[davem]

Originally Posted by Morthoron

I don't believe the writer of a fantasy (or fiction) is bound to present factual data in a graphic manner, nor is a writer bound by a sense of morality or ethics to maintain an idealized view of 'the good' or the 'correct' because such ideas are transient and relative even geographically and individually during any specific era.

Now I've found a moment to get back to this thread....

In his book on Towton Christopher Gravett speaks of bodies found in a grave pit from the battlefield:

The skeletons demonstrate the damage of which medieval weapons are capable, probably in many cases against partially unarmoured bodies. The fact that arrows can punch through bone reinforces the visual record of contemporary manuscripts & shows, for those who look carefully, that flesh was cut through like butter as shafts buried themselves almost up to the fletchings in unprotected bodies. Such wounds inflicted on war-horses helps demonstrate that here was one reason why armoured riders frequently dismounted in battle. Secondly, multiple wounds & possible mutilation show the ferocity that is unleashed in a battle when adrenalin is pumping & comrades are falling. In the bitter climate of the time, with scores to settle, there was little charity shown to a wounded foe. The other item of note is that several of the skeletons exhibit previous wounds that had healed up. Here were men who in some cases had experienced the horrors of close combat & suffered for it , yet had faced the same agonies again on that freezing, bleak field on Palm Sunday. (Gravett 'Towton 1461')

The highlighted section reinforces the point I'm making here - men behave in a less than 'ideal' way on the battlefield - adrenalin, anger, desire for vengeance all make otherwise ordinary, decent blokes behave like orcs. Yet in Tolkien's world only the Orcs behave like orcs. Knights in armour bearing shining swords may look cool on screen or in paintings, but anyone who has seen actual armour & genuine medival weaponry can have no doubts that they are designed to hurt, maim & kill real human beings. A knight in shining armour in a pre-Raphaelite painting is a beautiful image. A man at arms on the battle-field bearing down on a partially armoured footsoldier & about to stove in his skull with a pole-axe is not. Maybe Tolkien felt the medieval world (& by extension medieval warfare) was more 'civilised' than the meat grinder of the Somme, but actually there was little difference in terms of behaviour, only in terms of the technology used to dispatch the enemy. Tolkien clearly knew this, but chose not to acknowledge it - chose, in fact, to say the opposite. The point is, one doesn't have to describe in graphic detail bereaved & vengeance driven Gondorians hacking apart & mutilating Orcs & Southrons - one can simply state that they did it. But in Tolkien's world they simply didn't 'descend' to that level. Yet, given what we know of human nature, we have to say 'only in Middle-earth'.....

EDIT

Its not, I think, that Tolkien glorifies war so much as 'sanitises' the rough end of it. One example that springs instantly to mind is the death of Boromir. The fact that he dies pierced by arrows means that when Faramir sees the Elven boat bearing him pass by he looks as if he is sleeping peacefully & thus even in death he retains dignity. He does not die on the recieving end of an Orc poleaxe which takes off half his face so that Faramir sees him looking like he died an agonising death, choking on his own blood & broken teeth . We don't encounter any of our heroes with ugly, badly healed facial wounds.

WARNING - THESE LINKS SHOW THE EFFECT OF MEDIEVAL WEAPONS ON THE SKULLS OF VICTIMS FROM THE GRAVE PITS AT TOWTON. AVOID LOOKING IF YOU'RE AT ALL SQUEAMISH.

Poleaxe blow to face http://www.the-exiles.org/Images/lej...xe/image11.gif
Various head injuries from pole weapons/swords http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/archsci/d...resgrp/towton/