The Return Of The Shadow Part 8
But the path was already on the left side of the river as it went upstream. Later on, this text was very heavily corrected, and the FR version all but achieved; yet this detail was retained: 'The path was bordered with white stones; and turning sharp to the left it led them over a wooden bridge.' Later again, the word 'left' was changed to 'right', implying that Tom Bombadil's house lay on the south side of the Withywindle. In FR there is no mention of a bridge. My father's map of the Shire (see p. 107: map I) probably shows that he changed his mind on this point; for the underlying pencil shows 'TB', with a dark mark beside it, on the south side, whereas the ink overlay shows the house to the north of the stream. See further pp. 327 - 8.
NOTES.
1. The first occurrence of the name Withywindle, 2. The verse has shadow-land for shadowed land in the first line, but is otherwise as in FR. Rough working for a verse in this place is also found. My father first wrote: 'O wanderers in the land of trees I despair not for there is no wood', but this was broken off and the following suggested: think not of hearth that lies behind but set your hearts on distant hills beyond the rising of the sun.
The journey is but new begun, the road goes ever on before past many a house and many a door over mater and under wood 3. Towards the end of the chapter the ma.n.u.script becomes extremely confused. From the point where Marmaduke and Frodo Took discover that Bingo and Odo are trapped by the Willow-man my father changed from ink to pencil, and degenerating into a rapid scribble the chapter seems to have petered out in the course of their rescue by Tom Bombadil; but he subsequently erased most of the pencilled text, or overwrote it in ink, and continued on in ink to the end of the chapter. This concluding portion departs from the preliminary sketch given on p. 112, where the hobbits after their rescue went up on to the Downs and were captured by the Barrow- wight; here, as in FR, Tom invites them to come to his house, and goes on ahead up the path beside the Withywindle. The last part of the ma.n.u.script is probably, strictly speaking, a subsequent addition; but the matter is of slight importance, since all this writing obviously belongs to the same period of work, at the end of August 1938.
Note on Tom Bombadil.
Tom Bombadil, Goldberry, Old Man Willow, and the Barrow-wight had already existed for some time, appearing in print in the pages of The Oxford Magazine (Vol. LII, no. 13, 15 February 1934). In a letter of 1954 my father said: I don't think Tom needs philosophizing about, and is not improved by it. But many have found him an odd or indeed discordant ingredient. In historical fact I put him in because I had already 'invented' him independently (he first appeared in the Oxford Magazine) and wanted an 'adventure' on the way.*
(* The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, no. 153. Some major observations on Tom Bombadil are found in this letter and in no. 144.) On a small isolated piece of paper are found the following verses. At the top of the page my father wrote: 'Date unknown - germ of Tom Bombadil so evidently in mid 1930s'; and this note was written at the same time as the text, which is certainly quite late. There is no trace of the text from which it was copied.
(Said I) 'Ho! Tom Bombadil Whither are you going With John Pompador Down the River rowing?'
(Said he) 'Through Long Congleby, Stoke Canonicorum,+ Past King's Singleton To b.u.mby Cocalorum - To call Bill Willoughby Whatever he be doing, And ax Harry Larraby What beer he is a-brewing.'
(And he sang) 'Co, boat! Row! The willows are a-bending, reeds are leaning, wind is in the gra.s.ses.
Flow, stream, flow! The ripples are unending; green they gleam, and shimmer as it pa.s.ses.
Run, fair Sun, through heaven all the morning, rolling golden. Merry is our singing.
Cool the pools, though summer be a-burning; in shady glades let laughter run a-ringing!'
Mediaeval name of what is now Stoke Canon in Devonshire.
The poem published in The Oxford Magazine in 1934 bore the t.i.tle The Adventures of Tom Bombadil (in earlier forms it was The History of Tom Bombadil). Many years later (1962) my father made it the first poem in the collection to which it gave the t.i.tle (and added also a new poem, Bombadil Goes Boating, in which he meets Farmer Maggot in the Marish). Various changes were made in this later version, and references to the Withywindle were introduced, but the old poem was very largely preserved. In it are to be found the origin of many things in this and the following chapters - the closing crack in the Great Willow (though in the poem it was Tom himself who was caught in it), the supper of 'yellow cream and honeycomb, and white bread, and b.u.t.ter', the 'nightly noises' that included the tapping of the branches of Old Man Willow on the window-pane, the words of the Barrow-wight (who in the poem was inside Tom's house) 'I am waiting for you', and much else.
