Sauron Defeated (6 page)

New initial drafting begins at the point where Sam enters the gate of the Tower, but up to this point the final text was now written out on the basis of the drafts A and B described above, in a form only differing in a few minor points from that in RK. The chapter now opens exactly as it does in the published work (see p. 22), and Sam now has to climb back over the stone door leading into the passage to the under-gate, since he still cannot find the catch (note 1). The events

'out westward in the world' are described in the same words as in RK

(with the addition, after 'Pippin watched the madness growing in the eyes of Denethor', of 'and Gandalf laboured in the last defence'); but the date ('noon upon the fourteenth day of March' in RK) is now

'morning upon the thirteenth day of March'. The name Morgai appears as an early addition to the text (p. 22). The Tower now has three tiers, and the note about the dimensions of the bastions, still present (see pp. 20, 22), was accommodated to this: the tiers now projected 40, 30 and 20 yards from the cliff, and their heights were 80, 70, and 60 feet, changed at the time of writing to 100, 75, and 50 feet.

'The top was 25 feet above Sam, and above it was the horn-turret, another 50 feet.'(11)

From '"That's done it!" said Sam. "Now I've rung the front-door bell!"' a draft text ('C') takes up. This is written in a script so difficult that a good deal of it would be barely comprehensible had it not been closely followed in the fair copy D.(12) The final story was now reached, and there is little to record of these texts. At the point in the narrative where Sam climbed up to the roof of the third (topmost) tier of the Tower there is a little diagram in D showing the form of the open space (not clearly seen in the drawing reproduced on p. 19): rectangu-lar at the base but with the sides drawing together to a point (cf. the

'pointed bastions' referred to in the description of the Tower), roughly in the shape of a haystack. To the statement that the stairhead was

'covered by a small domed chamber in the midst of the roof, with low doors facing east and west' D adds 'Both were open': this was omitted in the second manuscript ('E'), perhaps inadvertently. The name of the sole surviving orc beside Shagrat is Radbug in both C and D (Snaga in RK; see LR Appendix F, p. 409), Radbug being retained in the final story as the name of an orc whose eyes Shagrat says that he had squeezed out (RK p. 182); in C the orcs whom Sam saw running from the gate and shot down as they fled are Lughorn and Ghash > Mazgash (Lagduf and Muzgash in D, as in RK). Where in RK Snaga declares that 'the great fighter' (Sam) is 'one of those bloody-handed Elves, or one of the filthy tarks', and that his getting past the Watchers is 'tark's work',(13) C has 'that's Elvish work'; D has 'one of these filthy wizards maybe' and 'that's wizard's work' ('wizard' being changed in pencil to 'tark', which appears in the second manuscript E as written).

Only in one point does the story as told in the draft C differ from that in D. When Gorbag rouses himself from among the corpses on the roof Sam sees in the latter, as in RK (p. 183), that he has in his hand 'a broad-headed spear with a short broken haft'; in C on the other hand he has 'a red [?and shining] sword. It was his own sword, the one he left by Frodo.' With this cf. text B (p. 25 and note 9): 'Frodo has to have orc-weapons. The sword is gone.'

Sam's sony as he sat on the stair in the horn-turret was much worked on.(14) I give it here in the form that it has in D, which was preceded by rougher but closely similar versions.

I sit upon the stones alone;

the fire is burning red,

the tower is tall, the mountains dark;

all living things are dead.

In western lands the sun may shine,

there flower and tree in spring

is opening, is blossoming;

and there the finches sing.

But here I sit alone and think

of days when grass u as green,

and earth was brown, and I was young:

they might have never been.

For they are past, for ever lost,

and here the shadows lie

deep upon my heavy heart,

and hope and daylight die.

But still I sit and think of you;

I see you far away

Walking down the homely roads

on a bright and windy day.

It was merry then when I could run

to answer to your call,

could hear your voice or take your hand;

but now the night must fall.

And now beyond the world I sit,

and know not where you lie!

