Sauron Defeated (4 page)

6. Gorbag replaced Yagul as the name of the Orc from Minas Morghul in the fair copy manuscript of 'The Choices of Master Samwise' (see VIII.225, note 46). Here 'Shagrat persuades Gorbag not to send message at once' suggests that Gorbag is the Orc from the Tower, whereas a few lines later 'Shagrat sends message to Lugburz'; see further outline IV, p. 9.

7. he has to go back and down pass: i.e., Sam had to go back out of the tunnels and up to the pass, then down the other side of it (cf.

RK pp. 173-5).

8. quite a small fort: I think that this means, not 'only a small fort', but 'an actual fort, if not very large, not simply a tower'.

9. For the spelling Mount Dum see VII.373, VIII.118.

10. My father could not read the pencilled words here and wrote queries against them.

11. This is the first description of the Morgai (which is marked and named on the Second Map, VIII.435, 438).

12. The outline 'The march of Aragorn and defeat of the Haradrim', closely associated with the present text, has a brief passage about the rescue of Frodo concerned with the cloak of Lorien (VIII.398):

Rescue of Frodo. Frodo is lying naked in the Tower; but Sam finds by some chance that the elven-cloak of Lorien is lying in a corner. When they disguise themselves they put on the grey cloaks over all and become practically invisible - in Mordor the cloaks of the Elves become like a dark mantle of shadow.

13. Cf. 'The Story Foreseen from Forannest' (VIII.361): He [the ambassador of Sauron to the Parley] bears the Mithril coat and says that Sauron has already captured the messenger -

a hobbit. How does Sauron know? He would of course guess from Gollum's previous visits that a small messenger might be a hobbit. But it is probable that either Frodo talked in his drugged sleep - not of the Ring, but of his name and country; and that Gorbag had sent tidings.

14. A pencilled X is written against this sentence. Cf. 'The Story Foreseen from Forannest' (VIII.360): 'Sauron ... first hears of Frodo on 15 of March, and at the same time, by Nazgul, of the defeat in Pelennor and the coming of Aragorn.... He sends the Nazgul to Kirith Ungol to get Frodo...'

15. Against this paragraph is written in the margin: 'Frodo's horror when Sam comes in and looks like a goblin. Hate for the Ringbearer seizes him and bitter words of reproach for treachery spring to his lips.'

16. In the margin is written here: 'Ring a great burden, worse since he had been for a while free of it.'

17. Beside these dates is written '10 miles, 15, 15, 15'.

*

The rejected preliminary version o f 'The March of Aragorn and defeat of the Haradrim'

I have mentioned (pp. 8 - 9) that on the reverse of the page bearing outline IV (describing the capture and rescue of Frodo) is the original form of the outline given in VIII.397-9, entitled 'The march of Aragorn and defeat of the Haradrim'. This is a very puzzling text, and I give it in full. It was in fact written in three forms. The first is a pencilled text (a) as follows:

Aragorn takes Paths of the Dead early on March 8th. Comes out of the tunnel (a grievous road) and reaches head of the Vale of Morthond at dusk. He blows horns [struck out: and unfurls standard] to amazement of the people; who acclaim [him] as a king risen from the Dead. He rests three hours and bidding all to follow and send out the war-arrows he rides for the Stone of Erech. This is a stone set up between the mouths of Lamedui and the Ethir Anduin delta to commemorate the landing of Isildur and Anarion. It is about 275 miles by road from the issuing of the Paths of the Dead.

Aragorn rides 100 miles and reaches the Ringlo Vale (where men are assembling) on March 9. There he gathers news and men. He rides after short rest into Lamedon (10) and then goes to Here this version was abandoned and a new start made, also in pencil, at 'Aragorn takes Paths of the Dead'; but this text (b) was overwritten in ink and can only be read here and there. The overwritten form (c) reads thus:

Aragorn takes Paths of the Dead morn(ing) 8 March, passes tunnels of the mountains and comes out into the head of Morthond Vale at dusk. Men of the Dale are filled with fear for it seems to them that behind the dark shapes of the living riders a great host of shadowy men come nearly as swift as riders. Aragorn goes on through night and reaches Stone of Erech at morn(ing) on March 9.

