The Treason of Isengard (43 page)

366).

The next text of 'Lothlorien' is a good clear manuscript, thus titled, with a fair amount of alteration in the process of composition; but it cannot be entirely separated off from the initial drafting as a distinct

'phase' in the writing of the story, for it seems certain that at the beginning of the chapter the draft and the fair copy overlapped (see note 14). There seems nothing to show, however, that the rest of the new text actually overlapped with the drafts, and it is in any case most convenient to treat it separately.

The text of 'Lothlorien' in FR was now for the most part very closely approached, the chief differences of substance being the absence of all passages referring to or implying Aragorn's previous knowledge of Lothlorien,(47) and the meeting of the Company with the Elves coming up from the south shortly after their rest at noon on the first day of their journey from Nimrodel (see note 37). The original story was still followed in various minor points, as in its being Pippin and not Merry who speaks to Haldir (replacing Hathaldir of the draft text, see note 28) of the Havens (p. 232); Sam does not refer to his uncle Andy (FR p. 361), and it was still in his arm that he was wounded in Moria (p. 201).(48)

By an addition to the text that looks as if it belongs with the first writing of the manuscript the Dimrill Stair acquires its later meaning (see p. 164): ' "Yonder is the Dimrill Stair," said Aragorn pointing to the falls. "Down the deep-cloven way that climbs beside the torrent we should have come, if fortune had been kinder" ' (FR p. 347).

The Silverlode was at first named Blackroot or Morthond, but in the course of the writing of the manuscript the name became Silverlode (the Elvish name Kelebrant being added afterwards). The Company

'kept to the old path on the west side of the Blackroot' (FR p. 360; cf.

note 32); but ten lines later Haldir says, in the text as written,

'Silverlode is already a strong stream here'. It was presumably at this juncture that my father decided on the transposition of the names of the northern and southern rivers (see note 36), a transposition that had already taken place in the initial drafting of 'Farewell to Lorien'

(p. 279).

One of Haldir's brothers is still called Orfin as in the original draft; at one occurrence only, he is changed to Orofin, and in the drafting of

'Farewell to Lorien' he is Orofin (p. 279; FR Orophin). The other, in the draft text Rhimbron, is now Romrin, becoming Rhomrin in the course of the writing of the manuscript.

The Elvish name for 'the Gore' is here Narthas, where the original text (p. 231) has Nelen (replacing Nelennas): 'you have entered Narthas or the Gore as you would say, for it is the land that lies like a spear-head (49) between the arms of Silverlode and Anduin the Great, and 'I have done much in letting you set foot in Narthas'. But Haldir here says also: 'The others may walk free for a while until we come nearer to the Angle, Nelen, where we dwell', where the original draft has 'until we get nearer to our hidden dwellings'; and when they come to Kerin Amroth (as it is now written) he tells Gimli that he is 'the first dwarf to behold the trees of Nelen-Lorien since Durin's Day!' - where the original draft has Nelen-Lorien likewise (p. 234).

This seems to show that in the first stage my father intended Nelen, Nelen-Lorien, 'the Gore', 'the Gore of Lorien', as the name for Lorien between the rivers, without devising an Elvish name for the southward region where the Elves of Lorien actually dwelt; while in the stage represented here Narthas 'the Gore' is the larger region, and Nelen

'the Angle' the smaller, the point of the triangle or tip of the spearhead. If this is so, when Hathaldir/Haldir first spoke of 'the trees of Nelen-Lorien' the name bore a different sense from what he intended by the same words in the present manuscript.(50) In the first sentence of this chapter in this manuscript Trotter is so named, as he was throughout the preceding one (p. 204); this was changed at once to Aragorn, and he is Aragorn as far as the Company's coming to the eaves of the Golden Wood, where he becomes Elfstone in the text as written.(51) Subsequently Aragorn, so far as it went, was changed to Ingold, and Elfstone was likewise changed to Ingold; then Ingold was changed back to Elfstone.(52) There remain to notice some remarkable pencilled notes that occur on pages of this manuscript. The first is written on the back of the page (which is marked as being an insertion into the text) that bears the Song of Nimrodel, and reads:

Could not Balrog be Saruman? Make battle on Bridge be between Gandalf and Saruman? Then Gandalf... clad in white.

