Sauron Defeated (19 page)

'Now I've got a plan'; to which Frodo merely replies 'Very good. You make the arrangements.' The arrival of the men, and the trapping of them beside the fire where Farmer Cotton was standing apparently all alone, follows exactly as in the final story, except that it is of course Frodo, not Merry, who accosts the leader; and when this encounter is over, and the men bundled off into one of their own huts, Farmer Cotton says 'You came back in the nick, Mr. Frodo.'

Then follows Cotton's account to Sam of the condition of the Gaffer ('he's in one of them new Shire-houses, Boss-houses I call 'em'), and Sam's departure to fetch him, virtually as in RK (p. 291). Once again, it is Frodo not Merry who posts look-outs and guards, and he goes off alone with Farmer Cotton to his house: 'He sat with the family in the kitchen, and they asked a few polite questions, but were far more concerned with events in the Shire. In the middle of the talk in burst Sam, with the Gaffer.' The farmer's account of the 'troubles', ending with Young Tom's story of the carting off of Lobelia to the Lock-holes (RK p. 291 - 3), was inserted into B on a long rider; and at this time Frodo's earlier suppositions about how it all began (p. 95) and Young Tom's earlier remarks about Lobelia (p. 98) were removed.(29) The incursion of the Gaffer into the Cottons' kitchen is told as in RK (pp. 293 - 4); but then follows in B:

In the morning early they heard the ringing call of Merry's horn, and in marched nearly a hundred of Tooks and other hobbits from Tuckborough and the Green Hills. The Shire was all alight, they said, and the ruffians that prowled round Tookland had fled; east to the Erandywine mostly, pursued by other Tooks.

There were now enough forces for a strong guard on the East Road from Michel Delving to Brandywine, and for another guard in Bywater. When all that had been settled and put in the charge of Pippin, Frodo and Sam and Merry with Farmer Cotton and an escort of fifty set out for Hobbiton.

The text then continues with the story of their coming to Hobbiton and meeting with Ted Sandyman, and their entry into Bag End, told almost word for word as in RK (pp. 296-7);(30) and ends with the advent of Saruman and his murder by Wormtongue (on which see pp.

102-3). The text B ends just as does the chapter in RK, with Merry's saying 'And the very last end of the War, I hope', Frodo's calling it 'the very last stroke', and Sam's saying 'I shan't call it the end, till we've cleared up the mess.' But there is thus no Battle of Bywater!

The Battle is found on inserted pages that are numbered as additional ('19a, 19b') to the consecutive pagination of the text just described. If this pagination means that these pages were written and inserted subsequently, and it is hard to see what else it could mean, it might seem that my father (still following the story in A, in which the visit to Hobbiton preceded the battle, p. 92) had driven on to the end of the Bag End episode without realising that the story of the Battle of Bywater had yet to be told. But this seems incredible. Far more likely he saw, as he wrote the story of the visit to Hobbiton, that the order of the narration in A must be reversed, so that the chapter would end with the last stroke of the War 'at the very door of Bag End'; but he postponed the battle, and inserted it subsequently into the text already continuously paginated.

Whenever this was done, the existing text (in which the dispositions for defence next morning were followed at once by the visit to Hobbiton) was altered to that of RK (p. 294), and the approach of the men along the road from Waymoot and their ambush on the high-banked road to Bywater was told almost as in the final story: the few differences in this passage are chiefly caused by Merry's having gone to Tuckborough with Pippin. The messenger from the Tookland does not refer to the Thain (see p. 99), and tells that 'Mr. Peregrin and Mr. Merry are coming on with all the folk we can spare'; it was Nick Cotton, not Merry, who had been out all night and reported the approach of the men, whom he estimated to number 'fifty or more'

(close on a hundred', RK); and when the Tooks came in 'the ringing call of Merry's horn was heard.' But from the point where the way back out of the ambush was blocked against the ruffian men, when the hobbits pushed out more carts onto the road, the B text diverges remarkably from the story told in RK:

A voice spoke to them from above. 'Well,' said Frodo, 'you have walked into a trap. Your fellows from Hobbiton did the same, and are all prisoners now. Lay down your weapons! Then go back twenty paces and sit down. Any who try to break out will be shot.'

