Minas Tirith

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(Redirected from Minas Anor)

For the First Age tower of the same name, see Minas Tirith (First Age).

Minas Tirith (IPA: Template:IPA) is a fictional city in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth writings. It is often referred to as the White City and the City of Kings.

1 History
2 Description
3 Rammas Echor
4 The War of the Ring and afterward
5 Portrayal in adaptations
6 External links

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History

Minas Tirith is the capital city of Gondor. Originally known as Minas Anor (the "Tower of the Sun"), it was built in II 3320 by Anárion, brother of Isildur and second son of Elendil, High King of Arnor. Ostoher rebuilt the city in III 420, and it became the capital of Gondor after the siege and abandonment of Osgiliath. King Tarondor finally moved the King's House from Osgiliath to the City in 1640. In III 2002, the White City's companion tower, Minas Ithil (Tower of the Moon), on the borders of Mordor, was captured by the Nazgûl and renamed Minas Morgul (Tower of Dark Sorcery). 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. The Rohirrim sometimes translate this into their own language as Mundburg.

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Description

Minas Tirith was built on a hill right against the face of Mount Mindolluin.

The city is divided into seven one-hundred-foot high levels, each surrounded by white walls. There is an eighth wall, the lowest, which was made of black stone, the same material used in Orthanc. That wall was so strong that only a major earthquake could damage it; it was impervious to missiles.

The gates connecting the levels do not lie behind one another in a line, but face in different directions. A spur of rock, the summit of which is level with the city's uppermost tier, juts out from the front of the city in an easterly direction, dividing all but the first level into two. Finally, within the seventh wall, is the Citadel with its White Tower of Ecthelion, where the surviving Seeing Stone of Anor was kept - three hundred feet high, so that its apex is one thousand feet above the plain, bright with reflected sunlight. On the saddle between the city and Mindolluin is Rath Dínen (The Silent Street), where the ornate tombs of the Kings of Gondor and their Stewards were built.

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Rammas Echor

Minas Tirith was surrounded by the Rammas Echor, a fortified wall encircling the Pelennor Fields. This wall was built by Ecthelion II but fell into disrepair as the kingdom declined. His successor Denethor II ordered Osgiliath and the Rammas to be defended, over the objections of his son Faramir and the other commanders who wanted to retreat back to the Minas Tirith and hold out from there. Overall, it proved an ineffective defence against the overwhelming Orc legions of Mordor, who penetrated the wall and laid siege to the city before the Battle of the Pelennor Fields.

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The War of the Ring and afterward

During the War of the Ring (III 3018-3019), Minas Tirith is said to "have less than half of the population which could have dwelt at ease" in it.

In The Return of the King, Minas Tirith is besieged by troops of Mordor, the Easterlings and the Haradrim, under the Great Darkness generated by Mordor. The Battle of the Pelennor Fields takes place on March 15 3019 T. A. in the fields surrounding the city. Despite heavy losses, the battle is finally won by Gondor and their allies from Rohan.

On May 1 3019 T.A. King Elessar's coronation took place on the plain outside Minas Tirith, he then entered the city as King.

Minas Tirith is known to stand firm well into the Fourth Age.

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 clearly named Minas Tirith.

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.

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Portrayal in adaptations

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, although there is no reason to suppose that the top of the rock is flattened and paved (on the other hand there's no reason to suppose it is not). In the book it is not the location for the coronation of Aragorn which occurs on the Pelennor Fields outside Minas Tirith. Afterwards, he enters the city as King.

Portions of Minas Tirith were constructed as a 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 omitted from the films) was created by Weta Digital.

The height of Minas Tirith in the films could be estimated to be almost 1,700 feet. In the New Line book: The Lord of the Rings Weapons and Warfare, it tells the seventh level was a quarter of a mile high, 1,320 feet above the plain. The Tower of Ecthelion was over 300 feet tall. (These details do not appear in the original books by Tolkien and thus should not be taken as canon, like most of the other info in said book.)

These numbers nonwithstanding, The Atlas of Middle-earth actually projects Minas Tirith to be much, much larger than what was shown in the film. Fonstad estimates a diameter of 3100 feet for the First Circle of the City alone; the cinematic Minas Tirith appears as large as a castle-town. (See [1] and [2] )

Also, Minas Tirith is much more destructible and in fact it takes a beating due to Mordor's catapaults; in the book, at least the black outer wall was impervious to missiles, and the enemy troops knew this and did not waste shot upon it.

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