Sauron Defeated (11 page)

The blue mantle set with stars which Faramir gave to Eowyn when the weather turned cold is in A said to have been made for his mother

'Emmeril', changed in the act of writing to 'Rothinel of Amroth, who died untimely'. This name survived into the following manuscript B, where it was changed to Finduilas (see pp. 58-9).

The words of the Eagle that bore tidings to Minas Tirith of the fall of the Dark Tower were first reported thus:

The realm of Sauron hath ended and the Ring of Doom is no more and the King is victorious, he has passed through the Black Gate in triumph and all his enemies are fled.

The name Kormallen entered in this text. My father left a blank for the name as he wrote: 'And Eowyn did not go, though her brother sent word begging her to come to the field of [between Henneth Annun and Cair Andros]' (cf. RK p. 242 and p. 50 above), but he evidently wrote the name in the margin at once, since it appears in the text as written a few lines later.

In the conversation between Eowyn and Faramir that follows she said, in A, 'I love or have loved another.' This survived in B, where her words were changed to 'I hoped to be loved by another', and then at once to 'I wished'.

Somewhat later in the chapter (RK p. 244) Ioreth (now so spelt; hitherto Yoreth) names the hobbits Periannath (cf. Ernil i Pheriannath in the chapter 'Minas Tirith', RK p. 41, Ernil a Pheriannath VIII.287), and this survived into the First Edition of LR, changed to Periain in the Second.

There were substantial differences in the original account of Aragorn's coming to Minas Tirith and his coronation before the walls from the story in RK (pp. 244-6). The entry of Aragorn, Gandalf, Eomer, Imrahil and the four hobbits into the cleared space before the Gateway was very briefly described in A: there was no mention of the Dunedain nor of Aragorn's apparel. The casket in which the White Crown was laid was not described ('of black lebethron bound with silver' B, as in RK; cf. VIII.180). When Faramir, surrendering his office as 'the Last Steward of Gondor', gave Aragorn the white rod Aragorn did not return it to him; he said nothing to Faramir at this point, and Faramir at once proclaimed: 'Men of Gondor, you have no longer a Steward, for behold one has returned to claim the kingship at last.

Here is Aragorn son of Arathorn ...' Among Aragorn's titles Faramir names him 'chieftain of the Dunedain of the North' and does not name him 'bearer of the Star of the North'. After the description of the crown there follows:

And Aragorn knelt, and Faramir upon the one hand and upon the other the Prince Imrahil set the crown upon his head, and then Gandalf laid his hand on Aragorn's shoulder and bade him arise. And when he arose all that beheld him gazed in silence...

and a light was about him. And then Faramir said 'Behold the King!' and he broke his white rod.

Lastly, when Aragorn came to the Citadel a marginal addition to A says that 'the banner of Tree Crown and Stars was raised above it'

('the banner of the Tree and the Stars' B, as in RK); see VIII.279, 389, 399.

The reference to the Dunedain 'in silver and grey' and the description of Aragorn's black mail and white mantle clasped with a great green stone was added to B, but the 'star upon his forehead bound by a slender fillet of silver' did not enter until the Second Edition; similarly Faramir still proclaimed him 'chieftain of the Dunedain of the North'

('of Arnor', Second Edition) and did not name him 'bearer of the Star of the North' in the First Edition (see VIII.299, 309; 389 and note 10).

Rough marginal additions to A make Aragorn return the white rod to Faramir with the words 'That office is not yet wholly at an end' (cf.

RK p. 245: 'That office is not ended, and it shall be thine and thy heirs'

as long as my line shall last'), and give a first draft of his wish that he should be crowned by those 'by whose labours and valour I have come to my inheritance'. Here the ceremony takes this form: 'Gandalf took the crown and bade Frodo and Sam lay their hands also upon it, and they set the White Crown of Gondor upon the head of Aragorn'; whereas in RK, at Aragorn's request, Frodo brought the crown to Gandalf, who then performed the crowning alone. In B the text of RK

was reached at all points in this scene apart from the words of Elendil repeated by Aragorn when he held up the crown,(2) which take the form: Et Earello Endorenna lendien. Simane maruvan, ar hildinyar, kenn' Iluve-metta! A translation pencilled in later is virtually the same as that in RK (p. 246): Out of the Great Sea to Middle-earth have I come. Here will I abide, and my heirs, unto the ending of the world.'

