Sauron Defeated (13 page)

Precisely what my father had in mind when he wrote Saruman's words here, 'When you come to the Shire beware of Cosimo, and make haste, or you may go short of leaf', I do not know. It certainly shows that Saruman knew what was going on there, but equally certainly it was intended to be taken as good advice on Saruman's part to repay Merry for his gift. But my father marked Merry's reply with a large query, and at once, on the same page, recognising that the pride, bitterness and malevolence of Saruman could never be pierced by such a gesture on the part of Merry Brandybuck, he wrote the passage that stands in RK (p. 262): 'This is but a repayment in token. You took more, I'll be bound...'

The first draft A was followed by a much-needed fair copy 'B', and that (as in 'The Steward and the King') by a third text 'C' in my father's most handsome script. B was subsequently given the number and title 'LVII Many Partings'.(10) While the final form of the chapter was very largely achieved in B, there remain a number of minor differences from the text of RK; I mention here some of the more noteworthy, and collect a few further details in note 16.

It was in B that the name Arwen at last emerged. In the opening paragraph of the chapter in this text the Queen was named Ellonel, but this was at once changed back to Finduilas, and she is Finduilas at the two following occurrences (and Evenstar in 'But wear this now in memory of Elfstone and Evenstar with whom your life has been woven,' RK p. 253). It must have been at this point that my father determined that her name was not Finduilas, and that he must find out what it was; for on a page of rough drafting for sentences in the opening of the chapter he is seen experimenting with other names, as Amareth, Emrahil. He wrote Elrond Elladan Elrohir Emrahil, Finduilas > Emrahil, and beside this (evidently to avoid the clash with Imrahil) Imrahil > Ildramir; but then, clearly and firmly, Arwen Undomiel. Immediately after this in text B as written Eomer says to Gimli 'But now I will put Queen Arwen Evenstar first' (RK p. 253).

In a first form of Arwen's words to Frodo she says: 'Mine is the choice of Luthien, and I have chosen as she at last', the words 'at last*

being omitted in a second version of the passage; and of her gift to him she says in B:

'... But in my stead you shall go, Ringbearer, when the time comes, and if you then desire it: for your wounds have been grievous and your burden heavy. But you shall pass into the West until all your wounds and weariness are healed. [Struck out at once: Take this token and Elrond will not refuse you.'

And she took from her hair a white gem like a star] Take with you the Phial of Galadriel and Cirdan will not refuse you. But wear this now in memory of Elfstone and Evenstar with whom your life has been woven!' And she took a white gem...

In the third manuscript C the text of RK was reached.

Merethrond, the Great Hall of Feasts in Minas Tirith (RK p. 253) is said in B to be 'in the Citadel' (a statement omitted in C). On a page of rough drafting for this passage my father dashed off a little plan of the Citadel. This is shown as a circle with seven small circles (towers) at equal distances within the circumference, one of these standing beside the entrance. Beyond the Court of the Fountain is marked, at the centre, the White Tower and Hall of the Kings, and beyond that again, on the west side of the Citadel, the King's House. To the right (north) of the White Tower is the Hall of Feasts. The outlines of other buildings are roughed in between the towers.

When Aragorn and Eomer came to the Hallows 'they came to the tomb that had been built in Rath Dinen' (where C has the reading of RK, 'the tombs in Rath Dinen'); and returning with the bier they

'passed through the City, where all the people stood in silence; but the knights of Rohan that followed the bier sang in their own tongue a lament for the fallen' (so in A, p. 61, 'with slow songs of the Mark').

This was changed to 'the knights of Rohan ... walked also in silence, for the time for song was not yet come' (cf. RK p. 253).

