The History of Middle Earth: Volume 8 - The War of the Ring Read online

  'The War of the Ring' takes up the story of 'The Lord of the Rings' with the Battle of Helm’s Deep and the drowning of Isengard by the Ents, continues with the journey of Frodo, Sam and Gollum to the Pass of Cirith Ungol, describes the war in Gondor, and ends with the parley between Gandalf and the ambassador of the Dark Lord before the Black Gate of Mordor. Unforeseen developments that would become central to the narrative are seen at the moment of their emergence: the palantir bursting into fragments on the stairs of Orthanc, its nature as unknown to the author as to those who saw it fall, or the entry of Faramir into the story (‘I am sure I did not invent him, I did not even want him, though I like him, but there he came walking through the woods of Ithilien’).

  The book is illustrated with plans and drawings of the changing conceptions of Orthanc, Dunharrow, Minas Tirith and the tunnels of Shelob’s Lair.

  "Chritopher Tolkien's painstaking scholarship continues to impress"

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  The War of the Ring

  The History of Middle-Earth Volume 8

  J. R. R. Tolkien

  The War of the Ring

  The History of Middle-Earth Volume 8

  Christopher Tolkien

  Table of Contents

  THE WAR OF THE RING

  FOREWORD.

  PART ONE.

  I.THE DESTRUCTION OF ISENGARD.

  II. HELM'S DEEP.

  III. THE ROAD TO ISENGARD.

  IV. FLOTSAM AND JETSAM.

  V. THE VOICE OF SARUMAN.

  VI. THE Palantír.

  PART TWO.

  I.THE TAMING OF SMEAGOL.

  II. THE PASSAGE OF THE MARSHES.

  III. THE BLACK GATE IS CLOSED.

  IV. OF HERBS AND STEWED RABBIT.

  V. FARAMIR.

  VI. THE FORBIDDEN POOL.

  VII. JOURNEY TO THE CROSS-ROADS.

  VIII. KIRITH UNGOL.

  PART THREE.

  I. ADDENDUM TO 'THE TREASON OF ISENGARD'.

  II. BOOK FIVE BEGUN AND ABANDONED

  III. MINAS TIRITH.

  IV. MANY ROADS LEAD EASTWARD (1).

  V. MANY ROADS LEAD EASTWARD (2).

  VI. THE SIEGE OF GONDOR.

  VII. THE RIDE OF THE ROHIRRIM.

  VIII. THE STORY FORESEEN FROM FORANNEST.

  IX. THE BATTLE OF THE PELENNOR FIELDS.

  X. THE PYRE OF DENETHOR.

  XI. THE HOUSES OF HEALING.

  XII. THE LAST DEBATE.

  XIII. THE BLACK GATE OPENS.

  XIV. THE SECOND MAP.

  Footnotes

  FOREWORD.

  The title of this book comes from the same source as The Treason of Isengard, a set of six titles, one for each 'Book' of The Lord of the Rings, suggested by my father in a letter to Rayner Unwin of March 1953 (The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien no. 136). The War of the Ring was that proposed for Book V, and I have adopted it for this book since the history of the writing of Book V constitutes nearly half of it, while the first part concerns the victory of Helm's Deep and the destruction of Isengard. The second part describes the writing of Frodo's journey to Kirith Ungol, and this I have called 'The Ring Goes East', which was the title proposed by my father for Book IV. In the Foreword to The Return of the Shadow I explained that a substantial collection of manuscripts was left behind in England when the bulk of the papers went to Marquette University in 1958, these manuscripts consisting for the most part of outlines and the earliest narrative drafts; and I suggested that this was a consequence of the papers being dispersed, some in one place and some in another, at that time. But the manuscript materials for The Return of the King were evidently preserved with the main body of the papers, for nothing of Books V and VI was left behind beyond some narrative outlines and the first draft of the chapter 'Minas Tirith'. For my account of Book V therefore I have been almost wholly dependent on the provision from Marquette of great quantities of manuscript in reproduction, without which the latter part of The War of the Ring could not have been written at all. For this most generous assistance I express my gratitude to all concerned in it, and most especially to Mr Taum Santoski, who has been primarily responsible for the work involved. In addition he has advised me on many particular points which can be best decided by close examination of the original papers, and he has spent much time in trying to decipher those manuscripts in which my father wrote a text in ink on top of another in pencil. I thank also Miss Tracy J. Muench and Miss Elizabeth A. Budde for their part in the work of reproducing the material, and Mr Charles B. Elston for making it possible for me to include in this book several illustrations from manuscripts at Marquette: the pages carrying sketches of Dunharrow, of the mountains at the head of Harrowdale, and of Kirith Ungol, the plan of Minas Tirith, and the full-page drawing of Orthanc (5).

