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

by J. R. R. Tolkien

  If this is correct, the 'four days on the road' include the day spent at Helm's Deep.

  In the third version C (p. 240) Eomer says that the moon was full on the night before the last, that five days have passed on the journey, and that five remain until the muster; and all this is repeated in the next version (F) in which the passage appears (pp. 244-5). In these versions the journey has taken one day more, as it appears:

  Feb. 5. Théoden leaves Helm's Deep.

  Feb. 6. Full Moon.

  Feb. 7.

  Feb. 8. Théoden reaches Harrowdale.

  Time-scheme D (pp. 141, 182) gives the following chronology (with which the fully 'synoptic' scheme S agrees):

  Feb. 4-5. Aragorn rides by night to Edoras, which he reaches in the morning, and passes up Harrowdale.

  Feb. 5. Théoden leaves Helm's Deep

  Feb. 6. Full Moon rises about 9.20 p.m. Théoden comes to Dunharrow before nightfall

  (Feb. 7. Théoden prepares to ride to Gondor. Messengers from Minas Tirith arrive.

  Feb. 8. Théoden rides from Edoras.)

  This is the chronology of the typescript text H (pp. 251-2), to the extent at least that the moon is full (rising four hours after dark) on the night of Théoden's arrival in Harrowdale: the journey through the mountains now took only two days. It is not the chronology of The Tale of Years in LR, in which Théoden set out from Helm's Deep on March 6 but did not reach Dunharrow until March 9.

  The date appointed for the muster at Edoras as deduced above from the original narrative openings of the chapter, Feb. 13 (a week after the full moon of Feb. 6), is presumably to be associated with the change in the second manuscript of 'The Road to Isengard' from 'before the waning of the moon' to 'at the last quarter of the moon' (see pp. 27, 40). In the text H (p. 252) Eomer says to the King that 'Tomorrow ere evening you shall come to Edoras and keep tryst with your Riders'; with this perhaps cf. outline I (p. 255): 'Messages must bid Rohirrim assemble at Edoras as soon as may be after the Full Moon of Feb. 6.'

  III. MINAS TIRITH.

  'I hope after this week actually to - write,' my father wrote to Stanley Unwin on 21 July 1946 (Letters no. 105); and it is clear that he did - at any rate on 7 December of that year he said that he was 'on the last chapters' (whatever that may have meant). Another synopsis of the proposed content of 'Book W shows much further development in the narrative of the opening chapters, and I incline to think that it belongs to 1946 and was set down as a guide to the new work now beginning; I therefore give it here rather than with the outlines that I believe to date from 1944 (pp. 252 ff.). My father had now re-ordered earlier chapters, and so numbered the first of Book V in this synopsis '44' (not '41': see p. 226 note 49).' The text was written in pencil and then overwritten in ink: the underlying text was far briefer, but is barely legible except at the end, where the overwriting ceases.

  Book V.

  Ch. 44 (1). Gandalf (and Pippin) rides to Minas Tirith and see[s] Denethor. Pippin on walls. Coming in of last allies. Great Darkness begins that night.

  45. King and Aragorn (with Merry, Legolas, Gimli) ride to the Hornburg. Overtaken by the Sons of Elrond (2) and 30 Rangers seeking Aragorn (probably because of messages sent by Galadriel to Elrond). King rides to Dunharrow by mountain roads. Aragorn (Legolas and Gimli) and Rangers go by open road. Aragorn reveals he has looked in Palantír, and seeks the Paths of the Dead. King arrives at Dunharrow dusk 2 days later (3) and finds Aragorn has gone on Paths of the Dead. Errand riders of Gondor come. Muster of Rohan takes place in Harrowdale (by Gandalf's orders) not Edoras, and King sets out next morning for Edoras.

  46. Pippin on walls. Several days later when Host of Morghul is victorious. News comes through of flanking attacks on Lórien and by Harad in South. A great army has crossed into Wold of Rohan. They fear Rohirrim will not come. Dark grows but even so the Nazgûl cause a greater darkness. Gandalf shines in the field. Pippin sees the light of him as he and Faramir rally men. But at last the enemy are at the gates, and the Nazgûl fly over the city. Then just as gate is giving way they hear the horns of Rohan!

  47. Go back to Merry. Charge of Rohan. Orcs and Black Riders driven from gate. Fall of Théoden wounded, but he is saved by a warrior of his household who falls on his body. Merry sits by them. Sortie saves King who is gravely wounded. Warrior found to be Éowyn. The Hosts of Morghul reform and drive them back to the gate. At that moment a wind rises, dark is rolled back. Black ships seen. Despair. Standard of Aragorn (and Elendil). Eomer's wrath. Morghul taken between 2 forces and defeated. Eomer and Aragorn meet.

  48. Gandalf and Denethor learn of the defeat of the flank attacks by Shadow Host (4) and by Ents. They cross Anduin victorious and invest Minas Morghul. Gandalf and Aragorn come to Morannon and parley.

  49. Return to Frodo and Sam.

  At this point the overwriting in ink ceases - perhaps because my father saw that at this rate he was going to be very hard put to it to complete the story in 'Book Five and Last' (p. 219). In the pencilled underlying text he had had this programme for the last seven chapters: 48. Gandalf comes to the Black Gate.

  49. Frodo and Sam come to Orodruin.

  50........... and return.

  51. Feast at Minas Tirith.

  52. Funeral at Edoras.

  53. Return to Rivendell. Meeting with Bilbo.

  54. Sam's Book and the passing of all Tales.

  It was perhaps immediately before he turned to the chapter 'Minas Tirith' again that my father set down a further and very precise outline, which follows here (the figures refer of course to the dates in the month of February).

  Gandalf and Pippin ride to Minas Tirith (3/4, 415, arriving at sunrise on 6). Pass Fords of Isen and reach mouth of Deeping Coomb about 2 a.m. (4). Come at daybreak to Edoras. Gandalf remains there during daylight. 2[nd] Nazgûl passes over Rohan (it left Mordor about midnight 314 but spies out plain and flies low over Edoras in early morn[ing]).(5) Gandalf rides again on night of 4/5 and passes into Anórien, where he lies hid in hills during daylight (5). Riding for third night (5/6) they see the beacons flare out, and are passed by messengers on swift horses speeding from Minas Tirith to Edoras. They reach the Pelennor Wall at first dawn, and after speech with guards pass through and sight Minas Tirith in the sunrise (6). They pass up through the 7 concentric walls and gates to the White Tower. Pippin sees white houses and domes on the slopes of the mountain above the city. Gandalf explains they are the 'houses of the kings' - i.e. dead tombs. (Before the gate of the White Tower they see the ruin of the Tree, and Fountain?) They are admitted to the audience chamber, and see the throne. Denethor comes in, and does not sit in the throne, but on a smaller chair lower down and in front. Interview with Denethor and his grief at news of Boromir. They learn reason of beacons: a great fleet has been sighted coming from Umbar to mouths of Anduin. Also messages from spies etc. in Ithilien report that 'storm is about to burst'. Denethor is vexed that no aid has come from Rohan. Gandalf explains the situation. Also warns Denethor that help may even now be delayed as almost certainly Rohan will be attacked on eastern flank north of Emyn Muil. He counsels Denethor to muster what he can at once. 'The muster has already begun,' said Denethor. (Forlong the Fat etc., but too few come from Lebennin owing to threat of sea-attack.)

  Pippin on the battlements has talk with a sentinel. He sees the moonrise on night of 6 (about 8.45 p.m.) and thinks of Frodo.(6)

  Aragorn takes Legolas and Gimli and Merry and proposes that what is left of the Company shall be reunited. He says his heart now urges him to speed, for the time of his own revealing approaches. They may have a hard and dangerous journey, for now the real business is beginning, beside which the battle of the Hornburg is but a skirmish by the way. They agree and Aragorn and his company leave Dolbaran ahead of the king at about midnight. Merry rides with Aragorn, and Gimli with Legolas. They go fast and reach Westfold at daybreak (4) and [struck out at once: do not turn aside but go straight] see the 2nd Nazgûl flying.

  A great deal of the first
part of this derives directly from earlier outlines, but by no means all (thus it is here that the great tombs of Minas Tirith are first mentioned, and it is here that Pippin's friend of the Citadel guard - Beregond in RK - first appears). The concluding portion of the outline, however, telling that Aragorn with Merry, Legolas and Gimli left together from Dol Baran ahead of the king about midnight, reaching Westfold at dawn of the following day and not so very many hours after Gandalf, is an odd and surprising development.(7) But it seems to have been abandoned at once, without further issue.

  Taking up the opening chapter 'Minas Tirith' again, my father followed closely the abandoned opening (the text C in 'midget type') so far as it went, and the new text still differs from RK pp. 19 - 21 in the points mentioned on p. 233, except that the leader of the men at the Pelennor Wall is now Ingold, not Cranthir.(8) Written for most of its length rapidly but generally legibly in ink, the draft extends almost to the end of the chapter; and from the point in the story where C ended (in the conversation with the men repairing the wall), for which my father had only very sketchy notes, he advanced confidently through account of Minas Tirith seen across the 'townlands', the structure of the city, the entry of Gandalf and Pippin, the 'audience' with Denethor, and Pippin's meeting with Beregond (not yet nor for a long time so named). This draft underwent countless changes afterwards, yet from its first writing the story was present in all essentials of narrative structure, of atmosphere, and of tone. In what follows it can be assumed that every significant feature of description and conversation in the chapter was present in the draft unless something is said to the contrary. On the other hand I do not record all the small touches that were added in later: for example, Denethor does not in the draft text lay down his rod in order to lift the horn from his lap; Pippin is not said to receive back his sword and put it in its sheath; chairs are brought for Gandalf and Pippin, not a chair and a stool; the room in which they were lodged had only one window, not three; and so on.

  As noted earlier, the text C stops just before Gandalf tells Cranthir/ Ingold that 'you are overlate in repairing the wall of the Pelennor' {p. 233; RK p. 21), so that this name does not appear. In the new draft Gandalf, in his words with Ingold, speaks of the wall of Pelennor' - but it appears immediately afterwards that this was the name of the wall itself:

  Gandalf passed now into the wide space beyond the Pelennor.

  So the men of Gondor called the wall that was built long ago after Ithilien fell into the hands of the Enemy.

  The name appears also in several of the outlines that I have attributed to 1944 and given in the last chapter: 'Pelennor wall' (p. 260), 'the wall of Pelennor' (p. 263), 'the Outer Wall of Pelennor' (p. 263), but in the light of the present draft these are ambiguous; on the other hand, in outline IV (p. 260) occurs 'the Cityland, Pelennor, about which ruins of an old wall ran', which is not at all ambiguous. On the face of it, my father twice changed his mind about the meaning of this name; for in RK (p. 22) the wall is named Rammas Echor and the Pelennor is again the name of the 'fair and fertile townlands' of Minas Tirith (see pp. 287 - 8).

  The description in the draft continues:

  It went in a wide circle from the mountains' feet and back to them, always distant some seven leagues from the First Gate of the City that looked eastward.. Thus it enclosed the fair and fertile townlands on the long green slopes falling to the River, and at its easternmost point overlooked from a frowning bank the marshy levels. There it was loftiest and most guarded, for on a walled causeway the road from the fords of Osgiliath, a league away, came in through a great gate between two towers. But few men save herdsmen and tillers dwelt in the townlands, for the most part of the people of Gondor dwelt in the seven circles of the city of Minas Tirith, or in the deep vales of the mountains' borders; and away southward in Lebennin the land of Seven Rivers lived a hardy folk between the mountains and the mouths of Anduin and the Sea; and they were reckoned men of Gondor, yet their blood was mixed and if their stature and faces told the truth came more from those men who dwelt in the dark hills in the Dark Years ere the coming of the kings.

  But now the light of day grew, and Pippin looked up ...

  Thus the townlands were at first conceived altogether differently, as a great half-circle centred on the city and always with a radius of seven leagues, whereas in RK the enclosing wall was at its furthest point four leagues from the city and at its nearest little more than one.(9) In this draft text there is no mention of Emyn Arnen, of the Harlond, of Lossarnach, of Belfalas, or of Imrahil of Dol Amroth, and Lebennin is still 'the land of Seven Rivers' (see VII.310-12, and pp. 252, 254 in this book).

  Pippin's first sight of Minas Tirith and Gandalf 's encounter with the guards at the Great Gate is very much as in RK (p. 23), except that in the following passage from RK the bracketed part is absent:

  but to his right great mountains reared their heads, [ranging from the West to a steep and sudden end, as if in the making of the land the River had burst through a great barrier, carving out a mighty valley to be a land of battle and debate in times to come. And there where the White Mountains of Ered Nimrais came to their end] (and) he saw, as Gandalf had promised, the dark mass of Mount Mindolluin ...

