The Treason of Isengard (57 page)

(Here the Border Hills are displaced southwards, beyond Tolondren and the Nindalf. Keleborn's words were rewritten to say:) (viii) the River will pass through a bare and barren country, winding among the Border Hills before it falls down into the sluggish region of Nindalf (p. 281).

There is clearly a doubt or confusion here as to the Green Hills and the Border Hills, and different views of how the Border Hills relate to Tolondren, the falls, and the Nindalf or Wetwang. I do not think that any definite conclusion can be drawn from these texts taken by themselves, but from the Map IV (A) I believe that the development can be tolerably well understood.

The line of hills extending on either side of Anduin (N 12 - 14), and the hills rising to east and south-east of these (N - O 14 - 15), were drawn in at the same time and in the same style, characteristic of portion 'C', with outlining in short strokes. The lettering, I feel sure, was put in subsequently. My belief is that these ranges were a datum already provided, illustrating my father's words in his letter to Naomi Mitchison of 25 April 1954 (Letters no. 144), I wisely started with a map, and made the story fit'; and that the confusing statements in the earliest 'Farewell to Lorien' papers show him moving towards a satisfactory relation between the evolving narrative, his vision of the lands about Anduin in these regions, and what was drawn on the map (i.e. these ranges of hills).

At one stage he decided that the hills should be the Green Hills and the Border Hills respectively. He wrote in these names, and at the same time extended the latter (more roughly, and with dotted outlines) southwest, so as to embrace both sides of Anduin (O 14, P 13 - 14). This perhaps illustrates Keleborn's words in extract (vii) above, where the Border Hills are south of Tolondren and the Nindalf. But in the margin of the First Map he noted: 'Place [?Tolondren a little more south] and combine Green Hills with Border Hills, and make Nindalf or Wetwang all round mouths of Entwash.' The last remark probably refers to the curious feature seen on Map IV, that the Wetwang lies distinctly northward of the mouths; that concerning Tolondren is no doubt reflected in the striking out of the name on N 13 and its reintroduction in a more southerly position (P 13, at the confluence with Anduin of a stream flowing in from the Black Mountains), where it was again struck out. This bit of the map had clearly become in need of redrawing.

It may be noted incidentally that the stream from the Black Mountains rises in an oval lake on P 11; and it seems perfectly clear that the Morthond rises in this lake also: see Map III, Q 11.

Map IV(B).

What now happened to the geography is clear. In the extract (viii) above Keleborn says that the River will pass through 'a bare and barren country, winding among the Border Hills before it falls down into the sluggish region of Nindalf.' In the draft (ii) given on p. 282 he says that 'the trees will fail, and you will come to a barren country.

There the river flows in stony vales among high moors, until it comes to the tall island of Tolondren' (largely preserved in FR, p. 389). Thus the Brown Lands emerge, in place of the original Green Hills, on Map IV(B), which is a detached slip of 9 squares that was never pasted in.

Here Tolondren (but no longer so named) is definitively in the more southerly position, and in relation to this the course of Entwash is greatly changed, bending in a great southward sweep, so that the Wetwang is still south of Tolondren and the falls (here called Dant Ruinel, this name being struck out: Rauros was later added in pencil).(11) In fact, the new course of Entwash partly takes over that of the unnamed river in IV(A), flowing in from the Black Mountains (P 12-13). The southwestward extension of the Emyn Rhain, lightly entered on IV(A), is now called Sarn Gebir and strongly reinforced (cf.

Keleborn's reference to 'the bleak hills of Sarn-gebir', p. 283), but this was done very coarsely, clearly after the little slip was first drawn; on account of the heavy lines marking these hills other markings are difficult to interpret, but it can be seen that there is now a large lake (coloured blue), and a large island in the lake named the Isle of Emris,(12) while on either shore are dark spots, no doubt representing Amon Hen and Amon Lhaw.

The name [Staniland] beneath Ond(or) was entered in pencil. The Wold of Rohan is coloured green, as are the hills on N 12 - 13. The river Limlight now appears (N 12-13), though the name was only pencilled in later.

