The Treason of Isengard (31 page)

The story of the great silence over all the land of Hollin, the flights of black crows, Pippin's disappointment at the news and Sam's failure to comprehend the geography, the mysterious passage of something against the stars, and the sight of Caradhras close before them on the third morning from Hollin, all this is told in words that remained virtually unchanged in FR, save for a few details. Trotter says that the crows are 'not natives to this place', but does not add that 'they are crebain out of Fangorn and Dunland'; and after saying that he has glimpsed many hawks flying high up, he says 'That would account for the silence of all the birds', this being struck out immediately (see VI.420 and note 17). Sam calls Caradhras 'this Ruddyhorn, or whatever its name is', as he did in the original version (VI.421), but Ruddyhorn was then to be its accepted English name (VI.419 and note 11).

As the Company walked on the ancient road from Hollin to the Pass, the moon rose over the mountains almost at the full'; as in the original version it is said that the light was unwelcome to Trotter and Gandalf, and 'they were relieved when at last late in the night the moon set and left them to the stars'. In the original text it was a crescent moon (VI.421 and note 19), and 'it stayed but a little while'; in FR the moon was full, and still low in the western sky when the shadow passed across the stars.

In the original version it was Trotter who favoured the passage of Moria, Gandalf who favoured the Pass, and what they said was coloured by their opinions. This was still the case when my father came to the new version, although what is said is virtually what is said in FR (p. 300):

'Winter is behind,' [Gandalf] said quietly to Trotter. 'The peaks away north are whiter than they were; snow is lying far down their shoulders.'

'And tonight,' said Trotter, 'we shall be on our way high up the Dimrill Stair. If we are not seen by watchers on that narrow path, and waylaid by some evil, the weather may prove as deadly an enemy as any. What do you think of our course now?'

Frodo overheard these words [@c. as in FR]

'I think no good of any part of our course from beginning to end, as you know well, Aragorn', answered Gandalf, his tone sharpened by anxiety. 'But we must go on. It is no good our delaying the passage of the mountains. Further south there are no passes, till one comes to the Gap of Rohan. I do not trust that way, since the fall of Saruman. Who knows which side now the marshals of the Horse-lords serve?'

'Who knows indeed!' said Trotter. 'But there is another way, and not by the pass beneath Caradhras: the dark and secret way that we have spoken of.'

'And I will not speak of it again. Not yet. Say nothing to the others, I beg. Nor you, Frodo,' said Gandalf, turning suddenly towards him. 'You have listened to our words, as is your right as Ring-bearer. But I will not say any more until it is plain that there is no other course.'

'We must decide before we go further,' said Gandalf.

'Then let us weigh the matter in our minds, while the others rest and sleep,' answered Trotter.

Since the speakers of the last two speeches are out of order with the preceding conversation, it was at this point that my father 'realised'

that it was Trotter and not Gandalf who especially feared Moria, and at once changed the text of the passage accordingly.

Gandalf s words to the Company at the end of his discussion with Trotter, and the whole account of the snowstorm, are very much as in FR (pp. 300 - 2), though in the latter part of this chapter the actual wording underwent more development later to reach the FR text than had been the case till now. Boromir says that he was born in the Black Mountains (see VI.436, note 31); and the reference to Bilbo alone of hobbits remembering the Fell Winter of the year 1311 is absent.

Another use of names from the legends of the Elder Days, immediately rejected, appears in Boromir's words about the snowstorm: 'I wonder if the Enemy has anything to do with it? They say in my land that he can govern the storms in [struck out: Mountains of Shadow Daedeloth Delduath] the Mountains of Shadow that lie on the confines of Mordor.'(23)

In Frodo's dream, as he fell into a snow-sleep, Bilbo's voice said: Snowstorm on December the ninth (in the original version 2 December, VI.424; in FR 12 January). The journey from Rivendell to Hollin had taken 'some ten days' (p. 165); and a chronological scheme that seems clearly to derive from this time and to fit this narrative gives the date of departure from Rivendell as the evening of Thursday 24

November. According to this scheme the Company reached Hollin on 6 December, the journey from Rivendell having thus taken eleven days (and twelve nights), and 'Snow on Caradras' is dated 9 December.

The liquor that Gandalf gives to the Company from his flask is still called 'one of Elrond's cordials', as in VI.424, and the name miruvor does not appear. Gandalf, as the flame sprang up from the wood, said:

'I have written Gandalf is here in signs that even the blind rocks could read', but he does not say, as he thrusts his staff into the faggot, naur an edraith ammen!(24)

The account of the descent remains distinctively different from the story in FR, and closer to the original (VI.426 - 7), despite the fact that Trotter was there still a hobbit, and Gimli and Legolas not present.

'The sooner we make a move and get down again the better,'

said Gandalf. 'There is more snow still to come up here.'

Much as they all desired to get down again, it was easier said than done. Beyond their refuge the snow was already some feet deep, and in places was piled into great wind-drifts; and it was wet and soft. Gandalf could only get forward with great labour, and had only gone a few yards on the downward path when he was floundering in snow above his waist. Their plight looked desperate.

Boromir was the tallest of the Company, being above six feet and very broad-shouldered as well. 'I am going on down, if I can,' he said. 'As far as I can make out our course of last night, the path turns right round that shoulder of rock down there.

And if I remember rightly, a furlong or so beyond the turn there was a flat space at the top of a long steep slope - very heavy going it was as we came up. From that point I might be able to get a view, and some idea of how the snow lies further down.'

He struggled slowly forward, plunging in snow that was everywhere above his knees, and in places rose almost shoulder-high. Often he seemed to be swimming or burrowing with his great arms rather than walking. At last he vanished from sight and passed round the turn. He was long gone, and they began to be anxious, fearing that he had been engulfed in some drift or snow-filled hollow, or had fallen over the hidden brink into the ravine.

