return

1400 the return of the king
sister, came down out of Dunharrow, to which many had fled;
and with a small company of desperate men he surprised Wulf
in Meduseld and slew him, and regained Edoras. There were
great floods after the snows, and the vale of Entwash became a
vast fen. The Eastern invaders perished or withdrew; and there
came help at last from Gondor, by the roads both east and
west of the mountains. Before the year (2759) was ended the
Dunlendings were driven out, even from Isengard; and then
Fréaláf became king.
‘Helm was brought from the Hornburg and laid in the ninth
mound. Ever after the white simbelmynë grew there most thickly,
so that the mound seemed to be snow-clad. When Fréaláf died
a new line of mounds was begun.’
The Rohirrim were grievously reduced by war and dearth and
loss of cattle and horses; and it was well that no great danger
threatened them again for many years, for it was not until
the time of King Folcwine that they recovered their former
strength.
It was at the crowning of Fréaláf that Saruman appeared,
bringing gifts, and speaking great praise of the valour of the
Rohirrim. All thought him a welcome guest. Soon after he took
up his abode in Isengard. For this, Beren, Steward of Gondor,
gave him leave, for Gondor still claimed Isengard as a fortress of
its realm, and not part of Rohan. Beren also gave into Saruman’s
keeping the keys of Orthanc. That tower no enemy had been
able to harm or to enter.
In this way Saruman began to behave as a lord of Men; for at
first he held Isengard as a lieutenant of the Steward and warden
of the tower. But Fréaláf was as glad as Beren to have this so,
and to know that Isengard was in the hands of a strong friend.
A friend he long seemed, and maybe in the beginning he was
one in truth. Though afterwards there was little doubt in men’s
minds that Saruman went to Isengard in hope to find the Stone
still there, and with the purpose of building up a power of his
own. Certainly after the last White Council (2953) his designs
towards Rohan, though he hid them, were evil. He then took
Isengard for his own and began to make it a place of guarded
strength and fear, as though to rival the Barad-dûr. His friends