  Also, the Tower of Ecthelion is here called the Tower of Denethor (see p. 281).

  In the draft text the description of Minas Tirith is as follows:

  For the manner of Minas Tirith was such that it was builded upon seven levels each carved in the hill, and each had a wall, and in each wall was a gate. But the gates were not made in a line, for the outer and lowest gate was in the east, but the next faced half south and the third half north, and so on, so that the pave[d] way that led up without break or stair turned first this way and [then] that way across the face of the hill, until the seventh gate was reached that led to the great court and citadel on the levelled summit about the feet of the crowning tower. And that gate also looked due east, being there seven hundred feet above the plain before the walls, and the tower on the summit was three hundred feet from base to pinnacle. A strong citadel indeed it was and not to be taken by a host of men if there were any within that could hold weapons, unless some enemy could come behind and scale Mindolluin and so come behind upon the shoulder that joined the Hill of Guard to the mountain mass. But that shoulder which was at the height of the fifth wall was walled right up [to] the precipice that overhung it, and there stood the great domed tombs of bygone kings and lords, at once memorials and fortresses if need should come.

  In the original hasty sketch of Minas Tirith reproduced on p. 261 the gates appear to be arranged in two lines meeting at the uppermost level, the one proceeding from the Great Gate (1 - 3 - 5 - 7), and the other proceeding from the second gate (2 - 4 - 6 - 7).(10) In the text just cited the configuration described in RK is present, with the Great Gate facing east, the second gate south-east, the third north-east, and so on up to the entrance to the Citadel, again facing east. On this page of the draft (reproduced on p. 280) my father drew a plan in which this arrangement is shown. The upper figure on the page is in fact two conjoined: the smaller area at the upper left (marked with 'M.T.' and 'summit of Mindolluin') was that first made, and this was struck out with three transverse lines. - It will be seen that the 'vast pier of rock whose huge out-thrust bulk divided in two all the circles of the City save the first' (RK p. 24), causing the mounting road to pass through a tunnel each time it crossed the line from the Great Gate to the Citadel, was not yet present.

  Pippin's sense of the diminishment and decay of Minas Tirith, with its great silent houses, is told in the draft in words closely similar to those of the passage in RK (p. 24);(11) but the accoutrement of the guards of the Seventh Gate is thus described:

  The guards of the gate were robed in white, and the[ir] helms were of strange shape, shining like silver, for they were indeed of mithril, heirlooms from the glory of old days, and above either cheekpiece were set the wings of sea-birds. Upon the breast of their surcoats were embroidered in white a
tree blossoming like snow and above it a silver crown.

  It is added here that beside the guards of the Citadel one other wore this livery of the heirs of Elendil: 'the warden of the door of the hall of the kings aforetime where now dwelt the Lord Denethor'; and at the door there is one 'tall guard' ('the tall silent door-wardens', RK). Perhaps the change in the colour of the livery from white to black was on account of the white tree embroidered on the coats.

  The dead Tree in the court of the Fountain, with Pippin's recollection of Gandalf's words Seven stars and seven stones and one white gree, and Gandalf's warning to him to bear himself discreetly before Denethor, survived into the final text with very little change; but Gandalf says only of Denethor and Boromir: He loved him greatly, coo much, perhaps', and does not add 'and the more so because they were unlike' (yet later, when they have left Denethor, he says, much as in RK: 'He is not quite as other men, Pippin, and whatever be his ancestry by some chance the blood of the men of Westernesse runs true in him, as it does in his other son Faramir, and yet not in Boromir whom he loved most. They have long sight.'). And of Aragorn he says that 'if he comes it may be in some way that no one expects. And Denethor at least does not expect him in any way, for he does not know that he exists.'

  The great hall was conceived from the first almost exactly as the description of it stands in RK (p. 26): the great images between the pillars, reminding Pippin of 'the kings of Argonath',(12) the empty throne, the old man in the stone chair gazing at his lap. Only the carved capitals of the pillars are not mentioned; on the other hand the floor of the hall is described: 'But the floor was of shining stone, white-gleaming, figured with mosaics of many colours' (see p. 288). The name of Denethor's father, Ecthelion, entered here, with only momentary hesitation (earlier in the draft the White Tower is called the Tower of Denethor, not as in RK the Tower of Ecthelion; p. 278).(13)