The War of the Ring (29 page)

'... What I meant was so: many men of the Three Houses long ago learned the High-elven tongues, as they were spoken

[in Beleriand >] in Gondolin or by the Sons of Feanor. And always the Lords of Numenor knew these tongues, and used the Gnomish speech among themselves. And so still do we, the rulers of Minas Tirith, in whom the blood of Numenor still flows ...'(31)

And Faramir, giving examples of names taken 'from tales of the Elder Days', adds Diriel to those he gave before.

Among occasional previous references to the Common Speech only once is its nature defined, and there in a wholly different way. This is in an early draft for a passage in the chapter 'Lothlorien' (VII.239 note 26), where it is said that Frodo did not understand the speech of the Elves of Lorien 'for the language was the old tongue of the woods and not that of the western elves which was in those days used as a common speech among many folk.'

With the present passage, in its various forms, concerning the Common Speech and the knowledge of the High-elven tongue of the Noldor among the lords of Gondor may be compared what is said in Appendix F to The Lord of the Rings:

The Westron was a Mannish speech, though enriched and softened under Elvish influence. It was in origin the language of those whom the Eldar called the Atani or Edain, 'Fathers of Men', being especially the people of the Three Houses of the Elf-friends who came west into Beleriand in the First Age, and aided the Eldar in the War of the Great Jewels against the Dark Power of the North....

The Dunedain alone of all races of Men knew and spoke an Elvish tongue; for their forefathers had learned the Sindarin tongue, and this they handed on to their children as a matter of lore, changing little with the passing of the years. And their men of wisdom learned also the High-elven Quenya and esteemed it above all other tongues, and in it they made names for many places of fame and reverence, and for many men of royalty and great renown.

But the native speech of the Numenoreans remained for the most part their ancestral Mannish tongue, the Adunaic, and to this in the latter days of their pride their kings and lords returned, abandoning the Elven-speech, save only those few that held still to their ancient friendship with the Eldar.

There follows an account of the spread of Adunaic along the coasts before the Fall of Numenor, becoming a Common Speech in those regions, and of the use of it by the Elf-friends who survived the Downfall 'in their dealing with other folk and in the government of their wide realms', enriching it with many Elvish words.

In the days of the Numenorean kings this ennobled Westron speech spread far and wide, even among their enemies; and it became used more and more by the Dunedain themselves, so that at the time of the War of the Ring the Elven-tongue was known to only a small part of the peoples of Condor, and spoken daily by fewer.

This much more complex conception seems nonetheless not radically different as regards the nature and origin of the Common Speech from that which Faramir presents here: for in both accounts, early and late, the Common Speech was directly descended from the ancestral tongue of the 'Fathers of Men'. It is thus curious to see that by later pencilled correction to the manuscript this was changed, Faramir now saying:

'Of course we do ... For that is also our own tongue, which we ourselves made, and here preserve better perhaps than do you far in the North. The Common Tongue, as some call it, is derived from the Numenoreans; for the Numenoreans coming to the shores of these lands took the rude tongue of the men that they here found and whom they ruled, and they enriched it, and it spread hence through the Western world ...'

And at the end of Faramir's discourse on linguistic history, after his examples of Gnomish names in Gondor, he now adds: 'But in intercourse with other folk we use the Common Speech which we made for that purpose.'

Here the idea that the Common Speech was derived from 'that speech which the Fathers of the Three Houses spoke of old' is denied.

In his letter of 6 May 1944 my father continued from the passage cited on p. 147:

(A new character has come on the scene ... Faramir, the brother of Boromir) - and he is holding up the 'catastrophe' by a lot of stuff about the history of Gondor and Rohan (with some very sound reflections no doubt on martial glory and true glory): but if he goes on much more a lot of him will have to be removed to the appendices - where already some fascinating material on the hobbit Tobacco industry (32) and the Languages of the West have gone.

The passage on linguistic history in the present chapter (with the emendations just given concerning the nature of the Common Speech) survived into subsequent typescripts, and was only removed at a later time; thus the excluded material on 'the Languages of the West' to which my father referred in this letter was not the account given by Faramir.

As already remarked (p. 160), a new 'overlapping' draft D 3 takes up at the end of Faramir's exposition, and in this Sam shows himself as more impressed by what he has been told than in the previous version, and has more to say about Elves before he gets on to the subject of Galadriel. This passage was retained and slightly extended in the manuscript (in which form I cite it here), and it survived in the following typescripts until it was removed from the chapter together with the account of languages that preceded it.

Sam looked at Faramir wide-eyed and almost with awe. To have an elvish name, and even a possible claim to Elvish blood however remote, seemed to him royalty indeed. 'Well Captain, your lordship, I should say, it is good to hear you speak so fair of Elves, sir. 1 wish I had an elvish name. Wonderful folk they are, aren't they? Think of the things they can make and the things they say! You don't find out their worth or their meaning all at once, as it were: it comes out afterwards, unexpected like.

Just a bit of well-made rope in a boat, and there it is: one day it's just what you want, and it unknots itself when you ask it and jumps to your hand. And the boat: I agree with your lordship; I think it rode the falls and took no harm. Of course it would, if that was needed. It was an Elven-boat, sir; though I sat in one for many a day, and never noticed nothing special.'(33)

'I think you are right, Master Samwise,' said Faramir smiling;

'though some would say the White Lady had enchanted you.'

