The Return Of The Shadow Part 12
6. How did the Black Riders know this? See p. 350, note 7.
7. Here my father wrote: 'Now he described your party very exactly, sir, more exactly than Mr Gandalf did: colour of your ponies, look of your faces,' but struck it out as soon as written, probably because it was not consistent with his conception of the Black Riders: he had already said (p. 75) that for Ring-wraiths 'Everything becomes very faint like grey ghost pictures against the black background in which you live; but you can smell better than you can hear or see.' It seems very likely that the idea of the 'wraith-world', into which in some sense the bearer of a Ring entered if he put it on his finger, and in which he then became fully visible to the denizens of that world, had already arisen; a hint of this appears in Gildor's words (p. 64) 'I guess that the use of the ring helps them more than you', and in Gandalf's letter in the present chapter he is urgent that Bingo should never wear the Ring for any purpose - now that he has learned that the Riders are in pursuit.
8. These words are at the bottom of a ma.n.u.script page. At the bottom my father scribbled in pencil: Nov. 19 Motive trailing Gandalf. Gandalf drawing them off. No camp at Weathertop or again Gandalf leads them off.
With this cf. the pencilled addition on p. 153: 'I first saw the Riders last Sat.u.r.day away west of Bree, before I ran across Gandalf. I am not at all sure they were not following his trail too.'
'Nov. 19' presumably refers to the date of the note, i.e. 19 November 1938; by then my father had got well beyond this point in the narrative, judging by what he said in a letter to Stanley Unwin of 13 October 1938: 'I have worked very hard for a month... on a sequel to The Hobbit. It has reached Chapter XI (though in rather an illegible state)...'
9. The first mention of Weathertop Hill; the actual first occurrence of the name must be in the original pencilled draft of Gandalf's letter, which can be partly made out (note 13).
10. The runes are the Old English runes, as in The Hobbit. Gandalf uses the English (Common Germanic) rune X for G in writing his name, but uses also as a sign for himself a rune . In the Angerthas (LR Appendix E pp. 401 - 4) this rune meant (in the usage of the Dwarves of Moria) [ng].
11. Oddly, the ma.n.u.script in ink has here Timothy, not Barnabas; but it can only be a slip, returning momentarily to the landlord's original name (p. 140 note 3).
12. Tuesday, not Thursday: see note 5.
13. The ending of the letter can be read in the pencilled draft: Don't be out after dark or in mist. Push along. Am so anxious that I shall wait [?two] days for you..... Weathertop Hill. If you meet a ranger (wild hobbit) called Trotter, stick to him. I have told him to look out. He will guide you to Weathertop and further if necessary. Push along.
14. The text as first written here (in ink: the pencilled text beneath is illegible) had: 'I felt something moving behind me, and when I turned I saw one going along the Road.' - For 'coming towards' in the revised sentence perhaps read 'coming towards me'.
15. bar the door and window was written in above and take turns to watch, which was not struck out. See note 16.
16. The underlying pencilled text can be read here: They did not talk much but fell asleep one by one. Trotter watched for three hours; he said he could do with very little sleep. Next came Merry. Nothing happened...
A first version in ink reads: He could do with very little (he said): 'give me three hours, and then wake me, and I will watch for the rest of the time.' Bingo took the first watch; the others talked for a while and then fell asleep.
At this point FR Chapter 10 'Strider' ends, and Chapter 11 'A Knife in the Dark' begins - where that chapter takes up the story at Bree again: of the attack by the Black Riders on the house at Crickhollow with which it begins there is as yet no trace.
17. 20 (silver pennies) was later changed to 25.
18. Rob: at previous occurrences (pp. 135, 164) the name of the ostler at ?he Prancing Pony is certainly Bob, as in FR.
19. a yowk: the verb yowk 'howl, bawl, yelp' is given in Joseph Wright, The English Dialect Dictionary.
20. A tiny pencilled sketch in the body of the ma.n.u.script, belonging with the underlying draft, shows the Road, after it has curved down round the south side of Bree-hill, bending up north again and continuing the same line east of Bree as it had to the west of the village.
