The Ring and Tower
Isengard lay in the western part of Nan Curunír, sixteen miles from the mouth of the valley and a mile west of the Isen.4 The two most notable features of Isengard were the outer Ring and the tower of Orthanc. The Ring measured one mile from rim to rim and “stood out from the shelter of the mountain-side, from which it ran and returned again.”5 The plain within was somewhat hollowed, forming a shallow basin, in the center of which stood the tower.6
Drawings by Tolkien indicated that Orthanc rose high above the rimwall.7 As Orthanc was over five hundred feet high, the rimwall might have been only one hundred feet high, or perhaps less: The Ents leveled it without much difficulty. Orthanc was evidently of a much more resistant rock than the rimwall. Although the tower was fashioned by the builders of Númenor, they merely altered it; for it appeared “not made by craft of Men but riven . . . in the ancient torment of the hills.”8 It most closely resembled a volcanic plug or neck such as Shiprock, in New Mexico. If the less resistant outer rock of the cone were partially removed by erosion or quarrying, the remnant might have formed the Ring of Isengard; while the dense black basalts from the central vent could have been formed into the “four mighty piers” that the Númenóreans welded into the central tower.9
In Tolkien’s earliest drawings Orthanc was clearly manmade—a multi-tiered structure atop an island. The latest sketch showed the eventual conception, in which “the [island] ‘rock’ of Orthanc becomes itself the ‘tower.’”10 However, a brief note indicated the true final vision was never drawn: a combination of the earliest and latest views, explaining Orthanc’s description as “a peak and isle of rock.”11
The Fortification
Until T.A. 2953, twelve years after the Battle of the Five Armies, Isengard had been green and pleasant, with many groves, shaded avenues, and a pool fed by waters from the mountains; but when Saruman fortified Isengard (in rivalry to the newly rebuilt Barad-dûr), the groves were cut and the pool drained.12 Although an early design of the Ring of Isengard had a small northern gate, this was abandoned for a single entrance: an arched tunnel bored through the rockwall in the south and closed on each end with iron gates. Within the tunnel on the left (going in) was a stair that led to the guardroom where Merry and Pippin served their friends lunch. The room seemed fairly large: It had more than one window looking into the tunnel, held a long table, had a hearth, and (in the far wall) opened into two separate storerooms where the Hobbits had found the provender. In the far corner of one of the storerooms was a stair that wound its way to a narrow opening above the tunnel.13
Inside the basin a Tolkien illustration showed eight stone paths (some lined with pillars) that radiated from Orthanc to all parts of the Ring.14 In the Ring were delved all the living quarters of Saruman’s many servants, including stables for wolves. Thus, the basin was surrounded by thousands of windows peering over the plain. Between the radiating roads the land was dotted with numerous stone domes, which sheltered shafts and vents leading from the vast underground works: “treasuries, store-houses, armouries, smithies, and great furnaces.”15
In the center of the plain stood Orthanc, welded by some unknown craft into a gleaming many-sided spike of black rock so strong that even the Ents could not harm it.16 Its only entrance was an east-facing door reached by a high flight of twenty-seven steps. Within the tower were many windows, peering through deep embrasures. Most were shown by Tolkien above the level of the door. One large shuttered archway directly above the door opened onto the balcony from which Saruman spoke.17 Even higher was a window through which Wormtongue cast down the palantír.18 At the pinnacle of the tower the four rock piers had been honed into individual horns that surrounded the high platform on which Gandalf had been held prisoner.19 These sharp spikes gave Orthanc its name, the “Forked Height”;20 and the symmetry of the tower, encircling courtyard, and radiating roads gave fortified Isengard the appearance of one of Tolkien’s heraldic devices.21
After Saruman was defeated, the Ents destroyed the Ring of Isengard, flooded the basin around the feet of the tower, and planted new orchards. Once more it became green and pleasant: the Treegarth of Orthanc.22
Left: FORTIFIED ISENGARD Cross Section: WEST-EAST Right, Top to Bottom: ORIGINAL ISENGARD, THE TREEGARTH, ORTHANC, THE GATES
Edoras
ON A LONELY FOOTHILL that stood out from the White Mountains “like a sentinel” was raised the city of Edoras, “the Courts.”1 From the west or north a traveller was required to ford the Snowbourn and ride along a rutted road. As the road neared the gates, it passed through the Barrowfield with its two lines of barrows.2 On the west were the nine tombs of kings of the first line: Eorl through Helm. On the east were those of the second line: the seven barrows of Fréalof through Thengel; and after the War of the Rings, that of Théoden.3 The oldest of each line was probably nearest the hill.
Past the barrows were the dike and wall that encircled the city. The size of the wall was not stated, but it was “mighty” and was topped by “a thorny fence.”4 Inside the gates a broad paved pathway with occasional stairs wound up to the crown of the hill. Beside the path in a stone channel bubbled a stream that issued from a spring and basin just below the Hall.5 Where the stream left the city was not told, but it was most likely through a culvert near the Snowbourn.
Atop the hill stood the great house of the king, completed by Brego in T.A. 2969: Meduseld, the Golden Hall.6 It was surrounded by a green lawn that sloped away from the platform on which the hall was built. Up through the lawn cut a high, broad stair, the top step of which was wide enough to hold benches.7 The north-facing doors swung inward into a long, wide hall with many pillars. In the center was a hearth, from which smoke could rise to louvers in the gable above.8 At the far south end was a dais that held Théoden’s chair.9 The hall was apparently multipurpose, serving as a feast room as well as an official reception hall;10 but it seemed not to be used as a sleeping area,11 as were the early medieval keeps of Europe.12 Although the hall seemed to fill the house, as evidenced by the windows on its outer walls,13 there may have been chambers built into corner towers, at least one for Théoden, one for Éowyn, and the one where Gríma Wormtongue kept his chest.14 Functions such as the armoury may have been in a building nearby.15
Dunharrow
SOME MILES UPSTREAM from Edoras an upland field stood “some hundreds of feet above the valley.”16 This area was known as the Hold of Dunharrow: a refuge developed in the early Second Age.17 When Théoden returned from Helm’s Deep, the Riders entered Harrowdale, the Snowbourn valley, through a gorge on the western slope and forded the river at its feet. On the east side of the valley bottom (which at that point was a half mile wide) were some of the tents of his Riders, as well as horses.18
To reach the eastern clifftop a winding road had been hewn: the Stair of the Hold.19 Viewed in cross section, the step-like appearance was more evident. At each turn of the road Merry saw the statues of the Púkel-men. When the path turned east at the top, it went up through a cutting onto the Firienfeld.20 The path led on across the upland, edged by standing stones. On the south the field was wider, and most of the tents of Riders and families were pitched there, close to the cliff. In the midst of the camp on the north was a large pavilion for Théoden, and near its entry a small tent was set for Merry.21
The vision of Dunharrow changed both historically and topographically as the story evolved. Historically, the semicircular upland field was merely the grassy ‘lap’ before the stronghold.22 The Hold was the natural amphitheater beyond the field, with its complement of caverns—including one large enough to serve as a Feast-hall for 500 Riders of Rohan or a meeting hall for 3000.23 The site was ancient, but held nothing supernatural.24
Topographically, the Firienfeld was known as “the lap of Dunharrow” and was described at various times as “set back into the side . . . on the mountain’s knee” and that “arms of the mountain embraced it.”25 The source of the Snowbourn was the slopes above the amphitheater, and
the stream flowed over the field and fell to the valley below, where it was already wide and deep enough to warrant a stone bridge.26 In the later versions, the peak at the south end of Harrowdale was altered from Dunharrow to Starkhorn, and Irensaga was added to the north, with the Firienfeld wedged between. The Snowbourn no longer flowed across the field, and required only a ford.27 As the Grey Company rode east across the Firienfeld, they passed under the Dimholt, a small wood of dark trees; past the warning standing stone; and at the end of the deep glen reached the Dark Door, a cleft in the sheer wall of Dwimorberg, the Haunted Mountain. Passing through the Door they entered the Paths of the Dead.28
Upper Left: HARROWDALE TO MORTHOND VALE Upper Right: EDORAS Center: DUN HARROW Cross Section: WEST-EAST
Minas Tirith
IN THE EARLY YEARS of Gondor the fortress of Minas Anor, “Tower of the Setting Sun,” was built to guard against the wild men of the dales of the White Mountains.1 The city and its tower were reconstructed as need demanded, so the walls and buildings described were certainly not all originals raised over three thousand years before by Anárion.2 The function of the city had also altered during that period: from outpost fortress to summer king’s residence to permanent king’s house to capital city.3 Even the name was changed, for after the fall of Minas Ithil in T.A. 2002, Minas Anor became Minas Tirith, “Tower of Guard.”4
The Hill of Guard
Tolkien mapped the Hill of Guard as being an almost circular ellipse.5 Only two features broke the symmetry: the narrow shoulder which joined the Hill to the mountain mass, and the spectacular towering bastion of stone: “. . . its edge sharp as a ship-keel facing east,” which rose from behind the Great Gates to the level of the Citadel, and from which “one could look from its peak sheer down upon the gate seven hundred feet below.”6 As this distinctive feature was absent from Tolkien’s drawings, its effect on the pattern of the walls can only be surmised.7 The cross section shows a position midway between the text and the drawings to adjust for this difficulty.
Tolkien revealed no dimensions of the hill except that of elevation—700 feet;8 but they may be estimated by comparing two drawings, one of Minas Tirith and one of the Citadel.9 If the diameter of the White Tower were about 150 feet, the breadth of the city would have averaged 3100 feet.10
The City of Stone
The task of excavating and building the walls and towers, homes and hallows, of this almost impenetrable fortress was itself epic. It was “so strong and old that it seemed to have been not builded but carven by giants out of the bones of the earth.”11 The White Tower of Ecthelion rose higher than the highest of European keeps, although it was two hundred feet lower than Orthanc.12 Not the usual two, but seven, concentric city walls defied any challenger. These facts indicated that the dimensions of those walls would have been at least as large as any we paltry relatives have built,13 as well as larger than those at the lesser fortress of Helm’s Deep.14 The outer wall of the shoulder was lifted as ramparts: walls atop great earthen embankments, and the outer city wall was crafted of the same impenetrable black rock as the Tower of Orthanc.15 The seven walls with their towers totaled over forty thousand linear feet and would have required more than two million tons of stone.16 It makes one think, with Ghân-Buri-Ghân, that the Stone-house-folk indeed “ate stone for food.”17
The circles, as drawn by Tolkien, allowed ample room for the main road, one or more smaller lanes (such as the one where Pippin found Merry),18 and at least two rows of buildings within each circle. The only buildings specifically mentioned were: the stables, the Old Guesthouse, and the Houses of Healing. The stables were in the sixth level, close by the lodgings of the errand riders.19 The Old Guesthouse, where Pippin found Beregond’s son, was in the first level on Rath Celerdain.20 The Houses of Healing were in the sixth circle on the southern wall, yet were far enough east to be near the Citadel gate and to allow Faramir and Éowyn to look northeast toward the Black Gate of Mordor.21 The main road wound from the Great Gate through each level, passing through gates that alternated on the southeast and northeast. After each turn the path plunged through an arched tunnel delved through the east-thrusting spur. The seventh gate could be reached only by climbing up a lamp-lit tunnel that ran due west to the Citadel.22
The Citadel held many buildings—more than appear on the accompanying map, for they were omitted from most of Tolkien’s sketches and received only passing reference in the text.23 The arrangement resembled western European castles built after the Crusades.24 Merethrond (the Great Hall of Feasts), the King’s House, apartments, and other buildings of unidentified function were all clustered around the Place of the Fountain. Others may have been built into the walls, such as the one in which Gandalf and Pippin were housed.25 In the center of the Citadel was the White Tower. The tower held storerooms and small dining halls in the lowest level for the tower guard,26 smaller conference chambers around and above the great hall, and hidden under the summit of the tower, the secret room of the Palantir.27
