The War of the Ring (49 page)

The description in the draft continues:

It went in a wide circle from the mountains' feet and back to them, always distant some seven leagues from the First Gate of the City that looked eastward.. Thus it enclosed the fair and fertile townlands on the long green slopes falling to the River, and at its easternmost point overlooked from a frowning bank the marshy levels. There it was loftiest and most guarded, for on a walled causeway the road from the fords of Osgiliath, a league away, came in through a great gate between two towers. But few men save herdsmen and tillers dwelt in the townlands, for the most part of the people of Gondor dwelt in the seven circles of the city of Minas Tirith, or in the deep vales of the mountains' borders; and away southward in Lebennin the land of Seven Rivers lived a hardy folk between the mountains and the mouths of Anduin and the Sea; and they were reckoned men of Gondor, yet their blood was mixed and if their stature and faces told the truth came more from those men who dwelt in the dark hills in the Dark Years ere the coming of the kings.

But now the light of day grew, and Pippin looked up ...

Thus the townlands were at first conceived altogether differently, as a great half-circle centred on the city and always with a radius of seven leagues, whereas in RK the enclosing wall was at its furthest point four leagues from the city and at its nearest little more than one.(9) In this draft text there is no mention of Emyn Arnen, of the Harlond, of Lossarnach, of Belfalas, or of Imrahil of Dol Amroth, and Lebennin is still 'the land of Seven Rivers' (see VII.310-12, and pp. 252, 254 in this book).

Pippin's first sight of Minas Tirith and Gandalf 's encounter with the guards at the Great Gate is very much as in RK (p. 23), except that in the following passage from RK the bracketed part is absent: but to his right great mountains reared their heads, [ranging from the West to a steep and sudden end, as if in the making of the land the River had burst through a great barrier, carving out a mighty valley to be a land of battle and debate in times to come. And there where the White Mountains of Ered Nimrais came to their end]

(and) he saw, as Gandalf had promised, the dark mass of Mount Mindolluin ...

Also, the Tower of Ecthelion is here called the Tower of Denethor (see p. 281).

In the draft text the description of Minas Tirith is as follows: For the manner of Minas Tirith was such that it was builded upon seven levels each carved in the hill, and each had a wall, and in each wall was a gate. But the gates were not made in a line, for the outer and lowest gate was in the east, but the next faced half south and the third half north, and so on, so that the pave[d] way that led up without break or stair turned first this way and [then] that way across the face of the hill, until the seventh gate was reached that led to the great court and citadel on the levelled summit about the feet of the crowning tower.

And that gate also looked due east, being there seven hundred feet above the plain before the walls, and the tower on the summit was three hundred feet from base to pinnacle. A strong citadel indeed it was and not to be taken by a host of men if there were any within that could hold weapons, unless some enemy could come behind and scale Mindolluin and so come behind upon the shoulder that joined the Hill of Guard to the mountain mass. But that shoulder which was at the height of the fifth wall was walled right up [to] the precipice that overhung it, and there stood the great domed tombs of bygone kings and lords, at once memorials and fortresses if need should come.

In the original hasty sketch of Minas Tirith reproduced on p. 261

the gates appear to be arranged in two lines meeting at the uppermost level, the one proceeding from the Great Gate (1 - 3 - 5 - 7), and the other proceeding from the second gate (2 - 4 - 6 - 7).(10) In the text just cited the configuration described in RK is present, with the Great Gate facing east, the second gate south-east, the third north-east, and so on up to the entrance to the Citadel, again facing east. On this page of the draft (reproduced on p. 280) my father drew a plan in which this arrangement is shown. The upper figure on the page is in fact two conjoined: the smaller area at the upper left (marked with 'M.T.' and

'summit of Mindolluin') was that first made, and this was struck out with three transverse lines. - It will be seen that the 'vast pier of rock whose huge out-thrust bulk divided in two all the circles of the City save the first' (RK p. 24), causing the mounting road to pass through a tunnel each time it crossed the line from the Great Gate to the Citadel, was not yet present.

