The War of the Ring (66 page)

17. maker: used in the long since lost sense 'poet'.

18. We heard of the horns in the hills ringing is a variant entered at the time of writing both in this text and in that following.

19. Guthwin was later changed to Cuthlaf on this manuscript (see p. 368). Herufare is written so (for expected -fara) both here and (apparently) in a scrap of rough drafting for the passage; Herefara in RK.

X.

THE PYRE OF DENETHOR.

The original brief draft of this chapter ('A'), mercifully written fairly legibly in ink and not in pencil subsequently overwritten, extended from 'When the dark shadow at the Gate withdrew' as far as 'There was no guard at the gate of the Citadel. "Berithil has gone then," said Pippin' (RK p. 127). The final text was naturally not reached in every turn of expression or every detail, but apart from the absence of the meeting with Prince Imrahil as Gandalf and Pippin rode up from the Gate on Shadowfax there is no narrative difference of any significance.(1) At this point my father stopped and set down a brief outline ('B').

? Porter dead at Closed Door. ? They see fire and smoke below as they hurry down the winding road. Berithil has rebelled, and taking some of the guard has fought with the household men. Before they could gain entrance to the tomb, one of these dashed back and set a torch in the wood. But Berithil was just in time to save Faramir. But Denethor leaped back into the flames and was now dead. Gandalf closed the door. 'That ends a chapter!' he said. 'Let the Stewards burn -

their days are over.' Light is growing fast. Faramir is borne away to the house where women were who remained in city to tend sick.

A large question mark was placed against the first part of this, and it was evidently rejected as soon as written and replaced by the following:

? Berithil and guard had gone and stopped the burning.

Gandalf reasons with Denethor. 'I have seen' says Denethor

'ships coming up Anduin: I will no more yield to an upstart -

and even if his claim be true of the younger line: I am Steward for the sons of Anarion not of Isildur - than [to] my dark foe.'

The development from this point is hard to be sure of, but I am almost certain that the next step was the following outline ('C'), written in ink around and through (but not over) a much rougher outline also in ink (briefer but essentially the same, with mention of the palantir):

Gandalf and Pippin hear clash of arms as they hasten down the winding road to Rath Dinen. When they reach the Tombs they find Berithil holding the door alone against the houschold-men, who wish to obey Denethor's orders and come and set fire to the pyre. From within comes Denethor's voice commanding Berithil by his oaths to let them enter.

Gandalf sweeps aside the men and goes in. He upbraids Denethor, but Denethor laughs at him. Denethor has a palantir!

He has seen the coming of Aragorn. But he has also seen the vast forces still gathered in Mordor, and says that victory in arms is no longer possible. He will not yield up the Stewardship 'to an upstart of the younger line: I am Steward of the sons of Anarion.' He wants things to be as they were - or not at all.

Gandalf demands the release of Faramir, and when Denethor attempts to slay him ('he shall not live to bow down!') Gandalf strikes the sword from his hand, and lets suddenly be seen his power so that even Denethor quails. Gandalf bids the men lift up Faramir and bear him from the chamber.

Denethor says 'At least so far my rule still holds that I may determine my own death.' He sets fire to the wood which is oil-drenched. Then he leaps onto the stone bed. He breaks the wand of his Stewardship and lays the pieces on his lap, and lies down taking the Stone between his hands. Then Gandalf leaves him. He closes the door and the flames roar within. They hear Denethor give a great cry, and then no more. 'So passes the Stewardship of Gondor!' said Gandalf. It is said that ever after, if anyone looked in that Stone, unless he had great strength of will, he saw only two old hands withering in flames. [Added: Gandalf bids Berithil and household men not to mourn - or be too downcast. Each side has tried to do their duty.]

They now bear Faramir to the house of the sick. As Gandalf and Pippin climb back up the road they hear the last shriek in the air of the Nazgul. Gandalf stands still a moment. 'Some evil has befallen! ' he says, 'which but for the madness of Denethor I could have averted. So far is the reach of the Enemy. But we know how his will had entry to the White Tower. By the Stone.

Though he could not daunt Denethor or enslave him, he could fill him with despair, mistrust and unwisdom.' When Faramir is placed under care with Berithil as guard they meet the funeral cortege. Where is Merry? Pippin volunteers to try and find Merry.

Most of the essential ideas of the chapter were present here - and one that was rejected: Denethor knew who was aboard the black fleet and what his coming meant (see pp. 378 - 9). This knowledge he derived from the palantir; and since it is present also in the brief preceding outline B the existence of the palantir in the White Tower must be presumed there also.(2)

At this stage, I think, my father began on a new text of the chapter ('D'), continuing as far as Gandalf's words concerning 'the heaehen kings' (RK p. 129). The final text is here very closely approached (3) until near the end (which is very rough and has various alternative readings):

Then Gandalf showing now a marvellous strength leapt up on the faggots and raising the sick man bore him out of the deadly house; and as he was moved Faramir moaned and spoke his father's name.

Then Denethor stepped forward and the flame died in his eyes and he wept, and he said: 'Do not take my son from me. He calls for me.'

'He calls for you,* said Gandalf. 'But you cannot come to him save in one way. You must go out to the battle of your City putting away despair and risking death in the field; and he must struggle for life against hope in the dark ways of his fever. Then perchance you may meet again. / For unless you go out to the battle of your City putting away despair and risking death in the field you will never speak again with him in the waking world.'

