The Return Of The Shadow Part 15

XIII. 'QUERIES AND ALTERATIONS'.

In this chapter I give a series of notes which my father headed Queries and Alterations. I think that it can be shown clearly that they come from the time we have now reached.

He had abandoned his third draft for Chapter IX (later to be called 'Many Meetings') at the point where Gloin was telling Bingo about King Brand of Dale; this is at the bottom of a page that bears the number IX.8. I have already noticed (p. 213) that on the reverse of this page, numbered IX.9, the conversation continues - but it is obviously discontinuous with what precedes, being written in different ink and a different script, and Gloin is now talking to 'Frodo', not 'Bingo'; and in fact, after this point in the narrative of The Lord of the Rings 'Bingo' never appears again.

Now the first of these Queries and Alterations is concerned precisely with the conversation of Bingo and Gloin, and actually refers to the last page of the 'Bingo' part of the chapter, IX.8 (perhaps it had just been written). In another of these notes my father was for the first time considering the subst.i.tution of 'Frodo' for 'Bingo'; but he here decided against it - and when he came to write a new version of 'A Long-expected Party' (a question discussed in these same notes) Bilbo's heir was still 'Bingo', not 'Frodo'.

I conclude, therefore, that it was just at the time when he abandoned Chapter IX that he wrote Queries and Alterations; that when he abandoned it he returned again to the beginning of the book; and that it was some considerable time - during which 'Bingo' became 'Frodo' - before he took up again the conversation with Gloin at Rivendell.

There are two pages of these notes, mostly set out in ink in an orderly and legible way; but there are also many hasty pencilled additions, and these may or may not, in particular cases, belong to the same time (granting that the intervals of time are not likely to be great: but in attempting to trace this history it is 'layers' and 'phases' that are significant rather than weeks or months). Some of the suggestions embodied in these notes han no future, but others are of the utmost interest in showing the actual cmergence of new ideas.

I set them out in what seems to be the order in which they were written down, taking in the additions as convenient and relevant, and adding one or two other notes that belong to this time.

(1) Dale Men and Dwarfs at Party - is this good? Rather spoils meeting of Bingo and Gloin (IX.8). Also unwise to bring Big People to Hobbiton. Simply make Gandalf and dwarfs bring things from Dale.

For the 'great lumbering tow-haired Men' who went 'stumping on the hobbit road like elephants' and drank all the beer in the inn at Hobbiton see p. 20 (the account of them had survived without change into the fourth version of 'A Long-expected Party'). By 'Dale Men and Dwarfs at Party' my father meant 'in Hobbiton at that time', not of course that they were present at the Party. The Men would be abandoned in the next version of 'A Long-expected Party', but the Dwarves remained into FR (p. 33). Perhaps my father felt that whereas the Men would certainly have told Bingo the news from Dale, the Dwarves need have no particular connection with the Lonely Mountain.

(2) Too many hobbits. Also Bingo Bolger-Baggins a bad name. Let Bingo = Frodo, a son of Primula Brandybuck but of father Drogo Baggins (Bilbo's first cousin). So Frodo (= Bingo) is Bilbo's first cousin once removed both on Took side and on Baggins. Also he has as proper name Baggins.

[Frodo struck out] No - I am now too used to Bingo.

Frodo [i.e. Took] and Odo are in the know and see Bingo off at gate after the Party. Would it not be well to cancel sale, and have Odo as heir and in charge? - though many things could be given away. The Sackville-Bagginses could quarrel with Odo?

Frodo (and possibly Odo) go on the first stage of road (because Frodo's news about Black Riders is necessary) [see pp. 54 - 5].

But Frodo says goodbye at Bucklebury. Only Merry and Bingo ride on into exile - because Merry insists. Bingo originally intended to go alone.

Probably best would be to have only Frodo Took - who sees Bingo to Bucklebury; and then Merry. Cut out Odo. Even better to have Frodo and Merry at the gate: Frodo says goodbye then, and is left in charge of the Shire [i.e. 'in the Shire', at Bag End]. Merry see Black Riders in North.