21. Combe changed in pencil to Archet (as in FR, p. 193).
22. These two sentences, from Trotter also had a notion, were enclosed in square brackets, probably at the time of writing. Cf. the outline (p. 162): 'Trotter takes them to a wild hobbit hole, and gets his friend to run on ahead and send a message to Weathertop by pony?'.
23. The pencilled text beneath the ink can be read sufficiently to show that the pa.s.sage of the marshes (unnamed) was described in a couple of sentences.
24. Since at the end of the next sentence my father wrote 'from the flats to the East', which is an obvious slip and which he later corrected to 'West', it seems likely that the 'south-west' course of the track along the feet of the hills is also a slip for 'south-east'; a little later it is said that 'they came towards the south-eastern end of the line of hills.'
25. For the story of Gil-galad and Elendil and the Last Alliance as it was at this time see the second version of The Fall of Numenor $14 (V. 28-9) and pp. 215 - 16. Though Elendil is present in The Fall of Numenor my father does not seem to have been entirely satisfied with the name: here he wrote Valandil first, and in the original draft of the next chapter he changed Elendil temporarily to Orendil (p. 197 note 3). In The Lost Road Valandil was the name of Elendil's father (V.60, 69), and in a later version of The Fall of Numenor Valandil is Elendil's brother (V.33).
In the latter part of this chapter, from the point where the variant versions join (pp. 159, 161), all the essential structure of the immediate narrative in FR (pp. 185 - 201) is in place, though the larger bearings and the glimpses of ancient history are conspicuously absent. The narrative runs in a narrower dimension in any case, from the fact that there are no Men in the story: b.u.t.terbur is a hobbit, the wild 'rangers', of whom Trotter is one, are hobbits, Bill Ferny is a hobbit (p. 165) - though it is true that the range of hobbit character is greatly extended by these 'Outsiders' who live beyond the Shire's borders.
A few specific points of difference may be briefly mentioned. The pony bought in Bree is not in fact said to be Ferny's (p. 164), though it seems to be implied; and the subsequent history of the five ponies from Buckland, recorded in the footnote to the text (p. 164), was afterwards largely changed (FR p. 191). The encounter of Merry with the Black Rider outside the inn at Bree does not end with his being attacked; and it is Trotter who plays the later part of Sam in having a pocketful of apples and discomfiting Bill Ferny with one on the nose.
The journey from Bree to Weathertop has the same structure as that in FR (pp. 194-7), except at the end. The chronology is: But in FR the hobbits made another night camp at the feet of the western slopes of the Weather Hills - and that was 'the night of the fifth of October, and they were six days out from Bree' (p. 197); this camp is not in the original version, and thus they reached Weathertop on Wednesday October 5. Trotter on Weathertop says that they have covered between 80 and go miles 'in the last six days'. he was including that day also, for it was already after noon.
In the old story Gandalf stayed on Weathertop for three days, and he left there a note in a pile of stones, written on paper. This message ('Help will come there [i.e. to the Ford] from Rivendell, as soon as I can manage it') gives the first clear indication in the story of what Gandalf's intentions were; and with this can be taken the words scribbled on the ma.n.u.script that are given in note 8. Gandalf was trying to lure the Riders after him.
Looking back over the whole of the original Chapter VII, the story from the hobbits' arrival in Bree to the sight of the Black Riders on the Road far below the summit of Weathertop, there appears again and in the most striking form the characteristic of my father's writing that elements emerge suddenly and clearly conceived, but with their 'meaning' and context still to undergo huge further development, or even complete transformation, in the later narrative (cf. p. 71). A small example here is the face that Bingo thought 'goblinish' as they walked out of Bree (p. 165) - which is here the face of Bill Ferny (a hobbit): in FR (p. 193) it will be that of 'the squint-eyed southerner' whom Frodo glimpsed through the window of Ferny's house, and thought that he looked 'more than half like a goblin.' In a 'chrysalis' state are the 'Rangers', wanderers in the wilderness, and Trotter is a Ranger, grim and weatherworn, deeply learned in the lore of the wild, and in many other matters; but they are hobbits, and of any further or larger significance that they might have in the history of Middle-earth there is no hint. Trotter is at once so fully realized that his tone in this part of the narrative (indeed not a few of his actual words) was never changed afterwards; yet such little as is glimpsed of his history at this stage bears no relation whatsoever to that of Aragorn son of Arathorn. He is a hobbit, marked out by wearing wooden shoes (whence his name Trotter); there seems to be something in his history that gives him a special knowledge of, and horror of, the Ring-wraiths (p. 153); and Bingo finds something about him that distinguishes him from other 'Rangers', and is in a way familiar (p. 154). These things will be explained later, before they are finally swept away.