Stone of Erech was black stone fabled to have been brought from Numenor, and set to mark the landing of Isildur and Anarion and their reception as kings by the dark men of the land. It stood on the shores of Cobas, near the outflow of Morthond, and about it was a ruined wall within which was also a ruined tower. In the vault under the tower forgotten was one of the Palantir[i]. From Erech a road ran by [the] sea, skirting in a loop the hills of Tarnost, and so to Ethir Anduin and the Lebennin.

At Stone of Erech Aragorn unfurls his standard (Isildur's) with white crown and star and Tree and blows horns. Men come to him.

(The Shadow-men cannot be seen by day.) Aragorn learns that what he saw in Palantir was true indeed: Men of Harad have landed on the coasts near the Ethir, and their ships have sailed up the estuary as far as Pelargir. There the men of Lebennin have made a block -

on the basis of an ancient defence. The Haradwaith are ravaging the land. It is nearly 350 miles by coast road from Erech to Pelargir.

Aragorn sends out swift riders north into the Dales, summoning what men remain to march on Pelargir. He does not himself take coast-road, since it is infested, but after a rest he sets out at dusk of March 9 - and goes like wind by rough paths over Linhir and so to Fords of Lameduin (about 150 miles away). The Shadow Host is seen to follow. He crosses Morthond at Linhir, passes into Ringlo Vale, and sets all land aflame for war. He reaches Lameduin evening of March 10. Men are assembled there, and are resisting an attempt of the Haradwaith to cross Lebennin > NW. Aragorn and the Shadow Host come out of the dark with the white star shining on the banner and the Haradwaith are terrified. Many drowned in the river Lameduin. Aragorn camps and crosses Lameduin into Lebennin and marches on Pelargir morn(ing) of 11 March. The terror of

'the Black King' precedes him, and the Haradwaith try to fly: some ships escape down Anduin, but Aragorn comes up driving Haradwaith before him. The Shadow Host camps on shores of Anduin before Pelargir on evening of March 11th. By night they set fire in guarded ships, destroy the Haradwaith and capture 2 vessels. On morn(ing) of 12th they set out up Anduin, with Haradwaith captains rowing.

The extraordinary thing about this, of course, is the site of Erech. It seems plain beyond any question from all the evidence presented in The War of the Ring (see especially the chapter 'Many Roads Lead Eastward (1)') that from its first emergence Erech was in the southern foothills of Ered Nimrais, near the source of Morthond: Erech stands self-evidently in close relationship with the Paths of the Dead. Why then did my father now move it, first (in a) to the coast between the mouths of Lameduin and Ethir Anduin, and then (in b and c) to Cobas Haven (north of Dol Amroth: see the Second Map, VIII.434)? I am unable to propose any explanation.

The geography of the c-version is at first sight hard to follow. In a Aragorn's route can be understood: all that is said here is that he rode from the head of Morthond Vale 'for the Stone of Erech'; he reaches the Ringlo Vale, and then continues into Lamedon (which at this stage lay east of the river Lameduin: see VIII.437). The distance of 275 miles from the issuing of the Paths of the Dead to Erech 'between the mouths of Lamedui and the Ethir Anduin delta' is however much too great, and was perhaps an error for 175. (On the form Lamedui see VIII.436.) In version c, however, Aragorn leaves Erech 'on the shores of Cobas, near the outflow of Morthond', and 'goes like wind by rough paths over Linhir and so to Fords of Lameduin (about 150

miles away).... He crosses Morthond at Linhir, passes into Ringlo Vale ... He reaches Lameduin.' As it stands this makes no sense; but the explanation is that his journey is described twice in the same passage. The first statement is comprised in the words 'He goes like wind by rough paths over Linhir, and so to Fords of Lameduin (about 150 miles away).' The second statement is 'He crosses Morthond at Linhir, passes into Ringlo Vale ... He reaches Lameduin.' This must mean that Linhir is here in the earlier position, above Cobas Haven (see VIII.437).

