The War of the Ring (5 page)

In this connection there are two notable passages. The dialogue between Aragorn and Eomer and Gamling the Westmarcher on the Deeping Wall, hearing the cries of the wild men below (TT p. 142), takes this form in a rejected draft:

'I hear them,' said Eomer; 'but they are only as the scream of birds and the bellowing of beasts to my ears.'

'Yet among them are many that cry in the tongue of Westfold

[later > in the Dunland tongue],' said Aragorn; 'and that is a speech of men, and once was accounted good to hear.'

'True words you speak,' said Gamling, who had climbed now on the wall. 'I know that tongue. It is ancient, and once was spoken in many valleys of the Mark. But now it is used in deadly hate. They shout rejoicing in our doom. "The king, the king!"

they cry. "We will take their king! Death to the Forgoil! Death to the Strawheads! Death to the robbers of the North." Such names they have for us. Not in half a thousand years have they forgot their grievance, that the lords of Gondor gave the Mark to Eorl the Young as a reward for his service to Elendil and Isildur, while they held back. It is this old hatred that Saruman has inflamed. ...'

With this compare the passage in drafting of 'The King of the Golden Hall' (VII.444) where Aragorn, seeing on one of the hangings in the Golden Hall the figure of the young man on a white horse, said:

'Behold Eorl the Young! Thus he rode out of the North to the Battle of the Field of Gorgoroth' - the battle in which Sauron was overthrown by Gil-galad and Elendil.(23) On the enormously much briefer time-span that my father conceived at this time see VII.450 note 11.

An extremely rapid initial sketch for the parley between Aragorn, standing above the gates of the Hornburg, and the enemy below shows an entirely different conception from that in TT (p. 145): Aragorn and the Captain of Westfold.

Westfolder says if the King is yielded all may go alive. Where to?

To Isengard. Then the Westmarch is to be given back to us, and all the .... land.

Who says so? Saruman. That is indeed a good warrant.

Aragorn rebukes Westfolder for [??aiding] Orcs. Westfolder is humbled.

Orc captain jeers. Needs must accept the terms when no others will serve. We are the Uruk-hai, we slay!

Orcs shoot an arrow at Aragorn as they retreat. But the Westfold Captain hews down the archer.

On the back of the page in which the new story of the assault entered (p. 17) my father wrote the following names: Rohirwaith Rochirchoth Rohirhoth Rochann Rohann Rohirrim; and also Eomeark Eomearc. I do not know whether Rochann, Rohann is to be associated with the use of Rohan on pp. 16, 18 apparently as a term for the Riders.(24)

In a draft for the passage describing the charge from the Hornburg the King rode with Aragorn at his right hand and Hama at his left. For Hama's death before the gates of the Hornburg see p. 41 note 8.

Lastly, at the end of the chapter, Legolas, seeing the strange Wood beyond Helm's Dike, said: 'This is wizardry indeed! "Greenleaf, Greenleaf, when thy last shaft is shot, under strange trees shalt thou go." Come! I would look on this forest, ere the spell changes.' The words he cited were from the riddling verse addressed to him by Galadriel and borne by Gandalf ('The White Rider', VII.431): Greenleaf, Greenleaf, bearer of the elven-bow, Far beyond Mirkwood many trees on earth grow.

Thy last shaft when thou hast shot, under strange trees shalt thou go!

His words were not corrected on the manuscript, and survived into the typescript that followed (see p. 420).

NOTES.

1. For the subsequent history of this passage see pp. 4-6.

2. Tindtorras: earlier name for the Thrihyrne; see VII.320.

3. In the first version of 'The King of the Golden Hall' the Second Master of the Mark was Eofored, and when Theodred appears he is not Theoden's son (see VII.446 - 7 and note 17). The 'First Battle of the Fords of Isen', in which Theodred fell, was now present (VII.444 and note 12), and in a contemporary time-scheme is dated January 25, the day before the death of Boromir and the Breaking of the Fellowship (in LR February 25 and 26).

