The Peoples of Middle-earth (48 page)

The subsequent history is very curious. I have mentioned (p. 258) that when writing the narrative of the North Kingdom he experimented with the introduction of the story of Aragorn and Arwen.

This was to follow the account of how, when King Elessar came to the North, Hobbits from the Shire would visit him in his house in Annuminas (RK p. 324); and it enters on the typescript page with extraordinary abruptness (even allowing for the device of supposed extracts from written sources to account for such transitions):

... and some ride away with him and dwell in his house as long as they have a mind. Master Samwise the Mayor and Thain Peregrin have been there many times.

Arador was the grandfather of the King....

It may seem that my father did not know what to do with the story, or perhaps rather, did not know what it might be possible to do with it.

But it was here, strangely enough, that the abbreviation and compression and stylistic 'reduction' that distinguishes the final form of Aragorn and Arwen from the original version first entered. The text in these abandoned pages of 'The Realms in Exile' is (if not quite at all points) that of the story in Appendix A.(8) It extended only to the words

'She shall not be the bride of any Man less than the King of both Gondor and Arnor' (RK p. 342); but in manuscript notes accompanying it my father sketched out a reduction of the story of Aragorn's part in the War of the Ring to a few lines: for this element in the original story was obviously wholly incompatible with such a placing of it - which would seem in any case unsuitable and unsatisfactory. He obviously thought so too. But it is interesting to see that in the final typescript from which the story as it stands in Appendix A was printed the page on which it begins still carries at the top the words 'Master Samwise the Mayor and Thain Peregrin have been there many times', struck out and replaced by 'Here follows a part of the Tale of Aragorn and Arwen'. 'A part', presumably, because so much had gone.

A few changes were made to this last typescript of the tale, among them the substitution of Estel for Amin (see note 8) at all occurrences, and the introduction of the departure of Gilraen from Rivendell (RK

p. 342) and her parting with Aragorn, with the words Onen i-Estel Edain, u-chebin estel anim.

Thus the original design of the tale of Aragorn and Arwen had been lost; but the actual reason for this was the abandoned experiment of inserting it into the history of the North Kingdom. I can say no more of this strange matter.

NOTES.

1. So also Aragorn declared to Arwen on his deathbed that he was

'the latest King of the Elder Days' (RK p. 343), and at the end of text B of the primary version 'with the passing of the Evenstar all is said of the Elder Days' (p. 268). See p. 173 and note 7.

2. On the other hand, while the concealment of Aragorn's ancestry from him in his youth was present in the original form of the tale, the giving to him of another name (Estel in the final version, see note 8) was not.

3. The distinction between 'thou' and 'you' was clearly made in the original manuscript, though sometimes blurred inadvertently, and it was retained and made precise in the text that followed it: thus Aragorn uses 'you' to Elrond, and to Arwen at their first meeting, whereas Elrond and Arwen address him with 'thou, thee'.

4. Thus their words together on Kerin Amroth, concerning the Shadow and the Twilight, were not yet present; see note 6.

5. The last sentences are put in the present tense in the published text.

But when my father wrote Aragorn and Arwen he did not conceive it as a citation from an ancient source, and did not place it all within quotation marks.

6. To this text were added in a rider the words of Aragorn and Arwen on Kerin Amroth (see note 4); but after Arwen's words the passage ended: 'For very great was her love for her father; but not yet did Aragorn understand the fullness of her words.'

7. There were a few differences from the final form. When Arwen spoke of 'the gift of Eru Iluvatar' which is bitter to receive, Aragorn answered: 'Bitter in truth. But let us not be overthrown at the final test, who fought the Shadow of old. In sorrow we must go, for sorrow is appointed to us; and indeed by sorrow we do but say that that which is ended is good. But let us not go in despair.'

He named himself 'the latest King of the Elder Days' (see note 1), but when he was dead 'long there he lay, an image of the splendour of the Kings of Men in glory undimmed, before the passing of the Elder Days and the change of the world': this was altered on the typescript to 'before the breaking of the world'. And at the moment of his death Arwen did not cry 'Estel, Estel!', for the name given to him in his youth had not yet arisen (see notes 2

and 8).

