The Paths of the Dead

March 8 3019 TA

Aragorn leaves in the morning, and Eowyn tries one last time to convince him to take him with her.

"Then she fell on her knees, saying: 'I beg thee!'  'Nay, lady,' he said, and taking her by the hand he raised her. Then he kissed her hand, and sprang into the saddle, and rode away, and did not look back; and only those who knew him well and were near to him saw the pain that he bore."

They arrive at the paths of the dead, and make their way to the stone of Erech.

"'The Dead are following,' said Legolas. 'I see shapes of Men and of horses, and pale banners like shreds of cloud, and spears like winter thickets on a misty night. The Dead are following.'   'Yes, the Dead ride behind. They have been summoned,' said Elladan."

And then they arrive at the stone of Erech, at midnight. They agree to fight.

"But the next day there came no dawn, and the Grey Company passed on into the darkness of the Storm of Mordor and were lost to mortal sight; but the Dead followed them."

Back with Frodo and Faramir. 

Gollum and the forbidden pool, early in the morning. 

"'Fissh, nice fissh. White Face has vanished, my precious, at last, yes. Now we can eat fish in peace. No, not in peace, precious. For Precious is lost; yes, lost. Dity hobbits, nasty hobbits. Gone and left us, gollum; and Precious is gone. Only poor Smeagol all alone. No Precious. Nasty Men, they'll take it, steal my Previous. Thieves. We hates them. Fissh, nice fissh. Makes us strong. Makes eyes bright, fingers tight, yes. Throttle them, precious. Throttle them all, yes, if we gets chances. Nice fissh. Nice fissh!'"

Later in the day Frodo, Sam, and Gollum begin the journey to the crossroads. 

 

(Lest there should be any confusion or matter of rights and whatnot, all quotes in this post are from The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien, unless otherwise mentioned. There may be slight errors, misspellings, or alternate punctuation in the quotes, and if you notice such, please inform me so that I can speedily remedy them. But I think the fact that I made this blog proves that I would never intentionally change something of Tolkien's in the transcribing of it.)