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

by J. R. R. Tolkien

  46. The title that my father first chose for the chapter when the final structure had been reached was 'Tidings and Counsel': the 'tidings' of Gimli and Legolas, and the 'counsel' of Gandalf at the debate of the lords.

  Note on the Chronology.

  In the outline 'The march of Aragorn and the defeat of the Haradrim' (pp. 397 - 9) the dates of Aragorn's journey are as follows:

  The latter part of this chronology seems obviously unsatisfactory, in that the fleet is 100 miles up Anduin in the early morning of March 14, and yet nothing is said of any further journeying on the 14th: the last stretch is accomplished under sail on the morning of the 15th. Against this date (p. 399) my father wrote '14'; and in the companion outline 'The Story Foreseen from Forannest' (p. 360) the charge of the Rohirrim on the 15th was likewise changed to the 14th - which was the date in 'The Siege of Gondor', p. 342.

  With the date of Aragorn's entering the Paths of the Dead cf. pp. 309 and 311, notes 9 and 18 (February 6 = March 8). The Dawnless Day is still March 9 (cf. p. 342).

  In the manuscript of 'The Tale of Gimli and Legolas' this chronology is preserved - with March 14 as the date of the Battle of the Pelennor Fields. Thus Gimli tells that the Company came to Erech 'just ere the midnight hour - and black it was wellnigh as in the caverns, for though we did not know it yet the darkness of Mordor was creeping over us' (p. 410), and again (p. 412): 'The next morning day did not dawn' (in the margin of the manuscript the figure 9 is written here). 'At nightfall of the second day from Erech' they came to Linhir (and here 10 is written in the margin). They 'rose ere night had passed' (i.e. before dawn on March 11) and rode across Lebennin, 'all that day and through the next night'; and Gimli says that 'it was day, I guessed, by the hidden sun - the fourth since we left Dunharrow' (p. 413) when they reached the shores of Anduin at Pelargir, i.e. the morning of March 12. 'Before the fifth day was over we had taken well nigh all the fleet', which as will be seen in a moment means 'the fifth day of the journey', i.e. March 12.

  The first version of the events at Pelargir ends here; in the second version Legolas says (note 36) that the day they reached Pelargir was 'the fifth of our journey' (March 12), that they rested that night 'while others laboured' - but also that the fleet set out up Anduin 'on the fifth morning, that is the day before yesterday' (March 13). This shows clearly that Legolas was distinguishing between 'the fifth day of our journey (March 12) and the fifth morning since we left Dunharrow (March 13) - so also in RK (p. 153) 'the sixth [morning] since we rode from Dunharrow' is the seventh day of the whole journey. Since it was now the day after the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, and the fleet left Pelargir on 'the day before yesterday', the battle took place on March 14.

  The difference of this chronology from that of LR is therefore thus:

  In the chronology of the manuscript text Aragorn's journey from Dunharrow to Pelargir took four days and nights, reaching the Anduin on the fifth day, and setting out up river on the morning of the sixth day. In LR Aragorn took three days, not two, from Erech to Linhir, and so five days and nights to Pelargir. Thus in the manuscript (p. 411) Gimli says that from Erech 'then followed the weariest journey that I have ever known... three days and nights and on into another day', whereas when in RK (p. 150) Legolas speaks of the great ride from Erech to Pelargir he says: 'Four days and nights, and on into a fifth, we rode from the Black Stone'.

  Lastly, whereas in the manuscript text the Darkness out of Mordor came over the sky during the night of March 8, and 'the next morning day did not dawn', in RK (p. 151) 'one day of light we rode, and then came the day without dawn' (and in the earlier passage at the end of 'The Passing of the Grey Company', RK p. 63, in the evening of the day on which they left Erech at dawn 'the sun went down like blood behind Pinnath Gelin away in the West behind them', and 'the next day there came no dawn').