In the third manuscript C the words remained the same as in B, apart from tenn' (as in RK) for kenn', but were subsequently changed to Et Earello Endorenna nilendie. Sinome nimaruva yo hildinyar tenn'

Ambar-metta!

A notable visitor to Minas Tirith among the many embassies that came to the King is found in A:

... and the slaves of Mordor he set free and gave them all the lands about Lake Nurnen for their own. And last of all there came to him Ghan-buri-Ghan of the Wild Woods and two of the headmen, and they were clad in garments of green leaves to do honour to the king, and they laid their foreheads on his feet; but he bade them rise up and blessed them and gave them the Forest of Druadan for their own, so that no man should ever enter it without their leave.

This was not rejected on the manuscript, but it is not present in B.

For the further history of the last encounter with the Wild Men of the Woods see pp. 61 - 2, 67 - 8.

Eowyn's words to Faramir (RK p. 248), saying that she must now return to Rohan with Eomer, but that after the funeral of Theoden she will return, are absent from A (but were added to B). The statements in RK that the Riders of Rohan left Minas Tirith on the eighth of May and that the sons of Elrond went with them are not found in any of the texts, and they remain absent in the First Edition; on the other hand the return of Elladan and Elrohir to Minas Tirith with the company from Rivendell and Lothlorien (RK p. 250) is already found in A. It is told in A that 'the Companions of the Ring lived with Gandalf in a house in the Citadel, and went to and fro as they wished; but Legolas sat most[ly] on the walls and looked south towards the sea.' That the house was in the Citadel was not repeated in B, which retained however the words concerning Legolas; these were lost, possibly unintentionally, in C.

In the story of the ascent of Mindolluin by Gandalf and Aragorn (RK pp. 248-50) there are some differences from the final form to mention. In the original text it is not said that they went up by night and surveyed the lands in the early morning, nor is there mention of the ancient path to the hallow 'where only the kings had been wont to go'; and Gandalf in his words to Aragorn does not speak of the Three Rings, but says:

'... For though much has been saved, much is passing away.

And all these lands that you see, and those that lie about, shall be dwellings and realms of Men, whom you must guide. For this is the beginning of the Dominion of Men, and other kindreds will depart, dwindle, and fade.'

B has the final text in all this. In A Aragorn says 'I have still twice the span of other men'; this was retained through the following texts and not changed until the galley proof to the reading of RK (where there is a difference between the First and Second Editions: in the First he says

'I may have life far longer than other men', but in the Second 'I shall').

When Aragorn saw the sapling at the edge of the snow he cried, in A, En tuvien!, which in B becomes En a tuvien! This was retained in C

but corrected to En [?in]tuviet; on the final (typescript) text of the chapter this was retained, but then erased and Ye! utuvienyes written in its place. The passage continues in A, in extremely difficult handwriting:

'... I have found it, for here is a scion of Nimloth eldest of trees. And how comes it here, for it is not yet itself seven years old?'

And Gandalf said: 'Verily here is a sapling of the line of Telperion Ninquelote that the Elves of Middle-earth name Nimloth. Nimloth the fair of many names, Silivros and Celeborn (3) and Galathilion of old. But who shall say how it comes here in the hour that is appointed? But the birds of the air are many, and maybe down the ages as lord followed lord.....

in the City and the tree withered, here where none looked for it the [?race] of Nimloth has [?flowered already] hidden on the mountain, even as Elendil's race lay hid in the wastes of the North. Yet the line of Nimloth is older far than your line, lord Elessar.'

With the names that appear in this passage cf. the Quenta Silmarillion in V.209, $16:

Silpion the one was called in Valinor, and Telperion and Ninquelote and many names in song beside; but the Gnomes name him Galathilion.

