"FOREWORD" - читать интересную книгу автора (vol06)

book, the most intractable problem lies in the development of
the story through successive drafts, always changing but always
closely dependent on what preceded. In the rather extreme case of
the opening chapter 'A Long-expected Party', there are in this
book six main texts to be considered and a number of abandoned
openings. A complete presentation of all the material for this one
chapter would almost constitute a book in itself, not to speak of a
mass of repetition or near-repetition. On the other hand, a suc-
cession of texts reduced to extracts and short citations (where the
versions differ significantly from their predecessors) is not easy to
follow, and if the development is traced at all closely this method
also takes up much space. There is no really satisfactory solution
to this. The editor must take responsibility for selecting and
emphasizing those elements that he considers most interesting and
most significant. In general I give the earliest narrative complete,
or nearly complete, in each chapter, as the basis to which sub-
sequent development can be referred. Different treatment of
the manuscripts calls for different arrangement of the editorial
element: where texts are given more or less in full much use is

made of numbered notes (which may constitute an important part
of the presentation of a complex text), but where they are not the
chapter proceeds rather as a discussion with citations.
My father bestowed immense pains on the creation of The Lord
of the Rings, and my intention has been that this record of his first
years of work on it should reflect those pains. The first part of the
story, before the Ring left Rivendell, took by far the most labour
to achieve (hence the length of this book in relation to the whole
story); and the doubts, indecisions, unpickings, restructurings,
and false starts have been described. The result is necessarily
extremely intricate; but whereas it would be possible to recount
the history in a greatly reduced and abbreviated form, I am
convinced that to omit difficult detail or to oversimplify problems
and explanations would rob the study of its essential interest.
My object has been to give an account of the writing of The Lord
of the Rings, to exhibit the subtle process of change that could
transform the significance of events and the identity of persons
while preserving those scenes and the words that were spoken
from the earliest drafts. I therefore (for example) pursue in detail
the history of the two hobbits who ultimately issued in Peregrin
Took and Fredegar Bolger, but only after the most extraordinary
permutations and coalescences of name, character, and role; on
the other hand I refrain from all discussion that is not directly
relevant to the evolution of the narrative.
In the nature of the book, I assume conversance with The
Fellowship of the Ring, and comparison is made throughout of
course with the published work. Page-references to The Fellow-
ship of the Ring (abbreviated FR) are given to the three-volume
hardback edition of The Lord of the Rings (LR) published by
George Allen and Unwin (now Unwin Hyman) and Houghton