The War of the Ring (75 page)

22. In the first manuscript of 'The King of the Golden Hall' Legolas said of the barrows at Edoras: 'Seven mounds I see, and seven long lives of men it is, since the golden hall was built' (see VII.442

and 449 note 4). This was changed on that manuscript to the reading of TT (p.111): " Seven mounds upon the left, and nine upon the right," said Aragorn. "Many long lives of men it is since the golden hall was built." '

23. If this is so, it was of course at this time that the first manuscript of 'The King of the Golden Hall' was emended to say that there were 'seven mounds upon the left, and nine upon the right' (see note 22). 1

24. The dates of the kings before the last three were so much changed ]

and confused by overwriting that I can form no clear idea of what j my father intended: it is at least plain, however, that they correspond in their pattern to those in LR - as adjusted for the Shire Reckoning.

25. Barad Amroth: see note 16. Later Barad was changed to Dol.

26. As first written, but immediately rejected, the text continued from i this point: ... was brought from Numenor, and marks still the l place where Isildur met the last king of the Dark Men of the Mountains, when he established the bounds of Gondor. And there he swore an oath, for Isildur and Elendil and his sons [sic]

had the gift of tongues as many of the Numenoreans, and the tongues of men..... [?of the wild] were known to him, for'

27. The ring-wall and tower on the Hill of Erech, in which was kept the palantir, are referred to in the outline given on p. 397; it is told there that Aragorn actually found the palantir of Erech, in a vault of the tower.

28. It is strange that it should be Elrohir who unfurled the banner (and bore it at the Hornburg), for from the first mention of the banner (p. 302) it was as in RK Halbarad the Ranger who bore it (and it was covered in a black cloth). - In RK (p. 63) no device could be seen on it in the darkness.

29. On this and subsequent references to the days of the journey see the Note on Chronology at the end of these Notes.

30. Tarlang's Neck is seen on the Second Map, though it is not named. For the geography of these regions see pp. 433 ff.

31. Sixty leagues in direct line from Erech to Linhir, and a hundred miles from Linhir to Pelargir, agrees with RK (p. 150): 'ninety leagues and three' from Erech to Pelargir.

32. we set out again: i.e. from Erech. - It is approximately here that the part of Gimli's story that was transferred to 'The Passing of the Grey Company' ends, and the part that remained actually reported in 'The Last Debate' begins; there is some overlap in RK

(pp. 63, 151).

33. At this point there follows in the initial draft:

'... But when we came over Tarlang's Neck Elladan and two Rangers rode ahead and spoke to any that they could find willing to stay and listen to them, and told them that a great help was coming to them against the Shipfoes and the Southrons, and that it was not the King of the Dead but the heir of the Kings of Gondor that had returned. A few listened and believed, and at the crossings of Kiril we found food and fodder set for our need though no man had dared to stay beside it, nor any fresh horses for which we hoped.

34. The square brackets are in the original. The initial draft text has here:

'"... but they wield living swords." And some cried [struck out: though they knew not what it meant): "The Lord of the Rings has arisen".'

In the margin of this page in the draft text my father subsequently wrote the following remarkable passage:

'Indeed all the folk of Lebennin call Aragorn that.'

'I wonder why?' said Merry. 'I suppose it is some device to draw the eyes of Mordor that way, to Aragorn, and keep them from Frodo'; and he looked east and shuddered. 'Do you think all his great labour and deeds will be in vain and too late in the end?' he said.

'I know not,' said Gimli. 'But one thing I know, and that is, not for any device of policy would Aragorn set abroad a false tale. Then either it is true and he has a ring, or it is a false tale invented by someone else. But Elrohir and Elladan have called him by that name. So it must be true. But what it means we do not know.'

