Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King

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J. R. R. Tolkien — The Lord Of The Rings. (3/4)

-----------------------------------------------

Part 1: The Fellowship of the Ring

Part 2: The Two Towers

Part 3: The Return of the King

THE RETURN OF THE KING

Book V

Chapter 1 Minas Tirith

Chapter 2 The Passing of the Grey Company

Chapter 3 The Muster of Rohan

Chapter 4 The Siege of Gondor

Chapter 5 The Ride of the Rohirrim

Chapter 6 The Battle of the Pelennor Fields

Chapter 7 The Pyre of Denethor

Chapter 8 The Houses of Healing

Chapter 9 The Last Debate

Chapter 10 The Black Gate Opens

Book VI

Chapter 1 The Tower of Cirith Ungol

Chapter 2 The Land of Shadow

Chapter 3 Mount Doom

Chapter 4 The Field of Cormallen

Chapter 5 The Steward and the King

Chapter 6 Many Partings

Chapter 7 Homeward Bound

Chapter 8 The Scouring of the Shire

Chapter 9 The Grey Havens

-----------------------------------

THE RETURN OF THE KING

_being the third part of

The Lord of the Rings_

_Chapter 1_

Minas Tirith

Pippin looked out from the shelter of Gandalf's cloak. He wondered if he

was awake or still sleeping, still in the swift-moving dream in which he had

been wrapped so long since the great ride began. The dark world was rushing by

and the wind sang loudly in his ears. He could see nothing but the wheeling

stars, and away to his right vast shadows against the sky where the mountains

of the South marched past. Sleepily he tried to reckon the times and stages of

their journey, but his memory was drowsy and uncertain.

There had been the first ride at terrible speed without a halt, and then

in the dawn he had seen a pale gleam of gold, and they had come to the silent

town and the great empty house on the hill. And hardly had they reached its

shelter when the winged shadow had passed over once again, and men wilted with

fear. But Gandalf had spoken soft words to him, and he had slept in a corner,

tired but uneasy, dimly aware of comings and goings and of men talking and

Gandalf giving orders. And then again riding, riding in the night. This was

the second, no, the third night since he had looked in the Stone. And with

that hideous memory he woke fully, and shivered, and the noise of the wind

became filled with menacing voices.

A light kindled in the sky, a blaze of yellow fire behind dark barriers

Pippin cowered back, afraid for a moment, wondering into what dreadful country

Gandalf was bearing him. He rubbed his eyes, and then he saw that it was the

moon rising above the eastern shadows, now almost at the full. So the night

was not yet old and for hours the dark journey would go on. He stirred and

spoke.

'Where are we, Gandalf?' he asked.

'In the realm of Gondor,' the wizard answered. 'The land of Anórien is

still passing by.'

There was a silence again for a while. Then, 'What is that?' cried Pippin

suddenly, clutching at Gandalf's cloak. 'Look! Fire, red fire! Are there

dragons in this land? Look, there is another!'

For answer Gandalf cried aloud to his horse. 'On, Shadowfax! We must

hasten. Time is short. See! The beacons of Gondor are alight, calling for aid.

War is kindled. See, there is the fire on Amon Dîn, and flame on Eilenach; and

there they go speeding west: Nardol, Erelas, Min-Rimmon, Calenhad, and the

Halifirien on the borders of Rohan.'

But Shadowfax paused in his stride, slowing to a walk, and then he lifted

up his head and neighed. And out of the darkness the answering neigh of other

horses came; and presently the thudding of hoofs was heard, and three riders

swept up and passed like flying ghosts in the moon and vanished into the West.

Then Shadowfax gathered himself together and sprang away, and the night flowed

over him like a roaring wind.

Pippin became drowsy again and paid little attention to Gandalf telling

him of the customs of Gondor, and how the Lord of the City had beacons built

on the tops of outlying hills along both borders of the great range, and

maintained posts at these points where fresh horses were always in readiness

to bear his errand-riders to Rohan in the North, or to Belfalas in the South.

'It is long since the beacons of the North were lit,' he said; 'and in the

ancient days of Gondor they were not needed, for they had the Seven Stones.'

Pippin stirred uneasily.

