Gems from the Letters

[Diamond18]

If this post had a title it would be, "The Five Towers."

When I read "The Two Towers" I was rather flummoxed as to what towers the title refered to. Orthanc seemed to me to be obviously one of them, but the other...! Here are some passages dealing with that very question:

Number 140, 17 August 1953 to Rayner Unwin:

The Two Towers gets as near as possible to finding a title to cover the widely divergent Books 3 and 4; and can be left ambiguous — it might refer to Isengard and Barad-dûr, or to Minas Tirith and B[arad-dûr]; or Isengard and Cirith Ungol.

Number 143, 22 January 1954 to Rayner Unwin:

I am not really happy about the title 'the Two Towers'. It must if there is any real reference in it to Vol II refer to Orthanc and The Tower of Cirith Ungol. But since there is so much made of the basic opposition of the Dark Tower and Minas Tirith, that seems very misleading.

In the editorial notes it says:

In his original design for the jacket of The Two Towers the towers are certainly Orthanc and Minas Morgul....Minas Morgul is a white tower, with a thin waning moon above it, in reference to it's original name, Minas Ithil, the Tower of the Rising Moon.

I happen to favor Minas Morgul as the second tower, since Minas Tirth, Barad-dûr and Cirth Ungol don't really come into play until RotK. (Though I see that the movie makers have decided on Barad-dûr for their purposes).