Thrain in Dol Guldur

[Mithalwen]

In a linguistic side note, as a consequence of a discussion of a thread on Celebrian, a few years ago and at a time when my kindle was functioning, I did a search on Tolkien's use of torment and torture. in the Lord of the Rings I can't get the figures this minute but I am fairly sure that he used torment many times (about 200 if my memory serves) and torture only about four. The words are closely related reaching (Middle) English from Latin via French and meaning - near synonyms but with torment perhaps more encompassing psychological suffering while torture focuses on the practice of extracting information or behaviour or imposing punishment by inflicting pain. It is a fairly narrow distinction but Tolkien of course would be more aware than most of the nuances of his raw material and stated his preference for some (near) synonyms over others such as smite over strike. Certainly the overwhelming preference for torment over torture suggests that Tolkien was not using it as an euphemism for rape in connection with Celebrian.

However whatever his reasoning between word choice, But torment with the extra stress on psychological suffering does fit with it being more than was necessary for practical purposes. This does make it more remarkable that he retained the map and key since lower rank captors would be likely to take them because they could rather than because they had need of them or thought they had intrinsic value. Of themselves the key and map might have seemed unremarkable - merely the key to a treasure chest somewhere that no one of orcish mentality would bother to open by any other method than violence. And without the moon letters the map is just a map isn't it? Showing places that were known and I doubt many of the servants of Sauron valued documents highly. After all a staff is usually just a prop for age.