The War of the Ring (28 page)

appeared in the initial draft of 'The Riders of Rohan' (VII.393), and in the outline 'The Story Foreseen from Fangorn' (VII.437), after 'News comes... of the siege of Minas Tirith by the Haradwaith', was added:

'Theoden answers that he does not owe fealty - only to heirs of Elendil.'

The mention of Earendel as the 'first king of Westernesse' is strange indeed, but I think probably not significant, a passing inadvertence: see further p. 158 and note 26.

This draft D 1 continues on for some way, written fast, and I will return to it; but it is convenient now to turn to the draft that replaced it ('D 2'), and which takes up with Sam's decision to say nothing about Gollum:

'... why should I remind them of the old villain, if they choose to forget him? I wish I could.'

After a while Frodo and Faramir began to talk again, and Frodo asked many questions concerning Gondor and its people and the lands about them, and what hope they had in their long war. He was interested in such matters, but also he wished to discover, if he could, how much Faramir knew of old lore, and how he knew it. He remembered now that at the Council Boromir had shown much knowledge of these things [struck out: naming the number of the rings of].

The last part of this was changed to read:

He was interested in such matters, but also he thought of Bilbo.

'He'll want accounts of all these things,' he thought. 'It is long since I made any note in my diary: tonight perhaps, as we rest.'

Then he smiled at himself: 'But he lives in the House of Elrond and can have more for the asking than all that is remembered in Gondor! 0 but well, he'll like it best from a hobbit, personal recollections. He will, if ever I see him again, alas!'

All this was struck from the page subsequently, when the later structure of the narrative was imposed; but the text as written continues (cf. p. 154): '"What hope have we?" said Faramir. "It is long since we had any hope....', and then proceeds to develop Faramir's discussion of Gondor and Rohan to a form much closer to that in The Two Towers, though still with important differences.

Where in the first version D 1 (p. 154) he said: 'But we were more fortunate than other cities, recruiting our strength from the sturdy folk of the sea-coasts, and the hardy people of the White Mountains', he now says: 'But we were wiser and more fortunate than some; wiser, for we recruited the strength of our people from the sturdy folk of the sea-coasts and the hardy mountaineers of Hebel Nimrath;(19) more fortunate in our foes that became our friends.'(20) Faramir still gives no indication of when the Horsemen came out of the North, For on a time there came men out of the North and assailed our borders, men of fierce valour, but not servants of the Dark Lord, not the wild hordes of the East, or the cruel hosts of the South. Out of the North came the Rohiroth,(21) the Eorlingas, and at the last we ceded to them the fields of Kalinarda (22) that are since called Rohan; for long these had been sparsely peopled, and we could not resist the strength of these golden-haired horsemen. And they became our vassals or indeed our allies ...' He continues very much as in TT (p. 287). In the completed manuscript Faramir gives this indication of the date of their coming:

'On a time in the days of Mardil's son there came men out of the North ...' But of course this conveys very little.

Of the origin of the Rohiroth this draft D 2 gives the following version. The passage was heavily emended, and I show the significant alterations:

'... Indeed, it is said by the loremasters among us that they are somewhat our kin in blood and in speech, being descended

[from those of the Three Houses of Men who went not over sea into the West >] from those same Three Houses of Men as were the Numenoreans, from Beor and Hador and Haleth, but from such as went not over sea into the West at the calling of the Powers. Thus they have to us a kinship, [such as the Exiled Elves that linger still in the West (of such indeed is the Lady of the Golden Wood) and returned not to Elvenhome have to those who departed. But they have never returned. >] such as the High Elves that do here and there abide still in the West of these lands have to those who lingered and went never to Elvenhome.