A footnote to the text (V.210) adds:

Other names of Silpion among the Gnomes are Silivros glimmering rain (which in Elvish form is Silmerosse), Nimloth pale blossom, Celeborn tree of silver...

B has here the text of RK, in which Aragorn does not name 'the Eldest of Trees', and Gandalf says: 'Verily this is a sapling of the line of Nimloth the fair; and that was a seedling of Galathilion, and that a fruit of Telperion of many names, Eldest of Trees.' In The Silmarillion chapter 5 (p. 59) it is told that Yavanna made for the Elves of Tirion

... a tree like to a lesser image of Telperion, save that it did not give light of its own being; Galathilion it was named in the Sindarin tongue. This tree was planted in the courts beneath the Mindon and there flourished, and its seedlings were many in Eldamar. Of these one was afterwards planted in Tol Eressea, and it prospered there, and was named Celeborn; thence came in the fullness of time, as is elsewhere told, Nimloth, the White Tree of Numenor.(4) In A the sapling did not 'hold only lightly to the earth', but 'Aragorn and Gandalf dug deep.'

In the account of the riding from Rivendell and Lorien at the end of the chapter it is not said in any of the texts that Elrond brought the sceptre of Annuminas and surrendered it to Aragorn; this was only inserted on the final proof. Elrond's daughter is named Finduilas (VIII.370, 386, 425; at this stage Faramir's mother was named Rothinel, p. 54); and in A my father added, after 'Finduilas his daughter', '[and daughter of Celebrian child of Galadriel].' This is the first mention of Celebrian, by this or any name. In the last sentence of the chapter in A Aragorn 'wedded Finduilas Halfelven'; this name survived into B, where Faramir's mother Rothinel was changed to Finduilas, and Elrond's daughter Finduilas was changed to Arwen, called Undomiel.(5)

NOTES.

1. All names in RK not mentioned in my account can be presumed to be present already in A, with the exception of Beregond, which was only changed from Berithil on manuscript C. Thus Elfhelm is called 'Elfhelm the Marshal' (RK p. 244; cf. VIII.352); and the last king of the line of Anarion is Earnur, here first named (RK

p. 245; cf. VIII.153). The rather puzzling reference to Min-Rimmon (RK p. 245: 'tidings had gone out into all parts of Gondor, from Min-Rimmon even to Pinnath Gelin and the far coasts of the sea') goes back to A.

2. The words of Elendil do not appear in A.

3. In A the name Celeborn is spelt with C; so also Celebrian. In this chapter and in the next the C spelling reverted to K in the finely-written third manuscripts, but on both it was then corrected back to C.

4. Cf. also the Akallabeth in The Silmarillion, p. 263, and Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age, ibid. p. 291.

5. Arwen first emerged in the fair copy of the following chapter,

'Many Partings': see p. 66.

Note on the Chronology

A curious point of chronology that arises in this chapter concerns the lapse of time between the departure of the host from Minas Tirith and the destruction of the Ring.

At the beginning of the chapter, against the words 'When the Captains were but two days gone', the figure '19' is written in the margin of A, i.e. March 19. This is the chronology described in VIII.432, according to which the march from Minas Tirith began on the 17th (the 18th in RK).

When in RK (p. 239) it is said that 'the fifth day came since the Lady Eowyn went first to Faramir', and that was the day of the destruction of the Ring and the fall of the Dark Tower, the same is said in A (and subsequent texts); and at the head of that page my father noted: 'F.

sees E. on 19. 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25.' This day was therefore the 24th of March. But this is strange, since already in the first draft of

'The Field of Kormallen' Gandalf had declared that 'in Gondor the New Year will always begin on the 25th of March when Sauron fell

...' (p. 46). In A, Eowyn says that this day was 'seven days since

[Aragorn] rode away' (RK p. 240), which agrees with the date of March 24 for the destruction of the Ring. But my father changed

'seven', as he wrote, to 'nine', which would presumably give March 26

as the day of deliverance. He then changed 'nine' to 'eight', giving the 25th as the day, and 'eight' is the reading in B and C, changed in C to