| Ilandir |
 The Battle of Five Armies (Army Statistics)
on: November 06, 2009 08:43
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It is well known that in his stories, concerning especially battles, Tolkien doesn’t give his readers much information about the size of the armies involved. This is the case with the Battle of Five Armies, as described in ‘The Hobbit’.
I’ve always been curious as how many were present that day and though merely anything is told to us, I found it would be interesting to make a well-researched and educated guess on the figures.
In this (quite long) article I shall lay out all findings regarding the battle – focusing on the statistics, whilst venturing into the obvious and known.
My main sources have been (obviously) ‘The Hobbit’, which not only gives the description of the battle, but also provides other information. Although I have also looked into other books: ‘The History of the Hobbit’ (Volumes 1 and 2) and ‘The Atlas of Middle Earth’ (for geographical sizes of the battle ground).
In an attempt to gather all known information we have about The Battle of Five Armies, the quotations tend to become quite exhaustive. Therefore I have tried to describe my thoughts and findings as clear as possible.
I shall analyze the parts in ‘The Hobbit’, sequentially - chapter by chapter. Therefore, the quotes which are written below each heading would automatically apply to that chapter (unless stated otherwise).
To those eager and willing enough to read through the whole post, I state that these are my views and in no way reflect anything definite. Anyone willing to comment and/or add his or her own thoughts is free to do so.
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There is no question that from its name, we can make out that the five armies involved are: elves, dwarves, men, goblins and wargs (but also including eagles – to which I refer later on). In ‘The Hobbit’ the battle is described in the chapter ‘The clouds burst’ but in the previous chapters leading to it (and the one that follows after) contain some hints and information about all armies involved.
Taking into consideration the 14th chapter from the book, ‘Fire and Water’, during Smaug’s attack on Lake-Town, we are presented with the following quotes:
“… every warrior was armed, every arrow and dart was ready.”
“… a hail of dark arrows leaped up and snapped and rattled on his scales and jewels …”
“… cheering on the archers” – Bard
“… there was still a company of archers.”
There is no doubt that Lake-Town had some form of an army as words like “warrior”, “archers” and “company” are clear references to such a thing. Regarding numbers, we are not told at this point but one can only guess that since during the town’s destruction, many had died or fled (but some remained to fight the Battle alongside the Elves) a few hundred would have certainly been present.
After the death of Smaug, in the same chapter, we are told about the Wood Elves’ army coming to the men’s rescue.
“He [the Elvenking] had not boats or rafts enough for his host, and they were forced to go the slower way by foot.”
The word “host” here implies quite a large number of people. In fact, if one looks it up in the dictionary, it is described as: “a great multitude, a muster” – just like the mustering of Rohan at the time of the War of the Ring. It can only be assumed that in order to help the men of Lake-Town, and carry the large supplies we are told of in the book, the Elvenking would have needed as many elves as he could gather.
“… elves are lightfooted, and though they were not in those days much used to the marches and the treacherous land between the Forest and the Lake, their going was swift. Only five days after the death of the dragon they came upon the shores and looked on the ruins of the town.”
The above quote seems to mean that although the Elves were in a large number, they still managed to arrive to the Lake fairly quickly.
“… all the men of arms who were still able, and the most of the Elvenking’s array, got ready to march …”
So now we know that the remaining men who had survived the attack on Lake-Town and the majority of the Elf army headed towards the Mountain. Once again “array is used to describe the Elven force.
‘The Gathering of the Clouds’ is the next chapter in line.
“... many are gathering hither beside the birds … Already a host of the elves is on the way …” [Roäc to Thorin].
“Host” is once again mentioned, alongside the word “many”. Obviously, it’s impossible to find out what Tolkien had actually meant by many. But I have always thought that because this was specifically a children’s book, it wouldn’t have implied a vast force comparable to, say, the ones at Helm’s Deep or the Pelennor Fields in ‘The Lord of the Rings’.
