Guinevere, I just noticed your reply when hunting for this particular thread for a reply in the chapters section.
The scene you mention with the two orcs also shows us another piece of the woven thread of Tolkien's plot. Imagine the scene. Merry/Eoywn do not defeat the Witch King. Let's forget what consequences that has for Minas Tirith. That would be inconsequential compared to the failure of the Quest.
I say this because, no death of the Witch King, no escalation of the argument the orcs were having into a fight and death for one of the orcs. Remember that the orc who survived was a tracker, so therefore without him running off after killing the other orc, Frodo and Sam would no doubt have been tracked and caught. Bye bye Middle-earth as we know it.......
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