The Two Towers

The name Two Towers refers to more than one character, item or concept. For a list of other meanings, see Two Towers (disambiguation).

The cover of the 1st edition of The Two Towers.

The Two Towers is the second volume of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. It is preceded by The Fellowship of the Ring and followed by The Return of the King.

edit] Title

Tolkien's design for the dust-jacket of The Two Towers, depicting Minas Morgul at left and Orthanc at right.

Tolkien came up with the title under deadline pressure and later expressed dissatisfaction with it. In letters and one sketch he considered several possible sets of towers, including Minas Tirith and the Barad-dûr, and even the possibility of leaving the matter ambiguous. However, he eventually settled on Orthanc and Minas Morgul and wrote a note to this effect which appears at the end of most editions of The Fellowship of the Ring. He also produced a final cover illustration showing these towers, but the publisher decided not to use it in order to save money on the production costs.

Loosely, any pair from a set of five towers in the story could plausibly fit the title: Cirith Ungol, Orthanc, Minas Tirith, Barad-dûr, and Minas Morgul.

A trailer of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers interprets the title as referring to the alliance between Orthanc and Barad-dûr.[1] (Minas Morgul doesn't appear until the next film).

edit] Structure

Because The Two Towers is the central portion of a longer work, its structure differs from that of a conventional novel. It begins and ends abruptly, without introduction to the characters, explanations of major plot elements or a satisfying conclusion. The first section follows the divergent paths of several important figures from The Fellowship of the Ring, but tells nothing of its central character, on whose fate so much depends, enabling the reader to share in the suspense and uncertainty of the characters themselves. The narrative of the second part returns to the hero's quest to destroy the evil that threatens the world. While the first section tells of an epic battle, the struggles in much of the second section are internal.

edit] Contents

edit] Book III

Hobbits Merry and Pippin escape from the Orcs who captured them when the orcs themselves are attacked by the Riders of Rohan. Merry and Pippin head into nearby Fangorn Forest where they encounter treelike giants called Ents. These guardians of the forest generally keep to themselves, but are moved to oppose the menace posed to the trees by the wizard Saruman, who has been chopping down trees in the forest to fuel fires for his furnaces.

Aragorn, Gimli the Dwarf and Legolas the Elf, tracking Merry and Pippin, come across the riders of rohan who tell them that they attacked the orcs and left no survivors. However, Strider is able to find small prints and they follow these into Fangorn, where they meet a white wizard who they at first believe to be Saruman, but who turns out to be their wizard friend Gandalf, whom they believed had perished in the mines of Moria. He tells them of his fall into the abyss, his battle to the death with the Balrog and his reawakening. The four ride to Edoras and persuade King Théoden that his people are in danger. In the process, Saruman's agent in Edoras, Gríma Wormtongue, is expelled from the city. Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas then travel to the defensive fortification Helm's Deep while Gandalf goes north in search of Éomer's men in Rohan to bring as reinforcements. At Helm's Deep, they resist an onslaught of Orcs and Men sent by Saruman, and Gandalf arrives the next morning with the Riders of Rohan just in time. The fleeing orcs run into a forest of Huorn half-tree, half-ent creatures and none escape. Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas, Gandalf and the Rohan army then head to Saruman's stronghold in Isengard.

There, they reunite with Merry and Pippin and find the city overrun by Ents, who have flooded it with the nearby river, and the central tower of Orthanc besieged, with Saruman in it. After giving Saruman a chance to repent, Gandalf casts him out of the order of wizards. Wormtongue throws something from a window at Gandalf and those with him. This turns out to be one of the palantíri. Pippin, unable to resist the urge, looks into it and has an encounter with Sauron. Gandalf and Pippin then head for Minas Tirith in preparation for the upcoming war.





edit] Chapters

edit] Book IV

Frodo and Sam discover Gollum stalking them as they try to reach Mount Doom to destroy the One Ring. Gollum hopes to reclaim the Ring. Sam loathes and distrusts him, but Frodo pities him. Gollum promises to lead them to a secret entrance to Mordor and for a time appears to be a true ally. They first stop at the Black gate of Mordor, where Gollum persuades them not to go in, where they would have been surely caught. They head south into Ithilien, and are captured by Faramir, the brother of Boromir. Faramir learns from Frodo of his brother, with Faramir expressing his belief that Boromir is dead. Frodo tells of the plan to destroy the ring, and Faramir allows them to go on their way. Gollum leads them into the lair of Shelob, an enormous spiderlike creature, who inflicts her poisonous bite on Frodo. Sam resolves to finish the quest himself and takes the Ring. But when Orcs take Frodo's body, he follows them and learns that Frodo is not dead but unconscious and now their prisoner. The last line of the book is "Frodo was alive but taken by the enemy."

edit] Chapters

edit] Adaptations

Some of the events of The Two Towers were depicted in a 1978 film of The Lord of the Rings by Ralph Bakshi and the 2002 The Two Towers by Peter Jackson. Both films abandoned the parallel storytelling of the book in favour of a more chronological presentation. The first chapter from the book actually appears at the end of Jackson's The Fellowship of the Ring. Later events of The Two Towers were filmed for Jackson's The Return of the King. Various games also adapt The Two Towers, including online role-playing games like The Two Towers MUD and graphically-oriented console games.

edit] See also

References

↑ Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers - Trailer ([[Galadriel: "There is a union now between the Two Towers: Barad-dûr, fortress of the Dark Lord Sauron; and Orthanc, stronghold of the Wizard Saruman.")



