The History of LotR - Chapter-by-Chapter Companion

[Estelyn Telcontar]

Moving on to the current parallel chapter, I find it very interesting to read that the horse and rider showed up in an early draft, but that they weren’t a Black Rider as yet. As a matter of fact, it was Gandalf who showed up! This seems typical for Tolkien’s style of writing – a character appears without being planned, and his identity is gradually developed. CT says that the idea of the rider being Gandalf was abandoned almost immediately, though the fact that he sniffed stayed! In his comments at the end of this chapter, he writes:

…it is deeply characteristic that these scenes emerged at once in the clear and memorable form that was never changed, but that their bearing and significance would afterwards be enormously enlarged. The ‘event’ (one might say) was fixed, but its meaning capable of indefinite extension; and this is seen, over and over again, as a prime mark of my father’s writing.

In the light of later developments, as we’re discussing on the Chapter 3 thread, I find this sentence strangely ominous: “There was no danger: for they were still in the Shire.” Not much later, a black rider appears.

It’s interesting that the poems are very close to their final versions in these early drafts. Apparently Tolkien was more certain of them than of the narrative.

The conversation with Gildor diverges from the final version in several passages. The one I found most fascinating was Bingo’s explanation of his reasons for leaving the Shire at this time.

I had come to the end of my treasure. It had always held me back from the Journey which half of my heart wished for… So I said to my stay-at-home half; “There is nothing to keep you here. The Journey might bring you some more treasure, as it did for old Bilbo; and anyway on the road you will be able to live more easily without any. Of course if you like to stay in Hobbiton and earn your living as a gardener or a carpenter, you can.” The stay-at-home half surrendered; it did not want to make other people’s chairs or grow other people’s potatoes. It was soft and fat. I think the Journey will do it good. But of course the other half is not really looking for treasure, but for Adventure – later rather than sooner. At the moment it also is soft and fat, and finding walking over the Shire quite enough.

Here we see the torn Frodo again – half adventurous and half homebody. We also see the well-to-do gentleman – or rather, gentlehobbit! – who is not used to working himself. And we see wealth as a stumbling block to adventure.

Gildor’s answer is this:

…If you go looking for Adventure, you usually find as much of it as you can manage. And it often happens that when you think it is ahead, it comes on you unexpectedly from behind.

He does give advice in the early version, though he says that Elves seldom do; he advises Bingo to go to Rivendell, as well as telling him not to identify himself to a Rider, and not to use the ring to escape, saying:

…I guess that the use of the ring helps them more than you.

In the final version, there is no direct mention of the ring in this conversation.