Many of the men, in spite of the curses of their more villainous mates, at once obeyed. But more than a score turned about and charged back down the lane. Hobbit archers at gaps in the hedges shot down six before they reached the waggons.

Some of them gave up, but ten or more burst through and dashed off, and scattered across country making for the Woody End it seemed.

Merry blew a loud horn-call. There were answering calls from a distance. 'They won't get far!' he said. 'All that country is now alive with hunters.'

The dead ruffians were laden on waggons and taken off and buried in an old gravel-pit nearby, the Battle Pits as they were called ever afterwards. The others were marched off to the village to join their fellows.

So ended the Battle of Bywater, 1419, the [only >] last battle fought in the Shire, and the only battle since the Greenfields, 1137,(31) away up in the North Farthing. In consequence, although it only cost six ruffian lives and no hobbits it has a chapter to itself in all the standard histories, and the names of all those who took part were made into a Roll and learned by heart. The very considerable rise in the fame and fortunes of the Cottons dates from this time.

The connection with the visit to Hobbiton was made in these words: When all was settled, and a late midday meal had been eaten, Merry said: 'Well now, Frodo, it's time to deal with the Chief.'

Farmer Cotton collected an escort of some fifty sturdy hobbits, and then they set out on foot for Bag End: Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin led the way.

The words 'When all was settled' are used now to refer to the ending of the battle and the disposal of the dead and captured ruffians; previously (p. 100) they had referred to the arrangements made to meet the approaching enemy.

The story of the meeting with Saruman at Bag End was written out twice in B, the first form soon declining into a scribble when my father thought better of the opening of the episode. The first opening I give here:

'No doubt, no doubt. But you did not, and so I am able to welcome you home!' There standing at the door was Saruman, looking well-fed and a great deal less wretched than before; his eyes gleamed with malice and amusement.

A sudden light broke on Frodo. 'Sharkey!' he said. Saruman laughed. 'So you've heard that, have you? I believe all my men used to call me that in the better times. They were so devoted.

And so it has followed me up here, has it? Really I find that quite cheering.'

'I cannot imagine why,' said Frodo. 'And what are you doing here anyway? Just a little shabby mischief? Gandalf said he thought you were still capable of that.'

[Struck out: 'Need you ask?' said Saruman.] 'You make me laugh, you hobbit lordlings,' said Saruman. 'Riding along with all these great people so secure and so pleased with yourselves; thinking you have done great things and can now just come back and laze in the country. Saruman's home can be ruined, and he can be turned out. But not Mr. Baggins. Oh, no! He's really important.

'But Mr. Baggins is a fool all the same. And can't even mind his own affairs, always minding other people's. To be expected of a pupil of Gandalf. He must dawdle on the way, and ride twice as far as he need. The Shire would be all right. Well, after our little meeting I thought I might get ahead of you and learn you a lesson. It would have been a sharper lesson if only you had dawdled longer. Still I have done a little that you'll find it hard to mend in your time. It'll be a warning to you to leave other folk alone, and not to be so cocksure. And it will give me something quite pleasant to think about,.to set against my own injuries.*

The second version of the episode in B is virtually as in RK, except that it entirely lacks any reference to the dreadful corpse of Saruman and the mist that rose above it and loomed 'as a pale shrouded figure'

over the Hill of Hobbiton; and this passage did not enter until my father wrote it in on the page proofs of The Return of the King.