'He will not wake again,' said Denethor. 'His house is crumbling. Let us die together.' / 'At least we can go to death side by side,' said Denethor. 'That lies not in the will of the Lord of this City or of any other,' said Gandalf. 'For you are not yet dead. And so do the heathen kings under the dominion of the Dark Lord, to slay themselves in pride and despair or to slay their kin for the easing of their own death.'

In RK this is followed by 'Then passing through the door he took Faramir from the deadly house and laid him on the bier on which he had been brought, and which had now been set in the porch. Denethor followed him ...'; for it is clear that Gandalf, bearing Faramir, had halted at Denethor's words 'Do not take my son from me!', and only now moved through the door. But in the text just given it is said that Gandalf bore Faramir 'out of the deadly house' as soon as he had lifted him from the pyre.

It was perhaps at this stage that my father wrote a single discontinuous page ('E') beginning with the words 'Gandalf now takes Faramir'. Here as in RK Denethor follows him; but no further words are spoken until, after a long hesitation while he looks on Faramir, he declares that he will rule his own end, and his death follows immediately. It is curious that Denethor is here said to die clasping the palantir, yet there is no drafting of the scene in which he reveals his possession of it.

Gandalf now takes Faramir.

Denethor now followed him to the door. And he trembled, looking in longing at his son and hesitating. Yet in the end his pride and wilfulness overmastered him and he was fey again. 'At least in this you shall not defy and snatch my power away,' he said. And stepping suddenly forth he seized a torch from the band of one of his servants, and moving back thrust it among the wood, which being drenched in oil roared at once into flame and a black smoke filled the house. Then Denethor leaped again

. onto the table amid the fire and fume, and breaking the staff of his stewardship on his knee he cast it into the flames and laid himself back on his pillow clasping the palantir with both hands to his breast.

Gandalf in sorrow and horror turned his face away and came forth, closing the door. For a while he stood in thought silently upon the topmost step. And they heard the roar and crackle of the flames within; and then Denethor gave a great cry, and afterward spoke no more, nor was seen again by mortal man.

'So passes the Stewardship of Gondor!' said Gandalf. And he

-, turned to Berithil and the lord's servants. 'Do not mourn overmuch,' he said. 'For the old days have passed for good or evil. And be not grieved with your own deeds. For all here, as I see it, have striven to do as they judged right, whether in obedience and the keeping of vows or in the breaking. For you servants of the Lord owed obedience only to your Lord, but Berithil owed also allegiance first to the Lord Faramir the captain of the guard. So let now all hate or anger that lies between you fall away and be forgotten. Bear away those who have fallen in this unhappy place. And we will bear Faramir to a place where he can die in peace if that is his doom, or find healing.'

So now Gandalf and Berithil taking up the bier that stood still in the porch before the doors set Faramir upon it and slowly bore him away to the houses of the sick, and the servants came behind bearing their fellows. And when they came at length through the closed door Gandalf bade Berithil who had the key to lock it. And as they passed into the upper circles of the City there was heard in the air the cry of the Lord of the Nazgul as it rose and passed away for ever. And they stood for a moment stricken with wonder.

This was followed (again with some doubt as to the sequence) by another discontinuous page ('F') that takes up in the course of Gandalf's reply to Denethor's words 'Do not take my son from me!

He calls for me':

'... But he now must strive for life in the dark ways of his fever seeking healing; and you must go out to the battle of your city, risking death, if it must be, in the field. This you know well in your heart.'

But Denethor laughed. And going back to the table he lifted from it the pillow that he had lain on. And lo! in his hand he bore a palantir. 'Pride and despair!' he said. 'Did you think that

[the] eyes of the White Tower were blind?' he said. [Added in pencil, without direction for insertion: This the Stone of Minas Tirith has remained ever in the secret keeping of the Stewards in the topmost chamber.] Nay, nay, 1 see more than thou knowest, Grey Fool ...'(4)

The page then continues very close to the final text (RK pp.

129 - 30), except in the view taken of Denethor's knowledge of Aragorn and the black fleet. In RK, as final proof that the power arrayed against Minas Tirith is too great far any withstanding, Denethor declares to Gandalf that 'even now the wind of thy hope cheats thee and wafts up Anduin a fleet with black sails.' He therefore does not know who is aboard. But (after Gandalf's reply 'Such counsels will make the Enemy's victory certain indeed') he goes on to accuse him of commanding Pippin 'to keep silence', and of installing him as a spy in his chamber; 'and yet in our speech together I have learned the names and purpose of all thy companions. So! With the left hand thou wouldst use me for a little while as a shield against Mordor, and with the right bring up this Ranger of the North to supplant me.' As the text stands in RK it is not clear what Denethor means by 'with the right hand'; for he does not know that it is the

'upstart' Aragorn who is coming up the Great River.

From the present text F, however, it is clear what Denethor did originally mean by 'with his right hand'. Here, he does not mention the black fleet in the first of these speeches; and in the second he makes no reference at all to Pippin - so that it is not from Pippin that he has learned of Aragorn's coming. But then he goes on: 'But I know your mind and its plots. Do I not see the fleets even now coming up Anduin!

So with the left hand you would use me as a shield against Mordor, and with the right hand bring up this Ranger of the North to take my place.' Here it is obvious that he does know who is aboard (with his left hand, one might suppose, he gestures towards Osgiliath and with his right towards Pelargir); and he knew it from use of the palantir, as is expressly stated in the outline C (p. 375): 'Denethor has a palantir! He has seen the coming of Aragorn.'

This text (F) ends thus:

'But who saith that the Steward who faithfully surrenders shall have diminishment of love and honour! And at the last you shall not rob your son of his choice, slaying him in your proud wickedness while yet healing is in doubt. This you shall not do.