Minas Tirith

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Place from Tolkien's Legendarium
Name	Minas Tirith (Tower of Guard)
Other names	Minas Anor (Tower of the Setting Sun) White City City of Kings
Description	Seat of the Kings of Gondor and later their Stewards
Constructed by	Anárion
Realm(s)	Gondor Anórien
Lord	Kings and Stewards of Gondor
Type	Fortified City
Lifespan	Built S.A. 3320

Minas Tirith (pronounced /ˈmɪnəs ˈtɪrɪθ/), originally named Minas Anor, is a heavily fortified city in J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional Middle-earth writings, which was the capital of Gondor in the second half of the Third Age. It is often referred to as the White City and the City of Kings. The Rohirrim sometimes translated this into their own language as Mundburg. In the Lord of the Rings, Tolkien's most famous book, the city comes under a very large and determined attack in the story's climax. It was originally built to guard the now ruined capital of Gondor, Osgiliath, from attack from the west.

1 Description
2 History
3 Portrayal in adaptations
4 References

[edit] Description

Minas Tirith was built on a hill, called the Hill of Guard, right against the face of Mount Mindolluin, facing east towards the Pelennor Fields, which is used for farmland, and Osgiliath, the former capital of Gondor that Minas Tirith replaced.

The name Minas Tirith means "The Tower of Guard". It was originally named Minas Anor, "The Tower of the Setting Sun" in league with Minas Ithil, "The Tower of the Rising Moon". Minas Ithil was conquered by orcs and was renamed Minas Morgul, "The Tower of Sorcery".

The city was divided into seven levels, each 100 feet (30.5 m) higher than the one below it, and surrounded by a white wall, with the exception of the wall of the First Circle, which was black. The outer face of this outer wall, the lowest, was made of black stone, the same material used in Orthanc; it was vulnerable only to earthquakes capable of rending the ground where it stood.^[1] The Great Gates of Minas Tirith faced east in the outer wall, guarded by huge stone towers and fortified positions. The gates were built with siege in mind: constructed of iron, they were extremely difficult to break into. This gate has only ever been assaulted and felled once, and its replacement, built by the Dwarves of Erebor of mithril (which in Tolkien's writing is the hardest metal of all) is almost unassailable.

The gates of the Second Level through the Sixth Level were built so that they were at different positions of the wall. The Second Level gate faces south east, the Third north east, and so forth. This measure was to make capture of the already heavily fortified city even more difficult. Also, a spur of rock, the summit of which was level with the city's uppermost tier, jutted out from the hill in an easterly direction, dividing all but the first level into two. On the saddle between the city and Mindolluin was Rath Dínen (The Silent Street), where the ornate tombs of the Kings of Gondor and their Stewards were built. It was reached by a door in the Sixth Level, which is almost always closed, the Closed Door. The Sixth Level also contained stables for riders, and the famed Houses of Healing.

The gate of the seventh level was reached by a lit tunnel from the Sixth level. Within the seventh wall was the Citadel with the White Tower of Ecthelion, (where the Seeing Stone of Minas Anor rested) which was 300 feet (91.5 m) high, so that its pinnacle was one thousand feet above the plain. In a court before the Tower, the White Tree, symbol of Gondor, grows. The topmost level also contains lodgings for the Steward of Gondor, the King's House, Merethrond the Hall of Feasts, barracks for the Guard of the Citadel, and other buildings for guests and other workers.

The first level included an inn, the Old Guesthouse. The wide paved street it was on was called Lampwright's Street, which led to the gate. The city would also have included a city square, probably before the gates, and probably a market.

Map #40 in Barbara Strachey's Journeys of Frodo is a plan of Minas Tirith. Pages 138&139 in Karen Wynn Fonstad's revised The Atlas of Middle-earth is another plan of Minas Tirith. They are at variance with each other, as the only authoritative maps by Tolkien are just sketches.

[edit] History

[edit] Early history

Originally known as Minas Anor, the "Tower of the Setting Sun", Minas Tirith was built in S.A. 3320 by Anárion, younger brother of Isildur and second son of Elendil, High King of Arnor. Ostoher rebuilt the city in T.A. 420 as a summer residence, and it became the capital of Gondor in T.A. 1640, when King Tarondor moved the King's House from Osgiliath following the Great Plague, which devastated the population of the much larger and populous old capital.

In 2002, the White City's companion city, Minas Ithil, Tower of the Rising Moon (Moontower), on the borders of Mordor, was captured by the Nazgûl and renamed Minas Morgul, Tower of Sorcery (Dead City, accursed tower). Minas Anor was renamed Minas Tirith, meaning "Tower of Guard", to indicate that since the fall of Minas Ithil, Minas Tirith assumed the role of guarding Gondor against Mordor's forces. For the next thousand years, the two cities were in a stalemate, with neither able to topple the other. With the rebuilding of the Dark Tower and the open return of Sauron, the forces of Mordor gathered their strength to topple Minas Tirith in the upcoming War of the Ring.

[edit] The War of the Ring

(T.A. 3018–3019), Minas Tirith is said to have had less than half of the population which could have dwelt there at ease. Many of the buildings had fallen into ruin and disrepair, a sad yet fitting picture of Gondor in those latter days.

