The War of the Ring (9 page)

'almost two miles from rim to rim' ('a mile', TT); 'through it by many carven channels water flowed, entering as a stream from the mountains beneath the northern gate, and watering all the hidden land'; and the windows in the walls of the circle are described (in the preliminary drafting only) as 'countless dark windows and deep, square-cut, menacing'.

24. This picture was drawn on the back of a page of the examination script of the poet John Heath-Stubbs, who took the final examinations in English at Oxford in 1942.

25. The opening of the description is confused. Apparently my father at first followed the draft 'A' very closely, writing: 'And in the centre ... was a tower, a pinnacle of stone. The base of it, and that two hundred feet in height, was a great cone of rock ...', but altered this at once to 'was an isle of stone, two hundred feet in height, a great cone of rock ...' Subsequently he changed 'was an isle of stone' to 'there stood an island in the lake.' See the description 'D' in the text.

26. On the back of this drawing my father wrote: 'This picture should be combined with old one': i.e. for a final version, which was never made, features of 'Orthanc (1)' should be incorporated. - 'Picture 5' went to Marquette with the second completed manuscript of the chapter, whereas the others remained in England. - The conception of 'Orthanc (5)' is seen also in Pictures by J. R. R. Tolkien, no. 27, viewed from the side in which were the stairway and the door.

27. In a draft of the paragraph beginning 'A strong place and wonderful was Isengard' (TT p. 160) these words were followed by 'or Ang(ren)ost in elvish speech'. Angrenost has appeared before (VII.420); the variant Angost occurs subsequently (p. 72).

28. Perhaps Hoppettan was Theoden's turning of Hobbits into the sounds and grammatical inflexion of the language of the Mark -

or else he was merely struck by the resemblance to the (Old English) verb hoppettan 'to hop, leap, jump for joy'.

29. Holbytla 'Hole-builder' has the consonants lt (Holbylta) reversed, as in the closely related Old English botl, bodl beside bold

'building' (see my note on Nobottle in the Shire, VII.424).

30. This name can be read either as Mugworth or as Mugwort, but the latter (a plant-name, and one of the family names in Bree) seems very unlikely as the name of a place. Mugworth is not recorded as a village name in England.

31. This passage about tobacco was dashed down in a single spurt without any corrections, and there is no indication that these sentences were spoken by Theoden; but that they were so is seen from the following draft.

32. The illegible word might possibly be 'grand'.

33. A pencilled note suggests that this should be 'a conversation at

[the] feast'. See pp. 72-3.

34. Smygrave: with the first element cf. Smial (Old English smygel).

The second element is probably Old English graef.

35. With the later change of Tobias to Tobold Hornblower cf.

Barliman for earlier Barnabas Butterbur.

36. Cf. my father's letter to me of 6 May 1944 (Letters no. 66), referring to Faramir, then newly arrived on the scene: '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 and the Languages of the West have gone.'

37. Isengrim Took the First and the date 1050: in the Prologue to LR

in the days of Isengrim Took the Second and the date 1070. See the original genealogical table of the Tooks in VI.316 - 17, according to which Isengrim the First would have been 400 years old at the time of Bilbo's Farewell Party. Since the Shire Reckoning date 1418 (as in LR) has already appeared for the year of Frodo's departure from Bag End (VII.9), Isengrim the First (afterwards Isengrim II) was born in S.R. 1001. According to the genealogical tree of the Tooks in LR Appendix C the dates of this Isengrim were S.R. 1020 - 1122. - The varieties of pipe-weed from the Southfarthing are here given as Longbottom-leaf, Old Toby, and Hornpipe Shag.

38. On the north gate of Isengard see note 23.

39. In the draft of this scene the three Ents who came out from the trees were not wholly indifferent to the company: 'Silently they stood, some twenty paces off, regarding the riders with solemn eyes.' But this was changed immediately.

