The War of the Ring (44 page)

The remainder of her words are as in F, but she does not now mention her father. When she has finished speaking the text continues: Now they rode on. Aragorn. was beside the King, and Eowyn rode beside her brother exchanging many glad words. Merry jogged along behind, feeling forlorn: Aragorn had smiled at him, but he had no chance to get a word with him, or find out what had become of Legolas or Gimli, or Pippin.

'Have you gathered any tidings by the way, Aragorn?' asked the King. 'Which way did you ride?'

'Along the skirts of the hills,' said Aragorn. 'Being few we did not take to the mountain-paths, but came to Edoras and then up the Harrowdale. No enemy has been to Edoras or harmed your house. A few men have been left to hold the walls, and send word if any evil thing is seen in the plains. But the men of Rohan are mustering here, as you see. The Hold is full, and the uplands round about are covered with the camps of men. This is Gandalf's doing. We found that he had passed by Edoras before us, riding East, and had given orders in your name that no great gathering should be held on the edge of the plains, but that all men should come to meet you here. Most were willing enough.

The dark shadow that we saw flying to Isengard was seen there also; and it, or another like it, has been seen twice again, darkening the stars. They say that men cower with fear as it passes, men who have never feared any enemy before.

'Not all your folk that can come have assembled yet, for the Last Quarter of the Moon was the day set; but most have already arrived. And with them have come also strange folk that are not of Rohan. For in some manner, the rumour of war seems to have gone far abroad long days ago, and men in distant countries have heard the word go forth that all who hate Mordor should come to Edoras or Minas Tirith. There are tall warriors of Dunland, some that fought against you, and some that never listened to Saruman, hating the Orcs far more than the Rohir! There are even Woodmen from the borders of Mirkwood, and wanderers of the empty lands. Last and fewest, but to me not least, there have come seven Rangers out of the North, my own folk, remnant of Elendil's race: they have sought me here.'

'How many spears and horses can we muster, if sudden need should come?' asked Theoden.

'Somewhat short of ten thousand,' answered Aragorn: 'but in that count I reckon only men well-horsed, fully armed, and with gear and provision to ride to battle far away, if needs be. As many again there are of men on foot or with ponies, with sword and shield, or bowmen and light-armed men of the dales: a good force to defend strong places, if war should come to the land of Rohan itself. If your Riders leave the land, then, lord, I should gather all your home-keeping men in one or at most two strong places.'

'It is my purpose to hold the Hornburg and Dunharrow,' said Theoden. 'I have left Erkenbrand and three hundred good men in Helm's Deep, together with many stout country folk, and yeomen of Westfold; and men skilled in the mountains are to keep watch on the tracks and passes that lead from there to here. The guard at Edoras I shall strengthen, commanding them to hold it as long as they may, and defend the mouth of Harrowdale. But here, where now the most part of my people who are willing to leave their homesteads and seek refuge is now gathered, I will leave the main host of my men that do not ride away. Not while any crumb of food remains will any foe overtake us here.'

'Not without wings,' said Aragorn.

So at length they passed the pinnacles of the gate, and the tall Middle Stone, and dismounted before the dark portals of Dunharrow. The king entered, and they followed him. Night drew down outside.

The description of the great hall in Dunharrow was scarcely changed from that in the text F (p. 248). The platform of stone at the far end was 'reached by seven shallow steps'; and 'two thousand men, maybe, could have stood in that place' when no tables and benches were set out.

It is interesting to observe that the picture in crayon of 'Dunharrow'

in Pictures by J.R.R. Tolkien (1979), no. 29, reproduced as second frontispiece, represents this original conception: the dark cleft to which the double line of standing stones leads is (as I think) the 'gate of the Hold', the 'Hold' itself, the 'recess' or 'amphitheatre' with doors and windows in the cliff at the rear, being in this picture invisible.

Lastly, there is a typescript ('H') typed in the same 'midget type'

as was used for the text 'C' of 'Minas Tirith' (see p. 233); this is only a little longer than the other, and the two texts are so closely similar in every respect that I think it certain that they come from the same time

- i.e., this typescript of the present chapter belongs with all this original material for the opening of 'The Muster of Rohan', composed before my father again abandoned work on The Lord of the Rings towards the end of 1944.

It is therefore remarkable that in this typescript (which in other respects closely followed the previous version F, pp. 244-6) my father had already abandoned an essential element in the conception he had devised. No lights now twinkled on the far side of the valley as the King and his company came into Harrowdale; and after the description of the Pukelmen (so spelt) at the turns of the climbing road the text reads thus:

At last the king's company came to a sharp brink, and the road passed between walls of rock and led out onto a wide upland. The Firienfeld men called it, a green mountain-field of grass and heath high above the sheer wall of the valley. Beyond it was a dark wood that climbed steeply on the sides of a great round hill; its bare black head rose above the trees far above and on it stood a single pinnacle of ruined stone. Two long lines of unshaped stones marched from the brink of the cliff towards it and vanished in the gloom of the trees. Those who followed that road came in the sighing darkness of the Firienholt to a huge doorway in the side of the black hill of Firien,(21) signs and figures were above it, worn by time, that none could read.

Within were vast caverns, so men said, though in living memory none had ever dared to enter. Such was the dark Dunharrow, the work of long-forgotten men.

Then follows the passage cited from text F on p. 246 ('No song or legend remembered them ...'), which was little further changed in RK

(p. 68); and the typescript breaks off at the words 'As the king climbed out upon the upland field'.

What was the thought that lay behind this change, whereby 'dark Dunharrow' was now set within 'the black hill of Firien', a pinnacle of stone on its bare head, and became, so far from a place of feasting for the lords of Rohan, a place of fear that no man dared to enter? Perhaps my father felt that there was too much likeness between Dunharrow as first conceived and Helm's Deep: 'There are caves in Helm's Deep where hundreds may lie hid' (TT p. 134), 'Behind us in the caves of the Deep are three parts of the folk of Westfold... great store of food, and many beasts and their fodder, have also been gathered there' (TT

p. 136). Perhaps also the idea that Aragorn would pass over the mountains by the Scada Pass, as proposed in the notes E (p. 243), had already led to a new idea, that his road would lead through Dunharrow (cf. the outline V in the next section, p. 262). However this may be, I believe that it was here that my father laid aside The Lord of the Rings, at least in the actual written evolution of the narrative, until a further year and a half had passed.

There remains a further difference to notice in this last text from the preceding versions. To Theoden's question 'Was it not the full moon last night?' Eomer now replies: 'Nay, lord, the full moon will rise tonight four hours after dark. Tomorrow ere evening you shall come to Edoras and keep tryst with your Riders.'

(iii) Sketches for Book Five.

I give here first (the most convenient place for it) a brief text of especial interest that stands quite apart from the outlines that follow, those being of much larger narrative purview and concerned to work out a coherent chronology for the extremely complex story to come. This text is found on a single page torn into halves and preserved separately among the manuscripts of 'The Siege of Gondor' at Marquette University - the reason for this being that my father later used the reverse of one half of the torn sheet to draft a revision of the opening of that chapter; but the original text belongs with the initial work on Book V studied here, and represents in fact a very early stage in that work. It is written in rapid pencil and is in places very difficult to make out, but the first part of it (as far as 'Muster in Minas Tirith') was overwritten clearly in ink, and so far as I can see my father scarcely altered the underlying text, his sole purpose being clarification. The whole page was struck through. At the head is written in pencil '250

miles', which probably refers to the distance from Edoras to Minas Tirith.

Evil counsels for evil days.

Eomer rides away and the king laments - for the snow is still deep and the wind over the Scada has been the death of many a man.

Now it is to be told that King Theoden rested a day in Dunharrow and rode then to Eodoras and passed thence with five ? thousand riders, fully armed and horsed, and took the road to Minas Tirith. Others were to follow.

In ? five days they came within sight of Minas Tirith (Feb.

15?).

Merry's first sight of Minas Tirith from afar.

The plain below the hill covered with camps.

It would be better geographically if the main attack were made to come from the direction of Kirith Ungol - and the Swertings only a diversion, which nearly turns the scale.

Muster in Minas Tirith. [Here the overwriting in ink ends.]

People come from Belfalas and Dol Amroth and from the Five Streams of Lebennin in [?Anarion].(22) [?There came] Inram the tall from the vale of .........(23) and Nosdiligand (24) and the people of the Delta and Benrodir prince of [?Anarion], and the remnants of the folk of [?Ithilien] across the [??vale], and .....

from Rhovanion ..... men of the East,(25) and Rangers from the empty North, and even some of the folk of Dunland. [Written against this passage in the margin: King of Rohan Men of Rohan come after the assembly. Only Aragorn rode .. to it.]

And the counsel of Denethor was to retake the Fords [of Osgiliath] and drive back the Orcs. So they sounded their trumpets and flew the red banner from the tower and rode to meet the enemy. And the enemy could not withstand the swords of Gondor, and before the sword of Elendil they fled like ...

But Gandalf stood on the hill and [?watched afar]. Then comes the fleet of the Swertings [> Harns] up from the Delta and the Swertings come up through Ithilien.

They watch for the men of Rohan who [?are late]. Men of Rohan camp nearby and charge in the morning. Then the Nazgul come

Here the text stops abruptly. In its opening ('Eomer rides away ...') it is closely associated with a passage in the notes E in the preceding section, where is found the only other reference to the Scada Pass, leading over the mountains to the Blackroot Vale on their southern side (see pp. 243-4): 'Aragorn [in margin: Eomer?] begs leave to take a force over the Scada Pass and fall on the enemy's rear.' Thus the present text, where it is Eomer who takes this road, preceded - in this opening passage - the definitive emergence of the story that it was Aragorn who 'went with his rangers over the mountains' (see outline III on p. 260) or 'passed into the mountains with his Rangers' (see outline V on p. 262). On the other hand, in this earliest form of the

'catalogue'(26) of the peoples of Southern Gondor mustering in Minas Tirith mention is also made of men of Rhovanion, and Dunlanders, and 'Rangers from the empty North' coming into the city; whereas in the notes E (p. 242) it is to Dunharrow, not to Minas Tirith, that

'Rangers have come and Dunlanders and messengers from the Woodmen of Mirkwood' (and similarly in Aragorn's account to Theoden at Dunharrow in the text F, p. 247: 'There are Dunlanders here, and some even of the Woodmen from the borders of Mirkwood ...').

The present text seems then evidence of a fleeting stage in which certain important narrative ideas had emerged, but when their potential significance for the whole structure of Book V had not yet been realised. From the host mustering at Dunharrow, intending to ride to Minas Tirith by the Anorien road, a detachment is separated and passes over the mountains in order to come down swiftly into Southern Gondor (and this is above all on account of news of the great fleet approaching from the South, whose coming had long been foreseen, and which seems to have been originally the chief menace in the assault on Minas Tirith: see VII.435, 437). And Rangers come out of the North. These elements were of course essential to the story of 'the Grey Company' and all that flowed from it. But those who leave the main host of the Rohirrim are here led by Eomer, not Aragorn; and the Rangers come not to Dunharrow, but to Minas Tirith.