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Timeline Event

Saruman imprisoned in Orthanc

Event Type: Military/Strategic

Age: 3rd Age - Ring War

Date: March 3, 3019

Description:

An event in the Destruction of Isengard by Ents and the prelude to the Parley with Saruman in Isengard; see those entries for an overview:
'I don't know what Saruman thought was happening; but anyway he did not know how to deal with it.... I think he has not much grit, not much plain courage alone in a tight place without a lot of slaves and machines and things.... Very different from old Gandalf.'....

'When the Ents had reduced a large part of the southern walls to rubbish, and what was left of his people had bolted and deserted him, Saruman fled in a panic. He seems to have been at the gates when we arrived: I expect he came to watch his splendid army march out. When the Ents broke their way in, he left in a hurry. They did not spot him at first. But the night had opened out, and there was a great light of stars, quite enough for Ents to see by, and suddenly Quickbeam gave a cry "The tree-killer, the tree-killer!" Quickbeam is a gentle creature, but he hates Saruman all the more fiercely for that: his people suffered cruelly from orc-axes. He leapt down the path from the inner gate, and he can move like a wind when he is roused. There was a pale figure hurrying away in and out of the shadows of the pillars, and it had nearly reached the stairs to the tower-door.... Quickbeam was so hot after him, that he was within a step or two of being caught and strangled when he slipped in through the door.'

'When Saruman was safe back in Orthanc,... he set some of his precious machinery to work.... Suddenly up came fires and foul fumes.... Several of the Ents got scorched and blistered.... That sent them mad.'

The Two Towers, LoTR Book 3, Ch 9, Flotsam and Jetsam

'So Saruman would not leave?' [Treebeard] said. 'I did not think he would. His heart is as rotten as a black Huorn's. Still, if I were overcome and all my trees destroyed, I would not come while I had one dark hole left to hide in.'

'No,' said Gandalf. 'But you have not plotted to cover all the world with your trees and choke all other living things. But there it is, Saruman remains to nurse his hatred and weave again such webs as he can. He has the Key of Orthanc. But he must not be allowed to escape.'

'Indeed no! Ents will see to that,' said Treebeard. 'Saruman shall not set foot beyond the rock, without my leave.... Leave it to the Ents! Until seven times the years in which he tormented us have passed, we shall not tire of watching him.'

The Two Towers, LoTR Book 3, Ch 10, The Voice of Saruman

Contributors:
Elena Tiriel 1Feb05

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