The illegible words might conceivably be comes out. This was struck through; it had no further significance or repercussion, but remains as an extraordinary glimpse into reflections that lie beneath the written evidence of the history of The Lord of the Rings (and the thought, equally baldly expressed, would reappear: p. 422).

A second rejected note was written at some later time against Haldir's words 'they bring me a message from the Lord and Lady of the Galadrim':

Lord? If Galadriel is alone and is wife of Elrond.

A third note, again struck through, is written on the back of the inserted page that carries the preliminary draft of Frodo's perceptions of Lothlorien (note 46):

Elf-rings

.... [illegible word or name]

The power of the Elf-rings must fade if One Ring is destroyed.

NOTES.

1. On 'the black springs of Morthond' see p. 166.

2. At this point, then, my father conceived of the Elves of Lothlorien as dwelling underground, like the Elves of Mirkwood. Cf.

Legolas' later words on p. 225: 'It is said that Linglorel had a house built in branches of a tree; for that was the manner of the Elves of Lorien, and may be yet... And our people [i.e. the Elves of Mirkwood] did not delve in the ground or build fastnesses before the Shadow came.'

3. This passage was first used at the end of the preceding chapter,

'Moria (ii)': see p. 204 and note 20.

4. On the emergence of the three peaks (the Mountains of Moria) in the new version of 'The Ring Goes South' see p. 166.

5. The word west is perfectly clear, but can only be a slip; FR has of course east. The same slip occurs in the first emergence of this passage at the end of 'Moria (ii)' (p. 203), and it occurs again in the fair copy of 'Lothlorien'.

6. This passage, from 'Northward the Dale ran up into a glen of shadows, was first used at the end of Moria (ii): see pp. 203-4.

7. For the first appearance of Kheledzaram see p. 166.

8. In FR Legolas did not go down with Gimli to look in Mirrormere.

9. The word southwest is clear (and occurs again in the fair copy of

'Lothlorien'), yet is obviously a slip; d. note 5.

10. The words Now they went on silently were struck out emphatically, but they are obviously necessary.

11. It is not told in the original text of 'Moria (ii)' (p. 194) that Sam received any wound in the Chamber of Mazarbul; this story first appears in the fair copy of that chapter (see p. 201).

12. The text becomes illegible for a couple of lines, but elements of a description of the wood can be made out.

13. This passage possibly suggests that at this stage the Company did not encounter Elves on the first night. The 'several (2 - 3) pleasant days' are clearly the days of their journey through Lothlorien, not the days they spent at 'Angle' (cf. the plot outline, p. 207: 'Dec.

15, 16, 17 they journey to Angle between Anduin and Blackroot.

There they remain long').

That they were now nearly 300 miles south of Rivendell accords precisely with the First Map: see Map II on p. 305, where the distance from Rivendell to the confluence of Silverlode and Anduin on the original scale (squares of 2 cm. side, 2 cm. = 100

miles) is just under six centimetres measured in a straight line.

Aragorn's reckoning, when they came to the eaves of the Golden Wood, that they had come 'barely five leagues from the Gates', does not accord with the First Map, but that map can scarcely be used as a check on such small distances.

14. It seems that my father began making a fair copy of the chapter when the draft narrative had gone no further than the point where Frodo and Sam began to lag behind as the Company went down from Dimrill Dale. When he came to this point he stopped writing out the new manuscript in ink, but continued on in pencil on the same paper, as far as Legolas' words 'Alas that it is winter!' He then overwrote this further passage in ink and erased the pencil; and then went back to further drafting on rough paper

- which is why there is this gap in the initial narrative, and why it takes up again at the words 'Under the night the trees stood tall before them...' Overlapping of draft and fair copy, often writing the preliminary draft in pencil on the fair copy manuscript and then erasing it or overwriting it in ink, becomes a very frequent mode of composition in later chapters.