There is nothing on this page of the draft, or indeed anywhere in the manuscript, that this can refer to but the cry 'The Lord of the Rings has arisen'. I have found only one scrap of writing that seems to bear on this. Under the text in ink of a piece of rough drafting (that referred to in note 39) for the beginning of the story of the march from Minas Tirith are a few furiously pencilled lines, parts of which can be read:

Galadriel must give her ring to Aragorn ( ..... to wed Finduilas?). Hence his sudden access of power ....... [?that won't work. It will leave] Lorien defenceless also Lord of the Ring will be too ...

This raises many more questions than it answers; but it cannot be unconnected with the strange suggestion that in Lebennin Aragorn was called 'The Lord of the Ring(s)'. I do not know whether it is significant that in the first draft the s of Rings was not written consecutively with Ring, but was added to the word - maybe immediately. This however only raises the question why, if Aragorn was called 'The Lord of the Ring' because it was thought that he possessed a Ring, did my father change it to 'The Lord of the Rings'? The only and rather desperate suggestion I can make is that he wished to mark the confusion of mind on the part of the people who uttered this cry (cf. 'though they knew not what it meant' in the draft text).

35. The initial draft has here: 'and all of the enemies that were not slain or drowned were flying away over the Poros into Lothland desert.' This name is not perfectly clear, but I take it as certain in view of the occurrence of Lothlann on the First Map {VII.309, 313); the form Lothland is found in the Quenta Silmarillion (V.264, 283). On the Second Map (p. 435) the region south of Mordor is named, but in pencil now so faint that it is hard to be sure of the name: the likeliest interpretation is 'Desert of Lostladen' (cf. the Etymologies, V.370, stem LUS).

36. Legolas says in this second version that the day they came to Pelargir was 'the fifth of our journey', whereas in the previous version (p. 413) 'it was the fourth since we left Dunharrow'; but 1

think that both expressions mean the same (see the Note on Chronology below).

37. The original primary draft reaches this point:

'And when all was won Aragorn let sound a host of trumpets from the ship that he took for himself, and behold the Shadow host drew near to the shore, and all others fled away. But Aragorn set a line of torches along the shore and these they would not pass, and he spoke to the Dead Men: "Now I will count the oath fulfilled," he said, "when every stranger of Harad or of Umbar is hunted out of this land west of Anduin.

When that is done go back and trouble never the valleys again

- but go and be at rest."

With this cf. the rejected portion of the outline given at the beginning of this chapter (note 6 above): 'The Shadow Host disperses, pursuing the Haradwaith about the vales.'

38. and justified the wisdom of Elrond: see p. 387.

39. In a rough draft for this passage Aragorn speaks to Berithil: 'It is not yet my part to judge you, Master Berithil. If I return I will do so with justice. But for this present you shall leave the guard in the Citadel and go out to war.'

40. The square brackets are in the original.

41. in our speech was corrected to in the old speech of Numenor, then changed back to in our speech.

42. Legolas now plays no part in the narration until Pelargir is reached.

43. The story in this version is expressly to be Gimli's: at the beginning, in response to Pippin's 'Won't you tell us some more?'

he says: 'Well, if you must hear the tale, I will tell it briefly.' As in the unrevised typescript (note 42) Legolas says nothing until he breaks in on Gimli at his mention of the Great River ('I knew it long ere we reached it', p. 414); but by an alteration to this revised version he breaks silence at Gimli's words '[we] went as swiftly as our stouthearted horses could endure over the plains of Lebennin':

'Lebennin!' cried Legolas. All the while he had kept silence, gazing away southward, while Gimli spoke; but now he began to sing: Silver flow the streams from Celos to Erui ...

The text of his song is at once in the final form. In RK it is Legolas who tells the whole story up to this point, and Gimli who here takes it up.

44. The place where Kiril was crossed was named on the Second Map Caerost on Kiril (p. 437).

45. On the back of the last page of this typescript is the following remarkable passage, on which I can cast no light. It is written in a fine ornate script, together with other odds and ends of phrases in the same script, characteristic of my father's habit of 'doodling' in this way (cf. VII.379):

Then spoke Elessar: Many Guthrond would hold that your insolence merited rather punishment than answer from your king; but since you have in open malice uttered lies in the hearing of many, I will first lay bare their falsehood, so that all here may know you for what you are, and have ever been.

