Battles of the late Third Age

[Rumil]

Hi all,

as you can see by my last post, its been a while since this thread was up and running. I didn't guess that when I promised to be back in January that in fact it would be Jan 2005 ! I'm afraid that work and computer problems have meant that I've only lurked and made the odd post last year. Anyway, to those of you who don't remember, this thread started as a means to discuss each of the battles of the LoTR and Hobbit, see page 1 for details.

Our next battle on the list is the First Battle of the Fords of the Isen, 25th February 3019. This is an exceptionally well detailed battle (for Tolkien), covered in Unfinished Tales, as usual though there are some unclear aspects.

The battle was fought between the Rohirrim and the forces of Saruman, this was a prelude to the full-scale invasion of Rohan and was, apparently, fought with one aim in mind -

Saruman had given special orders that Theodred should at all costs be slain

Why so? Well with Theoden sick and under the sway of Grima Wormtongue, Saruman believed that the only two leaders left in Rohan who could endanger his invasion plans were Theodred, the King's son, and Eomer, his nephew. Killing Theodred and discrediting Eomer would paralyse the forces of Rohan, as Wormtongue would then give the orders, potentially allowing Saruman an easy victory.

Understanding the terrain that this battle was fought over is crucial, I suggest that a quick look at the LoTR map will help! The river Isen flowed south from Isengard across the Gap of Rohan. The major crossing place was at the Fords of the Isen, where it became broad and shallow and was split in two by an eyot (small island). However, the river was also bridged at Isengard, so Sarumans forces could advance down the west or east as the fancy took them. Running east-west was the great North Road, which crossed at the fords. As the river banks were steep, the road passed through a narrow cuttting on either side of the river. On the west bank were two earthen forts which the Rohirrim held as a bridgehead and guard against the raids of Dunlendings. A road ran north on the west bank to Isengard and terrain here was open. North of the crossing on the east bank was a low ridge, then rough ground. A number of miles south on the east bank was a small hill.

The weather also had a large part to play, the day was misty, though clearing towards dusk, this allowed Saruman to deploy his orcs without the handicap of bright sunlight and also covered the movements of his troops.

Now for the opposing forces. Theodred and Grimbold had 12 eoreds, (approximately 1440 at 120 men per eored). There was also a force of the levies of Westfold on foot (maybe 800 ??) . Later Elfhelm arrived with a further 4 eored (approx 480). The eored consisted of mounted chain-mail armoured men with shields, lances and swords with light helms, similar to Norman knights. One eored was comprised of mounted bowmen ie. horse-archers. The levies were (judging by Helm's Deep) mostly spearmen, with a small number of bowmen. Probably a proportion were unarmoured, relying only on their shields.

No numbers are mentioned for Sarumans force, though it definitely outnumbered the Rohirrim. On the west side was a large force, this had a vanguard, a force of pikemen (men presumably), wolfriders and orcs. The eastern force was smaller, consisting of Dunlending cavalry, wolfriders, two batallions of Uruk Hai and a large company of armoured men and/or halforcs weilding great axes. I'd imagine that this force was in the region of 3000 strong, while the western force was greater in numbers, maybe 4 to 5000 ?? Saruman's troops carried the symbol of the white hand on their shields.

Theodred was Mashal of the Westmark, and as such was responsible for holding the fords to protect Rohan. He was expecting an invasion by Saruman but not so soon. His scouts reported forces massing on the western side of the river, so he took a powerful force of cavalry (his guard eored, 7 more eoreds and the horse archer eored, in all about 1080 men) to attack them. At the fords he left the levies split between the east and west banks and 3 eored (approx 360).

Theodred rode north about 20 miles, he easily routed Sarumans vanguard - these may have been lightly equipped Dunlending horsemen, wolfriders or simply snagas on foot. He seems to have been impetuous in pursuit, probably leading his guard eored in advance of the rest of his troops. Then he encountered the main force, this consisited of pikemen holding trenches, presumably a ditch and bank type field fortification. Horses are far too sensible to charge into pike blocks over ditches, so, unsurprisingly, Theodred's initial attack was repulsed. He was then in danger of being outflanked by wolfriders etc on his western flank but was able to repel these as his main body of troops arrived. Realising that he could not hope to penetrate the fortification with cavalry, he ordered a retreat to the fords, this was given greater urgency as the mist had cleared for a moment allowing him to spot Saruman's force advancing down the eastern bank of the Isen. Therefore if he didn't get back swiftly he could have been cut off.

