Vol VIII: The War of the Ring
Up to 50% of the writing in the four-volume sub-series of HoME known as
The History of The Lord of the Rings (HoLR) is editorial commentary by
Christopher Tolkien. He tends to excerpt only the most interesting sections of
the messy, overwritten, chaotically organized drafts that J R R Tolkien left in
his wake as he composed his masterpiece.
I had hopes of putting a grid together that would organize the entire
HoLR text, and the entire Two Towers text, to let us follow
clearly and graphically how Tolkien’s early drafts evolved into the final text
of this chapter. I found it’s not worth the (late-night) candle: CT spends far
more time explaining his father’s convoluted process of imagining and
assembling the various episodes than he does giving us examples of the
prose—and the jumping around between manuscripts is dizzying and wearying.
Here
is the full text of this chapter in HoME Vol. VIII, The War of the
Ring. But you don’t have to read this material for today’s fun. Let me sum
up what one learns by slogging through this dense and difficult chapter.
1. To begin with, Tolkien believed he had only to get Frodo, Sam, and Gollum
from the Morannon to the Cross Roads and Minas Morgul: a journey of three or
four days, to be gotten over with as quickly as possible. No rabbits, no
Haradrim, no Faramir.
2. However, as he sketched in more details, he began making Ithilien a more
fertile land than the waste lands about the Morannon – and imagined that Gollum
would begin finding his own food on hunting side trips. Thus began the idea of
the rabbits: Sam asks Gollum to get some for them to eat also.
3. The entire rabbit episode—the cooking by the pool—originally took place just
one day’s journey south of the Morannon. The hobbits entered Ithilien on that
overnight journey, smelling it first rather than seeing it.
4. Inspired by Sam’s cookery, Tolkien noted to himself that he should write a
description of the spicy herbs and plants – thus the pastoral passages were
inserted.
5. The hobbits then notice Men in the vicinity, and hide. A battle is fought in
the distance, and one Gondorian soldier falls dead at Sam’s feet. His final
word is “Gondor”.
6. Sam and Frodo then proceed to the Crossroads without further incident.
7. But quickly revising, Tolkien added the encounter with Falborn, the
Gondorians’ leader, who is a distant relative of Boromir. He holds them in
custody during the battle; the elephant passes through, and in the end Frodo
and Sam go to sleep, awaiting Falborn’s return.
8. As Tolkien continued to explore who this leader was, our Faramir emerged.
But his character development really takes place in the next chapter, not this
one. Here Tolkien basically just changed the name of the already-written
captain to Faramir.
9. Several months later, Tolkien inserted a second full day and night of
journeying between the Morannon and the Rabbit cooking campsite, to adjust his
plot’s calendar correctly.
With that rough outline under our belts, and the additional material available
for those with an interest, here are a few random questions come to my
mind:
A. Does the chapter make more sense when you know that almost nothing in it
was originally foreseen by the author—that it was composed spontaneously, out
of order, and piecemeal?
That second night the moon was
full. Not long before the dawn they saw it sinking round and yellow far beyond
the great vale below them. Here and there a white gleam showed where Anduin
rolled, a mighty stream swollen with the waters of Emyn Muil and of
slow-winding Entwash. Far far away, pale ghosts above the mists, the peaks of
the Black Mountains were caught by the beaming moon. There glimmered through
the night the snows on Mount Mindolluin; but though Frodo’s eyes stared out
into the west wondering where in the vastness of the land his old companions
might now be, he did not know that under…
Almost the only image Tolkien originally had in his head about this part of the
journey was Frodo’s view of the full moon setting in the West. It eventually
appears in “The Forbidden Pool”.
B. Why was this so important to him? What was the original association for
Ithilien in Tolkien’s head? What changed about Ithilien as he wrote this
chapter?
though the wind blowing from the
north-west over the Misty Mountains far away had a sharp tooth.
C. Why did the prevailing wind change from the bitter north to the balmy
south?
Gollum brings back 2 rabbits. Angry
at fire (a) fear (b) rage at nice juicy rabbits being spoiled. Pacified by
Frodo (promise of fish?).
D. Why did Tolkien decide not to have Frodo intervene in the argument
between Sam and Gollum?
For a third night they went on.
They had good water in plenty, and Gollum was better fed. Already he was less
famished to look at. At early morning when they lay hidden for rest, and at
evening when they set out again, he would slip away and return licking his
lips. Sometimes in the long night he would take out something . . . and would
crunch it as he walked.
E. I like this, and it got cut! What do you think?
A slain Tirith-man falls over bank
and crashes down on them. Frodo goes to him and he cries orch and tries
to . . . but falls dead crying ‘Gondor!’ The Harad-men drive the Gondorians
[?down] hill. …. [The hobbits] See Gondorians fight and win
finally.
F. Why was it originally a Gondorian soldier who died in front of
Frodo? Why does he cry “Gondor”?
G. Why does Gondor win handily in the final text, while here they barely
survive and only win in the end?
‘Sleep if thou wilt,’ said
Mablung. ‘We will guard thee and thy master until Falborn comes. Falborn will
come hither, if he has saved his life. But when he cometh we must move swiftly.
All this tumult will not go unmarked, and ere night is old we shall have many
pursuers. We shall need all speed to gain the river first.’
H. Tolkien had the Gondorians speak in “antique” English. Why did he change
this in the final text?
I find reading HoLR difficult and tiresome: Tolkien’s changes from his
drafts are almost always for the better, as you might expect! And poor C.
Tolkien always has his hands full with the detective work of putting the
creative sequence together, leaves unanswered the question of whether the
drafts he omits are of interest, and almost never comments on the contents or
meaning of it all.
I. Would you rather not read these books at all? What purpose do they serve?
Text of this
chapter
Everyone is laughing for heart's ease, now that they're in Ithilien! Join me in the Reading Room this week for a squireific topic-oriented discussion of Chapter 4, Book IV of The Two Towers: "Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit".
squire online:
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