COUNCIL OF ELROND’S REALM MAGAZINE RNumbEer 3, AOctobeLr 2M008 ER’S DIGEST m i l i t a r y structure of mordor history of the realms women in silmarillion Editor’s Note s Hope you weren’t scared by the mean looking picture w of the Dark Lord that found it’s way to the front e cover and that you safely made it to this second page of n yet another issue of Realmer’s Digest. a n This time we will learn more about the forces of evil n thanks to a huge article written by Ilandir about the e military structure of Mordor. Don’t let it’s 16 pages i n discourage you, it’s one of the best articles we had in RD and I promise you that you will learn a lot about a the evil that threatens our heroes. n n e PrincessPana continues her series about the women characters in Tolkien’s world, this i time focusing on Silmarillion with a detailed look on several female Valars as well as n Luthien the Fair. f o For those of you that are relatively new to CoE (or are just feeling nostalgic) we’ve prepaired a special section about the history of the realms. In this issue we bring you the m l histories of 4 realms: Este, Lorien, Nienna and Vaire each written in it’s own unique a way. We hope to bring you histories of other realms in the following issues so stay e tuned for more. r That about covers all the major sections of this number and I’ll leave you to explore the s rest on your own. This is the largest issue so far with an amazing 72 page count and I g would like to thank all the authors for their hard work and all you readers for your n support. So, enjoy this number and be sure to return in two months and check your i stockings, you might find a special Christmas issue there ;) r e h The all seeing Eye of RD t Aegor f o d r o l 0402 Contents s w e n a n n e i n a n n 04 The Military Structure and Ranking System of Mordor e 20 Women in Silmarillion i n 26 History of Poetry Contest 28 History of the Realm of Lorien f o 30 History of the Realm of Nienna m 33 History of the Realm of Este l 34 History of the Realm of Vaire a e 43 Tolkien Trivia r 44 The Friendship of Aragorn and Legolas 46 Short Story - "Strange but true" s 48 Short Story - "Destiny calls" g n 51 Shire Estate Agents i r 52 Rohan Restaurant 56 Travel Add e h 58 Book report - “Atlantis” t 60 Movie Review - “Prince Caspian” 64 Poetry f o 71 Royal Armouries Poem d r o l 03 The Ranking System of Mordor s w e n a n n e i n a n n e i n “ 'Whose blame's that?' said the soldier. 'Not mine. That comes from Higher up.' ” f The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King o 'The Land of Shadow' (Book 6 Chapter 2) m Just from this single phrase, one immediately understands that Mordor was not a l a senseless system that attacked its enemies. Instead, it was a military organization based e upon a solid structure and a specific ranking system. In this article, I will try to shed light on the possible interpretations one is able to get, primarily from 'The Lord of the r Rings' and look into the workings of Sauron's Realm. s g n 1.0 The Ranking System i r My main aim in this article is to focus on the ordering of rankings starting from e Barad-dúr and then to Minas Morgul. There is no question though that at the very top h of everything and everyone under Mordor, there is Sauron (after all, he's the Lord of t the Rings!). He is the Dark Lord of his realm. Even though the word “lord” is just a title and does not hold any specific ranking order, its definition can be summarized by f the following: a lord is a figure who has power and authority. As a start, there is no o difficulty in finding who had command over all the land and its organization. d r Trouble starts when trying to establish (in a specific order) who was under Sauron o himself, and had much power and control over the realm. One can well start mentioning l characters who could have easily been “second-in-command” (so to speak) of Mordor: of whom there would be: the Nazgúl and the Mouth of Sauron. 0404 At the beginning of this article, I mentioned that there are a number of quotes in 'The Lord of the Rings', that immediately establish the idea that a kind of command system really did exist. Just by reading how, for example, the Nazgúl's presence was feared by s the orcs themselves, already shows that Sauron's servants were not on the same level. w On the other hand, this fact is noticeable in particular e quotes of certain chapters from the book, specifically n from 'The Two Towers' and 'The Return of the a King'. Here is one of those quotes: n n “'Nazgûl, Nazgûl', said Grishnakh… 'you ought to know that e they're the apple of the Great Eye.'” i The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers n 'Uruk-Hai' (Book 3 Chapter 3) a n n Also, here is a selection of the dialog between Gorbag and Shagrat from 'The Two e Towers': i n - Gorbag: “'Oho! So they haven't told you what to expect? They don't tell us all they know do they? Not by f o half. But they can make mistakes, even the Top Ones can.'“ m - Gorbag on the Nazgûl: “'But He likes 'em; They're l His favourites nowadays … it's no game serving down in a the city.'“ e - Gorbag: “'even the biggest [Big Bosses], can make r mistakes …' “ - Shagrat on Gollum: “ ' He's been here before. Came out of Lugburz the first time, years ago, and s we had word from High Up to let him pass.” g The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers 'The Choices of Master Samwise' (Book 4 Chapter 10) n i r The words “Top Ones”, “His favourites”, “the biggest” and “High Up” are but e some of the many words indicating an authoritarian system. As was previously h t discussed, the Nazgúl seem to have high importance, although if we go back to Gorbag's remark : “ 'But He likes 'em; They're His favourites nowadays'”, we notice the word “nowadays”. This brings up questions, such as: “Who was Sauron's favourite f o before?”, “Why is it so nowadays”, “What did the Nazgúl do to achieve such preference?”. Though, on this matter, I will return later. d r o l 05 1.1 Barad-dúr or Minas Morgul? s There is no question that when coming to commanding and issuing orders, Barad-dúr is at the top of the list, w and it is only evident that it's the main tower and the e n 'home' of the Dark Lord himself. But its accompanying structure, Minas Morgul, seems also to be a centre- a piece in Mordor's events. There was certainly a type of n n authority link between both towers, as seen from this e quote: i n “ 'owing to the Great Signal going up, and the High Nazgúl going off to the war.'” The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers a 'The Choices of Master Samwise' (Book 4 Chapter 10) n n e The “Great Signal” was issued from Barad-dúr to signal Minas Morgul to send its i army against Gondor, before Frodo, Sam and Gollum proceeded to the Stairs of n Cirith Ungol. The “High Nazgúl”, most certainly was the Witch-King himself and, Minas Morgul, being the city of the Ringwraiths, it was only reasonable for the f o Lord of the Nazgúl to lead the attack against Minas Tirith. m This leads us to discuss the title in question: if the “Top Ones” and orders from l a “Higher Up”, would be also referring to the Nazgúl, then under which tower was their e authority present? Under Barad-dúr (seating of their Lord) or Minas Morgul (their own city)? It would be tempting to assume both. To explain this matter in simpler r words, let us take the Witch-King himself. Throughout 'The Lord of the Rings' he is s given many names, one of which is Black Captain. Now, looking at the meaning of the g word “captain”, one can explain it as being: someone who holds a rank and is above a n lieutenant. i r 1.2 The Mouth of Sauron e h For now, keeping along with this matter, I will put aside t the characters of the Nazgúl, and shall discuss a second (least named) important figure - the Mouth of Sauron. f He is described as being the Lieutenant of the Tower of o Barad-dúr. As I noted above, a captain (the Witch d King) has a higher rank than a lieutenant (the Mouth of Sauron). That is why the classification of the Nazgúl r o under one of the towers is important. It is not made clear l in 'The Lord of the Rings' if the “Top ones” and “Big Bosses” as told by the orcs, are referring to the Nazgúl's command in Barad-dúr.