Part 17 (1/2)

XV. ANCIENT HISTORY.

A chapter t.i.tled 'II: Ancient History', precursor of 'The Shadow of the Past' in FR, was now introduced to follow 'A Long-expected Party'. It is of central importance in the evolution of The Lord of the Rings: for it was here that there emerged in the actual narrative the concept of the Ruling Ring, and Sam Gamgee as the companion of Bingo (Frodo) on his great journey. There is no trace of earlier drafting, save for a few notes so sc.r.a.ppy and disjointed that they can scarcely be reproduced. In these my father scribbled down salient features of Bingo's life after Bilbo's disappearance, and first devised the story of Bingo's own departure 17 years later, celebrated by a dinner party for Merry, Frodo, and Odo (here apparently said to have been given on the proceeds of the sale of Bag End). Against these notes my father wrote: 'Sam Gamgee to replace Odo' (cf. Queries and Alterations, p. 221).

The ma.n.u.script is rough, and in places very rough indeed, but legible virtually throughout. There is some emendation from a later phase, here ignored, and a good deal of pencilled change that can in some cases be seen to have been made while the chapter was in progress. These latter I adopt into the text, but in some cases refer in the notes to the text as first written.

The talk did not die down in nine or even ninety-nine days. The second and final disappearance of Mr Bilbo Baggins was discussed in Hobbiton and Bywater, and indeed all over the s.h.i.+re, for a year and a day, and was remembered much longer than that. It became a fireside story for young hobbits; and eventually (a century or so later) Mad Baggins, who used to disappear with a bang and a flash and reappear with bags of gold and jewels, became a favourite character of legend and lived on long after all the true events were forgotten.

But in the meantime sober grown-ups gradually settled to the opinion that Bilbo had at last (after long showing symptoms of its coming on) gone suddenly mad, and had run off into the blue; where he had inevitably fallen into a pit or a pool, and come to a tragic but hardly untimely end. There was one Baggins the less and that was that.(1) In face of the evidence that this disappearance had been timed and arranged by Bilbo himself, Bingo was eventually relieved of suspicion. It was also plain that the departure of Bilbo was a grief to him - more than to any other even of Bilbo's closest friends. But Gandalf was held finally responsible for inciting and encouraging 'poor old Mr Bilbo', for dark and unknown ends of his own.

'If only that wizard will leave young Bingo alone, perhaps he will settle down and grow some hobbit-sense,' they said. And to all appearances the wizard did leave Bingo alone, and he did settle down, though the growth of hobbit-sense was not so noticeable. Indeed Bingo at once carried on his uncle's reputation for oddity. He refused to go into mourning; and the next year he gave a party in honour of Bilbo's 112th birthday, which he called the Hundred- weight Party; although only a few friends were invited and they hardly ate a hundredweight between them. People were rather pained; but he kept up the custom of giving 'Bilbo's birthday party' year after year, until they got used to it. He said he did not think Bilbo was dead. When they asked: 'Where is he, then?' he shrugged his shoulders.(2) He lived alone, but he went about a lot with certain younger hobbits that Bilbo had been fond of, and continued to 'encourage' them. The chief of these were Meriadoc Brandybuck (usually called Merry), Frodo Took, and Odo Bolger.(3) Merry was the son of Caradoc Brandybuck (Bingo's cousin) and Yolanda Took, and so the cousin of Frodo, son of Folco (whose sister was Yolanda). Frodo, or Frodo the Second, was the great-great-grandson of Frodo the First (otherwise known as the Old Took), and the heir and rather desperate hope of the Hole of Took, as the clan was called. Odo also had a Took mother and was a third cousin of the other two.(4) With these Bingo went about (often in untidy clothes) and walked all over the s.h.i.+re. He was often away from home. But he continued to spend his money lavishly, indeed more lavishly than Bilbo had. And there still seemed to be plenty of it, so naturally his oddities were overlooked, as far as possible. As time went on it is true that they began to notice that Bingo also showed signs of good 'preservation': outwardly he retained the appearance of a strong and rather large and well-built hobbit just out of his 'tweens'. 'Some people have all the luck,' they said, meaning this enviable combination of cash and preservation; but they did not attach any particular significance to it, not even when Bingo began to approach the more sober age of 50.

