The War of the Ring

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Book: Read The War of the Ring for Free Online
Authors: J. R. R. Tolkien
Herelaf's Clough, this being struck out. In the margin he wrote Nerwet (Old English, 'narrow place'); and at the head of the page Neolnearu and Neolnerwet (Old English neowol, neol 'deep, profound'), also the Clough, the Long Clough, and Theostercloh (Old English peostor 'dark'). Clough is from Old English cloh
    'steep-sided valley or ravine'.
    7. Following this my father wrote, but struck out, 'Dimhale's Door, by some called Herulf's Hold (Burg)'; and in the margin he wrote Dimgraf's gate, and Dimmhealh (see note 6).
    8. Nerwet: see note 6.
    9. The words enclosed in square brackets are lost (but are obtained from the following draft) through a square having been cut out of the page: possibly there was a small sketch-map here of
    'Heorulf's Clough' and the 'Hold'.
    10. Before Helm's Deep my father first wrote Helmshaugh, haugh being the Northern English and Scottish development of Old English halh (note 6).
    11. Heorulf's Hoe: Hoe is from Old English hoh 'heel' (used in place-names in various senses, such as 'the end of a ridge where the ground begins to fall steeply').
    12. The map redrawn on p. 269 is anomalous in this respect as in many others.
    13. The extension of the ride across the plain by a day, and the shift in the date of the (second) battle of the Fords of Isen to January 31, entered in revision to the completed manuscript of 'Helm's Deep': see p. 18.
    14. Stanscylf, beside Stanshelf, has the Old English form scylf (sc =
    sh).
    15. the cliff: i.e. the Stanshelf, the great natural fall in the ground, constituting a rampart.
    16. Cf. the two versions of the 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

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