4. On the First Map (redrawn section IV, VII.319) Westfold was written against a vale on the western side of the Misty Mountains, south of Dunland (though afterwards struck out. in this position and reinserted along the northern foothills of the Black Mountains west of Eodoras). It cannot be said whether Dunland and Westfold originally stood together on the map as names of distinct regions, or whether Dunland was only entered when Westfold was removed.

5. The change from Trumbold to Herulf, Heorulf (afterwards Erkenbrand) was made while this initial drafting was in progress.

6. My father first wrote Dimgraef, but changed it as he wrote to Heorulf's Clough; above this he wrote the Dimhale (hale representing Old English halh, healh, 'corner, nook of land'), and after it Herelaf's Clough, this being struck out. In the margin he wrote Nerwet (Old English, 'narrow place'); and at the head of the page Neolnearu and Neolnerwet (Old English neowol, neol 'deep, profound'), also the Clough, the Long Clough, and Theostercloh (Old English peostor 'dark'). Clough is from Old English cloh

'steep-sided valley or ravine'.

7. Following this my father wrote, but struck out, 'Dimhale's Door, by some called Herulf's Hold (Burg)'; and in the margin he wrote Dimgraf's gate, and Dimmhealh (see note 6).

8. Nerwet: see note 6.

9. The words enclosed in square brackets are lost (but are obtained from the following draft) through a square having been cut out of the page: possibly there was a small sketch-map here of

'Heorulf's Clough' and the 'Hold'.

10. Before Helm's Deep my father first wrote Helmshaugh, haugh being the Northern English and Scottish development of Old English halh (note 6).

11. Heorulf's Hoe: Hoe is from Old English hoh 'heel' (used in place-names in various senses, such as 'the end of a ridge where the ground begins to fall steeply').

12. The map redrawn on p. 269 is anomalous in this respect as in many others.

13. The extension of the ride across the plain by a day, and the shift in the date of the (second) battle of the Fords of Isen to January 31, entered in revision to the completed manuscript of 'Helm's Deep': see p. 18.

14. Stanscylf, beside Stanshelf, has the Old English form scylf (sc =

sh).

15. the cliff: i.e. the Stanshelf, the great natural fall in the ground, constituting a rampart.

16. Cf. the two versions of the scout's report: 'many are making for Herulf's Hold, and say that Herulf is already there' (p. 10); 'some are making for the Clough, but it seems that Nothelm [> Heorulf] is not there' (p. 11).

17. In the first draft the fastness was deserted when the host from Eodoras arrived (p. 13). 'Then follows story as told above until rescue of King' refers to the story in the first draft given on pp. 13-16.

18. This presumably refers to the outline given on p. 16, where the assault was at the line of Helm's Dike, unless some other early account of the assault has been lost.

19. A scrap of drafting has the phrase 'Fitful late moon saw men fighting on the top of the wall'; but the illegible word here is not saw, though that may have been intended,

20. It is subsequently said (but rejected) of the Deeping Stream in this manuscript that 'far to the north it joined the Isen River and made the western border of the Mark.'

21. The second of these passages (VII.386) was lost in TT (p. 22).

In the fair copy manuscript of 'The Departure of Boromir' as originally written Legolas in the first passage (TT p. 16) said only: 'Alas! We came when we heard the horn, but we are too late. Are you much hurt?'; the fuller form of his opening words on seeing Aragorn, in which he mentions the hunting and slaying of Orcs with Gimli in the woods, was added later (both to the manuscript and the following typescript). It is therefore possible that my father had now rejected the idea that appears in the second passage ('We slew many'), and did not reinstate it again until after the writing of 'Helm's Deep'. But this seems unlikely, and in any case does not alter the fact of the inconsistency in the published work. This inconsistency may have been observed before, but it was pointed out to me by Mr. Ralph L. McKnight, Jr.

22. Another notable instance of the overlapping in this part of the story is found in the name Erkenbrand. This appears in late stages of the revision of the completed manuscript of 'Helm's Deep', but it was a replacement of Erkenwald (itself replacing Heorulf); and Erkenwald is still the name of the Lord of Westfold in drafting for what became the chapter 'Flotsam and Jetsam'. See p. 40 note 2.

