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

by J. R. R. Tolkien

  A large question mark was placed against the first part of this, and it was evidently rejected as soon as written and replaced by the following:

  ? Berithil and guard had gone and stopped the burning.

  Gandalf reasons with Denethor. 'I have seen' says Denethor 'ships coming up Anduin: I will no more yield to an upstart - and even if his claim be true of the younger line: I am Steward for the sons of Anárion not of Isildur - than [to] my dark foe.'

  The development from this point is hard to be sure of, but I am almost certain that the next step was the following outline ('C'), written in ink around and through (but not over) a much rougher outline also in ink (briefer but essentially the same, with mention of the Palantír):

  Gandalf and Pippin hear clash of arms as they hasten down the winding road to Rath Dinen. When they reach the Tombs they find Berithil holding the door alone against the houschold- men, who wish to obey Denethor's orders and come and set fire to the pyre. From within comes Denethor's voice commanding Berithil by his oaths to let them enter.

  Gandalf sweeps aside the men and goes in. He upbraids Denethor, but Denethor laughs at him. Denethor has a Palantír! He has seen the coming of Aragorn. But he has also seen the vast forces still gathered in Mordor, and says that victory in arms is no longer possible. He will not yield up the Stewardship 'to an upstart of the younger line: I am Steward of the sons of Anárion.' He wants things to be as they were - or not at all.

  Gandalf demands the release of Faramir, and when Denethor attempts to slay him ('he shall not live to bow down!') Gandalf strikes the sword from his hand, and lets suddenly be seen his power so that even Denethor quails. Gandalf bids the men lift up Faramir and bear him from the chamber.

  Denethor says 'At least so far my rule still holds that I may determine my own death.' He sets fire to the wood which is oil-drenched. Then he leaps onto the stone bed. He breaks the wand of his Stewardship and lays the pieces on his lap, and lies down taking the Stone between his hands. Then Gandalf leaves him. He closes the door and the flames roar within. They hear Denethor give a great cry, and then no more. 'So passes the Stewardship of Gondor!' said Gandalf. It is said that ever after, if anyone looked in that Stone, unless he had great strength of will, he saw only two old hands withering in flames. [Added: Gandalf bids Berithil and household men not to mourn - or be too downcast. Each side has tried to do their duty.]

  They now bear Faramir to the house of the sick. As Gandalf and Pippin climb back up the road they hear the last shriek in the air of the Nazgûl. Gandalf stands still a moment. 'Some evil has befallen! ' he says, 'which but for the madness of Denethor I could have averted. So far is the reach of the Enemy. But we know how his will had entry to the White Tower. By the Stone. Though he could not daunt Denethor or enslave him, he could fill him with despair, mistrust and unwisdom.' When Faramir is placed under care with Berithil as guard they meet the funeral cortege. Where is Merry? Pippin volunteers to try and find Merry.

  Most of the essential ideas of the chapter were present here - and one that was rejected: Denethor knew who was aboard the black fleet and what his coming meant (see pp. 378 - 9). This knowledge he derived from the Palantír; and since it is present also in the brief preceding outline B the existence of the Palantír in the White Tower must be presumed there also.(2)

  At this stage, I think, my father began on a new text of the chapter ('D'), continuing as far as Gandalf's words concerning 'the heaehen kings' (RK p. 129). The final text is here very closely approached (3) until near the end (which is very rough and has various alternative readings):

  Then Gandalf showing now a marvellous strength leapt up on the faggots and raising the sick man bore him out of the deadly house; and as he was moved Faramir moaned and spoke his father's name.

  Then Denethor stepped forward and the flame died in his eyes and he wept, and he said: 'Do not take my son from me. He calls for me.'

  'He calls for you,' said Gandalf. 'But you cannot come to him save in one way. You must go out to the battle of your City putting away despair and risking death in the field; and he must struggle for life against hope in the dark ways of his fever. Then perchance you may meet again. / For unless you go out to the battle of your City putting away despair and risking death in the field you will never speak again with him in the waking world.'

  'He will not wake again,' said Denethor. 'His house is crumbling. Let us die together.' / 'At least we can go to death side by side,' said Denethor. 'That lies not in the will of the Lord of this City or of any other,' said Gandalf. 'For you are not yet dead. And so do the heathen kings under the dominion of the Dark Lord, to slay themselves in pride and despair or to slay their kin for the easing of their own death.'

  In RK this is followed by 'Then passing through the door he took Faramir from the deadly house and laid him on the bier on which he had been brought, and which had now been set in the porch. Denethor followed him ...'; for it is clear that Gandalf, bearing Faramir, had halted at Denethor's words 'Do not take my son from me!', and only now moved through the door. But in the text just given it is said that Gandalf bore Faramir 'out of the deadly house' as soon as he had lifted him from the pyre.

  It was perhaps at this stage that my father wrote a single discontinuous page ('E') beginning with the words 'Gandalf now takes Faramir'. Here as in RK Denethor follows him; but no further words are spoken until, after a long hesitation while he looks on Faramir, he declares that he will rule his own end, and his death follows immediately. It is curious that Denethor is here said to die clasping the Palantír, yet there is no drafting of the scene in which he reveals his possession of it.

  Gandalf now takes Faramir.

  Denethor now followed him to the door. And he trembled, looking in longing at his son and hesitating. Yet in the end his pride and wilfulness overmastered him and he was fey again. 'At least in this you shall not defy and snatch my power away,' he said. And stepping suddenly forth he seized a torch from the band of one of his servants, and moving back thrust it among the wood, which being drenched in oil roared at once into flame and a black smoke filled the house. Then Denethor leaped again . onto the table amid the fire and fume, and breaking the staff of his stewardship on his knee he cast it into the flames and laid himself back on his pillow clasping the Palantír with both hands to his breast.

  Gandalf in sorrow and horror turned his face away and came forth, closing the door. For a while he stood in thought silently upon the topmost step. And they heard the roar and crackle of the flames within; and then Denethor gave a great cry, and afterward spoke no more, nor was seen again by mortal man.

  'So passes the Stewardship of Gondor!' said Gandalf. And he -, turned to Berithil and the lord's servants. 'Do not mourn overmuch,' he said. 'For the old days have passed for good or evil. And be not grieved with your own deeds. For all here, as I see it, have striven to do as they judged right, whether in obedience and the keeping of vows or in the breaking. For you servants of the Lord owed obedience only to your Lord, but Berithil owed also allegiance first to the Lord Faramir the captain of the guard. So let now all hate or anger that lies between you fall away and be forgotten. Bear away those who have fallen in this unhappy place. And we will bear Faramir to a place where he can die in peace if that is his doom, or find healing.'

  So now Gandalf and Berithil taking up the bier that stood still in the porch before the doors set Faramir upon it and slowly bore him away to the houses of the sick, and the servants came behind bearing their fellows. And when they came at length through the closed door Gandalf bade Berithil who had the key to lock it. And as they passed into the upper circles of the City there was heard in the air the cry of the Lord of the Nazgûl as it rose and passed away for ever. And they stood for a moment

  stricken with wonder.

  This was followed (again with some doubt as to the sequence) by another discontinuous page ('F') that takes up in the course of Gandalf's reply to Denethor's words 'Do not take my son from me! He calls for me':

&
nbsp; '... But he now must strive for life in the dark ways of his fever seeking healing; and you must go out to the battle of your city, risking death, if it must be, in the field. This you know well in your heart.'

  But Denethor laughed. And going back to the table he lifted from it the pillow that he had lain on. And lo! in his hand he bore a Palantír. 'Pride and despair!' he said. 'Did you think that [the] eyes of the White Tower were blind?' he said. [Added in pencil, without direction for insertion: This the Stone of Minas Tirith has remained ever in the secret keeping of the Stewards in the topmost chamber.] Nay, nay, 1 see more than thou knowest, Grey Fool ...'(4)

  The page then continues very close to the final text (RK pp. 129 - 30), except in the view taken of Denethor's knowledge of Aragorn and the black fleet. In RK, as final proof that the power arrayed against Minas Tirith is too great far any withstanding, Denethor declares to Gandalf that 'even now the wind of thy hope cheats thee and wafts up Anduin a fleet with black sails.' He therefore does not know who is aboard. But (after Gandalf's reply 'Such counsels will make the Enemy's victory certain indeed') he goes on to accuse him of commanding Pippin 'to keep silence', and of installing him as a spy in his chamber; 'and yet in our speech together I have learned the names and purpose of all thy companions. So! With the left hand thou wouldst use me for a little while as a shield against Mordor, and with the right bring up this Ranger of the North to supplant me.' As the text stands in RK it is not clear what Denethor means by 'with the right hand'; for he does not know that it is the 'upstart' Aragorn who is coming up the Great River.

  From the present text F, however, it is clear what Denethor did originally mean by 'with his right hand'. Here, he does not mention the black fleet in the first of these speeches; and in the second he makes no reference at all to Pippin - so that it is not from Pippin that he has learned of Aragorn's coming. But then he goes on: 'But I know your mind and its plots. Do I not see the fleets even now coming up Anduin! So with the left hand you would use me as a shield against Mordor, and with the right hand bring up this Ranger of the North to take my place.' Here it is obvious that he does know who is aboard (with his left hand, one might suppose, he gestures towards Osgiliath and with his right towards Pelargir); and he knew it from use of the Palantír, as is expressly stated in the outline C (p. 375): 'Denethor has a Palantír! He has seen the coming of Aragorn.'

  This text (F) ends thus:

  'But who saith that the Steward who faithfully surrenders shall have diminishment of love and honour! And at the last you shall not rob your son of his choice, slaying him in your proud wickedness while yet healing is in doubt. This you shall not do. Yield me now Faramir!'

  It is hard to know what these last words imply, since at this point Gandalf must have already raised Faramir from the stone table and moved towards the door. It seems possible that some drafting has been lost, which would have made clearer the evolution of the final structure in this chapter.

  At any rate, my father now began another text ('G'), for which he used the initial pages of D (p. 376), but soon diverged into new manuscript, roughly written but now completing the chapter; and here the substance and structure of RK was reached with few differences. The manuscript had originally no title, but at some point he wrote on it 'XLVIII The Pyre of Denethor': at that stage, presumably, he was treating 'The Ride of the Rohirrim' and 'The Battle of the Pelennor Fields' as one chapter (see pp. 351, 367). 'XLVIII' was subsequently changed to 'XLIX' and 'V.6'.(5)

  As first written, the different view of Denethor's knowledge of Aragorn and the black fleet was preserved, though changed later on the manuscript to the final form (on this question see pp. 390 - 1). Gandalf still said 'So passes the Stewardship of Gondor' for 'So passes Denethor, son of Ecthelion'; and in his address to Berithil and the servants of Denethor who stood by he said: 'But Berithil of the guard owed allegiance first to his captain, Faramir, to succour him while he lived' (cf. p. 377). This was changed on the manuscript to read:

  '... For you servants of the Lord owed obedience to him only.

  And he who says: "my master is not in his mind, and knows not what he bids; I will not do it", is in peril, unless he has knowledge and wisdom. But to Berithil of the guard such discernment was a duty, whereas (6) also he owed allegiance first to his captain, Faramir, to succour him while he lived.'

  This was preserved in the fair copy ('H') that followed, and was not rewritten to the form in RK (p. 131) until the typescript stage was reached. At the end of this passage my father wrote, as in D, that Gandalf and Berithil bore Faramir to 'the houses of the sick', but he changed this to 'the Houses of Healing', with the Elvish name Berin a Nestad, changed at once to Bair Nestedriu, both of which were struck out; but a little later in the chapter ('So now at last they passed into the high circles of the City, and in the light of morning they went towards the houses that were set apart for the tending of men hurt or dying', cf. RK p. 131) the name Bair Nestedriu reappears. In the fair copy H there is no Elvish name for the Houses of Healing in the first of these passages, but at the second the form Bair Nestad is found. In the first typescript, in this same passage, the name is Edeb na Nestad, which was struck through.

  At this time the story was that Gandalf and Pippin rode through the Closed Door on their way to Rath Dinen (see note 3). Now, as Berithil and Gandalf bore the bier, 'behind them walked Pippin and beside him Shadowfax with downcast head'; and when they came back to the Door (here called 'the Steward's Door' as in RK; 'the Stewards' Door' in the fair copy) Gandalf sent Shadowfax back to his stable, dismissing him in the same words that in RK (p. 127) he used when they first came to the Door.

  At the point in the narrative where the dome of the House of the Stewards in Rath Dinen cracked and fell, and 'then in terror the servants fled, and followed Gandalf', my father set down an outline, which was struck through.

  Gandalf must say something about the Stone. How it was kept in Tower but only kings supposed to look in it.(7) Denethor in his grief when Faramir returned must have looked in it - hence his madness and despair. For though not yielding to Enemy (like Saruman) he got an impression of the Dark Lord's overwhelming might. The will of the Lord thus entered the Tower, confused all counsels, and kept Gandalf from the field.

  All this takes about 1 1/2 hours to nearly 8 o'clock? So as they come out into the upper circles they hear the dreadful shriek of the Nazgûl's end. Gandalf forbodes evil. Does Gandalf look out from a high place? When [he] has put Faramir in the sick quarters with Berithil as his servant and guard, Gandalf and Pippin go back down towards the Gates and meet the cortege, with bodies of Éowyn and Théoden.(8) Gandalf takes charge; but Pippin goes in search of Merry; and meets him wandering half blind. Eventually Gandalf and Pippin stand on battlement and watch progress of battle. Gandalf says he is not needed there so much as with the sick. Pippin (and Gandalf?) see the coming of Aragorn and the fleet. Eventually the captains return after victory at the Red Sunset.

  Council must follow next day. Is any account of Aragorn's march put in at council?

  The text in this manuscript (G) was then continued to the end; and when my father came to record Gandalf's words about the Palantír of Minas Tirith they took this form:

  '... Alas! but now I perceive how it was thai his will was able to enter among us into the very heart of this City.

  'Long have I guessed that here in the White Tower, as at Orthanc, one of the great Stones of Sight was preserved.

  Denethor did not in the days of his wisdom ever presume to use it, nor to challenge Sauron, knowing the limits of his own powers. But in his grief for Faramir, distraught by the hopeless peril of his City, he must have dared to do this: to look in the Stone. He hoped maybe to see if help was drawing nigh; but the ways of the Rohirrim in the North were hidden; and he saw at first only what was preparing in the South. And then slowly his eye was drawn east, to see what it was willed that he should see. And this vision [struck oat: true or false] of the great might of Mordor, fed the despair that was al
ready in his heart until it rose and engulfed his mind.'

  ['That fits well with what I saw,' said Pippin. 'The Lord went away from the room where Faramir lay; and it was when he came back chat I first thought he was changed, old and broken.'

  'It was in the very hour that Faramir was brought back that many saw a strange light in the topmost chamber of the Tower,' said Berithil.

  'Alas! then I guess truly,' said Gandalf.] 'Thus the will of Sauron entered into the Tower; and thus I have been delayed here....'

  The passage that I have enclosed in square brackets was an addition, but pretty clearly one made at the time of writing. In the fair copy manuscript of 'The Siege of Gondor' the passage describing how Prince Imrahil brought Faramir to the White Tower after his rescue, how Denethor then went up to the secret room under the summit of the Tower, and how a light was seen flickering there (RK pp. 94 - 5), was absent: see p. 340 note 17. It was no doubt at this time that it was added. The fair copy H retains the form of the passage just given; it was not until later that it was revised to introduce Gandalf's guess that Denethor had looked many times into the Palantír, and Berithil's corroboration 'But we have seen that light before, and it has been rumoured in the City that the Lord would at times wrestle in thought with his Enemy.' In the original manuscript of 'Minas Tirith' he had said to Pippin as they sat on the battlements that Denethor was reputed to be able to 'read somewhat of the mind of the Enemy' as hesat in his high chamber at night, but he did not then add the words 'wrestling with him', nor 'And so it is that he is old, worn before his time' (RK p. 37; p. 292 note 21). Thus Pippin's words, preserved in RK, 'it was only when he returned that I first thought he was changed, old and broken' were written when my father believed that it was only now and for the first time that Denethor had dared to look into the Seeing Stone of Minas Tirith.