Don Marshall

Men and orcs gave way in fear, and Isildur, drawing a hood over his head, vanished into the night.

Of what befell the Dunedain only this was later known.

Ere long they all lay dead, save one, a young esquire, stunned and buried under fallen men.

So perished Elendur, who should afterwards have been king, and as all foretold who knew him, in his strength and wisdom, and his majesty without pride, one of the greatest, the fairest of the seed of Elendil, most like to his grandsire.

Now of Isildur it is told that he was in great pain and anguish of heart.

But at first he ran like a stag from the hounds until he came to the bottom of the valley.

There he halted, to make sure that he was not pursued, for orcs could track a fugitive in the dark by scent and needed no eyes.

Then he went on more warily, for wide flats stretched on into the gloom before him, rough and pathless, with many traps for wandering feet.

So it was that he came at last to the banks of Anduin at the dead of night.

And he was weary, for he had made a journey that the Dunedain on such ground could have made no quicker, marching without halt and by day.

Now we ended last week with Elendor insisting that Isildur take the ring and leave.

And so we start this week with the king doing exactly that.

He heads west, that is towards the river, pulls the ring out of its wallet,

and puts it on.

Remember how much he feared the pain of it?

We talked about that last week.

He even mentions it, of course, in the scroll that Gandalf reads to the Council of Elrond.

It seems like he's fearing the pain of it for good reason.

I mean, he screams out, cries out in pain when he puts it on.

And in classic Tolkien fashion, we get the ending before we get to the end, right?