The War of the Ring (55 page)

Merry looked at this strange line of stones and wondered what they could be. He

Eowyn says Aragorn has gone by the Paths of the Dead.

The huts and pavilions of the hold.

To the king's pavilion come the messengers of Gondor.

The king promises 7 thousand horse to ride as soon as may be. At same [time] messengers come from Eastemnet saying that an orc-host has crossed the river, below the Limlight.

It is a gloomy evening repast.

The morning is dull and overcast, and gets darker.

On this page, which is reproduced on p. 314, are two rapid pencilled sketches which amply illustrate the final conception of Harrowdale and Dunharrow.

It is to be remembered that at this time the further story of Aragorn and the Grey Company, their coming to Dunharrow and their entering the Gate of the Dead, was not present in the narrative: the present passage was to be the first account of the Dwimorberg, the Firienfeld, the line of standing stones, the Dimholt, and the great monolith before the Dark Door. When afterwards the structure of the narrative was changed my father largely retained this description in the chapter 'The Muster of Rohan' (RK pp. 67 - 8): he treated the coming of the Grey Company to Dunharrow two nights before the arrival of Theoden in a single sentence ('they passed up the valley, and so came to Dunharrow as darkness fell', RK p. 56), and said almost nothing of the scene -

they 'sat at supper' with Eowyn, 'as Aragorn came to the booth where he was to lodge with Legolas and Gimli, and his companions had gone in, there came the Lady Eowyn after him and called to him', and that is all. The approach of the Company to the Dark Door next morning is described with a mysterious brevity: the double line of standing stones across the Firienfeld is mentioned cursorily, as if their existence were already known to the reader: 'A dread fell on them, even as they passed between the lines of ancient stones and so came to the Dimholt'

(RK p. 59).

The text J was followed by another, 'K', beginning at the same point ('Harrowdale at last!'); this was clearly written in ink as far as the point where Eowyn says to Theoden: 'And your pavilion is prepared for you, lord, for I have had full tidings of you' (cf. RK p. 68). In this text the description of the Firienfeld runs as follows (the passage here set between asterisks was rejected, but is not marked in any way in the manuscript):

The Firienfeld men called it, a green mountain-field of grass and heath, high above the deep-delved valley [> course of the Snowbourn], on the Jap of the great mountains behind: the Starkhorn southwards to the right, and [westward in front >]

northward to the left the many-peaked mass of Irensaga Ironsaw, between which there faced them, darkly frowning, the grim black wall of Dwimorberg, rising out of thick slopes of sombre pines.* [Towards these woods o] Across the wide field there marched, from the brink of the stair to the dark edge of (Starkhorn, Dwimorberg and Irensaga.)

the woods, a double line of standing stones, worn and black.

Some leaning, some fallen, some cracked or broken, they looked like rows of old and hungry teeth. Where they entered the wood there was a [dark opening >] way in the trees: just within dimly to be seen was a tall standing pillar and beyond it the dark opening of a cavern or great door. Dividing the upland into two chere marched a double line of standing stones that dwindled in the dusk and vanished into the trees. Those who followed that road came to a dark clearing amid the sighing gloom of the Firienholt,(4) and there like a shadow stood a single pillar of stone, and beyond a huge doorway in the side of the black cliff. Signs and figures were set about it that none could read, worn by the years and shrouded from the light.(5) In long memory none had dared to pass that door. Such was the dark Dunharrow, the work of long-forgotten men....

The text then continues very close indeed to RK (p. 68), ending with Eowyn's words to Theoden 'I have had full tidings of you', which do not stand at the foot of a page. The next words, '"So Aragorn has come," said Eomer' (RK p. 69), stand at the head of a new page, and there follows a manuscript pencilled in my father's most impossible handwriting, effectively indecipherable except insofar as later versions provide clues - as is however largely the case here. This further text can be regarded as a continuation of K. It carries the narrative of 'The Muster of Rohan' as far as the conclusion of Theoden's words with the errand-rider of Gondor, RK p. 73; and while it is naturally rough and hasty in expression, and would be greatly refined, the story was effectively present from the first. The following passage, however, I cite in full, following Eomer's words (cf. RK p. 70) 'For the road we have climbed is the approach to the Door. Yonder is the Firienholt.

