Furthermore, the entry regarding the Elvish root KRAB- and its derivation cram is a later addition to ‘The Etymologies’ (HME V.365), and neither appears in the earlier Noldorin, Qenya, or Gnomish material (cf. Parma Eldalamberon volumes XIII, XII, and XI), whereas the Lord of the Rings passage just cited was written before the summer of 1938 (cf. HME VI.214) and may predate it. Indeed, the passage in The Lord of the Rings Book III Chapter VIII: Farewell to Lórien (written sometime after August 1940 – cf. HME VII.271 & 267) makes it clear that this hardtack is called ‘cram’ by the men of Dale and dwarves (i.e., in the human language of the North) whereas the elves of Lórien have no direct knowledge of cram and call their trail rations by the Sindarin name lembas (= literally ‘journey-bread’; HME XII.404):
‘I thought it was only a kind of cram, such as the Dale-men make for journeys in the wild,’ said [Gimli].
‘So it is,’ [the elves] answered. ‘But we call it lembas or waybread, and it is more strengthening than any food made by Men, and it is more pleasant than cram, by all accounts.’
—LotR.389.
Thus it seems certain that Tolkien’s final decision was to have cram be a ‘Mannish’ word, just as it had been in its original appearance, and the proposed Elvish etymology was simply a mooted alternative that was quickly abandoned.
Chapter XVa
The Kindness of Ravens
As before, the text continues onward without anything more than a page break, with the section that later became Chapter XV starting at the top of manuscript page 166 (Marq. 1/1/15). This last sheet of the Second Phase manuscript, along with the associated Plot Notes that follow, represents the point the story had reached when Tolkien broke off to go back to the beginning and create the First Typescript.
Suddenly Bilbo said: ‘There is that old thrush again – he seems to have escaped when the dragon smashed the terrace, though I don’t suppose his beloved snails have!’TN1
Sure enough, there was the old thrush, perched on a stone; and as soon as they looked towards him he flapped his wings and sang; then he cocked his head on one side as if to listen, and again he sang, and again he listened.
‘I believe he is trying to tell us something’ said Thorin ‘but I do not understand the tongue of small-birds – it is very quick and difficult. Do you Mr Baggins?’
‘Not very well’ said Bilbo, ‘and I can’t make this old fellow out at all, except that he is very excited.’TN2
‘I only wish he was a raven!’ said Balin.
‘I thought you did not like the ravens of these parts, when we came this way before’ said Bilbo to him.
‘Those were crows!’ said Balin, ‘and nasty suspicious-looking ones at that, and rude as well. You must have heard the ugly things they were calling after us – there was one old raven, you remember how he flew after us a long way home [> towards camp],TN3 but he never said anything beyond a croak. But there are some ravens still about here, though, for I have seen them in my wanderings about, that remember the old friendship between us in Thror’s day. They used to live on many many years, and their memories are long, and they hand their wisdom on to their children. I had many a friend among the Ravens of the Mountain when I was a boy – this very ridge we stand on was called RavenhillTN4 by many, for it was a favourite place of theirs close to the watchmen’s seat. There’s never a sign of them now: I suppose they are off to see what all this gathering forebodes, though they are not birds for company, unless great things are brewing. If we had one here now we shd soon have news’.
Loud shrilled the Old Thrush and off it flew.
‘That old bird understood all you said, at any rate’ said Thorin. ‘Keep watch now and see what happens!’
Before long there was a flutter of wings and back came the thrush. With it came another most decrepit old bird: it was getting blind, it could hardly fly and the top of its head was almost bald. It was a very aged raven of great size. It alighted stiffly on the ground, flapped its wings slowly & bobbed towards Thorin and Balin, and began to croak. – ‘O Thorin Thrain’s son Thror’s son [and Balin son of Fundin]’ it began [> said], & Bilbo to his surprise could understand all it said. ‘I am Roäc son of Carc.TN5 Carc is dead, but once he was well known to you. It is one hundred years and three and fifty since I came out of the egg, but I do not forget what my father told me. I am the chief of the old [> great] Ravens of the Mountain, who remember still the king that was of old. I bring tidings of joy to you and yet other tidings not so good. Behold the birds are gathering back again to the Mountain from South and East and West, for word has gone forth that Smaug is dead! The Thrush, may his feathers never fall, has seen it and we trust his words. He saw him fall in battle with the men of Esgaroth on Tuesday night, that is the night before the night before last [> eight nights ago at the rising of the moon]. So much for joy O Thorin Oakenshield! You may go back to your palace in safety, all the treasure of your fathers is yours once more – for the moment. But there is more to tell. Among the flocking birds are many crows and birds of carrion – indeed ravens are among them though they fly by themselves – for they espy a gathering of arms, and to our minds an army and a hoard means dead men ere long. The Lake-town of Esgaroth is destroyed, but the men of the lake, most of whom have escaped, and the Elven king have joined together, and their warriors are marching north to plunder the mountain, and it is said that they trouble not whether the dwarves of Durin are alive or dead.
‘I have spoken. I and the Thrush have looked for you in the West and we feared you dead.TN6 We rejoice to see you safe, but a hard strife looms ahead. Thirteen is [not >] but a small remnant of the great folk of Durin that [was wont >] once was here. The
Then Thorin’s wrath blazed forth ‘Our thanks Roäc Carcson’ he said. ‘You and your people shall not be forgotten. But none of our gold shall the thieves of [the] Lake and the Wood get from us alive. If you would earn [added: our thanks] still more bring us tidings at once of their approach. Now we have work to do. Back to the Mountain’ he cried to the dwarves ‘For we must stand a siege’.
‘But we have no food’ cried Bilbo always practical on such
At this point, at the bottom of manuscript page 167, the Second Phase text ends.
However, associated with this material is a half-page fragment of rough drafting (Marq. 1/1/24b) that preceded manuscript pages 166–7; this survives only because Tolkien tore the sheet in two, turned it over, rotated it 90 degrees counterclockwise, and used the blank space on what had been the bottom half of its verso to hastily sketch out events that were to occur during the Siege of the Mountain (Marq. 1/1/24a, or Plot Notes E). We do not know how much such rough drafting preceded the ‘first draft’ of the Second Phase manuscript, but by good fortune this small surviving fragment offers us a rare chance for comparison, suggesting that it strongly resembled what followed in storyline but only generally corresponded in word choice and expression.
The line just above the tear has vanished almost completely, but a large descending ligature at the beginning of the line indicates that it began with a capital ‘L’ and from the context it almost certainly read ‘Loud trilled the Thrush’ or something very like it. Similarly, since the lines slant slightly upward across the page the last two or three words at the end of the first line below the tear are lost but probably read ‘we said’.
L
‘[If that >] That old bird understood all that
Before long there was a flutter of wings, and back came the Thrush. With it came a most decrepit old bird, nearly blind. It could hardly fly and the top of its head was almost bald. It was a very aged raven. It lighted stiffly on
the ground, flapped its wings and bobbed towards Thorin and Balin; then it began to croak. Bilbo did not know what it was saying, but Balin seemed to. Afterward he told them all that he had learned.
‘O Thorin Thrain’s Son, Thror’s son’ he said ‘this is a most Venerable Raven, Roäk [> Roäc] by name, the son of Carc. Carc I knew in the old days when I was young, but alas he is now dead. Röac his son must be 180 years old if he is a day – he is the last raven of the Mountain left who [we can understand the language >] who can understand our language, being taught by his father, or make himself understood by me. He brings tidings truly tremendous and
The birds are gathering back again to the mountain from S. E and W. for word has gone forth that the Dragon is dead!
This brings the text to the bottom of 1/1/24b. The top half of the back of this sheet (1/1/24a) is missing, having been discarded by Tolkien himself, but two lines below the tear remain:
Loud the Thrush trilled again. Roac croaked.
‘It seems that the Thrush
At this point, the draft breaks off in mid-sentence half-way through a line of dialogue. The rest of this page is devoted to the ‘little bird’ outline (Plot Notes E); see page 626.
