The War of the Ring (42 page)

Harnen.(11)

I postpone discussion of this earliest conception of Harrowdale and the Hold of Dunharrow to the end of the next version. This, which I will call 'B', began as a fully articulated narrative in ink and in clear script, but swiftly collapsed. The opening passage was much corrected both at the time of writing and subsequently; I give it here as it seems to have stood when my father abandoned it.

Day was fading. The high valley grew dim about them. Night had already come beneath the murmuring firwood that clothed the steep mountain-sides. Their path turning a sharp shoulder of rock plunged down into the sighing gloom under dark trees. At last they came out again and saw that it was evening, and their journey was nearly at an end. They had come down to the edge of the mountain-stream, which all day they had followed as far below it clove its deep path between the tree-clad walls. And now through a narrow gate between the mountains it passed out, and flowed into a wider vale.

'At last! ' said Eomer. 'We are come

Here my father stopped. Perhaps at once, he added in pencil 'to Harrowdale', then struck out Eomer's words and continued the text in pencil, which soon becomes difficult to read, and finally as nearly impossible as text A.

They followed it, and saw the Snowborn white and fuming upon its stones rush down upon its swift journey to Edoras at the mountains' feet. To their right, now dark and swathed in cloud, loomed the vast tumbled mass of great Dunharrow, but his/its tall peak and cap of snow they could not see, for they were crawling under the shadow of his knees. Across the dale before them lights were twinkling.

'Long now it seems since we rode from Isengard about this hour of the day,' said Theoden. 'We have journeyed by dusk and night and by day among the hills, and I have lost count of time. But was not the moon full last night?'

'Yes,' said Aragorn. '[Five >] Four days have we passed on the road, and now six remain before the day that you appointed for the assembly at Edoras.'

'Then here at Dunharrow maybe we can rest a while,' said the King.

They came now [?under] dusk over a stone bridge across the river; and when the head of [?his] long line had passed it a man sounded a loud call upon [a] horn. It echoed in the valley, and horn[s] answered it from far above. Lights sprang out and men rode forward to meet them. King Theoden was welcomed back with joy, and he rode on with Eomer and Aragorn and his company up the steep winding path that led to the Hold of Dunharrow on the mountain's knee. No foe could climb that way while any defended it from above. [Looking back] Merry was riding now on a pony furnished for him at Helm's Deep.

With him [? went] Legolas and Gimli. They looked back and long after they had climbed high they could descry in the grey dusk below the long winding line of the Riders of Rohan still crossing by the bridge. Many men had followed Theoden from Westfold.

So at last they came to the Hold - the mountain homes of long forgotten folk. Dim legends only now remembered them.

Here they had dwelt [and had made a dark temple a temple and holy place in the Dark Years] in fear under the shadow of the Dark Years, before ever a ship came to Belfalas or Gondor of the Kings was built. That was in the first [?reign] of Sauron the [?Great] when Baraddur first was founded, but they had ...

[?him] and built a refuge ...... [?that no enemy] could take.

There was a wide upland [field > ?slope] set back into the mountain - the lap of Dunharrow. Arms of the mountain embraced [it] except only for a space upon the west. Here the

[?green bay] fell over a sheer brink down into Harrowdale. A winding path led up.' Behind the sheer walls of the vale were

..... caves - made by ancient art. [?Water fell in a fall over the

........... and flowed ... the midst ...]

When the men of Gondor came [?there] the men of this place lived for a while [?owning] no lord of Gondor. But what became of them no legend knew. They had vanished and gone far away.

As my father wrote the end of this text he drew two little sketches of the Hold of Dunharrow, and this page is reproduced on p. 239 (see also note 6). These sketches show his earliest imagining of the Hold very clearly: a natural 'amphitheatre' with caves in the further rock-wall, and a stream (in text A stated to be the Snowbourn) falling down from the heights behind and over the central door, thence crossing the open space ('the lap of Dunharrow') and falling again over the lower cliff up which the path climbs. It is less easy to be sure of the situation of the Hold in relation to Harrowdale. When Theoden and his company enter the dale 'the vast tumbled mass of great (Dunharrow.)

Dunharrow' is on their right; Dunharrow is the name of the mountain (on the First Map, IV(E), VII.319, 'Dunharrow' is written against the mountain at the head of the great valley extending south-west from Edoras). They crossed the Snowbourn by a stone bridge; the path, steep and winding, then led them up to the Hold 'on the mountain's knee'; and the 'amphitheatre' was open to the west. The most natural interpretation is that the Hold was on the far (eastern) side of Harrowdale, and near the head of the valley.

The references in A to the Hold having been preserved as a refuge, and to 'the torchlit stone hall' in which the feast was held, are explained and expanded in subsequent texts.

Text B was followed, no doubt immediately, by a third version ('C'), clearly written in ink, which however again stops at the same point.

Here the entry of the Riders into Harrowdale is described in very much the same way as it is in B:

They followed it [the mountain-stream] and saw it spring with a last leap into the Snowbourn River that white and fuming on its stones rushed down upon its swift journey to Edoras far below.

To their right, dark and swathed in cloud, loomed the vast tumbled mass of great Dunharrow, but its peak and cap of snow they could not see, for they were crawling under the shadow of its knees. Across the valley upon the mountain-side lights were twinkling.

It was now Eomer, not Aragorn, who replied to Theoden's question

'But was it not the full moon last night?'; for Aragorn was no longer a member of the King's company.

'No, the night before,' said Eomer. 'Five days we have passed on the road: it has been slow since we took to the mountain-paths; five days remain until the day that you appointed for the muster at Edoras.'

'Then here at Dunharrow maybe we can rest a while,' said the King.

