The Treason of Isengard (35 page)

After a while they looked about the chamber to see if they could discover any tidings or signs of Balin's people. There was another door on the other side, under the shaft. By both doors they now saw that in the dust were lying many bones, and among them broken swords, and axe-heads, cloven shields and helms. Some of the swords were crooked: orc-weapons with black blades.

There were recesses and shelves cut in the wall, and in them were large iron-bound chests: all had been broken open and plundered; but beside the broken lid of one lay the tattered fragments of a book. It had been hewn with a sword and stabbed, and was so stained with dark marks like old blood that only little of it could be read. It only a cover [sic](1) and much was missing or in small pieces. Gandalf laid it carefully on the slab and pored over it; it was written in dwarvish and elvish script by many different hands.

'It is a record of the fortunes of Balin's folk,' said the wizard,

'and seems to begin with their coming to the Great Gate 20

years ago. Listen!

'We drove out Orcs from ... first hall. We slew many under the bright sun in the Dale. Floi was killed by an arrow. He slew... We have occupied [> taken] the Twenty-first Hall of North-end [added: to dwell in]. There is there ... shaft is...

Balin has set up his seat in the Chamber of Mazarbul... gold...

Durin's axe. Balin is Lord of Moria... We found truesilver... Well-forged... (To)morrow Oin is... seek [> Oin to seek] for the upper armouries and treasury of the Third Deep

... mithril.

'There are one or two more rather ill-written and much-damaged pages of that sort. Then there must be a number missing, and some I cannot read. Let me see. No, it is burned and cut and stained. I can't read that. Wait! Ah, here is one more recent, well-written. Fifth year of their colony. Look - a large hasty hand and using elvish character!

'Balin Lord of Moria fell in Dimrill Dale. He went alone to look in Mirror-mere. an orc shot him from behind a stone. We slew the orc, but many... up from East up Blackroot... Now two lines are gone. We have barred the Gates. No more is clear on that page. What is this? The last written page - rest seems blank [> stuck to the cover]. We cannot get out. We cannot get out. The Pool is up to the Wall in the West. There lies the Watcher in the Water. It took Oin. We cannot get out.

'They have taken the Gates. Frar and Loni and Nali (2) fell there... noise in the Deeps. Poor things. They could not get out by either Gate. It was perhaps well for us that the water had sunk somewhat, and that the Watcher was guarding the Dwarf-door not the Elfdoor we came by.(3) The last thing written,'

said Gandalf, 'is a hasty scrawl in elf-letters. They are coming.'

He looked round. 'They seem to have made a last stand by both the doors of this chamber,' he said. 'But there were not many left by that time. So ended the attempt to re-take Moria. It was brave but foolish. The time is not yet. Their end must have been desperate. But I fear we must now say farewell to Balin son of Fundin: he was a noble dwarf. Here may he lie in the halls of his fathers. We will take this book, and look at it more carefully later. You had better keep it, Frodo, and give it to Bilbo. It will interest him though I fear it will grieve him.(4) I think I know where we are now. This must be the Chamber of Mazarbul and that hall the 21st Hall of the North-end. Then we ought to leave either by the south or the east arch in the hall, or possibly by this other eastward door here. I think we will return to the Hall.

Come, let us go! The morning is passing.'

At that very moment there was a great sound, a great rolling boom that seemed to come from far below and to tremble in the stone at their feet. They sprang to the door in alarm. But even as they did so there was an echoing blast; a great horn was being blown in the hall, and answering horns and harsh cries were heard in the corridors; there was a hurrying sound of many feet.

'Fool that I have been!' cried Gandalf, 'to delay here. We are nicely trapped just as they were before. But I was not here then: we will see what - '

Boom came the shuddering noise again, and the walls shook.

'Slam the doors and wedge them!' shouted Trotter. 'And keep your packs on: we may get a chance to cut a way out.'

'No!' said Gandalf. 'Wedge them but keep them just ajar. We must not get shut in. We'll go by the further door if we get a chance.'

There was another harsh horn-call and shrill cries coming down the corridor. There was a ring and clatter as the Company drew their weapons. [Added: Glamdring and Sting were shining with whitish flames, glinting at the edges.] Boromir thrust wedges of broken blades and splinters of wooden chest under the bottom of the western door by which they had entered.

Then Gandalf went and stood behind it. 'Who comes here to disturb the rest of Balin Lord of Moria?' he cried in a loud voice.

There was a rush of hoarse laughter like the fall of a slide of stones into a pit, but amid the clamour there was one deep voice. Boom boom boom went the noises in the deep. Swiftly Gandalf went to the opening and thrust forward his staff. There was a blinding flash that lit the chamber and the passage beyond. For an instant Gandalf looked out. Arrows whined and whistled down the corridor as he sprang back.

'There are goblins: very many of them,' he said. 'Evil they look and large: black Orcs.(5) They are for the moment hanging back, but there is something else there. A troll, I think, or more than one. There is no hope of escape that way.'

'And no hope at all if they come at the other door as well,'

said Boromir.

'But there is no sound outside,' said Trotter, who was standing by the eastern entrance listening. 'The passage here goes down steps: it [?prob(ably)] does not give on to the hall at all. Our only chance is to gather here. Do what damage we can to the attackers and then fly down these steps. If only we could block the door as we went: but they both open inwards.'

Heavy feet were heard in the corridor. Boromir kicked the wedges away from the west door and heaved it to.(6) They retreated toward the still open eastern door, first Pippin and Merry, then Legolas, then Frodo with Sam at his side, then Boromir, Trotter, and last Gandalf. But they had no chance to fly yet. There was a heavy blow at the door, and it quivered; and immediately it began to move inwards grinding at the wedges and thrusting them back. An enormous arm and shoulder with dark green scaly skin (or clad in some horrible mesh) thrust through the widening gap. Then a great three-toed foot was thrust in also. There was dead silence outside.

