The War of the Ring

Read The War of the Ring for Free Online

Book: Read The War of the Ring for Free Online
Authors: J. R. R. Tolkien
us. Not in half a thousand years have they forgot their grievance, that the lords of Gondor gave the Mark to Eorl the Young as a reward for his service to Elendil and Isildur, while they held back. It is this old hatred that Saruman has inflamed. ...'

    With this compare the passage in drafting of 'The King of the Golden Hall' (VII.444) where Aragorn, seeing on one of the hangings in the Golden Hall the figure of the young man on a white horse, said:
    'Behold Eorl the Young! Thus he rode out of the North to the Battle of the Field of Gorgoroth' - the battle in which Sauron was overthrown by Gil-galad and Elendil.(23) On the enormously much briefer time-span that my father conceived at this time see VII.450 note 11.
    An extremely rapid initial sketch for the parley between Aragorn, standing above the gates of the Hornburg, and the enemy below shows an entirely different conception from that in TT (p. 145): Aragorn and the Captain of Westfold.
    Westfolder says if the King is yielded all may go alive. Where to?
    To Isengard. Then the Westmarch is to be given back to us, and all the .... land.
    Who says so? Saruman. That is indeed a good warrant.
    Aragorn rebukes Westfolder for [??aiding] Orcs. Westfolder is humbled.
    Orc captain jeers. Needs must accept the terms when no others will serve. We are the Uruk-hai, we slay!
    Orcs shoot an arrow at Aragorn as they retreat. But the Westfold Captain hews down the archer.

    On the back of the page in which the new story of the assault entered (p. 17) my father wrote the following names: Rohirwaith Rochirchoth Rohirhoth Rochann Rohann Rohirrim; and also Eomeark Eomearc. I do not know whether Rochann, Rohann is to be associated with the use of Rohan on pp. 16, 18 apparently as a term for the Riders.(24)
    In a draft for the passage describing the charge from the Hornburg the King rode with Aragorn at his right hand and Hama at his left. For Hama's death before the gates of the Hornburg see p. 41 note 8.
    Lastly, at the end of the chapter, Legolas, seeing the strange Wood beyond Helm's Dike, said: 'This is wizardry indeed! "Greenleaf, Greenleaf, when thy last shaft is shot, under strange trees shalt thou go." Come! I would look on this forest, ere the spell changes.' The words he cited were from the riddling verse addressed to him by Galadriel and borne by Gandalf ('The White Rider', VII.431): Greenleaf, Greenleaf, bearer of the elven-bow, Far beyond Mirkwood many trees on earth grow.
    Thy last shaft when thou hast shot, under strange trees shalt thou go!
    His words were not corrected on the manuscript, and survived into the typescript that followed (see p. 420).

    NOTES.

    1. For the subsequent history of this passage see pp. 4-6.
    2. Tindtorras: earlier name for the Thrihyrne; see VII.320.
    3. In the first version of 'The King of the Golden Hall' the Second Master of the Mark was Eofored, and when Theodred appears he is not Theoden's son (see VII.446 - 7 and note 17). The 'First Battle of the Fords of Isen', in which Theodred fell, was now present (VII.444 and note 12), and in a contemporary time-scheme is dated January 25, the day before the death of Boromir and the Breaking of the Fellowship (in LR February 25 and 26).
    4. On the First Map (redrawn section IV, VII.319) Westfold was written against a vale on the western side of the Misty Mountains, south of Dunland (though afterwards struck out. in this position and reinserted along the northern foothills of the Black Mountains west of Eodoras). It cannot be said whether Dunland and Westfold originally stood together on the map as names of distinct regions, or whether Dunland was only entered when Westfold was removed.
    5. The change from Trumbold to Herulf, Heorulf (afterwards Erkenbrand) was made while this initial drafting was in progress.
    6. My father first wrote Dimgraef, but changed it as he wrote to Heorulf's Clough; above this he wrote the Dimhale (hale representing Old English halh, healh, 'corner, nook of land'), and after it

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