Such is the kinship of the Lady of the Golden Wood to the folk she rules.(23) And so, as the Elves are divided into three: the High Elves, and the Middle Elves, [the Lingerers the Elves of the Woods >] their kindred that lingered on the shores, and the Wild Elves [the Refusers >] of the woods and mountains, so we divide Men, calling them the High or the Men of [Light >] the West, which are the Numenoreans, and the Middle or the Men of Shadow, such as the Rohiroth and other of their kindred in Dale and Mirkwood, and the Wild Men, or the Men of the Darkness. And of the truth of this their likeness of tongue and heart still speaks. Nonetheless those of Numenor passed over the Sea indeed, even if they after forfeited their kingdom and returned, and so they became a people apart and should remain so. Yet if the Rohir became in some ways more like to us, enhanced in art and gentleness, we too have become more like to them, and do not now rightly claim the title High. We are become Middle Men, of the Shadow, but with memory of other things.

This was very largely retained, as emended, in the manuscript, but with these chief differences: 'they are come from those same Three Houses of Men as were the Numenoreans, from Hador the Goldenhaired, the Elf-friend maybe, but from such of their sons as went not over the Sea into the West, refusing the call';(24) there is no mention of the Lady of the Golden Wood; and 'the Middle People or the Men of the Shadows, such as the Rohiroth and others of their kindred in Dale and the upper waters of Anduin'.

The threefold division of the Elves here (lost in The Two Towers) is that introduced into the Quenta Silmarillion after the return of the manuscript from the publishers at the end of 1937 (see The Lost Road pp. 200, 219): the Elves of Valinor; the Lembi or Lingerers; and the Avari, the Unwilling.

The draft D 1, left on p. 155, continues through Faramir's reply to Sam's remark about the Elves, and this is of great interest. Though a good deal was retained in TT (pp. 287 - 8) I give it here in full. At the end the writing becomes very fast and the draft ends in scrawled notes.

Passages in square brackets are thus bracketed in the original.

'You don't say much in all your tales about the Elves, sir,*

said Sam, suddenly plucking up courage: he was rather in awe of Faramir since his encounter on his master's behalf.

'No, Master Samwise,' said Faramir, 'and there you touch upon another point in which we have changed, becoming more as other men. For (as you may know, if Mithrandir was your guest; and you have spoken with Elrond) the Numenoreans were elf-friends, and came of those men who aided the Gnomes in the first wars, and were rewarded by the gift of the kingdom in the midst of the Sea, within sight of Elvenhome whither the High Elves withdrew [written above: where the High Elves dwelt). But in the Great Lands (25) men and elves were estranged, by the arts of the Enemy [who had suborned most men (save only the Fathers of the Numenoreans) to his service] and by the slow changes of time in which each kind walked further down their sundered roads. Men fear and misdoubt the Elves, distinguishing not between the High-elves (that here and there remain) and those that like themselves never went over the Sea. And Elves mistrust men, who so often have served the Enemy. And we grow like other men, like the men even of Rohan who see them not if they pass (or persuade themselves that they do not see), and who speak of the Golden Wood in dread. Yet there are Elf-friends among us in Condor still, more than among any other people; for though the blood of Numenor is now run thin in Gondor, still it flows there, indeed even Elvish blood maybe: for our kings of old were half-elven, even our first king Elros son of Earendel and brother of Elrond.(26) And 'tis said that Elendil's house was a younger branch of Elros. Some there are of Gondor who have dealings with the Elves, some even still fare to the Golden Wood (though often they return not). One great advantage we have: we speak an elvish speech, or one so near akin that we can in part understand them and they us.'

'But you speak the ordinary language,' exclaimed Sam. 'Like as, or a bit old-fashioned like, if you'll pardon me saying so.'

'Yes,' said Faramir, 'we do, for that is our language. The Common Tongue, as some call it, is derived from the Numenorean, being a changed form of that speech of men which the fathers used, Beren and Turin and Earendel and those others.

