returnoftheshadow72

by Miguel

  The fair morning that had followed the rain gave way later to cloud and mist. Nothing more happened in Bree that day until dusk was falling. Then out of the fog four horsemen rode though the gate. Harry peered through a window, and then hurriedly withdrew. He had been thinking of going out and shutting the gate, but he changed his mind. The horsemen were all clad and muffled in black, and rode high black horses. Some of the same sort had been seen in Bree two days before and wild stories were going about. Some said they were not human, and even the dogs were afeared of them. Harry locked the door and stood quaking behind it.

  But the riders halted, and one dismounted and came and smote on the door. 'What do you want?' called Harry from inside.

  'We want news! ' hissed a cold voice through the keyhole. 'What of?' he answered, shaking in his boots.

  'News of four hobbits,(14) riding on ponies out of the Shire. Have they passed?'

  Harry wished they had, for it might have satisfied these riders, if he could have said yes. There was a threat and urgency in the cold voice: but he dared not risk a yes that was not true. 'No sir! ' he said in a quavering voice. 'There's been no hobbits on ponies through Bree, and there isn't likely to be any. But there was a hobbit riding behind an old man on a white horse, last night. They went to The Pony.'

  'Do you know their names?' said the voice.

  'The old man was Gandalf,' said Harry.

  A hiss came through the keyhole, and Harry started back, feeling as if something icy cold had touched him. 'You have our thanks', said the voice. 'You will keep watch for four hobbits, if you still wish to please us. We will return.'

  Harry heard the sound of hoofs going off towards the village. He unlocked the door stealthily, and then crept out, and peered up the road. It was too foggy and already too dark to see much. But he heard the hoofs halt at the bend of the Road by the inn. He waited a while, and then quietly shut and locked the gate. He was just returning to his house, when in the misty air he heard the sound of hoofs again, starting up by the inn and dying away round the corner and down the Road eastward. It was turning very cold, he thought. He shivered and hurried indoors, bolting and barring the door.

  The next morning, Thursday, was clear again, with a warm sun and the wind turning towards the South. Towards evening a dozen dwarves came walking out of the East into Bree with heavy packs on their backs. They were sullen and had few words for anybody. But no traveller came past the western gate all day. Night fell and Harry shut the gate, but he kept on going to his door. He was afraid of the threat in the cold voice, if he missed any strange hobbits.

  It was dark and white stars were shining when Frodo and his companions came at last to the Greenway-crossing and drew near the village. They found that it was surrounded by a deep ditch with a hedge and fence on the inner side. Over and through this the Road ran, but it was now barred by the great gate. They saw a house on the other side, and a man sitting at the door. He jumped up and fetched a lantern, and looked down over the gate at them in surprise.

  'What do you want and where do you come from?' he asked gruffly.

  'We are making for the inn here,' answered Frodo. 'We are journeying east and cannot go further tonight.'

  'Hobbits! Four hobbits! And what's more, out of the Shire from the sound of their talk,' said the gate-keeper, quietly and almost as if he was speaking to himself. He stared at them darkly for a moment, and then slowly opened the gate and let them ride through.

  'We don't often see Shire-folk riding on the Road by night,' he went on, as they halted for a moment by his door. 'You'll pardon ' me wondering what business takes you away east of Bree.'

  'I do,' said Frodo, 'though it does not seem very wonderful to us. But this does not seem a good place to talk of our business.'

  'Ah well, your business is your own, no doubt,' said the gatekeeper. 'But you'll find maybe that there are more folk than old Harry at the gate that will ask questions. Are you expecting to meet any friends here? '

  'What do you mean?' asked Frodo in surprise. 'Why should we? '

  'And why not? Many folk meet at Bree even in these days. If you go on to The Pony, you may find you are not the only guests.'

  Frodo wished him good night and made no further answer, though he could see in the lantern-light that the man was still eyeing them curiously. He was glad to hear the gate clang to behind them, as they rode forward. He wondered what the man had meant by 'meeting friends'. Could anyone have been asking for news of four hobbits? Gandalf, perhaps? He might have passed through, while they were delayed in the Forest and the Downs. But a Black Rider was more likely. There was something in the look and tone of the gate-keeper that filled him with suspicion.

