by Miguel
The idea of the Riders and the Ring was no doubt evolving as my father wrote. I think it very possible that when he first described the halts of the black horsemen beside the hiding hobbits he imagined them as drawn by scent alone (see p. 75); and it is not clear in any case in what way the use of the Ring would 'help them more than you.' As I have said, it is deeply characteristic that these scenes emerged at once in the clear and memorable form that was never changed, but that their bearing and significance would afterwards be enormously enlarged. The 'event' (one might say) was fixed, but its meaning capable of indefinite extension; and this is seen, over and over again, as a prime mark of my father's writing. In FR, from the intervening chapter The Shadow of the Past, we have some notion of what that other feeling was which struggled with Frodo's desire to hide, of why Gandalf had so urgently forbidden him to use the Ring, and of why he was driven irresistibly to put it on; and when we have read further we know what would have happened if he had. The scenes here are empty by comparison, yet they are the same scenes. Even such slight remarks as Bingo's 'I don't know, and I don't want to guess' (p. 55) - in the context, a mere expression of doubt and discomfort, if with a suggestion that Gandalf must have said something, or rather, that my father was beginning to think that Gandalf must have said something - survived to take on a much more menacing significance in FR (p. 85), where we have a very good idea of what Frodo chose not to guess about.
Frodo Took's story of his meeting with a Rider on the moors in the North of the Shire in the previous spring is the forerunner of Sam's sudden remembering that a Rider had come to Hobbiton and spoken with Gaffer Gamgee on the evening of their departure; but it seems strange that the beginning of the hunt for 'Baggins' should be set so long before (see p. 74 and note 4).
The striking out of Gildor's words 'for the matter is outside the concern of such Elves as we are' (note 27) is interesting. At first, I think, my father thought of these Elves as 'Dark-elves'; but he now decided that they (and also the Elves of Rivendell) were indeed 'High Elves of the West', and he added in Gildor's words to Bingo on p. 60 (see note 18): they were 'Wise-elves' (Noldor or Gnomes), 'one of the few companies that still remain east of the Sea', and he himself is Gildor Inglorion of the house of Finrod. With these words of Gildor's cf. the Quenta Silmarillion $28, in V.332:
Yet not all the Eldalie were willing to forsake the Hither Lands where they had long suffered and long dwelt; and some lingered many an age in the West and North... But ever as the ages drew on and the Elf-folk faded upon earth, they would set sail at eve from the western shores of this world, as still they do, until now there linger few anywhere of their lonely companies.
At this time Finrod was the name of the third son of Finwe (first Lord of the Noldor). This was later changed to Finarfin, when Inglor Felagund his son took over the name Finrod (see I.44), but my father did not change 'of the house of Finrod' here (FR p. 89) to 'of the house of Finarfin' in the second edition of The Lord of the Rings. See further p. 188 (end of note 9).
The geography of the Shire was now taking more substantial shape. In this chapter there emerge the North Moor(s); the Green Hill Country lying to the south of Hobbiton; the Pool of Bywater (described in rough drafting for the passage as a 'little lake'); the East Road to the Brandywine Bridge, where the Water joined the Brandywine; the road branching off from it southward and leading in a direct line to Buckland; and the hamlet of Woodhall in the Woody End.
III. OF GOLLUM AND THE RING.
I have suggested that by this stage my father knew a good deal more about the Riders and the Ring than Bingo did, or than he permitted Gildor to tell; and evidence for this is found in the manuscript draft referred to on p. 48. This begins, at any rate, as a draft for a part of the conversation between Bingo and Gildor, but the talk here moves into topics which my father excluded from the typescript version (pp. 62-5). Gildor is not yet named, in fact, and indeed it was apparently in this text that he emerged as an individual: at first the conversation is between Bingo and an undifferentiated plural 'they'.
The passage begins with an apparently disconnected sentence: 'Since he did not tell his companions what he discovered I think I shall not tell you.' (Does this refer to what Bingo discovered from the Elves?) Then follows:
'Of course,' they said, 'we know that you are in search of
Adventure; but it often happens that when you think it is ahead, it comes up unexpectedly from behind. Why did you choose this moment to set out?'