23. In TT (p. 142) Gamling says: 'Not in half a thousand years have they forgotten their grievance that the lords of Gondor gave the Mark to Eorl the Young and made alliance with him.'

24. In addition, the form Rohir is found in this chapter; this has occurred in the manuscript of 'The White Rider' (VII.433 note 8).

Rohirrim is found in the completed manuscript of 'Helm's Deep', but it was not yet established, for Rohir appears in the final fair copy manuscript of 'The Road to Isengard' (p. 40), and much later, in 'Faramir' ('The Window on the West'), both Rohir and Rohiroth are used (pp. 155-6).

III.

THE ROAD TO ISENGARD.

This chapter was at first continuous with 'Helm's Deep', and when the division was made it received the title 'To Isengard' (Chapter XXIX).

The preparatory drafting was here much more voluminous than that of 'Helm's Deep', because the first form of the story had reached a developed form and a clear manuscript before it was rejected. The interpretation of the very confused papers for this chapter is particularly difficult, since it is necessary to distinguish between drafts (often closely similar) for passages in the first version and drafts for passages in the second.

The essential differences in the original version from the form in The Two Towers are these: Gandalf and Theoden and their companions left Helm's Deep shortly after the end of the battle (see p. 5, $ III); they did not see the Ents as they left the mysterious wood, and they did not go down to the Fords of Isen; but they encountered, and spoke with, Bregalad the Ent, bearing a message from Treebeard, in the course of their ride to Isengard, which they reached on the same day. In this chapter I shall give those parts of the original version that are significantly different from the later form, citing them from the completed manuscript of that version but with certain passages from the initial drafts given in the notes.(1)

First, however, there is an outline that my father evidently set down before he began work on the chapter. This was written in the rapid and often barely legible soft pencil that was usual for these preliminary sketches, but in this case a good deal of the outline was inked over.

Meeting of the chieftains. Eomer and Gimli return from Deep. (Both wounded and are tended by Aragorn?) Gandalf explains that he had ridden ranged about gathering scattered men. The coming of the King had diverted Isengard from Eodoras. But he [Gandalf] had sent some men back to defend it against marauders. Erkenbrand (2) had been [? ambushed] and the few horses remaining after the disaster at Isenford had been lost.

He had [?perforce retreated] into hills.

They ask Gandalf about the Trees. The answer lies in Isengard, he said. We go now thither speedily - such as will.

Aragorn, Eomer, Gimli, Legolas, King Theoden and his company and [?a force] .... to Isengard. Erkenbrand. Gamling.

Repair of Hornburg.

They pass down a great.... aisle among the trees that [?seems now to have opened]. No orcs to be seen. Strange murmurs and noises and half-voices among the trees. [Added: Gandalf discusses his tactics. Gimli describes the caves. Here the overwriting in ink begins:]

The sun shines in the plain. They see a tall giant figure striding towards them. The Riders draw swords, and are astonished.

The figure greets Gandalf.

I am Bregalad the Quickbeam, he said. I come from Treebeard.

What does he wish? said Gandalf.

He wishes you to hasten. He wants to know what he is to do with Saruman!

Hm! said Gandalf. That is a problem. Tell him I am coming!

What was that, said Theoden. And who is Treebeard?

He was an Ent, said Gandalf. And so is Treebeard.

They hasten and enter Nan Gurunir. There they find a heap of ruins. The great walls of Isengard were burst and flung down in confusion. Only the tower of Orthanc stood alone in the midst of desolation, from which a great smoke went up. The great arch still stands, but a pile of rubble stands before it.

On the top of the pile sat - Merry and Pippin, having lunch.(3) They jumped up, and as Pippin had his mouth full, Merry spoke.

'Welcome, lords, to Isengard!' he said. 'We are the door-wardens: Meriadoc son of Caradoc of Buckland is my name; and my companion is Peregrin son of Paladin of Tuckborough.(4) Far in the North is our home. The lord Saruman is within, but