THE STORY
CONTINUED.
XXIII.
IN THE HOUSE OF ELROND.
In the next stage of the work it is difficult to deduce the chronology of
composition, or to relate it to important further revisions made to the
'third phase' of the story as far as Rivendell. Determination of the
chronology depends on the form taken by certain key elements, and if
these happen to be absent certainty becomes impossible.
At any rate, after 'Bingo' had become 'Frodo' my father continued
Frodo's interrupted conversation with Gloin at the feast in the house of
Elrond (see p. 369). This continuation is in two forms, the second closely
following the first, and already in the first form the latter part of 'Many
Meetings' in FR is quite closely approached; but there are certain major
differences. I give here the second form (in part).'
'And what has become of Balin and Ori and Oin?' asked Frodo.
A shadow passed over Gloin's face. 'Balin took to travelling
again,' he answered. 'You may have heard that he visited Bilbo in
Hobbiton many years ago: well, not very long after that he went
away for two or three years. Then he returned to the Mountain
with a great number of dwarves that he discovered wandering
masterless in the South and East. He wanted Dain to go back to
Moria - or at least to allow him to found a colony there and reopen
the great mines. As you probably know, Moria was the ancestral
home of the dwarves of the race of Durin, and the forefathers of
Thorin and Dain dwelt there, until they were driven by the goblin
invasions far into the North. Now Balin reported that Moria was
again wholly deserted, since the great defeat of the goblins, but the
mines were still rich, especially in silver. Dain was not willing to
leave the Mountain and the tomb of Thorin, but he allowed Balin
to go, and he took with him many of the folk of the Mountain as
well as his own following; and Ori and Oin went with him. For
many years things went well, and the colony throve; there was
traffic once more between Moria and the Mountain, and many
gifts of silver were sent to Dain. Then fortune changed. Our
messengers were attacked and robbed by cruel Men, well-armed.
No messengers came from Moria; but rumour reached us that the
mines and dwarf-city were again deserted. For long we could not
learn what had become of Balin and his people - but now we have
news, and it is evil. It is to tell these tidings and to ask for the
counsel of - of those that dwell in Rivendell that I have come. But
to-night let us speak of merrier things! '
At the head of the page my father wrote the words that stand in this
place in FR (p. 241): '"We do not know," he answered. "It is largely on
his account that I have come to ask for the counsel of - of those that dwell
in Rivendell. But for to-night let us speak of merrier things."' In FR the
story of Balin was taken up into 'The Council of Elrond' and greatly
enlarged.
Gloin's account of the works of the Dwarves in Dale and under the
Lonely Mountain (FR pp. 241 - 2) is present in the old version.(3) At the
end, when Gloin said: 'You were very fond of Bilbo, weren't you?' Frodo
replied simply 'Yes', and then 'they went on to talk about the old
adventures of Bilbo with the dwarves, in Mirkwood, and among the
Wood-elves, and in the caverns of the Mountain.'
The entrance into the Hall of Fire, and the discovery and recognition
of Bilbo, are already very close to FR (for early references to Bilbo at
Rivendell see pp. 126, 225). The Hall of Fire is said in both texts to be
nearly as large as the 'Hall of Feasting' or 'Great Hall', in the second this
hall 'appeared to have no windows'; and in both there were many fires
burning: Bilbo sat beside the furthest, with his cup and bread on a low
table beside him (in FR there were no tables).
Bilbo says 'I shall have to get that fellow Peregrin to help me' (cf.
p. 369) and Elrond replies that he will have Ethelion (4) found (in Chapter
XI of the 'third phase' Glorfindel calls Trotter Du-finnion, p. 361).
'Messengers were sent to find Bilbo's friend. It was said that he had been
in the kitchens, for his help was as much esteemed by the cooks as by the
poets.' It had been said in the earlier part of the chapter (p. 365) that
Frodo could not see Trotter at the feast, and his absence survived into
FR (p. 243), but with a very different reason for it.
Whatever Bilbo may have had to say of himself is not reported in the
original story. The entire passage (FR pp. 243 - 4) in which Bilbo tells of
his journey to Dale, of his life in Rivendell, and his interest in the Ring -
and the distressing incident when he asks to see it - is absent.
They were so deep in the doings of the Shire that they did not
notice the arrival of another hobbit. For several minutes he stood
by them, looking at them with a smile. Suddenly they looked up.
'Ah, there you are, Peregrin!' said Bilbo. 'Trotter!' said Frodo.
'Both right! ' laughed Trotter.
'Well, that is tiresome of Gandalf! ' exclaimed Frodo. 'I knew
you reminded me of some one, and he laughed at me.(5) Of course,
you remind me of yourself, and of Folco, and of all the Tooks.
You came once to Buckland when I was very small, but I never
quite forgot it, because you talked to Old Rory about lands outside
the Shire, and about Bilbo who you were not allowed to see. I have
wondered what became of you. But I was puzzled by your shoes.
Why do you wear them? '
'I shall not tell you the reason now,' said Trotter quietly.
'No, Frodo, don't ask that yet,' said Bilbo, looking rather
unhappy. 'Come on, Perry! I want your help. This song of mine
has got to be finished this evening.'
At this point, while in the middle of writing the second text, my father
wrote across it: '?? Trotter had better not be a hobbit - but a Ranger,
remainder of Western Men, as originally planned.' Of course, looking
back over the texts from Trotter's first appearance, there is no possibility
that my father had 'originally planned' to make Trotter anything but a
hobbit. The first suggestion that he might not be appears in Queries and
Alterations (p. 223, $6). But by 'originally planned' my father may well
have been thinking no further back than to the drafts for the opening of
the 'Bree' chapter in the third phase (p. 331), where the idea that the
Rangers were Men, 'the last remnant of the kingly people from beyond
the Seas', first emerged, though this was not taken up in the chapter as
actually written at that time. It may be that he had felt for some time
that Trotter should not be a hobbit, but (as he said of the name 'Bingo',
p. 221) he was now too used to the idea to change it. Even now, he did not
follow up his directive, and Trotter remains Peregrin Boffin.
As in FR, Frodo sits alone and falls asleep during the music; but the
song Earendil was a mariner is not present (though the word '? Mes-
senger' written at the top of the page is a hint of it).(6)
He woke to the sound of ringing laughter. There was no longer
any music, but on the edge of his waking sense was the echo of a
voice that had just stopped singing. He looked, and saw that Bilbo
was seated on his stool, set now near to the middle fire, in the
centre of a circle of listeners.
'Come now, tell us, Bilbo!' said one of the Elves, 'which is the
line which Peregrin put in?'
'No! ' laughed Bilbo. 'I leave you to guess - you pride yourselves
on your judgement of words.'
'But it is difficult to discriminate between two hobbits,' they
laughed.
'Nonsense!' said Bilbo. 'But I won't argue the matter. I'm
sleepy, after so much sound and song!' He got up and bowed and
came back beside Frodo.
'Well, that's that,' he said. 'It went off better than I expected. As
a matter of fact, quite a lot of it was Peregrin's.'
'I am sorry I did not hear it,' said Frodo. 'I heard the Elves
laughing as I woke up.'
'Never mind,' said Bilbo. 'You'll hear it again, very likely. Just a
lot of nonsense, anyway. But it is difficult to keep awake here,
until you get used to it - not that hobbits ever acquire the Elves'
appetite for song and poetry and tales of all sorts. They will be
going on for a long while yet.
The words of the chant to Elbereth (identical in both texts) are
different from the form in FR:
Elbereth Gilthoniel sir evrin pennar oriel
dir avos-eithen miriel
bel daurion sel aurinon
pennaros evrin eriol.
The sweet syllables fell like clear jewels of mingled word and
sound, and he halted for a moment looking back.
'That is the opening of the chant to Elbereth,' said Bilbo. 'They
will sing that and other songs of the Blessed Realm many times
tonight.'
Bilbo led Frodo back to his upper room. There they sat for some
while, looking at the bright stars through the window, and talking
softly. They spoke no longer of the small and happy news of the
Shire far away, but of the Elves, and of the wide world, and its
perils, and of the burden and mystery of the Ring.
When Sam came to the door (at the end of the chapter in FR) Bilbo
said:
'Quite right, Sam! Though I never expected to live long enough
to be ordered about by Ham Gamgee's boy. Bless me, I am near
150 and old enough to be your great-grandfather.'
'No sir, and I never expected to be doing it.'
'It is Gandalf's fault, said Frodo. 'He chose Sam to be my
companion in adventure, and Sam takes his task seriously.'
This was replaced at the time of writing by the ending in FR. Bilbo was
in fact 128.
Both texts continue on briefly into what became 'The Council of
Elrond' in FR (the title that my father had given to the 'third phase' text
Chapter XII, p. 362, afterwards called 'Many Meetings', when he
anticipated that it would contain the Council as well as the 'many
meetings' that preceded it).
Frodo awoke early next day, feeling refreshed and well. Sam
brought him breakfast, and would not allow him to get up till he
had eaten it. Then Bilbo and Gandalf carne and talked for a while.
Suddenly a single bell rang out. [All the remainder of the text from
this point was struck out; see p. 399.]
'Bless me! ' said Gandalf. 'The council is in half an hour. That is
the warning. I must be off. Bilbo will bring you to the place, as
soon as you are ready. Sam had better come with you.'
The council was held in a high glade among the trees on the
valley-side far above the house. A falling stream ran at the side of
: the meeting place, and with the trickling and bubbling of the
water was mingled the sound of many birds. There were twelve
?seats of carved stone in a wide circle; and behind them many other
:- smaller seats of wood. The ground was strewn with many red and
yellow leaves, but the trees above were still clothed with fading
green; a clear sky of pale blue hung high above, filled with the
light of morning.
When Bilbo, Frodo and Sam arrived Elrond was already seated,
and beside him, as at the feast, were Gandalf and Glorfindel.
Gloin was there also with [an attendant >] a younger dwarf,
whom Frodo later discovered was Burin son of Balin.' A strange
elf, a messenger from the king of the Wood-elves... Eastern
Mirkwood was seated beside Burin. Trotter (as Frodo continued
to call him instead of Peregrin or the Elvish equivalent Ethelion)
was there, and all the rest of the hobbit party, Merry, Folco, and
Odo. There were besides three other counsellors attendant on
Elrond, one an Elf named Erestor, and two other kinsmen of
Elrond, of that half-elvish folk whom the Elves named the
children of Luthien.(9) And seated alone and silent was a Man of
noble face, but dark and sad.
'This is Boromir,' said Elrond. 'He arrived only yesterday, in
the evening. He comes from far away in the South, and his tidings
may be of use to us.'
It would take long to tell of all that was spoken in that council
under the fair trees of Rivendell. The sun climbed to noon and was
turning westward before all the tidings were recounted. Then
Elves brought food and drink for the company. The sun had fallen
low and its slanting light was red in the valley before an end was
made of the debate and they rose and returned down the long path
to the house.
Both texts end at this point. At the end of the second my father wrote:
'(The Council must be behind closed doors. Frodo invited to presence of
Elrond. Tidings of the world. They decide Ring must be destroyed.)'
While Trotter is Peregrin Boffin, and the long-awaited 'recognition'
between Trotter and Frodo takes place, Odo is still present: but in the
papers dated August 1939, where the identification of Trotter with
Peregrin Boffin first appears, Odo appears to be emphatically aban-
doned. Once again, Odo seems to have proved unsinkable, even though,
as discussed on p. 375, Folco had effectively assumed his character. - Of
course, these 'Rivendell' manuscripts may very well belong to the same
time, and a step-by-step reconstruction cannot be expected. In any case,
the removal of Odo and (much more) the identity of Trotter were
questions long revolved, and such notes as 'Trotter had better not be a
hobbit' or 'Odo must be cut out' are rather the traces of a long debate
than a series of clear-cut, successive decisions.
The text just given was continued in a further manuscript of different
form, in which appears the first complete version of the Council of
Elrond; but before going on to this, two sides of a single isolated page
seem undoubtedly to represent my father's first expressed ideas for the
Council. It was written in pencil so faint and rapid that it would be
largely illegible had my father not gone over it in ink; and he himself
could not be sure in places of what he had written, but had to make
guesses at words, marking them with queries. In representing this
extraordinarily interesting text I give these guessed words of his in italic
within brackets. At the head of the page is an isolated direction that the
'Weathertop business' must be 'simplified'. It would be interesting to
know what he had in mind: the only 'complication' that was, in the event,
removed was the disappearance of Odo, and it may be that this is what he
was referring to. It is clear from the first line of this text that the 'third
phase' story of Odo was present.
Ring Wraiths. They will get (no P new?) horses (in time ?). Odo's
capturing explained.
Ring offered to Elrond. He refuses. 'It is a peril to all posses-
sors: more to myself than all others. It is fate that the hobbits
should rid the world of it.'
'What will then become of the other rings?' 'They will lose their
power. But we must sacrifice that power in order to destroy the
Lord. As long as anyone in the world holds the Ruling Ring there
is a chance for him to get it back again. Two things can be done.
We can send it West, or we can destroy it. If we had sent it West
long ago that would have been well enough. But now the power of
the Lord is grown too great, and he is fully awake. It would be too
perilous - and his war would come over the Shire and destroy the
Havens.'(10) [In the margin is written Radagast.]
They decide that the Ring must be taken to the Fiery Mountain.
How? - it can hardly be reached except by passing over the
borders of the Land of Mordor. Bilbo? No - 'It would kill me now.
My years are stretched, and I shall live some time yet. But I have
no longer strength for the Ring.'
Frodo volunteers to go.
Who shall go with him? Gandalf. Trotter. Sam. Odo. Folco.
Merry. (7) Glorfindel and Frar [written beneath: Burin] son
of Balin.
South along mountains. Over the Red Pass down the Red way to
the Great River.
'Beware!' said Gandalf 'of the Giant Treebeard, who haunts
the Forest between the River and the South Mts.' Fangorn?
After a time of rest they set out. Bilbo bids farewell; gives him
Sting and his armour. The others are armed.
Snow storm.
The reverse of the page, while not continuous with the first side, was
certainly written at the same time, and is again in ink over faint pencil:
First he was asked to give as complete an account of the journey
as possible. The story of their dealings with Tom Bombadil
seemed to interest Elrond and Gandalf most.
Much that was said was now known already to Frodo. Gandalf
spoke long, making clear to all the history of the Ring, and the
reason why the Dark Lord so greatly desired it. 'For not only does
he desire to discover and control the lost rings, those of the Elves
and dwarves - but without the Ring he is still shorn of much
power. He put into that Ring much of his own power, and without
it is weaker than of old [and obliged to lean more on servants]. Of
old he could guess or half see what were the hidden purposes of the
Elflords, but now he is blind as far as they are concerned. He
cannot make rings until he has regained the master ring. And also
his mind is moved by revenge and hatred of the Elves and Men
that (disputed him?).
'Now is the time for true speaking. Tell me, Elrond, if the Three
Rings still are? And tell me, Gloin, if you know it, whether any of
the Seven remain?'
'Yes, the Three still are,' said Elrond, 'and it would be ill indeed
if Sauron should discover where they be, or have power over their
rulers; for then perhaps his shadow would stretch even to the
Blessed Realm.'
'Yes! Some of the Seven remain,' said Gloin. 'I do not know
whether I have the right to reveal this, for Dain did not give me
orders concerning it. But Thrain of old had one that descended
from his sires. We do not now know where it is. We think it was
taken from him, ere you found him in the dungeons long ago [or
maybe it was lost in Moria].' Yet of late we have received secret
messages from Mordor demanding all such rings as we have or
know of. But there are others still in our power. Dain has one - and
on that his fortune is founded: his age, his wealth, and (....... ?)
future. Yet of late we have received secret messages from Mordor
bidding us yield up the rings to the Master, and threatening us and
all our allies of Dale with war.(13) It is on this account that I am now
come to Rivendell. For the messages have asked often concerning
one Bilbo, and offered us peace if we would obtain from him
(willing or unwilling) his ring. That they said they would accept in
lieu of all. I now understand why. But our hearts are troubled, for
we guess that King Brand's heart is afraid, and that the Dark Lord
will (move?) eastern men to some evil. Already there is war upon
the (southern?) borders. And (of course that matter whereof?) I
seek counsel, the disappearance of Balin and his people, is now
(revealed?) as part of the same evil.'
Boromir the (lord? Land?) of Ond. These men are besieged by
wild men out of the East. They send to the (F..... ?) of Balin of
Moria. He promised assistance.
Here this text ends. Against the passage beginning '"Yes! Some of the
Seven remain," said Gloin' my father wrote: 'No! This won't do -
otherwise the dwarves would have been more suspicious of Bilbo.'
In this text, again, there is an apparent contradiction of the 'August
1939 papers: Bilbo gives his mailcoat to Frodo at Rivendell, and had
therefore taken it with him when he left Bag End - a story that first
appears under the date August 1939' (p. 371, $2), whereas it is also
proposed there that the 'Odo-story' be abandoned - a story that is
expressly present here. - The Fellowship of the Ring is to consist of five
'Shire hobbits', Frodo, Sam, Merry, Folco, and Odo, with Trotter,
Gandalf, Glorfindel, and the dwarf Frar (> Burin).
Whatever the relative age of these texts, and they can scarcely be far
apart, there have now appeared the younger Dwarf, Balin's son, who had
come with Gloin - precursor of Gimli Gloin's son in LR; the Elf from
Mirkwood, precursor of Legolas; Erestor, counsellor of Elrond; two
kinsmen of Elrond; and Boromir - so named unhesitatingly from the
start (14) - from the Land of Ond far in the South. The Land of Ond is
named in an outline dated August 1939 (p. 381). Treebeard is no longer
placed in 'the Forest of Neldoreth' (p. 384), but in 'the Forest between
the [Great] River and the South Mountains' - the first mention of the
mountains that would afterwards be Ered Nimrais, the White Moun-
tains; and Gandalf warns against him (as well he might, having been his
captive, 'in Fangorn', p. 363).
The passage concerning the Three Rings of the Elves and the Seven
Rings of the Dwarves is to be compared with a passage in the third phase
version of 'Ancient History', p. 320, where Gandalf says that he does not
know what has become of 'the Three Rings of Earth, Sea, and Sky', but
believes that 'they have long been carried far over the Great Sea' - which
is to be associated no doubt with Elrond's words in the present text: 'it
would be ill indeed if Sauron should discover where they be, or have
power over their rulers; for then perhaps his shadow would stretch even
to the Blessed Realm.' In the same passage of 'Ancient History' Gandalf
says that 'the foundation of each of the Seven Hoards of the dwarves of
old was a golden ring', and that it is said that all the Seven Rings perished
in the fire of the dragons: 'Yet that account, maybe, is not wholly true.'
With the menacing messages to King Dain out of Mordor here cf.
Queries and Alterations (p. 226, $ 11 ): 'The dwarves might have received
threatening messages from Mordor - for the Lord suspected that the One
Ring was in their hoards.' In the same note it is said that 'after a time no
word was heard of them [Balin and his companions]. Dain feared the
Dark Lord'; so also Gloin says here that 'the disappearance of Balin and
his people is now revealed as part of the same evil.' At this time the story
was that Sauron demanded the return of the Rings which the Dwarves
still possessed - or Bilbo's Ring 'in lieu of all'; in FR (p. 254) they were
offered the return of three of the ancient Rings of the Dwarves if they
could obtain Bilbo's Ring.
The reference to Thrain, father of Thorin Oakenshield, in the dun-
geons of the Necromancer, where Gandalf found him, goes back to The
Hobbit (Chapter I); but the story emerges here that he possessed one
of the Rings of the Dwarves, and that it was taken from him after
his capture (see FR pp. 281 - 2, and LR Appendix A III, pp. 353 - 4,
357 - 8).
The 'Many Meetings' text (extant in two forms) given on pp. 391 ff.
continued into the beginning of an account of the Council of Elrond, held
in the open in a glade above the house; but from the words '"Bless me!"
said Gandalf. "The council is in half an hour"' (p. 395) my father struck
it through, and added the note at the end saying that the Council must be
held 'behind closed doors' (p. 396). A new manuscript now begins,
taking up at '"Bless me!" said Gandalf', and in this is found the first
complete narrative of the deliberations of the Council. This was origin-
ally paginated 'XII' with page-numbers consecutive from 'Suddenly a
single bell rang out' (p. 395). As noticed before, my father at this stage
saw all the meetings and discussions at Rivendell as constituting a single
chapter, and had given the number and title 'XII. The Council of
Elrond' to the third phase chapter which begins with Frodo waking up at
Rivendell (p. 362).