X. THE ATTACK ON WEATHERTOP.
This chapter, numbered VIII, and t.i.tleless as usual (though later my father pencilled in 'A Knife in the Dark'), begins on the same ma.n.u.script page as the end of the last; it was obviously continuous work, and the ma.n.u.script proceeds as before, in ink, rapid but always legible, over pencilled drafts of which only words or phrases here and there are visible (see p. 188). The text goes on through FR Chapter 12 'Flight to the Ford' without any sort of break, but as with the original Chapter VII I divide it into two (see the table on p. 133).
There was a hollow dell beneath the north-west shoulder of Weathertop, right under the long ridge that joined it to the hills behind. There Odo and Frodo had been left to wait for them. They had found the signs of a recent camp and fire, and, a great (and most unexpected) boon, behind a large rock was piled a small store of fire-wood. Better still, under the fuel they found a wooden case with some food in it. It was mostly cram-cakes, but there was some bacon, and some dried fruits. There was also some tobacco!
Cram was, as you may remember, a word in the language of the men of Dale and the Long-lake - to describe a special food they made for long journeys. It kept good indefinitely and was very sustaining, but not entertaining, as it took a lot of chewing and had no particular taste. Bilbo Baggins brought back the recipe - he used cram after he got home on some of his long and mysterious walks. Gandalf also took to using it on his perpetual journeys. He said he liked it softened in water (but that is hard to believe). But cram was not to be despised in the wilderness, and the hobbits were extremely grateful for Gandalf's thoughtfulness. They were still more grateful when the three others came down with their alarming news, and they all realized that they had a long journey still ahead, before they could expect to get help. They immediately held a council, and found it hard to decide what to do. It was the presence of the fire-wood (of which they could not have carried much away) that finally decided them to go no further that day, and to camp for that night in the dell.(1) It seemed unsafe, not to say desperate, to go on at once, or until they found out whether their arrival at the hill was known or expected. For, unless they were to make a long detour back north-west along the hills, and abandon the direction of Rivendell altogether for a while, it would not be easy to find any cover or concealment. The Road itself was impossible; but they must at least cross it, if they were to get into the more broken land, full of bushy thickets, immediately to the south of it. To the north of the Road, beyond the hills, the land was bare and flat for many miles.
'Can the - er - enemy see?' asked Merry. 'I mean, they seem usually to have smelt rather than seen, at least in the daytime. But you made us lie down flat.'
'I don't know,' said Trotter, 'how they perceive what they seek; but I fear them. And their horses can see.'(2) It was now already late afternoon. They had had no food since breakfast. In spite of their fear and uncertainty they were very hungry. So down in the dell where all was still and quiet they made a meal - as good a meal as they dared take, after they had examined their stores. But for Gandalf's present they would not have dared to have more than a bite. They had left behind the countries where inns or villages could be found. There were Big People (so Trotter said) away to the South of them. But North and East the neighbouring lands were empty of all save birds and beasts, unfriendly places deserted by all the races of the world: Elves, Men, Dwarves, or Hobbits, and even by goblins. The more adventurous Rangers journeyed occasionally into those regions, but they pa.s.sed and did not stay. Other wanderers were rare, and of no good sort: Trolls might stray at times down out of the further hills and Mountains. Only on the Road would travellers be found, Big People rarely in those days, Elves perhaps sometimes, most often Dwarves hurrying along on business, and with no help and few words to spare for strangers.
So now - since Gandalf had gone - they had to depend on what they carried with them - probably until they found their way at last to Rivendell. For water they were obliged to trust to chance. For food they could perhaps just have managed to go ten or eleven days; and now with Gandalf's additions they could with economy probably hold out for more than a fortnight. It might have been worse. But starving was not their only fear.
It became very cold as evening fell. There was some mist again over the distant marshes; but the sky above cleared again, and the clouds were blown away by a chill east wind. Looking out from the lip of the dale [read dell] they could see nothing but a grey land quickly vanishing in shadows, under an open sky filling slowly with twinkling stars.
