returnoftheshadow72

by Miguel

  'I did not,' laughed Trotter. 'I gave old Gandalf quite a start when I popped up from behind the hedge. I told him he was lucky that it was an old friend. We had a long talk, about various things - Bilbo and Bingo and the [added in pencil: Riders and the] Ring, if you want to know. He was very pleased to see me, as he was in a hurry and yet anxious to get in touch with you.'

  'Well, I must admit I am glad to have a word from him,' said Bingo. 'And if you are a friend of Gandalf's then we are lucky to meet you. I am sorry if I was unnecessarily suspicious.'

  'You weren't,' said Trotter. 'You weren't half suspicious enough. If you had had previous experience of your present enemy, you would not trust your own hands without a good look, once you knew that he was on your track. Now I am suspicious: and I had to make quite sure that you were genuine first, before handing over any letter. I've heard of shadow-parties picking up messages that were not meant for them - it has been done by enemies before now. Also, if you want to know, it amused me to see if I could induce you to take me on - just by my gifts of persuasion. It would have been nice (though quite wrong) if you had accepted me for my manners without testimonial! But there, I suppose my looks are against me! '

  'They are! ' said Odo laughing. 'But handsome is as handsome does, we say in the Shire, and anyway I daresay we shall all look much the same before long, after lying in hedges and ditches.' 'It will take more than a few days (or weeks or years) wandering in the world to make you look like Trotter,' he answered, and Odo subsided. 'You would die first, unless you are made of tougher stuff than you look to be.'

  'What are we to do?' said Bingo. 'I don't altogether understand his letter. Gandalf said "don't stay in Bree." Is Barnabas Butterbur all right?'

  'Perfectly!' said Trotter. 'As sound a hobbit as you would find between the West Towers and Rivendell. Faithful, kind, shrewd enough in his plain business; but not overcurious about anything but the daily events among the simple Bree-folk. If anything strange happens he just invents an.explanation or else forgets it. "Queer," he says, and scratches his head, and goes back to his larder, or his brewhouse. That is just as well for you! I expect he has now convinced himself that there was "some mistake", and that the light was tricky, and that all the hobbits in the room merely imagined that "Mr Hill" disappeared. The black riders will become ordinary travellers looking for a friend, in a week or two - if they don't come back.'

  'Well, is it safe then to stay the night here?' said Bingo, with a look at the comfortable fire and the candle-light. 'I mean, Gandalf said: "push along"; but also: "don't move in the dark".'

  It is here that the alternative version B (see p. 148 and note 1) joins or merges with version A just given (though before this point, as will be seen, there are substantial passages in common). The beginning of the narrative is here quite different:

  'There now!' said the landlord, snapping his fingers. 'Half a moment. It's come back to me, as I said it would. Bless me! Four hobbits and five ponies! I think I have a letter for your party.'

  'A- letter! ' said Bingo, holding out his hand.

  'Well,' said he, hesitating; 'he did say that I must be careful to deliver it to the right hands. So perhaps, if you don't mind, you would be so good as to tell me, who you might expect a message from.'

  'Gandalf?' said Bingo. 'An old - er - man' (he thought perhaps wizard was an inadvisable word) 'with a tall hat and a long beard?' 'Gandalf it was,' said Butterbur; 'and old he is, but there is no call to describe him. All folk know him. A wizard they say he is; but that's as may be. But what may your first name be, if you will excuse my asking, sir?'

  'Bingo.'

  'Ah! ' said Barnabas(11)." 'Well, that seems all right; though he did say that you should be here by Tuesday, not Thursday, as it is.(12) Here is the letter.' From his pocket he drew a small sealed envelope, on which was written:

  To Bingo from G. by the hand of Mr B. Butterbur, landlord of the Prancing Pony, Bree.

  'Thank you very much, Mr Butterbur,' said Bingo, pocketing the letter. 'Now, if you will excuse me, I will say good night. I am very tired.'

  'Good night, Mr Hill! I'll be sending water and candles to your room as soon as may be.' He trotted off; and Bingo, Frodo, and Odo made their way back to their parlour.

