5. Here and subsequently, and again in text B, the river's name is written Snowborn, but at two of the occurrences in A the u was inserted.
6. At this point my father drew in the text a very simple little sketch of the 'upland field' set into the mountain's side, essentially the same as the lower of the two sketches on the page reproduced on p. 239, but without the falling stream.
7. My father first wrote 'ale of Hama', i.e. his 'funeral-ale', funeral feast (cf. bridal from bride-ale, marriage feast). He changed this to ... ale of Hama, intending some compound term of the same sense, but I cannot decipher it.
8. This is a reference to Théoden's words to Merry and Pippin at the end of 'The Road to Isengard': 'May we meet again in my house! There you shall sit beside me ...'
9. This contradicts the statement a few lines above that 'Éowyn comes forth and greets Théoden and Aragorn.' The story that Aragorn (with Legolas and Gimli) had gone on ahead and reached Dunharrow before Théoden is not present in text B, which undoubtedly followed A; it appears however in the time-schemes C and D (pp. 140-1).
10. Halbarad first appeared in The Lord of the Rings as the name of Shadowfax: see VII.152, 390.
11. The Sea of Nurnen, the Nargil Pass, and the River Harnen all appear on the First Map (Map III, VII.309). - The text ends with a reference to Umbar that I cannot decipher.
12. Éowyn was struck out, and wine! written in the margin; which I take to mean that Éowyn was not seated, for she bore the wine.
13. The queries might mean that my father was uncertain of the correctness of his interpretation of the pencilled forms (in the one case it might be Umbor or Umbar; in the other the second vowel of Nargil, Nargul cannot now be read under the ink overlay). But this does not seem very likely. Both these names appear in text A (p. 237), where Nargil is clear, though Umbar could be read as Umbor. Umbar and Haven of Umbar appear on the First Map (VII.309) and on the map that I made in 1943; and on the latter the pass through the southern mountains of Mordor is named Nargil (on the First Map the name was pencilled in roughly and is hard to read, but was apparently Narghil, VII.310).
14. As originally drawn, a pass over the mountains in this region is clearly defined on the First Map: see Map IV", square P11 (VII.314), connecting to Map III, square Q 11 (VII.309). Here the Blackroot rises in an oval lake. With the superimposed portion Map IV(D-E) (VII.319) the connections become unclear, especially since a different convention was used in the representation of the mountains, but at any rate there is no clear indication of a pass. The 1943 map retains the oval lake and the broad pass, but its relation to the First Map is here difficult to interpret (VII.320). Possibly it was to this feature that my father referred in his note on that map (VII.321 note 1): The White Mountains are not in accord with the story'. On late maps, as is to be expected, no pass breaks the line of the mountains.
15. In the Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings (A Tolkien Compass, ed. Lobdell, p. 200) my father noted of the name Pûkel-men: 'It represents Old English pucel (still surviving as puckle), one of the forms of the puk- stem (widespread in England, Wales, Ireland, Norway and Iceland) referring to a devil, or to a minor sprite such as Puck, and often applied to ugly misshapen persons.'
16. In place of this, RK has: '... a winding line of Riders crossing the ford and filing along the road towards the camp prepared for them. Only the king and his guard were going up into the Hold.'
17. RK has here: 'Such was the dark Dunharrow, the work of long-forgotten men'; cf. text H, p. 251.
18. At this point my father's writing suddenly becomes very much more rapid and rough.
19. Cf. 'The King of the Golden Hall' in VII.447, where Aragorn says: 'If I live, I will come, Lady Éowyn, and then maybe we will ride together.'
20. I think that Éowyn's naming her father Éothain is most likely to be a mere slip, for Éomund father of Eomer and Éowyn was established (VII.393 etc.), and Éothain was the name of Eomer's squire (VII.400-2); but see further p. 350 and note 13. In LR Appendix A (II) it is said that Éomund, chief Marshal of the Mark, was slain in the year 3002 in pursuit of Orcs on the borders of the Emyn Muil.
21. Old English fyrgen, firgen 'mountain', the word fyrgen-holt 'mountain-wood' occurs in Beowulf, line 1393. - Afterwards, when the Firien had become the Dwimorberg and the Firienholt the Dimholt, the Firienfeld remained (RK p. 67).
