Orc in Ithilien

“He was beside himself!” Eowyn cried. “When he spoke to his men he was beside himself – raging! I have never seen him so. And he would not listen to reason, insisted that he was going to follow – and retrieve! - that creature. I had to act. But I wish that I had not had to -” she broke off, hiding her face in trembling hands.

Eowyn’s advisor however, seemed determined to make light of the situation. “And if you had not stopped him?” he replied. “Your husband would have run into the night in madness, shouting out his ‘love’ for the beast for all to hear. The Prince’s reputation, his status, all would have been lost beyond hope of recovery. You had to prevent it, my lady. Someone had to protect him from himself.”

Travelling from the city of Minas Tirith to Ithilien, Eowyn had brought an escort of her native countrymen, a core group of personal advisors and bodyguards who now accompanied her wherever she went. Though in theory loyal to the crown of Gondor, they were first and foremost men of Rohan, and as such answered chiefly to her. One of the members of this party was an older man, Hrodgar. He was of an age with Eowyn’s own father, and had been one of the late King Theoden’s trusted counsellors. Since her move from her home country, Eowyn had also come to rely on this man as a confidant and friend, especially in recent months, following the collapse of her marriage. So much so that as yet Hrodgar was the only person to whom Eowyn had dared divulge the true and shameful details of her husband’s relationship with his Orc.

The practicalities of life at the Rohirrim court under Theoden’s rule meant that as well as the usual duties associated with their official title, most of his royal aides and advisors also carried a number of other responsibilities, and one of the additional roles that Hrodgar fulfilled was that of apothecary to the King. He had been forced to relinquish his responsibilities in this area to Grima, son of Glamrod, early on in that traitor’s career, but resumed the post soon after his rival the hated ‘Wormtongue,’ had been deposed. Such was the speed of Grima’s ejection from Rohan that the court Apothecary’s chambers, rooms that the Wormtongue had taken for his own use, were still filled his personal and professional effects when Hrodgar had taken possession of them once again. Though the older man had been able to learn a great deal from the powders and potions that Grima left behind, the arcane knowledge that he had gained so easily had not been properly tempered with any sense of responsibility for its wise use.

It was on Hrodgar’s advice that Eowyn’s guards had been set to watch the Orc Shagrat, lest the beast try to escape the royal lodge and cause mischief far and wide. Eowyn had agreed the plan at once, and being determined to stay with Faramir to keep a personal watch on him herself, had left it to her trusted advisor to make the necessary arrangements with her Rohirrim escort. As soon became clear however, he had taken it upon himself to secure additional back-up, in the form of some of Faramir’s own men. On the subject of detaining the Orc, and the necessary force that could be used to accomplish this, he also appeared to have issued the guards with some rather controversial instructions – although none of the men that Eowyn spoke to later, after the fact, were clear as to the specifics of what had been said.

Before the incident at any rate, Eowyn and Faramir had been passing a quiet evening together pleasantly enough. Determined to preserve a façade of utmost normality, Eowyn had called for a light evening meal for two to be served in Faramir’s sitting room. After eating informally together they sat companionably enough by the fire, and if Faramir’s attitude was definitely distracted, his innate courtesy kept him in place at Eowyn’s side in spite of any inclination he might have had to be somewhere else. Once an appropriate amount of time had passed he made one or two efforts to take his leave, but Eowyn managed to easily stall him, diverting her husband with tales and gossip about their mutual acquaintances at court.

Faramir, though he listened to her attentively, contributed very little to the conversation, and during one of the many pauses in their talk, he noted the unmistakeable noises of a rumpus – stomping bootsteps, breaking glass – sounding in one of the rooms above.

“That must be Shagrat,” he said, quickly getting to his feet. Hurrying out of the supper-room he met the two Rohirrim who had been set to watch the Uruk’s bedchamber as they were running downstairs. “What’s happening?” he asked.

“We tried to stop him, Sire, but he was too far away. I must report that the Orc is escaping.”

Escaping? Faramir said in a bemused voice. What’s he want to escape for? What’s he got to be to escaping from? More shouting from the grounds called them outside, the Prince demanding an explanation from the Rohirrim as they went.

“Orc jumped straight out the window, your Highness,” the first guard said, as Faramir stared at him in consternation. “We hoped the fall’d do for him but he hit the ground running.”

Another group of guardsmen, Ithilien residents this time, approached out of the dark and reported that the Orc had not been seen at the front of the house.

“Headed cross-country, out back, the last we saw,” one of the Rohirrim confirmed. “Thought I’d managed to wing him, for a minute.”

“’Wing’ him?” Faramir said, aghast. “Explain yourself!”

“But I’m afraid I didn’t get him, Sir. Missed my shot when we fired that first volley.”

Fired a volley? Faramir repeated, his voice rising angrily. On whose authority?