The manuscript is partly in ink and partly in pencil, but though very
rough is legible throughout. Being in the first stage of composition it is
full of alterations, phrases or whole passages constantly rewritten in the
act of composition; and many other corrections, made to passages which
at the time of writing had been allowed to stand, are probably pretty well
contemporary. In general I give the text in its final form, but with more
important changes indicated.
'Bless me!' said Gandalf. 'That is the warning bell for the
council. We had better make our way there at once.'
Bilbo and Frodo (and Sam [added: uninvited]) followed him
down many stairs and passages towards the western wing of the
house, until they came to the porch where Frodo had found his
friends the evening before. But now the light of a clear autumn
morning was glowing in the valley. The sky was high and cool
above the hill-tops; and in the bright air below a few golden leaves
were fluttering from the trees. The noise of bubbling waters came
up from the foaming river-bed. Birds were singing and a whole-
some peace lay on the land, and to Frodo his dangerous flight and
the rumours of the dark shadow growing in the world outside
seemed now only like memories of a troubled dream.
But the faces that were turned to meet him were grave.' Elrond
was there and several others were already seated about him in
silence. Frodo saw Glorfindel and Gloin, and Trotter (sitting in a
corner).
Elrond welcomed Frodo and drew him to a seat at his knee and
presented him to the company, saying: 'Here my friends is the
hobbit who by fortune and courage has brought the Ring to
Rivendell. This is Frodo son of Drogo.' He then pointed out and
named those whom Frodo had not seen before. There was a
younger dwarf at Gloin's side, [Burin the son of Balin )] his son
Gimli.(16) There were three counsellors of Elrond's own household:
Erestor his kinsman (a man of the same half-elvish folk known
as the children of Luthien), " and beside him two elflords of
Rivendell. There was a strange elf clad in green and brown,
Galdor, a messenger from the King of the Wood-elves in Eastern
Mirkwood.(18) And seated a little apart was a tall man of noble face,
but dark and sad.
'Here,' said Elrond, turning to Gandalf, 'is Boromir from the
Land of Ond, far in the South. He arrived in the night, and brings
tidings that must be considered.'
It would take long to tell of all the things that were spoken
in that council. Many of them were known already to Frodo.
Gandalf spoke long, making clear to those who did not already
know the tale in full the ancient history of the Ring, and the
reasons why the Dark Lord so greatly desired it. Bilbo then gave
an account of the finding of the Ring in the cave of the Misty
Mountains, and Trotter described his search for Gollum that he
had made with Gandalf's help, and told of his perilous adventures
in Mordor. Thus it was that Frodo learned how Trotter had
tracked Gollum as he wandered southwards, through Fangorn
Forest, and past the Dead Marshes,(19) until he had himself been
caught and imprisoned by the Dark Lord. 'Ever since I have worn
shoes,' said Trotter with a shudder, and though he said no more
Frodo knew that he had been tortured and his feet hurt in some
way. But he had been rescued by Gandalf and saved from death.(20)
In this way the tale was brought slowly down to the spring
morning when Gandalf had revealed the history of the Ring to
Frodo. Then Frodo was summoned to take up the tale, and he
gave a full account of all his adventures from the moment of his
flight from Hobbiton. Step by step they questioned him, and
every detail that he could tell concerning the Black Riders was
examined.(21)
Elrond was also deeply interested in the events in the Old Forest
and on the Barrow-downs. 'The Barrow-wights I knew of,' he
said, 'for they are closely akin to the Riders; and I marvel at your
escape from them. But never before have I heard tell of this
strange Bombadil. I would like to know more of him. Did you
know of him, Gandalf?'
'Yes,' answered the wizard. 'And I sought him out at once, as
soon as I found that the hobbits had disappeared from Buckland.
When I had chased the Riders from Crickhollow I turned back to
visit him. I daresay he would have kept the travellers longer in his
home, if he had known that I was near. But I am not sure of it: he
is a strange creature, and follows his own counsels, which few can
fathom.'(23)
'Could we not even now send messages to him and obtain his
help?' asked Erestor. 'It seems that he has a power even over the
Ring.'
'That is not quite the way of it,' said Gandalf. 'The Ring has no
power over him or for him: it can neither harm nor serve him: he is
his own master. But he has no power over it, and he cannot alter
the Ring itself, not break its power over others. And I think that
the mastery of Tom Bombadil is seen only on his own ground -
from which he has never stepped within my memory.'(24)
'But on his own ground nothing seems to dismay him,' said
Erestor. 'Would he not perhaps take the Ring and keep it there for
ever harmless?'
'He would, perhaps, if all the free folk of the world begged him
to do so,' said Gandalf. 'But he would not do so willingly. For it
would only postpone the evil day. In time the Lord of the Ring
would find out its hiding-place, and in the end he would come in
person.(25) I doubt whether Tom Bombadil, even on his own
ground, could withstand that power; but I am sure that we should
not leave him to face it. Besides, he lives too far away and the
Ring has come from his land only at great hazard. It would have
to pass through greater danger to return. If the Ring is to
be hidden - surely it is here in Rivendell that it should be kept:
if Elrond has might to withstand the coming of Sauron in all his
power?'
'I have not,' said Elrond.
'In that case,' said Erestor,(26) 'there are but two things for us to
attempt: we may send the Ring West over the Sea, or we may try
to destroy it. If the Ring had gone to the West long ago that would
have perhaps been well. But now the power of the Lord is grown
great again, and he is awake, and he knows where the Ring is. The
journey to the Havens would be fraught with the greatest peril. On
the other hand we cannot by our own skill or strength destroy the
Ring; and the journey to the Fiery Mountain would seem still
more perilous, leading as it does towards the stronghold of the
Enemy. Who can read this riddle for us?'
'None here can do so,' said Elrond gravely.(27) 'None can foretell
which road leads to safety, if that is what you mean. But I can
choose which road it is right to take, as it seems to me - and indeed
the choice is clear. The Ring must be sent to the Fire. The peril is
greater on the western road; for my heart tells me that is the road
which Sauron will expect us to take when he hears what has
befallen. And if we take it he will pursue us swiftly and surely,
since we must make for the Havens beyond the Towers. Those he
would certainly destroy, even if he found us not, and there would
be thereafter no way of escape for the Elves from the darkening
world.'
'And the Shire too would be destroyed,' said Trotter in a low
voice, looking towards Bilbo and Frodo.
'But on the other road,' said Elrond, 'with speed and skill the
travellers might go far unmarked. I do not say there is great hope
in the quest; but only in this way could any lasting good be
achieved. In the Ring is hidden much of the ancient power of
Sauron. Even though he does not hold it that power still lives and
works for him and towards him. As long as the Ring lives on land
or sea he will not be overcome. While the Ring lasts he will grow,
and have hope, and the fear lest the Ring come into his hand again
will ever weigh on the world. War will never cease while that fear
lives, and all Men will be turned to him.'
'I do not understand this,' said Boromir. 'Why should the Elves
and their friends not use the Great Ring to defeat Sauron? And I
say that all men will not join him: the men of Ond will never
submit.'
'Never is a long word, O Boromir,' said Elrond. 'The men of
Ond are valiant and still faithful amid a host of foes; but valour
alone cannot withstand Sauron for ever. Many of his servants are
as valiant. But as for the Ruling Ring - it belongs to Sauron and is
filled with his spirit. Its might is too great for those of lesser
strength, as Bilbo and Frodo have found, and in the end it must
lead them captive to him if they keep it. For those who have power
of their own, its danger is far greater. With it they might per-
chance overthrow the Dark Lord, but they would set themselves
in his throne. Then they would become as evil as he, or worse. For
nothing is evil in the beginning. Even Sauron was not so. I dare
not take the Ring to wield it.'
'Nor I,' said Gandalf.
'But is it not true, as I have heard said, 0 Elrond,' said Boromir,
'that the Elves keep yet and wield Three Rings, and yet these too
came from Sauron in the ancient days? And the dwarves, too, had
rings, it is said. Tell me, Gloin, if you know it, whether any of the
Seven Rings remain?'
'I do not know,' said Gloin. 'It was said in secret that Thrain
(father of Thror father of Thorin (28) who fell in battle) possessed
one that had descended from his sires. Some said it was the last.
But where it is no dwarf now knows. We think maybe it was taken
from him, ere Gandalf found him in the dungeons of Mordor long
ago (29) - or maybe it was lost in Moria. Yet of late we have received
secret messages from Mordor offering us rings again. It was partly
on this account that I came to Rivendell; for the messages asked
concerning one Bilbo, and commanded us to obtain from him
(willing or unwilling) the ring that he possessed. For this ring we
were offered [seven >] three such as our fathers had of old. Even
for news of where he might be found we were offered friendship
for ever and great wealth.> Our hearts are troubled, for we
perceive that King Brand in Dale is afraid, and if we do not answer
Sauron will move other men to evil against him. Already there are
threats of war upon the south.'
'It would seem that the Seven Rings are lost or have returned to
their Lord,' said Boromir. 'What of the Three?'
'The Three Rings remain still,' said Elrond. 'They have con-
ferred great power on the Elves, but they have never yet availed
them in their strife with Sauron. For they came from Sauron
himself, and can give no skill or knowledge that he did not already
possess at their making. And to each race the rings of the Lord
bring such powers as each desires and is capable of wielding. The
Elves desired not strength or domination or riches, but subtlety of
craft and lore, and knowledge of the secrets of the world's being.
These things they have gained, yet with sorrow. But they will turn
to evil if Sauron regains the Ruling Ring; for then all that the Elves
have devised or learned with the power of the rings will become
his, as was his purpose.'
Against this passage concerning the Three Rings of the Elves my
father wrote later; 'Elfrings made by Elves for themselves. The 7 and 9
were made by Sauron - to cheat men and dwarves. They originally
accepted them because they believed they were elfrings.' And he also
wrote, separately but against the same passage: 'Alter this: make the
Elfrings their own and Sauron's made in answer.' This is the first
appearance of this central idea concerning the origin and nature of the
Rings; but since it does not emerge in actual narrative until considerably
later these notes cannot be contemporary with the text. - In FR it is
Gloin, not Boromir, who raises the question of the Three Rings of the
Elves; but he also, like Boromir in the present text, asserts that they were
made by the Dark Lord. Elrond corrects Gloin's error; yet earlier in the
Council (FR p. 255) Elrond has expressly said that Celebrimbor made
the Three, and that Sauron forged the One in secret to be their master.
Gloin's assertion (FR p.282) is thus not appropriate, and is probably an
echo of my father's original conception of the Rings. The text continues:
'What then would happen, if the Ruling Ring were destroyed?'
asked Boromir.
'The Elves would not lose what they have already won,'
answered Elrond; 'but the Three Rings would lose all power
thereafter.'
'Yet that loss,' said Glorfindel, 'all Elves would gladly suffer, if
by it the power of Sauron might be broken.'
'Thus we return again to the point whence we started,' said
Erestor. 'The Ring should be destroyed; but we cannot destroy it,
save by the perilous journey to the Fire. What strength or cunning
have we for that task?'
'In this task it is plain that great power will not avail,' said
Elrond. 'It must be attempted by the weak. Such is the way of
things. In this great matter fate seems already to have pointed the
way for us.'
'Very well, very well, Master Elrond!' said Bilbo suddenly.(31)
'Say no more! It is plain at least what you are pointing at. Bilbo the
hobbit started this affair, and Bilbo had better finish it, or himself.
I was very comfortable here, and getting on with my book. If you
want to know, I am just writing an ending for it. I had thought of
putting "and he lived happily ever afterward to the end of his
days": which is a good ending, and none the worse for having been
used before. Now I shall have to alter that - it does not look like
being true, and anyway there will have to be several more
chapters, even if I don't write them myself. It is a frightful
nuisance! When ought I to start? '
Elrond smiled, and Gandalf laughed loudly. 'Of course,' said
the wizard, 'if you had really started the affair, my dear Bilbo, you
would be expected to finish it. But starting is a strong word. I have
often tried to suggest to you that you only came in (accidentally, as
you might say) in the middle of a long story, that was not made up
for your sake only. That is, of course, true enough of all heroes and
all adventures, but never mind that now. As for you, if you want
my opinion once more, I should say that your part is finished -
except as a recorder. Finish your book and leave the ending! But
get ready to write a sequel, when they come back.'
Bilbo laughed in his turn. 'I have never known you to give
pleasant advice before, Gandalf,' he said, 'or to tell me to do what I
really wanted to do. Since all your unpleasant advice has usually
been good, I wonder if this is not bad. Yet it is true that my years
are stretched and getting thin, and I do not think I have strength
for the Ring. But tell me: who do you mean by "they"?'
'The adventurers who are sent with the Ring.'
'Exactly, and who are they to be? That seems to me precisely
what this council now has to decide.'
There was a long silence. Frodo glanced round at all the faces,
but no one looked at him - except Sam; in whose eyes there was a
strange mixture of hope and fear. All the others sat as if in deep
thought with their eyes closed or upon the ground. A great dread
fell on Frodo, and he felt an overmastering longing to remain at
peace by Bilbo's side in Rivendell.
These words stand at the foot of a page. The next page, beginning 'At
last with an effort he spoke', continues only a brief way, and was replaced
by another beginning with the same words. I give both forms.
At last with an effort he spoke. 'If this task is fated to fall to the
weak,' he said, 'I will attempt it. But I shall need the help of the
strong and the wise.'
'I think, Frodo,' said Elrond, looking keenly at him, 'that this
task is appointed for you. But it is very well that you should offer
yourself unbidden. All the help that we can contrive shall be
yours.'
'But you won't send him alone, surely, master!' cried Sam.
'No indeed,' said Elrond, turning to him. 'You at least shall go -
since you are here although I do not think you were summoned. It
seems difficult to separate you from your master Frodo.'
Sam subsided, but whispered to Frodo: 'How far is this Moun-
tain? A nice pickle we have landed ourselves in, Mr. Frodo!'(31)
'Taking care of hobbits is not a task that everyone would like,'
said Gandalf, 'but I am used to it. I suggest Frodo and his Sam,
Merry, Faramond, and myself. That is five. And Glorfindel, if he
will come and lend us the wisdom of the Elves: we shall need it.
That is six.'
'And Trotter!' said Peregrin from the corner. 'That is seven,
and a fitting number. The Ring-bearer will have good company.'
Here this version of the passage ends. Pencilled beneath is an un-
finished sentence: 'The choice is good,' said Elrond. 'Though
Other very rough pencillings read: 'Alter this. Hobbits only, including
Trotter. Gandalf as [?guide] in early stages. Gandalf says he will go all
way? No Glorfindel.' And below these notes, the single isolated name
Boromir. - On the back of this page is a remarkable sketch of events to
come; for this see p. 410.
The replacement page treats the selection of the Company quite
differently:
At last with an effort he spoke. 'I will take the Ring,' he said.
'Though I don't know the way.'
Elrond looked keenly at him. 'If I understand all the tale that I
have heard,' he said, 'I think that this task is appointed for you,
Frodo, and that if you do not find the way, no other will.'
'But you won't send him off alone surely, master!' cried Sam,
unable to contain himself.
'No indeed!' said Elrond, turning towards him with a smile.
'You at least shall go with him, since it is hardly possible to
separate you from him - even when he is summoned to a secret
council and you are not.'
Sam subsided, but whispered to Frodo: 'How far is this Moun-
tain? A nice pickle we have landed ourselves in, Mr. Frodo!'
'When shall I start?' asked Frodo.
'First you shall rest and recover full strength,' answered Elrond,
guessing his mind. 'Rivendell is a fair place, and we will not send
. you away, until you know it better. And meanwhile we will make
plans for your guidance.'
Later in the afternoon of the council Frodo was strolling in the
woods with his friends. Merry and Faramond were indignant
when they heard that Sam had crept into the council, and been
chosen as Frodo's companion. 'Not the only one!' said Merry. 'I
have come so far and I am not going to be left behind now.
Someone with intelligence ought to be in the party.'
'I don't see that your inclusion will help much in that way,' said
Faramond. 'But, of course, you must go, and I must too. We
hobbits must stick together. We seem to have become mighty
important these days. It would be a bit of an eye-opener for the
people back in the Shire! '
'I doubt it!' said Frodo. 'Hardly any of them would believe a
word of it. I wish I was one of them, and back in Hobbiton.
Anyone who wants can have all my importance.'
'Quite accidental! Quite accidental, as I keep on telling you,'
said a voice behind them. They turned to see Gandalf hurrying
round a bend in the path. 'Hobbit voices carry a long way,' he said.
'All right in Rivendell (or I hope so); but I should not discuss
matters so loud outside the house. Your importance is accidental,
Frodo - by which I mean, someone else might have been chosen
and done as well - but it is real. No one else can have it now. So be
careful - you can't be too careful! As for you two, if I let you come,
you'll have to do just what you are told. And I shall make other
arrangements for the supply of intelligence.'
'Ah, now we know who really is important,' laughed Merry.
'Gandalf is never in doubt about that, and does not let anyone else
doubt it. So you are making all the arrangements already, are
you? '
'Of course!' said Gandalf. 'But if you hobbits wish to stick
together I shall raise no objection. You two and Sam can go - if
you are really willing. Trotter would also be useful (33) - he has
journeyed South before. Boromir may well join the company,
since your road leads through his own land. That will be about as
large a party as will be at all safe.'
'Who is to be the brains of the party?' asked Frodo. 'Trotter, I
suppose. Boromir is only one of the Big Folk, and they are not as
wise as hobbits.'
'Boromir has more than strength and valour,' answered
Gandalf. 'He comes of an ancient race that the people of the Shire
have not seen, at least not since days that they have forgotten.
And Trotter has learned many things in his wanderings that are
not known in the Shire.(34) They both know something of the road:
but more than that will be needed. I think I shall have to come
with you! '
So great was the delight of the hobbits at this announcement
that Gandalf took off his hat and bowed. 'I am used to taking care
of hobbits,' he said, 'when they wait for me and don't run off on
their own. But I only said: I think I shall have to come. It may only
be for part of the way. We have not made any definite plans yet.
Very likely we shan't be able to make any.'
'How soon do you think we shall start?' asked Frodo.
'I don't know. It depends on what news we get. Scouts will have
to go out and find out what they can - especially about the Black
Riders.'
'I thought they were all destroyed in the flood!' said Merry.
'You cannot destroy the Ringwraiths so easily,' said Gandalf.
'The power of their master is in them, and they stand or fall by
him. They were unhorsed, and unmasked, and will be less dan-
gerous for a while; yet it would be well to find out if we can what
they are doing. In time they will get new steeds and fresh disguise.
But for the present you should put all troubles out of your
thoughts, if you can.'
The hobbits did not find this easy to do. They continued to
think and talk mainly of the journey and the perils ahead of them.
Yet such was the virtue of the land of Elrond that in all their
thoughts there came no shadow of fear. Hope and courage grew in
their hearts, and strength in their bodies. In every meal, and in
every word and song they found delight. The very breathing of the
air became a joy no less sweet because the time of their stay was
short.
The days slipped by, though autumn was fast waning, and each
morning dawned bright and fair. But slowly the golden light grew
silver, and the leaves fell from the trees. The winds blew cold from
the Misty Mountains in the East. The Hunters' Moon grew round
in the evening sky, putting to flight the lesser stars, and glittering
in the falls and pools of the River. But low in the South one star
shone red. Every night as the moon waned again it shone brighter.
Frodo could see it through his window deep in the sky, burning
like a wrathful eye watching, and waiting for him to set out.
At the end of the text my father wrote: 'New Moon Oct. 24. Hunters'
Moon Full Nov. 8'. See p. 434, note 19.
The manuscript is interrupted here by a heading, 'The Ring Goes
South', but without new chapter number, and what follows was written
continuously with what precedes.
It will be seen that by far the greater part of the content of the 'The
Council of Elrond' in FR is absent; but while the past and present texture
of the world is so much thinner in the original form, the discussion of
what to do with the Ring is in its essential pattern of argument already
present.
Gandalf says that the road to the Fiery Mountain lies through
Boromir's land. It may well be that at this stage the geography of the
. lands south and east of the Misty Mountains was still fairly sketchy, even
though Fangorn Forest, the Dead Marshes, the Land of Ond (Gondor),
and 'the South Mountains' have appeared in name (pp. 397 - 8, 401).
Further aspects of this question appear in the next chapter.
