The Treason of Isengard (64 page)

'We shall soon come to the gates of Sarn-Gebir,' he said; 'and the river is difficult and dangerous there, if I remember rightly.

It runs in deep swift channels under overhanging cliffs, and there are many rocks and eyots in the stream. But I do not know these reaches, for I have never journeyed by water in these parts before. We must halt early tonight, if we can, and go on by daylight.'

It was close on midnight, and they had been drifting for a while, resting after a long spell of paddling, when suddenly Sam cried out.

After Boromir's shouted remonstrance ('This is a bad time of day to shoot the rapids!') Trotter, struggling to back and turn his boat, said to Frodo: 'I am out of my reckoning. I didn't know we had come so far. We must have passed the gates of Sarn-Gebir in the dark. The Rapids of Pensarn must be just ahead' (the last two sentences were crossed out, probably immediately). There is no indication here of what 'the gates of Sarn-Gebir' might be (see p. 359).

The attack by Orcs from the east bank, and the struggle to get the boats back to the west bank, follows the draft pretty closely, with some changed or added detail: an arrow passed through Trotter's hood, not his hair; Frodo 'lurched forward with a cry'. The weather is changed from the obscure statements in the draft (note 6): the clouds in the east mentioned earlier had now almost entirely covered the sky, and so 'it was very dark, dark even for the night-eyes of orcs' as they paddled the boats back. The same is said of the New Moon 'riding slowly up the sky' in 'a sudden break in the cloud-cover away in the East' as in the draft (see note 7); here it is seen 'passing behind dark isles of cloud and out into black pools of night.' In FR (p. 401) it had set hours before.

Sam's remarks about Time in Lothlorien remain almost exactly as in the draft (p. 354), as does Trotter's reply (in FR given to Frodo), except that he now says (as does Frodo in FR): 'In that land, maybe, we were in some time that elsewhere has long gone by.' Then Frodo speaks:

'The power of the Lady was on us,' said Frodo. 'There are days and nights and seasons in Lothlorien; but while she holds the ring, the world grows no older in her realm.'

'That should not have been said,' muttered Trotter, half rising and looking towards the other boats; 'not outside Lorien, not even to me.'(15)

The warm and foggy morning that succeeded the night of the attack and the argument between Aragorn and Boromir about the course to follow were roughly sketched in initial drafting, where the conversation proceeds thus:

'I do not see why we should pass the rapids or follow this cursed River any further,' said Boromir. 'If Pensarn lies before us, then we can abandon these cockles and strike westward, and so come round the east shoulders of Sarn-Gebir and cross the Entwash into my own land of Ondor.'

'We can, if we make for Minas Tirith,' said Trotter. 'But that is not yet agreed. And even so such a course is perhaps more perilous than it seems. The land is flat and shelterless south and east [read west] of Sarn-Gebir, and the [? first] ford over Entwash is a great way west.(16) Since the Enemy took ...

Osgiliath that land may be full of foes: what do we know of events of late in Rohan or in Ondor?'

'Yet here the Enemy marches all along the east bank,' said Boromir. 'And when you come to Rauros what will you do?

You must then either turn back hitherward, or cross the hills of Gebir and land in the marshes, and still have the Entwash to cross.'

'The River is at least a path that cannot be missed. In the vale of Entwash fog is a mortal peril. I would not abandon the boats until we must,' said Trotter. 'And I have a fancy that in some high place above the Falls we may be able to see some sign that shall direct us.'

That a 'high place' would be the scene of a decisive moment in the unfolding of the story had already been conceived: the summit of the island in the River whence Frodo looked out (p. 324); but there is no suggestion in Trotter's words here that this 'high place' would be an ancient post of the men of Ondor.

In the fair copy manuscript Boromir objects: But the Enemy holds the eastern bank. And even if you pass the gates of Gebir, and come unmolested to the Tindrock, what will you do then? Climb down from the hills and land in the marshes?' Here, the 'gates of Gebir' are the later Gates of Argonath; thus the earlier references (p. 357), where Trotter places the 'gates' before the rapids, had already been rejected.

Of Trotter's reply to Boromir's scoffing question there are three forms: a draft text in pencil taking up at this point, and two versions in the fair copy manuscript. The first version in the manuscript has Trotter reply:

'Say rather, climb down from the hills to Rauros-foot and then take boat again, and hope to slip unseen up the mouths of Entwash - if we go to Minas Tirith. Do you choose to forget the ancient path, Boromir, and the high seat upon Tol-Brandir, that were made in the days of Valandil?(17) I at least have a mind to stand in that high place before I decide my course. There maybe we shall see some sign that will direct us.'

This version of Trotter's reply was struck out, and the pencilled draft (which continues on for some distance) seems to have been written at this point. This draft begins:

'No,' said Trotter. 'Do you choose to forget, Eoromir, the North Stair, and the high seat upon Tol-Brandir that were made in the days of Isildur? I at least have a mind to stand in that high place again before I decide my course. There maybe we shall see some sign that will guide us. Thence we [may] perhaps descend by the ancient way to Rauros-foot and take again to the water; and those who make for Minas Tirith may slip unseen up the mouths of Entwash.'

Finally, the second version written in the manuscript is as in FR (p.

406), but still with 'in the days of Isildur' for 'in the days of the great kings', and the high seat is still upon the isle - which is here Tol-Brandor for Tol-Brandir of the previous versions. The isle therefore was not inaccessible; and this is puzzling, for the inaccessibility of Tol Brandir is found both in the outline given on p. 328 and in the preliminary draft material for the present chapter (p. 355).

Trotter's words before he and Legolas set off into the fog to find a path take this form (and are very similar in the draft):

'No road was ever made along this bank by the men of Ondor: for even in their great days their realm did not reach beyond Sarn-Gebir, and the high seat upon the Tindrock was their northmost watchtower. Yet there must be some path, or the remains of one; for light boats used to journey out of Wilderland down to Osgiliath; and still did so, until Sauron returned to Mordor.'

'But he has returned,' said Boromir; 'and if you go forward, you are likely to meet some peril, whether you find a path or no.'

The story of the exploration made by Trotter and Legolas, their return, the portage of the boats and baggage, and the departure of the Company next morning, reaches in the fair copy virtually the text of FR, with Pensarn for Sarn Gebir as the name of the rapids and the Gates of Sarn-Gebir for the Gates of Argonath. From painfully difficult writing the original description of the Pillars of the Kings can be extracted out of the initial drafting, of which I give the following as an example:

The great pillars seemed to rise up like giants before him as the river whirled him like a leaf towards them. Then he saw that

[they] were carved, or had been carved many ages ago, and still preserved through the suns and rains of many forgotten years the likenesses that had been hewn upon them. Upon great pedestals founded in the deep water stood two great kings of stone gazing through blurred eyes northwards. The left hand of each was raised beside his head palm outwards in gesture of

[?warning] and refusal: in each right hand there was a sword.

On each head there was a crumbling crown and helm. There was still a power in these silent wardens of a long-vanished kingdom.

In the fair copy the text of FR was almost reached, through a good deal of correction as the manuscript was being written.

Trotter's words as they passed through the chasm (' "Fear not!" said a strange voice behind him...') are exactly as in FR (p. 409), except in two notable respects: 'In the stern sat Elfstone son of Elfhelm' - a decisive demonstration of the correctness of the view (p. 277) that Elfstone had reappeared and supplanted Ingold; and 'Under their shadow nought has Eldamir son of Eldakar son of Valandil to fear.'(18) It seems very improbable indeed that some other Valandil is meant and not the son of Isildur: only shortly before Valandil has been named in a draft ('in the days of Valandil', p. 359 and note 17, where the text immediately replacing this has 'in the days of Isildur'), and in the corresponding passage to the present in FR Aragorn calls himself

'son of Arathorn of the House of Valandil Isildur's son'. But if this Valandil is the son of Isildur, then at this stage Trotter/Elfstone/

