The Treason of Isengard (76 page)

XXIV.

THE WHITE RIDER.

For the greater part of this chapter the evolution can be traced very dearly. Initial drafting not erased or overwritten, more developed but discontinuous drafting, and a 'fair copy' that itself underwent constant correction in the act of composition, were a continuous process, and the history of almost every sentence can be followed until near the end of the chapter. This was numbered 'XXVI' from an early stage; a title was added to the 'fair copy' later, first Sceadufax in Old English spelling, then 'The White Rider'. The process of composition here was continuous and all of the same time, so that 'first draft', 'second draft',

'fair copy', 'corrections to fair copy' cannot be treated as distinct entities, each complete before the next stage.

An example of this overlapping is seen at once. In the original form of the opening, to Gimli's insistence that the old man who stood by the fire in the night was Saruman, Aragorn replies: 'I wonder. The horses showed no signs of fear.' In the 'fair copy' (more accurately, the first coherent manuscript) this became: ' "I wonder," said Aragorn. "What did he seem to be? An old man? It is strange enough in itself: that an old man should be walking alone by the eaves of Fangorn. Yet the horses showed no signs of fear." ' This obviously belongs with the sentence struck out at the end of 'The Riders of Rohan': 'The horses remained quiet, and seemed to feel nothing amiss', and suggests to my mind that my father believed the old man to be Gandalf (see p. 403

and note 26). Yet in the most 'primitive' drafting further on in the chapter the old man in the night certainly was Saruman (see further pp. 427 - 8).

The later chronology of the chase across Rohan not being present, of course (see p. 406), Aragorn remarks that the footprints by the riverside are a day old ., Gandalf says that the hobbits climbed up here yesterday', and that he himself had seen Treebeard 'three days ago': in TT all these are made one day earlier, on account of the extra day added in 1944. At one point, however, the need for correction escaped my father's notice: Legolas' words that the last time he saw the eagle was 'three days ago, above the Emyn Muil' (TT p. 98). This should have been changed to .four days ago, see the table on p. 406, and cf. The Tale of Years in LR, February 27 Aragorn reaches the west-cliff at sunrise', and (February having 30 days) 'March 1 Aragorn meets Gandalf the White'.

The story of the first meeting with Gandalf was sketched out in every essential point in the earliest draft. When the three companions saw the old man walking through the wood below them, Gimli's horror of Saruman was at first expressed in more murderous fashion:

'Shoot, Legolas! Draw your bow! Shoot! It is Saruman, or worse. Do not let him speak or bewitch us!' This was retained in the fair copy; and when subsequently it was softened to a demand that Legolas only prepare to shoot, Gimli's following words were retained: 'Why are you waiting? What is the matter with you?' In the earliest draft the wizard wore an 'old hat'; this became a 'battered hat', then a

'wide-brimmed hat' (see p. 403).(1)

The opening of their long conversation proceeds thus in the earliest draft (cf. TT pp. 98 - 9):

'... At the turn of the Tide. The great storm is coming, but the Tide has turned even at this moment. I have passed through fire and ruin and I have been badly burned, or well burned. But come, tell me now of yourselves. I have seen much in deep places and in high since we parted; I have forgotten much that I knew, and learned again much that I had forgotten.(2) [Some things I can see far off and some close at hand; but not all can I see. Changed at once to:] Many things I can see far off but many that are close at hand I cannot see.'

'What do you wish to know?' said Aragorn. 'All that has happened would be a long tale. Will you not first tell us tidings of Merry and Pippin? Did you find them, and are they safe?'

'No, I did not find them,' said Gandalf.(3) 'I was busy with perilous matters, and did not know of their captivity until the eagle told me.'

'The eagle! ' said Legolas. 'We have seen an eagle high and far .

off: the last time was three days ago, above Sarn Gebir.'

'Yes,' said Gandalf, 'that was Gwaewar the Windlord who rescued me from Orthanc. I sent him before me to gather tidings, and to watch the River. His sight is keen, but he cannot see all that passes in wood and valley. But there are some things that I can see unaided. This I may tell you: the Ring has passed beyond my help or the help of any of our original Company.