VI. TOM BOMBADIL.
A very brief outline shows my father's first thoughts for the next stage of the hobbits' journey: their visit to the house of Tom Bombadil.
Tom Bombadil rescues them from Willow Man. He says it was lucky he came that way - he had gone to the water-lily pool for some white water-lilies for Goldberry (my wife).
He turns out to know Farmer Maggot. (Make Maggot not a hobbit, but some other kind of creature - not dwarf, but akin to Tom Bombadil). They rest at his house. He says only way out is along his path beside the Withywindle. Description of feast and [? willow] fire. Many noises at night.
Tom Bombadil wakes them singing derry dol, and opening all the windows (he lives in a little house under the down-side facing the forest edge and the [?east corner] of the wood). He tells them to go north but avoid the high Downs and barrows. He manas them of barrow-wights; tells them a song to sing if the barrow- wights frighten them or A cold day. The mist thickens and they get lost.
This scheme was written at great speed in pencil. As will be seen shortly, at this stage the hobbits only spent the one night with Tom Bombadil, and left the following morning. Another set of notes, also obviously preceding the first actual narrative text, is also very difficult to read: Water-lily motive - last lilies of summer for Goldberry.
Relation of Tom Bombadil to Farmer Maggot ( Maggot not a hobbit?) Tom Bombadil is an 'aborigine' - he knew the land before men, before hobbits, before barrow-wights, yes before the necromancer - before the elves came to this quarter of the world.
Goldberry says he is 'master of water, wood and hill'. Does all this land belong to him? No! The land and the things belong to themselves. He is not the possessor but the master, because he belongs to himself.
Description of Goldberry, with her hair as yellow as the flag- lilies, her green gown and light feet.
Barrow-wights related to Black-riders. Are Black-riders actually horsed Barrow-wights?
The guests sleep - there is a noise as of wind surging in the edges of the forest and..... through the panes and gables and the doors. Galloping of [?horses] round the house.
The first actual narrative (incomplete) of this chapter is a very rough and difficult ma.n.u.script in ink, becoming very rough indeed before it peters out on the first morning at Bombadil's house. It has no t.i.tle, but is rather oddly numbered 'V or VI'. Here, even more than in the last chapter, the final form - until just at the end - is already present in all but detail of expression.
Most interesting is the story of the hobbits' dreams during the night, which is told thus: In the dead night Bingo woke and heard noises: a sudden fear came over him [?so that] he did not speak but lay listening breathless. He heard a sound like a strong wind curling round the house and shaking it, and down the wind came a galloping, a galloping, a galloping: hooves seemed to come charging down the hillside from the east, up to the walls and round and round, hooves thudding and wind blowing, and then dying away back up the hill and into the darkness.
'Black riders,' thought Bingo. 'Black riders, a black host of riders,' and he wondered if he would ever again have the courage even in the morning to leave the safety of these good stone walls. He lay and listened for a while, but all had become quiet again, and after a while he fell asleep. At his side Odo lay dreaming. He turned and groaned, and woke to the darkness, and yet the dream went on. Tap, tap, squeak: the noise was like branches fretting in the wind, twigs like fingers sc.r.a.ping wall and window... [etc. as in FR p. 138].
It was the sound of water that Frodo heard falling into his sleep and slowly waking him. Water streaming gently down at first, and then spreading all round the house, gurgling under the walls... [etcc. as in FR p. 139].
Meriadoc (1) slept on through the night in deep content.
As told here, there seems no reason not to understand that Black Riders (or Barrow-wights) actually came and rode round Tom Bombadil's house during the night. It will be seen that it is said explicitly that Bingo moke, and after a while fell asleep. In the initial sketch given on p. 112 (where the hobbits only went to stay with Tom after their capture by a Barrow-wight up on the Downs) 'Two Barrow-wights come [?galloping] after them', cf. also the note on p. 118: 'Barrow-wights related to Black-riders. Are Black-riders actually horsed Barrow-wights?' - followed by 'Galloping of [? horses] round the house.' In any case, the end of the present text (unhappily so eccentrically scribbled as to make its interpretation extremely difficult) is explicit. Here, as in the later story, Bingo waking looks out of the east window of their room on to the kitchen-garden grey with dew.
