The next evil that Gondor suffered was the plague that decimated the mortal
population of Middle-earth.
The King and all his children died, and great numbers of the people of
Gondor, especially those that lived in Osgiliath. Then for weariness and
fewness of men the watch on the borders of Mordor ceased and the fortresses
that guarded the passes were unmanned.
Later it was noted that these things happened even as the Shadow grew deep in
Greenwood, and many evil things reappeared, signs of the arising of
Sauron. It is true that the enemies of Gondor also suffered, or they
might have overwhelmed it in it weakness; but Sauron could wait, and it may
well be the opening of Mordor was what he chiefly desired.
1. Should Gondor have realized that Sauron was regrouping, or were
they still sure that he had been destroyed in the war? Were the signs
ones which only were obvious in hindsight?
2. Theories on the nature of the plague? How is this like other
historical plagues such as the plague after the Golden Age of Athens or the
Black Death in Europe? How might Sauron have caused this plague (if he is
the ultimate cause of it); could this been something akin to the Black Shadow
that afflicts Eowyn, Merry, and Faramir?
When King Telemnar died the White Trees of Minas Anor also withered and
died. But Tarondor, his nephew, who succeeded him, replanted a seedling
in the citadel. He it was who removed the King’s house permanently to
Minas Anor, for Osgiliath was now partially deserted, and began to fall into
ruin. Few of those who had fled from the plague into Ithilien or the
western dales were willing to return.
Tarondor, coming young to the throne, had the longest reign of all the Kings of
Gondor; but he could achieve little more than the reordering of his realm
within, and the slow nursing of its strength.
3. Why is Osgiliath, the most spectacular of the cities in Gondor,
abandoned along with the rest of Ithilien? Is this fear of evil back in
Mordor, or is it a cultural malaise brought about by the plague and the attacks
of the Corsairs?
4. What is the significance of the tree withering and being
replanted? Is it a divine sign that all is not well with Gondor?
5. Any comments on the irony that the longest reign of any Gondorian
monarch is noted only for its lack of achievement except for regrouping and
healing its wounds? How has this reign marked a change from that of the
second-longest one, the reign of
Hyarmendacil?
Nasmith -- The Argonath
