The War of the Ring (60 page)

16. This appears from a note written on a slip in which the existing opening of the chapter (see p. 325) was rewritten. In this revision was introduced the fact of Berithil's having just returned from an errand over the Pelennor 'to Bered Ondrath, the guard-towers upon the entrance of the causeway'. This name was subsequently lost.

17. I notice here two features in which the narrative differed from that in RK, and a few other details. The account of Prince Imrahil's bringing Faramir to Denethor in the White Tower, and the light seen flickering in the high chamber (RK pp. 94 - 5), is absent not only from the initial draft but also from the fair copy D; and the last men to come into the City before the Gate was shut (RK p. 95), reporting the 'endless companies of men of a new sort' who held the northward road or had gone on into Anorien, are not said to be led by Ingold in the draft.

In both draft and tair copy the 'wild Southron men' of RK (p.

95) are 'wild eastlanders'. The wall of the Pelennor is still called Ramas Coren in both texts where RK has 'the Rammas' (p. 95), with '(? Corramas)' added at the time of writing. In the sentence (RK p. 94) 'And in his arms before him on his horse he [the Prince] bore the body of his kinsman, Faramir son of Denethor' a word is written above 'kinsman' in the draft text which looks like

'cousin'; this seems to have been struck through. The genealogy of the house of Dol Amroth is found in LR, Appendix A (I, iv): Denethor married (late) Finduilas daughter of Adrahil of Dol Amroth. Elsewhere it is recorded (see Unfinished Tales p. 248) that Adrahil was the father of Imrahil, so that Imrahil (brother of Finduilas) was Faramir's uncle.

18. This is curious, because in the D manuscript as written (when it was Faramir who imposed his own will on the council in his demand to lead a force to Osgiliath) Denethor (as reported) spoke no harsh words to Faramir, and indeed bade him farewell with the words 'may your judgement prove just: at least so much that I may see you again' (p. 333). This may suggest that the later version of this episode was already in being, in which Denethor says: 'But I will not yield the River and the fields of the Pelennor unfought - not if there is a captain that will do my will, and quail not' (cf. RK p. 90).

19. The handwriting here is such that many words could not be interpreted at all in isolation, without context or other clues, but

'save only for the light of his pale eyes' seems tolerably clear. Cf.

p. 365.

20. See note 18.

21. The name Rath Dinen appears on the plan of the city reproduced on p. 290 from the first typescript of the chapter 'Minas Tirith', where however the conception of it was decisively different.

22. Other names are written beside this rider: Fenn Forn the Closed poor, Fenn uiforn the Ever Closed, also Uidavnen and the word davnan.

23. These words, slightly changed, were afterwards spoken by Gandalf to Pippin at the beginning of the chapter 'The Pyre of Denethor' (RK p. 126).

Note on the Chronology.

The new 'calendar' (i.e. with dates in March instead of February, see p. 325) can be equated with the old from the date of the first day of the Darkness, Pippin's second day in Minas Tirith, which had been February 7 and is now March 9. I presume that my father calculated this on the basis that all months now had thirty days. Thus proceeding

',; from 26 December = 26 January, the day of Frodo's flight (see VII.368), there are the following equations: December 31 = February 1; January 1 = February 2; January 29 = February 30; January 30 =

March 1; January 31 = March 2; February 1 = March 3.

The chronology, however, is still not that of LR (see The Tale of Years). At this stage Faramir says (on 9 March) that he had parted with Frodo and Sam at Henneth Annun on the morning of the previous day ('in the morning two days ago', RK p. 85), and he says that the Darkness began to come over that night ('yestereve', RK). The relation between the two chronologies can be set out thus: The present chronology. The chronology in LR.

March 7 Frodo taken by Faramir to

Henneth Annun.

March 8 Frodo leaves Henneth

Annun.

Gandalf reaches Minas

Tirith.

Frodo taken by Faramir to

Henneth Annun.

Frodo leaves Henneth

Annun.

