Battle of the Pelennor Fields

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Battle of the Pelennor Fields
Part of
Pelennor Fields
Result
Rohan
victory
Belligerents
  • Gondor
  • Rohan
  • The Grey Company
Commanders and leaders
Strength
  • 3,000 Gondorians
  • 500 Guards of the Citadel
  • Less than 3,000 South Gondorians and men from outlying provinces
  • 6,000 Rohirrim cavalry soldiers
  • 30 Northern
    Dunedain
Total ~12,500

Tens of thousands of Orcs, Easterlings, Haradrim and Variags[a]

Several hundred oliphaunts and
trolls
Casualties and losses ~3,000 killed Entire force destroyed

The Battle of the Pelennor Fields (

River Anduin
.

In search of Tolkien's sources, scholars have compared the battle with the historic account of the

Simon Peter denied knowing him
.

Scholars analysing the story have commented on Tolkien's theory of northern courage, which carries on even in the face of certain death. They have noted, too, the elegiac tone, echoing that of the Old English poem Beowulf, the use of alliterative verse, and the nature of the armour, which is mostly early medieval-style mail shirts with additions of plate armour. Others have commented on Tolkien's vivid descriptions of battle, noting that he served in the Battle of the Somme.

The battle formed a "spectacular"[4][5] centrepiece in Peter Jackson's film The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

Fiction

Background

The city of

fell beasts, causing the defenders' morale to waver.[T 1][T 2]

Participants

The Haradrim used elephants in the battle, as Pyrrhus of Epirus did in his invasion of Ancient Rome.[6]

Sauron's army from

Anduin; and yet it was but one and not the greatest of the hosts that Mordor now sent forth."[T 3]

The defenders' numbers were considerably less. Faramir was outnumbered by ten times at Osgiliath. The companies from outlying provinces of Gondor that came to the aid of Minas Tirith amounted to nearly 3,000 defenders. Prominent among these was a 700-strong contingent led by Prince Imrahil of

Corsairs of Umbar.[T 1][T 4][T 5]

Rohan, Gondor's northern ally,[T 6] contributed a 6,000-strong cavalry army. The Men of Rohan (the Rohirrim) were "thrice outnumbered by the Haradrim alone".[T 7]

Further reinforcements from the coastal towns of Gondor sailed on Corsair ships to the city,

Rangers of the North, representing Arnor.[T 7]

The battle

Main actions in the battle, with the forces of Mordor, Rohan, the city of Minas Tirith, and Aragorn's army from the south of Gondor. The actions take place over several days. All locations are diagrammatic.

After breaking the city gate with

Grond, the Witch-king of Angmar rode under "the archway that no enemy ever yet had passed".[T 1] Gandalf, on his horse Shadowfax, alone stood in his way. But before the two could fight, they heard the horns of the Rohirrim, who had arrived at the Rammas Echor, the wall around the Pelennor Fields, newly broken by the invading orcs.[T 1] Dawn broke, and the main battle began. The Rohirrim had bypassed Sauron's lookouts thanks to the Wild Men (the Drúedain), who led them through the hidden Stonewain Valley of their Drúadan Forest.[T 9]

Charging the ranks of Mordor, the Rohirrim split into two groups. The left group, including the van, broke the Witch-king's right wing. The right group secured the walls of Minas Tirith. They destroyed siege engines and camps, and drove off the

Haradrim cavalry. Théoden killed the chieftain of the Haradrim and threw down their standard. The Witch-king exchanged his horse for his winged steed and attacked Théoden. With a dart, he killed the king's horse, Snowmane; it fell and crushed the king.[T 7]

The

Barrow-blade, a dagger from the ancient kingdom of Arnor enchanted against the forces of Angmar. The Witch-king staggered forwards, and Éowyn "drove her sword between crown and mantle", killing him.[T 7] This fulfilled Glorfindel's Macbeth-style prophecy following the fall of Arnor that the Witch-king would not die "by the hand of man".[T 10][8] Both the weapons that struck his undead flesh were destroyed.[T 7]

Éowyn's brother

Houses of Healing in the city.[T 7]

Timeline[T 11]
Date Events
10 March

The Dawnless Day: Gondor in darkness from Mordor.

Rohan
army sets out from Harrowdale.
Gandalf rescues Faramir outside Minas Tirith's gates.
Morannon army moves into Anorien.
Minas Morgul army sets out.

11 March

Denethor sends Faramir to fight at Osgiliath.
Morannon army invades Eastern Rohan from north.[c]

12 March

Faramir retreats to causeway forts.
Aragorn forces

Corsairs
back to Pelargir.
Rohan army reaches Minrimmon.

13 March

Minas Morgul army overruns Pelennor Fields.[d]
Aragorn captures Corsair fleet at Pelargir.
Rohan army reaches Druadan Forest.

14 March

Minas Tirith is besieged.
Rohan army reaches Grey Wood.

15 March

(pre-dawn)

Witch-King
breaks Minas Tirith gates.
(dawn) Rohan's horns heard in Minas Tirith.
Battle of the Pelennor Fields:
     Rohan cavalry charge.[e]
     Imrahil attacks from Minas Tirith.[f]
     Aragorn arrives in Corsair ships, joins attack.[g]

Denethor prepared to burn himself and

Peregrin Took, Beregond (a Guard of the Citadel) and Gandalf saved Faramir, but Denethor immolated himself before they could stop him. Tolkien indirectly states that Théoden's death could have been prevented if Gandalf had helped the Rohirrim instead, as he had intended.[T 12]

Out on the Pelennor Fields, the battle was turning against Gondor and its allies. Though the Rohirrim had inflicted enormous damage on their enemies, Sauron's forces were still numerically superior, and Gothmog, the lieutenant of Minas Morgul, in command after the death of the Witch-king, summoned reserves from nearby Osgiliath. The Rohirrim were now on the southern half of the Pelennor, with enemies between them and the Anduin, and Gothmog's reinforcements threatened to occupy the centre of the Pelennor, thus surrounding the Rohirrim and preventing the Gondorian troops from joining with them. Éomer was by this time only about a mile from the Harlond, so rather than cut his way through to the river, he prepared to make a last stand on a hill.[T 7]

Meanwhile, a fleet of black ships, apparently the navy of the Corsairs of Umbar, Sauron's allies, sailed up Anduin to the Harlond. Just before reaching the quays, the flagship unfurled the

Half-elven brothers Elladan and Elrohir, and fresh troops from southern Gondor.[T 5] Legolas and Gimli later relate how a ghostly host commanded by Aragorn, the Dead Men of Dunharrow, captured the ships from the Corsairs chiefly through fear.[T 7]

This proved the turning point of the battle. A large portion of Sauron's forces were now pinned between Aragorn's and Éomer's forces, while Imrahil's troops advanced from the direction of the city.[T 7] Another prophecy is fulfilled when Aragorn and Éomer meet again "in the midst of the battle", as Aragorn had said in the Hornburg.[8] Though the advantage now rested with Gondor, fighting continued throughout the day, until at sunset no living enemy remained on the Pelennor Fields.[T 7]

Outcome

The battle was only a tactical defeat for Sauron, as he had committed only a small portion of his forces to the assault, but he had lost the Witch-king, his chief lieutenant. The Captains of the West understood that their victory too would be only momentary, unless the

Halbarad, Théoden, and many officers and men of Gondor and Rohan, and some would have to be kept in Gondor in case of attack, so only a small force could be sent.[T 5] The climactic Battle of the Morannon soon followed.[T 13]

Concept and creation

Battle of the Catalaunian Fields.[9] Painting by Alphonse de Neuville
.

The History of the Lord of the Rings, contains superseded versions of the battle. Some changes of detail are apparent. For example, Théoden dies by a projectile to the heart instead of being crushed by his horse; when Éowyn reveals her sex she has cut her hair short, a detail absent from the final version. Tolkien also considered killing off both Théoden and Éowyn.[T 14]

The scholar

Visigoth king Theodoric I on the Catalaunian Fields and that of Théoden on the Pelennor. Jordanes reports that Theodoric was thrown off by his horse and trampled to death by his own men who charged forward. Théoden similarly rallies his men shortly before he falls and is crushed by his horse. And like Theodoric, Théoden is carried from the battlefield with his knights weeping and singing for him while the battle still goes on.[9]

Analysis

Northern courage

Further information: Northern courage in Middle-earth
"Great horns of the North wildly blowing": here, one made from a horn of an aurochs

The arrival of Rohan is heralded, the Tolkien scholar

Ódáinsakr, killed and thrown over a wall by the witch, but crowing to King Hadding a moment later.[10] As for the horns of Rohan, in Shippey's view "their meaning is bravado and recklessness", and in combination with the cock-crow, the message is that "he who fears for his life shall lose it, but that dying undaunted is no defeat; furthermore that this was true before the Christian myth that came to explain why".[10] Shippey writes that warhorns exemplify the "heroic Northern world", as in what he calls the nearest Beowulf has to a moment of eucatastrophe, when Ongentheow's Geats, trapped all night, hear the horns of Hygelac's men coming to rescue them.[11] The style of chivalry, too, the Tolkien scholar Thomas Honegger notes, is consciously of Anglo-Saxon knights (Old English: cniht), not a French-style chevalier.[12] Shippey writes that prominent at the critical moment of the battle, the decisive charge of the Riders of Rohan, is panache, which he explains means both "the white horsetail on [Eomer's] helm floating in his speed" and "the virtue of sudden onset, the dash that sweeps away resistance".[13] Shippey notes that this allows Tolkien to display Rohan both as English, based on their Old English names and words like "eored" (troop of cavalry), and as "alien, to offer a glimpse of the way land shapes people".[13]

