The Return Of The Shadow Part 29

32. Pencilled changes altered the speakers in this pa.s.sage, but I believe that these are later. The question 'How are me to get to the turn?' is taken from Trotter and given to Merry (probably because my father had decided that Trotter was a Man), who goes on 'It is a pity Gandalf can't produce flame enough to melt us a pathway'; and it is Merry, not Boromir, who makes the remark about a tame dragon and a wild wizard. But since subsequently it is to Boromir that Gandalf apologises for his irritability, these changes were casual and not fully integrated into the narrative. Either at this time or later the remark about Gandalf's melting them a path was transferred to Legolas (cf. FR p. 305), and this is obviously a structurally irrelevant addition, like that concerning Gimli in note 26.

33. The descent of the Company through the deep snow was first told quite differently, though the version given replaced the other before it was completed. As first written, Gandalf relented at once towards Boromir (after 'It will serve you right if you meet a wild dragon') and since he appeared already tired gave him a further sip of Elrond's cordial. Boromir was to carry each hobbit down separately (cf. the preliminary sketch given in note r) and began with Frodo; at the drift he stumbled on a hidden stone and Frodo was thrown into the deep snow and disappeared, but Boromir 'soon recovered him'. Sam was brought down next ('he had disapproved greatly of his master (with the Ring) being left alone and out of reach in any sudden danger'). Boromir was then too tired to repeat the ascent and descent three times more, and this version ends with hasty notes telling that Trotter, Faramond, and Merry were put on the ponies, while Gandalf behind and Boromir ahead, carrying the baggage, 'ploughed their way down dragging and thrusting the ponies forward.'

My father then wrote: 'Or alter all above', and proposed that the whole Company should go down together. In the second version, given in the text, he neglected to mention that Boromir returned once more to bring down the baggage. The story in FR is of course entirely different since Trotter has become Aragorn.

34. Moria is translated 'Black Gulf' in the first, rejected occurrence of this pa.s.sage (note 24). An isolated note earlier in the MS has 'Moria = Black Gulf', with the etymology yago, ia; here 'Gulf' is a correction of some other word which I cannot interpret. Cf. the Etymologies, V.400, stem YAG 'yawn, gape', where Moria is translated 'Black Gulf'.

35. This is not the first use of the word Orcs in the LR papers: Gandalf refers to 'orcs and goblins' among the servants of the Dark Lord, pp. 211, 364; cf. also pp. 187, 320. But the rarity of the usage at this stage is remarkable. The word Orc goes back to the Lost Tales, and had been pervasive in all my father's subsequent writings. In the Lost Tales the two terms were used as equivalents, though sometimes apparently distinguished (see II. 364, entry Coblins). A clue may be found in a pa.s.sage that occurs in both the earlier and the later Quenta (I V.82, V.233): 'Goblins they may be called, but in ancient days they mere strong and fell.' At this stage it seems that 'Orcs' are to be regarded as a more formidable kind of 'Goblin', so in the preliminary sketch for 'The Mines of Moria' (p. 443) Gandalf says 'there are goblins - of very evil kind, larger than usual, real orcs.' - It is incidentally notable that in the first edition of The Hobbit the word Orcs is used only once (at the end of Chapter VII 'Queer Lodgings'), while in the published LR goblins is hardly ever used.

36 Strangely, this is not at all in agreement with what Gloin had said at Rivendell (p. 391): 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.'

37 It is here that the emendation in red ink to Cla.s.smere in Dimrilldale is made (note 13). This is the first appearance of the lake in Dimrill Dale; on the contemporary map it is marked and named Mirror.

38 Gandalf's account of Moria here differs from the earlier form (see note 24) only in that here there is mention of Durin, of the peace between Elves and Dwarves, and of Orcs (see note 35) - the rejected version refers only to goblins. In that version it is said that the Dwarves of Caron-dun 'sent their goods down the Great River.'

39 'ten' changed in pencil to '20'. In FR (p. 311) Gandalf says: 'There was a door south-west of Caradhras, fifteen miles as the crow flies, and maybe twenty as the wolf runs.'