All of this, from 'No - I am now too used to Bingo', was struck out in pencil, and at the same time my father wrote 'Sam Gamgee' in the margin, and to 'Bingo originally intended to go alone' he added 'with Sam'. It may be that this is where he first set down Sam Gamgee's name. There is a first hint here, in 'Frodo says goodbye at Bucklebury', of the hobbit who would remain behind at Crickhollow when the others entered the Old Forest; while 'Too many hobbits' and 'Cut out Odo' are the first signs of what before long would become a major problem and an almost impenetrable confusion.

The genealogy as it now stood in the fourth version of 'A Long- expected Party' is found on p. 37. Bingo was already Bilbo's first cousin once removed on the Took side, but his father was Rollo Bolger (and when Bilbo adopted him he changed his name from Bolger to Bolger- Baggins). With the appearance of Drogo Baggins, Bingo would become Bilbo's first cousin once removed on the Baggins side also: we must suppose that Drogo's father was to be brother of Bilbo's father Bungo Baggins. In the later genealogy Drogo became Bilbo's second cousin, as Gaffer Gamgee explained to his audience at The Ivy Bush: 'so Mr. Frodo is [Mr. Bilbo's] first and second cousin, once removed either way, as the saying is, if you follow me' (FR p. 3x).

An abandoned genealogy on one of these pages shows my father evolving the Baggins pedigree. This little table begins with Inigo Baggins (for a previous holder of this name see p. 17), whose son was Mungo Baggins, father of Bungo: Mungo, first appearing here, survived into the final family tree. Bungo has a sister Rosa, who married 'Young Took'; Rosa also survived, but not as Bilbo's aunt - she became Bungo's first cousin, still with a Took husband (Hildigrim). In this table Drogo is Bungo's brother, but it was at this point that the table was abandoned.

The reference in this note to the 'sale' is on the face of it very puzzling. 'A Long-expected Party' was still in its fourth version - when the Party was given by Bingo Bolger-Baggins, and the major revision whereby it reverted to Bilbo had not yet been undertaken. Then what 'sale' is referred to? There has been no sale of Bag End: Bingo 'devised delivered and made over by free gift the desirable property' to the Sackville- Bagginses (p. 39). The sale of Bag End to the Sackville-Bagginses only arose with the changed story. There is however another reference to the sale, in a scribbled list of the days of the hobbits' journey from Hobbiton found on the ma.n.u.script of the Troll Song which Bingo was to sing at Bree (p. 142 note 11): this list begins 'Party Thursday, Friday "Sale" and departure of Odo, Frodo, and Bingo,' etc. The fact that the word is here enclosed in inverted commas may suggest that my father merely had in mind the auction of Bag End to which Bilbo returned at the end of The Hobbit: the earlier clear-out of Bilbo's home, which was a sale, made the word a convenient if misleading shorthand for the clear-out in the new story, which was not a sale.

At the foot of the page the following note was hastily jotted in pencil, and then struck out: (3) Gandalf is against Bingo's telling anyone where he is off to. Bingo is to take Merry. Bingo is reluctant to give pain to Odo and Frodo. He tells them - suddenly saying goodbye, and Frodo (Odo) meets what looks like a hobbit on the way up hill. He asks after Bingo - and Frodo or Odo tells him he is off to Bucklebury. So Black Riders know and ride after Bingo.

This is the embryo of the final story, that a Rider came and spoke to Gaffer Gamgee, who sent him on to Bucklebury (FR p. 85).

(4) Sting. Did Bilbo take this? What of the armour? Various possibilities: (a) Bingo has armour, but loses it in Barrow; (b) Gandalf urges him to take armour, but it is heavy and he leaves it at Bucklebury; (c) he likes it, and it saves him in the Barrow, but is stolen at Bree.

The point is, of course, that he cannot be wearing armour on Weathertop. With this note compare the mention in the original 'scheme' for Chapter IX (p. 126) of 'Ring-mail of Bingo in barrow' - this was apparently to be an element in 'some explanations' when the hobbits reached Rivendell.

Another note, on another page, is almost the same as this, but a.s.serts that Bilbo did take Sting, and says that if Bingo's armour was stolen at Bree 'discovery of the burgled rooms is before night.' The meaning of this is presumably that according to the existing story (pp. 162 - 3) the hobbits had taken all their belongings out of the bedrooms into their parlour before the attack, and that this would have to be changed. In FR (pp. 290 - 1) Bilbo gave Sting to Frodo at Rivendell, together with the coat of mithril.

