How the pendulum swings!

[banakil]

Vol. II, p. 401, "Thus it was that Frodo learned how Trotter had tracked Gollum as he wandered southwards, through Fangorn Forest, and past the Dead Marshes, until he had himself been caught and imprisoned by the Dark Lord. Ever since I have worn shoes,' said Trotter with a shudder, and though he said no more Frodo knew that he had been tortured and his feet hurt in some way. But he had been rescued by Gandalf and saved from death. note: My father bracketed the passage from 'Ever since I have worn shoes' to 'hurt in some way', and wrote in the margin (with a query) that it should be revealed later that Trotter had wooden feet.

My how the pendulum swings! Phase 1: Trotter the hobbit tortured by Sauron and has wooden feet. Phase 2: Aragorn the Numenorean man king with elfstone adorning his brow!

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

And that hobbit was to turn out to be a relative, possibly one of Bilbo's maternal uncles, said in the Appendices to have "gone on a journey and never returned".

 

[banakil]

That's right, Peregrin Boffin.

It's fascinating to read the history of J.R.R. Tolkien crafting the storyline. At times it appears he doesn't realize how epic his legendarium would be; Peregrin Boffin is a perfect example (as Tolkien experiments with an "interesting" plot twist of a long lost relative, we later see that plot twist utterly pales in comparison to the actual plot intrigue of Isildur's heir). Another example is Boromir of Ond being "born a mountaineer" in the first draft -- this suggests Tolkien saw mountaineering as a cool attribute, and rightly so. But that character attribute is eventually discarded in favor of the eminently more interesting Boromir warrior backstory as Denthor's son, ever the steward never the king.

In History of Middle Earth, Part II, Third Phase, Chapter XXIV, pp. 430-31, Christopher Tolkien writes an apologetic for the pendulum swing from Trotter to Aragorn:

As I have said, it is remarkable how substantially the structure of the story was achieved at the very beginning, while the differences in the dramatis personae are so great. It is indeed very curious, that before my father had even written the first complete draft of 'The Council of Elrond' he had decided that the Company should include an Elf and a Dwarf (p. 397), as seems now so natural and inevitable, and yet in 'The Ring Goes South' we have only Gandalf and Boromir and five hobbits (one of whom, admittedly, is the most unusually far-travelled and widely experienced Trotter).

But as often in the history of The Lord of the Rings much of the earliest writing remained, for example in the detail of conversation, and yet such conversation appears later shifted into new contexts, given to different speakers, and acquiring new resonance as the 'word' and its history grew and expanded. A striking example is given in note 8, where in the original text 'Trotter sat with his head bowed to his knees' as they waited to depart from Rivendell, while in FR 'Aragorn sat with his head bowed to his knees; only Elrond knew fully what this hour meant to him.' The question presents itself: what is really the relation between Trotter = Peregrin Boffin and Strider = Aragorn?

It would obviously not be true to say merely that there was a role to be played in the story, and that at first this role was played by a Hobbit but afterwards by a Man. In particular cases, looked at narrowly without the larger context, this might seem a sufficient or nearly sufficient account: the necessary or fixed action was that Sam Gamgee's companion should hiss 'Lie flat and still' and pull him down into the shade of a holly-bush (p. 420, FR p. 298). But this says very little. I would be inclined to think that the original figure (the mysterious person who encounters the hobbits in the inn at Bree) was capable of development in different directions without losing important elements of his 'identity' as a recognisable character - even though the choice of one direction or another would lead to quit different historical and racial 'identities' in Middle-earth. So Trotter was not simply switched from Hobbit to Man - though such a switch could take place in the case of Mr. Butterbur with very little disturbance. Rather, he had been potentially Aragorn for a long time; and when my father decided that Trotter was Aragorn and was not Peregrin Boffin his stature and his history were totally changed, but a great deal of the 'indivisible' Trotter remained in Aragorn and determined his nature.

There is so much that can be discerned from dramatic character progressions, and I think that was one of the reasons Christopher Tolkien chose to publish the History.

Let's do a thought experiment, shall we?

If Aragorn is ultimately the central character in LOTR, because all characters and events in the tale ultimately fulfilled Aragorn's kingship to begin the Fourth Age, then it would be interesting to apply the same Trotter becomes Aragorn progression to other characters. For example, define x in x becomes Sauron. In your answer, apply Christopher Tolkien's standard to describe what is the 'indivisible' Sauron that determined his nature?

 

[Ellessor]

Boromir of Ond being "born a mountaineer" in the first draft

This makes me smile, since Sean Bean did in fact climb mountains in order to avoid flying in helicopter (a fear of his) to the shooting locations. 😄

On a more serious note, we often praise the depth of Tolkien's characters, the feeling of real history undergirding the narrative, etc -- and while much of this is intentional on his part, I think it is also in part because the writing itself is interwoven with his own personal history. TLOTR is notoriously long in coming to publication, and I wonder if this isn't a piece that modern fantasy writers miss out on when "world-building."