Proper Name
In The Two Towers, Gollum refers to the two watchers as the “Silent Watchers” on pages 840 and 926. This could be wrong since Gollum isn’t exactly known for being reliable. However, later on page 839, Gorbag also refers to the two watchers as the “Silent Watchers”. While neither of these two characters are reliable sources of information, it cannot be a coincidence that they both use that same term despite never meeting each other. This suggests that the proper name of the two watchers are the “Silent Watchers”. The quotes are as follows in chronological order:
Nothing moves on the road that they don’t know about. The things inside know: the Silent Watchers.
He will come out of the Black Gate one day, one day soon. That is the only way big armies can come. But away down west He is not afraid, and there are the Silent Watchers.
See here – our Silent Watchers were uneasy more than two days ago, that I know.
—— Dour1234, 15 May 2022 (UTC)
Michael Martinez is wrong
Michael Martinez is often a good source for Tolkien info but in this case he's completely mistaken because he misread the text. "Tark-work" is the bypassing of the Watchers, not the construction/origin of the Watchers. It's unusual for MM to make a mistake like this, but it doesn't deserve being given credence on TG. --Mord 05:16, 17 February 2025 (UTC)
- I agree with your interpretation. However, I disagree that Martinez's interpretation is unambiguously wrong.Dour1234 (talk) 08:34, 17 February 2025 (UTC)
new image watermark
I don't want to revert the change willy-nilly but is there a non-watermarked version we can use? The watermark is quite ugly. --Mord 16:36, 23 January 2026 (UTC)