It is curious that although Elrond says at the outset that Boromir
brings tidings that must be considered, we are not told what these tidings
were. In the original draft for the Council (p. 398) it is said that the men
of Ond 'are besieged by wild men out of the East'; and in the text just
given (p. 403) Elrond says that they are 'still faithful amid a host of foes'.
Odo Bolger has at long last disappeared (at least by that name); and
Folco has been renamed Faramond. That name has appeared in the
papers dated August 1939, but there it was proposed for Frodo himself
(p. 373). The Fellowship of the Ring now changes again, and not for the
last time: as may readily be supposed, the achievement of the final
composition of the 'Nine Walkers' caused my father great difficulty. In
the first draft for the Council of Elrond (p. 397) there were to be:
Gandalf. Trotter. Frodo. Sam. Merry. Folco. Odo. Glorfindel. Burin
son of Balin. (9)
In the rejected page of the text just given (p. 406) the Company becomes:
Gandalf. Trotter. Frodo. Sam. Merry. Faramond. Glorfindel. (7)
A note to this page proposes that the Company consist only of hobbits,
with Gandalf at least at first, but without Glorfindel. In the replacement
text (p.408) Gandalf suggests:
Gandalf. Trotter. Frodo. Sam. Merry. Faramond. Boromir. (p)
- and this was indeed the composition in the original narrative of the
southward journey as far as Moria.
The continuation of the story in the original manuscript ('The Ring
Goes South') is given in the next chapter; but before concluding this,
there must be given the remarkable outline of future events found on the
back of a rejected page of the text of the Council of Elrond (see p.406).
This clearly belongs in time with the manuscript in which it is included,
In the outline of the further course of the story dated August 1939
(p. 381, $9) there is no suggestion of the reappearance of Gollum before
Mordor is reached; and the reference in this one to Frodo's hearing the
patter of Gollum's feet in the Mines shows that it preceded the first draft
of the Moria chapter.
Gollum must reappear at or after Moria. Frodo hears patter.
Fangorn Forest. In some way - hears voice, or sees something
off path, or? alarmed by Gollum - Frodo must get separated from
the rest.
Fangorn is an evergreen (oak holly?) forest. Trees of vast
height. (Beleghir [pencilled above: Anduin] Great River divides
into many channels.) Say 500 - 1000 feet. It runs right up to the
[Blue >] Black Mountains, which are not very high (run NEN -
SWW [i.e. North-east by North - South-west by West]) but very
steep on N. side.
If Treebeard comes in at all - let him be kindly and rather good?
About 50 feet high with barky skin. Hair and beard rather like
twigs. Clothed in dark green like a mail of short shining leaves. He
has a castle in the Black Mountains and many thanes and
followers. They look like young trees [? when] they stand.
Make Frodo be terrified of Gollum after a meeting in which
Gollum pretended to make friends, but tried to strangle Frodo in
his sleep and steal the Ring. Treebeard finds him lost and carries
him up into the Black Mountains. It is only here that Frodo finds
he is friendly.
Treebeard brings him on the way to Ond. His scouts report that
Ond is besieged, and that Trotter and four [written above: 3?]
others have been captured. Where is Sam? (Sam is found in the
Forest. He had refused to go on without Frodo and had remained
looking for him.)
The tree-giants assail the besiegers and rescue Trotter &c. and
raise siege.
(If this plot is used it will be better to have no Boromir in party.
Substitute Gimli? son of Gloin - who was killed in Moria. But
Frodo can bear messages from Boromir to his father the K[ing] of
Ond.)
Next stage - they set out for the Fire Mountain. They have to
skirt Mordor on its west edge.
In this brief sketch we see the very starting-point, in written expres-
sion, of two fundamental 'moments' in the narrative of The Lord of the
Rings: the separation of Frodo from the Company (subsequently re-
joined by Sam), and the assault by the 'tree-giants' of Fangorn on the
enemies of Gondor; but such narrative frame as they were given here was
entirely ephemeral. We meet also a further early image of Giant Tree-
beard: still of vast height, as in the text given on pp. 382 - 4, where his
voice came down to Frodo 'out of the tree-top', but no longer hostile, the
captor of Gandalf (p. 363), 'pretending to be friendly but really in league
with the enemy' (p. 384). Boromir is now said to be the son of the King
of Ond; but the death of Gimli in Moria was an idea never further devel-
oped. Here is the first appearance of an Elvish name, Beleghir, of the
Great River, which flowed through Fangorn Forest (see p. 410). The
Forest 'runs right up to the [Blue >] Black Mountains'; cf. the outline for
the Council of Elrond (p. 397), in which Gandalf says that Giant Tree-
beard 'haunts the Forest between the River and the South Mountains'.
But of Lothlorien and Rohan there is as yet not a hint.
NOTES.
1. The last sheet of the original chapter (see p. 213) had ended with
the words 'a strong king whose realm included Esgaroth, and much
land to the south of the great falls' at the foot of the page (numbered
'IX.8'), and the reverse was left blank. The first version of the
continuation was written out (in a rapid scribble in ink) indepen-
dently of the old text; the second, also very rough and nearly all in
pencil, starts on the unused verso side of 'IX.8', on which however
my father wrote in preparation 'IX.9', although at that time he did
not use the page. When he returned to it later he did not change the
chapter-number but continued the numeration 'IX.10' etc.; this
however was mere absentmindedness, since the chapter could not
possibly at this time still be numbered 'IX'.
2. The reference is to the end of The Hobbit; cf. p. 15 and note 3.
3. In the first version Gloin does not admit to any falling short of the
skill of the forefathers: 'He began to speak of new inventions and of
the great works at which the folk of the Mountain were now
labouring; of armour of surpassing strength and beauty, swords
more keen and strong... - The sentence You should see the
waterways of Dale, Frodo, and the fountains and the pools!' goes
back to the first draft; in FR (p. 242) the word 'mountains' is an
obvious error which has never been corrected.
4. This name is found only in the first of the two texts, but it appears
later on in the second (p. 395).
5. Cf. pp. 211, 214, 363. - Peregrin disappeared out of the Shire when
he was 33, at which time Frodo was only two years old (see p. 387,
note g).
6. When my father wrote this passage he evidently had in mind, at least
as one possibility, a comic song, received with the 'ringing laughter'
that wakened Frodo; for at the top of the page he wrote 'Troll Song'
- a passing idea before it was given far more appositely to Sam in the
Trollshaws. But he also wrote 'Let B[ilbo] sing Tinuviel', and the
word '? Messenger'. This is a reference to the poem Errantry
(published in The Oxford Magazine 9 November 1933, and with
many further changes in The Adventures of Tom Bombadil ( 1962)).
Bilbo's song Earendil was a mariner derived (in a sense) from
Errantry, and the earliest text of it still begins:
There was a merry messenger,
a passenger, a mariner,
he built a boat and gilded her
and silver oars he fashion d her...
7. In the first text the dwarf with Gloin is named Frar; in the margin is
pencilled Burin son of Balin. Frar appears also in the outline for the
Council of Elrond on p. 397, again replaced by Burin.
8. The presence of an Elf of Mirkwood was an addition to the second
text.
9. As written, the first text read here: 'two of Elrond's own kinsfolk the
Pereldar or halfelven folk...' Pereldar was struck out, probably at
once. In the Quenta Silmarillion the Pereldar or 'Half-eldar' are the
Danas (Green-elves): V.215. The Danas were also called 'the
Lovers of Luthien' (ibid.). In LR (Appendix A I (i)) Elros and
Elrond are called Peredhil 'Half-elven'; an earlier name for them was
Peringol, Peringiul (V.152).
10. The Grey Havens are first named in the third phase version of
'Ancient History', p. 319.
The square brackets are in the original.
12. As note r r.
13. The text stands thus, with two passages both beginning 'Yet of
late we have received secret messages from Mordor', but neither
rejected.
14. The name Boromir of the second son of Bor, killed in the Battle of
Unnumbered Tears, had appeared in the later Annals of Beleriand
and in the Quenta Silmarillion (V. I34, 287, 310). For the
etymology of the name see V.353, 373.
15. This sentence is a subsequent correction of 'But the faces of those
that were seated in the room were grave.' In a rejected opening of the
text Gandalf says: 'We had better make our way to Elrond's
chamber at once', and in the western wing of the house he knocks at
a door and enters 'a small room, the western side of which opened
onto a porch beyond which the ground fell sheer to the foaming
river.' In the revised opening as printed the Council of Elrond takes
place in the porch (as in FR, p. 252), though it was still described
here as a 'room', until this correction was made.
16. This first appearance of Gimli son of Gloin was a pencilled alter-
ation, but not from much later.
17. In the previous account of those present at the Council (p. 395) the
three counsellors of Rivendell are Erestor, called 'an Elf', and 'two
other kinsmen of Elrond, of that half-elvish folk whom the Elves
named the children of Luthien' - which seems however to imply
that Erestor also was Elrond's kinsman.
18. In FR (p. 253) Galdor, here the precursor of Legolas, is the name of
the Elf from the Grey Havens who bore the errand of Cirdan.
Galdor had not at this time become the name of the father of Hurin
and Huor; in the Quenta Silmarillion he was still named Gumlin.
19. The first reference to the Dead Marshes.
My father bracketed the passage from 'Ever since I have worn shoes'
to 'hurt in some way', and wrote in the margin (with a query) that it
should be revealed later that Trotter had wooden feet. - This is the
first appearance of the story that it was Trotter who found Gollum
(in the version of 'Ancient History' in the third phase (p. 320)
Gandalf still told Frodo that he had himself found Gollum, in
Mirkwood); and Trotter's experience of Mordor, several times
mentioned or hinted at (see pp. 223, 371), is explained at the same
time.
21. Written in the margin against this paragraph: 'Gandalf's captivity'.
22. See pp. 118 - 20.
23. An earlier form of this passage makes Gandalf reply to Elrond: 'I
knew of him. But I had quite forgotten him. I must go and see him
as soon as there is a chance.' This was changed - at the time of
writing - to the passage given, in which Gandalf says that he actually
visited Tom Bombadil after the attack on Crickhollow - the first
appearance of an idea that will be met again, though the meeting of
Gandalf and Bombadil never (alas!) reached narrative form. Cf. the
isolated passage given on pp. 213 - 14, where Gandalf says at
Rivendell: 'Why did I not think of Bombadil before! If only he was
not so far away, I would go straight back now and consult him.' Cf.
also p. 345 and note i r. - Gandalf does not mention Odo here, and it
becomes clear at the end of this chapter that he had been removed
from Rivendell (see pp. 407, 409).
24. In the third phase version of 'At the Sign of the Prancing Pony' it is
still apparent that Tom Bombadil was known to visit the inn at Bree
(p. 334).
25. In rough drafting of this passage my father wrote: 'and in the end he
would come in person; and the Barrow-wights would', striking out
these last words as he wrote and changing them to: 'and even on his
own ground Tom Bombadil alone could not withstand that onset
unscathed.' - 'Lord of the Ring' was first written 'Lord of the Rings',
but changed immediately.
26. Erestor changed from Clorfindel, which was changed from Elrond.
Cf. P. 396.
27. This reply to Erestor was first given to Gandalf, for Erestor
addressed his question to him: 'Can you solve this riddle, Gandalf?'
To which Gandalf answered: 'No! I cannot. But I can choose, if you
wish me to choose.' The passage was then changed at once to the
form given.
28. In The Hobbit Thrain was not the father of Thror, but his son. This
is a complex question which will be discussed in Vol. VII.
29. In the dungeons of Dol Guldur in Mirkwood in FR (p. 282).
30. As this passage was first written, Gloin says that the messages from
Mordor offered the Dwarves 'a ring'; and that they were offered
peace and friendship if they could obtain Bilbo's ring, or even tell
where he was to be found. As altered subsequently, his words
approach what he tells in FR (p. 254); and the story in the first draft
for the Council (p. 398), that the Dwarves still possessed some of
their ancient Rings, that Dain had one, and that Sauron was
demanding them back, has already been abandoned.
31. Cf. p. 371, at the end of the outline $2.
32. The chapter 'The Council of Elrond' in FR (II.2) ends here.
33. 'Trotter would also be useful' was changed to 'Trotter will also be
essential', and probably at the same time my father wrote in the
margin: 'Trotter is connected with the Ring.' This alteration thus
comes from somewhat later, when he was reaching the conception of
Aragorn and his ancestry. See note 34.
34. Trotter was of course still a hobbit. In the margin my father wrote
against this passage: 'Correct this. Only Trotter is of ancient race'
(i.e. Trotter is a Numenorean, but Boromir is not).
XXIV.
THE RING GOES SOUTH.
As I have said, this next stage in the story was written continuously on
from the first version of 'The Council of Elrond'. After the description of
the red star in the South (FR p. 287) there is a heading 'The Ring Goes
South', but no new chapter-number, and the pagination is continuous
with what precedes.
I give now the text of this earliest version of 'The Ring Goes South'
(which extends somewhat into the next chapter in FR, II.4 'A Journey in
the Dark'). This is an outstandingly difficult manuscript, and difficult to
represent. I think that it was not based on any preliminary notes or
sketches, except in one passage,' that my father wrote it ab initio as a full
narrative; and this being so it is remarkable how much of its wording
survived into the final form, despite the radical differences that Trotter
was still the hobbit Peregrin and that neither Dwarf nor Elf was present.
The company, as already noticed, consisted of Gandalf, Boromir, and
five hobbits - even though one of them, to be sure, was no inexperienced
hobbit of the Shire.
My father wrote nearly all of it in ink, but he wrote extremely fast
(though with patience - and some aid from the text of FR - all but a few
words can be puzzled out), so fast that he often left to stand what he had
written but rejected, while racing on to a new phrasing or formulation;
and the expression is often rough and unfinished. Subsequently he went
over it in pencil, but the great majority of these pencilled alterations
belong, I feel sure, to a time very close to the original writing, and some
of them demonstrably so. A few are certainly later, and introduce
references to Gimli and Legolas that are chronologically and structurally
irrelevant. There are also some alterations in red ink, but these only
concern certain place-names.
In the text as printed here, I adopt pencilled alterations that seem
certainly 'early'. few affect the narrative in any important respect, and
where they do the original text is given in the notes. The notes are here an
integral part of the representation of the manuscript.
The Ring goes South.
When Frodo had been about a fortnight in Rivendell and Novem-
ber was already a week old or more' the scouts began to return.
Some had been northwards as far as the Dimrill-dales,(3) and some
had gone southwards almost as far as the River Redway. A few
had passed the mountains both by the High Pass and Goblin Gate
(Annerchin), and by the passage at the sources of the Gladden.
These were the last to return, for they had descended into
Wilderland as far as the Gladden Fields,(4) and that was a great way
from Rivendell even for the swiftest Elves. But neither they nor
those who had received the aid of the Eagles near Goblin Gate (5)
had discovered any news - except that the wild wolves called
wargs were gathering again and were hunting once more between
the Mountains and Mirkwood. No sign of the Black Riders had
been found - except on the rocks below the Ford the bodies of four
[written above: several] drowned horses, and [?one] long black
cloak slashed and tattered.
'One can never tell,' said Gandalf, 'but it does look as if the
Riders were dispersed - and have had to make their way as best
they could back to Mordor. In that case there will still be a long
while before the hunt begins again. And it will have to come back
here to pick up the trail - if we are lucky and careful, and they do
not get news of us on the way. We had better get off as soon as
possible now - and as quietly.'
Elrond agreed, and warned them to journey by dusk and dark as
often as might be, and to lie hid when they could in the broad
daylight. 'When the news reaches Sauron,' he said, 'of the dis-
comfiture of the Nine Riders, he will be filled with a great anger.
When the hunt begins again, it will be far greater and more
ravenous.'
'Are there still more Black Riders then?' asked Frodo.
'No! There are but Nine Ringwraiths. But when they come
forth again, I fear they will bring a host of evil things in their train,
and set their spies wide over the lands. Even of the sky above you
must beware as you go your way.'
There came a cold grey day in mid November.(6) The East wind
was streaming through the bare branches of the trees, and seeth-
ing in the firtrees on the hills. The hurrying clouds were low and
sunless. As the cheerless shadows of the early evening began to
fall, the adventurers made ready to depart. Their farewells had all
been said by the fire in the great hall, and they were waiting only
for Gandalf, who was still in the house speaking some last words in
private with Elrond. Their spare food and clothes and other
necessaries were laden on two sure-footed ponies. The travellers
themselves were to go on foot; for their course was set through
lands where there were few roads and paths were rough and
difficult. Sooner or later they would have to cross the Mountains.
Also they were going to journey for the most part by dusk or dark.(7)
Sam was standing by the two pack-ponies sucking his teeth and
staring moodily at the house - his desire for adventure was at a low
ebb. But in that hour none of the hobbits had any heart for their
journey - a chill was in their hearts, and a cold wind in their faces.
A gleam of firelight came from the open doors; lights were glowing
in many windows, and the world outside seemed empty and cold.
Bilbo huddled in his cloak stood silent on the doorstep beside
Frodo. Trotter sat with his head bowed to his knees.(8)
At last Elrond came out with Gandalf. 'Farewell now!' he said.
'May the blessing of Elves and Men and all free folk go with you.
And may white stars shine on your journey! '
'Good... good luck!' said Bilbo, stuttering a little (from the
cold perhaps). 'I don't suppose you will be able to keep a diary,
Frodo my lad, but I shall expect a full account when you get back.
And don't be too long: I have lived longer than I expected already.
Farewell! '
Many others of Elrond's household stood in the shadows and
watched them go, bidding them farewell with soft voices. There
was no laughter, and no songs or music. Silently at last they
turned away, and leading their ponies they faded swiftly into the
gathering dusk.
They crossed the bridge and wound slowly up the long steep
paths out of the cloven vale of Rivendell, and came at length to the
high moors, grey and formless under misty stars. Then with one
last look down at the lights of the Last Homely House below they
strode on, far on into the night.
At the Ford they left the west road that crossed the River; and
turning left went on by narrow paths among the folded lands.
They were going South. Their purpose was to hold this course for
many miles and days on the western side of the Misty Mountains.
The country was much wilder and rougher than in the green valley
of the Great River in Wilderland on the eastern side of the range
and their going would be much slower; but they hoped in this way
to escape the notice of enemies. The spies of Sauron had hitherto
seldom been seen in the western regions; and the paths were little
known except to the people of Rivendell. Gandalf walked in front
and with him went Trotter who knew this country even in the
dark. Boromir as rearguard walked behind.
The first part of their journey was cheerless and grim and Frodo
remembered little of it, except the cold wind. It blew icy from the
eastern mountains for many sunless days and no garment seemed
able to keep out its searching fingers. They had been well fur-
nished with warm clothes in Rivendell, and had jackets and cloaks
lined with fur as well as many blankets, but they seldom felt warm
either moving or at rest. They slept uneasily during the middle of
the day, in some hollow of the land, or hidden under the tangled
thorn-bushes that grew in great thickets in those parts. In the late
afternoon they were roused, and had their chief meal: usually cold
and cheerless and with little talk, for they seldom risked the
lighting of a fire. In the evening they went on again, as nearly due
south as they could find a way.
At first it seemed to the hobbits that they were creeping like
snails and getting nowhere; for each day the land looked much as
it had done the day before. Yet all the while the Mountains which
south of Rivendell bent westward were drawing nearer. More and
more often they found no paths and had to make wide turns
to avoid either steep places, or thickets, or sullen treacherous
swamps. The land was tumbled in barren hills and deep valleys
filled with turbulent waters.
But when they had been about ten days on the road the weather
grew better. The wind suddenly veered southward. The swift
flowing clouds lifted and melted away, and the sun came out.
There came a dawn at the end of a long stumbling night march.
The travellers reached a low ridge crowned with ancient holly
trees, whose pale fluted trunks seemed to have been formed out of
the very stone of the hills. Their berries shone red in the light of
the rising sun. Far away south Frodo saw the dim shapes of
mountains, that seemed now to lie across their path. To the left of
this distant range a tall peak stood up like a tooth: it was tipped
with snow but its bare western shoulder glowed redly in the
growing light.
Gandalf stood by Frodo's side and looked out under his hand.
'We have done well,' he said. 'We have reached the borders of the
country called Hollin: many Elves lived here once in happier days.
Eighty leagues we have come,(9) if we have come a mile, and we have
marched quicker than winter from the North. The land and
weather will be milder now - but perhaps all the more dangerous.'
'Danger or not, a real sunrise is mighty welcome,' said Frodo,
throwing back his hood and letting the morning light play on his
face.
eastward.'
