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

by J. R. R. Tolkien

  Barathil, Barithil of the second draft (p. 287) is now Barithil, becoming in the course of the typing of this text Berithil; he is the son of Baranor, as is Beregond in RK. The man at the buttery hatch is now Targon, as in RK.

  In the description of the view eastward from the walls of Minas Tirith the Anduin is still some seven leagues away, and as it bends 'in a mighty sweep south and west again' it is still 'lost to view round the shoulders of the mountains in a haze and shimmer' (p. 283). The italicized words were afterwards struck from the typescript; the reason for this can be seen from a comparison of Map III in VII.309 with the large map of Rohan, Gondor and Mordor in The Return of the King, where the view of the Great River from Minas Tirith is not impeded by the eastern end of the mountains. The passage in RK which was absent from the draft, describing the traffic across the Pelennor, is now present and reaches the final form in every point, save only that Berithil here says: 'That is the road to the vales of Tumladen and Glossarnach' (see note 29); but this was changed in pencil to Lossamach, and later in the text Forlong the Fat is named 'lord of Lossarnach'.(32)

  Of the part of the text covered by the second draft (pp. 286-7) there is little to note, since the final form was already very largely achieved. In the 'catalogue' of the peoples of the Outlands the lord of Anfalas (so named) is now Golasgil, as in RK, but the prince of Dol Amroth is still not further identified. The conclusion of the chapter, not found in the draft, is here almost exactly as in RK. After the words (RK p. 45) 'The lodging was dark, save for a little lantern set on the table' my father first typed: 'Beside it was a scribbled note from Gandalf', but he barred this out immediately and substituted 'Gandalf was not there'. The chapter ends: 'No, when the summons comes, not at sunrise. There will be no sunrise. The darkness has begun.'

  NOTES.

  1. Book V, Chapter 1 'Minas Tirith' is the 44th chapter in The Lord of the Rings. 'The Departure of Boromir' had now been separated off from 'The Riders of Rohan', 'Flotsam and Jetsam' from 'The Voice of Saruman', and 'The Forbidden Pool' from 'Journey to the Cross-roads'.

  2. This is the first appearance of the Sons of Elrond (see VII.163-4, and p. 297 in this book).

  3. According to time-schemes D and S (p. 272) Aragorn reached Edoras and went up Harrowdale on the morning of February 5, while Théoden came to Dunharrow at nightfall of the 6th.

  4. This is the first reference to the part played by the Dead Men of Dunharrow. For the earliest hint of the story see outline V on p. 263: 'News comes from South that a great king has descended out of the mountains where he had been entombed, and set such a flame into men that the mountaineers ... and the folk of Lebennin have utterly routed the Southrons and burned [> taken) their ships.'

  5. This was the Nazgûl (as the chronology was at this time) sent out from Mordor after Pippin looked into the Palantír of Orthanc, passing high overhead and unseen 'about an hour after midnight' (Plan of Minas Tirith.) when Frodo, Sam and Gollum had not long left the pit among the slag-mounds: see pp. 119-20.

  6. Pippin on the battlements... sees the moonrise on night of 6 ... and thinks of Frodo: see p. 271.

  7. I presume that the rejected words at the end of the outline 'do not turn aside but go straight (on)' mean that they passed the mouth of the Deeping Coomb and did not go up to the Hornburg. According to time-scheme D (p. 140) Gandalf reached Edoras at dawn on February 4, and he stayed there throughout the daylight hours. If Aragorn and his companions rode on at all speed making for Edoras, without any long halt, they would have caught him up!

  8. Thus the passage in which Pippin thinks of Frodo remains the same as in text C, though with a difference in wording: 'little thinking that Frodo would see from far away the white snows under that same moon as it set beyond Gondor.' Gandalf's journey still takes three nights, not four as in RK.

  9. On the First Map (Map III in VII.309) the distance from Minas Tirith to Osgiliath is about 70 miles (more than 23 leagues); and on the map made in October 1944 that I have redrawn on p. 269 it is still about 50 miles (which, since in the present draft the fords of Osgiliath were a league from the Pelennor wall, would give a radius of some 15 and a half leagues). In the note that my father wrote about my 1943 version of the First Map (see VII.322 note 1) he said that 'the distance across the vale of Anduin [should be] much reduced, so that Minas Tirith is close to Osgiliath and Osgiliath closer to Minas Morgul'; and the distance from the city to the Rammas Echor in the direction of Osgiliath is 10 miles on my map published in RK (on the original map on which mine was based 12 miles, agreeing with 'four leagues' in the text of RK, p. 22).

  10. In the drawing the seventh gate faces in the same direction (north-east?) as the second gate, but the drawing may be defective: gates 1 - 3 - 5 - 7 are in a line.

  11. In the draft, when Gandalf and Pippin came to the Seventh Gate, 'the sun that looked down on Ithilien and Sam busy with his steaming pan and herbs glowed on the smooth walls and the marbled arch and pillars.' It was the morning of February 6, the day on which Frodo and Sam encountered Faramir and went to Henneth Annûn. In RK the sentence is different: 'the warm sun that shone down beyond the river, as Frodo walked in the glades of Ithilien ...' - for on the day that Gandalf and Pippin arrived in Minas Tirith (March 9) Frodo and Sam reached the Morgul- road at dusk.

  12. This is the first appearance of the name Argonath (see VII.359- 60, 362).

  13. In LR (The Tale of Years) it was the Steward Ecthelion I who rebuilt the White Tower in the year 2698, more than three centuries before this time; Denethor's father Ecthelion was the second Steward of that name (which derives from the legend of the Fall of Gondolin: see II.212, footnote). - 'The tower of Denethor' was named in the chapter 'The Palantír', p. 77.

  14. Vorondil father of Mardil in RK, p. 27; and see LR Appendix A (I, ii). - A space was left for the name of the god, apparently filled in immediately, first with Ramr which was struck out before completion, then with Araw. On Araw beside Oromë see the Etymologies, V.379, stem OROM.

  15. twelve days ago (thirteen days ago in RK): see p. 150 and note 10. In The Tale of Years the dates are February 26 (death of Boromir) and March 9 (Gandalf reaches Minas Tirith).

  16. Denethor says of Pippin's sword: 'Surely it is a sax wrought by our own folk in the North in the deep past?', where RK has 'blade' and 'kindred'. The word sax (Old English seax, dagger, short sword) was the final choice in the draft after rejection of 'blade', 'knife' and 'dagger'.

  17. Many other pencilled alterations were made to this part of the manuscript, mostly to clarify the writing, which is here rather rough. Among these the following may be noted: as Beren and Pippin sat on the seat beside the battlement Beren said: We thought it was the whim our lord to take him a page boy', and this was changed by the addition of 'after the manner of the old kings that had dwarves in their service, if old tales be true.'

  18. only twenty years old was changed in pencil to little more than twenty years old. In RK Pippin told Beregond that 'it will be four years yet before I "come of age", as we say in the Shire.'

  19. Of the shadow in the East it is said in the draft: 'Maybe it was mountains looming like clouds on the edge of sight ... 100 miles away,. cf. RK p. 37: Perhaps it was mountains looming on the verge of sight, their jagged edges softened by wellnigh twenty leagues of misty air.'

  20. Where in RK (p. 37) Beregond tells that the Fell Riders won back the crossings 'less than a year ago', and that after Boromir had driven the enemy back 'we hold still the near half of Osgiliath', in the draft Beren says: 'And the Fell Riders but a little while ago [?two] years or more won back the crossings and came [?over] into this western land. But Boromir drove them back. And still we hold the crossings.'

  21. Beren says as in RK that 'some say that as he sits alone in his high chamber in the Tower at night ... he can even read somewhat of the mind of the Enemy'; he does not speak of 'wrestling', nor add the words 'And so it is that he is old, worn before his time.'

