The Return Of The Shadow Part 21
When Gandalf pauses after saying 'he made his slow sneaking way bit by bit, years ago, down to the Land of Mordor' the heavy silence mentioned in FR p. 68 falls, and 'there was now no sound of Sam's shears.' The phrase 'I think indeed that Gollum is the beginning of our present troubles' is retained: see p. 271, note 33.
From '"Well anyway," said Frodo, "if Gollum could not be killed"' my father at first followed the earlier text (p.265) very closely, but then rewrote it in a changed form.
'Well anyway,' said Frodo, 'if Gollum could not be killed, I wish Bilbo had not kept the Ring. Why did he?'
'Is not that clear from what you have now heard? ' answered Gandalf. 'I remember you saying, when it first came to you, that it had its advantages, and that you wondered why Bilbo went off without it [see p. 242]. He had possessed it a long while before we knew that it was specially important. After that it was too late: there was the Ring itself to reckon with. It has a power and purpose of its own that clouds wise counsel. Even Bilbo could not altogether escape its influence. He developed a sentiment. Even when he knew that it came ultimately from the Necromancer he wished to keep it as a memento...'
Lastly, the pa.s.sage beginning 'I really do wish to destroy it!' (p. 266) was changed and amplified: 'I really do wish to destroy it! ' cried Frodo. 'But I wish more that the Ring need never have come to me. Why was I chosen?'
'Bilbo pa.s.sed it on to you to save himself from destruction; and because he could find no one else. He did so reluctantly, but believing that, when you knew more, you would accept the burden for a while out of love for him. He thought you were safe: safe not to misuse it or to let it get into evil hands; safe from its power for a time; and safe in the quiet Shire of the hobbits from the knowledge of its maker. And I promised him to help you. He relied on that. Indeed for your sake and for his I have taken many perilous journeys.
'Also I may say that I did not discover the letters of fire or their meaning or know for certain that this was the Ruling Ring until he had already decided to go. I did not tell him, for then he would not have burdened you. I let him go. He had had the Ring for sixty years, and it was telling on him, Frodo. It would have worn him down in the end, and I dare not guess what might then have happened.
'But now, alas! I know more. I have seen Gollum. I have journeyed even to the Land of Mordor. I fear that the Enemy is searching. You are in a far graver peril than ever Bilbo dreamed of. So do not blame him.'
'But I am not strong enough! ' said Frodo. 'You are wise and powerful. Will you not take the Ring?'
'No!' said Gandalf springing to his feet. 'With that Ring I should have power too great and terrible. And over me it would gain a power still greater and more deadly.' His eyes flashed and his face was lit as by a fire within. 'Do not tempt me! For I do not wish to become like the Dark Lord himself. Yet the way of the Ring to my heart is by pity for weakness and the desire of strength to do good. Do not tempt me! '
He went to the window and drew aside the curtain and shutters. Sunlight streamed back again into the room. Sam pa.s.sed along the path outside, whistling. 'In any case,' said the wizard, turning back to Frodo, 'it is now too late. You would hate me and call me a thief; and our friendship would cease. Such is the power of the Ring. But together we will shoulder the burden that is laid on us.' He came and laid his hand on Frodo's shoulder. 'But we must do something soon,' he said. 'The Enemy is moving.'
The same curious idea is still present here that Gandalf discovered the letters of fire on Bilbo's ring, and knew that it was the Ruling Ring, before Bilbo left but without telling him (i.e. without Bilbo's knowledge that this test had been made): see p. 266 and note 38. - Gandalf's remark (p. 321) 'I think indeed that Gollum is the beginning of our present troubles', retained from the second version, now perhaps becomes less obscure (see p. 271, note 33): 'I have been to the Land of Mordor. I fear that the Enemy is searching.'
Chapter III: 'Delays are Dangerous'.
The new text of the third chapter, now given this t.i.tle (which had been scribbled in on the second version), was another fine clear ma.n.u.script, replacing its appallingly difficult predecessor (pp. 273 ff.).
The chapter still begins with the gossip in The Ivy Bush and The Creen Dragon (p. 274 and note 1) before turning to the conversation between Gandalf and Frodo. In that conversation Gandalf does now refer, as in FR, to the possibility that it may be Frodo's task to find the Cracks of Doom - indeed he goes further: 'And to go there but not come back again,' added Gandalf grimly. 'For in the end I think you must come to the Fiery Mountain, though you are not yet ready to make that your goal.'