When Theodred reached the fords, having been harassed all the way back (Grimbold commanded the rearguard), dusk was drawing in. 50 dismounted cavalry were left on the west bank with the levies in the forts under Grimbold. Theodred and his guard occupied the eyot, while he sent the majority of the cavalry back to the east bank.

Then disaster struck the Rohirrim. Apparently nobody expected Saruman's forces to come down the east bank, and no warning was given of the arrival of Saruman's elite force. This eastern force smashed into the Rohirrim, routed and dipersed them southwards. How was this powerful detachment of Rohirrim, (approx 1200 cavalry and a few hundred foot) defeated so easily? I think the key is in the terrain. The road led from the ford up a narrow cutting, forcing the cavalry to march in a thin column, perhaps only 2 to 4 men wide. The attack was perfectly timed to catch these men as they were in the most vulnerable formation, charged from the side by Dunlending horse, wolfriders (which scared the horses) and Uruk-Hai, they had no chance.

The western end of the ford seems to have held off the attacks of the western force. However, on the east an elite company of heavily armoured men and halforcs weilding battleaxes charged onto the eyot. These may have been around 200 or more strong and surrounded Theodred on a knoll at the centre of the eyot. Although Grimbold charged to the rescue, it was too late as his leader had been struck down.

By now things were looking bad for the Rohirrim, their commander had been killed, two thirds of the army routed and they were surrounded and outnumbered. Elfhelm now arrived to save the day, accompanied by a white standard. He had only 4 eored (about 480 cavalry), but now it was the turn of Saruman's eastern force to be charged while out of formation, many of them had pursued southwards, while the rest were attempting to assault the eyot. Therefore, with their backs to the enemy, the eastern force were routed and the axemen wiped out. Sending two eored into the pursuit, Elfhelm fought his way onto the eyot, in vain striving to save Theodred,

They stooped to lift the body, and found that Theodred still breathed; but he lived only long enough to speak his last words: Let me lie here - to keep the Fords till Eomer comes!

Meanwhile the routed Rohirrim had fled south until, coming to a hill, they prepared to make a last stand. Surprisingly, at a horn signal, the uruk-hai drew off and disappeared into the night. Likewise at the western end of the ford, Saruman's troops drew off. They had failed in their military objective to take the fords, but had succeeded in their political objective to kill Theodred. From Saruman's point of view this was a reasonable outcome, surely the Rohirrim would now be bereft of effective leadership and their king incapable of resisting the invasion. He might not hold the fords, but had showed that they could easily be outflanked, the forces of the White Hand would be back, and in overwhelming numbers to make sure of that! Sadly this was a lesson that Grimbold had not fully appreciated yet.

From the Rohirrim point of view, the battle, while not entirely lost, was a disaster. Their commander was dead, the majority of their forces scattered and their horses lost or exhausted. Tactically they had made errors and been severely mauled. However, strategically, the delay imposed on Saruman had saved Rohan. If Saruman had taken the fords, re-inforced, and invaded Rohan immediately, all would have been lost. Little was he to know that in little more than a week's time Theoden would be re-invigorated, Eomer re-instated and the morale of the Rohirrim boosted by the activities of a certain meddling fool and his three companions, and even in his worst dreams he could not imagine that two hobbits would precipitate the destruction of his army and citadel !

Well there you have it - any thoughts on the composition of Saruman's forces, the tactical mistakes on both sides and the wider significance of the battle? Nilpaurion Felagund suggested above that Saruman should have sent his main strength down the eastern side. I'd tend to agree and also believe that no Rohirrim should have been sent to the western bank. I still can't believe that Grimbold fell into the same trap in the second battle, though we'll discuss that later!

