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Timeline Event

Darkness flows out of Mordor for the Siege of Minas Tirith

Event Type: Environment/Disease

Age: 3rd Age - Ring War

Dates: March 9, 3019 ~ March 10, 3019

Description:

An event in the prelude to the Siege of Minas Tirith; see that entry for an overview:
The red glare over Mordor died away. The twilight deepened as great vapours rose in the East and crawled above them.

The Two Towers, LoTR Book 4, Ch 7, Journey to the Cross-roads

[Said] Faramir[,]... 'But the darkness... began yestereve, and all Ithilien was under shadow last night. It is clear to me that the Enemy has long planned an assault on us, and its hour had already been determined before ever the travellers left my keeping.'

The Return of the King, LoTR Book 5, Ch 4, The Siege of Gondor

[Pippin] lifted his eyes above the River, and it seemed to him that all he could see was a vast and threatening shadow. Perhaps it was mountains looming on the verge of sight, their jagged edges softened by wellnigh twenty leagues of misty air; perhaps it was but a cloud-wall, and beyond that again a yet deeper gloom. But even as he looked it seemed to his eyes that the gloom was growing and gathering, very slowly, slowly rising to smother the regions of the sun....

[Said] Beregond quietly[,] 'Yes, there [Mordor] lies. We seldom name it; but we have dwelt ever in sight of that shadow: sometimes it seems fainter and more distant; sometimes nearer and darker. It is growing and darkening now; and therefore our fear and disquiet grow too.

The Return of the King, LoTR Book 5, Ch 1, Minas Tirith

Pippin looked up, and it seemed to him that the sky had grown ashen-grey, as if a vast dust and smoke hung above them, and light came dully through it. But in the West the dying sun had set all the fume on fire, and now Mindolluin stood black against a burning smoulder flecked with embers.

The Return of the King, LoTR Book 5, Ch 1, Minas Tirith

It was the sunset-hour, but the great pall had now stretched far into the West, and only as it sank at last into the Sea did the Sun escape to send out a brief farewell gleam.... But to the fields of the Pelennor, under the shadow of Mindolluin, there came no gleam: they were brown and drear.

The Return of the King, LoTR Book 5, Ch 4, The Siege of Gondor

'It comes from Mordor, lord,' he said. 'It began... at sunset.... I saw it rise and creep across the sky, and all night as I rode it came behind eating up the stars.

The Return of the King, LoTR Book 5, Ch 3, The Muster of Rohan

Contributors:
Elena Tiriel 3Sep04, 2Jun05, 9Mar07

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