returnoftheshadow72

by Miguel

  Lastly, at the very end of the chapter, the rhyme that Tom Bombadil taught the hobbits to sing if in need of him is different from that in FR:

  Ho! Tom Bombadil! Whither do you wander?

  Up, down, near or far? Here, there, or yonder?

  By hill that stands, wood that grows, and by the water falling,

  Here now we summon you! Can you hear us calling?

  This rhyme was at first present in the next chapter, when Bingo sang it in the barrow; but it was replaced there at the time of writing by Ho! Tom Bombadil, Tom Bombadillo! etc., as in FR (p. 153). In the present passage my father wrote in the margin: 'Or substitute rhyme in chapter VI', and that was done (FR p. 145).

  NOTES.

  1. This is the first occurrence of Meriadoc for Marmaduke in a manuscript as originally written.

  2. The word looks very much like badgers. If this is so, it must be a reference to the badgers who captured Tom Bombadil in the poem ('By the coat they caught him, pulled Tom inside the hole, down their tunnels brought him'); see The Adventures of Tom Bombadil (1962), pp. 12 - 13 (the verses describing Tom's encounter with the badgers were left virtually unchanged in the later version). In the next text of this chapter Tom was telling the hobbits 'an absurd story about badgers and their odd ways' when Bingo slipped on the Ring; and this was retained in FR.

  3. The story of the wet second day at Bombadil's was written ab initio in pencil, then a part of the manuscript overwritten in ink; for the last part of the chapter, from supper on the second day, there is both pencilled draft and manuscript in ink. But it is clear that all this work was continuous and overlapping.

  4. The question about Old Man Willow on the night before is asked by Merry (by Frodo in FR); i.e. by one who had not been imprisoned in the tree.

  5. A passage very close to that in FR (from 'Tom's words laid bare the hearts of trees') was substituted, probably while the manuscript was in progress or very soon after.

  6. a mort: a great many.

  7. Conceivably, some pencilled emendations to the typescript of the third chapter were added at this time and in this connection. Frodo Took's words of Farmer Maggot, 'He lives in a house' (p. 92), were thus extended: 'He is not a hobbit - not a pure hobbit anyway. He is rather large and has hair under his chin. But his family has had these fields time out of mind.' And when Maggot appears (p.94), 'a large round hobbit-face' was changed to 'a large round hair-framed face.' Afterwards, in the Prologue to LR, the hobbits of the Eastfarthing were decribed as being 'rather large and heavy-legged'. 'they were well known to be Stoors in a large part of their blood, as indeed was shown by the down that many grew on their chins. No Harfoot or Fallohide had any trace of a beard.' See p. 294.

  There has already been a hint earlier that Farmer Maggot was not altogether what he appeared to be, in Merry s remark (p. 103): He used to go into the Old Forest at one time, and had the reputation of knowing a thing or two outside the Shire.' This was retained in FR (p.113).

  VII. THE BARROW-WIGHT.

  My father's earliest thoughts on the encounter with the Barrow-wight (written down while he was working on the story of the hobbits in the Old Forest) have been given on p. 112. When he came to write this chapter he began with a pencilled draft(1) that took the story as far as the hobbits' waking beside the standing stone in the hollow circle on the Downs, and leading their ponies down from it into the fog (FR p. 149). Like many of his preliminary drafts, this would be virtually illegible had he not followed it closely in the first full manuscript (in ink), for words that could be interpreted in a dozen ways without context can then be identified at once. In this case he did no more than improve the hasty wording of the draft, and add the passage describing the view northwards from the stone pillar, with the dark line in the distance that Merry took for trees bordering the East Road.

  If the draft continued beyond this point it is lost now; but in fact the manuscript in ink could well be the primary composition. There is however a very rough pencilled plot-outline for the story from the point where 'Bingo comes to himself inside a barrow', and this outline continues the story to Rivendell. This is so rapidly written and now so faint that I cannot after much effort make it all out. The worst part, however, is at the beginning, extending from Bingo's finding himself in the barrow to Tom's waking Odo, Frodo, and Merry, and from what is legible it can be seen that while very concise and limited all the essentials of the narrative were present. I shall not therefore try to represent this part, but give the remainder of the outline in full in this place, since it is of great interest in showing my father's thoughts on the further course of the story at this juncture - i.e. before the 'Barrow-wight' chapter had been completed.

