History of The Hobbit
Feb. 22nd, 2010 11:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dreamflowerI've been wanting to make another HoTH post for a few days, so I might as well do it now.
Apparently, JRRT, when he wrote his first draft in longhand, didn't usually break or start a new page when he began a new chapter-- he just left about a one-line space and kept writing.
Beorn's original name was "Medwed"!
It seems that when he was writing that chapter was when he began to think of where the story would go from there, and he did interrupt to write out a sort of outline for the next few chapters.
(Words between < > are words that the editor of HoTH had to take his best guess, due to illegible handwriting)
"The text continues without a break, but I interrupt it at this point to give the First Outline- at any rate, the earliest surviving one. Merely a brief, sketchy list of reminders to himself that Tolkien jotted down on a loose sheet of paper (Marq. 1/1/23:1), it records episodes and some details that would occur in upcoming chapters:
Medwed the bear.
Mirkwood & < pygmies >.
disappearance of Bladorthin.
Long wanderings of the dwarves.
< chestnuts >
[spring > ] Long Lake
< capture > by the < Sea > elves.
swans Mirkwood
< ball of twine >
dwarves beards
Not all of the ideas hinted at in this list of motifs and incidents are now recoverable, but the general outline of the tale is clear: the meeting with Medwed (Beorn) would shortly follow, prior to the wizard's departure and their subsequent travails in Mirkwood. If the ideas are more or less in sequence, as seems to be the case, the 'disappearance' of Bladorthin suggests that the wizard would leave the party after they had entered Mirkwood, and that his absence would occur suddenly and inexplicably. Originally, the 'long wanderings' would be of much greater duration..."
Mr. Rateliff speculates that the "swans" might have served the same function as they served in BoLT, in which Tuor follows them in "The Fall of Gondolin", but they make no appearance at all in the story after all.
He doesn't mention the "Pygmies" reference, but I find it really interesting. The spiders aren't mentioned either.
Fun and interesting to see what other course the story could have followed!
Apparently, JRRT, when he wrote his first draft in longhand, didn't usually break or start a new page when he began a new chapter-- he just left about a one-line space and kept writing.
Beorn's original name was "Medwed"!
It seems that when he was writing that chapter was when he began to think of where the story would go from there, and he did interrupt to write out a sort of outline for the next few chapters.
(Words between < > are words that the editor of HoTH had to take his best guess, due to illegible handwriting)
"The text continues without a break, but I interrupt it at this point to give the First Outline- at any rate, the earliest surviving one. Merely a brief, sketchy list of reminders to himself that Tolkien jotted down on a loose sheet of paper (Marq. 1/1/23:1), it records episodes and some details that would occur in upcoming chapters:
Mirkwood & < pygmies >.
disappearance of Bladorthin.
Long wanderings of the dwarves.
< chestnuts >
[spring > ] Long Lake
< capture > by the < Sea > elves.
swans Mirkwood
< ball of twine >
dwarves beards
Not all of the ideas hinted at in this list of motifs and incidents are now recoverable, but the general outline of the tale is clear: the meeting with Medwed (Beorn) would shortly follow, prior to the wizard's departure and their subsequent travails in Mirkwood. If the ideas are more or less in sequence, as seems to be the case, the 'disappearance' of Bladorthin suggests that the wizard would leave the party after they had entered Mirkwood, and that his absence would occur suddenly and inexplicably. Originally, the 'long wanderings' would be of much greater duration..."
Mr. Rateliff speculates that the "swans" might have served the same function as they served in BoLT, in which Tuor follows them in "The Fall of Gondolin", but they make no appearance at all in the story after all.
He doesn't mention the "Pygmies" reference, but I find it really interesting. The spiders aren't mentioned either.
Fun and interesting to see what other course the story could have followed!