return

the battle of the pelennor fields 1109
come thither; for he thought to make a great shield-wall at
the last, and stand, and fight there on foot till all fell, and do
deeds of song on the fields of Pelennor, though no man
should be left in the West to remember the last King of the
Mark. So he rode to a green hillock and there set his banner,
and the White Horse ran rippling in the wind.
Out of doubt, out of dark to the day’s rising
I came singing in the sun, sword unsheathing.
To hope’s end I rode and to heart’s breaking:
Now for wrath, now for ruin and a red nightfall!
These staves he spoke, yet he laughed as he said them. For
once more lust of battle was on him; and he was still
unscathed, and he was young, and he was king: the lord of a
fell people. And lo! even as he laughed at despair he looked
out again on the black ships, and he lifted up his sword to
defy them.
And then wonder took him, and a great joy; and he cast
his sword up in the sunlight and sang as he caught it. And
all eyes followed his gaze, and behold! upon the foremost
ship a great standard broke, and the wind displayed it as she
turned towards the Harlond. There flowered a White Tree,
and that was for Gondor; but Seven Stars were about it, and
a high crown above it, the signs of Elendil that no lord had
borne for years beyond count. And the stars flamed in the
sunlight, for they were wrought of gems by Arwen daughter
of Elrond; and the crown was bright in the morning, for it
was wrought of mithril and gold.
Thus came Aragorn son of Arathorn, Elessar, Isildur’s heir,
out of the Paths of the Dead, borne upon a wind from the
Sea to the kingdom of Gondor; and the mirth of the Rohirrim
was a torrent of laughter and a flashing of swords, and the
joy and wonder of the City was a music of trumpets and a
ringing of bells. But the hosts of Mordor were seized with
bewilderment, and a great wizardry it seemed to them that
their own ships should be filled with their foes; and a black