grammaboodawg
Immortal
Feb 28 2021, 3:09pm
Views: 2198
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TIME - February 28-29
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Today (and Tomorrow) in Middle-earth.
The Shire calendar has 30 days to each month. Because there's no 29th and 30th in OUR February, I'm going to post the events of February 29th with this February 28th post, and post the February 30th events with the March 1st post. Here goes!!!
February 28, 3019 (S.R. 1419)
1. Éomer overtakes the Orcs just outside Fangorn Forest.
(from the appendices)
..."'…we overtook the Orcs at nightfall two days ago, near to the borders of the Entwood. There we surrounded them, and gave battle yesterday at dawn. Fifteen of my men I lost, and twelve horses alas! For the orcs were greater in number than we counted on. Others joined them, coming out of the East across the Great River... ...And others, too, came out of the forest. Great Orcs, who also bore the White Hand of Isengard: that kind is stronger and more fell than all others.'"
2. The Hunters on the trail
(not from the appendices)
..."Stooping he [Aragorn] roused the Dwarf. 'Come! We must go... ...The scent is growing cold.'
...'But it is still dark,' said Gimli. 'Even Legolas on a hilltop could not see them till the Sun is up.'
...'I fear they have passed beyond my sight from hill or plain, under moon or sun,' said Legolas.
...Where sight fails the earth may bring us rumours,' said Aragorn. 'The land must groan under their hated feet.'
...He stretched himself upon the ground with his ear pressed against the turf. He lay there motionless, for so long a time that Gimli wondered if he had swooned or fallen asleep again.... ...At last he rose, and now his friends could see his face: it was pale and dawn, and his look was troubled.
...'The rumours of the earth is dim and confused,' he said. 'Nothing walks upon it for many miles about us. Faint and far are the feet of our enemies. But loud are the hoofs of the horses. It comes to my mind that I heard them, even as I lay on the ground in sleep, and they troubled my dreams: galloping, passing in the West. But now they are drawing ever further from us riding northward. I wonder what is happening in this land!'"
3. Merry, Pippin and Orcs.
(not from the appendices)
..."Evil dreams and evil waking were blended into a long tunnel of misery, with hope growing ever fainter behind. They ran, and they ran, striving to keep up the pace set by the Orcs, licked every now and again with a cruel thong cunningly handled...
...…The Isengarders seized Merry and Pippin again and slung them on their backs. Then the troop started off. Hour after hour they ran, pausing now and again only to sling the hobbits to fresh carriers….
...…Pippin was bruised and torn, his aching head was grated by the filthy jowl and hairy ear of the Orc that held him. Immediately in front were bowed backs, and tough thick legs going up and down, up and down, unresting, as if they were made of wire and horn, beating out the nightmare seconds of an endless time….
...…'Maggots!' jeered the Isengarders. 'You're cooked. The Whiteskins will catch you and eat you. They're coming!'
... A cry from Grishnákh showed that this was not mere jest. Horsemen, riding very swiftly had indeed been sighted: still far behind, but gaining on the Orcs…
... …The Isengarders began to run with a redoubled pace that astonished Pippin, a terrific spurt it seemed for the end of a race…. …The forest was dark and close. Already they had passed a few outlying trees…. …'They will make it yet. They will escape,' thought Pippin. And then he managed to twist his neck, so as to glance back with one eye over his shoulder. He saw that riders away eastward were already level with the Orcs, galloping over the plain. The sunset gilded their spears and helmets, and glinted in their pale flowing hair. They were hemming the Orcs in, preventing them from scattering, and driving them along the line of the river….
...'…how will they know that we are not Orcs?' he thought. 'I don't suppose they've ever heard of hobbits down here. I suppose I ought to be glad that the beastly Orcs look like being destroyed, but I would rather be saved myself….' …The eaves of the forest were very near, probably no more than three furlongs away, but they could go no further. The horsemen had encircled them. …
...'Put those Halflings down!' ordered Uglúk, taking no notice of Grishnákh. 'You, Lugdush, get two others and stand guard over them. They're not to be killed, unless the filthy Whiteskins break through. Understand? As long as I'm alive, I want 'em. But they're not to cry out, and they're not to be rescued. Bind their legs!'
... The last part of the order was carried out mercilessly. But Pippin found that for the first time he was close to Merry. The Orcs were making a great deal of noise… …and the hobbits managed to whisper together for a while.'
