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the ride of the rohirrim 1087
the townlands. Scouts had been sent ahead. Some had not
returned. Others hastening back had reported that the road
was held in force against them. A host of the enemy was
encamped upon it, three miles west of Amon Dîn, and some
strength of men was already thrusting along the road and was
no more than three leagues away. Orcs were roving in the
hills and woods along the roadside. The king and Éomer held
council in the watches of the night.
Merry wanted somebody to talk to, and he thought of
Pippin. But that only increased his restlessness. Poor Pippin,
shut up in the great city of stone, lonely and afraid. Merry
wished he was a tall Rider like Éomer and could blow a horn
or something and go galloping to his rescue. He sat up,
listening to the drums that were beating again, now nearer at
hand. Presently he heard voices speaking low, and he saw
dim half-shrouded lanterns passing through the trees. Men
nearby began to move uncertainly in the dark.
A tall figure loomed up and stumbled over him, cursing the
tree-roots. He recognized the voice of Elfhelm the Marshal.
‘I am not a tree-root, Sir,’ he said, ‘nor a bag, but a bruised
hobbit. The least you can do in amends is to tell me what is
afoot.’
‘Anything that can keep so in this devil’s mirk,’ answered
Elfhelm. ‘But my lord sends word that we must set ourselves
in readiness: orders may come for a sudden move.’
‘Is the enemy coming then?’ asked Merry anxiously. ‘Are
those their drums? I began to think I was imagining them, as
no one else seemed to take any notice of them.’
‘Nay, nay,’ said Elfhelm, ‘the enemy is on the road not in
the hills. You hear the Woses, the Wild Men of the Woods:
thus they talk together from afar. They still haunt Drúadan
Forest, it is said. Remnants of an older time they be, living
few and secretly, wild and wary as the beasts. They go not
to war with Gondor or the Mark; but now they are troubled
by the darkness and the coming of the orcs: they fear lest the
Dark Years be returning, as seems likely enough. Let us be
thankful that they are not hunting us: for they use poisoned