Middle-Earth Tours

Tour 2: The Places of Middle-Earth

Helm's Deep

from a trailer on the official
movie site

 Still some miles away, on the far side of the Westfold Vale, lay a green coomb, a great bay in the mountains, out of which a gorge opened in the hills. Men of that land called it Helm's Deep, after a hero of old wars who had made his refuge there. Ever steeper and narrower it wound inward from the north under the shadow of the Thrihyrne, till the crowhaunted cliffs rose like mighty towers on either side, shutting out the light. --TTT, "Helm's Deep"

a widely reproduced shot,
courtesy of New Line

 'Behind us in the caves of the Deep are three parts of the folk of Westfold, old and young, children and women,' said Gamling. 'But great store of food, and many beasts and their fodder, have also been gathered there.'
    'That is well,' said Éomer. 'They are burning or despoiling all that is left in the vale.' --TTT, "Helm's Deep"
image captured from the official
movie site by a theonering.net spy
Suddenly the clouds were seared by a blinding flash. Branched lightning smote down upon the eastward hills. For a staring moment the watchers on the walls saw all the space between them and the Dike lit with white light: it was boiling and crawling with black shapes, some squat and broad, some tall and grim, with high helms and sable shields. Hundreds and hundreds more were pouring over the Dike and through the breach. The dark tide flowed up to the walls from cliff to cliff.---TTT, "Helm's Deep"
First Stroke of Lightning at Helm's
Deep, by Michael Kaluta

from a trailer on the official movie site, with thanks to Leonides		 The assailing hosts halted, foiled by the silent menace of rock and wall. Ever and again the lighting tore across the darkness. Then the Orcs screamed, waving spear and sword, and shooting a cloud of arrows at any that stood revealed upon the battlements; and the men of the Mark amazed looked out, as it seemed to them, upon a great field of dark corn, tossed by a tempest of war, and every ear glittered with barbed light. --TTT, "Helm's Deep"
Even as they spoke there came a blare of trumpets. Then there was a crash and a flash of flame and smoke. The waters of the Deeping stream poured out hissing and foaming: they were choked no longer, a gaping hole was blasted in the wall. A host of dark shapes poured in.
    'Devilry of Saruman!' cried Aragorn. 'they have crept in the culvert again, while we talked, and they have lit the fire of Orthance beneath our feet. Elendil! Elendil!' he shouted, as he leaped down into the breach; but even as he did so a hundred ladders were raised against the battlements. Over the wall and under the wall the last assault came sweeping like a dark wave upon a hill of sand. The defence was swept away. Some of the Riders were driven back, further and further into the Deep, falling and fighting as they gave way, step, by step, toward the Caves. Others cut their way back toward the Citadel. --TTT, "Helm's Deep"

The Battle of the Hornburg,
by Alan Lee

from a trailer on the official movie
site, with thanks to Leonides
image from a trailer on the
official movie site

image from theonering.net
pic from Decipher
Helm's Deep, by John Howe
(from his website)

The Glittering Caves of Aglarond,
by Ted Nasmith

 In the movies, Éowyn joins the Westfold Vale refugees in the Glittering Caves of Aglarond.

[I]mmeasurable halls, filled with an everlasting music of water that tinkles into pools, as fair as Kheled-zâram in the starlight.
    And, Legolas, when the torches are kindled and men walk on the sandy floors under the echoing domes, ah! Then, Legolas, gems and crystals and veins of precious ores glint in the polished walls; and the light glows through folded marbles, shell-like, translucent as the living hands of Queen Galadriel. There are columns of white and saffron and dawn-rose, Legolas, fluted and twisted into dreamlike forms; they sprung up from many coloured floors to meet the glistening pendants of the roof: wings, ropes, curtains fine as frozen clouds; spears, banners, pinnacles of suspended palaces! --Gimli waxes poetic about the Glittering Caves of Aglarond, TTT, "The Road to Isengard"
Suddenly there was a great shout, and down from the Dike came those who had been driven back into the Deep. There came Gamling the Old, and Éomer son of Éomund, and beside them walked Gimli the dwarf. He had no helm, and about his head was a linen band stained with blood; but his voice was loud and strong.
     'Forty-two, Master Legolas!' he cried. 'Alas! My axe is notched: the forty-second had an iron collar on his neck. How is it with you?'
     'You have passed my score by one,' answered Legolas. 'But I do not grudge you the game, so glad am I to see you on your legs!' --TTT, "The Road to Isengard"
image courtesy of theonering.net
Full-size versions of these pictures are on display at Rolozo Tolkien, the official LotR movie site, and theonering.net.