Part 14 (1/2)

Note on the Entish Lands.

The name Entish Lands on Sketch I needs a word of explanation. Originally the region in which the h.o.a.rwell rose was called Dimrilldale(s) (p. 360), but when that name was displaced it was briefly called h.o.a.rdale (p. 432 note 3), and then Entish Dales, Entish Lands. Entish here was used in the Old English sense of ent, 'giant', the Entish Lands were the 'troll-lands' (cf. the later names Ettendales and Ettenmoors of this region in FR, containing Old English eoten 'giant'), and are in no way a.s.sociated with the Ents of The Lord of the Rings.

XII. AT RIVENDELL.

Some preliminary ideas for this chapter (which in FR is Book II, Chapter I, 'Many Meetings') have been given on p. 126. The original narrative draft is extant in a very rough ma.n.u.script, first in ink, then in pencil and petering out. It was variously emended and added to, but I give it here as my father seems to have set it down - granting that there is often no clear distinction between changes made at once and changes made after (and probably no significant distinction in time, in any case). This and the two following drafts all bear the number 'IX' without t.i.tle.

He awoke to find himself lying in bed; and also feeling a great deal better. 'Where am I and what's the time?' he said aloud to the ceiling. Its dark carved beams were touched by sunlight. Distantly he heard the sound of a waterfall.

'In Elrond's house, and it is ten o'clock in the morning: the morning of October 24th to be exact,'(1) said a voice.

'Gandalf!' said Bingo sitting up. There was the wizard sitting in a chair by the open window.

'Yes,' said the wizard. 'I'm here all tight - and you're lucky to be here too, after all the absurd things you have done since you left home.'

Bingo felt too peaceful and comfortable to argue - and in any case he did not imagine he would get the best of the argument: the memory came back to him of the disastrous short cut through the Old Forest, of his own stupidity in the inn, and of his nearly fatal madness in putting on the ring on Weathertop Hill.

There was a long silence broken only by the soft puffs of Gandalf's pipe as he blew smoke-rings out of the window.

'What happened at the Ford?' asked Bingo at last. 'It all seemed so dim somehow, and it still does.'

'Yes!' answered Gandalf. 'You were beginning to fade. They would have made a wraith of you before long - certainly if you had put on the Ring (2) again. How does the arm and side feel now?'

'I don't know,' said Bingo. 'It does not feel at all, which is better than aching, but'- he made an effort - 'I can move it a little again: yes: it feels as if it were coming back to life. It is not cold now,' he added, touching his right hand with his left.(3) 'Good! ' said Gandalf. 'Elrond bathed and doctored it for hours last night after you were brought in. He has great power and skill, but I was very anxious, for the craft and malice of the Enemy is very great.'

'Brought in?' said Bingo. 'Of course: the last I remember was the rush of water. What happened? Where are the others? Do tell me, Gandalf!'

'What happened - as far as I can make out from Glorfindel and Trotter (who both have some wits in their different ways) - was this: the pursuers made straight for you (as Glorfindel expected they would). The others might have been trampled down, but Glorfindel made them leap out of the way off the road. Nothing could save you if the white elf-horse could not; so they followed cautiously behind on foot, keeping out of sight as much as they could behind bushes and rocks. When they had got as near to the Ford as they dared go, they made a fire hastily, and rushed out on the Riders with flaming brands, just at the moment when the flood came down. Between the fire and water these pursuers were destroyed - if they can be wholly destroyed by such means - all but two that vanished into the wild.

'The rest of your party and the elf then crossed the ford, with some difficulty as it is too deep for hobbits and deep even for a horse. But Glorfindel crossed on your pony and regained his horse. They found you lying on your face in the gra.s.s at the top of the slope: pale and cold. At first they feared you were dead. They carried you towards Rivendell: a slow business, and I don't know when they would have arrived, if Elrond had not sent some Elves out to help you, at the same time as the water was released.' 'Did Elrond make the flood then?' asked Bingo.

'No, I did,'(4) said Gandalf. 'It is not very difficult magic, in a stream that comes down from the mountains. The sun has been fairly hot today. But I was surprised to find how well the river responded. The roar and rush was tremendous.'

'It was,' said Bingo. 'Did you also send Glorfindel?'

'Yes,' said Gandalf, ' - or rather, I asked Elrond to lend him to me. He is a wise and n.o.ble elf. Bilbo is - was - very fond of him. I also sent Rimbedir (5) (as they call him here) - that Trotter fellow. From what Merry tells me I gather he has been useful.'

'I should think he has,' said Bingo. 'I was very suspicious of him at first - but we should never have got here without him. I have grown very fond of him. I wish indeed that he was going to go on wandering with me as long as I must wander. It is an odd thing, you know, but I keep on feeling that I have seen him somewhere before.'