'No, it is the mountains that have turned,' said, Gandalf.(10)
'Don't you remember Elrond's map in Rivendell?'
'No, I did not look very carefully at it,' said Faramond. 'Frodo
has a better head for things of that sort.'
'Well, anyone who did look at the map,' said Gandalf, 'would
see that away there stands Taragaer or Ruddyhorn,(11) - that moun-
tain with the red side. The Misty Mountains divide there and
between their arms lies the land (12) of Caron-dun the Red Valley.(13)
Our way lies there: over the Red Pass of Cris-caron,(14) under
Taragaer's side, and into Caron-dun and down the River Red-
way (15) to the Great River, and...' He stopped.
'Yes, and where then?' asked Merry.
'To the end of the journey - in the end,' said Gandalf. 'But at
first the evergreen forest of Fangorn, through the midst of which
runs the Great River.(16) But we will not look too far ahead. Let us
be glad that the first stage is safely over. I think we will rest here
for a whole day. There is a wholesome air about Hollin. Much evil
must befall any country before it wholly forgets the Elves, if once
they have dwelt there.'
That morning they lit a fire in a deep hollow shrouded by two
great holly trees, and their supper was merrier than it had been
since they left the house of Elrond. They did not hurry to bed
' ' afterwards, for they had all the night to sleep in and did not mean
to go on until the evening of next day. Only Trotter was moody
and restless. After a while he left the company and wandered
about on the ridge, looking out on the lands south and west. He
came back and stood looking at them.
'What is the matter?' said Merry. 'Do you miss the east wind?'
'No indeed,' answered Trotter. 'But I miss something. I know
Hollin fairly well, and have been here in many seasons. No people
dwell here now, but many other things live here, or used to -
especially birds. But now it is very silent. I can feel it. There is no
sound for miles round, and your voices seem to make the ground
echo. I cannot make it out.'
Gandalf looked up quickly. 'But what do you think the reason
is?' he asked. 'Is there more in it than surprise at seeing a whole
party of hobbits (not to mention Boromir and me) where people
are so seldom seen? '
'I hope that is it,' said Trotter. 'But I get a feeling of watchful-
ness and of fear that I have never had here before.'
'Very well! Let us be more careful,' said Gandalf. 'If you bring a
Ranger with you, it is best to pay attention to him - especially if
the Ranger is Trotter, as I have found before. There are some
things that even an experienced wizard does not notice. We had
better stop talking now, and rest quietly and set a look-out.'
It was Sam's turn to take the first watch, but Trotter joined
him. The others soon fell asleep, one by one. The silence grew till
even Sam felt it. The breathing of the sleepers could be plainly
heard. The swish of a pony's tail and the occasional movements of
his feet became loud noises. Sam seemed to hear his very joints
creaking if he stirred or moved. Over all hung a blue sky as the sun
rode high and clear. The last clouds melted. But away in the
south-east a dark patch grew and divided, flying like smoke to the
north and west.
'What's that?' said Sam in a whisper to Trotter. Trotter made
no answer, for he was gazing intently at the sky, but before long
Sam could see what it was for himself. The clouds were flocks of
birds going at great speed - wheeling and circling, and traversing
all the land as if they were searching for something.
'Lie flat and still,' hissed Trotter, drawing Sam down into the
shade of a holly-bush - for a whole regiment of birds had separated
from the western flock and came back flying low right over the
ridge where the travellers lay. Sam thought they were some kind
of crows of a large size. As they passed overhead one harsh croak
was heard.
Not till they had dwindled in the distance would Trotter move.
Then he went and wakened Gandalf.
'Regiments of black crows are flying to and fro over Hollin,' he
said. 'They are not natives to this place. I do not know what they
are after - possibly there is some trouble going on away south: but
I think they are spying out the land. I think too that I have seen
hawks flying higher in the sky. That would account for the
silence.(17) We ought to move again this evening. I am afraid that
Hollin is no longer wholesome for us: it is being watched.'
'And in that case so is the Red Pass, and how we can get over it
without being seen I don't know,' said Gandalf. 'But we will think
about that when we get nearer. About moving on from here
tonight: I am afraid you are right.'
'It is as well that we let our fire make little smoke,' said Trotter.
'It was out again (I think) before the birds came over. It must not
be lit again.'
'Well, if that is not disappointing!' said Faramond. The news
had been broken to him as soon as he woke (in the late afternoon):
no fire, and a move again by night. 'I had looked forward to a real
good meal tonight, something hot. All because of a pack of crows! '
'Well, you can go on looking forward,' said Gandalf. 'There
may be many unexpected feasts ahead of you! Personally I should
like a pipe of tobacco in comfort, and warmer feet. However, we
are certain of one thing, at any rate: it will get warmer as we go
south.'
'Too warm, I shouldn't wonder!' said Sam to Frodo. 'Not but
what I would be glad to see that Fiery Mountain, and see the
road's end ahead, so to speak. I thought that there Ruddyhorn or
whatever its name is might be it, till Mr. Gandalf said not.' Maps
conveyed nothing to Sam, and all distances in these strange lands
seemed so vast that he was quite out of his reckonings.
The travellers remained hidden all that day. The birds passed
over every now and again; but as the westering sun grew red they
vanished southwards.' Soon afterwards the party set out again,
and turned now a little eastward making for the peak of Taragaer
which still glowed dully red in the distance. Frodo thought of
Elrond's warning to watch even the sky above, but the sky was
now clear and empty overhead, and one by one white stars sprang
forth as the last gleams of sunset faded.
Guided by Trotter and Gandalf as usual they struck a good
path. It looked to Frodo, as far as he could guess in the gathering
dark, like the remains of an ancient road that had once run broad
and well-planned from now deserted Hollin to the pass beneath
Taragaer. A crescent moon rose over the mountains, and cast a
pale light which was helpful - but was not welcomed by Trotter or
Gandalf. It stayed but a little while and left them to the stars.(19) At
midnight they had been going on again for an hour or more from
their first halt. Frodo kept looking up at the sky, partly because of
its beauty, partly because of Elrond's words. Suddenly he saw or
felt a shadow pass over the stars - as if they faded and flashed out
again. He shivered.
'Did you see anything?' he said to Gandalf, who was just in
front.
'No, but I felt it, whatever it was,' said the wizard. 'It may be
nothing, just a wisp of thin cloud.' It did not sound as if he thought
much of his own explanation.(20)
Nothing more happened that night. The next morning was
even brighter than before, but the wind was turning back eastward
and the air was chill. For three more nights they marched on,
climbing steadily and ever more slowly as their road wound into
the hills and the mountains drew nearer and nearer. On the third
morning Taragaer towered up before them, a mighty peak tipped
with snow like silver, but with sheer naked sides dull red as if
stained with blood.
There was a black look in the air, and the sun was wan. The
wind was now gone towards the North. Gandalf sniffed and
looked back. 'Winter is behind,' he said quietly to Trotter. 'The
peaks behind are whiter than they were.'
'And tonight,' said Trotter, 'we shall be high up on our way to
the red pass of Cris-caron. What do you think of our course now?
If we are not seen in that narrow place - and waylaid by some evil, l
as would be easy there - the weather may prove as bad an enemy.'(21)
'I think no good of any part of our course, as you know well,
Master Peregrin,' snapped Gandalf. 'Still we have to go on. It
is no good whatever our trying to cross further south into the land
of Rohan. The Horse-kings have long been in the service of
Sauron.'(22)
'No, I know that. But there is a way - not over Cris-caron, as
you are well aware.'
'Of course I am. But I am not going to risk that, until I am quite
sure there is no other way. I shall think things out while the others
rest and sleep.'(23)
In the late afternoon, before preparations were made for
moving, Gandalf poke to the travellers. 'We have now come to
our first serious difficulty and doubt,' he said. 'The pass that we
ought to take is up there ahead' - he waved his hand towards
Taragaer: its sides were now dark and sullen, for the sun had
gone, and its head was in grey cloud. 'It will take us at least two
marches to get near the top of the pass. From certain signs we have
seen recently I fear it may be watched or guarded; and in any case
Trotter and I have doubts of the weather, on this wind. But I am
afraid we must go on. We can't go back into the winter; and
further south the passes are held. Tonight we must push along as
hard as we can.'
The hearts of the travellers sank at his words. But they hurried
with their preparations, and started off at as good a pace as they
could make. It was heavy going. The winding and twisting road
had long been neglected and in places was blocked with fallen
stones, over which they had great difficulty in finding any way to
lead the pack ponies.(25) The night grew deadly dark under the great
clouds; a bitter wind swirled among the rocks. By midnight they
had already climbed to the very knees of the great mountains, and
were going straight up under a mountain-side, with a deep ravine
guessed but unseen on their right. Suddenly Frodo felt soft cold
touches on his face. He put out his arm, and saw white snowflakes
settle on his sleeve. Before long they were falling fast, swirling
from every direction into his eyes, and filling all the air. The dark
shapes of Gandalf and Trotter, a few paces in front, could hardly
be seen.
'I don't like this,' panted Sam just behind. 'Snow is all right on a
fine morning, seen from a window; but I like to be in bed while it's
falling.' As a matter of fact snow fell very seldom in most parts of
the Shire except the moors of the Northfarthing. There would
occasionally, in January or February, be a thin white dusting of it,
but [it] soon vanished, and only rarely in cold winters was there a
real fall - enough to make snowballs of.
Gandalf halted. Frodo thought as he came up by him that he
already looked almost like a snow-man. Snow was white on his
hood and bowed shoulders, and it was already getting thick on the
ground under foot.
'This is a bad business! ' said the wizard. 'I never bargained for
this, and left snow out of my plans. It seldom falls as far south as
this except on the high peaks, and here we are not halfway up even
to the high pass. I wonder if the Enemy has anything to do with it.
He has strange powers and many allies.'
'We had better get all the party together,' said Trotter. 'We
don't want to lose anyone on a night like this.'
For a while they struggled on. The snow became a blinding
blizzard, and soon it was in places almost knee-deep. 'It'll be up
over my head before long,' said Merry. Faramond was dragging
behind and needed what help Merry and Sam could give him.
Frodo felt his own legs like lead at every step.
Suddenly they heard strange sounds: they may have been but
tricks of the rising wind in cracks and gullies of the rocks, but it
sounded like hoarse cries and howls of harsh laughter. Then
stones began to fall whirling like leaves on the wind, and crashing
onto the path and the rocks on either hand. Every now and again
they heard in the darkness a dull rumble as a great boulder rolled
down thunderously from hidden heights in the dark above.
The party halted. 'We can't get any further tonight,' said
Trotter. 'You can call it the wind if you like, but I eall it voices and
those stones are aimed at us, or at least at the path.'
'I do call it the wind,' said Gandalf; 'but that does not make the
rest untrue. Not all the servants of the Enemy have bodies or arms
and legs.'(26)
'What can we do?' asked Frodo. His heart suddenly failed him,
and he felt alone and lost in dark and driving snow, mocked at by
demons of the mountains.
'Stop here or go back,' answered Gandalf. 'We are protected at
present by the high wall on our left, and a deep gully on the right.
Further up there is a wide shallow valley, and the road runs at the
bottom of two long slopes. We should now hardly get through
there without damage, quite apart from the snow.'(27)
After some debate they retreated to a spot they had passed just
before the snow came on. There the path passed under a low
overhanging cliff. It faced southwards and they hoped it would
give them some protection from the wind. But the eddying blasts
whirled in from either side, and the snow came down thicker than
ever. They huddled together with their backs to the wall. The two
ponies stood dejected but patiently in front of them and served as
some kind of screen, but before long the snow was up to their
bellies and still mounting. The hobbits crouching behind were
nearly buried. A great sleepiness came over Frodo, and he felt
himself fast sinking into a warm and hazy dream. He thought a fire
was warming his toes, and out of the shadows he heard Bilbo's
voice speaking. 'I don't think much of your diary,' he heard him
say. 'Snow(storm) on December 2nd:(28) there was no need to come
back to report that.'
Suddenly he felt himself violently shaken, and came back
painfully to wakefulness. Boromir had lifted him right off the
ground. 'This snow will be the death of the hobbits, Gandalf,' he
said. 'We must do something.'
'Give them this,' said Gandalf, fumbling in his pack that lay
beside him, and drawing out a leather flagon. 'Just a little each -
for all of us. It is very precious: one of Elrond's cordials, and I did
not expect to have to use it so soon.'
As soon as Frodo had swallowed a little of the potent cordial, he
felt new strength of heart, and the heavy sleepiness left his limbs.
The others revived as quickly.
Boromir now endeavoured to clear away the snow and make a
free space under the rock-wall. Finding his hands and feet slow
tools, and his sword not much better, he took a faggot from the
fuel that they carried on one of the ponies, in case they should need
fire in places where there was no wood. He bound it tight and
thrust a staff in the midst, so that it looked like a large mallet; but
he used it as a ram to thrust back the soft snow, till it was packed
hard into a wall before them and could not be pushed further
away. For the moment things looked better, and in the small
cleared space the travellers stood and took short paces, stamping
to keep their limbs awake. But the snow continued to fall unrelent-
ing; and it became plain that they were likely enough to be all
buried in snow again before the night was out.(29)
'What about a fire?' said Trotter suddenly. 'As for giving
ourselves away: personally I think our whereabouts is pretty well
known or guessed already - by somebody.'
In desperation they decided to light a fire if they could, even if it
meant sacrificing all the fuel that they had with them. It taxed
even Gandalf's power to kindle the wet wood in that windy place.
Ordinary methods were of no use, though each of the travellers
had tinder and flint. They had brought some fir cones and little
bundles of dried grass for kindling, but no fire would catch in
them, until Gandalf thrust his wand into the midst of them and
caused a great spark of blue and green flame to spring out.
'Well, if any enemy is watching,' he said, 'that will give me
away. Let us hope other eyes are as blinded by the storm as ours.
But anyway a fire is a good thing to see.' The wood now burned
merrily and kept a clear circle all round it in which the travellers
gathered somewhat heartened; but looking round Gandalf saw
anxious eyes revealed by the dancing flames. The wood was
burning fast, and the snow was not yet lessening.
'Daylight will soon be showing,' said Gandalf as cheerily as
he could, but added: 'if any daylight can get through the snow-
clouds.'
The fire burned low and the last faggot was thrown on. Trotter
stood up and stared into the blackness above. 'I believe it is getting
less,' he said. For a long while the others gazed at the flakes coming
..... down out of the darkness, to be revealed for a moment white
in the light of the fire; but they could see little difference. After a
while, however, it became plain that Trotter was right. The flakes
became fewer and fewer. The wind grew less. The daylight began
to grow pale grey and diffused. Then the snow ceased altogether.
As the light grew stronger it showed a shapeless world all about
them. The high places were hid in clouds (that threatened still
more snow), but below them they could see dim white hills and
domes and valleys in which the path they had come by seemed
altogether lost.
'The sooner we make a move, and get down again, the better,'
said Trotter.> 'There is more snow still to fall up here! ' But much
as they all desired to get down again it was easier to speak of it than
to manage it. The snow round about was already some feet deep:
up to the necks of the hobbits or over their heads in places; and it
was still soft. If they had [had] northern sledges or snowshoes
[they] would have been of little use. Gandalf could only just
manage to get forward with labour, more like swimming (and
burrowing) than walking. Boromir was the tallest of the party:
being some six feet high and broad-shouldered as well. He went
ahead a little way to test the path. The snow was everywhere above
even his knees, and in many places he sank up to the waist. The
situation looked fairly desperate.
'I will go on down if I can,' he said.(31) 'As far as I can make out
our course of last night, the path seems to turn right round a
or two below the turn we ought to come on to a flat space at the top ]
of a long steep slope - very heavy going it was coming up. From
there I may be able to get some view and some idea of how the
snow lies further down.' He struggled forward slowly, and after a
while disappeared round the turn.
It was nearly an hour before he came back, tired but with some
encouraging news. 'There is a deep wind drift just the other side of
the turn, and I was nearly buried in it; but beyond that the snow
quickly gets less. At the top of the slope it is no more than ankle-
deep and it is only sprinkled on the ground from there down: or so
it seems.'
'It may be only sprinkled further down,' grunted Gandalf; 'but
it is not sprinkled up here. Even the snow seems to have been
aimed specially at us.'
'How are toe to get to the turn?' asked Trotter.
'I don't know!' said Boromir. 'it is a pity Gandalf can't produce
flame enough to melt us a pathwav.'
'I daresay it is,' snapped Candaif; 'but even I need a few
materials to work upon. I car. kindle fire not feed it. What you
want is a dragon not a wizard.'
'Indeed I think a tame dragon would actually be more useful at
the moment than a wild wizard,' said Boromir - with a laugh that
did not in any way appease Gandalf.
'At the moment, at the moment,' he replied. 'Later on we may
see. I am old enough to be your great-grandfather's ancestor - but
I am not doddery yet. It will serve you right if you meet a wild
dragon.'(32)
'Well, well! When heads are at a loss bodies must serve they say
in my country,' said Boromir. 'We must just try and thrust our
way through. Put the little folk on the ponies, two on each. I will
carry the smallest; you go behind, Gandalf, and I will go in front.'
At once he set about unloading the ponies of their burdens. 'I
will come back for these when we have forced a passage,' he said.
Frodo and Sam were mounted on one of the ponies, Merry and
Trotter on the other. Then picking up Faramond Boromir strode
forward.
Slowly they ploughed their way forward. It took some time to
reach the bend, but they did so without mishap. After a short halt
they laboured on to the edge of the drift. Suddenly Boromir
stumbled on some hidden stone, and fell headlong. Faramond was
thrown from his shoulder into deep snow and disappeared. The
pony behind reared and then fell also, tumbling both Frodo and
Sam into the drift. Trotter however managed to hold back the
second pony.
For some moments all was confusion. But Boromir got up,
shaking the snow from his face and eyes, and went to the head of
the floundering and kicking pony. When he had got it onto its feet
again, he went to the rescue of the hobbits who had vanished into
deep holes in the yielding snow. Picking up first Faramond and
then Frodo he ploughed his way through the remainder of the
drift and set them on their feet beyond. He then returned for the
pony and Sam. 'Follow now in my track! ' he cried to the remain-
ing three. 'The worst is over! '
At last they all came to the head of the long slope. Gandalf
bowed to Boromir. 'If I was testy,' he said, 'forgive me. Even the
wisest wizard does not like to see his plans go awry. Thank
goodness for plain strength and good sense. We are grateful to
you, Boromir of Ond.'(33)
They looked out from the high place where they stood over the
lands. Daylight was now as full as it would be, unless the heavy
clouds were broken. Far below, and over the tumbled country
falling away from the foot of the incline, Frodo thought he could
see the dell from which they had started to climb the night before.
His legs ached and his head was dizzy as he thought of the long
painful march down again. In the distance, below him but still
high above the lower hills, he saw many black specks moving in
the air. 'The birds again,' he said in a low voice, pointing.
'It can't be helped now, said Gandalf. 'Whether they are good or
bad, or nothing to do with us, we must go on down at once.' The
wind was blowing stiffly again over the pass hidden in the clouds
behind; and already some snowflakes were drifting down.
It was late in the afternoon, and the grey light was already again
waning fast when they got back to their camp of the previous
night. They were weary and very hungry. The mountains were
veiled in a deepening dusk full of snow: even there in the foothills
snow was falling gently. The birds had vanished.
They had no fuel for a fire, and made themselves as warm as
they could with all their spare furs and blankets. Gandalf spared
them each one more mouthful of the cordial. When they had
eaten, Gandalf called a council.
'We cannot of course go on again tonight,' he said. 'We all need a
good rest, and I think we had better stay here till tomorrow
evening.'
'And when we move where are we to go to?' asked Frodo. 'It is
no use trying the pass again; but you said yourself last night in this
very spot that we could not now cross the passes further north
because of winter, nor further south because of enemies.'
'There is no need to remind me,' said Gandalf. 'The choice is
now between going on with our journey - by some road or other -
or returning to Rivendell.'
The faces of the hobbits revealed plainly enough the pleasure
they felt at the mere mention of returning to Rivendell. Sam's face
brightened visibly, and he glanced at his master. But Frodo
looked troubled.
'I wish I was back in Rivendell,' he acknowledged. 'But would
not that be going back also on all that was spoken and decided
there?' he asked.
'Yes,' replied Gandalf. 'Our journey was already delayed per-
haps too long. After the winter it would be quite vain. If we return
it will mean the siege of Rivendell, and likely enough its fall and
destruction.'