They lit a small fire down at the lowest point in the hollow, and sat round it clothed and wrapped in every garment and blanket they possessed: at least Bingo and his companions did so. Trotter seemed content with a single blanket, and sat some little way from the fire puffing his short pipe. They took it in turns to sit on guard on the edge of the dell, at a point where the steep sides of Weathertop Hill, and the gentler slope down from the ridge, could be seen - as far as anything could be seen in the gathering dusk.
As the evening deepened Trotter began to tell them tales to keep their minds from fear. He knew much lore concerning wild animals, and claimed to speak some of their languages; and he had strange stories to tell of their lives and little known adventures. He knew also many histories and legends of the ancient days, of hobbits when the Shire was still wild, and of things beyond the mists of memory out of which the hobbits came. They wondered where he had learned all his lore.
'Tell us of Gil-galad!' said Frodo - 'you spoke that name not long ago,(3) and it is still ringing in my ears. Who was he?'
'Don't you know!' said Trotter. 'Gil-galad was the last of the great Elf-kings: Gil-galad is Starlight in their tongue. He overthrew the Enemy, but he himself perished. But I will not tell that tale now; though you will hear it, I think, in Rivendell, when we get there. Elrond should tell it, for he knows it well. But I will tell you the tale of Tinuviel - in brief, for in full it is a long tale of which the end is not known, and there is no one that remembers it in full as it was told of old, unless it be Elrond. But even in brief it is a fair tale - the fairest that has come out of the oldest days.' He fell silent for a moment, and then he began not to speak, but to chant softly: Put in Light on Linden Tree. [sic] emended. Or the alliterative lines. Follow with brief Tinuviel story.
My father then went straight on in the ma.n.u.script to the beginning of a prose resume of the story of Beren and Luthien. He had not gone far with this, however, when he abandoned it, and returning to Trotter's words about the story changed the end of them to: 'It is a fair tale, though it is sad as are the tales of Middle-earth, and yet it may lift up the hearts of the enemies of the Enemy.' He then wrote: Lo Beren Gamlost the boldhearted (4) but struck this out also. He had suggested just above that 'the alliterative lines' might be used. He was referring to the pa.s.sage of alliterative verse that preceded Light as Leaf on Lindentree as published in The Gryphon (Leeds University) in 1925,(5) a pa.s.sage itself closely related to lines in the second version of the alliterative Lay of the Children of Hurin, 355 ff., where Halog, one of Turin's guides on the journey to Doriath, sang this song 'for hearts' uplifting' as they wandered in the forest. But he now decided against the alliterative lines for this place, and wrote in the ma.n.u.script a new version of Light as Leaf on Lindentree. This text of the poem moves it far towards the final version in FR pp. 204 - 5, but has elements surviving from the old poem that were afterwards lost, and elements common to neither. There are many later emendations to the text, and many alternative readings (mostly taken up into the final version) written at the time of composition; but here I give the primary text without variants or later corrections.
The leaves mere long, the gra.s.s was thin, The fall of many years lay thick, The tree-mots twisted out and in, The rising moon was glimmering.
Her feet ment lilting light and quick To the silver flute oflleerin:(6) Beneath the hemlock-umbels thick Tinuviel was shimmering.
The noiseless moths their wings did fold, The light was lost among the leaves, As Beren there from mountains cold Came wandering and sorrowing.
He peered between the hemlock leaves And saw in wonder flowers of gold Upon her mantle and her sleeves, And her hair like shadow following.
Enchantment took his weary feet, That over stone mere doomed to mam, And forth he hastened, strong and fleet, And grasped at moonbeams glistening.
Through woven woods of Elvenhome They fled on swiftly dancing feet, And left him lonely still to mam, In the silent forest listening.
He heard at times the flying sound Of feet as light as linden leaves, Or music welling underground In the hidden halls of Doriath.
But withered were the hemlock sheaves, And one by one with sighing sound Whispering fell the beechen leaves In the wintry woods of Doriath.
He sought her ever, wandering far Where leaves of years mere thickly strewn, By light of moon and ray of star In frosty heavens shivering.
