returnoftheshadow72

by Miguel

  The tree-giants assail the besiegers and rescue Trotter &c. and raise siege.

  (If this plot is used it will be better to have no Boromir in party. Substitute Gimli? son of Gloin - who was killed in Moria. But Frodo can bear messages from Boromir to his father the K[ing] of Ond.)

  Next stage - they set out for the Fire Mountain. They have to skirt Mordor on its west edge.

  In this brief sketch we see the very starting-point, in written expression, of two fundamental 'moments' in the narrative of The Lord of the Rings: the separation of Frodo from the Company (subsequently rejoined by Sam), and the assault by the 'tree-giants' of Fangorn on the enemies of Gondor; but such narrative frame as they were given here was entirely ephemeral. We meet also a further early image of Giant Tree- beard: still of vast height, as in the text given on pp. 382 - 4, where his voice came down to Frodo 'out of the tree-top', but no longer hostile, the captor of Gandalf (p. 363), 'pretending to be friendly but really in league with the enemy' (p. 384). Boromir is now said to be the son of the King of Ond; but the death of Gimli in Moria was an idea never further developed. Here is the first appearance of an Elvish name, Beleghir, of the Great River, which flowed through Fangorn Forest (see p. 410). The Forest 'runs right up to the [Blue >] Black Mountains'; cf. the outline for the Council of Elrond (p. 397), in which Gandalf says that Giant Tree- beard 'haunts the Forest between the River and the South Mountains'. But of Lothlorien and Rohan there is as yet not a hint.

  NOTES.

  1. The last sheet of the original chapter (see p. 213) had ended with the words 'a strong king whose realm included Esgaroth, and much land to the south of the great falls' at the foot of the page (numbered 'IX.8'), and the reverse was left blank. The first version of the continuation was written out (in a rapid scribble in ink) independently of the old text; the second, also very rough and nearly all in pencil, starts on the unused verso side of 'IX.8', on which however my father wrote in preparation 'IX.9', although at that time he did not use the page. When he returned to it later he did not change the chapter-number but continued the numeration 'IX.10' etc.; this however was mere absentmindedness, since the chapter could not possibly at this time still be numbered 'IX'.

  2. The reference is to the end of The Hobbit; cf. p. 15 and note 3.

  3. In the first version Gloin does not admit to any falling short of the skill of the forefathers: 'He began to speak of new inventions and of the great works at which the folk of the Mountain were now labouring; of armour of surpassing strength and beauty, swords more keen and strong... - The sentence You should see the waterways of Dale, Frodo, and the fountains and the pools!' goes back to the first draft; in FR (p. 242) the word 'mountains' is an obvious error which has never been corrected.

  4. This name is found only in the first of the two texts, but it appears later on in the second (p. 395).

  5. Cf. pp. 211, 214, 363. - Peregrin disappeared out of the Shire when he was 33, at which time Frodo was only two years old (see p. 387, note g).

  6. When my father wrote this passage he evidently had in mind, at least as one possibility, a comic song, received with the 'ringing laughter' that wakened Frodo; for at the top of the page he wrote 'Troll Song' - a passing idea before it was given far more appositely to Sam in the Trollshaws. But he also wrote 'Let B[ilbo] sing Tinuviel', and the word '? Messenger'. This is a reference to the poem Errantry (published in The Oxford Magazine 9 November 1933, and with many further changes in The Adventures of Tom Bombadil ( 1962)). Bilbo's song Earendil was a mariner derived (in a sense) from Errantry, and the earliest text of it still begins:

  There was a merry messenger,

  a passenger, a mariner,

  he built a boat and gilded her

  and silver oars he fashion d her...

  7. In the first text the dwarf with Gloin is named Frar; in the margin is pencilled Burin son of Balin. Frar appears also in the outline for the Council of Elrond on p. 397, again replaced by Burin.