'And she did, sir!' said Sam. 'The Lady of Lorien! Galadriel!

you should see her, indeed you should, sir. I am only a hobbit, and gardening's my job at home ...'(34)

I have mentioned (p. 160) that the Draft D 2, now become very ragged, continued on through Sam's description to Faramir of Galadriel, and his blurting out the truth, so long and so carefully concealed by Frodo, that 'Boromir wanted the Ring!'(35) In this draft, where in TT 'Frodo and Sam sprang from their stools and set themselves side by side with their backs to the wall, fumbling for their sword-hilts', and 'all the men in the cave stopped talking', all that is said is: 'Frodo and Sam sprang side by side, fumbling for their swords.'

Faramir sat down and began to laugh, and then became suddenly grave. It is clear that he sat on the ground, where they were, in the woods. The last words of this draft before it was abandoned, barely legible, are:

'Do not fear. I do not wish to see or touch it - my only fear is lest I see it and be tempted. But now indeed it becomes my duty to aid you with all that I have. If this is the counsel of Mithrandir, that this [?dreadful] Thing should be sent [?a-wandering] in the borders of Mordor in the keeping of two hobbits, then he is desperate indeed and at his wits' end. Come, let us get to cover as quick as we may.'

It has been seen (pp. 154, 163) that in the drafting (D 1 - 2) for the latter part of this chapter the entire story of the coming to Henneth Annun was absent, and the entire conversation that in TT took place there after the evening meal here took place as they walked through the woods. When we come to the third overlapping portion of the draft (D 3), however, at the denouement, the revelation of the Ring, they are in the cave, and all is as in TT. It is clear therefore that it was only when he had come to the very end of the chapter that my father realised that the long conversation with Faramir had been interrupted by their coming to the refuge; and perhaps it was only now that he perceived what that refuge was: the Window of the Sunset, Henneth Annun.

Drafting for the new passage (TT pp. 281 - 6, from 'So they passed on, until the woodlands grew thinner ...') is found separately, with very little significant divergence from the finished form. There is no mention of Anborn and the sighting of Gollum in the woods at dusk: this first appears in the completed manuscript;(36) and Faramir says to Frodo and Sam before the meal: 'Do as we do, I pray. So do we always, look towards Numenor that was, and to Elvenhome beyond, and to that which is beyond Elvenhome, Valinor the Blessed Realm.'(37) On the page of this drafting where appear Faramir's words 'This is the Window of the West' (changed to 'Window of the Sunset') my father wrote many names and forms before achieving Henneth Annun: Nargalad, Anngalad, Carangalad; Henneth Carandun, Henneth Malthen; Henlo Naur, Henlo n'Annun; Henuil n'Annun.

NOTES.

1. The 'new chapters' were: (1) 'The Taming of Smeagol'; (2) 'The Passage of the Marshes'; (3) 'The Black Gate is Closed' (including

'Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit'); (4) 'Faramir'. See note 2.

2. Since 'The Taming of Smeagol' was Chapter XXXII, 'The Passage of the Marshes' XXXIII, and 'The Black Gate is Closed'

XXXIV, 'Faramir', the 'fourth new chapter', should be XXXV.

Its actual number XXXVI implies that 'Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit' had already been separated off as XXXV - but then of couse 'Faramir' became the fifth new chapter. Perhaps the actual number XXXVI was written in subsequently. See further p. 171.

3. This refers to the form of the 'dream-verse of Minas Tirith' in which the second half ran thus (see VII.146):

This sign shall there be then

that Doom is near at hand:

The Halfhigh shall you see then

with Isildur's bane in hand.

4. Throughout this draft Falborn addresses Frodo as 'thou', but this usage was emended throughout and does not appear in the following text.

5. The men of Gondor were in this draft B 'sitting in a ring, in the middle of which were Falborn and Frodo. It seemed that there was a debate going on.' - Frodo refers to 'Elrond of Imlad-rist': d. p. 139 note 14.

6. In a rejected version of this 'the other half was found further down the river above Osgiliath by other watchers,'

7. On the same page are written other passages that were presumably potential ingredients in Sam's remonstration to Falborn: It's a pity the folks against Mordor fall out so easy. I should have thought it as plain as a pikestaff.

Boromir was on his way to Minas Tirith. We decided not to go that way and went on our own road. Boromir was not dead when we left, but orcs knew of our journey: they attacked us above the rapids beyond Sarn Gebir. What's in it?

I daresay now we made a mistake. I don't know the lie of the lands; but maybe we'd have got there quicker through Minas Tirith. But here we would have come. And if you drag us back there'll be some that do not like it. Boromir would not. Nor Aragorn.

With Sarn Gebir here for Emyn Muil cf. p. 136 and note 17. -

Another passage here, in part totally illegible, is a draft for a more substantial conclusion to the interrogation of Frodo by Falborn: harshly uncomprehending in tone compared to the later Faramir, and suggesting that no further conversation between them had been thought of at this stage.

'Thou'rt commanded to go - somewhere. But I too am under command: to slay all that roam in Ithilien unanswerable, or at least to take them prisoner to Minas Tirith. I see no cause to slay you, or at least too great doubt. But to Minas Tirith ye shall go. And if Boromir is there it will ... with you. If Boromir's death be proved it will interest Denethor to speak with those who saw him last before he died. If he [?cometh]

doubtless ye will be glad - maybe not. Of your own errand

..... [the following sentences are effectively illegible] .....

Maybe if you would say more of the truth and reveal your errand we would help you and not hinder. But if you will not speak I have no choice in my doubt.'

'Maybe you would, and maybe not,' said Frodo. 'But it is not a matter to speak of to such as you are - not were the walls of

[?Mordor] a thousand miles away, whereas they be but a few leagues.'

Also here are inconclusive rewritings of the second part of the

'dream-verse of Minas Tirith'.

8. Falborn was emended to Faramir (but not consistently) on the second draft B, where also many other changes leading to the third version C were entered.