22. This name undoubtedly begins with An, and the word preceding it is almost certainly 'in'; equally certainly it is this same name that appears below, as the land of the prince Benrodir. The remaining letters of the name are uninterpretable as they stand, but their vague shapes do not exclude 'Anárion', and this name, found on the First Map (VII.309) of the region south of Minas Tirith, appears in the notes E on p. 243: 'A fleet has put out... and sailed up the Anduin and reached Anárion' (see further p. 244).
23. This lacuna is where the page is torn across, cutting through a line of text. It might perhaps be read, but very uncertainly, as 'from the vale of Morthond and his ... sons, dark-haired, grey-eyed'.
24. Nosdiligand: the second and third letters of this name are not perfectly clear, but can hardly be other than os. Without striking through the first syllable my father wrote another form above, apparently Northiligand.
25. The illegible words might just possibly be 'fugitives' and 'representing'.
26. My father called it a 'catalogue': pp. 229, 263.
27 These messages, distinct of course from those just referred to, must have been sent from Isengard or Helm's Deep.
28. The illegible word might possibly be 'morn(ing)'.
29. It is not clear whether 'Reach battle Feb. 15' refers to the Ents or to the Rohirrim; but in any case the Ents were certainly present after the siege of Minas Tirith was relieved ('Elves and Ents drive Orcs back'; cf. also outline II $4 'Elves of Lórien and Ents come from North', and similarly outline III $4). Thus the original idea that 'tree-giants' (see VI.410), or Treebeard (see VII.211, 214), played a part in the breaking of the siege survived at least in the idea that Ents were present in the last stage of the war in the South, though this would never receive narrative form. See further pp. 343, 345-6, 361.
30 Cf. the notes given in VII.448: 'Probably Éowyn should die to avenge or save Théoden.' These notes contain also the suggestion that the mutual love of Éowyn and Aragorn should be removed.
31 This is the date given in the time-scheme D (p. 182); see the Note on Chronology following.
32. The last two letters of this name might be read as du, sc. Mordu.
33. With this cf. the outline 'The Story Foreseen from Fangorn' (VII.438): 'Then return to Frodo. Make him look out into impenetrable night. Then use phial ... By its light he sees the forces of deliverance approach and the dark host go out to meet them'; also p. 230 in this book.
34. Cf. the outline given in VII.448: 'They pass by round Lorien' (on the homeward journey), with the later addition (VII.451 note 18): 'No. They learn (in Rivendell?) that Nazgûl razed Lórien ...'
35. Old English haliern (halig-ern or -aern) 'holy place, sanctuary'. Cf. my father's note on Dunharrow in the Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings (A Tolkien Compass, ed. Lobdell, p. 183): 'Dunharrow. A modernisation of Rohan Dunhaerg "the heathen fane on the hillside", so-called because this refuge of the Rohirrim at the head of Harrowdale was on the site of a sacred place of the old inhabitants (now the Dead Men). The element haerg can be modernised in English because it remains an element in place-names, notably Harrow (on the Hill).'
36. Outline II was written on the same thin yellowish paper as was used for text H of 'The Muster of Rohan' and text C of 'Minas Tirith' (the two pages in the 'midget type'). This paper was also used for the time-schemes C, D, and S. See note 38.
37. On my father's later large-scale map of Rohan, Gondor and Mordor (on which my map published in RK was based) the distance from Edoras to Dunharrow (at the head of Harrowdale) is 16 miles and from Edoras to the Starkhorn 19 miles.
38. Outline IV wa
s written on the same paper as that referred to in note 36.
39. Pelennor: see p. 277.
40. Galdor was preceded by Ealdor.
41. In outlines I, II and III it is said that Théoden and Éowyn (who is not mentioned here) 'slew' or 'killed' or 'destroyed' the King of the Nazgûl.
42. Frodo's vision of a ship with black sails and a banner bearing the emblem of a white tree (FR p. 379) was added afterwards to the text of 'The Mirror of Galadriel'.
Note on the map accompanying outline VI.
