At this time my father also wrote an experimental version 'with entrance to the Door told at end of Chapter 11 of Book V' - that is, at the end of 'Many Roads Lead Eastward'. This begins: 'But Aragorn and his company rode across the high mountain-field upon which was set the refuge of the Rohirrim; and the paths were laid between rows of standing stones hoar with age uncounted. The light was still grey, for the sun had not yet climbed over the black ridges of the Haunted Mountain ...' It must be presumed that the story of the coming of the Grey Company to Dunharrow, and Aragorn's parting from Éowyn, had now been added to 'Many Roads Lead Eastward' (see note 19). The text ends thus: '... a groping blindness overcame him, even Gimli Glóin's son the Dwarf, who had walked in many deep places under earth. So the Grey Company dared the forbidden door, and vanished from the land of living men.'
Although this shows that my father was pondering the possibility of removing some part of the story told in the Houses of Healing and rewriting it as direct narrative in its chronological place, the following typescript is a text of the whole 'Tale of Gimli and Legolas' incorporating all revision to that time, and ending with the words 'and none ever dared to move Baldor's bones' (cf. p. 416).
There followed a rough manuscript in which the first part of the 'Tale' was written out as direct narrative, to stand in its chronological place in the earlier chapter, thus greatly shortening the material of the end of Book V. A further typescript has the structure of 'The Last Debate' in RK, with the story of the passage of the Paths of the Dead removed and only mentioned as having been told, though here it was still Gimli who told it:
'Alas! I had heart only for myself,' said Gimli, 'and I do not wish to recall that journey.' He fell silent; but Pippin and Merry were so eager for news that at last he yielded and told them in halting words of the dreadful passage of the mountains that led to the black Stone of Erech. But when he came to the Day without Dawn he ceased. 'I am weary recalling that weariness, and the horror of the Dark,' he said.
'Then I will say on,' said Legolas.(45)
The structure of the narrative in RK had been at last achieved, with the debate in the tent of Aragorn following in the same chapter the end of the story told to Merry and Pippin in the Houses of Healing.(46) I see no way to determine at what stage all this later work was done.
NOTES.
1. On Haramon see p. 359 and note 3. The reading 'the Hills of Haramon' (plural) in the outline 'The Story Foreseen from Forannest' is certain, in contrast to the 'great hill' referred to in the present text.
2. For Bealdor (Baldor) son of Brego see pp. 315-16, and on the spelling of the name p. 321 note 11.
3. A pencilled note in the margin reads: '25 miles. Dunharrow > rech 55.' Presumably '25 miles' refers to the distance from the issue of the Paths of the Dead to the Stone of Erech. On the distance from Dunharrow to Erech see pp. 296 - 7 note 2.
4. By '(say Linhir?)' I suppose that my father meant that since the road to Pelargir crossed the Lameduin (later Gilrain) at Linhir, 'Linhir' would do as well as 'Fords of Lameduin'. Linhir appears also in 'The Story Foreseen from Forannest' (p. 361); it is marked on the Second Map (see p. 437) at some distance above the head of the estuary of Lameduin, the direct distance from here to Erech on this map being 36 mm. or 180 miles.
5. From Linhir to Pelargir direct is 2 cm. or 100 miles on the Second Map.
6. The rejected portion of the outline has here: 'The Haradwaith try to fly. Some take ship back again down Anduin. But Aragorn overtakes them and captures most of the ships. Some are set fire to, but several manned by slaves and captives are captured.' (Then follows the passage about the Gondorian captives.) 'Aragorn embarks with men of South Gondor; the Shadow Host disperses, pursuing the Haradwaith about the vales.'
7. Cf. 'The Battle of the Pelennor Fields', p. 370: 'south away the river went in a knee about the out-thrust of the hills of Emyn Arnen in lower Ithilien, and Anduin bent then in upon the Pelennor so that its outwall was there built upon the brink, and that at the nearest was no more than [five >] four miles from the Gates.' In 'The Story Foreseen from Forannest' (p. 363 note 3) the Pelennor Wall is at this point ten miles away from the City.