When more than an hour had passed they heard him call. He had reappeared round the bend in the path and was labouring back towards them, 'I am weary,' he said; 'but I have brought back some hope. There is a deep wind-drift just round the turn, and I was nearly buried in it, but fortunately it is not wide.

Beyond it the snow suddenly gets less. At the top of the slope it is barely a foot deep, and further down, white though it looks, it seems to be but a light coverlet: only a sprinkling in places.'

'It is the ill will of Caradras,' muttered Gimli. 'He does not love dwarves, or elves. He has cast his snow at us with special intent. That drift was devised to cut off our descent.'

'Then Caradras happily has forgotten that we have with us a mountaineer who knows his far kindred, the peaks of the Black Mountains,' said Gandalf. 'It was a good fortune that gave us Boromir as a member of our Company.'

'But how are we to get through this drift, even if we ever get as far as the turn?' asked Pippin, voicing the thoughts of all the hobbits.

'It is a pity,' said Legolas, 'that Gandalf cannot go before us with a bright flame, and melt us a path.'

'It is a pity that Elves cannot fly over mountains, and fetch the Sun to save them,' answered Gandalf. 'Even I need something to work on. I cannot burn snow. But I could turn Legolas into a flaming torch, if that will serve: he would burn bright while he lasted.'

'Spare me!' cried Legolas. 'I fear that a dragon is concealed in the shape of our wizard. Yet a tame dragon would be useful at this hour.'

'It will be a wild dragon, if you say any more,' said Gandalf.

'Well, well! When heads are at a loss, bodies must serve, as they say in my country,' said Boromir. 'I have some strength still left; and so has Aragorn. We must use that, while it lasts. I will carry one of the Little Folk, and he another. Two shall be set on the pony, and led by Gandalf.'

At once he set about unlading Bill. 'Aragorn and I will come back when we have got the Little Folk through,' he said. 'You, Legolas and Gimli, can wait here, or follow behind in our track, if you can.' He picked up Merry and set him on his shoulders.

Trotter took Pippin. Frodo was mounted on the pony, with Sam clinging behind. They ploughed forward.

At last they reached and passed the turn, and came to the edge of the drift. Frodo marvelled at the strength of Boromir, seeing the passage that he had already forced through it with no better tool than his sword and his great arms.(25) Even now, burdened as he was with Merry clinging on his back, he was thrusting the snow forward and aside, and widening the passage for those who followed. Behind him Trotter was labouring. They were in the midst of the drift, and Boromir and Merry were almost through, when a rumbling stone fell from the slope above and, hurtling close to Frodo's head, thudded deep into the snow. But with the casting of that last stone the malice of the mountain seemed to be expended, as if it were satisfied that the invaders were in retreat and would not dare to return. There was no further mishap.

On the flat shelf above the steep slope they found, as Boromir had reported, that the snow was only shallow. There they waited, while Trotter and Boromir returned with the pony to fetch the packs and burdens and give some help to Legolas and the dwarf.

By the time they were all gathered together again morning was far advanced.

It was Gandalf's reply here ('It is a pity that Elves cannot fly over mountains, and fetch the Sun to save them') to Legolas' remark (originally Boromir's, VI.426) about melting a path that led to Legolas' saying in FR 'I go to find the Sun!', and was very probably (as I think) the source of the idea that the Elf, so far from being as helplessly marooned as Gimli, Gandalf, and the hobbits, could run upon the snow. It is noticeable that Gandalf's real ill-humour in the original version is here diminished, while in FR it has probably disappeared.

The remainder of the chapter is as in FR, but it ends thus: The wind was blowing stiffly again over the pass that was hidden in cloud behind them; already a few flakes of snow were curling and drifting down. Caradras had defeated them. They turned their backs on the Dimrill Stair, and stumbled wearily down the slope.

NOTES.

1. This refers to the story, first appearing in the original version of

'The Council of Elrond' (VI.407) and retained in the second (p. 112), that Gandalf came upon the hobbits walking in the woods in the afternoon following the Council.

2. This is probably the point at which my father determined on the change of Galdor to Legolas (see p. 141). Legolas Greenleaf the keen-eyed thus reappears after many years from the old tale of The Fall of Gondolin (II.189, etc.); he was of the House of the Tree in Gondolin, of which Galdor was the lord.

3. In fact, nine had been the original number, in the first sketch for

'The Council of Elrond' (VI.397): Frodo, Sam; Gandalf; Glorfindel; Trotter; Burin son of Balin; Merry, Folco, Odo. It is curious to see how close in its conception the complement of the Company was at the very beginning to the final form, though it was at once rejected.

4. On Erestor 'Half-elf' see VI.400 and note 17.

5. The word 'reduction' may however imply that the first of two alternative versions of the final 'Choosing of the Company' had already been written; see note 12.

6. This latter option survived into a typescript text made not long after (probably by myself), where the long and short openings of the chapter are set out one after the other as variants.

7. On the days of the week in relation to the dates see p. 14. Frodo's escape over the Ford of Bruinen took place on Thursday 20

October. If precisely three weeks are counted from that day we are brought to Thursday 10 November.

8. Tharbad: see the Etymologies, V.392, stem THAR; and see Map II on p. 305.

9. In the original form of the passage (VI.416) and in that in the second version of 'The Council of Elrond', as well as in the present text, my father wrote 'the sources of the Gladden'. This was obviously based on the Map of Wilderland in The Hobbit, where the Gladden, there of course unnamed, rises in several streams falling from the Misty Mountains (these are not shown on the First Map (Map II, p. 305), but the scale there is much smaller). In the typescript that followed the present text the typist put source, and my father corrected it to sources. I suspect therefore that source in FR is an error.