In a draft for the passage that follows (TT p. 155), in which Theoden reflects on the Ents and the narrow horizons of the people of Rohan, it is Gandalf who speaks the thought that the war will bring about the disappearance of much that was beautiful in Middle-earth:

'You should be glad, Theoden King,' said Gandalf. 'For not only your little life of men is now endangered, but the life of those things also which you have deemed the matter of song and legend. Some we may save by our efforts, but however the fortune of war goes, it may soon come to pass that much that is fair and wonderful shall pass for ever out of Middle Earth. The evil that Sauron works and has worked (and has had much help of men in it) may be stayed or ended, but it cannot be wholly cured, nor made as if it had not been.'

40. The Fords of Isen in the plural appears earlier, however (pp. 10, 27 - 8,31).

41. For another proposed placing of the description of the passing of the Huorns see p. 70.

IV.

FLOTSAM AND JETSAM.

The first completed manuscript of 'The Road to Isengard' was originally continuous with Chapter XXVIII 'The Battle of Helm's Deep' (the original title), but I think that the division was introduced at a fairly early stage, with a new chapter numbered XXIX beginning with the meeting of Gandalf and Theoden beside the Deeping Stream after the Battle of the Hornburg. The first completed manuscript of XXIX, of which the original title was 'To Isengard', ran on without break through the later 'Flotsam and Jetsam' and 'The Voice of Saruman', but a division between XXIX and XXX ('Flotsam and Jetsam') was made before it was completed: XXX then included the later 'Voice of Saruman' as well. A very rough and difficult outline for this part of the story in fact begins at the end of 'The Road to Isengard', and the chapter was then expressly to end with the return to Eodoras.

Gandalf asks where Treebeard is?

(Guarding Orthanc, says Merry. Some Ents still demolishing.) He takes Theoden off.

Aragorn takes the hobbits aside and they sit and eat and chat on the stone heaps. Aragorn smokes. Talk about wizards and tobacco.

Aragorn and Gimli are told about Orc-raid and Treebeard.

Merry gives up hope of describing them; says you will see them soon. How shall I describe them to Bilbo? (This was when he first tried to collect his ideas.)

Describes destruction of Isengard. Saruman not strong or brave. Merry tells all he knows about the battles of Ford. How trees dogged orcs.

Treebeard knocks on gates of Isengard. Arrows no good.(1) Saruman flies to Orthanc and sends up fires from floor of plain.

Scorched Ents go mad. But Treebeard stops them. They let in Isen River by North Gate (2) and flood the bowl. Terrific fume and steam. Terrible noises, drowned wolves and slaves and smiths.

The Ents pull the wall to pieces. They send Galbedirs (Talking Trees) to help Gandalf. They bury dead at Fords.

Gandalf's speech with Saruman. He rides over flooded causeway. Saruman looks out of window above door. Asks how he dares to come without permission. Gandalf says he thought that as far as Saruman was concerned he was still a lodger in Orthanc.(3)

'Guests that leave from the roof have not always a claim to come in by the door.' Saruman refuses to repent or submit.

Gandalf gives Treebeard task of [?caring] for him. 'I do not doubt there are delved ways under Orthanc. But every time water subsides let it in again, till all these underground places are submerged. Then make a low bank and plant trees round it.

Guard Orthanc with Ents.'

Theoden thinks a Nazgul may carry him off. 'Let him!' says Gandalf. 'If Saruman thinks of that last treachery ... cannot pity him for the terrible fate that awaits him. Mordor can have no love [for] him. Indeed what he will do

Say that this must be clear to Saruman himself. Would it not be more dramatic to [?make] Saruman offer help: Gandalf says no - he knows that if Mordor wins he is done for now. Even the evidence that he had made war on us won't help him. Sauron knows that he did so only for [his] own ends. But if we win -

with his belated help he hopes to re-establish himself and escape punishment. Gandalf demands his staff of office. He refuses; then Gandalf orders him to be shut up, as above.(4) They rest the night in the ruins and ride back to Eodoras.

Feast on evening of their return and coming of the messenger

- that ominous dark-visaged man (5) should end this chapter.

