The Treason of Isengard (54 page)

'you will find that for a while the trees march on. For of old the Forest of Lorien'. It was at this point that my father wrote the first of these passages, which was in fact simply the top of the next page of the fair copy. Deciding however to cut out the reference to the once much greater extent of Lothlorien, he struck out these words at the bottom of the preceding page in the fair copy, and wrote the second draft given here.

35. In the original workings the fourth line was And by the mere of Tirion there grew the golden tree. Another version of the fifth line was Beneath the Hill of Ilmarin lies Aelinuial - Aelinuial 'Lakes of Twilight' being the name of the region of great pools at the confluence of the rivers Aros and Sirion in Beleriand; cf. the Shadow-meres in the seventh line. In Bilbo's song at Rivendell occur the lines

beneath the hill o f Ilmarin

where glimmer in a valley sheer

the lights of Elven Tirion

the city on the Shadowmere

and also From Evereven's lofty hills (see pp. 93, 98; FR pp. 247 - 8).

36. Boromir's words 'I have not myself been there' (referring to Fangorn), p. 282, were changed to 'I have not myself ever crossed Rohan.'

Additional Notes on the name Elfstone.

A puzzling detail in the fair copy manuscript of this chapter is that while Trotter is referred to as Trotter throughout the narrative (see pp. 277 - 8), on the two occasions where he is named by Keleborn the name is Ingold. According to the explanation advanced on pp. 277-8

he should now, if called by his true name, be Elfstone. Moreover when we come to the scene of the Parting Gifts in this manuscript Galadriel's words to Trotter remain exactly as in the draft text on p. 276

('Elfstone is your name ... and it is a fair name. I will add this gift of my own to match it'). How then can Keleborn call him Ingold?

The answer, I feel sure, is (as I have suggested, p. 267) that the fair copy manuscript itself grew in close relation to the drafts, where the names were not stable; and that it was not carefully revised in this point. In the first case, near the beginning of the chapter, where in the draft text Keleborn names 'Boromir of Ondor and Ingold the traveller'

among those of the Company accustomed to boats, Ingold was changed subsequently to Elfstone (p. 273), but in the fair copy 'Ingold the traveller' remained unchanged. In the second case also, towards the end of the chapter, where in the draft Keleborn says 'it may be that Ingold and Boromir know the lands well enough to need no counsel' -

which can only have been a casual inadvertence, note 31 - Ingold was corrected to Elfstone in the draft but not in the fair copy.

Later, my father corrected the second Ingold on the fair copy to Aragorn but did not notice the first. Without knowledge of the earlier texts this hasty and incomplete revision of names can produce incomprehensible tangles later on, when amanuenses such as myself simply followed what they saw before them: so in the next text of this chapter, a manuscript that I made (note 27), I wrote Ingold at the first occurrence and Aragorn at the second.

Galadriel's words at the gift-giving, Elfstone is your name, Eldamir in the language of your fathers of old, and it is a fair name, were struck out on the fair copy, with the curious result that in the manuscript that I wrote in 1942 Galadriel says: 'The blade that is drawn from this sheath shall not be stained or broken even in defeat. I will add this gift of my own to match it.' Later on, my father wrote on his fair copy manuscript (but not on the one that I made), against the description of Galadriel's gift and her words concerning it (retained exactly from the draft on p. 276): Make this the reason for his taking the name Elfstone; and after the words 'yet many things that now appear loathly will appear otherwise to you hereafter' he wrote in: 'And

[Eldamir >] Elessar shall be a name for you hereafter, Elfstone in

[the tongues of common speech >] your speech. Long may it be remembered.'

XV.

THE FIRST MAP

OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS.

Of the various small-scale maps of the western regions of Middle-earth that my father made, one is very easily seen to be the earliest; and I have no doubt at all that this was not only the earliest of the maps that are extant, but was in fact the first one that he made (other than the hasty sketches of particular regions published in Vol. VI).

