The Return Of The Shadow Part 24
The 'Morgul-knife' (FR p. 234) is still the 'knife of the Necromancer' (p. 211), and Gandalf says here: 'You would have become a wraith, and under the dominion of the Dark Lord. But you would have had no ring of your own, as the Nine have; for your Ring is the Ruling Ring, and the Necromancer would have taken that, and would have tormented you for trying to keep it - if any torment greater than being robbed of it was possible.'
Among the servants of the Dark Lord Gandalf still includes, as in the previous version, 'orcs and goblins' and 'kings, warriors, and wizards' (p. 211)..
Gandalf's reply to Frodo's question 'Is Rivendell safe?' derives from the former text, but moves also towards that of FR: 'Yes, I hope so. He has less power over Elves than over any other creature: they have suffered too much in the past to be deceived or cowed by him now. And the Elves of Rivendell are descendants of his chief foes: the Gnomes, the Elvenwise, that came out of the West; and the Queen Elbereth Gilthoniel, Lady of the Stars, still protects them. They fear no Ring-wraiths, for those that have dwelt in the Blessed Realm beyond the Seas live at once in both worlds; and each world has only half power over them, while they have double power over both.'(9) 'I thought I saw a white figure that shone and did not grow dim like the others. Was that Glorfindel then?'
'Yes, you saw him for a moment as he is upon the other side: one of the mighty of the Elder Race. He is an elf-lord of a house of princes.'
'Then there are still some powers left that can withstand the Lord of Mordor,' said Frodo.
'Yes, there is power in Rivendell,' answered Gandalf, 'and there is a power, too, of another kind in the Shire....
At the end of this pa.s.sage Gandalf still says: 'the Wise say that he is doomed in the End, though that is far away' (see p. 212).
In Gandalf's story of what happened at the Ford he says, as in FR, 'Three were carried off by the first a.s.sault of the flood; the others were now hurled into the water by their horses and overwhelmed.' It thus appears that the rewriting of the end of the preceding chapter (p. 362) had already been carried out.
At the end of his conversation with Gandalf the story of Odo reappears: 'Yes, it all comes back to me now,' said Frodo: 'the tremendous roaring. I thought I was drowning, together with my friends and enemies. But now we are all safe! And Odo, too. At least, Glorfindel said so. How did you find him again?'
Gandalf looked [oddly )] quickly at Frodo, but he had shut his eyes. 'Yes, Odo is safe,' the wizard said. 'You will see him soon, and hear his account. There will be feasting and merrymaking to celebrate the victory of the Ford, and you will all be there in places of honour.'
Gandalf's 'odd' or 'quick' look at Frodo can only relate to his question about Odo, but since the story of Odo's vanishing from Weathertop and his subsequent reappearance (rescue!) was never told it is impossible to know what lay behind it. There is a suggestion that there was something odd about the story of his disappearance. Gandalf's tone, when taken with his 'look' at Frodo, seems to have a slightly quizzical air. Glorfindel says (p. 361): Certainly there is a hobbit of that name with him., but I did not hear that he had been lost'. yet surely the capture of a hobbit by the Black Riders and his subsequent recovery was a matter of the utmost interest to those concerned with the Ring-wraiths? But whatever the story was, it seems to be something that will never be known. - It is curious that the wizard's sudden quick look at Frodo was preserved in FR (p. 236), when the Odo-story had of course disappeared, and Frodo's words that gave rise to the look were 'But now we are safe! '
Gandalf's slip of the tongue ('The people of Rivendell are very fond of Bilbo') and Frodo's noticing it are retained from the first version (p. 212), as is Frodo's recollection of Trotter's words to the troll as he fell asleep.
When Frodo goes down to find his friends in a porch of the house(10) the conversation is retained almost exactly from the original form (p. 209). Odo takes over from Merry 'Three cheers for Frodo, lord of the Ring!' and further says, as does Pippin in FR, 'You have shown your usual cunning in getting up just in time for a meal', but despite Odo's increased prominence in Frodo's reception (in FR given to Pippin) there is no reference to his adventures. Frodo might surely be expected to make some remark about Odo's extremely perilous and altogether unlooked-for experiences since he had last seen him at the entrance into the Old Forest, especially since Gandalf had refrained from telling him what had happened on Weathertop and after.
The description of Elrond, Gandalf, and Glorfindel at the banquet had already appeared in almost the final form in the earlier text. The mention of Elrond's smile and laughter (p. 213) was at this time still retained; and there is of course still no hint of Arwen. In the description of the seating, the statement in the former version (ibid,) that Bingo 'could not see Trotter, nor his nephews. They had been led to other tables' was retained; but when Frodo 'began to look about him' he did see them, though not Trotter (the latter pa.s.sage surviving into FR): The feast was merry and all that his hunger could desire. He could not see Trotter, or the other hobbits, and supposed they were at one of the side tables. It was some time before he began to look about him. Sam had begged to be allowed to wait on his master, but was told that he was for this night a guest of honour. Frodo could see him sitting with Odo, Folco and Merry at the upper end of one of the side tables, close to the dais. He could not see Trotter.
Frodo's conversation with Gloin proceeds exactly as in FR as far as 'But I am equally curious to know what brings so important a dwarf so far from the Lonely Mountain.' In the original texts Gloin said that he wondered much what could have brought four hobbits on so long a journey (Bingo, Frodo Took, Odo, Merry; Trotter being excluded - presumably as being so altogether distinct, and not a hobbit of the Shire). The number is four in FR (Frodo, Sam, Pippin, Merry); but four is also found in the present text, where the hobbits (excluding Trotter) were now five: Frodo, Sam, Folco, Odo, Merry. Either 'four' was a slip, or Gloin excluded Odo since he knew that Odo had not arrived at Rivendell with the others. Gloin's reply to Frodo's question remains less grave than in FR: Gloin looked at him, and laughed, indeed he winked. 'You'll soon find out,' he said; 'but I am not allowed to tell you - yet. So we will not speak of that either! But there are many other things to hear and tell.'
The conversation (so far as it goes in the portion of the ma.n.u.script dealt with here) remains almost exactly as it was, with the short extension at the end of the third of the early texts (p. 213), the only difference of any substance being that Dain had now, as in FR, 'pa.s.sed his two-hundred-and-fiftieth-year'.
It will be seen that from the series of once fine ma.n.u.scripts that const.i.tute the 'third phase' of the writing of The Lord of the Rings a wholly coherent story emerges. The following are essential points in that story in respect of the intricate later evolution: - Gandalf did not return to Hobbiton in time for Frodo's small final party.
- Merry and Odo Bolger went off to Buckland in advance.
- Frodo, Sam, and Folco Took walked from Hobbiton to Buckland.
- At Buckland, Odo decided not to go with the others into the Old Forest, but to stay behind at Crickhollow and wait for Gandalf to come.
- Gandalf came to Crickhollow at night on the day that Frodo and his companions left (Monday 26 September), drove off the Riders, and rode after them with Odo on his horse.
- Gandalf and Odo (whose name was given out to be Odo Baggins) spent the night of Tuesday 27 September at Bree. Near Bree they encountered Trotter.
- Gandalf and Odo left Bree on Wednesday 28 September, meeting Trotter near Archet, as had been arranged.
- Frodo, Sam, Merry and Folco arrived at Bree on Thursday 29 September, and met Trotter, who gave Frodo Gandalf's letter.
- Trotter was a hobbit; Frodo found him curiously familiar without being able to say why, but there is no hint of who he might really be.
- Gandalf reached Weathertop on Monday 3 October, and left on 5 October.
- Trotter, Frodo and the others reached Weathertop on Thursday 6 October and found Gandalf's note telling that Odo had disappeared.
- They learned from Glorfindel that Gandalf had reached Rivendell, with Odo, coming down from the north by way of 'Dimrilldale'.
- At Rivendell, Gandalf explained that he had been delayed in his return to Hobbiton (having learned that the Ring-wraiths were abroad) through having been held prisoner in Fangorn by Giant Treebeard.
- The Shire hobbits at Rivendell are Frodo, Sam, Merry, Folco, and Odo.
NOTES.
1. After 'I had to make quite sure that you were genuine first, before I handed over the letter. I've heard of shadow-parties picking up messages that weren't meant for them...' Trotter now adds: 'Gandalf's letter was worded carefully in case of accidents, but I didn't know that.' Thus Gandalf no longer names Weathertop in the letter, but calls it the 'appointed place'.