[Nilpaurion Felagund]

So good to see you again!

Anywhen, I have to read the materials again; I forgot most of the details about this battle. But I'll be back.

Vy ze vay, Rumil, do you know where a good detail map of the area concerned could be found? My previous post was made from mere guesswork about the terrain.

[Numenorean]

Good to see you are back Ru, and with a brilliant analysis of this battle and the geography too.

The thing which initially struck me about this clash was that despite the festering schemes and subterfuge of Saruman and Grima, the Rohirrim were still able to offer and put up a vigorous level of mobilisation when the need arose. Given the four years or so of dotage that Théoden endured prior to the attack, credit for this must lay primarily with Théodred and Éomer, though the other Captains of the Rohirrim that get a mention, Grimbold, Elfhelm and Erkenbrand also come across as being highly motivated, well trained and more than able to act upon their own initiative.

The pretext to Sarumans offensive is exactly as Rumil pointed out:

this was a prelude to the full-scale invasion of Rohan and was, apparently, fought with one aim in mind -
Saruman had given special orders that Theodred should at all costs be slain

To this end he deployed a special "company of men or orc-men...ferocious, mail-clad, and armed with axes." I wonder what race this company actually was? Tolkien describes them rather ambiguously as great orc-men in one breath then great axemen in the next, and he holds them distinct from the Uruks who charged down the eastern bank. At any rate these fiendish axe-wielders were successful in that they killed Théodred, but failed in their secondary objective of returning his body to Saruman as "Elfhelm himself...sprang up towards the knoll; and there he found Grimbold fighting two great axemen for possession of Théodreds body. One Elfhelm at once slew, and the other fell before Grimbold."
Then as Rumil states

Surprisingly, at a horn signal, the uruk-hai drew off and disappeared into the night. Likewise at the western end of the ford, Saruman's troops drew off. They had failed in their military objective to take the fords, but had succeeded in their political objective to kill Theodred. From Saruman's point of view this was a reasonable outcome

Reasonable for Saruman in the short term, but in the grand scheme of things it must surely go down as a disasterously missed opportunity for the Wizard. Rohan may well have fallen entirely had the Isengarders pressed on in full force instead of retreating under the assumption that killing the Kings Heir was enough to demoralise the proud Eorlingas.
For the Rohirrim however, I feel the opposite view holds for the outcome. In the short term they were badly beaten, and the loss of Théodred was great, yet if anything their resolve was hardened and their military structure remained intact as Erkenbrand immediately assumed command of the West-mark. All-in-all they were far from defeated, as they never actually withdrew from the west bank or the Fords of Isen, and more importantly still - they never lost hope.

[Tuor of Gondolin]

This is quite an interesting thread. As to maps covering areas of battles in Middle-earth, The Atlas of Middle-earth , by K. W. Fonstad, is useful.

The numbers in Saruman's army are interesting, and perhaps somewhat
inconsistent. It does seem probable that there were 6,000 + in the Battles of the Fords of Isen. So perhaps his withdrawal after killing Theodred was necessary to
regroup and reorganize, since he had just 10,000 + at Helm's Deep. And why
would a Rohirric rout in far western Rohan necessarily have been decisive, given that the basis of a 10, 000 + Rohan force still presumably existed in central and eastern Rohan, and you would think that a considerable portion could have been mustered in the Edoras/Dunharrow area.

Also, a military error is not necessarily the same as a mistake. An example is the failure of General Ewell at Gettysburg to attack Culp's Hill on July 1st. An attack might have taken it, but given the general situation as he knew it
he was probably right to regroup and attack the next day. Similarly, Saruman
and/or his commander (not elephant-man orc ) may have felt it both prudent and militarily correct to withdraw and regroup, although of course that did turn out to be an error.

[Numenorean]

Hi Tuor, you asked:

why would a Rohirric rout in far western Rohan necessarily have been decisive, given that the basis of a 10, 000 + Rohan force still presumably existed in central and eastern Rohan, and you would think that a considerable portion could have been mustered in the Edoras/Dunharrow area.