This 'First Map' is a strange, battered, fascinating, extremely complicated and highly characteristic document. To gain understanding of it, its construction must first be described. It consists of a number of pages glued together and on to backing sheets, with a substantial new section of the map glued over an earlier part, and small new sections on top of that. The glue that my father used to stick down the large new portion was strong, and the sheets cannot be separated; moreover through constant folding the paper has cracked and broken apart along the folds, which are distinct from the actual joins of the map-sections. It was thus difficult to work out how the whole was built up; but I am confident that the following account is correct. In this account I refer to the figure 'Construction of the Original Map of The Lord of the Rings' on p. 297. This is a diagram and not a map, but I have inserted a few major features (the sea-coast, Anduin, Mirkwood, the rough outlines of the mountainous regions) as a guide.

The original element in the map consisted of two pages glued together along their vertical edges, and is the big rectangle framed in the figure by a black and white line and lettered A. East of the vertical line of squares numbered 22 it extended for a further three lines, but these were left blank.

A new section (made up of three portions glued together) extended the original map to North and West. (I say 'new section', since the paper is slightly different, and it was obviously added to what was already in existence.) This section is marked B on the figure and framed in double lines. It extends north of what is shown on the figure by five more horizontal lines of squares (A-E, I - 17).

As already mentioned, a third section, marked C on the figure and framed in double lines (squares o-w, 9-19), was superimposed on a part of the original map 'A', obliterating almost all of its southern half.

This new section 'C' extends further south than did 'A', by three horizontal lines of squares (U-W, 9 - 19). Fortunately, a good part of this section has no backing paper, and by shining a bright light through it it has been possible to make out certain names and geographical features on the 'lost', southern half of 'A'. This is a difficult and confusing operation, and the results are very incomplete, but they are quite sufficient to show the essentials of what lies beneath 'C'. All that I can make out after long peering is shown on the map numbered III (A) (p. 308).

The small rectangle lettered D on the figure and framed in dots was replaced over and over again, and is by far the most complex part of the map, as the region covered is also crucial in the story: from the Gap of Rohan and Isengard to Rauros and the mouths of Entwash.

The original element in the First Map

The First Map was my father's working map for a good while, and thus as it stood when he left it - as it stands now - it represents an evolution, rather than a fixed state of the geography. Determination of the sequence in which the map was built up does not, of course, demonstrate that names or features on 'A' are necessarily earlier than names or features on 'B' or 'C', since when 'A' + 'B' + 'C' were in being the map was a single entity. There are, however, certain clues to relative dating. The earliest layer of names is recognisable from the style of lettering, and also to some extent from the fact that my father at that stage used red ink for certain names, chiefly in the case of alternatives (as for example Loudtwater in black ink, Bruinen beside it in red). On the directly visible part of 'A', virtually all of which is shown on Map II (p. 305), all the names are 'original' with the exception of the following: Torfirion (Westermanton); North Downs, Fornobel (Northbury); Forodwaith (Northerland); Enedwaith (Middlemarch); Caradras; Nimrodel, Silverlode; Mirkwood the Great, Southern Mirkwood, Rhovanion; Rhosgobel, Dol Dughul (but Dol Dugol in red ink, struck out, on M 15 - 16 is original); Bardings; Sea of Rhunaer and Rhun. Notable is the case of Silverlode: here the original name was Redway, struck out and changed in the same script to Blackroot, and this change is very precisely documented in the second version of 'The Ring Goes South', p. 166.

In this 'original layer' of names are a few others which I have not included in the redrawn map (II) since I could not find room for them without unnecessarily confusing it, the scale being so small: these are Chetwood, Midgewater, Forest River, Woodmen, Wood Elves, Dale.

F.I. (so written in the original) on the Road east of Bree stands for Forsaken Inn. On the River Rushdown (Rhimdad) cf. V.384, VI.205, where the form is Rhimdath (also Rhibdath).

