About book The Treason Of Isengard: The History Of The Lord Of The Rings, Part Two (1989)
I have already read The Return of the Shadow, which is the first book in Christopher Tolkien's "History of The Lord of the Rings". That book covers the process of writing the Prologue through Balin's Tomb in Moria, with the Fellowship comprised of five hobbits and Gandalf. This book, The Treason of Isengard, backtracks significantly and begins with multiple takes on the Council of Elrond, where the nine final Fellowship members are chosen and ends with the first encounters with the Riders of Rohan. Apparenly Tolkien Sr. jumped ahead of himself with Frodo and Sam's storyline, writing about their Return of the King adventures in Cirith Ungol before he wrote about their Two Towers time spent with Gollum, Faramir, and Shelob, so that is what is included in this volume.This book was probably written for a slightly more hardcore Tolkien scholar than I am, and that is really saying something because I am certainly no casual fan. I find that reading these Histories is like reading textbooks on a subject that you are fascinated by, while it is clear that the author knows far more than you ever will, and occasionally leaves you behind.I read every page and footnote, but I will admit to skimming the chapters on the development of the map of Middle-Earth. I do not begrudge their inclusion however, because I am certain that there are those who are thrilled by them.The best thing about these Histories is the fact that they lay bare J. R. R. Tolkien's writing process. I think my favorite aspect of these books is the man's exceedingly picky naming process. It seems that every character, from major to so minor that they are named only once, went through a series of different possible names. To me, they all seem equally good (with the exception of Bingo Baggins instead of Frodo) but Tolkien Sr. would cycle through two or three for just about everybody.For example: Peregrin "Pippin" Boffin aka Trotter > Elfstone, son of Elfhelm > Ingold, son of Kelegorn > Aragorn, son of Kelegorn > Aragorn, son of Aramir > Aragorn, son of ArathornAnother amazing aspect of the writing of The Lord of the Rings comes from Tolkien's devotion to a set calendar, complete with visible constellations and phases of the moon. Once the Felloship goes their separate ways, he had to keep all three sets of characters (1.Legolas, Gimli, and Aragorn, 2.Merry and Pippin, 3.Sam and Frodo) on a synchronized timeline. This means that if he added a new part to Merry and Pippin's adventures he ahd to adjust the other two accordingly.Here's a great quote:"I began trying to write again (I would, on the brink of term!) on Tuesday, but I struck a most awkward error (one or two days) in the sychronization, v. important at this stage, of movements of Frodo and the others, which has cost labour and thought and will require tiresome small alterations in many chapters..."Another:"I have been struggling with the dislocated chronology of the Ring, which has proved most vexatious..."Honestly these book are worth reading just for the "What if...?" moments, little notes in the margins like "Aragorn to wed Eowyn and unite kingdoms." or "Same dies destroying Gollum and Ring in Orodruin." Treebeard was originally an evil giant, and the Balrog of Moria was a shape-shifting Saruman. Craziness.While The Treason of Isengard certainly highlights J. R. R. Tolkien's meticulous crafting of his epic, one shouldn't forget the immense amount of work that his son has put into collecting, ordering, and evaluating every detail in order to write it.One more quote:"I have long ceased to invent...: I wait till I seem to know what really happened. Or till it writes itself. Thus, though I knew for years that Frodo would run into a tree-adventure somewhere far down the Great River, I have no recollection of inventing Ents. I came at last to the point, and wrote the 'Treebeard' chapter without any recollection of previous thought: just as it is now."
