iii
THE FELLOWSHIP
OF THE RING
being the first part of
THE LORD OF THE RINGS
by
J.R.R. TOLKIEN
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 Mordor 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 Mordor where the Shadows lie.
.
CONTENTS
Note on the Text
ix
Note on the 50th Anniversary Edition
xviii
Foreword to the Second Edition
xxiii
Prologue Concerning Hobbits, and other
matters 1
book one
I A Long-expected Party 27
II The Shadow of the Past 55
III Three is Company 85
IV A Short Cut to Mushrooms 112
V A Conspiracy Unmasked 128
VI The Old Forest 143
VII In the House of Tom Bombadil 161
VIII Fog on the Barrow-downs 176
IX At the Sign of The Prancing Pony 195
X Strider 213
XI A Knife in the Dark 230
XII Flight to the Ford 257
book two
I Many Meetings 285
II The Council of Elrond 311
III The Ring Goes South 354
.
NOTE ON THE TEXT
J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings is often erroneously
called a trilogy, when it is in fact a single novel, consisting
of six books plus appendices, sometimes published in three
volumes.
The first volume, The Fellowship of the Ring, was published
in Great Britain by the London firm George Allen & Unwin
on 29 July 1954; an American edition followed on 21 October
of the same year, published by Houghton Mifflin Company
of Boston. In the production of this first volume, Tolkien
experienced what became for him a continual problem:
printer’s errors and compositor’s mistakes, including well-
intentioned ‘corrections’ of his sometimes idiosyncratic
usage. These ‘corrections’ include the altering of dwarves to
dwarfs, elvish to elfish, further to farther, nasturtians to nastur-
tiums, try and say to try to say and (‘worst of all’ to Tolkien)
elven to elfin. In a work such as The Lord of the Rings,
containing invented languages and delicately constructed
nomenclatures, errors and inconsistencies impede both the
understanding and the appreciation of serious readers – and
Tolkien had many such readers from very early on. Even
before the publication of the third volume, which contained
much hitherto unrevealed information on the invented lan-
guages and writing systems, Tolkien received many letters
from readers written in these systems, in addition to numer-
ous enquiries on the finer points of their usage.
The second volume, The Two Towers, was published in
England on 11 November 1954 and in the United States on
21 April 1955. Meanwhile Tolkien worked to keep a promise
he had made in the foreword to volume one: that ‘an index
of names and strange words’ would appear in the third vol-
ume. As originally planned, this index would contain much
etymological information on the languages, particularly on
the elven tongues, with a large vocabulary. It proved the chief
xii note on the text
cause of the delay in publishing volume three, which in the
end contained no index at all, only an apology from the
publisher for its absence. For Tolkien had abandoned work
on it after indexing volumes one and two, believing its size
and therefore its cost to be ruinous.
Volume three, The Return of the King, finally appeared in
England on 20 October 1955 and in the United States on
5 January 1956. With the appearance of the third volume,
The Lord of the Rings was published in its entirety, and its
first edition text remained virtually unchanged for a decade.
Tolkien had made a few small corrections, but further errors
entered The Fellowship of the Ring in its December 1954
second impression when the printer, having distributed the
type after the first printing, reset the book without informing
the author or publisher. These include misrepresentations of
the original printed text – that is, words and phrases that
read acceptably in context, but which depart from Tolkien’s
wording as originally written and published.
In 1965, stemming from what then appeared to be copy-
right problems in the United States, an American paperback
firm published an unauthorized and non-royalty-paying edi-
tion of The Lord of the Rings. For this new edition by Ace
Books the text of the narrative was reset, thus introducing
new typographical errors; the appendices, however, were
reproduced photographically from the hardcover edition, and
remain consistent with it.
Tolkien set to work on his first revision of the text so that
a newly revised and authorized edition could successfully
compete on the American market. This first revision of the
text was published in America in paperback by Ballantine
Books, under licence from Houghton Mifflin, in October
1965. In addition to revisions within the text itself, Tolkien
replaced his original foreword with a new one. He was pleased
to remove the original foreword; in his check copy, he
wrote of it: ‘confusing (as it does) real personal matters with
the ‘‘machinery’’ of the Tale, is a serious mistake’. Tolkien
also added an extension to the prologue and an index – not
note on the text xiii
the detailed index of names promised in the first edition,
but, rather, a bald index with only names and page refer-
ences. Additionally, at this time the appendices were greatly
revised.
Tolkien received his copies of the Ballantine edition in late
January 1966, and in early February he recorded in his diary
that he had ‘worked for some hours on the Appendices in
Ballantine version & found more errors than I at first
expected’. Soon after this he sent a small number of further
revisions to Ballantine for the appendices, including the now
well-known addition of ‘Estella Bolger’ as wife of Meriadoc
in the family trees in Appendix C. Most of these revisions,
which entered variously in the third and fourth impressions
( June and August 1966) of volume three, and which were
not always inserted correctly (thereby causing further con-
fusion in the text), somehow never made it into the main
sequence of revision in the three-volume British hardcover
edition, and for long remained anomalies. Tolkien once
wrote, concerning the revising of The Lord of the Rings, that
perhaps he had failed to keep his notes in order; this errant
branch of revision seems likely to be an example of that
disorder – either in his notes or in the ability of his publishers
to follow them with utmost accuracy.
The revised text first appeared in Great Britain in a three-
volume hardcover ‘Second Edition’ from Allen & Unwin on
27 October 1966. But again there were problems. Although
the revisions Tolkien sent to America of the text itself were
available to be utilized in the new British edition, his extensive
revisions to the appendices were lost after being entered into
the Ballantine edition. Allen & Unwin were forced to reset the
appendices using the copy as published in the first Ballantine
edition. This did not include Tolkien’s second, small set of
revisions sent to Ballantine; but, more significantly, it did
include a great number of errors and omissions, many of
which were not discovered until long afterwards. Thus, in
the appendices, a close scrutiny of the first edition text and
of the much later corrected impressions of the second edition
xiv note on the text
is necessary to discern whether any particular change in this
edition is authorial or erroneous.
In America, the revised text appeared in hardcover in the
three-volume edition published by Houghton Mifflin on
27 February 1967. This text was evidently photo-offset from
the 1966 Allen & Unwin three-volume hardcover, and is thus
consistent with it. Aside from the first printing of this second
Houghton Mifflin edition, which has a 1967 date on the title
page, none of the many reprintings is dated. After the initial
printings of this edition, which bore a 1966 copyright notice,
the date of copyright was changed in 1965 to match the
statement in the Ballantine edition. This change has caused
a great deal of confusion for librarians and other researchers
who have tried to sort out the sequence of publication of
these editions.
Meanwhile, Tolkien spent much of the summer of 1966
further revising the text. In June he learned that any more
revisions were too late for inclusion in the 1966 Allen &
Unwin second edition, and he recorded in his diary: ‘But I
am attempting to complete my work [on the revisions] – I
cannot leave it while it is all in my mind. So much time has
been wasted in all my work by this constant breaking of
threads.’ This was the last major set of revisions Tolkien
himself made to the text during his lifetime. They were added
to the second impression (1967) of the three-volume hard-
cover Allen & Unwin second edition. The revisions them-
selves mostly include corrections of nomenclature and
attempts at consistency of usage throughout the three vol-
umes. Some small alterations were made by Tolkien in the
1969 one-volume India paper edition.
J.R.R. Tolkien died in 1973. His third son and literary
executor, Christopher Tolkien, sent a large number of further
corrections of misprints, mainly in the appendices and index,
to Allen & Unwin for use in their editions in 1974. Most of
these corrections were typographical, and in line with his
father’s expressed intent in his own check copies.
Since 1974, Christopher Tolkien has sent additional cor-
note on the text xv
rections, as errors have been discovered, to the British pub-
lishers of The Lord of the Rings (Allen & Unwin, later Unwin
Hyman, and now HarperCollins), who have tried to be con-
scientious in the impossible task of maintaining a textual
integrity in whichever editions of The Lord of the Rings they
have published. However, every time the text has been reset
for publication in a new format (e.g. the various paperback
editions published in England in the 1970s and 1980s), huge
numbers of new misprints have crept in, though at times
some of these errors have been observed and corrected in
later printings. Still, throughout these years the three-volume
British hardcover edition has retained the highest textual
integrity.
In the United States, the text of the Ballantine paperback
has remained unchanged for more than three decades after
Tolkien added his few revisions in 1966. The text in all of
the Houghton Mifflin editions remained unchanged from
1967 until 1987, when Houghton Mifflin photo-offset the
then current three-volume British hardcover edition in order
to update the text used in their editions. In those new
reprintings a number of further corrections (overseen by
Christopher Tolkien) were added, and the errant Ballantine
branch of revision (including the ‘Estella Bolger’ addition)
was integrated into the main branch of textual descent. This
method of correction involved a cut-and-paste process with
printed versions of the text. Beginning with the 1987 Hough-
ton Mifflin edition, an earlier version of this ‘Note on the
Text’ (dated October 1986) was added to The Lord of the
Rings. This ‘Note’ has been reworked three times since then
– the version dated April 1993 first appeared in 1994, and
the version dated April 2002 came out later that year. The
present ‘Note’ replaces and supersedes all previous versions.
For the 1994 British edition published by HarperCollins,
the text of The Lord of the Rings was entered into word-
processing files. This next stage of textual evolution came
about to allow for a greater uniformity of the text in all future
editions, but with it, inevitably, came new wrinkles. Some
xvi note on the text
new misreadings entered into the text, while at the same time
others were fixed. In the worst instance, one line of the ring
inscription in the chapter ‘The Shadow of the Past’ of The
Fellowship of the Ring was simply dropped. Unforeseeable
glitches arose in other editions when the base computerized
text was transferred into page-making or typesetting pro-
grams – e.g., in one edition of The Fellowship of the Ring, the
closing two sentences of ‘The Council of Elrond’ simply and
inexplicably disappeared. Such glitches have been very much
the exception, not the rule, and the text has otherwise main-
tained a consistency and integrity throughout its com-
puterized evolution.
The 1994 edition also contained a number of new correc-
tions (again supervised by Christopher Tolkien), as well as a
reconfigured index of names and page references. The 1994
text was first used in American editions published by Hough-
ton Mifflin in 1999. A small number of further corrections
were added into the 2002 three-volume edition illustrated by
Alan Lee, published by HarperCollins in Great Britain and
Houghton Mifflin in the United States.
The textual history of The Lord of the Rings, merely in its
published form, is a vast and complex web. In this brief
note I have given only a glimpse of the overall sequence and
structure. Further details on the revisions and corrections
made over the years to the published text of The Lord of the
Rings, and a fuller account of its publishing history, may be
found in J.R.R. Tolkien: A Descriptive Bibliography, by Wayne
G. Hammond, with the assistance of Douglas A. Anderson
(1993).
For those interested in observing the gradual evolving of
The Lord of the Rings from its earliest drafts to its published
form, I highly recommend Christopher Tolkien’s account,
which appears within five volumes of his twelve-volume series
The History of Middle-earth. Volumes six through nine con-
tain the major part of his study pertaining to The Lord of the
Rings: The Return of the Shadow (1988); The Treason of
note on the text xvii
Isengard (1989); The War of the Ring (1990); and Sauron
Defeated (1992). Also, the final book of the series, The Peoples
of Middle-earth (1996), covers the evolution of the prologue
and appendices to The Lord of the Rings. These volumes
contain an engrossing over-the-shoulder account of the
growth and writing of Tolkien’s masterpiece.
The process of studying Tolkien’s manuscripts of The Lord
of the Rings involved the deciphering of versions where
Tolkien wrote first in pencil and then in ink atop the pencilled
draft. Christopher Tolkien has decribed his father’s method
of composition in The Return of the Shadow: ‘In the handwrit-
ing 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 con-
text 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.’ The true difficulty
of reading such double-drafts can be observed in the frontis-
piece to The War of the Ring, which reproduces in colour
Tolkien’s illustration of ‘Shelob’s Lair’ from a page of
Tolkien’s manuscript. Looking very closely at the hasty ink
draft alongside the illustration, one can see underneath it the
earlier, hastier, pencilled draft. Also in The War of the Ring,
Christopher Tolkien reproduces a page from the first manu-
script of the chapter ‘The Taming of Sme
´
agol’, and the
printed text corresponding to this text is on the facing page
(see pp. 90–91). One is astonished at anyone’s ability to
decipher such texts.
That difficulty aside, just what do these books signify to
ordinary readers and to Tolkien scholars? And what is ‘the
history of the writing’ of a book? Simply, these volumes show
in great detail the development of the story of The Lord of
the Rings from its very earliest drafts and hasty projections
through its completion. We see in the earliest materials what
is very much a children’s book, a sequel to The Hobbit, and
as the story grows through various ‘phases’, there is an
xviii note on the text
increase in seriousness and depth. We see alternate branches
of development, the gradual blending and merging of certain
characters, and the slow emergence of the nature of the rings
and of the motivations of other characters. Some of these
various ideas are abandoned altogether, while others are
reworked into some variant form that may or may not survive
into the final version.
One could make a whole catalogue of interesting tidbits
from Christopher Tolkien’s study – such as the fact that
Strider was called Trotter until a very late stage in the writing
of the book; that Trotter was at one time a hobbit, so named
because he wore wooden shoes; that Tolkien at one point
considered a romance between Aragorn and E
´
owyn; that
Tolkien wrote an epilogue to the book, tying up loose ends,
but it was dropped before publication (and now appears in
Sauron Defeated); and so on. But these developments are best
appreciated when read within the context of Christopher
Tolkien’s commentary rather than discussed separately.
The most significant achievement of these volumes is that
they show us how Tolkien wrote and thought. Nowhere else
do we see the authorial process itself at work in such detail.
Tolkien’s hastiest comments about where the story might
proceed, or why it can or can’t go such and such a way –
these queries to himself were written out: Tolkien is literally
thinking on paper. This gives an added dimension of under-
standing to Tolkien’s comment to Stanley Unwin in a 1963
letter that, when suffering from trouble with his shoulder and
right arm, ‘I found not being able to use a pen or pencil as
defeating as the loss of her beak would be to a hen.’ And we,
as readers of these volumes, can share with Tolkien himself
the wonder and bewilderment of new characters appearing
as if from nowhere, or of some other sudden change or devel-
opment, at the very moment of their emergence into the
story.
I know of no other instance in literature where we have
such a ‘history of the writing’ of a book, told mostly by the
author himself, with all the hesitations and false paths laid
note on the text xix
out before us, sorted out, commented upon, and served up
to a reader like a feast. We are shown innumerable instances
in the minutest detail of the thought-process itself at work.
We see the author fully absorbed in creation for its own sake.
And this is all the more exceptional because this is a history
not only of the unfolding of a story and its text, but of the
evolution of a world. There is an additional wealth of material
beyond simple narrative text. There are maps and illustra-
tions. There are languages and writing systems, and the his-
tories of the peoples who spoke and wrote in these systems.
All of these additional materials add multiple dimensions of
complexity to our appreciation of the invented world itself.
Fifty years into the published life of The Lord of the Rings,
it seems extraordinary to me that we have not only such a
masterful work of literature but also as a companion to it an
unparalleled account of its writing. Our gratitude as readers
goes to both of the Tolkiens, father and son.
Douglas A. Anderson
May 2004
NOTE ON THE 50
TH
ANNIVERSARY
EDITION
In this edition of The Lord of the Rings, prepared for the
fiftieth anniversary of its publication, between three and four
hundred emendations have been made following an exhaus-
tive review of past editions and printings. The present text
is based on the setting of the HarperCollins three-volume
hardcover edition of 2002, which in turn was a revision of the
HarperCollins reset edition of 1994. As Douglas A. Anderson
comments in the preceding ‘Note on the Text’, each of those
editions was itself corrected, and each also introduced new
errors. At the same time, other errors survived undetected,
among them some five dozen which entered as long ago as
1954, in the resetting of The Fellowship of the Ring published
as its ‘second impression’.
That the printer had quietly reset The Fellowship of the
Ring, and that copies had been issued without proof having
been read by the author, never became known to Tolkien;
while his publisher, Rayner Unwin, learned of it only thirty-
eight years after the fact. Tolkien found a few of the unautho-
rized changes introduced in the second printing when
(probably while preparing the second edition in 1965)he
read a copy of the twelfth impression (1962), but thought
the errors newly made. These, among others, were corrected
in the course of the reprinting. Then in 1992 Eric Thompson,
a reader with a keen eye for typographic detail, noticed small
differences between the first and second impressions of The
Fellowship of the Ring and called them to the attention of the
present editors. About one-sixth of the errors that entered in
the second printing quickly came to light. Many more were
revealed only recently, when Steven M. Frisby used ingenious
optical aids to make a comparison of copies of The Lord of
the Rings in greater detail than was previously accomplished.
note on the 50
th
anniversary edition xxi
We have gladly made full use of Mr Frisby’s results, which
he has generously shared and discussed.
In the course of its fifty-year history The Lord of the Rings
has had many such readers who have recorded changes made
between its various appearances in print, both to document
what has gone before and to aid in the achievement of an
authoritative text. Errors or possible errors were reported to
the author himself or to his publishers, and information on
the textual history of the work circulated among Tolkien
enthusiasts at least as early as 1966, when Banks Mebane
published his ‘Prolegomena to a Variorum Tolkien’ in the
fanzine Entmoot. Most notably in later years, Douglas A.
Anderson has been in the forefront of efforts to achieve an
accurate text of The Lord of the Rings (and of The Hobbit);
Christina Scull has published ‘A Preliminary Study of Vari-
ations in Editions of The Lord of the Rings’inBeyond Bree
(April and August 1985); Wayne G. Hammond has compiled
extensive lists of textual changes in J.R.R. Tolkien: A Descrip-
tive Bibliography (1993); and David Bratman has published
an important article, ‘A Corrigenda to The Lord of the Rings’,
in the March 1994 number of The Tolkien Collector. The
observations of Dainis Bisenieks, Yuval Welis, Charles Noad,
and other readers, sent to us directly or posted in public
forums, have also been of service.
Efforts such as these follow the example of the author of
The Lord of the Rings during his lifetime. His concern for the
textual accuracy and coherence of his work is evident from
the many emendations he made in later printings, and from
notes he made for other emendations which for one reason
or another have not previously (or have only partly) been put
into effect. Even late in life, when such labours wearied him,
his feelings were clear. On 30 October 1967 he wrote to Joy
Hill at George Allen & Unwin, concerning a reader’s query
he had received about points in the Appendices to The Lord
of the Rings: ‘Personally I have ceased to bother about these
minor ‘‘discrepancies’’, since if the genealogies and calendars
etc. lack verisimilitude it is in their general excessive accuracy:
xxii note on the 50
th
anniversary edition
as compared with real annals or genealogies! Anyway the
slips were few, have now mostly been removed, and the dis-
covery of what remain seems an amusing pastime! But errors
in the text are another matter’ (italics ours). In fact Tolkien
had not ‘ceased to bother’, and ‘slips’ were dealt with as
opportunities arose. These, and the indulgence of his pub-
lisher, allowed Tolkien a luxury few authors enjoy: multiple
chances not only to correct his text but to improve it, and to
further develop the languages, geography, and peoples of
Middle-earth.
The fiftieth anniversary of The Lord of the Rings seemed an
ideal opportunity to consider the latest (2002) text in light of
information we had gathered in the course of decades of work
in Tolkien studies, with Steve Frisby’s research at hand, and
with an electronic copy of The Lord of the Rings (supplied by
HarperCollins) searchable by keyword or phrase. The latter
especially allowed us to develop lists of words that varied
from one instance to another, and investigate variations in
usage, as they stood in the copy-text and relative to earlier
editions and printings. Of course Tolkien wrote The Lord of
the Rings over so long a period of time, some eighteen years,
that inconsistencies in its text were almost inevitable. Chris-
topher Tolkien even observed to us that some apparent
inconsistencies of form in his father’s work may even have
been deliberate: for instance, although Tolkien carefully dis-
tinguished house ‘dwelling’ from House ‘noble family or dyn-
asty’, in two instances he used house in the latter sense but
in lower case, perhaps because a capital letter would have
detracted from the importance of the adjective with which
the word was paired (‘royal house’, ‘golden house’). There
can be no doubt, however, that Tolkien attempted to correct
inconsistency, no less than outright error, whenever it came
to his attention, and it was our opinion, with the advice and
agreement of Christopher Tolkien, that an attempt should be
made to do so in the anniversary edition, in so far as we could
carefully and conservatively distinguish what to emend.
Many of the emendations in the present text are to marks
note on the 50
th
anniversary edition xxiii
of punctuation, either to correct recent typographical errors
or to repair surviving alterations introduced in the second
printing of The Fellowship of the Ring. In the latter respect
and in every case, Tolkien’s original punctuation is always
more felicitous – subtle points, when one is comparing com-
mas and semi-colons, but no less a part of the author’s
intended expression. Distinctive words such as chill rather
than cold, and glistered rather than glistened, changed by type-
setters long ago without authorization, likewise have been
restored. A controlled amount of regularization also seemed
called for, such as naught rather than nought, a change insti-
tuted by Tolkien but not carried through in all instances;
Dark Power rather than dark power when the reference is
obviously to Sauron (or Morgoth); Barrow-downs by Tolkien’s
preference rather than Barrowdowns; likewise Bree-hill rather
than Bree Hill; accented and more common Dru
´
adan rather
than Druadan; capitalized names of seasons when used as
personification or metaphor, according to Tolkien’s predomi-
nant practice and the internal logic of the text; and Elvish
rather than elvish when used as a separate adjective, following
a preference Tolkien marked in his copy of the second edition
of The Lord of the Rings. In addition, we have added a second
accent to Nu
´
meno
´
rean(s), as Tolkien often wrote the name in
manuscript and as it appears in The Silmarillion and other
posthumous publications.
The result, nonetheless, still includes many variations in
capitalization, punctuation, and other points of style. Not all
of these are erroneous: they include words such as Sun, Moon,
Hobbit, and Man (or sun, moon, hobbit, man), which may
change form according to meaning or application, in relation
to adjacent adjectives, or whether Tolkien intended personi-
fication, poetry, or emphasis. His intent cannot be divined
with confidence in every case. But it is possible to discern
Tolkien’s preferences in many instances, from statements he
wrote in his check copies of The Lord of the Rings or from a
close analysis of its text in manuscript, typescript, proof, and
print. Whenever there has been any doubt whatsoever as to
xxiv note on the 50
th
anniversary edition
the author’s intentions, the text has been allowed to stand.
Most of the demonstrable errors noted by Christopher
Tolkien in The History of Middle-earth also have been cor-
rected, such as the distance from the Brandywine Bridge to
the Ferry (ten miles rather than twenty) and the number of
Merry’s ponies (five rather than six), shadows of earlier
drafts. But those inconsistencies of content, such as Gimli’s
famous (and erroneous) statement in Book III, Chapter 7,
‘Till now I have hewn naught but wood since I left Moria’,
which would require rewriting to emend rather than simple
correction, remain unchanged.
So many new emendations to The Lord of the Rings, and
such an extensive review of its text, deserve to be fully docu-
mented. Although most readers will be content with the text
alone, many will want to know more about the problems
encountered in preparing this new edition, and their solutions
(where solutions have been possible), especially where the
text has been emended, but also where it has not. To this
end, and to illuminate the work in other respects, we are
preparing a volume of annotations to The Lord of the Rings
for publication in 2005. This will allow us to discuss, at a
length impossible in a prefatory note, the various textual
cruces of The Lord of the Rings, to identify changes that have
been made to the present text, and to remark on significant
alterations to the published work throughout its history. We
will also explain archaic or unusual words and names in The
Lord of the Rings, explore literary and historical influences,
note connections with Tolkien’s other writings, and comment
on differences between its drafts and published form, on
questions of language, and on much else that we hope will
interest readers and enhance their enjoyment of Tolkien’s
masterpiece.
Wayne G. Hammond & Christina Scull
May 2004
FOREWORD TO THE SECOND EDITION
This tale grew in the telling, until it became a history of the
Great War of the Ring and included many glimpses of the
yet more ancient history that preceded it. It was begun soon
after The Hobbit was written and before its publication in
1937; but I did not go on with this sequel, for I wished first
to complete and set in order the mythology and legends of
the Elder Days, which had then been taking shape for some
years. I desired to do this for my own satisfaction, and I had
little hope that other people would be interested in this work,
especially since it was primarily linguistic in inspiration and
was begun in order to provide the necessary background of
‘history’ for Elvish tongues.
When those whose advice and opinion I sought corrected
little hope to no hope, I went back to the sequel, encouraged
by requests from readers for more information concerning
hobbits and their adventures. But the story was drawn irre-
sistibly towards the older world, and became an account, as
it were, of its end and passing away before its beginning and
middle had been told. The process had begun in the writing
of The Hobbit, in which there were already some references
to the older matter: Elrond, Gondolin, the High-elves, and
the orcs, as well as glimpses that had arisen unbidden of
things higher or deeper or darker than its surface: Durin,
Moria, Gandalf, the Necromancer, the Ring. The discovery
of the significance of these glimpses and of their relation to
the ancient histories revealed the Third Age and its culmi-
nation in the War of the Ring.
Those who had asked for more information about hobbits
eventually got it, but they had to wait a long time; for the
composition of The Lord of the Rings went on at intervals
during the years 1936 to 1949, a period in which I had many
duties that I did not neglect, and many other interests as a
learner and teacher that often absorbed me. The delay was,
xxvi foreword to the second edition
of course, also increased by the outbreak of war in 1939,by
the end of which year the tale had not yet reached the end of
Book One. In spite of the darkness of the next five years I
found that the story could not now be wholly abandoned,
and I plodded on, mostly by night, till I stood by Balin’s tomb
in Moria. There I halted for a long while. It was almost a
year later when I went on and so came to Lothlo
´
rien and the
Great River late in 1941. In the next year I wrote the first
drafts of the matter that now stands as Book Three, and the
beginnings of chapters I and III of Book Five; and there as
the beacons flared in Ano
´
rien and The
´
oden came to Harrow-
dale I stopped. Foresight had failed and there was no time
for thought.
It was during 1944 that, leaving the loose ends and perplex-
ities of a war which it was my task to conduct, or at least to
report, I forced myself to tackle the journey of Frodo to
Mordor. These chapters, eventually to become Book Four,
were written and sent out as a serial to my son, Christopher,
then in South Africa with the RAF. Nonetheless it took
another five years before the tale was brought to its present
end; in that time I changed my house, my chair, and my
college, and the days though less dark were no less laborious.
Then when the ‘end’ had at last been reached the whole story
had to be revised, and indeed largely re-written backwards.
And it had to be typed, and re-typed: by me; the cost of
professional typing by the ten-fingered was beyond my
means.
The Lord of the Rings has been read by many people since
it finally appeared in print; and I should like to say something
here with reference to the many opinions or guesses that I
have received or have read concerning the motives and mean-
ing of the tale. The prime motive was the desire of a tale-teller
to try his hand at a really long story that would hold the
attention of readers, amuse them, delight them, and at times
maybe excite them or deeply move them. As a guide I had
only my own feelings for what is appealing or moving, and
for many the guide was inevitably often at fault. Some who
foreword to the second edition xxvii
have read the book, or at any rate have reviewed it, have
found it boring, absurd, or contemptible; and I have no cause
to complain, since I have similar opinions of their works, or
of the kinds of writing that they evidently prefer. But even
from the points of view of many who have enjoyed my story
there is much that fails to please. It is perhaps not possible
in a long tale to please everybody at all points, nor to displease
everybody at the same points; for I find from the letters that
I have received that the passages or chapters that are to some
a blemish are all by others specially approved. The most
critical reader of all, myself, now finds many defects, minor
and major, but being fortunately under no obligation either
to review the book or to write it again, he will pass over these
in silence, except one that has been noted by others: the book
is too short.
As for any inner meaning or ‘message’, it has in the inten-
tion of the author none. It is neither allegorical nor topical.
As the story grew it put down roots (into the past) and threw
out unexpected branches: but its main theme was settled
from the outset by the inevitable choice of the Ring as the
link between it and The Hobbit. The crucial chapter, ‘The
Shadow of the Past’, is one of the oldest parts of the tale. It
was written long before the foreshadow of 1939 had yet
become a threat of inevitable disaster, and from that point
the story would have developed along essentially the same
lines, if that disaster had been averted. Its sources are things
long before in mind, or in some cases already written, and
little or nothing in it was modified by the war that began in
1939 or its sequels.
The real war does not resemble the legendary war in its
process or its conclusion. If it had inspired or directed the
development of the legend, then certainly the Ring would
have been seized and used against Sauron; he would not have
been annihilated but enslaved, and Barad-du
ˆ
r would not have
been destroyed but occupied. Saruman, failing to get pos-
session of the Ring, would in the confusion and treacheries
of the time have found in Mordor the missing links in his
xxviii foreword to the second edition
own researches into Ring-lore, and before long he would
have made a Great Ring of his own with which to challenge
the self-styled Ruler of Middle-earth. In that conflict both
sides would have held hobbits in hatred and contempt: they
would not long have survived even as slaves.
Other arrangements could be devised according to the
tastes or views of those who like allegory or topical reference.
But I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and
always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to
detect its presence. I much prefer history, true or feigned,
with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of
readers. I think that many confuse ‘applicability’ with ‘alle-
gory’; but the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and
the other in the purposed domination of the author.
An author cannot of course remain wholly unaffected by
his experience, but the ways in which a story-germ uses the
soil of experience are extremely complex, and attempts to
define the process are at best guesses from evidence that is
inadequate and ambiguous. It is also false, though naturally
attractive, when the lives of an author and critic have over-
lapped, to suppose that the movements of thought or the
events of times common to both were necessarily the most
powerful influences. One has indeed personally to come
under the shadow of war to feel fully its oppression; but as
the years go by it seems now often forgotten that to be caught
in youth by 1914 was no less hideous an experience than to
be involved in 1939 and the following years. By 1918 all but
one of my close friends were dead. Or to take a less grievous
matter: it has been supposed by some that ‘The Scouring of
the Shire’ reflects the situation in England at the time when
I was finishing my tale. It does not. It is an essential part of
the plot, foreseen from the outset, though in the event modi-
fied by the character of Saruman as developed in the story
without, need I say, any allegorical significance or contem-
porary political reference whatsoever. It has indeed some
basis in experience, though slender (for the economic situ-
ation was entirely different), and much further back. The
foreword to the second edition xxix
country in which I lived in childhood was being shabbily
destroyed before I was ten, in days when motor-cars were
rare objects (I had never seen one) and men were still building
suburban railways. Recently I saw in a paper a picture of the
last decrepitude of the once thriving corn-mill beside its pool
that long ago seemed to me so important. I never liked the
looks of the Young miller, but his father, the Old miller, had
a black beard, and he was not named Sandyman.
The Lord of the Rings is now issued in a new edition, and
the opportunity has been taken of revising it. A number of
errors and inconsistencies that still remained in the text have
been corrected, and an attempt has been made to provide
information on a few points which attentive readers have
raised. I have considered all their comments and enquiries,
and if some seem to have been passed over that may be
because I have failed to keep my notes in order; but many
enquiries could only be answered by additional appendices,
or indeed by the production of an accessory volume contain-
ing much of the material that I did not include in the original
edition, in particular more detailed linguistic information. In
the meantime this edition offers this Foreword, an addition
to the Prologue, some notes, and an index of the names of
persons and places. This index is in intention complete in
items but not in references, since for the present purpose it
has been necessary to reduce its bulk. A complete index,
making full use of the material prepared for me by Mrs. N.
Smith, belongs rather to the accessory volume.
.
PROLOGUE
1
Concerning Hobbits
This book is largely concerned with Hobbits, and from its
pages a reader may discover much of their character and a
little of their history. Further information will also be found
in the selection from the Red Book of Westmarch that has
already been published, under the title of The Hobbit. That
story was derived from the earlier chapters of the Red Book,
composed by Bilbo himself, the first Hobbit to become
famous in the world at large, and called by him There and
Back Again, since they told of his journey into the East and
his return: an adventure which later involved all the Hobbits
in the great events of that Age that are here related.
Many, however, may wish to know more about this re-
markable people from the outset, while some may not possess
the earlier book. For such readers a few notes on the more
important points are here collected from Hobbit-lore, and
the first adventure is briefly recalled.
Hobbits are an unobtrusive but very ancient people, more
numerous formerly than they are today; for they love peace
and quiet and good tilled earth: a well-ordered and well-
farmed countryside was their favourite haunt. They do not
and did not understand or like machines more complicated
than a forge-bellows, a water-mill, or a hand-loom, though
they were skilful with tools. Even in ancient days they
were, as a rule, shy of ‘the Big Folk’, as they call us, and
now they avoid us with dismay and are becoming hard to
find. They are quick of hearing and sharp-eyed, and though
they are inclined to be fat and do not hurry unnecessarily, they
are nonetheless nimble and deft in their movements. They
2 prologue
possessed from the first the art of disappearing swiftly and
silently, when large folk whom they do not wish to meet come
blundering by; and this art they have developed until to Men
it may seem magical. But Hobbits have never, in fact, studied
magic of any kind, and their elusiveness is due solely to
a professional skill that heredity and practice, and a close
friendship with the earth, have rendered inimitable by bigger
and clumsier races.
For they are a little people, smaller than Dwarves: less stout
and stocky, that is, even when they are not actually much
shorter. Their height is variable, ranging between two and
four feet of our measure. They seldom now reach three feet;
but they have dwindled, they say, and in ancient days they
were taller. According to the Red Book, Bandobras Took
(Bullroarer), son of Isumbras the Third, was four foot five
and able to ride a horse. He was surpassed in all Hobbit
records only by two famous characters of old; but that curious
matter is dealt with in this book.
As for the Hobbits of the Shire, with whom these tales are
concerned, in the days of their peace and prosperity they
were a merry folk. They dressed in bright colours, being
notably fond of yellow and green; but they seldom wore
shoes, since their feet had tough leathery soles and were clad
in a thick curling hair, much like the hair of their heads, which
was commonly brown. Thus, the only craft little practised
among them was shoe-making; but they had long and skilful
fingers and could make many other useful and comely things.
Their faces were as a rule good-natured rather than beau-
tiful, broad, bright-eyed, red-cheeked, with mouths apt to
laughter, and to eating and drinking. And laugh they did, and
eat, and drink, often and heartily, being fond of simple jests
at all times, and of six meals a day (when they could get
them). They were hospitable and delighted in parties, and in
presents, which they gave away freely and eagerly accepted.
It is plain indeed that in spite of later estrangement Hobbits
are relatives of ours: far nearer to us than Elves, or even than
Dwarves. Of old they spoke the languages of Men, after their
prologue 3
own fashion, and liked and disliked much the same things as
Men did. But what exactly our relationship is can no longer
be discovered. The beginning of Hobbits lies far back in the
Elder Days that are now lost and forgotten. Only the Elves
still preserve any records of that vanished time, and their
traditions are concerned almost entirely with their own his-
tory, in which Men appear seldom and Hobbits are not men-
tioned at all. Yet it is clear that Hobbits had, in fact, lived
quietly in Middle-earth for many long years before other folk
became even aware of them. And the world being after all
full of strange creatures beyond count, these little people
seemed of very little importance. But in the days of Bilbo,
and of Frodo his heir, they suddenly became, by no wish of
their own, both important and renowned, and troubled the
counsels of the Wise and the Great.
Those days, the Third Age of Middle-earth, are now long
past, and the shape of all lands has been changed; but the
regions in which Hobbits then lived were doubtless the same
as those in which they still linger: the North-West of the Old
World, east of the Sea. Of their original home the Hobbits
in Bilbo’s time preserved no knowledge. A love of learning
(other than genealogical lore) was far from general among
them, but there remained still a few in the older families who
studied their own books, and even gathered reports of old
times and distant lands from Elves, Dwarves, and Men. Their
own records began only after the settlement of the Shire, and
their most ancient legends hardly looked further back than
their Wandering Days. It is clear, nonetheless, from these
legends, and from the evidence of their peculiar words and
customs, that like many other folk Hobbits had in the distant
past moved westward. Their earliest tales seem to glimpse a
time when they dwelt in the upper vales of Anduin, between
the eaves of Greenwood the Great and the Misty Mountains.
Why they later undertook the hard and perilous crossing of
the mountains into Eriador is no longer certain. Their own
accounts speak of the multiplying of Men in the land, and of
4 prologue
a shadow that fell on the forest, so that it became darkened
and its new name was Mirkwood.
Before the crossing of the mountains the Hobbits had
already become divided into three somewhat different breeds:
Harfoots, Stoors, and Fallohides. The Harfoots were browner
of skin, smaller, and shorter, and they were beardless and
bootless; their hands and feet were neat and nimble; and they
preferred highlands and hillsides. The Stoors were broader,
heavier in build; their feet and hands were larger; and they
preferred flat lands and riversides. The Fallohides were fairer
of skin and also of hair, and they were taller and slimmer
than the others; they were lovers of trees and of woodlands.
The Harfoots had much to do with Dwarves in ancient
times, and long lived in the foothills of the mountains. They
moved westward early, and roamed over Eriador as far as
Weathertop while the others were still in Wilderland. They
were the most normal and representative variety of Hobbit,
and far the most numerous. They were the most inclined to
settle in one place, and longest preserved their ancestral habit
of living in tunnels and holes.
The Stoors lingered long by the banks of the Great River
Anduin, and were less shy of Men. They came west after the
Harfoots and followed the course of the Loudwater south-
wards; and there many of them long dwelt between Tharbad
and the borders of Dunland before they moved north again.
The Fallohides, the least numerous, were a northerly
branch. They were more friendly with Elves than the other
Hobbits were, and had more skill in language and song than
in handicrafts; and of old they preferred hunting to tilling.
They crossed the mountains north of Rivendell and came
down the River Hoarwell. In Eriador they soon mingled with
the other kinds that had preceded them, but being somewhat
bolder and more adventurous, they were often found as
leaders or chieftains among clans of Harfoots or Stoors. Even
in Bilbo’s time the strong Fallohidish strain could still be
noted among the greater families, such as the Tooks and the
Masters of Buckland.
prologue 5
In the westlands of Eriador, between the Misty Mountains
and the Mountains of Lune, the Hobbits found both Men and
Elves. Indeed, a remnant still dwelt there of the Du
´
nedain, the
kings of Men that came over the Sea out of Westernesse; but
they were dwindling fast and the lands of their North King-
dom were falling far and wide into waste. There was room
and to spare for incomers, and ere long the Hobbits began
to settle in ordered communities. Most of their earlier settle-
ments had long disappeared and been forgotten in Bilbo’s
time; but one of the first to become important still endured,
though reduced in size; this was at Bree and in the Chetwood
that lay round about, some forty miles east of the Shire.
It was in these early days, doubtless, that the Hobbits
learned their letters and began to write after the manner of
the Du
´
nedain, who had in their turn long before learned the
art from the Elves. And in those days also they forgot what-
ever languages they had used before, and spoke ever after the
Common Speech, the Westron as it was named, that was
current through all the lands of the kings from Arnor to
Gondor, and about all the coasts of the Sea from Belfalas to
Lune. Yet they kept a few words of their own, as well as their
own names of months and days, and a great store of personal
names out of the past.
About this time legend among the Hobbits first becomes
history with a reckoning of years. For it was in the one thou-
sand six hundred and first year of the Third Age that the
Fallohide brothers, Marcho and Blanco, set out from Bree;
and having obtained permission from the high king at
Fornost,* they crossed the brown river Baranduin with a
great following of Hobbits. They passed over the Bridge of
Stonebows, that had been built in the days of the power of
the North Kingdom, and they took all the land beyond to
dwell in, between the river and the Far Downs. All that was
* As the records of Gondor relate this was Argeleb II, the twentieth
of the Northern line, which came to an end with Arvedui three hundred
years later.
6 prologue
demanded of them was that they should keep the Great
Bridge in repair, and all other bridges and roads, speed the
king’s messengers, and acknowledge his lordship.
Thus began the Shire-reckoning, for the year of the crossing
of the Brandywine (as the Hobbits turned the name) became
Year One of the Shire, and all later dates were reckoned from
it.* At once the western Hobbits fell in love with their new
land, and they remained there, and soon passed once more
out of the history of Men and of Elves. While there was still
a king they were in name his subjects, but they were, in fact,
ruled by their own chieftains and meddled not at all with
events in the world outside. To the last battle at Fornost with
the Witch-lord of Angmar they sent some bowmen to the aid
of the king, or so they maintained, though no tales of Men
record it. But in that war the North Kingdom ended; and
then the Hobbits took the land for their own, and they chose
from their own chiefs a Thain to hold the authority of the
king that was gone. There for a thousand years they were
little troubled by wars, and they prospered and multiplied
after the Dark Plague (S.R. 37) until the disaster of the Long
Winter and the famine that followed it. Many thousands then
perished, but the Days of Dearth (1158–60) were at the time
of this tale long past and the Hobbits had again become
accustomed to plenty. The land was rich and kindly, and
though it had long been deserted when they entered it, it had
before been well tilled, and there the king had once had many
farms, cornlands, vineyards, and woods.
Forty leagues it stretched from the Far Downs to the
Brandywine Bridge, and fifty from the northern moors to
the marshes in the south. The Hobbits named it the Shire,
as the region of the authority of their Thain, and a district
of well-ordered business; and there in that pleasant corner of
the world they plied their well-ordered business of living, and
* Thus, the years of the Third Age in the reckoning of the Elves and
the Du
´
nedain may be found by adding 1600 to the dates of Shire-
reckoning.
prologue 7
they heeded less and less the world outside where dark things
moved, until they came to think that peace and plenty were
the rule in Middle-earth and the right of all sensible folk.
They forgot or ignored what little they had ever known of
the Guardians, and of the labours of those that made possible
the long peace of the Shire. They were, in fact, sheltered, but
they had ceased to remember it.
At no time had Hobbits of any kind been warlike, and they
had never fought among themselves. In olden days they had,
of course, been often obliged to fight to maintain themselves
in a hard world; but in Bilbo’s time that was very ancient
history. The last battle, before this story opens, and indeed
the only one that had ever been fought within the borders
of the Shire, was beyond living memory: the Battle of
Greenfields, S.R. 1147, in which Bandobras Took routed an
invasion of Orcs. Even the weathers had grown milder, and
the wolves that had once come ravening out of the North in
bitter white winters were now only a grandfather’s tale. So,
though there was still some store of weapons in the Shire,
these were used mostly as trophies, hanging above hearths or
on walls, or gathered into the museum at Michel Delving.
The Mathom-house it was called; for anything that Hobbits
had no immediate use for, but were unwilling to throw away,
they called a mathom. Their dwellings were apt to become
rather crowded with mathoms, and many of the presents that
passed from hand to hand were of that sort.
Nonetheless, ease and peace had left this people still curi-
ously tough. They were, if it came to it, difficult to daunt or
to kill; and they were, perhaps, so unwearyingly fond of good
things not least because they could, when put to it, do without
them, and could survive rough handling by grief, foe, or
weather in a way that astonished those who did not know
them well and looked no further than their bellies and their
well-fed faces. Though slow to quarrel, and for sport killing
nothing that lived, they were doughty at bay, and at need
could still handle arms. They shot well with the bow, for they
were keen-eyed and sure at the mark. Not only with bows and
8 prologue
arrows. If any Hobbit stooped for a stone, it was well to get
quickly under cover, as all trespassing beasts knew very well.
All Hobbits had originally lived in holes in the ground, or
so they believed, and in such dwellings they still felt most at
home; but in the course of time they had been obliged to
adopt other forms of abode. Actually in the Shire in Bilbo’s
days it was, as a rule, only the richest and the poorest Hobbits
that maintained the old custom. The poorest went on living
in burrows of the most primitive kind, mere holes indeed,
with only one window or none; while the well-to-do still
constructed more luxurious versions of the simple diggings
of old. But suitable sites for these large and ramifying tunnels
(or smials as they called them) were not everywhere to be
found; and in the flats and the low-lying districts the Hobbits,
as they multiplied, began to build above ground. Indeed, even
in the hilly regions and the older villages, such as Hobbiton
or Tuckborough, or in the chief township of the Shire, Michel
Delving on the White Downs, there were now many houses
of wood, brick, or stone. These were specially favoured by
millers, smiths, ropers, and cartwrights, and others of that
sort; for even when they had holes to live in, Hobbits had
long been accustomed to build sheds and workshops.
The habit of building farmhouses and barns was said to
have begun among the inhabitants of the Marish down by
the Brandywine. The Hobbits of that quarter, the East-
farthing, were rather large and heavy-legged, and they wore
dwarf-boots in muddy weather. But they were well known to
be Stoors in a large part of their blood, as indeed was shown
by the down that many grew on their chins. No Harfoot or
Fallohide had any trace of a beard. Indeed, the folk of the
Marish, and of Buckland, east of the River, which they after-
wards occupied, came for the most part later into the Shire
up from south-away; and they still had many peculiar names
and strange words not found elsewhere in the Shire.
It is probable that the craft of building, as many other crafts
beside, was derived from the Du
´
nedain. But the Hobbits may
have learned it direct from the Elves, the teachers of Men in
prologue 9
their youth. For the Elves of the High Kindred had not yet
forsaken Middle-earth, and they dwelt still at that time at the
Grey Havens away to the west, and in other places within
reach of the Shire. Three Elf-towers of immemorial age were
still to be seen on the Tower Hills beyond the western
marches. They shone far off in the moonlight. The tallest
was furthest away, standing alone upon a green mound. The
Hobbits of the Westfarthing said that one could see the Sea
from the top of that tower; but no Hobbit had ever been
known to climb it. Indeed, few Hobbits had ever seen or
sailed upon the Sea, and fewer still had ever returned to
report it. Most Hobbits regarded even rivers and small boats
with deep misgivings, and not many of them could swim.
And as the days of the Shire lengthened they spoke less and
less with the Elves, and grew afraid of them, and distrustful
of those that had dealings with them; and the Sea became a
word of fear among them, and a token of death, and they
turned their faces away from the hills in the west.
The craft of building may have come from Elves or Men,
but the Hobbits used it in their own fashion. They did not
go in for towers. Their houses were usually long, low, and
comfortable. The oldest kind were, indeed, no more than
built imitations of smials, thatched with dry grass or straw, or
roofed with turves, and having walls somewhat bulged. That
stage, however, belonged to the early days of the Shire, and
hobbit-building had long since been altered, improved by
devices, learned from Dwarves, or discovered by themselves.
A preference for round windows, and even round doors, was
the chief remaining peculiarity of hobbit-architecture.
The houses and the holes of Shire-hobbits were often large,
and inhabited by large families. (Bilbo and Frodo Baggins
were as bachelors very exceptional, as they were also in many
other ways, such as their friendship with the Elves.) Some-
times, as in the case of the Tooks of Great Smials, or the
Brandybucks of Brandy Hall, many generations of relatives
lived in (comparative) peace together in one ancestral and
many-tunnelled mansion. All Hobbits were, in any case,
10 prologue
clannish and reckoned up their relationships with great care.
They drew long and elaborate family-trees with innumerable
branches. In dealing with Hobbits it is important to remember
who is related to whom, and in what degree. It would be
impossible in this book to set out a family-tree that included
even the more important members of the more important
families at the time which these tales tell of. The genealogical
trees at the end of the Red Book of Westmarch are a small
book in themselves, and all but Hobbits would find them
exceedingly dull. Hobbits delighted in such things, if they were
accurate: they liked to have books filled with things that they
already knew, set out fair and square with no contradictions.
2
Concerning Pipe-weed
There is another astonishing thing about Hobbits of old that
must be mentioned, an astonishing habit: they imbibed or
inhaled, through pipes of clay or wood, the smoke of the
burning leaves of a herb, which they called pipe-weed or leaf,
a variety probably of Nicotiana. A great deal of mystery
surrounds the origin of this peculiar custom, or ‘art’ as the
Hobbits preferred to call it. All that could be discovered about
it in antiquity was put together by Meriadoc Brandybuck
(later Master of Buckland), and since he and the tobacco of
the Southfarthing play a part in the history that follows, his
remarks in the introduction to his Herblore of the Shire may
be quoted.
‘This,’ he says, ‘is the one art that we can certainly claim
to be our own invention. When Hobbits first began to smoke
is not known, all the legends and family histories take it for
granted; for ages folk in the Shire smoked various herbs, some
fouler, some sweeter. But all accounts agree that Tobold
Hornblower of Longbottom in the Southfarthing first grew
the true pipe-weed in his gardens in the days of Isengrim the
Second, about the year 1070 of Shire-reckoning. The best
prologue 11
home-grown still comes from that district, especially the
varieties now known as Longbottom Leaf, Old Toby, and
Southern Star.
‘How Old Toby came by the plant is not recorded, for to
his dying day he would not tell. He knew much about herbs,
but he was no traveller. It is said that in his youth he went
often to Bree, though he certainly never went further from
the Shire than that. It is thus quite possible that he learned
of this plant in Bree, where now, at any rate, it grows well on
the south slopes of the hill. The Bree-hobbits claim to have
been the first actual smokers of the pipe-weed. They claim,
of course, to have done everything before the people of the
Shire, whom they refer to as ‘‘colonists’’; but in this case their
claim is, I think, likely to be true. And certainly it was from
Bree that the art of smoking the genuine weed spread in
the recent centuries among Dwarves and such other folk,
Rangers, Wizards, or wanderers, as still passed to and fro
through that ancient road-meeting. The home and centre of
the art is thus to be found in the old inn of Bree, The Prancing
Pony, that has been kept by the family of Butterbur from
time beyond record.
‘All the same, observations that I have made on my own
many journeys south have convinced me that the weed itself
is not native to our parts of the world, but came northward
from the lower Anduin, whither it was, I suspect, originally
brought over Sea by the Men of Westernesse. It grows abund-
antly in Gondor, and there is richer and larger than in the
North, where it is never found wild, and flourishes only in
warm sheltered places like Longbottom. The Men of Gondor
call it sweet galenas, and esteem it only for the fragrance of its
flowers. From that land it must have been carried up the
Greenway during the long centuries between the coming of
Elendil and our own days. But even the Du
´
nedain of Gondor
allow us this credit: Hobbits first put it into pipes. Not even
the Wizards first thought of that before we did. Though one
Wizard that I knew took up the art long ago, and became as
skilful in it as in all other things that he put his mind to.’
12 prologue
3
Of the Ordering of the Shire
The Shire was divided into four quarters, the Farthings
already referred to, North, South, East, and West; and these
again each into a number of folklands, which still bore the
names of some of the old leading families, although by the
time of this history these names were no longer found only
in their proper folklands. Nearly all Tooks still lived in the
Tookland, but that was not true of many other families, such
as the Bagginses or the Boffins. Outside the Farthings were
the East and West Marches: the Buckland (p. 129); and the
Westmarch added to the Shire in S.R. 1452.
The Shire at this time had hardly any ‘government’.
Families for the most part managed their own affairs. Grow-
ing food and eating it occupied most of their time. In
other matters they were, as a rule, generous and not greedy,
but contented and moderate, so that estates, farms, work-
shops, and small trades tended to remain unchanged for
generations.
There remained, of course, the ancient tradition concern-
ing the high king at Fornost, or Norbury as they called it,
away north of the Shire. But there had been no king for nearly
a thousand years, and even the ruins of Kings’ Norbury were
covered with grass. Yet the Hobbits still said of wild folk and
wicked things (such as trolls) that they had not heard of the
king. For they attributed to the king of old all their essential
laws; and usually they kept the laws of free will, because they
were The Rules (as they said), both ancient and just.
It is true that the Took family had long been pre-eminent;
for the office of Thain had passed to them (from the Old-
bucks) some centuries before, and the chief Took had borne
that title ever since. The Thain was the master of the Shire-
moot, and captain of the Shire-muster and the Hobbitry-in-
arms; but as muster and moot were only held in times of
emergency, which no longer occurred, the Thainship had
ceased to be more than a nominal dignity. The Took family
prologue 13
was still, indeed, accorded a special respect, for it remained
both numerous and exceedingly wealthy, and was liable to
produce in every generation strong characters of peculiar
habits and even adventurous temperament. The latter quali-
ties, however, were now rather tolerated (in the rich) than
generally approved. The custom endured, nonetheless, of
referring to the head of the family as The Took, and of
adding to his name, if required, a number: such as Isengrim
the Second, for instance.
The only real official in the Shire at this date was the Mayor
of Michel Delving (or of the Shire), who was elected every
seven years at the Free Fair on the White Downs at the Lithe,
that is at Midsummer. As mayor almost his only duty was
to preside at banquets, given on the Shire-holidays, which
occurred at frequent intervals. But the offices of Postmaster
and First Shirriff were attached to the mayoralty, so that he
managed both the Messenger Service and the Watch. These
were the only Shire-services, and the Messengers were the
most numerous, and much the busier of the two. By no
means all Hobbits were lettered, but those who were wrote
constantly to all their friends (and a selection of their
relations) who lived further off than an afternoon’s walk.
The Shirriffs was the name that the Hobbits gave to their
police, or the nearest equivalent that they possessed. They
had, of course, no uniforms (such things being quite un-
known), only a feather in their caps; and they were in practice
rather haywards than policemen, more concerned with the
strayings of beasts than of people. There were in all the Shire
only twelve of them, three in each Farthing, for Inside Work.
A rather larger body, varying at need, was employed to ‘beat
the bounds’, and to see that Outsiders of any kind, great or
small, did not make themselves a nuisance.
At the time when this story begins the Bounders, as they
were called, had been greatly increased. There were many
reports and complaints of strange persons and creatures
prowling about the borders, or over them: the first sign that
all was not quite as it should be, and always had been except
14 prologue
in tales and legends of long ago. Few heeded the sign, and
not even Bilbo yet had any notion of what it portended. Sixty
years had passed since he set out on his memorable journey,
and he was old even for Hobbits, who reached a hundred
as often as not; but much evidently still remained of the
considerable wealth that he had brought back. How much or
how little he revealed to no one, not even to Frodo his favour-
ite ‘nephew’. And he still kept secret the ring that he had
found.
4
Of the Finding of the Ring
As is told in The Hobbit, there came one day to Bilbo’s door the
great Wizard, Gandalf the Grey, and thirteen dwarves with
him: none other, indeed, than Thorin Oakenshield, descend-
ant of kings, and his twelve companions in exile. With them
he set out, to his own lasting astonishment, on a morning of
April, it being then the year 1341 Shire-reckoning, on a quest
of great treasure, the dwarf-hoards of the Kings under the
Mountain, beneath Erebor in Dale, far off in the East. The
quest was successful, and the Dragon that guarded the hoard
was destroyed. Yet, though before all was won the Battle of
Five Armies was fought, and Thorin was slain, and many
deeds of renown were done, the matter would scarcely have
concerned later history, or earned more than a note in
the long annals of the Third Age, but for an ‘accident’ by the
way. The party was assailed by Orcs in a high pass of the
Misty Mountains as they went towards Wilderland; and so it
happened that Bilbo was lost for a while in the black orc-
mines deep under the mountains, and there, as he groped in
vain in the dark, he put his hand on a ring, lying on the floor
of a tunnel. He put it in his pocket. It seemed then like mere
luck.
Trying to find his way out, Bilbo went on down to the
roots of the mountains, until he could go no further. At the
prologue 15
bottom of the tunnel lay a cold lake far from the light, and
on an island of rock in the water lived Gollum. He was a
loathsome little creature: he paddled a small boat with his
large flat feet, peering with pale luminous eyes and catching
blind fish with his long fingers, and eating them raw. He ate
any living thing, even orc, if he could catch it and strangle it
without a struggle. He possessed a secret treasure that had
come to him long ages ago, when he still lived in the light: a
ring of gold that made its wearer invisible. It was the one
thing he loved, his ‘Precious’, and he talked to it, even when
it was not with him. For he kept it hidden safe in a hole on
his island, except when he was hunting or spying on the orcs
of the mines.
Maybe he would have attacked Bilbo at once, if the ring
had been on him when they met; but it was not, and the
hobbit held in his hand an Elvish knife, which served him as
a sword. So to gain time Gollum challenged Bilbo to the
Riddle-game, saying that if he asked a riddle which Bilbo
could not guess, then he would kill him and eat him; but if
Bilbo defeated him, then he would do as Bilbo wished: he
would lead him to a way out of the tunnels.
Since he was lost in the dark without hope, and could
neither go on nor back, Bilbo accepted the challenge; and
they asked one another many riddles. In the end Bilbo won
the game, more by luck (as it seemed) than by wits; for he
was stumped at last for a riddle to ask, and cried out, as his
hand came upon the ring he had picked up and forgotten:
What have I got in my pocket? This Gollum failed to answer,
though he demanded three guesses.
The Authorities, it is true, differ whether this last question
was a mere ‘question’ and not a ‘riddle’ according to the strict
rules of the Game; but all agree that, after accepting it and
trying to guess the answer, Gollum was bound by his
promise. And Bilbo pressed him to keep his word; for the
thought came to him that this slimy creature might prove
false, even though such promises were held sacred, and of
old all but the wickedest things feared to break them. But
16 prologue
after ages alone in the dark Gollum’s heart was black, and
treachery was in it. He slipped away, and returned to his
island, of which Bilbo knew nothing, not far off in the dark
water. There, he thought, lay his ring. He was hungry now,
and angry, and once his ‘Precious’ was with him he would
not fear any weapon at all.
But the ring was not on the island; he had lost it, it was
gone. His screech sent a shiver down Bilbo’s back, though he
did not yet understand what had happened. But Gollum had
at last leaped to a guess, too late. What has it got in its
pocketses? he cried. The light in his eyes was like a green
flame as he sped back to murder the hobbit and recover his
‘Precious’. Just in time Bilbo saw his peril, and he fled blindly
up the passage away from the water; and once more he was
saved by his luck. For as he ran he put his hand in his pocket,
and the ring slipped quietly on to his finger. So it was that
Gollum passed him without seeing him, and went to guard
the way out, lest the ‘thief ’ should escape. Warily Bilbo fol-
lowed him, as he went along, cursing, and talking to himself
about his ‘Precious’; from which talk at last even Bilbo
guessed the truth, and hope came to him in the darkness: he
himself had found the marvellous ring and a chance of escape
from the orcs and from Gollum.
At length they came to a halt before an unseen opening
that led to the lower gates of the mines, on the eastward side
of the mountains. There Gollum crouched at bay, smelling
and listening; and Bilbo was tempted to slay him with his
sword. But pity stayed him, and though he kept the ring, in
which his only hope lay, he would not use it to help him kill
the wretched creature at a disadvantage. In the end, gathering
his courage, he leaped over Gollum in the dark, and fled
away down the passage, pursued by his enemy’s cries of hate
and despair: Thief, thief ! Baggins! We hates it for ever!
Now it is a curious fact that this is not the story as Bilbo
first told it to his companions. To them his account was that
Gollum had promised to give him a present, if he won the
prologue 17
game; but when Gollum went to fetch it from his island he
found the treasure was gone: a magic ring, which had been
given to him long ago on his birthday. Bilbo guessed that this
was the very ring that he had found, and as he had won the
game, it was already his by right. But being in a tight place,
he said nothing about it, and made Gollum show him the
way out, as a reward instead of a present. This account Bilbo
set down in his memoirs, and he seems never to have altered
it himself, not even after the Council of Elrond. Evidently it
still appeared in the original Red Book, as it did in several of
the copies and abstracts. But many copies contain the true
account (as an alternative), derived no doubt from notes by
Frodo or Samwise, both of whom learned the truth, though
they seem to have been unwilling to delete anything actually
written by the old hobbit himself.
Gandalf, however, disbelieved Bilbo’s first story, as soon
as he heard it, and he continued to be very curious about the
ring. Eventually he got the true tale out of Bilbo after much
questioning, which for a while strained their friendship; but
the wizard seemed to think the truth important. Though he
did not say so to Bilbo, he also thought it important, and
disturbing, to find that the good hobbit had not told the
truth from the first: quite contrary to his habit. The idea of a
‘present’ was not mere hobbitlike invention, all the same. It
was suggested to Bilbo, as he confessed, by Gollum’s talk
that he overheard; for Gollum did, in fact, call the ring his
‘birthday-present’, many times. That also Gandalf thought
strange and suspicious; but he did not discover the truth
in this point for many more years, as will be seen in this
book.
Of Bilbo’s later adventures little more need be said here.
With the help of the ring he escaped from the orc-guards at
the gate and rejoined his companions. He used the ring many
times on his quest, chiefly for the help of his friends; but he
kept it secret from them as long as he could. After his return
to his home he never spoke of it again to anyone, save Gandalf
18 note on the shire records
and Frodo; and no one else in the Shire knew of its existence,
or so he believed. Only to Frodo did he show the account of
his Journey that he was writing.
His sword, Sting, Bilbo hung over his fireplace, and his
coat of marvellous mail, the gift of the Dwarves from the
Dragon-hoard, he lent to a museum, to the Michel Delving
Mathom-house in fact. But he kept in a drawer at Bag End
the old cloak and hood that he had worn on his travels;
and the ring, secured by a fine chain, remained in his
pocket.
He returned to his home at Bag End on June the 22nd in
his fifty-second year (S.R. 1342), and nothing very notable
occurred in the Shire until Mr. Baggins began the prep-
arations for the celebration of his hundred-and-eleventh
birthday (S.R. 1401). At this point this History begins.
note on the shire records
At the end of the Third Age the part played by the Hobbits
in the great events that led to the inclusion of the Shire in the
Reunited Kingdom awakened among them a more wide-
spread interest in their own history; and many of their tra-
ditions, up to that time still mainly oral, were collected and
written down. The greater families were also concerned with
events in the Kingdom at large, and many of their members
studied its ancient histories and legends. By the end of the
first century of the Fourth Age there were already to be found
in the Shire several libraries that contained many historical
books and records.
The largest of these collections were probably at Under-
towers, at Great Smials, and at Brandy Hall. This account of
the end of the Third Age is drawn mainly from the Red Book
of Westmarch. That most important source for the history
of the War of the Ring was so called because it was long
preserved at Undertowers, the home of the Fairbairns,
note on the shire records 19
Wardens of the Westmarch.* It was in origin Bilbo’s private
diary, which he took with him to Rivendell. Frodo brought it
back to the Shire, together with many loose leaves of notes,
and during S.R. 1420–1 he nearly filled its pages with his
account of the War. But annexed to it and preserved with it,
probably in a single red case, were the three large volumes,
bound in red leather, that Bilbo gave to him as a parting gift.
To these four volumes there was added in Westmarch a
fifth containing commentaries, genealogies, and various other
matter concerning the hobbit members of the Fellowship.
The original Red Book has not been preserved, but many
copies were made, especially of the first volume, for the use
of the descendants of the children of Master Samwise. The
most important copy, however, has a different history. It was
kept at Great Smials, but it was written in Gondor, probably
at the request of the great-grandson of Peregrin, and com-
pleted in S.R. 1592 (F.A. 172). Its southern scribe appended
this note: Findegil, King’s Writer, finished this work in IV
172. It is an exact copy in all details of the Thain’s Book in
Minas Tirith. That book was a copy, made at the request of
King Elessar, of the Red Book of the Periannath, and was
brought to him by the Thain Peregrin when he retired to
Gondor in IV 64.
The Thain’s Book was thus the first copy made of the Red
Book and contained much that was later omitted or lost. In
Minas Tirith it received much annotation, and many correc-
tions, especially of names, words, and quotations in the Elvish
languages; and there was added to it an abbreviated version
of those parts of The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen which lie
outside the account of the War. The full tale is stated to have
been written by Barahir, grandson of the Steward Faramir,
some time after the passing of the King. But the chief impor-
tance of Findegil’s copy is that it alone contains the whole of
Bilbo’s ‘Translations from the Elvish’. These three volumes
* See Appendix B: annals 1451, 1462, 1482; and note at end of
Appendix C.
20 note on the shire records
were found to be a work of great skill and learning in which,
between 1403 and 1418, he had used all the sources available
to him in Rivendell, both living and written. But since they
were little used by Frodo, being almost entirely concerned
with the Elder Days, no more is said of them here.
Since Meriadoc and Peregrin became the heads of their
great families, and at the same time kept up their connexions
with Rohan and Gondor, the libraries at Bucklebury and
Tuckborough contained much that did not appear in the Red
Book. In Brandy Hall there were many works dealing with
Eriador and the history of Rohan. Some of these were
composed or begun by Meriadoc himself, though in the Shire
he was chiefly remembered for his Herblore of the Shire, and
for his Reckoning of Years in which he discussed the relation
of the calendars of the Shire and Bree to those of Rivendell,
Gondor, and Rohan. He also wrote a short treatise on Old
Words and Names in the Shire, showing special interest in
discovering the kinship with the language of the Rohirrim
of such ‘shire-words’ as mathom and old elements in place
names.
At Great Smials the books were of less interest to Shire-
folk, though more important for larger history. None of them
was written by Peregrin, but he and his successors collected
many manuscripts written by scribes of Gondor: mainly
copies or summaries of histories or legends relating to Elendil
and his heirs. Only here in the Shire were to be found exten-
sive materials for the history of Nu
´
menor and the arising of
Sauron. It was probably at Great Smials that The Tale of
Years* was put together, with the assistance of material
collected by Meriadoc. Though the dates given are often
conjectural, especially for the Second Age, they deserve atten-
tion. It is probable that Meriadoc obtained assistance and
information from Rivendell, which he visited more than once.
There, though Elrond had departed, his sons long remained,
* Represented in much reduced form in Appendix B as far as the
end of the Third Age.
note on the shire records 21
together with some of the High-elven folk. It is said that
Celeborn went to dwell there after the departure of Galadriel;
but there is no record of the day when at last he sought the
Grey Havens, and with him went the last living memory of
the Elder Days in Middle-earth.
.
THE FELLOWSHIP
OF THE RING
being the first part
of
The Lord of the Rings
.
.
Chapter 1
A LONG-EXPECTED PARTY
When Mr. Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he
would shortly be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday with
a party of special magnificence, there was much talk and
excitement in Hobbiton.
Bilbo was very rich and very peculiar, and had been the
wonder of the Shire for sixty years, ever since his remarkable
disappearance and unexpected return. The riches he had
brought back from his travels had now become a local legend,
and it was popularly believed, whatever the old folk might
say, that the Hill at Bag End was full of tunnels stuffed with
treasure. And if that was not enough for fame, there was also
his prolonged vigour to marvel at. Time wore on, but it
seemed to have little effect on Mr. Baggins. At ninety he was
much the same as at fifty. At ninety-nine they began to call
him well-preserved; but unchanged would have been nearer the
mark. There were some that shook their heads and thought
this was too much of a good thing; it seemed unfair that
anyone should possess (apparently) perpetual youth as well
as (reputedly) inexhaustible wealth.
‘It will have to be paid for,’ they said. ‘It isn’t natural, and
trouble will come of it!’
But so far trouble had not come; and as Mr. Baggins was
generous with his money, most people were willing to for-
give him his oddities and his good fortune. He remained
on visiting terms with his relatives (except, of course, the
Sackville-Bagginses), and he had many devoted admirers
among the hobbits of poor and unimportant families. But he
had no close friends, until some of his younger cousins began
to grow up.
28 the fellowship of the ring
The eldest of these, and Bilbo’s favourite, was young Frodo
Baggins. When Bilbo was ninety-nine he adopted Frodo as
his heir, and brought him to live at Bag End; and the hopes of
the Sackville-Bagginses were finally dashed. Bilbo and Frodo
happened to have the same birthday, September 22nd. ‘You
had better come and live here, Frodo my lad,’ said Bilbo
one day; ‘and then we can celebrate our birthday-parties
comfortably together.’ At that time Frodo was still in his
tweens, as the hobbits called the irresponsible twenties
between childhood and coming of age at thirty-three.
Twelve more years passed. Each year the Bagginses had
given very lively combined birthday-parties at Bag End; but
now it was understood that something quite exceptional
was being planned for that autumn. Bilbo was going to be
eleventy-one, 111, a rather curious number, and a very re-
spectable age for a hobbit (the Old Took himself had only
reached 130); and Frodo was going to be thirty-three, 33,an
important number: the date of his ‘coming of age’.
Tongues began to wag in Hobbiton and Bywater; and
rumour of the coming event travelled all over the Shire. The
history and character of Mr. Bilbo Baggins became once
again the chief topic of conversation; and the older folk
suddenly found their reminiscences in welcome demand.
No one had a more attentive audience than old Ham
Gamgee, commonly known as the Gaffer. He held forth at
The Ivy Bush, a small inn on the Bywater road; and he spoke
with some authority, for he had tended the garden at Bag
End for forty years, and had helped old Holman in the same
job before that. Now that he was himself growing old and
stiff in the joints, the job was mainly carried on by his young-
est son, Sam Gamgee. Both father and son were on very
friendly terms with Bilbo and Frodo. They lived on the Hill
itself, in Number 3 Bagshot Row just below Bag End.
‘A very nice well-spoken gentlehobbit is Mr. Bilbo, as I’ve
always said,’ the Gaffer declared. With perfect truth: for Bilbo
was very polite to him, calling him ‘Master Hamfast’, and
a long-expected party 29
consulting him constantly upon the growing of vegetables –
in the matter of ‘roots’, especially potatoes, the Gaffer was
recognized as the leading authority by all in the neighbour-
hood (including himself ).
‘But what about this Frodo that lives with him?’ asked Old
Noakes of Bywater. ‘Baggins is his name, but he’s more than
half a Brandybuck, they say. It beats me why any Baggins
of Hobbiton should go looking for a wife away there in
Buckland, where folks are so queer.’
‘And no wonder they’re queer,’ put in Daddy Twofoot
(the Gaffer’s next-door neighbour), ‘if they live on the wrong
side of the Brandywine River, and right agin the Old Forest.
That’s a dark bad place, if half the tales be true.’
‘You’re right, Dad!’ said the Gaffer. ‘Not that the Brandy-
bucks of Buckland live in the Old Forest; but they’re a queer
breed, seemingly. They fool about with boats on that big
river – and that isn’t natural. Small wonder that trouble came
of it, I say. But be that as it may, Mr. Frodo is as nice a
young hobbit as you could wish to meet. Very much like
Mr. Bilbo, and in more than looks. After all his father was
a Baggins. A decent respectable hobbit was Mr. Drogo
Baggins; there was never much to tell of him, till he was
drownded.’
‘Drownded?’ said several voices. They had heard this and
other darker rumours before, of course; but hobbits have a
passion for family history, and they were ready to hear it
again.
‘Well, so they say,’ said the Gaffer. ‘You see: Mr. Drogo,
he married poor Miss Primula Brandybuck. She was our Mr.
Bilbo’s first cousin on the mother’s side (her mother being
the youngest of the Old Took’s daughters); and Mr. Drogo
was his second cousin. So Mr. Frodo is his first and second
cousin, once removed either way, as the saying is, if you
follow me. And Mr. Drogo was staying at Brandy Hall with
his father-in-law, old Master Gorbadoc, as he often did
after his marriage (him being partial to his vittles, and old
Gorbadoc keeping a mighty generous table); and he went out
30 the fellowship of the ring
boating on the Brandywine River; and he and his wife were
drownded, and poor Mr. Frodo only a child and all.’
‘I’ve heard they went on the water after dinner in the
moonlight,’ said Old Noakes; ‘and it was Drogo’s weight as
sunk the boat.’
‘And I heard she pushed him in, and he pulled her in after
him,’ said Sandyman, the Hobbiton miller.
‘You shouldn’t listen to all you hear, Sandyman,’ said the
Gaffer, who did not much like the miller. ‘There isn’t no call
to go talking of pushing and pulling. Boats are quite tricky
enough for those that sit still without looking further for the
cause of trouble. Anyway: there was this Mr. Frodo left an
orphan and stranded, as you might say, among those queer
Bucklanders, being brought up anyhow in Brandy Hall. A
regular warren, by all accounts. Old Master Gorbadoc never
had fewer than a couple of hundred relations in the place.
Mr. Bilbo never did a kinder deed than when he brought the
lad back to live among decent folk.
‘But I reckon it was a nasty knock for those Sackville-
Bagginses. They thought they were going to get Bag End,
that time when he went off and was thought to be dead. And
then he comes back and orders them off; and he goes on
living and living, and never looking a day older, bless him!
And suddenly he produces an heir, and has all the papers
made out proper. The Sackville-Bagginses won’t never see
the inside of Bag End now, or it is to be hoped not.’
‘There’s a tidy bit of money tucked away up there, I hear
tell,’ said a stranger, a visitor on business from Michel
Delving in the Westfarthing. ‘All the top of your hill is full of
tunnels packed with chests of gold and silver, and jools, by
what I’ve heard.’
‘Then you’ve heard more than I can speak to,’ answered
the Gaffer. ‘I know nothing about jools. Mr. Bilbo is free with
his money, and there seems no lack of it; but I know of no
tunnel-making. I saw Mr. Bilbo when he came back, a matter
of sixty years ago, when I was a lad. I’d not long come
prentice to old Holman (him being my dad’s cousin), but he
a long-expected party 31
had me up at Bag End helping him to keep folks from tram-
pling and trapessing all over the garden while the sale was
on. And in the middle of it all Mr. Bilbo comes up the Hill
with a pony and some mighty big bags and a couple of chests.
I don’t doubt they were mostly full of treasure he had picked
up in foreign parts, where there be mountains of gold, they
say; but there wasn’t enough to fill tunnels. But my lad Sam
will know more about that. He’s in and out of Bag End.
Crazy about stories of the old days, he is, and he listens to
all Mr. Bilbo’s tales. Mr. Bilbo has learned him his letters –
meaning no harm, mark you, and I hope no harm will come
of it.
‘Elves and Dragons! I says to him. Cabbages and potatoes are
better for me and you. Don’t go getting mixed up in the business
of your betters, or you’ll land in trouble too big for you, I says to
him. And I might say it to others,’ he added with a look at
the stranger and the miller.
But the Gaffer did not convince his audience. The legend
of Bilbo’s wealth was now too firmly fixed in the minds of
the younger generation of hobbits.
‘Ah, but he has likely enough been adding to what he
brought at first,’ argued the miller, voicing common opinion.
‘He’s often away from home. And look at the outlandish folk
that visit him: dwarves coming at night, and that old wandering
conjuror, Gandalf, and all. You can say what you like, Gaffer,
but Bag End’s a queer place, and its folk are queerer.’
‘And you can say what you like, about what you know no
more of than you do of boating, Mr. Sandyman,’ retorted
the Gaffer, disliking the miller even more than usual. ‘If that’s
being queer, then we could do with a bit more queerness in
these parts. There’s some not far away that wouldn’t offer a
pint of beer to a friend, if they lived in a hole with golden
walls. But they do things proper at Bag End. Our Sam says
that everyone’s going to be invited to the party, and there’s
going to be presents, mark you, presents for all – this very
month as is.’
***
32 the fellowship of the ring
That very month was September, and as fine as you could
ask. A day or two later a rumour (probably started by the
knowledgeable Sam) was spread about that there were going
to be fireworks – fireworks, what is more, such as had not
been seen in the Shire for nigh on a century, not indeed since
the Old Took died.
Days passed and The Day drew nearer. An odd-looking
waggon laden with odd-looking packages rolled into Hobbi-
ton one evening and toiled up the Hill to Bag End. The
startled hobbits peered out of lamplit doors to gape at it. It
was driven by outlandish folk, singing strange songs: dwarves
with long beards and deep hoods. A few of them remained
at Bag End. At the end of the second week in September a
cart came in through Bywater from the direction of Brandy-
wine Bridge in broad daylight. An old man was driving it all
alone. He wore a tall pointed blue hat, a long grey cloak, and
a silver scarf. He had a long white beard and bushy eyebrows
that stuck out beyond the brim of his hat. Small hobbit-
children ran after the cart all through Hobbiton and right up
the hill. It had a cargo of fireworks, as they rightly guessed.
At Bilbo’s front door the old man began to unload: there
were great bundles of fireworks of all sorts and shapes, each
labelled with a large red G
and the elf-rune, .
That was Gandalf ’s mark, of course, and the old man
was Gandalf the Wizard, whose fame in the Shire was due
mainly to his skill with fires, smokes, and lights. His real
business was far more difficult and dangerous, but the
Shire-folk knew nothing about it. To them he was just one
of the ‘attractions’ at the Party. Hence the excitement of
the hobbit-children. ‘G for Grand!’ they shouted, and the
old man smiled. They knew him by sight, though he only
appeared in Hobbiton occasionally and never stopped long;
but neither they nor any but the oldest of their elders had
seen one of his firework displays – they now belonged to a
legendary past.
When the old man, helped by Bilbo and some dwarves,
had finished unloading, Bilbo gave a few pennies away; but
a long-expected party 33
not a single squib or cracker was forthcoming, to the dis-
appointment of the onlookers.
‘Run away now!’ said Gandalf. ‘You will get plenty when
the time comes.’ Then he disappeared inside with Bilbo, and
the door was shut. The young hobbits stared at the door in
vain for a while, and then made off, feeling that the day of
the party would never come.
Inside Bag End, Bilbo and Gandalf were sitting at the open
window of a small room looking out west on to the garden.
The late afternoon was bright and peaceful. The flowers
glowed red and golden: snap-dragons and sunflowers, and
nasturtians trailing all over the turf walls and peeping in at
the round windows.
‘How bright your garden looks!’ said Gandalf.
‘Yes,’ said Bilbo. ‘I am very fond indeed of it, and of all
the dear old Shire; but I think I need a holiday.’
‘You mean to go on with your plan then?’
‘I do. I made up my mind months ago, and I haven’t
changed it.’
‘Very well. It is no good saying any more. Stick to your
plan – your whole plan, mind – and I hope it will turn out
for the best, for you, and for all of us.’
‘I hope so. Anyway I mean to enjoy myself on Thursday,
and have my little joke.’
‘Who will laugh, I wonder?’ said Gandalf, shaking his head.
‘We shall see,’ said Bilbo.
The next day more carts rolled up the Hill, and still more
carts. There might have been some grumbling about ‘dealing
locally’, but that very week orders began to pour out of Bag
End for every kind of provision, commodity, or luxury that
could be obtained in Hobbiton or Bywater or anywhere in
the neighbourhood. People became enthusiastic; and they
began to tick off the days on the calendar; and they watched
eagerly for the postman, hoping for invitations.
Before long the invitations began pouring out, and the
34 the fellowship of the ring
Hobbiton post-office was blocked, and the Bywater post-
office was snowed under, and voluntary assistant postmen
were called for. There was a constant stream of them going
up the Hill, carrying hundreds of polite variations on Thank
you, I shall certainly come.
A notice appeared on the gate at Bag End: no admit-
tance except on party business. Even those who had,
or pretended to have Party Business were seldom allowed
inside. Bilbo was busy: writing invitations, ticking off
answers, packing up presents, and making some private
preparations of his own. From the time of Gandalf ’s arrival
he remained hidden from view.
One morning the hobbits woke to find the large field, south
of Bilbo’s front door, covered with ropes and poles for tents
and pavilions. A special entrance was cut into the bank
leading to the road, and wide steps and a large white gate
were built there. The three hobbit-families of Bagshot Row,
adjoining the field, were intensely interested and generally
envied. Old Gaffer Gamgee stopped even pretending to work
in his garden.
The tents began to go up. There was a specially large
pavilion, so big that the tree that grew in the field was right
inside it, and stood proudly near one end, at the head of
the chief table. Lanterns were hung on all its branches.
More promising still (to the hobbits’ mind): an enormous
open-air kitchen was erected in the north corner of the field.
A draught of cooks, from every inn and eating-house for
miles around, arrived to supplement the dwarves and other
odd folk that were quartered at Bag End. Excitement rose to
its height.
Then the weather clouded over. That was on Wednesday
the eve of the Party. Anxiety was intense. Then Thursday,
September the 22nd, actually dawned. The sun got up, the
clouds vanished, flags were unfurled and the fun began.
Bilbo Baggins called it a party, but it was really a variety
of entertainments rolled into one. Practically everybody living
near was invited. A very few were overlooked by accident,
a long-expected party 35
but as they turned up all the same, that did not matter. Many
people from other parts of the Shire were also asked; and
there were even a few from outside the borders. Bilbo met
the guests (and additions) at the new white gate in person.
He gave away presents to all and sundry – the latter were
those who went out again by a back way and came in again
by the gate. Hobbits give presents to other people on their
own birthdays. Not very expensive ones, as a rule, and not
so lavishly as on this occasion; but it was not a bad system.
Actually in Hobbiton and Bywater every day in the year was
somebody’s birthday, so that every hobbit in those parts had
a fair chance of at least one present at least once a week. But
they never got tired of them.
On this occasion the presents were unusually good. The
hobbit-children were so excited that for a while they almost
forgot about eating. There were toys the like of which they
had never seen before, all beautiful and some obviously magi-
cal. Many of them had indeed been ordered a year before,
and had come all the way from the Mountain and from Dale,
and were of real dwarf-make.
When every guest had been welcomed and was finally
inside the gate, there were songs, dances, music, games, and,
of course, food and drink. There were three official meals:
lunch, tea, and dinner (or supper). But lunch and tea were
marked chiefly by the fact that at those times all the guests
were sitting down and eating together. At other times there
were merely lots of people eating and drinking – continuously
from elevenses until six-thirty, when the fireworks started.
The fireworks were by Gandalf: they were not only brought
by him, but designed and made by him; and the special
effects, set pieces, and flights of rockets were let off by
him. But there was also a generous distribution of squibs,
crackers, backarappers, sparklers, torches, dwarf-candles, elf-
fountains, goblin-barkers and thunder-claps. They were all
superb. The art of Gandalf improved with age.
There were rockets like a flight of scintillating birds singing
with sweet voices. There were green trees with trunks of dark
36 the fellowship of the ring
smoke: their leaves opened like a whole spring unfolding in a
moment, and their shining branches dropped glowing flowers
down upon the astonished hobbits, disappearing with a sweet
scent just before they touched their upturned faces. There
were fountains of butterflies that flew glittering into the trees;
there were pillars of coloured fires that rose and turned into
eagles, or sailing ships, or a phalanx of flying swans; there
was a red thunderstorm and a shower of yellow rain; there
was a forest of silver spears that sprang suddenly into the air
with a yell like an embattled army, and came down again into
the Water with a hiss like a hundred hot snakes. And there
was also one last surprise, in honour of Bilbo, and it startled
the hobbits exceedingly, as Gandalf intended. The lights went
out. A great smoke went up. It shaped itself like a mountain
seen in the distance, and began to glow at the summit. It
spouted green and scarlet flames. Out flew a red-golden
dragon – not life-size, but terribly life-like: fire came from his
jaws, his eyes glared down; there was a roar, and he whizzed
three times over the heads of the crowd. They all ducked,
and many fell flat on their faces. The dragon passed like an
express train, turned a somersault, and burst over Bywater
with a deafening explosion.
‘That is the signal for supper!’ said Bilbo. The pain and
alarm vanished at once, and the prostrate hobbits leaped to
their feet. There was a splendid supper for everyone; for
everyone, that is, except those invited to the special family
dinner-party. This was held in the great pavilion with the
tree. The invitations were limited to twelve dozen (a number
also called by the hobbits one Gross, though the word was
not considered proper to use of people); and the guests were
selected from all the families to which Bilbo and Frodo were
related, with the addition of a few special unrelated friends
(such as Gandalf ). Many young hobbits were included, and
present by parental permission; for hobbits were easy-going
with their children in the matter of sitting up late, especially
when there was a chance of getting them a free meal. Bringing
up young hobbits took a lot of provender.
a long-expected party 37
There were many Bagginses and Boffins, and also many
Tooks and Brandybucks; there were various Grubbs (re-
lations of Bilbo Baggins’ grandmother), and various Chubbs
(connexions of his Took grandfather); and a selection of
Burrowses, Bolgers, Bracegirdles, Brockhouses, Goodbodies,
Hornblowers and Proudfoots. Some of these were only very
distantly connected with Bilbo, and some had hardly ever
been in Hobbiton before, as they lived in remote corners of
the Shire. The Sackville-Bagginses were not forgotten. Otho
and his wife Lobelia were present. They disliked Bilbo and
detested Frodo, but so magnificent was the invitation card,
written in golden ink, that they had felt it was impossible to
refuse. Besides, their cousin, Bilbo, had been specializing in
food for many years and his table had a high reputation.
All the one hundred and forty-four guests expected a pleas-
ant feast; though they rather dreaded the after-dinner speech
of their host (an inevitable item). He was liable to drag in bits
of what he called poetry; and sometimes, after a glass or
two, would allude to the absurd adventures of his mysterious
journey. The guests were not disappointed: they had a very
pleasant feast, in fact an engrossing entertainment: rich,
abundant, varied, and prolonged. The purchase of provisions
fell almost to nothing throughout the district in the ensuing
weeks; but as Bilbo’s catering had depleted the stocks of most
of the stores, cellars and warehouses for miles around, that
did not matter much.
After the feast (more or less) came the Speech. Most of
the company were, however, now in a tolerant mood, at that
delightful stage which they called ‘filling up the corners’.
They were sipping their favourite drinks, and nibbling at their
favourite dainties, and their fears were forgotten. They were
prepared to listen to anything, and to cheer at every full stop.
My dear People, began Bilbo, rising in his place. ‘Hear!
Hear! Hear!’ they shouted, and kept on repeating it in chorus,
seeming reluctant to follow their own advice. Bilbo left his
place and went and stood on a chair under the illuminated
tree. The light of the lanterns fell on his beaming face; the
38 the fellowship of the ring
golden buttons shone on his embroidered silk waistcoat. They
could all see him standing, waving one hand in the air, the
other was in his trouser-pocket.
My dear Bagginses and Boffins, he began again; and my
dear Tooks and Brandybucks, and Grubbs, and Chubbs, and
Burrowses, and Hornblowers, and Bolgers, Bracegirdles, Good-
bodies, Brockhouses and Proudfoots. ‘Proudfeet!’ shouted an
elderly hobbit from the back of the pavilion. His name, of
course, was Proudfoot, and well merited; his feet were large,
exceptionally furry, and both were on the table.
Proudfoots, repeated Bilbo. Also my good Sackville-Bagginses
that I welcome back at last to Bag End. Today is my one hundred
and eleventh birthday: I am eleventy-one today! ‘Hurray! Hur-
ray! Many Happy Returns!’ they shouted, and they ham-
mered joyously on the tables. Bilbo was doing splendidly.
This was the sort of stuff they liked: short and obvious.
I hope you are all enjoying yourselves as much as I am. Deaf-
ening cheers. Cries of Yes (and No). Noises of trumpets and
horns, pipes and flutes, and other musical instruments. There
were, as has been said, many young hobbits present. Hun-
dreds of musical crackers had been pulled. Most of them
bore the mark dale on them; which did not convey much to
most of the hobbits, but they all agreed they were marvellous
crackers. They contained instruments, small, but of perfect
make and enchanting tones. Indeed, in one corner some of
the young Tooks and Brandybucks, supposing Uncle Bilbo
to have finished (since he had plainly said all that was neces-
sary), now got up an impromptu orchestra, and began a
merry dance-tune. Master Everard Took and Miss Melilot
Brandybuck got on a table and with bells in their hands
began to dance the Springle-ring: a pretty dance, but rather
vigorous.
But Bilbo had not finished. Seizing a horn from a youngster
nearby, he blew three loud hoots. The noise subsided. I shall
not keep you long, he cried. Cheers from all the assembly. I
have called you all together for a Purpose. Something in the
way that he said this made an impression. There was almost
a long-expected party 39
silence, and one or two of the Tooks pricked up their ears.
Indeed, for Three Purposes! First of all, to tell you that I am
immensely fond of you all, and that eleventy-one years is too
short a time to live among such excellent and admirable hobbits.
Tremendous outburst of approval.
I don’t know half of you half as well as I should like; and I
like less than half of you half as well as you deserve. This was
unexpected and rather difficult. There was some scattered
clapping, but most of them were trying to work it out and
see if it came to a compliment.
Secondly, to celebrate my birthday. Cheers again. I should
say: OUR birthday. For it is, of course, also the birthday of my
heir and nephew, Frodo. He comes of age and into his inheritance
today. Some perfunctory clapping by the elders; and some
loud shouts of ‘Frodo! Frodo! Jolly old Frodo,’ from the
juniors. The Sackville-Bagginses scowled, and wondered
what was meant by ‘coming into his inheritance’.
Together we score one hundred and forty-four. Your numbers
were chosen to fit this remarkable total: One Gross, if I may use
the expression. No cheers. This was ridiculous. Many of the
guests, and especially the Sackville-Bagginses, were insulted,
feeling sure they had only been asked to fill up the required
number, like goods in a package. ‘One Gross, indeed! Vulgar
expression.’
It is also, if I may be allowed to refer to ancient history, the
anniversary of my arrival by barrel at Esgaroth on the Long
Lake; though the fact that it was my birthday slipped my memory
on that occasion. I was only fifty-one then, and birthdays did not
seem so important. The banquet was very splendid, however,
though I had a bad cold at the time, I remember, and could only
say ‘thag you very buch’. I now repeat it more correctly: Thank
you very much for coming to my little party. Obstinate silence.
They all feared that a song or some poetry was now immi-
nent; and they were getting bored. Why couldn’t he stop
talking and let them drink his health? But Bilbo did not sing
or recite. He paused for a moment.
Thirdly and finally, he said, I wish to make an
40 the fellowship of the ring
ANNOUNCEMENT. He spoke this last word so loudly and
suddenly that everyone sat up who still could. I regret to
announce that – though, as I said, eleventy-one years is far too
short a time to spend among you – this is the END. I am going.
I am leaving NOW. GOOD-BYE!
He stepped down and vanished. There was a blinding flash
of light, and the guests all blinked. When they opened their
eyes Bilbo was nowhere to be seen. One hundred and forty-
four flabbergasted hobbits sat back speechless. Old Odo
Proudfoot removed his feet from the table and stamped.
Then there was a dead silence, until suddenly, after several
deep breaths, every Baggins, Boffin, Took, Brandybuck,
Grubb, Chubb, Burrows, Bolger, Bracegirdle, Brockhouse,
Goodbody, Hornblower, and Proudfoot began to talk at once.
It was generally agreed that the joke was in very bad taste,
and more food and drink were needed to cure the guests of
shock and annoyance. ‘He’s mad. I always said so,’ was
probably the most popular comment. Even the Tooks (with
a few exceptions) thought Bilbo’s behaviour was absurd. For
the moment most of them took it for granted that his
disappearance was nothing more than a ridiculous prank.
But old Rory Brandybuck was not so sure. Neither age nor
an enormous dinner had clouded his wits, and he said to his
daughter-in-law, Esmeralda: ‘There’s something fishy in this,
my dear! I believe that mad Baggins is off again. Silly old
fool. But why worry? He hasn’t taken the vittles with him.’
He called loudly to Frodo to send the wine round again.
Frodo was the only one present who had said nothing. For
some time he had sat silent beside Bilbo’s empty chair, and
ignored all remarks and questions. He had enjoyed the joke,
of course, even though he had been in the know. He had
difficulty in keeping from laughter at the indignant surprise
of the guests. But at the same time he felt deeply troubled:
he realized suddenly that he loved the old hobbit dearly. Most
of the guests went on eating and drinking and discussing
Bilbo Baggins’ oddities, past and present; but the Sackville-
a long-expected party 41
Bagginses had already departed in wrath. Frodo did not want
to have any more to do with the party. He gave orders for
more wine to be served; then he got up and drained his own
glass silently to the health of Bilbo, and slipped out of the
pavilion.
As for Bilbo Baggins, even while he was making his speech,
he had been fingering the golden ring in his pocket: his magic
ring that he had kept secret for so many years. As he stepped
down he slipped it on his finger, and he was never seen by
any hobbit in Hobbiton again.
He walked briskly back to his hole, and stood for a moment
listening with a smile to the din in the pavilion, and to the
sounds of merrymaking in other parts of the field. Then he
went in. He took off his party clothes, folded up and wrapped
in tissue-paper his embroidered silk waistcoat, and put it
away. Then he put on quickly some old untidy garments,
and fastened round his waist a worn leather belt. On it he
hung a short sword in a battered black-leather scabbard.
From a locked drawer, smelling of moth-balls, he took
out an old cloak and hood. They had been locked up as if
they were very precious, but they were so patched and
weatherstained that their original colour could hardly be
guessed: it might have been dark green. They were rather too
large for him. He then went into his study, and from a large
strong-box took out a bundle wrapped in old cloths, and a
leather-bound manuscript; and also a large bulky envelope.
The book and bundle he stuffed into the top of a heavy bag
that was standing there, already nearly full. Into the enve-
lope he slipped his golden ring, and its fine chain, and then
sealed it, and addressed it to Frodo. At first he put it on the
mantelpiece, but suddenly he removed it and stuck it in his
pocket. At that moment the door opened and Gandalf came
quickly in.
‘Hullo!’ said Bilbo. ‘I wondered if you would turn up.’
‘I am glad to find you visible,’ replied the wizard, sitting
down in a chair, ‘I wanted to catch you and have a few
42 the fellowship of the ring
final words. I suppose you feel that everything has gone off
splendidly and according to plan?’
‘Yes, I do,’ said Bilbo. ‘Though that flash was surprising:
it quite startled me, let alone the others. A little addition of
your own, I suppose?’
‘It was. You have wisely kept that ring secret all these years,
and it seemed to me necessary to give your guests something
else that would seem to explain your sudden vanishment.’
‘And would spoil my joke. You are an interfering old busy-
body,’ laughed Bilbo, ‘but I expect you know best, as usual.’
‘I do – when I know anything. But I don’t feel too sure
about this whole affair. It has now come to the final point.
You have had your joke, and alarmed or offended most of
your relations, and given the whole Shire something to talk
about for nine days, or ninety-nine more likely. Are you going
any further?’
‘Yes, I am. I feel I need a holiday, a very long holiday, as
I have told you before. Probably a permanent holiday: I don’t
expect I shall return. In fact, I don’t mean to, and I have
made all arrangements.
‘I am old, Gandalf. I don’t look it, but I am beginning
to feel it in my heart of hearts. Well-preserved indeed!’ he
snorted. ‘Why, I feel all thin, sort of stretched, if you know
what I mean: like butter that has been scraped over too much
bread. That can’t be right. I need a change, or something.’
Gandalf looked curiously and closely at him. ‘No, it does
not seem right,’ he said thoughtfully. ‘No, after all I believe
your plan is probably the best.’
‘Well, I’ve made up my mind, anyway. I want to see moun-
tains again, Gandalf – mountains; and then find somewhere
where I can rest. In peace and quiet, without a lot of relatives
prying around, and a string of confounded visitors hanging
on the bell. I might find somewhere where I can finish my
book. I have thought of a nice ending for it: and he lived
happily ever after to the end of his days.’
Gandalf laughed. ‘I hope he will. But nobody will read the
book, however it ends.’
a long-expected party 43
‘Oh, they may, in years to come. Frodo has read some
already, as far as it has gone. You’ll keep an eye on Frodo,
won’t you?’
‘Yes, I will – two eyes, as often as I can spare them.’
‘He would come with me, of course, if I asked him. In fact
he offered to once, just before the party. But he does not
really want to, yet. I want to see the wild country again before
I die, and the Mountains; but he is still in love with the
Shire, with woods and fields and little rivers. He ought to be
comfortable here. I am leaving everything to him, of course,
except a few oddments. I hope he will be happy, when he
gets used to being on his own. It’s time he was his own master
now.’
‘Everything?’ said Gandalf. ‘The ring as well? You agreed
to that, you remember.’
‘Well, er, yes, I suppose so,’ stammered Bilbo.
‘Where is it?’
‘In an envelope, if you must know,’ said Bilbo impatiently.
‘There on the mantelpiece. Well, no! Here it is in my
pocket!’ He hesitated. ‘Isn’t that odd now?’ he said softly
to himself. ‘Yet after all, why not? Why shouldn’t it stay
there?’
Gandalf looked again very hard at Bilbo, and there was a
gleam in his eyes. ‘I think, Bilbo,’ he said quietly, ‘I should
leave it behind. Don’t you want to?’
‘Well yes – and no. Now it comes to it, I don’t like parting
with it at all, I may say. And I don’t really see why I should.
Why do you want me to?’ he asked, and a curious change
came over his voice. It was sharp with suspicion and annoy-
ance. ‘You are always badgering me about my ring; but you
have never bothered me about the other things that I got on
my journey.’
‘No, but I had to badger you,’ said Gandalf. ‘I wanted the
truth. It was important. Magic rings are – well, magical; and
they are rare and curious. I was professionally interested in
your ring, you may say; and I still am. I should like to know
where it is, if you go wandering again. Also I think you have
44 the fellowship of the ring
had it quite long enough. You won’t need it any more, Bilbo,
unless I am quite mistaken.’
Bilbo flushed, and there was an angry light in his eyes. His
kindly face grew hard. ‘Why not?’ he cried. ‘And what
business is it of yours, anyway, to know what I do with my
own things? It is my own. I found it. It came to me.’
‘Yes, yes,’ said Gandalf. ‘But there is no need to get angry.’
‘If I am it is your fault,’ said Bilbo. ‘It is mine, I tell you.
My own. My Precious. Yes, my Precious.’
The wizard’s face remained grave and attentive, and only
a flicker in his deep eyes showed that he was startled and
indeed alarmed. ‘It has been called that before,’ he said, ‘but
not by you.’
‘But I say it now. And why not? Even if Gollum said the
same once. It’s not his now, but mine. And I shall keep it, I
say.’
Gandalf stood up. He spoke sternly. ‘You will be a fool if
you do, Bilbo,’ he said. ‘You make that clearer with every
word you say. It has got far too much hold on you. Let it go!
And then you can go yourself, and be free.’
‘I’ll do as I choose and go as I please,’ said Bilbo obstinately.
‘Now, now, my dear hobbit!’ said Gandalf. ‘All your long
life we have been friends, and you owe me something. Come!
Do as you promised: give it up!’
‘Well, if you want my ring yourself, say so!’ cried Bilbo.
‘But you won’t get it. I won’t give my Precious away, I tell
you.’ His hand strayed to the hilt of his small sword.
Gandalf ’s eyes flashed. ‘It will be my turn to get angry
soon,’ he said. ‘If you say that again, I shall. Then you will
see Gandalf the Grey uncloaked.’ He took a step towards the
hobbit, and he seemed to grow tall and menacing; his shadow
filled the little room.
Bilbo backed away to the wall, breathing hard, his hand
clutching at his pocket. They stood for a while facing one
another, and the air of the room tingled. Gandalf ’s eyes
remained bent on the hobbit. Slowly his hands relaxed, and
he began to tremble.
a long-expected party 45
‘I don’t know what has come over you, Gandalf,’ he said.
‘You have never been like this before. What is it all about? It
is mine isn’t it? I found it, and Gollum would have killed me,
if I hadn’t kept it. I’m not a thief, whatever he said.’
‘I have never called you one,’ Gandalf answered. ‘And I
am not one either. I am not trying to rob you, but to help
you. I wish you would trust me, as you used.’ He turned
away, and the shadow passed. He seemed to dwindle again
to an old grey man, bent and troubled.
Bilbo drew his hand over his eyes. ‘I am sorry,’ he said.
‘But I felt so queer. And yet it would be a relief in a way not
to be bothered with it any more. It has been so growing on
my mind lately. Sometimes I have felt it was like an eye
looking at me. And I am always wanting to put it on and
disappear, don’t you know; or wondering if it is safe, and
pulling it out to make sure. I tried locking it up, but I found
I couldn’t rest without it in my pocket. I don’t know why.
And I don’t seem able to make up my mind.’
‘Then trust mine,’ said Gandalf. ‘It is quite made up. Go
away and leave it behind. Stop possessing it. Give it to Frodo,
and I will look after him.’
Bilbo stood for a moment tense and undecided. Presently
he sighed. ‘All right,’ he said with an effort. ‘I will.’ Then he
shrugged his shoulders, and smiled rather ruefully. ‘After all
that’s what this party business was all about, really: to give
away lots of birthday-presents, and somehow make it easier
to give it away at the same time. It hasn’t made it any easier
in the end, but it would be a pity to waste all my preparations.
It would quite spoil the joke.’
‘Indeed it would take away the only point I ever saw in the
affair,’ said Gandalf.
‘Very well,’ said Bilbo, ‘it goes to Frodo with all the rest.’
He drew a deep breath. ‘And now I really must be starting,
or somebody else will catch me. I have said good-bye, and I
couldn’t bear to do it all over again.’ He picked up his bag
and moved to the door.
‘You have still got the ring in your pocket,’ said the wizard.
46 the fellowship of the ring
‘Well, so I have!’ cried Bilbo. ‘And my will and all the other
documents too. You had better take it and deliver it for me.
That will be safest.’
‘No, don’t give the ring to me,’ said Gandalf. ‘Put it on the
mantelpiece. It will be safe enough there, till Frodo comes. I
shall wait for him.’
Bilbo took out the envelope, but just as he was about to set
it by the clock, his hand jerked back, and the packet fell on
the floor. Before he could pick it up, the wizard stooped and
seized it and set it in its place. A spasm of anger passed
swiftly over the hobbit’s face again. Suddenly it gave way to
a look of relief and a laugh.
‘Well, that’s that,’ he said. ‘Now I’m off !’
They went out into the hall. Bilbo chose his favourite stick
from the stand; then he whistled. Three dwarves came out
of different rooms where they had been busy.
‘Is everything ready?’ asked Bilbo. ‘Everything packed and
labelled?’
‘Everything,’ they answered.
‘Well, let’s start then!’ He stepped out of the front-door.
It was a fine night, and the black sky was dotted with stars.
He looked up, sniffing the air. ‘What fun! What fun to be off
again, off on the Road with dwarves! This is what I have
really been longing for, for years! Good-bye!’ he said, looking
at his old home and bowing to the door. ‘Good-bye, Gandalf !’
‘Good-bye, for the present, Bilbo. Take care of yourself !
You are old enough, and perhaps wise enough.’
‘Take care! I don’t care. Don’t you worry about me! I am
as happy now as I have ever been, and that is saying a great
deal. But the time has come. I am being swept off my feet at
last,’ he added, and then in a low voice, as if to himself, he
sang softly in the dark:
The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
a long-expected party 47
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.
He paused, silent for a moment. Then without another word
he turned away from the lights and voices in the field and
tents, and followed by his three companions went round
into his garden, and trotted down the long sloping path. He
jumped over a low place in the hedge at the bottom, and took
to the meadows, passing into the night like a rustle of wind
in the grass.
Gandalf remained for a while staring after him into the
darkness. ‘Good-bye, my dear Bilbo – until our next meet-
ing!’ he said softly and went back indoors.
Frodo came in soon afterwards, and found him sitting in
the dark, deep in thought. ‘Has he gone?’ he asked.
‘Yes,’ answered Gandalf, ‘he has gone at last.’
‘I wish – I mean, I hoped until this evening that it was only
a joke,’ said Frodo. ‘But I knew in my heart that he really
meant to go. He always used to joke about serious things. I
wish I had come back sooner, just to see him off.’
‘I think really he preferred slipping off quietly in the end,’
said Gandalf. ‘Don’t be too troubled. He’ll be all right – now.
He left a packet for you. There it is!’
Frodo took the envelope from the mantelpiece, and glanced
at it, but did not open it.
‘You’ll find his will and all the other documents in there, I
think,’ said the wizard. ‘You are the master of Bag End now.
And also, I fancy, you’ll find a golden ring.’
‘The ring!’ exclaimed Frodo. ‘Has he left me that? I wonder
why. Still, it may be useful.’
‘It may, and it may not,’ said Gandalf. ‘I should not make
use of it, if I were you. But keep it secret, and keep it safe!
Now I am going to bed.’
***
48 the fellowship of the ring
As master of Bag End Frodo felt it his painful duty to say
good-bye to the guests. Rumours of strange events had by
now spread all over the field, but Frodo would only say no
doubt everything will be cleared up in the morning. About mid-
night carriages came for the important folk. One by one
they rolled away, filled with full but very unsatisfied hobbits.
Gardeners came by arrangement, and removed in wheel-
barrows those that had inadvertently remained behind.
Night slowly passed. The sun rose. The hobbits rose rather
later. Morning went on. People came and began (by orders)
to clear away the pavilions and the tables and the chairs, and
the spoons and knives and bottles and plates, and the lanterns,
and the flowering shrubs in boxes, and the crumbs and
cracker-paper, the forgotten bags and gloves and handker-
chiefs, and the uneaten food (a very small item). Then a
number of other people came (without orders): Bagginses,
and Boffins, and Bolgers, and Tooks, and other guests that
lived or were staying near. By mid-day, when even the best-
fed were out and about again, there was a large crowd at Bag
End, uninvited but not unexpected.
Frodo was waiting on the step, smiling, but looking rather
tired and worried. He welcomed all the callers, but he had
not much more to say than before. His reply to all inquiries
was simply this: ‘Mr. Bilbo Baggins has gone away; as far as
I know, for good.’ Some of the visitors he invited to come
inside, as Bilbo had left ‘messages’ for them.
Inside in the hall there was piled a large assortment of
packages and parcels and small articles of furniture. On every
item there was a label tied. There were several labels of this
sort:
For ADELARD TOOK, for his VERY OWN, from Bilbo;on
an umbrella. Adelard had carried off many unlabelled ones.
For DORA BAGGINS in memory of a LONG correspon-
dence, with love from Bilbo; on a large waste-paper basket.
Dora was Drogo’s sister and the eldest surviving female rela-
tive of Bilbo and Frodo; she was ninety-nine, and had written
reams of good advice for more than half a century.
a long-expected party 49
For MILO BURROWS, hoping it will be useful, from B.B.;
on a gold pen and ink-bottle. Milo never answered letters.
For ANGELICA’S use, from Uncle Bilbo; on a round convex
mirror. She was a young Baggins, and too obviously con-
sidered her face shapely.
For the collection of HUGO BRACEGIRDLE, from a con-
tributor; on an (empty) book-case. Hugo was a great borrower
of books, and worse than usual at returning them.
For LOBELIA SACKVILLE-BAGGINS, as a PRESENT;
on a case of silver spoons. Bilbo believed that she had
acquired a good many of his spoons, while he was away on
his former journey. Lobelia knew that quite well. When she
arrived later in the day, she took the point at once, but she
also took the spoons.
This is only a small selection of the assembled presents.
Bilbo’s residence had got rather cluttered up with things in
the course of his long life. It was a tendency of hobbit-holes
to get cluttered up: for which the custom of giving so many
birthday-presents was largely responsible. Not, of course,
that the birthday-presents were always new; there were one
or two old mathoms of forgotten uses that had circulated all
around the district; but Bilbo had usually given new presents,
and kept those that he received. The old hole was now being
cleared a little.
Every one of the various parting gifts had labels, written
out personally by Bilbo, and several had some point, or some
joke. But, of course, most of the things were given where
they would be wanted and welcome. The poorer hobbits, and
especially those of Bagshot Row, did very well. Old Gaffer
Gamgee got two sacks of potatoes, a new spade, a woollen
waistcoat, and a bottle of ointment for creaking joints. Old
Rory Brandybuck, in return for much hospitality, got a dozen
bottles of Old Winyards: a strong red wine from the South-
farthing, and now quite mature, as it had been laid down by
Bilbo’s father. Rory quite forgave Bilbo, and voted him a
capital fellow after the first bottle.
50 the fellowship of the ring
There was plenty of everything left for Frodo. And, of
course, all the chief treasures, as well as the books, pictures,
and more than enough furniture, were left in his possession.
There was, however, no sign nor mention of money or jewel-
lery: not a penny-piece or a glass bead was given away.
Frodo had a very trying time that afternoon. A false rumour
that the whole household was being distributed free spread
like wildfire; and before long the place was packed with
people who had no business there, but could not be kept out.
Labels got torn off and mixed, and quarrels broke out. Some
people tried to do swaps and deals in the hall; and others
tried to make off with minor items not addressed to them, or
with anything that seemed unwanted or unwatched. The road
to the gate was blocked with barrows and handcarts.
In the middle of the commotion the Sackville-Bagginses
arrived. Frodo had retired for a while and left his friend
Merry Brandybuck to keep an eye on things. When Otho
loudly demanded to see Frodo, Merry bowed politely.
‘He is indisposed,’ he said. ‘He is resting.’
‘Hiding, you mean,’ said Lobelia. ‘Anyway we want to see
him and we mean to see him. Just go and tell him so!’
Merry left them a long while in the hall, and they had time
to discover their parting gift of spoons. It did not improve
their tempers. Eventually they were shown into the study.
Frodo was sitting at a table with a lot of papers in front of
him. He looked indisposed – to see Sackville-Bagginses at
any rate; and he stood up, fidgeting with something in his
pocket. But he spoke quite politely.
The Sackville-Bagginses were rather offensive. They began
by offering him bad bargain-prices (as between friends) for
various valuable and unlabelled things. When Frodo replied
that only the things specially directed by Bilbo were being
given away, they said the whole affair was very fishy.
‘Only one thing is clear to me,’ said Otho, ‘and that is that
you are doing exceedingly well out of it. I insist on seeing
the will.’
a long-expected party 51
Otho would have been Bilbo’s heir, but for the adoption
of Frodo. He read the will carefully and snorted. It was,
unfortunately, very clear and correct (according to the legal
customs of hobbits, which demand among other things seven
signatures of witnesses in red ink).
‘Foiled again!’ he said to his wife. ‘And after waiting sixty
years. Spoons? Fiddlesticks!’ He snapped his fingers under
Frodo’s nose and stumped off. But Lobelia was not so easily
got rid of. A little later Frodo came out of the study to see
how things were going on, and found her still about the place,
investigating nooks and corners, and tapping the floors. He
escorted her firmly off the premises, after he had relieved
her of several small (but rather valuable) articles that had
somehow fallen inside her umbrella. Her face looked as if she
was in the throes of thinking out a really crushing parting
remark; but all she found to say, turning round on the step,
was:
‘You’ll live to regret it, young fellow! Why didn’t you go
too? You don’t belong here; you’re no Baggins – you – you’re
a Brandybuck!’
‘Did you hear that, Merry? That was an insult, if you like,’
said Frodo as he shut the door on her.
‘It was a compliment,’ said Merry Brandybuck, ‘and so, of
course, not true.’
Then they went round the hole, and evicted three young
hobbits (two Boffins and a Bolger) who were knocking holes
in the walls of one of the cellars. Frodo also had a tussle with
young Sancho Proudfoot (old Odo Proudfoot’s grandson),
who had begun an excavation in the larger pantry, where he
thought there was an echo. The legend of Bilbo’s gold excited
both curiosity and hope; for legendary gold (mysteriously
obtained, if not positively ill-gotten), is, as everyone knows,
anyone’s for the finding – unless the search is interrupted.
When he had overcome Sancho and pushed him out,
Frodo collapsed on a chair in the hall. ‘It’s time to close the
shop, Merry,’ he said. ‘Lock the door, and don’t open it to
52 the fellowship of the ring
anyone today, not even if they bring a battering ram.’ Then
he went to revive himself with a belated cup of tea.
He had hardly sat down, when there came a soft knock at
the front-door. ‘Lobelia again most likely,’ he thought. ‘She
must have thought of something really nasty, and have come
back again to say it. It can wait.’
He went on with his tea. The knock was repeated, much
louder, but he took no notice. Suddenly the wizard’s head
appeared at the window.
‘If you don’t let me in, Frodo, I shall blow your door right
down your hole and out through the hill,’ he said.
‘My dear Gandalf ! Half a minute!’ cried Frodo, running
out of the room to the door. ‘Come in! Come in! I thought it
was Lobelia.’
‘Then I forgive you. But I saw her some time ago, driving
a pony-trap towards Bywater with a face that would have
curdled new milk.’
‘She had already nearly curdled me. Honestly, I nearly
tried on Bilbo’s ring. I longed to disappear.’
‘Don’t do that!’ said Gandalf, sitting down. ‘Do be careful
of that ring, Frodo! In fact, it is partly about that that I have
come to say a last word.’
‘Well, what about it?’
‘What do you know already?’
‘Only what Bilbo told me. I have heard his story: how he
found it, and how he used it: on his journey, I mean.’
‘Which story, I wonder,’ said Gandalf.
‘Oh, not what he told the dwarves and put in his book,’
said Frodo. ‘He told me the true story soon after I came
to live here. He said you had pestered him till he told
you, so I had better know too. ‘‘No secrets between us,
Frodo,’’ he said; ‘‘but they are not to go any further. It’s mine
anyway.’’ ’
‘That’s interesting,’ said Gandalf. ‘Well, what did you think
of it all?’
‘If you mean, inventing all that about a ‘‘present’’, well, I
thought the true story much more likely, and I couldn’t see
a long-expected party 53
the point of altering it at all. It was very unlike Bilbo to do
so, anyway; and I thought it rather odd.’
‘So did I. But odd things may happen to people that have
such treasures – if they use them. Let it be a warning to you
to be very careful with it. It may have other powers than just
making you vanish when you wish to.’
‘I don’t understand,’ said Frodo.
‘Neither do I,’ answered the wizard. ‘I have merely begun
to wonder about the ring, especially since last night. No need
to worry. But if you take my advice you will use it very
seldom, or not at all. At least I beg you not to use it in any
way that will cause talk or rouse suspicion. I say again: keep
it safe, and keep it secret!’
‘You are very mysterious! What are you afraid of ?’
‘I am not certain, so I will say no more. I may be able to
tell you something when I come back. I am going off at once:
so this is good-bye for the present.’ He got up.
‘At once!’ cried Frodo. ‘Why, I thought you were staying
on for at least a week. I was looking forward to your help.’
‘I did mean to – but I have had to change my mind. I may
be away for a good while; but I’ll come and see you again, as
soon as I can. Expect me when you see me! I shall slip in
quietly. I shan’t often be visiting the Shire openly again. I
find that I have become rather unpopular. They say I am a
nuisance and a disturber of the peace. Some people are actu-
ally accusing me of spiriting Bilbo away, or worse. If you
want to know, there is supposed to be a plot between you
and me to get hold of his wealth.’
‘Some people!’ exclaimed Frodo. ‘You mean Otho and
Lobelia. How abominable! I would give them Bag End and
everything else, if I could get Bilbo back and go off tramping
in the country with him. I love the Shire. But I begin to wish,
somehow, that I had gone too. I wonder if I shall ever see
him again.’
‘So do I,’ said Gandalf. ‘And I wonder many other things.
Good-bye now! Take care of yourself ! Look out for me,
especially at unlikely times! Good-bye!’
54 the fellowship of the ring
Frodo saw him to the door. He gave a final wave of his
hand, and walked off at a surprising pace; but Frodo thought
the old wizard looked unusually bent, almost as if he was
carrying a great weight. The evening was closing in, and his
cloaked figure quickly vanished into the twilight. Frodo did
not see him again for a long time.
Chapter 2
THE SHADOW OF THE PAST
The talk did not die down in nine or even ninety-nine days.