2. Barbara Strachey, in Journeys of Frodo (Map i x) says: At this point I must note what I believe to be a real discrepancy in the text itself. In Bree... Aragorn tells Sam that Weathertop is halfway to Rivendell. I am sure that this was a slip of the tongue and that he meant halfway to The Last Bridge. Everything falls into place on this a.s.sumption, since the travellers took 7 days between Bree and Weathertop (involving a detour to the north) and 7 days from Weathertop to the Bridge (with Frodo in a wounded condition and unable to hurry) while there was a further stretch of 7 days from the Bridge to Rivendell. Aragorn was well aware of the distance, as he said later (A Knife in the Dark; Bk. I), when they reached Weathertop, that it would then take them 14 days to the Ford of Bruinen although it normally took him only 12.
But it is now seen that Aragorn's words 'about halfway from here (Bree) to Rivendell' in FR go back to Trotter's here; and at this stage the River h.o.a.rwell and the Last Bridge on the East Road did not yet exist (p. 360). I think that Trotter (Aragorn) was merely giving Folco (Sam) a rough but sufficient idea of the distances before them. - The relative distances go back to the original version (see pp. 170- 1 ): about 120 miles from Bree to Weathertop, close on zoo from Weathertop to the Ford.
3. A draft for Gandalf's message has: 'Last night Odo vanished: suspect capture by hors.e.m.e.n.'
The message was changed in pencil to read: Wednesday morning Oct. 5. Bad news. We arrived late Monday. Baggins vanished last night. I must go and look for him. Wait for me here for [a day or two >] two days. I shall return if possible. If not go to Rivendell by the Ford on the Road.
Merry then says: 'Baggins! Does that mean that the Riders have got Odo?'
Gandalf's message that he would return to Weathertop if he could may have been intended as an explanation of why they decided to stay there; see note 4. This pencilled revision preceded the writing of the next chapter; see p. 359.
4. This was changed in pencil to read: there is nothing we can do but] wait at least until tomorrow, which will be two days since Gandalf wrote the note [see note 3]. After that if he does not turn up we must [make for Rivendell as best we may.
5. The t.i.tle 'A Knife in the Dark' was pencilled in later, as also on the original chapter, VIII (p. 177).
6. The pa.s.sage about cram was retained in this text, but placed in a footnote.
7. On Dimrill-dale see pp. 432 - 3, notes 3, 13.
8. It may be noted that the name Asfaloth of Glorfindel's horse now appears.
9. On the conclusion of this pa.s.sage see p. 225.
10. The porch still faced west (p. 209), not east as in FR, and the odd statement that the evening light shone on the eastern faces of the hills far above was repeated, though struck out, probably in the act of writing.
XXII. NEW UNCERTAINTIES AND NEW PROJECTIONS.
The first phase or original wave of composition of The Lord of the Rings carried the story to Rivendell, and broke off in the middle of the original Chapter IX, at Gloin's account to Bingo Bolger-Baggins of the realm of Dale (p. 213): In Dale the grandson of Bard the Bowman ruled, Brand son of Bain son of Bard, and he was become a strong king whose realm included Esgaroth, and much land to the south of the great falls.
This sentence ended a ma.n.u.script page; on the reverse side, as noted on p. 213, the text was continued, but in a different script and a different ink, and it begins: 'And what has become of Balin and Ori and Oin?' asked Frodo.
Since in the second phase Bingo was still the name of Bilbo's heir, and since 'Bingo' never appears in any narrative writing falling later in the story than the feast at Rivendell, it is certain that there was a significant gap between 'much land to the south of the great falls' and 'And what has become of Balin and Ori and Oin?'
It is therefore very curious that in Chapter XII of the third phase there is a marked change of script at precisely the same point. Though still neatly and carefully written, it is immediately obvious to the eye that '"And what has become of Balin and Ori and Oin?" asked Frodo' and the subsequent text was not continuous with what preceded. Moreover, the latter part of this Chapter XI I is not coherent with what precedes, either: for Bilbo says - as my father first wrote out the ma.n.u.script - 'I shall have to get that fellow Aragorn to help me' (cf. FR p. 243: 'I shall have to get my friend the Dunadan to help me.') I do not think that it can possibly be a mere coincidence that both versions halt at precisely the same point; and I conclude that the third phase, in the sense of a fine continuous ma.n.u.script series, ended at the same place as the first phase had done - and did so precisely because that is where the first phase ended. For this reason I stopped at this point in the previous chapter. I have suggested earlier (p. 309) that when my father said (in February 1939) that by December 1938 The Lord of the Rings had reached Chapter XI I 'and has been rewritten several times' it was to the third phase that he was referring.
