11. As the rider was first written there was this difference from the text of TT (p. 251):
For one thing he noted Gollum used I, as he had hardly done since he was frightened out of his old bad wits away back under the cliff of Emyn Muil.
This was changed to: '... Gollum used I, and that seemed usually to be a sign, on its rare appearances, that Smeagol was (for the moment) on top', and then to the final text.
12. Even if this was so, it cannot be supposed that my father still thought that Frodo and Sam would enter Minas Morgul, and encounter the Silent Watchers there. The outline with which the draft text ends (p. 125) would obviously have said so if that had been in his mind. Moreover, not long after, in his letter of 30 April 1944 (Letters no. 64), he said that 'in the chapter next to be done they will get to Kirith Ungol and Frodo will be caught.'
13. It is hard to be sure, but it seems from the manuscript evidence that originally Sam's word was oliphant, and that oliphaunt was used only in the rhyme. - The form is mediaeval French and English olifa(u)nt. There are no differences in the texts, except that in the draft version and in the form cited in my father's letter line 11 reads 'I've stumped' for 'I stump', and in line 15 'Biggest of all' is written 'Biggest of All'.
Note on the Chronology.
Where was Gandalf when Frodo, in hiding before the Morannon, was thinking of him? Four versions of the passage in question (TT p. 252) have been given on pp. 126-7. The original draft (1) seems to leave it open whether Gandalf was riding across Rohan or was almost at the end of his journey, climbing the road to the gates of Minas Tirith; in the following manuscript (2) he was standing on the walls of Minas Tirith; in the second manuscript (3) he was again riding across Rohan; and finally (4), as in TT, he was standing on the steps of Orthanc. These versions reflect, of course, the difficulty my father encountered in bringing the different threads of the narrative into chronological harmony. According to the 'received chronology' at this time, the day in question here (spent by Frodo, Sam and Gollum in hiding before the Morannon) was 5 February (see p. 118); while Gandalf, Théoden and their companions left Isengard in the evening of 3 February (pp. 6, 73), camping at Dol Baran that night - the great ride of Gandalf with Pippin therefore began during the night of 3-4 February.
At the end of the fine manuscript of 'The Palantír' that my father had made at the beginning of April 1944 (p. 78) Gandalf had said to Pippin as they passed near the mouth of the Deeping Coomb, following the first manuscript of the chapter: 'You may see the first glimmer of dawn upon the golden roof of the House of Eorl. At sunset on the day after you shall see the purple shadow of Mount Mindolluin fall upon the walls of the tower of Denethor.' This was said, according to the chronology at the time, in the small hours of the night of 3-4 February; and Gandalf was therefore forecasting that they would reach Minas Tirith at sunset on the fifth.
This is the chronology underlying the words of the original draft (version 1). Subsequent shifting in the dates, so that Gandalf and Pippin reached Minas Tirith later and Frodo reached the Morannon earlier, meant that Gandalf was less far advanced in his journey, but his ride across Rohan still coincided with Frodo at the Morannon (version 3). None of the time-schemes, however, allows Gandalf to have actually reached Minas Tirith at that time, and I cannot explain version 2.
The final version 4 of this passage, as found in TT, reflects of course the final chronology, according to which Frodo was in hiding before the Black Gate on the same day {5 March) as Gandalf spoke with Saruman on the steps of Orthanc.
IV. OF HERBS AND STEWED RABBIT.
For this chapter, written as a continuation of 'The Black Gate is Closed' and only separated from it and numbered 'XXXV' after its completion, there exists a good deal of (discontinuous) initial drafting, some of it illegible, and a completed manuscript, some of which is itself the primary composition. As in the last chapter I distinguish the texts as 'draft' and 'manuscript' (in this case no other manuscript was made, see p. 121).
On 26 April 1944, in a letter to me already cited (p. 121), my father said that on the previous day he had 'struggled with a recalcitrant passage in "The Ring" ', and then went on to say that 'at this point I require to know how much later the moon gets up each night when nearing full, and how to stew a rabbit!' From drafts and manuscript it is easy to see what this recalcitrant passage was: the southward journey as far as the point where Sam's thoughts turned to the possibility of finding food more appetizing than the waybread of the Elves (TT p. 260).
