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

by J. R. R. Tolkien

  All fly before him. Aragorn crosses Lameduin into Lebennin at morning of March 11 and hastens to Pelargir [added: 100 miles].(5)

  From this point the outline, becoming very rough, was struck out and replaced, immediately, by a new text on the reverse of the sheet of paper. At the head of this page is the following brief passage concerning Frodo and Sam, which (while certainly written at the same time as the outline of Aragorn's journey) probably already stood there:

  Rescue of Frodo. Frodo is lying naked in the Tower; but Sam finds by some chance that the elven-cloak of Lórien is lying in a corner. When they disguise themselves they put on the grey cloaks over all and become practically invisible - in Mordor the cloaks of the Elves become like a dark mantle of shadow.

  Then follows, returning to the outline:

  Aragorn crosses into Lebennin on March 11th (morning) and rides with all speed to Pelargir - the Shadow Host follows. The Haradrim fly before him in dismay. Some hearing news of his coming in time get their ships off and escape down Anduin, but most are not manned. Early on 12th Aragorn comes on the fleet driving all before him. Many of the ships are stuffed with captives, and they are partly manned (especially the oars) by captives taken in raids on Gondor, or slave-descendants of captives taken long before. These revolt. So Aragorn captures many ships and mans them, though several are burned. He works feverishly because he knows that doom of Minas Tirith is near, if he does not come in time. That night the Shadow Host vanishes and goes back into the mountain valleys, and finally disappears into the Paths of the Dead and is never seen again to come forth.(6)

  He sets out at 6 a.m. on 13 March, rowing. On the south plain of Lebennin the Anduin is very broad (5 - 7 miles) and slow. So with many oars they make about 4 miles an hour and by 6 a.m. on 14th are 100 miles on way. It is 125 miles by river from Pelargir to that place where Anduin takes a west-loop round the feet of Haramon, a great hill in South Ithilien, and bends into the Pelennor, so that here the Ramas-Coren is but 15 [> 5] miles from the City,(7) and stands right on the water brink. Just before that point the river course runs nearly North-South (slightly N.W.) and points straight towards Minas Tirith so that watchers can see that reach - about 10 miles long.(8)

  On morning of the 15th [written above: 14] a wind rises [added: at dawn) and freshens from S.W. The cloud and gloom begins to roll back. They hoist sails and now go with [struck out: more] speed. About 9 a.m. they can be seen by watchers from Minas Tirith who are dismayed. As soon as Aragorn catches sight of the city, and of the enemy, he hoists his standard (the White Crown with the stars of Sun and Moon on either hand: Elendil's badge).(9) A sun-gleam from the S.E. lights it up and it shines afar like white fire. Aragorn lands and drives off enemy.

  Especially notable here is the recurrence of the idea that appeared in 'Many Roads Lead Eastward' (pp. 300, etc.): there was a Palantír at Erech (in the earlier chapter Aragorn seemed to say that the Stone of Erech was itself the Palantír, p. 309 note 10). This Stone replaced that of Aglarond (pp. 76 - 8), so that there were still five Palantíri in the South.

  When my father came to write the chapter his intention - and achievement - was that in it should be recounted not only the debate of the commanders following the Battle of the Pelennor Fields but also the story of the journey of the Grey Company as recounted by Gimli and Legolas to Merry and Pippin - and that it should then carry the story on to the arrival of the Host of the West before the Morannon. The manuscript, or manuscript corpus, was originally entitled 'The Parley at the Black Gate'.(10) It was a huge labour to achieve the final arrangement, entailing draft upon draft upon draft, with the most complicated re-use of existing pages, or parts of them, as he experimented with different solutions to the structural problem. It is more than likely that when this great mass of manuscript and typescript left his hands it was already in dire confusion, and its subsequent ordering into wholly factitious textual entities made it seem that in 'The Last Debate' my attempt to discern the true sequence of the writing of The Lord of the Rings would finally founder. But it has proved otherwise, and since no significant element seems to have been lost out of the whole complex the sequence of development in fact emerges here at least as clearly as in some far less difficult parts of the narrative. But of course to describe in detail each textual pathway would demand far more space than can be allowed to it.

  It seems that before my father began the coherent drafting of the chapter - while he was in fact still writing 'The Houses of Healing' - he set down a form of the speeches at the opening of the debate that had arisen in his mind and would not be postponed.(11) Since a great deal of this does not appear in RK 1 give it in full.

  'My lords,' said Gandalf. '"Go forth and fight! Vanity! You may triumph on the fields of Pelennor for a day. But against the Power that now arises there is no victory." So said the Steward of this City before he died. And though I do not bring you counsels of despair, yet ponder the truth in this. The people of the West are diminished; far and wide the lands lie empty. And it is long since your rule retreated and left the wild peoples to themselves, and they do not know you; and [they] will come seeking new lands to dwell in. Now were it but a matter of war between Men, such as has been for many ages, I would say: You are now too few to march East either in wrath or friendship, to subdue or to teach. Yet you might take thought together, and make such boundaries, and such forts and strongholds, as could long be maintained and restrain the gathering tide [> ?wild]. But your war is not only against numbers, and swords and spears, and untamed peoples. You have an Enemy of great power and malice, and he grows, and he it is that fills all the hearts of the wild peoples with hate, and directs and governs that hatred, and so they are become no longer like waves that may roll at whiles against your battiements, to be withstood with valour and defeated with forethought. They are rising in, a great tide to engulf you. What then shall you do? Seek to overthrow your Enemy.'

  'Overlate should we begin that task!' said Prince Imrahil. '[Had Minas Morgul been destroyed in ages past, and the watch upon the Black Gate maintained We slept, and no sooner had he re-entered the Nameless Land] We slept, and awoke to find him already grown beyond our measure. And to destroy him we must overthrow first all the allies that he has gathered.'

  'That is true,' said Gandalf. 'And their numbers are too great, as Denethor indeed saw. Therefore this war is without final hope, whether you sit here to endure siege upon siege, or march out to be overwhelmed beyond the River. Prudence would counsel you to await onset in strong places, for so at least shall the time before the end be made a little longer.

  'But now into the midst of all these counsels of war comes the Ring. Here is a thing which could command victory even in our present plight.'

  'I have heard only rumour of this,' said Imrahil. 'Is it not said the One Ring of Sauron of old has come back to light, and that if he regain it then he will be as mighty as he was in the Dark Years?'

  'It is said so and said truly,' answered Gandalf. 'Only he will be more mighty than of old and more secure. For there is no longer any land beyond the Sea from which help may come; [and those who dwell beyond even the West will not move, for they have committed the Great Lands to the keeping of Men.]'(12) 'But if we should find the Ring and wield it, how would it give us victory?' asked Imrahil.

  'It would not do so all in a day,' answered Gandalf. 'But were it to come to the hand of some one of power [?or] royalty, as say the Lord Aragorn, or the Steward of this City, or Elrond of Imladrist,(13) or even to me, then he being the Ringlord would wax ever in power and the desire of power; and all minds he would cow or dominate so that they would blindly do his will. And he could not be slain. More: the deepest secrets of the mind and heart of Sauron would become plain to him, so that the Dark Lord could do nothing unforeseen. The Ringlord would suck the very power and thought from him, so that all would forsake his allegiance and follow the Ringlord, and they would serve him and worship him as a God. And so Sauron would be overthrown utterly and fade into oblivion; but behold
, there would be Sauron still ..... but upon the other side, [a tyrant brooking no freedom, shrinking from no deed of evil to hold his sway and to widen it].'

  'And worse,' said Aragorn. 'For all thar is left of the ancient power and wisdom of the West he would also have broken and corrupted.'

  'Then what is the use of this Ring?' said Imrahil.

  'Victory,' said [Gandalf >] Húrin Warden of the Keys.(14) 'At least we should have won the war, and not this foul lord of Mordor.'

  'So might many a brave knight of the Mark or the Realm speak,' said Imrahil. 'But surely more wisdom is required of lords in council. Victory is in itself worthless. Unless Gondor stand for some good, then let it not stand at all; and if Mordor doth not stand for some evil that we will not brook in Mordor or out of it, then let it triumph.'

  'Triumph it will, say or do what we will, or so it seems,' said : Hurin. 'But after many words still I do not hear what is our present purpose. Surely, it is but a plain choice between staying here and marching forth. And if those who are wiser or more farsighted than I tell me there is no long[er] hope in waiting here, then I for one am for marching forth, and taking doom by the outstretched hand. So we may give it a wrench at the least before it grips us.'

  'And in this at any rate I approve Hurin's words,' said Gandalf. 'For all my speech was leading to just such counsel. This is not a war for victory that cannot be won by arms.(15) I have rejected the use of the Ring, for that would make victory the same as defeat. I have (like a fool, said Denethor) set the Ring at a great risk that our Enemy will regain it, and so utterly overwhelm us; for to retain it would he to risk the certainty that ere the last throes came upon us one among us would take it, and so bring about at least as great an evil. But still we have set our hands to war. For resist we must while we have strength - and hope. But now our salvation, if any can be achieved, does not rest upon our deeds of arms, yet it may be aided by them. Not by prudence, as I say, of the lesser wars of Men. But by a boldness, even a rashness, that in other case would be folly. For our hope is still, though daily it grows fainter, that Sauron has not recovered the Ring, and while that is so he will be in doubt and fear lest we have it. The greater our rashness the greater his fear, and the more will his eye and thought be turned to us and not elsewhere where his true peril is. Therefore I say we should follow up this victory as soon as we may and move East with all such force as we have.'

  'Yet still there must be prudence,' said Imrahil. 'There is scarce a man or horse alive among us that is not weary, even those that are not sick or hurt. And we learn that there is an army left unfought upon our north flank. We cannot wholly denude the city, or it will burn behind us.'

  'True enough, I would not counsel it,' said Gandalf. 'Indeed for my design the force me lead East need not be great enough for any assault in earnest upon Mordor, so long as it is great enough to challenge a battle.'

  Turning now to the primary manuscript of the chapter, this is itself a massive complex of rejected and retained material, but it cannot be satisfactorily separated into distinct 'layers', and I shall treat it as a single entity, referring to it as 'the manuscript'.

  The opening achieves almost word for word the form in RK pp 148 - 9, beginning 'The morning came after the day of battle' and continuing as far as Gimli s remark to Legolas: It is ever so with all the things that Men begin: there is a frost in spring, or a blight in summer, and they fail of their promise.' A servant of Imrahil then guided them to the Houses of Healing, where they found Merry and Pippin in the garden, 'and the meeting of those friends was a merry one.' The narrative then moves directly into the debate: as in RK (p. 154) Imrahil and Eomer went down from the city to the tents of Aragorn, and there conferred with Gandalf, Aragorn, Elrohir and Elladan. 'They made Gandalf their chief and prayed him to speak first his mind'; and as in RK he began by citing the words of Denethor before his death, bidding his listeners ponder the truth of them. But now he went on, following and condensing a passage in the draft just given:

  'The peoples of the West are diminished; and it is long since . your rule retreated and left the wild peoples to themselves; and they do not know you, and neither love nor fear will long restrain them. And you have an Enemy of great power and malice, who fills all their hearts with hatred, and governs and directs that hatred, so that they are no longer like waves that roll at whiles against your walls to be:thrown back one by one: they are united, and they are rising as a great tide to engulf you. 'The Stones of Seeing do not lie, and not even the Lord of Barad-dûr can make them do so ...'

  The remainder of Gandalf's speech, with the interventions of Imrahil,(16) Aragorn, and Eomer, was achieved through a series of drafts that need scarcely be considered more closely, except for one version of Gandalf's reply to Eomer (RK pp. 155 - 6). In this, after saying that the Dark Lord, not knowing whether they themselves possessed the Ring, would look for those signs of strife that would inevitably arise among them if they did, Gandalf goes on:

  'Now it is known to you that I have set the Ring in peril. From Faramir we learn that it passed to the very borders of Mordor before this assault began, maybe on the first day of the darkness. And, my lords, it went by the may of Morgul. Slender indeed is the hope that the bearer can have escaped the perils of that way, of the horrors that wait there; still less is the hope that even if he comes through them to the Black Land he can pass there unmarked. Six days have gone, and hourly I watch the signs with great dread in my heart.'

  'What are these signs that you loot for, an enemy ... you on our ...' asked Imrahil.

  'Darkness,' said Gandalf. 'That is my dread. And darkness began, and therefore for a while I felt a despair deeper than Denethor. But the darkness that is to be feared is not such as we have endured: it would need no clouds in the air; it would begin in our hearts feeling afar the power of the Ringlord, and grow till by sunlight or moonlight or under heaven or under roof all would seem dark to us. This darkness was but a device to make us despair and it has, as such deceits will, ..... our enemy. The next sign is strife among the lords.'

  A following draft reaches Gandalf's argument as it appears in RK, but here he adds to those signs that Sauron will have observed: 'He may also have seen in the Stone the death of Denethor, and since he judges all by himself he may well deem that a first sign of strife among his chief foes.' In the same text, after saying that 'we must at all costs keep his eye from his true peril', he adds: 'A single regiment of orcs set about Orodruin could seal our ruin' (in a subsequent version: 'A mere handful of orcs at watch on Orodruin would seal our doom').

  At the end of the debate, following Aragorn's words (RK p. 158) 'no gates will endure against our Enemy if men desert them', an initial draft has a development that was not pursued:

  Then even as they debated a rider came in search of Eomer. 'Lord,' he said, 'word has come from Anórien from the northroads. Théoden King, when we rode hither, left men behind to watch the movements of enemy at Amon Dîn. They send word that there has been war far away in the Wold, and thence come strange tidings. For some say [the very woods have] that wild things of the woods have fallen on the orcs and driven them into the River and the rapids of Sarn Gebir. But the army that was on the road has heard this news, and also of our victory here, and is afraid, and is even now hastening back.'

  'Ha!' said Eomer. 'If they dare to assail us they will rue it. If they seek to fly past they shall be smitten. We must cut off this finger of the Black Hand ere it is withdrawn.'

  The numbers of those who should set out from Minas Tirith were differently conceived, for 'the great part of these should be horsed for swifter movement' (in contrast to RK: 'the great part of this force should be on foot, because of the evil lands into which they would go'): Eomer leading three thousand of the Rohirrim, Aragorn five hundred horse and fifteen hundred foot, and Imrahil a thousand horse and fifteen hundred foot; and there was no suggestion that any force of the Rohirrim were sent to 'waylay the West Road against the enemy that was in Anórien' (RK p. 158). The ma
nuscript was however subsequently corrected and the muster as enumerated in RK introduced, with three thousand of the Rohirrim left behind.

  After the words 'And he drew forth Branding and held it up glittering in the sun' (which is where in RK 'The Last Debate' ends), the original chapter then continues with a transition back to Legolas and Gimli: 'While the great captains thus debated and laid their designs, Legolas and Gimli made merry in the fair morning high up in the windy circles of Minas Tirith.' Legolas' sight of the gulls flying up Anduin follows, and the emotion that they stirred in him, are described in much the same words as in RK; but the conversation that follows is altogether different. At this stage no account had been given of the Paths of the Dead; in the outline at the beginning of this chapter (p. 397) my father had suggested that the story would be told 'at feast of victory in Minas Tirith', and had mentioned that in tunnels under the mountains the company saw the 'skeleton in armour of Bealdor son of Brego', but that except for the dark and a feeling of dread they met no evil.

  There is at first both a draft and a more finished version; I give the latter, since it follows the former very closely.

  '... No peace shall I have again in Middle-earth!' 'Say not so!' said Gimli. 'There are countless things still to see there, and great work to be done. But if all the Fair Folk, that are also wise, take to the Havens, it will become a duller world for those that are doomed to stay.' 'It is already rather dull,' said Merry, sitting and swinging his legs as he sat on the brink of the wall. 'At least it is for hobbits, cooped up in a stone city, and troubled with wars, while their visitors talk and nod together about their strange journey, and tell no one else about it. I last saw you at the Hornburg, and then I thought you were going to Dunharrow,(17) but up you come on ships out of the South. How did you do it?' 'Yes, do tell us,' said Pippin. 'I tried Aragorn, but he was too full of troubles, and just smiled.' 'It would be a long story fully told,' said Legolas, 'and there are memories of that road that I do not wish to recall. Never again will I venture on the Paths of the Dead, not for any friendship; and but for my promise to Gimli I would vow never go into the White Mountains again.' 'Well, for my part,' said Gimli, '[wonder was stronger than fear >