(5) Bree-folk are not to be hobbits. Bring in bit about the upstairs windows. As a result of the hobbits not liking it, landlord gives them rooms on side of the house where second floor is level with ground owing to hill-slope.

The 'bit about the upstairs windows' is presumably the pa.s.sage in the original Chapter III (pp. 92 - 3) where the hobbits, approaching Farmer Maggot's, discuss the inconveniences of living on more than one Hoor. - In fact, in the original beginning of the Prancing Pony chapter (p. 132) the people of Bree were primarily Men (with 'hobbits about', 'some higher up on the slopes of Bree-hill itself, and many in the valley of Combe on the east side'); so that this new idea was, to some extent, a reversion. But a pencilled note on the same page, added in afterthought, asks: 'What is to happen at Bree now? What kind of talk can give away Mr Hill?' - and I take the implication of this to be that the Bree-folk were now to be exclusively Men (for they would be less curious and less informed about the Shire). See p. 236.

(6) Rangers are best not as hobbits, perhaps. But either Trotter (as a ranger) must be not a hobbit, or someone very well known: e.g. Bilbo. But the latter is awkward in view of 'happily ever after'. I thought of making Trotter into Fosco Took (Bilbo's first cousin) who vanished when a lad, owing to Gandalf. Who is Trotter? He must have had some bitter acquaintance with Ring-wraiths &c.

This note on Trotter is to be taken with Bingo's feeling that he had met Trotter before, and should be able to think of his true name (see p. 214). Bilbo's first cousin Fosco Took has not been mentioned before; possibly he was to be the son of Bilbo's aunt Rosa Baggins, who married a Took, according to the little genealogical table described above (p. 222). The ascription of Fosco Took's vanishing to Gandalf looks back to the beginning of The Hobbit, where Bilbo says to him. "Not the Gandalf who was responsible for so many quiet lads and la.s.ses going off into the Blue for mad adventures?'

There is here the first suggestion that my father, in his pondering of the mystery of Trotter, saw the possibility of his not being a hobbit. But this note, like several of the others, is elliptically expressed. The meaning is, I think: If rangers are not hobbits, then Trotter is not; but if nonetheless he is both, he must be a hobbit very well known.

(7) Bingo must NOT put on his Ring when Black Riders go by - in view of later developments. He must think of doing so but somehow be prevented. Each time the temptation must grow stronger.

This refers to the original second chapter, pp. 54, 58. For the ways in which in the later story Frodo was prevented from putting on the Ring see FR pp. 84, 88. 'Later developments' refers of course to the evolution of the concept of the Ring that had by now supervened: the Riders could see the Ringbearer, as he could see them, when he put it on his finger. The temptation to do so arose from the Ring-wraiths' power to communicate their command to the Ringbearer and make it appear to him that it was his own urgent desire (see p. 199); but Bingo must not be allowed to surrender to the temptation until the disaster in the dell under Weathertop.

(8) Some reason for Gandalf's uneasiness and the flight of Bingo which does not include Black Riders must be found. Gandalf knew of their existence (of course), but had no idea they were out yet. But Gandalf might give some kind of warning against use of Ring (after he leaves Shire?). Perhaps the idea of suddenly using Ring at party as a final joke should be a Bingoism, and contrary to Gandalf (not approved, as in my foreword).

The 'foreword' referred to here is the text given on pp. 76 ff., earliest form of FR Chapter 2 'The Shadow of the Past', - where indeed Gandalf does not merely 'approve' the idea, but actually suggests it (p. 84). As regards the first sentence of this note, in the 'foreword' there is a reference to 'certain strange signs and portents of trouble brewing after a long time of peace and quiet', but there is no indication of what they were (p. 85 note 9). In the same text Gandalf says that 'Gollum is very likely the beginning of our present trouble', but if 'our present trouble' was the fact that the Dark Lord was known to Gandalf to be seeking the only missing Ring in the direction of the Shire, it is in no way explained how he knew this. This was a very serious problem in the narrative structure: Gandalf cannot know of the coming of the Ring-wraiths, for if he had he would never have allowed Bingo and his companions to set off alone. The solution would require complex restructuring of parts of the opening narrative as it now stood, in respect of Gandalf's movements in the summer of that year (these in turn involved with the changed story of the Birthday Party); and would ultimately lead to Isengard.