That with Merry's help (6) Frodo had chosen a little house at Crick- hollow (see p. 299) is now taken up from the pencilled change to the previous version (p. 283, note 2). Gandalf still leaves Hobbiton 'one wet dark evening in May'.
But a major change enters the story with the departure of Odo Bolger (not Took-Bolger, as in the family tree, p. 317) with Merry Brandybuck in the third cart from Hobbiton. My father had proposed this earlier (p. 299): 'From here onwards [i.e. after the arrival in Buckland] Odo is presumed to have gone with Merry ahead. The preliminary journey was Frodo [Took], Bingo and Sam only. Frodo has a character a little more like Odo once had. Odo is now rather silent (and greedy).' But the text that followed this direction was obscure and contradictory, apparently on account of my opposition to the proposal (see p. 299). Now the deed was done properly.
In the earlier versions of the chapter the young hobbits Frodo and Odo had distinct characters (see p. 70). The removal of Odo from the expedition does not mean, however, that Odo's character was removed; because my father always worked on the basis of preceding drafts, and a great deal of the original material of this chapter survived. Though Frodo Took, now renamed Folco Took (since Bingo had become Frodo), was the one who remained in the new narrative, he had to become the speaker of the things that the absent Odo had said - unless my father was to rewrite what he had written in a far more drastic way than he wished to. Despite the early note 'Sam Gamgee to replace Odo' (p. 250), Sam was too particularly conceived from the outset to be at all suitable to take up Odo's nonchalance. Moreover, in this version of the chapter the original contribution of Folco (Frodo) Took was in any case further reduced. The verse The Road goes ever on and on had already been given to Bingo in the second version (p. 278); now his account of meeting a Black Rider up on the North Moors was dropped, and his exclamation of delight when the singing of the Elves was heard ('Elves! How wonderful! I have always wished to hear elves singing under stars') was cut out apparently in the act of writing and replaced by Sam's hoa.r.s.e whisper: 'Elves! ' So Folco Took, with a diminished part of 'his own', and acquiring much of 'Odo's', becomes 'Odo' more completely than my father apparently foresaw when he said 'Frodo [Took] has a character a little more like Odo once had.'(7) Yet Folco's genealogical place remains; for Odo himself (once surnamed Took but now a Bolger with a Took mother) has gone on ahead to Buckland, where a separate and distinct adventure (already glimpsed in advance, pp. 302,304) will overtake him, while into Folco's place in the family tree of the Tooks, as first cousin of Merry Brandybuck (pp. 267, 3 I 7), will later step Peregrin Took (Pippin).
Cosimo Sackville-Baggins' 'overshadowed wife Miranda' disappears again, together with the remark that he and his mother Lobelia lived at Bag End 'for many a year after' (p. 283, note 5). - The Road goes ever on and on now attains the final form (p. 284, note 10). - At the first appearance of the Black Rider on the road, in the pa.s.sage cited on p. 278, 'Odo and Frodo' become 'Folco and Sam', and the text of FR (p. 84) is reached.
As already noticed, Frodo Took's account of his meeting with a Black Rider on the North Moors of the Shire (p. 278) is now dropped, and the conversation between Bingo and Frodo Took on the subject of the Black Riders (p. 279) that follows Sam's revelation moves on to precisely the form in FR (p. 85), with of course Folco for Pippin. The brief halt of the Rider by the decayed tree in which the hobbits ate their supper is however retained in this version, and in the ensuing conversation Frodo still says, as did Bingo, that he will take the name of Mr Hill of Faraway. When the singing of the Elves is heard Frodo says, as in FR p. 88: 'One can meet them sometimes in the Woody End', but he still says as in the preceding version (p. 280) that they come in spring and autumn 'out of their own lands far beyond the River'. As in FR, the hymn to Elbereth is now said to be sung 'in the fair Elven-tongue', and at the end of it Frodo says: 'These are High-elves! They speak the name of Elbereth! '
Odo's indiscreet remark about their good luck in landing unexpectedly good food and lodging disappears and is not handed on to Folco. Frodo's 'The stars shine on the hour of our meeting' was at first given as before (p. 280) only in translation, but my father changed this, clearly in the act of writing the ma.n.u.script, by the introduction of the Elvish words as well, Eleni silir lumesse omentiemman, and then again to Elen sile..., 'A star shines...' At this Gildor says, as in FR, 'Here is a scholar in the Ancient Tongue.'