The textual-chronological questions that now arise are of peculiar difficulty, and I doubt whether a solution demonstrably correct at all points could be reached. There is no external evidence for many months after February 1939, and nothing to show what my father achieved during that time; but we get at last an unambiguous date, 'August 1939', written (most unusually) on every page of a collection of rough papers containing plot-outlines, questionings, and portions of text. These show my father at a halt, even at a loss, to the point of a lack of confidence in radical components of the narrative structure that had been built up with such pains. The only external evidence that I know of to cast light on this is a letter, dispirited in tone, which he wrote to Stanley Unwin on 15 September 1939, twelve days after the entry of England into war with Germany, apologizing for his 'silence about the state of the proposed sequel to the Hobbit, which you enquired about as long ago as June 21st.' 'I do not suppose,' he said, 'this any longer interests you greatly - though I still hope to finish it eventually. It is only about 3/4 written. I have not had much time, quite apart from the gloom of approaching disaster, and have been unwell most of this year...' There is nothing in the 'August 1939' papers themselves to show why he should have thought that the existing structure of the story was in need of such radical transformation. Proposals made at this time for new articulations of the plot were set down in such haste and so elliptically expressed that it is sometimes not easy to understand their bearings (here and there one may suspect a confusion between what had been written in the latest wave of composition and what had been written earlier); and determination of the order in which these notes and outlines were set down is impossible. To take first the most drastic proposals: (1). New Plot. Bilbo is the hero all through. Merry and Frodo his companions. This helps with Gollum (though Gollum probably gets new ring in Mordor). Or Bilbo just takes a 'holiday' - and never returns, and the surprise party [i.e. the party that ended in a surprise] is Frodo's. In which case Gandalf is not present to let off fireworks.
The astonishing suggestion in the first part of this note ignores the problem of 'lived happily ever after', which had bulked so large earlier (see pp. 108 - 9). For a brief while, at any rate, my father was prepared to envisage the demolition of the entire Bilbo-Frodo structure - the now established and essential idea that Bilbo vanished 'with a bang and a flash' at the end of his hundred-and-eleventh birthday party and that Frodo followed him out of the Shire, more discreetly, seventeen years later. Happily, he did not spend long on this - though he did go so far as to begin a new text, headed: New version - with Bilbo as hero. Aug. 1939.
The Lord of the Rings.
This begins: '"It is all most disturbing and in fact rather alarming," said Bilbo Baggins,' and the matter is the same as in 'Ancient History' - with Sam's shears audible outside - altered only as was necessary since Gandalf was here speaking to Bilbo, not Frodo; but this text peters out after a couple of sides.
The second part of this note is little less drastic: a return to the story as it was at the end of the first phase of wort on this chapter, where Bilbo merely disappeared quietly from the Shire shortly before his IIIth birthday, and the party was given by Bingo (Bolger-Baggins); see p. 40. : This idea is developed in the following outline: (2) Go back to original idea. Make Frodo (or Bingo) a more comic character.
Bilbo is not overcome by Ring - he very seldom used it. He lived long and then said goodbye, put on his old clothes and rode off. He would not say where he was going - except that he was going across the River. He had 2 favorite 'nephews', Peregrin Boffin and Frodo [written above: Folco] Baggins. Peregrin was the elder. Peregrin went off and Bilbo was blamed, and after that the young folk were kept away from him - only Folco remained faithful.
Bilbo left all his possessions to Folco (who thus inherited with interest all the dislike of the Sackville-Bagginses).
Bilbo lived long, (111) - he tells Gandalf he is feeling tired, and discusses what to do. He is worried about the Ring. Says he is reluctant to leave it and thinks of taking it. Gandalf looks at him.
In the end he leaves it behind, but puts on Sting and his elf- armour under his old patched green cloak. He also takes his book. Last whimsical saying was 'I think I shall look for a place where there is more peace and quiet, and I can finish my book.'
'n.o.body will read it!'
'O, they may - in years to come.'
Ring begins to have an effect on Folco. He gets restless. And plans to go off 'following Bilbo'. His friends are Odo Bolger and Merry Brandybuck.