  Harry stared after them for a moment, and then he went to his door. 'Ned! ' he called. 'I've business up at The Pony, and it may keep me a while. You must be on the gate, till I come back.'

  From this point the 'red version' is only different from the first text in that Butterbur's story of Gandalf's visit is of course very greatly reduced from the form given on pp. 338 - 9.

  NOTES.

  1. The drafts have 'Few had survived the turmoils of the Earliest Days', an expression used in the Foreword (p. 329, note 1), where FR has 'Elder Days', the earliest form of the passage has: 'Few had survived the turmoils of those old and forgotten days, and the wars of the Elves and Goblins'.

  2. prepared: FR has 'proposed to leave them', but this is an error that arose at the typescript stage.

  3. My father wrote 'a queer-looking brown-faced hobbit', struck out 'hobbit', and then wrote 'hobbit' again.

  4. In this phase Ferney is spelt thus; Ferny in the original version and in FR.

  5. The word ran in the erased note to the second text of the attack on Crickhollow ('Behind him ran Odo...', p. 328) is rather surprising, since it seems pointless: if Odo was to accompany Gandalf there seems no reason why he should not ride pillion from the first - and in any case he would have been quickly left far behind.

  6. It is perhaps surprising that Gandalf should expect Frodo and his companions to have passed through Bree on the Tuesday, since he knew from Odo that they left the house at Crickhollow on the Monday morning and had gone into the Old Forest. When they would get to Bree was presumably now far more uncertain than if they had taken the Road (hostile interventions apart). Possibly this survives from the old form of the story - 'They should be here by Tuesday, if they can follow a plain road', p. 151 - when Gandalf had no reason to think that they had not simply ridden the East Road from the Brandywine Bridge. See note 11.

  7. How dick the Riders know that there were four hobbits? (In the old variant versions, pp. 152, 157, they knew even that the four hobbits had five ponies). Presumably they surmised it: they knew that three had come to Bucklebury Ferry and been met there by another. Beyond that they had no knowledge (on the Wednesday night when they came to the inn) of Frodo and his companions. - At some point my father struck out the word four; see note 14.

  8. This episode derives from the old 'B' version, p. 157; but there the Rider questioned Trotter, who did not answer. The relations between the versions here are:

  Old version 'A'(p. 151):

  (Monday) One Rider questions Butterbur at the inn-door

  (Tuesday) Four Riders come to the inn-door, and one questions Butterbur

  Old version'B'(p. 157):

  (Monday) One Rider questions Trotter on the Road

  (Tuesday) Four riders meet Trotter on the Road, and one questions him

  The present version:

  (Monday) One Rider goes through Bree (p. 339), and meets Trotter on the Road east of Bree without speech (p.342)

  (Wednesday) Four Riders come to the inn-door, and one questions Butterbur (pp. 339 - 40); they are seen by Trotter (p.342)

  9. The change in Trotter's speech remarked by Frodo, deriving from the original form of the story (p. 154), survived in FR (p. 178), though the significance is there quite different: 'I think you are not really as you choose to look. You began t
o talk to me like the Bree- folk, but your voice has changed.'

  10. Narothal ('Firefoot'), the first name given to Gandalf's white horse, was replaced later in pencil by the suggestions: 'Fairfax, Snowfax', and pencilled in the margin is 'Firefoot Arod? Aragorn', but these latter were struck out. Arod became in LR the name of a horse of Rohan.

  11. A pencilled note on the manuscript says: 'Since he has been to Crickhollow he must know of Old Forest' - i.e. Gandalf must know from Odo that the other hobbits went into the Old Forest. At the same time my father pencilled into the text at this point: 'I trusted Tom Bombadil to keep them out of trouble.'

  12. This lane is marked on the sketch-map of Bree given on p. 335.

  13. 'Narothal' changed in pencil to 'Fairfax'; see note 10.

