The History of Middle Earth: Volume 8 - The War of the Ring, Page 2

  [Day 6] February 3 Morning, Treebeard returns to Gates. Sets Merry and Pippin to watch. Wormtongue comes. [Gandalf, Théoden, &c. arrive shortly after noon.]

  This is the chronology of LR, as set out in The Tale of Years, though the actual dates are of course different (in LR March 2 = January 31 in this scheme).

  *

  This, I believe, is how the chronology evolved; but as will be seen in the following chapters, earlier time-schemes appear in the drafts for passages far on in the actual narrative, because as I have said all this part of LR was written as a whole. Thus for example in the first draft of Merry's story of the destruction and drowning of Isengard (in TT in the chapter 'Flotsam and Jetsam') the chronology belongs with the scheme described in II above, and against it my father noted: 'Drowning must not begin until night of Hornburg battle.'

  Despite the way in which this part of the story was written, I think that it will in fact be clearest to break my account into chapters corresponding to those in The Two Towers; this inevitably entails a certain amount of advance and retreat in terms of the actual sequence of composition, but I hope that this preliminary account will clarify the shifting chronological basis in the different texts.

  NOTES.

  1. The extra day of the Entmoot (TT pp. 87-8) was not added until much later: VII.407, 419.

  2. Nan Gurunir, the Valley of Saruman, was added in to a blank space left for the name in the manuscript of 'Treebeard' (VII.420 note 9).

  II. HELM'S DEEP.

  A first draft of this story, abandoned after it had proceeded for some distance, differs so essentially from its form in The Two Towers that I give it here in full. This text bears the chapter number XXVIII, without title. For the chronology see p. 4, $I.

  There was a much-ridden way, northwestward along the foothills of the Black Mountains. Up and down over the rolling green country it ran, crossing small swift streams by many fords. Far ahead and to the right the shadow of the Misty Mountains drew nearer. Beneath the distant peak of Methedras in dark shadow lay the deep vale of Nan Gurunir; a great fume and vapour rose there and drifted towards them over the plain.(1) Halting seldom they rode on into the evening. The sun went down before them. Darkness grew behind.

  Their spears were tipped with fiery red as the last shafts of light stained the clouds above Tindtorras;(2) the three peaks stood black against the sunset upon the northmost arm of the Black Mountains. In that last red light men in the van saw a horseman riding back towards them. As he drew near, the host halted, "waiting him.

  He came, a weary man with dinted helm, and cloven shield. Slowly he climbed from his horse, and stood there a while, panting. At length he spoke. 'Is Eomer here?' he asked. 'You come at last, but too late and too few. Things have gone evilly, since Théodred fell.(3) We were driven back over the bend of the Isen with great loss yesterday; many perished at the crossing. Then at night fresh forces came over the river against our camp. All Isengard must be emptied; and the Wizard has armed the wild hill-men and the scattered folk of Westfold,(4) and these also he loosed upon us. We were overmastered. The shieldwall was broken. Trumbold [> Herulf > Heorulf](5) the Westmarcher has drawn off those he could gather towards his fastness under Tindtorras. Others are scattered. Where is Eomer? Tell him there is no hope ahead: he should return to Eodoras, before the wolves of Saruman come there!'

  Théoden rode up. 'Come, stand before me, Ceorl!' he said. 'I am here. The last host of the Eorlingas has ridden forth. It will not return unfought.'

  The man's face lightened with wonder and joy. He drew himself up. Then he knelt offering his notched sword to the King. 'Command me, lord,' he cried, 'and pardon me! I did not know, I thought - '

  'You though". I remained in Eodoras, bent like an old tree under winter snow. So it was when you went. But a wind has shaken off somewhat the cold burden,' said Théoden. 'Give this man a fresh horse. Let us ride to the aid of Trumbold [> Heorulf]! '

  Forward they rode again, urging on their horses. Suddenly Gandalf spoke to Shadowfax, and like an arrow from the bow the great horse sprang away. Even as they looked, he was gone: a Hash of silver in the sunset, a wind in the grass, a shadow that fled and faded from sight. For a while Snowmane and the horses of the King's guard strained in pursuit, but if they had walked they would have had as much chance of overtaking him.

