Sauron Defeated (22 page)

'I can't say, dear,' said Sam. 'I've never heard of anyone as has ever seen an Ent since those days. If Mr. Merry or Mr. Pippin have they keep it secret. Very close are Ents.'

'And have they never found the Entwives?'

'Well, we've seen none here, have we?' said Sam.

'No,' said Rosie-lass; 'but I look for them when I go in a wood. I would like the Entwives to be found.'

'So would I,' said Sam, 'but I'm afraid that is an old trouble, too old and too deep for folks like us to mend, my dear. But now no more questions tonight, at least not till after supper.'

'But that won't be fair,' said both Merry and Pippin, who were not in their teens. 'We shall have to go directly to bed.'

'Don't talk like that to me,' said Sam sternly. 'If it ain't fair for Ellie and Fro to sit up after supper it ain't fair for them to be born sooner, and it ain't fair that I'm your dad and you're not mine. So no more of that, take your turn and what's due in your time, or I'll tell the King.'

They had heard this threat before, but something in Sam's voice made it sound more serious on this occasion. 'When will you see the King?' said Frodo-lad.

'Sooner than you think,' said Sam. 'Well now, let's be fair. I'll tell you all, stay-uppers and go-to-bedders, a big secret. But don't you go whispering and waking up the youngsters. Keep it till tomorrow.'

A dead hush of expectancy fell on all the children: they watched him as hobbit-children of other times had watched the wizard Gandalf.

'The King's coming here,' said Sam solemnly.

'Coming to Bag End!' cried the children.

'No,' said Sam. 'But he's coming north. He won't come into the Shire because he has given orders that no Big Folk are to enter this land again after those Ruffians; and he will not come himself just to show he means it. But he will come to the Bridge.

And - ' Sam paused. 'He has issued a very special invitation to every one of you. Yes, by name! '

Sam went to a drawer and took out a large scroll. It was black and written in letters of silver.

'When did that come, dad?' said Merry.

'It came with the Southfarthing post three days ago [turitten above: on Wednesday],' said Elanor. 'I saw it. It was wrapped in silk and sealed with big seals.'

'Quite right, my bright eyes,' said Sam.'Now look.'He unrolled it. 'It is written in Elvish and in Plain Language,' said Sam. 'And it says: Elessar Aragorn Arathornsson the Elfstone King of Gondor and Lord of the Westlands will approach the Bridge of Baranduin on the first day of Spring, or in the Shire-reckoning the twenty-fifth day of March next, and desires there to greet all his friends. In especial he desires to see Master Samwise Mayor o f the Shire, and Rose his wife, and Elanor, Rose, Goldilocks and Daisie his daughters, and Frodo, Merry, and Pippin and Ham fast his sons. There you are, there are all your names.'

'But they aren't the same in both lists,' said Elanor, who could read.

'Ah,' said Sam, 'that's because the first list is Elvish. You*re the same, Ellie, in both, because your name is Elvish; but Frodo is Iorhail, and Rose is Beril, and Merry is Riben [> R..el > Gelir], and Pippin is Cordof, and Goldilocks is Glorfinniel, and Hamfast is Marthanc, and Daisy [so spelt] is Arien. So now you know.'

'Well that's splendid,' said Frodo, 'now we all have Elvish names, but what is yours, dad?'

'Well, that's rather peculiar,' said Sam, 'for in the Elvish part, if you must know, what the King says is Master Perhail who should rather be called Lanhail, and that means, I believe,

"Samwise or Halfwise who should rather be called Plain-wise".

So now you know what the King thinks of your dad you'll maybe give more heed to what he says.'

'And ask him lots more questions,' said Frodo.

'When is March the 25th?' said Pippin, to whom days were still the longest measures of time that could really be grasped. 'Is it soon?'

'It's a week today,' said Elanor. 'When shall we start?'

'And what shall we wear?' said Rose.

