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

by J. R. R. Tolkien

] Min Rimmon about [25 >] 50 miles west of the Pelennor or about [40 >] 14 miles further on:(2) Orcs are roving along the road. Dark men of Eilenach come in. They decide to push on by night. Suddenly they see fires ahead and hear cries. A great hoom hom is heard. Ents! Treebeard cries Merry. The enemy camp is in confusion. Dark men of Eilenach have attacked it, and suddenly coming out of North after a victory over Orcs in Wold ([250 >] 225 miles) Treebeard and a company of Ents. The Rohirrim come round to rear [and] sweep the remnants away N.W. into marshes. They halt under Min Rimmon and take counsel of war.

  (13) Morning of 13th. Scouts report that siege is now [?strait] and great fires and engines are all about walls. They ride about 20 miles and [? hide] in the woods and hills of Amon Dîn ready to move at night and attack with dawn. (14) At dawn they charge. Rammas has been destroyed at this point.

  At the foot of the page, in pencil, is a list of distances: Eilenach 215 (written beneath: 219); Min Rimmon 245 (written beneath: 246); Amon Dîn 270; Rammas 294; Minas Tirith 306.(3) Beside this list is a note: 'Camp just west of Min Rimmon (243 miles) on night of 12th.'

  The names of the beacons in their final forms and final order (which I count eastwards from Edoras) had appeared long before in the abandoned opening C of 'Minas Tirith' (p. 233; repeated in the first text of the chapter), but now the order has been changed:

  I can offer no explanation for this other than the obvious but not entirely convincing one that my father had misremembered the order as it stood in the 'Minas Tirith' text, and that afterwards, looking back through the papers, he returned to it.

  So in the outline A the Rohirrim camped on the night of March 12 'in the skirts of the Forest of Eilenach out of which rises Eilenach Beacon', and here 'the dark men of Eilenach' enter the story, forerunners of the Woses or Wild Men of the Woods, though nothing is said of them other than that they attacked the enemy camp (the drumming in the hills is heard, however, from the camp under Halifirien on the previous night, March 11). Thus the Forest of Eilenach is the forerunner of the Druadan Forest, but Eilenach Beacon is the fifth, and beyond it are still Min Rimmon and Amon Dîn.

  Treebeard and the Ents reappear, coming south 'after a victory over Orcs in the Wold', and clearly they play a part in the attack on the camp (I take it that the meaning of the text at this point is 'Dark men of Eilenach have attacked it, and so also have Treebeard and a company of Ents suddenly coming out of the North'). In the early outlines for Book V there are several references to the southward march of the Ents after the destruction of the Orcs on the Wold (see p. 255 and note 29), but these all specifically refer to their arrival (together with Elves from Lorien) after the siege of Minas Tirith had been broken: there has been no suggestion that they appeared earlier, in Anórien.

  Merry is here '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.' This is presumably the story that my father had in mind at the end of 'Many Roads Lead Eastward' (see p. 318), where one among the guard, noticeably slighter in build (and certainly Éowyn), looked at Merry as the ride began from Dunharrow: this Rider would be assigned to carry the hobbit.

  Two pages of pencilled text are hard to place since they are very largely illegible on account of subsequent overwriting in ink; bur they are very noteworthy, since from what little can be read it is seen that my father was here developing the story of the coming of the Ents into Anórien from the outline just given. The narrative envisaged clearly ran into difficulties, and was decisively abandoned, without any repercussions in the development of the chapter; for this reason it seems most probable that they should be placed here. The ink overwriting that so ohscured them bears no relation to the pencilled text beneath.(4)

  On one of these pages (which I take to be the first in order since the arrival of Treebeard appears, whereas on the other he is already present) Treebeard's call of hoom hom (or something similar) is heard; 'Merry sprang up. "Treebeard!" he cried. Treebeard comes with good news. The Ents and the Huorns had ..... the invaders on the Wold and driven them into the River.' Fragments of the following sentence refer to rumour of the ride of the Rohirrim having reached the Ents, and to their great march southwards to aid the king. 'Friendship and award the king offered. But he asked only leave when war was over to return to Fangorn and there be troubled by ..... For reward he would take .......'

  No more than broken fragments can be discerned in the remainder of this page, but these suggest uncertainty of direction. 'They plan to divide into three. The Ents would come on the camp from the north first while the main host ...., .and so come down to the plain [?somewhat] behind the camp between it and the leaguer of the city'; Or remove the host of orc-men ., and later, In that case the wild men slay orcs but also turn against king. But the riders brush them aside and reach Amon Dîn ...'

  The other page begins thus: 'But the wild men were nowhere to be seen. At the first sight of the Ents they had cried out shrieks of fear and fled back to vanish into the hills ..... what dark and distant legends out of [?elder] days held their minds enthralled none could say. But Treebeard soon found for himself what he needed ......... a [?pool] under the side of Amon Dîn fed by a spring [?above]. There he stood and [? laved] himself while the king and his captains held council under the trees.' After '"Both ... and warriors are needed, lord," said Eomer' follows: 'Some few at least must have escaped eastward to give warning of our approach.' Does this refer to the Wild Men?

  From the rest of this page scarcely anything useful can be gleaned, but the sentence 'The wild men lead them again along hill-paths' is clear; which is puzzling, since there seems not to be enough text intervening to explain the reversal of the story just given.

  Nothing more is found anywhere touching on the appearance of the Ents in Anórien, and the reason for their disappearance can only be guessed at. It seems to me possible that something on the following lines may lie behind it. The vast armies at the disposal of Mordor made it a certainty that a host would be dispatched beyond Minas Tirith into Anórien in order to block any attempt from Rohan to come to the aid of the city: this could be said to be a datum of the story. But an assault on the orc-camp would necessarily constitute a major episode, and my father wanted such an episode at this juncture no more than did the Rohirrim. The Wild Men, who (as 'the dark men of Eilenach') had entered in outline A as attackers of the orc-camp, found their role in leading the Rohirrim by forgotten roads through the hills known only to themselves, so that the orc-camp was entirely circumvented. The Ents therefore had no clear function left to them. This is of course pure speculation; there are no notes found pertaining to the question. But at any rate the explanation cannot be that my father had come to feel (independently of the immediate story as it was emerging here) that Treebeard should not appear again in person until the reunited Company met him once more on the homeward journey: see p. 361.

  My father had great difficulty with the question of how Merry went to Minas Tirith, and indeed with finding a satisfactory opening to the chapter. The previous chapter in the narrative sequence ('Many Roads Lead Eastwards') had ended with the host of the Rohirrim passing down Harrowdale; now something must be told of the halt at Edoras - but at the same time he would prefer to pass over the uneventful first days of the ride and begin the chapter at a later point.

  His first solution, in a very brief and very rough text ('B'), was to open with the Riders halted on the third night (March 11) below the Halifirien, where, as in the outline A, the mysterious drums are heard in the hills, and to introduce the halt at Edoras as a retrospect of Merry's as he reviewed his situation, lying under the trees in the darkness.

  It was so dark that Merry could see nothing as he lay rolled in his blankets; but though it was an airless windless night all about was the soft whisper of endless dark trees. He lifted his head. There it was again, a sound like faint drums in the wooded hills and mountain-steps to the south, drums that stopped and seemed to be answered from other places.
He wondered if the watchmen heard it. Though he could not see them he knew that all round him were companies upon companies of the Riders. He could smell the horses in the dark, and hear now and again their stamping and shifting on the soft needle-clad ground. They were bivouacked in the pinewoods at clustered about the dark Halifirien: a great hill, flat-topped, standing out from the [?main] range beside the road from Edoras on the borders of Anórien.

  He was tired but could not sleep. He had ridden now for three days since the dark morning of the muster at Dunharrow, and at each halt the darkness seemed to deepen, and his heart and spirits to fall lower. There was now no song or speech on the way in all the great host of Rohan. At Edoras they had halted for a while and then at last he obtained the king's permission to go on to battle with him. He now wondered why. It was arranged that he was to ride before one of the king's guard, and it seemed that the young man whom he had noticed had claimed him, since he was lighter of build than the others, so that his steed was less burdened. At any rate as they rode forth at last from Edoras Merry had been helped up to this man's seat, and there he had [?sat] ... while men were riding, but never a word did his companion utter, at mounting or dismounting or on the way.

  All the last part of this text (from 'At Edoras they had halted ...') was struck out, and the following substituted: 'and already he Wondered why he had been so determined to come against [?even] the king's command. Not a word more since the first day had Grímhelm spoken [?whether] at mounting or dismounting or on the road.'

  My father had come to the conclusion that Merry had not been given permission by Théoden to come with the host of Rohan to Minas Tirith; and he had decided also - perhaps for this reason - that the halt at Edoras had best be recounted in direct narrative. He therefore began a new opening for the chapter in another extremely rough manuscript ('C'), entitled 'The Ride of the Rohirrim':

  The king came to Edoras in the gathering dark, though it was but noon. There he halted and said farewell to his golden hall and the people of his house. Merry begged not to be parted from him.

  'This is no journey for Stybba,' said Théoden. 'We ride to war, and in such battle as we hope to make what would you do, Master Holbytla, sworn swordthain though you are and greater of heart than of ...?'

  'As for that, who can tell?' answered Merry. 'And why did you take me as swordthain if 1 was to be left behind when my lord rides to war?'

  'If the battle were here we would see how you bore yourself,' said Théoden, 'but it is 100 leagues or more to Mundbeorg (5) where Denethor is lord. And the first thing for my swordthain to do is to hear the commands of his lord.'

  Merry went out unhappy and looked at the lines of horses. The companies were already being ordered for the start. Suddenly a Rider came up to him, and spoke softly in a whisper. 'Where will u-ants not, a way opens, say we,' he said. 'So have I found myself.' Merry [?looked] ... rider of the king's guard whom he noticed before. 'You wish to go where the lord of the Eorlingas goes?'

  'I do,' said Merry. 'Then you shall ride before me,' said the Rider. 'Such good will shall not be wasted. Say nothing more, but come.'

  'Thank you indeed, thank you sir - I do not know your name.'

  'Do you not?' said the Rider softly. 'Then call me [Cyneferth >] Grímhelm.'(6)

  (9) So it was that when the king set forth again before Grímhelm sat Meriadoc the hobbit, and his great grey steed made little of the burden, for Grímhelm was less in build than most of the guard though lithe and well-knit in shape. That [?evening] they camped in the willow thickets where Snow- bourn ... into Entwash 12 leagues or more east of Edoras.

  The text then tails off into scrawled and partly illegible notes about the next two days' journey: on the third day, with the date March 11 (cf. outline A, p. 343), 'men rode in joining the muster late, and the)' brought rumours of war in the North and of Orcs crossing into the Wold above Sarn Gebir'; to which news Eomer said: 'Too late to turn back or aside.'

  It was now, as the name Grímhelm shows, that the conclusion of the text B, with the story that Merry rode with the king's permission, was rejected (p. 347).(7)

  My father evidently decided now (probably, as I have suggested, because he did not wish to treat each day of the ride from Edoras in consecutive narrative) that this passage, recounting the king's denial of Merry's request and Grímhelm's stepping secretly into the breach, had best be placed at the end of 'Many Roads Lead Eastward' ('The Muster of Rohan'); and the next text ('D') (8) was marked 'Place this at the end of Chapter II of Book V'. The alliterative song From dark Dunharrow in the dim morning had not yet arisen. The 'young rider of the guard' still names himself Grímhelm, but with an alternative Derning, and a further suggestion Dernhelm. The conclusion of the passage in RK (p. 78, the end of 'The Muster of Rohan') is now present, with mention of the Folde and the Fenmarch, but whereas in RK four beacon-hills are named after Halifirien (Calenhad, Min- Rimmon, Erelas, Nardol) here there are only three: Calenhad, Erelas, Nardol, with omission of Min-Rimmon (see p. 344).

  Rough workings for From dark Dunharrow in the dim morning are found, and the song was then incorporated into a further text ('E')(9) ('to be added to Chapter II of Book V'). The Rider who bears Merry is here still called Grímhelm (with 'Dernhelm?' written beside); and four beacon-hills are now named, but still with the omission of Min- Rimmon: Calenhad, Erelas, Nardol, Eilenach (because, when this was written, Eilenach had already been passed when the story told in 'The Ride of the Rohirrim' begins).

  Finally, the alliterative song with the following text was copied in a fine manuscript and attached to the typescript M of 'Many Roads Lead Eastward': here the song is all but in final form.(10) There are now no differences from RK in the conclusion of the earlier chapter, except that Dernhelm remains 'a young rider of the guard'.(11)

  The development of the new opening of 'The Ride of the Rohirrim' (i.e., when the story of the halt at Edoras had been removed) is particularly hard to analyse. There is here no continuous primary text followed by a continuous second version: my father wrote in a series of overlapping and partly discontinuous stages, some of which are in pencil overwritten in ink. I shall not attempt here to describe this complex in detail, especially since much of it is repetition, as my father sought to find a satisfactory articulation of existing elements in the story.

  In the earliest brief text of this new start to the chapter (in pencil, but largely legible despite the overwriting) the host of the Rohirrim is 'bivouacked in the pinewoods that clustered about Minrimmon Beacon'. Merry hears a sound like faint drums in the wooded hills. They had been riding for four days, and were now less than a day's ride from the walls of the Pelennor. Scouts sent ahead had returned with the errand-riders of Gondor and reported that Minas Tirith was besieged, that another host was holding the approach to the City, and that a part of that force was marching west along the road. 'Suddenly Merry heard the soft whisper of Dernhelm again. Not a word more had he spoken since Edoras, either at mounting or dismounting or upon the way. "Come!" he said. "We ride again by night. Battle comes to meet us." ' Here this text ends. It is clear that 'Minrimmon Beacon' has now replaced 'Eilenach Beacon' of the outline A (p. 343),(12) and in the ink text written over it (with the chapter number 'XLVII') Min Rimmon Beacon is 'a tall hill standing up from the long ridges of the forest of Taur-rimmon'.

  In a second pencilled text, again overwritten but again largely legible, the scouts report that the enemy host was encamped on the road 'between Amon Dîn and the walls'. Dernhelm is now more communicative, for when the night riding has begun Merry ventures to put a question to him, and gets an answer. 'Drums, Dernhelm. Do you hear them, or am I dreaming? Is that the enemy?' Dernhelm replies very much as does Elfhelm the Marshal in RK (p. 105) after he stumbled over Merry in the dark, though more briefly: 'It is the wild men of the hills. In many wooded vales they live secretly, but most in this region, remnants of the Dark Years. They go not to war for Gondor or the Mark, and ask but to live wild. But now the darkness troubles them an
d the coming of orcs: they fear lest the Dark Years be come again. Let us be thankful. For they have offered service to Théoden. They are now our guides.' Here this text ends in its turn. Ink overwriting advances the story: Éothain captain of the guard'(13) stumbles over Merry lying on the ground, and it is he who tells Merry about the meaning of the drums: 'Those are not orc-drums. You hear the wild men of the hills: so they talk together. In many wooded vales of these regions they live few and secretly.' Éothain makes no mention of the use of poisoned arrows by the Wild Men, and nothing is told here of any colloquy with one of them. The text concludes (from the end of Éothain's words to Merry):

  '... Let us be thankful; for they have offered service to Théoden. They have spied on the enemy, and will guide us, they say, by cunning paths.'

  'Where?' said Merry.

  'That we shall learn ere long, I doubt not,' said Éothain. 'But I must hasten. The guard is to lead a flank march, and I must soon be ready.' He vanished in the dark, and at that moment 'Come,' said the soft voice of Dernhelm in Merry's ear. 'We ride again. I am ready.'

  Soon Merry found himself riding again, slowly, warily. The guard led the way but beside each horse walked with long strides strange shapes of men, hardly to be seen in the gloom, and yet somehow Merry was reminded of the Pûkel-men of Dunharrow. Guided by these unlooked for friends they turned away southward towards the hills, filing among the trees, and then turning again moved further along hidden tracks through narrow dales and over the shoulders of dark hills.