The War of the Ring (30 page)

9. This line does not appear in the rewritings of the verse referred to at the end of note 7, but A sign shall be upholden is found there.

It may be that no such form of the verse was ever actually written.

The manuscript at first followed the draft, but was then changed to 'But the words said that the Halfling would hold up Isildur's Bane'. Halfling for Half-high entered by emendation to the second draft B: 'If you be the Half-high' > 'If you be the Halfling'.

10. The date of Boromir's death was 26 January (and in one of the time-schemes the hour of his death is stated to be 'noon'); it was now 6 February, eleven days later. (In the margin of the manuscript my father wrote 'twelve' beside 'eleven', which however was not struck out. This presumably depends on the chronology in time-scheme 'S', in which Boromir died on 25

January: see pp. 101, 142.) In The Tale of Years the corresponding dates are 26 February and 7 March, also eleven days later (February having 30 days). In the notes given on p. 146 Faramir and his men left Minas Tirith on 3 February, thus three days before; and both in the draft and in the manuscript he tells Frodo that no members of the Company had reached the city when he left it three days before (where TT has six days, p. 272). In The Tale of Years he left on 1 March, thus six days before.

11. A further isolated scrap of drafting may be noticed. It represents presumably unused words of Frodo's when he spoke to Faramir about the boats of Lothlorien: 'These boats are crafty and unlike those of other folk. They will not sink, not though they will be laden more than is their wont when you are all aboard. But they are wayward, and if mishandled' (the sentence ends here).

12. This apparently refers to a passage in 'Farewell to Lorien'. In the fair copy manuscript of that chapter Boromir's original words 'I have not myself been there' (referring to Fangorn) had become 'I have not myself ever crossed Rohan' (VII.282, 293 note 36). This was now changed on that manuscript to 'I have myself been seldom in Rohan, and have never crossed it northwards' (cf. FR

p. 390).

13. Rough drafting for this new placing of Sam's intervention is found. In this, rather oddly, Faramir's reply continues on into his astute guessing about Frodo's relationship with Boromir and about Isildur's Bane, and Frodo's quickly smothered desire to 'tell all to this kindly but just man'. In TT this passage, in much more developed form, does not arise until after they have begun their journey to Henneth Annun. However, this was clearly no more than a sketching of new elements in the dialogue; it was not a draft for the overhaul of all that had been achieved in the chapter thus far.

14. Cf. the beginning of the sketch given on p. 151. - The passage that precedes this in TT p. 276, from 'For me there is no comfort in our speech together' to 'But whatever befell on the North March, you, Frodo, I doubt no longer' (in which Faramir suggests that some of the Company are still alive, since who else can have arrayed Boromir in the funeral boat), did not enter till later (it was added to the first typescript of the chapter).

15. Various elements are lacking in the draft but are present in the manuscript: such are 'He wished this thing brought to Minas Tirith' (TT p. 278); and the passage concerning Gandalf (p. 279), from 'Are you sure of this' to 'He got leave of Denethor, how I do not know, to look at the secrets of our treasury' - where the draft text reads: '... so much lore be taken from the world. He had leave to look at the secrets of our treasury ...' The draft text has a few features lost in the manuscript: thus after 'There is a something, I know not what, an elvish air maybe, about you' (TT

p. 276) it continues: 'And that is not what I should look for, if old tales and rumours from afar told the whole truth concerning the little people.' This was rejected and replaced by: 'Some power greater than the stature of your kind', also rejected. And after

'unlike they were, and yet also much akin' (TT p. 280) the draft goes on: 'Faramir was doubtless of a different temper, but Frodo feared the power and treachery of the thing he bore: the greater and wiser the stronger the lure and the worse the fall.' With this cf. the sketch given on p. 152.

16. Great Lands: this survival of old usage remains at this place in The Two Towers (p. 286), its only occurrence in The Lord of the Rings. At a subsequent occurrence of Great Lands in this chapter (p. 158) TT has Middle-earth (p. 288), suggesting that its appearance in the first passage was an oversight.

17. White Mountains: White was added, but almost certainly as the text was in progress. Cf. the notes given on p. 137: 'Change Black Mountains to the White Mountains'.

