Cirith Ungol
The Two Towers – The Black Gate is Closed
A little path leading up into the mountains; and then a stair, a narrow stair, O yes, very long and narrow. And then more stairs. And then … a tunnel, a dark tunnel; and at last a little cleft, and a path high above the main pass.
The stairs of Cirith Ungol
Not far from the the near bank of the stream there was a gap in the stone-wall beside the road. Through this they passed, and Sam saw that they were on a narrow path that gleamed faintly at first, as the main road did, until climbing above the meads of deadly flowers it faded and went dark, winding its crooked way up into the northern sides of the valley.
…
Frodo stopped and sat down on a stone. They had now climbed up to the top of a great hump of bare rock. Ahead of them there was a bay in the valley-side, and round the head of this the path went on, no more than a wide ledge with a chasm on the right; across the sheer southward face of the mountain it crawled upwards, until it disappeared into the blackness above.
…
Across the narrow valley, now almost on level with his eyes, the walls of the evil city stood, and its cavernous gate, shaped like an open mouth with gleaming teeth, was gaping wide.
… but they followed him on to the climbing ledge. … but it did not last long. Soon the path reached a rounded angle where the mountain-side swelled out again, and there it suddenly entered a narrow opening in the rock. They had come to the first stair that Gollum had spoken of. … Frodo and Sam felt easier, having now a wall on either side, but the stairway was almost as steep as a ladder, and as they climbed up and up, they became more and more aware of the long black fall behind them. And the steps were narrow spaced unevenly, and often treacherous: they were worn and smooth at the edges, and some were broken and some cracked as foot was set upon them. … and ever as the stair cut its way deeper into the sheer mountain the rocky walls rose higher and higher above their heads. … (At the end of the stair) They were in a deep dark passage that seemed still to go up before them, though at a gentler slope and without steps. 'There is another stair still,' he (Gollum) said. 'Much longer stair. … But not so difficult. Hobbits have climbed the Straight Stair. Next comes the Winding Stair.' … The passage seemed to go on for miles … They only knew that they had come to the end, when suddenly they felt no wall at their right hand. They could see very little. Great black shapeless masses and deep grey shadows loomed above them and about them, but now and again a dull red light flickered up under the lowering clouds, and for a moment they were aware of tall peaks, in front and on either side, like pillars holding up a vast sagging roof. They seemed to have climbed up many hundreds of feet, onto a wide shelf. A cliff was on their left and a chasm on their right.
Gollum led the way close under the cliff. For the present they were no longer climbing, but the ground was now more broken and dangerous in the dark, and there were blocks and lumps of fallen stone in the way. … At length they were one more aware of a wall looming up, and once more a stairway opened before them. Again they halted, and again they began to climb. It was a long and weary ascent; but this stairway did not delve into the mountain-side. Here the huge cliff-face sloped backwards, and the path like a snake wound to and fro across it. At one point it crawled sideways right to the edge of the dark chasm, and Frodo glancing down saw below him as a vast deep pit the great ravine at the head of the Morgul Valley. Down in its depths glimmered like a glow-worm thread the wraith-road from the dead city to the Nameless Pass. …
Still on and up the stairway bent and crawled, until at last with a final flight, short and straight, it climbed out again onto another level. The path had veered away from the main pass in the great ravine, and it now followed its own perilous course at the bottom of a lesser cleft among the higher regions of the Ephel Dúath. Dimly the hobbits could discern tall piers and jagged pinnacles of stone on either side, between which were great crevices and fissures blacker than the night, where forgotten winters had gnawed and carved the sunless stone. … Still far ahead, and still high above, Frodo, looking up, saw, as he guessed the very crown of this bitter road. Against the sullen redness of the eastern sky a cleft was outlined in the topmost ridge, narrow, deep-cloven between two black shoulders; and on either shoulder was a horn of stone. … The horn upon the left was tall and slender; and and in it burned a red light … it was a black tower poised above the outer pass.
…
In a dark crevice between two great piers of rock they sat down:
Shelob's Lair
They passed on, … up the long ravine between the piers and columns of torn and weathered rock, standing like huge unshapen statues on either hand. … Some way ahead, a mile or so, perhaps, was a great grey wall, a last huge upthrusting mass of mountain-stone. Darker it loomed, and steadily it rose as they approached, until it towered up high above them shutting out the view of all that lay beyond. … and in the midst of it they saw the opening of a cave.
…
The walls (in the Tunnel) felt, to their surprise, smooth, and the floor, save for a step now and again, was straight and even, going ever up at the same stiff slope. The tunnel was high and wide, so wide that, though the hobbits walked abreast, only touching the side-walls with their outstretched hands.
…
Before they had gone very far, … Sam on the right, feeling the wall, was aware that there was an opening at the side: … After that, first he on the right, and then Frodo on the left, passed three or four such openings, some wider some smaller; but there was as yet no doubt of the main way, for it was straight, and did not turn, and still went steadily up. … As they thrust forward they felt things brush against their heads, or against their heads, long tentacles or hanging growths perhaps: they could not tell what they were. … At length Frodo, groping along the left-hand wall, came suddenly to a void. … Here some opening in the rock far wider than any they had yet passed; … 'Up!' he (Frodo) said … ' It all comes from here, the stench and the peril. …' … Sam stumbled beside him. One step, two steps, tree steps – at last six steps. … But almost at once they came to a new difficulty. The tunnel forked, or so it seemed, and in the dark they could not tell which was the wider way, or which kept nearer to the straight.
…
Presently, groping and fumbling in the dark, hey found that the opening on the left was blocked; either it was a blind, or else some great stone had fallen in the passage.
…
They had not gone more than a few yards when from behind them came a sound (Shelob)...
…
They so back they turned once more, first walking and then running; for as they went the floor of the tunnel rose steeply, and with every stride they climbed higher above the stenches of the unseen lair … The opening, the tunnel's end, at last was before them. … The outlet was blocked with some barrier, but not of stone: soft and a little yielding it seemed. … 'Cobwebs' he (Sam) said.
…
He sprang out, shouting as he came. … Almost he had reached the summit of the wall. Only a little higher now. The Cleft, Cirith Ungol, was before him, a dim notch in the black ridge, and the horns of rock darkling in the sky on either side. … Too little he or his master know the craft of Shelob. She had many exits from her lair. …
… he (Sam) saw that though the sky behind was now dark, still the window in the tower was glowing red. … Hardly had Sam hidden the star-glass, when she came. A little way ahead and to his left he saw suddenly, issuing from a black hole of shadow under the cliff, the most loathly shape that he ever beheld, …
…
He (Sam) had not far to go. The tunnel was some way behind, the Cleft a couple of hundred yards ahead, or less. The path was visible in the dusk., a deep run worn in ages of passage, running now gently up the a long trough with cliffs on either side. The trough narrowed rapidly. Soon Sam came to a long flight of broad shallow steps. Now the orc-tower was right above him, frowning black, and in it the red eye glowed. Now he was hidden in the dark shadow under it. He was coming to the top of the steps and was in the Cleft at last.
…
Orcs go fast in tunnels, and this tunnel they knew well, for in spite of Shelob they were forced to use it often as the swiftest way from the dead City over the mountains. In what far-off time the main tunnel and the great round pit had been made, where Shelob had taken up here abode in ages past, they did not know; but many byways they had themselves delved about in on either side, so as to escape the lair in their goings to and fro on the business of their masters. Today they did not intent to go far down, but were hastening to find a side-passage that led back to their watch-tower on the cliff.
…
There was a rumbling noise, and just as he (Sam) hurried up, a bump. As far as he could guess the Orcs had turned and gone into the very opening which Frodo and he had tried and found blocked. It was still blocked.
It seemed to be a great stone in the way, but the Orcs had got trough somehow,
…
To his surprise he noticed that the great block was shaped like a heavy door, and was less than twice his own height. Above it was a dark blank space between the top and the low arch of the opening. … With his remaining strength Sam leaped and caught the top, scrambled up, and dropped; and then he ran madly, sword blazing in hand, round a bend an up a winding tunnel. … The passage ran straight at last, up an incline; and at the end, wide open, were great double doors, leading probably to deep chambers far below the high horn of the tower. … The great doors slammed to. Boom. The bars of iron fell into place inside.
The Return of The King – The Towers of Cirith Ungol
(noon March 14th)
He (Sam) ran forward to the climbing path and over it. At once the road turned left and plunged steeply down.
…
Hard and cruel and bitter was the land that met his gaze. Before his feet the highest ridge of the Ephel Dúath fell steeply in great cliffs down into a dark trough, on the further side of which there rose another ridge, much lower, its edge notched and jagged with crags like fangs that stood black against the red light behind them: it was the grim Morgai, the inner ring of the fences of the land.
