The Lord of the Rings books III and IV, and as such the eponymous towers could be either Orthanc and Barad-dûr, or Minas Tirith and Barad-dûr, or Orthanc and Cirith Ungol. Tolkien was initially opposed to titles being given to each two-book volume, preferring instead the use of book titles: e.g. "The Lord of the Rings": Vol. 1, "The Ring Sets Out" and "The Ring Goes South"; Vol. 2, "The Treason of Isengard" and "The Ring Goes East"; Vol. 3, "The War of the Ring" and "The End of the Third Age". However these individual book titles were later scrapped, and after pressure from his
The History of The Lord of the Rings of every "History of Middle-earth" volume, written by Christopher Tolkien and describing the contents of the book. The inscription in Volume VI reads: The inscription in Volume VII reads: The inscription in Volume VIII reads: The inscription in Volume IX reads: "The History of The Lord of the Rings" reveals much of the slow, aggregative nature of Tolkien’s creativity. As Christopher Tolkien noted of the first two volumes, Tolkien had eventually brought the story up to Rivendell, but still “without any clear conception of what lay before him”. He also noted how, on the way, his father could get caught