O master dear, will you not hear

my voice before we die?

The second verse was altered on the manuscript:

For they are gone, for ever lost,

and buried here I lie

and deep beneath the shadows sink

where hope and daylight die.

At the same time the last two lines of the song became: 0 Master, will you hear my voice

and answer ere we die?

In this form the song appears in the second manuscript E. At a later stage it was rewritten on this manuscript to become virtually a different song, but still retaining almost unchanged the second half of the original first verse, which now became the opening lines: In western lands the Sun may shine;

there flower and tree in Spring

are opening, are blossoming,

and there the finches sing.

Further correction of these lines on the manuscript produced the final form (RK p. 185).

A last point concerns the ladder: 'Suddenly the answer dawned on Sam: the topmost chamber was reached by a trap-door in the roof of the passage', RK p. 185. In my account of the fair copy manuscript of

'The Choices of Master Samwise' I did not describe a development in the last words of Shagrat and Gorbag that Sam overheard before they passed through the under-gate of the Tower (TT p. 351). In the draft text, only Shagrat speaks:

'Yes, up to the top chamber,' Shagrat was saying, 'right at the top.

No way down but by the narrow stair from,the Look-out Room below. He'll be safe there.'

In the fair copy this was retained, but Shagrat begins 'Yes, that'll do'

(as if the suggestion had come from Gorbag), and 'the ladder' was substituted for 'the narrow stair'. It is thus seen that this element in the story was already present when Book IV was completed. The further development in the conversation of the orcs, in which Gorbag argues against Shagrat's proposal, and Shagrat declares that he does not trust all of his own 'lads', nor any of Gorbag's, nor Gorbag himself (and does not mention that the topmost chamber was reached by ladder), was added to the first typescript of 'The Choices of Master Samwise'

at this time, as is seen from the fact that rough drafting for it is found on a page carrying drafts for passages for 'The Land of Shadow'.

Curiously, my father wrote at the head of this: 'No way up but by a ladder, as if this idea had only now emerged.(15)

NOTES.

1. When Sam came back to the stone door of the orc-passage 'on the inner side he found the catch' (whereas in RK he could not find it and had to climb over). This was retained in the second draft B.

2. For earlier names of the Towers of the Teeth see the Index to The War of the Ring, entries Naglath Morn, Nelig Myrn. The name Nargos here is a reversion to one of the original names (Gorgos and Nargos) of the towers guarding Kirith Ungol, when that was still the name of the chief pass into Mordor: see VII.344 and note 41.

3. These two orcs, who survived into the final text (RK p. 178), originally appeared in outline IV (p. 9) as messengers sent to Barad-dur. At that time there was no suggestion that they did not make good their errand.

4. At this stage, presumably, 'The Pyre of Denethor' and 'The Houses of Healing' constituted the two parts of Chapter XLIX

(VIII.386), while the remainder of Book V was divided between L

and LI (the fair copy manuscript of 'The Black Gate Opens' is numbered LI).

5. In the event, of course, Frodo did not fight, and no draft of this period suggests that he did. Possibly at this stage, before he had come to write the new story of the rescue of Frodo, my father was still thinking in terms of the original plot in 'The Story Foreseen from Lorien', when Frodo was more active (VII.335 ff.).

6. In the fair copy manuscript of 'The Choices of Master Samwise'

Sam asked himself: 'How many are there? Thirty, forty, or more?' The change to 'Thirty of forty from the tower at least, and a lot more than that from down below, I guess' (TT p. 344) was made on the first typescript of the chapter. - In outline IV (p. 9) the orcs of the Tower are the more numerous.

7. Cf. the original conception of the Sentinels guarding the entrance to Minas Morgul in 'The Story Foreseen from Lorien' written years before (VII.340 - 1): 'It was as if some will denying the passage was drawn like invisible ropes across his path. He felt the pressure of unseen eyes.... The Sentinels sat there: dark and still. They did not move their clawlike hands laid on their knees, they did not move their shrouded heads in which no faces could be seen ...' See also the diagrammatic sketch of the Sentinels in VII.348.

