Battles of Beleriand

[Turin]

A good observation that has been made is how much reliance the Sindar must have had on the armoury and weaponry of the dwarves, especially during the earliest contacts between the two peoples; although I believe that the Sinadr also were well capable of making their own gear once they had learned the craft from the dwarves of Nogrod and Belegost. Hence, they were better prepared to face the iron-shod orcs than the (seemingly) rustic Green Elves.

An attack from the east would have made more sense because the orcs were able to cross through the Gap and come down on extensive plains. There were no difficult river crosssings that they had to make either.

[Numenorean]

Hi Tuor, good to see you've started this ambitious and facinating thread.
The First Battle, as Rumil has already pointed out...

shows that the orcs, even at this very early date, were reasonably well equipped with armour and weaponry forged at Angband

Agreed, they were also revealed to be great in number and disturbingly well motivated for War, Silm.:

Now the Orcs that multiplied in the darkness of the earth grew strong and fell, and their dark lord filled them with a lust of ruin and death

...a great army came into Beleriand and assailed King Thingol

Orcs, who were shod with iron and iron-shielded and bore great spears with broad blades

We can discern that they posed a genuine threat not just to Thingols realm, but to all Beleriand, so just how were the vastly outnumbered Sindar able to realistically engage such well prepared foes? Well before Morgoth had even returned to Middle Earth, on the basis of prescient Dwarfen warnings about 'evils of the North' that had not been rooted out, the Silm states:

Thingol took thought for arms...and these at first the Naugrim smithied for him

therefore

Thingol's armouries were stored with axes and with spears and swords, and tall helms, and long coats of bright mail

As Tuor said earlier in the thread, Thingol is shown in an active light by his actions and preparedness. The Dwarves are also invaluably active at this time, they provide the Elvenking not only with excellently wrought weaponary, but also with intelligence on enemy movements and an elite auxilliary force to contain any Orcish retreat or Eastern expansionism.
Tuor

Was Morgoth also militarily an amateur here? Why would the orcish forces have been taken by surprise by Thingols forces?

Morgoth may have been testing the strength of Beleriand and found it to be more than he expected, particuarly that of Naugrim-armed Doriath. I would also assume that the Orcs were taken by surprise for two reasons. Firstly, the forces of Denethor and Thingol (which must have included his mighty Captains Beleg and Mablung) knew the terrain infinately better than the Orcs did, thus allowing for swift and concealed deployment at an optimum location for ambush. Secondly, the Elves would most likely have engaged the enemy with arrows in the first instance - the onset of which would deliver sudden shock to the enemy and maybe result in the errosion of Orcish command and control.
As we well know, primarily due to their lack of sophisticated military equipment Denethors host was all but destroyed, however the sheer size of the Orcish army must also have been a crucial contributary factor in his defeat as the Silm. declares:

Thingol came upon the rear of the Orcs and slew them in heaps

In this grim statement, 'heaps' is a visually evocative word and it offers a dark insight into Denethors last stand on Amon Ereb. I envisage that after the first few salvos of arrows were loosed, the iron shod Orcs simply overwhelmed his light-armed Elves of Ossiriand through force of numbers.
However, in the aftermath of the Eastern battle - and utterly contrary to Morgoths designs, Doriath was in fact stronger and far better guarded from anything overtly military that Angband could now throw at it, for Thingol bolstered his forces by accepting many of the Ossiriand Elves into his realm, yet more importantly still:

Melian put forth her power and fenced all that dominion round about with an unseen wall of shadow and bewilderment: the Girdle of Melian, that none thereafter could pass against her will or the will of King Thingol

[Tuor of Gondolin]

Excellent point by Numenorean about the importance of the dwarves,
throughout the history of Beleriand, and not just in the First Battle. Indeed,
it seems it wasn't the Sindar unwitting persecution of the Petty Dwarves but rather Thingol and the Nogrod dwarves desire for a silmaril that caused resentments only healed with Legolas and Gimli.

The Belgrod dwarves ready (and vital) assistance to Thingol against Morgoth is partially explained by their nature. As Robert Foster summarizes in The complete guide to Middle-earth:

Intended by Aule to endure the power of Melkor, Dwarves were short (four and a half to five feet tall), stocky, strong, resistant to fire, and hardier than any other race. Unswerving and proud, Dwarves could not be dominated by evil and never forgot a wrong or a debt; they went to war frequently and wielded axes.