But what lies beyond no man knows.' For the earliest reference to the old man of Dunharrow see the notes ('E') given on p. 242.

'Only legend of old days has any report to make,' said Theoden. 'But if these ancient tales are to be believed, then the Door [?in] Dwimorberg leads to a secret way that goes under the mountains. But none have dared ever to explore it since Baldor son of Bregu dared to pass the Door, and came never back. Folk say that Dead Men out of ... Years guard the way and will suffer none to come to their secret halls. But at whiles they may be seen [?rush)ing out like shadows and down the Stony Road. Then the men of Harrowdale shut fast their doors and shroud their windows and are afraid. But seldom do the Dead come forth, and only at times of great peril.'

'Yet it is said in Harrowdale,' said Eowyn quietly, 'that they came forth in the moonless nights [? just past].'

'But why has Aragorn gone that way?' said Merry.

'Unless he has spoken to you his friend, then you have heard as much as we,' said Eowyn. 'But I thought that he had changed much since I saw him in Meduseld.(6) Fey he seemed to me, and as one that the Dead call.'

'Maybe,' said Theoden. 'Yet my heart tells me that he is a kingly man of high destiny. And take comfort in this, daughter, since comfort you seem to need in your grief for this passing guest. It is said that when the Eorlingas came first out of the North and passed up the Snowbourn seeking strong places of refuge in time of need, that Bregu and his son Baldor climbed the Stair of the Hold and [?passed] to the Door; and there there sat an old man aged beyond count of years, withered as old stone. Very like to the Pukel-men he was as he sat upon the threshold of the dark Door.

'Nothing he said until they sought to pass him and enter, and then a voice came out of him as if it were out of a stone, and to their amazement it spoke in their own tongue. The way is shut.

'Then they halted and looked at the old man whom [?the king] had at first taken for [??an image] such as stood at the turnings of the Stair. But he did not look at them. The way is shut the voice said again. It was made by those who are Dead and (?? for j the Dead [??to] keep until the time comes.

'And when will that be? said Baldor.

'But no answer did he ever get. For the old man died in that hour and fell upon his face, and no other [??words] of the ancient dwellers in the mountains did [?our] folk ever learn. Yet maybe the time has come and Aragorn will pass.'

'And whether the time is [?come] or no,' said Eomer, 'none can discover save by daring the door. A [?true]-hearted man was Aragorn, and still against hope I hope to see his face once again.

Yet our roads lie' And then he paused, for there was a noise without of men's voices and the challenges of the king's guard.

Then Dunhere entered and announced the coming of the messenger (or messengers)(7) of Gondor. In his opening words Dirgon, as he is called here (Hirgon in RK), says: 'Often you have aided us, but now the Lord Denethor begs for all your strength, and all your speed, lest Gondor fall. Then would the tide sweep over the fields of Calenardon.'(8) From Theoden's words 'And yet he knows that we are a scattered people and take time to gather in our riders' the text runs far more briefly than in RK to the end of his speech with the messenger.

Dirgon does not speak again, and Theoden refers only, and briefly, to the war with Saruman and the lesser number of Riders that he can send; concluding 'Yet all is more advanced than I hoped. We may ride on the [?third] day from now.'

A further pencilled text ('L'), as fearsomely scrawled as K or worse, takes up after a short gap for which there is no drafting with Merry's words, I will not be left behind to be called for on return (RK p. 73).

It is curious that this text is headed 'XLVI' (without title), whereas the typescript M, obviously developed from L, includes this story of the departure of the Riders from Harrowdale as the conclusion of 'XLV: Many Roads lead Eastward'. I can only suppose that my father briefly intended to begin a new chapter with Merry's words, but thought better of it.