The second disappearance of Mr. Bilbo Baggins was dis-
cussed in Hobbiton, and indeed all over the Shire, for a year
and a day, and was remembered much longer than that. It
became a fireside-story for young hobbits; and eventually
Mad Baggins, who used to vanish with a bang and a flash
and reappear with bags of jewels and gold, became a favourite
character of legend and lived on long after all the true events
were forgotten.
But in the meantime, the general opinion in the neighbour-
hood was that Bilbo, who had always been rather cracked,
had at last gone quite mad, and had run off into the Blue.
There he had undoubtedly fallen into a pool or a river and
come to a tragic, but hardly an untimely, end. The blame
was mostly laid on Gandalf.
‘If only that dratted wizard will leave young Frodo alone,
perhaps he’ll settle down and grow some hobbit-sense,’ they
said. And to all appearance the wizard did leave Frodo alone,
and he did settle down, but the growth of hobbit-sense was
not very noticeable. Indeed, he at once began to carry on
Bilbo’s reputation for oddity. He refused to go into mourning;
and the next year he gave a party in honour of Bilbo’s
hundred-and-twelfth birthday, which he called a Hundred-
weight Feast. But that was short of the mark, for twenty
guests were invited and there were several meals at which it
snowed food and rained drink, as hobbits say.
Some people were rather shocked; but Frodo kept up the
custom of giving Bilbo’s Birthday Party year after year until
they got used to it. He said that he did not think Bilbo was
56 the fellowship of the ring
dead. When they asked: ‘Where is he then?’ he shrugged his
shoulders.
He lived alone, as Bilbo had done; but he had a good
many friends, especially among the younger hobbits (mostly
descendants of the Old Took) who had as children been fond
of Bilbo and often in and out of Bag End. Folco Boffin and
Fredegar Bolger were two of these; but his closest friends
were Peregrin Took (usually called Pippin), and Merry
Brandybuck (his real name was Meriadoc, but that was
seldom remembered). Frodo went tramping over the Shire
with them; but more often he wandered by himself, and to
the amazement of sensible folk he was sometimes seen far
from home walking in the hills and woods under the starlight.
Merry and Pippin suspected that he visited the Elves at times,
as Bilbo had done.
As time went on, people began to notice that Frodo also
showed signs of good ‘preservation’: outwardly he retained
the appearance of a robust and energetic hobbit just out of
his tweens. ‘Some folk have all the luck,’ they said; but it was
not until Frodo approached the usually more sober age of
fifty that they began to think it queer.
Frodo himself, after the first shock, found that being his own
master and the Mr. Baggins of Bag End was rather pleasant.
For some years he was quite happy and did not worry much
about the future. But half unknown to himself the regret that
he had not gone with Bilbo was steadily growing. He found
himself wondering at times, especially in the autumn, about
the wild lands, and strange visions of mountains that he had
never seen came into his dreams. He began to say to himself:
‘Perhaps I shall cross the River myself one day.’ To which
the other half of his mind always replied: ‘Not yet.’
So it went on, until his forties were running out, and his
fiftieth birthday was drawing near: fifty was a number that
he felt was somehow significant (or ominous); it was at any
rate at that age that adventure had suddenly befallen Bilbo.
Frodo began to feel restless, and the old paths seemed too
the shadow of the past 57
well-trodden. He looked at maps, and wondered what lay
beyond their edges: maps made in the Shire showed mostly
white spaces beyond its borders. He took to wandering
further afield and more often by himself; and Merry and
his other friends watched him anxiously. Often he was seen
walking and talking with the strange wayfarers that began at
this time to appear in the Shire.
There were rumours of strange things happening in the
world outside; and as Gandalf had not at that time appeared or
sent any message for several years, Frodo gathered all the news
he could. Elves, who seldom walked in the Shire, could now
be seen passing westward through the woods in the evening,
passing and not returning; but they were leaving Middle-earth
and were no longer concerned with its troubles. There were,
however, dwarves on the road in unusual numbers. The
ancient East–West Road ran through the Shire to its end at the
Grey Havens, and dwarves had always used it on their way to
their mines in the Blue Mountains. They were the hobbits’
chief source of news from distant parts – if they wanted any: as
a rule dwarves said little and hobbits asked no more. But now
Frodo often met strange dwarves of far countries, seeking
refuge in the West. They were troubled, and some spoke in
whispers of the Enemy and of the Land of Mordor.
That name the hobbits only knew in legends of the dark
past, like a shadow in the background of their memories; but
it was ominous and disquieting. It seemed that the evil power
in Mirkwood had been driven out by the White Council
only to reappear in greater strength in the old strongholds of
Mordor. The Dark Tower had been rebuilt, it was said. From
there the power was spreading far and wide, and away far
east and south there were wars and growing fear. Orcs were
multiplying again in the mountains. Trolls were abroad, no
longer dull-witted, but cunning and armed with dreadful
weapons. And there were murmured hints of creatures more
terrible than all these, but they had no name.
***
58 the fellowship of the ring
Little of all this, of course, reached the ears of ordinary
hobbits. But even the deafest and most stay-at-home began
to hear queer tales; and those whose business took them to the
borders saw strange things. The conversation in The Green
Dragon at Bywater, one evening in the spring of Frodo’s
fiftieth year, showed that even in the comfortable heart of the
Shire rumours had been heard, though most hobbits still
laughed at them.
Sam Gamgee was sitting in one corner near the fire, and
opposite him was Ted Sandyman, the miller’s son; and there
were various other rustic hobbits listening to their talk.
‘Queer things you do hear these days, to be sure,’ said Sam.
‘Ah,’ said Ted, ‘you do, if you listen. But I can hear fireside-
tales and children’s stories at home, if I want to.’
‘No doubt you can,’ retorted Sam, ‘and I daresay there’s
more truth in some of them than you reckon. Who invented
the stories anyway? Take dragons now.’
‘No thank ’ee,’ said Ted, ‘I won’t. I heard tell of them
when I was a youngster, but there’s no call to believe in them
now. There’s only one Dragon in Bywater, and that’s Green,’
he said, getting a general laugh.
‘All right,’ said Sam, laughing with the rest. ‘But what
about these Tree-men, these giants, as you might call them?
They do say that one bigger than a tree was seen up away
beyond the North Moors not long back.’
‘Who’s they?’
‘My cousin Hal for one. He works for Mr. Boffin at
Overhill and goes up to the Northfarthing for the hunting.
He saw one.’
‘Says he did, perhaps. Your Hal’s always saying he’s seen
things; and maybe he sees things that ain’t there.’
‘But this one was as big as an elm tree, and walking –
walking seven yards to a stride, if it was an inch.’
‘Then I bet it wasn’t an inch. What he saw was an elm tree,
as like as not.’
‘But this one was walking, I tell you; and there ain’t no elm
tree on the North Moors.’
the shadow of the past 59
‘Then Hal can’t have seen one,’ said Ted. There was some
laughing and clapping: the audience seemed to think that
Ted had scored a point.
‘All the same,’ said Sam, ‘you can’t deny that others besides
our Halfast have seen queer folk crossing the Shire – crossing
it, mind you: there are more that are turned back at the
borders. The Bounders have never been so busy before.
‘And I’ve heard tell that Elves are moving west. They do
say they are going to the harbours, out away beyond the
White Towers.’ Sam waved his arm vaguely: neither he nor
any of them knew how far it was to the Sea, past the old
towers beyond the western borders of the Shire. But it was
an old tradition that away over there stood the Grey Havens,
from which at times elven-ships set sail, never to return.
‘They are sailing, sailing, sailing over the Sea, they are
going into the West and leaving us,’ said Sam, half chanting
the words, shaking his head sadly and solemnly. But Ted
laughed.
‘Well, that isn’t anything new, if you believe the old tales.
And I don’t see what it matters to me or you. Let them sail!
But I warrant you haven’t seen them doing it; nor anyone
else in the Shire.’
‘Well, I don’t know,’ said Sam thoughtfully. He believed
he had once seen an Elf in the woods, and still hoped to see
more one day. Of all the legends that he had heard in his
early years such fragments of tales and half-remembered
stories about the Elves as the hobbits knew, had always moved
him most deeply. ‘There are some, even in these parts, as
know the Fair Folk and get news of them,’ he said. ‘There’s
Mr. Baggins now, that I work for. He told me that they were
sailing and he knows a bit about Elves. And old Mr. Bilbo knew
more: many’s the talk I had with him when I was a little lad.’
‘Oh, they’re both cracked,’ said Ted. ‘Leastways old Bilbo
was cracked, and Frodo’s cracking. If that’s where you get
your news from, you’ll never want for moonshine. Well,
friends, I’m off home. Your good health!’ He drained his
mug and went out noisily.
60 the fellowship of the ring
Sam sat silent and said no more. He had a good deal to
think about. For one thing, there was a lot to do up in the
Bag End garden, and he would have a busy day tomorrow,
if the weather cleared. The grass was growing fast. But Sam
had more on his mind than gardening. After a while he
sighed, and got up and went out.
It was early April and the sky was now clearing after heavy
rain. The sun was down, and a cool pale evening was quietly
fading into night. He walked home under the early stars
through Hobbiton and up the Hill, whistling softly and
thoughtfully.
It was just at this time that Gandalf reappeared after his long
absence. For three years after the Party he had been away.
Then he paid Frodo a brief visit, and after taking a good look
at him he went off again. During the next year or two he had
turned up fairly often, coming unexpectedly after dusk, and
going off without warning before sunrise. He would not
discuss his own business and journeys, and seemed chiefly
interested in small news about Frodo’s health and doings.
Then suddenly his visits had ceased. It was over nine years
since Frodo had seen or heard of him, and he had begun to
think that the wizard would never return and had given up
all interest in hobbits. But that evening, as Sam was walking
home and twilight was fading, there came the once familiar
tap on the study window.
Frodo welcomed his old friend with surprise and great
delight. They looked hard at one another.
‘All well eh?’ said Gandalf. ‘You look the same as ever,
Frodo!’
‘So do you,’ Frodo replied; but secretly he thought that
Gandalf looked older and more careworn. He pressed him
for news of himself and of the wide world, and soon they
were deep in talk, and they stayed up far into the night.
Next morning after a late breakfast, the wizard was sitting
with Frodo by the open window of the study. A bright fire
the shadow of the past 61
was on the hearth, but the sun was warm, and the wind was
in the South. Everything looked fresh, and the new green of
spring was shimmering in the fields and on the tips of the
trees’ fingers.
Gandalf was thinking of a spring, nearly eighty years
before, when Bilbo had run out of Bag End without a hand-
kerchief. His hair was perhaps whiter than it had been then,
and his beard and eyebrows were perhaps longer, and his
face more lined with care and wisdom; but his eyes were as
bright as ever, and he smoked and blew smoke-rings with the
same vigour and delight.
He was smoking now in silence, for Frodo was sitting still,
deep in thought. Even in the light of morning he felt the dark
shadow of the tidings that Gandalf had brought. At last he
broke the silence.
‘Last night you began to tell me strange things about my
ring, Gandalf,’ he said. ‘And then you stopped, because you
said that such matters were best left until daylight. Don’t you
think you had better finish now? You say the ring is danger-
ous, far more dangerous than I guess. In what way?’
‘In many ways,’ answered the wizard. ‘It is far more power-
ful than I ever dared to think at first, so powerful that in the
end it would utterly overcome anyone of mortal race who
possessed it. It would possess him.
‘In Eregion long ago many Elven-rings were made, magic
rings as you call them, and they were, of course, of various
kinds: some more potent and some less. The lesser rings were
only essays in the craft before it was full-grown, and to the
Elven-smiths they were but trifles – yet still to my mind
dangerous for mortals. But the Great Rings, the Rings of
Power, they were perilous.
‘A mortal, Frodo, who keeps one of the Great Rings, does
not die, but he does not grow or obtain more life, he merely
continues, until at last every minute is a weariness. And if
he often uses the Ring to make himself invisible, he fades:he
becomes in the end invisible permanently, and walks in the
twilight under the eye of the Dark Power that rules the Rings.
62 the fellowship of the ring
Yes, sooner or later – later, if he is strong or well-meaning to
begin with, but neither strength nor good purpose will last –
sooner or later the Dark Power will devour him.’
‘How terrifying!’ said Frodo. There was another long
silence. The sound of Sam Gamgee cutting the lawn came
in from the garden.
‘How long have you known this?’ asked Frodo at length.
‘And how much did Bilbo know?’
‘Bilbo knew no more than he told you, I am sure,’ said
Gandalf. ‘He would certainly never have passed on to you
anything that he thought would be a danger, even though I
promised to look after you. He thought the ring was very
beautiful, and very useful at need; and if anything was wrong
or queer, it was himself. He said that it was ‘‘growing on his
mind’’, and he was always worrying about it; but he did not
suspect that the ring itself was to blame. Though he had
found out that the thing needed looking after; it did not seem
always of the same size or weight; it shrank or expanded in
an odd way, and might suddenly slip off a finger where it
had been tight.’
‘Yes, he warned me of that in his last letter,’ said Frodo,
‘so I have always kept it on its chain.’
‘Very wise,’ said Gandalf. ‘But as for his long life, Bilbo
never connected it with the ring at all. He took all the credit
for that to himself, and he was very proud of it. Though he
was getting restless and uneasy. Thin and stretched he said.
A sign that the ring was getting control.’
‘How long have you known all this?’ asked Frodo again.
‘Known?’ said Gandalf. ‘I have known much that only the
Wise know, Frodo. But if you mean ‘‘known about this ring’’,
well, I still do not know, one might say. There is a last test to
make. But I no longer doubt my guess.
‘When did I first begin to guess?’ he mused, searching back
in memory. ‘Let me see – it was in the year that the White
Council drove the Dark Power from Mirkwood, just before
the Battle of Five Armies, that Bilbo found his ring. A shadow
the shadow of the past 63
fell on my heart then, though I did not know yet what I
feared. I wondered often how Gollum came by a Great Ring,
as plainly it was – that at least was clear from the first. Then
I heard Bilbo’s strange story of how he had ‘‘won’’ it, and I
could not believe it. When I at last got the truth out of him,
I saw at once that he had been trying to put his claim to the
ring beyond doubt. Much like Gollum with his ‘‘birthday-
present’’. The lies were too much alike for my comfort.
Clearly the ring had an unwholesome power that set to work
on its keeper at once. That was the first real warning I had
that all was not well. I told Bilbo often that such rings were
better left unused; but he resented it, and soon got angry.
There was little else that I could do. I could not take it from
him without doing greater harm; and I had no right to do so
anyway. I could only watch and wait. I might perhaps have
consulted Saruman the White, but something always held
me back.’
‘Who is he?’ asked Frodo. ‘I have never heard of him
before.’
‘Maybe not,’ answered Gandalf. ‘Hobbits are, or were, no
concern of his. Yet he is great among the Wise. He is the
chief of my order and the head of the Council. His knowledge
is deep, but his pride has grown with it, and he takes ill any
meddling. The lore of the Elven-rings, great and small, is his
province. He has long studied it, seeking the lost secrets of
their making; but when the Rings were debated in the Coun-
cil, all that he would reveal to us of his ring-lore told against
my fears. So my doubt slept – but uneasily. Still I watched
and I waited.
‘And all seemed well with Bilbo. And the years passed.
Yes, they passed, and they seemed not to touch him. He
showed no signs of age. The shadow fell on me again. But I
said to myself: ‘‘After all he comes of a long-lived family on
his mother’s side. There is time yet. Wait!’’
‘And I waited. Until that night when he left this house. He
said and did things then that filled me with a fear that no
words of Saruman could allay. I knew at last that something
64 the fellowship of the ring
dark and deadly was at work. And I have spent most of the
years since then in finding out the truth of it.’
‘There wasn’t any permanent harm done, was there?’ asked
Frodo anxiously. ‘He would get all right in time, wouldn’t
he? Be able to rest in peace, I mean?’
‘He felt better at once,’ said Gandalf. ‘But there is only one
Power in this world that knows all about the Rings and their
effects; and as far as I know there is no Power in the world
that knows all about hobbits. Among the Wise I am the
only one that goes in for hobbit-lore: an obscure branch of
knowledge, but full of surprises. Soft as butter they can be,
and yet sometimes as tough as old tree-roots. I think it likely
that some would resist the Rings far longer than most of
the Wise would believe. I don’t think you need worry about
Bilbo.
‘Of course, he possessed the ring for many years, and used
it, so it might take a long while for the influence to wear off
– before it was safe for him to see it again, for instance.
Otherwise, he might live on for years, quite happily: just stop
as he was when he parted with it. For he gave it up in the
end of his own accord: an important point. No, I was not
troubled about dear Bilbo any more, once he had let the thing
go. It is for you that I feel responsible.
‘Ever since Bilbo left I have been deeply concerned about
you, and about all these charming, absurd, helpless hobbits.
It would be a grievous blow to the world, if the Dark Power
overcame the Shire; if all your kind, jolly, stupid Bolgers,
Hornblowers, Boffins, Bracegirdles, and the rest, not to
mention the ridiculous Bagginses, became enslaved.’
Frodo shuddered. ‘But why should we be?’ he asked. ‘And
why should he want such slaves?’
‘To tell you the truth,’ replied Gandalf, ‘I believe that
hitherto – hitherto, mark you – he has entirely overlooked
the existence of hobbits. You should be thankful. But your
safety has passed. He does not need you – he has many
more useful servants – but he won’t forget you again. And
hobbits as miserable slaves would please him far more than
the shadow of the past 65
hobbits happy and free. There is such a thing as malice and
revenge.’
‘Revenge?’ said Frodo. ‘Revenge for what? I still don’t
understand what all this has to do with Bilbo and myself, and
our ring.’
‘It has everything to do with it,’ said Gandalf. ‘You do not
know the real peril yet; but you shall. I was not sure of it
myself when I was last here; but the time has come to speak.
Give me the ring for a moment.’
Frodo took it from his breeches-pocket, where it was
clasped to a chain that hung from his belt. He unfastened it
and handed it slowly to the wizard. It felt suddenly very
heavy, as if either it or Frodo himself was in some way reluc-
tant for Gandalf to touch it.
Gandalf held it up. It looked to be made of pure and solid
gold. ‘Can you see any markings on it?’ he asked.
‘No,’ said Frodo. ‘There are none. It is quite plain, and it
never shows a scratch or sign of wear.’
‘Well then, look!’ To Frodo’s astonishment and distress
the wizard threw it suddenly into the middle of a glowing
corner of the fire. Frodo gave a cry and groped for the tongs;
but Gandalf held him back.
‘Wait!’ he said in a commanding voice, giving Frodo a
quick look from under his bristling brows.
No apparent change came over the ring. After a while
Gandalf got up, closed the shutters outside the window, and
drew the curtains. The room became dark and silent, though
the clack of Sam’s shears, now nearer to the windows, could
still be heard faintly from the garden. For a moment the
wizard stood looking at the fire; then he stooped and removed
the ring to the hearth with the tongs, and at once picked it
up. Frodo gasped.
‘It is quite cool,’ said Gandalf. ‘Take it!’ Frodo received it
on his shrinking palm: it seemed to have become thicker and
heavier than ever.
‘Hold it up!’ said Gandalf. ‘And look closely!’
66 the fellowship of the ring
As Frodo did so, he now saw fine lines, finer than the finest
pen-strokes, running along the ring, outside and inside: lines
of fire that seemed to form the letters of a flowing script.
They shone piercingly bright, and yet remote, as if out of a
great depth.
‘I cannot read the fiery letters,’ said Frodo in a quavering
voice.
‘No,’ said Gandalf, ‘but I can. The letters are Elvish, of an
ancient mode, but the language is that of Mordor, which I
will not utter here. But this in the Common Tongue is what
is said, close enough:
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.
It is only two lines of a verse long known in Elven-lore:
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 Mordor 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 Mordor where the Shadows lie.’
He paused, and then said slowly in a deep voice: ‘This 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
the shadow of the past 67
of his power. He greatly desires it – but he must not get it.’
Frodo sat silent and motionless. Fear seemed to stretch out
a vast hand, like a dark cloud rising in the East and looming
up to engulf him. ‘This ring!’ he stammered. ‘How, how on
earth did it come to me?’
‘Ah!’ said Gandalf. ‘That is a very long story. The begin-
nings lie back in the Black Years, which only the lore-masters
now remember. If I were to tell you all that tale, we should
still be sitting here when Spring had passed into Winter.
‘But last night I told you of Sauron the Great, the Dark
Lord. The rumours that you have heard are true: he has
indeed arisen again and left his hold in Mirkwood and
returned to his ancient fastness in the Dark Tower of Mordor.
That name even you hobbits have heard of, like a shadow on
the borders of old stories. Always after a defeat and a respite,
the Shadow takes another shape and grows again.’
‘I wish it need not have happened in my time,’ said Frodo.
‘So do I,’ said Gandalf, ‘and so do all who live to see such
times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to
decide is what to do with the time that is given us. And
already, Frodo, our time is beginning to look black. The
Enemy is fast becoming very strong. His plans are far from
ripe, I think, but they are ripening. We shall be hard put to
it. We should be very hard put to it, even if it were not for
this dreadful chance.
‘The Enemy still lacks one thing to give him strength and
knowledge to beat down all resistance, break the last defences,
and cover all the lands in a second darkness. He lacks the
One Ring.
‘The Three, fairest of all, the Elf-lords hid from him, and
his hand never touched them or sullied them. Seven the
Dwarf-kings possessed, but three he has recovered, and the
others the dragons have consumed. Nine he gave to Mortal
Men, proud and great, and so ensnared them. Long ago
they fell under the dominion of the One, and they became
Ringwraiths, shadows under his great Shadow, his most
68 the fellowship of the ring
terrible servants. Long ago. It is many a year since the Nine
walked abroad. Yet who knows? As the Shadow grows once
more, they too may walk again. But come! We will not speak
of such things even in the morning of the Shire.
‘So it is now: the Nine he has gathered to himself; the
Seven also, or else they are destroyed. The Three are hidden
still. But that no longer troubles him. He only needs the One;
for he made that Ring himself, it is his, and he let a great part
of his own former power pass into it, so that he could rule all
the others. If he recovers it, then he will command them all
again, wherever they be, even the Three, and all that has
been wrought with them will be laid bare, and he will be
stronger than ever.
‘And this is the dreadful chance, Frodo. He believed that
the One had perished; that the Elves had destroyed it, as
should have been done. But he knows now that it has not
perished, that it has been found. So he is seeking it, seeking
it, and all his thought is bent on it. It is his great hope and
our great fear.’
‘Why, why wasn’t it destroyed?’ cried Frodo. ‘And how
did the Enemy ever come to lose it, if he was so strong, and
it was so precious to him?’ He clutched the Ring in his hand,
as if he saw already dark fingers stretching out to seize it.
‘It was taken from him,’ said Gandalf. ‘The strength of
the Elves to resist him was greater long ago; and not all
Men were estranged from them. The Men of Westernesse
came to their aid. That is a chapter of ancient history
which it might be good to recall; for there was sorrow then
too, and gathering dark, but great valour, and great deeds
that were not wholly vain. One day, perhaps, I will tell you
all the tale, or you shall hear it told in full by one who knows
it best.
‘But for the moment, since most of all you need to know
how this thing came to you, and that will be tale enough, this
is all that I will say. It was Gil-galad, Elven-king and Elendil of
Westernesse who overthrew Sauron, though they themselves
perished in the deed; and Isildur Elendil’s son cut the Ring
the shadow of the past 69
from Sauron’s hand and took it for his own. Then Sauron
was vanquished and his spirit fled and was hidden for long
years, until his shadow took shape again in Mirkwood.
‘But the Ring was lost. It fell into the Great River, Anduin,
and vanished. For Isildur was marching north along the east
banks of the River, and near the Gladden Fields he was
waylaid by the Orcs of the Mountains, and almost all his folk
were slain. He leaped into the waters, but the Ring slipped
from his finger as he swam, and then the Orcs saw him and
killed him with arrows.’
Gandalf paused. ‘And there in the dark pools amid the
Gladden Fields,’ he said, ‘the Ring passed out of knowledge
and legend; and even so much of its history is known now
only to a few, and the Council of the Wise could discover no
more. But at last I can carry on the story, I think.
‘Long after, but still very long ago, there lived by the banks
of the Great River on the edge of Wilderland a clever-handed
and quiet-footed little people. I guess they were of hobbit-
kind; akin to the fathers of the fathers of the Stoors, for they
loved the River, and often swam in it, or made little boats of
reeds. There was among them a family of high repute, for it
was large and wealthier than most, and it was ruled by a
grandmother of the folk, stern and wise in old lore, such as
they had. The most inquisitive and curious-minded of that
family was called Sme
´
agol. He was interested in roots and
beginnings; he dived into deep pools; he burrowed under
trees and growing plants; he tunnelled into green mounds;
and he ceased to look up at the hill-tops, or the leaves on
trees, or the flowers opening in the air: his head and his eyes
were downward.
‘He had a friend called De
´
agol, of similar sort, sharper-
eyed but not so quick and strong. On a time they took a boat
and went down to the Gladden Fields, where there were great
beds of iris and flowering reeds. There Sme
´
agol got out and
went nosing about the banks but De
´
agol sat in the boat and
fished. Suddenly a great fish took his hook, and before he
70 the fellowship of the ring
knew where he was, he was dragged out and down into the
water, to the bottom. Then he let go of his line, for he thought
he saw something shining in the river-bed; and holding his
breath he grabbed at it.
‘Then up he came spluttering, with weeds in his hair and
a handful of mud; and he swam to the bank. And behold!
when he washed the mud away, there in his hand lay a beauti-
ful golden ring; and it shone and glittered in the sun, so that
his heart was glad. But Sme
´
agol had been watching him from
behind a tree, and as De
´
agol gloated over the ring, Sme
´
agol
came softly up behind.
‘ ‘‘Give us that, De
´
agol, my love,’’ said Sme
´
agol, over his
friend’s shoulder.
‘ ‘‘Why?’’ said De
´
agol.
‘ ‘‘Because it’s my birthday, my love, and I wants it,’’ said
Sme
´
agol.
‘ ‘‘I don’t care,’’ said De
´
agol. ‘‘I have given you a present
already, more than I could afford. I found this, and I’m going
to keep it.’’
‘ ‘‘Oh, are you indeed, my love,’’ said Sme
´
agol; and he
caught De
´
agol by the throat and strangled him, because the
gold looked so bright and beautiful. Then he put the ring on
his finger.
‘No one ever found out what had become of De
´
agol; he
was murdered far from home, and his body was cunningly
hidden. But Sme
´
agol returned alone; and he found that none
of his family could see him, when he was wearing the ring.
He was very pleased with his discovery and he concealed it;
and he used it to find out secrets, and he put his knowledge
to crooked and malicious uses. He became sharp-eyed and
keen-eared for all that was hurtful. The ring had given him
power according to his stature. It is not to be wondered at
that he became very unpopular and was shunned (when vis-
ible) by all his relations. They kicked him, and he bit their
feet. He took to thieving, and going about muttering to him-
self, and gurgling in his throat. So they called him Gollum,
and cursed him, and told him to go far away; and his grand-
the shadow of the past 71
mother, desiring peace, expelled him from the family and
turned him out of her hole.
‘He wandered in loneliness, weeping a little for the hard-
ness of the world, and he journeyed up the River, till he came
to a stream that flowed down from the mountains, and he
went that way. He caught fish in deep pools with invisible
fingers and ate them raw. One day it was very hot, and as he
was bending over a pool, he felt a burning on the back of his
head, and a dazzling light from the water pained his wet eyes.
He wondered at it, for he had almost forgotten about the
Sun. Then for the last time he looked up and shook his fist
at her.
‘But as he lowered his eyes, he saw far ahead the tops of
the Misty Mountains, out of which the stream came. And he
thought suddenly: ‘‘It would be cool and shady under those
mountains. The Sun could not watch me there. The roots of
those mountains must be roots indeed; there must be great
secrets buried there which have not been discovered since
the beginning.’’
‘So he journeyed by night up into the highlands, and he
found a little cave out of which the dark stream ran; and he
wormed his way like a maggot into the heart of the hills,
and vanished out of all knowledge. The Ring went into the
shadows with him, and even the maker, when his power had
begun to grow again, could learn nothing of it.’
‘Gollum!’ cried Frodo. ‘Gollum? Do you mean that this is
the very Gollum-creature that Bilbo met? How loathsome!’
‘I think it is a sad story,’ said the wizard, ‘and it might have
happened to others, even to some hobbits that I have known.’
‘I can’t believe that Gollum was connected with hobbits,
however distantly,’ said Frodo with some heat. ‘What an
abominable notion!’
‘It is true all the same,’ replied Gandalf. ‘About their
origins, at any rate, I know more than hobbits do themselves.
And even Bilbo’s story suggests the kinship. There was a
great deal in the background of their minds and memories
72 the fellowship of the ring
that was very similar. They understood one another remark-
ably well, very much better than a hobbit would understand,
say, a Dwarf, or an Orc, or even an Elf. Think of the riddles
they both knew, for one thing.’
‘Yes,’ said Frodo. ‘Though other folks besides hobbits ask
riddles, and of much the same sort. And hobbits don’t cheat.
Gollum meant to cheat all the time. He was just trying to
put poor Bilbo off his guard. And I daresay it amused his
wickedness to start a game which might end in providing him
with an easy victim, but if he lost would not hurt him.’
‘Only too true, I fear,’ said Gandalf. ‘But there was some-
thing else in it, I think, which you don’t see yet. Even Gollum
was not wholly ruined. He had proved tougher than even one
of the Wise would have guessed – as a hobbit might. There
was a little corner of his mind that was still his own, and light
came through it, as through a chink in the dark: light out of
the past. It was actually pleasant, I think, to hear a kindly
voice again, bringing up memories of wind, and trees, and
sun on the grass, and such forgotten things.
‘But that, of course, would only make the evil part of him
angrier in the end – unless it could be conquered. Unless it
could be cured.’ Gandalf sighed. ‘Alas! there is little hope of
that for him. Yet not no hope. No, not though he possessed
the Ring so long, almost as far back as he can remember. For
it was long since he had worn it much: in the black darkness
it was seldom needed. Certainly he had never ‘‘faded’’. He is
thin and tough still. But the thing was eating up his mind, of
course, and the torment had become almost unbearable.
‘All the ‘‘great secrets’’ under the mountains had turned
out to be just empty night: there was nothing more to find out,
nothing worth doing, only nasty furtive eating and resentful
remembering. He was altogether wretched. He hated the
dark, and he hated light more: he hated everything, and the
Ring most of all.’
‘What do you mean?’ said Frodo. ‘Surely the Ring was his
Precious and the only thing he cared for? But if he hated it,
why didn’t he get rid of it, or go away and leave it?’
the shadow of the past 73
‘You ought to begin to understand, Frodo, after all you
have heard,’ said Gandalf. ‘He hated it and loved it, as he
hated and loved himself. He could not get rid of it. He had
no will left in the matter.
‘A Ring of Power looks after itself, Frodo. It may slip off
treacherously, but its keeper never abandons it. At most he
plays with the idea of handing it on to someone else’s care –
and that only at an early stage, when it first begins to grip.
But as far as I know Bilbo alone in history has ever gone
beyond playing, and really done it. He needed all my help,
too. And even so he would never have just forsaken it, or cast
it aside. It was not Gollum, Frodo, but the Ring itself that
decided things. The Ring left him.’
‘What, just in time to meet Bilbo?’ said Frodo. ‘Wouldn’t
an Orc have suited it better?’
‘It is no laughing matter,’ said Gandalf. ‘Not for you. It
was the strangest event in the whole history of the Ring so
far: Bilbo’s arrival just at that time, and putting his hand on
it, blindly, in the dark.
‘There was more than one power at work, Frodo. The
Ring was trying to get back to its master. It had slipped from
Isildur’s hand and betrayed him; then when a chance came
it caught poor De
´
agol, and he was murdered; and after that
Gollum, and it had devoured him. It could make no further
use of him: he was too small and mean; and as long as it
stayed with him he would never leave his deep pool again.
So now, when its master was awake once more and sending
out his dark thought from Mirkwood, it abandoned Gollum.
Only to be picked up by the most unlikely person imaginable:
Bilbo from the Shire!
‘Behind that there was something else at work, beyond any
design of the Ring-maker. I can put it no plainer than by
saying that Bilbo was meant to find the Ring, and not by its
maker. In which case you also were meant to have it. And
that may be an encouraging thought.’
‘It is not,’ said Frodo. ‘Though I am not sure that I under-
stand you. But how have you learned all this about the Ring,
74 the fellowship of the ring
and about Gollum? Do you really know it all, or are you just
guessing still?’
Gandalf looked at Frodo, and his eyes glinted. ‘I knew
much and I have learned much,’ he answered. ‘But I am not
going to give an account of all my doings to you. The history
of Elendil and Isildur and the One Ring is known to all the
Wise. Your ring is shown to be that One Ring by the fire-
writing alone, apart from any other evidence.’
‘And when did you discover that?’ asked Frodo, inter-
rupting.
‘Just now in this room, of course,’ answered the wizard
sharply. ‘But I expected to find it. I have come back from
dark journeys and long search to make that final test. It is the
last proof, and all is now only too clear. Making out Gollum’s
part, and fitting it into the gap in the history, required some
thought. I may have started with guesses about Gollum, but
I am not guessing now. I know. I have seen him.’
‘You have seen Gollum?’ exclaimed Frodo in amazement.
‘Yes. The obvious thing to do, of course, if one could. I
tried long ago; but I have managed it at last.’
‘Then what happened after Bilbo escaped from him? Do
you know that?’
‘Not so clearly. What I have told you is what Gollum was
willing to tell – though not, of course, in the way I have
reported it. Gollum is a liar, and you have to sift his words.
For instance, he called the Ring his ‘‘birthday-present’’, and
he stuck to that. He said it came from his grandmother, who
had lots of beautiful things of that kind. A ridiculous story. I
have no doubt that Sme
´
agol’s grandmother was a matriarch,
a great person in her way, but to talk of her possessing many
Elven-rings was absurd, and as for giving them away, it was
a lie. But a lie with a grain of truth.
‘The murder of De
´
agol haunted Gollum, and he had made
up a defence, repeating it to his ‘‘Precious’’ over and over
again, as he gnawed bones in the dark, until he almost
believed it. It was his birthday. De
´
agol ought to have given
the ring to him. It had obviously turned up just so as to be
the shadow of the past 75
a present. It was his birthday-present, and so on, and on.
‘I endured him as long as I could, but the truth was desper-
ately important, and in the end I had to be harsh. I put the
fear of fire on him, and wrung the true story out of him, bit by
bit, together with much snivelling and snarling. He thought he
was misunderstood and ill-used. But when he had at last told
me his history, as far as the end of the Riddle-game and
Bilbo’s escape, he would not say any more, except in dark
hints. Some other fear was on him greater than mine. He
muttered that he was going to get his own back. People would
see if he would stand being kicked, and driven into a hole
and then robbed. Gollum had good friends now, good friends
and very strong. They would help him. Baggins would pay
for it. That was his chief thought. He hated Bilbo and cursed
his name. What is more, he knew where he came from.’
‘But how did he find that out?’ asked Frodo.
‘Well, as for the name, Bilbo very foolishly told Gollum
himself; and after that it would not be difficult to discover
his country, once Gollum came out. Oh yes, he came out.
His longing for the Ring proved stronger than his fear of
the Orcs, or even of the light. After a year or two he left the
mountains. You see, though still bound by desire of it, the
Ring was no longer devouring him; he began to revive a little.
He felt old, terribly old, yet less timid, and he was mortally
hungry.
‘Light, light of Sun and Moon, he still feared and hated,
and he always will, I think; but he was cunning. He found he
could hide from daylight and moonshine, and make his way
swiftly and softly by dead of night with his pale cold eyes,
and catch small frightened or unwary things. He grew
stronger and bolder with new food and new air. He found
his way into Mirkwood, as one would expect.’
‘Is that where you found him?’ asked Frodo.
‘I saw him there,’ answered Gandalf, ‘but before that he
had wandered far, following Bilbo’s trail. It was difficult to
learn anything from him for certain, for his talk was con-
stantly interrupted by curses and threats. ‘‘What had it got
76 the fellowship of the ring
in its pocketses?’’ he said. ‘‘It wouldn’t say, no precious. Little
cheat. Not a fair question. It cheated first, it did. It broke the
rules. We ought to have squeezed it, yes precious. And we
will, precious!’’
‘That is a sample of his talk. I don’t suppose you want any
more. I had weary days of it. But from hints dropped among
the snarls I gathered that his padding feet had taken him at
last to Esgaroth, and even to the streets of Dale, listening
secretly and peering. Well, the news of the great events went
far and wide in Wilderland, and many had heard Bilbo’s
name and knew where he came from. We had made no secret
of our return journey to his home in the West. Gollum’s
sharp ears would soon learn what he wanted.’
‘Then why didn’t he track Bilbo further?’ asked Frodo.
‘Why didn’t he come to the Shire?’
‘Ah,’ said Gandalf, ‘now we come to it. I think Gollum
tried to. He set out and came back westward, as far as the
Great River. But then he turned aside. He was not daunted
by the distance, I am sure. No, something else drew him
away. So my friends think, those that hunted him for me.
‘The Wood-elves tracked him first, an easy task for them,
for his trail was still fresh then. Through Mirkwood and back
again it led them, though they never caught him. The wood
was full of the rumour of him, dreadful tales even among
beasts and birds. The Woodmen said that there was some
new terror abroad, a ghost that drank blood. It climbed trees
to find nests; it crept into holes to find the young; it slipped
through windows to find cradles.
‘But at the western edge of Mirkwood the trail turned
away. It wandered off southwards and passed out of the
Wood-elves’ ken, and was lost. And then I made a great
mistake. Yes, Frodo, and not the first; though I fear it may
prove the worst. I let the matter be. I let him go; for I had
much else to think of at that time, and I still trusted the lore
of Saruman.
‘Well, that was years ago. I have paid for it since with many
dark and dangerous days. The trail was long cold when I
the shadow of the past 77
took it up again, after Bilbo left here. And my search would
have been in vain, but for the help that I had from a friend:
Aragorn, the greatest traveller and huntsman of this age of
the world. Together we sought for Gollum down the whole
length of Wilderland, without hope, and without success. But
at last, when I had given up the chase and turned to other
paths, Gollum was found. My friend returned out of great
perils bringing the miserable creature with him.
‘What he had been doing he would not say. He only wept
and called us cruel, with many a gollum in his throat; and
when we pressed him he whined and cringed, and rubbed
his long hands, licking his fingers as if they pained him, as if
he remembered some old torture. But I am afraid there is no
possible doubt: he had made his slow, sneaking way, step by
step, mile by mile, south, down at last to the Land of Mordor.’
A heavy silence fell in the room. Frodo could hear his heart
beating. Even outside everything seemed still. No sound of
Sam’s shears could now be heard.
‘Yes, to Mordor,’ said Gandalf. ‘Alas! Mordor draws all
wicked things, and the Dark Power was bending all its will to
gather them there. The Ring of the Enemy would leave its
mark, too, leave him open to the summons. And all folk were
whispering then of the new Shadow in the South, and its
hatred of the West. There were his fine new friends, who
would help him in his revenge!
‘Wretched fool! In that land he would learn much, too
much for his comfort. And sooner or later as he lurked and
pried on the borders he would be caught, and taken – for
examination. That was the way of it, I fear. When he was
found he had already been there long, and was on his way
back. On some errand of mischief. But that does not matter
much now. His worst mischief was done.
‘Yes, alas! through him the Enemy has learned that the
One has been found again. He knows where Isildur fell. He
knows where Gollum found his ring. He knows that it is a
Great Ring, for it gave long life. He knows that it is not one
78 the fellowship of the ring
of the Three, for they have never been lost, and they endure
no evil. He knows that it is not one of the Seven, or the Nine,
for they are accounted for. He knows that it is the One. And
he has at last heard, I think, of hobbits and the Shire.
‘The Shire – he may be seeking for it now, if he has not
already found out where it lies. Indeed, Frodo, I fear that he
may even think that the long-unnoticed name of Baggins has
become important.’
‘But this is terrible!’ cried Frodo. ‘Far worse than the worst
that I imagined from your hints and warnings. O Gandalf,
best of friends, what am I to do? For now I am really afraid.
What am I to do? What a pity that Bilbo did not stab that
vile creature, when he had a chance!’
‘Pity? It was Pity that stayed his hand. Pity, and Mercy:
not to strike without need. And he has been well rewarded,
Frodo. Be sure that he took so little hurt from the evil, and
escaped in the end, because he began his ownership of the
Ring so. With Pity.’
‘I am sorry,’ said Frodo. ‘But I am frightened; and I do not
feel any pity for Gollum.’
‘You have not seen him,’ Gandalf broke in.
‘No, and I don’t want to,’ said Frodo. ‘I can’t understand
you. Do you mean to say that you, and the Elves, have let
him live on after all those horrible deeds? Now at any rate he
is as bad as an Orc, and just an enemy. He deserves death.’
‘Deserves it! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve
death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to
them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judge-
ment. For even the very wise cannot see all ends. I have not
much hope that Gollum can be cured before he dies, but
there is a chance of it. And he is bound up with the fate of
the Ring. My heart tells me that he has some part to play yet,
for good or ill, before the end; and when that comes, the pity
of Bilbo may rule the fate of many – yours not least. In any
case we did not kill him: he is very old and very wretched.
The Wood-elves have him in prison, but they treat him with
such kindness as they can find in their wise hearts.’
the shadow of the past 79
‘All the same,’ said Frodo, ‘even if Bilbo could not kill
Gollum, I wish he had not kept the Ring. I wish he had never
found it, and that I had not got it! Why did you let me keep
it? Why didn’t you make me throw it away, or, or destroy it?’
‘Let you? Make you?’ said the wizard. ‘Haven’t you been
listening to all that I have said? You are not thinking of what
you are saying. But as for throwing it away, that was obviously
wrong. These Rings have a way of being found. In evil hands
it might have done great evil. Worst of all, it might have fallen
into the hands of the Enemy. Indeed it certainly would; for
this is the One, and he is exerting all his power to find it or
draw it to himself.
‘Of course, my dear Frodo, it was dangerous for you; and
that has troubled me deeply. But there was so much at stake
that I had to take some risk – though even when I was far
away there has never been a day when the Shire has not been
guarded by watchful eyes. As long as you never used it, I did
not think that the Ring would have any lasting effect on
you, not for evil, not at any rate for a very long time. And
you must remember that nine years ago, when I last saw you,
I still knew little for certain.’
‘But why not destroy it, as you say should have been done
long ago?’ cried Frodo again. ‘If you had warned me, or even
sent me a message, I would have done away with it.’
‘Would you? How would you do that? Have you ever tried?’
‘No. But I suppose one could hammer it or melt it.’
‘Try!’ said Gandalf. ‘Try now!’
Frodo drew the Ring out of his pocket again and looked at
it. It now appeared plain and smooth, without mark or device
that he could see. The gold looked very fair and pure, and
Frodo thought how rich and beautiful was its colour, how
perfect was its roundness. It was an admirable thing and
altogether precious. When he took it out he had intended to
fling it from him into the very hottest part of the fire. But he
found now that he could not do so, not without a great
struggle. He weighed the Ring in his hand, hesitating, and
80 the fellowship of the ring
forcing himself to remember all that Gandalf had told him;
and then with an effort of will he made a movement, as if to
cast it away – but he found that he had put it back in his
pocket.
Gandalf laughed grimly. ‘You see? Already you too, Frodo,
cannot easily let it go, nor will to damage it. And I could not
‘‘make’’ you – except by force, which would break your mind.
But as for breaking the Ring, force is useless. Even if you
took it and struck it with a heavy sledge-hammer, it would
make no dint in it. It cannot be unmade by your hands, or
by mine.
‘Your small fire, of course, would not melt even ordinary
gold. This Ring has already passed through it unscathed, and
even unheated. But there is no smith’s forge in this Shire that
could change it at all. Not even the anvils and furnaces of the
Dwarves could do that. It has been said that dragon-fire could
melt and consume the Rings of Power, but there is not now
any dragon left on earth in which the old fire is hot enough;
nor was there ever any dragon, not even Ancalagon the Black,
who could have harmed the One Ring, the Ruling Ring, for
that was made by Sauron himself.
‘There is only one way: to find the Cracks of Doom in the
depths of Orodruin, the Fire-mountain, and cast the Ring in
there, if you really wish to destroy it, to put it beyond the
grasp of the Enemy for ever.’
‘I do really wish to destroy it!’ cried Frodo. ‘Or, well, to
have it destroyed. I am not made for perilous quests. I wish
I had never seen the Ring! Why did it come to me? Why
was I chosen?’
‘Such questions cannot be answered,’ said Gandalf. ‘You
may be sure that it was not for any merit that others do not
possess: not for power or wisdom, at any rate. But you have
been chosen, and you must therefore use such strength and
heart and wits as you have.’
‘But I have so little of any of these things! You are wise
and powerful. Will you not take the Ring?’
‘No!’ cried Gandalf, springing to his feet. ‘With that power
the shadow of the past 81
I should have power too great and terrible. And over me the
Ring would gain a power still greater and more deadly.’ His
eyes flashed and his face was lit as by a fire within. ‘Do not
tempt me! For I do not wish to become like the Dark Lord
himself. Yet the way of the Ring to my heart is by pity, pity
for weakness and the desire of strength to do good. Do not
tempt me! I dare not take it, not even to keep it safe, unused.
The wish to wield it would be too great for my strength. I
shall have such need of it. Great perils lie before me.’
He went to the window and drew aside the curtains and
the shutters. Sunlight streamed back again into the room.
Sam passed along the path outside whistling. ‘And now,’ said
the wizard, turning back to Frodo, ‘the decision lies with you.
But I will always help you.’ He laid his hand on Frodo’s
shoulder. ‘I will help you bear this burden, as long as it is
yours to bear. But we must do something, soon. The Enemy
is moving.’
There was a long silence. Gandalf sat down again and
puffed at his pipe, as if lost in thought. His eyes seemed
closed, but under the lids he was watching Frodo intently.
Frodo gazed fixedly at the red embers on the hearth, until
they filled all his vision, and he seemed to be looking down
into profound wells of fire. He was thinking of the fabled
Cracks of Doom and the terror of the Fiery Mountain.
‘Well!’ said Gandalf at last. ‘What are you thinking about?
Have you decided what to do?’
‘No!’ answered Frodo, coming back to himself out of dark-
ness, and finding to his surprise that it was not dark, and that
out of the window he could see the sunlit garden. ‘Or perhaps,
yes. As far as I understand what you have said, I suppose I
must keep the Ring and guard it, at least for the present,
whatever it may do to me.’
‘Whatever it may do, it will be slow, slow to evil, if you
keep it with that purpose,’ said Gandalf.
‘I hope so,’ said Frodo. ‘But I hope that you may find some
other better keeper soon. But in the meanwhile it seems that
82 the fellowship of the ring
I am a danger, a danger to all that live near me. I cannot keep
the Ring and stay here. I ought to leave Bag End, leave the
Shire, leave everything and go away.’ He sighed.
‘I should like to save the Shire, if I could – though there
have been times when I thought the inhabitants too stupid
and dull for words, and have felt that an earthquake or an
invasion of dragons might be good for them. But I don’t feel
like that now. I feel that as long as the Shire lies behind, safe
and comfortable, I shall find wandering more bearable: I shall
know that somewhere there is a firm foothold, even if my feet
cannot stand there again.
‘Of course, I have sometimes thought of going away, but
I imagined that as a kind of holiday, a series of adventures
like Bilbo’s or better, ending in peace. But this would mean
exile, a flight from danger into danger, drawing it after me.
And I suppose I must go alone, if I am to do that and save
the Shire. But I feel very small, and very uprooted, and well
– desperate. The Enemy is so strong and terrible.’
He did not tell Gandalf, but as he was speaking a great
desire to follow Bilbo flamed up in his heart – to follow Bilbo,
and even perhaps to find him again. It was so strong that it
overcame his fear: he could almost have run out there and
then down the road without his hat, as Bilbo had done on a
similar morning long ago.
‘My dear Frodo!’ exclaimed Gandalf. ‘Hobbits really are
amazing creatures, as I have said before. You can learn all
that there is to know about their ways in a month, and yet
after a hundred years they can still surprise you at a pinch. I
hardly expected to get such an answer, not even from you.
But Bilbo made no mistake in choosing his heir, though he
little thought how important it would prove. I am afraid you
are right. The Ring will not be able to stay hidden in the
Shire much longer; and for your own sake, as well as for
others, you will have to go, and leave the name of Baggins
behind you. That name will not be safe to have, outside the
Shire or in the Wild. I will give you a travelling name now.
When you go, go as Mr. Underhill.
the shadow of the past 83
‘But I don’t think you need go alone. Not if you know of
anyone you can trust, and who would be willing to go by
your side – and that you would be willing to take into
unknown perils. But if you look for a companion, be careful
in choosing! And be careful of what you say, even to your
closest friends! The enemy has many spies and many ways
of hearing.’
Suddenly he stopped as if listening. Frodo became aware
that all was very quiet, inside and outside. Gandalf crept to
one side of the window. Then with a dart he sprang to the
sill, and thrust a long arm out and downwards. There was a
squawk, and up came Sam Gamgee’s curly head hauled by
one ear.
‘Well, well, bless my beard!’ said Gandalf. ‘Sam Gamgee
is it? Now what may you be doing?’
‘Lor bless you, Mr. Gandalf, sir!’ said Sam. ‘Nothing!
Leastways I was just trimming the grass-border under the
window, if you follow me.’ He picked up his shears and
exhibited them as evidence.
‘I don’t,’ said Gandalf grimly. ‘It is some time since I last
heard the sound of your shears. How long have you been
eavesdropping?’
‘Eavesdropping, sir? I don’t follow you, begging your
pardon. There ain’t no eaves at Bag End, and that’s a fact.’
‘Don’t be a fool! What have you heard, and why did you
listen?’ Gandalf ’s eyes flashed and his brows stuck out like
bristles.
‘Mr. Frodo, sir!’ cried Sam quaking. ‘Don’t let him hurt
me, sir! Don’t let him turn me into anything unnatural! My
old dad would take on so. I meant no harm, on my honour,
sir!’
‘He won’t hurt you,’ said Frodo, hardly able to keep from
laughing, although he was himself startled and rather puzzled.
‘He knows, as well as I do, that you mean no harm. But just
you up and answer his questions straight away!’
‘Well, sir,’ said Sam dithering a little. ‘I heard a deal that
I didn’t rightly understand, about an enemy, and rings, and
84 the fellowship of the ring
Mr. Bilbo, sir, and dragons, and a fiery mountain, and – and
Elves, sir. I listened because I couldn’t help myself, if you
know what I mean. Lor bless me, sir, but I do love tales of
that sort. And I believe them too, whatever Ted may say.
Elves, sir! I would dearly love to see them. Couldn’t you take
me to see Elves, sir, when you go?’
Suddenly Gandalf laughed. ‘Come inside!’ he shouted, and
putting out both his arms he lifted the astonished Sam, shears,
grass-clippings and all, right through the window and stood
him on the floor. ‘Take you to see Elves, eh?’ he said, eyeing
Sam closely, but with a smile flickering on his face. ‘So you
heard that Mr. Frodo is going away?’
‘I did, sir. And that’s why I choked: which you heard
seemingly. I tried not to, sir, but it burst out of me: I was so
upset.’
‘It can’t be helped, Sam,’ said Frodo sadly. He had sud-
denly realized that flying from the Shire would mean more
painful partings than merely saying farewell to the familiar
comforts of Bag End. ‘I shall have to go. But’ – and here he
looked hard at Sam – ‘if you really care about me, you will
keep that dead secret. See? If you don’t, if you even breathe
a word of what you’ve heard here, then I hope Gandalf will
turn you into a spotted toad and fill the garden full of grass-
snakes.’
Sam fell on his knees, trembling. ‘Get up, Sam!’ said
Gandalf. ‘I have thought of something better than that. Some-
thing to shut your mouth, and punish you properly for listen-
ing. You shall go away with Mr. Frodo!’
‘Me, sir!’ cried Sam, springing up like a dog invited for a
walk. ‘Me go and see Elves and all! Hooray!’ he shouted, and
then burst into tears.
Chapter 3
THREE IS COMPANY
‘You ought to go quietly, and you ought to go soon,’ said
Gandalf. Two or three weeks had passed, and still Frodo
made no sign of getting ready to go.
‘I know. But it is difficult to do both,’ he objected. ‘If I just
vanish like Bilbo, the tale will be all over the Shire in no time.’
‘Of course you mustn’t vanish!’ said Gandalf. ‘That
wouldn’t do at all! I said soon, not instantly. If you can think
of any way of slipping out of the Shire without its being
generally known, it will be worth a little delay. But you must
not delay too long.’
‘What about the autumn, on or after Our Birthday?’ asked
Frodo. ‘I think I could probably make some arrangements by
then.’
To tell the truth, he was very reluctant to start, now that it
had come to the point: Bag End seemed a more desirable
residence than it had for years, and he wanted to savour as
much as he could of his last summer in the Shire. When
autumn came, he knew that part at least of his heart would
think more kindly of journeying, as it always did at that
season. He had indeed privately made up his mind to leave
on his fiftieth birthday: Bilbo’s one hundred and twenty-
eighth. It seemed somehow the proper day on which to set
out and follow him. Following Bilbo was uppermost in his
mind, and the one thing that made the thought of leaving
bearable. He thought as little as possible about the Ring, and
where it might lead him in the end. But he did not tell all his
thoughts to Gandalf. What the wizard guessed was always
difficult to tell.
He looked at Frodo and smiled. ‘Very well,’ he said. ‘I think
that will do – but it must not be any later. I am getting very
86 the fellowship of the ring
anxious. In the meanwhile, do take care, and don’t let out
any hint of where you are going! And see that Sam Gamgee
does not talk. If he does, I really shall turn him into a toad.’
‘As for where I am going,’ said Frodo, ‘it would be difficult
to give that away, for I have no clear idea myself, yet.’
‘Don’t be absurd!’ said Gandalf. ‘I am not warning you
against leaving an address at the post-office! But you are
leaving the Shire – and that should not be known, until you
are far away. And you must go, or at least set out, either
North, South, West or East – and the direction should cer-
tainly not be known.’
‘I have been so taken up with the thoughts of leaving Bag
End, and of saying farewell, that I have never even considered
the direction,’ said Frodo. ‘For where am I to go? And by
what shall I steer? What is to be my quest? Bilbo went to find
a treasure, there and back again; but I go to lose one, and not
return, as far as I can see.’
‘But you cannot see very far,’ said Gandalf. ‘Neither can
I. It may be your task to find the Cracks of Doom; but that
quest may be for others: I do not know. At any rate you are
not ready for that long road yet.’
‘No indeed!’ said Frodo. ‘But in the meantime what course
am I to take?’
‘Towards danger; but not too rashly, nor too straight,’
answered the wizard. ‘If you want my advice, make for
Rivendell. That journey should not prove too perilous,
though the Road is less easy than it was, and it will grow
worse as the year fails.’
‘Rivendell!’ said Frodo. ‘Very good: I will go east, and I
will make for Rivendell. I will take Sam to visit the Elves; he
will be delighted.’ He spoke lightly; but his heart was moved
suddenly with a desire to see the house of Elrond Halfelven,
and breathe the air of that deep valley where many of the
Fair Folk still dwelt in peace.
One summer’s evening an astonishing piece of news
reached the Ivy Bush and Green Dragon. Giants and other
three is company 87
portents on the borders of the Shire were forgotten for more
important matters: Mr. Frodo was selling Bag End, indeed
he had already sold it – to the Sackville-Bagginses!
‘For a nice bit, too,’ said some. ‘At a bargain price,’ said
others, ‘and that’s more likely when Mistress Lobelia’s the
buyer.’ (Otho had died some years before, at the ripe but
disappointed age of 102.)
Just why Mr. Frodo was selling his beautiful hole was even
more debatable than the price. A few held the theory – sup-
ported by the nods and hints of Mr. Baggins himself – that
Frodo’s money was running out: he was going to leave
Hobbiton and live in a quiet way on the proceeds of the sale
down in Buckland among his Brandybuck relations. ‘As far
from the Sackville-Bagginses as may be,’ some added. But so
firmly fixed had the notion of the immeasurable wealth of the
Bagginses of Bag End become that most found this hard to
believe, harder than any other reason or unreason that their
fancy could suggest: to most it suggested a dark and yet
unrevealed plot by Gandalf. Though he kept himself very
quiet and did not go about by day, it was well known that he
was ‘hiding up in the Bag End’. But however a removal might
fit in with the designs of his wizardry, there was no doubt
about the fact: Frodo Baggins was going back to Buckland.
‘Yes, I shall be moving this autumn,’ he said. ‘Merry
Brandybuck is looking out for a nice little hole for me, or
perhaps a small house.’
As a matter of fact with Merry’s help he had already chosen
and bought a little house at Crickhollow in the country
beyond Bucklebury. To all but Sam he pretended he was
going to settle down there permanently. The decision to set
out eastwards had suggested the idea to him; for Buckland
was on the eastern borders of the Shire, and as he had lived
there in childhood his going back would at least seem
credible.
Gandalf stayed in the Shire for over two months. Then one
evening, at the end of June, soon after Frodo’s plan had been
88 the fellowship of the ring
finally arranged, he suddenly announced that he was going
off again next morning. ‘Only for a short while, I hope,’ he
said. ‘But I am going down beyond the southern borders to
get some news, if I can. I have been idle longer than I should.’
He spoke lightly, but it seemed to Frodo that he looked
rather worried. ‘Has anything happened?’ he asked.
‘Well no; but I have heard something that has made me
anxious and needs looking into. If I think it necessary after
all for you to get off at once, I shall come back immediately,
or at least send word. In the meanwhile stick to your plan;
but be more careful than ever, especially of the Ring. Let me
impress on you once more: don’t use it!’
He went off at dawn. ‘I may be back any day,’ he said. ‘At
the very latest I shall come back for the farewell party. I think
after all you may need my company on the Road.’
At first Frodo was a good deal disturbed, and wondered
often what Gandalf could have heard; but his uneasiness
wore off, and in the fine weather he forgot his troubles for a
while. The Shire had seldom seen so fair a summer, or so
rich an autumn: the trees were laden with apples, honey was
dripping in the combs, and the corn was tall and full.
Autumn was well under way before Frodo began to worry
about Gandalf again. September was passing and there was
still no news of him. The Birthday, and the removal, drew
nearer, and still he did not come, or send word. Bag End
began to be busy. Some of Frodo’s friends came to stay and
help him with the packing: there was Fredegar Bolger and
Folco Boffin, and of course his special friends Pippin Took
and Merry Brandybuck. Between them they turned the whole
place upside-down.
On September 20th two covered carts went off laden to
Buckland, conveying the furniture and goods that Frodo had
not sold to his new home, by way of the Brandywine
Bridge.The next day Frodo became really anxious, and kept
a constant look-out for Gandalf. Thursday, his birthday
morning, dawned as fair and clear as it had long ago for
Bilbo’s great party. Still Gandalf did not appear. In the
three is company 89
evening Frodo gave his farewell feast: it was quite small, just
a dinner for himself and his four helpers; but he was troubled
and felt in no mood for it. The thought that he would so
soon have to part with his young friends weighed on his heart.
He wondered how he would break it to them.
The four younger hobbits were, however, in high spirits,
and the party soon became very cheerful in spite of Gandalf ’s
absence. The dining-room was bare except for a table and
chairs, but the food was good, and there was good wine:
Frodo’s wine had not been included in the sale to the
Sackville-Bagginses.
‘Whatever happens to the rest of my stuff, when the S.-B.s
get their claws on it, at any rate I have found a good home
for this!’ said Frodo, as he drained his glass. It was the last
drop of Old Winyards.
When they had sung many songs, and talked of many
things they had done together, they toasted Bilbo’s birthday,
and they drank his health and Frodo’s together according to
Frodo’s custom. Then they went out for a sniff of air, and
glimpse of the stars, and then they went to bed. Frodo’s party
was over, and Gandalf had not come.
The next morning they were busy packing another cart
with the remainder of the luggage. Merry took charge of this,
and drove off with Fatty (that is Fredegar Bolger). ‘Someone
must get there and warm the house before you arrive,’ said
Merry. ‘Well, see you later – the day after tomorrow, if you
don’t go to sleep on the way!’
Folco went home after lunch, but Pippin remained behind.
Frodo was restless and anxious, listening in vain for a sound
of Gandalf. He decided to wait until nightfall. After that, if
Gandalf wanted him urgently, he would go to Crickhollow,
and might even get there first. For Frodo was going on foot.
His plan – for pleasure and a last look at the Shire as much as
any other reason – was to walk from Hobbiton to Bucklebury
Ferry, taking it fairly easy.
‘I shall get myself a bit into training, too,’ he said, looking
90 the fellowship of the ring
at himself in a dusty mirror in the half-empty hall. He had
not done any strenuous walking for a long time, and the
reflection looked rather flabby, he thought.
After lunch, the Sackville-Bagginses, Lobelia and her
sandy-haired son, Lotho, turned up, much to Frodo’s annoy-
ance. ‘Ours at last!’ said Lobelia, as she stepped inside. It was
not polite; nor strictly true, for the sale of Bag End did not
take effect until midnight. But Lobelia can perhaps be for-
given: she had been obliged to wait about seventy-seven years
longer for Bag End than she once hoped, and she was now a
hundred years old. Anyway, she had come to see that nothing
she had paid for had been carried off; and she wanted the
keys. It took a long while to satisfy her, as she had brought a
complete inventory with her and went right through it. In the
end she departed with Lotho and the spare key and the
promise that the other key would be left at the Gamgees’ in
Bagshot Row. She snorted, and showed plainly that she
thought the Gamgees capable of plundering the hole during
the night. Frodo did not offer her any tea.
He took his own tea with Pippin and Sam Gamgee in the
kitchen. It had been officially announced that Sam was
coming to Buckland ‘to do for Mr. Frodo and look after his
bit of garden’; an arrangement that was approved by the
Gaffer, though it did not console him for the prospect of
having Lobelia as a neighbour.
‘Our last meal at Bag End!’ said Frodo, pushing back his
chair. They left the washing up for Lobelia. Pippin and Sam
strapped up their three packs and piled them in the porch.
Pippin went out for a last stroll in the garden. Sam dis-
appeared.
The sun went down. Bag End seemed sad and gloomy and
dishevelled. Frodo wandered round the familiar rooms, and
saw the light of the sunset fade on the walls, and shadows
creep out of the corners. It grew slowly dark indoors. He
went out and walked down to the gate at the bottom of the
path, and then on a short way down the Hill Road. He half
three is company 91
expected to see Gandalf come striding up through the dusk.
The sky was clear and the stars were growing bright. ‘It’s
going to be a fine night,’ he said aloud. ‘That’s good for a
beginning. I feel like walking. I can’t bear any more hanging
about. I am going to start, and Gandalf must follow me.’ He
turned to go back, and then stopped, for he heard voices, just
round the corner by the end of Bagshot Row. One voice was
certainly the old Gaffer’s; the other was strange, and some-
how unpleasant. He could not make out what it said, but he
heard the Gaffer’s answers, which were rather shrill. The old
man seemed put out.
‘No, Mr. Baggins has gone away. Went this morning, and
my Sam went with him: anyway all his stuff went. Yes, sold
out and gone, I tell’ee. Why? Why’s none of my business,
or yours. Where to? That ain’t no secret. He’s moved to
Bucklebury or some such place, away down yonder. Yes it is
– a tidy way. I’ve never been so far myself; they’re queer folks
in Buckland. No, I can’t give no message. Good night to
you!’
Footsteps went away down the Hill. Frodo wondered
vaguely why the fact that they did not come on up the Hill
seemed a great relief. ‘I am sick of questions and curiosity
about my doings, I suppose,’ he thought. ‘What an inquisitive
lot they all are!’ He had half a mind to go and ask the Gaffer
who the inquirer was; but he thought better (or worse) of it,
and turned and walked quickly back to Bag End.
Pippin was sitting on his pack in the porch. Sam was not
there. Frodo stepped inside the dark door. ‘Sam!’ he called.
‘Sam! Time!’
‘Coming, sir!’ came the answer from far within, followed
soon by Sam himself, wiping his mouth. He had been saying
farewell to the beer-barrel in the cellar.
‘All aboard, Sam?’ said Frodo.
‘Yes, sir. I’ll last for a bit now, sir.’
Frodo shut and locked the round door, and gave the key
to Sam. ‘Run down with this to your home, Sam!’ he said.
‘Then cut along the Row and meet us as quick as you can at
92 the fellowship of the ring
the gate in the lane beyond the meadows. We are not going
through the village tonight. Too many ears pricking and eyes
prying.’ Sam ran off at full speed.
‘Well, now we’re off at last!’ said Frodo. They shouldered
their packs and took up their sticks, and walked round the
corner to the west side of Bag End. ‘Good-bye!’ said Frodo,
looking at the dark blank windows. He waved his hand, and
then turned and (following Bilbo, if he had known it) hurried
after Peregrin down the garden-path. They jumped over the
low place in the hedge at the bottom and took to the fields,
passing into the darkness like a rustle in the grasses.
At the bottom of the Hill on its western side they came to
the gate opening on to a narrow lane. There they halted and
adjusted the straps of their packs. Presently Sam appeared,
trotting quickly and breathing hard; his heavy pack was
hoisted high on his shoulders, and he had put on his head a
tall shapeless felt bag, which he called a hat. In the gloom he
looked very much like a dwarf.
‘I am sure you have given me all the heaviest stuff,’ said
Frodo. ‘I pity snails, and all that carry their homes on their
backs.’
‘I could take a lot more yet, sir. My packet is quite light,’
said Sam stoutly and untruthfully.
‘No you don’t, Sam!’ said Pippin. ‘It is good for him. He’s
got nothing except what he ordered us to pack. He’s been
slack lately, and he’ll feel the weight less when he’s walked
off some of his own.’
‘Be kind to a poor old hobbit!’ laughed Frodo. ‘I shall be
as thin as a willow-wand, I’m sure, before I get to Buckland.
But I was talking nonsense. I suspect you have taken more
than your share, Sam, and I shall look into it at our next
packing.’ He picked up his stick again. ‘Well, we all like
walking in the dark,’ he said, ‘so let’s put some miles behind
us before bed.’
For a short way they followed the lane westwards. Then
leaving it they turned left and took quietly to the fields again.
three is company 93
They went in single file along hedgerows and the borders of
coppices, and night fell dark about them. In their dark cloaks
they were as invisible as if they all had magic rings. Since
they were all hobbits, and were trying to be silent, they made
no noise that even hobbits would hear. Even the wild things
in the fields and woods hardly noticed their passing.
After some time they crossed the Water, west of Hobbiton,
by a narrow plank-bridge. The stream was there no more than
a winding black ribbon, bordered with leaning alder-trees. A
mile or two further south they hastily crossed the great road
from the Brandywine Bridge; they were now in the Tookland
and bending south-eastwards they made for the Green Hill
Country. As they began to climb its first slopes they looked
back and saw the lamps in Hobbiton far off twinkling in the
gentle valley of the Water. Soon it disappeared in the folds
of the darkened land, and was followed by Bywater beside its
grey pool. When the light of the last farm was far behind,
peeping among the trees, Frodo turned and waved a hand in
farewell.
‘I wonder if I shall ever look down into that valley again,’
he said quietly.
When they had walked for about three hours they rested.
The night was clear, cool, and starry, but smoke-like wisps
of mist were creeping up the hill-sides from the streams and
deep meadows. Thin-clad birches, swaying in a light wind
above their heads, made a black net against the pale sky.
They ate a very frugal supper (for hobbits), and then went
on again. Soon they struck a narrow road, that went rolling
up and down, fading grey into the darkness ahead: the road
to Woodhall, and Stock, and the Bucklebury Ferry. It climbed
away from the main road in the Water-valley, and wound
over the skirts of the Green Hills towards Woody End, a wild
corner of the Eastfarthing.
After a while they plunged into a deeply cloven track
between tall trees that rustled their dry leaves in the night. It
was very dark. At first they talked, or hummed a tune softly
together, being now far away from inquisitive ears. Then they
94 the fellowship of the ring
marched on in silence, and Pippin began to lag behind. At
last, as they began to climb a steep slope, he stopped and
yawned.
‘I am so sleepy,’ he said, ‘that soon I shall fall down on
the road. Are you going to sleep on your legs? It is nearly
midnight.’
‘I thought you liked walking in the dark,’ said Frodo. ‘But
there is no great hurry. Merry expects us some time the day
after tomorrow; but that leaves us nearly two days more.
We’ll halt at the first likely spot.’
‘The wind’s in the West,’ said Sam. ‘If we get to the other
side of this hill, we shall find a spot that is sheltered and snug
enough, sir. There is a dry fir-wood just ahead, if I remember
rightly.’ Sam knew the land well within twenty miles of
Hobbiton, but that was the limit of his geography.
Just over the top of the hill they came on the patch of
fir-wood. Leaving the road they went into the deep resin-
scented darkness of the trees, and gathered dead sticks and
cones to make a fire. Soon they had a merry crackle of flame
at the foot of a large fir-tree and they sat round it for a while,
until they began to nod. Then, each in an angle of the great
tree’s roots, they curled up in their cloaks and blankets, and
were soon fast asleep. They set no watch; even Frodo feared
no danger yet, for they were still in the heart of the Shire. A
few creatures came and looked at them when the fire had
died away. A fox passing through the wood on business of
his own stopped several minutes and sniffed.
‘Hobbits!’ he thought. ‘Well, what next? I have heard of
strange doings in this land, but I have seldom heard of a
hobbit sleeping out of doors under a tree. Three of them!
There’s something mighty queer behind this.’ He was quite
right, but he never found out any more about it.
The morning came, pale and clammy. Frodo woke up first,
and found that a tree-root had made a hole in his back, and
that his neck was stiff. ‘Walking for pleasure! Why didn’t I
drive?’ he thought, as he usually did at the beginning of an
three is company 95
expedition. ‘And all my beautiful feather beds are sold to the
Sackville-Bagginses! These tree-roots would do them good.’
He stretched. ‘Wake up, hobbits!’ he cried. ‘It’s a beautiful
morning.’
‘What’s beautiful about it?’ said Pippin, peering over the
edge of his blanket with one eye. ‘Sam! Get breakfast ready
for half-past nine! Have you got the bath-water hot?’
Sam jumped up, looking rather bleary. ‘No, sir, I haven’t,
sir!’ he said.
Frodo stripped the blankets from Pippin and rolled him
over, and then walked off to the edge of the wood. Away
eastward the sun was rising red out of the mists that lay thick
on the world. Touched with gold and red the autumn trees
seemed to be sailing rootless in a shadowy sea. A little below
him to the left the road ran down steeply into a hollow and
disappeared.
When he returned Sam and Pippin had got a good fire
going. ‘Water!’ shouted Pippin. ‘Where’s the water?’
‘I don’t keep water in my pockets,’ said Frodo.
‘We thought you had gone to find some,’ said Pippin, busy
setting out the food, and cups. ‘You had better go now.’
‘You can come too,’ said Frodo, ‘and bring all the water-
bottles.’ There was a stream at the foot of the hill. They filled
their bottles and the small camping kettle at a little fall where
the water fell a few feet over an outcrop of grey stone. It was
icy cold; and they spluttered and puffed as they bathed their
faces and hands.
When their breakfast was over, and their packs all trussed
up again, it was after ten o’clock, and the day was beginning
to turn fine and hot. They went down the slope, and across
the stream where it dived under the road, and up the next
slope, and up and down another shoulder of the hills; and by
that time their cloaks, blankets, water, food, and other gear
already seemed a heavy burden.
The day’s march promised to be warm and tiring work.
After some miles, however, the road ceased to roll up and
down: it climbed to the top of a steep bank in a weary
96 the fellowship of the ring
zig-zagging sort of way, and then prepared to go down for
the last time. In front of them they saw the lower lands dotted
with small clumps of trees that melted away in the distance
to a brown woodland haze. They were looking across the
Woody End towards the Brandywine River. The road wound
away before them like a piece of string.
‘The road goes on for ever,’ said Pippin; ‘but I can’t with-
out a rest. It is high time for lunch.’ He sat down on the bank
at the side of the road and looked away east into the haze,
beyond which lay the River, and the end of the Shire in which
he had spent all his life. Sam stood by him. His round eyes
were wide open – for he was looking across lands he had
never seen to a new horizon.
‘Do Elves live in those woods?’ he asked.
‘Not that I ever heard,’ said Pippin. Frodo was silent. He
too was gazing eastward along the road, as if he had never
seen it before. Suddenly he spoke, aloud but as if to himself,
saying slowly:
The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with weary feet,
Until it joins some larger way,
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.
‘That sounds like a bit of old Bilbo’s rhyming,’ said Pippin.
‘Or is it one of your imitations? It does not sound altogether
encouraging.’
‘I don’t know,’ said Frodo. ‘It came to me then, as if I was
making it up; but I may have heard it long ago. Certainly it
reminds me very much of Bilbo in the last years, before he
went away. He used often to say there was only one Road;
that it was like a great river: its springs were at every doorstep,
and every path was its tributary. ‘‘It’s a dangerous business,
three is company 97
Frodo, going out of your door,’’ he used to say. ‘‘You step
into the Road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there is no
knowing where you might be swept off to. Do you realize
that this is the very path that goes through Mirkwood, and
that if you let it, it might take you to the Lonely Mountain
or even further and to worse places?’’ He used to say that on
the path outside the front door at Bag End, especially after
he had been out for a long walk.’
‘Well, the Road won’t sweep me anywhere for an hour at
least,’ said Pippin, unslinging his pack. The others followed
his example, putting their packs against the bank and their
legs out into the road. After a rest they had a good lunch,
and then more rest.
The sun was beginning to get low and the light of afternoon
was on the land as they went down the hill. So far they had
not met a soul on the road. This way was not much used,
being hardly fit for carts, and there was little traffic to the
Woody End. They had been jogging along again for an hour
or more when Sam stopped a moment as if listening. They
were now on level ground, and the road after much winding
lay straight ahead through grass-land sprinkled with tall trees,
outliers of the approaching woods.
‘I can hear a pony or a horse coming along the road
behind,’ said Sam.
They looked back, but the turn of the road prevented them
from seeing far. ‘I wonder if that is Gandalf coming after us,’
said Frodo; but even as he said it, he had a feeling that it was
not so, and a sudden desire to hide from the view of the rider
came over him.
‘It may not matter much,’ he said apologetically, ‘but
I would rather not be seen on the road – by anyone. I am
sick of my doings being noticed and discussed. And if it is
Gandalf,’ he added as an afterthought, ‘we can give him a
little surprise, to pay him out for being so late. Let’s get out
of sight!’
The other two ran quickly to the left and down into a little
98 the fellowship of the ring
hollow not far from the road. There they lay flat. Frodo
hesitated for a second: curiosity or some other feeling was
struggling with his desire to hide. The sound of hoofs drew
nearer. Just in time he threw himself down in a patch of long
grass behind a tree that overshadowed the road. Then he
lifted his head and peered cautiously above one of the great
roots.
Round the corner came a black horse, no hobbit-pony but
a full-sized horse; and on it sat a large man, who seemed to
crouch in the saddle, wrapped in a great black cloak and
hood, so that only his boots in the high stirrups showed
below; his face was shadowed and invisible.
When it reached the tree and was level with Frodo the
horse stopped. The riding figure sat quite still with its head
bowed, as if listening. From inside the hood came a noise as
of someone sniffing to catch an elusive scent; the head turned
from side to side of the road.
A sudden unreasoning fear of discovery laid hold of Frodo,
and he thought of his Ring. He hardly dared to breathe, and
yet the desire to get it out of his pocket became so strong that
he began slowly to move his hand. He felt that he had only
to slip it on, and then he would be safe. The advice of Gandalf
seemed absurd. Bilbo had used the Ring. ‘And I am still in
the Shire,’ he thought, as his hand touched the chain on
which it hung. At that moment the rider sat up, and shook
the reins. The horse stepped forward, walking slowly at first,
and then breaking into a quick trot.
Frodo crawled to the edge of the road and watched the
rider, until he dwindled into the distance. He could not be
quite sure, but it seemed to him that suddenly, before it
passed out of sight, the horse turned aside and went into the
trees on the right.
‘Well, I call that very queer, and indeed disturbing,’ said
Frodo to himself, as he walked towards his companions.
Pippin and Sam had remained flat in the grass, and had
seen nothing; so Frodo described the rider and his strange
behaviour.
three is company 99
‘I can’t say why, but I felt certain he was looking or smelling
for me; and also I felt certain that I did not want him to
discover me. I’ve never seen or felt anything like it in the
Shire before.’
‘But what has one of the Big People got to do with us?’
said Pippin. ‘And what is he doing in this part of the world?’
‘There are some Men about,’ said Frodo. ‘Down in the
Southfarthing they have had trouble with Big People, I
believe. But I have never heard of anything like this rider.
I wonder where he comes from.’
‘Begging your pardon,’ put in Sam suddenly, ‘I know
where he comes from. It’s from Hobbiton that this here black
rider comes, unless there’s more than one. And I know where
he’s going to.’
‘What do you mean?’ said Frodo sharply, looking at him
in astonishment. ‘Why didn’t you speak up before?’
‘I have only just remembered, sir. It was like this: when I
got back to our hole yesterday evening with the key, my dad,
he says to me: Hallo, Sam! he says. I thought you were away
with Mr. Frodo this morning. There’s been a strange customer
asking for Mr. Baggins of Bag End, and he’s only just gone. I’ve
sent him on to Bucklebury. Not that I liked the sound of him. He
seemed mighty put out, when I told him Mr. Baggins had left his
old home for good. Hissed at me, he did. It gave me quite a
shudder. What sort of a fellow was he? says I to the Gaffer. I
don’t know, says he; but he wasn’t a hobbit. He was tall and
black-like, and he stooped over me. I reckon it was one of the Big
Folk from foreign parts. He spoke funny.
‘I couldn’t stay to hear more, sir, since you were waiting;
and I didn’t give much heed to it myself. The Gaffer is getting
old, and more than a bit blind, and it must have been near
dark when this fellow come up the Hill and found him taking
the air at the end of our Row. I hope he hasn’t done no harm,
sir, nor me.’
‘The Gaffer can’t be blamed anyway,’ said Frodo. ‘As a
matter of fact I heard him talking to a stranger, who seemed
to be inquiring for me, and I nearly went and asked him who
100 the fellowship of the ring
it was. I wish I had, or you had told me about it before. I
might have been more careful on the road.’
‘Still, there may be no connexion between this rider and
the Gaffer’s stranger,’ said Pippin. ‘We left Hobbiton secretly
enough, and I don’t see how he could have followed us.’
‘What about the smelling, sir?’ said Sam. ‘And the Gaffer
said he was a black chap.’
‘I wish I had waited for Gandalf,’ Frodo muttered. ‘But
perhaps it would only have made matters worse.’
‘Then you know or guess something about this rider?’ said
Pippin, who had caught the muttered words.
‘I don’t know, and I would rather not guess,’ said Frodo.
‘All right, cousin Frodo! You can keep your secret for the
present, if you want to be mysterious. In the meanwhile what
are we to do? I should like a bite and a sup, but somehow I
think we had better move on from here. Your talk of sniffing
riders with invisible noses has unsettled me.’
‘Yes, I think we will move on now,’ said Frodo; ‘but not
on the road – in case that rider comes back, or another follows
him. We ought to do a good step more today. Buckland is
still miles away.’
The shadows of the trees were long and thin on the grass,
as they started off again. They now kept a stone’s throw to
the left of the road, and kept out of sight of it as much as
they could. But this hindered them; for the grass was thick
and tussocky, and the ground uneven, and the trees began to
draw together into thickets.
The sun had gone down red behind the hills at their backs,
and evening was coming on before they came back to the
road at the end of the long level over which it had run straight
for some miles. At that point it bent left and went down into
the lowlands of the Yale making for Stock; but a lane
branched right, winding through a wood of ancient oak-trees
on its way to Woodhall. ‘That is the way for us,’ said Frodo.
Not far from the road-meeting they came on the huge hulk
of a tree: it was still alive and had leaves on the small branches
three is company 101
that it had put out round the broken stumps of its long-fallen
limbs; but it was hollow, and could be entered by a great
crack on the side away from the road. The hobbits crept
inside, and sat there upon a floor of old leaves and decayed
wood. They rested and had a light meal, talking quietly and
listening from time to time.
Twilight was about them as they crept back to the lane.
The West wind was sighing in the branches. Leaves were
whispering. Soon the road began to fall gently but steadily
into the dusk. A star came out above the trees in the darkening
East before them. They went abreast and in step, to keep up
their spirits. After a time, as the stars grew thicker and
brighter, the feeling of disquiet left them, and they no longer
listened for the sound of hoofs. They began to hum softly,
as hobbits have a way of doing as they walk along, especially
when they are drawing near to home at night. With most
hobbits it is a supper-song or a bed-song; but these hobbits
hummed a walking-song (though not, of course, without any
mention of supper and bed). Bilbo Baggins had made the
words, to a tune that was as old as the hills, and taught it to
Frodo as they walked in the lanes of the Water-valley and
talked about Adventure.
Upon the hearth the fire is red,
Beneath the roof there is a bed;
But not yet weary are our feet,
Still round the corner we may meet
A sudden tree or standing stone
That none have seen but we alone.
Tree and flower and leaf and grass,
Let them pass! Let them pass!
Hill and water under sky,
Pass them by! Pass them by!
Still round the corner there may wait
A new road or a secret gate,
And though we pass them by today,
102 the fellowship of the ring
Tomorrow we may come this way
And take the hidden paths that run
Towards the Moon or to the Sun.
Apple, thorn, and nut and sloe,
Let them go! Let them go!
Sand and stone and pool and dell,
Fare you well! Fare you well!
Home is behind, the world ahead,
And there are many paths to tread
Through shadows to the edge of night,
Until the stars are all alight.
Then world behind and home ahead,
We’ll wander back to home and bed.
Mist and twilight, cloud and shade,
Away shall fade! Away shall fade!
Fire and lamp, and meat and bread,
And then to bed! And then to bed!
The song ended. ‘And now to bed! And now to bed!’ sang
Pippin in a high voice.
‘Hush!’ said Frodo. ‘I think I hear hoofs again.’
They stopped suddenly and stood as silent as tree-
shadows, listening. There was a sound of hoofs in the lane,
some way behind, but coming slow and clear down the wind.
Quickly and quietly they slipped off the path, and ran into
the deeper shade under the oak-trees.
‘Don’t let us go too far!’ said Frodo. ‘I don’t want to be
seen, but I want to see if it is another Black Rider.’
‘Very well!’ said Pippin. ‘But don’t forget the sniffing!’
The hoofs drew nearer. They had no time to find any
hiding-place better than the general darkness under the trees;
Sam and Pippin crouched behind a large tree-bole, while
Frodo crept back a few yards towards the lane. It showed
grey and pale, a line of fading light through the wood. Above
it the stars were thick in the dim sky, but there was no moon.
The sound of hoofs stopped. As Frodo watched he saw
three is company 103
something dark pass across the lighter space between two
trees, and then halt. It looked like the black shade of a horse
led by a smaller black shadow. The black shadow stood close
to the point where they had left the path, and it swayed from
side to side. Frodo thought he heard the sound of snuffling.
The shadow bent to the ground, and then began to crawl
towards him.
Once more the desire to slip on the Ring came over Frodo;
but this time it was stronger than before. So strong that,
almost before he realized what he was doing, his hand was
groping in his pocket. But at that moment there came a sound
like mingled song and laughter. Clear voices rose and fell
in the starlit air. The black shadow straightened up and
retreated. It climbed on to the shadowy horse and seemed to
vanish across the lane into the darkness on the other side.
Frodo breathed again.
‘Elves!’ exclaimed Sam in a hoarse whisper. ‘Elves, sir!’ He
would have burst out of the trees and dashed off towards the
voices, if they had not pulled him back.
‘Yes, it is Elves,’ said Frodo. ‘One can meet them some-
times in the Woody End. They don’t live in the Shire, but
they wander into it in spring and autumn, out of their own
lands away beyond the Tower Hills. I am thankful that they
do! You did not see, but that Black Rider stopped just here
and was actually crawling towards us when the song began.
As soon as he heard the voices he slipped away.’
‘What about the Elves?’ said Sam, too excited to trouble
about the rider. ‘Can’t we go and see them?’
‘Listen! They are coming this way,’ said Frodo. ‘We have
only to wait.’
The singing drew nearer. One clear voice rose now above
the others. It was singing in the fair elven-tongue, of which
Frodo knew only a little, and the others knew nothing. Yet
the sound blending with the melody seemed to shape itself
in their thought into words which they only partly under-
stood. This was the song as Frodo heard it:
104 the fellowship of the ring
Snow-white! Snow-white! O Lady clear!
O Queen beyond the Western Seas!
O Light to us that wander here
Amid the world of woven trees!
Gilthoniel! O Elbereth!
Clear are thy eyes and bright thy breath!
Snow-white! Snow-white! We sing to thee
In a far land beyond the Sea.
O stars that in the Sunless Year
With shining hand by her were sown,
In windy fields now bright and clear
We see your silver blossom blown!
O Elbereth! Gilthoniel!
We still remember, we who dwell
In this far land beneath the trees,
Thy starlight on the Western Seas.
The song ended. ‘These are High Elves! They spoke the
name of Elbereth!’ said Frodo in amazement. ‘Few of that
fairest folk are ever seen in the Shire. Not many now remain
in Middle-earth, east of the Great Sea. This is indeed a
strange chance!’
The hobbits sat in shadow by the wayside. Before long the
Elves came down the lane towards the valley. They passed
slowly, and the hobbits could see the starlight glimmering on
their hair and in their eyes. They bore no lights, yet as they
walked a shimmer, like the light of the moon above the rim
of the hills before it rises, seemed to fall about their feet. They
were now silent, and as the last Elf passed he turned and
looked towards the hobbits and laughed.
‘Hail, Frodo!’ he cried. ‘You are abroad late. Or are you
perhaps lost?’ Then he called aloud to the others, and all the
company stopped and gathered round.
‘This is indeed wonderful!’ they said. ‘Three hobbits in a
three is company 105
wood at night! We have not seen such a thing since Bilbo
went away. What is the meaning of it?’
‘The meaning of it, fair people,’ said Frodo, ‘is simply that
we seem to be going the same way as you are. I like walking
under the stars. But I would welcome your company.’
‘But we have no need of other company, and hobbits are
so dull,’ they laughed. ‘And how do you know that we go the
same way as you, for you do not know whither we are going?’
‘And how do you know my name?’ asked Frodo in return.
‘We know many things,’ they said. ‘We have seen you
often before with Bilbo, though you may not have seen us.’
‘Who are you, and who is your lord?’ asked Frodo.
‘I am Gildor,’ answered their leader, the Elf who had first
hailed him. ‘Gildor Inglorion of the House of Finrod. We are
Exiles, and most of our kindred have long ago departed and
we too are now only tarrying here a while, ere we return over
the Great Sea. But some of our kinsfolk dwell still in peace
in Rivendell. Come now, Frodo, tell us what you are doing?
For we see that there is some shadow of fear upon you.’
‘O Wise People!’ interrupted Pippin eagerly. ‘Tell us about
the Black Riders!’
‘Black Riders?’ they said in low voices. ‘Why do you ask
about Black Riders?’
‘Because two Black Riders have overtaken us today, or one
has done so twice,’ said Pippin; ‘only a little while ago he
slipped away as you drew near.’
The Elves did not answer at once, but spoke together softly
in their own tongue. At length Gildor turned to the hobbits.
‘We will not speak of this here,’ he said. ‘We think you had
best come now with us. It is not our custom, but for this time
we will take you on our road, and you shall lodge with us
tonight, if you will.’
‘O Fair Folk! This is good fortune beyond my hope,’ said
Pippin. Sam was speechless. ‘I thank you indeed, Gildor
Inglorion,’ said Frodo bowing. ‘Elen sı
´
la lu
´
menn’ omentielvo,
a star shines on the hour of our meeting,’ he added in the
High-elven speech.
106 the fellowship of the ring
‘Be careful, friends!’ cried Gildor laughing. ‘Speak no
secrets! Here is a scholar in the Ancient Tongue. Bilbo was
a good master. Hail, Elf-friend!’ he said, bowing to Frodo.
‘Come now with your friends and join our company! You
had best walk in the middle so that you may not stray. You
may be weary before we halt.’
‘Why? Where are you going?’ asked Frodo.
‘For tonight we go to the woods on the hills above Wood-
hall. It is some miles, but you shall have rest at the end of it,
and it will shorten your journey tomorrow.’
They now marched on again in silence, and passed like
shadows and faint lights: for Elves (even more than hobbits)
could walk when they wished without sound or footfall.
Pippin soon began to feel sleepy, and staggered once or twice;
but each time a tall Elf at his side put out his arm and saved
him from a fall. Sam walked along at Frodo’s side, as if in a
dream, with an expression on his face half of fear and half of
astonished joy.
The woods on either side became denser; the trees were
now younger and thicker; and as the lane went lower, running
down into a fold of the hills, there were many deep brakes of
hazel on the rising slopes at either hand. At last the Elves
turned aside from the path. A green ride lay almost unseen
through the thickets on the right; and this they followed as it
wound away back up the wooded slopes on to the top of
a shoulder of the hills that stood out into the lower land
of the river-valley. Suddenly they came out of the shadow
of the trees, and before them lay a wide space of grass,
grey under the night. On three sides the woods pressed
upon it; but eastward the ground fell steeply and the tops
of the dark trees, growing at the bottom of the slope, were
below their feet. Beyond, the low lands lay dim and flat
under the stars. Nearer at hand a few lights twinkled in the
village of Woodhall.
The Elves sat on the grass and spoke together in soft voices;
they seemed to take no further notice of the hobbits. Frodo
three is company 107
and his companions wrapped themselves in cloaks and
blankets, and drowsiness stole over them. The night grew on,
and the lights in the valley went out. Pippin fell asleep,
pillowed on a green hillock.
Away high in the East swung Remmirath, the Netted Stars,
and slowly above the mists red Borgil rose, glowing like a
jewel of fire. Then by some shift of airs all the mist was drawn
away like a veil, and there leaned up, as he climbed over the
rim of the world, the Swordsman of the Sky, Menelvagor
with his shining belt. The Elves all burst into song. Suddenly
under the trees a fire sprang up with a red light.
‘Come!’ the Elves called to the hobbits. ‘Come! Now is the
time for speech and merriment!’
Pippin sat up and rubbed his eyes. He shivered. ‘There is
a fire in the hall, and food for hungry guests,’ said an Elf
standing before him.
At the south end of the greensward there was an opening.
There the green floor ran on into the wood, and formed a
wide space like a hall, roofed by the boughs of trees. Their
great trunks ran like pillars down each side. In the middle
there was a wood-fire blazing, and upon the tree-pillars
torches with lights of gold and silver were burning steadily.
The Elves sat round the fire upon the grass or upon the sawn
rings of old trunks. Some went to and fro bearing cups and
pouring drink; others brought food on heaped plates and
dishes.
‘This is poor fare,’ they said to the hobbits; ‘for we are
lodging in the greenwood far from our halls. If ever you are
our guests at home, we will treat you better.’
‘It seems to me good enough for a birthday-party,’ said
Frodo.
Pippin afterwards recalled little of either food or drink, for
his mind was filled with the light upon the elf-faces, and the
sound of voices so various and so beautiful that he felt in a
waking dream. But he remembered that there was bread,
surpassing the savour of a fair white loaf to one who is starv-
ing; and fruits sweet as wildberries and richer than the tended
108 the fellowship of the ring
fruits of gardens; he drained a cup that was filled with a
fragrant draught, cool as a clear fountain, golden as a summer
afternoon.
Sam could never describe in words, nor picture clearly to
himself, what he felt or thought that night, though it remained
in his memory as one of the chief events of his life. The
nearest he ever got was to say: ‘Well, sir, if I could grow
apples like that, I would call myself a gardener. But it was
the singing that went to my heart, if you know what I mean.’
Frodo sat, eating, drinking, and talking with delight; but
his mind was chiefly on the words spoken. He knew a little
of the elf-speech and listened eagerly. Now and again he
spoke to those that served him and thanked them in their
own language. They smiled at him and said laughing: ‘Here
is a jewel among hobbits!’
After a while Pippin fell fast asleep, and was lifted up and
borne away to a bower under the trees; there he was laid
upon a soft bed and slept the rest of the night away. Sam
refused to leave his master. When Pippin had gone, he came
and sat curled up at Frodo’s feet, where at last he nodded
and closed his eyes. Frodo remained long awake, talking with
Gildor.
They spoke of many things, old and new, and Frodo ques-
tioned Gildor much about happenings in the wide world
outside the Shire. The tidings were mostly sad and ominous:
of gathering darkness, the wars of Men, and the flight of the
Elves. At last Frodo asked the question that was nearest to
his heart:
‘Tell me, Gildor, have you ever seen Bilbo since he left us?’
Gildor smiled. ‘Yes,’ he answered. ‘Twice. He said farewell
to us on this very spot. But I saw him once again, far from
here.’ He would say no more about Bilbo, and Frodo fell
silent.
‘You do not ask me or tell me much that concerns yourself,
Frodo,’ said Gildor. ‘But I already know a little, and I can
read more in your face and in the thought behind your ques-
three is company 109
tions. You are leaving the Shire, and yet you doubt that you
will find what you seek, or accomplish what you intend, or
that you will ever return. Is not that so?’
‘It is,’ said Frodo; ‘but I thought my going was a secret
known only to Gandalf and my faithful Sam.’ He looked
down at Sam, who was snoring gently.
‘The secret will not reach the Enemy from us,’ said Gildor.
‘The Enemy?’ said Frodo. ‘Then you know why I am
leaving the Shire?’
‘I do not know for what reason the Enemy is pursuing
you,’ answered Gildor; ‘but I perceive that he is – strange
indeed though that seems to me. And I warn you that peril
is now both before you and behind you, and upon either
side.’
‘You mean the Riders? I feared that they were servants of
the Enemy. What are the Black Riders?’
‘Has Gandalf told you nothing?’
‘Nothing about such creatures.’
‘Then I think it is not for me to say more – lest terror
should keep you from your journey. For it seems to me that
you have set out only just in time, if indeed you are in time.
You must now make haste, and neither stay nor turn back;
for the Shire is no longer any protection to you.’
‘I cannot imagine what information could be more terrify-
ing than your hints and warnings,’ exclaimed Frodo. ‘I knew
that danger lay ahead, of course; but I did not expect to meet
it in our own Shire. Can’t a hobbit walk from the Water to
the River in peace?’
‘But it is not your own Shire,’ said Gildor. ‘Others dwelt
here before hobbits were; and others will dwell here again
when hobbits are no more. The wide world is all about you:
you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot for ever fence
it out.’
‘I know – and yet it has always seemed so safe and familiar.
What can I do now? My plan was to leave the Shire secretly,
and make my way to Rivendell; but now my footsteps are
dogged, before ever I get to Buckland.’
110 the fellowship of the ring
‘I think you should still follow that plan,’ said Gildor. ‘I do
not think the Road will prove too hard for your courage. But
if you desire clearer counsel, you should ask Gandalf. I do
not know the reason for your flight, and therefore I do not
know by what means your pursuers will assail you. These
things Gandalf must know. I suppose that you will see him
before you leave the Shire?’
‘I hope so. But that is another thing that makes me anxious.
I have been expecting Gandalf for many days. He was to
have come to Hobbiton at the latest two nights ago; but he
has never appeared. Now I am wondering what can have
happened. Should I wait for him?’
Gildor was silent for a moment. ‘I do not like this news,’
he said at last. ‘That Gandalf should be late, does not bode
well. But it is said: Do not meddle in the affairs of Wizards, for
they are subtle and quick to anger. The choice is yours: to go
or wait.’
‘And it is also said,’ answered Frodo: ‘Go not to the Elves
for counsel, for they will say both no and yes.’
‘Is it indeed?’ laughed Gildor. ‘Elves seldom give un-
guarded advice, for advice is a dangerous gift, even from the
wise to the wise, and all courses may run ill. But what would
you? You have not told me all concerning yourself; and how
then shall I choose better than you? But if you demand advice,
I will for friendship’s sake give it. I think you should now
go at once, without delay; and if Gandalf does not come
before you set out, then I also advise this: do not go alone.
Take such friends as are trusty and willing. Now you should
be grateful, for I do not give this counsel gladly. The Elves
have their own labours and their own sorrows, and they are
little concerned with the ways of hobbits, or of any other
creatures upon earth. Our paths cross theirs seldom, by
chance or purpose. In this meeting there may be more than
chance; but the purpose is not clear to me, and I fear to say
too much.’
‘I am deeply grateful,’ said Frodo; ‘but I wish you would
tell me plainly what the Black Riders are. If I take your advice
three is company 111
I may not see Gandalf for a long while, and I ought to know
what is the danger that pursues me.’
‘Is it not enough to know that they are servants of the
Enemy?’ answered Gildor. ‘Flee them! Speak no words to
them! They are deadly. Ask no more of me! But my heart
forbodes that, ere all is ended, you, Frodo son of Drogo, will
know more of these fell things than Gildor Inglorion. May
Elbereth protect you!’
‘But where shall I find courage?’ asked Frodo. ‘That is
what I chiefly need.’
‘Courage is found in unlikely places,’ said Gildor. ‘Be of
good hope! Sleep now! In the morning we shall have gone; but
we will send our messages through the lands. The Wandering
Companies shall know of your journey, and those that have
power for good shall be on the watch. I name you Elf-friend;
and may the stars shine upon the end of your road! Seldom
have we had such delight in strangers, and it is fair to hear
words of the Ancient Speech from the lips of other wanderers
in the world.’
Frodo felt sleep coming upon him, even as Gildor finished
speaking. ‘I will sleep now,’ he said; and the Elf led him to a
bower beside Pippin, and he threw himself upon a bed and
fell at once into a dreamless slumber.
Chapter 4
A SHORT CUT TO MUSHROOMS
In the morning Frodo woke refreshed. He was lying in a
bower made by a living tree with branches laced and drooping
to the ground; his bed was of fern and grass, deep and soft
and strangely fragrant. The sun was shining through the
fluttering leaves, which were still green upon the tree. He
jumped up and went out.
Sam was sitting on the grass near the edge of the wood.
Pippin was standing studying the sky and weather. There
was no sign of the Elves.
‘They have left us fruit and drink, and bread,’ said Pippin.
‘Come and have your breakfast. The bread tastes almost as
good as it did last night. I did not want to leave you any, but
Sam insisted.’
Frodo sat down beside Sam and began to eat. ‘What is the
plan for today?’ asked Pippin.
‘To walk to Bucklebury as quickly as possible,’ answered
Frodo, and gave his attention to the food.
‘Do you think we shall see anything of those Riders?’ asked
Pippin cheerfully. Under the morning sun the prospect of
seeing a whole troop of them did not seem very alarming to
him.
‘Yes, probably,’ said Frodo, not liking the reminder. ‘But
I hope to get across the river without their seeing us.’
‘Did you find out anything about them from Gildor?’
‘Not much – only hints and riddles,’ said Frodo evasively.
‘Did you ask about the sniffing?’
‘We didn’t discuss it,’ said Frodo with his mouth full.
‘You should have. I am sure it is very important.’
‘In that case I am sure Gildor would have refused to explain
it,’ said Frodo sharply. ‘And now leave me in peace for a bit!
a short cut to mushrooms 113
I don’t want to answer a string of questions while I am eating.
I want to think!’
‘Good heavens!’ said Pippin. ‘At breakfast?’ He walked
away towards the edge of the green.
From Frodo’s mind the bright morning – treacherously
bright, he thought – had not banished the fear of pursuit; and
he pondered the words of Gildor. The merry voice of Pippin
came to him. He was running on the green turf and singing.
‘No! I could not!’ he said to himself. ‘It is one thing to take
my young friends walking over the Shire with me, until we
are hungry and weary, and food and bed are sweet. To take
them into exile, where hunger and weariness may have no
cure, is quite another – even if they are willing to come. The
inheritance is mine alone. I don’t think I ought even to take
Sam.’ He looked at Sam Gamgee, and discovered that Sam
was watching him.
‘Well, Sam!’ he said. ‘What about it? I am leaving the Shire
as soon as ever I can – in fact I have made up my mind now
not even to wait a day at Crickhollow, if it can be helped.’
‘Very good, sir!’
‘You still mean to come with me?’
‘I do.’
‘It is going to be very dangerous, Sam. It is already danger-
ous. Most likely neither of us will come back.’
‘If you don’t come back, sir, then I shan’t, that’s certain,’
said Sam. ‘Don’t you leave him! they said to me. Leave him!
I said. I never mean to. I am going with him, if he climbs to the
Moon; and if any of those Black Riders try to stop him, they’ll
have Sam Gamgee to reckon with, I said. They laughed.’
‘Who are they, and what are you talking about?’
‘The Elves, sir. We had some talk last night; and they
seemed to know you were going away, so I didn’t see the use
of denying it. Wonderful folk, Elves, sir! Wonderful!’
‘They are,’ said Frodo. ‘Do you like them still, now you
have had a closer view?’
‘They seem a bit above my likes and dislikes, so to speak,’
answered Sam slowly. ‘It don’t seem to matter what I think
114 the fellowship of the ring
about them. They are quite different from what I expected –
so old and young, and so gay and sad, as it were.’
Frodo looked at Sam rather startled, half expecting to see
some outward sign of the odd change that seemed to have
come over him. It did not sound like the voice of the old Sam
Gamgee that he thought he knew. But it looked like the old
Sam Gamgee sitting there, except that his face was unusually
thoughtful.
‘Do you feel any need to leave the Shire now – now that
your wish to see them has come true already?’ he asked.
‘Yes, sir. I don’t know how to say it, but after last night
I feel different. I seem to see ahead, in a kind of way. I know
we are going to take a very long road, into darkness; but
I know I can’t turn back. It isn’t to see Elves now, nor
dragons, nor mountains, that I want – I don’t rightly know
what I want: but I have something to do before the end, and
it lies ahead, not in the Shire. I must see it through, sir, if
you understand me.’
‘I don’t altogether. But I understand that Gandalf chose
me a good companion. I am content. We will go together.’
Frodo finished his breakfast in silence. Then standing up
he looked over the land ahead, and called to Pippin.
‘All ready to start?’ he said as Pippin ran up. ‘We must be
getting off at once. We slept late; and there are a good many
miles to go.’
‘You slept late, you mean,’ said Pippin. ‘I was up long
before; and we are only waiting for you to finish eating and
thinking.’
‘I have finished both now. And I am going to make for
Bucklebury Ferry as quickly as possible. I am not going out
of the way, back to the road we left last night: I am going to
cut straight across country from here.’
‘Then you are going to fly,’ said Pippin. ‘You won’t cut
straight on foot anywhere in this country.’
‘We can cut straighter than the road anyway,’ answered
Frodo. ‘The Ferry is east from Woodhall; but the hard road
curves away to the left – you can see a bend of it away north
a short cut to mushrooms 115
over there. It goes round the north end of the Marish so as
to strike the causeway from the Bridge above Stock. But that
is miles out of the way. We could save a quarter of the
distance if we made a line for the Ferry from where we stand.’
‘Short cuts make long delays,’ argued Pippin. ‘The country
is rough round here, and there are bogs and all kinds of
difficulties down in the Marish – I know the land in these
parts. And if you are worrying about Black Riders, I can’t
see that it is any worse meeting them on a road than in a
wood or a field.’
‘It is less easy to find people in the woods and fields,’
answered Frodo. ‘And if you are supposed to be on the road,
there is some chance that you will be looked for on the road
and not off it.’
‘All right!’ said Pippin. ‘I will follow you into every bog
and ditch. But it is hard! I had counted on passing the Golden
Perch at Stock before sundown. The best beer in the East-
farthing, or used to be: it is a long time since I tasted it.’
‘That settles it!’ said Frodo. ‘Short cuts make delays, but
inns make longer ones. At all costs we must keep you away
from the Golden Perch. We want to get to Bucklebury before
dark. What do you say, Sam?’
‘I will go along with you, Mr. Frodo,’ said Sam (in spite
of private misgivings and a deep regret for the best beer in
the Eastfarthing).
‘Then if we are going to toil through bog and briar, let’s
go now!’ said Pippin.
It was already nearly as hot as it had been the day before;
but clouds were beginning to come up from the West. It
looked likely to turn to rain. The hobbits scrambled down a
steep green bank and plunged into the thick trees below.
Their course had been chosen to leave Woodhall to their left,
and to cut slanting through the woods that clustered along
the eastern side of the hills, until they reached the flats
beyond. Then they could make straight for the Ferry over
country that was open, except for a few ditches and fences.
116 the fellowship of the ring
Frodo reckoned they had eighteen miles to go in a straight line.
He soon found that the thicket was closer and more tangled
than it had appeared. There were no paths in the under-
growth, and they did not get on very fast. When they had
struggled to the bottom of the bank, they found a stream
running down from the hills behind in a deeply dug bed with
steep slippery sides overhung with brambles. Most incon-
veniently it cut across the line they had chosen. They could
not jump over it, nor indeed get across it at all without getting
wet, scratched, and muddy. They halted, wondering what to
do. ‘First check!’ said Pippin, smiling grimly.
Sam Gamgee looked back. Through an opening in the
trees he caught a glimpse of the top of the green bank from
which they had climbed down.
‘Look!’ he said, clutching Frodo by the arm. They all
looked, and on the edge high above them they saw against
the sky a horse standing. Beside it stooped a black figure.
They at once gave up any idea of going back. Frodo led
the way, and plunged quickly into the thick bushes beside the
stream. ‘Whew!’ he said to Pippin. ‘We were both right! The
short cut has gone crooked already; but we got under cover
only just in time. You’ve got sharp ears, Sam: can you hear
anything coming?’
They stood still, almost holding their breath as they
listened; but there was no sound of pursuit. ‘I don’t fancy
he would try bringing his horse down that bank,’ said Sam.
‘But I guess he knows we came down it. We had better be
going on.’
Going on was not altogether easy. They had packs to carry,
and the bushes and brambles were reluctant to let them
through. They were cut off from the wind by the ridge
behind, and the air was still and stuffy. When they forced
their way at last into more open ground, they were hot and
tired and very scratched, and they were also no longer certain
of the direction in which they were going. The banks of the
stream sank, as it reached the levels and became broader and
shallower, wandering off towards the Marish and the River.
a short cut to mushrooms 117
‘Why, this is the Stock-brook!’ said Pippin. ‘If we are going
to try and get back on to our course, we must cross at once
and bear right.’
They waded the stream, and hurried over a wide open
space, rush-grown and treeless, on the further side. Beyond
that they came again to a belt of trees: tall oaks, for the most
part, with here and there an elm tree or an ash. The ground
was fairly level, and there was little undergrowth; but the
trees were too close for them to see far ahead. The leaves
blew upwards in sudden gusts of wind, and spots of rain
began to fall from the overcast sky. Then the wind died away
and the rain came streaming down. They trudged along as
fast as they could, over patches of grass, and through thick
drifts of old leaves; and all about them the rain pattered and
trickled. They did not talk, but kept glancing back, and from
side to side.
After half an hour Pippin said: ‘I hope we have not turned
too much towards the south, and are not walking longwise
through this wood! It is not a very broad belt – I should have
said no more than a mile at the widest – and we ought to
have been through it by now.’
‘It is no good our starting to go in zig-zags,’ said Frodo.
‘That won’t mend matters. Let us keep on as we are going!
I am not sure that I want to come out into the open yet.’
They went on for perhaps another couple of miles. Then
the sun gleamed out of ragged clouds again and the rain
lessened. It was now past mid-day, and they felt it was high
time for lunch. They halted under an elm tree: its leaves
though fast turning yellow were still thick, and the ground at
its feet was fairly dry and sheltered. When they came to make
their meal, they found that the Elves had filled their bottles
with a clear drink, pale golden in colour: it had the scent of
a honey made of many flowers, and was wonderfully refresh-
ing. Very soon they were laughing, and snapping their fingers
at rain, and at Black Riders. The last few miles, they felt,
would soon be behind them.
118 the fellowship of the ring
Frodo propped his back against the tree-trunk, and closed
his eyes. Sam and Pippin sat near, and they began to hum,
and then to sing softly:
Ho! Ho! Ho! to the bottle I go
To heal my heart and drown my woe.
Rain may fall and wind may blow,
And many miles be still to go,
But under a tall tree I will lie,
And let the clouds go sailing by.
Ho! Ho! Ho! they began again louder. They stopped short
suddenly. Frodo sprang to his feet. A long-drawn wail came
down the wind, like the cry of some evil and lonely creature.
It rose and fell, and ended on a high piercing note. Even as
they sat and stood, as if suddenly frozen, it was answered by
another cry, fainter and further off, but no less chilling to the
blood. There was then a silence, broken only by the sound
of the wind in the leaves.
‘And what do you think that was?’ Pippin asked at last,
trying to speak lightly, but quavering a little. ‘If it was a bird,
it was one that I never heard in the Shire before.’
‘It was not bird or beast,’ said Frodo. ‘It was a call, or a
signal – there were words in that cry, though I could not
catch them. But no hobbit has such a voice.’
No more was said about it. They were all thinking of the
Riders, but no one spoke of them. They were now reluctant
either to stay or go on; but sooner or later they had got to get
across the open country to the Ferry, and it was best to go
sooner and in daylight. In a few moments they had shoul-
dered their packs again and were off.
Before long the wood came to a sudden end. Wide grass-
lands stretched before them. They now saw that they had, in
fact, turned too much to the south. Away over the flats they
could glimpse the low hill of Bucklebury across the River,
but it was now to their left. Creeping cautiously out from the
a short cut to mushrooms 119
edge of the trees, they set off across the open as quickly as
they could.
At first they felt afraid, away from the shelter of the wood.
Far back behind them stood the high place where they had
breakfasted. Frodo half expected to see the small distant
figure of a horseman on the ridge dark against the sky; but
there was no sign of one. The sun escaping from the breaking
clouds, as it sank towards the hills they had left, was now
shining brightly again. Their fear left them, though they still
felt uneasy. But the land became steadily more tame and
well-ordered. Soon they came into well-tended fields and
meadows: there were hedges and gates and dikes for drainage.
Everything seemed quiet and peaceful, just an ordinary
corner of the Shire. Their spirits rose with every step. The
line of the River grew nearer; and the Black Riders began to
seem like phantoms of the woods now left far behind.
They passed along the edge of a huge turnip-field, and
came to a stout gate. Beyond it a rutted lane ran between low
well-laid hedges towards a distant clump of trees. Pippin
stopped.
‘I know these fields and this gate!’ he said. ‘This is Bam-
furlong, old Farmer Maggot’s land. That’s his farm away
there in the trees.’
‘One trouble after another!’ said Frodo, looking nearly as
much alarmed as if Pippin had declared the lane was the
slot leading to a dragon’s den. The others looked at him in
surprise.
‘What’s wrong with old Maggot?’ asked Pippin. ‘He’s a
good friend to all the Brandybucks. Of course he’s a terror
to trespassers, and keeps ferocious dogs – but after all, folk
down here are near the border and have to be more on their
guard.’
‘I know,’ said Frodo. ‘But all the same,’ he added with a
shamefaced laugh, ‘I am terrified of him and his dogs. I have
avoided his farm for years and years. He caught me several
times trespassing after mushrooms, when I was a youngster
at Brandy Hall. On the last occasion he beat me, and then
120 the fellowship of the ring
took me and showed me to his dogs. ‘‘See, lads,’’ he said,
‘‘next time this young varmint sets foot on my land, you can
eat him. Now see him off !’’ They chased me all the way to
the Ferry. I have never got over the fright – though I daresay
the beasts knew their business and would not really have
touched me.’
Pippin laughed. ‘Well, it’s time you made it up. Especially
if you are coming back to live in Buckland. Old Maggot is
really a stout fellow – if you leave his mushrooms alone. Let’s
get into the lane and then we shan’t be trespassing. If we
meet him, I’ll do the talking. He is a friend of Merry’s, and I
used to come here with him a good deal at one time.’
They went along the lane, until they saw the thatched roofs
of a large house and farm-buildings peeping out among the
trees ahead. The Maggots, and the Puddifoots of Stock, and
most of the inhabitants of the Marish, were house-dwellers;
and this farm was stoutly built of brick and had a high wall
all round it. There was a wide wooden gate opening out of
the wall into the lane.
Suddenly as they drew nearer a terrific baying and barking
broke out, and a loud voice was heard shouting: ‘Grip! Fang!
Wolf ! Come on, lads!’
Frodo and Sam stopped dead, but Pippin walked on a few
paces. The gate opened and three huge dogs came pelting
out into the lane, and dashed towards the travellers, barking
fiercely. They took no notice of Pippin; but Sam shrank
against the wall, while two wolvish-looking dogs sniffed at
him suspiciously, and snarled if he moved. The largest and
most ferocious of the three halted in front of Frodo, bristling
and growling.
Through the gate there now appeared a broad thick-set
hobbit with a round red face. ‘Hallo! Hallo! And who may
you be, and what may you be wanting?’ he asked.
‘Good afternoon, Mr. Maggot!’ said Pippin.
The farmer looked at him closely. ‘Well, if it isn’t Master
Pippin – Mr. Peregrin Took, I should say!’ he cried, changing
a short cut to mushrooms 121
from a scowl to a grin. ‘It’s a long time since I saw you round
here. It’s lucky for you that I know you. I was just going out
to set my dogs on any strangers. There are some funny things
going on today. Of course, we do get queer folk wandering
in these parts at times. Too near the River,’ he said, shaking
his head. ‘But this fellow was the most outlandish I have ever
set eyes on. He won’t cross my land without leave a second
time, not if I can stop it.’
‘What fellow do you mean?’ asked Pippin.
‘Then you haven’t seen him?’ said the farmer. ‘He went
up the lane towards the causeway not a long while back. He
was a funny customer and asking funny questions. But per-
haps you’ll come along inside, and we’ll pass the news more
comfortable. I’ve a drop of good ale on tap, if you and your
friends are willing, Mr. Took.’
It seemed plain that the farmer would tell them more, if
allowed to do it in his own time and fashion, so they all
accepted the invitation. ‘What about the dogs?’ asked Frodo
anxiously.
The farmer laughed. ‘They won’t harm you – not unless I
tell ’em to. Here, Grip! Fang! Heel!’ he cried. ‘Heel, Wolf !’
To the relief of Frodo and Sam, the dogs walked away and
let them go free.
Pippin introduced the other two to the farmer. ‘Mr. Frodo
Baggins,’ he said. ‘You may not remember him, but he used
to live at Brandy Hall.’ At the name Baggins the farmer
started, and gave Frodo a sharp glance. For a moment Frodo
thought that the memory of stolen mushrooms had been
aroused, and that the dogs would be told to see him off. But
Farmer Maggot took him by the arm.
‘Well, if that isn’t queerer than ever!’ he exclaimed. ‘Mr.
Baggins is it? Come inside! We must have a talk.’
They went into the farmer’s kitchen, and sat by the wide
fire-place. Mrs. Maggot brought out beer in a huge jug, and
filled four large mugs. It was a good brew, and Pippin found
himself more than compensated for missing the Golden Perch.
Sam sipped his beer suspiciously. He had a natural mistrust
122 the fellowship of the ring
of the inhabitants of other parts of the Shire; and also he was
not disposed to be quick friends with anyone who had beaten
his master, however long ago.
After a few remarks about the weather and the agricultural
prospects (which were no worse than usual), Farmer Maggot
put down his mug and looked at them all in turn.
‘Now, Mr. Peregrin,’ he said, ‘where might you be coming
from, and where might you be going to? Were you coming
to visit me? For, if so, you had gone past my gate without
my seeing you.’
‘Well, no,’ answered Pippin. ‘To tell you the truth, since
you have guessed it, we got into the lane from the other end:
we had come over your fields. But that was quite by accident.
We lost our way in the woods, back near Woodhall, trying to
take a short cut to the Ferry.’
‘If you were in a hurry, the road would have served you
better,’ said the farmer. ‘But I wasn’t worrying about that.
You have leave to walk over my land, if you have a mind,
Mr. Peregrin. And you, Mr. Baggins – though I daresay you
still like mushrooms.’ He laughed. ‘Ah yes, I recognized the
name. I recollect the time when young Frodo Baggins was
one of the worst young rascals of Buckland. But it wasn’t
mushrooms I was thinking of. I had just heard the name
Baggins before you turned up. What do you think that funny
customer asked me?’
They waited anxiously for him to go on. ‘Well,’ the farmer
continued, approaching his point with slow relish, ‘he came
riding on a big black horse in at the gate, which happened to
be open, and right up to my door. All black he was himself,
too, and cloaked and hooded up, as if he did not want to be
known. ‘‘Now what in the Shire can he want?’’ I thought to
myself. We don’t see many of the Big Folk over the border;
and anyway I had never heard of any like this black fellow.
‘ ‘‘Good-day to you!’’ I says, going out to him. ‘‘This lane
don’t lead anywhere, and wherever you may be going, your
quickest way will be back to the road.’’ I didn’t like the looks
of him; and when Grip came out, he took one sniff and let
a short cut to mushrooms 123
out a yelp as if he had been stung: he put down his tail and
bolted off howling. The black fellow sat quite still.
‘ ‘‘I come from yonder,’’ he said, slow and stiff-like,
pointing back west, over my fields, if you please. ‘‘Have you
seen Baggins?’’ he asked in a queer voice, and bent down
towards me. I could not see any face, for his hood fell down
so low; and I felt a sort of shiver down my back. But I did
not see why he should come riding over my land so bold.
‘ ‘‘Be off !’’ I said. ‘‘There are no Bagginses here. You’re in
the wrong part of the Shire. You had better go back west to
Hobbiton – but you can go by road this time.’’
‘ ‘‘Baggins has left,’’ he answered in a whisper. ‘‘He is
coming. He is not far away. I wish to find him. If he passes
will you tell me? I will come back with gold.’’
‘ ‘‘No you won’t,’’ I said. ‘‘You’ll go back where you
belong, double quick. I give you one minute before I call all
my dogs.’’
‘He gave a sort of hiss. It might have been laughing, and
it might not. Then he spurred his great horse right at me,
and I jumped out of the way only just in time. I called the
dogs, but he swung off, and rode through the gate and up
the lane towards the causeway like a bolt of thunder. What
do you think of that?’
Frodo sat for a moment looking at the fire, but his only
thought was how on earth would they reach the Ferry. ‘I
don’t know what to think,’ he said at last.
‘Then I’ll tell you what to think,’ said Maggot. ‘You should
never have gone mixing yourself up with Hobbiton folk, Mr.
Frodo. Folk are queer up there.’ Sam stirred in his chair, and
looked at the farmer with an unfriendly eye. ‘But you were
always a reckless lad. When I heard you had left the Brandy-
bucks and gone off to that old Mr. Bilbo, I said that you were
going to find trouble. Mark my words, this all comes of those
strange doings of Mr. Bilbo’s. His money was got in some
strange fashion in foreign parts, they say. Maybe there is
some that want to know what has become of the gold and
jewels that he buried in the hill of Hobbiton, as I hear?’
124 the fellowship of the ring
Frodo said nothing: the shrewd guesses of the farmer were
rather disconcerting.
‘Well, Mr. Frodo,’ Maggot went on, ‘I’m glad that you’ve
had the sense to come back to Buckland. My advice is: stay
there! And don’t get mixed up with these outlandish folk.
You’ll have friends in these parts. If any of these black fellows
come after you again, I’ll deal with them. I’ll say you’re dead,
or have left the Shire, or anything you like. And that might
be true enough; for as like as not it is old Mr. Bilbo they want
news of.’
‘Maybe you’re right,’ said Frodo, avoiding the farmer’s eye
and staring at the fire.
Maggot looked at him thoughtfully. ‘Well, I see you have
ideas of your own,’ he said. ‘It is as plain as my nose that no
accident brought you and that rider here on the same after-
noon; and maybe my news was no great news to you, after
all. I am not asking you to tell me anything you have a mind
to keep to yourself; but I see you are in some kind of trouble.
Perhaps you are thinking it won’t be too easy to get to the
Ferry without being caught?’
‘I was thinking so,’ said Frodo. ‘But we have got to try and
get there; and it won’t be done by sitting and thinking. So I
am afraid we must be going. Thank you very much indeed
for your kindness! I’ve been in terror of you and your dogs
for over thirty years, Farmer Maggot, though you may laugh
to hear it. It’s a pity: for I’ve missed a good friend. And now
I’m sorry to leave so soon. But I’ll come back, perhaps, one
day – if I get a chance.’
‘You’ll be welcome when you come,’ said Maggot. ‘But
now I’ve a notion. It’s near sundown already, and we are
going to have our supper; for we mostly go to bed soon after
the Sun. If you and Mr. Peregrin and all could stay and have
a bite with us, we would be pleased!’
‘And so should we!’ said Frodo. ‘But we must be going at
once, I’m afraid. Even now it will be dark before we can
reach the Ferry.’
‘Ah! but wait a minute! I was going to say: after a bit of
a short cut to mushrooms 125
supper, I’ll get out a small waggon, and I’ll drive you all to
the Ferry. That will save you a good step, and it might also
save you trouble of another sort.’
Frodo now accepted the invitation gratefully, to the relief
of Pippin and Sam. The sun was already behind the western
hills, and the light was failing. Two of Maggot’s sons and his
three daughters came in, and a generous supper was laid on
the large table. The kitchen was lit with candles and the fire
was mended. Mrs. Maggot bustled in and out. One or two
other hobbits belonging to the farm-household came in. In a
short while fourteen sat down to eat. There was beer in
plenty, and a mighty dish of mushrooms and bacon, besides
much other solid farmhouse fare. The dogs lay by the fire
and gnawed rinds and cracked bones.
When they had finished, the farmer and his sons went out
with a lantern and got the waggon ready. It was dark in the
yard, when the guests came out. They threw their packs on
board and climbed in. The farmer sat in the driving-seat, and
whipped up his two stout ponies. His wife stood in the light
of the open door.
‘You be careful of yourself, Maggot!’ she called. ‘Don’t go
arguing with any foreigners, and come straight back!’
‘I will!’ said he, and drove out of the gate. There was now
no breath of wind stirring; the night was still and quiet, and
a chill was in the air. They went without lights and took it
slowly. After a mile or two the lane came to an end, crossing
a deep dike, and climbing a short slope up on to the high-
banked causeway.
Maggot got down and took a good look either way, north
and south, but nothing could be seen in the darkness, and
there was not a sound in the still air. Thin strands of river-mist
were hanging above the dikes, and crawling over the fields.
‘It’s going to be thick,’ said Maggot; ‘but I’ll not light my
lanterns till I turn for home. We’ll hear anything on the road
long before we meet it tonight.’
***
126 the fellowship of the ring
It was five miles or more from Maggot’s lane to the Ferry.
The hobbits wrapped themselves up, but their ears were
strained for any sound above the creak of the wheels and the
slow clop of the ponies’ hoofs. The waggon seemed slower
than a snail to Frodo. Beside him Pippin was nodding
towards sleep; but Sam was staring forwards into the rising
fog.
They reached the entrance to the Ferry lane at last. It was
marked by two tall white posts that suddenly loomed up on
their right. Farmer Maggot drew in his ponies and the waggon
creaked to a halt. They were just beginning to scramble out,
when suddenly they heard what they had all been dreading:
hoofs on the road ahead. The sound was coming towards
them.
Maggot jumped down and stood holding the ponies’ heads,
and peering forward into the gloom. Clip-clop, clip-clop came
the approaching rider. The fall of the hoofs sounded loud in
the still, foggy air.
‘You’d better be hidden, Mr. Frodo,’ said Sam anxiously.
‘You get down in the waggon and cover up with blankets,
and we’ll send this rider to the rightabouts!’ He climbed out
and went to the farmer’s side. Black Riders would have to
ride over him to get near the waggon.
Clop-clop, clop-clop. The rider was nearly on them.
‘Hallo there!’ called Farmer Maggot. The advancing hoofs
stopped short. They thought they could dimly guess a dark
cloaked shape in the mist, a yard or two ahead.
‘Now then!’ said the farmer, throwing the reins to Sam and
striding forward. ‘Don’t you come a step nearer! What do
you want, and where are you going?’
‘I want Mr. Baggins. Have you seen him?’ said a muffled
voice – but the voice was the voice of Merry Brandybuck. A
dark lantern was uncovered, and its light fell on the astonished
face of the farmer.
‘Mr. Merry!’ he cried.
‘Yes, of course! Who did you think it was?’ said Merry
coming forward. As he came out of the mist and their fears
a short cut to mushrooms 127
subsided, he seemed suddenly to diminish to ordinary hobbit-
size. He was riding a pony, and a scarf was swathed round
his neck and over his chin to keep out the fog.
Frodo sprang out of the waggon to greet him. ‘So there
you are at last!’ said Merry. ‘I was beginning to wonder if
you would turn up at all today, and I was just going back to
supper. When it grew foggy I came across and rode up
towards Stock to see if you had fallen in any ditches. But I’m
blest if I know which way you have come. Where did you
find them, Mr. Maggot? In your duck-pond?’
‘No, I caught ’em trespassing,’ said the farmer, ‘and nearly
set my dogs on ’em; but they’ll tell you all the story, I’ve no
doubt. Now, if you’ll excuse me, Mr. Merry and Mr. Frodo
and all, I’d best be turning for home. Mrs. Maggot will be
worriting with the night getting thick.’
He backed the waggon into the lane and turned it. ‘Well,
good night to you all,’ he said. ‘It’s been a queer day, and no
mistake. But all’s well as ends well; though perhaps we should
not say that until we reach our own doors. I’ll not deny that
I’ll be glad now when I do.’ He lit his lanterns, and got up.
Suddenly he produced a large basket from under the seat. ‘I
was nearly forgetting,’ he said. ‘Mrs. Maggot put this up for
Mr. Baggins, with her compliments.’ He handed it down and
moved off, followed by a chorus of thanks and good-nights.
They watched the pale rings of light round his lanterns as
they dwindled into the foggy night. Suddenly Frodo laughed:
from the covered basket he held, the scent of mushrooms
was rising.
Chapter 5
A CONSPIRACY UNMASKED
‘Now we had better get home ourselves,’ said Merry. ‘There’s
something funny about all this, I see; but it must wait till we
get in.’
They turned down the Ferry lane, which was straight and
well-kept and edged with large white-washed stones. In a
hundred yards or so it brought them to the river-bank, where
there was a broad wooden landing-stage. A large flat ferry-
boat was moored beside it. The white bollards near the
water’s edge glimmered in the light of two lamps on high
posts. Behind them the mists in the flat fields were now above
the hedges; but the water before them was dark, with only a
few curling wisps like steam among the reeds by the bank.
There seemed to be less fog on the further side.
Merry led the pony over a gangway on to the ferry, and
the others followed. Merry then pushed slowly off with a long
pole. The Brandywine flowed slow and broad before them.
On the other side the bank was steep, and up it a winding
path climbed from the further landing. Lamps were twinkling
there. Behind loomed up the Buck Hill; and out of it, through
stray shrouds of mist, shone many round windows, yellow
and red. They were the windows of Brandy Hall, the ancient
home of the Brandybucks.
Long ago Gorhendad Oldbuck, head of the Oldbuck
family, one of the oldest in the Marish or indeed in the Shire,
had crossed the river, which was the original boundary of
the land eastwards. He built (and excavated) Brandy Hall,
changed his name to Brandybuck, and settled down to
become master of what was virtually a small independent
country. His family grew and grew, and after his days con-
a conspiracy unmasked 129
tinued to grow, until Brandy Hall occupied the whole of the
low hill, and had three large front-doors, many side-doors,
and about a hundred windows. The Brandybucks and their
numerous dependants then began to burrow, and later to
build, all round about. That was the origin of Buckland, a
thickly inhabited strip between the river and the Old Forest, a
sort of colony from the Shire. Its chief village was Bucklebury,
clustering in the banks and slopes behind Brandy Hall.
The people in the Marish were friendly with the Buck-
landers, and the authority of the Master of the Hall (as the
head of the Brandybuck family was called) was still acknowl-
edged by the farmers between Stock and Rushey. But most
of the folk of the old Shire regarded the Bucklanders as
peculiar, half foreigners as it were. Though, as a matter of
fact, they were not very different from the other hobbits
of the Four Farthings. Except in one point: they were fond
of boats, and some of them could swim.
Their land was originally unprotected from the East; but
on that side they had built a hedge: the High Hay. It had
been planted many generations ago, and was now thick and
tall, for it was constantly tended. It ran all the way from
Brandywine Bridge, in a big loop curving away from the
river, to Haysend (where the Withywindle flowed out of the
Forest into the Brandywine): well over twenty miles from end
to end. But, of course, it was not a complete protection.
The Forest drew close to the hedge in many places. The
Bucklanders kept their doors locked after dark, and that also
was not usual in the Shire.
The ferry-boat moved slowly across the water. The Buck-
land shore drew nearer. Sam was the only member of the
party who had not been over the river before. He had a
strange feeling as the slow gurgling stream slipped by: his old
life lay behind in the mists, dark adventure lay in front. He
scratched his head, and for a moment had a passing wish that
Mr. Frodo could have gone on living quietly at Bag End.
The four hobbits stepped off the ferry. Merry was tying it
130 the fellowship of the ring
up, and Pippin was already leading the pony up the path,
when Sam (who had been looking back, as if to take farewell
of the Shire) said in a hoarse whisper:
‘Look back, Mr. Frodo! Do you see anything?’
On the far stage, under the distant lamps, they could just
make out a figure: it looked like a dark black bundle left
behind. But as they looked it seemed to move and sway this
way and that, as if searching the ground. It then crawled, or
went crouching, back into the gloom beyond the lamps.
‘What in the Shire is that?’ exclaimed Merry.
‘Something that is following us,’ said Frodo. ‘But don’t ask
any more now! Let’s get away at once!’ They hurried up the
path to the top of the bank, but when they looked back the
far shore was shrouded in mist, and nothing could be seen.
‘Thank goodness you don’t keep any boats on the west-
bank!’ said Frodo. ‘Can horses cross the river?’
‘They can go ten miles north to Brandywine Bridge – or
they might swim,’ answered Merry. ‘Though I never heard
of any horse swimming the Brandywine. But what have
horses to do with it?’
‘I’ll tell you later. Let’s get indoors and then we can talk.’
‘All right! You and Pippin know your way; so I’ll just ride
on and tell Fatty Bolger that you are coming. We’ll see about
supper and things.’
‘We had our supper early with Farmer Maggot,’ said
Frodo; ‘but we could do with another.’
‘You shall have it! Give me that basket!’ said Merry, and
rode ahead into the darkness.
It was some distance from the Brandywine to Frodo’s new
house at Crickhollow. They passed Buck Hill and Brandy
Hall on their left, and on the outskirts of Bucklebury struck
the main road of Buckland that ran south from the Bridge.
Half a mile northward along this they came to a lane opening
on their right. This they followed for a couple of miles as it
climbed up and down into the country.
At last they came to a narrow gate in a thick hedge. Nothing
a conspiracy unmasked 131
could be seen of the house in the dark: it stood back from
the lane in the middle of a wide circle of lawn surrounded by
a belt of low trees inside the outer hedge. Frodo had chosen
it, because it stood in an out-of-the-way corner of the
country, and there were no other dwellings close by. You
could get in and out without being noticed. It had been built
a long while before by the Brandybucks, for the use of guests,
or members of the family that wished to escape from the
crowded life of Brandy Hall for a time. It was an old-
fashioned countrified house, as much like a hobbit-hole as
possible: it was long and low, with no upper storey; and it
had a roof of turf, round windows, and a large round door.
As they walked up the green path from the gate no light
was visible; the windows were dark and shuttered. Frodo
knocked on the door, and Fatty Bolger opened it. A friendly
light streamed out. They slipped in quickly and shut them-
selves and the light inside. They were in a wide hall with
doors on either side; in front of them a passage ran back
down the middle of the house.
‘Well, what do you think of it?’ asked Merry coming up
the passage. ‘We have done our best in a short time to make
it look like home. After all Fatty and I only got here with the
last cart-load yesterday.’
Frodo looked round. It did look like home. Many of his
own favourite things – or Bilbo’s things (they reminded him
sharply of him in their new setting) – were arranged as nearly
as possible as they had been at Bag End. It was a pleasant,
comfortable, welcoming place; and he found himself wishing
that he was really coming here to settle down in quiet retire-
ment. It seemed unfair to have put his friends to all this
trouble; and he wondered again how he was going to break
the news to them that he must leave them so soon, indeed at
once. Yet that would have to be done that very night, before
they all went to bed.
‘It’s delightful!’ he said with an effort. ‘I hardly feel that I
have moved at all.’
***
132 the fellowship of the ring
The travellers hung up their cloaks, and piled their packs on
the floor. Merry led them down the passage and threw open a
door at the far end. Firelight came out, and a puff of steam.
‘A bath!’ cried Pippin. ‘O blessed Meriadoc!’
‘Which order shall we go in?’ said Frodo. ‘Eldest first, or
quickest first? You’ll be last either way, Master Peregrin.’
‘Trust me to arrange things better than that!’ said Merry.
‘We can’t begin life at Crickhollow with a quarrel over baths.
In that room there are three tubs, and a copper full of boiling
water. There are also towels, mats and soap. Get inside, and
be quick!’
Merry and Fatty went into the kitchen on the other side of
the passage, and busied themselves with the final preparations
for a late supper. Snatches of competing songs came from
the bathroom mixed with the sound of splashing and wallow-
ing. The voice of Pippin was suddenly lifted up above the
others in one of Bilbo’s favourite bath-songs.
Sing hey! for the bath at close of day
that washes the weary mud away!
A loon is he that will not sing:
O! Water Hot is a noble thing!
O! Sweet is the sound of falling rain,
and the brook that leaps from hill to plain;
but better than rain or rippling streams
is Water Hot that smokes and steams.
O! Water cold we may pour at need
down a thirsty throat and be glad indeed;
but better is Beer, if drink we lack,
and Water Hot poured down the back.
O! Water is fair that leaps on high
in a fountain white beneath the sky;
but never did fountain sound so sweet
as splashing Hot Water with my feet!
a conspiracy unmasked 133
There was a terrific splash, and a shout of Whoa! from
Frodo. It appeared that a lot of Pippin’s bath had imitated a
fountain and leaped on high.
Merry went to the door: ‘What about supper and beer in
the throat?’ he called. Frodo came out drying his hair.
‘There’s so much water in the air that I’m coming into the
kitchen to finish,’ he said.
‘Lawks!’ said Merry, looking in. The stone floor was swim-
ming. ‘You ought to mop all that up before you get anything
to eat, Peregrin,’ he said. ‘Hurry up, or we shan’t wait for you.’
They had supper in the kitchen on a table near the fire.
‘I suppose you three won’t want mushrooms again?’ said
Fredegar without much hope.
‘Yes we shall!’ cried Pippin.
‘They’re mine!’ said Frodo. ‘Given to me by Mrs. Maggot,
a queen among farmers’ wives. Take your greedy hands
away, and I’ll serve them.’
Hobbits have a passion for mushrooms, surpassing even
the greediest likings of Big People. A fact which partly
explains young Frodo’s long expeditions to the renowned
fields of the Marish, and the wrath of the injured Maggot.
On this occasion there was plenty for all, even according to
hobbit standards. There were also many other things to fol-
low, and when they had finished even Fatty Bolger heaved a
sigh of content. They pushed back the table, and drew chairs
round the fire.
‘We’ll clear up later,’ said Merry. ‘Now tell me all about it!
I guess that you have been having adventures, which was not
quite fair without me. I want a full account; and most of all
I want to know what was the matter with old Maggot, and
why he spoke to me like that. He sounded almost as if he was
scared, if that is possible.’
‘We have all been scared,’ said Pippin after a pause, in
which Frodo stared at the fire and did not speak. ‘You would
have been, too, if you had been chased for two days by Black
Riders.’
134 the fellowship of the ring
‘And what are they?’
‘Black figures riding on black horses,’ answered Pippin. ‘If
Frodo won’t talk, I will tell you the whole tale from the
beginning.’ He then gave a full account of their journey from
the time when they left Hobbiton. Sam gave various support-
ing nods and exclamations. Frodo remained silent.
‘I should think you were making it all up,’ said Merry, ‘if
I had not seen that black shape on the landing-stage – and
heard the queer sound in Maggot’s voice. What do you make
of it all, Frodo?’
‘Cousin Frodo has been very close,’ said Pippin. ‘But the
time has come for him to open out. So far we have been
given nothing more to go on than Farmer Maggot’s guess
that it has something to do with old Bilbo’s treasure.’
‘That was only a guess,’ said Frodo hastily. ‘Maggot does
not know anything.’
‘Old Maggot is a shrewd fellow,’ said Merry. ‘A lot goes
on behind his round face that does not come out in his talk.
I’ve heard that he used to go into the Old Forest at one time,
and he has the reputation of knowing a good many strange
things. But you can at least tell us, Frodo, whether you think
his guess good or bad.’
‘I think,’ answered Frodo slowly, ‘that it was a good guess,
as far as it goes. There is a connexion with Bilbo’s old adven-
tures, and the Riders are looking, or perhaps one ought to
say searching, for him or for me. I also fear, if you want to
know, that it is no joke at all; and that I am not safe here or
anywhere else.’ He looked round at the windows and walls,
as if he was afraid they would suddenly give way. The others
looked at him in silence, and exchanged meaning glances
among themselves.
‘It’s coming out in a minute,’ whispered Pippin to Merry.
Merry nodded.
‘Well!’ said Frodo at last, sitting up and straightening his
back, as if he had made a decision. ‘I can’t keep it dark any
longer. I have got something to tell you all. But I don’t know
quite how to begin.’
a conspiracy unmasked 135
‘I think I could help you,’ said Merry quietly, ‘by telling
you some of it myself.’
‘What do you mean?’ said Frodo, looking at him anxiously.
‘Just this, my dear old Frodo: you are miserable, because
you don’t know how to say good-bye. You meant to leave the
Shire, of course. But danger has come on you sooner than you
expected, and now you are making up your mind to go at once.
And you don’t want to. We are very sorry for you.’
Frodo opened his mouth and shut it again. His look of
surprise was so comical that they laughed. ‘Dear old Frodo!’
said Pippin. ‘Did you really think you had thrown dust in all
our eyes? You have not been nearly careful or clever enough
for that! You have obviously been planning to go and saying
farewell to all your haunts all this year since April. We have
constantly heard you muttering: ‘‘Shall I ever look down
into that valley again, I wonder’’, and things like that. And
pretending that you had come to the end of your money, and
actually selling your beloved Bag End to those Sackville-
Bagginses! And all those close talks with Gandalf.’
‘Good heavens!’ said Frodo. ‘I thought I had been both
careful and clever. I don’t know what Gandalf would say. Is
all the Shire discussing my departure then?’
‘Oh no!’ said Merry. ‘Don’t worry about that! The secret
won’t keep for long, of course; but at present it is, I think,
only known to us conspirators. After all, you must remember
that we know you well, and are often with you. We can
usually guess what you are thinking. I knew Bilbo, too. To
tell you the truth, I have been watching you rather closely
ever since he left. I thought you would go after him sooner
or later; indeed I expected you to go sooner, and lately we
have been very anxious. We have been terrified that you
might give us the slip, and go off suddenly, all on your own
like he did. Ever since this spring we have kept our eyes open,
and done a good deal of planning on our own account. You
are not going to escape so easily!’
‘But I must go,’ said Frodo. ‘It cannot be helped, dear
friends. It is wretched for us all, but it is no use your trying
136 the fellowship of the ring
to keep me. Since you have guessed so much, please help me
and do not hinder me!’
‘You do not understand!’ said Pippin. ‘You must go – and
therefore we must, too. Merry and I are coming with you.
Sam is an excellent fellow, and would jump down a dragon’s
throat to save you, if he did not trip over his own feet; but
you will need more than one companion in your dangerous
adventure.’
‘My dear and most beloved hobbits!’ said Frodo deeply
moved. ‘But I could not allow it. I decided that long ago, too.
You speak of danger, but you do not understand. This is no
treasure-hunt, no there-and-back journey. I am flying from
deadly peril into deadly peril.’
‘Of course we understand,’ said Merry firmly. ‘That is
why we have decided to come. We know the Ring is no
laughing-matter; but we are going to do our best to help you
against the Enemy.’
‘The Ring!’ said Frodo, now completely amazed.
‘Yes, the Ring,’ said Merry. ‘My dear old hobbit, you don’t
allow for the inquisitiveness of friends. I have known about
the existence of the Ring for years – before Bilbo went away,
in fact; but since he obviously regarded it as secret, I kept the
knowledge in my head, until we formed our conspiracy. I did
not know Bilbo, of course, as well as I know you; I was too
young, and he was also more careful – but he was not care-
ful enough. If you want to know how I first found out, I will
tell you.’
‘Go on!’ said Frodo faintly.
‘It was the Sackville-Bagginses that were his downfall, as you
might expect. One day, a year before the Party, I happened to
be walking along the road, when I saw Bilbo ahead. Suddenly
in the distance the S.-B.s appeared, coming towards us. Bilbo
slowed down, and then hey presto! he vanished. I was so
startled that I hardly had the wits to hide myself in a more
ordinary fashion; but I got through the hedge and walked
along the field inside. I was peeping through into the road,
after the S.-B.s had passed, and was looking straight at Bilbo
a conspiracy unmasked 137
when he suddenly reappeared. I caught a glint of gold as he
put something back in his trouser-pocket.
‘After that I kept my eyes open. In fact, I confess that I
spied. But you must admit that it was very intriguing, and
I was only in my teens. I must be the only one in the Shire,
besides you Frodo, that has ever seen the old fellow’s secret
book.’
‘You have read his book!’ cried Frodo. ‘Good heavens
above! Is nothing safe?’
‘Not too safe, I should say,’ said Merry. ‘But I have only
had one rapid glance, and that was difficult to get. He never
left the book about. I wonder what became of it. I should like
another look. Have you got it, Frodo?’
‘No. It was not at Bag End. He must have taken it away.’
‘Well, as I was saying,’ Merry proceeded, ‘I kept my know-
ledge to myself, till this spring when things got serious. Then
we formed our conspiracy; and as we were serious, too, and
meant business, we have not been too scrupulous. You are
not a very easy nut to crack, and Gandalf is worse. But if you
want to be introduced to our chief investigator, I can produce
him.’
‘Where is he?’ said Frodo, looking round, as if he expected
a masked and sinister figure to come out of a cupboard.
‘Step forward, Sam!’ said Merry; and Sam stood up with
a face scarlet up to the ears. ‘Here’s our collector of infor-
mation! And he collected a lot, I can tell you, before he was
finally caught. After which, I may say, he seemed to regard
himself as on parole, and dried up.’
‘Sam!’ cried Frodo, feeling that amazement could go no
further, and quite unable to decide whether he felt angry,
amused, relieved, or merely foolish.
‘Yes, sir!’ said Sam. ‘Begging your pardon, sir! But I meant
no wrong to you, Mr. Frodo, nor to Mr. Gandalf for that
matter. He has some sense, mind you; and when you said go
alone, he said no! take someone as you can trust.’
‘But it does not seem that I can trust anyone,’ said Frodo.
Sam looked at him unhappily. ‘It all depends on what you
138 the fellowship of the ring
want,’ put in Merry. ‘You can trust us to stick to you through
thick and thin – to the bitter end. And you can trust us to
keep any secret of yours – closer than you keep it yourself.
But you cannot trust us to let you face trouble alone, and go
off without a word. We are your friends, Frodo. Anyway:
there it is. We know most of what Gandalf has told you. We
know a good deal about the Ring. We are horribly afraid –
but we are coming with you; or following you like hounds.’
‘And after all, sir,’ added Sam, ‘you did ought to take the
Elves’ advice. Gildor said you should take them as was will-
ing, and you can’t deny it.’
‘I don’t deny it,’ said Frodo, looking at Sam, who was now
grinning. ‘I don’t deny it, but I’ll never believe you are sleep-
ing again, whether you snore or not. I shall kick you hard to
make sure.
‘You are a set of deceitful scoundrels!’ he said, turning to
the others. ‘But bless you!’ he laughed, getting up and waving
his arms, ‘I give in. I will take Gildor’s advice. If the danger
were not so dark, I should dance for joy. Even so, I cannot
help feeling happy; happier than I have felt for a long time.
I had dreaded this evening.’
‘Good! That’s settled. Three cheers for Captain Frodo and
company!’ they shouted; and they danced round him. Merry
and Pippin began a song, which they had apparently got
ready for the occasion.
It was made on the model of the dwarf-song that started
Bilbo on his adventure long ago, and went to the same tune:
Farewell we call to hearth and hall!
Though wind may blow and rain may fall,
We must away ere break of day
Far over wood and mountain tall.
To Rivendell, where Elves yet dwell
In glades beneath the misty fell,
Through moor and waste we ride in haste,
And whither then we cannot tell.
a conspiracy unmasked 139
With foes ahead, behind us dread,
Beneath the sky shall be our bed,
Until at last our toil be passed,
Our journey done, our errand sped.
We must away! We must away!
We ride before the break of day!
‘Very good!’ said Frodo. ‘But in that case there are a lot of
things to do before we go to bed – under a roof, for tonight
at any rate.’
‘Oh! That was poetry!’ said Pippin. ‘Do you really mean
to start before the break of day?’
‘I don’t know,’ answered Frodo. ‘I fear those Black Riders,
and I am sure it is unsafe to stay in one place long, especially
in a place to which it is known I was going. Also Gildor
advised me not to wait. But I should very much like to see
Gandalf. I could see that even Gildor was disturbed when he
heard that Gandalf had never appeared. It really depends on
two things. How soon could the Riders get to Bucklebury?
And how soon could we get off ? It will take a good deal of
preparation.’
‘The answer to the second question,’ said Merry, ‘is that
we could get off in an hour. I have prepared practically every-
thing. There are five ponies in a stable across the fields; stores
and tackle are all packed, except for a few extra clothes, and
the perishable food.’
‘It seems to have been a very efficient conspiracy,’ said
Frodo. ‘But what about the Black Riders? Would it be safe
to wait one day for Gandalf ?’
‘That all depends on what you think the Riders would do,
if they found you here,’ answered Merry. ‘They could have
reached here by now, of course, if they were not stopped at
the North-gate, where the Hedge runs down to the river-
bank, just this side of the Bridge. The gate-guards would not
let them through by night, though they might break through.
Even in the daylight they would try to keep them out, I think,
140 the fellowship of the ring
at any rate until they got a message through to the Master of
the Hall – for they would not like the look of the Riders,
and would certainly be frightened by them. But, of course,
Buckland cannot resist a determined attack for long. And it
is possible that in the morning even a Black Rider that rode
up and asked for Mr. Baggins would be let through. It is
pretty generally known that you are coming back to live at
Crickhollow.’
Frodo sat for a while in thought. ‘I have made up my
mind,’ he said finally. ‘I am starting tomorrow, as soon as it
is light. But I am not going by road: it would be safer to wait
here than that. If I go through the North-gate my departure
from Buckland will be known at once, instead of being secret
for several days at least, as it might be. And what is more,
the Bridge and the East Road near the borders will certainly
be watched, whether any Rider gets into Buckland or not.
We don’t know how many there are; but there are at least
two, and possibly more. The only thing to do is to go off in
a quite unexpected direction.’
‘But that can only mean going into the Old Forest!’ said
Fredegar horrified. ‘You can’t be thinking of doing that. It is
quite as dangerous as Black Riders.’
‘Not quite,’ said Merry. ‘It sounds very desperate, but I
believe Frodo is right. It is the only way of getting off without
being followed at once. With luck we might get a considerable
start.’
‘But you won’t have any luck in the Old Forest,’ objected
Fredegar. ‘No one ever has luck in there. You’ll get lost.
People don’t go in there.’
‘Oh yes they do!’ said Merry. ‘The Brandybucks go in –
occasionally when the fit takes them. We have a private
entrance. Frodo went in once, long ago. I have been in several
times: usually in daylight, of course, when the trees are sleepy
and fairly quiet.’
‘Well, do as you think best!’ said Fredegar. ‘I am more
afraid of the Old Forest than of anything I know about: the
a conspiracy unmasked 141
stories about it are a nightmare; but my vote hardly counts,
as I am not going on the journey. Still, I am very glad someone
is stopping behind, who can tell Gandalf what you have done,
when he turns up, as I am sure he will before long.’
Fond as he was of Frodo, Fatty Bolger had no desire to
leave the Shire, nor to see what lay outside it. His family
came from the Eastfarthing, from Budgeford in Bridgefields
in fact, but he had never been over the Brandywine Bridge.
His task, according to the original plans of the conspirators,
was to stay behind and deal with inquisitive folk, and to keep
up as long as possible the pretence that Mr. Baggins was still
living at Crickhollow. He had even brought along some old
clothes of Frodo’s to help him in playing the part. They little
thought how dangerous that part might prove.
‘Excellent!’ said Frodo, when he understood the plan. ‘We
could not have left any message behind for Gandalf other-
wise. I don’t know whether these Riders can read or not, of
course, but I should not have dared to risk a written message,
in case they got in and searched the house. But if Fatty is
willing to hold the fort, and I can be sure of Gandalf knowing
the way we have gone, that decides me. I am going into the
Old Forest first thing tomorrow.’
‘Well, that’s that,’ said Pippin. ‘On the whole I would rather
have our job than Fatty’s – waiting here till Black Riders
come.’
‘You wait till you are well inside the Forest,’ said Fredegar.
‘You’ll wish you were back here with me before this time
tomorrow.’
‘It’s no good arguing about it any more,’ said Merry. ‘We
have still got to tidy up and put the finishing touches to the
packing, before we get to bed. I shall call you all before the
break of day.’
When at last he had got to bed, Frodo could not sleep for
some time. His legs ached. He was glad that he was riding in
the morning. Eventually he fell into a vague dream, in which
he seemed to be looking out of a high window over a dark
142 the fellowship of the ring
sea of tangled trees. Down below among the roots there was
the sound of creatures crawling and snuffling. He felt sure
they would smell him out sooner or later.
Then he heard a noise in the distance. At first he thought
it was a great wind coming over the leaves of the forest. Then
he knew that it was not leaves, but the sound of the Sea
far-off; a sound he had never heard in waking life, though it
had often troubled his dreams. Suddenly he found he was
out in the open. There were no trees after all. He was on a
dark heath, and there was a strange salt smell in the air.
Looking up he saw before him a tall white tower, standing
alone on a high ridge. A great desire came over him to climb
the tower and see the Sea. He started to struggle up the ridge
towards the tower: but suddenly a light came in the sky, and
there was a noise of thunder.
Chapter 6
THE OLD FOREST
Frodo woke suddenly. It was still dark in the room. Merry
was standing there with a candle in one hand, and banging
on the door with the other. ‘All right! What is it?’ said Frodo,
still shaken and bewildered.
‘What is it!’ cried Merry. ‘It is time to get up. It is half past
four and very foggy. Come on! Sam is already getting breakfast
ready. Even Pippin is up. I am just going to saddle the ponies,
and fetch the one that is to be the baggage-carrier. Wake that
sluggard Fatty! At least he must get up and see us off.’
Soon after six o’clock the five hobbits were ready to start.
Fatty Bolger was still yawning. They stole quietly out of the
house. Merry went in front leading a laden pony, and took
his way along a path that went through a spinney behind the
house, and then cut across several fields. The leaves of trees
were glistening, and every twig was dripping; the grass was
grey with cold dew. Everything was still, and far-away noises
seemed near and clear: fowls chattering in a yard, someone
closing a door of a distant house.
In their shed they found the ponies: sturdy little beasts of
the kind loved by hobbits, not speedy, but good for a long
day’s work. They mounted, and soon they were riding off
into the mist, which seemed to open reluctantly before them
and close forbiddingly behind them. After riding for about
an hour, slowly and without talking, they saw the Hedge
looming suddenly ahead. It was tall and netted over with
silver cobwebs.
‘How are you going to get through this?’ asked Fredegar.
‘Follow me!’ said Merry, ‘and you will see.’ He turned to
the left along the Hedge, and soon they came to a point where
it bent inwards, running along the lip of a hollow. A cutting
144 the fellowship of the ring
had been made, at some distance from the Hedge, and went
sloping gently down into the ground. It had walls of brick at
the sides, which rose steadily, until suddenly they arched over
and formed a tunnel that dived deep under the Hedge and
came out in the hollow on the other side.
Here Fatty Bolger halted. ‘Good-bye, Frodo!’ he said. ‘I
wish you were not going into the Forest. I only hope you will
not need rescuing before the day is out. But good luck to you
– today and every day!’
‘If there are no worse things ahead than the Old Forest, I
shall be lucky,’ said Frodo. ‘Tell Gandalf to hurry along the
East Road: we shall soon be back on it and going as fast as
we can.’ ‘Good-bye!’ they cried, and rode down the slope
and disappeared from Fredegar’s sight into the tunnel.
It was dark and damp. At the far end it was closed by a
gate of thick-set iron bars. Merry got down and unlocked the
gate, and when they had all passed through he pushed it to
again. It shut with a clang, and the lock clicked. The sound
was ominous.
‘There!’ said Merry. ‘You have left the Shire, and are now
outside, and on the edge of the Old Forest.’
‘Are the stories about it true?’ asked Pippin.
‘I don’t know what stories you mean,’ Merry answered. ‘If
you mean the old bogey-stories Fatty’s nurses used to tell
him, about goblins and wolves and things of that sort, I
should say no. At any rate I don’t believe them. But the
Forest is queer. Everything in it is very much more alive,
more aware of what is going on, so to speak, than things are
in the Shire. And the trees do not like strangers. They watch
you. They are usually content merely to watch you, as long
as daylight lasts, and don’t do much. Occasionally the most
unfriendly ones may drop a branch, or stick a root out, or
grasp at you with a long trailer. But at night things can be
most alarming, or so I am told. I have only once or twice
been in here after dark, and then only near the hedge. I
thought all the trees were whispering to each other, passing
news and plots along in an unintelligible language; and the
the old forest 145
branches swayed and groped without any wind. They do say
the trees do actually move, and can surround strangers and
hem them in. In fact long ago they attacked the Hedge: they
came and planted themselves right by it, and leaned over it.
But the hobbits came and cut down hundreds of trees, and
made a great bonfire in the Forest, and burned all the ground
in a long strip east of the Hedge. After that the trees gave up
the attack, but they became very unfriendly. There is still a
wide bare space not far inside where the bonfire was made.’
‘Is it only the trees that are dangerous?’ asked Pippin.
‘There are various queer things living deep in the Forest,
and on the far side,’ said Merry, ‘or at least I have heard so;
but I have never seen any of them. But something makes
paths. Whenever one comes inside one finds open tracks; but
they seem to shift and change from time to time in a queer
fashion. Not far from this tunnel there is, or was for a long
time, the beginning of quite a broad path leading to the
Bonfire Glade, and then on more or less in our direction, east
and a little north. That is the path I am going to try and find.’
The hobbits now left the tunnel-gate and rode across the
wide hollow. On the far side was a faint path leading up on
to the floor of the Forest, a hundred yards and more beyond
the Hedge; but it vanished as soon as it brought them under
the trees. Looking back they could see the dark line of the
Hedge through the stems of trees that were already thick
about them. Looking ahead they could see only tree-trunks
of innumerable sizes and shapes: straight or bent, twisted,
leaning, squat or slender, smooth or gnarled and branched;
and all the stems were green or grey with moss and slimy,
shaggy growths.
Merry alone seemed fairly cheerful. ‘You had better lead
on and find that path,’ Frodo said to him. ‘Don’t let us lose
one another, or forget which way the Hedge lies!’
They picked a way among the trees, and their ponies
plodded along, carefully avoiding the many writhing and
interlacing roots. There was no undergrowth. The ground
146 the fellowship of the ring
was rising steadily, and as they went forward it seemed that
the trees became taller, darker, and thicker. There was no
sound, except an occasional drip of moisture falling through
the still leaves. For the moment there was no whispering or
movement among the branches; but they all got an uncom-
fortable feeling that they were being watched with dis-
approval, deepening to dislike and even enmity. The feeling
steadily grew, until they found themselves looking up quickly,
or glancing back over their shoulders, as if they expected a
sudden blow.
There was not as yet any sign of a path, and the trees
seemed constantly to bar their way. Pippin suddenly felt that
he could not bear it any longer, and without warning let out
a shout. ‘Oi! Oi!’ he cried. ‘I am not going to do anything.
Just let me pass through, will you!’
The others halted startled; but the cry fell as if muffled by
a heavy curtain. There was no echo or answer though the
wood seemed to become more crowded and more watchful
than before.
‘I should not shout, if I were you,’ said Merry. ‘It does
more harm than good.’
Frodo began to wonder if it were possible to find a way
through, and if he had been right to make the others come
into this abominable wood. Merry was looking from side to
side, and seemed already uncertain which way to go. Pippin
noticed it. ‘It has not taken you long to lose us,’ he said. But at
that moment Merry gave a whistle of relief and pointed ahead.
‘Well, well!’ he said. ‘These trees do shift. There is the
Bonfire Glade in front of us (or I hope so), but the path to it
seems to have moved away!’
The light grew clearer as they went forward. Suddenly they
came out of the trees and found themselves in a wide circular
space. There was sky above them, blue and clear to their
surprise, for down under the Forest-roof they had not been
able to see the rising morning and the lifting of the mist. The
sun was not, however, high enough yet to shine down into
the old forest 147
the clearing, though its light was on the tree-tops. The leaves
were all thicker and greener about the edges of the glade,
enclosing it with an almost solid wall. No tree grew there,
only rough grass and many tall plants: stalky and faded hem-
locks and wood-parsley, fire-weed seeding into fluffy ashes,
and rampant nettles and thistles. A dreary place: but it
seemed a charming and cheerful garden after the close Forest.
The hobbits felt encouraged, and looked up hopefully at
the broadening daylight in the sky. At the far side of the glade
there was a break in the wall of trees, and a clear path beyond
it. They could see it running on into the wood, wide in places
and open above, though every now and again the trees drew
in and overshadowed it with their dark boughs. Up this path
they rode. They were still climbing gently, but they now went
much quicker, and with better heart; for it seemed to them
that the Forest had relented, and was going to let them pass
unhindered after all.
But after a while the air began to get hot and stuffy. The
trees drew close again on either side, and they could no longer
see far ahead. Now stronger than ever they felt again the
ill will of the wood pressing on them. So silent was it that
the fall of their ponies’ hoofs, rustling on dead leaves and
occasionally stumbling on hidden roots, seemed to thud in
their ears. Frodo tried to sing a song to encourage them, but
his voice sank to a murmur.
O! Wanderers in the shadowed land
despair not! For though dark they stand,
all woods there be must end at last,
and see the open sun go past:
the setting sun, the rising sun,
the day’s end, or the day begun.
For east or west all woods must fail...
Fail – even as he said the word his voice faded into silence.
The air seemed heavy and the making of words wearisome.
Just behind them a large branch fell from an old overhanging
148 the fellowship of the ring
tree with a crash into the path. The trees seemed to close in
before them.
‘They do not like all that about ending and failing,’ said
Merry. ‘I should not sing any more at present. Wait till we do
get to the edge, and then we’ll turn and give them a rousing
chorus!’
He spoke cheerfully, and if he felt any great anxiety, he did
not show it. The others did not answer. They were depressed.
A heavy weight was settling steadily on Frodo’s heart, and
he regretted now with every step forward that he had ever
thought of challenging the menace of the trees. He was,
indeed, just about to stop and propose going back (if that
was still possible), when things took a new turn. The path
stopped climbing, and became for a while nearly level. The
dark trees drew aside, and ahead they could see the path going
almost straight forward. Before them, but some distance off,
there stood a green hill-top, treeless, rising like a bald head
out of the encircling wood. The path seemed to be making
directly for it.
They now hurried forward again, delighted with the
thought of climbing out for a while above the roof of the
Forest. The path dipped, and then again began to climb
upwards, leading them at last to the foot of the steep hillside.
There it left the trees and faded into the turf. The wood stood
all round the hill like thick hair that ended sharply in a circle
round a shaven crown.
The hobbits led their ponies up, winding round and round
until they reached the top. There they stood and gazed about
them. The air was gleaming and sunlit, but hazy; and they
could not see to any great distance. Near at hand the mist
was now almost gone; though here and there it lay in hollows
of the wood, and to the south of them, out of a deep fold
cutting right across the Forest, the fog still rose like steam or
wisps of white smoke.
‘That,’ said Merry, pointing with his hand, ‘that is the line
of the Withywindle. It comes down out of the Downs and
the old forest 149
flows south-west through the midst of the Forest to join the
Brandywine below Haysend. We don’t want to go that way!
The Withywindle valley is said to be the queerest part of the
whole wood – the centre from which all the queerness comes,
as it were.’
The others looked in the direction that Merry pointed out,
but they could see little but mists over the damp and deep-cut
valley; and beyond it the southern half of the Forest faded
from view.
The sun on the hill-top was now getting hot. It must have
been about eleven o’clock; but the autumn haze still pre-
vented them from seeing much in other directions. In the
west they could not make out either the line of the Hedge or
the valley of the Brandywine beyond it. Northward, where
they looked most hopefully, they could see nothing that might
be the line of the great East Road, for which they were
making. They were on an island in a sea of trees, and the
horizon was veiled.
On the south-eastern side the ground fell very steeply, as
if the slopes of the hill were continued far down under the
trees, like island-shores that really are the sides of a mountain
rising out of deep waters. They sat on the green edge and
looked out over the woods below them, while they ate their
mid-day meal. As the sun rose and passed noon they
glimpsed far off in the east the grey-green lines of the Downs
that lay beyond the Old Forest on that side. That cheered
them greatly; for it was good to see a sight of anything beyond
the wood’s borders, though they did not mean to go that way,
if they could help it: the Barrow-downs had as sinister a
reputation in hobbit-legend as the Forest itself.
At length they made up their minds to go on again. The path
that had brought them to the hill reappeared on the north-
ward side; but they had not followed it far before they became
aware that it was bending steadily to the right. Soon it began
to descend rapidly and they guessed that it must actually
be heading towards the Withywindle valley: not at all the
150 the fellowship of the ring
direction they wished to take. After some discussion they
decided to leave this misleading path and strike northward;
for although they had not been able to see it from the hill-top,
the Road must lie that way, and it could not be many miles
off. Also northward, and to the left of the path, the land
seemed to be drier and more open, climbing up to slopes
where the trees were thinner, and pines and firs replaced the
oaks and ashes and other strange and nameless trees of the
denser wood.
At first their choice seemed to be good: they got along at
a fair speed, though whenever they got a glimpse of the sun
in an open glade they seemed unaccountably to have veered
eastwards. But after a time the trees began to close in again,
just where they had appeared from a distance to be thinner
and less tangled. Then deep folds in the ground were dis-
covered unexpectedly, like the ruts of great giant-wheels or
wide moats and sunken roads long disused and choked with
brambles. These lay usually right across their line of march,
and could only be crossed by scrambling down and out again,
which was troublesome and difficult with their ponies. Each
time they climbed down they found the hollow filled with thick
bushes and matted undergrowth, which somehow would not
yield to the left, but only gave way when they turned to the
right; and they had to go some distance along the bottom
before they could find a way up the further bank. Each time
they clambered out, the trees seemed deeper and darker; and
always to the left and upwards it was most difficult to find a
way, and they were forced to the right and downwards.
After an hour or two they had lost all clear sense of direc-
tion, though they knew well enough that they had long ceased
to go northward at all. They were being headed off, and were
simply following a course chosen for them – eastwards and
southwards, into the heart of the Forest and not out of it.
The afternoon was wearing away when they scrambled and
stumbled into a fold that was wider and deeper than any they
had yet met. It was so steep and overhung that it proved
the old forest 151
impossible to climb out of it again, either forwards or back-
wards, without leaving their ponies and their baggage behind.
All they could do was to follow the fold – downwards. The
ground grew soft, and in places boggy; springs appeared in
the banks, and soon they found themselves following a brook
that trickled and babbled through a weedy bed. Then the
ground began to fall rapidly, and the brook growing strong
and noisy, flowed and leaped swiftly downhill. They were in
a deep dim-lit gully over-arched by trees high above them.
After stumbling along for some way along the stream, they
came quite suddenly out of the gloom. As if through a gate
they saw the sunlight before them. Coming to the opening
they found that they had made their way down through a
cleft in a high steep bank, almost a cliff. At its feet was a
wide space of grass and reeds; and in the distance could be
glimpsed another bank almost as steep. A golden afternoon
of late sunshine lay warm and drowsy upon the hidden land
between. In the midst of it there wound lazily a dark river of
brown water, bordered with ancient willows, arched over
with willows, blocked with fallen willows, and flecked with
thousands of faded willow-leaves. The air was thick with
them, fluttering yellow from the branches; for there was a
warm and gentle breeze blowing softly in the valley, and the
reeds were rustling, and the willow-boughs were creaking.
‘Well, now I have at least some notion of where we are!’
said Merry. ‘We have come almost in the opposite direction
to which we intended. This is the River Withywindle! I will
go on and explore.’
He passed out into the sunshine and disappeared into the
long grasses. After a while he reappeared, and reported that
there was fairly solid ground between the cliff-foot and the
river; in some places firm turf went down to the water’s edge.
‘What’s more,’ he said, ‘there seems to be something like a
footpath winding along on this side of the river. If we turn
left and follow it, we shall be bound to come out on the east
side of the Forest eventually.’
‘I dare say!’ said Pippin. ‘That is, if the track goes on so
152 the fellowship of the ring
far, and does not simply lead us into a bog and leave us there.
Who made the track, do you suppose, and why? I am sure it
was not for our benefit. I am getting very suspicious of this
Forest and everything in it, and I begin to believe all the
stories about it. And have you any idea how far eastward we
should have to go?’
‘No,’ said Merry, ‘I haven’t. I don’t know in the least how
far down the Withywindle we are, or who could possibly
come here often enough to make a path along it. But there is
no other way out that I can see or think of.’
There being nothing else for it, they filed out, and Merry
led them to the path that he had discovered. Everywhere the
reeds and grasses were lush and tall, in places far above their
heads; but once found, the path was easy to follow, as it
turned and twisted, picking out the sounder ground among
the bogs and pools. Here and there it passed over other rills,
running down gullies into the Withywindle out of the higher
forest-lands, and at these points there were tree-trunks or
bundles of brushwood laid carefully across.
The hobbits began to feel very hot. There were armies of
flies of all kinds buzzing round their ears, and the afternoon
sun was burning on their backs. At last they came suddenly
into a thin shade; great grey branches reached across the
path. Each step forward became more reluctant than the last.
Sleepiness seemed to be creeping out of the ground and up
their legs, and falling softly out of the air upon their heads
and eyes.
Frodo felt his chin go down and his head nod. Just in front
of him Pippin fell forward on to his knees. Frodo halted. ‘It’s
no good,’ he heard Merry saying. ‘Can’t go another step with-
out rest. Must have nap. It’s cool under the willows. Less flies!’
Frodo did not like the sound of this. ‘Come on!’ he cried.
‘We can’t have a nap yet. We must get clear of the Forest
first.’ But the others were too far gone to care. Beside them
Sam stood yawning and blinking stupidly.
Suddenly Frodo himself felt sleep overwhelming him. His
the old forest 153
head swam. There now seemed hardly a sound in the air.
The flies had stopped buzzing. Only a gentle noise on the
edge of hearing, a soft fluttering as of a song half whispered,
seemed to stir in the boughs above. He lifted his heavy eyes
and saw leaning over him a huge willow-tree, old and hoary.
Enormous it looked, its sprawling branches going up like
reaching arms with many long-fingered hands, its knotted
and twisted trunk gaping in wide fissures that creaked faintly
as the boughs moved. The leaves fluttering against the bright
sky dazzled him, and he toppled over, lying where he fell
upon the grass.
Merry and Pippin dragged themselves forward and lay
down with their backs to the willow-trunk. Behind them the
great cracks gaped wide to receive them as the tree swayed
and creaked. They looked up at the grey and yellow leaves,
moving softly against the light, and singing. They shut their
eyes, and then it seemed that they could almost hear words,
cool words, saying something about water and sleep. They
gave themselves up to the spell and fell fast asleep at the foot
of the great grey willow.
Frodo lay for a while fighting with the sleep that was over-
powering him; then with an effort he struggled to his feet
again. He felt a compelling desire for cool water. ‘Wait for
me, Sam,’ he stammered. ‘Must bathe feet a minute.’
Half in a dream he wandered forward to the riverward side
of the tree, where great winding roots grew out into the
stream, like gnarled dragonets straining down to drink. He
straddled one of these, and paddled his hot feet in the cool
brown water; and there he too suddenly fell asleep with his
back against the tree.
Sam sat down and scratched his head, and yawned like a
cavern. He was worried. The afternoon was getting late, and
he thought this sudden sleepiness uncanny. ‘There’s more
behind this than sun and warm air,’ he muttered to himself.
‘I don’t like this great big tree. I don’t trust it. Hark at it
singing about sleep now! This won’t do at all!’
154 the fellowship of the ring
He pulled himself to his feet, and staggered off to see what
had become of the ponies. He found that two had wandered
on a good way along the path; and he had just caught them
and brought them back towards the others, when he heard
two noises; one loud, and the other soft but very clear. One
was the splash of something heavy falling into the water; the
other was a noise like the snick of a lock when a door quietly
closes fast.
He rushed back to the bank. Frodo was in the water close
to the edge, and a great tree-root seemed to be over him and
holding him down, but he was not struggling. Sam gripped
him by the jacket, and dragged him from under the root; and
then with difficulty hauled him on to the bank. Almost at
once he woke, and coughed and spluttered.
‘Do you know, Sam,’ he said at length, ‘the beastly tree
threw me in! I felt it. The big root just twisted round and
tipped me in!’
‘You were dreaming I expect, Mr. Frodo,’ said Sam. ‘You
shouldn’t sit in such a place, if you feel sleepy.’
‘What about the others?’ Frodo asked. ‘I wonder what sort
of dreams they are having.’
They went round to the other side of the tree, and then
Sam understood the click that he had heard. Pippin had
vanished. The crack by which he had laid himself had closed
together, so that not a chink could be seen. Merry was
trapped: another crack had closed about his waist; his legs
lay outside, but the rest of him was inside a dark opening,
the edges of which gripped like a pair of pincers.
Frodo and Sam beat first upon the tree-trunk where Pippin
had lain. They then struggled frantically to pull open the jaws
of the crack that held poor Merry. It was quite useless.
‘What a foul thing to happen!’ cried Frodo wildly. ‘Why did
we ever come into this dreadful Forest? I wish we were all back
at Crickhollow!’ He kicked the tree with all his strength, heed-
less of his own feet. A hardly perceptible shiver ran through
the stem and up into the branches; the leaves rustled and
whispered, but with a sound now of faint and far-off laughter.
the old forest 155
‘I suppose we haven’t got an axe among our luggage, Mr.
Frodo?’ asked Sam.
‘I brought a little hatchet for chopping firewood,’ said
Frodo. ‘That wouldn’t be much use.’
‘Wait a minute!’ cried Sam, struck by an idea suggested by
firewood. ‘We might do something with fire!’
‘We might,’ said Frodo doubtfully. ‘We might succeed in
roasting Pippin alive inside.’
‘We might try to hurt or frighten this tree to begin with,’
said Sam fiercely. ‘If it don’t let them go, I’ll have it down, if
I have to gnaw it.’ He ran to the ponies and before long came
back with two tinder-boxes and a hatchet.
Quickly they gathered dry grass and leaves, and bits of
bark; and made a pile of broken twigs and chopped sticks.
These they heaped against the trunk on the far side of the
tree from the prisoners. As soon as Sam had struck a spark
into the tinder, it kindled the dry grass and a flurry of flame
and smoke went up. The twigs crackled. Little fingers of fire
licked against the dry scored rind of the ancient tree and
scorched it. A tremor ran through the whole willow. The
leaves seemed to hiss above their heads with a sound of pain
and anger. A loud scream came from Merry, and from far
inside the tree they heard Pippin give a muffled yell.
‘Put it out! Put it out!’ cried Merry. ‘He’ll squeeze me in
two, if you don’t. He says so!’
‘Who? What?’ shouted Frodo, rushing round to the other
side of the tree.
‘Put it out! Put it out!’ begged Merry. The branches of the
willow began to sway violently. There was a sound as of a
wind rising and spreading outwards to the branches of all the
other trees round about, as though they had dropped a stone
into the quiet slumber of the river-valley and set up ripples
of anger that ran out over the whole Forest. Sam kicked at
the little fire and stamped out the sparks. But Frodo, without
any clear idea of why he did so, or what he hoped for, ran
along the path crying help! help! help! It seemed to him that
he could hardly hear the sound of his own shrill voice: it was
156 the fellowship of the ring
blown away from him by the willow-wind and drowned in a
clamour of leaves, as soon as the words left his mouth. He
felt desperate: lost and witless.
Suddenly he stopped. There was an answer, or so he
thought; but it seemed to come from behind him, away down
the path further back in the Forest. He turned round and
listened, and soon there could be no doubt: someone was
singing a song; a deep glad voice was singing carelessly and
happily, but it was singing nonsense:
Hey dol! merry dol! ring a dong dillo!
Ring a dong! hop along! fal lal the willow!
Tom Bom, jolly Tom, Tom Bombadillo!
Half hopeful and half afraid of some new danger, Frodo
and Sam now both stood still. Suddenly out of a long string
of nonsense-words (or so they seemed) the voice rose up
loud and clear and burst into this song:
Hey! Come merry dol! derry dol! My darling!
Light goes the weather-wind and the feathered starling.
Down along under Hill, shining in the sunlight,
Waiting on the doorstep for the cold starlight,
There my pretty lady is, River-woman’s daughter,
Slender as the willow-wand, clearer than the water.
Old Tom Bombadil water-lilies bringing
Comes hopping home again. Can you hear him singing?
Hey! Come merry dol! derry dol! and merry-o,
Goldberry, Goldberry, merry yellow berry-o!
Poor old Willow-man, you tuck your roots away!
Tom’s in a hurry now. Evening will follow day.
Tom’s going home again water-lilies bringing.
Hey! Come derry dol! Can you hear me singing?
Frodo and Sam stood as if enchanted. The wind puffed
out. The leaves hung silently again on stiff branches. There
was another burst of song, and then suddenly, hopping and
the old forest 157
dancing along the path, there appeared above the reeds an
old battered hat with a tall crown and a long blue feather
stuck in the band. With another hop and a bound there came
into view a man, or so it seemed. At any rate he was too large
and heavy for a hobbit, if not quite tall enough for one of the
Big People, though he made noise enough for one, stumping
along with great yellow boots on his thick legs, and charging
through grass and rushes like a cow going down to drink. He
had a blue coat and a long brown beard; his eyes were blue
and bright, and his face was red as a ripe apple, but creased
into a hundred wrinkles of laughter. In his hands he carried
on a large leaf as on a tray a small pile of white water-lilies.
‘Help!’ cried Frodo and Sam running towards him with
their hands stretched out.
‘Whoa! Whoa! steady there!’ cried the old man, holding up
one hand, and they stopped short, as if they had been struck
stiff. ‘Now, my little fellows, where be you a-going to, puffing
like a bellows? What’s the matter here then? Do you know
who I am? I’m Tom Bombadil. Tell me what’s your trouble!
Tom’s in a hurry now. Don’t you crush my lilies!’
‘My friends are caught in the willow-tree,’ cried Frodo
breathlessly.
‘Master Merry’s being squeezed in a crack!’ cried Sam.
‘What?’ shouted Tom Bombadil, leaping up in the air. ‘Old
Man Willow? Naught worse than that, eh? That can soon be
mended. I know the tune for him. Old grey Willow-man! I’ll
freeze his marrow cold, if he don’t behave himself. I’ll sing
his roots off. I’ll sing a wind up and blow leaf and branch
away. Old Man Willow!’
Setting down his lilies carefully on the grass, he ran to the
tree. There he saw Merry’s feet still sticking out – the rest
had already been drawn further inside. Tom put his mouth
to the crack and began singing into it in a low voice. They
could not catch the words, but evidently Merry was aroused.
His legs began to kick. Tom sprang away, and breaking off
a hanging branch smote the side of the willow with it. ‘You
let them out again, Old Man Willow!’ he said. ‘What be you
158 the fellowship of the ring
a-thinking of ? You should not be waking. Eat earth! Dig
deep! Drink water! Go to sleep! Bombadil is talking!’ He
then seized Merry’s feet and drew him out of the suddenly
widening crack.
There was a tearing creak and the other crack split open,
and out of it Pippin sprang, as if he had been kicked. Then
with a loud snap both cracks closed fast again. A shudder ran
through the tree from root to tip, and complete silence fell.
‘Thank you!’ said the hobbits, one after the other.
Tom Bombadil burst out laughing. ‘Well, my little fellows!’
said he, stooping so that he peered into their faces. ‘You shall
come home with me! The table is all laden with yellow cream,
honeycomb, and white bread and butter. Goldberry is wait-
ing. Time enough for questions around the supper table. You
follow after me as quick as you are able!’ With that he picked
up his lilies, and then with a beckoning wave of his hand
went hopping and dancing along the path eastward, still
singing loudly and nonsensically.
Too surprised and too relieved to talk, the hobbits followed
after him as fast as they could. But that was not fast enough.
Tom soon disappeared in front of them, and the noise of his
singing got fainter and further away. Suddenly his voice came
floating back to them in a loud halloo!
Hop along, my little friends, up the Withywindle!
Tom’s going on ahead candles for to kindle.
Down west sinks the Sun: soon you will be groping.
When the night-shadows fall, then the door will open,
Out of the window-panes light will twinkle yellow.
Fear no alder black! Heed no hoary willow!
Fear neither root nor bough! Tom goes on before you.
Hey now! merry dol! We’ll be waiting for you!
After that the hobbits heard no more. Almost at once the
sun seemed to sink into the trees behind them. They thought
of the slanting light of evening glittering on the Brandywine
River, and the windows of Bucklebury beginning to gleam
the old forest 159
with hundreds of lights. Great shadows fell across them;
trunks and branches of trees hung dark and threatening over
the path. White mists began to rise and curl on the surface
of the river and stray about the roots of the trees upon its
borders. Out of the very ground at their feet a shadowy steam
arose and mingled with the swiftly falling dusk.
It became difficult to follow the path, and they were very
tired. Their legs seemed leaden. Strange furtive noises ran
among the bushes and reeds on either side of them; and if
they looked up to the pale sky, they caught sight of queer
gnarled and knobbly faces that gloomed dark against the
twilight, and leered down at them from the high bank and
the edges of the wood. They began to feel that all this country
was unreal, and that they were stumbling through an ominous
dream that led to no awakening.
Just as they felt their feet slowing down to a standstill, they
noticed that the ground was gently rising. The water began
to murmur. In the darkness they caught the white glimmer
of foam, where the river flowed over a short fall. Then sud-
denly the trees came to an end and the mists were left behind.
They stepped out from the Forest, and found a wide sweep
of grass welling up before them. The river, now small and
swift, was leaping merrily down to meet them, glinting here
and there in the light of the stars, which were already shining
in the sky.
The grass under their feet was smooth and short, as if it
had been mown or shaven. The eaves of the Forest behind
were clipped, and trim as a hedge. The path was now plain
before them, well-tended and bordered with stone. It wound
up on to the top of a grassy knoll, now grey under the pale
starry night; and there, still high above them on a further
slope, they saw the twinkling lights of a house. Down again
the path went, and then up again, up a long smooth hillside
of turf, towards the light. Suddenly a wide yellow beam
flowed out brightly from a door that was opened. There was
Tom Bombadil’s house before them, up, down, under hill.
Behind it a steep shoulder of the land lay grey and bare, and
160 the fellowship of the ring
beyond that the dark shapes of the Barrow-downs stalked
away into the eastern night.
They all hurried forward, hobbits and ponies. Already half
their weariness and all their fears had fallen from them. Hey!
Come merry dol! rolled out the song to greet them.
Hey! Come derry dol! Hop along, my hearties!
Hobbits! Ponies all! We are fond of parties.
Now let the fun begin! Let us sing together!
Then another clear voice, as young and as ancient as
Spring, like the song of a glad water flowing down into the
night from a bright morning in the hills, came falling like
silver to meet them:
Now let the song begin! Let us sing together
Of sun, stars, moon and mist, rain and cloudy weather,
Light on the budding leaf, dew on the feather,
Wind on the open hill, bells on the heather,
Reeds by the shady pool, lilies on the water:
Old Tom Bombadil and the River-daughter!
And with that song the hobbits stood upon the threshold,
and a golden light was all about them.
Chapter 7
IN THE HOUSE OF TOM BOMBADIL
The four hobbits stepped over the wide stone threshold, and
stood still, blinking. They were in a long low room, filled with
the light of lamps swinging from the beams of the roof; and
on the table of dark polished wood stood many candles, tall
and yellow, burning brightly.
In a chair, at the far side of the room facing the outer
door, sat a woman. Her long yellow hair rippled down her
shoulders; her gown was green, green as young reeds, shot
with silver like beads of dew; and her belt was of gold, shaped
like a chain of flag-lilies set with the pale-blue eyes of forget-
me-nots. About her feet in wide vessels of green and brown
earthenware, white water-lilies were floating, so that she
seemed to be enthroned in the midst of a pool.
‘Enter, good guests!’ she said, and as she spoke they knew
that it was her clear voice they had heard singing. They came
a few timid steps further into the room, and began to bow
low, feeling strangely surprised and awkward, like folk that,
knocking at a cottage door to beg for a drink of water, have
been answered by a fair young elf-queen clad in living
flowers. But before they could say anything, she sprang lightly
up and over the lily-bowls, and ran laughing towards them;
and as she ran her gown rustled softly like the wind in the
flowering borders of a river.
‘Come dear folk!’ she said, taking Frodo by the hand. ‘Laugh
and be merry! I am Goldberry, daughter of the River.’ Then
lightly she passed them and closing the door she turned her
back to it, with her white arms spread out across it. ‘Let us shut
out the night!’ she said. ‘For you are still afraid, perhaps, of mist
and tree-shadows and deep water, and untame things. Fear
nothing! For tonight you are under the roof of Tom Bombadil.’
162 the fellowship of the ring
The hobbits looked at her in wonder; and she looked at
each of them and smiled. ‘Fair lady Goldberry!’ said Frodo
at last, feeling his heart moved with a joy that he did not
understand. He stood as he had at times stood enchanted by
fair elven-voices; but the spell that was now laid upon him
was different: less keen and lofty was the delight, but deeper
and nearer to mortal heart; marvellous and yet not strange.
‘Fair lady Goldberry!’ he said again. ‘Now the joy that was
hidden in the songs we heard is made plain to me.
O slender as a willow-wand! O clearer than clear water!
O reed by the living pool! Fair River-daughter!
O spring-time and summer-time, and spring again after!
O wind on the waterfall, and the leaves’ laughter!’
Suddenly he stopped and stammered, overcome with sur-
prise to hear himself saying such things. But Goldberry
laughed.
‘Welcome!’ she said. ‘I had not heard that folk of the Shire
were so sweet-tongued. But I see that you are an Elf-friend;
the light in your eyes and the ring in your voice tells it. This
is a merry meeting! Sit now, and wait for the Master of
the house! He will not be long. He is tending your tired
beasts.’
The hobbits sat down gladly in low rush-seated chairs,
while Goldberry busied herself about the table; and their eyes
followed her, for the slender grace of her movement filled
them with quiet delight. From somewhere behind the house
came the sound of singing. Every now and again they caught,
among many a derry dol and a merry dol and a ring a ding
dillo the repeated words:
Old Tom Bombadil is a merry fellow;
Bright blue his jacket is, and his boots are yellow.
‘Fair lady!’ said Frodo again after a while. ‘Tell me, if my
asking does not seem foolish, who is Tom Bombadil?’
in the house of tom bombadil 163
‘He is,’ said Goldberry, staying her swift movements and
smiling.
Frodo looked at her questioningly. ‘He is, as you have seen
him,’ she said in answer to his look. ‘He is the Master of
wood, water, and hill.’
‘Then all this strange land belongs to him?’
‘No indeed!’ she answered, and her smile faded. ‘That
would indeed be a burden,’ she added in a low voice, as if to
herself. ‘The trees and the grasses and all things growing or
living in the land belong each to themselves. Tom Bombadil
is the Master. No one has ever caught old Tom walking in
the forest, wading in the water, leaping on the hill-tops under
light and shadow. He has no fear. Tom Bombadil is master.’
A door opened and in came Tom Bombadil. He had now
no hat and his thick brown hair was crowned with autumn
leaves. He laughed, and going to Goldberry, took her hand.
‘Here’s my pretty lady!’ he said, bowing to the hobbits.
‘Here’s my Goldberry clothed all in silver-green with flowers
in her girdle! Is the table laden? I see yellow cream and
honeycomb, and white bread, and butter; milk, cheese, and
green herbs and ripe berries gathered. Is that enough for us?
Is the supper ready?’
‘It is,’ said Goldberry; ‘but the guests perhaps are not?’
Tom clapped his hands and cried: ‘Tom, Tom! your guests
are tired, and you had near forgotten! Come now, my merry
friends, and Tom will refresh you! You shall clean grimy
hands, and wash your weary faces; cast off your muddy
cloaks and comb out your tangles!’
He opened the door, and they followed him down a short
passage and round a sharp turn. They came to a low room
with a sloping roof (a penthouse, it seemed, built on to the
north end of the house). Its walls were of clean stone, but
they were mostly covered with green hanging mats and yellow
curtains. The floor was flagged, and strewn with fresh green
rushes. There were four deep mattresses, each piled with
white blankets, laid on the floor along one side. Against the
opposite wall was a long bench laden with wide earthenware
164 the fellowship of the ring
basins, and beside it stood brown ewers filled with water,
some cold, some steaming hot. There were soft green slippers
set ready beside each bed.
Before long, washed and refreshed, the hobbits were seated
at the table, two on each side, while at either end sat Gold-
berry and the Master. It was a long and merry meal. Though
the hobbits ate, as only famished hobbits can eat, there was
no lack. The drink in their drinking-bowls seemed to be clear
cold water, yet it went to their hearts like wine and set free
their voices. The guests became suddenly aware that they
were singing merrily, as if it was easier and more natural than
talking.
At last Tom and Goldberry rose and cleared the table
swiftly. The guests were commanded to sit quiet, and were
set in chairs, each with a footstool to his tired feet. There was
a fire in the wide hearth before them, and it was burning
with a sweet smell, as if it were built of apple-wood. When
everything was set in order, all the lights in the room were
put out, except one lamp and a pair of candles at each end
of the chimney-shelf. Then Goldberry came and stood before
them, holding a candle; and she wished them each a good
night and deep sleep.
‘Have peace now,’ she said, ‘until the morning! Heed no
nightly noises! For nothing passes door and window here
save moonlight and starlight and the wind off the hill-top.
Good night!’ She passed out of the room with a glimmer and
a rustle. The sound of her footsteps was like a stream falling
gently away downhill over cool stones in the quiet of night.
Tom sat on a while beside them in silence, while each of
them tried to muster the courage to ask one of the many
questions he had meant to ask at supper. Sleep gathered on
their eyelids. At last Frodo spoke:
‘Did you hear me calling, Master, or was it just chance that
brought you at that moment?’
Tom stirred like a man shaken out of a pleasant dream.
‘Eh, what?’ said he. ‘Did I hear you calling? Nay, I did not
in the house of tom bombadil 165
hear: I was busy singing. Just chance brought me then, if
chance you call it. It was no plan of mine, though I was
waiting for you. We heard news of you, and learned that you
were wandering. We guessed you’d come ere long down to
the water: all paths lead that way, down to Withywindle. Old
grey Willow-man, he’s a mighty singer; and it’s hard for little
folk to escape his cunning mazes. But Tom had an errand
there, that he dared not hinder.’ Tom nodded as if sleep was
taking him again; but he went on in a soft singing voice:
I had an errand there: gathering water-lilies,
green leaves and lilies white to please my pretty lady,
the last ere the year’s end to keep them from the winter,
to flower by her pretty feet till the snows are melted.
Each year at summer’s end I go to find them for her,
in a wide pool, deep and clear, far down Withywindle;
there they open first in spring and there they linger latest.
By that pool long ago I found the River-daughter,
fair young Goldberry sitting in the rushes.
Sweet was her singing then, and her heart was beating!
He opened his eyes and looked at them with a sudden glint
of blue:
And that proved well for you – for now I shall no longer
go down deep again along the forest-water,
not while the year is old. Nor shall I be passing
Old Man Willow’s house this side of spring-time,
not till the merry spring, when the River-daughter
dances down the withy-path to bathe in the water.
He fell silent again; but Frodo could not help asking one
more question: the one he most desired to have answered.
‘Tell us, Master,’ he said, ‘about the Willow-man. What is
he? I have never heard of him before.’
‘No, don’t!’ said Merry and Pippin together, sitting sud-
denly upright. ‘Not now! Not until the morning!’
166 the fellowship of the ring
‘That is right!’ said the old man. ‘Now is the time for
resting. Some things are ill to hear when the world’s in
shadow. Sleep till the morning-light, rest on the pillow! Heed
no nightly noise! Fear no grey willow!’ And with that he took
down the lamp and blew it out, and grasping a candle in
either hand he led them out of the room.
Their mattresses and pillows were soft as down, and the
blankets were of white wool. They had hardly laid themselves
on the deep beds and drawn the light covers over them before
they were asleep.
In the dead night, Frodo lay in a dream without light. Then
he saw the young moon rising; under its thin light there
loomed before him a black wall of rock, pierced by a dark
arch like a great gate. It seemed to Frodo that he was lifted
up, and passing over he saw that the rock-wall was a circle
of hills, and that within it was a plain, and in the midst of the
plain stood a pinnacle of stone, like a vast tower but not made
by hands. On its top stood the figure of a man. The moon as
it rose seemed to hang for a moment above his head and
glistened in his white hair as the wind stirred it. Up from the
dark plain below came the crying of fell voices, and the howl-
ing of many wolves. Suddenly a shadow, like the shape of
great wings, passed across the moon. The figure lifted his
arms and a light flashed from the staff that he wielded. A
mighty eagle swept down and bore him away. The voices
wailed and the wolves yammered. There was a noise like a
strong wind blowing, and on it was borne the sound of hoofs,
galloping, galloping, galloping from the East. ‘Black Riders!’
thought Frodo as he wakened, with the sound of the hoofs
still echoing in his mind. He wondered if he would ever again
have the courage to leave the safety of these stone walls. He
lay motionless, still listening; but all was now silent, and at
last he turned and fell asleep again or wandered into some
other unremembered dream.
At his side Pippin lay dreaming pleasantly; but a change
came over his dreams and he turned and groaned. Suddenly
in the house of tom bombadil 167
he woke, or thought he had waked, and yet still heard in the
darkness the sound that had disturbed his dream: tip-tap,
squeak: the noise was like branches fretting in the wind,
twig-fingers scraping wall and window: creak, creak, creak.
He wondered if there were willow-trees close to the house;
and then suddenly he had a dreadful feeling that he was not
in an ordinary house at all, but inside the willow and listening
to that horrible dry creaking voice laughing at him again. He
sat up, and felt the soft pillows yield to his hands, and he lay
down again relieved. He seemed to hear the echo of words
in his ears: ‘Fear nothing! Have peace until the morning!
Heed no nightly noises!’ Then he went to sleep again.
It was the sound of water that Merry heard falling into his
quiet sleep: water streaming down gently, and then spreading,
spreading irresistibly all round the house into a dark shoreless
pool. It gurgled under the walls, and was rising slowly but
surely. ‘I shall be drowned!’ he thought. ‘It will find its way
in, and then I shall drown.’ He felt that he was lying in a soft
slimy bog, and springing up he set his foot on the corner of
a cold hard flagstone. Then he remembered where he was
and lay down again. He seemed to hear or remember hearing:
‘Nothing passes doors or windows save moonlight and star-
light and the wind off the hill-top.’ A little breath of sweet air
moved the curtain. He breathed deep and fell asleep again.
As far as he could remember, Sam slept through the night
in deep content, if logs are contented.
They woke up, all four at once, in the morning light. Tom
was moving about the room whistling like a starling. When
he heard them stir he clapped his hands, and cried: ‘Hey!
Come merry dol! derry dol! My hearties!’ He drew back the
yellow curtains, and the hobbits saw that these had covered
the windows, at either end of the room, one looking east and
the other looking west.
They leapt up refreshed. Frodo ran to the eastern window,
and found himself looking into a kitchen-garden grey with
dew. He had half expected to see turf right up to the walls,
168 the fellowship of the ring
turf all pocked with hoof-prints. Actually his view was
screened by a tall line of beans on poles; but above and far
beyond them the grey top of the hill loomed up against the
sunrise. It was a pale morning: in the East, behind long clouds
like lines of soiled wool stained red at the edges, lay glimmer-
ing deeps of yellow. The sky spoke of rain to come; but the
light was broadening quickly, and the red flowers on the
beans began to glow against the wet green leaves.
Pippin looked out of the western window, down into a pool
of mist. The Forest was hidden under a fog. It was like
looking down on to a sloping cloud-roof from above. There
was a fold or channel where the mist was broken into many
plumes and billows: the valley of the Withywindle. The
stream ran down the hill on the left and vanished into the
white shadows. Near at hand was a flower-garden and a
clipped hedge silver-netted, and beyond that grey shaven
grass pale with dew-drops. There was no willow-tree to be
seen.
‘Good morning, merry friends!’ cried Tom, opening the
eastern window wide. A cool air flowed in; it had a rainy
smell. ‘Sun won’t show her face much today, I’m thinking. I
have been walking wide, leaping on the hill-tops, since the
grey dawn began, nosing wind and weather, wet grass under-
foot, wet sky above me. I wakened Goldberry singing
under window; but naught wakes hobbit-folk in the early
morning. In the night little folk wake up in the darkness, and
sleep after light has come! Ring a ding dillo! Wake now, my
merry friends! Forget the nightly noises! Ring a ding dillo
del! derry del, my hearties! If you come soon you’ll find
breakfast on the table. If you come late you’ll get grass and
rain-water!’
Needless to say – not that Tom’s threat sounded very
serious – the hobbits came soon, and left the table late and
only when it was beginning to look rather empty. Neither
Tom nor Goldberry were there. Tom could be heard about
the house, clattering in the kitchen, and up and down the
stairs, and singing here and there outside. The room looked
in the house of tom bombadil 169
westward over the mist-clouded valley, and the window was
open. Water dripped down from the thatched eaves above.
Before they had finished breakfast the clouds had joined into
an unbroken roof, and a straight grey rain came softly and
steadily down. Behind its deep curtain the Forest was com-
pletely veiled.
As they looked out of the window there came falling gently
as if it was flowing down the rain out of the sky, the clear
voice of Goldberry singing up above them. They could hear
few words, but it seemed plain to them that the song was a
rain-song, as sweet as showers on dry hills, that told the tale
of a river from the spring in the highlands to the Sea far
below. The hobbits listened with delight; and Frodo was glad
in his heart, and blessed the kindly weather, because it
delayed them from departing. The thought of going had been
heavy upon him from the moment he awoke; but he guessed
now that they would not go further that day.
The upper wind settled in the West and deeper and wetter
clouds rolled up to spill their laden rain on the bare heads of
the Downs. Nothing could be seen all round the house but
falling water. Frodo stood near the open door and watched
the white chalky path turn into a little river of milk and go
bubbling away down into the valley. Tom Bombadil came
trotting round the corner of the house, waving his arms as if
he was warding off the rain – and indeed when he sprang
over the threshold he seemed quite dry, except for his boots.
These he took off and put in the chimney-corner. Then he
sat in the largest chair and called the hobbits to gather round
him.
‘This is Goldberry’s washing day,’ he said, ‘and her
autumn-cleaning. Too wet for hobbit-folk – let them rest
while they are able! It’s a good day for long tales, for questions
and for answers, so Tom will start the talking.’
He then told them many remarkable stories, sometimes
half as if speaking to himself, sometimes looking at them
suddenly with a bright blue eye under his deep brows. Often
170 the fellowship of the ring
his voice would turn to song, and he would get out of his
chair and dance about. He told them tales of bees and flowers,
the ways of trees, and the strange creatures of the Forest,
about the evil things and good things, things friendly and
things unfriendly, cruel things and kind things, and secrets
hidden under brambles.
As they listened, they began to understand the lives of the
Forest, apart from themselves, indeed to feel themselves as
the strangers where all other things were at home. Moving
constantly in and out of his talk was Old Man Willow, and
Frodo learned now enough to content him, indeed more than
enough, for it was not comfortable lore. Tom’s words laid
bare the hearts of trees and their thoughts, which were often
dark and strange, and filled with a hatred of things that go free
upon the earth, gnawing, biting, breaking, hacking, burning:
destroyers and usurpers. It was not called the Old Forest
without reason, for it was indeed ancient, a survivor of vast
forgotten woods; and in it there lived yet, ageing no quicker
than the hills, the fathers of the fathers of trees, remembering
times when they were lords. The countless years had filled
them with pride and rooted wisdom, and with malice. But
none were more dangerous than the Great Willow: his heart
was rotten, but his strength was green; and he was cunning,
and a master of winds, and his song and thought ran through
the woods on both sides of the river. His grey thirsty spirit
drew power out of the earth and spread like fine root-threads
in the ground, and invisible twig-fingers in the air, till it had
under its dominion nearly all the trees of the Forest from the
Hedge to the Downs.
Suddenly Tom’s talk left the woods and went leaping up
the young stream, over bubbling waterfalls, over pebbles and
worn rocks, and among small flowers in close grass and wet
crannies, wandering at last up on to the Downs. They heard
of the Great Barrows, and the green mounds, and the stone-
rings upon the hills and in the hollows among the hills. Sheep
were bleating in flocks. Green walls and white walls rose.
There were fortresses on the heights. Kings of little kingdoms
in the house of tom bombadil 171
fought together, and the young Sun shone like fire on the red
metal of their new and greedy swords. There was victory and
defeat; and towers fell, fortresses were burned, and flames
went up into the sky. Gold was piled on the biers of dead
kings and queens; and mounds covered them, and the stone
doors were shut; and the grass grew over all. Sheep walked
for a while biting the grass, but soon the hills were empty
again. A shadow came out of dark places far away, and the
bones were stirred in the mounds. Barrow-wights walked in
the hollow places with a clink of rings on cold fingers, and
gold chains in the wind. Stone rings grinned out of the ground
like broken teeth in the moonlight.
The hobbits shuddered. Even in the Shire the rumour of
the Barrow-wights of the Barrow-downs beyond the Forest
had been heard. But it was not a tale that any hobbit liked to
listen to, even by a comfortable fireside far away. These four
now suddenly remembered what the joy of this house had
driven from their minds: the house of Tom Bombadil nestled
under the very shoulder of those dreaded hills. They lost the
thread of his tale and shifted uneasily, looking aside at one
another.
When they caught his words again they found that he had
now wandered into strange regions beyond their memory and
beyond their waking thought, into times when the world was
wider, and the seas flowed straight to the western Shore; and
still on and back Tom went singing out into ancient starlight,
when only the Elf-sires were awake. Then suddenly he
stopped, and they saw that he nodded as if he was falling
asleep. The hobbits sat still before him, enchanted; and it
seemed as if, under the spell of his words, the wind had
gone, and the clouds had dried up, and the day had been
withdrawn, and darkness had come from East and West, and
all the sky was filled with the light of white stars.
Whether the morning and evening of one day or of many
days had passed Frodo could not tell. He did not feel either
hungry or tired, only filled with wonder. The stars shone
through the window and the silence of the heavens seemed
172 the fellowship of the ring
to be round him. He spoke at last out of his wonder and a
sudden fear of that silence:
‘Who are you, Master?’ he asked.
‘Eh, what?’ said Tom sitting up, and his eyes glinting in
the gloom. ‘Don’t you know my name yet? That’s the only
answer. Tell me, who are you, alone, yourself and nameless?
But you are young and I am old. Eldest, that’s what I am.
Mark my words, my friends: Tom was here before the river
and the trees; Tom remembers the first raindrop and the first
acorn. He made paths before the Big People, and saw the
little People arriving. He was here before the Kings and the
graves and the Barrow-wights. When the Elves passed west-
ward, Tom was here already, before the seas were bent. He
knew the dark under the stars when it was fearless – before
the Dark Lord came from Outside.’
A shadow seemed to pass by the window, and the hobbits
glanced hastily through the panes. When they turned again,
Goldberry stood in the door behind, framed in light. She held
a candle, shielding its flame from the draught with her hand;
and the light flowed through it, like sunlight through a white
shell.
‘The rain has ended,’ she said; ‘and new waters are running
downhill, under the stars. Let us now laugh and be glad!’
‘And let us have food and drink!’ cried Tom. ‘Long tales
are thirsty. And long listening’s hungry work, morning, noon,
and evening!’ With that he jumped out of his chair, and with
a bound took a candle from the chimney-shelf and lit it in
the flame that Goldberry held; then he danced about the
table. Suddenly he hopped through the door and dis-
appeared.
Quickly he returned, bearing a large and laden tray. Then
Tom and Goldberry set the table; and the hobbits sat half in
wonder and half in laughter: so fair was the grace of Gold-
berry and so merry and odd the caperings of Tom. Yet in
some fashion they seemed to weave a single dance, neither
hindering the other, in and out of the room, and round about
the table; and with great speed food and vessels and lights
in the house of tom bombadil 173
were set in order. The boards blazed with candles, white and
yellow. Tom bowed to his guests. ‘Supper is ready,’ said
Goldberry; and now the hobbits saw that she was clothed all
in silver with a white girdle, and her shoes were like fishes’
mail. But Tom was all in clean blue, blue as rain-washed
forget-me-nots, and he had green stockings.
It was a supper even better than before. The hobbits under
the spell of Tom’s words may have missed one meal or many,
but when the food was before them it seemed at least a week
since they had eaten. They did not sing or even speak much
for a while, and paid close attention to business. But after a
time their hearts and spirits rose high again, and their voices
rang out in mirth and laughter.
After they had eaten, Goldberry sang many songs for them,
songs that began merrily in the hills and fell softly down into
silence; and in the silences they saw in their minds pools and
waters wider than any they had known, and looking into them
they saw the sky below them and the stars like jewels in the
depths. Then once more she wished them each good night
and left them by the fireside. But Tom now seemed wide
awake and plied them with questions.
He appeared already to know much about them and all
their families, and indeed to know much of all the history
and doings of the Shire down from days hardly remembered
among the hobbits themselves. It no longer surprised them;
but he made no secret that he owed his recent knowledge
largely to Farmer Maggot, whom he seemed to regard as a
person of more importance than they had imagined. ‘There’s
earth under his old feet, and clay on his fingers; wisdom in
his bones, and both his eyes are open,’ said Tom. It was also
clear that Tom had dealings with the Elves, and it seemed
that in some fashion, news had reached him from Gildor
concerning the flight of Frodo.
Indeed so much did Tom know, and so cunning was his
questioning, that Frodo found himself telling him more about
Bilbo and his own hopes and fears than he had told before
174 the fellowship of the ring
even to Gandalf. Tom wagged his head up and down, and
there was a glint in his eyes when he heard of the Riders.
‘Show me the precious Ring!’ he said suddenly in the midst
of the story: and Frodo, to his own astonishment, drew out
the chain from his pocket, and unfastening the Ring handed
it at once to Tom.
It seemed to grow larger as it lay for a moment on his big
brown-skinned hand. Then suddenly he put it to his eye and
laughed. For a second the hobbits had a vision, both comical
and alarming, of his bright blue eye gleaming through a circle
of gold. Then Tom put the Ring round the end of his little
finger and held it up to the candlelight. For a moment
the hobbits noticed nothing strange about this. Then they
gasped. There was no sign of Tom disappearing!
Tom laughed again, and then he spun the Ring in the air
– and it vanished with a flash. Frodo gave a cry – and Tom
leaned forward and handed it back to him with a smile.
Frodo looked at it closely, and rather suspiciously (like one
who has lent a trinket to a juggler). It was the same Ring, or
looked the same and weighed the same: for that Ring had
always seemed to Frodo to weigh strangely heavy in the hand.
But something prompted him to make sure. He was perhaps
a trifle annoyed with Tom for seeming to make so light of
what even Gandalf thought so perilously important. He
waited for an opportunity, when the talk was going again,
and Tom was telling an absurd story about badgers and their
queer ways – then he slipped the Ring on.
Merry turned towards him to say something and gave a
start, and checked an exclamation. Frodo was delighted (in
a way): it was his own ring all right, for Merry was staring
blankly at his chair, and obviously could not see him. He got
up and crept quietly away from the fireside towards the outer
door.
‘Hey there!’ cried Tom, glancing towards him with a most
seeing look in his shining eyes. ‘Hey! Come Frodo, there!
Where be you a-going? Old Tom Bombadil’s not as blind as
that yet. Take off your golden ring! Your hand’s more fair
in the house of tom bombadil 175
without it. Come back! Leave your game and sit down beside
me! We must talk a while more, and think about the morning.
Tom must teach the right road, and keep your feet from
wandering.’
Frodo laughed (trying to feel pleased), and taking off the
Ring he came and sat down again. Tom now told them that
he reckoned the Sun would shine tomorrow, and it would be
a glad morning, and setting out would be hopeful. But they
would do well to start early; for weather in that country was
a thing that even Tom could not be sure of for long, and it
would change sometimes quicker than he could change his
jacket. ‘I am no weather-master,’ said he; ‘nor is aught that
goes on two legs.’
By his advice they decided to make nearly due North from
his house, over the western and lower slopes of the Downs:
they might hope in that way to strike the East Road in a day’s
journey, and avoid the Barrows. He told them not to be afraid
– but to mind their own business.
‘Keep to the green grass. Don’t you go a-meddling with
old stone or cold Wights or prying in their houses, unless you
be strong folk with hearts that never falter!’ He said this more
than once; and he advised them to pass barrows by on the
west-side, if they chanced to stray near one. Then he taught
them a rhyme to sing, if they should by ill-luck fall into any
danger or difficulty the next day.
Ho! Tom Bombadil, Tom Bombadillo!
By water, wood and hill, by the reed and willow,
By fire, sun and moon, harken now and hear us!
Come, Tom Bombadil, for our need is near us!
When they had sung this altogether after him, he clapped
them each on the shoulder with a laugh, and taking candles
led them back to their bedroom.
Chapter 8
FOG ON THE BARROW-DOWNS
That night they heard no noises. But either in his dreams or
out of them, he could not tell which, Frodo heard a sweet
singing running in his mind: a song that seemed to come like
a pale light behind a grey rain-curtain, and growing stronger
to turn the veil all to glass and silver, until at last it was rolled
back, and a far green country opened before him under a
swift sunrise.
The vision melted into waking; and there was Tom whist-
ling like a tree-full of birds; and the sun was already slanting
down the hill and through the open window. Outside every-
thing was green and pale gold.
After breakfast, which they again ate alone, they made
ready to say farewell, as nearly heavy of heart as was possible
on such a morning: cool, bright, and clean under a washed
autumn sky of thin blue. The air came fresh from the North-
west. Their quiet ponies were almost frisky, sniffing and
moving restlessly. Tom came out of the house and waved his
hat and danced upon the doorstep, bidding the hobbits to
get up and be off and go with good speed.
They rode off along a path that wound away from behind
the house, and went slanting up towards the north end of the
hill-brow under which it sheltered. They had just dismounted
to lead their ponies up the last steep slope, when suddenly
Frodo stopped.
‘Goldberry!’ he cried. ‘My fair lady, clad all in silver green!
We have never said farewell to her, nor seen her since the
evening!’ He was so distressed that he turned back; but at
that moment a clear call came rippling down. There on the
hill-brow she stood beckoning to them: her hair was flying
loose, and as it caught the sun it shone and shimmered. A
fog on the barrow-downs 177
light like the glint of water on dewy grass flashed from under
her feet as she danced.
They hastened up the last slope, and stood breathless
beside her. They bowed, but with a wave of her arm she bade
them look round; and they looked out from the hill-top over
lands under the morning. It was now as clear and far-seen as
it had been veiled and misty when they stood upon the knoll
in the Forest, which could now be seen rising pale and green
out of the dark trees in the West. In that direction the land
rose in wooded ridges, green, yellow, russet under the sun,
beyond which lay hidden the valley of the Brandywine. To
the South, over the line of the Withywindle, there was a
distant glint like pale glass where the Brandywine River made
a great loop in the lowlands and flowed away out of the
knowledge of the hobbits. Northward beyond the dwindling
downs the land ran away in flats and swellings of grey and
green and pale earth-colours, until it faded into a featureless
and shadowy distance. Eastward the Barrow-downs rose,
ridge behind ridge into the morning, and vanished out of
eyesight into a guess: it was no more than a guess of blue and
a remote white glimmer blending with the hem of the sky,
but it spoke to them, out of memory and old tales, of the
high and distant mountains.
They took a deep draught of the air, and felt that a skip and
a few stout strides would bear them wherever they wished. It
seemed fainthearted to go jogging aside over the crumpled
skirts of the downs towards the Road, when they should be
leaping, as lusty as Tom, over the stepping stones of the hills
straight towards the Mountains.
Goldberry spoke to them and recalled their eyes and
thoughts. ‘Speed now, fair guests!’ she said. ‘And hold to
your purpose! North with the wind in the left eye and a
blessing on your footsteps! Make haste while the Sun shines!’
And to Frodo she said: ‘Farewell, Elf-friend, it was a merry
meeting!’
But Frodo found no words to answer. He bowed low, and
mounted his pony, and followed by his friends jogged slowly
178 the fellowship of the ring
down the gentle slope behind the hill. Tom Bombadil’s house
and the valley, and the Forest were lost to view. The air grew
warmer between the green walls of hillside and hillside, and
the scent of turf rose strong and sweet as they breathed.
Turning back, when they reached the bottom of the green
hollow, they saw Goldberry, now small and slender like a
sunlit flower against the sky: she was standing still watching
them, and her hands were stretched out towards them. As
they looked she gave a clear call, and lifting up her hand she
turned and vanished behind the hill.
Their way wound along the floor of the hollow, and round
the green feet of a steep hill into another deeper and broader
valley, and then over the shoulders of further hills, and down
their long limbs, and up their smooth sides again, up on to
new hill-tops and down into new valleys. There was no tree
nor any visible water: it was a country of grass and short
springy turf, silent except for the whisper of the air over the
edges of the land, and high lonely cries of strange birds. As
they journeyed the sun mounted, and grew hot. Each time
they climbed a ridge the breeze seemed to have grown less.
When they caught a glimpse of the country westward the
distant Forest seemed to be smoking, as if the fallen rain was
steaming up again from leaf and root and mould. A shadow
now lay round the edge of sight, a dark haze above which the
upper sky was like a blue cap, hot and heavy.
About mid-day they came to a hill whose top was wide
and flattened, like a shallow saucer with a green mounded
rim. Inside there was no air stirring, and the sky seemed near
their heads. They rode across and looked northwards. Then
their hearts rose; for it seemed plain that they had come
further already than they had expected. Certainly the dis-
tances had now all become hazy and deceptive, but there
could be no doubt that the Downs were coming to an end.
A long valley lay below them winding away northwards, until
it came to an opening between two steep shoulders. Beyond,
there seemed to be no more hills. Due north they faintly
fog on the barrow-downs 179
glimpsed a long dark line. ‘That is a line of trees,’ said Merry,
‘and that must mark the Road. All along it for many leagues
east of the Bridge there are trees growing. Some say they
were planted in the old days.’
‘Splendid!’ said Frodo. ‘If we make as good going this
afternoon as we have done this morning, we shall have left
the Downs before the Sun sets and be jogging on in search
of a camping place.’ But even as he spoke he turned his
glance eastwards, and he saw that on that side the hills were
higher and looked down upon them; and all those hills were
crowned with green mounds, and on some were standing
stones, pointing upwards like jagged teeth out of green gums.
That view was somehow disquieting; so they turned from
the sight and went down into the hollow circle. In the midst
of it there stood a single stone, standing tall under the sun
above, and at this hour casting no shadow. It was shapeless
and yet significant: like a landmark, or a guarding finger, or
more like a warning. But they were now hungry, and the sun
was still at the fearless noon; so they set their backs against
the east side of the stone. It was cool, as if the sun had had
no power to warm it; but at that time this seemed pleasant.
There they took food and drink, and made as good a noon-
meal under the open sky as anyone could wish; for the food
came from ‘down under Hill’. Tom had provided them with
plenty for the comfort of the day. Their ponies unburdened
strayed upon the grass.
Riding over the hills, and eating their fill, the warm sun
and the scent of turf, lying a little too long, stretching out
their legs and looking at the sky above their noses: these
things are, perhaps, enough to explain what happened. How-
ever that may be: they woke suddenly and uncomfortably
from a sleep they had never meant to take. The standing
stone was cold, and it cast a long pale shadow that stretched
eastward over them. The sun, a pale and watery yellow, was
gleaming through the mist just above the west wall of the
hollow in which they lay; north, south, and east, beyond the
180 the fellowship of the ring
wall the fog was thick, cold and white. The air was silent,
heavy and chill. Their ponies were standing crowded together
with their heads down.
The hobbits sprang to their feet in alarm, and ran to the
western rim. They found that they were upon an island in
the fog. Even as they looked out in dismay towards the setting
sun, it sank before their eyes into a white sea, and a cold grey
shadow sprang up in the East behind. The fog rolled up to
the walls and rose above them, and as it mounted it bent over
their heads until it became a roof: they were shut in a hall of
mist whose central pillar was the standing stone.
They felt as if a trap was closing about them; but they did
not quite lose heart. They still remembered the hopeful view
they had had of the line of the Road ahead, and they still
knew in which direction it lay. In any case, they now had so
great a dislike for that hollow place about the stone that no
thought of remaining there was in their minds. They packed
up as quickly as their chilled fingers would work.
Soon they were leading their ponies in single file over the
rim and down the long northward slope of the hill, down into
a foggy sea. As they went down the mist became colder
and damper, and their hair hung lank and dripping on their
foreheads. When they reached the bottom it was so chill that
they halted and got out cloaks and hoods, which soon became
bedewed with grey drops. Then, mounting their ponies, they
went slowly on again, feeling their way by the rise and fall of
the ground. They were steering, as well as they could guess,
for the gate-like opening at the far northward end of the long
valley which they had seen in the morning. Once they were
through the gap, they had only to keep on in anything like a
straight line and they were bound in the end to strike the
Road. Their thoughts did not go beyond that, except for a
vague hope that perhaps away beyond the Downs there might
be no fog.
Their going was very slow. To prevent their getting separ-
ated and wandering in different directions they went in file,
fog on the barrow-downs 181
with Frodo leading. Sam was behind him, and after him came
Pippin, and then Merry. The valley seemed to stretch on
endlessly. Suddenly Frodo saw a hopeful sign. On either side
ahead a darkness began to loom through the mist; and he
guessed that they were at last approaching the gap in the
hills, the north-gate of the Barrow-downs. If they could pass
that, they would be free.
‘Come on! Follow me!’ he called back over his shoulder,
and he hurried forward. But his hope soon changed to bewil-
derment and alarm. The dark patches grew darker, but they
shrank; and suddenly he saw, towering ominous before him
and leaning slightly towards one another like the pillars of
a headless door, two huge standing stones. He could not
remember having seen any sign of these in the valley, when
he looked out from the hill in the morning. He had passed
between them almost before he was aware: and even as he
did so darkness seemed to fall round him. His pony reared
and snorted, and he fell off. When he looked back he found
that he was alone: the others had not followed him.
‘Sam!’ he called. ‘Pippin! Merry! Come along! Why don’t
you keep up?’
There was no answer. Fear took him, and he ran back past
the stones shouting wildly: ‘Sam! Sam! Merry! Pippin!’ The
pony bolted into the mist and vanished. From some way off,
or so it seemed, he thought he heard a cry: ‘Hoy! Frodo!
Hoy!’ It was away eastward, on his left as he stood under the
great stones, staring and straining into the gloom. He plunged
off in the direction of the call, and found himself going steeply
uphill.
As he struggled on he called again, and kept on calling
more and more frantically; but he heard no answer for some
time, and then it seemed faint and far ahead and high above
him. ‘Frodo! Hoy!’ came the thin voices out of the mist: and
then a cry that sounded like help, help! often repeated, ending
with a last help! that trailed off into a long wail suddenly cut
short. He stumbled forward with all the speed he could
towards the cries; but the light was now gone, and clinging
182 the fellowship of the ring
night had closed about him, so that it was impossible to be
sure of any direction. He seemed all the time to be climbing
up and up.
Only the change in the level of the ground at his feet told
him when he at last came to the top of a ridge or hill. He was
weary, sweating and yet chilled. It was wholly dark.
‘Where are you?’ he cried out miserably.
There was no reply. He stood listening. He was suddenly
aware that it was getting very cold, and that up here a wind
was beginning to blow, an icy wind. A change was coming
in the weather. The mist was flowing past him now in shreds
and tatters. His breath was smoking, and the darkness was
less near and thick. He looked up and saw with surprise
that faint stars were appearing overhead amid the strands of
hurrying cloud and fog. The wind began to hiss over the
grass.
He imagined suddenly that he caught a muffled cry, and
he made towards it; and even as he went forward the mist was
rolled up and thrust aside, and the starry sky was unveiled. A
glance showed him that he was now facing southwards and
was on a round hill-top, which he must have climbed from
the north. Out of the east the biting wind was blowing. To
his right there loomed against the westward stars a dark black
shape. A great barrow stood there.
‘Where are you?’ he cried again, both angry and afraid.
‘Here!’ said a voice, deep and cold, that seemed to come
out of the ground. ‘I am waiting for you!’
‘No!’ said Frodo; but he did not run away. His knees gave,
and he fell on the ground. Nothing happened, and there was
no sound. Trembling he looked up, in time to see a tall dark
figure like a shadow against the stars. It leaned over him. He
thought there were two eyes, very cold though lit with a pale
light that seemed to come from some remote distance. Then
a grip stronger and colder than iron seized him. The icy
touch froze his bones, and he remembered no more.
***
fog on the barrow-downs 183
When he came to himself again, for a moment he could
recall nothing except a sense of dread. Then suddenly he
knew that he was imprisoned, caught hopelessly; he was in a
barrow. A Barrow-wight had taken him, and he was probably
already under the dreadful spells of the Barrow-wights about
which whispered tales spoke. He dared not move, but lay as
he found himself: flat on his back upon a cold stone with his
hands on his breast.
But though his fear was so great that it seemed to be part
of the very darkness that was round him, he found himself
as he lay thinking about Bilbo Baggins and his stories, of their
jogging along together in the lanes of the Shire and talking
about roads and adventures. There is a seed of courage
hidden (often deeply, it is true) in the heart of the fattest
and most timid hobbit, waiting for some final and desperate
danger to make it grow. Frodo was neither very fat nor very
timid; indeed, though he did not know it, Bilbo (and
Gandalf ) had thought him the best hobbit in the Shire. He
thought he had come to the end of his adventure, and a
terrible end, but the thought hardened him. He found himself
stiffening, as if for a final spring; he no longer felt limp like a
helpless prey.
As he lay there, thinking and getting a hold of himself, he
noticed all at once that the darkness was slowly giving way:
a pale greenish light was growing round him. It did not at
first show him what kind of a place he was in, for the light
seemed to be coming out of himself, and from the floor beside
him, and had not yet reached the roof or wall. He turned, and
there in the cold glow he saw lying beside him Sam, Pippin,
and Merry. They were on their backs, and their faces looked
deathly pale; and they were clad in white. About them lay
many treasures, of gold maybe, though in that light they
looked cold and unlovely. On their heads were circlets, gold
chains were about their waists, and on their fingers were many
rings. Swords lay by their sides, and shields were at their feet.
But across their three necks lay one long naked sword.
***
184 the fellowship of the ring
Suddenly a song began: a cold murmur, rising and falling.
The voice seemed far away and immeasurably dreary, some-
times high in the air and thin, sometimes like a low moan
from the ground. Out of the formless stream of sad but
horrible sounds, strings of words would now and again shape
themselves: grim, hard, cold words, heartless and miserable.
The night was railing against the morning of which it was
bereaved, and the cold was cursing the warmth for which it
hungered. Frodo was chilled to the marrow. After a while the
song became clearer, and with dread in his heart he perceived
that it had changed into an incantation:
Cold be hand and heart and bone,
and cold be sleep under stone:
never more to wake on stony bed,
never, till the Sun fails and the Moon is dead.
In the black wind the stars shall die,
and still on gold here let them lie,
till the dark lord lifts his hand
over dead sea and withered land.
He heard behind his head a creaking and scraping sound.
Raising himself on one arm he looked, and saw now in the
pale light that they were in a kind of passage which behind
them turned a corner. Round the corner a long arm was
groping, walking on its fingers towards Sam, who was lying
nearest, and towards the hilt of the sword that lay upon him.
At first Frodo felt as if he had indeed been turned into
stone by the incantation. Then a wild thought of escape came
to him. He wondered if he put on the Ring, whether the
Barrow-wight would miss him, and he might find some way
out. He thought of himself running free over the grass, griev-
ing for Merry, and Sam, and Pippin, but free and alive him-
self. Gandalf would admit that there had been nothing else
he could do.
But the courage that had been awakened in him was now
too strong: he could not leave his friends so easily. He
fog on the barrow-downs 185
wavered, groping in his pocket, and then fought with himself
again; and as he did so the arm crept nearer. Suddenly resolve
hardened in him, and he seized a short sword that lay beside
him, and kneeling he stooped low over the bodies of his
companions. With what strength he had he hewed at the
crawling arm near the wrist, and the hand broke off; but at
the same moment the sword splintered up to the hilt. There
was a shriek and the light vanished. In the dark there was a
snarling noise.
Frodo fell forward over Merry, and Merry’s face felt cold.
All at once back into his mind, from which it had disappeared
with the first coming of the fog, came the memory of the
house down under the Hill, and of Tom singing. He re-
membered the rhyme that Tom had taught them. In a small
desperate voice he began: Ho! Tom Bombadil! and with that
name his voice seemed to grow strong: it had a full and
lively sound, and the dark chamber echoed as if to drum and
trumpet.
Ho! Tom Bombadil, Tom Bombadillo!
By water, wood and hill, by the reed and willow,
By fire, sun and moon, harken now and hear us!
Come, Tom Bombadil, for our need is near us!
There was a sudden deep silence, in which Frodo could
hear his heart beating. After a long slow moment he heard
plain, but far away, as if it was coming down through the
ground or through thick walls, an answering voice singing:
Old Tom Bombadil is a merry fellow,
Bright blue his jacket is, and his boots are yellow.
None has ever caught him yet, for Tom, he is the master:
His songs are stronger songs, and his feet are faster.
There was a loud rumbling sound, as of stones rolling and
falling, and suddenly light streamed in, real light, the plain
light of day. A low door-like opening appeared at the end of
186 the fellowship of the ring
the chamber beyond Frodo’s feet; and there was Tom’s head
(hat, feather, and all) framed against the light of the sun
rising red behind him. The light fell upon the floor, and upon
the faces of the three hobbits lying beside Frodo. They did
not stir, but the sickly hue had left them. They looked now
as if they were only very deeply asleep.
Tom stooped, removed his hat, and came into the dark
chamber, singing:
Get out, you old Wight! Vanish in the sunlight!
Shrivel like the cold mist, like the winds go wailing,
Out into the barren lands far beyond the mountains!
Come never here again! Leave your barrow empty!
Lost and forgotten be, darker than the darkness,
Where gates stand for ever shut, till the world is mended.
At these words there was a cry and part of the inner end
of the chamber fell in with a crash. Then there was a long
trailing shriek, fading away into an unguessable distance; and
after that silence.
‘Come, friend Frodo!’ said Tom. ‘Let us get out on to
clean grass! You must help me bear them.’
Together they carried out Merry, Pippin, and Sam. As
Frodo left the barrow for the last time he thought he saw a
severed hand wriggling still, like a wounded spider, in a heap
of fallen earth. Tom went back in again, and there was a
sound of much thumping and stamping. When he came out
he was bearing in his arms a great load of treasure: things of
gold, silver, copper, and bronze; many beads and chains and
jewelled ornaments. He climbed the green barrow and laid
them all on top in the sunshine.
There he stood, with his hat in his hand and the wind in
his hair, and looked down upon the three hobbits, that had
been laid on their backs upon the grass at the west side of
the mound. Raising his right hand he said in a clear and
commanding voice:
fog on the barrow-downs 187
Wake now my merry lads! Wake and hear me calling!
Warm now be heart and limb! The cold stone is fallen;
Dark door is standing wide; dead hand is broken.
Night under Night is flown, and the Gate is open!
To Frodo’s great joy the hobbits stirred, stretched their
arms, rubbed their eyes, and then suddenly sprang up. They
looked about in amazement, first at Frodo, and then at Tom
standing large as life on the barrow-top above them; and then
at themselves in their thin white rags, crowned and belted
with pale gold, and jingling with trinkets.
‘What in the name of wonder?’ began Merry, feeling the
golden circlet that had slipped over one eye. Then he
stopped, and a shadow came over his face, and he closed his
eyes. ‘Of course, I remember!’ he said. ‘The men of Carn
Du
ˆ
m came on us at night, and we were worsted. Ah! the
spear in my heart!’ He clutched at his breast. ‘No! No!’ he
said, opening his eyes. ‘What am I saying? I have been dream-
ing. Where did you get to, Frodo?’
‘I thought that I was lost,’ said Frodo; ‘but I don’t want
to speak of it. Let us think of what we are to do now! Let us
go on!’
‘Dressed up like this, sir?’ said Sam. ‘Where are my
clothes?’ He flung his circlet, belt, and rings on the grass, and
looked round helplessly, as if he expected to find his cloak,
jacket, and breeches, and other hobbit-garments lying some-
where to hand.
‘You won’t find your clothes again,’ said Tom, bounding
down from the mound, and laughing as he danced round
them in the sunlight. One would have thought that nothing
dangerous or dreadful had happened; and indeed the horror
faded out of their hearts as they looked at him, and saw the
merry glint in his eyes.
‘What do you mean?’ asked Pippin, looking at him, half
puzzled and half amused. ‘Why not?’
But Tom shook his head, saying: ‘You’ve found your-
selves again, out of the deep water. Clothes are but little loss,
188 the fellowship of the ring
if you escape from drowning. Be glad, my merry friends,
and let the warm sunlight heat now heart and limb! Cast off
these cold rags! Run naked on the grass, while Tom goes
a-hunting!’
He sprang away down hill, whistling and calling. Looking
down after him Frodo saw him running away southwards
along the green hollow between their hill and the next, still
whistling and crying:
Hey! now! Come hoy now! Whither do you wander?
Up, down, near or far, here, there or yonder?
Sharp-ears, Wise-nose, Swish-tail and Bumpkin,
White-socks my little lad, and old Fatty Lumpkin!
So he sang, running fast, tossing up his hat and catching
it, until he was hidden by a fold of the ground: but for some
time his hey now! hoy now! came floating back down the wind,
which had shifted round towards the south.
The air was growing very warm again. The hobbits ran
about for a while on the grass, as he told them. Then they
lay basking in the sun with the delight of those that have been
wafted suddenly from bitter winter to a friendly clime, or of
people that, after being long ill and bedridden, wake one day
to find that they are unexpectedly well and the day is again
full of promise.
By the time that Tom returned they were feeling strong
(and hungry). He reappeared, hat first, over the brow of the
hill, and behind him came in an obedient line six ponies:
their own five and one more. The last was plainly old Fatty
Lumpkin: he was larger, stronger, fatter (and older) than
their own ponies. Merry, to whom the others belonged, had
not, in fact, given them any such names, but they answered
to the new names that Tom had given them for the rest of
their lives. Tom called them one by one and they climbed
over the brow and stood in a line. Then Tom bowed to the
hobbits.
fog on the barrow-downs 189
‘Here are your ponies, now!’ he said. ‘They’ve more sense
(in some ways) than you wandering hobbits have – more
sense in their noses. For they sniff danger ahead which you
walk right into; and if they run to save themselves, then they
run the right way. You must forgive them all; for though their
hearts are faithful, to face fear of Barrow-wights is not what
they were made for. See, here they come again, bringing all
their burdens!’
Merry, Sam, and Pippin now clothed themselves in spare
garments from their packs; and they soon felt too hot, for
they were obliged to put on some of the thicker and warmer
things that they had brought against the oncoming of winter.
‘Where does that other old animal, that Fatty Lumpkin,
come from?’ asked Frodo.
‘He’s mine,’ said Tom. ‘My four-legged friend; though I
seldom ride him, and he wanders often far, free upon the
hillsides. When your ponies stayed with me, they got to know
my Lumpkin; and they smelt him in the night, and quickly
ran to meet him. I thought he’d look for them and with his
words of wisdom take all their fear away. But now, my jolly
Lumpkin, old Tom’s going to ride. Hey! he’s coming with
you, just to set you on the road; so he needs a pony. For you
cannot easily talk to hobbits that are riding, when you’re on
your own legs trying to trot beside them.’
The hobbits were delighted to hear this, and thanked Tom
many times; but he laughed, and said that they were so good
at losing themselves that he would not feel happy till he had
seen them safe over the borders of his land. ‘I’ve got things
to do,’ he said: ‘my making and my singing, my talking and
my walking, and my watching of the country. Tom can’t be
always near to open doors and willow-cracks. Tom has his
house to mind, and Goldberry is waiting.’
