Cirith Ungol and Nameless Pass: Edition mix-up?

[Akhôrahil]

In the HarperCollins e-books 2005 50th Anniversary Edition EPub Edition March 2009 in the Index the entry for Cirith Ungol includes [...] (..., Nameless Pass) and the entry for Nameless Pass says "see Cirith Ungol"

However based on the description of the geography in various chapters and based on the wording of an earlier draft of one of those sentences in The War of the Ring it seems that the Nameless Pass was not another Name for the Pass of Cirith Ungol, but another Name for the Morgul Pass. The EPub does not have meaningful page numbers, but I hope that you (e.g. Alcuin, Olorgando, etc.) can locate the passages if I provide the beginning of the text in the sentences. In The Two Towers in Chapter 3 The Black Gate is Closed Gollum says 'And then' - his voice sank even lower - 'a tunnel, a dark tunnel; and at last a little cleft, and a path high above the main pass.' "The name of the perilous place and the high pass he could not tell, or would not. Its name was Cirith Ungol, a name of dreadful rumour." In The Two Towers in Chapter 8 The Stars of Cirith Ungol it says "At one point it crawled sideways right to the edge of the dark chasm, and Frodo glancing down saw below him a vast deep pit the great ravine at the head of the Morgul Valley. Down in its depth glimmered like a glow-worm thread the wraith-road from the dead city to the Nameless Pass. He turned hastily away." and later "The path had veered away from the main pass in the great ravine, and now followed its own perilous course at the bottom of a lesser cleft among the higher regions of the Ephel Duath." and later "He saw it now: it was a black tower above the outer pass." In The Return of the King in Book Six in Chapter 1 The Tower of Cirith Ungol it says "Its gate, upon the near south-eastern side, opened on a broad road, the outer parapet of which ran upon the brink of a precipice, until it turned southward and went winding down into the darkness to join the road that came over Morgul Pass." In The History of Middle-earth, The War of the Ring, Part Two: The Ring goes Fast, chapter VIII Kirith Ungol p. 195 it says "On their right the wall of rock fell away and the road widened till it had no brink. Looking down Frodo saw nothing but the vast darkness of the great ravine which was the head of Morghul dale. Down in its depths was the faint glimmer of the wraith-road that led over the Morghul pass from the city." There is a picture of the area in Pictures by J. R. R. Tolkien in picture no. 28. The picture and the Passage in The War of the Ring that I just cited refer to an earlier concept where the Tunnel with Shelob's lair was after the first stark, but before the second stair instead of after the second stair as in The Lord of the Rings, but the geography of the Morgul Valley was the same.

What does the Index say in your edition of The Lord of the Rings and what Edition do you have? What does the Lord of the Rings - A Reader's Companion say about the Nameless Pass being equal to the pass of Cirith Ungol? Do you agree that the Index entries that I mentioned are wrong?

 

[m4r35n357]

Ungol is to do with Ungoliant, so "Pass of the Spider". (60th anniversary edition)

 

[Alcuin]

I have a 50th anniversary edition, but it’s buried in boxes: I never use it. I use a 1994 paperback edition that was published for the movies and given to me by my children. All my notes are in that copy. The “Note on the Text” preceding Tolkien’s “Foreword to the Second Edition” is by Douglas A Anderson, the editor, and dated April 1993.

The Index in this edition has

Nameless Pass, 694
​

and references the same phrase you cited, Akhôrahil,

Down in its depths glimmered like a glow-worm thread the wraith-road from the dead city to the Nameless Pass.
​

To my mind, the clear antecedent is the road to Minas Morgul which was “gleaming faintly”, certainly a “wraith-road” if there ever was one. “The dead city” must be Minas Morgul, “the city of the Ringwraiths,” (these citations all from “The Stairs of Cirith Ungol”,) later explicitly called “the Dead City” (in “The Choices of Master Samwise”).

“Nameless Pass” echoes “Nameless Land”, a reference to Mordor, which certainly had a name(!), but a name the people of Gondor preferred not to use. (See Beregond’s comment to Pippin: “We seldom name it.” RotK, “Minas Tirith”) Faramir refers to Sauron as “the Nameless” and “the Nameless One”, and he refers to Mordor as “the Nameless Land” (TT, “Window on the West”)

There is no reference to “Nameless Pass” in my copy of Reader’s Companion, 2005 American edition.

I think Hammond and Scull have made an error in this instance. Cirith Ungol is “Cirith Ungol”. The “Nameless Pass” is undoubtedly the Morgul Pass at the head of Morgul Vale.

 

[Akhôrahil]

Ungol is to do with Ungoliant, so "Pass of the Spider". (60th anniversary edition)

What other names does the entry "Cirith Ungol" show in brackets (i.e. (...), [...]) for the entry Cirith Ungol and what does the entry "Nameless Pass" say in the Index of the 60th anniversary edition?

I have a 50th anniversary edition, but it’s buried in boxes: I never use it.

I fully agree with your analysis. It is a pity that your 50th anniversary edition is in a box. It would be interesting to know if the error was only in this EPub Version of the 50th anniversary edition of also in the printed 50th anniversary edition. The "Morgul pass" is the "main pass" and the "Nameless Pass" at the eastern end of the Morgul valley in the Ephel Duath. Cirith Ungol is the "high pass" or the "cleft" on the northern side of the Morgul valley. Minas Morgul is the "dead city". The Morgul road is the wraith-road.

 

[m4r35n357]

What other names does the entry "Cirith Ungol" show in brackets (i.e. (...), [...]) for the entry Cirith Ungol and what does the entry "Nameless Pass" say in the Index of the 60th anniversary edition?

Cirith Ungol: [Pass of the Spider] (High Pass, Nameless Pass), later "see also Straight Stair and Winding Stair".

Nameless Pass: see Cirith Ungol.

So definitely not the Morgul Pass or Morgul Road.

[EDITS!]

 

[Elf_Maven]

Sorry to resurrect this thread, but just a couple weeks ago I happened to run across this same question so I thought I'd add my own response.

Since I own two printings of LOTR, I checked both-- the Houghton Mifflin printing based on the HarperCollins 1994 edition (including the index originally compiled in 1965 and then "augmented in later printings") and also a Houghton Mifflin printing of the HarperCollins 50th anniversary edition with the Hammond and Scull index that was added in 2005 (and also the Kindle version of that printing). Indeed Hammond & Scull's 2005 index does associate the reference "Nameless Pass" with Cirith Ungol instead of the Morgul Pass. I do believe this is an error, since later while Sam is undergoing his temptation from the Ring, the narrator identifies Cirith Ungol with the reference "High Pass," which certainly adds to the implication that these were two different passes, both of which required passage beneath the Tower or Cirith Ungol in order to access Mordor.

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

Thanks for that, Elf_Maven .

And glad to see you here! I hope we won't have to wait another twenty years for your next post. 😃

 

[Elf_Maven]

I know . . . right?

 

[Akhôrahil]

Sorry to resurrect this thread, but just a couple weeks ago I happened to run across this same question so I thought I'd add my own response.

Since I own two printings of LOTR, I checked both-- the Houghton Mifflin printing based on the HarperCollins 1994 edition (including the index originally compiled in 1965 and then "augmented in later printings") and also a Houghton Mifflin printing of the HarperCollins 50th anniversary edition with the Hammond and Scull index that was added in 2005 (and also the Kindle version of that printing). Indeed Hammond & Scull's 2005 index does associate the reference "Nameless Pass" with Cirith Ungol instead of the Morgul Pass. I do believe this is an error, since later while Sam is undergoing his temptation from the Ring, the narrator identifies Cirith Ungol with the reference "High Pass," which certainly adds to the implication that these were two different passes, both of which required passage beneath the Tower or Cirith Ungol in order to access Mordor.

Thank you for the information about the content in your printed editions and in your electronic edition. As a result of my analysis, I edited the Morgul Pass page in Tolkien Gateway a while ago to state that Nameless Pass was probably another name for the Morgul Pass and that this is contrary to what the index says.