Very nearly it was revealed to the Enemy, but not quite. I had some part in that. For I sat upon the mountains beneath the snows of Methedras and I strove with the Dark Tower, and the shadow passed. Then I was weary: very weary.'

The story that Gandalf was on Tol Brandir when Frodo sat on Amon Hen, and that he was borne across Rohan by the eagle (see p. 396), has been abandoned; Gwaewar (Gwaihir) is now in his later role as gatherer of tidings for Gandalf in the region of Anduin. It is not clear at this stage what had happened to Gandalf, and it seems that my father did not for the moment intend to make it so. Is it to be supposed that he made his way south along the mountains and so came to Methedras, where he sat 'beneath the snows and strove with the Dark Tower' while Frodo wore the Ring on Amon Hen? A single isolated and interrupted sentence says 'Gwaewar found me walking in the woods. Of him I'; which surely means that Gandalf came from Methedras into Fangorn, and that Gwaewar having found him he sent the eagle away east 'to watch the River and gather tidings'. This may suggest that the story of his being borne by the eagle to Lothlorien had not yet arisen.

When drafting the chapter my father had at first no thought, it seems, that Gandalf should display to Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli 'a piece of his mind' (TT p. 100) on the hopes and chances of the War.

After Gandalf has been told that they think that Sam went with Frodo to Mordor, he says: 'Did he, indeed. It is news to me, but not at all surprising. But now about Merry and Pippin, for I shall not get your tale out of you before I have told you of them.'

It was perhaps at this point that my father set down a short outline for what Gandalf might now say:

Eagle sights orcs and hobbits. Saruman about in the woods.

Orc-battle. Treebeard. They are safe, but something is going on.

Revolt of trees? But we are called south. War is beginning. They must wait in hope and patience to find Merry and Pippin ... - but their friendship and devotion in following them was rewarded. The Company had done nobly and Gandalf was pleased with them.

They ask what had happened to him - he won't tell yet.

It seems that the new course of the conversation ('Now sit by me and tell me the tale of your journey', TT p. 99) was at once introduced, leading to Gandalf's account of the intentions, desires, and fears of the Dark Lord and of Saruman. This was a characteristic development in stages by expansion, refinement of expression, and some re-ordering of its structure, but all the essentials of Gandalf's thought were present from the first drafting. There are however in the earlier stages a number of interesting differences to be recorded.

That Saruman was 'about in the woods' is mentioned in the little outline just given; in the first drafting Gandalf tells (as in TT, p. 101) that 'he could not wait at home and came forth to meet his captives', but that he was too late, the battle was over, and being 'no woodcraftsman' he had misinterpreted what had happened. 'Poor Saruman!' Gandalf adds, 'what a fall for one so wise! I fear that [he started too late to make a success of wickedness >] he started in the race too late. He seems not to have the luck he needs in his new profession. He at least will never sit in the Dark Tower.'

The passage about the Winged Messenger, absent in the draft, appears in the fair copy, where Legolas says that he felled him from the sky 'above Sarn Ruin' (see p. 361 and note 20), and that 'He filled us all with fear, but none so much as Frodo.'

In the first draft Gimli asks: 'That old man. You say Saruman is abroad. Was it you or Saruman that we saw last night?' and Gandalf replies: 'If you saw an old man last night, you certainly did not see me.

But as we seem to look so much alike that you wished to make an incurable dent in my hat, I must guess that you saw Saruman [or a vision >] or some wraith of his making. [Struck out: I did not know that he lingered here so long.]' Against Gandalf's words my father wrote in the margin: Vision of Gandalf's thought. There is clearly an important clue here to the curious ambiguity surrounding the apparition of the night before, if one knew how to interpret it; but these words are not perfectly clear. They obviously represent a new thought: arising perhaps from Gandalf's suggestion that if it was not Saruman himself that they saw it was a 'vision' or 'wraith' that he had made, the apparition is now to emanate from Gandalf himself. But of whom was it a vision? Was it an embodied 'emanation' of Gandalf, proceeding from Gandalf himself, that they saw? 'I look into his unhappy mind and I see his doubt and fear', Gandalf has said; it seems more likely perhaps that through his deep concentration on Saruman he had

'projected' an image of Saruman which the three companions could momentarily see. I have found no other evidence to cast light on this most curious element in the tale; but it may be noted that in a time-scheme deriving from the time of the writing of 'Helm's Deep'

and 'The Road to Isengard' my father noted of that night: 'Aragorn and his companions spend night on the battle-field, and see "old man"

(Saruman).'

The earliest of several versions of Gandalf's reply to Legolas'

question 'Who is Treebeard?' is notable, though extremely difficult to read:

'Ah,' said Gandalf, 'Now you are asking. He is Fangorn, that is Treebeard, Treebeard the Ent: what else shall I call him? The eldest of the old, the King of the Treebeards, the dwellers in the Forest.

Stone-old, tree-hale, snail-slow, strong as a growing root. I wish you had met him. Your friends were more fortunate. For they came up here, as Aragorn has [? already] discovered. But no marks of them go down, as he may have discovered and soon would. But here ...

marks by [?one] [of] Treebeard's feet. This was a place, he often came to it when he wished to be alone and look outside the Forest.

He has taken the hobbits away.'

'Then they are safe, since you speak well of Treebeard?'

'Safe? Yes, as far as the Ents go. But there is [?terrible] hurry.'

Gandalf tells them about Ents. Says it was well that Merry and Pippin I?came there]. They did right to follow. Yet to meet the Ents is not their task. Too late anyway. He looks at sun. 'We have spent all the time allowed to a meeting of parted friends. We must go. We are needed South.'

In a more developed draft Aragorn's response to Gandalf's naming

'the Ents' (TT p. 102) reads:

'The Ents!' exclaimed Aragorn. 'Then there is truth in the ancient legends, [and the names that they use in Rohan have a meaning! The Entwash and the Entmark (for that is how they call the Forest)]

Above Entmark is written Entwood. - These remarks about the names containing Ent were bracketed for rejection at once, since the text continues: 'about the dwellers in the deep forest, and the giant Shepherds of the Trees', as in TT. In one of many draftings for Legolas' words at this point he says: 'I thought that [Fangorn] was the name of the Forest. A strange name for a wood, now I consider it.'

The words 'he is the oldest living thing that still walks beneath the sun upon this Middle-earth' appear in the draft, written just so, without any hesitation in reaching them. Of his seeing Treebeard in the woods Gandalf says:

'... I passed him in the forest three days ago; and I do not doubt that he saw me, since the eyes of Treebeard miss little [written in margin: and he saw me, indeed he called my name]; but I did not speak, for I had much to think about, and I did not then know that Merry and Pippin had been carried off.'

The text of TT is reached in the fair copy. He says in the draft that

'something is going to happen which has not happened since the Elves awoke'; in the fair copy this becomes 'since the Elves first woke', changed to 'since the Elves were born' ('since the Elder Days', TT

p. 103). But when Legolas says 'What is going to happen?' Gandalf replies: 'I do not know. Merry and Pippin do perhaps, by now; but I do not.'

To his words to Aragorn, urging him not to regret his choice 'in the valley of Sarn Gebir', he adds (both in draft and fair copy):

'... Also I say to you that your coming to Minas Tirith will now be very different from what would have been, had you come there alone reporting that Boromir son of the Lord Denethor had fallen, while you lived....'

In the draft text he tells Aragorn that he must go now to Winseld, changed to Eodoras (see p. 402): 'The light of Branding must now be uncovered. There is battle in Rohan and they are hard put to it in the West, even as the great [? flood] of war comes up from the East.' In the fair copy this becomes: There is war in Rohan and it goes ill for the horsemasters': thus again (see p. 401) there is no suggestion of Wormtongue (cf. TT p. 104: There is war in Rohan, and worse evil, it goes ill with Theoden').