The Tolkien scholar Janet Brennan Croft notes that the battle is seen some of the time through the eyes of the Hobbit, Pippin, who like "the common soldier in the trenches of World War I"[14] feels his part to be "far from glorious; there is tedious waiting, a sense of uselessness and futility, terror and pain and ugliness".[14] Yet, Croft writes, Tolkien does not follow the Modernists and adopt irony as his tone; the Hobbits too are courageous, carrying on without hope. She cites Hugh Brogan's remark that their determination "master[s] all the grief and horror ... giving it dignity and significance", a therapeutic thought for a man whose mind had been darkened by war.[14][15]

Albrecht Altdorfer's 1529 oil painting The Battle of Alexander at Issus inspired Peter Jackson's film depiction.[3]

Julaire Andelin, in the

Arda, and was often ambiguous. Thus, Glorfindel's prophecy "not by the hand of man will [the Lord of the Nazgûl] fall" did not lead the Lord of the Nazgûl to suppose that he would die at the hands of a woman and a hobbit (Éowyn and Meriadoc).[T 15][16]

Elegiac tone

Robert Lee Mahon states in CEA Critic that Tolkien's account of the battle is tinged with the elegiac, so that whatever the outcome, much will be lost. Men have the gift of Iluvatar, death. In the battle, Aragorn and Éomer "were unscathed, for such was their fortune and the skill and might of their arms, and few indeed had dared to abide them ... in the hour of their wrath". So far so heroic, in the fantasy, Mahon notes; "But many others were hurt or maimed or dead upon the field."[17] The battle chapter ends with "an elegiac lay", in which Tolkien has a scop of Rohan imitate his beloved Beowulf: "We heard of the horns in the hills ringing, the swords shining in the South-kingdom... There Théoden fell, Thengling mighty ... high lord of the host. ... Death in the morning and at day's ending lords took and lowly. Long now they sleep under grass in Gondor."[17] Mahon comments that the reader mourns even while rejoicing, in his view "the essence of great fantasy".[17]

James Shelton, in

Anglo-Saxon attitudes and humanized Éomer as a man with emotions behind the armour and the tradition.[18]

Military realism

Further information: The Great War and Middle-earth

Nancy Martsch, in Mythlore, writes that Tolkien's descriptions of battle are vivid, noting that he served in the Battle of the Somme in 1916. She quotes another war veteran, C. S. Lewis's comment: "[Tolkien's] war has the very quality of the war my generation knew. It is all here: the endless, unintelligible movement, the sinister quiet of the front when 'everything is now ready', the flying civilians, the lively, vivid friendships, the background of something like despair and the merry foreground, and such heaven-sent windfalls as a cache of choice tobacco 'salvaged' from a ruin".[19] She adds to this Tolkien's account of recovery in the Houses of Healing, "a subject usually passed over in fantasy literature".[19] As for the siege of Minas Tirith, she writes that Tolkien could have been influenced by what he had seen of the British attack on Thiepval Ridge, with its fiery night-time bombardment, the fortifications across a river, allied aircraft "scouting and strafing" Nazgul-like over the German lines.[19]

A left-arm vambrace; the bend would be placed at the knight's elbow

David Bell, writing in

Bayeux tapestry, and his explicit mentions of mail shirts, the armour in the battle must mainly have been the earlier Beowulf-style mail, with additional plate.[12]

Adaptations

Radio

In the BBC radio series The Lord of the Rings, the Battle of the Pelennor Fields is heard from two sides, the first being mainly Pippin's. One hears him discussing with Denethor, and as in the book, he has to find Gandalf to prevent Denethor from burning Faramir. The second side is the battle itself. Théoden's speech is declaimed, followed by music. A vocalist sings how the Rohirrim host rides forth and attacks the forces of darkness. Then the vocalism changes again and one hears Jack May and Anthony Hyde, voicing respectively Théoden and Éomer, saying a Nazgûl is coming. The 'opera' begins again, stating the Witch-king attacks Théoden, strikes him down and prepares to kill him. The vocalism ends here, then one hears Éowyn facing the Witch-king and slaying him.[21]

Film

The forces of Mordor assaulting Minas Tirith, in Peter Jackson's 2003 film The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Further information: Heraldry of Middle-earth § Peter Jackson

The battle is the centrepiece of Peter Jackson's film The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King; The Telegraph wrote that "the battle scenes involving the storming of Minas Tirith and the climactic battle of Pelennor Fields are quite simply the most spectacular and breathtaking ever filmed".[4] Jackson stated that he had taken inspiration from Albrecht Altdorfer's 1529 oil painting, The Battle of Alexander at Issus, depicting the events of 333 BC, with "people holding all of these pikes and spears [against an] incredibly stormy landscape".[3]

