By the time Tolkien had arrived at the Western Front, in mid, the war had become static, as if both sides had dug trenches and were besieging each other. Howe's design of Minas Morgul was inspired from the experience of having a wisdom tooth pulled out: in the same way, the Orcs have put their twisted designs on to a former Gondorian city. Or, as it is crudely represented in the Jackson films, literally a giant eye on a tower. Was JRRT sending us, here in the future, a warning: beware of your source of news—and sometimes let go of what brings it to you? To the west of the river stretches the Shire, most of it to the north and south of the Great East Road, which acts as a kind of spine, there being subsidiary roads leading off it towards the various villages.
nest...