‘And now the fighting waxed
furious on the fields of the Pelennor, and the din of arms rose upon high, and
the crying of men and neighing of horses. Horns were blowing and trumpets were
braying, and the mumakil were bellowing as they were goaded to war.’ The
foot soldiers of Gondor advance on the Morgul-legions around the walls of the
City, while their mounted troops ride to the aid of Eomer and the Rohirrim, ‘Hurin
the Tall, Warden of the keys, and the Lord of Lossarnach, and Hirluin of the
Green Hills, and Prince Imrahil with his fair Knights.’
And Eomer and his captains
need it; their furious onset has driven wedges into the foe, great forces of
Southrons. But wherever the mumakil (Oliphaunts) are the horses will not
go, and the great beast stand unfought like towers in the middle of the battle
with the Haradim rallying around them. The Rohirrim were already outnumbered by
at least three times, and now new forces from Osgiliath are streaming onto the
field.
These were forces that the
Lord of the Nazgul had held mustered, awaiting the sack of Gondor. That Captain
is now destroyed, but ‘Gothmog, the lieutenant of Morgul,’ now sends them into
the fray; ‘Easterlings with axes, Variags of Khand, Southrons in scarlet, and
out of Far Harad black men like half-trolls with white eyes and red tongues.’
They come up behind the Rohirrim and some try to keep the forces of Gondor from
joining up with Rohan.
It is now when things are
already looking bad that they seem to look worse. In the clear mid-morning with
rain to the north and a driving wind, lookouts see a vast fleet of black sails
coming up the Anduin. The cry goes up that the Corsairs [pirates] of Umbar are
coming, and that the coastlands must have fallen. They try to call Gondor back
into the City in retreat, but the wind blows their clamor away.
But Eomer can see them. He
is not even a mile from Harlond, the great docks, and can see the ‘dromunds,
and ships of great draught, and … black sails bellying in the breeze.’ He now
curses the wind that is bringing them, but the hosts of Mordor are filled with
new fury with the prospect of these reinforcements.
Eomer’s mind, however,
clears, and he gathers men to make a great shield wall to fight to the last, ‘though
no man should be left in the West to remember the last King of the Mark.’ He rides
to a green hill and sets the banner and speaks these staves:
Out of doubt, out of dark to
the day’s rising
I came singing in the sun,
sword unsheathing.
To hope’s end I rode and to
heart’s breaking:
Now for wrath, now for ruin
and a red nightfall!
He laughs; the battle-fury
is on him again. He isn’t wounded, he is young and king, and ‘lord of a fell people.’
He is ready to fight, beyond hope or despair. He raises his sword to the fleet
in defiance.
‘And then wonder took him,
and a great joy; and he cast his sword up in the sunlight and sang as he caught
it.’ For a great standard has suddenly unfurled on the lead ship. It bears the White
Tree of Gondor, and the Crown and Seven Stars of Elendil ‘that no lord had
borne for years beyond count.’
“Thus came Aragorn son of
Arathorn, Elessar, Isildur’s Heir, out of the Paths of the Dead, borne upon a
wind from the Sea.’ The Rohirrim rejoice with laughter and swords and the City
with ‘a music of trumpets and a ringing of bells.’ The hosts of Mordor are
confounded with this sudden turn of fate, and it ‘seems a great wizardy’ that
their own ships should come filled with their foes. The tides (quite literally)
have turned against them.
From the east come the
knight of Dol Amroth, from the south comes Eomer. And from the ships leap Legolas,
and Gimli, and Elladan and Elrohir, the sons of Elrond. The dour-handed band of
Rangers from the North lead ‘a great valour’ of the folk of the fiefs of the
coastlands of the South, including men of the West that had been enslaved on
the ships and were now freed. ‘But before all went Aragorn with the Flame of
the West, Anduril like a fire new-kindled, Narsil re-forged as deadly as of
old; and upon his brow was the Star of Elendil.’
At length Aragorn and Eomer
meet in the midst of the fighting, and they pause a moment, each glad to see
the other. Aragorn reminds Eomer that he told him at the Hornburg they would
meet again, ‘though all the hosts of Mordor lay between.’ They clasp hands, and
Eomer says his aid was never more welcome, or more timely. ‘Much loss and much
sorrow has befallen us.’
‘Then let us avenge it, ere
we speak of it!’ said Aragorn, and they ride back to battle together.
There is still plenty of
hard fighting ahead; ‘the Southrons were
bold men and grim, and fierce in despair; and the Easterlings were strong and
war-hardened and asked for no quarter.’ They
gather and rally all for hours, but by the red end of the day the fields are
drenched with blood. ‘[N]ot one living foe was left within the circuit of the
Rammas [wall]. All were slain save those who fled to die, or to drown in the
red foam of the River. Few ever came eastward to Morgul or Mordor, and to the
land of the Haradrim came only a tale from far off: a rumor of the wrath and
terror of Gondor.’
Aragorn and Eomer and
Imrahil ride back to the City, weary but unscathed. Such was their skill and
strength. ‘But many others were hurt or maimed or dead upon the field.’ Some
named are Forlong, hewed with axes, Duilin and his brother Derufin, trampled by
mumakil; Hirluin, Grimbold, Grimslade, and Halbarad the Ranger from the North.
Long afterwards a ‘maker’ of Rohan lists them in his song of the [burial]
Mounds of Mundburg [Gondor], along with Theoden, Harding, Guthlaf, Dunhere,
Deorwine, Herefara, Herubrand, Horn, and Fastred.
Death at the morning and day’s
ending
lords took and lowly. Long
now they sleep
Under grass in Gondor by the
Great River.
Notes
Hurin and
Gothmog are both names from the original material of the Silmarillion,
Hurin a great chieftain of men and Gothmog the Lord of the Balrogs. There has
been some speculation of who or what Gothmog here was: a lesser ringwraith (as
per the 1977 wargame); an Orc as per the Jackson films; or a human, perhaps a
Black Numenorean. Nobody is sure.
There are many historical
notes behind much of this battle: the fear of horses of elephants in battle was
remarked on in Greek and Roman texts; a dromund is a ship used in medieval
times ‘propelled by many oars with a single mast and a square sail’; Eomer
tosses up his sword and catches it as the Norman minstrel Taillefer did at the
Battle of Hastings. Much of this section is recounted in the Anglo-Saxon manner
and using such verse forms; the end recalls the Homeric ‘Catalog of Ships’
where a list of names is recounted to demonstrate verisimilitude and to suggest
details uncountable.
The Elendilmir or Star of
Elendil is not the original; that was lost with Isildur when he was killed at
the Gladden Fields. Aragorn wore the replacement that was made in Rivendell for
Valandil and the heirs of Isildur. The original was found later locked in a
secret vault in Orthanc; apparently Saruman had found it along with the chain
Isildur had kept the Ring on.
Aragorn’s standard was made
by Arwen ‘with jewels and silver’ and was the mysterious wrapped staff that
Halbarad handed over to Aragorn and that was unfurled at the Stone of Erech to
prove to the Dead Men his claims.
Eomer mentions that he did
not know Aragorn was ‘fore-sighted’ when he said they would meet again, though
all the hosts of Mordor stood between. Whether this was because of his plans
and wisdom or because he really had some spiritual power, is ambiguous.
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