returnoftheshadow72

by Miguel

] in the spring of Bingo's 49th? 50th? [sic] year (8) will give some idea of the feeling in the air.

  Sam Gamgee (old Gaffer Gamgee's [eldest >] youngest and a good jobbing gardener) was sitting in one corner by the fire, and opposite him was Ted Sandyman (9) the miller's son from Hobbiton; and there were various other rustic hobbits listening.

  'Queer things you do hear these days, to be sure, Ted,' said Sam.

  There follows in the manuscript the original draft, written very roughly and rapidly, of the conversation at The Green Dragon found in FR, pp. 53 - 5 and it was scarcely altered afterwards save in little details of phrasing. The hobbit who saw the Tree-man beyond the North Moors (in FR Sam's cousin Halfast Gamgee, who worked for Mr Boffin at Overhill) is here 'Jo Button, him that works for the Gawkrogers [see p. 236] and goes up North for the hunting.' Sam's reference to 'queer folk' being turned back by the Bounders on the Shire-borders is absent; he speaks of the Elves journeying to the harbours 'out away West, away beyond the Towers',(10) but the reference to the Grey Havens is lacking. Most interesting is the reference to the Tree-men. As my father first wrote Sam's words, he said: 'But what about these what do you call 'em- giants? They do say as one nigh as big as a tower or leastways a tree was seen up away beyond the North Moors not long back.' This was changed at the time of writing to: 'But what about these Tree-Men, these here - giants? They do say one nigh as big as a tower was seen,' etc. (Was this passage (preserved in FR, p. 53) the first premonition of the Ents? But long before my father had referred to 'Tree-men' in connection with the voyages of Earendel: II.254, 261).

  Sam's words about the Bagginses at the end of the conversation are different (and explain why the egregious Ted Sandyman used the word 'cracked' in FR):

  'Well, I dunno. But that Mr Baggins of Bag-End, he thinks it is true; he told me and my dad so; and both he and old Mr Bilbo know a bit about Elves, or so my dad says and he ought to know. He's known the Bag-End folk since he was a lad, and he worked in their gardens till his joints cracked too much for bending, and I took on.'

  'And they're both cracked...'

  After Ted Sandyman's last words,

  Sam sat silent and said no more. He was due for a job of work in Bingo's garden next day, and was thinking he might have a chance of a word with Bingo, to whom he had transferred the reverence of his dad for old Bilbo. It was April and the sky was high and clear after much rain. The sun was gone, and a cool pallid sky was fading slowly. He went home through Hobbiton and up the hill whistling softly and thoughtfully.

  About the same time Gandalf was quietly slipping in through the half-open front door of Bag-End.

  Next morning after breakfast two people, Gandalf and Bingo, were sitting near the open window. A bright fire was on the hearth; but the sun was warm, and the wind was southerly: everything looked fresh, and the new green of Spring was shimmering in the fields and on the tips of the trees' fingers. Gandalf was thinking of a spring nearly 80 years before, when Bilbo had run out of Bag-end without a handkerchief. Gandalf's hair was perhaps whiter than it had been then, and his beard and eyebrows were perhaps longer and face wiser; but his eyes were no less bright and powerful, and he smoked and blew smoke-rings with as great vigour and delight as ever. He was smoking now in silence, for they had been talking about Bilbo (as they often did), and [other things >] the Necromancer and the Ring.

  'It is all most disturbing, and in fact terrifying,' said Bingo. Gandalf grunted: the sound apparently meant 'I quite agree, but your remark is not helpful.' There was another silence. The sound of Sam Gamgee giving the lawn its first cut came from the garden. 'How long have you known all this? ' asked Bingo at length. 'And did you tell Bilbo?'

  'I guessed a good deal immediately,' answered Gandalf slowly...

  My father had now returned to the text given on pp. 76 ff, the 'foreword' as he called it (see p. 224), which I have discussed on pp. 86 - 7, and in which of course the story was present that Bingo gave the Party: the conversation with Gandalf took place a few weeks before it, and it was indeed Gandalf's own idea. But my father followed parts of the old text closely, while extending it in certain very important ways.

  In Gandalf's reply to Bingo's question (original text p. 77) he says:

  'I guessed much, but at first I said little. I thought that all was well with Bilbo, and that he was safe enough, for that kind of power was powerless over him. So I thought, and I was right in a way; but not quite right. I kept a. eye on him, of course, but perhaps I was not careful enough. I did not then know which of the many Rings this one was. Had I known I might have done differently - but perhaps not. But I know now.' His voice faded to a whisper. 'For I went back to the land of the Necromancer - twice.'(11)

  'I am sure you have done everything you could,' said Bingo...

  Gandalf says rather more about Bilbo: 'I was not greatly worried about Bilbo - his education was nearly complete, and I no longer felt responsible for him. He had to follow his own mind, when he had made it up.' And he speaks of the hobbits of the Shire being 'enslaved' (as in FR, p. 58), not 'becoming Wraiths.'

  But with Gandalf's reply to Bingo's 'I do not quite understand what all this has got to do with me and Bilbo and the Ring' my father departed altogether from the original text.

  'To tell you the truth,' answered Gandalf, 'I believe he has hitherto, hitherto mind you, entirely overlooked the existence of hobbits - as Smaug the dragon had. For which you may be thankful. And I don't think even now that he particularly wants them: they would be obedient (perhaps), but not terribly useful servants. But there is such a thing as malice and revenge. Miserable hobbits would please him more than happy ones. As for what it has to do with you and the Ring: I think I can explain that - partly at any rate. I do not yet know quite all. Give me the Ring a minute.'

  Bingo took it from his trouser pocket where it was clasped on a chain that went round him like a belt. 'Good,' said Gandalf. 'I see you keep it always on you. Go on doing so.' Bingo unclasped it and handed it to Gandalf. It felt heavy, as if either it, or Bingo, were in some curious way reluctant for Gandalf to touch it. It looked to be made of pure and solid gold, thick, flattened, and unjointed.(12) Gandalf held it up.

  'Can you see any markings on it?' he said. 'No! ' said Bingo. 'It is quite plain, and does not even show any scratches or signs of wear.'

  'Well then, look,' said Gandalf, and to Bingo's astonishment and distress the wizard threw it into the middle of a hot patch in the fire. Bingo gave a cry and groped for the poker; but Gandalf held him back. 'Wait! ' he said in commanding tones, giving Bingo a quick look from under his eyebrows.

  No apparent change came over the Ring. After a while Gandalf got up, closed the shutters outside the round window, and drew the curtain. The room became dark and silent. The clack of Sam's shears, now nearer the hole, could be heard outside. Gandalf stood for a moment looking at the fire; then he stooped and removed the Ring with the tongs, and at once picked it up. Bingo gasped.

  'It is quite cold,' said Gandalf. 'Take it! '

  Bingo received it on his shrinking palm: it seemed colder and even heavier than before. 'Hold it up!' said Gandalf, 'and look inside.' As Bingo did so he saw fine lines, more fine than the finest The original description of the writing on the Ring. pen strokes, running along the inside of the Ring - lines of fire that seemed to form the letters of a strange alphabet. They shone bright, piercingly bright, and yet it seemed remotely, as if out of a great depth.

  'I cannot read the fiery letters,' said Bingo in a quavering voice. 'No,' said Gandalf; 'but I can - now. The writing says:

  One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,

  One Ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them.(13)

  That is part of a verse that I know now in full.

  Three rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,

  Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,

  Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,

  One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne

  In
the Land of Mor-dor where the shadows lie.

  One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,

  One Ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them,

  In the land of Mor-dor where the shadows lie.(14)

  'This,' said Gandalf, 'is the Master-ring: the One Ring to Rule them all! This is the One Ring that he lost many ages ago - to the great weakening of his power; and that he still so greatly desires.'(15) But he must not get it!'

  Bingo sat silent and motionless. Fear seemed to stretch out a vast hand like a dark cloud, rising out of the East and looming up to engulf him. 'This Ring?' he stammered. 'How on earth did it come to me?'

  'I can tell you the part of the story that I know,' answered Gandalf. 'In ancient days the Necromancer, the Dark Lord Sauron,(16) made many magic rings of various properties that gave various powers to their possessors. He dealt them out lavishly and sowed them abroad to ensnare all peoples, but specially Elves and Men. For those that used the rings, according to their strength and will and hearts, fell quicker or slower under the power of the rings, and the dominion of their maker.(17) Three, Seven, Nine and One he made of special potency,(18) for their possessors became not only invisible to all in this world, if they wished, but could see both the world under the sun and the other side in which invisible things move.(19) And they had (what is called) good luck, and (what seemed) endless life. Though, as I say, what power the Rings conferred on each possessor depended on what use they made of them - on what they were themselves, and what they desired. The Ring-verse, and the emergence of the Ruling Ring in the narrative. 'But the Rings were under the command of the maker and were always drawing the possessors back to him. For he retained the ruling Ring, which, when he wore it, enabled him to see all the others, and to see even the thoughts of those that possessed them.(20) But he lost this Ring, and consequently lost control of all the others. Slowly through the years he has been gathering them and seeking them out - hoping to find the lost One. But the Elves resist his power more than all other races; and the high-elves of the West, of whom some still remain in the middle-world, perceive and dwell at once both [in] this world and the other side without the aid of rings.(21) And they having suffered and fought long against Sauron are not easily drawn into his net, or deluded by him. What has become of the Three Rings of earth, air, and sky I do not know.(22) Some say they have been carried far over the sea. Others say that hidden Elf-kings still keep them. The dwarves too proved tough and intractable: for they do not lightly endure any obedience or domination (even of their own kind). Nor are they easily made into shadows. With the dwarves the chief power of the Rings was to kindle in their hearts the fire of greed (whence evil has come that has aided Sauron). It is said that the foundation of each of the Seven Great Hoards of the dwarves of old was a golden Ring. But it is said that those hoards are plundered and the dragons have devoured them, and the Rings have perished molten in their fire; yet it is also said that not all the hoards have been broken, and that still some of the Seven Rings are guarded.