The original draft begins thus:
They rested for the few hours of daylight that were left, ate a little and drank sparingly, though they had hope of water soon in the streams that flowed down into Anduin from Hebel Dúath. As the dusk deepened they set out. The moon did not rise till late and it grew soon dark. After a few miles over broken slopes and difficult [? country] they took to the southward road, for they needed speed. Ever they listened with straining ears for sounds of foot or hoof upon the road ahead and behind ...
After the description of the road, kept in repair below the Morannon but further south encroached upon by the wild, the opening draft peters out, and at this point, probably, my father began the writing of the manuscript. Here the single red light in the Towers of the Teeth appears, but they passed out of sight of it after only a few miles, 'turning away southward round a great dark shoulder of the lower mountains', whereas in TT this took place 'when night was growing old and they were already weary'.(1) In this text they came to the less barren lands, with thickets of trees on the slopes, during that first night, and the shrubs which in TT the hobbits did not know (being strange to them) were here 'unrecognizable in the dark'. After a short rest about midnight Gollum led them down onto the southward road, the description of which follows.
The precise sequence of composition as between drafts and manuscript is hard to work out, but I think that it was probably at this point that my father wrote a very brief outline for the story to come, together with notes on names. Frustratingly, his writing here has in places resisted all attempts to puzzle it out.
After so much labour and peril the days they spent on it seemed almost a rest. In Gollum's reckoning it was some 20 [changed from some other figure] leagues from the Morannon to the outer wards of Minas Morghul, maybe more. Gollum finds food. Night of Full Moon, they see a white... far away up in the dark shadow of the hills to left, at head of a wide [?re-entrant, sc. valley], Minas Morghul.(2) Next night they come to the cross roads. An[d] a great [?stone] figure ... (3) back to Elostirion ... [Struck out: Sarnel Ubed.(4) Ennyn. Aran] Taur Toralt [struck out: Sarn Torath.] Annon Torath. Aranath. reminding Frodo of the Kings at Sern Aranath. or Sairn Ubed.
But his head was struck off and in mockery some orcs? had set ... a clay ball with ... The red eye was ... [?painted over].(5)
For Sern Aranath as the name of the Pillars of the Kings see VII.366 note 21; and cf. TT p. 311 (at the end of 'Journey to the Cross-roads'): 'The brief glow fell upon a huge sitting figure, still and solemn as the great stone kings of Argonath.' It is not clear to me whether Sairn Ubed is an alternative to Sern Aranath. On this same page, later but not much later, my father made further notes on names (see p. 137), and among these appears the following:
The two King Stones Sern Ubed (denial)
Sern Aranath
The word denial makes one think of the description of the Pillars of the Kings in 'The Great River' (FR p. 409), where in the earliest draft of that passage (VII.360) 'the left hand of each was raised beside his head palm outwards in gesture of warning and refusal.'(6)
It is plain from this text that at this time the emergence of Faramir and the Window on the West was totally unforeseen, while on the other hand the broken statue at the Cross-roads was already present.
The next step in the development of the 'recalcitrant passage' is seen, I think, in what follows the description of the southward road in the manuscript:
After the labours and perils they had just endured the days t
hat they spent upon the road seemed almost pleasant, though fear was about them and darkness lay before them. The weather now was good, though the wind blowing from the north-west over the Misty Mountains far away had a sharp tooth. They passed on into the northern marches of that land that men once called Ithilien, a fair country of climbing woods and swift falling streams. In Gollum's reckoning it was some thirty leagues from the Morannon to the crossing of the ways above Elostirion, and he hoped to cover that distance in three journeys. But maybe the distance was greater or they went slower than he hoped, for at the end of the third night they had not come there.
This passage was rejected at once, but before this was done 'thirty leagues' was changed to 'twenty', and it was perhaps at this time that a sentence was added earlier, following 'But they were not going quick enough for Gollum' (TT p. 256): 'In his reckoning it was twenty leagues from the Morannon to the crossing of the ways above Osgiliath,(7) and he hoped to cover that distance in three journeys' (where TT has 'nearly thirty leagues' and 'four journeys').
