[Formendacil]

This is always a favourite chapter of mine! Coming after Book IV, it is always the exciting return to the plots of Book III. It's the introduction to Minas Tirith, to Denethor. It's the first Pippin-centric chapter in the book (and Pippin immediately becomes my favourite point-of-view Hobbit). It's the beacons being lit. It's the Homeric procession entering the city. It's the darkness of Mordor falling as the chapter ends. It's Beregond and Bergil.

It's hard to top, is what it is.

One small thing, looking back at past discussions of Denethor and wizards, is to realise (which we don't reading this chapter) is that Denethor and Aragorn are contemporaries--indeed, Aragorn is older by a couple years. But Denethor is an "old man," contrasted with Gandalf or Théoden, while Aragorn is just "a man." It puts into a different light what it means for Denethor to be old before his time--and Denethor is old more than anything else because of the palantír, something that Aragorn specifically turns to a litmus test of his authority.