He had expected to see turf right up to the walls, turf all pocked with hoof-marks. Actually his view was screened by a tall line of green beans on poles, but above and far beyond them the grey top of the hill loomed up against the sunrise. It was a grey morning with soft clouds, behind which were deeps of yellow and pale red. The light was broadening quickly and the red flowers on the beans began to shine against the wet green leaves.
Frodo looks from the western window, as does Pippin in FR, and sees the Withywindle disappearing into the mist below, and the flower- garden: 'there was no willow-tree to be seen.'
'Good morning, merry friends! ' said Tom, opening the east window wide. A cool air flowed in. 'The sun will [?heat] you when the day is older. I have been walking far, leaping on the hill-tops, since the grey twilight [? came] and the night foundered, wet gra.s.s underfoot.......'
When they were dressed [struck out as written: Tom took them up the hillside] the sun was already risen over the hill, and the clouds were melting away. In the forest valley trees were appearing like tall heads rising out of the curling sea of mist. They were glad of breakfast - indeed they were glad to be awake and safe and at the merry end of a day again. The thought of going was heavy on them - and not only for fear of the road. Had it been a [? merry] road and the road home they would still have wished to tarry there.
But they knew that could not be. Bingo too found in his heart that the noise of hoofs was not only dream. They must escape quickly or else... [? pursued] here. So he made up his mind to get such help and advice as [?old] Bombadil could or would give.
'Master,' he said, 'we cannot thank you for your kindness for it has been beyond thanks. But we must go, against our wish and quickly. For I heard hors.e.m.e.n in the night and fear we are pursued.'
Tom looked at him. 'Hors.e.m.e.n,' he said. 'Dead men [?riding the wind. 'Tis long since they came hence.] What ails the Barrow- wights to leave their old mounds? You are strange folk to come out of the Shire, [? even stranger than my news told me.] Now you had best tell me all - and I will give you counsel.'
Here the text ends, but following it are these notes in pencil: Make it sudden rainy day. They spend it at Tom's house, and tell him the tale; and he of Willow-man and the.......(2) He is concerned about the riders; but says he will think of counsel. Next day is fine. He takes them to the hilltop. They.... the barrows.
This is where the story of the wet second day spent in long talk with Bombadil entered; before this the weather was to have become fine, and the hobbits were to have left when they had told Tom their story and received his advice. In this earliest narrative Bingo was so convinced of the reality of what he had heard in the night that he raised the matter with Tom, and Tom seems to take him seriously; and in this context the word 'Actually' (retained in FR) in 'Actually his view was screened by a tall line of beans on poles' suggests that if it had not been for this he would indeed have seen the turf 'all pocked with hoof-prints.'
A second narrative followed, obviously written immediately after the first, and this is complete. Here the chapter is numbered 'V', still without t.i.tle. The first text was now refined and ordered in expression, the morning bodes rain, and the new version becomes, to the point where the first ended, scarcely distinguishable from that of FR, except in the matter of the 'dreams'. These are still told in the same unambiguous language as if they were real events in the night; but nothing more is said of them afterwards than is said in FR. In the final story Frodo's dream is a vision of Gandalf standing on the pinnacle of Orthanc and of the descent of Gwaihir to bear him away, but that vision is still accompanied by the sound of the Black Riders galloping out of the East; and it was that sound that woke him. It is still said that he thought in the morning to find the ground round the house marked by hoofs, but this is now no more than a way of emphasising the vividness of his experience in the night.
The remainder of the second version of the chapter generally approaches extraordinarily closely to the final form,(3) but there are not a few interesting differences.
