J.R.R. Tolkien - The History of Middle-Earth

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CONTENTS.

Foreword page 1.

THE FIRST PHASE.

I A LONG-EXPECTED PARTY II

II FROM HOBBITON TO THE WOODY END

III OF GOLLUM AND THE RING 73

IV TO MAGGOT'S FARM AND BUCKLAND 88

V THE OLD FOREST AND THE

WITHYWINDLE 110

VI TOM BOMBADIL 117

VII THE BARROW-WIGHT 125

VIII ARRIVAL AT BREE 132

IX TROTTER AND THE JOURNEY TO

WEATH ERTOP 148

X THE ATTACK ON WEATHERTOP 177

XI FROM WEATHERTOP TO THE FORD 190

XII AT RIVENDELL 206

XIII 'QUERIES AND ALTERATIONS' 220

THE SECOND PHASE

XIV RETURN TO HOBBITON 233

XV ANCIENT HISTORY 250

XVI DELAYS ARE DANGEROUS 273

XVII A SHORT CUT TO MUSHROOMS 286

XVIII AGAIN FROM BUCKLAND TO THE

WITHYWINDLE 298

THE THIRD PHASE

XIX THE THIRD PHASE (1):

THE JOURNEY TO BREE 309

page

XX THE THIRD PHASE (2):

AT THE SIGN OF THE PRANCING PONY 331

XXI THE THIRD PHASE (3):

TO WEATHERTOP AND RIVENDELL 352

XXII NEW UNCERTAINTIES AND NEW

PROJECTIONS 369

THE STORY CONTINUED

XXIII IN THE HOUSE OF ELROND 391

XXIV THE RING GOES SOUTH 415

XXV THE MINES OF MORIA 442

Index 468

ILLUSTRATIONS

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Map of the Shire frontispiece

The original opening page of The Lord of the Rings 12

The original description of the writing on the Ring 257

The Ring-verse, and the emergence of the Ruling Ring in

the narrative 259

Planof Bree 335

The emergence of Treebeard 383

The earliest map of the lands south of the Map of Wilderland

in The Hobbit 439

The inscription of the West Gate of Moria 450

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FOREWORD.

As is well known, the manuscripts and typescripts of The Lord of

the Rings were sold by J. R. R. Tolkien to Marquette University,

Milwaukee, a few years after its publication, together with those of

The Hobbit and Farmer Giles of Ham, and also Mr. Bliss. A long

time elapsed between the shipment of these latter papers, which

reached Marquette in July 1957, and that of The Lord of the Rings,

which did not arrive until the following year. The reason for this

was that my father had undertaken to sort, annotate, and date the

multifarious manuscripts of The Lord of the Rings, but found it

impossible at that time to do the work required. It is clear that he

never did so, and in the end let the papers go just as they were; it

was noted when they reached Marquette that they were 'in no

order'. Had he done so, he must have seen at that time that, very

large though the manuscript collection was, it was nonetheless

incomplete.

Seven years later, in 1965, when he was working on the revision

of The Lord of the Rings, he wrote to the Director of Libraries at

Marquette, asking if a certain scheme of dates and events in the

narrative was to be found there, since he had 'never made out any

full schedule or note of the papers transferred to you.' In this letter

he explained that the transfer had taken place at a time when his

papers were dispersed between his house in Headington (Oxford)

and his rooms in Merton College; and he also said that he now

found himself still in possession of 'written matter' that 'should

belong to you'. when he had finished the revision of The Lord of

the Rings he would look into the question. But he did not do so.

These papers passed to me on his death eight years later; but

though Humphrey Carpenter made reference to them in his

Biography (1977) and cited from them some early notes, I neglec-

ted them for many years, being absorbed in the long work of

tracing the evolution of the-narratives of the Elder Days, the

legends of Beleriand and Valinor. The publication of Volume III

of 'The History of Middle-earth' was already approaching before I

had any idea that the 'History' might extend to an account of the

writing of The lard of the Rings. During the last three years,

however, I have been engaged at intervals in the decipherment

and analysis of The Lord of the Rings manuscripts in my possession

(a task still far from completed). It has emerged from this that the

papers left behind in 1958 consist largely of the earliest phases

of composition, although in some cases (and most notably in the

first chapter, which was rewritten many times over) successive

versions found among these papers bring the narrative to an

advanced state. In general, however, it was only the initial notes

and earliest drafts, with outlines for the further course of the

story, that remained in England when the great bulk of the papers

went to Marquette.