  14. four hobbits: see note 7. Subsequently my father struck out four, and wrote instead: hobbits, three or more.

  XXI. THE THIRD PHASE (3): TO WEATHERTOP AND RIVENDELL.

  The next chapter, numbered X and with the title 'Wild Ways to Weathertop', belongs with the base-form of 'At the Sign of the Prancing Pony' and is continuous with it; but it begins by repeating almost exactly the end of that chapter, from 'Frodo made no answer' to '"Read it!" said Trotter' (p. 343). Then follows:

  Frodo looked carefully at the seal before he broke it. It seemed certainly to be Gandalf's, as did the writing also, and the runic G . Inside was the following message. Frodo read it and then repeated it aloud for the benefit of Folco and Sam.

  The Prancing Pony, Wednesday, Sept. 28. Dear F. Where on earth are you? Not still in the Forest, I hope! Could not help being late, but explanations must wait. If you ever get this letter, I shall be ahead of you. Hurry on, and don't stop anywhere! Things are worse than I thought and pursuit is close. Look out for horsemen in black, and avoid them. They are perilous: your worst enemies. Don't use It again, not on any account. Don't move in the dark. Try and catch me up. I dare not wait here, but I shall halt at a place known to the bearer, and look out for you there. I am giving this to a ranger known as Trotter: dark rather lean hobbit, wears wooden shoes. He is an old friend of mine, and knows a great deal. You can trust him. He mill guide you to appointed place through wild country. N.B. Odo Baggins is with me. Hurry on! Yours

  Frodo looked at the trailing handwriting: it seemed as plainly genuine as the seal. 'It is dated Wednesday and from this house,' he said. 'How did you come by it?'

  'I met Gandalf by appointment near Archet,' answered Trotter. 'He did not leave Bree by the Road, but went up a side lane and round the hill the other way.'

  'Well, Trotter,' said Frodo after a pause, 'it would have made things easier and saved a lot of time and talk, if you had produced this letter at once. Why did you invent all that tale about eavesdropping? '

  'I didn't invent it,' laughed Trotter. 'I gave old Gandalf quite a shock when I popped up from behind the hedge. But he was very glad when he saw who I was. He said it was the first bit of luck he had had for some while. It was then that we arranged that I was to wait about here in case you were behind, while he pushed on and tried to draw the Riders after him. I know all about your troubles including the Ring, I may say.'

  'Then there's nothing more for me to say,' said Frodo, 'except that I am glad we have found you. I am sorry if I have been unnecessarily suspicious.'

  The conversation proceeds very much as in the original story (p. 155), as far as the 'subsidence' of Folco (Odo) beneath Trotter's opinion of him.(1) Then follows:

  'We shall all perish, tough or not, unless we have strange good luck, as far as I can see,' said Frodo. 'I cannot understand why you want to be mixed up in our troubles, Trotter.'

  'One reason is that Gandalf asked me to help you,' he replied quietly.

  'What do you advise then?' asked Frodo. 'I don't quite understand this letter: don't stop anywhere it says, and yet don't move in the dark. Is it safe to stop here till morning?' Frodo looked at the comfortable fire and the soft candlelight in the room, and sighed. 'No, it probably isn't safe - but it would be far more dangerous to start off by night. So we must wait for daylight and hope for the best. But we had better start early - it is a long way to Weathertop.' 'Weathertop? ' said Folco. 'Where and what is that?'

  'The appointed place mentioned in the letter,' Trotter replied. 'It is a hill, just north of the Road, somewhere about halfway to Rivendell from here.(2) It commands a very wide view all round. But you will start nearly two days behind Gandalf, and you'll have to go fast or you won't find him there.'

  'In that case let's get to bed now, while there is still some night left!' said Folco yawning. 'Where's that silly fellow Merry? It would be too much, if we had to go out now and look for him.'