The encounter with Ghan-buri-Ghan (see pp. 61 - 2) was further developed, re-using the original passage in the previous chapter (p. 56) where Ghan-buri-Ghan came to Minas Tirith:

... and they came to the Grey Wood under Amon Din. And there beside the road in the shadow of the trees stood Ghan of the Wild Woods and two of his headmen beside him, and they were clad all in garments of green leaves to do honour to the king. For Ghan-buri-Ghan said: 'He was great king; he drove away dark with bright iron. And now men of Stonehouses have king, he will not let dark come back.' And he and his headmen laid their foreheads upon Aragorn's feet; and he bade them rise up, and he blessed them, and gave them the Forest of Druadan to be their own, so that no man should ever enter it without their leave. Then they bowed and vanished into the trees.

This was struck through, and a version replacing it is found written on the last page of text B of 'The Steward and the King', almost as in RK (p. 254), in which the Wild Men remain invisible and only their drums are heard. In this version the heralds added: 'and whoso slays one of his people slays the king's friends.'

All the names of the Kings of the Mark, recited by the minstrel in the Golden Hall, are now given, but my father missed out Folcwine, great-grandfather of Theoden: this was a mere slip, since Folcwine appears in the earliest list of the kings (VIII.408), and without him there are only seven mounds on the east side of the Barrowfield. But the omission escaped notice, and Folcwine was not inserted until the Second Edition. The eleventh king (Hama in the original list) now becomes Leof (changed to Leofa in the Second Edition).(11) In the parting of Merry from Eomer and Eowyn (RK p. 256) they address him as 'Meriadoc of the Shire and of the Mark' - the name Holdwine ('of the Mark') was only introduced on the galley proof; and Eomer says this of the gift of the horn, which he does not attribute to Eowyn:

'... but you will take naught but the arms that were given to you. This I suffer, because though we are of other lands and kind, still you are to me a dear kinsman whose love can only be requited with love. But this one gift I beg you now to take...'

The horn is described in the same words as in RK; but then follows:

'This is an heirloom of our house,' said Eowyn, 'and in the deeps of time it was made for our forefathers by the dwarves

[struck out: of Dale], and Eorl the Young brought it from the North.'

The statement that the horn 'came from the hoard of Scatha the Worm' entered on the galley proof.

The meeting with Treebeard reaches in this text B the form in RK

at almost all points. Treebeard's denunciation of the Orcs runs here: henulka-morimaite-quingatelko-tingahondo-rakkalepta-saurikumba.(12) A curious point is that Gandalf says here The Third Age begins', which was repeated in C but there emended to 'The New Age begins' as in RK. With this may be compared my father's letter of November 1944 (Letters no. 91, also VIII.219): 'So ends the Middle Age and the Dominion of Men begins', and, further back, Saruman's speech to Gandalf in Isengard (VII.150): 'The Elder Days are gone.

The Middle Days are passing. The Younger Days are beginning'; but in 'The Story Foreseen from Kormallen' (p. 52) is found 'The end of the Third Age is presaged' and 'End of the Third Age'.

Gandalf's response to Treebeard's report that he had allowed Saruman to go free remains as it was in A (see note 8): Treebeard now says 'A snake without fangs may crawl where he will', but this does not yet prompt Gandalf to the observation that Saruman 'had still one tooth left... the poison of his voice', which entered in C. Gimli, in his farewell, still concludes as in A (p. 63): 'Alas! that our lands lie so far apart. But we will send word to Rivendell when we may'; to which Elrond now replies: 'Send rather to Gondor, or else to the Shire! '

Again as in A (note 8), Treebeard does not say when the release of Saruman had taken place, and this remained into the First Edition; in the Second Edition 'Yes, he is gone' was changed to 'Yes, he is gone seven days.'(13)

The actual encounter with Saruman now differed virtually not at all from RK, but the placing of it was somewhat different in the First Edition from the revised version in the Second. The text of the First Edition ran thus (RK pp. 260-1):

Soon the dwindling company came to the Isen, and crossed over it, and came into the waste lands beyond, and then they turned northwards, and passed by the borders of Dunland. And the Dunlendings fled and hid themselves, for they were afraid of Elvish folk, though few indeed ever came to their country. But the travellers did not heed them, for they were still a great company and were well provided with all that they needed; and they went on their way at their leisure, setting up tents when they would; and as they went the summer wore away.

