Christopher Tolkien escreveu quatro livros em sua série History of Middle-earth , que revisam a história do The Lord of the Rings em detalhes intrincados. Ele tem múltiplas versões de muitos capítulos, especialmente os primeiros, e discute os problemas que Tolkien teve indo de " O Hobbit 2 " para " Um livro tão grande que teve que ser dividido por causa de falta de papel ".
Portanto, a maioria das principais mudanças foi no início da história da escrita:
[The] most intractable problem lies in the development of the story through successive drafts, always changing but always closely dependent on what preceded. In the rather extreme case of the opening chapter 'A Long-expected Party', there are in this book six main texts to be considered and a number of abandoned openings.
No entanto, uma vez que a história se acalme, há poucas mudanças "drásticas". Eles são mais de uma evolução lenta, com características surgindo enquanto a história foi escrita, exigindo a reescrita de partes anteriores. Tolkien estava basicamente construindo uma casa enquanto mudava constantemente as fundações porque estava ficando muito alto.
Eu descobri o que eu acho que são as mudanças mais interessantes na direção fundamental da história. Esta lista não está completa, mas pode servir como ponto de partida.
Nomes iniciais
Observe que a maioria dos nomes passou por muitas mudanças. Por exemplo, o personagem principal era originalmente chamado de Bingo e Merry era Marmaduke . Não vou comentar mais sobre esses nomes.
O personagem principal
Tolkien passou por pelo menos seis versões diferentes do capítulo de abertura. Seu principal problema era com o fim de O Hobbit , onde se diz que Bilbo "viveu feliz para sempre".
The sequel to the Hobbit has remained where it stopped. It has lost my favour, and I have no idea what to do with it. For one thing the original Hobbit was never intended to have a sequel - Bilbo 'remained very happy to the end of his days and those were extraordinarily long': a sentence I find an almost insuperable obstacle to a satisfactory link. For another nearly all the 'motives' that I can use were packed into the original book, so that a sequel will appear either 'thinner' or merely repetitional.
Este é um resumo dos diferentes estágios:
- Bilbo gives the party, aged 70. ('I am going to tell you a story about one of his descendants')
- Bilbo gives the party, aged 71.
- Bilbo married, and disappeared from Hobbiton with his wife (Primula Brandybuck) when he was 111. His son Bingo Baggins gives the party, aged 72.
- Bilbo, unmarried, adopted his young cousin Bingo Bolger (son of Primula Brandybuck), changed his name to Bingo Bolger-Baggins, and disappeared from Hobbiton when he was 111. His adopted cousin Bingo Bolger-Baggins gives the party, aged 72.
- Bilbo gives the Party at the age of 111 and vanishes at the end of it. Frodo departs quietly from Hobbiton with his friends 17 years later.
Havia ainda outro gráfico projetado, mas nunca foi desenvolvido:
- Bilbo departs quietly from Hobbiton at the age of 111. Frodo ('Folco') gives the Party and vanishes at the end of it.
Há também muitas outras notas, falsas partidas, mudanças de nome e modificações na parte que partiu de Hobbiton.
Gandalf ou o Cavaleiro Negro?
No primeiro rascunho de Three is Company , no ponto em que os Hobbits encontrariam o primeiro Black Rider, eles verão Gandalf .
The sound of hoofs drew nearer. Round a turn came a white horse, and on it sat a bundle - or that is what it looked like: a small man wrapped entirely in a great cloak and hood so that only his eyes peered out, and his boots in the stirrups below.
The horse stopped when it came level with Bingo. The figure uncovered its nose and sniffed; and then sat silent as if listening. Suddenly a laugh came from inside the hood.
'Bingo my boy!' said Gandalf, throwing aside his wrappings.
Christopher Tolkien diria isso:
Here this draft stops, at the foot of a page, and if my father continued beyond this point the manuscript is lost; but I think it far more likely that he abandoned it because he abandoned the idea that the rider was Gandalf as soon as written.
It is most curious to see how directly the description of Gandalf led into that of the Black Rider - and that the original sniff was Gandalf's! In fact the conversion of the one to the other was first carried out by pencilled changes on the draft text, thus:
Round a turn came a white [> black] horse, and on it sat a bundle - or that is what it looked like: a small [> short] man wrapped entirely in a great [added: black) cloak and hood so that only his eyes peered out [> so that his face was entirely shadowed]...
Se a descrição de Gandalf no rascunho for comparada com a do Black Rider, no texto datilografado, será visto que, com um refinamento ainda maior, esse ainda permanece muito próximo do outro. A nova virada na história foi de fato "não-premeditada".
Strider o Hobbit
Aragorn começou como "Trotter", um Hobbit com sapatos de madeira:
Suddenly Bingo noticed that a queer-looking, brown-faced hobbit, sitting in the shadows behind the others, was also listening intently. He had an enormous mug (more like a jug) in front of him, and was smoking a broken-stemmed pipe right under his rather long nose.