… looking to his left he could see the Tower of Cirith Ungol in all its strength. The horn that he had seen from the other side was only its topmost turret. Its eastern face stood up in three great tiers from a shelf in the mountain-wall far below, its black was to a great cliff behind, from which it jutted out in pointed bastions, one above the other, diminishing as they rose, with sheer sides of cunning masonry that looked north-east and south-east. About the lowest tier, two hundred feet below where Sam now stood, there was a battlemented wall enclosing a narrow court. Its gate upon the near south-eastern side, opened on a broad road, the outer parapet of which ran upon the brink of a precipice, until it turned southward and went winding down into the darkness to join the road that came over the Morgul Pass. Then on it went through a jagged rift in the Morgai out into the valley of Gorgoroth and away to Barad-dûr. The narrow upper way on which Sam stood leapt swiftly down by stair and steep path to meet the main road under the frowning walls close to the Tower-gate.
At he gazed at it suddenly Sam understood, almost with a shock, that this stronghold had been built not to keep enemies out of Mordor, but to keep them in. It was indeed one of the works of Gondor long ago, an eastern outpost of the defences of Ithilien
…
He went on, hugging the wall on his left. One look upward had shown him that there was no hope of climbing it. The stone-work rose thirty feet, without a crack or ledge, to overhanging courses like inverted steps.
…
He drew Sting and ran towards the open gate. … He looked about, and then within the shadow of the gate he saw the Two Watchers.
They were like great figures seated upon thrones. Each had three joined bodies, and three heads facing outward, and inward, and and across the gateway. The heads had vulture-faces, and on their great knees were laid clawlike hands. They seemed to be carved out of huge blocks of stone.
…
Across the court a great door at the foot of the Tower stood half open, … A wide and echoing passage led back from the door towards the mountain-side. It was dimly lit with torches flaring in brackets on the walls, but its distant end was lost in gloom. Many doors and openings could be seen on this side and that; … 'It'll be near the back, I guess' Sam muttered. 'The whole Tower climbs backwards-like. And anyway I'd better follow these lights.' … He had passed beyond the torchlight, almost to a great arched door at the end of the passage, the inner side of the under-gate,
…
Up, up he went. It was dark save for an occasional torch flaring at a turn, or beside some opening that led into the higher levels of the Tower. Sam tried to count the steps but after two hundred he lost his reckoning. …. He had climbed right to the flat roof of the third and highest tier of the Tower: an open space about twenty yards across, with a low parapet. There the stair was covered by a small domed chamber in the midst of the roof, with low doors facing east and west. … Westward the view was blocked by the base of the great turret that stood at the back of this upper court and reared its horn high above the crest of the encircling hills. Light gleamed in a window-slit. Its door was not ten yards from where Sam stood (at the top of the stairs).
…
He came cautiously to the turret-door and stepped inside. It opened into darkness. But soon his staring eyes were aware of a dim light at his right hand. It came from an opening that led to another stairway, dark and narrow: it appeared to go winding up the turret along the inside of its round outer wall. A torch was glimmering from somewhere up above.
Softly he began to climb. He came to the guttering torch, fixed above a door on his left that faced a window slit looking out westward: on of the red eyes that he and Frodo had seen from down below by the tunnels's mouth. Quickly Sam passed the door and hurried on to the second story, …. He came next to a window looking east and another torch above the door to a passage through the middle of the turret. The door was open, …. But there the stair stopped and climbed no further. Sam crept into the passage. On either side there was a low door; both were closed and locked.
…
the topmost chamber was reached by a trap-door in the roof of the passage. … He sprang up, ran and went up the ladder like a cat. His head came out in the middle of the floor of a large round chamber. A red lamp hung from its roof; the westward window-slit was high and dark. Something was lying on the floor by the wall under the window,
….
Then they ran. Through the gate and past the great seated figures with their glittering eyes. There was a crack. The keystone of the arch crashed almost on their heels, and the wall above crumbled, and fell in ruin.
The Return of The King – The Land of Shadow
Down the road from the gate they fled. in fifty paces, with a swift bend round a jutting bastion of the cliff, it took them out of sight from the Tower. … In terror they stumbled on. Soon the road bend sharply eastward again and exposed them for a dreadful moment to view from the Tower. … then they plunged down between high rock-walls in a cutting that fell steeply to join the Morgul-road. They came to the way-meeting.