'Sleep again, and do not be afraid!' said Gandalf. 'For you are not going

like Frodo to Mordor, but to Minas Tirith, and there you will be as safe as

you can be anywhere in these days. If Gondor falls, or the Ring is taken, then

the Shire will be no refuge.'

'You do not comfort me,' said Pippin, but nonetheless sleep crept over

him. The last thing that he remembered before he fell into deep dream was a

glimpse of high white peaks, glimmering like floating isles above the clouds

as they caught the light of the westering moon. He wondered where Frodo was,

and if he was already in Mordor, or if he was dead; and he did not know that

Frodo from far away looked on that same moon as it set beyond Gondor ere the

coming of the day.

Pippin woke to the sound of voices. Another day of hiding and a night of

journey had fleeted by. It was twilight: the cold dawn was at hand again, and

chill grey mists were about them. Shadowfax stood steaming with sweat, but he

held his neck proudly and showed no sign of weariness. Many tall men heavily

cloaked stood beside him, and behind them in the mist loomed a wall of stone.

Partly ruinous it seemed, but already before the night was passed the sound of

hurried labour could be heard: beat of hammers, clink of trowels, and the

creak of wheels. Torches and flares glowed dully here and there in the fog.

Gandalf was speaking to the men that barred his way, and as he listened Pippin

became aware that he himself was being discussed.

'Yea truly, we know you, Mithrandir,' said the leader of the men, 'and

you know the pass-words of the Seven Gates and are free to go forward. But we

do not know your companion. What is he? A dwarf out of the mountains in the

North? We wish for no strangers in the land at this time, unless they be

mighty men of arms in whose faith and help we can trust.'

'I will vouch for him before the seat of Denethor,' said Gandalf. 'And as

for valour, that cannot be computed by stature. He has passed through more

battles and perils than you have, Ingold, though you be twice his height; and

he comes now from the storming of Isengard, of which we bear tidings, and

great weariness is on him, or I would wake him. His name is Peregrin, a very

valiant man.'

'Man?' said Ingold dubiously; and the others laughed.

'Man!' cried Pippin, now thoroughly roused. 'Man! Indeed not! I am a

hobbit and no more valiant than I am a man, save perhaps now and again by

necessity. Do not let Gandalf deceive you!'

'Many a doer of great deeds might say no more,' said Ingold. 'But what is

a hobbit?'

'A Halfling,' answered Gandalf. 'Nay, not the one that was spoken of,' he

added seeing the wonder in the men's faces. 'Not he, yet one of his kindred.'

'Yes, and one who journeyed with him,' said Pippin. 'And Boromir of your

City was with us, and he saved me in the snows of the North, and at the last

he was slain defending me from many foes.'

'Peace!' said Gandalf. 'The news of that grief should have been told

first to the father.'

'It has been guessed already,' said Ingold; 'for there have been strange

portents here of late. But pass on now quickly! For the Lord of Minas Tirith

will be eager to see any that bear the latest tidings of his son, be he man

or-'

'Hobbit,' said Pippin. 'Little service can I offer to your lord, but what

I can do, I would do, remembering Boromir the brave.'

'Fare you well!' said Ingold; and the men made way for Shadow fax, and he

passed through a narrow gate in the wall. 'May you bring good counsel to

Denethor in his need, and to us all, Mithrandir!' Ingold cried. 'But you come

with tidings of grief and danger, as is your wont, they say.'

'Because I come seldom but when my help is needed,' answered Gandalf.

'And as for counsel, to you I would say that you are over-late in repairing

the wall of the Pelennor. Courage will now be your best defence against the

storm that is at hand – that and such hope as I bring. For not all the tidings

that I bring are evil. But leave your trowels and sharpen your swords!'

'The work will be finished ere evening,' said Ingold. 'This is the last

portion of the wall to be put in defence: the least open to attack, for it

looks towards our friends of Rohan. Do you know aught of them? Will they

answer the summons, think you?'

'Yes, they will come. But they have fought many battles at your back.

This road and no road looks towards safety any longer. Be vigilant! But for

Gandalf Stormcrow you would have seen a host of foes coming out of Anórien and

no Riders of Rohan. And you may yet. Fare you well, and sleep not!'