40. See note 23. In the margin, probably made at the time of writing of the ma.n.u.script, is a note: 'Trotter was caught there.' This contrasts with what was said earlier, at the Council of Elrond (p. 401): 'Thus it was that Frodo learned how Trotter had tracked Gollum as he wandered southwards, through Fangorn Forest, and past the Dead Marshes, until he had himself been caught and imprisoned by the Dark Lord.'

Note on the Geography and the contemporary Map.

The extremely rapid, rough, and now tattered map reproduced on p. 439 can with complete certainty, I think, be ascribed to the time of the original writing of this chapter. It was my father's first representation of Middle-earth south of the Map of Wilderland in The Hobbit - which he had before him, as the courses of the rivers show.

Going from North to South on the map, there is Carrock at the top; and Gladden (River) and Gl[adden] Fields (see p. 416 and note 4). Hollin is named and roughly marked with a broken line; and the names, struck out, to the right of the mountains are Taragaer, Caradras (with the final form Caradras beside it in pencil), Carnbeleg, and Rhascarn (see note 11). The pa.s.s is called Dimrill, with (probably) Cris-caron struck out (note 14); and Mirrormere is marked, the first occurrence of the name (see note 37). West of the mere Moria is marked; below are two illegible names and below them Bliscarn (note 11) and again Carnbeleg, all struck out.

The division of the Misty Mountains into two arms here, referred to by Gandalf in the present text (pp. 419, 429) and by Gimli in FR (p. 296), is shown far more markedly on this original map than it is on my father's later ones - where the eastern arm is shown as actually less extensive than it is on mine published in LR. For the names of the valley between the arms of the mountains see note 13.

The vast westward swing of the Great River {marked great bend) is already in being, but the placing of Fangorn Forest (in which my father's writing of the word Forest is a sample of his more rapid script) would later be wholly changed. That the Great River flowed through the midst of Fangorn is stated by Gandalf (p. 419 and note 16). The name Belfalas in the North-east of Fangorn is in red ink (the only item that is); afterwards Belfalas was a coastal region of Gondor, and since falas ('sh.o.r.e') was one of the most ancient of Elvish words (see 1.253) it is hard to see how it could be used to refer to a region of forest far inland. I suspect that my father wrote it on the page after, or before, the making of this extremely rapid map and without any reference to it, so that it has no significance in this context.

For the various proposed names of the river Redway in the text see note 15; among them is Caradras, which is written on the map (but struck through in pencil).

Across the Misty Mountains further south is written 'Place this pa.s.s into Rohan further south' (on pa.s.ses over the Mountains south of Caradras see note 22). At the bottom of the map on the left is written: (The earliest map of the lands south of the Map of Wilderland in The Hobbit.) 'Rohan. Horsekings land Hippa.n.a.letians... [possibly kn standing for kingdom] Anaxippians Rohiroth Rochiroth.' The Hippa.n.a.letians and Anaxippians ('Horse-lords') are surprising.

At the right-hand corner is: Below here are the Blue Mts. Compare Gandalf's words in the first sketching of 'The Council of Elrond' (p. 397): 'Giant Treebeard, who haunts the Forest between the River and the South Mountains'; the outline given on p. 410 in which it is said that Fangorn Forest runs up into the Blue (> Black) Mountains; and the rejected note to the present text in which it was said that Boromir was 'born a mountaineer' in the Black Mountains (note 31).

A question arises concerning the line of the Misty Mountains. In this original text it is said (p. 418), as in FR (p. 295), that south of Rivendell the mountains bent westward; and this is shown on the Map of the Wilderland in The Hobbit. It will be seen that if the line of the mountains where it leaves that map, some distance south of the sources of the Gladden, be continued without further westward curving, a track running south from the Ford of Rivendell will strike the mountain chain somewhere near Caradhras. This is in fact precisely what is shown on my father's three maps that exhibit the whole range of the Misty Mountains. On two of them the mountains run in a straight line from about the lat.i.tude of Rivendell (as also on my map published in LR); on one of them (the earliest) the line curves very slightly westward from some way north of Hollin; but on all three a line drawn south from the Ford must cut the mountains at an acute angle in the region of Hollin, simply because the line of the mountains is south-south-west.

It is therefore curious that the original sketch-map discussed here does not really agree with the original text (p. 418). The travellers went south from the Ford; and on the borders of Hollin 'far away south Frodo saw the dim shapes of mountains, that seemed now to lie across their path. To the left of this distant range a tall peak stood up like a tooth': that was Taragaer, the Redhorn (Caradhras). And when Faramond said that he thought that they must have turned east, since the mountains were now in front of them, Gandalf said No, it is the mountains that have turned. But on the old map, a line drawn south from the Ford would only strike the mountains far south of Moria and the Red Pa.s.s; and this is because my father bent the mountain-line almost due south in the region of Hollin, so that the course from the Ford and the mountain-line then become nearly parallel. This is possibly no more than a consequence of the speed and roughness with which the map was made - the merest guide; but it is curious that the dotted line marking the route of the travellers does actually turn strongly south-east towards the pa.s.s - as Faramond thought that it had!

Barbara Strachey, writing on this question in Journeys of Frodo (Map 17), remarks: 'The mountains bent westward as they went; more so, in my opinion, than appears in the maps of Middle-earth, especially south of the Redhorn Pa.s.s. Frodo said that they then seemed to "stand across the path" that the Companions were taking' (FR p. 295). This is arguable; but the point is strengthened by Gandalf's reply to Pippin, who has said that they must have turned east: 'No, but you see further ahead in the clear light. Beyond those peaks [i.e. the Mountains of Moria] the range bends round south-west' (FR p. 296). On none of my father's maps is there a change in the direction of the main mountain-chain south of Caradhras. But all show some degree of mountainous extension westwards from the main chain at the point where the Glanduin flows down towards Greyflood: very slight in one (and so represented on my map in LR), more marked on a second, and on the third (the earliest) amounting to a virtual division of the range, with a broad arm of mountains running southwest. On the elaborate map in coloured chalks that I made in 1943 (see p. zoo) this is again a strongly marked feature.* It may be that it was to this that Gandalf was referring.

In this connection it may be mentioned that on my map published in LR the mountainous heights shown extending from the main range westwards north of Hollin are badly exaggerated from what my father intended: 'about the feet of the main range there was tumbled an ever wider land of bleak hills, and deep valleys filled with turbulent water' (FR p. 295).

(* The map referred to here as 'the earliest' (cf. also p. 202) is my father's original elaborate working map of The Lord of the Rings (on which my 1943 map was closely based). This map will be studied in Vol, VII.)

XXV. THE MINES OF MORIA.

I have little doubt that the first draft of this chapter was written continuously from the end of 'The Ring Goes South', both from internal evidence and external (the nature of the ma.n.u.script). But there is also a very interesting two-page 'Sketch of the Mines of Moria chapter' which, I think, immediately preceded the writing of it. This 'Sketch' is extremely difficult to read, and some words can only be guessed at.

Their adventures must be made different from Lonely Mountain. Tunnels leading in every direction, sloping up and running steeply down. stairs. pits. noise of water in darkness.

Gandalf guided mainly by the general sense of direction. They had brought one bundle of torches in case of need, 2 each. Gandalf i won't use them until necessary. Faint spark from his staff. Glamdring does not glow, therefore no goblins near.

How far to go. How long will it take. Gandalf reckons at least 2 days, perhaps more. Thought of a night (or two!) in Moria terrifies them. Frodo feels dread growing. Perhaps his adventures with the Ring have made him sensitive. While others are keeping up spirits with hopeful talk he feels the certainty of evil creeping over him, but says nothing. He constantly fancies he hears patter of feet of [?some creature] behind - [? this] is Gollum as it proves long after.

It was about ten o'clock in the morning when they entered. They had had little rest. They went on (with z halts) until too weary to go much further. They came to a dark arch leading to 3 pa.s.sages all leading in same general direction, but the left down, the right up, the centre (apparently) level. Gandalf unable to choose: he does not remember the place.

They halt for the night in a small chamber (almost like a guardroom watching the entrances) just to [?their] left. A deep pit to right. A loose stone falls in. Several minutes before they hear a noise of it reach bottom. After that some of them fancy a far off echo of small knocks at intervals (like signals?). But nothing further happens that night. Gandalf sleeps little trying to choose the road. [? In end] chooses the right hand upward way. They go for nearly 8 hours exclusive of halts.'(1) Come to a great chamber. Door in [?south] wall. Dim light - a [!high?huge] chimney like shaft slanting up. Far up a gleam of daylight. The gleam falls on a great square table of stone [written above: a tomb].

There is another door in west [written above: east] wall. There are lances and swords and [? broken lying] by both doors.

The gleam of light shows carved letters. Here lies Balin son of Burin, Lord of Moria. In the recesses are chests and a few swords and s.h.i.+elds. Chests empty except one. Here is a book with some dwarf writing.

Tells how Balin came to Moria. Then hand changes and tells how he died - of [?an] arrow that came unawares. Then how 'enemies' invaded the east gates. We cannot get out of the west gates because of the 'dweller in the water'. Brief account of siege. Last scrawl says 'they are coming'.

I think we had better be going, said Gandalf. At that moment there is a noise like a great boom far underneath. Then a terrible noise like a horn echoed endlessly. Gandalf springs to door. Noise like goblin feet.

Gandalf lets out a blinding flash and cries Who comes there? Ripple of..... laughter - and some deep voices.

Gandalf says there are goblins - of very evil kind, larger than usual, real orcs.(2) Also certainly some kind of troll is leading them. Plan of defence. They gather at east door. But [?south] door is propped ajar with wedges. Great arm and shoulder appear by the..... door. Gandalf hews it with Glamdring. Frodo stabs foot with Sting. Horrible cry. Arrows whistle in through crack.

Orcs leap in but are killed. [? Boom] as great rocks. .h.i.t door.

They rush out through east door - opens outwards - and slam it. [?They Ay] up a long wide tunnel Noise soon shows east door is broken down. Pursuit is after them.

Here follows the loss of Gandalf.

In pencil in the margin against the account of the attack on the chamber is written: Black-mailed orc leaps in and goes for Frodo with spear - he is saved by the elfmail and strikes down the orc.

This is a very striking example of an important narrative pa.s.sage in The Lord of the Rings at its actual moment of emergence. Here as elsewhere many of the most essential elements were present from the first: the junction of three roads, Gandalf's doubt, the guardroom, the falling stone and the subterranean tapping that followed, the chamber of Balin's tomb, the writing in the book, the troll, and much else. That Gollum should be following them in Moria had been proposed in the outline given on p. 410: 'Gollum must reappear at or after Moria. Frodo hears patter.'

Gandalf's sword Glamdring (Foe-hammer), which he took from the trolls' lair and which (so Elrond told him) 'the king of Gondolin once wore', now reappears from The Hobbit.

Balin's father (Fundin in The Hobbit as in LR) is here surprisingly Burin; this dwarf-name (found in Old Norse) had previously been given to Balin's son, in the first drafts for 'The Council of Elrond' (pp. 395, 397), before he was replaced by Gimli son of Gloin (p. 400).

The story that Bilbo gave Sting and his 'elf-mail' to Frodo before he left Rivendell (FR pp. 290 - 1) entered in the sketch given on p. 397. This is not the first reference to the loss of Gandalf; see p. 381, and for the first sketch of the event see p. 462.

This 'Sketch' begins when the Company is already inside Moria. For the story of their approach to the West Gate and the opening of the door there seems to be only the following by way of preparatory outline (though the 'dweller in the water' before the West Gate appears in the 'Sketch', p.443, in the words of the book found in the chamber of Balin's tomb). It follows and was written at the same time as the sketch of the descent from the Red Pa.s.s in the snow (p. 431, note 1).

Moria's west gates are dwarf-gates (closed like the Lonely Mountain); but openable not at a set time but by a [?special ?speech] spell. Gandalf knows or [?thinks] it must be one of [? three] in ancient tongue - for the Elves of Hollin wrought the spell.

Holly bushes grow before these gates. Then Gandalf knows it is an elf-spell.

I give now the first draft text of the chapter. It was numbered from the outset 'XIV', presumably because my father had decided that 'The Ring Goes South' was a separate chapter and so should be numbered 'XIII', though he never wrote that number on the ma.n.u.script. My description of the text of 'The Ring Goes South' (p. 415) can be repeated here still more emphatically. The writing, again in ink not pencil, is even faster and more often indecipherable, the amount of rejected material (often not struck out) even greater; many pa.s.sages are chaotic. There is also a certain amount of pencilled correction, probably made at different times, and some of it obviously belonging to a later stage. In one case, my father made a quite careful insertion in ink, saying that Gimli was of little help to Gandalf in finding a way through Moria (cf. FR p. 324), though he put in no montion of Gimli anywhere else. The text is thus difficult to interpret and still more difficult to represent.

It will be seen that the entire story of the attack by the Wargs in the night after the Company came down from the pa.s.s (FR pp. 310 - 13) is absent.

THE MINES OF MORIA.

Next day the weather changed again, almost as if it obeyed the orders of some power that had now given up the idea of snow, since they had retreated from Cris-caron. The wind had turned southward in the night. In the morning it was veering west, and rain was beginning to fall. The travellers pitched a tent in a sheltered hollow and remained quiet all the day till the afternoon was drawing towards evening.

All the day they had heard no sound and seen no sign of any living thing. As soon as the light began to fade they started off again. A light rain was still falling, but that did not trouble them much at first. Gandalf and Trotter led them in a detour away from ',: ' the Mountains, for they planned to come at Moria up the course of a stream that ran out from the feet of the hills not far from the hidden gates. But it seemed that somehow or other they must have gone astray in the dark, for it was a black night under an overcast sky. In any case, they did not strike the stream, and morning found them wandering and floundering in wet and marshy places filled with red pools, for there was much clay in the hollows.(3) They were somewhat comforted by a change in the weather: the clouds broke and the rain stopped. The sun came out in gleams. But Gandalf was fretted by the delay, and decided to move on again by day, after only a few hours' rest. There were no birds in the sky or other ominous signs. They steered now straight back towards the mountains, but both Gandalf and Trotter were much puzzled by their failure to find the stream.

When they had come back again to the foothills and lower slopes they struck a narrow watercourse in a deep channel; but it was dry, and there was now no water among [the] reddish stones in the bed. There was, however, still something like an open path on the left bank.

'This is where the stream used to run, I feel sure,' said Gandalf. 'Sirannon the Gatestream (4) they used to call it. Anyway our road lies up this course.' The night was now falling, but though they were already tired, especially the hobbits, Gandalf urged them to press on.

'Are you thinking of climbing to the top of the mountains tonight, in time to get an early view of the dawn?' asked Merry. 'I should think of it if there was any chance of doing it!' said Gandalf. 'But no one can scale the mountains here. The gates are not high up, but in a certain place near the foot of a great cliff. I hope I can find it - but things seem oddly changed, since I was last here.'

Before the night was old the moon, now only two days off the full,(5) rose through the clouds that lay on the eastern peaks, and shone fitfully down over the western lands. They trudged on with their weary feet stumbling among the stones, until suddenly they came to a wall of rock some thirty feet high. Over it ran a trickling fall of water, but plainly the fall had once been much stronger. 'Ah! Now I know where we are! ' cried Gandalf. 'This is where the Stair-falls were. I wonder what has happened to them. But if I am right there is a stairway cut in the stone at the left: the main path goes further round and up an incline. There is or was a wide and shallow valley above the falls through which the Sirannon flowed.' Very soon they found the stairway, and followed by Frodo and Trotter Gandalf climbed quickly up. When they got to the top they discovered the reason of the drying up of the stream.

The moon was now sinking westwards. It shone out brightly for a while, and they saw stretched before their feet a dark still lake, glinting in the moonlight. The Gate-stream had been dammed, and had filled all the valley. Only a trickle of water escaped over the old falls, for the main outlet of the lake was now away at the southern end.(6) Before them, dim and grey across the dark water, stood a cliff. The moonlight lay pale upon it, and it looked cold and forbidding: a final bar to all pa.s.sage. Frodo could see no sign of any gate or entrance in the frowning stone.

'This way is blocked!' said Gandalf. 'At least it is, as far as can be seen by night. I don't suppose anyone wants to try and swim across by moonlight - or any other light. The pool has an unwholesome look. When it was made or why I do not know, but not for any good purpose, I guess.'

'We must try and find a way round by the main path,' said Trotter. 'Even if there was no lake we could not get our ponies up the narrow stair.'

'And even if we could, they would not be able to go into the Mines,' said Gandalf. 'Our road there under the mountains will take us by paths where they cannot go - even if we can.'

'I wondered if you had thought of that drawback,' said Trotter. 'I supposed you had, though you did not mention it.'

'No need to mention it, until necessary,' answered the wizard. 'We will take them as far as we can. It remains to be seen if the [? other] road is not drowned as well: in which case we may not be able to get at the gates at all.'

'If the gates are still there,' said Trotter.

They had no great difficulty in finding the old path. It turned away from the falls and wound northward for some way, before bending east again, and climbed up a long slope. When they reached the top of this they saw the lake lying on the right. The path skirted its very edge, but was not submerged. For the most part it was just above the water; but in one place, at the northernmost end of the lake, where there was a slimy and stagnant pool, it disappeared for a short distance, before bending south again toward the foot of the great cliff.

When they reached this point Boromir went forward, and found that the path was only just awash. Carefully they threaded their way in single file behind him. The footing was slippery and treacherous; Frodo felt a curious disgust at the very feel of the dark water on his feet.

As Faramond the last of the party stepped onto the dry land, there was a soft sound, a swish followed by a plop, as if a fish had disturbed the still surface of the water. Turning swiftly they saw in the moonlight ripples sharpened [?with] dark shadows: great rings were widening outwards from some point near the middle of the pool.(7) They halted; and at that very moment the light went out, as the moon fell and vanished into low clouds. There was a soft bubbling noise in the lake, and then silence.

It was too dark to seek for the gate in that changed valley, and the rest of the night the travellers spent unhappily, sitting watchful between the cliff and the dark water which they could no longer see. None of them slept more than briefly and uneasily.

But with the morning their spirits revived. Slowly the light reached the lake: its dark surface was still and unruffled by any breeze. The sky was clear above, and slowly the sun rose above the mountains at their back, and shone on the western lands before them. They ate a little food, and rested for a while after the cheerless night, until the sun reached the south and its warm rays slanted down, driving away the shadows of the great wall behind. Then Gandalf stood up and said that it was high time to begin to search for the gates. The strip of dry land left by the lake was quite narrow, and their path took them close under the face of the cliff. When they had gone for almost a mile southward they came to some holly-trees. There were stumps and dead logs rotting in the water - the remains of old thickets, or of a hedge that had once lined the submerged road across the drowned valley. But close under the cliff there stood, still living and strong, two tall trees with great roots that spread from the wall to the water's edge. From far across under the other side in the fitful moon Frodo had thought them mere bushes on piles of stone: but now they towered above his head: stiff, silent, dark except for their cl.u.s.tered berries: standing like sentinels or pillars at the end of a road.

'Well, here we are at last! ' said Gandalf. 'This is where the elf- way from Hollin ended. The holly-trees were planted by the elves in the old days to mark the end of their domains - the westgates were made chiefly for their use in their traffic with the dwarves. This is the end of our path - and now I am afraid we must say farewell to our ponies. The good beasts would go almost anywhere we told them to; but I do not think we could get them to go into the dark pa.s.sages of Moria. And in any case there are behind the west gate many steep stairs, and many difficult and dangerous places where ponies could not pa.s.s, or would be a perilous handicap. If we are to win through we must travel lighter. Much of the stuff we have brought against bitter weather will not be wanted inside, nor when we get to the other side and turn south.'

'But surely you aren't going to leave the poor beasts in this forsaken place, Mr Gandalf!' protested Sam, who was specially fond of ponies.

