by Miguel
Odo's indiscreet remark about their good luck in landing unexpectedly good food and lodging disappears and is not handed on to Folco. Frodo's 'The stars shine on the hour of our meeting' was at first given as before (p. 280) only in translation, but my father changed this, clearly in the act of writing the manuscript, by the introduction of the Elvish words as well, Eleni silir lumesse omentiemman, and then again to Elen sile..., 'A star shines...' At this Gildor says, as in FR, 'Here is a scholar in the Ancient Tongue.'
It is still the Moon that rouses the Elves to song; but the old wording ('The yellow moon rose; springing swiftly out of the shadow, and then climbing round and slow into the sky') surviving from the original version of the chapter (p. 61), was changed, apparently at or very near the time of writing, to: 'Above the mists away in the East the thin silver rind of the New Moon appeared, and rising swift and clear out of the shadow it swung gleaming in the sky.' My father no doubt made this change on account of what he had said elsewhere about the Moon; for there was a waxing moon as the hobbits approached Weathertop, and it was 'nearly half-full' on the night of the attack (pp. 168, 184): the attack was on 5 October (p. 175), and there could not be a full or nearly full Moon on 24 September, the night passed with the Elves in the Woody End (see p. 160). On that night it must have been almost New Moon. The dates of the phases of the Moon in the autumn and early winter of that year cited on p. 434, note 19, in fact give New Moon on 25 September, the First Quarter (half-full) on 2 October, and Full Moon on 10 October. But it is an odd and uncharacteristic aberration that my father envisaged a New Moon rising late at night in the East.(8) In FR, of course, there is no mention of the Moon in this passage: it was 'the Swordsman of the Sky, Menelvagor with his shining belt' that caused the Elves to burst into song.
In the passage describing the memories of the meal eaten with the Elves the text of FR is reached, with Folco retaining those of Frodo Took together with Odo's recollection of the bread.
Gildor's advice to Bingo (Frodo) that he should take trusty companions, and his opinion that his present companions have already confused the Riders, is retained (see p. 282); but at the end there is now no mention of the Ring, and their talk ends as in FR (p. 94).
Chapter IV: 'A Short Cut to Mushrooms'.
In this new version of the chapter there is only to notice the curious result of the exclusion of Odo Bolger: with Folco Took adding Odo's part to that which he retained from Frodo Took's in the former narrative. In the previous version Odo argued against taking a short cut to the Ferry, because, while he did not know the country, he did know The Golden Perch at Stock, and Frodo Took argued for it - because he did know the country.(9) Now, the Frodo-element in Folco, retaining a knowledge of the country, uses it to support the desire of the Odo-element in him for the beer at Stock, and his opponent in the argument is Frodo (Baggins); thus Folco is here, and throughout the chapter, Pippin in all but name (see pp. 286 - 7).
Deephallow now disappears from the text (see p. 286).
Chapter V: 'A Conspiracy Unmasked'.
This chapter had already reached in the second version (pp. 298 ff.) a form very close to that in FR, but there remained the confusion over whether Odo had been on the walk from Hobbiton or whether he had gone on ahead to Buckland with Merry (see pp. 299, 323). Following the new version of Chapter III, this is now resolved, of course: Odo is at Crickhollow, opens the door when they arrive, and cooks the supper with Merry - in fact, until the end of the chapter, he has become Fredegar (Fatty) Bolger. The text now reaches, until the end of the chapter, the form in FR, down to the smallest particulars of expression, with these differences only: the passage about Gorhendad Oldbuck is still not present (p. 298); the Hedge is still forty miles from end to end (ibid.); and the 'dwarf-song' Farewell. farewell, now hearth and hall! still retains the form in the previous version (pp. 300 - 1).(10)
The end of the chapter still differs altogether from that in FR, however. The form in the second version was preserved, with the pencilled additions incorporated (p. 302). Odo says 'But me shan't have any luck in the Old Forest' (whereas in FR Fredegar says 'But you won't have any luck'), because he is still potentially a member of the further expedition, even though my father had in fact decided that he would stay at Crickhollow till Gandalf came. I give the text from 'Do you follow Captain Frodo, or do you stay at home?'
'We follow Captain Frodo,' said Merry and Folco (and of course Sam). Odo was silent. 'Look here!' he said after a pause. 'I don't mind admitting that I am more terrified of the Forest than of anything I know about. I dislike woods of any kind, but the stories about the Old Forest are a nightmare. But I also think that you ought to try and keep in touch with Gandalf, who I guess knows more about the Black Riders than you do. I will stay behind here and keep off inquisitive folk. When Gandalf comes, as I think he is sure to, I will tell him what you have done, and I will come on after you with him, if he will bring me.'
The others agreed that this seemed on the whole an excellent plan; and Frodo at once wrote a brief letter to Gandalf, and gave it to Odo.
'Well, that's settled,' said Merry.
The rest of the chapter is as in the previous version.
