About the Pelennor

Battle of the Pelennor Fields is a fictional event: a contest for the city of Minas Tirith in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. It was the greatest battle of the War of the Ring, and indeed the largest of the entire Third Age.

After the fall of Osgiliath and the Rammas Echor, the last barriers against the forces of Mordor, the latter moved on the Pelennor Fields before the city on March 15, 3019 of the Third Age as the Great Darkness blotted out the sun. Mordor's troops consisted of 18,000 Haradrim, 30,000 Easterlings, numerous Oliphaunts, Trolls, and Wargs, and a huge but unknown number (the most common estimate being 200,000) of Orcs, including Uruk-hai and lesser breeds. The defenders' numbers were considerably less, probably around 10,000 plus the addition of 2,000 to 3,000 Men from the provinces and fiefs from southern Gondor in the days before the battle, and the remainder of Faramir's force from the Causeway Forts.

The attackers used catapults to bombard the city with flaming missiles, which predictably set the First Circle on fire. They also showered the city with the heads of slain men from Osgiliath, the Rammas Echor, and other places that Mordor's armies had passed through, aiming to demoralize the defenders. However, they did not launch missiles on the walls itself, which, being the work of Númenorean master builders, were so strong that only a major earthquake could have damaged them. Mordor's forces kept the defenders busy by sending siege towers pulled by great beasts and ground troops. They were repulsed with heavy losses, but at great cost. Gandalf, Prince Imrahil and the Swan Knights of Dol Amroth encouraged the defenders to fight on, for by this time the real ruler of the city, the Steward Denethor, was grieving for his gravely wounded son Faramir (who had been wounded by a poisoned arrow and exposed to the Black breath, in the earlier retreat from Osgiliath), and, as he perceived through the covert use of his palantír, the impending defeat of Gondor. Later on, the great battering ram Grond (named after Morgoth's weapon from the First Age) was put into action. Pulled by great beasts, manned by trolls, and endowed with dark spells by the Witch-king of Angmar, before dawn Grond shattered the city's main gate with four blows, forcing the defenders to flee. The Witch-king rode into the city alone and unchallenged, save by Gandalf on Shadowfax. Before Gandalf's strength was put to the test, however, the cock crowed and the horns of Rohan were heard as 6,000 riders joined the battle. Mordor's strategy for keeping Rohan out of the battle had failed twice, both through Isengard's defeat at Helm's Deep and the blockade in Anórien, so the Witch-king was forced to ride out, mount his fell beast and attack them instead of fighting Gandalf and destroying the city.

King Théoden and the Rohirrim had passed undetected thanks to their guides, the mysterious Wild Men of Drúadan Forest, and to Sauron's Great Darkness itself, which shielded them from enemy eyes. Taking the troops at the Rammas Echor by surprise, they destroyed the enemy camps. After doing so, the Riders reformed their éoreds and charged, Théoden leading them. Before they did, however, Théoden exhorted them to battle in alliterative verse. Despite the king's orders, with them was the Hobbit Merry Brandybuck, riding with a young Rider named Dernhelm. Nearly every last fighting man on foot and on horseback was sent out of Minas Tirith to Rohan's aid, Imrahil and the other local captains leading them. Théoden's charge drove the Mordor forces from the northern half of the fields, and took out the siege engines and camps; the Rohirrim sang songs fair and terrible as they slew. However, the Haradrim cavalry counter-attacked, led by their chieftain. Though the Rohirrim were thrice outnumbered, they prevailed, for Théoden slew the Southron leader and cut down his standard-bearer, and at their deaths the Haradrim retreated. However, the Witch-king of Angmar attacked Théoden, routing his troops with the terror of his presence. The king's horse Snowmane lost control, and was hit by a dart. Snowmane fell and crushed the king underneath his body, and the Witch-King's carrion-eating fell beast dug its beak into the horse's carcass. With his guard dead or fled and pinned down by his horse, Théoden was in dire peril. However, the warrior Dernhelm came to his defense. The Witch-king mocked him, telling him that no living man might slay him. However, Dernhelm revealed himself to be Théoden's niece Éowyn and thus no man at all. She slew the fell beast, chopping off its head with one stroke. However, the Witch-king broke her shield and her shield-arm with one blow from his mace. As he was about to finish her, Merry wounded him with his barrow-blade in the leg. This sword had been forged centuries before during the war between Arnor and Angmar, and contained spells against the Witch-king himself. The spells finally found their target, for the Witch-king was distracted and possibly seriously weakened. He was then slain by Éowyn. Swooning from her injuries, Éowyn did not witness Théoden's final moments, where he bade farewell to Merry and entrusted command to her brother Éomer. The old king died without realizing that his niece was present. She was discovered by the awestruck Riders, and thought dead. However, Imrahil rode up and discerned that she still lived from breath moisture on his vambrace when he put it close to her lips. She was sent to the Houses of Healing in the city, along with Merry. The Black Breath of the Ringwraith had made them both gravely ill, as it had done to Faramir. During this time, Denethor prepared to burn himself and his son upon a funeral pyre, despairing at the visions of defeat that Sauron had sent him via his palantír, and believing Faramir to be beyond aid. Only the intervention of Pippin Took and Gandalf saved Faramir, but Denethor immolated himself before they could prevent it. However, Gandalf's saving of Faramir quite possibly led to the death of Théoden, for he was going out to help the Rohirrim when Pippin sought his aid. Meanwhile, the battle turned against the Rohirrim. Gothmog, lieutenant of Minas Morgul, sent forth his reinforcements, and the Haradrim sent forth their footmen and their Mûmakil (Oliphaunts). Wherever the latter beasts went, horses went wild with fear or were trampled underfoot, and the forces of Mordor rallied around them like islands of defense that the Rohirrim could not overtake. Éomer, grim after the death of his uncle Théoden but shocked by what he perceived to be the unexpected death of his sister Éowyn, the last living member of his family, flew into a wild rage. He cried "Death take us all! Death! Ride, ride to ruin and the world's ending!" and charged his cavalry headlong into the larger enemy forces. The host of Rohan sang no longer, but cried Death with one voice. So great was the wrath of the outnumbered Rohirrim at the death of their king that they broke through the superior Mordor forces, hammering deep wedges into the Mordor legions' front lines. However, this soon turned against Éomer. His cavalry had pierced the enemy front lines so quickly that his company was now cut off from the other two, and surrounded between Mordor's front lines and their reserves. Fighting their way to the docks near the Harlond south of the city, Éomer desperately circled up his men on a hill, plannng to make a shield wall and fight to the death, when he saw enemy reinforcements sailing up the River Anduin, and let out a defiant cry at his approaching end. One of the visions that Denethor had seen was of a fleet of enemy ships with black sails arriving at the landings to the south of the Pelennor in the Rammas - the ships of the Corsairs of Umbar. However, he had not seen was that they were actually manned by Aragorn and other Rangers of the North, Gimli, Legolas, Elladan, Elrohir and many reinforcements from the southern provinces and fiefdoms of Gondor who had been battling the Corsairs further down the river, but were rescued by the Dead Men of Dunharrow at Aragorn's bidding. As Aragorn's army drove north a great part of Mordor's forces were pinned between Aragorn and Eomer's cavalry, and were "caught between the hammer and the anvil". Aragorn's army then linked with Éomer's, and with their aid the tide of battle was finally turned, and a brief respite was won until the Last Battle before the Black Gate. However, the battle lasted until the end of the day, for the Easterlings and Haradrim gave and expected no quarter. They proudly fought to the death when the tide turned, even as the Orcs were cowardly running away.

Source: Wikipedia

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