Conversation with Gandalf as in Tale.
Folco gives the unexpected [read long-expected](1) party and vanishes as in original draft of the Tale.(2) But bring in Black Riders. Cut out whole part of Gandalf being supposed to come. Make Gandalf pursue the fugitives since he has found out about Black Riders (the scene at Crickhollow will do - but without Odo complication).
Make Gandalf looking for Folco (in that case Gandalf will not be at final party) - and send Trotter.
Find Bilbo at Rivendell. There Bilbo offers to take up burden of the Ring (reluctantly) but Gandalf supports Folco in offering to carry it on.
Trotter turns out to be Peregrin, who had been to Mordor.
Not the least curious feature of these notes is the renewed uncertainty about names: thus we have 'Frodo (or Bingo)', then 'Frodo' changed to 'Folco' (and at one of the occurrences of 'Folco' my father first wrote a 'B'); see also $$5 and 9. For long I a.s.sumed that it was at the very time of the writing of these notes that 'Bingo' became 'Frodo', and that they therefore preceded the third phase of the wort. Those third phase ma.n.u.scripts were so orderly and so suggestive of secure purpose that it seemed hard to imagine that such radical uncertainty could have succeeded them: rather they seemed lite a confident new start when the doubts had been dissipated. But this cannot possibly be so. This is the first mention of Bilbo's taking his 'elf-armour' (cf. p. 223, $4), and it is only by later revision to the third phase version of 'A Long-expected party' that the story that Bilbo took it with him enters the narrative (see p. 3 I 5; in FR, p. 40, he packed it in his bag, the 'bundle wrapped in old cloths' which he took from the strong-box). Similarly, Bilbo's saying that he wanted to find peace in which to finish his book and Gandalf's rejoinder 'n.o.body will read it! ' only appear in the revision of the third phase version of the first chapter (surviving into FR p. 41). Or again, the reference to 'the scene at Crickhollow - but without Odo complication' shows that the third phase was in being (see p. 336). Other evidence elsewhere in these 'August 1939' papers is equally clear. It must therefore be concluded that the temporary confusion and loss of direction from which my father suffered at this time extended even to established names: 'Bingo' might be brought back, or 'Frodo' changed to 'Folco'.
The words 'But bring in Black Riders' are puzzling, since the Black Riders were of course very much present 'in the original draft of the Tale'; but I suspect that my father meant 'But bring in Black Rider' in the singular, i.e. the Rider who came to Hobbiton and spoke to Gaffer Gamgee. The changed story which my father was so elliptically discussing in these notes can presumably be shown in essentials thus: If I am right in my interpretation of 'But bring in Black Riders', the point is that while in a fundamental feature of its structure (III) would return to (I), the coming of the Rider would be retained - so that he would arrive in the aftermath of the Party. And unlike (I), Gandalf would no longer come to the Party (so that, as mentioned in $1, there would be no fireworks, or at least not of the Gandalfian kind), but would follow hard on the hobbits ('the fugitives'), 'since he has found out about the Black Riders'.
Here again, and again happily, my father did not in the event allow himself to be diverted to yet another restructuring (and consequent very tricky rewriting at many points) of the narrative that had been achieved. Most interesting are the statements that Trotter was Peregrin Boffin, standing in the same sort of relationship to Bilbo as did Frodo, but older than Frodo, and that running off into the wide world he had found his way to Mordor. Earlier (p. 223, $6) my father had noted: 'I thought of making Trotter into Fosco Took (Bilbo's first cousin) who vanished when a lad, owing to Gandalf. He must have had some bitter acquaintance with Ring-wraiths &c.' See further pp. 385 - 6.
(3) In some points it is still harder to feel sure of the meaning of another outline dated 'August 1939'. This begins with a proposal to 'alter names'.
Frodo > ? Peregrin - Faramond.
Odo > Fredegar - Hamilcar Bolger.
My father subsequently added (but struck out): 'Too many hobbits. Sam, Merry, and Faramond (= Frodo) are quite enough.' He was evidently dissatisfied with the name 'Frodo' for his central character. In $2 he changed 'Frodo' to 'Folco', in $2, $5, and $9 'Bingo' reappears, and here he considers the possibility of 'Faramond'. - This seems to be the first occurrence of either name, Fredegar or Hamilcar.