18. The writing of the name Elenarda is perfectly clear and unam-biguous, and it was not struck out when Kalen(arda) was written above it (but see p. 156 and note 22). It is strange to find it applied to Rohan; for this old mythological word derives from the conception of the three 'airs' in the cosmology expounded in the Ambarkanta. There it is translated 'Stellar Kingdom', and is another name for the middle region of Ilmen, in which move the Sun, the Moon, and the stars (see IV.240 - 3, 253). - On the name Rohir in the preceding sentence see p. 22 and note 24.

19. Hebel Nimrath was the name of the White Mountains written in the manuscript, subsequently changed to Ered Nimras. With these names cf. those given in the notes on p. 137.

20. In the manuscript Faramir says, as in TT (p. 286), 'But the stewards were wiser and more fortunate.' The Stewards of Gondor, ruling in Minas Tirith after the death of the last and childless king of the line of Anarion, have appeared already in the earlier part of the dialogue of Frodo and Faramir (p. 153). In the manuscript Faramir's balance of phrases ('wiser and more fortunate; wiser ..., more fortunate ...') was preserved ('more fortunate, for our most dangerous foes became our friends'); by alteration of the text here at a later time this was lost in TT.

21. Rohiroth: see p. 22. In the first of these drafts (D 1) the form is '

Rohir (note 18); in the present draft (D 2) both Rohir and Rohiroth are found in close proximity. In the manuscript the form is Rohiroth.

22. In the manuscript my father wrote Kalin, striking it out at once and writing Calenardan, then altering this to Calenardhon, all these changes being made in the act of writing. See note 18.

23. The difference between these formulations is evidently that in the rejected version the relationship is between the Noldor (such as Galadriel) who remained after the overthrow of Morgoth and those who departed and went to Tol Eressea; whereas in the second version the relationship is between the Noldor who remained and the Elves who never went to Valinor (such as the Elves of Lothlorien). - Cf. the passage in the chapter 'Galadriel'

in VII.248, with note 12.

24. In TT (p. 287) the reading is 'not from Hador the Goldenhaired, the Elf-friend, maybe ...' This not was inserted by my father on a late typescript of the chapter; it was put in very hurriedly, and it seems to me possible that he read the sentence differently from his original meaning - which was certainly 'They may be descended from Hador indeed, but if so, then of course from those of Hador's descendants who did not pass over the Sea.' - In the manuscript 'such of their sons' was later emended to 'such of his people', and this seems to have been misinterpreted by the typist as 'such of his sons and people'.

It may be noted here that at the same time as this correction to the manuscript the words 'they became a people apart and should remain so' were changed to 'and should have remained so'.

25. Great Lands: here TT has Middle-earth; see note 16.

26. This sentence was apparently evolved thus: 'even Earendel our first king and Elros brother [sc. of Elrond]' > 'even our first king Elros son of Earendel and brother of Elrond'. See p. 155.

27. It was explicit from the beginning that the Numenoreans were expressly forbidden by the Gods to sail westward beyond the Lonely Isle (see the original outline and the original versions of The Fall of Numenor in The Lost Road, pp. 11, 14, 26).

Elvenhome here means the Lonely Isle: for that isle lay in the Bay of Elvenhome (cf. The Lost Road p. 103: 'the Isle of Eressea in Elvenhome'); and this is the meaning also in the same passage in TT (p. 288), where the words 'within sight of Elvenhome' are retained - cf. the passage in the Akallabeth (The Silmarillion, pp. 262 - 3) where the remote vision from Numenor of Avallone, haven of Eressea, is described. This is made certain, apart from any other considerations, by the passage given on p. 164.

28. The word Numenorean(s) is variously marked, with an accent on the first syllable or on the third, or no accent. Here the word is written Numenoreans, and I have extended this throughout.

29. Cf. the later Annals of Beleriand in The Lost Road, p. 131: the folk of Hador abandoned their own tongue and spoke with the speech of the Gnomes'; also the Lhammas $ 10, ibid. p. 179.