Map IV(C).

This is another detached slip showing the same 9 squares and not differing greatly from IV, save in the representation of Sarn Gebir to the west of Anduin, where the line of hills now runs North-South. The names Tolbrandir,(13) Rauros, and River Limlight were now entered (the latter two added in pencil on IV ), and the rapids, called Sarn-Ruin, north of the lake. In pencil the names Westemnet, Eastemnet, and the Entwade, not included in the redrawing, were added. G was written before Ondor, and an arrow moved Wold of Rohan to N 12, north of the hills (again coloured green) on N 12-13. The name (Rhov)annion is spelt thus, with doubled n. The name Eodor was entered in pencil on P 12, but struck through, and (apparently) moved westwards onto P 11 (the six squares N - P 10-i 1 at this time existing in the form they have on Map IV, where however much is obliterated by later overlay).

Maps IV(D) and IV(E).

Map IV(D) is a section of twelve squares (N-P 10-13) which was glued onto the map when it was in the state represented by Map IV(A), but here the glue has only adhered on the left-hand side, and thus much of IV(A) is revealed. The vertical line of squares N-P 14 was cut off from IV(C), and IV(D) was drawn to join (more or less) with this strip. Then, the four squares 0-P 10-11 were overlaid by yet another superimposed section (IV(E)), and here the corresponding part of IV is totally hidden.

On IV(D) pencilled changes made to IV(C) were now included: Gondor for Ondor, the Entwade, Eastemnet and Westemnet, and the movement of the Wold of Rohan northwards. The two great loops in Anduin on N 13 (afterwards called the North and South Undeeps: see Unfinished Tales p. 260 and Index, entry Undeeps) appear,(14) while the course of Limlight is changed. No name is given to the rapids in Anduin - Sarn is not written to join with Ruin on the strip cut from IV(C); Sarn Gebir was written here subsequently in pencil. The names Anarion on Q 14 (Map III) and Ithilien opposite on the eastern bank of Anduin were entered at the same time as Anarion on P 13 here. On the First Map my father changed Anarion to Anorien on Q 14; on my 1943

map he changed Anarion to Anorien on P 13, whereas on Q 14 he changed Anarion to Lebennin (p. 310). On the western side of the Misty Mountains Dunland was entered (N 10), and against the vale to the south was written Westfold, which was struck through.

It seems that when map IV(E) was glued on much of the adjoining region on IV(D) was rather coarsely overdrawn, and this is a very difficult part to interpret and to represent; but as this part of the geography has not yet been reached in the texts I shall not consider it here. The westward extension of the Black Mountains on P 8-9 (Map III) belongs with this.(15) Map IV(E) is the first representation of Isengard and the Gap of Rohan that can be reached, IV" and IV being invisible. Here appear Helm's Deep, Tindtorras (earlier name for Thrihyrne), the Ford of Isen, Dunharrow, and Methedras. Eodoras appears on P 11 (see above under Map IV ),. Eastfold appears to be represented by a dot, which may however be no more than a mark on the paper; and Westfold is pencilled in along the northern foothills of the Black Mountains. The letters rch on 0-P 10 continue the name Middlemarch (see Map II).

On IV(D-E) (but not on the 1943 map) certain roads or tracks are shown which I have not inserted on the redrawing. At about 12 miles NNW of Eodoras there is a road-meeting: one road goes to the Ford of Isen, keeping near to the foothills but running across the outer limits of the Westfold Vale; another goes north-east to the Entwade and then north along the east bank of Entwash, passing between the river and the downs; and a third runs south-east and east to Minas Tirith, crossing the streams that flow down into Entwash.

The 1943 map is here anomalous and I cannot relate it to the series of replacements made to the First Map. My map was obviously made when the First Map had reached its present state (i.e. when IV had been stuck on, and IV(E) on top of a part of that), for it agrees in every feature and name in its representation of the Gap of Rohan and Helm's Deep; Dunland, Methedras, Tindtorras, Dunharrow, etc. all appear. On the other hand, the courses of Anduin and Limlight on N 12 - 13 are very distinctly as on Map IV(C). Seeing that the course of the Entwash in the square below (O 12) is carefully represented in the later form of IV(D), this is inexplicable, except on the assumption that the courses of Anduin and Limlight on N 12 - 13 (introducing the Undeeps) were changed after the 1943 map had been made; but I cannot detect any sign of alteration or erasure on IV(D). On the 1943 map the rapids in Anduin are named Sarn Ruin, and the hills Sarn Gebir.

