This survived into the first typescript, where it was afterwards replaced by the words in RK (p. 97): The Nazgûl came again, and as keir Dark Lord now grew and put forth his strength, so their voices, which uttered only his will and his malice, were filled with evil and horror.'
In initial drafting for the last part of the chapter the central story of Denethor's madness can be seen emerging as my father wrote (torrentially, with scarcely-formed letters).
And Faramir lay in his chamber wandering in fever, dying as it was said, while his father sat beside him and heeded little the ending of the defence. It seemed to Pippin, who often watched by his side or at the door, that at last something had snapped in the proud will of Denethor: whether grief at the harsh words he spoke before Faramir rode out,(18) or the bitter thought that whatever now should happen in the war, his line too was ending, and even the House of the Stewards would fail, and a lesser house rule the last remnant of the kings of men. So it was that without word spoken or any commission from the Lord, Gandalf took command of the defence. Wherever he came men's hearts were lifted and the winged shadows passed from memory. Tirelessly he went from Citadel to the Gate, from north to south about the wall, and yet - when he had gone the shadow seemed to close on men again, and vain it seemed to resist, to wait there for cold sword or cruel hunger [sic].
And so they passed out of a dim day of fear to the shadow of desperate night. Fire now raged in the lowest circle of the City. The garrison on the walls was well nigh cut off, those that indeed had not already fled. And then in the middle night the assault was loosed.
[Messengers came to the high tower and Denethor looked at them. 'The [?outer] circle is burning, lord,' they said, 'men are flying from the walls.' 'Why?' said Denethor. 'It is well to burn soon than late. I will go now to my own pyre. Farewell, Peregrin son of Paladin, your service has been short. I release you from it, unless you would still use your sword in defence of what is lost. Go now if you will to him that brought you here, to your death.'
He rose and bidding men take up Faramir's bed and follow him left the White Tower and paced slowly, pausing only for a moment at the ... tree, passed out of the Citadel, and going laid himself in the house of tombs under the shadow of Mindolluin with Pippin by his side.]
This passage that I have enclosed in square brackets was an addition to the manuscript, but it can be seen clearly from the manuscript that my father inserted it while he was actually writing the description of the black horseman and the destruction of the Gate. A later note scribbled against the passage reads: 'Pippin follows the cortege until it enters the tombs and then flies down in search of Gandalf. Meets Berithil and together they go through the city. Pippin arrives in time to see Gandalf and the Sorcerer King.'
The vanguard passed over narrow ways between the trenches and suffered loss where they bunched, but too few archers left on the walls. [?Front of war] not in the north or south, but a great weight came to the gate. The ground was choked with bodies but still they came on.
There Gandalf stood. And then over the hill in the flare of the fire a great Black Horseman came. For a moment he ... halted menacing, and lifted up a great ... sword red to the hilt. Fear fell on all ....... Then great rams went on before, but the steel only shook and boomed. The Black Captain ..... lifted again his hand crying in a dreadful voice. In some forgotten tongue he spoke crying aloud words of power and terror. Thrice the rams boomed. Thrice he cried, and then suddenly the gate as if stricken by some blast burst [?asunder], and a great flash as of lightning, burst and fell, and in rode the Lord of the Nazgûl. But there waiting still before the gate sat Gandalf, and Shadowfax alone among the free horses of the earth did not [?quailj but stood rooted as an image of grey marble.
'You cannot pass,' said Gandalf. 'Go back to the black abyss prepared for you, and fall into nothingness that shall come upon your Master.'
The Black Rider [?lay for laid] back his hood and ..... crown that sat upon no visible head save only for the light of his pale eyes.(19) A deadly laughter [?rang] out.
'Old fool,' he said. 'Old fool. Do you not know death when you see it? Die now and curse in vain. This is my hour of victory.' And with that he lifted his great sword. [Added: And then suddenly his hand wavered and fell and it seemed that he shrank.] And [> For) in that very moment away behind in some counrtyard of the city a cock crowed. Shrill and clear he crowed, recking nothing of wizardry or war, welcoming only the morning that far above the shadows of death was now coming once again.
And as if in answer there came from far away another note. Horns, horns, horns, great horns of the north wildly blowing. The riders of Rohan had come at last.
From short passages of further drafting, either separate or pencilled on the fair copy manuscript itself and then overwritten, the final form of the story was largely reached, and there is nothing to notice in this development. But as the fair copy was left to stand there remained a differences from RK. The account of Pippin's watching beside Denethor and Faramir remained essentially as it was in the initial draft p. 335), where Denethor himself does not speak, and the cause of his devastation is expressed as a surmise of Pippin's: 'Grief maybe had wrought it: grief at the harsh words he spoke when Faramir returned [> remorse for the harsh words he spoke that sent Faramir out into needless peril],(20) and the bitter thought that, whatever might now betide in war, woe or victory beyond all hope, his line too was ending ...'
The description of the journey of the bearers of Faramir, with Denethor and Pippin, after they had passed through the gate of the Citadel, begins thus (cf. RK pp. 99-100):
Turning westward they came at last to a dark door, used only by the Lord of the City, for it opened on a winding way that descended by many curves down to the narrow land under the shadow of Mindolluin's precipice where stood the tombs of the Kings and their Stewards.
But from this point the text reaches effectively the form in RK in the description of the descent to Rath Dinen, the Silent Street.(21) The passage just cited reappears in the first typescript of the chapter, with the addition that the door was 'in the rearward wall of the sixth circle'; but the final text was entered on the typescript in a rider, and here the name of the door appears: 'Fenn Fornen, for it was kept ever shut save at times of funeral'.(22)
Pippin's encounter with Berithil as he fled from the horrifying scene in Rath Dinen begins differently from its form in RK (p. 101):
'Whither do you run, Master Peregrin?' he said.
'To find Mithrandir,' answered Pippin.
'Then have you left the service of the Lord so soon? We hold that it is the duty of those who wear the black and silver to remain in the Citadel of Gondor whatever else may chance, until death release them.'(23)
'Or the Lord,' said Pippin.
'Then he sends you on some errand that I should not hinder.
But tell me, if you may, what goes forward? ...'
The text then continues as in RK; but Pippin was still permitted at this fateful moment a more Shire-like turn of phrase: 'Something is wrong with him', he says of Denethor (where in RK he says 'He is fey and dangerous'), and he tells Berithil: 'Don't bother about "orders" and all that!'
Lastly, it is worth remarking that the importance of the Prince of Dol Amroth was enlarged as the chapter evolved. In the draft C Pippin did not name him among the 'great persons' present at the council held before Faramir's return from Henneth Annûn (p. 326), and this remains the case in the fair copy D. The Prince's intervention in the deliberations before Faramir went to Osgiliath is absent in the first version of D (p. 333): it enters with the revision (where he is called 'Dol Amroth'). His bringing of Faramir to the White Tower was never added to D (note 17). And in drafting for the latter part of D he is not mentioned as accompanying Gandalf in his tireless permabulation of the City (p. 335) - the passage in which he is introduced here (RK p. 98), with the reference to there being 'Elvish blood in the veins of that folk, for the people of Nimrodel dwelt once in that land long ago', was in fact written
into the D manuscript as an afterthought soon after my father had passed this point. At this stage the name Imrahil had still not emerged (see pp. 287, 289).
NOTES.
1. The account of Pippin's livery is in every point as described in RK, save only that the silver star on the circlet of his helm is not mentioned.
2. Berethil is clearly written so, Berithil in the first typescript of 'Minas Tirith', p. 288; after further occurrences of Berethil, however, Berithil reappears.
3. Ramas Coren: earlier name of the Wall about the Pelennor (p. 288).
4. I have inverted the order of the last two paragraphs of this outline.
5. On this and subsequent references to days and times see the Note on Chronology below.
6. 75 leagues from Henneth Annûn to Minas Tirith: 25 leagues in RK. The distance on my father's large map of Rohan, Gondor and Mordor which I redrew in The Return of the King is about 23 leagues. The figure 75 in the present text is however perfectly clear, although the following text D, directly based here on the present draft, has 25. On the First Map the distance can be very roughly computed to something in the region of 75 miles, and I suppose that my father, working very fast, simply wrote 'leagues' for 'miles'.
