No, it doesn't.
I know about Tolkien's comprehensive notes and timelines, but that doesn't help much in finding and correcting every text reference to a detail that's changed—a practical nightmare in a long paper manuscript. I've done it many times as a copyeditor and am glad to see those days fading at last.
Where was Gollum captured and tortured?
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Primula Baggins
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“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
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solicitr
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I understand what you're saying, Prim; Tolkien in fact did a remarkable job of finding and plugging most of the leaks given the circumstances. (Perhaps the biggest is Aragorn's statement in Caras Galadon that he would sleep without fear for the first time since Rivendell- a statement not corrected when T, very late, added the night spent on the ground in the Naith.)
But there's nothing chronological at all about this Ugluk business- it's a gratuitous bit of 'action' which seems inexplicable.
But there's nothing chronological at all about this Ugluk business- it's a gratuitous bit of 'action' which seems inexplicable.
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Voronwë the Faithful
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I interpret that as shorthand for "enough is said to make Uglúk certain that the item of power that his master wanted was with the Company." I'm sure that if Tolkien ever were to have tried to publish the Hunt for the Ring text(s), he would have cleaned stuff like that up.solicitr wrote:The part of this affair that puzzles me is "and enough is said to make Uglúk certain that Ring was with the Company"
"Spirits in the shape of hawks and eagles flew ever to and from his halls; and their eyes could see to the depths of the seas, and pierce the hidden caverns beneath the world."
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ToshoftheWuffingas
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Remember Grisnakh too recognised Pippin's sham references to the Ring and to Gollum. Grishnakh and Ugluk were orc commanders and may have been privy to many details.
I would love to see Tolkien's detailed timelines published. I expect that there is a lot that could be mined from them. When I did that 'screenplay' I broke down the narrative between the breaking of the Fellowship and the Pellenor Fields into 26 different narrative sequences. I can imagine how complex it must have been to mesh that together out of nothing.
I would love to see Tolkien's detailed timelines published. I expect that there is a lot that could be mined from them. When I did that 'screenplay' I broke down the narrative between the breaking of the Fellowship and the Pellenor Fields into 26 different narrative sequences. I can imagine how complex it must have been to mesh that together out of nothing.
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solicitr
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Yes, Ghrishnakh did know rather a lot- including picking up on Gollum's mannerisms. He seemed to have some personal acquaintance with Nazgûl as well.
I seem to recall that somewhere in my Tolkien papers G is described as "captain of Sauron's scouts." But I can't lay my hands on it.
To deepen the mystery Ugluk and the Ring-business don't appear at all in the equivalent passages of the chronology made in 1946. They were introduced into that made in 1949-50, after the whole story was finished.
I seem to recall that somewhere in my Tolkien papers G is described as "captain of Sauron's scouts." But I can't lay my hands on it.
To deepen the mystery Ugluk and the Ring-business don't appear at all in the equivalent passages of the chronology made in 1946. They were introduced into that made in 1949-50, after the whole story was finished.