"The Treason of Isengard: The History of the Lord of the Rings, Part 2" in which the subject matter is written by J.R.R. Tolkien and the commentary by his son Christopher Tolkien is a fun, informative, glorious read.We millions of die-hard Tolkien fans are fortunate to have Christopher Tolkien in the world to make his father's papers available to us. It is a great fortune that he has just the right educational background, inclination, and ambition to present them as he does in all of the "History of Middle-earth" books.This particular volume covers a writing period spanning 1941-1942. He explains that this period of productivity on "The Lord of the Rings" started after LTR was unworked-on for over a year. Christopher Tolkien presents the narrative of the writing of LTR in the chronology of his father's writing rather than the chronology of the story of "The Lord of the Rings". The result is that episodes of the novel might appear multiple times and reappear later in Christopher Tolkien's telling of the writing of the novel if his father rewrote an episode in order to make his many changes.To recap what is presented in "The History of the Lord of the Rings, Part 1" describes J.R.R. Tolkien's opening attempt to write a sequel to "The Hobbit". Throughout its evolution the story became darker. The Hero went through many name changes. He got to Rivendall before the first phase of writing ends. "The Treason of Isengard: The History of the Lord of the Rings, Part 2" shows the evolution of the hobbit character named Trotter as he changes into a man and becomes Aragorn. This evolution represents a change in the tale from being a hobbit tale to one about the beginning of the age of man. It takes practically the entire volume for Trotter to have completely and securely changed from being a hobbit into the man Aragorn.The change of Trotter into Aragorn is representative of the many changes occurring throughout the writing of LTR. Earlier editions of the "Lord of the Rings" describe in their front matter how errors were corrected from previous editions. After seeing the fumbling way J.R.R. Tolkien went about discovering his story, the continuous changes in character names and persons, plus Tolkien's hurried pencil penmanship on used paper--it is amazing that a final draft came into being at all that would be acceptable to a publishing company. My point is that Christopher Tolkien's books leave me with no surprise that there were errors in the books long after their first publication."The Treason of Isengard" Begins with the secret council in Rivendell in which the forces of good decide what to do with 'The one ring.' A fellowship of 9 representatives of hobbits, men, dwarves, and elves begin their mission. By the end of Christopher Tolkien's volume the fellowship is broken up.Two side discussions interrupt Christopher Tolkien's larger narrative. One is a description of an early, multilayer-ed map that his father drew during the late 1930s. The second is a presentation rune-lore material created by J.R.R. Tolkien."The Treason of Isengard: The History of the Lord of the Rings, Part 2" is another worthy contribution to Christopher Tolkien's larger series on the "History of Middle-earth." The books are demanding. My recommendation is that a person try them if he or she is ready to set aside expectations and simply enjoy the ride as it is.
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It is wonderful to see the Professor at work as he struggles to figure out what really happened in the tale he is bringing forth. Some ideas I am glad he abandoned, others I am sorry did not make it into print. Some are from the beginning almost the same was the published version, some are wildly different. As a fellow sub-creator. I find these volumes fascinating as he muses about what happens because I have a lot of the same wonderings about my own series I am working on. The tale that unfolds must be brought to its readers correctly and we, as the conduit through which the story comes, must be faithful to how it truly was and not we think it was. Recommended for anyone who wants to get inside the mind of a writer, especially one as creative as Tolkien's.
—Anne Marie Gazzolo
The second volume in The History of LOTR is no where near as interesting as the first. The material in Return of the Shadow was quite a bit different from the end result. It was great stuff.Unfortunately most of what's in Treason of Isengard is a lot closer to the finished product. There is some good stuff. Tolkien's various outlines are fantastic and watching the development of the story is still great. But on the whole this reads like a rough draft of the finished product. Great for Tolkien scholars but for even a die hard fan like myself it seemed a bit pointless at times.
—Ben De Bono
http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1849441...The most interesting point for me was that Frodo and Sam's path to Mordor, and even back to the Shire, emerged in Tolkien's thinking much earlier than the story of the others after the death of Boromir. He seems to almost make up the tale of Gimli, Legolas and Aragorn as he goes along, and I must admit it's not the most satisfying part of the book (and was the most messed around with by Peter Jackson for the film). In the middle of this, however, the Treebeard chapter stands out as a coming together of long-simmering ideas for Tolkien, who was fascinated by trees and forests and had been dropping foreshadowing references to Treebeard into his drafts without really thinking them through.Tolkien took great care over names. It's a bit jarring to read "Trotter" instead of "Strider", "Ingolf" instead of "Aragorn" and "Ondor" instead of "Gondor", but I think it's not just familiarity with the final product - the eventually chosen names are genuinely better. There are a very few exceptions - Tolkien was not happy with "Osgiliath", and I think rightly so, but didn't find a good alternative. Irish readers find it amusing that one of Treebeard's fellow elder Ents is named Finglas; this name is there in the very first draft.I noted with interest that all the early examples of runes - basically Gandalf's messages left at Bree and scrawled at Weathertop - use the good old-fashioned futhark, rather than what we came to know as the Cirth. The switch was made while composing the inscription on Balin's tomb in Moria, and implemented consistently after that. The development of the runes shows off Tolkien's deep knowledge of phonetics; you would expect him to have some familiarity with the subject as a philologist, but clearly it was a profound fascination. (Do you pronounce the 'o's differently in 'Lord' and 'Moria'? I don't, but Tolkien evidently did, going by his first drafts.)Anyway, much enjoying this reconstruction of how the classic came to be.
—Nicholas Whyte