'Don't you worry, Sam! They'll find their way back home in time. They have wiser noses even than most of their kind, and these two have returned to Elrond from far away before now. I expect they'll make off west and then work back northward through country where they can find gra.s.s.'

'I'd be happier if I might lead them back past the wash and down to the old falls,' said Sam, ' - I'd like to sort of say goodbye and set them on the road as it were.'

'Very well, you can,' said Gandalf. 'But first let us unlade them and distribute the goods we mean to keep.'

When each member of the party had been given a share according to his size - most of the foodstuffs and the waterskins - the remainder was secured again on the ponies' backs. In each bundle Gandalf put a brief message to Elrond written in secret runes, telling him of the snowstorm and their turning aside to Moria. Then Sam and Trotter led the horses off.

'Now let us have a look at the gates!' said Gandalf.(8) 'I do not see any gates,' said Merry.

'Dwarf-gates are not made to be seen,' said the wizard. 'Many are quite invisible, and their own masters cannot find them if their secret is lost. But these gates were not made to be wholly (9) secret, and unless things are altogether changed eyes that know what to look for may discover the signs. Let us go and see! '

He strode forward to the cliff-wall. There was a smooth s.p.a.ce right in the middle of the shade of the trees, and over this he pa.s.sed his hands to and fro, muttering words under his breath. Then he stepped back. 'Look!' he said. 'Can you see anything now? ' The sun shone across the face of the wall, and as the travellers stared at it, it seemed to them that on the surface where Gandalf's hand had pa.s.sed faint lines appeared like slender veins of silver running in the stone; at first they seemed like pale threads of gossamer so fine as only to be seen fitfully where the sun caught them; but slowly they broadened and their design could be guessed. At the top, as high as Gandalf could reach, was an arch of interlacing letters in the elvish character; below it seemed (though the drawing was in places blurred and broken) that there was the outline of an anvil and hammer, and above that a crown and a crescent moon. More clearly than all else there shone forth palely three stars with many rays.(10) 'Those are the emblems of Durin and of the Elves,' said Gandalf. 'They are of some silver substance that is seen only when touched by one who knows certain words - at night under the moon they s.h.i.+ne most bright.(11) Now you can see that we have certainly found the west gate of Moria.'

'What does the writing say?' asked Frodo, who was trying to puzzle out the inscription. 'I thought I knew the elf-letters, but I cannot read these, they are so tangled.'

'The words are in the elf-tongue, not in ordinary language,' said Gandalf. 'But they do not say anything of much importance to us. Certainly they don't tell the opening-spell, if that i's what you are thinking. They merely say: The Doors of Durin Lord of Moria. Speak friends and enter. And underneath very small and now faint is: Narfi made them.(12) Celebrimbor of Hollin drew these signs.' 'What does it mean by "speak friends and enter"?' asked Frodo. 'That is plain enough,' said Gandalf, ' - if you are friends speak the pa.s.sword, and then the door will open and you can enter. Some dwarf-gates will open only at special times, or for particular (The inscription of the West Gate of Moria.) persons; and some have keys and locks which are necessary even when all other conditions are fulfilled. In the days of Durin these gates were not secret: they usually stood open and door-wards sat here. But if they were shut anyone who knew the opening words could speak them and pa.s.s in.'

'Do you know them then?'

'No! ' said Gandalf.

The others looked surprised and dismayed - all except Trotter, who knew Gandalf very well. 'Then what was the use of bringing us here?' asked Boromir wrathfully.

'And how did you get in when you explored the Mines, as you told us just now?' asked Frodo.

'The answer to your question, Boromir,' said the wizard, 'is that I don't know - not yet. But we shall soon see; and, ' he added, with a glint in his eyes under bristling brows, 'you can start being uncivil, when it is proved useless: not before. As for your question,' he said, turning sharply on Frodo, 'the answer is obvious: I did not enter this way. I came from the East. If it interests you I may add that these doors open outwards with a push, but nothing can open them inwards. They can swing out, or they can be broken if you have enough force.'

