The War of the Ring (34 page)

Two additions were made at the time of writing to the text on this page, the first directed to this point by an arrow: 'Lament see 5c'. This is a reference to the previous outline story, where the words 'Then he sat and made a Lament for Frodo' (p. 185) appear on a page numbered '5 continued'. The other addition is conveniently given here, since it is needed to explain the narrative immediately following: Orcs have captured Gollum - all his little plan of getting Frodo tied up by spiders has gone [? wrong]. They are driving Gollum.

The text continues:

Noise of [?approaching] Orc-laughter. Down out of a cleft Gollum leading comes a band of black orcs. Desperate Sam draws off the ring from Frodo's neck and takes it. He could not unclasp it or cut the chain so he slipped it over Frodo's neck and put it on. As he did so he stumbled forward, it was as if a great stone had been suddenly strung about his neck. At that moment up come orcs. Sam slips on Ring.

Frodo cries - or is Sam's motive simply that [?wishing] to bury Frodo: he won't see Frodo's body carried off. Also wanting to get at Gollum.

To clarify the syntax of the sentence beginning 'Frodo cries' the word wishing (?) might be read as wishes (sc. 'he wishes'), or of might be understood before wishing; but even so my father's thought is most elliptically expressed and difficult to follow. However, since immediately beneath these last two sentences he drew lines on the manuscript, implying that the story just sketched was about to be modified, I think that an interpretation on these lines may be correct.

'Frodo cries' is to be understood in relation to the earlier outline (p. 186): when the Orcs take Frodo he 'seems to awake, and gives a loud cry'. The following words ('or is Sam's motive...') show my father breaking off altogether, and questioning the rightness of what he had just outlined: perhaps this story of Sam's taking the Ring from Frodo because of the approaching Orcs was wrong. Perhaps Sam's only

'motive' (meaning his only purpose, or desire) at this juncture was not to leave Frodo simply lying where he fell (cf. the previous outline, p. 185: He could not leave his dear master lying in the wild for the fell beasts and carrion birds; and he thought he would try and build a cairn of stones about him') - and his desire to take revenge on Gollum.

I think that some such interpretation is borne out by the revised story that immediately follows.

Make Sam sit long by Frodo all through night. Hold phial up and see him elvish-fair. Torn by not knowing what to do. He lays Frodo out, and folds his hands. Mithril coat. Phial in his hand. Sting at side.

Tries to go on and finish job. Can't force himself to. How to die [?soon]. Thinks of jumping over brink. But might as well try to do something. Crack of Doom? Reluctantly as it seems a theft in a way he takes Ring. Goes forward on the path in a violent sorrow and despair. [In margin: Red dawn.] But cannot drag himself away from Frodo. Turns back - resolved to lie down by Frodo till death comes. Then he sees Gollum come and paw him. He gives a start and runs back. But orcs come out and Gollum bolts. Orcs pick up Frodo and carry him off. Sam plods after them. Sam puts on ring! It seems to have grown in might and power. It weighs down his hand. But he can see with terrible clearness - even through the rocks. He can see every crevice filled with spiders. He can understand orc speech. But the ring does not confer courage on Sam.

It seems they had been warned for special vigilance. Some spy of more than usual importance could try to get in somehow. If any were caught messenger to be [?sent]. Phial taken. Sam follows up a long stair to the tower. He can see all plain below.

The Black Gate and Ithilien and Gorgoroth and Mt. Doom.

Here this outline ends. As revised in the course of its composition, the story now stood thus in its essential structure:

- They enter a tunnel, which halfway through is blocked with webs. Frodo shears the webs with Sting.

- At the end of the tunnel they come to a long stair. (Description of the spiders, which are well known to Gollum.)

- At the top of the stair they see the tower; and find that Gollum has disappeared.

- Frodo goes ahead; Sam behind sees spiders coming and cries out to Frodo, but at that moment is grappled by Gollum from behind.

Sam fights him off, and Gollum escapes.

- Sam finds Frodo dead, as he thinks, stung by spiders. He seizes Sting and drives them off; he sits by Frodo all night; puts the phial in his hand and Sting beside him.

- He thinks that he must himself attempt Frodo's task, takes the Ring and sets off.

- But he cannot do this, and turns back; he sees Gollum come out and paw at Frodo, but as he runs back Orcs come and Gollum flees.

- The Orcs pick up Frodo and carry him off.

- Sam puts on the Ring, and follows the Orcs up a stair to the tower.

Comparison of this outline with the old one shows that the new narrative was a development from it, and by no means an entirely fresh start; here and there even the wording was preserved. The single Great Spider had not yet emerged. But (considered simply as a step-by-step structure) it was already transformed, partly through the wholly different conception of the pass of Kirith Ungol, partly through the changed view of Gollum's role; and even as the new outline was set on paper his role was changed further. At first the Orcs were guided to the spot by Gollum, though he was forced to do so, his own nefarious plan being entirely based on the spiders; but by the time my father had reached the end of it he had decided that Gollum had in fact no traffic whatsoever with the Orcs.

The idea that the tunnel was barred by great webs is present, but since Frodo was able to cut a way through with Sting their presence does not affect the actual evolution of the plot. The words 'Gollum refuses to say what they are' suggest that they entered the story as the explanation of what Gollum's 'little plan' had actually been: and that, I take it, was that Frodo and Sam should be entrapped in the tunnel and so delivered to the spiders. But he had not envisaged that Frodo's elvish blade would be able to cut the strands.

The important element now enters that Frodo went ahead when they issued from the tunnel (and thus Sam had become separated from him when he was attacked by the spiders), although no explanation of this is given.

