Got to get to Mordor. Unless Gondor.

Sooner or later, every epic turns into the Wizard of Oz.

This time we have to pass through the gates of Gondor.

Or the Gates of Mordor…

Where the shadows lie. (Sauron’s tower at the upper right…)

After Boromir died and Frodo and Sam went off on their own, there was a need for a whole interim book about the gang who were supposed to protect Frodo and didn’t. They had to be heroic and elvish and dwarvish and hobbity and in Strider’s case, human. Whatever that is. Since they started the problem in the first place, what with humans being so human and all.

So in the new vainly heroic phase of the quest, the elf and the dwarf and the human immediately lose track of the hobbits. No child seats on horses, I guess.

One of them winds up with Ents. Who are gigantic slow thinking critters who are mostly indistinguishable from trees.

Ents are slow to anger, but you should see what they can do to a bad wizard’s tower.

Before.

Saruman was great. He thought.

After.

Treebeard: “That little hobbit fella said there’d be cheese curls in there. Sorry.”

Saruman was none too happy.

“I’m none too happy.”

But never mind all that. Gondor’s where the action is. Or why would we have a elf, a dwarf, and a human riding pell mell toward a ruined kingdom with more towers presided over by a zombie and his mongrel Rasputin?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jAuwMT__wjI
They know about rings too, them dogs.

Stay tuned for Part 8, The Bikers of Rohan.