He was dressed in dark rough brown cloth, and had a hood on, in spite of the warmth, - and, very remarkably, he had wooden shoes! Bingo could see them sticking out under the table in front of him. [...]
'O! that is one of the wild folk - rangers we call 'em. He has been coming in now and again (in autumn and winter mostly) the last few years; but he seldom talks. Not but what he can tell some rare tales when he has a mind, you take my word.
What his right name is I never heard, but he's known round here as Trotter. You can hear him coming along the road in those shoes: clitter-clap - when he walks on a path, which isn't often. Why does he wear 'em? Well, that I can't say. But there ain't no accounting for East or West, as we say here, meaning the Rangers and the Shire-folk, begging your pardon.'
Assim como a conversão Gandalf / Black Rider acima, é sempre interessante ver quão próximos os textos iniciais estão da versão final, mas até agora. Tolkien perguntaria "Quem é o Trotador?" muitas vezes em suas anotações.
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.
Do rascunho ao rascunho, a personalidade de Trotter fica mais próxima de Aragorn na maneira como ele fala e em seu conhecimento da tradição antiga. Só mais tarde Tolkien decidiu fazer dele um homem e decidir sobre sua ascendência:
Trotter is a man of Elrond's race descendant of [struck out at once: Turin] the ancient men of the North, and one of Elrond's household. He was a hunter and wanderer. He became a friend of Bilbo. He knew Gandalf. [...] Reason of wooden shoes - no need in this case because Aragorn is a man.
Quanto à mudança de Trotter para Strider , foi feito muito tarde, mas não há muita informação sobre isso. Eu suponho que "Trotter" trabalhasse para um Hobbit com sapatos de madeira, mas "Strider" era melhor para um homem com pernas longas.
Gollum
Houve um grande problema com o Ring e o Gollum, como originalmente escrito em The Hobbit : na primeira edição, Gollum queria dar o Ring como um presente . Tolkien passou muito tempo tentando contornar isso e descobrir as razões pelas quais Gollum iria querer desistir de um item que era descrito como impossível de desistir.
It is important to realise that when my father wrote this, he was working within the constraints of the story as originally told in The Hobbit. As The Hobbit first appeared, and until 1951, the story was that Gollum, encountering Bilbo at the edge of the subterranean lake, proposed the riddle game on these conditions: 'If precious asks, and it doesn't answer, we eats it, my preciousss. If it asks us, and we doesn't answer, we gives it a present, gollum!' [...]
This is why, in the present text, Gandalf says 'I think it certain that Gollum knew in the end that Bilbo had got the ring', and why my father had Gandalf develop a theory that Gollum was actually ready to give the ring away: 'he wanted... to hand it on to someone else... I suppose he might have put it in [the goblins'] path in the end... but for the unexpected arrival of Bilbo... as soon as the riddles started a plan formed in his mind.'
This is all carefully conceived in relation to the text of The Hobbit as it then was, to meet the formidable difficulty: if the Ring were of such a nature as my father now conceived it, how could Gollum have really intended to give it away to a stranger who won a riddle contest? - and the original text of The Hobbit left no doubt that that was indeed his serious intention.
Não está claro quando ele finalmente decidiu mudar O Hobbit para se encaixar na nova história, mas a segunda edição foi publicada em 1951, três anos antes O Senhor dos Anéis .
O Malvado Barbarian
Barbárvore foi inicialmente concebido como um gigante maligno, em aliança com o inimigo. Como Saruman ainda não existia, foi Barbárvore quem capturou Gandalf:'Yes!' laughed Gandalf. 'There are many powers greater than mine, for good and evil, in the world. I was caught in Fangorn and spent many weary days as a prisoner of the Giant Treebeard. It was a desperately anxious time, for I was hurrying back to the Shire to help you. I had just learned that the horsemen had been sent out.
Além disso, em uma nota separada:
Frodo meets Giant Treebeard in the Forest of Neldoreth while seeking for his lost companions: he is deceived by the giant who pretends to be friendly, but is really in league with the Enemy.
Um outro esboço mudaria isso:
If Treebeard comes in at all - let him be kindly and rather good? About 50 feet high with barky skin. Hair and beard rather like twigs. [...]
Aragorn e Éowyn
Em uma nota marcada "a ser explicada antes do final", esta entrada:
Aragorn weds Éowyn sister of Éomer (who becomes Lord of Rohan) and becomes King of Gondor.
Neste momento, Arwen não existe. Eu não acho que essa história tenha sido expandida porque Tolkien decidiu contra isso:
Cut out the love-story of Aragorn and Éowyn. Aragorn is too old and lordly and grim. Make Éowyn the twin-sister of Éomund, a stern amazon woman. [...] Probably Éowyn should die to avenge or save Théoden.
O Portão Negro e Cirith Ungol
Esta resposta entra em alguns detalhes. Em suma, Minas Morgul estava inicialmente no Portão Negro e é aqui que Frodo entrou em Mordor. Mais tarde, seria transferido para Cirith Ungol, a uns 150 milhas ao sul do Portão.