A curious trace of this stage survives in the published text. Since Odo's staying behind had not formed part of the 'conspiracy', Merry had prepared six ponies, five for the five hobbits and one for the baggage. When the story changed, and Fredegar Bolger's task 'according to the original plans of the conspirators' (FR p. 118) was expressly to stay behind, this detail was overlooked, and the six ponies remained at this point (FR p. 117).
Chapter VI: 'The Old Forest'.
The chapter now at last receives its title. Odo now said farewell to the others at the entrance to the tunnel under the Hedge in these words:
'I wish you were not going into the Forest. I don't believe you will get safely through; and I think it is very necessary that someone should warn Gandalf that you have gone in. I'm sure you will need rescuing before to-day is out. Still I wish you luck and I hope, perhaps, I shall catch you up again one day.'
The hill rising out of the forest was still crowned with a knot of trees (p. 113), but this was changed to the 'bald head' of FR in the act of writing this manuscript. The gully which the hobbits were forced to follow downwards because they could not climb out of it still ends as before (ibid.):
Suddenly the woodland trees came to an end, and the gully became deep and sheer-sided; its bottom was almost wholly filled by the noisy hurrying water. It ran down finally to a narrow shelf at the top of a rocky bank, over which the stream dived and fell in a series of small waterfalls. Looking down they saw that below them was a wide space of grass and reeds...
The old story of the descent down the thirty-foot bank is thus still present, with Folco falling the last fifteen feet.
In the original form of the story of the encounter with Old Man Willow (p. 113) Bingo and Odo were trapped in the tree, and Merry (then called Marmaduke) was the one who rounded up the ponies and rescued Frodo Took from the river. In the next stage (p. 302) this was changed to the extent that Sam took over Merry's part, and Merry simply 'lay like a log'. Now, with Frodo Took and Odo 'reduced' to Folco Took, it is still Frodo Baggins and Folco who are imprisoned in the tree, but Merry steps into Frodo Took's role as the one pushed into the river.
In the oldest version the path beside the Withywindle puzzlingly turned sharply to the left below Tom Bombadil's house and went over a little bridge; and in later revision this was retained, with, later again, the word 'left' changed to 'right', implying that Bombadil's house was on the south side of the Withywindle (see p. 114). The present text read at first here:
[The path] turned sharply to the right, and took them over a chattering down.
This retains the turn in the path and the bridge, but the bridge being over a tributary stream Bombadil's house is on the north side of the Withy- windle. My father struck the passage out, however, apparently as he wrote.
Chapter VII: 'In the
House of Tom Bombadil'.
Like the last, this chapter now receives its title. The episode of the attack on Crickhollow (pp. 303 - 4) is now a part of the text, and was repeated from the earlier form with scarcely any significant change and almost word for word. The 'grey man' came up the path leading a white horse, but that Gandalf had a white horse appears later in the first version. More important, my father at first repeated the words 'Suddenly there was a movement', but struck them out and substituted: 'A curtain in one of the windows stirred. Then suddenly the figure by the door moved swiftly' (this change clearly belongs with the writing of the manuscript). Odo was in the house, of course. To the words pencilled at the end of the first version of the episode, 'Behind clung a small figure with Hying cloak', and 'Odo', there is nothing corresponding in the next, and I think that they had not, in fact, yet been written in on the former; at this stage, it seems, my father had no further plans for Odo. But there is a pencilled addition to the second text of which, though it was erased, Mr Taum Santoski has been able to make out the following: 'Behind him ran Odo... and... wind. Cf. IX.22.' On this question see p. 336.
The dreams. The content of Frodo's dream remains the same, almost word for word, as Bingo's in the original version (p. 118), except that after the words 'hoofs thudding and wind blowing' there follows 'and faint and far the echo of a horn': this obviously echoes Gandalf's blowing of the horn at Crickhollow, which in this text immediately precedes Frodo's dream. But whereas in the story as told in the first phase 'Bingo woke' and then 'fell asleep again' (on the reality of the sounds he heard see p. 119), in this version Frodo 'lay in a dream without light': this is as in FR, but nothing is said here to suggest that he woke (contrast FR: '"Black Riders!" thought Frodo as he wakened.') On the other hand the passage in the present text ends as in FR: 'at last he turned and fell asleep again or wandered into some other unremembered dream.' Folco dreams what was originally Odo's dream, and like Pippin in FR 'woke, or thought he had waked', and then 'went to sleep again.' Merry takes over Frodo Took's dream of water, with the words 'falling into his quiet sleep and slowly waking him' retained from the old version, though struck out, probably at once; this passage ends, as in FR, 'He breathed deep and fell asleep again.' Sam 'slept through the night in deep content, if logs are contented.'
In Tom's talk with the hobbits on the second day, the old phrase 'A dark shadow came up out of the middle of the world' is retained (see p. 121); and Tom's reply to Frodo's question 'Who are you, Master?' is almost exactly as in the old version (p. 121): he says 'I am Ab-Origine, that's what I am,' and the words 'He saw the Sun rise in the West and the Moon following, before the new order of days was made' are retained (see my discussion of this passage, pp. 121 - 2).