It was still fairly early by the sun, something between nine
and ten, and the hobbits turned their minds to food. Their
last meal had been lunch beside the standing stone the day
before. They breakfasted now off the remainder of Tom’s
190 the fellowship of the ring
provisions, meant for their supper, with additions that Tom
had brought with him. It was not a large meal (considering
hobbits and the circumstances), but they felt much better for
it. While they were eating Tom went up to the mound, and
looked through the treasures. Most of these he made into a
pile that glistered and sparkled on the grass. He bade them
lie there ‘free to all finders, birds, beasts, Elves or Men, and
all kindly creatures’; for so the spell of the mound should be
broken and scattered and no Wight ever come back to it. He
chose for himself from the pile a brooch set with blue stones,
many-shaded like flax-flowers or the wings of blue butterflies.
He looked long at it, as if stirred by some memory, shaking
his head, and saying at last:
‘Here is a pretty toy for Tom and for his lady! Fair was
she who long ago wore this on her shoulder. Goldberry shall
wear it now, and we will not forget her!’
For each of the hobbits he chose a dagger, long, leaf-
shaped, and keen, of marvellous workmanship, damasked
with serpent-forms in red and gold. They gleamed as he
drew them from their black sheaths, wrought of some strange
metal, light and strong, and set with many fiery stones.
Whether by some virtue in these sheaths or because of the
spell that lay on the mound, the blades seemed untouched
by time, unrusted, sharp, glittering in the sun.
‘Old knives are long enough as swords for hobbit-people,’
he said. ‘Sharp blades are good to have, if Shire-folk go
walking, east, south, or far away into dark and danger.’ Then
he told them that these blades were forged many long years
ago by Men of Westernesse: they were foes of the Dark Lord,
but they were overcome by the evil king of Carn Du
ˆ
m in the
Land of Angmar.
‘Few now remember them,’ Tom murmured, ‘yet still
some go wandering, sons of forgotten kings walking in lone-
liness, guarding from evil things folk that are heedless.’
The hobbits did not understand his words, but as he spoke
they had a vision as it were of a great expanse of years behind
them, like a vast shadowy plain over which there strode
fog on the barrow-downs 191
shapes of Men, tall and grim with bright swords, and last
came one with a star on his brow. Then the vision faded, and
they were back in the sunlit world. It was time to start again.
They made ready, packing their bags and lading their ponies.
Their new weapons they hung on their leather belts under
their jackets, feeling them very awkward, and wondering if
they would be of any use. Fighting had not before occurred
to any of them as one of the adventures in which their flight
would land them.
At last they set off. They led their ponies down the hill;
and then mounting they trotted quickly along the valley. They
looked back and saw the top of the old mound on the hill,
and from it the sunlight on the gold went up like a yellow
flame. Then they turned a shoulder of the Downs and it was
hidden from view.
Though Frodo looked about him on every side he saw no
sign of the great stones standing like a gate, and before long
they came to the northern gap and rode swiftly through, and
the land fell away before them. It was a merry journey with
Tom Bombadil trotting gaily beside them, or before them,
on Fatty Lumpkin, who could move much faster than his
girth promised. Tom sang most of the time, but it was chiefly
nonsense, or else perhaps a strange language unknown to the
hobbits, an ancient language whose words were mainly those
of wonder and delight.
They went forward steadily, but they soon saw that the
Road was further away than they had imagined. Even without
a fog, their sleep at mid-day would have prevented them from
reaching it until after nightfall on the day before. The dark
line they had seen was not a line of trees but a line of bushes
growing on the edge of a deep dike with a steep wall on the
further side. Tom said that it had once been the boundary of
a kingdom, but a very long time ago. He seemed to remember
something sad about it, and would not say much.
They climbed down and out of the dike and through a gap
in the wall, and then Tom turned due north, for they had
192 the fellowship of the ring
been bearing somewhat to the west. The land was now open
and fairly level, and they quickened their pace, but the sun
was already sinking low when at last they saw a line of tall
trees ahead, and they knew that they had come back to the
Road after many unexpected adventures. They galloped their
ponies over the last furlongs, and halted under the long
shadows of the trees. They were on the top of a sloping bank,
and the Road, now dim as evening drew on, wound away
below them. At this point it ran nearly from South-west to
North-east, and on their right it fell quickly down into a wide
hollow. It was rutted and bore many signs of the recent heavy
rain; there were pools and pot-holes full of water.
They rode down the bank and looked up and down. There
was nothing to be seen. ‘Well, here we are again at last!’ said
Frodo. ‘I suppose we haven’t lost more than two days by my
short cut through the Forest! But perhaps the delay will prove
useful – it may have put them off our trail.’
The others looked at him. The shadow of the fear of the
Black Riders came suddenly over them again. Ever since they
had entered the Forest they had thought chiefly of getting
back to the Road; only now when it lay beneath their feet did
they remember the danger which pursued them, and was
more than likely to be lying in wait for them upon the Road
itself. They looked anxiously back towards the setting sun,
but the Road was brown and empty.
‘Do you think,’ asked Pippin hesitatingly, ‘do you think we
may be pursued, tonight?’
‘No, I hope not tonight,’ answered Tom Bombadil; ‘nor
perhaps the next day. But do not trust my guess; for I cannot
tell for certain. Out east my knowledge fails. Tom is not
master of Riders from the Black Land far beyond his
country.’
All the same the hobbits wished he was coming with them.
They felt that he would know how to deal with Black Riders,
if anyone did. They would soon now be going forward into
lands wholly strange to them, and beyond all but the most
vague and distant legends of the Shire, and in the gathering
fog on the barrow-downs 193
twilight they longed for home. A deep loneliness and sense
of loss was on them. They stood silent, reluctant to make the
final parting, and only slowly became aware that Tom was
wishing them farewell, and telling them to have good heart
and to ride on till dark without halting.
‘Tom will give you good advice, till this day is over (after
that your own luck must go with you and guide you): four
miles along the Road you’ll come upon a village, Bree under
Bree-hill, with doors looking westward. There you’ll find an
old inn that is called The Prancing Pony. Barliman Butterbur
is the worthy keeper. There you can stay the night, and
afterwards the morning will speed you upon your way. Be
bold, but wary! Keep up your merry hearts, and ride to meet
your fortune!’
They begged him to come at least as far as the inn and
drink once more with them; but he laughed and refused,
saying:
Tom’s country ends here: he will not pass the borders.
Tom has his house to mind, and Goldberry is waiting!
Then he turned, tossed up his hat, leaped on Lumpkin’s
back, and rode up over the bank and away singing into the
dusk.
The hobbits climbed up and watched him until he was out
of sight.
‘I am sorry to take leave of Master Bombadil,’ said Sam.
‘He’s a caution and no mistake. I reckon we may go a good
deal further and see naught better, nor queerer. But I won’t
deny I’ll be glad to see this Prancing Pony he spoke of. I hope
it’ll be like The Green Dragon away back home! What sort of
folk are they in Bree?’
‘There are hobbits in Bree,’ said Merry, ‘as well as Big
Folk. I daresay it will be homelike enough. The Pony is a good
inn by all accounts. My people ride out there now and again.’
‘It may be all we could wish,’ said Frodo; ‘but it is outside
the Shire all the same. Don’t make yourselves too much at
194 the fellowship of the ring
home! Please remember – all of you – that the name of
Baggins must not be mentioned. I am Mr. Underhill, if any
name must be given.’
They now mounted their ponies and rode off silently into
the evening. Darkness came down quickly, as they plodded
slowly downhill and up again, until at last they saw lights
twinkling some distance ahead.
Before them rose Bree-hill barring the way, a dark mass
against misty stars; and under its western flank nestled a large
village. Towards it they now hurried desiring only to find a
fire, and a door between them and the night.
Chapter 9
AT THE SIGN OF THE PRANCING PONY
Bree was the chief village of the Bree-land, a small inhabited
region, like an island in the empty lands round about. Besides
Bree itself, there was Staddle on the other side of the hill,
Combe in a deep valley a little further eastward, and Archet
on the edge of the Chetwood. Lying round Bree-hill and the
villages was a small country of fields and tamed woodland
only a few miles broad.
The Men of Bree were brown-haired, broad, and rather
short, cheerful and independent: they belonged to nobody
but themselves; but they were more friendly and familiar with
Hobbits, Dwarves, Elves, and other inhabitants of the world
about them than was (or is) usual with Big People. According
to their own tales they were the original inhabitants and were
the descendants of the first Men that ever wandered into the
West of the middle-world. Few had survived the turmoils of
the Elder Days; but when the Kings returned again over the
Great Sea they had found the Bree-men still there, and they
were still there now, when the memory of the old Kings had
faded into the grass.
In those days no other Men had settled dwellings so far
west, or within a hundred leagues of the Shire. But in the
wild lands beyond Bree there were mysterious wanderers.
The Bree-folk called them Rangers, and knew nothing of
their origin. They were taller and darker than the Men of
Bree and were believed to have strange powers of sight
and hearing, and to understand the languages of beasts
and birds. They roamed at will southwards, and eastwards
even as far as the Misty Mountains; but they were now
few and rarely seen. When they appeared they brought
news from afar, and told strange forgotten tales which were
196 the fellowship of the ring
eagerly listened to; but the Bree-folk did not make friends
of them.
There were also many families of hobbits in the Bree-land;
and they claimed to be the oldest settlement of Hobbits in the
world, one that was founded long before even the Brandy-
wine was crossed and the Shire colonized. They lived mostly
in Staddle though there were some in Bree itself, especially
on the higher slopes of the hill, above the houses of the Men.
The Big Folk and the Little Folk (as they called one another)
were on friendly terms, minding their own affairs in their
own ways, but both rightly regarding themselves as necessary
parts of the Bree-folk. Nowhere else in the world was this
peculiar (but excellent) arrangement to be found.
The Bree-folk, Big and Little, did not themselves travel
much; and the affairs of the four villages were their chief
concern. Occasionally the Hobbits of Bree went as far as
Buckland, or the Eastfarthing; but though their little land was
not much further than a day’s riding east of the Brandywine
Bridge, the Hobbits of the Shire now seldom visited it. An
occasional Bucklander or adventurous Took would come out
to the Inn for a night or two, but even that was becoming
less and less usual. The Shire-hobbits referred to those of
Bree, and to any others that lived beyond the borders, as
Outsiders, and took very little interest in them, considering
them dull and uncouth. There were probably many more
Outsiders scattered about in the West of the World in those
days than the people of the Shire imagined. Some, doubtless,
were no better than tramps, ready to dig a hole in any bank
and stay only as long as it suited them. But in the Bree-land,
at any rate, the hobbits were decent and prosperous, and no
more rustic than most of their distant relatives Inside. It was
not yet forgotten that there had been a time when there was
much coming and going between the Shire and Bree. There
was Bree-blood in the Brandybucks by all accounts.
The village of Bree had some hundred stone houses of the
Big Folk, mostly above the Road, nestling on the hillside with
at the sign of the prancing pony 197
windows looking west. On that side, running in more than
half a circle from the hill and back to it, there was a deep dike
with a thick hedge on the inner side. Over this the Road
crossed by a causeway; but where it pierced the hedge it was
barred by a great gate. There was another gate in the southern
corner where the Road ran out of the village. The gates were
closed at nightfall; but just inside them were small lodges for
the gatekeepers.
Down on the Road, where it swept to the right to go round
the foot of the hill, there was a large inn. It had been built
long ago when the traffic on the roads had been far greater.
For Bree stood at an old meeting of ways; another ancient
road crossed the East Road just outside the dike at the western
end of the village, and in former days Men and other folk
of various sorts had travelled much on it. Strange as News
from Bree was still a saying in the Eastfarthing, descending
from those days, when news from North, South, and East
could be heard in the inn, and when the Shire-hobbits
used to go more often to hear it. But the Northern Lands
had long been desolate, and the North Road was now seldom
used: it was grass-grown, and the Bree-folk called it the
Greenway.
The Inn of Bree was still there, however, and the innkeeper
was an important person. His house was a meeting place for
the idle, talkative, and inquisitive among the inhabitants, large
and small, of the four villages; and a resort of Rangers and
other wanderers, and for such travellers (mostly dwarves) as
still journeyed on the East Road, to and from the Mountains.
It was dark, and white stars were shining, when Frodo and
his companions came at last to the Greenway-crossing and
drew near the village. They came to the West-gate and found
it shut; but at the door of the lodge beyond it, there was a
man sitting. He jumped up and fetched a lantern and looked
over the gate at them in surprise.
‘What do you want, and where do you come from?’ he
asked gruffly.
198 the fellowship of the ring
‘We are making for the inn here,’ answered Frodo. ‘We
are journeying east and cannot go further tonight.’
‘Hobbits! Four hobbits! And what’s more, out of the Shire
by their talk,’ said the gatekeeper, softly as if speaking to
himself. He stared at them darkly for a moment, and then
slowly opened the gate and let them ride through.
‘We don’t often see Shire-folk riding on the Road at night,’
he went on, as they halted a moment by his door. ‘You’ll
pardon my wondering what business takes you away east of
Bree! What may your names be, might I ask?’
‘Our names and our business are our own, and this does
not seem a good place to discuss them,’ said Frodo, not liking
the look of the man or the tone of his voice.
‘Your business is your own, no doubt,’ said the man; ‘but
it’s my business to ask questions after nightfall.’
‘We are hobbits from Buckland, and we have a fancy to
travel and to stay at the inn here,’ put in Merry. ‘I am Mr.
Brandybuck. Is that enough for you? The Bree-folk used to
be fair-spoken to travellers, or so I had heard.’
‘All right, all right!’ said the man. ‘I meant no offence. But
you’ll find maybe that more folk than old Harry at the gate
will be asking you questions. There’s queer folk about. If you
go on to The Pony, you’ll find you’re not the only guests.’
He wished them good night, and they said no more; but
Frodo could see in the lantern-light that the man was still
eyeing them curiously. He was glad to hear the gate clang to
behind them, as they rode forward. He wondered why the
man was so suspicious, and whether anyone had been asking
for news of a party of hobbits. Could it have been Gandalf ?
He might have arrived, while they were delayed in the Forest
and the Downs. But there was something in the look and the
voice of the gatekeeper that made him uneasy.
The man stared after the hobbits for a moment, and then
he went back to his house. As soon as his back was turned, a
dark figure climbed quickly in over the gate and melted into
the shadows of the village street.
***
at the sign of the prancing pony 199
The hobbits rode on up a gentle slope, passing a few
detached houses, and drew up outside the inn. The houses
looked large and strange to them. Sam stared up at the inn with
its three storeys and many windows, and felt his heart sink.
He had imagined himself meeting giants taller than trees, and
other creatures even more terrifying, some time or other in the
course of his journey; but at the moment he was finding his
first sight of Men and their tall houses quite enough, indeed
too much for the dark end of a tiring day. He pictured black
horses standing all saddled in the shadows of the inn-yard,
and Black Riders peering out of dark upper windows.
‘We surely aren’t going to stay here for the night, are we,
sir?’ he exclaimed. ‘If there are hobbit-folk in these parts,
why don’t we look for some that would be willing to take us
in? It would be more homelike.’
‘What’s wrong with the inn?’ said Frodo. ‘Tom Bombadil
recommended it. I expect it’s homelike enough inside.’
Even from the outside the inn looked a pleasant house to
familiar eyes. It had a front on the Road, and two wings
running back on land partly cut out of the lower slopes of
the hill, so that at the rear the second-floor windows were
level with the ground. There was a wide arch leading to a
courtyard between the two wings, and on the left under the
arch there was a large doorway reached by a few broad steps.
The door was open and light streamed out of it. Above the
arch there was a lamp, and beneath it swung a large sign-
board: a fat white pony reared up on its hind legs. Over the
door was painted in white letters: the prancing pony by
barliman butterbur. Many of the lower windows showed
lights behind thick curtains.
As they hesitated outside in the gloom, someone began
singing a merry song inside, and many cheerful voices joined
loudly in the chorus. They listened to this encouraging sound
for a moment and then got off their ponies. The song ended
and there was a burst of laughter and clapping.
They led their ponies under the arch, and leaving them
standing in the yard they climbed up the steps. Frodo went
200 the fellowship of the ring
forward and nearly bumped into a short fat man with a bald
head and a red face. He had a white apron on, and was
bustling out of one door and in through another, carrying a
tray laden with full mugs.
‘Can we——’ began Frodo.
‘Half a minute, if you please!’ shouted the man over his
shoulder, and vanished into a babel of voices and a cloud of
smoke. In a moment he was out again, wiping his hands on
his apron.
‘Good evening, little master!’ he said, bending down. ‘What
may you be wanting?’
‘Beds for four, and stabling for five ponies, if that can be
managed. Are you Mr. Butterbur?’
‘That’s right! Barliman is my name. Barliman Butterbur at
your service! You’re from the Shire, eh?’ he said, and then
suddenly he clapped his hand to his forehead, as if trying to
remember something. ‘Hobbits!’ he cried. ‘Now what does
that remind me of ? Might I ask your names, sirs?’
‘Mr. Took and Mr. Brandybuck,’ said Frodo; ‘and this is
Sam Gamgee. My name is Underhill.’
‘There now!’ said Mr. Butterbur, snapping his fingers. ‘It’s
gone again! But it’ll come back, when I have time to think.
I’m run off my feet; but I’ll see what I can do for you. We
don’t often get a party out of the Shire nowadays, and I
should be sorry not to make you welcome. But there is such
a crowd already in the house tonight as there hasn’t been for
long enough. It never rains but it pours, we say in Bree.’
‘Hi! Nob!’ he shouted. ‘Where are you, you woolly-footed
slowcoach? Nob!’
‘Coming, sir! Coming!’ A cheery-looking hobbit bobbed
out of a door, and seeing the travellers, stopped short and
stared at them with great interest.
‘Where’s Bob?’ asked the landlord. ‘You don’t know? Well,
find him! Double sharp! I haven’t got six legs, nor six eyes
neither! Tell Bob there’s five ponies that have to be stabled.
He must find room somehow.’ Nob trotted off with a grin
and a wink.
at the sign of the prancing pony 201
‘Well now, what was I going to say?’ said Mr. Butterbur,
tapping his forehead. ‘One thing drives out another, so to
speak. I’m that busy tonight, my head is going round. There’s
a party that came up the Greenway from down South last
night – and that was strange enough to begin with. Then
there’s a travelling company of dwarves going West come in
this evening. And now there’s you. If you weren’t hobbits, I
doubt if we could house you. But we’ve got a room or two
in the north wing that were made special for hobbits, when
this place was built. On the ground floor as they usually
prefer; round windows and all as they like it. I hope you’ll be
comfortable. You’ll be wanting supper, I don’t doubt. As
soon as may be. This way now!’
He led them a short way down a passage, and opened
a door. ‘Here is a nice little parlour!’ he said. ‘I hope it will
suit. Excuse me now. I’m that busy. No time for talking. I
must be trotting. It’s hard work for two legs, but I don’t get
thinner. I’ll look in again later. If you want anything, ring the
hand-bell, and Nob will come. If he don’t come, ring and
shout!’
Off he went at last, and left them feeling rather breathless.
He seemed capable of an endless stream of talk, however
busy he might be. They found themselves in a small and cosy
room. There was a bit of bright fire burning on the hearth,
and in front of it were some low and comfortable chairs.
There was a round table, already spread with a white cloth,
and on it was a large hand-bell. But Nob, the hobbit servant,
came bustling in long before they thought of ringing. He
brought candles and a tray full of plates.
‘Will you be wanting anything to drink, masters?’ he asked.
‘And shall I show you the bedrooms, while your supper is
got ready?’
They were washed and in the middle of good deep mugs
of beer when Mr. Butterbur and Nob came in again. In a
twinkling the table was laid. There was hot soup, cold meats,
a blackberry tart, new loaves, slabs of butter, and half a ripe
cheese: good plain food, as good as the Shire could show,
202 the fellowship of the ring
and homelike enough to dispel the last of Sam’s misgivings
(already much relieved by the excellence of the beer).
The landlord hovered round for a little, and then prepared
to leave them. ‘I don’t know whether you would care to join
the company, when you have supped,’ he said, standing
at the door. ‘Perhaps you would rather go to your beds. Still
the company would be very pleased to welcome you, if
you had a mind. We don’t get Outsiders – travellers from
the Shire, I should say, begging your pardon – often; and we
like to hear a bit of news, or any story or song you may
have in mind. But as you please! Ring the bell, if you lack
anything!’
So refreshed and encouraged did they feel at the end of
their supper (about three quarters of an hour’s steady going,
not hindered by unnecessary talk) that Frodo, Pippin, and
Sam decided to join the company. Merry said it would be
too stuffy. ‘I shall sit here quietly by the fire for a bit, and
perhaps go out later for a sniff of the air. Mind your Ps and
Qs, and don’t forget that you are supposed to be escaping in
secret, and are still on the high-road and not very far from
the Shire!’
‘All right!’ said Pippin. ‘Mind yourself ! Don’t get lost, and
don’t forget that it is safer indoors!’
The company was in the big common-room of the inn.
The gathering was large and mixed, as Frodo discovered,
when his eyes got used to the light. This came chiefly from
a blazing log-fire, for the three lamps hanging from the beams
were dim, and half veiled in smoke. Barliman Butterbur was
standing near the fire, talking to a couple of dwarves and one
or two strange-looking men. On the benches were various
folk: men of Bree, a collection of local hobbits (sitting
chattering together), a few more dwarves, and other vague
figures difficult to make out away in the shadows and corners.
As soon as the Shire-hobbits entered, there was a chorus
of welcome from the Bree-landers. The strangers, especially
those that had come up the Greenway, stared at them
at the sign of the prancing pony 203
curiously. The landlord introduced the newcomers to the
Bree-folk, so quickly that, though they caught many names,
they were seldom sure who the names belonged to. The Men
of Bree seemed all to have rather botanical (and to the Shire-
folk rather odd) names, like Rushlight, Goatleaf, Heather-
toes, Appledore, Thistlewool and Ferny (not to mention
Butterbur). Some of the hobbits had similar names. The
Mugworts, for instance, seemed numerous. But most of them
had natural names, such as Banks, Brockhouse, Longholes,
Sandheaver, and Tunnelly, many of which were used in the
Shire. There were several Underhills from Staddle, and as
they could not imagine sharing a name without being related,
they took Frodo to their hearts as a long-lost cousin.
The Bree-hobbits were, in fact, friendly and inquisitive,
and Frodo soon found that some explanation of what he was
doing would have to be given. He gave out that he was
interested in history and geography (at which there was much
wagging of heads, although neither of these words were
much used in the Bree-dialect). He said he was thinking of
writing a book (at which there was silent astonishment), and
that he and his friends wanted to collect information about
hobbits living outside the Shire, especially in the eastern
lands.
At this a chorus of voices broke out. If Frodo had really
wanted to write a book, and had had many ears, he would
have learned enough for several chapters in a few minutes.
And if that was not enough, he was given a whole list of
names, beginning with ‘Old Barliman here’, to whom he
could go for further information. But after a time, as Frodo
did not show any sign of writing a book on the spot, the
hobbits returned to their questions about doings in the
Shire. Frodo did not prove very communicative, and he soon
found himself sitting alone in a corner, listening and looking
around.
The Men and Dwarves were mostly talking of distant
events and telling news of a kind that was becoming only too
familiar. There was trouble away in the South, and it seemed
204 the fellowship of the ring
that the Men who had come up the Greenway were on the
move, looking for lands where they could find some peace.
The Bree-folk were sympathetic, but plainly not very ready
to take a large number of strangers into their little land. One
of the travellers, a squint-eyed ill-favoured fellow, was fore-
telling that more and more people would be coming north in
the near future. ‘If room isn’t found for them, they’ll find it
for themselves. They’ve a right to live, same as other folk,’
he said loudly. The local inhabitants did not look pleased at
the prospect.
The hobbits did not pay much attention to all this, as it
did not at the moment seem to concern hobbits. Big Folk
could hardly beg for lodgings in hobbit-holes. They were
more interested in Sam and Pippin, who were now feeling
quite at home, and were chatting gaily about events in the
Shire. Pippin roused a good deal of laughter with an account
of the collapse of the roof of the Town Hole in Michel
Delving: Will Whitfoot, the Mayor, and the fattest hobbit in
the Westfarthing, had been buried in chalk, and came out
like a floured dumpling. But there were several questions
asked that made Frodo a little uneasy. One of the Bree-
landers, who seemed to have been in the Shire several times,
wanted to know where the Underhills lived and who they
were related to.
Suddenly Frodo noticed that a strange-looking weather-
beaten man, sitting in the shadows near the wall, was also
listening intently to the hobbit-talk. He had a tall tankard in
front of him, and was smoking a long-stemmed pipe curiously
carved. His legs were stretched out before him, showing high
boots of supple leather that fitted him well, but had seen
much wear and were now caked with mud. A travel-stained
cloak of heavy dark-green cloth was drawn close about him,
and in spite of the heat of the room he wore a hood that
overshadowed his face; but the gleam of his eyes could be
seen as he watched the hobbits.
‘Who is that?’ Frodo asked, when he got a chance to whis-
per to Mr. Butterbur. ‘I don’t think you introduced him?’
at the sign of the prancing pony 205
‘Him?’ said the landlord in an answering whisper, cocking
an eye without turning his head. ‘I don’t rightly know. He is
one of the wandering folk – Rangers we call them. He seldom
talks: not but what he can tell a rare tale when he has the
mind. He disappears for a month, or a year, and then he
pops up again. He was in and out pretty often last spring;
but I haven’t seen him about lately. What his right name is
I’ve never heard: but he’s known round here as Strider. Goes
about at a great pace on his long shanks; though he don’t tell
nobody what cause he has to hurry. But there’s no accounting
for East and West, as we say in Bree, meaning the Rangers
and the Shire-folk, begging your pardon. Funny you should
ask about him.’ But at that moment Mr. Butterbur was called
away by a demand for more ale and his last remark remained
unexplained.
Frodo found that Strider was now looking at him, as if he
had heard or guessed all that had been said. Presently, with
a wave of his hand and a nod, he invited Frodo to come over
and sit by him. As Frodo drew near he threw back his hood,
showing a shaggy head of dark hair flecked with grey, and in
a pale stern face a pair of keen grey eyes.
‘I am called Strider,’ he said in a low voice. ‘I am very
pleased to meet you, Master – Underhill, if old Butterbur got
your name right.’
‘He did,’ said Frodo stiffly. He felt far from comfortable
under the stare of those keen eyes.
‘Well, Master Underhill,’ said Strider, ‘if I were you, I
should stop your young friends from talking too much. Drink,
fire, and chance-meeting are pleasant enough, but, well – this
isn’t the Shire. There are queer folk about. Though I say it
as shouldn’t, you may think,’ he added with a wry smile,
seeing Frodo’s glance. ‘And there have been even stranger
travellers through Bree lately,’ he went on, watching Frodo’s
face.
Frodo returned his gaze but said nothing; and Strider made
no further sign. His attention seemed suddenly to be fixed on
Pippin. To his alarm Frodo became aware that the ridiculous
206 the fellowship of the ring
young Took, encouraged by his success with the fat Mayor of
Michel Delving, was now actually giving a comic account of
Bilbo’s farewell party. He was already giving an imitation
of the Speech, and was drawing near to the astonishing
Disappearance.
Frodo was annoyed. It was a harmless enough tale for most
of the local hobbits, no doubt: just a funny story about those
funny people away beyond the River; but some (old
Butterbur, for instance) knew a thing or two, and had prob-
ably heard rumours long ago about Bilbo’s vanishing. It
would bring the name of Baggins to their minds, especially if
there had been inquiries in Bree after that name.
Frodo fidgeted, wondering what to do. Pippin was evi-
dently much enjoying the attention he was getting, and had
become quite forgetful of their danger. Frodo had a sudden
fear that in his present mood he might even mention the
Ring; and that might well be disastrous.
‘You had better do something quick!’ whispered Strider in
his ear.
Frodo jumped up and stood on a table, and began to talk.
The attention of Pippin’s audience was disturbed. Some of
the hobbits looked at Frodo and laughed and clapped, think-
ing that Mr. Underhill had taken as much ale as was good
for him.
Frodo suddenly felt very foolish, and found himself (as
was his habit when making a speech) fingering the things in
his pocket. He felt the Ring on its chain, and quite unac-
countably the desire came over him to slip it on and vanish
out of the silly situation. It seemed to him, somehow, as if
the suggestion came to him from outside, from someone or
something in the room. He resisted the temptation firmly,
and clasped the Ring in his hand, as if to keep a hold on it
and prevent it from escaping or doing any mischief. At any
rate it gave him no inspiration. He spoke ‘a few suitable
words’, as they would have said in the Shire: We are all very
much gratified by the kindness of your reception, and I venture
to hope that my brief visit will help to renew the old ties of
at the sign of the prancing pony 207
friendship between the Shire and Bree; and then he hesitated
and coughed.
Everyone in the room was now looking at him. ‘A song!’
shouted one of the hobbits. ‘A song! A song!’ shouted all the
others. ‘Come on now, master, sing us something that we
haven’t heard before!’
For a moment Frodo stood gaping. Then in desperation
he began a ridiculous song that Bilbo had been rather fond
of (and indeed rather proud of, for he had made up the words
himself ). It was about an inn; and that is probably why it
came into Frodo’s mind just then. Here it is in full. Only a
few words of it are now, as a rule, remembered.
There is an inn, a merry old inn
beneath an old grey hill,
And there they brew a beer so brown
That the Man in the Moon himself came down
one night to drink his fill.
The ostler has a tipsy cat
that plays a five-stringed fiddle;
And up and down he runs his bow,
Now squeaking high, now purring low,
now sawing in the middle.
The landlord keeps a little dog
that is mighty fond of jokes;
When there’s good cheer among the guests,
He cocks an ear at all the jests
and laughs until he chokes.
They also keep a horne
´
d cow
as proud as any queen;
But music turns her head like ale,
And makes her wave her tufted tail
and dance upon the green.
208 the fellowship of the ring
And O! the rows of silver dishes
and the store of silver spoons!
For Sunday* there’s a special pair,
And these they polish up with care
on Saturday afternoons.
The Man in the Moon was drinking deep,
and the cat began to wail;
A dish and a spoon on the table danced,
The cow in the garden madly pranced,
and the little dog chased his tail.
The Man in the Moon took another mug,
and then rolled beneath his chair;
And there he dozed and dreamed of ale,
Till in the sky the stars were pale,
and dawn was in the air.
Then the ostler said to his tipsy cat:
‘The white horses of the Moon,
They neigh and champ their silver bits;
But their master’s been and drowned his wits,
and the Sun’ll be rising soon!’
So the cat on his fiddle played hey-diddle-diddle,
a jig that would wake the dead:
He squeaked and sawed and quickened the tune,
While the landlord shook the Man in the Moon:
‘It’s after three!’ he said.
They rolled the Man slowly up the hill
and bundled him into the Moon,
While his horses galloped up in rear,
And the cow came capering like a deer,
and a dish ran up with the spoon.
* See note 2, III, p. 1462
at the sign of the prancing pony 209
Now quicker the fiddle went deedle-dum-diddle;
the dog began to roar,
The cow and the horses stood on their heads;
The guests all bounded from their beds
and danced upon the floor.
With a ping and a pong the fiddle-strings broke!
the cow jumped over the Moon,
And the little dog laughed to see such fun,
And the Saturday dish went off at a run
with the silver Sunday spoon.
The round Moon rolled behind the hill
as the Sun raised up her head.
She* hardly believed her fiery eyes;
For though it was day, to her surprise
they all went back to bed!
There was loud and long applause. Frodo had a good
voice, and the song tickled their fancy. ‘Where’s old Barley?’
they cried. ‘He ought to hear this. Bob ought to learn his cat
the fiddle, and then we’d have a dance.’ They called for more
ale, and began to shout: ‘Let’s have it again, master! Come
on now! Once more!’
They made Frodo have another drink, and then begin his
song again, while many of them joined in; for the tune was
well known, and they were quick at picking up words. It was
now Frodo’s turn to feel pleased with himself. He capered
about on the table; and when he came a second time to the
cow jumped over the Moon, he leaped in the air. Much too
vigorously; for he came down, bang, into a tray full of mugs,
and slipped, and rolled off the table with a crash, clatter,
and bump! The audience all opened their mouths wide for
laughter, and stopped short in gaping silence; for the singer
* Elves (and Hobbits) always refer to the Sun as She.
210 the fellowship of the ring
disappeared. He simply vanished, as if he had gone slap
through the floor without leaving a hole!
The local hobbits stared in amazement, and then sprang
to their feet and shouted for Barliman. All the company drew
away from Pippin and Sam, who found themselves left alone
in a corner, and eyed darkly and doubtfully from a distance.
It was plain that many people regarded them now as the
companions of a travelling magician of unknown powers and
purpose. But there was one swarthy Bree-lander, who stood
looking at them with a knowing and half-mocking expression
that made them feel very uncomfortable. Presently he slipped
out of the door, followed by the squint-eyed southerner: the
two had been whispering together a good deal during the
evening.
Frodo felt a fool. Not knowing what else to do, he crawled
away under the tables to the dark corner by Strider, who sat
unmoved, giving no sign of his thoughts. Frodo leaned back
against the wall and took off the Ring. How it came to be on
his finger he could not tell. He could only suppose that he
had been handling it in his pocket while he sang, and that
somehow it had slipped on when he stuck out his hand with
a jerk to save his fall. For a moment he wondered if the Ring
itself had not played him a trick; perhaps it had tried to reveal
itself in response to some wish or command that was felt in
the room. He did not like the looks of the men that had gone
out.
‘Well?’ said Strider, when he reappeared. ‘Why did you do
that? Worse than anything your friends could have said! You
have put your foot in it! Or should I say your finger?’
‘I don’t know what you mean,’ said Frodo, annoyed and
alarmed.
‘Oh yes, you do,’ answered Strider; ‘but we had better wait
until the uproar has died down. Then, if you please, Mr.
Baggins, I should like a quiet word with you.’
‘What about?’ asked Frodo, ignoring the sudden use of his
proper name.
‘A matter of some importance – to us both,’ answered
at the sign of the prancing pony 211
Strider, looking Frodo in the eye. ‘You may hear something
to your advantage.’
‘Very well,’ said Frodo, trying to appear unconcerned. ‘I’ll
talk to you later.’
Meanwhile an argument was going on by the fireplace. Mr.
Butterbur had come trotting in, and he was now trying to
listen to several conflicting accounts of the event at the same
time.
‘I saw him, Mr. Butterbur,’ said a hobbit; ‘or leastways I
didn’t see him, if you take my meaning. He just vanished into
thin air, in a manner of speaking.’
‘You don’t say, Mr. Mugwort!’ said the landlord, looking
puzzled.
‘Yes I do!’ replied Mugwort. ‘And I mean what I say,
what’s more.’
‘There’s some mistake somewhere,’ said Butterbur, shak-
ing his head. ‘There was too much of that Mr. Underhill to
go vanishing into thin air; or into thick air, as is more likely
in this room.’
‘Well, where is he now?’ cried several voices.
‘How should I know? He’s welcome to go where he will,
so long as he pays in the morning. There’s Mr. Took, now:
he’s not vanished.’
‘Well, I saw what I saw, and I saw what I didn’t,’ said
Mugwort obstinately.
‘And I say there’s some mistake,’ repeated Butterbur,
picking up the tray and gathering up the broken crockery.
‘Of course there’s a mistake!’ said Frodo. ‘I haven’t van-
ished. Here I am! I’ve just been having a few words with
Strider in the corner.’
He came forward into the firelight; but most of the com-
pany backed away, even more perturbed than before. They
were not in the least satisfied by his explanation that he had
crawled away quickly under the tables after he had fallen.
Most of the Hobbits and the Men of Bree went off then and
there in a huff, having no fancy for further entertainment that
212 the fellowship of the ring
evening. One or two gave Frodo a black look and departed
muttering among themselves. The Dwarves and the two or
three strange Men that still remained got up and said good
night to the landlord, but not to Frodo and his friends. Before
long no one was left but Strider, who sat on, unnoticed, by
the wall.
Mr. Butterbur did not seem much put out. He reckoned,
very probably, that his house would be full again on many
future nights, until the present mystery had been thoroughly
discussed. ‘Now what have you been doing, Mr. Underhill?’
he asked. ‘Frightening my customers and breaking up my
crocks with your acrobatics!’
‘I am very sorry to have caused any trouble,’ said Frodo.
‘It was quite unintentional, I assure you. A most unfortunate
accident.’
‘All right, Mr. Underhill! But if you’re going to do any
more tumbling, or conjuring, or whatever it was, you’d best
warn folk beforehand – and warn me. We’re a bit suspicious
round here of anything out of the way – uncanny, if you
understand me; and we don’t take to it all of a sudden.’
‘I shan’t be doing anything of the sort again, Mr. Butterbur,
I promise you. And now I think I’ll be getting to bed. We
shall be making an early start. Will you see that our ponies
are ready by eight o’clock?’
‘Very good! But before you go, I should like a word with
you in private, Mr. Underhill. Something has just come back
to my mind that I ought to tell you. I hope that you’ll not
take it amiss. When I’ve seen to a thing or two, I’ll come
along to your room, if you’re willing.’
‘Certainly!’ said Frodo; but his heart sank. He wondered
how many private talks he would have before he got to bed,
and what they would reveal. Were these people all in league
against him? He began to suspect even old Butterbur’s fat
face of concealing dark designs.
Chapter 10
STRIDER
Frodo, Pippin, and Sam made their way back to the parlour.
There was no light. Merry was not there, and the fire had
burned low. It was not until they had puffed up the embers
into a blaze and thrown on a couple of faggots that they
discovered Strider had come with them. There he was calmly
sitting in a chair by the door!
‘Hallo!’ said Pippin. ‘Who are you, and what do you want?’
‘I am called Strider,’ he answered; ‘and though he may
have forgotten it, your friend promised to have a quiet talk
with me.’
‘You said I might hear something to my advantage, I
believe,’ said Frodo. ‘What have you to say?’
‘Several things,’ answered Strider. ‘But, of course, I have
my price.’
‘What do you mean?’ asked Frodo sharply.
‘Don’t be alarmed! I mean just this: I will tell you what
I know, and give you some good advice – but I shall want a
reward.’
‘And what will that be, pray?’ said Frodo. He suspected
now that he had fallen in with a rascal, and he thought
uncomfortably that he had brought only a little money with
him. All of it would hardly satisfy a rogue, and he could not
spare any of it.
‘No more than you can afford,’ answered Strider with a
slow smile, as if he guessed Frodo’s thoughts. ‘Just this: you
must take me along with you, until I wish to leave you.’
‘Oh, indeed!’ replied Frodo, surprised, but not much
relieved. ‘Even if I wanted another companion, I should not
agree to any such thing, until I knew a good deal more about
you, and your business.’
214 the fellowship of the ring
‘Excellent!’ exclaimed Strider, crossing his legs and sitting
back comfortably. ‘You seem to be coming to your senses
again, and that is all to the good. You have been much too
careless so far. Very well! I will tell you what I know, and
leave the reward to you. You may be glad to grant it, when
you have heard me.’
‘Go on then!’ said Frodo. ‘What do you know?’
‘Too much; too many dark things,’ said Strider grimly.
‘But as for your business——’ He got up and went to the
door, opened it quickly and looked out. Then he shut it
quietly and sat down again. ‘I have quick ears,’ he went on,
lowering his voice, ‘and though I cannot disappear, I have
hunted many wild and wary things and I can usually avoid
being seen, if I wish. Now, I was behind the hedge this
evening on the Road west of Bree, when four hobbits came
out of the Downlands. I need not repeat all that they said to
old Bombadil or to one another; but one thing interested me.
Please remember, said one of them, that the name Baggins must
not be mentioned. I am Mr. Underhill, if any name must be
given. That interested me so much that I followed them here.
I slipped over the gate just behind them. Maybe Mr. Baggins
has an honest reason for leaving his name behind; but if so,
I should advise him and his friends to be more careful.’
‘I don’t see what interest my name has for anyone in Bree,’
said Frodo angrily, ‘and I have still to learn why it interests
you. Mr. Strider may have an honest reason for spying and
eavesdropping; but if so, I should advise him to explain it.’
‘Well answered!’ said Strider laughing. ‘But the explanation
is simple: I was looking for a Hobbit called Frodo Baggins. I
wanted to find him quickly. I had learned that he was carrying
out of the Shire, well, a secret that concerned me and my
friends.
‘Now, don’t mistake me!’ he cried, as Frodo rose from his
seat, and Sam jumped up with a scowl. ‘I shall take more
care of the secret than you do. And care is needed!’ He leaned
forward and looked at them. ‘Watch every shadow!’ he said
in a low voice. ‘Black horsemen have passed through Bree.
strider 215
On Monday one came down the Greenway, they say; and
another appeared later, coming up the Greenway from the
south.’
There was a silence. At last Frodo spoke to Pippin and
Sam: ‘I ought to have guessed it from the way the gatekeeper
greeted us,’ he said. ‘And the landlord seems to have heard
something. Why did he press us to join the company? And
why on earth did we behave so foolishly: we ought to have
stayed quiet in here.’
‘It would have been better,’ said Strider. ‘I would have
stopped your going into the common-room, if I could; but
the innkeeper would not let me in to see you, or take a
message.’
‘Do you think he——’ began Frodo.
‘No, I don’t think any harm of old Butterbur. Only he does
not altogether like mysterious vagabonds of my sort.’ Frodo
gave him a puzzled look. ‘Well, I have rather a rascally look,
have I not?’ said Strider with a curl of his lip and a queer
gleam in his eye. ‘But I hope we shall get to know one another
better. When we do, I hope you will explain what happened
at the end of your song. For that little prank——’
‘It was sheer accident!’ interrupted Frodo.
‘I wonder,’ said Strider. ‘Accident, then. That accident has
made your position dangerous.’
‘Hardly more than it was already,’ said Frodo. ‘I knew
these horsemen were pursuing me; but now at any rate they
seem to have missed me and to have gone away.’
‘You must not count on that!’ said Strider sharply. ‘They
will return. And more are coming. There are others. I know
their number. I know these Riders.’ He paused, and his eyes
were cold and hard. ‘And there are some folk in Bree who
are not to be trusted,’ he went on. ‘Bill Ferny, for instance.
He has an evil name in the Bree-land, and queer folk call at
his house. You must have noticed him among the company:
a swarthy sneering fellow. He was very close with one of the
Southern strangers, and they slipped out together just after
216 the fellowship of the ring
your ‘‘accident’’. Not all of those Southerners mean well; and
as for Ferny, he would sell anything to anybody; or make
mischief for amusement.’
‘What will Ferny sell, and what has my accident got to do
with him?’ said Frodo, still determined not to understand
Strider’s hints.
‘News of you, of course,’ answered Strider. ‘An account
of your performance would be very interesting to certain
people. After that they would hardly need to be told your real
name. It seems to me only too likely that they will hear of it
before this night is over. Is that enough? You can do as you
like about my reward: take me as a guide or not. But I may
say that I know all the lands between the Shire and the Misty
Mountains, for I have wandered over them for many years.
I am older than I look. I might prove useful. You will have
to leave the open road after tonight; for the horsemen will
watch it night and day. You may escape from Bree, and be
allowed to go forward while the Sun is up; but you won’t go
far. They will come on you in the wild, in some dark place
where there is no help. Do you wish them to find you? They
are terrible!’
The hobbits looked at him, and saw with surprise that his
face was drawn as if with pain, and his hands clenched the
arms of his chair. The room was very quiet and still, and the
light seemed to have grown dim. For a while he sat with
unseeing eyes as if walking in distant memory or listening to
sounds in the Night far away.
‘There!’ he cried after a moment, drawing his hand across
his brow. ‘Perhaps I know more about these pursuers than
you do. You fear them, but you do not fear them enough,
yet. Tomorrow you will have to escape, if you can. Strider
can take you by paths that are seldom trodden. Will you have
him?’
There was a heavy silence. Frodo made no answer; his
mind was confused with doubt and fear. Sam frowned, and
looked at his master; and at last he broke out:
‘With your leave, Mr. Frodo, I’d say no! This Strider here,
strider 217
he warns and he says take care; and I say yes to that, and let’s
begin with him. He comes out of the Wild, and I never heard
no good of such folk. He knows something, that’s plain, and
more than I like; but it’s no reason why we should let him
go leading us out into some dark place far from help, as he
puts it.’
Pippin fidgeted and looked uncomfortable. Strider did not
reply to Sam, but turned his keen eyes on Frodo. Frodo
caught his glance and looked away. ‘No,’ he said slowly. ‘I
don’t agree. I think, I think you are not really as you choose
to look. You began to talk to me like the Bree-folk, but your
voice has changed. Still Sam seems right in this: I don’t see
why you should warn us to take care, and yet ask us to take
you on trust. Why the disguise? Who are you? What do you
really know about – about my business; and how do you
know it?’
‘The lesson in caution has been well learned,’ said Strider
with a grim smile. ‘But caution is one thing and wavering is
another. You will never get to Rivendell now on your own,
and to trust me is your only chance. You must make up your
mind. I will answer some of your questions, if that will help
you to do so. But why should you believe my story, if you
do not trust me already? Still here it is——’
At that moment there came a knock at the door. Mr.
Butterbur had arrived with candles, and behind him was Nob
with cans of hot water. Strider withdrew into a dark corner.
‘I’ve come to bid you good night,’ said the landlord, putting
the candles on the table. ‘Nob! Take the water to the rooms!’
He came in and shut the door.
‘It’s like this,’ he began, hesitating and looking troubled. ‘If
I’ve done any harm, I’m sorry indeed. But one thing drives
out another, as you’ll admit; and I’m a busy man. But first one
thing and then another this week have jogged my memory, as
the saying goes; and not too late I hope. You see, I was asked
to look out for hobbits of the Shire, and for one by the name
of Baggins in particular.’
218 the fellowship of the ring
‘And what has that got to do with me?’ asked Frodo.
‘Ah! you know best,’ said the landlord, knowingly. ‘I won’t
give you away; but I was told that this Baggins would be
going by the name of Underhill, and I was given a description
that fits you well enough, if I may say so.’
‘Indeed! Let’s have it then!’ said Frodo, unwisely inter-
rupting.
‘A stout little fellow with red cheeks,’ said Mr. Butterbur
solemnly. Pippin chuckled, but Sam looked indignant. ‘That
won’t help you much; it goes for most hobbits, Barley, he says to
me,’ continued Mr. Butterbur with a glance at Pippin. ‘But
this one is taller than some and fairer than most, and he has a
cleft in his chin: perky chap with a bright eye. Begging your
pardon, but he said it, not me.’
‘He said it? And who was he?’ asked Frodo eagerly.
‘Ah! That was Gandalf, if you know who I mean. A wizard
they say he is, but he’s a good friend of mine, whether or no.
But now I don’t know what he’ll have to say to me, if I see
him again: turn all my ale sour or me into a block of wood, I
shouldn’t wonder. He’s a bit hasty. Still what’s done can’t be
undone.’
‘Well, what have you done?’ said Frodo, getting impatient
with the slow unravelling of Butterbur’s thoughts.
‘Where was I?’ said the landlord, pausing and snapping his
fingers. ‘Ah, yes! Old Gandalf. Three months back he walked
right into my room without a knock. Barley, he says, I’m off
in the morning. Will you do something for me? You’ve only to
name it, I said. I’m in a hurry, said he, and I’ve no time myself,
but I want a message took to the Shire. Have you anyone you
can send, and trust to go? I can find someone, I said, tomorrow,
maybe, or the day after. Make it tomorrow, he says, and then
he gave me a letter.
‘It’s addressed plain enough,’ said Mr. Butterbur, pro-
ducing a letter from his pocket, and reading out the
address slowly and proudly (he valued his reputation as a
lettered man):
strider 219
Mr. FRODO BAGGINS, BAG END, HOBBITON
in the SHIRE.
‘A letter for me from Gandalf !’ cried Frodo.
‘Ah!’ said Mr. Butterbur. ‘Then your right name is
Baggins?’
‘It is,’ said Frodo, ‘and you had better give me that letter
at once, and explain why you never sent it. That’s what you
came to tell me, I suppose, though you’ve taken a long time
to come to the point.’
Poor Mr. Butterbur looked troubled. ‘You’re right, master,’
he said, ‘and I beg your pardon. And I’m mortal afraid of
what Gandalf will say, if harm comes of it. But I didn’t keep
it back a-purpose. I put it by safe. Then I couldn’t find
nobody willing to go to the Shire next day, nor the day after,
and none of my own folk were to spare; and then one thing
after another drove it out of my mind. I’m a busy man. I’ll
do what I can to set matters right, and if there’s any help I
can give, you’ve only to name it.
‘Leaving the letter aside, I promised Gandalf no less.
Barley, he says to me, this friend of mine from the Shire, he may
be coming out this way before long, him and another. He’ll be
calling himself Underhill. Mind that! But you need ask no
questions. And if I’m not with him, he may be in trouble, and he
may need help. Do whatever you can for him, and I’ll be grateful,
he says. And here you are, and trouble is not far off,
seemingly.’
‘What do you mean?’ asked Frodo.
‘These black men,’ said the landlord lowering his voice.
‘They’re looking for Baggins, and if they mean well, then I’m
a hobbit. It was on Monday, and all the dogs were yammering
and the geese screaming. Uncanny, I called it. Nob, he came
and told me that two black men were at the door asking for
a hobbit called Baggins. Nob’s hair was all stood on end. I
bid the black fellows be off, and slammed the door on them;
but they’ve been asking the same question all the way to
Archet, I hear. And that Ranger, Strider, he’s been asking
220 the fellowship of the ring
questions, too. Tried to get in here to see you, before you’d
had bite or sup, he did.’
‘He did!’ said Strider suddenly, coming forward into the
light. ‘And much trouble would have been saved, if you had
let him in, Barliman.’
The landlord jumped with surprise. ‘You!’ he cried.
‘You’re always popping up. What do you want now?’
‘He’s here with my leave,’ said Frodo. ‘He came to offer
me his help.’
‘Well, you know your own business, maybe,’ said Mr.
Butterbur, looking suspiciously at Strider. ‘But if I was in
your plight, I wouldn’t take up with a Ranger.’
‘Then who would you take up with?’ asked Strider. ‘A fat
innkeeper who only remembers his own name because people
shout it at him all day? They cannot stay in The Pony for
ever, and they cannot go home. They have a long road before
them. Will you go with them and keep the black men off ?’
‘Me? Leave Bree! I wouldn’t do that for any money,’ said
Mr. Butterbur, looking really scared. ‘But why can’t you stay
here quiet for a bit, Mr. Underhill? What are all these queer
goings on? What are these black men after, and where do
they come from, I’d like to know?’
‘I’m sorry I can’t explain it all,’ answered Frodo. ‘I am tired
and very worried, and it’s a long tale. But if you mean to help
me, I ought to warn you that you will be in danger as long as
I am in your house. These Black Riders: I am not sure, but
I think, I fear they come from——’
‘They come from Mordor,’ said Strider in a low voice.
‘From Mordor, Barliman, if that means anything to you.’
‘Save us!’ cried Mr. Butterbur turning pale; the name evi-
dently was known to him. ‘That is the worst news that has
come to Bree in my time.’
‘It is,’ said Frodo. ‘Are you still willing to help me?’
‘I am,’ said Mr. Butterbur. ‘More than ever. Though I
don’t know what the likes of me can do against, against——’
he faltered.
‘Against the Shadow in the East,’ said Strider quietly. ‘Not
strider 221
much, Barliman, but every little helps. You can let Mr.
Underhill stay here tonight, as Mr. Underhill; and you can
forget the name of Baggins, till he is far away.’
‘I’ll do that,’ said Butterbur. ‘But they’ll find out he’s here
without help from me, I’m afraid. It’s a pity Mr. Baggins
drew attention to himself this evening, to say no more. The
story of that Mr. Bilbo’s going off has been heard before
tonight in Bree. Even our Nob has been doing some guessing
in his slow pate; and there are others in Bree quicker in the
uptake than he is.’
‘Well, we can only hope the Riders won’t come back yet,’
said Frodo.
‘I hope not, indeed,’ said Butterbur. ‘But spooks or no
spooks, they won’t get in The Pony so easy. Don’t you worry
till the morning. Nob’ll say no word. No black man shall pass
my doors, while I can stand on my legs. Me and my folk’ll keep
watch tonight; but you had best get some sleep, if you can.’
‘In any case we must be called at dawn,’ said Frodo. ‘We
must get off as early as possible. Breakfast at six-thirty, please.’
‘Right! I’ll see to the orders,’ said the landlord. ‘Good night,
Mr. Baggins – Underhill, I should say! Good night – now,
bless me! Where’s your Mr. Brandybuck?’
‘I don’t know,’ said Frodo with sudden anxiety. They had
forgotten all about Merry, and it was getting late. ‘I am afraid
he is out. He said something about going for a breath of air.’
‘Well, you do want looking after and no mistake: your party
might be on a holiday!’ said Butterbur. ‘I must go and bar
the doors quick, but I’ll see your friend is let in when he
comes. I’d better send Nob to look for him. Good night to
you all!’ At last Mr. Butterbur went out, with another doubt-
ful look at Strider and a shake of his head. His footsteps
retreated down the passage.
‘Well?’ said Strider. ‘When are you going to open that letter?’
Frodo looked carefully at the seal before he broke it. It seemed
certainly to be Gandalf ’s. Inside, written in the wizard’s
strong but graceful script, was the following message:
222 the fellowship of the ring
THE PRANCING PONY, BREE. Midyear’s Day, Shire Year,
1418.
Dear Frodo,
Bad news has reached me here. I must go off at once. You had
better leave Bag End soon, and get out of the Shire before the end
of July at latest. I will return as soon as I can; and I will follow
you, if I find that you are gone. Leave a message for me here, if
you pass through Bree. You can trust the landlord (Butterbur).
You may meet a friend of mine on the Road: a Man, lean, dark,
tall, by some called Strider. He knows our business and will help
you. Make for Rivendell. There I hope we may meet again. If I
do not come, Elrond will advise you.
Yours in haste
GANDALF.
PS. Do NOT use It again, not for any reason whatever! Do
not travel by night!
PPS. Make sure that it is the real Strider. There are many
strange men on the roads. His true name is Aragorn.
All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.
PPPS. I hope Butterbur sends this promptly. A worthy
man, but his memory is like a lumber-
room: thing wanted always buried.
If he forgets, I shall roast him.
Fare Well!
strider 223
Frodo read the letter to himself, and then passed it to
Pippin and Sam. ‘Really old Butterbur has made a mess of
things!’ he said. ‘He deserves roasting. If I had got this at
once, we might all have been safe in Rivendell by now. But
what can have happened to Gandalf ? He writes as if he was
going into great danger.’
‘He has been doing that for many years,’ said Strider.
Frodo turned and looked at him thoughtfully, wondering
about Gandalf ’s second postscript. ‘Why didn’t you tell me
that you were Gandalf ’s friend at once?’ he asked. ‘It would
have saved time.’
‘Would it? Would any of you have believed me till now?’
said Strider. ‘I knew nothing of this letter. For all I knew I
had to persuade you to trust me without proofs, if I was to
help you. In any case, I did not intend to tell you all about
myself at once. I had to study you first, and make sure
of you. The Enemy has set traps for me before now. As
soon as I had made up my mind, I was ready to tell you
whatever you asked. But I must admit,’ he added with a
queer laugh, ‘that I hoped you would take to me for my
own sake. A hunted man sometimes wearies of distrust and
longs for friendship. But there, I believe my looks are against
me.’
‘They are – at first sight at any rate,’ laughed Pippin with
sudden relief after reading Gandalf ’s letter. ‘But handsome
is as handsome does, as we say in the Shire; and I daresay
we shall all look much the same after lying for days in hedges
and ditches.’
‘It would take more than a few days, or weeks, or years, of
wandering in the Wild to make you look like Strider,’ he
answered. ‘And you would die first, unless you are made of
sterner stuff than you look to be.’
Pippin subsided; but Sam was not daunted, and he still
eyed Strider dubiously. ‘How do we know you are the Strider
that Gandalf speaks about?’ he demanded. ‘You never men-
tioned Gandalf, till this letter came out. You might be a
play-acting spy, for all I can see, trying to get us to go with
224 the fellowship of the ring
you. You might have done in the real Strider and took his
clothes. What have you to say to that?’
‘That you are a stout fellow,’ answered Strider; ‘but I am
afraid my only answer to you, Sam Gamgee, is this. If I had
killed the real Strider, I could kill you. And I should have
killed you already without so much talk. If I was after the
Ring, I could have it – now!’
He stood up, and seemed suddenly to grow taller. In his
eyes gleamed a light, keen and commanding. Throwing back
his cloak, he laid his hand on the hilt of a sword that had
hung concealed by his side. They did not dare to move. Sam
sat wide-mouthed staring at him dumbly.
‘But I am the real Strider, fortunately,’ he said, looking
down at them with his face softened by a sudden smile. ‘I am
Aragorn son of Arathorn; and if by life or death I can save
you, I will.’
There was a long silence. At last Frodo spoke with hesita-
tion. ‘I believed that you were a friend before the letter came,’
he said, ‘or at least I wished to. You have frightened me
several times tonight, but never in the way that servants of
the Enemy would, or so I imagine. I think one of his spies
would – well, seem fairer and feel fouler, if you understand.’
‘I see,’ laughed Strider. ‘I look foul and feel fair. Is that it?
All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost.’
‘Did the verses apply to you then?’ asked Frodo. ‘I could
not make out what they were about. But how did you know
that they were in Gandalf ’s letter, if you have never seen it?’
‘I did not know,’ he answered. ‘But I am Aragorn, and
those verses go with that name.’ He drew out his sword, and
they saw that the blade was indeed broken a foot below the
hilt. ‘Not much use is it, Sam?’ said Strider. ‘But the time is
near when it shall be forged anew.’
Sam said nothing.
‘Well,’ said Strider, ‘with Sam’s permission we will call that
settled. Strider shall be your guide. And now I think it is time
you went to bed and took what rest you can. We shall have
strider 225
a rough road tomorrow. Even if we are allowed to leave Bree
unhindered, we can hardly hope now to leave it unnoticed.
But I shall try to get lost as soon as possible. I know one or
two ways out of Bree-land other than the main road. If once
we shake off the pursuit, I shall make for Weathertop.’
‘Weathertop?’ said Sam. ‘What’s that?’
‘It is a hill, just to the north of the Road, about half way
from here to Rivendell. It commands a wide view all round;
and there we shall have a chance to look about us. Gandalf
will make for that point, if he follows us. After Weathertop
our journey will become more difficult, and we shall have to
choose between various dangers.’
‘When did you last see Gandalf ?’ asked Frodo. ‘Do you
know where he is, or what he is doing?’
Strider looked grave. ‘I do not know,’ he said. ‘I came west
with him in the spring. I have often kept watch on the borders
of the Shire in the last few years, when he was busy elsewhere.
He seldom left it unguarded. We last met on the first of May:
at Sarn Ford down the Brandywine. He told me that his
business with you had gone well, and that you would be
starting for Rivendell in the last week of September. As I
knew he was at your side, I went away on a journey of my
own. And that has proved ill; for plainly some news reached
him, and I was not at hand to help.
‘I am troubled, for the first time since I have known him.
We should have had messages, even if he could not come
himself. When I returned, many days ago, I heard the ill
news. The tidings had gone far and wide that Gandalf
was missing and the horsemen had been seen. It was the
Elven-folk of Gildor that told me this; and later they told me
that you had left your home; but there was no news of your
leaving Buckland. I have been watching the East Road
anxiously.’
‘Do you think the Black Riders have anything to do with
it – with Gandalf ’s absence, I mean?’ asked Frodo.
‘I do not know of anything else that could have hindered
him, except the Enemy himself,’ said Strider. ‘But do not
226 the fellowship of the ring
give up hope! Gandalf is greater than you Shire-folk know –
as a rule you can only see his jokes and toys. But this business
of ours will be his greatest task.’
Pippin yawned. ‘I am sorry,’ he said, ‘but I am dead tired.
In spite of all the danger and worry I must go to bed, or
sleep where I sit. Where is that silly fellow, Merry? It would
be the last straw, if we had to go out in the dark to look for
him.’
At that moment they heard a door slam; then feet came
running along the passage. Merry came in with a rush fol-
lowed by Nob. He shut the door hastily, and leaned against
it. He was out of breath. They stared at him in alarm for a
moment before he gasped: ‘I have seen them, Frodo! I have
seen them! Black Riders!’
‘Black Riders!’ cried Frodo. ‘Where?’
‘Here. In the village. I stayed indoors for an hour. Then as
you did not come back, I went out for a stroll. I had come
back again and was standing just outside the light of the
lamp looking at the stars. Suddenly I shivered and felt that
something horrible was creeping near: there was a sort of
deeper shade among the shadows across the road, just beyond
the edge of the lamplight. It slid away at once into the dark
without a sound. There was no horse.’
‘Which way did it go?’ asked Strider, suddenly and sharply.
Merry started, noticing the stranger for the first time. ‘Go
on!’ said Frodo. ‘This is a friend of Gandalf ’s. I will explain
later.’
‘It seemed to make off up the Road, eastward,’ continued
Merry. ‘I tried to follow. Of course, it vanished almost at
once; but I went round the corner and on as far as the last
house on the Road.’
Strider looked at Merry with wonder. ‘You have a stout
heart,’ he said; ‘but it was foolish.’
‘I don’t know,’ said Merry. ‘Neither brave nor silly, I think.
I could hardly help myself. I seemed to be drawn somehow.
Anyway, I went, and suddenly I heard voices by the hedge.
strider 227
One was muttering; and the other was whispering, or hissing.
I couldn’t hear a word that was said. I did not creep any
closer, because I began to tremble all over. Then I felt terri-
fied, and I turned back, and was just going to bolt home,
when something came behind me and I . . . I fell over.’
‘I found him, sir,’ put in Nob. ‘Mr. Butterbur sent me out
with a lantern. I went down to West-gate, and then back up
towards South-gate. Just nigh Bill Ferny’s house I thought I
could see something in the Road. I couldn’t swear to it, but
it looked to me as if two men was stooping over something,
lifting it. I gave a shout, but when I got up to the spot there
was no signs of them, and only Mr. Brandybuck lying by the
roadside. He seemed to be asleep. ‘‘I thought I had fallen into
deep water,’’ he says to me, when I shook him. Very queer
he was, and as soon as I had roused him, he got up and ran
back here like a hare.’
‘I am afraid that’s true,’ said Merry, ‘though I don’t know
what I said. I had an ugly dream, which I can’t remember.
I went to pieces. I don’t know what came over me.’
‘I do,’ said Strider. ‘The Black Breath. The Riders must
have left their horses outside, and passed back through the
South-gate in secret. They will know all the news now, for
they have visited Bill Ferny; and probably that Southerner
was a spy as well. Something may happen in the night, before
we leave Bree.’
‘What will happen?’ said Merry. ‘Will they attack the inn?’
‘No, I think not,’ said Strider. ‘They are not all here yet.
And in any case that is not their way. In dark and loneliness
they are strongest; they will not openly attack a house where
there are lights and many people – not until they are des-
perate, not while all the long leagues of Eriador still lie before
us. But their power is in terror, and already some in Bree are
in their clutch. They will drive these wretches to some evil
work: Ferny, and some of the strangers, and, maybe, the
gatekeeper too. They had words with Harry at West-gate on
Monday. I was watching them. He was white and shaking
when they left him.’
228 the fellowship of the ring
‘We seem to have enemies all round,’ said Frodo. ‘What
are we to do?’
‘Stay here, and do not go to your rooms! They are sure to
have found out which those are. The hobbit-rooms have
windows looking north and close to the ground. We will all
remain together and bar this window and the door. But first
Nob and I will fetch your luggage.’
While Strider was gone, Frodo gave Merry a rapid account
of all that had happened since supper. Merry was still read-
ing and pondering Gandalf ’s letter when Strider and Nob
returned.
‘Well Masters,’ said Nob, ‘I’ve ruffled up the clothes and
put in a bolster down the middle of each bed. And I made a
nice imitation of your head with a brown woollen mat, Mr.
Bag – Underhill, sir,’ he added with a grin.
Pippin laughed. ‘Very life-like!’ he said. ‘But what will
happen when they have penetrated the disguise?’
‘We shall see,’ said Strider. ‘Let us hope to hold the fort
till morning.’
‘Good night to you,’ said Nob, and went off to take his
part in the watch on the doors.
Their bags and gear they piled on the parlour-floor. They
pushed a low chair against the door and shut the window.
Peering out, Frodo saw that the night was still clear. The
Sickle* was swinging bright above the shoulders of Bree-hill.
He then closed and barred the heavy inside shutters and drew
the curtains together. Strider built up the fire and blew out
all the candles.
The hobbits lay down on their blankets with their feet
towards the hearth; but Strider settled himself in the chair
against the door. They talked for a little, for Merry still had
several questions to ask.
‘Jumped over the Moon!’ chuckled Merry as he rolled him-
self in his blanket. ‘Very ridiculous of you, Frodo! But I wish
* The Hobbits’ name for the Plough or Great Bear.
strider 229
I had been there to see. The worthies of Bree will be dis-
cussing it a hundred years hence.’
‘I hope so,’ said Strider. Then they all fell silent, and one
by one the hobbits dropped off to sleep.
Chapter 11
A KNIFE IN THE DARK
As they prepared for sleep in the inn at Bree, darkness lay on
Buckland; a mist strayed in the dells and along the river-bank.
The house at Crickhollow stood silent. Fatty Bolger opened
the door cautiously and peered out. A feeling of fear had
been growing on him all day, and he was unable to rest or go
to bed: there was a brooding threat in the breathless night-air.
As he stared out into the gloom, a black shadow moved under
the trees; the gate seemed to open of its own accord and close
again without a sound. Terror seized him. He shrank back,
and for a moment he stood trembling in the hall. Then he
shut and locked the door.
The night deepened. There came the soft sound of horses
led with stealth along the lane. Outside the gate they stopped,
and three black figures entered, like shades of night creeping
across the ground. One went to the door, one to the corner
of the house on either side; and there they stood, as still as
the shadows of stones, while night went slowly on. The house
and the quiet trees seemed to be waiting breathlessly.
There was a faint stir in the leaves, and a cock crowed far
away. The cold hour before dawn was passing. The figure
by the door moved. In the dark without moon or stars a
drawn blade gleamed, as if a chill light had been unsheathed.
There was a blow, soft but heavy, and the door shuddered.
‘Open, in the name of Mordor!’ said a voice thin and
menacing.
At a second blow the door yielded and fell back, with
timbers burst and lock broken. The black figures passed
swiftly in.
At that moment, among the trees nearby, a horn rang out.
It rent the night like fire on a hill-top.
a knife in the dark 231
awake! fear! fire! foes! awake!
Fatty Bolger had not been idle. As soon as he saw the dark
shapes creep from the garden, he knew that he must run for
it, or perish. And run he did, out of the back door, through
the garden, and over the fields. When he reached the nearest
house, more than a mile away, he collapsed on the doorstep.
‘No, no, no!’ he was crying. ‘No, not me! I haven’t got it!’ It
was some time before anyone could make out what he was
babbling about. At last they got the idea that enemies were
in Buckland, some strange invasion from the Old Forest. And
then they lost no more time.
fear! fire! foes!
The Brandybucks were blowing the Horn-call of Buckland,
that had not been sounded for a hundred years, not since the
white wolves came in the Fell Winter, when the Brandywine
was frozen over.
awake! awake!
Far away answering horns were heard. The alarm was
spreading.
The black figures fled from the house. One of them let fall
a hobbit-cloak on the step, as he ran. In the lane the noise of
hoofs broke out, and gathering to a gallop, went hammering
away into the darkness. All about Crickhollow there was the
sound of horns blowing, and voices crying and feet running.
But the Black Riders rode like a gale to the North-gate. Let
the little people blow! Sauron would deal with them later.
Meanwhile they had another errand: they knew now that the
house was empty and the Ring had gone. They rode down
the guards at the gate and vanished from the Shire.
***
232 the fellowship of the ring
In the early night Frodo woke from deep sleep, suddenly,
as if some sound or presence had disturbed him. He saw that
Strider was sitting alert in his chair: his eyes gleamed in the
light of the fire, which had been tended and was burning
brightly; but he made no sign or movement.
Frodo soon went to sleep again; but his dreams were again
troubled with the noise of wind and of galloping hoofs. The
wind seemed to be curling round the house and shaking it;
and far off he heard a horn blowing wildly. He opened his
eyes, and heard a cock crowing lustily in the inn-yard. Strider
had drawn the curtains and pushed back the shutters with a
clang. The first grey light of day was in the room, and a cold
air was coming through the open window.
As soon as Strider had roused them all, he led the way to
their bedrooms. When they saw them they were glad that
they had taken his advice: the windows had been forced open
and were swinging, and the curtains were flapping; the beds
were tossed about, and the bolsters slashed and flung upon
the floor; the brown mat was torn to pieces.
Strider immediately went to fetch the landlord. Poor Mr.
Butterbur looked sleepy and frightened. He had hardly closed
his eyes all night (so he said), but he had never heard a sound.
‘Never has such a thing happened in my time!’ he cried,
raising his hands in horror. ‘Guests unable to sleep in their
beds, and good bolsters ruined and all! What are we coming
to?’
‘Dark times,’ said Strider. ‘But for the present you may be
left in peace, when you have got rid of us. We will leave at
once. Never mind about breakfast: a drink and a bite standing
will have to do. We shall be packed in a few minutes.’
Mr. Butterbur hurried off to see that their ponies were got
ready, and to fetch them a ‘bite’. But very soon he came back
in dismay. The ponies had vanished! The stable-doors had
all been opened in the night, and they were gone: not only
Merry’s ponies, but every other horse and beast in the place.
Frodo was crushed by the news. How could they hope to
reach Rivendell on foot, pursued by mounted enemies? They
a knife in the dark 233
might as well set out for the Moon. Strider sat silent for a
while, looking at the hobbits, as if he was weighing up their
strength and courage.
‘Ponies would not help us to escape horsemen,’ he said at
last, thoughtfully, as if he guessed what Frodo had in mind.
‘We should not go much slower on foot, not on the roads
that I mean to take. I was going to walk in any case. It is the
food and stores that trouble me. We cannot count on getting
anything to eat between here and Rivendell, except what we
take with us; and we ought to take plenty to spare; for we
may be delayed, or forced to go round-about, far out of the
direct way. How much are you prepared to carry on your
backs?’
‘As much as we must,’ said Pippin with a sinking heart,
but trying to show that he was tougher than he looked (or
felt).
‘I can carry enough for two,’ said Sam defiantly.
‘Can’t anything be done, Mr. Butterbur?’ asked Frodo.
‘Can’t we get a couple of ponies in the village, or even one
just for the baggage? I don’t suppose we could hire them,
but we might be able to buy them,’ he added, doubtfully,
wondering if he could afford it.
‘I doubt it,’ said the landlord unhappily. ‘The two or three
riding-ponies that there were in Bree were stabled in my yard,
and they’re gone. As for other animals, horses or ponies for
draught or what not, there are very few of them in Bree, and
they won’t be for sale. But I’ll do what I can. I’ll rout out Bob
and send him round as soon as may be.’
‘Yes,’ said Strider reluctantly, ‘you had better do that. I am
afraid we shall have to try to get one pony at least. But so
ends all hope of starting early, and slipping away quietly! We
might as well have blown a horn to announce our departure.
That was part of their plan, no doubt.’
‘There is one crumb of comfort,’ said Merry, ‘and more
than a crumb, I hope: we can have breakfast while we wait –
and sit down to it. Let’s get hold of Nob!’
***
234 the fellowship of the ring
In the end there was more than three hours’ delay. Bob
came back with the report that no horse or pony was to be
got for love or money in the neighbourhood – except one:
Bill Ferny had one that he might possibly sell. ‘A poor old
half-starved creature it is,’ said Bob; ‘but he won’t part with
it for less than thrice its worth, seeing how you’re placed, not
if I knows Bill Ferny.’
‘Bill Ferny?’ said Frodo. ‘Isn’t there some trick? Wouldn’t
the beast bolt back to him with all our stuff, or help in tracking
us, or something?’
‘I wonder,’ said Strider. ‘But I cannot imagine any animal
running home to him, once it got away. I fancy this is only
an afterthought of kind Master Ferny’s: just a way of increas-
ing his profits from the affair. The chief danger is that the
poor beast is probably at death’s door. But there does not
seem any choice. What does he want for it?’
Bill Ferny’s price was twelve silver pennies; and that was
indeed at least three times the pony’s value in those parts. It
proved to be a bony, underfed, and dispirited animal; but
it did not look like dying just yet. Mr. Butterbur paid for it
himself, and offered Merry another eighteen pence as some
compensation for the lost animals. He was an honest man,
and well-off as things were reckoned in Bree; but thirty silver
pennies was a sore blow to him, and being cheated by Bill
Ferny made it harder to bear.
As a matter of fact he came out on the right side in the
end. It turned out later that only one horse had been actually
stolen. The others had been driven off, or had bolted in
terror, and were found wandering in different corners of
the Bree-land. Merry’s ponies had escaped altogether, and
eventually (having a good deal of sense) they made their way
to the Downs in search of Fatty Lumpkin. So they came
under the care of Tom Bombadil for a while, and were well-
off. But when news of the events at Bree came to Tom’s ears,
he sent them to Mr. Butterbur, who thus got five good beasts
at a very fair price. They had to work harder in Bree, but
Bob treated them well; so on the whole they were lucky: they
a knife in the dark 235
missed a dark and dangerous journey. But they never came
to Rivendell.
However, in the meanwhile for all Mr. Butterbur knew his
money was gone for good, or for bad. And he had other
troubles. For there was a great commotion as soon as the
remaining guests were astir and heard news of the raid on
the inn. The southern travellers had lost several horses and
blamed the innkeeper loudly, until it became known that one
of their own number had also disappeared in the night, none
other than Bill Ferny’s squint-eyed companion. Suspicion fell
on him at once.
‘If you pick up with a horse-thief, and bring him to my
house,’ said Butterbur angrily, ‘you ought to pay for all the
damage yourselves and not come shouting at me. Go and ask
Ferny where your handsome friend is!’ But it appeared that
he was nobody’s friend, and nobody could recollect when he
had joined their party.
After their breakfast the hobbits had to re-pack, and get
together further supplies for the longer journey they were
now expecting. It was close on ten o’clock before they at last
got off. By that time the whole of Bree was buzzing with
excitement. Frodo’s vanishing trick; the appearance of the
black horsemen; the robbing of the stables; and not least
the news that Strider the Ranger had joined the mysterious
hobbits, made such a tale as would last for many uneventful
years. Most of the inhabitants of Bree and Staddle, and many
even from Combe and Archet, were crowded in the road to
see the travellers start. The other guests in the inn were at
the doors or hanging out of the windows.
Strider had changed his mind, and had decided to leave
Bree by the main road. Any attempt to set off across country
at once would only make matters worse: half the inhabitants
would follow them, to see what they were up to, and to
prevent them from trespassing.
They said farewell to Nob and Bob, and took leave of Mr.
Butterbur with many thanks. ‘I hope we shall meet again
236 the fellowship of the ring
some day, when things are merry once more,’ said Frodo. ‘I
should like nothing better than to stay in your house in peace
for a while.’
They tramped off, anxious and downhearted, under the
eyes of the crowd. Not all the faces were friendly, nor all the
words that were shouted. But Strider seemed to be held in
awe by most of the Bree-landers, and those that he stared at
shut their mouths and drew away. He walked in front with
Frodo; next came Merry and Pippin; and last came Sam
leading the pony, which was laden with as much of their
baggage as they had the heart to give it; but already it looked
less dejected, as if it approved of the change in its fortunes.
Sam was chewing an apple thoughtfully. He had a pocket full
of them: a parting present from Nob and Bob. ‘Apples for
walking, and a pipe for sitting,’ he said. ‘But I reckon I’ll miss
them both before long.’
The hobbits took no notice of the inquisitive heads that
peeped out of doors, or popped over walls and fences, as
they passed. But as they drew near to the further gate, Frodo
saw a dark ill-kept house behind a thick hedge: the last house
in the village. In one of the windows he caught a glimpse of
a sallow face with sly, slanting eyes; but it vanished at once.
‘So that’s where that southerner is hiding!’ he thought. ‘He
looks more than half like a goblin.’
Over the hedge another man was staring boldly. He had
heavy black brows, and dark scornful eyes; his large mouth
curled in a sneer. He was smoking a short black pipe. As they
approached he took it out of his mouth and spat.
‘Morning, Longshanks!’ he said. ‘Off early? Found some
friends at last?’ Strider nodded, but did not answer.
‘Morning, my little friends!’ he said to the others. ‘I sup-
pose you know who you’ve taken up with? That’s Stick-at-
naught Strider, that is! Though I’ve heard other names not
so pretty. Watch out tonight! And you, Sammie, don’t go
ill-treating my poor old pony! Pah!’ He spat again.
Sam turned quickly. ‘And you, Ferny,’ he said, ‘put your
ugly face out of sight, or it will get hurt.’ With a sudden flick,
a knife in the dark 237
quick as lightning, an apple left his hand and hit Bill square
on the nose. He ducked too late, and curses came from
behind the hedge. ‘Waste of a good apple,’ said Sam regret-
fully, and strode on.
At last they left the village behind. The escort of children
and stragglers that had followed them got tired and turned
back at the South-gate. Passing through, they kept on along
the Road for some miles. It bent to the left, curving back into
its eastward line as it rounded the feet of Bree-hill, and then
it began to run swiftly downwards into wooded country. To
their left they could see some of the houses and hobbit-holes
of Staddle on the gentler south-eastern slopes of the hill;
down in a deep hollow away north of the Road there were
wisps of rising smoke that showed where Combe lay; Archet
was hidden in the trees beyond.
After the Road had run down some way, and had left
Bree-hill standing tall and brown behind, they came on a
narrow track that led off towards the North. ‘This is where
we leave the open and take to cover,’ said Strider.
‘Not a ‘‘short cut’’, I hope,’ said Pippin. ‘Our last short cut
through woods nearly ended in disaster.’
‘Ah, but you had not got me with you then,’ laughed
Strider. ‘My cuts, short or long, don’t go wrong.’ He took a
look up and down the Road. No one was in sight; and he led
the way quickly down towards the wooded valley.
His plan, as far as they could understand it without know-
ing the country, was to go towards Archet at first, but to bear
right and pass it on the east, and then to steer as straight as
he could over the wild lands to Weathertop Hill. In that way
they would, if all went well, cut off a great loop of the Road,
which further on bent southwards to avoid the Midgewater
Marshes. But, of course, they would have to pass through
the marshes themselves, and Strider’s description of them
was not encouraging.
However, in the meanwhile, walking was not unpleasant.
Indeed, if it had not been for the disturbing events of the
238 the fellowship of the ring
night before, they would have enjoyed this part of the journey
better than any up to that time. The sun was shining, clear
but not too hot. The woods in the valley were still leafy and
full of colour, and seemed peaceful and wholesome. Strider
guided them confidently among the many crossing paths,
although left to themselves they would soon have been at a
loss. He was taking a wandering course with many turns and
doublings, to put off any pursuit.
‘Bill Ferny will have watched where we left the Road, for
certain,’ he said; ‘though I don’t think he will follow us him-
self. He knows the land round here well enough, but he knows
he is not a match for me in a wood. It is what he may tell
others that I am afraid of. I don’t suppose they are far away.
If they think we have made for Archet, so much the better.’
Whether because of Strider’s skill or for some other reason,
they saw no sign and heard no sound of any other living thing
all that day: neither two-footed, except birds; nor four-footed,
except one fox and a few squirrels. The next day they began
to steer a steady course eastwards; and still all was quiet and
peaceful. On the third day out from Bree they came out of the
Chetwood. The land had been falling steadily, ever since they
turned aside from the Road, and they now entered a wide flat
expanse of country, much more difficult to manage. They were
far beyond the borders of the Bree-land, out in the pathless
wilderness, and drawing near to the Midgewater Marshes.
The ground now became damp, and in places boggy and
here and there they came upon pools, and wide stretches of
reeds and rushes filled with the warbling of little hidden birds.
They had to pick their way carefully to keep both dry-footed
and on their proper course. At first they made fair progress,
but as they went on, their passage became slower and more
dangerous. The marshes were bewildering and treacherous,
and there was no permanent trail even for Rangers to find
through their shifting quagmires. The flies began to torment
them, and the air was full of clouds of tiny midges that crept
up their sleeves and breeches and into their hair.
a knife in the dark 239
‘I am being eaten alive!’ cried Pippin. ‘Midgewater! There
are more midges than water!’
‘What do they live on when they can’t get hobbit?’ asked
Sam, scratching his neck.
They spent a miserable day in this lonely and unpleasant
country. Their camping-place was damp, cold, and uncom-
fortable; and the biting insects would not let them sleep.
There were also abominable creatures haunting the reeds and
tussocks that from the sound of them were evil relatives of the
cricket. There were thousands of them, and they squeaked all
round, neek-breek, breek-neek, unceasingly all the night, until
the hobbits were nearly frantic.
The next day, the fourth, was little better, and the night
almost as comfortless. Though the Neekerbreekers (as Sam
called them) had been left behind, the midges still pursued
them.
As Frodo lay, tired but unable to close his eyes, it seemed
to him that far away there came a light in the eastern sky: it
flashed and faded many times. It was not the dawn, for that
was still some hours off.
‘What is the light?’ he said to Strider, who had risen, and
was standing, gazing ahead into the night.
‘I do not know,’ Strider answered. ‘It is too distant to make
out. It is like lightning that leaps up from the hill-tops.’
Frodo lay down again, but for a long while he could still
see the white flashes, and against them the tall dark figure of
Strider, standing silent and watchful. At last he passed into
uneasy sleep.
They had not gone far on the fifth day when they left the
last straggling pools and reed-beds of the marshes behind
them. The land before them began steadily to rise again.
Away in the distance eastward they could now see a line of
hills. The highest of them was at the right of the line and a
little separated from the others. It had a conical top, slightly
flattened at the summit.
‘That is Weathertop,’ said Strider. ‘The Old Road, which
240 the fellowship of the ring
we have left far away on our right, runs to the south of it and
passes not far from its foot. We might reach it by noon
tomorrow, if we go straight towards it. I suppose we had
better do so.’
‘What do you mean?’ asked Frodo.
‘I mean: when we do get there, it is not certain what we
shall find. It is close to the Road.’
‘But surely we were hoping to find Gandalf there?’
‘Yes; but the hope is faint. If he comes this way at all, he
may not pass through Bree, and so he may not know what
we are doing. And anyway, unless by luck we arrive almost
together, we shall miss one another; it will not be safe for him
or for us to wait there long. If the Riders fail to find us in
the wilderness, they are likely to make for Weathertop them-
selves. It commands a wide view all round. Indeed, there are
many birds and beasts in this country that could see us, as
we stand here, from that hill-top. Not all the birds are to be
trusted, and there are other spies more evil than they are.’
The hobbits looked anxiously at the distant hills. Sam
looked up into the pale sky, fearing to see hawks or eagles
hovering over them with bright unfriendly eyes. ‘You do
make me feel uncomfortable and lonesome, Strider!’ he said.
‘What do you advise us to do?’ asked Frodo.
‘I think,’ answered Strider slowly, as if he was not quite
sure, ‘I think the best thing is to go as straight eastward from
here as we can, to make for the line of hills, not for
Weathertop. There we can strike a path I know that runs at
their feet; it will bring us to Weathertop from the north and
less openly. Then we shall see what we shall see.’
All that day they plodded along, until the cold and early
evening came down. The land became drier and more barren;
but mists and vapours lay behind them on the marshes. A
few melancholy birds were piping and wailing, until the round
red sun sank slowly into the western shadows; then an empty
silence fell. The hobbits thought of the soft light of sunset
glancing through the cheerful windows of Bag End far away.
a knife in the dark 241
At the day’s end they came to a stream that wandered
down from the hills to lose itself in the stagnant marshland,
and they went up along its banks while the light lasted. It was
already night when at last they halted and made their camp
under some stunted alder-trees by the shores of the stream.
Ahead there loomed now against the dusky sky the bleak and
treeless backs of the hills. That night they set a watch, and
Strider, it seemed, did not sleep at all. The moon was waxing,
and in the early night-hours a cold grey light lay on the land.
Next morning they set out again soon after sunrise. There
was a frost in the air, and the sky was a pale clear blue. The
hobbits felt refreshed, as if they had had a night of unbroken
sleep. Already they were getting used to much walking on
short commons – shorter at any rate than what in the Shire
they would have thought barely enough to keep them on their
legs. Pippin declared that Frodo was looking twice the hobbit
that he had been.
‘Very odd,’ said Frodo, tightening his belt, ‘considering
that there is actually a good deal less of me. I hope the
thinning process will not go on indefinitely, or I shall become
a wraith.’
‘Do not speak of such things!’ said Strider quickly, and
with surprising earnestness.
The hills drew nearer. They made an undulating ridge,
often rising almost to a thousand feet, and here and there
falling again to low clefts or passes leading into the eastern
land beyond. Along the crest of the ridge the hobbits could
see what looked to be the remains of green-grown walls and
dikes, and in the clefts there still stood the ruins of old works
of stone. By night they had reached the feet of the westward
slopes, and there they camped. It was the night of the fifth
of October, and they were six days out from Bree.
In the morning they found, for the first time since they had
left the Chetwood, a track plain to see. They turned right
and followed it southwards. It ran cunningly, taking a line
that seemed chosen so as to keep as much hidden as possible
242 the fellowship of the ring
from the view, both of the hill-tops above and of the flats to
the west. It dived into dells, and hugged steep banks; and
where it passed over flatter and more open ground on either
side of it there were lines of large boulders and hewn stones
that screened the travellers almost like a hedge.
‘I wonder who made this path, and what for,’ said Merry,
as they walked along one of these avenues, where the stones
were unusually large and closely set. ‘I am not sure that I like
it: it has a – well, rather a barrow-wightish look. Is there any
barrow on Weathertop?’
‘No. There is no barrow on Weathertop, nor on any of
these hills,’ answered Strider. ‘The Men of the West did not
live here; though in their latter days they defended the hills
for a while against the evil that came out of Angmar. This
path was made to serve the forts along the walls. But long
before, in the first days of the North Kingdom, they built a
great watch-tower on Weathertop, Amon Su
ˆ
l they called it.
It was burned and broken, and nothing remains of it now but
a tumbled ring, like a rough crown on the old hill’s head. Yet
once it was tall and fair. It is told that Elendil stood there
watching for the coming of Gil-galad out of the West, in the
days of the Last Alliance.’
The hobbits gazed at Strider. It seemed that he was learned
in old lore, as well as in the ways of the wild. ‘Who was
Gil-galad?’ asked Merry; but Strider did not answer, and
seemed to be lost in thought. Suddenly a low voice
murmured:
Gil-galad was an Elven-king.
Of him the harpers sadly sing:
the last whose realm was fair and free
between the Mountains and the Sea.
His sword was long, his lance was keen,
his shining helm afar was seen;
the countless stars of heaven’s field
were mirrored in his silver shield.
a knife in the dark 243
But long ago he rode away,
and where he dwelleth none can say;
for into darkness fell his star
in Mordor where the shadows are.
The others turned in amazement, for the voice was Sam’s.
‘Don’t stop!’ said Merry.
‘That’s all I know,’ stammered Sam, blushing. ‘I learned it
from Mr. Bilbo when I was a lad. He used to tell me tales
like that, knowing how I was always one for hearing about
Elves. It was Mr. Bilbo as taught me my letters. He was
mighty book-learned was dear old Mr. Bilbo. And he wrote
poetry. He wrote what I have just said.’
‘He did not make it up,’ said Strider. ‘It is part of the lay
that is called The Fall of Gil-galad, which is in an ancient
tongue. Bilbo must have translated it. I never knew that.’
‘There was a lot more,’ said Sam, ‘all about Mordor. I
didn’t learn that part, it gave me the shivers. I never thought
I should be going that way myself !’
‘Going to Mordor!’ cried Pippin. ‘I hope it won’t come to
that!’
‘Do not speak that name so loudly!’ said Strider.
It was already mid-day when they drew near the southern
end of the path, and saw before them, in the pale clear light
of the October sun, a grey-green bank, leading up like a
bridge on to the northward slope of the hill. They decided
to make for the top at once, while the daylight was broad.
Concealment was no longer possible, and they could only
hope that no enemy or spy was observing them. Nothing was
to be seen moving on the hill. If Gandalf was anywhere about,
there was no sign of him.
On the western flank of Weathertop they found a sheltered
hollow, at the bottom of which there was a bowl-shaped dell
with grassy sides. There they left Sam and Pippin with the
pony and their packs and luggage. The other three went on.
After half an hour’s plodding climb Strider reached the crown
244 the fellowship of the ring
of the hill; Frodo and Merry followed, tired and breathless.
The last slope had been steep and rocky.
On the top they found, as Strider had said, a wide ring of
ancient stone-work, now crumbling or covered with age-long
grass. But in the centre a cairn of broken stones had been
piled. They were blackened as if with fire. About them the
turf was burned to the roots and all within the ring the grass
was scorched and shrivelled, as if flames had swept the hill-
top; but there was no sign of any living thing.
Standing upon the rim of the ruined circle, they saw all
round below them a wide prospect, for the most part of lands
empty and featureless, except for patches of woodland away
to the south, beyond which they caught here and there the
glint of distant water. Beneath them on this southern side
there ran like a ribbon the Old Road, coming out of the West
and winding up and down, until it faded behind a ridge of
dark land to the east. Nothing was moving on it. Following
its line eastward with their eyes they saw the Mountains: the
nearer foothills were brown and sombre; behind them stood
taller shapes of grey, and behind those again were high white
peaks glimmering among the clouds.
‘Well, here we are!’ said Merry. ‘And very cheerless and
uninviting it looks! There is no water and no shelter. And no
sign of Gandalf. But I don’t blame him for not waiting – if
he ever came here.’
‘I wonder,’ said Strider, looking round thoughtfully. ‘Even
if he was a day or two behind us at Bree, he could have
arrived here first. He can ride very swiftly when need presses.’
Suddenly he stooped and looked at the stone on the top of
the cairn; it was flatter than the others, and whiter, as if it
had escaped the fire. He picked it up and examined it, turning
it in his fingers. ‘This has been handled recently,’ he said.
‘What do you think of these marks?’
On the flat under-side Frodo saw some scratches:
.
‘There seems to be a stroke, a dot, and three more strokes,’
he said.
‘The stroke on the left might be a G-rune with thin
a knife in the dark 245
branches,’ said Strider. ‘It might be a sign left by Gandalf,
though one cannot be sure. The scratches are fine, and they
certainly look fresh. But the marks might mean something
quite different, and have nothing to do with us. Rangers use
runes, and they come here sometimes.’
‘What could they mean, even if Gandalf made them?’
asked Merry.
‘I should say,’ answered Strider, ‘that they stood for G3,
and were a sign that Gandalf was here on October the third:
that is three days ago now. It would also show that he was in
a hurry and danger was at hand, so that he had no time or
did not dare to write anything longer or plainer. If that is so,
we must be wary.’
‘I wish we could feel sure that he made the marks, whatever
they may mean,’ said Frodo. ‘It would be a great comfort to
know that he was on the way, in front of us or behind us.’
‘Perhaps,’ said Strider. ‘For myself, I believe that he was
here, and was in danger. There have been scorching flames
here; and now the light that we saw three nights ago in the
eastern sky comes back to my mind. I guess that he was
attacked on this hill-top, but with what result I cannot tell.
He is here no longer, and we must now look after ourselves
and make our own way to Rivendell, as best we can.’
‘How far is Rivendell?’ asked Merry, gazing round wearily.
The world looked wild and wide from Weathertop.
‘I don’t know if the Road has ever been measured in miles
beyond the Forsaken Inn, a day’s journey east of Bree,’
answered Strider. ‘Some say it is so far, and some say other-
wise. It is a strange road, and folk are glad to reach their
journey’s end, whether the time is long or short. But I know
how long it would take me on my own feet, with fair weather
and no ill fortune: twelve days from here to the Ford of
Bruinen, where the Road crosses the Loudwater that runs
out of Rivendell. We have at least a fortnight’s journey before
us, for I do not think we shall be able to use the Road.’
‘A fortnight!’ said Frodo. ‘A lot may happen in that time.’
‘It may,’ said Strider.
246 the fellowship of the ring
They stood for a while silent on the hill-top, near its south-
ward edge. In that lonely place Frodo for the first time fully
realized his homelessness and danger. He wished bitterly that
his fortune had left him in the quiet and beloved Shire. He
stared down at the hateful Road, leading back westward – to
his home. Suddenly he was aware that two black specks were
moving slowly along it, going westward; and looking again
he saw that three others were creeping eastward to meet
them. He gave a cry and clutched Strider’s arm.
‘Look,’ he said, pointing downwards.
At once Strider flung himself on the ground behind the
ruined circle, pulling Frodo down beside him. Merry threw
himself alongside.
‘What is it?’ he whispered.
‘I do not know, but I fear the worst,’ answered Strider.
Slowly they crawled up to the edge of the ring again, and
peered through a cleft between two jagged stones. The light
was no longer bright, for the clear morning had faded, and
clouds creeping out of the East had now overtaken the sun,
as it began to go down. They could all see the black specks,
but neither Frodo nor Merry could make out their shapes for
certain; yet something told them that there, far below, were
Black Riders assembling on the Road beyond the foot of the
hill.
‘Yes,’ said Strider, whose keener sight left him in no doubt.
‘The enemy is here!’
Hastily they crept away and slipped down the north side
of the hill to find their companions.
Sam and Peregrin had not been idle. They had explored
the small dell and the surrounding slopes. Not far away they
found a spring of clear water in the hillside, and near it
footprints not more than a day or two old. In the dell itself
they found recent traces of a fire, and other signs of a hasty
camp. There were some fallen rocks on the edge of the dell
nearest to the hill. Behind them Sam came upon a small store
of firewood neatly stacked.
a knife in the dark 247
‘I wonder if old Gandalf has been here,’ he said to Pippin.
‘Whoever it was put this stuff here meant to come back it
seems.’
Strider was greatly interested in these discoveries. ‘I wish I
had waited and explored the ground down here myself,’ he
said, hurrying off to the spring to examine the footprints.
‘It is just as I feared,’ he said, when he came back. ‘Sam
and Pippin have trampled the soft ground, and the marks are
spoilt or confused. Rangers have been here lately. It is they
who left the firewood behind. But there are also several newer
tracks that were not made by Rangers. At least one set was
made, only a day or two ago, by heavy boots. At least one. I
cannot now be certain, but I think there were many booted
feet.’ He paused and stood in anxious thought.
Each of the hobbits saw in his mind a vision of the cloaked
and booted Riders. If the horsemen had already found the dell,
the sooner Strider led them somewhere else the better. Sam
viewed the hollow with great dislike, now that he had heard
news of their enemies on the Road, only a few miles away.
‘Hadn’t we better clear out quick, Mr. Strider?’ he asked
impatiently. ‘It is getting late, and I don’t like this hole: it
makes my heart sink somehow.’
‘Yes, we certainly must decide what to do at once,’
answered Strider, looking up and considering the time and
the weather. ‘Well, Sam,’ he said at last, ‘I do not like this
place either; but I cannot think of anywhere better that we
could reach before nightfall. At least we are out of sight for
the moment, and if we moved we should be much more likely
to be seen by spies. All we could do would be to go right out
of our way back north on this side of the line of hills, where
the land is all much the same as it is here. The Road is
watched, but we should have to cross it, if we tried to take
cover in the thickets away to the south. On the north side of
the Road beyond the hills the country is bare and flat for
miles.’
‘Can the Riders see?’ asked Merry. ‘I mean, they seem
usually to have used their noses rather than their eyes,
248 the fellowship of the ring
smelling for us, if smelling is the right word, at least in the
daylight. But you made us lie down flat when you saw them
down below; and now you talk of being seen, if we move.’
‘I was too careless on the hill-top,’ answered Strider. ‘I was
very anxious to find some sign of Gandalf; but it was a
mistake for three of us to go up and stand there so long. For
the black horses can see, and the Riders can use men and
other creatures as spies, as we found at Bree. They themselves
do not see the world of light as we do, but our shapes cast
shadows in their minds, which only the noon sun destroys;
and in the dark they perceive many signs and forms that are
hidden from us: then they are most to be feared. And at all
times they smell the blood of living things, desiring and hating
it. Senses, too, there are other than sight or smell. We can
feel their presence – it troubled our hearts, as soon as we
came here, and before we saw them; they feel ours more
keenly. Also,’ he added, and his voice sank to a whisper, ‘the
Ring draws them.’
‘Is there no escape then?’ said Frodo, looking round wildly.
‘If I move I shall be seen and hunted! If I stay, I shall draw
them to me!’
Strider laid his hand on his shoulder. ‘There is still hope,’ he
said. ‘You are not alone. Let us take this wood that is set ready
for the fire as a sign. There is little shelter or defence here, but
fire shall serve for both. Sauron can put fire to his evil uses, as
he can all things, but these Riders do not love it, and fear those
who wield it. Fire is our friend in the wilderness.’
‘Maybe,’ muttered Sam. ‘It is also as good a way of saying
‘‘here we are’’ as I can think of, bar shouting.’
Down in the lowest and most sheltered corner of the dell
they lit a fire, and prepared a meal. The shades of evening
began to fall, and it grew cold. They were suddenly aware
of great hunger, for they had not eaten anything since break-
fast; but they dared not make more than a frugal supper.
The lands ahead were empty of all save birds and beasts,
unfriendly places deserted by all the races of the world.
a knife in the dark 249
Rangers passed at times beyond the hills, but they were few
and did not stay. Other wanderers were rare, and of evil sort:
trolls might stray down at times out of the northern valleys
of the Misty Mountains. Only on the Road would travellers
be found, most often dwarves, hurrying along on business of
their own, and with no help and few words to spare for
strangers.
‘I don’t see how our food can be made to last,’ said Frodo.
‘We have been careful enough in the last few days, and this
supper is no feast; but we have used more than we ought, if
we have two weeks still to go, and perhaps more.’
‘There is food in the wild,’ said Strider; ‘berry, root, and
herb; and I have some skill as a hunter at need. You need not
be afraid of starving before winter comes. But gathering and
catching food is long and weary work, and we need haste. So
tighten your belts, and think with hope of the tables of
Elrond’s house!’
The cold increased as darkness came on. Peering out from
the edge of the dell they could see nothing but a grey land
now vanishing quickly into shadow. The sky above had
cleared again and was slowly filled with twinkling stars. Frodo
and his companions huddled round the fire, wrapped in every
garment and blanket they possessed; but Strider was content
with a single cloak, and sat a little apart, drawing thoughtfully
at his pipe.
As night fell and the light of the fire began to shine out
brightly he began to tell them tales to keep their minds from
fear. He knew many histories and legends of long ago, of
Elves and Men and the good and evil deeds of the Elder
Days. They wondered how old he was, and where he had
learned all this lore.
‘Tell us of Gil-galad,’ said Merry suddenly, when he
paused at the end of a story of the Elf-kingdoms. ‘Do you
know any more of that old lay that you spoke of ?’
‘I do indeed,’ answered Strider. ‘So also does Frodo, for it
concerns us closely.’ Merry and Pippin looked at Frodo, who
was staring into the fire.
250 the fellowship of the ring
‘I know only the little that Gandalf has told me,’ said Frodo
slowly. ‘Gil-galad was the last of the great Elf-kings of
Middle-earth. Gil-galad is Starlight in their tongue. With
Elendil, the Elf-friend, he went to the land of——’
‘No!’ said Strider interrupting, ‘I do not think that tale
should be told now with the servants of the Enemy at hand.
If we win through to the house of Elrond, you may hear it
there, told in full.’
‘Then tell us some other tale of the old days,’ begged Sam;
‘a tale about the Elves before the fading time. I would dearly
like to hear more about Elves; the dark seems to press round
so close.’
‘I will tell you the tale of Tinu
´
viel,’ said Strider, ‘in brief –
for it is a long tale of which the end is not known; and there
are none now, except Elrond, that remember it aright as it
was told of old. It is a fair tale, though it is sad, as are all the
tales of Middle-earth, and yet it may lift up your hearts.’ He
was silent for some time, and then he began not to speak but
to chant softly:
The leaves were long, the grass was green,
The hemlock-umbels tall and fair,
And in the glade a light was seen
Of stars in shadow shimmering.
Tinu
´
viel was dancing there
To music of a pipe unseen,
And light of stars was in her hair,
And in her raiment glimmering.
There Beren came from mountains cold,
And lost he wandered under leaves,
And where the Elven-river rolled
He walked alone and sorrowing.
He peered between the hemlock-leaves
And saw in wonder flowers of gold
Upon her mantle and her sleeves,
And her hair like shadow following.
a knife in the dark 251
Enchantment healed his weary feet
That over hills were doomed to roam;
And forth he hastened, strong and fleet,
And grasped at moonbeams glistening.
Through woven woods in Elvenhome
She lightly fled on dancing feet,
And left him lonely still to roam
In the silent forest listening.
He heard there oft the flying sound
Of feet as light as linden-leaves,
Or music welling underground,
In hidden hollows quavering.
Now withered lay the hemlock-sheaves,
And one by one with sighing sound
Whispering fell the beechen leaves
In the wintry woodland wavering.
He sought her ever, wandering far
Where leaves of years were thickly strewn,
By light of moon and ray of star
In frosty heavens shivering.
Her mantle glinted in the moon,
As on a hill-top high and far
She danced, and at her feet was strewn
A mist of silver quivering.
When winter passed, she came again,
And her song released the sudden spring,
Like rising lark, and falling rain,
And melting water bubbling.
He saw the elven-flowers spring
About her feet, and healed again
He longed by her to dance and sing
Upon the grass untroubling.
252 the fellowship of the ring
Again she fled, but swift he came.
Tinu
´
viel! Tinu
´
viel!
He called her by her Elvish name;
And there she halted listening.
One moment stood she, and a spell
His voice laid on her: Beren came,
And doom fell on Tinu
´
viel
That in his arms lay glistening.
As Beren looked into her eyes
Within the shadows of her hair,
The trembling starlight of the skies
He saw there mirrored shimmering.
Tinu
´
viel the elven-fair,
Immortal maiden elven-wise,
About him cast her shadowy hair
And arms like silver glimmering.
Long was the way that fate them bore,
O’er stony mountains cold and grey,
Through halls of iron and darkling door,
And woods of nightshade morrowless.
The Sundering Seas between them lay,
And yet at last they met once more,
And long ago they passed away
In the forest singing sorrowless.
Strider sighed and paused before he spoke again. ‘That is
a song,’ he said, ‘in the mode that is called ann-thennath
among the Elves, but is hard to render in our Common
Speech, and this is but a rough echo of it. It tells of the
meeting of Beren son of Barahir and Lu
´
thien Tinu
´
viel. Beren
was a mortal man, but Lu
´
thien was the daughter of Thingol,
a King of Elves upon Middle-earth when the world was
young; and she was the fairest maiden that has ever been
among all the children of this world. As the stars above the
mists of the Northern lands was her loveliness, and in her
a knife in the dark 253
face was a shining light. In those days the Great Enemy,
of whom Sauron of Mordor was but a servant, dwelt in
Angband in the North, and the Elves of the West coming
back to Middle-earth made war upon him to regain the
Silmarils which he had stolen; and the fathers of Men aided
the Elves. But the Enemy was victorious and Barahir was
slain, and Beren escaping through great peril came over the
Mountains of Terror into the hidden Kingdom of Thingol in
the forest of Neldoreth. There he beheld Lu
´
thien singing and
dancing in a glade beside the enchanted river Esgalduin; and
he named her Tinu
´
viel, that is Nightingale in the language
of old. Many sorrows befell them afterwards, and they were
parted long. Tinu
´
viel rescued Beren from the dungeons of
Sauron, and together they passed through great dangers, and
cast down even the Great Enemy from his throne, and took
from his iron crown one of the three Silmarils, brightest of
all jewels, to be the bride-price of Lu
´
thien to Thingol her
father. Yet at the last Beren was slain by the Wolf that came
from the gates of Angband, and he died in the arms of
Tinu
´
viel. But she chose mortality, and to die from the world,
so that she might follow him; and it is sung that they met
again beyond the Sundering Seas, and after a brief time walk-
ing alive once more in the green woods, together they passed,
long ago, beyond the confines of this world. So it is that
Lu
´
thien Tinu
´
viel alone of the Elf-kindred has died indeed
and left the world, and they have lost her whom they most
loved. But from her the lineage of the Elf-lords of old
descended among Men. There live still those of whom
Lu
´
thien was the foremother, and it is said that her line shall
never fail. Elrond of Rivendell is of that Kin. For of Beren
and Lu
´
thien was born Dior Thingol’s heir; and of him Elwing
the White whom Ea
¨
rendil wedded, he that sailed his ship out
of the mists of the world into the seas of heaven with the
Silmaril upon his brow. And of Ea
¨
rendil came the Kings of
Nu
´
menor, that is Westernesse.’
As Strider was speaking they watched his strange eager
face, dimly lit in the red glow of the wood-fire. His eyes
254 the fellowship of the ring
shone, and his voice was rich and deep. Above him was a
black starry sky. Suddenly a pale light appeared over the
crown of Weathertop behind him. The waxing moon was
climbing slowly above the hill that overshadowed them, and
the stars above the hill-top faded.
The story ended. The hobbits moved and stretched.
‘Look!’ said Merry. ‘The Moon is rising: it must be getting
late.’
The others looked up. Even as they did so, they saw on
the top of the hill something small and dark against the glim-
mer of the moonrise. It was perhaps only a large stone or
jutting rock shown up by the pale light.
Sam and Merry got up and walked away from the fire.
Frodo and Pippin remained seated in silence. Strider was
watching the moonlight on the hill intently. All seemed quiet
and still, but Frodo felt a cold dread creeping over his heart,
now that Strider was no longer speaking. He huddled closer
to the fire. At that moment Sam came running back from the
edge of the dell.
‘I don’t know what it is,’ he said, ‘but I suddenly felt afraid.
I durstn’t go outside this dell for any money; I felt that some-
thing was creeping up the slope.’
‘Did you see anything?’ asked Frodo, springing to his feet.
‘No, sir. I saw nothing, but I didn’t stop to look.’
‘I saw something,’ said Merry; ‘or I thought I did – away
westwards where the moonlight was falling on the flats
beyond the shadow of the hill-tops, I thought there were two
or three black shapes. They seemed to be moving this way.’
‘Keep close to the fire, with your faces outward!’ cried
Strider. ‘Get some of the longer sticks ready in your hands!’
For a breathless time they sat there, silent and alert, with
their backs turned to the wood-fire, each gazing into the
shadows that encircled them. Nothing happened. There was
no sound or movement in the night. Frodo stirred, feeling
that he must break the silence: he longed to shout out aloud.
‘Hush!’ whispered Strider. ‘What’s that?’ gasped Pippin at
the same moment.
a knife in the dark 255
Over the lip of the little dell, on the side away from the
hill, they felt, rather than saw, a shadow rise, one shadow or
more than one. They strained their eyes, and the shadows
seemed to grow. Soon there could be no doubt: three or four
tall black figures were standing there on the slope, looking
down on them. So black were they that they seemed like
black holes in the deep shade behind them. Frodo thought
that he heard a faint hiss as of venomous breath and felt a
thin piercing chill. Then the shapes slowly advanced.
Terror overcame Pippin and Merry, and they threw them-
selves flat on the ground. Sam shrank to Frodo’s side. Frodo
was hardly less terrified than his companions; he was quaking
as if he was bitter cold, but his terror was swallowed up in a
sudden temptation to put on the Ring. The desire to do this
laid hold of him, and he could think of nothing else. He
did not forget the Barrow, nor the message of Gandalf;
but something seemed to be compelling him to disregard
all warnings, and he longed to yield. Not with the hope of
escape, or of doing anything, either good or bad: he simply
felt that he must take the Ring and put it on his finger. He
could not speak. He felt Sam looking at him, as if he knew
that his master was in some great trouble, but he could not
turn towards him. He shut his eyes and struggled for a while;
but resistance became unbearable, and at last he slowly drew
out the chain, and slipped the Ring on the forefinger of his
left hand.
Immediately, though everything else remained as before,
dim and dark, the shapes became terribly clear. He was able
to see beneath their black wrappings. There were five tall
figures: two standing on the lip of the dell, three advancing.
In their white faces burned keen and merciless eyes; under
their mantles were long grey robes; upon their grey hairs were
helms of silver; in their haggard hands were swords of steel.
Their eyes fell on him and pierced him, as they rushed
towards him. Desperate, he drew his own sword, and it
seemed to him that it flickered red, as if it was a firebrand.
Two of the figures halted. The third was taller than the others:
256 the fellowship of the ring
his hair was long and gleaming and on his helm was a crown.
In one hand he held a long sword, and in the other a knife;
both the knife and the hand that held it glowed with a pale
light. He sprang forward and bore down on Frodo.
At that moment Frodo threw himself forward on the
ground, and he heard himself crying aloud: O Elbereth!
Gilthoniel! At the same time he struck at the feet of his enemy.
A shrill cry rang out in the night; and he felt a pain like a dart
of poisoned ice pierce his left shoulder. Even as he swooned
he caught, as through a swirling mist, a glimpse of Strider
leaping out of the darkness with a flaming brand of wood in
either hand. With a last effort Frodo, dropping his sword,
slipped the Ring from his finger and closed his right hand
tight upon it.
Chapter 12
FLIGHT TO THE FORD
When Frodo came to himself he was still clutching the Ring
desperately. He was lying by the fire, which was now piled
high and burning brightly. His three companions were bend-
ing over him.
‘What has happened? Where is the pale king?’ he asked
wildly.
They were too overjoyed to hear him speak to answer for
a while; nor did they understand his question. At length he
gathered from Sam that they had seen nothing but the vague
shadowy shapes coming towards them. Suddenly to his
horror Sam found that his master had vanished; and at that
moment a black shadow rushed past him, and he fell. He
heard Frodo’s voice, but it seemed to come from a great
distance, or from under the earth, crying out strange words.
They saw nothing more, until they stumbled over the body
of Frodo, lying as if dead, face downwards on the grass with
his sword beneath him. Strider ordered them to pick him up
and lay him near the fire, and then he disappeared. That was
now a good while ago.
Sam plainly was beginning to have doubts again about
Strider; but while they were talking he returned, appearing
suddenly out of the shadows. They started, and Sam drew
his sword and stood over Frodo; but Strider knelt down
swiftly at his side.
‘I am not a Black Rider, Sam,’ he said gently, ‘nor in league
with them. I have been trying to discover something of their
movements; but I have found nothing. I cannot think why
they have gone and do not attack again. But there is no feeling
of their presence anywhere at hand.’
When he heard what Frodo had to tell, he became full of
258 the fellowship of the ring
concern, and shook his head and sighed. Then he ordered
Pippin and Merry to heat as much water as they could in
their small kettles, and to bathe the wound with it. ‘Keep the
fire going well, and keep Frodo warm!’ he said. Then he
got up and walked away, and called Sam to him. ‘I think I
understand things better now,’ he said in a low voice. ‘There
seem only to have been five of the enemy. Why they were
not all here, I don’t know; but I don’t think they expected to
be resisted. They have drawn off for the time being. But not
far, I fear. They will come again another night, if we cannot
escape. They are only waiting, because they think that their
purpose is almost accomplished, and that the Ring cannot fly
much further. I fear, Sam, that they believe your master has
a deadly wound that will subdue him to their will. We shall
see!’
Sam choked with tears. ‘Don’t despair!’ said Strider. ‘You
must trust me now. Your Frodo is made of sterner stuff than
I had guessed, though Gandalf hinted that it might prove so.
He is not slain, and I think he will resist the evil power of the
wound longer than his enemies expect. I will do all I can to
help and heal him. Guard him well, while I am away!’ He
hurried off and disappeared again into the darkness.
Frodo dozed, though the pain of his wound was slowly
growing, and a deadly chill was spreading from his shoulder
to his arm and side. His friends watched over him, warming
him, and bathing his wound. The night passed slowly and
wearily. Dawn was growing in the sky, and the dell was filling
with grey light, when Strider at last returned.
‘Look!’ he cried; and stooping he lifted from the ground a
black cloak that had lain there hidden by the darkness. A foot
above the lower hem there was a slash. ‘This was the stroke
of Frodo’s sword,’ he said. ‘The only hurt that it did to his
enemy, I fear; for it is unharmed, but all blades perish that
pierce that dreadful King. More deadly to him was the name
of Elbereth.’
‘And more deadly to Frodo was this!’ He stooped again
flight to the ford 259
and lifted up a long thin knife. There was a cold gleam in it.
As Strider raised it they saw that near the end its edge was
notched and the point was broken off. But even as he held it
up in the growing light, they gazed in astonishment, for the
blade seemed to melt, and vanished like a smoke in the air,
leaving only the hilt in Strider’s hand. ‘Alas!’ he cried. ‘It was
this accursed knife that gave the wound. Few now have the
skill in healing to match such evil weapons. But I will do what
I can.’
He sat down on the ground, and taking the dagger-hilt laid
it on his knees, and he sang over it a slow song in a strange
tongue. Then setting it aside, he turned to Frodo and in a
soft tone spoke words the others could not catch. From the
pouch at his belt he drew out the long leaves of a plant.
‘These leaves,’ he said, ‘I have walked far to find; for
this plant does not grow in the bare hills; but in the thickets
away south of the Road I found it in the dark by the scent
of its leaves.’ He crushed a leaf in his fingers, and it gave out
a sweet and pungent fragrance. ‘It is fortunate that I could
find it, for it is a healing plant that the Men of the West
brought to Middle-earth. Athelas they named it, and it grows
now sparsely and only near places where they dwelt or
camped of old; and it is not known in the North, except to
some of those who wander in the Wild. It has great virtues,
but over such a wound as this its healing powers may be
small.’
He threw the leaves into boiling water and bathed Frodo’s
shoulder. The fragrance of the steam was refreshing, and
those that were unhurt felt their minds calmed and cleared.
The herb had also some power over the wound, for Frodo
felt the pain and also the sense of frozen cold lessen in his
side; but the life did not return to his arm, and he could not
raise or use his hand. He bitterly regretted his foolishness,
and reproached himself for weakness of will; for he now
perceived that in putting on the Ring he obeyed not his
own desire but the commanding wish of his enemies. He
wondered if he would remain maimed for life, and how they
260 the fellowship of the ring
would now manage to continue their journey. He felt too
weak to stand.
The others were discussing this very question. They
quickly decided to leave Weathertop as soon as possible. ‘I
think now,’ said Strider, ‘that the enemy has been watching
this place for some days. If Gandalf ever came here, then he
must have been forced to ride away, and he will not return.