It is still the Moon that rouses the Elves to song; but the old wording ('The yellow moon rose; springing swiftly out of the shadow, and then climbing round and slow into the sky') surviving from the original version of the chapter (p. 61), was changed, apparently at or very near the time of writing, to: 'Above the mists away in the East the thin silver rind of the New Moon appeared, and rising swift and clear out of the shadow it swung gleaming in the sky.' My father no doubt made this change on account of what he had said elsewhere about the Moon; for there was a waxing moon as the hobbits approached Weathertop, and it was 'nearly half-full' on the night of the attack (pp. 168, 184): the attack was on 5 October (p. 175), and there could not be a full or nearly full Moon on 24 September, the night pa.s.sed with the Elves in the Woody End (see p. 160). On that night it must have been almost New Moon. The dates of the phases of the Moon in the autumn and early winter of that year cited on p. 434, note 19, in fact give New Moon on 25 September, the First Quarter (half-full) on 2 October, and Full Moon on 10 October. But it is an odd and uncharacteristic aberration that my father envisaged a New Moon rising late at night in the East.(8) In FR, of course, there is no mention of the Moon in this pa.s.sage: it was 'the Swordsman of the Sky, Menelvagor with his shining belt' that caused the Elves to burst into song.
In the pa.s.sage describing the memories of the meal eaten with the Elves the text of FR is reached, with Folco retaining those of Frodo Took together with Odo's recollection of the bread.
Gildor's advice to Bingo (Frodo) that he should take trusty companions, and his opinion that his present companions have already confused the Riders, is retained (see p. 282); but at the end there is now no mention of the Ring, and their talk ends as in FR (p. 94).
Chapter IV: 'A Short Cut to Mushrooms'.
In this new version of the chapter there is only to notice the curious result of the exclusion of Odo Bolger: with Folco Took adding Odo's part to that which he retained from Frodo Took's in the former narrative. In the previous version Odo argued against taking a short cut to the Ferry, because, while he did not know the country, he did know The Golden Perch at Stock, and Frodo Took argued for it - because he did know the country.(9) Now, the Frodo-element in Folco, retaining a knowledge of the country, uses it to support the desire of the Odo-element in him for the beer at Stock, and his opponent in the argument is Frodo (Baggins); thus Folco is here, and throughout the chapter, Pippin in all but name (see pp. 286 - 7).
Deephallow now disappears from the text (see p. 286).
Chapter V: 'A Conspiracy Unmasked'.
This chapter had already reached in the second version (pp. 298 ff.) a form very close to that in FR, but there remained the confusion over whether Odo had been on the walk from Hobbiton or whether he had gone on ahead to Buckland with Merry (see pp. 299, 323). Following the new version of Chapter III, this is now resolved, of course: Odo is at Crickhollow, opens the door when they arrive, and cooks the supper with Merry - in fact, until the end of the chapter, he has become Fredegar (Fatty) Bolger. The text now reaches, until the end of the chapter, the form in FR, down to the smallest particulars of expression, with these differences only: the pa.s.sage about Gorhendad Oldbuck is still not present (p. 298); the Hedge is still forty miles from end to end (ibid.); and the 'dwarf-song' Farewell. farewell, now hearth and hall! still retains the form in the previous version (pp. 300 - 1).(10) The end of the chapter still differs altogether from that in FR, however. The form in the second version was preserved, with the pencilled additions incorporated (p. 302). Odo says 'But me shan't have any luck in the Old Forest' (whereas in FR Fredegar says 'But you won't have any luck'), because he is still potentially a member of the further expedition, even though my father had in fact decided that he would stay at Crickhollow till Gandalf came. I give the text from 'Do you follow Captain Frodo, or do you stay at home?'
'We follow Captain Frodo,' said Merry and Folco (and of course Sam). Odo was silent. 'Look here!' he said after a pause. 'I don't mind admitting that I am more terrified of the Forest than of anything I know about. I dislike woods of any kind, but the stories about the Old Forest are a nightmare. But I also think that you ought to try and keep in touch with Gandalf, who I guess knows more about the Black Riders than you do. I will stay behind here and keep off inquisitive folk. When Gandalf comes, as I think he is sure to, I will tell him what you have done, and I will come on after you with him, if he will bring me.'
