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Timeline Event

Merry and Pippin escape the Orc-raiders and flee into Fangorn (approximate date)

Event Type: General

Age: 3rd Age - Ring War

Date: February 28, 3019

Description:

The actual date of this event is 29 February 3019, but it cannot be represented using modern date software.
An event in the aftermath of the Orc-raid at Parth Galen, and the preludes of the Attack on the Orc-raiders at Fangorn and the Destruction of Isengard by Ents; see those entries for overviews:
At last Merry stirred and whispered softly: 'So far so good: but how are we to avoid being spitted?'

The answer came almost immediately.... There was the sound of galloping horses. The Riders were drawing in their ring close round the knoll... while a company rode off to deal with the newcomers. Suddenly Merry and Pippin realized that without moving they were now outside the circle: there was nothing between them and escape.

'Now,' said Merry, 'if only we had our legs and hands free, we might get away.'....

[Said Pippin,] 'I was going to tell you: I've managed to free my hands. These loops are only left for show. You'd better have a bit of lembas first.'....

For a while they ate thoughtfully, sitting in the dark, heedless of the cries and sounds of battle nearby. Pippin was the first to come back to the present.

'We must be off,' he said.... he crawled forward, and finding the body of [Grishnákh] he drew from its sheath a long sharp knife. With this he quickly cut their bonds....

They crawled. The turf was deep and yielding, and that helped them: but it seemed a long slow business. They gave the watch-fire a wide berth, and wormed their way forward bit by bit, until they came to the edge of the river, gurgling away in the black shadows under its deep banks....

'We must get under cover,' said Pippin, 'or we shall be seen. It will not be any comfort to us, if these riders discover that we are not Orcs after we are dead.' He got up and stamped his feet.... 'I could stagger on now. What about you, Merry?'

Merry got up. 'Yes,' he said, 'I can manage it.'....

They turned and walked side by side slowly along the line of the river. Behind them the light grew in the East. As they walked they compared notes.... No listener would have guessed from their words that they had suffered cruelly....

'You seem to have been doing well, Master Took,' said Merry. 'You will get almost a chapter in old Bilbo's book, if ever I get a chance to report to him. Good work: especially guessing that hairy villain's little game.... But I wonder if anyone will ever pick up your trail and find that brooch....

'... I don't suppose you have much notion where we are; but I spent my time at Rivendell rather better. We are walking west along the Entwash. The butt-end of the Misty Mountains is in front, and Fangorn Forest.'

Even as he spoke the dark edge of the forest loomed up straight before them. Night seemed to have taken refuge under its great trees, creeping away from the coming Dawn.

'Lead on, Master Brandybuck!' said Pippin.... 'We have been warned against Fangorn. But one so knowing will not have forgotten that.'

'I have not,' answered Merry; 'but the forest seems better to me... than turning back into the middle of a battle.'

He led the way in under the huge branches of the trees.... Out of the shadows the hobbits peeped, gazing back down the slope: little furtive figures that in the dim light looked like elf-children in the deeps of time peering out of the Wild Wood in wonder at their first Dawn.

The Two Towers, LoTR Book 3, Ch 3, The Uruk-Hai

Contributors:
Lyllyn, 8Jun03
Elena Tiriel 28Dec04

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