Holbytla arose.(29) The manuscript follows this, and Theoden does not say, as he does in TT, 'Your tongue is strangely changed.'
A wholly different and much longer lecture on the subject of tobacco was delivered by Merry in the first of several drafts of this passage:
'For one thing,' said Theoden, 'it was not told that they spouted smoke from their lips.'
'Maybe not. We only learned the pleasure of it a few generations back. It is said that Elias Tobiasson of Mugworth (30) brought the weed back to Manorhall in the South Farthing. He was a much travelled hobbit. He planted it in his garden and dried the leaves after a fashion he had learned in some far country. We never knew where, for he was no good at geography and never could remember names; but from the tale of leagues that he reckoned on his fingers people calculated that it was far South, 1200 miles or more from Manor Hall. [Here is written Longbottom.]'
'In the far South it is said that men drink smoke, and wizards I have heard do so. But always I had thought it was part of their incantations or a process aiding in the weaving of their deep thoughts.'(31)
'My lord,' said Merry, 'it is rest and pleasure and the crown of the feast. And glad I am that wizards know it. Among the wreckage floating on the water that drowned Isengard we found two kegs, and opening them what should we discover but some of the finest leaf that ever I fingered or set nose to. Good enough is the Manorhall leaf - but this is...(32) It smells like the stuff Gandalf would smoke at times when he returned from journeys.
Though often he was glad enough to come down to Manorhall.'
At this time, and still in the same context (conversation at the Gate of Isengard), my father developed Merry's disquisition through three further drafts to a form approaching $2 Concerning Pipe-weed in the Prologue to LR. In the next stage, his account to Theoden of the history of tobacco in the Shire (33) proceeds thus:
'It is said that the art was learned of travelling dwarves, and that for some time folk used to smoke various herbs, some fairer and some fouler. But it was Tobias Smygrave (34) of Longbottom in the Southfarthing that first grew the true pipe-weed in his garden in the year 902, and the best Home-grown comes still from that part. How old Tobias came by the plant is not known for certain, for he never told, and the Smygraves own all
[> most (of)] the crops to this day.'
'In the far East uncouth men drink smoke, or so I have heard,'
said Theoden. 'And it is said that wizards do so also. But I supposed that this was but part of their secret lore, and a device to aid the weaving of their thoughts.'
'Maybe it does, lord,' said Merry, 'but even wizards use it for no better reason than common folk. It is rest and pleasure and the crown of the feast....'
The remainder of this draft is as the first, except that Merry here says 'Good enough is Longbottom leaf, but this far surpasses it' (see note 32), and he says that Gandalf 'did not disdain Longbottom if he stayed until his own store was short. Before Saruman took to making worse things with greater labour, he must once have had some wisdom.'
In the next version the context has probably changed to the conversation between the hobbits and Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas after Gandalf and Theoden had gone (see p. 49 and note 8). Here Tobias (not Tobold) Hornblower appears,(35) the date of his first growing of the plant in his gardens becomes 953 ('according to our reckoning'), and Merry says that 'some think that he got it in Bree': to which Aragorn replies:
'True enough, I guess. Bree-folk smoked long before Shire-folk, and the reason is not far to seek. Rangers come there, as you may remember, unless you have already forgotten Trotter the ranger. And it was Rangers, as they call them in Bree, and neither wizard nor dwarf who brought the art to the North, and found plants that would thrive in sheltered places. For the plant does not belong there. It is
A wholly different and much longer lecture on the subject of tobacco was delivered by Merry in the first of several drafts of this passage:
'For one thing,' said Theoden, 'it was not told that they spouted smoke from their lips.'
'Maybe not. We only learned the pleasure of it a few generations back. It is said that Elias Tobiasson of Mugworth (30) brought the weed back to Manorhall in the South Farthing. He was a much travelled hobbit. He planted it in his garden and dried the leaves after a fashion he had learned in some far country. We never knew where, for he was no good at geography and never could remember names; but from the tale of leagues that he reckoned on his fingers people calculated that it was far South, 1200 miles or more from Manor Hall. [Here is written Longbottom.]'
'In the far South it is said that men drink smoke, and wizards I have heard do so. But always I had thought it was part of their incantations or a process aiding in the weaving of their deep thoughts.'(31)
'My lord,' said Merry, 'it is rest and pleasure and the crown of the feast. And glad I am that wizards know it. Among the wreckage floating on the water that drowned Isengard we found two kegs, and opening them what should we discover but some of the finest leaf that ever I fingered or set nose to. Good enough is the Manorhall leaf - but this is...(32) It smells like the stuff Gandalf would smoke at times when he returned from journeys.
Though often he was glad enough to come down to Manorhall.'
At this time, and still in the same context (conversation at the Gate of Isengard), my father developed Merry's disquisition through three further drafts to a form approaching $2 Concerning Pipe-weed in the Prologue to LR. In the next stage, his account to Theoden of the history of tobacco in the Shire (33) proceeds thus:
'It is said that the art was learned of travelling dwarves, and that for some time folk used to smoke various herbs, some fairer and some fouler. But it was Tobias Smygrave (34) of Longbottom in the Southfarthing that first grew the true pipe-weed in his garden in the year 902, and the best Home-grown comes still from that part. How old Tobias came by the plant is not known for certain, for he never told, and the Smygraves own all
[> most (of)] the crops to this day.'
'In the far East uncouth men drink smoke, or so I have heard,'
said Theoden. 'And it is said that wizards do so also. But I supposed that this was but part of their secret lore, and a device to aid the weaving of their thoughts.'
'Maybe it does, lord,' said Merry, 'but even wizards use it for no better reason than common folk. It is rest and pleasure and the crown of the feast....'
The remainder of this draft is as the first, except that Merry here says 'Good enough is Longbottom leaf, but this far surpasses it' (see note 32), and he says that Gandalf 'did not disdain Longbottom if he stayed until his own store was short. Before Saruman took to making worse things with greater labour, he must once have had some wisdom.'
In the next version the context has probably changed to the conversation between the hobbits and Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas after Gandalf and Theoden had gone (see p. 49 and note 8). Here Tobias (not Tobold) Hornblower appears,(35) the date of his first growing of the plant in his gardens becomes 953 ('according to our reckoning'), and Merry says that 'some think that he got it in Bree': to which Aragorn replies:
'True enough, I guess. Bree-folk smoked long before Shire-folk, and the reason is not far to seek. Rangers come there, as you may remember, unless you have already forgotten Trotter the ranger. And it was Rangers, as they call them in Bree, and neither wizard nor dwarf who brought the art to the North, and found plants that would thrive in sheltered places. For the plant does not belong there. It is
Similar Books
