The History of Middle Earth: Volume 7 - The Treason of Isengard
Page 34
Suddenly Sam gave a cry and sprang away. 'I can't stay here,' he said wildly. 'I must go home. They're digging up Bagshot Row and there is the poor old gaffer going down the hill with his bits of stuff in a barrow. I must go home!'
'You cannot go home,' said the Lady. 'Your path lies before you. You should not have looked if you would let anything that you see turn you from your task. But I will say this for your hope: remember that the mirror shows many things, and not all that you see have yet been. Some of the things it shows come never to pass, unless one forsakes the path [? and] turns aside to prevent them.'
Sam sat on the grass and muttered. 'I wish I had never come here.'
'Will you now look, Frodo? said the Lady, 'or have you heard enough?'
'I will look,' said Frodo... Fear was mingled with desire.
Here the manuscript ends, with the following notes scribbled at the foot of the page: 'Chapter ends with Lady's words to Frodo. Next Chapter begins with departure from Lothlorien on New Year's Day, midwinter day, just before the sun turned to the New Year and just after New Moon.'(28)
On a separate slip, certainly of this time, is written (in ink over pencil) the passage in which Frodo sees the searching Eye in the Mirror (see note 23). This is almost word for word the same as in FR (pp. 379 - 80), except for these sentences: 'the black slit of its pupil opened on a pit of malice and despair. It was not still, but was roving in perpetual search. Frodo knew with certainty and horror...'
On the back of this slip is scribbled the original draft of the speeches of Galadriel and Frodo beside the Mirror in FR pp. 381 - 2:
Frodo offers Galadriel the Ring. She laughs. Says he is revenged for her temptation. Confesses that the thought had occurred to her. But she will only retain the unsullied Ring. Too much evil lay in the Ruling Ring. It is not permitted to use anything that Sauron has made.
Frodo asks why he cannot see the other rings. Have you tried? You can see a little already. You have penetrated my thought deeper than many of my own folk. Also you penetrated the disguise of the Ringwraiths. And did you not see the ring on my hand? Can you see my ring? she said, turning to Sam. No, Lady, he said. I have been wondering much at all your talk.
In this passage there emerges at last and clearly the fundamental conception that the Three Rings of the Elves were not made by Sauron: 'She will only retain the unsullied Ring. Too much evil lay in the Ruling Ring. It is not permitted to use anything that Sauron has made.'
With this compare the passage from the original version of 'The Council of Elrond' (VI.404) cited on p. 155: 'The Three Rings remain still. They have conferred great power on the Elves, but they have never yet availed them in their strife with Sauron. For they came from Sauron himself, and can give no skill or knowledge that he did not already possess at their making.' In the fifth version of that chapter (p. 156) Elrond's words become: 'The Three Rings remain. But of them I am not permitted to speak. Certainly they cannot be used by us. From them the Elvenkings have derived much power, but they have not been used for war, either good or evil.' I have argued in the same place that though no longer explicit the conception must still have been that the Three Rings came from Sauron, both because Boromir asserts this without being contradicted, and because it seems to be implied by 'Certainly they cannot be used by us.' If this is so, there is at least an apparent ambiguity: 'they cannot be used by us', but 'from them the Elvenkings have derived much power' - though in 'they cannot be used by us' Elrond is evidently speaking expressly of their use for war. But any ambiguity there might be is now swept away by Galadriel's assertion: nothing that was Sauron's can be made use of: from which it must follow that the Three Rings of the Elves were of other origin. A page found wholly isolated from other manuscripts of The Lord of the Rings carries more developed drafting for Galadriel's refusal of the Ring. This page had been used already for other writing, on the subject of the origin of the Rings of Power; but I have no doubt at all that the two elements (the one in places written over and intermingled with the other) belong to the same time. This other text consists of several distinct openings to a speech, each in turn abandoned - a speech that I think was intended for Elrond at the Council in Rivendell, since the following very faint pencilling can be made out on this page: ' "Nay,> said Elrond, that is not wholly true. The rings were made by the Elves of the West, and taken from them by the Enemy..." '
The first of these openings reads thus, printed exactly as it stands:
In Ancient Days, the Rings of Power were made long ago in the lands beyond the Sea. It is said that they were first contrived by Feanor, the greatest of all the makers among the Elves. His purpose was not evil, yet in it was the Great Enemy But they were stolen by the Great Enemy and brought to Middle-earth. Three Rings he made, the Rings of Earth, Sea and Sky.
This was at once replaced by:
In Ancient Days, before he turned wholly to evil, Sauron the Great, who is now the Dark Lord that some call the Necromancer, made and contrived many things of wonder. He made Rings of Power
Then follows, written out anew, the opening sentence of the first version; and then:
In Ancient Days the Great Enemy came to the lands beyond the Sea; but his evil purpose was for a time hidden, even from the rulers of the world, and the Elves learned many things of him, for his knowledge was very great and his thoughts strange and wonderful. In those days the Rings of Power were made. It is said that they were fashioned first by Feanor the greatest of all the makers among the Elves of the West, whose skill surpassed that of all folk that are or have been. The skill was his but the thought was the Enemy's. Three Rings he made, the Rings of Earth, Sea and Sky. But secretly the Enemy made One Ring, the Ruling Ring, which controlled all the others. And when the Enemy fled across the Sea and came to Middle-earth, he stole the Rings and brought them away. And others he made like to them, and yet false.
And many others he made of lesser powers, and the elves wore them and became powerful and proud
Breaking off here, my father began once more: 'In Ancient Days the Great Enemy and Sauron his servant came'; and at this point, I think, he definitively abandoned the conception.
These extraordinary vestiges show him revolving the mode by which he should withdraw the Three Rings of the Elves from inherent evil and derivation from the Enemy. For a fleeting moment their making was set in the remote ages of Valinor and attributed to Feanor, though inspired by Morgoth: cf. the Quenta Silmarillion, V.228, $49, 'Most fair of all was Morgoth to the Elves, and he aided them in many works, if they would let him.... the Gnomes took delight in the many things of hidden knowledge that he could reveal to them.' And Morgoth stole the Rings of Feanor, as he stole the Silmarils.
The fair copy manuscript of 'Chapter XVIII, Lothlorien' (p. 235) continued on without break, following the primary draft, into the account of the arrival of the Company in Caras Galadon and the story of Galadriel's Mirror. My father's decision to divide the long chapter into two seems however to have been made at the point where Galadriel silently searched the minds of each member of the Company in turn;(29) and it had certainly been taken by an early stage in the writing of 'Farewell to Lorien' (p. 272). The new chapter (XIX) was given the title 'Galadriel', which I have adopted here; and it advances in a single stride almost to the text of FR for most of its length, though there remain some notable passages in which the final form in 'The Mirror of Galadriel' was not achieved.
When the Company came to the city of the Galadrim, Haldir said: 'Welcome to Caras Galadon, the city of Angle' (cf. p. 245 and note 1), which was changed in the act of writing to 'Welcome to Caras Galadon, the city of Lothlorien'; continuing 'where dwell the Lord Arafain and Galadriel the Lady of the Elves'. Since the present text is self-evidently the successor of the text (written over the original draft, see p. 245 and note 3) in which Keleborn and Galadriel first appear, Arafain must have been a fleeting substitution for Keleborn, which was immediately restored, and is the name as written throughout the remainder of the manuscript. The
journey round the circuit of the walls of Caras Galadon seems to have been differently conceived from its representation in the earliest version, to judge by the little sketch inserted into the manuscript (see note 2), from which it appears that the Company, coming from the north, would pass down the western side - as they did in FR (p. 368). Here, on the other hand, the city climbed 'like a green cloud upon their right', and the gates of the city 'faced eastward'.
Both Galadriel and Keleborn still have long white hair (pp. 233, 246), though this was early changed to make Galadriel's hair golden. As in the rewritten portion of the first draft, 'Aragorn' is greeted by Keleborn as 'Ingold, son of Ingrim' (p. 246 and note 6), and Ingold is his name in the text as written at subsequent occurrences in the chapter.(30) Keleborn speaks the same words to him as in the first draft: 'Your name was known to me before, though never yet in all your wanderings have you sought my house'; and no greeting to Legolas is yet reported, as it is in FR, where he is named 'son of Thranduil'. In Keleborn's opening words to the Company he says here: 'Your number should be nine: so said the messages. Can we have mistaken them? They were faint and hard to read, for Elrond is far away, and darkness gathers between us: even in this year it has grown deeper.' Galadriel then intervenes: 'Nay, there was no mistake...' (see note 7). But most notably, it is here that the history and significance of the Balrog of Moria first appears (see pp. 185-6, and p. 247 and note 11). The passage in the present version is as follows:
Ingold then recounted all that had happened upon the pass of Caradras, and in the days that followed; and he spoke of Balin and his book, and the fight in the Chamber of Mazarbul, and the fire, and the narrow bridge, and the coming of the Balrog. 'At least, that name did Legolas give to it,' said Ingold. 'I do not know what it was, save that it was both dark and fiery, and was terrible and strong.'
'It was a Balrog,' said Legolas: 'of all elf-banes the most deadly, save the One who sits in the Dark Tower.'
'A Balrog!' said Keleborn. 'Your news becomes ever more grievous. Not since the Days of Flight have I heard that one of those fell things was loose. That one slept beneath Caradras we feared. The Dwarves have never told me the tale of those days, yet we believe that it was a Balrog that they aroused long ago when they probed too deep beneath the mountains.'
'Indeed I saw upon the bridge that which haunts our darkest dreams, I saw Durin's Bane,' said Gimli in a low voice, and terror was in his eyes.
'Alas! ' said Keleborn. 'Had I known that the Dwarves had stirred up this evil in Moria again, I would have forbidden you to pass the northern borders, you and all that went with you....'
The remainder of this passage is virtually as in FR (p. 371). - Galadriel's words following 'But we will not here speak more openly of it' were at first retained exactly from the first draft (pp. 247 - 8), but were changed immediately to read thus:
'... The Lord and Lady of the Galadrim are accounted wise beyond the measure even of the Elves of Middle-earth, and of all who have not passed beyond the Seas. For we have dwelt here since the mountains were reared and the sun was young. Was it not I that summoned the White Council? And if my designs had not gone amiss, it would have been governed by Gandalf the Grey; and then mayhap things would have gone otherwise. But even now there is hope left....'(31)
The account of the thoughts and sensations of the members of the Company as Galadriel looked at each in turn at first followed closely the text of the original draft (p. 248), but this was changed, probably at once, to the form in FR (pp. 372 - 3), with however these differ- ences: whereas in the first version 'none blenched' beneath her gaze, and in FR 'none save Legolas and Aragorn could long endure her glance', here 'none of them could long endure her glance' (changed subsequently to 'none of the hobbits'); and their feelings are thus described: 'It seemed that each of them had had a similar experience, and had felt that he was offered a choice between a shadow full of fear and something he greatly desired, that lay clear before his mind lit with an alluring light.' Boromir's remarks on the subject and Ingold's reply here run:
'To me it seemed exceedingly strange,' said Boromir, 'and I do not feel too sure of this elvish lady. Maybe it was only a test, and she sought to read our thoughts for her amusement; but almost I should have said that she was tempting us, and offering us what she had the power to give. It need not be said that I refused to listen, since the gift was not offered to all alike. The Men of Minas-Tirith at least are true to their friends.' But what he thought the Lady had offered him Boromir did not tell.
'Well, whatever you may think of the Lady,' said Ingold, 'she was a friend of Gandalf, it seems. Though this was one of his secrets that he did not tell me. Tonight I shall sleep without fear for the first time since we left Rivendell...'
Nothing is said yet of Frodo's experience.(32)
A curious detail arises here, in that in the conversation of the Company in their pavilion near the fountain, before they began to discuss the encounter with Galadriel, 'they talked of their night before in the tree-tops'. At this stage in the evolution of the narrative they met the northbound Elves at Cerin Amroth, and had their blindfolds removed, on the same day as they left Nimrodel (see pp. 233, 235); the whole journey to Caras Galadon thus took a single day, and so it was indeed 'the night before' that they passed in the tree-tops. In FR (p. 364) the journey was extended, and they passed the first night after leaving Nimrodel in the woods: 'Then they rested and slept without fear upon the ground; for their guides would not permit them to unbind their eyes, and they could not climb.' In the light of this, the passage in FR (pp. 372 - 3) required revision that it did not receive: the words 'the travellers talked of their night before in the tree-tops' survive from the present version, as does Aragorn's 'But tonight I shall sleep without fear for the first time since I left Rivendell.'
The remainder of the chapter in this manuscript is very close indeed to FR. The Company 'remained many days in Lothlorien, so far as they could tell or remember', where FR has 'some days'; but the meeting with Galadriel was now on the last evening spent there, not on the evening of the third day (p. 251).(33) At first my father followed the original draft of Galadriel's reply to Frodo's questions 'What shall we look for, and what shall we see?' (ibid.), then changed it to read: 'None can tell, who do not know fully the mind of the beholder. The Mirror will show things that were, and things that are, and things that yet may be. But which it is that he sees, even the wisest cannot always tell. Do you wish to look?' This was further developed to the text of FR in an inserted rider that I think belongs to the time of the writing of the manuscript.
On the back of this inserted page is the following, struck out:
In Ancient Days Sauron the Great contrived many things of wonder. For a time his purpose was not turned wholly to evil, or was concealed; and he went much among the Elves of Middle-earth and knew their secret counsels; and they learned many things of him, for his knowledge was very great. In those days the Rings of Power were made by elven-smiths, but Sauron was present at their making: his was the thought and theirs the skill; for these Rings (he said) would give the Elves of Middle- earth power and wisdom like that of the Elves of the West. [Struck out as soon as written: They made many rings, but One and Three and Seven and Nine were rings of special potency. The One only did Sauron take as his reward]; but he cheated them. [Struck out as soon as written: For knowing the secret of the rings he] The Elves made many rings at his bidding: Three, Seven and Nine of special potency, and others of lesser virtue. But knowing the secret of their making, secretly Sauron made One Ring, the Ruling Ring that governed all the rest, and their power was bound up with it, to last only so long as it too should last. And as soon as he had made it and set it upon his hand, the Elves found that he was master of all that they had wrought; and they were filled with fear and anger. Then Sauron sought to seize all the Rings, for he saw that the Elves would not lightly submit to him. But the Elves fled and hid themselves, and the Three Rings they saved; and these Sauron could not find because the Elves
concealed them, and never again used them while Sauron's mastery endured. War and enmity has never ceased between Sauron and the Elves since those days.
It seems to have been on this page (in view of the rejected words 'The One only did Sauron take as his reward') that the final conception of the relation of the Rings of Power to Sauron emerged, at least in this essential: the Rings of Power were made by the Elven- smiths under the guidance of Sauron, but he made the One in secret to govern all the rest. (This idea had indeed been approached in one of the passages given on p. 255, but there it had been Feanor himself who made the Rings of Power, and Morgoth who made the Ruling Ring in secret.) It is not said in the passage just cited that Sauron had no part in the making of the Three, which were unsullied by his hand, although this is very clearly implied in the original draft of Galadriel's refusal of Frodo's offer of the One (p. 254).
As with the earlier passages on this subject, I do not think it was written for inclusion in 'Galadriel', but its association with this chapter is again not accidental: for here the questions of the relation of the Three to the One, and the nature of the Three, were at last - through the showing forth of the Ring of Earth on Galadriel's finger - brought to the point where they must necessarily be answered. Ultimately, this passage foreshadows that in Of the Rings of Power in The Silmarillion (pp. 287 - 8); my father at this stage probably intended it for 'The Council of Elrond' (cf. p. 255).