Houses of Healing

The Houses of Healing were the chief place of healing in the city of Minas Tirith, the capital of Gondor. Set within the sixth circle of the city, they were where the sick and the wounded were tended, and they became a place of great significance during and after the Battle of the Pelennor Fields in the War of the Ring.

Description

The Houses of Healing were fair buildings set apart for the care of those gravely ill or hurt, staffed by healers and overseen by a Warden. Among its folk was the herb-master, keeper of the lore of healing plants, and the old wise-woman Ioreth, who remembered an ancient saying of Gondor: "The hands of the king are the hands of a healer."

The War of the Ring

After the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, many of the wounded were brought to the Houses of Healing, among them three stricken by the deadly Black Breath of the Nazgûl: Faramir, son of the Steward Denethor; Éowyn of Rohan, who had slain the Witch-king; and the hobbit Meriadoc Brandybuck.

The healers could not rouse them from the mortal shadow that gripped them. It was Aragorn, entering the city in secret, who came to the Houses and healed all three with the herb athelas (kingsfoil) and the virtue of his hands. By this deed the old saying was fulfilled, and the people of the city knew their true king had come, for "the hands of the king are the hands of a healer".

While she recovered in the Houses of Healing, Éowyn met and came to love Faramir, and there their long friendship and betrothal began.