The others agreed that this seemed on the whole an excellent plan; and Frodo at once wrote a brief letter to Gandalf, and gave it to Odo.
'Well, that's settled,' said Merry.
The rest of the chapter is as in the previous version.
A curious trace of this stage survives in the published text. Since Odo's staying behind had not formed part of the 'conspiracy', Merry had prepared six ponies, five for the five hobbits and one for the baggage. When the story changed, and Fredegar Bolger's task 'according to the original plans of the conspirators' (FR p. 118) was expressly to stay behind, this detail was overlooked, and the six ponies remained at this point (FR p. 117).
Chapter VI: 'The Old Forest'.
The chapter now at last receives its t.i.tle. Odo now said farewell to the others at the entrance to the tunnel under the Hedge in these words: 'I wish you were not going into the Forest. I don't believe you will get safely through; and I think it is very necessary that someone should warn Gandalf that you have gone in. I'm sure you will need rescuing before to-day is out. Still I wish you luck and I hope, perhaps, I shall catch you up again one day.'
The hill rising out of the forest was still crowned with a knot of trees (p. 113), but this was changed to the 'bald head' of FR in the act of writing this ma.n.u.script. The gully which the hobbits were forced to follow downwards because they could not climb out of it still ends as before (ibid.): Suddenly the woodland trees came to an end, and the gully became deep and sheer-sided; its bottom was almost wholly filled by the noisy hurrying water. It ran down finally to a narrow shelf at the top of a rocky bank, over which the stream dived and fell in a series of small waterfalls. Looking down they saw that below them was a wide s.p.a.ce of gra.s.s and reeds...
The old story of the descent down the thirty-foot bank is thus still present, with Folco falling the last fifteen feet.
In the original form of the story of the encounter with Old Man Willow (p. 113) Bingo and Odo were trapped in the tree, and Merry (then called Marmaduke) was the one who rounded up the ponies and rescued Frodo Took from the river. In the next stage (p. 302) this was changed to the extent that Sam took over Merry's part, and Merry simply 'lay like a log'. Now, with Frodo Took and Odo 'reduced' to Folco Took, it is still Frodo Baggins and Folco who are imprisoned in the tree, but Merry steps into Frodo Took's role as the one pushed into the river.
In the oldest version the path beside the Withywindle puzzlingly turned sharply to the left below Tom Bombadil's house and went over a little bridge; and in later revision this was retained, with, later again, the word 'left' changed to 'right', implying that Bombadil's house was on the south side of the Withywindle (see p. 114). The present text read at first here: [The path] turned sharply to the right, and took them over a chattering down.
This retains the turn in the path and the bridge, but the bridge being over a tributary stream Bombadil's house is on the north side of the Withy- windle. My father struck the pa.s.sage out, however, apparently as he wrote.
Chapter VII: 'In the House of Tom Bombadil'.
Like the last, this chapter now receives its t.i.tle. The episode of the attack on Crickhollow (pp. 303 - 4) is now a part of the text, and was repeated from the earlier form with scarcely any significant change and almost word for word. The 'grey man' came up the path leading a white horse, but that Gandalf had a white horse appears later in the first version. More important, my father at first repeated the words 'Suddenly there was a movement', but struck them out and subst.i.tuted: 'A curtain in one of the windows stirred. Then suddenly the figure by the door moved swiftly' (this change clearly belongs with the writing of the ma.n.u.script). Odo was in the house, of course. To the words pencilled at the end of the first version of the episode, 'Behind clung a small figure with Hying cloak', and 'Odo', there is nothing corresponding in the next, and I think that they had not, in fact, yet been written in on the former; at this stage, it seems, my father had no further plans for Odo. But there is a pencilled addition to the second text of which, though it was erased, Mr Taum Santoski has been able to make out the following: 'Behind him ran Odo... and... wind. Cf. IX.22.' On this question see p. 336.