Gandalf passed now into the wide land beyond the Rammas Echor. So the men

of Gondor called the out wall that they had built with great labour, after

Ithilien fell under the shadow of their Enemy. For ten leagues or more it ran

from the mountains' feet and so back again, enclosing in its fence the fields

of the Pelennor: fair and fertile townlands on the long slopes and terraces

falling to the deep levels of the Anduin. At its furthest point from the Great

Gate of the City, north-eastward, the wall was four leagues distant, and there

from a frowning bank it overlooked the long flats beside the river, and men

had made it high and strong; for at that point, upon a walled causeway, the

road came in from the fords and bridges of Osgiliath and passed through a

guarded gate between embattled towers. At its nearest point the wall was

little more than one league from the City, and that was south-eastward. There

Anduin, going in a wide knee about the hills of Emyn Arnen in South Ithilien,

bent sharply west, and the out-wall rose upon its very brink; and beneath it

lay the quays and landings of the Harlond for craft that came upstream from

the southern fiefs.

The townlands were rich, with wide tilth and many orchards, and

homesteads there were with oast and garner, fold and byre, and many rills

rippling through the green from the highlands down to Anduin. Yet the herdsmen

and husbandmen that dwelt there were not many, and the most part of the people

of Gondor lived in the seven circles of the City, or in the high vales of the

mountain-borders, in Lossarnach, or further south in fair Lebennin with its

five swift streams. There dwelt a hardy folk between the mountains and the

sea. They were reckoned men of Gondor, yet their blood was mingled, and there

were short and swarthy folk among them whose sires came more from the

forgotten men who housed in the shadow of the hills in the Dark Years ere the

coming of the kings. But beyond, in the great fief of Belfalas, dwelt Prince

Imrahil in his castle of Dol Amroth by the sea, and he was of high blood, and

his folk also, tall men and proud with sea-grey eyes.

Now after Gandalf had ridden for some time the light of day grew in the

sky, and Pippin roused himself and looked up. To his left lay a sea of mist,

rising to a bleak shadow in the East; but to his right great mountains reared

their heads, ranging from the West to a steep and sudden end, as if in the

making of the land the River had burst through a great barrier, carving out a

mighty valley to be a land of battle and debate in times to come. And there

where the White Mountains of Ered Nimrais came to their end he saw, as Gandalf

had promised, the dark mass of Mount Mindolluin, the deep purple shadows of

its high glens, and its tall face whitening in the rising day. And upon its

out-thrust knee was the Guarded City, with its seven walls of stone so strong

and old that it seemed to have been not builded but carven by giants out of

the bones of the earth.

Even as Pippin gazed in wonder the walls passed from looming grey to

white, blushing faintly in the dawn; and suddenly the sun climbed over the

eastern shadow and sent forth a shaft that smote the face of the City. Then

Pippin cried aloud, for the Tower of Ecthelion, standing high within the

topmost walls' shone out against the sky, glimmering like a spike of pearl and

silver, tall and fair and shapely, and its pinnacle glittered as if it were

wrought of crystals; and white banners broke and fluttered from the

battlements in the morning breeze' and high and far he heard a clear ringing

as of silver trumpets.

So Gandalf and Peregrin rode to the Great Gate of the Men of Gondor at

the rising of the sun, and its iron doors rolled back before them.

'Mithrandir! Mithrandir!' men cried. 'Now we know that the storm is

indeed nigh!'

'It is upon you,' said Gandalf. 'I have ridden on its wings. Let me pass!

I must come to your Lord Denethor, while his stewardship lasts. Whatever

betide, you have come to the end of the Gondor that you have known. Let me

pass!'

Then men fell back before the command of his voice and questioned him no

further, though they gazed in wonder at the hobbit that sat before him and at

the horse that bore him. For the people of the City used horses very little

and they were seldom seen in their streets, save only those ridden by the

errand-riders of their lord. And they said: 'Surely that is one of the great

steeds of the King of Rohan? Maybe the Rohirrim will come soon to strengthen

us.' But Shadowfax walked proudly up the long winding road.