'Then we must go on,' said Frodo with a sigh, and Sam sank
back into gloom. 'We must go on - if there is any road to take.'
'There is, or there may be,' said Gandalf. 'But I have not
mentioned it to you before, and have hardly even thought of it
while there was hope of the pass of Cris-caron. For it is not a
pleasant road.'
'If it is worse than the pass of Cris-caron it must be very nasty
indeed,' said Merry. 'But you had better now tell us about it.'
'Have you ever heard of the Mines of Moria or the Black Gulf?'(34)
asked Gandalf.
'Yes,' answered Frodo. 'I think so. I seem to remember Bilbo
speaking of them long ago, when he told me tales of the dwarves
and goblins. But I have no idea where they are.'
'They are not far away,' said the wizard. 'They are in these
mountains. They were made by the Dwarves of Durin's clan many
hundreds of years ago, when elves dwelt in Hollin, and there was
peace between the two races. In those ancient days Durin dwelt in
Caron-dun, and there was traffic on the Great River. But the
Goblins - fierce orcs (35) in great number - drove them out after
many wars, and most of the dwarves that escaped removed far into
the North. They have often tried to regain these mines, but never
so far as I know have they succeeded. King Thror was killed
there after he fled from Dale when the dragon came, as you
may remember from Bilbo's tales. As Gloin told us, the dwarves
of Dale think Balin came here, but no news has come from
him. '(36)
'How can the mines [of the] Black Gulf help us?' asked
Boromir. 'It sounds a name of ill-omen.'
'It is so, or has become so,' answered Gandalf. 'But one must
tread the path need chooses. If there are orcs in the mines, it will
prove ill for us. But most of the goblins of the Misty Mountains
were destroyed in the Battle of Five Armies at the Lonely Moun-
tain. There is a chance that the mines are still deserted. There is
even a chance that dwarves are there, and that Balin lives in secret
in some deep hall. If either of these chances prove true, then we
may get through. For the mines go right through and under this
western arm of the mountains. The tunnels of Moria were of old
the most famous in the northern world. There were two secret
gates on the western side, though the chief entrance was on the
East looking upon Caron-dun.(37) I passed right through, many
years ago, when I was looking for Thror and Thrain. But I have
never been since - I have never wished to repeat the experience.'(38)
'And I don't wish for it even once,' said Merry. 'Nor me,'
muttered Sam.
'Of course not,' said Gandalf. 'Who would? But the question is,
will you follow me, if I take the risk?'
There was no answer for some time. 'How far are the western
gates?'asked Frodo at length.
'About ten (39) miles south of Cris-caron,' said Trotter.
'Then you know of Moria?' said Frodo, looking at him in
surprise.
'Yes, I know of the mines,' said Trotter quietly. 'I went there
once, and the memory is evil; but if you want to know, I was
always in favour of trying that way rather than an open pass.> I
will follow Gandalf - though I should have followed him more
willingly if we could have come to the gate of Moria more secretly.'
'Well, come now,' said Gandalf. 'I would not put such a choice
to you, if there were any hope in other roads, or any hope in
retreat. Will you try Moria, or go back to Rivendell?'
'We must risk the Mines,' said Frodo.
As I have said, it is remarkable how substantially the structure of the
story was achieved at the very beginning, while the differences in the
dramatis personae are so great. It is indeed very curious, that before my
father had even written the first complete draft of 'The Council of
Elrond' he had decided that the Company should include an Elf and a
Dwarf (p. 397), as seems now so natural and inevitable, and yet in 'The
Ring Goes South' we have only Gandalf and Boromir and five hobbits
(one of whom, admittedly, is the most unusually far-travelled and widely
experienced Trotter).
But as often in the history of The Lord of the Rings much of the earliest
writing remained, for example in the detail of conversation, and yet such
conversation appears later shifted into new contexts, given to different
speakers, and acquiring new resonance as the 'world' and its history grew
and expanded. A striking example is given in note 8, where in the original
text 'Trotter sat with his head bowed to his knees' as they waited to
depart from Rivendell, while in FR 'Aragorn sat with his head bowed to
his knees; only Elrond knew fully what this hour meant to him.' The
question presents itself: what is really the relation between Trotter =
Peregrin Boffin and Strider = Aragorn?
It would obviously not be true to say merely that there was a role to be
played in the story, and that at first this role was played by a Hobbit but
afterwards by a Man. In particular cases, looked at narrowly without the
larger context, this might seem a sufficient or nearly sufficient account:
the necessary or fixed action was that Sam Gamgee's companion should
hiss 'Lie flat and still' and pull him down into the shade of a holly-bush
(p. 420, FR p. 298). But this says very little. I would be inclined to think
that the original figure (the mysterious person who encounters the
hobbits in the inn at Bree) was capable of development in different
directions without losing important elements of his 'identity' as a recog-
nisable character - even though the choice of one direction or another
would lead to quite different historical and racial 'identities' in Middle-
earth. So Trotter was not simply switched from Hobbit to Man - though
such a switch could take place in the case of Mr. Butterbur with very little
disturbance. Rather, he had been potentially Aragorn for a long time;
and when my father decided that Trotter was Aragorn and was not
Peregrin Boffin his stature and his history were totally changed, but a
great deal of the 'indivisible' Trotter remained in Aragorn and deter-
mined his nature.
It may also be thought that in the story of the attempt on Cris-caron
Trotter is diminished from the role he had played in the narrative of the
journey from Bree to Rivendell, in which, though a hobbit, he is set
altogether apart from the others, a wise and resourceful leader of great
experience in whom all their hope rests. Now, in these physical circum-
stances, and beside Boromir, he is one of the helpless 'little folk', as
Boromir says, to be set on a pony. Of course, this question cannot be
approached without hindsight; if Trotter had in fact remained a hobbit
in The Lord of the Rings it would not arise. Yet considerations along these
lines may have been an element in the decision about him which my
father would now shortly take.
NOTES.
1. An isolated page, certainly of this time, does give a preliminary
sketch of the passage that begins approximately at 'As the light grew
stronger' on p. 426. The writing is at the extreme limit of legibility,
in rapid pencil now very faint.
Grey light grew revealing a snow... world in which the path by
which they had climbed could scarcely be seen. The snow was no
longer falling but the sky threatened more to come.
'The sooner we move and begin to get down the better,' said
Gandalf. This was easier said than done. Hobbits. One on
each journey. [Struck out: Boromir carries Frodo (.. precious
burden).] Boromir and Gandalf go ahead and feel the way. In
places Boromir vanished almost to his neck. They began to
despair for the snow was soft.......... With great labour they
had gone only 1/4 mile down and were all getting exhausted. But
suddenly they found the snow less thick - 'even that seems to have
been specially aimed at us' said Gandalf. Boromir strode ahead
and came back reporting that it was [?soon only white]. At lact
when daylight was broad they came back to places almost clear of
snow.
G. points out the place they had started from the evening
before. Council. What is to be done. Moria.
The page continues with some preliminary strokes for the scene
outside the West Gate of Moria; see p. 444.
2. Dates were put in marginally against this sentence: 'Nov. 7th?' and
'Nov. 10 - 11'; in addition, 'a fortnight' was changed to '3 weeks' and
'a week old or more' to 'nearly 2 weeks old'.
3. After 'as far as' my father first wrote Dimbar, perhaps intending
'Dimbar in the Dimrill-dales'. The name Dimbar had appeared in
the Quenta Silmarillion (V.261), of the empty land between the
rivers Sirion and Mindeb.
For this application of Dimrill-dale(s) (north of Rivendell) see
p. 360. When the name Dimrill-dale was transferred southwards
and to the other side of the Misty Mountains it was replaced in the
north by Hoardale, and this name was pencilled later on the text
here.
4. This is the first occurrence of the names Cladden (River) and
Gladden Fields. The river had been shown on the Map of Wilder-
land in The Hobbit, with marshy land at its confluence with the
Great River, suggesting a region where 'gladdens' would grow.
At the foot of the page is a note that applies to the names in this
passage: 'These names are given in Hobbit [fashion >] translation.
Their real names were Tum Dincelon; Arad .Dain (Annerchin);
Crandir Redway; and Palathrin (Palath = Iris).' Tum Dincelon is
Dimrill-dale, in the original application (note 3). I do not under-
stand the reference of 'Arad Dain (Annerchin)'. My father first
wrote Tar and struck it out before writing Arad. For the names of
the River Redway see note 15. In the Etymologies the Noldorin
word palath = 'surface' (V. 380).
5. Cf. the Map of Wilderland in The Hobbit; 'Goblin Gate and Eyrie.'
6. According to The Tale of Years in LR (Appendix B) the Company
left Rivendell on 25 December.
7. This passage was rewritten over and over again, and it is impossible
to interpret the sequence precisely: but it is clear that my father first
envisaged the Company as mounted, with Boromir's 'great brown
horse', Gandalf's white horse, and seven ponies, five for the five
hobbits, and two pack-animals (see note 25). An intermediate stage
saw Boromir alone on foot: 'There were ponies for all the hobbits to
ride where the road allowed, and Gandalf of course had his horse;
but Boromir strode on foot, as he had come. The men of his race did
not ride horses.' The text printed is certainly the final formulation at
this stage, and is of course different from that in FR (p. 293), where
the sole beast of burden was Bill Ferny's pony, whom Sam called
Bill.
8. Cf. FR p. 293: 'Aragorn sat with his head bowed to his knees; only
Elrond knew fully what this hour meant to him.' See p. 430.
9. This is the first occurrence of Hollin; but the Elvish name Eregion
does not appear. In the Etymologies (V.356) the Elvish name of
Hollin is Regornion. - In FR (p. 296) Gandalf says that they have
come 45 leagues, but that was as the crow flies: 'many long miles
further our feet have walked.'
10. See the Note on Geography, pp. 440- 1.
11. At the first occurrence the name of the 'red horn mountain' was
replaced over and over again: first it was Bliscarn, then Carnbeleg
or Ruddyhorn, then, Tarager see the Etymoloies, V.391); also
written on the margins of the page are Caradras = Ruddihorn,
and Rhascaron. All these names appear on the contemporary map
(p. 439). At the next occurrence Carnbeleg was replaced by
Taragaer, and subsequently the name first written was Caradras
replaced by Taragaer, and finally Taragaer. I give Taragaer
throughout, as being apparently the preferred name at this stage.
Changes made in red ink at some later stage brought back Caradras.
12. On the dividing of the Misty Mountains into an eastern and a
western arm see the Note on Geography, p. 438. My father wrote
here first 'the great vale', and the replacement word is probably but
not certainly 'land'.
13. The name of the vale was first Carndoom the Red Valley; above was
written Carondun and Doon-Caron, but these were struck out.
Elsewhere on this page is Narodum = Red Vale; and the name in the
text was corrected in red ink to Dimrill-dale: Nanduhiriath (in FR
Nanduhirion). On the former application of Dimrill-dale see note 3.
At subsequent occurrences the name is Carndoom, Caron-doom,
Caron-dun, Dun Caron, and at the last the name was replaced in red
ink by Glassmere in Dimrilldale (note 37). Among these forms, all
meaning 'Red Valley', I have rather arbitrarily chosen Caron-dun to
stand as the consistent form in the text.
14. The name of the pass was first written Criscarn, with Cris-caron as a
rejected alternative; at subsequent occurrences both appear, but
with the preference to Cris-caron (also Cris-carron, Cris Caron),
which I adopt. Dimrill-stair replaces it twice in red ink, in the
present passage thus: 'over the pass that was [read is] called
Dimrill-stair (Pendrethdulur) under the side of Caradras.' The pass
was afterwards called the Redhorn Gate, the Dimrill-stair being the
descent from the pass on the eastern side; cf. note 21. With
Pendrethdulur cf. the Etymologies, V.380, pendrath 'passage up or
down a slope, stairway'.
15. The River Redway, the later Silverlode, has been referred to in an
outline dated August 1939 (p. 381), and at its occurrence at the
beginning of the chapter the Elvish name Crandir is given (note 4).
Here, above Redway, are written the names Rathgarn (struck out);
Rathcarn; Nenning (struck out); and Caradras or Redway. Written
in the margin is also Narosir = Redway. At this time Nenning had
not yet appeared in The Silmarillion and the Annals of Beleriand
as the name of the river in Beleriand west of Narog, .which was
still called Eglor. In red ink the name Celebrin was substituted
(Celebrant in FR). The river is called Caradras on the contem-
porary map (p. 439).
16. It was said in the outline given on p. 410 that Beleghir the Great
River divided into many channels in Fangorn Forest. See the map,
p. 439.
17. While in FR (p. 298) Aragorn says that he has seen hawks flying
high up, he does not say, as Trotter does here, 'That would account
for the silence.'
18. southwards: changed in pencil from northwards.
19. It was now 28 November (since they walked for three nights after
this and attempted Cris-caron on 2 December, pp. 422, 424). In
notes on phases of the Moon (found on the back of a page in the
previous section of this manuscript) my father gave the following
dates, showing that on the night of the 28th the Moon was in its first
quarter:
Last Quarter. New Moon. First Quarter. Full Moon.
Sept. 18. Sept. 25. Oct. 2. Oct. 10.
Oct. 17. Oct. 24. Oct. 31. Nov. 8.
Nov. 15. Nov. 22. Nov. 29. Dec. 7.
20. This incident was retained in FR, but it is not explained. The
Winged Nazgul had not yet crossed the River (The Two Towers
pp. 101, 201).
21. As written in ink, and before changes in pencil produced the passage
given, Gandalf said: 'Winter is behind. There is snow coming. In
fact it has come. The peaks behind are whiter than they were.'
Trotter's reply is the same, but he ends: 'we may get caught in a
blizzard before we get over the pass.' In the margin my father wrote:
'? Cut out prophecy of snow - let it come suddenly.' He struck this
out, but the passage as emended makes the threat of snow seem less
certain.
The words 'on our way to the red pass of Cris-caron' were
emended in red ink to 'on our way up the Dimrill-stair'; see note 14.
22. My father first wrote here (emending it to the text given at the time
of writing): 'But we have to go on, and we have to cross the
mountains here or go back. The passes further south are too far
away, and were all guarded years ago - they lead straight into the
country of the [Beardless Men Mani Aroman >] Horsemen.' In
the rewritten passage, the reference to the passes further south is
removed, but it reappears a little later: 'further south the passes are
held' (cf. FR p. 300: Further south there are no passes, till one
comes to the Gap of Rohan').
Before the name Rohan was reached several others were written,
Thanador, Ulthanador, Borthendor, Orothan[ador]. After Rohan
is written: [= Rochan(dor) = Horseland]. This is unquestionably
the point at which the name Rohan arose. Cf. the Etymologies,
V.384: Quenya rokko, Noldorin roch, horse.
A scribble in the margin seems to change 'The Horse-kings have
long been in the service of Sauron' to 'Rohan where the Horsekings
or Horselords are.' Cf. FR p. 300: 'Who knows which side now the
inarshals of the Horse-lords serve?'
23. In the original story Trotter favoured the passage of Moria and
Gandalf the pass; in FR (p. 300) it was Aragorn who favoured the
pass.
24. This passage, from 'Trotter and I have doubts of the weather', is a
rewriting in pencil of a much longer passage in which Gandalf
introduced at this point the subject of Moria. Gandalf says:
'Trotter thinks we are likely to be caught in a heavy snow-storm
before we get across [see note 21]. I think we shall have to attempt
it, all the same. But there is another way, or there used to be. I
don't know whether you have heard of the Mines of Moria, or the
Black [Pit >] Gulf?'
Gandalf then describes Moria; and after this the original text
continues:
The hearts of the travellers sank at his words. All of them would
have voted at once for the cold and perils of the high pass rather
than for the black gulfs of Moria. But Gandalf did not ask for a
vote. After a silence he said: 'There is no need to ask you to
decide. I know which way you would choose, and I choose the
same. We will try the pass.'
The introduction of Moria was postponed until after the Company
had been forced back from the pass by the snowstorm; and Gandalf's
words about it reappear there in closely similar form (see p. 429 and
note 38). The second occurrence of the passage is in ink and an
integral part of the chapter.
25. 'pack ponies' is a pencilled emendation from 'horses and ponies'; see
note 7. But when the travellers halt under the overhanging cliff the
reference to 'the two ponies' (p.424) is in the text as first written.
26. This sentence was marked with a query and enclosed within square
brackets at the time of writing. Later my father wrote here: 'Not all
evil things are Sauron['s]', and 'The hawks' (referring presumably
to the hawks which Trotter saw high up over Hollin, and said
'accounted for the silence', p. 420); and in the margin: 'Gimli says
Caradras had an ill name even in days when Sauron was of little
account' (see FR p. 303).
27. As first written (but at once rejected) the content of these speeches
(from '"This is hopeless," said Gandalf. "You can call it the wind if
you like..."') was more condensed and was given entirely to
Gandalf.
28. In the same passage in FR (p. 303) the date is 12 January; the
Company had left Rivendell on 25 December, and so had been in
the wilderness for nineteen nights. But in the original story the
journey was shorter: 'when they had been about ten days on the road
the weather grew better' (p. 418), whereas FR (p. 295) has 'a
fortnight'.
29. This sentence replaced (probably at once): 'But the snow continued
to fall unrelenting, and at length Gandalf had to admit that being
buried in snow was at the moment the chief danger.' With the words
had to admit cf. notes 23 and 30.
30. 'Trotter' was changed in pencil to 'Gandalf'. In the context of the
story at this stage Trotter would be the more likely to say this (see
notes 23 and 29), but in the rough preliminary draft given in note 1 it
is said by Gandalf.
31. My father pencilled here: 'Boromir knows snow from the Black
Mountains. He was born a mountaineer'; but he struck this out. It is
said in the outline given on p. 410 that Fangorn Forest extended up
to the Black Mountains (changed from Blue Mountains, which are
referred to on the contemporary map).
32. Pencilled changes altered the speakers in this passage, but I believe
that these are later. The question 'How are me to get to the turn?' is
taken from Trotter and given to Merry (probably because my father
had decided that Trotter was a Man), who goes on 'It is a pity
Gandalf can't produce flame enough to melt us a pathway'; and it is
Merry, not Boromir, who makes the remark about a tame dragon
and a wild wizard. But since subsequently it is to Boromir that
Gandalf apologises for his irritability, these changes were casual and
not fully integrated into the narrative. Either at this time or later the
remark about Gandalf's melting them a path was transferred to
Legolas (cf. FR p. 305), and this is obviously a structurally
irrelevant addition, like that concerning Gimli in note 26.
33. The descent of the Company through the deep snow was first told
quite differently, though the version given replaced the other before
it was completed. As first written, Gandalf relented at once towards
Boromir (after 'It will serve you right if you meet a wild dragon') and
since he appeared already tired gave him a further sip of Elrond's
cordial. Boromir was to carry each hobbit down separately (cf. the
preliminary sketch given in note r) and began with Frodo; at the
drift he stumbled on a hidden stone and Frodo was thrown into the
deep snow and disappeared, but Boromir 'soon recovered him'. Sam
was brought down next ('he had disapproved greatly of his master
(with the Ring) being left alone and out of reach in any sudden
danger'). Boromir was then too tired to repeat the ascent and
descent three times more, and this version ends with hasty notes
telling that Trotter, Faramond, and Merry were put on the ponies,
while Gandalf behind and Boromir ahead, carrying the baggage,
'ploughed their way down dragging and thrusting the ponies
forward.'
My father then wrote: 'Or alter all above', and proposed that the
whole Company should go down together. In the second version,
given in the text, he neglected to mention that Boromir returned
once more to bring down the baggage. The story in FR is of course
entirely different since Trotter has become Aragorn.
34. Moria is translated 'Black Gulf' in the first, rejected occurrence of
this passage (note 24). An isolated note earlier in the MS has 'Moria
= Black Gulf', with the etymology yago, ia; here 'Gulf' is a
correction of some other word which I cannot interpret. Cf. the
Etymologies, V.400, stem YAG 'yawn, gape', where Moria is trans-
lated 'Black Gulf'.