7. The illegible word seems to begin with d and might be duty, but the writing is so unclear that it might be dealings, or some other word. In the following text, where Denethor still says that he knows 'the answer to the riddling words', the sentence is replaced by 'Poor Boromir! ' > 'Alas for Boromir!'
8. The word I have given as '[?either]' is in fact hard to interpret in any other way. Possibly the sentence was left unfinished. The following text has the reading of RK (p. 87), 'save by a victory so final that what then befell would not trouble us, the dead [> being dead].'
9. Pippin says of Frodo: 'Just think, he was alive at least up to this time yesterday, and not so far away across the River!' I do not know why Pippin should say 'at least up to this rime yesterday', since Faramir had said that he had parted with Frodo and Sam 'yestermorn'. The following text has: 'he was alive and talking to Faramir only yesterday'. - In Gandalf's reckoning of the time he says: 'Let me see, he would discover some four days ago that we had thrown down Saruman - and had the Stone,' where RK has 'five'. See the Note on Chronology below.
10. The following text has: 'So I told Aragorn, on the day when we met again in Fangorn and rode down to Rohan.' The reference is to The White Rider, TT p. 100: For imagining war he has let loose war, believing that he has no time to waste ... So the forces that he has long been preparing he is now setting in motion, sooner than he intended.'
11. Cf. the original outline on p. 326: 'Pippin ... hears Faramir accept orders to go to Osgiliath.'
12. In RK (p. 91) Gandalf does not leave the City until news comes of Faramir's retreat to the wall of the Pelennor.
13. The square brackets are in the original.
14. Here the passage in ink breaks off; the sentence would have continued with the sortie from the Gate.
15. I note here a few details. All the references to date remain as in the draft. The distance from Henneth Annûn to Minas Tirith becomes 25 leagues (see note 6). Peregrin's friend is Berithil (see note 2; Beregond only entered at a late stage). The island in Anduin receives momentarily the name Cairros, changed immediately to Andros (and later to Cair Andros).
16. This appears from a note written on a slip in which the existing opening of the chapter (see p. 325) was rewritten. In this revision was introduced the fact of Berithil's having just returned from an errand over the Pelennor 'to Bered Ondrath, the guard-towers upon the entrance of the causeway'. This name was subsequently lost.
17. I notice here two features in which the narrative differed from that in RK, and a few other details. The account of Prince Imrahil's bringing Faramir to Denethor in the White Tower, and the light seen flickering in the high chamber (RK pp. 94 - 5), is absent not only from the initial draft but also from the fair copy D; and the last men to come into the City before the Gate was shut (RK p. 95), reporting the 'endless companies of men of a new sort' who held the northward road or had gone on into Anórien, are not said to be led by Ingold in the draft.
In both draft and tair copy the 'wild Southron men' of RK (p. 95) are 'wild eastlanders'. The wall of the Pelennor is still called Ramas Coren in both texts where RK has 'the Rammas' (p. 95), with '(? Corramas)' added at the time of writing. In the sentence (RK p. 94) 'And in his arms before him on his horse he [the Prince] bore the body of his kinsman, Faramir son of Denethor' a word is written above 'kinsman' in the draft text which looks like 'cousin'; this seems to have been struck through. The genealogy of the house of Dol Amroth is found in LR, Appendix A (I, iv): Denethor married (late) Finduilas daughter of Adrahil of Dol Amroth. Elsewhere it is recorded (see Unfinished Tales p. 248) that Adrahil was the father of Imrahil, so that Imrahil (brother of Finduilas) was Faramir's uncle.
18. This is curious, because in the D manuscript as written (when it was Faramir who imposed his own will on the council in his demand to lead a force to Osgiliath) Denethor (as reported) spoke no harsh words to Faramir, and indeed bade him farewell with the words 'may your judgement prove just: at least so much that I may see you again' (p. 333). This may suggest that the later version of this episode was already in being, in which Denethor says: 'But I will not yield the River and the fields of the Pelennor unfought - not if there is a captain that will do my will, and quail not' (cf. RK p. 90).