Besides seeing the emergence of the raven’s name – the exact form of which, Roäk/Roäc/Röac, remained unfixed for the presentTN7 – and having the venerable bird being even older than in the published book,TN8 the most significant difference between the draft and the text that replaced it is that originally only Balin could understand the raven’s speech, and translates it for the benefit of his friends. While reminiscent of their meeting with Medwed/Beorn and his horses, this was replaced in the main draft with the simpler and more direct route of allowing the raven to speak directly to Thorin & Company without an interpreter.TN9 Tolkien may have felt that having two tiers of interpreters – the Thrush speaking to the Raven, the Raven to Balin, and Balin to the rest – was too cumbersome and so simplified it, especially since ravens, like parrots, are famous for their ability to speak (in the words of Edgar Poe, ‘quoth the raven: “Nevermore”’).
TEXT NOTES
1 Crowded into the left margin, and presumably meant for insertion preceding this paragraph, is the following:
For several days they remained there on the Mountain, keeping watch by day and guard at night. Nothing happened, and they became sorely puzzled. At last their supplies began to run low, and [in] the morning they began to discuss whether they should send some of their number down to the riverside store, or whether all should go, or whether they should again seek the aid of the men of Lake-town. [Thorin > Bilbo >] The hobbit was looking about him taking no part in the discussion. Already he was wondering what had happened to [> in] Lake-town, for he had not forgotten his fear that Smaug would go
This additional text not only stresses Thorin & Company’s bafflement about the dragon’s continued absence but expands the time-frame, no doubt to allow the elven and human host time to gather and begin its march north; before its addition the story moves directly from the dwarves’ arrival at Ravenhill to their encounters with the thrush and raven. The published text compromises between these two, having them arrive at the watch-post at sunset (DAA.301) and encountering the birds early the next morning (DAA.314). See the added reference a few paragraphs later about it now having been eight days since Smaug’s death, whereas in the original texts only three nights had passed (the Battle of Lake Town taking place on Tuesday night and the conversation with Roäc on Friday morning). The original timeline thus ran like this:
• Monday, Durin’s Day: Bilbo enters the secret tunnel just after sunset, emerging again at midnight. (pp. 505 & 507–8)
• Tuesday: Smaug destroys the secret door almost exactly twenty-four hours later, flies south, and dies in the attack on Esgaroth. (pp. 513 & 515, 549)
• Wednesday: Bilbo and the dwarves spend all the previous night, all this day, and this night huddled in the tunnel. (page 578)
• Thursday: Bilbo and the dwarves explore Smaug’s lair and traverse the dwarven city. (page 578ff)
• Friday: Thorin & Company reach the Front Gate at sunrise; Balin leads them to Ravenhill, where they soon encounter the thrush and raven, who tells them Smaug died ‘the night before the night before last’. (pages 582, 619).
The expanded time-scheme of eight days better matches the statement in Chapter XIII that the Elvenking’s army reached Lake Town seven days after Smaug’s fall (page 552), presumably setting forth for the Mountain the next day.
For the ‘riverside store’ (that is, storage site or supplies depot beside the river-bank), this lay three days’ journey north of Lake Town where they disembarked from the boats; see the first paragraph of Chapter XI on page 471.
2 Note that the implication here is that Bilbo can understand bird-talk; in the Third Phase and subsequent texts he merely diplomatically pretends to; see page 642.
3 No such incident in fact occurred during the earlier chapter. Had he retained this passage, Tolkien would no doubt have inserted this event back in Chapter XI on or about the section represented by page 472 in the Second Phase text. By contrast, Balin’s claim to have already made contact with the ravens of the mountain during their earlier explorations, while significant, would simply have served to set up the encounter which follows and could have been retained as is.
4 This is the first appearance of the name ‘Ravenhill’, one of those names that like Bag-End and Rivendell and Lake Town remained unchanged from its first recorded appearance onward.
5 As Douglas Anderson notes, both these names are ‘marvelously onomatopoeic’ (DAA.316), being approximations of the croaks these birds themselves might make (roughly rroahkk and kahrrkk, respectively). This is all the more appropriate since the very word ‘raven’ itself (OE hræfn, ON hrafn) is believed to derive from an Indo-European root imitating the bird’s cry (*kor-, *ker-), just as the modern English ‘crow’ represents the sound now more usually spelled caw (i.e., kraw! kraw!).
