The Minas Tirith Letters

Introduction

Gondor looms large in our cultural imagination. Not only is our cultural influenced by Gondor in everything from language to art to philosophy, it even grabs the attention of every child. From the moment that each of us as schoolchildren picked up the Red Book of Westmarch, our national epic, the deeds us of great kings, stewards, wizards and even humble hobbits became imprinted in our mind, and no location in that epics inspires such awe as Gondor. I myself can clearly recall standing atop a bench the schoolyard, waving a stick, while in my mind I was Aragorn II, boldly standing forth to defend the Hornburg. This hold Gondor had on my imagination never truly left me, and drove me forward in my studies through school, college and into the professional world of archeology.

Ever since those schoolboy days, I've dreamed of coming and paying homage to the sites featured in the Red Book. While I eventually learned that the true historical events were nothing like those described in the book (a fact well examined in the essay closing this volume by eminent historian Dale Nichols), my interest in these events has not  waned; indeed it has increased, propelled by a desire to find the true archeological record of the end of the Third Age. Thus, when I was offered a grant to lead a dig at the site of Minas Tirith, it was the fulfilment of my wildest dreams.

The dig took place over the course of five years, in which we discovered many important facts about the day-to-day life of the people of Gondor, and of the arts and culture of Minas Tirith. We found swords with exquisite craftsmanship, engraved silver goblets and elaborately carved stonework. But far more precious than all that was a single, unadorned box we found in the large chamber we believe to be Gondor's archive.

It was found almost completely by chance. We had decided to open a few exploratory squares near the top of the mountain, although I was largely pessimistic about finding anything, as much of that area was heavily damaged by erosion, and most of what appeared to be there were merely foundations of large stone structures, with all relevant finds long swept downhill. At first, the site largely confirmed these findings, and we were about ready to abandon the area in favor of returning to the lower slopes of the hill, when a young undergraduate student of mine noticed something lodged underneath pile of stones.

She stayed at the site a little after the rest of the team had gone to lunch, and during that time she managed to dislodge a dirt covered wooden box from the corner of what must have once been about at the floor level of a large room. It must have fallen there about the time the city was sacked by the western barbarians(FA429), miraculously escaped the subsequent conflagration protected by fallen stones from the collapse of the vaulting of the chamber, and remained there ever since. The whole team was obviously quite excited by the discovery, but we could not find a way to open the box, as its latch had long rusted shut.

I sent it back to the lab to be carefully pried open, and there they discovered the great treasure you are about to read: a portion of the Steward of Gondor's internal correspondence, direct remnants of the great kingdom's bureaucracy and valuable evidence for the study of Gondor. This was enough to generate excitement, but when I began to read them, I  realized something even more exciting: the letters span three years, TA3017, 3018 and 3019, the very same years mythologized in the epic accounts of the War of the Ring. Indeed, these documents have provided the first real, reliable historical account of that war, and paint a fascinating picture of the final days of the Stewards of Gondor. Largely, the box features correspondence between the administrations of Denethor II, Steward of Gondor, and Sirgon, Lord of Lebennin, Imrahil, Prince of Dol Amroth, and Forlong, Lord of Lossarnach, all of whom, with the exception of Sirgon, are mentioned in the Red Book of Westmarch, confirming that its author had a good knowledge of the leadership of Gondor at the time he was describing. We believe that the practice in Minas Tirith was to copy any correspondence sent or received, and store all these copies in the archive, which explains the presence of all the correspondence sent south in these three years being found in one place.

Within this volume, you will find first a helpful introductory essay by Dr. Sarah M. Woods of Rowan College contextualizing the politics of the region, and then the letters themselves, arranged chronologically. Together, they paint a fascinating view of Gondor through the eyes of its leaders and their scribes, and opens new expanses in the study of the end of the Third Age. Closing the book will be an essay examining the historicity of the epics touching on the same time period in light of these discoveries by Dr. Dale Nichols University of Bree. I am very excited to finally be able to bring these discoveries to the wider public, and hope you will join me in diving into the world of late Third Age Gondor.

- Dr. Charles H. Mithrilsmith