'I daresay you do,' said Gandalf. 'I often have that feeling when I look at a hobbit - they all seem to remind me of one another, don't you know. Really they are extraordinarily alike! '

'Nonsense,' said Bingo. 'Trotter is most peculiar. However I feel extremely hobbit-like myself, and I could wish that I was not doomed to wander. I have now had more than a month of it, and that is about 28 days too much for me.' He fell silent again, and began to doze. 'What did those dreadful pursuers do to me in Weathertop dell?' he said half to himself, on the edge of a shadowy dream.

'They attempted to pierce you with the sword of the Necromancer,' said Gandalf. 'But by some grace of fortune, or by your own courage (I have heard an account of the fight) and by the confusion caused by the elf-name which you cried, only your shoulder was grazed. But that was dangerous enough - especially with the ring on. For while the ring was on, you yourself were in the wraith-world, and subject to their weapons.(6) They could see you, and you them.'

'Why can we see their horses?'

'Because they are real horses. Just as the black robes they wear to give shape to their nothingness are real robes.'

'Then why, when all other animals - dogs, horses, ponies - are filled with terror of them, do these horses endure them on their backs?'

'Because they are born and bred under the power of the evil Lord in the dark kingdom. Not all his servants and chattels are wraiths! '

'It is all very threatening and confusing,' said Bingo sleepily. 'Well, you are quite safe for the present,' said Gandalf, 'and are mending rapidly. I should not worry about anything now, if I were you.'

'All right,' said Bingo, and fell fast asleep.(7) Bingo was now as you know in the Last Homely House west of the Mountains, on the edge of the wild, the house of Elrond: that house was (as Bilbo Baggins had long ago reported) 'a perfect house, whether you like food or sleep or work or story-telling or singing, or just sitting and thinking, best, or a pleasant mixture of them all.' Merely to be there was a cure for weariness and sadness. As evening drew on Bingo woke up and found that he no longer felt like sleep but had a mind for food and drink, story-telling and singing. So he got up, and found his arm already nearly as useful as ever it had been. As soon as he was dressed he went in search of his friends. They were sitting in the porch of the house that faced west: shadows were fallen in the valley, but the light was still upon high eastern faces of the hills far above, and the air was warm. It was seldom cold in the fair valley of Rivendell. The sound of the waterfalls was loud in the stillness. There was a scent of trees and flowers [?in harmony].

'Hullo,' said Merry, 'here is our n.o.ble uncle. Three cheers for Bingo Lord of the Ring! '

'Hus.h.!.+ ' said Gandalf. 'Evil things do not come into this valley, but nonetheless we should not name them. The Lord of the Ring is not Bingo, but the Lord of the Dark Tower of Mordor,(8) whose power is growing again, and we are here sitting only in a fortress of peace. Outside it is getting dark.'

'Gandalf has been saying lots of cheerful things like that,' said Odo. 'Just to keep us in order: but it seems impossible somehow to feel gloomy or depressed in Elrond's house. I feel I could sing - if I knew how: only I never was any good at making up words or tunes.'

'You never were,' said Bingo, 'but I daresay even that could be cured in time, if you stayed here long enough. I feel much the same myself. Though at the moment I feel more hungry than anything else.'

His hunger was soon cured. For before long they were summoned to the evening meal. The hall was filled with many folk: elves for the most part, though there were a few guests and travellers of various sort. Elrond sat in the high seat, and next to him sat Gandalf. Bingo did not see Trotter or Glorfindel: they were probably at one of the other halls among their friends, but to his surprise he found sitting next to him a dwarf of venerable appearance and rich dress - his beard was white, nearly as white as the snow-white cloth of his garments; he wore a belt of silver and a chain of silver and diamonds.

'Welcome and well met,' said the dwarf, rising and bowing. 'Gloin at your service!' and he bowed again.

'Bingo Bolger-Baggins at your service and your family's,' replied Bingo. 'Am I right in imagining that you are the Gloin, one of the twelve companions of the great Thorin?'

'You are,' said he. 'And I need not ask, since I have already been told that you are the friend and adopted son of our dear friend Bilbo Baggins. I wonder much what brings four hobbits so far from their homes. Nothing like it has occurred since Bilbo left Hobbiton. But perhaps I should not ask this; since Elrond and Gandalf do not seem disposed to tell?'

'I think we will not speak of such things, at any rate yet,' said Bingo politely - he wanted to forget about his troubles for the moment. 'Though I am equally curious to know what brings so important a dwarf so far from the Mountain.'

Gloin looked at him and laughed - indeed he actually winked. 'I am no spoil-sport,' he said. 'So I will not tell you - yet. But there are many other things to tell.'

