The Treason of Isengard (45 page)

[?? thick with] mallorn-trees, the tallest they had yet seen in that land. The highest must have been nearly 200 feet high, and of great girth. They had no branches lower than 3 fathoms above their roots. In the upper branches amid the leaves hundreds of lights gold and white and pale green were shining.

'Welcome to Caras Galadon,' he said, 'the city of Nelennas which [?mayhap] in your tongue is called Angle.(1) But we must go round; the gates do not look north.'

There was a white paved road running round the circuit of the walls. On the south side there was a bridge over the dike leading to great gates set on the side where the ends of the wall overlapped. They passed within into deep shadow where the two green walls ended [? in a] lane. They saw no folk on guard,(2) but there were many soft voices overhead, and in the distance he

[sc. Frodo] heard a voice falling clear out of the air above them.

The original pencilled text continues for some distance from this point, but my father partly overwrote it in ink, and (more largely) erased it wholly before the new text was set down in its place. Here and there bits of the original text were retained, and where it was not erased but overwritten a name or a phrase can be made out. There was no long interval between the two forms of the text; my father may in any case have rewritten this section mainly because it was so nearly illegible.

They passed along many paths and climbed many flights of steps, until they saw before them amid a wide lawn a fountain.

It sprang high in the air and fell in a wide basin of silver, from which a white stream ran away down the hill. Hard by stood a great tree. At its foot stood three tall elves. They were clad in grey mail and from their shoulders hung long white cloaks.

'Here dwell Keleborn and Galadriel,(3) the Lord and Lady of the Galadrim,' said Halldir.(4) 'It is their wish that you should go up and speak to them.'

One of the elf-wardens then blew a clear note on a small horn, and a ladder was let down. 'I will go first,' said Haldir.

'Let the chief hobbit go next, and with him Legolas. The others may follow as they wish. It is a long climb, but you may rest upon the way.'

As he passed upwards Frodo saw many smaller flets to this side or that, some with rooms built on them; but about a hundred feet above the ground they came to a flet that was very wide - like the deck of a great ship. On it was built a house so large that almost it might have been a hall of men upon the earth.

He entered behind Haldir, and saw that he was in a chamber of oval shape, through the midst of which passed the bole of the great tree. It was filled with a soft golden light. Many elves were seated there. The roof was a pale gold, the walls of green and silver. On two seats at the further end sat side by side the Lord and Lady of Lothlorien. They looked tall even as they sat, and their hair was white and long.(5) They said no word and moved not, but their eyes were shining.

Haldir led Frodo and Legolas before them, and the Lord bade them welcome, but the Lady Galadriel said no word, and looked long into their faces.

'Sit now, Frodo of the Shire,' said Keleborn. 'We will await the others.' Each of the companions he greeted courteously by name as they entered. 'Welcome, Ingold son of Ingrim!'(6) he said. 'Your name is known to me, though never in all your wanderings have you sought my house. Welcome, Gimli son of Gloin! It is almost out of mind since we saw one of Durin's folk in Calas Galadon. But today our long law is broken: let it be a sign that though the world is dark, better things shall come, and friendship shall grow again between our peoples.'

When all the Company had come in and were seated before him, the Lord looked at them again. 'Is this all?' he asked. 'Your number should be nine. For so the secret messages from Rivendell have said. There is one absent whom I miss, and had hoped much to see. Tell me, where is Gandalf the grey?'(7)

'Alas!' said Ingold. 'Gandalf the grey went down into the shadows. He remains in Moria, for he fell there from the Bridge.'

At these words all the Elves cried aloud with grief and amazement. 'This is indeed evil tidings,' said Keleborn, 'the most evil that have here been spoken for years uncounted. Why has nothing been said to us of this before?' he asked, turning to Haldir.

'We did not speak of it to [your people >] Haldir,' said Frodo. 'We were weary and danger was too nigh, and afterwards we were overcome with wonder.(8) Almost we forgot our grief and dismay as we walked on the fair paths of Lothlorien.

But it is true that Gandalf has perished. He was our guide, and led us through Moria; and when our escape seemed beyond hope he saved us, and fell.'

'Tell me the full tale,' said Keleborn.

Ingold then recounted all that had happened upon the pass of Caradras and afterwards; and he spoke of Balin and his book and the fight in the Chamber of Mazarbul, and the fire, and the narrow bridge, and the coming of the Balrog.

'A Balrog!' said Keleborn.(9) 'Not since the Elder Days have I heard that a Balrog was loose upon the world. Some we have thought are perhaps hidden in Mordor [?or] near the Mountain of Fire, but naught has been seen of them since the Great Battle and the fall of Thangorodrim.(10) I doubt much if this Balrog has lain hid in the Misty Mountains - and I fear rather that he was sent by Sauron from Orodruin, the Mountain of Fire.'

'None know,' said Galadriel, 'what may lie hid at the roots of the ancient hills. The dwarves had re-entered Moria and were searching again in dark places, and they may have stirred some evil.'(11)

There was a silence. At length Keleborn spoke again. 'I did not know,' he said, 'that your plight was so evil. I will do what I can to aid you, each according to his need, but especially that one of the little folk that bears the burden.'

