Quote:
Originally Posted by Kuruharan
Except until the War of the Ring nobody believed there would be a keen need to take down an oliphaunt.
|
Depends on where and when you were. Certainly, no one in the third age west of middle earth would have felt a need, as it seems dubios that any believed Mumakul still existed there (if they even really knew of them, beyond a hobbit legend) at least not ouside of Valinor (which if it had every animal and then some of ME must have had Oliphaunts). In the first age however, it seems like there may have been oliphaunts over much of the world (or how the Hobbits heard of them in the first place) moreover this would have been wild oliphaunts as opposed to the somewhat trained and domesticated ones of the war of the ring. Having some methof of taking down a rouge bull before it trampled your fields would have been of some importance. Of course as the Oliphaunts dissapeared from the West the need for such a weapon would be lost, even more so when the other animals you might need it for dissapeared like the really gigantic boars (the near Everholt size ones) and the Aurochses (Which is sort of what I always imagined the Kine of Araw to be) so it might well be lost. One wonders, however it if still persists in Harad where wild Oliphaunts still may exist (we don't know if the tamed ones represent the whole of the species or if wild ones are simply caught and tamed).
Speaking of Haradrim and thier weaponry, and opnion question. Given that, in some ways, the People of Near Harad are supposed to be vaguely reminiscent of out North Africa and Middle East, do you think they are supposed to use the so called "Saracen Draw" with thier archery (using your thumb to draw back the bowstring, rather than the first two fingers as in the "English Draw". From what I understand each has thier advantages and disadvantages (enlish is better for distance and raw power, Saracen is better for accuracy and consistency of shot impact), and it occurs to me that, given that the Haradrim like to have archers on top of Oliphaunts (where loss of distance might not be of such importance) the increased accuracy might be valued.