Her mantle glistened in the moon, As on a hill-top high and far She danced, and at her feet was strewn A mist of silver quivering.
When minter pa.s.sed she came again, And her song released the sudden spring, Like rising lark, and falling rain, And melting water bubbling.
There high and clear he heard her sing, And from him fell the minter's chain; No more he feared by her to spring Upon the gra.s.s untroubling.
Again she fled, but clear he called: Tinuviel, Tinuviel.
She halted by his voice enthralled And stood before him shimmering.
Her doom at last there on her fell, As in the hills the echoes called; Tinuviel, Tinuviel, In the arms of Beren glimmering.
As Beren looked into her eyes Within the shadows of her hair The trembling starlight of the skies He saw there mirrored shimmering.
Tinuviel! O elven-fair!
Immortal maiden elven-wise, About him cast her shadowy hair And white her arms were glimmering.
Long was the way that fate them bore O'er stony mountains cold and grey, Through halls of iron and darkling door And woods of night-shade morrowless.
The Sundering Seas between them lay And yet at last they met once more, And long ago they pa.s.sed away In the forest singing sorrowless.
He paused before he spoke again. 'That is a song,' he said, 'that tells of the meeting of Beren the mortal and Luthien Tinuviel, which is but the beginning of the tale.
'Luthien was the daughter of the elven-king Thingol of Doriath in the West of the Middle-world, when the earth was young. Her mother was Melian, who was not of the Elf-race but came out of the Far West from the land of the G.o.ds and the Blessed Realm of Valinor. It is said that the daughter of Thingol and Melian was the most fair maiden that ever was or shall be among all the children of the world. No limbs so fair shall again run upon the green earth, no face so beautiful shall look upon the sky, till all things are changed.
The pa.s.sage in praise of Luthien that follows is almost word for word the same as that in the Quenta Silmarillion (1937), largely retained in the published work (p. 165, 'Blue was her raiment...').
'But Beren was son of Barahir the Bold. In those days the fathers of the fathers of Men came out of the East; and some there were that journeyed even to the West of Middle-earth, and there they met the Elves, and were taught by them, and became wise, but they were mortal and shortlived, for such is their fate. Yet many of them aided the Elves in their wars. For in that time the Elves besieged the Enemy in his dreadful fortress in the North. Angband it was called, the Halls of Iron beneath the thunderous towers of the black mountain Thangorodrim.
'But he broke the siege, and drove Elves and Men ever southward; and Barahir was slain. Ruin came upon the West-lands, but Doriath long endured because of the power and enchantment of Melian the Queen that fenced it about so that no evil could come within. In the song it is told (7) how Beren flying southward through many perils came at last into the hidden kingdom and beheld Luthien. Tinuviel he called her, which is Nightingale, for he did not yet know her name.
'But Thingol the Elven-king was wroth, despising him as a mortal, and a fugitive; and he sent Beren upon a hopeless quest were he could win Luthien. For he commanded him to bring him one of the three jewels from the crown of the King of Angband, out of the deeps of the Iron Halls. These were the Silmarils renowned in' song, filled with power and a holy light, for they had been made by the Elves in the Blessed Realm, but the Enemy had stolen them, and guarded them with all his strength. Yet Beren achieved that Quest, for Luthien fled from her father's realm and followed after him; and with the aid of Huan hound of the G.o.ds, who came out of Valinor, she found him once again; and together thereafter they pa.s.sed through peril and darkness; and they came even to Angband and beguiled the Enemy, and overthrew him, and took a Silmaril and fled.
'But the wolf-warden of the dark gate of Angband bit off the hand of Beren that held the Silmaril, and he came near to death. Yet it is told that at length Luthien and Beren escaped and returned to Doriath, and the king and all his people marvelled. But Thingol reminded Beren that he had vowed not to return save with a Silmaril in his hand.
'"It is in my hand even now," he answered.
'"Show it to me!" said the king.
'"That I cannot do," said Beren, "for my hand is not here," and he held up his maimed arm. And from that hour he was named Beren Erhamion the Onehanded.
'Then the tale of the Quest was told in the king's hall and his mood was softened, and Luthien laid her hand in Beren's before the throne of her father.
