The War of the Ring (3 page)

A scout now rode back and reported that wolfriders were abroad in the valley, and that a host of orcs and wild men, very great indeed, was hurrying southward over the plain towards Heorulf's Hold.

'We have found many of our own folk lying slain as they fled thither,' said the scout. 'And we have met scattered companies, going this way and that, leaderless. Some are making for the Clough [> Helmsgate], but it seems that Nothelm [> Heorulf]

is not there. His plan was changed, and men do not know whither he has gone. Some say that Wormtongue was seen today [> Some say that Wormtongue was seen in the evening going north, and in the dusk an old man on a great horse rode the same way].'

'Well, if Nothelm be in the Hold or not, [> 'It will go ill with Wormtongue, if Gandalf overtakes him,' said Theoden.

'Nonetheless I miss now both counsellors, old and new. Yet it seems to me that whether Heorulf be in his Hold or no,] in this need we have no better choice than to go thither ourselves,'

said Theoden. 'What is your counsel?' he said, turning to Eomer who had now ridden up to the King's side.

'We should be ill advised to give battle in the dark,' said Eomer, 'or to await the day here in the open, not knowing the number of the oncoming host. Let us drive through such foes as are between us and Herulf's Clough [> the fastness], and encamp before the Hold [> its gate]. Then if we cannot break out, we may retreat to the Hold. There are caves in the gorge [> Helm's Deep] behind where hundreds may hide, and secret ways lead up thence, I am told, onto the hills.'

'Trust not to them!' said Aragorn. 'Saruman has long spied out this land. Still, in such a place our defence might last long.'

'Let us go then,' said Theoden. 'We will ride thither in many separate companies. A man who is nightsighted and knows well the land shall go at the head of each.'

I interrupt the text here to discuss some aspects of this story. The names present an apparently impenetrable confusion, but I think that the development was more or less as follows. My father was uncertain whether 'Heorulf' ('Herulf') was the present lord of the 'Hold' or the hero after whom the 'Clough' was named. When he wrote, in the passage just given, 'which men of that land called Heorulf's Clough, after some hero of ancient wars who had made his refuge there' he had decided on the latter, and therefore the name of the present 'Westmarcher' (precursor of Erkenbrand) was changed, becoming Nothelm.

Then, changing again, Nothelm reverted to Heorulf, while the gorge was named after Helm: Helmshaugh (note 10), then Helm's Deep.

The fastness (Heorulf's Hoe or Hold) standing on the Stanrock is now called Helmsgate, which in LR refers to the entrance to Helm's Deep across which the Deeping Wall was built.

The image of the great gorge and the fortress built on the jutting heel or 'hoe' arose, I believe, as my father wrote this first draft of the new chapter. In the outline 'The Story Foreseen from Fangorn'

(VII.435) Gandalf's sudden galloping off on Shadowfax is present, and 'by his help and Aragorn the Isengarders are driven back'; there is no suggestion of any gorge or hold in the hills to the south. So again in the present narrative he says nothing before he rides off; whereas in TT he tells Theoden not to go the Fords of Isen but to ride to Helm's Deep. Thus in the original story it was not until 'cries and hornblasts were heard from their scouts that went in front' and 'arrows whistled over them' that the leaders of the host decided to make for the Hold; in TT (where the actual wording of the passage is scarcely changed) the host was 'in the low valley before the mouth of the Coomb' when these things happened.

The present text agrees well with the First Map (redrawn section IV(E), VII.319). At this time the host was 'at the outer end of a wide vale, a bay in the mountains of the south'; and 'Heorulf's Clough' lay somewhere near the western end of this 'bay'. The First Map is in fact less clear at this point than my redrawing makes it, but the map that I made in 1943, which was closely based on the First Map (see VII.299), shows Helm's Deep very clearly as running in towards the Tindtorras (Thrihyrne) from a point well to the north and west of the 'bay in the mountains' - the Westfold Vale, in the present text not yet named (see note 4).(12)

On the page of the completed manuscript in which the final form of this passage (TT p. 133) was reached the text reads thus: 'Still some mile away, on the far side of the Westfold Vale, a great bay in the mountains, lay a green coomb out of which a gorge opened in the hills.' There is no question that this is correct, and that this was what my father intended: the great bay in the mountains was of course the Westfold Vale. In the typescript based on this, however, the sentence became, for some obscure reason (there is no ambiguity in the manuscript): 'Still some miles away, on the far side of the Westfold Vale, lay a green coomb, a great bay in the mountains, out of which a gorge opened in the hills.' This error is perpetuated in The Two Towers.

In this original narrative it was on the night of the day of departure from Eodoras that the host came to the hold in the hills; subsequently (13) it was on the night of the second day (for the chronology see pp. 4-5, $$ I-II). In the later story it is said (TT p. 131) that 'Forty leagues and more it was, as a bird flies, from Edoras to the fords of the Isen', and this agrees very well with the First Map, where the distance is almost 2.5 an., or 125 miles (= just over 40 leagues). It may have been a doser look at the map that led to the extension of the ride across the plain by a further day. On the other hand, there was also an evident difficulty with the chronology as it now stood: see p. 4, $ I.

The original draft continues:

Aragorn and Legolas rode with Eomer's eored. That company needed no guide more keen of sight than Legolas, or a man who knew the land, far and wide about, better than Eomer himself. Slowly, and as silently as they might, they went through the night, turning back from the plain, and climbing westward into the dim folds about the mountains' feet. They came upon few of the enemy, except here and there a roving band of orcs who fled ere the riders could slay many; but ever the rumour of war grew behind them. Soon they could hear harsh singing, and if they turned and looked back they could see, winding up from the low country, red torches, countless points of fiery light. A very wood of trees must have been felled to furnish them. Every now and then a brighter blaze leaped up.

'It is a great host,' said Aragorn, 'and follows us close.'

'They bring fire,' said Eomer, 'and are burning as they come all that they can kindle: rick and cot and tree. We shall have a great debt to pay them.'

'The reckoning is not far off,' said Aragorn. 'Shall we soon find ground where we can turn and stand?'

'Yes,' said Eomer. 'Across the wide mouth of the coomb, at some distance from Helmsgate there is a fall in the ground, so sharp and sheer that to those approaching it seems as if they came upon a wall. This we call [Stanshelf Stanscylf >](14) Helm's dike. In places it is twenty feet high, and on the top it has been crowned with a rampart of great stones, piled in ancient days.

There we will stand. Thither the other companies will also come. There are three ways that lead up through breaches in the cliff." these we must hold strongly.'

It was dark, starless and moonless, when they came to [the Stanshelf >] Helm's dike. Eomer led them up by a broad sloping path that climbed through a deep notch in the cliff and came out upon the new level some way behind the rampart.

They were unchallenged. No one was there before them, friend or foe.(16) At once Eomer set guards upon the [breaches >] Inlets.

Ere long other companies arrived, creeping up the valley from various directions. There were wide grass-slopes between the rampart and the Stanrock. There they set their horses under such guards as could be spared from the manning of the wall.

Gimli stood leaning against a great stone at a high point of the [Stanshelf >] dike not far from the inlet by which they had entered. Legolas was on the stone above fingering his bow and peering into the blackness.

'This is more to my liking,' said the dwarf, stamping his feet on the ground. 'Ever my heart lightens as we draw near the mountains. There is good rock here. This country has hard bones. I feel it under my feet. Give me a year and a hundred of my kin and we could make this a place that armies would break against like water.'

'I doubt it not,' said Legolas. 'But you're a dwarf, and dwarves are strange folk. I like it not, and shall like it no more by the light of day. But you comfort me, Gimli, and I am glad to have you stand by me with your stout legs and hard axe.'

Shapes loomed up beside them. It was Eomer and Aragorn walking together along the line of the rampart. 'I am anxious,'

said Eomer. 'Most have now arrived; but one company is still lacking, and also the King and his guard.'

'If you will give me some hardy men, I will take Gimli and Legolas here, and go a little down the valley and look for tidings,' said Aragorn.

'And find more than you are looking for,' said Gimli.

'That is likely,' said Eomer. 'We will wait a while.'

A slow time passed, when suddenly at no great distance down the valley a clamour broke out. Horns sounded. 'There are some of our folk come into an ambush, or taken in the rear,'

cried Eomer. 'Theoden will be there. Wait here, I will hold the men back to the wall, and choose some to go forth. I will be back swiftly.'

Horns sounded again, and in the still darkness they could hear the clash of weapons. In brief while Eomer returned with twenty men-.

'This errand I will take,' said Aragorn. 'You are needed on the wall. Come, Legolas! Your eyes will serve us.' He sped down the slope.

'Where Legolas goes, I go,' said Gimli, and ran after them.

The watchers on the wall saw nothing for a while, then suddenly there were louder cries, and wilder yells. A clear voice rang, echoing in the hills. Elendil! It seemed that far below in the shadows a white flame flashed.

'Branding goes to war at last,' said Eomer.

A horseman appeared before the main breach, and was admitted. 'Where is Theoden King?' asked Eomer.

'Among his guard,' said.the man. 'But many are unhorsed.

We rode into an ambush, and orcs sprang out of the ground among us, hamstringing many of our steeds. Snowmane and the King escaped; for that horse is nightsighted, and sprang over the heads of the orcs. But Theoden dismounted and fought among his guard. Herugrim sang a song that has long been silent.

Aragorn is with them, and he sends word that a great host of orcs is on his heels. Man the wall! He will come in by the main breach if he can.'

The noise of battle drew nearer. Those on the rampart could do nothing to aid. They had not many archers among them, and these could not shoot in the darkness while their friends were still in front. One by one men of the missing company came in, till all but five were mustered. Last came the King's guard on foot, with the King in their midst, leading Snowmane.

'Hasten, Lord!' cried Eomer.

At that moment there was a wild cry. Orcs were attacking the

[breaches >] inlets on either hand, and before the King had been brought in to safety out of the darkness there sprang a host of dark shapes driving towards the great breach. A white fire shone. There in their path could be seen for a moment Aragorn son of Arathorn: on his one side was Gimli, on the other Legolas.

'Back now, my comrades!' cried Aragorn. 'I will follow.'

Even as Gimli and Legolas ran back towards the rampart, he leaped forward. Before the flame of Branding the orcs fled. Then slowly Aragorn retreated walking backward. Even as he did so step by step one great orc came forward, while others stalked behind him. As Aragorn turned at last to run up the inlet, the orc sprang after him: but an arrow whined and he fell sprawling and lay still. For some time no others dared to draw near. 'Sure is the shaft of the elven bow, and keen are the eyes of Legolas!'

said Aragorn as he joined the elf and they ran together to the rampart.

Thus at last the King's host was brought within the fastness, and turned to bay before the mouth of Helm's Deep. The night was not yet old, and many hours of darkness and peril yet remained. Theoden was unhurt; but he grieved for the loss of so many of the horses of his guard, and he looked upon Snowmane bleeding at the shoulder: a glancing arrow had struck him. 'Fair is the riding forth, friend,' he said; 'but often the road is bitter.'

'Grieve not for Snowmane, lord,' said Aragorn. 'The hurt is light. I will tend it, with such skill as I have, while the enemy still holds off. They have suffered losses more grievous than ours, and will suffer more if they dare to assail this place.'

Here the original draft ends as formed narrative, but continues as an outline, verging on narrative. This was written over a faint pencilled text that seems to have been much the same.