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Authors: J. R. R. Tolkien
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have won, Lord of the Mark. The hosts of Isengard are no more. The West is saved. I do not go to an assault. I have business to settle, ere we turn back -
to graver matters, and maybe to harder fortune.' - In different versions Gandalf advises Theoden to order an assembly at Eodoras 'on the second day from now' and 'at the full moon four days from now.'
7. In TT the company did not leave for Isengard until the late afternoon, and on the way they camped for the night below Nan Gurunir; see pp. 5-6, $$ III-IV.
8. In preliminary drafting for this passage the bodies of the Orcs were burned; the men of Dunland were still the men of Westfold; it was Gamling who addressed them, not Erkenbrand ('Help now to repair the evil in which you have joined ...'); the dead of this people were buried in a separate mound below the Dike (a statement that was retained in both the finished manuscripts of the chapter, though lost in TT: see p. 40); the slain Riders were buried in a single mound (not two); and Hama, whose death before the Gates of the Hornburg here first appears (see p. 22), was buried among them, yet he gave his name to the mound: 'the
[Hamanlow >] Hamelow it was called in after years' (i.e. Old Engish Haman hlaw, the Mound of Hama). In TT (p. 150) Hama was laid in a grave alone under the shadow of the Hornburg.
9. The Death Down, where the bodies of the Orcs were buried, was first called the Barren Hill ('for no grass would grow there').
10. See note 14.
11. See the First Map (redrawn map III, VII.309), where the Isen flows into the Great Sea in the region then named Belfalas.
12. In the draft for this passage the battlefield 'was but a mile or two away'. - In TT the company crossed the Fords of Isen (by moonlight) in order to follow the 'ancient highway that ran down from Isengard to the crossings'.
13. That the slain Riders had been buried by Ents is stated subsequently: see pp. 47, 49, 54. Contrast TT (p. 157): 'More [Riders]
were scattered than were slain; I gathered together all that I could find.... Some I set to make this burial.'
14. In this version the company was riding fast, but even so my father seems to have been working on the basis of a much shorter distance from Helm's Deep to Isengard: contrast TT (p. 156):
'They had ridden for some four hours from the branching of the roads when they drew near to the Fords.' In a chronology written at this time, when the story was that Gandalf and Theoden and their company left Helm's Deep very soon after the end of the Battle of the Hornburg (see p. 5, $ III), he said that they left about 9 a.m. Changing this to the story that they stopped for the night on the way (p. 6, $ IV), he said that they left at 3.30 p.m., and noted: 'It is forty miles and they arrive about 12.30 p.m. on next day, Feb. 3.' This is followed by notes of distances that are in close agreement with the First Map (see p. 78 note 2), but
'Isengard Gates to mouth of Deeping Coomb' is given as 33 > 41
> 45 miles (cf. p. 27, where Gandalf's estimate was changed from 12 to 14 to 11 leagues).
As well as I have been able to interpret the First Map here I make the distance 1 cm. or 50 miles, and my map made in 1943
agrees. Section IV(E) of the First Map (VII.319) is stuck onto a portion of IV that is totally hidden, and it is possible that at this stage the Gap of Rohan was less wide. In any case, considerations of distance as well as of chronology evidently dictated the change whereby Gandalf and Theoden did not reach Isengard till the following day.
15. On the removal of this dialogue from the (revised) opening of
'Helm's Deep' and the chronological considerations that led my father to do so see pp. 5 - 6, $$ II - III.
16. This extremely squashing (and revealing) remark of Gandalf's to the King of Rohan was subsequently very firmly struck through on the manuscript.
17. Cf. Aragorn's words (at once rejected) in a draft for 'The White Rider', VII.429: 'The Ents! Then there is truth in the ancient
to graver matters, and maybe to harder fortune.' - In different versions Gandalf advises Theoden to order an assembly at Eodoras 'on the second day from now' and 'at the full moon four days from now.'
7. In TT the company did not leave for Isengard until the late afternoon, and on the way they camped for the night below Nan Gurunir; see pp. 5-6, $$ III-IV.
8. In preliminary drafting for this passage the bodies of the Orcs were burned; the men of Dunland were still the men of Westfold; it was Gamling who addressed them, not Erkenbrand ('Help now to repair the evil in which you have joined ...'); the dead of this people were buried in a separate mound below the Dike (a statement that was retained in both the finished manuscripts of the chapter, though lost in TT: see p. 40); the slain Riders were buried in a single mound (not two); and Hama, whose death before the Gates of the Hornburg here first appears (see p. 22), was buried among them, yet he gave his name to the mound: 'the
[Hamanlow >] Hamelow it was called in after years' (i.e. Old Engish Haman hlaw, the Mound of Hama). In TT (p. 150) Hama was laid in a grave alone under the shadow of the Hornburg.
9. The Death Down, where the bodies of the Orcs were buried, was first called the Barren Hill ('for no grass would grow there').
10. See note 14.
11. See the First Map (redrawn map III, VII.309), where the Isen flows into the Great Sea in the region then named Belfalas.
12. In the draft for this passage the battlefield 'was but a mile or two away'. - In TT the company crossed the Fords of Isen (by moonlight) in order to follow the 'ancient highway that ran down from Isengard to the crossings'.
13. That the slain Riders had been buried by Ents is stated subsequently: see pp. 47, 49, 54. Contrast TT (p. 157): 'More [Riders]
were scattered than were slain; I gathered together all that I could find.... Some I set to make this burial.'
14. In this version the company was riding fast, but even so my father seems to have been working on the basis of a much shorter distance from Helm's Deep to Isengard: contrast TT (p. 156):
'They had ridden for some four hours from the branching of the roads when they drew near to the Fords.' In a chronology written at this time, when the story was that Gandalf and Theoden and their company left Helm's Deep very soon after the end of the Battle of the Hornburg (see p. 5, $ III), he said that they left about 9 a.m. Changing this to the story that they stopped for the night on the way (p. 6, $ IV), he said that they left at 3.30 p.m., and noted: 'It is forty miles and they arrive about 12.30 p.m. on next day, Feb. 3.' This is followed by notes of distances that are in close agreement with the First Map (see p. 78 note 2), but
'Isengard Gates to mouth of Deeping Coomb' is given as 33 > 41
> 45 miles (cf. p. 27, where Gandalf's estimate was changed from 12 to 14 to 11 leagues).
As well as I have been able to interpret the First Map here I make the distance 1 cm. or 50 miles, and my map made in 1943
agrees. Section IV(E) of the First Map (VII.319) is stuck onto a portion of IV that is totally hidden, and it is possible that at this stage the Gap of Rohan was less wide. In any case, considerations of distance as well as of chronology evidently dictated the change whereby Gandalf and Theoden did not reach Isengard till the following day.
15. On the removal of this dialogue from the (revised) opening of
'Helm's Deep' and the chronological considerations that led my father to do so see pp. 5 - 6, $$ II - III.
16. This extremely squashing (and revealing) remark of Gandalf's to the King of Rohan was subsequently very firmly struck through on the manuscript.
17. Cf. Aragorn's words (at once rejected) in a draft for 'The White Rider', VII.429: 'The Ents! Then there is truth in the ancient
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