(9) Why was Gandalf hurrying? Because Dark Lord knew of him and hated him. He had to get quick to Rivendell, and thought he was drawing pursuit off Bingo. Also he knew there was a council called at Rivendell for mid-September (Gloin &c. coming to see Bilbo?). It was postponed when the news of the Black Riders reached Rivendell and was not held till Bingo arrived.

For the idea that Gandalf was attempting to draw off the pursuit of the Black Riders see p. 173 note 8; cf. also his words to Bingo at Rivendell (p. 211): 'But things are moving fast, even faster than I feared. I had to get here quickly. But if I had known the Riders were already out!'

This is probably the point at which the idea of the Council of Elrond arose, though there have been previous mentions of a 'consultation' with Elrond when the hobbits reached Rivendell (pp. 126, 214).

(10) Should the Elves have Necromancer-rings? See note about their 'being in both worlds'. But perhaps only the High Elves of the West? Also perhaps Elves - if corrupted - would use rings differently: normally they were visible in both worlds all the time and equally with a ring they could appear only in one if they chose.

In the earliest statement about Elves and the Rings (p. 75) it is said that 'the Elves had many, and there are now many elfwraiths in the world, but the Ring-lord cannot rule them'; this was repeated exactly in the 'foreword' (p. 78), but without the words 'but the Ring-lord cannot rule them.' I have found no 'note' about the Elves 'being in both worlds', but my father may have been referring to Gandalf's words in the last chapter (p. 212): '[The Elves of Rivendell] fear no Ring-wraiths, for they live at ence in both worlds, and each world has only half power over them, while they have double power over both.' With his remark here 'But perhaps only the High Elves of the West [are in both worlds]? ' cf. the final form of this same pa.s.sage in FR (p. 235): 'They do not fear the Ringwraiths, for those who have dwelt in the Blessed Realm live at once in both worlds, and against both the Seen and the Unseen they have great power.'

(11) At Rivendell Bilbo must be seen by Bingo etc.

Sleeping - in retirement?

Shadows gathering in the South. Lord of Dale is suspected of being secretly corrupted. Strange men are seen in Dale?

What happened to Balin, Ori, and Oin? They went out to colonize - being told of rich hills in the South. But after a time no word was heard of them. Dain feared the Dark Lord - rumour of his movements reached him. (One idea was that dwarves need a Ring as foundation of their h.o.a.rd, and either Balin or Dain sent to Bilbo to discover what had become of it. The dwarves might have received threatening messages from Mordor - for the Lord suspected that the One Ring was in their h.o.a.rds.) The thought that Trotter was really Bilbo is obviously not present here; and cf. the early outline given on p. 126: 'At Rivendell sleeping Bilbo'. An isolated note elsewhere (*) says: 'Gloin has come to see Bilbo. News of the world. Loss of the colony of Balin &c.' But the 'rich hills in the South' in note (11) are probably the first appearance of the idea of Moria, deriving from The Hobbit - though the absence of the name here might suggest that the identification had not yet been made. Cf. also the notes at the end of the abandoned first draft of the last chapter (p. 210): 'What of Balin etc. They went to colonize (Ring needed to found colony?)' In the earliest account of the Rings (p. 75) it was said that the Dwarves probably had none ('some say the rings don't work on them: they are too solid'); but in the 'foreword' (p. 78) Gandalf tells Bingo that the Dwarves were said to have had seven, 'but nothing could make them invisible. In them it only kindled to flames the fire of greed, and the foundation of each of the seven h.o.a.rds of the Dwarves of old was a golden ring.'

(* This note was in fact written in ink across the faint pencilled outline for the story of the Barrow-wight (p. 125), and is presumably a thought that came to my father while he was thinking about the story of the arrival in Rivendell which comes at the end of this outline (p.126).) Above the words One Ring at the end of note (11) my father wrote missing. He may therefore have meant only 'the one missing Ring', but the fact that he used capital letters suggests its great importance - and in the 'foreword' the missing Ring is the 'most precious and potent of his Rings' (pp. 81, 87).

(12) Bilbo's ring proved to be the one missing Ring - all others had come back to Mordor: but this one had been lost.