  'But all the Nine Rings of Men have gone back to Sauron, and borne with them their possessors, kings, warriors, and wizards of old,(23) who became Ring-wraiths and served the maker, and were his most terrible servants. Men indeed have most often been under his dominion, and are now again throughout the middle- earth (24) falling under his power, especially in the East and South of the world, where the Elves are few.'

  'Ring-wraiths! ' exclaimed Bingo. 'What are they?'

  'We will not speak of them now,' said Gandalf. 'Let us not speak of horrible things without need. They belong to the ancient days, and let us hope that they will never again arise. At least Gilgalad accomplished that.'(25)

  'Who was Gilgalad?' asked Bingo.

  'The one who bereft the Dark Lord of the One Ring,' answered Gandalf. 'He was the last in middle-earth of the great Elf-kings of the high western race, and he made alliance with Orendil (26) King of the Island who came back to the middle-world in those days. But I will not tell all that tale now. One day perhaps you may hear it from one who knows it truly. It is enough to say that they marched against Sauron and besieged him in his tower; and he came forth and wrestled with Gilgalad and Orendil, and was overthrown. But he forsook his bodily shape and fled like a ghost to waste places until he rested in Mirkwood and took shape again in the darkness. Gilgalad and Orendil were both mortally hurt and perished in the land of Mordor; but Isildor son of Orendil cut the One Ring from the finger of Sauron and took it for his own.(27)

  'But when he marched back from Mordor, Isildor's host was overwhelmed by Goblins that swarmed down out of the mountains. And it is told that Isildor put on the Ring and vanished from their sight, but they trailed him by slot and scent, until he came to the banks of a wide river. Then Isildor plunged in and swam across, but the Ring betrayed him, (28) and slipped from his hand, and he became visible to his enemies; and they killed him with their arrows.(29) But a fish took the Ring and was filled with a madness, and swam up stream leaping over rocks and up waterfalls until it cast itself upon a bank, and spat out the Ring and died.' Gandalf paused. 'And there,' he said, 'the Ring passed out of knowledge and legend; and even so much of the story is now known and remembered by few. Yet I can now add to it, I think.

  'Long after, but still very long ago, there lived by the bank of a stream on the edge of Wilderland a wise clever-handed and quietfooted little family....

  For Gollum's earlier history my father followed the original text (pp. 78 - 9) very closely indeed, only introducing a slight change of wording here and there: thus Digol is still Gollum himself, and not his friend. At the end of the passage the words 'and even the Master lost it' become 'and even the maker, when his power had grown again, could learn nothing of it', and the following sentence, about the Necromancer counting his rings and always finding one missing, is of course removed. Gandalf's discussion of Gollum's mind and motives at the time of Bilbo's encounter with him (still of course based on the original story in The Hobbit, see p. 86) also remains very close to the old version (pp. 79 - 80). There are indeed many small improvements in the phrasing; but only two changes need be noticed. Gandalf's words about the longevity afforded to the possessor of the Ring (p. 79) are thus interestingly extended:

  ... Frightfully wearisome, Bingo, in fact finally tormenting (even if you do not become a Wraith). Only Elves can stand it, and even they fade.

  And when Gandalf speaks of 'the unexpected arrival of Bilbo' (p. 80) he now goes on:

  ...You remember how surprised he was, and how soon he began talking of a present, though he gave himself a chance of keeping it if luck went that way. Even so I dare say his old habits might have beaten him in the end, and he might have tried to eat Bilbo, if it had been easy. But I am not sure: I guess he was using the Riddle Game (at which even a Gollum dare hardly cheat, as it is sacred and of immense antiquity) as a kind of toss-up to decide for him. And anyway Bilbo had the sword Sting, if you remember, so it was not easy.

  But from the point where Bingo objects that Gollum never gave Bilbo the Ring, for Bilbo had it already, Gandalf's story takes a great step forward, with his announcement that he himself had found Gollum (in the original text there is no explanation of how he knew Gollum's history). I give the next part of the chapter, much of which is in a very rough state, in full.

  'I know,' said Gandalf. 'And that is why I said that Gollum's ancestry only partly explained events. There was, of course, something much more mysterious behind the whole affair - something probably quite beyond the design of the Lord of the Rings himself, peculiar to Bilbo and his private Adventure. I can put it no clearer than by saying that Bilbo was 'meant' to have the Ring, and that he perhaps got involved in the Quest of the treasure mainly for that reason. In which case you were meant to have it. Which may (or may not) be a comforting thought. And there has also always been a queer fate over the Rings on their own account. They get lost, and turn up in strange places. The One had already slipped once from its owner and betrayed
him to death. It had now slipped away from Gollum. But the evil they work according to their maker's design turns often to good that he did not intend, and even to his loss and defeat.(30) And that too may be a comforting thought, or not.'

  'I don't find either of your thoughts very encouraging,' said Bingo; 'though I don't really understand what you mean. But how do you come to know or guess so much about Gollum?'