In any case we are in great peril here after dark, since the
attack of last night, and we can hardly meet greater danger
wherever we go.’
As soon as the daylight was full, they had some hurried
food and packed. It was impossible for Frodo to walk, so they
divided the greater part of their baggage among the four of
them, and put Frodo on the pony. In the last few days the
poor beast had improved wonderfully; it already seemed fat-
ter and stronger, and had begun to show an affection for its
new masters, especially for Sam. Bill Ferny’s treatment must
have been very hard for the journey in the wild to seem so
much better than its former life.
They started off in a southerly direction. This would mean
crossing the Road, but it was the quickest way to more
wooded country. And they needed fuel; for Strider said that
Frodo must be kept warm, especially at night, while fire
would be some protection for them all. It was also his plan
to shorten their journey by cutting across another great loop
of the Road: east beyond Weathertop it changed its course
and took a wide bend northwards.
They made their way slowly and cautiously round the
south-western slopes of the hill, and came in a little while to
the edge of the Road. There was no sign of the Riders. But
even as they were hurrying across they heard far away two
cries: a cold voice calling and a cold voice answering. Trem-
bling they sprang forward, and made for the thickets that lay
ahead. The land before them sloped away southwards, but it
was wild and pathless; bushes and stunted trees grew in dense
patches with wide barren spaces in between. The grass was
flight to the ford 261
scanty, coarse, and grey; and the leaves in the thickets were
faded and falling. It was a cheerless land, and their journey
was slow and gloomy. They spoke little as they trudged
along. Frodo’s heart was grieved as he watched them walking
beside him with their heads down, and their backs bowed
under their burdens. Even Strider seemed tired and heavy-
hearted.
Before the first day’s march was over Frodo’s pain began
to grow again, but he did not speak of it for a long time. Four
days passed, without the ground or the scene changing
much, except that behind them Weathertop slowly sank, and
before them the distant mountains loomed a little nearer. Yet
since that far cry they had seen and heard no sign that the
enemy had marked their flight or followed them. They
dreaded the dark hours, and kept watch in pairs by night,
expecting at any time to see black shapes stalking in the
grey night, dimly lit by the cloud-veiled moon; but they saw
nothing, and heard no sound but the sigh of withered leaves
and grass. Not once did they feel the sense of present evil
that had assailed them before the attack in the dell. It seemed
too much to hope that the Riders had already lost their trail
again. Perhaps they were waiting to make some ambush in a
narrow place?
At the end of the fifth day the ground began once more to
rise slowly out of the wide shallow valley into which they had
descended. Strider now turned their course again north-
eastwards, and on the sixth day they reached the top of a
long slow-climbing slope, and saw far ahead a huddle of
wooded hills. Away below them they could see the Road
sweeping round the feet of the hills; and to their right a grey
river gleamed pale in the thin sunshine. In the distance they
glimpsed yet another river in a stony valley half-veiled in
mist.
‘I am afraid we must go back to the Road here for a while,’
said Strider. ‘We have now come to the River Hoarwell, that
the Elves call Mitheithel. It flows down out of the Ettenmoors,
the troll-fells north of Rivendell, and joins the Loudwater
262 the fellowship of the ring
away in the South. Some call it the Greyflood after that. It is
a great water before it finds the Sea. There is no way over it
below its sources in the Ettenmoors, except by the Last
Bridge on which the Road crosses.’
‘What is that other river we can see far away there?’ asked
Merry.
‘That is Loudwater, the Bruinen of Rivendell,’ answered
Strider. ‘The Road runs along the edge of the hills for many
miles from the Bridge to the Ford of Bruinen. But I have not
yet thought how we shall cross that water. One river at a
time! We shall be fortunate indeed if we do not find the Last
Bridge held against us.’
Next day, early in the morning, they came down again to
the borders of the Road. Sam and Strider went forward, but
they found no sign of any travellers or riders. Here under the
shadow of the hills there had been some rain. Strider judged
that it had fallen two days before, and had washed away all
footprints. No horseman had passed since then, as far as he
could see.
They hurried along with all the speed they could make,
and after a mile or two they saw the Last Bridge ahead, at
the bottom of a short steep slope. They dreaded to see black
figures waiting there, but they saw none. Strider made them
take cover in a thicket at the side of the Road, while he went
forward to explore.
Before long he came hurrying back. ‘I can see no sign of
the enemy,’ he said, ‘and I wonder very much what that
means. But I have found something very strange.’
He held out his hand, and showed a single pale-green jewel.
‘I found it in the mud in the middle of the Bridge,’ he said.
‘It is a beryl, an elf-stone. Whether it was set there, or let fall
by chance, I cannot say; but it brings hope to me. I will take
it as a sign that we may pass the Bridge; but beyond that I
dare not keep to the Road, without some clearer token.’
***
flight to the ford 263
At once they went on again. They crossed the Bridge in
safety, hearing no sound but the water swirling against its
three great arches. A mile further on they came to a narrow
ravine that led away northwards through the steep lands on
the left of the Road. Here Strider turned aside, and soon they
were lost in a sombre country of dark trees winding among
the feet of sullen hills.
The hobbits were glad to leave the cheerless lands and
the perilous Road behind them; but this new country seemed
threatening and unfriendly. As they went forward the hills
about them steadily rose. Here and there upon heights and
ridges they caught glimpses of ancient walls of stone, and
the ruins of towers: they had an ominous look. Frodo, who
was not walking, had time to gaze ahead and to think. He
recalled Bilbo’s account of his journey and the threatening
towers on the hills north of the Road, in the country near
the Trolls’ wood where his first serious adventure had
happened. Frodo guessed that they were now in the same
region, and wondered if by chance they would pass near
the spot.
‘Who lives in this land?’ he asked. ‘And who built these
towers? Is this troll-country?’
‘No!’ said Strider. ‘Trolls do not build. No one lives in this
land. Men once dwelt here, ages ago; but none remain now.
They became an evil people, as legends tell, for they fell
under the shadow of Angmar. But all were destroyed in the
war that brought the North Kingdom to its end. But that is
now so long ago that the hills have forgotten them, though a
shadow still lies on the land.’
‘Where did you learn such tales, if all the land is empty
and forgetful?’ asked Peregrin. ‘The birds and beasts do not
tell tales of that sort.’
‘The heirs of Elendil do not forget all things past,’ said
Strider; ‘and many more things than I can tell are remem-
bered in Rivendell.’
‘Have you often been to Rivendell?’ said Frodo.
‘I have,’ said Strider. ‘I dwelt there once, and still I return
264 the fellowship of the ring
when I may. There my heart is; but it is not my fate to sit in
peace, even in the fair house of Elrond.’
The hills now began to shut them in. The Road behind
held on its way to the River Bruinen, but both were now
hidden from view. The travellers came into a long valley;
narrow, deeply cloven, dark and silent. Trees with old and
twisted roots hung over cliffs, and piled up behind into
mounting slopes of pine-wood.
The hobbits grew very weary. They advanced slowly, for
they had to pick their way through a pathless country, encum-
bered by fallen trees and tumbled rocks. As long as they could
they avoided climbing for Frodo’s sake, and because it was
in fact difficult to find any way up out of the narrow dales.
They had been two days in this country when the weather
turned wet. The wind began to blow steadily out of the West
and pour the water of the distant seas on the dark heads of
the hills in fine drenching rain. By nightfall they were all
soaked, and their camp was cheerless, for they could not get
any fire to burn. The next day the hills rose still higher and
steeper before them, and they were forced to turn away north-
wards out of their course. Strider seemed to be getting anxi-
ous: they were nearly ten days out from Weathertop, and
their stock of provisions was beginning to run low. It went
on raining.
That night they camped on a stony shelf with a rock-wall
behind them, in which there was a shallow cave, a mere scoop
in the cliff. Frodo was restless. The cold and wet had made
his wound more painful than ever, and the ache and sense of
deadly chill took away all sleep. He lay tossing and turning
and listening fearfully to the stealthy night-noises: wind in
chinks of rock, water dripping, a crack, the sudden rattling
fall of a loosened stone. He felt that black shapes were
advancing to smother him; but when he sat up he saw nothing
but the back of Strider sitting hunched up, smoking his pipe,
and watching. He lay down again and passed into an uneasy
dream, in which he walked on the grass in his garden in the
flight to the ford 265
Shire, but it seemed faint and dim, less clear than the tall
black shadows that stood looking over the hedge.
In the morning he woke to find that the rain had stopped.
The clouds were still thick, but they were breaking, and pale
strips of blue appeared between them. The wind was shifting
again. They did not start early. Immediately after their cold
and comfortless breakfast Strider went off alone, telling the
others to remain under the shelter of the cliff, until he came
back. He was going to climb up, if he could, and get a look
at the lie of the land.
When he returned he was not reassuring. ‘We have come
too far to the north,’ he said, ‘and we must find some way to
turn back southwards again. If we keep on as we are going
we shall get up into the Ettendales far north of Rivendell.
That is troll-country, and little known to me. We could per-
haps find our way through and come round to Rivendell
from the north; but it would take too long, for I do not know
the way, and our food would not last. So somehow or other
we must find the Ford of Bruinen.’
The rest of that day they spent scrambling over rocky
ground. They found a passage between two hills that led
them into a valley running south-east, the direction that they
wished to take; but towards the end of the day they found
their road again barred by a ridge of high land; its dark edge
against the sky was broken into many bare points like teeth
of a blunted saw. They had a choice between going back or
climbing over it.
They decided to attempt the climb, but it proved very
difficult. Before long Frodo was obliged to dismount and
struggle along on foot. Even so they often despaired of getting
their pony up, or indeed of finding a path for themselves,
burdened as they were. The light was nearly gone, and they
were all exhausted, when at last they reached the top. They
had climbed on to a narrow saddle between two higher points,
and the land fell steeply away again, only a short distance
ahead. Frodo threw himself down, and lay on the ground
266 the fellowship of the ring
shivering. His left arm was lifeless, and his side and shoulder
felt as if icy claws were laid upon them. The trees and rocks
about him seemed shadowy and dim.
‘We cannot go any further,’ said Merry to Strider. ‘I am
afraid this has been too much for Frodo. I am dreadfully
anxious about him. What are we to do? Do you think they
will be able to cure him in Rivendell, if we ever get there?’
‘We shall see,’ answered Strider. ‘There is nothing more
that I can do in the wilderness; and it is chiefly because of
his wound that I am so anxious to press on. But I agree that
we can go no further tonight.’
‘What is the matter with my master?’ asked Sam in a low
voice, looking appealingly at Strider. ‘His wound was small,
and it is already closed. There’s nothing to be seen but a cold
white mark on his shoulder.’
‘Frodo has been touched by the weapons of the Enemy,’
said Strider, ‘and there is some poison or evil at work that
is beyond my skill to drive out. But do not give up hope,
Sam!’
Night was cold up on the high ridge. They lit a small fire
down under the gnarled roots of an old pine, that hung over
a shallow pit: it looked as if stone had once been quarried
there. They sat huddled together. The wind blew chill
through the pass, and they heard the tree-tops lower down
moaning and sighing. Frodo lay half in a dream, imagining
that endless dark wings were sweeping by above him, and
that on the wings rode pursuers that sought him in all the
hollows of the hills.
The morning dawned bright and fair; the air was clean,
and the light pale and clear in a rain-washed sky. Their hearts
were encouraged, but they longed for the sun to warm their
cold stiff limbs. As soon as it was light, Strider took Merry
with him and went to survey the country from the height to
the east of the pass. The sun had risen and was shining
brightly when he returned with more comforting news. They
were now going more or less in the right direction. If they
flight to the ford 267
went on, down the further side of the ridge, they would
have the Mountains on their left. Some way ahead Strider
had caught a glimpse of the Loudwater again, and he knew
that, though it was hidden from view, the Road to the Ford
was not far from the River and lay on the side nearest to
them.
‘We must make for the Road again,’ he said. ‘We cannot
hope to find a path through these hills. Whatever danger may
beset it, the Road is our only way to the Ford.’
As soon as they had eaten they set out again. They climbed
slowly down the southern side of the ridge; but the way was
much easier than they had expected, for the slope was far
less steep on this side, and before long Frodo was able to
ride again. Bill Ferny’s poor old pony was developing an
unexpected talent for picking out a path, and for sparing its
rider as many jolts as possible. The spirits of the party rose
again. Even Frodo felt better in the morning light, but every
now and again a mist seemed to obscure his sight, and he
passed his hands over his eyes.
Pippin was a little ahead of the others. Suddenly he turned
round and called to them. ‘There is a path here!’ he cried.
When they came up with him, they saw that he had made
no mistake: there were clearly the beginnings of a path, that
climbed with many windings out of the woods below and
faded away on the hill-top behind. In places it was now faint
and overgrown, or choked with fallen stones and trees; but
at one time it seemed to have been much used. It was a path
made by strong arms and heavy feet. Here and there old trees
had been cut or broken down, and large rocks cloven or
heaved aside to make a way.
They followed the track for some while, for it offered much
the easiest way down, but they went cautiously, and their
anxiety increased as they came into the dark woods, and the
path grew plainer and broader. Suddenly coming out of a
belt of fir-trees it ran steeply down a slope, and turned sharply
to the left round the corner of a rocky shoulder of the hill.
268 the fellowship of the ring
When they came to the corner they looked round and saw
that the path ran on over a level strip under the face of a low
cliff overhung with trees. In the stony wall there was a door
hanging crookedly ajar upon one great hinge.
Outside the door they all halted. There was a cave or
rock-chamber behind, but in the gloom inside nothing could
be seen. Strider, Sam, and Merry pushing with all their
strength managed to open the door a little wider, and then
Strider and Merry went in. They did not go far, for on the
floor lay many old bones, and nothing else was to be seen
near the entrance except some great empty jars and broken
pots.
‘Surely this is a troll-hole, if ever there was one!’ said
Pippin. ‘Come out, you two, and let us get away. Now we
know who made the path – and we had better get off it quick.’
‘There is no need, I think,’ said Strider, coming out. ‘It is
certainly a troll-hole, but it seems to have been long forsaken.
I don’t think we need be afraid. But let us go on down warily,
and we shall see.’
The path went on again from the door, and turning to the
right again across the level space plunged down a thick
wooded slope. Pippin, not liking to show Strider that he was
still afraid, went on ahead with Merry. Sam and Strider came
behind, one on each side of Frodo’s pony, for the path was
now broad enough for four or five hobbits to walk abreast.
But they had not gone very far before Pippin came running
back, followed by Merry. They both looked terrified.
‘There are trolls!’ Pippin panted. ‘Down in a clearing in
the woods not far below. We got a sight of them through the
tree-trunks. They are very large!’
‘We will come and look at them,’ said Strider, picking up
a stick. Frodo said nothing, but Sam looked scared.
The sun was now high, and it shone down through the
half-stripped branches of the trees, and lit the clearing with
bright patches of light. They halted suddenly on the edge,
and peered through the tree-trunks, holding their breath.
flight to the ford 269
There stood the trolls: three large trolls. One was stooping,
and the other two stood staring at him.
Strider walked forward unconcernedly. ‘Get up, old stone!’
he said, and broke his stick upon the stooping troll.
Nothing happened. There was a gasp of astonishment
from the hobbits, and then even Frodo laughed. ‘Well!’ he
said. ‘We are forgetting our family history! These must be
the very three that were caught by Gandalf, quarrelling over
the right way to cook thirteen dwarves and one hobbit.’
‘I had no idea we were anywhere near the place!’ said
Pippin. He knew the story well. Bilbo and Frodo had told it
often; but as a matter of fact he had never more than half
believed it. Even now he looked at the stone trolls with sus-
picion, wondering if some magic might not suddenly bring
them to life again.
‘You are forgetting not only your family history, but all
you ever knew about trolls,’ said Strider. ‘It is broad daylight
with a bright sun, and yet you come back trying to scare me
with a tale of live trolls waiting for us in this glade! In any
case you might have noticed that one of them has an old
bird’s nest behind his ear. That would be a most unusual
ornament for a live troll!’
They all laughed. Frodo felt his spirits reviving: the re-
minder of Bilbo’s first successful adventure was heartening.
The sun, too, was warm and comforting, and the mist before
his eyes seemed to be lifting a little. They rested for some
time in the glade, and took their mid-day meal right under
the shadow of the trolls’ large legs.
‘Won’t somebody give us a bit of a song, while the sun is
high?’ said Merry, when they had finished. ‘We haven’t had
a song or a tale for days.’
‘Not since Weathertop,’ said Frodo. The others looked at
him. ‘Don’t worry about me!’ he added. ‘I feel much better,
but I don’t think I could sing. Perhaps Sam could dig some-
thing out of his memory.’
‘Come on, Sam!’ said Merry. ‘There’s more stored in your
head than you let on about.’
270 the fellowship of the ring
‘I don’t know about that,’ said Sam. ‘But how would this
suit? It ain’t what I call proper poetry, if you understand me:
just a bit of nonsense. But these old images here brought it
to my mind.’ Standing up, with his hands behind his back,
as if he was at school, he began to sing to an old tune.
Troll sat alone on his seat of stone,
And munched and mumbled a bare old bone;
For many a year he had gnawed it near,
For meat was hard to come by.
Done by! Gum by!
In a cave in the hills he dwelt alone,
And meat was hard to come by.
Up came Tom with his big boots on.
Said he to Troll: ‘Pray, what is yon?
For it looks like the shin o’ my nuncle Tim,
As should be a-lyin’ in graveyard.
Caveyard! Paveyard!
This many a year has Tim been gone,
And I thought he were lyin’ in graveyard.’
‘My lad,’ said Troll, ‘this bone I stole.
But what be bones that lie in a hole?
Thy nuncle was dead as a lump o’ lead,
Afore I found his shinbone.
Tinbone! Thinbone!
He can spare a share for a poor old troll,
For he don’t need his shinbone.’
Said Tom: ‘I don’t see why the likes o’ thee
Without axin’ leave should go makin’ free
With the shank or the shin o’ my father’s kin;
So hand the old bone over!
Rover! Trover!
Though dead he be, it belongs to he;
So hand the old bone over!’
flight to the ford 271
‘For a couple o’ pins,’ says Troll, and grins,
‘I’ll eat thee too, and gnaw thy shins.
A bit o’ fresh meat will go down sweet!
I’ll try my teeth on thee now.
Hee now! See now!
I’m tired o’ gnawing old bones and skins;
I’ve a mind to dine on thee now.’
But just as he thought his dinner was caught,
He found his hands had hold of naught.
Before he could mind, Tom slipped behind
And gave him the boot to larn him.
Warn him! Darn him!
A bump o’ the boot on the seat, Tom thought,
Would be the way to larn him.
But harder than stone is the flesh and bone
Of a troll that sits in the hills alone.
As well set your boot to the mountain’s root,
For the seat of a troll don’t feel it.
Peel it! Heal it!
Old Troll laughed, when he heard Tom groan,
And he knew his toes could feel it.
Tom’s leg is game, since home he came,
And his bootless foot is lasting lame;
But Troll don’t care, and he’s still there
With the bone he boned from its owner.
Doner! Boner!
Troll’s old seat is still the same,
And the bone he boned from its owner!
‘Well, that’s a warning to us all!’ laughed Merry. ‘It is as
well you used a stick, and not your hand, Strider!’
‘Where did you come by that, Sam?’ asked Pippin. ‘I’ve
never heard those words before.’
Sam muttered something inaudible. ‘It’s out of his own
272 the fellowship of the ring
head, of course,’ said Frodo. ‘I am learning a lot about Sam
Gamgee on this journey. First he was a conspirator, now he’s
a jester. He’ll end up by becoming a wizard – or a warrior!’
‘I hope not,’ said Sam. ‘I don’t want to be neither!’
In the afternoon they went on down the woods. They were
probably following the very track that Gandalf, Bilbo, and
the dwarves had used many years before. After a few miles
they came out on the top of a high bank above the Road. At
this point the Road had left the Hoarwell far behind in its
narrow valley, and now clung close to the feet of the hills,
rolling and winding eastward among woods and heather-
covered slopes towards the Ford and the Mountains. Not far
down the bank Strider pointed out a stone in the grass. On
it roughly cut and now much weathered could still be seen
dwarf-runes and secret marks.
‘There!’ said Merry. ‘That must be the stone that marked
the place where the trolls’ gold was hidden. How much is left
of Bilbo’s share, I wonder, Frodo?’
Frodo looked at the stone, and wished that Bilbo had
brought home no treasure more perilous, nor less easy to part
with. ‘None at all,’ he said. ‘Bilbo gave it all away. He told
me he did not feel it was really his, as it came from robbers.’
The Road lay quiet under the long shadows of early
evening. There was no sign of any other travellers to be seen.
As there was now no other possible course for them to take,
they climbed down the bank, and turning left went off as fast
as they could. Soon a shoulder of the hills cut off the light of
the fast westering sun. A cold wind flowed down to meet
them from the mountains ahead.
They were beginning to look out for a place off the Road,
where they could camp for the night, when they heard a
sound that brought sudden fear back into their hearts: the
noise of hoofs behind them. They looked back, but they could
not see far because of the many windings and rollings of the
Road. As quickly as they could they scrambled off the beaten
flight to the ford 273
way and up into the deep heather and bilberry brushwood
on the slopes above, until they came to a small patch of
thick-growing hazels. As they peered out from among the
bushes, they could see the Road, faint and grey in the failing
light, some thirty feet below them. The sound of hoofs drew
nearer. They were going fast, with a light clippety-clippety-clip.
Then faintly, as if it was blown away from them by the breeze,
they seemed to catch a dim ringing, as of small bells tinkling.
‘That does not sound like a Black Rider’s horse!’ said
Frodo, listening intently. The other hobbits agreed hopefully
that it did not, but they all remained full of suspicion. They
had been in fear of pursuit for so long that any sound from
behind seemed ominous and unfriendly. But Strider was now
leaning forward, stooped to the ground, with a hand to his
ear, and a look of joy on his face.
The light faded, and the leaves on the bushes rustled softly.
Clearer and nearer now the bells jingled, and clippety-clip
came the quick trotting feet. Suddenly into view below came
a white horse, gleaming in the shadows, running swiftly. In
the dusk its headstall flickered and flashed, as if it were stud-
ded with gems like living stars. The rider’s cloak streamed
behind him, and his hood was thrown back; his golden hair
flowed shimmering in the wind of his speed. To Frodo it
appeared that a white light was shining through the form and
raiment of the rider, as if through a thin veil.
Strider sprang from hiding and dashed down towards the
Road, leaping with a cry through the heather; but even before
he had moved or called, the rider had reined in his horse and
halted, looking up towards the thicket where they stood.
When he saw Strider, he dismounted and ran to meet him
calling out: Ai na vedui Du
´
nadan! Mae govannen! His speech
and clear ringing voice left no doubt in their hearts: the rider
was of the Elven-folk. No others that dwelt in the wide world
had voices so fair to hear. But there seemed to be a note of
haste or fear in his call, and they saw that he was now speaking
quickly and urgently to Strider.
Soon Strider beckoned to them, and the hobbits left the
274 the fellowship of the ring
bushes and hurried down to the Road. ‘This is Glorfindel,
who dwells in the house of Elrond,’ said Strider.
‘Hail, and well met at last!’ said the Elf-lord to Frodo. ‘I
was sent from Rivendell to look for you. We feared that you
were in danger upon the road.’
‘Then Gandalf has reached Rivendell?’ cried Frodo
joyfully.
‘No. He had not when I departed; but that was nine days
ago,’ answered Glorfindel. ‘Elrond received news that
troubled him. Some of my kindred, journeying in your land
beyond the Baranduin,* learned that things were amiss, and
sent messages as swiftly as they could. They said that the
Nine were abroad, and that you were astray bearing a great
burden without guidance, for Gandalf had not returned.
There are few even in Rivendell that can ride openly against
the Nine; but such as there were, Elrond sent out north, west,
and south. It was thought that you might turn far aside to
avoid pursuit, and become lost in the Wilderness.
‘It was my lot to take the Road, and I came to the Bridge
of Mitheithel, and left a token there, nigh on seven days ago.
Three of the servants of Sauron were upon the Bridge, but
they withdrew and I pursued them westward. I came also
upon two others, but they turned away southward. Since then
I have searched for your trail. Two days ago I found it, and
followed it over the Bridge; and today I marked where you
descended from the hills again. But come! There is no time
for further news. Since you are here we must risk the peril of
the Road and go. There are five behind us, and when they
find your trail upon the Road they will ride after us like the
wind. And they are not all. Where the other four may be, I
do not know. I fear that we may find the Ford is already held
against us.’
While Glorfindel was speaking the shades of evening deep-
ened. Frodo felt a great weariness come over him. Ever since
the sun began to sink the mist before his eyes had darkened,
* The Brandywine River.
flight to the ford 275
and he felt that a shadow was coming between him and the
faces of his friends. Now pain assailed him, and he felt cold.
He swayed, clutching at Sam’s arm.
‘My master is sick and wounded,’ said Sam angrily. ‘He
can’t go on riding after nightfall. He needs rest.’
Glorfindel caught Frodo as he sank to the ground, and
taking him gently in his arms he looked in his face with grave
anxiety.
Briefly Strider told of the attack on their camp under
Weathertop, and of the deadly knife. He drew out the hilt,
which he had kept, and handed it to the Elf. Glorfindel
shuddered as he took it, but he looked intently at it.
‘There are evil things written on this hilt,’ he said; ‘though
maybe your eyes cannot see them. Keep it, Aragorn, till we
reach the house of Elrond! But be wary, and handle it as little
as you may! Alas! the wounds of this weapon are beyond my
skill to heal. I will do what I can – but all the more do I urge
you now to go on without rest.’
He searched the wound on Frodo’s shoulder with his
fingers, and his face grew graver, as if what he learned dis-
quieted him. But Frodo felt the chill lessen in his side and
arm; a little warmth crept down from his shoulder to his
hand, and the pain grew easier. The dusk of evening seemed
to grow lighter about him, as if a cloud had been withdrawn.
He saw his friends’ faces more clearly again, and a measure
of new hope and strength returned.
‘You shall ride my horse,’ said Glorfindel. ‘I will shorten
the stirrups up to the saddle-skirts, and you must sit as tight
as you can. But you need not fear: my horse will not let any
rider fall that I command him to bear. His pace is light and
smooth; and if danger presses too near, he will bear you away
with a speed that even the black steeds of the enemy cannot
rival.’
‘No, he will not!’ said Frodo. ‘I shall not ride him, if I am
to be carried off to Rivendell or anywhere else, leaving my
friends behind in danger.’
Glorfindel smiled. ‘I doubt very much,’ he said, ‘if your
276 the fellowship of the ring
friends would be in danger if you were not with them! The
pursuit would follow you and leave us in peace, I think. It is
you, Frodo, and that which you bear that brings us all in
peril.’
To that Frodo had no answer, and he was persuaded to
mount Glorfindel’s white horse. The pony was laden instead
with a great part of the others’ burdens, so that they now
marched lighter, and for a time made good speed; but the
hobbits began to find it hard to keep up with the swift tireless
feet of the Elf. On he led them, into the mouth of darkness,
and still on under the deep clouded night. There was neither
star nor moon. Not until the grey of dawn did he allow them
to halt. Pippin, Merry, and Sam were by that time nearly
asleep on their stumbling legs; and even Strider seemed by
the sag of his shoulders to be weary. Frodo sat upon the horse
in a dark dream.
They cast themselves down in the heather a few yards
from the road-side, and fell asleep immediately. They seemed
hardly to have closed their eyes when Glorfindel, who had
set himself to watch while they slept, awoke them again. The
sun had now climbed far into the morning, and the clouds
and mists of the night were gone.
‘Drink this!’ said Glorfindel to them, pouring for each in
turn a little liquor from his silver-studded flask of leather. It
was clear as spring water and had no taste, and it did not feel
either cool or warm in the mouth; but strength and vigour
seemed to flow into all their limbs as they drank it. Eaten
after that draught the stale bread and dried fruit (which was
now all that they had left) seemed to satisfy their hunger
better than many a good breakfast in the Shire had done.
They had rested rather less than five hours when they took
to the Road again. Glorfindel still urged them on, and only
allowed two brief halts during the day’s march. In this way
they covered almost twenty miles before nightfall, and came
to a point where the Road bent right and ran down towards
flight to the ford 277
the bottom of the valley, now making straight for the Bruinen.
So far there had been no sign or sound of pursuit that the
hobbits could see or hear; but often Glorfindel would halt
and listen for a moment, if they lagged behind, and a look of
anxiety clouded his face. Once or twice he spoke to Strider
in the elf-tongue.
But however anxious their guides might be, it was plain
that the hobbits could go no further that night. They were
stumbling along dizzy with weariness, and unable to think of
anything but their feet and legs. Frodo’s pain had redoubled,
and during the day things about him faded to shadows of
ghostly grey. He almost welcomed the coming of night, for
then the world seemed less pale and empty.
The hobbits were still weary, when they set out again early
next morning. There were many miles yet to go between
them and the Ford, and they hobbled forward at the best
pace they could manage.
‘Our peril will be greatest just ere we reach the river,’ said
Glorfindel; ‘for my heart warns me that the pursuit is now
swift behind us, and other danger may be waiting by the
Ford.’
The Road was still running steadily downhill, and there
was now in places much grass at either side, in which the
hobbits walked when they could, to ease their tired feet. In
the late afternoon they came to a place where the Road went
suddenly under the dark shadow of tall pine-trees, and then
plunged into a deep cutting with steep moist walls of red
stone. Echoes ran along as they hurried forward; and there
seemed to be a sound of many footfalls following their own.
All at once, as if through a gate of light, the Road ran out
again from the end of the tunnel into the open. There at the
bottom of a sharp incline they saw before them a long flat
mile, and beyond that the Ford of Rivendell. On the further
side was a steep brown bank, threaded by a winding path;
and behind that the tall mountains climbed, shoulder above
shoulder, and peak beyond peak, into the fading sky.
278 the fellowship of the ring
There was still an echo as of following feet in the cutting
behind them; a rushing noise as if a wind were rising and
pouring through the branches of the pines. One moment
Glorfindel turned and listened, then he sprang forward with
a loud cry.
‘Fly!’ he called. ‘Fly! The enemy is upon us!’
The white horse leaped forward. The hobbits ran down
the slope. Glorfindel and Strider followed as rearguard. They
were only half way across the flat, when suddenly there was
a noise of horses galloping. Out of the gate in the trees that
they had just left rode a Black Rider. He reined his horse in,
and halted, swaying in his saddle. Another followed him, and
then another; then again two more.
‘Ride forward! Ride!’ cried Glorfindel to Frodo.
He did not obey at once, for a strange reluctance seized
him. Checking the horse to a walk, he turned and looked
back. The Riders seemed to sit upon their great steeds like
threatening statues upon a hill, dark and solid, while all the
woods and land about them receded as if into a mist. Sud-
denly he knew in his heart that they were silently command-
ing him to wait. Then at once fear and hatred awoke in him.
His hand left the bridle and gripped the hilt of his sword, and
with a red flash he drew it.
‘Ride on! Ride on!’ cried Glorfindel, and then loud and
clear he called to the horse in the elf-tongue: noro lim, noro
lim, Asfaloth!
At once the white horse sprang away and sped like the
wind along the last lap of the Road. At the same moment the
black horses leaped down the hill in pursuit, and from
the Riders came a terrible cry, such as Frodo had heard filling
the woods with horror in the Eastfarthing far away. It was
answered; and to the dismay of Frodo and his friends out
from the trees and rocks away on the left four other Riders
came flying. Two rode towards Frodo; two galloped madly
towards the Ford to cut off his escape. They seemed to him
to run like the wind and to grow swiftly larger and darker, as
their courses converged with his.
flight to the ford 279
Frodo looked back for a moment over his shoulder. He
could no longer see his friends. The Riders behind were
falling back: even their great steeds were no match in speed
for the white elf-horse of Glorfindel. He looked forward
again, and hope faded. There seemed no chance of reaching
the Ford before he was cut off by the others that had lain in
ambush. He could see them clearly now: they appeared to
have cast aside their hoods and black cloaks, and they were
robed in white and grey. Swords were naked in their pale
hands; helms were on their heads. Their cold eyes glittered,
and they called to him with fell voices.
Fear now filled all Frodo’s mind. He thought no longer of
his sword. No cry came from him. He shut his eyes and clung
to the horse’s mane. The wind whistled in his ears, and the
bells upon the harness rang wild and shrill. A breath of deadly
cold pierced him like a spear, as with a last spurt, like a flash
of white fire, the elf-horse speeding as if on wings, passed
right before the face of the foremost Rider.
Frodo heard the splash of water. It foamed about his feet.
He felt the quick heave and surge as the horse left the river
and struggled up the stony path. He was climbing the steep
bank. He was across the Ford.
But the pursuers were close behind. At the top of the
bank the horse halted and turned about neighing fiercely.
There were Nine Riders at the water’s edge below, and
Frodo’s spirit quailed before the threat of their uplifted faces.
He knew of nothing that would prevent them from crossing
as easily as he had done; and he felt that it was useless to
try to escape over the long uncertain path from the Ford to
the edge of Rivendell, if once the Riders crossed. In any
case he felt that he was commanded urgently to halt. Hatred
again stirred in him, but he had no longer the strength to
refuse.
Suddenly the foremost Rider spurred his horse forward. It
checked at the water and reared up. With a great effort Frodo
sat upright and brandished his sword.
‘Go back!’ he cried. ‘Go back to the Land of Mordor, and
280 the fellowship of the ring
follow me no more!’ His voice sounded thin and shrill in his
own ears. The Riders halted, but Frodo had not the power
of Bombadil. His enemies laughed at him with a harsh and
chilling laughter. ‘Come back! Come back!’ they called. ‘To
Mordor we will take you!’
‘Go back!’ he whispered.
‘The Ring! The Ring!’ they cried with deadly voices; and
immediately their leader urged his horse forward into the
water, followed closely by two others.
‘By Elbereth and Lu
´
thien the Fair,’ said Frodo with a last
effort, lifting up his sword, ‘you shall have neither the Ring
nor me!’
Then the leader, who was now half across the Ford, stood
up menacing in his stirrups, and raised up his hand. Frodo
was stricken dumb. He felt his tongue cleave to his mouth,
and his heart labouring. His sword broke and fell out of
his shaking hand. The elf-horse reared and snorted. The
foremost of the black horses had almost set foot upon the
shore.
At that moment there came a roaring and a rushing: a noise
of loud waters rolling many stones. Dimly Frodo saw the
river below him rise, and down along its course there came a
plumed cavalry of waves. White flames seemed to Frodo to
flicker on their crests, and he half fancied that he saw amid
the water white riders upon white horses with frothing
manes. The three Riders that were still in the midst of the
Ford were overwhelmed: they disappeared, buried suddenly
under angry foam. Those that were behind drew back in
dismay.
With his last failing senses Frodo heard cries, and it seemed
to him that he saw, beyond the Riders that hesitated on the
shore, a shining figure of white light; and behind it ran small
shadowy forms waving flames, that flared red in the grey mist
that was falling over the world.
The black horses were filled with madness, and leaping
forward in terror they bore their riders into the rushing flood.
Their piercing cries were drowned in the roaring of the river
flight to the ford 281
as it carried them away. Then Frodo felt himself falling, and
the roaring and confusion seemed to rise and engulf him
together with his enemies. He heard and saw no more.
.
.
Chapter 1
MANY MEETINGS
Frodo woke and found himself lying in bed. At first he
thought that he had slept late, after a long unpleasant dream
that still hovered on the edge of memory. Or perhaps he had
been ill? But the ceiling looked strange; it was flat, and it had
dark beams richly carved. He lay a little while longer looking
at patches of sunlight on the wall, and listening to the sound
of a waterfall.
‘Where am I, and what is the time?’ he said aloud to the
ceiling.
‘In the house of Elrond, and it is ten o’clock in the morn-
ing,’ said a voice. ‘It is the morning of October the twenty-
fourth, if you want to know.’
‘Gandalf !’ cried Frodo, sitting up. There was the old wizard,
sitting in a chair by the open window.
‘Yes,’ he said, ‘I am here. And you are lucky to be here,
too, after all the absurd things you have done since you left
home.’
Frodo lay down again. He felt too comfortable and peaceful
to argue, and in any case he did not think he would get the
better of an argument. He was fully awake now, and the
memory of his journey was returning: the disastrous ‘short
cut’ through the Old Forest; the ‘accident’ at The Prancing
Pony; and his madness in putting on the Ring in the dell
under Weathertop. While he was thinking of all these things
and trying in vain to bring his memory down to his arriving
in Rivendell, there was a long silence, broken only by the soft
puffs of Gandalf ’s pipe, as he blew white smoke-rings out of
the window.
‘Where’s Sam?’ Frodo asked at length. ‘And are the others
all right?’
286 the fellowship of the ring
‘Yes, they are all safe and sound,’ answered Gandalf. ‘Sam
was here until I sent him off to get some rest, about half an
hour ago.’
‘What happened at the Ford?’ said Frodo. ‘It all seemed
so dim, somehow; and it still does.’
‘Yes, it would. You were beginning to fade,’ answered
Gandalf. ‘The wound was overcoming you at last. A few
more hours and you would have been beyond our aid. But
you have some strength in you, my dear hobbit! As you
showed in the Barrow. That was touch and go: perhaps the
most dangerous moment of all. I wish you could have held
out at Weathertop.’
‘You seem to know a great deal already,’ said Frodo. ‘I
have not spoken to the others about the Barrow. At first it
was too horrible, and afterwards there were other things to
think about. How do you know about it?’
‘You have talked long in your sleep, Frodo,’ said Gandalf
gently, ‘and it has not been hard for me to read your mind
and memory. Do not worry! Though I said ‘‘absurd’’ just
now, I did not mean it. I think well of you – and of the others.
It is no small feat to have come so far, and through such
dangers, still bearing the Ring.’
‘We should never have done it without Strider,’ said Frodo.
‘But we needed you. I did not know what to do without you.’
‘I was delayed,’ said Gandalf, ‘and that nearly proved our
ruin. And yet I am not sure: it may have been better so.’
‘I wish you would tell me what happened!’
‘All in good time! You are not supposed to talk or worry
about anything today, by Elrond’s orders.’
‘But talking would stop me thinking and wondering, which
are quite as tiring,’ said Frodo. ‘I am wide awake now, and I
remember so many things that want explaining. Why were
you delayed? You ought to tell me that at least.’
‘You will soon hear all you wish to know,’ said Gandalf.
‘We shall have a Council, as soon as you are well enough. At
the moment I will only say that I was held captive.’
‘You?’ cried Frodo.
many meetings 287
‘Yes, I, Gandalf the Grey,’ said the wizard solemnly.
‘There are many powers in the world, for good or for evil.
Some are greater than I am. Against some I have not yet been
measured. But my time is coming. The Morgul-lord and his
Black Riders have come forth. War is preparing!’
‘Then you knew of the Riders already – before I met them?’
‘Yes, I knew of them. Indeed I spoke of them once to you;
for the Black Riders are the Ringwraiths, the Nine Servants
of the Lord of the Rings. But I did not know that they had
arisen again or I should have fled with you at once. I heard
news of them only after I left you in June; but that story must
wait. For the moment we have been saved from disaster, by
Aragorn.’
‘Yes,’ said Frodo, ‘it was Strider that saved us. Yet I was
afraid of him at first. Sam never quite trusted him, I think,
not at any rate until we met Glorfindel.’
Gandalf smiled. ‘I have heard all about Sam,’ he said. ‘He
has no more doubts now.’
‘I am glad,’ said Frodo. ‘For I have become very fond of
Strider. Well, fond is not the right word. I mean he is dear to
me; though he is strange, and grim at times. In fact, he
reminds me often of you. I didn’t know that any of the Big
People were like that. I thought, well, that they were just big,
and rather stupid: kind and stupid like Butterbur; or stupid
and wicked like Bill Ferny. But then we don’t know much
about Men in the Shire, except perhaps the Bree-landers.’
‘You don’t know much even about them, if you think old
Barliman is stupid,’ said Gandalf. ‘He is wise enough on his
own ground. He thinks less than he talks, and slower; yet he
can see through a brick wall in time (as they say in Bree).
But there are few left in Middle-earth like Aragorn son of
Arathorn. The race of the Kings from over the Sea is nearly
at an end. It may be that this War of the Ring will be their
last adventure.’
‘Do you really mean that Strider is one of the people of
the old Kings?’ said Frodo in wonder. ‘I thought they had all
vanished long ago. I thought he was only a Ranger.’
288 the fellowship of the ring
‘Only a Ranger!’ cried Gandalf. ‘My dear Frodo, that is
just what the Rangers are: the last remnant in the North of
the great people, the Men of the West. They have helped me
before; and I shall need their help in the days to come; for
we have reached Rivendell, but the Ring is not yet at rest.’
‘I suppose not,’ said Frodo. ‘But so far my only thought
has been to get here; and I hope I shan’t have to go any
further. It is very pleasant just to rest. I have had a month of
exile and adventure, and I find that has been as much as I
want.’
He fell silent and shut his eyes. After a while he spoke
again. ‘I have been reckoning,’ he said, ‘and I can’t bring
the total up to October the twenty-fourth. It ought to be
the twenty-first. We must have reached the Ford by the
twentieth.’
‘You have talked and reckoned more than is good for you,’
said Gandalf. ‘How do the side and shoulder feel now?’
‘I don’t know,’ Frodo answered. ‘They don’t feel at all:
which is an improvement, but’ – he made an effort – ‘I can
move my arm again a little. Yes, it is coming back to life. It
is not cold,’ he added, touching his left hand with his right.
‘Good!’ said Gandalf. ‘It is mending fast. You will soon be
sound again. Elrond has cured you: he has tended you for
days, ever since you were brought in.’
‘Days?’ said Frodo.
‘Well, four nights and three days, to be exact. The Elves
brought you from the Ford on the night of the twentieth, and
that is where you lost count. We have been terribly anxious,
and Sam has hardly left your side, day or night, except to
run messages. Elrond is a master of healing, but the weapons
of our Enemy are deadly. To tell you the truth, I had very
little hope; for I suspected that there was some fragment of
the blade still in the closed wound. But it could not be found
until last night. Then Elrond removed a splinter. It was deeply
buried, and it was working inwards.’
Frodo shuddered, remembering the cruel knife with
notched blade that had vanished in Strider’s hands. ‘Don’t
many meetings 289
be alarmed!’ said Gandalf. ‘It is gone now. It has been melted.
And it seems that Hobbits fade very reluctantly. I have known
strong warriors of the Big People who would quickly have
been overcome by that splinter, which you bore for seventeen
days.’
‘What would they have done to me?’ asked Frodo. ‘What
were the Riders trying to do?’
‘They tried to pierce your heart with a Morgul-knife which
remains in the wound. If they had succeeded, you would
have become like they are, only weaker and under their com-
mand. You would have become a wraith under the dominion
of the Dark Lord; and he would have tormented you for
trying to keep his Ring, if any greater torment were possible
than being robbed of it and seeing it on his hand.’
‘Thank goodness I did not realize the horrible danger!’ said
Frodo faintly. ‘I was mortally afraid, of course; but if I had
known more, I should not have dared even to move. It is a
marvel that I escaped!’
‘Yes, fortune or fate have helped you,’ said Gandalf, ‘not
to mention courage. For your heart was not touched, and
only your shoulder was pierced; and that was because you
resisted to the last. But it was a terribly narrow shave, so to
speak. You were in gravest peril while you wore the Ring, for
then you were half in the wraith-world yourself, and they
might have seized you. You could see them, and they could
see you.’
‘I know,’ said Frodo. ‘They were terrible to behold! But
why could we all see their horses?’
‘Because they are real horses; just as the black robes are
real robes that they wear to give shape to their nothingness
when they have dealings with the living.’
‘Then why do these black horses endure such riders? All
other animals are terrified when they draw near, even the
elf-horse of Glorfindel. The dogs howl and the geese scream
at them.’
‘Because these horses are born and bred to the service of
the Dark Lord in Mordor. Not all his servants and chattels
290 the fellowship of the ring
are wraiths! There are orcs and trolls, there are wargs and
werewolves; and there have been and still are many Men,
warriors and kings, that walk alive under the Sun, and yet are
under his sway. And their number is growing daily.’
‘What about Rivendell and the Elves? Is Rivendell safe?’
‘Yes, at present, until all else is conquered. The Elves may
fear the Dark Lord, and they may fly before him, but never
again will they listen to him or serve him. And here in Riven-
dell there live still some of his chief foes: the Elven-wise, lords
of the Eldar from beyond the furthest seas. They do not fear
the Ringwraiths, for those who have dwelt in the Blessed
Realm live at once in both worlds, and against both the Seen
and the Unseen they have great power.’
‘I thought that I saw a white figure that shone and did not
grow dim like the others. Was that Glorfindel then?’
‘Yes, you saw him for a moment as he is upon the other
side: one of the mighty of the Firstborn. He is an Elf-lord of
a house of princes. Indeed there is a power in Rivendell to
withstand the might of Mordor, for a while: and elsewhere
other powers still dwell. There is power, too, of another kind
in the Shire. But all such places will soon become islands
under siege, if things go on as they are going. The Dark Lord
is putting forth all his strength.
‘Still,’ he said, standing suddenly up and sticking out his
chin, while his beard went stiff and straight like bristling wire,
‘we must keep up our courage. You will soon be well, if I do
not talk you to death. You are in Rivendell, and you need
not worry about anything for the present.’
‘I haven’t any courage to keep up,’ said Frodo, ‘but I am
not worried at the moment. Just give me news of my friends,
and tell me the end of the affair at the Ford, as I keep on
asking, and I shall be content for the present. After that I
shall have another sleep, I think; but I shan’t be able to close
my eyes until you have finished the story for me.’
Gandalf moved his chair to the bedside and took a good
look at Frodo. The colour had come back to his face, and his
eyes were clear, and fully awake and aware. He was smiling,
many meetings 291
and there seemed to be little wrong with him. But to the
wizard’s eye there was a faint change, just a hint as it were of
transparency, about him, and especially about the left hand
that lay outside upon the coverlet.
‘Still that must be expected,’ said Gandalf to himself. ‘He
is not half through yet, and to what he will come in the end
not even Elrond can foretell. Not to evil, I think. He may
become like a glass filled with a clear light for eyes to see that
can.’
‘You look splendid,’ he said aloud. ‘I will risk a brief tale
without consulting Elrond. But quite brief, mind you, and
then you must sleep again. This is what happened, as far as
I can gather. The Riders made straight for you, as soon as
you fled. They did not need the guidance of their horses any
longer: you had become visible to them, being already on the
threshold of their world. And also the Ring drew them. Your
friends sprang aside, off the road, or they would have been
ridden down. They knew that nothing could save you, if the
white horse could not. The Riders were too swift to over-
take, and too many to oppose. On foot even Glorfindel and
Aragorn together could not withstand all the Nine at once.
‘When the Ringwraiths swept by, your friends ran up
behind. Close to the Ford there is a small hollow beside the
road masked by a few stunted trees. There they hastily
kindled fire; for Glorfindel knew that a flood would come
down, if the Riders tried to cross, and then he would have to
deal with any that were left on his side of the river. The
moment the flood appeared, he rushed out, followed by
Aragorn and the others with flaming brands. Caught between
fire and water, and seeing an Elf-lord revealed in his wrath,
they were dismayed, and their horses were stricken with mad-
ness. Three were carried away by the first assault of the flood;
the others were now hurled into the water by their horses and
overwhelmed.’
‘And is that the end of the Black Riders?’ asked Frodo.
‘No,’ said Gandalf. ‘Their horses must have perished,
and without them they are crippled. But the Ringwraiths
292 the fellowship of the ring
themselves cannot be so easily destroyed. However, there is
nothing more to fear from them at present. Your friends
crossed after the flood had passed and they found you lying
on your face at the top of the bank, with a broken sword
under you. The horse was standing guard beside you. You
were pale and cold, and they feared that you were dead, or
worse. Elrond’s folk met them, carrying you slowly towards
Rivendell.’
‘Who made the flood?’ asked Frodo.
‘Elrond commanded it,’ answered Gandalf. ‘The river of
this valley is under his power, and it will rise in anger when
he has great need to bar the Ford. As soon as the captain of
the Ringwraiths rode into the water the flood was released.
If I may say so, I added a few touches of my own: you may
not have noticed, but some of the waves took the form of
great white horses with shining white riders; and there were
many rolling and grinding boulders. For a moment I was
afraid that we had let loose too fierce a wrath, and the flood
would get out of hand and wash you all away. There is great
vigour in the waters that come down from the snows of the
Misty Mountains.’
‘Yes, it all comes back to me now,’ said Frodo: ‘the tremen-
dous roaring. I thought I was drowning, with my friends and
enemies and all. But now we are safe!’
Gandalf looked quickly at Frodo, but he had shut his eyes.
‘Yes, you are all safe for the present. Soon there will be
feasting and merrymaking to celebrate the victory at the Ford
of Bruinen, and you will all be there in places of honour.’
‘Splendid!’ said Frodo. ‘It is wonderful that Elrond, and
Glorfindel and such great lords, not to mention Strider,
should take so much trouble and show me so much kindness.’
‘Well, there are many reasons why they should,’ said
Gandalf, smiling. ‘I am one good reason. The Ring is another:
you are the Ring-bearer. And you are the heir of Bilbo, the
Ring-finder.’
‘Dear Bilbo!’ said Frodo sleepily. ‘I wonder where he is. I
wish he was here and could hear all about it. It would have
many meetings 293
made him laugh. The cow jumped over the Moon! And the
poor old troll!’ With that he fell fast asleep.
Frodo was now safe in the Last Homely House east of the
Sea. That house was, as Bilbo had long ago reported, ‘a
perfect house, whether you like food or sleep 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 weari-
ness, fear, and sadness.
As the evening drew on, Frodo woke up again, and he
found that he no longer felt in need of rest or sleep, but had
a mind for food and drink, and probably for singing and
story-telling afterwards. He got out of bed and discovered
that his arm was already nearly as useful again as it ever had
been. He found laid ready clean garments of green cloth that
fitted him excellently. Looking in a mirror he was startled to
see a much thinner reflection of himself than he remembered:
it looked remarkably like the young nephew of Bilbo who
used to go tramping with his uncle in the Shire; but the eyes
looked out at him thoughtfully.
‘Yes, you have seen a thing or two since you last peeped
out of a looking-glass,’ he said to his reflection. ‘But now for
a merry meeting!’ He stretched out his arms and whistled a
tune.
At that moment there was a knock on the door, and Sam
came in. He ran to Frodo and took his left hand, awkwardly
and shyly. He stroked it gently and then he blushed and
turned hastily away.
‘Hullo, Sam!’ said Frodo.
‘It’s warm!’ said Sam. ‘Meaning your hand, Mr. Frodo. It
has felt so cold through the long nights. But glory and trum-
pets!’ he cried, turning round again with shining eyes and
dancing on the floor. ‘It’s fine to see you up and yourself
again, sir! Gandalf asked me to come and see if you were
ready to come down, and I thought he was joking.’
‘I am ready,’ said Frodo. ‘Let’s go and look for the rest of
the party!’
294 the fellowship of the ring
‘I can take you to them, sir,’ said Sam. ‘It’s a big house
this, and very peculiar. Always a bit more to discover, and
no knowing what you’ll find round a corner. And Elves, sir!
Elves here, and Elves there! Some like kings, terrible and
splendid; and some as merry as children. And the music and
the singing – not that I have had the time or the heart for
much listening since we got here. But I’m getting to know
some of the ways of the place.’
‘I know what you have been doing, Sam,’ said Frodo,
taking his arm. ‘But you shall be merry tonight, and listen to
your heart’s content. Come on, guide me round the corners!’
Sam led him along several passages and down many steps
and out into a high garden above the steep bank of the river.
He found his friends sitting in a porch on the side of the
house looking east. Shadows had fallen in the valley below,
but there was still a light on the faces of the mountains far
above. The air was warm. The sound of running and falling
water was loud, and the evening was filled with a faint scent
of trees and flowers, as if summer still lingered in Elrond’s
gardens.
‘Hurray!’ cried Pippin, springing up. ‘Here is our noble
cousin! Make way for Frodo, Lord of the Ring!’
‘Hush!’ said Gandalf from the shadows at the back of the
porch. ‘Evil things do not come into this valley; but all the
same we should not name them. The Lord of the Ring is not
Frodo, but the master of the Dark Tower of Mordor, whose
power is again stretching out over the world. We are sitting
in a fortress. Outside it is getting dark.’
‘Gandalf has been saying many cheerful things like that,’
said Pippin. ‘He thinks I need keeping in order. But it seems
impossible, somehow, to feel gloomy or depressed in this
place. I feel I could sing, if I knew the right song for the
occasion.’
‘I feel like singing myself,’ laughed Frodo. ‘Though at the
moment I feel more like eating and drinking.’
‘That will soon be cured,’ said Pippin. ‘You have shown
your usual cunning in getting up just in time for a meal.’
many meetings 295
‘More than a meal! A feast!’ said Merry. ‘As soon as
Gandalf reported that you were recovered, the preparations
began.’ He had hardly finished speaking when they were
summoned to the hall by the ringing of many bells.
The hall of Elrond’s house was filled with folk: Elves for
the most part, though there were a few guests of other sorts.
Elrond, as was his custom, sat in a great chair at the end of
the long table upon the dais; and next to him on the one side
sat Glorfindel, on the other side sat Gandalf.
Frodo looked at them in wonder; for he had never before
seen Elrond, of whom so many tales spoke; and as they
sat upon his right hand and his left, Glorfindel, and even
Gandalf, whom he thought he knew so well, were revealed
as lords of dignity and power.
Gandalf was shorter in stature than the other two; but his
long white hair, his sweeping silver beard, and his broad
shoulders, made him look like some wise king of ancient
legend. In his aged face under great snowy brows his dark
eyes were set like coals that could leap suddenly into fire.
Glorfindel was tall and straight; his hair was of shining
gold, his face fair and young and fearless and full of joy; his
eyes were bright and keen, and his voice like music; on his
brow sat wisdom, and in his hand was strength.
The face of Elrond was ageless, neither old nor young,
though in it was written the memory of many things both
glad and sorrowful. His hair was dark as the shadows of
twilight, and upon it was set a circlet of silver; his eyes were
grey as a clear evening, and in them was a light like the light
of stars. Venerable he seemed as a king crowned with many
winters, and yet hale as a tried warrior in the fulness of his
strength. He was the Lord of Rivendell and mighty among
both Elves and Men.
In the middle of the table, against the woven cloths upon
the wall, there was a chair under a canopy, and there sat a
lady fair to look upon, and so like was she in form of woman-
hood to Elrond that Frodo guessed that she was one of his
296 the fellowship of the ring
close kindred. Young she was and yet not so. The braids of
her dark hair were touched by no frost; her white arms and
clear face were flawless and smooth, and the light of stars
was in her bright eyes, grey as a cloudless night; yet queenly
she looked, and thought and knowledge were in her glance,
as of one who has known many things that the years bring.
Above her brow her head was covered with a cap of silver
lace netted with small gems, glittering white; but her soft grey
raiment had no ornament save a girdle of leaves wrought in
silver.
So it was that Frodo saw her whom few mortals had yet
seen; Arwen, daughter of Elrond, in whom it was said that
the likeness of Lu
´
thien had come on earth again; and she was
called Undo
´
miel, for she was the Evenstar of her people.
Long she had been in the land of her mother’s kin, in Lo
´
rien
beyond the mountains, and was but lately returned to Riven-
dell to her father’s house. But her brothers, Elladan and
Elrohir, were out upon errantry; for they rode often far afield
with the Rangers of the North, forgetting never their mother’s
torment in the dens of the orcs.
Such loveliness in living thing Frodo had never seen before
nor imagined in his mind; and he was both surprised and
abashed to find that he had a seat at Elrond’s table among all
these folk so high and fair. Though he had a suitable chair,
and was raised upon several cushions, he felt very small, and
rather out of place; but that feeling quickly passed. The feast
was merry and the food all that his hunger could desire. It
was some time before he looked about him again or even
turned to his neighbours.
He looked first for his friends. Sam had begged to be
allowed to wait on his master, but had been told that for this
time he was a guest of honour. Frodo could see him now,
sitting with Pippin and Merry at the upper end of one of
the side-tables close to the dais. He could see no sign of
Strider.
Next to Frodo on his right sat a dwarf of important appear-
ance, richly dressed. His beard, very long and forked, was
many meetings 297
white, nearly as white as the snow-white cloth of his garments.
He wore a silver belt, and round his neck hung a chain of
silver and diamonds. Frodo stopped eating to look at him.
‘Welcome and well met!’ said the dwarf, turning towards
him. Then he actually rose from his seat and bowed. ‘Glo
´
in
at your service,’ he said, and bowed still lower.
‘Frodo Baggins at your service and your family’s,’ said
Frodo correctly, rising in surprise and scattering his cushions.
‘Am I right in guessing that you are the Glo
´
in, one of the
twelve companions of the great Thorin Oakenshield?’
‘Quite right,’ answered the dwarf, gathering up the
cushions and courteously assisting Frodo back into his seat.
‘And I do not ask, for I have already been told that you
are the kinsman and adopted heir of our friend Bilbo the
renowned. Allow me to congratulate you on your recovery.’
‘Thank you very much,’ said Frodo.
‘You have had some very strange adventures, I hear,’ said
Glo
´
in. ‘I wonder greatly what brings four hobbits on so long
a journey. Nothing like it has happened since Bilbo came
with us. But perhaps I should not inquire too closely, since
Elrond and Gandalf do not seem disposed to talk of this?’
‘I think we will not speak of it, at least not yet,’ said Frodo
politely. He guessed that even in Elrond’s house the matter
of the Ring was not one for casual talk; and in any case he
wished to forget his troubles for a time. ‘But I am equally
curious,’ he added, ‘to learn what brings so important a dwarf
so far from the Lonely Mountain.’
Glo
´
in looked at him. ‘If you have not heard, I think we will
not speak yet of that either. Master Elrond will summon us
all ere long, I believe, and then we shall all hear many things.
But there is much else that may be told.’
Throughout the rest of the meal they talked together, but
Frodo listened more than he spoke; for the news of the Shire,
apart from the Ring, seemed small and far-away and unim-
portant, while Glo
´
in had much to tell of events in the northern
regions of Wilderland. Frodo learned that Grimbeorn the
Old, son of Beorn, was now the lord of many sturdy men,
298 the fellowship of the ring
and to their land between the Mountains and Mirkwood
neither orc nor wolf dared to go.
‘Indeed,’ said Glo
´
in, ‘if it were not for the Beornings, the
passage from Dale to Rivendell would long ago have become
impossible. They are valiant men and keep open the High
Pass and the Ford of Carrock. But their tolls are high,’ he
added with a shake of his head; ‘and like Beorn of old they
are not over fond of dwarves. Still, they are trusty, and that
is much in these days. Nowhere are there any men so friendly
to us as the Men of Dale. They are good folk, the Bardings.
The grandson of Bard the Bowman rules them, Brand son
of Bain son of Bard. He is a strong king, and his realm now
reaches far south and east of Esgaroth.’
‘And what of your own people?’ asked Frodo.
‘There is much to tell, good and bad,’ said Glo
´
in; ‘yet it is
mostly good: we have so far been fortunate, though we do
not escape the shadow of these times. If you really wish to
hear of us, I will tell you tidings gladly. But stop me when
you are weary! Dwarves’ tongues run on when speaking of
their handiwork, they say.’
And with that Glo
´
in embarked on a long account of the
doings of the Dwarf-kingdom. He was delighted to have
found so polite a listener; for Frodo showed no sign of weari-
ness and made no attempt to change the subject, though
actually he soon got rather lost among the strange names of
people and places that he had never heard of before. He was
interested, however, to hear that Da
´
in was still King under
the Mountain, and was now old (having passed his two
hundred and fiftieth year), venerable, and fabulously rich. Of
the ten companions who had survived the Battle of Five
Armies seven were still with him: Dwalin, Glo
´
in, Dori, Nori,
Bifur, Bofur, and Bombur. Bombur was now so fat that he
could not move himself from his couch to his chair at table,
and it took six young dwarves to lift him.
‘And what has become of Balin and Ori and O
´
in?’ asked
Frodo.
A shadow passed over Glo
´
in’s face. ‘We do not know,’ he
many meetings 299
answered. ‘It is largely on account of Balin that I have come
to ask the advice of those that dwell in Rivendell. But tonight
let us speak of merrier things!’
Glo
´
in began then to talk of the works of his people, telling
Frodo about their great labours in Dale and under the Moun-
tain. ‘We have done well,’ he said. ‘But in metal-work we
cannot rival our fathers, many of whose secrets are lost. We
make good armour and keen swords, but we cannot again
make mail or blade to match those that were made before the
dragon came. Only in mining and building have we surpassed
the old days. You should see the waterways of Dale, Frodo,
and the fountains, and the pools! You should see the stone-
paved roads of many colours! And the halls and cavernous
streets under the earth with arches carved like trees; and the
terraces and towers upon the Mountain’s sides! Then you
would see that we have not been idle.’
‘I will come and see them, if ever I can,’ said Frodo. ‘How
surprised Bilbo would have been to see all the changes in the
Desolation of Smaug!’
Glo
´
in looked at Frodo and smiled. ‘You were very fond of
Bilbo were you not?’ he asked.
‘Yes,’ answered Frodo. ‘I would rather see him than all the
towers and palaces in the world.’
At length the feast came to an end. Elrond and Arwen rose
and went down the hall, and the company followed them
in due order. The doors were thrown open, and they went
across a wide passage and through other doors, and came
into a further hall. In it were no tables, but a bright fire was
burning in a great hearth between the carven pillars upon
either side.
Frodo found himself walking with Gandalf. ‘This is the
Hall of Fire,’ said the wizard. ‘Here you will hear many songs
and tales – if you can keep awake. But except on high days
it usually stands empty and quiet, and people come here who
wish for peace, and thought. There is always a fire here, all
the year round, but there is little other light.’
300 the fellowship of the ring
As Elrond entered and went towards the seat prepared for
him, Elvish minstrels began to make sweet music. Slowly the
hall filled, and Frodo looked with delight upon the many fair
faces that were gathered together; the golden firelight played
upon them and shimmered in their hair. Suddenly he noticed,
not far from the further end of the fire, a small dark figure
seated on a stool with his back propped against a pillar. Beside
him on the ground was a drinking-cup and some bread.
Frodo wondered whether he was ill (if people were ever ill in
Rivendell), and had been unable to come to the feast. His
head seemed sunk in sleep on his breast, and a fold of his
dark cloak was drawn over his face.
Elrond went forward and stood beside the silent figure.
‘Awake, little master!’ he said, with a smile. Then, turning to
Frodo, he beckoned to him. ‘Now at last the hour has come
that you have wished for, Frodo,’ he said. ‘Here is a friend
that you have long missed.’
The dark figure raised its head and uncovered its face.
‘Bilbo!’ cried Frodo with sudden recognition, and he
sprang forward.
‘Hullo, Frodo my lad!’ said Bilbo. ‘So you have got here at
last. I hoped you would manage it. Well, well! So all this
feasting is in your honour, I hear. I hope you enjoyed
yourself ?’
‘Why weren’t you there?’ cried Frodo. ‘And why haven’t
I been allowed to see you before?’
‘Because you were asleep. I have seen a good deal of you.
I have sat by your side with Sam each day. But as for the
feast, I don’t go in for such things much now. And I had
something else to do.’
‘What were you doing?’
‘Why, sitting and thinking. I do a lot of that nowadays, and
this is the best place to do it in, as a rule. Wake up, indeed!’
he said, cocking an eye at Elrond. There was a bright twinkle
in it and no sign of sleepiness that Frodo could see. ‘Wake
up! I was not asleep, Master Elrond. If you want to know,
you have all come out from your feast too soon, and you
many meetings 301
have disturbed me – in the middle of making up a song. I
was stuck over a line or two, and was thinking about them;
but now I don’t suppose I shall ever get them right. There
will be such a deal of singing that the ideas will be driven clean
out of my head. I shall have to get my friend the Du
´
nadan to
help me. Where is he?’
Elrond laughed. ‘He shall be found,’ he said. ‘Then you
two shall go into a corner and finish your task, and we will
hear it and judge it before we end our merrymaking.’ Messen-
gers were sent to find Bilbo’s friend, though none knew where
he was, or why he had not been present at the feast.
In the meanwhile Frodo and Bilbo sat side by side, and
Sam came quickly and placed himself near them. They talked
together in soft voices, oblivious of the mirth and music in
the hall about them. Bilbo had not much to say of himself.
When he had left Hobbiton he had wandered off aimlessly,
along the Road or in the country on either side; but somehow
he had steered all the time towards Rivendell.
‘I got here without much adventure,’ he said, ‘and after a
rest I went on with the dwarves to Dale: my last journey. I
shan’t travel again. Old Balin had gone away. Then I came
back here, and here I have been. I have done this and that.
I have written some more of my book. And, of course, I make
up a few songs. They sing them occasionally: just to please
me, I think; for, of course, they aren’t really good enough for
Rivendell. And I listen and I think. Time doesn’t seem to
pass here: it just is. A remarkable place altogether.
‘I hear all kinds of news, from over the Mountains, and
out of the South, but hardly anything from the Shire. I heard
about the Ring, of course. Gandalf has been here often. Not
that he has told me a great deal, he has become closer than
ever these last few years. The Du
´
nadan has told me more.
Fancy that ring of mine causing such a disturbance! It is a
pity that Gandalf did not find out more sooner. I could have
brought the thing here myself long ago without so much
trouble. I have thought several times of going back to Hobbi-
ton for it; but I am getting old, and they would not let me:
302 the fellowship of the ring
Gandalf and Elrond, I mean. They seemed to think that the
Enemy was looking high and low for me, and would make
mincemeat of me, if he caught me tottering about in the
Wild.
‘And Gandalf said: ‘‘The Ring has passed on, Bilbo. It
would do no good to you or to others, if you tried to meddle
with it again.’’ Odd sort of remark, just like Gandalf. But he
said he was looking after you, so I let things be. I am fright-
fully glad to see you safe and sound.’ He paused and looked
at Frodo doubtfully.
‘Have you got it here?’ he asked in a whisper. ‘I can’t help
feeling curious, you know, after all I’ve heard. I should very
much like just to peep at it again.’
‘Yes, I’ve got it,’ answered Frodo, feeling a strange reluc-
tance. ‘It looks just the same as ever it did.’
‘Well, I should just like to see it for a moment,’ said Bilbo.
When he had dressed, Frodo found that while he slept the
Ring had been hung about his neck on a new chain, light but
strong. Slowly he drew it out. Bilbo put out his hand. But
Frodo quickly drew back the Ring. To his distress and amaze-
ment he found that he was no longer looking at Bilbo; a
shadow seemed to have fallen between them, and through
it he found himself eyeing a little wrinkled creature with a
hungry face and bony groping hands. He felt a desire to strike
him.
The music and singing round them seemed to falter, and
a silence fell. Bilbo looked quickly at Frodo’s face and passed
his hand across his eyes. ‘I understand now,’ he said. ‘Put it
away! I am sorry: sorry you have come in for this burden;
sorry about everything. Don’t adventures ever have an end?
I suppose not. Someone else always has to carry on the story.
Well, it can’t be helped. I wonder if it’s any good trying to
finish my book? But don’t let’s worry about it now – let’s
have some real News! Tell me all about the Shire!’
Frodo hid the Ring away, and the shadow passed leaving
hardly a shred of memory. The light and music of Rivendell
many meetings 303
was about him again. Bilbo smiled and laughed happily.
Every item of news from the Shire that Frodo could tell –
aided and corrected now and again by Sam – was of the
greatest interest to him, from the felling of the least tree to
the pranks of the smallest child in Hobbiton. They were so
deep in the doings of the Four Farthings that they did not
notice the arrival of a man clad in dark green cloth. For many
minutes he stood looking down at them with a smile.
Suddenly Bilbo looked up. ‘Ah, there you are at last, Du
´
n-
adan!’ he cried.
‘Strider!’ said Frodo. ‘You seem to have a lot of names.’
‘Well, Strider is one that I haven’t heard before, anyway,’
said Bilbo. ‘What do you call him that for?’
‘They call me that in Bree,’ said Strider laughing, ‘and that
is how I was introduced to him.’
‘And why do you call him Du
´
nadan?’ asked Frodo.
‘The Du
´
nadan,’ said Bilbo. ‘He is often called that here.
But I thought you knew enough Elvish at least to know du
´
n-
adan: Man of the West, Nu
´
meno
´
rean. But this is not the time
for lessons!’ He turned to Strider. ‘Where have you been, my
friend? Why weren’t you at the feast? The Lady Arwen was
there.’
Strider looked down at Bilbo gravely. ‘I know,’ he said.
‘But often I must put mirth aside. Elladan and Elrohir have
returned out of the Wild unlooked-for, and they had tidings
that I wished to hear at once.’
‘Well, my dear fellow,’ said Bilbo, ‘now you’ve heard the
news, can’t you spare me a moment? I want your help in
something urgent. Elrond says this song of mine is to be
finished before the end of the evening, and I am stuck. Let’s
go off into a corner and polish it up!’
Strider smiled. ‘Come then!’ he said. ‘Let me hear it!’
Frodo was left to himself for a while, for Sam had fallen
asleep. He was alone and felt rather forlorn, although all
about him the folk of Rivendell were gathered. But those near
him were silent, intent upon the music of the voices and the
304 the fellowship of the ring
instruments, and they gave no heed to anything else. Frodo
began to listen.
At first the beauty of the melodies and of the interwoven
words in elven-tongues, even though he understood them
little, held him in a spell, as soon as he began to attend to
them. Almost it seemed that the words took shape, and
visions of far lands and bright things that he had never yet
imagined opened out before him; and the firelit hall became
like a golden mist above seas of foam that sighed upon the
margins of the world. Then the enchantment became more
and more dreamlike, until he felt that an endless river of
swelling gold and silver was flowing over him, too multitu-
dinous for its pattern to be comprehended; it became part of
the throbbing air about him, and it drenched and drowned
him. Swiftly he sank under its shining weight into a deep
realm of sleep.
There he wandered long in a dream of music that turned
into running water, and then suddenly into a voice. It seemed
to be the voice of Bilbo chanting verses. Faint at first and
then clearer ran the words.
Ea
¨
rendil was a mariner
that tarried in Arvernien;
he built a boat of timber felled
in Nimbrethil to journey in;
her sails he wove of silver fair,
of silver were her lanterns made,
her prow he fashioned like a swan,
and light upon her banners laid.
In panoply of ancient kings,
in chaine
´
d rings he armoured him;
his shining shield was scored with runes
to ward all wounds and harm from him;
his bow was made of dragon-horn,
his arrows shorn of ebony,
of silver was his habergeon,
many meetings 305
his scabbard of chalcedony;
his sword of steel was valiant,
of adamant his helmet tall,
an eagle-plume upon his crest,
upon his breast an emerald.
Beneath the Moon and under star
he wandered far from northern strands,
bewildered on enchanted ways
beyond the days of mortal lands.
From gnashing of the Narrow Ice
where shadow lies on frozen hills,
from nether heats and burning waste
he turned in haste, and roving still
on starless waters far astray
at last he came to Night of Naught,
and passed, and never sight he saw
of shining shore nor light he sought.
The winds of wrath came driving him,
and blindly in the foam he fled
from west to east, and errandless,
unheralded he homeward sped.
There flying Elwing came to him,
and flame was in the darkness lit;
more bright than light of diamond
the fire upon her carcanet.
The Silmaril she bound on him
and crowned him with the living light,
and dauntless then with burning brow
he turned his prow; and in the night
from Otherworld beyond the Sea
there strong and free a storm arose,
a wind of power in Tarmenel;
by paths that seldom mortal goes
his boat it bore with biting breath
as might of death across the grey
306 the fellowship of the ring
and long-forsaken seas distressed:
from east to west he passed away.
Through Evernight he back was borne
on black and roaring waves that ran
o’er leagues unlit and foundered shores
that drowned before the Days began,
until he heard on strands of pearl
where ends the world the music long,
where ever-foaming billows roll
the yellow gold and jewels wan.
He saw the Mountain silent rise
where twilight lies upon the knees
of Valinor, and Eldamar
beheld afar beyond the seas.
A wanderer escaped from night
to haven white he came at last,
to Elvenhome the green and fair
where keen the air, where pale as glass
beneath the Hill of Ilmarin
a-glimmer in a valley sheer
the lamplit towers of Tirion
are mirrored on the Shadowmere.
He tarried there from errantry,
and melodies they taught to him,
and sages old him marvels told,
and harps of gold they brought to him.
They clothed him then in elven-white,
and seven lights before him sent,
as through the Calacirian
to hidden land forlorn he went.
He came unto the timeless halls
where shining fall the countless years,
and endless reigns the Elder King
in Ilmarin on Mountain sheer;
and words unheard were spoken then
many meetings 307
of folk of Men and Elven-kin,
beyond the world were visions showed
forbid to those that dwell therein.
A ship then new they built for him
of mithril and of elven-glass
with shining prow; no shaven oar
nor sail she bore on silver mast:
the Silmaril as lantern light
and banner bright with living flame
to gleam thereon by Elbereth
herself was set, who thither came
and wings immortal made for him,
and laid on him undying doom,
to sail the shoreless skies and come
behind the Sun and light of Moon.
From Evereven’s lofty hills
where softly silver fountains fall
his wings him bore, a wandering light,
beyond the mighty Mountain Wall.
From World’s End then he turned away,
and yearned again to find afar
his home through shadows journeying,
and burning as an island star
on high above the mists he came,
a distant flame before the Sun,
a wonder ere the waking dawn
where grey the Norland waters run.
And over Middle-earth he passed
and heard at last the weeping sore
of women and of elven-maids
in Elder Days, in years of yore.
But on him mighty doom was laid,
till Moon should fade, an orbe
´
d star
to pass, and tarry never more
308 the fellowship of the ring
on Hither Shores where mortals are;
for ever still a herald on
an errand that should never rest
to bear his shining lamp afar,
the Flammifer of Westernesse.
The chanting ceased. Frodo opened his eyes and saw that
Bilbo was seated on his stool in a circle of listeners, who were
smiling and applauding.
‘Now we had better have it again,’ said an Elf.
Bilbo got up and bowed. ‘I am flattered, Lindir,’ he said.
‘But it would be too tiring to repeat it all.’
‘Not too tiring for you,’ the Elves answered laughing. ‘You
know you are never tired of reciting your own verses. But
really we cannot answer your question at one hearing!’
‘What!’ cried Bilbo. ‘You can’t tell which parts were mine,
and which were the Du
´
nadan’s?’
‘It is not easy for us to tell the difference between two
mortals,’ said the Elf.
‘Nonsense, Lindir,’ snorted Bilbo. ‘If you can’t distinguish
between a Man and a Hobbit, your judgement is poorer than
I imagined. They’re as different as peas and apples.’
‘Maybe. To sheep other sheep no doubt appear different,’
laughed Lindir. ‘Or to shepherds. But Mortals have not been
our study. We have other business.’
‘I won’t argue with you,’ said Bilbo. ‘I am sleepy after so
much music and singing. I’ll leave you to guess, if you want
to.’
He got up and came towards Frodo. ‘Well, that’s over,’ he
said in a low voice. ‘It went off better than I expected. I don’t
often get asked for a second hearing. What did you think
of it?’
‘I am not going to try and guess,’ said Frodo smiling.
‘You needn’t,’ said Bilbo. ‘As a matter of fact it was all
mine. Except that Aragorn insisted on my putting in a green
stone. He seemed to think it important. I don’t know why.
Otherwise he obviously thought the whole thing rather above
many meetings 309
my head, and he said that if I had the cheek to make verses
about Ea
¨
rendil in the house of Elrond, it was my affair. I
suppose he was right.’
‘I don’t know,’ said Frodo. ‘It seemed to me to fit somehow,
though I can’t explain. I was half asleep when you began,
and it seemed to follow on from something that I was dream-
ing about. I didn’t understand that it was really you speaking
until near the end.’
‘It is difficult to keep awake here, until you get used to it,’
said Bilbo. ‘Not that hobbits would ever acquire quite the
Elvish appetite for music and poetry and tales. They seem to
like them as much as food, or more. They will be going on
for a long time yet. What do you say to slipping off for some
more quiet talk?’
‘Can we?’ said Frodo.
‘Of course. This is merrymaking not business. Come and
go as you like, as long as you don’t make a noise.’
They got up and withdrew quietly into the shadows, and
made for the doors. Sam they left behind, fast asleep still with
a smile on his face. In spite of his delight in Bilbo’s company
Frodo felt a tug of regret as they passed out of the Hall of
Fire. Even as they stepped over the threshold a single clear
voice rose in song.
A Elbereth Gilthoniel,
silivren penna mı
´
riel
o menel aglar elenath!
Na-chaered palan-dı
´
riel
o galadhremmin ennorath,
Fanuilos, le linnathon
nef aear, sı
´
nef aearon!
Frodo halted for a moment, looking back. Elrond was in
his chair and the fire was on his face like summer-light upon
the trees. Near him sat the Lady Arwen. To his surprise
Frodo saw that Aragorn stood beside her; his dark cloak was
310 the fellowship of the ring
thrown back, and he seemed to be clad in elven-mail, and a
star shone on his breast. They spoke together, and then sud-
denly it seemed to Frodo that Arwen turned towards him,
and the light of her eyes fell on him from afar and pierced
his heart.
He stood still enchanted, while the sweet syllables of the
Elvish song fell like clear jewels of blended word and melody.
‘It is a song to Elbereth,’ said Bilbo. ‘They will sing that, and
other songs of the Blessed Realm, many times tonight. Come
on!’
He led Frodo back to his own little room. It opened on to
the gardens and looked south across the ravine of the
Bruinen. There they sat for some while, looking through the
window at the bright stars above the steep-climbing woods,
and talking softly. They spoke no more of the small news of
the Shire far away, nor of the dark shadows and perils that
encompassed them, but of the fair things they had seen in
the world together, of the Elves, of the stars, of trees, and the
gentle fall of the bright year in the woods.
At last there came a knock on the door. ‘Begging your
pardon,’ said Sam, putting in his head, ‘but I was just wonder-
ing if you would be wanting anything.’
‘And begging yours, Sam Gamgee,’ replied Bilbo. ‘I guess
you mean that it is time your master went to bed.’
‘Well, sir, there is a Council early tomorrow, I hear, and
he only got up today for the first time.’
‘Quite right, Sam,’ laughed Bilbo. ‘You can trot off and
tell Gandalf that he has gone to bed. Good night, Frodo!
Bless me, but it has been good to see you again! There are
no folk like hobbits after all for a real good talk. I am getting
very old, and I began to wonder if I should live to see your
chapters of our story. Good night! I’ll take a walk, I think,
and look at the stars of Elbereth in the garden. Sleep well!’
Chapter 2
THE COUNCIL OF ELROND
Next day Frodo woke early, feeling refreshed and well. He
walked along the terraces above the loud-flowing Bruinen
and watched the pale, cool sun rise above the far mountains,
and shine down, slanting through the thin silver mist; the
dew upon the yellow leaves was glimmering, and the woven
nets of gossamer twinkled on every bush. Sam walked beside
him, saying nothing, but sniffing the air, and looking every
now and again with wonder in his eyes at the great heights
in the East. The snow was white upon their peaks.
On a seat cut in the stone beside a turn in the path they
came upon Gandalf and Bilbo deep in talk. ‘Hullo! Good
morning!’ said Bilbo. ‘Feel ready for the great council?’
‘I feel ready for anything,’ answered Frodo. ‘But most of
all I should like to go walking today and explore the valley. I
should like to get into those pine-woods up there.’ He pointed
away far up the side of Rivendell to the north.
‘You may have a chance later,’ said Gandalf. ‘But we cannot
make any plans yet. There is much to hear and decide today.’
Suddenly as they were talking a single clear bell rang out.
‘That is the warning bell for the Council of Elrond,’ cried
Gandalf. ‘Come along now! Both you and Bilbo are wanted.’
Frodo and Bilbo followed the wizard quickly along the
winding path back to the house; behind them, uninvited and
for the moment forgotten, trotted Sam.
Gandalf led them to the porch where Frodo had found his
friends the evening before. The light of the clear autumn
morning was now glowing in the valley. The noise of bub-
bling waters came up from the foaming river-bed. Birds were
singing, and a wholesome peace lay on the land. To Frodo
312 the fellowship of the ring
his dangerous flight, and the rumours of the darkness growing
in the world outside, already seemed only the memories of a
troubled dream; but the faces that were turned to meet them
as they entered were grave.
Elrond was there, and several others were seated in silence
about him. Frodo saw Glorfindel and Glo
´
in; and in a corner
alone Strider was sitting, clad in his old travel-worn clothes
again. Elrond drew Frodo to a seat by his side, and presented
him to the company, saying:
‘Here, my friends, is the hobbit, Frodo son of Drogo. Few
have ever come hither through greater peril or on an errand
more urgent.’
He then pointed out and named those whom Frodo had
not met before. There was a younger dwarf at Glo
´
in’s side:
his son Gimli. Beside Glorfindel there were several other
counsellors of Elrond’s household, of whom Erestor was the
chief; and with him was Galdor, an Elf from the Grey Havens
who had come on an errand from Cı
´
rdan the Shipwright.
There was also a strange Elf clad in green and brown,
Legolas, a messenger from his father, Thranduil, the King of
the Elves of Northern Mirkwood. And seated a little apart
was a tall man with a fair and noble face, dark-haired and
grey-eyed, proud and stern of glance.
He was cloaked and booted as if for a journey on horse-
back; and indeed though his garments were rich, and his
cloak was lined with fur, they were stained with long travel.
He had a collar of silver in which a single white stone was
set; his locks were shorn about his shoulders. On a baldric he
wore a great horn tipped with silver that now was laid upon
his knees. He gazed at Frodo and Bilbo with sudden wonder.
‘Here,’ said Elrond, turning to Gandalf, ‘is Boromir, a man
from the South. He arrived in the grey morning, and seeks
for counsel. I have bidden him to be present, for here his
questions will be answered.’
Not all that was spoken and debated in the Council need
now be told. Much was said of events in the world outside,
the council of elrond 313
especially in the South, and in the wide lands east of the
Mountains. Of these things Frodo had already heard many
rumours; but the tale of Glo
´
in was new to him, and when the
dwarf spoke he listened attentively. It appeared that amid the
splendour of their works of hand the hearts of the Dwarves
of the Lonely Mountain were troubled.
‘It is now many years ago,’ said Glo
´
in, ‘that a shadow of
disquiet fell upon our people. Whence it came we did not at
first perceive. Words began to be whispered in secret: it was
said that we were hemmed in a narrow place, and that greater
wealth and splendour would be found in a wider world. Some
spoke of Moria: the mighty works of our fathers that are
called in our own tongue Khazad-du
ˆ
m; and they declared
that now at last we had the power and numbers to return.’
Glo
´
in sighed. ‘Moria! Moria! Wonder of the Northern
world! Too deep we delved there, and woke the nameless
fear. Long have its vast mansions lain empty since the chil-
dren of Durin fled. But now we spoke of it again with longing,
and yet with dread; for no dwarf has dared to pass the doors
of Khazad-du
ˆ
m for many lives of kings, save Thro
´
r only, and
he perished. At last, however, Balin listened to the whispers,
and resolved to go; and though Da
´
in did not give leave will-
ingly, he took with him Ori and O
´
in and many of our folk,
and they went away south.
‘That was nigh on thirty years ago. For a while we had
news and it seemed good: messages reported that Moria had
been entered and a great work begun there. Then there was
silence, and no word has ever come from Moria since.
‘Then about a year ago a messenger came to Da
´
in, but not
from Moria – from Mordor: a horseman in the night, who
called Da
´
in to his gate. The Lord Sauron the Great, so he
said, wished for our friendship. Rings he would give for it,
such as he gave of old. And he asked urgently concerning
hobbits, of what kind they were, and where they dwelt. ‘‘For
Sauron knows,’’ said he, ‘‘that one of these was known to
you on a time.’’
‘At this we were greatly troubled, and we gave no answer.
314 the fellowship of the ring
And then his fell voice was lowered, and he would have
sweetened it if he could. ‘‘As a small token only of your
friendship Sauron asks this,’’ he said: ‘‘that you should find
this thief,’’ such was his word, ‘‘and get from him, willing or
no, a little ring, the least of rings, that once he stole. It is but
a trifle that Sauron fancies, and an earnest of your good will.
Find it, and three rings that the Dwarf-sires possessed of old
shall be returned to you, and the realm of Moria shall be
yours for ever. Find only news of the thief, whether he still
lives and where, and you shall have great reward and lasting
friendship from the Lord. Refuse, and things will not seem
so well. Do you refuse?’’
‘At that his breath came like the hiss of snakes, and all who
stood by shuddered, but Da
´
in said: ‘‘I say neither yea nor
nay. I must consider this message and what it means under
its fair cloak.’’
‘ ‘‘Consider well, but not too long,’’ said he.
‘ ‘‘The time of my thought is my own to spend,’’ answered
Da
´
in.
‘ ‘‘For the present,’’ said he, and rode into the darkness.
‘Heavy have the hearts of our chieftains been since that
night. We needed not the fell voice of the messenger to warn
us that his words held both menace and deceit; for we knew
already that the power that has re-entered Mordor has not
changed, and ever it betrayed us of old. Twice the messenger
has returned, and has gone unanswered. The third and last
time, so he says, is soon to come, before the ending of the
year.
‘And so I have been sent at last by Da
´
in to warn Bilbo that
he is sought by the Enemy, and to learn, if may be, why he
desires this ring, this least of rings. Also we crave the advice
of Elrond. For the Shadow grows and draws nearer. We
discover that messengers have come also to King Brand in
Dale, and that he is afraid. We fear that he may yield. Already
war is gathering on his eastern borders. If we make no answer,
the Enemy may move Men of his rule to assail King Brand,
and Da
´
in also.’
the council of elrond 315
‘You have done well to come,’ said Elrond. ‘You will hear
today all that you need in order to understand the purposes
of the Enemy. There is naught that you can do, other than
to resist, with hope or without it. But you do not stand alone.
You will learn that your trouble is but part of the trouble of
all the western world. The Ring! What shall we do with the
Ring, the least of rings, the trifle that Sauron fancies? That
is the doom that we must deem.
‘That is the purpose for which you are called hither. Called,
I say, though I have not called you to me, strangers from
distant lands. You have come and are here met, in this very
nick of time, by chance as it may seem. Yet it is not so.
Believe rather that it is so ordered that we, who sit here,
and none others, must now find counsel for the peril of the
world.
‘Now, therefore, things shall be openly spoken that have
been hidden from all but a few until this day. And first, so
that all may understand what is the peril, the Tale of the Ring
shall be told from the beginning even to this present. And I
will begin that tale, though others shall end it.’
Then all listened while Elrond in his clear voice spoke of
Sauron and the Rings of Power, and their forging in the
Second Age of the world long ago. A part of his tale was
known to some there, but the full tale to none, and many
eyes were turned to Elrond in fear and wonder as he told of
the Elven-smiths of Eregion and their friendship with Moria,
and their eagerness for knowledge, by which Sauron ensnared
them. For in that time he was not yet evil to behold, and they
received his aid and grew mighty in craft, whereas he learned
all their secrets, and betrayed them, and forged secretly in
the Mountain of Fire the One Ring to be their master. But
Celebrimbor was aware of him, and hid the Three which he
had made; and there was war, and the land was laid waste,
and the gate of Moria was shut.
Then through all the years that followed he traced the
Ring; but since that history is elsewhere recounted, even as
316 the fellowship of the ring
Elrond himself set it down in his books of lore, it is not here
recalled. For it is a long tale, full of deeds great and terrible,
and briefly though Elrond spoke, the sun rode up the sky,
and the morning was passing ere he ceased.
Of Nu
´
menor he spoke, its glory and its fall, and the return
of the Kings of Men to Middle-earth out of the deeps of the
Sea, borne upon the wings of storm. Then Elendil the Tall
and his mighty sons, Isildur and Ana
´
rion, became great lords;
and the North-realm they made in Arnor, and the South-
realm in Gondor above the mouths of Anduin. But Sauron
of Mordor assailed them, and they made the Last Alliance of
Elves and Men, and the hosts of Gil-galad and Elendil were
mustered in Arnor.
Thereupon Elrond paused a while and sighed. ‘I remember
well the splendour of their banners,’ he said. ‘It recalled to
me the glory of the Elder Days and the hosts of Beleriand,
so many great princes and captains were assembled. And yet
not so many, nor so fair, as when Thangorodrim was broken,
and the Elves deemed that evil was ended for ever, and it was
not so.’
‘You remember?’ said Frodo, speaking his thought aloud
in his astonishment. ‘But I thought,’ he stammered as Elrond
turned towards him, ‘I thought that the fall of Gil-galad was
a long age ago.’
‘So it was indeed,’ answered Elrond gravely. ‘But my
memory reaches back even to the Elder Days. Ea
¨
rendil was
my sire, who was born in Gondolin before its fall; and my
mother was Elwing, daughter of Dior, son of Lu
´
thien of
Doriath. I have seen three ages in the West of the world, and
many defeats, and many fruitless victories.
‘I was the herald of Gil-galad and marched with his host.
I was at the Battle of Dagorlad before the Black Gate of
Mordor, where we had the mastery: for the Spear of Gil-galad
and the Sword of Elendil, Aeglos and Narsil, none could
withstand. I beheld the last combat on the slopes of Orodruin,
where Gil-galad died, and Elendil fell, and Narsil broke
beneath him; but Sauron himself was overthrown, and Isildur
the council of elrond 317
cut the Ring from his hand with the hilt-shard of his father’s
sword, and took it for his own.’
At this the stranger, Boromir, broke in. ‘So that is what
became of the Ring!’ he cried. ‘If ever such a tale was told in
the South, it has long been forgotten. I have heard of the
Great Ring of him that we do not name; but we believed that
it perished from the world in the ruin of his first realm. Isildur
took it! That is tidings indeed.’
‘Alas! yes,’ said Elrond. ‘Isildur took it, as should not have
been. It should have been cast then into Orodruin’s fire nigh
at hand where it was made. But few marked what Isildur did.
He alone stood by his father in that last mortal contest; and
by Gil-galad only Cı
´
rdan stood, and I. But Isildur would not
listen to our counsel.
‘ ‘‘This I will have as weregild for my father, and my
brother,’’ he said; and therefore whether we would or no, he
took it to treasure it. But soon he was betrayed by it to his
death; and so it is named in the North Isildur’s Bane. Yet
death maybe was better than what else might have befallen
him.
‘Only to the North did these tidings come, and only to a
few. Small wonder is it that you have not heard them,
Boromir. From the ruin of the Gladden Fields, where Isildur
perished, three men only came ever back over the mountains
after long wandering. One of these was Ohtar, the esquire of
Isildur, who bore the shards of the sword of Elendil; and he
brought them to Valandil, the heir of Isildur, who being but
a child had remained here in Rivendell. But Narsil was broken
and its light extinguished, and it has not yet been forged
again.
‘Fruitless did I call the victory of the Last Alliance? Not
wholly so, yet it did not achieve its end. Sauron was dimin-
ished, but not destroyed. His Ring was lost but not unmade.
The Dark Tower was broken, but its foundations were not
removed; for they were made with the power of the Ring,
and while it remains they will endure. Many Elves and many
mighty Men, and many of their friends, had perished in the
318 the fellowship of the ring
war. Ana
´
rion was slain, and Isildur was slain; and Gil-galad
and Elendil were no more. Never again shall there be any
such league of Elves and Men; for Men multiply and the
Firstborn decrease, and the two kindreds are estranged. And
ever since that day the race of Nu
´
menor has decayed, and
the span of their years has lessened.
‘In the North after the war and the slaughter of the Gladden
Fields the Men of Westernesse were diminished, and their
city of Annu
´
minas beside Lake Evendim fell into ruin; and
the heirs of Valandil removed and dwelt at Fornost on the
high North Downs, and that now too is desolate. Men call it
Deadmen’s Dike, and they fear to tread there. For the folk
of Arnor dwindled, and their foes devoured them, and their
lordship passed, leaving only green mounds in the grassy
hills.
‘In the South the realm of Gondor long endured; and for
a while its splendour grew, recalling somewhat of the might
of Nu
´
menor, ere it fell. High towers that people built, and
strong places, and havens of many ships; and the winged
crown of the Kings of Men was held in awe by folk of many
tongues. Their chief city was Osgiliath, Citadel of the Stars,
through the midst of which the River flowed. And Minas
Ithil they built, Tower of the Rising Moon, eastward upon a
shoulder of the Mountains of Shadow; and westward at the
feet of the White Mountains Minas Anor they made, Tower
of the Setting Sun. There in the courts of the King grew a
white tree, from the seed of that tree which Isildur brought
over the deep waters, and the seed of that tree before came
from Eresse
¨
a, and before that out of the Uttermost West in
the Day before days when the world was young.
‘But in the wearing of the swift years of Middle-earth the
line of Meneldil son of Ana
´
rion failed, and the Tree withered,
and the blood of the Nu
´
meno
´
reans became mingled with that
of lesser men. Then the watch upon the walls of Mordor
slept, and dark things crept back to Gorgoroth. And on a
time evil things came forth, and they took Minas Ithil and
abode in it, and they made it into a place of dread; and it is
the council of elrond 319
called Minas Morgul, the Tower of Sorcery. Then Minas
Anor was named anew Minas Tirith, the Tower of Guard;
and these two cities were ever at war, but Osgiliath which lay
between was deserted and in its ruins shadows walked.
‘So it has been for many lives of men. But the Lords of
Minas Tirith still fight on, defying our enemies, keeping the
passage of the River from Argonath to the Sea. And now that
part of the tale that I shall tell is drawn to its close. For in the
days of Isildur the Ruling Ring passed out of all knowledge,
and the Three were released from its dominion. But now in
this latter day they are in peril once more, for to our sorrow
the One has been found. Others shall speak of its finding, for
in that I played small part.’
He ceased, but at once Boromir stood up, tall and proud,
before them. ‘Give me leave, Master Elrond,’ said he, ‘first
to say more of Gondor, for verily from the land of Gondor I
am come. And it would be well for all to know what passes
there. For few, I deem, know of our deeds, and therefore
guess little at their peril, if we should fail at last.
‘Believe not that in the land of Gondor the blood of
Nu
´
menor is spent, nor all its pride and dignity forgotten. By
our valour the wild folk of the East are still restrained, and
the terror of Morgul kept at bay; and thus alone are peace
and freedom maintained in the lands behind us, bulwark of
the West. But if the passages of the River should be won,
what then?
‘Yet that hour, maybe, is not now far away. The Name-
less Enemy has arisen again. Smoke rises once more from
Orodruin that we call Mount Doom. The power of the Black
Land grows and we are hard beset. When the Enemy re-
turned our folk were driven from Ithilien, our fair domain east
of the River, though we kept a foothold there and strength of
arms. But this very year, in the days of June, sudden war
came upon us out of Mordor, and we were swept away.
We were outnumbered, for Mordor has allied itself with the
Easterlings and the cruel Haradrim; but it was not by
320 the fellowship of the ring
numbers that we were defeated. A power was there that we
have not felt before.
‘Some said that it could be seen, like a great black horse-
man, a dark shadow under the moon. Wherever he came a
madness filled our foes, but fear fell on our boldest, so that
horse and man gave way and fled. Only a remnant of our
eastern force came back, destroying the last bridge that still
stood amid the ruins of Osgiliath.
‘I was in the company that held the bridge, until it was cast
down behind us. Four only were saved by swimming: my
brother and myself and two others. But still we fight on,
holding all the west shores of Anduin; and those who shelter
behind us give us praise, if ever they hear our name: much
praise but little help. Only from Rohan now will any men
ride to us when we call.
‘In this evil hour I have come on an errand over many
dangerous leagues to Elrond: a hundred and ten days I have
journeyed all alone. But I do not seek allies in war. The might
of Elrond is in wisdom not in weapons, it is said. I come to
ask for counsel and the unravelling of hard words. For on the
eve of the sudden assault a dream came to my brother in a
troubled sleep; and afterwards a like dream came oft to him
again, and once to me.
‘In that dream I thought the eastern sky grew dark and
there was a growing thunder, but in the West a pale light
lingered, and out of it I heard a voice, remote but clear,
crying:
Seek for the Sword that was broken:
In Imladris it dwells;
There shall be counsels taken
Stronger than Morgul-spells.
There shall be shown a token
That Doom is near at hand,
For Isildur’s Bane shall waken,
And the Halfling forth shall stand.
the council of elrond 321
Of these words we could understand little, and we spoke to
our father, Denethor, Lord of Minas Tirith, wise in the lore
of Gondor. This only would he say, that Imladris was of old
the name among the Elves of a far northern dale, where
Elrond the Halfelven dwelt, greatest of lore-masters. There-
fore my brother, seeing how desperate was our need, was
eager to heed the dream and seek for Imladris; but since the
way was full of doubt and danger, I took the journey upon
myself. Loth was my father to give me leave, and long have
I wandered by roads forgotten, seeking the house of Elrond,
of which many had heard, but few knew where it lay.’
‘And here in the house of Elrond more shall be made clear
to you,’ said Aragorn, standing up. He cast his sword upon
the table that stood before Elrond, and the blade was in two
pieces. ‘Here is the Sword that was Broken!’ he said.
‘And who are you, and what have you to do with Minas
Tirith?’ asked Boromir, looking in wonder at the lean face of
the Ranger and his weather-stained cloak.
‘He is Aragorn son of Arathorn,’ said Elrond; ‘and he is
descended through many fathers from Isildur Elendil’s son
of Minas Ithil. He is the Chief of the Du
´
nedain in the North,
and few are now left of that folk.’
‘Then it belongs to you, and not to me at all!’ cried Frodo
in amazement, springing to his feet, as if he expected the
Ring to be demanded at once.
‘It does not belong to either of us,’ said Aragorn; ‘but it
has been ordained that you should hold it for a while.’
‘Bring out the Ring, Frodo!’ said Gandalf solemnly. ‘The
time has come. Hold it up, and then Boromir will understand
the remainder of his riddle.’
There was a hush, and all turned their eyes on Frodo. He
was shaken by a sudden shame and fear; and he felt a great
reluctance to reveal the Ring, and a loathing of its touch. He
wished he was far away. The Ring gleamed and flickered as
he held it up before them in his trembling hand.
322 the fellowship of the ring
‘Behold Isildur’s Bane!’ said Elrond.
Boromir’s eyes glinted as he gazed at the golden thing.
‘The Halfling!’ he muttered. ‘Is then the doom of Minas Tirith
come at last? But why then should we seek a broken sword?’
‘The words were not the doom of Minas Tirith,’ said
Aragorn. ‘But doom and great deeds are indeed at hand. For
the Sword that was Broken is the Sword of Elendil that broke
beneath him when he fell. It has been treasured by his heirs
when all other heirlooms were lost; for it was spoken of old
among us that it should be made again when the Ring,
Isildur’s Bane, was found. Now you have seen the sword that
you have sought, what would you ask? Do you wish for the
House of Elendil to return to the Land of Gondor?’
‘I was not sent to beg any boon, but to seek only the
meaning of a riddle,’ answered Boromir proudly. ‘Yet we are
hard pressed, and the Sword of Elendil would be a help
beyond our hope – if such a thing could indeed return out of
the shadows of the past.’ He looked again at Aragorn, and
doubt was in his eyes.
Frodo felt Bilbo stir impatiently at his side. Evidently he
was annoyed on his friend’s behalf. Standing suddenly up he
burst out:
All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken:
The crownless again shall be king.
‘Not very good perhaps, but to the point – if you need more
beyond the word of Elrond. If that was worth a journey of a
hundred and ten days to hear, you had best listen to it.’ He
sat down with a snort.
‘I made that up myself,’ he whispered to Frodo, ‘for the
the council of elrond 323
Du
´
nadan, a long time ago when he first told me about him-
self. I almost wish that my adventures were not over, and
that I could go with him when his day comes.’
Aragorn smiled at him; then he turned to Boromir again.
‘For my part I forgive your doubt,’ he said. ‘Little do I
resemble the figures of Elendil and Isildur as they stand
carven in their majesty in the halls of Denethor. I am but the
heir of Isildur, not Isildur himself. I have had a hard life and
a long; and the leagues that lie between here and Gondor are
a small part in the count of my journeys. I have crossed many
mountains and many rivers, and trodden many plains, even
into the far countries of Rhu
ˆ
n and Harad where the stars are
strange.
‘But my home, such as I have, is in the North. For here
the heirs of Valandil have ever dwelt in long line unbroken
from father unto son for many generations. Our days have
darkened, and we have dwindled; but ever the Sword has
passed to a new keeper. And this I will say to you, Boromir,
ere I end. Lonely men are we, Rangers of the wild, hunters
– but hunters ever of the servants of the Enemy; for they are
found in many places, not in Mordor only.
‘If Gondor, Boromir, has been a stalwart tower, we have
played another part. Many evil things there are that your
strong walls and bright swords do not stay. You know little
of the lands beyond your bounds. Peace and freedom, do
you say? The North would have known them little but for
us. Fear would have destroyed them. But when dark things
come from the houseless hills, or creep from sunless woods,
they fly from us. What roads would any dare to tread, what
safety would there be in quiet lands, or in the homes of simple
men at night, if the Du
´
nedain were asleep, or were all gone
into the grave?
‘And yet less thanks have we than you. Travellers scowl at
us, and countrymen give us scornful names. ‘‘Strider’’ I am
to one fat man who lives within a day’s march of foes that
would freeze his heart, or lay his little town in ruin, if he were
not guarded ceaselessly. Yet we would not have it otherwise.
324 the fellowship of the ring
If simple folk are free from care and fear, simple they will be,
and we must be secret to keep them so. That has been the
task of my kindred, while the years have lengthened and the
grass has grown.
‘But now the world is changing once again. A new hour
comes. Isildur’s Bane is found. Battle is at hand. The Sword
shall be reforged. I will come to Minas Tirith.’
‘Isildur’s Bane is found, you say,’ said Boromir. ‘I have
seen a bright ring in the Halfling’s hand; but Isildur perished
ere this age of the world began, they say. How do the Wise
know that this ring is his? And how has it passed down the
years, until it is brought hither by so strange a messenger?’
‘That shall be told,’ said Elrond.
‘But not yet, I beg, Master!’ cried Bilbo. ‘Already the Sun
is climbing to noon, and I feel the need of something to
strengthen me.’
‘I had not named you,’ said Elrond smiling. ‘But I do so
now. Come! Tell us your tale. And if you have not yet cast
your story into verse, you may tell it in plain words. The
briefer, the sooner shall you be refreshed.’
‘Very well,’ said Bilbo. ‘I will do as you bid. But I will now
tell the true story, and if some here have heard me tell it
otherwise’ – he looked sidelong at Glo
´
in – ‘I ask them to
forget it and forgive me. I only wished to claim the treasure
as my very own in those days, and to be rid of the name of
thief that was put on me. But perhaps I understand things a
little better now. Anyway, this is what happened.’
To some there Bilbo’s tale was wholly new, and they
listened with amazement while the old hobbit, actually not at
all displeased, recounted his adventure with Gollum, at full
length. He did not omit a single riddle. He would have given
also an account of his party and disappearance from the
Shire, if he had been allowed; but Elrond raised his hand.
‘Well told, my friend,’ he said, ‘but that is enough at this
time. For the moment it suffices to know that the Ring passed
to Frodo, your heir. Let him now speak!’
the council of elrond 325
Then, less willingly than Bilbo, Frodo told of all his deal-
ings with the Ring from the day that it passed into his keeping.
Every step of his journey from Hobbiton to the Ford of
Bruinen was questioned and considered, and everything that
he could recall concerning the Black Riders was examined.
At last he sat down again.
‘Not bad,’ Bilbo said to him. ‘You would have made a
good story of it, if they hadn’t kept on interrupting. I tried to
make a few notes, but we shall have to go over it all again
together some time, if I am to write it up. There are whole
chapters of stuff before you ever got here!’
‘Yes, it made quite a long tale,’ answered Frodo. ‘But the
story still does not seem complete to me. I still want to know
a good deal, especially about Gandalf.’
Galdor of the Havens, who sat nearby, overheard him.
‘You speak for me also,’ he cried, and turning to Elrond he
said: ‘The Wise may have good reason to believe that the
halfling’s trove is indeed the Great Ring of long debate,
unlikely though that may seem to those who know less. But
may we not hear the proofs? And I would ask this also. What
of Saruman? He is learned in the lore of the Rings, yet he is
not among us. What is his counsel – if he knows the things
that we have heard?’
‘The questions that you ask, Galdor, are bound together,’
said Elrond. ‘I had not overlooked them, and they shall be
answered. But these things it is the part of Gandalf to make
clear; and I call upon him last, for it is the place of honour,
and in all this matter he has been the chief.’
‘Some, Galdor,’ said Gandalf, ‘would think the tidings of
Glo
´
in, and the pursuit of Frodo, proof enough that the
halfling’s trove is a thing of great worth to the Enemy. Yet it
is a ring. What then? The Nine the Nazgu
ˆ
l keep. The Seven
are taken or destroyed.’ At this Glo
´
in stirred, but did not
speak. ‘The Three we know of. What then is this one that he
desires so much?
‘There is indeed a wide waste of time between the River
326 the fellowship of the ring
and the Mountain, between the loss and the finding. But the
gap in the knowledge of the Wise has been filled at last. Yet
too slowly. For the Enemy has been close behind, closer even
than I feared. And well is it that not until this year, this very
summer, as it seems, did he learn the full truth.
‘Some here will remember that many years ago I myself
dared to pass the doors of the Necromancer in Dol Guldur,
and secretly explored his ways, and found thus that our fears
were true: he was none other than Sauron, our Enemy of
old, at length taking shape and power again. Some, too, will
remember also that Saruman dissuaded us from open deeds
against him, and for long we watched him only. Yet at last,
as his shadow grew, Saruman yielded, and the Council put
forth its strength and drove the evil out of Mirkwood – and
that was in the very year of the finding of this Ring: a strange
chance, if chance it was.
‘But we were too late, as Elrond foresaw. Sauron also had
watched us, and had long prepared against our stroke, gov-
erning Mordor from afar through Minas Morgul, where his
Nine servants dwelt, until all was ready. Then he gave way
before us, but only feigned to flee, and soon after came to
the Dark Tower and openly declared himself. Then for the
last time the Council met; for now we learned that he was
seeking ever more eagerly for the One. We feared then that
he had some news of it that we knew nothing of. But Saruman
said nay, and repeated what he had said to us before: that
the One would never again be found in Middle-earth.
‘ ‘‘At the worst,’’ said he, ‘‘our Enemy knows that we have
it not, and that it still is lost. But what was lost may yet be
found, he thinks. Fear not! His hope will cheat him. Have I
not earnestly studied this matter? Into Anduin the Great it
fell; and long ago, while Sauron slept, it was rolled down the
River to the Sea. There let it lie until the End.’’ ’
Gandalf fell silent, gazing eastward from the porch to the
far peaks of the Misty Mountains, at whose great roots the
peril of the world had so long lain hidden. He sighed.
the council of elrond 327
‘There I was at fault,’ he said. ‘I was lulled by the words
of Saruman the Wise; but I should have sought for the truth
sooner, and our peril would now be less.’
‘We were all at fault,’ said Elrond, ‘and but for your vigil-
ance the Darkness, maybe, would already be upon us. But
say on!’
‘From the first my heart misgave me, against all reason
that I knew,’ said Gandalf, ‘and I desired to know how this
thing came to Gollum, and how long he had possessed it. So
I set a watch for him, guessing that he would ere long come
forth from his darkness to seek for his treasure. He came, but
he escaped and was not found. And then alas! I let the matter
rest, watching and waiting only, as we have too often done.
‘Time passed with many cares, until my doubts were awak-
ened again to sudden fear. Whence came the hobbit’s ring?
What, if my fear was true, should be done with it? Those
things I must decide. But I spoke yet of my dread to none,
knowing the peril of an untimely whisper, if it went astray.
In all the long wars with the Dark Tower treason has ever
been our greatest foe.
‘That was seventeen years ago. Soon I became aware that
spies of many sorts, even beasts and birds, were gathered
round the Shire, and my fear grew. I called for the help of
the Du
´
nedain, and their watch was doubled; and I opened
my heart to Aragorn, the heir of Isildur.’
‘And I,’ said Aragorn, ‘counselled that we should hunt for
Gollum, too late though it may seem. And since it seemed fit
that Isildur’s heir should labour to repair Isildur’s fault, I
went with Gandalf on the long and hopeless search.’
Then Gandalf told how they had explored the whole length
of Wilderland, down even to the Mountains of Shadow and
the fences of Mordor. ‘There we had rumour of him, and we
guess that he dwelt there long in the dark hills; but we never
found him, and at last I despaired. And then in my despair I
thought again of a test that might make the finding of Gollum
unneeded. The ring itself might tell if it were the One. The
memory of words at the Council came back to me: words of
328 the fellowship of the ring
Saruman, half-heeded at the time. I heard them now clearly
in my heart.
‘ ‘‘The Nine, the Seven, and the Three,’’ he said, ‘‘had each
their proper gem. Not so the One. It was round and
unadorned, as it were one of the lesser rings; but its maker set
marks upon it that the skilled, maybe, could still see and read.’’
‘What those marks were he had not said. Who now would
know? The maker. And Saruman? But great though his lore
may be, it must have a source. What hand save Sauron’s ever
held this thing, ere it was lost? The hand of Isildur alone.
‘With that thought, I forsook the chase, and passed swiftly
to Gondor. In former days the members of my order had
been well received there, but Saruman most of all. Often he
had been for long the guest of the Lords of the City. Less
welcome did the Lord Denethor show me then than of old,
and grudgingly he permitted me to search among his hoarded
scrolls and books.
‘ ‘‘If indeed you look only, as you say, for records of ancient
days, and the beginnings of the City, read on!’’ he said. ‘‘For
to me what was is less dark than what is to come, and that is
my care. But unless you have more skill even than Saruman,
who has studied here long, you will find naught that is not
well known to me, who am master of the lore of this City.’’
‘So said Denethor. And yet there lie in his hoards many
records that few even of the lore-masters now can read, for
their scripts and tongues have become dark to later men. And
Boromir, there lies in Minas Tirith still, unread, I guess, by
any save Saruman and myself since the kings failed, a scroll
that Isildur made himself. For Isildur did not march away
straight from the war in Mordor, as some have told the tale.’
‘Some in the North, maybe,’ Boromir broke in. ‘All know
in Gondor that he went first to Minas Anor and dwelt a
while with his nephew Meneldil, instructing him, before he
committed to him the rule of the South Kingdom. In that
time he planted there the last sapling of the White Tree in
memory of his brother.’
‘But in that time also he made this scroll,’ said Gandalf;
the council of elrond 329
‘and that is not remembered in Gondor, it would seem. For
this scroll concerns the Ring, and thus wrote Isildur therein:
The Great Ring shall go now to be an heirloom of the
North Kingdom; but records of it shall be left in Gondor,
where also dwell the heirs of Elendil, lest a time come when
the memory of these great matters shall grow dim.
‘And after these words Isildur described the Ring, such as he
found it.
It was hot when I first took it, hot as a glede, and my
hand was scorched, so that I doubt if ever again I shall be
free of the pain of it. Yet even as I write it is cooled, and it
seemeth to shrink, though it loseth neither its beauty nor its
shape. Already the writing upon it, which at first was as
clear as red flame, fadeth and is now only barely to be
read. It is fashioned in an elven-script of Eregion, for they
have no letters in Mordor for such subtle work; but the
language is unknown to me. I deem it to be a tongue of the
Black Land, since it is foul and uncouth. What evil it saith
I do not know; but I trace here a copy of it, lest it fade
beyond recall. The Ring misseth, maybe, the heat of
Sauron’s hand, which was black and yet burned like fire,
and so Gil-galad was destroyed; and maybe were the gold
made hot again, the writing would be refreshed. But for
my part I will risk no hurt to this thing: of all the works of
Sauron the only fair. It is precious to me, though I buy it
with great pain.
‘When I read these words, my quest was ended. For the
traced writing was indeed as Isildur guessed, in the tongue
of Mordor and the servants of the Tower. And what was said
therein was already known. For in the day that Sauron first
put on the One, Celebrimbor, maker of the Three, was aware
of him, and from afar he heard him speak these words, and
so his evil purposes were revealed.
330 the fellowship of the ring
‘At once I took my leave of Denethor, but even as I went
northwards, messages came to me out of Lo
´
rien that Aragorn
had passed that way, and that he had found the creature
called Gollum. Therefore I went first to meet him and hear
his tale. Into what deadly perils he had gone alone I dared
not guess.’
‘There is little need to tell of them,’ said Aragorn. ‘If a man
must needs walk in sight of the Black Gate, or tread the
deadly flowers of Morgul Vale, then perils he will have. I,
too, despaired at last, and I began my homeward journey.
And then, by fortune, I came suddenly on what I sought: the
marks of soft feet beside a muddy pool. But now the trail was
fresh and swift, and it led not to Mordor but away. Along the
skirts of the Dead Marshes I followed it, and then I had him.
Lurking by a stagnant mere, peering in the water as the dark
eve fell, I caught him, Gollum. He was covered with green
slime. He will never love me, I fear; for he bit me, and I was
not gentle. Nothing more did I ever get from his mouth than
the marks of his teeth. I deemed it the worst part of all my
journey, the road back, watching him day and night, making
him walk before me with a halter on his neck, gagged, until
he was tamed by lack of drink and food, driving him ever
towards Mirkwood. I brought him there at last and gave him
to the Elves, for we had agreed that this should be done; and
I was glad to be rid of his company, for he stank. For my
part I hope never to look upon him again; but Gandalf came
and endured long speech with him.’
‘Yes, long and weary,’ said Gandalf, ‘but not without
profit. For one thing, the tale he told of his loss agreed with
that which Bilbo has now told openly for the first time; but
that mattered little, since I had already guessed it. But I
learned then first that Gollum’s ring came out of the Great
River nigh to the Gladden Fields. And I learned also that he
had possessed it long. Many lives of his small kind. The
power of the ring had lengthened his years far beyond their
span; but that power only the Great Rings wield.
‘And if that is not proof enough, Galdor, there is the other
the council of elrond 331
test that I spoke of. Upon this very ring which you have here
seen held aloft, round and unadorned, the letters that Isildur
reported may still be read, if one has the strength of will to
set the golden thing in the fire a while. That I have done, and
this I have read:
Ash nazg durbatulu
ˆ
k, ash nazg gimbatul, ash nazg
thrakatulu
ˆ
k agh burzum-ishi krimpatul.’
The change in the wizard’s voice was astounding. Sud-
denly it became menacing, powerful, harsh as stone. A
shadow seemed to pass over the high sun, and the porch for
a moment grew dark. All trembled, and the Elves stopped
their ears.