'Well, the moment was really inevitable, you know,' said Bingo. 'I had come to the end of my treasure. And by wandering I thought I might find some more, like old Bilbo, and at least should be able more easily to live without any. I thought too it might be good for me. I was getting rather soft and fat.'
'Yes,' they laughed, 'you look just like an ordinary hobbit.'
'But though I can do a few things - like carpentry and gardening: I did not feel inclined somehow to make other people's chairs, or grow other people's vegetables for a living. I suppose some tiny touch of dragon-curse came to me. I am gold-lazy.'
'Then Gandalf did not tell you anything? You were not actually escaping.'
'What do you mean? What from?'
'Well, this black rider,' they said.
'I don't understand them at all.'
'Then Gandalf told you nothing? '
'Not about them. He warned Bilbo a long time ago about the Ring, of course (1). Don t use it too much!> he used to say.
'I seldom saw Gandalf after Bilbo went away. But about a year ago he came one night, and I told him of the plan I was beginning to make for leaving Bag-end. "What about the Ring?" he asked. "Are you being careful? Do be careful: otherwise you will be overcome by it." I had as a matter of fact hardly ever used it - and I did not use it again after that talk until my birthday party.'
'Does anyone else know about it?'
'I cannot say; but I don't think so. Bilbo kept it very secret. He always told me that I was the only one who knew about it (in the Shire).(2) I never told anyone else except Odo and Frodo who are my best friends. I have tried to be to them what Bilbo was to me. But even to them I never spoke of the Ring until they agreed to come with me on this Journey a few months ago. They would not tell anyone - though we often speak of it among ourselves. - Well, what do you make of it all? I can see you are bursting with secrets, but I cannot guess any of them.'
'Well,' said the Elf. 'I don't know much about this. You must find Gandalf as quick as you can - Rivendell I think is the place to go to. But it is my belief that the Lord of the Ring' is looking for you.'(3) 'Is that bad or good?'
'Bad; but how bad I cannot say. Bad enough if he only wants the ring back (which is unlikely); worse, if he wants payment; very bad indeed if he wants you as well (which is quite likely). We fancy that he must at last after many years have found out that Bilbo had it. Hence the asking for Baggins.'(4) But somehow the search for Baggins failed, and then something must have been discovered about you. But by strange luck you must have held your party and vanished just as they found out where you lived. You put off the scent; but they are hot on it now.'
'Who are they?'
'Servants of the Lord of the Ring - [? people] who have passed through the Ring.'
This ends a sheet, and the following sheet is not continuous with what precedes; but as found among my father's papers they were placed together, and on both of them he wrote (later) 'About Ring-wraiths'. The second passage is also part of a conversation, but there is no indication of who the speaker is (whoever it is, he is obviously speaking to Bingo). It was written at great speed and is extremely difficult to make out.
Yes, if the Ring overcomes you, you yourself become permanently invisible - and it is a horr
ible cold feeling. Everything becomes very faint like grey ghost pictures against the black background in which you live; but you can smell more clearly than you can hear or see.(5) You have no power however like a Ring of making other things invisible: you are a ringwraith. You can wear clothes. [> you are just a ringwraith; and your clothes are visible, unless the Lord lends you a ring.] But you are under the command of the Lord of the Rings.(6)
I expect that one (or more) of these Ringwraiths have been sent to get the ring away from hobbits.
In the very ancient days the Ring-lord made many of these Rings: and sent them out through the world to snare people. He sent them to all sorts of folk - the Elves had many, and there are now many elfwraiths in the world, but the Ring-lord cannot rule them; the goblins got many, and the invisible goblins are very evil and wholly under the Lord; dwarves I don't believe had any; some say the rings don't work on them: they are too solid. Men had few, but they were most quickly overcome and..... The men-wraiths are also servants of the Lord. Other creatures got them. Do you remember Bilbo's story of Gollum? (7) We don't know where Gollum comes in - certainly not elf, nor goblin; he is probably not dwarf; we rather believe he really belongs to an ancient sort of hobbit. Because the ring seems to act just the same for him and you. Long ago [? he belonged].... to a wise, cleverhanded and quietfooted little family. But he disappeared underground, and though he used the ring often the Lord evidently lost track of it. Until Bilbo brought it out to light again.
Of course Gollum himself may have heard news - all the mountains were full of it after the battle - and tried to get back the ring, or told the Lord.