  XIII. THE BLACK GATE OPENS.

  As I have explained in the last chapter (p. 416), the story of the journey to the Morannon, the parley with the Lieutenant of Barad-dûr, and the attack on the Host of the West in the slag-hills before the Gate, was written before my father made any move to break up and reorganize the presentation of the narrative in the single very long chapter, which would ultimately be distributed between 'The Passing of the Grey Company', 'The Last Debate', and 'The Black Gate Opens'. For the conclusion of Book V he had in fact already written some time before a very full outline ('The Story Foreseen from Forannest', pp. 360 - 2), and this, when he came to write the narrative, he followed remarkably closely. Already present in the outline were the coming of the vanguard to Minas Morghul and the burning of the lands about, the silence that followed the summons to Sauron to come forth, the embassy from the Dark Tower already prepared, the display of Frodo's mithril coat, the blackmailing terms for the surrender of Frodo, Gandalf's refusal to treat and taking of the mithril coat, and the hosts lying ready in ambush. The chief differences from the final story were the coming of the Ents (with Elves of Lorien) to the Morannon (with an express declaration by the ambassador of Sauron that the Ents shall help to rebuild Isengard), uncertainty whether Merry and Pippin were present, and the person of the ambassador: doubtfully identified as the Wizard King (implying a different view of the outcome of his encounter with Éowyn and Merry in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields), but certainly a Nazgûl ('flinging off his garments he vanishes').

  For the narrative there is both initial draft and fair copy, which doubtless belong to the same time, since the first two pages are common to both: from the point where the first text became quicker and rougher my father replaced it; but in the first draft the story as it stands in RK was already present in almost every point. Aragorn's dismissal of the faint-hearted (as it is described in The Tale of Years) was however (in both texts) Gandalf's, and the cause of their faint-heartedness more immediate (cf. RK p. 162):

  ... and they could descry the marshes and the desert that stretched north and west to the Emyn Muil. And now the Nazgûl swept down over them unceasingly, and often daring within bowshot of the earth they would plunge shrieking down,and their fell voices made even the boldest blench. Some there were who were so unmanned that they could neither walk nor ride further north.

  This survived into the fair copy, where it was replaced by the text of RK (p. 162), in which the Nazgûl did not closely approach the Host of the West until the final attack on the Slag-hills. In the draft text it is said that 'some 500 left the host' and went off south-west towards Cair Andros.

  No more is said in the draft of the history of the Lieutenant of Baraddur,(1) the nameless Mouth of Sauron, than that 'It is told that he was a living man, who being-captured as a youth became a servant of the Dark Tower, and because of his cunning grew high in the Lord's favour ...' In the fair copy this was repeated, but was changed subsequently to: 'But it is said that he was a renegade, son of a house of wise and noble men in Gondor, who becoming enamoured of evil knowledge entered the service of the Dark Tower, and because of his cunning [and the fertile cruelty of his mind] [and servility] he grew ever higher in the Lord's favour ...' (these phrases being thus bracketed in the original). In RK (p. 164) the Mouth of Sauron 'came of the race of those that are named the Black Númenóreans'.(2)

  NOTES.

  1. First written 'the Lieutenant of Morgul', but this may very probably have been no more than a slip.

  2. A few other minor points may be mentioned together. The Morgul Pass (RK p. 161) is called 'the Pass of Kirith Ungol' in the fair copy, and the Pass of Cirith Gorgor (RK p. 162) is 'the Pass of Gorgoroth' in both texts, changed to 'the Pass of Kirith-Gorgor' in the fair copy. In the draft text Damrod of Henneth Annûn reappears again, with Mablung, as a leader of the scouts in Ithilien (RK p. 162); the host can see from their camp on the last night the red lights in the Towers of the Teeth; and in Gandalf's concluding words to the Mouth of Sauron (RK p. 167) he retains the words he used in the original outline (p. 362): 'Begone! But let fear eat your heart: for if you so much as set a thorn in the flesh of your p
risoner you shall rue it through all ages.'

