for at the beginning faramir spoke only of the errand upon which he had been sent out ten days before , and he brought tidings of ithilien and of movements of the enemy and his allies ; and he told of the fight on the road when the men of harad and their great beast were overthrown : a captain reporting to his master such matters as had often been heard before , small things of border-war that now seemed useless and petty , shorn of their renown .