After they had passed by Dunland and were come to places where few folk dwelt, and even birds and beasts were seldom to be seen, they journeyed through a wood climbing down from the hills at the feet of the Misty Mountains that now marched on their right hand.

As they came out again into open country they overtook an old man leaning on a staff...

As noted above, in the Second Edition Treebeard told Gandalf that Saruman had been gone seven days; and in the revision of the passage just cited the First Edition text 'After they had passed by Dunland and were come to places where few folk dwelt, and even birds and beasts were seldom to be seen, they journeyed through a wood ...' was altered to 'On the sixth day since their parting from the King they journeyed through a wood ...' By this change the company was still in Dunland when they came upon Saruman, and a little later in the narrative, after 'I fancy he could do some mischief still in a small mean way' (RK p. 263), my father added in the Second Edition: 'Next day they went on into northern Dunland, where no men now dwelt, though it was a green and pleasant country' (northern Dunland, rather than the country north of Dunland, now becoming the uninhabited region).

From this point, the end of the Saruman episode, the text B

continues:

September came in with a golden morning shimmering above silver mists; and looking out they saw away to the east the sun catching three peaks that thrust up through floating cloud into the sky: Caradhras, Celebras, and Fanuiras.(14) They were near once more to the Gates of Moria. And now came another parting...

This must mean that it was on the first of September that they saw the Mountains of Moria. This was developed by a late emendation to C to the reading of the First Edition:

September came in with golden days and silver nights. At last a fair morning dawned, shimmering above gleaming mists; and looking from their camp on a low hill the travellers saw away in the east the Sun catching three peaks that thrust up into the sky through floating clouds: Caradhras, Celebdil, and Fanuidhol.

They were near to the Gates of Moria.

Here now for seven days they tarried, for the time was at hand for another parting...

In the Second Edition this passage (from 'September came in ...') was extended by references to the Swanfleet river, the falls, and the ford by which the company crossed.(15)

In various small points B received further alteration in the story of the sojourn of the hobbits in Rivendell, but effectively the final form was now reached.(16)

NOTES.

1. Hasufel was presumably no more than a slip of memory, though it survived until emended on the third manuscript. Hasufel was Aragorn's horse of Rohan, and the horse that carried Legolas and Gimli was Arod.

2. Pippin is not mentioned, but in a rejected form of the passage it is said that he 'rode with the Prince of Ithilien, for he was the esquire of the Steward.'

3. the Greywood: previously named ('Grey Woods') only on a small map in a draft text of 'The Ride of the Rohirrim', VIII.353.

4. Here there is a mark of insertion, probably referring to verses that would be given at this point (although there are no verses here in the second and third manuscripts: see note 16).

5. In wished him hail (if correctly read) in the preceding sentence hail means 'health, happiness, welfare'; in Gandalf's Here is a last hail the word seems to be used elliptically, as if 'Here is a last drinking (of) hail'.

6. The word that I give as athan is very unclear and uncertain.

7. Gandalf's praise of Frodo and Sam, and this engaging glimpse of the Gaffer amid the ceremoniousness of Edoras, had disappeared in the second text. Ronshus is evidently his clipped form of Gerontius, the name of the Old Took; and I suppose that he attached the 'learned' or high-falutin ending -us to Rory (Brandybuck). But the Gaffer's views were not entirely lost. When discussing with Frodo the name of his eldest child ('The Grey Havens', RK p. 306) Sam said: 'I've heard some beautiful names on my travels, but I suppose they're a bit too grand for daily wear and tear, as you might say. The Gaffer, he says: "Make it short, and then you won't have to cut it short before you can use it." ' -

Sam's final remark is unfortunately altogether illegible; the word preceding lou might possibly be getting, or pretty, but the word preceding that is certainly not u as.