"GL3" - читать интересную книгу автора (vol08)

PART THREE.

MINAS TIRITH.

I.
ADDENDUM TO
'THE TREASON OF ISENGARD'.

After the publication of 'The Treason of Isengard' I came upon the
following manuscript page. It had ended up in a bundle of much later
writings concerned with the events of Books V and VI, and when
going through these papers I had failed to see its significance. It is in
fact the concluding page of the first of the two outlines that I gave
under the heading 'The Story Foreseen from Fangorn' in VII.434 ff.;
and since it represents my father's earliest recorded conception of the
events of Book V this seems the best place to give it. I repeat first the
conclusion of the part printed in Vol. VII (p. 437):

News comes at the feast [at Eodoras] or next morning of the siege
of Minas Tirith by the Haradwaith.... The horsemen of Rohan
ride East, with Gandalf, Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas, Merry and
Pippin. Gandalf as the White Rider.... Vision of Minas Tirith
from afar.

The text begins in the same pale ink as was used for the earlier part of
the outline but soon turns to pencil. At the head of the page is written
(later, in a different ink): Homeric catalogue. Forlong the Fat. The
folk of Lebennin' (see p. 287).

Battle before walls. Sorties from city. Aragorn puts the
Haradwaith to flight. Aragorn enters into Minas Tirith and
becomes their chief. Recollection of the boding words (as
spoken by Boromir).
The forces of Minas Tirith and Rohan under Aragorn and
Gandalf cross the Anduin and retake Elostirion. The Nazgul.
How Gandalf drove them back. Wherever the shadow of the
Nazgul fell there was a blind darkness. Men fell flat, or fled. But
about Gandalf there was always a light - and where he rode the
shadow retreated.
The forces of West worst Minas Morghul [written above:
Morgol] and drive back the enemy to the Field of Nomen's
Land before Kirith Ungol. Here comes the embassy of Sauron.
He sends to say that [Here the ink text ends and is followed by
pencil, the word that crossed out] to Gandalf and Aragorn that
he has got Frodo the Ringbearer captive. (Dismay of Aragorn.)



Sauron's messenger declares that Frodo has begged for deliver-
ance at any price. Sauron's price is the immediate withdrawal of