'Ah,' said Sam. 'Mistress Rose will have a say in that. But you'll be surprised, my dears. We have had warning of this a long time and we've prepared for the day. You're going in the most lovely clothes you've ever seen, and we're riding in a coach. And if you're all very good and look as lovely as you do now I shouldn't be at all surprised if the King does not ask us to go with him to his house up by the Lake. And the Queen will be there.'

'And shall we stay up to supper?' said Rose, to whom the nearness of promotion made this an ever-present concern.

'We shall stay for weeks, until the hay-harvest at least,' said Sam. 'And we shall do what the King says. But as for staying up to supper, no doubt the Queen will have a word. And now if you haven't enough to whisper about for hours, and to dream about till the sun rises, then I don't know what more I can tell you.'

The stars were shining in a clear sky: it was the first day of the clear bright spell that came every year to the Shire at the end of March, and was every year welcomed and praised as something surprising for the time of the year.

All the children were in bed. Lights were glimmering still in Hobbiton and in many houses dotted about the darkening countryside. Sam stood at the door and looked away eastward.

He drew Mistress Rose to him and held her close to his side. ]

'March 18th [> 25th]',(5) he said. 'This time seventeen years ago, Rose wife, I did not think I should ever see thee again. But I kept on hoping.'

['And I never hoped at all, Sam,' she said, 'until that very day; and then suddenly I did. In the middle of the morning I began singing, and father said "Quiet lass, or the Ruffians will come,"

and I said "Let them come. Their time will soon be over. My Sam's coming back." And he came.'](6)

'And you came back,' said Rose.

'I did,' said Sam; 'to the most belovedest place in all the world. I was torn in two then, lass, but now I am all whole. And all that I have, and all that I have had I still have.'

Here the text as it was written ends, but subsequently my father added to it the following:

They went in and shut the door. But even as he did so Sam heard suddenly the sigh and murmur of the sea on the shores of Middle-earth.

It cannot be doubted that this was how he intended at that time that The Lord of the Rings should end.

A fair copy ('B') followed, and this was headed 'Epilogue', without chapter-number; subsequently 'Epilogue' was altered to 'The End of the Book', again without number. The changes made to the original draft were remarkably few: very minor adjustments and improve-ments in the flow of the conversation between Sam and his children, and the alteration or enlargement of certain details.

Merry Gamgee now knows that Bandobras Took 'killed the goblin-king, the reference is to An Unexpected Party in The Hobbit, where it is told that the Bullroarer 'charged the ranks of the goblins of Mount Gram in the Battle of the Green Fields, and knocked their king Golfim-bul's head clean off with a wooden club.' Of the sailing of the Elves Sam now says, not that 'they aren't sailing any more', but that 'they are not sailing often now', and he continues: 'Those that stayed behind when Elrond left are mostly going to stay for good, or for a very long time. But they are more and more difficult to find or to talk to.' Of Ents he observes that they are 'very close, very secret-like, and they don't like people very much'; and of the Dwarves who came from Erebor to Minas Tirith with Gimli he says 'I hear they've settled up in the White Mountains not very far from the City', while 'Gimli goes once a year to see the Glittering Caves' (in Appendix A III, at end, it is said that Gimli 'became Lord of the Glittering Caves').

The King's letter now begins Aragorn Arathornsson Elessar the Elfstone; and the date of his coming to the Brandywine Bridge was now 'the eighth day of Spring, or in the Shire-reckoning the second of April', since my father had decided, already while writing A (see note 5), that the 25th of March was not the day on which the King would came to the Bridge, but the day on which The Lord of the Rings came to an end.(7)

Daisie Gamgee's name is now Erien (Arien in A); and in the King's letter he calls Sam Master Perhail who should rather be called Panthail, which Sam interprets as 'Master Samwise who ought to be called Fullwise'.

Other changes were made to B later, and these were taken up into the third and final text 'C' of this version of the 'Epilogue', a typescript. To this my father gave the revised title of B, 'The End of the Book', with a chapter-number 'LVIII',(8) but he then struck out both title and number and reverted to 'Epilogue.' The text now opens thus: One evening in the March of 1436 Master Samwise Gamgee was taking his ease by the fire in his study, and his children were gathered round him, as was not at all unusual. Though it was always supposed to be a special occasion, a Royal Command, it was one more often commanded by the subjects than by the King.