My father afterwards changed Black Mountains to White Mountains on the 1943 map (only).

No Man's Land and the Dead Marshes.

In 'Farewell to Lorien' (p. 281) Keleborn says that beyond the Wetwang are the Nomenlands, dreary Uvanwaith that lies before the passes of Mordor; and in a subsequent draft of the passage (p. 283) he speaks of the bleak hills of Sarn-gebir, where the wind blows from the East, for they look out over the Dead Marshes and the Nomenlands to the passes of Mordor: Kirith Ungol. With the later names Emyn Muil and Cirith Gorgor, this was retained in FR (p. 390): 'On the further side are the bleak hills of the Emyn Muil. The wind blows from the East there, for they look out over the Dead Marshes and the Noman-lands to Cirith Gorgor and the black gates of Mordor.' This is the land described in The Two Towers, IV.2 (p. 238):

The air was now clearer and colder, and though still far off, the walls of Mordor were no longer a cloudy menace on the edge of sight, but as grim black towers they frowned across a dismal waste.

The marshes were at an end, dying away into dead peats and wide flats of dry cracked mud. The land ahead rose in long shallow slopes, barren and pitiless, towards the desert that lay at Sauron's gate.

And when Sam and Frodo at last approached the Black Gate (ibid.

p. 239):

Frodo looked round in horror. Dreadful as the Dead Marshes had been, and the arid moors of the Noman-lands [First Edition: of Nomen's land], more loathsome far was the country that the crawling day now slowly unveiled to his shrinking eyes.

It will be seen that when the mouths of Entwash and the Wetwang were moved south (Maps IV(B), IV(C)) 'No Man's Land' lay between the Wetwang and the Dead Marshes. My 1943 map is in complete agreement with this. On my father's later maps, when the geographical relations in this region had shifted somewhat, the Wetwang and the Dead Marshes are continuous, and no map later than that of 1943

shows No Man's Land (Noman-lands, Nomenlands, Nomen's Land).

From these passages in The Two Towers, however, it is plain that this region of 'long shallow slopes, barren and pitiless', of 'arid moors', that succeeded the marshes still lay between Frodo and Sam and the pass into Mordor (see the large-scale map of Gondor and Mordor accompanying The Return of the King).

After this demanding journey across the First Map we can return to the lands themselves, and in the next chapter follow the fortunes of (unexpectedly, as it may seem) Sam and Frodo.

NOTES.

1. A note of my father's about this map is extant:

This map was made before the story was complete. It is incomplete and much is missed out.

Chief errors are in Gondor and Mordor. The White Moun-

tains are not in accord with the story. Lebennin should be Belfalas. Mindolluin should be immediately behind Minas Tirith, and the distance across the vale of Anduin much reduced, so that Minas Tirith is close to Osgiliath and Osgiliath closer to Minas Morgul. Kirith Ungol is misplaced.

2. The style in which natural features were represented varied. In particular, my father when drawing the Black Mountains surrounded them with a fine continuous line (whereas for the Mountains of Shadow and Ered Lithui he used small strokes to define the foothills), and this can be very confusing in relation to the similar lines representing streams falling from the mountains (see note 7). To make my redrawing as clear as possible, I have substituted lines of dots or small strokes in representing the foothills of the Black Mountains (see note 15).

3. On the revised map first published in Unfinished Tales an arrow directs that the name Icebay of Forochel applies to the great bay of which the southern bay is only a small part.

4. In the absence of 'sea-lines' the inner line could itself be taken to be the coast; but on my 1943 map the coastline follows the outer line on the First Map (and neither the inner wavy line nor the small circular area are present). This no doubt followed my father's instruction.