The Treason of Isengard by J. R. R. Tolkien

conversation proceeds now almost exactly as in FR p. 118: that Hamilcar should stay behind was part of the original plan. Frodo no longer gives a letter to Odo/Hamilcar (VI.326), but says: 'It would not have been safe to leave a written message: the Riders might get here first, and search the house.' The only elements in FR that are still lacking are that Hamilcar's family came from Budgeford in Bridgefields,(19) and that 'he had even brought along some old clothes of Frodo's to help him in playing the part.' This rewriting stops before the account of Frodo's dream that night, of a sea of tangled trees and something snuffling among the roots (VI.302), but it is clear that at this stage it remained unchanged.
    It is necessary here to turn aside for a moment from the end of 'A Conspiracy Unmasked' and to bring in a remarkable brief narrative of this time, extant in several texts, which may be called 'The Dream of the Tower'. In the narrative outline dated 'Autumn 1939' given on p. 9
    Gandalf is 'besieged in the Western Tower. He cannot get away while they guard it with five Riders. But when Black Riders have located Frodo and found that he has gone off without Gandalf they ride away.' This is what Frodo saw in his dream.
    My father was much exercised about the placing of it (see p. 11). In the Time-schemes A and B the date of Gandalf's escape from the Western Tower was first given as 24 September, and there is a suggestion that Frodo dreamt his dream of the event that night, when with the Elves in the Woody End. The date was then changed to the 25th, when Frodo was at Crickhollow, and so appears in schemes A, B, and C. Scheme D gives no date for Gandalf's escape, and places the
    'Dream of the Tower' variously on the 24th, 25th, or 26th. For some reason, however, my father decided to place it after the event, on the night of the 29th, when Frodo was at Bree, and Gandalf was at Crickhollow.
    The text of Frodo's dream at-Bree is found in three forms, two preparatory drafts and a finished manuscript.(20) I give it here in the third form, since the only significant difference from the drafts is that in them the figure who summons the watchers from the Tower is seen by the dreamer ('another dark-robed figure appeared over the brow of the hill: it beckoned and gave a shrill call in a strange tongue').
    The narrative begins almost exactly as in FR p. 189, with Frodo waking suddenly in the room at The Prancing Pony, seeing Trotter sitting alert in his chair, and falling asleep again.

    Frodo soon went to sleep again; but now he passed at once into a dream. He found himself on a dark heath. Looking up, he saw before him a tall white tower, standing alone upon a high ridge. Beyond it the sky was pale, and far off there came a murmur like the voices of the Great Sea which he had never heard nor beheld, save in other dreams. In the topmost chamber of the tower there shone dimly a blue light.
    Suddenly he found that he had drawn near and the tower loomed high above him. About its feet there was a wall of faintly shining stones, and outside the wall sat silent watchers: black-robed figures on black horses, gazing at the gate of the tower without moving, as if they had sat there for ever.
    There came at last the soft fall of hoofs, climbing up the hill.
    The watchers all stirred and turned slowly towards the sound.
    They were looking towards Frodo. He did not dare to turn, but he knew that behind him another dark figure, taller and more terrible, had appeared: it beckoned, and called out in a strange tongue. The horsemen leaped to life. They raised their dark heads towards the lofty chamber, and their mocking laughter rang out cruel and cold; then they turned from the white wall and rode down the hill like the wind. The blue light went out.
    It seemed to Frodo that the riders came straight towards him; but even as they passed over him and beat him to the ground, he thought in his heart: 'I am not here; they cannot hurt me. There is something