This day, however, really was a special occasion. For one thing it was Elanor s birthday;(9) for another, Sam had been reading aloud from a big Red Book, and he had just come to the very end, after a slow progress through its many chapters that had taken many months. On a stool beside him sat Elanor...

Sam now says of the Entwives: 'I think maybe the Entwives don't want to be found'; and after his words 'But now no more questions tonight' the following passage was introduced:

'Just one more, please! ' begged Merry. 'I've wanted to ask before, but Ellie and Fro get in so many questions there's never any room for mine.'

'Well then, just one more,' said Sam.

'About horses,' said Merry. 'How many horses did the Riders lose in the battle, and have they grown lots more? And what happened to Legolas's horse? And what did Gandalf do with Shadowfax? And can I have a pony soon?' he ended breathlessly.

'That's a lot more than one question: you're worse than Gollum,' said Sam. 'You're going to have a pony next birthday, as I've told you before. Legolas let his horse run back free to Rohan from Isengard; and the Riders have more horses than ever, because nobody steals them any longer; and Shadowfax went in the White Ship with Gandalf: of course Gandalf couldn't have a' left him behind. Now that'll have to do. No more questions. At least not till after supper.'

The letter of the King now begins Aragorn Tarantar (at which Sam explains 'that's Trotter') Aranthornsson &c. Tarantar was altered on the typescript to Telcontar ('that's Strider'): see VIII.390 and note 14.

Rose's name in Elvish becomes Meril (for Beril), and Hamfast's Baravorn (for Marthanc); the Elvish name of Daisy (so spelt in C) reverts to Arien (for Erien), the form in A.

Though never published, of course, this version of the Epilogue is, I believe, quite well known, from copies made from the text at Marquette University. My father would never in fact have published it, even had he decided in the end to conclude The Lord of the Rings with an epilogue, for it was superseded by a second version, in which while much of Sam's news from beyond the Shire was retained its framework and presentation were radically changed.(10) Of this there are two texts. The first is a good clear manuscript with few corrections; it has neither title nor chapter-number. The second is a typescript, which though made by my father followed the manuscript very closely indeed; this is entitled 'Epilogue', with the chapter-number

'X' (i.e. of Book Six). I give here the text of the typescript in full.

The second version of the Epilogue.

EPILOGUE.

One evening in the March of 1436 Master Samwise Gamgee was in his study at Bag End. He was sitting at the old well-worn l, desk, and with many pauses for thought he was writing in his slow round hand on sheets of loose paper. Propped up on a stand at his side was a large red book in manuscript.

Not long before he had been reading aloud from it to his family. For the day was a special one: the birthday of his daughter Elanor. That evening before supper he had come at last to the very end of the Book. The long progress through its many chapters, even with omissions that he had thought advisable, had taken some months, for he only read aloud on great days. At the birthday reading, besides Elanor, Frodo-lad had been present, and Rosie-lass, and young Merry and Pippin; but the other children had not been there. The Red Book was not for them yet, and they were safely in bed. Goldilocks was only five years old, for in this Frodo's foretelling had made a slight error, and she came after Pippin. But she was not the last of the line, for Samwise and Rose seemed likely to rival old Gerontius Took as successfully in the number of their children as Bilbo had in the number of his years. There was little Ham,

[and there was Daisy still in her cradle >] and Daisy, and there was Primrose still in her cradle.(11)

Now Sam was 'having a bit of quiet'. Supper was over. Only Elanor was with him, still up because it was her birthday. She sat without a sound, staring at the fire, and now and again glancing at her father. She was a beautiful girl, more fair of skin than most hobbit-maidens, and more slender, and the firelight glinted in her red-gold hair. To her, by gift if not by inheritance, a memory of elven-grace had descended.(12)