In all the other minor differences mentioned on pp. 122 - 3 the present text reaches the final form.
Chapter VIII: 'Fog on the Barrow-downs'.
There is little that need be said about this chapter, which followed on the original text (pp. 127 - 30), and which now received its title. The 'arm walking on its fingers' in the barrow crept towards Folco, and Frodo fell forward upon him (p. 127). Merry's words when he woke remain unchanged (p. 128); and nothing more is said of the bronze swords that Tom Bombadil chose for the hobbits from the treasures of the mound than the words added to the original text: Tom said that 'they were made many ages ago by men out of the West: they were foes of the dark Lord.' The conclusion of the chapter moves some way to the final form, but features of the original version are retained (pp. 129 - 30). Thus Frodo, riding down onto the Road, still says: 'I hope we shall be able to stick to the beaten track after this,' to which Bombadil replies: 'That's what you ought to do, as long as you are able: hold to the beaten way, but ride fast and wary.' In his parting advice he still says: 'Barnabas Butterbur is the worthy keeper: he knows Tom Bombadil, and Tom's name will help you. Say "Tom sent us here", and he will treat you kindly.' After he has gone there is no conversation among the hobbits recorded, and the chapter ends much as in the original text. Sam rode with Frodo in front, Merry and Folco behind, leading the spare pony; and Bree is still 'a little village'.
NOTES.
1. Earliest Days, occurring twice in this passage, was changed later to Elder Days. The latter expression occurs once in the Quenta Silmarillion, where it is not capitalised (V. 259); cf. also Elder Years (V.90), eldest days (V.245).
2. Bandobras the Bullroarer reappears from The Hobbit (Chapter I); see further pp. 316 - 17.
3. Only one such tree is known to me, perhaps the only one made by my father at this time; see pp. 316 - 18.
4. Thus whereas in the preliminary version of the talk in The Ivy Bush (p. 244) the narrator's opening was to be reduced to a brief paragraph, my father was now both retaining the account of past history from earlier versions of the chapter and also adding Gaffer Gamgee's own characteristic mode of retailing it. In FR the Gaffer becomes the sole source.
5. In The Hobbit Bandobras is called Bilbo's great-grand-uncle, but Bilbo himself calls him his great-great-great-grand-uncle - as he is in the present tree.
6. His cousin Lanorac Brandybuck (p. 275) has disappeared.
7. The discussion whether to walk far or not on the first night was still present (see p. 276), but Folco does not take on Odo's reluctance; the result is that all three of them agree, and the discussion being now rather pointless my father struck it out and replaced it with the words of FR (p. 80): 'Well, we all like walking in the dark, so let's put some miles behind us before bed.'
8. It is indeed so extraordinary, in view of his deep and constant awareness of all such modes and appearances, that one seeks for an explanation: can he have intended 'the Old Moon' but have written 'the New Moon' because he was thinking of the crescent form (characteristically 'the New Moon') rather than the phase? This seems unlikely; and in any case an 'old Moon' as a 'thin silver rind' is not seen till near dawn, for the Moon to have this appearance must be very near to the Sun.
9. In the earlier, abandoned variant of the Farmer Maggot episode in the previous version of the chapter Maggot says that Frodo Took is 'half a Brandybuck' (p. 291). This was already omitted in the second variant; but he was Merry Brandybuck's first cousin, and he tells Bingo that Maggot 'is a friend of Merry's, and I used to come here with him a good deal at one time' - just as Pippin tells Frodo in FR,
p. 101.
10. My father first wrote that it was sung by Merry, Folco, and Odo, but Odo's name was no doubt due to its presence in the previous version (p. 300), and he struck it out at once.
XX THE THIRD PHASE (2): AT THE SIGN OF THE PRANCING PONY.
With Chapter IX, now given the title 'At the Sign of the Prancing Pony', the narrative of this phase underwent a much more substantial development, but not at all in the direction of the final story in FR. Before coming to this, however, there is a curious feature in the opening of the chapter to be considered.
The opening now advanced far from the early forms given on pp. 132 - 4: an initial account in which Bree was a village of Men, but where 'there were hobbits about', changed to the story that there were only hobbits in Bree, and Mr Butterbur was himself a hobbit. A later note (p. 233) said however that 'Bree-folk are not to be hobbits.' Now my father resolved the question by returning, more or less, to the original idea: Men and Hobbits lived together in Bree. But he found it difficult to achieve a form of the opening with which he could be satisfied, and there is version after version soon tailing off, to be replaced by the next. All these drafts are very similar, differing in the ordering of the material and in the admission or omission of detail; all obviously belong to the same time; and there is no need to look at them closely, except in one particular. All the drafts contain the passage in FR (p. 161) concerning the origin of the Men of Bree - one of them adding that they were 'descendants of the sons of Beor' - and the return of the Kings of Men over the Great Seas.(1) The passage that follows, as in FR, concerns the Rangers, and is almost the same in all the draft forms of it: