which, when transliterated, read
This school edition is published
by Longmans Green and company
This shows that this material clearly dates from the period (June–September & November–December 1965) when Tolkien was working on the 1966 Longmans School Edition/Unwin Books (trade paperback) edition of The Hobbit, since that edition did indeed include some changes to the descriptions of areas in the vale of Dale; cf. Hammond Descriptive Bibliography page 37; DAA.300, 319, & 320. It seems likely that Tolkien wrote out the account which follows to clarify the lay-out of the area in his own mind, rather than for possible inclusion in the book.
According to my visualization of the scene (which was and remains clear) the parleys between the allies and the dwarves took place on a ledge at about the level [added: and to the right] of the top of the new defence-wall across the gate, where Bilbo and the Dwarves stood. The picture (+214)TN1 was meant to fit that, but the later [added: defence] works were not shown, since
The old road had run on the other left (east) side, where in the picture there is a slope of boulders projecting into the stream. The course for some distance from the Gate had been destroyed, and left a slope of boulders, by the Dragon. It had gone on (and still did so further on) down into the valley along the east-bank of the river, and so on away from the Mountain, eastwards towards the Iron Hills. To reach the old town of Dale (of which now only a few ruins remained) a road branched off westward to a place where at [a]
The Dwarves did not ‘remake’ or reopen the ruined stretch of the old road, because they had not time; and what they for the moment needed was a way out for [cancelled: themselves >]
Dain naturally approached the Mountain by the old road from the east. It was a weak point in the dwarves’ plan that, for outside help to reach them, Dain would have to force the pass between the river and east cliff, and then cross the river by the Ford and so come to the gate along the narrow ledge, where his 500 would be strung out in a line. But the plan was made by Thorin, while he still hoped that Dain would arrive before the ‘allies’ arrived or had occupied Dale. (He probably also did not suppose that in any case anyone would try to stop Dain, or attack himself. He was very conscious of his rights [> dignity] as lawful ‘K. under the Mountain’, and convinced of the justice of his position and his ‘right’ to deal out his treasure at his own free will and
Note: The expedition to Ravenhill [made bef[ore] >] was made on the day of the Dwarves’ emergence from the F. Gate. <?took>. . . 5 hours.TN8
The text ends here, in the middle of the third page [Ad.Ms.H.S.8], with the Timeline given above crowded onto the rest of this page. In keeping with his preferred role as chronicler of feigned history, it is notable how Tolkien carefully combs through the existing text for clues about the geographical feature he is describing, even citing specific page references, rather than simply re-writing the passage to reflect his new visualization of the scene.
Text Notes
TN1. This is the picture ‘The Front Gate’ (DAA.256; H-S#130), which appeared on page 214 of the second edition Hobbit, near the beginning of Chapter XI.
TN2. These two sentences, which I have enclosed in double parentheses, are bracketed by Tolkien. A final cancelled word, ‘which’, originally followed ‘gangway’.
TN3. This sentence is enclosed in brackets. The single illegible word before ‘copy’ might be ‘control’; in any case, Tolkien is referring to a master copy or check copy of The Hobbit in which he has entered all the changes and corrections he has made to the second edition text.
TN4. We might also note in passing that ‘allies’, the designator he applies several times to the forces opposed to Thorin & Company, is a loaded term for any veteran of the Great War and survivor of the Second World War, wherein the Allies (England, France, the US, etc.) fought the Central Powers and the Axis, respectively.
TN5. This is an allusion to Bilbo’s encountering, and being captured by, elven look-outs when crossing the stream on his self-appointed emissary to Bard and the Elvenking (DAA.328).
TN6. Written in the left margin opposite this line is the notation ‘Sc. 255’. This is a reference to the description of this terrain on page 255 of the second edition (corresponding to DAA.300).
TN7. This is another allusion to the passage already referred to in Text Note 5, specifically, ‘It was very dark, and the road after a while, when he left the newly made path and climbed down towards the lower course of the stream, was strange to him. At last he came to the bend where he had to cross the water . . . The bed of the stream was there shallow but already broad, and fording it in the dark was not easy for the little hobbit. He was nearly across when he missed his footing on a round stone and fell into the cold water with a splash . . .’ (DAA.328; italics mine). For an account of the construction of this new path, see DAA.319.
TN8. I cannot read the cancelled word or phrase preceding ‘5 hours’.
(iii)
Responses to Queries
These two brief pieces were apparently written in response to queries on specific points by a typesetter or proofreader at the printer. Both are found on the same sheet [Ms.Ad.H.S.9] and, Christopher Tolkien notes, ‘typed on the back of a page from an engagement calendar for 16–22 August 1964’.