  22. The coming of the great fleet from the south
is referred to in all but one of the outlines given in the last chapter. In the draft Beren says of the Corsairs of Umbar that they have 'long forsaken the suzerainty of Gondor' ('long ceased to fear the might of Gondor', RK). And he says of the fleet: 'Now that will draw off much help that we might look to from Lebennin south away between the mountains and the Sea, where folk are numerous.' Thus Belfalas is not named, as it is in RK ('from Lebennin and Belfalas', p. 38). The name Belfalas was originally applied to the coastal lands in the west subsequently named Anfalas (Langstrand): this change was made to the First Map and the 1943 map (VII.309 - 10). Precisely where my father placed Belfalas when Anfalas was substituted is not clear, but his note correcting the 1943 map (VII.322 note 1) says: 'Lebennin should be Belfalas'. That Belfalas was in the region of the Mouths of Anduin might seem to be suggested by the passage describing the journey of the funeral boat in drafting for 'The Departure of Boromir' (VII.382): 'and the voices of a thousand seabirds lamented him upon the beaches of Belfalas'; but Belfalas seems to have retained its original sense up to this time, since it was replaced by Dor-Anfalas in drafting for the present chapter (p. 287). On the Second Map (by a later addition) it is placed as on the map published in LR (see pp. 434, 437).

  23. - At this point my father scribbled down some very rough notes in pencil, but the following paragraph ('Beren was on duty ...') was then written over them, so that they are hard to read: 'rude boy of the City Gates password Gir .. edlothiand na ngalad melon i ni (?sevo] ni (?edranj. Sees the hosts ride in from Lebennin.'

  24. Written in the margin here: 'He is called Thalion, and my name is Ramloth.' Beneath Ramloth is written Gwinhir, and at the first occurrence of the boy's name in the actual narrative my father began Ram, changed it to Arad, and then wrote Gwinhir. - Thalion 'steadfast' was the 'surname' of Hurin.

  25. I am 21 years old: see note 18.

  26. Added here: 'But do not speak so darkly.' I do not know what this refers to. Perhaps Pippin's concluding sentence, consisting of three or four wholly illegible words, was equally obscure to Thalion.

  27. The greeting of Gondor is still 'with outstretched hand', not 'with hands upon the breast'; and Pippin still says that he is 21 years old (see note 25).

  28. For the earliest form of the 'catalogue', bearing little relation to this, see p. 252. The name Forlong the Fat is written on the manuscript of 'The Story Foreseen from Fangorn', p. 229, but this is obviously not contemporary with that outline.

  29. G was written before Lossarnach, but struck out before Lossarnach was entered: see p. 289.

  30. This passage was afterwards rejected and replaced by a carefully written rider, introducing the description as it stands in RK p. 22, with the name Rammas Echor, and mention of Emyn Arnen, the Harlond, Lossarnach, 'Lebennin with its five swift streams', and Imrahil of Dol Amroth 'in the great fief of Belfalas'. As this rider was first written, 'the quays and landings of the Harlond' were 'the quays and landings of Lonnath-Ernin'.

  31. The two cross lines above and below the word 'Rider' reversed show through from the other side of the page: this is the rider referred to in note 30. - The reference to the sun looking down on 'Sam busy with his steaming pan and herbs' (see note 11) remained, but was altered in pencil to 'the warm sun that shone down beyond the River, as Frodo saying farewell to Faramir walked in the glades of Ithilien' (in RK the words 'saying farewell to Faramir' are absent). The altered text represents the synchronization discussed in the Note on Chronology below, whereby Frodo left Henneth Annûn on the same morning as Gandalf reached Minas Tirith.

  32. The treatment in this text of other differences of detail between the original draft and RK may be mentioned here. The description of the livery and helms of the guards of the Citadel (p. 279) now becomes precisely as in RK; but Gandalf's words 'And Denethor at least does not expect him in any guise, for he does not know that he exists' remain. Denethor still declares that the horn was heard blowing upon the northern marches twelve days ago (note 15), and he still calls Pippin's sword a sax (note 16). Berithil is still clad in grey and white, and his reference to 'the old kings that had dwarves in their service' remains (note 17). Pippin tells him that he has 'not long passed twenty years' (note 18), and later tells Bergil that he is 'nearly twenty-one' (p. 284). Of the mountains in the East it is said that 'their jagged edges [were] softened by wellnigh a hundred miles of misty air' (note 19). Berithil says that 'the Fell Riders, but two years ago, won back the crossings' (note 20); his words about Denethor in the Tower are now precisely as in RK (note 21); and he says that the Corsairs of Umbar 'have long forsaken the friendship of Gondor', and again does not mention Belfalas as a source of aid to the city (note 22).