  Version B now agrees with version A virtually word for word from here (p. 148) to Trotter's words 'but eavesdropping, as you put it, is not unknown in Bree, and besides, I have not told you all yet' (p. 150), at which point in A he was interrupted by the arrival of Mr Butterbur; thus in B also, Trotter tells them of his overhearing Gandalf talking about Bingo with the Dwarves and Elves on the Road west of Bree. B now diverges again:

  ... Besides, I have not yet told you the most important part.

  There were other folk enquiring after four hobbits.'

  Bingo's heart sank: he guessed what was coming. 'Go on,' he said quietly.

  'On Monday evening at the west end of the village I nearly ran into a horse and rider going fast in the dusk: all hooded and cloaked in black he was, and his horse was tall and black. I hailed him with a curse, not liking the looks of him; and he halted and spoke. He had a strange voice, and I could hardly make out his talk at first. Sure enough, he was asking for news of four hobbits with five ponies that were riding out of the Shire. I stood still and did not answer; and he brought his horse step by step nearer to me. When he was quite close he stooped and sniffed. Then he hissed, and rode off through the village, eastward. I heard the dogs yammering, and geese screaming. From the talk in the inn that night I gathered that three riders had been seen in the dusk going along the Road towards Combe behind the hill; though I don't know where the other two sprang from.

  'On Tuesday I was on the look-out all day. Sure enough, as evening drew in, I saw the same riders again, or others as like them as night is to darkness - coming down the Road from the West again. Four this time, though, not three. I hailed them from behind a hedge as they passed; and they all halted suddenly, and turned towards my voice. One of them - he seemed larger and mounted on a taller horse - came forward in my direction. "Where are you going, and what is your business?" I said. The rider leaned forward as if he was peering - or smelling; and then riding to the hedge he spoke in a sort of whisper. I felt cold shivers run down my back. It was the same story: he wanted news of four hobbits and five ponies. But he seemed more pressing and eager. Indeed (and it is that that is worrying me at the moment) he offered a deal of silver and gold, if I could tell him which way they had gone, or promise to watch out for them. "I have seen no such party," I said, "and I am a wanderer myself, and maybe shall be far West 'or East by tomorrow. But if you give me a name, maybe I could give a message, if I happen to meet such folk in my way." At that he sat silent for a while; and then he said suddenly: "The name is Baggins, Bolger-Baggins," and he hissed out the end of it like a snake. "What message?" I asked all trembling. "Just tell him that we are seeking him in haste," he hissed; and with that he rode away with his companions, and their black robes were quickly swallowed up in the dark. What do you think of that? It rather alters things, doesn't it?'

  'Yes,' said Bingo, hiding his alarm as well as he could. 'But we knew already that they were after us; and they do not seem to have found out anything new.'

  'If you can trust me!' said Trotter, with a look at Bingo. 'But even so, I should not be too sure. I've a little more to tell. On Tuesday night I was lying on a bank under the hedge of Bill Ferny's garden...

  Here version B returns again to the other (p. 153), and is almost word for word the same as far as 'The silence grew, and still Bingo could not make up his mind' (p. 154), the only difference being that after 'Bingo did not doubt that most of his tale was true' the words '(borne out as it was by the landlord's account)' are necessarily absent, since in this version Mr Butterbur has not encountered the Riders. Now follows in B:

  'I should take a look at that letter of Gandalf's, if I were you,' said Trotter quietly. 'It might help you to make up your mind.'

  Bingo took th
e letter, which he had almost forgotten, out of his pocket. He looked at the seal carefully before he broke it. It seemed certainly to be Gandalf's, as was the writing, and the runic . He opened it, and read it aloud.

  The letter is the same as in version A, except at the end, since in this story Gandalf gave the letter not to Trotter but to the landlord: (13)

  ... If you meet a ranger (mild hobbit: dark, long-haired, has wooden shoes!) known as Trotter, stick to him. You can trust him. Old friend of mine: I have seen him, and told him to look out for you. He knows a lot. He mill guide you to Weathertop and further if necessary. Push along! Yours

  Gandalf .