'Your quest is known to me,' said Galadriel, [?seeing] Frodo's look, 'though we will not here speak more openly of it. I was at the White Council, and of all those there gathered none did I love more than Gandalf the Grey. Often have we met since and spoken of many things and purposes. The lord and lady-of Lothlorien are accounted wise beyond the measure of the Elves of Middle-earth, and of all who have not passed beyond the Seas. For we have dwelt here since the Mountains were reared and the Sun was young.(12)

'Now we will give you counsel.(13) For not in doing or contriving nor in choosing this course or that is my skill, but in knowledge of what was and is, and in part of what shall be. And I say that your case is not yet without hope; yet but a little this way or that and it will fail miserably. But there is yet hope, if all the Company remains true.' She looked at each in turn, but none blenched. Only Sam blushed and hung his head before the Lady's glance left him. 'I felt as if I hadn't got nothing on,' he explained afterwards. 'I didn't like it - she seemed to be looking inside me, and asking me whether I would like to fly back to the Shire.' Each of them had had a similar experience, and had felt as if he had been presented with a choice between death and something which he desired greatly, peace, ease [written above: freedom), wealth, or lordship.

'I suppose it was just a test,' said Boromir. 'It felt almost like a temptation. Of course I put it away at once. The men of Minas Tirith at any rate are true.'(14) What he had been offered he did not say.

'Now is the time for any to depart or turn back who feels that he has done enough, and aided the Quest as much as he has the will or power to do. Legolas may abide here with my folk, as long as he desires, or he may return home if chance allows. Even Gimli the dwarf may stay here, though I think he would not long be content in my city in what will seem to him a life of idleness. If he wishes to go to his home, we will help him as much as we can; as far as the Gladden Fields and beyond. He might hope thus to find the country of the Beornings, where Grimbeorn Beorn's son the Old is a lord of many sturdy men.

As yet no wolf or orc make headway in that land.'

'That I know well,' said Gimli. 'Were it not for the Beornings the passage from Dale to Rivendell would not be possible.(15) My father and I had the aid of Grimbeorn on our way west in the autumn.'

'You, Frodo,' said Keleborn, 'I cannot aid or counsel. But if you go on, do not despair - but beware even of your right hand and of your left. There is also a danger that pursues you, which I do not see clearly or understand. You others of the little folk I could wish had never come so far. For now unless you will dwell here in exile while outside in the world many years run by, I see not what you can do save go forward. It would be vain to attempt to return home or to Rivendell alone.'

The whole of this passage, from 'Now is the time for any to depart', is marked off with directions 'To come in later' and 'At beginning of next chapter before they go'. At the top of the page, and no doubt written in after this decision was made, is the following:

'Now we have spoken long, and yet you have toiled and suffered much, and have travelled far,' said Keleborn. 'Even if your quest did not concern all free lands deeply, you should here have refuge for a while. In this city you may abide until you are healed and rested. We will not yet think of your further road.'

The character of the manuscript now changes again. Very roughly written in ink, it is evidently the continuation of the original pencilled text that was over-written or erased in the preceding section (see p.

245). At the top of the first page of this part are notes on the names of the Lord and Lady of Lothlorien. In pencilled text visible in the last section their original names Tar and Finduilas had changed to Aran and Rhien (note 3), and then to Galdaran and Galdri(e)n (note 9) -

Galadriel on p. 246 belongs with the later, overwritten text. Their names now change further:

Galathir = GalaD-hir tree-lord

Galadhrien = GalaD-rhien tree-lady

The name of the Lord does not appear in the concluding part of this chapter, but the name of the Lady is Galadrien (at the first occurrence only, Galdrien), with pencilled correction in some cases to Galadriel.

This is a convenient place to set out my father's original scheme for the next part of the story. This was written at furious speed but has fortunately proved almost entirely decipherable.

They dwell 15 days in Caras Galadon.

Elves sing for Gandalf. They watch weaving and making of the silver rope of the fibre under mallorn bark. The [? trimming] of arrows.

King Galdaran's mirror shown to Frodo. Mirror is of silver filled with fountain water in sun.

Sees Shire far away. Trees being felled and a tall building being made where the old mill was.(16) Gaffer Gamgee turned out. Open trouble, almost war, between Marish and Buckland on one hand -

and the West. Cosimo Sackville-Baggins very rich, buying up land.

(All / Some of this is future.)

King Galdaran says the mirror shows past, present, and future, and skill needed to decide which.

Sees a grey figure like Gandalf [?going along] in twilight but it seems to be clad in white. Perhaps it is Saruman.

Sees a mountain spouting flame. Sees Gollum?

They depart. At departure Elves give them travel food. They describe the Stone hills, and bid them beware of Fangorn Forest upon the Ogodruth or Entwash. He is an Ent or great giant.

j

It is seen that it was while my father was writing the 'Lothlorien'

story ab initio that the Lady of Lothlorien emerged (p. 233); and it is ]

also seen that the figure of Galadriel (Rhien, Galadrien) as a great power in Middle-earth was deepened and extended as he wrote. In this sketch of his ideas, written down after the story had reached Caras Galadon, as the name Galdaran shows (note 9), the Mirror belongs to the Lord (here called King).

It is also interesting to observe that the images of the violated Shire seen in the Mirror were to be Frodo's. The Stone hills mentioned at the end of this outline are mentioned also in the plot-notes given on p.

233, where the 'parting of the ways' is to take place 'at Stonehills'. The Entwash (though not the Elvish name Ogodruth) has been named in the elaborate outline that followed the conclusion of the story of Moria (p. 210): 'Merry and Pippin come up Entwash into Fangorn and have adventure with Treebeard.' Here the name Entwash clearly implies that Treebeard is an Ent, and he is specifically so called (for the first time) in the outline just given; but since Treebeard was still only waiting in the wings as a potential ingredient in the narrative this may be only a slight shift in the development of the word. The Troll-lands north of Rivendell were the Entish Lands and Entish Dales (Old English ent 'giant'); and only when Treebeard and the other 'Ents' had been fully realised would the Troll-lands be renamed Ettendales and Ettenmoors (see p. 65 note 32).