towers

876 the two towers
the pinch had not yet come. They had not yet reached Minas
Tirith or become rivals in her wars.
‘But I stray. We in the house of Denethor know much
ancient lore by long tradition, and there are moreover in our
treasuries many things preserved: books and tablets writ on
withered parchments, yea, and on stone, and on leaves of
silver and of gold, in divers characters. Some none can now
read; and for the rest, few ever unlock them. I can read a
little in them, for I have had teaching. It was these records
that brought the Grey Pilgrim to us. I first saw him when I
was a child, and he has been twice or thrice since then.’
‘The Grey Pilgrim?’ said Frodo. ‘Had he a name?’
‘Mithrandir we called him in elf-fashion,’ said Faramir,
‘and he was content. Many are my names in many countries,
he said. Mithrandir among the Elves, Tharkûn to the Dwarves;
Olórin I was in my youth in the West that is forgotten, in the
South Incánus, in the North Gandalf; to the East I go not.’
‘Gandalf !’ said Frodo. ‘I thought it was he. Gandalf the
Grey, dearest of counsellors. Leader of our Company. He
was lost in Moria.’
‘Mithrandir was lost!’ said Faramir. ‘An evil fate seems to
have pursued your fellowship. It is hard indeed to believe
that one of so great wisdom, and of power – for many
wonderful things he did among us – could perish, and so
much lore be taken from the world. Are you sure of this, and
that he did not just leave you and depart where he would?’
‘Alas! yes,’ said Frodo. ‘I saw him fall into the abyss.’
‘I see that there is some great tale of dread in this,’ said
Faramir, ‘which perhaps you may tell me in the evening-time.
This Mithrandir was, I now guess, more than a lore-master:
a great mover of the deeds that are done in our time. Had he
been among us to consult concerning the hard words of our
dream, he could have made them clear to us without need of
messenger. Yet, maybe, he would not have done so, and the
journey of Boromir was doomed. Mithrandir never spoke to
us of what was to be, nor did he reveal his purposes. He got
leave of Denethor, how I do not know, to look at the secrets