"GL1" - читать интересную книгу автора (vol07)

though he does mention the Cracks of Doom and the Fiery
Mountain.
He departs again; and Frodo becomes restless. As Gandalf does
not come back for a year and more Frodo forms the idea of going
perhaps to the Cracks of Doom, but at any rate to Rivendell. There
he will get advice. He finally makes his plans with his friends Merry
and [Folco >] Faramond' (no Odo) and Sam. They go off just as the
Black Riders come to Hobbiton.
Gandalf finds out about the Black Riders but is delayed, because
the Dark Lord is hunting him (or because of Treebeard). He is
alarmed at finding Frodo gone and immediately rides off to
Buckland, but is again too late. He loses their trail owing to the
Old Forest escapade, and actually gets ahead. He falls in with
Trotter. Who is Trotter?

At the end of this sketch my father for a moment contemplated an
entirely novel answer to this question: that Trotter was 'a disguised elf
- friend of Bilbo's in Rivendell.' He was one of the Rivendell scouts, of
whom many were sent out, and he 'pretends to be a ranger'. This was
struck out, probably as soon as written.
If this is compared with the note dated August 1939 given in VI.374
it will be seen that a passage in the latter bears a distinct similarity to
what is said here:

Gandalf does not tell Frodo to leave Shire ... The plan for leaving
was entirely Frodo's. Dreams or some other cause [added: restless-
ness] have made him decide to go journeying (to find Cracks of
Doom? after seeking counsel of Elrond). Gandalf simply vanishes
for years.... Gandalf is simply trying to find them, and is des-
perately upset when he discovers Frodo has left Hobbiton.

That Treebeard was a hostile being, and that he held Gandalf in
captivity during the crucial time, appeared in the 'third phase' Chapter
XII (VI.363); cf. also VI.384, 397.

(2) In another undated scrap is seen the actual emergence of
'Trotter's' true name - as a Man: Aragorn.

Trotter is a man of Elrond's race descendant of [struck out at once:
Turin] the ancient men of the North, and one of Elrond's house-

hold. He was a hunter and wanderer. He became a friend of Bilbo.
He knew Gandalf. He was intrigued by Bilbo's story, and found
Gollum. When Gandalf went off on the last perilous quest - really
to find out about Black Riders and whether the Dark Lord would
attack the Shire - he [> Gandalf and Bilbo] arranged with Trotter
(real name [other unfinished names struck oat in the act of writing:
Bara / Rho / Dam] Aragorn son of Aramir) to go towards the Shire
and keep a lookout on the road from East (Gandalf was going
South). He gives Aragorn a letter to Frodo. Aragorn pretends he is a