  Tom sings a song over Odo Frodo Merry. Wake now my merry...!

  .........(2) of the [?pillar] and how they became separated. Tom puts a blessing or a curse on the gold and lays it on the top of the mound. None of the hobbits will have any but Tom takes a brooch for Goldberry.

  Tom says he will go with them, after chiding them for sleeping by the stone pillar. They soon find the Road and the way seems short. They turn along the Road. [? Gallops] come after them. Tom turns and holds up his hand. They fly back.(3) As dusk falls they see a... light. Tom says goodbye - for Goldberry will be waiting.

  They sleep at the inn and hear news of Gandalf. Jolly landlord. Drinking song.

  Pass rapidly over rest of journey to Rivendell. Any riders on the Road? Make them foolishly turn aside to visit Troll Stones. This delays them. One day at last they halted on a rise and looked forward to the Ford. Galloping behind. Seven (3? 4?) Black- riders hastening along the Road. They have gold rings and crowns. Flight over Ford. Bingo [written above: Gandalf?] flings a stone and imitates Tom Bombadil. Go back and ride away! The Riders halt as if astonished, and looking up at the hobbits on the bank the hobbits can see no faces in their hoods. Go back says Bingo, but he is not Tom Bombadil, and the riders ride into the ford. But just then a rumbling rush is heard and a great [? wall] of water bowling stones roars down the river from the mountains. Elves arrive.

  The Riders draw back just in time in dismay. The hobbits ride as hard as they can to Rivendell.

  At Rivendell sleeping Bilbo Gandalf. Some explanations. Ringmail of Bingo in barrow and the dark rocks - (the 3 hobbits had dashed past the rocks when suddenly they all became [? shut] off??) Gandalf had sent the water down with Elrond's permission.

  Gandalf astonished to hear about Tom.

  Consultation of hobbits with Elrond and Gandalf.

  The Quest of the Fiery Mountain.

  This projection ends here. While my father had already conceived the scene at the Ford, with the sudden rising of the Bruinen (and the cry of Bingo/Frodo to the Riders: Go back!), Strider (not at first called Strider) would only emerge with the greatly increased significance of the Inn (which here first appears) at Bree in the next chapter; and there is no hint of Weathertop. If the 'dark rocks' are the 'two huge standing stones' through which Bingo/Frodo passed in the fog on the Downs (FR p. 150) - they are called 'standing rocks' in the first version - it is odd that discussion of this was postponed till the hobbits reached Rivendell; but possibly the words 'some explanations' imply that Gandalf was able to throw light on what had happened.(4) On the 'Ring- mail of Bingo in barrow' see p. 223. The Cracks of Earth in the depths of the Fiery Mountain are named by Gandalf as the only heat great enough to destroy Bilbo's ring (p. 82); here for the first time the Fiery Mountain enters the story as the goal for which they will in the end be bound.

  The first full manuscript of this chapter (simply headed 'VI' and as usual at this stage without title) is fully legible for most of its length, but as so frequently becomes quicker and rougher, ending in rapid pencil. This my father went over here and there in ink, partly to improve the expression, partly to clarify his own writing; this certainly belongs to the same period, but after he had started on the next chapter.

  As with the previous two chapters, the final form of FR Chapter 8 ('F
og on the Barrow-downs') is very largely present: for most of its length only very minor alterations were made afterwards. In what follows I note points of difference that seem to me of interest, though most are very slight.

  In the opening paragraph the song and vision 'in dreams or out of them' is told in the same words in the old text, but is ascribed not to Bingo (Frodo in FR) alone, but to all the hobbits.