8. It was in this text that Aragorn's name in Rivendell entered, but here it was Amin, not Estel, though likewise translated 'Hope'.

Here Aragorn's mother's name became Gilraen for earlier Gilrain, and Ivorwen's father Gilbarad disappeared.

(III) THE HOUSE OF EORL.

The history of Appendix A II, The House of Eorl, has no perplexities.

From the early period of my father's work on the Appendices there are three brief texts, which I will refer to as I, II, and HI, probably written in close succession, and with the third he had evidently achieved a satisfactory formulation of all that he wished to say of the rulers of the Mark. As I judge, he then put it aside for a long time.

It seems that the names of the Kings of the Mark were first set down on paper in the course of the writing of the chapter The Last Debate: when Gimli in his story of the Paths of the Dead (at that time placed at this point in the narrative) spoke of the mailclad skeleton by the closed door and Aragorn's words 'Here lies Baldor son of Brego', my father interrupted the story with the list of names, to which he added dates in the Shire-reckoning (see VIII.408). I concluded that it was only the dates of Fengel, Thengel, and Theoden that belong with the writing of the manuscript; but it is a striking fact that already at that time the dates of those kings were not greatly different from those in Appendix A (RK p. 350). Particularly noteworthy is that of the birth of Theoden, S.R.1328 = 2928. In text I it remains 2928 (in both I and II the dates were all still given in Shire-reckoning, but it is more convenient to convert them); so also in II, but corrected to 2948 (the final date). In the draft manuscript T 3 of the Tale of Years it was 2928, but in T 4 (p. 239) it was 2948. This is sufficient to show that these early texts of The House of Eorl were contemporary with those texts of the Tale of Years.

In the first two texts my father was chiefly concerned with the elaboration of the chronology in detail, and they consist only of the names of the kings and their dates,(1) with notes added to a few of them. In I, which was written very rapidly on a small sheet, under Eorl the Field of Celebrant and the gift of Rohan are mentioned, and it is said that he began the building of Meduseld and died in battle against Easterlings in the Wold in 2545; of Brego that he drove them out in 2546, completed Meduseld, and died of grief for his son Baldor in 2570; of Aldor the Old that 'he first established Dunharrow as a refuge-fort'. In the note on Helm, however, is seen the first appearance of the tale told in Appendix A, very hastily written and still undeveloped: In his day there was an invasion from west of Dunlanders and of S. Gondor by pirates and by Easterlings and Orcs. In 2758 in the Long Winter they took refuge in Helm's Deep.(2) Both his sons Hama and Haeleth were killed (lost in snow). At his death there was in the kingdom an upstart king Wulf not of Eorl's line [who] with help of Dunlanders tried to seize throne. Eventually Frealaf son of Hild his sister and nearest heir was victorious and became king. A new line of mounds was started to symbolize break in direct line.

There are no notes on the Kings of the Second Line save Fengel, of whom it is recorded that he was the youngest son of Folcwine, for his elder brothers, named here Folcwalda and Folcred, were 'killed in battle in service of Gondor against Harad'. The final note in I states that Eomer was the son of Theoden's sister Theodwyn (who does not appear in the narrative), and that 'he wedded Morwen daughter of Hurin of Gondor'. This is Hurin of the Keys, who was in command of Minas Tirith when the host of the West rode to the Black Gate (RK

p. 237); I do not think that there is any other reference to the marriage of Eomer with his daughter, who was corrected on the text to Lothiriel daughter of Prince Imrahil.

The second text II was a fair copy of I, with scarcely any change in content other than in detail of dates. Where in I it was said only that Eorl was 'born in the North', in II he was 'born in Irenland in the North'. This name was struck out and replaced by Eotheod, and this is very probably where that name first appeared (it is found also in both texts of the original 'Appendix on Languages', p. 34, $14). It was now further said of Eomer that he 'became a great king and extended his realm west of the Gap of Rohan to the regions between Isen and Greyflood, including Dunland.'(3)

The last text (III) of this period was a finely written manuscript which begins with a brief account of the origin of the Rohirrim in the Men of Eotheod and their southward migration.