A note that he pencilled against the episode in a copy of the First Edition is interesting:

Saruman turned back into Dunland (32) on Aug. 28. He then made for the old South Road and then went north over the Greyflood at Tharbad, and thence NW. to Sarn Ford, and so into the Shire and to Hobbiton on Sept. 22: a journey of about 460 [miles] in 25 days. He thus averaged about 18 miles a day -

evidently hastening as well as he could. He had thus only 38

days in which to work his mischief in the Shire; but much of it had already been done by the ruffians according to his orders -

already planned and issued before the sack of Isengard.

September 22 is the date given in The Tale of Years for Saruman's coming to the Shire, and October 30 for the coming of the 'travellers'

to the Brandywine Bridge.

At a late stage of work on the B text (but before the insertion of the long rider in which Farmer Cotton recounts the history of the Shire since Frodo and his companions left, see p. 100 and note 29) my father perceived that Frodo's experience had so changed him, so withdrawn him, as to render him incapable of any such role in the Scouring of the Shire as had been portrayed. The text as it stood required no large recasting; the entirely different picture of Frodo's part in the events was brought about by many small alterations (often by doing no more than changing 'Frodo' to 'Merry') and a few brief additions. Virtually all of these have been noticed in the foregoing account.

A third, very fine manuscript ('C') followed B, and here the text of RK was reached in all but a few passages, most of these being very minor matters. It was on this manuscript that Cosimo Sackville-Baggins became Lotho, and the references to the Thain were introduced (see pp. 99, 101). The number of men at the Battle of Bywater had been enlarged to 'more than seventy', and the battle had become much fiercer, with the trapped men climbing the banks above the road and attacking the hobbits, already as C was first written; by later emendation the numbers of the men and of the slain on both sides were further increased. The original reading of C 'Merry himself slew the largest of the ruffians' was altered to '... the leader, a great squint-eyed brute like a huge orc'; with this cf. the description of the orc-man 'Sharkey' at Bag End in the A version, pp. 90 - 1. Lastly, an important addition was made to C concerning Frodo: 'Frodo had been in the battle, but he had not drawn sword, and his chief part had been to prevent the hobbits in their wrath at their losses from slaying those of their enemies who threw down their weapons' (RK pp. 295 - 6).

There lacked now only the passage describing the departure of the spirit of Saruman, and his corpse.

NOTES.

1. Subsequently the passage was corrected in pencil. The question

'Who's the Mayor?' was given to Merry, and the answer became

'The Boss at Bag End'; Frodo's 'And who's the Chief Shirriff?'

received the same answer. Then follows: 'Boss? Boss? You mean Mr. Cosimo, I suppose.' 'I suppose so, Mr. Baggins, but we have to say just The Boss nowadays.'

Further on, where in RK (p. 279) it is said that 'The new

"Chief" evidently had means of getting news, A has the New Mayor [?or] Chief Shirriff'; but this was changed to 'the Boss or Chief Shirriff'. When 'arrested' at Frogmorton Frodo and his companions are told that 'It's [Mayor's >] the Chief Shirriff's orders', where RK (p. 280) has 'It's the Chief's orders'.

2. But see p. 111.

3. The village was named Frogbarn, with Frogmorton written above as an alternative (and Frogmorton occurs in the text subsequently); and the date of their ride from the Brandywine Bridge was

'the fifth of November in the Shire-reckoning', with '1st' (the date in RK) written above. The village was 'about 25 miles from the Bridge' ('about twenty-two miles' in RK).

4. The name Smallburrow was written so, as in RK, at the first occurrence, but thereafter Smallburrows.

5. 'Shire-house' is used in A for 'Shirriff-house' in RK. Sam asks what the term means, and Robin Smallburrows replies: 'Well, you ought to know, Sam. You were in one last night, and didn't find it to your liking, we hear.'

6. See p. 95.

7. The text here is very difficult. Above '(I told) the Boss' my father first wrote 'Long Tom' before changing this to 'Big Sharkey'. The end of the ruffian's remarks as first written cannot be read: 'but the Boss says no, and [?Long Tom]..... way' (just possibly 'goes his way').

8. There is a note on the manuscript here which is partly illegible: