The History of Middle Earth: Volume 8 - The War of the Ring

by J. R. R. Tolkien

  'Well,' said Sam, standing up and tightening his belt. 'What about trying it? It'll give that flapping footpad something to think about anyway.'

  'If we are going to try today we had better try at once,' said Frodo. 'It's getting dark early. I think there's a storm coming.'

  The dark smudge of the mountains in the East was lost in a deeper blackness, that was already sending out great arms towards them. There was a distant rumble of thunder. 'There's no shelter at all down there,' said Frodo. 'Still, come on!' He stepped towards the brink.

  'Nay, Mr Frodo, me first!' cried Sam.

  'Why so eager?' said Frodo. 'Do you want to show me the way?'

  'Not me,' said Sam. 'But it's only sense. Have the one most like to slip lowest. I don't want to slip, but I don't want to slip and come down atop of you and knock you off.'

  'But [?I'd] do the same to you.'

  'Then you'll have something soft to fall on,' said Sam, throwing his legs over the edge, and turning his face to the wall.. His toes found a ledge and he grunted. 'Now where do we put our hands next?' he muttered.

  'There's a much wider ledge about twice your height below you,' said Frodo from above, 'if you can slide down to it.' 'If!' said Sam. 'And what then?' 'Come, I'll get alongside and try it, and then we need not quarrel about first or second.' Frodo slid quickly down till he stood splayed against the cliff a yard or two to the right of Sam. But he could find no handhold between the cliff-top and the narrow ledge at his toes, and though the slope lean[t] forwards (9) he had not the skill nor the head to make the passage to the wider foothold below.

  From about this point the text becomes increasingly rough and increasingly difficult to read: I reproduce a leaf of the manuscript on p. 90 (for the text of this leaf as best as I can interpret it see p. 91).

  'Hm!' grunted Sam. 'Here we are side by side, like flies on a fly-paper.'

  'But we can at least still get back,' said Frodo. 'At least I can. There's a hold just above my head.'

  'Then you'd best get back,' said Sam. 'I can't manage this, and my toes are aching cruel already.'

  Frodo hauled himself back with some difficulty, but he found that he could not help Sam. When he leaned down as far as he dared Sam's upstretched hand was just out of reach.

  'Lor, this is a pickle I am in,' said poor Sam, and his voice began to quaver. The eastern sky grew black as night. The thunder rolled nearer.

  'Hold up, Sam,' said Frodo. 'Just wait till I get my belt off.' He lowered it buckle first. 'Can you grasp it?'

  'Aye,' said Sam. 'A bit lower till I get my two hands on it.' 'But now I haven't enough to hold myself, and anyway I can't lean back or get my foot against a stop,' said Frodo. 'You'll just pull me over, or pull the belt out of my hands. 0 for a rope.' 'Rope,' said Sam. 'I just deserve to hang here all night, I do. You're nobbut a ninnyhammer Sam Gamgee: that's what the Gaffer said to me many a time, that being a word of his. Rope. There is one of those grey ropes in my pack. You know, that one we got with the boats in Lorien. I took a fancy to it and stowed it away.'

  'But the pack's on your back,' said Frodo, 'and I can't reach it, and you can't toss it up.'

  'It did ought to be but it ain't,' said Sam. 'You've got my pack,' said Sam.

  [?'How's that?'].....

  'Now do make haste, Mr Frodo, or my toes'll break,' said Sam. 'The rope's my only chance.' It did not take Frodo long to tip up the pack, and there indeed at the bottom was a long coil of silk[en] grey rope. In a moment Sam [?tied] an end round his waist and ... clutched ... above his head [?with].(10) Frodo ran back from the brink and braced his foot against a crevice. Half hauled, half scrambling Sam came puffing and blowing up the few feet of cliff that had baffled him. He sat down and stroked his toes.

  'Numbpate and Ninnyhammer,' he repeated. 'How long's that rope, I wonder.' Frodo wound it [?round his] elbows. '10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 hobbit-ells,' he said. 'Who'd have thought it.'

  'Ah, who would,' said Sam. 'A bit thin, but it seems mighty tough. Soft to the hand as milk. 80 ells.(11) Well, one of us can get down, seemingly, or near enough, if your guess weren't far out.' 'That would not be much good,' said Frodo. 'You down and me up, or the other way. Is there nothing to make an end fast to up here?'

  'What,' said Sam, 'and leave all handy for that Gollum!'

  'Well,' said Frodo after some thought. 'I am going down with the rope on, and you're going to hold on to the end up here. But I am only going to use the rope for a precaution. I am going to see if I can find a way down that I can use without a rope. Then I climb up with your help, and then you go down with the rope and I follow. How's that?'

  Sam scratched his head. 'I don't like it, Mr Frodo,' he said, 'but it seems the only thing to do. Pity we didn't think out this rock-climbing business before we started. I'll have to stand down there [?staring] and waiting to catch you. Do you be

  careful.'

  Frodo went to the edge again. A few yards from the brink he thought he saw a better point for a descent. 'I am going to try here,' he said. 'Get a purchase somewhere Sam for your foot, but don't let the rope [?saw] over a [?sharp... edge]. It may be elf-spun, but I shouldn't try it too far.' He stepped over the brink ... There was a ledge for his feet before he had gone his full height down: it sloped gently downward to the right. 'Don't pull on the rope unless I shout,' he said, and he had disappeared.

  1The rope lay slack for a long while as Sam stared at it. Suddenly it drew taut, and nearly caught him at unawares. He braced his feet, and wondering [read wondered] what had happened and whether his master was now dangling in mid-air at the far rope's end, but not [read no] cry came, and the rope went slack again. After a long while as it seemed he thought he heard a faint hail. He listened, it came again, and cautiously he crawled to the brink taking in the slack as he went. The darkness was drawing nearer - and it seemed dim below; but in his grey cloak Frodo if he was there was quite invisible. But something white fluttered and the shout came up clear now. 'It's all right, not too difficult at all except in one place. I'm down.

  [?I've] 3 ells of rope to spare. Slowly [?to take] my weight ...

  I'm coming up and shall use the rope.'

  In about 10 mins. he reappeared over the edge and threw himself down by Sam. 'That's that,' he said. 'I'll be glad of a short rest. Down you go now - he described the route as best he could and direct[ed] Sam to hail when he came to the bad place.

  'I slipped there,' he said, 'and [?should have gone] but for the rope, a little over halfway down, quite a drop [?start to finish].

  But I think I can just ... you.(12) Pay it out slowly and take the weight off on any ledge you come on. Good luck.'

  With a grim face Sam went to the edge, [?turned], and found the first ledge. 'Good luck,' said Frodo. ... [?time to time] the rope went slack as Sam found some ledge to rest ..., but for the most part his weight was taken by the rope. It was ..... minutes before Frodo heard his call.

  First he lowered his pack by the rope, then he cast it loose. He was left alone at the top. At that moment there was a great clap of dry thunder overhead and the sky grew dark. The storm was coming up the Emyn Muil on its way to Rohan and to the Hornburg far away where the riders were at bay.(13) He heard Sam cry from below, but could not make out the words, nor see Sam's pointing hands. But something made him look back. There not far away on a rock behind and overlooking him was a black figure [?whose glimmer(ing)] eyes like distant lamps were fixed on him. Unreasoning fear seized him for a moment - for after all it was Gollum there, it was not a whole.........., and he had Sting at his belt and mithril beneath his jacket: but he did not stop to think of these things. He stepped over the edge, which for the moment frightened him less, and began to climb down. Haste seemed to aid him, and all went well until he came to the bad place.

  Perhaps my father was at just about this point when he wrote on 5 April 1944, in the letter cited on p. 78, that'at the moment they are just meeting Gollum on a precipice'. - From here to the end of the draft there are so many
'bad places' and even sheer drops that I shall not attempt to represent the text as it stands. There follows an account of Frodo's descent: how he slipped again, and slithered down the cliff-face clinging with his fingers till he came up with a jolt, nearly losing his balance, on a wide ledge - 'and after that he was soon down.' There came then the great storm of wind and thunder, with a torrent of rain lashing down; and looking up 'they could see two tiny points of light at the cliff edge before the curtain of rain blotted them out. "Thank goodness you've done it," said Sam. "I near swallowed my heart when you slipped. Did you see him? I thought so, when you started to climb so quick." "I did," said Frodo. "But I think we've set ˛ him a bit of a puzzle for those [?soft padding] feet of his. But let's look about here. Is there no shelter from the storm?" '

  They looked for shelter, and found some fallen rocks lying against the foot of the cliff, but the ground was wet and soggy; they themselves were not drenched through apparently on account of the elven-cloaks (this passage is very largely illegible). The storm passed on over the Emyn Muil and stars came out; 'far away the sun had set behind Isengard'. The draft ends with Sam's saying: 'It's no good going that way [i.e. towards the marshes] in the dark and at night. Even on this trip we've had better camping-places: but here we'd best stay.'

  There was very evidently great need for a better text: my father himself would have had difficulty with this, when the precise thought behind the words had dimmed. He began again therefore at the beginning of the chapter, giving it now its title and number (XXXII) and the completed manuscript ('D') that evolved from this new start was the only one that he made (i.e., subsequent texts are typescripts). The opening of the chapter (text B), which went hack to the time before the long break during 1943 - 4 (p. 86), was written out again, and effectively reached the form in TT (but when the story opens it was still 'the fifth evening' since they had fled from the Company, not as in TT the third: see the Note on Chronology at the end of this chapter).

  When my father came to the point where his new draft (C) took up the tale ('The sun was caught into clouds and night came suddenly', p. 86), beyond rounding out the expression and making it less staccato he did not at first change any feature of the story until the beginning of the attempt to climb down - apart from introducing the point that on the last day in the Emyn Muil Sam and Frodo had been making their way along at some distance from the outer precipice, perhaps to explain why it was that they had not observed that the cliff was now less high and no longer sheer; but the long gully or ravine by which in TT they made their way to the precipice when their way forward was blocked was not yet present. The fir-trees in the gully would have a narrative function in the final form of the story, in that 'old broken stumps straggled on almost to the cliff's brink' (TT p. 212): for Sam would brace his foot against one of those stumps, and tie the rope to it (TT pp. 215 - 16), in contrast to text C, p. 89 ('Is there nothing to make an end fast to up here?' ... 'I am going down with the rope on, and you're going to hold on to the end up here').

  My father at first retained the story in C (p. 88) that Frodo followed Sam over the edge and that they both stood splayed against the rock-face together, until Frodo climbed back up again. But as he wrote he changed this: before Frodo had time to say anything to Sam,

  The next moment he gave a sharp cry and slithered downwards. He came up with a jolt to his toes on a broader ledge a few feet lower down. Fortunately the rockface leant well forwards, and he did not lose his balance. He could just reach the ledge he had left with his fingers.

  'Well, that's another step down,' he said. 'But what next?'

  'I don't know,' said Frodo peering over. 'The light's getting so dim. You started off a bit too quick, before we'd had a good look. But the ledge you're on gets much broader to the right. If you could edge along that way, you'd have room enough, I think, to stoop and get your hands down and try for the next ledge below.'

  Sam shuffled a little, and then stood still, breathing hard. 'No, I can't do it,' he panted. 'I'm going giddy. Can't I get back? My toes are hurting cruelly already.'

  Frodo leaned over as far as he dared, but he could not help. Sam's fingers were well out of his reach.

  'What's to be done?' said Sam, and his voice quavered. 'Here am I stuck like a fly on a fly-paper, only flies can't fall off, and I can.' The eastern sky was growing black as night, and the thunder rolled nearer.

  'Hold on, Sam! ' said Frodo. 'Half a moment, till I get my belt off.'

  Having thus got rid of the unnecessary incident of Frodo's going down to the first ledge with Sam and then climbing back again, the new text then follows the former (C) - the failure of the experiment with the belt, Sam's sudden recollection of the rope, and his telling Frodo that they are wearing each other's packs - as far as 'He sat down well away from the edge and rubbed his feet' (p. 89; he felt 'as if he had been rescued from deep waters or a fathomless mine').

  'Numbpate and Ninnyhammer!' he muttered.

  'Well, now you're back,' said Frodo, laughing with relief, 'you can explain this business about the packs.'

  'Easy,' said Sam. 'We got up in the dim light this morning and you just picked mine up. I noticed it and was going to speak up, when I noticed that yours was a tidier sight heavier than mine. I reckoned you'd been carrying more than your share of tackle and what not ever since I set off in such a hurry, so I thought I'd take a turn. And I thought less said less argument.'

  'Well meant cheek,' said Frodo; 'but you've been rewarded for the well meaning anyway.' They sat for a while and the gloom grew greater.

  'Numbpate,' said Sam suddenly, slapping his forehead. 'How long's that rope, I wonder.'

  Here my father abandoned this story, feeling perhaps that it was all becoming too complicated, and rejecting these new pages he returned again, not to the beginning of the chapter, but to the beginning of the draft C, that is to say to the point where Frodo and Sam awoke on their last morning in the Emyn Muil (p. 86), with Frodo now saying, in answer to Sam's question 'Did you see them again, Mr Frodo?', 'No, I have heard nothing for three nights now.' From this point the final story was built up in the completed manuscript D. Some of it was written out first on independent draft pages,(14) but some of the pencilled drafting was overwritten in ink and included in the manuscript. It is plain, however, that the final story now evolved confidently and clearly, and since there is very little of significant difference to the narrative to be observed in those parts of the initial drafting that I have been able to read, I doubt that there is any more in those that I have not.

  My father now saw at last how Sam and Frodo did manage the descent from the Emyn Muil, and he resolved their difficulty about leaving the rope hanging from the cliff-top for Gollum to use by simply not introducing the question into their calculations until they had both reached the bottom. In this text the further course of the storm was described thus:

  The skirts of the storm were lifting, ragged and wet, and the main battle had passed - hastening with wind and thunder over the Emyn Muil, over Anduin, over the fields of Rohan, on to the Hornburg where the King Théoden stood at bay that night, and the Tindtorras now stood dark against the last lurid glow.

  At a later stage (see the Note on Chronology at the end of this chapter) the following was substituted:

  The skirts of the storm were lifting, ragged and wet, and the main battle had passed to spread its great wings over the Emyn Muil, upon which the dark thought of Sauron brooded for a while. Thence it turned, smiting the vale of Anduin with hail and lightning, and rolled on slowly through the night, mile by mile over Gondor and the fields of Rohan, until far away the Riders on the plain saw its black shadow moving behind the sun, as they rode with war into the West.

  Sam's uncle, the Gaffer's eldest brother, owner of the rope-walk 'over by Tighfield', now appears (cf. VII.235), but he was at first called Obadiah Gamgee, not Andy.

  The earlier drafts did not reach the point of Gollum's descent of the diff-face, and it may be that my father had foreseen
it long since. On the manuscript of the outline 'The Story Foreseen from Lorien' he struck out his first ideas for the encounter of Frodo and Sam with Gollum, and wrote: 'Steep place where Frodo has to climb a precipice. Sam goes first so that if Frodo falls he will knock Sam down first. They see Gollum come down by moonlight like a fly' (see VII.329 and note 15). But there is no way of knowing when he wrote this, whether when he first began writing 'The Taming of Smeagol', or when he took it up again in April 1944.

  In initial drafting the discussion between Sam and Frodo after Gollum's capture, in which Frodo heard 'a voice out of the past', went like this:

  'No,' said Frodo. 'We must kill him right out, Sam, if we do anything. But we can't do that, not as things are. It's against the rules. He's done us no harm.'

  'But he means to / meant to, I'll take my word,' said Sam.

  'I daresay,' said Frodo. 'But that's another matter.' Then he seemed to hear a voice out of the past saying to him: Even Gollum I fancy may have his uses before all's over. 'Yes, yes, may be,' he answered. 'But anyway I can't touch the creature. I wish he could be cured. He's so horribly wretched.'

  Sam stared at his master, who seemed to be talking to someone .. else not there.

  At this stage in the evolution of the chapter 'Ancient History', at the point in his conversation with Gandalf at Bag End which Frodo was remembering, the text of the 'second phase' version (given in VI.264-5) had been little changed. The actual reading of the 'current' ('fourth phase') text of 'Ancient History' (cf. VII.28) is: