baldor's door. Struck out immediately: A tomb they made for him in that dark place and so built it that none could come at that door.]

  The passage that I have bracketed was replaced, probably at once, by the following:

  but the stone of Erech stood ever alone, and on that hill no bird would alight nor beast feed; and the memory of fear still abode in the dark ways from Dunharrow, and few were willing to take that road; and none ever dared to open Baldor's door.

  Concomitantly with this the words 'Their wish was granted' (following the end of 'The Tale of Gimli and Legolas' and beginning the story of the march from Minas Tirith) were circled, with a direction to omit them if this 'end-piece' to the 'Tale' were added to it; and a note was scribbled on the manuscript beside the opening of the debate (p. 403): 'It might be better to take out the debate (shorten it) and put it at the beginning of the Parley chapter.' Thus the decision was taken to divide the chapter as it stood (entitled 'The Parley at the Black Gate', p. 399) into t
wo: the first to be called 'The Paths of the Dead' and consisting solely of the tale told to Merry and Pippin in the garden of the Houses of Healing, the second to be called 'Parley at the Gate' and beginning with the debate in Aragorn's tent.

  Relatively little adjustment of the existing material was needed to achieve this. From the point in the narrative where Gimli and Legolas found Merry and Pippin ('and the meeting of those friends was a merry one') my father simply dropped the transition to the debate (see p. 403) and continued with the conversation in the garden of the Houses of Healing (see p. 405 and RK p. 149): 'For a while they walked and talked, rejoicing for a brief space in peace and rest under the fair morning high up in the windy circles of the City.' The conversation leading into the 'Tale' was somewhat changed. In contrast to the earlier version Merry is no longer represented as being ignorant (as he could not have been) of Aragorn's passage under the mountains (see p. 405 and note 17). After Pippin's words 'Come, Legolas! You and Gimli have mentioned your strange journey with Trotter about a dozen times already this morning. But you haven't mentioned anything about it' this dialogue follows:

  'I know some of the story and I guess some more,' said Merry. 'For I hear that you came in ships from the South. So I know that somehow you must have got through, though in Dunharrow all the people were afraid, and Éowyn I thought had been weeping. Come now! The sun is shining and we can bear it. Tell us about the Paths of the Dead!'

  'The sun may shine,' said Gimli, 'still there are memories of that road that I do not wish to recall. Had I known what was before me I think that not for any friendship would I have taken those paths.'

  'For my part,' said Legolas, 'I do not fear the Dead; but I hate the darkness under earth far from hope of the sky. It was a dreadful journey!'

  'The Dead?' said Pippin. 'The Paths of the Dead? I have never heard of them before. Won't you tell us some more?'

  'It is the name of a road that goes through the mountains,' said Merry. 'I saw the Gate, as they call it, from a distance when I was in Dunharrow ...'

  Merry then continues as he does in the earlier version, and is followed by Legolas and Gimli describing the departure and Éowyn's distress (cf. p. 406 and note 19):

  '... I think the men of the Mark believe that inside there dwell the shadows of Dead Men, out of a past long before they came to that land.'

  'So they told us,' said Legolas. 'And that lady who lies now below in the Houses, Éowyn, she begged Aragorn not to go in; but he could not be turned from it. He was in haste, and in a stern mood.'

  'And at the last when she saw that he would go,' said Gimli, 'then she begged to come with us! Indeed she knelt before him.

  Yet she is a proud lady. I wondered much what it all might mean, and I was grieved; for she was young and much troubled.

  But he raised her up and kissed her hand and without more words we departed. Yet I saw that he, too, was greatly grieved.'

  The earlier version was for the rest of its length very largely repeated: that is to say, the original pages were retained with their pagination altered and some passages rewritten. Legolas now plays a larger part in the narration, describing the ride to Erech (see pp. 409 - 10), at which point Gimli re-enters: '"Yes, indeed, and never shall I forget!" said Gimli, taking up the tale again. "For the terror of the Dead lay on the hill and all the land about it"'; he continues much as in RK pp. 62 - 3, but he does not say that Isildur set up the Stone of Erech at his landing ('It looked as if it had fallen from the sky, but it was brought out of the West, we were told'), and he still repeats the story (p. 411) that when the Shadow-men gathered about the Stone 'sometimes a cry would be heard in our speech:(41) "We have come!"' The tower and ring-wall on the Hill of Erech, and the Palantír, have now disappeared.