  Merry's story of the Black Rider whom he saw outside the inn and followed differs in this, that whereas in the original version (pp. 161 - 2) the Rider went through the village from west to east and stopped at Bill Ferny's house (hole), here

  'He was coming from the east,' Merry went on. 'I followed him

  down the Road almost to the gate. He stopped there at the keeper's house, and I thought I heard him talking to someone. I tried to creep near, but I did not dare to get very close. In fact, I am afraid I suddenly began to shiver and shake, and bolted back here.'

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

  'Don't go to your rooms! ' he answered at once. 'I don't like this at all. Harry Goatleaf was here tonight and went off with Bill Ferney. It's quite likely that they have found out which rooms you have got.

  While in the remainder of the chapter there are advances in detail to the text of FR (from p. 186, the end of Chapter 10 'Strider', to p. 201, in the course of Chapter 11 'A Knife in the Dark'), the narrative of this third phase version follows the original (pp. 162 - 71) closely in almost all points where that differed from FR, and ends at the same point.

  It is now Trotter who imitated Frodo's head in the bed with a mat. The pony is expressly said to be Bill Ferney's, and is described as 'a bony, underfed, and rather dispirited animal.' There were two men looking over the hedge round Ferney's house: Ferney himself, and 'a southerner with a sallow face, and a sly and almost goblinish look in his slanting eyes.' This latter is not identified with the 'squint-eyed southerner' who left the inn the night before with Ferney and the gate-keeper (p. 336). In the old story (p. 165) it was Bill Ferny standing there alone, whom Bingo thought 'goblinish'. It is still Trotter who has the apples, and who hits Ferney on the nose with one. Archet, Combe, and Staddle are referred to as in FR (p. 193), in keeping with what is said of them in the description of the Bree-land at the opening of Chapter IX (p. 332), and Trotter's plan is now to make for Archet and pass it on the east (cf. p. 165 and note 21).

  The lights in the eastern sky seen by the travellers from the Midge- water Marshes do not appear until the whole story of Gandalf's movements at this time had been changed. Trotter replies to Frodo's question 'But surely we were hoping to find Gandalf there?' (FR p. 195, original version p. 167) thus:

  'Yes - but my hope is rather faint. It is four days since we left Bree, and if Gandalf has managed to get to Weathertop himself without being too hotly pursued, he must have arrived at least two days ago. I doubt if he has dared to wait so long, on the mere chance of your following him: he does not know for certain that you are behind or have got his messages...'

  He still says: 'There are even some of the Rangers that on a clear day could spy us from there, if we moved. And not all the Rangers are to be trusted...'

  The chronology is thus (cf. p. 175):

  Wed. Sept. 28. Gandalf and Odo left Bree.

  Thurs. Sept. 29. Frodo and companions reached Bree.

  Fri. Sept. 30. Trotter, Frodo and companions left Bree; night in Chetwood.

  Sat. Oct. 1. Night in Chetwood.

  Sun. Oct. 2. First day and camp in marshes.

  Mon. Oct. 3. Second day and camp in marshes.

  Tues. Oct.4. Leaving the marshes. Camp by stream under alders.

  On this day Trot
ter calculated that Gandalf, if he reached Weathertop, must have arrived there 'at least two days ago', i.e. on Sunday 2 October, which allows as much as four days and nights for the journey from Bree on horseback.

  In the original version they reached Weathertop on 5 October, whereas in FR they camped at the feet of the hills that night (see p. 175). In the present text my father retained the former story, but then changed it to that of FR:

  By night they had reached the feet of the hills, and there they camped. It was the night of October the fifth, and they were six days out from Bree. In the morning they found, for the first time since they left the Bree-land [> Chetwood], a track plain to see.

  It will be seen shortly that this change was made before the chapter was finished.

  The passage following Folco's question 'Is there any barrow on Weathertop? ' (FR p. 197) remains exactly as in the original text (p. 169), with Elendil for Valandil; and when they reach the summit all remains as before, with only the necessary change of Merry's 'I don't blame Gandalf for not waiting here! He would have to leave the waggon, and horses, and most of his companions, too, I expect, down near the Road' to 'I don't blame Gandalf for not waiting long - if he ever came here.' But the paper that flutters from the cairn bears a different message (see p. 170):