Pippin's sense of the diminishment and decay of Minas Tirith, with its great silent houses, is told in the draft in words closely similar to those of the passage in RK (p. 24);(11) but the accoutrement of the guards of the Seventh Gate is thus described:

The guards of the gate were robed in white, and the[ir] helms were of strange shape, shining like silver, for they were indeed of mithril, heirlooms from the glory of old days, and above either cheekpiece were set the wings of sea-birds. Upon the breast of their surcoats were embroidered in white a tree blossoming like snow and above it a silver crown.

(Minas Tirith and Mindolluin.)

It is added here that beside the guards of the Citadel one other wore this livery of the heirs of Elendil: 'the warden of the door of the hall of the kings aforetime where now dwelt the Lord Denethor'; and at the door there is one 'tall guard' ('the tall silent door-wardens', RK).

Perhaps the change in the colour of the livery from white to black was on account of the white tree embroidered on the coats.

The dead Tree in the court of the Fountain, with Pippin's recollection of Gandalf's words Seven stars and seven stones and one white gree, and Gandalf's warning to him to bear himself discreetly before Denethor, survived into the final text with very little change; but Gandalf says only of Denethor and Boromir: He loved him greatly, coo much, perhaps', and does not add 'and the more so because they were unlike' (yet later, when they have left Denethor, he says, much as in RK: 'He is not quite as other men, Pippin, and whatever be his ancestry by some chance the blood of the men of Westernesse runs true in him, as it does in his other son Faramir, and yet not in Boromir whom he loved most. They have long sight.'). And of Aragorn he says that 'if he comes it may be in some way that no one expects. And Denethor at least does not expect him in any way, for he does not know that he exists.'

The great hall was conceived from the first almost exactly as the description of it stands in RK (p. 26): the great images between the pillars, reminding Pippin of 'the kings of Argonath',(12) the empty throne, the old man in the stone chair gazing at his lap. Only the carved capitals of the pillars are not mentioned; on the other hand the floor of the hall is described: 'But the floor was of shining stone, white-gleaming, figured with mosaics of many colours' (see p. 288).

The name of Denethor's father, Ecthelion, entered here, with only momentary hesitation (earlier in the draft the White Tower is called the Tower of Denethor, not as in RK the Tower of Ecthelion; p. 278).(13)

When Pippin cried 'that is the horn that Boromir always wore!' this dialogue follows in the draft:

'Verily,' said Denethor. 'And in my turn I wore it, and so did each eldest son of our house far back into the mists of time, before the failing of the kings, since [Mardil >] Faragon father of Mardil hunted the wild oxen of Araw (14) in the far fields of Rhun. But we heard it blowing dimly in the North twelve days ago, and now it will blow no more.'

'Yes,' said Pippin. 'I stood beside him as he blew it, and it shook the woods; but no help came. Only more orcs.'

Pippin's account of Boromir's death, his offer of his service to Denethor, and the swearing of the oath were very largely achieved in the draft text,(16) save in one notable point: it is Gandalf, not Denethor, who speaks the words of the oath: '"Take the hilts," said Gandalf,

"and speak after me." The old man laid the sword along his lap and Pippin laid his hand on the hilts and said slowly after Gandalf ...' The oath and its acceptance were scarcely changed from the original formulation in the draft, except only in the point that Denethor did not there name himself 'Steward of the High King'.

The words between Denethor and Gandalf that follow (RK p. 29), and Pippin's perception of the tension between them, and of Gandalf's greater power (though veiled), reached immediately the final text in almost every point; but Pippin's reflection on Gandalf's age and being took this form: 'Whence and what was Gandalf: when and in what far time and place [was he born >] did he come into the world and would he ever die?' His passing thought 'Treebeard had said something about wizards, but even then he had not thought of Gandalf as one of them'

does not appear; it is not said that 'it was Denethor who first withdrew his gaze'; and Denethor says only 'for though the Stones are lost', without adding 'they say'.