The opening of the text L is very close to RK pp. 73 - 5. The darkness that has spread out of the East and reached far into the western sky is described in the same words; the first messenger from Gondor is now named Hirgon, and the second (never named) is present - but this latter says of the darkness only: 'It comes from Mordor, lord. It began last night at sunset, and now the great cloud lies on all the [?land]

between here and the Mountains of Shadow, and it is deepening. By the fire-signals war has already begun.' To this Theoden replies: 'Then the die is cast. There is no longer need or profit in hiding. We will muster at once and wait not. Those who are not here must be left behind or follow....'

Merry's story at this point was somewhat different from its form in RK. After his expostulation to Theoden ('Then tie me on to one, or let me hang on a stirrup ...') the text, hurled onto the paper, continues: Theoden smiled. 'You shall ride before me on Snowmane

[?rather than wander in the plains] of Rohan. Go now and see what the armourers have prepared for you.'

'It was the only request that Aragorn made,' said Eowyn.

'And it has been granted.'

With that she led him from the pavilion to a booth at some distance among the lodgings of the king's guard, and there a man brought out to her a small helm and a coat of mail and a shield like to the one that had been given to Gimli.(9) No mail we had to fit you nor time to forge a hauberk for you,'(10) she said,

'but here is a short jerkin of leather and a shield and a [?short]

spear. Take them and bear them to good fortune. But now I have ....... to look to. Farewell. But we shall meet again, my heart foretells, thou and I, Meriadoc.'

So it was that amid the gathering gloom the King of the Mark set out. Not many hours had passed, and now in the half-light beside the grey rush of the Snowbourn he sat proudly on his white horse, and five [and] fifty hundreds of Riders, besides men ..... with spare horses bearing light burdens, [?were ranged]. They [?were to ride down] to Edoras and [?thence out and away] along the well-beaten road eastward, pass along the skirts of the hill[s] to [?Anorien] and the walls of Minas Tirith.

Merry sat on his pony that was to bear him down the [?stony]

valley, and after that he was to ride with the king or some other of his company.

A trumpet sang. The king raised his hand, and without any sound of voice, silently, without shout or song, the great ride began. The king passed along the lines followed by Merry and Eomer and the errand-riders of Gondor and Dunhere, and then his guard of twelve picked spearmen. To Eowyn he had said farewell above in the Hold.

It is clear, from Theoden's 'You shall ride before me on Snowmane rather than wander in the plains of Rohan. Go now and see what the armourers have prepared for you', and from the words 'Merry sat on his pony that was to bear him down the stony valley, and after that he was to ride with the king or some other of his company', that at this stage Merry was to go with the Rohirrim to Minas Tirith openly, with the concurrence of Theoden, and without any assistance from Eowyn.

This does not mean, of course, that Eowyn was not present among the Riders in disguise, although no covert reference is made to her in this original account of the departure from Harrowdale; and indeed her death before Minas Tirith had been long foreseen (see VII.448; also the outline given on p. 256 and especially that on p. 275). In any case, a further draft for the story of the departure follows in text L: First there went twelve of the king's household-men [?and]

guard, picked spearmen. Tall and stern they looked to Merry, and one among them, less tall and broad than the others, glanced at the hobbit as he passed, and Merry caught the glint of clear grey eyes. He shivered a little, for it seemed to him that the face was of one that goes knowingly to death. The king followed with Eomer on his right and Dunhere on his left. He had said farewell to Eowyn above in the Hold. Merry followed with the errand-riders of Gondor and behind went twelve more of the guard. Then in [?ordered] lines the companies of the riders turned and rode after them as was appointed. They passed down the road beside the Snowbourn, and through the hamlets of Upbourn and Underharrow where many sad faces looked from dark doors. And so the great ride to the East began, with which the songs of Rohan were busy for many lives of men thereafter.