The shoulder of the hill rose only to the fifth circle and was crowned by the Hallows, a completely walled area that held the massive tombs of the Kings and the Stewards. The Houses of the Dead were shown in Tolkien’s drawing with domes only slightly smaller than that of the Pantheon.28 The only access to Rath Dínen, “the Silent Street,” was through a walled pathway that wound down from an entrance in the sixth circle: Fen Hollen, “the Closed Door.”29
Upper Left: THE CITY Center Right: THE CITADEL Upper Right: THE WHITE TOWER Lower: THE TOWER OF GUARD
THE MORANNON
The Morannon
AT THE BEGINNING OF THE THIRD AGE, after Sauron had been defeated by the Last Alliance, Gondor built fortresses along the fences of Mordor to watch over the evil creatures within.1 Primary among these were the ones at Cirith Gorgor, the “Haunted Pass,” for it was the easiest of all the exits through the mountains.2 After the depopulation of Gondor during the time of the Great Plague, the fortresses were abandoned,3 and upon Sauron’s return they became the site of ceaseless vigilance.4
North of the roads lay the desolation of slag mounds and mires that stretched away for miles. In one of the heaps a small hollow had been delved, and from it Frodo, Sam, and Gollum had peeped out to watch the arriving armies of the south.9 Opposite the Black Gate were “two great hills of blasted stone and earth” surrounded by “a great mire of reeking mud and foulsmelling pools.”10 On these Aragorn arrayed his troops for battle.
Henneth Annûn
AFTER SAURON TOOK MINAS ITHIL in T.A. 2901, Gondor built refuges for its troops so a foothold could be kept in Ithilien.1 The largest and longest used was Henneth Annûn, the “Window of the Sunset.”2 The refuge was beneath a stream that ran from the Ephel Dúath to the River Anduin near Cair Andros. Sam and Frodo had washed at a pool on the stream’s upper reaches near the Road.3 Henneth Annûn lay ten miles west according to Faramir4 (a figure that agreed with Tolkien’s map location5); yet Henneth Annûn was supposed to have been so near the Field of Cormallen on the banks of the Anduin that the noise of the waters rushing through the gate upstream could be heard.6
The Refuge
The last mile of the path to Henneth Annûn was only guessed by Frodo: The river was always on the right and was increasingly loud. Near the end “They climbed upwards a little . . . were picked up and carried down, down many steps, and round a corner.” Wh
en unblindfolded Frodo stood on the doorstep of the cave: a ledge of stone thrust out from the cave’s mouth to the streaming waterfall. Behind the step was a low rough arch through which the stream had once poured.7 The arch was not the entrance to the refuge, however. Instead, the steps had been hewn into the rock and reached the cave via a door in the side-wall.8
The cave was “wide and rough, with an uneven stooping roof.” Although it was not “kingly,” it was large enough to hold the two hundred men who had fought in the battle, as well as sufficient food supplies and tables.9 In the rear the workmen must have sealed off the old channel that had carved the grotto, for the cave was more narrow there and a recess was partly curtained off, giving Faramir and his guests some privacy.10
The Basin
The workmen had directed the stream in a channel that had probably been its original course before the Waters cut the cave. Thus, instead of disappearing underground and reappearing in low falls, the stream rushed through a deepening gorge, bubbled over terraces, around a race, and plunged over the cliff in falls double the original height.11 They were “fairest of all the falls of Ithilien,”12 so they may have been the largest as well. The length of the turret-like steps, the insecurity of the high ledge above the falls, the danger to anyone diving from the cave-mouth, and the deep scouring of the basin at the falls’ foot all combined to give the impression of height estimated as approximately eighty feet.13