The Treason of Isengard (78 page)

The victorious forces under Eomer and Gandalf ride to the gates of Isengard. They find it a pile of rubble, blocked with a huge wall of stone. On the top of the pile sit Merry and Pippin!

Meeting of Treebeard and Gandalf.

How did the Ents overcome Isengard? They open[ed] sluice gates at North end and blocked the outlet near the Great Gate.

First they watched all the night seeing more and more orcs etc.

pour out of Isengard. Then they simply broke a way in at North end and spied and found Saruman was left nearly all alone in his tower. They broke the door and stairway to the tower and then withdrew. At North end they let in the River Isen but blocked its outflow. Soon all the floor of the circle was flooded to many feet deep. Then while some kept guard the rest fell on the rear of the battle.

Here comes scene of Saruman being let out of his tower and trying to speak in friendly fashion to Gandalf. 'Ah, my dear Gandalf! I am so pleased to see you; we at least (we wizards) understand one another. These people all seem so unnecessarily angry.(6) What a mess the world is in. Really you and I must consult together - such men as we are needed. Now what about .

our spheres of influence?'

Gandalf looks at him and laughs. 'Yes, I understand you well enough, Saruman. Give me your staff,' he said in a voice of terrible command. He took it and broke it. 'I am the White Wizard now,' he said. 'Behold you are clad in many colours!'

They turn his coat inside out. Gandalf gives him a rough staff.

[Added subsequently: Saruman is to go without a staff, and have no wooden thing to lean on by decree of Treebeard.] 'Go Saruman!' he said, 'and beg from the charitable for a day's digging.'(7) [Added subsequently: Or put this toward end of story

- in meanwhile give Saruman over to the guard of the Ents.

Further addition: Yes.]

[Written in margin at the same time as the text: Better: the ring of Isengard is broken by Ents, but Saruman shuts himself up in Orthanc and cannot be assailed yet for there is no time.]

Another way of telling the story would be to carry on from end of Chapter XXVI and relate the coming of Ents to

Icengard.(8) How they resolved not to break in at first, but came behind the orc-army. Let Merry and Pippin see the orcs driving the men of Rohan back over the River. Ents camp behind them.

Then relate the battle from Merry and Pippin's point of view -

distant vision of the white rider on a shining horse. They recognize the sword and voice of Aragorn, but do not know who the White Rider is. Gandalf and Treebeard meet after the battle - and then comes the storming of Isengard by Gandalf and the Ents.

Return to Eodoras. Funeral of - the Second Master (9)

[Added above: Hama and Theodred]. Feast in Winseld.(10) Eowyn sister of Eomer waits on the guests. Description of her, and of her love for Aragorn.

News comes at the feast or next morning of the siege of Minas Tirith by the Haradwaith.(11) [Added subsequently: brought by a dark Gondorian like Boromir.(12) Theoden answers that he does not owe fealty - only to heirs of Elendil. But he will come.] The horsemen of Rohan ride East, with Gandalf, Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas, Merry and Pippin. Gandalf as the White Rider. [Added subsequently: Eowyn goes as Amazon.]

Vision of Minas Tirith from afar.

In the part of this outline that concerns the immediate story to come, and with which this book ends, it will be seen that while Theoden is unwelcoming and scarcely well-disposed towards Gandalf, he is nothing more than that: of the ugly state of affairs at Eodoras that came in with Wormtongue there is no trace - no hint of the subjugation of Theoden's mind and will, of the disgracing of Eomer, of Gandalf's triumphant display of his power in the hall of Winseld.

Eowyn, Eomer's sister, appears, and her love for Aragorn, but not until the funeral feast held in Winseld after the victory.

Judging by the opening of the second outline, this also belongs to about this time.

Order o f Tale.

Bring each party to crisis. Ents break off with 'Night lies over Isengard'. End XXVI with far vision of Winseld's golden roof (and sight of the smoke).(13) (Possibly they see men in strange armour riding also from East to Eodoras.)

Now return to Frodo and Sam. Meeting with Gollum. Betrayal by him. Capture of Frodo on west side of Kirith Ungol. Frodo imprisoned in tower (14) - because (a) no ring is on him, (b) Sauron is busy with war and it takes time for message to reach him.

Then return to Gandalf and battle of Isen, feast of victory, relief of Minas Tirith, and march of the army of Gandalf towards Dagorlad and gates of Kirith Ungol.

Then return to Frodo. Make him look out onto impenetrable night. Then use phial which has escaped (clutched in his hand or wrapped in rag). By its light he sees the forces of deliverance approach and the dark host go out to meet them.(15) Grieves for.

Sam - or thinks he has betrayed him too.

The orc-guards come on him and take phial and shutter windows, and he lies in dark and despair.

Where put parley of Sauron and Gandalf? If after capture of Frodo readers will know that Frodo [written above: Sauron] hag not Ring. [Added subsequently in two stages: No, not if you break off with Frodo carried off by Orcs and before Sam rescues him. / Even if Sam's taking of Ring is told,(16) you can make Sam fly among the rocks with Gollum (and orcs) on his trail and his escape seem unlikely.)

Possibly best as originally planned - [?all account] of Gandalf as far as Kirith Ungol - and then return to Sam and Frodo.

Sam rescues Frodo and while battle is joined at mouth of Gorgoroth they fly towards Orodruin.

NOTES.

1. The later date of the departure of the Company from Rivendell, 25 December, had now entered (see pp. 422 - 3): thus 'Day 1' (the day of Boromir's death) in the table on p. 406 was January 25.

(see the table on p. 368), and Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli encountered Gandalf in Fangorn on January 30 ('Day 5').

2. In the fifth version of 'The Council of Elrond' (p. 152) Gandalf does not say what happened to Shadowfax, but the isolated note given on p. 390 says that 'some account of Shadowfax in the house of Elrond must be given.' This note asks also, however, 'Or did he just run off after Gandalf got to Rivendell?', and 'How did Gandalf summon him?' In preliminary notes for 'The Riders of Rohan' (p. 390) it is said that 'the horse of Gandalf reappears-sent for from Rivendell'; and in the text of that chapter (pp.

400 - 1) Eomer tells Aragorn that he had returned seven days before, to which Aragorn replies: 'But Gandalf left Shadowfax far in the North at Rivendell. Or so I thought.' In the present passage Shadowfax had recently come out of the West through the Gap of Rohan and then gone away north: which surely suggests that he had come from Rivendell and was going north to Fangorn in obedience to a summons from Gandalf mysteriously conveyed to him.

The earliest extant account of Gandalf's summons to Shadowfax with his three great whistles, and his coming across the plain to the eaves of Fangorn with Arod and Hasofel returning, is already exactly as in TT (see p. 432); and this seems to fit the story in the present text, for Gandalf says to Shadowfax 'It is a long way from Rivendell, my friend; but you are wise and swift, and come at need,' and he says to Legolas 'I bent my thought upon him, bidding him to make haste; for yesterday he was far away in the south of this land.' (On the other hand, Legolas says

'I have not seen his like before', which does not suggest that Shadowfax had been at Rivendell when the Company was there.) The story in the published LR is extremely difficult to understand. In 'The Council of Elrond' (FR p. 278) Gandalf says: 'It took me nearly fourteen days from Weathertop, for I could not ride among the rocks of the troll-fells, and Shadowfax departed.

I sent him back to his master...' This was about October 4. The next we hear is in 'The Riders of Rohan', where Eomer still tells Aragorn that Shadowfax had returned 'seven nights ago' (but

'now the horse is wild and will let no man handle him'), to which Aragorn replies: 'Then Shadowfax has found his way alone from the far North; for it was there that he and Gandalf parted.' But it was now February 30, so that on his return nearly five months had elapsed since Gandalf dismissed him at Weathertop! And then, at the end of 'The White Rider' (TT p. 108), there is the passage already cited: 'It is a long way from Rivendell, my friend; but you are wise and swift and come at need.' It is hard to resist the conclusion that the alteration in Gandalf's story to the Council of Elrond was not carried through.

