The Treason of Isengard (19 page)

Read The Treason of Isengard Online

Authors: J. R. R. Tolkien

of silver sand and yellow gold; 48

beneath the Hill of Ilmarin

a-glimmer in a valley sheer

the lamps of towering Tirion

were mirrored on the Shadowmere.

He tarried there from errantry

and melodies they taught to him,

and lays of old and marvels told,

and harps of gold they brought to him. 56

In panoply of Elven-kings,

in serried rings they armoured him;

his shield they writ with elven-runes

that never wound did harm to him,

his bow was made of dragon-horn,

his arrows shorn of ebony,

of silver was his habergeon,

his scabbard of chalcedony; 64

his sword of steel was valiant,

of adamant his helmet tall,

an argent flame upon his crest,

upon his breast an emerald.

His boat anew they built for him

of mithril and of elven-glass;

the Silmaril was hanging bright

as lantern light on slender mast; 72

and eagle-wings they made for her,

and laid on her a mighty doom,

to sail the shoreless skies and come

behind the Sun and light of Moon.

From Evereven's lofty hills,

where softly silver fountains fall,

he rose on high, a wandering light

beyond the mighty Mountain Wall. 80

From World's End then he turned away,

and yearned again to seek afar

his land beneath the morning-light,

and burning like a beacon-star

on high above the mists he came,

a distant flame, a marineer,

on winds unearthly swiftly borne,

uplifted o'er the Shadowmere. 88

He passed o'er Calacirian

where Tirion the hallowed stands;

the sea below him loudly roared

on cloudy shores in Shadowland;

and over Middle-earth he passed,

and heard at last the weeping sore

of women and of Elven-maids

in Elder Days, in years of yore. 96

But on him mighty doom was laid,

till Moon should fade, an orbed star,

to pass, and tarry never more

on Hither Shores where mortals are;

for ever still on errand, as

a herald that should never rest,

to bear his shining lamp afar,

the Flammifer of Westernesse. 104

The next text (B) is a typescript of A, but introduces some minor changes that were retained in the FR version (his boat it bore with biting breath/as might of death 37 - 8, the lamplit towers of Tirion 51), and line 25 is here Bird-Elwing thither came to him. My father then used this typescript B as the vehicle for massive rewriting, including the movement of the 'arming of Earendel' to its later place as the second stanza. A new typescript (C)(24) was made incorporating all this, and the form of the poem in FR was now virtually achieved; a very few further minor changes were made, and entered on this text.(25) Careful examination of these texts shows the development from A to the published form with perfect clarity.

But the history of this, perhaps the most protean, in its scale, of all my father's works, does not end here. It ends, in fact, in the most extraordinary way.

This text C was not the last, although the published form of the poem was achieved in it. Another typescript (D) was made, doubtless at the same time as C, and given the title The Short Lay of Earendel; In this, a new element entered at the beginning of the fourth stanza (There flying Elwing came to him): the attack of the four surviving sons of Feanor on the Havens of Sirion, Elwing's casting herself into the sea, bearing the Silmaril, and her transformation into a seabird, in which guise she flew to meet Earendel returning (IV.152-3).

In wrath the Feanorians

that swore the unforgotten oath

brought war into Arvernien

with burning and with broken troth;

and Elwing from her fastness dim

then cast her in the roaring seas,

but like a bird was swiftly borne,

uplifted o'er the roaring wave.

Through hopeless night she came to him

and flame was in the darkness lit,

more bright than light of diamond

the fire upon her carcanet.

The Silmaril she bound on him (&c.)

There then followed a fine manuscript (E), with elaborate initials to the stanzas, and this was entitled The Short Lay of Earendel: Earendillinwe. In this text a rewriting of lines 5 - 8, which had been entered in the margin of D, appears:

Her woven sails were white as snow,

as flying foam her banner flowed;

her prow was fashioned like a swan

that white upon the Falas goes.

But my father abandoned E at the foot of the first page, the end of the third stanza, and the reason why he abandoned it was that he had already begun to rewrite in the margin both the lines just given and also the second stanza (In panoply of ancient kings). So he began once again, with a very similar and equally beautiful manuscript (F), bearing the same title; and this was completed. The revisions made to D and to E (so far as that went) were taken up; and this manuscript remained intact, without the smallest further change.

It was in fact the last, the ultimate development of the poem. The history I have attempted to convey is schematically thus: A - B - C (the form in FR achieved)

- D - E- F (the ultimate form of the poem)

I have studied all these texts at length and at different times, and it had always seemed strange to me that the chain of development led at last to a superb manuscript (F) without any disfigurement through later changes, but which was not the form found in FR. The solution was at last provided by the text C at Marquette, which showed that there were two lines of development from B.

What actually happened one can only surmise. I believe the most likely explanation to be that the texts D, E, F were mislaid, and that at the crucial time the version represented by C went to the publishers, as it should not have done. It looks also as if these lost texts did not turn up again until many years had passed, by which time my father no longer remembered the history. In what are obviously very late notes he went so far as to analyse their readings in relation to the published form, and was evidently as puzzled as I was: his analysis at that time contains demonstrably incorrect conclusions - because he assumed, as I did, that all these texts must have preceded the 'final form' in FR.

I give finally the Earendillinwe' in the form in which it should have been published.(26)

Stanza 1 Earendil was a mariner

that tarried in Arvernien:

he built a boat of timber felled

in Nimbrethil to journey in.

Her sails he wove of silver fair,

with silver were her banners sewn;

her prow he fashioned like the swans

that white upon the Falas roam.

Stanza 2. His coat that came from ancient kings

of chained rings was forged of old;

his shining shield all wounds defied,

with runes entwined of dwarven gold.

His bow was made of dragon-horn,

his arrows shorn of ebony,

of triple steel his habergeon,

his scabbard of chalcedony;

his sword was like a flame in sheath,

with gems was wreathed his helmet tall,

an eagle-plume upon his crest,

upon his breast an emerald.

Stanza 3. As in FR, but with winds of fear for winds of wrath in line 13 of the stanza.

Stanza 4. In might the Feanorians

that swore the unforgotten oath

brought war into Arvernien

with burning and with broken troth;

and Elwing from her fastness dim

then cast her in the waters wide,

but like a mew was swiftly borne,

uplifted o'er the roaring tide.

Through hopeless night she came to him,

and flame was in the darkness lit,

more bright than light of diamond

the fire upon her carcanet.

The Silmaril she bound on him,

and crowned him with the living light,

and dauntless then with burning brow

he turned his prow at middle-night.

Beyond the world, beyond the Sea,

then strong and free a storm arose,

a wind of power in Tarmenel;

by paths that seldom mortal goes

from Middle-earth on mighty breath

as flying wraith across the grey

and long-forsaken seas distressed

from East to West he passed away.

Stanza 5 As in FR.

Stanza 6 As in FR, but with a difference in the twelfth line:(27) for ever king on mountain sheer;

Stanza 7 A ship then new they built for him

of mithril and of elvenglass

with crystal keel; no shaven oar

nor sail she bore, on silver mast

the Silmaril as lantern light

and banner bright with living flame

of fire unstained by Elbereth

herself was set, who thither came (&c. as in FR)

Stanza 8. As in FR.

Stanza 9. As in FR except at the end:

till end of Days on errand high,

a herald bright that never rests,

to bear his burning lamp afar,

the Flammifer of Westernesse.

Only one line survived now from Errantry (as published in 1933): his scabbard of chalcedony.

NOTES.

1. This suggests that the story of Gandalf's captivity found in the

'New Plot' of August 1940 was present (p. 71): 'Saramund betrays him ... he tells Gandalf false news of the Black Riders, and they pursue him to the top of a mountain...' The final story of what had happened to Gandalf (set to stand on the pinnacle of Orthanc) first appears in this period of the work (pp. 131 ff.).

2. Changed in pencil later to Elfstone son of Elfhelm; see p. 80 note 17. At one occurrence of Trotter in this passage, where Gandalf names him, this too was changed to Elfstone; at the other two Trotter was retained, since it is Frodo who is speaking.

3. In a preliminary draft for this passage Frodo says 'in wonder': 'Is he of that race ?' Then follows:

'Didn't he tell you, and didn't you guess?' said Gandalf. 'He could have told you even more: he is Aragorn son of Kelegorn, descended through many fathers from Isildur the son of Elendil.'

'Then It belongs to him as much as to me or more!' said Frodo.

'It does not belong to either of you,' said Gandalf; 'but you, my good hobbit, are to keep it for a while. For so it is ordained.'

This was the second time that this dialogue had been used; it first occurred at Bree between Trotter and Frodo (p. 50), when Gandalf named Aragorn as a descendant of Elendil in his letter, but this had now been removed (p. 77). It was finally used in 'The Council of Elrond'.

4. See p. 43 and note 3. The words 'I stayed at The Pony in Bree for a bit' were crossed out before the rest of the passage was changed, perhaps at the time of writing.

5. On Tarkil see p. 8. Westernesse: Numenor.

6. In the version of Errantry published in 1962 the last stanza began not as in the 1933 Oxford Magazine version but at He tarried for a little while (p. 88).

7. One of the early texts has the head-note: Elaboration of the well-known pastime of the never-ending Tale'; and at the end, after the last line a weather-driven mariner, returns to He called the winds of argosies in the second verse (p. 87), with the note: da capo, ad lib, et ad naus.

8. I cannot explain this reference.

9. See Humphrey Carpenter, The Inklings, pp. 56 - 7; also Letters no. 133 (to Rayner Unwin, 22 June 1952) and no. 298 (to W. L.

White, 11 September 1967).

10. morion: helmet. bravery: splendour, finery. dumbledore: bumble-bee. panoply: suit of armour. attercop: spider (Old English attor 'poison'; cf. cobweb, 'cop-web'). Bilbo called the spiders in Mirkwood Attercop.

On the back of the page, with every appearance of having been written at the same time, is a section of a dramatic dialogue in rhyming verse that preceded by more than twenty years the publication of The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Son in Essays and Studies, 1953. The Englishmen who took the body of Beorhtnoth from the battlefield at Maldon are here called Pudda and Tibba. - Panta (Old English) is the river Blackwater.

Pudda Come, hurry. There may be more. Let's get away

Or have the pirate pack on us.

Tibba Nay, nay.

These are no Northmen. What should such come for?

They are all in Ipswich drinking to Thor.

These have got what they deserved, not what they

sought.

Pudda God help us, when Englishmen can be brought

By any need to prowl like carrion-bird

And plunder their own.

Tibba There goes a third

In the shadows yonder. He will not wait,