“There came a night when suddenly there were many lights as of fires and torches away south in Dale before them”
“ ‘They have come!’ said Balin. ‘And their camp is very great.’ ”
Once again “many” is used, and this quote can simply be linked to the one before it and reinforce the idea of a large force.
The next chapter, ‘A thief in the night’, contains only one quote relevant to this topic – and it is, ironically, one out of two, in all ‘The Hobbit’ book, that gives any reference to any of the armies’ numbers.
“… ravens brought news that Dáin and more than five hundred dwarves, hurrying from the Iron Hills, were now within about two days’ march of Dale …”
The idea that five hundred dwarves participated in the Battle of Five Armies is something that almost every reader of the book is aware of. But this is still unclear since it also states “more than”. How much more than that figure they could be is impossible to state, but what is definitive is that (including Thorin, his company, Dáin and the other Dwarves, between 550 and 600 were present that day of the battle.
’The clouds burst’ is the chapter where the main battle takes place – it is also the one in which we are given the second reference to army numbers.
“About midday the banners of the Forest and the Lake were seen to be born forth again. A company of twenty was approaching.”
“ ‘…we will depart, and the elf-host will go back to the Forest.’ ” – Bard to Thorin
Once again, we have the use of the word “company” and “host” to reinforce the idea of a large army (although the company mentioned above was said to contain only twenty people – this word signifies different sizes as we will see in the next quote).
“Bard, of course, refused to allow the dwarves to go straight on to the Mountain … if once the fortress was manned with so large and warlike a company.”
Unlike the above quote, here “company” clearly refers to the five hundred dwarves that have arrived to help Thorin and his companions. This group is referred to being ‘large’. If such a number is considered so, what of the Elven army which (as we shall see later) contains much more than the Dwarves? Would that be considered a “host”?
In this chapter, we are also told that the Elven army (always giving reference to the Men of Lake-Town too) could mount a siege:
“They [the Dwarves and Dáin] would stand a siege for weeks.”
“Also they would be able to reopen and guard some other gate, so that the besiegers would have to encircle the whole mountain; and for that they had not sufficient numbers.”
Coming back to the issue of the Dwarves as being a ‘large’ force, the Elvenking makes the following statement:
“ ‘Our advantage in numbers will be enough if in the end it must come to unhappy blows.’ ”
It is clear then that the Elven army is a much superior force than that of the Dwarves – although as of yet, we are still uncertain about the exact numbers.
For a moment, let us leave the Elves, Dwarves and Men for a while and focus on the Wargs and Goblins. As they approach, Gandalf burst out shouting:
“ ‘Behold! The bats are above this [Bolg] army like a sea of locusts. They ride upon wolves and Wargs are in their train!’ ”
It cannot be argued that at the Battle, both Goblins and Wargs far outnumbered the other three armies. The various descriptions that are associated with them give us approximate clues to their numbers. We are no longer talking about the few hundreds of Lake-Town men or the five hundred Dwarves under Dáin. Here, these two evil armies almost definitely would have numbered in their thousands.
[/i] “…in all the mountains there was a forging and an arming. Then they marched and gathered by hill and valley … a vast host was assembled.”[/i]
The word “host” is mentioned again, but with a slightly different meaning to that associated with the Elven army. Here, we are given an extra detail, another word to describe to us the army’s size – “vast”. Once again, it is made clear that thousands would have gathered on the day of the battle and as it is about to commence, we read:
“… the Mountain’s feet black with a hurrying multitude.”
Tolkien wanted to reach the climax of ‘The Hobbit’ by using the idea of an epic battle fought against two extreme sides. “It was a terrible battle” we are told, as the fighting ensues.
Further on, Tolkien delves into the strategic and tactful movements of the armies and amongst the words, we come to the second reference to army numbers (albeit a small one).
“As soon as the host of their (Elves) enemies was dense in the valley, they sent against it a shower of arrows … a thousand of their spearmen leapt down and charged.”