30. The name Faramir does not appear in any earlier writing.

31. By later pencilled correction of the manuscript Faramir's words were changed so that the reference is only to Noldorin: 'many men of the Three Houses long ago learned the High-elven tongue of the Noldor, as it was spoken in Gondolin or by the Sons of Feanor. And always the Lords of Numenor knew that tongue, and used it among themselves.'

32. On the removal of the history of Pipe-weed from the text see pp.

36-9.

33. With these remarks of Sam's cf. the initial sketch given on p. 152:

'Sam speaks of elvish power, boats, ropes, cloaks.' This was written before the entry of Faramir's account of language (the cause of its loss from the chapter in The Two Towers).

34. In neither of the draft versions of Sam's words about Galadriel does Faramir interject: 'Then she must be lovely indeed. Perilously fair', leading (in the manuscript, and in TT) to Sam's consideration of the justice of the word perilous as applied to Galadriel; but in both drafts Sam nonetheless says 'I don't know about perilous', and makes the same observations. At this stage he was referring back to Faramir's earlier 'I deem it perilous now for mortal men, at least to seek the Elder People wilfully' (p. 159).

35. In this draft (D 2) Sam's gaffe is preceded by the same words as in TT (p. 289), but he ends: 'and it's my opinion as soon as he first heard of it he wanted the Ring.' Thus he does not refer to Lorien as the place where Boromir (in the words of the final draft, D 3)

'first saw himself clear, and saw what I saw sooner'.

36. The man who saw Gollum was first named Falborn in the manuscript, later altered to Anborn (this change was actually made in the course of the initial drafting of 'The Forbidden Pool'). In draft and manuscript of 'Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit'

(p. 136) Anborn was the father of Falborn leader of the men of Gondor in Ithilien, who became Faramir.

37. On Elvenhome here (Tol Eressea) see note 27. The manuscript has the final text (TT p. 285): '... towards Numenor that was, and beyond to Elvenhome that is, and to that which is beyond Elvenhome and will ever be.' Cf. Letters no. 211, footnote to p. 281, where the words 'that which is beyond Elvenhome and ever will be' [sic] are interpreted as 'is beyond the mortal lands, beyond the memory of unfallen Bliss, beyond the physical world.'

VI.

THE FORBIDDEN POOL.

The 'fourth new chapter ("Faramir")' had been read to C. S. Lewis and Charles Williams on 8 May 1944 (see p. 144) - fourth, because

'The Black Gate is Closed' and 'Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit' had not yet been separated (see p. 164, notes 1 and 2). On 11 May my father wrote (Letters no. 67) that another chapter was in progress, 'leading to disaster at Kirith Ungol where Frodo is captured. Story then switches back to Gondor, & runs fairly swiftly (I hope) to denouement.' On the following day (Letters no. 68) he said that 'we are now in sight of Minas Morghul'; and he also quoted Faramir's words to Frodo: When you return to the lands of the living,(1) and we re-tell our tales, sitting by a wall in the sun, laughing at old grief, you shall tell me then.' In The Two Towers these words stand just before the end of

'The Forbidden Pool'. On the morning of 15 May 1944 (Letters no.

69) he read his '6th new chapter "Journey to the Cross Roads" ' to C. S. Lewis.

Initial drafting for what became 'The Forbidden Pool' runs on continuously into what became 'Journey to the Cross-Roads', and in.

the completed fair copy manuscript likewise the two chapters are one, titled 'XXXVII. Journey to the Cross Roads'; the latter title and chapter-break were inserted into the manuscript later, when the first part became 'The Forbidden Pool'.(2) Since my father would not have called his 'new chapter' 'Journey to the Cross Roads' if Frodo, Sam and Gollum did not get there in the course of it, I conclude that this was where they were, beside the broken statue in the ring of trees, when he read his '6th new chapter' to Lewis on the 15th of May (by this time, presumably, he had divided 'Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit'

from 'The Black Gate is Closed', so making 'Faramir' the fifth). In his letter recording this (no. 69) he went on: 'So far it has gone well: but I am now coming to the nub, when the threads must be gathered and the times synchronized and the narrative interwoven; while the whole thing has grown so large in significance that the sketches of concluding chapters (written ages ago) are quite inadequate, being on a more