Afterwards maybe a chance shall be given you to repent and turn from your old evil.

46. The title that my father first chose for the chapter when the final structure had been reached was 'Tidings and Counsel': the

'tidings' of Gimli and Legolas, and the 'counsel' of Gandalf at the debate of the lords.

Note on the Chronology.

In the outline 'The march of Aragorn and the defeat of the Haradrim'

(pp. 397 - 9) the dates of Aragorn's journey are as follows: March.

8. (morning). Enters the Paths of the Dead.

(midnight). Comes to Erech.

9. (early morning). Leaves Erech under the Darkness from.

Mordor.

10. (evening). Reaches Linhir.

11. (morning). Crosses River Lameduin into Lebennin.

12. (early morning). Reaches Pelargir.

13. (early morning). Sets out up river from Pelargir.

14. (early morning). 100 miles up river.

15. (early morning). Wind rises and sails hoisted on the ships; c. 9 a.m. fleet is seen from Minas Tirith.

The latter part of this chronology seems obviously unsatisfactory, in that the fleet is 100 miles up Anduin in the early morning of March 14, and yet nothing is said of any further journeying on the 14th: the last stretch is accomplished under sail on the morning of the 15th. Against this date (p. 399) my father wrote '14'; and in the companion outline

'The Story Foreseen from Forannest' (p. 360) the charge of the Rohirrim on the 15th was likewise changed to the 14th - which was the date in 'The Siege of Gondor', p. 342.

With the date of Aragorn's entering the Paths of the Dead cf. pp.

309 and 311, notes 9 and 18 (February 6 = March 8). The Dawnless Day is still March 9 (cf. p. 342).

In the manuscript of 'The Tale of Gimli and Legolas' this chronology is preserved - with March 14 as the date of the Battle of the Pelennor Fields. Thus Gimli tells that the Company came to Erech 'just ere the midnight hour - and black it was wellnigh as in the caverns, for though we did not know it yet the darkness of Mordor was creeping over us' (p. 410), and again (p. 412): 'The next morning day did not dawn' (in the margin of the manuscript the figure 9 is written here).

'At nightfall of the second day from Erech' they came to Linhir (and here 10 is written in the margin). They 'rose ere night had passed' (i.e.

before dawn on March 11) and rode across Lebennin, 'all that day and through the next night'; and Gimli says that 'it was day, I guessed, by the hidden sun - the fourth since we left Dunharrow' (p. 413) when they reached the shores of Anduin at Pelargir, i.e. the morning of March 12. 'Before the fifth day was over we had taken well nigh all the fleet', which as will be seen in a moment means 'the fifth day of the journey', i.e. March 12.

The first version of the events at Pelargir ends here; in the second version Legolas says (note 36) that the day they reached Pelargir was

'the fifth of our journey' (March 12), that they rested that night 'while others laboured' - but also that the fleet set out up Anduin 'on the fifth morning, that is the day before yesterday' (March 13). This shows clearly that Legolas was distinguishing between 'the fifth day of our journey (March 12) and the fifth morning since we left Dunharrow (March 13) - so also in RK (p. 153) 'the sixth [morning] since we rode from Dunharrow' is the seventh day of the whole journey. Since it was now the day after the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, and the fleet left Pelargir on 'the day before yesterday', the battle took place on March 14.

The difference of this chronology from that of LR is therefore thus: The journey of Aragorn

The present chronology Chronology of LR.

Day March.

1. 8. Reaches Erech at midnight The same.

2. 9. The Dawnless Day.

3. 10. Reaches Linhir The Dawnless Day.

4. 11. Reaches Linhir.

5. 12. Reaches Pelargir.

6. 13. Sets out from Pelargir Reaches Pelargir.

7. 14. Battle of the Pelennor Fields Sets out from Pelargir.