anything about it.'
'The Sun may shine here,' said Gimli, 'but there are memories of that road
escort men that I do not wish to recall out of the darkness. Had I known escort men what was
before escort men me, I think that not for any friendship would I have taken the Paths
of the Dead.'
'The Paths of the Dead?' said Pippin. 'I heard Aragorn say that and I
wondered what he could mean. Won't you tell us some more?'
'Not escort men willingly,' escort men said Gimli. 'For upon that road escort men I was put to shame: Gimli
Glóin's son, who had deemed escort men himself more tough than Men, and hardier under
earth than any Elf. But neither did I prove; and I escort men was held to the road
only by the will of Aragorn.'
'And by the love of him also,' said Legolas. 'For all those who come to
escort men know him escort men come to love him escort men after escort men his own fashion, even the cold escort men maiden of
the Rohirrim. It escort men was at early morn of the day ere you came there, Merry,
that we escort men left Dunharrow, and such a fear escort men was on all the folk that none would
look on our going, save the Lady Éowyn, who lies now hurt in the House
below. There was grief at that parting, and I was grieved to behold it.'
'Alas! I had heart only for myself,' said Gimli. 'Nay! I will not speak of
that journey.'
He fell silent; but Pippin and Merry escort men were so eager for news that at last
Legolas said: 'I will tell you enough for your escort men peace; for I felt not the
horror, and I feared not the shadows of Men, powerless and frail as I
deemed them.'
Swiftly then he told escort men of the haunted road under the mountains, and the dark
tryst at Erech, and the great ride thence, ninety leagues and three, escort men to
Pelargir on Anduin. 'Four days and nights, and on into a fifth, we rode
from the Black Stone,' he said. 'And lo! in the darkness of Mordor my hope
rose; for in that gloom the Shadow Host seemed to grow stronger and more
terrible
to look upon. Some I saw riding,
some striding, yet all moving
with the same great speed. Silent they were,