The Treason of Isengard (80 page)

I cannot say what function in the narrative my father had in mind for Idis (and it is notable that in the original outline, p. 437, only Eowyn sister of Eomer is mentioned as waiting on the guests at the feast in Winseld after the victory); still less why the daughter of the King (and older than Eowyn, p. 445) should be so silent and so overshadowed by the niece.

The significance of the meeting of Aragorn and Eowyn, on the other hand, was destined to survive, though fundamentally transformed. In this first version, in a passage already cited (p. 445), after she had gone

'he stood still, looking at the dark doors and taking little heed of other things'; at the meal before the departure 'Aragorn was silent, but his eyes followed Eowyn' (struck out); and when she brought the wine to the guests 'Long she looked upon Aragorn, and long he looked upon her' - for which was substituted: 'As she stood before Aragorn she paused suddenly and looked upon him, as if only now had she seen him clearly. He looked down upon her fair face, and their eyes met.

For a moment they stood thus, and their hands met as he took the cup from her. "Hail Aragorn son of Arathorn!" she said.' With this contrast the passage that appears in its place in TT (p. 127). And after Theoden's words 'But in [Dunberg >] Dunharrow the people may long defend themselves, and if the battle go ill thither will come all who escape' (TT p. 128) Aragorn says: 'If I live, I will come, Lady Eowyn, and then maybe we will ride together.' Then Eowyn 'smiled and bent her head gravely.'

There is an isolated list of matters 'to be explained before the end', which in view of the first item seems to have been written just about this time. Only one other item is relevant here, but I give the whole list: Gandalf's escape - put this at the end of XXVI [i.e. 'The White Rider']

What happens to Bill (the pony)? [Added: Goes back to Bree and is found by Sam who rides him home.]

Bill Ferney.

Bree and Merry's ponies.

Barnabas Butterbur [added: and the ponies).

Galadriel.

Ents. Treebeard. Entwives.

Aragorn weds Eowyn sister of Eomer (who becomes Lord of Rohan) and becomes King of Gondor.

Feast in Gondor. Home Journey. They pass by round Lorien.(18) But the story of Aragorn and Eowyn would in the event, of course, be quite otherwise; and in another short group of notes, isolated and undateable, this marital alliance of Rohan and Gondor was rejected (and no other was foreseen):

? Cut out the love-story of Aragorn and Eowyn. Aragorn is too old and lordly and grim. Make Eowyn the twin-sister of Eomund, a stern amazon woman.

If so, alter the message of Galadriel (XXVI.17).

Probably Eowyn should die to avenge or save Theoden.

But my father added in a hasty scribble the possibility that Aragorn did indeed love Eowyn, and never wedded after her death.

The reference 'XXVI.17' is to the page in the 'fair copy' manuscript of 'The White Rider' where appears Galadriel's message to Aragorn delivered to him by Gandalf (p. 431):

Elfstone, Elfstone, bearer of my green stone,

In the south under snow a green stone thou shalt see.

Look well, Elfstone! In the shadow of the dark throne

Then the hour is at hand that long hath awaited thee.

The green stone in the south was borne on Theoden's brow (p. 444), beneath his white hair, and it was Eowyn who would stand in the shadow of the dark throne within his hall.

NOTES.

1. Beginning originally at 'Gandalf now wrapped himself again in his old tattered cloak' (p. 430; TT p. 107), the opening of 'The King of the Golden Hall' was then moved to 'The morning was bright and clear about them' (pp. 431 - 2; TT p. 111). The second rearrangement, giving the form in TT, was made after 'The King of the Golden Hall' was completed.

2. Names in Theod-, like names in Eo- (p. 403 note 5), are not written with an accent at this time.

3. In TT there are sixteen barrows at the foot of the hill of Edoras, and it is 500 years since Eorl the Young came out of the North.

See note 11.

4. The flowers on the burial mounds, 'like tiny snowdrops' in the first draft, became in the second 'tiny flowers star-shaped and frail'. And in the second Legolas says: 'Seven mounds I see, and seven long lives of men it is, since the golden hall was built.

[Struck out at once: And many more lives still since the Rohiroth first passed into this land.]' It seems curious that such awareness of the history of the Riders of Rohan should be attributed to Legolas.

5. 'Stay, strangers unknown! Who are ye, friends or foes, that have come thus strangely clad riding to the gates of this town? None may here enter in, neither beggarman nor warrior, if we know not his name. Now, ye comers from afar, declare to us in haste: what are ye called? What is your errand to Theoden our lord?' -

My father first used the Old English letter 'thorn' but changed to

'th' as he wrote.

The passage in Beowulf (lines 237 - 57) in which Beowulf and his companions are accosted by the watchman on the coast of Denmark is very distinctly echoed, as also is the passage in Modern English in TT, p. 113 ('Who are you that come heedless over the plain...').

6. Conceivably there was some confusion arising from the initial idea that Gandalf with Gimli entered Eodoras in advance of Aragorn and Legolas: Gandalf was introduced into the scenes at the gates and the doors, but Gimli, who would play little explicit part in them, was neglected. 'The three companions went forward' is certainly very surprising, since here the scene seems to be expressly visualised without Gimli; but this may have been a mere slip, deriving from the frequent use of 'the three companions' (Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli) in preceding chapters.

7. One of the guards replies that 'None are welcome here in days of war save only those that come from [struck out: Gemenburg]

Heatorras Giemen Minas Tirith', with Mundbeorg written in the margin. These Old English words are gemen, giemen 'care, heed, watch'; Heatorras 'high towers'; and Mundbeorg 'protection-hill', distinct from Mundburg in LR. Mundbeorg occurs in another draft: 'And I am Aragorn son of Arathorn ... and it is to Mundbeorg that I journey as to my home' (cf. TT p. 113, 'it is to Mundburg that he goes').

An echo of the Old English poem known as The Wanderer, line 92: Hwaer cwom mearg? Hwaer cwom mago?

It is perhaps possible that the 'Beowulfian' reception at the gates played some part in the increased hostility of Theoden before ever Wormtongue entered the story.

10. Two small details in the scene before the doors may be mentioned. The guards, turning their sword-hilts towards the strangers, cried Cumath her wilcuman! This was later changed to Wesath hale, feorran cumene, which appears in TT (p. 114) translated, 'Hail, comers from afar!' And Gandalf speaks to Aragorn with an asperity that was afterwards softened (TT

p. 115): Needless is Theoden s demand, but needless also is your refusal, Aragorn.'

11. In LR the time-span was of course vastly greater: according to the Tale of Years Eorl the Young won the victory of the Field of Celebrant and the Rohirrim settled in Calenardhon (Rohan as a province of Gondor) in the year 2510 of the Third Age, which was that number of years after the overthrow of Sauron by Gilgalad and Elendil. With the statement here cf. the genealogy.

that Aragorn gives of himself at the passage of the Pillars of the Kings, in which he is only separated from Isildur by three: (subsequently four) generations (pp. 360 - 1).

It is difficult to explain the name 'Battle of the Field of Gorgoroth: on the First Map the Battle Plain (Dagras, later, Dagorlad) is placed where it remained, outside the mountain-fences of Mordor and separated from Gorgoroth by the great pass, then named Kirith Ungo! (Map III, p. 309).

12. Eofored is not named as Theoden's son. In the outline for this, chapter the Second Master seems to have been slain in the final battle of the River Isen, and his funeral feast was held after the return to Eodoras (pp. 435, 437). His death has now been moved back to the fighting before Gandalf's arrival.

13. Theoden here says that 'only a few days ago men reported to me .'

that Shadowfax had come back out of the West; but none could lay hands on him, for he went away swiftly northwards.' See p. 434 and note 2. This then became 'men reported that Shadowfax had been seen again, running wild through the land'; and finally, as in TT, 'I heard that Shadowfax had come back riderless'.

14. Wormtongue still says that 'to the wonder of us all my lord lent to you Shadowfax'. This was subsequently changed to his words in TT: 'my lord bade you choose any horse you would and be gone; and to the wonder of us all you took Shadowfax in your insolence.'