CNN.com put the battle on a list of best and worst battle scenes in film, where it appeared twice: one of the best before the Army of the Dead arrives, and one of the worst after that, dubbing the battle's climax an "oversimplified cop out" as a result of their involvement.[5]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Tolkien does not state how many Orcs and Men fought on the Mordor side, and the clues available are vague. Estimates of the number of Orcs range from 30,000 upwards; Karen Wynn Fonstad states that Mordor outnumbered Gondor by "at least four to one", giving a "minimum 45,000", made up of 20,000 Angmar, 18,000 Haradrim, and 7000 others from Rhun and Khand.[1] Higher figures have been given for enemy forces including Men as well as Orcs. Woosnam-Savage records that "over 200,000" Orcs were portrayed in Peter Jackson's film version of the battle.[2][3]
  2. ^ The pseudonym means "secret helmet" in Old English.[7]
  3. ^ Shown as 1 on diagram.
  4. ^ Shown as 2 on diagram.
  5. ^ Shown as 3 on diagram.
  6. ^ Shown as 4 on diagram.
  7. ^ Shown as 5 on diagram.

References

Primary

  1. ^ a b c d e The Return of the King, book 5, ch. 4 "The Siege of Gondor"
  2. ^ The Return of the King, Appendix B, "The Great Years"
  3. ^ The Two Towers, book 4, ch. 8 "The Stairs of Cirith Ungol"
  4. ^ The Return of the King, book 5, ch. 1 "Minas Tirith"
  5. ^ a b c d The Return of the King, book 5, ch. 9 "The Last Debate"
  6. ^ The Return of the King, book 5, ch. 3 "The Muster of Rohan"
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j The Return of the King, book 5, ch. 6 "The Battle of the Pelennor Fields"
  8. ^ The Return of the King, book 5, ch. 2 "The Passing of the Grey Company"
  9. ^ The Return of the King, book 5, ch. 5 "The Ride of the Rohirrim"
  10. ^ The Return of the King, Appendix A, "Gondor and the Heirs of Anárion"
  11. ^ The Return of the King, Appendix B, "The Tale of Years", "The Great Years", "3019: March"
  12. ^ The Return of the King, book 5, ch. 7 "The Pyre of Denethor"
  13. ^ The Return of the King, book 5, ch. 10 "The Black Gate Opens"
  14. The War of the Ring
    , Part Three: Minas Tirith, ch. 9 "The Battle of the Pelennor Fields"
  15. ^ The Return of the King, Appendix A, I, iv "Gondor and the heirs of Anarion"

Secondary

  1. ISBN 978-0-261-10277-4
    .
  2. ^
    ISBN 978-0-345-44976-4
    .
  3. ^
    ISBN 978-0-7864-8473-7
    .
  4. ^ a b Hiscock, John (5 December 2003). "It's the biggest, and the best". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 7 May 2020.
  5. ^ a b CNN.com – The Screening Room. "The best – and worst – movie battle scenes." Archived 8 April 2007 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 20 November 2007.
  6. ^ Kennedy, Maev (3 May 2016). "Tolkien annotated map of Middle-earth acquired by Bodleian library". The Guardian.
  7. ^ Clark Hall, J. R. (2002) [1894]. A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary (4th ed.). University of Toronto Press. pp. 85 dierne, "hidden, secret", 177 helm, "defence, helmet".
  8. ^ a b Tredray, Robert Field (2018). "Divination and Prophecy in The lord of the Rings". Mythlore. 36 (2). Article 25.
  9. ^
    ISBN 978-0-9816607-1-4
    ., pp. 70–73
  10. ^
    ISBN 978-0261102750
    .
  11. ISBN 978-0261-10401-3
    .
  12. ^
    Journal of Tolkien Research
    . 4 (2). Article 3.
  13. ^
    ISBN 978-0261102750
    .
  14. ^ a b c Croft, Janet Brennan (2002). "The Great War and Tolkien's Memory: An Examination of World War I Themes in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings". Mythlore. 23 (4). Article 2.
  15. OCLC 18987058
    .
  16. ISBN 978-0-415-86511-1
    .
  17. ^
    JSTOR 44375844
    .
  18. ^
    Journal of Tolkien Research
    . 5 (1). Article 6.
  19. ^ a b c Martsch, Nancy (2015). "Thiepval Ridge and Minas Tirith". Mythlore. 33 (2). Article 13.
  20. Mallorn
    (19): 25–28.
  21. ^ Sibley, Brian; Bakewell, Michael (1981). The Lord of the Rings (radio broadcast). BBC.
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