'Yes!' said Hamilcar with a laugh. 'He did not know whether
he was relieved or disgusted when he found it was only poor old Ham Bolger. I was too crushed to mind at the time: he bowled the Rider that was carrying me clean over; but I feel rather hurt now.'
'You are perfectly well now,' said Gandalf; 'and you have had a free ride all the way to Rivendell, which you would never have seen, if you had been left to your own sluggishness. Still, you have been useful in your way.' He turned to Frodo: 'It was from Ham that I heard you had gone into the Old Forest,' he said; 'and that filled me with fresh anxiety. I turned off the Road at once, and went immediately to visit Bombadil. That seems to have proved lucky; for I believe the three Riders reported that Gandalf and Baggins had ridden East. Their chieftain was at Amrath, far down the Greenway in the south, and the news must have reached him late on Friday. I fancy the Chief Rider was sorely puzzled when the advance guard reported that Baggins and the Ring had been in Bree the very night when they thought they had caught him in Crickhollow! Some Riders seem to have been sent straight across country to Weathertop. Five (5) came roaring along the Road. I was safe back at the Pony when they passed through Bree on Saturday night. They leaped the gates and went through like a howling wind. The Breelanders are still shivering and wondering what is happening to the world. I left Bree next morning, and rode day and night behind them, and we reached Weathertop on the evening of the third.' 'So Sam was right!' said Frodo. 'Yes, sir, seemingly,' said Sam, feeling rather pleased;(6) but Gandalf frowned at the interruption.
'We found two Riders already watching Weathertop,' he went on. 'Others soon gathered round, returning from the pursuit further east along the Road. Ham and I passed a very bad night besieged on the top of Weathertop. But they dared not attack me in the daylight. In the morning we slipped away northwards into the wilds. Several pursued us; two followed us right up the Hoarwell into the Entishlands. That is why they were not in full force when you arrived, and did not observe you at once.'
Here the text ends, but it is followed by another version of the last part, following on from 'we slipped away northwards into the wilds':
˛ .. not too secretly - I wanted to draw them off. But the Chief Rider was too cunning: only four came after us, and only two pursued us far; and they turned aside when we reached the Entishlands and went back towards the Ford, I fancy. Still, that is why they were not in full force when you arrived, and why they did not at once pursue [you] in the wild/Still, that is why they did not immediately hunt for you in the wilderness, or observe your arrival at Weathertop; and why they were not in full force for the attack on you.
Comparison of this account with the time-scheme D (pp. 12-13) will show that the narrative fits the scheme closely. In both, the Riders crossed the Brandywine by the Ferry on the night of Thursday 29 September; Gandalf rescued Ham from the Riders on Friday morning; two Riders (as the narrative was first written, see note 5) were sent direct to Weathertop, and (again as first written) seven rode through Bree, throwing down or leaping the gates, on the night of Saturday 1 October, while Gandalf and Ham were at The Prancing Pony; two Riders were already at Weathertop when Gandalf and Ham got there in the evening of Monday 3 October, after riding day and night; and Gandalf and Ham left Weathertop on the following morning.
Gandalf's horse is now named Galeroc, replacing earlier Narothal (VI.345); and the name Amrath appears, of the place where the chief of the Riders remained, far down the Greenway in the south.'(7)
This narrative seems to belong also with the 'fourth phase' version of 'A Knife in the Dark' (p. 55): the horse that came racing up the lane as the Riders rode off with Ham Bolger was bearing Gandalf from the Ferry, 'a notch or two behind' the nick of time, as he said at Rivendell. Yet there is a difficulty, or at any rate a difference; for the story of the attack on Crickhollow in this version, as in all those preceding it, described a long period ('time went slowly on') between the coming of the Riders into the garden of Crickhollow and the breaking into the house. If Gandalf came to Bucklebury Ferry just as the Riders with their horses reached the other side, and he at once put Galeroc to swim the river, he cannot have been more than a matter of minutes behind them.
A new narrative outline, written roughly and rapidly on two sides of a single sheet, is headed: 'New Plot. Aug. 26 - 27, 1940'. This outline was subsequently altered and added to, but I give it here as first written. I have expanded contractions and in other small ways slightly edited the text to make it easier to follow.
The wizard Saramond the White [written above at the same time: Saramund the Grey] or Grey Saruman sends out a message that there is important news: Trotter hears that Black Riders are out and moving towards the Shire (for which they are asking). He sends word to Gandalf, who leaves Hobbiton at the end of June. He goes S.E. (leaving Trotter to keep an eye on the Shire-borders) towards Rohan (or Horserland).
Gandalf knows that 9 Black Riders (and especially their king) are too much for him alone. He wants the help of Saramund. So he goes to him where he lived on the borders of Rohan at Angrobel (or Irongarth).
Saramund betrays him - having fallen and gone over to Sauron: (either) he tells Gandalf false news of the Black Riders, and they pursue him to the top of a mountain; there he is left standing alone with a guard (wolves, orcs, etc. all about) while they ride off with mocking laugh; (or else) he is handed over to a giant Fangorn (Treebeard) who imprisons him?
Meanwhile the Black Riders attack the Shire, coming up the Greenway and driving a crowd of fugitives among which are one or two evil men, Sauronites.(8) The King of the Black Riders encamps at Amrath to guard Sarn Ford and Bridge.
6 Riders (DEFGHI) go ahead and invade the Shire. The vanguard Rider (D) reaches Bag-End on Sept. 23 (night). Two (DE) then trail Frodo etc. to the Ferry (Sept. 25). F G HI are on the main road. D E, foiled at the Ferry (Sept. 25), ride off to Brandywine Bridge and join F c H t (dawn on Sept. 26).
HI then ride along scouring both sides of the Road and reach Bree up and down Greenway [sic] on Tuesday Sept. 27.(9)
On night (cockcrow) of Sept. 26 - 27 D E F attack Crickhollow. There they carry off Ham. c was left guarding the Bridge but now comes with them.
HI go on through Bree asking for news, to make sure 'Baggins' has not escaped and got ahead. They get in touch with Bill Ferney. DEFG with poor Ham now ride to Greenway (does Harry see them? Probably not). At Amrath they meet the King (A) and BC, on Wednesday 28th, leaving for the moment the Road deserted. The King is angry at this. He is suspicious of a plot since Ham has no Ring. DE are sent back to Bree, arriving late on Thursday 29th. (Meanwhile the hobbits have got to the Inn.) FG go back to the Shire.
DE get in touch with Bill Ferney, and hear of news at the Inn. [Struck out at once: They attack the Inn but fail (and get the idea that Green'(10) has gone off?)] They fear Trotter', but get Bill Ferney and the Southerner to burgle the Inn and try and get more news, especially of the Ring. (They are puzzled by two Bagginses.) The burglary fails; but they drive off all the ponies.
FG bring news to the King that Gandalf has escaped and is in the Shire (which he reached on Wednesday 28th [> Thursday 29th night], and visited Bag-End and the Gaffer).
DE return to the King and report (Sept. 30): he is puzzled by 'Green' and the Ring, by Baggins and Ham, and troubled by news of Gandalf behind. He does not kill Ham because he wants to find out more, and Sauron has ordered him to bring 'Baggins' to Mordor. HI return (Oct. 1) reporting nothing on the Road as far as Weathertop, and that Green and Trotter have left Bree and vanished. The King decides to pursue Green with all his forces, carrying Ham with him. Gandalf goes to Crickhollow late on Thursday 29th and finds it deserted. Old cloak of Frodo dropped. Gandalf is terrified lest Frodo is captive. (? Does he visit Tom - if so make him arrive in the Shire on the 28th and visit Buckland on the 29th; if not, arrive in the Shire on the 29th, visit Buckland on the 30th.) Either visiting Tom or not, Gandalf reaches Bree on Saturday Oct. 1 (after the hobbits have gone). He rides afte
r them. The Black Riders meanwhile have left Amrath and revisited Bree to get news of Green, and gone off along the Road on both sides. Gandalf crashes into DE who are carrying Ham and rescues him. He gallops to Weathertop, reaching it on Oct. 3. He sees Black Riders gather and goes off North (three Riders, D E F, pursue him). The rest patrol round and watch Weathertop.
Here we have the story of the capture of Hamilcar Bolger again, but with a significant difference. In Time-scheme D (p. 12), and in the story told by Gandalf at Rivendell (p. 68), the attack on Crickhollow took place on the night of Thursday-Friday 29-30 September; and the story there was that Gandalf arrived just as the Riders left, and he was able to catch them up ten miles east of the Brandywine Bridge. In the present outline, the attack on Crickhollow took place three nights earlier, on that of Monday - Tuesday 26-27 September (Frodo and the others having left on the Monday morning), and since Gandalf still arrives there late on the 29th (or the 30th) he finds the trail cold; but he also finds Frodo's cloak dropped on the step. He still rescues Ham, but not till his captors have passed Bree. It is curious therefore that (though he was uncertain about it) my father had not decisively rejected the visit to Tom Bombadil, since with this plot Gandalf could have had no notion that the hobbits had entered the Old Forest.
This is very probably the first appearance of Saruman (Saramond, Saramund), who steps into the narrative quite unheralded - but he enters at once as a Wizard whose aid Gandalf seeks, and who has
'fallen and gone over to Sauron'; moreover he dwells at Angrobel or 'Irongarth' (cf. Isengard) 'on the borders of Rohan'. But my father was still quite uncertain what happened to Gandalf, having rejected the story of the Western Tower: the possibilities suggested here show that the imprisonment in a tower had been for the moment abandoned.
Giant Fangorn or Treebeard again appears as a hostile being (cf. p. 9). I suspect that the primary question that my father was pondering here was that of the emergence of the Ringwraiths from Mordor, Gandalf's knowledge of this in the summer before Frodo left Bag End, and Trotter's message. It has been said already (p. 9) that 'It was a message of Trotter's in July (?) that took Gandalf away - fearing Black Riders', and again (p. 10) 'It was a message from Trotter that fetched Gandalf away in summer before Frodo left'. These notes indicate that Gandalf already had reason, when he left Hobbiton, to suspect the emergence of the Ringwraiths; but it is now told, at the beginning of the present outline, that the message from Trotter (itself emanating from Saruman) was an actual report that the Nine had left Mordor and were moving towards the Shire. This would raise the question: why, in that case, did Gandalf, before he went off, not urge Frodo to leave for Rivendell as soon as he could? Scribblings on the manuscript of this outline show my father concerned with the question: 'Both Gandalf and Trotter must go away together and not fear to be captured, or else Gandalf would have sent a message to Frodo to start, or Trotter would have.' Then follows a suggestion that Trotter 'got cut off from Gandalf, only arriving in Bree hard on the tracks of the Black Riders.' But this does not seem entirely to meet the difficulty. Later my father noted here: 'Leaves Butterbur a letter which he forgets to send to Frodo', and this is clearly where that essential idea arose. In FR (p. 269) the problem is resolved by reverting to the story that when Gandalf left Hobbiton he had no definite knowledge, and by the introduction of Radagast. 'At the end of June I was in the Shire, but a cloud of anxiety was on my mind, and I rode to the southern borders of the little land; for I had a foreboding of some danger, still hidden from me but drawing near.' It was Radagast who told Gandalf that the Nine were abroad, whereupon Gandalf, at Bree, wrote the letter to Frodo which Butterbur forgot to send.
Another brief but distinctive narrative passage is clearly associated with this 'August 1940' outline. It was substituted in the manuscript of the 'fourth phase' version of Chapter IX ('At the Sign of the Prancing Pony (i)') for that in which the Black Riders spoke to Harry Goatleaf, the gatekeeper at Bree, on the evening of Wednesday the 28th of September (pp. 40 - 1), and was itself subsequently rejected.
The rain that swept over the Forest and the Downs on Tuesday was still falling long and grey on Bree when evening came. The lights were just being lit in Tom's house,(11) when the noise of horses approaching came down the Road from the west. Harry Goatleaf the gatekeeper peered out of his door and scowled at the rain. He had been thinking of going out to close the gate, when he caught the sound of the horsemen. Reluctantly he waited, wishing now that he had shut the gate earlier: he did not like the sound. Two horsemen had appeared in Bree late the day before (12) and wild stories were going about. People had been scared; some said the riders were uncanny: dogs yammered, and geese screamed at them. Yet they were asking for news of hobbits out of the Shire, especially for one called Baggins. Very queer.
Harry thought it even queerer a minute later. He went out, grumbling at the rain, and looking up the Road he thought he saw dark figures approaching swiftly, three or maybe four. But suddenly they turned left at the Cross Roads (13) just beyond the gate, and went off southwards and down the Greenway; all sound of their horses' feet died away on the grass-grown track. 'Queerer and queerer!' he thought. 'That way leads nowhere. Who would turn off on a wet night just in sight of the Inn at Bree?' He shivered suddenly all down his back. Locking the gate he hurried into his house and bolted the door.
Wednesday turned foggy after midday; but still the queer events went on. Out of the mists up the Greenway there straggled such a company as had not been seen in Bree for many a year: strange men from the South, haggard and wayworn, and bearing heavy burdens. Most of them had a hunted look and seemed too tired and scared to talk; but some were ill-favoured and rough-spoken. They made quite a stir in Bree.
The next day, Thursday, was clear and fine again, with a warm sun and a wind that veered from East towards the South. No traveller passed the western gate all day, but Harry kept on going to the gate, even after nightfall.
This would then join on to the next part of the text, 'It was dark, and white stars were shining, when Frodo and his companions came at last to the Greenway-crossing and drew near the village' (cf. VI.348). With this compare the 'August 1940' outline (p. 71): DEFG with poor Ham now ride to Greenway (does Harry see them? Probably not).' I think it is clear that when Harry Goatleaf saw the dark figures mysteriously turn off down the Greenway at the crossroads in the rain at dusk, they had Hamilcar Bolger with them, bearing him to the King at Amrath. And with the description of the company that came up the Greenway on the Wednesday cf. an earlier passage in the same outline: 'Meanwhile the Black Riders attack the Shire, coming up the Green- way and driving a crowd of fugitives among which are one or two evil men, Sauronites.'
In the margin of the 'fourth phase' version of the attack on Crickhollow (p. 55) my father later noted:
Omit, or bring into line with old version (in middle of Chapter VII). Ham cannot be captured (Black Riders would obviously kill him). It probably spoils surprise to show what Gandalf is up to at this point. Gandalf can briefly explain that [? he was at] Crickhollow.
There is a definitive tone about this that suggests that this is where the 'Odo-Hamilcar' adventure was finally abandoned; and if this is so it must be placed, of course, after the outline dated 'Aug. 26 - 27, 1940'. Presumably it was at this time that the 'fourth phase' version of the 'Crickhollow episode' was struck through.
Labelling this rejected form 'A', my father seems now to have tried out a version (labelled 'B') which follows his direction to 'bring (the story) into line with the old version (in middle of Chapter VII)' - i.e. the original form of the episode, which was inserted in the course of the 'second phase' into Chapter VII 'In the House of Tom Bombadil' (VI.303-4), at which stage the story was that the house at Crickhollow was empty when the Riders came, for no hobbit had been left behind there. In version 'B' there is no mention of Hamilcar Bolger at all. The 'man in grey', leading a white horse, comes up the path, looks in at the windows, and disappears round the corner of the house; then
the Black Riders come; at first cockcrow they break in the door; and at that moment the horn call rings out, the Riders flee, with 'a cry like the cry of hunting beasts stricken unawares' (cf. VI.304), and Gandalf appears wielding horn and wand and thunders after them.
A page of notes is associated with these attempts to find the right form for the opening of 'A Knife in the Dark'. These begin:
It will improve matters to cut out Ham Bolger. Version B will provide for that. (Gandalf arrives, takes Ham Bolger out of the house, and chases off the Black Riders.)
This is obscure, since there is no mention in the version labelled 'B' of Gandalf's entering the house, no mention of a light in the window, nor any suggestion that it was inhabited. But in any case it was clearly not my father's meaning when he wrote 'It will improve matters to cut out Ham Bolger' that he intended to cut him out of the narrative altogether: he meant only that Ham was to be excluded from further adventures after the 'Crickhollow episode' was ended. Conceivably, he had here a passing notion that Gandalf came to Crickhollow, entered secretly, told Ham Bolger to clear out, and proceeded to look after the Black Riders himself. Whatever the meaning, these notes continue:
But better would be this:
Gandalf is captured by [Saramund >] Saruman.
Elves send word that he is missing, which reaches Rivendell Sat. 8th.(14) Glorfindel is sent out, and messengers sent to Eagles. The Eagles are told about Oct. 11. They fly all over the lands, and find Gandalf about Sat. 15. Bring... to Rivendell Wed. 19th.
The History of Middle Earth: Volume 7 - The Treason of Isengard Page 10