The House of Eorl.

Eorl the Young was lord of the Men of Eotheod. This land lay near the sources of the Anduin, between the upper ranges of the Misty Mountains and the northernmost parts of Mirkwood.

Thither the Eotheod had removed some hundreds of years before from lands further south in the vale of Anduin. They were originally close kin of the Beornings and the men of the west-eaves of the forest; but they loved best the plains and wide fields, and they delighted in horses and in all feats of horseman-ship. In the days of Garman father of Eorl they had grown to a numerous people somewhat straitened in the land of their home.

In the two thousand five hundred and tenth year of the Third Age a great peril threatened the land of Gondor in the South and wild men out of the East assailed its northern borders, allying themselves with Orcs of the mountains. The invaders overran and occupied Calenardon, the great plains in the north of the realm. The Steward of Gondor sent north for help, for there had ever been friendship between the men of Anduin's vale and the people of Gondor. Hearing of the need of Gondor from afar Eorl set out with a great host of riders; and it was chiefly by his valour and the valour of the horsemen of Eotheod that victory was obtained. In the great battle of the Field of Celebrant the Easterlings and Orcs were utterly defeated and the horsemen of Eorl pursued them over the plains of Calenardon until not one remained.

Cirion Steward of Gondor in reward gave Calenardon to Eorl and his people, and they sent north for their wives and their children and their goods, and they settled in that land. They named it anew the Mark of the Riders, and themselves they called the Eorlingas; but in Gondor the land was called Rohan, and the people the Rohirrim (that is the Horse-lords). Thus Eorl became the first King of the Mark, and he chose for his dwelling a green hill before the feet of the White Mountains that fenced in that land at the south.

This is the origin of the opening, greatly expanded, of The House of Eorl in Appendix A (RK pp. 344-5). In the remainder of the text, the line of the Kings of the Mark, there was very little further development: the story of Helm Hammerhand remained in substance exactly as it was, and nothing further was said of any of the kings except Thengel, Theoden, and Eomer. Of Thengel it is recorded that he married late, and had three daughters and one son, but his long sojourn in Gondor (and the character of his father Fengel that led to it) had not emerged. The death of Eomund chief Marshal of the Mark in an Orc-raid in 3002 is recorded, with the note that 'Orcs at this time began often to raid eastern Rohan and steal horses', and the fostering of his children Eomer and Eowyn in the house of Theoden. The note on Theoden that entered in III was retained almost unchanged in Appendix A.(4)

A long note was now appended to Eomer, with the same passage as is found in Appendix A (RK p. 351, footnote) concerning Eowyn,

'Lady of the Shieldarm', and the reference to Meriadoc's name Holdwine given to him by Eomer; and the statement of the extent of his realm appearing in II (p. 271) was rewritten: 'In Eomer's time the realm was extended west beyond the Gap of Rohan as far as the Greyflood and the sea-shores between that river and the Isen, and north to the borders of Lorien, and his men and horses multiplied exceedingly.'

There is no other writing extant before the final typescript of The House of Eorl from which the text in Appendix A was printed, save for a single typescript page. This is the first page of the text, beginning

'Eorl was the lord of the Men of Eotheod', and my father wrote it with the old version III, given above, before him; but he expanded it almost to the form that it has in Appendix A.(5) It includes, however, the following passage (struck out on the typescript) after the words 'the Riders hunted them over the plains of Calenardhon': In the forefront of the charge they saw two great horsemen, clad in grey, unlike all the others, and the Orcs fled before them; but when the battle was won they could not be found, and none knew whence they came or whither they went. But in Rivendell it was recorded that these were the sons of Elrond, Elladan and Elrohir.(6) There is also the curious point that where in Appendix A it is said that