  'What does that mean?' said Háma to a comrade. 'Ever he comes and goes unlooked-for.'

  'Wormtongue, were he here, would not find it hard to explain,' said the other.

  'True,' said Hama, 'but for myself I will wait till we see him again.'

  'If ever we do,' said the other.

  It was night and the host was still riding swiftly, when cries and hornblasts were heard from the scouts that rode ahead. Arrows whistled overhead. They were crossing a wide vale, a bay in the mountains. On the further side the Tindtorras were hidden in darkness. Some miles ahead still lay the opening of the great cleft in the hills which men of that land called Heorulf's Clough:(6) steep and narrow it wound inward under the Tindtorras, and where it issued in the vale, upon an outjutting heel of rock, was built the fastness of Heorulf's Hold.(7)

  The scouts rode back and reported that wolfriders were abroad in the vale, and that a host of orcs and wild men, very great indeed, was hastening southward over the plain to gain the gates of the Nerwet.(8)

  'We have found some of our men slain as they fled,' said one of the scouts; 'and scattered companies we have met, going this way and that, leaderless; but many are making for Herulf's Hold, and say that Herulf is already there.'

  'We had best not give battle in the dark, nor await the day here in the open, not knowing the number of the coming host,' said Eomer, who had ridden up to the King's side. 'What is your counsel, Aragorn?'

  'To drive through such enemies as are before us, and encamp before the Nerwet Gate to defend if may be, while the men who have fought rest behind our shield.'

  'Let it be so!' said Théoden. 'We will go thither in many [separate comp]anies: let a man who is nightsighted and knows [well the land] go at the head of each.'(9)

  At this point my father stopped, and returned to 'It was night and the host was still riding swiftly...' In the passage just given is the first appearance of Helm's Deep ('Heorulf's Clough') and the Hornburg ('Heorulf's Hold') on its 'outjutting heel of rock'; Heorulf being the precursor of Erkenbrand of Westfold.

  Night had fallen, and still the host was riding swiftly on. They had turned northward, and were bearing towards the fords of the Isen, when cries and hornblasts were heard from their scouts that went in front. Arrows whistled over them. At this time they were at the outer end of a wide vale, a bay in the mountains of the south. On its further western side the Tindtorras were hidden in darkness; beneath their feet [> the peaks], some miles away, lay the opening of the great cleft in the hills which men of that land called Heorulf's Clough [> lay the green coomb out of which opened a great cleft in the hills. Men of that land called it Helm's Deep],(10) after some hero of ancient wars who had made his refuge there. Ever steeper and narrower it wound inward under the Tindtorras, till the crowhaunted cliffs on either side towered far above and shut out the light. Where it issued in the vale, upon [added: the Stanrock,) an outjutting heel of land, was built the fastness of Heorulf's Hoe (11) (Hold?). Stanrock. [> was built the fastness of Helmsgate. There Heorulf the Marcher had his hold.]

  A scout now rode back and reported that wolfriders were abroad in the valley, and that a host of orcs and wild men, very great indeed, was hurrying southward over the plain towards Heorulf's Hold.

  'We have found many of our own folk lying slain as they fled thither,' said the scout. 'And we have met scattered companies, going this way and that, leaderless. Some are making for the Clough [> Helmsgate], but it seems that Nothelm [> Heorulf] is not there. His plan was changed, and men do not know whither he has gone. Some say that Wormtongue was seen today [> Some say that Wormtongue was seen in the evening going north, and in the dusk an old man on a great
horse rode the same way].'

  'Well, if Nothelm be in the Hold or not, [> 'It will go ill with Wormtongue, if Gandalf overtakes him,' said Théoden. 'Nonetheless I miss now both counsellors, old and new. Yet it seems to me that whether Heorulf be in his Hold or no,] in this need we have no better choice than to go thither ourselves,' said Théoden. 'What is your counsel?' he said, turning to Eomer who had now ridden up to the King's side.

  'We should be ill advised to give battle in the dark,' said Eomer, 'or to await the day here in the open, not knowing the number of the oncoming host. Let us drive through such foes as are between us and Herulf's Clough [> the fastness], and encamp before the Hold [> its gate]. Then if we cannot break out, we may retreat to the Hold. There are caves in the gorge [> Helm's Deep] behind where hundreds may hide, and secret ways lead up thence, I am told, onto the hills.'

  'Trust not to them!' said Aragorn. 'Saruman has long spied out this land. Still, in such a place our defence might last long.' 'Let us go then,' said Théoden. 'We will ride thither in many separate companies. A man who is nightsighted and knows well the land shall go at the head of each.'

  I interrupt the text here to discuss some aspects of this story. The names present an apparently impenetrable confusion, but I think that the development was more or less as follows. My father was uncertain whether 'Heorulf' ('Herulf') was the present lord of the 'Hold' or the hero after whom the 'Clough' was named. When he wrote, in the passage just given, 'which men of that land called Heorulf's Clough, after some hero of ancient wars who had made his refuge there' he had decided on the latter, and therefore the name of the present 'West- marcher' (precursor of Erkenbrand) was changed, becoming Nothelm. Then, changing again, Nothelm reverted to Heorulf, while the gorge was named after Helm: Helmshaugh (note 10), then Helm's Deep. The fastness (Heorulf's Hoe or Hold) standing on the Stanrock is now called Helmsgate, which in LR refers to the entrance to Helm's Deep across which the Deeping Wall was built.

  The image of the great gorge and the fortress built on the jutting heel or 'hoe' arose, I believe, as my father wrote this first draft of the new chapter. In the outline 'The Story Foreseen from Fangorn' (VII.435) Gandalf's sudden galloping off on Shadowfax is present, and 'by his help and Aragorn the Isengarders are driven back'; there is no suggestion of any gorge or hold in the hills to the south. So again in the present narrative he says nothing before he rides off; whereas in TT he tells Théoden not to go the Fords of Isen but to ride to Helm's Deep. Thus in the original story it was not until 'cries and hornblasts were heard from their scouts that went in front' and 'arrows whistled over them' that the leaders of the host decided to make for the Hold; in TT (where the actual wording of the passage is scarcely changed) the host was 'in the low valley before the mouth of the Coomb' when these things happened.

  The present text agrees well with the First Map (redrawn section IV(E), VII.319). At this time the host was 'at the outer end of a wide vale, a bay in the mountains of the south'; and 'Heorulf's Clough' lay somewhere near the western end of this 'bay'. The First Map is in fact less clear at this point than my redrawing makes it, but the map that I made in 1943, which was closely based on the First Map (see VII.299), shows Helm's Deep very clearly as running in towards the Tindtorras (Thrihyrne) from a point well to the north and west of the 'bay in the mountains' - the Westfold Vale, in the present text not yet named (see note 4).(12)

  On the page of the completed manuscript in which the final form of this passage (TT p. 133) was reached the text reads thus: 'Still some mile away, on the far side of the Westfold Vale, a great bay in the mountains, lay a green coomb out of which a gorge opened in the hills.' There is no question that this is correct, and that this was what my father intended: the great bay in the mountains was of course the Westfold Vale. In the typescript based on this, however, the sentence became, for some obscure reason (there is no ambiguity in the manuscript): 'Still some miles away, on the far side of the Westfold Vale, lay a green coomb, a great bay in the mountains, out of which a gorge opened in the hills.' This error is perpetuated in The Two Towers.

  In this original narrative it was on the night of the day of departure from Eodoras that the host came to the hold in the hills; subsequently (13) it was on the night of the second day (for the chronology see pp. 4-5, $$ I-II). In the later story it is said (TT p. 131) that 'Forty leagues and more it was, as a bird flies, from Edoras to the fords of the Isen', and this agrees very well with the First Map, where the distance is almost 2.5 an., or 125 miles (= just over 40 leagues). It may have been a doser look at the map that led to the extension of the ride across the plain by a further day. On the other hand, there was also an evident difficulty with the chronology as it now stood: see p. 4, $ I.

