Cavini – The Tower of Cirith Ungol

What happened in the book:

Sam comes round in the tunnel where he followed Frodo’s capturers. He can’t open the gate through which the orcs went in, returns to the outlet of Shelob’s tunnel, and heads towards the main entrance to the fortress. Feeling miserable, he wonders if their friends think of Frodo and him at all; and here, the two storylines are again linked – at that moment, Aragorn is leading the fleet from Pelargir, Merry riding with the Rohirrim, and Pippin witnessing Denethor’s fall into madness in Minas Tirith, but none of them has forgotten the Ringbearer.

Sam puts the Ring on again, and as his hearing is sharpened because of it, he hears noise from the orc-tower. At first, he is afraid that it’s the orcs torturing Frodo, but soon he understands that, the orcs have started to fight among themselves! That gives him a new boost of hope. He crosses the border to Mordor and takes the Ring off again.

From where he stands, he can see their destination: Mount Orodruin across the plains. Now, he can also see the whole fortress of Cirith Ungol, which is much larger than he first thought; and, suddenly he realises that, the fortress was originally built to keep enemies in Mordor, not out of it.

His thought turns again to the Ring, which now has come in its homeland, and it tempts him: he sees himself as the commander of a huge army which overthrows Sauron, and turns the vale of Gorgoroth into a garden. But, his love to Frodo and his plain hobbit-sense help him to reject the urge to claim the Ring.

The entrance to the fortress is guarded by two horrible statues, the Two Watchers, between which lies some magical field, like an invisible web. Sam cannot cross it, until he takes the phial of Galadriel and holds it up; its light is powerful enough to break the web for just so long that he manages to get through.

Inside the fortress, Sam encounters very few orcs that are still alive – the troops of Shagrat and Gorbag have got into a fight and killed most of each other – and the first one he meets is startled by him and runs away terrified; the power of the Ring makes Sam look big and dangerous in his eyes. Following him, Sam gets into the tower to witness the last blows of the fight that had started as a quarrel over Frodo and his things. He also startles Shagrat, though he can’t stop the orc from escaping. But, he cannot find Frodo. In desperation, even to his own surprise, he starts to sing – and hears a faint answer to his song from above, behind a trap-door in the ceiling. When an orc comes to investigate, Sam follows him to the topmost chamber, and manages to throw him down. There, he finds his master.

Frodo is weak and dizzy, both from Shelob’s poison and the brutal interrogation methods of the orcs. He is also desperate, because he thinks that the orcs have taken the Ring, but Sam tells him that he took it and kept it safe. Now, Sam is a bit reluctant to give it back to Frodo, and suggests that he could share the Ringbearer’s task with him; but Frodo angrily demands it back, calling Sam a thief – for a moment, the Ring makes him see Sam as one of the orcs… But the dreadful vision disappears, Sam understands what it was all about, and goes to search for something to wear for Frodo, and for some food. He finds some orc gear that fits Frodo, and an orc cloak and a helmet for himself; Frodo discovers his own food-bag in which the lembas is still untouched.

Now, the Watchers have increased their power, and it is more difficult for the hobbits to get through the gate than it was for Sam to get in. With the light of Galadriel’s phial, the name of Elbereth, and Frodo’s cry “Aiya elenion ancalima!” they break the will of the Watchers for a second so that they just manage to run through the gate before the arch crashes down on them.

What happened in the movie:

Frodo is imprisoned in the highest chamber in the tower of Cirith Ungol, tied and stripped. Shagrat and Gorbag are investigating his gear, and get into a fight over the mithril shirt. Shagrat kicks Gorbag down the stairs and tells his men to kill him; soon the troops of the two captains are fighting each other.

Sam hears the noise of the battle when he approaches the fortress. When he gets there, it’s almost all over; there are very few orcs still alive. Sam’s shadow and roaring startles four orcs that are coming down the stairs as the hobbit is running up; three of them stay to face him, and seeing what he really is underestimate him badly – he kills all the three. The fourth one has disappeared, and when Sam continues going up, Shagrat is shown sneaking out through a side door carrying the mithril shirt.

Frodo has been left in his prison with a guard, who threatens to kill him. But, before the orc gets a chance to do anything, he is stabbed from behind – by Sam, who has found his way to his master’s cell, apparently without any difficulties.

Sam frees Frodo, who is desperate, because he thinks that the orcs have taken the Ring. Sam begs his pardon, but it is not so; he draws the Ring out of his pocket and tells Frodo that he had taken it because he had thought that Frodo was dead. When Frodo asks Sam to give it back, Sam hesitates for a moment – the Ring is tempting him. In the end, he manages to let go of it anyway. Frodo tells him that the burden is his and his alone to bear, and it would only destroy Sam. Sam urges Frodo to come with him to find some clothes.

Dressed in orc gear, the hobbits get out of the fortress and to the road to Mordor. They cross a ridge, and find themselves looking at Mount Doom across the Gorgoroth; farther away looms also the tower of Barad-dûr. Frodo senses the Eye (which in this installation is portrayed looking like a searchlight), and there are several orc camps on the plateau. Sam states that they have to go there anyway, and the hobbits start descending from the ridge.

Differences / mistakes:
– In the movie, Sam never puts the Ring on.
– There are two hideous statues at the gate of the fortress, as you can see here, but there’s no “invisible web” between them. In the book, each of the Watchers has three heads, in the movie they seem to have only two.
– In the movie, Frodo’s hands are tied; in the book, they’re not.

Bookie details:
– The nose-guard of Frodo’s orc helmet is described as beaklike; it really is like that in the movie, as you can see in this shot.
– The heads of the Watchers are vulture-like, as described in the book. You can see this clearly here.
– In the book, Frodo is naked when Sam finds him. In the movie, his lower body is covered with some rag; but, from Sam’s words about going around in Mordor in “naught but your skin” one can deduce that all his clothes have indeed been taken.

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Related Information
Related Books vs. Movies Articles:


Interesting Links:
Our Gallery has has screencaps of the theatrical version, as well as the extended edition.

A transcript of 'The Lord Of the Rings: The Return of the King' can be found in our Film Fun & Facts section.

A summary of 'The Lord Of the Rings: The Return of the King' can be found in Elrond's Library.

Some articles that are related to this sequence:
- The Middle-earth Section of Elrond's Library has an article about Shelob.
- The Gallery has a map of the Tower of Cirith Ungol.

Forum threads related to this sequence:
- You can discuss this sequence in detail in ROTK Sequence by Sequence #11: The Tower of Cirith Ungol and ROTK EE Sequence by Sequence #8: Frodo and Sam Extras in the Movies Forum.
You can discuss the impact of this scene in the Changes in Frodo thread, also in the Movies Forum.
- Some discussions of Sam and the Ring in Inconsistencies in the Storyline and Samwise Gamgee and the Ring in the Books Forum.
- The Book Club discusses this chapter here.

Take a look at how some artists saw this part in the book:
- Frodo's First Glimpse of the Tower of Cirith Ungol by J.R.R. Tolkien
- Cirith Ungol by Cavini
- The Stairs of Cirith Ungol by Robert Goldsmith
- Cirith Ungol by Alan Lee
- Sam Arrives Alone in Mordor by Ted Nasmith
- Cirith Ungol by the Brothers Hildebrandt
- Sam's First View of Mordor by Darrell Sweet
- Sam Finds Frodo in Cirith Ungol by ponine21
- The Watchers by Jaroslav Bradoc
- Sam in Minas Morgul by Koslow

Looking for something more creative - you may find it here: