A Word of Command

“Still, the gate is the weakest point.”
Aragorn, in The Two Towers

Fans of J.R.R. Tolkein’s The Trilogy of the Ring will remember the siege of Helms Deep, when the Saruman’s orcs attacked the fortress by blasting through its wooden gate. A few chapters later, the forces of Sauron did the same during the siege of Gondor, using the great battering ram, Grond, to break down the iron gates that had stood invincible for thousands of years. Even earlier, Gandalf had a heck of a time keeping shut the door from the Chamber of Records after his companions fled; he closed it using a closing spell, but the Balrog on the other side overcame him, and he had to use a word of Command. The effect of that was to shatter the door, the wall, and the roof of the chamber and bring it all crashing down, closing off the stairway behind him. Shades of Jericho!


Most of us don’t have Gandalf’s access to spells and words of Command, and the last thing we want is to bring down our own walls to protect ourselves from intruders. We have to think in more mundane terms about the options available to us.


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