‘Never before has any voice dared to utter words of that
tongue in Imladris, Gandalf the Grey,’ said Elrond, as the
shadow passed and the company breathed once more.
‘And let us hope that none will ever speak it here again,’
answered Gandalf. ‘Nonetheless I do not ask your pardon,
Master Elrond. For if that tongue is not soon to be heard in
every corner of the West, then let all put doubt aside that this
thing is indeed what the Wise have declared: the treasure of
the Enemy, fraught with all his malice; and in it lies a great
part of his strength of old. Out of the Black Years come the
words that the Smiths of Eregion heard, and knew that they
had been betrayed:
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring
to bring them all and in the Darkness bind them.
‘Know also, my friends, that I learned more yet from
Gollum. He was loth to speak and his tale was unclear, but
it is beyond all doubt that he went to Mordor, and there all
that he knew was forced from him. Thus the Enemy knows
now that the One is found, that it was long in the Shire; and
since his servants have pursued it almost to our door, he soon
332 the fellowship of the ring
will know, already he may know, even as I speak, that we
have it here.’
All sat silent for a while, until at length Boromir spoke. ‘He
is a small thing, you say, this Gollum? Small, but great in
mischief. What became of him? To what doom did you put
him?’
‘He is in prison, but no worse,’ said Aragorn. ‘He had
suffered much. There is no doubt that he was tormented,
and the fear of Sauron lies black on his heart. Still I for
one am glad that he is safely kept by the watchful Elves of
Mirkwood. His malice is great and gives him a strength hardly
to be believed in one so lean and withered. He could work
much mischief still, if he were free. And I do not doubt that
he was allowed to leave Mordor on some evil errand.’
‘Alas! alas!’ cried Legolas, and in his fair Elvish face there
was great distress. ‘The tidings that I was sent to bring must
now be told. They are not good, but only here have I learned
how evil they may seem to this company. Sme
´
agol, who is
now called Gollum, has escaped.’
‘Escaped?’ cried Aragorn. ‘That is ill news indeed. We
shall all rue it bitterly, I fear. How came the folk of Thranduil
to fail in their trust?’
‘Not through lack of watchfulness,’ said Legolas; ‘but per-
haps through over-kindliness. And we fear that the prisoner
had aid from others, and that more is known of our doings
than we could wish. We guarded this creature day and night,
at Gandalf ’s bidding, much though we wearied of the task.
But Gandalf bade us hope still for his cure, and we had not
the heart to keep him ever in dungeons under the earth,
where he would fall back into his old black thoughts.’
‘You were less tender to me,’ said Glo
´
in with a flash of his
eyes, as old memories were stirred of his imprisonment in
the deep places of the Elven-king’s halls.
‘Now come!’ said Gandalf. ‘Pray, do not interrupt, my
good Glo
´
in. That was a regrettable misunderstanding, long
set right. If all the grievances that stand between Elves and
the council of elrond 333
Dwarves are to be brought up here, we may as well abandon
this Council.’
Glo
´
in rose and bowed, and Legolas continued. ‘In the days
of fair weather we led Gollum through the woods; and there
was a high tree standing alone far from the others which he
liked to climb. Often we let him mount up to the highest
branches, until he felt the free wind; but we set a guard at
the tree’s foot. One day he refused to come down, and the
guards had no mind to climb after him: he had learned the
trick of clinging to boughs with his feet as well as with his
hands; so they sat by the tree far into the night.
‘It was that very night of summer, yet moonless and star-
less, that Orcs came on us at unawares. We drove them off
after some time; they were many and fierce, but they came
from over the mountains, and were unused to the woods.
When the battle was over, we found that Gollum was gone,
and his guards were slain or taken. It then seemed plain to us
that the attack had been made for his rescue, and that he knew
of it beforehand. How that was contrived we cannot guess; but
Gollum is cunning, and the spies of the Enemy are many. The
dark things that were driven out in the year of the Dragon’s fall
have returned in greater numbers, and Mirkwood is again an
evil place, save where our realm is maintained.
‘We have failed to recapture Gollum. We came on his trail
among those of many Orcs, and it plunged deep into the
Forest, going south. But ere long it escaped our skill, and we
dared not continue the hunt; for we were drawing nigh to Dol
Guldur, and that is still a very evil place; we do not go that way.’
‘Well, well, he is gone,’ said Gandalf. ‘We have no time to
seek for him again. He must do what he will. But he may
play a part yet that neither he nor Sauron have foreseen.
‘And now I will answer Galdor’s other questions. What of
Saruman? What are his counsels to us in this need? This tale
I must tell in full, for only Elrond has heard it yet, and that
in brief; but it will bear on all that we must resolve. It is the
last chapter in the Tale of the Ring, so far as it has yet gone.
***
334 the fellowship of the ring
‘At the end of June I was in the Shire, but a cloud of anxiety
was on my mind, and I rode to the southern borders of the
little land; for I had a foreboding of some danger, still hidden
from me but drawing near. There messages reached me tell-
ing me of war and defeat in Gondor, and when I heard of
the Black Shadow a chill smote my heart. But I found nothing
save a few fugitives from the South; yet it seemed to me that
on them sat a fear of which they would not speak. I turned
then east and north and journeyed along the Greenway; and
not far from Bree I came upon a traveller sitting on a bank
beside the road with his grazing horse beside him. It was
Radagast the Brown, who at one time dwelt at Rhosgobel,
near the borders of Mirkwood. He is one of my order, but I
had not seen him for many a year.
‘ ‘‘Gandalf !’’ he cried. ‘‘I was seeking you. But I am a
stranger in these parts. All I knew was that you might be
found in a wild region with the uncouth name of Shire.’’
‘ ‘‘Your information was correct,’’ I said. ‘‘But do not put
it that way, if you meet any of the inhabitants. You are near
the borders of the Shire now. And what do you want with
me? It must be pressing. You were never a traveller, unless
driven by great need.’’
‘ ‘‘I have an urgent errand,’’ he said. ‘‘My news is evil.’’
Then he looked about him, as if the hedges might have ears.
‘‘Nazgu
ˆ
l,’’ he whispered. ‘‘The Nine are abroad again. They
have crossed the River secretly and are moving westward.
They have taken the guise of riders in black.’’
‘I knew then what I had dreaded without knowing it.
‘ ‘‘The Enemy must have some great need or purpose,’’
said Radagast; ‘‘but what it is that makes him look to these
distant and desolate parts, I cannot guess.’’
‘ ‘‘What do you mean?’’ said I.
‘ ‘‘I have been told that wherever they go the Riders ask for
news of a land called Shire.’’
‘‘‘The Shire,’’ I said; but my heart sank. For even the Wise
might fear to withstand the Nine, when they are gathered
together under their fell chieftain. A great king and sorcerer
the council of elrond 335
he was of old, and now he wields a deadly fear. ‘‘Who told
you, and who sent you?’’ I asked.
‘ ‘‘Saruman the White,’’ answered Radagast. ‘‘And he told
me to say that if you feel the need, he will help; but you must
seek his aid at once, or it will be too late.’’
‘And that message brought me hope. For Saruman the
White is the greatest of my order. Radagast is, of course, a
worthy Wizard, a master of shapes and changes of hue; and
he has much lore of herbs and beasts, and birds are especially
his friends. But Saruman has long studied the arts of the
Enemy himself, and thus we have often been able to forestall
him. It was by the devices of Saruman that we drove him from
Dol Guldur. It might be that he had found some weapons that
would drive back the Nine.
‘ ‘‘I will go to Saruman,’’ I said.
‘ ‘‘Then you must go now,’’ said Radagast; ‘‘for I have
wasted time in looking for you, and the days are running
short. I was told to find you before Midsummer, and that is
now here. Even if you set out from this spot, you will hardly
reach him before the Nine discover the land that they seek. I
myself shall turn back at once.’’ And with that he mounted
and would have ridden straight off.
‘ ‘‘Stay a moment!’’ I said. ‘‘We shall need your help, and
the help of all things that will give it. Send out messages to
all the beasts and birds that are your friends. Tell them to
bring news of anything that bears on this matter to Saruman
and Gandalf. Let messages be sent to Orthanc.’’
‘ ‘‘I will do that,’’ he said, and rode off as if the Nine were
after him.
‘I could not follow him then and there. I had ridden very
far already that day, and I was as weary as my horse; and I
needed to consider matters. I stayed the night in Bree, and
decided that I had no time to return to the Shire. Never did
I make a greater mistake!
‘However, I wrote a message to Frodo, and trusted to my
friend the innkeeper to send it to him. I rode away at dawn;
336 the fellowship of the ring
and I came at long last to the dwelling of Saruman. That is
far south in Isengard, in the end of the Misty Mountains, not
far from the Gap of Rohan. And Boromir will tell you that
that is a great open vale that lies between the Misty Mountains
and the northmost foothills of Ered Nimrais, the White
Mountains of his home. But Isengard is a circle of sheer rocks
that enclose a valley as with a wall, and in the midst of that
valley is a tower of stone called Orthanc. It was not made by
Saruman, but by the Men of Nu
´
menor long ago; and it is
very tall and has many secrets; yet it looks not to be a work
of craft. It cannot be reached save by passing the circle of
Isengard; and in that circle there is only one gate.
‘Late one evening I came to the gate, like a great arch in
the wall of rock; and it was strongly guarded. But the keepers
of the gate were on the watch for me and told me that
Saruman awaited me. I rode under the arch, and the gate
closed silently behind me, and suddenly I was afraid, though
I knew no reason for it.
‘But I rode to the foot of Orthanc, and came to the stair of
Saruman; and there he met me and led me up to his high
chamber. He wore a ring on his finger.
‘ ‘‘So you have come, Gandalf,’’ he said to me gravely; but
in his eyes there seemed to be a white light, as if a cold
laughter was in his heart.
‘ ‘‘Yes, I have come,’’ I said. ‘‘I have come for your aid,
Saruman the White.’’ And that title seemed to anger him.
‘ ‘‘Have you indeed, Gandalf the Grey!’’ he scoffed. ‘‘For
aid? It has seldom been heard of that Gandalf the Grey sought
for aid, one so cunning and so wise, wandering about the
lands, and concerning himself in every business, whether it
belongs to him or not.’’
‘I looked at him and wondered. ‘‘But if I am not deceived,’’
said I, ‘‘things are now moving which will require the union
of all our strength.’’
‘ ‘‘That may be so,’’ he said, ‘‘but the thought is late in
coming to you. How long, I wonder, have you concealed
from me, the head of the Council, a matter of greatest import?
the council of elrond 337
What brings you now from your lurking-place in the Shire?’’
‘ ‘‘The Nine have come forth again,’’ I answered. ‘‘They
have crossed the River. So Radagast said to me.’’
‘ ‘‘Radagast the Brown!’’ laughed Saruman, and he no
longer concealed his scorn. ‘‘Radagast the Bird-tamer! Rada-
gast the Simple! Radagast the Fool! Yet he had just the wit
to play the part that I set him. For you have come, and that
was all the purpose of my message. And here you will stay,
Gandalf the Grey, and rest from journeys. For I am Saruman
the Wise, Saruman Ring-maker, Saruman of Many Colours!’’
‘I looked then and saw that his robes, which had seemed
white, were not so, but were woven of all colours, and if he
moved they shimmered and changed hue so that the eye was
bewildered.
‘ ‘‘I liked white better,’’ I said.
‘ ‘‘White!’’ he sneered. ‘‘It serves as a beginning. White
cloth may be dyed. The white page can be overwritten; and
the white light can be broken.’’
‘ ‘‘In which case it is no longer white,’’ said I. ‘‘And he that
breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of
wisdom.’’
‘ ‘‘You need not speak to me as to one of the fools that you
take for friends,’’ said he. ‘‘I have not brought you hither to
be instructed by you, but to give you a choice.’’
‘He drew himself up then and began to declaim, as if he
were making a speech long rehearsed. ‘‘The Elder Days are
gone. The Middle Days are passing. The Younger Days are
beginning. The time of the Elves is over, but our time is at
hand: the world of Men, which we must rule. But we must
have power, power to order all things as we will, for that good
which only the Wise can see.
‘ ‘‘And listen, Gandalf, my old friend and helper!’’ he said,
coming near and speaking now in a softer voice. ‘‘I said we,
for we it may be, if you will join with me. A new Power is
rising. Against it the old allies and policies will not avail us at
all. There is no hope left in Elves or dying Nu
´
menor. This
then is one choice before you, before us. We may join with
338 the fellowship of the ring
that Power. It would be wise, Gandalf. There is hope that
way. Its victory is at hand; and there will be rich reward for
those that aided it. As the Power grows, its proved friends
will also grow; and the Wise, such as you and I, may with
patience come at last to direct its courses, to control it. We
can bide our time, we can keep our thoughts in our hearts,
deploring maybe evils done by the way, but approving the
high and ultimate purpose: Knowledge, Rule, Order; all the
things that we have so far striven in vain to accomplish,
hindered rather than helped by our weak or idle friends.
There need not be, there would not be, any real change in
our designs, only in our means.’’
‘ ‘‘Saruman,’’ I said, ‘‘I have heard speeches of this kind
before, but only in the mouths of emissaries sent from
Mordor to deceive the ignorant. I cannot think that you
brought me so far only to weary my ears.’’
‘He looked at me sidelong, and paused a while considering.
‘‘Well, I see that this wise course does not commend itself
to you,’’ he said. ‘‘Not yet? Not if some better way can be
contrived?’’
‘He came and laid his long hand on my arm. ‘‘And why
not, Gandalf ?’’ he whispered. ‘‘Why not? The Ruling Ring?
If we could command that, then the Power would pass to us.
That is in truth why I brought you here. For I have many
eyes in my service, and I believe that you know where this
precious thing now lies. Is it not so? Or why do the Nine ask
for the Shire, and what is your business there?’’ As he said
this a lust which he could not conceal shone suddenly in his
eyes.
‘ ‘‘Saruman,’’ I said, standing away from him, ‘‘only one
hand at a time can wield the One, and you know that well,
so do not trouble to say we! But I would not give it, nay, I
would not give even news of it to you, now that I learn your
mind. You were head of the Council, but you have unmasked
yourself at last. Well, the choices are, it seems, to submit to
Sauron, or to yourself. I will take neither. Have you others to
offer?’’
the council of elrond 339
‘He was cold now and perilous. ‘‘Yes,’’ he said. ‘‘I did not
expect you to show wisdom, even in your own behalf; but
I gave you the chance of aiding me willingly, and so saving
yourself much trouble and pain. The third choice is to stay
here, until the end.’’
‘ ‘‘Until what end?’’
‘ ‘‘Until you reveal to me where the One may be found. I
may find means to persuade you. Or until it is found in your
despite, and the Ruler has time to turn to lighter matters: to
devise, say, a fitting reward for the hindrance and insolence
of Gandalf the Grey.’’
‘ ‘‘That may not prove to be one of the lighter matters,’’
said I. He laughed at me, for my words were empty, and he
knew it.
‘They took me and they set me alone on the pinnacle of
Orthanc, in the place where Saruman was accustomed to
watch the stars. There is no descent save by a narrow stair
of many thousand steps, and the valley below seems far away.
I looked on it and saw that, whereas it had once been green
and fair, it was now filled with pits and forges. Wolves and
orcs were housed in Isengard, for Saruman was mustering a
great force on his own account, in rivalry of Sauron and not
in his service, yet. Over all his works a dark smoke hung and
wrapped itself about the sides of Orthanc. I stood alone on
an island in the clouds; and I had no chance of escape, and
my days were bitter. I was pierced with cold, and I had but
little room in which to pace to and fro, brooding on the
coming of the Riders to the North.
‘That the Nine had indeed arisen I felt assured, apart from
the words of Saruman which might be lies. Long ere I came
to Isengard I had heard tidings by the way that could not be
mistaken. Fear was ever in my heart for my friends in the
Shire; but still I had some hope. I hoped that Frodo had set
forth at once, as my letter had urged, and that he had reached
Rivendell before the deadly pursuit began. And both my fear
and my hope proved ill-founded. For my hope was founded
340 the fellowship of the ring
on a fat man in Bree; and my fear was founded on the
cunning of Sauron. But fat men who sell ale have many calls
to answer; and the power of Sauron is still less than fear
makes it. But in the circle of Isengard, trapped and alone, it
was not easy to think that the hunters before whom all have
fled or fallen would falter in the Shire far away.’
‘I saw you!’ cried Frodo. ‘You were walking backwards
and forwards. The moon shone in your hair.’
Gandalf paused astonished and looked at him. ‘It was only
a dream,’ said Frodo, ‘but it suddenly came back to me. I
had quite forgotten it. It came some time ago; after I left the
Shire, I think.’
‘Then it was late in coming,’ said Gandalf, ‘as you will see.
I was in an evil plight. And those who know me will agree
that I have seldom been in such need, and do not bear such
misfortune well. Gandalf the Grey caught like a fly in a spi-
der’s treacherous web! Yet even the most subtle spiders may
leave a weak thread.
‘At first I feared, as Saruman no doubt intended, that Rada-
gast had also fallen. Yet I had caught no hint of anything
wrong in his voice or in his eye at our meeting. If I had, I
should never have gone to Isengard, or I should have gone
more warily. So Saruman guessed, and he had concealed
his mind and deceived his messenger. It would have been
useless in any case to try and win over the honest Radagast
to treachery. He sought me in good faith, and so persuaded
me.
‘That was the undoing of Saruman’s plot. For Radagast
knew no reason why he should not do as I asked; and he rode
away towards Mirkwood where he had many friends of old.
And the Eagles of the Mountains went far and wide, and they
saw many things: the gathering of wolves and the mustering
of Orcs; and the Nine Riders going hither and thither in the
lands; and they heard news of the escape of Gollum. And
they sent a messenger to bring these tidings to me.
‘So it was that when summer waned, there came a night
of moon, and Gwaihir the Windlord, swiftest of the Great
the council of elrond 341
Eagles, came unlooked-for to Orthanc; and he found me
standing on the pinnacle. Then I spoke to him and he bore
me away, before Saruman was aware. I was far from Isengard,
ere the wolves and orcs issued from the gate to pursue me.
‘ ‘‘How far can you bear me?’’ I said to Gwaihir.
‘ ‘‘Many leagues,’’ said he, ‘‘but not to the ends of the
earth. I was sent to bear tidings not burdens.’’
‘ ‘‘Then I must have a steed on land,’’ I said, ‘‘and a steed
surpassingly swift, for I have never had such need of haste
before.’’
‘ ‘‘Then I will bear you to Edoras, where the Lord of Rohan
sits in his halls,’’ he said; ‘‘for that is not very far off.’’ And I
was glad, for in the Riddermark of Rohan the Rohirrim, the
Horse-lords, dwell, and there are no horses like those that are
bred in that great vale between the Misty Mountains and the
White.
‘ ‘‘Are the Men of Rohan still to be trusted, do you think?’’
I said to Gwaihir, for the treason of Saruman had shaken my
faith.
‘ ‘‘They pay a tribute of horses,’’ he answered, ‘‘and send
many yearly to Mordor, or so it is said; but they are not yet
under the yoke. But if Saruman has become evil, as you say,
then their doom cannot be long delayed.’’
‘He set me down in the land of Rohan ere dawn; and now
I have lengthened my tale over long. The rest must be more
brief. In Rohan I found evil already at work: the lies of
Saruman; and the king of the land would not listen to my
warnings. He bade me take a horse and be gone; and I chose
one much to my liking, but little to his. I took the best horse
in his land, and I have never seen the like of him.’
‘Then he must be a noble beast indeed,’ said Aragorn; ‘and
it grieves me more than many tidings that might seem worse
to learn that Sauron levies such tribute. It was not so when
last I was in that land.’
‘Nor is it now, I will swear,’ said Boromir. ‘It is a lie that
comes from the Enemy. I know the Men of Rohan, true and
342 the fellowship of the ring
valiant, our allies, dwelling still in the lands that we gave them
long ago.’
‘The shadow of Mordor lies on distant lands,’ answered
Aragorn. ‘Saruman has fallen under it. Rohan is beset. Who
knows what you will find there, if ever you return?’
‘Not this at least,’ said Boromir, ‘that they will buy their
lives with horses. They love their horses next to their kin.
And not without reason, for the horses of the Riddermark
come from the fields of the North, far from the Shadow, and
their race, as that of their masters, is descended from the free
days of old.’
‘True indeed!’ said Gandalf. ‘And there is one among them
that might have been foaled in the morning of the world. The
horses of the Nine cannot vie with him; tireless, swift as the
flowing wind. Shadowfax they called him. By day his coat
glistens like silver; and by night it is like a shade, and he
passes unseen. Light is his footfall! Never before had any
man mounted him, but I took him and I tamed him, and so
speedily he bore me that I reached the Shire when Frodo was
on the Barrow-downs, though I set out from Rohan only
when he set out from Hobbiton.
‘But fear grew in me as I rode. Ever as I came north I
heard tidings of the Riders, and though I gained on them day
by day, they were ever before me. They had divided their
forces, I learned: some remained on the eastern borders, not
far from the Greenway, and some invaded the Shire from the
south. I came to Hobbiton and Frodo had gone; but I had
words with old Gamgee. Many words and few to the point.
He had much to say about the shortcomings of the new
owners of Bag End.
‘ ‘‘I can’t abide changes,’’ said he, ‘‘not at my time of life,
and least of all changes for the worst.’’ ‘‘Changes for the
worst,’’ he repeated many times.
‘ ‘‘Worst is a bad word,’’ I said to him, ‘‘and I hope you do
not live to see it.’’ But amidst his talk I gathered at last that
Frodo had left Hobbiton less than a week before, and that a
black horseman had come to the Hill the same evening. Then
the council of elrond 343
I rode on in fear. I came to Buckland and found it in uproar,
as busy as a hive of ants that has been stirred with a stick. I
came to the house at Crickhollow, and it was broken open
and empty; but on the threshold there lay a cloak that had
been Frodo’s. Then for a while hope left me, and I did not
wait to gather news, or I might have been comforted; but I
rode on the trail of the Riders. It was hard to follow, for it
went many ways, and I was at a loss. But it seemed to me
that one or two had ridden towards Bree; and that way I went,
for I thought of words that might be said to the innkeeper.
‘ ‘‘Butterbur they call him,’’ thought I. ‘‘If this delay
was his fault, I will melt all the butter in him. I will roast the
old fool over a slow fire.’’ He expected no less, and when
he saw my face he fell down flat and began to melt on the
spot.’
‘What did you do to him?’ cried Frodo in alarm. ‘He was
really very kind to us and did all that he could.’
Gandalf laughed. ‘Don’t be afraid!’ he said. ‘I did not bite,
and I barked very little. So overjoyed was I by the news that
I got out of him, when he stopped quaking, that I embraced
the old fellow. How it had happened I could not then guess,
but I learned that you had been in Bree the night before, and
had gone off that morning with Strider.
‘ ‘‘Strider!’’ I cried, shouting for joy.
‘ ‘‘Yes, sir, I am afraid so, sir,’’ said Butterbur, mistaking
me. ‘‘He got at them, in spite of all that I could do, and they
took up with him. They behaved very queer all the time they
were here: wilful, you might say.’’
‘ ‘‘Ass! Fool! Thrice worthy and beloved Barliman!’’ said I.
‘‘It’s the best news I have had since Midsummer; it’s worth
a gold piece at the least. May your beer be laid under an
enchantment of surpassing excellence for seven years!’’ said
I. ‘‘Now I can take a night’s rest, the first since I have forgot-
ten when.’’
‘So I stayed there that night, wondering much what had
become of the Riders; for only of two had there yet been any
344 the fellowship of the ring
news in Bree, it seemed. But in the night we heard more.
Five at least came from the west, and they threw down the
gates and passed through Bree like a howling wind; and
the Bree-folk are still shivering and expecting the end of the
world. I got up before dawn and went after them.
‘I do not know, but it seems clear to me that this is what
happened. Their Captain remained in secret away south of
Bree, while two rode ahead through the village, and four
more invaded the Shire. But when these were foiled in Bree
and at Crickhollow, they returned to their Captain with tid-
ings, and so left the Road unguarded for a while, except by
their spies. The Captain then sent some eastward straight
across country, and he himself with the rest rode along the
Road in great wrath.
‘I galloped to Weathertop like a gale, and I reached it before
sundown on my second day from Bree – and they were there
before me. They drew away from me, for they felt the coming
of my anger and they dared not face it while the Sun was in
the sky. But they closed round at night, and I was besieged
on the hill-top, in the old ring of Amon Su
ˆ
l. I was hard put
to it indeed: such light and flame cannot have been seen on
Weathertop since the war-beacons of old.
‘At sunrise I escaped and fled towards the north. I could
not hope to do more. It was impossible to find you, Frodo,
in the wilderness, and it would have been folly to try with all
the Nine at my heels. So I had to trust to Aragorn. But I
hoped to draw some of them off, and yet reach Rivendell
ahead of you and send out help. Four Riders did indeed
follow me, but they turned back after a while and made for
the Ford, it seems. That helped a little, for there were only
five, not nine, when your camp was attacked.
‘I reached here at last by a long hard road, up the Hoarwell
and through the Ettenmoors, and down from the north. It
took me nearly fifteen days from Weathertop, for I could
not ride among the rocks of the troll-fells, and Shadowfax
departed. I sent him back to his master; but a great friendship
has grown between us, and if I have need he will come at my
the council of elrond 345
call. But so it was that I came to Rivendell only two days
before the Ring, and news of its peril had already been
brought here – which proved well indeed.
‘And that, Frodo, is the end of my account. May Elrond
and the others forgive the length of it. But such a thing has
not happened before, that Gandalf broke tryst and did not
come when he promised. An account to the Ring-bearer of
so strange an event was required, I think.
‘Well, the Tale is now told, from first to last. Here we all
are, and here is the Ring. But we have not yet come any
nearer to our purpose. What shall we do with it?’
There was a silence. At last Elrond spoke again.
‘This is grievous news concerning Saruman,’ he said; ‘for
we trusted him and he is deep in all our counsels. It is perilous
to study too deeply the arts of the Enemy, for good or for ill.
But such falls and betrayals, alas, have happened before. Of
the tales that we have heard this day the tale of Frodo was
most strange to me. I have known few hobbits, save Bilbo
here; and it seems to me that he is perhaps not so alone and
singular as I had thought him. The world has changed much
since I last was on the westward roads.
‘The Barrow-wights we know by many names; and of the
Old Forest many tales have been told: all that now remains
is but an outlier of its northern march. Time was when a
squirrel could go from tree to tree from what is now the Shire
to Dunland west of Isengard. In those lands I journeyed once,
and many things wild and strange I knew. But I had forgotten
Bombadil, if indeed this is still the same that walked the
woods and hills long ago, and even then was older than the
old. That was not then his name. Iarwain Ben-adar we called
him, oldest and fatherless. But many another name he has
since been given by other folk: Forn by the Dwarves, Orald
by Northern Men, and other names beside. He is a strange
creature, but maybe I should have summoned him to our
Council.’
‘He would not have come,’ said Gandalf.
346 the fellowship of the ring
‘Could we not still send messages to him and obtain his
help?’ asked Erestor. ‘It seems that he has a power even over
the Ring.’
‘No, I should not put it so,’ said Gandalf. ‘Say rather that
the Ring has no power over him. He is his own master. But
he cannot alter the Ring itself, nor break its power over others.
And now he is withdrawn into a little land, within bounds
that he has set, though none can see them, waiting perhaps
for a change of days, and he will not step beyond them.’
‘But within those bounds nothing seems to dismay him,’
said Erestor. ‘Would he not take the Ring and keep it there,
for ever harmless?’
‘No,’ said Gandalf, ‘not willingly. He might do so, if all the
free folk of the world begged him, but he would not under-
stand the need. And if he were given the Ring, he would soon
forget it, or most likely throw it away. Such things have no
hold on his mind. He would be a most unsafe guardian; and
that alone is answer enough.’
‘But in any case,’ said Glorfindel, ‘to send the Ring to him
would only postpone the day of evil. He is far away. We
could not now take it back to him, unguessed, unmarked by
any spy. And even if we could, soon or late the Lord of the
Rings would learn of its hiding place and would bend all his
power towards it. Could that power be defied by Bombadil
alone? I think not. I think that in the end, if all else is con-
quered, Bombadil will fall, Last as he was First; and then
Night will come.’
‘I know little of Iarwain save the name,’ said Galdor; ‘but
Glorfindel, I think, is right. Power to defy our Enemy is not
in him, unless such power is in the earth itself. And yet we
see that Sauron can torture and destroy the very hills.
What power still remains lies with us, here in Imladris, or
with Cı
´
rdan at the Havens, or in Lo
´
rien. But have they the
strength, have we here the strength to withstand the Enemy,
the coming of Sauron at the last, when all else is overthrown?’
‘I have not the strength,’ said Elrond; ‘neither have they.’
‘Then if the Ring cannot be kept from him for ever by
the council of elrond 347
strength,’ said Glorfindel, ‘two things only remain for us to
attempt: to send it over the Sea, or to destroy it.’
‘But Gandalf has revealed to us that we cannot destroy it
by any craft that we here possess,’ said Elrond. ‘And they
who dwell beyond the Sea would not receive it: for good or
ill it belongs to Middle-earth; it is for us who still dwell here
to deal with it.’
‘Then,’ said Glorfindel, ‘let us cast it into the deeps, and
so make the lies of Saruman come true. For it is clear now
that even at the Council his feet were already on a crooked
path. He knew that the Ring was not lost for ever, but wished
us to think so; for he began to lust for it for himself. Yet oft
in lies truth is hidden: in the Sea it would be safe.’
‘Not safe for ever,’ said Gandalf. ‘There are many things
in the deep waters; and seas and lands may change. And it is
not our part here to take thought only for a season, or for a
few lives of Men, or for a passing age of the world. We should
seek a final end of this menace, even if we do not hope to
make one.’
‘And that we shall not find on the roads to the Sea,’ said
Galdor. ‘If the return to Iarwain be thought too dangerous,
then flight to the Sea is now fraught with gravest peril. My
heart tells me that Sauron will expect us to take the western
way, when he learns what has befallen. He soon will. The
Nine have been unhorsed indeed, but that is but a respite,
ere they find new steeds and swifter. Only the waning might
of Gondor stands now between him and a march in power
along the coasts into the North; and if he comes, assailing
the White Towers and the Havens, hereafter the Elves may
have no escape from the lengthening shadows of Middle-
earth.’
‘Long yet will that march be delayed,’ said Boromir.
‘Gondor wanes, you say. But Gondor stands, and even the
end of its strength is still very strong.’
‘And yet its vigilance can no longer keep back the Nine,’
said Galdor. ‘And other roads he may find that Gondor does
not guard.’
348 the fellowship of the ring
‘Then,’ said Erestor, ‘there are but two courses, as Glor-
findel already has declared: to hide the Ring for ever; or to
unmake it. But both are beyond our power. Who will read
this riddle for us?’
‘None here can do so,’ said Elrond gravely. ‘At least none
can foretell what will come to pass, if we take this road or
that. But it seems to me now clear which is the road that we
must take. The westward road seems easiest. Therefore it
must be shunned. It will be watched. Too often the Elves
have fled that way. Now at this last we must take a hard road,
a road unforeseen. There lies our hope, if hope it be. To walk
into peril – to Mordor. We must send the Ring to the Fire.’
Silence fell again. Frodo, even in that fair house, looking
out upon a sunlit valley filled with the noise of clear waters,
felt a dead darkness in his heart. Boromir stirred, and Frodo
looked at him. He was fingering his great horn and frowning.
At length he spoke.
‘I do not understand all this,’ he said. ‘Saruman is a traitor,
but did he not have a glimpse of wisdom? Why do you speak
ever of hiding and destroying? Why should we not think that
the Great Ring has come into our hands to serve us in the
very hour of need? Wielding it the Free Lords of the Free
may surely defeat the Enemy. That is what he most fears,
I deem.
‘The Men of Gondor are valiant, and they will never sub-
mit; but they may be beaten down. Valour needs first
strength, and then a weapon. Let the Ring be your weapon,
if it has such power as you say. Take it and go forth to
victory!’
‘Alas, no,’ said Elrond. ‘We cannot use the Ruling Ring.
That we now know too well. It belongs to Sauron and was
made by him alone, and is altogether evil. Its strength,
Boromir, is too great for anyone to wield at will, save only
those who have already a great power of their own. But for
them it holds an even deadlier peril. The very desire of it
corrupts the heart. Consider Saruman. If any of the Wise
the council of elrond 349
should with this Ring overthrow the Lord of Mordor, using
his own arts, he would then set himself on Sauron’s throne,
and yet another Dark Lord would appear. And that is another
reason why the Ring should be destroyed: as long as it is in
the world it will be a danger even to the Wise. For nothing is
evil in the beginning. Even Sauron was not so. I fear to take
the Ring to hide it. I will not take the Ring to wield it.’
‘Nor I,’ said Gandalf.
Boromir looked at them doubtfully, but he bowed his head.
‘So be it,’ he said. ‘Then in Gondor we must trust to such
weapons as we have. And at the least, while the Wise ones
guard this Ring, we will fight on. Mayhap the Sword-that-
was-Broken may still stem the tide – if the hand that wields
it has inherited not an heirloom only, but the sinews of the
Kings of Men.’
‘Who can tell?’ said Aragorn. ‘But we will put it to the test
one day.’
‘May the day not be too long delayed,’ said Boromir. ‘For
though I do not ask for aid, we need it. It would comfort us
to know that others fought also with all the means that they
have.’
‘Then be comforted,’ said Elrond. ‘For there are other
powers and realms that you know not, and they are hidden
from you. Anduin the Great flows past many shores, ere it
comes to Argonath and the Gates of Gondor.’
‘Still it might be well for all,’ said Glo
´
in the Dwarf, ‘if all
these strengths were joined, and the powers of each were
used in league. Other rings there may be, less treacherous,
that might be used in our need. The Seven are lost to us – if
Balin has not found the ring of Thro
´
r, which was the last;
naught has been heard of it since Thro
´
r perished in Moria.
Indeed I may now reveal that it was partly in hope to find
that ring that Balin went away.’
‘Balin will find no ring in Moria,’ said Gandalf. ‘Thro
´
r
gave it to Thra
´
in his son, but not Thra
´
in to Thorin. It was
taken with torment from Thra
´
in in the dungeons of Dol
Guldur. I came too late.’
350 the fellowship of the ring
‘Ah, alas!’ cried Glo
´
in. ‘When will the day come of our
revenge? But still there are the Three. What of the Three
Rings of the Elves? Very mighty Rings, it is said. Do not the
Elf-lords keep them? Yet they too were made by the Dark
Lord long ago. Are they idle? I see Elf-lords here. Will they
not say?’
The Elves returned no answer. ‘Did you not hear me,
Glo
´
in?’ said Elrond. ‘The Three were not made by Sauron,
nor did he ever touch them. But of them it is not permitted
to speak. So much only in this hour of doubt I may now say.
They are not idle. But they were not made as weapons of
war or conquest: that is not their power. Those who made
them did not desire strength or domination or hoarded
wealth, but understanding, making, and healing, to preserve
all things unstained. These things the Elves of Middle-earth
have in some measure gained, though with sorrow. But all
that has been wrought by those who wield the Three will turn
to their undoing, and their minds and hearts will become
revealed to Sauron, if he regains the One. It would be better
if the Three had never been. That is his purpose.’
‘But what then would happen, if the Ruling Ring were
destroyed, as you counsel?’ asked Glo
´
in.
‘We know not for certain,’ answered Elrond sadly. ‘Some
hope that the Three Rings, which Sauron has never touched,
would then become free, and their rulers might heal the hurts
of the world that he has wrought. But maybe when the One
has gone, the Three will fail, and many fair things will fade
and be forgotten. That is my belief.’
‘Yet all the Elves are willing to endure this chance,’ said
Glorfindel, ‘if by it the power of Sauron may be broken, and
the fear of his dominion be taken away for ever.’
‘Thus we return once more to the destroying of the Ring,’
said Erestor, ‘and yet we come no nearer. What strength have
we for the finding of the Fire in which it was made? That is
the path of despair. Of folly I would say, if the long wisdom
of Elrond did not forbid me.’
‘Despair, or folly?’ said Gandalf. ‘It is not despair, for
the council of elrond 351
despair is only for those who see the end beyond all doubt.
We do not. It is wisdom to recognize necessity, when all other
courses have been weighed, though as folly it may appear to
those who cling to false hope. Well, let folly be our cloak, a
veil before the eyes of the Enemy! For he is very wise, and
weighs all things to a nicety in the scales of his malice. But
the only measure that he knows is desire, desire for power;
and so he judges all hearts. Into his heart the thought will not
enter that any will refuse it, that having the Ring we may
seek to destroy it. If we seek this, we shall put him out of
reckoning.’
‘At least for a while,’ said Elrond. ‘The road must be trod,
but it will be very hard. And neither strength nor wisdom will
carry us far upon it. This quest may be attempted by the
weak with as much hope as the strong. Yet such is oft the
course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small
hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great
are elsewhere.’
‘Very well, very well, Master Elrond!’ said Bilbo suddenly.
‘Say no more! It is plain enough what you are pointing at.
Bilbo the silly hobbit started this affair, and Bilbo had better
finish it, or himself. I was very comfortable here, and getting
on with my book. If you want to know, I am just writing an
ending for it. I had thought of putting: and he lived happily
ever afterwards to the end of his days. It is a good ending, and
none the worse for having been used before. Now I shall have
to alter that: it does not look like coming true; and anyway
there will evidently have to be several more chapters, if I live
to write them. It is a frightful nuisance. When ought I to
start?’
Boromir looked in surprise at Bilbo, but the laughter died
on his lips when he saw that all the others regarded the old
hobbit with grave respect. Only Glo
´
in smiled, but his smile
came from old memories.
‘Of course, my dear Bilbo,’ said Gandalf. ‘If you had really
started this affair, you might be expected to finish it. But you
352 the fellowship of the ring
know well enough now that starting is too great a claim for
any, and that only a small part is played in great deeds by
any hero. You need not bow! Though the word was meant,
and we do not doubt that under jest you are making a valiant
offer. But one beyond your strength, Bilbo. You cannot take
this thing back. It has passed on. If you need my advice any
longer, I should say that your part is ended, unless as a
recorder. Finish your book, and leave the ending unaltered!
There is still hope for it. But get ready to write a sequel, when
they come back.’
Bilbo laughed. ‘I have never known you give me pleasant
advice before,’ he said. ‘As all your unpleasant advice has
been good, I wonder if this advice is not bad. Still, I don’t
suppose I have the strength or luck left to deal with the Ring.
It has grown, and I have not. But tell me: what do you mean
by they?’
‘The messengers who are sent with the Ring.’
‘Exactly! And who are they to be? That seems to me what
this Council has to decide, and all that it has to decide.
Elves may thrive on speech alone, and Dwarves endure great
weariness; but I am only an old hobbit, and I miss my meal
at noon. Can’t we think of some names now? Or put it off
till after dinner?’
No one answered. The noon-bell rang. Still no one spoke.
Frodo glanced at all the faces, but they were not turned to
him. All the Council sat with downcast eyes, as if in deep
thought. A great dread fell on him, as if he was awaiting the
pronouncement of some doom that he had long foreseen and
vainly hoped might after all never be spoken. An overwhelm-
ing longing to rest and remain at peace by Bilbo’s side in
Rivendell filled all his heart. At last with an effort he spoke,
and wondered to hear his own words, as if some other will
was using his small voice.
‘I will take the Ring,’ he said, ‘though I do not know the
way.’
***
the council of elrond 353
Elrond raised his eyes and looked at him, and Frodo felt
his heart pierced by the sudden keenness of the glance. ‘If I
understand aright all that I have heard,’ he said, ‘I think that
this task is appointed for you, Frodo; and that if you do not
find a way, no one will. This is the hour of the Shire-folk,
when they arise from their quiet fields to shake the towers
and counsels of the Great. Who of all the Wise could have
foreseen it? Or, if they are wise, why should they expect to
know it, until the hour has struck?
‘But it is a heavy burden. So heavy that none could lay it
on another. I do not lay it on you. But if you take it freely, I
will say that your choice is right; and though all the mighty
Elf-friends of old, Hador, and Hu
´
rin, and Tu
´
rin, and Beren
himself were assembled together, your seat should be among
them.’
‘But you won’t send him off alone surely, Master?’ cried
Sam, unable to contain himself any longer, and jumping up
from the corner where he had been quietly sitting on the
floor.
‘No indeed!’ said Elrond, turning towards him with a smile.
‘You at least shall go with him. It is hardly possible to separate
you from him, even when he is summoned to a secret council
and you are not.’
Sam sat down, blushing and muttering. ‘A nice pickle we
have landed ourselves in, Mr. Frodo!’ he said, shaking his
head.
Chapter 3
THE RING GOES SOUTH
Later that day the hobbits held a meeting of their own in
Bilbo’s room. Merry and Pippin were indignant when they
heard that Sam had crept into the Council, and had been
chosen as Frodo’s companion.
‘It’s most unfair,’ said Pippin. ‘Instead of throwing him
out, and clapping him in chains, Elrond goes and rewards
him for his cheek!’
‘Rewards!’ said Frodo. ‘I can’t imagine a more severe pun-
ishment. You are not thinking what you are saying: con-
demned to go on this hopeless journey, a reward? Yesterday
I dreamed that my task was done, and I could rest here, a
long while, perhaps for good.’
‘I don’t wonder,’ said Merry, ‘and I wish you could. But
we are envying Sam, not you. If you have to go, then it will
be a punishment for any of us to be left behind, even in
Rivendell. We have come a long way with you and been
through some stiff times. We want to go on.’
‘That’s what I meant,’ said Pippin. ‘We hobbits ought to
stick together, and we will. I shall go, unless they chain me
up. There must be someone with intelligence in the party.’
‘Then you certainly will not be chosen, Peregrin Took!’
said Gandalf, looking in through the window, which was near
the ground. ‘But you are all worrying yourselves unnecess-
arily. Nothing is decided yet.’
‘Nothing decided!’ cried Pippin. ‘Then what were you all
doing? You were shut up for hours.’
‘Talking,’ said Bilbo. ‘There was a deal of talk, and every-
one had an eye-opener. Even old Gandalf. I think Legolas’s
bit of news about Gollum caught even him on the hop,
though he passed it off.’
the ring goes south 355
‘You were wrong,’ said Gandalf. ‘You were inattentive. I
had already heard of it from Gwaihir. If you want to know,
the only real eye-openers, as you put it, were you and Frodo;
and I was the only one that was not surprised.’
‘Well, anyway,’ said Bilbo, ‘nothing was decided beyond
choosing poor Frodo and Sam. I was afraid all the time that
it might come to that, if I was let off. But if you ask me,
Elrond will send out a fair number, when the reports come
in. Have they started yet, Gandalf ?’
‘Yes,’ said the wizard. ‘Some of the scouts have been sent
out already. More will go tomorrow. Elrond is sending Elves,
and they will get in touch with the Rangers, and maybe with
Thranduil’s folk in Mirkwood. And Aragorn has gone with
Elrond’s sons. We shall have to scour the lands all round for
many long leagues before any move is made. So cheer up,
Frodo! You will probably make quite a long stay here.’
‘Ah!’ said Sam gloomily. ‘We’ll just wait long enough for
winter to come.’
‘That can’t be helped,’ said Bilbo. ‘It’s your fault partly,
Frodo my lad: insisting on waiting for my birthday. A funny
way of honouring it, I can’t help thinking. Not the day I
should have chosen for letting the S.-B.s into Bag End. But
there it is: you can’t wait now till spring; and you can’t go till
the reports come back.
When winter first begins to bite
and stones crack in the frosty night,
when pools are black and trees are bare,
’tis evil in the Wild to fare.
But that I am afraid will be just your luck.’
‘I am afraid it will,’ said Gandalf. ‘We can’t start until we
have found out about the Riders.’
‘I thought they were all destroyed in the flood,’ said Merry.
‘You cannot destroy Ringwraiths like that,’ said Gandalf.
‘The power of their master is in them, and they stand or fall
by him. We hope that they were all unhorsed and unmasked,
356 the fellowship of the ring
and so made for a while less dangerous; but we must find out
for certain. In the meantime you should try and forget your
troubles, Frodo. I do not know if I can do anything to help
you; but I will whisper this in your ears. Someone said that
intelligence would be needed in the party. He was right. I
think I shall come with you.’
So great was Frodo’s delight at this announcement that
Gandalf left the window-sill, where he had been sitting, and
took off his hat and bowed. ‘I only said I think I shall come.
Do not count on anything yet. In this matter Elrond will have
much to say, and your friend the Strider. Which reminds me,
I want to see Elrond. I must be off.’
‘How long do you think I shall have here?’ said Frodo to
Bilbo when Gandalf had gone.
‘Oh, I don’t know. I can’t count days in Rivendell,’ said
Bilbo. ‘But quite long, I should think. We can have many a
good talk. What about helping me with my book, and making
a start on the next? Have you thought of an ending?’
‘Yes, several, and all are dark and unpleasant,’ said Frodo.
‘Oh, that won’t do!’ said Bilbo. ‘Books ought to have good
endings. How would this do: and they all settled down and
lived together happily ever after?’
‘It will do well, if it ever comes to that,’ said Frodo.
‘Ah!’ said Sam. ‘And where will they live? That’s what I
often wonder.’
For a while the hobbits continued to talk and think of the
past journey and of the perils that lay ahead; but such was
the virtue of the land of Rivendell that soon all fear and
anxiety was lifted from their minds. The future, good or ill,
was not forgotten, but ceased to have any power over the
present. Health and hope grew strong in them, and they were
content with each good day as it came, taking pleasure in
every meal, and in every word and song.
So the days slipped away, as each morning dawned bright
and fair, and each evening followed cool and clear. But
autumn was waning fast; slowly the golden light faded to pale
the ring goes south 357
silver, and the lingering leaves fell from the naked trees. A
wind began to blow chill from the Misty Mountains to the
east. The Hunter’s Moon waxed round in the night sky, and
put to flight all the lesser stars. But low in the South one star
shone red. Every night, as the Moon waned again, it shone
brighter and brighter. Frodo could see it from his window,
deep in the heavens, burning like a watchful eye that glared
above the trees on the brink of the valley.
The hobbits had been nearly two months in the house of
Elrond, and November had gone by with the last shreds of
autumn, and December was passing, when the scouts began
to return. Some had gone north beyond the springs of the
Hoarwell into the Ettenmoors; and others had gone west, and
with the help of Aragorn and the Rangers had searched the
lands far down the Greyflood, as far as Tharbad, where the
old North Road crossed the river by a ruined town. Many
had gone east and south; and some of these had crossed the
Mountains and entered Mirkwood, while others had climbed
the pass at the sources of the Gladden River, and had come
down into Wilderland and over the Gladden Fields and so at
length had reached the old home of Radagast at Rhosgobel.
Radagast was not there; and they had returned over the high
pass that was called the Redhorn Gate. The sons of Elrond,
Elladan and Elrohir, were the last to return; they had made a
great journey, passing down the Silverlode into a strange
country, but of their errand they would not speak to any save
to Elrond.
In no region had the messengers discovered any signs or
tidings of the Riders or other servants of the Enemy. Even
from the Eagles of the Misty Mountains they had learned no
fresh news. Nothing had been seen or heard of Gollum; but
the wild wolves were still gathering, and were hunting again
far up the Great River. Three of the black horses had been
found at once drowned in the flooded Ford. On the rocks of
the rapids below it searchers discovered the bodies of five
more, and also a long black cloak, slashed and tattered. Of
358 the fellowship of the ring
the Black Riders no other trace was to be seen, and nowhere
was their presence to be felt. It seemed that they had vanished
from the North.
‘Eight out of the Nine are accounted for at least,’ said
Gandalf. ‘It is rash to be too sure, yet I think that we may
hope now that the Ringwraiths were scattered, and have been
obliged to return as best they could to their Master in Mordor,
empty and shapeless.
‘If that is so, it will be some time before they can begin the
hunt again. Of course the Enemy has other servants, but they
will have to journey all the way to the borders of Rivendell
before they can pick up our trail. And if we are careful that
will be hard to find. But we must delay no longer.’
Elrond summoned the hobbits to him. He looked gravely
at Frodo. ‘The time has come,’ he said. ‘If the Ring is to set
out, it must go soon. But those who go with it must not count
on their errand being aided by war or force. They must pass
into the domain of the Enemy far from aid. Do you still hold
to your word, Frodo, that you will be the Ring-bearer?’
‘I do,’ said Frodo. ‘I will go with Sam.’
‘Then I cannot help you much, not even with counsel,’
said Elrond. ‘I can foresee very little of your road; and how
your task is to be achieved I do not know. The Shadow has
crept now to the feet of the Mountains, and draws nigh even
to the borders of the Greyflood; and under the Shadow all is
dark to me. You will meet many foes, some open, and some
disguised; and you may find friends upon your way when
you least look for it. I will send out messages, such as I can
contrive, to those whom I know in the wide world; but so
perilous are the lands now become that some may well mis-
carry, or come no quicker than you yourself.
‘And I will choose you companions to go with you, as far
as they will or fortune allows. The number must be few, since
your hope is in speed and secrecy. Had I a host of Elves in
armour of the Elder Days, it would avail little, save to arouse
the power of Mordor.
the ring goes south 359
‘The Company of the Ring shall be Nine; and the Nine
Walkers shall be set against the Nine Riders that are evil.
With you and your faithful servant, Gandalf will go; for this
shall be his great task, and maybe the end of his labours.
‘For the rest, they shall represent the other Free Peoples of
the World: Elves, Dwarves, and Men. Legolas shall be for
the Elves; and Gimli son of Glo
´
in for the Dwarves. They are
willing to go at least to the passes of the Mountains, and
maybe beyond. For men you shall have Aragorn son of
Arathorn, for the Ring of Isildur concerns him closely.’
‘Strider!’ cried Frodo.
‘Yes,’ he said with a smile. ‘I ask leave once again to be
your companion, Frodo.’
‘I would have begged you to come,’ said Frodo, ‘only I
thought you were going to Minas Tirith with Boromir.’
‘I am,’ said Aragorn. ‘And the Sword-that-was-Broken
shall be re-forged ere I set out to war. But your road and our
road lie together for many hundreds of miles. There-
fore Boromir will also be in the Company. He is a valiant
man.’
‘There remain two more to be found,’ said Elrond. ‘These
I will consider. Of my household I may find some that it
seems good to me to send.’
‘But that will leave no place for us!’ cried Pippin in dismay.
‘We don’t want to be left behind. We want to go with Frodo.’
‘That is because you do not understand and cannot
imagine what lies ahead,’ said Elrond.
‘Neither does Frodo,’ said Gandalf, unexpectedly support-
ing Pippin. ‘Nor do any of us see clearly. It is true that if
these hobbits understood the danger, they would not dare to
go. But they would still wish to go, or wish that they dared,
and be shamed and unhappy. I think, Elrond, that in this
matter it would be well to trust rather to their friendship than
to great wisdom. Even if you chose for us an Elf-lord, such
as Glorfindel, he could not storm the Dark Tower, nor open
the road to the Fire by the power that is in him.’
‘You speak gravely,’ said Elrond, ‘but I am in doubt. The
360 the fellowship of the ring
Shire, I forebode, is not free now from peril; and these two
I had thought to send back there as messengers, to do what
they could, according to the fashion of their country, to warn
the people of their danger. In any case, I judge that the
younger of these two, Peregrin Took, should remain. My
heart is against his going.’
‘Then, Master Elrond, you will have to lock me in prison,
or send me home tied in a sack,’ said Pippin. ‘For otherwise
I shall follow the Company.’
‘Let it be so then. You shall go,’ said Elrond, and he sighed.
‘Now the tale of Nine is filled. In seven days the Company
must depart.’
The Sword of Elendil was forged anew by Elvish smiths,
and on its blade was traced a device of seven stars set between
the crescent Moon and the rayed Sun, and about them was
written many runes; for Aragorn son of Arathorn was going
to war upon the marches of Mordor. Very bright was that
sword when it was made whole again; the light of the sun
shone redly in it, and the light of the moon shone cold, and
its edge was hard and keen. And Aragorn gave it a new name
and called it Andu
´
ril, Flame of the West.
Aragorn and Gandalf walked together or sat speaking of
their road and the perils they would meet; and they pondered
the storied and figured maps and books of lore that were in
the house of Elrond. Sometimes Frodo was with them; but
he was content to lean on their guidance, and he spent as
much time as he could with Bilbo.
In those last days the hobbits sat together in the evening in
the Hall of Fire, and there among many tales they heard told
in full the lay of Beren and Lu
´
thien and the winning of the
Great Jewel; but in the day, while Merry and Pippin were
out and about, Frodo and Sam were to be found with Bilbo
in his own small room. Then Bilbo would read passages from
his book (which still seemed very incomplete), or scraps of
his verses, or would take notes of Frodo’s adventures.
On the morning of the last day Frodo was alone with Bilbo,
the ring goes south 361
and the old hobbit pulled out from under his bed a wooden
box. He lifted the lid and fumbled inside.
‘Here is your sword,’ he said. ‘But it was broken, you know.
I took it to keep it safe but I’ve forgotten to ask if the smiths
could mend it. No time now. So I thought, perhaps, you
would care to have this, don’t you know?’
He took from the box a small sword in an old shabby
leathern scabbard. Then he drew it, and its polished and
well-tended blade glittered suddenly, cold and bright. ‘This
is Sting,’ he said, and thrust it with little effort deep into
a wooden beam. ‘Take it, if you like. I shan’t want it again,
I expect.’
Frodo accepted it gratefully.
‘Also there is this!’ said Bilbo, bringing out a parcel which
seemed to be rather heavy for its size. He unwound several
folds of old cloth, and held up a small shirt of mail. It was
close-woven of many rings, as supple almost as linen, cold as
ice, and harder than steel. It shone like moonlit silver, and
was studded with white gems. With it was a belt of pearl and
crystal.
‘It’s a pretty thing, isn’t it?’ said Bilbo, moving it in the
light. ‘And useful. It is my dwarf-mail that Thorin gave me.
I got it back from Michel Delving before I started, and packed
it with my luggage. I brought all the mementoes of my Jour-
ney away with me, except the Ring. But I did not expect to
use this, and I don’t need it now, except to look at sometimes.
You hardly feel any weight when you put it on.’
‘I should look – well, I don’t think I should look right in it,’
said Frodo.
‘Just what I said myself,’ said Bilbo. ‘But never mind about
looks. You can wear it under your outer clothes. Come on!
You must share this secret with me. Don’t tell anybody else!
But I should feel happier if I knew you were wearing it. I
have a fancy it would turn even the knives of the Black
Riders,’ he ended in a low voice.
‘Very well, I will take it,’ said Frodo. Bilbo put it on him,
and fastened Sting upon the glittering belt; and then Frodo
362 the fellowship of the ring
put over the top his old weather-stained breeches, tunic, and
jacket.
‘Just a plain hobbit you look,’ said Bilbo. ‘But there is more
about you now than appears on the surface. Good luck to
you!’ He turned away and looked out of the window, trying
to hum a tune.
‘I cannot thank you as I should, Bilbo, for this, and for all
your past kindnesses,’ said Frodo.
‘Don’t try!’ said the old hobbit, turning round and slapping
him on the back. ‘Ow!’ he cried. ‘You are too hard now to
slap! But there you are: Hobbits must stick together, and
especially Bagginses. All I ask in return is: take as much care
of yourself as you can, and bring back all the news you can,
and any old songs and tales you can come by. I’ll do my best
to finish my book before you return. I should like to write the
second book, if I am spared.’ He broke off and turned to the
window again, singing softly.
I sit beside the fire and think
of all that I have seen,
of meadow-flowers and butterflies
in summers that have been;
Of yellow leaves and gossamer
in autumns that there were,
with morning mist and silver sun
and wind upon my hair.
I sit beside the fire and think
of how the world will be
when winter comes without a spring
that I shall ever see.
For still there are so many things
that I have never seen:
in every wood in every spring
there is a different green.
the ring goes south 363
I sit beside the fire and think
of people long ago,
and people who will see a world
that I shall never know.
But all the while I sit and think
of times there were before,
I listen for returning feet
and voices at the door.
It was a cold grey day near the end of December. The East
Wind was streaming through the bare branches of the trees,
and seething in the dark pines on the hills. Ragged clouds
were hurrying overhead, dark and low. As the cheerless
shadows of the early evening began to fall the Company
made ready to set out. They were to start at dusk, for Elrond
counselled them to journey under cover of night as often as
they could, until they were far from Rivendell.
‘You should fear the many eyes of the servants of Sauron,’
he said. ‘I do not doubt that news of the discomfiture of the
Riders has already reached him, and he will be filled with
wrath. Soon now his spies on foot and wing will be abroad
in the northern lands. Even of the sky above you must beware
as you go on your way.’
The Company took little gear of war, for their hope was
in secrecy not in battle. Aragorn had Andu
´
ril but no other
weapon, and he went forth clad only in rusty green and
brown, as a Ranger of the wilderness. Boromir had a long
sword, in fashion like Andu
´
ril but of less lineage, and he bore
also a shield and his war-horn.
‘Loud and clear it sounds in the valleys of the hills,’ he
said, ‘and then let all the foes of Gondor flee!’ Putting it to
his lips he blew a blast, and the echoes leapt from rock to
rock, and all that heard that voice in Rivendell sprang to their
feet.
‘Slow should you be to wind that horn again, Boromir,’
364 the fellowship of the ring
said Elrond, ‘until you stand once more on the borders of
your land, and dire need is on you.’
‘Maybe,’ said Boromir. ‘But always I have let my horn cry
at setting forth, and though thereafter we may walk in the
shadows, I will not go forth as a thief in the night.’
Gimli the dwarf alone wore openly a short shirt of steel-
rings, for dwarves make light of burdens; and in his belt was
a broad-bladed axe. Legolas had a bow and a quiver, and at
his belt a long white knife. The younger hobbits wore the
swords that they had taken from the barrow; but Frodo took
only Sting; and his mail-coat, as Bilbo wished, remained
hidden. Gandalf bore his staff, but girt at his side was the
elven-sword Glamdring, the mate of Orcrist that lay now
upon the breast of Thorin under the Lonely Mountain.
All were well furnished by Elrond with thick warm clothes,
and they had jackets and cloaks lined with fur. Spare food
and clothes and blankets and other needs were laden on a
pony, none other than the poor beast that they had brought
from Bree.
The stay in Rivendell had worked a great wonder of change
on him: he was glossy and seemed to have the vigour of youth.
It was Sam who had insisted on choosing him, declaring that
Bill (as he called him) would pine, if he did not come.
‘That animal can nearly talk,’ he said, ‘and would talk, if
he stayed here much longer. He gave me a look as plain as
Mr. Pippin could speak it: if you don’t let me go with you,
Sam, I’ll follow on my own.’ So Bill was going as the beast
of burden, yet he was the only member of the Company that
did not seem depressed.
Their farewells had been said in the great hall by the fire,
and they were only waiting now for Gandalf, who had not
yet come out of the house. A gleam of firelight came from
the open doors, and soft lights were glowing in many
windows. Bilbo huddled in a cloak stood silent on the door-
step beside Frodo. Aragorn sat with his head bowed to his
knees; only Elrond knew fully what this hour meant to him.
the ring goes south 365
The others could be seen as grey shapes in the darkness.
Sam was standing by the pony, sucking his teeth, and
staring moodily into the gloom where the river roared stonily
below; his desire for adventure was at its lowest ebb.
‘Bill, my lad,’ he said, ‘you oughtn’t to have took up with
us. You could have stayed here and et the best hay till the
new grass comes.’ Bill swished his tail and said nothing.
Sam eased the pack on his shoulders, and went over
anxiously in his mind all the things that he had stowed
in it, wondering if he had forgotten anything: his chief
treasure, his cooking gear; and the little box of salt that
he always carried and refilled when he could; a good supply
of pipe-weed (but not near enough, I’ll warrant); flint
and tinder; woollen hose; linen; various small belongings of
his master’s that Frodo had forgotten and Sam had stowed
to bring them out in triumph when they were called for. He
went through them all.
‘Rope!’ he muttered. ‘No rope! And only last night you
said to yourself: ‘‘Sam, what about a bit of rope? You’ll want
it, if you haven’t got it.’’ Well, I’ll want it. I can’t get it now.’
At that moment Elrond came out with Gandalf, and he
called the Company to him. ‘This is my last word,’ he said
in a low voice. ‘The Ring-bearer is setting out on the Quest
of Mount Doom. On him alone is any charge laid: neither to
cast away the Ring, nor to deliver it to any servant of the
Enemy nor indeed to let any handle it, save members of the
Company and the Council, and only then in gravest need.
The others go with him as free companions, to help him on
his way. You may tarry, or come back, or turn aside into
other paths, as chance allows. The further you go, the less
easy will it be to withdraw; yet no oath or bond is laid on you
to go further than you will. For you do not yet know the
strength of your hearts, and you cannot foresee what each
may meet upon the road.’
‘Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens,’
said Gimli.
366 the fellowship of the ring
‘Maybe,’ said Elrond, ‘but let him not vow to walk in the
dark, who has not seen the nightfall.’
‘Yet sworn word may strengthen quaking heart,’ said
Gimli.
‘Or break it,’ said Elrond. ‘Look not too far ahead! But go
now with good hearts! Farewell, and may the blessing of Elves
and Men and all Free Folk go with you. May the stars shine
upon your faces!’
‘Good ... good luck!’ cried Bilbo, stuttering with the cold.
‘I don’t suppose you will be able to keep a diary, Frodo my
lad, but I shall expect a full account when you get back. And
don’t be too long! Farewell!’
Many others of Elrond’s household stood in the shadows
and watched them go, bidding them farewell with soft voices.
There was no laughter, and no song or music. At last they
turned away and faded silently into the dusk.
They crossed the bridge and wound slowly up the long
steep paths that led out of the cloven vale of Rivendell; and
they came at length to the high moor where the wind hissed
through the heather. Then with one glance at the Last
Homely House twinkling below them they strode away far
into the night.
At the Ford of Bruinen they left the Road and turning
southwards went on by narrow paths among the folded lands.
Their purpose was to hold this course west of the Mountains
for many miles and days. The country was much rougher
and more barren than in the green vale of the Great River in
Wilderland on the other side of the range, and their going
would be slow; but they hoped in this way to escape the
notice of unfriendly eyes. The spies of Sauron had hitherto
seldom been seen in this empty country, and the paths were
little known except to the people of Rivendell.
Gandalf walked in front, and with him went Aragorn, who
knew this land even in the dark. The others were in file
behind, and Legolas whose eyes were keen was the rearguard.
the ring goes south 367
The first part of their journey was hard and dreary, and Frodo
remembered little of it, save the wind. For many sunless
days an icy blast came from the Mountains in the east, and
no garment seemed able to keep out its searching fingers.
Though the Company was well clad, they seldom felt warm,
either moving or at rest. They slept uneasily during the
middle of the day, in some hollow of the land, or hidden
under the tangled thorn-bushes that grew in thickets in many
places. In the late afternoon they were roused by the watch,
and took their chief meal: cold and cheerless as a rule, for
they could seldom risk the lighting of a fire. In the evening
they went on again, always as nearly southward as they could
find a way.
At first it seemed to the hobbits that although they walked
and stumbled until they were weary, they were creeping for-
ward like snails, and getting nowhere. Each day the land
looked much the same as it had the day before. Yet steadily
the mountains were drawing nearer. South of Rivendell they
rose ever higher, and bent westwards; and about the feet of
the main range there was tumbled an ever wider land of bleak
hills, and deep valleys filled with turbulent waters. Paths were
few and winding, and led them often only to the edge of
some sheer fall, or down into treacherous swamps.
They had been a fortnight on the way when the weather
changed. The wind suddenly fell and then veered round to
the south. The swift-flowing clouds lifted and melted away,
and the sun came out, pale and bright. There came a cold
clear dawn at the end of a long stumbling night-march. The
travellers reached a low ridge crowned with ancient holly-
trees whose grey-green trunks seemed to have been built out
of the very stone of the hills. Their dark leaves shone and
their berries glowed red in the light of the rising sun.
Away in the south Frodo could see the dim shapes of lofty
mountains that seemed now to stand across the path that the
Company was taking. At the left of this high range rose three
peaks; the tallest and nearest stood up like a tooth tipped with
368 the fellowship of the ring
snow; its great, bare, northern precipice was still largely in
the shadow, but where the sunlight slanted upon it, it glowed
red.
Gandalf stood at Frodo’s side and looked out under his
hand. ‘We have done well,’ he said. ‘We have reached the
borders of the country that Men call Hollin; many Elves lived
here in happier days, when Eregion was its name. Five-and-
forty leagues as the crow flies we have come, though many
long miles further our feet have walked. The land and the
weather will be milder now, but perhaps all the more
dangerous.’
‘Dangerous or not, a real sunrise is mighty welcome,’ said
Frodo, throwing back his hood and letting the morning light
fall on his face.
‘But the mountains are ahead of us,’ said Pippin. ‘We must
have turned eastwards in the night.’
‘No,’ said Gandalf. ‘But you see further ahead in the clear
light. Beyond those peaks the range bends round south-west.
There are many maps in Elrond’s house, but I suppose you
never thought to look at them?’
‘Yes I did, sometimes,’ said Pippin, ‘but I don’t remember
them. Frodo has a better head for that sort of thing.’
‘I need no map,’ said Gimli, who had come up with
Legolas, and was gazing out before him with a strange light
in his deep eyes. ‘There is the land where our fathers worked
of old, and we have wrought the image of those mountains
into many works of metal and of stone, and into many
songs and tales. They stand tall in our dreams: Baraz, Zirak,
Shathu
ˆ
r.
‘Only once before have I seen them from afar in waking
life, but I know them and their names, for under them lies
Khazad-du
ˆ
m, the Dwarrowdelf, that is now called the Black
Pit, Moria in the Elvish tongue. Yonder stands Barazinbar,
the Redhorn, cruel Caradhras; and beyond him are Silvertine
and Cloudyhead: Celebdil the White, and Fanuidhol the
Grey, that we call Zirakzigil and Bundushathu
ˆ
r.
‘There the Misty Mountains divide, and between their
the ring goes south 369
arms lies the deep-shadowed valley which we cannot for-
get: Azanulbizar, the Dimrill Dale, which the Elves call
Nanduhirion.’
‘It is for the Dimrill Dale that we are making,’ said Gandalf.
‘If we climb the pass that is called the Redhorn Gate, under
the far side of Caradhras, we shall come down by the Dimrill
Stair into the deep vale of the Dwarves. There lies the
Mirrormere, and there the River Silverlode rises in its icy
springs.’
‘Dark is the water of Kheled-za
ˆ
ram,’ said Gimli, ‘and cold
are the springs of Kibil-na
ˆ
la. My heart trembles at the thought
that I may see them soon.’
‘May you have joy of the sight, my good dwarf !’ said
Gandalf. ‘But whatever you may do, we at least cannot stay
in that valley. We must go down the Silverlode into the secret
woods, and so to the Great River, and then——’
He paused.
‘Yes, and where then?’ asked Merry.
‘To the end of the journey – in the end,’ said Gandalf. ‘We
cannot look too far ahead. Let us be glad that the first stage
is safely over. I think we will rest here, not only today but
tonight as well. There is a wholesome air about Hollin. Much
evil must befall a country before it wholly forgets the Elves,
if once they dwelt there.’
‘That is true,’ said Legolas. ‘But the Elves of this land were
of a race strange to us of the silvan folk, and the trees and
the grass do not now remember them. Only I hear the stones
lament them: deep they delved us, fair they wrought us, high
they builded us; but they are gone. They are gone. They sought
the Havens long ago.’
That morning they lit a fire in a deep hollow shrouded by
great bushes of holly, and their supper-breakfast was merrier
than it had been since they set out. They did not hurry to
bed afterwards, for they expected to have all the night to
sleep in, and they did not mean to go on again until the
evening of the next day. Only Aragorn was silent and restless.
370 the fellowship of the ring
After a while he left the Company and wandered on to the
ridge; there he stood in the shadow of a tree, looking out
southwards and westwards, with his head posed as if he was
listening. Then he returned to the brink of the dell and looked
down at the others laughing and talking.
‘What is the matter, Strider?’ Merry called up. ‘What are
you looking for? Do you miss the East Wind?’
‘No indeed,’ he answered. ‘But I miss something. I have
been in the country of Hollin in many seasons. No folk dwell
here now, but many other creatures live here at all times,
especially birds. Yet now all things but you are silent. I can
feel it. There is no sound for miles about us, and your voices
seem to make the ground echo. I do not understand it.’
Gandalf looked up with sudden interest. ‘But what do you
guess is the reason?’ he asked. ‘Is there more in it than sur-
prise at seeing four hobbits, not to mention the rest of us,
where people are so seldom seen or heard?’
‘I hope that is it,’ answered Aragorn. ‘But I have a sense of
watchfulness, and of fear, that I have never had here before.’
‘Then we must be more careful,’ said Gandalf. ‘If you
bring a Ranger with you, it is well to pay attention to him,
especially if the Ranger is Aragorn. We must stop talking
aloud, rest quietly, and set the watch.’
It was Sam’s turn that day to take the first watch, but
Aragorn joined him. The others fell asleep. Then the silence
grew until even Sam felt it. The breathing of the sleepers
could be plainly heard. The swish of the pony’s tail and the
occasional movements of his feet became loud noises. Sam
could hear his own joints creaking, if he stirred. Dead silence
was around him, and over all hung a clear blue sky, as the
Sun rode up from the East. Away in the South a dark patch
appeared, and grew, and drove north like flying smoke in the
wind.
‘What’s that, Strider? It don’t look like a cloud,’ said Sam
in a whisper to Aragorn. He made no answer, he was gazing
intently at the sky; but before long Sam could see for himself
the ring goes south 371
what was approaching. Flocks of birds, flying at great speed,
were wheeling and circling, and traversing all the land as if
they were searching for something; and they were steadily
drawing nearer.
‘Lie flat and still!’ hissed Aragorn, pulling Sam down into
the shade of a holly-bush; for a whole regiment of birds had
broken away suddenly from the main host, and came, flying
low, straight towards the ridge. Sam thought they were a kind
of crow of large size. As they passed overhead, in so dense a
throng that their shadow followed them darkly over the
ground below, one harsh croak was heard.
Not until they had dwindled into the distance, north and
west, and the sky was again clear would Aragorn rise. Then
he sprang up and went and wakened Gandalf.
‘Regiments of black crows are flying over all the land
between the Mountains and the Greyflood,’ he said, ‘and
they have passed over Hollin. They are not natives here; they
are crebain out of Fangorn and Dunland. I do not know what
they are about: possibly there is some trouble away south
from which they are fleeing; but I think they are spying out
the land. I have also glimpsed many hawks flying high up in
the sky. I think we ought to move again this evening. Hollin
is no longer wholesome for us: it is being watched.’
‘And in that case so is the Redhorn Gate,’ said Gandalf;
‘and how we can get over that without being seen, I cannot
imagine. But we will think of that when we must. As for
moving as soon as it is dark, I am afraid that you are right.’
‘Luckily our fire made little smoke, and had burned low
before the crebain came,’ said Aragorn. ‘It must be put out
and not lit again.’
‘Well if that isn’t a plague and a nuisance!’ said Pippin.
The news: no fire, and a move again by night, had been
broken to him, as soon as he woke in the late afternoon. ‘All
because of a pack of crows! I had looked forward to a real
good meal tonight: something hot.’
‘Well, you can go on looking forward,’ said Gandalf.
372 the fellowship of the ring
‘There may be many unexpected feasts ahead for you. For
myself I should like a pipe to smoke in comfort, and warmer
feet. However, we are certain of one thing at any rate: it will
get warmer as we get south.’
‘Too warm, I shouldn’t wonder,’ muttered Sam to Frodo.
‘But I’m beginning to think it’s time we got a sight of that
Fiery Mountain, and saw the end of the Road, so to speak. I
thought at first that this here Redhorn, or whatever its name
is, might be it, till Gimli spoke his piece. A fair jaw-cracker
dwarf-language must be!’ Maps conveyed nothing to Sam’s
mind, and all distances in these strange lands seemed so vast
that he was quite out of his reckoning.
All that day the Company remained in hiding. The dark
birds passed over now and again; but as the westering Sun
grew red they disappeared southwards. At dusk the Company
set out, and turning now half east they steered their course
towards Caradhras, which far away still glowed faintly red in
the last light of the vanished Sun. One by one white stars
sprang forth as the sky faded.
Guided by Aragorn they struck a good path. It looked to
Frodo like the remains of an ancient road, that had once been
broad and well planned, from Hollin to the mountain-pass.
The Moon, now at the full, rose over the mountains, and cast
a pale light in which the shadows of stones were black. Many
of them looked to have been worked by hands, though now
they lay tumbled and ruinous in a bleak, barren land.
It was the cold chill hour before the first stir of dawn, and
the moon was low. Frodo looked up at the sky. Suddenly
he saw or felt a shadow pass over the high stars, as if for a
moment they faded and then flashed out again. He shivered.
‘Did you see anything pass over?’ he whispered to Gandalf,
who was just ahead.
‘No, but I felt it, whatever it was,’ he answered. ‘It may be
nothing, only a wisp of thin cloud.’
‘It was moving fast then,’ muttered Aragorn, ‘and not with
the wind.’
***
the ring goes south 373
Nothing further happened that night. The next morning
dawned even brighter than before. But the air was chill again;
already the wind was turning back towards the east. For two
more nights they marched on, climbing steadily but ever
more slowly as their road wound up into the hills, and the
mountains towered up, nearer and nearer. On the third morn-
ing Caradhras rose before them, a mighty peak, tipped with
snow like silver, but with sheer naked sides, dull red as if
stained with blood.
There was a black look in the sky, and the sun was wan.
The wind had gone now round to the north-east. Gandalf
snuffed the air and looked back.
‘Winter deepens behind us,’ he said quietly to Aragorn.
‘The heights away north are whiter than they were; snow is
lying far down their shoulders. Tonight we shall be on our
way high up towards the Redhorn Gate. We may well be
seen by watchers on that narrow path, and waylaid by some
evil; but the weather may prove a more deadly enemy than
any. What do you think of your course now, Aragorn?’
Frodo overheard these words, and understood that
Gandalf and Aragorn were continuing some debate that had
begun long before. He listened anxiously.
‘I think no good of our course from beginning to end,
as you know well, Gandalf,’ answered Aragorn. ‘And perils
known and unknown will grow as we go on. But we must go
on; and it is no good our delaying the passage of the moun-
tains. Further south there are no passes, till one comes to the
Gap of Rohan. I do not trust that way since your news of
Saruman. Who knows which side now the marshals of the
Horse-lords serve?’
‘Who knows indeed!’ said Gandalf. ‘But there is another
way, and not by the pass of Caradhras: the dark and secret
way that we have spoken of.’
‘But let us not speak of it again! Not yet. Say nothing to
the others, I beg, not until it is plain that there is no other
way.’
‘We must decide before we go further,’ answered Gandalf.
374 the fellowship of the ring
‘Then let us weigh the matter in our minds, while the
others rest and sleep,’ said Aragorn.
In the late afternoon, while the others were finishing their
breakfast, Gandalf and Aragorn went aside together and
stood looking at Caradhras. Its sides were now dark and
sullen, and its head was in grey cloud. Frodo watched them,
wondering which way the debate would go. When they
returned to the Company Gandalf spoke, and then he knew
that it had been decided to face the weather and the high
pass. He was relieved. He could not guess what was the other
dark and secret way, but the very mention of it had seemed
to fill Aragorn with dismay, and Frodo was glad that it had
been abandoned.
‘From signs that we have seen lately,’ said Gandalf, ‘I fear
that the Redhorn Gate may be watched; and also I have
doubts of the weather that is coming up behind. Snow may
come. We must go with all the speed that we can. Even so it
will take us more than two marches before we reach the top
of the pass. Dark will come early this evening. We must leave
as soon as you can get ready.’
‘I will add a word of advice, if I may,’ said Boromir. ‘I was
born under the shadow of the White Mountains and know
something of journeys in the high places. We shall meet bitter
cold, if no worse, before we come down on the other side. It
will not help us to keep so secret that we are frozen to death.
When we leave here, where there are still a few trees and
bushes, each of us should carry a faggot of wood, as large as
he can bear.’
‘And Bill could take a bit more, couldn’t you, lad?’ said
Sam. The pony looked at him mournfully.
‘Very well,’ said Gandalf. ‘But we must not use the wood
– not unless it is a choice between fire and death.’
The Company set out again, with good speed at first; but
soon their way became steep and difficult. The twisting
and climbing road had in many places almost disappeared,
the ring goes south 375
and was blocked with many fallen stones. The night grew
deadly dark under great clouds. A bitter wind swirled among
the rocks. By midnight they had climbed to the knees of the
great mountains. The narrow path now wound under a sheer
wall of cliffs to the left, above which the grim flanks of
Caradhras towered up invisible in the gloom; on the right
was a gulf of darkness where the land fell suddenly into a
deep ravine.
Laboriously they climbed a sharp slope and halted for a
moment at the top. Frodo felt a soft touch on his face. He
put out his arm and saw the dim white flakes of snow settling
on his sleeve.
They went on. But before long the snow was falling fast,
filling all the air, and swirling into Frodo’s eyes. The dark
bent shapes of Gandalf and Aragorn only a pace or two ahead
could hardly be seen.
‘I don’t like this at all,’ panted Sam just behind. ‘Snow’s
all right on a fine morning, but I like to be in bed while it’s
falling. I wish this lot would go off to Hobbiton! Folk might
welcome it there.’ Except on the high moors of the North-
farthing a heavy fall was rare in the Shire, and was regarded
as a pleasant event and a chance for fun. No living hobbit
(save Bilbo) could remember the Fell Winter of 1311, when
white wolves invaded the Shire over the frozen Brandywine.
Gandalf halted. Snow was thick on his hood and shoulders;
it was already ankle-deep about his boots.
‘This is what I feared,’ he said. ‘What do you say now,
Aragorn?’
‘That I feared it too,’ Aragorn answered, ‘but less than
other things. I knew the risk of snow, though it seldom falls
heavily so far south, save high up in the mountains. But we
are not high yet; we are still far down, where the paths are
usually open all the winter.’
‘I wonder if this is a contrivance of the Enemy,’ said
Boromir. ‘They say in my land that he can govern the storms
in the Mountains of Shadow that stand upon the borders of
Mordor. He has strange powers and many allies.’
376 the fellowship of the ring
‘His arm has grown long indeed,’ said Gimli, ‘if he can
draw snow down from the North to trouble us here three
hundred leagues away.’
‘His arm has grown long,’ said Gandalf.
While they were halted, the wind died down, and the
snow slackened until it almost ceased. They tramped on
again. But they had not gone more than a furlong when
the storm returned with fresh fury. The wind whistled and
the snow became a blinding blizzard. Soon even Boromir
found it hard to keep going. The hobbits, bent nearly double,
toiled along behind the taller folk, but it was plain that they
could not go much further, if the snow continued. Frodo’s
feet felt like lead. Pippin was dragging behind. Even Gimli,
as stout as any dwarf could be, was grumbling as he
trudged.
The Company halted suddenly, as if they had come to an
agreement without any words being spoken. They heard eerie
noises in the darkness round them. It may have been only a
trick of the wind in the cracks and gullies of the rocky wall,
but the sounds were those of shrill cries, and wild howls of
laughter. Stones began to fall from the mountain-side, whist-
ling over their heads, or crashing on the path beside them.
Every now and again they heard a dull rumble, as a great
boulder rolled down from hidden heights above.
‘We cannot go further tonight,’ said Boromir. ‘Let those
call it the wind who will; there are fell voices on the air; and
these stones are aimed at us.’
‘I do call it the wind,’ said Aragorn. ‘But that does not
make what you say untrue. There are many evil and
unfriendly things in the world that have little love for those
that go on two legs, and yet are not in league with Sauron,
but have purposes of their own. Some have been in this world
longer than he.’
‘Caradhras was called the Cruel, and had an ill name,’ said
Gimli, ‘long years ago, when rumour of Sauron had not been
heard in these lands.’
the ring goes south 377
‘It matters little who is the enemy, if we cannot beat off his
attack,’ said Gandalf.
‘But what can we do?’ cried Pippin miserably. He was
leaning on Merry and Frodo, and he was shivering.
‘Either stop where we are, or go back,’ said Gandalf. ‘It is
no good going on. Only a little higher, if I remember rightly,
this path leaves the cliff and runs into a wide shallow trough
at the bottom of a long hard slope. We should have no shelter
there from snow, or stones – or anything else.’
‘And it is no good going back while the storm holds,’ said
Aragorn. ‘We have passed no place on the way up that offered
more shelter than this cliff-wall we are under now.’
‘Shelter!’ muttered Sam. ‘If this is shelter, then one wall
and no roof make a house.’
The Company now gathered together as close to the cliff
as they could. It faced southwards, and near the bottom it
leaned out a little, so that they hoped it would give them
some protection from the northerly wind and from the falling
stones. But eddying blasts swirled round them from every
side, and the snow flowed down in ever denser clouds.
They huddled together with their backs to the wall. Bill the
pony stood patiently but dejectedly in front of the hobbits,
and screened them a little; but before long the drifting snow
was above his hocks, and it went on mounting. If they had
had no larger companions the hobbits would soon have been
entirely buried.
A great sleepiness came over Frodo; he felt himself sinking
fast into a warm and hazy dream. He thought a fire was
heating his toes, and out of the shadows on the other side of
the hearth he heard Bilbo’s voice speaking. I don’t think much
of your diary, he said. Snowstorms on January the twelfth: there
was no need to come back to report that!
But I wanted rest and sleep, Bilbo, Frodo answered with an
effort, when he felt himself shaken, and he came back pain-
fully to wakefulness. Boromir had lifted him off the ground
out of a nest of snow.
378 the fellowship of the ring
‘This will be the death of the halflings, Gandalf,’ said
Boromir. ‘It is useless to sit here until the snow goes over our
heads. We must do something to save ourselves.’
‘Give them this,’ said Gandalf, searching in his pack and
drawing out a leathern flask. ‘Just a mouthful each – for all
of us. It is very precious. It is miruvor, the cordial of Imladris.
Elrond gave it to me at our parting. Pass it round!’
As soon as Frodo had swallowed a little of the warm and
fragrant liquor he felt a new strength of heart, and the
heavy drowsiness left his limbs. The others also revived and
found fresh hope and vigour. But the snow did not relent. It
whirled about them thicker than ever, and the wind blew
louder.
‘What do you say to fire?’ asked Boromir suddenly. ‘The
choice seems near now between fire and death, Gandalf.
Doubtless we shall be hidden from all unfriendly eyes when
the snow has covered us, but that will not help us.’
‘You may make a fire, if you can,’ answered Gandalf. ‘If
there are any watchers that can endure this storm, then they
can see us, fire or no.’
But though they had brought wood and kindlings by the
advice of Boromir, it passed the skill of Elf or even Dwarf to
strike a flame that would hold amid the swirling wind or catch
in the wet fuel. At last reluctantly Gandalf himself took a
hand. Picking up a faggot he held it aloft for a moment, and
then with a word of command, naur an edraith ammen! he
thrust the end of his staff into the midst of it. At once a great
spout of green and blue flame sprang out, and the wood
flared and sputtered.
‘If there are any to see, then I at least am revealed to them,’
he said. ‘I have written Gandalf is here in signs that all can
read from Rivendell to the mouths of Anduin.’
But the Company cared no longer for watchers or un-
friendly eyes. Their hearts were rejoiced to see the light of
the fire. The wood burned merrily; and though all round it
the snow hissed, and pools of slush crept under their feet,
they warmed their hands gladly at the blaze. There they
the ring goes south 379
stood, stooping in a circle round the little dancing and blow-
ing flames. A red light was on their tired and anxious faces;
behind them the night was like a black wall.
But the wood was burning fast, and the snow still fell.
The fire burned low, and the last faggot was thrown on.
‘The night is getting old,’ said Aragorn. ‘The dawn is not
far off.’
‘If any dawn can pierce these clouds,’ said Gimli.
Boromir stepped out of the circle and stared up into the
blackness. ‘The snow is growing less,’ he said, ‘and the wind
is quieter.’
Frodo gazed wearily at the flakes still falling out of the dark
to be revealed white for a moment in the light of the dying
fire; but for a long time he could see no sign of their slacken-
ing. Then suddenly, as sleep was beginning to creep over
him again, he was aware that the wind had indeed fallen, and
the flakes were becoming larger and fewer. Very slowly a dim
light began to grow. At last the snow stopped altogether.
As the light grew stronger it showed a silent shrouded
world. Below their refuge were white humps and domes and
shapeless deeps beneath which the path that they had trodden
was altogether lost; but the heights above were hidden in
great clouds still heavy with the threat of snow.
Gimli looked up and shook his head. ‘Caradhras has not
forgiven us,’ he said. ‘He has more snow yet to fling at us, if
we go on. The sooner we go back and down the better.’
To this all agreed, but their retreat was now difficult. It
might well prove impossible. Only a few paces from the ashes
of their fire the snow lay many feet deep, higher than the
heads of the hobbits; in places it had been scooped and piled
by the wind into great drifts against the cliff.
‘If Gandalf would go before us with a bright flame, he
might melt a path for you,’ said Legolas. The storm had
troubled him little, and he alone of the Company remained
still light of heart.
‘If Elves could fly over mountains, they might fetch the Sun
380 the fellowship of the ring
to save us,’ answered Gandalf. ‘But I must have something to
work on. I cannot burn snow.’
‘Well,’ said Boromir, ‘when heads are at a loss bodies must
serve, as we say in my country. The strongest of us must
seek a way. See! Though all is now snow-clad, our path, as
we came up, turned about that shoulder of rock down yonder.
It was there that the snow first began to burden us. If we
could reach that point, maybe it would prove easier beyond.
It is no more than a furlong off, I guess.’
‘Then let us force a path thither, you and I!’ said Aragorn.
Aragorn was the tallest of the Company, but Boromir, little
less in height, was broader and heavier in build. He led the
way, and Aragorn followed him. Slowly they moved off, and
were soon toiling heavily. In places the snow was breast-high,
and often Boromir seemed to be swimming or burrowing
with his great arms rather than walking.
Legolas watched them for a while with a smile upon his
lips, and then he turned to the others. ‘The strongest must
seek a way, say you? But I say: let a ploughman plough, but
choose an otter for swimming, and for running light over
grass and leaf, or over snow – an Elf.’
With that he sprang forth nimbly, and then Frodo noticed
as if for the first time, though he had long known it, that the
Elf had no boots, but wore only light shoes, as he always did,
and his feet made little imprint in the snow.
‘Farewell!’ he said to Gandalf. ‘I go to find the Sun!’ Then
swift as a runner over firm sand he shot away, and quickly
overtaking the toiling men, with a wave of his hand he passed
them, and sped into the distance, and vanished round the
rocky turn.
The others waited huddled together, watching until
Boromir and Aragorn dwindled into black specks in the
whiteness. At length they too passed from sight. The time
dragged on. The clouds lowered, and now a few flakes of
snow came curling down again.
An hour, maybe, went by, though it seemed far longer,
the ring goes south 381
and then at last they saw Legolas coming back. At the same
time Boromir and Aragorn reappeared round the bend far
behind him and came labouring up the slope.
‘Well,’ cried Legolas as he ran up, ‘I have not brought the
Sun. She is walking in the blue fields of the South, and a little
wreath of snow on this Redhorn hillock troubles her not at
all. But I have brought back a gleam of good hope for those
who are doomed to go on feet. There is the greatest wind-drift
of all just beyond the turn, and there our Strong Men were
almost buried. They despaired, until I returned and told them
that the drift was little wider than a wall. And on the other
side the snow suddenly grows less, while further down it is
no more than a white coverlet to cool a hobbit’s toes.’
‘Ah, it is as I said,’ growled Gimli. ‘It was no ordinary
storm. It is the ill will of Caradhras. He does not love Elves
and Dwarves, and that drift was laid to cut off our escape.’
‘But happily your Caradhras has forgotten that you have
Men with you,’ said Boromir, who came up at that moment.
‘And doughty Men too, if I may say it; though lesser men
with spades might have served you better. Still, we have
thrust a lane through the drift; and for that all here may be
grateful who cannot run as light as Elves.’
‘But how are we to get down there, even if you have cut
through the drift?’ said Pippin, voicing the thought of all the
hobbits.
‘Have hope!’ said Boromir. ‘I am weary, but I still have
some strength left, and Aragorn too. We will bear the little
folk. The others no doubt will make shift to tread the path
behind us. Come, Master Peregrin! I will begin with you.’
He lifted up the hobbit. ‘Cling to my back! I shall need my
arms,’ he said and strode forward. Aragorn with Merry came
behind. Pippin marvelled at his strength, seeing the passage
that he had already forced with no other tool than his great
limbs. Even now, burdened as he was, he was widening the
track for those who followed, thrusting the snow aside as
he went.
They came at length to the great drift. It was flung across
382 the fellowship of the ring
the mountain-path like a sheer and sudden wall, and its crest,
sharp as if shaped with knives, reared up more than twice the
height of Boromir; but through the middle a passage had
been beaten, rising and falling like a bridge. On the far side
Merry and Pippin were set down, and there they waited with
Legolas for the rest of the Company to arrive.
After a while Boromir returned carrying Sam. Behind in
the narrow but now well-trodden track came Gandalf, leading
Bill with Gimli perched among the baggage. Last came
Aragorn carrying Frodo. They passed through the lane; but
hardly had Frodo touched the ground when with a deep
rumble there rolled down a fall of stones and slithering snow.
The spray of it half blinded the Company as they crouched
against the cliff, and when the air cleared again they saw that
the path was blocked behind them.
‘Enough, enough!’ cried Gimli. ‘We are departing as quickly
as we may!’ And indeed with that last stroke the malice of the
mountain seemed to be expended, as if Caradhras was satisfied
that the invaders had been beaten off and would not dare to
return. The threat of snow lifted; the clouds began to break
and the light grew broader.
As Legolas had reported, they found that the snow became
steadily more shallow as they went down, so that even the
hobbits could trudge along. Soon they all stood once more
on the flat shelf at the head of the steep slope where they had
felt the first flakes of snow the night before.
The morning was now far advanced. From the high place
they looked back westwards over the lower lands. Far away
in the tumble of country that lay at the foot of the mountain
was the dell from which they had started to climb the pass.
Frodo’s legs ached. He was chilled to the bone and hungry;
and his head was dizzy as he thought of the long and painful
march downhill. Black specks swam before his eyes. He
rubbed them, but the black specks remained. In the distance
below him, but still high above the lower foothills, dark dots
were circling in the air.
‘The birds again!’ said Aragorn, pointing down.
the ring goes south 383
‘That cannot be helped now,’ said Gandalf. ‘Whether they
are good or evil, or have nothing to do with us at all, we must
go down at once. Not even on the knees of Caradhras will
we wait for another night-fall!’
A cold wind flowed down behind them, as they turned
their backs on the Redhorn Gate, and stumbled wearily down
the slope. Caradhras had defeated them.
Chapter 4
A JOURNEY IN THE DARK
It was evening, and the grey light was again waning fast,
when they halted for the night. They were very weary. The
mountains were veiled in deepening dusk, and the wind was
cold. Gandalf spared them one more mouthful each of the
miruvor of Rivendell. When they had eaten some food he
called a council.
‘We cannot, of course, go on again tonight,’ he said. ‘The
attack on the Redhorn Gate has tired us out, and we must
rest here for a while.’
‘And then where are we to go?’ asked Frodo.
‘We still have our journey and our errand before us,’
answered Gandalf. ‘We have no choice but to go on, or to
return to Rivendell.’
Pippin’s face brightened visibly at the mere mention of
return to Rivendell; Merry and Sam looked up hopefully. But
Aragorn and Boromir made no sign. Frodo looked troubled.
‘I wish I was back there,’ he said. ‘But how can I return
without shame – unless there is indeed no other way, and we
are already defeated?’
‘You are right, Frodo,’ said Gandalf: ‘to go back is to admit
defeat, and face worse defeat to come. If we go back now,
then the Ring must remain there: we shall not be able to set
out again. Then sooner or later Rivendell will be besieged,
and after a brief and bitter time it will be destroyed. The
Ringwraiths are deadly enemies, but they are only shadows
yet of the power and terror they would possess if the Ruling
Ring was on their master’s hand again.’
‘Then we must go on, if there is a way,’ said Frodo with a
sigh. Sam sank back into gloom.
‘There is a way that we may attempt,’ said Gandalf. ‘I
a journey in the dark 385
thought from the beginning, when first I considered this jour-
ney, that we should try it. But it is not a pleasant way, and I
have not spoken of it to the Company before. Aragorn was
against it, until the pass over the mountains had at least been
tried.’
‘If it is a worse road than the Redhorn Gate, then it must
be evil indeed,’ said Merry. ‘But you had better tell us about
it, and let us know the worst at once.’
‘The road that I speak of leads to the Mines of Moria,’ said
Gandalf. Only Gimli lifted up his head; a smouldering fire
was in his eyes. On all the others a dread fell at the mention
of that name. Even to the hobbits it was a legend of vague
fear.
‘The road may lead to Moria, but how can we hope that it
will lead through Moria?’ said Aragorn darkly.
‘It is a name of ill omen,’ said Boromir. ‘Nor do I see the
need to go there. If we cannot cross the mountains, let us
journey southwards, until we come to the Gap of Rohan,
where men are friendly to my people, taking the road that I
followed on my way hither. Or we might pass by and cross
the Isen into Langstrand and Lebennin, and so come to
Gondor from the regions nigh to the sea.’
‘Things have changed since you came north, Boromir,’
answered Gandalf. ‘Did you not hear what I told you of
Saruman? With him I may have business of my own ere all
is over. But the Ring must not come near Isengard, if that
can by any means be prevented. The Gap of Rohan is closed
to us while we go with the Bearer.
‘As for the longer road: we cannot afford the time. We
might spend a year in such a journey, and we should pass
through many lands that are empty and harbourless. Yet they
would not be safe. The watchful eyes both of Saruman and
of the Enemy are on them. When you came north, Boromir,
you were in the Enemy’s eyes only one stray wanderer from
the South and a matter of small concern to him: his mind
was busy with the pursuit of the Ring. But you return now
as a member of the Ring’s Company, and you are in peril as
386 the fellowship of the ring
long as you remain with us. The danger will increase with
every league that we go south under the naked sky.
‘Since our open attempt on the mountain-pass our plight
has become more desperate, I fear. I see now little hope,
if we do not soon vanish from sight for a while, and cover
our trail. Therefore I advise that we should go neither over
the mountains, nor round them, but under them. That is
a road at any rate that the Enemy will least expect us to
take.’
‘We do not know what he expects,’ said Boromir. ‘He may
watch all roads, likely and unlikely. In that case to enter Moria
would be to walk into a trap, hardly better than knocking at
the gates of the Dark Tower itself. The name of Moria is
black.’
‘You speak of what you do not know, when you liken
Moria to the stronghold of Sauron,’ answered Gandalf. ‘I
alone of you have ever been in the dungeons of the Dark
Lord, and only in his older and lesser dwelling in Dol Guldur.
Those who pass the gates of Barad-du
ˆ
r do not return. But I
would not lead you into Moria if there were no hope of
coming out again. If there are Orcs there, it may prove ill for
us, that is true. But most of the Orcs of the Misty Mountains
were scattered or destroyed in the Battle of Five Armies. The
Eagles report that Orcs are gathering again from afar; but
there is a hope that Moria is still free.
‘There is even a chance that Dwarves are there, and that
in some deep hall of his fathers, Balin son of Fundin may be
found. However it may prove, one must tread the path that
need chooses!’
‘I will tread the path with you, Gandalf !’ said Gimli. ‘I will
go and look on the halls of Durin, whatever may wait there
– if you can find the doors that are shut.’
‘Good, Gimli!’ said Gandalf. ‘You encourage me. We will
seek the hidden doors together. And we will come through.
In the ruins of the Dwarves, a dwarf ’s head will be less easy
to bewilder than Elves or Men or Hobbits. Yet it will not be
the first time that I have been to Moria. I sought there long
a journey in the dark 387
for Thra
´
in son of Thro
´
r after he was lost. I passed through,
and I came out again alive!’
‘I too once passed the Dimrill Gate,’ said Aragorn quietly;
‘but though I also came out again, the memory is very evil. I
do not wish to enter Moria a second time.’
‘And I don’t wish to enter it even once,’ said Pippin.
‘Nor me,’ muttered Sam.
‘Of course not!’ said Gandalf. ‘Who would? But the ques-
tion is: who will follow me, if I lead you there?’
‘I will,’ said Gimli eagerly.
‘I will,’ said Aragorn heavily. ‘You followed my lead almost
to disaster in the snow, and have said no word of blame. I
will follow your lead now – if this last warning does not move
you. It is not of the Ring, nor of us others that I am thinking
now, but of you, Gandalf. And I say to you: if you pass the
doors of Moria, beware!’
‘I will not go,’ said Boromir; ‘not unless the vote of
the whole Company is against me. What do Legolas and the
little folk say? The Ring-bearer’s voice surely should be
heard?’
‘I do not wish to go to Moria,’ said Legolas.
The hobbits said nothing. Sam looked at Frodo. At last
Frodo spoke. ‘I do not wish to go,’ he said; ‘but neither do I
wish to refuse the advice of Gandalf. I beg that there should
be no vote, until we have slept on it. Gandalf will get votes
easier in the light of the morning than in this cold gloom.
How the wind howls!’
At these words all fell into silent thought. They heard the
wind hissing among the rocks and trees, and there was a
howling and wailing round them in the empty spaces of the
night.
Suddenly Aragorn leapt to his feet. ‘How the wind howls!’
he cried. ‘It is howling with wolf-voices. The Wargs have
come west of the Mountains!’
‘Need we wait until morning then?’ said Gandalf. ‘It is as
I said. The hunt is up! Even if we live to see the dawn, who
388 the fellowship of the ring
now will wish to journey south by night with the wild wolves
on his trail?’
‘How far is Moria?’ asked Boromir.
‘There was a door south-west of Caradhras, some fifteen
miles as the crow flies, and maybe twenty as the wolf runs,’
answered Gandalf grimly.
‘Then let us start as soon as it is light tomorrow, if we can,’
said Boromir. ‘The wolf that one hears is worse than the orc
that one fears.’
‘True!’ said Aragorn, loosening his sword in its sheath.
‘But where the warg howls, there also the orc prowls.’
‘I wish I had taken Elrond’s advice,’ muttered Pippin to
Sam. ‘I am no good after all. There is not enough of the
breed of Bandobras the Bullroarer in me: these howls freeze
my blood. I don’t ever remember feeling so wretched.’
‘My heart’s right down in my toes, Mr. Pippin,’ said Sam.
‘But we aren’t etten yet, and there are some stout folk here
with us. Whatever may be in store for old Gandalf, I’ll wager
it isn’t a wolf ’s belly.’
For their defence in the night the Company climbed to the
top of the small hill under which they had been sheltering. It
was crowned with a knot of old and twisted trees, about
which lay a broken circle of boulder-stones. In the midst of
this they lit a fire, for there was no hope that darkness and
silence would keep their trail from discovery by the hunting
packs.
Round the fire they sat, and those that were not on guard
dozed uneasily. Poor Bill the pony trembled and sweated
where he stood. The howling of the wolves was now all round
them, sometimes nearer and sometimes further off. In the
dead of night many shining eyes were seen peering over the
brow of the hill. Some advanced almost to the ring of stones.
At a gap in the circle a great dark wolf-shape could be
seen halted, gazing at them. A shuddering howl broke from
him, as if he were a captain summoning his pack to the
assault.
a journey in the dark 389
Gandalf stood up and strode forward, holding his staff
aloft. ‘Listen, Hound of Sauron!’ he cried. ‘Gandalf is here.
Fly, if you value your foul skin! I will shrivel you from tail to
snout, if you come within this ring.’
The wolf snarled and sprang towards them with a great
leap. At that moment there was a sharp twang. Legolas had
loosed his bow. There was a hideous yell, and the leaping
shape thudded to the ground; the Elvish arrow had pierced
its throat. The watching eyes were suddenly extinguished.
Gandalf and Aragorn strode forward, but the hill was
deserted; the hunting packs had fled. All about them the
darkness grew silent, and no cry came on the sighing wind.
The night was old, and westward the waning moon was
setting, gleaming fitfully through the breaking clouds. Sud-
denly Frodo started from sleep. Without warning a storm of
howls broke out fierce and wild all about the camp. A great
host of Wargs had gathered silently and was now attacking
them from every side at once.
‘Fling fuel on the fire!’ cried Gandalf to the hobbits. ‘Draw
your blades, and stand back to back!’
In the leaping light, as the fresh wood blazed up, Frodo
saw many grey shapes spring over the ring of stones. More
and more followed. Through the throat of one huge leader
Aragorn passed his sword with a thrust; with a great sweep
Boromir hewed the head off another. Beside them Gimli
stood with his stout legs apart, wielding his dwarf-axe. The
bow of Legolas was singing.
In the wavering firelight Gandalf seemed suddenly to grow:
he rose up, a great menacing shape like the monument of
some ancient king of stone set upon a hill. Stooping like a
cloud, he lifted a burning branch and strode to meet the
wolves. They gave back before him. High in the air he tossed
the blazing brand. It flared with a sudden white radiance like
lightning; and his voice rolled like thunder.
‘Naur an edraith ammen! Naur dan i ngaurhoth!’ he cried.
There was a roar and a crackle, and the tree above him
390 the fellowship of the ring
burst into a leaf and bloom of blinding flame. The fire leapt
from tree-top to tree-top. The whole hill was crowned with
dazzling light. The swords and knives of the defenders shone
and flickered. The last arrow of Legolas kindled in the air
as it flew, and plunged burning into the heart of a great
wolf-chieftain. All the others fled.
Slowly the fire died till nothing was left but falling ash and
sparks; a bitter smoke curled above the burned tree-stumps,
and blew darkly from the hill, as the first light of dawn came
dimly in the sky. Their enemies were routed and did not
return.
‘What did I tell you, Mr. Pippin?’ said Sam, sheathing his
sword. ‘Wolves won’t get him. That was an eye-opener, and
no mistake! Nearly singed the hair off my head!’
When the full light of the morning came no signs of
the wolves were to be found, and they looked in vain for the
bodies of the dead. No trace of the fight remained but the
charred trees and the arrows of Legolas lying on the hill-top.
All were undamaged save one of which only the point was
left.
‘It is as I feared,’ said Gandalf. ‘These were no ordinary
wolves hunting for food in the wilderness. Let us eat quickly
and go!’
That day the weather changed again, almost as if it was
at the command of some power that had no longer any use
for snow, since they had retreated from the pass, a power
that wished now to have a clear light in which things that
moved in the wild could be seen from far away. The wind
had been turning through north to north-west during the
night, and now it failed. The clouds vanished southwards
and the sky was opened, high and blue. As they stood upon
the hillside, ready to depart, a pale sunlight gleamed over the
mountain-tops.
‘We must reach the doors before sunset,’ said Gandalf, ‘or
I fear we shall not reach them at all. It is not far, but our path
may be winding, for here Aragorn cannot guide us; he has
a journey in the dark 391
seldom walked in this country, and only once have I been
under the west wall of Moria, and that was long ago.
‘There it lies,’ he said, pointing away south-eastwards to
where the mountains’ sides fell sheer into the shadows at their
feet. In the distance could be dimly seen a line of bare cliffs,
and in their midst, taller than the rest, one great grey wall.
‘When we left the pass I led you southwards, and not back
to our starting point, as some of you may have noticed. It is
well that I did so, for now we have several miles less to cross,
and haste is needed. Let us go!’
‘I do not know which to hope,’ said Boromir grimly: ‘that
Gandalf will find what he seeks, or that coming to the cliff
we shall find the gates lost for ever. All choices seem ill, and
to be caught between wolves and the wall the likeliest chance.
Lead on!’
Gimli now walked ahead by the wizard’s side, so eager was
he to come to Moria. Together they led the Company back
towards the mountains. The only road of old to Moria from
the west had lain along the course of a stream, the Sirannon,
that ran out from the feet of the cliffs near where the doors
had stood. But either Gandalf was astray, or else the land
had changed in recent years; for he did not strike the stream
where he looked to find it, only a few miles southwards from
their start.
The morning was passing towards noon, and still the Com-
pany wandered and scrambled in a barren country of red
stones. Nowhere could they see any gleam of water or hear
any sound of it. All was bleak and dry. Their hearts sank.
They saw no living thing, and not a bird was in the sky; but
what the night would bring, if it caught them in that lost land,
none of them cared to think.
Suddenly Gimli, who had pressed on ahead, called back to
them. He was standing on a knoll and pointing to the right.
Hurrying up they saw below them a deep and narrow chan-
nel. It was empty and silent, and hardly a trickle of water
flowed among the brown and red-stained stones of its bed;
392 the fellowship of the ring
but on the near side there was a path, much broken and
decayed, that wound its way among the ruined walls and
paving-stones of an ancient highroad.
‘Ah! Here it is at last!’ said Gandalf. ‘This is where the
stream ran: Sirannon, the Gate-stream, they used to call it.
But what has happened to the water, I cannot guess; it used
to be swift and noisy. Come! We must hurry on. We are late.’
The Company were footsore and tired; but they trudged
doggedly along the rough and winding track for many miles.
The sun turned from the noon and began to go west. After
a brief halt and a hasty meal they went on again. Before them
the mountains frowned, but their path lay in a deep trough
of land and they could see only the higher shoulders and the
far eastward peaks.
At length they came to a sharp bend. There the road,
which had been veering southwards between the brink of the
channel and a steep fall of the land to the left, turned and
went due east again. Rounding the corner they saw before
them a low cliff, some five fathoms high, with a broken and
jagged top. Over it a trickling water dripped, through a wide
cleft that seemed to have been carved out by a fall that had
once been strong and full.
‘Indeed things have changed!’ said Gandalf. ‘But there is
no mistaking the place. There is all that remains of the Stair
Falls. If I remember right, there was a flight of steps cut in
the rock at their side, but the main road wound away left and
climbed with several loops up to the level ground at the top.
There used to be a shallow valley beyond the falls right up
to the Walls of Moria, and the Sirannon flowed through it
with the road beside it. Let us go and see what things are like
now!’
They found the stone steps without difficulty, and Gimli
sprang swiftly up them, followed by Gandalf and Frodo.
When they reached the top they saw that they could go no
further that way, and the reason for the drying up of the
Gate-stream was revealed. Behind them the sinking Sun filled
a journey in the dark 393
the cool western sky with glimmering gold. Before them
stretched a dark still lake. Neither sky nor sunset was reflected
on its sullen surface. The Sirannon had been dammed and
had filled all the valley. Beyond the ominous water were
reared vast cliffs, their stern faces pallid in the fading light:
final and impassable. No sign of gate or entrance, not a fissure
or crack could Frodo see in the frowning stone.
‘There are the Walls of Moria,’ said Gandalf, pointing
across the water. ‘And there the Gate stood once upon a
time, the Elven Door at the end of the road from Hollin by
which we have come. But this way is blocked. None of the
Company, I guess, will wish to swim this gloomy water at the
end of the day. It has an unwholesome look.’
‘We must find a way round the northern edge,’ said Gimli.
‘The first thing for the Company to do is to climb up by the
main path and see where that will lead us. Even if there were
no lake, we could not get our baggage-pony up this stair.’
‘But in any case we cannot take the poor beast into the
Mines,’ said Gandalf. ‘The road under the mountains is a
dark road, and there are places narrow and steep which he
cannot tread, even if we can.’
‘Poor old Bill!’ said Frodo. ‘I had not thought of that. And
poor Sam! I wonder what he will say?’
‘I am sorry,’ said Gandalf. ‘Poor Bill has been a useful
companion, and it goes to my heart to turn him adrift now.
I would have travelled lighter and brought no animal, least of
all this one that Sam is fond of, if I had had my way. I feared
all along that we should be obliged to take this road.’
The day was drawing to its end, and cold stars were glinting
in the sky high above the sunset, when the Company, with
all the speed they could, climbed up the slopes and reached
the side of the lake. In breadth it looked to be no more than
two or three furlongs at the widest point. How far it stretched
away southward they could not see in the failing light; but its
northern end was no more than half a mile from where they
stood, and between the stony ridges that enclosed the valley
394 the fellowship of the ring
and the water’s edge there was a rim of open ground. They
hurried forward, for they had still a mile or two to go before
they could reach the point on the far shore that Gandalf was
making for; and then he had still to find the doors.
When they came to the northernmost corner of the lake
they found a narrow creek that barred their way. It was green
and stagnant, thrust out like a slimy arm towards the enclos-
ing hills. Gimli strode forward undeterred, and found that
the water was shallow, no more than ankle-deep at the edge.
Behind him they walked in file, threading their way with care,
for under the weedy pools were sliding and greasy stones,
and footing was treacherous. Frodo shuddered with disgust
at the touch of the dark unclean water on his feet.
As Sam, the last of the Company, led Bill up on to the dry
ground on the far side, there came a soft sound: a swish,
followed by a plop, as if a fish had disturbed the still surface
of the water. Turning quickly they saw ripples, black-edged
with shadow in the waning light: great rings were widening
outwards from a point far out in the lake. There was a bub-
bling noise, and then silence. The dusk deepened, and the
last gleams of the sunset were veiled in cloud.
Gandalf now pressed on at a great pace, and the others
followed as quickly as they could. They reached the strip of
dry land between the lake and the cliffs: it was narrow, often
hardly a dozen yards across, and encumbered with fallen rock
and stones; but they found a way, hugging the cliff, and
keeping as far from the dark water as they might. A mile
southwards along the shore they came upon holly trees.
Stumps and dead boughs were rotting in the shallows, the
remains it seemed of old thickets, or of a hedge that had once
lined the road across the drowned valley. But close under the
cliff there stood, still strong and living, two tall trees, larger
than any trees of holly that Frodo had ever seen or imagined.
Their great roots spread from the wall to the water. Under
the looming cliffs they had looked like mere bushes, when
seen far off from the top of the Stair; but now they towered
overhead, stiff, dark, and silent, throwing deep night-shadows
a journey in the dark 395
about their feet, standing like sentinel pillars at the end of the
road.
‘Well, here we are at last!’ said Gandalf. ‘Here the Elven-
way from Hollin ended. Holly was the token of the people of
that land, and they planted it here to mark the end of their
domain; for the West-door was made chiefly for their use in
their traffic with the Lords of Moria. Those were happier
days, when there was still close friendship at times between
folk of different race, even between Dwarves and Elves.’
‘It was not the fault of the Dwarves that the friendship
waned,’ said Gimli.
‘I have not heard that it was the fault of the Elves,’ said
Legolas.
‘I have heard both,’ said Gandalf; ‘and I will not give
judgement now. But I beg you two, Legolas and Gimli, at
least to be friends, and to help me. I need you both. The
doors are shut and hidden, and the sooner we find them the
better. Night is at hand!’
Turning to the others he said: ‘While I am searching, will
you each make ready to enter the Mines? For here I fear we
must say farewell to our good beast of burden. You must lay
aside much of the stuff that we brought against bitter weather:
you will not need it inside, nor, I hope, when we come
through and journey on down into the South. Instead each
of us must take a share of what the pony carried, especially
the food and the water-skins.’
‘But you can’t leave poor old Bill behind in this forsaken
place, Mr. Gandalf !’ cried Sam, angry and distressed. ‘I
won’t have it, and that’s flat. After he has come so far and
all!’
‘I am sorry, Sam,’ said the wizard. ‘But when the Door
opens I do not think you will be able to drag your Bill inside,
into the long dark of Moria. You will have to choose between
Bill and your master.’
‘He’d follow Mr. Frodo into a dragon’s den, if I led him,’
protested Sam. ‘It’d be nothing short of murder to turn him
loose with all these wolves about.’
396 the fellowship of the ring
‘It will be short of murder, I hope,’ said Gandalf. He laid
his hand on the pony’s head, and spoke in a low voice. ‘Go
with words of guard and guiding on you,’ he said. ‘You are
a wise beast, and have learned much in Rivendell. Make your
ways to places where you can find grass, and so come in time
to Elrond’s house, or wherever you wish to go.
‘There, Sam! He will have quite as much chance of escap-
ing wolves and getting home as we have.’
Sam stood sullenly by the pony and returned no answer.
Bill, seeming to understand well what was going on, nuzzled
up to him, putting his nose to Sam’s ear. Sam burst into
tears, and fumbled with the straps, unlading all the pony’s
packs and throwing them on the ground. The others sorted
out the goods, making a pile of all that could be left behind,
and dividing up the rest.
When this was done they turned to watch Gandalf. He
appeared to have done nothing. He was standing between
the two trees gazing at the blank wall of the cliff, as if he
would bore a hole into it with his eyes. Gimli was wandering
about, tapping the stone here and there with his axe. Legolas
was pressed against the rock, as if listening.
‘Well, here we are and all ready,’ said Merry; ‘but where
are the Doors? I can’t see any sign of them.’
‘Dwarf-doors are not made to be seen when shut,’ said
Gimli. ‘They are invisible, and their own makers cannot find
them or open them, if their secret is forgotten.’
‘But this Door was not made to be a secret known only to
Dwarves,’ said Gandalf, coming suddenly to life and turning
round. ‘Unless things are altogether changed, eyes that know
what to look for may discover the signs.’
He walked forward to the wall. Right between the shadow
of the trees there was a smooth space, and over this he passed
his hands to and fro, muttering words under his breath. Then
he stepped back.
‘Look!’ he said. ‘Can you see anything now?’
The Moon now shone upon the grey face of the rock; but
they could see nothing else for a while. Then slowly on the
a journey in the dark 397
surface, where the wizard’s hands had passed, faint lines
appeared, like slender veins of silver running in the stone. At
first they were no more than pale gossamer-threads, so fine
that they only twinkled fitfully where the Moon caught them,
but steadily they grew broader and clearer, until their design
could be guessed.
At the top, as high as Gandalf could reach, was an arch of
interlacing letters in an Elvish character. Below, though the
threads were in places blurred or broken, the outline could
be seen of an anvil and a hammer surmounted by a crown
with seven stars. Beneath these again were two trees, each
bearing crescent moons. More clearly than all else there shone
forth in the middle of the door a single star with many rays.
‘There are the emblems of Durin!’ cried Gimli.
‘And there is the Tree of the High Elves!’ said Legolas.
‘And the Star of the House of Fe
¨
anor,’ said Gandalf. ‘They
are wrought of ithildin that mirrors only starlight and moon-
light, and sleeps until it is touched by one who speaks words
now long forgotten in Middle-earth. It is long since I heard
them, and I thought deeply before I could recall them to my
mind.’