Another outline (in ink over pencil, but the underlying text though briefer was not greatly different) reads as follows: Treebeard (and Merry and Pippin) relate events - their arrival at Isengard. They saw Saruman send out all his forces to overwhelm the Riders at Isenford. As soon as Isengard was well-nigh empty, the Ents attacked. Merry and Pippin tell of the terrifying anger and strength of the Ents. Saruman really had little power beyond cunning, persuasive words - when he had no slaves at hand to do his will and work his machines or light his fires he could do little himself. All his studies had been given to trying to discover how rings were made. He let his wolves out

- but they were useless. A few of the Ents were scorched with fire - then they went mad. They drowned Isengard, by letting in River and blocking the outlet.

All the day they were destroying and making havoc of the outer walls and all within. Only Orthanc resisted them. Then just ere nightfall Gandalf came riding up like the wind.(6) He told them of King Theoden's danger. A considerable force of walking trees had already stalked after the orcs the night before.

The Ents now sent a much great[er] force and commanded them all to gather at the mouth of the Coomb and let no orc come out alive. A few Ents had gone to Isenford, and buried the dead men of the Mark.

In the margin against the last sentences of this outline is written:

'Shall there be more real Ents?' Notably, a sentence in the underlying pencilled text reads: 'The Ents sent a force of walking trees (with split trunks). They crept on in darkness following the victorious orcs.'

There is not a great deal to notice in the scanty initial drafting or in the first completed manuscript as far as the beginning of Merry's story of the attack on Isengard (TT p. 170). The meal provided by the hobbits was not eaten in the guard-house by the gates: Merry and Pippin went off to get the food and returned with it, Pippin explaining that 'There is a door not far inside the old tunnel that leads down into some well-stocked stores' (cf. the outline, p. 47: they sit and eat 'on the stone heaps'). Of Ents, where in TT (p. 167) Pippin says: 'Oh, well, you have seen some at a distance, already', here he says 'Oh well, you have seen Quickbeam' - this being of course a reference to the earlier version of 'The Road to Isengard', where Gandalf and Theoden and their company met Bregalad on their ride from Helm's Deep.(7) And he says also, as in the outline on p. 47: 'But I wish Bilbo could have seen Treebeard: how we shall manage to describe him to the old hobbit, if ever we get back, I can't think.'

In a draft for the discussion of pipes (TT pp. 167-8) Aragorn leapt down from the stone heap and went to the saddle-bags that lay nearby. 'From them he drew out an old cloak, and a worn purse of soft hide. Coming back he wrapped himself in the cloak, and opened the purse, and drew out a blackened pipe of clay.' Before Pippin produced his spare pipe, Merry said: 'There are none to be found. Orcs don't smoke, and Saruman did not give his leaf to his slaves.' And when Pippin said 'Look! Trotter the Ranger has come back!' Aragorn replied: 'He has never been away. I am Trotter and Aragorn, and belong both to Gondor and the North.'(8)

A few other details in the opening of the chapter may be noted.

There is no mention of Aragorn's returning of the hobbits' knives,(9) or of Pippin's brooch (TT p. 169). After Merry's story of Grishnakh (10) Aragorn spoke at greater length about Sauron and Saruman:

'All this about the orcs of Lugburz (Mordor, I suppose, from the Red Eye) makes me uneasy,' said Aragorn. 'The Dark Lord already knew too much, and Grishnakh clearly got some message across the River after the quarrel. [But still there are some hopeful points. Saruman is in a cleft stick of his own cutting. Gandalf ought not to have much difficulty in convincing him that a victory for Mordor would not be pleasant for him, now. Indeed' (and here Aragorn lowered his voice) 'I do not see what can save him, except the Ring itself. It is well that he has no idea where it is. And we should do best never to mention it aloud: I do not know what powers Saruman in his tower may have, nor what means of communication with the East there may be.) From your tale it is plain that he thought one of you was possibly the Ringbearer; and Sauron must therefore have the same doubt. If so, it will hasten his attack westward: Isengard has fallen none too soon. But there are some hopeful points. All this doubt may help poor Frodo and Sam. But at any rate Saruman is in a cleft stick of his own cutting.