'Who knows indeed!' said Trotter. 'But there is another way, and not by the pass beneath Caradhras: the dark and secret way that we have spoken of.'
'And I will not speak of it again. Not yet. Say nothing to the others, I beg. Nor you, Frodo,' said Gandalf, turning suddenly towards him. 'You have listened to our words, as is your right as Ring-bearer. But I will not say any more until it is plain that there is no other course.'
'We must decide before we go further,' said Gandalf.
'Then let us weigh the matter in our minds, while the others rest and sleep,' answered Trotter.
Since the speakers of the last two speeches are out of order with the preceding conversation, it was at this point that my father 'realised' that it was Trotter and not Gandalf who especially feared Moria, and at once changed the text of the passage accordingly.
Gandalf s words to the Company at the end of his discussion with Trotter, and the whole account of the snowstorm, are very much as in FR (pp. 300 - 2), though in the latter part of this chapter the actual wording underwent more development later to reach the FR text than had been the case till now. Boromir says that he was born in the Black Mountains (see VI.436, note 31); and the reference to Bilbo alone of hobbits remembering the Fell Winter of the year 1311 is absent. Another use of names from the legends of the Elder Days, immediately rejected, appears in Boromir's words about the snowstorm: 'I wonder if the Enemy has anything to do with it? They say in my land that he can govern the storms in [struck out: Mountains of Shadow Daedeloth Delduath] the Mountains of Shadow that lie on the confines of Mordor.'(23)
In Frodo's dream, as he fell into a snow-sleep, Bilbo's voice said: Snowstorm on December the ninth (in the original version 2 Decem- ber, VI.424; in FR 12 January). The journey from Rivendell to Hollin had taken 'some ten days' (p. 165); and a chronological scheme that seems clearly to derive from this time and to fit this narrative gives the date of departure from Rivendell as the evening of Thursday 24 November. According to this scheme the Company reached Hollin on 6 December, the journey from Rivendell having thus taken eleven days (and twelve nights), and 'Snow on Caradras' is dated 9 December.
The liquor that Gandalf gives to the Company from his flask is still called 'one of Elrond's cordials', as in VI.424, and the name miruvor does not appear. Gandalf, as the flame sprang up from the wood, said: 'I have written Gandalf is here in signs that even the blind rocks could read', but he does not say, as he thrusts his staff into the faggot, naur an edraith ammen!(24)
The account of the descent remains distinctively different from the story in FR, and closer to the original (VI.426 - 7), despite the fact that Trotter was there still a hobbit, and Gimli and Legolas not present.
'The sooner we make a move and get down again the better,' said Gandalf. 'There is more snow still to come up here.'
Much as they all desired to get down again, it was easier said than done. Beyond their refuge the snow was already some feet deep, and in places was piled into great wind-drifts; and it was wet and soft. Gandalf could only get forward with great labour, and had only gone a few yards on the downward path when he was floundering in snow above his waist. Their plight looked desperate.
Boromir was the tallest of the Company, being above six feet and very broad-shouldered as well. 'I am going on down, if I can,' he said. 'As far as I can make out our course of last night, the path turns right round that shoulder of rock down there. And if I remember rightly, a furlong or so beyond the turn there was a flat space at the top of a long steep slope - very heavy going it was as we came up. From that point I might be able to get a view, and some idea of how the snow lies further down.' He struggled slowly forward, plunging in snow that was everywhere above his knees, and in places rose almost shoulder- high. Often he seemed to be swimming or burrowing with his great arms rather than walking. At last he vanished from sight and passed round the turn. He was long gone, and they began to be anxious, fearing that he had been engulfed in some drift or snow-filled hollow, or had fallen over the hidden brink into the ravine.
When more than an hour had passed they heard him call. He had reappeared round the bend in the path and was labouring back towards them, 'I am weary,' he said; 'but I have brought back some hope. There is a deep wind-drift just round the turn, and I was nearly buried in it, but fortunately it is not wide. Beyond it the snow suddenly gets less. At the top of the slope it is barely a foot deep, and further down, white though it looks, it seems to be but a light coverlet: only a sprinkling in places.' 'It is the ill will of Caradras,' muttered Gimli. 'He does not love dwarves, or elves. He has cast his snow at us with special intent. That drift was devised to cut off our descent.'
'Then Caradras happily has forgotten that we have with us a mountaineer who knows his far kindred, the peaks of the Black Mountains,' said Gandalf. 'It was a good fortune that gave us Boromir as a member of our Company.'
'But how are we to get through this drift, even if we ever get as far as the turn?' asked Pippin, voicing the thoughts of all the hobbits.
'It is a pity,' said Legolas, 'that Gandalf cannot go before us with a bright flame, and melt us a path.'
'It is a pity that Elves cannot fly over mountains, and fetch the Sun to save them,' answered Gandalf. 'Even I need something to work on. I cannot burn snow. But I could turn Legolas into a flaming torch, if that will serve: he would burn bright while he lasted.'
'Spare me!' cried Legolas. 'I fear that a dragon is concealed in the shape of our wizard. Yet a tame dragon would be useful at this hour.'
'It will be a wild dragon, if you say any more,' said Gandalf. 'Well, well! When heads are at a loss, bodies must serve, as they say in my country,' said Boromir. 'I have some strength still left; and so has Aragorn. We must use that, while it lasts. I will carry one of the Little Folk, and he another. Two shall be set on the pony, and led by Gandalf.'
At once he set about unlading Bill. 'Aragorn and I will come back when we have got the Little Folk through,' he said. 'You, Legolas and Gimli, can wait here, or follow behind in our track, if you can.' He picked up Merry and set him on his shoulders. Trotter took Pippin. Frodo was mounted on the pony, with Sam clinging behind. They ploughed forward.
At last they reached and passed the turn, and came to the edge of the drift. Frodo marvelled at the strength of Boromir, seeing the passage that he had already forced through it with no better tool than his sword and his great arms.(25) Even now, burdened as he was with Merry clinging on his back, he was thrusting the snow forward and aside, and widening the passage for those who followed. Behind him Trotter was labouring. They were in the midst of the drift, and Boromir and Merry were almost through, when a rumbling stone fell from the slope above and, hurtling close to Frodo's head, thudded deep into the snow. But with the casting of that last stone the malice of the mountain seemed to be expended, as if it were satisfied that the invaders were in retreat and would not dare to return. There was no further mishap.
On the flat shelf above the steep slope they found, as Boromir had reported, that the snow was only shallow. There they waited, while Trotter and Boromir returned with the pony to fetch the packs and burdens and give some help to Legolas and the dwarf.
By the time they were all gathered together again morning was far advanced.
It was Gandalf's reply here ('It is a pity that Elves cannot fly over mountains, and fetch the Sun to save them') to Legolas' remark (originally Boromir's, VI.426) about melting a path that led to Legolas' saying in FR 'I go to find the Sun!', and was very probably (as I think) the source of the idea that the Elf, so far from being as helplessly marooned as Gimli, Gandalf, and the hobbits, could run upon the snow. It is noticeable that Gandalf's real ill-humour in the original version is here diminished, while in FR it has probably disappeared. The remainder of the chapter is as in FR, but it ends thus:
The wind was blowing stiffly again over the pass that was hidden in cloud behind them; already a few flakes of snow were curling and drifting down. Caradras had defeated them. They
turned their backs on the Dimrill Stair, and stumbled wearily down the slope.
NOTES.
1. This refers to the story, first appearing in the original version of 'The Council of Elrond' (VI.407) and retained in the second (p. 112), that Gandalf came upon the hobbits walking in the woods in the afternoon following the Council.
2. This is probably the point at which my father determined on the change of Galdor to Legolas (see p. 141). Legolas Greenleaf the keen-eyed thus reappears after many years from the old tale of The Fall of Gondolin (II.189, etc.); he was of the House of the Tree in Gondolin, of which Galdor was the lord.
3. In fact, nine had been the original number, in the first sketch for 'The Council of Elrond' (VI.397): Frodo, Sam; Gandalf; Glorfin- del; Trotter; Burin son of Balin; Merry, Folco, Odo. It is curious to see how close in its conception the complement of the Company was at the very beginning to the final form, though it was at once rejected.
4. On Erestor 'Half-elf' see VI.400 and note 17.
5. The word 'reduction' may however imply that the first of two alternative versions of the final 'Choosing of the Company' had already been written; see note 12.
6. This latter option survived into a typescript text made not long after (probably by myself), where the long and short openings of the chapter are set out one after the other as variants.
7. On the days of the week in relation to the dates see p. 14. Frodo's escape over the Ford of Bruinen took place on Thursday 20 October. If precisely three weeks are counted from that day we are brought to Thursday 10 November.
8. Tharbad: see the Etymologies, V.392, stem THAR; and see Map II on p. 305.
9. In the original form of the passage (VI.416) and in that in the second version of 'The Council of Elrond', as well as in the present text, my father wrote 'the sources of the Gladden'. This was obviously based on the Map of Wilderland in The Hobbit, where the Gladden, there of course unnamed, rises in several streams falling from the Misty Mountains (these are not shown on the First Map (Map II, p. 305), but the scale there is much smaller). In the typescript that followed the present text the typist put source, and my father corrected it to sources. I suspect therefore that source in FR is an error.
10. Rhosgobel has appeared previously, but as a subsequent addition to the fifth version of 'The Council of Elrond' (p. 149); the present passage is clearly where the name was devised. In Brownhay 'Brown' is evidently to be associated with Radagast 'the Brown', and 'hay' is the old word meaning 'hedge', as in the High Hay, Ringhay (= Crickhollow, VI.299). For the etymology of Rhosgobel see V.385, Noldorin rhosc 'brown' (stem RUSKA), and V.380, Noldorin gobel 'fenced homestead', as in Tavrobel (stem PEL(ES)).
11. Redway: original name of the Silverlode.
12. The brief account of the 'Choosing' given on p. 162 may be compared: 'In the end after the matter had been much debated by Elrond and Gandalf it was decided... ' It is possible that this text followed the first and preceded the second of the alternative versions: my father referred to the second as the 'short version' (though it is not markedly shorter than the other), which may explain why he noted on the brief draft text that it was a sketch of a 'reduction' of the choosing of the Company. - As with the variant openings of the chapter (note 6) both alternatives were retained in the typescript.
13. A few minor changes were introduced (but not the mention of the lay of Beren and Luthien heard by the hobbits in the Hall of Fire); Bilbo now refers to the fact that Frodo's sword had been broken (see p. 136, note 7), but does not produce the pieces (and the mailcoat remains 'elf-mail', not 'dwarf-mail').
14. In these workings the last verse (for which there is a preparatory note: 'He ends: but all the while he will think of Frodo') reads:
But all the while I sit and think
I listen for the door,
and hope to hear the voices come
I used to hear before.
This is the form of the verse in the typescript text, where the song first appears in the chapter.
15. A halfway stage is found in a draft for the passage: here there were still two pack-ponies, but one of them was the beast bought in Bree; this Sam addresses as 'Ferny', though it is also called 'Bill'. Cf. the note about Bill Ferny's pony given on p. 9: 'Does this remain at Rivendell? - Yes.'
16. Eregion was written in subsequently (this name appears in the isolated text given on p. 124). No Elvish name is given in the typescript.
17. This is the first occurrence of the name Dwarrowdelf. Cf. my father's letter to Stanley Unwin, 15 October 1937 (Letters no. 17): 'The real "historical" plural of dwarf ... is dwarrows, anyway: rather a nice word, but a bit too archaic. Still I rather wish I had used the word dtuarrow.' - 'Black Gulf' as a translation of Moria is found several times in the original text of 'The Ring Goes South', once as a correction of 'Black Pit' (VI.435, note 24).
18. This is the first occurrence of the Dwarvish name Barazinbar, concerning which my father wrote long after (in the notes referred to in VI.466, notes 36, 39) that Khuzdul baraz (BRZ) probably = 'red, or ruddy', and inbar (MBR) a horn, Sindarin Caradhras < caran-rass being a translation of the Dwarvish name. - Subsequently both Caradhras and Caradras occur as the manuscript was originally written, but the latter far more frequently.
