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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Steverooo" data-source="post: 1296902" data-attributes="member: 9410">"Doubtless the Orcs despoiled them, but feared to keep the knives, knowing them for what they are: work of Westernesse, wound about with spells for the bane of Mordor."  TT:16.Indirect?  Maybe...  And while the "blasting fire" was apparently gunpowder, in the movies, it could also have been magic, in the books:"Even as they spoke there came a blare of trumpets.  Then there was a crash and a flash of flame and smoke.  The waters of the Deeping Stream poured out hissing and foaming: they were choked no longer, a gaping hole was blasted in the wall.  A host of dark shapes poured in.'Devilry of Saruman!' cried Aragorn.  'They have crept in the culvert again, while we talked, and they have lit the fires of Orthanc beneath our feet.  Elendil!  Elendil!'"  TT:147."'But the Orcs have brought a deviltry from Orthanc,' said Aragorn.  'They have a blasting fire, and with it they took the Wall.  If they cannot come in the caves, they may seal up those that are inside.  But now we must turn all our thoughts to our own defence.'"  TT:149."There was a roar and a blast of fire.  The archway of the gate above which he had stood a moment before crumbled and crashed in smoke and dust.  The barricade was scattered as if by a thunderbolt.  Aragorn ran to the king's tower."  TT:151.Saruman's abilities:"'What's the danger?' asked Pippin.  Will he shoot at us, and pour fire out of the windows; or can he put a spell on us from a distance?''The last is more likely, if you ride to his door with a light heart,' said Gandalf.  'But there is no telling what he can do, or may choose to try.  A wild beast cornered is not safe to approach.  And Saruman has powers you do not guess.  Beware of his voice!'"  TT:189.Spells of ruin laid upon Grond:"Great engines crawled across the field; and in the midst was a huge ram, great as a forest-tree a hundred feet in length, swinging on mighty chains.  Long had it been forging in the dark smithies of Mordor, and its hideous head, founded of black steel, was shaped in the likeness of a ravening wolf; on it spells of ruin lay.  Grond they named it, in memory of the Hammer of the Underworld of old."  RotK:104.And the Lord of the Nazgul at the gates:"Then the Black Captain rose in his stirrups and cried aloud in a dreadful voice, speaking in some forgotten tongue words of power and terror to rend both heart and stone.Thrice he cried.  Thrice the great ram boomed.  And suddenly upon the last stroke the Gate of Gondor broke.  As if striken by some blasting spell it burst asunder: there was a flash of searing lightning, and the doors tumbled in riven fragments to the ground."  RotK:105."And with that he lifted high his sword and flames ran down the blade."  RotK:106."King, Ringwraith, Lord of the Nazgul, he had many weapons.  He left the gate and vanished."  RotK:117.And his come-uppance:"Then he looked for his sword that he had let fall; for even as he struck his blow his arm was numbed, and now he could only use his left hand.  And behold! there lay his weapon, but the blade was smoking like a dry branch that has been thrust in a fire; and as he watched it, it writhed and withered and was consumed.So passed the sword of the Barrow-downs, work of Westernesse.  But glad would he have been to know its fate who wrought it slowly long ago in the North-kingdom when the Dunedain were young, and chief among their foes was the dread realm of Angmar and its sorcerer king.  No other blade, not though mightier hands had wielded it, would have dealt that foe a wound so bitter, cleaving the undead flesh, breaking the spell that knit his unseen sinews to his will."  RotK:123.Draw your own conclusions...</blockquote>

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