One Geek to Rule Them All

Weathertop

Next morning they set out again soon after sunrise. There was a frost in the air, and the sky was a pale clear blue. The hobbits felt refreshed, as if they had had a night of unbroken sleep. Already they were getting used to much walking on short commons—shorter at any rate than what in the Shire they would have thought barely enough to keep them on their legs. Pippin declared that Frodo was looking twice the hobbit he had been.

"Very odd," said Frodo, "considering there is actually a good deal less of me." This earned a chuckle from Kitty and Devin. "I hope the thinning process will not go on indefinitely, or I shall become a wraith."

"Do not speak of such things!" Aragorn scolded him quickly with a surprising earnestness.

The hills drew nearer. They made an undulating ridge, often rising almost to a thousand feet, and here and there falling again to clefts or passes leading into the eastern land beyond. Along the crest on the ridge the hobbits and girls could see what appeared to be the remains of green-brown walls and dikes, and in the clefts there still stood the ruins of old works of stone. By night they had reached the feet of the westward slopes, and there they camped. It was the night of the fifth of October, and they were six days out from Bree.

In the morning they found, for the first time since they had left the Chetwood, a track plain to see. Kitty praised the Lord. They turned and followed it southwards. It ran cunningly, taking a line that seemed chosen so as to keep as much hidden as possible from the view, both of the hilltops above and of the flats to the west. It dived into dells, and hugged steep banks; and where it passed over flatter and more open ground on either side of it there were lines of large boulders and hewn stones that screened travelers almost like a hedge.

"I wonder who made this path and what for," Merry said as they walked along one of these avenues, where the stones were unusually large and closely set. "I'm not sure that I like it: its has a—well, a rather barrow-wightish look. Is there any barrow on Weathertop?"

"No. There is no barrow on Weathertop, nor on any of these hills," Aragorn replied. "The Men of the west did not live here; though in their later days they defended the hills for awhile against the evil that came out of Angmar. This path was made to serve the forts along the walls. But long before, in the first days of the North Kingdom, they built a great watchtower on Weathertop, Amon Sûl they called it. It was burned and broken, and nothing remains of it now but a tumbled ring, like a rough crown on the old hill's head. Yet once it was tall and fair. It is told that Elendil stood there watching for the coming of Gil-galad out of the West, in the days of the Last Alliance." The hobbits gazed at Strider in wonder, but the girls were not surprised by his extensive knowledge of old lore in addition to the ways of the wild. Devin smiled softly as she brushed the tips of her fingers against one of the old stones.

"My mother would have loved this," she said. "She was an archaeologist: someone who specializes in the study of past peoples lives and cultures through the recovery and examination of remaining material evidence, such as graves, buildings, tools, and pottery. She was really good at it. She'd bring me back souvenirs sometimes, bits of broken artifacts that weren't worth preserving in a museum, but that she couldn't bear to throw out. She said they were reminders of where we came from and how far we had come; that they were solid memories, moments of long-lost lives preserved in time."

"She must be worried about you," said Pippin, "your mother."

"No," Devin said, smiling sadly; "she isn't. She died soon after I entered high school, when I was fourteen." She let her hand drop and continued walking on ahead, following the trail. The hobbits and Aragorn stared after her. Pippin was sorry he had asked now. He hadn't meant to dredge up bad memories for her. Aragorn stepped forward and silently walked beside the petite girl, saying nothing. He was only too familiar with how it felt to lose one's mother, the pain. He glanced at her, and she glanced up at him when she felt his stare; and he knew that she knew he understood. She gave him an appreciative smile before focusing her attention back on the path in front of them.