Make it taken from the Lord himself when Gilgalad wrestled with him, and taken by a flying Elf. It was more powerful than all the other rings. Why did the Dark Lord desire it so?

That Bilbo's Ring was the one missing Ring, and that it was the most potent of them all, is (as just noted) stated in the 'foreword' - the first sentence of note (12) is the restatement of an existing idea. What is new is the linking up of its earlier history to Gil-galad's wrestling with the Necromancer (see p. 216); in the 'foreword' (p. 78) Gollum's Ring had fallen 'from the hand of an elf as he swam across a river; and it betrayed him, for he was flying from pursuit in the old wars, and he became visible to his enemies, and the goblins slew him.' This is where the story of Isildur began; but now the Elf (later to become Isildur the Numenorean) has it from Gil-galad, who took it from the Dark Lord. And the question is asked: 'Why did the Dark Lord desire it so?' Which means, since it is already conceived to be the most potent of the Rings and therefore selfevidently a chief object of the Dark Lord's desire, 'In what did its potency consist?'*

(* Humphrey Carpenter (Biography, p. 188) cites this note, but interprets it to be the moment at which the idea of the Ruling Ring emerged: There was also the problem of why the Ring seemed so important to everyone - this had not yet been established clearly. Suddenly an idea occurred to him, and he wrote: 'Bilbo's ring proved to be the one ruling Ring - all others had come back to Mordor: but this one had been lost.' The one ruling ring that controlled all the others...

But the note in question most certainly says 'Bilbo's ring proved to be the one missing Ring' (as the following words show in any case), not 'the one ruling Ring'. There would be no need to ask 'Why did the Dark Lord desire it so?'

Subsequently my father pencilled rapid additions to the note. He marked the words 'all others had come back to Mordor' for rejection; and to the words 'It was more powerful than all the other rings' he added: though its power depended on the user - and its danger: the simpler the user and the less he used it. To Gollum it just helped him to hunt (but made him wretched). To Bilbo it was useful, but drove him wandering again. To Bingo as Bilbo. Gandalf could have trebled his power - but he dare not use it (not after he found out all about it). An Elf would have grown nearly as mighty as the Lord, but would have become dark.

At this time also he underlined the words 'Why did the Dark Lord desire it so?', put an exclamation mark against them, and wrote: Because if he had it he could see where all the others were, and would be master of their masters - control all the dwarf-h.o.a.rds, and the dragons, and know the secrets of the Elf-kings, and the secret [? plans] of evil men.

Here the central idea of the Ruling Ring is clearly present at last, and it may be that it was here that it first emerged. But the note in ink and the pencilled addition (a faint scribble now only just legible) were obviously written at different times.

On the reverse of the second page of these notes is the following in pencil: (13) Simpler Story.

Bilbo disappears on his 100th [written above: 111] Birthday party. Bingo is his heir - much to the annoyance of the Sackville- Bagginses.

['If you want to know what lay behind these mysterious events we must go back a month or two.' Then have a conversation of Bilbo and Gandalf.

The talk dies down; and Gandalf is seldom seen again in Hobbiton.

Next chapter begins with Bingo's life. Gandalf's furtive visits. Conversation. Bingo is bored by Shire (ring-restlessness?): and makes up his mind to go and look for Bilbo. Also he has been rather reckless and the money is running out. So he sells Bag- end to the Sackville-Bagginses who thus get it go years too late, pockets the money, and goes off when 72 (144) - same tendency to longevity as Bilbo had had. Gandalf encourages him for reasons of his own. But warns him not to use the Ring outside the Shire - if he can help it [cf. note (8)]. Bilbo used it for a last big jest, but you had better not. (Bingo does not tell Gandalf that looking for Bilbo was his motive).

All this was subsequently struck through; and the pa.s.sage which is here enclosed in square brackets was struck out separately, perhaps at the time of writing.

The narrative structure in its princ.i.p.al relations is now that of the final story: Bilbo disappears (putting on the Ring) at his 111th birthday party, and leaves Bingo as his heir.

Years after, Gandalf talks to Bingo at Bag End; Bingo is anxious to leave for his own reasons, and Gandalf encourages him to go (but apparently without telling him much, though he warns him against using the Ring).

