"GL4" - читать интересную книгу автора (vol06)

THE STORY
CONTINUED.

XXIII.
IN THE HOUSE OF ELROND.

In the next stage of the work it is difficult to deduce the chronology of
composition, or to relate it to important further revisions made to the
'third phase' of the story as far as Rivendell. Determination of the
chronology depends on the form taken by certain key elements, and if
these happen to be absent certainty becomes impossible.
At any rate, after 'Bingo' had become 'Frodo' my father continued
Frodo's interrupted conversation with Gloin at the feast in the house of
Elrond (see p. 369). This continuation is in two forms, the second closely
following the first, and already in the first form the latter part of 'Many
Meetings' in FR is quite closely approached; but there are certain major
differences. I give here the second form (in part).'

'And what has become of Balin and Ori and Oin?' asked Frodo.
A shadow passed over Gloin's face. 'Balin took to travelling
again,' he answered. 'You may have heard that he visited Bilbo in
Hobbiton many years ago: well, not very long after that he went
away for two or three years. Then he returned to the Mountain
with a great number of dwarves that he discovered wandering
masterless in the South and East. He wanted Dain to go back to
Moria - or at least to allow him to found a colony there and reopen
the great mines. As you probably know, Moria was the ancestral
home of the dwarves of the race of Durin, and the forefathers of
Thorin and Dain dwelt there, until they were driven by the goblin
invasions far into the North. Now Balin reported that Moria was
again wholly deserted, since the great defeat of the goblins, but the
mines were still rich, especially in silver. Dain was not willing to
leave the Mountain and the tomb of Thorin, but he allowed Balin
to go, and he took with him many of the folk of the Mountain as
well as his own following; and Ori and Oin went with him. For
many years things went well, and the colony throve; there was
traffic once more between Moria and the Mountain, and many
gifts of silver were sent to Dain. Then fortune changed. Our
messengers were attacked and robbed by cruel Men, well-armed.
No messengers came from Moria; but rumour reached us that the
mines and dwarf-city were again deserted. For long we could not
learn what had become of Balin and his people - but now we have

news, and it is evil. It is to tell these tidings and to ask for the
counsel of - of those that dwell in Rivendell that I have come. But
to-night let us speak of merrier things! '

At the head of the page my father wrote the words that stand in this
place in FR (p. 241): '"We do not know," he answered. "It is largely on
his account that I have come to ask for the counsel of - of those that dwell