Excerpts from a History of Tharbad' by The Scholar of Tharbad (Note from the Staff of the Great Library:) (The following passages are from a longer work, named "A History of the City of Tharbad in Five Volumes," which was written about the year 2900 of the Third Age by a writer unnamed, called for convenience by "The Scholar of Tharbad." The Library has obtained a full copy of this work, but after much consideration we cannot in good conscience make it available to all. As a whole, the work is seditious, and impious, in the extreme, and although the writer makes much of his supposed clear-headedness, and makes a show of "examining all sides," it is clear that on every point his sentiments are with the Great Enemy, and in favor of every lie that has ever been told to delude and corrupt Men. In these days of trouble, it is our duty to make available only that which inspires and educates. However, the work is not completely without value, particularly as, in service of his supposed reasonableness, the Scholar must include in his work fragments of older and better books, which had been thought lost. Therefore, we have chosen to copy and publish such sections of the Scholar's work as we see fit, with such notes and emendations as are appropriate. We have also omitted much of the Scholar's writing for no other reason than it is wordy and boring in the extreme, and not to be tolerated by the ordinary reader.) (The following passage comes from a discussion of the War of the Elves and Sauron, which took place from 1695 to 1701 of the Second Age, after Celebrimbor, chief of the elves of Eregion, had discovered Sauron's plans. For Sauron had built up a great realm to the east, in Mordor, while at the same time he had come to the elven smiths using the name 'Annatar,' pretending to be a messenger of the Valar, and purporting to teach them in the magic crafts. But his real plan was to make rings of power, with and through which he could rule all the peoples of Middle-Earth. At first Sauron's forces were successful, overrunning and ravaging Eregion, seizing Tharbad, and driving men and elves into the far northwest of Eriador.) Meanwhile, at the time of the outbreak of the war, elven ships had sailed to Numenor, to the court of King Tar Minastir, and asked for all aid that could be mustered. And the King was willing, and organized a great fleet; but it was so long in the preparation that it did not arrive in the Gulf of Lune until the year one thousand seven hundred, that is three years after the Numenorean settlements had been overrun; when the armies of the east were on the point of overrunning all Eriador. For the elves were besieged in a battle line near the Lune, while Annatar had mustered up a great new army from the east which he had gone down to meet at the Crossing of Tharbad. Such was the lay of the forces when the great fleet under Admiral Ciryatur arrived in the Gulf of Lune. He began to immediately disembark the army and sent them to strengthen the elven lines and to look for an opportunity to attack; and such was their strength that before two on three of his ships had unloaded their human cargo, the tide of battle had sharply turned, and the eastern armies were being forced back toward the Brandywine. They attempted to make a stand on that river at Sarn's Ford, but were routed in savage battle and forced to retreat toward the reserve who, as told above, were encamped at the Crossings of Tharbad under Annatar's personal command. Now when Ciryatur saw how the western forces had broken out of their encirclement without his having committed his all, he gave orders that his remaining ships should not embark their men at Lindon, but should set sail again, and go to Vinyalonde at Greyflood mouth, and should proceed upriver to catch the eastern army in their rear. And this they did. Now this is what one of the chroniclers of the ensuing battle says, in an old manuscript: "Ciryatur brought thirty-four great ships to Vinyalonde, with from two hundreds to six hundreds of men in each, armed for battle. Now it was his plan that the most of the men should march up the river on the south side, which had the best terrain of the two banks at the time, and to try to reach the crossing, and fortify it, and cut it off utterly, at all cost, and prevent all eastern passage, whether to retreat out of Minhiriath or to go into Minhiriath. And this would be to the aid of the harrying troops coming down out of Lindon. But he set aside his four smallest ships, the which were yet rather over-sized for travel on the Greyflood, and told his captains to take them up the river if they could, with a complement of archers ready to take to the masts and yards. And they were willing, as there was a good west wind, and water in the river was high, but not such as to overmatch the wind. These ships were the Sea Eagle, the Ancalime, the Prince of Forostar, and the Pride of Eldalonde. "In the meanwhile, Sauron had only just got the bulk of his army to the north of the Greyflood, although the baggage train was still to the south, when his spies told him of the landing at Vinyalonde. (For there were in that land a people or tribe of wild and savage men, called woses, who worshipped the trees, and hated the Men of Numenor for cutting them; for which reason they told Sauron of all their doings.) And rather than take them back south of the river, he ordered a section of them to march down river along the north bank, thinking to do battle with the Numenoreans. But travel by that way was so difficult, that they made little advance, before they saw that the army of the west was coming up across the river to rout them utterly. However, Sauron had also taken to his command every small cargo hull and fishing boat that was to be found at Tharbad, and put them under the captaincy of whosoever had some skill on the water. And though most of his men had come from desolate areas in the east with little water, and had never seen nor rode on a boat in their lives, he hoped to still their hearts and give them courage by magic means. For in truth throughout his war in Eriador Sauron attempted to instill terror through his dark arts, while allaying the fears of his servants by other magic means. Meanwhile the smiths survivors of Eregion had made charms against Sauron's magic terrors, so in the actual battle the soldiers of both sides carried charms against terror of the other, which, interesting to note, both took the form of charms, though in forms as different as the two causes. "Now the commanders of Sauron's little fleet stayed abreast of their land army on the north bank and close to them, and their going was slow, so they had not got five mile below Tharbad when they saw the four Numenorean ships coming up river toward them a couple mile downstream, in line, their breadth almost to the breadth of the channel at the rocky points, and ready to come out into the wide water there. Now one of these boats had been fixed with a copper ram, sharp as a knife, that projected out under the bow; and the captain of that boat was better skilled with a small boat than any other of Sauron's force. So he took that boat and furled sail, and ordered his men to the oars, and they rammed the Prince of Forostar, heedless of the arrows that hailed down on them, and backed off with the oars. Then they ran down on the Ancalime, which, like the other ship, was too big to turn or evade in the channel, and likewise rammed it, and water poured into the hold. But the ram stuck in the ship's hull. And when one of the mates of the Ancalime cried, "We can't get free of it!", the captain cried, "Get free? Nay... embrace it tighter!" And his men took ropes with great hooks and entangled them with the rigging of the ram boat so that it could not break loose, nor could the oarsmen get any way to pull free. And the two craft, being locked together, could neither of them steer in the swift current, but were at its mercy, and so drifted down and foundered upon a point of rock, this being within arrow's shot of the north bank of the river, seven mile below Tharbad port. And both vessels started to make water, but the eastern boat, being smaller and lower of board, went under first, to the grievous shrieks of its crew. But the crew of the Ancalime did not abandon ship, but for as long as the masts were upright they manned the yards with bows, and fired arrows into such of Sauron's army as they could reach. And indeed it happened that the battle was over before the ship completely foundered, so that many of the crew were saved at the end; but the wrecks were not recovered, being at a swift part of the river; for there was much debris in the current, and before very long they were greatly fouled and encumbered by branches and such like debris, while there was at any rate little time for salvage work. But the Forostar was saved, being beached before it could sink. "After the wreck, the Sea Eagle and the Pride of Eldalonde, which had run the of Sauron's boats, arrived at the Tharbad dock, and boldly its men leapt down to the dock, then clambered up a ladder on the outside of the southern fort, attaining the gate-tower of the bridge. There was an iron gate like a portcullis which could be let down across the whole road way, and this they did, cutting the ropes by which it could be lifted, and sealing Sauron's army onto the north bank of the river, unless boats could ferry them, which the Sea Eagle would by no means allow, or unless the gate could be broken, or unless they would swim the dangerous river. Nevertheless the armies of Sauron did all they could to dislodge them, using magic arts to send fire at them and break down the tower and the gate, and causing great harm and killing many. But then the army that had marched up the south bank of Greyflood came to their succour. And it fell out as had been hoped, namely, that the army of Sauron suffered great defeat, being unable to withdraw to the south bank of the Gwathlo before the arrival of the army that had come down from Lindon and that was sorely pressing them, and being utterly cut off from its supplies and the third of its reserve." And so it fell out, indeed, that the armies of the East must retreat in disorder, and, after further defeats, went out of Eriador utterly. So returned the people of Numenor to Tharbad, merchants and workmen, and their families, to rebuild the city devastated by battle, in the hope that the prosperity of trade could be resumed. But it was not to be as they had hoped; for the Elven smiths determined to make a fortress on the upper Loudwater, at the Riven Vale, or Imladris, as it is called. And although traffic did continue with the dwarven halls under the Silvertine, still it was lessened in degree for many long years, for the battle had made the dwarven folk wary of other folk, and concerned only for their own security.