John Tolkien: Fellowship of the Ring

At length they came to land again upon the southern slopes of Amon Lhaw. There they found a shelving shore, and they drew the boat out, high above the water, and hid it as well as they could behind a great boulder. Then shouldering their burdens, they set off, seeking a path that would bring them over the grey hills of the Emyn Muil, and down into the Land of Shadow.

Here ends the first part of the history of the War of the Ring .

The second part is called The Two Towers , since the events recounted in it are dominated by Orthanc , the citadel of Saruman, and the fortress of Minas Morgul that guards the secret entrance to Mordor; it tells of the deeds and perils of all the members of the now sundered fellowship, until the coming of the Great Darkness .

The third part tells of the last defence against the Shadow, and the end of the mission of the Ring-bearer in The Return of the King.

As the records of Gondor relate this was Argeleb II, the twentieth of the Northern line, which came to an end with Arvedui three hundred years later.

Thus, the years of the Third Age in the reckoning of the Elves and the Dunedain may be found by adding 1600 to the dates of Shire-reckoning.

See Appendix B: annals 1451, 1462, 1482; and note at end of Appendix C.

Represented in much reduced form in Appendix B as far as the end of the Third Age.

See note, III 54.

Elves (and Hobbits) always refer to the Sun as She.

The Brandywine River

See Note in Appendix F: Of the Elves.