8. The illegible word might possibly be jewel (i.e. the brooch of his elven-cloak).

9. The sword is gone: this is Sam's sword from the Barrow-downs; cf. 'The Choices of Master Samwise' (TT p. 340): ' "If I'm to go on," he said, "then I must take your sword, by your leave, Mr.

Frodo, but I'll put this one to lie by you, as it lay by the old king in the barrow..." ' See pp. 26 - 7.

10. This passage concerning their provision of food and water is marked to stand earlier - no doubt after the words 'They make their plans'. The illegible words in the sentence following 'Food.

Drink.' could conceivably be read as stick thrust, i.e. 'They had found Frodo's sack and stick thrust in corner, rummaged.'

11. A few other differences of detail are worth recording. Where in RK (p. 176) the text reads: 'not even the black shadows, lying deep where the red glow could not reach, would shield him long from the night-eyed orcs' D continues: 'that were moving to and fro.'. This was taken up from the draft B, and remained into the second manuscript of the chapter (E), where it was removed. -

Sam's rejection of the temptation to claim the Ring as his own was expressed thus: 'The one small garden of a free gardener was all his need and due, not a garden swollen to a realm; his own hands to command, not the hands of others. Service given with love was his nature, not to command service, whether by fear or in proud benevolence.' - After the words 'He was not really in any doubt'

(RK p. 177) there follows in D: 'but he was lonely and he was not used to it, or to acting on his own.' To this my father subsequently added, before striking it all out, 'Since no one else was there he had to talk to himself.'

12. Some passages are absent from the draft C, but not I think because pages are lost: rather D becomes here the initial narrative composition. Thus the passage in RK p. 181 from 'Up, up he went' to ' "Curse you, Snaga, you little maggot" ' is missing; and here the D text becomes notably rougher and full of corrections in the act of writing. The very rough draft C stops near the beginning of Sam's conversation with Frodo in the topmost chamber (RK p. 187), and from that point there are only isolated passages of drafting extant; but the latter part of D was much corrected in the act of writing, and was probably now to a large extent the primary composition.

13. Cf. LR Appendix F (RK p. 409): in Orkish Westron 'tark, "man of Gondor", was a debased form of tarkil, a Quenya word used in Westron for one of Numenorean descent'.

14. For my father's original ideas for the song that Sam sang in this predicament see VII.333.

15. When Frodo and Sam passed out through the gate of the Tower Frodo cried: Alla elenion ancalima! Alla was not changed to Aiya until the book was in type (cf. VIII.223, note 29).

III.

THE LAND OF SHADOW.

It seems plain that 'The Land of Shadow' was achieved swiftly and in a single burst of writing; the draft material (here compendiously called

'A') consists largely of very roughly written passages immediately transferred to and developed in the first continuous manuscript ('B'), which was given the number 'LIII' (see p. 25) and the title 'Mount Doom', subsequently changed to 'The Land of Shadow'. Only in a few passages did my father go momentarily down an unsuccessful turn in the story.

The first of these concerns the overhearing by Sam and Frodo of the conversation of orcs in the valley beneath the Morgai, which was at first conceived very differently from the story in RK (pp. 202 - 3). The draft text A is here, as throughout, exceedingly difficult to read.

Presently [three >] two orcs came into view. They were in black without tokens and were armed with bows, a small breed, black-skinned with wide snuffling nostrils, evidently trackers of some kind........ they were talking in some hideous unintelligible speech; but as they passed snuffling among the stones scarcely 20 yards from where the hobbits lurked Frodo saw that one was carrying on his arm a black mail-shirt very like the one that he had abandoned. He sniffed it as [he] went as if to recall its scent. All at once lifting his head he let out a cry. It was answered, and from the other direction (from Kirith Ungol now some miles behind) ... large fighting orcs came up with shields