Three of the original names were changed, and I have entered the later form. These are the river Isen, first written Iren on P 8 (Old English, 'iron', which varied with Isen); Andrath on L 8, where the original form is unclear since a broken fold of the map runs through it, but seems to have been Amrath (as in a draft for a portion of the chapter 'Many Meetings', see pp. 69 - 70 and note 7); and Anduin (M-N 13, Maps II and IV ), first written Andon (see p. 299).

Of geographical features, most of what is represented on the directly visible part of 'A' goes back to the beginning, and of course a substantial part of that was derived from the Map of Wilderland in The Hobbit. Elements that are not 'original' are the highlands in the North-west of Map II (I 8-9, J 7 - 8); the markings representing the Iron Hills (though the name itself is original); the Sea of Rhunaer, the mountainous region to the South-west of it, the river flowing into it from the Iron Hills, and the lower course of the (unnamed) River Running, which as the map was first made scarcely extended beyond the eastern edge of the Wilderland Map in The Hobbit.

Some other geographical features are slightly doubtful, but the western arm of the Misty Mountains across squares I 10-11 was probably a subsequent addition, and the vast region of highland between Mirkwood and the Sea of Rhunaer, together with the streams flowing from it into the Dead Marshes (N 16), almost certainly so. The original siting of the name Dol Dugol (M 15; see p. 296) probably had nothing to do with these highlands (at the first occurrence of the name on p. 178 Gandalf speaks of Sauron's 'older and lesser dwelling at Dol-Dugol in Southern Mirkwood'): faint traces of green colour suggest to me that originally Mirkwood extended much further to the Southeast, covering L 15 and a good part of M-N 15 - 16, and that this region of the forest was erased. The hills that emerge onto N 15 from the area which I have left blank on Map II are also additional: this region will be discussed later in this chapter.

The river Isen is a bit doubtful, since though the name as originally written (R. Iren, see above) clearly belongs with the primary layer of names, the coastline as drawn had no river-mouth opposite the off-shore island on P 7, and a pencilled indentation was made subsequently. The same is true of the unnamed river (afterwards Lefnui) to the south of Isen, whose mouth was drawn in on R 8 (Map III).

On the part of the original map 'A' that is obliterated by the sticking on of portion 'C' some names and features can be seen, as already described (p. 296., Map III (A)). It is clear that at that stage relatively little was entered on the map. Those in black ink can be readily seen, and I do not think that there were any others beyond Land of Mor-dor, Minas Morgol (with Ithil in red ink), Osgiliath, Minas Tirith (with Anor in red ink), Blackroot > Silverlode (see under Map II on p.

306), Tolfalas, Bay of Belfalas, and Ethir-andon (as it seems to have been written, before being changed to -anduin, as on the northern part of 'A'). Dead Marshes is in red ink; other names seem to have been entered in red chalk (Land of Ond) or pencil. The actual sites of Minas Morgol and the Dark Tower cannot be seen, nor can the last two letters of Palath Nen[ui] (on which see p. 268 and note 4); and the mountain-chains are extremely hard to make out. The bits of the mountains of Mordor in the North-west that I have been able to distinguish with certainty suggest however a disposition essentially the same as that in 'C'. The occurrence of Dol [?Amroth] at this stage is notable.

It is thus clear that, whenever the First Map was actually begun, it had reached the stage seen in the original 'layer' of portion 'A' before the time we have now reached in the texts, and also that much of that layer belongs to this period of the work: many of these original names on the map emerge first in the texts given in this book - for example Sarn Ford (p. 9), Entish Land (p. 10), Mitheithel (p. 14), Bruinen (p.

14), Minas Tirith (p. 115), Minas Morgol (p. 116), Minas Anor, Minas Ithil (p. 119), Bay of Belfalas (p. 119), Tharbad (p. 164), etc. Andon (Ethir-andon) was a form preceding Anduin which never occurred in the texts: Anduin appears in the fifth version of 'The Council of Elrond' where the name Sirvinya 'New Sirion' appears in the third (pp.