I see your point, but I was just extending the premise that JRRT lays out in U.T, before the account of the battle he says:

Saruman made the mistake, fatal as it proved, of not immediately throwing in more forces and proceeding at once to a massive invasion of Westfold; though the valour of Grimbold and Elfhelm contributed to his delay. If the invasion of Westfold had begun five days earlier, there can be little doubt that the reinforcements from Edoras would never have come near Helm's Deep, but would have been surrounded and overwhelmed in the open plain; if indeed Edoras had not itself been attacked and captured before the arrival of Gandalf.

[Rumil]

Hi all,

Thanks for the welcome back ! (and to Saucepan Man on another thread)

Nilpaurion Felagund, I think you hit the nail exactly on the head in your description of this battle as a double envelopment. On maps, the one in the book itself shows the general layout, but for specifics like the hills and rough ground I've used the accounts of 1st and 2nd Isen in UT and for the narrow cutting, the account of Theoden et al crossing the river in LoTR.

As to the axemen, as Numenorean said, 'Men or orc-men' and 'axemen' are the phrases used. I'd guess that both 'races' might be included in this unit, as orc-men or halforcs are also mentioned at Helm's Deep and there is the halforc-esque charcter in Bree who was spying for Saruman. Perhaps this elite unit comprised the taller, more man-like halforcs if you know what I mean! They seem to have been Saruman's most fearsome fighters.

As Tuor said, its only with the benefit of hindsight that we can spot most 'errors'. The Rohirrim evidently expected Saruman to attack at a later date. I wonder if that was his original plan and he brought forward the date of the main invasion when he realised that hobbits were around, potentially carrying the ring. Maybe it would have suited him better if Wormtongue had a few months to confuse the war effort of Rohan without Theodred and Eomer able to interfere?

Saruman's numbers and the mobilisation of Rohan are linked subjects brought up by both Numenorean and Tuor. I'd agree that Erkenbrand, Grimbold and Elfhelm were courageous leaders but I doubt if they had sufficient political authority to defy Wormtongue's commands. Therefore Theodred and Eomer were Saruman's main initial targets, either for character assassination or real assassination!

On the numbers of Saruman's troops, the numbers I've come up with here are no more than guesses really. If I recall, the only real evidence we have for Saruman's main army is from Merry or Pippin, who descibe it as 10,000 at the least. Therefore I see two possibilities-

Maybe the hobbits greatly underestimated Saruman's force. This is apparently a very easy mistake to make, though usually numbers tend to be over-estimated when you compare eyewitness accounts with paylists etc for historical battles. Untrained observers (unlike Ghan-buri-Ghan) are often 10-fold out in their reckoning. Imagine trying to guess the number of spectators at a football match if you didn't know the capacity of the stadium! Also 'at least 10,000' seems quite a casual statement. Maybe some contingents of the army (eg. the Dunlendings) didn't meet up with the army until later?

Alternatively, perhaps Saruman only had 10,000 troops, give or take a few thousand. In that case, he was really exceptionally bold in launching an invasion of Rohan when numerically outnumbered by the Rohirrim about 2 to 1, and qualitatively outnumbered by lots more, as a knight of Rohan was ceratinly superior in combat to a bunch of snagas. (Rohan had 10 to 12,000 cavalry plus a number of local levies on foot, which may have totalled nearly 10,000 according to one reference in HoME). The only way he could hope to win in that case would be to demoralise and confuse the Rohirrim, which was going qiute nicely through Wormtongue, then to strike at the main centres of Rohan, Helm's Deep and Edoras, before a general mobilisation of Rohan took place. In this scenario, Wormtongue's interfering would be absolutely crucial. What a strange thought to have the good guys outnumbering the bad guys in one of Tolkien's battles!!

Just thought I'd add a link in to an old thread with some Battles of the Isen discussion, and lots of nice info from Bill Ferny mostly on Page 2 - where is the old horse thief these days anyway?

Visualising Middle Earth

PS. Ignore all the rubbish I was talking about panzerstecher swords!

By the way, Saruman seems to have a big reconnaisance advantage in these battles - the palantir and the crebain perhaps?