I do not of course know how it came about that these particular

manuscripts came to be left out of the consignment to Marquette;

but I think that an explanation in general terms can be found

readily enough. Immensely prolific as my father was ('I found not

being able to use a pen or pencil as defeating as the loss of her beak

would be to a hen,' he wrote to Stanley Unwin in 1963, when

suffering from an ailment in his right arm), constantly revising,

re-using, beginning again, but never throwing any of his writing

away, his papers became inextricably complex, disorganised, and

dispersed. It does not seem likely that at the time of the transfer to

Marquette he would have been greatly concerned with or have had

any precise recollection of the early drafts, some of them sup-

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planted and overtaken as much as twenty years before; and

no doubt they had long since been set aside, forgotten, and

buried.

However this may be, it is self-evidently desirable that the

separated manuscripts should be joined together again, and the

whole corpus preserved in one place. This must have been my

father's intention at the time of the original sale; and accordingly

the manuscripts at present in my keeping will be handed over to

Marquette University.

The greater part of the material cited or described in this book is

found in the papers that remained behind; but the third section of

the book (called 'The Third Phase') constituted a difficult prob-

lem, because in this case the manuscripts were divided. Most of

the chapters in this 'phase' of composition went to Marquette in

1958, but substantial parts of several of them did not. These parts

had become separated because my father had rejected them, while

using the remainder as constituent elements in new versions. The

interpretation of this part of the history would have been alto-

gether impossible without very full co-operation from Marquette,

and this I have abundantly received. Above all, Mr Taum Santoski

has engaged with great skill and care in a complex operation in

which we have exchanged over many months annotated copies of

the texts; and it has been possible in this way to determine the

textual history, and to reconstruct the original manuscripts which

my father himself dismembered nearly half a century ago. I record

with pleasure and deep appreciation the generous assistance that I

have received from him, and also from Mr Charles B. Elston, the

Archivist of the Memorial Library at Marquette, from Mr John

D. Rateliff, and from Miss Tracy Muench.

This attempt to give an account of the first stages in the writing

of The Lard of the Rings has been beset by other difficulties than

the fact of the manuscripts being widely sundered; difficulties

primarily in the interpretation of the sequence of writing, but also

in the presentation of the results in a printed book.

Briefly, the writing proceeded in a series of 'waves' or (as I have

called them in this book) 'phases'. The first chapter was itself

reconstituted three times before the hobbits ever left Hobbiton,

but the story then went all the way to Rivendell before the impulse

failed. My father then started again from the beginning (the

'second phase'), and then again (the 'third phase'); and as new nar-

rative elements and new names and relations among the characters

appeared they were written into previous drafts, at different

times. Parts of a text were taken out and used elsewhere. Alter-

native versions were incorporated into the same manuscript, so

that the story could be read in more than one way according to the

directions given. To determine the sequence of these exceedingly

complex movements with demonstrable correctness at all points is

scarcely possible. One or-two dates that my father wrote in are

insufficient to give more than very limited assistance, and refer-

ences to the progress of the work in his letters are unclear and hard

to interpret. Differences of script can be very misleading. Thus

the determination of the history of composition has to be based

very largely on clues afforded by the evolution of names and

motives in the narrative itself; but in this there is every possibility

of going astray through mistaking the relative dates of additions

and alterations. Exemplification of these problems will be found

throughout the book. I do not suppose for one moment that I have

succeeded in determining the history correctly at every point:

indeed there remain several cases where the evidence appears to be

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contradictory and I can offer no solution. The nature of the

manuscripts is such that they will probably always admit of

differing interpretations. But the sequence of composition that I

propose, after much experimentation with alternative theories,

seems to me to fit the evidence very much the best.