  For the second of the new chapters my father wrote a new opening, beginning (cf. p. 403) 'In the meanwhile Imrahil sent for Eomer and went down with him, and they came to the tents of Aragorn...' To this he added the existing pages of the manuscript recounting the course of the debate, which ended at 'And he drew forth Branding and held it up glittering in the sun' (p. 405), and then the manuscript of the story of the journey to the Morannon and the Parley. On the new opening he pencilled the title 'Parley at the Gate' and the chapter number 'LI', so that 'The Paths of the Dead' was 'L' (see note 10). The structure was now (see p. 416):

  The Paths of the Dead Gimli and Legolas go to the Houses of Healing, and Merry and Pippin hear the tale of the journey of the Grey Company from Dunharrow to the Battle of the Pelennor Fields.

  Parley at the Gate 'The Last Debate', ending with Aragorn's drawing the sword of Elendil; the journey to the Morannon, and the parley with the Lieutenant of Barad-dûr.

  It was probably now that my father made a typescript of the two chapters, the text diverging very little from the manuscript material as now reorganised;(42) but he treated them as subdivisions of a single chapter, without an overall title, and with the puzzling number 'XLIX' (see note 10): (i) 'The Paths of the Dead' and (ii) 'Parley at the Black Gate'.

  The subsequent history of the chapter is textually exceedingly complicated, but I shall treat it briefly. The first typescript was very heavily revised, and two large sections of it were written out anew in a separate manuscript. The effect of all this was to bring the narrative closer in very many points to the texts in RK, and indeed much of the earlier part now required little more than grammatical alteration to bring Gimli's story to the direct author's narrative in 'The Passing of the Grey Company.'(43)

  In the ride from Erech over Tarlang's Neck into Lamedon the deserted town of Calembel upon Ciril (so spelt, with C) appears,(44) and the blood-red sunset behind Pinnath Gelin (RK p. 63): the final chronology had now entered (see the Note at the end of this chapter). Angbor of Lamedon is now named, but the new text differs here from that of RK (p. 151):

  'Then Aragorn said to Angbor their captain who alone stayed to meet him: "Behold! I am not the King of the Dead, but the Heir of Isildur, and I live yet for a while. Follow me, if you wish to see the end of this darkness and the downfall of Mordor."

  'And Angbor answered: "I will gather all men that I may, and follow after you swiftly." His was a stout heart indeed, and I grieve that he fell beside me, as we clove our way from the Harlond.

  In RK (p. 153) Angbor of Lamedon came to Pelargir but did not go up Anduin in the black fleet; he is last referred to by Aragorn in the debate in his tent (p. 157) as marching at the head of four thousand men from Pelargir through Lossarnach and expected soon to arrive at Minas Tirith.

  To Legolas' words about the Sea (p. 414) he now adds his second reference to the gulls (RK p. 151): 'Alas! for the wailing of the gulls. Did not the Lady tell me to beware of them. For they cannot be forgotten.' He is thinking of Galadriel's message to him, spoken by Gandalf in Fangorn (TT p. 106):

  Legolas Greenleaf long under tree

  In joy thou hast lived. Beware of the Sea!

  If thou hearest the cry of the gull on the shore,

  Thy heart shall then rest in the forest no more.

  For Galadriel's original message to Legolas, and its application, see p. 22.

  There is an interesting passage immediately following in this revised version. In the version given on p. 413 there was fighting on the shores, for 'there were captains sent by Mordor, and orc-chieftains, and they were not so easily dismayed, and they endeavoured to hold their men to a defence. And indeed the Haradrim are a grim folk, and not easily daunted by shade or blade.' This was rejected, following a note that there was in fact no fighting at Pelargir: 'But fear was the only weapon that we needed, for the grey host passed on to every ship ... and all the men that were in them fled, or leaped overboard' (p. 414). My father now went back on this decision.

  'I soon forgot them [the gulls] for my part,' said Gimli. 'For at last we came to a battle. The Haradrim were driven now to despair, and could fly no longer. There at Pelargir lay the fleets of Umbar, fifty great ships and many smaller vessels beyond count. Some few of our
enemies reached their ships and put off, seeking either to escape down the River or to reach the far shores; and some they set fire to. But we came too swiftly upon them for many to slip from us so. We were joined by some of the hardier folk of Lebennin and the Ethir, but we were not many when the corsairs turned to bay; and seeing our weakness their hearts revived and they assailed us in their turn. There was stern work there in the twilight by the grey waters, for the Shadow Host halted and wavered, unwilling at the last, as it seemed, to make war on Sauron. Then Aragorn let blow a horn and cried aloud, saying that if they broke their oath a second time

  Here my father stopped and rewrote the passage to a form not essentially different from that in RK, where the Shadow Host is still said to have 'hung back at the last', but with no explicit suggestion that they were reluctant to fulfil the oath, and where for the living there was no need for 'stern work in the twilight by the grey waters'.