'But soon fear came upon Doriath. For the dread wolf-warden of Angband, being maddened by the fire of the Silmaril that consumed his evil flesh within, roamed through the world, wild and terrible. And by fate and the power of the jewel he pa.s.sed the guarded borders and came ravening even into Doriath; and all things fled before him. Thus befell the Wolf-hunt of Doriath, and to that hunt went King Thingol, and Beren Erhamion, and Beleg the Bowman and Mablung the heavy-handed, and Huan the hound.
'And the great wolf leaped upon Beren and felled him and grievously wounded him; and Huan slew the wolf but himself was slain. And Mablung cut the Silmaril from the belly of the wolf, and gave it to Beren, and Beren gave it to Thingol. Then they bore Beren back with Huan at his side to the king's hall. And Luthien bade him farewell before the gates, bidding him await her beyond the Great Seas; and he died in her arms.
'But the spirit of Luthien fell down into darkness, for such was the doom upon the elven-maid for her love of a mortal man; and she faded slowly, as the Elves do under the burden of a grief unbearable. Her fair body lay like a flower that is suddenly cut off and lies for a while unwithered on the gra.s.s;(8) but her spirit journeyed over the Great Seas. And it is said that she sang before the G.o.ds, and her song was made of the sorrows of the two kindreds, of Elves and Men. So fair was she and so moving was her song that they were moved to pity. But they had not the power long to withhold within the confines of the world the spirits of mortal men that died; nor to change the sundered fate of the two kindreds.
'Therefore they gave this choice to Luthien. Because of her sorrow and of the Silmaril that was regained from the Enemy, and because her mother Melian came from Valinor, she should be released from the Halls of Waiting, and return not to the woes of Middle-earth, but go to the Blessed Realm and dwell with the G.o.ds until the world's end, forgetting all sadness that her life had known. Thither Beren could not come. The other choice was this. She might return to earth, and take with her Beren for a while, there to dwell with him again, but without cert.i.tude of life or joy. Then she would become mortal even as he; and ere long she should leave the world for ever, and her beauty become only a memory of song, until that too faded. This doom she chose, forsaking the Blessed Realm, and thus they met again, Beren and Tinuviel, beyond the Great Seas, as she had said; and their paths led together, and pa.s.sed long ago beyond the confines of the world. So it was that Luthien alone of all the Elven-kin has died indeed. But by her choice the Two Kindreds were joined, and she is the fore-mother of many in whom the Elves see yet, though the world changeth, the likeness of Luthien the beloved whom they have lost.'(9) As Trotter was speaking, the darkness closed in; night fell on the world. They could see his queer eager face dimly lit in the glow of the red wood-fire. Above him was a black starry sky. Suddenly a pale light appeared behind the crown of Weathertop behind him. The moon, now nearly half-full, was climbing slowly above the hill that overshadowed them. The stars above its top grew pale. The story ended. The hobbits moved and stretched. 'Look!' said Merry. 'The moon is rising. It must be getting late.' The others looked up. Even as they did so they saw something small and dark on the hill-top against the glimmer of the moonlight. It was perhaps only a large stone or jutting rock shown up by the pale light.
At that moment Odo, who had been on guard (being less reluctant than the others to miss Trotter's tale-telling) came hurrying down to the fire. 'I don't know what it is,' he said, 'but I feel that something is creeping up the hill. And I thought (I couldn't be sure) that away there, westwards, where the moonlight is falling, there were two or three black shapes. They seemed to be moving this way.'
'Keep close beside the fire, with your faces outwards! ' said Trotter. 'Get some of these pine-wood sticks ready in your hands! ' For a long while they sat there silent and alert with their backs turned to the little fire, which was thus almost.entirely screened. Nothing happened. There was no sound or movement. Bingo was just about to whisper a question to Trotter, who sat next to him, when Frodo gasped: 'What's that?' 'Sh,' said Trotter.
It was just as Odo had said: over the lip of the hollow, on the side away from the hill, they felt a shadow rise, one shadow or more than one. They strained their eyes, and the shadows seemed to grow. Soon there could be no doubt: three or four tall black figures were standing there, on the slope above them. Bingo fancied that he heard faintly a sound like breath being drawn in with a hiss. Then the shapes advanced slowly.
