The War of the Ring (27 page)

Here this third phase of drafting (C) ends.(11) - It is curious that in the completed manuscript Sam's intervention has entirely disappeared: the dialogue between Faramir and Frodo in the passage where it originally took place now reaches the form in TT (p. 275) and Faramir no longer expresses so conventional a view of the Lady of the Golden Wood (cf. p. 148).

It is plain, I think, that at this point, at Frodo's words 'Go back Faramir, valiant captain, and defend your city while you may, and let me go alone where my doom takes me', the writing of the manuscript was halted, and that at that time nothing further had been written: in other words, this chapter, in terms of composition, falls into two parts, all up to this point (apart from the absence of Sam's outburst) having been brought virtually to the final form before the story proceeded.

Very rough and here and there altogether illegible outline sketches show my father's preliminary thoughts for its continuation. One of these, impossibly difficult to read, begins at the point where the draft C

ends, with Faramir still speaking to Sam: 'But you have not the manners of orcs, nor their speech, and indeed Frodo your master has an air that I cannot ..., an elvish air maybe.' In this text Faramir shows no hesitation about his course and does not postpone his decision, but concludes sternly: 'You shall be well treated. But make no doubt of it.

Until my father Denethor releases you, you are prisoners of Gondor.

Do not try to escape, if you do not wish to be slain' (cf. the passage given in note 7). Then follows:

In a few minutes they were on their way again down the slopes. Hobbits [?tired]. Mablung carries Sam. They get to the fenced camp in a dense wood of trees, 10 miles away. They had not gone far before Sam suddenly said to Frodo: 'Gollum! Well thank heavens we've lost him!' But Frodo not so sure. 'We have still to get into Mordor,' he said, 'and we do not know the way.'

Gollum rescues them

The last three words are very unclear, but I have no doubt that this is what they are - though what story lay behind them will never be known.

Another short text reads as follows:

Faramir says he no longer doubts. If he is any judge of men. But he says that much [more) lies upon it than at first he thought. 'I should' he said 'take you back to Minas Tirith, and if things went ill my life would be forfeit. But I will not decide yet. Yet we must move at once.' He gave some orders and the men broke up into small groups and faded away into the trees. Mablung and Damrod remained. 'Now you will come with me,' he said. 'You cannot go along the road if you meant to. And you cannot go far for you are weary. So are we. We go to a secret camp 10 miles away. Come with us. Before morn we will decide.'

They .... Faramir spoke.'You do not deal openly. You were not friendly with Boromir. I see S.G. thinks ill of him. Now I loved him, yet I knew him well. Isildur's Bane. I say that this lay between you in some way. Heirlooms do not breed peace among companions. Ancient tales.'

'And ancient tales teach us not to blab,' said Frodo.

'But you must know that much is known in Minas Tirith that is not spoken aloud. Therefore I dismissed my men. Gandalf was here. We the rulers know that I[sildur] carried off the Ruling Ring. Now this is a terrible matter. I can well guess that Boromir, proud, ever anxious for the glory of Minas Tirith (and his own renown) might wish to seize it. I guess that you have the Ring, though how it could ...

The rest of the sentence is illegible. The brief sketch ends with Faramir's words 'I would not touch it if it lay by the highway' and his expression of his love for and desires for Minas Tirith (TT p. 280); the last words are 'I could advise you if you would tell me more.' It is a pity that the passage about the Ring is so brief and elliptical; but the implication must surely be that the rulers of the city knew that Isildur carried off the Ruling Ring because Gandalf had told them. This, of course, was not at all the way in which the story would unfold when it came to be written down.

Another page of even more hasty and staccato sketching takes up from the point reached in the first, and may be its continuation (cf. TT

p. 280, where Faramir's words 'it may be that I can advise you ...

and even aid you' are followed by 'Frodo made no answer').

Frodo does not say more. Something holds him back. Wisdom?

