The Return of the King

The End Has Come

Every day Frodo moves closer to Mordor

How do we know Frodo is alive?

What does your heart tell you?

The enemy will never let Aragorn come to the throne of Gondor.
It is time
Give him the sword of the King

Become who you were born to be.

This is your test.
Every path you have trod
Through wilderness through war
Has led to this road.

Tall ships and tall kings
Three times three,
What brought thy from the foundered land,
Over the flowing sea?
Seven stars and seven stones
And one white tree

~ The Two Towers, Book III, Chapter XI: The Palantir

I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me.
The day may come when the courage of men fails
When we forsake our friends
and break all bonds of fellowship.
But not this day...
This day we fight!

And last and proudest, Imrahil, Prince of Dol Amroth,
kinsman of the Lord, with gilded banners bearing
his token of the Ship and the Silver Swan, and
a company of knights in full harness riding grey
horses; and behind them seven hundreds of men at
arms, talls as lords, grey-eyed, dark-haired,
singing as they came.

~ The Return of the King, Book V, Chapter I: Minas Tirith

The eye of the enemy is moving

He is Here

But as Aragron came to the booth where he was to lodge with Legolas
and Gimli, and his companions had gone in, there came the Lady Eowyn
after him and called to him. He turned and saw her as a glimmer in the
night, for she was clad in white; but her eyes were on fire.

'Aragorn,' she said, 'why will you go on this deadly road?'

'Because I must,' he said 'Only so can I see any hope of doing my part
in the war aganist Sauron. I do not choose paths of peril, Eowyn. Were I
to go where my heart dwells, far in the North I would now be wandering
in the fair valley of Rivendell.'

For a while she was silent, as if pondering what this might mean. Then
suddenly she laid her hand on his arm. 'You are a stern lord and resolute,'
she said;'and thus do men win renown.' She paused. 'Lord,' she said, 'if
you must go, then let me ride in your following. For I am weary of skulking
in the hills, and wish to face peril and battle.'

'Your duty is with your people,' he answered.

'Too often have I heard of duty,' she cried. 'But am I not of the House
of Eorl, a shieldmaiden and not a dry-nurse? I have waited on faltering
feet long enough. Since they falter no longer, it seems, may I not now
spend my life as I will?'

'Few may do that with honour,' he answered. 'But as for you, lady; did
you not accept the charge to govern the people until their lord's return? If
you had not been chosen, then some marshal or captain would have been
set in the same place, and he could not ride away from his charge, were
he weary of it or no.'

'Shall I always be chosen?' she said bitterly. 'Shall I always be left behind
when the riders depart, to mind the house while the win renown, and
find food and beds when they return?'

'A time may come soon,' said he, 'when none will return. Then there
will be need of valour without renown, for none shall remember the deeds
that are done in the last defence of your homes. Yet the deeds will not be
less valiant because they are unpraised.'

And she answered, 'All your words are but to say: you are a woman,
and your part is in the house. But when the man have dies in battle and
honour, you have leave to be burned in the house, for the men will need
it no more. But I am of the House of Eorl and not a serving-woman. I can
ride and wield blade, and I do not fear either pain or death.'

'What do you fear, lady?' he asked.

'A cage,' she said, 'To stay behind bars, until use and old age accept
them, and all chance of doing great deeds is gone beyond recall or desire.'

'And yet you counselled me not to adventure on the road that I had
chosen, because it is perilous?'

'So may one counsel another,' she said. 'Yet I do not bid you flee from
peril, but to ride to battle where your sword may win renown and victory.
I would not see a thing that is high and excellent cast away needlessely.'

'Nor would I,' he said. 'Therefore i say to you lady: Stay! For you have
no errand to the South.'

'Neither have those others who go with thee. They go only because they
would not be parted from thee - because they love thee.' Then she turned and vanished into the night.

~ The Retuen of the King, Book V, Chapter II; The Passing of the Grey Company

We cannot achieve victory through strength of arms

Not for ourselves
But we can give Frodo a chance

Even as Pippin gazed in wonder the walls passed from looming grey to
white, blushing faintly in the dawn; and suddenly the sun climbed over the
eastern shadow and sent forth a shaft that smote the face of the City. Then
Pippin cried aloud, for the Tower of Ecthelion, standing high within the
topmost wall, shone out against the sky, glimmering like a spike of pearl and
silver, tall and fair and shapely, amd its pinnacle glittered as if it were wrought
of crystals; and white banners broke and fluttered from the battlements in
the morning breeze, and high and far he heard a clear ringing as of silver trumpets.

~ The Return of the King, Book V, Chapter I: Minas Tirith

All you have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to you