  Note on the Chronology

  In The Tale of Years in LR the following dates are given:

  In both manuscript texts the same indications of date are given, and in the same words, as in RK, except in one point. The Host here left Minas Tirith on 17 March (this date being written in the margin), and since this was two days after 'the Last Debate', which itself took place on the day after the battle, the date of the Battle of the Pelennor Fields was here the 14th of March, not the 15th (see p. 428). In the present versions, however, the difference of one day in the date of the departure from Minas Tirith is soon lost, for this reason: where in RK (p. 160) the first day's march ended five miles beyond Osgiliath, but 'the horsemen pressed on and ere evening they came to the Cross Roads' (i.e. 18 March), it is said here that 'Next day the horsemen pressed on and ere evening they came to the Cross Roads' (i.e. 18 March); and it was again 'on the next day' that 'the main host came up' (with the date '19' in the margin). Thus where it is said in RK (p. 161) 'The day after, being the third day since they set out from Minas Tirith, the army began its northward march along the road', it is here 'the fourth day', with the date '20' written in the margin.

  It may be noted lastly that where in RK (p. 163) on the night of 24 March 'the waxing moon was four nights old', here it was 'but three days from the full moon' on the night before the day on which the Ring was destroyed.

  XIV. THE SECOND MAP.

  Whenever this map was first made, it was certainly my father's working map during the writing of Book V of The Lord of the Rings.(1) The first stage in its making was carried out in black ink, but black ink was also used later, and since it was not drawn and lettered at its first making with the meticulousness of the earlier stages of the First Map it is scarcely possible to isolate the layers of accretion by this means. Red ink was also used for a few alterations, and in the final stage of its useful life corrections and additions were very roughly made in blue ink (also in blue crayon and pencil).

  The single sheet of paper on which it was made is now, after so much use many years ago, limp, torn, wrinkled, stained, and rubbed, and some of the later pencillings can scarcely be seen. It is ruled in squares of 2 cm. side (= 100 miles), the squares being lettered and numbered according to the First Map. In my redrawing I have divided it into a western and an eastern portion, with the central vertical line of squares (14} repeated.

  The attempt to redraw it posed difficulties. In places there is such a cobweb of fine crisscrossing and competing lines (the 'contours' are very impressionistic) as to bewilder the eye, and the redrawing had to be done while holding a lens; even so, I have certainly not followed every last wiggle with fidelity. Here and there it is hard to make out what the markings actually are or to interpret what they represent. In the region south of the White Mountains the map is so extremely crowded, and there are so many alterations and additions of names made at different times, that (since a primary aim of the redrawing is clarification) I have found it best to omit a number of names and explain the changes in the account of the map that follows; and for the same reason I have shown the new course of Anduin at Minas Tirith but not the new sites of Barad-dûr and Mount Doom. The redrawing is therefore avowedly inconsistent in what is shown and what is not, but I think inevitably so; and the following notes are an essential part of its presentation.

  I refer to the map of Rohan, Gondor and Mordor published in The Return of the King as 'the large LR map'.

  The account of the Rivers of Gondor written on this map has been given in Vol. VII (p. 312) in a discussion of peculiarities in the original conception of the southern rivers, but since in reducing my redrawing to the size of the printed page the writing becomes extremely small I repeat it here:

  Ereg (later Erui) has now essentially its final place and course; Sirith likewise, but with no western tributary (Kelos on the large LR map) - the lines on the map in this valley are a dense maze and I have simplified them in the redrawing, but it is clear that there is only a single stream. Lossarnach seems to have been a much larger region than it is on the LR maps, but this may be due merely to the lettering of a long name in a small space.

  Lameduin, while clearly written with final -n in the list of rivers (as also in the text given on pp. 397 ff.) is equally clearly written Lamedui on the map itself, and should perhaps have been so represented. It is also clear that there are three tributary streams marked, although only two, Serni and Kelos, are referred to in the list (and there is no place for another in 'the five rivers of Lebennin'); only the easternmost, Serni, is named on the map. All three join together at a place marked with a black dot (R 12), though this was at first given no name (see below). Ringlo, Kiril, and Morthond have essentially the final courses; but Kiril is not a tributary of Ringlo as it is on the LR maps, and a fourth river, unnamed on the map but called Calenhir in the list of rivers, comes in from Pinnath Gelin to the westward. At the junction of the four streams the map is very hard to interpret: it is not clear which rivers have joined at the place marked by a black dot (Q 11) and which flow independently into Cobas Haven, the bay north of Dol Amroth. Beside the dot (in small lettering as if referring to the dot) was originally written Lamedon, which was struck through, and which I think was probably a simple error (in view of Lameduin many miles to the east). Above Lamedon was written Linhir, also struck through. The earliest reference to Linhir in the texts is found in the outline 'The Story Foreseen from Forannest' (p. 361), where the Darkness out of Mordor is seen by the Ents as 'a great blackness ... extending in breadth from Rauros to Linhir, this could imply the earlier position, above Cobas Haven, but perhaps more probably the later, on Lameduin (Gilrain). The crossing of Ringlo was a later addition in red ink.