'If you would take my counsel, lord,' said Eomer, 'you would remain here until the war that threatens is over, lost or won.

[Struck out at once: You have ridden far and taxed your strength in the war with Saruman. Victory will have little joy for me, or for your people, unless we can lay our swords at your feet.]'

'We will speak of that later,' said Theoden.

They rode on. Merry looked about him. He was tired, for he was riding himself now, on a sturdy hill-pony furnished for him at Helm's Deep; but he had enjoyed the journey among the passes and high dales, the tall pine-woods, and the bright waterfalls. He loved mountains, and the desire to see and know them had moved him strongly when he and his friends had plotted to go with Frodo, far away in the Shire.

He rode with the King's company, and often he had jogged along beside Theoden himself, telling him of the Shire, and the doings of hobbit-folk. They had got on well together, although much of Merry's language was hard for Theoden to understand.

But all the same, and in spite of the honour, he was lonely, especially at the day's end. Aragorn had ridden on far ahead with the swifter riders, taking Legolas and Gimli; and he missed Pippin deeply. The fellowship seemed now altogether scattered.

They came now in the dusk to a stone bridge across the Snowbourn ...

It would be interesting to know why (at this stage in the development of the narrative, when they would all meet again at Dunharrow) Aragorn with Legolas and Gimli and others went on ahead (see note 9), but no explanation is given.

Text C now follows B very closely, and is largely identical with it.

The mention of Legolas and Gimli riding with Merry is of course removed. Of the ancient men of Dunharrow it is said that 'their name was lost', and that here they 'had their refuge and hidden fane'; 'those were the days when Sauron first was lord, and Baraddur was founded; but they had not served him, making here a refuge that no foe could take.' The 'wide upland slope' is again named 'the Lap of Dunharrow', and it is again said to open on the west; 'There there was a sheer brink that fell some hundreds of feet down to the Snowbourn. Up this the winding path climbed. Inside the amphitheatre (?) was clasped by sheer walls of rock rising at the back to a great precipice; and the walls'

Here text C stops; there is thus no mention here of the falling stream referred to in A (where it is actually the Snowbourn) and B and shown on one of the accompanying sketches, nor of the relations of the men of Dunharrow with the men of Gondor.

A fourth text ('D') followed, in which the actual words of the opening of 'The Muster of Rohan' in RK were quite closely approached for the most part, but this extends no further than a single page, ending with Merry's 'listening to the noise of water, the murmur of dark trees, the crack of stone, and the vast waiting silence that brooded behind all sound.' The most notable feature of this brief text is the following passage:

To their right, dark and swathed in cloud, loomed the vast tumbled mass of [struck out immediately: great Du] mighty Starkhorn, [struck out: the grim mountain,] but its gnarled and jagged peak they could not see, for they were crawling under the shadow of its knees. Across the valley upon the lap of the great mountain lights were twinkling.

At this point, it is clear, the great mountain 'Dunharrow' became the Starkhorn, and though the text does not extend far enough to make the matter certain the last sentence of this extract suggests strongly (especially from the use of the word 'lap') that the Hold of Dunharrow, in which lights were twinkling, was situated on the lower slopes of the Starkhorn.

The next stage seems to have been two pages of notes in very rapid pencil ('E'), some but not all of which my father overwrote clearly in ink, and against some names and words putting queries.

When the Eorlingas came first to Dun Harrow they had found only one old man living in a cave, speaking in a strange tongue.

None could understand him. Often he spoke and seemed to desire to tell them something, but he died before any could read his words. Where were all the rest of his folk?

Aragorn and Eowyn meet the King. They say that Riders are mustering at Dun Harrow - Gandalf's command: he had passed by Edoras some days ago. Many have already come in -

and many strange folk. I do not .... understand how, but a summons went forth long ago. Rangers have come and Dunlanders and messengers from the Woodmen of Mirkwood.

They say that but for the shadow of the new war they would make a feast of victory. Even so they will feast and rejoice because of the King's return.

Torchlit stone hall.

Merry sat beside Theoden as promised.

The following was overwritten in ink, apparently only to clarify the pencilled text (parts of which can be made out), not to alter or expand it. Several of the names have queries against them in the ink overwriting, and some of the pencilled words my father could not interpret.

Eowyn bears wine to him, bidding him drink and be glad.

Even as Theoden drinks the cup, the messenger of Minas Tirith arrives.? Barahir ? Halbarad.

He asks for ten thousand spears at once! The Swertings have come. The forces of Sauron have crossed the Nargul ? Pass and raised the men of Harad and of ? Umbor. A fleet has put out from the Havens of Umbor - once Gondor's, but long lost - and sailed up the Anduin and reached Anarion, at the same time more enemies have crossed the river and taken the fords of Osgiliath again - won back hardly in the winter. [In margin, ink over pencil:] Swertings are only just moving, and a few preliminary ravages of Lebennin. Spies report a great fleet ?

[concluding pencilled words were illegible]

Theoden replies that that is more than he could have mustered in a ? [pencilled word was illegible] at his height, and before the war with Saruman.

Eowyn says that women must ride now, as they did in a like evil time in the days of Brego son of [mark showing name omitted] Eorl's son, when the wild men of the East came from the Inland Sea into the Eastemnet.

[Pencilled text struck through and not ovewritten:] Theoden decides to pass over the [struck out: Rath] Scada pass to the vale of Blackroot into Lebennin and fall on enemy in rear.

[Ink over pencil:] Aragorn [in margin: Eomer?] begs leave to take a force over the Scada Pass and fall on the enemy's rear. 'I will go with you in my brother's stead' said Eowyn [added: to King Theoden].