Quote:
Originally Posted by TheAzn
[B]2.) The explanation that the Gondorians have no artilleries is an even worse alternative. If this is what the Professor thought should happen, then he is terribly mistaken. The inconsistencies here are horrendous beyond words.
So why am I excited? I am not just confirming the basic fact that Professor Tolkien, like every human authors out there, are not infallible. What I am excited about is that I believe that I have found one of Professor Tolkien’s greatest writing mistakes; I believe that I have found one of the greatest plot holes in the entire Lord of the Ring series. The Minas Tirith that Professor Tolkien described is being utilized nowhere near its highest potential, very nonsensical when we are talking about preparing for life and death struggles.
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The impression I get though is that this is in fact the case - the Men of Minas Tirith simply did not have artillery. As far as I can determine, they are
never mentioned as having any. The reason the Orcs stayed out of bowshot was because that was the only threat they faced from the Men of Gondor: bows. It wasn't that the Men of Gondor had artillery with very short ranges; they just didn't have artillery at all. Whether or not that is a "mistake" or "inconsistency" on Professor Tolkien's part is not so definite though. The evidence we get is that the Men of Minas Tirith were relying on the security of their walls, as others have stated, and the protection of the Rammas Echor. Sauron also attacked earlier than expected because Aragorn used the Orthanc-stone. But this makes an assumption that they
would have used artillery, which I think is not necessarily reasonable. Maybe Minas Tirith's fortification just
wasn't being used to the full potential that
we can see with the benefit of hindsight and modern perspective. It may seem unrealistic to us, but this war was being fought in a
very ancient time by an imaginary realm with an inconsistent level of scientific development. They key word though is
imaginary; they don't have to practice warfare the same way people did in our history, because this is not our history. It is an imaginary history, and can occur in any way its creator sees fit. If Professor Tolkien says they didn't have artillery, then they didn't have artillery; I think he gives sufficient internal explanation for why the Men of Gondor considered their defences to be adequate (even if they actually weren't). What he doesn't give us is much evidence to assume that artillery or engines of any kind would have been in use by the Men of Gondor; it's more consistent with his world that they were not.
Again, it's only obvious from our perspective, a perspective we cannot assume to be universal. It's also worth considering that sieges of that nature were uncommon in Gondor, and in the later centures of the Third Age the Men of Gondor had spent most of their military endeavours in open battles, street-fighting in Osgiliath, skirmishes in Ithilien and Naval combat against Umbar and the Men of the Harad. Minas Tirith itself had not been beseiged since the end of the Second Age over three thousand years earlier, and so its unique defensibility had realistically never had a chance to be fully realised and exploited. Perhaps at the end of the Third Age the Men of Gondor simply lacked the experience or technological expertise to make engines of that nature and utilise them effectively. We must remember that this was not
really the medieval world and the state of warfare was not identical to that of a period of real history.
What I'm trying to say is that while I do agree with you that Minas Tirith probably would have been very well served by powerful artillery, I personally don't believe that the lack of artillery in the book is necessarily some kind of internal logical inconsistency on the part of Professor Tolkien when writing. I'm afraid to say that the Men of Gondor were not perfect and did not always think of everything, including things that might seem blatantly obvious to us. That being said, if this point is indeed "one of the greatest plot holes" in
The Lord of the Rings then we can be extra thankful that we got a book with such a tight and consistent plot.
I personally never liked the way the Men of Minas Tirith were given trebuchets in the films - they are too explicitly medieval/early Renaissance and too mechanical for me, which doesn't really fit with how I imagine the Dśnedain.