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scout's report: 'many are making for Herulf's Hold, and say that Herulf is already there' (p. 10); 'some are making for the Clough, but it seems that Nothelm [> Heorulf] is not there' (p. 11).
     
    17. In the first draft the fastness was deserted when the host from Eodoras arrived (p. 13). 'Then follows story as told above until rescue of King' refers to the story in the first draft given on pp. 13-16.
     
    18. This presumably refers to the outline given on p. 16, where the assault was at the line of Helm's Dike, unless some other early account of the assault has been lost.
     
    19. A scrap of drafting has the phrase 'Fitful late moon saw men fighting on the top of the wall'; but the illegible word here is not saw, though that may have been intended,
     
    20. It is subsequently said (but rejected) of the Deeping Stream in this manuscript that 'far to the north it joined the Isen River and made the western border of the Mark.'
     
    21. The second of these passages (VII.386) was lost in TT (p. 22). In the fair copy manuscript of 'The Departure of Boromir' as originally written Legolas in the first passage (TT p. 16) said only: 'Alas! We came when we heard the horn, but we are too late. Are you much hurt?'; the fuller form of his opening words on seeing Aragorn, in which he mentions the hunting and slaying of Orcs with Gimli in the woods, was added later (both to the manuscript and the following typescript). It is therefore possible that my father had now rejected the idea that appears in the second passage ('We slew many'), and did not reinstate it again until after the writing of 'Helm's Deep'. But this seems unlikely, and in any case does not alter the fact of the inconsistency in the published work. This inconsistency may have been observed before, but it was pointed out to me by Mr. Ralph L. McKnight, Jr.
     
    22. Another notable instance of the overlapping in this part of the story is found in the name Erkenbrand. This appears in late stages of the revision of the completed manuscript of 'Helm's Deep', but it was a replacement of Erkenwald (itself replacing Heorulf); and Erkenwald is still the name of the Lord of Westfold in drafting for what became the chapter 'Flotsam and Jetsam'. See p. 40 note 2.
     
    23. In TT (p. 142) Gamling says: 'Not in half a thousand years have they forgotten their grievance that the lords of Gondor gave the Mark to Eorl the Young and made alliance with him.'
     
    24. In addition, the form Rohir is found in this chapter; this has occurred in the manuscript of 'The White Rider' (VII.433 note 8). Rohirrim is found in the completed manuscript of 'Helm's Deep', but it was not yet established, for Rohir appears in the final fair copy manuscript of 'The Road to Isengard' (p. 40), and much later, in 'Faramir' ('The Window on the West'), both Rohir and Rohiroth are used (pp. 155-6).
     

 III. THE ROAD TO ISENGARD.
 
This chapter was at first continuous with 'Helm's Deep', and when the division was made it received the title 'To Isengard' (Chapter XXIX). The preparatory drafting was here much more voluminous than that of 'Helm's Deep', because the first form of the story had reached a developed form and a clear manuscript before it was rejected. The interpretation of the very confused papers for this chapter is particularly difficult, since it is necessary to distinguish between drafts (often closely similar) for passages in the first version and drafts for passages in the second.

The essential differences in the original version from the form in The Two Towers are these: Gandalf and Théoden and their companions left Helm's Deep shortly after the end of the battle (see p. 5, $ III); they did not see the Ents as they left the mysterious wood, and they did not go down to the Fords of Isen; but they encountered, and spoke with, Bregalad the Ent, bearing a message from Treebeard, in the course of their ride to Isengard, which they reached on the same day. In this chapter I shall give those parts of