This map, drawn fairly rapidly in pencil (with the rivers in blue crayon), covers the White Mountains and the lands to the south of them; it is laid out like the First Map in squares of 2 cm. side. In my redrawing I have numbered the uppermost horizontal line of squares 09-14 according to the First Map, although there is some discrepancy, and continued this numbering throughout, where the discrepancy becomes much greater. This is done deliberately in order to emphasize the curiously anomalous nature of this map among my father's later maps to The Lord of the Rings. Comparison with the First Map (VII.309, 319) and those published in LR will show substantial shifts in the geographical relations: thus Ethir Anduin is further to the east, directly south of Rauros, and the Havens of Umbar are shown as much less far to the south, and east of Tolfalas. On no other map is this so.
I strongly suspect that (for whatever reason) my father made this map from memory, and that it played no further part in the geographical evolution; and I think that its starting-point and primary purpose was to depict the region (pencilled more heavily than other parts of the map) between Harrowdale and the source of Morthond: with the emergence of the story that Aragorn passed through the Mountains into Gondor the map of The Lord of the Rings needed to be altered to show that there was no pass in this region (see note 14 above). It will be seen that the southern rivers have been substantially changed, though by no means reaching the final form: Morthond of the First Map is now named Ringlo, while the new Morthond flows east into the delta of Anduin. Erech is marked, south of the rising of Morthond, as is also Pelargir on Anduin (neither of which is mentioned in any of these outlines).2 Harrowdale is shown running south-east, as on the little map reproduced on p. 258.
The map as squared out on the page extended through five vertical lines of squares east of Osgiliath (cf. VII.309), but these were apparently left blank. Subsequently my father attached a moveable portion covering O13 - 14, P13-15, and at the same time very roughly drew in the outlines of the mountains encircling Mordor, which here form more nearly a complete wall on the east than on any other map. The Dark Tower is shown as standing on a 'peninsula' thrust out southwards from the Ash Mountains, with Mount Doom to the north-west of it, very much as on the Second Map as originally drawn, pp. 435, 438. I have not attempted to redraw this added portion, for the pass into Mordor (here called Kirith Gorgor) was apparently moved eastwards from the position in which it was first drawn, resulting in a confusion of lines that I cannot interpret; and Osgiliath was now moved a good way to the north, so that it lies north-east of Minas Tirith (as is shown on the Second Map, p. 434, and on my large- scale map of Rohan, Gondor and Mordor published in RK, but not on my general map accompanying LR). On this attached portion the Dead Marshes are named, but not the Nomenlands; the rapids in Anduin are still called Sarn Ruin. The course of Anduin below Rauros was changed on the new P14 to flow as it does on the First Map (see VII.319) in a wide easterly curve, not in a straight line south-east (and thus the mouths of Entwash had to be shifted to the east). This supports my suggestion that the present map was drawn from memory: in this one area it was corrected by reference to the First Map.
Note on the Chronology.
(i) Pippin and Frodo see the Full Moon.
It would be interesting to know just what was the 'most awkward error in the synchronization... of movements of Frodo and the others' that arrested the progress of The Lord of the Rings in October 1944 (see p. 234). It seems to me most likely to have been their relative 'positions' at the time of the Full Moon on 6 February.
I think it is clear that the time-schemes C, D, and S belong with the work set out in this chapter, and indeed that they were closely associated with the chronological problem that my father had encountered: see pp. 141 - 2, 234 - 5. In scheme C (p. 140) Gandalf and Pippin came to Minas Tirith at sunset on Feb. 5. They had left Dol Baran on the night of Feb. 3-4, passed Feb. 4 'in hiding' (presumably at Edoras), ridden through the night of Feb. 4 - 5, and then after a short rest had 'abandoned secrecy' and ridden all through the next day (Feb. 5) to reach the city at sunset. It seems likely that the original brief narrative opening (A) of 'Minas Tirith', in which as they rode 'still the world of grey and green rushed by and the sun rose and sank', was associated with this scheme, and that it was abandoned because my father decided that Gandalf did not in fact ride by day (see pp. 231 - 2). In the pencilled continuation of that opening (p. 231) the new story had entered: it is night, two days since Pippin 'saw the sun glinting on the roof of the king's great house', and the 'third riding', thus the night of Feb. 5 - 6. They see the beacons and the westbound messengers, but the moon is not mentioned; and it is obvious that in this story they will arrive at the wall of the Pelennor in the morning (Feb. 6). This is the story in scheme D (p. 141), except that there the beacons and the messengers are seen on the second night of the ride (Feb. 4 - 5). In that scheme the Full Moon 'rises about 9.20 p.m. and sets about 6.30 a.m. on Feb. 7. Gandalf rides all night of 5 - 6 and sights Minas Tirith at dawn on 6th.'
