towers

the road to isengard 709
of your coming. Strange help you bring. You are mighty in
wizardry, Gandalf the White!’
‘That may be. But if so, I have not shown it yet. I have but
given good counsel in peril, and made use of the speed of
Shadowfax. Your own valour has done more, and the stout
legs of the Westfold-men marching through the night.’
Then they all gazed at Gandalf with still greater wonder.
Some glanced darkly at the wood, and passed their hands
over their brows, as if they thought their eyes saw otherwise
than his.
Gandalf laughed long and merrily. ‘The trees?’ he said.
‘Nay, I see the wood as plainly as do you. But that is no deed
of mine. It is a thing beyond the counsel of the wise. Better
than my design, and better even than my hope the event has
proved.’
‘Then if not yours, whose is the wizardry?’ said Théoden.
‘Not Saruman’s, that is plain. Is there some mightier sage, of
whom we have yet to learn?’
‘It is not wizardry, but a power far older,’ said Gandalf: ‘a
power that walked the earth, ere elf sang or hammer rang.
Ere iron was found or tree was hewn,
When young was mountain under moon;
Ere ring was made, or wrought was woe,
It walked the forests long ago.’
‘And what may be the answer to your riddle?’ said
Théoden.
‘If you would learn that, you should come with me to
Isengard,’ answered Gandalf.
‘To Isengard?’ they cried.
‘Yes,’ said Gandalf. ‘I shall return to Isengard, and those
who will may come with me. There we may see strange things.’
‘But there are not men enough in the Mark, not if they were
all gathered together and healed of wounds and weariness, to
assault the stronghold of Saruman,’ said Théoden.
‘Nevertheless to Isengard I go,’ said Gandalf. ‘I shall not