In Tom Bombadil's long talk with the hobbits on the second day, his voice is described as 'always in a sing-song or actually singing' (cf. FR p. 140: 'Often his voice would turn to song'). The pa.s.sage concerning Old Man Willow was first written thus: Amongst his talk there was here and there much said of Old Man Willow, and Merry learned enough to content him (4) (more than enough, for it was not comfortable lore), though not enough for him to understand how that grey thirsty earth-bound spirit had become imprisoned in the greatest Willow of the Forest. The tree did not die, though its heart went rotten, while the malice of the Old Man drew power out of earth and water, and spread like a net, like fine root-threads in the ground, and invisible twig-fingers in the air, till it had infected or subjugated nearly all the trees on both sides of the valley.(5) Bombadil's talk about the Barrow-wights of the Barrow-downs remained almost word for word into FR (pp. 141 - 2), with one difference: for FR 'A shadow came out of dark places far away' this text has 'A dark shadow came up out of the middle of the world'; in the underlying pencilled text (see note 3) can be read 'a dark shadow came up out of the South.' At the end of his talk, where FR has 'still on and back Tom went singing out into ancient starlight', the present version has 'and still further Tom went singing back before the Sun and before the Moon, out into the old starlight.'
A detail worth remarking is the sentence in the old version: 'Whether the morning and evening of one day or of many days had pa.s.sed Bingo could not tell (nor did he ever discover for certain).' The bracketed words were soon to be removed, when the dating of the journey to Bree became precise; the hobbits stayed with Bombadil on the 26th and 27th of September, and left on the morning of the 28th (see p. 160). Tom Bombadil's answer to Bingo's question 'Who are you, Master?' has some interesting differences from the final form (FR p. 142): 'Eh, what?' said Tom sitting up, and his eyes glinted in the gloom. 'I am an Aborigine, that's what I am, the Aborigine of this land. [Struck out at once: I have spoken a mort (6) of languages and called myself by many names.] Mark my words, my merry friends: Tom was here before the River or the Trees. Tom remembers the first acorn and the first rain-drop. He made paths before the Big People, and saw the Little People arriving. He was here before the kings and the graves and the [ghosts >] Barrow- wights. When the Elves pa.s.sed westward Tom was here already - before the seas were bent. He saw the Sun rise in the West and the Moon following, before the new order of days was made. He knew the dark under the stars when it was fearless - before the Dark Lord came from Outside.'
In FR Tom Bombadil calls himself 'Eldest', not 'Aborigine' (cf. the notes given on p. 117: 'Tom Bombadil is an "aborigine"'); and the reference here to his having seen 'the Sun rise in the West and the Moon following' was dropped (though 'Tom remembers the first acorn and the first rain-drop', which was retained, says the same). These words are extremely surprising; for in the Quenta Silmarillion which my father had only set aside at the end of the previous year it is told that 'Rana [the Moon] was first wrought and made ready, and first rose into the region of the stars, and was the elder of the lights, as was Silpion of the Trees' (V. 240); and the Moon first rose as Fingolfin set foot upon Middle-earth, but the Sun when he entered Mithrim (V.250).
Tom Bombadil was 'there' during the Ages of the Stars, before Morgoth came back to Middle-earth after the destruction of the Trees; is it to this event that he referred in his words (retained in FR) 'He knew the dark under the stars when it was fearless - before the Dark Lord came from Outside'? It must be said that it seems unlikely that Bombadil would refer to Valinor across the Great Sea as 'Outside', especially since this was long ages 'before the seas were bent', when Numenor was drowned; it would seem much more natural to interpret the word as meaning 'the Outer Dark', 'the Void' beyond the Walls of the World. But in the mythology as it was when my father began?he Lord of the Rings Melkor entered 'the World' with the other Valar, and never left it until his final defeat. It was only with his return to The Silmarillion after The Lord of the Rings was completed that there entered the account found in the published work (pp. 35 - 7) of the First War, in which Melkor was defeated by Tulkas and driven into the Outer Dark, from which he returned in secret while the Valar were resting from their labours on the Isle of Almaren, and overthrew the Lamps, ending the Spring of Arda. It seems then that either Bombadil must in fact refer to Morgoth's return from Valinor to Middle-earth, in company with Ungoliant and bearing the Silmarils, or else that my father had already at this date developed a new conception of the earliest history of Melkor.
