Unfinished Tales - Part Three - I - The Disaster of the Gladden Fields

[Guinevere]

As Esty said, the story itself is really short, but as I kept switching to the notes it took me quite a long time to read! In addition, I looked up places on the map several times. There are a lot of geographical descriptions! (Also in the appendices c & d of the last chapter which I finally managed to read as well.) However, these notes add greatly to the feeling of reality.

I wondered a bit about these orcs beeing completely ignorant of Sauron's destruction two years afterwards... compared to the text in RotK :

even at that moment all the hosts of Mordor trembled, doubt clutched their hearts, their laughter failed, their hands shook and their limbs were loosed. The Power that drove them on and filled them with hate and fury was wavering, its will was removed from them;

As when death smites the swollen brooding thing that inhabits their crawling hill and holds them all in sway, ants will wander witless and purposeless and then feebly die, so the creatures of Sauron, orc or troll or beast spell-enslaved, ran hither and thither mindless; and some slew themselves, or cast themselves in pits, or fled wailing back to hide in holes and dark lightless places far from hope

What moved me most in the story is the poignant dialogue between Isildur and Elendur, and I have much more sympathy for Isildur after reading this.

[Galadriel55]

Originally Posted by Guinevere

I wondered a bit about these orcs beeing completely ignorant of Sauron's destruction two years afterwards... compared to the text in RotK

Ah, but destroying Sauron doesn't destroy all evil. It is shaken by his fall - it is not organised, not backed up, it lacks motivation beyond personal gain or survival, etc. - but it's still there. That host of orcs was by no means something ME-threatening; just a band of scattered orcs that grouped together two years after their great loss.