towers

the white rider 647
and his eyes were closed. At last when Aragorn spoke of the
death of Boromir and of his last journey upon the Great
River, the old man sighed.
‘You have not said all that you know or guess, Aragorn
my friend,’ he said quietly. ‘Poor Boromir! I could not see
what happened to him. It was a sore trial for such a man: a
warrior, and a lord of men. Galadriel told me that he was in
peril. But he escaped in the end. I am glad. It was not in vain
that the young hobbits came with us, if only for Boromir’s
sake. But that is not the only part they have to play. They
were brought to Fangorn, and their coming was like the
falling of small stones that starts an avalanche in the mountains.
Even as we talk here, I hear the first rumblings.
Saruman had best not be caught away from home when the
dam bursts!’
‘In one thing you have not changed, dear friend,’ said
Aragorn: ‘you still speak in riddles.’
‘What? In riddles?’ said Gandalf. ‘No! For I was talking
aloud to myself. A habit of the old: they choose the wisest
person present to speak to; the long explanations needed by
the young are wearying.’ He laughed, but the sound now
seemed warm and kindly as a gleam of sunshine.
‘I am no longer young even in the reckoning of Men of the
Ancient Houses,’ said Aragorn. ‘Will you not open your mind
more clearly to me?’
‘What then shall I say?’ said Gandalf, and paused for a
while in thought. ‘This in brief is how I see things at the
moment, if you wish to have a piece of my mind as plain as
possible. The Enemy, of course, has long known that the
Ring is abroad, and that it is borne by a hobbit. He knows
now the number of our Company that set out from Rivendell,
and the kind of each of us. But he does not yet perceive our
purpose clearly. He supposes that we were all going to Minas
Tirith; for that is what he would himself have done in our
place. And according to his wisdom it would have been a
heavy stroke against his power. Indeed he is in great fear, not
knowing what mighty one may suddenly appear, wielding the