Bingo himself, after the first shock of loss and change, rather enjoyed being his own master, and the Mr Baggins of Bag-end.

For a while, indeed several years, he was very happy, and did not think much about the future. He knew, of course, if no one else did, that the money was not unlimited, and was fast disappearing. Money went a prodigious long way in those days, and one could also get many things without it; but Bilbo had made great inroads on his inheritance and his acquired treasures in the course of sixty years, and had blown at least 500 pieces of gold on that last Party.(5) So an end would come sooner or later. But Bingo did not worry: down inside though suppressed there still remained his desire to follow Bilbo, or at all events to leave the s.h.i.+re and go off into the Blue, or wherever chance took him.

One day, he thought, he would do it. As he approached 50 - a number he somehow felt was significant (or ominous), it was at any rate at that age that adventure had first come upon Bilbo - he began to think more seriously of it. He felt restless. He used to look at maps and wonder what it was like beyond the edges: hobbit maps made in the s.h.i.+re did not extend very far east or west of its borders. And he began to feel, sometimes, a sort of thin feeling, as if he was being stretched out over a lot of days, and weeks, and months, but was not fully there, somehow. He could not explain any better than that to Gandalf, though he tried to. Gandalf nodded thoughtfully.

Gandalf had taken to slipping in to see him again - quietly and secretly, and usually when no one was about. He would tap an 'agreed signal on the window or door, and be let in: it was usually dark when he arrived, and while he was there he did not go out. He went off again, often without warning, either at night or in the very early morning before sunrise. The only people besides Bingo who knew of these visits were Frodo and Merry; though no doubt folk out in the country caught sight of him going along the road or over the fields, and scratched their heads either trying to remember who he was, or wondering what he was doing.

Gandalf turned up again first about three years after Bilbo's departure, took a look at Bingo, listened to the small news of the s.h.i.+re, and went off again soon, seeing that Bingo was still quite settled. But he returned once or twice every year (except for one other long gap of nearly two years) until the fourteenth year. Bingo was then 47. After that he came frequently and stayed longer.(6) He began to be worried about Bingo; and also odd things were happening. Rumour of them had begun to reach the ears of even the deafest and most parochial hobbits. Bingo had heard a good deal more than any other hobbit of the s.h.i.+re, for of course he continued Bilbo's habit of welcoming dwarves and odd strangers, and even occasionally of visiting elves. It was believed by his close friends Merry and Frodo at any rate that elves were friendly to him [bracketed at the time of writing: and that he knew some of their few haunts. This was in fact quite true. Bilbo had taught Bingo all that he knew, and had even instructed him in what he had learned of the two elf-languages used in those times and places (by the elves among themselves). There were very few elves actually in the s.h.i.+re, and they were very seldom seen by anyone but Bilbo, and Bingo. This was replaced at the time of writing by:] and that he knew something of their secret languages - learned probably from Bilbo. And they were quite right.

Both elves and dwarves were troubled, especially those that occasionally arrived or pa.s.sed by coming from a distance, from East or South. They would seldom, however, say anything very definite. But they constantly mentioned the Necromancer, or the [Dark Lord >] Enemy; and sometimes referred to the Land of Mor-dor and the Black Tower. It seemed that the Necromancer was moving again, and that Gandalf's confidence that the North would be freed from him for many an age had not been justified.(7) He had flown from Mirkwood only to reoccupy his ancient stronghold in the South, near the midst of the world in those days, in the Land of Mordor; and it was rumoured that the Black Tower had been raised anew. Already his power was creeping out over the lands again and the mountains and woods were darkened. Men were restless and moving North and West, and many seemed now to be partly or wholly under the dominion of the Dark Lord. There were wars, and there was much burning and ruin. The dwarves were growing afraid. Goblins were multiplying again and reappearing. Trolls of a new and most malevolent kind were abroad; giants were spoken of, a Big Folk only far bigger and stronger than Men the [?ordinary] Big Folk, and no stupider, indeed often full of cunning and wizardry. And there were vague hints of things or creatures more terrible than goblins, trolls, or giants. Elves were vanis.h.i.+ng, or wandering steadily westward. In Hobbiton there began to be some talk about the odd folk that were abroad, and often strayed over the borders. The following report of a conversation in the Green Dragon at Bywater one evening [about this time >] in the spring of Bingo's 49th? 50th? [sic] year (8) will give some idea of the feeling in the air.