  8. The presence of an Elf of Mirkwood was an addition to the second text.

  9. As written, the first text read here: 'two of Elrond's own kinsfolk the Pereldar or halfelven folk...' Pereldar was struck out, probably at once. In the Quenta Silmarillion the Pereldar or 'Half-eldar' are the Danas (Green-elves): V.215. The Danas were also called 'the Lovers of Luthien' (ibid.). In LR (Appendix A I (i)) Elros and Elrond are called Peredhil 'Half-elven'; an earlier name for them was Peringol, Peringiul (V.152).

  10. The Grey Havens are first named in the third phase version of 'Ancient History', p. 319.

  .11. The square brackets are in the original.

  12. As note 11.

  13. The text stands thus, with two passages both beginning 'Yet of late we have received secret messages from Mordor', but neither rejected.

  14. The name Boromir of the second son of Bor, killed in the Battle of Unnumbered Tears, had appeared in the later Annals of Beleriand and in the Quenta Silmarillion (V. I34, 287, 310). For the etymology of the name see V.353, 373.

  15. This sentence is a subsequent correction of 'But the faces of those that were seated in the room were grave.' In a rejected opening of the text Gandalf says: 'We had better make our way to Elrond's chamber at once', and in the western wing of the house he knocks at a door and enters 'a small room, the western side of which opened onto a porch beyond which the ground fell sheer to the foaming river.' In the revised opening as printed the Council of Elrond takes place in the porch (as in FR, p. 252), though it was still described here as a 'room', until this correction was made.

  16. This first appearance of Gimli son of Gloin was a pencilled alteration, but not from much later.

  17. In the previous account of those present at the Council (p. 395) the three counsellors of Rivendell are Erestor, called 'an Elf', and 'two other kinsmen of Elrond, of that half-elvish folk whom the Elves named the children of Luthien' - which seems however to imply that Erestor also was Elrond's kinsman.

  18. In FR (p. 253) Galdor, here the precursor of Legolas, is the name of the Elf from the Grey Havens who bore the errand of Cirdan. Galdor had not at this time become the name of the father of Hurin and Huor; in the Quenta Silmarillion he was still named Gumlin.

  19. The first reference to the Dead Marshes.

  20. My father bracketed the passage from 'Ever since I have worn shoes' to 'hurt in some way', and wrote in the margin (with a query) that it should be revealed later that Trotter had wooden feet. - This is the first appearance of the story that it was Trotter who found Gollum (in the version of 'Ancient History' in the third phase (p. 320) Gandalf still told Frodo that he had himself found Gollum, in Mirkwood); and Trotter's experience of Mordor, several times mentioned or hinted at (see pp. 223, 371), is explained at the same time.

  21. Written in the margin against this paragraph: 'Gandalf's captivity'.

  22. See pp. 118 - 20.

  23. An earlier form of this passage makes Gandalf reply to Elrond: 'I knew of him. But I had quite forgotten him. I must go and see him as soon as there is a chance.' This was changed - at the time of writing - to the passage given, in which Gandalf says that he actually visited Tom Bombadil after the attack on Crickhollow - the first appearance of an idea that will be met again, though the meeting of Gandalf and Bombadil never (alas!) reached narrative form. Cf. the isolated passage given on pp. 213 - 14, where Gandalf says at Rivendell: 'Why did I not think of Bombadil before! If only he was not so far away, I would go straight back now and consult him.' Cf. also p. 345 and note i r. - Gandalf does not mention Odo here, and it becomes clear at the end of this chapter that he had been removed from Rivendell (see pp. 407, 409).

  24. In the third phase version of 'At the Sign of the Prancing Pony' it is still apparent that Tom Bombadil was known to visit the inn at Bree (p. 334).

  25. In rough drafting of this passage my father wrote: 'and in the end he would come in person; and the Barrow-wights would', striking out these last words as he wrote and changing them to: 'and even on his own ground Tom Bomba
dil alone could not withstand that onset unscathed.' - 'Lord of the Ring' was first written 'Lord of the Rings', but changed immediately.