It's interesting that Morgoth did not try an initial foray against the dwarves,
despite the description of goblins in The Hobbit as nearly as skilled as dwarves at underground tunnelling and fighting.

[Kuruharan]

Morgoth was probably only dimly aware of them and what they were like. They were probably entirely out of his experience.

[Angry Hill Troll]

This raises another question that I've wondered about: what were the relative strengths of the Noldor arriving in M-E with Feanor and Fingolfin, and the host of the west in the War of Wrath.

It seems that in accordance with the Michael Martinez quote cited earlier, that of the Noldor in Aman at the time of the Death of the Trees:

1/4 refused to leave or turned back with Finarfin

1/4 died fighting the Teleri, in storms, and particularly crossing the Helcaraxe

1/4 arrived in M-E following Feanor

1/4 arrived in M-E following Fingolfin (although he started with a larger host, many died crossing the Helcaraxe


The 25% of the Noldor following Feanor won the Dagor-nuin-Giliath by themselves. Furthermore, they were outnumbered, but won largely because the orcs could not withstand the light of Valinor which had not yet dimmed in their faces.

In the War of Wrath, the Teleri only provided transport, and did not fight. The Noldor who had remained in Aman did, as did the Vanyar. None of the elves of M-E participated in the War of Wrath. The few of the Edain who remained fought on the side of the elves, but this couldn't have been more than a token force.

So in the War of Wrath, the Vanyar (let's say there were half as many Vanyar as Noldor at the death of the Trees) and the 25% of the Noldor who didn't leave Aman, were the only ones fighting, plus some Maiar (it's unclear how many, but it seems that if the Valar wanted to overpower Morgoth by using Ainur, they would have come themselves).

Now, there was some increase in numbers of the Noldor and Vanyar in Aman in the intervening 600 years, but it doesn't appear that the military force in the War of Wrath was overwhelmingly larger than that of the Noldor exiles when they first arrived, and certainly not at the time of the Dagor Bragolach.

What was the differencein outcomes? Well, not having a curse helps! Also, the host of the West still had the light which the orcs couldn't withstand, and they had some backing from Maiar to help dealing with Dragons, Balrogs, etc. Finally, it seems that in defeating the Noldor, Morgoth had embarked on an arms race that severely weakened his own power and ability to control his armies. That seems to be what Tolkien seems to imply in his statement the Sauron was effectively greater in the Second Age than was Morgoth at the end of the First Age.

I'm sure there's a lot of room for discussion here... :-)

[Felagund]

You are also implying, with the numbers put forth, that every Elf fought in every battle. This doesn't make sense for a few reasons;
1) You have to assume that at least half of the Noldor present in Middle Earth were female, as it was not an army leaving Aman, but rather the migration of a people, or kindred.
2) Tactically, there is a reserve in every battle. Even in the Battle in which Fëanor was slain, the existence of a reserve is implied. "There he would have perished, had not his sons in that moment come up with force to his aid..." -Silm. p107. Thus, not every elf INVOLVED in the battle would have participated in the actual fighting.
3) Also, the slaying of millions of elves is unfeasible, in my opinion. It oft says that elves were slow to reproduce, and did not have many children, and did not marry until late. I mean honestly, Thingol stood in the woods with Melian for like, a thousand years holding her under the stars... if it took all elves that long to reproduce there wouldn't be very many of them at all, to say the least. I highly doubt that there could have even been millions of elves (of all the kindreds combined) in Beleriand at all, much less millions to slay.

On another note, does anyone know anything about the composition of forces in the First/Second Battle? The equipment of certain companies, their leaders, and their doings and happenings? I know in The Book of Lost Tales 2, the account of the Fall of Gondolin is very in depth and detailed in that matter... is there anything of that sort pertaining to the first two battles under the moon?

[Kuruharan]

I'm not sure Thingol and Melian could really qualify for normal elvish mating practices.

Millions might be a stretch but I think somewhere in the area of maybe one million (maybe a little more) for a total elven population in Beleriand is reasonable (including all kindreds and realms). Less than this and you begin to have a hard time picturing how their kingdoms managed to survive and function at all, especially considering the amount of territory they had to cover.

I have always assumed that the population of Men in Beleriand was always much less than the elves. The population of Dwarves in the mountains is also difficult to estimate although clearly it would be less than the elves.