[davem]

But Pippin rose to his feet, as if a great weight had been lifted from him; and he stood listening to the horns, and it seemed to him that they would break his heart with joy. And never in after years could he hear a horn blow in the distance without tears starting in his eyes.

This immediately struck me, because its about the ‘after-effect’ of the Eucatastropic experience. The memory of it remains with one. Its not simply an experience that happens & is then gone & forgotten, Once the individual has had the Eucatastrophic experience it can be ‘triggered’ again in other times & places. Its as if the experience involves stepping outside normal time into ‘eternity’. It is as much a ‘state’ as an experience. The horns of the Rohirrim opened a doorway for Pippin & ever afterwards the sound of a horn remained a ‘key’ to that door for him. Crying is the result of a sudden uprush of emotion, & Tolkien later speaks of tears as ‘the very wine of blessedness’. The eucatastrophic experience or ‘state’ is bound up very closely with a feeling of ‘blessedness’, of something ‘breaking through’ into one’s awareness.

Something terrible may happen up there. The Lord is out of his mind, I think. I am afraid he will kill himself, and kill Faramir too. Can't you do something?'
Gandalf looked through the gaping Gate, and already on the fields he heard the gathering sound of battle. He clenched his hand. 'I must go,' he said. 'The Black Rider is abroad, and he will yet bring ruin on us. I have no time.'...
'Can't you save Faramir?'
'Maybe I can,' said Gandalf; 'but if I do, then others will die, I fear.

I know this is something we’ve discussed before - did Gandalf feel that it was his task to confront the WK? Was it his task? From his words it seems that he was about to follow the WK & continue the confrontation, & felt that if he didn’t go the deaths of others would follow as a consequence. Maybe its not so simple though. What we see is almost a repetition of the situation on the Bridge of Khazad dum. There Gandalf had to face the Balrog in order to save his companions. He defeated his enemy but ‘died’ in the process. The Fellowship was saved. It was a sacrifice, but a ‘simple’ one - ie the Fellowship was not split into two groups with Gandalf forced to choose which to help & which to sacrifice. Here he must do just that. If he goes onto the field in pursuit of the WK he knows that Faramir will be burned alive. If he goes to the aid of Faramir (& by extension Denethor) then ‘others’ will die at the hands of the WK. What Gandalf does is choose to help Faramir because there is no-one else to do that. He does what is necessary & trusts that things will work out for the best. This is a theme that runs right through LotR.

I want to return to Gandalf’s confrontation with Denethor later but a few things struck me on reading the early drafts.

'Authority is not given to you, Steward of Gondor, to order the hour of your death,' answered Gandalf. 'And only the heathen kings, under the domination of the Dark Power, did thus, slaying themselves in pride and despair, murdering their kin to ease their own death.'

In this final version Gandalf uses the past tense to speak of ‘heathen kings’. In an earlier draft he uses the present tense & speaks not of the ‘Dark Power’ but of the ‘Dark Lord’. The passage as we have it could refer to either the ‘kings’ of the First Age under Morgoth or those of the Second Age under Sauron. The earlier version refers specifically to the Easterlings & Southrons who were attacking the city at that time. As to why the change was made, I wonder. The early passage makes a comparison between Denethor’s behaviour & that of his enemies, the earlier one between Denethor & rulers of the ancient past.

'He calls,' said Gandalf, 'but you cannot come to him yet. For he must seek healing on the threshold of death, and maybe find it not. Whereas your part is to go out to the battle of your City, where maybe death awaits you. This you know in your heart.'

In an earlier draft Gandalf adds:

For unless you go out into the battle of your city putting away despair & risking death in the field you will never speak again with him in the waking world.

This is an interesting turn of phrase - Denethor will ‘never speak again with Faramir in the waking world.’ Tolkien seems to be associating life with the ‘waking world’ & (supposedly) death with the ‘sleeping’, or dreaming, world.

Finally for now:

And he beheld with the sight that was given to him all that had befallen; and when Eomer rode out from the forefront of his battle and stood beside those who lay upon the field, he sighed, and he cast his cloak about him again, and went from the walls.

Gandalf ‘beheld with the sight that was given to him’. This seems to be equivalent to the ‘Second Sight’. Gandalf is seeing events whish have occurred on the field while he has been confronting Denethor & saving Faramir. The words ‘that was given to him’ are interesting. Do they mean that Gandalf had this ‘gift’ as a ‘permanent’ ability - can he see into the past at will - or is it a vision gifted to him now, as a one off thing? I’d go for the former - its an ability that Gandalf has always had. It seems to function along the lines of the Palantiri - he can see distant events & past events. I don’t know if this is a form of Sanwe or not, or if the ‘power’ Gandalf is making use of is similar to that sometimes used by the Elves. What makes me doubt this is the clear statement that the ‘sight’ was given to him. It seems to be an innate skill which the Palantiri were created to mimic.

I wonder if this is pointing up a difference between Gandalf & Denethor. Gandalf’s ‘sight’ is an ability that has been ‘given to him’ & so is ‘natural’, Denethor has used the Palantir, an unnatural, artificial, means of ‘seeing’. Gandalf sees clearly & truthfully, what Denethor sees is unclear, confused & misleading. Gandalf was given his ‘sight’, Denethor took his.