A very notable feature of this outline is that Sam's clarity of vision when he wears the Ring is not merely retained from the old plot ('The Ring seems to grow in power in this region: he sees clearly in the dark', p. 186), but is greatly increased: he can even see through the rocks; in TT (p. 343), on the other hand, 'all things about him now were not dark but vague; while he himself was there in a grey hazy world, alone, like a small black solid rock'. On this question see VII.373 - 4, 380 - 1; and for the further development of this element (the effect of the Ring on Sam's senses) see pp. 212, 214.

The fair copy manuscript was built up in stages. From the beginning of the chapter 'The Stairs of Kirith Ungol', as far as 'Frodo felt his senses reeling, his limbs weakening' (cf. TT p. 313), it was developed from the original draft (p. 186) and virtually attained the form in TT; but from this point my father briefly returned to his frustrating practice of erasing his pencilled draft and writing the fair copy on the pages where it had stood. This only extends for a couple of pages, however, and some words and phrases escaped erasure; while on the third page the draft was not erased but overwritten, and here much of the original text can be read. This carries the narrative to the point (TT

p. 317) where the host out of Minas Morghul had disappeared down the westward road and Sam urged Frodo to rouse himself; and there is no reason whatever to think that the lost pages of the draft were other than a more roughly expressed version of the final narrative.(6) But from this point (where the pencilled draft reads: 'Frodo rose, grasping his staff in one hand and the phial in the other. Then he saw that a faint light was welling through his fingers and he thrust it in his bosom') the original narrative diverged, and was followed in the fair copy manuscript (where it was subsequently replaced by the later story). This first form of the fully-written story may be called 'Version 1'. The textual situation at this point is odd and perplexing, but it is sufficient to say here that the opening of this section (of no great length) is lost, both in draft and fair copy, and the story only takes up again with the strange smell that the hobbits could not identify (cf.

'Shelob's Lair' in TT, p. 326).(7)

I feel certain that the lost lines carried an account of the climbing of the first stair, leading to an opening in the rock which was the mouth of the tunnel, from which the strange smell came (whereas in TT the text at this point tells how after the passage of the ledge the path came to 'a narrow opening in the rock' which was the entry to the high-walled first stair). My father still had in mind the series described in the draft text of 'The Black Gate is Closed' (p. 124), where Gollum says 'a stair and path, and then a tunnel, and then more stairs and then a cleft high above the main pass', and again in the following outline (p.

125), where they 'pass up first stair safely. But tunnel is black with webs of spiders.... force way and get up second stair.' And again, in the original draft for 'The Stairs of Kirith Ungol' (p. 186), when they began to climb up from the valley they came to 'steps'. Further evidence in support of this will appear shortly.

After the obliterated lines the original story continues thus.

... a strange odour came out of it - not the odour of decay in the valley below, an odour that the hobbits did not recognize, a repellent taint on the air.(8)

Resigning themselves to fear they passed inside. It was altogether lightless. After some little time Sam suddenly tumbled into Gollum ahead of him and Frodo against Sam. 'What's up now?' said Sam. 'Brought us to a dead end, have you?' 'Dead end - that's good,' he muttered. 'It about describes it.' 'What's up, you old villain?' Gollum did not answer him.

Sam pushed him aside and thrust forward, only to meet something that yielded but would not give way, soft, unseen and strong as if the darkness could be felt. 'Something's across the path,' he said. 'Some trap or something. What's to be done? If this old villain knows about it, as I bet he does, why won't he speak?'

'Because he doesn't know,* hissed Gollum. 'He's thinking. We didn't expect to find this here, did we precious? No, of course not. We wants to get out, of course we does, yes, yes.'

'Stand back,' said Frodo, and then suddenly drawing his hand from his bosom he held aloft the phial of Galadriel. For a moment it flickered, like a star struggling through the mists of Earth, then as fear left him it began to burn (9) with dazzling silver light, as if Earendel himself had come down from the sunset paths with the Silmaril upon his brow. Gollum cowered away from the light, which for some reason seemed to fill him with fear.

Frodo drew his sword, and Sting leapt out. The bright rays of the star-glass sparkled upon the blade, but on its edges ran an ominous blue fire - to which at that time Frodo nor Sam gave heed.

'Version 1' in the fair copy manuscript stops here, at the foot of a page, the remainder having been taken out of it when rejected and replaced.(10) The next page of 'Version 1' is preserved, however,. it was separated from the other 'Kirith Ungol' papers many years ago, and is now in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, among other illustrations to The Lord of the Rings - for the verso of the page, in addition to text, bears a picture of the ascent to Kirith Ungol. This was reproduced in Pictures by J. R. R. Tolkien (no. 28, 'Shelob's Lair'), and is reproduced again in this book (first frontispiece). That the recto of the page is the continuation of the text from the point reached is assured both by the page-number '[6]', following '[5]' in the fair copy manuscript, and by internal association, notably Sam's words when he sees that they are confronted by spiders' webs: 'Why didn't you speak, Gollum?' (cf. his words on the preceding page: 'Something's across the path... If this old villain knows about it, as I bet he does, why won't he speak?'). The recto reads thus:

Before them was a greyness which the light did not penetrate.

Dull and heavy it absorbed the light. Across the whole width of the tunnel from floor to floor and side to side were .... (11) webs. Orderly as the webs of spiders, but far greater: each thread as thick as a great cord.

Sam laughed grimly when he saw them. 'Cobwebs,' he said.

'Is that all! Why didn't you speak, Gollum? But I might have guessed for myself! Cobwebs! Mighty big ones, but we'll get at them.' He drew his sword and hewed, but the thread that he struck did not break, it yielded and then sprang back like a bowstring, turning the blade and tossing his sword and arm backward. Three times Sam struck, and at last one thread snapped, twisting and curling, whipping about like a snapped harpstring. As an end lashed Sam's hand and stung like a whip.