The Captains Crazy of Middle-earth
© Michael Martinez
I caught part of a promo on the History Channel recently for a series called "Military Blunders". It sounded interesting but as much channel surfing as I do, I don't watch much television. Nonetheless, being a student of history, I'm familiar with many wartime blunders, such as when General Lee's battle plans ended up wrapped around a bundle of cigars that a Yankee soldier found. Or when General Gates took his Continental soldiers up against the British in an open battle and got his pants blown off by the world's best soldiers.
Well, if real history is filled with military blunders, what about Tolkien's pseudo-history? He seems to throw everything else into the pot. Blunders should occur on both sides, and we know when the bad guys get whooped because the Dunedain and the Elves make a big fuss over it all. But what about when the Elves and the Dunedain get whooped. Is it because they are overmatched or because someone made a BIG mistake?
The first serious setback for the Elves in their wars would be Feanor's ill-fated pursuit of Morgoth's army after the battle of the Noldorin camp in Mithrim, Dagor-nuin-Giliath. The Orcs outnumbered the Noldor and took them by surprise, yet the Elves reacted swiftly and drove the Orcs back, killing many of them. Any historian knows that once an army is set to route its fate is all but sealed. Soldiers who are fleeing the enemy aren't defending themselves from attack, and whole armies have been slaughtered once they were routed.
Noneheless, the army which attacked the Noldor was only one of several. Two other armies had attacked Beleriand, and these one was destroyed by the Sindar of Doriath and Ossiriand while the other had driven Cirdan back to his two cities, Brithombar and Eglarest. This second force abandoned the sieges and moved north to the Vale of Sirion. A considerable amount of time must have passed -- the equivalent of days, at least -- so one must assume that after their initial assault had failed the northern army had in fact retreated in some orderly fashion.
The fighting moved up into the mountains and the Noldor pursued the Orcs down into the plain of Ard-galen. The Orcs, however, were simply not up to Elf-slaughtering standards. They retreated and retreated. The southern army (two armies, actually) came up the river but Celegorm bushwhacked them, attacking their flank from the hills. An army on the march is not an easy thing to maneuver into battle. Caesar reports being attacked by Gauls while his army was on the march and he had a difficult time pulling his troops together. As soon as he took control over one part of the battle another part of his army threatened to collapse. Robert E. Lee ended up fighting a running battle while retreating from Maryland.
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