The text that follows on the same page, seeming quite at variance with these notes on names, reads thus: Alterations of Plot.
(1) Less emphasis on longevity caused by the Ring, until the story has progressed.
(2) Important. (a) Neither Bilbo nor Gandalf must know much about the Ring, when Bilbo departs. Bilbo's motive is simply tiredness, an unexplained restlessness (and longing to see Rivendell again, but this is not said - finding him at Rivendell must be a surprise). (b) Gandalf does not tell Frodo to leave Shire - only mere hint that Lord may look for Shire. The plan for leaving was entirely Frodo's. Dreams or some other cause [added: restlessness] have made him decide to go journeying (to find Cracks of Doom? after seeking counsel of Elrond). Gandalf simply vanishes for years. They are not trying to catch up Gandalf. Gandalf is simply trying to find them, and is desperately upset when he discovers Frodo has left Hobbiton. Odo must be cut out or altered (blended with Folco), and go with F[rodo] on his ride. Only Meriadoc goes ahead.
In that case alteration of plot at Bree. Who is Trotter? A Ranger or a Hobbit? Peregrin? If Gandalf is only looking for Frodo, Trotter will have to be an old a.s.sociate.(3) Thus if a Hobbit, mate him one who went off under Gandalf's influence (cf. introduction to Hobbit).(4) E.g. - After Bilbo's little escapade Gandalf was little seen, and only one disappearance was recorded during many years. This was the curious case of Peregrin Boffin - Since he was a close relation of Bilbo's, Bilbo was blamed 'for putting notions into the boy's head with his silly fairy-stories; and visits of the young to Bag-End were discouraged by many of the elders in spite of Bilbo's generosity. But he had several faithful young friends. The chief of these was Frodo (Bilbo's cousin).
As regards (1) and (2) (a), these ideas were taken up. In 'A Long- expected Party' as it was at this time (see p. 239: preserved without significant change in the third phase version) the Ring is the only motive that Bilbo refers to in explanation of his decision to leave the Shire; and he clearly a.s.sociates his longevity with possession of it: 'I really must get rid of It, Gandalf. Well-preserved, indeed. Why, I feel all thin - sort of stretched, if you know what I mean.' Revisions made to the third phase version brought the text in these respects to the form in FR (pp. 41-3), where it is clear that the Ring is not consciously a motive in Bilbo's mind (however strongly the reader is made aware of the sinister influence it was in fact exerting): he speaks of his need for 'a holiday, a very long holiday' (cf. $1 above: 'Bilbo just takes a "holiday"'), and his wish 'to see the wild country again before I die, and the Mountains.' He still says 'Well- preserved, indeed! Why I feel all thin, sort of stretched, if you know what I mean', but his sense of great age is now not in any way a.s.sociated with possession of the Ring; and so later, in revision to the third phase version of 'Ancient History', Gandalf says to Frodo: 'He certainly did not begin to connect his long life and outward youthfulness with the ring' (cf. FR p. 56: 'But as for his long life, Bilbo never connected it with the ring at all. He took all the credit for that to himself, and was very proud of it.') The notes under (2) (b) outline a new idea in respect of Gandalfs movements: for many years before Frodo left he had never come back at all to Hobbiton, and Frodo's leaving was entirely independent of the wizard, Learning (we may suppose) that the Ring-wraiths were abroad, Gandalf hastened back at last to the Shire, where he heard to his horror that Frodo had gone. This idea was not taken up, of course (and against it my father wrote: 'But in this case the Sam chapter is spoilt' - he was referring to the end of 'Ancient History', where Sam is discovered by Gandalf eavesdropping outside the window of Bag End).
The words 'They are not trying to catch up Gandalf' are difficult to understand. It seems incredible that my father would be referring now to the first phase version of the story, in which Gandalf had left the Party (given by Bingo) after letting off the fireworks, and was known to be ahead of Frodo and his friends on the journey east; yet in the subsequent versions all that is known of him is that he did not come, as he had promised, to the small farewell party given by Bingo/Frodo before he left Bag End, and was supposed (rightly) to be behind them rather than ahead.