At this point the manuscript stops. Here is a first glimpse of an earlier history of Gollum; a suggestion of how the hunt for the Ring originated; and a first sketching of the idea that the Dark Lord gave out Rings among the peoples of Middle-earth. The Rings conferred invisibility, and (it is at least implied) this invisibility was associated with the fate (or at least the peril) of the bearers of the Rings: that they become 'wraiths' and - in the case of goblins and men - servants of the Dark Lord.
Now at some very early stage my father wrote a chapter, without number or title, in which he made use of the passage just given; and this is the first drafting of (a part of) what ultimately became Chapter z, 'The Shadow of the Past'. As I have noticed, in the second of these two passages marked 'About Ring-wraiths' it is not clear who is speaking. It may be Gildor, or it may be Gandalf, or (perhaps most likely) neither the one nor the other, but indeterminate; but in any case I think that my father decided when writing the draft text of the second chapter that he would not have Gildor discussing these matters with Bingo (as he certainly does in the first of these 'Ring-wraith' passages, p. 74), but would reserve them for Gandalf's instruction, and that this was the starting-point of the chapter which I now give, in which as I have said he made use of the second 'Ring-wraith' passage. Whether he wrote this text at once, before going on to the third chapter (IV in this book), seems impossible to say; but the fact that Marmaduke is mentioned shows that it preceded 'In the House of Tom Bombadil', where 'Meriadoc' and 'Merry' first appear. This, at any rate, is a convenient place to put it. Subsequently my father referred to it as a 'foreword' (see p. 224), and it is clear that it was written as a possible new beginning for the book, in which Gandalf tells Bingo at Bag End, not long before the Party, something of the history and nature of his Ring, of his danger, and of the need for him to leave his home. It was composed very rapidly and is hard to read. I have introduced punctuation where needed, and occasionally put in silently necessary connective words. There are many pencilled alterations and additions which are here ignored, for they are anticipations of a later version of the chapter; but changes belonging to the time of composition are adopted into the text. There is no title.
One day long ago two people were sitting talking in a small room. One was a wizard and the other was a hobbit, and the room was the sitting-room of the comfortable and well-furnished hobbit-hole known as Bag-end, Underhill, on the outskirts of Hobbiton in the middle of the Shire. The wizard was of course Gandalf and he looked much the same as he had always done, though ninety years and more (8) had gone by since he last came into any story that is now remembered. The hobbit was Bingo Bolger- Baggins, the nephew (or really first cousin once removed) of old Bilbo Baggins, and his adopted heir. Bilbo had quietly disappeared many years before, but he was not forgotten in Hobbiton.
Bingo of course was always thinking about him; and when Gandalf paid him a visit their talk usually came back to Bilbo. Gandalf had not been to Hobbiton for some time: since Bilbo disappeared his visits had become fewer and more secret. The people of Hobbiton had not in fact seen or at any rate noticed himfor many years: he used to come quietly up to the door of Bag-end in the twilight and step in without knocking, and only Bingo (and one or two of his closest friends) knew he had been in the Shire. This evening he had slipped in in his usual way, and Bingo was more than usually glad to see him. For he was worried, and wanted explanations and advice.'(9) They were now talking of Bilbo, and his disappearance, and particularly about the Ring (which he had left behind with Bingo) - and about certain strange signs and portents of trouble brewing after a long time of peace and quiet.'(10)
'It is all very peculiar - and most disturbing and in fact terrifying,' said Bingo. Gandalf was sitting smoking in a high chair, and Bingo near his feet was huddled on a stool warming his hands by a small wood-fire as if he felt chilly, though actually it was rather a warm evening for the time of the year [written above: at the end of August].(11) Gandalf grunted - the sound might have meant 'I quite agree, but it can't be helped,' or else possibly 'What a silly thing to say.' There was a long silence. 'How long have you known all this?' asked Bingo at length; 'and did you ever talk about it to Bilbo?'
