Editing Gondor (section)

==== War of the Ring and restoration ====

{{anchor|Henneth Annûn}}{{anchor|Dol Amroth}}

{{further|Battle of the Pelennor Fields|Heraldry of Middle-earth#Men}}

[[File:Battle of the Pelennor Fields.svg|thumb|upright=1.25|[[Battle of the Pelennor Fields]]]]

Denethor sent his son [[Boromir]] to [[Rivendell]] for advice as war loomed. There, Boromir attended the [[Council of Elrond]], saw the [[One Ring]], and suggested it be used as a weapon to save Gondor. Elrond rebuked him, explaining the danger of such use, and instead, the hobbit [[Frodo Baggins|Frodo]] was made ring-bearer, and a [[Fellowship of the Ring (characters)|Fellowship]], including Boromir, was sent on a quest to destroy the Ring.<ref name="Council of Elrond" group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1954a}} book 2 ch. 2 "[[The Council of Elrond]]"</ref> 
Growing in strength, [[Sauron]] attacked Osgiliath, forcing the defenders to leave, destroying the last bridge across the Anduin behind them. [[Minas Tirith]] then faced direct land attack from [[Mordor]], combined with naval attack by the Corsairs of Umbar. The [[hobbit]]s Frodo and [[Samwise Gamgee|Sam]] travelled through Ithilien, and were captured by [[Faramir]], Boromir's brother, who held them at the hidden cave of Henneth Annûn, but helped them to continue their quest.<ref name="TT-WW" group=T/> [[Aragorn]] summoned the Dead of Dunharrow to destroy the forces from [[Umbar]], freeing men from the southern provinces of Gondor such as Dol Amroth<ref name="Minas Tirith" group=T/><ref name="UT-AN" group=T/> to come to the aid of Minas Tirith.

During the [[Battle of the Pelennor Fields]], the Great Gate was breached by [[Sauron]]'s forces led by the [[Witch-king of Angmar]]. He spoke "words of power" as the [[battering ram]] named [[Middle-earth weapons and armour#Grond|Grond]] attacked the Great Gate; it burst asunder as if "stricken by some blasting spell", with "a flash of searing lightning, and the doors tumbled in riven fragments to the ground".<ref name="Siege of Gondor" group=T/> The Witch-king rode through the Gate where [[Gandalf]] awaited him, but left shortly afterwards to meet the Riders of Rohan in battle. Gondor, with the support of [[Rohirrim]] as cavalry, repelled the invasion by Mordor. Following the death of [[Denethor]] and the incapacity of Faramir, Prince Imrahil became the effective lord of Gondor.<ref name="O'Connor 2017">{{cite journal |last=O'Connor |first=David |year=2017 |title=For What May We Hope? An Appreciation of Peter Simpson's Political Illiberalism |journal=The American Journal of Jurisprudence |volume=62 |issue=1 |pages=111–117 |doi=10.1093/ajj/aux014 |url=https://scholar.valpo.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1075&context=journaloftolkienresearch}}</ref>

When Imrahil declined to send the entirety of Gondor's army against Mordor, Aragorn led a smaller army to the [[Black Gate (Middle-earth)|Black Gate]] of Mordor to distract Sauron from Frodo's quest.<ref name="O'Connor 2017"/> Sauron encircled the army at the [[Battle of the Morannon]], but the hobbits succeeded, defeating Sauron and bringing the war and the Third Age to an end. The Great Gate was rebuilt with ''[[mithril]]'' and steel by [[Gimli (Middle-earth)|Gimli]] and Dwarves from the [[Lonely Mountain]]. Aragorn's coronation was held on the Gateway, where he was pronounced King Elessar of both Gondor and Arnor, the sister kingdom in the north.<ref name="AppAII" group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1955}} Appendix A, II</ref><ref name="PM-HE" group=T/><ref name="PM Tale of Years and the Third Age" group=T>{{Harvnb|Tolkien|1996}} ch. 8 "The Tale of Years of the Third Age"</ref><ref group=T>{{harvnb|Carpenter|2023|loc=#256 to Colin Bailey 13 March 1964, #338 to Father Douglas Carter, 6? June 1972 }}</ref>