For the first query, the passage in question comes from the last sentence of the fourth paragraph of Chapter V: ‘Riddles in the Dark’. Groping around for matches, Bilbo’s hand ‘came on the hilt of his little sword – the little dagger that he got from t
he trolls, and that he had quite forgotten; nor do the goblins seem to have noticed it, as he wore it inside his breeches.’ (1st ed., page 81; italics mine). Christopher Tolkien also notes that, in the copy of The Hobbit in which these notes were discovered, the relevant passage is changed to ‘nor fortunately had the goblins noticed it’, the reading which appears in the Unwin Books edition (page 64) and subsequent editions (cf. DAA.116). The following reponse shows Tolkien’s rationale for the change, and reveals how carefully considered his revisions could be.
Queries, p. 64 (former [page] 81)
[added in pencil: p. 80 in 3rd ed.]
(a) seem. where the estimate of probability is made by the narrator with reference to a past event seem remains in the present followed by a past infinitive, as in text. Did seem would transfer the estimate to Bilbo.TN1 I do not think he had time for anything more than relief at feeling the hilt.
Do seem was evidently intended as a remark ‘narrator to audience’, a tiresome trick of which the author was too fond; I have got rid of some of the cases. For that reason (and not for idiom) I propose the emendation:
nor fortunately had the goblins noticed it.
This should fit the available space.
This second query relates to the sixth paragraph of the same chapter, and Bilbo’s discovery that his little sword is an elvish blade: ‘somehow he was comforted. It was rather splendid to be wearing a blade made in Gondolin for the goblin-wars of which so many songs had sung’ (1st ed. page 81; Unwin Books page 64; 3rd ed. page 80; DAA.116; italics mine).
(b) songs had sung. I do not understand the point of this query. The text, besides sounding better, is, I think, perfectly correct English.
If the reader would add to my obligation to him for his attentive reading by stating the nature of his doubt, I should be much interested.
Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought. If Shelley had written sing for tell, the most cavilling critic could have found fault only in the excessive alliteration. Probably it was to avoid this that the poet used tell instead of the obvious and equally correct sing.
As we see, in this second case, Tolkien rejected the suggested emendation and kept the passage as it was. His reasons for doing so, however, are interesting, as is his rather unexpected citation, apparently from memory, of a line from Percy Bysshe Shelley’s ‘To a Skylark’ [1820] in support for his usage. Tolkien’s supposed lack of familiarity with postmedieval literature has sometimes been exaggerated to the point of parody, and evidence to the contrary is abundant. For example, in his draft for ‘A Secret Vice’, his essay about invented languages (available in The Monsters & the Critics and Other Essays, pages 198–223), he briefly discusses James Joyce and Gertrude Stein (MS. Tolkien 24, folio 44), while in an unpublished essay on translating alliterative verse he at one point compares the Old English poem ‘The Wanderer’ to Wordsworth’s ‘Resolution and Independence’ [1807; better known as ‘The Leech Gatherer’) before comparing the latter in turn to Lewis Carroll’s parody of it, ‘Father William’ [1865], which he much prefers (Ms. Tolkien A30/1, folio 119). In fact, he was of course familiar with the full range of English literature up to about 1830 (thus including the Romantics), the point at which ‘English studies’ terminated when he was a student, and had at least a nodding acquaintance with Victorian and, to a lesser extent, contemporary literature.
Text Note
TN1. Presumably the proofreader had suggested that ‘nor do the goblins seem’ be changed to ‘nor did the goblins seem’, which Tolkien rejects for the reasons stated.
(iv)
Personae
This single page [Ad.Ms.H.S.10], written in Tolkien’s neatest calligraphy, holds a list of all the members of Thorin’s expedition other than Bilbo himself. Its tone would suggest that this was compiled for the Longmans’ ‘school edition’ in 1965/66, but Tolkien paleographer Arden Smith argues that the handwriting has ‘the very distinct look of manuscripts from the 1930s’ (personal communication, April 2011). Although almost all the details given here can be gleaned from the text (and most of them from the first chapter), there are a few details that are new, such as the fact that Dori and Nori are brothers and Ori their cousin, the ages of Fili and Kili (‘about 50’), and the respective girths of Bifur, Bofur, and Bombur.
Dwarves
Thorin Oakenshield, son of Thror son of Thrain [> son of Thrain son of Thror],TN1 King under the Mountain. At the time of the story he was at least 200 [> 195] years old. He had a white beard, a sky-blue hood with a silver tassel, a belt of gold and jewels, and a golden chain round his neck.
Fili and Kili, young dwarves (about 50 years oldTN2), nephews of Thorin. They had yellow beards; their belts were of silver and their hoods were blue.
Balin, oldest of Thorin’s companions, who had escaped with him from the Mountain long ago. His beard was white, and his hood red. He was the look-out man.
Dori and Nori, had purple hoods and silver belts. They were brothers.
