Assault on Dol Guldur

Gandalf has parted ways from Thorin and company for some urgent business. He was going to the meeting of the White Council scheduled in August. They were to discuss the happenings at Dol Guldur in southern Mirkwood. For the shadow on Mirkwood was growing deeper and deeper drawing many evil things to the Forest. This malice even began harassing Elves inside and outside of Mirkwood. During the council the lore of the Rings of Power was debated; no doubt brought up by Saruman (Curunir) since it was his area of expertise.

Gandalf had other business in mind: "'It is not needed that the Ring should be found, for while it abides on earth and is not unmade, still the power that it holds will live, and Sauron will grow and have hope. The might of the Elves and the Elf-friends is less now than of old. Soon he will be too strong for you, even without the Great Ring; for he rules the Nine, and of the Seven he has recovered three. We must strike'" (p. 302, The Silmarillion). Of course, Gandalf had no idea that the Ring was found and he had been in its very presence.

Gandalf had urged an assult on Dol Guldur ninety years earlier when he explored it and found the Necromancer was indeed Sauron. It was there he also found a crazed Thrain. "To this Curunir now assented, desiring that Sauron should be thrust from Dol Guldur, which was nigh the River, and should have leisure to search there no longer" (p. 302, The Silmarillion). Saruman was more interested in clearing out Sauron so he could search for the One Ring but nonetheless he was still willing to aid the White Council if only for his ends. So an assault was prepared and launched. Sauron fled out of Dol Guldur but went to Morder where the Nine had prepared it for him.

The plot thickens; I love how all the previous readings are leading to the great War of the Ring where Frodo Baggins finds himself swept into. I also enjoy the chronological aspect of this; this reading helps make sense as to why Gandalf disappears for chapter upon chapter in The Hobbit for it must have taken time to debate, plan, and carry through the assault on Dol Guldur. What appears of this assault on Dol Guldur in the movies (if it does appears) will not come from The Silmarillion which Peter Jackson does not have the rights to. Rather it will come from the appendices in The Return of the King which is an assault on Dol Gulder but which occurs at a different chronological time.

Middle-earth timeline: Third Age, 2941 (late summer)
Today's reading comes from: The Silmarillion, page 302