Throughout the meal they talked together. Bingo told news of the s.h.i.+re, but he listened more than he talked, for Gloin had much to tell of the Dwarf-kingdom under the Mountain, and of Dale. There Dain was still king of the dwarfs,(9) and was now ancient (some 200 years old), venerable, and fabulously rich. Of the ten companions that had survived the battle, seven were still with him: Dwalin, Dori, Nori, Bifur and Bofur and Bombur.(10) But the last was now so fat that he could not move himself from his couch to his chair, and it took four young dwarves to lift him. In Dale the grandson of Bard, Brand son of Bain, was lord.

My father stopped here, and scribbled down a few notes before at once beginning the chapter anew. The notes at the end of the first draft include the following: What of Balin etc. They went to colonize (Ring needed to found colony?) Bilbo must be seen. Who is Trotter?

The second text is a clear ma.n.u.script, but it had proceeded no farther than Gandalf's account of the flood in the Bruinen when my father again stopped and started again. This is an intermediate text much nearer to the third than to the first, and need not be considered more closely. The third text, the last in this phase of the work, but again abandoned before its conclusion (going in fact scarcely any farther than the first draft), is very close to 'Many Meetings' in FR, but there are many minor differences (quite apart, of course, from those that are constant at this stage, as Trotter/Strider-Aragorn and the absence of Sam). The opening is now almost identical to that in FR, but the date is October 26, and Gandalf adds, after 'You were beginning to fade', 'Trotter noticed it, to his great alarm - though of course he said nothing.' But after Gandalf s 'It is no small feat...' (FR p. 232) the old narrative goes on: '... But I am delighted to have you all here safe. I am really rather to blame. I knew there were some risks - but if I had known more before I left the s.h.i.+re I should have arranged matters differently. But things are moving fast,' he added in a lower voice as if to himself, 'even faster than I feared. I had to get here quickly. But if I had known the Riders were already out!'

'Did not you know that?' asked Bingo.

'No I did not - not until we came to Bree. It was Trotter that told me.(11)' And if I had not known Trotter and trusted him, I should have waited for you there. And as it has turned out, he saved you and brought you through in the end.'

'We should never have got here without him,' said Bingo. 'I was very suspicious of him at first, but I have grown very fond of him. Though he is rather queer. I wish that he was going to go on wandering with me - as long as I must wander. It is an odd thing, you know, but I keep on feeling that I have seen him somewhere before - that, that I ought to be able to put a name to him, a name different to Trotter.'

'I dare say you do,' laughed Gandalf. 'I often have that feeling when I look at a hobbit: they all seem to remind me of one another, if you know what I mean. They are wonderfully alike! '

'Nonsense!' said Bingo, sitting up again in protest. 'Trotter is most peculiar. And he has shoes! However, I am feeling a very ordinary hobbit myself at the moment. I wish now that I need not go any further. I have had more than a month of exile and adventures, and that is about four weeks more than enough for me.'(12) The text now becomes very close to that of FR pp. 233 - 4, but there are several differences. As in FR, Bingo cannot understand how he can be out in his reckoning of the date, but in this version Gandalf has told him that it is the 26th of October (not as in FR the 24th), and he calculates that they must have reached the Ford on the 23rd (the 20th in FR). On this question see the Note on Chronology on p. 219. In contrast to the first draft, where Gandalf says that Bingo was brought in to Rivendell 'last night', he has been unconscious for a long time, and the mortal danger of his wound is emphasized. Gandalf calls the weapon that was used 'a deadly blade, the knife of the Necromancer which remains in the wound', not 'a Morgul-knife', and he explains to Bingo that 'You would have become a Ring-wraith (the only hobbit Ring-wraith) and you would have been under the dominion of the Dark Lord. Also they would have got possession of the Ring. And the Dark Lord would have found some way of tormenting you for trying to keep it from him, and of striking at all your friends and kinsfolk through you, if he could.' He says that the Riders wear black robes 'to give shape to their nothingness in our world', and he includes among the servants of the Dark Lord 'orcs and goblins' and 'kings, warriors, and wizards.'

Gandalf's reply to Bingo's question 'Is Rivendell safe?' is similar to that in FR (pp. 234 - 5), but has some notable features: 'Yes, I hope so. He has seldom overcome any of the Elves in the past; and all Elves now are his enemies. The Elves of Rivendell are indeed descendants of his chief foes: the Gnomes, the Elvenwise ones, that came out of the Far West, and whom Elbereth Gilthoniel still protects.(13) They fear no Ring-wraiths, for they live at once in both worlds, and each world has only half power over them, while they have double power over both. But such places as Rivendell (or the s.h.i.+re in its own way) will soon become besieged islands, if things go on as they are going. The Dark Lord is moving again. Dreadful is the power of the Necromancer. Still,' he said, standing suddenly up and sticking out his chin while his beard stuck out like bristling wire, 'the Wise say that he is doomed in the end. We will keep up our courage. You are mending rapidly, and you need not worry about anything at the moment.'