  26. Erestor changed from Clorfindel, which was changed from Elrond. Cf. P. 396.

  27. This reply to Erestor was first given to Gandalf, for Erestor addressed his question to him: 'Can you solve this riddle, Gandalf?' To which Gandalf answered: 'No! I cannot. But I can choose, if you wish me to choose.' The passage was then changed at once to the form given.

  28. In The Hobbit Thrain was not the father of Thror, but his son. This is a complex question which will be discussed in Vol. VII.

  29. In the dungeons of Dol Guldur in Mirkwood in FR (p. 282).

  30. As this passage was first written, Gloin says that the messages from Mordor offered the Dwarves 'a ring'; and that they were offered peace and friendship if they could obtain Bilbo's ring, or even tell where he was to be found. As altered subsequently, his words approach what he tells in FR (p. 254); and the story in the first draft for the Council (p. 398), that the Dwarves still possessed some of their ancient Rings, that Dain had one, and that Sauron was demanding them back, has already been abandoned.

  31. Cf. p. 371, at the end of the outline $2.

  32. The chapter 'The Council of Elrond' in FR (II.2) ends here.

  33. 'Trotter would also be useful' was changed to 'Trotter will also be essential', and probably at the same time my father wrote in the margin: 'Trotter is connected with the Ring.' This alteration thus comes from somewhat later, when he was reaching the conception of Aragorn and his ancestry. See note 34.

  34. Trotter was of course still a hobbit. In the margin my father wrote against this passage: 'Correct this. Only Trotter is of ancient race' (i.e. Trotter is a Numenorean, but Boromir is not).

  XXIV. THE RING GOES SOUTH.

  As I have said, this next stage in the story was written continuously on from the first version of 'The Council of Elrond'. After the description of the red star in the South (FR p. 287) there is a heading 'The Ring Goes South', but no new chapter-number, and the pagination is continuous with what precedes.

  I give now the text of this earliest version of 'The Ring Goes South' (which extends somewhat into the next chapter in FR, II.4 'A Journey in the Dark'). This is an outstandingly difficult manuscript, and difficult to represent. I think that it was not based on any preliminary notes or sketches, except in one passage,(1) that my father wrote it ab initio as a full narrative; and this being so it is remarkable how much of its wording survived into the final form, despite the radical differences that Trotter was still the hobbit Peregrin and that neither Dwarf nor Elf was present. The company, as already noticed, consisted of Gandalf, Boromir, and five hobbits - even though one of them, to be sure, was no inexperienced hobbit of the Shire.

  My father wrote nearly all of it in ink, but he wrote extremely fast (though with patience - and some aid from the text of FR - all but a few words can be puzzled out), so fast that he often left to stand what he had written but rejected, while racing on to a new phrasing or formulation; and the expression is often rough and unfinished. Subsequently he went over it in pencil, but the great majority of these pencilled alterations belong, I feel sure, to a time very close to the original writing, and some of them demonstrably so. A few are certainly later, and introduce references to Gimli and Legolas that are chronologically and structurally irrelevant. There are also some alterations in red ink, but these only concern certain place-names.

  In the text as printed here, I adopt pencilled alterations that seem certainly 'early'. few affect the narrative in any important respect, and where they do the original text is given in the notes. The notes are here an integral part of the representation of the manuscript.

  The Ring goes South.

  When Frodo had been about a fortnight in Rivendell and November was already a week old or more(2) the scouts began to return.

  Some had been northwards as far as the Dimrill-dales,(3) and some had gone southwards almost as far as the River Redway. A few had passed the mountains both by the High Pass and Goblin Gate (Annerchin), and by the passage at the sources of the Gladden. These were the last to return, for they had descended into Wilderland as far as the Gladden Fields,(4) and that was a great way from Rivendell even for the swiftest Elves. But neither they nor those who had received the aid of the Eagles near Goblin Gate (5) had discovered any news - except that the wild wolves called wargs were gathering again and were hunting once more between the Mountains and Mirkwood. No sign of the Black Riders had been found - except on the rocks below the Ford the bodies of four [written above: several] drowned horses, and [?one] long black cloak slashed and tattered.