  Bingo looked at the trailing handwriting. It seemed as plainly genuine as the seal. 'Well, Trotter,' he said, 'if you had told me right away that you had seen Gandalf to speak to, and that he had written this letter, it would have smoothed things out a lot, and saved a lot of talk.'

  'As for the letter,' said Trotter, 'I knew nothing about it, till old Barnabas brought it out. Gandalf put two strings to his bow. I expect he was afraid I might miss you.'

  'But why did you invent all that tale about eavesdropping?'

  'I did not invent it,' laughed Trotter. 'It was true. I gave old Gandalf quite a start when I popped up from behind the hedge.

  The two texts coincide again from this point (p. 154) - except of course that Trotter does not say here 'I had to make quite sure that you were genuine first, before handing over any letter', but simply 'I had to mate sure that you were genuine.' But when Bingo says 'I don't altogether understand this letter. He says "don't stop in Bree" ' (p. 155), in version B he gets no further, for:

  At that moment there came a knock on the door. Mr Butterbur was there again, with a tray of candles, and Nob behind him with jugs of hot water. 'Here's your water and lights, if you be wishing for your beds,' said he. 'But your Mr Rivers has not come in yet. I hope he will not be long, for I've a mind for bed myself, but I won't leave the locking-up to anyone else tonight; not with these pestering black foreigners about.'

  'Where can Merry have got to?' said Frodo. 'I hope he's all right.'

  'Give him a few more minutes, Mr Butterbur,' said Bingo. 'I am sorry to bother you.' 'Very good,' he said, putting the candles on the table. 'Nob, take the water to the rooms! Good night, sirs.' He shut the door.

  'What I was going to say,' Bingo went on quietly after a moment, 'was: why not stop in Bree? Is Butterbur all right? Of course, Tom Bombadil said so; but I'm learning to be suspicious.'

  'Old Barnabas! ' said Trotter. 'He's perfectly all right. As sound a hobbit as there is between the West Towers and Rivendell. Gandalf was only afraid you might be too comfortable here! Barney is faithful, kind, shrewd in plain business - and not overcurious about anything but the daily events among his Bree- folk. If anything strange happens, he just invents an explanation, or puts it out of his mind as soon as possible. "Queer," he says, and scratches his head, and then goes back to his larder or his brewhouse.'

  'Well, is it safe to stay the night here?' said Bingo, with a look at the comfortable fire and the candles. 'At any rate Gandalf said "Don't move in the dark".'

  At this point the two versions finally merge. It will be seen that the essential differences of B from A are these. In B, Butterbur has Gandalf's letter and gives it to Bingo at the outset (though Bingo does not read it there and then). Trotter not only, as in A, 'eavesdrops' on Gandalf and his companions on the Road west of Bree, but he, not Butterbur, has the encounter with the Riders, and not of course at the inn door but on the road. The 'material' of the two accounts is closely similar, allowing for the Butterburian quality of the one, and the difference of place.

  In version A Trotter, to help him make up his mind, gives Bingo the letter when Mr Butterbur has gone; in B, he reminds Bingo about it (as in FR p. r Sr ). And in B, Butterbur only now comes into the parlour, so that the realisation that Merry has not come back is postponed.

  A characteristic combination of, or selection from, these divergent accounts is found in the relation between the final story in FR and the two original variants; for A is followed in mating Mr Butterbur enter in the middle of the conversation between the hobbits and Trotter/Strider - but B in mating it Butterbur who has Gandalf's letter. It is extremely characteristic, again, that Trotter's 'eavesdropping' on Gandalf and his companions behind the hedge on the Road west of Bree survives in FR (p. 176), but becomes the eavesdropping of Strider on the hobbits themselves - for, of course in FR Gandalf had been in Bree and left the letter long before, at the end of June, and at the time of the Birthday Party was far away. But while the relative chronology, as between Gandalf's movements and those of the hobbits, would be entirely reconstructed, that of the latter was never changed.

  Thurs. Sept. 22.

  Birthday Party.

