Destruction of Isengard
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| War of the Ring |
|---|
| Fords of Isen - Isengard - Hornburg - Osgiliath - Pelennor Fields - Dale - Black Gate - Bywater |
The Destruction of Isengard is a fictional battle from J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth legendarium. It is an important event in the War of the Ring.
Arrival of the
After a three day long Entmoot, an army of Ents and Huorns set off for the tower-fortress of Isengard, making a terrifying music. They arrived on March 2. The time of their attack was fortunate because they arrived just when the wizard Saruman was emptying Isengard for a final assault on Rohan. As a result, there were few left to defend Isengard besides Saruman himself.
Assault on the walls
Once the army of Isengard had left, the Ents launched a fierce attack on the walls. Attempts were made to hinder them with arrows, but these only served to irritate the attackers further, and, in a matter of minutes the gate and much of the southern wall was reduced to ruins.
'The Tree Killer!'
Once the gate and walls had been reduced to rubble, a young Ent called Bregalad or ‘Quickbeam’ spotted Saruman, and made for him, shouting ‘The Tree Killer!’, for his people and all Fangorn forest in general had suffered from heavy deforestation at Saruman’s orders. He was followed by other Ents. But Saruman narrowly succeeded in escaping into the tower of Orthanc. Once in the tower, he activated spouts and vents all over the plain, scorching and burning many Ents who had entered the fortress. The hobbits Meriadoc Brandybuck and Peregrin Took, who were present there and later narrated the battle to the Three Hunters, recounted the fury of the Ents, saying that even their enraged roars cracked the stones. They destroyed the buildings and machinery in the plain, but could do nothing to hurt the tower itself.
Flooding the plain
At this point the Ents took counsel, and came up with a new plan of attack. By digging trenches and destroying Saruman's dam, the Ents and Huorns diverted the course of the river Isen itself, causing it to flood the ‘bowl’ of Isengard, submerging everything but the tower, and a few high places. The destruction of Isengard was complete, although Saruman was still untouched in his tower.
Aftermath
Saruman’s sound defeat at the Battle of the Hornburg and the destruction of his fortress rendered him incapable of causing the West any military harm, although he still had the power of his persuasive and commanding voice, with which he could still do (and did do) some mischief.
Sources
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All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.