15. In the draft for this passage the reading is 'Go [struck out: Eowyn and you too AElflaed Flaed] Idis and you too Eowyn'. Cf. the Old English poetic word ides 'woman, lady'. In early notes Eowyn is

'daughter of Theoden' and 'daughter of Eomund' (p. 390).

16. Even to the names of Theoden's sword, Herugrim, and his horse> Snowmane: only in the case of Dunharrow was there an earlier form, Dunberg. Dunharrow is so named on Map IV, p. 319.

17. In LR the genealogy is:

Thengel.

Theoden. Theodwyn. = Eomund.

Theodred. Eomer. Eowyn.

Near the end of the chapter 'Theodred' appears: ' "Behold I go forth," said Theoden. "[Struck out at once: Theodred my son] I have no son. I name Eomer my sister-son to be my heir" ' (cf. TT

p. 127). On the other hand, in a second version of this passage, Theoden says: 'I have no child. Theodred my brother's son is slain.'

18. To this last item in the list the following was added at some later time:

No. They learn (in Rivendell?) that Nazgul razed Lorien and Keleborn fled with a remnant to Mirkwood. Galadriel was lost or was hidden. Or shall Lorien be left slowly to fade? Yes.

Galadriel parts with Keleborn who elects to stay in the world and [?woods]. She is seen by Frodo in old age, when he and Sam see Galadriel and Bilbo (and Elrond? No - he has one

[written above: 3?] [struck out: age] life of men still to rule in Rivendell).

APPENDIX ON RUNES.

It is notable that all references to runes in The Lord of the Rings were associated with Gandalf until my father came to the words graved on Balin's tomb in Moria. In The Hobbit runic writing is almost entirely associated with Dwarves (who are said, in Chapter III 'A Short Rest', to have invented the runic Moon-letters), but runes had been an element in Middle-earth from a very early stage.' In his letter to G. E.

Selby of 14 December 1937, cited in the Foreword to Vol. VI The Return of the Shadow, my father said that he preferred his own mythology 'with its consistent nomenclature and organized history' to The Hobbit, and spoke with humorous disparagement of 'this rabble of Eddaic-named dwarves out of Voluspa, new-fangled hobbits and gollums (invented in an idle hour) and Anglo-Saxon runes.' As will be seen, when he wrote these last words he was thinking of his own runic alphabets, already at that time highly developed, and not in any way particularly associated with the Dwarves, if associated with them at all. It is conceivable, I think, that it was nonetheless Thror's Map, bearing runic writing of great importance in the story of The Hobbit, that brought that close association into being (although the Dwarves always remained the inheritors and not the first devisers of the Angerthas).

There seems to be relatively little extant writing concerning the runes from the period we have reached in this book, but my father's linguistic papers and work on scripts and alphabets were left in so chaotic a state that it is often impossible to be sure even of a broad and relative dating. A central problem lies, as always in this context, in the existence of two sets of variables. The richly divergent development of scripts, as of speech-sounds, among different peoples was a datum from the start; but the detail of those divergences was subject to unceasing modification in the mind of their deviser. When the papers (almost always undated and often without consecutive pagination) are so disordered that material which may well be separated by decades is jumbled together, the risk is great of false conjunctions and false constructions.

' The earliest runic document relating to Middle-earth that I know of is a little slip of paper in my father's early handwriting, headed Gondolinic Runes.

This gives an alphabet in which the values of the runes are almost totally different from the Angerthas, but in which the principles of phonetic organisation in relation to letter-shape are strongly evident.

I give here first two brief texts that seem to me to come most likely from the period shortly before the beginning of The Lord of the Rings more or less contemporary with the Quenta Silmarillion and the Lhammas given in Vol. V, The Lost Road and Other Writings. Both are clear manuscripts in ink, and to both of them my father later added in pencil; I give these additions, though I suspect that they were substantially later. It will be seen that these additions concern the especial importance of Runic writing among the Dwarves, of which no mention is made in these texts as written.