“The order came from you yourself my Lord,” the shamefaced guardsman said, and the other, catching sight of Eowyn’s white face at the window behind Faramir added: “or so we thought.”

“Some of us ‘ud say we hoped,” muttered one of the Ithillien men, under his breath.

“Shoot the Uruk? On my orders?” Faramir shouted, “shoot him?” “If anyone –“ he broke off, teeth clenched, shivering with rage. “Did none of you stop and think for a moment that if I was going to be giving an order of that sort, I would have given it you myself?”

Determining that there was another pair of Rohirrim watching the main approach to the palace, plus a further guard stationed at the back of the house, Faramir ordered all of them to be called in, and gave strict instructions that none of the men were to leave the house for the rest of the night. The repercussions for their actions could wait until the morning; at that point the Prince had much more pressing business.

Faramir dismissed the guards curtly, utterly disgusted with them, and returned to his personal quarters. He was changing into his outdoor clothes when there came a quiet knock at the door, after which Eowyn let herself in without waiting for an answer. She was carrying his wine glass from their evening meal.

“Faramir?” she began tentatively. “What are you doing, so late at night?”

“I’m going after him, of course,” Faramir replied.

“No – stay, here with me, Faramir. Let the others go. There is much we ought to discuss.”

Faramir replied that he wished Eowyn had been so keen for his company three months ago, before the summer. “I could not get you to talk to me then,” he said. “And you have yet to tell me what has prompted your strange and sudden change of heart. I wonder, is it jealousy, perhaps? You have ever desired that which another had, and you had not.”

So shocked was Eowyn that he would speak to her like this that she could not reply, and seeing her distress, Faramir sighed out sadly.

“Eowyn, I would be no company for you, or anyone tonight. What you have done – please, don’t think of denying it – but we must not speak of it now. Wait until tomorrow perhaps, when we both of us have had time enough to calm ourselves. Then we will discuss what is to be done, and we can remember to be kind to each other.”

Calm talk and kindness! She would far rather he had wanted to rage at her!

“You must not go alone, Faramir,” Eowyn persevered. “That beast is dangerous - there is more to tell. One of my guardsman was injured while trying to apprehend it.”

“Injured? Not by Shagrat?”

Not by the Uruk’s own hand, Eowyn admitted, quickly confirming for Faramir that her man would soon recover. “He was savaged by some kind of bear-like, monstrous creature, undoubtedly another surviving denizen of Mordor, that the Orc was controlling for some dark purpose. He heard with his own ears the two of them talking together in the Black Speech! It was certainly the Uruk that ordered the attack.”

Faramir was silent for a moment, and a worried expression clouded his face.

“There’s obviously been some mistake.”

Eowyn replied that it was undeniable that the poor boy had been robbed by the Orc, which had stripped his valuables off him as if he had been one of the battle-slain. “And he was terrorised by it. It stopped to torment him, even in the heat of its flight! And threatened to bleed him to death - all of us are sure that your ‘tame’ Uruk, if it had not been scared off, would have ripped his throat out.”

“I should like to hear Shagrat’s version of the night’s events, before drawing any hasty conclusions,” Faramir said.

“Hasty conclusions – that you could think of siding with that treacherous creature against an honourable man of Rohan! A member of my own personal staff!”

In a mild voice Faramir commented that he was surprised to hear Eowyn accuse another of treachery, especially since she had so recently orchestrated an unprovoked attack on a guest of his house.

“’Guest!’” spat Eowyn.

“He was under my protection!” shouted Faramir in retort. “As he still is, and ever will be! Why will you not understand it?” They stared at one another furiously, neither one willing to concede the other’s point. Breaking away at last to leave, Faramir found his path blocked, bodily, by Eowyn. She kept moving in front of him, and they dodged this way and that, sidestepping together.

“Eoywn, stop it. You’re being ridiculous,” Faramir exclaimed, exasperatedly.

“Ridiculous!” Eowyn screeched, pounding and pummelling at her husband’s chest in her frustration. Long used to being raged and railed at, Faramir bore the brunt of it in silence, withdrawing into himself while he waited patiently, as he knew it would do, for her anger to blaze and burn out. Finally Eowyn came back to herself, and she stared at him stricken, shocked by her own behaviour.

“Stay, Faramir, please,” she choked out. “It would be a cruelty if you left me now, like this. Before you go we will talk calmly, as you wanted, we must. Here –“ she reached for the wine glass that she had left on Faramir’s bureau, offering it.

Faramir took it without thinking and drained it in one gulp. His hand went to his throat for a moment, and his eyes widened in surprise as the effects of the potent drug that Hrodgar had administered began to take hold of him. Even then he was able to take two further, determined steps towards the door before his knees folded under him, and then he collapsed slowly, almost gracefully onto the floor.