... 'I don't think much of this,' said Merry. 'I feel nearly done in. Don't think I could crawl away far, even if I was free.'
... 'Lembas!' whispered Pippin. 'Lembas: I've got some. Have you? I don't think they've taken anything but our swords…'
...…Pippin and Merry sat up. Their guards, Isengarders, had gone with Uglúk. But if the hobbits had any thought of escape, it was soon dashed. A long hairy arm took each of them by the neck and drew them close together. Dimly they were aware of Grishnákh's great head and hideous face between them; his foul breath was on their cheeks. He began to paw them… …Pippin shuddered as hard cold fingers groped down his back…. …The thought came suddenly into Pippin's mind, as if caught direct from the urgent thought of his enemy: 'Grishnákh knows about the Ring! He's looking for it, while Uglúk is busy: he probably wants it for himself…'
...'...I don't think you will find it that way,' he whispered. 'It isn't easy to find.'
...'Find it? ' said Grishnákh: his fingers stopped crawling and gripped Pippin's shoulder. 'Find what? What are you talking about, little one?'
...For a moment Pippin was silent. Then suddenly in the darkness he made a noise in his throat: gollum, gollum. 'Nothing, my precious....'"
[furlong = .125 miles or 220 yards]
4. Frodo and Sam make their way into Emyn Muil.
(not from the appendices)
..."…they had almost lost count of the hours during which they had climbed and laboured among the barren slopes and stones of the Emyn Muil, sometimes retracing their steps because they could find no way forward, sometimes discovering that they had wandered in a circle back to where they had been hours before."
Tomorrow in Middle-earth
February 29, 3019 (S.R. 1419)
1. Meriadoc and Pippin escape and meet Treebeard.
(from the appendices)
..."'We have watched too long,' said Merry. 'There's Uglúk! I don't want to meet him again.' The hobbits turned and fled deep into the shadows of the wood….
...'... it is all very dim, and stuffy, in here,' said Pippin... ...I can't imagine what spring would look like here, if it ever comes... ...then they became aware of a yellow light that had appeared, some way further on into the wood: shafts of sunlight seemed suddenly to have pierced the forest-roof.
... 'Hullo!' said Merry. 'The Sun must have run into a cloud while we've been under these trees, and now she has run out again; or else she has climbed high enough to look down through some opening. It isn't far—let's go and investigate...!'
... ...there was something like a stair: natural perhaps, and made by the weathering and splitting of the rock, for it was rough and uneven. High up, almost level with the tops of forest-trees, there was a shelf under a cliff. Nothing grew there but a few grasses and weeds at its edge, and one old stump of a tree with only two bent branches left: it looked almost like the figure of some gnarled old man, standing there, blinking in the morning-light....
... '...The wind's changing,' said Merry. 'It's turned east again. It feels cool up here.'
... 'Yes,' said Pippin; 'I'm afraid this is only a passing gleam, and it will all go grey again. What a pity! This shaggy old forest looked so different in the sunlight. I almost felt I liked the place.'
..."'Almost felt you liked the Forest! That's good! That's uncommonly kind of you,' said a strange voice. 'Turn round and let me have a look at your faces. I almost feel that I dislike you both, but do not let us be hasty. Turn round!' A large knob-knuckled hand was laid on each of their shoulders, and they were twisted round, gently but irresistibly; then two great arms lifted them up….
...'... Hrum, Hoom,' murmured the voice, a deep voice like a very deep woodwind instrument. 'Very odd indeed! Do not be hasty, that is my motto. But if I had seen you, before I heard your voices—I liked them: nice little voices; they reminded me of something I cannot remember—if I had seen you before I heard you, I should have just trodden on you, taking you for little Orcs, and found out my mistake afterwards. Very odd you are, indeed. Root and twig, very odd!'"
2. The Rohirrim attack at sunrise and destroy the orcs.
(from the appendices)
..."…Uglúk was overtaken and brought to bay at the very edge of Fangorn. There he was slain at last by Éomer, the Third Marshal of Rohan, who dismounted and fought him sword to sword. And over the wide fields the keen-eyed Riders hunted down the few Orcs that had escaped and still had strength to fly."
3. The Hunters continue their pursuit.
(not from the appendices)
..."As before Legolas was first afoot, if indeed he had ever slept. 'Awake! Awake!' he cried. 'It is a red dawn. Strange things await us by the eaves of the forest. Good or evil, I do not know; but we are called. Awake!'"