My father now, if my analysis of the sequence is correct, decided that he was treating the journey from the Morannon to the Crossroads too cursorily; and his next step, on the same page of the manuscript, was to return to the first night (which was that of 5 February):
All that night they plodded on, and all the next. The road drew ever nearer to the course of the Great River and further from the shadow of Hebel Dúath on their left. That second night the moon was full. Not long before the dawn they saw it sinking round and yellow far beyond the great vale below them.
Here and there a white gleam showed where Anduin rolled, a mighty stream swollen with the waters of Emyn Muil and of slow-winding Entwash. Far far away, pale ghosts above the mists, the peaks of the Black Mountains were caught by the beaming moon. There glimmered through the night the snows on Mount Mindolluin; but though Frodo's eyes stared out into the west wondering where in the vastness of the land his old companions might now be, he did not know that under
This passage was in its turn struck out. The last words stand at the foot of a page.(8)
It was now, as it seems, that my father decided to introduce the episode of the rabbits caught by Gollum (developing it from the passage where it first appears, given in note 6).
All that night they plodded on. At the first sign of day they halted, and lay beneath a bank in a brake of old brown bracken overshadowed by dark pinetrees. Water flowed down not far away, cold out of the hills, and good to drink.
Sam had been giving some earnest thought to food as they marched. Now that the despair of the impassable Gate was behind him, he did not feel so inclined as his master to take no thought for their livelihood beyond the end of their errand; and anyway it seemed wiser to him to save the elvish bread for worse times ahead. Two days or more had gone since he reckoned that they had a bare supply for three weeks.(9) 'If we reach the Fire in that time we'll be lucky at this rate,' he thought. 'And we may be wanting to come back. We may.' Besides at the end of [?their] long night march he felt more hungry than usual.
With all this in his mind he turned to look for Gollum. Gollum was crawling away through the bracken. 'Hi! ' said Sam. 'Where are you going? Hunting? Now look here, my friend, you don't like our food, but if you could find something fit for a hobbit to eat I'd be grateful.'
Yes, yess.
Gollum brings back 2 rabbits. Angry at fire (a) fear (b) rage at nice juicy rabbits being spoiled. Pacified by Frodo (promise of fish?).
Night of full moon and vision of Anduin.
Third night. They do not reach the cross ways. [?Trying] to hasten they journey by day through wood. They come to cross ways and peer at it out of thicket.
The headless king with a mocking head made by orcs and scrawls on it.
That night they turn left. Vision of Minas Morghul in the moon high up in re-entrant.(10)
Here this text ends, and was followed by another draft, beginning precisely as does that just given, in which the story of Sam's cooking was developed almost to the final form. On one of the pages of this text my father pencilled a note: 'Describe baytrees and spicy herbs as they march.' It was thus the cooking of the rabbits that led to the account of the shrubs and herbs of Ithilien (TT p. 258) - 'which is proving a lovely land', as he said in his letter of 30 April 1944 {Letters no. 64).
He now returned again to the fair copy manuscript, and without changing, then or later, the opening of the chapter he wrote the story almost as it stands in TT, pp. 258 ff. (from 'So they passed into the northern marches of that land that Men once called Ithilien'). At this stage, therefore, the chronology of the journey was thus:
Feb. 5 Left the Morannon at dusk, and came into a less barren country of heathland. Took to the southward road about midnight (p. 132).
Feb. 6 Halted at dawn. Description of Ithilien and its herbs and flowers. Sam's cooking, and the coming of the men of Gondor.
With the introduction of a long rider to the following typescript text an extra day and night were inserted into the journey between the Morannon and the place of Sam's cooking (see the Note on Chronology at the end of this chapter). At dawn of this added day they found themselves in a less barren country of heathland, and they passed the day hidden in deep heather (TT p. 257); at dusk they set out again, and only now took to the southward road.
At the end of the episode of 'Stewed Rabbit' there is a brief sketch in the manuscript of the story to come, written in pencil so rapid that I cannot make all of it out; but it can be seen that Sam finds that Gollum is not there; he puts out the fire and runs down to wash the pans; he hears voices, and suddenly sees a couple of men chasing Gollum. Gollum eludes their grasp and vanishes into a tangled thicket. They go on up the hill, and Sam hears them laugh. 'Not an orc,' says one. Sam creeps back to Frodo, who has also heard voices and hidden himself, and they see many men creeping up towards the road.