Sam Gamgee (old Gaffer Gamgee's [eldest >] youngest and a good jobbing gardener) was sitting in one corner by the fire, and opposite him was Ted Sandyman (9) the miller's son from Hobbiton; and there were various other rustic hobbits listening.

'Queer things you do hear these days, to be sure, Ted,' said Sam.

There follows in the ma.n.u.script the original draft, written very roughly and rapidly, of the conversation at The Green Dragon found in FR, pp. 53 - 5 and it was scarcely altered afterwards save in little details of phrasing. The hobbit who saw the Tree-man beyond the North Moors (in FR Sam's cousin Halfast Gamgee, who worked for Mr Boffin at Overhill) is here 'Jo b.u.t.ton, him that works for the Gawkrogers [see p. 236] and goes up North for the hunting.' Sam's reference to 'queer folk' being turned back by the Bounders on the s.h.i.+re-borders is absent; he speaks of the Elves journeying to the harbours 'out away West, away beyond the Towers',(10) but the reference to the Grey Havens is lacking. Most interesting is the reference to the Tree-men. As my father first wrote Sam's words, he said: 'But what about these what do you call 'em- giants? They do say as one nigh as big as a tower or leastways a tree was seen up away beyond the North Moors not long back.' This was changed at the time of writing to: 'But what about these Tree-Men, these here - giants? They do say one nigh as big as a tower was seen,' etc. (Was this pa.s.sage (preserved in FR, p. 53) the first premonition of the Ents? But long before my father had referred to 'Tree-men' in connection with the voyages of Earendel: II.254, 261).

Sam's words about the Bagginses at the end of the conversation are different (and explain why the egregious Ted Sandyman used the word 'cracked' in FR): 'Well, I dunno. But that Mr Baggins of Bag-End, he thinks it is true; he told me and my dad so; and both he and old Mr Bilbo know a bit about Elves, or so my dad says and he ought to know. He's known the Bag-End folk since he was a lad, and he worked in their gardens till his joints cracked too much for bending, and I took on.'

'And they're both cracked...'

After Ted Sandyman's last words, Sam sat silent and said no more. He was due for a job of work in Bingo's garden next day, and was thinking he might have a chance of a word with Bingo, to whom he had transferred the reverence of his dad for old Bilbo. It was April and the sky was high and clear after much rain. The sun was gone, and a cool pallid sky was fading slowly. He went home through Hobbiton and up the hill whistling softly and thoughtfully.

About the same time Gandalf was quietly slipping in through the half-open front door of Bag-End.

Next morning after breakfast two people, Gandalf and Bingo, were sitting near the open window. A bright fire was on the hearth; but the sun was warm, and the wind was southerly: everything looked fresh, and the new green of Spring was s.h.i.+mmering in the fields and on the tips of the trees' fingers. Gandalf was thinking of a spring nearly 80 years before, when Bilbo had run out of Bag-end without a handkerchief. Gandalf's hair was perhaps whiter than it had been then, and his beard and eyebrows were perhaps longer and face wiser; but his eyes were no less bright and powerful, and he smoked and blew smoke-rings with as great vigour and delight as ever. He was smoking now in silence, for they had been talking about Bilbo (as they often did), and [other things >] the Necromancer and the Ring.

'It is all most disturbing, and in fact terrifying,' said Bingo. Gandalf grunted: the sound apparently meant 'I quite agree, but your remark is not helpful.' There was another silence. The sound of Sam Gamgee giving the lawn its first cut came from the garden. 'How long have you known all this? ' asked Bingo at length. 'And did you tell Bilbo?'

'I guessed a good deal immediately,' answered Gandalf slowly...

My father had now returned to the text given on pp. 76 ff, the 'foreword' as he called it (see p. 224), which I have discussed on pp. 86 - 7, and in which of course the story was present that Bingo gave the Party: the conversation with Gandalf took place a few weeks before it, and it was indeed Gandalf's own idea. But my father followed parts of the old text closely, while extending it in certain very important ways.

In Gandalf's reply to Bingo's question (original text p. 77) he says: 'I guessed much, but at first I said little. I thought that all was well with Bilbo, and that he was safe enough, for that kind of power was powerless over him. So I thought, and I was right in a way; but not quite right. I kept a. eye on him, of course, but perhaps I was not careful enough. I did not then know which of the many Rings this one was. Had I known I might have done differently - but perhaps not. But I know now.' His voice faded to a whisper. 'For I went back to the land of the Necromancer - twice.'(11) 'I am sure you have done everything you could,' said Bingo...

Gandalf says rather more about Bilbo: 'I was not greatly worried about Bilbo - his education was nearly complete, and I no longer felt responsible for him. He had to follow his own mind, when he had made it up.' And he speaks of the hobbits of the s.h.i.+re being 'enslaved' (as in FR, p. 58), not 'becoming Wraiths.'

But with Gandalf's reply to Bingo's 'I do not quite understand what all this has got to do with me and Bilbo and the Ring' my father departed altogether from the original text.

'To tell you the truth,' answered Gandalf, 'I believe he has. .h.i.therto, hitherto mind you, entirely overlooked the existence of hobbits - as Smaug the dragon had. For which you may be thankful. And I don't think even now that he particularly wants them: they would be obedient (perhaps), but not terribly useful servants. But there is such a thing as malice and revenge. Miserable hobbits would please him more than happy ones. As for what it has to do with you and the Ring: I think I can explain that - partly at any rate. I do not yet know quite all. Give me the Ring a minute.'

Bingo took it from his trouser pocket where it was clasped on a chain that went round him like a belt. 'Good,' said Gandalf. 'I see you keep it always on you. Go on doing so.' Bingo unclasped it and handed it to Gandalf. It felt heavy, as if either it, or Bingo, were in some curious way reluctant for Gandalf to touch it. It looked to be made of pure and solid gold, thick, flattened, and unjointed.(12) Gandalf held it up.

'Can you see any markings on it?' he said. 'No! ' said Bingo. 'It is quite plain, and does not even show any scratches or signs of wear.'

'Well then, look,' said Gandalf, and to Bingo's astonishment and distress the wizard threw it into the middle of a hot patch in the fire. Bingo gave a cry and groped for the poker; but Gandalf held him back. 'Wait! ' he said in commanding tones, giving Bingo a quick look from under his eyebrows.

No apparent change came over the Ring. After a while Gandalf got up, closed the shutters outside the round window, and drew the curtain. The room became dark and silent. The clack of Sam's shears, now nearer the hole, could be heard outside. Gandalf stood for a moment looking at the fire; then he stooped and removed the Ring with the tongs, and at once picked it up. Bingo gasped.

'It is quite cold,' said Gandalf. 'Take it! '

Bingo received it on his shrinking palm: it seemed colder and even heavier than before. 'Hold it up!' said Gandalf, 'and look inside.' As Bingo did so he saw fine lines, more fine than the finest The original description of the writing on the Ring. pen strokes, running along the inside of the Ring - lines of fire that seemed to form the letters of a strange alphabet. They shone bright, piercingly bright, and yet it seemed remotely, as if out of a great depth.

'I cannot read the fiery letters,' said Bingo in a quavering voice. 'No,' said Gandalf; 'but I can - now. The writing says: One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them.(13) That is part of a verse that I know now in full.

Three rings for the Elven-kings under the sky, Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone, Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die, One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne In the Land of Mor-dor where the shadows lie.

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them, In the land of Mor-dor where the shadows lie.(14) 'This,' said Gandalf, 'is the Master-ring: the One Ring to Rule them all! This is the One Ring that he lost many ages ago - to the great weakening of his power; and that he still so greatly desires.'(15) But he must not get it!'

Bingo sat silent and motionless. Fear seemed to stretch out a vast hand like a dark cloud, rising out of the East and looming up to engulf him. 'This Ring?' he stammered. 'How on earth did it come to me?'

'I can tell you the part of the story that I know,' answered Gandalf. 'In ancient days the Necromancer, the Dark Lord Sauron,(16) made many magic rings of various properties that gave various powers to their possessors. He dealt them out lavishly and sowed them abroad to ensnare all peoples, but specially Elves and Men. For those that used the rings, according to their strength and will and hearts, fell quicker or slower under the power of the rings, and the dominion of their maker.(17) Three, Seven, Nine and One he made of special potency,(18) for their possessors became not only invisible to all in this world, if they wished, but could see both the world under the sun and the other side in which invisible things move.(19) And they had (what is called) good luck, and (what seemed) endless life. Though, as I say, what power the Rings conferred on each possessor depended on what use they made of them - on what they were themselves, and what they desired. The Ring-verse, and the emergence of the Ruling Ring in the narrative. 'But the Rings were under the command of the maker and were always drawing the possessors back to him. For he retained the ruling Ring, which, when he wore it, enabled him to see all the others, and to see even the thoughts of those that possessed them.(20) But he lost this Ring, and consequently lost control of all the others. Slowly through the years he has been gathering them and seeking them out - hoping to find the lost One. But the Elves resist his power more than all other races; and the high-elves of the West, of whom some still remain in the middle-world, perceive and dwell at once both [in] this world and the other side without the aid of rings.(21) And they having suffered and fought long against Sauron are not easily drawn into his net, or deluded by him. What has become of the Three Rings of earth, air, and sky I do not know.(22) Some say they have been carried far over the sea. Others say that hidden Elf-kings still keep them. The dwarves too proved tough and intractable: for they do not lightly endure any obedience or domination (even of their own kind). Nor are they easily made into shadows. With the dwarves the chief power of the Rings was to kindle in their hearts the fire of greed (whence evil has come that has aided Sauron). It is said that the foundation of each of the Seven Great h.o.a.rds of the dwarves of old was a golden Ring. But it is said that those h.o.a.rds are plundered and the dragons have devoured them, and the Rings have perished molten in their fire; yet it is also said that not all the h.o.a.rds have been broken, and that still some of the Seven Rings are guarded.

'But all the Nine Rings of Men have gone back to Sauron, and borne with them their possessors, kings, warriors, and wizards of old,(23) who became Ring-wraiths and served the maker, and were his most terrible servants. Men indeed have most often been under his dominion, and are now again throughout the middle- earth (24) falling under his power, especially in the East and South of the world, where the Elves are few.'

'Ring-wraiths! ' exclaimed Bingo. 'What are they?'

'We will not speak of them now,' said Gandalf. 'Let us not speak of horrible things without need. They belong to the ancient days, and let us hope that they will never again arise. At least Gilgalad accomplished that.'(25) 'Who was Gilgalad?' asked Bingo.

'The one who bereft the Dark Lord of the One Ring,' answered Gandalf. 'He was the last in middle-earth of the great Elf-kings of the high western race, and he made alliance with Orendil (26) King of the Island who came back to the middle-world in those days. But I will not tell all that tale now. One day perhaps you may hear it from one who knows it truly. It is enough to say that they marched against Sauron and besieged him in his tower; and he came forth and wrestled with Gilgalad and Orendil, and was overthrown. But he forsook his bodily shape and fled like a ghost to waste places until he rested in Mirkwood and took shape again in the darkness. Gilgalad and Orendil were both mortally hurt and perished in the land of Mordor; but Isildor son of Orendil cut the One Ring from the finger of Sauron and took it for his own.(27) 'But when he marched back from Mordor, Isildor's host was overwhelmed by Goblins that swarmed down out of the mountains. And it is told that Isildor put on the Ring and vanished from their sight, but they trailed him by slot and scent, until he came to the banks of a wide river. Then Isildor plunged in and swam across, but the Ring betrayed him, (28) and slipped from his hand, and he became visible to his enemies; and they killed him with their arrows.(29) But a fish took the Ring and was filled with a madness, and swam up stream leaping over rocks and up waterfalls until it cast itself upon a bank, and spat out the Ring and died.' Gandalf paused. 'And there,' he said, 'the Ring pa.s.sed out of knowledge and legend; and even so much of the story is now known and remembered by few. Yet I can now add to it, I think.

'Long after, but still very long ago, there lived by the bank of a stream on the edge of Wilderland a wise clever-handed and quietfooted little family....

For Gollum's earlier history my father followed the original text (pp. 78 - 9) very closely indeed, only introducing a slight change of wording here and there: thus Digol is still Gollum himself, and not his friend. At the end of the pa.s.sage the words 'and even the Master lost it' become 'and even the maker, when his power had grown again, could learn nothing of it', and the following sentence, about the Necromancer counting his rings and always finding one missing, is of course removed. Gandalf's discussion of Gollum's mind and motives at the time of Bilbo's encounter with him (still of course based on the original story in The Hobbit, see p. 86) also remains very close to the old version (pp. 79 - 80). There are indeed many small improvements in the phrasing; but only two changes need be noticed. Gandalf's words about the longevity afforded to the possessor of the Ring (p. 79) are thus interestingly extended: ... Frightfully wearisome, Bingo, in fact finally tormenting (even if you do not become a Wraith). Only Elves can stand it, and even they fade.

And when Gandalf speaks of 'the unexpected arrival of Bilbo' (p. 80) he now goes on: ...You remember how surprised he was, and how soon he began talking of a present, though he gave himself a chance of keeping it if luck went that way. Even so I dare say his old habits might have beaten him in the end, and he might have tried to eat Bilbo, if it had been easy. But I am not sure: I guess he was using the Riddle Game (at which even a Gollum dare hardly cheat, as it is sacred and of immense antiquity) as a kind of toss-up to decide for him. And anyway Bilbo had the sword Sting, if you remember, so it was not easy.

But from the point where Bingo objects that Gollum never gave Bilbo the Ring, for Bilbo had it already, Gandalf's story takes a great step forward, with his announcement that he himself had found Gollum (in the original text there is no explanation of how he knew Gollum's history). I give the next part of the chapter, much of which is in a very rough state, in full.

'I know,' said Gandalf. 'And that is why I said that Gollum's ancestry only partly explained events. There was, of course, something much more mysterious behind the whole affair - something probably quite beyond the design of the Lord of the Rings himself, peculiar to Bilbo and his private Adventure. I can put it no clearer than by saying that Bilbo was 'meant' to have the Ring, and that he perhaps got involved in the Quest of the treasure mainly for that reason. In which case you were meant to have it. Which may (or may not) be a comforting thought. And there has also always been a queer fate over the Rings on their own account. They get lost, and turn up in strange places. The One had already slipped once from its owner and betrayed him to death. It had now slipped away from Gollum. But the evil they work according to their maker's design turns often to good that he did not intend, and even to his loss and defeat.(30) And that too may be a comforting thought, or not.'

'I don't find either of your thoughts very encouraging,' said Bingo; 'though I don't really understand what you mean. But how do you come to know or guess so much about Gollum?'

'As for the guessing, or the putting of one and one and one together, much of that has not been very difficult,' said Gandalf. 'The Ring that you had of Bilbo, and Bilbo had of Gollum, is shown by the fire-writing to be the One Ring. And concerning that the tale of Gilgalad and Isildor is known - to the wise. The filling in of the tale of Gollum and fitting it into the gap presents no special difficulty: to one who knows much about the history and the minds and ways of the creatures of middle-earth that he does not tell you. What was the first riddle Gollum asked: do you remember? '