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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Elder-Basilisk" data-source="post: 1285578" data-attributes="member: 3146">I'm not certain that Tolkein's "towers" were really the thing we associate with wizards. Let's take a look at a few of the towers that are mentioned in the Lord of the Rings:Amon Sul--the ruined watchtower. This is probably a classic tower.Minas Tirith/Minas Anor--The tower of the Guard or the White Tower. (The Tower of the Sun prior to the conquest of Minas Ithil by the Witch King). This is clearly a city and although it is very vertically oriented (especially in Peter Jackson's depiction), it bears more resemblance to a castle or fortified city (which is what it is) than the classic tower.Minas Ithil/Minas Morgul--The Tower of the Moon/The Tower of Death. While this does bear more than a superficial resemblance to the classic tower in Jackson's presentation, it doesn't seem at all clear that this is the best way to understand it. Given its origin as the sister city to Minas Anor, it is likely that it is as much of a castle or fortified city as a tower.Barad Dur--The Dark Tower. Sauron's Fortress is called a tower, but the reference to Orthanc and Isengard seeming to be a mere outbuilding or bastion of the tower suggests to me that it is no single tower in the style of the classic wizard's tower of modern literature but rather a fortress dominated by a single tower.Orthanc--Clearly an obelisk-like tower. However, as Saruman's habitation, it is more properly considered the center of Isengard which was Saruman's fortress. Considered together, Isengard and Orthanc are more like a castle with a very tall keep than the classic tower.The Towers of the Teeth--I must say I got the distinct impression that these were more border keeps than classic towers. And first men lived in them then orcs--never wizards.It seems to me that the image of wizards in towers is not properly traced to Tolkein. His towers were often towers in the sense of the Tower of London rather than the lone, freestanding spire of much fantasy literature.Merry Christmas.</blockquote>

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