The Lord of the Rings Page #4

...even the knives of the Black Riders.

I named the sword Sting, long ago.

It's silly, but there you are.

It shines when there are enemies about.

Orcs and things.

There.

Now you look

just a plain Hobbit on the surface, but...

Well, take care.

Bring back any old songs

and tales you hear.

"I sit beside the fire

"And think of all that I have seen."

Our only hope is in speed and secrecy.

The Company of the Ring shall be nine.

Nine walkers against

the nine Riders of Mordor.

With Sam and Frodo, Gandalf will go.

For the other Free Peoples...

...Legolas shall be for the Elves...

...and Gimli, son of Gloin, for the Dwarves.

For Men shall go the valiant

Boromir of Gondor...

...and Aragorn, son of Arathorn.

And for the last two places,

we will trust to friendship...

...rather than to great wisdom.

Peregrin Took and Meriadoc Brandybuck

may also go.

When did you ever know such a storm,

so far south?

The Dark Lord's arm has grown long

...if he can hurl snow at us

all the way from Mordor.

His arm has grown long.

No, Gandalf, not that dark way, I beg you!

And what would you suggest?

Returning to Rivendell to wait there

for the end? We have no choice, Aragorn!

We might go by way of the Gap of Rohan.

That'd take the Ring too close to Isengard

and Saruman. We dare not risk it.

Yet you would risk the mines of Moria.

Where both you and I have walked before

and come out again alive.

The memory is very evil.

I do not wish to enter Moria a second time.

And I don't wish to enter it even once.

Nor me.

The question is not who wishes to go,

but who will?

There is no other way

to pass the mountains.

I will go with you.

My cousin Balin led a company

of Dwarves there, many years ago.

There has been no word of them

in all that time.

Elves do not walk in the dark earth.

I will go, but I fear for you, Gandalf.

I will not go, not unless the vote

of the whole company is against me.

What does the Ring-bearer say?

I do not wish to go.

But I will go, if Gandalf advises it.

Steady, easy, Bill. Old Gandalf

will have that gate open in a minute.

- What if he can't?

- I've never seen anything he couldn't do.

Sam!

Fireworks are all very nice,

but this is elf magic.

What a people you Dwarves are

for hiding things.

On the gates of your most wondrous,

ancient kingdom you write:

"Speak, friend, and enter," and no spell

in any language can open the door.

Why do you keep looking

at the lake, Frodo?

I'm afraid of it.

And there sits our quest.

If we had to bring a wizard at all,

it should have been Saruman.

Be still, Boromir!

Why? There are other ways to turn,

if our Wizard's balked.

I said, from the beginning...

Gandalf, you old fool!

So, all you had to do

was say, "friend," and enter.

Those were happier times.

Let us go.

I'm coming, Mr. Frodo! I'm coming!

Into the gateway! All of you!

Poor old Bill!

Gandalf, what was the thing in the water?

I do not know.

There are older and fouler things than Orcs

in the deep places of the world.

Whatever it was, it grabbed Frodo first,

out of all of us.

Be quiet, Pippin!

We have gone far enough for today.

Let us stop here for the night.

Seems to have been a guardroom.

Yes, there's even a well.

We had better rest here.

It's hard to believe that even Dwarves...

...could have lived

in this half-drowned dungeon!

It was a great realm once.

Be still! Both of you!

Which way do we take tomorrow, Gandalf?

I have not decided.

The path to the left smells foul,

and I am too weary to choose.

The way ahead feels wrong, somehow.

At least the middle way goes up.

It's time we began to climb again.

Perhaps.

I cannot remember.

What's that?

- Pippin!

- Just a stone.

I dropped a stone.

Fool of a Took!

Throw yourself in next time! Be quiet!

Fool of a Pippin!

Yes, this way.

We should find our way down

to the Great Gates by tonight.

I shall be glad.

I doubt now that Dwarves

ever came back here.

Why should they have come back?

What was left for them to mine?

Mithril silver!

The most precious metal in the world.

"Balin, son of Fundin...

"...Lord of Moria."

They did come back.

It seems to be a record of the colony.

Orc swords. There was a great battle here.

Yes.

"Balin is now Lord of Moria."

Here it says, "We found Mithril."

Now it says:

"Yesterday, Balin, Lord of Moria, fell.

"An Orc shot him from behind a stone.

"We slew the Orc, but many more..."

Then it says, "We have barred the gates."

And something about,

"The Watcher in the Water."

- What do you hear?

- Nothing.

But I feel.

It is grim reading.

"They have taken the bridge.

They are coming!

"We cannot get out! Drums.

"Drums in the deep!"

There is nothing more.

Gandalf?

I don't want to stay here.

We are going now, Pippin.

There is nothing more.

They are coming.

Slam the doors and wedge them.

Keep the east door ajar.

We must not get shut in.

Orcs and something else.

A great Cave-troll, I think.

Out this way!

For Shire!

For the Shire!

Now is the last chance! Run for it!

I'm all right. I can walk.

I thought you were dead.

All of you, down the stairs!

Lead the way, Gimli!

Pippin and Merry next.

Come no closer! I warn you!

Balrog!

Fly, all of you! Fly!

Up the stairs and straight on.

Fly! You cannot help me.

You cannot pass.

I am a servant of the Secret Fire.

You cannot pass.

Go back to the shadow.

You cannot pass.

Fly, you fools!

Come. Follow me.

Obey him!

- There may be a bit of a scar, Sam.

- I don't care.

Now it is your turn, Frodo.

I'm all right. What does it matter now?

It matters. We still have a long road,

and much to do.

Why? We've no hope without Gandalf.

You know that, Aragorn.

Then we must do without hope.

There is always vengeance.

Mithril shirt!

That's what saved you.

I have never seen one so beautiful.

- There!

- What is it?

The footsteps,

I heard them in Moria, following.

The Orcs will not come after us until dark.

It never sounds like an Orc.

They're bare feet and they flap.

Whatever creature it is,

it won't follow us where we're going.

Nothing evil passes through Lothlorien.

- That is not what we say in Gondor.

- Then you know nothing in Gondor.

Out of Moria into the Golden Wood.

Is there no way less perilous?

I would almost rather face

the Balrog again, than the Lady.

Lothlorien is a place of healing.

There is no evil in it...

...unless a man brings evil there with him.

Welcome to Lothlorien.

I am Galadriel

and this is my lord, Celeborn.

The forests have told us of your loss.

We sorrow for you,

and for all of Middle-earth.

Rest here now for a little,

until you are healed.

Your quest is known to us.

We will do what we can to aid you.

Frodo Baggins of the Shire?

'"Let the night never cease to call you

'"Let the day never more be the same'"

It is a song about Gandalf, isn't it?

Yes, Mithrandir

was the Elves' name for him.

It means, Grey Pilgrim.

We knew so little of him in the Shire,

Aragorn. He was just Gandalf, to us.

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