Battle of the Pelennor Fields: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 00:44, 27 December 2003

Revision as of 00:45, 27 December 2003

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Before dawn the great battering-ram Grond was used to break the city's main gate, and the [[Witch-king]] rode into the city unchallenged, save by [[Gandalf]]. Before Gandalf's strength was put to the test, however, the cock crowed and the horns of [[Rohan]] were heard as around 6,000 of their riders joined the battle. Mordor's strategy for keeping Rohan out of the battle had failed, and the Witch King was forced to ride out and attack them instead of fighting Gandalf.

When the Witch-king's [[fell beast]] attacked King [[Théoden]] of Rohan, the king's horse [[Snowmane]] fell on top of him with fatal results. The warrior [[Dernhelm]], defending the king's body, slew the fell beast and challenged its rider. The Witch-king sneered that no living man might slay him, but the [[Hobbit]] [[Meriadoc Brandybuck]] wounded him with a sword that had been forged centuries before during the war between [[Arnor]] and [[Angmar]] and which contained spells against the Witch King-king. The spells finally found their target, for the Witch-king became mortal and was slain by Dernhelm, now revealed as Théoden's niece [[Éowyn]] and thus no ''man'' at all. But the [[black breath]] caused both Merry and Éowyn to become gravely ill, and they were sent to the [[Houses of Healing]] in the city.

Meanwhile [[Faramir]], son of [[Denethor]], Steward of Gondor, was also gravely wounded. Despairing at the visions of defeat that [[Sauron]] had sent him via his [[Palantír]], and believing Faramir to be beyond aid, Denethor prepared to burn himself and his son upon a funeral pyre. Only the intervention of [[Peregrin Took]] and Gandalf saved Faramir, but Denethor immolated himself before they could prevent it.