  This book follows the plan and presentation of its predecessors, references to previous volumes in 'The History of Middle-earth' being generally given in Roman numerals (thus 'VII' refers to The Treason of Isengard), FR, TT, and RK being used as abbreviations for The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King, and page-references being made throughout to the three-volume hardback edition of The Lord of the Rings (LR). In several parts of the book the textual history is exceedingly complex. Since the story of the evolution of The Lord of the Rings can of course only be discovered by the correct ordering and interpretation of the manuscripts, and must be recounted in those terms, the textual history cannot be much simplified; and I have made much use of identifying letters for the manuscripts in order to clarify my account and to try to avoid ambiguities. In Books IV and V problems of chronological synchronisation became acute: a severe tension is sometimes perceptible between narrative certainties and the demands of an entirely coherent chronological structure (and the attempt to right dislocation in time could very well lead to dislocation in geography). Chronology is so important in this part of The Lord of the Rings that I could not neglect it, but I have put almost all of my complicated and often inconclusive discussion into 'Notes on the Chronology' at the end of chapters.

  In this book I have used accents throughout in the name, of the Rohirrim (Théoden, Eomer, &c.).

  Mr Charles Noad has again read the proofs independently and checked the very large number of citations, including those to other passages within the book, with a strictness and care that I seem altogether unable to attain. In addition I have adopted several of his suggestions for improvement in clarity and consistency in my account. I am much indebted to him for this generous and substantial work.

  I am very grateful for communications from Mr Alan Stokes and Mr Neil Gaiman, who have explained my father's reference in his remarks about the origins of the poem Errantry (The Treason of Isengard p. 85): 'It was.begun very many years ago, in an attempt to go on with the model that came unbidden into my mind: the first six lines, in which, I guess, D'ye ken the rhyme to porringer had a part.' The reference is to a Jacobite song attacking William of Orange as usurper of the English crown from his father-in-law, James II, and threatening to hang him. The first verse of this song runs thus in the version given by Iona and Peter Opie in The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (no. 422):

  What is the rhyme for porringer?

  What is the rhyme for porringer?

  The king he had a daughter fair

  And gave the Prime of Orange her.

  The verse is known in several forms (in one of which the opening line is Ken ye the rhyme to porringer? and the last And he gave her to an Oranger). This then is the unlikely origin of the provender of the Merry Messenge
r:

  There was a merry passenger,

  a messenger, an errander;

  he took a tiny porringer

  and oranges for provender.

  PART ONE.

  THE FALL OF SARUMAN.

  I.THE DESTRUCTION OF ISENGARD.

  (Chronology)

  The writing of the story from 'The King of the Golden Hall' to the end of the first book of The Two Towers was an extremely complex process. The 'Isengard story' was not conceived and set down as a series of clearly marked 'chapters', each one brought to a developed state before the next was embarked on, but evolved as a whole, and disturbances of the structure that entered as it evolved led to dislocations all through the narrative. With my father's method of composition at this time - passages of very rough and piecemeal drafting being built into a completed manuscript that was in turn heavily overhauled, the whole complex advancing and changing at the same time - the textual confusion in this part of The Lord of the Rings is only penetrable with great difficulty, and to set it out as a clear sequence impossible.

  The essential cause of this situation was the question of chronology; and I think that the best way to approach the writing of this part of the narrative is to try to set out first the problems that my father was contending with, and to refer back to this discussion when citing the actual texts.

  The story had certain fixed narrative 'moments' and relations. Pippin and Merry had encountered Treebeard in the forest of Fangorn and been taken to his 'Ent-house' of Wellinghall for the night. On that same day Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas had encountered Eomer and his company returning from battle with the Orcs, and they themselves passed the night beside the battlefield. For these purposes this may be called 'Day 1', since earlier events have here no relevance; the actual date according to the chronology of this period in the writing of The Lord of the Rings was Sunday January 29 (see VII.368, 406).

  On Day 2, January 30, the Entmoot took place; and on that day Aragorn and his companions met Gandalf returned, and together they set out on their great ride to Eodoras. As they rode south in the evening Legolas saw far off towards the Gap of Rohan a great smoke rising, and he asked Gandalf what it might be: to which Gandalf replied 'Battle and war! ' (at the end of the chapter 'The White Rider'). They rode all night, and reached Eodoras in the early morning of Day 3, January 31. While they spoke with Théoden and Wormtongue in the Golden Hall at Eodoras the Entmoot was still rumbling on far away in Fangorn. In the afternoon of Day 3 Théoden with Gandalf and his companions and a host of the Rohirrim set out west from Eodoras across the plains of Rohan towards the Fords of Isen; and on that same afternoon the Entmoot ended,(1) and the Ents began their march on Isengard, which they reached after nightfall.

  It is here that the chronological problems appear. There were - or would be, as the story evolved - the following elements (some of them foreseen in some form in the outline that I called 'The Story Foreseen from Fangorn', VII.435 - 6) to be brought into a coherent time-pattern. The Ents would attack Isengard, and drown it by diverting the course of the river Isen. A great force would leave Isengard; the Riders at the Fords of Isen would be driven back over the river. The Rohirrim coming from Eodoras would see a great darkness in the direction of the Wizard's Vale, and they would meet a lone horseman returning from the battle at the Fords; Gandalf would fleet away westwards on Shadowfax. Théoden and his host, with Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas, would take refuge in a deep gorge in the southern mountains, and a great battle there would turn to victory after certain defeat with the coming of the 'moving trees', and the return of Gandalf and the lord of the Rohirrim whose stronghold it was. Finally, Gandalf, with Théoden, Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas and a company of the Riders would leave the refuge and ride to Isengard, now drowned and in ruins, and meet Merry and Pippin sitting on a pile of rubble at the gates.

  I.

  In the original opening of 'Helm's Deep', as will be seen at the beginning of the next chapter, the cavalcade from Eodoras saw 'a great fume and vapour' rising over Nan Gurunir, the Wizard's Vale,(2) and met the lone horseman returning from the Fords of Isen, on the same day (Day 3, January 31) as they left the Golden Hall. The horseman (Ceorl) told them that the Riders had been driven back over the Isen with great loss on the previous day (Day 2, January 30); and it must have been 'the smoke of battle' that Legolas saw in the evening rising from the Gap of Rohan as they rode south from Fangorn - it cannot of course have been the steam rising from the drowning of Isengard by the Ents (see above). In this original story Théoden and his men, with Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas, took refuge in Helm's Deep (not yet so named) that same night (Day 3).

  A chronological dislocation seems to have been already present in this: for the events of Days 1-3 as set out above were fixed in relation to each other, and the Ents must arrive at Isengard after nightfall of Day 3 (January 31); yet according to the original opening of 'Helm's Deep' the host from Eodoras sees the 'great fume and vapour' rising over Nan Gurunir (unquestionably caused by the drowning of Isengard) in the evening of that same day.

  II.

  This time-scheme was duly changed: Théoden and his host camped in the plain on the first night out from Eodoras (Day 3, January 31), and it was in the morning of the second day of the ride (Day 4, February 1) that they saw the great cloud over Nan Gurunir:

  As they rode they saw a great spire of smoke and vapour, rising up out of the deep shadow of Nan Gurunir; as it mounted it caught the light of the sun and spread in glowing banks that drifted on the wind over the plains towards them.

  'What do you think of that, Gandalf?' said Théoden. 'One would say that all the Wizard's Vale was burning.'

  'There is ever a fume above that valley in these days,' said Hama; 'but I never saw anything like that before.'

  It is now in the evening of this second day of their ride that they met the horseman Ceorl coming from the Fords, and on the night of this day that the battle of the Hornburg took place. The chronology was now therefore:

  (Day 3) January 31 Gandalf, Théoden and the Rohirrim depart from Eodoras and camp for the night in the plains. Ents reach Isengard after nightfall and after the departure of the Orc-host begin the drowning of the Circle of Isengard.

  (Day 4) February 1 The host from Eodoras sees in the morning the steams rising from the drowning of Isengard; in the evening they meet Ceorl and learn of the defeat at the Fords of Isen on the previous day; and reach Helm's Deep after nightfall. Battle of the Hornburg.

  It seems impossible to avoid the conclusion that the end of the chapter 'The White Rider' (Legolas' sight of the smoke in the Gap of Rohan on Day 2, January 30) escaped revision when the date of the (Second) Battle of the Fords of Isen was changed to January 31.

  III.

  In the original form of what became the opening of 'The Road to Isengard' Gandalf and Théoden, with Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas and a party of Riders, set out from Helm's Deep shortly after the end of the battle of the Hornburg, without any rest; this was on Day 5, February 2, and they reached Isengard not long after noon on the same day. As they approached Nan Gurunir

  they saw rising up out of deep shadows a vast spire of smoke and vapour; as it mounted it caught the light of the sun, and spread in glowing billows in the sky, and the wind bore them over the plain. 'What do you think of that, Gandalf?' said Théoden. 'One would say that all the Wizard's Vale was burning.'

  'There is ever a fume above that valley in these days,' said Eomer; 'but I have never seen anything like this before. These are steams, rather than smokes. Some devilry Saruman is brewing to greet us.'

  This dialogue was lifted straight from its earlier place at the beginning of the 'Helm's Deep' story (see II above) - with substitution of Eomer for Hama, slain at the Hornburg, and in 'Helm's Deep' a different passage was inserted, as found in TT pp. 131 - 2, in which what is seen in the North-west is 'a shadow that crept down slowly from the Wizard's Vale', and there is no mention of fume or steam.

  The reason for these changes was again chronolo
gical: the host on its way from Eodoras is not to see great steams rising from Isengard on Day 4, but the 'veiling shadow' of the Huorns as they came down into the Wizard's Vale. Thus:

  (Day 4) February 1 The host from Eodoras sees in the morning the shade of the moving trees far off in the North-west; the drowning of Isengard was not begun till night. At night Battle of the Hornburg.

  (Day 5) February 2 In the morning Théoden and Gandalf and their company ride to Isengard, and find it drowned.

  IV.

  The chronology was then changed to that of 'The Road to Isengard' in TT, whereby Théoden and Gandalf and their company do not leave Helm's Deep until much later on Day 5, pass the night camped below Nan Gurunir, and do not reach Isengard until midday on Day 6 (February 3). This chronology is set out in a time-scheme (additions of mine in brackets):

  [Day 3] January 31 Ents arrive at Isengard, night. Break in.

  [Day 4] February 1 Dawn, they go away north to make dams. All that day Merry and Pippin alone until dusk. Gandalf arrives at Isengard at nightfall, and meets Treebeard. Drowning of Isengard begins late at night. [Battle of the Hornburg.]

  [Day 5] February 2 Isengard steams all day and column of smoke arises in evening. [Gandalf, Théoden, &c. see this from their camp below Nan Gurunir.] Huorns return in night to Isengard.