  The name Lamedon was written a second time across R 13 (beneath Serni and above Lebennin), and this placing obviously consorts with the river-name Lameduin. In this position it was again struck out, Lameduin changed to Gilrain, and Linhir written against the dot on R 12 where the three streams join. Lamedon was later written in a third and final location (but see note 2) at the top of q 12, across the upper waters of Kiril and Ringlo.

  The emergence of the new geography can be traced in the texts. In the outline 'The march of Aragorn and defeat of the Haradrim' (see pp. 397 - 8 and note 4) occurs the following:

  Erech to Fords of Lameduin (say Linhir?) is 175 miles direct, about 200 by road.... At Linhir on Lameduin men of Lebennin and Lamedon are defending passage of river against Haradwaith.

  When this was written Lamedon still lay north of Ethir Anduin, a northward region of Lebennin, and 'the men of Lebennin and Lamedon' had withdrawn westwards to the line of the river, which they were attempting to hold. But already in the original drafts for the story of the ride of the Grey Company in 'The Last Debate' (see pp. 411 - 12) they passed 'over Tarlang's Neck into Lamedon', Lameduin has become Gilrain, and (as in RK, p. 151) it was the men of Lamedon who contested the passage of Gilrain against the Haradrim.(2) The dot near the bottom right-hand corner of P 11 marks Erech (named on the original); this was an addition, as was the river flowing down from Erech to join the course of Morthond as originally marked on P - Q 11. To the dot on the river Kiril (Q 12), a later addition, is attached the pencilled name Caerost on Kiril; this was the forerunner of Calembel, where Kiril was crossed (RK p. 63). Neither Caerost nor Calembel is found in the original manuscript of 'The Last Debate' (see p. 419). The other dot on Q12, east of the crossing of Ringlo, is marked with the pencilled name Tarnost, which so far as I know does not appear elsewhere.

  The name Belfalas was a late addition (see p. 293 note 22); and a note added early to the map directs that Pinnath Gelin should be made into 'lower Green Hills'.

  The name Odotheg 'Seventh' of Gwathlo or Greyflood was changed in pencil to Odothui; on this name see VII.311 - 12. The last letter of Lhefneg was also changed: most probably it was first written Lhefned and then immediately altered to Lhefneg, the form of the name in the list of rivers wri
tten on the map.

  North of the White Mountains a line of dots on squares P 13, Q 13-14 represents the beacon hills; on this see p. 354 note 3.

  Moving eastwards to Q14, the original course of Anduin can be j discerned on the original, running in a straight line from below the confluence of Ereg to where the river bends north-west below Osgiliath. The great elbow in Anduin here and the hills of Haramon that caused it were superimposed later in blue ink, Haramon being afterwards struck out and Emyn Arnen substituted (with some totally illegible name preceding it). In the original text of the chapter 'Minas Tirith' (p. 278) there was no mention of this feature. It is shown (but without the hills around which the river bends) on the little map drawn on a page added to the manuscript of 'The Ride of the Rohirrim' (p. 353); and it first appears in the texts in the outline 'The Story Foreseen from Forannest' (see p. 359 and note 3): 'the [Pelennor] wall right above the stream which bends round the Hills of Haramon'. The name Emyn Arnen appears in the drafting of 'The Battle of the Pelennor Fields' (p. 370). I have very little doubt that it was indeed the development of the story of the battle that brought the great bend in Anduin around the hills of Haramon/Emyn Arnen into being; for so the black fleet could be brought right under the wall of the Pelennor, and victory assured in the face of disaster by the exceedingly dramatic and utterly unlooked for arrival, on the very field, of Aragorn with the Rangers and the sons of Elrond, and all the men newly gathered from the southern fiefs.