Memory of Eoromir? Fear of the power and treachery of what he carried - in spite of liking Faramir. They speak of other things. Reasons of decline of Gondor. Rohan (alter Boromir's words saying he did not go there).(12) Gondor gets like Rohan, loving war as game: so Boromir. Sam says little. Delighted that Gollum seems forgotten. Faramir falls silent. Sam speaks of elvish power, boats, ropes, cloaks. Suddenly aware that Gollum is padding behind. But when they halt he sheers off.

Faramir in accord with law makes them be blindfold as they reach secret stronghold. They talk. Faramir warns him, warns against Gollum. Frodo reveals that he has to go to Mordor.

Speaks of Minas Ithil. Moonrise. Faramir bids farewell in morning. Frodo promises to come back to Minas Tirith and surrender to him if he returns.

At this stage, before the chapter proceeded further, Sam's intervention in the initial interrogation of Frodo by Faramir was reintroduced, at an earlier place in the dialogue (at 'and treachery not the least'), and inserted into the manuscript on a rider.(13)

The latter part of the chapter is extant in continuous and for the most part clearly written drafting, with a good deal of my father's characteristic 'over-lapping' - when the narrative takes a wrong direction or is in some respect unsatisfactory, collapses into a scrawl, and is replaced by a new page beginning at an earlier point (thus producing sections of near repetition). This drafting led to the finished manuscript, in which there were still important differences from the text in The Two Towers: it will be seen that at this time there was much development still to come in the past history of Rohan and Gondor.

The new draft ('D') begins (as also does the recommencement of the manuscript, closely based on D) ' "I do not doubt you any more," said Faramir.'(14) The narrative from this point (TT p. 276), as far as Sam's glimpse of Gollum as they walked through the woodland (TT p. 281), already in the draft very largely achieved the final text; but there are some interesting differences.(15)

It is here that the Stewards of Gondor first appear, and the passage concerning them (TT p. 278) was written in the draft text virtually without hesitation or correction, although there is no preliminary material extant. It is notable that from his first appearance in 'The Breaking of the Fellowship' (VII.375 - 6) Denethor has never been called King: he is the Lord Denethor, Denethor Lord of the Tower of Guard. It seems more than likely, therefore, that this cardinal element in the history and government of Gondor was already of long standing, though never until now emerging into the narrative. The line of Denethor is traced in the draft to Maraher the good steward, changed probably at once to Mardil (the name in the manuscript); but the last king of the line of Anarion, in whose stead Mardil ruled when he went away to war, was not Earnur. Both in draft and manuscript he is named King Elessar.

Gandalf's recital of his names, as reported by Faramir (who calls him in the draft 'the Grey Wanderer': 'the Grey Pilgrim' in the manuscript), was intricately changed in its initial composition, but apparently developed thus:

[Added: Mithrandir among the Elves. Sharkun to the Dwarves.]

[The name of my youth in the West is forgotten >] [Olorion >]

Olorin I was in my youth that is forgotten; [struck out: Shorab or Shorob in the East,] [Forlong >] Fornold in the South, Gandalf in the North. To the East I go not. [Struck out: Not everywhere]

The passage was then written out again in the draft, in the same form as it has in TT, but with the names Sharkun and Fornold, this latter being subsequently changed to Incanus. In the manuscript Sharkun (for later Tharkun) remains. - Here the name Olorin first appears, changed from Olorion. On Gandalf's names 'in the South', Forlong changed to Fornold, I can cast no light; I do not know whether it is relevant that in Appendix F to LR the name of Forlong, Lord of Lossarnach (who died in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields), is said to be among the names in Gondor that 'were of forgotten origin, and descended doubtless from days before the ships of the Numenoreans sailed the Sea.'