After the reference to Farmer Maggot, from whom Tom Bombadil got his knowledge of the Shire, and whom he 'seemed to regard as a person of more importance than they had fancied' (FR p. 143), this text adds: We are kinsfolk, he and I. In a way of speaking: distantly and far back, but near enough for friendship' (in the original draft: 'We are akin, he said, distantly, very distantly, but near enough to count'). Cf. the notes given on p. 117, concerning the possibility that Farmer Maggot was not a hobbit at all, but a being of a wholly different kind, and akin to Bombadil.(7) At the end of this pa.s.sage, the reference in FR to Tom's dealings with Elves, and to his having had news of the flight of Frodo (Bingo) from Gildor, is absent from the present text. (Tom indeed said earlier, FR p. 137, that he and Goldberry had heard of their wandering, and 'guessed you'd come ere long down to the water', and this is found in both the original texts).
Of Tom's questioning of Bingo it is said here that Bingo 'found himself telling him more about Bilbo Baggins and his own history and about the business of his sudden flight than he told before even to his three friends', in FR (p. 144) this became 'telling him more about Bilbo and his own hopes and fears than he had told before even to Gandalf.' It may be noted that in the old narrative thus far there has been no suggestion that Bingo'sdeparture from Hobbiton was a 'sudden flight' - except perhaps in the 'foreword' given in Chapter III, where Gandalf said to him before the Party 'But you must go quickly' (p. 83).
The episode of Tom and the Ring is told in virtually the same words as in FR, the only and very slight difference being that when Bingo put on the Ring Tom cried: 'Hey, come Bingo there, where be you a-going? What be you a-grinning at? Are you tired of talking? Take off that Ring of yours and sit down a moment. We must talk a while more...' Against this my father wrote later: 'Make the seeing clearer', and subst.i.tuted (after 'where be you a-going? '): 'Did you think I should not see when you had the Ring on? Ha, Tom Bombadil's not as blind as that yet. Take off your golden Ring, and sit down a moment.'
Lastly, at the very end of the chapter, the rhyme that Tom Bombadil taught the hobbits to sing if in need of him is different from that in FR: Ho! Tom Bombadil! Whither do you wander?
Up, down, near or far? Here, there, or yonder?
By hill that stands, wood that grows, and by the water falling, Here now we summon you! Can you hear us calling?
This rhyme was at first present in the next chapter, when Bingo sang it in the barrow; but it was replaced there at the time of writing by Ho! Tom Bombadil, Tom Bombadillo! etc., as in FR (p. 153). In the present pa.s.sage my father wrote in the margin: 'Or subst.i.tute rhyme in chapter VI', and that was done (FR p. 145).
NOTES.
1. This is the first occurrence of Meriadoc for Marmaduke in a ma.n.u.script as originally written.
2. The word looks very much like badgers. If this is so, it must be a reference to the badgers who captured Tom Bombadil in the poem ('By the coat they caught him, pulled Tom inside the hole, down their tunnels brought him'); see The Adventures of Tom Bombadil (1962), pp. 12 - 13 (the verses describing Tom's encounter with the badgers were left virtually unchanged in the later version). In the next text of this chapter Tom was telling the hobbits 'an absurd story about badgers and their odd ways' when Bingo slipped on the Ring; and this was retained in FR.
3. The story of the wet second day at Bombadil's was written ab initio in pencil, then a part of the ma.n.u.script overwritten in ink; for the last part of the chapter, from supper on the second day, there is both pencilled draft and ma.n.u.script in ink. But it is clear that all this work was continuous and overlapping.
4. The question about Old Man Willow on the night before is asked by Merry (by Frodo in FR); i.e. by one who had not been imprisoned in the tree.
5. A pa.s.sage very close to that in FR (from 'Tom's words laid bare the hearts of trees') was subst.i.tuted, probably while the ma.n.u.script was in progress or very soon after.
6. a mort: a great many.