  'One can never tell,' said Gandalf, 'but it does look as if the Riders were dispersed - and have had to make their way as best they could back to Mordor. In that case there will still be a long while before the hunt begins again. And it will have to come back here to pick up the trail - if we are lucky and careful, and they do not get news of us on the way. We had better get off as soon as possible now - and as quietly.'

  Elrond agreed, and warned them to journey by dusk and dark as often as might be, and to lie hid when they could in the broad daylight. 'When the news reaches Sauron,' he said, 'of the discomfiture of the Nine Riders, he will be filled with a great anger. When the hunt begins again, it will be far greater and more ravenous.'

  'Are there still more Black Riders then?' asked Frodo.

  'No! There are but Nine Ringwraiths. But when they come forth again, I fear they will bring a host of evil things in their train, and set their spies wide over the lands. Even of the sky above you must beware as you go your way.'

  There came a cold grey day in mid November.(6) The East wind was streaming through the bare branches of the trees, and seething in the firtrees on the hills. The hurrying clouds were low and sunless. As the cheerless shadows of the early evening began to fall, the adventurers made ready to depart. Their farewells had all been said by the fire in the great hall, and they were waiting only for Gandalf, who was still in the house speaking some last words in private with Elrond. Their spare food and clothes and other necessaries were laden on two sure-footed ponies. The travellers themselves were to go on foot; for their course was set through lands where there were few roads and paths were rough and difficult. Sooner or later they would have to cross the Mountains. Also they were going to journey for the most part by dusk or dark.(7) Sam was standing by the two pack-ponies sucking his teeth and staring moodily at the house - his desire for adventure was at a low ebb. But in that hour none of the hobbits had any heart for their journey - a chill was in their hearts, and a cold wind in their faces. A gleam of firelight came from the open doors; lights were glowing in many windows, and the world outside seemed empty and cold. Bilbo huddled in his cloak stood silent on the doorstep beside Frodo. Trotter sat with his head bowed to his knees.(8)

  At last Elrond came out with Gandalf. 'Farewell now!' he said. 'May the blessing of Elves and Men and all free folk go with you. And may white stars shine on your journey! '

  'Good... good luck!' said Bilbo, stuttering a little (from the cold perhaps). 'I don't suppose you will be able to keep a diary, Frodo my lad, but I shall expect a full account when you get back. And don't be too long: I have lived longer than I expected already. Farewell! '

  Many others of Elrond's household stood in the shadows and watched them go, bidding them farewell with soft voices. There was no laughter, and no songs or music. Silently at last they turned away, and leading their ponies they faded swiftly into the gathering dusk.

  They crossed the bridge and wound slowly up the long steep paths out of the cloven vale of Rivendell, and came at length to the high moors, grey and formless under misty stars. Then with one last look down at the lights of the Last Homely House below they strode on, far on into the night.

  At the Ford they left the west road that crossed the River; and turning left went on by narrow paths among the folded lands. They were going South. Their purpose
was to hold this course for many miles and days on the western side of the Misty Mountains. The country was much wilder and rougher than in the green valley of the Great River in Wilderland on the eastern side of the range and their going would be much slower; but they hoped in this way to escape the notice of enemies. The spies of Sauron had hitherto seldom been seen in the western regions; and the paths were little known except to the people of Rivendell. Gandalf walked in front and with him went Trotter who knew this country even in the dark. Boromir as rearguard walked behind.

  The first part of their journey was cheerless and grim and Frodo remembered little of it, except the cold wind. It blew icy from the eastern mountains for many sunless days and no garment seemed able to keep out its searching fingers. They had been well furnished with warm clothes in Rivendell, and had jackets and cloaks lined with fur as well as many blankets, but they seldom felt warm either moving or at rest. They slept uneasily during the middle of the day, in some hollow of the land, or hidden under the tangled thorn-bushes that grew in great thickets in those parts. In the late afternoon they were roused, and had their chief meal: usually cold and cheerless and with little talk, for they seldom risked the lighting of a fire. In the evening they went on again, as nearly due south as they could find a way.