  Gandalf and Merry, with Dwarves and Elves, left Hobbiton (after the fireworks).

  Fri. Sept. 23.

  Bingo, Frodo, and Odo left Hobbiton and slept out.

  Sat. Sept. 24.

  The hobbits passed the night with Gildor and the Elves.

  Sun. Sept. 25.

  The hobbits reached. Buckland at night.

  Gandalf and his companions arrived at Bree in the morning.

  Mon. Sept. 26.

  The hobbits in the Old Forest; first night with Tom Bombadil.

  Gandalf and his ; companions left Bree, Gandalf leaving letter for Bingo.

  Black Rider comes to the inn (or encounters Trotter on the Road).

  Tues. Sept. 27.

  Second night with Tom Bombadil.

  Four Riders come to the. inn (or Trotter encounters them on the Road).

  Wed. Sept. 28.

  Hobbits captured by Barrowight.

  Thurs. Sept. 29.

  Hobbits arrive at Bree.

  The same dates for the hobbits' movements appear in The Tale of Years in LR Appendix B (p. 372). That the 22nd of September, the day of the Birthday Party, was a Thursday first appears in the fourth version of 'A Long-expected Party' (FR p. 34); originally it was a Saturday (seePP. ax, 38).

  For the significance of the additions in pencil on pp. 153-4, whereby Trotter is made to have seen the Riders 'away west of Bree' already on the Saturday, before Gandalf arrived there, and to have spoken with Gandalf about them when they met, see p. 217, note 11.

  From the point where the two versions join, the text (in ink over pencil) proceeds thus. I give it in full, since though much was retained in FR there are a very great many differences in detail.

  'You mustn't,' said Trotter; 'and so you can't help staying here tonight. What has been done can't be helped; and we must hope that all will be well. I don't think anything will get inside this inn, once it is locked. But, of course, we must get off as early as may be in the morning. I shall be up and about sooner than the Sun and Ill see all is ready. You are two or three days behind - somehow. Perhaps you will tell me as we go along what you have been up to. Unless you start early, and go fast, I doubt if you'll find any camp on Weathertop.'

  'In that case let's get to bed now! ' said Odo yawning. 'Where's that silly fellow Merry? It would be too much, if we had to go out now and look for him.'

  At that very moment they heard a door slam, and feet running in the passage. Merry came in with a rush, shut the door hastily, and leaned against it. He was out of breath. They stared at him in alarm for a moment; then he gasped: 'I've seen one, Bingo. I've seen one! '

  'What?' they cried all together.

  'A Black Rider! '

  'Where?'said Bingo.

  'Here. In the village,' he answered. 'I had come back from a stroll, and was standing just outside the light from the door, looking at the stars: it is a fine night, but dark. I felt something coming towards, if you know what I mean: there was a sort of dark shadow; and then I saw him for a second,(14) just as he passed through the beam of light from the door. He was leading his horse along the grass-edge on the other side of the Road, and hardly made a sound.'

  'Wh
ich way did he go?' asked Trotter.

  Merry started, noticing the stranger for the first time. 'Go on,' said Bingo. 'This is a messenger from Gandalf. He will help us.'

  'I followed him,' said Merry. 'He went through the village, right to the east end, where the Road turns round the foot of the hill. Suddenly he stopped under a dark hedge; and I thought I heard him speaking, or whispering, to someone on the other side. I wasn't sure, though I crept as near as I dared. But I'm afraid I came over all queer and trembling suddenly, and bolted back.'

  'What's to be done?' said Bingo, turning to Trotter.

  'Don't go to your rooms! ' said Trotter at once. 'That must have been Bill Ferny - for his hole is at the east end of Bree; and it is more than likely that he will have found out which rooms you have got. They have small windows looking back west and the outside walls are not very thick. We'll all stay in here, bar the door and window, and take turns to watch.(15) But first we had better fetch your baggage - and arrange the beds! '

  At this point my father interrupted his original pencilled draft text to set down a sketch of the story to come, and since he did not overwrite this part of the manuscript in ink it can be read - or could be, if it were not written in a scribble at the very limit of legibility and beyond.