"FOREWORD" - читать интересную книгу автора (vol08)

FOREWORD.

The title of this book comes from the same source as The
Treason of Isengard, a set of six titles, one for each 'Book' of
The Lord of the Rings, suggested by my father in a letter to
Rayner Unwin of March 1953 (The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien
no. 136). The War of the Ring was that proposed for Book V,
and I have adopted it for this book since the history of the
writing of Book V constitutes nearly half of it, while the first
part concerns the victory of Helm's Deep and the destruction of
Isengard. The second part describes the writing of Frodo's
journey to Kirith Ungol, and this I have called 'The Ring Goes
East', which was the title proposed by my father for Book IV.
In the Foreword to The Return of the Shadow I explained
that a substantial collection of manuscripts was left behind in
England when the bulk of the papers went to Marquette
University in 1958, these manuscripts consisting for the most
part of outlines and the earliest narrative drafts; and I suggested
that this was a consequence of the papers being dispersed, some
in one place and some in another, at that time. But the
manuscript materials for The Return of the King were evidently
preserved with the main body of the papers, for nothing of
Books V and VI was left behind beyond some narrative outlines
and the first draft of the chapter 'Minas Tirith'. For my account
of Book V therefore I have been almost wholly dependent on the
provision from Marquette of great quantities of manuscript in
reproduction, without which the latter part of The War of the
Ring could not have been written at all. For this most generous
assistance I express my gratitude to all concerned in it, and most
especially to Mr Taum Santoski, who has been primarily
responsible for the work involved. In addition he has advised
me on many particular points which can be best decided by
close examination of the original papers, and he has spent much
time in trying to decipher those manuscripts in which my father
wrote a text in ink on top of another in pencil. I thank also Miss
Tracy J. Muench and Miss Elizabeth A. Budde for their part in
the work of reproducing the material, and Mr Charles B. Elston
for making it possible for me to include in this book several

illustrations from manuscripts at Marquette: the pages carry-
ing sketches of Dunharrow, of the mountains at the head of
Harrowdale, and of Kirith Ungol, the plan of Minas Tirith, and
the full-page drawing of Orthanc (5).
This book follows the plan and presentation of its predeces-
sors, references to previous volumes in 'The History of Middle-
earth' being generally given in Roman numerals (thus 'VII'
refers to The Treason of Isengard), FR, TT, and RK being used
as abbreviations for The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two
Towers, and The Return of the King, and page-references being
made throughout to the three-volume hardback edition of The