This article is from the Tolkien Newsgroups FAQ, by Steuard Jensen sbjensen@midway.uchicago.edu with numerous contributions by others.
Tolkien was never very happy with the title. In Letters #140 and
#143 he considers many interpretations of it, each with its own
rationale, and even comments that it could be left ambiguous. It
seems, however, that he eventually settled on one interpretation.
_J.R.R. Tolkien: Artist and Illustrator_ includes Tolkien's own
final drawing for the cover of _The Two Towers_, which clearly shows
Minas Morgul and Orthanc. These names are also given in the note at
the end of _The Fellowship of the Ring_ in three-volume editions of
LotR. Whether or not Tolkien wrote that note himself, he did see and
approve it before it was published (as documented in Wayne Hammond's
_J.R.R. Tolkien: A Descriptive Bibliography_).
 
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