  When they looked back over the forest and saw the knoll on which they had rested before their descent to the Withywindle valley, 'the fir-trees growing there could be seen now small and dark in the West' (see p. 113). When the hobbits became separated in the fog, and Bingo cried out miserably 'Where are you?' (FR p. 150), my father at first had a quite different story in mind:

  'Here! Here! ' came the voices suddenly plain and not far to the right. Plunging blindly towards them he bumped suddenly into the tail of a pony. An undoubted hobbit-voice (it was Odo's) gave a shriek of fright, and [he] fell over something on the ground. The something kicked him, and gave a yell. 'Help! ' it cried in the undoubted voice of Odo.

  'Thank goodness,' said Bingo, rolling on the ground in Odo's arms. 'Thank goodness I have found you! '

  'Thank goodness indeed!' said Odo in a relieved voice; 'but need you really run away without warning and then jump down out of the sky on top of me?'

  My father rejected this as soon as written, and wrote instead, as in FR: 'There was no reply. He stood listening', etc.

  A first version of the Barrow-wight's incantation was rejected and replaced by the form that appears in FR (p. 152); but the changes made were very slight except in line 7, where for 'till the dark lord lifts his hand' the first version had 'till the king of the dark tower lifts his hand.'(5) In the rough workings for this verse my father wrote: 'The dark lord sits in the tower and looks over the dark seas and the dark world', and also 'his hand stretches over the cold sea and the dead world.'

  The arm 'walking on its fingers' crept towards Frodo Took (Sam in FR); and where in FR 'Frodo fell forward over Merry, and Merry's face felt cold', in the old version Bingo fell forward over Frodo Took. There is no evident pattern in the changed ascriptions when the 'cast of characters' was altered; so later in the chapter Odo says 'Where are my clothes?' (Sam in FR), and when Tom Bombadil says 'You won't find your clothes again' it is Frodo Took who asks 'What do you mean?' (Pippin in FR). In general I do not further note such points unless they seem significant.

  On the rejected form of the rhyme taught to the hobbits by Tom Bombadil and sung by Bingo in the barrow see p. 123. The first two lines of the rejected rhyme were used later in the chapter, when Tom goes off after the ponies (FR p. 155).

  When Merry said 'What in the name of wonder?' as he felt the gold circlet that had slipped over one eye, the old version continues: 'Then he stopped, and a shadow came over his face. I begin to remember,> he said. "I thought I was dead - but don't let us speak of it."' There is no mention of the Men of Carn Dum (FR p. 154).

  Tom Bombadil's names for the ponies go back to the beginning, with the exception of 'Sharp-ears', who was first called 'Four-foot'! When he bade the treasures lying in the sun on the top of the mound lie there 'free to all finders, bird, beast, elves or men and all kind creatures', he added: 'For the makers and owners of these things are not here, and their day is long past, and the makers cannot claim them again until the world is mended." And when he took the brooch for Goldberry he said: 'Fair was she who long ago wore this on her shoulder, and Goldberry shall wear it now, and we shall not forget them, the vanished folk, the old kings, the children and the maidens, and all those who walked the earth when the world was younger.'

  While in the outline given on p. 125 the hobbits refuse to take anything from the treasure in the mound, in the first text the story is that Tom chose for them 'bronze swords, short, leaf-shaped and keen', but nothing further is said in description of them (cf. FR p. 157), though the following was added in pencil and perhaps belongs to the time of the writing of the manuscript: 'These, he said, were made many ages ago by men out of the West. They were foes of the Ring-lord.' The manuscript continues:

  and they hung them from the leather belts beneath their jackets; though they did not yet see the purpose of them. Fighting had not occurred to any of them as among the possible adventures that their flight might bring them to. As far as Bingo could remember even the great and heroic Bilbo had somehow avoided using his small sword even on goblins - and then he remembered the spiders of Mirkwood and tightened his belt.

  Of the hints in Tom's words in FR concerning the history of Angmar and the coming of Aragorn there is of course no suggestion.

