September 18, 2002

Which Are the Two Towers?
Roger Clague

Which are the Two Towers?

The second part of the Tolkein Trilogy ‘The Lord of the Rings’ is called ‘The Two Towers’. The Birmingham City Council Library website and a recent article in the Birmingham Evening Mail say that they are the towers at the Edgebaston Waterworks and Perrot’s Folly tower nearby. This is wrong.

The Two Towers is the title of the second book of the trilogy. This is made up of two parts. The first part reaches its climax with the Ents taking control of Saruman’s stronghold at Isengard, which has at its centre the Tower called Orthanc. The second part of the book describes the continuing journey of Frodo and Sam into Mordor with its main tower called Barad-dur.

Barad-dur represents the material power of industry. Orthanc represents intellectual power, the ivory tower of academia. Physically Orthanc is Chamberlain Tower built at the University of Birmingham in 1908. Barad-dur is the black smokey chimneys of central industrial Birmingham. Both can be seen from the hills of south Birmingham where Tolkein went walking and cycling as a boy.

Orthanc Barad-dur
University Ivory tower Smokey chimneys
Focus of book 3 Focus of book 4
Intellectual power Industrial power

There are details in the text that point to Orthanc being the Chamberlain Tower at the University of Birmingham.Take a look for your self.
www.bham.ac.uk/IDD/about/ about_university.htm It is 500 feet high. It is pointed and is built inside a circle. Orthanc in one of Tolkien's languages means ‘cunning mind’. Ort are the 2nd , last and 1st letters of tower, h(a)nc are the 2nd, last and 1st consanents of Chamberlain. This is the kind of word puzzle Tolkein liked to use.

The release of the film version of The Two Towers is coming soon. People will ask what are the two towers. Edgebaston Waterworks Tower and Perrot’s folly are two beautiful towers that Tolkein knew and which should be preserved. However as with much of his work, the real answer to the riddle is more subtle and symbolic and much more interesting.

The Two Towers are Orthanc and Barad-dur. These are the focal points of the two parts of the book ‘The Two Towers’. They also represent the two main forces material industry and intelligence which compete or cooperate for control in Middle Earth.