15. In FR these last words are given to Gimli, for Aragorn in the later story had of course good reason to know that Elves did indeed still dwell in Lothlorien.

16. In a preliminary draft of Legolas' words here they take this form: So it is said amongst us in Mirkwood, though it is long since we came so far. But if so they dwell deep in the woods down in Angle, Bennas between Blackroot and Anduin.

The name Bennas occurs only here in narrative, but it is found in the Etymologies, V.352, under the root BEN 'corner, angle': Noldorin bennas 'angle'. The second element is Noldorin nass

'point; angle' (V.374 - 5).

17. The passage beginning 'A mile within the wood...' (of which the first germ is found on p. 221) appears also in a superseded draft: A mile within the wood they came upon another stream flowing down swiftly from the tree-clad slopes that climbed back towards the Mountains to join the Blackroot (on their left), and over its dark hurrying waters there was now no bridge.

'Here is the Taiglin,' said Legolas. 'Let us wade over if we can. Then we shall have water behind us and on the east, and only on the west towards the Mountains shall we have much to fear.'

In the consecutive narrative at this point the name Taiglin (from The Silmarillion: tributary of Sirion in Beleriand) underwent many changes, but it is clear that all these forms belong to the same time - i.e., the final name had been achieved before the first complete draft of the chapter was done (see note 30). Taiglin was at once replaced by Linglor, and then Linglor was changed to Linglorel, the form as first written shortly afterwards in the manuscript and as found in the rough workings for Legolas'

song. This was succeeded by Nimladel, Nimlorel, and finally Nimrodel.

18. The word actually written was waters.

19. Linglorel was altered in pencil, first to Nimlorel and then to Nimrodel (see note 17). I do not further notice the changes in this case, but give the name in the form as it was first written.

20. the mountains changed to the Black Mountains (the White Mountains FR).

21. Ammalas changed in pencil to Amroth; see p. 223.

22. In a separate draft for this passage the reading here is: 'Hence the folk of Lorien were called Galadrim, the Tree-folk (Ornelie)'.

23. Aragorn was here changed later to Elfstone, and at some of the subsequent occurrences; see p. 236 and note 52.

24. Written in the margin here: 'Name of the tree is mallorn'. This is where my father first wrote the name; and it enters the narrative immediately below.

25. On daro! 'stop, halt' see the Etymologies, V.353, stem DAR.

26. A detached (earlier) draft describes the event differently: Turning aside from the road they went-into the shadows of the deeper wood westward of the river, and there not far from the falls of Linglorel they found a group of tall strong trees.

Their lowest boughs were above the reach of Boromir's arms; but they had rope with them. Cast[ing] an end about a bough of the greatest of the trees Legolas... up and climbed into the darkness.

He was not long aloft. 'The tree-branches form a great crown near the top,' he said, 'and there is a hollow where even Boromir might find some rest. But in the next tree I think I saw a sheltered platform. Maybe elves still come here.'

At that moment a clear voice above them spoke in the elven-tongue, but Legolas drew himself hastily [?close] to the tree-bole. 'Stand still', he said, 'and do not speak or move.'

Then he called back into the shadows above, [? answering] in his [?own] tongue.

Frodo did not understand the words, for [the speech of the wood-elves east of the mountains differed much from] the language was the old tongue of the woods and not that of the western elves which was in those days used as a common speech among many folk.

There is a marginal direction to alter the story to a form in which the voice from the tree speaks as Legolas jumps up. The passage which I have bracketed is not marked in any way in the manuscript, but is an example of my father's common practice when writing at speed of abandoning a sentence and rephrasing it without striking out the first version.