35. This is not the first use of the word Orcs in the LR papers: Gandalf
refers to 'orcs and goblins' among the servants of the Dark Lord,
pp. 211, 364; cf. also pp. 187, 320. But the rarity of the usage at this
stage is remarkable. The word Orc goes back to the Lost Tales, and
had been pervasive in all my father's subsequent writings. In the
Lost Tales the two terms were used as equivalents, though some-
times apparently distinguished (see II. 364, entry Coblins). A clue
may be found in a passage that occurs in both the earlier and the later
Quenta (I V.82, V.233): 'Goblins they may be called, but in ancient
days they mere strong and fell.' At this stage it seems that 'Orcs' are
to be regarded as a more formidable kind of 'Goblin', so in the
preliminary sketch for 'The Mines of Moria' (p. 443) Gandalf says
'there are goblins - of very evil kind, larger than usual, real orcs.' -
It is incidentally notable that in the first edition of The Hobbit the
word Orcs is used only once (at the end of Chapter VII 'Queer
Lodgings'), while in the published LR goblins is hardly ever used.
36. Strangely, this is not at all in agreement with what Gloin had said at
Rivendell (p. 391): For many years things went well, and the
colony throve; there was traffic once more between Moria and the
Mountain, and many gifts of silver were sent to Dain.'
37. It is here that the emendation in red ink to Classmere in Dimrilldale
is made (note 13). This is the first appearance of the lake in Dimrill
Dale; on the contemporary map it is marked and named Mirror-
38. Gandalf's account of Moria here differs from the earlier form (see
note 24) only in that here there is mention of Durin, of the peace
between Elves and Dwarves, and of Orcs (see note 35) - the rejected
version refers only to goblins. In that version it is said that the
Dwarves of Caron-dun 'sent their goods down the Great River.'
39. 'ten' changed in pencil to '20'. In FR (p. 311) Gandalf says: 'There
was a door south-west of Caradhras, fifteen miles as the crow flies,
and maybe twenty as the wolf runs.'
See note 23. In the margin, probably made at the time of writing of
the manuscript, is a note: 'Trotter was caught there.' This contrasts
with what was said earlier, at the Council of Elrond (p. 401): 'Thus
it was that Frodo learned how Trotter had tracked Gollum as he
wandered southwards, through Fangorn Forest, and past the Dead
Marshes, until he had himself been caught and imprisoned by the
Dark Lord.'
Note on the Geography and the contemporary Map.
The extremely rapid, rough, and now tattered map reproduced on
p. 439 can with complete certainty, I think, be ascribed to the time of the
original writing of this chapter. It was my father's first representation of
Middle-earth south of the Map of Wilderland in The Hobbit - which he
had before him, as the courses of the rivers show.
Going from North to South on the map, there is Carrock at the top;
and Gladden (River) and Gl[adden] Fields (see p. 416 and note 4).
Hollin is named and roughly marked with a broken line; and the names,
struck out, to the right of the mountains are Taragaer, Caradras (with
the final form Caradras beside it in pencil), Carnbeleg, and Rhascarn
(see note 11). The pass is called Dimrill, with (probably) Cris-caron
struck out (note 14); and Mirrormere is marked, the first occurrence of
the name (see note 37). West of the mere Moria is marked; below are two
illegible names and below them Bliscarn (note 11) and again Carnbeleg,
all struck out.
The division of the Misty Mountains into two arms here, referred to by
Gandalf in the present text (pp. 419, 429) and by Gimli in FR (p. 296), is
shown far more markedly on this original map than it is on my father's
later ones - where the eastern arm is shown as actually less extensive than
it is on mine published in LR. For the names of the valley between the
arms of the mountains see note 13.
The vast westward swing of the Great River {marked great bend) is
already in being, but the placing of Fangorn Forest (in which my father's
writing of the word Forest is a sample of his more rapid script) would
later be wholly changed. That the Great River flowed through the midst
of Fangorn is stated by Gandalf (p. 419 and note 16). The name Belfalas
in the North-east of Fangorn is in red ink (the only item that is);
afterwards Belfalas was a coastal region of Gondor, and since falas
('shore') was one of the most ancient of Elvish words (see 1.253) it is hard
to see how it could be used to refer to a region of forest far inland. I
suspect that my father wrote it on the page after, or before, the making of
this extremely rapid map and without any reference to it, so that it has no
significance in this context.
For the various proposed names of the river Redway in the text see
note 15; among them is Caradras, which is written on the map (but
struck through in pencil).
Across the Misty Mountains further south is written 'Place this pass
into Rohan further south' (on passes over the Mountains south of
Caradras see note 22). At the bottom of the map on the left is written:
(The earliest map of the lands south of the
Map of Wilderland in The Hobbit.)
'Rohan. Horsekings land Hippanaletians... [possibly kn standing for
kingdom] Anaxippians Rohiroth Rochiroth.' The Hippanaletians and
Anaxippians ('Horse-lords') are surprising.
At the right-hand corner is: Below here are the Blue Mts. Compare
Gandalf's words in the first sketching of 'The Council of Elrond'
(p. 397): 'Giant Treebeard, who haunts the Forest between the River
and the South Mountains'; the outline given on p. 410 in which it is said
that Fangorn Forest runs up into the Blue (> Black) Mountains; and the
rejected note to the present text in which it was said that Boromir was
'born a mountaineer' in the Black Mountains (note 31).
A question arises concerning the line of the Misty Mountains. In this
original text it is said (p. 418), as in FR (p. 295), that south of Rivendell
the mountains bent westward; and this is shown on the Map of the
Wilderland in The Hobbit. It will be seen that if the line of the mountains
where it leaves that map, some distance south of the sources of the
Gladden, be continued without further westward curving, a track run-
ning south from the Ford of Rivendell will strike the mountain chain
somewhere near Caradhras. This is in fact precisely what is shown on my
father's three maps that exhibit the whole range of the Misty Mountains.
On two of them the mountains run in a straight line from about the
latitude of Rivendell (as also on my map published in LR); on one of
them (the earliest) the line curves very slightly westward from some way
north of Hollin; but on all three a line drawn south from the Ford must
cut the mountains at an acute angle in the region of Hollin, simply
because the line of the mountains is south-south-west.
It is therefore curious that the original sketch-map discussed here does
not really agree with the original text (p. 418). The travellers went south
from the Ford; and on the borders of Hollin 'far away south Frodo saw
the dim shapes of mountains, that seemed now to lie across their path. To
the left of this distant range a tall peak stood up like a tooth': that was
Taragaer, the Redhorn (Caradhras). And when Faramond said that he
thought that they must have turned east, since the mountains were now
in front of them, Gandalf said No, it is the mountains that have turned.
But on the old map, a line drawn south from the Ford would only strike
the mountains far south of Moria and the Red Pass; and this is because
my father bent the mountain-line almost due south in the region of
Hollin, so that the course from the Ford and the mountain-line then
become nearly parallel. This is possibly no more than a consequence of
the speed and roughness with which the map was made - the merest
guide; but it is curious that the dotted line marking the route of the
travellers does actually turn strongly south-east towards the pass - as
Faramond thought that it had!
Barbara Strachey, writing on this question in Journeys of Frodo (Map
17), remarks: 'The mountains bent westward as they went; more so, in
my opinion, than appears in the maps of Middle-earth, especially south
of the Redhorn Pass. Frodo said that they then seemed to "stand across
the path" that the Companions were taking' (FR p. 295). This is arguable;
but the point is strengthened by Gandalf's reply to Pippin, who has said
that they must have turned east: 'No, but you see further ahead in the
clear light. Beyond those peaks [i.e. the Mountains of Moria] the range
bends round south-west' (FR p. 296). On none of my father's maps is
there a change in the direction of the main mountain-chain south of
Caradhras. But all show some degree of mountainous extension west-
wards from the main chain at the point where the Glanduin flows down
towards Greyflood: very slight in one (and so represented on my map in
LR), more marked on a second, and on the third (the earliest) amounting
to a virtual division of the range, with a broad arm of mountains running
southwest. On the elaborate map in coloured chalks that I made in 1943
(see p. zoo) this is again a strongly marked feature.* It may be that it was
to this that Gandalf was referring.
In this connection it may be mentioned that on my map published in
LR the mountainous heights shown extending from the main range
westwards north of Hollin are badly exaggerated from what my father
intended: 'about the feet of the main range there was tumbled an ever
wider land of bleak hills, and deep valleys filled with turbulent water'
(FR p. 295).
(* The map referred to here as 'the earliest' (cf. also p. 202) is my father's
original elaborate working map of The Lord of the Rings (on which my 1943 map
was closely based). This map will be studied in Vol, VII.)
XXV.
THE MINES OF MORIA.
I have little doubt that the first draft of this chapter was written
continuously from the end of 'The Ring Goes South', both from internal
evidence and external (the nature of the manuscript). But there is also a
very interesting two-page 'Sketch of the Mines of Moria chapter' which, I
think, immediately preceded the writing of it. This 'Sketch' is extremely
difficult to read, and some words can only be guessed at.
Their adventures must be made different from Lonely Moun-
tain. Tunnels leading in every direction, sloping up and running
steeply down. stairs. pits. noise of water in darkness.
Gandalf guided mainly by the general sense of direction. They
had brought one bundle of torches in case of need, z each. Gandalf i
won't use them until necessary. Faint spark from his staff.
Glamdring does not glow, therefore no goblins near.
How far to go. How long will it take. Gandalf reckons at least z
days, perhaps more. Thought of a night (or two!) in Moria
terrifies them. Frodo feels dread growing. Perhaps his adventures
with the Ring have made him sensitive. While others are keeping
up spirits with hopeful talk he feels the certainty of evil creeping
over him, but says nothing. He constantly fancies he hears patter
of feet of [?some creature] behind - [? this] is Gollum as it proves
long after.
It was about ten o'clock in the morning when they entered.
They had had little rest. They went on (with z halts) until too
weary to go much further. They came to a dark arch leading to 3
passages all leading in same general direction, but the left down,
the right up, the centre (apparently) level. Gandalf unable to
choose: he does not remember the place.
They halt for the night in a small chamber (almost like a guard-
room watching the entrances) just to [?their] left. A deep pit to
right. A loose stone falls in. Several minutes before they hear a
noise of it reach bottom. After that some of them fancy a far off
echo of small knocks at intervals (like signals?). But nothing
further happens that night. Gandalf sleeps little trying to choose
the road. [? In end] chooses the right hand upward way. They go
for nearly 8 hours exclusive of halts.'(1)
Come to a great chamber. Door in [?south] wall. Dim light - a
[!high?huge] chimney like shaft slanting up. Far up a gleam of
daylight. The gleam falls on a great square table of stone [written
above: a tomb].
There is another door in west [written above: east] wall. There
are lances and swords and [? broken lying] by both doors.
The gleam of light shows carved letters. Here lies Balin son of
Burin, Lord of Moria. In the recesses are chests and a few swords
and shields. Chests empty except one. Here is a book with some
dwarf writing.
Tells how Balin came to Moria. Then hand changes and tells
how he died - of [?an] arrow that came unawares. Then how
'enemies' invaded the east gates. We cannot get out of the west
gates because of the 'dweller in the water'. Brief account of siege.
Last scrawl says 'they are coming'.
I think we had better be going, said Gandalf. At that moment
there is a noise like a great boom far underneath. Then a terrible
noise like a horn echoed endlessly. Gandalf springs to door. Noise
like goblin feet.
Gandalf lets out a blinding flash and cries Who comes there?
Ripple of..... laughter - and some deep voices.
Gandalf says there are goblins - of very evil kind, larger than
usual, real orcs.(2) Also certainly some kind of troll is leading them.
Plan of defence. They gather at east door. But [?south] door
is propped ajar with wedges. Great arm and shoulder appear by
the..... door. Gandalf hews it with Glamdring. Frodo stabs foot
with Sting. Horrible cry. Arrows whistle in through crack.
Orcs leap in but are killed.
[? Boom] as great rocks hit door.
They rush out through east door - opens outwards - and slam
it. [?They Ay] up a long wide tunnel Noise soon shows east door
is broken down. Pursuit is after them.
Here follows the loss of Gandalf.
In pencil in the margin against the account of the attack on the chamber is
written:
Black-mailed orc leaps in and goes for Frodo with spear - he is
saved by the elfmail and strikes down the orc.
This is a very striking example of an important narrative passage in
The Lord of the Rings at its actual moment of emergence. Here as
elsewhere many of the most essential elements were present from the
first: the junction of three roads, Gandalf's doubt, the guardroom, the
falling stone and the subterranean tapping that followed, the chamber of
Balin's tomb, the writing in the book, the troll, and much else. That
Gollum should be following them in Moria had been proposed in the
outline given on p. 410: 'Gollum must reappear at or after Moria. Frodo
hears patter.'
Gandalf's sword Glamdring (Foe-hammer), which he took from the
trolls' lair and which (so Elrond told him) 'the king of Gondolin once
wore', now reappears from The Hobbit.
Balin's father (Fundin in The Hobbit as in LR) is here surprisingly
Burin; this dwarf-name (found in Old Norse) had previously been
given to Balin's son, in the first drafts for 'The Council of Elrond'
(pp. 395, 397), before he was replaced by Gimli son of Gloin (p.
400).
The story that Bilbo gave Sting and his 'elf-mail' to Frodo before he
left Rivendell (FR pp. 290 - 1) entered in the sketch given on p. 397.
This is not the first reference to the loss of Gandalf; see p. 381, and for
the first sketch of the event see p. 462.
This 'Sketch' begins when the Company is already inside Moria. For
the story of their approach to the West Gate and the opening of the door
there seems to be only the following by way of preparatory outline
(though the 'dweller in the water' before the West Gate appears in the
'Sketch', p.443, in the words of the book found in the chamber of Balin's
tomb). It follows and was written at the same time as the sketch of the
descent from the Red Pass in the snow (p. 431, note 1).
Moria's west gates are dwarf-gates (closed like the Lonely
Mountain); but openable not at a set time but by a [?special
?speech] spell. Gandalf knows or [?thinks] it must be one of
[? three] in ancient tongue - for the Elves of Hollin wrought the
spell.
Holly bushes grow before these gates. Then Gandalf knows it
is an elf-spell.
I give now the first draft text of the chapter. It was numbered from the
outset 'XIV', presumably because my father had decided that 'The Ring
Goes South' was a separate chapter and so should be numbered 'XIII',
though he never wrote that number on the manuscript. My description
of the text of 'The Ring Goes South' (p. 415) can be repeated here still
more emphatically. The writing, again in ink not pencil, is even faster
and more often indecipherable, the amount of rejected material (often
not struck out) even greater; many passages are chaotic. There is also a
certain amount of pencilled correction, probably made at different times,
and some of it obviously belonging to a later stage. In one case, my father
made a quite careful insertion in ink, saying that Gimli was of little help
to Gandalf in finding a way through Moria (cf. FR p. 324), though he put
in no montion of Gimli anywhere else. The text is thus difficult to
interpret and still more difficult to represent.
It will be seen that the entire story of the attack by the Wargs in the
night after the Company came down from the pass (FR pp. 310 - 13) is
absent.
THE MINES OF MORIA.
Next day the weather changed again, almost as if it obeyed the
orders of some power that had now given up the idea of snow,
since they had retreated from Cris-caron. The wind had turned
southward in the night. In the morning it was veering west, and
rain was beginning to fall. The travellers pitched a tent in a
sheltered hollow and remained quiet all the day till the afternoon
was drawing towards evening.
All the day they had heard no sound and seen no sign of any
living thing. As soon as the light began to fade they started off
again. A light rain was still falling, but that did not trouble them
much at first. Gandalf and Trotter led them in a detour away from
',: ' the Mountains, for they planned to come at Moria up the course of
a stream that ran out from the feet of the hills not far from the
hidden gates. But it seemed that somehow or other they must have
gone astray in the dark, for it was a black night under an overcast
sky. In any case, they did not strike the stream, and morning
found them wandering and floundering in wet and marshy places
filled with red pools, for there was much clay in the hollows.(3)
They were somewhat comforted by a change in the weather: the
clouds broke and the rain stopped. The sun came out in gleams.
But Gandalf was fretted by the delay, and decided to move on
again by day, after only a few hours' rest. There were no birds in
the sky or other ominous signs. They steered now straight back
towards the mountains, but both Gandalf and Trotter were much
puzzled by their failure to find the stream.
When they had come back again to the foothills and lower slopes
they struck a narrow watercourse in a deep channel; but it was
dry, and there was now no water among [the] reddish stones in the
bed. There was, however, still something like an open path on the
left bank.
'This is where the stream used to run, I feel sure,' said Gandalf.
'Sirannon the Gatestream (4) they used to call it. Anyway our road
lies up this course.' The night was now falling, but though they
were already tired, especially the hobbits, Gandalf urged them to
press on.
'Are you thinking of climbing to the top of the mountains
tonight, in time to get an early view of the dawn?' asked Merry.
'I should think of it if there was any chance of doing it!' said
Gandalf. 'But no one can scale the mountains here. The gates are
not high up, but in a certain place near the foot of a great cliff. I
hope I can find it - but things seem oddly changed, since I was last
here.'
Before the night was old the moon, now only two days off the
full,(5) rose through the clouds that lay on the eastern peaks, and
shone fitfully down over the western lands. They trudged on with
their weary feet stumbling among the stones, until suddenly they
came to a wall of rock some thirty feet high. Over it ran a trickling
fall of water, but plainly the fall had once been much stronger.
'Ah! Now I know where we are! ' cried Gandalf. 'This is where the
Stair-falls were. I wonder what has happened to them. But if I am
right there is a stairway cut in the stone at the left: the main path
goes further round and up an incline. There is or was a wide and
shallow valley above the falls through which the Sirannon flowed.'
Very soon they found the stairway, and followed by Frodo and
Trotter Gandalf climbed quickly up. When they got to the top
they discovered the reason of the drying up of the stream.
The moon was now sinking westwards. It shone out brightly for
a while, and they saw stretched before their feet a dark still lake,
glinting in the moonlight. The Gate-stream had been dammed,
and had filled all the valley. Only a trickle of water escaped over
the old falls, for the main outlet of the lake was now away at the
southern end.(6)
Before them, dim and grey across the dark water, stood a cliff.
The moonlight lay pale upon it, and it looked cold and forbidding:
a final bar to all passage. Frodo could see no sign of any gate or
entrance in the frowning stone.
'This way is blocked!' said Gandalf. 'At least it is, as far as can
be seen by night. I don't suppose anyone wants to try and swim
across by moonlight - or any other light. The pool has an
unwholesome look. When it was made or why I do not know, but
not for any good purpose, I guess.'
'We must try and find a way round by the main path,' said
Trotter. 'Even if there was no lake we could not get our ponies up
the narrow stair.'
'And even if we could, they would not be able to go into the
Mines,' said Gandalf. 'Our road there under the mountains will
take us by paths where they cannot go - even if we can.'
'I wondered if you had thought of that drawback,' said Trotter.
'I supposed you had, though you did not mention it.'
'No need to mention it, until necessary,' answered the wizard.
'We will take them as far as we can. It remains to be seen if
the [? other] road is not drowned as well: in which case we may not
be able to get at the gates at all.'
'If the gates are still there,' said Trotter.
They had no great difficulty in finding the old path. It turned
away from the falls and wound northward for some way, before
bending east again, and climbed up a long slope. When they
reached the top of this they saw the lake lying on the right. The
path skirted its very edge, but was not submerged. For the most
part it was just above the water; but in one place, at the northern-
most end of the lake, where there was a slimy and stagnant pool, it
disappeared for a short distance, before bending south again
toward the foot of the great cliff.
When they reached this point Boromir went forward, and found
that the path was only just awash. Carefully they threaded their
way in single file behind him. The footing was slippery and
treacherous; Frodo felt a curious disgust at the very feel of the
dark water on his feet.
As Faramond the last of the party stepped onto the dry land,
there was a soft sound, a swish followed by a plop, as if a fish had
disturbed the still surface of the water. Turning swiftly they saw
in the moonlight ripples sharpened [?with] dark shadows: great
rings were widening outwards from some point near the middle of
the pool.' They halted; and at that very moment the light went
out, as the moon fell and vanished into low clouds. There was a
soft bubbling noise in the lake, and then silence.
It was too dark to seek for the gate in that changed valley, and
the rest of the night the travellers spent unhappily, sitting watch-
ful between the cliff and the dark water which they could no longer
see. None of them slept more than briefly and uneasily.
But with the morning their spirits revived. Slowly the light
reached the lake: its dark surface was still and unruffled by any
breeze. The sky was clear above, and slowly the sun rose above the
mountains at their back, and shone on the western lands before
them. They ate a little food, and rested for a while after the
cheerless night, until the sun reached the south and its warm rays
slanted down, driving away the shadows of the great wall behind.
