return

1092 the return of the king
Presently Ghân turned to the king. ‘Wild Men say many
things,’ he said. ‘First, be wary! Still many men in camp
beyond Dîn, an hour’s walk yonder,’ he waved his arm west
towards the black beacon. ‘But none to see between here and
Stone-folk’s new walls. Many busy there. Walls stand up no
longer: gorgûn knock them down with earth-thunder and with
clubs of black iron. They are unwary and do not look about
them. They think their friends watch all roads!’ At that old
Ghân made a curious gurgling noise, and it seemed that he
was laughing.
‘Good tidings!’ cried Éomer. ‘Even in this gloom hope
gleams again. Our Enemy’s devices oft serve us in his despite.
The accursed darkness itself has been a cloak to us. And
now, lusting to destroy Gondor and throw it down stone
from stone, his orcs have taken away my greatest fear. The
out-wall could have been held long against us. Now we can
sweep through – if once we win so far.’
‘Once again I thank you, Ghân-buri-Ghân of the woods,’
said Théoden. ‘Good fortune go with you for tidings and for
guidance!’
‘Kill gorgûn! Kill orc-folk! No other words please Wild
Men,’ answered Ghân. ‘Drive away bad air and darkness
with bright iron!’
‘To do these things we have ridden far,’ said the king,
‘and we shall attempt them. But what we shall achieve only
tomorrow will show.’
Ghân-buri-Ghân squatted down and touched the earth
with his horny brow in token of farewell. Then he got up as
if to depart. But suddenly he stood looking up like some
startled woodland animal snuffling a strange air. A light came
in his eyes.
‘Wind is changing!’ he cried, and with that, in a twinkling
as it seemed, he and his fellows had vanished into the glooms,
never to be seen by any Rider of Rohan again. Not long after
far away eastward the faint drums throbbed again. Yet to no
heart in all the host came any fear that the Wild Men were
unfaithful, strange and unlovely though they might appear.