'What are you going to do then?' asked Merry,(13) who was not much disturbed by Gandalf's bristling brows; and in his heart hoped that the doors would prove impossible to open.

'I am going to try and find the opening words. I once knew every formula and spell in any language of elves, dwarves, or goblins that was ever used for such purposes. I can still remember two or three hundreds without racking my brains. But I think only a few trials should be necessary. The opening words were in Elvish, like the written words - I feel certain: from the signs on the doors, from the holly trees, and because of the use for which the road and gates were originally made.' He stepped up to the rock and lightly touched with his wand the silver star that was near the middle of the emblems, just above the crown.

Annon porennin diragas venwed diragath-telwen porannin nithrad.(14) he said. The silver letters faded, but the grey blank stone did not stir. Many many times he tried other formulas one after another, but nothing further happened. Then he tried single words spoken in commanding tones, and finally (seeming to lose his temper) he shouted Edro, edro! and followed it with open! in every language he could remember. Then he sat down in silence.

Boromir was smiling broadly behind his back. 'It looks as if we may be wanting those ponies back,' he said in an undertone. 'It would have been wiser to have kept them till the gates were open.'(15) If Gandalf heard he made no sign.

Suddenly in the silence Frodo heard a soft swish and bubble in the water (16) as on the evening before, only softer. Turning quickly he saw faint ripples on the surface of the lake - and at the same time saw that Sam and Trotter in the distance [were] crossing the wash on their return. The ripples on the water seemed to be moving in their direction.

'I don't like this place,' said Merry, who had also seen the ripples. 'I wish we could go back, or that Gandalf would do something and we could go on - if we must.'

'I have a queer feeling,' said Frodo slowly, ' - a dread either of the gates or of something else. But I don't think Gandalf is defeated: he is thinking hard, I fancy.'

It appeared that Frodo was right; for the wizard suddenly sprang to his feet with a laugh. 'I have it! ' he cried. 'Of course, of course! Absurdly simple - when you think of it! ' Raising his wand he stood before the rock and said in a clear voice: Mellyn! (or Meldir!) (17) The three stars shone briefly and went out again. Then silently a great door was outlined, though not the finest crack or joint had been visible before. Slowly it began to swing outwards, inch by inch until it lay right back against the wall.(18) Behind, the foot of a shadowy stairway could be seen climbing up into the gloom within. All the party stood and stared in wonder.

'I was wrong after all,' said Gandalf. 'The opening word was inscribed there all the time. Speak friends and enter it said, and when I spoke the elvish word for friends, it opened. Quite simple! And now we can enter.'

But at that moment Frodo felt something seize his ankle and he fell. At the same moment Sam and Trotter who had just come back gave a yell as they ran up. Turning suddenly the others saw that a long arm, sinuous as a tentacle, was thrust out from the lake's dark edge. It was pale green-grey and wet: its fingered end had hold of Frodo's foot and was dragging him towards the water. Sam dashed up with a drawn knife and slashed at it. The fingers let go of Frodo and Sam dragged him away; but immediately the waters of the lake began to heave and boil, and twenty more writhing arms came rippling out, making for the travellers as if directed by something in the deep pools that could see them all. 'Into the gateway! Quick! Up the stairs!' shouted Gandalf, rousing them from the horror that had held them rooted.

There was just time. Gandalf saw them all inside, and then sprang back upon the heels of Trotter, but he was no more than four steps up when the crawling fingers of the dweller in the pool reached the cliff.(19) He paused. But if he was pondering how to close the door, or what word would move them from within, there was no need. For the arms seized the door, and with dreadful strength swung it round. With a shattering echo it slammed behind them; and they halted on the stairs in dismay as the sounds of rending and cras.h.i.+ng came dully through the stones from outside. Gandalf ran down to the door and thrust up.... and spoke the.... words;(20) but though the door groaned it did not stir.

'I am afraid the door is blocked behind us now,' he said. 'If I guess right, the trees are thrown down across it, and boulders have been rolled against it. I am sorry for the trees - they were beautiful and old and had..... so long.(21) Well now, we can only go on - there is nothing left to do.'