The earliest plot-outlines and narrative drafts are often barely

legible, and become more difficult as the work proceeded. Using

any scrap of the wretched paper of the war years that came to hand

- sometimes writing not merely on the backs of examination

scripts but across the scripts themselves - my father would dash

down elliptically his thoughts for the story to come, and his first

formulations of narrative, at tearing speed. In the handwriting

that he used for rapid drafts and sketches, not intended to endure

long before he turned to them again and gave them a more

workable form, letters are so loosely formed that a word which

cannot be deduced or guessed at from the context or from later

versions can prove perfectly opaque after long examination; and

if, as he often did, he used a soft pencil much has now become

blurred and faint. This must be borne in mind throughout: the

earliest drafts were put urgently to paper just as the first words

came to mind and before the thought dissolved, whereas the

printed text (apart from a sprinkling of dots and queries in the face

of illegibility) inevitably conveys an air of calm and ordered

composition, the phrasing weighed and intended.

Turning to the way in which the material is presented in this

book, the most intractable problem lies in the development of

the story through successive drafts, always changing but always

closely dependent on what preceded. In the rather extreme case of

the opening chapter 'A Long-expected Party', there are in this

book six main texts to be considered and a number of abandoned

openings. A complete presentation of all the material for this one

chapter would almost constitute a book in itself, not to speak of a

mass of repetition or near-repetition. On the other hand, a suc-

cession of texts reduced to extracts and short citations (where the

versions differ significantly from their predecessors) is not easy to

follow, and if the development is traced at all closely this method

also takes up much space. There is no really satisfactory solution

to this. The editor must take responsibility for selecting and

emphasizing those elements that he considers most interesting and

most significant. In general I give the earliest narrative complete,

or nearly complete, in each chapter, as the basis to which sub-

sequent development can be referred. Different treatment of

the manuscripts calls for different arrangement of the editorial

element: where texts are given more or less in full much use is

made of numbered notes (which may constitute an important part

of the presentation of a complex text), but where they are not the

chapter proceeds rather as a discussion with citations.

My father bestowed immense pains on the creation of The Lord

of the Rings, and my intention has been that this record of his first

years of work on it should reflect those pains. The first part of the

story, before the Ring left Rivendell, took by far the most labour

to achieve (hence the length of this book in relation to the whole

story); and the doubts, indecisions, unpickings, restructurings,

and false starts have been described. The result is necessarily

extremely intricate; but whereas it would be possible to recount

the history in a greatly reduced and abbreviated form, I am

convinced that to omit difficult detail or to oversimplify problems

and explanations would rob the study of its essential interest.

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My object has been to give an account of the writing of The Lord

of the Rings, to exhibit the subtle process of change that could

transform the significance of events and the identity of persons

while preserving those scenes and the words that were spoken

from the earliest drafts. I therefore (for example) pursue in detail

the history of the two hobbits who ultimately issued in Peregrin

Took and Fredegar Bolger, but only after the most extraordinary

permutations and coalescences of name, character, and role; on

the other hand I refrain from all discussion that is not directly

relevant to the evolution of the narrative.

In the nature of the book, I assume conversance with The

Fellowship of the Ring, and comparison is made throughout of

course with the published work. Page-references to The Fellow-

ship of the Ring (abbreviated FR) are given to the three-volume

hardback edition of The Lord of the Rings (LR) published by

George Allen and Unwin (now Unwin Hyman) and Houghton

Mifflin Company, this being the edition common to both England

and America, but I think that it will be found in fact that almost

all such references can be readily traced in any edition, since the

precise point referred to in the final form of the story is nearly

always evident from the context.

In the 'first phase' of writing, which took the story to Rivendell,

most of the chapters were title-less, and subsequently there was

much shifting in the division of the story into chapters, with

variation in titles and numbers. I have thought it best therefore to

avoid confusion by giving many of my chapters simple descriptive

titles, such as 'From Hobbiton to the Woody End', indicating the

content rather than relating them to the chapter-titles in The

Fellowship of the Ring. As a title for the book it seemed suitable to

take one of my father's own suggested but abandoned titles for the

first volume of The Lord of the Rings. In a letter to Rayner Unwin

of 8 August 1953 (The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, no. 139) he

proposed The Return of the Shadow.

No account is given in this book of the history of the writing of

The Hobbtit up to its original publication in 1937, aithough, from

the nature of its relationship to The Lord of the Rings, the

published work is constantly referred to. That relationship is

curious and complex. My father several times expressed his view

of it, but most fully and (as I think) most accurately in the course

of a long letter to Christopher Bretherton written in July 1964

(Letters no. 257).

