Next you're going to tell me, Mordor and Sauron are a reference to World War 2!
The funny thing to me was how not clear it was for so much of the book. Minas Morgul doesn't get brought up until the back half of the book. These days most books hit you over the head with their themes and make it abundantly obvious. Two Towers ignores one of the towers for about 60% of the time lol. Still a great book, but interesting to note on the reread.
Tolkien inteded The Lord of the Rings as a single book (internally divided into six books). Due to the publisher’s decision and the printing practices of the time, it was decided to split the book into three separate volumes, and Tolkien had to name them.
The names proved to be a challenge for Tolkien (he didn't like Return of the King either, too on the nose, he prefered The War of the Ring), but the second volume proved to be a special source of conflict for Tolkien, as the initial debate centred on where to ‘cut’ the first and third volumes in order to decide what the second volume would contain and give it a suitable title. The two volumes that made up what is now the second book were The Treason of Isengard and The Ring Goes East, which were such different stories that he found it difficult to choose a title that would do them justice.
In fact in one of his letter Tolkien said:
"
The Two Towers gets as near as possible to finding a title to cover the widely divergent Books 3 and 4; and can be left ambiguous – it might refer to Isengard and Barad-dûr, or to Minas Tirith and Barad-dûr; or Isengard and Cirith Ungol. "
Additionally, later in another letter he said:
"
I am not at all happy about the title 'the Two Towers'. It must if there is any real reference in it to Vol II refer to Orthanc and the Tower of Cirith Ungol. But since there is so much made of the basic opposition of the Dark Tower and Minas Tirith, that seems very misleading."
After that, he apparently made up his mind, Tolkien included at the end of the copy of Fellowship of the Ring sent to the publisher a note that said that the second volume would be titled The Two Towers, since the events of that book were centered mainly around Orthanc and Minas Morgul.
So yeah, it's kinda messy because... it was and he struggled with the names and changed his mind for all three of the titles quite a lot.
Actually, I've just realised what a long-winded rant I've just gone on about something so trivial , sorry.
tis