Terror seized Odo and Frodo, and they threw themselves flat on the ground. Merry shrank to Bingo's side. Bingo was no less afraid; he was quaking as if he was bitter cold. But his fear was swallowed up in a sudden temptation to put on the Ring. It seized him, and he could think of nothing else. He did not forget the Barrow, nor the message of Gandalf, but he felt a desperate desire to disregard all warnings. Something seemed to be compelling him; he longed to yield. Not with the hope of escaping, or of doing anything, good or bad. He simply felt that he must take the Ring, and put it on his finger. He could not speak. He struggled for a while, but resistance became unbearable; and at last he slowly drew out the chain, unfastened the Ring, and put it on the forefinger of his left hand.
Immediately - though everything else remained as before, dim and dark - the shapes became terribly clear. He seemed able to see beneath their black wrapping. There were three tall figures: in their white faces burned keen and merciless eyes; under their black mantles were long grey robes, upon their grey hair were helms of silver;(10) in their haggard hands were swords of steel. Their eyes fell upon him and pierced him, as they rushed towards him. Desperate, he drew his own sword; and it seemed to him that it flickered redly as if it was a fire-brand. Two of the figures halted. But the third was taller than the others. His hair was long and gleaming, and on it was a crown. The hand that held the long sword glowed with a pale light. He sprang forward and bore down upon Bingo.
At that moment Bingo threw himself forward onto the ground, and he heard himself crying aloud (though he did not know why): Elbereth! Gilthoniel! Gurth i Morthu.(11) At the same time he struck at the feet of his enemy. A shrill cry rang out in the night; and he felt a pain like a dart of poisoned ice touch his [added: left] shoulder. Even as he swooned Bingo caught a glimpse of Trotter leaping out of the darkness with a flaming fire-brand in each hand. With a last effort he slipped the Ring from his finger, and closed his hand on it.
NOTES.
1. This pa.s.sage, from 'Better still, under the fuel they found a wooden case', is an insertion on a slip, certainly written at the same time as the main text, replacing the (ink) text as first written: Gandalf, it would seem, had taken thought for them. It was the presence of fuel that decided them to go no further that day, and to make their camp in the dell.
With the pa.s.sage here about cram, not found in FR, cf. The Hobbit, Chapter XIII 'Not at Home': If you want to know what cram is, I can only say that I don't know the recipe, but it is biscuitish, keeps good indefinitely, is supposed to be sustaining, and is certainly not entertaining, being in fact very uninteresting except as a chewing exercise. It was made by the Lake-men for long journeys.
In the Etymologies (V.365) cram, defined as 'cake of compressed flour or meal (often containing honey and milk) used on long journeys', appears as a Noldorin word (stem KRAB- 'press'). - In FR the fire-wood, alone of the stores found on Weathertop, survived, but it had been left by Rangers, not by Gandalf.
2. Strider gives a much more elaborate and informed account of the perceptions of the Ring-wraiths in FR (p. 202). See p. 173, note 7.
3. See p. 169 and note 25.
4. Beren's name Camlost or Gamlost ('Empty-handed') occurs in the Quenta Silmarillion (interrupted at the end of 1937); for the variation in the initial consonant see V.298, 301.
5. For the text and textual history of Light as Leaf on Lindentree see III.108 - 10, 120 - 3.
6. To the silver flute of Ilverin: in Light as Leaf on Lindentree (III. 108) Dairon is named here. The name Ilverin occurs in The Book of Lost Tales as one of the many names of Littleheart, the 'Gong-warden' of Mar Vanwa Tyalieva (I.46, 255), but there seems no basis to seek any kind of connection. In the margin my father at some point pencilled other names: Neldorin, Elberin, Diarin. See note g, at end.
7. Trotter has mentioned no song, but it is of course the Lay of Leithian that is meant.
8. Struck out at the time of writing: But her spirit came to the Halls of Waiting, where are the places appointed for the Elven-kin beyond the Blessed Realms in the West, on the confines of the world. And she knelt before the Lord [of the Halls of Waiting]
9. This concluding paragraph of Trotter's tale is very close to the account of the Choices of Luthien that my father had written while the Quenta Silmarillion was with the publishers at the end of 1937, and which appears in the published Silmarillion on p. 187; see V.293, 303-4.