Still more baffling is the pa.s.sage concerning Odo ('Odo must be cut out or altered (blended with Folco) and go with F [rodo] on his ride. Only Meriadoc goes ahead'). If the meaning of this is that the entire 'Odo- story' of the third phase (his journey with Gandalf from Crickhollow through Bree, the pseudonym of 'Baggins', his disappearance from Weathertop, and his unexplained arrival with Gandalf at Rivendell) was to be abandoned, how (one may ask) can he be. 'blended with Folco', since 'Folco' is already a blend of the original 'Frodo and Odo', with the advantage heavily to 'Odo'? It must be remembered that these notes were in no way the logical expression of an ordered programme, but are rather the vestiges of rapidly-changing thoughts. The withdrawal of Odo, in the third phase, from the adventures of the other hobbits had caused Folco (formerly Frodo) Took to take over Odo's part and character in the narrative of those adventures, since that narrative already existed from the earlier phases, and Odo had played a large part in the hobbits' conversation (see pp. 323 - 4). But the retention of Odo in the background, with adventures of his own, would mean that when he re- emerged into the foreground again at Rivendell there would be two 'Odo' characters - the rather ironic result of getting rid of him!
The proposal here is presumably that 'Odo Bolger' and 'Folco Took' should now be definitively joined together as one character, under the latter name. 'Folco' seems indeed now too much 'Odo' for 'blending' to have much meaning; but my father may not have felt this (nor perhaps did he have so clear a picture of the intricate evolutions of his story as can be attained from long study of the ma.n.u.scripts). In 'go with F[rodo] on his ride', 'ride' is perhaps a mere slip for 'walk': the meaning being that the resultant 'blend' accompanies Frodo and does not 'go ahead' with Merry to Buckland. This is all very fine-spun, but it reflects the extraordinarily intricate nature of my father's changing construction. With 'Who is Trotter? A Ranger or a Hobbit?'cf. pp. 33 I-2. The story that Trotter was Peregrin Boffin is now definitively present and would be fully developed in revision to the third phase text of 'A Long-expected Party' (pp. 384-6).
(4) The remaining papers in this 'August 1939 collection that are concerned with the opening part of the story perhaps followed the others. These pages of very rough narrative drafting are headed Conversation of Bilbo and Frodo - a relationship never otherwise seen at close quarters, before they met long afterwards at Rivendell. The conversation takes place at Bag End before Bilbo's Farewell Party; he speaks to Frodo of the Ring for the first time, only to discover to his genuine amazement and mock indignation, that Frodo knew about it already, and had looked at Bilbo's secret book. This is a different story to that in 'A Long-expected Party', where Frodo had read Bilbo's memoirs with his permission (pp.240,315).
Conversation of Bilbo and Frodo.
'Well, my lad, we have got on very well - and I am sorry to leave, in a way. But I am going on a holiday, a very long holiday. In fact I have no intention of coming back. I am tired. I am going to cross the Rivers.(5) So be prepared for surprises at this party. I may say that I am leaving everything, practically, to you - all except a few oddments.'
Mr Bilbo Baggins, of Bag-end, Underhill (Hobbiton) was sitting in his west sitting-room one summer afternoon.
'Well, that's my little plan, Frodo,' said Bilbo Baggins. 'It's a dead secret, mind you! I've kept it from everyone but you and Gandalf. I needed Gandalf's help; and I've told you because I hope you'll enjoy the joke all the better for being in the know - and of course you're closely concerned.'
'I don't like it at all,' said the other hobbit, looking rather puzzled and downcast. 'But I've known you long enough to know that it's no good trying to talk you out of your little plans.'
'Well, the time has come to say goodbye, my dear lad,' said Bilbo.
'I suppose so,' said Frodo sadly. 'Though I don't at all understand why. [But I know you too well to think of trying to talk you out of your little plans - especially after they have gone so far.]' 'I can't explain it any clearer,' answered Bilbo, 'because I am not quite clear myself. But I hope this is clear: I am leaving everything (except a few oddments) to you. My bit of money will keep you nicely as it did me in the old days; and besides there is a bit of my treasure left - you know where. Not so much now, but a pretty nest-egg still. And there's one thing more, There's a ring.'
'The magic ring?' asked Frodo incautiously.
'Eh, what? ' said Bilbo. 'Who said magic ring?'
'I did,' said Frodo blushing. 'My dear old hobbit, you don't allow for the inquisitiveness of young nephews.'
'I do allow for it,' said Bilbo, 'or I thought I had. And in any case don't call me a dear old hobbit.'