'I guessed a good deal immediately,' answered Gandalf slowly, as if searching back in memory. Already to him the days of the journey and the Dragon and the Battle of Five Armies began to seem far off - in an almost legendary past. Perhaps even he was at last getting to feel his age a little; and in any case many dark and curious adventures had befallen him since then. 'I guessed much,' he said, 'but soon I learnt more, for I went, as Bilbo may have told you, to the land of the Necromancer."(12) For a moment his voice faded to a whisper. 'But I knew that all was well with Bilbo,' he went on. 'Bilbo was safe, for that kind of power was powerless over him - or so I thought, and I was right in a way (if not quite right). I kept an eye on him and it, of course, but perhaps I was not careful enough.'
'I am sure you did your best,' said Bingo, meaning to console him. 'O dearest and best friend of our house, may your beard never grow less! But it must have been rather a blow when Bilbo disappeared.'
'Not at all,' said Gandalf, with a sudden return to his ordinary tones. He sent out a great jet of smoke with an indignant poof and it coiled round his head like a cloud on a mountain. 'That did not worry me. Bilbo is all right. It is you and all these other dear, silly, charming, idiotic, helpless hobbits that trouble me! It would be a mortal blow if the dark power should overcome the Shire, and all these jolly, greedy, stupid Bolgers, Bagginses, Brandybucks, Hornblowers, Proudfoots and whatnot became Wraiths.'
Bingo shuddered. 'But why should we?' he asked; 'and why should the Lord want such servants, and what has all this to do with me and the Ring?'
'It is the only Ring left,' said Gandalf. 'And hobbits are the only people of whom the Lord has not yet mastered any one.
'In (13) the ancient days the dark master made many Rings, and he dealt them out lavishly, so that they might be spread abroad to ensnare folk. The elves had many, and there are now many elf- wraiths in the world; the goblins had some and their wraiths are very evil and wholly under the command of the Lord. The dwarves it is said had seven, but nothing could make them invisible. In them it only kindled to flames the fire of greed, and the foundation of each of the seven hoards of the Dwarves of old was a golden ring. In this way the master controlled them.
But these hoards are destroyed, and the dragons have devoured them, and the rings are melted, or so some say.(14) Men had three rings, and others they found in secret places cast away by the elf-wraiths: the men-wraiths are servants of the Lord, and they brought all their rings back to him; till at last he had gathered all into his hands again that had not been destroyed by fire - all save one. 'It fell from the hand of an elf as he swam across a river; and it betrayed him, for he was flying from pursuit in the old wars, and he became visible to his enemies, and the goblins slew him.'(15) But a fish took the ring and was filled with madness, and swam upstream, leaping over rocks and up waterfalls until it cast itself on a bank and spat out the ring and died.
'There was long ago living by the bank of the stream a wise, cleverhanded and quietfooted little family."16 I guess they were of hobbit-kind, or akin to the fathers of the fathers of the hobbits. The most inquisitive and curious-minded of that family was called Digol. He was interested in roots and beginnings; he dived in deep pools, he burrowed under trees and growing plants, he tunnelled into green mounds, and he ceased to look up at flowers, and hill- tops, or the birds that are in the upper air: his head and eyes were downward. He found the ring in the mud of the river-bank under the roots of a thorn tree; and he put it on; and when he returned home none of his family saw him while he wore it. He was pleased with his discovery and concealed it, and he used it to discover secrets, and put his knowledge to malicious use, and became sharp-eyed and keen-eared for all that was unpleasant. It is not to be wondered at that he became very unpopular, and was shunned (when visible) by all his relatives. They kicked him, and he bit their feet. He took to muttering to himself and gurgling in his throat. So they called him Gollum, and cursed him, and told him to go far away. He wandered in loneliness up the stream and caught fish with his fingers in deep pools and ate them raw. One day it was very hot, and as he was bending over a pool he felt a burning on the back of his head, and a dazzling light from the water pained his eyes. He wondered, for he had almost forgotten about the sun; and for the last time he looked up and shook his fist at it; but as he lowered his eyes again he saw far ahead the tops of the Misty Mountains. And he thought suddenly: "It would be cool and shady under those mountains. The sun could never find me there. And the roots of those peaks must be roots indeed; there must be great secrets buried there which have not been discovered since the beginning." So he journeyed by night towards the mountains, and found a hole out of which a stream issued; and he wormed his way in like a maggot in the heart of the hills, and disappeared from all knowledge. And the ring went into the shadows with him, and even the Master lost it. But whenever he counted his rings, besides the seven rings that the Dwarves had held and lost, there was also one missing.'