Although the Party now reverts to Bilbo, and is held on his 111th birthday - his age when he departed out of the Shire in the existing version of 'A Long-expected Party' (p. 40), Bingo still leaves at the age of 72 - his age when it was he who gave the Party. The bracketed figure 144 is presumably Bilbo's age at the time, as in the existing version, from which it follows that at the time of Bilbo's Farewell Party Bingo was 39; the total of their two ages was 150. But what my father had in mind on this point cannot be said, for he never wrote the story in this form. The bracketed pa.s.sage suggests that some account would be given, in a conversation between Bilbo and Gandalf a month or two before the party, of what had led up to Bilbo's decision to leave the Shire in this way; and this account would follow the opening chapter describing the festivity. What this conversation would be about is suggested by another note, doubtless written at the same time: Place 'Gollum' chapter after 'Long-expected party': with a heading: 'If you want to know what lay behind these mysterious events, we must go back a month or two.'

This presumably means that my father was thinking of making the conversation between Bilbo and Gandalf before the Party (but standing in the narrative after it) cover the story of Gollum and the Ring. The 'Gollum chapter' would thus be in its final place, though the context here suggested for it would be entirely changed.

Lastly, a scribbled note reads: (14) Bilbo carries off 'memoirs' to Rivendell.

THE SECOND PHASE.

XIV. RETURN TO HOBBITON.

My father now settled at last for the 'simpler story' which he had roughed out in the Queries and Alterations (note 13); and so the Birthday Party at Bag End returns again to Bilbo, with whom it had begun (pp. 13, 19, 40). The following rough outline no doubt immediately preceded the rewriting of the opening chapter: the fifth version, and an exceedingly complicated doc.u.ment.

Bilbo disappears on his 111th birthday. 'Long-expected Party' chapter(1) suitably altered up to point where Gandalf disappears into Bag-End. Then a short conversation between Gandalf and Bilbo inside.

Bilbo says it is becoming wearisome - stretched feeling. He must get rid of it. Also he is tired of Hobbiton, he feels a great desire to go away. Dragon gold curse? or Ring. Where are you going? I don't know. Take care! I don't care. He gets Gandalf to promise to hand on Ring to his heir Bingo. He leaves it to him - but I don't want him to worry or to try and follow: not yet. So he does not even tell Bingo of the joke. At end of chapter make Bilbo say goodbye to Gandalf at gate, hand him a package (with Ring) for Bingo, and disappear.

Chapter 11 is then Bingo. Furtive visits of Gandalf. Gandalf urges him to go off - for reasons of his own. Bingo on his side never tells Gandalf that looking for Bilbo is his great desire. Gandalf does not [? tell? talk] of the Ring. The Gollum business must come in later (at Rivendell) - after Bingo has met Bilbo; and Gandalf has now found out much more. It will probably be necessary to run this Chapter I I on to head of present II 'Two's company - and three's more'.(2) The fourth version of 'A Long-expected Party' had in fact reached quite an advanced stage in most respects - in some respects virtually the final form; but the Party was Bingo's on his 72nd birthday, Bilbo having quietly disappeared out of the Shire for good thirty-three years before, when he was 111 and Bingo was 39, and apart from providing the fireworks Gandalf played no part in the chapter at all.

The outline just given says that the chapter must be 'suitably altered up to the point where Gandalf disappears into Bag-End', and the story now begins: 'When Bilbo Baggins of the well-known Hobbiton family prepared to celebrate his one-hundred-and-eleventh (or eleventy-first) birthday, there was some talk in the neighbourhood,' etc. (see pp. 28, 36). The fourth version is then followed (3) as far as 'And if he was in, you never knew who you would find with him: hobbits of quite poor families, or folk from distant villages, dwarves, and even sometimes elves' (p. 36); here a new pa.s.sage concerning Gandalf and Bilbo was introduced.

Gandalf the wizard, too, was sometimes seen going up the hill. People said Gandalf 'encouraged' him, and accused him in turn of 'encouraging' some of his more lively nephews (and removed cousins), especially on the Took side; but what exactly they meant was not clear. They may have been referring to the mysterious absences from home, and to the strange habit Bilbo and his encouraged young friends had of walking all over the Shire in untidy clothes.

As time wore on the prolonged vigour, not to say youthfulness, of Mr Bilbo Baggins also became the subject of comment. At ninety he seemed much the same as ever he had been. At 99 they began to call him 'well-preserved'; but 'unchanged' would have been nearer the mark. Nevertheless he surprised them all that year by making a considerable change in his habits: he adopted as his heir his favourite and most completely 'encouraged' nephew, Bingo. Bingo Baggins was then a mere lad of 27,(4) and was strictly speaking not Bilbo's nephew (a t.i.tle he used rather loosely), but both his first and his second cousin, once removed in each case,(5) but he happened to have the same birthday, September 22, as Bilbo, which seemed an additional link between them.(6) He was the son of poor Primula Brandybuck and [> who married late and as last resort] Drogo Baggins (Bilbo's second cousin but otherwise quite unimportant).

In Queries and Alterations, note 2, my father had said that he was 'too used to Bingo' to change his name to Frodo, but he was now following up the suggestions in that note that Bolger-Baggins ('a bad name') should be got rid of, and that Bingo should be a Baggins in his own right. Later in this pa.s.sage Drogo takes over the rumoured boating accident on the Brandywine from Rollo Bolger (see p. 37): some said that Drogo Baggins had died of over-eating while staying with the old gormandizer Gorboduc; others said that it was his weight that had sunk the boat.' It is now told that Bingo was twelve years old at the time, and that he afterwards lived mostly with his grandfather [Gorboduc Brandybuck, p. 37] and his mother's hundred and one relatives in theGreat Hole of Bucklebury,(7) the ancestral and very overcrowded residence of the gregarious Brandybucks. But his visits to 'Uncle' Bilbo became more and more frequent, until at last, as has been said, Bilbo adopted him, when he was a lad of 27.

But all that was old history. People had become in the last 12 years used to having Bingo about. Neither Bilbo nor Bingo did anything outrageous. Their parties were sometimes a bit noisy (and not too select), perhaps; but hobbits don't mind that kind of noise now and again. Bilbo - now in his turn 'encouraged' by Bingo - spent his money freely, and his wealth became a local legend. It was popularly believed that most of the Hill was full of tunnels stuffed with gold and silver. Now it was suddenly given out that Bilbo, perhaps struck with the curiosity of the number 111, was planning to give something quite unusual in the way of birthday-parties. 111 was a respectable age even for hobbits.(8) Naturally tongues wagged, and old memories were stirred, and new expectations aroused. Bilbo's wealth was guessed afresh... (etc. as before, see p. 30) .

In the account of the comings and goings at Bag End there are a few slight changes. The Men and the waggon painted with a D (pp. 20, 30) have been removed, as proposed in Queries and Alterations (note 1), but Elves as well as Dwarves are still mentioned. The bundles of fireworks were labelled not only with a big red G but also with ()- 'That was Gandalf's mark' (the same rune appears in his letter at Bree and in his note left on Weathertop). The disappointed children given pennies but no fireworks are introduced (FR p. 33); and now at last appears the 'short conversation between Gandalf and Bilbo inside Bag-End' sketched in the outline on p. 233.

Inside Bag-End Bilbo and Gandalf were sitting at the open window of the sitting-room looking west onto the garden. The late afternoon was bright and peaceful; the flowers were red and golden; snapdragons, and sunflowers, and nasturtians trailing all over the turf walls and peeping in at the windows.

'How bright your garden is! ' said Gandalf.

'Yes,' said Bilbo. 'I am very fond indeed of it, and of all the dear old Shire; but I think the time has come.'

'You mean to go on with your plan then?' asked Gandalf.

'Yes, I do,' Bilbo answered. 'I have made up my mind at last. I really must get rid of It.(9) "Well-preserved" indeed!' he snorted. 'Why, I feel all thin - sort of stretched, if you know what I mean: like a string that won't quite go round the parcel, or - or - b.u.t.ter that is sc.r.a.ped over too much bread. And that can't be right.'

'No!' said Gandalf thoughtfully. 'No. I daresay your plan is the best, at any rate for you. At least at present I know nothing against it, and can think of nothing better.'

'Yes, I suppose it may seem a bit hard on Bingo,' said Bilbo. 'But what can I do? I can't destroy it, and after what you have told me I am not going to throw it away; but I don't want it, in fact I can't abide it any more. But you did promise me, didn't you, to keep an eye on him, and help him if he needs it later on? Otherwise, of course, I should have to.'

