But since there is so much made of the basic opposition of the Dark Tower and Minas Tirith, that seems very misleading. It must if there is any real reference in it to Vol II refer to Orthanc and the Tower of Cirith Ungol. Between the two towers a Nazgûl flies.From Letter 143: I am not at all happy about the title 'The Two Towers'. 27), and with the sign of the White Hand beside it Minas Morgul is a white tower, with a thin waning moon above it, in reference to its original name, Minas Ithil, the Tower of the Rising Moon (The Fellowship of the Ring p. Orthanc is shown as a black tower, three-horned (as seen in Pictures no. 151) the Towers are certainly Orthanc and Minas Morgul. On the other hand, in his original design for the jacket of The Two Towers (see no. 143), Tolkien is more definite that the Two Towers are 'Orthanc and the Tower of Cirith Ungol'. From Letter 140: 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 B or Isengard and Cirith Ungol.¹ In a subsequent letter to Rayner Unwin (no. It seems likely that 'The Two Towers' refers to Orthanc and Minas Morgul (aka Minas Ithil), though Tolkien was a bit ambiguous and expressed dissatisfaction with the title, thinking it might be misleading: quote:From the end of FotR:The second part is called THE TWO TOWERS, since the events recounted in it are dominated by ORTHANC, the citadel of Saruman, and the fortress of MINAS MORGUL that guards the secret entrance to Mordor it tells of the deeds and perils of all the members of the now sundered fellowship, until the coming of the Great Darkness.

The two towers poster