Free The War of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien Page A

examinations in English at Oxford in 1942.
    25. The opening of the description is confused. Apparently my father at first followed the draft 'A' very closely, writing: 'And in the centre ... was a tower, a pinnacle of stone. The base of it, and that two hundred feet in height, was a great cone of rock ...', but altered this at once to 'was an isle of stone, two hundred feet in height, a great cone of rock ...' Subsequently he changed 'was an isle of stone' to 'there stood an island in the lake.' See the description 'D' in the text.
    26. On the back of this drawing my father wrote: 'This picture should be combined with old one': i.e. for a final version, which was never made, features of 'Orthanc (1)' should be incorporated. - 'Picture 5' went to Marquette with the second completed manuscript of the chapter, whereas the others remained in England. - The conception of 'Orthanc (5)' is seen also in Pictures by J. R. R. Tolkien, no. 27, viewed from the side in which were the stairway and the door.
    27. In a draft of the paragraph beginning 'A strong place and wonderful was Isengard' (TT p. 160) these words were followed by 'or Ang(ren)ost in elvish speech'. Angrenost has appeared before (VII.420); the variant Angost occurs subsequently (p. 72).
    28. Perhaps Hoppettan was Theoden's turning of Hobbits into the sounds and grammatical inflexion of the language of the Mark -
    or else he was merely struck by the resemblance to the (Old English) verb hoppettan 'to hop, leap, jump for joy'.

29. Holbytla 'Hole-builder' has the consonants lt (Holbylta) reversed, as in the closely related Old English botl, bodl beside bold
    'building' (see my note on Nobottle in the Shire, VII.424).
    30. This name can be read either as Mugworth or as Mugwort, but the latter (a plant-name, and one of the family names in Bree) seems very unlikely as the name of a place. Mugworth is not recorded as a village name in England.
    31. This passage about tobacco was dashed down in a single spurt without any corrections, and there is no indication that these sentences were spoken by Theoden; but that they were so is seen from the following draft.
    32. The illegible word might possibly be 'grand'.
    33. A pencilled note suggests that this should be 'a conversation at
    [the] feast'. See pp. 72-3.
    34. Smygrave: with the first element cf. Smial (Old English smygel).
    The second element is probably Old English graef.
    35. With the later change of Tobias to Tobold Hornblower cf.
    Barliman for earlier Barnabas Butterbur.
    36. Cf. my father's letter to me of 6 May 1944 (Letters no. 66), referring to Faramir, then newly arrived on the scene: 'if he goes on much more a lot of him will have to be removed to the appendices - where already some fascinating material on the hobbit Tobacco industry and the Languages of the West have gone.'
    37. Isengrim Took the First and the date 1050: in the Prologue to LR
    in the days of Isengrim Took the Second and the date 1070. See the original genealogical table of the Tooks in VI.316 - 17, according to which Isengrim the First would have been 400 years old at the time of Bilbo's Farewell Party. Since the Shire Reckoning date 1418 (as in LR) has already appeared for the year of Frodo's departure from Bag End (VII.9), Isengrim the First (afterwards Isengrim II) was born in S.R. 1001. According to the genealogical tree of the Tooks in LR Appendix C the dates of this Isengrim were S.R. 1020 - 1122. - The varieties of pipe-weed from the Southfarthing are here given as Longbottom-leaf, Old Toby, and Hornpipe Shag.
    38. On the north gate of Isengard see note 23.
    39. In the draft of this scene the three Ents who came out from the trees were not wholly indifferent to the company: 'Silently they stood, some twenty paces off, regarding the riders with solemn eyes.' But this was changed immediately.
    In a draft for the passage that follows (TT p. 155), in which Theoden reflects on the Ents and the narrow horizons of the people of Rohan, it is Gandalf