8. On the Second Map it is 125 miles (the figure given in the text) up river from Pelargir to the angle of the 'knee' in Anduin (see note 7), and thus the straight stretch of ten miles 'just before that point', visible from Minas Tirith, is the 'leg' below the 'knee'. In the further continuation of the passage from 'The Battle of the Pelennor Fields' cited in note 7 (see p. 370) the length of 'the reach of Arnen' is given as 'three leagues'; but on the Second Map, on which both these passages were based, it is substantially longer. In RK (p. 122) 'Anduin, from the bend at the Harlond, so flowed that from the City men could look down it lengthwise for some leagues.'
9. Cf. 'The Story Foreseen from Forannest' (p. 359): 'Then as final despair comes on, and Rohirrim give back, [west >] south wind rolls back cloud, and noon-sun gleams through. Aragorn unfurls his great standard from ship-top. The crown and stars of Sun and Moon shine out.'
10. The opening page of the manuscript bears the chapter-numbers 'XLI', 'L', 'L(b)', and 'XLIX', all of which were struck out except the last. 'XLI' is an obvious slip (for 'LI'?), since the chapter could not possibly bear this number; but it is hard to see how it could be 'XLIX' either (see p. 386 and note 7).
11. This draft for the debate follows immediately on an abandoned sentence of 'The Houses of Healing', thus:
Gandalf and Pippin then came to Merry's room and there saw Aragorn stand 'My lords,' said Gandalf....
The text that follows is written in ink over pencilled drafting for 'The Houses of Healing'.
12. This sentence is bracketed in the original, as also is that a little further on ('a tyrant brooking no freedom ...').
13. Imladrist: cf. p. 139 note 14 and p. 165 note 5.
14. My father struck out 'Gandalf' immediately. He then wrote 'Warden of the Keys' but put dots for the name, writing in 'Hurin' before he had gone much further. It would seem therefore that this was where the name arose, but since 'Hurin' appears in the first manuscript of 'The Battle of the Pelennor Fields' (p. 369) it seems clear that my father had merely forgotten momentarily here what name he had chosen for him.
15. Gandalf cannot have said this. Either not must be removed or cannot > can.
16. In a draft for this passage Imrahil called Dol Amroth Castle Amroth; this was repeated in a following draft, where it was changed to Barad Amroth (and finally Barad > Dol).
17. Merry of course knew that Aragorn did go to Dunharrow (cf. RK pp. 69 - 70; the final text of 'The Muster of Rohan' was now largely in being, p. 319). See p. 417.
18. This passage contrasts greatly with RK, where it is Gimli who will not speak of the Paths of the Dead, and Legolas who says 'I felt not the horror, and I feared not the shadows of Men, powerless and frail as I deemed them.' See p. 417.
19. I think that the parting of Aragorn and Éowyn would not have been recounted so fully by Legolas and Gimli here if the story of the coming of the Grey Company to Dunharrow already existed in the earlier chapter (RK pp. 56 - 9); see p. 308.
20. our horses that the Rohirrim gave us: 'horses', because Aragorn's horse was still Hasufel (pp. 301, 305 - 6); when Roheryn, his own horse brought from the North by the Rangers, was introduced, it was only Arod, the horse bearing Legolas and Gimli, that was of Rohan, and he alone is mentioned in the equivalent passage in RK ('The Passing of the Grey Company', p. 60).
21. In the early drafts for 'The King of the Golden Hall' the mounds of the kings at Edoras were first described as 'white with nodding flowers like tiny snowdrops', the flowers being subsequently nifredil (VII.442-3). In RK ('The Passing of the Grey Company', p. 61) Aragorn calls the flowers simbelmyne', but cf. 'The King of the Golden Hall' (TT p. 111), where Gandalf says: 'Evermind they are called, simbelmyne' in this land of Men, for they blossom in all the seasons of the year, and grow where dead men rest.'
22. In the first manuscript of '
The King of the Golden Hall' Legolas said of the barrows at Edoras: 'Seven mounds I see, and seven long lives of men it is, since the golden hall was built' (see VII.442 and 449 note 4). This was changed on that manuscript to the reading of TT (p.111): " Seven mounds upon the left, and nine upon the right," said Aragorn. "Many long lives of men it is since the golden hall was built." '
23. If this is so, it was of course at this time that the first manuscript of 'The King of the Golden Hall' was emended to say that there were 'seven mounds upon the left, and nine upon the right' (see note 22).
24. The dates of the kings before the last three were so much changed ] and confused by overwriting that I can form no clear idea of what j my father intended: it is at least plain, however, that they correspond in their pattern to those in LR - as adjusted for the Shire Reckoning.
25. Barad Amroth: see note 16. Later Barad was changed to Dol.
26. As first written, but immediately rejected, the text continued from i this point: ... was brought from Númenor, and marks still the l place where Isildur met the last king of the Dark Men of the Mountains, when he established the bounds of Gondor. And there he swore an oath, for Isildur and Elendil and his sons [sic] had the gift of tongues as many of the Númenóreans, and the tongues of men..... [?of the wild] were known to him, for'
27. The ring-wall and tower on the Hill of Erech, in which was kept the Palantír, are referred to in the outline given on p. 397; it is told there that Aragorn actually found the Palantír of Erech, in a vault of the tower.
28. It is strange that it should be Elrohir who unfurled the banner (and bore it at the Hornburg), for from the first mention of the banner (p. 302) it was as in RK Halbarad the Ranger who bore it (and it was covered in a black cloth). - In RK (p. 63) no device could be seen on it in the darkness.
29. On this and subsequent references to the days of the journey see the Note on Chronology at the end of these Notes.
30. Tarlang's Neck is seen on the Second Map, though it is not named. For the geography of these regions see pp. 433 ff.
31. Sixty leagues in direct line from Erech to Linhir, and a hundred miles from Linhir to Pelargir, agrees with RK (p. 150): 'ninety leagues and three' from Erech to Pelargir.
32. we set out again: i.e. from Erech. - It is approximately here that the part of Gimli's story that was transferred to 'The Passing of the Grey Company' ends, and the part that remained actually reported in 'The Last Debate' begins; there is some overlap in RK (pp. 63, 151).
33. At this point there follows in the initial draft:
'... But when we came over Tarlang's Neck Elladan and two Rangers rode ahead and spoke to any that they could find willing to stay and listen to them, and told them that a great help was coming to them against the Shipfoes and the Southrons, and that it was not the King of the Dead but the heir of the Kings of Gondor that had returned. A few listened and believed, and at the crossings of Kiril we found food and fodder set for our need though no man had dared to stay beside it, nor any fresh horses for which we hoped.
34. The square brackets are in the original. The initial draft text has here:
'"... but they wield living swords." And some cried [struck out: though they knew not what it meant): "The Lord of the Rings has arisen".'
In the margin of this page in the draft text my father subsequently wrote the following remarkable passage:
'Indeed all the folk of Lebennin call Aragorn that.' 'I wonder why?' said Merry. 'I suppose it is some device to draw the eyes of Mordor that way, to Aragorn, and keep them from Frodo'; and he looked east and shuddered. 'Do you think all his great labour and deeds will be in vain and too late in the end?' he said. 'I know not,' said Gimli. 'But one thing I know, and that is, not for any device of policy would Aragorn set abroad a false tale. Then either it is true and he has a ring, or it is a false tale invented by someone else. But Elrohir and Elladan have called him by that name. So it must be true. But what it means we do not know.'
There is nothing on this page of the draft, or indeed anywhere in the manuscript, that this can refer to but the cry 'The Lord of the Rings has arisen'. I have found only one scrap of writing that seems to bear on this. Under the text in ink of a piece of rough drafting (that referred to in note 39) for the beginning of the story of the march from Minas Tirith are a few furiously pencilled lines, parts of which can be read:
Galadriel must give her ring to Aragorn ( ..... to wed Finduilas?). Hence his sudden access of power ....... [?that won't work. It will leave] Lórien defenceless also Lord of the Ring will be too ...
This raises many more questions than it answers; but it cannot be unconnected with the strange suggestion that in Lebennin Aragorn was called 'The Lord of the Ring(s)'. I do not know whether it is significant that in the first draft the s of Rings was not written consecutively with Ring, but was added to the word - maybe immediately. This however only raises the question why, if Aragorn was called 'The Lord of the Ring' because it was thought that he possessed a Ring, did my father change it to 'The Lord of the Rings'? The only and rather desperate suggestion I can make is that he wished to mark the confusion of mind on the part of the people who uttered this cry (cf. 'though they knew not what it meant' in the draft text).
35. The initial draft has here: 'and all of the enemies that were not slain or drowned were flying away over the Poros into Lothland desert.' This name is not perfectly clear, but I take it as certain in view of the occurrence of Lothlann on the First Map {VII.309, 313); the form Lothland is found in the Quenta Silmarillion (V.264, 283). On the Second Map (p. 435) the region south of Mordor is named, but in pencil now so faint that it is hard to be sure of the name: the likeliest interpretation is 'Desert of Lostladen' (cf. the Etymologies, V.370, stem LUS).
36. Legolas says in this second version that the day they came to Pelargir was 'the fifth of our journey', whereas in the previous version (p. 413) 'it was the fourth since we left Dunharrow'; but 1 think that both expressions mean the same (see the Note on Chronology below).
37. The original primary draft reaches this point:
'And when all was won Aragorn let sound a host of trumpets from the ship that he took for himself, and behold the Shadow host drew near to the shore, and all others fled away. But Aragorn set a line of torches along the shore and these they would not pass, and he spoke to the Dead Men: "Now I will count the oath fulfilled," he said, "when every stranger of Harad or of Umbar is hunted out of this land west of Anduin. When that is done go back and trouble never the valleys again - but go and be at rest."
With this cf. the rejected portion of the outline given at the beginning of this chapter (note 6 above): 'The Shadow Host disperses, pursuing the Haradwaith about the vales.'
38. and justified the wisdom of Elrond: see p. 387.
39. In a rough draft for this passage Aragorn speaks to Berithil: 'It is not yet my part to judge you, Master Berithil. If I return I will do so with justice. But for this present you shall leave the guard in the Citadel and go out to war.'
40. The square brackets are in the original.
41. in our speech was corrected to in the old speech of Númenor, then changed back to in our speech.
42. Legolas now plays no part in the narration until Pelargir is reached.
43. The story in this version is expressly to be Gimli's: at the beginning, in response to Pippin's 'Won't you tell us some more?' he says: 'Well, if you must hear the tale, I will tell it briefly.' As in the unrevised typescript (note 42) Legolas says nothing until he breaks in on Gimli at his mention of the Great River ('I knew it long ere we reached it', p. 414); but by an alteration to this revised version he breaks silence at Gimli's words '[we] went as swiftly as our stouthearted horses could endure over the plains of Lebennin':
'Lebennin!' cried Legolas. All the while he had kept silence, gazing away southward, while Gimli spoke; but now he began to sing: Silver flow the streams from Celos to Erui ...
The text of his song is at once in the final form. In RK it is L
egolas who tells the whole story up to this point, and Gimli who here takes it up.
44. The place where Kiril was crossed was named on the Second Map Caerost on Kiril (p. 437).
45. On the back of the last page of this typescript is the following remarkable passage, on which I can cast no light. It is written in a fine ornate script, together with other odds and ends of phrases in the same script, characteristic of my father's habit of 'doodling' in this way (cf. VII.379):
Then spoke Elessar: Many Guthrond would hold that your insolence merited rather punishment than answer from your king; but since you have in open malice uttered lies in the hearing of many, I will first lay bare their falsehood, so that all here may know you for what you are, and have ever been. Afterwards maybe a chance shall be given you to repent and turn from your old evil.
The History of Middle Earth: Volume 8 - The War of the Ring Page 54