6 ‘I and the Thrush have looked for you in the West’ – that is, on the western side of the Lonely Mountain, where they had last been seen before Smaug destroyed the Secret Door. As with the mention of Balin’s earlier contact with the ravens, this suggests a more active role for the Ravens of the Mountain somewhat earlier than in the final text.
7 The dieresis (..) indicates that both vowels are to be pronounced, not blended into a diphthong – for example, as in cooperate (formerly spelled ‘coöperate’), rather than coop. The name’s final appearance in the penultimate line of this rough draft also has a dieresis, but from its placement it is not possible to tell which vowel it is meant to cover and thus whether Roäc or Röac is intended.
8 In fact, according to the chronology in ‘The Tale of Years’ (LotR.1125–6), old enough to remember the days of King Thror and to have known Balin personally before the dragon came one hundred and seventy years earlier. This chronology of course post-dates The Hobbit and it is clear that Roäc was taught dwarf-speech after those days were past, so it simply indicates that Tolkien initially had an even greater span of time in mind between the fall of the Kingdom under the Mountain and its restoration under Thorin.
9 For all the linguistic richness of his work and the many (mutually incomprehensible) invented languages included in its narratives, scenes where an interpreter must mediate between two groups who do not share a common tongue are rare in Tolkien, the chief example being Legolas speaking with the border-guards of Lórien on behalf of the Fellowship (LotR.360 & 362).
(i)
The Ravens of the Mountain
Helpful birds had played an important part in Tolkien’s writing from the earliest days: the Eagles of Manwë (cf. Chapter VI), the swans of Ulmo, the birds of Melian, even Mew the seagull in Roverandom, so it is no surprise to see the wise Thrush and old Raven figure prominently in the Lonely Mountain chapters,
from the discovery of the Secret Door to the revealing of Smaug’s weak spot and setting in motion preparations for the Siege of the Mountain. In particular there had long been a traditional association of talking birds with the aftermath of a dragon-slaying: by accidentally tasting Fafnir’s heart Sigurd was able to understand the language of birds and discovered that the woodpeckers in the nearby trees were actually discussing him and how his foster-father planned to kill him and, after he kills Regin on their advice, tell him how to find Brynhild the valkyrie (Fáfnismál stanzas 32–44; Völsunga Saga Chapter XIX, esp. pages 64–6). Tolkien had referred to this motif as far back as the tale of Túrin, where it is said that eating the heart of a dragon grants knowledge of ‘all tongues of Gods or Men, of birds or beasts’ (BLT II.85), a philologist’s dream which Christopher Tolkien in his commentary explicitly credits to the story of Sigurd Fafnisbane (BLT II.125). But here in Tolkien’s story it is because the dragon-slayer has the ability to speak with birds (Bard and the Thrush) that he is able to kill the dragon, and Thorin & Company’s only encountering the raven after Smaug’s fall seems more a matter of chance than necessity, the result of not having earlier visited the part of the mountain frequented by ravens (i.e., Ravenhill).
Tolkien’s specific choice of ravens combines both elements of traditional myth and real-world fact. Not only are ravens and crows traditionally associated with battles, but they are the smartest of all birds, exceptionally long-lived (one of the ravens at the Tower of London lived to be forty-four years old, and a less-well-attested individual is said to have reached eighty), and capable of speech, at least to the extent of being able to learn and intelligibly repeat several words or phrases. Tolkien has exaggerated or rather enhanced their intelligence, longevity, and loquaciousness or linguistic ability for the purposes of his story, but his fantasy builds on a solid factual basis here. He combines their rather sinister reputation as harbingers of battle (they are, after all, carrion birds, as Roäc admits) with their legendary exploits as messengers: Odin’s two ravens, Hugin and Munin (‘Thought’ and ‘Memory’), fly forth every day and report back to him all that passes in the world (Prose Edda pages 63–4). He also rather surprisingly in the Plot Notes which follow (Plot Notes E) draws on the Biblical account of ravens feeding the prophet Elijah ‘bread and meat’ in the Wilderness (1st Kings, Chapter 17, verses 1–7) and has the Ravens of the Mountain bring ‘meat and bread’ to the besieged dwarves until (even more surprisingly) they are driven away by elven archers.1
The History of the Hobbit Page 76