  Note on the Chronology.

  In the chapter 'Journey to the Cross-roads' (pp. 175 ff.) Frodo and Sam left Henneth Annûn in the morning of February 7 and reached the Osgiliath road at dusk of that day. During the night of February 7 - 8 the air became heavy, and dark clouds moved out of the East during the morning of the 8th; they reached the Cross-roads at sunset, and saw the sun 'finding at last the hem of the great slow-rolling pall of cloud'.

  In the present chapter Gandalf and Pippin arrived at Minas Tirith at sunrise on February 6, and in the note added to the original draft (see p. 286) my father said that the sunset of that day was to be ominous, with the Darkness beginning next morning, the 7th. There is thus a Jay out between 'Journey to the Cross-roads' and 'Minas Tirith'. (In the outlines for Book V given in the last chapter the Darkness begins on The 8th in outlines III and V, but on the 7th in outline VI.)

  I cannot certainly explain this. Presumably my father had introduced a change in the chronology of the movements of Frodo and Sam in Ithilien, or at any rate intended to, and it may be that the rather obscure note given on p. 271 is connected with this: '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 gives the following relations (and see note 31 above):

  Feb. 6 Frodo leaves Henneth Annûn; reaches Osgiliath road at dusk. Gandalf reaches Minas Tirith. Ominous sunset.

  Feb. 7 Great Darkness begins. Frodo reaches Cross-roads at sun set.

  See further the note on chronology on pp. 321 - 2. - The final synchronization of the stories east and west of Anduin was differently achieved, with extension of Gandalf's ride to Minas Tirith from three nights to four (p. 264 note 3), and of Frodo's journey from Henneth Annûn from two days to three (p. 182). Thus in The Tale of Years in LR:

  March 8 Frodo leaves Henneth Annûn.

  March 9 Gandalf reaches Minas Tirith. At dusk Frodo reaches the Morgul-road [= Osgiliath road]. Darkness begins to flow out of Mordor.

  March 10 The Dawnless Day. Frodo passes the Cross Roads.

  IV. MANY ROADS LEAD EASTWARD (1).

  The original draft ('A') for Chapter XLV (Book V Chapter 2, afterwards called 'The Passing of the Grey Company') was written in pencil in my father's roughest script, and extended only as far as Théoden's words about the Rangers: 'thirty such men will be a strength not to be counted by heads' (RK p. 48). At this stage, I think, he wrote a brief outline for the next part of the chapter which takes up from the point reached in A.

  The night was old and the East grey when they came at last to the Hornburg and there rested.

  Rangers say that messages reached them through Rivendell. They suppose Gandalf or Galadriel or both?

  Merry sat at the king's side in Hornburg, regrets that Pippin was away.

  They prepare to ride by secret ways to Dunharrow. Aragorn does not sleep but becomes restless. Takes the Orthanc stone to the tower of the Hornburg and looks in it.

  He comes out of the chamber looking very weary, and will say naught but goes to sleep till evening.

  'There is evil news,' he said. 'The black fleet is drawing near to Umbar [sic]. That will disturb counsels. I fear we must part, Eomer. To meet again later. But not yet. How long wi
ll it take to Dunharrow?' 'Two days. If we ride on the 5th we shall reach there by evening of the 6th.'(1)

  Aragorn fell silent. 'That will do,' he said.

  The reverse of this page is a contoured map of the White Mountains, ruled in squares of 2 cm. side, extending some 90 miles east and west of Edoras, with no features (other than mountain peaks) marked save the Morthond and the Stone of Erech in the south and Edoras and the Snowbourn in the north. Harrowdale here runs a little west of south, in contrast to the map redrawn on p. 258 where it runs south- east, and Erech is a very little east of south from Edoras (assuming that the map is oriented north-south). A pencilled note against the Stone of Erech gives a distance: '62 miles as crow flies from Dunharrow' (where the second figure seems to have been changed from 3); and in the margin is written: 'Scale 4 times main map'. Whichever map my father was referring to (2) this would mean that 1 mm. = 1.25 miles; and a dot pencilled in subsequently very near the head of Harrowdale and obviously representing the place of Dunharrow is at a distance of 51 mm. from the Stone of Erech (= 63.75 miles).(3)