The Two Towers Orthanc and Cirith Ungol . . . an article by Phil
Benjamin Coker The Waterworks Chimney, Edgbaston, 1913 Tolkien
himself foresaw this confusion before the book was published in
November 1954, as is revealed in a letter to Rayner Unwin (the
publisher) written on 22nd January of that year: Tolkien wrote
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. So Tolkien believed that the title The
Two Towers refered to Orthanc, the abode of Saruman, and Cirith
Ungol. Tolkien letter would seem to settle the confusion butut
for the fact that Tolkien original cover design for The
TwoTowers features a tower which is black with three horns and
the sign of the white hand underneath it, which must be Orthanc
(the white hand being Saruman sign). The other tower on the
cover is white with a