The Treason of Isengard (73 page)

In The Tale of Years in Appendix B to LR the dates are: Feb. 26. Eomer hears of the descent of the Orc-band from the Emyn Muil.

Feb. 27. Eomer sets out from Eastfold about midnight to pursue the Orcs.

Feb. 28. Eomer overtakes the Orcs.

Feb. 29. The Rohirrim attack at sunrise and destroy the Orcs.

Feb. 30. Eomer returning to Edoras meets Aragorn.

Thus Eomer's 'three nights ago' in TT cannot be explained by taking it to refer, not to the descent of the Orcs into Rohan, but to his receiving news of it.

XXI

THE URUK-HAI.

For this chapter there exists, first, a brief outline as follows: Some want to go North. Some say ought to go straight to Mordor. The great orcs were ordered to go to Isengard.

They carry prisoners. Neither of them are the One. They haven't got it. Kill 'em. But they're hobbits. Saruman said bring any hobbit, alive. Curse Saruman. Who does he think he is? A good master and lord. Man's flesh to eat.

Fight breaks out. Slain orc falls on top of Pippin with blade drawn. Pippin manages to cut wrist bands. Ties cord loosely again.

Isengarders win. Mordor orcs are killed. They start on. [? Leader]

called Ugluk [?leaves them]. They rouse Merry, give him drink; cut ankle bonds and drive hobbits with whips. Dark night. Pippin manages to unclasp brooch unseen.

They get into plain. Merry and Pippin made to run till they faint and fall. Orcs carry them.

Pippin awakes to hear horsemen. Night.... Terror of orcs. They run at great speed. Ugluk refuses to let hobbits be slain or cast aside.

Horsemen ride up. Ugluk steals off [? from his friends seizing]

hobbits. But a horseman rides after him. Pippin pulls Merry down flat and covers him with cloak, the horseman rides past and spears Ugluk. Merry and Pippin fly into forest.

'Ugluk' is here of course the Mordor Orc subsequently called Grishnakh. It is seen that Pippin still drops his brooch before the descent.

into the plain (p. 401 and note 24).

For almost half of this chapter there is no initial drafting extant, and this is largely because my father again, as in the previous chapter, wrote a new version in ink over erased drafting in pencil; in addition, it seems that some initial drafting on separate pages has been lost. As far, then, as ' "Very well," said Ugluk' (TT p. 54) the earliest extant text is this second version or fair copy, in which the story as told in TT was reached almost down to the last detail, with relatively very little subsequent correction and addition. The manuscript begins without title, but my father clearly saw it as a new chapter, 'XXIV'.(1) A title, 'An Orc-raid', was written in later.

The later story of Pippin's casting aside his brooch after the descent into the plain had now entered. The Orc-names are all present: Lugbtirz, Uruk-hai; Ugluk (leader of the Isengarders), Grishnak (so spelt), Lugdush. Ugluk does not use the word Halflings (TT p. 48), but calls them hobbits; he says 'We are the servants of the old Uthwit and the White Hand' (cf. TT p. 49), this being Old English upwita 'sage, philosopher, one of great learning'; and he calls the descent into the plain of Rohan the Ladder (changed to the Stair: TT p. 50).

Grishnak does not name the Nazgul (TT p. 49), but says 'The winged one awaits us northward on the east bank'.

At the point where Pippin is given the orc-draught my father wrote a brief outline in the body of the text:

Ugluk smears Merry's wound. He cries out. Orcs jeer. But torment not the object. Merry recovers.

Orcs become aware of pursuit by horsemen. Merry and Pippin do not know about horsemen; but perceive that orcs are afraid.

Grishnak brings a small company of Mordor-orcs from the East.

Ugluk evidently does not like it. He asks why the Nazgul has not come to help them. The Nazgul is not yet permitted to cross River: Sauron is keeping them for the War - and for another purpose.

Grishnak brings a small company of Mordor-orcs from the East.

what a mess you have got into! They fly to the Forest.

When surrounded Grishnak searches Merry and Pippin and drags them out of ring of horsemen. He is slain, and Merry and Pippin passed over. They run into forest.

Adventure with Treebeard.

From the point where Ugluk sends the 'Northerners' running off towards the Forest (TT p. 54) initial drafting is extant, except for a further passage where my father reverted to the method of erasing it and writing a new version above. This draft text, dashed down in faint pencil and extremely difficult to make out, is astonishingly close to the final form. I give a brief passage in exemplification (TT p. 56), where the draft text is not in fact so close to the final form as it is in some others:

The Forest was drawing near. Already they had passed a few isolated trees. The land was beginning to slope upward, ever more steeply. But this did not stay the orcs, now desperately putting on their last spurt. Looking to one side Pippin saw that riders coming in the East were already level with them, galloping over the plain, the sunset touching their spears and helmets and their pale flowing hair. They were hemming in the orcs driving them along the line of the river. He wondered very much what sort of folk they were. He wished he had learned more in Rivendell, looked at more maps - but then the journey was all in more competent hands, he had not reckoned on being cut off from Gandalf and Trotter - and even Frodo. All he could remember about them was that he [read they] had given Gandalf a horse. That [? sounded] well.

If the original drafting where it is extant is characteristic of the parts where it is not, as seems very probable, it can be said this chapter was achieved with far greater facility than any previous part of the story of The Lord of the Rings.

The second version of the latter part of the chapter only differs in very minor touches here and there from the final form.(2) The watchfires of the Riders were a later addition to the text; Grishnakh (now so spelt) had evidently had personal experience of Gollum, for he says,

'That's what he meanss, iss it?' (cf. TT p. 59); and at the point where the chapter ends in TT this text has only:

There he was slain at last by Eomer the Third Master of Rohan, who dismounted and fought him sword to sword. So ended the raid, and no news of it came ever back either to Mordor or to Isengard.(3)

Neither in the draft nor in the second text did my father stop at this point, but continued on into the following chapter in The Two Towers, 'Treebeard'.

NOTES.

1. The manuscript is paginated 'XXIV', as also is the draft (with numbers written at the same time as the text).

2. The Orc-names Snaga and Mauhur appear already in the preliminary draft.

3. The expansion of the end of the chapter came in with the chronological revision made in October 1944 (see pp. 406 - 7). In notes on the subject my father said that 'at end of "Uruk-hai" the fight should be made to take longer - chase of stray fugitives, etc.', and that something should be said of the burning of the corpses.

XXII.

TREEBEARD.

Of 'Giant Treebeard' there have been many mentions in the outlines scattered through the early texts of The Lord of the Rings, but there was nothing in any of them to prepare for the reality when he should finally appear. My father said years later (Letters no. 180, 14 January 1956):

I have long ceased to invent ...: I wait till I seem to know what really happened. Or till it writes itself. Thus, though I knew for years that Frodo would run into a tree-adventure somewhere far down the Great River, I have no recollection of inventing Ents. I came at last to the point, and wrote the 'Treebeard' chapter without any recollection of previous thought: just as it now is.

This testimony is fully borne out by the original text. 'Treebeard' did indeed very largely 'write itself'.

First, however, there is a page of pencilled notes of much interest but with various puzzling features. I give here this text exactly as it stands, and postpone discussion of it till the end.

Did first lord of the Elves make Tree-folk in order to or through trying to understand trees?

Gimli and Legolas to go with Trotter and Boromir. It must be Merry and Pippin who find Gandalf.

Notes for Treebeard.

In some ways rather stupid. Are the Tree-folk ('Lone-walkers') hnau that have gone tree-like, or trees that have become hnau?(1) Treebeard might be 'moveless' - but here are some notes [?or) first

[? suggestions].

There are very few left. Not enough room. 'Time was when a fellow could walk and sing all day and hear no more than the echo of his voice in the mountains.'

Difference between trolls - stone inhabited by goblin-spirit, stone-giants, and the 'tree-folk'. [Added in ink: Ents.]

Treebeard is anxious for news. He never hears much. But he smells things in the air. Prefers breath from South and West of the Sea. Too much East wind these days. He is bothered about Saruman: a machine-minded man. Fondest of Gandalf. Very upset at news of his fall. Only one of the wizards who understood trees.

Tells how the Horsemasters have ridden away south leaving land empty.

There are only three of us left: myself and Skinbark and Leaflock

[written above in ink: Fangorn Fladrib > Fladrif Finglas]. Saruman has got hold of Skinbark. He went off to Isengard some time ago.

Leaflock has gone 'tree-ish'. He seldom comes into the hills: has taken to standing half-asleep all through the summer with the deep grass of the meadows round his knees. Covered with leaves he is.

Wakes up a bit in winter. May be somewhere about.

Treebeard offers to take them across Rohan to or towards Minas, Tirith. Treebeard smells war.

They see a battle of Wolfriders (Saruman) and the Horsemasters

- wild flowing hair and little bows.

How do they meet Gandalf? It should really be Sam or Frodo who saw vision in the Mirror of Galadriel.

A possible return of Gandalf would be as an old bent beggar with a battered hat coming to gates of Minas Tirith. He is let in. After, at siege's darkest hour when outer walls have fallen, he throws off cloak and stands up - white. He leads sortie. Or he comes with horses of Rohan riding on [struck out: Arfaxed] Shadowfax.

Another possibility. Cut out rescue of Frodo by Sam. Let Sam get lost and meet Gandalf, and have adventures getting into Minas Tirith. (But it was Frodo saw vision of Gandalf. Also Sam saw vision of Frodo lying under dark cliff, pale, and of himself on a winding stair.)

The winding stair must be cut in rocks and go up from Gorgoroth to watch-tower. Cut out Minas Morgul.

More roughly scribbled notes were added:

Trotter sends Legolas and Gimli with Boromir to Minas Tirith.

He himself wanders looking for the hobbits. He meets Gandalf. He is tempted but forsakes his ambition.

What are Treebeard and Ents to do about Saruman. Seek help of Rohiroth?

It is evident that this page does not belong to the time we have reached in the narrative texts, but to some earlier stage, before the death of Boromir had entered the story. To suppose otherwise would depend, of course, on the assumption that the words 'Gimli and Legolas to go with Trotter and Boromir. It must be Merry and Pippin who find Gandalf' already stood on this page which my father used afterwards for notes on the Ents; but there is nothing in the appearance of the page to suggest it. 'It must be Merry and Pippin who find Gandalf' suggests the rejection of some earlier idea, and 'How do they meet Gandalf?' later in these notes obviously relates to this. Moreover the notes at the end, in which Boromir is still thought of as going to Minas Tirith, seem certainly to have been set down after the main text had been written.

In the outline which I have called 'The Story Foreseen from Moria'

it was Merry and Pippin who were to encounter Treebeard but Gimli and Legolas who were to meet Gandalf returned (pp. 210 - 11); and this was repeated in the outline 'The Story Foreseen from Lorien'

(pp. 329 - 30). The reference to the cutting-out of Minas Morgul and the substitution of a watchtower (see on this question p. 344 and note 39) is a reference to the story of Sam and Frodo in 'The Story Foreseen from Lorien'. The death of Boromir entered in an outline for the end of 'The Breaking of the Fellowship', and 'The Departure of Boromir' (pp. 375, 378). On the face of it, then, these notes belong to the time of work on

'The Great River' and 'The Breaking of the Fellowship', and show my father pondering the way ahead after the Company should have been brought to its dismemberment above the falls of Rauros.

The note 'It should really be Sam or Frodo who saw vision in the Mirror of Galadriel' - at first sight incomprehensible, since there has never been a suggestion that it was anybody else who looked in the Mirror - is I think to be explained in this way: it would have been dearer if my father had written 'It really should be Sam or Frodo...', i.e. the story of the Mirror has been written of Sam and Frodo, and so it should be; it should not be changed. What is the purport of this? I think that my father was changing direction as he wrote - already doubting the rightness of the decision to make it Merry and Pippin who met Gandalf returned; and this seems to have been largely on account of the visions in the Mirror. Hence his suggestion (implying the rejection of the whole story of Sam and Frodo in Mordor as projected in 'The Story Foreseen from Lorien') that Sam should be the one who met Gandalf. Nonetheless he was unwilling to alter the visions seen by Frodo and Sam in the Mirror, to make it Sam who saw Gandalf walking down the long grey road (for that was not 'what really happened'). In the event, of course, Gandalf reappeared to members of the Company who had never looked into the Mirror of Galadriel. Possibly to be connected with this is the vision of Gandalf vouchsafed to Trotter on Amon Hen (pp. 379 - 80).