March 9. The Dawnless Day. Gandalf reaches Minas Faramir rescued on the Tirith.

Pelennor.

Frodo reaches the Cross-

roads.

March 10. Faramir goes to Osgiliath. The Dawnless Day.

Faramir rescued on the

Pelennor.

Frodo reaches the Cross-

roads.

March 11. Faramir retreats to the Faramir goes to Osgiliath.

Causeway Forts.

Thus the horns of the Rohirrim are heard at cockcrow on March 14

in the chronology of the present texts, but on March 15 in LR. At this stage Frodo still takes two days, not three, from Henneth Annun to the Cross-roads (see p. 182), and Gandalf takes three nights, not four, from Dol Baran to Minas Tirith (see p. 264 note 3).

Gandalf, speaking to Pippin on the night of 9 March, reckons that it was now four days since Sauron discovered 'that we had thrown down Saruman - and had the Stone' (note 9), whereas in RK (p. 88), on 10 March, he reckons the time as five days. He is referring to 5 March (= February 3), and the difference is again due to the longer time taken on his ride.

VII.

THE RIDE OF THE ROHIRRIM.

p, single manuscript page ('A') gives an outline for the narrative of this chapter. It was written in ink over a pencilled text - which at this stage had again and unhappily become my father's frequent method of composition. The figures introducing each paragraph are of course the dates in the month of March.

(9) Theoden leaves Dunharrow on 9th. He rides 25 miles to Edoras. After a halt there and reviewing the garrison he sets out East. At first they go slow to conserve strength. Merry is given leave to go to war, and is assigned to ride with one of the king's guard: the one who seems young and light and so less burden to his steed. He is silent and never speaks. They halt not far from where the Snowbourn runs into Entwash 25 miles from Edoras

- they bivouac in dense willow-thickets.

(10) They ride steadily and halt now nearly 100 miles from Edoras.

(11) They ride again. When 125 miles out about midday fugitives and late joining riders bring news of attacks in North, and of forces crossing above Sarn Gebir (1) into the Wold of Rohan. Theoden decides that he has left sufficient garrison (or all possible) in his strong places, and must ride on: soon the marshes of Entwash mouth will cover his flank. They cross into Anorien (of Gondor) and camp under Halifirien (160 [miles]).

Mysterious drums are heard in the woods and hills. Theoden resolves to ride warily, and sends out scouts.

(12) They halt some 230 miles on at dusk (64 miles or a day's ride from Pelennor). They camp in the skirts of the Forest of Eilenach out of which rises Eilenach Beacon. Scouts return with the errand-riders of Minas Tirith (who had ridden ahead but found entrance closed). There is a great camp of enemy under

[Amon Din >] Min Rimmon about [25 >] 50 miles west of the Pelennor or about [40 >] 14 miles further on:(2) Orcs are roving along the road. Dark men of Eilenach come in. They decide to push on by night. Suddenly they see fires ahead and hear cries. A great hoom hom is heard. Ents! Treebeard cries Merry. The enemy camp is in confusion. Dark men of Eilenach have attacked it, and suddenly coming out of North after a victory over Orcs in Wold ([250 >] 225 miles) Treebeard and a company of Ents. The Rohirrim come round to rear [and] sweep the remnants away N.W. into marshes. They halt under Min Rimmon and take counsel of war.

(13) Morning of 13th. Scouts report that siege is now [?strait]

and great fires and engines are all about walls. They ride about 20 miles and [? hide] in the woods and hills of Amon Din ready to move at night and attack with dawn.

(14) At dawn they charge. Rammas has been destroyed at this point.

At the foot of the page, in pencil, is a list of distances: Eilenach 215

(written beneath: 219); Min Rimmon 245 (written beneath: 246); Amon Din 270; Rammas 294; Minas Tirith 306.(3) Beside this list is a note: 'Camp just west of Min Rimmon (243 miles) on night of 12th.'

The names of the beacons in their final forms and final order (which I count eastwards from Edoras) had appeared long before in the abandoned opening C of 'Minas Tirith' (p. 233; repeated in the first text of the chapter), but now the order has been changed: Early texts of 'Minas. The present text.

Tirith' and LR

1. Halifirien. 1. Halifirien.

2. Calenhad. 2. Calenhad.

3. Min Rimmon. 3. Erelas.

4. Erelas. 4. Nardol.

5. Nardol. 5. Eilenach.

6. Eilenach. 6. Min Rimmon.

7. Amon Din. 7. Amon Din.

I can offer no explanation for this other than the obvious but not entirely convincing one that my father had misremembered the order as it stood in the 'Minas Tirith' text, and that afterwards, looking back through the papers, he returned to it.

So in the outline A the Rohirrim camped on the night of March 12

'in the skirts of the Forest of Eilenach out of which rises Eilenach Beacon', and here 'the dark men of Eilenach' enter the story, forerunners of the Woses or Wild Men of the Woods, though nothing is said of them other than that they attacked the enemy camp (the drumming in the hills is heard, however, from the camp under Halifirien on the previous night, March 11). Thus the Forest of Eilenach is the forerunner of the Druadan Forest, but Eilenach Beacon is the fifth, and beyond it are still Min Rimmon and Amon Din.

Treebeard and the Ents reappear, coming south 'after a victory over Orcs in the Wold', and clearly they play a part in the attack on the camp (I take it that the meaning of the text at this point is 'Dark men of Eilenach have attacked it, and so also have Treebeard and a company of Ents suddenly coming out of the North'). In the early outlines for Book V there are several references to the southward march of the Ents after the destruction of the Orcs on the Wold (see p. 255 and note 29), but these all specifically refer to their arrival (together with Elves from Lorien) after the siege of Minas Tirith had been broken: there has been no suggestion that they appeared earlier, in Anorien.

Merry is here 'given leave to go to war, and is assigned to ride with one of the king's guard: the one who seems young and light and so less burden to his steed.' This is presumably the story that my father had in mind at the end of 'Many Roads Lead Eastward' (see p. 318), where one among the guard, noticeably slighter in build (and certainly Eowyn), looked at Merry as the ride began from Dunharrow: this Rider would be assigned to carry the hobbit.

Two pages of pencilled text are hard to place since they are very largely illegible on account of subsequent overwriting in ink; bur they are very noteworthy, since from what little can be read it is seen that my father was here developing the story of the coming of the Ents into Anorien from the outline just given. The narrative envisaged clearly ran into difficulties, and was decisively abandoned, without any repercussions in the development of the chapter; for this reason it seems most probable that they should be placed here. The ink overwriting that so ohscured them bears no relation to the pencilled text beneath.(4)

On one of these pages (which I take to be the first in order since the arrival of Treebeard appears, whereas on the other he is already present) Treebeard's call of hoom hom (or something similar) is heard;

'Merry sprang up. "Treebeard!" he cried. Treebeard comes with good news. The Ents and the Huorns had ..... the invaders on the Wold and driven them into the River.' Fragments of the following sentence refer to rumour of the ride of the Rohirrim having reached the Ents, and to their great march southwards to aid the king. 'Friendship and award the king offered. But he asked only leave when war was over to return to Fangorn and there be troubled by ..... For reward he would take .......'

No more than broken fragments can be discerned in the remainder of this page, but these suggest uncertainty of direction. 'They plan to divide into three. The Ents would come on the camp from the north first while the main host ...., .and so come down to the plain

[?somewhat] behind the camp between it and the leaguer of the city'; Or remove the host of orc-men ., and later, In that case the wild men slay orcs but also turn against king. But the riders brush them aside and reach Amon Din ...'

The other page begins thus: 'But the wild men were nowhere to be seen. At the first sight of the Ents they had cried out shrieks of fear and fled back to vanish into the hills ..... what dark and distant legends out of [?elder] days held their minds enthralled none could say. But Treebeard soon found for himself what he needed ......... a [?pool]