It was a datum of Frodo's journey that he came before the Black Gate at dawn of Feb. 5, leaving at nightfall; and he was in Ithilien (the episode of the stewed rabbit) and was taken by Faramir to Henneth Annûn on Feb. 6 (the night of Full Moon, which Frodo saw in the small hours of Feb. 7 setting over Mindolluin). In my father's letter of 16 October 1944 he said that among the alterations made to resolve 'the dislocated chronology' he had increased the journey from the Morannon by a day; this alteration was made to scheme D, and was present in scheme S as first written (see pp. 141-2). But the alteration was made by pushing Frodo's journey back by a day, so that he came before the Morannon on Feb. 4; he still comes to Henneth Annûn on the 6th. Therefore, when he looked out from the Window of the West and saw the moon setting, Gandalf and Pippin were already in Minas Tirith; the time-schemes are explicit (and it was presumably on this basis that in outline III, p. 259, Pippin in Minas Tirith on the evening of the 6th 'sees the full moon rising and wonders where Frodo is'; similarly in outline V, p. 262, and also in the outline given in the next chapter, p. 276).
In the second draft (B) of the opening of 'Minas Tirith' (p. 232) Pippin on the night of Feb. 5( - 6) saw the full moon rising out of the eastern shadows as he rode with Gandalf; and in the third draft (C, in 'midget type', p. 233) Pippin wonders where Frodo might be, 'little thinking that Frodo on that same night saw from afar the white snows under the moon.' Surely my father's intention here was to relate Pippin's thought to Frodo's at Henneth Annûn (as in RK); but there was a day out. Was this the chronological problem?
On the face of it, apparently not; for the modifications made to the chronology did not correct it. On the other hand, that my father was concerned with precisely this question is seen from an isolated page of notes on diverse subjects, one of which casts some very cloudy light on the matter:
Whole of Frodo's and Sam's adventures must be set back one day, so that Frodo sees moon-set on morning (early hours) of Feb. 6, and Faramir reaches Minas Tirith on night of the 7th, and Great Darkness begins on 7th. (This can be done by making Frodo and Sam only wander 4 days in the Emyn Muil.) The next night Frodo would see from far away the full moon set beyond Gondor and wonder where he was in the mists of the West, and the war-beacons would be hid from him in the darkness of the world.
This is very difficult to understand. Frodo's adventures are to be set back by a day, and he will see the setting of the moon (not yet quite at the full) from Henneth Annûn in the later night of Feb.
5 - 6, when
Pippin was on the last lap to Minas Tirith, and thought of him. But then why is it not till the next night (Feb. 6-7) that Frodo thinks of Pippin (if 'him' is Pippin), and why is it on this night that the beacons of Gondor are burning?
(ii) Théoden comes to Harrowdale.
In the second version (B) of 'The Muster of Rohan' (p. 237) Aragorn agrees with Théoden, as they enter Harrowdale, that the moon was full the night before, and he says that they have been four (changed from five) days on the road, so that six remained before the day appointed for the muster at Edoras. In time-scheme C (p. 140) Théoden reaches Helm's Deep from Isengard soon after dawn on Feb. 4, and he leaves Helm's Deep on Feb. 5 (when also 'Aragorn rides on ahead with Gimli and Legolas': this appears in the third narrative C, p. 241). Nothing further is said about Théoden's movements in time-scheme C; but if the two texts are combined we get the following chronology:
Feb. 4 Théoden reaches Helm's Deep soon after dawn
Feb. 5 Théoden leaves Helm's Deep
Feb. 6 Full Moon
Feb. 7 Théoden reaches Harrowdale at dusk
Feb. 13 Date appointed for the muster
The History of Middle Earth: Volume 8 - The War of the Ring Page 34