The dreams. The content of Frodo's dream remains the same, almost word for word, as Bingo's in the original version (p. 118), except that after the words 'hoofs thudding and wind blowing' there follows 'and faint and far the echo of a horn': this obviously echoes Gandalf's blowing of the horn at Crickhollow, which in this text immediately precedes Frodo's dream. But whereas in the story as told in the first phase 'Bingo woke' and then 'fell asleep again' (on the reality of the sounds he heard see p. 119), in this version Frodo 'lay in a dream without light': this is as in FR, but nothing is said here to suggest that he woke (contrast FR: '"Black Riders!" thought Frodo as he wakened.') On the other hand the pa.s.sage in the present text ends as in FR: 'at last he turned and fell asleep again or wandered into some other unremembered dream.' Folco dreams what was originally Odo's dream, and like Pippin in FR 'woke, or thought he had waked', and then 'went to sleep again.' Merry takes over Frodo Took's dream of water, with the words 'falling into his quiet sleep and slowly waking him' retained from the old version, though struck out, probably at once; this pa.s.sage ends, as in FR, 'He breathed deep and fell asleep again.' Sam 'slept through the night in deep content, if logs are contented.'
In Tom's talk with the hobbits on the second day, the old phrase 'A dark shadow came up out of the middle of the world' is retained (see p. 121); and Tom's reply to Frodo's question 'Who are you, Master?' is almost exactly as in the old version (p. 121): he says 'I am Ab-Origine, that's what I am,' and the words 'He saw the Sun rise in the West and the Moon following, before the new order of days was made' are retained (see my discussion of this pa.s.sage, pp. 121 - 2).
In all the other minor differences mentioned on pp. 122 - 3 the present text reaches the final form.
Chapter VIII: 'Fog on the Barrow-downs'.
There is little that need be said about this chapter, which followed on the original text (pp. 127 - 30), and which now received its t.i.tle. The 'arm walking on its fingers' in the barrow crept towards Folco, and Frodo fell forward upon him (p. 127). Merry's words when he woke remain unchanged (p. 128); and nothing more is said of the bronze swords that Tom Bombadil chose for the hobbits from the treasures of the mound than the words added to the original text: Tom said that 'they were made many ages ago by men out of the West: they were foes of the dark Lord.' The conclusion of the chapter moves some way to the final form, but features of the original version are retained (pp. 129 - 30). Thus Frodo, riding down onto the Road, still says: 'I hope we shall be able to stick to the beaten track after this,' to which Bombadil replies: 'That's what you ought to do, as long as you are able: hold to the beaten way, but ride fast and wary.' In his parting advice he still says: 'Barnabas b.u.t.terbur is the worthy keeper: he knows Tom Bombadil, and Tom's name will help you. Say "Tom sent us here", and he will treat you kindly.' After he has gone there is no conversation among the hobbits recorded, and the chapter ends much as in the original text. Sam rode with Frodo in front, Merry and Folco behind, leading the spare pony; and Bree is still 'a little village'.
NOTES.
1. Earliest Days, occurring twice in this pa.s.sage, was changed later to Elder Days. The latter expression occurs once in the Quenta Silmarillion, where it is not capitalised (V. 259); cf. also Elder Years (V.90), eldest days (V.245).
2. Bandobras the Bullroarer reappears from The Hobbit (Chapter I); see further pp. 316 - 17.
3. Only one such tree is known to me, perhaps the only one made by my father at this time; see pp. 316 - 18.
4. Thus whereas in the preliminary version of the talk in The Ivy Bush (p. 244) the narrator's opening was to be reduced to a brief paragraph, my father was now both retaining the account of past history from earlier versions of the chapter and also adding Gaffer Gamgee's own characteristic mode of retailing it. In FR the Gaffer becomes the sole source.
5. In The Hobbit Bandobras is called Bilbo's great-grand-uncle, but Bilbo himself calls him his great-great-great-grand-uncle - as he is in the present tree.
6. His cousin Lanorac Brandybuck (p. 275) has disappeared.
7. The discussion whether to walk far or not on the first night was still present (see p. 276), but Folco does not take on Odo's reluctance; the result is that all three of them agree, and the discussion being now rather pointless my father struck it out and replaced it with the words of FR (p. 80): 'Well, we all like walking in the dark, so let's put some miles behind us before bed.'
8. It is indeed so extraordinary, in view of his deep and constant awareness of all such modes and appearances, that one seeks for an explanation: can he have intended 'the Old Moon' but have written 'the New Moon' because he was thinking of the crescent form (characteristically 'the New Moon') rather than the phase? This seems unlikely; and in any case an 'old Moon' as a 'thin silver rind' is not seen till near dawn, for the Moon to have this appearance must be very near to the Sun.
9. In the earlier, abandoned variant of the Farmer Maggot episode in the previous version of the chapter Maggot says that Frodo Took is 'half a Brandybuck' (p. 291). This was already omitted in the second variant; but he was Merry Brandybuck's first cousin, and he tells Bingo that Maggot 'is a friend of Merry's, and I used to come here with him a good deal at one time' - just as Pippin tells Frodo in FR, p. 101.
10. My father first wrote that it was sung by Merry, Folco, and Odo, but Odo's name was no doubt due to its presence in the previous version (p. 300), and he struck it out at once.
XX THE THIRD PHASE (2): AT THE SIGN OF THE PRANCING PONY.
With Chapter IX, now given the t.i.tle 'At the Sign of the Prancing Pony', the narrative of this phase underwent a much more substantial development, but not at all in the direction of the final story in FR. Before coming to this, however, there is a curious feature in the opening of the chapter to be considered.
The opening now advanced far from the early forms given on pp. 132 - 4: an initial account in which Bree was a village of Men, but where 'there were hobbits about', changed to the story that there were only hobbits in Bree, and Mr b.u.t.terbur was himself a hobbit. A later note (p. 233) said however that 'Bree-folk are not to be hobbits.' Now my father resolved the question by returning, more or less, to the original idea: Men and Hobbits lived together in Bree. But he found it difficult to achieve a form of the opening with which he could be satisfied, and there is version after version soon tailing off, to be replaced by the next. All these drafts are very similar, differing in the ordering of the material and in the admission or omission of detail; all obviously belong to the same time; and there is no need to look at them closely, except in one particular. All the drafts contain the pa.s.sage in FR (p. 161) concerning the origin of the Men of Bree - one of them adding that they were 'descendants of the sons of Beor' - and the return of the Kings of Men over the Great Seas.(1) The pa.s.sage that follows, as in FR, concerns the Rangers, and is almost the same in all the draft forms of it: No other Men lived now so far West, nor so near the Shire by a hundred leagues and more. No settled people, that is: for there were the Rangers, mysterious wanderers that the Men of Bree regarded with deep respect (and a little fear), since they were said to be the last remnant of the kingly people from beyond the Seas. But the Rangers were few and seldom seen, and roamed at will in the wild lands eastward, even as far as the Misty Mountains.
The curious thing is that in the form of the chapter-opening that was allowed to stand the account of the Rangers is quite different, and does not follow on from the words 'No other Men lived at that time so far West, nor so near by a hundred leagues to the Shire', but is placed further on (after 'There was Bree-blood in the Brandybuck family by all accounts', FR p. 162). This version reads: In the wild lands east of Bree there roamed a few unsettled folk (men and hobbits). These the people of the Bree-land called Rangers. Some of them were well-known in Bree, which they visited fairly frequently, and were welcome as bringers of news and tellers of strange tales.
Later in the chapter, b.u.t.terbur answers Frodo's question about Trotter thus: I don't rightly know. He is one of the wandering folk - Rangers, we call them. Not that he really is a Ranger, if you understand me, though he behaves like one. He seems to be a hobbit of some kind. He has been coming in pretty often during the past twelve months, especially since last spring; but he seldom talks.
In the original version at this place (p. 137) b.u.t.terbur says: 'O! that is one of the wild folk - rangers we call 'em.' And Gandalf in his letter to Frodo still refers in the third phase text, as in the old version, to Trotter as 'a ranger... dark rather lean hobbit, wears wooden shoes' (p. 352). With these extracts compare the note in Queries and Alterations (p. 223): Rangers are best not as hobbits, perhaps.
It is difficult to interpret this. In the third phase we find the statement (in draft versions) that Rangers are 'the last remnant of the kingly people from beyond the Seas', and also the statements that Rangers are both men and hobbits, that one particular hobbit is a Ranger (so Gandalf), and that this same hobbit is 'not really a Ranger, though he behaves like one' (so b.u.t.terbur). The simplest explanation is to suppose that the Numenorean origin of the Rangers was an idea that my father was considering in the drafts, but which he set aside when he wrote the text of the chapter and the subsequent narrative (see further p. 393). Whatever the explanation, it is clear that the finished conception of the Rangers had a difficult emergence; and it is characteristic that even when the idea of the Rangers as the last descendants of the Numenorean exiles had arisen, and a place thus prepared, as it were, for Trotter, he did not at once move into that place.