[Hence its remote kinship with the tongues of Rohan and of Dale and of Westfold and Dunland and other places.] This language it is that has spread through the western world among all that are of good will, and among others also. But the lords of Numenor spoke the Gnomish tongue of the Noldor to whom they were allied, and that tongue, changed somewhat and mingled, still lives among us, though we do not commonly speak it. So it is that our earliest names were in the High Elvish Quendian, such as Elendil, Isildur, and the rest, but the names we have given to places, and still give to women and men, are of Elvish sort. Often we give them out of the old tales: so is Denethor, and Mablung, and many others.'

Here the draft D 1 peters out, and I return to D 2, left on p. 157, at the same point ('You don't say much in all your tales about the Elves, sir'). In his reply to Sam Faramir here says of the Elf-friends of the ancient wars of Beleriand that they 'were rewarded (such as would take it) by the gift of the Kingdom in the midst of the Sea, within sight of Elvenhome, which they had leave to visit.'(27) And he continues: 'But in the Great Lands Men and Elves were estranged in the days of Darkness ...' He no longer speaks of the men of Rohan being unable to see the Elves, or pretending to themselves that they do not see them if they do, but as in TT says only that they shun them; and he declares, again as in TT, that he would not himself go to Lothlorien, judging it

'perilous now for mortal men, at least to seek the Elder People wilfully.' But his answer to Sam's 'But you speak the ordinary language!

Same as us, though a bit old-fashioned like' was substantially changed:

'Of course we do,' said Faramir. 'For that is our own tongue which we perhaps preserve better than you do far in the North.

The Common Tongue, as some call it, is derived from the Numenoreans,(28) being but a form changed by time of that speech which the Fathers of the Three Houses [struck out: Hador and Haleth and Beor] spoke of old. This language it is that has spread through the western world amongst all folk and creatures that use words, to some only a second tongue for use in intercourse with strangers, to some the only tongue they know. But this is not an Elvish speech in my meaning. All speech of men in this world is Elvish in descent; but only if one go back to the beginnings. What I meant was so: [the lords >] many men of the Three Houses long ago gave up man-speech and spoke the tongue of their friends the Noldor or Gnomes:(29) a high-elvish tongue [struck out: akin to but changed from the Ancient Elvish of Elvenhome]. And always the lords of Numenor knew that tongue and used it among themselves. And so still do we among ourselves, those who have the blood of Numenor still in our veins, though mayhap we have changed it somewhat mingling it like our blood with other strains. Thus it is that all our names of town and field, hill and river are in that tongue, and the names of our women and of our men. [Struck out: Only in the oldest days did we use the High Ancient Elven for such purposes: of that sort are Elendil and Isildur.] Indeed many of these we still take from tales of the old days: such are Mablung and Damrod, and mine own,(30) and my father's Denethor, and many others.'

'Well sir, I am glad you don't think ill of Elves at any rate,'

said Sam. 'Wonderful folk, I think, sir. And the Lady of Lorien, Galadriel, you should see her, indeed you should, sir. I am only a hobbit, if you understand me, and gardening's my job at home ...'

This draft D 2 continues on through Sam's speech (essentially as in TT p. 288), his blurting out that Boromir always sought the Ring, and Faramir's response; but now in its turn it becomes quickly rougher and less formed (for its continuation beyond this point see p. 163) and was replaced by new drafting ('D 3') beginning at 'Indeed many of these we still take from tales of the ancient days ...'

In the text of the completed manuscript the draft D 2 just given was repeated with scarcely any change until towards the end. Faramir now says of the Elvish tongue spoken by the lords of Gondor that 'we can in part understand Elves [struck out: and they us] even when they speak to one another secretly', but all that he says in D 2 of the Common Tongue is repeated exactly as far as: 'All speech of men in this world is Elvish in descent; but only if one goes back to the beginnings.' The following sentence in D 2 ('What I meant was so: many men of the Three Houses long ago gave up man-speech and spoke the tongue of their friends the Noldor or Gnomes') was at first taken up in the manuscript, but struck out in the act of writing and replaced by the following (thus eliminating the reference to the abandonment of their own speech by the men of the Three Houses, see note 29):