Read Online The War of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: J. R. R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien
Tags: Fiction, General, Fantasy, Literary Criticism, European, Epic, English; Irish; Scottish; Welsh, Science Fiction & Fantasy, History and Criticism, Fantasy Fiction; English, Middle Earth (Imaginary place), Fantastic fiction; English, Tolkien; J. R. R - Criticism; Textual, Fantasy Fiction; English - Authorship
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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 Théoden 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 Théoden 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 legends, and the names that they use in Rohan have a meaning!'
18. In the original draft for this passage 'the strange figure came quickly on to meet them until it was about fifty [written above: a hundred] yards away. Then it stopped and lifting its grey arms and long hands to its mouth it called in a loud voice like a [?ringing] trumpet. "Is Gandalf with this company?" The words were clear for all to hear.'
19. The page of the manuscript that includes this passage was replaced by another, which introduced little significant change; but in the rejected page Bregalad and Gandalf speak of 'the trees', and only in the replacement do they call them 'the Huorns'. Several other terms in fact preceded Huorns: see pp. 47, 50, 52.
20. In the rejected page referred to in note 19 Bregalad said that Treebeard 'wishes to know what to do with Saruman', at which Gandalf 'laughed softly, and then was silent, stroking his beard thoughtfully. "Hm," he mused, "hm - yes, that will be a problem." ' Cf. the outline for the chapter (p. 26).
21. The original drafting for the description of Nan Gurunir reads thus:
On either side the last long arms of the Misty Mountains reached out down into the plain, bare and broken ridges half-hidden now in smoke. And now they came upon a strange thing. It seemed to them that ruinous rocks lay ahead, out of which in a new-riven channel came the
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 Théoden 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 Théoden 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 legends, and the names that they use in Rohan have a meaning!'
18. In the original draft for this passage 'the strange figure came quickly on to meet them until it was about fifty [written above: a hundred] yards away. Then it stopped and lifting its grey arms and long hands to its mouth it called in a loud voice like a [?ringing] trumpet. "Is Gandalf with this company?" The words were clear for all to hear.'
19. The page of the manuscript that includes this passage was replaced by another, which introduced little significant change; but in the rejected page Bregalad and Gandalf speak of 'the trees', and only in the replacement do they call them 'the Huorns'. Several other terms in fact preceded Huorns: see pp. 47, 50, 52.
20. In the rejected page referred to in note 19 Bregalad said that Treebeard 'wishes to know what to do with Saruman', at which Gandalf 'laughed softly, and then was silent, stroking his beard thoughtfully. "Hm," he mused, "hm - yes, that will be a problem." ' Cf. the outline for the chapter (p. 26).
21. The original drafting for the description of Nan Gurunir reads thus:
On either side the last long arms of the Misty Mountains reached out down into the plain, bare and broken ridges half-hidden now in smoke. And now they came upon a strange thing. It seemed to them that ruinous rocks lay ahead, out of which in a new-riven channel came the
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