Ori, was their cousin. He had a grey hood, and a silver belt.
Oin and Gloin were brothers and the fire-makers. Oin wore a brown hood and Gloin a white hood. Both had golden belts. [added in pencil: Glóin was father of Gimli of the L.R.TN3]
Dwalin was Balin’s brother. He had a blue beard, a dark-green hood and golden belt.
Bifur was a large dwarf with a yellow hood.
Bofur his cousin [> brotherTN4] was even larger. He also had a yellow hood.
Bombur (brother of Bofur) [added in pencil: cousin of
Gandalf the Wizard had a long white beard; he wore a tall blue hat, a grey cloak, and a long silver scarf; he had large black boots.
At some later point,TN6 Tolkien underlined the word tall in pencil and added a brief (pencilled) note at the bottom of the page about Gandalf’s hat:
a pity, because in fact I never imagined his hat as being ‘tall’ —only it had a ‘crown’ rather <?point> with a wide brim.
Two sketchy attempts to depict the hat follow, each with a wide brim and low crown – in fact, very like the hat worn by the berg-geist (‘mountain-spirit’) in Joseph Madlener’s postcard (reproduced in The Annnotated Hobbit on the bottom of Plate V), except that Madlener’s kindly old mountain-spirit’s hat has a flat crown while both of the sketches here for Gandalf’s hat have pointed crowns. Contrast this with the two pictures Tolkien drew circa 1936–37 showing Gandalf either approaching or standing at the doorway of Bag-End (Plate III), both of which show a tall, pointy hat with a relatively modest brim; the same hat with a somewhat broader brim can be seen in ‘The Three Trolls are turned to Stone’ (Plate V [top]).
Text Notes
TN1. Here Tolkien originally wrote son of Thror son of Thrain, then encircled ‘Thrain’ in pencil and marked it to be placed where ‘Thror’ stood in the line. It is remarkable that even at this late date Tolkien either could not remember or still remained undecided about which was the father and which the grandfather, Thror or Thrain. This strongly supports the assumption that the earlier back-and-forth between the names was the result of inattention, not indecision; it seems as if his instinct was to make Thror the father, yet he kept changing this back to Thrain as the father in deference to the ‘historicity’ of the established genealogy.
TN2. While this seems in keeping with how the youngest members of Thorin & Company are portrayed in The Hobbit, it contradicts the information in the genealogical chart in Appendix A of The Lord of the Rings, which gives Fili’s age as eighty-two and Kili’s as seventy-seven. See Text Note 3 on page 477 for more on what constitutes a ‘young dwarf’.
TN3. L.R.; i.e., The Lord of the Rings.
TN4. The word ‘brother’ is faintly pencilled above ‘cousin’; see Text Note 34 on pages 322–3 for the shifting relationships between Bifur, Bofur, and Bombur throughout the writing of The Hobbit. Interestingly enough, the original reading of ‘cousin’ here is correct, according to the
published text, while making Bofur Bifur’s brother reverts to an earlier conception which is more in keeping with the tradition of rhyming brother’s names (Fili/Kili, Balin/Dwalin, &c.).
TN5. The very faint words ‘cousin of <?Bifur>’ are pencilled above ‘brother of Bofur’; the last word is nearly illegible but can hardly be anything but ‘Bifur’ in the context; in any case, ‘brother of Bofur’ seems not to have been cancelled. Unlike the contemplated change recorded in Text Note 4 above, this addition would not have contradicted the published book, which agrees that Bombur and Bofur are brothers and that Bifur is their cousin. See Text Note 34 on pages 322–3 for more on these relationships.
TN6. Arden Smith suggests that this pencilled addition was much later (‘clearly decades later’ —op cit); I suspect it dates from the Longmans/Unwin period, whatever the date of the list itself.
(v)
Runic Charts
By far the largest proportion of this ‘Seventh Phase’ material (thirteen pages out of a total of eighteen [Ad.Ms.H.S.1–5 & 11–18]) concerns runes and scripts. In it Tolkien gives multiple drafts of the various rune-systems, followed by two tables of tengwar letters, one arranged in a dwarven mode and the other adapted for use with Modern English.
The first of these charts exists in three variant states [Ad.Ms.H.S.4, Ad.Ms.H.S.3, and Ad.Ms.H.S.1], one of which is labelled
. Futhorc .
A Runic Alphabet.
The ‘futhorc’ is the name generally given to the Old English runes; like the modern word ‘alphabet’ (alpha, ‘a’ + beta, ‘b’), the name is composed of the letters symbolized by the first few runes: f+u+th+o+r+c. Unlike our modern English letters, which derive from Latin, each rune not only stood for a letter but (as Tolkien notes below) had a name which began with that letter; i.e., the name of the rune, which stood for ‘th’, was thorn.
The History of the Hobbit Page 110
