Middle-earth Journeys
Tolkien Studies
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October 3, TA 3018
3 October 2005 14:22:22
"Blackriders" by Alan Lee
Quote:
Gandalf is attacked at night on Weathertop. Aragorn and hobbits see flashes from Weathertop.
'I galloped to Weathertop like a gale, and I reached it before sundown on my second day from Bree--and they were there before me. They drew away from me, for they felt the coming of my anger and they dared not face it while the Sun was in the sky. But they closed round at night, and I was besieged on the hill-top, in the old ring of Amon Sul. I was hard put to it indeed: such light and flame cannot have been seen on Weathertop since the war-beacons of old.'
Gandalf reports these events from the safety of Rivendell, but my, what an epic battle we can imagine! Chapters earlier, Frodo sees the distant flashes of light, nearly fifty miles away. Strider describes the flashes as "lightning that leaps up from the hill-tops."
Who is this Gandalf, who can make lightning and can battle with the Dark Riders? Who are these Riders, who can "sense" the wizard's anger and who grow stronger at night? And what is Amon Sul, which apparently was the site of war-beacons in the distant past? With every mile, Tolkien draws the hobbits, and us with them, into the mystery and lore of Middle-earth. Little does Frodo know what the distant lights at Weathertop foreshadow.
Artwork: "Blackriders" by Alan Lee
Calendar entry by Merry
Who is this Gandalf, who can make lightning and can battle with the Dark Riders? Who are these Riders, who can "sense" the wizard's anger and who grow stronger at night? And what is Amon Sul, which apparently was the site of war-beacons in the distant past? With every mile, Tolkien draws the hobbits, and us with them, into the mystery and lore of Middle-earth. Little does Frodo know what the distant lights at Weathertop foreshadow.
Artwork: "Blackriders" by Alan Lee
Calendar entry by Merry