7. Conceivably, some pencilled emendations to the typescript of the third chapter were added at this time and in this connection. Frodo Took's words of Farmer Maggot, 'He lives in a house' (p. 92), were thus extended: 'He is not a hobbit - not a pure hobbit anyway. He is rather large and has hair under his chin. But his family has had these fields time out of mind.' And when Maggot appears (p.94), 'a large round hobbit-face' was changed to 'a large round hair-framed face.' Afterwards, in the Prologue to LR, the hobbits of the Eastfarthing were decribed as being 'rather large and heavy-legged'. 'they were well known to be Stoors in a large part of their blood, as indeed was shown by the down that many grew on their chins. No Harfoot or Fallohide had any trace of a beard.' See p. 294.
There has already been a hint earlier that Farmer Maggot was not altogether what he appeared to be, in Merry s remark (p. 103): He used to go into the Old Forest at one time, and had the reputation of knowing a thing or two outside the Shire.' This was retained in FR (p.113).
VII. THE BARROW-WIGHT.
My father's earliest thoughts on the encounter with the Barrow-wight (written down while he was working on the story of the hobbits in the Old Forest) have been given on p. 112. When he came to write this chapter he began with a pencilled draft(1) that took the story as far as the hobbits' waking beside the standing stone in the hollow circle on the Downs, and leading their ponies down from it into the fog (FR p. 149). Like many of his preliminary drafts, this would be virtually illegible had he not followed it closely in the first full ma.n.u.script (in ink), for words that could be interpreted in a dozen ways without context can then be identified at once. In this case he did no more than improve the hasty wording of the draft, and add the pa.s.sage describing the view northwards from the stone pillar, with the dark line in the distance that Merry took for trees bordering the East Road.
If the draft continued beyond this point it is lost now; but in fact the ma.n.u.script in ink could well be the primary composition. There is however a very rough pencilled plot-outline for the story from the point where 'Bingo comes to himself inside a barrow', and this outline continues the story to Rivendell. This is so rapidly written and now so faint that I cannot after much effort make it all out. The worst part, however, is at the beginning, extending from Bingo's finding himself in the barrow to Tom's waking Odo, Frodo, and Merry, and from what is legible it can be seen that while very concise and limited all the essentials of the narrative were present. I shall not therefore try to represent this part, but give the remainder of the outline in full in this place, since it is of great interest in showing my father's thoughts on the further course of the story at this juncture - i.e. before the 'Barrow-wight' chapter had been completed.
Tom sings a song over Odo Frodo Merry. Wake now my merry...!
.........(2) of the [?pillar] and how they became separated. Tom puts a blessing or a curse on the gold and lays it on the top of the mound. None of the hobbits will have any but Tom takes a brooch for Goldberry.
Tom says he will go with them, after chiding them for sleeping by the stone pillar. They soon find the Road and the way seems short. They turn along the Road. [? Gallops] come after them. Tom turns and holds up his hand. They fly back.(3) As dusk falls they see a... light. Tom says goodbye - for Goldberry will be waiting.
They sleep at the inn and hear news of Gandalf. Jolly landlord. Drinking song.
Pa.s.s rapidly over rest of journey to Rivendell. Any riders on the Road? Make them foolishly turn aside to visit Troll Stones. This delays them. One day at last they halted on a rise and looked forward to the Ford. Galloping behind. Seven (3? 4?) Black- riders hastening along the Road. They have gold rings and crowns. Flight over Ford. Bingo [written above: Gandalf?] flings a stone and imitates Tom Bombadil. Go back and ride away! The Riders halt as if astonished, and looking up at the hobbits on the bank the hobbits can see no faces in their hoods. Go back says Bingo, but he is not Tom Bombadil, and the riders ride into the ford. But just then a rumbling rush is heard and a great [? wall] of water bowling stones roars down the river from the mountains. Elves arrive.
The Riders draw back just in time in dismay. The hobbits ride as hard as they can to Rivendell.
At Rivendell sleeping Bilbo Gandalf. Some explanations. Ringmail of Bingo in barrow and the dark rocks - (the 3 hobbits had dashed past the rocks when suddenly they all became [? shut] off??) Gandalf had sent the water down with Elrond's permission.
Gandalf astonished to hear about Tom.
Consultation of hobbits with Elrond and Gandalf.
The Quest of the Fiery Mountain.