For the fashion of Minas Tirith was such that it was built on seven

levels, each delved into the hill, and about each was set a wall, and in each

wall was a gate. But the gates were not set in a line: the Great Gate in the

City Wall was at the east point of the circuit, but the next faced half south,

and the third half north, and so to and fro upwards; so that the paved way

that climbed towards the Citadel turned first this way and then that across

the face of the hill. And each time that it passed the line of the Great Gate

it went through an arched tunnel, piercing a vast pier of rock whose huge out-

thrust bulk divided in two all the circles of the City save the first. For

partly in the primeval shaping of the hill, partly by the mighty craft and

labour of old, there stood up from the rear of the wide court behind the Gate

a towering bastion of stone, its edge sharp as a ship-keel facing east. Up it

rose, even to the level of the topmost circle, and there was crowned by a

battlement; so that those in the Citadel might, like mariners in a mountainous

ship, look from its peak sheer down upon the Gate seven hundred feet below.

The entrance to the Citadel also looked eastward, but was delved in the heart

of the rock; thence a long lamp-lit slope ran up to the seventh gate. Thus men

reached at last the High Court, and the Place of the Fountain before the feet

of the White Tower: tall and shapely, fifty fathoms from its base to the

pinnacle, where the banner of the Stewards floated a thousand feet above the

plain.

A strong citadel it was indeed, and not to be taken by a host of enemies,

if there were any within that could hold weapons; unless some foe could come

behind and scale the lower skirts of Mindolluin, and so come upon the narrow

shoulder that joined the Hill of Guard to the mountain mass. But that

shoulder, which rose to the height of the fifth wall, was hedged with great

ramparts right up to the precipice that overhung its western end; and in that

space stood the houses and domed tombs of bygone kings and lords, for ever

silent between the mountain and the tower.

Pippin gazed in growing wonder at the great stone city, vaster and more

splendid than anything that he had dreamed of; greater and stronger than

Isengard, and far more beautiful. Yet it was in truth falling year by year

into decay; and already it lacked half the men that could have dwelt at ease

there. In every street they passed some great house or court over whose doors

and arched gates were carved many fair letters of strange and ancient shapes:

names Pippin guessed of great men and kindreds that had once dwelt there; and

yet now they were silent, and no footsteps rang on their wide pavements, nor

voice was heard in their halls, nor any face looked out from door or empty

window.

At last they came out of shadow to the seventh gate, and the warm sun

that shone down beyond the river, as Frodo walked in the glades of Ithilien,

glowed here on the smooth walls and rooted pillars, and the great arch with

keystone carven in the likeness of a crowned and kingly head. Gandalf

dismounted, for no horse was allowed in the Citadel, and Shadowfax suffered

himself to be led away at the soft word of his master.

The Guards of the gate were robed in black, and their helms were of

strange shape, high-crowned, with long cheek-guards close-fitting to the face,

and above the cheek-guards were set the white wings of sea-birds; but the

helms gleamed with a flame of silver, for they were indeed wrought of

_mithril_, heirlooms from the glory of old days. Upon the black surcoats were

embroidered in white a tree blossoming like snow beneath a silver crown and

many-pointed stars. This was the livery of the heirs of Elendil, and none wore

it now in all Gondor, save the Guards of the Citadel before the Court of the

Fountain where the White Tree once had grown.

Already it seemed that word of their coming had gone before them: and at

once they were admitted, silently, and without question. Quickly Gandalf

strode across the white-paved court. A sweet fountain played there in the

morning sun, and a sward of bright green lay about it; but in the midst.

drooping over the pool, stood a dead tree, and the falling drops dripped sadly

from its barren and broken branches back into the clear water.

Pippin glanced at it as he hurried after Gandalf. It looked mournful, he

thought, and he wondered why the dead tree was left in this place where

everything else was well tended.

_Seven stars and seven stones and one white tree._

The words that Gandalf had murmured came back into his mind. And then he

found himself at the doors of the great hall beneath the gleaming tower; and

behind the wizard he passed the tall silent door-wardens and entered the cool

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J.R.R.Tolkien—TheLordOfTheRings.(3/4)-----------------------------------------------Part1:TheFellowshipoftheRingPart2:TheTwoTowersPart3:TheReturnoftheKingTHERETURNOFTHEKINGBookVChapter1MinasTirithChapter2ThePassingoftheGreyCompanyChapter3TheMusterofRohanChapter4TheSiegeofGondorChapter5TheRideoftheRo...

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