3. Middlemarch: Enedwaith, between Greyflood and Anduin; see Maps II and III, pp. 305, 309.

4. Cf. the outline given on p. 389: 'Minas Tirith defeats Haradwaith.' - All these names (Harwan, Silharrows; Harrowland, Sunharrowland) are derived from the Old English Sigelhearwan

'Ethiopians'. My father's article in two parts entitled Sigelwara land (Medium AEvum 1 and 3, Dec.1932 and June 1934) studied the etymology and meaning of the name Sigelhearwan, and concluded that while the meaning of the first element Sigel was certainly 'Sun', that of the second element hearwan was not discoverable, a symbol ... of that large part of ancient English language and lore which has now vanished beyond recall, swa hit no maere [as if it had never been].' With these names cf. Sunlands, Swertings, p. 313. - Tolfalas appears on the original element of the First Map (see p. 298, and Map III" on p. 308). - On Elostirion for Osgiliath see p. 423.

5. In LR the father of Eorl was Leod, and Brego was Eorl's son; Brytta was the eleventh King of the Mark, some two and a half centuries after Brego (see LR Appendix A (II)).

6. These remarks of Saruman's, from 'we at least...', were bracketed at the time of writing.

7. This sketch of the 'affable' Saruman and Gandalf's breaking of his staff is derived very closely from 'The Story Foreseen from Moria', p. 212; cf. also p. 422.

8. Chapter XXVI is 'The White Rider'.

9. The Second Master was first called Marhath (p. 390; this name was then given to the Fourth Master, p. 400), then Eowin (pp.

393 - 4).

10. For the name of the Golden Hall see p. 402.

11. Thus the passage on pp. 434 - 5 (in which Theoden in his initial conversation with Gandalf speaks of the attack by the Haradwaith on Minas Tirith) bracketed with the note that it should be placed after the victorious return to Eodoras has already been moved.

12. I have not found an explanation of the conception underlying this. Possibly to be compared are Gandalf's words in The Return of the King, Ch. 1 Minas Tirith, p. 31: by some chance the blood of Westernesse runs nearly true in him; as it does in his other son, Faramir, and yet did not in Boromir whom he loved hest.' But this was written several years later.

13. The smoke seen rising at sunset of the day before in the direction of the Gap of Rohan (p. 432).

14. On the taking of Frodo to a guard-tower (not to Minas Morgul) see p. 344 and note 39, and p. 412.

15. The light of the Phial of Galadriel must be conceived here to be of huge power, a veritable star in the darkness.

16. I do not follow the thought here: for Sam's taking of the Ring must in any case be told before Frodo is carried off by the Orcs.

XXVI.

THE KING OF THE GOLDEN HALL.

The textual history of this chapter is much the same as that of 'The White Rider': the first coherent and legible manuscript is also in a sense the first extant text of the chapter, because the rough drafts were set down, section by section, as the main manuscript proceeded. In other words, that manuscript was the vehicle of the development of the narrative, and the distinction between 'draft' and 'fair copy' is not at all a distinction between two separate manuscript entities, the one completed as a whole before the other was begun. For almost all of the last third of the chapter, however, there is no independent drafting, for the initial conception in pencil was overwritten in ink.

A substantial part of the chapter was in being in some form before Gandalf's story of the Balrog was added to 'The White Rider' (see p.

430), and the point of separation of 'The King of the Golden Hall' (not so named) from 'The White Rider' was twice changed.(1) In the earliest stage of the narrative, abandoned before it had gone far, Gandalf (with Gimli) left Aragorn and Legolas before they came to Eodoras:

'Eodoras those courts are called,' said Gandalf, 'and Winseld is that golden hall. There dwells Theoden (2) son of Thengel, lord of the mark of Rohan. We are come with the rising of the day.

Now the road lies plain to see before you. Make what speed you may!'

Then suddenly he spoke to Shadowfax, and like an arrow from the bow the great horse sprang forward. Even as they gazed, he was gone: a flash of silver, a wind in the grass, a vision that fled and faded from their sight.

Swiftly they urged their horses in pursuit, but if they had Walked upon their feet they would have had as much chance of overtaking him. They had gone only a small part of the way When Legolas exclaimed: 'That was a mighty leap! Shadowfax has sprung across the mountain stream and already he has passed up the hill and vanished from my sight.'

The morning was bright and clear about them, and birds were singing, when Aragorn and Legolas came to the stream; running swiftly down into the plain it bent across their path, turning east to feed the Entwash away to the left in its marshy bed. Here there were many willow-trees, already in this southern land blushing red at the tips of twigs in presage of spring. They found a ford, much trampled upon either bank with the passage of horses, and passed over, and so at length they too rode up along the green road to Eodoras.