'I will do what I can for him,' said Gandalf. 'But I hope you will take care of yourself.'

'Take care! I don't care!' said Bilbo, and then going suddenly into verse (as was becoming his habit more and more) he went on in a low voice looking out of the window with a far-away look in his eyes: The Road etc. as II .5.

(This is a reference to the typescript of 'Three's Company', p. 53). All of this new pa.s.sage, from the words 'I really must get rid of It', was struck out in pencil and marked 'Later' (see pp. 237 and 239 - 40).

The text continues: 'More carts rolled up the Hill next day, and still more carts. There might have been some grumbling about "dealing locally",' etc. (p. 20). From this point in the fourth version (essentially the same as the third and second, pp. 31, 28, and as FR) the fifth of course very largely follows the old drafts, 'Bingo' being changed to 'Bilbo' where necessary. To the guests at the select dinner party are now added members of the families of Gawkroger (10) (Goodbody in FR) and Brock- house: the latter 'did not live in the Shire at all, but in Combe-under- Bree, a village on the Eastern Road beyond Brandywine. They were supposed to be remotely connected with the Tooks, but were also friends Bilbo had made in the course of his travels.' On this see Queries and Alterations note 5, and my comment on it; cf. also the original Chapter VII (p. 137), of the hobbits at The Prancing Pony: 'there were also some (to hobbits) natural names like Banks, Longholes, Brockhouse... which were not unknown among the more rustic inhabitants of the Shire.'

A curious point is that at this stage there were 'eight score or one hundred and sixty' guests at the dinner party in the pavilion under the tree, not 144; and in his speech Bilbo said: 'For it is of course also the birthday of my heir and nephew, Bingo. Together we score one hundred and sixty. Your numbers were chosen to fit this remarkable total.' Emendations to the preceding part of the chapter relate to this: Bingo's age at his adoption was changed from 27 to 37, so that when Bilbo was 111 (twelve years later) Bingo was 49 - totalling 160. My father had of course decided - the party being Bilbo's, and both he and Bingo being present - that the significance of the number of guests must now relate, not as previously to the elder hobbit's years, but to the total of their combined ages; but why he did not stick to 144 and reduce Bingo's age accordingly to 144 minus 111 I cannot say.

Bilbo now refers to its being the anniversary of his arrival by barrel at Lake-town; but there is still no flash when he stepped down and vanished. This part of the text was soon revised - indeed before the story had gone much further,(11) and in a rewritten version of Bilbo's speech the number of guests reverts to 144, Bingo becomes 33 (which is the year of his 'coming of age'), and there is a blinding flash of light when he vanishes. Emendation to the earlier part of the text now changed Bingo's age at adoption once more, and finally, to 21.

In the hubbub that followed Bilbo's disappearance there was one person harder hit than all the rest: and that was Bingo. He sat for some time quite silent in his seat beside the empty chair of his uncle, ignoring all remarks and questions; and then abandoning the party to look after itself he slipped out of the pavilion unnoticed.(12) 'What do we do now?' This question became more and more popular, and louder and louder. Suddenly old Rory Brandybuck, whose wits neither old age, nor surprise, nor an enormous dinner, had quite clouded was heard to shout: 'I never saw him go. Where is he now, anyway? Where is Bilbo - and Bingo, too, confound him?' There was no sign of their hosts, anywhere.

As a matter of fact, Bilbo Baggins, even while he was making his speech, had been fingering a small ring in his pocket: his magic ring, that he had kept secret for so many years. As he stepped down he slipped it on - and was never seen in Hobbiton again.

There now enters a wholly new element in the narrative, and it was clearly at this time that the pa.s.sage of conversation between Gandalf and Bilbo inside Bag End before the party was largely struck out and marked 'Later' (pp. 235 - 6); at this time also that that conversation was re-extended from the point where Bilbo says 'Yes, I do. I have made up my mind at last', as follows (cf. FR pp. 33 - 4): 'Very well,' said Gandalf. 'I can see you mean to have your own way. I hope it will turn out all right - for all of us.'

'I hope so,' said Bilbo. 'Anyway I mean to enjoy myself on Thursday, and have my little joke in my own way.'