Another page found separately seems quite likely to be the continuation of this outline, and is equally hard to read. There is to be a description of men like Boromir, dressed in lighter and darker green, armed with knives; the hobbits wonder who they are - they are certainly not scouts of Sauron. The fight on the road between the men of Harad and the men of Minas Tirith is mentioned; then follows:
A slain Tirith-man falls over bank and crashes down on them.
Frodo goes to him and he cries orch and tries to ... but falls dead crying 'Gondor!' The Harad-men drive the Gondorians [?down] hill. The hobbits creep away through thickets. At last they climb tree. See Gondorians fight and win finally. At dusk Gollum climbs up to them. He curses Sam for [?bringing enemies]. They dare not go back to road, but wander on through the wild glades of Ithilien that night. See Full Moon.
Meet no more folk.
Strike the road to Osgiliath far down, and have to go back long [?detour] East. Deep Ilex woods. Gollum goes [?on] by day. Evening of third day they reach Cross ways. See broken statue.(11)
The story of the ambush (12) of the Southron men thus seems at this stage to have had no sequel. But from the point where this outline begins (when Sam calls to Gollum that there is some rabbit left if he wants to change his mind, but finds that he has disappeared, TT p. 264) the final form of the story, partly extant in rough drafting, was achieved without hesitation - with, however, one major difference: the leader of the Gondorians was not Faramir, brother of Boromir. At this time he was Falborn son of Anborn (and remained so in the manuscript). Mablung and Damrod, the two men who were left to guard Frodo and Sam,(13) told them that Falborn was a kinsman of Boromir, and that 'he and they were Rangers of Ithilien, for they were descended from folk who lived in Ithilien at one time, before it was overrun' (cf. TT p. 267).
For the rest, Falborn's conversation with Frodo and Sam proceeds almost exactly as does that with Faramir in TT.(14) Mablung and Damrod used 'sometimes the Common Speech, but after the manner of older days, sometimes some other language of their own', but the description of this other tongue (TT p. 267) was added t
o the typescript that followed the manuscript at some later time. Their account of the Southrons scarcely differs from the final form, but where Mablung in TT (p. 268) speaks of 'These cursed Southrons', in the manuscript he says 'These cursed Barangils, for so we name them' (subsequently changed to the later reading). The name Barangils is written on the First Map beside Swertings (see Map III, VII.309).
The account of the Oliphaunt was never changed, save only in the name by which the great beasts were known in Gondor (Mûmak in TT). In the original draft Mablung (15) cried Andabund!, and this was the form first written in the manuscript also. This was changed to Andrabonn,(16) then to Mumund. These were immediate changes, for a few lines later appears 'the Mumund of Harad was indeed a beast of vast bulk', where drafting for the passage has Mumar. Soon after, the form Mamuk was introduced in both passages: this was the form my father used in his letter to me of 6 May 1944 (Letters no. 66).
Lastly, in the manuscript Damrod cries 'May the gods turn him aside', where in TT he names the Valar; gods was preceded by a rejected word that I cannot interpret.
On 30 April 1944 (Letters no. 64) my father described to me the course of the story that I had not read:
['The Ring'] is growing and sprouting again ... and opening out in unexpected ways. So far in the new chapters Frodo and Sam have traversed Sarn Gebir,(17) climbed down the cliff, encountered and temporarily tamed Gollum. They have with his guidance crossed the Dead Marshes and the slag-heaps of Mordor, lain in hiding outside the main gates and found them impassable, and set out for a more secret entrance near Minas Morghul (formerly M. Ithil). It will turn out to be the deadly Kirith Ungol and Gollum will play false. But at the moment they are in Ithilien (which is proving a lovely land); there has been a lot of bother about stewed rabbit; and they have been captured by Gondorians, and witnessed them ambushing a Swerting army (dark men of the South) marching to Mordor's aid. A large elephant of prehistoric size, a war-elephant of the Swertings, is loose, and Sam has gratified a life-long wish to see an Oliphaunt ... In the chapter next to be done they will get to Kirith Ungol and Frodo will be caught.... On the whole Sam is behaving well, and living up to repute. He treats Gollum rather like Ariel to Caliban.
The History of Middle Earth: Volume 8 - The War of the Ring Page 17