‘What does the writing say?’ asked Frodo, who was trying
to decipher the inscription on the arch. ‘I thought I knew the
elf-letters, but I cannot read these.’
‘The words are in the elven-tongue of the West of Middle-
earth in the Elder Days,’ answered Gandalf. ‘But they do not
say anything of importance to us. They say only: The Doors of
Durin, Lord of Moria. Speak, friend, and enter. And underneath
small and faint is written: I, Narvi, made them. Celebrimbor of
Hollin drew these signs.’
‘What does it mean by speak, friend, and enter?’ asked
Merry.
‘That is plain enough,’ said Gimli. ‘If you are a friend,
speak the password, and the doors will open, and you can
enter.’
‘Yes,’ said Gandalf, ‘these doors are probably governed by
words. Some dwarf-gates will open only at special times, or
398 the fellowship of the ring
a journey in the dark 399
for particular persons; and some have locks and keys that are
still needed when all necessary times and words are known.
These doors have no key. In the days of Durin they were not
secret. They usually stood open and doorwards sat here. But
if they were shut, any who knew the opening word could
speak it and pass in. At least so it is recorded, is it not, Gimli?’
‘It is,’ said the dwarf. ‘But what the word was is not
remembered. Narvi and his craft and all his kindred have
vanished from the earth.’
‘But do not you know the word, Gandalf ?’ asked Boromir
in surprise.
‘No!’ said the wizard.
The others looked dismayed; only Aragorn, who knew
Gandalf well, remained silent and unmoved.
‘Then what was the use of bringing us to this accursed
spot?’ cried Boromir, glancing back with a shudder at the
dark water. ‘You told us that you had once passed through
the Mines. How could that be, if you did not know how to
enter?’
‘The answer to your first question, Boromir,’ said the wiz-
ard, ‘is that I do not know the word – yet. But we shall soon
see. And,’ he added, with a glint in his eyes under their
bristling brows, ‘you may ask what is the use of my deeds
when they are proved useless. As for your other question: do
you doubt my tale? Or have you no wits left? I did not enter
this way. I came from the East.
‘If you wish to know, I will tell you that these doors open
outwards. From the inside you may thrust them open with
your hands. From the outside nothing will move them save
the spell of command. They cannot be forced inwards.’
‘What are you going to do then?’ asked Pippin, undaunted
by the wizard’s bristling brows.
‘Knock on the doors with your head, Peregrin Took,’ said
Gandalf. ‘But if that does not shatter them, and I am allowed
a little peace from foolish questions, I will seek for the opening
words.
‘I once knew every spell in all the tongues of Elves or Men
400 the fellowship of the ring
or Orcs, that was ever used for such a purpose. I can still
remember ten score of them without searching in my mind.
But only a few trials, I think, will be needed; and I shall not
have to call on Gimli for words of the secret dwarf-tongue
that they teach to none. The opening words were Elvish, like
the writing on the arch: that seems certain.’
He stepped up to the rock again, and lightly touched with
his staff the silver star in the middle beneath the sign of the
anvil.
Annon edhellen, edro hi ammen!
Fennas nogothrim, lasto beth lammen!
he said in a commanding voice. The silver lines faded, but
the blank grey stone did not stir.
Many times he repeated these words in different order, or
varied them. Then he tried other spells, one after another,
speaking now faster and louder, now soft and slow. Then
he spoke many single words of Elvish speech. Nothing hap-
pened. The cliff towered into the night, the countless stars
were kindled, the wind blew cold, and the doors stood fast.
Again Gandalf approached the wall, and lifting up his arms
he spoke in tones of command and rising wrath. Edro, edro!
he cried, and struck the rock with his staff. Open, open! he
shouted, and followed it with the same command in every
language that had ever been spoken in the West of Middle-
earth. Then he threw his staff on the ground, and sat down
in silence.
At that moment from far off the wind bore to their listening
ears the howling of wolves. Bill the pony started in fear, and
Sam sprang to his side and whispered softly to him.
‘Do not let him run away!’ said Boromir. ‘It seems that we
shall need him still, if the wolves do not find us. How I hate
this foul pool!’ He stooped and picking up a large stone he
cast it far into the dark water.
The stone vanished with a soft slap; but at the same instant
a journey in the dark 401
there was a swish and a bubble. Great rippling rings formed
on the surface out beyond where the stone had fallen, and
they moved slowly towards the foot of the cliff.
‘Why did you do that, Boromir?’ said Frodo. ‘I hate this
place, too, and I am afraid. I don’t know of what: not of
wolves, or the dark behind the doors, but of something else.
I am afraid of the pool. Don’t disturb it!’
‘I wish we could get away!’ said Merry.
‘Why doesn’t Gandalf do something quick?’ said Pippin.
Gandalf took no notice of them. He sat with his head
bowed, either in despair or in anxious thought. The mournful
howling of the wolves was heard again. The ripples on the
water grew and came closer; some were already lapping on
the shore.
With a suddenness that startled them all the wizard sprang
to his feet. He was laughing! ‘I have it!’ he cried. ‘Of course,
of course! Absurdly simple, like most riddles when you see
the answer.’
Picking up his staff he stood before the rock and said in a
clear voice: Mellon!
The star shone out briefly and faded again. Then silently
a great doorway was outlined, though not a crack or joint had
been visible before. Slowly it divided in the middle and swung
outwards inch by inch, until both doors lay back against the
wall. Through the opening a shadowy stair could be seen
climbing steeply up; but beyond the lower steps the darkness
was deeper than the night. The Company stared in wonder.
‘I was wrong after all,’ said Gandalf, ‘and Gimli too. Merry,
of all people, was on the right track. The opening word was
inscribed on the archway all the time! The translation should
have been: Say ‘‘Friend’’ and enter. I had only to speak the
Elvish word for friend and the doors opened. Quite simple.
Too simple for a learned lore-master in these suspicious days.
Those were happier times. Now let us go!’
He strode forward and set his foot on the lowest step.
But at that moment several things happened. Frodo felt
402 the fellowship of the ring
something seize him by the ankle, and he fell with a cry. Bill
the pony gave a wild neigh of fear, and turned tail and dashed
away along the lakeside into the darkness. Sam leaped after
him, and then hearing Frodo’s cry he ran back again, weeping
and cursing. The others swung round and saw the waters of
the lake seething, as if a host of snakes were swimming up
from the southern end.
Out from the water a long sinuous tentacle had crawled; it
was pale-green and luminous and wet. Its fingered end had
hold of Frodo’s foot, and was dragging him into the water.
Sam on his knees was now slashing at it with a knife.
The arm let go of Frodo, and Sam pulled him away, crying
out for help. Twenty other arms came rippling out. The dark
water boiled, and there was a hideous stench.
‘Into the gateway! Up the stairs! Quick!’ shouted Gandalf
leaping back. Rousing them from the horror that seemed to
have rooted all but Sam to the ground where they stood, he
drove them forward.
They were just in time. Sam and Frodo were only a few
steps up, and Gandalf had just begun to climb, when the
groping tentacles writhed across the narrow shore and fin-
gered the cliff-wall and the doors. One came wriggling over
the threshold, glistening in the starlight. Gandalf turned and
paused. If he was considering what word would close the
gate again from within, there was no need. Many coiling arms
seized the doors on either side, and with horrible strength,
swung them round. With a shattering echo they slammed,
and all light was lost. A noise of rending and crashing came
dully through the ponderous stone.
Sam, clinging to Frodo’s arm, collapsed on a step in the black
darkness. ‘Poor old Bill!’ he said in a choking voice. ‘Poor old
Bill! Wolves and snakes! But the snakes were too much for him.
I had to choose, Mr. Frodo. I had to come with you.’
They heard Gandalf go back down the steps and thrust his
staff against the doors. There was a quiver in the stone and
the stairs trembled, but the doors did not open.
***
a journey in the dark 403
‘Well, well!’ said the wizard. ‘The passage is blocked
behind us now, and there is only one way out – on the other
side of the mountains. I fear from the sounds that boulders
have been piled up, and the trees uprooted and thrown across
the gate. I am sorry; for the trees were beautiful, and had
stood so long.’
‘I felt that something horrible was near from the moment
that my foot first touched the water,’ said Frodo. ‘What was
the thing, or were there many of them?’
‘I do not know,’ answered Gandalf; ‘but the arms were all
guided by one purpose. Something has crept, or has been
driven out of dark waters under the mountains. There are
older and fouler things than Orcs in the deep places of the
world.’ He did not speak aloud his thought that whatever it
was that dwelt in the lake, it had seized on Frodo first among
all the Company.
Boromir muttered under his breath, but the echoing stone
magnified the sound to a hoarse whisper that all could hear:
‘In the deep places of the world! And thither we are going
against my wish. Who will lead us now in this deadly dark?’
‘I will,’ said Gandalf, ‘and Gimli shall walk with me. Follow
my staff !’
As the wizard passed on ahead up the great steps, he held
his staff aloft, and from its tip there came a faint radiance.
The wide stairway was sound and undamaged. Two hundred
steps they counted, broad and shallow; and at the top they
found an arched passage with a level floor leading on into the
dark.
‘Let us sit and rest and have something to eat, here on the
landing, since we can’t find a dining-room!’ said Frodo. He
had begun to shake off the terror of the clutching arm, and
suddenly he felt extremely hungry.
The proposal was welcomed by all; and they sat down on
the upper steps, dim figures in the gloom. After they had
eaten, Gandalf gave them each a third sip of the miruvor of
Rivendell.
404 the fellowship of the ring
‘It will not last much longer, I am afraid,’ he said; ‘but I
think we need it after that horror at the gate. And unless we
have great luck, we shall need all that is left before we see the
other side! Go carefully with the water, too! There are many
streams and wells in the Mines, but they should not be
touched. We may not have a chance of filling our skins and
bottles till we come down into Dimrill Dale.’
‘How long is that going to take us?’ asked Frodo.
‘I cannot say,’ answered Gandalf. ‘It depends on many
chances. But going straight, without mishap or losing our
way, we shall take three or four marches, I expect. It cannot
be less than forty miles from West-door to East-gate in a
direct line, and the road may wind much.’
After only a brief rest they started on their way again. All
were eager to get the journey over as quickly as possible, and
were willing, tired as they were, to go on marching still for
several hours. Gandalf walked in front as before. In his left
hand he held up his glimmering staff, the light of which just
showed the ground before his feet; in his right he held his
sword Glamdring. Behind him came Gimli, his eyes glinting
in the dim light as he turned his head from side to side.
Behind the dwarf walked Frodo, and he had drawn the short
sword, Sting. No gleam came from the blades of Sting or of
Glamdring; and that was some comfort, for being the work
of Elvish smiths in the Elder Days these swords shone with
a cold light, if any Orcs were near at hand. Behind Frodo
went Sam, and after him Legolas, and the young hobbits,
and Boromir. In the dark at the rear, grim and silent, walked
Aragorn.
The passage twisted round a few turns, and then began to
descend. It went steadily down for a long while before it
became level once again. The air grew hot and stifling, but it
was not foul, and at times they felt currents of cooler air upon
their faces, issuing from half-guessed openings in the walls.
There were many of these. In the pale ray of the wizard’s
staff, Frodo caught glimpses of stairs and arches, and of other
a journey in the dark 405
passages and tunnels, sloping up, or running steeply down,
or opening blankly dark on either side. It was bewildering
beyond hope of remembering.
Gimli aided Gandalf very little, except by his stout courage.
At least he was not, as were most of the others, troubled by
the mere darkness in itself. Often the wizard consulted him
at points where the choice of way was doubtful; but it was
always Gandalf who had the final word. The Mines of Moria
were vast and intricate beyond the imagination of Gimli,
Glo
´
in’s son, dwarf of the mountain-race though he was. To
Gandalf the far-off memories of a journey long before were
now of little help, but even in the gloom and despite all
windings of the road he knew whither he wished to go, and
he did not falter, as long as there was a path that led towards
his goal.
‘Do not be afraid!’ said Aragorn. There was a pause longer
than usual, and Gandalf and Gimli were whispering together;
the others were crowded behind, waiting anxiously. ‘Do not
be afraid! I have been with him on many a journey, if never
on one so dark; and there are tales in Rivendell of greater
deeds of his than any that I have seen. He will not go astray
– if there is any path to find. He has led us in here against
our fears, but he will lead us out again, at whatever cost to
himself. He is surer of finding the way home in a blind night
than the cats of Queen Beru
´
thiel.’
It was well for the Company that they had such a guide.
They had no fuel nor any means of making torches; in the
desperate scramble at the doors many things had been left
behind. But without any light they would soon have come to
grief. There were not only many roads to choose from, there
were also in many places holes and pitfalls, and dark wells
beside the path in which their passing feet echoed. There
were fissures and chasms in the walls and floor, and every
now and then a crack would open right before their feet. The
widest was more than seven feet across, and it was long
before Pippin could summon enough courage to leap over
406 the fellowship of the ring
the dreadful gap. The noise of churning water came up from
far below, as if some great mill-wheel was turning in the
depths.
‘Rope!’ muttered Sam. ‘I knew I’d want it, if I hadn’t got it!’
As these dangers became more frequent their march
became slower. Already they seemed to have been tramping
on, on, endlessly to the mountains’ roots. They were more
than weary, and yet there seemed no comfort in the thought
of halting anywhere. Frodo’s spirits had risen for a while after
his escape, and after food and a draught of the cordial; but
now a deep uneasiness, growing to dread, crept over him
again. Though he had been healed in Rivendell of the knife-
stroke, that grim wound had not been without effect. His
senses were sharper and more aware of things that could not
be seen. One sign of change that he soon had noticed was
that he could see more in the dark than any of his com-
panions, save perhaps Gandalf. And he was in any case the
bearer of the Ring: it hung upon its chain against his breast,
and at whiles it seemed a heavy weight. He felt the certainty
of evil ahead and of evil following; but he said nothing. He
gripped tighter on the hilt of his sword and went on doggedly.
The Company behind him spoke seldom, and then only in
hurried whispers. There was no sound but the sound of their
own feet: the dull stump of Gimli’s dwarf-boots; the heavy
tread of Boromir; the light step of Legolas; the soft, scarce-
heard patter of hobbit-feet; and in the rear the slow firm
footfalls of Aragorn with his long stride. When they halted
for a moment they heard nothing at all, unless it were
occasionally a faint trickle and drip of unseen water. Yet
Frodo began to hear, or to imagine that he heard, something
else: like the faint fall of soft bare feet. It was never loud
enough, or near enough, for him to feel certain that he heard
it; but once it had started it never stopped, while the Company
was moving. But it was not an echo, for when they halted it
pattered on for a little all by itself, and then grew still.
***
a journey in the dark 407
It was after nightfall when they had entered the Mines.
They had been going for several hours with only brief halts,
when Gandalf came to his first serious check. Before him
stood a wide dark arch opening into three passages: all led in
the same general direction, eastwards; but the left-hand pass-
age plunged down, while the right-hand climbed up, and the
middle way seemed to run on, smooth and level but very
narrow.
‘I have no memory of this place at all!’ said Gandalf, stand-
ing uncertainly under the arch. He held up his staff in the
hope of finding some marks or inscription that might help
his choice; but nothing of the kind was to be seen. ‘I am too
weary to decide,’ he said, shaking his head. ‘And I expect
that you are all as weary as I am, or wearier. We had better
halt here for what is left of the night. You know what I mean!
In here it is ever dark; but outside the late Moon is riding
westward and the middle-night has passed.’
‘Poor old Bill!’ said Sam. ‘I wonder where he is. I hope
those wolves haven’t got him yet.’
To the left of the great arch they found a stone door: it
was half closed, but swung back easily to a gentle thrust.
Beyond there seemed to lie a wide chamber cut in the rock.
‘Steady! Steady!’ cried Gandalf, as Merry and Pippin
pushed forward, glad to find a place where they could rest
with at least more feeling of shelter than in the open passage.
‘Steady! You do not know what is inside yet. I will go first.’
He went in cautiously, and the others filed behind. ‘There!’
he said, pointing with his staff to the middle of the floor.
Before his feet they saw a large round hole like the mouth of
a well. Broken and rusty chains lay at the edge and trailed
down into the black pit. Fragments of stone lay near.
‘One of you might have fallen in and still be wondering
when you were going to strike the bottom,’ said Aragorn to
Merry. ‘Let the guide go first while you have one.’
‘This seems to have been a guardroom, made for the
watching of the three passages,’ said Gimli. ‘That hole was
plainly a well for the guards’ use, covered with a stone lid.
408 the fellowship of the ring
But the lid is broken, and we must all take care in the dark.’
Pippin felt curiously attracted by the well. While the others
were unrolling blankets and making beds against the walls of
the chamber, as far as possible from the hole in the floor, he
crept to the edge and peered over. A chill air seemed to strike
his face, rising from invisible depths. Moved by a sudden
impulse he groped for a loose stone, and let it drop. He felt
his heart beat many times before there was any sound. Then
far below, as if the stone had fallen into deep water in some
cavernous place, there came a plunk, very distant, but magni-
fied and repeated in the hollow shaft.
‘What’s that?’ cried Gandalf. He was relieved when Pippin
confessed what he had done; but he was angry, and Pippin
could see his eye glinting. ‘Fool of a Took!’ he growled.
‘This is a serious journey, not a hobbit walking-party. Throw
yourself in next time, and then you will be no further nuis-
ance. Now be quiet!’
Nothing more was heard for several minutes; but then
there came out of the depths faint knocks: tom-tap, tap-tom.
They stopped, and when the echoes had died away, they
were repeated: tap-tom, tom-tap, tap-tap, tom. They sounded
disquietingly like signals of some sort; but after a while the
knocking died away and was not heard again.
‘That was the sound of a hammer, or I have never heard
one,’ said Gimli.
‘Yes,’ said Gandalf, ‘and I do not like it. It may have
nothing to do with Peregrin’s foolish stone; but probably
something has been disturbed that would have been better
left quiet. Pray, do nothing of the kind again! Let us hope we
shall get some rest without further trouble. You, Pippin, can
go on the first watch, as a reward,’ he growled, as he rolled
himself in a blanket.
Pippin sat miserably by the door in the pitch dark; but he
kept on turning round, fearing that some unknown thing
would crawl up out of the well. He wished he could cover
the hole, if only with a blanket, but he dared not move or go
near it, even though Gandalf seemed to be asleep.
a journey in the dark 409
Actually Gandalf was awake, though lying still and silent.
He was deep in thought, trying to recall every memory of
his former journey in the Mines, and considering anxiously
the next course that he should take; a false turn now might
be disastrous. After an hour he rose up and came over to
Pippin.
‘Get into a corner and have a sleep, my lad,’ he said in a
kindly tone. ‘You want to sleep, I expect. I cannot get a wink,
so I may as well do the watching.’
‘I know what is the matter with me,’ he muttered, as he sat
down by the door. ‘I need smoke! I have not tasted it since
the morning before the snowstorm.’
The last thing that Pippin saw, as sleep took him, was a
dark glimpse of the old wizard huddled on the floor, shielding
a glowing chip in his gnarled hands between his knees. The
flicker for a moment showed his sharp nose, and the puff of
smoke.
It was Gandalf who roused them all from sleep. He had
sat and watched all alone for about six hours, and had let the
others rest. ‘And in the watches I have made up my mind,’
he said. ‘I do not like the feel of the middle way; and I do not
like the smell of the left-hand way: there is foul air down
there, or I am no guide. I shall take the right-hand passage.
It is time we began to climb up again.’
For eight dark hours, not counting two brief halts, they
marched on; and they met no danger, and heard nothing,
and saw nothing but the faint gleam of the wizard’s light,
bobbing like a will-o’-the-wisp in front of them. The passage
they had chosen wound steadily upwards. As far as they
could judge it went in great mounting curves, and as it rose
it grew loftier and wider. There were now no openings to
other galleries or tunnels on either side, and the floor was
level and sound, without pits or cracks. Evidently they had
struck what once had been an important road; and they went
forward quicker than they had done on their first march.
In this way they advanced some fifteen miles, measured in
410 the fellowship of the ring
a direct line east, though they must have actually walked
twenty miles or more. As the road climbed upwards, Frodo’s
spirits rose a little; but he still felt oppressed, and still at times
he heard, or thought he heard, away behind the Company
and beyond the fall and patter of their feet, a following foot-
step that was not an echo.
They had marched as far as the hobbits could endure
without a rest, and all were thinking of a place where they
could sleep, when suddenly the walls to right and left van-
ished. They seemed to have passed through some arched
doorway into a black and empty space. There was a great
draught of warmer air behind them, and before them the
darkness was cold on their faces. They halted and crowded
anxiously together.
Gandalf seemed pleased. ‘I chose the right way,’ he said.
‘At last we are coming to the habitable parts, and I guess that
we are not far now from the eastern side. But we are high
up, a good deal higher than the Dimrill Gate, unless I am
mistaken. From the feeling of the air we must be in a wide
hall. I will now risk a little real light.’
He raised his staff, and for a brief instant there was a blaze
like a flash of lightning. Great shadows sprang up and fled,
and for a second they saw a vast roof far above their heads
upheld by many mighty pillars hewn of stone. Before them
and on either side stretched a huge empty hall; its black walls,
polished and smooth as glass, flashed and glittered. Three
other entrances they saw, dark black arches: one straight
before them eastwards, and one on either side. Then the light
went out.
‘That is all that I shall venture on for the present,’ said
Gandalf. ‘There used to be great windows on the mountain-
side, and shafts leading out to the light in the upper reaches
of the Mines. I think we have reached them now, but it is
night outside again, and we cannot tell until morning. If I
am right, tomorrow we may actually see the morning peeping
in. But in the meanwhile we had better go no further. Let
a journey in the dark 411
us rest, if we can. Things have gone well so far, and the
greater part of the dark road is over. But we are not through
yet, and it is a long way down to the Gates that open on the
world.’
The Company spent that night in the great cavernous hall,
huddled close together in a corner to escape the draught:
there seemed to be a steady inflow of chill air through the
eastern archway. All about them as they lay hung the dark-
ness, hollow and immense, and they were oppressed by the
loneliness and vastness of the dolven halls and endlessly
branching stairs and passages. The wildest imaginings that
dark rumour had ever suggested to the hobbits fell altogether
short of the actual dread and wonder of Moria.
‘There must have been a mighty crowd of dwarves here at
one time,’ said Sam; ‘and every one of them busier than
badgers for five hundred years to make all this, and most in
hard rock too! What did they do it all for? They didn’t live
in these darksome holes surely?’
‘These are not holes,’ said Gimli. ‘This is the great realm
and city of the Dwarrowdelf. And of old it was not darksome,
but full of light and splendour, as is still remembered in our
songs.’
He rose and standing in the dark he began to chant in a
deep voice, while the echoes ran away into the roof.
The world was young, the mountains green,
No stain yet on the Moon was seen,
No words were laid on stream or stone
When Durin woke and walked alone.
He named the nameless hills and dells;
He drank from yet untasted wells;
He stooped and looked in Mirrormere,
And saw a crown of stars appear,
As gems upon a silver thread,
Above the shadow of his head.
412 the fellowship of the ring
The world was fair, the mountains tall,
In Elder Days before the fall
Of mighty kings in Nargothrond
And Gondolin, who now beyond
The Western Seas have passed away:
The world was fair in Durin’s Day.
A king he was on carven throne
In many-pillared halls of stone
With golden roof and silver floor,
And runes of power upon the door.
The light of sun and star and moon
In shining lamps of crystal hewn
Undimmed by cloud or shade of night
There shone for ever fair and bright.
There hammer on the anvil smote,
There chisel clove, and graver wrote;
There forged was blade, and bound was hilt;
The delver mined, the mason built.
There beryl, pearl, and opal pale,
And metal wrought like fishes’ mail,
Buckler and corslet, axe and sword,
And shining spears were laid in hoard.
Unwearied then were Durin’s folk;
Beneath the mountains music woke:
The harpers harped, the minstrels sang,
And at the gates the trumpets rang.
The world is grey, the mountains old,
The forge’s fire is ashen-cold;
No harp is wrung, no hammer falls:
The darkness dwells in Durin’s halls;
The shadow lies upon his tomb
In Moria, in Khazad-du
ˆ
m.
But still the sunken stars appear
a journey in the dark 413
In dark and windless Mirrormere;
There lies his crown in water deep,
Till Durin wakes again from sleep.
‘I like that!’ said Sam. ‘I should like to learn it. In Moria,
in Khazad-du
ˆ
m! But it makes the darkness seem heavier,
thinking of all those lamps. Are there piles of jewels and gold
lying about here still?’
Gimli was silent. Having sung his song he would say no
more.
‘Piles of jewels?’ said Gandalf. ‘No. The Orcs have often
plundered Moria; there is nothing left in the upper halls. And
since the dwarves fled, no one dares to seek the shafts and
treasuries down in the deep places: they are drowned in water
– or in a shadow of fear.’
‘Then what do the dwarves want to come back for?’ asked
Sam.
‘For mithril,’ answered Gandalf. ‘The wealth of Moria was
not in gold and jewels, the toys of the Dwarves; nor in iron,
their servant. Such things they found here, it is true, especially
iron; but they did not need to delve for them: all things that
they desired they could obtain in traffic. For here alone in
the world was found Moria-silver, or true-silver as some have
called it: mithril is the Elvish name. The Dwarves have a
name which they do not tell. Its worth was ten times that of
gold, and now it is beyond price; for little is left above ground,
and even the Orcs dare not delve here for it. The lodes lead
away north towards Caradhras, and down to darkness. The
Dwarves tell no tale; but even as mithril was the foundation
of their wealth, so also it was their destruction: they delved
too greedily and too deep, and disturbed that from which
they fled, Durin’s Bane. Of what they brought to light the
Orcs have gathered nearly all, and given it in tribute to
Sauron, who covets it.
‘Mithril! All folk desired it. It could be beaten like copper,
and polished like glass; and the Dwarves could make of it a
metal, light and yet harder than tempered steel. Its beauty
414 the fellowship of the ring
was like to that of common silver, but the beauty of mithril
did not tarnish or grow dim. The Elves dearly loved it, and
among many uses they made of it ithildin, starmoon, which
you saw upon the doors. Bilbo had a corslet of mithril-rings
that Thorin gave him. I wonder what has become of it?
Gathering dust still in Michel Delving Mathom-house, I
suppose.’
‘What?’ cried Gimli, startled out of his silence. ‘A corslet
of Moria-silver? That was a kingly gift!’
‘Yes,’ said Gandalf. ‘I never told him, but its worth was
greater than the value of the whole Shire and everything in it.’
Frodo said nothing, but he put his hand under his tunic
and touched the rings of his mail-shirt. He felt staggered to
think that he had been walking about with the price of the
Shire under his jacket. Had Bilbo known? He felt no doubt
that Bilbo knew quite well. It was indeed a kingly gift. But
now his thoughts had been carried away from the dark Mines,
to Rivendell, to Bilbo, and to Bag End in the days while Bilbo
was still there. He wished with all his heart that he was back
there, and in those days, mowing the lawn, or pottering
among the flowers, and that he had never heard of Moria, or
mithril – or the Ring.
A deep silence fell. One by one the others fell asleep. Frodo
was on guard. As if it were a breath that came in through
unseen doors out of deep places, dread came over him. His
hands were cold and his brow damp. He listened. All his
mind was given to listening and nothing else for two slow
hours; but he heard no sound, not even the imagined echo
of a footfall.
His watch was nearly over, when, far off where he guessed
that the western archway stood, he fancied that he could see
two pale points of light, almost like luminous eyes. He started.
His head had nodded. ‘I must have nearly fallen asleep on
guard,’ he thought. ‘I was on the edge of a dream.’ He stood
up and rubbed his eyes, and remained standing, peering into
the dark, until he was relieved by Legolas.
a journey in the dark 415
When he lay down he quickly went to sleep, but it seemed
to him that the dream went on: he heard whispers, and saw
the two pale points of light approaching, slowly. He woke
and found that the others were speaking softly near him, and
that a dim light was falling on his face. High up above the
eastern archway through a shaft near the roof came a long
pale gleam; and across the hall through the northern arch
light also glimmered faint and distantly.
Frodo sat up. ‘Good morning!’ said Gandalf. ‘For morning
it is again at last. I was right, you see. We are high up on the
east side of Moria. Before today is over we ought to find
the Great Gates and see the waters of Mirrormere lying in
the Dimrill Dale before us.’
‘I shall be glad,’ said Gimli. ‘I have looked on Moria, and
it is very great, but it has become dark and dreadful; and we
have found no sign of my kindred. I doubt now that Balin
ever came here.’
After they had breakfasted Gandalf decided to go on again
at once. ‘We are tired, but we shall rest better when we are
outside,’ he said. ‘I think that none of us will wish to spend
another night in Moria.’
‘No indeed!’ said Boromir. ‘Which way shall we take?
Yonder eastward arch?’
‘Maybe,’ said Gandalf. ‘But I do not know yet exactly
where we are. Unless I am quite astray, I guess that we are
above and to the north of the Great Gates; and it may not be
easy to find the right road down to them. The eastern arch
will probably prove to be the way that we must take; but
before we make up our minds we ought to look about us. Let
us go towards that light in the north door. If we could find a
window it would help, but I fear that the light comes only
down deep shafts.’
Following his lead the Company passed under the northern
arch. They found themselves in a wide corridor. As they went
along it the glimmer grew stronger, and they saw that it came
through a doorway on their right. It was high and flat-topped,
416 the fellowship of the ring
and the stone door was still upon its hinges, standing half
open. Beyond it was a large square chamber. It was dimly lit,
but to their eyes, after so long a time in the dark, it seemed
dazzlingly bright, and they blinked as they entered.
Their feet disturbed a deep dust upon the floor, and
stumbled among things lying in the doorway whose shapes
they could not at first make out. The chamber was lit by a
wide shaft high in the further eastern wall; it slanted upwards
and, far above, a small square patch of blue sky could be
seen. The light of the shaft fell directly on a table in the
middle of the room: a single oblong block, about two feet
high, upon which was laid a great slab of white stone.
‘It looks like a tomb,’ muttered Frodo, and bent forwards
with a curious sense of foreboding, to look more closely at it.
Gandalf came quickly to his side. On the slab runes were
deeply graven:
a journey in the dark 417
‘These are Daeron’s Runes, such as were used of old in
Moria,’ said Gandalf. ‘Here is written in the tongues of Men
and Dwarves:
balin son of fundin
lord of moria.’
‘He is dead then,’ said Frodo. ‘I feared it was so.’ Gimli
cast his hood over his face.
Chapter 5
THE BRIDGE OF KHAZAD-DU
ˆ
M
The Company of the Ring stood silent beside the tomb of
Balin. Frodo thought of Bilbo and his long friendship with
the dwarf, and of Balin’s visit to the Shire long ago. In that
dusty chamber in the mountains it seemed a thousand years
ago and on the other side of the world.
At length they stirred and looked up, and began to search
for anything that would give them tidings of Balin’s fate, or
show what had become of his folk. There was another smaller
door on the other side of the chamber, under the shaft. By
both the doors they could now see that many bones were
lying, and among them were broken swords and axe-heads,
and cloven shields and helms. Some of the swords were
crooked: orc-scimitars with blackened blades.
There were many recesses cut in the rock of the walls, and
in them were large iron-bound chests of wood. All had
been broken and plundered; but beside the shattered lid of
one there lay the remains of a book. It had been slashed
and stabbed and partly burned, and it was so stained with
black and other dark marks like old blood that little of it
could be read. Gandalf lifted it carefully, but the leaves
cracked and broke as he laid it on the slab. He pored over
it for some time without speaking. Frodo and Gimli stand-
ing at his side could see, as he gingerly turned the leaves,
that they were written by many different hands, in runes,
both of Moria and of Dale, and here and there in Elvish
script.
At last Gandalf looked up. ‘It seems to be a record of the
fortunes of Balin’s folk,’ he said. ‘I guess that it began with
their coming to Dimrill Dale nigh on thirty years ago: the
pages seem to have numbers referring to the years after their
the bridge of khazad-du
ˆ
m 419
arrival. The top page is marked one – three, so at least two
are missing from the beginning. Listen to this!
‘We drove out orcs from the great gate and guard – I think;
the next word is blurred and burned: probably room – we slew
many in the bright – I think – sun in the dale. Flo
´
i was killed by
an arrow. He slew the great. Then there is a blur followed by
Flo
´
i under grass near Mirror mere. The next line or two I
cannot read. Then comes We have taken the twentyfirst hall
of North end to dwell in. There is I cannot read what. A shaft
is mentioned. Then Balin has set up his seat in the Chamber of
Mazarbul.’
‘The Chamber of Records,’ said Gimli. ‘I guess that is
where we now stand.’
‘Well, I can read no more for a long way,’ said Gandalf,
‘except the word gold, and Durin’s Axe and something helm.
Then Balin is now lord of Moria. That seems to end a chapter.
After some stars another hand begins, and I can see we found
truesilver, and later the word wellforged, and then something,
I have it! mithril; and the last two lines O
´
in to seek for the upper
armouries of Third Deep, something go westwards, a blur, to
Hollin gate.’
Gandalf paused and set a few leaves aside. ‘There are
several pages of the same sort, rather hastily written and
much damaged,’ he said; ‘but I can make little of them in this
light. Now there must be a number of leaves missing, because
they begin to be numbered five, the fifth year of the colony,
I suppose. Let me see! No, they are too cut and stained; I
cannot read them. We might do better in the sunlight. Wait!
Here is something: a large bold hand using an Elvish script.’
‘That would be Ori’s hand,’ said Gimli, looking over the
wizard’s arm. ‘He could write well and speedily, and often
used the Elvish characters.’
‘I fear he had ill tidings to record in a fair hand,’ said
Gandalf. ‘The first clear word is sorrow, but the rest of the
line is lost, unless it ends in estre. Yes, it must be yestre
followed by day being the tenth of novembre Balin lord of Moria
420 the fellowship of the ring
fell in Dimrill Dale. He went alone to look in Mirror mere. an
orc shot him from behind a stone. we slew the orc, but many more
. . . up from east up the Silverlode. The remainder of the page
is so blurred that I can hardly make anything out, but I think
I can read we have barred the gates, and then can hold them
long if, and then perhaps horrible and suffer. Poor Balin! He
seems to have kept the title that he took for less than five
years. I wonder what happened afterwards; but there is no
time to puzzle out the last few pages. Here is the last page of
all.’ He paused and sighed.
‘It is grim reading,’ he said. ‘I fear their end was cruel.
Listen! We cannot get out. We cannot get out. They have taken
the Bridge and second hall. Fra
´
r and Lo
´
ni and Na
´
li fell there.
Then there are four lines smeared so that I can only read
went 5 days ago. The last lines run the pool is up to the wall
at Westgate. The Watcher in the Water took O
´
in. We cannot
get out. The end comes, and then drums, drums in the deep.I
wonder what that means. The last thing written is in a trailing
scrawl of elf-letters: they are coming. There is nothing more.’
Gandalf paused and stood in silent thought.
A sudden dread and a horror of the chamber fell on the
Company. ‘We cannot get out,’ muttered Gimli. ‘It was well
for us that the pool had sunk a little, and that the Watcher
was sleeping down at the southern end.’
Gandalf raised his head and looked round. ‘They seem to
have made a last stand by both doors,’ he said; ‘but there
were not many left by that time. So ended the attempt to
retake Moria! It was valiant but foolish. The time is not come
yet. Now, I fear, we must say farewell to Balin son of Fundin.
Here he must lie in the halls of his fathers. We will take this
book, the Book of Mazarbul, and look at it more closely later.
You had better keep it, Gimli, and take it back to Da
´
in, if
you get a chance. It will interest him, though it will grieve
him deeply. Come, let us go! The morning is passing.’
‘Which way shall we go?’ asked Boromir.
‘Back to the hall,’ answered Gandalf. ‘But our visit to this
room has not been in vain. I now know where we are. This
the bridge of khazad-du
ˆ
m 421
must be, as Gimli says, the Chamber of Mazarbul; and the
hall must be the twenty-first of the North-end. Therefore we
should leave by the eastern arch of the hall, and bear right
and south, and go downwards. The Twenty-first Hall should
be on the Seventh Level, that is six above the level of the
Gates. Come now! Back to the hall!’
Gandalf had hardly spoken these words, when there came
a great noise: a rolling Boom that seemed to come from depths
far below, and to tremble in the stone at their feet. They
sprang towards the door in alarm. Doom, doom it rolled again,
as if huge hands were turning the very caverns of Moria into a
vast drum. Then there came an echoing blast: a great horn was
blown in the hall, and answering horns and harsh cries were
heard further off. There was a hurrying sound of many feet.
‘They are coming!’ cried Legolas.
‘We cannot get out,’ said Gimli.
‘Trapped!’ cried Gandalf. ‘Why did I delay? Here we are,
caught, just as they were before. But I was not here then. We
will see what——’
Doom, doom came the drum-beat and the walls shook.
‘Slam the doors and wedge them!’ shouted Aragorn. ‘And
keep your packs on as long as you can: we may get a chance
to cut our way out yet.’
‘No!’ said Gandalf. ‘We must not get shut in. Keep the
east door ajar! We will go that way, if we get a chance.’
Another harsh horn-call and shrill cries rang out. Feet were
coming down the corridor. There was a ring and clatter as
the Company drew their swords. Glamdring shone with a
pale light, and Sting glinted at the edges. Boromir set his
shoulder against the western door.
‘Wait a moment! Do not close it yet!’ said Gandalf. He
sprang forward to Boromir’s side and drew himself up to his
full height.
‘Who comes hither to disturb the rest of Balin Lord of
Moria?’ he cried in a loud voice.
There was a rush of hoarse laughter, like the fall of sliding
422 the fellowship of the ring
stones into a pit; amid the clamour a deep voice was raised
in command. Doom, boom, doom went the drums in the deep.
With a quick movement Gandalf stepped before the nar-
row opening of the door and thrust forward his staff. There
was a dazzling flash that lit the chamber and the passage
outside. For an instant the wizard looked out. Arrows whined
and whistled down the corridor as he sprang back.
‘There are Orcs, very many of them,’ he said. ‘And some
are large and evil: black Uruks of Mordor. For the moment
they are hanging back, but there is something else there. A
great cave-troll, I think, or more than one. There is no hope
of escape that way.’
‘And no hope at all, if they come at the other door as well,’
said Boromir.
‘There is no sound outside here yet,’ said Aragorn, who
was standing by the eastern door listening. ‘The passage on
this side plunges straight down a stair: it plainly does not lead
back towards the hall. But it is no good flying blindly this
way with the pursuit just behind. We cannot block the door.
Its key is gone and the lock is broken, and it opens inwards.
We must do something to delay the enemy first. We will
make them fear the Chamber of Mazarbul!’ he said grimly,
feeling the edge of his sword, Andu
´
ril.
Heavy feet were heard in the corridor. Boromir flung him-
self against the door and heaved it to; then he wedged it with
broken sword-blades and splinters of wood. The Company
retreated to the other side of the chamber. But they had no
chance to fly yet. There was a blow on the door that made it
quiver; and then it began to grind slowly open, driving back
the wedges. A huge arm and shoulder, with a dark skin of
greenish scales, was thrust through the widening gap. Then
a great, flat, toeless foot was forced through below. There
was a dead silence outside.
Boromir leaped forward and hewed at the arm with all his
might; but his sword rang, glanced aside, and fell from his
shaken hand. The blade was notched.
the bridge of khazad-du
ˆ
m 423
Suddenly, and to his own surprise, Frodo felt a hot wrath
blaze up in his heart. ‘The Shire!’ he cried, and springing
beside Boromir, he stooped, and stabbed with Sting at the
hideous foot. There was a bellow, and the foot jerked back,
nearly wrenching Sting from Frodo’s arm. Black drops
dripped from the blade and smoked on the floor. Boromir
hurled himself against the door and slammed it again.
‘One for the Shire!’ cried Aragorn. ‘The hobbit’s bite is
deep! You have a good blade, Frodo son of Drogo!’
There was a crash on the door, followed by crash after
crash. Rams and hammers were beating against it. It cracked
and staggered back, and the opening grew suddenly wide.
Arrows came whistling in, but struck the northern wall, and
fell harmlessly to the floor. There was a horn-blast and a rush
of feet, and orcs one after another leaped into the chamber.
How many there were the Company could not count. The
affray was sharp, but the orcs were dismayed by the fierceness
of the defence. Legolas shot two through the throat. Gimli
hewed the legs from under another that had sprung up on
Balin’s tomb. Boromir and Aragorn slew many. When thir-
teen had fallen the rest fled shrieking, leaving the defenders
unharmed, except for Sam who had a scratch along the scalp.
A quick duck had saved him; and he had felled his orc: a
sturdy thrust with his Barrow-blade. A fire was smouldering
in his brown eyes that would have made Ted Sandyman step
backwards, if he had seen it.
‘Now is the time!’ cried Gandalf. ‘Let us go, before the
troll returns!’
But even as they retreated, and before Pippin and Merry
had reached the stair outside, a huge orc-chieftain, almost
man-high, clad in black mail from head to foot, leaped into
the chamber; behind him his followers clustered in the door-
way. His broad flat face was swart, his eyes were like coals,
and his tongue was red; he wielded a great spear. With a
thrust of his huge hide shield he turned Boromir’s sword and
bore him backwards, throwing him to the ground. Diving
under Aragorn’s blow with the speed of a striking snake he
424 the fellowship of the ring
charged into the Company and thrust with his spear straight
at Frodo. The blow caught him on the right side, and Frodo
was hurled against the wall and pinned. Sam, with a cry,
hacked at the spear-shaft, and it broke. But even as the orc
flung down the truncheon and swept out his scimitar, Andu
´
ril
came down upon his helm. There was a flash like flame and
the helm burst asunder. The orc fell with cloven head. His
followers fled howling, as Boromir and Aragorn sprang at
them.
Doom, doom went the drums in the deep. The great voice
rolled out again.
‘Now!’ shouted Gandalf. ‘Now is the last chance. Run
for it!’
Aragorn picked up Frodo where he lay by the wall and
made for the stair, pushing Merry and Pippin in front of him.
The others followed; but Gimli had to be dragged away by
Legolas: in spite of the peril he lingered by Balin’s tomb with
his head bowed. Boromir hauled the eastern door to, grinding
upon its hinges: it had great iron rings on either side, but
could not be fastened.
‘I am all right,’ gasped Frodo. ‘I can walk. Put me down!’
Aragorn nearly dropped him in his amazement. ‘I thought
you were dead!’ he cried.
‘Not yet!’ said Gandalf. ‘But there is no time for wonder.
Off you go, all of you, down the stairs! Wait a few minutes
for me at the bottom, but if I do not come soon, go on! Go
quickly and choose paths leading right and downwards.’
‘We cannot leave you to hold the door alone!’ said Aragorn.
‘Do as I say!’ said Gandalf fiercely. ‘Swords are no more
use here. Go!’
The passage was lit by no shaft and was utterly dark. They
groped their way down a long flight of steps, and then looked
back; but they could see nothing, except high above them the
faint glimmer of the wizard’s staff. He seemed to be still
standing on guard by the closed door. Frodo breathed heavily
the bridge of khazad-du
ˆ
m 425
and leaned against Sam, who put his arms about him. They
stood peering up the stairs into the darkness. Frodo thought
he could hear the voice of Gandalf above, muttering words
that ran down the sloping roof with a sighing echo. He could
not catch what was said. The walls seemed to be trembling.
Every now and again the drum-beats throbbed and rolled:
doom, doom.
Suddenly at the top of the stair there was a stab of white
light. Then there was a dull rumble and a heavy thud. The
drum-beats broke out wildly: doom-boom, doom-boom, and
then stopped. Gandalf came flying down the steps and fell to
the ground in the midst of the Company.
‘Well, well! That’s over!’ said the wizard struggling to his
feet. ‘I have done all that I could. But I have met my match,
and have nearly been destroyed. But don’t stand here! Go
on! You will have to do without light for a while: I am rather
shaken. Go on! Go on! Where are you, Gimli? Come ahead
with me! Keep close behind, all of you!’
They stumbled after him wondering what had happened.
Doom, doom went the drum-beats again: they now sounded
muffled and far away, but they were following. There was no
other sound of pursuit, neither tramp of feet, nor any voice.
Gandalf took no turns, right or left, for the passage seemed
to be going in the direction that he desired. Every now and
again it descended a flight of steps, fifty or more, to a lower
level. At the moment that was their chief danger; for in the
dark they could not see a descent, until they came on it and
put their feet out into emptiness. Gandalf felt the ground
with his staff like a blind man.
At the end of an hour they had gone a mile, or maybe a
little more, and had descended many flights of stairs. There
was still no sound of pursuit. Almost they began to hope
that they would escape. At the bottom of the seventh flight
Gandalf halted.
‘It is getting hot!’ he gasped. ‘We ought to be down at least
to the level of the Gates now. Soon I think we should look
426 the fellowship of the ring
for a left-hand turn to take us east. I hope it is not far. I am
very weary. I must rest here a moment, even if all the orcs
ever spawned are after us.’
Gimli took his arm and helped him down to a seat on the
step. ‘What happened away up there at the door?’ he asked.
‘Did you meet the beater of the drums?’
‘I do not know,’ answered Gandalf. ‘But I found myself
suddenly faced by something that I have not met before. I
could think of nothing to do but to try and put a shutting-spell
on the door. I know many; but to do things of that kind
rightly requires time, and even then the door can be broken
by strength.
‘As I stood there I could hear orc-voices on the other side:
at any moment I thought they would burst it open. I could
not hear what was said; they seemed to be talking in their
own hideous language. All I caught was gha
ˆ
sh: that is ‘‘fire’’.
Then something came into the chamber – I felt it through
the door, and the orcs themselves were afraid and fell silent.
It laid hold of the iron ring, and then it perceived me and my
spell.
‘What it was I cannot guess, but I have never felt such a
challenge. The counter-spell was terrible. It nearly broke me.
For an instant the door left my control and began to open! I
had to speak a word of Command. That proved too great a
strain. The door burst in pieces. Something dark as a cloud
was blocking out all the light inside, and I was thrown back-
wards down the stairs. All the wall gave way, and the roof of
the chamber as well, I think.
‘I am afraid Balin is buried deep, and maybe something
else is buried there too. I cannot say. But at least the passage
behind us was completely blocked. Ah! I have never felt so
spent, but it is passing. And now what about you, Frodo?
There was not time to say so, but I have never been more
delighted in my life than when you spoke. I feared that it was
a brave but dead hobbit that Aragorn was carrying.’
‘What about me?’ said Frodo. ‘I am alive, and whole I
think. I am bruised and in pain, but it is not too bad.’
the bridge of khazad-du
ˆ
m 427
‘Well,’ said Aragorn, ‘I can only say that hobbits are made
of a stuff so tough that I have never met the like of it. Had I
known, I would have spoken softer in the Inn at Bree! That
spear-thrust would have skewered a wild boar!’
‘Well, it did not skewer me, I am glad to say,’ said Frodo;
‘though I feel as if I had been caught between a hammer and
an anvil.’ He said no more. He found breathing painful.
‘You take after Bilbo,’ said Gandalf. ‘There is more about
you than meets the eye, as I said of him long ago.’ Frodo
wondered if the remark meant more than it said.
They now went on again. Before long Gimli spoke. He
had keen eyes in the dark. ‘I think,’ he said, ‘that there is a
light ahead. But it is not daylight. It is red. What can it be?’
‘Gha
ˆ
sh!’ muttered Gandalf. ‘I wonder if that is what they
meant: that the lower levels are on fire? Still, we can only
go on.’
Soon the light became unmistakable, and could be seen by
all. It was flickering and glowing on the walls away down the
passage before them. They could now see their way: in front
the road sloped down swiftly, and some way ahead there
stood a low archway; through it the growing light came. The
air became very hot.
When they came to the arch Gandalf went through, signing
to them to wait. As he stood just beyond the opening they
saw his face lit by a red glow. Quickly he stepped back.
‘There is some new devilry here,’ he said, ‘devised for our
welcome, no doubt. But I know now where we are: we have
reached the First Deep, the level immediately below the
Gates. This is the Second Hall of Old Moria; and the Gates
are near: away beyond the eastern end, on the left, not more
than a quarter of a mile. Across the Bridge, up a broad stair,
along a wide road, through the First Hall, and out! But come
and look!’
They peered out. Before them was another cavernous hall.
It was loftier and far longer than the one in which they had
slept. They were near its eastern end; westward it ran away
428 the fellowship of the ring
into darkness. Down the centre stalked a double line of tower-
ing pillars. They were carved like boles of mighty trees whose
boughs upheld the roof with a branching tracery of stone.
Their stems were smooth and black, but a red glow was
darkly mirrored in their sides. Right across the floor, close to
the feet of two huge pillars a great fissure had opened. Out
of it a fierce red light came, and now and again flames licked
at the brink and curled about the bases of the columns. Wisps
of dark smoke wavered in the hot air.
‘If we had come by the main road down from the upper
halls, we should have been trapped here,’ said Gandalf. ‘Let
us hope that the fire now lies between us and pursuit. Come!
There is no time to lose.’
Even as he spoke they heard again the pursuing drum-beat:
Doom, doom, doom. Away beyond the shadows at the western
end of the hall there came cries and horn-calls. Doom, doom:
the pillars seemed to tremble and the flames to quiver.
‘Now for the last race!’ said Gandalf. ‘If the sun is shining
outside, we may still escape. After me!’
He turned left and sped across the smooth floor of the hall.
The distance was greater than it had looked. As they ran they
heard the beat and echo of many hurrying feet behind. A
shrill yell went up: they had been seen. There was a ring and
clash of steel. An arrow whistled over Frodo’s head.
Boromir laughed. ‘They did not expect this,’ he said. ‘The
fire has cut them off. We are on the wrong side!’
‘Look ahead!’ called Gandalf. ‘The Bridge is near. lt is
dangerous and narrow.’
Suddenly Frodo saw before him a black chasm. At the end
of the hall the floor vanished and fell to an unknown depth.
The outer door could only be reached by a slender bridge of
stone, without kerb or rail, that spanned the chasm with one
curving spring of fifty feet. It was an ancient defence of the
Dwarves against any enemy that might capture the First Hall
and the outer passages. They could only pass across it in
single file. At the brink Gandalf halted and the others came
up in a pack behind.
the bridge of khazad-du
ˆ
m 429
‘Lead the way, Gimli!’ he said. ‘Pippin and Merry next.
Straight on, and up the stair beyond the door!’
Arrows fell among them. One struck Frodo and sprang
back. Another pierced Gandalf ’s hat and stuck there like a
black feather. Frodo looked behind. Beyond the fire he saw
swarming black figures: there seemed to be hundreds of orcs.
They brandished spears and scimitars which shone red as
blood in the firelight. Doom, doom rolled the drum-beats,
growing louder and louder, doom, doom.
Legolas turned and set an arrow to the string, though it
was a long shot for his small bow. He drew, but his hand fell,
and the arrow slipped to the ground. He gave a cry of dismay
and fear. Two great trolls appeared; they bore great slabs of
stone, and flung them down to serve as gangways over the
fire. But it was not the trolls that had filled the Elf with terror.
The ranks of the orcs had opened, and they crowded away,
as if they themselves were afraid. Something was coming up
behind them. What it was could not be seen: it was like a
great shadow, in the middle of which was a dark form, of
man-shape maybe, yet greater; and a power and terror
seemed to be in it and to go before it.
It came to the edge of the fire and the light faded as if a
cloud had bent over it. Then with a rush it leaped across the
fissure. The flames roared up to greet it, and wreathed about
it; and a black smoke swirled in the air. Its streaming mane
kindled, and blazed behind it. In its right hand was a blade
like a stabbing tongue of fire; in its left it held a whip of many
thongs.
‘Ai! ai!’ wailed Legolas. ‘A Balrog! A Balrog is come!’
Gimli stared with wide eyes. ‘Durin’s Bane!’ he cried, and
letting his axe fall he covered his face.
‘A Balrog,’ muttered Gandalf. ‘Now I understand.’ He
faltered and leaned heavily on his staff. ‘What an evil fortune!
And I am already weary.’
The dark figure streaming with fire raced towards them.
The orcs yelled and poured over the stone gangways. Then
430 the fellowship of the ring
Boromir raised his horn and blew. Loud the challenge rang
and bellowed, like the shout of many throats under the
cavernous roof. For a moment the orcs quailed and the fiery
shadow halted. Then the echoes died as suddenly as a flame
blown out by a dark wind, and the enemy advanced again.
‘Over the bridge!’ cried Gandalf, recalling his strength.
‘Fly! This is a foe beyond any of you. I must hold the narrow
way. Fly!’ Aragorn and Boromir did not heed the command,
but still held their ground, side by side, behind Gandalf at
the far end of the bridge. The others halted just within the
doorway at the hall’s end, and turned, unable to leave their
leader to face the enemy alone.
The Balrog reached the bridge. Gandalf stood in the
middle of the span, leaning on the staff in his left hand, but
in his other hand Glamdring gleamed, cold and white. His
enemy halted again, facing him, and the shadow about it
reached out like two vast wings. It raised the whip, and the
thongs whined and cracked. Fire came from its nostrils. But
Gandalf stood firm.
‘You cannot pass,’ he said. The orcs stood still, and a dead
silence fell. ‘I am a servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the
flame of Anor. You cannot pass. The dark fire will not avail
you, flame of Udu
ˆ
n. Go back to the Shadow! You cannot
pass.’
The Balrog made no answer. The fire in it seemed to die,
but the darkness grew. It stepped forward slowly on to the
bridge, and suddenly it drew itself up to a great height, and
its wings were spread from wall to wall; but still Gandalf
could be seen, glimmering in the gloom; he seemed small,
and altogether alone: grey and bent, like a wizened tree before
the onset of a storm.
From out of the shadow a red sword leaped flaming.
Glamdring glittered white in answer.
There was a ringing clash and a stab of white fire. The
Balrog fell back, and its sword flew up in molten fragments.
The wizard swayed on the bridge, stepped back a pace, and
then again stood still.
the bridge of khazad-du
ˆ
m 431
‘You cannot pass!’ he said.
With a bound the Balrog leaped full upon the bridge. Its
whip whirled and hissed.
‘He cannot stand alone!’ cried Aragorn suddenly and ran
back along the bridge. ‘Elendil! ’ he shouted. ‘I am with you,
Gandalf !’
‘Gondor!’ cried Boromir and leaped after him.
At that moment Gandalf lifted his staff, and crying aloud
he smote the bridge before him. The staff broke asunder and
fell from his hand. A blinding sheet of white flame sprang
up. The bridge cracked. Right at the Balrog’s feet it broke,
and the stone upon which it stood crashed into the gulf, while
the rest remained, poised, quivering like a tongue of rock
thrust out into emptiness.
With a terrible cry the Balrog fell forward, and its shadow
plunged down and vanished. But even as it fell it swung its
whip, and the thongs lashed and curled about the wizard’s
knees, dragging him to the brink. He staggered and fell,
grasped vainly at the stone, and slid into the abyss. ‘Fly, you
fools!’ he cried, and was gone.
The fires went out, and blank darkness fell. The Company
stood rooted with horror staring into the pit. Even as Aragorn
and Boromir came flying back, the rest of the bridge cracked
and fell. With a cry Aragorn roused them.
‘Come! I will lead you now!’ he called. ‘We must obey his
last command. Follow me!’
They stumbled wildly up the great stairs beyond the door,
Aragorn leading, Boromir at the rear. At the top was a wide
echoing passage. Along this they fled. Frodo heard Sam at
his side weeping, and then he found that he himself was
weeping as he ran. Doom, doom, doom the drum-beats rolled
behind, mournful now and slow; doom!
They ran on. The light grew before them; great shafts
pierced the roof. They ran swifter. They passed into a hall,
bright with daylight from its high windows in the east. They
fled across it. Through its huge broken doors they passed,
432 the fellowship of the ring
and suddenly before them the Great Gates opened, an arch
of blazing light.
There was a guard of orcs crouching in the shadows behind
the great door-posts towering on either side, but the gates
were shattered and cast down. Aragorn smote to the ground
the captain that stood in his path, and the rest fled in terror
of his wrath. The Company swept past them and took no
heed of them. Out of the Gates they ran and sprang down
the huge and age-worn steps, the threshold of Moria.
Thus, at last, they came beyond hope under the sky and
felt the wind on their faces.
They did not halt until they were out of bowshot from the
walls. Dimrill Dale lay about them. The shadow of the Misty
Mountains lay upon it, but eastwards there was a golden light
on the land. It was but one hour after noon. The sun was
shining; the clouds were white and high.
They looked back. Dark yawned the archway of the Gates
under the mountain-shadow. Faint and far beneath the earth
rolled the slow drum-beats: doom. A thin black smoke trailed
out. Nothing else was to be seen; the dale all around was
empty. Doom. Grief at last wholly overcame them, and they
wept long: some standing and silent, some cast upon the
ground. Doom, doom. The drum-beats faded.
Chapter 6
LOTHLO
´
RIEN
‘Alas! I fear we cannot stay here longer,’ said Aragorn. He
looked towards the mountains and held up his sword. ‘Fare-
well, Gandalf !’ he cried. ‘Did I not say to you: if you pass the
doors of Moria, beware? Alas that I spoke true! What hope
have we without you?’
He turned to the Company. ‘We must do without hope,’
he said. ‘At least we may yet be avenged. Let us gird ourselves
and weep no more! Come! We have a long road, and much
to do.’
They rose and looked about them. Northward the dale ran
up into a glen of shadows between two great arms of the
mountains, above which three white peaks were shining:
Celebdil, Fanuidhol, Caradhras, the Mountains of Moria. At
the head of the glen a torrent flowed like a white lace over
an endless ladder of short falls, and a mist of foam hung in
the air about the mountains’ feet.
‘Yonder is the Dimrill Stair,’ said Aragorn, pointing to the
falls. ‘Down the deep-cloven way that climbs beside the
torrent we should have come, if fortune had been kinder.’
‘Or Caradhras less cruel,’ said Gimli. ‘There he stands
smiling in the sun!’ He shook his fist at the furthest of the
snow-capped peaks and turned away.
To the east the outflung arm of the mountains marched to
a sudden end, and far lands could be descried beyond them,
wide and vague. To the south the Misty Mountains receded
endlessly as far as sight could reach. Less than a mile away,
and a little below them, for they still stood high up on the
west side of the dale, there lay a mere. It was long and oval,
shaped like a great spear-head thrust deep into the northern
glen; but its southern end was beyond the shadows under the
434 the fellowship of the ring
sunlit sky. Yet its waters were dark: a deep blue like clear
evening sky seen from a lamp-lit room. Its face was still and
unruffled. About it lay a smooth sward, shelving down on all
sides to its bare unbroken rim.
‘There lies the Mirrormere, deep Kheled-za
ˆ
ram!’ said
Gimli sadly. ‘I remember that he said: ‘‘May you have joy of
the sight! But we cannot linger there.’’ Now long shall I
journey ere I have joy again. It is I that must hasten away,
and he that must remain.’
The Company now went down the road from the Gates.
It was rough and broken, fading to a winding track between
heather and whin that thrust amid the cracking stones. But
still it could be seen that once long ago a great paved way had
wound upwards from the lowlands to the Dwarf-kingdom. In
places there were ruined works of stone beside the path, and
mounds of green topped with slender birches, or fir-trees
sighing in the wind. An eastward bend led them hard by the
sward of Mirrormere, and there not far from the roadside
stood a single column broken at the top.
‘That is Durin’s Stone!’ cried Gimli. ‘I cannot pass without
turning aside for a moment to look at the wonder of the dale!’
‘Be swift then!’ said Aragorn, looking back towards the
Gates. ‘The Sun sinks early. The Orcs will not, maybe, come
out till after dusk, but we must be far away before nightfall.
The Moon is almost spent, and it will be dark tonight.’
‘Come with me, Frodo!’ cried the dwarf, springing from
the road. ‘I would not have you go without seeing Kheled-
za
ˆ
ram.’ He ran down the long green slope. Frodo followed
slowly, drawn by the still blue water in spite of hurt and
weariness; Sam came up behind.
Beside the standing stone Gimli halted and looked up. It
was cracked and weather-worn, and the faint runes upon its
side could not be read. ‘This pillar marks the spot where
Durin first looked in the Mirrormere,’ said the dwarf. ‘Let us
look ourselves once, ere we go!’
They stooped over the dark water. At first they could see
lothlo
´
rien 435
nothing. Then slowly they saw the forms of the encircling
mountains mirrored in a profound blue, and the peaks were
like plumes of white flame above them; beyond there was a
space of sky. There like jewels sunk in the deep shone glinting
stars, though sunlight was in the sky above. Of their own
stooping forms no shadow could be seen.
‘O Kheled-za
ˆ
ram fair and wonderful!’ said Gimli. ‘There
lies the Crown of Durin till he wakes. Farewell!’ He bowed,
and turned away, and hastened back up the greensward to
the road again.
‘What did you see?’ said Pippin to Sam, but Sam was too
deep in thought to answer.
The road now turned south and went quickly downwards,
running out from between the arms of the dale. Some way
below the mere they came on a deep well of water, clear as
crystal, from which a freshet fell over a stone lip and ran
glistening and gurgling down a steep rocky channel.
‘Here is the spring from which the Silverlode rises,’ said
Gimli. ‘Do not drink of it! It is icy cold.’
‘Soon it becomes a swift river, and it gathers water from
many other mountain-streams,’ said Aragorn. ‘Our road
leads beside it for many miles. For I shall take you by the
road that Gandalf chose, and first I hope to come to the
woods where the Silverlode flows into the Great River – out
yonder.’ They looked as he pointed, and before them they
could see the stream leaping down to the trough of the valley,
and then running on and away into the lower lands, until it
was lost in a golden haze.
‘There lie the woods of Lothlo
´
rien!’ said Legolas. ‘That is
the fairest of all the dwellings of my people. There are no
trees like the trees of that land. For in the autumn their leaves
fall not, but turn to gold. Not till the spring comes and the
new green opens do they fall, and then the boughs are laden
with yellow flowers; and the floor of the wood is golden, and
golden is the roof, and its pillars are of silver, for the bark of
the trees is smooth and grey. So still our songs in Mirkwood
436 the fellowship of the ring
say. My heart would be glad if I were beneath the eaves of
that wood, and it were springtime!’
‘My heart will be glad, even in the winter,’ said Aragorn.
‘But it lies many miles away. Let us hasten!’
For some time Frodo and Sam managed to keep up with
the others; but Aragorn was leading them at a great pace,
and after a while they lagged behind. They had eaten nothing
since the early morning. Sam’s cut was burning like fire, and
his head felt light. In spite of the shining sun the wind seemed
chill after the warm darkness of Moria. He shivered. Frodo
felt every step more painful and he gasped for breath.
At last Legolas turned, and seeing them now far behind,
he spoke to Aragorn. The others halted, and Aragorn ran
back, calling to Boromir to come with him.
‘I am sorry, Frodo!’ he cried, full of concern. ‘So much has
happened this day and we have such need of haste, that I
have forgotten that you were hurt; and Sam too. You should
have spoken. We have done nothing to ease you, as we ought,
though all the orcs of Moria were after us. Come now! A
little further on there is a place where we can rest for a little.
There I will do what I can for you. Come, Boromir! We will
carry them.’
Soon afterwards they came upon another stream that ran
down from the west, and joined its bubbling water with
the hurrying Silverlode. Together they plunged over a fall
of green-hued stone, and foamed down into a dell. About
it stood fir-trees, short and bent, and its sides were steep
and clothed with harts-tongue and shrubs of whortle-berry.
At the bottom there was a level space through which the
stream flowed noisily over shining pebbles. Here they rested.
It was now nearly three hours after noon, and they had come
only a few miles from the Gates. Already the sun was
westering.
While Gimli and the two younger hobbits kindled a fire of
brush- and fir-wood, and drew water, Aragorn tended Sam
and Frodo. Sam’s wound was not deep, but it looked ugly,
lothlo
´
rien 437
and Aragorn’s face was grave as he examined it. After a
moment he looked up with relief.
‘Good luck, Sam!’ he said. ‘Many have received worse than
this in payment for the slaying of their first orc. The cut is
not poisoned, as the wounds of orc-blades too often are. It
should heal well when I have tended it. Bathe it when Gimli
has heated water.’
He opened his pouch and drew out some withered leaves.
‘They are dry, and some of their virtue has gone,’ he said,
‘but here I have still some of the leaves of athelas that I
gathered near Weathertop. Crush one in the water, and wash
the wound clean, and I will bind it. Now it is your turn,
Frodo!’
‘I am all right,’ said Frodo, reluctant to have his garments
touched. ‘All I needed was some food and a little rest.’
‘No!’ said Aragorn. ‘We must have a look and see what
the hammer and the anvil have done to you. I still marvel
that you are alive at all.’ Gently he stripped off Frodo’s
old jacket and worn tunic, and gave a gasp of wonder.
Then he laughed. The silver corslet shimmered before his
eyes like the light upon a rippling sea. Carefully he took it
off and held it up, and the gems on it glittered like stars, and
the sound of the shaken rings was like the tinkle of rain in a
pool.
‘Look, my friends!’ he called. ‘Here’s a pretty hobbit-skin
to wrap an elven-princeling in! If it were known that hobbits
had such hides, all the hunters of Middle-earth would be
riding to the Shire.’
‘And all the arrows of all the hunters in the world would
be in vain,’ said Gimli, gazing at the mail in wonder. ‘It is a
mithril-coat. Mithril! I have never seen or heard tell of one
so fair. Is this the coat that Gandalf spoke of ? Then he
undervalued it. But it was well given!’
‘I have often wondered what you and Bilbo were doing, so
close in his little room,’ said Merry. ‘Bless the old hobbit! I
love him more than ever. I hope we get a chance of telling
him about it!’
438 the fellowship of the ring
There was a dark and blackened bruise on Frodo’s right
side and breast. Under the mail there was a shirt of soft
leather, but at one point the rings had been driven through it
into the flesh. Frodo’s left side also was scored and bruised
where he had been hurled against the wall. While the others
set the food ready, Aragorn bathed the hurts with water in
which athelas was steeped. The pungent fragrance filled the
dell, and all those who stooped over the steaming water felt
refreshed and strengthened. Soon Frodo felt the pain leave
him, and his breath grew easy: though he was stiff and sore
to the touch for many days. Aragorn bound some soft pads
of cloth at his side.
‘The mail is marvellously light,’ he said. ‘Put it on again,
if you can bear it. My heart is glad to know that you have
such a coat. Do not lay it aside, even in sleep, unless fortune
brings you where you are safe for a while; and that will seldom
chance while your quest lasts.’
When they had eaten, the Company got ready to go on.
They put out the fire and hid all traces of it. Then climbing
out of the dell they took to the road again. They had not gone
far before the sun sank behind the westward heights and great
shadows crept down the mountain-sides. Dusk veiled their
feet, and mist rose in the hollows. Away in the east the
evening light lay pale upon the dim lands of distant plain
and wood. Sam and Frodo now feeling eased and greatly
refreshed were able to go at a fair pace, and with only one
brief halt Aragorn led the Company on for nearly three more
hours.
It was dark. Deep night had fallen. There were many clear
stars, but the fast-waning moon would not be seen till late.
Gimli and Frodo were at the rear, walking softly and not
speaking, listening for any sound upon the road behind. At
length Gimli broke the silence.
‘Not a sound but the wind,’ he said. ‘There are no goblins
near, or my ears are made of wood. It is to be hoped that the
Orcs will be content with driving us from Moria. And maybe
lothlo
´
rien 439
that was all their purpose, and they had nothing else to do
with us – with the Ring. Though Orcs will often pursue foes
for many leagues into the plain, if they have a fallen captain
to avenge.’
Frodo did not answer. He looked at Sting, and the blade
was dull. Yet he had heard something, or thought he had. As
soon as the shadows had fallen about them and the road
behind was dim, he had heard again the quick patter of feet.
Even now he heard it. He turned swiftly. There were two
tiny gleams of light behind, or for a moment he thought he
saw them, but at once they slipped aside and vanished.
‘What is it?’ said the dwarf.
‘I don’t know,’ answered Frodo. ‘I thought I heard feet,
and I thought I saw a light – like eyes. I have thought so
often, since we first entered Moria.’
Gimli halted and stooped to the ground. ‘I hear nothing
but the night-speech of plant and stone,’ he said. ‘Come! Let
us hurry! The others are out of sight.’
The night-wind blew chill up the valley to meet them.
Before them a wide grey shadow loomed, and they heard an
endless rustle of leaves like poplars in the breeze.
‘Lothlo
´
rien!’ cried Legolas. ‘Lothlo
´
rien! We have come to
the eaves of the Golden Wood. Alas that it is winter!’
Under the night the trees stood tall before them, arched
over the road and stream that ran suddenly beneath their
spreading boughs. In the dim light of the stars their stems
were grey, and their quivering leaves a hint of fallow gold.
‘Lothlo
´
rien!’ said Aragorn. ‘Glad I am to hear again the
wind in the trees! We are still little more than five leagues
from the Gates, but we can go no further. Here let us hope
that the virtue of the Elves will keep us tonight from the peril
that comes behind.’
‘If Elves indeed still dwell here in the darkening world,’
said Gimli.
‘It is long since any of my own folk journeyed hither
back to the land whence we wandered in ages long ago,’
440 the fellowship of the ring
said Legolas, ‘but we hear that Lo
´
rien is not yet deserted,
for there is a secret power here that holds evil from the
land. Nevertheless its folk are seldom seen, and maybe they
dwell now deep in the woods and far from the northern
border.’
‘Indeed deep in the wood they dwell,’ said Aragorn, and
sighed as if some memory stirred in him. ‘We must fend for
ourselves tonight. We will go forward a short way, until the
trees are all about us, and then we will turn aside from the
path and seek a place to rest in.’
He stepped forward; but Boromir stood irresolute and did
not follow. ‘Is there no other way?’ he said.
‘What other fairer way would you desire?’ said Aragorn.
‘A plain road, though it led through a hedge of swords,’
said Boromir. ‘By strange paths has this Company been led,
and so far to evil fortune. Against my will we passed under
the shades of Moria, to our loss. And now we must enter the
Golden Wood, you say. But of that perilous land we have
heard in Gondor, and it is said that few come out who once
go in; and of that few none have escaped unscathed.’
‘Say not unscathed, but if you say unchanged, then maybe
you will speak the truth,’ said Aragorn. ‘But lore wanes in
Gondor, Boromir, if in the city of those who once were wise
they now speak evil of Lothlo
´
rien. Believe what you will,
there is no other way for us – unless you would go back to
Moria-gate, or scale the pathless mountains, or swim the
Great River all alone.’
‘Then lead on!’ said Boromir. ‘But it is perilous.’
‘Perilous indeed,’ said Aragorn, ‘fair and perilous; but only
evil need fear it, or those who bring some evil with them.
Follow me!’
They had gone little more than a mile into the forest when
they came upon another stream flowing down swiftly from
the tree-clad slopes that climbed back westward towards the
mountains. They heard it splashing over a fall away among
the shadows on their right. Its dark hurrying waters ran across
lothlo
´
rien 441
the path before them, and joined the Silverlode in a swirl of
dim pools among the roots of trees.
‘Here is Nimrodel!’ said Legolas. ‘Of this stream the Silvan
Elves made many songs long ago, and still we sing them in
the North, remembering the rainbow on its falls, and the
golden flowers that floated in its foam. All is dark now and
the Bridge of Nimrodel is broken down. I will bathe my feet,
for it is said that the water is healing to the weary.’ He went
forward and climbed down the deep-cloven bank and stepped
into the stream.
‘Follow me!’ he cried. ‘The water is not deep. Let us wade
across! On the further bank we can rest, and the sound of
the falling water may bring us sleep and forgetfulness of
grief.’
One by one they climbed down and followed Legolas. For
a moment Frodo stood near the brink and let the water flow
over his tired feet. It was cold but its touch was clean, and as
he went on and it mounted to his knees, he felt that the stain
of travel and all weariness was washed from his limbs.
When all the Company had crossed, they sat and rested
and ate a little food; and Legolas told them tales of Lothlo
´
rien
that the Elves of Mirkwood still kept in their hearts, of sun-
light and starlight upon the meadows by the Great River
before the world was grey.
At length a silence fell, and they heard the music of the
waterfall running sweetly in the shadows. Almost Frodo
fancied that he could hear a voice singing, mingled with
the sound of the water.
‘Do you hear the voice of Nimrodel?’ asked Legolas. ‘I will
sing you a song of the maiden Nimrodel, who bore the same
name as the stream beside which she lived long ago. It is a
fair song in our woodland tongue; but this is how it runs in
the Westron Speech, as some in Rivendell now sing it.’ In a
soft voice hardly to be heard amid the rustle of the leaves
above them he began:
442 the fellowship of the ring
An Elven-maid there was of old,
A shining star by day:
Her mantle white was hemmed with gold,
Her shoes of silver-grey.
A star was bound upon her brows,
A light was on her hair
As sun upon the golden boughs
In Lo
´
rien the fair.
Her hair was long, her limbs were white,
And fair she was and free;
And in the wind she went as light
As leaf of linden-tree.
Beside the falls of Nimrodel,
By water clear and cool,
Her voice as falling silver fell
Into the shining pool.
Where now she wanders none can tell,
In sunlight or in shade;
For lost of yore was Nimrodel
And in the mountains strayed.
The elven-ship in haven grey
Beneath the mountain-lee
Awaited her for many a day
Beside the roaring sea.
A wind by night in Northern lands
Arose, and loud it cried,
And drove the ship from elven-strands
Across the streaming tide.
lothlo
´
rien 443
When dawn came dim the land was lost,
The mountains sinking grey
Beyond the heaving waves that tossed
Their plumes of blinding spray.
Amroth beheld the fading shore
Now low beyond the swell,
And cursed the faithless ship that bore
Him far from Nimrodel.
Of old he was an Elven-king,
A lord of tree and glen,
When golden were the boughs in spring
In fair Lothlo
´
rien.
From helm to sea they saw him leap,
As arrow from the string,
And dive into the water deep,
As mew upon the wing.
The wind was in his flowing hair,
The foam about him shone;
Afar they saw him strong and fair
Go riding like a swan.
But from the West has come no word,
And on the Hither Shore
No tidings Elven-folk have heard
Of Amroth evermore.
The voice of Legolas faltered, and the song ceased. ‘I can-
not sing any more,’ he said. ‘That is but a part, for I have
forgotten much. It is long and sad, for it tells how sorrow
came upon Lothlo
´
rien, Lo
´
rien of the Blossom, when the
Dwarves awakened evil in the mountains.’
‘But the Dwarves did not make the evil,’ said Gimli.
‘I said not so; yet evil came,’ answered Legolas sadly. ‘Then
444 the fellowship of the ring
many of the Elves of Nimrodel’s kindred left their dwellings
and departed, and she was lost far in the South, in the passes
of the White Mountains; and she came not to the ship where
Amroth her lover waited for her. But in the spring when the
wind is in the new leaves the echo of her voice may still be
heard by the falls that bear her name. And when the wind is
in the South the voice of Amroth comes up from the sea; for
Nimrodel flows into Silverlode, that Elves call Celebrant, and
Celebrant into Anduin the Great, and Anduin flows into the
Bay of Belfalas whence the Elves of Lo
´
rien set sail. But
neither Nimrodel nor Amroth came ever back.
‘It is told that she had a house built in the branches of a
tree that grew near the falls; for that was the custom of the
Elves of Lo
´
rien, to dwell in the trees, and maybe it is so still.
Therefore they were called the Galadhrim, the Tree-people.
Deep in their forest the trees are very great. The people of
the woods did not delve in the ground like Dwarves, nor
build strong places of stone before the Shadow came.’
‘And even in these latter days dwelling in the trees might
be thought safer than sitting on the ground,’ said Gimli. He
looked across the stream to the road that led back to Dimrill
Dale, and then up into the roof of dark boughs above.
‘Your words bring good counsel, Gimli,’ said Aragorn.
‘We cannot build a house, but tonight we will do as the
Galadhrim and seek refuge in the tree-tops, if we can. We
have sat here beside the road already longer than was wise.’
The Company now turned aside from the path, and went
into the shadow of the deeper woods, westward along the
mountain-stream away from Silverlode. Not far from the falls
of Nimrodel they found a cluster of trees, some of which
overhung the stream. Their great grey trunks were of mighty
girth, but their height could not be guessed.
‘I will climb up,’ said Legolas. ‘I am at home among trees,
by root or bough, though these trees are of a kind strange to
me, save as a name in song. Mellyrn they are called, and are
those that bear the yellow blossom, but I have never climbed
lothlo
´
rien 445
in one. I will see now what is their shape and way of growth.’
‘Whatever it may be,’ said Pippin, ‘they will be marvellous
trees indeed if they can offer any rest at night, except to birds.
I cannot sleep on a perch!’
‘Then dig a hole in the ground,’ said Legolas, ‘if that is more
after the fashion of your kind. But you must dig swift and deep,
if you wish to hide from Orcs.’ He sprang lightly up from the
ground and caught a branch that grew from the trunk high
above his head. But even as he swung there for a moment, a
voice spoke suddenly from the tree-shadows above him.
‘Daro!’ it said in commanding tone, and Legolas dropped
back to earth in surprise and fear. He shrank against the bole
of the tree.
‘Stand still!’ he whispered to the others. ‘Do not move or
speak!’
There was a sound of soft laughter over their heads, and
then another clear voice spoke in an elven-tongue. Frodo
could understand little of what was said, for the speech that
the Silvan folk east of the mountains used among themselves
was unlike that of the West. Legolas looked up and answered
in the same language.*
‘Who are they, and what do they say?’ asked Merry.
‘They’re Elves,’ said Sam. ‘Can’t you hear their voices?’
‘Yes, they are Elves,’ said Legolas; ‘and they say that you
breathe so loud that they could shoot you in the dark.’ Sam
hastily put his hand over his mouth. ‘But they say also that
you need have no fear. They have been aware of us for a
long while. They heard my voice across the Nimrodel, and
knew that I was one of their Northern kindred, and therefore
they did not hinder our crossing; and afterwards they heard
my song. Now they bid me climb up with Frodo; for they
seem to have had some tidings of him and of our journey.
The others they ask to wait a little, and to keep watch at the
foot of the tree, until they have decided what is to be done.’
***
* See note in Appendix F: Of the Elves.
446 the fellowship of the ring
Out of the shadows a ladder was let down: it was made of
rope, silver-grey and glimmering in the dark, and though it
looked slender it proved strong enough to bear many men.
Legolas ran lightly up, and Frodo followed slowly; behind
came Sam trying not to breathe loudly. The branches of the
mallorn-tree grew out nearly straight from the trunk, and
then swept upward; but near the top the main stem divided
into a crown of many boughs, and among these they found
that there had been built a wooden platform, or flet as such
things were called in those days: the Elves called it a talan.It
was reached by a round hole in the centre through which the
ladder passed.
When Frodo came at last up on to the flet he found Legolas
seated with three other Elves. They were clad in shadowy-
grey, and could not be seen among the tree-stems, unless
they moved suddenly. They stood up, and one of them
uncovered a small lamp that gave out a slender silver beam.
He held it up, looking at Frodo’s face, and Sam’s. Then he
shut off the light again, and spoke words of welcome in his
elven-tongue. Frodo spoke haltingly in return.
‘Welcome!’ the Elf then said again in the Common Lan-
guage, speaking slowly. ‘We seldom use any tongue but our
own; for we dwell now in the heart of the forest, and do not
willingly have dealings with any other folk. Even our own
kindred in the North are sundered from us. But there are
some of us still who go abroad for the gathering of news and
the watching of our enemies, and they speak the languages
of other lands. I am one. Haldir is my name. My brothers,
Ru
´
mil and Orophin, speak little of your tongue.
‘But we have heard rumours of your coming, for the mess-
engers of Elrond passed by Lo
´
rien on their way home up the
Dimrill Stair. We had not heard of – hobbits, of halflings, for
many a long year, and did not know that any yet dwelt in
Middle-earth. You do not look evil! And since you come with
an Elf of our kindred, we are willing to befriend you, as Elrond
asked; though it is not our custom to lead strangers through
our land. But you must stay here tonight. How many are you?’
lothlo
´
rien 447
‘Eight,’ said Legolas. ‘Myself, four hobbits; and two men,
one of whom, Aragorn, is an Elf-friend of the folk of
Westernesse.’
‘The name of Aragorn son of Arathorn is known in Lo
´
rien,’
said Haldir, ‘and he has the favour of the Lady. All then is
well. But you have yet spoken only of seven.’
‘The eighth is a dwarf,’ said Legolas.
‘A dwarf !’ said Haldir. ‘That is not well. We have not had
dealings with the Dwarves since the Dark Days. They are
not permitted in our land. I cannot allow him to pass.’
‘But he is from the Lonely Mountain, one of Da
´
in’s trusty
people, and friendly to Elrond,’ said Frodo. ‘Elrond himself
chose him to be one of our companions, and he has been
brave and faithful.’
The Elves spoke together in soft voices, and questioned
Legolas in their own tongue. ‘Very good,’ said Haldir at last.
‘We will do this, though it is against our liking. If Aragorn
and Legolas will guard him, and answer for him, he shall
pass; but he must go blindfold through Lothlo
´
rien.
‘But now we must debate no longer. Your folk must not
remain on the ground. We have been keeping watch on the
rivers, ever since we saw a great troop of Orcs going north
towards Moria, along the skirts of the mountains, many days
ago. Wolves are howling on the wood’s borders. If you have
indeed come from Moria, the peril cannot be far behind.
Tomorrow early you must go on.
‘The four hobbits shall climb up here and stay with us –
we do not fear them! There is another talan in the next
tree. There the others must take refuge. You, Legolas, must
answer to us for them. Call us, if anything is amiss! And have
an eye on that dwarf !’
Legolas at once went down the ladder to take Haldir’s
message; and soon afterwards Merry and Pippin clambered
up on to the high flet. They were out of breath and seemed
rather scared.
‘There!’ said Merry panting. ‘We have lugged up your
448 the fellowship of the ring
blankets as well as our own. Strider has hidden all the rest of
our baggage in a deep drift of leaves.’
‘You had no need of your burdens,’ said Haldir. ‘It is cold
in the tree-tops in winter, though the wind tonight is in the
South; but we have food and drink to give you that will drive
away the night-chill, and we have skins and cloaks to spare.’
The hobbits accepted this second (and far better) supper
very gladly. Then they wrapped themselves warmly, not only
in the fur-cloaks of the Elves, but in their own blankets as
well, and tried to go to sleep. But weary as they were only
Sam found that easy to do. Hobbits do not like heights, and
do not sleep upstairs, even when they have any stairs. The
flet was not at all to their liking as a bedroom. It had no walls,
not even a rail; only on one side was there a light plaited
screen, which could be moved and fixed in different places
according to the wind.
Pippin went on talking for a while. ‘I hope, if I do go to
sleep in this bird-loft, that I shan’t roll off,’ he said.
‘Once I do get to sleep,’ said Sam, ‘I shall go on sleeping,
whether I roll off or no. And the less said, the sooner I’ll drop
off, if you take my meaning.’
Frodo lay for some time awake, and looked up at the stars
glinting through the pale roof of quivering leaves. Sam was
snoring at his side long before he himself closed his eyes. He
could dimly see the grey forms of two elves sitting motionless
with their arms about their knees, speaking in whispers. The
other had gone down to take up his watch on one of the lower
branches. At last lulled by the wind in the boughs above, and
the sweet murmur of the falls of Nimrodel below, Frodo fell
asleep with the song of Legolas running in his mind.
Late in the night he woke. The other hobbits were asleep.
The Elves were gone. The sickle Moon was gleaming dimly
among the leaves. The wind was still. A little way off he heard
a harsh laugh and the tread of many feet on the ground
below. There was a ring of metal. The sounds died slowly
away, and seemed to go southward, on into the wood.
lothlo
´
rien 449
A head appeared suddenly through the hole in the flet.
Frodo sat up in alarm and saw that it was a grey-hooded Elf.
He looked towards the hobbits.
‘What is it?’ said Frodo.
‘Yrch!’ said the Elf in a hissing whisper, and cast on to the
flet the rope-ladder rolled up.
‘Orcs!’ said Frodo. ‘What are they doing?’ But the Elf had
gone.
There were no more sounds. Even the leaves were silent,
and the very falls seemed to be hushed. Frodo sat and shiv-
ered in his wraps. He was thankful that they had not been
caught on the ground; but he felt that the trees offered little
protection, except concealment. Orcs were as keen as hounds
on a scent, it was said, but they could also climb. He drew
out Sting: it flashed and glittered like a blue flame; and then
slowly faded again and grew dull. In spite of the fading of his
sword the feeling of immediate danger did not leave Frodo,
rather it grew stronger. He got up and crawled to the opening
and peered down. He was almost certain that he could hear
stealthy movements at the tree’s foot far below.
Not Elves; for the woodland folk were altogether noiseless
in their movements. Then he heard faintly a sound like
sniffing; and something seemed to be scrabbling on the bark
of the tree-trunk. He stared down into the dark, holding his
breath.
Something was now climbing slowly, and its breath came
like a soft hissing through closed teeth. Then coming up,
close to the stem, Frodo saw two pale eyes. They stopped
and gazed upward unwinking. Suddenly they turned away,
and a shadowy figure slipped round the trunk of the tree and
vanished.
Immediately afterwards Haldir came climbing swiftly up
through the branches. ‘There was something in this tree that
I have never seen before,’ he said. ‘It was not an orc. It fled
as soon as I touched the tree-stem. It seemed to be wary, and
to have some skill in trees, or I might have thought that it
was one of you hobbits.
450 the fellowship of the ring
‘I did not shoot, for I dared not arouse any cries: we cannot
risk battle. A strong company of Orcs has passed. They
crossed the Nimrodel – curse their foul feet in its clean water!
– and went on down the old road beside the river. They
seemed to pick up some scent, and they searched the ground
for a while near the place where you halted. The three of us
could not challenge a hundred, so we went ahead and spoke
with feigned voices, leading them on into the wood.
‘Orophin has now gone in haste back to our dwellings to
warn our people. None of the Orcs will ever return out of
Lo
´
rien. And there will be many Elves hidden on the northern
border before another night falls. But you must take the road
south as soon as it is fully light.’
Day came pale from the East. As the light grew it filtered
through the yellow leaves of the mallorn, and it seemed to
the hobbits that the early sun of a cool summer’s morning was
shining. Pale-blue sky peeped among the moving branches.
Looking through an opening on the south side of the flet
Frodo saw all the valley of the Silverlode lying like a sea of
fallow gold tossing gently in the breeze.
The morning was still young and cold when the Company
set out again, guided now by Haldir and his brother Ru
´
mil.
‘Farewell, sweet Nimrodel!’ cried Legolas. Frodo looked back
and caught a gleam of white foam among the grey tree-stems.
‘Farewell,’ he said. It seemed to him that he would never
hear again a running water so beautiful, for ever blending its
innumerable notes in an endless changeful music.
They went back to the path that still went on along the
west side of the Silverlode, and for some way they followed
it southward. There were the prints of orc-feet in the earth.
But soon Haldir turned aside into the trees and halted on the
bank of the river under their shadows.
‘There is one of my people yonder across the stream,’ he
said, ‘though you may not see him.’ He gave a call like the
low whistle of a bird, and out of a thicket of young trees an
Elf stepped, clad in grey, but with his hood thrown back; his
lothlo
´
rien 451
hair glinted like gold in the morning sun. Haldir skilfully cast
over the stream a coil of grey rope, and he caught it and
bound the end about a tree near the bank.
‘Celebrant is already a strong stream here, as you see,’ said
Haldir, ‘and it runs both swift and deep, and is very cold. We
do not set foot in it so far north, unless we must. But in these
days of watchfulness we do not make bridges. This is how
we cross! Follow me!’ He made his end of the rope fast about
another tree, and then ran lightly along it, over the river and
back again, as if he were on a road.
‘I can walk this path,’ said Legolas; ‘but the others have
not this skill. Must they swim?’
‘No!’ said Haldir. ‘We have two more ropes. We will fasten
them above the other, one shoulder-high, and another half-
high, and holding these the strangers should be able to cross
with care.’
When this slender bridge had been made, the Company
passed over, some cautiously and slowly, others more easily.
Of the hobbits Pippin proved the best for he was sure-footed,
and he walked over quickly, holding only with one hand; but
he kept his eyes on the bank ahead and did not look down.
Sam shuffled along, clutching hard, and looking down into
the pale eddying water as if it was a chasm in the mountains.
He breathed with relief when he was safely across. ‘Live
and learn! as my gaffer used to say. Though he was thinking
of gardening, not of roosting like a bird, nor of trying to walk
like a spider. Not even my uncle Andy ever did a trick like
that!’
When at length all the Company was gathered on the east
bank of the Silverlode, the Elves untied the ropes and coiled
two of them. Ru
´
mil, who had remained on the other side,
drew back the last one, slung it on his shoulder, and with a
wave of his hand went away, back to Nimrodel to keep watch.
‘Now, friends,’ said Haldir, ‘you have entered the Naith of
Lo
´
rien, or the Gore, as you would say, for it is the land
that lies like a spearhead between the arms of Silverlode and
Anduin the Great. We allow no strangers to spy out the
452 the fellowship of the ring
secrets of the Naith. Few indeed are permitted even to set
foot there.
‘As was agreed, I shall here blindfold the eyes of Gimli the
Dwarf. The others may walk free for a while, until we come
nearer to our dwellings, down in Egladil, in the Angle between
the waters.’
This was not at all to the liking of Gimli. ‘The agreement was
made without my consent,’ he said. ‘I will not walk blindfold,
like a beggar or a prisoner. And I am no spy. My folk have never
had dealings with any of the servants of the Enemy. Neither
have we done harm to the Elves. I am no more likely to betray
you than Legolas, or any other of my companions.’
‘I do not doubt you,’ said Haldir. ‘Yet this is our law. I am
not the master of the law, and cannot set it aside. I have done
much in letting you set foot over Celebrant.’
Gimli was obstinate. He planted his feet firmly apart, and
laid his hand upon the haft of his axe. ‘I will go forward free,’
he said, ‘or I will go back and seek my own land, where I
am known to be true of word, though I perish alone in the
wilderness.’
‘You cannot go back,’ said Haldir sternly. ‘Now you have
come thus far, you must be brought before the Lord and the
Lady. They shall judge you, to hold you or to give you leave,
as they will. You cannot cross the rivers again, and behind
you there are now secret sentinels that you cannot pass. You
would be slain before you saw them.’
Gimli drew his axe from his belt. Haldir and his companion
bent their bows. ‘A plague on Dwarves and their stiff necks!’
said Legolas.
‘Come!’ said Aragorn. ‘If I am still to lead this Company,
you must do as I bid. It is hard upon the Dwarf to be thus
singled out. We will all be blindfold, even Legolas. That will
be best, though it will make the journey slow and dull.’
Gimli laughed suddenly. ‘A merry troop of fools we shall
look! Will Haldir lead us all on a string, like many blind
beggars with one dog? But I will be content, if only Legolas
here shares my blindness.’
lothlo
´
rien 453
‘I am an Elf and a kinsman here,’ said Legolas, becoming
angry in his turn.
‘Now let us cry: ‘‘a plague on the stiff necks of Elves!’’ ’
said Aragorn. ‘But the Company shall all fare alike. Come,
bind our eyes, Haldir!’
‘I shall claim full amends for every fall and stubbed toe, if
you do not lead us well,’ said Gimli as they bound a cloth
about his eyes.
‘You will have no claim,’ said Haldir. ‘I shall lead you well,
and the paths are smooth and straight.’
‘Alas for the folly of these days!’ said Legolas. ‘Here all are
enemies of the one Enemy, and yet I must walk blind, while
the sun is merry in the woodland under leaves of gold!’
‘Folly it may seem,’ said Haldir. ‘Indeed in nothing is the
power of the Dark Lord more clearly shown than in the
estrangement that divides all those who still oppose him. Yet
so little faith and trust do we find now in the world beyond
Lothlo
´
rien, unless maybe in Rivendell, that we dare not by
our own trust endanger our land. We live now upon an island
amid many perils, and our hands are more often upon the
bowstring than upon the harp.
‘The rivers long defended us, but they are a sure guard no
more; for the Shadow has crept northward all about us. Some
speak of departing, yet for that it already seems too late. The
mountains to the west are growing evil; to the east the lands
are waste, and full of Sauron’s creatures; and it is rumoured
that we cannot now safely pass southward through Rohan,
and the mouths of the Great River are watched by the Enemy.
Even if we could come to the shores of the Sea, we should
find no longer any shelter there. It is said that there are still
havens of the High Elves, but they are far north and west,
beyond the land of the Halflings. But where that may be,
though the Lord and Lady may know, I do not.’
‘You ought at least to guess, since you have seen us,’ said
Merry. ‘There are Elf-havens west of my land, the Shire,
where Hobbits live.’
‘Happy folk are Hobbits to dwell near the shores of the
454 the fellowship of the ring
sea!’ said Haldir. ‘It is long indeed since any of my folk have
looked on it, yet still we remember it in song. Tell me of these
havens as we walk.’
‘I cannot,’ said Merry. ‘I have never seen them. I have
never been out of my own land before. And if I had known
what the world outside was like, I don’t think I should have
had the heart to leave it.’
‘Not even to see fair Lothlo
´
rien?’ said Haldir. ‘The world
is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places;
but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love
is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.
‘Some there are among us who sing that the Shadow will
draw back, and peace shall come again. Yet I do not believe
that the world about us will ever again be as it was of old, or
the light of the Sun as it was aforetime. For the Elves, I fear,
it will prove at best a truce, in which they may pass to the
Sea unhindered and leave the Middle-earth for ever. Alas for
Lothlo
´
rien that I love! It would be a poor life in a land where
no mallorn grew. But if there are mallorn-trees beyond the
Great Sea, none have reported it.’
As they spoke thus, the Company filed slowly along the
paths in the wood, led by Haldir, while the other Elf walked
behind. They felt the ground beneath their feet smooth and
soft, and after a while they walked more freely, without fear
of hurt or fall. Being deprived of sight, Frodo found his
hearing and other senses sharpened. He could smell the trees
and the trodden grass. He could hear many different notes
in the rustle of the leaves overhead, the river murmuring
away on his right, and the thin clear voices of birds high in
the sky. He felt the sun upon his face and hands when they
passed through an open glade.
As soon as he set foot upon the far bank of Silverlode a
strange feeling had come upon him, and it deepened as he
walked on into the Naith: it seemed to him that he had
stepped over a bridge of time into a corner of the Elder
Days, and was now walking in a world that was no more. In
Rivendell there was memory of ancient things; in Lo
´
rien the
lothlo
´
rien 455
ancient things still lived on in the waking world. Evil had
been seen and heard there, sorrow had been known; the Elves
feared and distrusted the world outside: wolves were howling
on the wood’s borders: but on the land of Lo
´
rien no shadow
lay.
All that day the Company marched on, until they felt the
cool evening come and heard the early night-wind whispering
among many leaves. Then they rested and slept without fear
upon the ground; for their guides would not permit them to
unbind their eyes, and they could not climb. In the morning
they went on again, walking without haste. At noon they
halted, and Frodo was aware that they had passed out under
the shining Sun. Suddenly he heard the sound of many voices
all around him.
A marching host of Elves had come up silently: they were
hastening towards the northern borders to guard against any
attack from Moria; and they brought news, some of which
Haldir reported. The marauding orcs had been waylaid and
almost all destroyed; the remnant had fled westward towards
the mountains, and were being pursued. A strange creature
also had been seen, running with bent back and with hands
near the ground, like a beast and yet not of beast-shape. It
had eluded capture, and they had not shot it, not knowing
whether it was good or ill, and it had vanished down the
Silverlode southward.
‘Also,’ said Haldir, ‘they bring me a message from the Lord
and Lady of the Galadhrim. You are all to walk free, even
the dwarf Gimli. It seems that the Lady knows who and what
is each member of your Company. New messages have come
from Rivendell perhaps.’
He removed the bandage first from Gimli’s eyes. ‘Your
pardon!’ he said, bowing low. ‘Look on us now with friendly
eyes! Look and be glad, for you are the first dwarf to behold
the trees of the Naith of Lo
´
rien since Durin’s Day!’
When his eyes were in turn uncovered, Frodo looked up
and caught his breath. They were standing in an open space.
456 the fellowship of the ring
To the left stood a great mound, covered with a sward of
grass as green as Springtime in the Elder Days. Upon it, as
a double crown, grew two circles of trees: the outer had bark
of snowy white, and were leafless but beautiful in their
shapely nakedness; the inner were mallorn-trees of great
height, still arrayed in pale gold. High amid the branches of
a towering tree that stood in the centre of all there gleamed
a white flet. At the feet of the trees, and all about the green
hillsides the grass was studded with small golden flowers
shaped like stars. Among them, nodding on slender stalks,
were other flowers, white and palest green: they glimmered
as a mist amid the rich hue of the grass. Over all the sky was
blue, and the sun of afternoon glowed upon the hill and cast
long green shadows beneath the trees.
‘Behold! You are come to Cerin Amroth,’ said Haldir. ‘For
this is the heart of the ancient realm as it was long ago, and
here is the mound of Amroth, where in happier days his high
house was built. Here ever bloom the winter flowers in the
unfading grass: the yellow elanor, and the pale niphredil. Here
we will stay awhile, and come to the city of the Galadhrim
at dusk.’
The others cast themselves down upon the fragrant grass,
but Frodo stood awhile still lost in wonder. It seemed to him
that he had stepped through a high window that looked on a
vanished world. A light was upon it for which his language
had no name. All that he saw was shapely, but the shapes
seemed at once clear cut, as if they had been first conceived
and drawn at the uncovering of his eyes, and ancient as if
they had endured for ever. He saw no colour but those he
knew, gold and white and blue and green, but they were fresh
and poignant, as if he had at that moment first perceived
them and made for them names new and wonderful. In winter
here no heart could mourn for summer or for spring. No
blemish or sickness or deformity could be seen in anything
that grew upon the earth. On the land of Lo
´
rien there was
no stain.
lothlo
´
rien 457
He turned and saw that Sam was now standing beside him,
looking round with a puzzled expression, and rubbing his
eyes as if he was not sure that he was awake. ‘It’s sunlight
and bright day, right enough,’ he said. ‘I thought that Elves
were all for moon and stars: but this is more Elvish than
anything I ever heard tell of. I feel as if I was inside a song, if
you take my meaning.’
Haldir looked at them, and he seemed indeed to take the
meaning of both thought and word. He smiled. ‘You feel the
power of the Lady of the Galadhrim,’ he said. ‘Would it
please you to climb with me up Cerin Amroth?’
They followed him as he stepped lightly up the grass-clad
slopes. Though he walked and breathed, and about him living
leaves and flowers were stirred by the same cool wind as
fanned his face, Frodo felt that he was in a timeless land that
did not fade or change or fall into forgetfulness. When he
had gone and passed again into the outer world, still Frodo
the wanderer from the Shire would walk there, upon the grass
among elanor and niphredil in fair Lothlo
´
rien.
They entered the circle of white trees. As they did so the
South Wind blew upon Cerin Amroth and sighed among the
branches. Frodo stood still, hearing far off great seas upon
beaches that had long ago been washed away, and sea-birds
crying whose race had perished from the earth.
Haldir had gone on and was now climbing to the high flet.
As Frodo prepared to follow him, he laid his hand upon the
tree beside the ladder: never before had he been so suddenly
and so keenly aware of the feel and texture of a tree’s skin
and of the life within it. He felt a delight in wood and the
touch of it, neither as forester nor as carpenter; it was the
delight of the living tree itself.
As he stepped out at last upon the lofty platform, Haldir
took his hand and turned him towards the South. ‘Look this
way first!’ he said.
Frodo looked and saw, still at some distance, a hill of many
mighty trees, or a city of green towers: which it was he could
not tell. Out of it, it seemed to him that the power and light
458 the fellowship of the ring
came that held all the land in sway. He longed suddenly to
fly like a bird to rest in the green city. Then he looked east-
ward and saw all the land of Lo
´
rien running down to the pale
gleam of Anduin, the Great River. He lifted his eyes across
the river and all the light went out, and he was back again in
the world he knew. Beyond the river the land appeared flat
and empty, formless and vague, until far away it rose again
like a wall, dark and drear. The sun that lay on Lothlo
´
rien
had no power to enlighten the shadow of that distant height.
‘There lies the fastness of Southern Mirkwood,’ said
Haldir. ‘It is clad in a forest of dark fir, where the trees strive
one against another and their branches rot and wither. In the
midst upon a stony height stands Dol Guldur, where long
the hidden Enemy had his dwelling. We fear that now it is
inhabited again, and with power sevenfold. A black cloud lies
often over it of late. In this high place you may see the two
powers that are opposed one to another; and ever they strive
now in thought, but whereas the light perceives the very heart
of the darkness, its own secret has not been discovered. Not
yet.’ He turned and climbed swiftly down, and they followed
him.
At the hill’s foot Frodo found Aragorn, standing still and
silent as a tree; but in his hand was a small golden bloom of
elanor, and a light was in his eyes. He was wrapped in some
fair memory: and as Frodo looked at him he knew that he
beheld things as they once had been in this same place. For
the grim years were removed from the face of Aragorn, and
he seemed clothed in white, a young lord tall and fair; and
he spoke words in the Elvish tongue to one whom Frodo
could not see. Arwen vanimelda, nama
´
rie
¨
! he said, and then
he drew a breath, and returning out of his thought he looked
at Frodo and smiled.
‘Here is the heart of Elvendom on earth,’ he said, ‘and here
my heart dwells ever, unless there be a light beyond the dark
roads that we still must tread, you and I. Come with me!’
And taking Frodo’s hand in his, he left the hill of Cerin
Amroth and came there never again as living man.
Chapter 7
THE MIRROR OF GALADRIEL
The sun was sinking behind the mountains, and the shadows
were deepening in the woods, when they went on again.
Their paths now went into thickets where the dusk had
already gathered. Night came beneath the trees as they
walked, and the Elves uncovered their silver lamps.
Suddenly they came out into the open again and found
themselves under a pale evening sky pricked by a few early
stars. There was a wide treeless space before them, running
in a great circle and bending away on either hand. Beyond it
was a deep fosse lost in soft shadow, but the grass upon its
brink was green, as if it glowed still in memory of the sun
that had gone. Upon the further side there rose to a great
height a green wall encircling a green hill thronged with
mallorn-trees taller than any they had yet seen in all the
land. Their height could not be guessed, but they stood
up in the twilight like living towers. In their many-tiered
branches and amid their ever-moving leaves countless lights
were gleaming, green and gold and silver. Haldir turned
towards the Company.
‘Welcome to Caras Galadhon!’ he said. ‘Here is the city of
the Galadhrim where dwell the Lord Celeborn and Galadriel
the Lady of Lo
´
rien. But we cannot enter here, for the gates
do not look northward. We must go round to the southern
side, and the way is not short, for the city is great.’
There was a road paved with white stone running on the
outer brink of the fosse. Along this they went westward, with
the city ever climbing up like a green cloud upon their left;
and as the night deepened more lights sprang forth, until all
the hill seemed afire with stars. They came at last to a white
460 the fellowship of the ring
bridge, and crossing found the great gates of the city: they
faced south-west, set between the ends of the encircling wall
that here overlapped, and they were tall and strong, and hung
with many lamps.
Haldir knocked and spoke, and the gates opened sound-
lessly; but of guards Frodo could see no sign. The travellers
passed within, and the gates shut behind them. They were in
a deep lane between the ends of the wall, and passing quickly
through it they entered the City of the Trees. No folk could
they see, nor hear any feet upon the paths; but there were
many voices, about them, and in the air above. Far away up
on the hill they could hear the sound of singing falling from
on high like soft rain upon leaves.
They went along many paths and climbed many stairs,
until they came to the high places and saw before them amid
a wide lawn a fountain shimmering. It was lit by silver lamps
that swung from the boughs of trees, and it fell into a basin
of silver, from which a white stream spilled. Upon the south
side of the lawn there stood the mightiest of all the trees; its
great smooth bole gleamed like grey silk, and up it towered,
until its first branches, far above, opened their huge limbs
under shadowy clouds of leaves. Beside it a broad white
ladder stood, and at its foot three Elves were seated. They
sprang up as the travellers approached, and Frodo saw that
they were tall and clad in grey mail, and from their shoulders
hung long white cloaks.
‘Here dwell Celeborn and Galadriel,’ said Haldir. ‘It is their
wish that you should ascend and speak with them.’
One of the Elf-wardens then blew a clear note on a small
horn, and it was answered three times from far above. ‘I will
go first,’ said Haldir. ‘Let Frodo come next and with him
Legolas. The others may follow as they wish. It is a long
climb for those that are not accustomed to such stairs, but
you may rest upon the way.’
As he climbed slowly up Frodo passed many flets: some
on one side, some on another, and some set about the bole
the mirror of galadriel 461
of the tree, so that the ladder passed through them. At a great
height above the ground he came to a wide talan, like the
deck of a great ship. On it was built a house, so large that
almost it would have served for a hall of Men upon the
earth. He entered behind Haldir, and found that he was in a
chamber of oval shape, in the midst of which grew the trunk
of the great mallorn, now tapering towards its crown, and yet
making still a pillar of wide girth.
The chamber was filled with a soft light; its walls were
green and silver and its roof of gold. Many Elves were seated
there. On two chairs beneath the bole of the tree and canopied
by a living bough there sat, side by side, Celeborn and
Galadriel. They stood up to greet their guests, after the
manner of Elves, even those who were accounted mighty
kings. Very tall they were, and the Lady no less tall than the
Lord; and they were grave and beautiful. They were clad
wholly in white; and the hair of the Lady was of deep gold,
and the hair of the Lord Celeborn was of silver long and
bright; but no sign of age was upon them, unless it were in
the depths of their eyes; for these were keen as lances in the
starlight, and yet profound, the wells of deep memory.
Haldir led Frodo before them, and the Lord welcomed him
in his own tongue. The Lady Galadriel said no word but
looked long upon his face.
‘Sit now beside my chair, Frodo of the Shire!’ said Cele-
born. ‘When all have come we will speak together.’
Each of the companions he greeted courteously by name
as they entered. ‘Welcome Aragorn son of Arathorn!’ he said.
‘It is eight and thirty years of the world outside since you
came to this land; and those years lie heavy on you. But the
end is near, for good or ill. Here lay aside your burden for a
while!’
‘Welcome son of Thranduil! Too seldom do my kindred
journey hither from the North.’
‘Welcome Gimli son of Glo
´
in! It is long indeed since we
saw one of Durin’s folk in Caras Galadhon. But today we
have broken our long law. May it be a sign that though the
462 the fellowship of the ring
world is now dark better days are at hand, and that friendship
shall be renewed between our peoples.’ Gimli bowed low.
When all the guests were seated before his chair the Lord
looked at them again. ‘Here there are eight,’ he said. ‘Nine
were to set out: so said the messages. But maybe there has
been some change of counsel that we have not heard. Elrond
is far away, and darkness gathers between us, and all this year
the shadows have grown longer.’
‘Nay, there was no change of counsel,’ said the Lady
Galadriel, speaking for the first time. Her voice was clear and
musical, but deeper than woman’s wont. ‘Gandalf the Grey
set out with the Company, but he did not pass the borders
of this land. Now tell us where he is; for I much desired to
speak with him again. But I cannot see him from afar, unless
he comes within the fences of Lothlo
´
rien: a grey mist is about
him, and the ways of his feet and of his mind are hidden
from me.’
‘Alas!’ said Aragorn. ‘Gandalf the Grey fell into shadow.
He remained in Moria and did not escape.’
At these words all the Elves in the hall cried aloud in grief
and amazement. ‘These are evil tidings,’ said Celeborn, ‘the
most evil that have been spoken here in long years full of
grievous deeds.’ He turned to Haldir. ‘Why has nothing of
this been told to me before?’ he asked in the elven-tongue.
‘We have not spoken to Haldir of our deeds or our pur-
pose,’ said Legolas. ‘At first we were weary and danger was
too close behind; and afterwards we almost forgot our grief
for a time, as we walked in gladness on the fair paths of
Lo
´
rien.’
‘Yet our grief is great and our loss cannot be mended,’ said
Frodo. ‘Gandalf was our guide, and he led us through Moria;
and when our escape seemed beyond hope he saved us, and
he fell.’
‘Tell us now the full tale!’ said Celeborn.
Then Aragorn recounted all that had happened upon the
pass of Caradhras, and in the days that followed; and he
the mirror of galadriel 463
spoke of Balin and his book, and the fight in the Chamber
of Mazarbul, and the fire, and the narrow bridge, and the
coming of the Terror. ‘An evil of the Ancient World it
seemed, such as I have never seen before,’ said Aragorn. ‘It
was both a shadow and a flame, strong and terrible.’
‘It was a Balrog of Morgoth,’ said Legolas; ‘of all elf-banes
the most deadly, save the One who sits in the Dark Tower.’
‘Indeed I saw upon the bridge that which haunts our dark-
est dreams, I saw Durin’s Bane,’ said Gimli in a low voice,
and dread was in his eyes.
‘Alas!’ said Celeborn. ‘We long have feared that under
Caradhras a terror slept. But had I known that the Dwarves
had stirred up this evil in Moria again, I would have forbidden
you to pass the northern borders, you and all that went with
you. And if it were possible, one would say that at the last
Gandalf fell from wisdom into folly, going needlessly into the
net of Moria.’
‘He would be rash indeed that said that thing,’ said
Galadriel gravely. ‘Needless were none of the deeds of
Gandalf in life. Those that followed him knew not his mind
and cannot report his full purpose. But however it may be
with the guide, the followers are blameless. Do not repent
of your welcome to the Dwarf. If our folk had been exiled
long and far from Lothlo
´
rien, who of the Galadhrim, even
Celeborn the Wise, would pass nigh and would not wish to
look upon their ancient home, though it had become an abode
of dragons?
‘Dark is the water of Kheled-za
ˆ
ram, and cold are the
springs of Kibil-na
ˆ
la, and fair were the many-pillared halls of
Khazad-du
ˆ
m in Elder Days before the fall of mighty kings
beneath the stone.’ She looked upon Gimli, who sat glowering
and sad, and she smiled. And the Dwarf, hearing the names
given in his own ancient tongue, looked up and met her eyes;
and it seemed to him that he looked suddenly into the heart
of an enemy and saw there love and understanding. Wonder
came into his face, and then he smiled in answer.
He rose clumsily and bowed in dwarf-fashion, saying: ‘Yet
464 the fellowship of the ring
more fair is the living land of Lo
´
rien, and the Lady Galadriel
is above all the jewels that lie beneath the earth!’
There was a silence. At length Celeborn spoke again. ‘I did
not know that your plight was so evil,’ he said. ‘Let Gimli
forget my harsh words: I spoke in the trouble of my heart. I
will do what I can to aid you, each according to his wish and
need, but especially that one of the little folk who bears the
burden.’
‘Your quest is known to us,’ said Galadriel, looking at
Frodo. ‘But we will not here speak of it more openly. Yet not
in vain will it prove, maybe, that you came to this land seeking
aid, as Gandalf himself plainly purposed. For the Lord of the
Galadhrim is accounted the wisest of the Elves of Middle-
earth, and a giver of gifts beyond the power of kings. He has
dwelt in the West since the days of dawn, and I have dwelt
with him years uncounted; for ere the fall of Nargothrond or
Gondolin I passed over the mountains, and together through
ages of the world we have fought the long defeat.
‘I it was who first summoned the White Council. And if
my designs had not gone amiss, it would have been governed
by Gandalf the Grey, and then mayhap things would have
gone otherwise. But even now there is hope left. I will not
give you counsel, saying do this, or do that. For not in doing
or contriving, nor in choosing between this course and
another, can I avail; but only in knowing what was and is,
and in part also what shall be. But this I will say to you: your
Quest stands upon the edge of a knife. Stray but a little and
it will fail, to the ruin of all. Yet hope remains while all the
Company is true.’
And with that word she held them with her eyes, and in
silence looked searchingly at each of them in turn. None save
Legolas and Aragorn could long endure her glance. Sam
quickly blushed and hung his head.
At length the Lady Galadriel released them from her eyes,
and she smiled. ‘Do not let your hearts be troubled,’ she said.
‘Tonight you shall sleep in peace.’ Then they sighed and felt
the mirror of galadriel 465
suddenly weary, as those who have been questioned long and
deeply, though no words had been spoken openly.
‘Go now!’ said Celeborn. ‘You are worn with sorrow and
much toil. Even if your Quest did not concern us closely, you
should have refuge in this City, until you were healed and
refreshed. Now you shall rest, and we will not speak of your
further road for a while.’
That night the Company slept upon the ground, much to
the satisfaction of the hobbits. The Elves spread for them a
pavilion among the trees near the fountain, and in it they laid
soft couches; then speaking words of peace with fair Elvish
voices they left them. For a little while the travellers talked of
their night before in the tree-tops, and of their day’s journey,
and of the Lord and Lady; for they had not yet the heart to
look further back.
‘What did you blush for, Sam?’ said Pippin. ‘You soon
broke down. Anyone would have thought you had a guilty
conscience. I hope it was nothing worse than a wicked plot
to steal one of my blankets.’
‘I never thought no such thing,’ answered Sam, in no mood
for jest. ‘If you want to know, I felt as if I hadn’t got nothing
on, and I didn’t like it. She seemed to be looking inside me
and asking me what I would do if she gave me the chance of
flying back home to the Shire to a nice little hole with – with
a bit of garden of my own.’
‘That’s funny,’ said Merry. ‘Almost exactly what I felt
myself; only, only well, I don’t think I’ll say any more,’ he
ended lamely.
All of them, it seemed, had fared alike: each had felt that
he was offered a choice between a shadow full of fear that
lay ahead, and something that he greatly desired: clear before
his mind it lay, and to get it he had only to turn aside from
the road and leave the Quest and the war against Sauron to
others.
‘And it seemed to me, too,’ said Gimli, ‘that my choice
would remain secret and known only to myself.’
466 the fellowship of the ring
‘To me it seemed exceedingly strange,’ said Boromir.
‘Maybe it was only a test, and she thought to read our
thoughts for her own good purpose; but almost I should
have said that she was tempting us, and offering what she
pretended to have the power to give. It need not be said that
I refused to listen. The Men of Minas Tirith are true to their
word.’ But what he thought that the Lady had offered him
Boromir did not tell.
And as for Frodo, he would not speak, though Boromir
pressed him with questions. ‘She held you long in her gaze,
Ring-bearer,’ he said.
‘Yes,’ said Frodo; ‘but whatever came into my mind then
I will keep there.’
‘Well, have a care!’ said Boromir. ‘I do not feel too sure of
this Elvish Lady and her purposes.’
‘Speak no evil of the Lady Galadriel!’ said Aragorn sternly.
‘You know not what you say. There is in her and in this land
no evil, unless a man bring it hither himself. Then let him
beware! But tonight I shall sleep without fear for the first time
since I left Rivendell. And may I sleep deep, and forget for a
while my grief ! I am weary in body and in heart.’ He cast
himself down upon his couch and fell at once into a long
sleep.
The others soon did the same, and no sound or dream
disturbed their slumber. When they woke they found that the
light of day was broad upon the lawn before the pavilion, and
the fountain rose and fell glittering in the sun.
They remained some days in Lothlo
´
rien, so far as they
could tell or remember. All the while that they dwelt there
the sun shone clear, save for a gentle rain that fell at times,
and passed away leaving all things fresh and clean. The air
was cool and soft, as if it were early spring, yet they felt about
them the deep and thoughtful quiet of winter. It seemed to
them that they did little but eat and drink and rest, and walk
among the trees; and it was enough.
They had not seen the Lord and Lady again, and they had
the mirror of galadriel 467
little speech with the Elven-folk; for few of these knew or
would use the Westron tongue. Haldir had bidden them fare-
well and gone back again to the fences of the North, where
great watch was now kept since the tidings of Moria that the
Company had brought. Legolas was away much among the
Galadhrim, and after the first night he did not sleep with
the other companions, though he returned to eat and talk
with them. Often he took Gimli with him when he went
abroad in the land, and the others wondered at this change.
Now as the companions sat or walked together they spoke
of Gandalf, and all that each had known and seen of him
came clear before their minds. As they were healed of hurt
and weariness of body the grief of their loss grew more keen.
Often they heard nearby Elvish voices singing, and knew that
they were making songs of lamentation for his fall, for they
caught his name among the sweet sad words that they could
not understand.
Mithrandir, Mithrandir sang the Elves, O Pilgrim Grey! For
so they loved to call him. But if Legolas was with the Com-
pany, he would not interpret the songs for them, saying that
he had not the skill, and that for him the grief was still too
near, a matter for tears and not yet for song.
It was Frodo who first put something of his sorrow into
halting words. He was seldom moved to make song or rhyme;
even in Rivendell he had listened and had not sung himself,
though his memory was stored with many things that others
had made before him. But now as he sat beside the fountain
in Lo
´
rien and heard about him the voices of the Elves, his
thought took shape in a song that seemed fair to him; yet
when he tried to repeat it to Sam only snatches remained,
faded as a handful of withered leaves.
When evening in the Shire was grey
his footsteps on the Hill were heard;
before the dawn he went away
on journey long without a word.
468 the fellowship of the ring
From Wilderland to Western shore,
from northern waste to southern hill,
through dragon-lair and hidden door
and darkling woods he walked at will.
With Dwarf and Hobbit, Elves and Men,
with mortal and immortal folk,
with bird on bough and beast in den,
in their own secret tongues he spoke.
A deadly sword, a healing hand,
a back that bent beneath its load;
a trumpet-voice, a burning brand,
a weary pilgrim on the road.
A lord of wisdom throned he sat,
swift in anger, quick to laugh;
an old man in a battered hat
who leaned upon a thorny staff.
He stood upon the bridge alone
and Fire and Shadow both defied;
his staff was broken on the stone,
in Khazad-du
ˆ
m his wisdom died.
‘Why, you’ll be beating Mr. Bilbo next!’ said Sam.
‘No, I am afraid not,’ said Frodo. ‘But that is the best I
can do yet.’
‘Well, Mr. Frodo, if you do have another go, I hope you’ll
say a word about his fireworks,’ said Sam. ‘Something like
this:
The finest rockets ever seen:
they burst in stars of blue and green,
or after thunder golden showers
came falling like a rain of flowers.
the mirror of galadriel 469
Though that doesn’t do them justice by a long road.’
‘No, I’ll leave that to you, Sam. Or perhaps to Bilbo.
But – well, I can’t talk of it any more. I can’t bear to think
of bringing the news to him.’
One evening Frodo and Sam were walking together in
the cool twilight. Both of them felt restless again. On Frodo
suddenly the shadow of parting had fallen: he knew somehow
that the time was very near when he must leave Lothlo
´
rien.
‘What do you think of Elves now, Sam?’ he said. ‘I asked
you the same question once before – it seems a very long
while ago; but you have seen more of them since then.’
‘I have indeed!’ said Sam. ‘And I reckon there’s Elves and
Elves. They’re all Elvish enough, but they’re not all the same.
Now these folk aren’t wanderers or homeless, and seem a bit
nearer to the likes of us: they seem to belong here, more even
than Hobbits do in the Shire. Whether they’ve made the land,
or the land’s made them, it’s hard to say, if you take my
meaning. It’s wonderfully quiet here. Nothing seems to be
going on, and nobody seems to want it to. If there’s any
magic about, it’s right down deep, where I can’t lay my hands
on it, in a manner of speaking.’
‘You can see and feel it everywhere,’ said Frodo.
‘Well,’ said Sam, ‘you can’t see nobody working it. No
fireworks like poor old Gandalf used to show. I wonder we
don’t see nothing of the Lord and Lady in all these days.
I fancy now that she could do some wonderful things, if
she had a mind. I’d dearly love to see some Elf-magic, Mr.
Frodo!’
‘I wouldn’t,’ said Frodo. ‘I am content. And I don’t miss
Gandalf ’s fireworks, but his bushy eyebrows, and his quick
temper, and his voice.’
‘You’re right,’ said Sam. ‘And don’t think I’m finding fault.
I’ve often wanted to see a bit of magic like what it tells of in
old tales, but I’ve never heard of a better land than this. It’s
like being at home and on a holiday at the same time, if you
understand me. I don’t want to leave. All the same, I’m
470 the fellowship of the ring
beginning to feel that if we’ve got to go on, then we’d best
get it over.
‘It’s the job that’s never started as takes longest to finish,as
my old gaffer used to say. And I don’t reckon that these folk
can do much more to help us, magic or no. It’s when we leave
this land that we shall miss Gandalf worse, I’m thinking.’
‘I am afraid that’s only too true, Sam,’ said Frodo. ‘Yet I
hope very much that before we leave we shall see the Lady
of the Elves again.’
Even as he spoke, they saw, as if she came in answer to
their words, the Lady Galadriel approaching. Tall and white
and fair she walked beneath the trees. She spoke no word,
but beckoned to them.
Turning aside, she led them towards the southern slopes
of the hill of Caras Galadhon, and passing through a high
green hedge they came into an enclosed garden. No trees
grew there, and it lay open to the sky. The evening star had
risen and was shining with white fire above the western
woods. Down a long flight of steps the Lady went into the
deep green hollow, through which ran murmuring the silver
stream that issued from the fountain on the hill. At the
bottom, upon a low pedestal carved like a branching tree,
stood a basin of silver, wide and shallow, and beside it stood
a silver ewer.
With water from the stream Galadriel filled the basin to
the brim, and breathed on it, and when the water was still
again she spoke. ‘Here is the Mirror of Galadriel,’ she said.
‘I have brought you here so that you may look in it, if you
will.’
The air was very still, and the dell was dark, and the Elf-
lady beside him was tall and pale. ‘What shall we look for,
and what shall we see?’ asked Frodo, filled with awe.
‘Many things I can command the Mirror to reveal,’ she
answered, ‘and to some I can show what they desire to see.
But the Mirror will also show things unbidden, and those are
often stranger and more profitable than things which we wish
to behold. What you will see, if you leave the Mirror free to
the mirror of galadriel 471
work, I cannot tell. For it shows things that were, and things
that are, and things that yet may be. But which it is that he
sees, even the wisest cannot always tell. Do you wish to look?’
Frodo did not answer.
‘And you?’ she said, turning to Sam. ‘For this is what your
folk would call magic, I believe; though I do not understand
clearly what they mean; and they seem to use the same word
of the deceits of the Enemy. But this, if you will, is the
magic of Galadriel. Did you not say that you wished to see
Elf-magic?’
‘I did,’ said Sam, trembling a little between fear and curi-
osity. ‘I’ll have a peep, Lady, if you’re willing.
‘And I’d not mind a glimpse of what’s going on at home,’
he said in an aside to Frodo. ‘It seems a terrible long time
that I’ve been away. But there, like as not I’ll only see the
stars, or something that I won’t understand.’
‘Like as not,’ said the Lady with a gentle laugh. ‘But come,
you shall look and see what you may. Do not touch the
water!’
Sam climbed up on the foot of the pedestal and leaned
over the basin. The water looked hard and dark. Stars were
reflected in it.
‘There’s only stars, as I thought,’ he said. Then he gave a
low gasp, for the stars went out. As if a dark veil had been
withdrawn, the Mirror grew grey, and then clear. There was
sun shining, and the branches of trees were waving and toss-
ing in the wind. But before Sam could make up his mind
what it was that he saw, the light faded; and now he thought
he saw Frodo with a pale face lying fast asleep under a great
dark cliff. Then he seemed to see himself going along a dim
passage, and climbing an endless winding stair. It came to
him suddenly that he was looking urgently for something,
but what it was he did not know. Like a dream the vision
shifted and went back, and he saw the trees again. But this
time they were not so close, and he could see what was going
on: they were not waving in the wind, they were falling,
crashing to the ground.
472 the fellowship of the ring
‘Hi!’ cried Sam in an outraged voice. ‘There’s that Ted
Sandyman a-cutting down trees as he shouldn’t. They didn’t
ought to be felled: it’s that avenue beyond the Mill that shades
the road to Bywater. I wish I could get at Ted, and I’d fell
him!’
But now Sam noticed that the Old Mill had vanished, and
a large red-brick building was being put up where it had
stood. Lots of folk were busily at work. There was a tall red
chimney nearby. Black smoke seemed to cloud the surface of
the Mirror.
‘There’s some devilry at work in the Shire,’ he said. ‘Elrond
knew what he was about when he wanted to send Mr. Merry
back.’ Then suddenly Sam gave a cry and sprang away. ‘I
can’t stay here,’ he said wildly. ‘I must go home. They’ve
dug up Bagshot Row, and there’s the poor old Gaffer going
down the Hill with his bits of things on a barrow. I must go
home!’
‘You cannot go home alone,’ said the Lady. ‘You did not
wish to go home without your master before you looked in
the Mirror, and yet you knew that evil things might well be
happening in the Shire. Remember that the Mirror shows
many things, and not all have yet come to pass. Some never
come to be, unless those that behold the visions turn aside
from their path to prevent them. The Mirror is dangerous as
a guide of deeds.’
Sam sat on the ground and put his head in his hands. ‘I
wish I had never come here, and I don’t want to see no more
magic,’ he said and fell silent. After a moment he spoke again
thickly, as if struggling with tears. ‘No, I’ll go home by the
long road with Mr. Frodo, or not at all,’ he said. ‘But I hope
I do get back some day. If what I’ve seen turns out true,
somebody’s going to catch it hot!’
‘Do you now wish to look, Frodo?’ said the Lady Galadriel.
‘You did not wish to see Elf-magic and were content.’
‘Do you advise me to look?’ asked Frodo.
‘No,’ she said. ‘I do not counsel you one way or the other.
the mirror of galadriel 473
I am not a counsellor. You may learn something, and whether
what you see be fair or evil, that may be profitable, and yet
it may not. Seeing is both good and perilous. Yet I think,
Frodo, that you have courage and wisdom enough for the
venture, or I would not have brought you here. Do as you
will!’
‘I will look,’ said Frodo, and he climbed on the pedestal
and bent over the dark water. At once the Mirror cleared and
he saw a twilit land. Mountains loomed dark in the distance
against a pale sky. A long grey road wound back out of sight.
Far away a figure came slowly down the road, faint and
small at first, but growing larger and clearer as it approached.
Suddenly Frodo realized that it reminded him of Gandalf.
He almost called aloud the wizard’s name, and then he saw
that the figure was clothed not in grey but in white, in a white
that shone faintly in the dusk; and in its hand there was a
white staff. The head was so bowed that he could see no face,
and presently the figure turned aside round a bend in the
road and went out of the Mirror’s view. Doubt came into
Frodo’s mind: was this a vision of Gandalf on one of his
many lonely journeys long ago, or was it Saruman?
The vision now changed. Brief and small but very vivid he
caught a glimpse of Bilbo walking restlessly about his room.
The table was littered with disordered papers; rain was beat-
ing on the windows.
Then there was a pause, and after it many swift scenes
followed that Frodo in some way knew to be parts of a great
history in which he had become involved. The mist cleared
and he saw a sight which he had never seen before but knew
at once: the Sea. Darkness fell. The sea rose and raged in a
great storm. Then he saw against the Sun, sinking blood-red
into a wrack of clouds, the black outline of a tall ship with
torn sails riding up out of the West. Then a wide river flowing
through a populous city. Then a white fortress with seven
towers. And then again a ship with black sails, but now it was
morning again, and the water rippled with light, and a banner
bearing the emblem of a white tree shone in the sun. A smoke
474 the fellowship of the ring
as of fire and battle arose, and again the sun went down in a
burning red that faded into a grey mist; and into the mist a
small ship passed away, twinkling with lights. It vanished,
and Frodo sighed and prepared to draw away.
But suddenly the Mirror went altogether dark, as dark as
if a hole had opened in the world of sight, and Frodo looked
into emptiness. In the black abyss there appeared a single
Eye that slowly grew, until it filled nearly all the Mirror. So
terrible was it that Frodo stood rooted, unable to cry out or
to withdraw his gaze. The Eye was rimmed with fire, but was
itself glazed, yellow as a cat’s, watchful and intent, and the
black slit of its pupil opened on a pit, a window into nothing.
Then the Eye began to rove, searching this way and that;
and Frodo knew with certainty and horror that among the
many things that it sought he himself was one. But he also
knew that it could not see him – not yet, not unless he willed
it. The Ring that hung upon its chain about his neck grew
heavy, heavier than a great stone, and his head was dragged
downwards. The Mirror seemed to be growing hot and curls
of steam were rising from the water. He was slipping forward.
‘Do not touch the water!’ said the Lady Galadriel softly.
The vision faded, and Frodo found that he was looking at
the cool stars twinkling in the silver basin. He stepped back
shaking all over and looked at the Lady.
‘I know what it was that you last saw,’ she said; ‘for that is
also in my mind. Do not be afraid! But do not think that only
by singing amid the trees, nor even by the slender arrows
of elven-bows, is this land of Lothlo
´
rien maintained and
defended against its Enemy. I say to you, Frodo, that even
as I speak to you, I perceive the Dark Lord and know his
mind, or all of his mind that concerns the Elves. And he
gropes ever to see me and my thought. But still the door is
closed!’
She lifted up her white arms, and spread out her hands
towards the East in a gesture of rejection and denial. Ea
¨
rendil,
the Evening Star, most beloved of the Elves, shone clear
above. So bright was it that the figure of the Elven-lady cast
the mirror of galadriel 475
a dim shadow on the ground. Its rays glanced upon a ring
about her finger; it glittered like polished gold overlaid with
silver light, and a white stone in it twinkled as if the Even-
star had come down to rest upon her hand. Frodo gazed at
the ring with awe; for suddenly it seemed to him that he
understood.
‘Yes,’ she said, divining his thought, ‘it is not permitted to
speak of it, and Elrond could not do so. But it cannot be
hidden from the Ring-bearer, and one who has seen the Eye.
Verily it is in the land of Lo
´
rien upon the finger of Galadriel
that one of the Three remains. This is Nenya, the Ring of
Adamant, and I am its keeper.
‘He suspects, but he does not know – not yet. Do you not
see now wherefore your coming is to us as the footstep of
Doom? For if you fail, then we are laid bare to the Enemy.
Yet if you succeed, then our power is diminished, and
Lothlo
´
rien will fade, and the tides of Time will sweep it away.
We must depart into the West, or dwindle to a rustic folk of
dell and cave, slowly to forget and to be forgotten.’
Frodo bent his head. ‘And what do you wish?’ he said at
last.
‘That what should be shall be,’ she answered. ‘The love of
the Elves for their land and their works is deeper than the
deeps of the Sea, and their regret is undying and cannot ever
wholly be assuaged. Yet they will cast all away rather than
submit to Sauron: for they know him now. For the fate of
Lothlo
´
rien you are not answerable, but only for the doing of
your own task. Yet I could wish, were it of any avail, that the
One Ring had never been wrought, or had remained for ever
lost.’
‘You are wise and fearless and fair, Lady Galadriel,’ said
Frodo. ‘I will give you the One Ring, if you ask for it. It is
too great a matter for me.’
Galadriel laughed with a sudden clear laugh. ‘Wise the
Lady Galadriel may be,’ she said, ‘yet here she has met her
match in courtesy. Gently are you revenged for my testing
of your heart at our first meeting. You begin to see with a
476 the fellowship of the ring
keen eye. I do not deny that my heart has greatly desired to
ask what you offer. For many long years I had pondered what
I might do, should the Great Ring come into my hands, and
behold! it was brought within my grasp. The evil that was
devised long ago works on in many ways, whether Sauron
himself stands or falls. Would not that have been a noble
deed to set to the credit of his Ring, if I had taken it by force
or fear from my guest?
‘And now at last it comes. You will give me the Ring freely!
In place of the Dark Lord you will set up a Queen. And I
shall not be dark, but beautiful and terrible as the Morning
and the Night! Fair as the Sea and the Sun and the Snow
upon the Mountain! Dreadful as the Storm and the Light-
ning! Stronger than the foundations of the earth. All shall
love me and despair!’
She lifted up her hand and from the ring that she wore
there issued a great light that illumined her alone and left all
else dark. She stood before Frodo seeming now tall beyond
measurement, and beautiful beyond enduring, terrible and
worshipful. Then she let her hand fall, and the light faded,
and suddenly she laughed again, and lo! she was shrunken: a
slender elf-woman, clad in simple white, whose gentle voice
was soft and sad.
‘I pass the test,’ she said. ‘I will diminish, and go into the
West, and remain Galadriel.’
They stood for a long while in silence. At length the Lady
spoke again. ‘Let us return!’ she said. ‘In the morning you
must depart, for now we have chosen, and the tides of fate
are flowing.’
‘I would ask one thing before we go,’ said Frodo, ‘a thing
which I often meant to ask Gandalf in Rivendell. I am per-
mitted to wear the One Ring: why cannot I see all the others
and know the thoughts of those that wear them?’
‘You have not tried,’ she said. ‘Only thrice have you set
the Ring upon your finger since you knew what you pos-
sessed. Do not try! It would destroy you. Did not Gandalf
the mirror of galadriel 477
tell you that the rings give power according to the measure
of each possessor? Before you could use that power you
would need to become far stronger, and to train your will to
the domination of others. Yet even so, as Ring-bearer and as
one that has borne it on finger and seen that which is hidden,
your sight is grown keener. You have perceived my thought
more clearly than many that are accounted wise. You saw
the Eye of him that holds the Seven and the Nine. And did
you not see and recognize the ring upon my finger? Did you
see my ring?’ she asked turning again to Sam.
‘No, Lady,’ he answered. ‘To tell you the truth, I wondered
what you were talking about. I saw a star through your
fingers. But if you’ll pardon my speaking out, I think my
master was right. I wish you’d take his Ring. You’d put things
to rights. You’d stop them digging up the Gaffer and turning
him adrift. You’d make some folk pay for their dirty work.’
‘I would,’ she said. ‘That is how it would begin. But it
would not stop with that, alas! We will not speak more of it.
Let us go!’
Chapter 8
FAREWELL TO LO
´
RIEN
That night the Company was again summoned to the
chamber of Celeborn, and there the Lord and Lady greeted
them with fair words. At length Celeborn spoke of their
departure.
‘Now is the time,’ he said, ‘when those who wish to con-
tinue the Quest must harden their hearts to leave this land.
Those who no longer wish to go forward may remain here,
for a while. But whether they stay or go, none can be sure of
peace. For we are come now to the edge of doom. Here those
who wish may await the oncoming of the hour till either the
ways of the world lie open again, or we summon them to the
last need of Lo
´
rien. Then they may return to their own lands,
or else go to the long home of those that fall in battle.’
There was a silence. ‘They all resolved to go forward,’ said
Galadriel looking in their eyes.
‘As for me,’ said Boromir, ‘my way home lies onward and
not back.’
‘That is true,’ said Celeborn, ‘but is all this Company going
with you to Minas Tirith?’
‘We have not decided our course,’ said Aragorn. ‘Beyond
Lothlo
´
rien I do not know what Gandalf intended to do.
Indeed I do not think that even he had any clear purpose.’
‘Maybe not,’ said Celeborn, ‘yet when you leave this land,
you can no longer forget the Great River. As some of you
know well, it cannot be crossed by travellers with baggage
between Lo
´
rien and Gondor, save by boat. And are not the
bridges of Osgiliath broken down and all the landings held
now by the Enemy?
‘On which side will you journey? The way to Minas Tirith
lies upon this side, upon the west; but the straight road of the
farewell to lo
´
rien 479
Quest lies east of the River, upon the darker shore. Which
shore will you now take?’
‘If my advice is heeded, it will be the western shore, and
the way to Minas Tirith,’ answered Boromir. ‘But I am not
the leader of the Company.’ The others said nothing, and
Aragorn looked doubtful and troubled.
‘I see that you do not yet know what to do,’ said Celeborn.
‘It is not my part to choose for you; but I will help you as I
may. There are some among you who can handle boats:
Legolas, whose folk know the swift Forest River; and Boromir
of Gondor; and Aragorn the traveller.’
‘And one Hobbit!’ cried Merry. ‘Not all of us look on
boats as wild horses. My people live by the banks of the
Brandywine.’
‘That is well,’ said Celeborn. ‘Then I will furnish your
Company with boats. They must be small and light, for if
you go far by water, there are places where you will be forced
to carry them. You will come to the rapids of Sarn Gebir,
and maybe at last to the great falls of Rauros where the River
thunders down from Nen Hithoel; and there are other perils.
Boats may make your journey less toilsome for a while. Yet
they will not give you counsel: in the end you must leave
them and the River, and turn west – or east.’
Aragorn thanked Celeborn many times. The gift of boats
comforted him much, not least because there would now be
no need to decide his course for some days. The others, too,
looked more hopeful. Whatever perils lay ahead, it seemed
better to float down the broad tide of Anduin to meet them
than to plod forward with bent backs. Only Sam was doubt-
ful: he at any rate still thought boats as bad as wild horses,
or worse, and not all the dangers that he had survived made
him think better of them.
‘All shall be prepared for you and await you at the haven
before noon tomorrow,’ said Celeborn. ‘I will send my people
to you in the morning to help you make ready for the journey.
Now we will wish you all a fair night and untroubled sleep.’
‘Good night, my friends!’ said Galadriel. ‘Sleep in peace!
480 the fellowship of the ring
Do not trouble your hearts overmuch with thought of the
road tonight. Maybe the paths that you each shall tread are
already laid before your feet, though you do not see them.
Good night!’
The Company now took their leave and returned to their
pavilion. Legolas went with them, for this was to be their last
night in Lothlo
´
rien, and in spite of the words of Galadriel
they wished to take counsel together.
For a long time they debated what they should do, and
how it would be best to attempt the fulfilling of their purpose
with the Ring; but they came to no decision. It was plain that
most of them desired to go first to Minas Tirith, and to escape
at least for a while from the terror of the Enemy. They would
have been willing to follow a leader over the River and
into the shadow of Mordor; but Frodo spoke no word, and
Aragorn was still divided in his mind.
His own plan, while Gandalf remained with them, had
been to go with Boromir, and with his sword help to deliver
Gondor. For he believed that the message of the dreams was
a summons, and that the hour had come at last when the heir
of Elendil should come forth and strive with Sauron for the
mastery. But in Moria the burden of Gandalf had been laid
on him; and he knew that he could not now forsake the Ring,
if Frodo refused in the end to go with Boromir. And yet what
help could he or any of the Company give to Frodo, save to
walk blindly with him into the darkness?
‘I shall go to Minas Tirith, alone if need be, for it is my
duty,’ said Boromir; and after that he was silent for a while,
sitting with his eyes fixed on Frodo, as if he was trying to
read the Halfling’s thoughts. At length he spoke again, softly,
as if he was debating with himself. ‘If you wish only to destroy
the Ring,’ he said, ‘then there is little use in war and weapons;
and the Men of Minas Tirith cannot help. But if you wish to
destroy the armed might of the Dark Lord, then it is folly to
go without force into his domain; and folly to throw away.’
He paused suddenly, as if he had become aware that he was
farewell to lo
´
rien 481
speaking his thoughts aloud. ‘It would be folly to throw lives
away, I mean,’ he ended. ‘It is a choice between defending a
strong place and walking openly into the arms of death. At
least, that is how I see it.’
Frodo caught something new and strange in Boromir’s
glance, and he looked hard at him. Plainly Boromir’s thought
was different from his final words. It would be folly to throw
away: what? The Ring of Power? He had said something like
this at the Council, but then he had accepted the correction
of Elrond. Frodo looked at Aragorn, but he seemed deep
in his own thought and made no sign that he had heeded
Boromir’s words. And so their debate ended. Merry and
Pippin were already asleep, and Sam was nodding. The night
was growing old.
In the morning, as they were beginning to pack their slen-
der goods, Elves that could speak their tongue came to them
and brought them many gifts of food and clothing for the
journey. The food was mostly in the form of very thin cakes,
made of a meal that was baked a light brown on the outside,
and inside was the colour of cream. Gimli took up one of the
cakes and looked at it with a doubtful eye.
‘Cram,’ he said under his breath, as he broke off a crisp
corner and nibbled at it. His expression quickly changed, and
he ate all the rest of the cake with relish.
‘No more, no more!’ cried the Elves laughing. ‘You have
eaten enough already for a long day’s march.’
‘I thought it was only a kind of cram, such as the Dale-men
make for journeys in the wild,’ said the Dwarf.
‘So it is,’ they answered. ‘But we call it lembas or waybread,
and it is more strengthening than any food made by Men,
and it is more pleasant than cram, by all accounts.’
‘Indeed it is,’ said Gimli. ‘Why, it is better than the honey-
cakes of the Beornings, and that is great praise, for the
Beornings are the best bakers that I know of; but they are
none too willing to deal out their cakes to travellers in these
days. You are kindly hosts!’
482 the fellowship of the ring
‘All the same, we bid you spare the food,’ they said. ‘Eat
little at a time, and only at need. For these things are given
to serve you when all else fails. The cakes will keep sweet
for many many days, if they are unbroken and left in their
leaf-wrappings, as we have brought them. One will keep a
traveller on his feet for a day of long labour, even if he be
one of the tall Men of Minas Tirith.’
The Elves next unwrapped and gave to each of the Com-
pany the clothes they had brought. For each they had pro-
vided a hood and cloak, made according to his size, of the
light but warm silken stuff that the Galadhrim wove. It was
hard to say of what colour they were: grey with the hue of
twilight under the trees they seemed to be; and yet if they
were moved, or set in another light, they were green as
shadowed leaves, or brown as fallow fields by night, dusk-
silver as water under the stars. Each cloak was fastened about
the neck with a brooch like a green leaf veined with silver.
‘Are these magic cloaks?’ asked Pippin, looking at them
with wonder.
‘I do not know what you mean by that,’ answered the
leader of the Elves. ‘They are fair garments, and the web is
good, for it was made in this land. They are Elvish robes
certainly, if that is what you mean. Leaf and branch, water
and stone: they have the hue and beauty of all these things
under the twilight of Lo
´
rien that we love; for we put the
thought of all that we love into all that we make. Yet they are
garments, not armour, and they will not turn shaft or blade.
But they should serve you well: they are light to wear, and
warm enough or cool enough at need. And you will find them
a great aid in keeping out of the sight of unfriendly eyes,
whether you walk among the stones or the trees. You are
indeed high in the favour of the Lady! For she herself and
her maidens wove this stuff; and never before have we clad
strangers in the garb of our own people.’
After their morning meal the Company said farewell to the
lawn by the fountain. Their hearts were heavy; for it was a
farewell to lo
´
rien 483
fair place, and it had become like home to them, though they
could not count the days and nights that they had passed
there. As they stood for a moment looking at the white water
in the sunlight, Haldir came walking towards them over the
green grass of the glade. Frodo greeted him with delight.
‘I have returned from the Northern Fences,’ said the Elf,
‘and I am sent now to be your guide again. The Dimrill Dale
is full of vapour and clouds of smoke, and the mountains are
troubled. There are noises in the deeps of the earth. If any
of you had thought of returning northwards to your homes,
you would not have been able to pass that way. But come!
Your path now goes south.’
As they walked through Caras Galadhon the green ways
were empty; but in the trees above them many voices were
murmuring and singing. They themselves went silently. At
last Haldir led them down the southward slopes of the hill,
and they came again to the great gate hung with lamps, and
to the white bridge; and so they passed out and left the city
of the Elves. Then they turned away from the paved road
and took a path that went off into a deep thicket of mallorn-
trees, and passed on, winding through rolling woodlands of
silver shadow, leading them ever down, southwards and east-
wards, towards the shores of the River.
They had gone some ten miles and noon was at hand
when they came on a high green wall. Passing through an
opening they came suddenly out of the trees. Before them
lay a long lawn of shining grass, studded with golden elanor
that glinted in the sun. The lawn ran out into a narrow tongue
between bright margins: on the right and west the Silverlode
flowed glittering; on the left and east the Great River rolled
its broad waters, deep and dark. On the further shores the
woodlands still marched on southwards as far as eye could
see, but all the banks were bleak and bare. No mallorn lifted
its gold-hung boughs beyond the Land of Lo
´
rien.
On the bank of the Silverlode, at some distance up from
the meeting of the streams, there was a hythe of white stones
and white wood. By it were moored many boats and barges.
484 the fellowship of the ring
Some were brightly painted, and shone with silver and gold
and green, but most were either white or grey. Three small
grey boats had been made ready for the travellers, and in
these the Elves stowed their goods. And they added also coils
of rope, three to each boat. Slender they looked, but strong,
silken to the touch, grey of hue like the elven-cloaks.
‘What are these?’ asked Sam, handling one that lay upon
the greensward.
‘Ropes indeed!’ answered an Elf from the boats. ‘Never
travel far without a rope! And one that is long and strong and
light. Such are these. They may be a help in many needs.’
‘You don’t need to tell me that!’ said Sam. ‘I came without
any, and I’ve been worried ever since. But I was wondering
what these were made of, knowing a bit about rope-making:
it’s in the family as you might say.’
‘They are made of hithlain,’ said the Elf, ‘but there is no
time now to instruct you in the art of their making. Had we
known that this craft delighted you, we could have taught
you much. But now alas! unless you should at some time
return hither, you must be content with our gift. May it serve
you well!’
‘Come!’ said Haldir. ‘All is now ready for you. Enter the
boats! But take care at first!’
‘Heed the words!’ said the other Elves. ‘These boats are
light-built, and they are crafty and unlike the boats of other
folk. They will not sink, lade them as you will; but they are
wayward if mishandled. It would be wise if you accustomed
yourselves to stepping in and out, here where there is a
landing-place, before you set off downstream.’
The Company was arranged in this way: Aragorn, Frodo,
and Sam were in one boat; Boromir, Merry, and Pippin in
another; and in the third were Legolas and Gimli, who had
now become fast friends. In this last boat most of the goods
and packs were stowed. The boats were moved and steered
with short-handled paddles that had broad leaf-shaped
blades. When all was ready Aragorn led them on a trial up
farewell to lo
´
rien 485
the Silverlode. The current was swift and they went forward
slowly. Sam sat in the bows, clutching the sides, and looking
back wistfully to the shore. The sunlight glittering on the
water dazzled his eyes. As they passed beyond the green field
of the Tongue, the trees drew down to the river’s brink. Here
and there golden leaves tossed and floated on the rippling
stream. The air was very bright and still, and there was a
silence, except for the high distant song of larks.
They turned a sharp bend in the river, and there, sailing
proudly down the stream towards them, they saw a swan of
great size. The water rippled on either side of the white breast
beneath its curving neck. Its beak shone like burnished gold,
and its eyes glinted like jet set in yellow stones; its huge white
wings were half lifted. A music came down the river as it
drew nearer; and suddenly they perceived that it was a ship,
wrought and carved with elven-skill in the likeness of a bird.
Two elves clad in white steered it with black paddles. In
the midst of the vessel sat Celeborn, and behind him stood
Galadriel, tall and white; a circlet of golden flowers was in
her hair, and in her hand she held a harp, and she sang. Sad
and sweet was the sound of her voice in the cool clear air:
I sang of leaves, of leaves of gold, and leaves of gold there
grew:
Of wind I sang, a wind there came and in the branches blew.
Beyond the Sun, beyond the Moon, the foam was on the Sea,
And by the strand of Ilmarin there grew a golden Tree.
Beneath the stars of Ever-eve in Eldamar it shone,
In Eldamar beside the walls of Elven Tirion.
There long the golden leaves have grown upon the branching
years,
While here beyond the Sundering Seas now fall the Elven-
tears.
OLo
´
rien! The Winter comes, the bare and leafless Day;
The leaves are falling in the stream, the River flows away.
OLo
´
rien! Too long I have dwelt upon this Hither Shore
And in a fading crown have twined the golden elanor.
486 the fellowship of the ring
But if of ships I now should sing, what ship would come to
me,
What ship would bear me ever back across so wide a Sea?
Aragorn stayed his boat as the Swan-ship drew alongside.
The Lady ended her song and greeted them. ‘We have come
to bid our last farewell,’ she said, ‘and to speed you with
blessings from our land.’
‘Though you have been our guests,’ said Celeborn, ‘you
have not yet eaten with us, and we bid you, therefore, to a
parting feast, here between the flowing waters that will bear
you far from Lo
´
rien.’
The Swan passed on slowly to the hythe, and they turned
their boats and followed it. There in the last end of Egladil
upon the green grass the parting feast was held; but Frodo
ate and drank little, heeding only the beauty of the Lady and
her voice. She seemed no longer perilous or terrible, nor filled
with hidden power. Already she seemed to him, as by men
of later days Elves still at times are seen: present and yet
remote, a living vision of that which has already been left far
behind by the flowing streams of Time.
After they had eaten and drunk, sitting upon the grass,
Celeborn spoke to them again of their journey, and lifting his
hand he pointed south to the woods beyond the Tongue.
‘As you go down the water,’ he said, ‘you will find that the
trees will fail, and you will come to a barren country. There
the River flows in stony vales amid high moors, until at last
after many leagues it comes to the tall island of the Tindrock,
that we call Tol Brandir. There it casts its arms about the
steep shores of the isle, and falls then with a great noise and
smoke over the cataracts of Rauros down into the Nindalf,
the Wetwang as it is called in your tongue. That is a wide
region of sluggish fen where the stream becomes tortuous
and much divided. There the Entwash flows in by many
mouths from the Forest of Fangorn in the west. About that
stream, on this side of the Great River, lies Rohan. On the
farewell to lo
´
rien 487
further side are the bleak hills of the Emyn Muil. The wind
blows from the East there, for they look out over the Dead
Marshes and the Noman-lands to Cirith Gorgor and the
black gates of Mordor.
‘Boromir, and any that go with him seeking Minas Tirith,
will do well to leave the Great River above Rauros and cross
the Entwash before it finds the marshes. Yet they should not
go too far up that stream, nor risk becoming entangled in the
Forest of Fangorn. That is a strange land, and is now little
known. But Boromir and Aragorn doubtless do not need this
warning.’
‘Indeed we have heard of Fangorn in Minas Tirith,’ said
Boromir. ‘But what I have heard seems to me for the most
part old wives’ tales, such as we tell to our children. All that
lies north of Rohan is now to us so far away that fancy can
wander freely there. Of old Fangorn lay upon the borders of
our realm; but it is now many lives of men since any of us
visited it, to prove or disprove the legends that have come
down from distant years.
‘I have myself been at whiles in Rohan, but I have never
crossed it northwards. When I was sent out as a messenger,
I passed through the Gap by the skirts of the White Moun-
tains, and crossed the Isen and the Greyflood into Norther-
land. A long and wearisome journey. Four hundred leagues
I reckoned it, and it took me many months; for I lost my
horse at Tharbad, at the fording of the Greyflood. After that
journey, and the road I have trodden with this Company, I
do not much doubt that I shall find a way through Rohan,
and Fangorn too, if need be.’
‘Then I need say no more,’ said Celeborn. ‘But do not
despise the lore that has come down from distant years; for
oft it may chance that old wives keep in memory word of
things that once were needful for the wise to know.’
Now Galadriel rose from the grass, and taking a cup from
one of her maidens she filled it with white mead and gave it
to Celeborn.
488 the fellowship of the ring
‘Now it is time to drink the cup of farewell,’ she said.
‘Drink, Lord of the Galadhrim! And let not your heart be
sad, though night must follow noon, and already our evening
draweth nigh.’
Then she brought the cup to each of the Company, and
bade them drink and farewell. But when they had drunk she
commanded them to sit again on the grass, and chairs were
set for her and for Celeborn. Her maidens stood silent about
her, and a while she looked upon her guests. At last she spoke
again.
‘We have drunk the cup of parting,’ she said, ‘and the
shadows fall between us. But before you go, I have brought
in my ship gifts which the Lord and Lady of the Galadhrim
now offer you in memory of Lothlo
´
rien.’ Then she called to
each in turn.
‘Here is the gift of Celeborn and Galadriel to the leader of
your Company,’ she said to Aragorn, and she gave him a
sheath that had been made to fit his sword. It was overlaid
with a tracery of flowers and leaves wrought of silver and
gold, and on it were set in elven-runes formed of many gems
the name Andu
´
ril and the lineage of the sword.
‘The blade that is drawn from this sheath shall not be
stained or broken even in defeat,’ she said. ‘But is there aught
else that you desire of me at our parting? For darkness will
flow between us, and it may be that we shall not meet again,
unless it be far hence upon a road that has no returning.’
And Aragorn answered: ‘Lady, you know all my desire,
and long held in keeping the only treasure that I seek. Yet it
is not yours to give me, even if you would; and only through
darkness shall I come to it.’
‘Yet maybe this will lighten your heart,’ said Galadriel; ‘for
it was left in my care to be given to you, should you pass
through this land.’ Then she lifted from her lap a great stone
of a clear green, set in a silver brooch that was wrought in
the likeness of an eagle with outspread wings; and as she held
it up the gem flashed like the sun shining through the leaves
of spring. ‘This stone I gave to Celebrı
´
an my daughter, and
farewell to lo
´
rien 489
she to hers; and now it comes to you as a token of hope. In
this hour take the name that was foretold for you, Elessar,
the Elfstone of the House of Elendil!’
Then Aragorn took the stone and pinned the brooch upon
his breast, and those who saw him wondered; for they had
not marked before how tall and kingly he stood, and it seemed
to them that many years of toil had fallen from his shoulders.
‘For the gifts that you have given me I thank you,’ he said,
‘O Lady of Lo
´
rien of whom were sprung Celebrı
´
an and
Arwen Evenstar. What praise could I say more?’
The Lady bowed her head, and she turned then to Boro-
mir, and to him she gave a belt of gold; and to Merry and
Pippin she gave small silver belts, each with a clasp wrought
like a golden flower. To Legolas she gave a bow such as
the Galadhrim used, longer and stouter than the bows of
Mirkwood, and strung with a string of elf-hair. With it went
a quiver of arrows.
‘For you little gardener and lover of trees,’ she said to Sam,
‘I have only a small gift.’ She put into his hand a little box of
plain grey wood, unadorned save for a single silver rune upon
the lid. ‘Here is set G for Galadriel,’ she said; ‘but also it may
stand for garden in your tongue. In this box there is earth
from my orchard, and such blessing as Galadriel has still to
bestow is upon it. It will not keep you on your road, nor
defend you against any peril; but if you keep it and see your
home again at last, then perhaps it may reward you. Though
you should find all barren and laid waste, there will be few
gardens in Middle-earth that will bloom like your garden,
if you sprinkle this earth there. Then you may remember
Galadriel, and catch a glimpse far off of Lo
´
rien, that you
have seen only in our winter. For our Spring and our Summer
are gone by, and they will never be seen on earth again save
in memory.’
Sam went red to the ears and muttered something inaud-
ible, as he clutched the box and bowed as well as he could.
‘And what gift would a Dwarf ask of the Elves?’ said
Galadriel, turning to Gimli.
490 the fellowship of the ring
‘None, Lady,’ answered Gimli. ‘It is enough for me to have
seen the Lady of the Galadhrim, and to have heard her gentle
words.’
‘Hear all ye Elves!’ she cried to those about her. ‘Let none
say again that Dwarves are grasping and ungracious! Yet
surely, Gimli son of Glo
´
in, you desire something that I could
give? Name it, I bid you! You shall not be the only guest
without a gift.’
‘There is nothing, Lady Galadriel,’ said Gimli, bowing low
and stammering. ‘Nothing, unless it might be – unless it is
permitted to ask, nay, to name a single strand of your hair,
which surpasses the gold of the earth as the stars surpass the
gems of the mine. I do not ask for such a gift. But you
commanded me to name my desire.’
The Elves stirred and murmured with astonishment, and
Celeborn gazed at the Dwarf in wonder, but the Lady smiled.
‘It is said that the skill of the Dwarves is in their hands rather
than in their tongues,’ she said; ‘yet that is not true of Gimli.
For none have ever made to me a request so bold and yet so
courteous. And how shall I refuse, since I commanded him
to speak? But tell me, what would you do with such a gift?’
‘Treasure it, Lady,’ he answered, ‘in memory of your
words to me at our first meeting. And if ever I return to the
smithies of my home, it shall be set in imperishable crystal
to be an heirloom of my house, and a pledge of good will
between the Mountain and the Wood until the end of
days.’
Then the Lady unbraided one of her long tresses, and cut
off three golden hairs, and laid them in Gimli’s hand. ‘These
words shall go with the gift,’ she said. ‘I do not foretell, for
all foretelling is now vain: on the one hand lies darkness, and
on the other only hope. But if hope should not fail, then I
say to you, Gimli son of Glo
´
in, that your hands shall flow
with gold, and yet over you gold shall have no dominion.
‘And you, Ring-bearer,’ she said, turning to Frodo. ‘I come
to you last who are not last in my thoughts. For you I have
prepared this.’ She held up a small crystal phial: it glittered
farewell to lo
´
rien 491
as she moved it, and rays of white light sprang from her hand.
‘In this phial,’ she said, ‘is caught the light of Ea
¨
rendil’s star,
set amid the waters of my fountain. It will shine still brighter
when night is about you. May it be a light to you in dark
places, when all other lights go out. Remember Galadriel and
her Mirror!’
Frodo took the phial, and for a moment as it shone between
them, he saw her again standing like a queen, great and
beautiful, but no longer terrible. He bowed, but found no
words to say.
Now the Lady arose, and Celeborn led them back to the
hythe. A yellow noon lay on the green land of the Tongue,
and the water glittered with silver. All at last was made ready.
The Company took their places in the boats as before. Crying
farewell, the Elves of Lo
´
rien with long grey poles thrust them
out into the flowing stream, and the rippling waters bore
them slowly away. The travellers sat still without moving or
speaking. On the green bank near to the very point of the
Tongue the Lady Galadriel stood alone and silent. As they
passed her they turned and their eyes watched her slowly
floating away from them. For so it seemed to them: Lo
´
rien
was slipping backward, like a bright ship masted with
enchanted trees, sailing on to forgotten shores, while they sat
helpless upon the margin of the grey and leafless world.
Even as they gazed, the Silverlode passed out into the
currents of the Great River, and their boats turned and began
to speed southward. Soon the white form of the Lady was
small and distant. She shone like a window of glass upon a
far hill in the westering sun, or as a remote lake seen from a
mountain: a crystal fallen in the lap of the land. Then it
seemed to Frodo that she lifted her arms in a final farewell,
and far but piercing-clear on the following wind came the
sound of her voice singing. But now she sang in the ancient
tongue of the Elves beyond the Sea, and he did not under-
stand the words: fair was the music, but it did not comfort
him.
492 the fellowship of the ring
Yet as is the way of Elvish words, they remained graven in
his memory, and long afterwards he interpreted them, as well
as he could: the language was that of Elven-song and spoke
of things little known on Middle-earth.
Ai! laurie
¨
lantar lassi su
´
rinen,
ye
´
ni u
´
no
´
time
¨
ve ra
´
mar aldaron!
Ye
´
ni ve linte
¨
yuldar ava
´
nier
mi oromardi lisse-miruvo
´
reva
Andu
´
ne
¨
pella, Vardo tellumar
nu luini yassen tintilar i eleni
o
´
maryo aireta
´
ri-lı
´
rinen.
Sı
´
man i yulma nin enquantuva?
An sı
´
Tintalle
¨
Varda Oiolosse
¨
o
ve fanyar ma
´
ryat Elenta
´
ri ortane
¨
,
ar ilye
¨
tier undula
´
ve
¨
lumbule
¨
;
ar sindano
´
riello caita mornie
¨
i falmalinnar imbe
¨
met, ar hı
´
sie
¨
untu
´
pa Calaciryo mı
´
ri oiale
¨
.
Sı
´
vanwa na
´
,Ro
´
mello vanwa, Valimar!
Nama
´
rie
¨
! Nai hiruvalye
¨
Valimar.
Nai elye
¨
hiruva. Nama
´
rie
¨
!
‘Ah! like gold fall the leaves in the wind, long years number-
less as the wings of trees! The years have passed like swift
draughts of the sweet mead in lofty halls beyond the West,
beneath the blue vaults of Varda wherein the stars tremble
in the song of her voice, holy and queenly. Who now shall
refill the cup for me? For now the Kindler, Varda, the Queen
of the Stars, from Mount Everwhite has uplifted her hands
like clouds, and all paths are drowned deep in shadow; and
out of a grey country darkness lies on the foaming waves
between us, and mist covers the jewels of Calacirya for ever.
Now lost, lost to those from the East is Valimar! Farewell!
farewell to lo
´
rien 493
Maybe thou shalt find Valimar. Maybe even thou shalt find
it. Farewell!’ Varda is the name of that Lady whom the Elves
in these lands of exile name Elbereth.
Suddenly the River swept round a bend, and the banks
rose upon either side, and the light of Lo
´
rien was hidden. To
that fair land Frodo never came again.
The travellers now turned their faces to the journey; the
sun was before them, and their eyes were dazzled, for all were
filled with tears. Gimli wept openly.
‘I have looked the last upon that which was fairest,’ he said
to Legolas his companion. ‘Henceforward I will call nothing
fair, unless it be her gift.’ He put his hand to his breast.
‘Tell me, Legolas, why did I come on this Quest? Little
did I know where the chief peril lay! Truly Elrond spoke,
saying that we could not foresee what we might meet upon
our road. Torment in the dark was the danger that I feared,
and it did not hold me back. But I would not have come, had
I known the danger of light and joy. Now I have taken my
worst wound in this parting, even if I were to go this night
straight to the Dark Lord. Alas for Gimli son of Glo
´
in!’
‘Nay!’ said Legolas. ‘Alas for us all! And for all that walk
the world in these after-days. For such is the way of it: to
find and lose, as it seems to those whose boat is on the
running stream. But I count you blessed, Gimli son of Glo
´
in:
for your loss you suffer of your own free will, and you might
have chosen otherwise. But you have not forsaken your com-
panions, and the least reward that you shall have is that the
memory of Lothlo
´
rien shall remain ever clear and unstained
in your heart, and shall neither fade nor grow stale.’
‘Maybe,’ said Gimli; ‘and I thank you for your words. True
words doubtless; yet all such comfort is cold. Memory is not
what the heart desires. That is only a mirror, be it clear as
Kheled-za
ˆ
ram. Or so says the heart of Gimli the Dwarf. Elves
may see things otherwise. Indeed I have heard that for them
memory is more like to the waking world than to a dream.
Not so for Dwarves.
494 the fellowship of the ring
‘But let us talk no more of it. Look to the boat! She is too
low in the water with all this baggage, and the Great River is
swift. I do not wish to drown my grief in cold water.’ He took
up a paddle, and steered towards the western bank, following
Aragorn’s boat ahead, which had already moved out of the
middle stream.
So the Company went on their long way, down the wide
hurrying waters, borne ever southwards. Bare woods stalked
along either bank, and they could not see any glimpse of the
lands behind. The breeze died away and the River flowed
without a sound. No voice of bird broke the silence. The sun
grew misty as the day grew old, until it gleamed in a pale sky
like a high white pearl. Then it faded into the West, and dusk
came early, followed by a grey and starless night. Far into
the dark quiet hours they floated on, guiding their boats under
the overhanging shadows of the western woods. Great trees
passed by like ghosts, thrusting their twisted thirsty roots
through the mist down into the water. It was dreary and cold.
Frodo sat and listened to the faint lap and gurgle of the River
fretting among the tree-roots and driftwood near the shore,
until his head nodded and he fell into an uneasy sleep.
Chapter 9
THE GREAT RIVER
Frodo was roused by Sam. He found that he was lying, well
wrapped, under tall grey-skinned trees in a quiet corner of
the woodlands on the west bank of the Great River, Anduin.
He had slept the night away, and the grey of morning was
dim among the bare branches. Gimli was busy with a small
fire near at hand.
They started again before the day was broad. Not that
most of the Company were eager to hurry southwards: they
were content that the decision, which they must make at latest
when they came to Rauros and the Tindrock Isle, still lay
some days ahead; and they let the River bear them on at its
own pace, having no desire to hasten towards the perils that
lay beyond, whichever course they took in the end. Aragorn
let them drift with the stream as they wished, husbanding
their strength against weariness to come. But he insisted that
at least they should start early each day and journey on far
into the evening; for he felt in his heart that time was pressing,
and he feared that the Dark Lord had not been idle while
they lingered in Lo
´
rien.
Nonetheless they saw no sign of any enemy that day, nor
the next. The dull grey hours passed without event. As the
third day of their voyage wore on the lands changed slowly:
the trees thinned and then failed altogether. On the eastern
bank to their left they saw long formless slopes stretching up
and away towards the sky; brown and withered they looked,
as if fire had passed over them, leaving no living blade of
green: an unfriendly waste without even a broken tree or a
bold stone to relieve the emptiness. They had come to the
Brown Lands that lay, vast and desolate, between Southern
Mirkwood and the hills of the Emyn Muil. What pestilence
496 the fellowship of the ring
or war or evil deed of the Enemy had so blasted all that region
even Aragorn could not tell.
Upon the west to their right the land was treeless also, but
it was flat, and in many places green with wide plains of
grass. On this side of the River they passed forests of great
reeds, so tall that they shut out all view to the west, as the
little boats went rustling by along their fluttering borders.
Their dark withered plumes bent and tossed in the light cold
airs, hissing softly and sadly. Here and there through open-
ings Frodo could catch sudden glimpses of rolling meads,
and far beyond them hills in the sunset, and away on the
edge of sight a dark line, where marched the southernmost
ranks of the Misty Mountains.
There was no sign of living moving things, save birds. Of
these there were many: small fowl whistling and piping in the
reeds, but they were seldom seen. Once or twice the travellers
heard the rush and whine of swan-wings, and looking up they
saw a great phalanx streaming along the sky.
‘Swans!’ said Sam. ‘And mighty big ones too!’
‘Yes,’ said Aragorn, ‘and they are black swans.’
‘How wide and empty and mournful all this country looks!’
said Frodo. ‘I always imagined that as one journeyed south
it got warmer and merrier, until winter was left behind for
ever.’
‘But we have not journeyed far south yet,’ answered
Aragorn. ‘It is still winter, and we are far from the sea. Here
the world is cold until the sudden spring, and we may yet
have snow again. Far away down in the Bay of Belfalas, to
which Anduin runs, it is warm and merry, maybe, or would
be but for the Enemy. But here we are not above sixty leagues,
I guess, south of the Southfarthing away in your Shire, hun-
dreds of long miles yonder. You are looking now south-west
across the north plains of the Riddermark, Rohan the land of
the Horse-lords. Ere long we shall come to the mouth of the
Limlight that runs down from Fangorn to join the Great
River. That is the north boundary of Rohan; and of old all
that lay between Limlight and the White Mountains belonged
the great river 497
to the Rohirrim. It is a rich and pleasant land, and its grass
has no rival; but in these evil days folk do not dwell by the
River or ride often to its shores. Anduin is wide, yet the orcs
can shoot their arrows far across the stream; and of late, it is
said, they have dared to cross the water and raid the herds
and studs of Rohan.’
Sam looked from bank to bank uneasily. The trees had
seemed hostile before, as if they harboured secret eyes and
lurking dangers; now he wished that the trees were still there.
He felt that the Company was too naked, afloat in little open
boats in the midst of shelterless lands, and on a river that was
the frontier of war.
In the next day or two, as they went on, borne steadily
southwards, this feeling of insecurity grew on all the Com-
pany. For a whole day they took to their paddles and hastened
forward. The banks slid by. Soon the River broadened and
grew more shallow; long stony beaches lay upon the east, and
there were gravel-shoals in the water, so that careful steering
was needed. The Brown Lands rose into bleak wolds, over
which flowed a chill air from the East. On the other side the
meads had become rolling downs of withered grass amidst a
land of fen and tussock. Frodo shivered, thinking of the lawns
and fountains, the clear sun and gentle rains of Lothlo
´
rien.
There was little speech and no laughter in any of the boats.
Each member of the Company was busy with his own
thoughts.
The heart of Legolas was running under the stars of a
summer night in some northern glade amid the beech-woods;
Gimli was fingering gold in his mind, and wondering if it
were fit to be wrought into the housing of the Lady’s gift.
Merry and Pippin in the middle boat were ill at ease, for
Boromir sat muttering to himself, sometimes biting his nails,
as if some restlessness or doubt consumed him, sometimes
seizing a paddle and driving the boat close behind Aragorn’s.
Then Pippin, who sat in the bow looking back, caught a
queer gleam in his eye, as he peered forward gazing at Frodo.
Sam had long ago made up his mind that, though boats were
498 the fellowship of the ring
maybe not as dangerous as he had been brought up to believe,
they were far more uncomfortable than even he had imag-
ined. He was cramped and miserable, having nothing to do
but stare at the winter-lands crawling by and the grey water
on either side of him. Even when the paddles were in use
they did not trust Sam with one.
As dusk drew down on the fourth day, he was looking
back over the bowed heads of Frodo and Aragorn and the
following boats; he was drowsy and longed for camp and the
feel of earth under his toes. Suddenly something caught his
sight: at first he stared at it listlessly, then he sat up and
rubbed his eyes; but when he looked again he could not see
it any more.
That night they camped on a small eyot close to the western
bank. Sam lay rolled in blankets beside Frodo. ‘I had a funny
dream an hour or two before we stopped, Mr. Frodo,’ he
said. ‘Or maybe it wasn’t a dream. Funny it was anyway.’
‘Well, what was it?’ said Frodo, knowing that Sam would
not settle down until he had told his tale, whatever it was. ‘I
haven’t seen or thought of anything to make me smile since
we left Lothlo
´
rien.’
‘It wasn’t funny that way, Mr. Frodo. It was queer. All
wrong, if it wasn’t a dream. And you had best hear it. It was
like this: I saw a log with eyes!’
‘The log’s all right,’ said Frodo. ‘There are many in the
River. But leave out the eyes!’
‘That I won’t,’ said Sam. ‘’Twas the eyes as made me sit
up, so to speak. I saw what I took to be a log floating along
in the half-light behind Gimli’s boat; but I didn’t give much
heed to it. Then it seemed as if the log was slowly catching
us up. And that was peculiar, as you might say, seeing as we
were all floating on the stream together. Just then I saw the
eyes: two pale sort of points, shiny-like, on a hump at the
near end of the log. What’s more, it wasn’t a log, for it had
paddle-feet, like a swan’s almost, only they seemed bigger,
and kept dipping in and out of the water.
the great river 499
‘That’s when I sat right up and rubbed my eyes, meaning
to give a shout, if it was still there when I had rubbed the
drowse out of my head. For the whatever-it-was was coming
along fast now and getting close behind Gimli. But whether
those two lamps spotted me moving and staring, or whether
I came to my senses, I don’t know. When I looked again, it
wasn’t there. Yet I think I caught a glimpse, with the tail of
my eye, as the saying is, of something dark shooting under
the shadow of the bank. I couldn’t see no more eyes, though.
‘I said to myself: ‘‘dreaming again, Sam Gamgee,’’ I said;
and I said no more just then. But I’ve been thinking since,
and now I’m not so sure. What do you make of it, Mr.
Frodo?’
‘I should make nothing of it but a log and the dusk and
sleep in your eyes, Sam,’ said Frodo, ‘if this was the first time
that those eyes had been seen. But it isn’t. I saw them away
back north before we reached Lo
´
rien. And I saw a strange
creature with eyes climbing to the flet that night. Haldir saw
it too. And do you remember the report of the Elves that
went after the orc-band?’
‘Ah,’ said Sam, ‘I do; and I remember more too. I don’t
like my thoughts; but thinking of one thing and another, and
Mr. Bilbo’s stories and all, I fancy I could put a name on the
creature, at a guess. A nasty name. Gollum, maybe?’
‘Yes, that is what I have feared for some time,’ said Frodo.
‘Ever since the night on the flet. I suppose he was lurking in
Moria, and picked up our trail then; but I hoped that our
stay in Lo
´
rien would throw him off the scent again. The
miserable creature must have been hiding in the woods by
the Silverlode, watching us start off !’
‘That’s about it,’ said Sam. ‘And we’d better be a bit more
watchful ourselves, or we’ll feel some nasty fingers round our
necks one of these nights, if we ever wake up to feel anything.
And that’s what I was leading up to. No need to trouble
Strider or the others tonight. I’ll keep watch. I can sleep
tomorrow, being no more than luggage in a boat, as you
might say.’
500 the fellowship of the ring
‘I might,’ said Frodo, ‘and I might say ‘‘luggage with eyes’’.
You shall watch; but only if you promise to wake me half-way
towards morning, if nothing happens before then.’
In the dead hours Frodo came out of a deep dark sleep to
find Sam shaking him. ‘It’s a shame to wake you,’ whispered
Sam, ‘but that’s what you said. There’s nothing to tell, or not
much. I thought I heard some soft plashing and a sniffing
noise, a while back; but you hear a lot of such queer sounds
by a river at night.’
He lay down, and Frodo sat up, huddled in his blankets,
and fought off his sleep. Minutes or hours passed slowly, and
nothing happened. Frodo was just yielding to the temptation
to lie down again when a dark shape, hardly visible, floated
close to one of the moored boats. A long whitish hand could
be dimly seen as it shot out and grabbed the gunwale; two
pale lamplike eyes shone coldly as they peered inside, and
then they lifted and gazed up at Frodo on the eyot. They
were not more than a yard or two away, and Frodo heard the
soft hiss of intaken breath. He stood up, drawing Sting from
its sheath, and faced the eyes. Immediately their light was
shut off. There was another hiss and a splash, and the dark
log-shape shot away downstream into the night. Aragorn
stirred in his sleep, turned over, and sat up.
‘What is it?’ he whispered, springing up and coming to
Frodo. ‘I felt something in my sleep. Why have you drawn
your sword?’
‘Gollum,’ answered Frodo. ‘Or at least, so I guess.’
‘Ah!’ said Aragorn. ‘So you know about our little footpad,
do you? He padded after us all through Moria and right down
to Nimrodel. Since we took to boats, he has been lying on a
log and paddling with hands and feet. I have tried to catch
him once or twice at night; but he is slier than a fox, and as
slippery as a fish. I hoped the river-voyage would beat him,
but he is too clever a waterman.
‘We shall have to try going faster tomorrow. You lie down
now, and I will keep watch for what is left of the night. I wish
the great river 501
I could lay my hands on the wretch. We might make him
useful. But if I cannot, we shall have to try and lose him. He
is very dangerous. Quite apart from murder by night on his
own account, he may put any enemy that is about on our
track.’
The night passed without Gollum showing so much as a
shadow again. After that the Company kept a sharp look-out,
but they saw no more of Gollum while the voyage lasted. If
he was still following, he was very wary and cunning. At
Aragorn’s bidding they paddled now for long spells, and the
banks went swiftly by. But they saw little of the country, for
they journeyed mostly by night and twilight, resting by day,
and lying as hidden as the land allowed. In this way the time
passed without event until the seventh day.
The weather was still grey and overcast, with wind from the
East, but as evening drew into night the sky away westward
cleared, and pools of faint light, yellow and pale green,
opened under the grey shores of cloud. There the white rind
of the new Moon could be seen glimmering in the remote
lakes. Sam looked at it and puckered his brows.
The next day the country on either side began to change
rapidly. The banks began to rise and grow stony. Soon they
were passing through a hilly rocky land, and on both shores
there were steep slopes buried in deep brakes of thorn and
sloe, tangled with brambles and creepers. Behind them stood
low crumbling cliffs, and chimneys of grey weathered stone
dark with ivy; and beyond these again there rose high ridges
crowned with wind-writhen firs. They were drawing near to
the grey hill-country of the Emyn Muil, the southern march
of Wilderland.
There were many birds about the cliffs and the rock-
chimneys, and all day high in the air flocks of birds had been
circling, black against the pale sky. As they lay in their camp
that day Aragorn watched the flights doubtfully, wondering
if Gollum had been doing some mischief and the news of
their voyage was now moving in the wilderness. Later as the
502 the fellowship of the ring
sun was setting, and the Company was stirring and getting
ready to start again, he descried a dark spot against the fading
light: a great bird high and far off, now wheeling, now flying
on slowly southwards.
‘What is that, Legolas?’ he asked, pointing to the northern
sky. ‘Is it, as I think, an eagle?’
‘Yes,’ said Legolas. ‘It is an eagle, a hunting eagle. I wonder
what that forebodes. It is far from the mountains.’
‘We will not start until it is fully dark,’ said Aragorn.
The eighth night of their journey came. It was silent and
windless; the grey east wind had passed away. The thin cres-
cent of the Moon had fallen early into the pale sunset, but
the sky was clear above, and though far away in the South
there were great ranges of cloud that still shone faintly, in the
West stars glinted bright.
‘Come!’ said Aragorn. ‘We will venture one more journey
by night. We are coming to reaches of the River that I do not
know well; for I have never journeyed by water in these parts
before, not between here and the rapids of Sarn Gebir. But
if I am right in my reckoning, those are still many miles
ahead. Still there are dangerous places even before we come
there: rocks and stony eyots in the stream. We must keep a
sharp watch and not try to paddle swiftly.’
To Sam in the leading boat was given the task of watch-
man. He lay forward peering into the gloom. The night grew
dark, but the stars above were strangely bright, and there was
a glimmer on the face of the River. It was close on midnight,
and they had been drifting for some while, hardly using the
paddles, when suddenly Sam cried out. Only a few yards
ahead dark shapes loomed up in the stream and he heard the
swirl of racing water. There was a swift current which swung
left, towards the eastern shore where the channel was clear.
As they were swept aside the travellers could see, now very
close, the pale foam of the River lashing against sharp rocks
that were thrust out far into the stream like a ridge of teeth.
The boats were all huddled together.
the great river 503
‘Hoy there, Aragorn!’ shouted Boromir, as his boat
bumped into the leader. ‘This is madness! We cannot dare
the Rapids by night! But no boat can live in Sarn Gebir, be
it night or day.’
‘Back, back!’ cried Aragorn. ‘Turn! Turn if you can!’ He
drove his paddle into the water, trying to hold the boat and
bring it round.
‘I am out of my reckoning,’ he said to Frodo. ‘I did not
know that we had come so far: Anduin flows faster than I
thought. Sarn Gebir must be close at hand already.’
With great efforts they checked the boats and slowly
brought them about; but at first they could make only small
headway against the current, and all the time they were
carried nearer and nearer to the eastern bank. Now dark and
ominous it loomed up in the night.
‘All together, paddle!’ shouted Boromir. ‘Paddle! Or we
shall be driven on the shoals.’ Even as he spoke Frodo felt
the keel beneath him grate upon stone.
At that moment there was a twang of bowstrings: several
arrows whistled over them, and some fell among them. One
smote Frodo between the shoulders and he lurched forward
with a cry, letting go his paddle: but the arrow fell back,
foiled by his hidden coat of mail. Another passed through
Aragorn’s hood; and a third stood fast in the gunwale of the
second boat, close by Merry’s hand. Sam thought he could
glimpse black figures running to and fro upon the long
shingle-banks that lay under the eastern shore. They seemed
very near.
‘Yrch!’ said Legolas, falling into his own tongue.
‘Orcs!’ cried Gimli.
‘Gollum’s doing, I’ll be bound,’ said Sam to Frodo. ‘And
a nice place to choose, too. The River seems set on taking us
right into their arms!’
They all leaned forward straining at the paddles: even Sam
took a hand. Every moment they expected to feel the bite of
black-feathered arrows. Many whined overhead or struck the
504 the fellowship of the ring
water nearby; but there were no more hits. It was dark, but
not too dark for the night-eyes of Orcs, and in the star-
glimmer they must have offered their cunning foes some
mark, unless it was that the grey cloaks of Lo
´
rien and the
grey timber of the elf-wrought boats defeated the malice of
the archers of Mordor.
Stroke by stroke they laboured on. In the darkness it was
hard to be sure that they were indeed moving at all; but slowly
the swirl of the water grew less, and the shadow of the eastern
bank faded back into the night. At last, as far as they could
judge, they had reached the middle of the stream again and
had driven their boats back some distance above the jutting
rocks. Then half turning they thrust them with all their
strength towards the western shore. Under the shadow of
bushes leaning out over the water they halted and drew
breath.
Legolas laid down his paddle and took up the bow that he
had brought from Lo
´
rien. Then he sprang ashore and
climbed a few paces up the bank. Stringing the bow and
fitting an arrow he turned, peering back over the River into
the darkness. Across the water there were shrill cries, but
nothing could be seen.
Frodo looked up at the Elf standing tall above him, as he
gazed into the night, seeking a mark to shoot at. His head
was dark, crowned with sharp white stars that glittered in the
black pools of the sky behind. But now rising and sailing up
from the South the great clouds advanced, sending out dark
outriders into the starry fields. A sudden dread fell on the
Company.
‘Elbereth Gilthoniel!’ sighed Legolas as he looked up. Even
as he did so, a dark shape, like a cloud and yet not a cloud,
for it moved far more swiftly, came out of the blackness in
the South, and sped towards the Company, blotting out all
light as it approached. Soon it appeared as a great winged
creature, blacker than the pits in the night. Fierce voices rose
up to greet it from across the water. Frodo felt a sudden chill
running through him and clutching at his heart; there was a
the great river 505
deadly cold, like the memory of an old wound, in his shoulder.
He crouched down, as if to hide.
Suddenly the great bow of Lo
´
rien sang. Shrill went the
arrow from the elven-string. Frodo looked up. Almost above
him the winged shape swerved. There was a harsh croaking
scream, as it fell out of the air, vanishing down into the gloom
of the eastern shore. The sky was clean again. There was a
tumult of many voices far away, cursing and wailing in the
darkness, and then silence. Neither shaft nor cry came again
from the east that night.
After a while Aragorn led the boats back upstream. They
felt their way along the water’s edge for some distance, until
they found a small shallow bay. A few low trees grew there
close to the water, and behind them rose a steep rocky bank.
Here the Company decided to stay and await the dawn: it
was useless to attempt to move further by night. They made
no camp and lit no fire, but lay huddled in the boats, moored
close together.
‘Praised be the bow of Galadriel, and the hand and eye of
Legolas!’ said Gimli, as he munched a wafer of lembas. ‘That
was a mighty shot in the dark, my friend!’
‘But who can say what it hit?’ said Legolas.
‘I cannot,’ said Gimli. ‘But I am glad that the shadow came
no nearer. I liked it not at all. Too much it reminded me of
the shadow in Moria – the shadow of the Balrog,’ he ended
in a whisper.
‘It was not a Balrog,’ said Frodo, still shivering with the
chill that had come upon him. ‘It was something colder. I
think it was——’ Then he paused and fell silent.
‘What do you think?’ asked Boromir eagerly, leaning from
his boat, as if he was trying to catch a glimpse of Frodo’s face.
‘I think — No, I will not say,’ answered Frodo. ‘Whatever
it was, its fall has dismayed our enemies.’
‘So it seems,’ said Aragorn. ‘Yet where they are, and how
many, and what they will do next, we do not know. This
night we must all be sleepless! Dark hides us now. But what
506 the fellowship of the ring
the day will show who can tell? Have your weapons close to
hand!’
Sam sat tapping the hilt of his sword as if he were counting
on his fingers, and looking up at the sky. ‘It’s very strange,’
he murmured. ‘The Moon’s the same in the Shire and in
Wilderland, or it ought to be. But either it’s out of its running,
or I’m all wrong in my reckoning. You’ll remember, Mr.
Frodo, the Moon was waning as we lay on the flet up in that
tree: a week from the full, I reckon. And we’d been a week
on the way last night, when up pops a New Moon as thin as
a nail-paring, as if we had never stayed no time in the Elvish
country.
‘Well, I can remember three nights there for certain, and I
seem to remember several more, but I would take my oath it
was never a whole month. Anyone would think that time did
not count in there!’
‘And perhaps that was the way of it,’ said Frodo. ‘In that
land, maybe, we were in a time that has elsewhere long gone
by. It was not, I think, until Silverlode bore us back to Anduin
that we returned to the time that flows through mortal lands
to the Great Sea. And I don’t remember any moon, either
new or old, in Caras Galadhon: only stars by night and sun
by day.’
Legolas stirred in his boat. ‘Nay, time does not tarry ever,’
he said; ‘but change and growth is not in all things and places
alike. For the Elves the world moves, and it moves both very
swift and very slow. Swift, because they themselves change
little, and all else fleets by: it is a grief to them. Slow, because
they need not count the running years, not for themselves.
The passing seasons are but ripples ever repeated in the long
long stream. Yet beneath the Sun all things must wear to an
end at last.’
‘But the wearing is slow in Lo
´
rien,’ said Frodo. ‘The power
of the Lady is on it. Rich are the hours, though short they
seem, in Caras Galadhon, where Galadriel wields the Elven-
ring.’
the great river 507
‘That should not have been said outside Lo
´
rien, not even
to me,’ said Aragorn. ‘Speak no more of it! But so it is, Sam:
in that land you lost your count. There time flowed swiftly
by us, as for the Elves. The old moon passed, and a new
moon waxed and waned in the world outside, while we tarried
there. And yestereve a new moon came again. Winter is
nearly gone. Time flows on to a spring of little hope.’
The night passed silently. No voice or call was heard again
across the water. The travellers huddled in their boats felt the
changing of the weather. The air grew warm and very still
under the great moist clouds that had floated up from the
South and the distant seas. The rushing of the River over
the rocks of the rapids seemed to grow louder and closer.
The twigs of the trees above them began to drip.
When the day came the mood of the world about them had
become soft and sad. Slowly the dawn grew to a pale light,
diffused and shadowless. There was mist on the River, and
white fog swathed the shore; the far bank could not be seen.
‘I can’t abide fog,’ said Sam; ‘but this seems to be a lucky
one. Now perhaps we can get away without those cursed
goblins seeing us.’
‘Perhaps so,’ said Aragorn. ‘But it will be hard to find the
path unless the fog lifts a little later on. And we must find the
path, if we are to pass Sarn Gebir and come to the Emyn
Muil.’
‘I do not see why we should pass the Rapids or follow the
River any further,’ said Boromir. ‘If the Emyn Muil lie before
us, then we can abandon these cockle-boats, and strike west-
ward and southward, until we come to the Entwash and cross
into my own land.’
‘We can, if we are making for Minas Tirith,’ said Aragorn,
‘but that is not yet agreed. And such a course may be more
perilous than it sounds. The vale of Entwash is flat and fenny,
and fog is a deadly peril there for those on foot and laden. I
would not abandon our boats until we must. The River is at
least a path that cannot be missed.’
508 the fellowship of the ring
‘But the Enemy holds the eastern bank,’ objected Boromir.
‘And even if you pass the Gates of Argonath and come
unmolested to the Tindrock, what will you do then? Leap
down the Falls and land in the marshes?’
‘No!’ answered Aragorn. ‘Say rather that we will bear our
boats by the ancient way to Rauros-foot, and there take to
the water again. Do you not know, Boromir, or do you choose
to forget the North Stair, and the high seat upon Amon Hen,
that were made in the days of the great kings? I at least have
a mind to stand in that high place again, before I decide my
further course. There, maybe, we shall see some sign that
will guide us.’
Boromir held out long against this choice; but when it
became plain that Frodo would follow Aragorn, wherever he
went, he gave in. ‘It is not the way of the Men of Minas
Tirith to desert their friends at need,’ he said, ‘and you will
need my strength, if ever you are to reach the Tindrock. To
the tall isle I will go, but no further. There I shall turn to my
home, alone if my help has not earned the reward of any
companionship.’
The day was now growing, and the fog had lifted a little.
It was decided that Aragorn and Legolas should at once go
forward along the shore, while the others remained by the
boats. Aragorn hoped to find some way by which they could
carry both their boats and their baggage to the smoother
water beyond the Rapids.
‘Boats of the Elves would not sink, maybe,’ he said, ‘but
that does not say that we should come through Sarn Gebir
alive. None have ever done so yet. No road was made by the
Men of Gondor in this region, for even in their great days
their realm did not reach up Anduin beyond the Emyn Muil;
but there is a portage-way somewhere on the western shore,
if I can find it. It cannot yet have perished; for light boats
used to journey out of Wilderland down to Osgiliath, and still
did so until a few years ago, when the Orcs of Mordor began
to multiply.’
the great river 509
‘Seldom in my life has any boat come out of the North, and
the Orcs prowl on the east-shore,’ said Boromir. ‘If you go for-
ward, peril will grow with every mile, even if you find a path.’
‘Peril lies ahead on every southward road,’ answered
Aragorn. ‘Wait for us one day. If we do not return in that
time, you will know that evil has indeed befallen us. Then
you must take a new leader and follow him as best you can.’
It was with a heavy heart that Frodo saw Aragorn and
Legolas climb the steep bank and vanish into the mists; but
his fears proved groundless. Only two or three hours had
passed, and it was barely mid-day, when the shadowy shapes
of the explorers appeared again.
‘All is well,’ said Aragorn, as he clambered down the bank.
‘There is a track, and it leads to a good landing that is still
serviceable. The distance is not great: the head of the Rapids
is but half a mile below us, and they are little more than a
mile long. Not far beyond them the stream becomes clear
and smooth again, though it runs swiftly. Our hardest task
will be to get our boats and baggage to the old portage-way.
We have found it, but it lies well back from the water-side
here, and runs under the lee of a rock-wall, a furlong or more
from the shore. We did not find where the northward landing
lies. If it still remains, we must have passed it yesterday night.
We might labour far upstream and yet miss it in the fog. I
fear we must leave the River now, and make for the portage-
way as best we can from here.’
‘That would not be easy, even if we were all Men,’ said
Boromir.
‘Yet such as we are we will try it,’ said Aragorn.
‘Aye, we will,’ said Gimli. ‘The legs of Men will lag on a
rough road, while a Dwarf goes on, be the burden twice his
own weight, Master Boromir!’
The task proved hard indeed, yet in the end it was done.
The goods were taken out of the boats and brought to the
top of the bank, where there was a level space. Then the
boats were drawn out of the water and carried up. They were
510 the fellowship of the ring
far less heavy than any had expected. Of what tree growing
in the Elvish country they were made not even Legolas knew;
but the wood was tough and yet strangely light. Merry and
Pippin alone could carry their boat with ease along the flat.
Nonetheless it needed the strength of the two Men to lift and
haul them over the ground that the Company now had to
cross. It sloped up away from the River, a tumbled waste of
grey limestone-boulders, with many hidden holes shrouded
with weeds and bushes; there were thickets of brambles, and
sheer dells; and here and there boggy pools fed by waters
trickling from the terraces further inland.
One by one Boromir and Aragorn carried the boats, while
the others toiled and scrambled after them with the baggage.
At last all was removed and laid on the portage-way. Then
with little further hindrance, save from sprawling briars and
many fallen stones, they moved forward all together. Fog still
hung in veils upon the crumbling rock-wall, and to their
left mist shrouded the River: they could hear it rushing and
foaming over the sharp shelves and stony teeth of Sarn Gebir,
but they could not see it. Twice they made the journey, before
all was brought safe to the southern landing.
There the portage-way, turning back to the water-side, ran
gently down to the shallow edge of a little pool. It seemed to
have been scooped in the river-side, not by hand, but by the
water swirling down from Sarn Gebir against a low pier of
rock that jutted out some way into the stream. Beyond it the
shore rose sheer into a grey cliff, and there was no further
passage for those on foot.
Already the short afternoon was past, and a dim cloudy
dusk was closing in. They sat beside the water listening to
the confused rush and roar of the Rapids hidden in the mist;
they were tired and sleepy, and their hearts were as gloomy
as the dying day.
‘Well, here we are, and here we must pass another night,’
said Boromir. ‘We need sleep, and even if Aragorn had a
mind to pass the Gates of Argonath by night, we are all too
tired – except, no doubt, our sturdy dwarf.’
the great river 511
Gimli made no reply: he was nodding as he sat.
‘Let us rest as much as we can now,’ said Aragorn.
‘Tomorrow we must journey by day again. Unless the
weather changes once more and cheats us, we shall have a
good chance of slipping through, unseen by any eyes on the
eastern shore. But tonight two must watch together in turns:
three hours off and one on guard.’
Nothing happened that night worse than a brief drizzle of
rain an hour before dawn. As soon as it was fully light they
started. Already the fog was thinning. They kept as close as
they could to the western side, and they could see the dim
shapes of the low cliffs rising ever higher, shadowy walls with
their feet in the hurrying river. In the mid-morning the clouds
drew down lower, and it began to rain heavily. They drew
the skin-covers over their boats to prevent them from being
flooded, and drifted on; little could be seen before them or
about them through the grey falling curtains.
The rain, however, did not last long. Slowly the sky above
grew lighter, and then suddenly the clouds broke, and their
draggled fringes trailed away northward up the River. The
fogs and mists were gone. Before the travellers lay a wide
ravine, with great rocky sides to which clung, upon shelves
and in narrow crevices, a few thrawn trees. The channel grew
narrower and the River swifter. Now they were speeding
along with little hope of stopping or turning, whatever they
might meet ahead. Over them was a lane of pale-blue sky,
around them the dark overshadowed River, and before them
black, shutting out the sun, the hills of Emyn Muil, in which
no opening could be seen.
Frodo peering forward saw in the distance two great rocks
approaching: like great pinnacles or pillars of stone they
seemed. Tall and sheer and ominous they stood upon either
side of the stream. A narrow gap appeared between them,
and the River swept the boats towards it.
‘Behold the Argonath, the Pillars of the Kings!’ cried
Aragorn. ‘We shall pass them soon. Keep the boats in line,
512 the fellowship of the ring
and as far apart as you can! Hold the middle of the stream!’
As Frodo was borne towards them the great pillars rose
like towers to meet him. Giants they seemed to him, vast grey
figures silent but threatening. Then he saw that they were
indeed shaped and fashioned: the craft and power of old had
wrought upon them, and still they preserved through the suns
and rains of forgotten years the mighty likenesses in which
they had been hewn. Upon great pedestals founded in the
deep waters stood two great kings of stone: still with blurred
eyes and crannied brows they frowned upon the North. The
left hand of each was raised palm outwards in gesture of
warning; in each right hand there was an axe; upon each head
there was a crumbling helm and crown. Great power and
majesty they still wore, the silent wardens of a long-vanished
kingdom. Awe and fear fell upon Frodo, and he cowered
down, shutting his eyes and not daring to look up as the boat
drew near. Even Boromir bowed his head as the boats whirled
by, frail and fleeting as little leaves, under the enduring
shadow of the sentinels of Nu
´
menor. So they passed into the
dark chasm of the Gates.
Sheer rose the dreadful cliffs to unguessed heights on either
side. Far off was the dim sky. The black waters roared and
echoed, and a wind screamed over them. Frodo crouching
over his knees heard Sam in front muttering and groaning:
‘What a place! What a horrible place! Just let me get out of
this boat, and I’ll never wet my toes in a puddle again, let
alone a river!’
‘Fear not!’ said a strange voice behind him. Frodo turned
and saw Strider, and yet not Strider; for the weatherworn
Ranger was no longer there. In the stern sat Aragorn son of
Arathorn, proud and erect, guiding the boat with skilful
strokes; his hood was cast back, and his dark hair was blowing
in the wind, a light was in his eyes: a king returning from
exile to his own land.
‘Fear not!’ he said. ‘Long have I desired to look upon the
likenesses of Isildur and Ana
´
rion, my sires of old. Under their
shadow Elessar, the Elfstone son of Arathorn of the House
the great river 513
of Valandil Isildur’s son, heir of Elendil, has naught to dread!’
Then the light of his eyes faded, and he spoke to himself:
‘Would that Gandalf were here! How my heart yearns for
Minas Anor and the walls of my own city! But whither now
shall I go?’
The chasm was long and dark, and filled with the noise of
wind and rushing water and echoing stone. It bent somewhat
towards the west so that at first all was dark ahead; but soon
Frodo saw a tall gap of light before him, ever growing. Swiftly
it drew near, and suddenly the boats shot through, out into
a wide clear light.
The sun, already long fallen from the noon, was shining in
a windy sky. The pent waters spread out into a long oval
lake, pale Nen Hithoel, fenced by steep grey hills whose sides
were clad with trees, but their heads were bare, cold-gleaming
in the sunlight. At the far southern end rose three peaks.
The midmost stood somewhat forward from the others and
sundered from them, an island in the waters, about which
the flowing River flung pale shimmering arms. Distant but
deep there came up on the wind a roaring sound like the roll
of thunder heard far away.
‘Behold Tol Brandir!’ said Aragorn, pointing south to the
tall peak. ‘Upon the left stands Amon Lhaw, and upon the
right is Amon Hen, the Hills of Hearing and of Sight. In
the days of the great kings there were high seats upon them,
and watch was kept there. But it is said that no foot of man
or beast has ever been set upon Tol Brandir. Ere the shade
of night falls we shall come to them. I hear the endless voice
of Rauros calling.’
The Company rested now for a while, drifting south on
the current that flowed through the middle of the lake. They
ate some food, and then they took to their paddles and
hastened on their way. The sides of the westward hills fell
into shadow, and the Sun grew round and red. Here and
there a misty star peered out. The three peaks loomed before
them, darkling in the twilight. Rauros was roaring with a great
514 the fellowship of the ring
voice. Already night was laid on the flowing waters when the
travellers came at last under the shadow of the hills.
The tenth day of their journey was over. Wilderland was
behind them. They could go no further without choice
between the east-way and the west. The last stage of the
Quest was before them.
Chapter 10
THE BREAKING OF THE FELLOWSHIP
Aragorn led them to the right arm of the River. Here upon
its western side under the shadow of Tol Brandir a green
lawn ran down to the water from the feet of Amon Hen.
Behind it rose the first gentle slopes of the hill clad with trees,
and trees marched away westward along the curving shores
of the lake. A little spring fell tumbling down and fed the
grass.
‘Here we will rest tonight,’ said Aragorn. ‘This is the lawn
of Parth Galen: a fair place in the summer days of old. Let
us hope that no evil has yet come here.’
They drew up their boats on the green banks, and beside
them they made their camp. They set a watch, but had no
sight nor sound of their enemies. If Gollum had contrived to
follow them, he remained unseen and unheard. Nonetheless
as the night wore on Aragorn grew uneasy, tossing often in
his sleep and waking. In the small hours he got up and came
to Frodo, whose turn it was to watch.
‘Why are you waking?’ asked Frodo. ‘It is not your watch.’
‘I do not know,’ answered Aragorn; ‘but a shadow and a
threat has been growing in my sleep. It would be well to draw
your sword.’
‘Why?’ said Frodo. ‘Are enemies at hand?’
‘Let us see what Sting may show,’ answered Aragorn.
Frodo then drew the elf-blade from its sheath. To his dis-
may the edges gleamed dimly in the night. ‘Orcs!’ he said.
‘Not very near, and yet too near, it seems.’
‘I feared as much,’ said Aragorn. ‘But maybe they are not
on this side of the River. The light of Sting is faint, and it
may point to no more than spies of Mordor roaming on the
slopes of Amon Lhaw. I have never heard before of Orcs
516 the fellowship of the ring
upon Amon Hen. Yet who knows what may happen in these
evil days, now that Minas Tirith no longer holds secure the
passages of Anduin. We must go warily tomorrow.’
The day came like fire and smoke. Low in the East there
were black bars of cloud like the fumes of a great burning.
The rising sun lit them from beneath with flames of murky
red; but soon it climbed above them into a clear sky. The
summit of Tol Brandir was tipped with gold. Frodo looked
out eastward and gazed at the tall island. Its sides sprang
sheer out of the running water. High up above the tall cliffs
were steep slopes upon which trees climbed, mounting one
head above another; and above them again were grey faces
of inaccessible rock, crowned by a great spire of stone. Many
birds were circling about it, but no sign of other living things
could be seen.
When they had eaten, Aragorn called the Company
together. ‘The day has come at last,’ he said: ‘the day of
choice which we have long delayed. What shall now become
of our Company that has travelled so far in fellowship? Shall
we turn west with Boromir and go to the wars of Gondor; or
turn east to the Fear and Shadow; or shall we break our
fellowship and go this way and that as each may choose?
Whatever we do must be done soon. We cannot long halt
here. The enemy is on the eastern shore, we know; but I fear
that the Orcs may already be on this side of the water.’
There was a long silence in which no one spoke or moved.
‘Well, Frodo,’ said Aragorn at last. ‘I fear that the burden
is laid upon you. You are the Bearer appointed by the Coun-
cil. Your own way you alone can choose. In this matter I
cannot advise you. I am not Gandalf, and though I have tried
to bear his part, I do not know what design or hope he had
for this hour, if indeed he had any. Most likely it seems that
if he were here now the choice would still wait on you. Such
is your fate.’
Frodo did not answer at once. Then he spoke slowly. ‘I
know that haste is needed, yet I cannot choose. The burden
the breaking of the fellowship 517
is heavy. Give me an hour longer, and I will speak. Let me
be alone!’
Aragorn looked at him with kindly pity. ‘Very well, Frodo
son of Drogo,’ he said. ‘You shall have an hour, and you
shall be alone. We will stay here for a while. But do not stray
far or out of call.’
Frodo sat for a moment with his head bowed. Sam, who
had been watching his master with great concern, shook his
head and muttered: ‘Plain as a pikestaff it is, but it’s no good
Sam Gamgee putting in his spoke just now.’
Presently Frodo got up and walked away; and Sam saw
that while the others restrained themselves and did not stare
at him, the eyes of Boromir followed Frodo intently, until he
passed out of sight in the trees at the foot of Amon Hen.
Wandering aimlessly at first in the wood, Frodo found that
his feet were leading him up towards the slopes of the hill.
He came to a path, the dwindling ruins of a road of long ago.
In steep places stairs of stone had been hewn, but now they
were cracked and worn, and split by the roots of trees. For
some while he climbed, not caring which way he went, until
he came to a grassy place. Rowan-trees grew about it, and in
the midst was a wide flat stone. The little upland lawn was
open upon the East and was filled now with the early sunlight.
Frodo halted and looked out over the River, far below him,
to Tol Brandir and the birds wheeling in the great gulf of air
between him and the untrodden isle. The voice of Rauros
was a mighty roaring mingled with a deep throbbing boom.
He sat down upon the stone and cupped his chin in his
hands, staring eastwards but seeing little with his eyes. All
that had happened since Bilbo left the Shire was passing
through his mind, and he recalled and pondered everything
that he could remember of Gandalf ’s words. Time went on,
and still he was no nearer to a choice.
Suddenly he awoke from his thoughts: a strange feeling
came to him that something was behind him, that unfriendly
eyes were upon him. He sprang up and turned; but all that
518 the fellowship of the ring
he saw to his surprise was Boromir, and his face was smiling
and kind.
‘I was afraid for you, Frodo,’ he said, coming forward. ‘If
Aragorn is right and Orcs are near, then none of us should
wander alone, and you least of all: so much depends on you.
And my heart too is heavy. May I stay now and talk for a
while, since I have found you? It would comfort me. Where
there are so many, all speech becomes a debate without end.
But two together may perhaps find wisdom.’
‘You are kind,’ answered Frodo. ‘But I do not think that
any speech will help me. For I know what I should do, but I
am afraid of doing it, Boromir: afraid.’
Boromir stood silent. Rauros roared endlessly on. The
wind murmured in the branches of the trees. Frodo shivered.
Suddenly Boromir came and sat beside him. ‘Are you sure
that you do not suffer needlessly?’ he said. ‘I wish to help you.
You need counsel in your hard choice. Will you not take mine?’
‘I think I know already what counsel you would give,
Boromir,’ said Frodo. ‘And it would seem like wisdom but
for the warning of my heart.’
‘Warning? Warning against what?’ said Boromir sharply.
‘Against delay. Against the way that seems easier. Against
refusal of the burden that is laid on me. Against – well, if it
must be said, against trust in the strength and truth of Men.’
‘Yet that strength has long protected you far away in your
little country, though you knew it not.’
‘I do not doubt the valour of your people. But the world is
changing. The walls of Minas Tirith may be strong, but they
are not strong enough. If they fail, what then?’
‘We shall fall in battle valiantly. Yet there is still hope that
they will not fail.’
‘No hope while the Ring lasts,’ said Frodo.
‘Ah! The Ring!’ said Boromir, his eyes lighting. ‘The Ring!
Is it not a strange fate that we should suffer so much fear and
doubt for so small a thing? So small a thing! And I have seen
it only for an instant in the house of Elrond. Could I not have
a sight of it again?’
the breaking of the fellowship 519
Frodo looked up. His heart went suddenly cold. He caught
the strange gleam in Boromir’s eyes, yet his face was still kind
and friendly. ‘It is best that it should lie hidden,’ he answered.
‘As you wish. I care not,’ said Boromir. ‘Yet may I not
even speak of it? For you seem ever to think only of its power
in the hands of the Enemy: of its evil uses not of its good.
The world is changing, you say. Minas Tirith will fall, if the
Ring lasts. But why? Certainly, if the Ring were with the
Enemy. But why, if it were with us?’
‘Were you not at the Council?’ answered Frodo. ‘Because
we cannot use it, and what is done with it turns to evil.’
Boromir got up and walked about impatiently. ‘So you go
on,’ he cried. ‘Gandalf, Elrond – all these folk have taught
you to say so. For themselves they may be right. These elves
and half-elves and wizards, they would come to grief perhaps.
Yet often I doubt if they are wise and not merely timid. But
each to his own kind. True-hearted Men, they will not be
corrupted. We of Minas Tirith have been staunch through
long years of trial. We do not desire the power of wizard-
lords, only strength to defend ourselves, strength in a just
cause. And behold! in our need chance brings to light the
Ring of Power. It is a gift, I say; a gift to the foes of Mordor.
It is mad not to use it, to use the power of the Enemy against
him. The fearless, the ruthless, these alone will achieve vic-
tory. What could not a warrior do in this hour, a great leader?
What could not Aragorn do? Or if he refuses, why not
Boromir? The Ring would give me power of Command.
How I would drive the hosts of Mordor, and all men would
flock to my banner!’
Boromir strode up and down, speaking ever more loudly.
Almost he seemed to have forgotten Frodo, while his talk
dwelt on walls and weapons, and the mustering of men; and
he drew plans for great alliances and glorious victories to be;
and he cast down Mordor, and became himself a mighty
king, benevolent and wise. Suddenly he stopped and waved
his arms.
‘And they tell us to throw it away!’ he cried. ‘I do not say
520 the fellowship of the ring
destroy it. That might be well, if reason could show any hope
of doing so. It does not. The only plan that is proposed to
us is that a halfling should walk blindly into Mordor and
offer the Enemy every chance of recapturing it for himself.
Folly!
‘Surely you see it, my friend?’ he said, turning now sud-
denly to Frodo again. ‘You say that you are afraid. If it is so,
the boldest should pardon you. But is it not really your good
sense that revolts?’
‘No, I am afraid,’ said Frodo. ‘Simply afraid. But I am glad
to have heard you speak so fully. My mind is clearer now.’
‘Then you will come to Minas Tirith?’ cried Boromir. His
eyes were shining and his face eager.
‘You misunderstand me,’ said Frodo.
‘But you will come, at least for a while?’ Boromir persisted.
‘My city is not far now; and it is little further from there to
Mordor than from here. We have been long in the wilderness,
and you need news of what the Enemy is doing before you
make a move. Come with me, Frodo,’ he said. ‘You need rest
before your venture, if go you must.’ He laid his hand on the
hobbit’s shoulder in friendly fashion; but Frodo felt the hand
trembling with suppressed excitement. He stepped quickly
away, and eyed with alarm the tall Man, nearly twice his
height and many times his match in strength.
‘Why are you so unfriendly?’ said Boromir. ‘I am a true
man, neither thief nor tracker. I need your Ring: that you
know now; but I give you my word that I do not desire to
keep it. Will you not at least let me make trial of my plan?
Lend me the Ring!’
‘No! no!’ cried Frodo. ‘The Council laid it upon me to
bear it.’
‘It is by our own folly that the Enemy will defeat us,’ cried
Boromir. ‘How it angers me! Fool! Obstinate fool! Running
wilfully to death and ruining our cause. If any mortals have
claim to the Ring, it is the men of Nu
´
menor, and not
Halflings. It is not yours save by unhappy chance. It might
have been mine. It should be mine. Give it to me!’
the breaking of the fellowship 521
Frodo did not answer, but moved away till the great flat
stone stood between them. ‘Come, come, my friend!’ said
Boromir in a softer voice. ‘Why not get rid of it? Why not be
free of your doubt and fear? You can lay the blame on me,
if you will. You can say that I was too strong and took it by
force. For I am too strong for you, halfling,’ he cried; and
suddenly he sprang over the stone and leaped at Frodo. His
fair and pleasant face was hideously changed; a raging fire
was in his eyes.
Frodo dodged aside and again put the stone between them.
There was only one thing he could do: trembling he pulled
out the Ring upon its chain and quickly slipped it on his
finger, even as Boromir sprang at him again. The Man
gasped, stared for a moment amazed, and then ran wildly
about, seeking here and there among the rocks and trees.
‘Miserable trickster!’ he shouted. ‘Let me get my hands on
you! Now I see your mind. You will take the Ring to Sauron
and sell us all. You have only waited your chance to leave us
in the lurch. Curse you and all halflings to death and dark-
ness!’ Then, catching his foot on a stone, he fell sprawling
and lay upon his face. For a while he was as still as if his own
curse had struck him down; then suddenly he wept.
He rose and passed his hand over his eyes, dashing away
the tears. ‘What have I said?’ he cried. ‘What have I done?
Frodo, Frodo!’ he called. ‘Come back! A madness took me,
but it has passed. Come back!’
There was no answer. Frodo did not even hear his cries.
He was already far away, leaping blindly up the path to the
hill-top. Terror and grief shook him, seeing in his thought
the mad fierce face of Boromir, and his burning eyes.
Soon he came out alone on the summit of Amon Hen, and
halted, gasping for breath. He saw as through a mist a wide
flat circle, paved with mighty flags, and surrounded with a
crumbling battlement; and in the middle, set upon four
carven pillars, was a high seat, reached by a stair of many
steps. Up he went and sat upon the ancient chair, feeling like
522 the fellowship of the ring
a lost child that had clambered upon the throne of mountain-
kings.
At first he could see little. He seemed to be in a world of
mist in which there were only shadows: the Ring was upon
him. Then here and there the mist gave way and he saw
many visions: small and clear as if they were under his eyes
upon a table, and yet remote. There was no sound, only
bright living images. The world seemed to have shrunk and
fallen silent. He was sitting upon the Seat of Seeing, on Amon
Hen, the Hill of the Eye of the Men of Nu
´
menor. Eastward
he looked into wide uncharted lands, nameless plains, and
forests unexplored. Northward he looked, and the Great
River lay like a ribbon beneath him, and the Misty Mountains
stood small and hard as broken teeth. Westward he looked
and saw the broad pastures of Rohan; and Orthanc, the
pinnacle of Isengard, like a black spike. Southward he
looked, and below his very feet the Great River curled like a
toppling wave and plunged over the falls of Rauros into a
foaming pit; a glimmering rainbow played upon the fume.
And Ethir Anduin he saw, the mighty delta of the River, and
myriads of sea-birds whirling like a white dust in the sun,
and beneath them a green and silver sea, rippling in endless
lines.
But everywhere he looked he saw the signs of war. The
Misty Mountains were crawling like anthills: orcs were issuing
out of a thousand holes. Under the boughs of Mirkwood
there was deadly strife of Elves and Men and fell beasts. The
land of the Beornings was aflame; a cloud was over Moria;
smoke rose on the borders of Lo
´
rien.
Horsemen were galloping on the grass of Rohan; wolves
poured from Isengard. From the havens of Harad ships of
war put out to sea; and out of the East Men were moving
endlessly: swordsmen, spearmen, bowmen upon horses,
chariots of chieftains and laden wains. All the power of the
Dark Lord was in motion. Then turning south again he beheld
Minas Tirith. Far away it seemed, and beautiful: white-walled,
many-towered, proud and fair upon its mountain-seat; its
the breaking of the fellowship 523
battlements glittered with steel, and its turrets were bright with
many banners. Hope leaped in his heart. But against Minas
Tirith was set another fortress, greater and more strong.
Thither, eastward, unwilling his eye was drawn. It passed
the ruined bridges of Osgiliath, the grinning gates of Minas
Morgul, and the haunted Mountains, and it looked upon
Gorgoroth, the valley of terror in the Land of Mordor. Dark-
ness lay there under the Sun. Fire glowed amid the smoke.
Mount Doom was burning, and a great reek rising. Then
at last his gaze was held: wall upon wall, battlement upon
battlement, black, immeasurably strong, mountain of iron,
gate of steel, tower of adamant, he saw it: Barad-du
ˆ
r, Fortress
of Sauron. All hope left him.
And suddenly he felt the Eye. There was an eye in the
Dark Tower that did not sleep. He knew that it had become
aware of his gaze. A fierce eager will was there. It leaped
towards him; almost like a finger he felt it, searching for him.
Very soon it would nail him down, know just exactly where
he was. Amon Lhaw it touched. It glanced upon Tol Brandir
– he threw himself from the seat, crouching, covering his
head with his grey hood.
He heard himself crying out: Never, never! Or was it: Verily
I come, I come to you? He could not tell. Then as a flash from
some other point of power there came to his mind another
thought: Take it off ! Take it off ! Fool, take it off ! Take off the
Ring!
The two powers strove in him. For a moment, perfectly
balanced between their piercing points, he writhed, tor-
mented. Suddenly he was aware of himself again, Frodo,
neither the Voice nor the Eye: free to choose, and with one
remaining instant in which to do so. He took the Ring off his
finger. He was kneeling in clear sunlight before the high seat.
A black shadow seemed to pass like an arm above him; it
missed Amon Hen and groped out west, and faded. Then all
the sky was clean and blue and birds sang in every tree.
Frodo rose to his feet. A great weariness was on him, but
his will was firm and his heart lighter. He spoke aloud to
524 the fellowship of the ring
himself. ‘I will do now what I must,’ he said. ‘This at least is
plain: the evil of the Ring is already at work even in the
Company, and the Ring must leave them before it does more
harm. I will go alone. Some I cannot trust, and those I can
trust are too dear to me: poor old Sam, and Merry and
Pippin. Strider, too: his heart yearns for Minas Tirith, and
he will be needed there, now Boromir has fallen into evil. I
will go alone. At once.’
He went quickly down the path and came back to the lawn
where Boromir had found him. Then he halted, listening. He
thought he could hear cries and calls from the woods near
the shore below.
‘They’ll be hunting for me,’ he said. ‘I wonder how long I
have been away. Hours, I should think.’ He hesitated. ‘What
can I do?’ he muttered. ‘I must go now or I shall never go. I
shan’t get a chance again. I hate leaving them, and like this
without any explanation. But surely they will understand.
Sam will. And what else can I do?’
Slowly he drew out the Ring and put it on once more. He
vanished and passed down the hill, less than a rustle of the
wind.
The others remained long by the river-side. For some time
they had been silent, moving restlessly about; but now they
were sitting in a circle, and they were talking. Every now and
again they made efforts to speak of other things, of their
long road and many adventures; they questioned Aragorn
concerning the realm of Gondor and its ancient history, and
the remnants of its great works that could still be seen in this
strange border-land of the Emyn Muil: the stone kings and
the seats of Lhaw and Hen, and the great Stair beside the
falls of Rauros. But always their thoughts and words strayed
back to Frodo and the Ring. What would Frodo choose to
do? Why was he hesitating?
‘He is debating which course is the most desperate, I think,’
said Aragorn. ‘And well he may. It is now more hopeless than
ever for the Company to go east, since we have been tracked
the breaking of the fellowship 525
by Gollum, and must fear that the secret of our journey is
already betrayed. But Minas Tirith is no nearer to the Fire
and the destruction of the Burden.
‘We may remain there for a while and make a brave stand;
but the Lord Denethor and all his men cannot hope to do
what even Elrond said was beyond his power: either to keep
the Burden secret, or to hold off the full might of the Enemy
when he comes to take it. Which way would any of us choose
in Frodo’s place? I do not know. Now indeed we miss
Gandalf most.’
‘Grievous is our loss,’ said Legolas. ‘Yet we must needs
make up our minds without his aid. Why cannot we decide,
and so help Frodo? Let us call him back and then vote! I
should vote for Minas Tirith.’
‘And so should I,’ said Gimli. ‘We, of course, were only
sent to help the Bearer along the road, to go no further than
we wished; and none of us is under any oath or command to
seek Mount Doom. Hard was my parting from Lothlo
´
rien.
Yet I have come so far, and I say this: now we have reached
the last choice, it is clear to me that I cannot leave Frodo. I
would choose Minas Tirith, but if he does not, then I follow
him.’
‘And I too will go with him,’ said Legolas. ‘It would be
faithless now to say farewell.’
‘It would indeed be a betrayal, if we all left him,’ said
Aragorn. ‘But if he goes east, then all need not go with him;
nor do I think that all should. That venture is desperate: as
much so for eight as for three or two, or one alone. If you
would let me choose, then I should appoint three com-
panions: Sam, who could not bear it otherwise; and Gimli;
and myself. Boromir will return to his own city, where his
father and his people need him; and with him the others
should go, or at least Meriadoc and Peregrin, if Legolas is
not willing to leave us.’
‘That won’t do at all!’ cried Merry. ‘We can’t leave Frodo!
Pippin and I always intended to go wherever he went, and
we still do. But we did not realize what that would mean. It
526 the fellowship of the ring
seemed different so far away, in the Shire or in Rivendell. It
would be mad and cruel to let Frodo go to Mordor. Why
can’t we stop him?’
‘We must stop him,’ said Pippin. ‘And that is what he is
worrying about, I am sure. He knows we shan’t agree to his
going east. And he doesn’t like to ask anyone to go with him,
poor old fellow. Imagine it: going off to Mordor alone!’
Pippin shuddered. ‘But the dear silly old hobbit, he ought to
know that he hasn’t got to ask. He ought to know that if we
can’t stop him, we shan’t leave him.’
‘Begging your pardon,’ said Sam. ‘I don’t think you under-
stand my master at all. He isn’t hesitating about which way
to go. Of course not! What’s the good of Minas Tirith
anyway? To him, I mean, begging your pardon, Master
Boromir,’ he added, and turned. It was then that they dis-
covered that Boromir, who at first had been sitting silent on
the outside of the circle, was no longer there.
‘Now where’s he got to?’ cried Sam, looking worried. ‘He’s
been a bit queer lately, to my mind. But anyway he’s not in
this business. He’s off to his home, as he always said; and no
blame to him. But Mr. Frodo, he knows he’s got to find the
Cracks of Doom, if he can. But he’s afraid. Now it’s come to
the point, he’s just plain terrified. That’s what his trouble is.
Of course he’s had a bit of schooling, so to speak – we all
have – since we left home, or he’d be so terrified he’d just fling
the Ring in the River and bolt. But he’s still too frightened to
start. And he isn’t worrying about us either: whether we’ll go
along with him or no. He knows we mean to. That’s another
thing that’s bothering him. If he screws himself up to go, he’ll
want to go alone. Mark my words! We’re going to have
trouble when he comes back. For he’ll screw himself up all
right, as sure as his name’s Baggins.’
‘I believe you speak more wisely than any of us, Sam,’ said
Aragorn. ‘And what shall we do, if you prove right?’
‘Stop him! Don’t let him go!’ cried Pippin.
‘I wonder?’ said Aragorn. ‘He is the Bearer, and the fate
of the Burden is on him. I do not think that it is our part to
the breaking of the fellowship 527
drive him one way or the other. Nor do I think that we should
succeed, if we tried. There are other powers at work far
stronger.’
‘Well, I wish Frodo would ‘‘screw himself up’’ and come
back, and let us get it over,’ said Pippin. ‘This waiting is
horrible! Surely the time is up?’
‘Yes,’ said Aragorn. ‘The hour is long passed. The morning
is wearing away. We must call for him.’
At that moment Boromir reappeared. He came out from
the trees and walked towards them without speaking. His face
looked grim and sad. He paused as if counting those that
were present, and then sat down aloof, with his eyes on the
ground.
‘Where have you been, Boromir?’ asked Aragorn. ‘Have
you seen Frodo?’
Boromir hesitated for a second. ‘Yes, and no,’ he answered
slowly. ‘Yes: I found him some way up the hill, and I spoke
to him. I urged him to come to Minas Tirith and not to go
east. I grew angry and he left me. He vanished. I have never
seen such a thing happen before, though I have heard of it
in tales. He must have put the Ring on. I could not find him
again. I thought he would return to you.’
‘Is that all that you have to say?’ said Aragorn, looking hard
and not too kindly at Boromir.
‘Yes,’ he answered. ‘I will say no more yet.’
‘This is bad!’ cried Sam, jumping up. ‘I don’t know what
this Man has been up to. Why should Mr. Frodo put the
thing on? He didn’t ought to have; and if he has, goodness
knows what may have happened!’
‘But he wouldn’t keep it on,’ said Merry. ‘Not when he
had escaped the unwelcome visitor, like Bilbo used to.’
‘But where did he go? Where is he?’ cried Pippin. ‘He’s
been away ages now.’
‘How long is it since you saw Frodo last, Boromir?’ asked
Aragorn.
‘Half an hour, maybe,’ he answered. ‘Or it might be an
528 the fellowship of the ring
hour. I have wandered for some time since. I do not know! I
do not know!’ He put his head in his hands, and sat as if
bowed with grief.
‘An hour since he vanished!’ shouted Sam. ‘We must try
and find him at once. Come on!’
‘Wait a moment!’ cried Aragorn. ‘We must divide up into
pairs, and arrange – here, hold on! Wait!’
It was no good. They took no notice of him. Sam had
dashed off first. Merry and Pippin had followed, and were
already disappearing westward into the trees by the shore,
shouting: Frodo! Frodo! in their clear, high, hobbit-voices.
Legolas and Gimli were running. A sudden panic or madness
seemed to have fallen on the Company.
‘We shall all be scattered and lost,’ groaned Aragorn. ‘Boro-
mir! I do not know what part you have played in this mischief,
but help now! Go after those two young hobbits, and guard
them at the least, even if you cannot find Frodo. Come back
to this spot, if you find him, or any traces of him. I shall
return soon.’
Aragorn sprang swiftly away and went in pursuit of Sam.
Just as he reached the little lawn among the rowans he over-
took him, toiling uphill, panting and calling, Frodo!
‘Come with me, Sam!’ he said. ‘None of us should be
alone. There is mischief about. I feel it. I am going to the
top, to the Seat of Amon Hen, to see what may be seen. And
look! It is as my heart guessed, Frodo went this way. Follow
me, and keep your eyes open!’ He sped up the path.
Sam did his best, but he could not keep up with Strider
the Ranger, and soon fell behind. He had not gone far before
Aragorn was out of sight ahead. Sam stopped and puffed.
Suddenly he clapped his hand to his head.
‘Whoa, Sam Gamgee!’ he said aloud. ‘Your legs are too
short, so use your head! Let me see now! Boromir isn’t lying,
that’s not his way; but he hasn’t told us everything. Some-
thing scared Mr. Frodo badly. He screwed himself up to the
point, sudden. He made up his mind at last – to go. Where
the breaking of the fellowship 529
to? Off East. Not without Sam? Yes, without even his Sam.
That’s hard, cruel hard.’
Sam passed his hand over his eyes, brushing away the
tears. ‘Steady, Gamgee!’ he said. ‘Think, if you can! He can’t
fly across rivers, and he can’t jump waterfalls. He’s got no
gear. So he’s got to get back to the boats. Back to the boats!
Back to the boats, Sam, like lightning!’
Sam turned and bolted back down the path. He fell and
cut his knees. Up he got and ran on. He came to the edge of
the lawn of Parth Galen by the shore, where the boats were
drawn up out of the water. No one was there. There seemed
to be cries in the woods behind, but he did not heed them.
He stood gazing for a moment, stock-still, gaping. A boat
was sliding down the bank all by itself. With a shout Sam
raced across the grass. The boat slipped into the water.
‘Coming, Mr. Frodo! Coming!’ called Sam, and flung him-
self from the bank, clutching at the departing boat. He missed
it by a yard. With a cry and a splash he fell face downward
into deep swift water. Gurgling he went under, and the River
closed over his curly head.
An exclamation of dismay came from the empty boat. A
paddle swirled and the boat put about. Frodo was just in
time to grasp Sam by the hair as he came up, bubbling and
struggling. Fear was staring in his round brown eyes.
‘Up you come, Sam my lad!’ said Frodo. ‘Now take my
hand!’
‘Save me, Mr. Frodo!’ gasped Sam. ‘I’m drownded. I can’t
see your hand.’
‘Here it is. Don’t pinch, lad! I won’t let you go. Tread
water and don’t flounder, or you’ll upset the boat. There
now, get hold of the side, and let me use the paddle!’
With a few strokes Frodo brought the boat back to the
bank, and Sam was able to scramble out, wet as a water-rat.
Frodo took off the Ring and stepped ashore again.
‘Of all the confounded nuisances you are the worst, Sam!’
he said.
‘Oh, Mr. Frodo, that’s hard!’ said Sam shivering. ‘That’s
530 the fellowship of the ring
hard, trying to go without me and all. If I hadn’t a guessed
right, where would you be now?’
‘Safely on my way.’
‘Safely!’ said Sam. ‘All alone and without me to help you?
I couldn’t have a borne it, it’d have been the death of me.’
‘It would be the death of you to come with me, Sam,’ said
Frodo, ‘and I could not have borne that.’
‘Not as certain as being left behind,’ said Sam.
‘But I am going to Mordor.’
‘I know that well enough, Mr. Frodo. Of course you are.
And I’m coming with you.’
‘Now, Sam,’ said Frodo, ‘don’t hinder me! The others will
be coming back at any minute. If they catch me here, I shall
have to argue and explain, and I shall never have the heart
or the chance to get off. But I must go at once. It’s the only
way.’
‘Of course it is,’ answered Sam. ‘But not alone. I’m coming
too, or neither of us isn’t going. I’ll knock holes in all the
boats first.’
Frodo actually laughed. A sudden warmth and gladness
touched his heart. ‘Leave one!’ he said. ‘We’ll need it. But you
can’t come like this without your gear or food or anything.’
‘Just hold on a moment, and I’ll get my stuff !’ cried Sam
eagerly. ‘It’s all ready. I thought we should be off today.’ He
rushed to the camping place, fished out his pack from the
pile where Frodo had laid it when he emptied the boat of his
companions’ goods, grabbed a spare blanket, and some extra
packages of food, and ran back.
‘So all my plan is spoilt!’ said Frodo. ‘It is no good trying
to escape you. But I’m glad, Sam. I cannot tell you how glad.
Come along! It is plain that we were meant to go together.
We will go, and may the others find a safe road! Strider will
look after them. I don’t suppose we shall see them again.’
‘Yet we may, Mr. Frodo. We may,’ said Sam.
So Frodo and Sam set off on the last stage of the Quest
together. Frodo paddled away from the shore, and the River
the breaking of the fellowship 531
bore them swiftly away, down the western arm, and past the
frowning cliffs of Tol Brandir. The roar of the great falls
drew nearer. Even with such help as Sam could give, it was
hard work to pass across the current at the southward end of
the island and drive the boat eastward towards the far shore.
At length they came to land again upon the southern slopes
of Amon Lhaw. There they found a shelving shore, and they
drew the boat out, high above the water, and hid it as well as
they could behind a great boulder. Then shouldering their
burdens, they set off, seeking a path that would bring them
over the grey hills of the Emyn Muil, and down into the Land
of Shadow.
.
3
4
2
1
1
2
3
4
ii
works by j. r. r. tolkien
The Hobbit
Leaf by Niggle
On Fairy-Stories
Farmer Giles of Ham
The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth
The Lord of the Rings
The Adventures of Tom Bombadil
The Road Goes Ever On (with Donald Swann)
Smith of Wootton Major
works published posthumously
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl and Sir Orfeo
The Father Christmas Letters
The Silmarillion
Pictures by J.R.R. Tolkien
Unfinished Tales
The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
Finn and Hengest
Mr Bliss
The Monsters and the Critics & Other Essays
Roverandom
The Children of Hu
´
rin
The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún
the history of middle-earth – by christopher tolkien
I The Book of Lost Tales, Part One
II The Book of Lost Tales, Part Two
III The Lays of Beleriand
IV The Shaping of Middle-earth
V The Lost Road and Other Writings
VI The Return of the Shadow
VII The Treason of Isengard
VIII The War of the Ring
IX Sauron Defeated
X Morgoth’s Ring
XI The War of the Jewels
XII The Peoples of Middle-earth
HarperCollinsPublishers
Copyright
77–85 Fulham Palace Road,
Hammersmith, London W68JB
www.tolkien.co.uk
www.tolkienestate.com
Published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2008
1
This edition is based on the reset edition first published 2004
First published in Great Britain by George Allen & Unwin 1954
Second Edition 1966
Copyright © The Trustees of the J.R.R.Tolkien 1967 Settlement 1954, 1966
®
and ‘Tolkien’
®
are registered trademarks of
The J.R.R. Tolkien Estate Limited
AER Edition © March 2009 ISBN: 978-0-061-91767-7
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright
Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-
exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-
screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded,
decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information
storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or
mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written
permission of HarperCollins e-books.
ABOUT THE PUBLISHER
Australia
HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.
25 Ryde Road (PO Box 321)
Pymble, NSW 2073, Australia
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com.au
Canada
HarperCollins Canada
2 Bloor Street East - 20th Floor
Toronto, ON, M4W 1A8, Canada
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.ca
New Zealand
HarperCollinsPublishers (New Zealand) Limited
P.O. Box 1
Auckland, New Zealand
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.co.nz
United Kingdom
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
77-85 Fulham Palace Road
London, W6 8JB, UK
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.co.uk
United States
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
10 East 53rd Street
New York, NY 10022
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com