In the margin of the page that bears this passage my father wrote:

'For his wisdom did not consider Gandalf, whereas the counsels of Denethor concerned himself, or Gondor which in his thought was part of himself'. There is no indication where this was to be placed, but I think that it would follow 'Pippin perceived that Gandalf had greater power, and deeper wisdom - and a majesty that was veiled.'

The interview with Denethor ended far more abruptly in the draft than in RK (pp. 30-1): at Denethor's words 'Let your wrath for an old man's seeming folly run off, and return to my comfort' there follows only: '"I will return as soon as may be," said Gandalf. "But I crave sometime words with you alone." And he strode from the hall with Pippin running at his side.'

After Gandalf had left the house in which they were lodged Pippin encountered a man clad in grey and white who named himself Beren son of Turgon (Beregond son of Baranor, clad in black and white, in RK). In their opening conversation and visits to Shadowfax and the buttery a number of small alterations and additions were made to the narrative later, but all are slight points: for example, Beren says to Pippin that 'It is said that you are to be treated as a guest for this day at the least', and that 'Those who have had heavy duty - and guests -

take somewhat to refresh their strength in the mid-morning'; Pippin does not express his disappointment at seeing no inns in Minas Tirith; and the following curious dialogue was afterwards removed (cf. RK

p. 34):

'... For now I may say that strange accents do not mar fair speech, and hobbits are well-spoken folk.'

'So Denethor, I mean the high Lord, said.'

'Did he indeed?' said Beren. 'Then you have received a mark of favour such as few guests have got from him.'

The keeper of the buttery was named Duilas (?), with a later pencilled alteration to Garathon.(17) Pippin tells Beren: I am only a boy in the reckoning of our people, for I am only twenty years old and we are not held to be grown-up as we say in the Shire for a dozen years more.'(18) As Beren and Pippin looked out from the walls, 'Away down in the vale-bottom 7 leagues or so as the eye leaps, the Great River now flowed grey and glittering, coming out of the north-west and curving south-west till it was lost to view round the shoulders of the mountains in a haze and shimmer' (see pp. 288 - 9), whereas it is distant

'five leagues or so' in RK (p. 36): on this difference see p. 278.

Immediately after this the original draft jumps, in relation to RK, from

'far beyond which lay the Sea fifty leagues away' to ' "What do I see there?" asked Pippin, pointing due eastward down to the river'; thus the entire passage is lacking in which Pippin sees the traffic of waggons crossing the Pelennor and turning south, and Beregond explains to him that they are taking 'the road to the vales of Tumladen and Lossarnach, and the mountain-villages, and then on to Lebennin.' But from this point the conversation of Beren/Beregond and Pippin to its conclusion, as it stands in RK (pp. 36-40), was achieved, roughly indeed, but with scarcely any significant detail lacking, and often very dose to the final text: the darkness in the East,(19) the passage of the Nazgul far overhead, Beren's account of the battles for the crossings at Osgiliath,(20) of Denethor's far sight,(21) of the approach of the great fleet manned by the corsairs of Umbar,(22) of Faramir, and his invitation to Pippin to join his company for that day.

At this point the story told in the draft becomes altogether different from that of RK, and I give the remainder (very roughly written) of this earliest text in full:

Gandalf was not in the lodging, and Pippin went with Beren of the Guard, and he was shown to the others of the third company and welcomed by them, and made merry with them, taking his midday meal among them in a little hall near the north wall, and going here and there with others until the evening meal, and the closing hour, and the lowering of standards. Then he himself after the manner of Gondor soon went to his bed. Gandalf had not come or left any message. He rolled into bed and soon slept. In the night he was awakened by a light and saw Gandalf in the room outside the alcove. He was pacing to and fro. 'When will Faramir return?* he heard him mutter, as he peered out of the dark window. Then Pippin went to sleep again.