This projection ends here. While my father had already conceived the scene at the Ford, with the sudden rising of the Bruinen (and the cry of Bingo/Frodo to the Riders: Go back!), Strider (not at first called Strider) would only emerge with the greatly increased significance of the Inn (which here first appears) at Bree in the next chapter; and there is no hint of Weathertop. If the 'dark rocks' are the 'two huge standing stones' through which Bingo/Frodo pa.s.sed in the fog on the Downs (FR p. 150) - they are called 'standing rocks' in the first version - it is odd that discussion of this was postponed till the hobbits reached Rivendell; but possibly the words 'some explanations' imply that Gandalf was able to throw light on what had happened.(4) On the 'Ring- mail of Bingo in barrow' see p. 223. The Cracks of Earth in the depths of the Fiery Mountain are named by Gandalf as the only heat great enough to destroy Bilbo's ring (p. 82); here for the first time the Fiery Mountain enters the story as the goal for which they will in the end be bound.
The first full ma.n.u.script of this chapter (simply headed 'VI' and as usual at this stage without t.i.tle) is fully legible for most of its length, but as so frequently becomes quicker and rougher, ending in rapid pencil. This my father went over here and there in ink, partly to improve the expression, partly to clarify his own writing; this certainly belongs to the same period, but after he had started on the next chapter.
As with the previous two chapters, the final form of FR Chapter 8 ('Fog on the Barrow-downs') is very largely present: for most of its length only very minor alterations were made afterwards. In what follows I note points of difference that seem to me of interest, though most are very slight.
In the opening paragraph the song and vision 'in dreams or out of them' is told in the same words in the old text, but is ascribed not to Bingo (Frodo in FR) alone, but to all the hobbits.
When they looked back over the forest and saw the knoll on which they had rested before their descent to the Withywindle valley, 'the fir-trees growing there could be seen now small and dark in the West' (see p. 113). When the hobbits became separated in the fog, and Bingo cried out miserably 'Where are you?' (FR p. 150), my father at first had a quite different story in mind: 'Here! Here! ' came the voices suddenly plain and not far to the right. Plunging blindly towards them he b.u.mped suddenly into the tail of a pony. An undoubted hobbit-voice (it was Odo's) gave a shriek of fright, and [he] fell over something on the ground. The something kicked him, and gave a yell. 'Help! ' it cried in the undoubted voice of Odo.
'Thank goodness,' said Bingo, rolling on the ground in Odo's arms. 'Thank goodness I have found you! '
'Thank goodness indeed!' said Odo in a relieved voice; 'but need you really run away without warning and then jump down out of the sky on top of me?'
My father rejected this as soon as written, and wrote instead, as in FR: 'There was no reply. He stood listening', etc.
A first version of the Barrow-wight's incantation was rejected and replaced by the form that appears in FR (p. 152); but the changes made were very slight except in line 7, where for 'till the dark lord lifts his hand' the first version had 'till the king of the dark tower lifts his hand.'(5) In the rough workings for this verse my father wrote: 'The dark lord sits in the tower and looks over the dark seas and the dark world', and also 'his hand stretches over the cold sea and the dead world.'
The arm 'walking on its fingers' crept towards Frodo Took (Sam in FR); and where in FR 'Frodo fell forward over Merry, and Merry's face felt cold', in the old version Bingo fell forward over Frodo Took. There is no evident pattern in the changed ascriptions when the 'cast of characters' was altered; so later in the chapter Odo says 'Where are my clothes?' (Sam in FR), and when Tom Bombadil says 'You won't find your clothes again' it is Frodo Took who asks 'What do you mean?' (Pippin in FR). In general I do not further note such points unless they seem significant.
On the rejected form of the rhyme taught to the hobbits by Tom Bombadil and sung by Bingo in the barrow see p. 123. The first two lines of the rejected rhyme were used later in the chapter, when Tom goes off after the ponies (FR p. 155).
When Merry said 'What in the name of wonder?' as he felt the gold circlet that had slipped over one eye, the old version continues: 'Then he stopped, and a shadow came over his face. I begin to remember,> he said. "I thought I was dead - but don't let us speak of it."' There is no mention of the Men of Carn Dum (FR p. 154).