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Gil-galad was an Elven-king... - Page 11

© Michael Martinez

It took three years for Gil-galad and Elendil to prepare their armies. They had to recruit and train their soldiers, and apparently make arms and armor. But they must also have spent a considerable amount of time building up a preparatory strategy: scouting the lands, testing Sauron's defenses, perhaps sending reinforcements to Gondor to ensure Anarion wasn't overcome. There may also have been considerable debate over how to attack Sauron. Should a northern force attack Mordor while the main army thrust over the mountains, or should the main assault come from the north? In 3431 Gil-galad and Elendil crossed the Misty Mountains and marched south. They were joined at some point by armies from Khazad-dum, Lorien, and Greenwood. The strategy they had selected was to drive straight toward Mordor. It may have been necessary to take this path for several reasons, not the least being their armies were too large to transport to Gondor easily. But Sauron seems to have built up his defenses in the upper vales of Anduin, so Lorien and Greenwood were directly threatened. Gil-galad's move would have freed those realms from any immediate perils. The first major battle occurred in the lands south of Greenwood where the Ent-wives had built their gardens. The fate of the Ent-wives was never learned, although they may have been destroyed when Sauron burned the lands to prevent the Last Alliance from acquiring any help there. The Ent-wives at the very least could have supplied food to the Last Alliance. Sauron retreated south and the Last Alliance followed him. They overtook his army on the Dagorlad, and there inflicted a severe defeat upon Sauron. But Amdir and the army of Lorien were cut off in the Dead Marshes, and more than half the Silvan Elves of Lorien perished. Gil-galad may have been influenced by the devastating losses suffered by Amdir's people to hold up. The Last Alliance arrayed its forces before the northern entrance to Mordor (where the Morannon would later stand), but Gil-galad could not restrain Oropher, who launched an assault against Sauron's defenses prematurely. Tolkien doesn't say how the battle went, but Gil-galad most likely followed in the footsteps of Fingon thousands of years before at the Nirnaeth Arnoediad. He most likely put his helmet on and charged into battle on the heals of Oropher's attack, too late to save Oropher, who died early on. The Last Alliance won the day, however, and pushed its way into Mordor.

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