Unfinished Tales - J. R. R. Tolkien [225]
3 The first battle of the Fords of Isen, in which Théodred was slain, was fought on the 25th of February; Gandalf reached Edoras seven days later, on the 2nd of March. (The Lord of the Rings, Appendix B, year 3019.) See note 7.
4 Beyond the Gap the land between Isen and Adorn was nominally part of the realm of Rohan; but though Folcwine had reclaimed it, driving out the Dunlendings that had occupied it, the people that remained were largely of mixed blood, and their loyalty to Edoras was weak: the slaying of their lord, Freca, by King Helm was still remembered. Indeed at this time they were more disposed to side with Saruman, and many of their warriors had joined Saruman’s forces. In any case there was no way into their land from the west except for bold swimmers. [Author’s note.] – The region between Isen and Adorn was declared to be a part of the realm of Eorl at the time of the Oath of Cirion and Eorl: see p. 395.
In the year 2754 Helm Hammerhand, King of the Mark, slew with his fist his arrogant vassal Freca, lord of lands on either side of the Adorn; see The Lord of the Rings, Appendix A (II).
5 They were very swift and skilled in avoiding ordered men in close array, being used mostly to destroy isolated groups or to hunt down fugitives; but at need they would pass with reckless ferocity through any gaps in companies of horsemen, slashing at the bellies of the horses. [Author’s note.]
6 The Deeping: this is so written and is clearly correct, since it occurs again later. My father noted elsewhere that the Deeping-coomb (and Deeping-stream) should be so spelt, rather than Deeping Coomb, ‘since Deeping is not a verbal ending but one indicating relationship: the coomb or deep valley belonging to the Deep (Helm’s Deep) to which it led up’. (Notes on Nomenclature to assist translators, published in A Tolkien Compass, edited by Jared Lobdell, 1975, page 181.)
7 The messages did not reach Edoras until about noon on February the 27th. Gandalf came there early in the morning of March the 2nd (February had thirty days!): it was thus, as Gríma said, not then fully five days since news of Théodred’s death had reached the King. [Author’s note.] – The reference is to The Two Towers III 6.
8 It is told that he set up on stakes all about the eyot the heads of the axemen that had been slain there, but above the hasty mound of Théodred in the middle was set his banner. ‘That will be defence enough,’ he said. [Author’s note.]
9 This, it is said, was Grimbold’s resolve. Elfhelm would not desert him, but had he himself been in command, he would have abandoned the Fords under cover of night and withdrawn southwards to meet Erkenbrand and swell the forces still available for the defence of the Deeping-coomb and the Hornburg. [Author’s note.]
10 This was the great host that Meriadoc saw leaving Isengard, as he related afterwards to Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli (The Two Towers III 9): ‘I saw the enemy go: endless lines of marching Orcs; and troops of them mounted on great wolves. And there were battalions of Men, too. Many of them carried torches, and in the flare I could see their faces.... They took an hour to pass out of the gates. Some went off down the highway to the Fords, and some turned away and went eastward. A bridge has been built down there, about a mile away, where the river runs in a very deep channel.’
11 They were without body-armour, having only among them a few hauberks gained by theft or in loot. The Rohirrim had the advantage in being supplied by the metal-workers of Gondor. In Isengard as yet only the heavy and clumsy mail of the Orcs was made, by them for their own uses. [Author