So what is certain is that five hundred Dwarves and one thousand Elves took part in the Battle of Five Armies. To understand the true meaning of the above quote, one has the re-read it carefully and with attention. “a thousand of their spearmen”, paraphrased differently would literally mean: “a portion of the army’s spearmen”. In my opinion, that implies that the Elven army, at the very least, was divided into two: archers and spearmen. The archers were positioned to weaken the attack of the goblins whilst the spearmen would defend or attack. Going back to the phrase: “a thousand of their spearmen” – seems to be that out of a couple of thousand elves, one thousand of these where the first to engage in the fighting.
“ … a host of Wargs came ravening ...”
Returning back to the evil armies, it is made clear to us that not only the goblins were in large numbers, but also their allies, the Wargs.
Out of such a “terrible battle” it would be impossible not to have causaulties.
“… among the goblin dead lay many men and many dwarves, and many a fair elf …”
This quote states that both sides lost large portions of their armies – especially the goblins (discussed later).
Although not part of the ‘five’ armies, the eagles play an important role in the battle. It seems, at first, that even these creatures came with quite a large force:
“The eagles were coming down the wind, line after line, in such a host as must have gathered from all the eyries of the North.”
“Line after line”, “host”, “all the eyries” all describe the coming of a strong force but, as I shall describe soon, we might be getting the wrong impression that there were many eagles.
Finally, the last chapter in ‘The Hobbit’ to make reference to the battle is ‘The Return Journey’.
Once again, we have other references to the eagle’s forces:
“ … they [Eagles] gathered in great numbers …”
“But even with the Eagles they were still outnumbered. In that last hour Beorn himself had appeared …”
We have already discussed the idea of a vastly superior force by part of the goblins during the battle, and this is soon confirmed in the following quote:
“Songs have said that three parts of the goblin warriors of the North perished on the day.”
As the surviving armies go back to their homelands we are told:
“The elf-host was on the march … sadly lessened.”
Although losing much of its strength the elven army is still being referred to as a “host” – it would make sense then to think that before the battle it had been quite a large force (thousands) and having lost many after the battle, it still remained fairly big.
After having discussed the references in ‘The Hobbit’ I shall now proceed to present a very short (but very important) quote in ‘The History of the Hobbit’ (Volume 1) – specifically, Chapter VI: ‘Wargs and Eagles’:
“Given that Tolkien’s continued interest in the eagles, it is odd that in the Battle of the Five Armies the wargs and goblins each count as a ‘people’ for purposes of the tally yet the eagles do not. Perhaps there are simply too few eagles present to be described as an ‘army’ (as seems to be the case with Beorn) …”
So what has been said before, with the “host” and “line after line” of eagles that take part in the battle, the fact that they aren’t considered as one of the armies would imply that the force wasn’t as big as one is made to believe (at least, for the author) – and this may easily apply to all the other ‘established’ armies.
The last book I shall refer to is ‘The Atlas of Middle-Earth’. In the section on ‘The Battle of Five Armies’ there is a short paragraph estimating the armies’ numbers to a certain degree:
“Dáin had brought ‘five hundred grim dwarves’; the Elvenking commanded at least a thousand spearmen, plus archers; and while Bard’s forces were uncertain, they may have been as few as two hundred, judging from the size of the town. In contrast, the enemy had ‘a vast host.’ ”
With that, I conclude all the analysis by giving out my own estimate figures of the size of the armies present at the Battle. (Please note, numbers are approximations only)
Before the Battle:
Elves - 2,000
Men - 300
Dwarves - 550
Eagles - 50
Goblins - 10,000
Wargs - 2,000
After the Battle:
Elves - 900
Men - 100
Dwarves - 350
Eagles - (40??)
Goblins - 0
Wargs - 0
Anyone who wishes to add his/her own ideas or comment about this post, please feel free to do so.
Thanks.
[Edited on 9/11/2009 by Ilandir]
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| Ilandir |
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| cirdaneth |
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| Ilandir |
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| Ilandir |
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| Erucenindë |
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| Ilandir |
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| Elthir |
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| cirdaneth |
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Author
I might be able to find a few more references on this subject which I will include in this topic. I'll try and refine the post as much as possible so that if you deem it is good for the Books Section, I'll be happy if it is put there 
