"FOREWORD" - читать интересную книгу автора (vol08)

Lord of the Rings (LR). In several parts of the book the textual
history is exceedingly complex. Since the story of the evolution
of The Lord of the Rings can of course only be discovered by the
correct ordering and interpretation of the manuscripts, and
must be recounted in those terms, the textual history cannot be
much simplified; and I have made much use of identifying letters
for the manuscripts in order to clarify my account and to try to
avoid ambiguities. In Books IV and V problems of chronologi-
cal synchronisation became acute: a severe tension is sometimes
perceptible between narrative certainties and the demands of an
entirely coherent chronological structure (and the attempt to
right dislocation in time could very well lead to dislocation in
geography). Chronology is so important in this part of The
Lord of the Rings that I could not neglect it, but I have put
almost all of my complicated and often inconclusive discussion
into 'Notes on the Chronology' at the end of chapters.
In this book I have used accents throughout in the name, of
the Rohirrim (Theoden, Eomer, &c.).
Mr Charles Noad has again read the proofs independently
and checked the very large number of citations, including those
to other passages within the book, with a strictness and care
that I seem altogether unable to attain. In addition I have
adopted several of his suggestions for improvement in clarity
and consistency in my account. I am much indebted to him for
this generous and substantial work.
I am very grateful for communications from Mr Alan Stokes
and Mr Neil Gaiman, who have explained my father's reference
in his remarks about the origins of the poem Errantry (The
Treason of Isengard p. 85): 'It was.begun very many years ago,
in an attempt to go on with the model that came unbidden into
my mind: the first six lines, in which, I guess, D'ye ken the



rhyme to porringer had a part.' The reference is to a Jacobite
song attacking William of Orange as usurper of the English
crown from his father-in-law, James II, and threatening to hang
him. The first verse of this song runs thus in the version given
by Iona and Peter Opie in The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery
Rhymes (no. 422):

What is the rhyme for porringer?
What is the rhyme for porringer?
The king he had a daughter fair
And gave the Prime of Orange her.

The verse is known in several forms (in one of which the
opening line is Ken ye the rhyme to porringer? and the last And
he gave her to an Oranger). This then is the unlikely origin of
the provender of the Merry Messenger: