The Hunt for the Ring

[Findegil]

1) I don't think that we must remove this. We have already hinted often to the fact that Saruman had started to desire the Ring and even revealed that he would go to open war against Rohan.

2) I agree to the addition, but I think we should edit it a bit differently:

HR-SL-01.7b<Letter 214 Between 2463 {[}when Déagol the Stoor found the One Ring{, according to the Tale of Years]} and the beginning of Gandalf’s special enquiries ...

3) I agree to both the reordering and ArcusCalion's additional change.

4) As ArcusCalion, I think we should keep the footnote. It is a spoiler, but when we assume that our readers have some knowledge of The Hobbit and LotR they know this anyhow.

5) I agree in principal, but I think we should edit it differently:

... The Orcs assailed the realm of Thranduil, with orders to recapture Gollum; and the Lord of Morgul was sent forth openly to battle against Gondor. These things were done towards the end of June 3018. HR-SL-06.5<Tale of Years {Around the same time,}When Thranduil {is}was attacked{ and} Gollum {escapes}escaped.> HR-SL-07<HR text B In the panic of the first assault, ...

6) We have not included Balin's attemp to re-enter Moria. But I think we should keep the footnote. Maybe we should search in the draft of LotR for some passage to be put in some earlier chapter. But than we would reveal only with this footnote that he failed.

7) I don't think any editing is needed. Saruman does pretend that his knowledge is freshly gained from Gandalf, but from his servant the Witch-King learns that Saruman should have answered him straight away out of his own knowledge. At that is what the text means (at least in our editing).

8) Yes, 1418 is Shire Reconing and I gree that this fact is clear enough, so tha we do not need to change or add a qualifire.

9) I agree not to include that sentence twice. But anyhow I could not finde HR-SL-16.1 neither in my working copy nor in the draft in the private forum. So please ArcusCalion, keep us informed what you add to your drafts if you like to discuss them here.

10) As Sauron I think the Witch-King is unable to understand the motives of his enemies. In Aragorn's place both had taken the Ring from Frodo by force as soon as they had been retired to the room of the Hobbits in the Prancing Pony. So that is what he would have expected, and that Aragorn did join Frodo and not take the Ring from him is what puzzled the Witch-King.

11) Some of these are not typos, but corrections of gramatical short commings of Tolkien's text of The Hunt for the Ring:

-'the' before 'dislike' is missing in the original text.

- Same here:

{[}One{] takes}took the road ...

- '... {[}he{] is} was uneasily aware that many enemies {are}were watching him and though none {has}had yet come with power to challenge him. ...' the 'and is again in the original, so I agree it is not needed.

- '{[}He{] is} was waylaid by Dúnedain and driven away {does}did not reach {[}the Witch-king{]} until the next day.' Here again I agree to adding the 'and' though it is not in the original text.

- 'the Bridge and Bree': Agian this is a change of the original text due to gramatical reason.

- I as well agree to the addition of the '?' for gramatical reasons.

- 'the Bridge': Again the 'the' is not in the original text, but I agree to add it.

Respectfully
Findegil