The village of Staddle now reappears (see p. 132), on the other side of the hill; and Combe is set 'in a deep valley a little further eastward', Archet 'on the edge of Chetwood'-all as in FR p. 161. That Bree stood at an old meeting of the ways, the East Road and the Greenway running north and south, now appears. In the only one of the draft versions of the opening to reach the actual narrative, the hobbits pa.s.sed one or two detached houses before they came to the inn, and Sam and Folco stared at these in wonder. Sam was filled with deep suspicion, and doubted the wisdom of seeking any lodging in such an outlandish place. 'Fancy having to climb up a ladder to bed!' he said. 'What do they do it for? They aren't birds.'
'It's airier,' said Frodo, 'and safer too in wilder country. There is no fence around Bree that I can see.'
Here my father stopped; probably at that moment he decided that this was improbable. In the completed text of the chapter dike, hedge, and gate appear.
Frodo and his companions came at last to the Greenway- crossing and drew near the village. They found that it was surrounded by a deep ditch with a hedge and fence on the inner side. Over this the Road ran, but it was closed (as was the custom after nightfall) by a great gate of loose bars laid across strong posts on either side.
A little sketch-map, reproduced on p. 335, very likely belongs to just this time. Written beside the line marking the outer circuit of Bree is 'ditch R f', i.e. 'fence'. (For an earlier, very simple sketch-plan of Bree see p. 174, note 20).
The text continues: There was a house just beyond the barrier, and a man was sitting at the door. He jumped up and fetched a lantern, and looked down over the gate at them in surprise.
'We are making for the inn here,' said Frodo in answer to his questions. 'We are journeying east, and cannot go further tonight.'
'Hobbits! ' said the man. 'And what's more, Shire-hobbits from the sound of your talk! Well, if that is not a wonder: Shire-folk riding by night and journeying east! '
He removed the bars slowly and let them ride through. 'And what makes it stranger,' he went on: 'there's been more than one traveller in the last few days going the same way, and enquiring after a party of four hobbits on ponies. But I laughed at them and said there had been no such party and was never likely to be. And here you are! But if you go on to old b.u.t.terbur's I don't doubt you'll find a welcome, and more news of your friends, maybe.'
They wished him goodnight; but Frodo made no comment on his talk, though he could see in the lantern-light that the man was eyeing them curiously. He was glad to hear the bars dropped in their places behind them as they rode forward. One Black Rider at least was now ahead of them, or so he guessed from the man's words, but it was likely enough that others were still behind. And what about Gandalf? Had he, too, pa.s.sed through, trying to catch them up while they were delayed in the Forest and Downs?
The hobbits rode on up a gentle slope, pa.s.sing a few detached houses, and drew up outside the inn....
The account of Sam's dismay at the sight of the tall houses, of the structure of the inn, and of their arrival, is almost word for word as in FR p. 164; and Barnabas b.u.t.terbur is now a man, not a hobbit. But the pa.s.sage in the original version in which Bingo (Frodo) refers to Tom Bombadil's recommendation of The Prancing Pony and is then made welcome by the landlord (pp. 134 - 5) is retained. Frodo now introduces them by their correct names, except that he calls himself 'Mr Hill of Faraway' (see pp. 280, 324). b.u.t.terbur replies much as in the old version (p. 135), but his remarks there about the Tooks are now applied to the Brandybucks, and not merely in the general context of the Shire-folk but because Merry has been introduced as Mr Brandybuck; and he now mentions the strangers who had come up the Greenway the night before. The pa.s.sage about their supply of money (see p. 136 and note 7) is retained, though the urgency is made less ('Frodo had brought some money with him, of course, as much as was safe or convenient; but it would not cover the expenses of good inns indefinitely.') From 'The landlord hovered round for a little, and then prepared (2) to leave them' the new chapter reaches the final form for a long stretch with only minor differences and for the most part in the same words. The people in the common-room of the inn (including the strangers from the South, who 'stared curiously') are as in FR (and the botanical names of the Men of Bree, see p. 137 and note 8); but 'among the company [Frodo] noticed the gate-keeper, and wondered vaguely if it was his night off duty.' The 'squint-eyed ill-favoured fellow' who in FR foretold that many more people would be coming north in the near future is here simply 'one of the travellers' who had come up the Greenway. Folco Took is now of course 'the ridiculous young Took'; but he does not yet tell the tale of the collapse of the roof of the Town Hole in Michel Delving. Frodo 'heard someone ask what part the Hills lived in and where Faraway was; and he hoped Sam and Folco would be careful.'