what is an oliphaunt
 

is it just an elephant and which side was it on(two towers, herbs and stewed rabbit)

Oliphaunt is elephant just oliphaunt by them. Well, Sam. And the Haradrim controlled the Oliphaunt, so it was on Sauron's side because that's what side the Haradrim were on. So I guess you could say the Oliphaunt is bad, but maybe he didn't choose to be bad. He was just on the bad side. Hope that helps [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img] [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img] [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

Make that a really, REALLY, big elephant.

Oliphaunt is afrikaans(a language of South Africa) which does mean elephant.

Thanks for the fact Laurealin (hope I got the name right). I always thought they were just a larger than normal species of elephant. Sort of a pre-historic giant variety. By way of comparissen, I once visited a museum with the skeleton of a pre-historic sloth, it's body was close to the size of a washer or dryer, in circumfrence.

An oliphant is an elephant, but I thought they could fly. Hmmm... I'll have to read that part again.

no they're just humongous (sp?) elephants. Literally "as big as a house"

Ah-ha! A new mystery to befuddle Tolkien scholars for years to come. Did oliphaunts have wings?! [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

Oh, god, no. I'll be old and grey before they've finished with the balrog's wings. In the book, it says that the haradrim put towers on top of the oliphaunts, so they must have been pretty big. Bigger than todays elephants certainly. Then again, the north african elephants which hannibal's army used when they crossed the alps are now extinct.

The towers were probably like the tent-like things the Persians used.

Didn't Tolkien live in Africa until he was about 4 years old? The elephants/oliphaunts he saw at that age of his life must have looked enormous to him!

He lived in South Africa, and I'm not sure if they have eliphants in South Africa. Besides, I don't think he would remember much about when he was four. I don't remember much of Hawaii. (I lived there when I was three and my dad was in the Navy)