[edit] Rammas Echor

In the latter part of the Third Age, Minas Tirith and its lands were surrounded by the Rammas Echor, a fortified wall encircling the Pelennor Fields and meeting up with Osgiliath, where the Causeway Forts were built on the west bank of the Anduin and garrisoned, though Osgiliath itself remained in ruins. This outwall was built by Ecthelion II but fell into disrepair after his death, only to be repaired in the year leading up to the War.

His successor Denethor II ordered Osgiliath and the Rammas to be defended, despite the advice of the council who wanted to retreat back to Minas Tirith and hold out from there. As told in The Return of the King, the Rammas proved an ineffective defence due to the overwhelming Orc legions of Mordor, who penetrated the wall and laid siege to the city before the Battle of the Pelennor Fields.

[edit] Siege

Faramir and the garrison were unable to hold Osgiliath and the Causeway Forts against the overwhelming forces of Mordor and were driven back with heavy loss. Leading the rearguard against the onslaught, he was wounded and nearly slain but the cavalry charge of Prince Imrahil of Dol Amroth and Gandalf saved him and the counter-attack allowed the rest of Gondor's soldiers to reach the safety of the city.

Minas Tirith was besieged by troops of Mordor, the Easterlings and the Haradrim, and the land fell under the Great Darkness generated by Mordor. Significant damage was done to the first circle of the city but the Enemy was unable to break through the wall — except in one place. The gate of the city was broken by a combination of the battering ram Grond and the Witch-king's sorcery. However, the Witch-king was halted at the entrance by Gandalf.

The timely arrival of the Rohirrim led by King Théoden forced the armies of Mordor to face the newcomers instead of assaulting the city. The resulting Battle of the Pelennor Fields took place on March 15, 3019 in the fields surrounding the city. Despite heavy losses, Minas Tirith itself was not seriously threatened again and the battle was won by Gondor and its allies from Rohan and Gondor's fiefs.

[edit] Later

On May 1, 3019 King Elessar's coronation took place on the plain outside Minas Tirith, he then entered the city as King.

Minas Tirith is known to have stood firm well into the Fourth Age. Gimli the Dwarf and some of Durin's folk used mithril, a nigh-indestructible metal, to replace the gates that had been broken in the War of the Ring. It remained the chief city of Gondor, as it is not actually known whether Osgiliath was ever rebuilt. Minas Ithil, however, was destroyed by Elessar, King of Gondor, soon after the War of the Ring.

The eagle who brings the news of Sauron's defeat to Minas Tirith refers to the city as the Tower of Anor. The eagle might have been speaking poetically, but as Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age in The Silmarillion says, the city is referred to Minas Anor again after Sauron's overthrow. However, in the abandoned sequel The New Shadow, which takes place during the time of Elessar's son Eldarion, the city was named Minas Tirith.

[edit] Portrayal in adaptations

Gandalf approaching Minas Tirith in the film The Return of the King by Peter Jackson.

Tolkien's description of the physical layout of Minas Tirith is followed relatively faithfully in Peter Jackson's film The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Jackson interpreting the top of the rock as flattened and paved. In the films Minas Tirith is the location for the coronation of Aragorn.

Portions of Minas Tirith were constructed as full-scale sets, and the whole city as a very large, highly detailed miniature or "bigature" by Weta Workshop. A remarkably detailed three-dimensional digital model, for CGI shots, along with the whole of its surrounding environment including the Pelennor Fields and Mindolluin (but not the Rammas Echor, which was visually omitted from the films, despite being mentioned in the dialogue, where Théoden gave the order to the Rohirrim beginning "When we get through the Wall..." quoted directly from the book.) was created by Weta Digital.

According to the non-canon New Line book The Lord of the Rings Weapons and Warfare the height of Minas Tirith in the films from the foot of the gates to the top of the Tower of Ecthelion (which individually is said to be 300 feet tall) could be estimated to be around 1,000 feet (304.8 m), and the diameter of the city almost three-quarters of a mile (3,960 feet). The book also suggests that the towering bastion of stone, shaped like the keel of a ship, which rose from behind the Great Gates on the first level to the citadel on the seventh, was a quarter of a mile tall (1 320 feet). However this height does not take into account the Tower of Ecthelion, which was situated on the seventh level, meaning that in total the city is some 1,620 feet tall (493.7 m). This means that the city's total height is somewhere between 1,000 feet (304.8 m) and 1,620 feet (493.7 m).

In The Atlas of Middle-earth, published before the New Line films Kathryn Wynn Fonstad estimates the diameter of the city to be much smaller - estimating 3,100 feet for the First Circle of the City.

In the novel, the outer walls of Minas Tirith are virtually indestructible like the similar black surface of the Orthanc, as they were built by the Dúnedain before their craft waned in exile, and it was said that only an earthquake or similar seismic convulsion could cause significant damage.

Despite the vivid descriptions of Minas Tirith's outer walls as a black, indestructible wall as depicted in Tolkien's books, they are otherwise shown in Jackson's portrayal of the novels as simple walls. The walls were clearly shown as destructible as Mordor's catapults and siege towers laid waste to the walls.

In the films, the towers of Minas Tirith are equipped with trebuchets. However, this kind of siege engine is not specifically mentioned in the book.

According to the Making Of featurettes on the Extended Edition DVDs, the appearance and structure of the city was based upon the Mont Saint-Michel, France, along with St Michael's Mount, Cornwall. However, the overall structure is remarkably reminiscent of Pieter Brueghel's Tower of Babel with the upper portions of the city revealing influences from Neuschwanstein Castle built by King Ludwig II of Bavaria.