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.‘May you bring good counsel toDenethor in his need, and to us all, Mithrandir!’ Ingold cried.‘But you comewith tidings of grief and danger, as is your wont, they say.’‘Because I come seldom but when my help is needed,’ answered Gandalf.‘And asfor counsel, to you I would say that you are over-late in repairing the wall ofthe Pelennor.Courage will now be your best defence against the storm that isat hand - that and such hope as I bring.For not all the tidings that I bringare evil.But leave your trowels and sharpen your swords!’‘The work will be finished ere evening,’ said Ingold.‘This is the last portionof the wall to be put in defence: the least open to attack, for it lookstowards our friends of Rohan.Do you know aught of them? Will they answer thesummons, think you?’‘Yes, they will come.But they have fought many battles at your back.This roadand no road looks towards safety any longer.Be vigilant! But for GandalfStormcrow you would have seen a host of foes coming out of Anórien and noRiders of Rohan.And you may yet.Fare you well, and sleep not!’Gandalf passed now into the wide land beyond the Rammas Echor.So the men ofGondor called the out wall that they had built with great labour, afterIthilien fell under the shadow of their Enemy.For ten leagues or more it ranfrom the mountains’ feet and so back again, enclosing in its fence the fieldsof the Pelennor: fair and fertile townlands on the long slopes and terracesfalling to the deep levels of the Anduin.At its furthest point from the GreatGate of the City, north-eastward, the wall was four leagues distant, and therefrom a frowning bank it overlooked the long flats beside the river, and men hadmade it high and strong; for at that point, upon a walled causeway, the roadcame in from the fords and bridges of Osgiliath and passed through a guardedgate between embattled towers.At its nearest point the wall was little morethan one league from the City, and that was south-eastward.There Anduin, goingin a wide knee about the hills of Emyn Arnen in South Ithilien, bent sharplywest, and the out-wall rose upon its very brink; and beneath it lay the quaysand landings of the Harlond for craft that came upstream from the southernfiefs.The townlands were rich, with wide tilth and many orchards, and homesteadsthere were with oast and garner, fold and byre, and many rills rippling throughthe green from the highlands down to Anduin.Yet the herdsmen and husbandmenthat dwelt there were not many, and the most part of the people of Gondor livedin the seven circles of the City, or in the high vales of the mountain-borders,in Lossarnach, or further south in fair Lebennin with its five swift streams.There dwelt a hardy folk between the mountains and the sea.They were reckonedmen of Gondor, yet their blood was mingled, and there were short and swarthyfolk among them whose sires came more from the forgotten men who housed in theshadow of the hills in the Dark Years ere the coming of the kings.But beyond,in the great fief of Belfalas, dwelt Prince Imrahil in his castle of Dol Amrothby the sea, and he was of high blood, and his folk also, tall men and proudwith sea-grey eyes.Now after Gandalf had ridden for some time the light of day grew in the sky,and Pippin roused himself and looked up.To his left lay a sea of mist, risingto a bleak shadow in the East; but to his right great mountains reared theirheads, ranging from the West to a steep and sudden end, as if in the making ofthe land the River had burst through a great barrier, carving out a mightyvalley to be a land of battle and debate in times to come.And there where theWhite Mountains of Ered Nimrais came to their end he saw, as Gandalf hadpromised, the dark mass of Mount Mindolluin, the deep purple shadows of itshigh glens, and its tall face whitening in the rising day.And upon itsout-thrust knee was the Guarded City, with its seven walls of stone so strongand old that it seemed to have been not builded but carven by giants out of thebones of the earth.Even as Pippin gazed in wonder the walls passed from looming grey to white,blushing faintly in the dawn; and suddenly the sun climbed over the easternshadow and sent forth a shaft that smote the face of the City.Then Pippincried aloud, for the Tower of Ecthelion, standing high within the topmostwalls’ shone out against the sky, glimmering like a spike of pearl and silver,tall and fair and shapely, and its pinnacle glittered as if it were wrought ofcrystals; and white banners broke and fluttered from the battlements in themorning breeze’ and high and far he heard a clear ringing as of silvertrumpets.So Gandalf and Peregrin rode to the Great Gate of the Men of Gondor at therising of the sun, and its iron doors rolled back before them.‘Mithrandir! Mithrandir!’ men cried.‘Now we know that the storm is indeednigh!’‘It is upon you,’ said Gandalf.‘I have ridden on its wings.Let me pass! Imust come to your Lord Denethor, while his stewardship lasts.Whatever betide,you have come to the end of the Gondor that you have known.Let me pass!’Then men fell back before the command of his voice and questioned him nofurther, though they gazed in wonder at the hobbit that sat before him and atthe horse that bore him.For the people of the City used horses very little andthey were seldom seen in their streets, save only those ridden by theerrand-riders of their lord.And they said: ‘Surely that is one of the greatsteeds of the King of Rohan? Maybe the Rohirrim will come soon to strengthenus.’ But Shadowfax walked proudly up the long winding road.For the fashion of Minas Tirith was such that it was built on seven levels,each delved into the hill, and about each was set a wall, and in each wall wasa gate.But the gates were not set in a line: the Great Gate in the City Wallwas at the east point of the circuit, but the next faced half south, and thethird half north, and so to and fro upwards; so that the paved way that climbedtowards the Citadel turned first this way and then that across the face of thehill.And each time that it passed the line of the Great Gate it went throughan arched tunnel, piercing a vast pier of rock whose huge out-thrust bulkdivided in two all the circles of the City save the first.For partly in theprimeval shaping of the hill, partly by the mighty craft and labour of old,there stood up from the rear of the wide court behind the Gate a toweringbastion of stone, its edge sharp as a ship-keel facing east.Up it rose, evento the level of the topmost circle, and there was crowned by a battlement; sothat those in the Citadel might, like mariners in a mountainous ship, look fromits peak sheer down upon the Gate seven hundred feet below.The entrance to theCitadel also looked eastward, but was delved in the heart of the rock; thence along lamp-lit slope ran up to the seventh gate.Thus men reached at last theHigh Court, and the Place of the Fountain before the feet of the White Tower:tall and shapely, fifty fathoms from its base to the pinnacle, where the bannerof the Stewards floated a thousand feet above the plain
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