Faramir's words about Gandalf's eagerness for stories of Isildur were much changed: 'he was eager for stories of Isildur, though of him we had less to tell, [for Isildur was of the North in Fornost, and the realm of Gondor held from Anarion. > for to Gondor no sure tale had ever come concerning his end, only rumour that he perished in the River being shot by orc-arrows. >] for nought was ever known for certain of his end.' For the first occurrence of the name Fornost in the texts, replacing Fornobel, see p. 76.

A last point here is that (both in draft and manuscript) Faramir says:

'Isildur took somewhat from the hand of the Unnamed, ere he went away from the battle', where in TT (p. 279) he says 'went away from Gondor'. Cf. 'The Council of Elrond' in FR (p. 265), where Gandalf says: 'For Isildur did not march away straight from the war in Mordor, as some have told the tale', and Boromir interrupts: 'Some in the North, maybe. All know in Gondor that he went first to Minas Anor and dwelt a while with his nephew Meneldil, instructing him, before he committed to him the rule of the South Kingdom.' Cf. also the beginning of 'The Disaster of the Gladden Fields' in Unfinished Tales.

At the point where Sam, listening to but not entering the conversation, and observing that Gollum was never mentioned, sees him slipping behind a tree, the draft text (which, since it was soon replaced by another, I will call 'D 1') continues thus: He opened his mouth to speak, but did not. He could not be sure, and 'why should I mention the old villain anyway, until I'm obliged,' he thought.

After a while Frodo and Faramir began to speak again, for Frodo was eager to learn news of Gondor and its folk and of the lands about them, and what hope they had in their long war.

'It is long since we had any hope,' said Faramir.

These last words appear much later in TT (p. 286). Thus the entire story in TT pp. 281-6 is lacking at this stage: the blindfolding, the coming to Henneth Annun, the account of the cave, the report of Anborn about the 'black squirrel' in the woods, the evening meal, and Frodo's stories of their journey (although the fact that Frodo and Sam would be blindfolded before they came to the 'secret stronghold' was known to my father: see the outline on p. 152). All this is found in the completed manuscript in virtually the final form.

Faramir's account of the history of Gondor and the coming of the Horsemasters (TT pp. 286-7) was developed in two stages before it was written in the manuscript. Already in the first version (D 1) Faramir speaks very much as in TT of the evils and follies of the Numenoreans in the Great Lands,(16) and of their obsession with death.

But after 'Childless lords sat musing in hollow halls, or in high cold towers asked questions of the stars' he continues:

'... But we were more fortunate than other cities, recruiting our strength from the sturdy folk of the sea-coasts, and the hardy people of the White Mountains (17) - where lingered once many remnants of races long forgot. And then there came the men out of the North, the [Horse-marshals >] Rohir. And we ceded them the fields of [Rohan >] Elenarda [written above: Kalen(arda)] that are since called Rohan,(18) for we could not resist their rude strength, and they became our allies and have ever proved true, and they learn of our lore and speak our speech. Yet they hold by their old ways and their own speech among themselves. And we love them for they remind us of the youth of men as they were in the old tales of the wars of the Elves in Beleriand. Indeed I think that in [?that] way we are remotely akin, and that they are come of that old stock, the first to come out of the East from which the Fathers of the Fathers of Men were come, Beren and Barahir and Huor and Hurin and Tuor and Turin, aye and Earendel himself the half-elven, first king of Westernesse. So does some kinship in tongue and heart still tell. But they never crossed the Sea or went into the West and so must ever remain [?alien]. Yet we intermarry, and if they have become somewhat like us and cannot be called wild men, we have become like them and are no longer Numenoreans. For now we love war and valour as things good in themselves, and esteem warriors above all others. Such is the need of our days.

In this notable passage are adumbrated new elements of ancient history that were no doubt long preparing before they appeared in any narrative text, though Eorl the Young had entered in 'The King of the Golden Hall', riding out of the North to 'the Battle of the Field of Gorgoroth' in which Sauron was overthrown (see VII.444 and note 11). That 'between Rohan and Ondor there was great friendship'