  As already noted, the end of the chapter is roughly pencilled and here and there overwritten in ink. The crossing of the dyke - boundary of an old kingdom, about which 'Tom seemed to remember something unhappy and would not say much' - and their coming at last to the Road is much as in FR (p. 158), but the remainder is best given in full, as originally pencilled, so far as that can be made out.

  Bingo rode down onto the track and looked both ways. There was no one in sight. 'Well, here we are again at last!' he said. 'I suppose we haven't lost more than a day by Merry's short cut. We had better stick to the beaten way after this.'

  'You had better,' said Tom, 'and ride fast.'

  Bingo looked at him. Black riders came back into his thought. He looked a little anxiously back towards the setting sun, but the road was brown and empty. 'Do you think,' he asked hesitatingly, 'do you think we shall be - er, pursued tonight?'

  'Not tonight,' said Tom. 'No, not tonight. Not perhaps the next day. Not perhaps for days to come.

  The next passage is very confused and little can be made out (of the first pencilled text); as overwritten in ink it reads:

  But I cannot say for certain. Tom is not master of the Riders that come out of the Black Land far beyond his country.' All the same the hobbits wished that Tom was coming with them. They felt that he would know how to deal with them - if anyone did. They were now at last going forward into lands wholly strange to them, and beyond all but the most distant legends of the Shire, and they began to feel really lonely, exiled, and rather helpless. But Tom was now wishing them a final farewell, bidding them have good heart, and ride till dark without halting.

  The pencilled text continues:

  But he encouraged them - a little - by telling them that he guessed the Riders- (or some of them) were seeking now among the mounds. For he seemed to think that the Riders and Barrow- wights had some kind of kinship or understanding. If that were so, it might prove in the end well that they had been captured. They learned from him that some miles away along the road was the old village of Bree, on the west side of Bree-hill.(6) It had an inn that could be trusted: the White Horse [written above: Prancing Pony). The keeper was a good man and not unknown to Tom. 'Just you mention my name and he will treat you fairly. There you can sleep sound, and after that the morning will speed you well upon your way. Go now with my blessing.' They begged him to come as far as the inn and drink once more with them. But he laughed and refused, saying: 'Tom has his house to mind, and Goldberry is waiting.' Then he turned, tossed up his hat, leaped on Lumpkin's back, and rode over the bank and away singing into the gathering dusk.

  This passage, as far as 'Go now with my blessing', was rejected, and a new version written in ink on a separate sheet; this second text is the same as Tom's farewell speech in FR p. 159 ('Tom will give you good advice...'), but it is here written out in verse-lines, and with these differences: the 'worthy keeper' is Barnabas Butterbur, not Barliman, and the reference to him is followed by:

  He knows Tom Bombadil, and Tom's name will help you.

  Say 'Tom sent us here ' and he will treat you kindly.

  There you can sleep sound, and afterwards the morning

  Will speed you upon your way. Co now with my blessing!

  Keep up your merry hearts, and ride to meet your fortune!

  That these revisions are later than the first pencil
led draft of the next chapter is seen from the fact that throughout that draft the innkeeper's name was Timothy Titus, not yet Barnabas Butterbur (p. 140 note 3). The end of this chapter is again overwritten in ink, but so far as I can make out this was only to clarify the almost illegible pencilled text:

  The hobbits stood and watched him out of sight. Then, feeling heavy at heart (in spite of his encouragement), they mounted their ponies, not without some glances back along the Road, and went off slowly into the evening. They did not sing, or talk, or discuss the events of the night before, but plodded silently along. Bingo and Merry rode in front, Odo and Frodo, leading the spare pony, were behind.

  It was quite dark before they saw lights twinkling some distance ahead. Before them rose Bree Hill, barring the way, a dark slope against the misty stars, and under it and on its western side nestled the little village.

  NOTES.

  1. This draft is in fact continuous with that for the Bombadil chapter (p. 123 note 3), but my father soon after drew a line on the pencilled text between 'and led them with candles back to their bedroom' and 'That night they heard no noises', entering the chapter-number 'VI?'.