Boromir leaped forward and hewed the arm with his sword (7) but it glanced aside and fell from his shaken hand: the blade was notched.

Frodo suddenly, and very unexpectedly, felt a great wrath leap up in his heart. 'The Shire,' he cried, and ran forward with Sting stabbing at the hideous foot. There was a bellow and the foot jerked back, nearly wrenching the blade from his hand: drops dripped from it and smoked on the stone.

'One for the Shire!' cried Trotter delightedly. 'You have a good blade, Frodo son of Drogo.' Sam looked as if for the first time he really liked Trotter. There was a crash and another crash: rocks were being heaved with huge strength against the door. It staggered back and the opening widened. Arrows came whistling in, but struck the north wall and fell to the ground.

The horns rang again, there was a rush of feet, and orcs one after another leaped in. Then Legolas loosed his bow. Two fell pierced through the throat. The sword of Elendil struck down others.(8) Boromir laid about him and the orcs [? feared] his sword. One that dived under his arm was cloven ... by Gimli s axe. Thirteen orcs they slew and the others fled. 'Now is the time if ever,' said [Trotter o] Gandalf, ' - before that Troll-chief or more of them return. Let us go! '

But even as they retreated once more a huge orc-chief, almost man-high, clad in black mail from head to foot, leaped through the door. Behind him but not yet daring to advance stood many followers. His eyes were like coals of fire. He wielded a great spear. Boromir who was at the rear turned, but with a thrust of his shield the orc put aside his stroke and with huge strength bore him back and flung him down. Then leaping with the speed of a snake he charged and smote with his spear straight at Frodo. The blow caught him on the right side. Frodo was hurled against the wall and pinned. Sam with a cry hewed at the spear and it broke.... but even as the orc cast the shaft aside and drew his scimitar the sword of Elendil drove down upon his helm. There was a flash like flame and the helm burst. The orc-chieftain fell with cloven head. His followers who were ... by the now nearly open door yelled and fled in dismay. Boom, boom went the noises in the Deep. The great voice rolled out again.

'Now!' said Gandalf. 'Now is the last chance!' He picked up Frodo and sprang through the eastern door. The others followed. Trotter the last to leave pulled the door behind him. It had a great iron ring on either side, but no lock to be seen.

'I am all right,' gasped Frodo. 'Put me down!'

Gandalf nearly dropped him in amazement.

Without striking out this last passage my father at once went on to rewrite it:

'Now!' cried Gandalf. 'Now is the last chance!' Trotter picked up Frodo and sprang through the eastern door. Even in the heat of battle Gimli bowed to Balin's tomb. Boromir heaved the door to: it had a great iron ring on each side but the key was gone and the lock broken.

'I am all right,' gasped Frodo. 'Put me down!'

Trotter nearly dropped him in amazement. 'I thought you were dead,' he cried. 'Not yet,' said Gandalf turning round. 'But there is no time [struck out: to count (sc. wounds)].(9) Get away down these stairs, and look out! Wait a moment for me and then run: bear right and south.'

As they went down the dark stairs they saw the pale light gleam from the wizard's staff. He was still standing by the closed door. Frodo leaning on Sam halted a moment and peered back. Gandalf seemed to be thrusting the tip of his staff into the ancient keyhole.

Suddenly there was a flash more dazzling... [than] any that they had ever conceived of. They all turned. There was a deafening crash. The swords in their hands leaped and wrenched in their fingers, and they stumbled and fell to their knees as the great blast passed down the stairway. Into the midst of them fell Gandalf.

'Well, that's that,' he said. 'It was all I could do. I expect I have buried Balin. But alas for my staff: we shall have to go by guess in the dark. Gimli and I will lead.'

They followed in amazement, and as they stumbled behind he gasped out some information. 'I have lost my staff, part of my beard, and an inch of eyebrows,' he said. 'But I have blasted the door and felled the roof against it, and if the Chamber of Mazarbul is not a heap of ruins behind it, then I am no wizard.

All the power of my staff was expended [?in a flash]: it was shattered to bits.'

Here the text in ink stops for the moment. My father at once heavily rewrote the passage beginning 'Suddenly there was a flash...' in pencil and then continued on in pencil from the point he had reached (cf.

note 4). There is of course no question that the story was coming into being in these pages, and the handwriting is so fast as to be practically a code, while words are missed out or misrepresented, so that one must try to puzzle out not merely what my father did write, but what he intended.

Suddenly they heard him cry out strange words in tones of thunder, and there was a flash more dazzling... [than] any that they had ever conceived of: it was as if lightning had passed just before their eyes and seared them. The swords in their hands leapt and wrenched in their fingers. There was a deafening crash, and they fell or stumbled to their knees as a rush of wind passed down the stairway. Into the midst of them fell Gandalf.

'Well, that's that,' he said. 'I have buried poor old Balin. It was all I could do. I nearly killed myself. [Struck out as soon as written: It will take me years to recover my strength and wizardry.] Go on, go on! Gimli, come in front with me. We must go in the dark. Haste now!'

They followed in amazement feeling the walls, and as they stumbled behind him he gasped out some information. 'I have lost part of my beard and an inch of my eyebrows', he said. 'But I have blasted the door and felled the roof against it, and if the Chamber of Mazarbul is not a heap of ruins behind it, then I am no wizard. But I have expended all my strength for the moment.

I can give you no more light.'

The echoes of Gandalf's blast seemed to run to and fro,... ing in the hollow places of stone above them. From behind they heard boom, boom, like the beating and throbbing of a drum. j But there was no sound of feet. For an hour they [?hurried on guided by Gandalf's nose]; and still there was no sound of pursuit. Almost they began to hope that they would escape.