4. Frodo descends from the Emyn Muil and meets Gollum.
(from the appendices)
..."'Well, master, we're in a fix and no mistake,' said Sam Gamgee. He stood despondently with hunched shoulders beside Frodo, and peered out with puckered eyes into the gloom.
... It was the third evening since they had fled from the Company… …they had almost lost count of the hours during which they had climbed and laboured among the barren slopes and stones of the Emyn Muil, sometimes retracing their steps because they could find no way forward… …discovering that they had wandered in a circle back to where they had been hours before... ...The hobbits stood now on the brink of a tall cliff, bare and bleak...
... "... they did not notice that for several miles they had been going slowly but steadily downhill... ...a great grey cliff loomed before them, cut sheer down as if by a knife stroke. They could go no further forwards...
... '…We had better try a way back southwards along the line of the cliff, I think' said Sam. 'We might find some nook there, or even a cave or something.'
... 'I suppose so,' said Frodo. 'I'm tired, and I don't think I can scramble among stones much longer tonight—though I grudge the delay. I wish there was a clear path in front of us: then I'd go on till my legs gave way.'
...They did not find the going any easier at the broken feet of the Emyn Muil...
... '...Well!' said Frodo, standing up and drawing his cloak more closely round him... ...Suddenly he stiffened, and stooping he gripped Sam by the arm. 'What's that?' he whispered. 'Look over there on the cliff!'
... "Sam looked and breathed in sharply through his teeth... '...It's that Gollum... ...Look at him! Like a nasty crawling spider on a wall.'"
5. Gollum is captured by Frodo and Sam.
(not from the appendices)
..."Down the face of a precipice, sheer and almost smooth it seemed in the pale moonlight, a small black shape was moving with its thin limbs splayed out... ...And it was coming down head first...'
... ...Sam was out of his hiding in a flash and crossed the space between him and the cliff-foot in a couple of leaps. Before Gollum could get up, he was on top of him. But he found Gollum more than he bargained for, even taken like that, suddenly, off his guard after a fall...
... ...Things would have gone ill with Sam, if he had been alone. But Frodo sprang up, and drew Sting from its sheath. With is left hand he drew back Gollum's head by its thin lank hair, stretching its long neck, and forcing his pale venomous eyes to stare up at the sky.
... 'Let go! Gollum,' he said. 'This is Sting. You have seen it before once upon a time. Let go, or you'll feel it this time! I'll cut your throat.'
... Gollum collapsed and went as loose as wet string... ...grovelling on the stones whimpering.
... 'Don't hurt us! Don't let them hurt us, precious!'"
6. Faramir sees the funeral boat of Boromir.
(from the appendices)
..."'I sat at night by the waters of Anduin... ...watching the ever-moving stream; and the sad reeds were rustling. So do we ever watch the shore nigh Osgiliath, which our enemies now partly hold, and issue from it to harry our lands. But that night all the world slept at the midnight hour. Then I saw, glimmering grey, a small boat of a strange fashion with a high prow, and there was none to row or steer it.
...'An awe fell on me, for a pale light was round it. But I rose and went to the bank, and began to walk out into the stream, for I was drawn towards it... ...the boat turned towards me, and stayed its pace, and floated slowly by within my hand's reach, yet I durst not handle it. It waded deep, as if it were heavily burdened, and it seemed to me as it passed under my gaze that it was almost filled with clear water, from which came the light; and lapped in the water a warrior lay asleep.
...'A broken sword was on his knee. I saw many wounds on him. It was Boromir, my brother, dead. I knew his gear, his sword, his beloved face. One thing only I missed: his horn.... ... Boromir I cried. Where is thy horn? Whither goest thou? O Boromir! But he was gone. The boat turned into the stream and passed glimmering on into the night. Dreamlike it was, and yet no dream, for there was no waking. And I do not doubt that he is dead and has passed down the River to the Sea.'"
February 29, 2004 - A Happy LEAP Year Day!!!
1. Peter Jackson's Return of the King conquers the Academy Awards with a clean sweep of 11 Oscars!
We have been there and back again.
Join the "Tolkien Fandom Oral History Project"
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(This post was edited by grammaboodawg on Feb 28 2021, 3:11pm)
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