19. On Azanulbizar see VI.465, note 36. Nanduhirion here first occurs, but the form Nanduhiriath is found as an emendation to the text of the original version of the chapter, VI.433, note 13.
20. On Dimrill Stair as the name of the Redhorn Pass see p. 164.
21. The names of the other Mountains of Moria were not devised at once, however, since though entered on the manuscript they are still absent from the typescript, where my father inserted them in the same form. As first devised, the names of the other peaks were Silverhorn, Celebras (Kelebras) the White (in FR Silvertine, Celebdil), and the Horn of Cloud, Fanuiras the Grey (in FR Cloudyhead, Fanuidhol); the Dwarvish names were as in FR, Baraz, Zirak, Shathur (but Zirak was momentarily Zirik). In the later notes referred to in note 18 my father said that since Shathur was the basic Dwarvish name the element probably refers to 'cloud', and was probably a plural 'clouds'; Bund(u) in the fuller name Bundu-shathur 'must therefore mean "head" or something similar. Possibly bund ( BND) - u - Shathur "head in/of clouds>. On Zirak and the longer form Zirakzigil see note 22.
22. When Silverlode superseded Blackroot, as it did before the original text of the 'Lothlorien' story was completed, the passage was changed to its form in FR: Dark is the water of Kheled- zaram," said Gimli, "and cold are the springs of Kibil-nala."' The name Kheledzaram first appears in these variant passages; see VI.466, note 39, where I cited my father's much later note explaining the name as meaning 'glass-pool'. In the same notes he discussed the Dwarvish word for 'silver':
Zirak-zigil should mean 'Silver-spike' (cf. 'Silvertine', and Celebdil < Sindarin celeb 'silver' + till 'tine, spike, point'). But 'silver' is evidently KBL in Kibil-nala - KBL seems to have some connexion with Quenya telep- 'silver'. But all these peoples seem to have possessed various words for the precious metals, some referring to the material and its properties, some to their colour and other associations. So that zirak (ZRK) is probably another name for 'silver', or for its grey colour. Zigil is evidently a word for 'spike' (smaller and more slender than a 'horn'). Caradhras seems to have been a great mountain tapering upwards (like the Matterhorn), while Celebdil was simply crowned by a smaller pinnacle.
Still later pencilled notes reversed this explanation, suggesting that zigil (ZGL) meant 'silver' and zirak meant 'spike'. - Of Kibil-nala my father noted that 'the meaning of nala is not known. If it corresponds to rant [in Celebrant] and lode [in Silverlode], it should mean "path, course, rivercourse or bed".' He added later: 'It is probable that the Dwarves actually found silver in the river.'
23. Delduath: 'Deadly Nightshade', Taur-na-Fuin; Dor-Daedeloth: 'Land of the Shadow of Dread', the realm of Morgoth. See references in the Index to Vol. V, entries Delduwath, Dor- Daideloth.
24. Li
terally: 'fire be for saving of us'.
25. The passage that follows here must have been rejected as soon as written:
As he stepped forward Boromir suddenly stumbled on some hidden point of stone, and fell headlong. Trotter, who was just behind, was taken unawares and fell on top of him. Merry and Pippin were flung from their shoulders and vanished deep into the snow.
This, though changed to suit the altered story of the descent, was derived from the old version, VI.427.
IX. THE MINES OF MORIA (1): THE LORD OF MORIA.
It seems very probable, if not actually demonstrable, that a new version of the first part of the Moria story (corresponding to FR II Chapter 4, 'A Journey in the Dark') preceded the first draft of its continuation, and I therefore give the texts in their narrative sequence. The original draft of 'The Mines of Moria' (VI.445-60) had come to an end as the Company stood before the tomb of Balin, and at this time the narrative of The Lord of the Rings went no further - apart from a preliminary sketch of the further events in Moria, VI.442 - 3 and 462. This therefore is the last chapter for which formed narrative from an earlier phase of work existed.
The History of Middle Earth: Volume 7 - The Treason of Isengard Page 23