  The original draft continues:

  Aragorn and Legolas rode with Eomer's eored. That company needed no guide more keen of sight than Legolas, or a man who knew the land, far and wide about, better than Eomer himself. Slowly, and as silently as they might, they went through the night, turning back from the plain, and climbing westward into the dim folds about the mountains' feet. They came upon few of the enemy, except here and there a roving band of orcs who fled ere the riders could slay many; but ever the rumour of war grew behind them. Soon they could hear harsh singing, and if they turned and looked back they could see, winding up from the low country, red torches, countless points of fiery light. A very wood of trees must have been felled to furnish them. Every now and then a brighter blaze leaped up.

  'It is a great host,' said Aragorn, 'and follows us close.' 'They bring fire,' said Eomer, 'and are burning as they come all that they can kindle: rick and cot and tree. We shall have a great debt to pay them.'

  'The reckoning is not far off,' said Aragorn. 'Shall we soon find ground where we can turn and stand?'

  'Yes,' said Eomer. 'Across the wide mouth of the coomb, at some distance from Helmsgate there is a fall in the ground, so sharp and sheer that to those approaching it seems as if they came upon a wall. This we call [Stanshelf Stanscylf >](14) Helm's dike. In places it is twenty feet high, and on the top it has been crowned with a rampart of great stones, piled in ancient days. There we will stand. Thither the other companies will also come. There are three ways that lead up through breaches in the cliff:(15) these we must hold strongly.'

  It was dark, starless and moonless, when they came to [the Stanshelf >] Helm's dike. Eomer led them up by a broad sloping path that climbed through a deep notch in the cliff and came out upon the new level some way behind the rampart. They were unchallenged. No one was there before them, friend or foe.(16) At once Eomer set guards upon the [breaches >] Inlets. Ere long other companies arrived, creeping up the valley from various directions. There were wide grass-slopes between the rampart and the Stanrock. There they set their horses under such guards as could be spared from the manning of the wall.

  Gimli stood leaning against a great stone at a high point of the [Stanshelf >] dike not far from the inlet by which they had entered. Legolas was on the stone above fingering his bow and peering into the blackness.

  'This is more to my liking,' said the dwarf, stamping his feet on the ground. 'Ever my heart lightens as we draw near the mountains. There is good rock here. This country has hard bones. I feel it under my feet. Give me a year and a hundred of my kin and we could make this a place that armies would break against like water.'

  'I doubt it not,' said Legolas. 'But you're a dwarf, and dwarves are strange folk. I like it not, and shall like it no more by the light of day. But you comfort me, Gimli, and I am glad to have you stand by me with your stout legs and hard axe.'

  Shapes loomed up beside them. It was Eomer and Aragorn walking together along the line of the rampart. 'I am anxious,' said Eomer. 'Most have now arrived; but one company is still lacking, and also the King and his guard.'

  'If you will give me some hardy men, I will take Gimli and Legolas here, and go a little down the valley and look for tidings,' said Aragorn.

  'And find more than you are lo
oking for,' said Gimli.

  'That is likely,' said Eomer. 'We will wait a while.'

  A slow time passed, when suddenly at no great distance down the valley a clamour broke out. Horns sounded. 'There are some of our folk come into an ambush, or taken in the rear,' cried Eomer. 'Théoden will be there. Wait here, I will hold the men back to the wall, and choose some to go forth. I will be back swiftly.'

  Horns sounded again, and in the still darkness they could hear the clash of weapons. In brief while Eomer returned with twenty men-.

  'This errand I will take,' said Aragorn. 'You are needed on the wall. Come, Legolas! Your eyes will serve us.' He sped down the slope.

  'Where Legolas goes, I go,' said Gimli, and ran after them.

  The watchers on the wall saw nothing for a while, then suddenly there were louder cries, and wilder yells. A clear voice rang, echoing in the hills. Elendil! It seemed that far below in the shadows a white flame flashed.

  'Branding goes to war at last,' said Eomer.

  A horseman appeared before the main breach, and was admitted. 'Where is Théoden King?' asked Eomer.

  'Among his guard,' said.the man. 'But many are unhorsed. We rode into an ambush, and orcs sprang out of the ground among us, hamstringing many of our steeds. Snowmane and the King escaped; for that horse is nightsighted, and sprang over the heads of the orcs. But Théoden dismounted and fought among his guard. Herugrim sang a song that has long been silent. Aragorn is with them, and he sends word that a great host of orcs is on his heels. Man the wall! He will come in by the main breach if he can.'