The Tale
After the 11th hour, Pippin is released for a while to go get something to eat. In the ‘messes’ he meets Beregond again, who has just returned from an errand over the Pelennor fields to the Guard-Towers on the Causeway.
They stroll out to the walls, back to the embrasure where they ate yesterday, because Pippin feels claustrophobic even in the lofty citadel. They finally see a farewell gleam from the sun as it sets below the cloud cover, the same brief gleam that Frodo and Sam saw touching the head of the fallen king at the Cross Roads.
To Pippin, it seems years
ago that he stood there. Yesterday he was just a wanderer passing through
adventures; now he is one small soldier waiting in a besieged city. He might
have been more pleased with his new array at another time, but his armor is
somber and heavy, and he knows this is not playing. He yawns and sighs.
Beregond asks if he is weary
of the day, and Pippin answers that he has been waiting on Denethor while the
Steward confers with Gandalf and the Prince and other important people. It’s
hard for a hobbit to watch others eat and stand by hungry. But under this
spreading gloom even food and drink are no comfort. The very air seems thick;
is it often thus when the wind is in the East?
No, this is no ordinary
weather, but something brewed up by the Dark Lord to darken their hearts, maybe
from the Mountain of Fire itself. Beregond wishes Faramir would return; he
would not be dismayed.
Gandalf is worried about him too. And now Gandalf is off somewhere himself,
having left the council before noon-meal in a bad mood. ‘Perhaps he has some
foreboding of bad news.’
Bits and Bobs
The Guard-Towers on the
Causeway are named Bered Ondrath (Sindarin: ‘?towers of the stone track’). They
are a two-towered fortification on the north-eastern gate of the Rammas Echor,
four leagues (12 miles) from the City gate.
The date is March 10, 3019.
Sorry about such a small snip, but I'm a little under the weather. I'm amazed I did this much.
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