It is said in c that the coast road from Erech skirted in a loop 'the Hills of Tarnost'. This name is written in pencil against a dot on the square Q 12 of the Second Map, at the northern extremity of the hills between the rivers Lameduin and Ringlo (see VIII.434, 437, where I said that so far as I then knew the name Tarnost does not occur elsewhere).

Lastly, in the concluding lines of b, which were not overwritten, the name Haradrians is given to the Haradwaith.

II.

THE TOWER OF KIRITH UNGOL.

It seems that my father returned to the story of Frodo and Sam more than three years after he had 'got the hero into such a fix' (as he said in a letter of November 1944, VIII.218) 'that not even an author will be able to extricate him without labour and difficulty.' As one of the outlines given in the preceding chapter shows, however, he had continued to give thought to the question, and while Book V was still in progress he had discovered the essential element in Sam's rescue of Frodo: the quarrel of Shagrat and Gorbag in the Tower of Kirith Ungol, leading to the mutual slaughter of almost all the orcs both of the Tower and of Minas Morgul before Sam arrived (p. 9).

His first draft ('A') of the new chapter extended as far as the point where Sam, descending the path from the Cleft, sees the two orcs shot down as they ran from the gateway of the Tower, and looking up at the masonry of the walls on his left realises that to enter in 'the gate was the only way' (RK p. 178). In this draft the text of RK was largely achieved, but not in all respects. In the first place, the chapter begins thus: 'For a while Sam stood stunned before the closed door. Far within he heard the sounds of orc-voices clamouring...' It is clear that he was not physically stunned, as he was in the final story. On this see pp. 21-2.(1)

Secondly, when Sam, groping his way back from the under-gate in the tunnel, wondered about his friends (RK p. 173), 'Out in the world it was the dark before dawn on the twelfth of March in Shire-reckoning, the third day since he and Frodo came to the Cross Roads, and Aragorn was drawing near to Anduin and the fleet of Umbar, and Merry was beginning the third day of his ride from Dunharrow, and the forest of Druadan lay before him; but in Minas Tirith Pippin stood sleepless on the walls [?waiting] for [the] Causeway Forts had fallen and the enemy was coming.'

Thirdly, the fortress of Kirith Ungol was at first conceived as rising

'in four great tier's', not three as in RK (p. 176), and its strange structure, as it were flowing down the mountain-side, is sketched on the page of the draft (reproduced on p. 19) beside the description in the text; this description, originally in pencil but overwritten in ink, runs as follows:

And in that dreadful light Sam stood aghast; for now he could see the Tower of Kirith Ungol in all its strength. The horn that (The Tower of Kirith Ungol.)

those could see who came up the pass from the West was but its topmost turret. Its eastern face stood up in four great tiers from a shelf in the mountain wall some 500 feet below. Its back was to the great cliff behind, and it was built in four pointed bastions of cunning masonry, with sides facing north-east and south-east, one above the other, diminishing> as they went up, while about the lowest tier was a battlemented wall enclosing a narrow courtyard. Its gate open[ed] on the SE into a broad road. The wall at the [?outward] .... was upon the brink of a precipice.

'[The bottom one was probably projected some 50 yards from the cliff, the next 40, the next 30, the top 20 - and on the top [or tip] of it was the turret-tower. Their heights were 50 ft., 40 ft., 30 ft., 20?]

With black blank eyes the windows stared over the plains of Gorgoroth and Lithlad; some [? form(ed)] a line of red-lit holes, climbing up. Maybe they marked some stair up to the turret.

With a sudden shock of perception Sam realized that this stronghold had been built not to keep people out of Mordor, but to keep them in! It was indeed in origin one of the works of Gondor long ago: the easternmost outpost of the defence of Ithilien and Minas Ithil, made when after the overthrow of Sauron, in the days of the Last Alliance, the Men of the West kept watch upon the evil land where still his creatures lurked.

But as with the Towers of the Teeth that watch[ed] over Kirith Gorgor, Nargos and ? [sic](2), so here too the watch and ward had failed and treachery had yielded up the Tower to the Ringwraiths. [?And] now for long it had been occupied by evil things. And since his return to Mordor Sauron had found it useful.