Another question, which has always bugged me, was when Umbar was lost the last time to the enemy. I added my analysis at the end of the Corsairs of Umbar section of and two articles that also touch on that subject in the External links section in the Umbar page in Tolkien Gateway. On henneth-annun.net, which usually almost exclusively uses direct quotes from J.R.R. Tolkien and not speculations, the Umbar page implies that Umbar was again lost in 1856 after the Battle of the Plains against the Wainriders and the Corsairs of Umbar page implies that the "new evils that soon befell Gondor" are "the Wars with the Wainriders" by placing this term in brackets immediately afterwards, but both are speculations, which are not identified as mere speculations and which are presented like a fact.

 

[Elf_Maven]

Thank you for the information about the content in your printed editions and in your electronic edition. As a result of my analysis, I edited the Morgul Pass page in Tolkien Gateway a while ago to state that Nameless Pass was probably another name for the Morgul Pass and that this is contrary to what the index says.

Another question, which has always bugged me, was when Umbar was lost the last time to the enemy. I added my analysis at the end of the Corsairs of Umbar section of and two articles that also touch on that subject in the External links section in the Umbar page in Tolkien Gateway. On henneth-annun.net, which usually almost exclusively uses direct quotes from J.R.R. Tolkien and not speculations, the Umbar page implies that Umbar was again lost in 1856 after the Battle of the Plains against the Wainriders and the Corsairs of Umbar page implies that the "new evils that soon befell Gondor" are "the Wars with the Wainriders" by placing this term in brackets immediately afterwards, but both are speculations, which are not identified as mere speculations and which are presented like a fact.

Ah . . . so you are responsible for that being said on TolkienGateway. I had found that entry and was interested to see that it reflected my understanding of the text. The author/creator of the Encyclopedia of Arda agrees. Personally, I would really like to hear from Hammond & Scull about what led to their decision. I know they read and compiled an almost unthinkable amount of background information from many, many documents in order to make the changes they did in the text. So what did they see that made them decide to identify the Nameless Pass with the High Pass?

 

[Akhôrahil]

Ah . . . so you are responsible for that being said on TolkienGateway. I had found that entry and was interested to see that it reflected my understanding of the text. The author/creator of the Encyclopedia of Arda agrees. Personally, I would really like to hear from Hammond & Scull about what led to their decision. I know they read and compiled an almost unthinkable amount of background information from many, many documents in order to make the changes they did in the text. So what did they see that made them decide to identify the Nameless Pass with the High Pass?

Yes I am responsible for those edits on the Morgul Pass page on Tolkien Gateway. If you look at the History (of the edits) of the Morgul Pass page, you see that a user called Akhorahil added this conent. Today I added a reference to the wording of an earlier manuscript version (cited in The War of the Ring) of what would later become the chapter The Stairs of Cirith Ungol on the Morgul Pass page on Tolkien Gateway as an additional reference, because there J.R.R. Tolkien uses "Morghul Pass" instead of "Nameless Pass" in a sentence that describes what Frodo sees when looking down into the Morgul Vale after having climbed the stairs of Ciritih Ungol. I already informed Wayne Hammond and Christina Scull among other errors in an e-book version about the (Nameles Pass = Cirith Ungol) error in two entries in the index of the 50th anniversary edition of The Lord of the Rings in a comment to an entry on their blog. While they repsonded concerning the other errors, they did not mention the Nameless Pass = Cirith Ungol error in their reply (see https://wayneandchristina.wordpress.com/2020/07/17/lord-of-the-rings-comparison-4/). I can try again contacting them.

 

[Elf_Maven]

Okay, now I am curious about *when* you informed them (edit: oops! I see that the link provides that info). I'll leave it up to you whether you write again, but I should mention that just last week after I happened to notice this in the index, I did write to Wayne Hammond to ask about the index entry. I had just received confirmation from him on two other points of inconsistency in the index I had asked about, and so I had actually expected a quick turnaround, but I have not had a response yet. For my query, I was not prepared with the citation from War of the Ring; I merely pointed out that the text says Frodo was looking down at the Wraith Road from his position on the Stairs, which certainly implies that it was below Cirith Ungol.

*ahem* Now that I've actually located and read your question, it seems to me that it would be worthwhile repeating it (although those comments are closed), especially considering that you now can add the reference in HoME.

Additional edit: If you need an email address for Wayne Hammond, let me know.