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Authors: J. R. R. Tolkien
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east to make the circuit of the ruined Ring of Isengard', which in TT is the opening of 'Flotsam and Jetsam'.
Further abundant drafting, again discontinuous and closely related to the finished text, exists for the second stage in the development of the chapter. Here can be seen the new or altered elements in the narrative as they arose - the postponed departure from Helm's Deep, the Ents at the edge of the Huorn wood (39) that displaced the meeting with Bregalad, the passage of the Fords, the dry river, the burial mound, the Isen suddenly running again in the night. At first, though the time of departure had been changed to the evening, the encounter with Bregalad was still present - but ends differently: for despite Gandalf's message to Treebeard, 'to the surprise of all he [Bregalad]
raised his hand and strode off, not back northward but towards the Coomb, where the wood now stood as dark as a great fold of night.'
The scene at the Fords likewise evolved in stages: at first there was no mention of the burial mound, then there were two, one on either bank of the Isen, and finally the island or eyot in the middle of the river appeared.(40) The passage describing the departure-of the Huorns from the Deeping Coomb and the Death Down (see p. 27) was first moved to stand (apparently) after Gandalf's reply to Legolas' question concerning the Orcs: That, I think, no one will ever know (TT
p. 151), for an isolated draft of it begins: 'And that proved true. For in the deep of the night, after the departure of the king, men heard a great noise of wind in the valley ...' '
The second main manuscript of the chapter was a fair copy that remained so, being only lightly emended after its first writing. A few details still survived from the first stage: Merry's father Caradoc; Tobias Hornblower and the year 1050; Eodoras; and the form Rohir, not Rohirrim (the two latter being changed later on the manuscript).
The assembly at Eodoras is still to be, as in the first version (p. 27),
'before the waning of the moon' (changed later to 'at the last quarter of the moon').
Lastly, in the account of the burials after the Battle of the Hornburg, there were not only the two mounds raised over the fallen Riders: following the words 'and those of Westfold upon the other' (TT p. 150) there stands in the manuscript 'But the men of Dunland were set apart in a mound below the Dike' (a statement that goes back through the first complete manuscript to the original draft of the passage, see note 8). This sentence was inadvertently omitted in the following typescript (not made by my father), and the error was never observed.
NOTES.
1. A short section of initial drafting was written on the back of a letter to my father bearing the date 31 July 1942.
2. One would expect Erkenwald: see p. 24, note 22. In the first occurrence here my father in fact wrote Erkenw before changing it to Erkenbrand. It may be that he was for a time undecided between the two names, and that there was not a simple succession Erkenwald > Erkenbrand.
3. Cf. the outline 'The Story Foreseen from Fangorn', VII.436: 'The victorious forces under Eomer and Gandalf ride to the gates of Isengard. They find it a pile of rubble, blocked with a huge wall of stone. On the top of the pile sit Merry and Pippin!'
4. Caradoc Brandybuck: see VI.251 and note 4. This is the first appearance of Pippin's father Paladin Took: see VI.386.
5. Less than a day: this must imply the shortest possible time-scheme (see Chapter I):
Day 3 (January 31) Ents break into Isengard at night and divert the Isen; Theoden to Helm's Deep, Battle of the Hornburg.
Day 4 (February 1) Theoden, Gandalf, &c. to Isengard.
6. This conversation is found in no less than seven separate forms for the first version of the story alone. In one of these Theoden says to Gandalf: 'But would you assault the stronghold of Saruman with a handful of tired men?', and Gandalf replies: 'No.
You do not fully understand the victory we
Further abundant drafting, again discontinuous and closely related to the finished text, exists for the second stage in the development of the chapter. Here can be seen the new or altered elements in the narrative as they arose - the postponed departure from Helm's Deep, the Ents at the edge of the Huorn wood (39) that displaced the meeting with Bregalad, the passage of the Fords, the dry river, the burial mound, the Isen suddenly running again in the night. At first, though the time of departure had been changed to the evening, the encounter with Bregalad was still present - but ends differently: for despite Gandalf's message to Treebeard, 'to the surprise of all he [Bregalad]
raised his hand and strode off, not back northward but towards the Coomb, where the wood now stood as dark as a great fold of night.'
The scene at the Fords likewise evolved in stages: at first there was no mention of the burial mound, then there were two, one on either bank of the Isen, and finally the island or eyot in the middle of the river appeared.(40) The passage describing the departure-of the Huorns from the Deeping Coomb and the Death Down (see p. 27) was first moved to stand (apparently) after Gandalf's reply to Legolas' question concerning the Orcs: That, I think, no one will ever know (TT
p. 151), for an isolated draft of it begins: 'And that proved true. For in the deep of the night, after the departure of the king, men heard a great noise of wind in the valley ...' '
The second main manuscript of the chapter was a fair copy that remained so, being only lightly emended after its first writing. A few details still survived from the first stage: Merry's father Caradoc; Tobias Hornblower and the year 1050; Eodoras; and the form Rohir, not Rohirrim (the two latter being changed later on the manuscript).
The assembly at Eodoras is still to be, as in the first version (p. 27),
'before the waning of the moon' (changed later to 'at the last quarter of the moon').
Lastly, in the account of the burials after the Battle of the Hornburg, there were not only the two mounds raised over the fallen Riders: following the words 'and those of Westfold upon the other' (TT p. 150) there stands in the manuscript 'But the men of Dunland were set apart in a mound below the Dike' (a statement that goes back through the first complete manuscript to the original draft of the passage, see note 8). This sentence was inadvertently omitted in the following typescript (not made by my father), and the error was never observed.
NOTES.
1. A short section of initial drafting was written on the back of a letter to my father bearing the date 31 July 1942.
2. One would expect Erkenwald: see p. 24, note 22. In the first occurrence here my father in fact wrote Erkenw before changing it to Erkenbrand. It may be that he was for a time undecided between the two names, and that there was not a simple succession Erkenwald > Erkenbrand.
3. Cf. the outline 'The Story Foreseen from Fangorn', VII.436: 'The victorious forces under Eomer and Gandalf ride to the gates of Isengard. They find it a pile of rubble, blocked with a huge wall of stone. On the top of the pile sit Merry and Pippin!'
4. Caradoc Brandybuck: see VI.251 and note 4. This is the first appearance of Pippin's father Paladin Took: see VI.386.
5. Less than a day: this must imply the shortest possible time-scheme (see Chapter I):
Day 3 (January 31) Ents break into Isengard at night and divert the Isen; Theoden to Helm's Deep, Battle of the Hornburg.
Day 4 (February 1) Theoden, Gandalf, &c. to Isengard.
6. This conversation is found in no less than seven separate forms for the first version of the story alone. In one of these Theoden says to Gandalf: 'But would you assault the stronghold of Saruman with a handful of tired men?', and Gandalf replies: 'No.
You do not fully understand the victory we
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