19. The handwriting here is such that many words could not be interpreted at all in isolation, without context or other clues, but 'save only for the light of his pale eyes' seems tolerably clear. Cf. p. 365.
20. See note 18.
21. The name Rath Dinen appears on the plan of the city reproduced on p. 290 from the first typescript of the chapter 'Minas Tirith', where however the conception of it was decisively different.
22. Other names are written beside this rider: Fenn Forn the Closed poor, Fenn uiforn the Ever Closed, also Uidavnen and the word davnan.
23. These words, slightly changed, were afterwards spoken by Gandalf to Pippin at the beginning of the chapter 'The Pyre of Denethor' (RK p. 126).
Note on the Chronology.
The new 'calendar' (i.e. with dates in March instead of February, see p. 325) can be equated with the old from the date of the first day of the Darkness, Pippin's second day in Minas Tirith, which had been February 7 and is now March 9. I presume that my father calculated this on the basis that all months now had thirty days. Thus proceeding ',; from 26 December = 26 January, the day of Frodo's flight (see VII.368), there are the following equations: December 31 = February 1; January 1 = February 2; January 29 = February 30; January 30 = March 1; January 31 = March 2; February 1 = March 3.
The chronology, however, is still not that of LR (see The Tale of Years). At this stage Faramir says (on 9 March) that he had parted with Frodo and Sam at Henneth Annûn on the morning of the previous day ('in the morning two days ago', RK p. 85), and he says that the Darkness began to come over that night ('yestereve', RK). The relation between the two chronologies can be set out thus:
Thus the horns of the Rohirrim are heard at cockcrow on March 14 in the chronology of the present texts, but on March 15 in LR. At this stage Frodo still takes two days, not three, from Henneth Annûn to the Cross-roads (see p. 182), and Gandalf takes three nights, not four, from Dol Baran to Minas Tirith (see p. 264 note 3).
Gandalf, speaking to Pippin on the night of 9 March, reckons that it was now four days since Sauron discovered 'that we had thrown down Saruman - and had the Stone' (note 9), whereas in RK (p. 88), on 10 March, he reckons the time as five days. He is referring to 5 March (= February 3), and the difference is again due to the longer time taken on his ride.
VII. THE RIDE OF THE ROHIRRIM.
A single manuscript page ('A') gives an outline for the narrative of this chapter. It was written in ink over a pencilled text - which at this stage had again and unhappily become my father's frequent me
thod of composition. The figures introducing each paragraph are of course the dates in the month of March.
(9) Théoden leaves Dunharrow on 9th. He rides 25 miles to Edoras. After a halt there and reviewing the garrison he sets out East. At first they go slow to conserve strength. Merry is given leave to go to war, and is assigned to ride with one of the king's guard: the one who seems young and light and so less burden to his steed. He is silent and never speaks. They halt not far from where the Snowbourn runs into Entwash 25 miles from Edoras - they bivouac in dense willow-thickets.
(10) They ride steadily and halt now nearly 100 miles from Edoras.
(11) They ride again. When 125 miles out about midday fugitives and late joining riders bring news of attacks in North, and of forces crossing above Sarn Gebir (1) into the Wold of Rohan. Théoden decides that he has left sufficient garrison (or all possible) in his strong places, and must ride on: soon the marshes of Entwash mouth will cover his flank. They cross into Anórien (of Gondor) and camp under Halifirien (160 [miles]). Mysterious drums are heard in the woods and hills. Théoden resolves to ride warily, and sends out scouts.
(12) They halt some 230 miles on at dusk (64 miles or a day's ride from Pelennor). They camp in the skirts of the Forest of Eilenach out of which rises Eilenach Beacon. Scouts return with the errand-riders of Minas Tirith (who had ridden ahead but found entrance closed). There is a great camp of enemy under [Amon Dîn >
The History of Middle Earth: Volume 8 - The War of the Ring Page 43