Then Gandalf stood up and said that it was high time to begin to
search for the gates. The strip of dry land left by the lake was quite
narrow, and their path took them close under the face of the cliff.
When they had gone for almost a mile southward they came to
some holly-trees. There were stumps and dead logs rotting in the
water - the remains of old thickets, or of a hedge that had once
lined the submerged road across the drowned valley. But close
under the cliff there stood, still living and strong, two tall trees
with great roots that spread from the wall to the water's edge.
From far across under the other side in the fitful moon Frodo had
thought them mere bushes on piles of stone: but now they towered
above his head: stiff, silent, dark except for their clustered berries:
standing like sentinels or pillars at the end of a road.
'Well, here we are at last! ' said Gandalf. 'This is where the elf-
way from Hollin ended. The holly-trees were planted by the elves
in the old days to mark the end of their domains - the westgates
were made chiefly for their use in their traffic with the dwarves.
This is the end of our path - and now I am afraid we must say
farewell to our ponies. The good beasts would go almost anywhere
we told them to; but I do not think we could get them to go into the
dark passages of Moria. And in any case there are behind the west
gate many steep stairs, and many difficult and dangerous places
where ponies could not pass, or would be a perilous handicap. If
we are to win through we must travel lighter. Much of the stuff we
have brought against bitter weather will not be wanted inside, nor
when we get to the other side and turn south.'
'But surely you aren't going to leave the poor beasts in this
forsaken place, Mr Gandalf!' protested Sam, who was specially
fond of ponies.
'Don't you worry, Sam! They'll find their way back home in
time. They have wiser noses even than most of their kind, and
these two have returned to Elrond from far away before now. I
expect they'll make off west and then work back northward
through country where they can find grass.'
'I'd be happier if I might lead them back past the wash and
down to the old falls,' said Sam, ' - I'd like to sort of say goodbye
and set them on the road as it were.'
'Very well, you can,' said Gandalf. 'But first let us unlade them
and distribute the goods we mean to keep.'
When each member of the party had been given a share accord-
ing to his size - most of the foodstuffs and the waterskins - the
remainder was secured again on the ponies' backs. In each bundle
Gandalf put a brief message to Elrond written in secret runes,
telling him of the snowstorm and their turning aside to Moria.
Then Sam and Trotter led the horses off.
'Now let us have a look at the gates!' said Gandalf.(8)
'I do not see any gates,' said Merry.
'Dwarf-gates are not made to be seen,' said the wizard. 'Many
are quite invisible, and their own masters cannot find them if their
secret is lost. But these gates were not made to be wholly (9) secret,
and unless things are altogether changed eyes that know what to
look for may discover the signs. Let us go and see! '
He strode forward to the cliff-wall. There was a smooth space
right in the middle of the shade of the trees, and over this he
passed his hands to and fro, muttering words under his breath.
Then he stepped back. 'Look!' he said. 'Can you see anything
now? ' The sun shone across the face of the wall, and as the
travellers stared at it, it seemed to them that on the surface where
Gandalf's hand had passed faint lines appeared like slender veins
of silver running in the stone; at first they seemed like pale threads
of gossamer so fine as only to be seen fitfully where the sun caught
them; but slowly they broadened and their design could be
guessed. At the top, as high as Gandalf could reach, was an arch of
interlacing letters in the elvish character; below it seemed (though
the drawing was in places blurred and broken) that there was the
outline of an anvil and hammer, and above that a crown and a
crescent moon. More clearly than all else there shone forth palely
three stars with many rays.'
'Those are the emblems of Durin and of the Elves,' said
Gandalf. 'They are of some silver substance that is seen only when
touched by one who knows certain words - at night under the
moon they shine most bright." Now you can see that we have
certainly found the west gate of Moria.'
'What does the writing say?' asked Frodo, who was trying to
puzzle out the inscription. 'I thought I knew the elf-letters, but I
cannot read these, they are so tangled.'
'The words are in the elf-tongue, not in ordinary language,' said
Gandalf. 'But they do not say anything of much importance to us.
Certainly they don't tell the opening-spell, if that i's what you are
thinking. They merely say: The Doors of Durin Lord of Moria.
Speak friends and enter. And underneath very small and now faint
is: Narfi made them.(12) Celebrimbor of Hollin drew these signs.'
'What does it mean by "speak friends and enter"?' asked Frodo.
'That is plain enough,' said Gandalf, ' - if you are friends speak
the password, and then the door will open and you can enter.
Some dwarf-gates will open only at special times, or for particular
(The inscription of the West Gate of Moria.)
persons; and some have keys and locks which are necessary even
when all other conditions are fulfilled. In the days of Durin these
gates were not secret: they usually stood open and door-wards sat
here. But if they were shut anyone who knew the opening words
could speak them and pass in.'
'Do you know them then?'
'No! ' said Gandalf.
The others looked surprised and dismayed - all except Trotter,
who knew Gandalf very well. 'Then what was the use of bringing
us here?' asked Boromir wrathfully.
'And how did you get in when you explored the Mines, as you
told us just now?' asked Frodo.
'The answer to your question, Boromir,' said the wizard, 'is that
I don't know - not yet. But we shall soon see; and, ' he added, with
a glint in his eyes under bristling brows, 'you can start being
uncivil, when it is proved useless: not before. As for your ques-
tion,' he said, turning sharply on Frodo, 'the answer is obvious: I
did not enter this way. I came from the East. If it interests you I
may add that these doors open outwards with a push, but nothing
can open them inwards. They can swing out, or they can be
broken if you have enough force.'
'What are you going to do then?' asked Merry,(13) who was not
much disturbed by Gandalf's bristling brows; and in his heart
hoped that the doors would prove impossible to open.
'I am going to try and find the opening words. I once knew every
formula and spell in any language of elves, dwarves, or goblins
that was ever used for such purposes. I can still remember two or
three hundreds without racking my brains. But I think only a few
trials should be necessary. The opening words were in Elvish, like
the written words - I feel certain: from the signs on the doors,
from the holly trees, and because of the use for which the road and
gates were originally made.' He stepped up to the rock and lightly
touched with his wand the silver star that was near the middle of
the emblems, just above the crown.
Annon porennin diragas venwed
diragath-telwen porannin nithrad.(14)
he said. The silver letters faded, but the grey blank stone did not
stir. Many many times he tried other formulas one after another,
but nothing further happened. Then he tried single words spoken
in commanding tones, and finally (seeming to lose his temper) he
shouted Edro, edro! and followed it with open! in every language
he could remember. Then he sat down in silence.
Boromir was smiling broadly behind his back. 'It looks as if we
may be wanting those ponies back,' he said in an undertone. 'It
would have been wiser to have kept them till the gates were
open.'(15) If Gandalf heard he made no sign.
Suddenly in the silence Frodo heard a soft swish and bubble in
the water (16) as on the evening before, only softer. Turning quickly
he saw faint ripples on the surface of the lake - and at the same
time saw that Sam and Trotter in the distance [were] crossing
the wash on their return. The ripples on the water seemed to be
moving in their direction.
'I don't like this place,' said Merry, who had also seen the
ripples. 'I wish we could go back, or that Gandalf would do
something and we could go on - if we must.'
'I have a queer feeling,' said Frodo slowly, ' - a dread either of
the gates or of something else. But I don't think Gandalf is
defeated: he is thinking hard, I fancy.'
It appeared that Frodo was right; for the wizard suddenly
sprang to his feet with a laugh. 'I have it! ' he cried. 'Of course, of
course! Absurdly simple - when you think of it! ' Raising his wand
he stood before the rock and said in a clear voice: Mellyn! (or
Meldir!) (17)
The three stars shone briefly and went out again. Then silently
a great door was outlined, though not the finest crack or joint had
been visible before. Slowly it began to swing outwards, inch by
inch until it lay right back against the wall.' Behind, the foot of a
shadowy stairway could be seen climbing up into the gloom
within. All the party stood and stared in wonder.
'I was wrong after all,' said Gandalf. 'The opening word was
inscribed there all the time. Speak friends and enter it said, and
when I spoke the elvish word for friends, it opened. Quite simple!
And now we can enter.'
But at that moment Frodo felt something seize his ankle and he
fell. At the same moment Sam and Trotter who had just come
back gave a yell as they ran up. Turning suddenly the others saw
that a long arm, sinuous as a tentacle, was thrust out from the
lake's dark edge. It was pale green-grey and wet: its fingered end
had hold of Frodo's foot and was dragging him towards the water.
Sam dashed up with a drawn knife and slashed at it. The fingers
let go of Frodo and Sam dragged him away; but immediately the
waters of the lake began to heave and boil, and twenty more
writhing arms came rippling out, making for the travellers as if
directed by something in the deep pools that could see them all.
'Into the gateway! Quick! Up the stairs!' shouted Gandalf,
rousing them from the horror that had held them rooted.
There was just time. Gandalf saw them all inside, and then
sprang back upon the heels of Trotter, but he was no more than
four steps up when the crawling fingers of the dweller in the pool
reached the cliff.(19)
He paused. But if he was pondering how to close the door, or
what word would move them from within, there was no need. For
the arms seized the door, and with dreadful strength swung it
round. With a shattering echo it slammed behind them; and they
halted on the stairs in dismay as the sounds of rending and
crashing came dully through the stones from outside. Gandalf ran
down to the door and thrust up.... and spoke the.... words;>
but though the door groaned it did not stir.
'I am afraid the door is blocked behind us now,' he said. 'If I
guess right, the trees are thrown down across it, and boulders have
been rolled against it. I am sorry for the trees - they were beautiful
and old and had..... so long.(21) Well now, we can only go on -
there is nothing left to do.'
'I am mighty glad I saw those poor beasts safe first,' said Sam.
'I felt that something evil was near,' said Frodo. 'What was it,
Gandalf? '
'I could not say,' said Gandalf, '- there was not time enough to
look at the arms. They all belong to one creature, I should say,
from the way they moved - but that is all I can say. Something that
has..... crept, or been driven out of the dark waters under
ground, I guess. There are older and fouler things than goblins in
the dark places of the world.' He did not speak aloud his uncom-
fortable thought that the Dweller in the Pool had not seized on
Frodo among all the party by accident.(22)
Gandalf now went ahead and allowed his wand to glow faintly to
prevent them from walking into unseen dangers in the dark. But
the great stairway was sound and undamaged. There were two
hundred steps, broad and shallow; and at the top they found the
floor level before them.
'Let us have something to eat here on the landing, since we can't
find a dining-room,' said Frodo. He had recovered from the terror
of the clutching arm, and was feeling unusually hungry. The idea
was welcome to all. After they had eaten Gandalf again gave them
a taste of the cordial.
'It won't last much longer,' he said, 'but I think we need it after
that business at the gate. And we shall need all that is left before we
get through, unless we have luck. Go carefully with the water too!
There are streams and wells in the Mines, but they should not be
touched. We shan't get a chance of filling our bottles till we come
down in Dunruin.'(23)
'How long are we going to take to get through?' asked Frodo.
'I don't know that,' answered Gandalf. 'It all depends. But
going straight (without mishaps, or losing our way) we should
take at least three or four marches. It cannot be less than forty
miles from West-doors to Eastgate in a straight line, and we may
not find the most direct passages.'
They rested now only for a short while, as all were eager to get
the journey over as quickly as possible, and were willing, tired as
they were, to go on still for several hours. They had no fuel or
means of making torches, and would be obliged to find the way
mostly in the dark.(24) Gandalf went in front holding in his left hand
his wand, the pale light of which was sufficient to show the ground
before his feet. In his right hand he held the sword Glamdring,
which he had kept ever since it was discovered in the trolls' lair.(25)
No gleam came from it - which was some comfort; for being a
sword of ancient elvish make it shone with a cold light, if goblins
were at hand.
He led them forward first along the passage in which they had
halted. As the light of his wand dimly lit their dark openings other
passages and tunnels could 'be seen or guessed: sloping up, or
running steeply down, or turning suddenly round hidden corners.
It was most bewildering. Gandalf was guided mainly by his
general sense of direction: and anyone who had been on a journey
with him knew that he never lost that by dark or day, underground
or above it: being better at steering in a tunnel than a goblin, and
less likely to be lost in a wood than a hobbit, and surer of finding
the way through night as black as the Pit than the cats of Queen
Beruthiel.(26) Had that not been so, it is more than doubtful if the
party would have gone a mile without disaster. For there were not
only many paths to choose from, there were in many places pits at
the sides of the tunnel, and dark wells in which far under the
gurgling of water could be heard. Rotting strands of rope dangled
above them from broken winches. There were dangerous chasms
and fissures in the rock, and sometimes a chasm would open right
across their path. One was so wide that Gandalf himself nearly
stumbled into it. It was quite ten feet wide, and Sam stumbled in
his jump and would have fallen back on the further bank if Frodo
had not grabbed his hand and [? jerked) him forward.
Their march was slow, and it began to feel never-ending. They
grew very weary; and yet there was no comfort in the thought of
halting anywhere. Frodo's spirits had risen for a while after his
escape from the water-monster; but now a deep sense of disquiet,
growing to dread, crept over him once more. Though he had been
healed in Rivendell of the knife stroke, it is probable that that grim
adventure had left its mark, and that he was specially sensitive;
and in any case he it was that bore the Ring upon its chain against
his breast.(27) He felt the certainty of evil ahead, and of evil follow-
ing. But he said nothing.
The travellers spoke seldom and then only in hurried whispers.
There was no sound but the sound of their own feet. If they
stopped for a moment they heard nothing at all, unless it were
occasionally a faint sound of water trickling or dripping. Only
Frodo began to hear or imagine that he heard something else: like
the faint fall of soft feet following. It was never loud or near
enough for him to feel certain that he heard it; but once it had
started it never stopped, unless they did. And it was not an echo,
for when they halted (as they did from time to time) it pattered on
for some time, and then grew still.
It was about 10 o'clock in the morning when they entered the
Mines.(28) They had been going for many hours (with brief halts)
when Gandalf came to his first serious doubt. They had come to a
wide dark arch opening into three passages: all three led in the
same general direction, East, but the left hand passage seemed to
plunge down, the right hand to climb up, while the middle way
seemed to run level (but was very narrow).
'I have no memory of this place at all! ' said Gandalf, standing
uncertainly under the arch. He held up his wand in the hope of
finding some direction marks or an inscription that might help.
But nothing of the kind was to be seen.
'I am too tired to choose,' he said, shaking his head; 'and I
expect you are all as weary as I am or wearier. We had better halt
here for the night - if you know what I mean. It is all night of
course inside, but outside I fancy the night is already come. It is
quite ten hours since we left the gate.'(29)
They groped about in the darkness looking for a place where
they could rest with some feeling of security. To the left of the great
arch was a lower opening, and when they explored it closer they
discovered that it was a stone door that was half closed, but swung
back easily to a gentle thrust. Beyond there seemed to be a
chamber or chambers cut in the rock.
'Steady, steady!' said Gandalf as Merry and Faramond pushed
forward, glad to find somewhere where they could rest with some
sort of security. 'Steady! You don't know what may be inside. I
will go first.'
He went cautiously in followed by the rest. 'There!' he said,
pointing with his wand to the middle of the floor. They saw before
their feet a round hole like the mouth of a well. Rotting strands of
rope lay at the edge and trailed down into the dark pit; fragments
of broken stone lay near.
'One of you might have fallen in and still be waiting to hit the
bottom,' said the wizard to Merry. 'Look before your feet! This
seems to have been a kind of guard-room placed to watch those
passages,' he went on. 'The hole I expect is a well, and was
doubtless once covered with a stone lid. But that is broken now,
and you had better be careful of the fall.'
Sam (30) felt curiously attracted by the well; and while the others
were making beds of blankets in dark corners of the room, as far as pos-
sible from the well, he crept to the edge and peered over. A chill air
seemed to mount up to his face from the invisible depths. Moved
by a sudden impulse, he groped for a loose stone, and let it drop.
It seemed almost a whole minute before there was any sound -
then far below there was a plunk, as if the stone had fallen into
deep water in a cavernous place - very distant, but magnified and
repeated in the hollow rock.
'What's that?' cried Gandalf. He was relieved when Sam con-
fessed what he had done; but he was angry, and Sam could see his
eyes glint in the dark. 'Fool of a fellow!' he growled. 'This is a
serious journey, not a hobbit school treat. Throw yourself in next
time, and then you'll be no further nuisance. Now be quiet! '
There was nothing to hear for several minutes; but then there
came out of the depths faint knocks, that stopped, and were dimly
echoed, and then after a short silence were repeated. It sounded
strangely like signals of some sort. But after a while the knocks
died away altogether and were heard no more.
'It may have nothing to do with that stone,' said Gandalf; 'and
in any case it may have nothing to do with us - but of course it may
be anything. Don't do anything like that again. Let's hope we get
some rest undisturbed. You Sam can go on the first watch. And
stay near the door, well away from the well,' he grunted, as he
rolled himself in a blanket.
Sam sat miserably by the door in the pitch dark, but kept on
turning round, for fear some unknown thing should crawl out of
the well. He wished he could cover the hole, if only with a blanket;
but he dared not go near, even though Gandalf seemed to be
snoring.
Gandalf was actually not asleep, and the snores came from
Boromir, who lay next him. The wizard was thinking hard again
trying to recall every memory he could of his former journey in the
Mines, and trying to make up his mind about the next course to
take. After about an hour he got up and came over to Sam.
'Get into a blanket and have a sleep, my lad! ' he said in a more
kindly tone. 'You could sleep, I guess. I can't, so I may as well do
the watching.'
'I know what is the matter with me,' he muttered. 'I need a pipe;
and I think I'll risk it.' The last thing Sam saw before sleep took
him was a vision of the old wizard squatting on the floor shielding a
blazing chip in his gnarled hands between his knees. The flicker
for a moment showed his sharp nose and the puffs of smoke.
It was Gandalf who roused them all from sleep. He had watched
all alone for about six hours and let the others rest. 'And in the
meantime I have made up my mind,' he said. 'I don't like the feel
of the middle way, and I don't like the smell of the left hand- there
is foul air down there, or I am no guide. I shall take the right hand
way - it's time we began to go up again.'
For eight dark hours, not counting two brief halts, they
marched on, and met no danger, and heard nothing and saw
nothing but the faint gleam of the wizard's light bobbing like a
will-o'-the-wisp in front of them. The passage they had chosen
wound steadily upwards, going, as far as they could judge, in great
curves, and growing steadily wider. On neither side were there
now any openings to other galleries or tunnels, and the floor,
though rough in many places, was sound and without pits or
cracks. They went quicker than the day before, and must have
covered some twenty miles or more, perhaps fifteen in a straight
line eastwards. As they went upwards Frodo's spirits rose a little;
but still he felt oppressed, and still at times he heard or thought he
heard away behind and through the patter of their own feet a
following footfall that was not an echo.
They had gone nearly as far as the hobbits could endure without
rest and sleep, and they were all thinking of a place to halt for the
night, when suddenly the walls to right and left vanished. They
halted. Gandalf seemed well pleased. 'I think we have reached the
habitable parts,' he said, 'and are no great way from the eastern
side. I can feel a change in the air, and guess we are in a wide hall. I
think I will risk a little light.' '
He raised his wand and for a brief moment it blazed out like a
flash of lightning. Great shadows leapt up and fled, and for a
second or two they saw a vast roof high above their heads. On
every side stretched a huge empty hall with straight hewn walls.
Four entrances they glimpsed: dark arches in the walls: one at the
west by which they had come, one before them in the east, and one
on either side. Then the light went out.
'That is all I shall venture on for the present,' said the wizard.
'There used to be great windows on the mountain-side, and shafts
leading out to the light and the upper reaches of the mines. I think
that is where we are. But it is night now, and we cannot tell till
morning. If I am right, tomorrow we may actually see the morn-
ing peeping in. But in the meanwhile we had better go no further
without exploration. There will still be a good way to go before we
are through - the East Gates are on a much lower level than this,
and it is a long road down. Let us rest if we can.'
