The Tale
Pippin comes to the lowest
and widest circle of the city, where he is directed to the Lampwright’s Street
where he finds the Old Guesthouse, a large grey house with two wings and a
grassy yard. There he sees some boys, the only children he’s seen in the city,
playing on the steps and pillars of the porch. A boy sees him and comes over
with several others to check him out. The boy challenges him. He’s never seen
him. Is he a stranger to the City?
Pippin answers that he is ,
but he says that they tell him he is now a man of the City. The lad laughs at
the word man and asks him a lot of questions. The boy brags that he
himself is ten years old and almost five feet tall; his father is one of the
tallest of the guards. Who’s your father?
‘What question shall I
answer first? Said Pippin. ‘My father farms the lands round the Whitwell near
Tuckburough in the Shire. I am nearly twenty-nine, so I pass you there; though
I am but four feet, and not likely to grow anymore, save sideways.’
The boy whistles, impressed
with his age. Still, he reckons he could stand Pippin on his head or lay him on
his back.
Pippin laughs and agrees
that he might. But they know some wrestling tricks in his little country, where
he is considered quite large and strong. If worst came to worst, Pippin might
have to kill him rather than be defeated. Perhaps when the boy is older he will
learn that people aren’t always what they seem. ‘I am a halfling, hard, bold,
and wicked!’ He pulls a grim face.
The boy steps back a pace,
then advances with battle in his eyes. Pippin laughs again. And perhaps the lad
will learn that strangers don’t always tell the truth about themselves, either.
But what is the boy’s name, the hobbit asks. He replies that he is Bergil, son
of Beregond. Pippin said he thought so; he looks like his father. Beregond has
sent him to find the lad.
Bergil is at first dismayed
that his father might have sent him to tell him he must leave, but the last
wains have left. Pippin assures him that the news is better than that. If he’s
not too busy trying to stand him on his head, the boy should be his guide
around the City. Bergil is relieved and says they should go to the Gate to see
the Captains of the Outlands who will be soon arriving.
Pippin and Bergil walk
along, and the boy proves to be the best company Pippin has had since he parted
with Merry. Pippin himself is in many ways just a boy himself. Bergil is
impressed when Pippin can give the password and get them through the Gate; boys
aren’t allowed out without an elder. They join a crowd of men waiting around
the Gate, looking southward, until there is a cloud of dust approaching, and
the sound of horns.
The first troop is greeted
with ‘Forlong!’ Bergil explains that this is old Forlong the Fat, Lord of Lossarnach,
the land where the boy’s grandfather lives.
‘Leading the line there came
walking a big thick-limbed horse, and on it sat a man of wide shoulders and
huge girth, but old and grey-bearded, yet mail-clad and black-helmed and
bearing a long heavy spear. Behind him marched proudly a dusty line of men,
well-armed and bearing great battle-axes; grim-faced they were, and shorter and
somewhat swarthier than any men Pippin had yet seen in Gondor.’
He is hailed by the men of
the City, but when he and his men have passed through the Gate there is
murmuring. There are only two hundred; they had hoped for two thousand. This
must be because of the black fleet attacking Lossarnach; they can only spare a
little from the defense of their own homes. ‘Still every little is a gain.’
And so it goes as company
after company enter, always fewer than they had hoped. Dervorin of Ringlo Vale;
three hundred. Duinhir and his sons Duilin and Derufin, of Morthond; five
hundred bowmen. Golasgil from the Anfalas, with a long line of hunters and
herdsmen and villagers. A few grim hillsmen from Lamedon. About a hundred
fisher-folk from the Ethir. From Pinnathe Gelin, Hirluin the Fair with three
hundred gallant men in green. And last and most heartening Prince Imrahil of
Dol Amroth, with a company of knights in full array and seven hundred tall men
at arms, singing as they come.
The troops pass in, and
silence falls on the men of Gondor. There are less than three thousand men come
to their aid. Gloom descends on the dying day; the sky is grey but the setting
sun seems to kindle the dust and fume in the East a blazing red. ‘So ends a fair day in wrath!’ Pippin
comments.
There will be wrath if
Bergil doesn’t get back before the sundown bells. They go in and the Gate closes.
Bergil says he is glad to have met Pippin and to thank his father for sending
him to him. They separate and Pippin heads for the company messhall again; he
is feeling hot and hungry. There he meets Beregond. They eat and then Pippin
returns to the Old Guesthouse, hoping to see Gandalf. Beregond bids him
farewell and reminds him he will be summoned before Denethor early tomorrow.
The streets are unusually
dark; no lights after curfew and now no stars are in the sky. When he gets to
their rooms Gandalf is not there. He tries looking out the window; it is like ‘looking
into a pool of ink.’ He lies down, listening for the wizard’s return, and falls
into an uneasy sleep. He wakes up to a light beyond the curtains of his alcove.
The wizard has returned and is pacing and muttering. There are candles and
rolls of parchment on the table. Pippin hears the wizard sigh. ‘When will
Faramir return?’
Pippin pops his head through
the curtains and greets him. He thought Gandalf had forgotten him; it’s been a
long day.
‘But the night will be too
short,’ said Gandalf. ‘I have come back here, for I must have a little peace,
alone. You should sleep, in a bed while you may. At the sunrise I shall take
you to the Lord Denethor. No, when the summons comes, not at sunrise. The
Darkness has begun. There will be no dawn.’
Bits and Bobs
It was always (and may still
be) a convention, especially in British literature, that when boys first meet
there are usually challenges and even fights while they take each other’s
measure. Then they become fast friends. Bergil is no exception here. Their
friendship goes to emphasize Pippin’s basic youth and light-heartedness.
Forlong: (untranslated
pre-Numenorean name)
Lossarnach; (Sindarin ‘flowery’
+ untranslated ‘Arnach’)
Ringlo: (Sindarin ‘chill + flood’)
Dervorin: (untranslated
Sindarin)
Duilin: (Sindarin, ‘swallow’[bird]
or ‘singer by the river’)
Derufin: (?)
Anfalas: (Sindarin ‘long’ + ‘shore’;
aka Langstrand)
Golasgil: (Sindarin? ‘leaf-star’?)
Lamedon: (untranslated
pre-Numenorean)
Ethir Anduin: (Sindarin: ‘the
mouths of the river Anduin’)
Hirluin: (probably Sindarin ‘lord’
+ ‘blue’)
Pinnath Gelin: (Sindarin: ‘hills,
downs’ + ‘green’)
Imrahil: (untranslated
Adunaic); Denethor’s brother-in-law
Dol Amroth: (Sindarin: ‘dol
= hill’ + Amroth ‘up-climber’)
It has been suggested that
this list of lords is an example of a ‘Homeric catalog’, a roll of names made
mostly to add ‘thickening’ or convincing detail to a narrative.
Imrahil’s sister married
Denethor; that makes him Faramir and Boromir’s uncle. His home, Dol Amroth,
used to be an Elven city, named after an elf-lord, and it is rumored that there
is elven-blood in his heritage. His symbol is a silver swan on a blue field.
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