I returned to Oxford in Jan. 1926, and by the time The Hobbit

appeared (1937) this 'matter of the Elder Days' was in coherent

form. The Hobbit was not intended to have anything to do with

it. I had the habit while my children were still young of invent-

ing and telling orally, sometimes of writing down, 'children's

stories' for their private amusement... The Hobbit was

intended to be one of them. It had no necessary connexion with

the 'mythology', but naturally became attracted towards this

dominant construction in my mind, causing the tale to become

larger and more heroic as it proceeded. Even so it could really

stand quite apart, except for the references (unnecessary,

though they give an impression of historical depth) to the Fall of

Gondolin, the branches of the Elfkin, and the quarrel of King

Thingol, Luthien's father, with the Dwarves....

The magic ring was the one obvious thing in The Hobbit that

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could be connected with my mythology. To be the burden of a

large story it had to be of supreme importance. I then linked it

with the (originally) quite casual reference to the Necromancer,

whose function was hardly more than to provide a reason for

Gandalf going away and leaving Bilbo and the Dwarves to fend

for themselves, which was necessary for the tale. From The

Hobbit are also derived the matter of the Dwarves, Durin their

prime ancestor, and Moria; and Elrond. The passage in Ch. iii

relating him to the Half-elven of the mythology was a fortunate

accident, due to the difficulty of constantly inventing good

names for new characters. I gave him the name Elrond casually,

but as this came from the mythology (Elros and Elrond the two

sons of Earendel) I made him half-elven. Only in The Lord was

he identified with the son of Earendel, and so the great-

grandson of Luthien and Beren, a great power and a Ringholder.

How my father saw The Hobbit - specifically in relation to 'The

Silmarillion' - at the time of its publication is shown clearly in the

letter that he wrote to G. E. Selby on 14 December 1937:

I don't much approve of The Hobbit myself, preferring my own

mythology (which is just touched on) with its consistent no-

menclature - Elrond, Gondolin, and Esgaroth have escaped out

of it - and organized history, to this rabble of Eddaic-named

dwarves out of Voluspa, newfangled hobbits and gollums (in-

vented in an idle hour) and Anglo-Saxon runes.

The importance of The Hobbit in the history of the evolution of

Middle-earth lies then, at this time, in the fact that it was pub-

lished, and that a sequel to it was demanded. As a result, from the

nature of The Lord of the Rings as it evolved, The Hobbit was

drawn into Middle-earth - and transformed it; but as it stood in

I937 it was not a part of it. Its significance for Middle-earth lies in

what it would do, not in what it was.

Later, The Lord of the Rings in turn reacted upon The Hobbit

itself, in published and in (far more extensive) unpublished

revisions of the text; but all that lies of course far in the future at

the point which this History has reached.

In the manuscripts of The Lord of the Rings there is extreme

inconsistency in such matters as the use of capital letters and

hyphens, and the separation of elements in compound names. In

my representation of the texts I have not imposed any standard-

ization in this respect, though using consistent forms in my own

discussions.

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THE FIRST PHASE.

I.

A LONG-EXPECTED PARTY.

(i)

The First Version.

The original written starting-point of The Lord of the Rings - its 'first

germ', as my father scribbled on the text long after - has been preserved:

a manuscript of five pages entitled A long-expected party. I think that it

must have been to this (rather than to a second, unfinished, draft that

soon followed it) that my father referred when on 19 December 1937 he

wrote to Charles Furth at Allen and Unwin: 'I have written the first

chapter of a new story about Hobbits - "A long expected party".' Only

three days before he had written to Stanley Unwin:

I think it is plain that... a sequel or successor to The Hobbit is called

for. I promise to give this thought and attention. But I am sure you will

sympathize when I say that the construction of elaborate and consis-

tent mythology (and two languages) rather occupies the mind, and the

Silmarils are in my heart. So that goodness knows what will happen.

Mr Baggins began as a comic tale among conventional Grimm's fairy-

tale dwarves, and got drawn into the edge of it - so that even Sauron

the terrible peeped over the edge. And what more can hobbits do?

They can be comic, but their comedy is suburban unless it is set

against things more elemental.

From this it seems plain that on the 16th of December he had not only not

begun writing, but in all probability had not even given thought to the

substance of 'a new story about Hobbits'. Not long before he had parted

with the manuscript of the third version of The Silmarillion to Allen and

Unwin; it was unfinished, and he was still deeply immersed in it. In a

postscript to this letter to Stanley Unwin he acknowledged, in fact, the

return of The Silmarillion (and other things) later on that day. None-

theless, he must have begun on the new story there and then.

When he first put pen to paper he wrote in large letters 'When M', but

he stopped before completing the final stroke of the M and wrote instead

'When Bilbo...' The text begins in a handsome script, but the writing

becomes progessively faster and deteriorates at the end into a rapid

scrawl not at all points legible. There are a good many alterations to the

manuscript. The text that follows represents the original form as I judge

it to have been, granting that what is 'original' and what is not cannot be

perfectly distinguished. Some changes can be seen to have been made at

the moment of writing, and these are taken up into the text; but others

are characteristic anticipations of the following version, and these are

ignored. In any case it is highly probable that my father wrote the

versions of this opening chapter in quick succession. Notes to this

version follow immediately on the end of the text (p. 17).

A long-expected party (1).

When Bilbo, son of Bungo of the family of Baggins, [had

celebrated >] prepared to celebrate his seventieth birthday there

was for a day or two some talk in the neighbourhood. He had once

had a little fleeting fame among the people of Hobbiton and

Bywater - he had disappeared after breakfast one April 30th and

not reappeared until lunchtime on June 22nd in the following

year. A very odd proceeding for which he had never given any

good reason, and of which he wrote a nonsensical account. After

that he returned to normal ways; and the shaken confidence of the

district was gradually restored, especially as Bilbo seemed by

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some unexplained method to have become more than comfortably

off, if not positively wealthy. Indeed it was the magnificence of the

party rather than the fleeting fame that at first caused the talk -

after all that other odd business had happened some twenty years

before and was becoming decently forgotten. The magnificence of

the preparations for the party, I should say. The field to the south

of his front door was being covered with pavilions. Invitations

were being sent out to all the Bagginses and all the Tooks (his

relatives on his mother's side), and to the Grubbs (only remotely

connected); and to the Burroweses, the Boffinses, the Chubbses

and the Proudfeet: none of whom were connected at all within the

memory of the local historians - some of them lived on the other

side of the shire; but they were all, of course, hobbits. Even the

Sackville-Bagginses, his cousins on his father's side, were not

forgotten. There had been a feud between them and Mr Bilbo

Baggins, as some of you may remember. But so splendid was the

invitation-card, all written in gold, that they were induced to

accept; besides, their cousin had been specializing in good food

for a long time, and his tables had a high reputation even in that

time and country when food was still what it ought to be and

abundant enough for all folk to practise on.

Everyone expected a pleasant feast; though they rather dreaded

the after-dinner speech of their host. He was liable to drag in bits

of what he called poetry, and even to allude, after a glass or two, to

the absurd adventures he said he had had long ago during his

ridiculous vanishment. They had a eery pleasant feast: indeed an

engrossing entertainment. The purchase of provisions fell almost

to zero throughout the whole shire during the ensuing week; but

as Mr Baggins' catering had emptied all the stores, cellars and

warehouses for miles around, that did not matter. Then came the

speech. Most of the assembled hobbits were now in a tolerant

mood, and their former fears were forgotten. They were prepared

to listen to anything, and to cheer at every full stop. But they were

not prepared to be startled. But they were - completely and

unprecedentedly startled; some even had indigestion.

'My dear people,' began Mr Baggins. 'Hear, hear!' they replied

in chorus. 'My dear Bagginses,' he went on, standing now on his

chair, so that the light of the lanterns that illuminated the enor-

mous pavilion flashed upon the gold buttons of his embroidered

waistcoat for all to see. 'And my dear Tooks, and Grubbs,

and Chubbs, and Burroweses, and Boffinses, and Proudfoots.'(2)

'Proudfeet' shouted an elderly hobbit from the back. His name of

course was Proudfoot, and merited; his feet were large, exception-

ally furry, and both were on the table. 'Also my dear Sackville-

Bagginses that I welcome back at last to Bag-end,' Bilbo con-

tinued. 'Today is my seventieth birthday.' 'Hurray hurray and

many happy returns! ' they shouted. That was the sort of stuff they

liked: short, obvious, uncontroversial.

'I hope you are all enjoying yourselves as much as I am.'

Deafening cheers, cries of yes (and no), and noises of trumpets

and whistles. There were a great many junior hobbits present, as

hobbits were indulgent to their children, especially if there was a

chance of an extra meal. Hundreds of musical crackers had been

pulled. Most of them were labelled 'Made in Dale'. What that

meant only Bilbo and a few of his Took-nephews knew; but they

were very marvellous crackers. 'I have called you all together,'

Bilbo went on when the last cheer died away, and something in his

voice made a few of the Tooks prick up their ears. 'First of all to

tell you that I am immensely fond of you, and that seventy years is

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too short a time to live among such excellent and charming hobbits'

- 'hear hear!''I don't know half of you half as well as I should like,

and less than half of you half as well as you deserve.' No cheers, a few

claps - most of them were trying to work it out. 'Secondly to

celebrate my birthday and the twentieth year of my return' - an

uncomfortable rustle. 'Lastly to make an Announcement.' He said

this very loud and everybody sat up who could. 'Goodbye! I am

going away after dinner. Also I am going to get married.'

He sat down. The silence was flabbergastation. It was broken

only by Mr Proudfoot, who kicked over the table; Mrs Proudfoot

choked in the middle of a drink.

That's that. It merely serves to explain that Bilbo Baggins got

married and had many children, because I am going to tell you a

story about one of his descendants, and if you had only read his

memoirs up to the date of Balin's visit - ten years at least before

this birthday party - you might have been puzzled.(3)

As a matter of fact Bilbo Baggins disappeared silently and

unnoticed - the ring was in his hand even while he made his speech

- in the middle of the confused outburst of talk that followed the

flabbergasted silence. He was never seen in Hobbiton again.

When the carriages came for the guests there was no one to say

good-bye to. The carriages rolled away, one after another, filled

with full but oddly unsatisfied hobbits. Gardeners came (by

appointment) and cleared away in wheelbarrows those that had

inadvertently remained. Night settled down and passed. The sun

rose. People came to clear away the pavilions and the tables and

the chairs and the lanterns and the flowering trees in boxes, and

the spoons and knives and plates and forks, and crumbs, and the

uneaten food - a very small parcel. Lots of other people came too.

Bagginses and Sackville-Bagginses and Tooks, and people with

even less business. By the middle of the morning (when even the

best-fed were out and about again) there was quite a crowd at

Bag-end, uninvited but not unexpected. ENTER was painted on a

large white board outside the great front-door. The door was

open. On everything inside there was a label tied. 'For Mungo

Took, with love from Bilbo'; 'For Semolina Baggins, with love

from her nephew', on a waste-paper basket - she had written him a

deal of letters (mostly of good advice). 'For Caramella Took, with

kind remembrances from her uncle', on a clock in the hall.

Though unpunctual she had been a niece he rather liked, until

coming late one day to tea she had declared his clock was fast.

Bilbo's clocks were never either slow or fast, and he did not forget

it. 'For Obo Took- Took, from his great-nephew', on a feather

bed; Obo was seldom awake before i a noon or after tea, and

snored. 'For Gorboduc Grubb with best wishes from B. Baggins'

-on a gold fountain-pen; he never answered letters. 'For Angelica's

use' on a mirror - she was a young Baggins and thought herself

very comely.(4) 'For Inigo Grubb-Took', on a complete dinner-

service - he was the greediest hobbit known to history. 'For

Amalda Sackville-Baggins as a present', on a case of silver spoons.

She was the wife of Bilbo's cousin, the one he had discovered years

ago on his return measuring his dining-room (you may remember

his suspicions about disappearing spoons: anyway neither he nor

Amalda had forgotten).(5)

Of course there were a thousand and one things in Bilbo's

house, and all had labels- most of them with some point (which

sank in after a time). The whole house-furniture was disposed of,

but not a penny piece of money, nor a brass ring of jewelry, was to

file:///D|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Tolkien...y_Of_Middle_Earth_Series_06_-_(txt)/vol06/GL1.TXT (3 of 160) [7/12/2004 1:33:33 PM]

J.R.R. Tolkien - The History of Middle-Earth - 06

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