They spent that night in the great empty hall, huddled in a
corner to escape the draught - there seemed to be a steady flow
of chill air in through the eastern archway. The vastness and
immensity of the tunnels and excavations filled the hobbits with
bewilderment. 'There must have been a mighty tribe o' dwarves
here at one time,' said Sam; 'and every one as busy as a badger for a
hundred years to make all this - and most in hard rock too. What
did they do it all for? They didn't live in these darksome holes,
surely? '
'Not for long,' said Gandalf, 'though the miners often took
long spells underground, I believe. They found precious metals,
and jewels - very abundantly in the earlier days. But the mines
were most renowned for the metal which was only found here in
any quantity: Moria-silver, or true-silver as some call it. Ithil (34) the
Elves call it, and value it still above gold.(35) It is nearly as heavy as
lead, and malleable as copper, but the dwarves could by some
secret of theirs make it as hard as steel. It surpasses common silver
in all save beauty, and even in that it is its equal. In their day the
dwarflords of Uruktharbun (36) were more wealthy than any of the
Kings of Men.'
'Well, we haven't clapped eyes on any kind of silver since we
came in,' grunted Sam; 'nor any jewels neither. Nor on any
dwarves.'
'I don't think we are likely to until we get further up (37) and nearer
to the eastern entrances,' said Gandalf.
'I hope we do find dwarves in the end,' said Frodo. 'I would give
a great deal to see old Balin. Bilbo was fond of him and would be
delighted to have news of him. He visited him in Hobbiton once
long ago, but that was before I went to live there.'
But these words carried his thoughts far away from the dark-
ness; and memories of Bag-end while Bilbo was still there
crowded [? thickly] into his mind. He wished with all his heart that
he was back there, mowing the lawn, or pottering among the
flowers, and that he had never heard of the Ring.> It was his turn
to watch. As silence fell and one by one the others fell asleep he felt
the strange dread assail him again. But though he listened end-
lessly through the slow hours till he was relieved he heard no
sound of any footfall. Only once, far away where he guessed the
western archway stood, he fancied he saw two pale points of light -
almost like luminous eyes. He started - 'I must have nearly fallen
asleep,' he thought; 'I was on the edge of a dream.' He rubbed his
eyes and stood up, and remained standing peering into the dark
until he was relieved by Merry. He quickly fell asleep, but after a
while it seemed to him in his dream that he heard whispers, and
saw two pale points of light approaching. He woke - and found
that the others were speaking softly near him, and that a dim light
was actually falling on his face. High up above the eastern arch,
through a shaft near the roof, came a grey gleam. And across the
hall through the northern arch light also glimmered faint and
distantly.
Frodo sat up. 'Good morning! ' said Gandalf. 'For morning it is
again at last. I was right, you see. Before today's over we ought to
get to the Eastern Gate and see the waters of Helevorn in the
Dimrilldale before us.'(39)
All the same the wizard felt some doubt as to their exact position
- they might be far to the north or the south of the Gates. The
eastern arch was the most likely exit to choose, and the draught
that flowed through it seemed to promise a passage leading before
long to the outer air; but beyond the opening there was no trace of
light. 'If I could only see out of one of these shafts,' he said, 'I
should know better what to do. We might wander backwards and
forwards endlessly, and just miss the way out. We had better
explore a little before we start. And let us go first towards the
light.'
Passing under the northern arch they went down a wide
corridor and as they went the glimmer of light grew stronger.
Turning a sharp corner they came to a great door on their right. It
was half open, and beyond there was a large square chamber. It
was only dimly lit, but to their eyes, after so long in the dark, it
seemed almost dazzlingly light, and they blinked as they entered.
Their feet disturbed deep dust and stumbled amongst things lying
on the floor within the doorway whose shapes they could not at
first make out.
They saw now that the chamber was lit by a wide shaft high up
in the far wall - it slanted upwards and far above a small square
patch of sky could be seen where it issued outwards. The light fell
directly on a table in the midst of the chamber, a square block
some three feet high upon which was laid a great slab of whitened
stone.
'It looks like a tomb!' [muttered >] thought Frodo, and went
forward to look at it more closely with a curious sense of forebod-
ing. Gandalf came quickly to his side. On the slab was deeply cut
in Runes:(40)
BALIN SON OF BURIN LORD OF MORIA.
Gandalf and Frodo looked at one another. 'He is dead then. I
feared it somehow,' said Frodo.
Although the outline for the story of the passage of Moria continues
well beyond this point (p.443), this first draft of the narrative stopped
here. My father pencilled some barely legible notes on the blank
remainder of the page, and years later (when, as I think, the page had
become detached from the rest of the chapter: see note 40) he deciphered
them as follows.
Balin son of Burin was changed to Balin son of Fundin, as in The
Hobbit (see p. 444).
At the end of the narrative in ink is written, as in FR: 'Gimli cast his
hood over his face.'
'Runes of? Dwarves'
'(they) look about and see broken swords and ?axe-heads and cloven
shields'
'The?trodden book is bloodstained & tossed in a corner. Only some
can be read. Balin was slain in ? fray in Dimrill dale. They have taken the
gates they are coming'
On the back of the page is a first scribbled sketch of a 'Page of Balin's
Book' (see note 40).
It may be that my father did not at this time feel that he had reached
the end of a chapter, and intended to continue the story; but it is known
from his own words in the Foreword to the Second Edition (1966), in
which he set down some recollections of the stages in the writing of the
book, that he stopped for a long time at precisely this point. He said there
that by the end of 1939 'the tale had not yet reached the end of Book I'
(and it is clear that he referred to Book I of FR, not to Volume I of The
Lord of the Rings); and that
In spite of the darkness of the next five years I found that the story
could not now be wholly abandoned, and I plodded on, mostly by
night, till I stood by Balin's tomb in Moria. There I halted for a long
while. It was almost a year later when I went on and so came to
Lothlorien and the Great River late in 1941.
This can only mean that the story was broken off in Moria late in 1940.
It seems impossible to accommodate these dates to such other
evidence as exists on the subject. I think it extremely probable, even
virtually certain, that these last chapters, taking the story from Rivendell
to Moria, belong to the latter part of 1939; and indeed my father himself
said, in a letter to Stanley Unwin dated 19 December 1939, that he had
'never quite ceased work' on The lard of the Rings, and that 'it has
reached Chapter XVI' (Letters no. 37). The chapter-numbers at this
stage are unfortunately so erratic that the evidence they provide is very
difficult to use; but when it is observed that the number 'XV' was
pencilled on the original manuscript of 'The Council of Elrond', and that
the chapter which afterwards continued the story from the point where
the present text ends - originally called 'The Mines of Moria (ii)' and
afterwards 'The Bridge of Khazad-dum' - is numbered 'XVII', it seems
probable that it was to 'The Mines of Moria' that my father referred in the
letter of December 1939. In any case 'Chapter XVI' could not by any
reckoning be one of the chapters of Book I in FR. I feel sure, therefore,
that - more than a quarter of a century later - he erred in his recollection
of the year. But it would be out of the question that he should err in his
recollection that he 'halted for a long while by Balin's tomb in Moria.'
Internal evidence in any case suggests that the 'wave' of composition
which had carried the story from the Council of Elrond to the chamber of
Balin's tomb came to an end here. All subsequent texts rest on a
developed form of the Council and a different composition of the
Company of the Ring.
There this history halts also. But before ending there remains another
outline scrap, found on the same isolated page as bears the preliminary
sketches for the descent from the Red Pass (p. 431, note 1) and the spell
that held the West Gate of Moria (p.444). It is in fact a continuation of
the 'Sketch of the Moria chapter' given on pp. 442 - 3, which ends with
the words., Pursuit is after them. Here follows the loss of Gandalf.
Written in a faint pencilled scribble it is extremely difficult to read.
They are pursued by goblins and a B[lack] R[ider] [written
above: a Balrog] after escaping from Balin's Tomb - they come to
a bridge of slender stone over a gulf.
Gandalf turns back and holds off [?enemy], they cross the
bridge but the B[lack] R[ider] leaps forward and wrestles with
Gandalf. The bridge cracks under them and the last they see is
Gandalf falling into the pit with the B[lack] R[ider]. There is a
flash of fire and blue light up from abyss.
Their grief. Trotter now guides party.
(Of course Gandalf must reappear later - probably fall is not
as deep as it seemed. Gandalf thrusts Balrog under him and
so....... and eventually following the subterranean stream in
the gulf he found a way out - but he does not turn up until
they have had many adventures: not indeed until they are on
[?borders] of Mordor and the King of Ond is being beaten in
battle.)
This seems to show clearly that before ever the story of the fall of
Gandalf from the Bridge of Khazad-dum was written, my father fully
intended that he should return.
NOTES.
1. To this point the text of this 'Sketch' was struck through, but the
remainder was not.
2. See p. 437, note 35; and cf. the corresponding passage in FR (p.
338), where Gandalf says: 'There are Orcs, very many of them. And
some are large and evil: black Uruks of Mordor.'
3. In FR (p. 313) the Company moved south towards Moria by day,
and they 'wandered and scrambled in a barren country of red stones.
Nowhere could they see any gleam of water...'
4. My father first wrote here (changing it at once): 'Caradras dilthen
the Little Redway'. For Caradras as the name of the river Redway
(later Silverlode) on the other side of the Mountains see p. 433,
note 15.
5. It was now the night of 5 December, and full moon was on the 7th
(see p. 434, note 19).
6. This sentence was enclosed within square brackets, and the con-
cluding words 'from whence they heard the splash of running water'
struck out. These changes belong with the writing of the manu-
script.
7. Though the word 'pool' is used, the reference is clearly to the lake
and not to the 'pool' which they had just walked through. The 'soft
bubbling noise' comes from the 'lake'.
8. The whole passage from 'Well, here we are at last' on p.448 to this
point is a rider on a slip, replacing the following in the original text:
'Here is the gate,' said Gandalf. 'This is where the road from
Hollin ended, and the elves planted these trees in old days; for the
west-gates were made chiefly for their use in their traffic with the
dwarves.'
The replacement certainly belongs with the first writing of the
chapter, for the dispatch of the ponies by Sam and Trotter is
subsequently referred to in the text as written.
9. The word 'wholly' is enclosed in square brackets.
10. In FR (p. 318) the hammer and anvil are 'surmounted by a crown
with seven stars', and 'more clearly than all else there shone forth in
the middle of the door a single star with many rays.' The original
draft has no mention of the two trees bearing crescent moons.
11. In FR the inscription on the doors is of ithildin which mirrors only
starlight and moonlight (p. 318). In this original draft, of course,
the time-scheme is different - the middle of the day, not early night
(see note 28).
12. This was first written: 'Narfi made the Doors'.
13. Merry replaced Frodo, who replaced Boromir; it was apparently
said of Boromir that he was not much disturbed by Gandalfs
bristling brows, and that he secretly wished that the doors might
stay shut.
14. I cannot interpret this. In FR (p. 320) Gandalf's invocation means:
Elvish gate open now for us; doorway of the Dwarf-folk listen to the
word [beth] of my tongue.'
15. The text of this passage, from 'Then he sat down in silence', as first
written read:
Only Trotter seemed troubled. Boromir was smiling broadly
behind his back. Sam ventured to whisper in Frodo's ear: 'I've
never seen old Gandalf at a loss for words before,' he said. 'It
looks as if we were not meant to pass these gates, somehow.'
'I have a feeling of dread,' said Frodo slowly, 'either of the gates
or of something else. But I do not think Gandalf is beaten - he is
thinking hard, I fancy.'
Subsequently Sam's whispered speech to Frodo was given to
Merry, with the addition: 'He ought not to have sent off the ponies
till he got them open.'
16. Written in pencil here: 'Sound of wolves far off at same time as swish
in water'. But this would have been added when the time of their
entry into the Mines had been altered; cf. FR p. 321 and note 28.
17. These words were struck out in pencil and the form Melin substi-
tuted. In the Etymologies (V.372), stem MEL, are given Noldorin
mellon and meldir 'friend', and also Quenya melin 'dear'.
18. In FR there are two doors; and despite the single door described
here, the inscription bears the words 'The Doors of Durin'; Gandalf
tells them: 'these doors open outwards, but nothing can open them
inwards. They can swing out, or they can be broken...'
19. As first written (and not struck out) this passage read: 'They had
just time; Trotter who came last was not more than four steps up
when the arms of the creature in the water came feeling and
fingering the wall.'
20. In the first of these lacunas the text seems to read in it, or possibly
with (in which case his wand was omitted; cf. FR p. 322, 'he thrust
his staff against the doors'). In the second, the word looks like open
(perhaps for opening).
21. The illegible word is just a series of wiggles; certainly not stood, the
word here in FR. Just possibly, survived.
22. The actual reading here is ' - not by accident'. The sentence was
enclosed in square brackets at the time of writing, but a similar
sentence remains in FR.
23. Dunruin replaced, apparently at the time of writing, Carondoom
(see p. 433, note 13). Subsequently Dimrilldale was written in in
pencil.
24. This sentence was a replacement (to all appearance made at the time
of writing., see note 31) of: In the confusion of the attack at the
Westgate some of the bundles and packages had been left on the
ground; but they had still with them one bundle of torches which
they had brought with them in case of need, but never yet used.'
25. The words following Glamdring are enclosed in square brackets.
Glamdring has appeared in the 'Sketch' for the chapter; see pp.
442-4.
26. This sentence was changed in the act of writing, the successive
stages not being crossed out: 'than any cat that ever walked', 'than is
the cat of Benish Armon', 'than the cats of Queen [?Tamar >]
Margoliante Beruthiel' - both these names being left to stand.
27. The original passage that follows here was enclosed in square
brackets and later struck out in pencil:
While the others were trying to keep up their spirits with hopeful
talk, and were asking whispered questions concerning the lands
[struck out: of Dunruin and Fangorn] beyond the mountains, the
vale of Redway, the forest of Fangorn, and beyond, he felt the
certainty...
This derives from the 'Sketch' for the chapter (see p.442).
28. In the 'Sketch' (p.442) it is said, as here, that 'it was about 10 o'clock
in the morning' when they entered the Mines. This does not agree
with what is said on p. 447, that when 'the sun reached the south'
Gandalf 'stood up and said that it was high time to begin to search
for the gates', and the sun was shining across the face of the cliff
when he made the signs appear. This suggests that the door was
opened in the early afternoon. The sentence in the text here was
altered in pencil to 'five o'clock in the evening', but it is hard to say
to what form of the story this refers. In FR it was fully dark -
'the countless stars were kindled' - when they entered the Mines
(pp. 320, 326), and though it was early December it was surely after
five o'clock. A few lines below in the present text, however, another
change in the time-scheme clearly introduces that of FR; see
note 29.
29. The words 'the night is already come' were changed in pencil to 'the
night is already old', and the following sentence, which had been
enclosed in square brackets, was struck out. As written, the text
agrees with the story that they went into the Mines at about ten in
the morning - it would now be about 8 p.m. (see note 28). As
changed, it agrees with FR, p. 326 ('outside the late Moon is riding
westward and the middle-night has passed').
30. 'Sam' replaced 'Merry' at the time of writing, since at the end of this
episode it is Sam, not changed from Merry, who takes the first watch
as a punishment for casting the stone into the well.
31. This passage was much changed in the course of composition. At
first 'Gandalf allowed two torches to be lit to help in exploration.
Their light found no roof, but was sufficient to show that they had
come (as they had guessed) into a wide space high and broad like a
great hall.' It has however been said, by a change apparently made
during the initial composition (see note 24), that they had neither
torches nor means of making them.
32. The passage in FR p. 329 from 'All about them as they lay hung the
darkness...' to 'the actual dread and wonder of Moria' was first
drafted in the margin of the manuscript here, perhaps quite soon
after the writing of the main text.
33. 'Gandalf' is an early emendation from 'Trotter', and in the following
speech.
34. Ithil is an early, perhaps immediate, change from Erceleb.
35. This passage was changed in the act of writing from:
- very abundantly in the earlier days, and especially the silver.
Moria-silver was (and still is) renowned; and many held it a
precious
This is where the conception of mithril first emerged, though not yet
the name (see note 34). The reference to mithril in The Hobbit
(Chapter XIII, 'Not at Home') entered in the third edition of 1966:
until then the text read: 'It was of silvered steel, and ornamented
with pearls, and with it went a belt of pearls and crystals.' This was
changed to: 'It was of silver-steel, which the elves call mithril, and
with it went a belt of pearls and crystals.'
36. Against Uruktharbun is pencilled Azanulbizar, which in FR is
the Dwarvish name of Dimrill-dale. If Uruktharbun is Moria (and
the next revision of this text has 'the dwarflords of Khazad-dum'),
Azanulbizar may have been intended to replace it and to have
referred at first to Moria; on the other hand, my father may perhaps
have wished to name the 'dwarflords' as lords in the Dimrill-dale. It
may be mentioned that placed in this manuscript, though written on
different paper and presumably belonging to a later stage when
Gimli had become a member of the Company, is a sheet of primary
workings for his song in Moria; and in these occur the lines:
When Durin came to Azanul
and found and named the nameless pool.
In notes written years later (after the publication of The Lord of the
Rings) my father observed that 'the interpretation of the Dwarf
names (owing to scanty knowledge of Khuzdul) is largely uncertain,
except that, since this region [i.e. Moria and Dimrill-dale] was
originally a Dwarf-home and primarily named by them, the
Sindarin and Westron names are probably in origin of similar
senses.' He interpreted (hesitantly) Azanulbizar as containing ZN
'dark, dim', ul 'streams', and bizar a dale or valley, the whole thus
meaning 'Vale of Dim Streams'.
The name Khazad-dum had already appeared in the Quenta
Silmarillion (V. 274), where it was the name of the Dwarf-city in the
Blue Mountains which the Elves called Nogrod.
37. The word up here is odd (and my father later put a query against
it), since the statement that the East Gates were on a much lower
level than the great hall where they now were is part of the original
composition.
38. This passage survives in FR (pp. 331 - 2), but there Frodo's
thoughts turn to Bilbo and Bag End for a different reason - the
mention by Gandalf of Bilbo's corslet of mithril-rings. Moria-silver
had only just emerged (note 35), and the connection with Bilbo's
mailcoat had not been made.
39. In the previous chapter the name Dimrilldale appears as a correc-
tion (p. 433, note 13), together with the first mention of the lake
in the dale, there called Classmere; Mirrormere is named on the
map reproduced on p. 439. The Elvish name Helevorn (in the
Etymologies, V.365, translated 'black-glass') given to it here had
appeared in the Quenta Silmarillion as the name of the lake in
Thargelion beside which dwelt Cranthir, son of Feanor. No other
Elvish name for Mirrormere is recorded in published writing, but
in the notes referred to in note 36 my father said that the Sindarin
name, not given in LR, was in fact Nen Cenedril 'Lake Looking-
glass'. Translating Kheled-zaram as 'probably "glass-pool"', he
noted: 'kheled was certainly a Dwarf word for "glass", and seems to
be the origin of Sindarin beled "glass". Cf. Lake Hele(d)vorn near
the Dwarf-regions in the north of Dor Caranthir [Thargelion]: it
means "black glass", and is probably also a translation of a Dwarf-
name (given by the Dwarves: the same is probably the case in the
Moria region) such as Narag-zaram (that NRG was Khuzdul for
"black" is seen in the Dwarf-name for Mordor: Nargun).'
40. As the manuscript of this chapter was found among my father's
papers it ended at the foot of a page, at the words 'a great slab of
whitened stone' on p. 460. I had assumed that this was where my
father broke off, until, a few days before the typescript of this book
was due to go to the printers, I came most unexpectedly upon a
further page, beginning at the words '"It looks like a tomb!" thought
Frodo', which had evidently been separated from the rest of the
chapter long ago, on account of the inscriptions. It was of course
too late to reproduce these in this book, but an account of the runic
alphabets as my father conceived them at this time and of the writing
on Balin's tomb and in the Book of Mazarbul will, I hope, be
published in Volume VII.
It may be noticed here, however, that it was at this point that my
father decided to abandon the Old English (or 'Hobbit') runes and
to use the real runes of Beleriand, which were already in a developed
form. The inscription on the tomb (Balin Son of Burin Lord of
Moria) was first written in the former, and then immediately below
in 'Angerthas', twice, with the same words but in runes that differ in
certain points.
On the back of this newly discovered page, and as I think very
probably dating from the same time, is a very roughly pencilled
design of a 'Page of Balin's Book', in runes representing English
spelt phonetically, which reads thus:
We drove out the Orcs fro(m)... guard
.... (f)irst hall. We slew many under the bright sun
in the dale. Floi was killed by an arrow..........
We did...................................
......... We have occupied the twenty-first hall of
...... north end. There there is..............
............... shaft is...............
(B)alin has set up his chair in the chamber of Mazar
bul......................... Balin is Lord of
Moria...................................................
And on the right-hand bottom corner of the page, torn off from the
rest, is the name Kazaddum.
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