Aragorn was the great-grandson of Isildur; and what then are we to make of the Pillars of the Kings, carved many ages ago, preserved through the suns and rains of many forgotten years, the silent wardens of a long-vanished kingdom? How can Frodo's amazement at the Council of Elrond that Elrond should remember the array of the Last Alliance ('But I thought the fall of Gilgalad was many ages ago', p. 110) be reconciled to a matter of four generations of mortal Men? And Gandalf had said to Frodo at Rivendell (p. 105 note 3) that 'he is Aragorn son of Kelegorn, descended through many fathers from Isildur the son of Elendil.' For the moment, at any rate, I can cast no light on this.(19)

After the description of the Pillars of the Kings there is no further initial drafting, and the earliest, or earliest extant, text is the fair copy manuscript, in which the conclusion of the chapter 'The Great River'

in FR is very closely approached. Trotter, so called throughout the chapter until he becomes 'Elfstone son of Elfhelm' when they pass the Pillars of the Kings, is called 'Elfstone' when he points to Tol Brandir at the far end of the lake (which is not named): see p. 370. And after

'Behold Tol Brandir!' he says no more than 'Ere the shade of night falls we shall come thither. I hear the endless voice of Rauros calling.' The journey had taken nine days; in FR 'the tenth day of their journey was over.'

In the foregoing account I have attempted to discern the form of the fair copy manuscript as my father first set it down; but the text was heavily worked on, and certainty in distinguishing immediate from subsequent corrections is not possible without close examination of the original papers. This manuscript, as emended and added to, reached in fact almost the form of the final text; yet an object of this history is to try to determine the mode and pace in which the whole structure came into being. Since some error is inevitable, I have erred by assuming, if uncertain, a correction to be 'later' rather than

'immediate'; but that a good deal of the development took place during this present phase of writing is clear. In particular, it is clear that the entire section of the narrative from the end of the Gollum episode to the escape of the Company from the rapids had been rewritten before my father reached 'The Departure of Boromir', because an outline for the opening of that chapter (p. 380) refers to Trotter's having seen an eagle far off from the river 'above the rapids of Sarn Ruin',(20) and this element (previously absent, p. 357) is L

inseparable from the whole complex of revision at this point in the present chapter.

This revision was carried out on inserted slips, one of which is an Oxford University committee report dated 10 March 1941. This slip provides of course only a terminus a quo, and proves no more than that my father was revising this chapter during or after March 1941; while a similar slip, dated 19 February 1941, used for initial drafting at a later point in Chapter XXI (i.e. in the part corresponding to 'The Breaking of the Fellowship' in FR), proves no more. It might be argued that he would scarcely have preserved such reports of committee meetings for use long after, and that these revisions therefore belong to 1941, but this is much too flimsy to support any view of the external dating. See further p. 379.

The next version of the chapter was a manuscript made by myself, presumptively after 4 August 1942, the date that I wrote at the end of my copy of '[The Mirror of] Galadriel' (p. 261). I think that this copy of mine provides exact evidence of the state of this chapter when my father moved on from it to new regions of the story, and I shall now therefore turn to it, noticing first certain names (in the form in which I wrote them, of course, and before subsequent emendation by my father).

Sarn-Gebir remains in my copy, for later Emyn Muil; the Gates of Gebir or the Gates of Sarn-Gebir for the (Gates of) Argonath;(21) and Ondor for Gondor. Trotter remains Trotter, because my father had not emended it on his manuscript, until the end of the chapter, where the Company passes beneath the Pillars of the Kings, and he is called in the first manuscript 'Elfstone son of Elfhelm': this my father had changed to 'Aragorn son of Arathorn', and my copy follows. On the other hand he did not correct 'Under their shadow nought has Eldamir son of Eldakar son of Valandil to fear', and my copy retains it. This might be thought to be a mere inconsistency of correction on his part; but this is evidently not the case, since on both manuscripts he added a further step in the genealogy: 'Eldamir son of Valatar son of Eldakar son of Valandil.' Since he did not strike out 'Eldamir son of Eldakar son of Valandil' on my copy, but on the contrary accepted the genealogy and slightly enlarged it, it must be presumed that Eldamir beside Aragorn was intentional; cf. FR (p. 409): 'Under their shadow Elessar, the Elfstone son of Arathorn... has nought to dread!', and cf.