Ithilien

The land

Ithilien lay along the eastern bank of the Anduin from the Emyn Muil in the north to the river Poros in the south, a strip of hill and valley between the great river and the Ephel Dúath. It was the most beautiful country in Gondor, a land of wooded slopes and quick streams running down from the mountains, warm and sheltered, where herbs and flowers grew wild that had once been planted in gardens: thyme, sage, bay, tamarisk, myrtle, primroses and anemones. Even after centuries of neglect and Orc-raiding it kept the marks of its former cultivation in overgrown terraces, ruined homesteads and old roads. The north road from Osgiliath ran through it to the Crossroads, where the roads to Minas Morgul and the Morannon met beneath the statue of a king whose head the Orcs had struck off. South of the Morgul-road the country was called South Ithilien; the hills of Emyn Arnen rose there above the river, and the road went on to the Crossings of Poros and the borders of Harad.

The Rangers

By the time of the War of the Ring no one lived in Ithilien. The Steward kept a company of Rangers there, Men descended from the province's old inhabitants, who crossed the river secretly, wore green and brown, and ambushed the Southrons and Orcs who used the roads to Mordor. Their captain was Faramir, and their chief refuge was Henneth Annûn behind its waterfall.

Isildur's fief

Ithilien was Isildur's portion of the South-kingdom at its founding in S.A. 3320, and his city of Minas Ithil stood at its eastern edge in a valley of the mountains. Sauron took the city in 3429 and Isildur fled down Anduin, but after the Last Alliance the province was restored and Gondor's watch on Mordor was kept from its eastern fortresses.

Abandonment

The province was ravaged in 1437 during the Kin-strife and drained by the Plague. Its true decline began with the Nazgûl, who took Minas Ithil in 2002 and turned it into Minas Morgul, from which fear and pestilence spread through the eastern valleys. Uruks overran Ithilien in 2475 and, though driven out, returned again and again. In 2901 most of the remaining people fled the raids of Mordor's Orcs, and Steward Túrin II built the refuges of the Rangers, Henneth Annûn among them. When Mount Doom burst into flame in 2954 the last inhabitants crossed the river, and Ithilien was left to the Rangers and the enemy.

The War of the Ring

In March 3019 Frodo, Sam and Gollum came south through Ithilien from the Morannon. On March 7 they witnessed Faramir's ambush of a Haradrim column and its mûmak, and were taken to Henneth Annûn, where Faramir learned their errand and let them go. They passed the Crossroads on March 9 and turned up the Morgul-road towards Cirith Ungol. Meanwhile the armies of Minas Morgul marched through the province to the Anduin and the siege of Minas Tirith, and the Rangers were withdrawn. After the Pelennor the Host of the West marched north through Ithilien to the Black Gate, and on April 8 the victory was celebrated on the Field of Cormallen in North Ithilien, where the Ring-bearers were honoured.

The Fourth Age

King Elessar made Faramir Prince of Ithilien, with his seat in Emyn Arnen, and he and Éowyn dwelt there. Legolas brought Elves of Mirkwood south to settle in the province, and under their care it became the fairest land in the Reunited Kingdom once more. The Morgul Vale alone was left empty by the King's order for many years.

Ithilien ran north and south between the Anduin and the Mountains of Shadow, roughly a hundred and fifty miles long and thirty wide, bounded by the Emyn Muil in the north and the Poros in the south. The Morgul-road divided North from South Ithilien; the Crossroads lay where it met the north-south road. Cair Andros stood in the river off its northern half, and Osgiliath at its middle.